L I B HA R.Y 
 OF THE 
 
 UNIVER.5 ITY 
 OF ILLINOIS 
 
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 P 12.2.V 
 
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 The person charging this material is re- 
 sponsible for its return on or before the 
 Latest Date stamped below. 
 
 Theft, mutilation, and underlining of books 
 
Photo. Bassano, Old Bond St., W. 
 
Memoirs and Correspondence 
 
 OF 
 
 Lyon Playfair 
 
 FIRST LORD PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS 
 PC G.C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., &c. 
 
 BY 
 
 WEMYSS REID 
 
 WITH TWO PORTRAITS 
 
 CASSELL and COMPANY, Limited 
 
 LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK 6 * MELBOURNE 
 1899 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
WlNM-Bi 
 
 3 
 
 O 
 
 UJ 
 
 CZi 
 
 I DEDICATE THESE MEMOIRS OF HER HUSHAND’S LIFE AND 
 WORK TO EDITH, LADY PLAYFAIR, in grateful 
 
 ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF THE ASSISTANCE SHE HAS GIVEN 
 IN THEIR PREPARATION. 
 
 London, October, 1899. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 St. Andrews Seventy Years ago — Its Primacy among Scottish 
 Seats of Learning — A Home for Retired Officers and 
 Officials — The Record of Scotsmen in Indian Administra- 
 tion — Principal Playfair and His Four Sons — George 
 Playfair, Father of Lyon — Lyon’s Connection with St. 
 Andrews — Characteristics — His Autobiography — His Life 
 Penetrated by Patriotism — A Pioneer of Sanitary and 
 Educational Reform — As Political Economist— As Poli- 
 tician — As Man i 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. — I. MY RELATIONS. 
 
 The Playfairs : Professor Playfair and the Commander-in-Chief : 
 Principal Playfair : Mrs Macdonald and Her Doubts : Sir 
 Hugh Lyon Playfair: James Playfair and His Romance: 
 Praying for My Conversion: A “Token”: The Sin of 
 Walking on Sundays : I introduce Myself to My Father : 
 
 Dr Macvicar and His Definition of Water : My Brothers. 
 Playfair’s Earliest Extant Letter — Mrs Macdonald on His 
 Disposition as a Child 12 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — II. MY EDUCATION. 
 
 1825 to 1838. 
 
 My Governesses : At School : Holidays at Glamis Castle : 
 Entering St. Andrews University: Beginning a Business 
 Career: Discomfiting Nocturnal Marauders: Studying 
 Medicine : Friendship with Andrew Ramsay, the Geologist : 
 
 A Chance Meeting with Sir Charles Lyell : Studying 
 Chemistry: P'riendship with David Livingstone: James 
 Young, Founder of the Paraffin Oil Industry : Studying at 
 Edinburgh University : A Voyage to India : In a Calcutta 
 Office : Home again : Studying under Liebig at Giessen : 
 
 “ Doctor of Philosophy”: Appointed Chemical Manager 
 
Mil 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 of Print Works : Punctuality Handsomely Rewarded : 
 Among the Philosophers of Berlin. Correspondence with 
 Liebig — Chemists and Chemistry 28 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — III. MY LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 1841 to 1844. 
 
 Settled at Clitheroe : Parleying with Labour Rioters : A Lesson 
 in Ventilation : Lecturing at the Manchester Royal Institu- 
 tion : Anecdote of Dalton : An Offer from Faraday : Sir 
 Robert Peel : An Inquiry into Charcoal Iron Furnaces: A 
 Mishap to Bunsen : Edwin Chadwick and His Argument 
 from Satan : Appointed a Member of the Royal Com- 
 mission on the Health of Towns : Researches into Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry : Earl Spencer (Lord Althorp) : Dean 
 Buckland : Through England and Scotland : Mr Crosse 
 and the Wood-louse : Appointed Chemist to the Geological 
 Survey : An Evening with Stephenson : Recollections of 
 Joule: Impressions of Manchester. Dean Buckland and 
 Sir H. de la Beche urge Peel to give Playfair an Appoint- 
 ment — Peel’s Esteem for Playfair — Letters from Liebig . 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — IV. BEGINNING OF MY 
 
 LONDON LIFE. 
 
 1845 to 1850. 
 
 Settled in London: A Call from Sir James ClarkF Sir Henry 
 de la Beche : Distinguished Colleagues : Inquiring into the 
 Sanitary Condition of Buckingham Palace : Reporting 
 upon the Best Coals for Steam Navigation : Mining Acci- 
 dents : The Potato Famine in Ireland : Effect of Emigra- 
 tion upon Potato Production : Marriage : Oersted : A 
 Letter which led to the Foundation of the Petroleum 
 Industry : Inquiring into the Cholera : The Duke of 
 Wellington and the Chartist Demonstration : Sworn a 
 Special Constable : In Paris during the Revolution of 1848 : 
 
 Louis Blanc and Louis Napoleon 91 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 Becoming a Publicist — Playfair’s Work as a Special Com- 
 missioner of the 1851 Exhibition. Autobiography: Intro- 
 duced to the Prince Consort by Sir Robert Peel: Sir Henry 
 Cole : Preparing a New Classification for the Exhibition : 
 
 A Tour through the Manufacturing Districts: Sir Joseph 
 Paxton : The Exhibition opened : Superintending the 
 Awards of the Juries : The Exhibitor and the Queen : The 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Commissioners received by Louis Napoleon: Appointed 
 a C.B. and a Gentleman Usher to Prince Albert : The 
 Crystal Palace : An Episcopal Objection to Undraped 
 Statues. Correspondence with the Prince Consort — 
 Investing the Exhibition Surplus — Playfair’s Part in the 
 Negotiations — The Scheme described — Appointed Secre- 
 tary of the Science and Art Department — Organising the 
 Royal College of Science — A Member of the Athenaeum . iog 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 Attending the Royal Children at the Exhibition — Arranging 
 for the Prince Consort’s Visit to Birmingham. Auto- 
 biography : Lecturing for the Society of Arts : Inquiring 
 into Technical Education on the Continent : Organising 
 the “Food Collection” for the South Kensington Museum: 
 Establishing a National Museum in Edinburgh : Dr 
 George Wilson and his dying Epigram : Crusading in the 
 Cause of Technical Education : The Duke of Wellington’s 
 Funeral : Sir Charles Wheatstone : Reading Ciphers in 
 the ‘Times’: Acquaintance with Babbage : Lord and Lady 
 Ashburton: Mrs Norton: Lord Granville: Lord Palmer- 
 ston and the Cipher: Inventing Shells: Lord Dundonald’s 
 Scheme for Reducing Fortresses: Appointed a Com- 
 missioner of the International Exhibition of 1855 : Ac- 
 quaintance with French Savants : Missing the Mastership 
 of the Mint : Second Marriage. Faraday on the New 
 Lucifer Matches — Playfair’s Contempt for Misplaced 
 Humanitarianism in War — Liebig on Scientific Agri- 
 culture 145 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Playfair “ the Man Behind the Scenes” — Scientific Honours — 
 Place in Society — His Passion for Scientific Research — 
 Appointed Professor of Chemistry in Edinburgh University 
 — Resigning his Post as Gentleman Usher. Auto- 
 biography : Chemical Theories and their Exponents in 
 Edinburgh University: Sir Robert Christison : Sir James 
 Simpson and Experiments in Anaesthesia : Reforming the 
 University : Declining the Office of Principal : Giving the 
 Prince of Wales Lessons : Royal Students at the Univer- 
 sity: Death of the Prince Consort: President of the Royal 
 Commission on the Herring Fishery: Appointing the Jurors 
 for the International Exhibition of 1862 : Lord Stratford 
 de Redcliffe : Honours from Foreign Princes : A Member 
 of the Royal Commission on the Cattle Plague : Anecdote 
 of the Princess Alice : A Visit to Coburg : Dr John Brown : 
 the Marquis of Tweeddale: Lady Ruthven : Leaving 
 Edinburgh. Playfair’s Professorial Zeal — His Work for 
 the Exhibition of 1862 — The Prince of Wales and the 
 
X 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Cauldron of Boiling Lead — Playfair and the Edinburgh 
 Memorial of the Prince Consort — His Unpopularity in 
 Connection with the Cattle Plague Report . . *171 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Beginning a Political Career — Member for Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews Universities — Political Convictions — Appointed 
 one of the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition. Auto- 
 biography : Liberal Member for a Conservative Constitu- 
 ency : Maiden Speech : Appointment of a Liberal Leader 
 in the House of Commons : President of the Midland 
 Institute: The Prince Consort’s Superiority to Jealousy: 
 Opposing the Cry of “ Over-Education ” : Supporting a 
 Bill for opening Trinity College, Dublin, to Roman 
 Catholics: Attitude towards the Irish University Bill: 
 
 Mr Gladstone’s Magnanimity: Appointed Postmaster- 
 General : President of the Civil Service Commission : 
 Opposing the Anti-Vivisectionists : Reforming the Scottish 
 Universities. Playfair the Introducer of the Halfpenny 
 Post-Card — Reception of his Pamphlet on “Teaching 
 Universities and Examining Boards ” — His Popularity at 
 the Post Office— The Tichbome Case — The Election of 
 Liberal Leader in the Commons — Averting a Disastrous 
 Schism 205 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 Playfair’s Domestic Affections — Death of His Second Wife. 
 Autobiography : The Dundonald Case : The Victory 
 Won at Last : A Visit to the States : Emerson and 
 Longfellow : Chicago : A “ Typical American ” from 
 
 Paisley: Adopting a Young Lady: At Washington: A 
 Visit to the Lunatic Asylum: Attacking the Indian Salt 
 Tax : Presiding over the Manchester Water Supply 
 
 Committee : The International Exhibition of 1878 : 
 
 Another Visit to America: Reception at Montreal: 
 
 Curious Experiences in a Rough District : Dining with the 
 Canadian Cabinet: A Talk with Lord Dufferin. Play- 
 fair’s Relations with the United States — His Letters from 
 America and Elsewhere — His Correspondence with Miss 
 Russell and Her Family prior to His Marriage — His 
 Social Charm — His Passion for Public Work . . . 234 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 Playfair’s Liberalism becoming More Pronounced — His Seat 
 in Danger— Letters from Edinburgh. Autobiography : 
 Appointed Chairman and Deputy- Speaker : Irish Obstruc- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 tion: Suspending the Obstructionists: Resignation: Letters 
 from Mr Gladstone, the Speaker, and Sir Stafford North- 
 cote: A Reaction: Made a Knight Commander of the 
 Bath : In Defence of Vivisection and Vaccination : Grand 
 Committees. Why Playfair refused the Office of Chief 
 Whip — His Suspension of Irish Obstructionists — A Corre- 
 spondence with Mr Chaplin — The Absorbing Character of 
 His Duties as Chairman — His Loyalty as an Independent 
 Member — His Personal Popularity with the Irish Members 
 — Securing a Knighthood for Professor Owen . . . 285 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Playfair’s Ties with America — Why he never became a 
 Cabinet Minister — His Acceptance of Home Rule — 
 Appointed Honorary Secretary of the Commission for the 
 1851 Exhibition — His Views on the Functions of a Minister 
 for Scotland — Decides to retire from the Representation 
 of Edinburgh University — His Candidature for South Leeds 
 — The Constituency described — His Brilliant Victory — His 
 Connection with the “ Hawarden Kite ” — Appointed Vice- 
 President of the Council. Autobiography : Celebration 
 of the Tercentenary of Edinburgh University : With the 
 British Association at Montreal and at Aberdeen: At 
 Glamis Castle again : Reform of the Medical Profession : 
 Re-election for South Leeds ...... 330 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE queen’s JUBILEE AND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION. 
 
 Autobiography: The Jubilee Service in Westminster Abbey : 
 Progress of the Nation during the Queen’s Reign : Foreign 
 Royalties : Representing England at the Centenary of the 
 Declaration of American Independence : A Memorial to 
 President Cleveland in favour of Arbitration : Opposing 
 Fair Trade ” : A Plea for Technical Education : The 
 future Fiscal Policy of the United States. Legalising the 
 Sale of Margarine 354 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 “ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 
 
 A Touching Incident. Autobiography: Opening of the Glasgow 
 Exhibition : Mistaken for a State Prisoner : Death of the 
 Emperor Frederick of Germany : The Widowed Empress 
 and Prince Bismarck : Resigning the Honorary Secretary- 
 ship of the Exhibition Commission : A Presentation : 
 Supporting a Royal Grant : The General Election of 
 
 1892 : Raised to the Peerage : Farewell to South Leeds. 
 The South Leeds Election — An Interesting Colloquy — 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xii 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Appointed a Lord-in- Waiting to the Queen — Letters from 
 Windsor Castle — Work on the Aged Poor Commission — 
 Grand Cross of the Bath — In Canada .... 373 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Playfair’s Sojourn at Nahant — Almost a Citizen of the United 
 States — Letters to Lady Playfair’s Family — The Venezu- 
 elan Crisis — Negotiating Peace — Correspondence with Mr 
 Chamberlain and Mr Bayard — Playfair’s Share in the 
 Settlement of the Dispute 405 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Scientific Appreciation of Playfair by Professor Crum-Brown — 
 
 Sir Edward Frankland on his Investigations into the Best 
 Coal for the Royal Navy — Playfair on Health and Disease 
 — On Vivisection — On the Applications of Science to 
 Commerce — On the Connection between Man’s Necessities 
 and the Industrial Arts — Playfair’s Work as an Exhibition 
 Commissioner — The National Buildings at South Ken- 
 sington His Monument — Initiator of “ The Victoria and 
 Albert Museum” 427 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Adjudicating in the ‘Statist’ Competition— Speech at the 
 Jubilee Banquet of the Cobden Club — Failing Health — 
 Residence at Torquay — Death — Letters of Condolence to 
 Lady Playfair — Burial at St. Andrews .... 457 
 
 I 
 
Memoirs and Correspondence 
 
 OF 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 St. Andrews Seventy Years ago — Its Primacy among Scottish Seats of 
 Learning — A Home for Retired Officers and Officials — The Record of 
 Scotsmen in Indian Administration — Principal Playfair and His Four 
 Sons — George Playfair, Father of Lyon — Lyon’s Connection with St. 
 Andrews — Characteristics — His Autobiography — His Life penetrated 
 by Patriotism — A Pioneer of Sanitary and Educational Reform— As 
 Political Economist — As Politician — As Man. 
 
 The grey old city of St. Andrews, with the ruins of its 
 great cathedral facing the waters of the German Ocean, its 
 ancient university buildings and its historic golf links, has 
 become in recent times familiar to a large proportion of the 
 inhabitants of Great Britain. It is now a fashionable 
 watering-place, crowded for three months every year by 
 visitors from all parts of the country ; whilst the game of 
 golf, which has been played at St. Andrews without inter- 
 mission for centuries, draws every summer to the city an 
 increasing number of the votaries of that most* healthful 
 and enjoyable recreation. But in the days when golf was 
 almost unknown beyond the breezy Fifeshire links, and 
 when the railway system had not yet annihilated distances, 
 St. Andrews was altogether different from the gay and 
 bustling city of the end of the century. Seventy years ago 
 it was probably the sleepiest little town in Great Britain. 
 
 B 
 
2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 In many respects it was little better than a fishing village. 
 For a few months every year a scanty muster of red- 
 gowned students gave passing animation to the scene ; but 
 as a rule its wide streets were silent and grass-grown, and 
 the only sound that indicated the existence of any form of 
 human activity was the whirr of the loom or the sharp 
 crash of the shuttle as it caught the ear of the wayfarer 
 when he passed the cottage of some busy weaver. 
 
 Yet even then, in its period of decay and desertion, St. 
 Andrews had certain claims upon the respect of the outer 
 world. Although its university had vigorous rivals at 
 Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, it took precedence of 
 any of them, and as the most ancient seat of learning in 
 North Britain, its children claimed for St. Andrews the 
 name of the Scots Oxford. It was not its academic fame, 
 however, which was its only title to special distinction. 
 Living and house rent were both cheap in the old city. It 
 was free from the more aggressive intrusions of modem 
 trade. Its university gave the little town a microscopic 
 social circle of cultivated people, some of whom had repu- 
 tations that were national rather than local. Its keen 
 health-giving air and its delightful golf links added to its 
 attractiveness. In short, it combined the advantages ot 
 Oxford and Leamington, and, as was not unnatural, it 
 became, in consequence, a favourite place of residence for 
 retired officers of the army and navy, and for a class not 
 less important, retired East Indian officials. During the 
 first half of the century, indeed, those whom the world at 
 that time designated as “ nabobs ” were a common feature 
 in the life of St. Andrews. 
 
 It has been the good fortune of the Scottish people of 
 the cultured classes for many generations to furnish a liberal 
 supply of recmits to these three branches of the public 
 service, and more particularly to the last named. Students 
 of Indian history know how the names of Scotsmen abound 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 3 
 
 in every department of the administration of India during 
 the last hundred years. And Scotland has no reason to 
 feel ashamed of the record which these sons of hers have 
 left behind them. Somehow or other they seem to have 
 possessed in a peculiar degree the qualities which are of 
 greatest value in the man who undertakes the duties of the 
 public service. Caution combined with enthusiasm, shrewd- 
 ness of judgment allied to steadfastness of purpose, great 
 powers of work, simplicity of life, a natural frugality, and 
 above all an unassailable devotion and loyalty — these 
 seem to be the qualities which may be confidently looked 
 for in that order of Scotsmen to whom the service of our 
 country has owed so much. Many of the men who, in the 
 early years of the nineteenth century, settled down in the 
 quiet streets of St. Andrews to pass their closing days 
 on its links and in its simply furnished drawing-rooms, 
 were men who, in distant lands, had done great deeds for 
 Britain in days when the newspaper had not yet become 
 the trumpeter of contemporary fame. 
 
 Among the many families in St. Andrews connected by 
 various links with our ever-growing empire in the East, 
 there was none better known than that of the Playfairs. 
 The name was one that had long been familiar in the 
 annals of the ancient city. If one does not find Playfairs 
 taking part in those stormy scenes which once gave St. 
 Andrews a place of importance in the political and 
 ecclesiastical affairs of Great Britain — if no Playfair, for 
 example, is to be found in the company of Cardinal 
 Beaton, John Knox, Andrew Melville, or Archbishop 
 Sharpe — the name rises into notice almost as soon as the 
 days of storm have passed, and St. Andrews, after the 
 long strife of contending kirks and rival dynasties, has 
 turned itself to the occupations of peace. In 1738 a 
 certain James Playfair was born at Bendochy, in the 
 county of Forfar. In 1773 he married one Margaret Lyon, 
 
4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 a kinswoman of the family of the Earls of Strathmore ; 
 and in 1799, having won distinction as a writer of 
 historical and geographical works, he became Principal of 
 the United Colleges of St. Leonards and St. Salvator. 
 The reader will learn more of Principal Playfair and of his 
 pedigree by and by. Here it is only necessary to say that 
 just a hundred years ago this worthy man, as Principal of 
 the University of St. Andrews, was at the head of the 
 society of the city, and the father of a numerous family, 
 all of whom played a useful and honourable part in life, 
 and one of whom became the father of the subject of 
 this memoir. Three of Principal Playfair’s four sons had 
 careers in the public sendee. The eldest, George, was a 
 surgeon in the employment of the East India Company ; 
 the second, William, and the third, Hugh, were officers in 
 the Indian army. Only one son, the youngest, took to a 
 commercial life, and became a merchant at Glasgow. The 
 Playfairs consequently furnished a striking example of 
 those Scotsmen of culture and social position who devote 
 themselves to the public service, finding in the duties 
 and the honours of that service a more satisfying 
 compensation than that which attends the mere pursuit 
 of wealth. Like all their order, they tinned with 
 instinctive affection from the distant lands in which 
 they did their life’s work to the grey old city which 
 had been the cradle of their race. George Playfair 
 sent his children, of whom Lyon was the second, 
 from the dangers of childhood in India to spend their 
 youth in St. Andrews. The other sons of the Principal 
 themselves came back to their native place to end their 
 days, and one of them, Sir Hugh, commonly known as 
 “the Provost,” became, about the middle of the present 
 century, the benevolent despot and ruling power in the city. 
 
 Lyon Playfair, though bom at Chunar, in the province 
 of Bengal, passed his youth at St. Andrews. At St. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 5 
 
 Andrews he first tasted the joys of learning, and at St. 
 Andrews, at the close of his long and busy life, his remains 
 were laid to rest in the burial-ground that surrounds the 
 ruins of the old cathedral. If one desired to find a typical 
 example of that class of Scotsmen of which I have spoken, 
 it would not be easy to find one more striking than that 
 afforded by Lyon Playfair. /<The man, the story of whose 
 life is to be told in these pages, never rose to that dazzling 
 eminence which justifies the world in describing a human 
 being as supremely “great.” He did not pretend to the 
 genius which lifts a few men high above their fellows. It 
 cannot be affirmed that he was one of the great figures 
 of his generation. Yet his life, though it was lived 
 without ostentation and without parade, was undoubtedly 
 one of the fullest and most useful lives of his time. 
 It was emphatically a life of work, and of work not 
 for the accumulation of wealth or the achievement of 
 fame, but for the acquiring of truth and for the service of 
 his fellow-men. That he won what the world regards as 
 a brilliant personal success is not to be denied. He, the 
 son of a surgeon on the Bengal establishment, beginning 
 life as a student of science, and compelled to look almost 
 entirely to his own exertions for his advancement, rose 
 to be one of the acknowledged counsellors of successive 
 Governments upon questions that affected the most im- 
 portant interests of the people, one of the most influential 
 leaders and teachers in the education of the nation, and 
 one of the most active of those men who, “behind the 
 scenes,” exercise so great a control over public affairs. 
 That he won for himself honours varied and distinguished 
 need not be told. Their record will appear in due time. 
 But his most conspicuous success was not in the winning 
 of stars and titles, but in the actual accomplishment of 
 work which has not only benefited his own generation, 
 but must benefit many generations to come. 
 
6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 We have to tell here the story of how the young Scotch 
 student, who had hardly emerged from his boyhood when 
 he began to feel the passion for public service, worked in 
 that service throughout a long and laborious life, and 
 achieved in it triumphs that the world will not lightly 
 forget. It is, most fortunately for his biographer, a story 
 that is told partly in Lyon Playfairs own words. The 
 chapters of autobiography of which this memoir will in part 
 consist were not prepared for publication. In the first 
 instance they were jotted down at irregular intervals for 
 the benefit of his family. They were never revised by 
 their writer, and as they advance they lose something of 
 continuity. At the best, they are a plain, unvarnished 
 record, in which many incidents of interest in the life with 
 which they deal are either omitted altogether or passed 
 over hurriedly. They consequently require not a few 
 additions in order to make the narrative complete ; 
 whilst here and there the meaning of a particular passage 
 needs elucidation. But wherever it has been possible I 
 have left Lyon Playfair to tell the story of his life in his 
 own way. All that I ask of the reader at the outset is 
 to remember that this is emphatically a story not of 
 adventure, but of work. The character of the man whose 
 life it tells will be gathered in part from the tasks he 
 accomplished, in part from his own letters and from the 
 reminiscences of his friends, and in part from a knowledge 
 of that side of the Scotch character which is specially 
 noticeable among the men of the class to which he 
 belonged. I have thought it right to touch upon this last 
 subject at the outset of my task ; for rightly to understand 
 the character and the life of Lyon Playfair one must under- 
 stand something of the spirit which has led so many young 
 Scotsmen to devote themselves to the service of their 
 country in the arts of peace with a patriotic fervour as 
 intense as that which ever inspired one of the heroes of 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 7 
 
 arms. To Lyon Playfair the good of his country was a 
 thing to be pursued not merely in the Senate, or on con- 
 tested fields, but in the laboratory and the council room, in 
 social intercourse, and in the humdrum round of daily life. 
 It was a thing never to be lost sight of, no matter how in- 
 congruous with public work the scene or the circumstances 
 might be. It was something calling not so much for 
 isolated deeds of heroism as for a patient and unremitting 
 care, extending even to the most trivial tasks and incidents. 
 The reader will see how conscientiously he gave effect 
 to this conviction as the story of his life is unfolded in 
 these pages. 
 
 In one respect Playfair was exceptionally fortunate. 
 That was in the period over which his life's work ex- 
 tended. Born when his country was slowly beginning 
 to recover from the severe exhaustion of the Napoleonic 
 wars, and when the extension of personal freedom and 
 constitutional rights engaged the attention of the great 
 majority of the population, he began his own public 
 work after the excitement of the struggle for Parlia- 
 mentary reform had died away, and at a time when 
 questions affecting the social and economic condition of 
 the people were coming to the front. He may be said 
 with accuracy to have been present at the birth of 
 sanitary reform, not only in this country, but in modern 
 Europe. The very first office which he held in the 
 service of the State was in connection with that Royal 
 Commission of Inquiry into the Health of Towns which 
 laid the foundations of sanitary science, as we now know 
 it, and which was the first step in the revolution that 
 has changed the conditions of urban life throughout the 
 civilised world. The reader will learn later on some- 
 thing of the conditions which prevailed in our towns 
 before Playfair and his colleagues began their labours, 
 and something also of the marvellous benefits which 
 
8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 those labours have conferred upon mankind. It was 
 Playfair’s great happiness to be enlisted in this work of 
 sanitary reform in its very earliest stages. He threw 
 himself into the battle against dirt and disease with as 
 great an ardour as that which any soldier ever dis- 
 played upon the field of battle ; and to the end of his 
 days he remained what he had been in his youth, the 
 most earnest and most energetic of sanitary reformers. 
 
 Even more fortunate was he in the fact that almost 
 simultaneously with this new effort on behalf of the 
 health of the people, there arose in England the great 
 educational movement which has been one of the chief 
 national glories of the nineteenth century. A student, 
 with a student’s devotion to science, Playfair was 
 naturally attracted to the scientific or technical side of 
 the educational problem, and, most fortunately for his 
 country, he was enlisted almost at the outset in that 
 great national undertaking out of which was destined 
 to spring the whole system of scientific and technical 
 instruction which, before the century reached its close, 
 had been brought into existence. No wise man will lay 
 much stress upon luck — the mere chances of fortune — 
 in judging of any human life. But it is impossible to 
 ignore the chapter of accidents, and in writing of Play- 
 fair one cannot but recognise the fortunate character of 
 that accident which placed such a man, with his special 
 intellectual sympathies and aptitudes, in close communi- 
 cation with Prince Albert at the time when that illustrious 
 Prince was taking the first steps towards introducing an 
 efficient system of art and science training into the 
 country of his adoption. No better instrument could 
 have fallen into the hands of the Prince, and no task 
 more perfectly suited to Playfair’s special sympathies 
 and talents than that entrusted to him by his eminent 
 patron, could possibly have been found. It was, indeed, 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 9 
 
 a rare stroke of good fortune for Playfair himself— and, 
 as I think, for his country also — that he was thus intro- 
 duced in his early youth to two such fields of labour as 
 those connected with the health and the education of 
 the community. When the historian comes to deal 
 with the story of Great Britain during the latter half of 
 the nineteenth century, he will have more to say of the 
 great social and intellectual advancement in the con- 
 dition of the people which that term has witnessed, than 
 of the struggles of contending parties in Parliament, or 
 even of our armies on foreign soil. In the chapter which 
 history devotes to the social progress of our century, 
 Playfair’s name must always hold a place of honour. 
 
 He was fortunate again in beginning his public career 
 at the moment when steam, as applied more particularly 
 to ocean travel, was being pressed into the service of 
 mankind. In his early youth Great Britain was indeed 
 an island, isolated in many important respects from the 
 rest of the world. He lived to see its insularity destroyed, 
 and the ocean, which once separated it from the rest of 
 the world, converted into the highway which unites it 
 with every other portion of the globe. He lived to see 
 the whole earth converted into one huge market and 
 emporium, and the food supplies of the working-men of 
 London brought to their doors from the plains of North- 
 Western Canada, the fields of India, and the spurs of 
 the Andes. A close student of that branch of science 
 which deals with the economic conditions of life, Play- 
 fair was a watchful and intelligent observer of the 
 startling developments which these conditions under- 
 went. To the new order of things he sought to apply 
 the old economic truths. In those truths he believed as 
 firmly as he believed in the accuracy of the multiplica- 
 tion table. He was, indeed, unswerving and inflexible 
 in his adherence to the political economy which he had 
 
10 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 learned as a youth. As time passed, new schools arose 
 in political economy as in other branches of intellectual 
 study, and men who thought that even the multiplica- 
 tion table was open to reform, girded at the older 
 students who, like Playfair, recognised the fact that in 
 economics as in mathematics there are certain axioms 
 which cannot be called in question. It was Playfair’s 
 good fortune to be able to draw the true economic les- 
 sons from the new conditions of human life with which, 
 in the process of the suns, he was brought in contact. 
 Few men of our time have done more than he did to 
 show the bearing of new industrial facts and of fresh scien- 
 tific discoveries upon the old laws of supply and demand, 
 the old axioms upon the observance of which depends 
 the wealth of nations and the prosperity of communities. 
 
 But while he was thus devoting his best energies through- 
 out a prolonged life to the service of his fellow-men in 
 fields which lay apart from the contentions of political 
 parties, he was not without his record in purely political 
 affairs. The story of his career in the House of Commons 
 will be duly set forth in these pages. He was always more 
 of a philosopher among politicians than of a politician 
 among philosophers. Yet he achieved one or two rare 
 successes even as a politician, and to him must ever be 
 ascribed the honour of having been one of the two or three 
 men who, at a moment when the two branches of our 
 English race seemed to be drifting towards an inevitable 
 and ruinous collision, were able to intervene in the cause of 
 peace, and to avert a disaster that would have wrecked the 
 cause of human liberty. 
 
 It is possible that the reader who intends to follow the 
 story of Playfair’s life would wish to form a mental 
 picture of the man himself before he sets out on his task. 
 Lyon Playfair was notable in any company, in part because 
 of his rather diminutive stature, and in part by reason of 
 his fine head, the massive moulding of which formed a sure 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 II 
 
 index to his intellectual powers. Slightly below the 
 common height, he was notwithstanding a man who never 
 gave even to the casual observer an impression of weak- 
 ness. There was dignity as well as power in his glance ; 
 above all, there was the saving sense of humour. No one 
 really knew or understood him, however, who had not the 
 good fortune to meet him on some occasion when his 
 conversational gifts were made apparent. His vast stores 
 of knowledge of every conceivable kind, the strange 
 experiences through which he had passed in his long career 
 of labour, the stories, humorous and interesting, of which 
 he was so admirable a raconteur , and the sympathetic 
 temperament with which he was so lavishly endowed, all 
 helped to enrich his conversation and to give it a character of 
 its own that may fitly be called unique. Nobody who met 
 him in casual society for the first time could have dreamed 
 of the work he had done and the great things he had 
 accomplished in his busy life. Few, possibly, would have 
 imagined that one who bore his load of learning so lightly 
 and easily was the master of stores of knowledge such as it 
 is given to few amongst us to possess. But no one, even if 
 he were but the chance acquaintance of an hour, could be 
 brought in contact with him without feeling something of 
 the fascination which he exercised upon all around him, in 
 virtue of his unfailing gaiety of heart, his inexhaustible good 
 nature, and the charm of an intellect that seemed to 
 illuminate every topic which came within its radius. I 
 have to tell the story of a great worker, who laboured for 
 pure and unselfish ends ; but at the outset the reader ought 
 to realise the fact that Lyon Playfair was one of those men 
 of exceptional personal and social gifts, before whose tact 
 difficulties that to others would prove insurmountable 
 seem to melt away, and whose bright spirits create 
 around them an atmosphere of good-will and confidence 
 which is recognised by all with whom they are destined 
 to be brought in contact. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY. — I. MY RELATIONS. 
 
 The Playfairs : Professor Playfair and the Commander - in - Chief : 
 
 Principal Playfair : Mrs Macdonald and Her Doubts : Sir Hugh 
 Lyon Playfair : James Playfair and His Romance : Praying for My 
 Conversion : A “ Token ” : The Sin of walking on Sundays : I 
 introduce Myself to My Father : Dr Macvicar and His Definition 
 of Water : My Brothers. Playfair’s Earliest Extant Letter — Mrs 
 Macdonald on His Disposition as a Child. 
 
 As my family and intimate friends desire that I should 
 leave for their information some recollections of my life, 
 I comply with their wish, so far as it can be done by one 
 who has never kept a diary or a journal. If they are ever 
 published my only apology is that they may form some 
 encouragement to others who, like myself, have had in 
 early life few friends and no influence, to believe that their 
 future position depends upon themselves, and not upon 
 their surroundings. 
 
 My family name in old records is often written Playfere, 
 and doubtless originally meant playfellow, the word “fiere" 
 being used in Burns's ‘ Auld Lang Syne ' as “ companion." 
 In much older poems it is employed in a like way. 
 Thus in the Scottish ballad ‘The Jew’s Daughter,' pre- 
 served by Bishop Percy in his ‘ Reliques,’ the word 
 occurs in this sense : 
 
 “Then out and cam the Jewis dochter, 
 
 Said, ‘ Will ye cum in and dine ? ’ 
 
 ‘ I winna cum in, I canna cum in 
 Without my play-fieres nine.’ ” 
 
 Although this was doubtless the origin of the name, the 
 first time that the name is mentioned to my knowledge 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 13 
 
 the spelling is more like the modern version. In 1290 
 “ William Playfayre ” brought letters to Edward I. from 
 Sir John Comyn 11 intimating the arrival of the Maiden of 
 Norway.” 1 He seems to have been the Earl of Orkney’s 
 letter carrier, and if I am his lineal descendant it seems all 
 right in the process of evolution that I should have become, 
 in 1873, Postmaster-General ! All through the few records 
 that remain of my family they seem to have been emi- 
 nently respectable, hard-working citizens, without ever 
 rising to any high rank or position. The name frequently 
 appears in civic records from the fifteenth century to the 
 nineteenth in the list of magistrates in the Scotch burghs, 
 or among those of Scotch ministers of a Radical turn of 
 mind who were punished for keeping conventicles. In the 
 genealogical ‘ Memoirs of the Family of Sir Walter Scott * 
 (pp. xxix. and xxx.) “ Margaret Playfair ” is referred to 
 with honour as being “ remarkable for her knowledge, 
 memory of the Scriptures, and gift of prayer.” She seems 
 to have died in Rotterdam in 1685, so perhaps she had to 
 leave the country for her opinions, or because her husband, 
 Mr. Halyburton, had been denounced in 1662 by the Privy 
 Council for his Covenanting principles. However, some 
 persons of my name have been sufficiently orthodox to 
 hold offices in the English Universities. In 1596 Thomas 
 Playfair was made D.D. and Margaret Professor of Divinity 
 in Cambridge, and later he was appointed Chaplain to King 
 James. He is celebrated by Phineas Fletcher thus : — 
 
 “Who lives by death, by death in death is lying; 
 
 But he who living dies, best lives by dying, 
 
 Who life to truth, who death to sorrow gives, 
 
 In life may die, by death more surely lives. 
 
 My soul in heaven breathes, in schools my fame, 
 
 Then on my tombe write nothing but my name.” 2 
 
 Occasionally one of my family name appears with 
 distinction in Academic ranks, but more usually the 
 members constituting it follow occupations requiring solid, 
 
 1 ‘Calendar of Documents relating to Scotland,’ by Joseph Bain, Edin., 
 1884, Vol. II., p. 107. 
 
 2 ' Athenae Cantabrigiensis,’ Vol. II., p. 513. 
 
14 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 though not brilliant, brain power. The highest example 
 of the former is the case of Professor Playfair, the eminent 
 mathematician, who was bom in 1748, and died in 1819, 
 author of a charming work, the ' Illustrations of the 
 Huttonian Theory.' He was so celebrated for his clear 
 and eloquent power of exposition that he rarely trusted 
 himself to make a speech, lest he should injure his fame as 
 a writer. On one occasion, however, he was forced to 
 preside at the founding of the Royal Observatory on 
 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, of which I also became chairman 
 many years later. 
 
 Professor Playfair, at the dinner celebrating the laying 
 of the foundation stone, contented himself with proposing 
 toasts in the form of short epigrams, such as “ May this 
 Observatory be as permanent as the rock upon which it is 
 founded and the science upon which it is based." The 
 Commander-in-Chief for Scotland had a profound admira- 
 tion for the professor, and rose to propose his health, but 
 he could get no further than the statement, “ I say, 
 without the least fear of contradiction, that Professor 
 Playfair is a man — I repeat that Professor Playfair is a 
 
 man " The audience, which had no doubt on the 
 
 subject, began to laugh, and the irate Commander con- 
 cluded by asserting, “ Professor Playfair is a man to go to 
 h — 1 with." The decorous company was disconcerted 
 at this abnormal way of proposing the toast, and consider- 
 able curiosity was shown as to how the learned professor 
 would acknowledge his health in an epigrammatic form. 
 He was equal to the occasion, and replied, “ I thank the 
 gallant officer for his warmth, because there is only one 
 other instance of an equal devotion to friendship, that in 
 which Pylades offered to accompany his friend Orestes 
 to a place which shall not a second time be mentioned 
 in this assembly." 
 
 Although Professor Playfair belonged to a collateral 
 branch of our family, I gladly claim the kinsmanship 
 of its most illustrious member. He flourished in 
 Edinburgh University when the names of Black, Leslie, 
 and Hope drew the attention of all Europe to the 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 15 
 
 scientific discoveries of that university, of which in later 
 years I was student, graduate, professor, and Member of 
 Parliament for seventeen years. Professor Playfair, the 
 mathematician, never married, though rumour says that 
 he, as well as Leslie, was a candidate for the hand of 
 the fascinating Mrs Apreece, who married Sir Humphry 
 Davy. ^Playfair's fame lasts in America to the present 
 day, as I once found in an amusing way. In 1877, on 
 visiting America, I was anxious to see and hear a 
 telephone which then excited much interest. Being on a 
 visit to a house near West Point, on the Hudson, I found 
 that a telephone could be seen there. It had one of its 
 ends in the room of the Professor of Mathematics, who, I 
 was warned, might resent a communication. However, I 
 ventured, and explained through the telephone that I was 
 an Englishman who had never seen the instrument. I 
 was asked my name, to which I replied “ Playfair." The 
 answer then came, “ Oh, I know all about you ! I 
 learned my first mathematics out of your ‘ Euclid.’ " I 
 disclaimed with modesty, by stating that that book came 
 out in the last century. My unknown conversationalist 
 replied, “ Your voice is so squeaky, I thought you must 
 be a hundred years old" ! 
 
 From this digression — the type, I fear, of many digres- 
 sions, as I write just as recollections arise in my memory 
 — I come to my grandfather. He was for some time a 
 minister in Newtyle, and then in Meigle ; and though 
 repeatedly urged to preside as Moderator of the General 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland, he persistentty 
 declined the honour. He was appointed to the office of 
 Principal of the University of St. Andrews in 1800. The 
 Principal was a man of much industry and of respectable 
 talents. He produced a large work in six quarto volumes 
 on geography. Of this he was so proud that he changed 
 the crest of his family to a globe with the vainglorious 
 motto, “Non sic te vidimus olim! } He forgot that 
 geography was a rapidly progressive science. Before the 
 last volume of his big work was out, the former volumes 
 were out of date. I never met any human being who had 
 
1 6 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 read the magnum opus of my grandfather. Besides this 
 work, he published a ' System of Chronology' in 1784, and 
 a 1 Statistical Description of Scotland ’ in two volumes. 
 He was historiographer to the Prince of Wales (the Prince 
 Regent). As my grandfather died in the year of my 
 birth, I did not know him. His widow was, however, a 
 devoted grandmother to me. Her maiden name was 
 Lyon, and she belonged to the Lyons of Glen Ogle, who 
 form a collateral branch of the Lyons of Glamis, now 
 possessing the title of Earl of Strathmore. This explains 
 my Christian name. 
 
 Principal Playfair had four sons ; the eldest was my 
 father ; the second, William, was a retired Colonel in 
 the Indian service when I first knew him ; the third was 
 Hugh, a Major in the Indian Artillery, and the fourth 
 James, a merchant in Glasgow. All of them had an in- 
 fluence on my life. On being sent from India, where I was 
 bom, 1 to St. Andrews as a mere infant, Colonel Playfair 
 became the guardian of my brother and myself, and dis- 
 charged his functions with much kindness and judgment. 
 He placed us in the house of his widowed sister, Mrs 
 Macdonald, a lady of remarkable ability. She had been a 
 beauty in her youth, and had married a clergyman, who 
 died soon after their marriage. Mrs Macdonald was an 
 ardent naturalist, and, I believe, discovered and described 
 several new species of marine animals which abound among 
 the rocks of the sea shore at St. Andrews. No person could 
 have discharged her duties to her two nephews more 
 lovingly or judiciously than this accomplished aunt. She 
 died at eighty-six years of age, when I was professor in the 
 Edinburgh University, in 1864. I recollect a curious 
 conversation on her deathbed which shows how much 
 needless anxiety is produced to good Christians by the old 
 Scotch belief in the literal interpretation of Bible stories. 
 She expressed great anxiety lest her faith in the Bible 
 should not be sufficient to secure her salvation. Knowing 
 that she had been educated in a narrow Presbyterian circle, 
 I asked whether her doubts were connected with verbal 
 
 1 At Chunar, Bengal, May 21st, 1818, 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 17 
 
 inspiration, or with the fundamental truths of Christianity, 
 assuring her that I could not believe that they related to 
 the latter, as I had never known a person of such a pious 
 and devout Christian life. The old lady clutched the bed- 
 clothes and said with energy, “ I do not believe that 
 Balaam’s ass ever spoke.” Neither did I ; so I thought 
 it best to throw the disbelief into insignificance by 
 putting to her the question : “ Are you going to heaven 
 trusting in the merits of your Redeemer, or are you going 
 into heaven riding on Balaam’s ass ? ” The dear old lady 
 realised the absurdity of her fears, and spoke happily 
 for the few remaining hours of her life. 
 
 My uncle, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, to whom I have 
 alluded, retired from the Army as Major of Artillery, but 
 though he subsequently became Colonel he was always 
 affectionately spoken of as “ the Major.” He brought with 
 him to his native city an unexhausted energy which at first 
 was expended in odd ways. He bought a house on the 
 site of the old college of St. Leonard. He had a large 
 garden through which flowed a mill stream. For some 
 years this garden was the Major’s hobby. He built a tall 
 pagoda over the stream, and used its power for moving 
 dancing puppets and all sorts of mechanical absurdities. 
 The wheel moved by the stream had the figure of a man 
 attached to it, who bent laboriously as he appeared to 
 turn the wheel. All round this extensive garden a border 
 of wood, painted white, was placed upon supports. It 
 contained the history of the world, from the time of Adam, 
 our first parent, to the Reform Bill of 1832. All of this 
 extensive history was painted upon the boards by the 
 Major's own hands. The history of England, according to 
 this singular record, ended at the Reform Bill in 1832, 
 because then England, having reached the pinnacle of its 
 greatness, began to decline, and was no longer worth the 
 attention of the historian. No need to say that “the 
 Major,” like all my other relatives, was an ardent Tory. 
 After a few years the surplus energy of Sir Hugh Playfair 
 was diverted from his garden to the adornment of the city 
 of St. Andrews. He was elected Provost of the city, and 
 
 c 
 
i8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 retained this office to his death. When he undertook these 
 civic duties the city was little better than a dirty fishing 
 town, with a couple of streets of better houses for pro- 
 fessors and retired Indian officers. The grand ruins of 
 the cathedral and the ancient castle were neglected and 
 crumbling, while even the university was in a decaying 
 state. The broom of the civic reformer soon produced a 
 marvellous change, though scarcely in a constitutional way. 
 Ancient stairs which projected from the houses into the 
 streets, so as to block the thoroughfares, were removed 
 during the darkness of night, and the occupants had to 
 devise new modes of entrance to their homes. The 
 Major put a side way of good pavement all up the 
 streets about twelve feet from the houses, the inhabitants 
 of which soon found that they had to fill up the 
 interval, so that St. Andrews became celebrated for 
 its broad and luxurious side walks. The old church- 
 yard surrounding the venerable cathedral was planted 
 and beautified, and then the Government was obliged 
 to maintain the ruins and prevent their further decay. 
 New college buildings were extorted from Parliament, 
 and the University Library was rebuilt on condition that 
 it should be open to the public. 
 
 The ‘Ginks" upon which the game of golf is played, 
 and which now forms one of the most attractive features 
 of the ancient city, was then being washed away by 
 encroachments of the sea. The “ Major" even fought 
 against the sea, and, by judicious selections of places for 
 shooting rubbish, extended the famous links, and built a 
 club house for the players upon a spot reclaimed from the 
 sea. He laboured in his improvements with the will and 
 authority of an autocrat, and forced money by subscrip- 
 tions with the audacity of a highwayman. Naturally, he 
 constantly gave offence ; but, as his reforms were always 
 justified by good results, the Major’s tyrannies were 
 condoned, and the name of Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair is 
 now cherished in his native city as its greatest benefactor. 
 He found it a dull, sleepy, antiquated town, and he 
 left it a bright little watering-place, with all the venerable 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 1 9 
 
 antiquities much better cared for than when he began his 
 rather Philistine reign. How much of my knowledge was 
 got from my uncle’s wooden history of the world in his 
 gardens I do not know, but he certainly inspired me with 
 the love of work, and with a sense of the duty of working 
 for others rather than for oneself. 
 
 My youngest uncle, James Playfair, was a Glasgow 
 merchant of probity and philanthropy. His wife had 
 fallen in a faint over a slow fire, which burnt out her eyes 
 and destroyed her face, so that she always wore a mask. 
 Her husband devoted himself to her with all the ardour 
 and affection of a young lover. I stayed in his house for 
 two years when I had left St. Andrew’s College as a lad, 
 for my father destined me to be a merchant, and put me 
 into my uncle’s office as a clerk. Both this attempt to 
 make me a merchant and a subsequent one in India failed, 
 as I felt I was wholly unsuited to succeed in a mercantile 
 career. I certainly did not acquire much mercantile 
 knowledge in my uncle’s office, but I did learn to respect 
 probity, and to work for .subjects connected with the 
 welfare of the people. SoMny uncle James probably did 
 produce a lasting impression on my character. He was 
 an eminently religious man of the school of arid Scotch 
 orthodoxy, which was a repulsive rather than an attractive 
 form to me. Accordingly, I was treated as one of the 
 unconverted, and prayers for my conversion were some- 
 times offered. A good man, Mr Kettle, used to come and 
 offer up hugely long prayers in the evening, during the 
 course of which I generally slept. But on one occasion 
 the fervour of his prayer awoke me, and I found him 
 wrestling with God for my conversion. My uncle 
 apologised afterwards, and said he did not approve of my 
 being denounced as a sinner in my own presence, but he 
 hoped that the seed sown might fall upon fertile ground. 
 I am afraid the ground was rather stony, though I agreed 
 “to go to the tables” ; or, in other words, to take the 
 Communion. Accordingly I was examined by an Elder, 
 who gave me a leaden “token” to present at the table. 
 This awful “token” frightened me out of my wits, and 
 
20 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 impressed me with the fact that I was a sinner indeed, 
 and unworthy of mercy. Somehow or other I lost it 
 before the time came for using it. This admission 
 by “token” acts as a repulsion instead of attraction 
 to religion, and I hope it has disappeared from Scotch 
 services. But I am not sure of it, from the follow- 
 ing anecdote. When my youngest child was a baby, 
 during my stay in Edinburgh as professor, she had a 
 shrewd Scotch nurse who desired to take the Communion. 
 She applied to her Elder, who asked how often she 
 attended church services. The answer did not satisfy 
 him, although she pleaded that she could not leave the 
 baby, and so the “token” of admission was refused. She 
 urged that she lived with a worthy master, Professor 
 Playfair, who had ordered all his grates from the Elders 
 shop at her recommendation. This altered the religious 
 aspect of the case entirely, and, turning to the deacon, he 
 said, “ Give her a token. She is an eminently respectable 
 woman ! ” 
 
 In St. Andrews, as children, we were encouraged to walk 
 in the beautiful links or by the sea-shore every Sunday ; 
 but when I studied in Glasgow as a youth, I still remember 
 with remorse being caught in the deadly sin of taking a 
 walk on the park or “ green ” on a Sunday afternoon, and 
 being considered as an irreclaimable sinner afterwards. 
 But in spite of all this strait-laced orthodoxy I loved my 
 Uncle James and his suffering wife, who were daily 
 examples of practical Christianity. 
 
 I have not yet spoken of my father, for until I was 
 grown up and resident in Manchester I scarcely knew him, 
 as he resided in India, and only once came home on a 
 year’s visit to my mother, while I was a child at school- 
 He was in the Medical Service of the East India Company, 
 and rose to the highest position, that of Member of the 
 Medical Board in Calcutta. He was chief physician to the 
 invading army of Afghanistan, but being attacked with 
 ophthalmia, fortunately retired before the destruction of 
 that army. My recollections of my father are therefore 
 few. He was full of kindness and consideration in his 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 21 
 
 correspondence, encouraging my scientific studies, and 
 supplying me freely with money to prosecute them. My 
 mother was devoted to him, and constantly talked of his 
 kindness of heart and of his ability. He introduced into 
 medicine some native Indian remedies, especially Mudar , 
 which I believe still holds its position in the Indian 
 Pharmacopoeia. ^My first real acquaintance with my father 
 was when he retired from the service in 1842. He 
 returned from India in a sailing vessel, accompanied by my 
 mother, and I joined them at Southampton. At that time 
 my mother had been in India for many years, and my 
 recollection of her features was faint. I took a boat to go 
 out to the ship which had been signalled, but as it was in 
 motion when I reached it a rope was thrown out from the 
 stem, and my boat followed the ship. At the stem 
 window a sweet motherly-looking lady was writing, and I 
 fancied that she might be my mother, but I was afraid to 
 ask her. When I got on board I asked a stout elderly 
 gentleman if he could point out to me Dr Playfair. He 
 replied that that was his name, and I then introduced 
 myself as his son Lyon. The old gentleman was com- 
 pletely overcome, and taking my hand, led me down 
 to the cabin, where I found that the lady whom I had 
 admired from the boat was in fact my mother. 
 
 Next morning my father and I went to London, leaving 
 my mother to wait for the luggage. At the station I 
 learned how long my father had been absent from England, 
 and how many changes had occurred in his absence. The 
 railway was to him a singular novelty. As the locomotive 
 went puffing backwards and forwards on the line to get 
 into position, he suggested that we should engage it and 
 go up to London, just as we should now hail a hansom 
 cab. He was full of delight and astonishment at every- 
 thing he saw. Soon after his arrival I took him to the 
 annual meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society at Derby. 
 I had been elected an honorary member of that Society, 
 and had to acknowledge the honour in a speech at the 
 great dinner in the pavilion. My father was not on the 
 platform, and did not know my position in the society, so 
 
22 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 he was amazed and delighted to see his son rise among the 
 magnates who had to respond to a toast. After the dinner 
 I was to meet him at a certain door, but failed to do so. 
 In going to my hotel I had to pass some caravan-shows, 
 and on the platform of one of these I observed my father 
 paying for all the boys and girls who desired to see the 
 show ! He had passed in about fifty or sixty when I 
 arrived and disturbed his generosity. In fact my father 
 had all the simplicity and kindness of Colonel Newcome in 
 Thackeray’s novel, and I never think of him without this 
 connection in my mind. Already his constitution was 
 broken up by his long tropical residence, and very soon our 
 short acquaintance was but a memory, as he died in 1846. 
 Now that intercommunication between India and the 
 United Kingdom is so easy, families are not so separated 
 as they were in the past. There used to be frequent 
 instances, as in my case, where a father did not see his son 
 after infancy until he was settled in life. 
 
 My mother 1 had much more direct influence on my life 
 than my father. Her abilities were of a high order, and 
 she had cultivated them by extensive reading. She was a 
 favourite among the professors of the university at St. 
 Andrews, who frequently passed the evening at her house. 
 Among the most constant visitors was the Rev. Dr 
 Macvicar, not a professor, but a temporary lecturer at 
 the university. He had singular originality, a boldness of 
 thought regarding the atomic constitution of matter, and 
 shared in the belief in the complex molecular structure 
 p which now began to prevail. Dr Macvicar gave popular 
 lectures on science, the first which I had heard. But he 
 was singularly unsuited for this work. I recollect copying 
 his description of water, and being much puzzled by it. 
 “ Water,” said the philosopher, “is composed of two 
 abysmal elements, possibly of only one in fundamental 
 differentiation of molecular construction. It is a fluid of 
 exquisite limpidity capable of solidification on one side and 
 gasification on the other. In the solid state it belongs to 
 the hexagonal system, and is a double six-sided pyramid 
 
 1 Janet, daughter of John Ross, Esq., of Edinburgh. 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 23 
 
 with one axis of double refraction. Solid, liquid, gaseous, it 
 is a type of matter.” I was profoundly impressed with the 
 description, and used to repeat it till in the course of time 
 I began to understand it^j From Dr Macvicar were received 
 our earliest ideas of science, for he taught us the use of the 
 microscope, and showed us how to open our eyes to 
 surrounding objects. To my mother and her surroundings 
 I owe all my early knowledge, precious little of which I 
 derived from the grammar or classical school to which 
 I was sent at a later period. 
 
 My elder brother, George, was about two years older 
 than myself, but he was the protector and guide of my 
 boyhood. He had the same exquisitely simple and 
 affectionate character as my father, and I do not recollect 
 that we had a single difference or quarrel in boyhood or 
 manhood. He became a medical man, acting as surgeon 
 in the Chinese War on board the Phlegethon. He then 
 received an appointment in the Medical Service of the 
 East India Company, and ultimately became President of 
 the Medical School at Agra. He was loved in every 
 station to which he went, and died in London in 1881, 
 after retiring from the Service. My second brother, 
 Lambert, now Colonel Sir Lambert Playfair, K.C.M.G., 1 
 has seen very varied service. The gallant Outram 
 was much attached to him, and also Sir Bartle Frere. 
 Though in the Indian Army, his services have been chiefly 
 diplomatic. He was for a long time Assistant, and then 
 Acting, Governor at Aden, Political Resident at Zanzibar, 
 and is now Consul-General of Algiers and Tunis. 
 
 My third brother, William, is now an eminent physician 
 in London, and is well known by the originality and 
 success of his practice. My fourth brother, Octavius, was 
 for a short time in the Royal Engineers, but, on his marriage, 
 emigrated to Buenos Ayres, where he soon died. I 
 had three sisters and one adopted sister, who added to 
 the happiness of our home life. That was of a simple 
 character, but impressed upon all of us our future habits 
 and tastes. Our social gatherings on Sunday evenings, 
 
 1 Sir Lambert Playfair died at St. Andrews in February, i8gg. 
 
24 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 at a banquet of Spartan simplicity, are among the most 
 delightful recollections of my life. Those days are long 
 past, and since then I have dined and supped with monarchs 
 and royal princes, but the pleasure and gratification of these 
 entertainments has never equalled the Sunday suppers of my 
 childhood. The good mother died in 1862, when I was a 
 professor in the University of Edinburgh, and her sons 
 and daughters placed a memorial window in the old 
 College Church of St. Andrews, with the inscription, 
 “ Her children rise up and call her blessed.” 
 
 The St. Andrews of to-day is still a simple city, but it is 
 unlike that of my boyish days. Then it had not been 
 shaken up and swept by the reforming broom of “the 
 Major.” I remember the Sedan chairs which used to be 
 brought inside the house to carry my mother and sisters 
 to evening parties. If the nights were fine, either a 
 servant or one of the children would accompany them 
 with a lantern. Society has not increased in pleasure by 
 the greater demands made for its enjoyment. 
 
 So far as can now be ascertained, it was in 1820 that 
 young Lyon Playfair and his elder brother George left 
 India for St. Andrews, in order to remain under the care 
 of their aunt, Mrs Macdonald. Six years later Mrs 
 Playfair, whose family was now more numerous, parted 
 from her husband in Bengal, and brought her younger 
 children to Scotland, where, as will be seen in the next 
 chapter, she remained with them for several years, watch- 
 ing over their health and education. In their tenderest 
 childhood, however, both Lyon and his brother George 
 were left to the exclusive charge of Mrs Macdonald. The 
 earliest letter of Lyon Playfair which is now extant, and 
 probably the first he ever wrote, was the following, 
 addressed to his father in 1824, at a time when the writer 
 was six years old. As the production of a child of that 
 age, it is not unworthy of notice. 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 25 
 
 ( Dictated .) 
 
 My dear Papa, — I hope our sisters are well. When 
 will our sisters come home ? We have sticks, and guns, 
 and pencils, and mells [golf sticks]. Cousin Jessie is away 
 at six o’clock to-day, home to Glamis. I can sing 
 Johnny Cope. Are our sisters to bring our swords and 
 guns, or is Papa ? When will you send an answer to this 
 letter ? I am second Dux in my class. I am reading in 
 the Collection, and it is about Caesar — Caesar is a Man. 
 Our Market day is on first Thursday, and I am going to 
 buy a penknife, and I will send something to Papa. I 
 will give you a guess. “ As I went o’er St. Andrews Brig, 
 I met wi’ George Buchanan, I took off his head and drank 
 his blood, and left his body stan’ing.” Here’s another 
 guess : “ Anne Queen Shevy built a ship, an’ on the deck 
 her daughter sate, an’ for her name I’m not to blame, for 
 three times have I told you.” Guess the name. I have a 
 great heap more guesses. I’ll tell you two more. “ I 
 went between two woods, and came back between two 
 waters,” “ As I came o’er London Bridge, London Bridge 
 broke, and a’ the Men of London could not mend it.” 
 That guess is Ice. I will tell you no other names of the 
 guesses. All the school was calling me Merryman, and 
 George too, because I once got my highland stockings on, 
 and because I had a tartan dress, tippet and sleeves and 
 a white tippet below, and they called me Lassie and a 
 Merryman, my dress is tartan trowsers. Tom Burns who 
 lives in Argyle, he went to the Merryman, and there was 
 two sticks as long as ten feet high, as long as Chunar 
 house from the floor to the roof. The Merryman had a 
 kind of Tambourine and he jump’d thro’ it, and when he 
 jump’d thro’ it, a great heap of fire came out of it, and 
 nobody could touch the place, it was so hot like fire. He 
 did the same thing twice and a new thing. Tom Burns is 
 a great big boy, and he is reading Robinson Crusoe with 
 George. He comes at seven o’clock every night, and he is 
 getting finely on with us. We were twice playing at his 
 house at Argyle, and he made a ball with leather and a 
 
26 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 ball of black worsted. May be I’m going to see the fool 
 to-night, and he jump’d upon his horse and put his knees 
 on the horse, and put his arms like bucksoo, and he said, 
 “ I preach, I pray the auld Manny Grey, he got cauld 
 porridge in a cauld day.” Our uncle has got a bairn, and 
 I think it is to be christened William. I have seen the 
 bairn, and it is like me. Maggy has a fine picture about 
 the battle in London, and I saw it. How are you ? I 
 send a kiss to our sisters and Mamma and you. The cat 
 has got two kittens. All our cousins are quite well, but 
 the little baby is not quite well. When is your Market ? 
 
 April 2.0th. 
 
 For Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Mrs Macdonald accompanied this effusion with the 
 following letter to her sister-in-law, Mrs Playfair : — 
 
 You will see by the above that Lyon is in spirits. He 
 reads pretty well now, and likes the school as much as at 
 first. As no children can be perfect, I would require to 
 give you the shade with the sunshine of their characters, if 
 I could do so in a way to make you know them 
 thoroughly. As to temper, an instance may suffice. Lately 
 Lyon came to me and said there was something to say, 
 but he would not say it, as I would be angry ; but as he 
 would not say it, I had better go up to Charlotte, and she 
 would tell me. I went up, and George was crying and 
 sulky because Charlotte had made him sit down to his 
 lesson after his trifling away half of the hour which Tom 
 Bums gives him. . . . To-day, when we were at our 
 
 usual morning chapter, Lyon and I waited for some 
 time for George, who ran off in the middle of his 
 reading. When he came back I found he had found a 
 hoop on his way, and got so engrossed with it that 
 he forgot we were waiting. On such occasions Lyon 
 is too ready with his admonitions, yet so correct in his 
 opinions that we cannot always advise him rather to help 
 George out of a scrape than tell upon him. 
 
 April 25th . — George was trying to make prose out of his 
 
ANCESTORS AND RELATIONS. 
 
 27 
 
 psalms, and I have written down as he gave me his ideas. 
 
 . . . So much for George. . . . Lyon is still auld- 
 
 f arrant 1 in his remarks, more correct in his conduct than 
 George, and too apt to tell on George when he has got 
 into a scrape. Lyon does not see a subject in reading or 
 relating nearly so quick or accurately as George, but come 
 to action and George is behind Lyon. I would say, were 
 I a phrenologist, that Lyon must have the bumps of 
 veneration and observation, and George the bump of clear 
 understanding (were there such a one). 
 
 Lyon has been Dux for ten days both in reading and 
 spelling, and he is in great fear lest he is trapped down, 
 and says his lesson over and over to anyone who will hear 
 him. The more I examine my two charges the more I 
 observe the moral principles deep in Lyon's mind and 
 carried constantly into action, and that it is mere theory, 
 in comparison, with George. Yet do I hope he will not 
 grow up worse than the general run of correct people. 
 I wish their heads examined, and shall send you the 
 result when I can meet with a good phrenologist. 
 
 1 Old-fashioned. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — II. MY EDUCATION. 
 1825 to 1838. 
 
 My Governesses : At School : Holidays at Glamis Castle : Entering St. 
 Andrews University : Beginning a Business Career : Discomfiting 
 Nocturnal Marauders : Studying Medicine : Friendship with 
 
 Andrew Ramsay, the Geologist : A Chance Meeting with Sir Charles 
 Lyell : Studying Chemistry : Friendship with David Livingstone : 
 James Young, Founder of the Paraffin Oil Industry : Study at Edin- 
 burgh University: A Voyage to India : In a Calcutta Office : Home 
 again : Studying under Liebig at Giessen : “ Doctor of Philosophy ” : 
 Appointed Chemical Manager of Print Works : Punctuality Hand- 
 somely rewarded : Among the Philosophers of Berlin. Correspon- 
 dence with Liebig — Chemists and Chemistry. 
 
 When my mother returned from India to superintend 
 the education of her family, an old-fashioned governess 
 was employed. Miss Douglas was a curious old-world 
 specimen of a Scotch governess, and always wore a sort 
 of high crown of brown silk worked into castellated peaks. 
 This crown seemed never to be renewed in the years 
 which she remained in our family. She had a singular 
 method of teaching, but not a bad one. Every word 
 had to be spelt according to the number of syllables 
 by touching one finger for each syllable ; while the one 
 upon which the accent lay had to be repeated twice 
 and touched twice, the whole word with the accent being 
 given at the end. I have never seen since then this 
 system, but I owe to it my distinct enunciation, which has 
 served me so much in my public speaking. Unfortun- 
 ately, however, Miss Douglas had a strong Scotch 
 pronunciation, and her accents were not unffequently 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 29 
 
 placed on the wrong syllable. Thus she would pronounce 
 lunatic as lunatic, and manure as manure, so that what 
 we gained in one way we lost in another. And, to this 
 day, I find that I sometimes astonish my audiences by a 
 distinctly false quantity. But I retain a warm sense of 
 gratitude to my first governess for her thorough teaching. 
 Miss Douglas was succeeded in our family by a handsome 
 young Scotch lady, who afterwards went to India when 
 my mother returned with some of my sisters. She married 
 a colonel in the Indian service, and was massacred in the 
 Mutiny at Cawnpore. She continued her journal every 
 half-hour on that fatal day, the last entry being, “The 
 steps of the mutineers are on the stairs. Good-bye, 
 my dear children." This precious journal was concealed 
 by a native servant, and forwarded to her children 
 in England. 
 
 At six years of age I went to the parish school. At 
 that time every class of society used to attend the parish 
 school, and the effect of this admixture of classes was 
 excellent. Often in after life, when I visited St. Andrews, 
 a working man would stop me in the street to shake 
 hands and congratulate me on my public position, claim- 
 ing as his right to do so that he had been at school with 
 me. No more hearty congratulations or more accept- 
 able have I ever received in my public career. Our 
 schoolmaster was Mr Crichton, an admirable teacher. He 
 afterwards became a Scotch minister, for it was true then 
 that every teacher in a school had his eyes fixed upon the 
 steeple of the church. The education in his school was 
 broad and thorough, and I attribute much of my future 
 success to it. I was a diligent scholar, and was only once 
 punished, by being locked up alone in the schoolroom 
 between the meetings. This is a bad sort of punishment 
 for boys. My fault was making an unsuccessful experi- 
 ment. Mr Crichton was particularly anxious that there 
 should be no blots in our writing-books. A boy assured 
 me that the scraped bone of the cuttle-fish would remove 
 blots, and I applied it freely to a fresh wet blot, with the 
 result that I spread it nearly over the whole page. 
 
30 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Unfortunately, I was taken away too soon from this 
 excellent school, and put into the old grammar school of 
 the city. Other men have told me that they obtained 
 advantage from their education in that school, but I 
 cannot recollect a single gain that I made in my many 
 years' attendance at it. I know that I lost much of my 
 former knowledge, and that my Latin when I entered the 
 University was of the most miserable description. We 
 had a great show day every year, and a month of our 
 time was wasted in preparation for that day. Each boy 
 was drilled in one single sentence, and the professors and 
 examiners were duly impressed with our familiarity with. 
 it. On one of these days the second boy in our class took 
 a panic, and the whole school was startled by hearing that 
 David had become truant, and could not be found. His 
 absence deranged the whole of the sentences, so the boys 
 were sent to scour the town and bring in David before the 
 professorial examiners arrived. We were unsuccessful in 
 finding him, and our masters were in despair. I was third 
 in the class, and from the continued drilling knew David’s 
 sentences as well as my own, so I volunteered to do 
 both, and received the gratitude and future kindness of 
 my teacher. 
 
 Latin, in its most unattractive form, was the only 
 subject taught in this school. I certainly did not dis- 
 tinguish myself as a scholar. But I presume that I 
 must have been popular, for there was a peculiar 
 ceremony once a year, at which the scholars, with the 
 approbation of the masters, elected a “king” of the 
 school. The king, when elected, was crowned with an 
 iron crown decorated with ribbons supplied by the family 
 of the boy. He was then carried on the shoulders of the 
 elder boys, accompanied by the whole school, in a 
 procession through the city. Most of the houses had 
 their doors opened as the procession passed, and gifts of 
 gingerbread and raisins were received as a tribute by the 
 king, who distributed them among his subjects. I was 
 elected king of the school for three successive years. 
 The last year of my reign was the final one of this curious 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 31 
 
 custom, and the iron crown remained for a long time 
 in the attic of our home. 
 
 My holidays while at school were passed with my 
 grand uncle, the Rev. Dr Lyon, in his manse at the gate 
 of the ancient Castle of Glamis, where Macbeth murdered 
 King Duncan. The old manse is a comfortable minister’s 
 house, surrounded by a garden containing one of the 
 oldest of Scotch monuments. The church itself was close 
 to it, in a primitive churchyard without beauty, and then 
 kept in a careless way. At that time the fine old castle 
 was not inhabited by Lord Strathmore. The whole estate 
 was under the management of trustees, of whom my uncle 
 was one, and so the castle and grounds were open to me 
 without risk of being considered an intruder. I naturally 
 busied myself with trying to discover the famous secret 
 chamber, and the awful mystery connected with it. I 
 drew my own conclusions, which were probably as 
 erroneous as those which have been made by others in 
 regard to this mystery. Although my uncle had the same 
 name as the Earls of Strathmore, he belonged to the Glen 
 Ogle Lyons, a collateral branch of the family. At that time 
 the two branches had become close in the line of descent, 
 though now they are again widely divergent. 
 
 The park round Glamis Castle is extensive, and has a 
 small stream running through woods. A deep pool, in a 
 sequestered spot, was my favourite haunt, at which I spent 
 many hours of meditation, for I had no playfellows at the 
 old manse. I believe that this lonely pool, surrounded by 
 trees, taught me to feel that happiness depends upon one- 
 self as much as upon one’s surroundings. The family of 
 my uncle consisted of his wife and two daughters. The 
 old minister himself was simple and worthy. Daily I 
 would drive out with the grey-haired old man, in a gig 
 drawn by a horse which could not go beyond five miles an 
 hour, but was believed by the owner to be one of the best 
 and fastest horses in the kingdom. The good old man 
 went at the same relative pace in his parochial duties. 
 The minister's wife, my dear old aunt, lavished upon me 
 the love of a mother to a child. Two charming young 
 
32 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 ladies, my cousins, made my stay at the manse as agree- 
 able as possible, and I returned with gladness at each vaca- 
 tion. They are all dead long since, but my memories of 
 their love and kindness live fresh within me. 
 
 For nearly sixty years I never saw Glamis again. Last 
 year (1885) we were staying in its neighbourhood at 
 Kinnordy with Mr and Mrs Lyell. 1 My wife and I 
 desired to see Glamis, and Lady Strathmore asked us 
 to visit the scenes of my boyhood. It was all wonder- 
 fully changed and beautified, but it was the old Glamis 
 still. We went to the top of the castle, and I explained 
 to my wife all the points of interest connected with 
 my life as a boy at this place. Lady Strathmore was 
 full of sympathy with my memories, and insisted on 
 being my guide to see the manse, which I found very 
 little changed, my reflecting haunt by the old pool, and 
 the other objects which I remembered so well. She 
 even showed me a secret chamber, though not the secret 
 chamber which has defied so many keen inquirers. It 
 was delightful to me to see the castle again inhabited by 
 an Earl of Strathmore, who has restored it so as to make 
 it worthy of its great history. In the old hall of the castle 
 we witnessed an operetta written by a son, and acted by 
 the sons and daughters, of our hosts, and most admirably 
 it was performed. 
 
 At fourteen years of age I was enrolled as a “ Bejant,” 
 or first year’s student in the University, and had to pay 
 my tax of several pounds of raisins to a senior boy in 
 recognition of my inferiority. My three professors were 
 Professor Gillespie for Latin, Professor Alexander for 
 Greek, and Professor Duncan for mathematics. All were 
 excellent teachers and did their best for me, but I was 
 miserably prepared for a university course. Of Greek I 
 scarcely knew the alphabet, though I had acquired it by 
 myself without a pronunciation of the letters. I remember, 
 the professor, to test my knowledge of Greek, asked me 
 before all the class what “basileus” meant, and I answered 
 that I had not yet reached the verbs. However, I worked 
 
 1 Now Sir Leonard and Lady Lyell. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 33 
 
 hard, and made as much progress as I could under the 
 circumstances of absolute ignorance in Greek and mathe- 
 matics, and very imperfect preliminary education in Latin. 
 The Professor of Latin encouraged boys, in their long six 
 months’ holidays, to read certain classical authors, and 
 “ profess” them for examination before him. I was so 
 elated by my progress that in the second year I 
 “ professed ” all Horace, and several books of Livy. I 
 expect my “ professions ” were as unsubstantial as those 
 made by most persons of their own attainments, for the 
 certificate given by the professor stated that I “ had been 
 diligent in the recess, and had made extensive professions,” 
 without a word of compliment as to the result. In Greek 
 my professor thought that I made good progress, but I 
 never learnt sufficient to make Greek authors a pleasure to 
 me in their own language. I had not yet found the kind 
 of knowledge for which I was best suited. Mathematics 
 pleased me much, and I soon got beyond the slow pace of 
 my class by private study. Professor Duncan knew his 
 subject thoroughly, but he had not the faculty of explaining 
 difficulties, and his class was called “the slough of 
 despond.” Although I was not entered in the class of 
 Chemistry and Natural Philosophy, I delighted, when I 
 could do so with decency, to steal in with the other 
 students and listen to the lectures. I did fairly well in the 
 class of logic, but much regret that I did not attend Moral 
 Philosophy, which was then taught by the great divine, 
 Dr Chalmers. My elder brother, George, and I were 
 beginning to find out for ourselves the studies best fitted 
 for us. We were occupied one afternoon in the kitchen, 
 when my mother, displeased at our remaining so long with 
 the servants, came downstairs, and was appeased by the 
 cook telling her “that Master George was boiling a sparrow 
 to make a skeleton, and Master Lyon was trying to get 
 sugar out of beetroot.” George was laying the basis for 
 becoming, as he did, President of a Medical College, and I, 
 for my future career as Professor of Chemistry. 
 
 Our dear family home was now broken up, as my mother 
 had to take her daughters to India to rejoin my father. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 My brother George went to Edinburgh to enter on the 
 study of medicine, and I was sent to my Uncle James in 
 Glasgow to be made a merchant. My uncle had only one 
 clerk in addition to myself, as his business was in Canada, 
 and there was little work in the Glasgow office. He 
 frequently went to Canada, and the office was left in our 
 charge, with not half an hour’s work in the day to perform. 
 My fellow clerk, Ramsay, was the brother of Sir Andrew 
 Ramsay, the distinguished geologist. In our abundant 
 leisure we amused ourselves by inventing instruments by 
 which we could compete with each other in telling the 
 true time by the shadows of the lamp-posts in the streets. 
 This idleness disgusted me with mercantile life, which I 
 thought was of the same character everywhere. I passed, 
 however, a happy time with my aunt (whose disfigurement 
 I have already mentioned) in her villa and surrounding 
 grounds at Woodside on the Kelvin, then wholly outside 
 Glasgow. It is now covered with terraces and crescents. 
 At that time it was quite remote from houses and very 
 lonely. 
 
 I recollect on one occasion that my inventiveness was of 
 service. My aunt had a beautiful nursemaid. We received 
 an anonymous letter stating that the maid was really the 
 wife of a neighbouring collier, and that next night the collier 
 would attack the house and take her away by force. 
 My uncle was then in Canada, and I was the only apology 
 for a man in the house. I took the letter to the police, 
 who laughed at it as a hoax, and would give no assistance. 
 From the terror of the maid I felt it was no hoax, and pre- 
 pared myself for an attack. I dressed up the figure of a 
 man and put him close to an upper window, with a gun 
 resting on the shutters opposite, and a candle burning so as 
 to show him obscurely, yet to the best advantage. At one 
 the next morning I saw by the moonlight four or five men 
 crossing the lawn. They came to the door and rang the 
 bell violently. I opened it “ on the chain,” and asked 
 what they intended to do. The professed husband said he 
 wanted his wife, and would have her. I acknowledged his 
 right to his wife if he could establish his claim, but that 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 35 
 
 must be done in a court of law, as she denied being 
 married. I told him that the police knew of this intended 
 visit, and were probably watching the place, and then said 
 we had a watchman in the house. They went back, 
 examined my stuffed figure in the dim light, with his gun 
 ready for action, and disappeared as quickly as they came. 
 I had won a bloodless victory ! 
 
 On my uncle's return he was much pleased with my 
 defence of his mansion, and agreed that my terms of 
 engagement as a clerk should be cancelled, and that I 
 should enter upon a course of study for medicine. I went 
 to board at the house of Mrs Ramsay, a widow, the 
 mother of my fellow clerk. She received about half a 
 dozen students as boarders, and was an admirable woman 
 in every respect. Her husband had been a chemical 
 manufacturer, and I believe was the first person to 
 manufacture bichromate of potash ; but his commercial 
 success was not equal to his scientific aptitude. The 
 inheritance of the latter passed to his children and grand- 
 children, one of whom is professor of chemistry in 
 University College. His son, Andrew Ramsay, was one 
 of the greatest friends of my youth, and ultimately 
 became Sir Andrew Ramsay, the head of the Geological 
 Survey. No one could have had a better friend, and we 
 used to spend our vacation in the island of Arran, which is 
 admirably fitted for geological study. 
 
 In one of my annual trips to Arran, in 1836, I carried 
 with me the first prize of the chemistry class. The book 
 was a handsomely bound copy of Lyell’s ‘ Geology,' which 
 I read on my way down the Clyde. A charming lady sat 
 next me in the steamer. We entered into conversation, 
 and she asked me the name of the book which interested 
 me so much. I explained to her that Lyell, the author of 
 the book, had established geology on a new basis, for he 
 ascribed to natural and continuous causes the formation of 
 rocks, which formerly were supposed to be produced by 
 cataclysms and special deluges. The lady seemed to be 
 amused, and said that she was glad Lyell had such an 
 enthusiastic admirer, because she was his wife, and that 
 
36 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 gentleman on the other side of the boat was Lyell himself. 
 My hero-worship had its reward, for she beckoned to the 
 great geologist and introduced me to him. When we 
 remained at Arran, Lyell used to go into the interior ; 
 while I, knowing more about conchology than geology, 
 assisted Mrs Lyell in getting shells on the seashore. This 
 was the basis of a friendship which lasted till the death of 
 Sir Charles and Lady Lyell. Last year (1885) I asked 
 the sisters of the latter to look at their correspondence for 
 1836, and they found a letter from Lady Lyell telling 
 them that she had the good fortune to sit next an 
 enthusiastic Glasgow student in the steamboat, who 
 pointed out to her various objects of interest. 
 
 I return from my digression to the beginning of my 
 medical studies in 1835. As chemistry was my favourite 
 study, I determined to enter the Andersonian College 
 rather than the Glasgow University. It is true that the 
 Professor of Chemistry at the latter was the famous Dr 
 Thomson, whose ‘ System of Chemistry ’ was long the text- 
 book of the science. The Andersonian College had a 
 younger man, Professor Graham, one of the most original 
 investigators of his time. His researches on 1 Water of 
 Crystallisation/ the diffusion of gases, and the ‘ Modifica- 
 tions of Phosphoric Acid/ were deemed to be classical 
 examples of investigation. Accordingly, I enrolled myself 
 as a student at his lectures and in his laboratory. 
 
 There were two other youths there at that time, whose 
 friendship I then made, and retained till their death. One 
 afterwards was widely known as Livingstone, the great 
 African traveller. Livingstone was five or six years older 
 than myself. He was then too poor to attend the 
 laboratory as a regular student, but he did enter Graham’s 
 class of lectures, and also that of Dr Buchanan, another 
 medical professor. At both these classes I naturally 
 cultivated the friendship of this earnest student. In after 
 years, when the name of Livingstone became a household 
 word, it never occurred to me that he might be the shy 
 lad whom I knew in 1836. When the well-known 
 traveller, with the gold band round his hat, visited me in 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 37 
 
 1857, it seemed natural that he should do so, because he 
 had occasionally written me letters on subjects of scientific 
 interest during his absence ; but he had now to explain 
 that he was identical with my fellow- student in Glasgow. 
 After that we saw a good deal of each other, and it was 
 easy to see in the man the natural development of the 
 simple, earnest, and energetic youth of early years. 
 When his wife returned to Scotland, early in 1859, she 
 came direct, and without notice, to my house in Edin- 
 burgh. There happened to be a large dinner party when 
 Mrs Livingstone, whom I had never seen, was ushered 
 into the dining-room in, naturally, a travel-stained dress. 
 The announcement of her name assured her the warmest 
 reception from everyone. Mrs Livingstone was most 
 anxious to join her children that night, but did not know 
 their address, although she thought they lived in one of 
 the longest streets of the city. I immediately got two or 
 three porters to divide the street between them, and call 
 at every house. In time we discovered the address of the 
 lady to whom the children had come on a visit, and the 
 anxious mother was able to join them. I am afraid Mrs 
 Livingstone found the situation more strained than we 
 did, though it was somewhat difficult to reconcile the 
 duties to dinner guests with those due to the wife of my 
 friend. But people who knew the wonderful resources of 
 Mrs Livingstone, and her admirable character, will not be 
 surprised that she was the most calm and collected of the 
 large party among whom she suddenly appeared. 
 
 Another fellow-student was James Young, the founder 
 of the paraffin and paraffin oil industry. Young was a 
 carpenter by trade, and, like Watt, was employed to repair 
 some of the instruments in the laboratory, and ultimately 
 was engaged as an assistant. He was a raw youth when I 
 first knew him, but he made a large fortune, and was a 
 most intelligent companion. He always ascribed his success 
 in the world to a suggestion which I made to him in 1847 
 that he might manufacture useful oils from a natural spring 
 of petroleum which was found in one of the coal mines 
 belonging to my future brother-in-law, James Oakes, of 
 
38 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Riddings in Derbyshire. This oil, when cold, deposited 
 shining crystals which I recognised to be the paraffin of 
 Reichenbach. I suggested that it might be made into 
 candles, and with much difficulty he got enough to make 
 two candles, which I exhibited in a lecture at the Royal 
 Institution, placing them lighted on each side of my desk. 
 Young kept the remains of these original candles as a 
 memorial of the origin of one of the largest of the chemi- 
 cal industries of modern times. Young made a large for- 
 tune by the manufacture of artificial petroleum and its 
 products. When he died he made me one of the execu- 
 tors of his extensive estates. The manufacture was new in 
 the form in which it was introduced, though natural petro- 
 leum has been used certainly since the time of Cyrus. I 
 believe that it was known in ancient Biblical history, where 
 it is described as “ the salt of the earth." When such salt 
 loses its savour “ it is only fit to be trodden under the 
 foot ” of man, because on losing its volatile essence it be- 
 comes asphalte, which was used for pavements both in 
 Nineveh and Babylon. Occasionally it is spoken of as 
 “ thick water,” as in the remarkable chapter in Maccabees, 
 ii. i, where it is described as being used in burnt offerings : 
 “And Neemias called this thing Naphthar, which is as 
 much as to say a cleansing.” 
 
 Livingstone, Young, and I were Graham’s favourite 
 pupils. Graham, our teacher, was a profound philosopher 
 and original discoverer. He was a singularly plain man, 
 though his expression was full of intelligence. As a pro- 
 fessor, he was unable to keep discipline among his stu- 
 dents, and his expository powers were not of a high 
 order. To earnest students his lectures were full of 
 matter, but to the ordinary attendants at his class they 
 were obscure. 
 
 After spending two years at several medical classes, 
 though chiefly with Graham, the latter was called to Uni- 
 versity College, London. The chief attraction of Glasgow 
 for me was thus gone, and I went to complete my studies 
 in the University of Edinburgh. My anatomy and surgery 
 had been neglected by too exclusive attention to chemistry. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 39 
 
 I at once made friends with students, my seniors in study, 
 who adopted me into their set on account of my scientific 
 tastes. Among these were two who honoured me by their 
 friendship till their death. The first was the great anatomist 
 Goodsir, afterwards Professor of Anatomy in the University. 
 He was a perfect type of a student and an ardent lover of 
 science. The second was a man who exercised extreme 
 powers of fascination over everyone with whom he came 
 in contact, Edward Forbes, afterwards the Professor of 
 Natural History in Edinburgh. He lived in lodgings at the 
 top of a house, and the sloping roof was covered with 
 molluscs and star-fish drying in the sun. Many happy 
 hours were spent with him in watching his labours. 
 Forbes was an artist, a poet, and a philosopher. He was 
 a tall man with a bright, intelligent face, and was a leader 
 among the students both in work and fun. He founded 
 an order of brotherhood, to which access was difficult. It 
 had a badge of red silk ribbon with three letters worked 
 into it — “ M. E. O.” — the initials of the Greek words 
 signifying Learning, Love, and Wine. I am afraid the 
 latter was represented in our gatherings by whisky toddy, 
 in which however we never exceeded. George Wilson, 
 the author of the charming book, 1 The Five Gateways of 
 Knowledge/ was one of our brotherhood, and in many 
 respects was as charming and lovable as Forbes. I fear 
 that I am now the only surviving brother of this order, 
 which was the legitimate parent of the famous dining-club 
 called “ The Red Lions,” which still holds high festival at 
 the meetings of the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science. While Forbes lived, he and I were con- 
 stant members of this club. No one was allowed to cheer 
 at its meetings, for lions could only roar and wag their 
 tails in approval. Forbes could not sing, but he chanted 
 in a droll way his original songs. He generally had a new 
 one for each meeting. In 1845 I was sent over to Ireland 
 as a Commissioner to ascertain the extent of the famine 
 produced by the potato disease, and Forbes gave at one 
 of the dinners a poetical version of my report which 
 concluded thus : — 
 
40 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 “We state these, My Lords, as our opinions, 
 
 ’Tis bad for the British Dominions ; 
 
 As for the Solanum tuberosum, 
 
 It is a horrible thing for him as grows ’em.” 
 
 With such companions, to whom I should add Page, a 
 well-known geological author, my studies in medicine were 
 very pleasant. We formed a special scientific society ot 
 our own and produced original papers, a few of which 
 have since been published. 
 
 Among the professors at the University I became ac- 
 quainted with two, Sir Robert Christison and Professor 
 Syme, who remained my life-long friends. Unhappily, 
 however, my medical studies had to be abandoned, be- 
 cause the atmosphere both of the dissecting rooms and the 
 hospital produced on me a violent eczema, which was 
 uncontrollable, and much to my grief my medical advisers 
 ordered me to discontinue the study of medicine. Stranded 
 in my profession, my father advised me to look, like the 
 rest of my relatives, to India for a career, and this advice 
 was backed by my physician, who thought that a long sea 
 voyage might alter my constitution. Accordingly, in the 
 autumn of 1837 I embarked in a sailing ship for Calcutta 
 by the old route of the Cape of Good Hope. The voyage 
 was pleasant, for at that time numerous young ladies went 
 out to India to look for a career also. The captain of our 
 ship was not only an irascible but a naturally cruel man. 
 The crew consisted of Lascars, and once or twice a week 
 he had these miserable wretches tied up and severely 
 flogged. We remained for a fortnight at the Cape of Good 
 Hope and I took the opportunity of studying the geology 
 of the Table Mountain, of which I had already had full 
 descriptions. My sobriquet on board the ship was always 
 “the philosopher," and residents at Cape Town interested 
 in science made my acquaintance, so, without a single 
 introduction, I was invited out almost every night. I have 
 never been at the Cape since then, but have always felt a 
 warm interest in its welfare. By the time we reached 
 Calcutta my collection of sea-birds, including an albatross, 
 was inconveniently large. I had taken lessons in prepar- 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 41 
 
 in g skins and mounting them before leaving England. Our 
 ship was occasionally overrun by centipedes and scorpions, 
 especially after the anchor chains had been drawn up from 
 below. On one occasion the surgeon came into my cabin 
 in great agony. One of the creatures had been his bed- 
 fellow. As the wound was in his back he could not treat 
 it, so I became surgeon and freely lanced the wound, apply- 
 ing a water bandage. In about two hours complete relief 
 was obtained. One morning, as I was putting on my shirt, 
 I noticed a scorpion of respectable size inside the sleeve. 
 I shook it into a bottle of alcohol and preserved it for 
 many years afterwards. 
 
 On reaching Calcutta 1 I found that my father had 
 arranged that I should follow a mercantile career in the 
 house of Cantor, Low and Co., with an understanding that 
 I should become a partner in due time. I lived with Mr 
 Low on the opposite side of the Hooghly, rowing over 
 every day to my palanquin which waited at the landing. 
 Though I was treated with the utmost kindness by both 
 partners of the firm, my duties were inexpressibly irksome 
 to me. As junior clerk it was my duty to waste hours 
 at the Custom House /waiting for my turn to clear the 
 imported goods. Whenever I had leisure I used to go to 
 the College to see the Professor of Chemistry, Sir W. 
 O’Shaughnessy. I gradually made the acquaintance of all 
 the scientific men in Calcutta. McClellan, author of the 
 ‘ Geology of Kamaon/ Prinsep, Wallich and others, were 
 considerate to the youth whose scientific longings were 
 greater than his mercantile aspirations. Without my 
 knowledge several of them wrote to my father advising 
 him to send me back to Europe to finish my chemical 
 studies, and pledging themselves that I should find a good 
 career in England, while my prospects as a merchant were 
 not great. I do not know whether the position of the 
 firm, in which I was ultimately to become a partner, was 
 known to them, but it is fortunate that I left it, for in a 
 year or two afterwards it failed. My father was in the 
 
 1 This was in the year 1837, when Lyon Playfair was in his nineteenth 
 year. 
 
42 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Upper Provinces, which at that time could only be reached 
 by dak , i.e., by palanquin carried by bearers, and as the 
 visit to my parents would have occupied some months, my 
 father wrote, telling me of this correspondence, and urged 
 me to go back to London in order to join my old teacher, 
 Graham, who was then Professor at University College. 
 I was too glad to do so, though sorry to leave India 
 without seeing my parents, who had always been so kind 
 to me, and one of whom I only knew by correspondence. 
 I need say nothing of the voyage back except that we 
 touched at St. Helena, where the volcanic rocks interested 
 me greatly, in addition to the associations connected 
 with the life and death of Napoleon in that lonely island. 
 During the voyage we signalled a ship which told us 
 of the coronation of the Queen (1838). 
 
 Graham was delighted to receive his former pupil in his 
 laboratory. He appointed me private assistant in his 
 researches and declined to treat me as a pupil. James 
 Young was still his lecture assistant, and the students were 
 as badly kept in order as those in Glasgow. I never 
 understood this want of discipline, for Graham’s lectures 
 were admirable, and his lecture experiments exceedingly 
 well prepared and performed. I attended Professor 
 Sharpey’s lectures on Physiology and Dr Pereira’s on 
 Materia Medica, as I still hoped that I might take my 
 medical degree. 
 
 Next year, 1839, Graham strongly advised me to go to 
 Giessen, in Germany, to study under the great chemist 
 Liebig, the founder of organic chemistry, and one of the 
 most acute and remarkable philosophers of the age. On 
 presenting myself to Liebig I was much struck by his 
 handsome appearance and classically cut face. I men- 
 tioned my name, and told him that I was a pupil of 
 Graham's, and he laughingly said, “ You might have added 
 that you are the discoverer of iodo-sulphuric acid,” which 
 I had recently described in short papers. Finding that I 
 was not a mere tyro in chemistry he welcomed me 
 warmly, and at once asked me to help him in some re- 
 searches upon the fatty bodies. Before, however, I 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 43 
 
 entered on this inquiry, he pitted me against one of his 
 most careful assistants to make an organic analysis of an 
 unknown substance. Our two analyses came out identical 
 to the first decimal place, and I became a favourite pupil. 
 At that time Liebig had the best laboratory in Europe, 
 and among the pupils were Ettling, Will, Varrentrapp, 
 Knapp, Kopp and others, all of whom rose to profes- 
 sorial rank, and some to great distinction as discoverers. 
 We were almost all engaged in the repetition and exten- 
 sion of Chevreul’s discoveries on fatty bodies, a masterly 
 research for the time at which it was made. I was fortu- 
 nate in finding a new fatty acid in the butter of nutmeg, 
 which I called “ Myristic Acid," and a new crystalline 
 substance in cloves, “ Caryophylline." Liebig at this time 
 was writing his great book on agricultural chemistry, and 
 he invited me to translate it into English from the manu- 
 script. I arranged with English publishers to do this for a 
 hundred pounds, the first money which I had yet earned. 
 My knowledge of German was not good, but I had a 
 motive to work hard, and my translation progressed as fast 
 as the manuscript. It was thought desirable that Liebig’s 
 agricultural views should be announced in a general way 
 at the meeting of the British Association in Glasgow. 
 Liebig was unable to go, and persuaded me to be his repre- 
 sentative. Several of the young chemists, among whom 
 were Ettling, Will and Varrentrapp, joined in the trip. 
 When we reached Glasgow I found that I had been 
 appointed Secretary to the Chemical Section. At this 
 meeting I made friends with several men who afterwards 
 exercised a considerable influence upon my life. One 
 of these was Dr Buckland, the great geologist, and the 
 other, Sir Henry de la Beche, the head of the Geological 
 Survey. 
 
 My student days were soon to be over, so I returned to 
 Giessen and took a degree as “Doctor of Philosophy." 
 The visit to Glasgow had made me known to various 
 chemical manufacturers, and in the spring of the following 
 year (1841) I received an offer from Mr Thomson, of 
 Clitheroe, to become chemical manager of his large print 
 
44 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 works. His letter was peculiar, and made the condition 
 that I should meet him at Spring Gardens, in London, that 
 day week at twelve o’clock. Those were coaching days, 
 and I went down the Rhine, when the ice was breaking up 
 and the villages were flooded. In one of these I passed 
 the greatest part of the night in a boat, helping the 
 villagers to get out of their houses, and placing them on a 
 neighbouring hill. However, I got to London in time, and 
 reached Spring Gardens at a quarter to twelve on the day 
 appointed ; walking up and down the street till two 
 minutes to the hour, I presented myself in the room just as 
 the Horse Guards clock struck twelve. Mr Thomson, a 
 gentlemanly-looking old man, sat with a watch in his hand. 
 He said, “ You are very punctual,” and explained the 
 nature of the work. He then stated that his intention had 
 been to offer me £300 a year, rising to ^400, but on 
 account of my punctuality on the day and hour named, he 
 would make his offer ^400, rising to £600. This was an 
 excellent reward for punctuality, so I accepted the terms 
 offered, and my student days were at an end. It appears 
 that my employer had consulted both Graham and Liebig 
 as to how he should obtain a trained chemist, and both 
 had recommended me. 
 
 On returning to Giessen to wind up affairs I determined 
 to visit Berlin before going back to England. At that time, 
 being only twenty-two years of age, I could scarcely 
 expect to have the advantage of knowing the distinguished 
 philosophers who then made the University of Berlin so 
 celebrated. On arriving in Berlin, to my surprise, the 
 professors received me as a colleague, not as a student. 
 The results of some of my investigations made at Liebig’s 
 laboratory seemed to be well known in Berlin. Heinrich 
 Roze, the great analyst, Mitscherlich, the discoverer of 
 isomerism, Magnus, the eminent physicist, Dove, the 
 meteorologist, Schonheim, the author of the great work on 
 technical chemistry, Rammelsberg the mineralogist, all 
 vied with each other to make my stay in Berlin agreeable. 
 Heinrich Roze was especially hospitable, and kindly asked 
 many of his colleagues to meet me at dinner and supper. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 45 
 
 He was a man of sunny temperament, and had a happy 
 home. My English notions were a little disturbed at 
 finding that he had married his deceased wife’s sister, but 
 the happiness of his home made me a convert on this 
 contested question, not even now settled in England. 
 Dove, whose labours in meteorology had been so great, 
 reminded me of my friend Edward Forbes, on account of 
 his fun and jollity. He gave a supper in a restaurant one 
 evening, and this was more like a “ Red Lion dinner” 
 at the British Association than any other festivity. 
 Original songs and grotesque speeches kept us up to a late 
 hour. I made a speech in German which was well 
 received, and I fancy was appreciated more from its zeal 
 than for its philological accuracy. Mitscherlich was too 
 dignified to join in such entertainments, but he had a 
 formal evening reception at which I met all the leading 
 men in Berlin. The hospitality which I then received 
 in Berlin I have tried to repay with interest to young 
 foreigners in this country. 
 
 By far the most important event of Playfair’s life up to 
 this moment had been his introduction to Professor Liebig. 
 This was indeed the turning-point in his life, for it brought 
 him, whilst still a youth, into contact with the first chemist 
 of his day, and gave him a position in the scientific world 
 which his own work and abilities, great though both were, 
 could not have secured for him so quickly or so easily. It 
 was his old friend and teacher, Professor Graham, who 
 gave Playfair an introduction to Liebig. 
 
 9, Torrington Square, London, 
 
 Professor Graham to Playfair. September 30 th, 1839. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I lose no time in forwarding the note 
 to Liebig which you desire, and congratulating you upon 
 the agreeable prospect which you have before you. The 
 Professor, I have no doubt, will be most happy to receive 
 you. At present I shall take advantage of your kind offer 
 
4 6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to do me service in Germany only so far as to trouble you 
 with a copy of the part of my book just published for 
 Liebig, which, with copies for yourself and Richardson, 
 shall be forwarded to Baillieres’ agents in Newcastle. You 
 will find that I have made room for a short notice of your 
 discoveries. . . . 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 Thomas Graham. 
 
 Playfair has told us how cordially he was received by 
 Liebig, and how the great man was able to pay him a 
 pretty little compliment upon his early discoveries. He 
 has not, however, said anything of the warm friendship 
 which sprang up between them. It was this friendship 
 which led Liebig to entrust the young Scotch chemist with 
 the important duty of translating his great book into 
 English. One or two of Liebigs letters will, however, 
 suffice to show the terms on which the two stood. 
 
 ( Translation .) 
 
 Professor Liebig to Playfair. Giessen, August 14 th, 1841. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Forgive my having so long 
 delayed answering your kind letter. I have been ill for a 
 fortnight, and am still suffering, though better, but can 
 get through very little work, owing to constant visitors. 
 
 In the first place, my dear friend, let me express my 
 sincere delight at the fine and pleasant post which you are 
 taking up at Primrose — one which suits alike your talents 
 and your inclinations. In all that you do, do not forget 
 science, and keep fresh and vigorous your taste for mental 
 work, for unless a man is making progress in that which 
 gives nourishment and life to industry he is scarcely in a 
 position to fulfil the demands of his times. You must 
 never stand still, but go ever forward. You ought to let 
 no discovery pass unnoticed, but endeavour to turn every 
 one to account. After satisfying the claims which Mr 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 47 
 
 Thomson makes on your attainments for his business, you 
 ought not to trade on your experience and your chemical 
 knowledge, but to give advice and help where they can be 
 useful, without caring about receiving any reward. All 
 this will bear rich fruit in the future. Never neglect to 
 make some research every year. You will have sufficient 
 time for this, and it will raise you higher in the eyes of 
 sensible men, and be more really beneficial to your inter- 
 ests than if you tried to make money. Be true to yourself 
 and true to science — this is all that I wish to ask of you. 
 
 As regards our book, we will give something on the 
 nature of the soil, not in the book itself, but as an 
 appendix. This will come best at the end of the book. 
 You know I did not wish to write an ‘Agricultural 
 Chemistry/ but a ‘Chemistry of Agriculture.’ I must 
 avoid anything bearing on practical agriculture. All that 
 we can say of the constitution of the soil, all that analysis 
 can teach us on the subject, does not enable us to make a 
 bad soil into a good one. With all our nostrums, we 
 cannot alter the nature of the soil, except at immense 
 cost. We must be content if we restore to the soil that 
 which we take from it, and the latter we can ascertain 
 precisely through our knowledge of the constituents of the 
 debris of the plants we grow upon it. This is the task of 
 the agriculturist. In consequence of my observations on 
 the amount of calcium and soda which should be 
 contained in all soils in which cereals thrive, Kuhlmann, in 
 Lille, has made the remarkable discovery that all 
 secondary chalk formations contain calcium. This dis- 
 covery has been confirmed by Professor Wohler for the 
 chalkstones of Hameln and Gottingen. I will send you a 
 number of analyses of soils, and list of the plants which 
 flourish best thereon. 
 
 Professor Adrian tells me that you are engaged to be 
 married. You must tell me whether this is true, for my 
 wife and I are deeply interested. 
 
 Farewell, my dear friend. Write to me again soon. 
 
 Your most affectionate friend, 
 
 J. v, Liebig. 
 
4 8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Same to the same . Giessen, November 6th, 1841. 
 
 My valued Friend, — I have received the five last 
 sheets of our 1 Agricultural Chemistry/ and am delighted 
 to see how cleverly you have adapted your additions to my 
 modes of description. Accept my sincere thanks for the 
 care and conscientiousness which you have devoted to the 
 new edition. The book is rendered thereby much better 
 and more useful. Your style is excellent, and leaves no- 
 thing to be desired ; all your explanations are clear and 
 easily understood. In short, I am exceedingly pleased and 
 satisfied. I have kept the sheets here instead of returning 
 them, because I had considerable alterations to make ; 
 when this is necessary you should always wait eight or 
 nine days (reckoning from the day they are sent off from 
 London), and then if the proofs have not been returned, 
 let the printing be continued. . . . You make me 
 
 greatly wish to come to England next spring, in order 
 to help with your experiments. . . . 
 
 Accept my best thanks for the gooseberries and for the 
 excellent Cheshire cheese. English cheese is the only kind 
 which my weak stomach can digest. No doubt an oppor- 
 tunity will present itself of sending to Giessen ; there is 
 no hurry. 
 
 Acting on my principle this summer, in the neighbour- 
 hood of Frankfort, apple trees have been manured with 
 the residue squeezed out by the cider press, and the results 
 have been extraordinary. Thus many things may be found 
 useful which have been regarded as worthless. M. 
 Dumas has given a lecture in the Sorbonne which is pub- 
 lished in the ‘ Journal des Debats/ in which he has impu- 
 dently seized upon my theory of the development of plants, 
 rotation of crops, manures, etc. What is to be done ? I 
 think it is not worth while to trouble about it. The prin- 
 cipal thing is that the truth should pass into the very 
 heart’s blood of the nations. 
 
 My dear Playfair, write again soon. With my love as ever, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 Kind regards from Dr Will. J, v. Liebig. 
 
EDUCATION. 
 
 49 
 
 Same to the same. Giessen, April 22nd, 1842. 
 
 My dear Friend, —Whilst in Darmstadt I received 
 your kind letter inviting me to attend the meeting of the 
 British Association in Manchester. Having returned 
 yesterday from my short journey, I hasten to tell you 
 how deeply I regret being unable to be present at the 
 meeting at the time fixed. You know that no professor on 
 the Continent can undertake so long a journey in June. 
 I cannot reconcile it to my conscience to desert my pupils 
 for weeks when they have come to Giessen for the express 
 purpose of hearing my lectures. Were it not for this 
 moral impediment it would give me the greatest pleasure 
 to spend a few weeks with you, and so many good friends. 
 But what is the idea of holding the meeting in June instead 
 of in the autumn as usual ? Do represent to the com- 
 mittee that by fixing their meeting in the middle of 
 the summer all professors and investigators of the Con- 
 tinent are excluded. It is my opinion that in such 
 important scientific meetings the general interest should 
 be considered before that of the geologists, who, of course, 
 need good weather for their excursions. But is it intended 
 to attempt discoveries at the meeting ? Of course not ; 
 discoveries are to be communicated and interchanged, and 
 in Germany we have always found bad, especially rainy, 
 weather more favourable to our object than fine clear 
 weather. There is more temptation in fine weather to 
 wander off in different directions, but bad weather keeps 
 the party together. This is no joke, dear Playfair, but 
 the simple truth. I don't mean to say that I wish the 
 assembled Society bad weather in the autumn for their 
 own good, I merely mean that such does not injure their 
 main object. I and several of my friends intend to go to 
 England if the meeting can be postponed until September 
 1 st. I should then start from here about August 24th, and 
 should be able with my English friends to attend the 
 meeting at Mainz beginning on September 18th. If the 
 British Association cannot postpone its meeting till Sep- 
 tember I shall probably come to England after the Mainz 
 
 e 
 
50 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 meeting. I am anxious to become acquainted with some 
 of the agricultural districts. 
 
 Graham, Gregory, and all British investigators of natural 
 history wish for a postponement till autumn. Do speak to 
 Dr Ransom and Dr Henry, and apply to the Committee. 
 
 I much wish that you may be successful. 
 
 My ‘ Animal Physiology ' is now finished. Gregory will 
 translate it. I am full of apprehension and anxiety as 
 regards my conclusions, because they are obvious only to 
 chemists and not to physiologists. There will doubtless 
 be endless misunderstandings. 
 
 With my most cordial regards, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Dr J. v. Liebig. 
 
 Liebig came to England as he promised in the foregoing 
 letter, and Playfair was able to do something to make his 
 visit a pleasant one, thus cementing the friendship which 
 already existed between them. 
 
 Same to the same. Giessen. October 23 rd, 1842 . 
 
 My dear Friend, — The day before yesterday I arrived 
 safely home after my long journey, feeling better than ever 
 before. I met my wife and Agnes at Lille in the best 01 
 health. Pelouse came from Paris, and we spent a very 
 pleasant week. From Lille we returned home via Brussels, 
 Liege, Aix and Cologne. I have before me now the 
 pleasant duty of thanking you, my dear friend, for the 
 many kindnesses which you have shown me during my 
 visit ; I can never forget how pleasant and useful that visit 
 has been. I have made the acquaintance of kind and 
 excellent men, and collected a rich store of new experiences. 
 That my journey has been so successful I owe in a great 
 measure to your friendship. After my return to London I 
 spoke to Messrs Taylor and Walton about your journey to 
 Giessen ; they are willing to provide the funds for it, so 
 I am looking forward to the pleasure of seeing you here. 
 
Education. 
 
 5 * 
 
 I shall now begin at once on the preparation of our 
 ' Agricultural Chemistry/ and should be very glad to have 
 a copy of the notes which you — more careful than I — have 
 collected, if it would not be giving you too much trouble. 
 
 I will write again to Mr Pusey, giving him my views on 
 the condition of agriculture, and the aids to its perfection 
 which chemistry offers. This I will have printed, and will 
 send you a copy. I found awaiting me a diploma of 
 Honorary Membership of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
 
 I will send our journal published in Darmstadt to Mr 
 James Hudson, the Secretary of the Agricultural Society 
 in London, and shall hope to receive the English journal in 
 exchange. 
 
 The Laboratory is very full this winter, in fact it is 
 overcrowded. 
 
 In May, 1893, Playfair delivered the Hoffmann Memorial 
 Lecture before the Royal College of Chemistry, and in 
 doing so gave some interesting personal reminiscences with 
 regard to the great chemists with whom he had been closely 
 associated in his earlier days. “In the present century," 
 he said — 
 
 “ I have to begin with Dalton, for it was my good fortune to know 
 him intimately, and I can never forget his venerable figure, supported 
 on the arm of Dr Joule, coming daily to hear my lectures at Man- 
 chester on the new organic chemistry which had arisen in then 
 recent times. Dalton, Davy, Faraday and Graham, indeed, stand 
 out as shining lights in our century. Davy and Faraday were 
 brilliant investigators, and both of them had a singular charm and 
 eloquence as lecturers. To them we owe largely the popularity of 
 chemistry in this country ; but none of these chemists, except 
 Graham, thought of opening their laboratories for the training of 
 students in the methods of research. That was reserved to my own 
 master, the celebrated James Graham. I was a student in his lab- 
 oratory in Glasgow in 1835 and 1836, and followed him to London as 
 his private laboratory assistant in University College. At that time 
 organic chemistry was little known or studied in this country, and 
 all of us who had means to go abroad used to flock either to the 
 laboratory of Liebig at Giessen, or to that of Wohler at Gottingen. 
 I need not point out that Baron Liebig exerted an enormous in- 
 fluence on the progress of organic chemistry, both by his own 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 5 2 
 
 discoveries, and by those of his pupils from all countries, who were 
 trained to do researches in his celebrated laboratory. In 1840 
 Liebig|published his celebrated work, ‘ Chemistry of Agriculture and 
 Physiology.’ It is difficult to-day to realise the effect that work had 
 in promoting the study of chemistry. It greatly increased the 
 demand for laboratory teaching, and even the older universities 
 found it necessary to provide means for laboratory training. Two 
 years after its publication, in 1842, the illustrious Baron Liebig 
 made a sort of triumphal tour in this country. He visited the Prime 
 Minister, Sir Robert Peel, at Drayton Manor, and paid other visits 
 to the great agriculturists of the day — Lord Spencer, Lord Ducie, 
 Lord Fitzwilliam, Mr Pusey and many others, as well as to most of 
 the chief towns. At all places meetings were held, and Liebig, with 
 his travelling companion, the genial and celebrated geologist, Dr 
 Buckland, had opportunities of disseminating his views on the im- 
 portance of chemistry to mankind. The tour was a personally 
 conducted one, like Cook’s tours in the present day. The conductor 
 and interpreter of the party in fact was a young man called Lyon 
 Playfair, who took care that the effects of the tour should be felt in 
 all the chief centres of Great Britain. The immediate effect of 
 Liebig’s tour was to make chemistry a popular science, and to 
 induce colleges to open laboratories for teaching it. The School of 
 Mines was opened in Jermyn Street with, for the time, an excellent 
 laboratory, which was always filled with students ; still its purposes 
 were chiefly limited to the professional objects of the college. 
 University College and King’s College gave much attention to lab- 
 oratory teaching. The popular wave of 1842-43 did not soon expend 
 its force, and in 1845 the Royal College of Chemistry arose.” 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — III. MY LIFE IN 
 LANCASHIRE. 
 
 1841 to 1844. 
 
 Settled at Clitheroe : Parleying with Labour Rioters : A Lesson in 
 Ventilation : Lecturing at the Manchester Royal Institution : Anecdote 
 of Dalton : An Offer from Faraday : Sir Robert Peel : An Inquiry 
 into Charcoal Iron Furnaces : A Mishap to Bunsen : Edwin Chad- 
 wick and His Argument from Satan : Appointed a Member of the 
 Royal Commission on the Health of Towns : Researches into Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry : Earl Spencer (Lord Althorp) : Dean Buckland 
 Through England and Scotland : Mr. Crosse and the Wood-louse : 
 Appointed Chemist to the Geological Survey : An Evening with 
 Stephenson : Recollections of Joule : Impressions of Manchester 
 Dean Buckland and Sir H. de la Beche urge Peel to give Playfair an 
 Appointment — Peel’s Esteem for Playfair — Letters from Liebig. 
 
 In the summer of 1841 I found myself established in 
 Clitheroe with my future work to learn ; for, though I had 
 some knowledge of chemistry, I had none in relation to 
 its applications to calico printing. The works belonging 
 to Mr Thomson at Primrose, near Clitheroe, were of a 
 high class. He manufactured for the upper hundreds, and 
 not for the millions. I soon learned that this was an 
 error ; for, as expensive prints and mousseline de laine 
 were going out of fashion, so the demand for higher 
 products was decreasing. Still, the proprietor of the 
 Primrose Works would not change the character of his 
 products, which were of the highest excellence. Mr 
 Thomson was a man of singular talent and cultivation. 
 Had he gone into Parliament he would have been a 
 successful and distinguished politician. His house was 
 
54 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 large and luxurious, and his library excellent. His eldest 
 son had already distinguished himself by excellent 
 mathematical treatises ; but he did not reside at Clitheroe, 
 and had no connection with the works. None of the 
 children had the talents of the father. I did not look for 
 much support from them. Although they were invariably 
 kind and courteous to me, they saw the mistake of their 
 father in adhering to a declining trade, and thought the 
 new chemist would support him in his mistaken views. 
 There were two daughters in the family, one a confirmed 
 invalid ; the other, who was about ten years older than 
 myself, was perhaps the most cultured woman whom I 
 have ever met in my life, and to her artistic tastes and 
 cultivated intellect I largely owe my wider habits of 
 reading, which had hitherto been chiefly restricted to 
 scientific authors. She was an excellent classical scholar, 
 as well as an accomplished artist. When I joined the 
 works, Miss Thomson was engaged in translating a rare 
 Greek work, and illustrating her translation with exquisite 
 etchings. I never heard of its publication. She after- 
 wards married Mr Braun, the well-known antiquarian of 
 Rome, and assisted him in his researches. To me she was 
 a delightful friend, and made my stay in Clitheroe 
 instructive as well as agreeable. I was not treated as an 
 employee, but as a friend of the family, with whom I 
 dined several times in each week. 
 
 I had not been in these works above a year when I saw 
 that they were doomed, unless Mr Thomson entirely 
 changed the character of his works, in order to produce for 
 the million instead of for the few. But he was inexorable. 
 His products were known all over Europe for their high 
 excellence, and he could not bear to lower their character 
 or quality. On all other subjects my employer would 
 listen to my advice, but he would not permit me to speak 
 on this subject. There were other print works in the 
 neighbourhood — the Oakenshaw works, superintended by 
 Mr Mercer, a man who would have been a Dalton or a 
 Faraday had he been differently placed. He had been a 
 handloom weaver, but taught himself chemistry, and 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 55 
 
 revolutionised the calico printing of his time by his 
 practical discoveries. Already he was an old man. I 
 formed with him a warm friendship, and we managed to 
 meet constantly, either at his own house or at a little 
 scientific society which we formed for philosophical talk. 
 An interesting account of Mercer’s life, by E. Parnell, was 
 published by Longman in 1886. Mercer’s language was 
 powerful, though necessarily provincial. I confided to my 
 friend my fears as to the stability of the Primrose works 
 on their system of manufacturing for a declining demand, 
 and he was convinced that the system was all wrong. 
 
 In August, 1842, the great labour riots were passing over 
 Lancashire. Almost every mill had been forcibly closed 
 by the rioters. The only two which remained open were 
 those at Primrose and Oakenshaw. The Government 
 were anxious that they should not succumb to the rioters, 
 and furnished us with a good supply of muskets for our 
 defence. The workmen were drilled, and appeared 
 willing to resist. We had scouts on horseback over the 
 country to watch the movements of the rioters. One of 
 these reported that many thousands were marching upon 
 Mercer’s mill, at Oakenshaw, so I drove over to join my 
 friend, and had scarcely reached his house when the mob 
 appeared in irresistible numbers. I offered to parley with 
 them in the first instance, so as to keep Mercer, as the 
 employer of labour, in the background. I told the rioters 
 that though we had shut the gates of the mill, we knew 
 their force to be irresistible, and were quite sensible that 
 they could stop the works. Instead of going down in 
 crowds, and doing much mischief by their large numbers, 
 they might send a deputation to remove the plugs from 
 the boilers, and thus secure the stoppage of the works 
 with the least damage. They had no objection to this 
 proposal if it did not mean treachery. I offered myself as 
 a hostage, and walked into their midst, while they sent a 
 few of their number to secure the stoppage of the works, 
 and this they did without any permanent damage. 
 During my detention the leaders explained the nature of 
 their demands, many of which were reasonable, and were 
 
56 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 afterwards conceded. After receiving a couple of 
 sovereigns to buy food, the rioters went away cheering 
 heartily, and telling us they intended to march upon Mr 
 Thomson’s works at Clitheroe ; though, instead of this, 
 they went to Blackburn. At that town the rioters were 
 met and dispersed by troops. The works at Primrose 
 were never closed, and thus these famous labour riots 
 ended. 
 
 Finding it hopeless to stay the fall of the Primrose 
 Calico Printing Works as a commercial concern, I gave 
 six months’ notice of my intended resignation, and I 
 and my accomplished friends the Thomsons parted with 
 mutual regret and goodwill. I derived the greatest 
 advantage from my stay at Clitheroe, for it gave me the 
 manufacturing experience which has stood me in good 
 stead all my life. As I had foreseen, the famous Primrose 
 Works were stopped soon after my departure, and on the 
 death of Mr Thomson the family dispersed. 
 
 During my stay at Clitheroe I gave several scientific 
 lectures in Manchester, and I was there gratified by an 
 offer from the “ Royal Institution ” of that town to make 
 me their “ Honorary Professor of Chemistry.” In accept- 
 ing this office I determined to fit up a teaching laboratory 
 in that town, and the Institution offered me its cellars rent 
 free for that purpose. They were large and commodious, 
 but were inefficiently ventilated, as I soon learnt to my 
 cost. Pupils came to me in numbers greater than could 
 be accommodated, and I had to secure the services of 
 assistants, one of whom was Dr Angus Smith, so well 
 known afterwards for his researches on air and disinfec- 
 tants. I had one afternoon three or four organic analyses 
 in operation, the tubes being heated with charcoal. I felt 
 ill and out of sorts, and went to my lodging. Soon after- 
 wards a cab came to take me back to the laboratory. I 
 found to my dismay two of the pupils lying insensible in 
 the area outside, and at once saw they had been poisoned 
 by the fumes of charcoal, as indeed I also had been. 
 Recollecting that the guide at the Grotto del Cane uses his 
 dog continuously by dragging the insensible body out of 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 57 
 
 the cave, which contains carbonic acid in its lower layer, 
 and immersing it in cold water, I instantly dashed a pail 
 of water over each of my prostrate pupils, and to my joy 
 found that they revived. This was a practical lesson in 
 ventilation which I never forgot. 
 
 My lectures at the Royal Institution were certainly 
 popular, and attracted crowded audiences. There were 
 many men of sympathetic tastes then living in Manches- 
 ter, among whom was the great philosopher Dalton, the 
 discoverer of the atomic theory. Dalton was a frequent 
 visitor to my lectures. He was then an old and venerable 
 man, with grey hair and a face much resembling that of 
 Newton. He knew that he was thought to be like New- 
 ton, and was proud of the resemblance. He had his Bos- 
 well in a gentleman called Peter Clare, a Quaker, as Dalton 
 also was. Clare always gave his arm to the old philo- 
 sopher, either when he came to my lectures or attended 
 the meetings of the Literary and Philosophical Society. 
 Dalton’s mind was then on the wane, and his biographer, 
 Dr Henry, thinks that an incident which I am about 
 to relate could not have happened when he was in full 
 mental strength. The old and venerable philosopher sent 
 for me one day to go to his house, and told me that he was 
 anxious to present me with a copy of all his works, if I 
 would give him a copy of mine. I told him that I would 
 value, as above all price, a presentation copy of his works, 
 but that mine were few and not worth having as an exchange. 
 However, he insisted that I should put an appraisement 
 on what I had to give, and hand over the difference in 
 money, which I think amounted to a little over twenty 
 shillings. I gladly paid this amount, and now possess the 
 works of the greatest of English chemists, with a record 
 in each volume that they had been presented to me as his 
 friend. I thought at the time that this was an example 
 of his simplicity as a Quaker, but I am now inclined to 
 agree with Dr Henry that it was an eccentricity of his 
 failing health. For soon after this we had our annual 
 meeting of the Philosophical Society to elect our President, 
 who of course was always Dr Dalton. On previous occa- 
 
58 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 sions the ballot had invariably one vote against him, and 
 it was well known that this dissentient vote was that of 
 the philosopher himself, who used to vote that his friend 
 Peter Clare should be President. At the last annual 
 meeting before his death, the dissentient vote was as usual 
 found in the urn, but, to our amazement, we found that 
 Dr Dalton had voted for the doorkeeper ! When Dalton 
 died, on the 27th July, 1844, Manchester gave him the 
 honours of a king. His body lay in state, and his funeral 
 was like that of a monarch. 
 
 It is well known that Dalton was colour-blind, and he 
 was the first person to investigate this defect of vision. 
 He always ascribed it to a peculiarity of structure 
 in the retina. When he died his medical man, Mr 
 Ransome, took out one of his eyes and brought it to 
 my laboratory. I took two powders, chrome green and 
 scarlet potassic bichromate, as being the colours which he 
 could not distinguish, but we saw them of the natural 
 colours when Dalton’s eye intervened. Ransome, who 
 was a most accomplished physician and a great friend of 
 Dalton, assured me that the philosopher, when alive, 
 would have approved of this experiment being made at 
 his death. 
 
 In 1842 Faraday was in the zenith of his glory as a 
 discoverer. I do not think at this time I had ever 
 seen this illustrious philosopher. I was therefore much 
 gratified at receiving from him a letter, which, as it proved 
 the turning-point of my life, I here insert. 
 
 Royal Institution. 
 
 Michael Faraday to Playfair. October 10 th, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Will you allow me to hope I shall not 
 give you offence if I ask whether the following offer would 
 be worth your consideration — the Professorship of 
 Chemistry in the University of King’s College, at Toronto, 
 in Upper Canada? The remuneration would be about .£450 
 per annum, with a house and garden and the usual college 
 advantages. The Professor would be on the Council of 
 the University, of which the Bishop is President. He 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 59 
 
 must reside at Toronto. There would be a sum of money 
 allowed by the Council for laboratory outfit, etc. Now I 
 am called upon to advise in the matter, and if you are 
 inclined to consider the offer seriously, and are able to go 
 out, I would put you in communication at once with His 
 Excellency the Governor. If not, have the goodness to 
 drop me a line here. Graham mentioned your name to me ; 
 and believe that in writing to you, though the offer may 
 be unworthy your attention, still I meant, as far as I am 
 empowered to make it, to testify my respect for you and 
 your attainments. 
 
 Ever dear Sir, 
 
 Verjr faithfully yours, 
 
 Dr Playfair. M. Faraday. 
 
 The offer was very tempting, as I was a professor in 
 Manchester without a salary and had considerable difficulty 
 to make both ends meet. I therefore went up to London, 
 saw Faraday, and intimated my intention to accept the 
 proposal. On describing my appointment to my various 
 scientific friends in London I found that, instead of con- 
 gratulating me, they censured me for want of faith in an 
 English career. A few days after, to my great surprise, I 
 received an invitation from the great Sir Robert Peel, then 
 Prime Minister, to visit him at Drayton Manor. As I had 
 not then the honour of his acquaintance, I was inclined to 
 believe that some one was playing a practical joke upon 
 my vanity. The letter had undoubtedly the post office 
 stamp of “Tamworth,” and the seal was that of Sir Robert 
 Peel. So I took the letter for identification to Dr Buckland, 
 and found not only that it was genuine but that he also 
 was invited for the same date. Why the great statesman 
 should care to see a young man like myself was to me an 
 insoluble mystery, but I accepted the invitation with much 
 pleasure. 
 
 At Drayton Manor I found Lord Lincoln (afterwards 
 the Duke of Newcastle), Dr Buckland, Smith of Deanston, 
 then the great authority on deep drainage for farms, Mr 
 Pusey, the editor of the ‘ Agricultural Societies Journal,' and 
 
6o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 several other people. On the 1 8 th October, the day pre- 
 ceding my departure, Sir Robert Peel asked me whether I 
 felt surprise at his invitation to Drayton Manor. I assured 
 him that my surprise was only equalled by my gratifica- 
 tion. He then stated that he wished to know me person- 
 ally because several men of science had written to him 
 expressing their regret that I had accepted a colonial 
 professorship, and he coincided with them in this regret 
 now that he knew me. I bowed to the great Prime 
 Minister and thanked him for taking an interest in my 
 personal affairs. I was at once censured by being informed 
 that it was his interest in public affairs, and not in my 
 personal affairs, which moved him to take action. This 
 was puzzling, and I waited for the development of the 
 interview. Sir Robert Peel then suggested that when a 
 Prime Minister and other powerful friends desired me to 
 remain in this country, I might have confidence in my 
 future career in England, and might resign the colonial 
 professorship. He then tendered me a memorandum to 
 the effect that if I would abandon the idea of going to the 
 colonies he would make it his duty to obtain for me 
 employment if any vacancy occurred which he might 
 think suitable to my abilities. At the same time he said 
 that this was the first time in his long career that he had 
 ever made an implied promise of this kind. I expressed 
 my deep sense of the honour which he conferred by his 
 good opinion, but I positively declined to accept the 
 memorandum, because his personal appreciation of my 
 capacity to be useful in this country was all that I could 
 desire. This refusal gratified the Prime Minister. He 
 said he would not destroy the memorandum but would 
 give it to Dr Buckland to keep, as I declined to receive it. 
 After Buckland’s death his son, Frank Buckland, searched 
 for this memorandum and gave it to me, with various 
 letters relating to it. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel never forgot me after this visit, and I 
 may say with pride that he continued to treat me as a 
 friend, notwithstanding the disparity of our ages. The 
 impression which he made upon me is very different from 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 6 1 
 
 that which is generally entertained of the great Prime 
 Minister. Usually, he is represented as stately, reserved 
 and unbending. I always found him dignified, frank, 
 courteous, and full of kindness. It is true that even in his 
 own house he was the statesman, absorbed in his work 
 during the hours which he devoted to it. But when these 
 were over he was the most genial of hosts and the most 
 delightful of companions. His fund of anecdote was 
 inexhaustible, and his retentive memory brought it to bear 
 in all conversations. After my first visit I often went to 
 Drayton Manor, and not infrequently visited at Whitehall 
 Place. In the last years of his life he encouraged my 
 visits to him there, and told me never to accept an intima- 
 tion at the door of “ not at home ” without sending up my 
 card. I had been with him nearly an hour on that fatal 
 morning, the 29th June, 1850, when he was thrown from 
 his horse. 
 
 It is needless to say that after the conversation which I 
 have recounted as to the Toronto chair, I withdrew my 
 acceptance and resumed my duties in Manchester. The 
 British Association had voted a grant of money to inquire 
 into the chemical operation of blast furnaces for the 
 manufacture of iron. Professor Bunsen, of Heidelberg, 
 had already made an important research into charcoal iron 
 furnaces, but as it was obvious that coal and coke furnaces, 
 both in hot and cold blasts, would give different results, an 
 exhaustive inquiry in England became necessary. The 
 British Association therefore invited Professor Bunsen to 
 undertake such an inquiry in this country in conjunction 
 with me. After corresponding with various iron manufac- 
 turers I found that Mr Oakes, of Riddings, near Alfreton, in 
 Derbyshire, was the person most likely to give us ample 
 facilities for the research. Bunsen 1 at that time was well 
 known as a chemist, and now is the most distinguished 
 chemist in Germany. His researches along with Kerchoff 
 established spectrum-analysis, and his modes of gas- 
 analysis have been universally adopted. He came on a 
 visit to me in Manchester in 1844, and we arranged the 
 
 1 Professor Bunsen died August, 1899. 
 
62 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 method of investigation, and made the necessary pre- 
 liminary preparations. We went by coach to a small 
 town called Ripley to spend the night before arriving at 
 Riddings. The coach carried away our two hats, which 
 we never saw again. Next morning we went to various 
 shops in Ripley to obtain new hats, but we were told that 
 we had not got “ Ripley heads," and certainly we found 
 none large enough ; but we ultimately got disgraceful- 
 looking wide-awakes, which made us, with our two German 
 blouses, look like tramps rather than professors. How- 
 ever, we were cordially received and entertained at 
 Riddings House, the seat of Mr Oakes. It was to be a 
 familiar place to me for the rest of my life, because two 
 years later I married the youngest daughter of our host. 
 
 The investigation which we had undertaken was 
 peculiarly difficult. The iron furnaces were about fifty feet 
 deep, and from the top there belched a huge flame which 
 lit up the sky at night. Our object was to ascertain what 
 changes took place in the fuel, limestone and iron ore, at 
 every foot, from the top where they were introduced until 
 they reached the hearth where molten iron and slag ran 
 out when the furnace was tapped. We erected a support 
 at the top for malleable iron pipes which were to sink 
 into the furnace with the materials. These pipes being 
 connected, I had their length marked every foot with 
 white paint, so that it was apparent from what part of the 
 furnace the gases were streaming. These gases were 
 collected in glass collecting tubes, which were hermetically 
 sealed by a lamp and duly labelled. This did very well, 
 and answered our expectations, until the iron pipes 
 descended to the hottest part of the furnace, where the 
 air enters by the blast, and there they melted and we had 
 new devices to make. Mr Oakes, the proprietor, was not 
 to be defeated, and by separate gangs of men and great 
 labour, he tapped the sides of the furnace so as to let us 
 draw off the gases by the insertion of lateral tubes. Bunsen 
 was engaged below and I was occupied above passing the 
 gases through water to collect any soluble products, when 
 I was alarmed by being told that my friend had become 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 63 
 
 suddenly ill. I ran down and saw white fumes coming out 
 of a lateral tube, and Bunsen apparently recovering from a 
 fainting condition. I applied my nose to the orifice, and 
 smelt the vapours 01 cyanide of potassium, which gave an 
 entirely new light to the processes of the furnace, because 
 this poisonous substance is an excellent reducer of metals. 
 
 The results of this investigation were important, and have 
 since led to the introduction of great improvements into 
 the staple industry of this country, although probably the 
 suggestors of them have long been forgotten by the iron 
 trade. The report of the research published in the annual 
 volume of the British Association for 1845 ma y still be 
 consulted with advantage. It established the startling fact 
 that in iron furnaces worked with coal 81 \ per cent, of the 
 valuable fuel escaped from the mouth of the furnace and 
 was wasted. In this particular furnace fourteen tons of coals 
 were daily used, and of these eleven and a quarter tons 
 escaped in the form of gases still capable of being used as 
 excellent fuel. We described how this might be led away 
 and utilised for the various purposes of the works. In 
 about six years after the date of our report, this economy 
 began to be practised in various works, and is now all but 
 universal. 
 
 We also showed that as all the upper part of the furnace 
 was “ a region of distillation and not of combustion/' a 
 valuable amount of ammonia might be collected from the 
 gases by condensing it with acids. No less than two cwt. 
 of sal ammoniac (ammonium chloride) could be obtained 
 daily from a furnace of this kind. It has taken forty years 
 for the iron manufacturers to carry out this recommenda- 
 tion, but they are now doing it. 
 
 To scientific men, as well as to iron smelters, the most 
 interesting part of the inquiry was the anatomy of the 
 furnace. By the simple expedients adopted it was shown 
 to be possible to dissect a fiery furnace so as to show the 
 operations in progress at its various parts with the same 
 accuracy as if it had been a small object on the table of a 
 laboratory. 
 
 In 1843 I received a letter from Sir Robert Peel stating 
 
6 4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 that a Royal Commission was about to be issued to inquire 
 into the state of large towns and populous districts, and 
 offering me a seat upon it. The president was to be the 
 Duke of Buccleuch, and among its members he mentioned 
 Lord Lincoln (afterwards Duke of Newcastle), Sir H. de 
 la Beche, Prof. Richard Owen, Stephenson, the engineer, 
 Cubitt, the well-known builder, and Smith of Deanston. 
 I accepted the nomination, which was at the time criticised 
 on account of my youth ; but it was soon justified in the 
 eyes of the public, as I took the most active part in the 
 inquiry. As, to this day, the reports of that Commission 
 are consulted as the chief authority on questions of sanitary 
 legislation, it may be useful to explain why it was formed. 
 A veteran sanitary reformer, Edwin Chadwick, had issued, 
 in his capacity as secretary of the Poor Law Commission, 
 a remarkable report on ‘ The Sanitary Condition of the 
 People.' Chadwick’s revelations were so startling that a 
 Royal Commission to ascertain their truth was deemed to 
 be necessary. It was not thought expedient that Chadwick 
 should be a member of the Commission, which was to 
 inquire into his statements, but he was present at our 
 meetings and gave us the benefit of his experience. 
 
 Chadwick was a remarkable man, and is the father 
 of modem sanitary reform. He had the faculty of 
 seizing upon an abuse with the tenacity of a bull- 
 dog, and never let it go till the abuse was worried to 
 death. But this self-absorption in a subject carried him 
 into extremes, and he failed to see both sides of a 
 question. Thus, seeing the evils which had arisen in local 
 self-government, he could not recognise its benefits, and 
 magnified the power and capabilities of centralised govern- 
 ment. I recollect, on one occasion, trying to argue with 
 him as to the need of throwing greater responsibilities on 
 localities, and lessening the functions of central government 
 so as to make them supervisory rather than administrative. 
 My arguments were met with this stem rejoinder — “ Sir, 
 the Devil was expelled from heaven because he objected to 
 centralisation, and all those who object to centralisation 
 oppose it on devilish grounds ! " Edwin Chadwick and I, 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 65 
 
 however, became firm friends, and I gladly recognise him 
 as the great sanitary reformer of the age. He afterwards 
 became the active administrator of the Board of Health, 
 which did excellent work, though it ultimately perished 
 because it could not adapt itself to local organisation. 
 Edwin Chadwick, Rowland Hill of the penny postage, 
 John Stuart Mill, Dr Neil Arnott, and a few other congenial 
 spirits, of whom I was one, formed a small society called 
 “ Friends in Council," who dined at each other’s houses to 
 discuss questions of political economy during the progress 
 of this Royal Commission. 
 
 To return, however, to the Royal Commission. I asked 
 for and obtained the large towns in Lancashire as the field 
 for my work, both because they were the most densely 
 populated, and as I could best work the inquiry with my 
 chemical duties in Manchester. I secured the aid of Dr 
 Angus Smith as an assistant commissioner, and a very able 
 one he proved to be. 
 
 My Report on the state of large towns in Lancashire is 
 a proof how earnestly I entered into the inquiry. The 
 effects of bad sewerage, defective or intermittent instead of 
 constant water supply, overcrowded tenements, bad con- 
 struction of streets, and the abuse of opiates among the 
 working-classes, were traced to their sources. In 1844 
 the sanitary condition of the kingdom was deplorable. 
 Lancashire, which was allotted to me, as a Royal 
 Commissioner, was especially bad. One-tenth of the 
 population of Manchester and one-seventh of that of 
 Liverpool lived in cellars. In the streets occupied by 
 the working-classes two rows of houses were often built 
 back to back, so that there could be no efficient ventilation ; 
 the supply of conveniences was altogether insufficient, and 
 their condition and drainage were shocking. The water 
 supply of all the towns was on the intermittent system, and 
 both the supply and the quality of water were defective. 
 Civic powers were split up into a number of discordant 
 and often conflicting authorities, constantly overlapping 
 each other in their duties. Darkness and dirt was the 
 heritage left by the Window Tax, which had recently been 
 
 F 
 
66 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 abolished. The mortality was great, and the average age 
 at death was low in manufacturing towns. Thus, if we 
 take Kendal as representing a healthy agricultural town, 
 and compare the average of death in the Lancashire towns 
 at the date of my inquiry, the difference becomes apparent. 
 
 Average Age at Death in 1844. 
 
 Kendal . . . . 
 
 
 Liverpool . . . 
 
 . . 20 „ 
 
 Manchester . . . 
 
 . . 22 „ 
 
 Ashton . . . . 
 
 
 Preston . . . . 
 
 
 Rochdale . . . 
 
 . . 21 „ 
 
 The death rate of all England was then 22*07 i n Looo 
 living; in the last decade it was 19*62. The diseases, such as 
 fever, arising from filth — the zymotic diseases — were 4*52 
 per 1,000 in 1841-50, while in 1880-84 they had been 
 reduced to 2*71 per 1,000. The saving of life in the 
 population, contrasted with the first decade, is about 
 102,000 persons annually. 
 
 I think that the Royal Commission may fairly be 
 credited with having made a thorough exposition of the 
 defects of sanitary appliances in town, and with having 
 laid the basis of that progressive legislation in public health 
 which has produced such a marvellous economy of public 
 life in this country. The construction of streets and houses 
 is now largely improved. Overcrowded and cellar dwellings 
 are prohibited. The common lodging houses are con- 
 trolled, and an efficient and generally pure water supply is 
 brought into the houses of all towns. Infantile mortality, 
 which was so excessive in 1844 that more than one-half of 
 all the children born in the large manufacturing towns 
 perished before they reached five years of age, is now 
 enormously reduced. Intemperance, which was largely 
 caused by depressing conditions in home life and by over- 
 crowding, has been greatly lessened owing to the improve- 
 ment of the physical and moral conditions of life. 
 
 While residing in Manchester (1844) the important 
 chair of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh 
 became vacant by the death of Professor Hope. Though 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 67 
 
 I was too young a man to aspire to such a valuable chair, 
 I was encouraged to become a candidate by some of the 
 leading professors of that University. There were several 
 candidates, but ultimately the contest lay between Professor 
 Gregory and myself. At that time the patrons of the 
 chair were the Town Council of Edinburgh, a singular body 
 for academic patronage, although they generally exercised 
 it with good judgment. After a hard contest, and a good 
 deal of bitterness between our supporters, my friend 
 Professor Gregory was appointed by a small majority, and 
 I returned to my duties in Manchester. 
 
 At this time I published a careful paper in an obscure 
 journal in Edinburgh (the 1 Northern Journal of Medicine ’). 
 This paper has been little noticed, as the journal died after 
 a few numbers had appeared, but I still think it deals with 
 its subject in a comprehensive way. The title of the paper 
 was 1 On Sleep, and some of its concomitant phenomena.' 
 The cause of sleep was shown to be diminished oxidation 
 of brain substance. The conditions which lead to this 
 lessened oxidation were fully described, and the relations 
 of wakefulness, dreaming, etc., were discussed. The 
 following quotation from the paper will show its scope : — 
 
 “ If we now admit the cause of sleep to be a diminished supply of 
 oxygen to the brain, we must admit certain forms of disease, such 
 as congestive apoplexy, syncope, perhaps even catalepsy, to be due 
 to the increased operation of the same cause, not directly but in- 
 directly — a circumstance attested by the diminished temperature of 
 the body in this class of diseases. If, then, we know the effects to 
 be due to a want of oxygenation of brain substance, we are in a 
 position more completely to regulate our practice in the treatment 
 of such diseases.” 
 
 This paper is republished in a collection of my popular 
 essays, ‘ Subjects of Social Welfare.’ 
 
 Whilst the inquiry into the sanitary condition of 
 England was in progress, I still pursued my chemical 
 work in Manchester, and published various papers on 
 agricultural chemistry. Two lectures ' On the Applica- 
 tion of Chemistry to the Feeding of Cattle’ were given 
 to a meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society, and were 
 
68 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 published in its Journal. These lectures were successful, 
 and made me various influential friends. The then Earl 
 of Ducie was a leading agriculturist, and became much 
 interested in my inquiries. I frequently visited him at 
 Tortworth Court, in Gloucestershire, and when in London 
 I usually dined with him on Sundays. Another agricul- 
 turist, still more famous, treated me with kindness. This 
 was the Earl Spencer, better known as the famous Lord 
 Althorp, long Leader of the House of Commons. When 
 I knew him he had retired from politics, and devoted 
 himself to the breeding of cattle. I frequently paid him 
 visits at Althorp, and enjoyed its magnificent library. 
 
 I recollect on one occasion being considerably startled 
 by a midnight visitor while I was engaged in reading some 
 valuable books which I had taken to my bedroom. I sat 
 up late, long after the other inmates had gone to bed. 
 Suddenly the door opened, and a stout man with a dark 
 lantern and a big cudgel appeared in my room. Naturally 
 I thought he was a burglar, and looked round for a 
 weapon of defence. I was soon relieved by being in- 
 formed that he was the night watchman, who had instruc- 
 tions to go into any room where a light was seen burning 
 after midnight. Lord Spencer was a charming old man 
 when I knew him, looking much more like a farmer than 
 an eminent statesman. The anecdotes of his past Parlia- 
 mentary life were amusing. He had never been an orator, 
 but his integrity of character gave him wonderful influence 
 in the House of Commons. Agriculture now absorbed 
 all his attention. He kept careful records of his cattle- 
 breeding, and obtained curious results by his careful 
 entries. He believed that the length of time between 
 impregnation and birth depended more on the bull than 
 the cow. He had one bull which always delayed 
 gestation from three to four da3 r s beyond the average. 
 
 Even Sir Robert Peel, who had all the cares of the State 
 on his shoulders, was bitten by this agricultural revival. 
 On one occasion he invited his tenants and neighbours to 
 meet at breakfast to listen to speeches from his scientific 
 friends. Smith of Deanston addressed them on deep 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 69 
 
 drainage, Buckland on agriculture, and I spoke on agri- 
 cultural chemistry. I think that it was on this visit to 
 Drayton Manor in 1845 that the Deanery of Westminster 
 became vacant. Buckland came into my room while I 
 was dressing for dinner, and was anxious for my advice 
 as to whether he should accept it if the Prime Minister 
 offered it to him. He was doubtful whether his devotion 
 to science might not unfit him for this important office. 
 I did my best to remove his doubts by stating that the 
 office was not parochial but chiefly administrative. After 
 dinner that evening Sir Robert Peel offered him the 
 vacant deanery, which was accepted. Buckland was a 
 remarkable man, full of eccentricity ; he generally carried 
 with him some curious small animals, such as green frogs 
 or lizards. On this visit his pet was a chameleon, which 
 used to catch flies on the window panes, to the amuse- 
 ment of the ladies. At the Deanery I have dined with 
 him when a monkey, seated on the gas-bracket, used to 
 stretch himself down and grab a dainty morsel from the 
 plate of a guest just as he was about to transfer it to 
 his mouth. Dean Buckland was especially fond of ex- 
 perimenting upon new viands : one could not be sure 
 that a particular dish at his table might not be a hedge- 
 hog, a bit of crocodile, or even a slice of rhinoceros. His 
 son, Frank Buckland, possessed this love of experiment 
 and passion for animals in after years. The Dean was 
 so active in mind that he loved all branches of scientific 
 knowledge, though geology was the science in which he 
 excelled and which he enriched by his discoveries. He 
 was to me always a warm friend and delightful com- 
 panion, and I mourned deeply when the dark cloud 
 obscured his bright mind and obliged him to withdraw 
 from the society that he both loved and adorned. 
 
 In 1844 I made a pleasant excursion throughout 
 England and Scotland with several delightful companions. 
 Baron Liebig offered to pay me a visit if I could arrange 
 afterwards to travel with him. Buckland and Professor 
 Daubeny of Oxford joined our party. We began our 
 excursion by going to see the coprolite beds. Buckland 
 
7 o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 had proved that the coprolites were really the ancient 
 excrement of saurians and other extinct animals, but they 
 had not been analysed. Liebig at once suggested that 
 if this were true they ought to contain phosphate of lime 
 or bone earth, and I sent some specimens to my labora- 
 tory at Manchester, where they were found to contain 
 abundance of this valuable manure. Liebig's delight was 
 unbounded, for he saw that the exhausted fields of 
 England might be restored by the use of these ancient 
 remains. This was the beginning of that great industry 
 which continues to the present day. 
 
 On this trip we visited various celebrated farms. 
 Among these I was anxious that Liebig should see Lord 
 Ducie's famous model farm in Gloucestershire. Accord- 
 ingly, I wrote to his lordship and offered a visit, though 
 our party was large. We found that Lord Ducie was in 
 Scotland, but he at once placed Tortworth Court at our 
 disposal, and asked me to fill his place as host. We 
 passed several days at this hospitable mansion, and Liebig 
 was much struck with this visit as a proof of the kindly 
 interest taken in him by the English. We then went to 
 stay with Mr Crosse in Somersetshire. At that time he 
 had much celebrity, for he asserted that animal life could 
 be formed by passing slow currents of electricity through 
 mineral matter, and many persons believed that he had 
 experimentally established this vastly important fact. 
 Mr Crosse lived in a world of his own making. He had 
 a large electrical laboratory, into which electricity was 
 conducted during storms by wires from the high trees ot 
 his park, and concentrated in Leyden jars and a prime 
 conductor, upon which as a warning was printed, “ Noli 
 me tangere ." The servants had been warned not to touch 
 this ; but a new housemaid thought she understood the 
 words to mean “ No danger to me," and, in dusting it, was 
 nearly killed. At one end of this electrical laboratory 
 was an organ, which was played in accompaniment to the 
 storms ! We soon found that Crosse was an enthusiast, 
 though at the same time a man of admirable simplicity 
 and honesty of character. In speaking, his eyes were 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 71 
 
 raised as if addressing space, and he conveyed the 
 impression of a truthful and unworldly mind. We asked 
 to see the experimental development of animals out of 
 mineral matter. He conducted us to a room very unlike 
 his laboratory. No servant was allowed to enter it, so 
 it was in a dusty, untidy condition. Slow currents of 
 electricity were passing through solutions of soluble 
 silicates, but we looked in vain for any sign of life. 
 Crosse then began to examine the table around the 
 solutions, and produced a living animal from under one of 
 the jars. This he declared to be an electrical production, 
 while I unhesitatingly, and, I fear, irreverently, pronounced 
 it to be a woodlouse living in the decaying wood of the 
 table ! Our faith in these celebrated experiments, which 
 then agitated all England, was thus rudely shaken, though 
 not our faith in the truthfulness of the man, who was too 
 much of an enthusiast to be an accurate experimentalist. ' 
 
 Another visit interested Baron Liebig. This was to 
 Wentworth, the seat of Lord Fitzwilliam. The magnitude 
 of this residence was startling to a German philosopher, 
 especially when he was handed as a joke a small box of 
 wafers, with a suggestion that he should drop them on his 
 way to his room to assist him in finding his way back. 
 During our stay at Wentworth there was a large evening 
 meeting held at Leeds, to give its inhabitants an oppor- 
 tunity of listening to the addresses of the philosophers 
 staying at the castle. Lord Fitzwilliam took us to Leeds 
 in state with his yellow liveries, the carriages having four 
 horses and outriders. On entering Leeds, large four-poster 
 bills, like those for Womb well's Menageries, attracted our 
 attention ; and upon these we found our names in large 
 capitals, as if we were animals in a show. At the meeting 
 Baron Liebig made an admirable speech in German, 
 which was certainly not understood by the people ; but 
 after he sat down I repeated as much of it as I could 
 recollect in English. I little thought, in my first visit to 
 Leeds, that I should years later represent that great 
 manufacturing town in Parliament. 
 
 The Health of Towns inquiry was drawing to a close, 
 
72 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 when Sir Robert Peel offered me an appointment as 
 Chemist to the Geological Survey, vacant by the resigna- 
 tion of Mr Phillips. The Museum of Practical Geology 
 and the offices of the Survey were then in Craig’s Court, 
 Charing Cross. As there was no room for a proper 
 laboratory in these premises, one was fitted up in Duke 
 Street, Westminster. I now left Lancashire, and began 
 my life in London. Before commencing my new labours, 
 Sir Robert Peel, with that great kindness which he always 
 showed to me, invited me to meet some of my future 
 chiefs at Drayton Manor. The Duke of Newcastle, who 
 was head of the Board of Works, under which the 
 Geological Survey was administered, formed one of the 
 party. My immediate chief, Sir Henry de la Beche, the 
 head of the Survey, was another. Stephenson, the 
 inventor of the railway system, Follett, the great lawyer, 
 who unhappily died still young in the following year, and 
 Buckland, were also visitors at Drayton Manor. On this 
 occasion occurred that curious incident which is told 
 rather imperfectly in the biography of George Stephenson. 
 As all the world knows, he was originally a coal miner, 
 and spoke with a strong Northumbrian accent. It used 
 to be Sir Robert Peel’s amusement to promote discussion 
 among the philosophers after dinner. Stephenson spoke 
 of locomotives, and how their power was obtained. He 
 offered what was then a daring speculation, that the 
 original source of power in steam-engines was the sun, 
 which conserved its force in the plants of which coal is 
 the residue. This is now known to be a truth, but at that 
 time appeared to be inconceivable folly. As the geologists 
 laughed at the theory, Stephenson abandoned the con- 
 troversy. Next day Sir Robert Peel asked me what I 
 thought of Stephenson’s view, because he noticed that I 
 did not take part in the discussion. I told him that the 
 idea was not absurd, and could be supported by good 
 arguments. He then desired me to explain these to 
 Follett, and he would ask him to be Stephenson’s advocate 
 at dinner on that day. Follett entered into the spirit of 
 the joke, and readily comprehended the explanations of a 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 73 
 
 possible correlation of forces. Accordingly, when the 
 discussion was again raised after dinner, Follett turned the 
 tables on the geologists and completely defeated their 
 arguments. Stephenson looked on in amazement, and 
 exclaimed, “ Of all the powers in Nature, the greatest is 
 the gift of the gab ! ” Stephenson often reminded me of 
 my friend Mercer, the calico printer. Both were men of 
 humble origin, and preserved their simple character in 
 future life. Both were men of genius, and of daring 
 speculation on matters of science. I would much like 
 now, when science has so far progressed, to have notes of 
 my evening talks with both these men of genius, in order 
 that I might ascertain whether opinions which I then 
 thought simply audacious are not now supported by 
 modern discoveries. 
 
 Before finally taking leave of Manchester I should say a 
 few words as to the state of intellectual society when I 
 resided there. It had long been a town celebrated for its 
 able men. Henry the chemist, Dalton the philosopher, 
 and Fairbairn the engineer had been shining lights. 
 
 In addition to Dalton, Joule, the discoverer of the 
 mechanical equivalent of heat, was then in Manchester. 
 He was the son of a brewer in that town, and was partially 
 deformed. Perhaps the following letter to Professor 
 Dewar, of Cambridge, an old pupil of mine at Edinburgh 
 and now successor to Faraday and Tyndall in London, will 
 best explain our relations. 
 
 Playfair to Professor Dewar. London, January 20 th, 1890. 
 
 My dear Dewar, — You ask for some of my memories 
 of Joule from 1842 to 1845, when I was Professor of 
 Chemistry at the Royal Institution in Manchester. The 
 great Dalton died in the autumn of 1844, and had been 
 long President of the Manchester Philosophical Society. 
 He naturally gave an impulse to the study of science in 
 that town, where there was an active band of young 
 workers in research. Joule was, even then, foremost 
 among these, and the names of Binsey, Williamson, Schunk, 
 Angus Smith, Young, and others, show that the spirit ol 
 
74 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 scientific inquiry was active. We were also stimulated 
 by the fact that Baron Liebig and Bunsen came to pay 
 me visits during that time ; they were men to excite 
 research. 
 
 Joule was a man of singular simplicity and earnestness. 
 We used to meet at each other’s houses at supper to help 
 the progress of our work by discussion. Joule was an 
 earnest worker, and was then engaged with his experi- 
 ments on the mechanical equivalent of heat. He took me 
 to his small laboratory to show me his experiments, and I, 
 of course, quickly recognised that my young friend the 
 brewer was a great philosopher. We jointly worked upon 
 questions of far less importance than his great central 
 discovery, but he was equally interested. I was very 
 anxious that he should devote his life to science, and 
 persuaded him to become a candidate for the Professorship 
 of Natural Philosophy at St Andrews. He was on the 
 point of securing this, but his personal slight deformity 
 was an objection in the eyes of one of the electors, and St 
 Andrews lost the glory of having one of the greatest 
 discoverers of our age. When Joule first sent an account 
 of his experiments to the Royal Society, the paper was 
 referred among others to Sir Charles Wheatstone, who was 
 my intimate personal friend. Wheatstone was an eminently 
 fair man and a good judge, but the discovery did not then 
 commend itself to his mind. For a whole Sunday after- 
 noon we walked on Barnes Common discussing the 
 experiments and their consequences, if true, to science; 
 but all my arguments were insufficient to convince my 
 friend, and I fear that then the Royal Society did not 
 appreciate and publish the researches. I write from 
 memory only, for I know that later no society or institu- 
 tion honoured Joule more than the Royal Society and its 
 members. Not for one moment, however, did Joule 
 hesitate as to the accuracy of his experiments or his 
 conclusions. 
 
 He once suggested to me that we might take a trip 
 together to the falls of Niagara, not to look at its beauties, 
 but to ascertain the difference of the temperature of the 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 75 
 
 water at the top and bottom of the fall. Of course, the 
 change of motion into heat was a necessary consequence 
 of his views. 
 
 No more pleasant memory of my life remains than the 
 fact that, side by side, at my lectures in the Royal Institu- 
 tion, used to sit the illustrious Dalton with his beautiful 
 face, so like that of Newton, and the keenly intelligent 
 Joule. I can give no other explanation than the fact of 
 Organic Chemistry being then a new science that two 
 philosophers of such eminence should come to the lectures 
 of a mere tyro in science. I used to look upon them as 
 two types of the highest progress in science. Newton had 
 introduced law, order, and number into the movements of 
 masses of matter in the universe : Dalton introduced the 
 same into the minute masses which we call atoms : and 
 Joule, with a keen insight into the operation and correla- 
 tion of forces, connected them together and showed their 
 mutual equivalence. 
 
 I do not know whether these memories are of any use 
 to you, but, such as they are, they are at your disposal for 
 your lecture on the friend of my youth. 
 
 (Signed) Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Prof. Dewar, F.R.S., Cambridge. 
 
 So far I have left Playfair to tell the story of his 
 career in his own way. The reader will see, however, 
 that although he gives a brief summary of the facts of his 
 career in these early years, he is silent as to all those 
 personal questions by knowledge of which alone a sound 
 judgment of a man’s character can be formed. We see 
 him playing a distinguished part in the company of not 
 a few eminent men, recognised by them as their equal, 
 and sharing with them in important labours for the public 
 good. But nothing is said that calls attention to the fact 
 that when Playfair was offered the important professorship 
 at Toronto, and when he paid his first memorable visit 
 to Drayton Manor, he was still a mere youth. The young 
 
76 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 chemist who was occupying a comparatively humble post 
 in a manufacturing establishment in Lancashire is suddenly 
 transformed into the scientific expert, whose opinions are 
 heard with respectful attention by the Prime Minister. 
 But no clue is given to the secret of this remarkable 
 change. As it is my desire to interest my readers quite 
 as much in Playfair’s personality as in his work and his 
 achievements, I must in this chapter supplement his own 
 condensed narrative with some particulars gathered from 
 other sources. 
 
 It was thoroughly characteristic of a man who was 
 “ practical ” from his earliest to his latest years, and who 
 always preferred doing to dreaming, that he no sooner 
 returned from Giessen, at the close of his University 
 career, than he looked out for some kind of work which 
 would make him independent of his father — whose means 
 were moderate — and give him the satisfaction of earning 
 his own living. That work he obtained, as he has himself 
 told us, in the calico-printing works at Clitheroe. Mr 
 Thomson, the proprietor, needed a chemist to superintend 
 the dyeing processes in the establishment, and young 
 Playfair was fortunate enough to obtain the post at a 
 salary that was a handsome one, considering his years and 
 the task entrusted to him. Few things were more charac- 
 teristic of the man in later life than that business-like 
 punctuality which impressed Mr Thomson so favourably 
 at their first interview that he voluntarily made a con- 
 siderable addition to the sum he had originally proposed 
 to offer to the young chemist. 
 
 But for an explanation of Playfair’s early success we must 
 look beyond his aptitude for business. The simple fact is 
 that the young Scotch chemist had made a remarkable 
 impression upon nearly all those who were brought in con- 
 tact with him. Young as he was, he had already done 
 work in chemistry that had made him known to the 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 77 
 
 greatest chemists of the day. His translation or Liebigs 
 great book had made his name a familiar one to men of 
 science generally, whilst, above all, his own personality 
 had secured for him a place in the esteem of many eminent 
 men which few so young have ever reached. In plain 
 English, before Playfair had been many months in his first 
 official post at Clitheroe, he was generally regarded, not 
 only by the distinguished men of science who at that time 
 lived in Manchester, but by many leading men in the 
 scientific world, as the most promising of all the younger 
 students of his day. In proof of this assertion, the narrative 
 — barely alluded to in his own autobiography — of his intro- 
 duction to Sir Robert Peel, in 1842, must be given at some 
 length. It is a story equally creditable to the statesman, 
 the young student, and those generous workers in the field 
 of science who — to use the words of one of them — were 
 determined, if they could, to “save Playfair for England.” 
 
 The story of this episode in Playfair’s life may fitly 
 begin with the following letter from Dr Buckland, the 
 eminent geologist and Dean of Westminster, to Sir Robert 
 Peel. 
 
 Dr Buckland to Sir Robert Peel . April 2,6th, 1842. 
 
 I rejoice in common with a host of scientific friends at 
 the well-merited honour wffiich has been recently conferred 
 on Sir Henry de la Beche. I was pleased to find, at an 
 interview I had with him and Mr Pusey, at the office of 
 Lord Lincoln, last Friday, that his lordship is anxious to 
 find means of carrying into effect the wishes now so pre- 
 valent amongst scientific men and agriculturists to urge 
 forward in this country the inquiry which has begun in 
 France and Germany, but hitherto has been much neglected 
 in England, as to the extent to which a knowledge of 
 organic chemistry may be applied to the improvement ot 
 agriculture. There seems to prevail at this time a general 
 expectation of great results likely to arise from the applica- 
 
78 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 tion of science to agriculture, and a disposition on the part 
 of farmers, unknown till now, to adopt experiments which 
 the practice of their' landlords and most intelligent neigh- 
 bours has shown to be beneficial. At such a moment, one 
 man only has arisen in this country, in the translator of 
 Liebig, who has specially devoted himself, with great 
 success, to the very difficult and most important subject of 
 organic chemistry in its connection with agriculture. I am 
 not personally acquainted with Dr Playfair, but have seen 
 in the hands of Sir H. de la Beche such a certificate in his 
 favour, given when he was recently a candidate for a 
 vacant professorship in Scotland, that in ordinary chemistry 
 he must have few that surpass him, whilst his translation 
 of Liebig shows his pre-eminent fitness for investigations 
 connected with agriculture. I therefore feel confidently 
 that great results would follow from a series of experiments 
 systematically conducted by such a man ; and as I am told 
 he has a full knowledge of geology, he might institute 
 experiments upon the selected specimens of each of the 
 principal formations that occur in England, which would 
 serve as pattern or example of the experiments, showing 
 their defects and the means of ameliorating such portions 
 of each formation from which the subject matter of his 
 several experiments may be selected. 
 
 Believe me, etc., 
 
 W. Buckland. 
 
 This was Dr Buckland’s first, but by no means his last 
 attempt to bring the young chemist under the notice of the 
 Prime Minister. There are indications in the correspond- 
 ence of Playfair during the following months which show 
 that the great geologist had taken up the young man’s 
 cause with enthusiasm. He had done so at the instigation 
 of Sir Henry de la Beche, to whose estimate of Playfair’s 
 ability reference is made in the foregoing letter. But Peel 
 was not at that time disposed to assist in the creation of a 
 school of agricultural science in this country. The times 
 were not propitious, and he doubted whether Parliament 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 79 
 
 would be prepared to grant money to agriculturists, 
 except on condition that similar grants were made to other 
 industries. Still Buckland did not despair of bringing Peel 
 and Playfair into direct communication. In the month of 
 October, Playfair received through Faraday the offer of the 
 professorship at Toronto. He naturally communicated at 
 once with his friend De la Beche. The latter felt, to use 
 his own words, that “ if Playfair is to be saved for England, 
 there is no time to lose ” ; and he wrote an urgent letter 
 to Buckland. 
 
 Ross, Herefordshire. 
 
 Sir H. de la Beche to Dr Buckland. October 12 th, 1842. 
 
 My dear Buckland, — This morning’s post has brought 
 me information of which I am sure you will join with me 
 in regretting most cordially the cause, at least if the matter 
 takes the turn which it so readily may. Dr Playfair has 
 been offered an American professorship, with ^450 per 
 annum, house, garden, and college fees. Neither you nor 
 I would ever regret any good which could befall so talented 
 or worthy a man as our friend Playfair ; but to see him 
 thus snatched from us in England when he has, as you 
 know, been so well received and properly appreciated by 
 our leading agriculturists, is deplorable. Here we are at 
 the Museum of Economic Geology, with all things ready 
 to bring Playfair to bear so successfully upon the agriculture 
 of this country. I have a plan to provide for Richard 
 Phillips efficiently, doing real service to the country. I 
 mean in connection with the Fine Arts Committee, their 
 stuccoes, colours, etc. ; so that the frescoes (in the Houses 
 of Parliament), if there should be any, may be permanent, 
 and the colours not fly off in half a dozen years. Upon 
 this subject I have already written to Lord Lincoln, who 
 seems, apparently, to have a good opinion of it ; indeed, 
 the outlook is clear. The objection to two chemists at 
 the Museum — certainly a very good one — could thus be 
 removed. In point of fact, all seems ready to bring 
 Playfair to bear ; and in precisely this state of things comes 
 
8o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 this offer from the other side of the Atlantic, sweeping him 
 away. 
 
 At least there is only a fortnight (now two or three days 
 less) for his answer, which can scarcely be expected to be 
 otherwise than an acceptance, seeing that there is nothing 
 certain in connection with the Museum of Economic 
 Geology moving. That he would prefer England to 
 America I know full well, and that we have no one at all 
 equal to him for agricultural chemistry we both know well 
 also. Could others do the same ? To move through the 
 usual official channels there is no time, so that Sir Robert 
 Peel may be acquainted with the probable loss we may 
 sustain by Plavfair moving to the other side of the Atlantic. 
 Having never corresponded with Sir Robert Peel on this 
 subject, it might be considered out of place if I did so now. 
 As you have, I believe, would you, if there should be time 
 after you receive this letter, mention the matter to Sir 
 Robert Peel ? A breath from him would put all straight. 
 Playfair’s present address is : Primrose, Blackburn, Lanca- 
 shire. Pray write to him, and see how matters stand, for 
 round about by me here the time may be lost. 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 
 H. de la Beche. 
 
 It is unnecessary to comment upon the singular earnest- 
 ness of this letter. Evidently De la Beche was desperately 
 afraid that Playfair’s departure for Canada — or, as he 
 vaguely describes it, America — would mean a grave loss to 
 the intellectual capital of Great Britain. Nor was Buck- 
 land less anxious to act for the purpose of retaining 
 Playfair in this country. He communicated at once with 
 Sir Robert Peel, with the result that Playfair received from 
 the Prime Minister the letter which at first puzzled him so 
 greatly. 
 
 Drayton Manor, 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Dr Playfair. October 13 th, 1842. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Will you give me the pleasure of your 
 company at Drayton Manor for as long a time as you can 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 81 
 
 spare me ? If you will come to dinner on Wednesday 
 next, you will, I trust, meet Buckland and De la Beche. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Robert Peel. 
 
 In the preceding chapter of Reminiscences, Playfair has 
 given a brief account of this visit to Drayton Manor. The 
 explanation of the reason which led the Prime Minister to 
 address such an invitation to a young and little known 
 chemist is, of course, to be found in the urgent advocacy of 
 his claims by eminent men like Buckland and De la Beche. 
 No record exists of the conversation which took place 
 regarding Playfair during the visit to Drayton ; but it is 
 clear that Buckland urged his claims with persistency, and 
 that he adopted the suggestion of Sir Henry de la Beche 
 that a place should be found for Playfair at the Museum 
 of Economic Geology by the removal of Mr, afterwards 
 Sir, Richard Phillips to another post. Nor was Peel 
 altogether disinclined to adopt this suggestion, as the 
 following memorandum in the Prime Minister’s own 
 handwriting seems to prove. 
 
 Drayton Manor, October 18 th, 1842. 
 
 We, that is Lord Lincoln and Sir Robert Peel, under- 
 standing that unusual decision is required, are ready to 
 consent to this : — If Mr Phillips can be induced volun- 
 tarily to relinquish the appointment he holds, and shall 
 signify by a letter to Lord Lincoln his willingness to resign 
 it, Dr Lyon Playfair shall be appointed to a corresponding 
 office at the annual salary of ^400. We cannot take any 
 step for the purpose of inducing Mr Phillips’s retirement. 
 It must be voluntary on his part. 
 
 This, it will be admitted, was a remarkable document 
 to come from a Prime Minister under the circumstances. 
 When Peel handed it to Playfair, he told him that during 
 
 G 
 
82 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 his whole official career he had never entered into such an 
 understanding before with an applicant for office. Mr 
 Phillips, however, was not disposed to retire voluntarily, 
 and the ardent De la Beche, still intent upon retaining 
 Playfair in England, tried to devise some means for inducing 
 Mr Phillips to make way for his protege. 
 
 The subsequent story of the negotiations for this purpose 
 is a curious one. De la Beche, writing on October 1 9th to 
 Buckland, makes the following suggestion for the purpose 
 of procuring the retirement of Phillips : — 
 
 He (Phillips) now gets £200 per annum, with some 
 little advantages for analyses, which I do not think amount 
 to £/\o or £50 more. He has also private chemical 
 engagements. His office hours at the Museum interfere 
 with the latter. To induce Phillips to resign, something 
 equivalent at least will have to be offered : something 
 equal to £250. It is quite clear that Sir Robert Peel will 
 keep himself clear of all inducements to the resignation ot 
 Phillips ; and in this he is most perfectly right. If he did, 
 it might be made the handle for misstatements. The 
 movement for Phillips to resign must therefore be made on 
 the part of those who desire to see agricultural chemistry 
 properly treated for the benefit of the agriculture of this 
 country. It appears to me that it would be most credit- 
 able to the English Agricultural Society, and greatly to the 
 interest of its members, that the present opportunity 
 should be seized. Taking your view that £200 per 
 annum might be given by them to Phillips for the analysis 
 of mineral manures and of subsoil rocks, the state of things 
 would stand thus : — An opportunity of greatly advancing 
 the agriculture of the country by a proper and judicious 
 application of chemistry to agriculture, aided by geological 
 investigations, now presents itself. Will the English 
 Agricultural Society avail themselves of it at a cost of £200 
 or £250 per annum ? The total salaries of the competent 
 parties are required to be £600 or £650 per annum. 
 Government seems willing to place a highly competent 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 83 
 
 chemist in an office where this matter can be proceeded 
 with, provided the present holder of that office voluntarily 
 resigns it. Now, though the holder of that office is not 
 skilled in agricultural chemistry as a whole, parts of the 
 general subject he is highly competent to investigate. 
 Would the Agricultural Society, by taking the present 
 holder of the office into its pay at a rate of salary equiva- 
 lent to the present salary of that office, enable the other 
 party, highly skilled in organic chemistry and the general 
 subject, to enter into that office ? 
 
 This proposal on the part of De la Beche did not meet 
 with the approval of the Royal Agricultural Society. 
 Mr Pusey, the secretary of the society, expressed his 
 earnest desire to advance Playfair’s career ; but on con- 
 sultation with the leading members of the society it 
 became clear that they were not prepared to confer upon 
 Phillips the appointment suggested by Sir Henry de la 
 Beche. 
 
 Even then De la Beche refused to give up the hope 
 of securing Playfair’s services. There was no place in 
 the country, he declared, where chemical and geological 
 agriculture could be carried out at all equal to the 
 Museum of Economic Geology, if a properly qualified 
 chemist could be found. Such a man they had in 
 Playfair — one who possessed all the requisites, and who 
 was approved of by the Prime Minister himself. He now 
 proposed that Playfair should be at once taken into the 
 public employment at a salary of £200 a year, and that 
 he should be asked to report upon the state of British 
 agriculture as regarded agricultural chemistry, practical 
 farming, the variety of soils, and other similar matters, 
 he being allowed at the same time to use the laboratory 
 at the Museum of Economic Geology. Phillips was of 
 course to be retained under this proposal in his old place 
 at his old salary, though as a matter of fact the chief part 
 
8 4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 of the work which was required would be done by Playfair. 
 It was an ingenious scheme, but it failed to meet with the 
 approval of Sir Robert Peel, though in writing to Dr 
 Buckland the Prime Minister once more expressed his 
 desire to help Playfair. “We are all," he wrote — “that 
 is, all official men — inclined to do whatever we can, 
 consistent with our duty, and therefore with the true 
 interests of Dr Playfair, to procure his services for the 
 public." 
 
 I have told the story of this important episode in 
 Playfair’s life with sufficient fulness in order to show how 
 high was the place he had already secured in the esteem of 
 distinguished men of science, and how fortunate he had 
 been in attracting the attention and securing the goodwill 
 of Sir Robert Peel. Before I close this chapter, and 
 this record of the failure to procure for Playfair a post 
 in which he would unquestionably have been able to do 
 good service to the cause of English agriculture, it may be 
 well to set forth at length the letter to Dr Buckland, in 
 which, at the request of the latter, he indicated the work 
 he was prepared to undertake if he had secured the 
 appointment of agricultural chemist. 
 
 Playfair to Dr Buckland. October 1 6th, 1842. 
 
 My dear Dr Buckland, — A few days since, I 
 received through Dr Faraday the offer of a professorship 
 in Toronto from Sir C. Bagot. The salary offered is ^450 
 per annum, besides a house, garden, and fees of students. 
 As I am required to give my final answer before Tuesday 
 next, I should esteem it a great favour if you were to lay 
 before Lord Lincoln the reasons which compel me to ask 
 his lordship for a decision with respect to the negotiations 
 alluded to by Sir H. de la Beche. I beg, also, to describe 
 some of the objects which I think are desirable in the 
 event of an agricultural chemist being appointed in 
 connection with Government. 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 85 
 
 The great object which should be held in view by 
 an agricultural chemist connected with Government 
 is to promote the general interest of English agricul- 
 ture, and not the particular interest of its individual 
 cultivators. 
 
 There are many laws which must be discovered before 
 agriculture can be rapidly advanced on scientific principles. 
 Analyses of the manures used in England have to be 
 executed in connection with the economic geology of the 
 country. Above all, it is necessary to ascertain the sub- 
 stance which plants take from soils ; for, without this 
 knowledge, we do not know what to return to the soil 
 as manure. Analyses of the food of cattle are requisite 
 in order to show us wherein their nutriment consists, 
 and thus enable us to economise our food. No such 
 analyses are extant, and it is thorough and accurate 
 analysis that is needed. Such an analysis, to be properly 
 performed, requires five days' work. By fixing the 
 above rate, those only would send soils for analysis 
 who wanted some important question solved. But as 
 this working for individual interest would be taking 
 away the labours of the chemist from those of general 
 interest, it should be permitted to the Director of the 
 Museum and to the chemist to refuse such analyses, if they 
 found that no good could arise by their execution. 
 
 It is a great complaint that there is no place in England 
 where students of agriculture may acquire a thorough 
 knowledge of agricultural chemistry, and of its mani- 
 pulations, in order that they may conduct their own farm- 
 ing on scientific principles. I therefore think it would be 
 very valuable to admit a few laboratory pupils, at a very 
 moderate fee, such as £20 each per annum, to the chemist, 
 besides the cost of materials to the Museum (the usual 
 fee in London is /50). 
 
 Such are my opinions of the duties of an agricultural 
 chemist — duties, as I conceive, well fitted for the advance- 
 ment of agriculture. Unless he is put above the necessity 
 of making money, he can be of little use to general 
 agriculture. 
 
86 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Feeling convinced on this subject, I may mention the 
 conditions on which I should accept the appointment in 
 the event of his lordship doing me the honour to put it in 
 my power. 
 
 1. That I should receive a fixed salary from Govern- 
 ment of ^400 (four hundred pounds) per annum. 
 
 2. That I should receive the fees for those private 
 analyses which it was thought expedient to make, 
 and also for the lectures and private pupils. (The 
 fee for the lectures will, of course, depend upon their 
 number, but the fee for the analysis of a soil not to be 
 below ^5.) 
 
 3. That I should not be required to undertake any 
 general analysis of English soils. Understanding that this 
 has been suggested, I must strongly state my opinion that 
 no benefit could accrue for the present from such a course, 
 and that the usefulness of an agricultural chemist, in such 
 a case, would be destroyed. 
 
 As my great desire is to be useful to scientific agriculture, 
 I have made these stipulations in order that time might 
 not be wholly employed in working for individual benefit. 
 By doing so I certainly could obtain more money, but it 
 would be at the sacrifice of general good, and I feel con- 
 vinced that the plan I have proposed is one which will 
 prove of real utility to agriculture. 
 
 I am, 
 
 My dear Dr Buckland, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 That Peel valued his friendship with the young chemist 
 and attached value to his advice, is proved by the corre- 
 spondence of the great statesman himself. Thus, in writing 
 to Prince Albert on December 17th, 1844, Peel says : “I 
 have some very distinguished scientific men on a visit here 
 — Dr Buckland, Dr Lyon Playfair (the translator of Liebig), 
 Professor Wheatstone (the inventor of the electric telegraph), 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 87 
 
 Professor Owen, of the College of Surgeons, Mr George 
 Stephenson, the engineer. ... I invited yesterday 
 all my principal tenants to meet them at dinner and 
 acquire information, which was most kindly and liberally 
 given by all the philosophers on points connected with 
 vegetation, manure, the feeding of animals, draining, etc.” 
 Again, in December, 1845, Peel writes, at the crisis in the 
 history of the Corn Laws : “ The accounts from Ireland 
 in the month of October, from the Lord Lieutenant, from 
 the constabulary, from the men of science whom we sent 
 there to investigate the facts — Dr Lyon Playfair and Dr 
 Lindley, the first chemist and first botanist — were very 
 alarming. The worst account was from the men of 
 science.” 
 
 The part which Playfair had subsequently in bringing 
 Sir Robert Peel to his momentous decision with regard to 
 the duties on food will be dealt with in a later chapter ; 
 but it is worth while to give the foregoing extract from 
 Peel’s letter to the Prince Consort at this point, in order to 
 show how high was the position which he assigned to 
 Playfair in the scientific world. 
 
 The first Government appointment which Playfair 
 received was, as he has told us, the post of a Member 
 of the Royal Commission to inquire into the Health of 
 Towns. On April 21st, 1843, Sir James Graham, then 
 Home Secretary, wrote to Playfair to express his gratifica- 
 tion at his having accepted this appointment, and to state 
 that his work would not in any way interfere with his post 
 at Manchester. There is little that one need add to the 
 brief account which Playfair has himself given of the work 
 of that memorable Commission. It marked the real 
 beginning of sanitary science in the United Kingdom. 
 Many eminent men had paved the way for its operations, 
 including both Chadwick and Dr Southwood Smith. When 
 it began its work it is hardly an exaggeration to say that it 
 
88 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 found every English town little better than a vast cesspool. 
 Before its recommendations had been fully carried out, our 
 towns had become practical^ what they are to-day. The 
 death-rate had been diminished everywhere, and the con- 
 ditions of life had been made infinitely more wholesome 
 than they had ever been before. It is not surprising to 
 find that from the beginning of his connection with this 
 great Commission, Lyon Playfair became absorbed in the 
 question of the improvement of our sanitation. The 
 youngest member of the Commission, he was naturally not 
 the least ardent, and threw himself with his whole heart 
 and soul into the work which had been entrusted to 
 him. Before long he became the recognised leader of 
 national enterprises for the improvement of the public 
 health. 
 
 J. von Liebig to Playfair. Giessen, November 15 th, 1842. 
 
 My dear Friend, — Many thanks for your kind letter 
 of October 30th, and the important news contained therein. 
 I hasten to say how heartily I wish that all our desires 
 may be fulfilled. I have read in the papers that you went 
 with Buckland to see Sir R. Peel, and I hope the best from 
 this visit. I hear that Sir R. Peel also intended to send 
 me an invitation ; if I could have his note I should value 
 it for the sake of the autograph. May Heaven give you 
 the needful courage for your first lecture. You have 
 a natural gift of eloquence, and for the rest I have not 
 much fear. 
 
 The new edition of ‘ Agricultural Chemistry' will receive 
 many alterations, but I cannot yet quite define them. I 
 cannot therefore leave to you the preparation of the first 
 sheets, much as I should like to do so. I have to add a 
 new chapter on Sulphur, and this must come quite near 
 the beginning. 
 
 I will consider your proposal to add a chapter on 
 fattening of cattle. It might be useful. 
 
 You have at Lord Ducie’s the best opportunity of 
 
LIFE IN LANCASHIRE. 
 
 89 
 
 determining on a large scale the constitution of the debris 
 of straw, potatoes, and roots. Do not neglect this 
 opportunity, as it will be useful to us in ‘ Agricultural 
 Chemistry.' It will doubtless be easy for you to arrange 
 for the drying of the roots, etc. 
 
 I will answer the rest of your letter more fully after 
 your return to Primrose. In any case I shall hope to see 
 you here in the spring. 
 
 Yours most cordially, 
 
 J. v. Liebig. 
 
 Same to the same . Giessen, March 3 rd, 1843. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have not yet answered your 
 last letter, as I have been very busily engaged on the 
 preparation of our * Agricultural Chemistry.' The book is 
 now ready, and you will have already received two sheets 
 of it. I have added five new chapters ; on the origin of 
 arable land, on the formation of ammonia, on the part 
 taken by nitric acid in the nourishment of plants, and on 
 fallow ground. The chapter on cultivation and rotation 01 
 crops is quite new. Thus, you see, this edition is practically 
 a new book. Will you be so good as to bring the English 
 version into line with the German at once ? I am very 
 anxious that the book should not lose its scientific character ; 
 it is not intended solely .for agriculturists, but for the 
 general public. It is specially necessary for those people 
 who desire to understand the book to gain first some 
 elementary knowledge of chemistry ; this I do not wish to 
 bring into the book, which is thereby differentiated from 
 Johnston's and other books for farmers. 
 
 I must tell you that Dr Will intends to apply for the 
 post of chemist to the Agricultural Society of Scotland. 
 Will is fond of England, and is quite the right man 
 to carry out the researches desired by the society. 
 Should you have any opportunity of assisting him in this 
 direction, he will be very grateful. We have discovered 
 here some excellent new methods for the analysis of 
 ashes 
 
90 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Write to me again soon, and tell me a little about the 
 post you applied for in London. I hear that you gave two 
 lectures in London with great success, and am surprised 
 that they did not lead to the desired result. 
 
 Farewell, my dear friend. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 Dr J. v. Liebig. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — IV. BEGINNING OF MY 
 LONDON LIFE. 
 
 1845 to 1850. 
 
 Settled in London : A Call from Sir J ames Clark : Sir Henry de la Beche : 
 Distinguished Colleagues : Inquiring into the Sanitary Condition of 
 Buckingham Palace : Reporting upon the Best Coals for Steam 
 Navigation : Mining Accidents : The Potato Famine in Ireland : 
 Effect of Emigration upon Potato Production : Marriage : Oersted : 
 A Letter which led to the Foundation of the Petroleum Industry: 
 Inquiring into the Cholera : The Duke of Wellington and the Chartist 
 Demonstration : Sworn a Special Constable : In Paris during the 
 Revolution of 1848 : Louis Blanc and Louis Napoleon. 
 
 On going to reside in London, I took rooms together with 
 my friend Andrew Ramsay (now Sir Andrew Ramsay) in 
 York Road, Westminster. The house belonged to a most 
 respectable middle-aged woman, who had a brass plate on 
 
 the door : “ Mrs P , Dressmaker and Milliner.’ ’ Soon 
 
 after our arrival there a handsome carriage with brown 
 liveries stopped at the door, and a tall, attractive man was 
 shown to our sitting-room. He told us that he was Sir 
 James Clark, the well-known Physician to the Queen. 
 After a few friendly remarks, he explained that one object 
 of his visit was to tell us that the street in which we lived 
 was of doubtful fame, while the brass plate on the door 
 increased the appearances against us. We took his 
 friendly advice, and changed our lodgings to Brompton, 
 near the Consumption Hospital. This was the beginning 
 of a friendship with Sir James Clark which I much 
 valued for many years, and which I continue by descent 
 
92 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to the present day in the person of his son, Sir John 
 Clark. Sir James Clark was a man of admirable 
 character, and was justly esteemed by the Queen and 
 Prince Consort, not only as a physician but also as a 
 confidential friend. Indirectly, he did much for science, 
 for it was he who founded the Royal College of 
 Chemistry, and brought over Hofmann to this country 
 to carry out those splendid researches which have made 
 him so famous. 
 
 I have already said that before the Museum of Geology 
 and Geological Survey were transferred to Jermyn Street 
 I had a temporary laboratory in Duke Street, West- 
 minster. Here I continued, in association with Joule, 
 researches into the atomic volume of salts. We 
 established that the water in crystallised salts has the 
 same atomic volume as ice. We also showed that in 
 hydrated salts the volume of the acid disappears, the 
 volume of the base and of the water as ice making up the 
 whole volume of the salt. In highly hydrated salts, such 
 as carbonate or phosphate of soda, the volume of the salt 
 is only that of the solid water, the dry salt occupying no 
 appreciable space. Following these observations into 
 solutions, we proved that the increase in the bulk of a 
 solution, when a highly hydrated salt is dissolved, is only 
 that due to the water of crystallisation becoming liquid, 
 the salt itself occupying no appreciable volume. All this 
 is now accepted as common knowledge, but when these 
 papers were first published they encountered keen 
 opposition. 
 
 Another research I made in this little laboratory in 
 Duke Street. This resulted in establishing the existence 
 of an entirely new class of salts named the “nitro- 
 prussides.” They are obtained by acting upon potassium 
 prusside with nitric acid. They are beautiful crystalline 
 salts, and are now a favourite preparation for pupils 
 engaged in laboratory practice. But the most productive 
 fruit of my laboratory at that time was the discovery of 
 two able men, who have added much to the science of 
 their time. One of my assistants was a young German 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 93 
 
 named Kolbe. He had a true chemical genius, and I 
 encouraged him, instead of wasting his time as a mere 
 assistant, to make original researches for himself, and he 
 became afterwards the great chemical professor of the 
 University of Leipsic, and was well known by his 
 numerous works. The other was a young student, 
 Frankland, now Sir Edward Frankland , 1 whom I had 
 afterwards the pleasure of seeing as my successor in 
 the School of Mines. He has enriched chemistry by 
 many discoveries. I may claim with some pride that 
 many eminent chemists have been evolved from my 
 teaching, among whom Professor Dewar, of Cambridge, 
 is conspicuous. 
 
 In the new building for the Geological Museum and 
 its kindred subjects we found every means for developing 
 the institution. The director, Sir Flenry de la Beche, was 
 a man of remarkable ability. He was a well-known 
 geologist, and author of the work, 1 Flow to Observe 
 Geology.’ As an administrator he was admirable. He 
 had brought the Geological Survey into a state of 
 efficiency, and was now occupied in forming a School of 
 Mines. He drew around him a staff of enthusiastic and 
 able workers. Andrew Ramsay, my old Glasgow friend, 
 had charge of the Geological Survey. Edward Forbes, 
 the great naturalist, my college friend in Edinburgh, was 
 Professor of Palaeontology. Dr Percy, the author of an 
 important work on metallurgy, was professor of that 
 subject. Warrington Smyth was Professor of Chemistry, 
 furnished with an excellent laboratory. To visit the 
 school became a fashion among men of leisure. Besides 
 my regular pupils, I had in one year the late Duke of 
 Marlborough, afterwards Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord 
 Arthur Hay, who became the Marquis of Tweeddale, 
 several Members of Parliament, and two officers of the 
 Guards. The mining students were not numerous, but 
 were excellent in quality. The professors gave courses of 
 lectures to working men in the evening, always attended 
 to the full capacity of our lecture theatre. This school 
 
 } Sir Edward Frankland died August, 1899. 
 
94 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 still continues under the name of the “ Normal School of 
 Science/' and is now transferred to South Kensington. It 
 has had a continuation of able professors, among whom it 
 is only necessary to mention Huxley, Frankland, Guthrie, 
 Lockyer, Thorpe, Rucker, and Japp. 
 
 From my first joining the Museum of Economic 
 Geology at Craig’s Court, till the close of my connection 
 with its developed School of Mines in Jermyn Street, my 
 laboratory was not a haven of rest for a scientific man. 
 Unfortunately, my reputation as an inquirer into public 
 questions continually interfered with my scientific career, 
 for there was scarcely a month in which the Government 
 did not demand my services. On arriving in London, the 
 first demand made upon me was to report on the state of 
 Buckingham Palace, and also on the condition of Eton 
 College. The former inquiry was specially important, as it 
 involved the health of the Queen and her young family. 
 The condition of the palace was then so bad that the 
 Government never dared to publish my report. At that 
 time a great main sewer ran through the courtyard, and 
 the whole palace was in untrapped connection with it. 
 To illustrate this, I painted a small room on the basement 
 floor with white lead, and showed that it was blackened 
 next morning. The kitchens were furnished with 
 batteries of charcoal fires without flues, and the fumes 
 went up to the royal nurseries. To prove this, I mixed 
 pounded pastilles with gunpowder, and exploded the 
 mixture in the kitchens. The smell of the pastilles 
 pervaded the whole house, and brought down, as I 
 wished, the high court officials to see what was the 
 matter. The architect was immediately called upon to 
 prepare plans for putting Buckingham Palace into a 
 proper condition, at a considerable outlay, and although 
 Parliament tried to get my report, it was considered too 
 frank and brutal for production, as I treated the sanitary 
 condition of the palace just as I would have done that of 
 any other house. However, the evils were remedied. 
 After this inquiry I was incessantly employed by public 
 departments. The Board of Health required me to report 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 95 
 
 on graveyards, and to analyse all the water proposed for 
 the supply of towns. The Admiralty placed a sum of 
 money at my disposal to determine the best coals suited 
 for steam navigation. This was a heavy inquiry, for not 
 only had all the chief coals in the kingdom to be analysed 
 and their calorific values determined, but we also had to 
 determine their evaporative values under steam-boilers. 
 During this inquiry I held a second professorship in the 
 College of Civil Engineers at Putney, and the practical 
 experiments with boilers were made at that place under 
 the superintendence of Mr John Wilson, who afterwards 
 became Professor of Agriculture in Edinburgh. The 
 report of Sir Henry de la Beche and myself on the coals 
 suited for steam navigation, for a long time, and perhaps 
 even now, formed the basis of selection for fuel for 
 the Navy. 
 
 At this time accidents in coal mines were common and 
 serious. Lyell and Faraday were appointed Government 
 Commissioners to inquire into their causes, and made a 
 report. Their inquiry was a short one, but it drew attention 
 to the recklessness of the miners. As one instance of this, 
 Faraday used to relate that he and Lyell were waiting to 
 see how the coal was blasted by gunpowder, and they sat 
 down, with naked candles stuck in a lump of clay between 
 their legs, until the taphole was finished. Faraday asked 
 where the gunpowder was kept, and the miner replied, 
 “Maister, that be the bag of powder which you are 
 sitting on." Faraday told me that of all the delicate and 
 responsible experiments which he ever made, the raising 
 of that candle steadily between his legs, shaded with his 
 hand to prevent sparks reaching the gunpowder, was the 
 most anxious one. I once encountered a case of like 
 recklessness. I had inspected a mine apparently quite 
 free from gas, and congratulated the owner on its 
 condition. His conscience was pricked, for he confessed 
 he had shown me only the good parts of the pit, but had 
 not taken me to the dangerous “ goafs " or cavities where 
 the fiery gas accumulated. Into one of these he took me, 
 first extinguishing my candle, and dragging his own close 
 
9 6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to the ground. We both sat down, while the owner oi 
 the mine slowly raised his candle till the flame elongated 
 and a blue flickering of fire-damp burned round its edges. 
 Holding it perfectly steady, he calmly said, “One inch 
 higher, and you and I would be blown to the devil ! ” 
 Needless to say that I steadily depressed his arm and 
 retreated as quickly as possible to a purer air. 
 
 Soon after the publication of Faraday and Lyell’s report 
 a terrible explosion took place at Jarrow, resulting, I 
 think, in forty deaths. The Government asked De la 
 Beche and myself to visit the mine to report upon the 
 causes of the explosion. De la Beche was unable to go, 
 so I went alone. It was a very deep mine, with many 
 miles of underground passages, all of which were then full 
 of fire-damp. There was only one shaft, and the 
 brattices, or wood lining, had been destroyed by the 
 explosion, so that neither a platform nor a basket could 
 be lowered. There had been no ventilation since the 
 accident, and therefore there was no possibility of clearing 
 the air-passages from the fiery gas. The viewer, or 
 manager, of the mine, while expressing his willingness to 
 descend, put the responsibility upon myself and upon one 
 of the geological surveyors, Mr Williams, who volunteered 
 to join me. After consultation, a stream of water was 
 turned into the shaft to send down air by its descent. I 
 confess that my courage required screwing up, when a 
 rope with two loops was produced, and I was asked to 
 put one leg through the lower one, while the viewer put 
 his through the one above. This is a mode of descent 
 well known to miners, but I had never seen it, and was 
 not comfortable in its use. However, we were pushed oft 
 the bank, and were very slowly lowered down the mine, 
 which was about twice as deep as the height of St. Paul’s 
 Cathedral. The brattices were much shattered, and we 
 had to turn our lamps on these to see that the rope did 
 not slack on an obstruction, which would have sent us 
 down with a run. 
 
 It was a dreary downward journey, with a cascade of 
 water dashing over our heads, and the darkness made 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 97 
 
 more dense by the feeble light of our two Davy lamps. 
 However, every journey has an end, and we reached the 
 bottom in safety. Mr Williams and a volunteer miner 
 followed, and joined us at the bottom of the pit. All the 
 passages were filled with an explosive atmosphere of fire- 
 damp mixed with air, so we had to regulate our pace by 
 that of the current of air driven down by the cascade of 
 water. There was no difficulty in doing this, because 
 when we went too fast the fire-damp burned inside the 
 Davy lamps. The effect of the explosion had been 
 terrific, and the flame must have burnt some time in the 
 passages, for their walls were coked to a depth of a 
 quarter of an inch. Even during our inspection the 
 hissing of the fire-damp from the pores of the coal was 
 an unpleasant sound. An inspection under such circum- 
 stances could not be exhaustive, but we made it as 
 complete as possible. On returning to the shaft we were 
 again drawn up by the loops in the rope, the most 
 uncomfortable saddle on which I ever rode. At the top 
 we found three miners in working dress, who told us 
 that they had made ready to search for our bodies, as 
 they did not expect us to come up alive. This was an 
 uncomfortable assurance, but it was made in a brave 
 and kindly spirit. 
 
 At that time the composition of fire-damp was not 
 accurately known, so I determined to collect specimens of 
 it from various mines after making the necessary apparatus 
 on my return to London. I succeeded in obtaining a 
 good many specimens, and published the analyses of them 
 in the 1 Records of the School of Mines.’ The main part 
 consisted, as was well known, of hydrogen carbide, but it 
 is always mixed with nitrogen, a small proportion of 
 carbonic acid being occasionally present. 
 
 As I shall not have occasion to speak of mines again, I 
 may as well say that the knowledge of them thus acquired 
 stood me in good stead many years afterwards. A great 
 strike of colliers was imminent in the Newcastle district in 
 a period of depression, when its effects would have been 
 serious to the poor miners. Masters and men agreed to 
 
 H 
 
98 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 submit the dispute to my arbitration. At that time I was 
 in Brittany, but I at once returned, and had the happiness 
 to make an award which averted the strike. 
 
 It will be seen that my work was drifting into applied 
 science. Public work with little reference to science was 
 constantly forced upon me. Thus I had to report on the 
 foul state of the Serpentine in Hyde Park, and to suggest 
 remedies. A more important inquiry, and one which 
 proved to be the last straw to break the back of the 
 protective duties on com, engaged my attention. In the 
 autumn of 1845 the potato rot spread rapidly in Ireland, 
 and engaged the anxious attention of Sir Robert Peel's 
 Government. The Prime Minister wished to consult me 
 upon the chances of the famine, and invited me to pay a 
 visit at Drayton Manor. On the day after my arrival we 
 walked in the garden and discussed the chances of a 
 serious famine. I gave a gloomy opinion, as the Irish at 
 that time lived chiefly on the potato, and there was little 
 variation of crops to take its place. He told me that he 
 shared my apprehensions, and desired to know the true 
 condition of the potato disease, in order to concert proper 
 measures for the relief of the people. He asked whether 
 I would go over to Ireland, and desired me to name two 
 men in whom I had confidence, to act on a Commission of 
 Inquiry. At luncheon I named Professor Lindley, the 
 eminent botanist, and Sir Robert Kane, the head of 
 Queen's College at Cork, author of the 1 Industrial 
 Resources of Ireland.’ I went up to London the same 
 afternoon to see Lindley, and next day we started for 
 Ireland. I told Sir Robert Peel before leaving Drayton 
 Manor that I had no hope of suggesting any remedy for 
 the disease, and that all I really expected to attain was a 
 true estimate as to its magnitude, and as to its future 
 consequences on the population. He stated that he did 
 not expect more, but desired that I should write to him 
 daily as to the information which we collected. It is 
 clear now why this was urgent. 
 
 It was impossible, if a famine were imminent, that high 
 protective duties on the food of the people should be 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 99 
 
 maintained, and Sir Robert Peel was then in the act of 
 forming that high resolve, the crowning glory of his life, 
 that he would abandon all the old traditions of the 
 Conservative party of which he was the leader, and 
 accept the views of the Anti-Corn Law League that the 
 bread of the people should be untaxed. The Commission 
 of Inquiry did little to stay the progress of the disease, 
 although the constabulary reported that our recommenda- 
 tions for storing the potatoes led to a lessening of the 
 rapidity with which they were attacked. But we 
 obtained too full confirmation of the disastrous character 
 of the famine, and held out no hope that the results on 
 the population would be less severe than had been 
 anticipated. Indeed, these anticipations were too 
 sanguine. I attended a committee of the Cabinet on 
 my return, and I mentioned my fears that the gravity 
 of the situation was scarcely realised by its members. 
 Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary, interrupted me 
 by saying, “ The gravity not realised ! I believe that 
 Ireland will be decimated by the famine ! ” I replied, 
 “ Your estimate justifies my remark, for if you add forced 
 emigration to actual deaths by starvation and disease, deci- 
 mation does not represent the loss of population which 
 will be the result of the famine." Unhappily, this 
 was not exaggerated. The population of Ireland was 
 then 8,250,000, and by the census of 1851 it had fallen 
 to 6,552,385. 
 
 It has often been brought as an accusation against Sir 
 Robert Peel that he was slow to recognise the magnitude 
 of the calamity. The following letter to me before I left 
 Ireland shows that he did not lose a single day after the 
 facts were established. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Playfair . Whitehall, 29 th October, 1845 . 
 
 My dear Sir, — I am indeed sorry that you are 
 compelled to make so unfavourable a report, but the 
 knowledge of the whole truth is one element of security. 
 I lost not a moment in directing that by the first 
 opportunities instruction should be given to the effect you 
 
100 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 suggest to the several consular authorities in the Mediter- 
 ranean, Portugal, Spain, etc. 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Dr Lyon Playfair. Robert Peel. 
 
 One week later, the 6th of November, Sir Robert Peel 
 proposed to his Cabinet to open all the ports for the 
 admission of grain at a small duty. The Cabinet rejected 
 his advice, and the responsibility of delay rests upon the 
 other Ministers. 
 
 The famine was not an unmixed evil to Ireland. A large 
 portion of the population then lived mainly on potatoes, 
 and in such a diet there was not a sufficient supply of 
 flesh formers for a full day’s work. Four ounces of flesh 
 formers are required for that purpose, and to obtain it 
 from potatoes alone nearly io lb. must be consumed. In 
 bulk this is beyond the capacity of the human stomach. 
 At the most 5 lb. formed a full diet, and thus an 
 Irishman’s labour, fed on potatoes, was worth only half 
 the wages of a well-fed workman. In reality their wages 
 then did not exceed one shilling per day. The famine 
 destroyed their reliance on the potato as a staple food, 
 and compelled the Irish to live on more nutritious kinds ol 
 diet. Then they became capable of giving more labour, 
 and their wages rose in a corresponding degree. As the 
 population lessened, the production of potatoes per acre 
 decreased. Before the famine I constantly found the 
 produce to be six or seven tons per acre, and perhaps the 
 average produce was about five tons. At the present day 
 the average produce of potatoes in Ireland is only half 
 that, or 2 1 tons. The reason for the decline is curious. 
 It is a canon in agriculture that the best manure for any 
 crop is the refuse of the animal which lives upon it, because 
 all the mineral ingredients taken away by the crop are 
 returned in due proportion to the soil. When the Irish 
 lived on potatoes they manured the land with their 
 household refuse. But when the people emigrated they 
 took their manurial value with them, and the diminished 
 population did not supply sufficient manure for the crops. 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 101 
 
 In Great Britain the deficiency is supplied by the 
 importation of foreign manures, but in Ireland this is not 
 done. Consequently, though the crop of potatoes in Great 
 Britain remains as large as it was before the year of famine, 
 that of Ireland has lessened to half the former amount. 
 
 In the year 1846 I was married to Miss Margaret 
 Oakes, the daughter of Mr Oakes of Riddings House, near 
 Alffeton, at whose works Bunsen and I made our in- 
 vestigation into the chemical operations of blast furnaces 
 for the production of iron. Unhappily, my wife died a 
 few years after our marriage, leaving two children. The 
 younger of these is now Major George Playfair of the 
 Royal Artillery, and the elder, Jessie, first married Captain 
 Peel, who was the son of Mr Peel, long Member of Parlia- 
 ment for Tam worth. He was cousin to Sir Robert Peel, 
 
 the Prime Minister, to whom I have had so many occa- 
 sions to refer. Some years after Captain Peel’s death my 
 daughter married Colonel, now General, Robert Macgregor 
 Stewart, C.B., A.D.C. to the Queen. 
 
 The British Association met at Southampton this year 
 (1846), and was attended by the illustrious Danish 
 philosopher, Oersted, who divides with Faraday the glory 
 of establishing the science of electro-magnetism. Oersted 
 made the original discovery, which he announced in the 
 following words : — “ There is always a magnetic circula- 
 tion round the electric conductor, and the electric 
 element, in accordance with a certain law, always 
 exercises determined and similar impressions on the 
 direction of the magnetic needle, even when it does not 
 pass through the needle, but near it.” In this pregnant 
 sentence lies the origin of the electric telegraph. Oersted 
 was a man of peculiar fascination, being a poet as well as 
 a philosopher. He was forty-two years older than 
 myself, but we formed a warm friendship, and he 
 corresponded with me during the few remaining years of 
 his life. He invited me to visit Copenhagen, so as to take 
 part in his jubilee in November, 1850, for the celebration 
 of his fiftieth year in connection with the University, and 
 he died in the spring of the following year. 
 
102 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 It may be interesting here to quote a letter which I 
 wrote to Mr James Young in 1847, because it led to the 
 establishment of one of the greatest of industries — that of 
 petroleum and its products. 
 
 26, Castelnau Villas, Barnes, Surrey. 
 Playfair to Mr James Young. 3rd December, 1847. 
 
 My dear Young, — You know that mineral naphtha 
 is a rare natural product, no spring of it occurring in this 
 country, all being imported from the Continent or Persia. 
 Lately a spring of this valuable product has been 
 discovered on an estate belonging to my brother-in-law 
 (Mr Oakes), near Alfreton, Derbyshire. It yields at 
 present about 300 gallons daily. The naphtha is about 
 the consistence of thin treacle, and with one distillation it 
 gives a clear, colourless liquid of brilliant illuminating 
 power. It dissolves caoutchouc easily. My brother 
 intends to set up stills for it immediately ; but, as they are 
 iron masters, this would be a separate industry, so I have 
 advised them, if possible, to sell the naphtha in the crude 
 state to chemical manufacturers, and thus avoid carrying 
 on an industry foreign to their occupation. Does this 
 possibly come within the province of your works ? If it 
 do, I will send you a gallon for examination. Perhaps 
 you could make a capital thing out of this new industry, 
 and enable my friends to do the same. You are aware 
 that naphtha is now largely used for adding to the 
 illuminating power of gas, and that the tar residue is a 
 valuable product. 
 
 Mr Young contracted to take all the product of this 
 spring, out of which he manufactured illuminating oils and 
 lubricating oil. One cold day Mr Young brought to me 
 the oil in a turbid condition, to ask the cause of the 
 cloudiness. It was obvious that it was due to the then 
 rare substance called paraffin. He extracted enough, at 
 my suggestion, to make two candles, with which I lighted 
 my desk at the Royal Institution during a lecture on 
 petroleum and its products. These two candles, which 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 103 
 
 then cost about twenty shillings each, are the fathers of 
 the great paraffin industry, and of the cheap candles now 
 found in every house, just as the small spring of naphtha 
 in Derbyshire became the parent of the gigantic petroleum 
 industry all over the world. At the Glasgow Exhibition of 
 1 888, Youngs Paraffin Oil Company had a large display, 
 in which they showed the original letter given above, with 
 a bust of myself by Brodie in paraffin ! My friend Young 
 made — as he richly deserved to do — a large fortune out of 
 the industry. 
 
 From 1847 to 1849 my life was that of a professor in 
 the Royal School ot Mines, with little incident. It is true 
 that even in these years the Government required my 
 services on Royal Commissions. In 1848-9 a serious 
 epidemic of cholera prevailed in the United Kingdom. I 
 offered myself as a volunteer to the overworked Board 
 of Health, and went to several large towns to organise 
 house-to-house visitations. After putting the town as 
 much as possible in a good sanitary condition, the civic 
 authorities were induced to divide the town into districts, 
 and to visit each house daily to ascertain whether there 
 were any premonitory symptoms of diarrhoea. The 
 visitor was entrusted with simple medicines to check 
 diarrhoea, and then reported the cases to the Health 
 Officer. Where these precautions were carried out the 
 cholera made little headway, and was shown to be a 
 disease which could be largely prevented, though it was 
 difficult to combat if it took root in a locality. 
 
 In 1848 I was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, an 
 honour which is always appreciated by workers in science. 
 This year, 1848, will be remembered for the revolutionary 
 disturbances in Europe. At one time it appeared as if 
 England would be drawn into the revolutionary whirlpool. 
 The great Chartist demonstration on the 10th of April, 
 1848, was formidable. The Chartists assembled in 
 enormous numbers to march to the House of Commons 
 across Westminster Bridge, but the Duke of Wellington 
 had made such skilful arrangement of the troops, 
 although they were chiefly concealed from public view, 
 
104 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 that the Chartists recognised the fact that they were 
 defeated. 
 
 The late Lord Salisbury was then Aide-de-Camp to the 
 Duke, and he told me that when the Chartists began their 
 march he galloped in great anxiety to the Duke at the 
 Horse Guards, and found him reading the morning paper. 
 He lifted his head for a moment, and said, “ How far are 
 they now from the bridge ? " (Westminster Bridge). 
 Lord Salisbury replied, “ One mile and a half, sir." The 
 great Duke said, “Tell me when they are within one 
 quarter of a mile," and he became absorbed in his paper. 
 The Marquis of Salisbury went back to observe. When 
 the procession reached the appointed distance he galloped 
 back to the Horse Guards, and again found the iron Duke 
 quietly reading. “ Well ? " said the Duke. Lord Salis- 
 bury reported that the procession was breaking up, and 
 that only small detached bodies of Chartists were crossing 
 the bridge. “ Exactly what I expected," said the Duke, 
 and returned to his paper. Immense preparations, 
 however, had been made for that day. Many thousand 
 civilians were sworn in as special constables, and furnished 
 with batons. Even the future Napoleon III. was enrolled 
 as a private constable. Sir Henry de la Beche and I 
 were ordered to patrol Whitehall, and to pass through 
 Scotland Yard to the Strand. We felt the absurdity of 
 having to take charge of the headquarters of the police, so 
 we concealed our batons under our coats. Our orders 
 were peremptory that we were to take into custody 
 any persons carrying arms. We met a pretty nursemaid 
 with a child of four years of age carrying a drum and tin 
 sword, and, much to the amusement of the former, as well 
 as of the police, we took them into police headquarters. 
 
 After that we received permission to withdraw from our 
 absurd patrol. 
 
 In 1848, and for some years previously, I eked out a 
 small income by writing leaders for various newspapers, 
 and used to write for the ‘ Morning Chronicle,’ the ‘ Daily 
 News,’ and the 1 Athenaeum.’ The 1 Daily News ’ was an 
 energetic paper, and had acquired much celebrity for its 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 105 
 
 early Continental news. It had already an efficient 
 correspondent in Paris, but its editor thought I might be 
 useful in gathering information during the great week of 
 insurrection and hard fighting in June, 1848. The fighting 
 had been going on for two days before I started for Paris 
 with some friends. We were stopped at Amiens, as all 
 trains were taken up by troops hastening to Paris. 
 However, we made friends with a general, and went up 
 with a long train filled with troops, who sang patriotic 
 songs all through the day. On approaching Paris we 
 heard rumours that the station was in possession of the 
 insurgents, and that artillery was in position to fire on the 
 train. The train, therefore, proceeded cautiously until the 
 rumour was found to be false. Strangers could get little 
 view of the fighting during its course, because the sentinels 
 would not let them approach near the contested parts of 
 Paris. In fact, my visit would have proved without 
 incident had it not been for an accident. I had gone 
 across the Seine in the afternoon to inquire of an English 
 lady, who was married to a French officer, whether she 
 had news of her husband, who was attached to the staff of 
 General Cavaignac. As it became dark before my return, 
 the sentinels at the bridge refused to allow me to pass. 
 Ultimately, an officer of high rank gave me the requisite 
 permission. I had heard musketry firing in the Place 
 du Carrousel, which I had to traverse on my way to 
 the Hotel Meurice. The cellars of the Tuileries had been 
 overcrowded with prisoners, who were being removed, 
 when they seized the piled-up muskets of the soldiers and 
 tried to escape. The former were soon shot. 
 
 All the streets leading out of the Place had lines of 
 sentinels across them, and in trying to pass one of these I 
 was arrested and taken to the guardhouse. The officers 
 there were polite, and brought me coffee, and stated that 
 they would represent my detention to the general on his 
 arrival. The latter, however, was more suspicious of my 
 intentions than his officers, and was inclined to treat me 
 as an insurgent. I was told to shut my hands, and then 
 to open them, but they did not smell of gunpowder. 
 
io 6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Fortunately, I had a letter in my pocket from Lord 
 Palmerston to the English Ambassador which I had not 
 delivered. I handed this to the general, who, luckily, 
 could not read English, for the subject of the letter was to 
 ask the ambassador to assist me in finding out what was 
 the composition of the “ boulet asphyxien ” of the French 
 army. The letter was viewed as a credential, and a guard 
 was given me to take me in safety to the hotel. 
 
 For the week that we were in Paris the only meat at 
 the hotels consisted of horseflesh, though I do not think 
 any of the guests knew this at the time. Except that I 
 got a good knowledge as to how barricades are built, and 
 how excited a population becomes in an insurrection, I 
 learned few lessons in Paris. 
 
 In the year 1848 I used frequently to meet Louis Blanc, 
 and, like all who knew him, admired his honesty and 
 simplicity of character. One day I found him highly 
 excited. He had been summoned to Brighton by 
 telegraph to see an important person who might be 
 able to do good to France. With him he had a very 
 satisfactory interview, and engaged to meet him that 
 night in Leicester Square at the hotel of the “ Prince de 
 Galles.” This personage was Louis Napoleon. 
 
 On going to the hotel, considerable delay was shown in 
 admitting Louis Blanc to the room of the Prince, and 
 during the period of his waiting many persons saw and 
 conversed with the well-known Republican. At last, on 
 his being admitted, the Prince talked vague generalities 
 altogether different from the conversation at Brighton. 
 Louis Blanc saw that he had been duped, because the 
 purpose of this public visit was to show that there was an 
 understanding between the Prince and the leaders of the 
 active Republicans, so as to secure the votes of the latter 
 in the pending election of the President. Louis Blanc 
 told me that he expressed his indignation in no measured 
 terms, but the astute Prince simply smiled at the success 
 of his trick. 
 
 Little of any interest took place in 1849 to which I need 
 allude, but in 1850 circumstances occurred which plunged 
 
BEGINNING OF LONDON LIFE. 
 
 107 
 
 me again into public work, and ultimately withdrew me 
 from my position as a professor. 
 
 Very few additions need be made to this chapter of 
 Playfair’s Reminiscences. He had entered upon the full 
 service of the State, and was now, as he has told us, 
 constantly employed in connection with public inquiries 
 relating either to the practical application of science to 
 agriculture or other national industries, or to the improve- 
 ment of our sanitary system. Even at the Museum of 
 Geology he discovered that he could render service in the 
 latter field, and we find him in correspondence with Sir 
 Henry de la Beche on the subject of the water supply of 
 Liverpool as early as 1846. 
 
 “The whole matter of the supply of water,” wrote De 
 la Beche, “ is the application of geology and chemistry to 
 the useful purposes of life, and we could prevent much 
 public loss by attention to it. This inquiry (the water 
 supply of Liverpool) is precisely the thing that the 
 combined efforts of the Geological Survey and the 
 Museum may be brought to bear upon ; and if it be 
 altogether rejected by us, the power of showing the good 
 that we could effect in this way may be long postponed.” 
 
 Every day made it clearer to Playfair that his work 
 lay in this practical application of science to the manifold 
 wants of the community. 
 
 During Playfair’s visit to Ireland, for the purpose of 
 collecting information with regard to the potato famine, 
 he received several letters from Sir Robert Peel, all 
 written throughout by Peel himself, and affording proof of 
 the intense interest which the Prime Minister felt in the 
 condition of the distressed country. The letter in which 
 Peel accepted Playfair's advice as to the action to be 
 taken has been printed on a previous page. Peel was, 
 however, anxious to have a personal conference with him. 
 
io8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Sir Robert Peel to Playfair . Whitehall, November io th, 1845. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Will you be good enough, on the 
 receipt of this letter, to see Sir Thomas Fremantle, and 
 ascertain whether it is the wish of the Lord-Lieutenant 
 that you should remain in Dublin for any longer period. 
 If it is not, I think you had better repair to London 
 without delay for the purpose of reporting to Sir James 
 Graham, or to me, for the information of the Government, 
 the result of your observations in the country parts of 
 Ireland, and your latest impressions with regard to the 
 present state of the potato crop, and the prospects for the 
 future. We are to have an interview with Professor 
 Lindley this day. Mr Twistleton will not leave London 
 before Saturday next, and you may, therefore, unless the 
 Lord-Lieutenant wishes you to remain in Ireland, have the 
 opportunity, by returning to London, of personally 
 communicating with me on various matters before his 
 departure. 
 
 Believe me, my dear Sir, 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 
 Robert Peel. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 Becoming a Publicist — Playfair’s Work as a Special Commissioner of the 
 1851 Exhibition. Autobiography : Introduced to the Prince Consort 
 by Sir Robert Peel : Sir Henry Cole : Preparing a New Classification 
 for the Exhibition : A Tour through the Manufacturing Districts : 
 Sir Joseph Paxton: The Exhibition opened: Superintending the 
 
 Awards of the Juries : The Exhibitor and the Queen : The Com- 
 missioners received by Louis Napoleon : Appointed a C.B. and a 
 Gentleman Usher to Prince Albert : The Crystal Palace : An Episcopal 
 Objection to Undraped Statues. Correspondence with the Prince 
 Consort — Investing the Exhibition Surplus — Playfair’s Part in the 
 Negotiations — The Scheme described — Appointed Secretary of the 
 Science and Art Department — Organising the Royal College of 
 Science — A Member of the Athenaeum. 
 
 In the year 1850 Playfair entered definitely upon that 
 which was to be, in many respects, the leading work of his 
 lifetime. Up to this point, although he had been brought 
 into contact with men so eminent as Sir Robert Peel, as 
 well as with the leading men of science of his time, his 
 work had been confined to his own special branch of 
 study, and it was as a man of science only that he was 
 known to the public. But the impression he had made 
 upon Sir Robert Peel was not that of the mere student 
 and investigator of scientific facts. The great statesman 
 had discovered that Playfair was, above all things, a 
 practical man ; that he possessed tact in a degree quite 
 unusual, not only among men of science, but among men 
 of the world ; that he was clear-headed, industrious, a 
 master of detail, and an enthusiast in any task he 
 
no 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 undertook. Above all, Sir Robert Peel had found that 
 Playfair possessed a wonderful power of surmounting 
 difficulties that would have proved formidable to most 
 men. It was these qualities, even more than his 
 undoubted learning in chemistry, that brought Playfair, 
 in the year 1850, into the full service of the public. 
 
 This was the year when the Great Exhibition of 1851 — 
 in many respects the greatest of all exhibitions — was in 
 active preparation. In the next instalment which I shall 
 give of Playfair's own Reminiscences, the story of that 
 Exhibition and of his connection with it will be told by 
 himself. But the narrative is incomplete in many 
 respects. Above all, it is incomplete in its failure to do 
 justice to the extent of the services which the writer 
 rendered in bringing the great enterprise to a successful 
 issue. The Exhibition of 1851 was not an incident that, 
 having attracted the attention of the world for a few 
 months, passed forthwith into oblivion. It was the 
 starting-point in the modem history of English manufac- 
 tures and arts. Even more was it the starting-point in 
 scientific education in this country. Not only did it give 
 an enormous impetus to the movement in favour of the 
 reform of our industrial methods, but it furnished means 
 by which that movement has since been carried forward 
 with a success that has revolutionised our system of 
 technical instruction. “ The Commissioners of the 1851 
 Exhibition" is a phrase which is now familiar to every- 
 body, and it is one that is associated with the origin and 
 development of some of our most important institutions 
 for practical teaching. The 1851 Commissioners may 
 almost be called the “ good fairies " who have secured for 
 English industry and English art the position which they 
 now hold in the world. From 1850 down to 1895 
 Playfair was constantly associated with the labours of this 
 body. More than almost any other man, he represented 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 its spirit and helped on its work. Before the story of 
 his life is brought to a close, the reader will see how 
 important and valuable were the services which he 
 rendered to the Commissioners, and through the Commis- 
 sioners to the public at large. It is no exaggeration to 
 say that after 1850 this was, upon the whole, the most 
 useful of all the tasks to which Playfair devoted his 
 superabundant energy and his unique talents. 
 
 I shall leave him to tell for himself the story of the 
 manner in which he first became connected with the 
 project of the Great Exhibition. It is only necessary at 
 this point to touch upon its important bearing upon his 
 own career. The first consequence of his new position as 
 a member of the Commission for the Exhibition was to 
 bring him into close contact with the Prince Consort. 
 Playfair has done justice in his own writings to the 
 exalted mind of a prince whose character and services his 
 adopted country has not even yet fully appreciated. But 
 it was not only with the Prince Consort that Playfair was 
 brought in contact by his work in connection with the 
 Exhibition. Lord Granville, who, as President of the 
 Board of Trade, played a conspicuous part in the great 
 enterprise, was thrown into close association with him, and 
 between the two men a warm friendship sprang up, which 
 only ended with death. Many eminent politicians of both 
 parties were associated with the preparations for the 
 Exhibition, and Playfair's circle of acquaintances in 1850 
 thus became greatly enlarged. In short, he emerged from 
 the relative obscurity of a man of science engaged in the 
 work of a public department, and came into the full blaze 
 of light that beats upon those men who are actively 
 engaged in national affairs of the widest interest. It 
 is time, however, to give Playfair's own account of the 
 Great Exhibition, and his share in its success. 
 
II 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — V. 
 
 1850 to 1851. 
 
 Great preparations were now being made for the Great 
 Exhibition, which was to open in May, 1851. I had 
 nothing to do with the inception or original preparations 
 for this undertaking. Various persons claim the merit of 
 suggesting that an Exhibition which was at first started as 
 one for national industries should be made international, 
 and embrace the manufactures of all nations. My own 
 belief is that the suggestion originated with the Prince 
 Consort in consultation with Sir Henry Cole. The 
 Society of Arts organised a committee to carry it out, the 
 active members being Sir H. Cole, Sir Wentworth Dilke, 
 Mr Fuller, and Mr Scott Russell, the eminent naval 
 architect and engineer. It was soon found that the 
 undertaking was too great for management by the Society 
 of Arts, and a Royal Commission was issued containing 
 the most eminent statesmen of both political parties. 
 Outside this Commission there was an executive com- 
 mittee, chiefly composed of the men already mentioned 
 as having been selected by the Society of Arts. I was not 
 a member of either body, and only interested myself in 
 the great undertaking as one of the general public. The 
 industrial classes hung back, and did not give it that 
 support which was absolutely necessary for its success. 
 The Government became anxious, as the Prince Consort 
 was deeply pledged lor its success, and the Queen was 
 naturally uneasy. The Prime Minister, Lord John Russell, 
 had anxious consultations with his colleagues, and Lord 
 Granville was deputed to enter into negotiations with me 
 to become “ Special Commissioner ” and a member of the 
 Executive Committee. 
 
 The purpose of this appointment was to have a member 
 of the Executive in attendance at the meetings of the 
 Royal Commission, so as to keep the Consultative Com- 
 mission and the Executive en rapport. I pointed out how 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 113 
 
 difficult it would be to work under such an arrangement, 
 as it would lead to perpetual jealousies. I had another 
 objection, that it would remove me for two years from my 
 scientific duties, and would probably change my whole 
 course in life, by making me a public man rather than a 
 scientific professor. These objections received the support 
 of Sir Henry de la Beche, my immediate chief, and of all 
 the body of professors at the School of Mines, who did 
 not wish their educational course to be weakened by my 
 withdrawal. Lord Granville, whom I then knew for the 
 first time, but who afterwards became my valued friend, 
 was much disappointed at the failure of his negotiations. 
 Sir Robert Peel, who was a general supporter of the 
 Government, and very anxious for the success of the 
 Exhibition, then urged that he had a claim upon my 
 services, on account of our past relations. This was an 
 argument which I could not resist, as I owed everything 
 to his kindness. He then took me to the Prince Consort, 
 expressing his entire confidence in me, and assuring the 
 Prince that he would find me able to carry out the 
 duties which were proposed. I had only on one previous 
 occasion seen the Prince Consort. His Royal Highness 
 had invented a method of infiltration for sewage, so as to 
 keep back the fertile ingredients and allow the effluent 
 water to pass away. Sir Robert . Peel had advised 
 the Prince, before publishing this invention, to explain 
 it to me, and to be guided by my opinion as to 
 its merits. This interview had taken place before these 
 negotiations about the Exhibition, and I fancy now 
 that this reference to me was chiefly to let the Prince 
 see the man who, the Government and Sir Robert 
 thought, should be engaged to co-operate with him in 
 the difficult task of carrying out a great International 
 Exhibition. 
 
 At our second interview the Prince explained all the 
 difficulties which were then experienced, and his con- 
 fidence that they could be surmounted if the Royal 
 Commission had the aid of a member of the Executive in 
 whom they had entire confidence. I again pointed out 
 
 1 
 
ii 4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 how difficult it would be for me to be in a different 
 position from the other members of the Executive, but 
 placed myself at the disposal of the Royal President. 
 
 I made a condition with Sir Robert Peel that if I 
 accepted office he would permit me to consult him in 
 any serious difficulties. Many of these occurred, and he 
 encouraged me to visit him. Some of them were with the 
 large manufacturing communities, which desired their own 
 conditions, not always in the interests of the public. On 
 these occasions Sir Robert Peel and Lord Granville used 
 to be present at the deputations, and aided much by their 
 tact and sagacity in meeting or refusing these requests. 
 On the morning of the 27th of June, 1850, I had a long 
 interview with Sir Robert Peel on the affairs of the 
 Exhibition, and in the afternoon all England knew of the 
 accident which led to the speedy death of that great man, 
 perhaps the greatest Parliamentarian that England ever 
 had. I mourned with the public, but I had also to mourn 
 the loss of one who had long honoured me with his 
 friendship. 
 
 The mainspring of the Exhibition from first to last was 
 Sir Henry Cole. He was a man of remarkable energy 
 and ability, and had no other object in regard to any work 
 in which he was engaged than the best method of ensuring 
 its success. He has often been accused of working with 
 selfish motives. Never was an accusation more un- 
 founded. The public good was always the uppermost — I 
 might almost say the only — motive in his mind. He was 
 constantly misjudged, because his modes of work were not 
 always on the surface. If he came to an obstacle, it was 
 his delight to tunnel under it in secret, and unexpectedly 
 come out at the other side. His purposes were, therefore, 
 not unfrequently misunderstood, and when I joined the 
 Executive there was much want of confidence between it 
 and the Royal Commission. This was unjust to Cole, 
 with whom I was constantly associated to the end of 
 his life, and for whom I had a sincere respect. 
 
 When I joined the Executive of the Exhibition, Sir 
 Henry Cole scarcely knew me, and, like the other 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 115 
 
 members, was naturally displeased that I was placed in a 
 position of confidence superior to theirs. On the second 
 day after my appointment, I met Sir Henry Cole in 
 Whitehall, at the door of the Home Office. He told me 
 frankly that he was going to see the Secretary of State to 
 resign his connection with the Exhibition, and that his 
 letter of resignation was then in his pocket. I took his 
 arm, and walked up and down Whitehall. On asking him 
 whether he believed the ship was sinking, and that the 
 Exhibition would be a total failure, he frankly admitted 
 that he did, as the state of indifference of the manu- 
 facturing districts rendered failure almost certain. I then 
 urged that as he was the real pilot of the vessel, it was a 
 wrong act to desert the sinking ship. The country could 
 be aroused to the importance of the undertaking, and my 
 work could be well separated from his, for I intended to 
 visit the chief manufacturing centres, in order to create 
 a public opinion in its support. Our conversation was 
 mutually satisfactory, and we walked to the Exhibition 
 office together, and his letter of resignation was destroyed. 
 Had the accidental meeting not taken place, the Great 
 Exhibition would never have been held, for its mainspring 
 would have been broken. After this interview, if 
 jealousies still continued, none were ever shown, for all 
 the members of the Executive worked loyally to bring the 
 undertaking to a successful issue. 
 
 The classification of the intended Exhibition when I 
 joined it was the following : — 
 
 1. The Raw Materials of industry. 
 
 2. The Manufactures made from them. 
 
 3. The Art employed to adorn them. 
 
 The philosophical mind of the Prince Consort held 
 tenaciously to this classification. I, however, strongly 
 urged that, though it was philosophical, it was not 
 practical, and that its theoretical character was, perhaps, 
 the chief cause of the want of sympathy between the 
 promoters and the manufacturers. All the classes of 
 objects to be displayed ran into each other in every 
 
II 6 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 manufacture. Iron ore, for instance, was the raw material 
 for cast iron, while the latter was the raw material for all 
 industries in iron. I prepared, with great labour, a new 
 classification by dividing manufactures into twenty-nine 
 classes, each of which were subdivided into subsections 
 representing the distinct industries. This classification 
 was submitted to leading manufacturers in all the classes, 
 and was revised according to their criticisms. By it we 
 were enabled to see, as the work progressed, whether 
 the Exhibition was deficient in certain industries, and 
 the gaps w r ere filled up by writing to producers. 
 
 This classification, the first attempted of industrial work, 
 met with great success, and had the good fortune to be 
 highly commended by Whewell and Babbage, both masters 
 in classification. Ultimately, it was thoroughly adopted 
 by the Prince Consort and the Royal Commission. It had 
 still to be approved by the foreign Commissions. France 
 alone made some objections, as the French Commission 
 had drawn out a logical and philosophical classification for 
 itself. In discussing the tw^o classifications wfith the 
 French Commission, I pointed out that the best must be 
 the one wdiich the manufacturers could most readily 
 understand, and I suggested that we should fix upon any 
 common object, and see w r ho could most quickly find it in 
 an appropriate division. My French colleague had a 
 handsome walking-stick in his hand, and proposed that 
 this should be the test. Turning to my class of “ Miscel- 
 laneous objects/’ under the subsection “ Objects for 
 personal use,” I readily found a walking-stick. The 
 French Commissioner searched his logical classification for 
 a long time in vain, but ultimately found the familiar 
 object under a subsection, “ Machines for the propagation 
 of direct motion.” He laughed heartily, and agreed to 
 work under the English classification. 
 
 The new classification was sent to all the leading 
 manufacturers in the United Kingdom, and produced a 
 marked change in favour of the Exhibition. They now- 
 knew the nature and the objects of the undertaking, and 
 began to prepare for taking part in it. I followed this 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 117 
 
 up by making an extensive tour through all the manu- 
 facturing districts. I used to call on the leading manu- 
 facturers, and, after having secured their co-operation, a 
 meeting was summoned of the civic authorities, the 
 Members of Parliament for the district, and the manu- 
 facturers, to give a full explanation of the purposes of the 
 Exhibition, and to remove the difficulties which they 
 might experience. Lancashire hung back, but Cobden 
 came to my rescue, and was of material assistance in 
 producing a better feeling. This was my first introduction 
 to this great statesman, of whom I used to see a good deal 
 in the remaining years of his life. Like everyone who 
 knew him, I was much impressed by his singleness of 
 purpose and his tact in overcoming difficulties. These 
 conferences soon created the public support so necessary 
 for the success of the Great Exhibition. 
 
 Innumerable difficulties had yet to be removed, in spite 
 of the personal attention which the Prince Consort gave 
 to the work of the Royal Commission. The Government 
 provided no funds, and the amount of subscriptions was 
 ridiculously small. Sir Henry Cole proposed a guarantee 
 fund of a large amount, to enable us to erect the necessary 
 buildings and to meet the large expenses of preparation. 
 Mr Morton Peto (afterwards made a baronet) commenced 
 the fund by a bold signature for £ 50 , 000 . We then took 
 this paper to the Prince Consort, who said that he would 
 sign for £ 20,000 if the members of the Executive 
 individually showed their faith in the undertaking by 
 attaching their signatures, which we did for ^1,000 each. 
 After that the guarantee fund grew so rapidly that there 
 were no further difficulties in the way of finance, for the 
 Bank of England supplied us with money on the security 
 of the signatures. 
 
 I am not writing, however, a history of the Exhibition, 
 but only an account of my personal connection with it. 
 One of our difficulties was in regard to the building. Sir 
 Joseph Paxton had been called into consultation, and 
 proposed a palace of iron and glass. There were, 
 however, difficulties as to this, the main one being that in 
 
ii 8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the centre of the ground in Hyde Park devoted to the 
 building there were three large trees which the Commis- 
 sioners of Woods and Forests would not allow to be cut 
 down. I had spent the greater part of the day at 
 Buckingham Palace with the Prince Consort, examining 
 the plans for the building, when Paxton proposed to 
 obviate the difficulty of the trees by throwing a gigantic 
 dome over them. The question arose whether this would 
 kill the trees, and I offered to drive to Turnham Green, 
 where Lindley, the botanist, resided, to obtain his opinion. 
 This was distinctly favourable to Paxton’s proposal, and 
 on returning in the evening to the Palace this great 
 feature of the Exhibition building was finally arranged. 
 It was reared with wonderful rapidity, and people began 
 to believe that the Great Exhibition would be at last 
 realised. 
 
 But even then the croakers would not cease to frighten 
 the public. Alarms which now seem puerile and absurd 
 were seriously entertained, and had to be dissipated. 
 The great influx of people frcm abroad was to produce 
 frightful epidemics — perhaps black death, certainly 
 cholera. The large immigration of foreigners, on the 
 pretence of seeing the Exhibition, was to be used as a 
 conspiracy to seize London and sack the great capital. 
 Our industries were to be destroyed by a taste for foreign 
 goods being created, and England’s future greatness was 
 to be imperilled to gratify the wish of the foreign Prince 
 who had married the Queen. When the Prince Consort 
 should have been most popular for his unremitting 
 exertions to bring his great conception to a successful 
 issue, he had to encounter the hostility of the aristocracy 
 and the absurd alarms of the middle classes. A literary 
 squib which appeared in a provincial paper helped to allay 
 these foolish fears. The Exhibition was far advanced, the 
 objects were being arranged in their cases, and a few days 
 only had to elapse before the State Opening, when a new 
 scare arose. This was that the three large trees in the 
 dome harboured so many sparrows that all the rich goods 
 displayed would be spoiled by them. The provincial 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 119 
 
 journal to which I alluded gave the following amusing 
 satire on the final scare : — 
 
 “ The Prince Consort was in the breakfast-room at Buckingham 
 Palace, moody and unhappy, when the Queen asked the cause of 
 his woe. He explained that after innumerable difficulties had been 
 removed, the sparrows had appeared in such numbers in the 
 Exhibition as to destroy all hope of displaying valuable goods. 
 The Queen then asked whether the Prince Consort had consulted 
 Playfair, and was assured that he had no advice to offer. There- 
 upon she suggested that Lord John Russell should be sent for. On 
 his arrival at Buckingham Palace, the Prince Consort explained the 
 difficulties in regard to the sparrows, and his lordship at once 
 suggested that her Majesty’s Guards should be sent into the 
 building to shoot them. The Prince pointed out that this was an 
 unpractical suggestion, as the result must be that the palace of 
 glass would be destroyed. Lord John Russell then suggested that 
 Lord Palmerston should be called into consultation. When that 
 great statesman arrived he smiled at the difficulty, and proposed 
 that birdlime should be put on the branches of the trees. The 
 Prince Consort observed that this proposal was equally useless, 
 because the sparrows no longer roosted on the trees, but preferred 
 sitting on the iron girders of the building. Lord John Russell and 
 Lord Palmerston now withdrew for a consultation, and finally 
 recommended that the Duke of Wellington should be summoned. 
 A messenger was accordingly despatched to Apsley House, and 
 found that great warrior and statesman in the act of leaving home 
 for the Horse Guards. The Iron Duke was annoyed at being 
 summoned for such an object, and wrote the following letter: — 
 ‘ Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington presents his humble duty 
 to her Majesty. The Duke of Wellington has the honour to be 
 Commander-in-Chief to her Majesty’s Forces, but the Duke of 
 Wellington is not a bird catcher.’ The Duke had no sooner sent 
 the letter than he repented, and, mounting his horse, overtook the 
 messenger, and, taking back his letter, presented himself at 
 Buckingham Palace. The Queen received him with effusion, and 
 the Prince Consort recovered from his despondency. The three 
 Privy Councillors withdrew for a consultation, and on their return 
 the Duke of Wellington oracularly uttered the word, ‘ Sparrow- 
 hawks.’ In the meantime the sparrows had sent out scouts. 
 When they heard that Lord John Russell had been summoned they 
 twittered, and seemed to be amused. When Lord Palmerston 
 went they showed signs of anxiety, but ultimately flew about as 
 usual. When their scouts informed them that the Duke of 
 Wellington had gone to the Palace, all the sparrows congregated in 
 the tree nearest to the door, and as soon as the advice of sparrow- 
 
120 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 hawks was communicated they flew in a body out of the door, and 
 the Exhibition was never again troubled with their presence.” 
 
 This jeu desprit was the end of our panics, and in a few 
 days the Great Exhibition was opened in state. 
 
 There are still many living who recollect that magnifi- 
 cent ceremony. The dais upon which the Queen and 
 Royal Family stood with their suite was behind the 
 crystal fountain. The trees in full leaf under the high 
 dome, the brilliant uniforms of the Commissioners of all 
 nations, and the vast crowd which filled the entire 
 Exhibition, formed a sight not to be forgotten by those 
 who witnessed it, and familiar to the present generation 
 from numerous engravings. A large choir led by Dr 
 Wylde sang “ God Save the Queen " and the “ Hallelujah 
 Chorus/' The latter was most impressive, and during it 
 a strange incident occurred. A Chinaman, dressed in 
 magnificent robes, suddenly emerged from the crowd and 
 prostrated himself before the throne. Who he was 
 nobody knew. He might possibly be the Emperor of 
 China himself who had come secretly to the ceremony, 
 but it was certain that he was not in the programme of 
 the procession, and we who were in charge of the 
 ceremony did not know where to place His Celestial 
 Highness. The Lord Chamberlain was equally perplexed, 
 and asked the Queen and the Prince Consort for instruc- 
 tions. We were then told that there must be no mistake 
 as to his rank, and that it would be best to place him 
 between the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Duke of 
 Wellington. In this dignified position he marched 
 through the building, to the delight and amazement of all 
 beholders. Next day we ascertained that this Chinaman 
 was keeper of a Chinese junk that had been sent over to 
 lie in the River Thames, and which anyone could visit on 
 payment of a shilling ! 
 
 There have been many Exhibitions since 1851, and all 
 have been opened with State pageants, but none has 
 ever impressed me with the magnificence of this first 
 Exhibition. Of course, it had the charm of novelty, and 
 this may have been the chief cause of the difference in 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 1 2 1 
 
 effect. My principal work after the opening of the 
 Exhibition was to superintend the awards of the juries. I 
 was entrusted with the organisation of the juries, which 
 consisted of men of all nations. The classes were 
 distributed into groups. A chairman was appointed to 
 each class, and a separate, distinguished chairman to each 
 group. The Chairmen of the Groups formed a Council, 
 which revised the decisions, and was a Court of Appeal. 
 The system worked easily, and there were few serious 
 difficulties, although there were necessarily some from the 
 conflicting national interests. I reserved to myself the 
 right to attend the meetings both of the juries and the 
 Council, but only did so when disputes arose, so that I 
 got nicknamed the “ Stormy Petrel," my presence in- 
 dicating that there was difficulty, which, however, was 
 always removed by tact and judgment. 
 
 The Queen and Prince Consort, with the Royal children, 
 were constant visitors to the Exhibition. Numerous 
 incidents of their visits are recalled to my memory. I will 
 only mention one of them. An engraver on glass had 
 spent two or three years on a jar which was divided into 
 compartments. He constantly asked me to draw the 
 attention of the Queen to his magnum opus . On one 
 occasion the Royal party passed his stall without stopping. 
 I saw that the exhibitor was in despair, and I asked Her 
 Majesty whether she would kindly go back, which she 
 graciously did. But the exhibitor had now lost all self- 
 possession, and was confused in explaining the meaning of 
 his engravings. To help him, the Queen pointed to a 
 compartment which represented a boy jumping out of a 
 boat to the land, while a large eye peered out of an 
 overhanging cloud. The Queen desired him to explain 
 what was meant. The reply was startling : “ The boy, 
 madam, is the Prince of Wales, and the eye is the Eye of 
 God looking out with pleasure for the moment when His 
 Royal Highness will land on his kingdom and become the 
 reigning Sovereign ! ” The gentlemen in attendance were 
 aghast, but the Queen preserved her countenance till we 
 left the stall, when both she and the Prince Consort 
 
122 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 laughed heartily. The latter told me that he only knew 
 one parallel incident. George IV had taken a fancy to a 
 beautiful but silly young lady, and had her frequently near 
 him. On asking her whether she was pleased with the 
 Court festivities, she replied that she was, but that she was 
 dying to see a coronation. 
 
 The children of the Royal Family were sent constantly 
 to the Exhibition as a place of instruction, and their visits 
 were so arranged that they should acquire some general 
 knowledge of manufactures. The present Empress 
 Frederick of Germany was then a particularly bright child, 
 and enjoyed her visits, and profited by them. The Prince 
 of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh were also constant 
 visitors, and took interest in what the3 T saw. Perhaps the 
 lessons learned while a child have helped the Prince of 
 Wales to achieve his great success as President and 
 organiser of the various succeeding Exhibitions which 
 have been brought out under his direction. 
 
 In August (1851) the French Government invited the 
 Commissioners to Paris, where we were splendidty 
 entertained. The President, Louis Napoleon, gave a fete 
 at St. Cloud, when a singular incident occurred. The 
 orangery was converted into a refreshment room, and the 
 guests, being hungry, were anxious that it should be 
 opened. Suddenly, and in breach of all discipline, the 
 soldiers broke into it and consumed the viands. I made 
 friends with one of the soldiers, and he handed me a fowl, 
 a bottle of champagne, and bread. I was returning with 
 this booty to share with some friends, when I met Lord 
 Granville, who told me it was all arranged, and that a 
 new lunch would be provided for us. I returned my 
 capture, and in due time another lunch made its 
 appearance. This was a singular bid for popularity among 
 the soldiers by the President, who before the end of the 
 year was to use the arm) T in the coup d'etat. The fete 
 was a brilliant one, and was scarcely marred by an 
 incident which at one time appeared to be destructive of 
 its success. 
 
 The visits of the Royal children to the Exhibition 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 123 
 
 naturally brought me into constant contact with them, 
 and laid the basis of that courteous and kindly feeling 
 which they have always since shown me. 
 
 It is well known that the Great Exhibition was a 
 financial success, and that the surplus was about .£180,000. 
 This was wisely invested in land at South Kensington 
 by the advice of the Prince Consort. It has increased 
 enormously in value. This land is still vested in the 
 Royal Commissioners who carried out the Exhibition, and 
 they have given sites on it to numerous public buildings. 
 Upon the land are built large galleries for museums and 
 pictures, and in addition to these are now built the South 
 Kensington Museum, the Natural History Museum, the 
 Government Schools of Science and Art, the Royal Albert 
 Hall, the Royal College of Music, the Imperial Institute, 
 the Alexandra Home for Female Students, the City and 
 Guilds of London Institute, the School of Art Needlework, 
 and other institutions. 
 
 When the Great Exhibition closed, the Government 
 offered me a Knighthood or the Companionship of the 
 Bath. I selected the latter. The French Government 
 also offered to make me Officer of the Legion of Honour, 
 but this honour I at that time declined, as I was in the 
 employment of the English Government. 
 
 The Prince Consort wrote the following letter : — 
 
 Windsor Castle. 
 
 The Prince Consort to Playfair. October 1 5th, 1851. 
 
 My dear Dr Playfair, — I had meant on this day to 
 present you with a gold medal as a remembrance of our 
 labours for the Exhibition which has this day been so 
 happily closed, but the medallist has disappointed me. I 
 have accordingly to do what you had to advise the 
 Commission to do with their prize medals — viz., to 
 announce that it will be forthcoming. 
 
 Colonel Reid has, upon his appointment to the governor- 
 ship of Malta, resigned the office of Gentleman Usher 
 which he held in my household. It would be very 
 pleasing to me if by your accepting the office my personal 
 
I2 4 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 connection with you should be continued. There are no 
 duties attached to the office, except occasional attendance 
 at the Queen’s Levees and Drawing-Rooms, and the salary 
 is insignificant. You, therefore, must look on my offer 
 only as an expression of my sense of the ability and zeal 
 with which you have performed very important and 
 difficult duties. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 Albert. 
 
 I accepted this office in the household of the Prince 
 Consort. The duties were almost nominal, but the 
 attachment to his service gave me the privilege of being 
 frequently associated with this illustrious Prince in many 
 of the works which he undertook to promote education, 
 science, and art. It was most agreeable to me to retain 
 an official connection with the Prince Consort, for whom I 
 entertained a sincere affection, as well as a profound 
 respect. In all my future intercourse with the Prince, I 
 never on any occasion saw him animated by a single 
 desire that was not connected with the public weal of that 
 country which he had thoroughly adopted as his own 
 when he married the Queen. I have been with him when 
 he was pained by his temporary unpopularity with the 
 nation, which has always shown itself intolerant of foreign 
 princes ; but even then he never murmured against his 
 detractors, and felt confidence that the public would 
 ultimately do him justice. His memory is now held in 
 sacred esteem by all classes, but only those who had 
 the honour of his confidence can fully know the purity, 
 nobility, and simplicity of his character. 
 
 After the close of the Exhibition, very lively discussions 
 took place as to what should be done with the building. 
 A pamphlet appeared by “ Denarius ” strongly urging that 
 it should be kept in Hyde Park as a palace for the people. 
 It was obvious that the author of the pamphlet was Sir 
 Henry Cole, and while it was being discussed in the Royal 
 Commission, Lord Derby, the translator of the ' Iliad,' 
 turned to me in the most innocent way, saying, “ Playfair, 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 125 
 
 my classical education has been neglected. Could you 
 tell me whether ( Denarius’ is the Latin for coal?” In 
 spite of Sir Henry Cole’s advocacy, the building was taken 
 down and transferred to Sydenham, where it formed the 
 materials for the Crystal Palace. That was built with 
 wonderful rapidity, and was opened in 1854. Although I 
 am advancing beyond the limits of date of this chapter, I 
 may say a few words in regard to the State opening. 
 Both the Queen and the Prince Consort took the liveliest 
 interest in the new Crystal Palace. In carrying it out, 
 much attention was paid both to art and science. Copies 
 of the great statues all over the world were procured, and 
 in contrast with these beautiful forms an ethnological 
 collection of effigies of savages was distributed in various 
 parts of the building. Of course, in both cases the figures 
 were nude, and just before the opening a memorial, 
 signed by most of the bishops, was sent to the Queen 
 stating that they could not attend the State ceremony 
 unless all the nude statues and ethnological figures were 
 properly draped. The difficulty was formidable, on 
 account of the short period at the disposal of the 
 managers, so the Prince Consort asked me to call on 
 him, in order to get my advice as to whether the desires 
 of the bishops could be carried out within the time. I 
 ventured to suggest that the bishops might be asked for a 
 loan of their aprons during the ceremony ! However, by 
 considerable exertion the statues in the line of the 
 procession were put into the primitive costume of Adam 
 and Eve, while others were dragged into obscure corners, 
 and the Crystal Palace was opened with a brilliant State 
 ceremony, in which the archbishops and bishops joined 
 without offence to their sense of modesty. 
 
 In order fully to understand Playfair’s part in a memor- 
 able chapter of English history, it is necessary to supple- 
 ment his narrative by certain letters which indicate the 
 character and extent ot his work as one of the main 
 agents in the management of the Great Exhibition. At 
 the outset he was brought, as I have already said, into close 
 
126 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 contact with many politicians of eminence, including Lord 
 Granville. His correspondence with Lord Granville was 
 in 1850 voluminous. There was hardly a point connected 
 with the constitution of the juries, the preparation of their 
 reports, and the manner in which their services were to 
 be recognised, that was not submitted by Lord Granville 
 to Playfair. But even more intimate and more constant 
 was the correspondence that was carried on between 
 Playfair and the Prince Consort. As he tells us in his 
 Reminiscences, part of his work in preparing for the 
 Exhibition was to visit the English manufacturing towns 
 in order to remove the misapprehension which prevailed 
 as to the purpose and scope of an enterprise which was at 
 that time wholly novel. 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. Osborne, May 24 th, 1850. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I yesterday received your letter, and 
 3 t ou could understand on your return to London that the 
 removal of the Court was the cause of my delay , in 
 answering it. 
 
 His Royal Highness completely concurs in all you say 
 — both as to the necessity of your completing your visits 
 to the principal English manufacturing towns, where the 
 greatest misapprehension exists as to the views of the Royal 
 Commission, previous to your going to Ireland ; and also as 
 to the propriety of having Colonel Lloyd with you for a 
 week or two, before he is charged with any separate mission. 
 
 H.R.H. has been much gratified by your reports from 
 Leeds and Birmingham to myself and Lord Granville, and 
 desires me to congratulate you on the eminent success 
 which appears to have attended your visits to so man} r 
 important towns. 
 
 We shall be here till the 18th of June, and I shall 
 hope to hear from you from time to time of your further 
 progress. Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 1 27 
 
 Of the substantial character of Playfair's share in mould- 
 ing the machinery of the Exhibition, the following corre- 
 spondence furnishes proof. 
 
 i, Palace Yard, 
 
 Playfair to Colonel Grey . May 1850. 
 
 Dear Sir, — Before leaving for Liverpool, I am anxious 
 to call your attention to the most important and delicate 
 subject still unresolved in connection with the Exhibition 
 of 1851. I allude to the constitution of a central Jury of 
 Appeal and Award. I think we must determine that this 
 jury shall have both these important duties to perform. 
 The feeling of the country is so decidedly in favour of the 
 representative system that it is expedient to start with 
 this principle. The Exhibition being of so vast and varied 
 extent, it is absolutely necessary to have juries of very special 
 qualifications. To procure these, I would suggest the 
 following system for the consideration of His Royal High- 
 ness, not as being the best which could be devised, but 
 as being that which would best chime in with popular 
 feeling. 
 
 The Commission to issue a letter addressed to all 
 Local Committees, both in England and in foreign coun- 
 tries, requesting them to transmit to the Commission the 
 names of those whom they would select as being adequate 
 representatives of the special trades carried on in their 
 several localities. This nominal list would then be classi- 
 fied into a subject-list. Thus all those skilled in silk would 
 be brought together : those skilled in brass-founding, etc. 
 etc. This being done, the Commission is to select six or 
 more names from this list to act as a Special Jury on the 
 particular class of manufacture. Thus in silk the names 
 would comprise the sub-divisions of that trade — as those 
 skilled in silk dresses, silk fringes, silk velvets, etc., the 
 towns having recommended representatives of their 
 peculiar manufacture. 
 
 Classifying the trades, about thirty Special Juries would 
 thus have to be created. Fewer would scarcely do with- 
 out speciality being sacrificed. But as 180 men could not 
 
128 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 act together, and acting separately could not preserve 
 uniformity of action, or procure sufficient respect for their 
 decisions, it is necessary to devise a plan to obviate these 
 difficulties. The plan I would propose is this : — Each 
 Special Jury is to elect a Chairman. The Chairmen of 
 the Special Juries are to associate themselves with repre- 
 sentatives or nominees of the Royal Commission, and this 
 joint body forms a General Council. All decisions of Special 
 Juries are to be submitted to and ratified by this Council 
 before being considered final. In fact the Special Juries 
 represent skill — the General Council, common sense. 
 
 This General Council would not exceed 35 in number. 
 
 . . . Such a Council would command the respect of the 
 
 public, and confidence in its decisions would follow. I 
 need not point to the numerous advantages which would 
 arise from our securing the goodwill of the public in the 
 matter of Juries of Appeal and Award. I submit this plan 
 with all possible deference. It is the best I have been able 
 to think of in endeavouring to unite the popular and aris- 
 tocratic elements, which I think are essential. But I am 
 by no means confident that it is the best system which 
 could be devised. It is by far the most difficult question 
 we have had to deal with, and I am sure His Royal 
 Highness will excuse the liberty I have taken in venturing 
 to draw his attention to so important a subject. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 
 I have the honour to be 
 
 Your obedient Servant, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. Osborne, May 2gth, 1850. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I have this morning received your 
 letter, and have lost no time in submitting it to the 
 Prince. 
 
 His Royal Highness thinks your plan will be an 
 admirable one for constituting a Central Jury of Appeal 
 for this country. But there are strong reasons against 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 129 
 
 giving to the same body the duties both of a Jury of 
 Appeal and of Award. 
 
 In the first place a Jury of Appeal is not required 
 for foreign countries. The Commissions, or other central 
 authorities, appointed by foreign Governments will take 
 upon themselves the responsibility which at home would 
 attach to a Jury of Appeal, of selecting, according to the 
 space allotted to them, the articles to be exhibited by 
 their respective countries. Such a jury, however, is 
 required with us to exercise the control over our Home 
 Contributors which the Commissions appointed by foreign 
 Governments exercise abroad. And the plan you suggest 
 for its constitution seems very good. 
 
 When this jury has executed the duty entrusted to it of 
 controlling and selecting the contributions from home, we 
 shall then be in the same position as foreign countries, 
 where a similar control and selection will already have 
 been exercised under the authority of their respective 
 Governments. 
 
 And then will come the consideration of the best mode 
 of constituting the Juries of Award. 
 
 This is a very important point. It is not only necessary 
 to ensure a fair and impartial decision as far as practicable, 
 but it is also necessary that your fairness and impartiality 
 should be evident to the world. The Juries of Appeal, 
 constituted as you propose, will probably form as good a 
 basis as can be devised from which to select your Juries of 
 Award. But to give to other countries perfect confidence 
 in your impartiality, it will be requisite that a certain pro- 
 portion of their numbers should be foreigners. If you refer 
 to former minutes you will find that such a promise has in 
 fact been given, and that an announcement has also been 
 made that no person should be placed upon such a jury 
 who was himself an exhibitor. 
 
 On these, and other points connected with this subject, 
 H.R.H. would be glad to have an opportunity of talking 
 fully with you before any decision is come to. Perhaps 
 after your return from Liverpool you might be able to run 
 down here ; and I shall be glad if you will tell me, with 
 
 J 
 
130 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the view of fixing some day for your doing so, and also 
 of arranging that Lord Granville should meet you here, 
 what your present arrangements may be. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 It was when the success of the Exhibition had been 
 assured and it was drawing to a close, that the most serious 
 of the questions connected with it forced themselves upon 
 the consideration of the Prince Consort and his advisers. 
 The Exhibition had resulted, as we have seen, in a very 
 large pecuniary profit, amounting in round figures to 
 two hundred thousand pounds. How to dispose of this 
 surplus was the problem that occupied the attention of 
 the Prince Consort and his little band of assistants. That 
 it should be devoted to educational work for the benefit 
 of the public was the fixed determination of the Prince. 
 But many schemes passed in succession through his 
 mind, and many were suggested to him by his advisers, 
 before a solution of a most difficult and delicate problem 
 could be arrived at. Upon one point there seems to have 
 been from the first a pretty general agreement. This was 
 that the surplus fund, instead of being sunk in Consols, 
 should be invested in land. The land, it was believed, if 
 the site were properly selected, might be used for a double 
 purpose. Part of it could be regarded as an investment, 
 and employed for the development of a residential estate, 
 whilst part could be reserved for the erection upon this 
 estate of buildings devoted to the purposes which it had 
 been the object of the promoters of the Great Exhibition 
 to advance. It happened that at this time a most desirable 
 piece of ground in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 spot on which the Exhibition Buildings stood, was for sale. 
 This was the extensive tract of land lying south of Hyde 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 131 
 
 Park and Kensington Gardens, now familiar to everybody 
 as South Kensington. The site attracted the favourable 
 notice of the Prince Consort, and it commended itself 
 to Playfair’s practical judgment. Early in the month 
 of August, 1851, the Prince stated his first rough ideas 
 on the subject of the disposal of the surplus in the 
 following memorandum : — 
 
 I would buy that land, and place on it an Institution 
 embracing the four great sections of the Exhibition, i.e. 
 raw materials, machinery, manufactures, and plastic art. 
 This Institution I would devote to the furtherance of the 
 industrial pursuits of all nations. If I examine what are 
 the means by which improvement and progress can be 
 obtained in any branches of human knowledge, I find 
 them to consist of four. 
 
 First : Personal study from books. 
 
 Second : Oral communication of knowledge by those 
 who possess it to those who wish to acquire it. 
 
 Third : Acquisition of knowledge by ocular observa- 
 tion , comparison, and demonstration. 
 
 Fourth : Exchange of ideas by personal discussion . 
 
 Hence I would provide there in special reference to 
 the wants of each of the four great sections : — 
 
 (1) A library and rooms for study ; 
 
 (2) Lecture rooms ; 
 
 (3) A convenient area covered by glass for the pur- 
 poses of the Exhibition ; 
 
 (4) Rooms for conversazioni, discussions, and in- 
 dustrial meetings. 
 
 The surplus space might be laid out as gardens for 
 public enjoyment and instruction, and be so arranged as 
 to admit of the future erection of public monuments 
 according to a well-arranged plan. 
 
 As this scheme is founded upon the presumed necessity 
 of affording instruction to those engaged in the prosecu- 
 tion of arts and manufactures, it may be desirable that 
 the necessity for this should be shown to be real. The 
 
132 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 many important discoveries of modem times have tended 
 to the cheapening and to the ready acquisition of the raw 
 materials on which manufacturers depend. The improve- 
 ments in locomotion, the increased means offered by 
 science for the extraction, preparation, or culture of the 
 raw material, have lessened the peculiar local advantages 
 of certain nations, and thus have depressed the relative 
 value of the raw material as an element in manufacture ; 
 while they have immensely increased the value of skill 
 and intelligence as the other great element of production. 
 The nations most likely to afford a public recognition ol 
 this fact are those whose fuel and raw materials are chiefly 
 derived from other lands, and who can therefore only carry 
 on a successful competition by continually economising 
 and perfecting production by the applications of science. 
 It is accordingly in those countries, as in France and Ger- 
 many, that we find entire systems of education devoted to 
 those who are charged with industrial pursuits. In France 
 this want has been so strongly felt that, in the midst of 
 free Government Institutions liberally endowed, industry 
 has raised for itself a self-supporting College, UEc'ole 
 Centrale des Arts et Manufactures, which sends annually 
 three hundred highly educated men to impart this science 
 and intelligence to the manufacturers of France. So much 
 is the practical value of this special technical education 
 appreciated by manufacturers, that the certificated pupils 
 of this school are in great demand, not only in France, but 
 in Belgium, and latterly are found in the management of 
 some of our large manufactories in England. 
 
 But as in England the progress of science is daily 
 equalising more the distribution of raw materials, and 
 depriving us of those local advantages upon which we may 
 have been too much accustomed to depend, it is an obvi- 
 ously growing necessity that it should afford to its manu- 
 facturers the means of acquiring that knowledge without 
 which they cannot long keep foremost in the struggle 
 with nations. But it must not be forgotten that the funds 
 with which the new Institution is to be founded are the 
 contribution of all nations, and the establishment of an 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 133 
 
 educational institution must not be merely national, 
 but its advantages must be open to men of all nations. 
 
 It is obviously unnecessary in a preliminary proposal 
 to define those branches of knowledge which such an 
 Institution should embrace, but I would propose to confine 
 it to education of a technical and practical character, and 
 thus be supplementary to, and not a substitute for, the 
 other educational institutions of this country. I would in 
 all cases bear in mind its international character, and, with 
 this view, would bring into close connection with it those 
 societies for the promotion of science, abstract and applied, 
 which in their very nature are cosmopolitan. I find that 
 in England the separate pursuits of industry are repre- 
 sented by a variety of public societies struggling for 
 existence, unconnected with each other, and either unpro- 
 vided with suitable locations or exhausting in providing 
 them those funds which should be applied to the 
 promotion of their respective objects. Could not such 
 societies — or most of them — containing as they do all that 
 this country possesses of talent and experience in their 
 branches, be united in this Institution, reserving to each 
 its individuality and self-supporting and self-maintaining 
 character, but bringing them together under a general roof, 
 and so far asking them to extend their popular influence as 
 to place them in a relation of reciprocal influence with 
 public opinion ? The centralisation of these societies is a 
 want much felt even by many of themselves, and still 
 more by the public, but can only be effected by showing 
 that the facilities offered by this Institution would tend to 
 their own advantage, and certainly to the promotion of 
 those objects for which they are established. As it might 
 be convenient in matters affecting their common interest 
 to have a council consisting of their respective chairmen, 
 such a body might be entrusted with the duty of 
 collecting for the civilised world that general and 
 statistical information, and a collection of the materials 
 from which alone those general laws can be abstracted, 
 guided by which we can hope safely to progress in all 
 branches of civilisation. 
 
134 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 This document calls for no apology on the part of those 
 who hold that the Prince Consort was a great and original 
 labourer in the field of education. I embody it here, 
 however, not merely because of its striking merits, but 
 because it was the germ out of which sprang those great 
 institutions with which Playfair throughout the remainder 
 of his life was so closely connected. The scheme drafted 
 by the Prince Consort, despite its undoubted merits, had 
 obvious defects. Its very catholicity told against it. 
 Whilst everyone was prepared to admit that science is 
 cosmopolitan, there were many who declared that this 
 country was entitled to derive special benefit from the 
 success of an exhibition which had been carried out, not 
 only on English soil, but by the labours of English 
 statesmen and men of action. Long and weary months 
 were spent in discussing the manner in which the Prince’s 
 good intentions could be carried into practical effect. A 
 few of the letters of this period will show Playfair’s part 
 in the discussion of a most momentous question. 
 
 Playfair to Sir Henry de la Beche. August 20 th, 1851. 
 
 ( Confidential .) 
 
 Dear Sir Henry, — At my urgent solicitation at 
 Osborne on Monday, the Prince has consented to post- 
 pone the publication and development of the scheme. 
 It was not sufficiently matured for public adoption, and 
 overlapped our own as well as other institutions, and 
 would have committed him to a course which, opposing 
 other institutions, would have been much criticised. . . . 
 The plan I shadowed out was this : — The schools of 
 design throughout the country might be made centres of 
 education, to which other branches were to be attached. 
 These were to be united with a University of Mines and 
 Manufactures, in London, empowered to grant degrees and 
 diplomas ; and our museum, as representing mines and 
 metallic manufactures, was to be considered one great 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 135 
 
 central college ; and the new central college, principally 
 for the textile manufactures, might be considered the 
 other great central institution. That they were not to be 
 in any way allied more than going before the same Board 
 of Examiners for diplomas, and that in management and 
 education they were to be as distinct as University 
 College and King’s College. I said it was obvious you 
 could take no step now, but that when the scheme was 
 really ripe for execution you might be disposed to enter 
 into negotiations. He repeatedly asked me “what Sir 
 Henry said,” and so I will send your letter ; but I think 
 you should not do more than appear a friendly watcher 
 now, for the ideas are still practically crude, and must be 
 much modified to take with the public ; though, as they 
 are certainly founded on truth, they will certainly be the 
 ultimate ones adopted, and they are not very far from 
 being practical. 
 
 Balmoral, 
 
 Sir Charles Phipps to Playfair. September 27 th, 1851. 
 
 My dear Dr Playfair, — I beg to acknowledge the 
 receipt of your letter of the 26th, which I have submitted 
 to His Royal Highness the Prince. H.R.H. thinks that 
 there would be no harm in endeavouring to ascertain the 
 disposition of the leading members of the learned societies 
 to some system of combined action and centralisation. 
 But it should be carefully provided that neither their 
 assent should be considered in any way to bind to the 
 adoption of any particular plan, nor the objections enter- 
 tained by any of these bodies to present any bar to the 
 carrying out of any project independent of them. 
 
 The longer the Prince considers and weighs the subject 
 of the disposal of the surplus, the more convinced he 
 becomes that no arrangement for its appropriation can be 
 satisfactory that does not include the interests of all the 
 world. The original agreement with the public, which 
 must be adhered to, was that the surplus, if any, should be 
 expended upon objects strictly in unison with the inten- 
 tions and objects of the Exhibition. The distinguishing 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 136 
 
 feature of this Exhibition over all others was that it was 
 for all nations ; and both in maintenance of this principle, 
 and for the ultimate benefit of this country, this great dis- 
 tinction ought to be scrupulously adhered to. 
 
 All plans that have in view the application of the surplus 
 to introducing a system of founding an establishment which 
 already exists in some other countries and not in this, for 
 the benefit of England, are national and not cosmopolitan 
 plans ; and so far diverge from and fall short of the great 
 intention of the Exhibition. 
 
 The surplus has, in fact, been collected from all nations, 
 and justly and honestly claims a proprietary not less ex- 
 tended. In projecting, therefore, modes for the disposal of 
 the surplus, the object must not be so much the founding 
 of institutions through which Great Britain may be raised 
 to an equality, or maintain her superiority over other 
 nations, as tho foundation of some establishment in which, 
 by the application of science and art to industrial pursuits, 
 the industry of all nations may be raised in the scale of 
 human employment ; and where, by the constant inter- 
 change of ideas, experience, and its results, each nation 
 may gain and contribute something. There is no doubt 
 that in such an interchange England would ultimately be 
 the greater gainer. She would have the advantage of the 
 use and the results of the acquired science, and would 
 indeed become the headquarters of the skilled industry of 
 the world. Sincerely yours, 
 
 C. B. Phipps. 
 
 Playfair was in the very heart of the negotiations re- 
 lating to the development of the Prince Consort’s scheme, 
 and once more he gave evidence of his capacity as 
 a mediator between conflicting sections. But he had 
 other work to do besides that of helping to bring about an 
 agreement at headquarters. Part of the business to which 
 he devoted himself was the creation of public interest in 
 the budding schemes of the Exhibition Commissioners. He 
 was full of enthusiasm, and it was not unnatural that he 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 137 
 
 should under-estimate the difficulties of the task which lay 
 before him in moving an inert public opinion in favour of 
 a grand scheme of practical education. The delicate, 
 diplomatic tact which served him so well when he was 
 dealing with individuals was not so useful when he was 
 brought into contact with masses of the people. He had 
 not yet acquired the experience which afterwards enabled 
 him to deal as successfully with bodies of the public 
 at large as with individual men and women ; and in his 
 zeal he sometimes ran into difficulties, as he did towards 
 the close of 1851, when his advocacy of a scheme of 
 practical instruction was resented by some friends of 
 education because of its omission of all reference to 
 religious education. 
 
 Windsor Castle, 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair . November 18/A, 1851. 
 
 (Private.) 
 
 My dear Dr Playfair, — I have submitted your 
 letter of this morning to the Prince, and will take an 
 opportunity of calling his attention to the report and the 
 proceedings of the meeting of the Sunderland Local 
 Committee, which you enclose. You know the interest His 
 Royal Highness takes in this question, and that he is as 
 anxious as you can be that the present movement in favour 
 of the extension of science to productive industry should 
 not be allowed to fall dead. But the mode of best effect- 
 ing this object requires most careful consideration. 
 
 What has just happened to you shows the great danger 
 to be apprehended if any suspicion or alarm should arise 
 in the mind of the religious world. Eager as the desire 
 lor instruction and knowledge may be, with all the in- 
 creased force which that desire has acquired from the 
 results of the Exhibition, I doubt whether it could enable 
 you successfully to resist a cry of u godless instruction." 
 Already you have been brought upon your knees ; and the 
 question is whether your repentance, however deep and 
 sincere, will avail you. The note of alarm has been 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 sounded, and you will now have to be doubly on your 
 guard in any scheme which you may propose which 
 avowedly involves “ National Education." To do any 
 good, you must carefully shun the vexata qucestio of “ by 
 whom " such education is to be conducted. Once get into 
 that troubled sea, and you are swallowed up in the vortex 
 of contending parties. On this question the ground is 
 already occupied. Everyone (some in one sense, some in 
 another, but all equally doggedly) has made up his mind, 
 and is wedded to the particular system by which alone he 
 thinks any good can be effected. Look at the fate of all 
 attempts up to this time — of all measures introduced into 
 Parliament that have connection with this subject. Look 
 to your own late experience, and consider the danger, if 
 an “ educational " system is inconsiderately urged forward, 
 of provoking an opposition which may be carried success- 
 fully beyond the particular system against which it was 
 first directed, to any system which has for its object to 
 extend the application of science and industry. I like 
 Mr Moode3^s speech much, and what he says seems to me 
 to tally with the practical course which, as I understand it, 
 the Prince advocates. “ Carry out," he sa3 r s, “ the objects 
 of their Mechanics’ Institute with greater force. They 
 had already a museum, a sort of raree show, which had 
 3^et served no practical purpose ; connect it with the pro- 
 posed Institution, furnish it with suitable specimens of our 
 four staples, get scientific gentlemen to attend, say from 
 seven to nine in the evenings, not to give finely-framed 
 lectures, but to take out specimens and explain them so 
 that the hearers ma3 r thoroughh 7 understand and never 
 forget them." However, n^ object was not to enter 
 upon what ought to be done, but to point out b3^ His 
 Ro3 T al Highness’s desire the danger of alarming the reli- 
 gious world by any avowed educational scheme which 
 might stir up a storm in which both his plan and yours 
 would be equalty wrecked. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 139 
 
 It is not merely for its bearing upon the threatened 
 theological opposition to technical education that I have 
 quoted the foregoing letter. In the few words of practical 
 advice with which it ends may be found the germ of one 
 section of the great scheme eventually adopted by the 
 Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition — the establishment 
 in local centres of branch schools ot technical and practical 
 training. 
 
 The work of preparing the Report of the 1851 Com- 
 missioners fell largely to Playfair, and during its progress 
 he was in constant communication not only with the 
 Commissioners of the Exhibition but with the Prince 
 Consort. 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. March 22nd , 1852. 
 
 I hear from the Executive Committee that the Report 
 and Appendices are all about ready, with the exception of 
 the Jury Reports. I write a line by desire of His Royal 
 Highness Prince Albert to remind you that the month 
 of March is nearly over ; and that he will be much dis- 
 appointed if anything should occur to delay the appearance 
 of the Report by the 1st of May. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 Same to the same. Kensington Palace, May 19 th, 1852. 
 
 Dear Dr Playfair, — Your draft winding-up, I am 
 afraid, will not do. In the first place, His Royal Highness 
 thinks it too long, and that where it merely repeats what 
 has been already said, it should be much shorter. A simple 
 resume, in fact, of the various points which have been already 
 treated of — little more, indeed, than the Prince's memo- 
 randum, which gave the heads from which Baring compiled 
 the Report. Where you get to new matter, you go too 
 quick, and enter into a detail with your scholarships, etc., 
 that is quite premature ; and the Prince thinks therefore it 
 will be better to reconsider this part of the Report. 
 
140 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 There are many other letters of similar purport, showing 
 how close was the attention which the Prince bestowed 
 upon the details of the great scheme, and how anxious he 
 was to secure for it a favourable reception from the public. 
 When at last it appeared, the Press received it coldly, and 
 it was openly attacked in some quarters. Yet out of it 
 grew, as has already been pointed out, the greatest of all 
 educational movements which this century has witnessed 
 in England. It is time that I should briefly indicate the 
 character of the scheme that was finally adopted by the 
 Commissioners — a scheme which both in its conception 
 and development received the most active assistance from 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 The actual surplus from the Exhibition of 1851, after 
 allowing for all expenses, including the presentation of 
 medals to the numerous jurors, was ^186,436. Large as 
 this amount was, it was soon found to be insufficient for 
 the purpose of carrying out the plan which had been 
 finally adopted by the Prince Consort and his confidential 
 advisers. Application was made to Parliament, and a grant 
 of .£150,000 was made by the House of Commons. With 
 this sum, two estates and a portion of a third in South 
 Kensington were purchased. The Gore House estate 
 consisted of twenty-one acres, and extended from the 
 Kensington Road about a quarter way down the present 
 Exhibition Road. The Villiers estate of forty-eight acres 
 comprised the land upon which the greater part of Queen's 
 Gate has since been erected, as well as the site of Cromwell 
 Road, the existing Natural History Museum and the 
 Science Museums. The Harrington estate, seventeen 
 acres of which were purchased, included the site of the 
 Art Museum which now faces the Brompton Road. At 
 the time when the purchase was made, these valuable 
 properties consisted of little more than fields intersected 
 by narrow lanes. A few houses — one or two of consider- 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 141 
 
 able pretensions, but many little more than farmhouses 
 or cottages — were scattered over the ground. In the 
 year 1851, partridges were shot on the ground where 
 the Natural History Museum now stands. But the keen 
 business eyes of those who were advising the Prince 
 Consort in this matter had detected the possibilities of the 
 estate which was formed by the purchase ; and the con- 
 sent of Parliament had been secured for this portion of the 
 scheme. The desire of the Prince was that the great 
 existing institutions of London, including the National 
 Gallery and Royal Academy, should be brought together 
 on the site which was now for the first time formally 
 denominated “ South Kensington.” Around these insti- 
 tutions were to be raised a new Museum of Art, and 
 another devoted to Science. Such was in brief the original 
 proposal of the Prince and the Commissioners. It was 
 carried out only in part. The removal of the National 
 Gallery from Trafalgar Square to South Kensington was 
 successfully resisted ; but where it was first proposed to 
 place the National Gallery, the Natural History Museum 
 has since been erected ; whilst all who know the South 
 Kensington of to-day are aware ot the number of import- 
 ant public institutions which have been established upon 
 the site secured by the Exhibition Commissioners. Yet it 
 may be said with truth that the housing of these specific 
 institutions on the South Kensington site has been the least 
 important part of the work accomplished by the Com- 
 missioners of 1851. The central feature of the Prince’s 
 scheme was the establishment of a practical institution for 
 the application of science and art to productive industry. 
 This was the beginning of the two great institutions, one 
 long known to the world as the South Kensington, and 
 now as the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the other as 
 the Royal College of Science. 
 
 In March, 1853, the Science and Art Department was 
 
142 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 formed. Under it was combined the existing School of 
 Design with the schools established in local centres in 
 different towns of the United Kingdom, the Museum of 
 Practical Geology, and its associated Schools of Mines. 
 The Museum of Irish Industry and the Royal Dublin 
 Society, both of which were supported by Parliamentary 
 grants, were associated with the new Department, whilst 
 provision was made for the establishment of a School or 
 College of the highest class in Science and Art for the 
 instruction of students and the education of teachers for 
 the local institutions throughout the country. In the first 
 sketch of the scheme, Mr Cole, who already filled the 
 office of Superintendent in the Department of Practical 
 Art, was made Secretary of the Art Department, whilst 
 Playfair received a similar appointment in the Department 
 of Science, his salary being .£1,000 a year, and an allow- 
 ance of £350 for travelling expenses. It was very soon 
 found, however, that this arrangement was not a good 
 one, as there was no provision for the joint working of the 
 two Departments. Accordingly, Mr Cole, in 1855, was 
 appointed Inspector-General, and Playfair Secretary, ot 
 the united Departments, no alteration being made in their 
 respective emoluments. The Science and Art Depart- 
 ment, having been formally created, was taken out of 
 the control of the Board of Trade, which had previously 
 been the governing authority of the School of Mines, and 
 transferred to the charge of the Education Department of 
 the Privy Council. 
 
 The first building operations began towards the close 
 of 1856, when an edifice of corrugated iron, long 
 familiarly known to the people of London as “the 
 Brompton boilers,” was erected on that part of the site 
 which lay to the east of Exhibition Road. Here the 
 first museum of industrial art which had been formed in 
 England was temporarily housed. The origin of the 
 
THE GREAT EXHIBITION. 
 
 143 
 
 museum was a grant which had been made by the 
 Treasury in 1851 for the purchase of exhibits from the 
 Great Exhibition that had practical value as specimens of 
 Art and Manufacture. The amount of this grant was 
 .£5,000, and from this grain of mustard seed has grown 
 the splendid collection which is now housed in many 
 galleries and buildings in South Kensington, and which 
 before long is to have a stately home on the historic 
 site. 
 
 The organisation of the Royal College of Science 
 naturally fell heavily upon Playfair’s shoulders. A great 
 national institution had to be founded, and the task was 
 not a light one. It was not without many a struggle and 
 many a feud that the Science and Art Department at last 
 took shape. It would never have been brought into 
 existence if it had not been for the enlightened and 
 elevated public spirit of the Prince Consort — a man to 
 whom England owes more than it does to any other 
 human being for the development of scientific training. 
 It is not less certain that in the initial stages of the work 
 Playfair’s enthusiasm and wonderful capacity for labour 
 were of invaluable service. If to Sir Henry Cole belongs 
 the credit of having placed the Art Department upon the 
 lines on which it was subsequently developed, to Playfair 
 no less belongs the honour of having given form and 
 substance to that part of the scheme which was specially 
 related to the establishment of a national system of 
 scientific instruction. Under the Prince Consort, he may 
 be said to have been the father of the Science Depart- 
 ment ; and it was his happy lot not only to continue his 
 connection with it for more than forty years, but at a date 
 long subsequent to that of its foundation to rescue it from 
 a state of financial depression into which it had been 
 allowed to fall by those immediately responsible for its 
 management, and thus to save it from a crisis which well- 
 
144 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 nigh threatened its very existence. This part of the story 
 belongs, however, to a later period in Playfair’s life. For 
 the present I have merely sought to set forth those facts 
 which throw light upon his close association with the 
 beginnings of the new Department, and upon the nature 
 of the labours which he had to undergo in connection 
 with its foundation. 
 
 It was whilst he was busily engaged in the preliminary 
 labours of the Exhibition Commissioners that he received 
 a compliment which he valued highly. This was his 
 election by the committee of the Athenaeum Club as a 
 member of that institution. A characteristic story is told 
 in connection with this election. The rule requires that 
 the committee shall be unanimous in its choice of the 
 member upon whom it confers the honour of special 
 election. Playfair heard that there was one member of 
 the committee, and one only, who had expressed some 
 feeling of hostility to him. He wrote to this gentleman, 
 and, telling him that he knew he was to be nominated 
 for election, asked him to do him the honour of being his 
 proposer. The election, it need scarcely be said, was 
 
 unanimous. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 Attending the Royal Children at the Exhibition — Arranging for the Prince 
 Consort’s Visit to Birmingham. Autobiography : Lecturing for the 
 Society of Arts : Inquiring into Technical Education on the Continent : 
 Organising the "Food Collection” for the South Kensington Museum : 
 Establishing a National Museum in Edinburgh : Dr George Wilson 
 and his Dying Epigram : Crusading in the Cause of Technical Edu- 
 cation : The Duke of Wellington’s Funeral : Sir Charles Wheatstone : 
 Reading Ciphers in 1 The Times ’ : Acquaintance with Babbage : Lord 
 and Lady Ashburton : Mrs Norton : Lord Granville : Lord Palmerston 
 and the Cipher : Inventing Shells : Lord Dundonald’s Scheme for 
 Reducing Fortresses : Appointed a Commissioner of the International 
 Exhibition of 1855 : Acquaintance with French Savants : Missing the 
 Mastership of the Mint : Second Marriage. Faraday on the New 
 Lucifer Matches — Playfair’s Contempt for Misplaced Humanitarian- 
 ism in War — Liebig on Scientific Agriculture. 
 
 I must anticipate Playfair’s own account of his life 
 between 1851 and 1858, in order to touch upon some 
 incidents that ought not to be omitted from his biography. 
 The reader has seen from letters published in the last 
 chapter how close had become the connection between 
 Playfair and the Prince Consort. His appointment as 
 Gentleman Usher to His Royal Highness gave him free 
 access to the Prince. The office was little more than a 
 nominal one, and if it had not been for the fact that the 
 Prince found in Playfair a congenial colleague and assistant 
 in the development of his cherished educational schemes, it 
 is probable that they would not have seen much of each 
 other. As it was, Playfair's advice and assistance were 
 constantly sought upon all matters that bore in any way 
 
 K 
 
146 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 upon the scientific and educational subjects in which the 
 Prince took so deep an interest. During the time when 
 the Exhibition of 1851 still remained open, it had been 
 Playfair’s duty to attend the Royal children on their 
 frequent visits to the Exhibition. 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. Windsor Castle, October 19 th, 1851. 
 
 Dear Dr Playfair, — The Royal children are anxious 
 to present you with their portraits as a slight expression of 
 their sense of the attention they met from you during their 
 visits to the Exhibition. The Prince desires me therefore, 
 in their name, to send you the accompanying prints in 
 remembrance of those visits. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 There were many matters connected with the develop- 
 ment of the system of scientific education which engaged 
 Playfair’s close attention during the years that followed 
 the inception of the South Kensington scheme. 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. Windsor Castle, January 5th, 1853. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have written to Lord Gran- 
 ville to know if he can be here on Saturday next at 
 five o’clock. Perhaps you would communicate with him, 
 and find out if he can come, and in that case, the Prince 
 would be glad if you could come too, that you might talk 
 over the proposed School of Practical Science. Your letter 
 from Sheffield was very satisfactory, but I had a letter 
 from Owen the same day from the neighbourhood of 
 Wolverhampton, giving a very different account of the dis- 
 position of the ironmasters. I had a long and interesting 
 letter from Bowring 1 to-day, who begins to be anxious for 
 
 Mr. E. A. Bowring had been appointed secretary to the Commissioners 
 for the Exhibition of 1851 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 147 
 
 some positive step in advance. I am just as much so as he 
 is, but I see the impossibility of doing anything till all the 
 land difficulties are cleared away. I was in hopes that 
 we should have heard from Cubitt ere this that he had 
 brought Lord Harrington to terms. 
 
 One of the principal educational events of 1855 was the 
 visit of Prince Albert to Birmingham for the purpose of 
 taking part in the laying of the first stone of the Birming- 
 ham and Midland Institute. This was regarded at the 
 time as one of the most striking results of the new move- 
 ment for scientific training. The address of Prince Albert 
 at the luncheon after the ceremony has been quoted in 
 recent years 1 as “the charter of the new system of 
 teaching." Some idea of the labour laid upon those who 
 had charge of the arrangements for the Prince’s visit 
 to Birmingham, and of the extent of Playfair’s duties in 
 connection with the Prince’s household, may be gathered 
 from the following letters : — 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair . 
 
 Windsor Castle, November 19 th 1855. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have just talked the pro- 
 gramme over with the Prince. It might possibly be 
 expected that he would give the toast of the Midland 
 Institute, etc., the proposer of which I see is left blank ; 
 but His Royal Highness means to say all he wishes to say 
 on the subject in returning thanks for his own health, and 
 as there is a great deal of singing put down to follow each 
 toast, which would make it a long business, he thinks it will 
 be better that he should leave as soon as the toast of “ The 
 Army and Navy " has been drunk. This will be none too 
 soon to enable him to get back to Windsor in good time. 
 He would be much obliged to you if you would go, as you 
 propose, to Birmingham the night before to see that all is 
 
 By Sir Norman Lockyer. 
 
148 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 perfectly arranged. The chorale after his own health he 
 wishes not played or sung till after he has returned thanks, 
 otherwise he says it would put him out. Pray take care of 
 this. Also arrange that the different addresses shall be 
 all presented on the railway platfonn — the Corporation 
 Address being the only one read and answered. H.R.H. 
 would prefer half-past twelve as the time for his arrival, 
 otherwise he will hardly get to luncheon by two, and his 
 return would be too long delayed. 
 
 I write in haste. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 Same to the same . Windsor Castle, November 26th, 1855. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — The Prince cannot but be 
 gratified by the accounts sent him on all sides of the 
 success of his speech. He is anxious that it should be 
 correctly printed in the separate form, and would there- 
 fore wish that the proof might be sent to me for correction 
 before it is struck off. There were one or two mistakes — 
 in one instance a rather important one. Did I tell you 
 that I got a message from M — wishing the Prince to wait 
 for his speech ? (at least so I understood the message). 
 Everything went off as well as possible, and the people of 
 Birmingham would indeed have amply atoned for any 
 offence, even if such had existed, but the Prince is quite at 
 a loss to know what can have given rise to such a notion. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — VI. 
 
 1851 to 1858. 
 
 After the close of the Exhibition the Society of Arts 
 organised a term of lectures for the purpose of drawing 
 public attention to the lessons which should be drawn from 
 the Exhibition. At that time England was in a very 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 149 
 
 backward state in regard to technical education both in 
 science and art. My two lectures were devoted to this 
 subject, and, at the time, they awakened considerable public 
 interest. This was the beginning of the efforts to arouse 
 public attention to the need of reforming our education so 
 as to fit it for the increasing competition of the world. 
 The improved methods of locomotion both by sea and 
 land had altered the whole conditions of manufacturing 
 industry. The possession of raw materials, such as coal 
 and iron, had long given to a country like Great Britain 
 a supremacy in manufactures, because economy of produc- 
 tion was the most important condition for success. When 
 science offered new and economical production through 
 improved machinery, and when the demands of an increas- 
 ing civilisation required the best forms of art to adorn the 
 products, it became obvious that a nation which cultivated 
 science and art must have a great advantage over a country 
 which depended too exclusively on the more practical 
 aptitudes of its people. Raw material had now become 
 a decreasing factor in production, while intellect, trained 
 in the application of science and art, became an ever- 
 increasing factor. 
 
 I therefore determined to visit the leading countries 
 of Europe in order to become acquainted with their 
 system of education, especially in relation to their 
 systems of technical instruction. Accordingly I went to 
 France, Holland, Belgium, Germany, Austria and the 
 Scandinavian States, everywhere meeting the most cor- 
 dial reception from the Ministers of Education and other 
 authorities. The Great Exhibition had brought me into 
 contact with the leading manufacturers of these countries, 
 so that my educational tour, though in no sense official, 
 met with the same facilities as if it had been a Government 
 inquiry. 
 
 On returning to London I gave the results of this 
 tour in an introductory lecture to the School of Mines, 
 under the title, “ Industrial Instruction on the Continent." 
 This lecture was attended by several of the members of 
 the Government, and by some leading statesmen of both 
 
150 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 political parties. It was afterwards published in the 
 * Records of the School of Mines.' It certainly gave a 
 considerable impulse to technical education in England. 
 Soon after this, in 1852, the Government determined to 
 establish the “ Department of Science and Art," and offered 
 me the position of “ Secretary for Science," and Sir Henry 
 Cole that of “ Secretary for Art." 
 
 The Prince Consort took a warm interest in this out- 
 come of his Great Exhibition. In fact the organisation of 
 the Department was largely owing to his advice, and was 
 the result of many visits to Windsor Castle by Lord 
 Granville, Cole and myself. 
 
 Many valuable objects had been presented to the Com- 
 missioners of the Great Exhibition with the view of 
 founding a museum, and these became the nucleus of 
 that wonderful collection which owes so much to Sir 
 Henry Cole’s energy, and is now known as the South 
 Kensington Museum, probably the greatest museum of its 
 kind in the world. In the presents referred to there were 
 numerous specimens of raw materials, especially of grains 
 and other alimentary substances. These were used to 
 form “the Food Collection," which has been so much 
 visited by the working classes. It is now at Bethnal 
 Green. It would have been useless to display the analyses 
 of various foods in statistical tables which no one would 
 read, so I tried the experiment of showing the actual 
 ingredients in a pound of food. Thus 1 lb. of maize was 
 divided into so much flesh-forming materials, so much 
 woody fibre, water, fat, sugar, gum, starch, etc., so that 
 the eye could at once observe the quantities, while the 
 results of the printed analysis could easily be copied if 
 the visitor desired to do so. 
 
 This system of instructional display is now followed 
 in every museum, but at that time it was novel. 
 When a working man was told that 100 lb. of potatoes 
 contained only 2 lb. of flesh-formers, while the same 
 quantity of beans contained upwards of twenty pounds, 
 he scarcely grasped the difference. But when in the 
 same show-case he saw the small amount of flesh- 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 151 
 
 formers in a pound of potatoes sprinkled over the bottom 
 of a box, and the large amount heaped up in a correspond- 
 ing box for beans, peas, or lentils, he learned a practical 
 lesson through the eye and never forgot it. The temper- 
 ance societies took up this subject warmly. Thus, when 
 we showed how much water and spirits were in a gallon of 
 alcoholic drinks, and how insignificant were the nutritive 
 materials even in beer, the cause of temperance received 
 more support than from any number of lectures. Ultimately 
 this food museum led to a demand for schools of cookery, 
 which have proved beneficial to the working classes. This 
 collection of food was, however, a mere appendage to the 
 South Kensington Museum, which was intended for art, 
 and not for science. The Science Museums in connection 
 with the Department were not at South Kensington. The 
 Museum of Practical Geology was in Jermyn Street, 
 and a Museum of Industry, under Sir Robert Kane, 
 was in Dublin. 
 
 At this time there was no national museum in Edinburgh. 
 I went down to that city and negotiated with the Uni- 
 versity and the Town Council for establishing a museum in 
 the metropolis of the north. The municipality offered free 
 land for building, and the University agreed to hand over 
 its splendid collections of natural history. On reporting to 
 Government the result of these negotiations, an applica- 
 tion was made to Parliament, which voted the necessary 
 sums for building and supporting a national museum in 
 Edinburgh. 
 
 In 1855, m y old friend and fellow-student, Dr. George 
 Wilson, was appointed curator of this museum. Let me 
 say a few words about this remarkable man, who is now 
 best known to the world by his ‘ Life of Cavendish/ and by 
 his charming book, ‘ The Five Gateways of Knowledge.' 
 He was always in delicate health, so much so that no 
 insurance office would accept the risk of his life. In spite 
 of this he was an indefatigable worker, and was so much 
 beloved that contributions to the new museum were freely 
 given from all parts of the kingdom. To him is largely 
 due the increase and popularity of the Edinburgh Museum. 
 
152 
 
 MEMOIRS OF I .YON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 George Wilson never had an enemy. His mind was culti- 
 vated, a vein of humour like that of Edward Forbes 
 running through all his work. Some years later (Novem- 
 ber, 1859), when I was Professor of Chemistry in the 
 University of Edinburgh, George Wilson died, and the city 
 gave him a public funeral. In his last illness he was 
 attended by two medical colleagues, Professor Bennet and 
 Dr Laycock, who as usual took opposite opinions as to the 
 nature of his malady. George Wilson was amused at this 
 professional dispute, and asked for paper in order to write 
 his own epitaph, which ran as follows : — 
 
 “Here lies George Wilson o’ertaken by Nemesis; 
 
 He died of Haemoptysis not of Hematemesis.” 
 
 George Wilson was one of the legitimate successors in 
 literary faculty to Scott, Jeffrey, and Wilson of ' Black- 
 wood’s Magazine,’ though his scientific tastes led him 
 aside from pure literature. 
 
 The art section of the new Government department 
 progressed more rapidly than that of science. Already 
 there were various “schools of design ” in London and the 
 provinces, so these could readily be adapted to schools of 
 art. But there was then not a single school or college of 
 science except Owens College in Manchester and the 
 Andersonian College at Glasgow. 
 
 Having great faith in the education of public opinion, I 
 began a crusade in favour of technical education. It was 
 weary and dreary work. My voice sounded to myself as 
 the voice of one preaching in the wilderness. At first there 
 was no response, except a few schools of navigation in the 
 seaports. But I hope and believe that these efforts were 
 not thrown awa} 7- . Now there is scarcely a large town in 
 Great Britain that has not a college of science ; and my 
 successor in the department, Colonel Donnelly, has been 
 able, under the improved public demand, to organise an 
 extensive scheme of scientific education for the working 
 classes. Several of these colleges of science have asked 
 me to open them to the public, in recognition of my earlier 
 labours to educate public opinion. 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 153 
 
 It may be instructive to point out how slowly and yet 
 how surely public opinion responds to a movement in 
 favour of reform if that be founded on public needs. I11 
 1851 I lectured to the Society of Arts in favour of changes 
 in our educational system adapted to the practical needs 
 of the country. In 1852 the Department of Science and 
 Art was formed. On the 15th May, 1867, I issued a new 
 warning to the country in a letter addressed to Lord 
 Taunton, the Chairman of the Public Schools Inquiry 
 Commission. In this letter occurs the following passage : 
 “That as an inevitable result of the attention given to 
 technical education abroad and of its neglect in England, 
 other nations must advance in industry at a greater rate 
 than our own country ; . . . this result has already 
 
 arrived for some of our staple industries.” The Public 
 Schools Inquiry Commission circulated this letter to the 
 leading manufacturers and men of science, and a Parlia- 
 mentary report was published of communications sent to 
 the Commission. In the same year a public meeting, 
 presided over by Lord Granville, was held at the Society 
 of Arts to promote technical education, the first resolution 
 being proposed by me and seconded by Lord John Russell, 
 afterwards Earl Russell. 
 
 In 1 887 another public meeting was held at the same 
 place, presided over by Lord Hartington, at which I again 
 proposed the first resolution, which was seconded by the 
 Right Hon. John Morley. I now feel that this work 
 may be left to younger men, but I hope they will not 
 take their hands from the plough till England has 
 adapted its system of education to the changed conditions 
 of competition. 
 
 In September, 1852, the great Duke of Wellington died, 
 and I was present at the State funeral in attendance on 
 the Prince Consort. The 18th of November, 1852, was a 
 day of mourning throughout the United Kingdom. The 
 Department of Science and Art had been instructed to 
 prepare designs and to secure the construction of a State 
 funeral car. It was made of bronze, and was quickly 
 executed by Messrs Tyler. But, though a beautiful work 
 
i54 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 of art, it was altogether a mistake. It would have better 
 suited the great military hero had his coffin been placed on 
 a gun-carriage instead of on this ponderous car. Its great 
 weight interfered with the progress of the procession, for 
 it broke down a sewer in St. James's Park, and by this 
 accident the royal procession was delayed for one or 
 two hours. A million and a half of people had lined 
 the streets from Buckingham Palace to St. Paul’s Cathe- 
 dral as early as seven o’clock in the morning, and though 
 the procession began to move at that hour the royal 
 carriages only reached St. Paul’s about two o'clock. The 
 million and a half spectators really mourned the death of 
 the illustrious hero ; they were not gathered together 
 merely to see the stately pageant of a great military 
 funeral. Outside as well as inside the cathedral the pomp 
 and glitter of military and civil uniforms was as nothing to 
 the mourning of a whole people. When at three o’clock 
 the coffin was lowered to its last resting place amidst the 
 mournful dirge of the choir, there were few dry eyes in 
 that great assembly of mourners. I have only once been 
 so deeply moved at a public funeral ceremony, and that 
 was in 1861, when I had to join in the obsequies of the 
 Prince Consort. 
 
 My house at this time was on the Surrey side of 
 Hammersmith Bridge, and on the other side lived my 
 friend Sir Charles Wheatstone. He, as is ’well known, 
 was the chief inventor of the electric telegraph. Sir 
 Charles was a man of remarkable inventive faculty, and at 
 the same time a scientific discoverer as well as an inventor. 
 Sir Charles Wheatstone, though older, was, like myself, 
 small of stature, and we both wore spectacles. We were 
 constantly mistaken for each other, and we must have 
 been alike, for once Lady Wheatstone addressed me as 
 her husband. On Sundays we generally walked together, 
 and used to amuse ourselves by deciphering the cipher 
 advertisements in ‘ The Times.’ An Oxford student who 
 was in a reading party at Perth was so sure of his cipher 
 that he kept up a correspondence with a young lady in 
 London. This we had no difficulty in reading. At last 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 155 
 
 he proposed an elopement. Wheatstone inserted as an 
 advertisement in ‘ The Times ’ a remonstrance to the lady 
 in the same cipher, and the last letter was, “ Dear Charlie, 
 write no more, our cipher is discovered ! ” One cipher 
 appeared each month in ‘The Times/ but it was so short 
 that it was difficult to read. At last we made it out to 
 be, ‘“The Times’ is the Jeffreys of the Press.” Anyone 
 acquainted with cipher will see that the key to this short 
 advertisement was the frequent repetition of the letter 
 “ e ” and of the word “ the.” On telling Delane, the editor 
 of ‘The Times,’ that his paper was publishing its own 
 condemnation as the wicked judge, he was angry instead 
 of being amused at the trick played. 
 
 In speaking of Wheatstone I may mention my presence 
 at a curious concert given to the Queen and Prince Consort 
 at the Polytechnic Institution on the 10th of May, 1855. 
 This is often quoted as proving that Wheatstone invented 
 the telephone, although it had nothing in common with 
 this invention. Wheatstone had helped Professor Pepper 
 to arrange rods of wood passing from the cellars of the 
 Institution to a small lecture room on the upper floor. 
 Each of these rods was connected with a separate musical 
 instrument played in the cellar, while the music, being 
 conducted to the room above, reproduced itself on the 
 sounding boards of three harps. It had a curious effect 
 to hear tunes played in a room without the appearance 
 of performers. 
 
 Another philosopher whom I frequently visited was 
 Babbage, the inventor of the calculating machine. He 
 was in chronic war with the Government because it 
 refused to furnish supplies for his new machine, the ground 
 of refusal being that he never completed the first. 
 Babbage was a man full of information, which he gave in 
 an attractive way. I once went to breakfast with him at 
 nine o'clock. He explained to me the working of his 
 calculating machine, and afterwards his methods of 
 signalling by coloured lamps. As I was engaged to lunch 
 at one o’clock, I looked at my watch, which indicated 
 the hour of four. This appeared obviously impossible, 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 so I went into the hall to look for the correct time, and 
 to my astonishment that also gave the hour as four. 
 The philosopher had in fact been so fascinating in his 
 descriptions and conversation that neither he nor I had 
 noticed the lapse of time. 
 
 Babbage always considered himself a badly treated 
 man, and this feeling at last produced an egotism which 
 restricted the numbers of his friends. The following 
 anecdote is a curious instance of this : — Having been at 
 Osborne, I accompanied the Prince Consort to London. 
 During the journey I strongly urged the desirability of 
 the Crown bestowing honours on men of science. I 
 pointed out that while the Army, Navy, and Civil Sendee 
 received titles and decorations in profusion, the Crown 
 bestowed few on men of learning. The consequence was 
 that they ceased to look on the Crown as the fountain of 
 honour, and created titles for themselves, so that such 
 letters as F.R.S. became more esteemed than those like 
 K.C.B. This separation of the Crown from learning was 
 not wise in the interests of Monarchy. The Prince 
 Consort readily admitted this, and asked what I would 
 recommend. I suggested that it would produce a favour- 
 able impression if one or two men of undoubted position 
 were made privy councillors, mentioning Faraday and 
 Babbage as two men entitled to this honour. Shortly 
 after this conversation I was commissioned to sound the 
 philosophers and ascertain whether they would like to be 
 appointed to the Privy Council. Unfortunately I first 
 went to Babbage, who was delighted with the suggestion, 
 but made it a condition that he alone should be appointed, 
 as a reparation for ail the neglect of the Government 
 towards his inventions. Even the association of such a 
 distinguished man as Faraday would take away from the 
 recognition which was due to him. This condition was 
 naturally disagreeable to the Prince Consort, and no 
 further steps were taken to open the Privy Council to 
 men of science. 
 
 I must not forget the names of two friends who then 
 and until their death showed me great kindness and 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 157 
 
 hospitality. They were the Lord and Lady Ashburton so 
 often mentioned in the Life and letters of the Carlyles. 
 Lord Ashburton was the most amiable of men. He took 
 a warm interest in promoting scientific and artistic 
 education. We co-operated with Lady Burdett-Coutts 
 in promoting “ a knowledge of common things ” in 
 elementary schools, and had frequent conferences on this 
 subject. The purpose of this movement was to systematise 
 object lessons in schools, and so lead to elementary in- 
 struction in science. We also brought out together a 
 school book on 1 Political Economy.’ This was really 
 written by Mr Ellis, who had tried to establish secular 
 schools, though he feared that his name as author would 
 interfere with its popularity among denominational schools. 
 In these efforts Dr Dawes, the Dean of Hereford, gave 
 his cordial assistance. 
 
 The character of Lady Ashburton has been so charmingly 
 delineated by Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) that I 
 would not refer to her had she not been so caricatured in 
 Mrs Carlyle's descriptions of her. Carlyle himself knew 
 the merits of Lady Ashburton and appreciated her at her 
 proper worth. To me she was always the kindest and 
 most gracious of friends. Her wit was sparkling, frequently 
 satirical, but never ill-natured. Her hospitality, both at 
 The Grange and in London, was admirable, and I never 
 found it marred by any of those peculiarities which Mrs 
 Carlyle describes. A far better account of The Grange 
 and its guests than is to be found in the letters of Mrs 
 Carlyle is contained in the biography of Taylor, the poet, 
 although, perhaps, I think so because I am almost the 
 only man whom he treats with civility in his descriptions 
 of a week at The Grange. 
 
 In London Lady Ashburton’s dinners were charming. 
 At one dinner I have met at her house Dickens, Thackeray, 
 Carlyle, and Tennyson. I remember at that dinner 
 sitting next a remarkably handsome lady whose name I 
 did not then know. She was a brilliant conversationalist, 
 and took as her theme that no man of real talent had ever 
 been in love. I quoted in opposition Abelard and Heloise, 
 
158 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Petrarch and Laura, Dante and Beatrice, and various other 
 cases, but she classed them all as instances of illusion or 
 passion, not of love. At last, turning round her chair, 
 she said, “Tell me who you are and I will tell you 
 who I am.” To my pleasure I found that she was the 
 authoress, Mrs Norton. 
 
 Another house at which I was a frequent guest was that 
 of Lord Granville, in Carlton House Terrace. His guests 
 were chiefly public men, and the dinners differed from 
 those at Lord Ashburton’s, but they were equally charming, 
 as Lord Granville himself was admirable in anecdote and 
 in his power of drawing out conversation among his 
 guests. At one of these dinners in January, 1854, a curious 
 discussion arose. Lord Granville had invited his colleagues 
 in the Cabinet to dine with him, but discovered before 
 dinner that thirteen would be at the table. Lord Palmer- 
 ston would never dine with the fatal number, and I as 
 an outsider, not then in politics, was invited to make an 
 even number at this Cabinet banquet. After dinner Lord 
 Palmerston produced a letter which had been written by 
 a Bristol schoolmaster, remonstrating with the Prince 
 Consort for injuring the English language by careless 
 expressions in his speeches. The Prince had used the 
 word “ either ” as covering more than two alternatives, 
 and the schoolmaster contended that it should be confined 
 to two. Lord Palmerston was singularly interested in 
 this philological attack, and triumphed in the draft 
 answer which the Prince proposed to send, and which 
 he then read. The Prince Consort quoted Shakespeare, 
 Beaumont and Fletcher, and other authors to prove that 
 “ either ” covered any number of alternatives. 
 
 At this dinner I explained to Lord Palmerston Wheat- 
 stone’s newly-discovered symmetrical cipher, which I 
 thought might be of use in the Crimean War then 
 pending. It consists in taking a key word such as 
 “ Palmerston,” and writing the remainder of the alphabet 
 symmetrically under it. The cipher to be sent consists 
 of the letters at the opposite angles of the nearest rect- 
 angle. I told him that I had gone with Wheatstone to 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 159 
 
 the Foreign Office and explained it, but the Under 
 Secretary objected to it as being too complicated. We 
 proposed that he should send for four boys from the 
 nearest elementary school in order to prove that three 
 of them could be taught to use the cipher in a quarter 
 of an hour. The reply made to this proposal by the 
 Under Secretary was complimentary to our diplomatic 
 service. “That is very possible, but you could never 
 teach it to attaches !” I constructed an alphabet hastily 
 with the key word “ Palmerston,” and showed to Lord 
 Palmerston and his colleagues how it could be used. 
 The next day I went to Dublin, and while there I re- 
 ceived two short letters in cipher, one from Lord 
 Palmerston, the other from Lord Granville, showing that 
 they had readily mastered the cipher. 
 
 It was fortunate that the Department of Science and Art 
 was founded in 1853, because the Crimean War broke out 
 in the following year and heavily taxed the country. At 
 the beginning of the war I wrote a letter to the Prince 
 Consort which he forwarded to the Master of the Ordnance, 
 suggesting one or two applications of science to the pur- 
 poses of war. One was a hollow brittle shell containing 
 phosphorus dissolved in bisulphide of carbon for the 
 purpose of producing conflagration of the enemy’s stores 
 or property. The shell contained antimony, so as to make 
 it break on a hard surface. It then scattered the liquid 
 over the objects to be burned, and each drop, on drying, 
 started a new centre of conflagration. As the fumes of 
 phosphorus are apt to put out their own flame, a little 
 beeswax or petroleum was added to prevent this. The 
 Ordnance Department reported against this proposal, and 
 I did not care to push it further ; but ten years later the 
 plan with exactly the same materials was adopted, and the 
 inventor, who was an officer, received promotion, and I 
 think a decoration. The Fenians have lately used this 
 method of setting property on fire, and tried its effects on 
 one of the Cunard ships. 
 
 The other proposal in my letter was to have a hollow 
 brittle shell containing cyanide of cacodyl. This is an 
 
i6o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 intensely poisonous substance, a few drops of which in 
 a room would poison the occupants. Such a shell going 
 between decks of a ship would render the atmosphere 
 irrespirable, and poison the men if they remained at the 
 guns. This suggestion was considered inadmissible by 
 the military authorities, who stated that it would be as 
 bad a mode of warfare as poisoning the wells of the 
 enemy. There was no sense in this objection. It is 
 considered a legitimate mode of warfare to fill shells 
 with molten metal which scatters among the enemy, and 
 produces the most frightful modes of death. Why a 
 poisonous vapour which would kill men without suffering 
 is to be considered illegitimate warfare is incompre- 
 hensible. War is destruction, and the more destructive 
 it can be made with the least suffering the sooner will 
 be ended that barbarous method of protecting national 
 rights. No doubt in time chemistry will be used to lessen 
 the suffering of combatants, and even of criminals con- 
 demned to death. Hanging is a relic of barbarism, 
 because criminals might be put to death without physical 
 torture. 
 
 Soon after I had written the letter to the Prince Consort, 
 Lord Dundonald, better known as Lord Cochrane, probably 
 the greatest of naval heroes except Nelson, offered to 
 Government his secret plans for taking fortresses without 
 the usual methods of siege. Lord Dundonald felt con- 
 vinced that he could take Sebastopol or Cronstadt in a 
 few hours by his destructive agencies. He wrote to Lord 
 Palmerston, then Prime Minister, offering to submit his 
 plans to any two persons nominated by the Government. 
 The Government appointed my former teacher, Graham, 
 then Master of the Mint, and myself, to receive the secret 
 communications from Lord Dundonald and to report on 
 their probable efficacy. At that time Admiral Sir Charles 
 Napier expected to receive, and did afterwards receive, the 
 command of the Baltic Fleet, while Lord Dundonald fully 
 hoped to obtain command of the Black Sea Fleet. Napier 
 knew the secret plans, so the two old naval heroes used to 
 come to my office, which was then at Marlborough House, 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 161 
 
 now the residence of the Prince of Wales, to discuss them 
 I still possess two rude sketches drawn by each of these 
 admirals, one by Napier as to how he proposed to attack 
 Cronstadt, and the other by Lord Dundonald as to how he 
 intended to attack Sebastopol. At that time I had an 
 acquaintance with Admiral Napier, but a still better one 
 with Lady Napier. They spoke of each other with 
 affection but did not live together, except for one or two 
 weeks in the year, when they entertained their friends 
 to show that no quarrel existed between them. 
 
 Lord Dundonald was then to me a new acquaintance, 
 but our intercourse speedily ripened into a friendship, 
 although he knew perfectly well that I reported unfavour- 
 ably as to the chief part of his invention, while I thought 
 that the minor part, to which he did not attach much 
 importance, was susceptible of extensive application. Lord 
 Dundonald was, even then as an old man, a person who 
 inspired great confidence in his ability, dash and daring. 
 He was of commanding stature, and full of vigour. It was 
 easy to understand how the men under his command 
 had unlimited faith in his resources and prowess. He 
 scarcely ever failed in a naval engagement, although when 
 one reads his biography his plans appear to be wild and 
 extravagant. Whether he would have succeeded with 
 his secret methods, had he received command of the Black 
 Sea Fleet, it is impossible to say, on account of his won- 
 derful personal influence with sailors. But the Master of 
 the Mint and I did not feel justified in recommending the 
 Government to adopt them, and Lord Palmerston coincided 
 with our views. Lord Dundonald, in spite of our unfav- 
 ourable report, conceived for me a warm friendship, and 
 continued to correspond with me to the end of his life. In 
 the year 1886 I gave to his grandson, the present Lord 
 Dundonald, all the papers relating to his grandfather’s 
 inventions, so that they are not likely to be lost to the 
 world by my death, if my estimate of their value was not 
 a correct one. 
 
 In the year 1855 there was the first great International 
 Exhibition in Paris, and I was appointed one of the 
 
 L 
 
1 62 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Commissioners, Sir Henry Cole being the executive 
 English officer. A new feature in this Exhibition was an 
 international collection of pictures. The building allotted 
 to them was so unsafe that Cole would not accept the 
 responsibility of allowing English pictures to be displayed. 
 A feeling of irritation arose between the French and 
 English Governments on that account, and threatened to 
 weaken our co-operation in the Exhibition. I was sent 
 over to Paris by the Government to act as peacemaker, 
 and after interviews with Fould, then Minister of the 
 Interior, I persuaded him to erect party walls, which cut 
 off the picture galleries from the rest of the Exhibition. 
 
 This was useful to me a few months later, when I went 
 to Paris to look after the Jury work of the Exhibition. 
 I already knew the leading scientific men of France, Milne 
 Edwards, Dumas, Chevreul, Beron, Thenard, Regnault, 
 Balard, Pelouze, Pehoot and others, and frequently enjoyed 
 their hospitality. But I was not acquainted with the poli- 
 ticians or public men. The fact that the English Govern- 
 ment entrusted me with the duty of overcoming a practical 
 difficulty formed an introduction to the leading French 
 Commissioners, and led to my becoming acquainted with 
 French society in another aspect. In 1851 I had been 
 introduced to Napoleon III. as President at St. Cloud, and 
 now attended, at his command, a Sunday reception, in 
 addition to the festivities which the Emperor gave to the 
 foreign Commissioners. At that time the sanitary condition 
 of Paris was under discussion, the sewerage being in a bad 
 condition. The Emperor wished the advice of English 
 sanitarians, and from my work on the Health of Towns 
 Commission, thought my opinion might be of use. He 
 also sent for our veteran sanitary reformer, Edwin 
 Chadwick, who prepared a short speech for the occasion. 
 It was epigrammatic in its brevity : “ Sire,” said Chadwick, 
 “ Caesar found Rome built with brick and left it built of 
 marble : it will be a great thing for you, sire, if posterity 
 can say that you found Paris stinking and left it 
 sweet ! ” The Emperor, who spoke English perfectly, was 
 much amused. 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 163 
 
 Among my intimate friends in Paris I should not forget 
 Arles Dufour, the Cobden of France. Our acquaintance 
 began in a singular way. Arles Dufour was stranded 
 at an inn in the Trossachs during a Highland tour, with 
 his son, on account of some miscarriage of his remittances. 
 I was breakfasting at an adjoining table, and he told me 
 of his difficulty. He looked eminently respectable, so I 
 offered him £ 20 , and gave the name of my banker in 
 London. On my return there I found the loan duly 
 paid, and a letter asking me to visit him in Paris. This 
 I did, and he gave me an interesting dinner at which Pere 
 L'Enfantin and other Socialists of the Fourier school were 
 present. The venerable L’Enfantin used afterwards to 
 write to me on subjects of public interest, especially about 
 the Suez Canal. Arles Dufour himself was a man full of 
 enthusiasm for public reforms, and had great influence on 
 the educational progress of his time. 
 
 My old master, Professor Graham, continued to teach at 
 University College, and I naturally saw a good deal of 
 him. In 1855 the Mastership of the Mint became vacant. 
 The office had been once filled by Newton, and was 
 attractive to men of science. Graham asked whether I 
 wished the office, in which case he would not compete 
 with me, but if I did not he would become a candidate. 
 I did not tell him that I ardently desired and intended to 
 apply for it, but I felt that his scientific claims were much 
 superior to mine, so I offered to use all my influence in his 
 favour, and he was appointed Master of the Mint. It is, 
 however, doubtful whether it was a happy office for a man 
 of Graham’s temperament. He was frequently exposed 
 to public criticism, and felt it keenly. In my first year 
 of Parliamentary life, in 1869, his administration of the 
 Mint was attacked in the House of Lords, and I was 
 able to defend it in the House of Commons. 
 
 My defence so pleased the Master of the Mint that he 
 struck a special medal of an alloy of palladium and 
 hydrogen, containing 900 volumes of that gas, to com- 
 memorate my aid. Graham died in the autumn of this 
 year, leaving an unsigned will, in which I was named 
 
164 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 as his executor. My old ambition to become Master ot 
 the Mint revived, and both Mr Gladstone, the Prime 
 Minister, and Mr Lowe (afterwards Lord Sherbrooke), 
 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, encouraged me to apply 
 for the vacant office. But just at that time Lord Justice 
 Clerk Patton died, and Mr Moncrieff, who represented 
 Glasgow University, succeeded to his seat on the Bench. 
 Had I also taken office, both Scotch University seats would 
 have become vacant, and would have passed over to the 
 Tories. This would have been too severe a blow to the 
 Liberal party, so I withdrew my candidature for the 
 Mastership of the Mint. 
 
 In 1857 I married Miss Jean Ann Millington, 1 a lady of 
 some fortune, by whom I had a daughter, Ethel Mary 
 Lyon, now married to Major Bloomfield. By this marriage 
 I was no longer wholly dependent on the income derived 
 from work, so I desired to obtain time for scientific re- 
 search, and made an arrangement with the Government 
 to give only half my time as an Inspector of Schools of 
 Science. It was fortunate that this arrangement was made, 
 for in 1858 the Chair of Chemistry in the University of 
 Edinburgh became vacant by the death of Professor 
 Gregor} r , and I was appointed to that much coveted 
 professorship. 
 
 With regard to the suggestion of an Order of Merit, 
 of the collapse of which Playfair gives so amusing an 
 account in the preceding chapter of his Reminiscences, 
 the following letter is of interest : — 
 
 Colonel Grey to Playfair. Buckingham Palace, March 8th, 1856. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have read your letter to the 
 Prince, as you desired. His Royal Highness was called 
 away directly afterwards, and I am not in a position to 
 say what his opinion may be. For myself, I have a 
 feeling (I can call it no more, not having given my 
 consideration to the subject) against the extension and 
 
 1 Playfair’s first wife had died in 1855. 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 1 65 
 
 multiplication of British orders. Nor can I quite see as 
 strongly as you do the danger of fostering a democratic 
 feeling, if men of science and industry are to continue to 
 look, as they have hitherto done, to societies, medals, 
 and the letters which speak the members of such societies, 
 for the public evidence of their position in the scientific 
 and industrial world, instead of to honours received at the 
 hands of the Queen. I could wish that they had not gone 
 so far in my own profession, where such distinctions are 
 become almost worthless ; and the difficulty of discrimi- 
 nating between conflicting claims has there been found so 
 insuperable that officers commanding troops in any action 
 for which a distribution of such honours is thought right, 
 are actually forced, as the only way of solving the difficulty, 
 to name every man holding a particular rank in such affairs. 
 The Duke of Wellington, well knowing this difficulty, and 
 the impossibility of giving satisfaction, always wisely set 
 his face against the system of medals and decorations ; and 
 I believe he was right. But I need not argue the question 
 with you. This matter will not depend upon any opinions 
 of mine, and I have already this afternoon more writing to 
 do than I can well get through before dinner-time. 
 
 Ever yours truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 Playfair in 1855 sent Professor Faraday a box of the 
 new matches which were just being introduced to replace 
 the evil-smelling sulphur match that had hitherto been 
 in use. In view of subsequent experiences in English 
 match-making the answer of the great scientist is 
 interesting. 
 
 Royal Institution, 
 
 Professor Faraday to Playfair . October 30 th, 1855. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I was very sorry to miss you 
 this morning, but inexorable time stole you away, and I 
 know so well the value of it to an occupied man that I 
 cannot but allow to others the power I am often obliged 
 
1 66 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to reserve to myself. Many thanks for the box, which is 
 very curious, and apparently good. I have seen them 
 before. Do you think they will come into use ? I was 
 much struck by an observation Liebig made to me the 
 other day when he was here, and we were talking over 
 just such a box. “ But your match-makers have not 
 the phosphorus disease in the jaw," said he; “ it only 
 occurs in Germany." And when I asked him the reason 
 for that, he seemed to give it in the bad ventilation 
 and closeness of the German shops, combined with the 
 presence of phosphorus vapour. 
 
 Ever your obliged 
 
 M. Faraday. 
 
 Merchiston, 
 
 Admiral Sir Charles Napier to Playfair. April 12 th, 1855. 
 
 My dear Sir, — Many thanks for your note. I shall 
 be in town on Saturday and Monday, and I hope soon to 
 have the calculation. I suppose the iron vessels will be 
 launched next week, or one of them at least. They appear 
 to me to have committed a great error with the mortar 
 vessels. They have not engines in them, which I look 
 upon as of great importance. Should they be placed at a 
 proper distance from a battery and had engines, when the 
 enemy got their range all they would have to do would be 
 to go ahead or astern a little, and that they could do 
 without it being observed, and the enemy be thrown out. 
 And although firing their mortar, they could keep moving 
 a little to the right or left, the chances are they would 
 never be hit ; but without an engine we must employ a 
 steamer to move them, which would be observed by the 
 enemy, and that would be two chances of damaging us. 
 We are fated to do everything that is wrong. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Charles Napier. 
 
 This letter bears upon a side of Pla3 T fair’s indefatigable 
 industry to which he has made reference in his auto- 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 167 
 
 biography. His attempts to induce the military authorities 
 to employ new agencies in war were not successful. He 
 himself regarded his failure with some impatience, and 
 attributed it to the stupidity of the authorities. Thus he 
 endorsed in his own hand the formal reports of a certain 
 department upon experiments made, in accordance with 
 his suggestions, with materials for setting fire to the sails 
 of an enemy's fleet : “ Absurd report. To make experi- 
 
 ments in absence of the inventor is foolish. The objections 
 here made could easily have been removed." Throughout 
 his life he hated red tape, and though so much engrossed 
 in official work, was the implacable enemy of the official 
 temperament. When he saw that a thing needed to be 
 done he set about doing it, perhaps without too much 
 regard to the strict rules of official procedure. In a similar 
 spirit, although a man of exceptional kindness and tender- 
 ness, he put aside as ridiculous the humanitarian objections 
 to the use of warlike appliances of excessive efficiency. 
 Was not the object of war to destroy an enemy as quickly 
 as possible, and the more speedily and painlessly that 
 could be done, the better ? Playfair’s intensely practical 
 spirit, it will be seen, displayed itself on many different 
 fields of action. 
 
 Baron von Liebig to Playfair. Munich, September 17 th, 1856. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Dr Daubeny, who was good 
 enough to visit me on his journey to Vienna, informed me 
 that you had given your intended lecture on Agriculture in 
 July, and that it was very interesting. This leads me to 
 beg of you kindly to send me a copy of it, as it may 
 perhaps be useful to me in the new edition of my ‘ Agri- 
 cultural Chemistry ' which I am now preparing. 
 
 Meanwhile, my answer to Lawes and Gilbert has ap- 
 peared in the ' Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society/ 
 No. xxxvii. You may perhaps have read it. If so, I 
 should like to hear your opinion on it. I have firmly 
 
1 68 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 resolved to carry this fight through to the end, and shall 
 not lay down my pen until the laws of Nature, which 
 we are defending, have carried the day. At present my 
 fixed idea is to devote myself entirely to practical agri- 
 culture, and to found a school for teachers of agriculture, 
 as thirty years ago I did for practical chemistry. I con- 
 sider that such a school is the greatest necessity of our 
 time, and that there is nobody who could carry out such 
 an enterprise so well as I. I have no doubts about its 
 success. On the other hand, it seems very foolish to 
 give up a position such as no other man of science in 
 Europe holds. I have so far cherished no wish which 
 the King has not granted, but I am weary of playing the 
 schoolmaster and giving lectures which others could give 
 as well as I. All my thoughts are devoted to the spread 
 and profitable application of scientific principles in agri- 
 culture. I regret that my friends three years ago were 
 too hasty in giving me a testimonial recognising my 
 services. If this matter were now brought before Par- 
 liament by the Duke of Argyll, it is not quite impossible 
 that Parliament would grant me a pension of ^300 to 
 ^400, which would suffice to enable me to resign my 
 professorship, and to live three or four months in the year 
 in England or Scotland, and devote myself entirely to 
 agriculture. With the great resources which the Royal 
 Agricultural Society possesses, very much might have 
 been done, but they do not know how best to employ 
 their money, and much is wasted with no results. Some 
 Americans have proposed that I should go to America, 
 assuring me that the United States would certainly pro- 
 vide me with all the land and money I required. But 
 first I should like to take a trip there and see more of 
 the prevailing conditions. 
 
 It would give me great pleasure if you would pay us 
 a visit in Munich. I was four weeks at the baths of Gastein, 
 in Salzburg, and am staying here during the holidays. 
 
 Farewell, dear Playfair ; let me hear something of 
 you soon. Most sincerely yours, 
 
 J. v. Liebig. 
 
EDUCATIONAL REFORM. 
 
 169 
 
 Same to the same. Munich, March 30 th , 1857. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I have just received the report 
 of the meeting of the members of the Royal Institution, 
 Part VI., and find in it your lecture on the principles 
 involved in agricultural experiments, which I have read 
 with great pleasure. You have set forth in it in a clear 
 and lucid manner the principal object of such experiments, 
 and estimated those of Lawes at their real worth ; your 
 examples and illustrations are so simple and so easily 
 grasped that every farmer must understand them. Faraday 
 had already written to me about your lecture, which he 
 thought must put an end to the long controversy which 
 is still going on in Germany. I am at this moment 
 engaged in writing a fresh pamphlet against Stockhardt 
 and Co. The so-called nitrogen theory leads to such 
 absurdities that all reasonable people must unite in 
 opposing it. Stockhardt maintains, for instance, that 
 100 lb. nitrate of soda are equivalent to 2,800 lb. of stable 
 dung, because they contain the same quantity of nitrogen ! ! 
 
 Walter Crum wrote to me about a project which he 
 had discussed with Young, and which has also been laid 
 before you. They wish to make up a sum of money by 
 subscription to enable me to carry out in England my 
 ideas on agriculture. I have, therefore, written to Crum 
 and asked him to let this matter entirely drop ; it looks as 
 though my only object was to make money, whereas 
 really I never thought of it. In the heat of the con- 
 troversy with Lawes, I eagerly seized the idea of founding 
 an agricultural school, in order to have an opportune of 
 putting my principles into practice. But now I see that 
 progress cannot be forced, but must develop gradually 
 like a plant. I can do a greater and more widespread 
 work through teaching than through example, and 
 by endeavouring that those experiments which I deem 
 most important should be carried out in many places 
 simultaneously. This opportunity is now within my 
 grasp ; German agricultural associations and chemical labo- 
 ratories are numerous, and are inclined to carry out any 
 
170 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 suggestions of mine. Thus I have the means practically 
 in my own hands, and it is, therefore, unnecessary to give 
 up my present position. It would have been a foolish 
 thing to do, as it brings me in ^500 to ^550 a year, 
 which, added to my other resources, makes my income 
 about .£1,100, which enables one to live very comfort- 
 ably in Germany. I could never have consented to 
 accept a sum raised by subscription by private indi- 
 viduals. Such an arrangement would probably carry 
 with it obligations and expectations which could not be 
 fulfilled. It is well meant by Crum and Young, but not 
 practicable. 
 
 Always, my dear friend, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 J. v. Liebig. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 Playfair “the Man Behind the Scenes” — Scientific Honours — Place in 
 Society — His Passion for Scientific Research — Appointed Professor of 
 Chemistry in Edinburgh University — Resigning his Post as Gentleman 
 Usher Autobiography : Chemical Theories and Their Exponents in 
 Edinburgh University : Sir Robert Christison : Sir James Simpson 
 and Experiments in Anaesthesia ; Reforming the University : Declining 
 the Office of Principal : Giving the Prince of Wales Lessons : Royal 
 Students at the University : Death of the Prince Consort : President of 
 the Royal Commission on the Herring Fishery : Appointing the Jurors 
 for the International Exhibition of 1862 : Lord Stratford de Redcliffe : 
 Honours from Foreign Princes : A Member of the Royal Commission 
 on the Cattle Plague : Anecdote of the Princess Alice : A Visit to 
 Coburg : Dr John Brown : The Marquis of Tweeddale : Lady Ruthven : 
 Leaving Edinburgh. Playfair’s Professorial Zeal — His Work for the 
 Exhibition of 1862 — The Prince of Wales and the Cauldron of Boiling 
 Lead — Playfair and the Edinburgh Memorial of the Prince Consort — 
 His Unpopularity in Connection with the Cattle Plague Report. 
 
 In the year 1858 Playfair entered his fortieth year. 
 Nearly half his life had been spent in England, first in 
 Lancashire, and subsequently in London. He had com- 
 pressed into that comparatively short period an amount of 
 work which it is given to few men to accomplish in a 
 lifetime. He had advanced from obscurity into public 
 fame. He had become the personal friend and trusted 
 adviser of many of the greatest in the land, beginning with 
 the Prince Consort. Above all, he had been the powerful 
 instrument by means of which a great revolution in our 
 educational system had been accomplished. The public, 
 it is true, did not then understand how large a part he 
 had played in the formation of the Science and Art 
 Department, and in the establishment of the new system 
 
172 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 of technical education. Still less did it know of his early 
 labours in the field of national sanitation, or the share, 
 significant though limited, which he had in influencing 
 Sir Robert Peel in his resolve to break down the import 
 duties upon food. Nobody save those who had been the 
 associates of Playfair in his labours really knew what 
 the extent and importance of those labours had been. 
 To the world at large he was then, what he remained 
 largely to the end, the man behind the scenes. 
 
 But certain visible signs of his success had been ac- 
 corded to him. He held an office in the Household 
 of the Prince Consort, and a post of importance in 
 the public service. He had received the Companionship 
 of the Bath, and had been offered many foreign orders ; 
 he had been President of the Chemical Society, of which 
 he was one of the founders ; was a fellow of the Royal 
 Society, and had secured most of the honours which are 
 recognised in this coimtry as the rewards of scientific 
 eminence. Above all, he had gained a special place of 
 his own in the cosmopolitan society of London. Everybody 
 who knew him at all, knew that a dinner-table was made 
 the brighter by the presence of a man who wore so vast 
 a load of learning “ lightly as a flower,” who not only 
 possessed immense stores of knowledge, but had the art 
 of imparting that knowledge in the easiest and pleasantest 
 fashion to others, and who had, beyond most men, the 
 gift of winning the confidence and good will of all who 
 were brought in contact with him. It seemed to his 
 friends that his place in life was now definitely fixed, and 
 that he would remain upon the great stage of London, 
 an eminent public servant, whose talents and energies 
 would continue to be devoted to that branch of national 
 work which lies outside the range of party politics. The 
 Science and Art Department, and the development of the 
 practical work of scientific teaching of which he was 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 173 
 
 to so large an extent the founder, seemed likely to 
 absorb his energies for the remainder of his days. 
 
 But Lyon Playfair’s original passion for scientific re- 
 search had never left him. He looked back with yearning 
 to the days when he had been a student in the laboratory 
 at Edinburgh, and had made those original investigations 
 which first secured for him the good will of the great 
 Liebig. He looked forward from the busy days which he 
 had to spend in the company of princes, great noblemen, 
 and Ministers of State, to the time when he could return 
 to his first love, and, withdrawing from the glare and bustle 
 of public life, find the task that best suited him in the 
 tranquil labours of a professorship. It is necessary to 
 touch upon this point, because men of science are tra- 
 ditionally censorious in their treatment of those of their 
 number who abandon the pursuit of science in the abstract 
 for the practical work of life, even when that work is 
 more or less directly connected with progress in scientific 
 knowledge. Playfair did not during the course of his 
 long and busy life escape the criticisms of some of his 
 more censorious fellow-scientists. Up to the end of 
 his days there were those who were inclined to look 
 upon him in the light of “ a good man who had gone 
 wrong.” Ignoring the immense services which he had 
 rendered to his fellow-countrymen and to the State, they 
 deplored the fact that he had ever been induced to 
 abandon his original work as a student of chemistry, 
 and professed to believe that nothing he had done in the 
 way of public service could compare with what he might 
 have accomplished if he, the friend and pupil of Liebig, 
 had devoted his life to original research. It is only fair 
 that it should be known that when Playfair was drawn 
 out into public work it was by a force which seemed at 
 the time to be irresistible. When a public duty was to 
 be done, and he knew that he was the man who could 
 
174 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 do it, nothing — not even his intense love of learning and 
 research — could prevent his undertaking the task. But 
 when it was accomplished, and there was an opening for 
 his return to his first love, he availed himself of it with 
 an eagerness that was almost touching. 
 
 Thus it came to pass that in the year 1858 he went 
 back to the Scotland which he had left as a boy, in order 
 to take up the dignified and important post of Professor 
 of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. His bio- 
 grapher must leave Playfair himself to describe the con- 
 ditions of his life in his new post at Edinburgh, and his 
 surroundings at the University. It was un questionably 
 a great trial to him to leave London, with all the intimate 
 friendships he had formed there, and to sever the links 
 which bound him to great and beneficent public enter- 
 prises. Let those rigid scientists who seemed sometimes 
 inclined to regard him as one who had been false to the 
 higher ideals of scientific work, give him credit for the 
 resolute courage with which he made this sacrifice when 
 it became possible to do so. 
 
 His eminence, both as a chemist and as a public servant, 
 ensured his success in his candidature for the Edinburgh 
 chair. Testimonials of the ordinary kind were hardly 
 needed by him, but with the thoroughness which 
 characterised him in ever} 7 work he undertook, he made 
 it his business to secure them. 
 
 34, Cleveland Square, 
 
 Playfair to Professor Frankland. May 22 nd, 1858. 
 
 My dear Frankland, — Very much against my own 
 wish, I am forced into having some testimonials as a 
 reserve in case of necessity, and as a reply to the assertion 
 that I am unable to procure an} 7 . Every chemist seems 
 to have given to ever} 7 candidate testimonials, and if they 
 have any chemical virtue in them, they should have only 
 neutral effects. If you can, could you embody the 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 175 
 
 following points in a letter to me ? You will see they 
 relate to the specific points of my continued attention 
 to chemistry, and will therefore steer clear of general 
 testimonialisation . 
 
 (1) As to my general scientific position in London. 
 
 (2) As to the fact that I continue laboratory practice, 
 and have not abandoned chemistry. 
 
 (3) That as President of the Chemical Society I have 
 shown that I study chemistry. 
 
 (4) That I have some powers as a lecturer. 
 
 I am sorry to bother you, but my friends in Edinburgh 
 insist upon my being provided with testimonial letters, 
 to be used only in case of necessity. 
 
 St. Bartholomew’s Hospital, 
 
 Professor Frankland to Playfair . May 25 th, 1858. 
 
 My dear Dr Playfair, — It is with no inconsiderable 
 pleasure that I hear of your intention to become a candi- 
 date for the vacant chair of chemistry in Edinburgh. The 
 deep interest which you have continued to take in the 
 progress of chemical science, and the fact that you did 
 not abandon even laboratory pursuits during a period when 
 the onerous duties of your appointment in connection with 
 the Board of Education must have severely taxed your 
 time, caused me to feel little surprise at your seeking so 
 eligible an opportunity of again devoting yourself ex- 
 clusively to the pursuits of our science. Your high 
 scientific position in London, and the admirable way in 
 which you have filled the office of President of the 
 Chemical Society, are sufficient guarantee that your 
 official duties have not been allowed unduly to interfere 
 with your chemical studies. In the teaching of science, 
 like that of chemistry, the power of placing the chief facts 
 and generalisations before students in a striking and lucid 
 manner cannot be over-rated ; and as I know from ample 
 personal observation that you possess this power in a very 
 rare degree, and as at the same time you have always won 
 the regard and esteem of your pupils, I have the greatest 
 confidence that the mantle of your renowned predecessor 
 
176 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 in the Edinburgh chair would worthily rest upon your 
 shoulders should you succeed in obtaining the appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 Trusting that chemistry will thus soon again have the 
 advantage of your undivided attention, 
 
 Believe me, etc., 
 
 E. Frankland. 
 
 Royal Institution, 
 
 Professor Faraday to Playfair. May 25th, 1858. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — That such a question should 
 arise ! I cannot give — i.e. volunteer — a certificate for 
 circulation ; it is against my rule ; but if any one asks me 
 whether you are able to expound the truths of experi- 
 mental science to a large number of persons in a clear, 
 logical, audible, and, to me, satisfactory manner, I should 
 have no need to consider, but must from my own ex- 
 perience say “Yes” at once. Anyone concerned in the 
 matter may write to me, or you may show them this note, 
 which contains what would be my answer. 
 
 Ever truly yours, 
 
 M. Faraday. 
 
 On June 29th, 1858, Baillie Blackadder, the acting chief 
 magistrate of Edinburgh, officially notified Playfair of the 
 fact that he had on the previous day been appointed 
 Professor of Chemistry in the University, “in room of the 
 late Dr Gregory.” So, after nearly twenty years of 
 absence, he returned to the capital of his native land to 
 occupy a position of exceptional dignity and influence. 
 The first step which his appointment imposed upon him 
 was the resignation of his office as a member of the Prince 
 Consort’s Household. Writing to General Grey, imme- 
 diately after the appointment had been made, Playfair, 
 after asking him to announce the fact to the Prince 
 Consort, said : 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 177 
 
 “ I found my scientific knowledge rapidly slipping away 
 from me owing to my public duties, and I could not resist 
 taking the only chair which was worth having in order to 
 enable me to devote myself more exclusively to science. 
 My lectures occupy from November to the end of April. 
 I still intend to spend May, June, and July in London. I 
 believe that I could perform the duties of the office which 
 I have the honour to hold in the Household of the Prince 
 Consort, by an occasional interchange of duties with my 
 colleague, such as we have been hitherto accustomed to 
 make for each other. But although I am very unwilling 
 to break a connection which has given me so much 
 pleasure, and to dissever myself from service with a 
 Prince who has given me so many reasons to be attached 
 to his person, at the same time, as there might be some 
 irregularities in that service, I think it right to place my 
 resignation in your hands, and to beg you to convey to His 
 Royal Highness the profound sense of gratitude and 
 affection which I feel for the many kindnesses which he 
 has bestowed upon me." 
 
 Sir Charles Phipps to Playfair. Osborne, July gth, 1858. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Grey is away, and I have 
 opened your letter of the 7th, and stated its purport to the 
 Prince. His Royal Highness commands me to say, in 
 reply, that he should be very sorry to lose you from his 
 Household, and that he thinks, by arrangement with 
 Admiral Blake, your duty might be easily provided for. 
 For instance, if he were to take March and April, and you 
 May and June, all the occasions upon which the attend- 
 ance of a Gentleman Usher is required might be provided for. 
 
 It would only be in the event of its proving impossible 
 that your two duties could be made compatible that His 
 Royal Highness would accept your resignation. 
 
 The Prince commands me to forward to you his hearty 
 congratulations upon your appointment to a post for 
 which you are so eminently fitted. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 C. B. Phipps, 
 m 
 
i;8 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 A few months later Playfair found that, in spite of the 
 kind consideration of the Prince, he could not discharge 
 even the modified programme of his duties as Gentleman 
 Usher, and in January, 1859, he finally resigned his post. 
 The Prince, in accepting it, expressed the very sincere 
 regret with which he lost him from his Household. 
 
 Even in his own country a prophet may not be without 
 honour. Playfair was still remembered by his old friends 
 in St. Andrews and other Scots towns, chiefly as the boy 
 who had shown so great a fondness for study and so keen 
 a knowledge of how to get through his work in the 
 shortest possible space of time. Now he had come back 
 to them in a position which in Scotland has always been 
 regarded as one of peculiar honour. One of his old 
 acquaintances wrote as follows to his mother upon the 
 occasion of his appointment : — 
 
 Manse of Moffat, July 5 th , 1858. 
 
 My dear Friend, — I learned from Mr Lindsay, who 
 kindly came up to me in church yesterday, that you are in 
 St. Andrews, and so I write to-day, though really I have 
 nothing to say but only to inquire after your welfare, and 
 to express my hope that you are pleased with Dr Lyon’s 
 appointment to Edinburgh. No doubt his life in Edin- 
 burgh will not be so splendid as his life in London. But I 
 should suppose that the pleasures of Court favour are not 
 without much trouble and loss of time, which a studiously- 
 disposed man must grudge, and besides, he has had that 
 sort of pleasure. The future could be little more than a 
 repetition of the past, which is always more or less weari- 
 some. In Edinburgh he will take his place at the top of 
 society, and will be able to command much of his own 
 time. He will also be the head of chemical philosophy, 
 for the Edinburgh chair is looked upon in Europe as higher 
 than any other, and he will have the pleasure of finding 
 himself surrounded by a school of young chemists who will 
 not be long in recognising him as their master. As to 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 179 
 
 emolument, happily he is not dependent upon that, but I 
 remember the day when the chemical chair in Edinburgh 
 was worth £2,000, and doubtless under your son it will 
 revive fast. I don’t know whether you ever heard Lyon 
 lecture to a scientific auditory. I had that pleasure at the 
 School of Mines. Nothing can be finer. His fluency is 
 perfect as it is in social conversation. His hearer feels that 
 he is speaking to him, which is an immense matter, though 
 rare in scientific men, who are apt merely to discuss their 
 subject and hold communion with it or their own thoughts, 
 which never fails to make them dry and uninstructive. I 
 am delighted with the appointment, because I think your 
 son has deeper insight into the philosophy of chemistry and 
 the economy of matter than any other body ; and now that 
 his time will be his own I am sure he will go on making 
 great discoveries. So much interested was I that I went 
 to the Council chamber, and though too late for the vote, 
 I succeeded in forcing a seat beside a councillor, from 
 whom I asked the result. He did not know me, nor do I 
 know who he was ; but you will be pleased to hear what he 
 said. “ I did not vote for Dr Playfair myself,” said he, 
 “ but I could not but admire him when he called upon me, 
 for he said : ‘ Well, if you will not vote for me I can 
 assure you you will do well to vote for Professor Anderson. 
 Of course I don’t mean to say but that I should like you to 
 give me your vote, but if not, Anderson is a first-rate man 
 in every respect.’ ” 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — VII. 
 
 1858 to 1868. 
 
 At this time I was President of the Chemical Society, 
 and once more I succeeded in breaking away from 
 public life to enjoy the quiet of an academic office. 
 The Chair of Chemistry in the University of Edin- 
 burgh has always been the chief ambition of scientific 
 chemists. My predecessor, Professor Gregory, was 
 an accomplished man of science, and had a thorough 
 knowledge of modern chemistry. He had not been 
 able to found a teaching laboratory on a scale com- 
 
i8o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 mensurate with the importance of the chair. This I 
 determined to do, so far as the limited accommodation 
 then in the University would permit. Before entering 
 upon my duties as a professor, a considerable sum had to be 
 spent in equipping the laboratories and chemical museum 
 with the full appliances for teaching. 
 
 My introductory lecture was attended, as is usual, 
 by all the professors, and by many residents of the 
 city interested in science. The subject of the address 
 was “A Century of Chemistry in the University of 
 Edinburgh.” It was interesting to observe how entirely 
 chemistry had changed during that century, and how 
 well the profession in Edinburgh had represented the 
 changing periods. At the beginning of that epoch the 
 theory of phlogiston held universal belief. Phlogiston was 
 the principle of heat, and it was believed that as it was 
 present or absent from bodies their fundamental charac- 
 teristics changed. Cullen taught this from the chair which 
 I now occupied. It was a theory that was fitted for the 
 time, because it brought within itself a vast number of facts 
 hitherto disconnected. An ore was heated in the fire and 
 it produced a metal, because the principle of fire entered 
 into it. The ore was in fact metal minus phlogiston, while 
 the metal was the ore plus phlogiston. The use of the 
 balance upset this famous theory, and no one did more 
 than Black, Cullen’s successor, to apply weight and measure 
 to all experiments. When a metal was burned it pro- 
 duced a calx which weighed more than the metal, and 
 when the latter was reproduced by calcination in a furnace 
 it became lighter. How can this be explained ? said the 
 doubters of the phlogiston theory, for if phlogiston pass out 
 of the calx and go into the metal the latter should increase 
 in weight ? The upholders of the theory boldly answered 
 that phlogiston is the principle of lightness as well as of 
 fire, so when it enters a body that body becomes lighter. 
 Thus lightness is not a negative quality — the absence of 
 weight, as darkness is the absence of light — but it is a 
 positive entity. My predecessor, Black, who discovered 
 the laws of latent heat, and the nature of the air which we 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 181 
 
 now know as carbonic acid, and who experimented with 
 the balance in his hand, felt that the grand edifice of 
 phlogiston was giving way, though he was too old and 
 timid to abandon it. We now know that an ore becomes 
 a metal because it loses oxygen, and that a metal burning 
 in air becomes heavier because it absorbs oxygen. Phlo- 
 giston gave a beautiful picture of nature, though it was 
 nature turned upside down, and like a negative photograph 
 it showed all the black white and the white black. Hope, 
 the successor of Black, renounced the theory of phlogiston, 
 and taught the theories of Lavoisier and the French School, 
 and made chemistry an attractive study by the care which 
 he bestowed on the lecture table. His successor, Gregory, 
 represented the great changes which had passed over the 
 science by the discoveries in organic chemistry, while I, 
 who now lectured as his successor, was a sort of missionary 
 to bring chemistry into relation with the industries of 
 the country, which had too long been carried on by the 
 rule of thumb. 
 
 There were several remarkable men among my 
 colleagues in the Senate of the University. My old 
 college companion Goodsir was in feeble health, though 
 still Professor of Anatomy. My friend Edward Forbes, 
 who had been Professor of Natural History, died before 
 my arrival, and had been succeeded by the excellent 
 naturalist, Professor Allman. The most active members 
 of the medical faculty on my arrival were Sir Robert 
 Christison, Professor Syme, Sir James Simpson, Professor 
 Laycock, and Professor Bennett. It was natural, with my 
 capacity for public business, that I should take part in the 
 affairs of the Senatus Academicus, which met weekly and 
 administered the affairs of the University. Formerly the 
 Town Council had complete control over the University, 
 but that had recently ceased. I was disappointed to find 
 that many of my medical colleagues were in a state of 
 chronic war with each other, and it required considerable 
 tact on my part to keep myself clear of these professional 
 disputes, and at the same time to remain friends with the 
 disputants in my own faculty. I do not know whether 
 
1 82 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Edinburgh now continues to be the theatre of professional 
 disputes, but it long had a bad reputation in that respect, 
 for Franklin in his Autobiography says, " Persons of good 
 sense . . . seldom fall into it [professional disputa- 
 
 tion], except lawyers, university men, and generally 
 men of all sorts who have been bred in Edinburgh ! ” 
 
 The Nestor of the University was Sir Robert Christison. 
 He was a tall and handsome man, even in his old age as 
 straight as an arrow, with an elastic gait which showed 
 how carefully he had preserved his physical condition. 
 He scrupulously protected the finances of the University, 
 and was willing to support reforms and to improve its 
 condition. To me he was a kind and courteous friend, 
 although our political opinions were absolutely opposite, 
 so that at a future period, at the time of a parliamentary 
 election, our friendship became somewhat strained. 
 
 Professor Syme, the eminent surgeon, was a short man 
 of keen expression and of blunt honesty of character, 
 though with strong prejudices. His students highly 
 valued his lectures and clinical instruction. He was 
 greater as a professor than as a Member of the Senate, 
 where calm consideration of questions was required, 
 uninfluenced by personal antipathies. 
 
 Sir James Simpson was a man of great personality and 
 power. He had the body of a Bacchus, with the head of 
 a Jupiter. His mind ranged over a great variety of 
 subjects — medicine, antiquities, history, and politics — and 
 this diversity of interest made him sometimes negligent of 
 his professional practice. As the introducer of chloroform 
 into surgery he is universally known. In Scotland there 
 used to be an antipathy to objects not mentioned in the 
 Bible. On this account, potatoes were only slowly 
 adopted by the Scotch. Simpson had many struggles 
 before chloroform was adopted. Not only was it un- 
 known as a Biblical noun, but it positively was in direct 
 contradiction to the curse upon woman that she shall 
 endure sorrow in bringing forth children ! Simpson 
 adroitly answered the religious objections to chloroform 
 by saying that God, when He performed the operation of 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 1 83 
 
 taking out one of Adam’s ribs, first put him into a deep 
 sleep such as chloroform produces ! 
 
 Simpson was constantly experimenting with new anaes- 
 thetics. On one occasion he came into my laboratory to 
 ask whether I had any new substance likely to produce 
 anaesthesia. My assistant, Dr Guthrie, had just prepared a 
 volatile liquid, bibromide of ethylene, which I thought 
 worthy of experiment. Simpson, who was brave to 
 rashness in his experiments, wished to try it upon himself in 
 my private room. This I absolutely refused to allow, and 
 declined to give him any of the liquid unless he promised 
 me first to try its effects on rabbits. Two were procured, 
 and under the vapour quickly passed into anaesthesia, 
 coming out of it in due course. Next day Simpson 
 proposed to experiment upon himself and his assistant 
 with this liquid, but the latter suggested that they should 
 first see how the rabbits had fared. They were both 
 found to be dead ! This has always appeared to me to be 
 an excellent argument for experiments on living animals. 
 By the sacrifice of two rabbits the life of the greatest 
 physician of his time had probably been spared. Simpson 
 was a keen academic reformer, and, though naturally not 
 of a quarrelsome temper, he was in a state of chronic war 
 with his medical colleagues. Christison and Syme were 
 bosom friends, but always at war with some of the other 
 professors. Both, however, would unite with Bennett, 
 Laycock, and others in opposition to Simpson. I was 
 always on terms of intimacy and friendship with the latter, 
 and, probably because I was outside the medical pro- 
 fession, retained my friendship with the others also. 
 
 At this time the University required considerable reform. 
 The old tradition of classes prevailed. The numbers of 
 students were too large in each class for effective teaching. 
 I introduced into the class of chemistry a tutorial system 
 like that of repetiteurs in France. The tutors followed my 
 course of lectures, and drilled the students in practical 
 exercises upon the subjects which I had discussed. The 
 system of examinations prevailing at the University dis- 
 couraged the students, because only two or three of them 
 
184 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 could carry away the prizes, while those forming the 
 remainder of the class became discouraged, and ceased to 
 attend the examinations. I made each separate examina- 
 tion of the value of 100, and enrolled all students who 
 obtained 75 per cent, or upwards of the marks in the first 
 list of honours, and gave to each a bronze medal, while 
 those who obtained between 50 and 75 per cent, received 
 certificates in a second class of honours. This gave great 
 life to the class, and sustained a general competition all 
 through the session. Formerly the marks at each examina- 
 tion had been an arbitrary number. The simplicity of the 
 percentage system was very useful, as the parents of 
 students understood it, and they consequently took an 
 interest in the results of each examination, and encouraged 
 their sons to work. This has now become general in the 
 University of Edinburgh, and has extended itself to other 
 educational institutions. I have found it to prevail in 
 American colleges, perhaps from imitation, though more 
 probably from initiation. 
 
 The next step was to produce a feeling of pride among 
 graduates, so as to interest them in the future of the 
 University. Ceremonials of graduation had fallen into 
 abeyance, and academic costume had almost ceased to be 
 worn. The professors did wear gowns, but had no hoods 
 to indicate their special degrees. In the efforts to restore 
 academic dignity to the University there were many 
 willing workers. Professor Campbell Swinton and Pro- 
 fessor Lorimer in the faculty of Law, Professors Wilson, 
 Killand, and Fraser in the faculty of Arts, joined heartily 
 in the new movement. The conditions for graduation were 
 revised, and graduation itself was made a stately ceremony, 
 every graduate having to appear in academic dress with 
 appropriate hoods invented for classification. This 
 gave a great impulse to graduation, and the number of 
 graduates in each faculty increased largely. This was 
 followed by a Royal Commission under the presidency of 
 Lord Justice General Inglis, now the Chancellor of the 
 University. By his influence the House of Commons 
 increased the annual vote to the University, leaving it to 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 185 
 
 the Executive Commission to distribute these funds in the 
 most effective way. The Act founded a General Council 
 of all graduates, so as to maintain their continued interest 
 in the University. This Council is consultative and 
 advisory, while the Senatus Academicus still remains the 
 executive, subject, however, to a University Court con- 
 sisting of the Chancellor, Lord Proctor, Principal, and 
 other representative members. These reforms, to which I 
 gave a hearty co-operation, introduced a new academic 
 life, and have led to the present remarkable prosperity of 
 the University. 
 
 Soon after I entered the University as professor, the 
 great philosopher, Sir David Brewster, was appointed 
 Principal. He had already filled a similar office in the 
 ancient University of St. Andrews. Brewsters scientific 
 fame and his natural dignity of demeanour made him 
 specially fitted for such an important post. He was a 
 man of polished manners, which conveyed the impression 
 of a suave and gentle disposition. But he had the serious 
 drawback of being singularly litigious, and he little under- 
 stood the art of compromise and conciliation. He had no 
 sooner entered on his duties than a lawsuit between 
 Brewster and Forbes became imminent. Professor Forbes, 
 the distinguished physicist and author of an important 
 work on glaciers, had been appointed to the office of 
 Principal in the University of St. Andrews, vacated by 
 Brewster’s promotion to Edinburgh. Disputes arose about 
 the emoluments divisible between the outgoing and the in- 
 coming Principal. Forbes was a tall, stately man, upright 
 and honourable in character, though stern in demeanour, 
 and unbending on a question involving his rights. It was 
 pitiable to contemplate a quarrel and lawsuit between two 
 such distinguished philosophers as Brewster and Forbes. 
 One morning both of them called upon me, and asked 
 whether I would act as umpire in the dispute, agreeing 
 absolutely to be bound by the terms of my award. I 
 accepted the office, but intimated my fear that I was 
 certain to displease one of them, and that I valued much 
 the friendship of both. Happily, however, my award 
 
i86 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 gave complete satisfaction to both disputants, and I had 
 the pleasure of receiving copies of all their works, and a 
 grateful letter of thanks from each as an acknowledgment 
 of my services. Brewster thus learned the usefulness of 
 arbitration, and on two occasions after this asked my aid 
 to settle his controversies. One of these was to determine 
 his claims to discovery in lighthouse illumination, and this 
 proved a heavy undertaking. 
 
 When Brewster died (February, 1868), the succession to 
 the office of Principal produced considerable bitterness. 
 Sir James Simpson desired to have this dignity, and his 
 eminent scientific position entitled him to become a 
 candidate. But this was intolerable to his medical 
 colleagues. Sir R. Christison, who was the most respected 
 and in administration most useful of all the professors, 
 thought it necessary to save the University from the 
 difficulties likely to follow Simpson’s success, by intimating 
 that he was willing to accept the office of Principal. 
 Professor Syme had also come to the conclusion that he 
 should oppose Simpson, and he also desired to be a candidate. 
 The two life-long friends, Christison and Syme, thus came 
 into collision at an advanced period of their life, and found 
 it necessary to extricate themselves from this dilemma. 
 The) r both came to me and offered to withdraw their 
 claims in my favour if I would accept the office ol 
 Principal. Xo doubt I could easily have obtained it with 
 this backing, but I could not oppose Sir James Simpson, 
 for whom I had so much friendship and esteem. The 
 difficulty was ultimately removed by the appointment of 
 an outsider, Sir Alexander Grant, the author of a work on 
 Aristotle. This proved to be an excellent appointment. 
 Grant has left the new buildings of the University as a 
 monument of his devotion and zeal in its interests. At 
 his death I was again invited to become Principal, but I 
 declined, as my parliamentary life interfered with the 
 proper discharge of the duties of the office. 
 
 Among the pupils whom I had at my class in Edin- 
 burgh, there are two whom I ought to mention. I had a 
 correspondence with the Prince Consort, informing me 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 i8 7 
 
 that it was considered desirable to send the Prince of 
 Wales to the University of Edinburgh, and asking me 
 what should be his course of study. I thought that, 
 considering the future position of the Prince, it would be 
 best that I should give him a special course of lectures on 
 the chief manufactures of the kingdom, and that, after 
 studying the scientific processes involved in a manufac- 
 ture, we should visit some mill or factory to see it in 
 practical operation. The Prince of Wales came to 
 Edinburgh, and resided at Holy rood Palace during the 
 time that this practical course of instruction was carried 
 out. The natural quickness and intelligence of the young 
 Prince made it easy to carry out this course of study. I 
 believe that it was appreciated by him, and it certainly 
 was by the Prince Consort. To prevent the course 01 
 instruction being too tedious, various excursions were 
 made. 
 
 On one occasion we went through Rob Roy's country, 
 the Trossachs and Loch Lomond. The Prince was accom- 
 panied by his governor, General Bruce, a man of sterling 
 character, and his tutor, the Rev. Mr Jarvis, the most 
 agreeable of men. As the rooms at the hotels were 
 engaged for Professor Playfair and his pupil, the Prince 
 tried to travel incognito , so that we could go on coaches 
 and steamboats without inconvenience. But not a single 
 day passed without discovery of the interesting traveller, 
 and then the inconveniences dependent on an exalted 
 position became apparent. 
 
 The success of the experiment with the Prince of Wales 
 induced the Queen and the Prince Consort to send their 
 second son, Prince Alfred, to the University. In his 
 case a more systematic course of science was desirable, 
 and the Duke entered into his studies at several classes 
 with much diligence and intelligence. As he resided at 
 Holy rood Palace and entered with enjoyment into the 
 social life in Edinburgh, he became intimately acquainted 
 with the city, which was afterwards taken as the title by 
 which he is now known, the Duke of Edinburgh. 
 
 The exiled French Princes also sent their sons to 
 
1 88 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Edinburgh for part of their education. I received the 
 commands of the Queen to place my services at their 
 disposal. The Due d’Aumale, Prince de Joinville, and 
 the Due de Nemours came with their sons. With 
 the view of introducing them to the leading people 
 in Edinburgh, I had a dinner-party, to which their 
 Royal Highnesses came, and in the evening there was 
 a large reception attended by the young Princes, the 
 Due d’Alengon, the Prince de Conde, and the Due de 
 Penthievre. They were then too young to attend the 
 University, so they entered the High School, and also 
 another school, for scientific instruction. The people 
 of Edinburgh were much interested in the young Princes, 
 and afterwards gave them ample hospitality. The 
 Prince de Joinville took a lively interest in the scientific 
 institutions of the city, and for some time honoured 
 me with correspondence. I possess a long and interesting 
 letter from him about Lynch Law in America, which 
 he had thoroughly studied as a rough and ready sup- 
 plement to common law when defectively administered 
 in unsettled States. 
 
 The 14th December, 1861, was a day of mourning for 
 all the United Kingdom. I was at church on Sunday, the 
 15th, when a whisper went round that the illustrious 
 Prince Consort was dead. To me this was a source of 
 real sorrow. He had allowed me to co-operate with him 
 in many of his measures for improving the condition of the 
 people. The difficulties of his position as Prince Consort 
 made it necessary for him to be reserved in intercourse 
 with many persons, but to those whom he had once 
 honoured with his confidence he was singularly affable 
 and lovable. His letters to Baron Stockmar, published in 
 the Life of the latter, show how thoroughly open and frank 
 he was in communication with his advisers. He had one 
 attribute most valuable to a Prince ; that was that he was 
 pleased by an honest opposition to his views, and 
 discussed objections with perfect fairness. Even when in 
 the royal household, I never was a courtier in the 
 ordinary sense of that word, and I believe that my 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 189 
 
 opinion was valued because it was openly and honestly 
 given, without courtly flattery. At his death I received a 
 letter from one who knew him better than I did, and 
 whose opinions are worth preserving. Sir Charles Phipps, 
 the writer of this letter, was confidential secretary to the 
 Queen, and was necessarily in daily intercourse with the 
 Prince Consort. His letter, which fully expresses my own 
 sentiments, is as follows : — 
 
 Sir Charles Phipps to Playfair. Osborne, December 2 8th, 1861. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I think there were few who 
 appreciated and valued our beloved master better than 
 you. It required minds like yours fully to know all his 
 worth. You could not only mourn him from personal 
 regard, but you were capable of knowing what the country 
 has lost. It mourns him now as he should be mourned, 
 but the full cause for sorrow will be better and better 
 known each passing year. Even if I were a flatterer, 
 which I never have been, there would be no profit in 
 flattering dead princes, but I can safely say now that I 
 never met so good and so truly great a man. 
 
 I mourn him as my master and my friend, but I mourn 
 him now, far more, because I feel that in every relation 
 in life, every department of good, every step of progress 
 in good, one has been torn from us who cannot be 
 replaced — has been torn from us just when his usefulness 
 and his benevolence were at their zenith, when he 
 had lived through calumny, and all were acknowledging 
 his virtue and were inclined to look upon him in the 
 future as a patron and guide. 
 
 It is almost too hard to bear, but God’s will be done. I 
 hardly dare to write of my own grief from the house of the 
 poor, desolate, widowed Queen. But her calm, sorrowful, 
 tranquil grief is a most touching, elevating sight. It is 
 hardly possible to believe that a high sense of duty can 
 bring out such a glorious condition of mind as hers. She 
 does indeed deserve the love of her people. 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 C. B. Phipps. 
 
190 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 By the gracious desire of the widowed Queen I had an 
 opportunity of paying the last tribute of respect to my 
 beloved master at the State funeral, which took place at 
 Windsor. Then all classes had realised the heavy loss to 
 the kingdom. Brave men sobbed like children, and even 
 the choristers broke down when they had to sing the 
 requiem. But this grief was small in comparison with 
 that of the widowed Queen and of the children who adored 
 their father. That grief was too deep and too sacred to be 
 fathomed by the public. 
 
 Although I was pursuing a quiet academic life in Edin- 
 burgh, the Government had not forgotten my existence 
 when they were forming Royal Commissions for inquiry 
 on important public subjects. A Royal Commission was 
 issued to examine and report on the herring fishery of the 
 British coasts, and of this I was appointed president. The 
 chief member of this Commission was the well-known 
 naturalist, Professor Huxley. After a thorough inquiry the 
 Commission came to some startling conclusions which have 
 laid the basis of modern fishery legislation in regard to sea 
 fish as distinguished from river fish. Herrings had been, 
 allowed a close time like partridges and grouse, the close 
 time not being uniform, but varying at different parts of 
 the coast. The object of this was to protect the fish 
 during their spawning, and so to keep up the supply. 
 During the close time herrings could not be caught for bait, 
 and the result was that cod and ling, their natural enemies, 
 had a close time also, and devoured shoals of herrings at 
 their leisure. We could not tell how many cod and ling 
 were in the sea, but we had a return of the quantity salted, 
 and supposing that they had remained in the sea with a 
 diet of only four or five herrings daily, they would have 
 caught more herring than ail the fishermen of the United 
 Kingdom and 600 added. The laws thus instituted for the 
 protection of the herring led to their destruction, for close 
 time multiplied their natural enemies and shut out the 
 fishermen, who really reduced the latter. 
 
 The Royal Commission had been issued on account of 
 the agitation of certain classes of fishermen for increased 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 191 
 
 protection, but, like Balaam, though called upon to curse 
 the open sea fishermen, we blessed them altogether, and 
 the close time was repealed. 
 
 In 1862 another great International Exhibition was held 
 in London. I desired to keep out of this work, but I was 
 much pressed to undertake the charge of the administration 
 of awards, and to appoint the 600 jurors who were requi- 
 site on account of the large scale of the Exhibition. As 
 some dissatisfaction was shown in 1851 as to the constitu- 
 tion of the juries, I asked all the exhibitors in each class to 
 send me a list of six persons in whom they had confidence, 
 and we appointed the jurors according to the number of 
 votes. In this way we got together a remarkable collection 
 of jurors. The foreign jurors were nominated by their 
 respective commissions. The most eminent men were 
 willing to serve. Mr Gladstone became a juror, as well 
 as many leading statesmen of all countries. I took a 
 house in London for the season, and had the pleasure of 
 entertaining many distinguished foreigners. Among my 
 most constant visitors was Michel Chevalier, the French 
 political economist, a charming man, the Due de Luynes, 
 the French ambassador at Pekin during the war, the 
 Marchese di Cavour, brother of the great Italian states- 
 man, and many others. Lord Taunton was the chairman 
 of the Council of Juries, and managed his task with great 
 adroitness. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, the prince of 
 English diplomatists, had lately returned from the Turkish 
 Embassy, and was chairman of one of the juries connected 
 with decorative art. I had appointed Owen Jones, then 
 the chief authority on decorative art, to be secretary of the 
 jury, but the great diplomatist had never heard of him, and 
 asked me why I did not give him somebody who knew 
 something of the subject. Upon this Owen Jones made a 
 remark which has often struck me for its truth : “ In what 
 a little circle we all live ! Some of us think that we are 
 famous ; but it is only inside our little circle, and outside 
 that the world knows nothing of us.” 
 
 Lord Stratford de Redcliffe aided me in showing hospi- 
 tality to the foreign jurors by agreeable dinners, at which 
 
192 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 he took the top and I the bottom of the table. He was 
 then in good health and vigour, but soon afterwards his 
 long services told upon his constitution ; yet when I last 
 saw him, shortly before his death, his intellect was as keen 
 and vigorous as ever. At the close of the Exhibition I 
 received various honours from foreign sovereigns. From 
 Austria I obtained the decoration of Commander of Francis 
 Joseph, from Sweden that of the Polar Star, from Portugal 
 the Order of the Conception, and from Wurtemberg 
 another decoration. The King of Prussia presented me 
 with two large porcelain vases representing the recovery 
 of Achilles’ armour from the sea. 
 
 Another onerous Commission was issued in October, 
 1865, in consequence ot a heavy calamity having come 
 upon the country. In this year the Cattle Plague broke 
 out in England, and threatened the extermination of our 
 herds and flocks. The panic among the farmers was great, 
 and it was necessary to issue a strong Royal Commission 
 to devise means for arresting the terrible plague. I was 
 travelling on the Continent when I received a letter from 
 Lord Granville asking me to return immediately and serve 
 on the Commission. I was desirous that there should be 
 another member upon it besides myself who should repre- 
 sent sanitary science, and I suggested the name of Dr 
 Parkes, of Netley College. At that time Dr Parkes was 
 little known to public men, but he afterwards laboured 
 so much to promote public health that he wore himself 
 ou tby his exertions, and died prematurely. The Com- 
 mission was a strong one. The President was Lord 
 Spencer, who in recent years has won so much fame by 
 his firm administration of Ireland during its most disturbed 
 period. Among the other members were Lord Salisbury, 
 now Prime Minister and Mr Robert Lowe, now Lord 
 Sherbrooke, who was one of the bravest and most far- 
 seeing of all the Commissioners. The Commission made 
 a thorough inquiry into the nature of the plague, its means 
 of propagation, and the suggested remedies. Scientific 
 men were employed to report upon all branches of the 
 inquiry, but, though they threw valuable light on the 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 193 
 
 nature of the disease, no suggestions were made for staying 
 its progress. Ultimately we made bold and sweeping 
 recommendations that markets should be shut up in 
 infected districts, all transit of cattle prohibited, and 
 diseased cattle ruthlessly slaughtered and buried or burned. 
 We saw that there was no other method than to stamp 
 out the plague with an iron hand. Never was the report 
 of a Royal Commission received with such indignation and 
 contempt. Every newspaper in the country ridiculed the 
 report, and attacked those Commissioners who were 
 known to constitute the majority in favour of extreme 
 measures. I published a pamphlet containing a history 
 of the Cattle Plague from the earliest times, and gave 
 the reasons for the conclusions of the Commission. This 
 pamphlet had an extensive sale, and did a good deal to 
 allay public indignation. Finally, Parliament became 
 convinced that there was no other method of combatting 
 the plague than that of stamping it out, and local authori- 
 ties were required to follow our recommendations. The 
 disease was then quickly stayed, and before long stamped 
 out altogether. Twice in my life I have had to go 
 through a season of great unpopularity. One was after 
 the report on the Cattle Plague, and the other at a later 
 period, after the reorganisation of the Civil Service on 
 what is called “ The Playfair Scheme." As I felt in both 
 cases that I had acted to the best of my judgment, and 
 believed in the wisdom of the recommendations, this 
 temporary unpopularity did not trouble me. 
 
 The Cattle Plague Commission was issued in the autumn 
 of 1865. In the summer of that year I was in Germany, 
 and paid a visit which much interested me. This was to 
 Kranichstein, the hunting seat of the Grand Duke of 
 Hesse, in the Black Forest. The Grand Duke was 
 absent, and Prince Louis and Princess Alice were then 
 staying there. I had known the Princess since she was a 
 child, and I much admired her many excellent qualities 
 and cultivated mind in later years. Kranichstein is a 
 simple little place, and so thoroughly in the forest that 
 wild boars sometimes drank from the water under the 
 
 N 
 
194 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 windows. I arrived on Sunday morning. The Prince 
 and his visitors having gone to the chapel, and also the 
 servants, Princess Alice kindly remained behind, in order 
 to welcome me on my arrival. While we were conversing, 
 a note came from Prince Louis to say that he would bring 
 the Lutheran Minister to the mid-day dinner. This 
 seemed to disturb the Princess, who told me that her table 
 was small, and that there was absolutely no room for an 
 additional guest, and as all the servants were at church 
 the table could not be relaid. I reminded her that she 
 used to entertain me at the Swiss Cottage at Osborne 
 when she was a child, and that I knew she could lay a 
 table better than servants. She was pleased with the 
 suggestion, and we went to the dining-room, took all the 
 things from the table, put in a new leaf, and rearranged 
 everything before the party returned to the house. It is 
 probably in allusion to this that she refers to me so 
 pleasantly in her letter to the Queen of the 17th July, 
 published in her correspondence. 
 
 Princess Alice was a noble woman, who has not been 
 unduly extolled by her biographers. As a child she was 
 frank and charming ; as a woman, gracious and amiable. 
 Her nervous force was weakened by her labours during 
 the war, and by her family bereavement. The last time I 
 saw her, at Windsor, she broke down completely, because 
 my presence brought the loss of her father to her recol- 
 lection. When I heard of the diphtheria in the ducal 
 palace, I felt convinced that this noble woman would die. 
 
 In this year (1865) I paid another visit which was full 
 ol interest to me. The Queen was staying at Coburg, 
 where she intended to be present at the State unveiling of 
 a statue of the Prince Consort, who, as is well known, 
 was a brother of the reigning Duke. Her Majesty directed 
 the Duke of Edinburgh to write to me and command my 
 presence, not only at that ceremonial but also at various 
 receptions which were to take place during the week. 
 The Queen resided at a small palace where there was not 
 sufficient room for her suite, and the invited guests had to 
 be distributed in different places. Lord Granville was the 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 195 
 
 Minister-in-waiting, and kindly offered me accommodation 
 in a house which had been appropriated to him. When I 
 waited on the Duke of Coburg he received me very 
 graciously, as having taken part in the education of his 
 heir and successor, the Duke of Edinburgh. It was a 
 new experience to me to see Court ceremonials in one 
 of the German Duchies. I never saw State functions 
 better carried out, either in point of display or in ex- 
 cellence of taste. The inauguration of the statue was in 
 itself a stately ceremonial, and it was made touching by 
 the enthusiasm of the people, and by their love for their 
 lost Prince. The Queen was obviously much touched by 
 the sympathy shown to herself, and by the love displayed 
 for the Prince Consort. The Princess Royal, and, indeed, 
 almost every other member of the family, were present. I 
 think it was here that I saw for the first time Prince 
 Christian, who afterwards married Princess Helena. I 
 mention this because in later years he has allowed me 
 to co-operate with him in public work, and has extended 
 to me many proofs of friendly interest, both in public work 
 and in private correspondence. 
 
 I do not recollect anything else in the last two years of 
 my life in Edinburgh that deserves special mention, except 
 perhaps that I published a memoir ‘On the Food of Man 
 in relation to his Work.' There were views in this that 
 have not been generally received, although they were in 
 support of those entertained by my great master, Baron 
 Liebig, in his work on Animal Physiology. But, inde- 
 pendently of theoretical views, I gathered together and 
 tabulated the experience of mankind in various countries 
 of the world as to the amount of food required for man in 
 different kinds of work, and these tables are now adopted 
 as a basis in physiological works, both at home and abroad. 
 In consequence of them Dr Pavy kindly dedicated to me 
 his important work on food. 
 
 There were many men of interest in Edinburgh and its 
 neighbourhood to whom I have made no allusion. I do 
 not wish to forget one for whom I formed a strong 
 affection, Dr John Brown, author of ‘ Rab and His 
 
196 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Friends/ and many delightful essays which are still 
 popular among reading men. It was impossible to know 
 John Brown without loving him. His marked individu- 
 ality is in all he wrote. Who can read that prose poem of 
 Rab, the dog, and his master, the carrier, without feeling 
 the deep pathos of the author, and recognising his loving 
 nature towards man and beast ? John Brown was a 
 frequent visitor at my house till ill-health parted him 
 from his friends. 
 
 Another marked character who frequently came to 
 Edinburgh to see me, and to whose residence in the 
 country I occasionally went, was the old Marquis of 
 Tweeddale. He was a man of varied experience, having 
 been in the army under Wellington, and afterwards 
 Governor of Madras. He was one of the first men to 
 introduce the steam plough into agriculture, but paid the 
 penalty of being before his time by losing money in his 
 farming operations. He had a bright, active mind, and 
 made his home at Yester agreeable to visitors. Several 
 of his daughters were then unmarried, and were bright, 
 intellectual women. 
 
 Who that knew Edinburgh at that period can forget 
 Lady Ruthven and her beautiful old house near Edin- 
 burgh ? The old lady was stone deaf, and could only be 
 communicated with by writing on a slate. She was 
 most hospitable, and had always pleasant people to stay 
 at her house, in which was quite a museum of Grecian 
 vases and other antiquities collected by her husband. 
 Lady Ruthven possessed a monkey, which chattered and 
 seemed able to converse with the deaf lady, who made 
 suitable replies. Much as I liked this fine old lady, the 
 process of writing one’s thoughts on a slate was tedious. 
 Her sister, Lady Belhaven, was on one occasion ill, and I 
 desired to inquire how she was, but I found the same 
 question, “ How is Lady Belhaven ? ” already written 
 twelve times on the slate, so I had to invent a more 
 original observation ! 
 
 On my leaving Edinburgh, the University passed a 
 minute of appreciation of my services during my ten years’ 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 197 
 
 residence in the city, and perhaps I may best conclude 
 this chapter by inserting it. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Senatus Academicus of 
 the University of Edinburgh, dated November 6th, 1869. 
 
 The Senatus desire to record in their Minutes the high 
 sense of the valuable services rendered to the University 
 by their late colleague, Dr Lyon Playfair, who, by the 
 able manner in which he conducted the work of his 
 classes, by his earnestness in the advancement and in the 
 practical application of science, by his admirable powers of 
 organisation, by his efforts to obtain scholarships and 
 endowments and to render the University more directly 
 useful in guiding the general education of the people, and 
 by his affable deportment, did much to promote the well- 
 being of the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 This minute, and the conferring of an honorary degree 
 of LL.D., brought my academic connection with the 
 University of Edinburgh to a pleasant conclusion. 
 
 The editor may here not unfittingly subjoin another 
 extract from the Minutes of the Senate of the University — 
 that which was passed nearly thirty years later, at the 
 time of Playfairs death. 
 
 Extract from the Minutes of the Senatus Academicus of 
 
 the University of Edinburgh, of date 24th June, 1898. 
 
 The Senatus desire to put on record their sense of the 
 loss which science, especially applied science, has sustained 
 by the death of Lord Playfair. Lord Playfair was a mem- 
 ber of the Senatus from 1858 till 1869, and not only dis- 
 charged the duties of the Chair of Chemistry with great 
 zeal and ability, but was of special service to the University 
 in the organisation of the System of Degrees in Science. 
 His influence and example did very much to extend and 
 improve the practical teaching of science, and the Senatus 
 recall with special admiration his success in creating a 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 teaching laboratory in the only rooms which the Uni- 
 versity could give him for the purpose, rooms altogether 
 inadequate in extent and arrangements. 
 
 Although there now remain only two professors who 
 were colleagues of Lord Playfair, every member of the 
 Senatus knew him as an active helper of the University, 
 and most as a personal friend. 
 
 He represented the Universities of Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews in Parliament for seventeen years, and was thus 
 brought into constant contact with the Senatus. He had 
 often to defend the interests of the University, which he did 
 with ability and success, arising from his intimate knowledge 
 of the affairs of the University and of the educational systems 
 of Europe and America. The Senatus would especially 
 refer to the important part which he took as Vice-President 
 of the Privy Council in securing the rights of the University 
 in the Medical Act of 1886. 
 
 The Senatus record their sense of personal loss, desire 
 to express the sympathy they feel for Lady Playfair and 
 the members of the family, and instruct the Senate to send 
 copies of this minute to them. 
 
 (Signed) L. J. Grant, 
 
 Sec. Sen. Acad. 
 
 Playfairs account of his life in Edinburgh as Professor of 
 Chemistry by no means conveys to the reader an adequate 
 idea of the work which he undertook, and the varied part 
 he played, not only in university life, but in other spheres 
 of usefulness. It may be doubted whether anyone holding 
 a Scotch professorship has, either before or since the time 
 of Playfair, united with the faithful discharge of his pro- 
 fessorial duties so much hard work in connection with the 
 public life of the country. The Professor of Chemistry at 
 Edinburgh was, at the same time, the trusted adviser of 
 Her Majesty’s Ministers on questions of grave public im- 
 portance, and the counsellor of the Queen and the Royal 
 Family on matters in which they were personally interested. 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 199 
 
 One of the first public tasks assigned to Playfair after he 
 took up his abode in Edinburgh was that of organising the 
 Jury Department in the second International Exhibition — 
 that of 1862. No greater tribute could have been paid to 
 the success with which he had done his share of the work 
 in connection with the Exhibition of 1851, than his appoint- 
 ment, with a free hand, to the responsible position which 
 he undertook in connection with the Exhibition of 1862. 
 
 The following letter speaks for itself : — 
 
 Sir Francis Sandford to Playfair. ^^February ist, 1862. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — The Commissioners, at their 
 meeting yesterday, desired me to write and request that 
 you would undertake the superintendence of the Jury 
 Department, with plenary powers. In the hope that you 
 would be willing to do so, they further instructed me to 
 forward copies of the original decision as to juries, the proof 
 of the decisions which were drawn up when you were 
 last in London, and the proof of the general paper of in- 
 structions for jurymen discussed at the same date. Neither 
 of these last forms has yet been made public, and the 
 object of this letter is to ask you to have the goodness to 
 send me back either corrected in the form which you wish 
 to be adopted as the final decisions in the matter. . . . 
 
 In sending me your decisions, perhaps you will have the 
 goodness to let me have a sketch of any circular letter 
 which you would wish to go out with them to the foreign 
 commissioners. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 F. R. Sandford. 
 
 This letter makes it clear that Playfair received absolute 
 powers and an unfettered discretion with regard to the 
 composition and classification of the juries in the Exhibi- 
 tion of 1862. It is a striking proof of the exceptional 
 position which he had made for himself that such powers 
 
200 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 should have been conferred by the Government upon a 
 Professor of Chemistry in the University of Edinburgh. 
 
 Reference has been made by Playfair himself to one 
 portion of the duties which he undertook outside his 
 professorial work whilst he resided in Edinburgh. This 
 was the advice and assistance which he gave in connec- 
 tion with the education of the Prince of Wales, the Duke 
 of Edinburgh, and other princes more or less nearly 
 connected with our own Royal Family. 
 
 Playfair to Colonel Grey . Edinburgh, July 15 th, 1859. 
 
 Dear Colonel, — Since I received Sir Charles Phipps's 
 letter, I have reflected on the best means of giving to the 
 Prince of Wales such scientific instruction as he could best 
 receive in the short time that he will be here, without 
 demanding too much time from other objects of study. 
 It appears to me that the best course would be to teach 
 him through manufactures. There are several large objects 
 of manufacturing industry upon which our prosperity as a 
 nation to a great extent depends — especially those relating 
 to iron and cotton. I would suggest that he should spend 
 three hours weekly in my laboratory, studying the prin- 
 ciples upon which these manufactures depend ; and when 
 he has mastered them theoretically and experimentally, 
 that we should make one or two excursions to Glasgow to 
 see works on a large scale with a view to his understanding 
 their national importance, and the application of science to 
 industry. Two days in Glasgow at different times would 
 probably suffice. One day would be devoted to iron, both 
 as regards its production and application to machinery ; 
 another day would be well spent on cotton, commencing 
 with cotton-spinning and ending with calico-printing. The 
 third great object-lesson, on textile fabrics, would be best 
 learnt in Edinburgh, in the application of linen rags to 
 paper-making. I would also suggest a similar lesson on 
 coal, commencing with gas-works. You will readily under- 
 stand that I select these staples of our industry" as a means 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 201 
 
 of giving permanent scientific instruction, while at the 
 same time information will be acquired of great importance 
 to a Prince destined to fill such an important position in 
 this country. Finally, I think it would gratify the Glasgow 
 people much if the Prince visited their city as part of his 
 educational course. 
 
 Playfair has told us in the preceding chapter of his 
 Reminiscences of the success with which he carried out 
 this programme for the instruction of the Prince of Wales 
 in the practical application of science to industry. It was 
 whilst the Prince was living in Edinburgh as Playfair’s 
 pupil that an incident occurred which has already, I 
 believe, been published. The Prince and Playfair were 
 standing near a cauldron containing lead which was 
 boiling at white heat. 
 
 “ Has your Royal Highness any faith in science ? ” 
 said Playfair. 
 
 “ Certainly," replied the Prince. 
 
 Playfair then carefully washed the Prince’s hand with 
 ammonia to get rid of any grease that might be on it. 
 
 “ Will you now place your hand in this boiling metal, 
 and ladle out a portion of it ? ” he said to his distinguished 
 pupil. 
 
 “ Do you tell me to do this ? ’’ asked the Prince. 
 
 “ I do," replied Playfair. The Prince instantly put his 
 hand into the cauldron, and ladled out some of the boiling 
 lead without sustaining any injury. It is a well-known 
 scientific fact that the human hand, if perfectly cleansed, 
 may be placed uninjured in lead boiling at white heat, 
 the moisture of the skin protecting it under these conditions 
 from an3^ injury. Should the lead be at a perceptibty lower 
 temperature, the effect would, of course, be very different. 
 It requires, however, courage of no common order for a 
 novice to try such an experiment, even at the bidding of 
 a man so distinguished in science as was Playfair. 
 
 
202 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 One of the subjects that engaged Playfair’s attention 
 during his residence in Edinburgh was the erection of the 
 Scottish Memorial to the Prince Consort. There were 
 wide differences of opinion, both as to the character of the 
 memorial and the site where it should be placed. Play- 
 fair, as a citizen of Edinburgh, naturally took a warm 
 interest in the discussion. But it was as one of the 
 personal friends of the Prince Consort, and as the adviser 
 of the Queen, that he played the most prominent part in 
 settling the questions at issue. The monument, as Scottish 
 readers are aware, was finally placed on a site in Charlotte 
 Square, but Playfair recommended a more commanding 
 one between the old and new towns. 
 
 General Grey to Playfair. Osborne, February 2nd, 1863. 
 
 Dear Playfair, — I have submitted your letter and 
 the photographs to the Queen, and with the aid of the 
 explanations which my knowledge of Edinburgh has 
 enabled me to add, I think she has formed a very fair idea 
 of the comparative merits of the two sites. She is much 
 disposed to prefer that which you suggest ; and without 
 expressing any positive wash on the subject — which per- 
 haps she ought not to do until more officially appealed 
 to — Her Majesty is decidedly of opinion that it would be 
 expedient to bring your suggestion more prominently 
 forward. For myself, I have no hesitation whatever in 
 saying that I think the site you propose is infinitely the 
 best. I know the site well, and, independently of its con- 
 nection with the two institutions dedicated to science and 
 art, I cannot imagine a finer or more commanding position 
 for a memorial to the Prince. But the platform or terrace 
 on which it should stand, as well as the flight of steps 
 leading up to it, should really be what you say — mag- 
 nificent, and worthy of their object. . . . On such a 
 site as you suggest, I think (if funds admitted of it), 
 architecture would come in with great advantage to the 
 assistance of sculpture. 
 
LIFE IN EDINBURGH. 
 
 203 
 
 1 hope, if anything ever brings you south, you will let 
 me have the chance of seeing you. 
 
 Ever yours most sincerely, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 Same to the same . Windsor Castle, May 1st, 1863. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I am left behind here in small 
 health, in the hope of being well enough to go with the 
 Queen a fortnight hence to Balmoral. The Queen would 
 be very glad to see Mr Noel Patons design for the 
 Edinburgh Memorial, and also wishes to take the oppor- 
 tunity of speaking to you upon other matters ; and Her 
 Majesty desired me to say that if you can make it 
 convenient to go down to Osborne any day in the 
 beginning of next week, she would be glad to see you — 
 probably Monday or Tuesday next. Perhaps you will write 
 a line to Sir Charles Phipps to say when you may be ex- 
 pected. I am very sorry to miss you by not being there. . . 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 C. Grey. 
 
 At the beginning of 1864, Playfair was appointed by 
 the Queen a member of the Committee charged with the 
 duty of selecting the design and the site for the Scottish 
 Memorial to the Prince Consort, and in that capacity he 
 had a full share in deciding both the character of the 
 Memorial and the spot where it was to be placed. 
 
 In 1865, the extra University work in which he took a 
 part was of a more serious character than this discussion 
 as to the site of the National Monument. He has 
 referred briefly in his Reminiscences to the storm of 
 opprobrium that raged around the Royal Commissioners 
 who were appointed to consider the best means of dealing 
 with the cattle plague which in 1865 caused such terrible 
 injury to the graziers and cattle-breeders of the United 
 Kingdom. He has not, however, laid emphasis upon the 
 fact that he was the leading object of this feeling of anger. 
 
204 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 This distinction he owed to the circumstance that it was 
 by his advice more largely than that of any other man 
 that the Commissioners were guided in arriving at their 
 recommendations. His correspondence for that year with 
 Lord Spencer, Lord Granville, Sir James Simpson, Mr 
 Bence Jones, and many other persons of importance, 
 shows to how large an extent his time and energies must 
 have been absorbed in this work of fighting the cattle- 
 plague. Great use was made in Parliament and elsewhere 
 of his name and his opinions, both by the friends and the 
 opponents of the Royal Commission. He himself stood 
 sturdily to his guns, facing the storm without flinching, 
 and affording proof that his remarkable tact in dealing 
 with awkward questions and solving difficult problems was 
 not inconsistent with a strong moral fibre and absolute 
 fearlessness in facing the condemnation of the public when 
 he felt convinced that he was in the right. Such work as 
 that which was laid upon him in connection with this 
 cattle-plague inquiry made a heavy demand upon his time 
 and reserves of strength and energy. His only reward 
 was his knowledge that, thanks to the final adoption of 
 the course which he had suggested, the plague was stayed, 
 and a great calamity averted. 
 
 I may close this chapter, dealing with Playfair’s varied 
 experiences during the years of his professorship at Edin- 
 burgh, with a reference to his journey on the Continent in 
 1865, when he had his pleasant meeting with Princess 
 Alice at Kranichstein, and attended the inauguration of the 
 Prince Consort’s monument at Coburg. In a letter to the 
 Queen, dated July 17th, Princess Alice says : — “Dr Lyon 
 Playfair lunched with us yesterday ; he is so charming.” 
 This was on the occasion recorded in the Reminiscences, 
 when Playfair and the Princess relaid the dinner table 
 in order to provide for an additional guest, who had been 
 unexpectedly invited by the Prince. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 Beginning a Political Career — Member for Edinburgh and St. Andrews 
 Universities — Political Convictions — Appointed one of the Commis- 
 sioners of the 1851 Exhibition. Autobiography : Liberal Member 
 for a Conservative Constituency : Maiden Speech : Appointment of 
 a Liberal Leader in the House of Commons : President of the Midland 
 Institute: The Prince Consort’s Superiority to Jealousy : Opposing the 
 Cry of “Over-Education”: Supporting a Bill for opening Trinity 
 College, Dublin, to Roman Catholics : Attitude towards the Irish 
 University Bill : Mr. Gladstone’s Magnanimity : Appointed Postmaster- 
 General : President of the Civil Service Commission : Opposing the 
 Anti-Vivisectionists : Reforming the Scottish Universities. Playfair the 
 Introducer of the Halfpenny Post-card — Reception of his Pamphlet 
 on ‘ Teaching Universities and Examining Boards ’ — His Popu- 
 larity at the Post Office — The Tichborne Case — The Election of 
 Liberal Leader in the Commons — Averting a Disastrous Schism. 
 
 The year 1868 witnessed another change in the position 
 and occupations of Playfair. We have seen him as an 
 active public official holding important offices under the 
 State, and we have also seen him engaged in fulfilling the 
 duties of the Professorship of Chemistry at Edinburgh. 
 When he himself undertook that office in 1858, it was in 
 the belief that the remainder of his days would be given to 
 scientific work ; but scarcely had he been settled in his 
 chair at the University, when his services were called for 
 by his country, and during the whole term of his residence 
 in Edinburgh', he was subject to repeated demands for his 
 assistance on matters of public importance. In 1868 he 
 entered upon a new career. Doubly interested in every- 
 thing that concerned the University, he was anxious in 
 that year that the Reform Bill, which was then passing 
 
206 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 through Parliament, should provide for the representation 
 of the Scotch Universities, and he communicated with Mr 
 Gladstone on this subject. In the end, his wishes with 
 regard to this matter were gratified. The new Reform 
 Bill provided two members for the Scotch Universities — 
 one for the united Universities of Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews, and the other for the Universities of Glasgow 
 and Aberdeen. It was suggested to Playfair that he should 
 become a candidate for Edinburgh and St. Andrews, and 
 after some hesitation he consented to this proposal. 
 
 In his Autobiography he explains some of the peculiar 
 conditions of the constituency to which he had to appeal, 
 and that for many years he continued to represent in the 
 House of Commons. It was essentially a Conservative 
 constituency, and it would certainly not have chosen 
 Playfair as its representative if it had not been for his 
 personal popularity with the constituents, and for the 
 great value that was set upon his public services. Play- 
 fair himself was, as he had been throughout his public life, 
 a convinced and confirmed Liberal ; but he had learnt, as a 
 member of the Civil Service, how to subordinate his own 
 political opinions to the general welfare ; and in entering 
 Parliament as the representative of a University con- 
 stituency, and that a constituency which was largely Con- 
 servative, he found that he was to some extent in the 
 same position as that which he had held when in the 
 Civil Service. He could hold his own opinions, and hold 
 them as strongly as he pleased, but he could not become 
 an active and open participator in the conflicts of parties. 
 It followed that during the years when he sat in the House 
 of Commons as member for the University of Edinburgh 
 he was chiefly known to the House and to the world in 
 connection with questions of social reform, and was but 
 little involved in partisan controversies. 
 
 Yet, although he felt compelled by the peculiarity of the 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 207 
 
 position he held to refrain from using his opportunities as 
 a member of Parliament to embark in merely partisan 
 struggles, he was far too honest to conceal his opinions 
 from his constituents or the world. The General Election 
 of 1868 turned largely upon the question of the Irish Church. 
 It was known that Mr Gladstone, if he secured a majority 
 in the new Parliament, intended to propose the dis- 
 establishment of that Church. Playfair, in appealing to 
 the electorate in the summer of 1868, did not conceal the 
 fact that in this respect he was a warm supporter of Mr 
 Gladstone’s policy. The declaration brought down upon 
 his head many remonstrances from influential members of 
 the University, and caused him to lose a large number of 
 votes. It may be well to quote one of the letters which 
 he received at this time, as it will suffice to clear away any 
 doubt that may have existed as to the character in which 
 he made his first appeal to the constituency for election to 
 the House of Commons. 
 
 27, Inverleith Row, Edinburgh, 
 Professor Balfour to Playfair. June 2yd, 1868. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I was not a little annoyed to 
 find by your manifesto that you advocated the disestab- 
 lishment of the Irish Church. That, with me, is a vital 
 question, and I do not feel that I can conscientiously 
 support anyone who espouses this view. It is one of my 
 great objections to Gladstone. I believe that the measure 
 involves virtually the national ignoring of Protestantism in 
 Ireland, and that it will lead to the worst consequences 
 not only there but in Britain. You say that it will advance 
 Protestantism. The Roman Catholics do not think so, 
 and they are far wiser than any of our rulers. They 
 support the measure because it will certainly lead to the 
 advance of Romanism. I regret much that you have 
 become so thoroughly Gladstonian, and that you are 
 supporting Gladstone as Chancellor. You know that he 
 has no good feeling towards our University, and that he 
 
208 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 has done nothing for us. ... I have been a Whig all my 
 life, and I am so still, but I think that University interests 
 are above mere party politics, and I therefore leave party, 
 and support a man as member from whom I differ politi- 
 cally. In all the circumstances of the case, I must with- 
 draw my pledge to vote for you, and must leave myself 
 free to adopt any plan of voting I may think best fitted to 
 advance the cause of the University and of Protestantism. 
 
 Yours 4 ruly, 
 
 J. W. Balfour. 
 
 It is only fair to Playfair to publish this specimen of the 
 letters which he received at the time of his candidature for 
 the University. In his Reminiscences he explains to how 
 large an extent he stood aside from party politics in the 
 House of Commons ; but, in justice to him, it must be 
 noted that he not only gained his seat as an avowed 
 Gladstonian, but faced the loss of a large number of his 
 supporters when doing so. When the election took place, 
 his opponent being Professor Campbell Swinton, Playfair 
 was returned by a majority of 260 votes. 
 
 The Parliament elected in 1868 was the first which had 
 been returned under the Household Suffrage Act. It gave 
 the Liberal party the support of a large majority in the 
 House of Commons, and Mr Gladstone took office as 
 Prime Minister at the head of an Administration that 
 was destined to leave an indelible mark upon the history 
 and institutions of the country. Very soon after the new 
 Government had been installed in office, Playfair received, 
 through Lord Granville, an appointment which was very 
 gratifying to him. In June, 1869, he became one of the 
 Commissioners for the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was a 
 post which he had certainly earned by his services to that 
 Exhibition and to the Commissioners in earlier days, and 
 his return to a close connection with the work of the 
 Commissioners restored him to a field of labour which he 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 209 
 
 had made, in a sense, peculiarly his own. A new Member 
 of Parliament is not, as a rule, a man of much importance. 
 He has to serve an apprenticeship usually of more than 
 seven years’ duration before he really begins to make his 
 mark among his fellow-members. But Playfair entered 
 the House of Commons in 1868 with so great a reputation, 
 both as a man of science and a public servant, that from 
 the first he took a position very different from that of the 
 ordinary new Member. What that position was may be 
 gathered from the fact that barely two years after he 
 entered Parliament it was generally reported that he had 
 been offered the post of Vice-President of the Council. 
 The report, as it happened, was untrue, but the mere 
 fact that it should have been circulated, and should 
 have been believed by many of his friends, affords striking 
 testimony to the place which he had secured in the public 
 esteem. 
 
 I must now leave Playfair himself to resume the thread 
 of his narrative. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — VIII. 
 
 1868 to 1877. 
 
 In the year 1868 the Conservative Government passed 
 the Representation of the People Act, and considerably 
 extended the area of representation. During the passing 
 of that Act, the Scotch Universities made considerable 
 efforts to have representation extended to them in the 
 same manner as it has long been enjoyed by the Universi- 
 ties of England. Professor Campbell Swinton, a leading 
 Conservative in Scotland, went up to London to urge 
 these claims upon the Government, and I accompanied 
 him in order to act upon Mr Gladstone and the Liberal 
 party. Our efforts were successful to the extent of 
 obtaining two Members for the four Scotch Universities. 
 Edinburgh and St. Andrews Universities received one 
 
 o 
 
210 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Member, a similar representation being given to Glasgow 
 and Aberdeen. 
 
 The elections took place at the end of the year. The 
 constituency of the Universities is the General Council of 
 graduates in each University. In the case of Edinburgh and 
 St. Andrews it amounts to about 5,000. Almost all the 
 graduates are men engaged in professions, chiefly ministers, 
 lawyers, doctors, and schoolmasters. They are scattered in 
 every town in the United Kingdom, and form a constituency 
 difficult to canvass and necessarily costly, as it involves a 
 large amount of correspondence as well as of agency. The 
 two candidates for the first representation were Professor 
 Campbell Swinton and myself. Each of us was assisted by 
 committees in all the large towns, as well as by central 
 committees in Edinburgh. After a severe contest, con- 
 ducted, however, with good humour, I was elected as the 
 first University representative by a majority of about 250. 
 I resigned my chair at the University, and returned to 
 London for permanent residence. 
 
 It is always wise for new members to take little part in 
 the House of Commons till they understand its habits and 
 modes of work. I therefore occupied myself for the first 
 year in acquiring this knowledge, and in serving on com- 
 mittees. My position was peculiar. All University seats 
 are Conservative. I was, in fact, an advanced Liberal 
 representing a Tory seat. I had won it chiefly from two 
 causes : first because my public work had made me better 
 known to the constituents in England and Ireland than my 
 learned opponent, who was much esteemed in Scotland. 
 The second point in my favour was that I always had large 
 classes, and between my former pupils and myself there 
 was a strong bond of attachment. After graduation, my 
 former pupils still supported their professor, regardless of 
 politics. The second was perhaps the chief cause of my 
 success, as I learned more distinctly in after years, for 
 although I continued to represent the University in Parlia- 
 ment for seventeen years, in each successive contest my 
 majorities lessened, because a new race of graduates arose 
 “ who knew not Joseph,” and the Conservative character of 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 2 II 
 
 the constituency began to assert itself. All through my 
 University representation the fact that I was a member for 
 a Tory constituency weighed upon me. I could not take 
 an active part in party politics, and was obliged to limit 
 myself to neutral subjects connected with science, educa- 
 tion, public health, and social welfare. 
 
 My first speech in the House of Commons (1869) was 
 upon the abolition of religious tests in the English Uni- 
 versities. Tests had long been abolished in Scotland, but 
 in England the places of honour and emolument in the 
 Universities could only be obtained by members of the 
 English Church. My speech was a distinct success, and 
 was well received by both sides of the House. Speaker 
 Denison sent for me to offer his congratulations, and 
 several of the leaders on the Conservative side were 
 generous enough to cross over, not to express approval 
 of my views, but to tell me that I had secured the ear 
 of the House for the future. 
 
 In 1870 I urged the adoption of the system of open 
 halfpenny letters, now known as post-cards, and the idea 
 commended itself to Lord Hartington, who was then Post- 
 master-General, and was quickly accepted by the Post 
 Office. In this year W. E. Forster introduced his great 
 measure for a national system of education in England, 
 and upon such a subject I was bound to take an active 
 part. Forster much appreciated my aid in passing his 
 Bill, and we remained warm friends to the end of his life. 
 Forster was a tall man of marked features, and rather blunt 
 in manner, though he really possessed a tender and affec- 
 tionate nature. His speeches in the House were courteous 
 to friends as well as to opponents ; but his blunt talk in the 
 lobby sometimes gave offence. When his peculiarities were 
 understood, it was impossible not to love and admire him. 
 
 “ Oh I honest, stalwart man, whose earnest face 
 Mirrored the soul within, whose every deed 
 Made answer to thy word ; who gav’st no heed 
 To foolish babble or the lust of place.” 
 
 His Education Act offended the Nonconformists, and 
 did not satisfy the denominationalists. The dislike of the 
 
212 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 former prevented him being elected leader of the Liberal 
 party in 1874, when Gladstone suddenly threw down the 
 baton of leader. At that emergency I was asked by 
 Lord Granville to sound the Liberal paily as to whether 
 Lord Hartington or Forster should become leader. The 
 post brought letters daily showing an equal division of the 
 party, although with this difference, that the Noncon- 
 formists were bitter against Forster, while the supporters 
 of the latter were simply indifferent as to Lord Hartington. 
 After a long consultation at Lord Granville's house we 
 determined to support the latter, and I drove down to 
 Eccleston Square to see Forster, who was then ill, in order 
 to ask him to withdraw his claim. He furnished me with 
 a letter to this effect, which was immediately sent to 
 the evening papers — just in time, for Hartington, with his 
 usual modesty, desired that afternoon to withdraw in 
 favour of Forster. 
 
 Outside the House, the year 1870 was one of consider- 
 able activity. Birmingham had founded “ The Midland 
 Institute," at the birth of which I aided, when the founda- 
 tion stone was laid by the Prince Consort. The Midland 
 Institute was in the habit of changing its presidents 
 annually in order to obtain new addresses, and in this 
 year, Charles Dickens having died during his period of 
 office, I was elected to be his successor. The title of my 
 address was the “ Inosculation of the Arts and Sciences." 
 In a busy manufacturing town like Birmingham it was 
 important to show the mutual dependence of both, for just 
 as two arteries inosculate and pour their contents the one 
 into the other, so do the arts and sciences, to their mutual 
 nourishment. The audience at Birmingham filled every 
 part of the great Town Hall, and seemed to be pleased 
 with the subject, and I hope with the exposition. A few 
 days earlier I had given at Newcastle an address “On 
 National Education," in my capacity as President of the 
 Educational Section of the Social Science Association. 
 Both these addresses are published in the volume ‘Subjects 
 of Social Welfare.’ 
 
 I have stated that the Midland Institute was inaugurated 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 213 
 
 by the Prince Consort, who then gave one of those broad, 
 comprehensive speeches which were beginning to attract 
 the attention of the public to his great capacity. I may 
 mention an incident in regard to this speech which will 
 show how superior he was to petty jealousy. As one of 
 his suite I had handed a copy of the speech to the 
 reporters. An obscure literary journal, long since dead, 
 wrote a series of articles in which it pointed out some 
 fancied resemblances in my printed lectures to the 
 speeches of the Prince Consort, contending that I was 
 the author of the latter also. The journal was so obscure 
 that I hoped it would not attract the observation of the 
 Prince. On the next occasion when it was again necessary 
 for the Prince Consort to make an important speech, he 
 sent for me as usual to hear him read it, and to ask for my 
 criticism, which I always gave in a frank manner. This 
 time I said that I had no criticism to offer. The Prince 
 laughed and said significantly — “ I am glad that you like 
 it, because it may bring you credit ! ” 
 
 In 1871 the educational subjects for discussion in the 
 House of Commons were numerous. The Endowed 
 Schools Act of 1869 was operating too well to please the 
 Church and the Tories, so assaults were made upon it. 
 The old fear cropped up that there was to be “ over- 
 education" of the people. Cardinal Cullen vehemently 
 opposed the high character of popular education. In 
 evidence before a Royal Commission on Irish Education 
 he used these words : — 
 
 “ Too high an education will make the poor oftentimes discon- 
 tented, and will unsuit them from following the plough, or from 
 using the spade, or from hammering iron or building walls.” 
 
 His Eminence, therefore, strongly objected to having 
 higher subjects than reading, writing, and arithmetic taught 
 in schools, in order, as he expounded it, “ to cultivate the 
 talent of a miserable minority." I took the occasion of 
 one of these discussions to defend the opposite view. No 
 nation had ever too much of an intellectual fund, and it is 
 the highest duty of all public schools, whether elementary 
 
214 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 or secondary, to find out youth of talent, and to develop 
 such talent by higher instruction. As Sir John Lubbock 
 and I have had to fight for this view continually in the 
 House, I may quote the last sentence of a speech delivered 
 by me on July 21st, 1871 : — 
 
 “ If the educational endowments of this country were not to be 
 freely opened ‘ to the miserable minority ’ of the talented poor, let 
 them give in the elementary schools such instruction as would 
 enable the pupils to know what was the object and purpose of the 
 elements there taught, so that they might not fling away these 
 elements like their worn-out boyish small clothes as soon as they 
 began to win their daily bread, but that they might use the know- 
 ledge acquired in school to further their advancement as intelligent 
 beings in whatever position and occupation they might be placed ” 
 (‘ Hansard’s Debates,’ ccviii., p. 128). 
 
 This view I have steadily maintained in after years, and 
 as chairman of an important Select Committee on Endowed 
 Schools in the years 1886-7, I had the satisfaction to see 
 that the promotion, not only of secondary but also of 
 technical education, received the distinct recognition of 
 the House of Commons. The conditions of industrial 
 and commercial competition with foreign countries have 
 awakened the public mind to the truth that the com- 
 petition of industry has now ceased to depend on the 
 possession of cheap raw materials or other local advan- 
 tages, but has become actually one of intellect among the 
 producers of this kingdom and of foreign nations. 
 
 About this time I became intimately associated with 
 Professor Fawcett, who was totally blind, but did not 
 allow this disability to interfere with his work. Fawcett 
 was admired by all his political colleagues for the activity 
 of his intellect and his unswerving integrity. He brought 
 in a Bill for opening up Trinity College, Dublin, to Roman 
 Catholics, and I gave him hearty support. The following 
 extract from his speech in introducing the Bill shows how 
 much he appreciated my co-operation : — 
 
 “ If, turning to this side of the House, Liberal members were 
 appealed to, and asked to name the man who, from his University 
 experience, from his great ability, from his position in this House, 
 from his representing a University constituency, is best qualified to 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 215 
 
 deal with this subject of University Education, should we not all, in 
 a candid moment, say it was the hon. member for the University of 
 Edinburgh (Dr Lyon Playfair) ? ” 
 
 The Bill introduced by Fawcett was supported by the' 
 authorities of Trinity College, who had always encouraged 
 the attendance of Roman Catholic students, although they 
 had no powers to admit them to fellowships or professor- 
 ships. The Bill was eminently reasonable, but it was 
 opposed by Gladstone as likely to interfere with a larger 
 scheme of University Education for Ireland which he then 
 had in contemplation. Fawcett and I knew nothing of 
 his views at this time. Had Gladstone frankly taken us 
 into his counsels our action would probably have been 
 different, and the subsequent difficulties of the Government 
 would have been avoided. The Bill for the reform of 
 Trinity College was well received by the House, which 
 passed its second reading by a majority of 73. Its success 
 seemed to be assured ; but on the morning of April 2 5th, 
 1872, when it was to go into the Committee stage, all the 
 Liberal newspapers received notice that a Parliamentary 
 crisis was imminent, because the Ministry would resign 
 and dissolve Parliament if the Bill were prosecuted to its 
 subsequent stages. An extract from my speech on that 
 day will show the surprise of the promoters of the Bill : — 
 
 “ We suddenly find our little Bill, which we thought to be a star 
 of the sixth magnitude, blazing up into a fierce sun which was 
 scorching friends and foes alike. . . . That is a turn of the 
 
 Ministerial screw that can only be made very rarely and carefully 
 without the Ministerial machine going to pieces” (‘Hansard’s 
 Debates,’ ccx. p. 1824). 
 
 Our majority melted away under the threat ol 
 dissolution. 
 
 During the autumn of this year, I published an elaborate 
 pamphlet under the title of 1 Teaching Universities and 
 Examining Boards,’ in order to defeat the intention of the 
 Government to introduce a Bill for the reform of Irish 
 Universities upon the type of the University of London, 
 which is a mere examining Board. This pamphlet excited 
 much notice, and rapidly went through several editions. 
 
2 16 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 I was informed by members of the Cabinet that when 
 Gladstone prepared his draft Bill of 1873, he circulated 
 with it a copy of my pamphlet to each of the Ministers, so 
 that they might judge whether he had met my objections 
 to a mere examining system. At last the Government Bill 
 was introduced. It was carefully prepared, and worthy of 
 the great talents of its author, except in a few important 
 points. It tried to conciliate the priests by excluding 
 mental philosophy and modem history from the new 
 University, and it abolished Galway College by throwing 
 it as a sop to the Clerical party. I attacked the Bill 
 on several grounds, among which was the abolition of one 
 of the Queen's Colleges. In this I was supported by the 
 fact that 13 1 out of the 14 1 students of Galway College, 
 both Protestants and Catholics, memorialised me to be 
 their advocate ; while at the same time all the students of 
 the Roman Catholic University of Dublin desired me to 
 represent their view that philosophy and history should 
 not be excluded from the curriculum of their studies. 
 While the Roman Catholics thus showed their confidence 
 in my educational views, the stronghold of Protestantism, 
 Trinity College, Dublin, published a special edition of my 
 pamphlet, and circulated it extensively. Gladstone, seeing 
 that I had much moral support behind me, was anxious to 
 secure my adhesion to his Bill, and in the course of the 
 debate put up Cardwell to state that my objections “ were 
 not of the essence of the Bill, and would be conceded in 
 Committee.” Accordingly I voted for the Second Reading. 
 For this I was much blamed by the Press at the time, 
 but I think that I was right not to help to throw out a 
 Liberal for a Conservative Government when the former 
 consented to adopt my views at a later stage. I strongly 
 objected to the exclusion of philosophy and history from 
 the University, as the following passage from my speech 
 will show : — 
 
 “ This Bill limits, if it does not exclude, metaphysical and ethical 
 subjects, and thus forces the student to be one of two things — either 
 a bigot or an infidel. I object to this exclusion of subjects, to this 
 tongue-tying of professors, and to the encouragement of academic 
 dissent on the part of the students ; and I do so because science, 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 217 
 
 whether mental or natural, can only breathe and flourish in an 
 atmosphere of liberty. Science must grow in the light which comes 
 direct from the Creator ; it is dwarfed and dies if the light be 
 intercepted by a Church, and thus be feebly reflected upon it . . . 
 The Bill has been framed with a view to conciliate the Ultramon- 
 tane party. It has failed to do this, and it has not satisfied the 
 Liberal Catholics of Ireland. Ultramontanism always appears to 
 me to be ecclesiastical communism. Communism is the reduction 
 of property to a common level, and Ultramontanism is the 
 reduction of religious spirit and intellectual thought to a common 
 level.” 
 
 Count Bismarck seems to have hit on the same idea, for 
 in a speech at a date subsequent to this he speaks of 
 Ultramontanist priests as being “ black-robed communists." 
 
 Dean Stanley accepted my definition, and headed a 
 pamphlet, ‘ Ultramontanism is Ecclesiastical Communism/ 
 
 Robert Lowe (now Lord Sherbrooke) was put up to 
 answer my speech. Lowe's speeches were always full of 
 pungency and close reasoning when they were carefully 
 prepared. He had given ample pains to demolish my 
 arguments, but he thought that the speech would be a 
 repetition of my pamphlet, and I had carefully avoided 
 that line of argument. Mr Lowe made a good speech, but 
 it was no answer to mine. It was very different in the 
 case of Mr Gladstone’s closing speech a few days later. 
 He devoted himself with all his power and eloquence to 
 upset my arguments. I had gone up into the gallery to 
 hear him better ; and, not seeing me in my place, his keen 
 eye quickly detected me in the gallery, and he addressed 
 his speech to me in my lofty perch — the only time that I 
 have ever seen this done. I happened to be sitting not far 
 from the Prince of Wales, and His Royal Highness sent 
 sympathetic smiles to console me in my demolition ! 
 
 The Bill was defeated by a majority of three, and the 
 Government resigned, although they came in again on the 
 failure of Disraeli to form a Government. 
 
 All my friends assured me that I had made an irre- 
 concilable enemy of our great Liberal chief, who largely 
 attributed his defeat to my speech. How unjust this was 
 to his generosity is shown by the fact that in the autumn 
 of that year he asked me to join his Government as Post- 
 
2 18 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 master-General. It is true that, in the interview preceding 
 my acceptance, he intimated a doubt as to whether I could 
 run in harness, as I was apt to form strong views of my 
 own. This was the only allusion he ever made to my two 
 years of opposition to his University measures for Ireland. 
 
 On accepting the office of Postmaster-General, I went to 
 Windsor with Sir W. Harcourt, Sir Henry James, and 
 others, to kiss hands on appointment, and to be sworn a 
 Privy Councillor. The Queen was very gracious on this 
 occasion. After I had taken the oath as Privy Councillor, 
 she made a remark showing how constantly the memory 
 of the Prince Consort is in her thoughts. It was, “ How 
 much he would have been pleased ! ” No need to tell me 
 who he was. The Queen commanded me to return on a 
 visit, and to dine with her that evening. 
 
 The administration of the Post Office was of a character 
 entirely to my liking, and I had been just sufficiently long 
 in the saddle to feel that I could propose some important 
 reforms, when, early in 1874, without the least notice, 
 Parliament was dissolved, and Gladstone's Government 
 came to an end, because the country returned a Conser- 
 vative Parliament. 
 
 I now hoped for some leisure, as the Tories were in 
 power. But the month after the meeting of the new 
 Parliament an appeal was made to me by Mr Disraeli’s 
 Government. The increasing cost and decreasing efficiency 
 of the Civil Service of the country were causing consider- 
 able anxiety. The Government had resolved upon issuing 
 a Commission to consider whether it should be reorganised 
 on a better system, and determined, although I was in 
 opposition to them, to ask me to preside over the inquiry. 
 I was naturally unwilling to undertake such heavy work, 
 but the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Stafford North- 
 cote, represented that he had aided the Liberal Govern- 
 ment by going to America on the Alabama claims, and the 
 Conservatives thought that this established a title for 
 Liberal aid. This was a fair way of putting the case, so I 
 consented. The inquiry was a wide one, and likely to be 
 prolonged. The subjects referred were : — 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 219 
 
 1. The method of selecting Civil Servants in the first 
 
 instance. 
 
 2. The principles upon which men should be transferred 
 
 from office to office, especially when redundant. 
 
 3. The possibility of grading the Civil Service, as a 
 
 whole, so as to obviate the inconveniences 
 which result from the difference of pay in 
 different departments. 
 
 4. The system of employing writers for duties of a 
 
 subordinate or temporary character. 
 
 The Commission was dated April 25th, 1874, and our 
 first Report was issued in January, 1875. It established a 
 completely new system, which since then has received the 
 official title of the “ Playfair Scheme." This title implies 
 too much personality to the President. The Commission 
 consisted of the most eminent permanent officers of the 
 Civil Service — Sir R. Stephenson, Sir Francis Sandford, Sir 
 T. Farrer, The Hon. C. Fremantle, Sir R. Hamilton, Mr 
 Walrond, Mr Joyce, and Lord Claud Hamilton. The 
 essence of the “ Playfair Scheme" was to divide the Civil 
 Service into two branches, one of which was to consist of 
 men who passed a high competitive examination for the 
 purpose of doing work requiring intellectual ability, and 
 the other of mere clerks who could do routine work of an 
 inferior order. In both divisions, however, merit, and not 
 mere seniority, was to be the condition of promotion. 
 The scheme was received with much hostile criticism, 
 which fell naturally on the supposed author, and gave to 
 me a large amount of temporary unpopularity. As its 
 effect was a large economy in the estimates, it gradually 
 became popular. But the writers and inferior clerks never 
 ceased to attack it, and in this year (1886) a new Royal 
 Commission was appointed to report upon its working. 
 The Government asked me to act upon this Commission, 
 but I declined, as I am at the present moment a member of 
 three other Commissions, which I thought quite sufficient 
 to engage my attention. Whether the “ Playfair Scheme ” 
 will survive this ordeal I do not yet know. 
 
220 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 In the year 1874 I made an effort to obtain the appoint- 
 ment of a Minister of Education instead of the anomalous 
 system of having education managed by a Committee of 
 the Privy Council. But, though I was strongly supported 
 by Mr Forster, the Government of Mr Disraeli opposed 
 the motion and defeated it. Disraeli had formerly intro- 
 duced a Bill for the same object, but he had changed his 
 mind. In the autumn of this year I acted as president of 
 the section on Public Health at the meeting of the Social 
 Science Association at Glasgow. My address on this 
 occasion was one of the most successful of my many 
 public addresses, if I may judge from the general attention 
 which it received from the Press. 
 
 In the years 1875 and 1876, there was not much to which 
 I need allude in Parliamentary work, although in both ot 
 them subjects of educational reform were often before the 
 House. I had introduced a Bill to regulate experiments 
 on living animals, so that no operation involving pain 
 should be made without an anaesthetic. The Government 
 referred my Bill to a Royal Commission, which made some 
 slight modifications in it, and it was afterwards brought in 
 and passed as a Government measure. Societies were 
 established for the total abolition of vivisection, and im- 
 mense efforts were made to secure the repeal of this Act. 
 Hitherto these efforts have fortunately failed. At last, on 
 the 4th April, 1883, a determined effort was made to repeal 
 the Act which I had taken so much pains to carry. I was 
 successful in resisting this attempt, and ever since have 
 been the bete noire of anti-vivisectionists. The concluding 
 passage of my speech will show its general tenor : — 
 
 “ Much of the out-of-door agitation against this Act has been got 
 up in a spirit of unthinking and aggressive ignorance. I assert that 
 physiologists are actuated by a higher humanity than that of the 
 opponents of vivisection. The aim of the former is to mitigate the 
 sufferings of men and animals by studying the processes of life and 
 of disease. The only way in which they can prosecute this aim is to 
 experiment on living beings, not on dead corpses. This Bill is to 
 repeal an Act under which the official inspectors tell us that scarcely 
 ten animals in the year suffer sensible pain ; but it takes no account 
 whatever of the torture or cruelty perpetrated on animals either for 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 221 
 
 domestic purposes, for agricultural uses, for pleasures as in hunting 
 or fishing, or even that inflicted out of the most wanton and pur- 
 poseless malignity. [Mr Re ^ : That is a crime already.] It is not 
 a crime already, because Martin’s Act, to which the hon. member 
 refers, applies only to domestic animals, while all other animals are 
 liable to torture. It would be a complete defence under this Bill to say 
 that the torture of a rabbit or a rat was made out of malignity, with- 
 out any reference to the promotion of physiology, medicine, or 
 science. But as soon as the motive is high and noble, and has for 
 its purpose the relief of the ills of suffering humanity, you purpose to 
 brand those who experiment as criminals.” 
 
 The anti-vivisectionists have not again attacked the 
 regulating Act, and in their annual meetings are now 
 content to attack me. This is a small matter if they do 
 not succeed in retarding the progress of science. No legis- 
 lation, however mischievous, can possibly ultimately stop 
 its progress. Even the burning of the Alexandrian 
 Library did not stop the growth of literature. 
 
 In the year 1876 a Royal Commission was issued to 
 recommend reforms in the Scotch Universities. Huxley 
 the biologist, Froude the historian, and I, were sent down 
 from London to act upon it. Our report seemed to be too 
 “ thorough ” for adoption, for little reform has yet taken 
 place. We recommended a free selection of subjects as 
 alternative courses for granting degrees in arts and science. 
 We recollected Shakespeare’s educational formula : — 
 
 “No profit grows where is no pleasure ta’en ; 
 
 In brief, sir, study what you most affect.” 
 
 Oxford and Cambridge, which used to be behind the 
 Scotch Universities in this respect, are now in advance 
 of them. Our Commission was only a recommendatory 
 one, but an Executive Commission was formed by an 
 Act in 1889, and will no doubt give effect to our 
 labours. 
 
 During the early years of his Parliamentary career, 
 Playfair's time was still given very largely to the affairs of 
 his University, and he lost no opportunity of advancing its 
 interests in different directions. Amongst other works in 
 
222 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the accomplishment of which he had a share, was the 
 foundation of the Chair of Geology in the University, by 
 the liberality of Sir Roderick Murchison. 
 
 Folkestone, 
 
 Sir Roderick Murchison to Playfair. November 27th, 1870. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Your letter of the 24th inst., 
 anent the desideratum of a Geological Chair in the 
 University of Edinburgh, came to me at the same moment 
 as one from Geikie on the same subject, which I enclose. 
 The reasons you both employ are so precisely what I feel 
 myself (and have felt for a long time), that I have resolved 
 to do now what would have come forth on m3 r death, as 
 settled by my will, in which I leave £6,000 to the 
 University of Edinburgh to found, or aid in founding, a 
 Geological Chair, certain conditions being complied with. 
 In the present state of science, it is quite absurd to unite 
 geology with natural history in the same professorship. I 
 confess that it would be highly gratifying to me to have 
 my name connected with this new Chair (as Geikie puts 
 it) ; for I do not think — without vanity — that any living 
 man has worked harder in developing the true geological 
 structure of Scotland than myself. Geikie ought certainly 
 to be the first professor to succeed Jameson. As the M.P. 
 for Edinburgh, you must induce the Government to help, 
 which, as I understand you, they are ready to do. I am 
 here getting braced up for the Liverpool meeting, and 
 writing out my address to the Geological section. 
 
 Ever yours sincerely, 
 
 Roderick Murchison. 
 
 Playfair has mentioned in the preceding chapter of his 
 Reminiscences his early Parliamentary connection with 
 Post Office reform. He was, in fact, the leader in the 
 movement for the introduction of the halfpenny post-card 
 into this country. 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 223 
 
 Lord Hartington to Playfair. PosT Office, May 2 6th, 1870. 
 
 My dear Sir, — I am glad to be able to inform you 
 that the Government have decided to introduce a half- 
 penny card postage, as advocated by you and a deputation 
 of Members of Parliament with whom I had the pleasure 
 of an interview some time ago. I had intended to announce 
 this yesterday in introducing the Post Office Bill, but it 
 was too late for me to be able to make any statement. I 
 should be much obliged to you if you would, by putting a 
 question to me either to-day or to-morrow, enable me to 
 inform the House of our intention. 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 Hartington. 
 
 Reference was made by Playfair in his Reminiscences to 
 his pamphlet published under the title of ‘ Teaching 
 Universities and Examining Boards/ Its publication 
 brought him many expressions of gratitude and goodwill 
 from different quarters. Only two of them need be 
 quoted. 
 
 Dublin, 
 
 The Hon. David Plunket to Playfair. February 1st, 1872. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Many thanks for the copy of 
 your address which you were good enough to send to me. 
 I have read it with the greatest interest. I think you have 
 completely demolished Lowe’s Halifax speech, so far as it 
 dealt with the Universities question ; and have, besides, 
 made a case on the other side that he, and those who 
 would gladly take his views, for the present will find it 
 hard to dispose of. Allow me to thank you warmly, on 
 behalf of those whom I represent, for the yeoman service 
 you have done for our cause. There is an abstract of your 
 address in to-day’s ‘ Daily Express,’ our chief Dublin 
 Conservative newspaper, and I doubt not that it will 
 appear in some of the others later ; but, unfortunately, 
 Lady Spencer held her first drawing-room last night, and 
 so the space of our Dublin local press was very much 
 
224 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 occupied with lists of ladies who were presented, and of 
 the dresses they wore. So there was no room for more 
 weighty matters. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 D. Plunket. 
 
 Edinburgh, 
 
 Professor Blackie to Playfair. February yd, 1870. 
 
 My dear M.P., — I return you my most sincere thanks 
 for your lecture, which shall be treasured up amongst my 
 cherished valuables. The French testimonies are of the 
 utmost consequence in the question, and were new to me. 
 Bob Lowe is a “ Pinkster/’ and must be suppressed, only in 
 a polite way, as you did. Bain, Grote and Co. taught a very 
 low moral philosophy, such as may suit a nation of shop- 
 keepers, the modern Carthaginians that can never produce 
 any noble result. A man ought to feel truth like a well of 
 living waters growing up out of his soul, not merely gather 
 it with his fingers. I shall send you my manifesto in a few 
 days. I intend to send copies to some of our most notable 
 M.P.’s, though I have no doubt the majority of them are , 
 Carthaginians, believing mainly in supply and demand. I 
 lecture in London on Friday the 26th, at Albemarle Street, 
 on which occasion I hope to see you and other friends. 
 
 Ever yours, 
 
 John S. Blackie. 
 
 Playfair’s appointment as Postmaster-General in 1873 
 came as a surprise to himself as well as to his friends. 
 After less than five years of Parliamentary life he was pro- 
 moted to one of the greatest offices in the Ministry outside 
 the limits of the Cabinet. But for the unfortunate break 
 which occurred in his official life by the defeat of Mr 
 Gladstone’s Government less than three months after he 
 received his appointment, it is probable that Playfair would 
 have advanced steadily to a front rank in political life. It 
 was in this manner that he had advanced in every other 
 branch of labour that he had followed. But his loss of 
 
THE RIGHT HON. SIR LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 ( 1888 ) 
 
 Photo. Elliott Sc Fry, Baker St. , W. 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 225 
 
 office almost before he had taken full possession of his 
 post gave to this first appointment of his something of the 
 character of a false start. His political career, which had 
 been begun under auspices so favourable, was not destined 
 to enjoy the brilliant success which had attended his 
 labours in other fields. For this fact different reasons 
 may be alleged. Undoubtedly, his detachment from 
 party politics had something to do with his failure to 
 secure that recognition in Parliament which he had ob- 
 tained outside. Something, too, must be attributed to 
 the circumstances which attended his term of office 
 as Chairman of Committees — an episode in his career 
 which will be fully dealt with later on. But the first 
 check, and, I believe, the most serious, to his Parliamen- 
 tary advancement, was the fact that, having secured, at 
 an unusually early date in his life as a Member of the 
 House of Commons, one of the most important posts in 
 the Administration, he was, through no fault of his own, 
 removed from that office almost immediately after he had 
 obtained it. Nevertheless, short as was his tenure of office 
 as Postmaster-General, it enabled him to win the con- 
 fidence of the eminent public servants with whom he 
 was brought in contact at St. Martin’s-le-Grand. 
 
 In the early seventies one of the subjects which created 
 the greatest interest in the public mind was the trial of the 
 famous cause raised by the fraudulent “ Sir Roger 
 Tichborne” against the rightful owner of the Tichborne 
 estates. The question of the identity of the Claimant was 
 one that, for a season, excited greater interest in all classes 
 of society than any problem in politics. The nation was 
 for a time ranged into the friends and the opponents of the 
 ingenious knave who had so successfully imposed him- 
 self upon many honest persons, and the exposure of whose 
 fraudulent claims was the greatest triumph won by the 
 late Lord Coleridge during his brilliant career at the bar. 
 
 P 
 
226 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Science came to the aid of truth and justice in this as it has 
 done in many more important matters ; and Playfair, as a 
 man of science, made a suggestion to Sir John Coleridge 
 which might have been of use if the other evidence against 
 the pretensions of the Claimant had not been so over- 
 whelming. This was in respect to a slight malformation 
 of the ear of the genuine Roger Tichbome, the lobe of that 
 organ having been attached to his head instead of being 
 pendant as in most cases. 
 
 Ottery St. Mary, 
 
 Sir J. D. Coleridge to Playfair . August 6th, 1871. 
 
 My dear Dr Playfair, — Many thanks for your 
 kind and interesting letter. It is not the first I have 
 heard of this curious fact. Indeed, some gentleman, wdiose 
 name I cannot read, and v T ho has not dated his letter, so 
 that no doubt he thinks me a most uncourteous man for 
 not answering, has sent me a couple of the photographs, 
 with the measurements, and most careful remarks on this 
 very point. I will not forget it, you may depend upon it ; 
 and I w T ill ask you some day to give me Professor Lay- 
 cock’s address, that, if necessary, we might call him. . . . 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 J. D. Coleridge. 
 
 There have been few episodes of greater interest in the 
 history of the Liberal party than the election of a successor 
 to Mr Gladstone as leader in 1875. Playfair has briefly 
 related the facts of the case, and has indicated with equal 
 terseness the part which he played in connection with the 
 crisis. In this, as in many other cases, the simple and 
 direct language of his Reminiscences may suggest to those 
 who are ignorant of the facts an assumption on his part of 
 greater activity and a more potent influence than he really 
 possessed. No idea could possibly be more unjust to 
 Playfair. The correspondence in his biographer’s posses- 
 sion, and knowledge acquired from other quarters, con- 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 227 
 
 clusively establish the fact that when Playfair — writing, be 
 it remembered, for his family rather than for the public — 
 states in his Reminiscences that he took a certain part in 
 some public transaction, he invariably understates rather 
 than overstates the share which he had in it. The 
 question of the election of Mr Gladstone’s successor in 
 1875 is a case i n point, and the interest which attaches to 
 that curious episode in the history of the Liberal party 
 justifies an amplification of the story that Playfair has told 
 so briefly. From the biographer’s point of view such an 
 amplification is specially justifiable, because it throws light 
 upon the position which Playfair had secured in the inner 
 councils of his party, and shows that here, as elsewhere, he 
 had become a moving spirit “ behind the scenes.” 
 
 Mr Gladstone’s announcement of his determination to 
 retire from the leadership, and from active participation in 
 political life, at once let loose many passions which had 
 been simmering beneath the surface of the party. By 
 common consent, the man who, next to Mr Gladstone, 
 had shown the greatest capacity for leadership among the 
 occupants of the front bench in the House of Commons 
 was Mr Forster. But the very success which Mr Forster 
 had secured as an administrator and statesman had raised 
 up against him powerful enemies on his own side of the 
 House. His Education Act, which was, after all, the 
 greatest of all the measures passed by the Government of 
 1868, had aroused against him the passionate anger of a 
 large section of the Nonconformists and of the members 
 of the well-known Birmingham Education League. He 
 had been sneered at as a trimmer ; he had even been 
 denounced as a traitor. To those who really knew 
 Forster these charges seemed to be too contemptible to 
 call for refutation. No one who had been brought into 
 close contact with him had failed to recognise that honesty 
 of purpose and strength of conviction which won for him 
 
228 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the admiration of Playfair. But jealousy and calumny 
 are, unfortunately, among the most formidable of all the 
 weapons used in political warfare, and Forster had exposed 
 himself to both. Playfair, like most men who were not 
 moved by the passions of a clique, recognised in Forster 
 the proper successor to Mr Gladstone. But no sooner was 
 the name of the author of the Education Act mentioned in 
 this connection than a series of desperate intrigues were 
 set on foot against him. The representatives of the 
 Birmingham League, having no one in their own party 
 whom they could set up in opposition to Forster, were 
 shrewd enough to nominate a man who was not in special 
 sympathy with their views, and who, in addition to high 
 rank, great social influence, and more than considerable 
 abilities, possessed the valuable qualification of being 
 positively obnoxious to no section in the party. Lord 
 Hartington himself, it need scarcely be said, had no share 
 in the intrigues which were carried on against Forster. 
 He was as innocent as Forster himself of seeking to 
 obtain a post which, if one of high honour, was at the 
 same time one of great difficulty. But those who 
 supported him were ardent and not over-scrupulous, and 
 they were inspired by many different motives. If some of 
 them desired Lord Hartington rather than Mr Forster 
 because they honestly believed that the latter was not 
 soimd in his Liberalism, there were others who saw in 
 Lord Hartington one conspicuous merit. This was the 
 fact that he was the heir to a peerage, and that conse- 
 quently in the course of nature he must before very long 
 be removed to the House of Lords, thus leaving the 
 leadership in the Commons open to some younger man, 
 for whom the prize was not yet ripe. The result was that, 
 although at the beginning of the struggle Lord Harting- 
 ton’s supporters were in a distinct minority, as time passed 
 they gathered recruits, and it became increasingly apparent 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 229 
 
 that Forster’s election might lead to a dangerous schism 
 in the party. With this preamble, I may leave the 
 correspondence which Playfair received to speak for itself. 
 It is, perhaps, superfluous to remind the reader that Lord 
 Granville, by Mr Gladstone’s retirement, had become the 
 leader of the party as a whole. 
 
 Savernake Forest, Marlborough, 
 Earl Granville to Playfair. January 1 6th, 1875. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have received your letter of 
 the 15th. Pray assure Mr Fawcett, and the other inde- 
 pendent members to whom you allude, that I am aware of 
 no intention or wish to nominate any leader of the House 
 of Commons without consultation of the whole body of 
 the Liberal party. 
 
 The efforts of the meeting held at my house on the 14th 
 were concentrated on the attempt to prevent Gladstone’s 
 resignation, and no allusion was made to the future, 
 farther than a general agreement to the effect that, if the 
 decision was final, it was better to publish it without delay, 
 in order to give the Liberal party time to consider their 
 position before the meeting of Parliament. 
 
 I am not authorised to speak for Lord Hartington, but 
 I know no one more impressed with the difficulty of any 
 one taking Mr Gladstone’s place. I cannot answer for his 
 acceptance if the choice were made of him, but I am 
 certain that he would refuse unless the proposal was made 
 with the hearty concurrence of the party. 
 
 I cannot take upon myself to summon a meeting, but I 
 have written to Adam (the chief Liberal Whip) to say that 
 I presume if he receives a requisition to that effect from a 
 few of the leading independent members he will act upon it. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Granville. 
 
 P.S. Confidential . — I suppose that what Fawcett is 
 afraid of is rather Granby, Herries, and Dizzy than G. 
 Bentinck and Dizzy. For George Bentinck, with all his 
 
230 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 inferiority in ability, had a will of iron. I believe that I 
 have given a perfectly accurate statement of Hartington’s 
 feelings, and that he would require a full assurance, not 
 only of the support of his late colleagues in and out of the 
 Cabinet, but of such leading and honourable men as 
 Fawcett, to induce him to undertake a task the inherent 
 
 difficulty of which will be immensely increased by ’s 
 
 restless ambition. Pray show Adam our correspondence. 
 I have written shortly to him. 
 
 12, Carlton House Terrace, 
 
 Lord Wolverton 1 to Playfair. January 18 th, 1875. 
 
 Dear Playfair, — Thanks for the enclosed. If Adam 
 calls the meeting, which I think with Granville he should 
 do if he has a requisition, no time should be lost, and I 
 think it should not be later than the Wednesday in the 
 week after next. The notice of the meeting will help to 
 the solution of the question as to who is “ the favourite.” 
 It seems very dark now, and difficult for anyone to form 
 an accurate opinion. I hardly think Lord Granville could 
 act as chairman. Could Bright ? I think he might if he 
 would undertake it. 
 
 As a matter of fact the meeting was called by Mr Adam 
 in the manner suggested by Lord Granville, and Mr Bright 
 presided over it. 
 
 ( Confidential .) 
 
 Bowood, Calne, Wilts., 
 
 Earl Granville to Playfair . January \gth, 1875. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have received your two notes 
 of yesterday. I shall consider the second as absolutely 
 personal and confidential. Your letter of Friday had 
 made me think you were in favour of Hartington. I have 
 perfect confidence in both him and Forster ; but our late 
 chief would, I think, be more cordial in support of the 
 former, which is an element not to be put out of sight, 
 as also the acquiescence of all his Cabinet colleagues in 
 
 1 Lord Wolverton, as Mr Glyn, had been Mr Adam’s predecessor as chief 
 Liberal Whip. 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 2 31 
 
 Hartington last year. But at that time Forster was sup- 
 posed to be intolerable to the Nonconformists. . . . 
 
 Yours, G. 
 
 Brookside, Cambridge, 
 
 Mr Fawcett to Playfair. January 20 th, 1875. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I think the general tone of the 
 Press is very encouraging, and it is certainly very hopeful 
 that ‘ The Times ’ has not yet pronounced in favour of 
 Hartington. I believe the Nonconformists are to have a 
 conference at Crewe to-day, and the Birmingham League, I 
 see, meets to-morrow to consider the leadership. I expect 
 they will praise Gladstone at Forsters expense, but cer- 
 tainly all Forster’s colleagues in the Cabinet were responsi- 
 ble with him for the parts of the Education Act which gave 
 offence to the Nonconformists. If they put forward a 
 claim to have a leader who is in favour of Disestablishment, 
 it may be fairly replied that only a minority of the Liberal 
 party in the House — not more than one-third — supports 
 Disestablishment, and, until a majority of the party 
 supports it, it is unreasonable to expect the leader to do so. 
 On the other hand, the great majority of the party voted 
 last session in favour of the extension of County Franchise, 
 and therefore we may fairly claim that we should have a 
 leader who will go with the majority on this question. 
 Hartington, you will remember, walked out of the House, 
 whereas Forster not only voted but spoke in favour of 
 Trevelyan’s Bill. It will, of course, be very important to 
 arrange beforehand that at the meeting Forster should be 
 proposed by some very influential member of the party. 
 My sole motive in saying last week that, if no one else 
 proposed him, I would, was that I thought it would show 
 
 we were in earnest. ... v , 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Fawcett. 
 
 Same to the same. Cambridge, January 2yd, 1875. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Many thanks for your letter. 
 From all that I hear, and I have made very careful 
 inquiries, I take a much more hopeful view of Forster’s 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 chances than you do. The hostile attitude of the Non- 
 conformists is already beginning to produce a strong 
 reaction in his favour, and I believe this feeling will 
 grow. Of one thing I feel certain, that nothing that 
 could possibly happen would be so disastrous to the 
 future of the party as if Forster were to withdraw before 
 a general meeting has been summoned. It would create 
 an impression which nothing could remove that he had 
 been induced to withdraw under influential pressure, and 
 under these circumstances the choice, on whomsoever 
 it might fall, would at once be strongly and openly re- 
 pudiated. Nothing that could be done would so effectually 
 break up the party. I am extremely obliged to you for 
 writing to me. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Fawcett. 
 
 Althorp, Northampton, 
 
 Earl Granville to Playfair . January 25th, 1875. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Many thanks. Can you lunch 
 at two at Carlton Terrace on Saturday ? We must devise 
 something to save the party from the depth of ridicule 
 which squabbling debating society speeches on Wednesday 
 may produce. 
 
 Yours, G. 
 
 As Playfair has already stated, something was devised at 
 this Saturday luncheon. It was recognised, even by those 
 who had been entirely favourable to Mr Forster’s nomina- 
 tion for the leadership, that if his candidature were persisted 
 in there would be a disastrous “ split ” in the party, and to 
 Playfair — who was Forster’s warm personal friend and 
 admirer — was entrusted the task of conveying this opinion 
 to that eminent man. Forster, as has already been told 
 elsewhere, when he saw that the interests of his party 
 seemed to demand the sacrifice of his candidature, did not 
 for a moment hesitate to adopt the view which Playfair 
 had put before him. He called on Lord Granville, and, to 
 
IN PARLIAMENT. 
 
 ^33 
 
 use his own words, “ came away with the leadership given 
 up." By his generous self-sacrifice he thus prevented his 
 party from falling into that “ depth of ridicule" which 
 Lord Granville anticipated and deplored. When the 
 meeting was held, under the presidency of Mr Bright, 
 Lord Hartington's was the only name submitted to it, 
 and he received that appointment of Leader of the 
 Opposition in the House of Commons which he con- 
 tinued to hold until, barely five years afterwards, Mr 
 Gladstone was summoned back to power and resumed his 
 old position. Most of this story is already known to the 
 world ; that portion of it which will be new to all my 
 readers is the part that Playfair had in preventing a 
 disastrous Liberal schism. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 Playfair’s Domestic Affections — Death of his Second Wife. Autobio- 
 graphy : The Dundonald Case : The Victory won at Last : A 
 Visit to the States: Emerson and Longfellow : Chicago: A' ‘Typical 
 American ” from Paisley : Adopting a Young Lady : At Washington : 
 A Visit to the Lunatic Asylum : Attacking the Indian Salt Tax : 
 Presiding over the Manchester Water Supply Committee : The Inter- 
 national Exhibition of 1878: Another Visit to America: Reception 
 at Montreal : Curious Experiences in a Rough District : Dining 
 with the Canadian Cabinet : A Talk with Lord Dufferin. Playfair’s 
 Relations with the United States — His Letters from America and 
 elsewhere — His Correspondence with Miss Russell and her Family 
 prior to His Marriage — His Social Charm— His Passion for Public 
 Work. 
 
 Very little has been said of Playfairs domestic life since 
 his marriage in 1846 to Miss Oakes. In his chapters of 
 autobiography he confines himself almost entirely to those 
 public affairs in which he was so deeply engaged, and the 
 reader is left almost in the dark on the subject of his 
 personal and family history. As a matter of fact, no man 
 was more dependent for his happiness upon his personal 
 surroundings and social environment than Playfair. But 
 he had to some extent the reticence of his race, and 
 during the period of intense and unremitting labour, which 
 extended from his youth until he had passed his sixtieth 
 year, his family life was kept strictly apart from public 
 affairs. His love for those of his own household was deep 
 and tender ; and his sympathy with his children was 
 unfailing. But they had to pay the penalty of being the 
 children of a public man, the demands upon whose time 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 235 
 
 were so great that he could not enjoy the unfettered 
 domestic leisure which falls to the lot of those who are not 
 absorbed in unselfish labours for the general good. In 
 later years, though Playfair’s work did not diminish as it 
 should have done in consideration of his age, he was able 
 by changed circumstances to combine devotion to duty 
 with those domestic pleasures which he relished so keenly. 
 His first wife, Margaret Eliza Oakes, had died in 1855. 
 Some two years later he was married to Jean Ann 
 Millington. This lady died in the spring of 1877. The 
 following chapter of autobiography dates from this time. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — IX. 
 
 1877 to 1879. 
 
 In April, 1877, I took an active part in moving for a 
 Committee to carry into effect the will of the great naval 
 hero Lord Dundonald, in favour of his grandson, Lord 
 Cochrane. This will was written in the year of his death, 
 and I read in the House from the autograph will the 
 following words : — 
 
 “ I leave exclusively to my grandson, Douglas, all the 
 sums due to me by the British Government for my im- 
 portant services, as well as the sums of pay stopped (under 
 perjured evidence) for the commission of a fraud on the 
 Stock Exchange. Given under my trembling hand this 
 2 1st day of February, i860, the anniversary of my 
 ruin.” 
 
 Time passes so quickly and events fade so soon in its pas- 
 sage that few persons recollect now to what the old man 
 alluded. Lord Dundonald is better known as Lord 
 Cochrane, when he was the greatest, as well as the last, of 
 the old clan of British seamen renowned for dash and 
 daring before steam altered naval tactics. Early in the 
 century Lord Cochrane sat in the House of Commons as a 
 Radical Member for Westminster ; in 1814 he received the 
 
236 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 command of a vessel which was about to leave London, 
 when he heard, as all the public did, that on the previous 
 day a fraud had been committed on the Stock Exchange. 
 A man called De Berenger, dressed in the uniform of volun- 
 teers, and wearing the Cross of St. Louis, landed at Dover 
 in a small boat, and announcing a great victory, posted 
 immediately with the news to the Stock Exchange in 
 London, causing a great rise in the price of Consols. Upon 
 that rise Lord Cochrane made a few thousand pounds, while 
 his uncle, Admiral Cochrane, obtained a much larger sum. 
 De Berenger, after delivering his false news at the Stock 
 Exchange, entered his carriage, in which was a carpet bag, 
 drew down the curtains and drove to Lord Cochrane’s 
 house. He was admitted by a servant, who swore that he 
 was in plain clothes. Much of the evidence turned upon 
 the truth of this statement. Had the false messenger 
 arrived in his uniform and changed his clothes in Lord 
 Cochrane’s house, the latter must have known there was 
 something wrong in the visit, which had for its professed 
 object to obtain some berth in his new ship. But if the 
 man changed his uniform in the carriage for plain clothes, 
 there was no reason to suspect that Lord Cochrane knew 
 anything of the conspiracy on the Stock Exchange. It 
 was proved be3 T ond doubt that weeks before he had 
 instructed his stockbroker to sell consols when they reached 
 a certain figure, and that the latter had acted on past 
 instructions. 
 
 Lord Cochrane was tried before an extreme Tory 
 judge, Lord Ellenborough. The verdict went against him, 
 and a new trial was refused, although Lord Chancellor 
 Campbell remarked that the verdict was “ palpably contrary 
 to the first principles of justice, and ought immediately to 
 have been reversed.” As a result Lord Cochrane was fined 
 £ 1,000, was sentenced to stand in the pillory, was dismissed 
 from the Navy, was expelled from the House of Commons, 
 was stripped of his orders of Knighthood, and had his banner 
 tom down from his stall as a Knight of the Bath. It was 
 actually kicked out of Westminster Abbey by the public 
 executioner. The only portion of the sentence remitted 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 237 
 
 was that the gallant hero should stand in the pillory, and 
 this was remitted not from mercy but for fear of an insur- 
 rection among the people. His fine of £1,000 was paid by 
 subscriptions not exceeding a penny by working men, 
 and the Bank of England note for this amount, with 
 an indignant protest in Lord Cochrane's writing, is now 
 framed and preserved in the Bank. This happened in the 
 year 1814, but it was not till 1832 that he was restored to 
 his rank in the Navy, without back pay. The decoration 
 of the Bath, which he had won in battles which were the 
 glory of his country, was not restored till 1847, and the 
 order to restore his banner to the stall in Westminster 
 Abbey only arrived when the hero was dead, on the 31st 
 October, i860. 
 
 My present effort was to carry out the will of Lord Dun- 
 donald by getting his back pay as an acknowledgment 
 from the nation that he had been treated with great 
 injustice. I read in the House the last letter which the 
 old admiral wrote to me on his death-bed. It is as 
 follows : — 
 
 12, Queen’s Gate, South Kensington, 
 Lord Dundonald to Playfair, October 2$th, i860. 
 
 My dear Friend, — My health was improving so fast, 
 a couple of months ago, that I had formed the intention of 
 spending the remaining portion of my life in my native 
 land. Since then the progress has not warranted the 
 attempt, as I am still unable to subject myself to the 
 slightest agitation — even when the horses walk with the 
 carriage. In the spring (D.V.) I may be able to avail 
 myself of the kind offer you make. 1 I send you the 
 second volume of my Autobiography, which I hope is 
 written with sufficient plainness to enable you to see 
 how I have been treated by the Political Varlets whose 
 administration will be the ruin of our country unless 
 
 1 Lord Dundonald had written to ask whether I would receive a visit 
 from a dying man, as he wished to see and to die in Scotland, and I had 
 replied that I would go to London to bring him down, not to die but to 
 recover. 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 some Garibaldi steps forward and rescues it. Excuse 
 brevity, as I am much indisposed, and believe me, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 Dundonald. 
 
 As the whole world by this time had come to the con- 
 viction that Lord Dundonald was entirely innocent, the 
 House could not refuse an appeal for a Select Committee, 
 the members selected being excellent men, among whom 
 were Spencer Walpole, Russell Gurney, Whitbread, etc. I 
 declined to go upon it, as my feelings of friendship were 
 too keen to make me a fair judge. The Committee felt 
 perfectly satisfied of Lord Dundonald's innocence, but they 
 hesitated as to the report from lack of evidence. At the 
 critical point an interesting event occurred. In 1814 Lord 
 Dundonald and Lady X. were in love, and, though they 
 did not marry, always held each other in great esteem for 
 the rest of their lives. Old Lady X. was still alive in 1877, 
 and she sent me a letter, through young Lord Cochrane, 
 the grandson, authorising me to use it as I thought best. 
 The letter was yellow with age, but had been carefully 
 preserved. It was written by Lord Dundonald, and was 
 dated from the prison on the night of his committal. It 
 tried to console the lady by the fact that the guilt of a 
 near relative of hers was not suspected, while the innocence 
 of the writer was his support and consolation. The old lady 
 must have had a terrible trial. It was hard to sacrifice the 
 reputation of her relative : it was harder still to see injustice 
 still resting upon her former lover. Lord Dundonald loved 
 her, and had received much kindness from her relative, 
 so he suffered calumny and the injustice of nearly two 
 generations rather than tell the true story of his wrongs. 
 I had long suspected the truth, but I never heard it from 
 Lord Dundonald. The brave old lady tendered this letter 
 as evidence to the Committee, but I declined to give it in, 
 knowing that had my friend been alive he would not have 
 allowed me to do so. At the same time I showed the 
 letter to the members of the Committee individually, and 
 it had a great effect upon their minds, and no doubt helped 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 239 
 
 to secure the report recommending that the Treasury- 
 should pay the grandson the back salary of the Admiral. 
 The interesting letter itself I recommended should be put 
 in the archives of the Dundonald family, and this I believe 
 has been done. 
 
 In the autumn of 1877 I visited for the first time the 
 United States, the first of many subsequent visits to that 
 country. On arriving at New York, I found an invitation 
 to spend a week at Nahant, near Boston, at the house of 
 Mr Russell. Mr S. H. Russell, with his wife and two 
 daughters, had travelled in Europe in the summer of 1875, 
 and I accidentally became acquainted with them at a table 
 d’hdte in an hotel at the Hague. This acquaintance ripened 
 into a friendship, and three years later (1878) the eldest of the 
 daughters, Miss Edith Russell, became my wife. Through 
 this family I at once became acquainted with the highly 
 intellectual society of Boston. Longfellow, Emerson, 
 Wendell Holmes, Lowell, Tom Appleton, and other men 
 of light and leading I met at their house, forming many 
 pleasant friendships for the future. Emerson I had known 
 before, although my introduction to him had been singular 
 and irregular. One night he came to a debate in the 
 House of Commons and sat under the gallery. The door- 
 keeper of the House was a man of literary tastes, and was 
 distressed to observe that Emerson received no attention 
 from members, so he asked me to speak to him. Having 
 introduced myself, I pointed out to the American philo- 
 sopher the leading politicians. The next evening I had a 
 dinner party of clever men, so I asked Emerson to join 
 us. Having an edition of his works bound in red morocco, 
 I placed them in the drawing-room, and the author was 
 particularly pleased to see them in this attractive form, so 
 he inscribed his name in them, with the date. 
 
 Emerson now eagerly renewed our acquaintance, and 
 returned my small hospitality. He invited me to Concord, 
 and it was charming to drive with him over the ground 
 where the first collision in the great War of Independence 
 occurred, even though I had to remember the defeat of 
 British troops in a bad cause. Emerson, at this time, was 
 
240 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 in full possession of his great faculties. At a later period 
 he found great difficulty in expressing his thoughts, though, 
 so far as I observed, his mind was never lost, notwith- 
 standing that in his latter years the words which he desired 
 refused to come at his call. 1 
 
 In 1877, however, Emerson was every inch the philo- 
 sopher whose writings I had so long enjoyed and knew so 
 well. In the Saturday club dinners at which I have been 
 a frequent guest, I am pleased to remember that I have 
 met Longfellow, Emerson, Wendell Holmes, Lowell, Park- 
 man, and many other illustrious Bostonians in the zenith 
 of their fame. Longfellow, in his old colonial house at 
 Cambridge, formerly the headquarters of Washington, was 
 the most genial and delightful of hosts. He was too 
 amiable to refuse anyone who called, however obtrusive 
 they might be. On one occasion I went to lunch with 
 him, and observed a number of chairs in the library, so I 
 remarked that he seemed to have had many visitors. 
 “ Yes," said the old poet, “ countrymen of your otvn who 
 had a leader called Mr Cook" (? Cook’s excursions). “ They 
 sat there staring, without conversation, till a fat old lady 
 opened it by saying : ‘ Now, Mr Longfellow, explain to 
 us your views on the immortality of the soul.’ This I 
 positively declined to do." Longfellow used to tell with 
 glee that, on one occasion, an English gentleman called 
 upon him without an introduction, apologising by saying : 
 “ Mr Longfellow, as there are no ruins in this country for 
 a traveller to look at, I have come to see you" ! Long- 
 fellow, and I should add Emerson, were poets without 
 being egotists. I have known many poets in my life 
 whose very personality made them egotists ; yet their 
 egotism was delightful, and an essential part of their 
 character. In the United States the strong personality of 
 dear old Wendell Holmes, the autocrat not only of the 
 
 1 A touching story illustrating this infirmity on the part of the great 
 writer has been recorded. On the day when Longfellow, with whom he 
 had been for many years on terms of the most intimate affection, was 
 carried to the grave, Emerson, after attending the funeral, said to his 
 daughter, “ I do not remember the name of the gentleman who was buried 
 to-day, but he had a sweet soul."— Ed. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 241 
 
 breakfast table but of every other table, brings him into 
 this clan. Yet his egotism is always exercised in giving 
 pleasure to others, for he is the soul of geniality and good- 
 fellowship, and there is not one among his many friends 
 who would desire any change in his character. 
 
 In a first visit to the United States it was desirable to 
 get a general impression of it as far as the time would 
 permit, so after visiting the White Mountains and the 
 Lakes George and Champlain, I went to Chicago. That 
 wonderful city has often been described. But what sur- 
 prised me more than its mushroom quickness of growth, 
 after the great fire, was the state of intellectual development 
 among the citizens. On the morning (it being Sunday) after 
 my arrival I went to the public theatre, to hear a sermon 
 by Professor Swing. The large theatre was crowded in 
 every part, and I was glad to get a seat on one of the steps. 
 The audience was singularly well dressed, much better than 
 one in the Royal Institution in London. The clergyman 
 advanced on the stage with a lady, and handed her respect- 
 fully to a seat. She was the chief soprano. The sermon 
 was remarkable, the subject being “ The Darwinian law of 
 development applied to the coming of the Kingdom of 
 God." The preacher was thoroughly acquainted with 
 the views of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall and 
 others ; but what surprised me most was that the audience 
 seemed also to be. I was so struck with the breadth 
 and eloquence of this sermon that I sent the newspaper 
 containing a full report of it to Darwin, who afterwards 
 expressed his interest in it. 
 
 It was a thorough change from my first mental impres- 
 sion of Chicago to go next morning to the pig-killing 
 establishment and listen to the boasts of how many 
 pigs a minute could be carried by rail past the butcher’s 
 knife and dropped into a cauldron of boiling water. 
 
 I expressed my conviction that the pigs were not dead, 
 but only in a faint from loss of blood, when they entered 
 the cauldron. The owner fairly replied — “ Examine 
 for yourself and see whether there is a quiver denoting 
 pain," and this I could not see. But he admitted at the 
 
 Q 
 
242 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 same time that I was right, for occasionally, though 
 very rarely, a pig got out of its faint and would leap out of 
 the cauldron. An expression of the owner was suggestive : 
 “ My pigs are incarnated Indian com.'’ A glowing sun and 
 illimitable land grow vast crops of this nutritious com, too 
 much for foreign export ; but it is concentrated into meat 
 and fat, and in the condensed form of bacon and ham the 
 working men of Europe, especially in the colder regions, 
 are warmed by the sim conserved in the fat and flesh, and 
 are nourished by the products of the soil of the far West. 
 
 I do not like to part with my recollections of Chicago 
 without referring in grateful terms to the hospitality I 
 received there. I had not one letter of introduction, but 
 immediately on my arrival the excellent clubs of the city 
 were opened to me, and hospitality abounded. General 
 Sheridan and the British Consul made my stay one 
 of pleasant memories. An absurd mistake of nationality 
 caused much amusement at the time. My travelling com- 
 panion, Colonel Holmes, M.P. for Paisley, was surprised 
 that we never saw a typical American — typical in the sense 
 of the John Bull in English caricatures, and of the Brother 
 Jonathan in American illustrated papers. At Chicago, how- 
 ever, my Scotch friend found his typical American outside 
 the hotel. He was tall, lank, lan tern -jawed, had a straw 
 hat, and a semicircle of tobacco juice around him. I was 
 immediately fetched to inspect this true type. We asked 
 him how many generations his ancestors had been in 
 America, and in what Western State he had been bom. 
 The reply astonished the two Scotch M.P’s. “ Hoot man, 
 I’m no an American. I cam frae Paisley laist year ! ” 
 After this experience we discontinued our researches for 
 American types ! 
 
 It is needless to describe the usual tour to St. Louis, 
 Louisville, and other places so well known. The Mammoth 
 caves in Kentucky naturally interested me much, but even 
 they have been made familiar by repeated descriptions. 
 Cincinnati is like Chicago both in the rapidity of its growth 
 and in the character of its industries, while its houses, with 
 their beautiful gardens, render it singularly attractive. On 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 243 
 
 travelling from Cincinnati to Washington I curiously had 
 to adopt a young lady as my daughter for a single night. 
 We had met a Scotch shipbuilder from the Clyde who was 
 travelling with his daughter, a young lady of about twenty 
 years of age. On crossing one of the rivers the conductor 
 asked us to go to the rear car in order to see from it the 
 high tressle bridge. About an hour and a half later, while 
 sitting in the drawing-room car, the young lady expressed 
 to me her surprise that her father did not appear, and I 
 then noticed that my travelling companion, Colonel 
 Holmes, was also absent. The conductor was asked to 
 tell the missing gentlemen that their continued absence 
 caused some anxiety, and he returned looking pale, for he 
 found they were no longer on the train. I told him that I 
 had left them smoking in the rear car. It turned out that 
 this had been unhooked from the train after passing the 
 bridge. It was now getting dark, and I was nearing an 
 hotel where I had engaged rooms for the night. On asking 
 the young lady whether she intended to go on by the night 
 train to Washington, I found that she had neither ticket nor 
 money, as her father carried both. She therefore stopped 
 with me at the hotel, and was registered as Miss Playfair, 
 and by telegraph I was able to assure the anxious father 
 of her safety. Next morning he joined us, and we went 
 on to Washington. 
 
 The day was most boisterous, as one of the heaviest 
 gales of the Equinox was passing over the country. 
 Towards evening we were playing at whist, when the 
 train came to such a sudden stop that we were thrown 
 out of our seats. The conductor would, as usual, give 
 no explanation, but I had been on the engine and 
 made friends with the driver by giving him half a dozen 
 cigars, so I went forward. We were on a high tressle 
 bridge, some 150 feet above a flooded river, and three of 
 the arches had been carried away. The driver had luckily 
 seen lights which were being frantically waved from the 
 other side, and had succeeded by the steam brake in 
 stopping the train just at the edge of the chasm. It was 
 the exact condition of the disaster on the Tay Bridge, but 
 
2 44 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 with this happy difference, that the train was stopped 
 in time. We had to back the train and go round to 
 Washington by way of Baltimore. 
 
 My first visit to Washington was during the recess, and 
 so I have little to record except that I made the acquaint- 
 ance of President Ha}’es and various members of his 
 Cabinet, several of whom in after years became pleasant 
 acquaintances. The National Museum, the great library, 
 and the Education Department, naturally interested me 
 much. One of my days was spent in the great Lunatic 
 Asylum near the city, and I received a rebuke to my 
 supposed knowledge there which has rendered me less con- 
 fident ever since. I have always been interested in lunacy, 
 and constantly visit asylums, so that I believed I could 
 detect a lunatic by outward signs, and especially by the 
 expressionless character of the hands of a patient. Left 
 alone for some time in the female ward, as the physician 
 was called away, I noticed a young lady sitting at a window, 
 working at needlework, both her face and hands being in 
 full expression with her work, so I presumed she was an 
 attendant, and not a lunatic. She pushed aside her work 
 and came quietly to me, remarking, “You, sir, are an 
 English gentleman; will you represent my case to the 
 English Minister ? for I am not insane, and am kept here 
 from interested motives by my relatives.” I assured her 
 that I would cause an inquiry to be made, if she were an 
 English subject. She replied, “ I am an American lady.” I 
 then explained that it was impossible for me, under these 
 circumstances, to interest the English Minister, but I pro- 
 mised not to leave Washington without mentioning her 
 case to Secretary Schurtz. The lady curtsied in a dignified 
 way, and declined my interference. A few minutes after, 
 she again approached me, and said, “ I have been studying 
 your face, and there is kindness in it ; will you sit beside 
 me till I state how badly I have been used ? To make my 
 case quite clear to you I must first explain that all the 
 telegraph wires in the United States centre in my body, 
 and I am subject to perpetual electric shocks!” I had 
 become so thoroughly convinced of her sanity that I had 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 245 
 
 no reply ready, so I merely said : “ Why, you are an 
 electric phenomenon ! ” “ Yes,” said the poor lady, 
 
 “ those two words exactly represent my condition.” I 
 left the asylum a humbler but a wiser man. 
 
 The year 1877 and the following year have little to 
 record in my Parliamentary life beyond the usual activity 
 in questions of education. My efforts to reduce the salt 
 tax in India were again renewed. Salt is a necessary of 
 life as much as air, water, and food. Ten pounds of salt 
 per head of the population form the lowest limit for public 
 health. A salt tax is, therefore, in the nature of a poll tax, 
 for it affects every person in the whole population. In a 
 country like India, where the wants of the people are few, 
 it is difficult to find commodities for taxation, so a tax 
 upon salt is always the resource of Indian financiers. But 
 such a tax is especially heavy on a population like that of 
 India, which chiefly lives on starchy food. Less salt is 
 necessary with an animal diet than with one which has for 
 its staple rice or potatoes. When the Irish lived on the 
 latter, they consumed much salt, and so must the rice- 
 feeding peoples of India. Taxation, of course, lessens 
 consumption. Before the Revolution in France, the salt 
 tax was onerous, and partly led to the general upheaval of 
 the nation. In the districts of France which purchased 
 immunity from the grande gabelle , the consumption of salt 
 rose to 18 lb. per head ; whilst in the heavily taxed 
 districts it scarcely reached 9 lb. The same has been the 
 experience in India. Formerly, when the salt tax was 
 low, the consumption in India is said to have been 1 5 to 
 16 lb. ; whereas in Bengal (1877) it is only 10 lb., and in 
 Bombay 9.7 lb. 
 
 The salt tax is essentially unfair, for it does not 
 take into account the ability of the consumer to pay. 
 The beggar must pay just as much as the highest 
 rajah or the richest trader. You might tax food of any 
 kind, and the consumer might live on untaxed diet : he 
 might subsist on herbs, slugs, or caterpillars, and still 
 preserve life. But salt he must have, as it forms more 
 than fifty per cent, of the mineral ingredients of the blood. 
 
246 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 My attacks on the salt tax of India did not procure its 
 abolition, but, I hope, partly caused its large re- 
 duction ; and, as a consequence, consumption rose, and 
 recouped the Indian Government for the reduction of 
 the tax. 
 
 During the session a private Bill was introduced into 
 Parliament empowering Manchester to take water from 
 Lake Thirlmere, in Cumberland. This produced much 
 public excitement, the utilitarians promoting the Bill, the 
 lovers of beautiful scenery in the Lake district vehement^ 
 opposing it. The House took the matter into its own 
 hands, by appointing what is termed a hybrid Committee, 
 partly consisting of members to represent public, and 
 others to represent local, interests. Of this Committee I 
 was appointed Chairman, and pretty heavy work it was 
 with the array of numerous counsel learned in the law to 
 protect the several interests. The Committee reported in 
 favour of the Bill, but took special care that the beauty of 
 the district should be enhanced, and not deteriorated. 
 This was easy, for formerly the lake was larger, but the 
 water had worn away a natural dam and partially emptied 
 itself. We gave power to restore the natural dam in a 
 picturesque way, and thus increased the size of the lake. 
 I presume that my judgment was good, for public 
 excitement was calmed, and I have never since heard a 
 word against our decision. 
 
 This year (1878) there was an International Exhibition 
 in Paris, and a Royal Commission was issued in England 
 to exhibit English products. The Prince of Wales became 
 President of the Commission, and at his request I acted as 
 Chairman of the Finance Committee. Sir Cunliffe Owen, 
 who has a genius for displays of this kind, was a most 
 efficient executive officer ; but he is not an economical 
 administrator, and it was only through his friendship for 
 me that he restrained himself to a reasonable expenditure. 
 The Exhibition, particularly the English section, was 
 eminently successful. The Prince of Wales acquired much 
 reputation for the attention and skill which he bestowed 
 on the management. At the close of the Exhibition, 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 247 
 
 President Grevy promoted me from the rank of Officer to 
 that of Commander of the Legion of Honour. 
 
 In this year (1878) I repeated my visit to the other side 
 of the Atlantic. On this occasion the object was of great 
 personal importance, for during the visit I was married, on 
 October 3rd, to Miss Edith Russell, of Boston, who has 
 been to me a constant source of support and sympathy, 
 both in my private and public life. Probably few 
 marriages have had so many literary celebrities as 
 “ assistants,” for all the poets and philosophers to whom I 
 have formerly alluded were present. 
 
 On the occasion of this American visit, I went to 
 Canada previous to my marriage. I reached Montreal at 
 night without my luggage, which was to follow by 
 railway. As it contained my letters of introduction, I felt 
 the sense of loneliness that one experiences on arriving in 
 a large town without knowing a single soul, and in this 
 state of mind I went out to see the cathedral. On 
 returning to the hotel, I was amazed to see my table 
 covered with visiting cards, all from medical men. The 
 landlord explained that there was a congress of all the 
 medical men in the Dominion ; and, as a biography of 
 myself had appeared in the Montreal papers that morning, 
 he supposed that was the cause of the numerous callers. 
 Accordingly, I went to the sitting of this medical congress, 
 which was open to the public. I had scarcely been there 
 ten minutes, knowing no one, when the President 
 announced that I was in the Hall, and proposed a 
 suspension of the rules, that I might be made an honorary 
 member. He then further proposed that I should be 
 received “ with standing honours,” an American ceremony 
 quite new to me. This consisted in two members coming 
 solemnly to the back form, on which I was sitting, and 
 taking me into custody by flanking me on each side, and 
 then conducting me through the upstanding assembly to 
 the platform, where I was at once asked to make a 
 speech. I have mentioned this incident because it 
 profoundly impressed me at the time with the fact that 
 every public man in England, if he has tried to be useful, 
 
248 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 is welcome in every part of the Empire. Though my 
 letters of introduction arrived the next day, I had never 
 occasion to present them. The hospitality was boundless, 
 and I found it was supposed that I could eat two dinners 
 and two suppers every night. Since then I have always 
 been a warm friend to what is called the federation of the 
 Empire. Political federation may be in the dim and 
 distant future, but unity of interests and of sentiment 
 already exists, and can be readily promoted. I am not a 
 prominent politician, and at best am only a humble 
 reformer of the social condition of the people ; yet, in 
 spite of that, Canada was as much a home to me as my 
 mother country. 
 
 I may give one or two other illustrations of this com- 
 munity of country. I went up the river Lievre, a tributary 
 of the Ottawa, to see some deposits of phosphate of lime. 
 In 1878 it was, and still may be, a rough district. The 
 hotel in which I slept was primitive, and the bedroom had 
 all the appearance of belonging to some rough customer, to 
 judge by the coats, gun and pistols hanging on the walls. 
 At three in the morning my door was violently shaken and 
 I was summoned to give up the room, as its owner had 
 returned. On opening the door I pointed to the bed from 
 which I had beat a speedy retreat, and offered it to the 
 owner, saying that I was content with three chairs in the 
 centre of the room. My fellow-occupant of the room was 
 an Englishman, jolly and pleasant, though leading the 
 rough life of a mining adventurer, and, as neither of us 
 would risk the bed again, we sat up for the remainder of 
 the night, and he gave me much useful information. 
 
 The next day, with some friends, I went further up the 
 Lievre to see some mines of mineral phosphate. The 
 manager of these was a Scotchman, tall, big-boned, with 
 the strongest Glasgow Doric in his tongue. At first he was 
 obdurate, and desired us to leave the ground and to drop 
 the specimens which we had taken before he appeared. 
 At last I addressed him in good Scotch, and asked him 
 whether he thought I was a mining adventurer — “ Ay ! 
 that’s just what ye are." “ No," I replied, “ I am a Scotch 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 249 
 
 professor." “Then if ye are, ye'll be havin' a name.” 
 “ My name," I said, “ is Playfair." “ Man ! ” said my 
 Scotch friend, “ are ye Lyon Playfair ? ” I assured him 
 I was, but expressed surprise that he knew the name, to 
 which he replied, looking from his six feet two inches with 
 compassion on my five feet four inches, “ Hoot man, yer 
 name’s travelled further than yer wee legs will ever carry 
 ye." After that nothing was too good for us. He took us 
 down the mine, gave his best specimens, and produced a 
 good leg of mutton “ and a drap of raal Scotch whisky " 
 for our refreshment. I had given a small present to his 
 little daughter, but as it was in money he would not allow 
 her to keep it, asking in exchange for my photograph. So 
 even at the mines in this rough district one was welcomed 
 as a friend. 
 
 On going up the Lievre I had sent my luggage to an 
 hotel at Ottawa, with a letter stating that I should arrive 
 by the steamer on the following Wednesday evening. On 
 reaching the wharf the private secretary of Mr McKenzie, 
 then Prime Minister, met me and said that he had asked 
 his Cabinet to dine with him that night to meet me 
 and that I had just time to dress for dinner. This was true 
 hospitality, for I had not even a letter of introduction to 
 Mr McKenzie, and he could only have heard of my 
 intended arrival through my letter to the hotel. It was 
 most pleasant to meet the Canadian politicians in this way. 
 Mr McKenzie was originally a stonemason, and still 
 retained the Scotch accent which few Scotchmen care to 
 lose. I found him to be a most intelligent politician, 
 worthy to be the leader of a party. He lost that position 
 in the following year, and breaking health prevented him 
 from regaining it. On the occasion of this visit, while at 
 Toronto, I became acquainted also with the Conservative 
 leader, Sir John Macdonald, whom I have, since then, had 
 many opportunities of meeting. He, still more than 
 McKenzie, had the qualities of a leader of men, and has 
 certainly done much to develop the industries of his 
 country, in spite of his love for a protective tariff. 
 
 Before leaving Canada I went to Quebec to pay my 
 
250 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 respects to Lord Dufferin, whom I had known for many 
 years. 
 
 The Governor-General was going that night to Montreal 
 to take his final leave of Canadian public men before 
 sailing to England. In spite of that his hospitality was, as 
 usual, munificent, and he managed to compress into his 
 final day a picnic to the falls of Montmorency and an 
 afternoon reception of ladies at the Citadel, as well as a 
 pleasant small dinner before he went on board the steamer 
 which was to take him to Montreal. Perhaps my unex- 
 pected visit was useful, as he wished much to talk with a 
 public man upon a pressing invitation from the Govern- 
 ment that he should assume the government of Victoria for 
 a year or two. This was a proposal clearly incompatible 
 with Lord Dufferin’s great success as Governor-General of 
 Canada, and I strongly urged that he should accept no 
 office lower than that of Viceroy of India if he were to 
 continue in a similar career. He may recollect that in the 
 long walk at the top of the Citadel in Quebec my apprecia- 
 tion of his position at the time was higher than that which, 
 from his own modesty, he himself felt inclined to fonn. 
 
 Playfair s visit to the United States marked the begin- 
 ning of a new epoch in his personal life. Not only did it 
 lead to his marriage to the wife who survives him, but it 
 opened up for him a host of pleasant friendships on the 
 other side of the Atlantic, and secured for him a position 
 in the United States enjoyed by few of his contemporaries 
 among the public men of England. During his later years, 
 his visits to America became annual events ; and with his 
 happy faculty of making himself at home wherever he 
 might be, he very quickly learned to appreciate America, 
 without losing any of his patriotic devotion to his 
 own land. Scarcely any Englishman of our time had a 
 wider range of acquaintanceships among the American 
 people. With the public men and men of letters of 
 Washington and Boston he speedily came to be on familiar 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 25I 
 
 terms. To the study of American politics he brought a 
 close and sympathetic attention, and in due time it was his 
 happy lot to be able to render great services both to Great 
 Britain and the United States under circumstances of 
 exceptional gravity. It is too early in this narrative to 
 speak of the work he did in connection with the Venezuela 
 crisis, when the peaceful relations of the two countries 
 were, for a time, seriously threatened ; but it may be said 
 here that this work could not have been accomplished if he 
 had not prepared himself for it by his repeated visits to 
 America, his close study of American institutions and 
 affairs, and his friendship with many of the most dis- 
 tinguished persons on the other side of the Atlantic. For 
 these reasons it seems desirable to supplement his own 
 brief narrative of his first visits to the States by extracts 
 from his correspondence at the time. 
 
 S.S. Germanic, near Sable Island, 
 Playfair to his Daughter . August 30 th, 1877. 
 
 My dearest Jessie, — So far we have had a remark- 
 ably prosperous and fine voyage, and we hope to reach 
 New York about ten o’clock to-morrow (Friday) night. 
 If we do, it will be the quickest voyage on record. On 
 only one day we had a gale, which split two sails, and con- 
 fined me to bed till lunch time. For the rest it has been 
 like a yachting excursion. The passengers are a merry lot 
 of people. Last night we had a solemn trial, before a judge 
 and jury, of a passenger who had proposed marriage to six 
 young ladies. The counsel did their part very cleverly. 
 The culprit was found guilty, but recommended to mercy 
 on account of his age. I thought the whole thing a piece 
 of excellent nonsense ; but two of the lady witnesses 
 assured me that he had actually proposed to them, although 
 he is notoriously a married man. To-night we are to have 
 charades. The study of character is amusing. I have 
 formed no pronounced friendships with anyone, for the 
 sort of chaff which goes on is too prononce for me ; but I 
 have made friendly acquaintances. 
 
252 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 The Germanic is a superb vessel, and the officers 
 excellent. They are anxious that I should return with 
 them on the 13th October. My present intention is to 
 sail with the twin vessel, the Britannic , on the 3rd 
 November ; but if I feel homesick, I may sail on the 
 13th October, for I should much like to return with this 
 ship. Mr Holmes, the M.P. for Paisley, is on board, and 
 is a very genial, pleasant man. I think that it is likely we 
 shall join together after eight or ten days, during which he 
 makes a visit, as I do also. It will be pleasant to have a 
 travelling companion. I will add to this letter when we 
 are in sight of New York, for the mail starts in the 
 morning, and we will just be in time to catch it. . . . We 
 shall not reach New York till twelve at night, and this 
 letter will be sent off at once on board the Richmond , 
 which starts at eight to-morrow morning. Our average 
 speed since we started has been i8i miles per hour, 
 so we have had a glorious passage. I cannot give you 
 any other address than the Russell’s at present. I go 
 there on Tuesday, and probably shall stay four days. 
 When you get this I expect to be at Niagara, and shall 
 then go to Toronto, Montreal, and Quebec, and return to 
 the States after a short tour in Canada. 
 
 Lawrence Hotel, Montreal, 
 
 Same to the same. September 13th, 1877. 
 
 My dearest Jessie, — I am not sine whether it is your 
 or Ethel’s turn for a letter, but in any case I fancy you 
 circulate. My last was from the White Mountains to 
 Lucy. Now I am in a city, the great mercantile capital 
 of Canada. I have seen the first of the great American 
 rivers, the St. Lawrence, and yesterday I shot the rapids 
 of Lachine. That certainly is a most astounding per- 
 formance. The steamer at full speed goes into the boiling 
 waters, three stalwart men and an Indian pilot at the 
 helm, with faces of intense anxiety, for they know that 
 with one false turn the ship will be in pieces. You feel the 
 ship actually fall under you as it descends. Rocks every- 
 where, ahead, and to right and left, not distant, but so 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 253 
 
 close that contact seems inevitable. Then a turn of the 
 wheel, and the steamer winds between them, only to face 
 another rock. In this way for fifteen minutes the steamer 
 tosses on a violent sea, so that you have to hold on to 
 rails and spars, with rocks everywhere apparently touching 
 the sides. I would not have missed the sensation for 
 anything. Very few wrecks take place now, as the old 
 Indian pilot has such nerve and keenness of eye. 
 
 I arrived in Montreal without a single letter of intro- 
 duction and alone, for Colonel Holmes is visiting some 
 friends for a few days. I felt desolate in this huge hotel, 
 and thought how sad it was to be in a great city without a 
 friend. Early on the following morning (Saturday) I went 
 to the post for letters, and found two, from Edith and 
 Alice. On my return I found my table covered with cards 
 and invitations. Though I only arrived at 9 p.m. the 
 previous night, the papers had got hold of my arrival, and 
 published accounts of my life. The hospitality has been 
 overwhelming. Including a heavy lunch at 12 o’clock, I 
 had to go to three dinners and a supper yesterday. The 
 President of the Board of Trade gave me a lunch and one 
 dinner, and the President of the Bank a supper, with thirty 
 guests — a most elaborate affair, from which I returned at 
 1.30 ; no end of speeches and compliments. To-day I am 
 to dine with the medical men of the city, and have a very 
 hard day of sight-seeing before me. There is something 
 strange in finding when you cross the Atlantic that your 
 name is as familiar among strangers as in your own land. 
 Instead of exultation, I feel deep humiliation that I have 
 done so little to deserve all the kindness and attention 
 which is shown me in America. My little private secre- 
 tary, Edith, writes me that letters have come from you 
 and George, but she has forwarded them to Niagara, and I 
 shall not get them for four or five days. I was afraid of 
 losing them en route. To-morrow I go to Ottawa by the 
 river of that name. It is a thousand miles long. On 
 Monday I hope to be in Toronto, and on Wednesday at 
 Niagara. Montreal is a fine city with its churches and 
 public buildings, and its splendid frontage on the St. 
 
2 54 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Lawrence. The domes and roofs are covered with tin, 
 and glitter strangely in the fierce sun. Its people seem 
 almost the most hospitable on earth from my limited 
 experience of them. 
 
 Playfair to Mrs Oakes . Washington. October 7th, 1877 . 
 
 My dear Marion, — I have intended frequently to 
 write to you ; but my intentions have relegated them- 
 selves to the region of postponed good deeds. I do not 
 know whether Jessie and George have kept you acquainted 
 with my wanderings, but, in American parlance, I have had 
 an uncommonly “ good time ” of it. In the first place, I 
 have never felt so well in travel as I have in America. In 
 fact, I have rarely felt as well. Then everybody has con- 
 spired to spoil me. The kindness and hospitality of the 
 people is unbounded. The fact of being English is a pass- 
 port in itself ; but the additional fact of having any kind of 
 reputation as a public man opens all doors. At Washington 
 the President and all the Ministers have been especially 
 civil, and I have enjoyed this place much. But nothing 
 more than last night, when the astronomers invited me to 
 look at Saturn and Mars through the great 26-inch tele- 
 scope which lately discovered the two satellites of Mars. 
 Saturn was absolutely glorious with his belt and moons. 
 Mars showed his lofty, snow-clad mountains at the Pole, 
 and that wondrous black spot to the right of his centre. 
 
 I thought of you at the mammoth caves of Kentucky, 
 and wished you were there to enjoy them. You might not 
 have liked the entrance swarming with bats, but the 
 interior is marvellous. In the eighteen miles’ walk under- 
 ground there is perpetual change. Lofty caverns, then 
 more passages through which you must walk nearly double, 
 rivers and waterfalls, make such delightful variations that 
 you forget the fatigue of the excursion. 
 
 The Alleghany Mountains form, at this season, the most 
 exquisite scenery one can imagine. They are wooded to 
 their top and base, and with such wondrous tints of green, 
 brown, scarlet, bright yellow, and ochre, that continual 
 bursts of pleasure escape from you. At the foot of the 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 255 
 
 Alleghanies we nearly lost our lives in a hurricane and 
 flood ; and I am sorry this incident mars my impression of 
 the exquisite scenery through which we passed. It was a 
 dark night, and had our train gone a few yards further 
 before noticing distant danger signals on the line, we 
 should have been precipitated into a chasm no feet deep, 
 for the supports of the bridge had been swept away by the 
 floods. 
 
 I am waiting for a carriage to call to take me to church, 
 where 700 lunatics of Washington will be present. The 
 Government have detailed the Minister of Education, 
 General Eaton, to look after me ; and he is the most 
 energetic of human beings, and never lets me rest a 
 moment without sightseeing. I have never time for 
 dulness, and my nice American family, the Russells, do 
 not allow me to feel away from home, for I have daily 
 letters from some of them. Love to Sarah and Tom. 
 
 Ever affectionately yours, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Playfair to his Son. Washington, D.C., October yth, 1877. 
 
 My dear George, — I wrote Ethel a long letter 
 describing my arrival, and how you were within one 
 minute of losing your father. I also told her, I think, how 
 kindly I was received by the President of the United 
 States, and by his various Ministers ; but now, while it is 
 fresh in my mind, I want to tell you what a strange 
 Sunday I have passed. The State Lunatic Asylum sent 
 me an invitation to dinner to-day, with a request that I 
 would attend evening service. St. Elizabeth Asylum is 
 beautifully situated on a hill on the other side of the 
 Potomac from Washington, which spreads in a grand 
 panorama before it. There are 700 patients of all classes, 
 but the bulk consists of old soldiers, most of them — in 
 their own estimation — of exalted rank. One German 
 came up to me and told me he was a General 
 Commander-in-Chief of the Army, and Surgeon to 
 the Metropolitan Police. I enclose his card which he 
 
256 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 handed me. He told me he wrote poetry in four 
 languages, and presented me with a French ‘Ode on 
 Winter/ which I enclose. Another mighty gentleman was 
 strutting about in a flowery dressing-gown, and welcomed 
 me to America because he was perpetual President of the 
 United States, elected for life at the last Census. He was 
 in doubt whether he should welcome me, or order my 
 head to be cut off in punishment of the English war of 
 1812, but, seeing I wore spectacles, he determined to 
 pardon me. The religious sendee was conducted with 
 great decorum, and the music was good. 
 
 In coming back from the Asylum, I passed a negro 
 camp for worship, and I got out of the carriage and joined 
 the congregation. It looked like a sort of fair, with 
 booths and eating and drinking going on ; but in one part 
 was a tent where the religionists performed, one side being 
 open to the congregation, which sat on benches, or stood 
 in the open air. About seven or eight hundred negroes 
 were present, some well and smartly dressed, and others 
 very like our street minstrels. The sermon, probably 
 No. 50, for the affair had been going on all day, was 
 ending as I entered — indeed, it was ended by a stalwart 
 negro woman beginning to jump frantically. Each leap 
 seemed to be a yard in height, and she continued at this 
 saltatory exercise for about five minutes without uttering 
 a sound. The congregation became excited, and swayed 
 sideways like a pendulum, with a monotonous cadence. 
 The jumping woman at last fell down exhausted, and then 
 began to groan horribly. The lot of darkies knelt round 
 her, and began to sing at the top of their voices, “The 
 Lord is God, let Him raise her : the Lord lift her up, 
 Hallelujah ! The Lord Him very strong and mighty, He 
 will raise her, Amen. Hallelujah ! ” This went on for a 
 long time, and ultimately the fat woman gbt up ; and, as 
 a respectable and quiet negro who saw me interested ex- 
 plained, “Because the devil kept her down; but the mighty 
 Lord overcame the devil, and she stood straight.” This 
 was a triumphant moment, and made about a dozen negroes 
 intensely mad. They began to jump and sing and clap 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 2 $7 
 
 their hands with frantic violence, shouting out religious 
 ejaculations. All that I could distinguish were the 
 following : — “ The Lord is mighty to save the nigger, 
 Hallelujah ! The Lord Christ saves the nigger, Amen ! 
 The Lord don’t differ between white and black, Hallelu- 
 jah ! He strikes the devil with a bang, Hallelujah ! ” and 
 so on. But the effect was extraordinary. These lunatics 
 went dancing and clapping their hands all through the 
 congregation. Some of the old negroes looked on with 
 solemn faces of profound interest, others joined in the 
 dance and whirled about screaming and gesticulating, until 
 the whole camp became so excited that I thought it better 
 to be off, as some of the negro women looked as if they 
 would favour me with their ecstatic embraces. The whole 
 affair is the dancing epidemic of the Middle Ages still 
 existing among the negroes. I thought all this had died 
 out, but it is still to be found among the old slaves. 
 Many of the negroes now deprecate this excited worship, 
 and have become quiet and orderly citizens. You see as 
 well-dressed black men and women in Washington as 
 among the whites ; but, as this city was a great centre of 
 the slave trade, there is the residue of negroes demoralised 
 by slavery, and this camp had been set up by this class. 
 
 Lafayette College, 
 
 Playfair to his Daughter. October 12 th, 1877 . 
 
 My dearest Jessie, — I have had such a busy day. 
 The Philadelphia and Reading Railway gave me an 
 express train all to myself for about 170 miles in all, to 
 enable me to see the anthracite coal region, and to bring 
 me here. At the coal mines they had a champagne 
 dinner to welcome me, and I was much interested in 
 seeing their mines. I reached the college about seven 
 o’clock, had supper, and was introduced to about twenty 
 professors. About eleven o’clock I heard a drum out- 
 side, which was soon followed by a band. About 300 
 students had formed a torchlight procession to give 
 me a welcome and serenade. The band had lamps in 
 their caps, and these, with torches, made a pretty display. 
 
 R 
 
2 58 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR* 
 
 They played several tunes, and sang college glees, and I 
 was obliged to go out and make a speech. The President 
 and professors knew nothing about this serenade, which 
 they assured me the students had got up extemporaneously 
 on hearing of my arrival. You will see that if I am not 
 spoilt, it will not be the fault of the Americans, who heap 
 all sorts of kindness upon me. I was much touched by 
 the students' welcome, as it reminded me so much of my 
 college days in Germany. This is a sort of typical college 
 where Americans of moderate means can study at about £60 
 or £70 per annum. They know how to cheer as well as 
 the English do, and at the end of each cheer there was a 
 sort of refrain of “La-fay-ette” converted into an additional 
 cheer. You may form some idea of the students' procession 
 by the enclosed vignette of the students in front of the 
 college on another occasion. I also enclose an excellent 
 likeness of my host, President Cottell. He once breakfasted 
 with us in Edinburgh. He is as pleasant as he looks 
 in his portrait. I was so pleased yesterda}^ to hear of 
 Lucy. I hope by this time the dear girl has recovered. 
 
 The reference at the close of the foregoing letter was to 
 the wife of his son, Major, now Lord, Playfair. Within a 
 few hours of writing, Playfair received the sad intelligence 
 of her sudden death. 
 
 Albany, New York County, 
 
 Same to the same. October 19 th, 1877. 
 
 My dearest Jessie, — The brief news of dear Lika's 
 death upset me much, and I look with great anxiety for 
 your next telegram. _. . 
 
 I really scarcely know what has happened to me since 
 this day week, when I got the telegram of Lucy’s death, 
 for I have been so stunned by it. I know only that for 
 the last three days I have been staying with some good 
 Samaritans, the Sargents, on the Hudson River, which is as 
 beautiful as the Rhine. They are friends of the Russells’, 
 who wrote to them to take me to their house, and they 
 were exceedingly kind and sympathetic with me. They 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 259 
 
 took me to see the celebrated Ladies’ College at Pough- 
 keepsie. Here three hundred young ladies are going 
 through a regular University education. At the Observa- 
 tory I found six really beautiful girls working with the 
 telescope, which they manage excellently. I lunched at 
 the College, and as some of the young ladies took a fancy 
 to me, I was invited to their rooms, and saw the whole 
 economy of the establishment. The Lady Principal assured 
 me that no visitor had ever been invited by the young 
 ladies in this way on any previous occasion. The medical 
 
 attendant was a Dr W , a nicedooking widow, and it 
 
 was funny to hear her always addressed as “ Dr/’ The 
 
 lady teachers were called “ Professor ” — Professor M , 
 
 etc., being all in petticoats. The teaching and its results 
 were very good, and I did not see a single prig among the 
 young ladies. To-morrow I go to the Russells’, and shall 
 probably stay with them till it is time to join my steamer 
 at New York on the 3rd November. 
 
 Immediately on his return to England from this first event- 
 ful visit to the States, Playfair found himself involved in the 
 public labours which engrossed his attention. Having been 
 appointed a member of the Universities Commission, he 
 had to go to Edinburgh in the company of Huxley and 
 Froude, to transact business in connection with it. From 
 Edinburgh he had to travel to Liverpool to address a great 
 meeting on the subject of Female Education, and from 
 Liverpool he was called back to London by his duties as 
 Chairman of the Finance Committee of the English Com- 
 missioners for the Paris Exhibition. The reader has seen 
 how fully his position as a useful servant of the public was 
 recognised, even in remote places in Canada and the United 
 States. At home also he met from time to time with 
 similar recognitions that touched him deeply. The follow- 
 ing letter referring to the Liverpool engagement of which I 
 have spoken, is a specimen of the rewards he occasionally 
 received for his life-long services in the cause of education. 
 
2 6o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 i8, Prince’s Gardens, London, 
 
 Rcitllbone to Play f CllY, January 1878. 
 
 Dear Dr Playfair, — I hope a couple of small boxes 
 o l “ entre-actos” (excuse my deficiency in Spanish) will 
 reach you in safety, and hold me in fragrant remembrance 
 with you, as you certainly will be held in grateful remem- 
 brance in Liverpool without any such reminders, especially 
 by the poor girls whose cause you have assured. I am 
 writing to the Secretary of the Council to confirm what I 
 hinted at the meeting. I have told him that I will give 
 this year, next ) r ear and the year after, a Scholarship for 
 girls, each to be held for three years, and to be called “The 
 Playfair Scholarships ; ” and if they are found as successful 
 as I hope they will be, I shall hope to continue them 
 should life and prosperit)^ last. Once commenced, I have 
 no doubt they will be followed up by others, so in this you 
 will have some material guarantee that your very great 
 kindness in coming to us at such a busy time will not have 
 been thrown away. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours faithfully, 
 
 W. Rathbone. 
 
 The work connected with the Paris Exhibition took him 
 to the French capital more than once during this year, 
 1878. He was as usual one of the leading spirits in con- 
 nection with the business of the English section. His 
 experience, greater than that of any other man in the 
 management of these huge international shows, was laid 
 under contribution, not only in connection with the purely 
 English portion of the Exhibition, but by outlying parts of 
 the Empire ; and the following letter from the Canadian 
 Prime Minister, Mr McKenzie, shows that his visit to 
 Canada, and the hospitalities showered upon him there, 
 quickly bore fruit in the shape of work for the Canadian 
 Dominion. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 261 
 
 The Hon. A. McKenzie to Playfair. Ottawa, May 12th, 1878. 
 
 My dear Mr Playfair, — I duly received your very 
 welcome letter written from Paris concerning our work at 
 the Exhibition. I hope you will not be displeased at my 
 giving your letter to the Press. I knew it would afford 
 our people so much pleasure to know what you thought of 
 their efforts to make a creditable appearance at this gather- 
 ing of nations, that I was tempted into publishing your 
 note. The “ trophy" was a second thought, consequent 
 on His Royal Highness's invitation to Canada to occupy 
 that particular space. I could not refuse the invitation of 
 so good a friend as he has always proved to Canada since 
 his visit to us eighteen years ago. We had too little time, 
 however, to do what we would have liked to do, and I am 
 all the more gratified to know you like its appearance. I 
 had a good map made of British America for the Exhibi- 
 tion, which you have not yet seen, as it would only reach 
 Paris after you wrote. I would be glad if you would see it 
 on your next visit. It is the first really good map we have 
 had made, and I hope it may attract some attention at 
 least to the size of Canada. 
 
 I trust that the danger of immediate war (with Russia) 
 is over. The political situation causes us much anxiety 
 here, as the hordes of idle Irish Fenians in the United 
 States are only waiting the outbreak of war to make a 
 series of raids over our long frontier. We are compelled 
 even now to make much silent preparation in moving 
 munitions of war to convenient places, and also in making 
 arrangements for calling out our active militia. I need 
 not say how much I shall be gratified to hear from you 
 when convenient. Yours truly; 
 
 A. McKenzie. 
 
 Playfair to hlS Daughter. Athen^um Club, June i st, 1878. 
 
 My dearest Jessie, — I had a charming dinner last 
 night at Dean Stanley's. The Crown Prince and Crown 
 Princess, Mr Kinglake, George Eliot, Mr Morley, Mr 
 
262 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Froude, Lord and Lady Ripon, Mr G. H. Lewes, Anthony 
 Trollope, Sir Garnet and Lady Wolseley, Captain Burnaby, 
 Mr and Mrs Goschen were of the party. You will see I 
 was charmingly placed next the Crown Princess, and had 
 long talks with her, as well as with George Eliot, whom I 
 took down to dinner, and with the Dean, who is always a 
 delightful companion. The Crown Princess continually 
 broke into ejaculations, and said she thought I was little 
 older than I was in 1851 — a very comfortable assurance, 
 for I am just turned sixty. I enjoyed my dinner ex- 
 ceedingly. I would put a white chalk mark against the 
 day had there not been so many disasters in it. Three 
 men died whom I knew well : Russell Gurney, Mr W. 
 Martin (who died actually within the House of Commons), 
 and Mr Tait, a son of the Archbishop, whose acquaintance 
 I made in the Russells’ house at Nahant. I start by the 
 Baron Osy for Antwerp to-morrow, and hope to get to my 
 destination, Duren, at the base of the Eiffel mountains, on 
 Tuesday. 
 
 It was in the autumn of this year that Playfair, who 
 had been working with his usual energy at his public and 
 private business throughout the summer, proceeded to 
 America on a more important errand. He was married 
 on October 3rd to Miss Edith Russell, of Boston, to whom 
 he had become engaged since his former visit. I am per- 
 mitted to make some extracts from his correspondence 
 with Miss Russell and her family prior to his marriage. 
 
 House of Commons, January iSth, 1878. 
 
 As I am waiting for a division likely to come on at 
 1 a.m., I may as well write to you from this place, which 
 outsiders call “the best club in London.” My regular 
 hours are ended now for the season, I fear. My Liverpool 
 visit was a great success. St. George’s Hall was crowded. 
 In the evening the Mayor gave me a State dinner in the 
 Mansion House, and, besides the Council, had about 
 seventy of the leading citizens. The bill of fare and toasts 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 263 
 
 at the dinner may amuse you, so I send it. But what 
 pleased me most of all was that after my advocating 
 scholarships for girls, the Member of Parliament for Liver- 
 pool arose and founded three scholarships of £20 a year 
 each, to be called “ The Lyon Playfair Scholarships/' This 
 was a real delight to me, for I think women are very 
 hardly treated in their chance of intellectual advance- 
 ment. I stayed three days at Mr Rathbone’s very 
 pleasantly, only we had forty at dinner each day, and I 
 had to make three speeches on the Eastern Question besides 
 the educational one. 
 
 January 2yd , 1878. 
 
 We are in great tension here as to the chances of peace. 
 The Russian Emperor’s courier is expected to arrive to-night 
 with the conditions to be accorded to the Turks, and upon 
 this will depend the position which England takes in the 
 Eastern complication. You are happy in being outside 
 those influences which are ready to plunge all Europe into 
 war if Gladstone does not inspire wisdom in the rulers of 
 our different nationalities. My American mania still lasts, 
 and is kept up by my friend, the American Minister, Mr 
 Welsh, coming up frequently to my rooms, while several 
 Members of Parliament smoke cigarettes, although he is 
 too virtuous to join. In my hotel we have nearly a dozen 
 Members of Parliament, several of whom I know exceed- 
 ingly well — the others only slightly. I spent last Saturday 
 and Sunday with my friend Grant Duff, in a quaint old 
 house in Twickenham, where Queen Anne was born, the 
 great Lord Clarendon lived, and the Comte de Paris dwelt 
 for twenty years. I do not know whether Queen Anne’s 
 ghost visited me or not in the night, but I certainly felt 
 something moving under my pillow, and on striking a light 
 I found a big black cat. This may have been a trans- 
 mogrification of Her Majesty, so I treated it with great 
 respect, and politely opened the door for its escape. Sir 
 James Stephen, the celebrated historical lawyer, was at 
 York House, and we had many stories, some of which you 
 would have enjoyed. 
 
264 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 January 30 th, 1878. 
 
 Since I last wrote my private life has been uneventful. 
 Last Sunday I spent with Sir John Lubbock at High 
 Elms. ... We had two very agreeable days, for I am very 
 fond of the Lubbocks, and I think they like me. The 
 Spottiswoodes were there, and Mr Minto, editor of ‘ The 
 Examiner/ But private affairs are very trifling in import- 
 ance compared with our great political crisis. The 
 country seems to be drifting into war, and I am very 
 unhappy. I believe all this might have been avoided had 
 our rulers been more wise. There seems to be a marked 
 apprehension of the aggressiveness of Russia. I wish 
 England could pluck out the beam from her own eye 
 before looking for the mote in her brother’s eye. It is true 
 that Russia in the last hundred and thirty years has won 
 by conquest 1,200,000 square miles of territory, containing 
 1 5,000,000 of inhabitants. But England during the same 
 period has won by conquest 2,300,000 square miles, con- 
 taining 250,000,000 of population. I have supplied these 
 figures to Bright to-night, and I hope he may use them 
 with effect in his speech. For myself, I confine my 
 speeches to subjects connected with the social progress of 
 the people. And though tempted on occasions like this to 
 go out of my self-restricted circle, I do not do so. . . . 
 I wish that I had imitated Mrs C/s example, and stayed at 
 the Brunswick instead of coming home. For all the good 
 I am doing to any human being, I might have pleased my- 
 self to this extent, although I fear my Bostonian friends 
 would have become disillusioned in regard to me, and have 
 found out that I was no better than the most ordinary clay 
 of which all men are said to be fashioned, though in a 
 chemical sense I do not know where the clay is. 
 
 Buckingham Palace Hotel, February 6th, 1878. 
 
 I have been very lazy this morning, for I did not get 
 home till 1.30, and I am punished, for instead of having 
 only twenty letters as usual to answer in the morning, my 
 bad luck has brought me forty-six, so you see I cannot 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 265 
 
 write to you at much length. Gladstone gave last night 
 one of the most eloquent speeches I have ever heard, even 
 from him, but I fear it will have little effect in producing 
 harmony. All the best speaking in this debate has been on 
 our side, but the division will be 120 at least of a majority 
 against us. My own impression is that the Liberals will 
 not come into power again for eight or ten years. We 
 have too many divided opinions to form a solid party. 
 For myself, I have no wish to enter into office, as this is a 
 severance from a great amount of useful work which one 
 can render to the public in the ordinary routine of duty. 
 Would you like, for instance, to know the callers who have 
 been with me already this morning and their objects ? It 
 is now 11.30 a.m. 
 
 (a) Two persons called before 9.30, but I was not up, 
 
 and they postponed till to-morrow. 
 
 (b) The accountant of the French Exhibition, to go over 
 
 the accounts for January and the estimates for 
 February. I signed a cheque for ^500. 
 
 ( c ) The secretary of the Royal Albert Hall, to discuss 
 
 the general policy, and to arrange for the annual 
 meeting of shareholders next week, at which I 
 take the chair. 
 
 (d) The solicitor of the City Companies, to consider 
 
 proposals for advancing Technical Education in 
 the City. 
 
 (e) Sir John Lubbock, to persuade me to go on the 
 
 Direction of the Telephone Company (I had 
 already declined to be Chairman). 
 
 This will give you an idea how a Member of Parliament 
 must not be idle, even if he is not in office. I find my 
 hours quite few enough to get through one’s duty credit- 
 ably. But I always find time for pleasant memories of my 
 friends in Boston, and never forget them. 
 
 February 14 th, 1878. 
 
 In about an hour I am going to the hotel to put on my 
 blue and gold uniform, to dine with the Speaker. He gives 
 a dinner to-night to all the members of the late Ministry, 
 
266 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 and afterwards has a full-dress reception. Last night I 
 dined with Mr Goschen, late First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 We had various officers there who had just come from the 
 Dardanelles. As our fleet is said to have received orders 
 to force its way to Constantinople in spite of the Turks 
 firing on the ships, their information was very interesting. 
 Of course, long before this reaches you, the telegraph will 
 tell you what has happened. Here, we are intensely 
 anxious, and fear that war now can scarcely be avoided. 
 Alas ! this will render our bad commercial state much 
 worse, and our people suffer already very much. I do not 
 know how people with very narrow incomes stand the 
 depressed state, for all our regular incomes are now nearly 
 one-third below their usual amounts. There are some 
 hundreds of coachmen unemployed in London, where for- 
 merly there was difficulty in getting one, and houses will 
 not let at all. However, luxury was too great in London, 
 and a more economical style of living may be an ultimate 
 advantage. ... I like to hear of all your club books 
 You are reading much more than myself at present, for I 
 cannot find time for it. My two last books might be too 
 prosy for you — Sir Erskine May’s * Democracy in Europe/ 
 and Lecky’s ‘ History of England in the Eighteenth 
 Century.’ 
 
 February 17 th, 1878. 
 
 Our anxieties are still great in regard to Russia, but I still 
 fervently hope that two great countries will not be so idiotic 
 as to go to war. But when two over-grown lads stand 
 opposite each other, shaking their fists in each other’s faces, 
 a blow may come at any time. I fear that there is a large 
 population in both countries that would welcome war. I 
 am sorry to say that the House has decided to impose upon 
 me the hardest and most responsible work of the Session 
 connected with our domestic matters. Manchester has a 
 large scheme for bringing the Lake Thirlmere from Cum- 
 berland to Lancashire for the purposes of manufacture. It 
 is supposed that it will cost at least twenty-five millions 
 of dollars. All the lovers of art are wild at the alleged 
 desecration of the Lake District, which Wordsworth and 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 267 
 
 Southey have made dear to the country ; but Manchester, 
 having spent already half a million dollars in preliminary 
 arrangements, insists on her views being carried out. We 
 had one day’s discussion on the subject in the House, 
 which is excited about it as well as the public. It was 
 resolved to refer it with powers to a committee of nine. 
 Four of the committee are obliged to support or oppose 
 the scheme — that is, four on one side and four on the other. 
 The House had to find a chairman who could act as judge, 
 and give the casting vote, after full investigation of the 
 case, with strict impartiality. I am sorry to say that it has 
 fixed upon me to be that unhappy individual. You can 
 fancy me sitting for the next two months, day by day, 
 from twelve till five, in a committee room crowded to 
 suffocation. Probably twenty counsel with gowns and 
 wigs will be there, examining and re-examining witnesses. 
 During these sittings, every man is trying to find out from 
 looks, expressions, or questions asked, to which side the 
 unhappy chairman leans. As honesty is punished in this 
 way I think I shall become dishonest and partial, and then 
 I may be allowed to go my own wonted way. As there 
 are some warm hearts at 135 that will think, “ How will 
 his health stand this close and anxious work ? ” I promise 
 while it lasts to run down on Friday night to the Granville 
 Hotel at Ramsgate, so as to get three nights of sea air, 
 which always keeps me up to any amount of work. 
 Besides, the whole thing is interesting and amusing. The 
 most eminent counsel are employed on each side, and the 
 unhappy witnesses give one an unceasing fund of amuse- 
 ment. I have already become as close as an oyster. 
 Bright, Forster and others, who are intensely interested 
 on opposite sides, Bright for the Manchester scheme, Forster 
 violently against it, have been trying to open my shell to 
 find out my leanings ; but as the oyster is a stupid animal, 
 they have not been able to discover whether he has any 
 conceptions. 
 
 February 21 st, 1878. 
 
 The House has given me a splendid committee to work 
 with, so I am in good spirits, notwithstanding the prospect 
 
268 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 of the work and responsibility. The committee consists 
 of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Eslington, T. Brassey, Hon. 
 T. Bruce, Mr Rodwell, Q.C., Mr Knowles, Sir Ughtred 
 Shuttleworth, and Mr Salt, Secretary of the Board of 
 Trade. It is usual only to put two men of such calibre on 
 a committee, but every man on mine is a strong one. I 
 hope that my hand is strong enough to drive such a team. 
 Last night we had our great dinner (Edinburgh University) 
 to the Marquis of Hartington. I was in the chair, and 
 about one hundred and thirty Edinburgh graduates were 
 present. I send you our bill of fare, to see what a Scotch 
 dinner is composed of. It went off very well, and every- 
 body seemed pleased. Froude, the historian, and Huxley 
 made capital speeches. Lord Hartington quite entered 
 into the spirit of it when I proposed his health as “ our 
 Rector Magnificus.” 
 
 P.S. — I have just got your nice long letter of the 5th 
 and 7th, enclosing the sketch of the snow-blocked house. 
 I can scarcely conceive Boston in that sort of guise, for I 
 associate it with its smiling gardens, and ponds with the 
 swans and boats. Our peace prospects look considerably 
 better. I have always thought that if there is a peace, 
 Disraeli will bring on a dissolution by Easter in order to 
 get another lease of power. If my constituents choose to 
 elect me without a contest, as they have hitherto done, 
 or carry on a contest at the expense of my party, I 
 would stand again ; but I have no vehement desire at all 
 to remain in Parliament, and I certainly will not spend 
 £ 2,000 in a contest if one is forced upon me. It would 
 be a great relief to find that one could go anywhere when 
 a little change of air is required, instead of being tied to 
 London by incessant engagements. 
 
 The Granville, St. Lawrence-on-Sea, Ramsgate, 
 Sunday, March 3 rd, 1878. 
 
 This will not go till Thursday ; but, as my heavy work 
 begins on Tuesday, I must be satisfied with sending you a 
 postscript by the latest post. I came down here on 
 Friday, and have had two such glorious days. The sun 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 269 
 
 has been so warm that it was impossible to put on the 
 lightest overcoat. My persistent cold has all but gone, 
 and my cheeks are what the ‘ Montreal Gazette' called 
 “ extremely florid.” The old head waiter, who has just 
 brought this paper, claims an old acquaintanceship. He 
 knew me at an eating-house where I used to lunch twenty 
 years ago ; but he said he did not recognise me for some 
 time, because I looked so much younger and better than I 
 did in those days ! There is some comfort for one's self 
 and one's friends. . . . 
 
 I have just returned from seeing a wrecked vessel 
 hauled in by a Ramsgate tug. It was wrecked in that 
 gale in which I was in the Britannic . The crew 
 
 abandoned her in boats — why, I do not know. She is a 
 magnificent three-masted vessel, a German ; and, beyond 
 having lost her top masts, seems little the worse of her 
 wrecking. It was difficult to haul her off from the shore, 
 but here she is in the harbour all snug. We gave the 
 wreckers three cheers on their success as they came into 
 the harbour. Ramsgate is Ramsgate, and in itself not 
 inviting. The shops seem all for shrimps and bread and 
 butter with washy tea, a cup of which I tried. 
 
 Sunday evening. Instead of going to the church behind 
 the hotel, I thought I would like to walk to Broadstairs, 
 about two and a half miles to the left, fancying, as proved 
 true, that I would get a quiet, rural church there. What a 
 glorious walk it was ! The sea quite smooth, the sky blue 
 with only a white cloud here and there, the whole sea 
 studded with ships, and the cliffs along which one walked 
 going sheer down to the sea, so that you could have 
 dropped a plummet into it. Broadstairs is a quaint old 
 place in a pretty bay. The church first meets your eye 
 above the houses with a genuine cock as a weather-cock — 
 none of your mere gilt arrows. Is it true that this is only 
 the third of bleak March ? There are children at 
 Broadstairs in full summer enjoyment. About twenty of 
 them have made a circular fortress of sand, in which they 
 sit to resist the advance of the inexorable tide. The sand 
 of the walls crumbles away, and one by one the gallant 
 
270 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 boys are swept out. I think that I must be young again, 
 as the waiter says, for I enjoy so keenly the struggles of 
 one boy, who heaped sand upon sand on his walls long 
 after the others had given up, and when the sea was all 
 round him. At last, down came his structure, and his 
 little brother burst into tears, while the sea-warrior took 
 up a huge flint and cast it at the sea in rage. That is a 
 fellow to put on board a man-of-war like the Revenge of 
 Sir Richard Grenville, when he fought the fifty -three 
 Spanish liners. 
 
 March 6th, 1878. 
 
 I sit daily as Chairman of the Committee on the 
 Manchester and Thirlmere scheme, and have some hopes 
 that we may get through it in a month, instead of two 
 months, as we expected. All the room is hung round 
 with huge maps of the districts affected, each ten feet 
 square. The counsel, Sir Edmund Beckett, has just 
 finished his opening speech, and as yet only two witnesses 
 have been examined. There are two camps, one 
 utilitarian, the other aesthetic. One argues that the warm 
 winds of the Atlantic, striking the high mountains, get 
 chilled, and deposit 150 inches of rain yearly in the Lake 
 District, and that surely these great Lakes are destined for 
 the use of man, and ought to supply the large towns. 
 The Atlantic winds are common property, and the 
 accident of this deposition of rain cannot make it belong 
 to a single locality. The others say beauty is so rare it 
 should be preserved, and is the property of all who visit 
 the Lakes, and that utility has nothing to do with it. 
 The Lakes were destined to minister to the sense of the 
 beautiful, and those who would touch them are Goths and 
 Vandals. The excitement is intense, and the lawyers are 
 reaping a noble harvest. All of them look to the poor 
 Chairman only, and, if his attention wander for a moment, 
 become silent till he listens. The strain, therefore, is 
 heavy. The room is incessantly crowded with comers and 
 goers, who come in, stare at the Chairman, and speculate 
 as to which wa3^ he leans. The one side assume that he is 
 a utilitarian, and cognisant of the wants of modern 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 271 
 
 civilisation. The other side recollect that he was once 
 Secretary of the Department of Art, and feel sure that his 
 love of the beautiful will prevent his having low-born, 
 base, mechanical views. Ruskin was the leader of this 
 section, but he is seriously ill, and cannot as yet attend 
 the Committee. The Chairman is a goose, and has no 
 opinions, but cries, “ Order ! order ! ” occasionally, and 
 puts a few questions, first on one side and then on the 
 other, so that each party claim me as a supporter, and nod 
 their heads approvingly to the audience sitting behind the 
 counsel. He is not a man to be envied, and wishes 
 himself at Jericho. As to his leanings, he has never told 
 me, so I cannot tell you. All I know is that there is a 
 jolly Parliamentary fight, and that some time or other he 
 must throw up the glove. 
 
 March 8th, 1878. 
 
 I must begin my letters, at least, when I have odd 
 moments, for I am a slave at the galley just now. I 
 am head and ears over in Lake Thirlmere, and may be 
 found drowned in it some day. As I suspected, all my 
 Committee have betrayed their proclivities ; but mine — if 
 I have any — are still a mystery, so the counsel only care 
 for me, and won't give me a moment of respite. The 
 room becomes insufferable, and I turn everybody out for 
 ten minutes at two o'clock, and open every window. In 
 this way I get it tolerably healthy. ... I have little 
 news of the outer world, as I am never beyond the walls 
 of my Committee Room. 
 
 Beach House Hotel, Westgate-on-Sea, 
 March 17 tli, 1878. 
 
 I came down here yesterday as an experiment. It is 
 about twenty minutes' walk from Margate, and about a 
 quarter of an hour by train from Ramsgate. I arrived 
 yesterday in a bleak east wind, with occasional snow 
 showers. My friend Colonel Bolton, who recommended 
 the hotel to me, advised me not to go without telegraph- 
 ing to see if there were rooms, as it was such a favourite 
 hotel. I determined to risk it, and found myself the only 
 
272 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 occupant of the large hotel. A man, however, came in to 
 lunch. He had a hobby, which I soon found out, and set 
 him on a trot. He was honorary secretary of a society 
 for introducing falconry into this country again. What a 
 glorious sport this was ! And the nation could not be 
 happy till it again became the national sport. He had 
 come here to look at the marshland to see if there were 
 herons enough to justify him in bringing down his hawks. 
 Sea-gulls there are in abundance, and they give good sport, 
 for the sea-gull (he informed me) is a dodgy bird, and 
 when the hawk is just over him he closes his wings, drops 
 fifteen feet, and the hawk misses him. He had been at 
 the Curragh hawking magpies. That is fine sport indeed, 
 for the magpie takes to a furze bush, and the hawk hovers 
 over it in perplexity. Then the hawker goes up and 
 cracks his whip, the magpie flies out, and the hawk 
 pursues him. Then you get rabbits : you kick one up, 
 and the hawk generally gets him after a short run. “ Like 
 all Londoners, I know you by sight, Dr Playfair. Why 
 do you waste your time as you do ? Education, sanitary 
 matters, and Savings Banks, and such subjects as you take 
 up, are all very well, but any novice can work at these. 
 Come and be vice-president of our society for spreading 
 the noble sport of falconry, and you will leave a name 
 behind you. Now do. We have six earls and four 
 baronets on our committee, but I am sure they will 
 welcome you.” But I thought of the poor magpie and 
 the crack of the whip, and I was ignoble enough to decline 
 the proffered honour. . , . 
 
 For my friends at home and for a few dear friends over 
 the sea, I have good news, namely, that the Manchester 
 and Thirlmere Committee ends this week. The Man- 
 chester people have squared most of their opponents, and 
 a week of speechifying on the part of counsel will exhaust 
 the subject. I think the Committee will pass the Bill. 
 Lake Thirlmere is a small lake which once was much 
 larger, but it wore away some rock, and the waters 
 escaped. These degraded parts Manchester intends to fill 
 up again, and thus restore the lake to its old condition. I 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 273 
 
 believe this can be done with an increase of beauty, and 
 yet the waters which you send us — for it is the water of 
 the Atlantic coming from America which is condensed on 
 these islands — may be rendered useful for a great city. 
 At least such, I think, will be my judgment, unless the 
 speeches alter my views of the facts. . . . 
 
 On arriving to-day I got your nice long letter of the 5th 
 March. Tell Mrs Sargent that both your and Alices 
 letters are charming, and that I enjoy them exceedingly. 
 They refresh a poor Londoner with good, wholesome, 
 
 American air. I was interested to hear that Mrs has 
 
 joined the Church. Not that I think God cares at all to 
 what church we belong, or that we are the better or worse 
 for professing any creed. But the Church of England has 
 a service admirably fitted for keeping up our spiritual life, 
 and therefore I love it beyond all other churches, except, 
 indeed, when it becomes fantastic, and tells you that God 
 can only be worshipped by orientation — that you must 
 look in a particular way when you say the Creed. At this 
 my old Scotch Presbyterian training rises up in rebellion, 
 and I find that I have a good deal of the Puritan left in 
 me. ‘The World’ which you got is a paper which has 
 established itself by its witty personalities in “ Under the 
 Clock.” They have become vulgar lately, but formerly 
 they were intensely witty. Once I spoke from below the 
 gangway, sometimes addressing the Government, which I 
 was opposing, and sometimes turning round to address the 
 Irish members behind me. ‘ The World ’ wittily remarked 
 that “ this little man, midway between England and Ire- 
 land, looked like the Isle of Man lecturing Great Britain 
 and Ireland.” 
 
 High Elms, March 24 th, 1878. 
 
 This Sunday I am spending with Sir John and Lady 
 Lubbock, who are always glad to have me as I am glad to 
 visit them. They live on a beautiful estate with lovely 
 woods. This afternoon we had a charming walk with 
 violets and primroses thick under our feet. It was a 
 perfect spring day. Now, at five o’clock, everything is 
 changed. It is blowing a strong gale, and snow is falling 
 
 s 
 
274 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 so fast that I have to write by candle light. 1 This is the 
 only real snowstorm we have had this year. I have fled 
 from the drawing-room to escape double acrostics, which 
 try my intellect and temper vexatiously. When I last 
 wrote you, I congratulated myself that the famous Com- 
 mittee would last only a week. The week is past, and 
 the minimum time of hope is now a fortnight more. I 
 had hoped we might conclude by the 14th, when our Easter 
 holidays begin. Of course, if we do not, it will be post- 
 poned till these are over. New evidence has come on, 
 and the case for Manchester is worse than it was. Yester- 
 day I lunched with Lord Granville. He tells me that 
 Lord Beaconsfield states to Lady B . . ., to whom he 
 entrusts all his secrets, that if he betted, he would say the 
 chances of war and peace were quite even. This is idiotic 
 when there is nothing to fight about. But if war ensue, it 
 will serve the country right for having such a man as 
 Prime Minister. On expressing this sentiment to a dis- 
 tinguished supporter of the Government in the House, he 
 remarked, “ Come, now, that is too bad ; we prefer our 
 scoundrel to your maniac." 
 
 Paris, April 29 th, 1878. 
 
 To-day the Prince of Wales asked me to breakfast with 
 him at 12 o’clock at the Cafe de la Paix. The Duke of 
 Sutherland and some French dignitaries and artists were 
 also there — twelve in all. It was a very pleasant party. 
 I made them laugh very much by reciting my experiences 
 in the Washington Lunatic Asylum. After breakfast, 
 about 3, the Prince dismissed his guests, and asked me to 
 join him in the carriage, and go with him in his round of 
 calls. He had a one-horse brougham, and no servant, so 
 we got round very quickly without his presence being 
 known. We have only two days in which to get the 
 Exhibition in order — that is, to convert chaos into order. 
 England will be most creditably ready. America, I am 
 sorry to say, is far behind. Belgium and Holland stand 
 next to us in readiness, but France and the other States 
 
 1 It was in this gale that Her Majesty’s ship Eurydice foundered off 
 the Isle of Wight. 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 275 
 
 are nowhere. I put on the screw very hard when I came ; 
 but the Prince, Mr Owen (the Executive Commissioner), 
 and even the exhibitors, all now admit that my arbitrary 
 proceedings have produced the desired results. 
 
 Paris, May 2nd, 1878. 
 
 Your letter of the 15th April reached me to-day, and I 
 was very glad to get it amid the excitement of the Exhibi- 
 tion. There has been little rest for me. Some nights I 
 have been up till three in the morning, and up again at 
 work at seven. Yesterday the Exhibition opened with 
 about the most ill-arranged ceremonial I ever witnessed. 
 In the middle of it, a thunderstorm with deluges of rain 
 came down, and the ladies’ dresses were frightfully damaged. 
 Our party was out of all this, for I had asked the R . . . s 
 to the Prince of Wales’s pavilion, and we were under 
 cover. When the procession of the Marshal and Royal 
 people came past, followed by the disorderly suite, they 
 saw everything excellently out of a window appropriated 
 to them. I took Miss R ... for a walk in the building, 
 and I think her little Republican feeling was astonished 
 by finding all the sentinels and policemen salute us as we 
 passed. She could not make it out. It was in reality in 
 compliment to the decoration of Officer of the Legion of 
 Honour which, among others, I wore. The Exhibition 
 will be a fine one when it is finished — indeed, the English 
 section is very fine already. The pottery especially and 
 the Indian collection are magnificent. 
 
 Paris, May 5th, 1878. 
 
 This is the last letter from Paris, for I intend to leave to- 
 morrow, thoroughly tired out with the work and gaieties. 
 On Saturday we had a splendid dinner given by the ex- 
 hibitors to the Prince of Wales. It was in the Grand Room 
 of the Louvre Hotel. There was a cross table at the top 
 for the dignitaries, and three long tables down the hall. 
 The flowers, plate, and decorated company really made it 
 a splendid repast. I had pleasant neighbours — the Prefect 
 of Police, Sir Richard Wallace, the great art collector, and 
 
276 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the Duke of Sutherland. Lord Granville presided, and the 
 Prince of Wales made an excellent speech. The only 
 unofficial speakers were the Prince, Lord Granville, and 
 your obedient servant. I proposed the British exhibitors, 
 who, in fact, were also our hosts. I do not like public 
 dinners generally, but this one I did like, for the Prince 
 did his part so admirably, partly speaking English and 
 partly French. ... I took Princess Louise and Lord 
 Lome through the Exhibition to-day. She was very 
 pleasant and agreeable. 
 
 May 31 st, 1878. 
 
 I have just returned from the most charming dinner 
 at Mr Goschen’s, the late First Lord of the Admiralty. 
 The dinner was given to the Crown Prince and Princess of 
 Germany. I got into the most animated conversation 
 with the Princess on German politics. I found her full of 
 her old Liberal sentiments, but frightened at the growth 
 of Socialism. I tried to convert her by pointing out that 
 Socialism began in France but it has nearly died out, and 
 I begged her to read Harrison’s article on the subject in 
 the last ‘ Fortnightly.' She was most pleasant and friendly. 
 We had many friendly reminiscences, and I enjoyed the 
 dinner much. Though I took George Eliot down to dinner, 
 she never found out my name till the end. Then she 
 became gushing, and said she had lost the evening, and 
 asked me to go and see her often. However, we had 
 spoken a good deal, and she was quite as clever and agree- 
 able as I expected to find her from her novels. She was 
 much interested with some of my American experiences, 
 especially with the lunatic lady at Washington who took 
 me in so completely. 
 
 Hotel de Su£de, Brussels, May 3 rd, 1878. 
 
 I started yesterday by the Baron Osy from St. Katharine’s 
 Wharf at 12 o’clock. I am very fond of a sail down the 
 river with its forests of masts. Your ‘ New York Herald ' 
 telegraphed that the centre of a great cyclone was to pass 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 277 
 
 over the British Islands to-day, but we had a lovely 
 passage. All steamers spoil me. I had a beautiful state 
 cabin reserved for me at the usual fare of 24s. There 
 seemed to be various nice passengers, but I devoted myself 
 to an old lady, who seemed to me to need protection. It 
 turned out afterwards that she was not alone, for her 
 daughter and maid were both ill in the cabin below. A 
 very handsome young lady appeared this morning at 
 6 o’clock, when we reached Antwerp, and thanked me for 
 my attention to her mother. She was the Hon. Mrs 
 
 S , so I suppose belonged to the ducal family. I 
 
 sometimes make mistakes in taking compassion on 
 neglected ladies. Once at a party I saw an old lady on a 
 sofa, apparently shunned by everybody, so I went and sat 
 down beside her, and we got quite friendly. I found that 
 the lady upon whom I had taken compassion was the 
 
 Dowager Duchess of B ! On arriving at Antwerp, 
 
 I took a walk before breakfast, saw the cathedral, which 
 they are repairing excellently, the Calvary, the Church of 
 St. Paul with its fine wooden carvings, and the house of 
 Rubens, with some good Vandykes, one of which — the 
 Virgin and Child — pleased me most. Then I went to the 
 hotel to breakfast, and taking up a newspaper was shocked 
 to see of the new attempt to kill the German Emperor. 
 I think I told you how sad the Crown Princess was about 
 the state of things. She said there were two great causes 
 of anxiety, and they were undermining the situation — (1) 
 Socialism, and (2) the dependence of all Germans on the 
 State. This attempt at murder seems to have come fron: 
 both causes. The assassin was disappointed because he 
 did not receive an appointment from the State, and he 
 attended Social Democratic assemblies. 
 
 Aschersleben, June 11th, 1878. 
 
 I had a most charming excursion in the Hartz mountains 
 after early service on Sunday. We took a carriage and 
 drove fourteen miles into the chief valley of the mountains. 
 Nothing could be more smilingly beautiful than the drive. 
 
278 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 The whole valley is carpeted with green, and the mountains 
 on each side are wooded to the tops. Birds carol right 
 and left of you, and huge falcons poise over the forests, 
 watching for their prey. On the top of the hills an 
 occasional castle belonging to some Graf or Herzog just 
 pushes its roofs above the woods. As the valley proceeds 
 there are resting-places where large inns have grown up, 
 and in one of these we dined at a table d'hote of about 
 forty people. I sat next a queer old man, who proved to 
 have resided thirty-five years in the valley as modeller to 
 some ornamental iron works. Well, this old German 
 artist was delighted that I knew his modelling through 
 the iron work at my friend’s home, so off he went to 
 the Herr Direktor of the Works, and that great per- 
 sonage asked us to take coffee with him. His wife and 
 children were very nice ; the latter, two boys and a girl, 
 took possession of me, and showed me all their treasures. 
 There was a young lady who talked very pleasantly, 
 and was apparently the sister-in-law. An hour later 
 I was surprised to see her behind the counter of the 
 shop selling their iron wares. Then we drove in the Herr 
 Direktor’ s carriage further up the valley through some 
 charming scenery until we came to a Cur-Ort, or congre- 
 gation of hotels and saloons — a sort of miniature Homburg. 
 It was amusing to see the patients and the lovers. One 
 tall, handsome girl was walking deliberately through the 
 grounds with her arm around her betrothed's waist, while 
 he satisfied himself with resting his elbow on her shoulders 
 and smoking a huge pipe. Another young lady, in green 
 velvet and very open dress, with an “ idiot fringe” on her 
 brow, was smoking a cigarette while her adorer lay at her 
 feet playing with the huge buckles of her shoes. The 
 whole scene was very German, and amused me exceedingly, 
 and so I send it you, with much love to my Nahant friends. 
 
 Wohlfahrt, June 15 th, 1878. 
 
 I am here on the top of a mountain 2,500 feet high, 
 altogether unapparelled for such work. I knew that I had 
 to go by rail for four hours, then by carriage for two hours, 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 279 
 
 then by climbing for one and a half hours. But it can rain 
 in the Eifel. In five minutes my shoes were squeezing out 
 streams of water, and I arrived like a drowned rat at the 
 top of the mountain. Here, however, I found wonderfully 
 good quarters in a house built by the Company. However, 
 the manager, his wife, and a nice daughter of nineteen, 
 were full of kindness, and they managed somehow, with 
 miners’ clothes, etc., to give my friend Mr Schmidtman 
 and myself dry clothes till our own were put on the 
 stove and dried. To-day it is raining worse than ever, 
 and I have struck work and remained in the house 
 while Schmidtman has again gone down the mines. . . . 
 
 The manager of the mines has only ^150 a year. He is 
 a model man for his position. Now he is comfortably 
 housed, but when he came here his quarters were awful. 
 But his wife finds happiness in everything, and confers 
 it on all around her — even the weather contents her. 
 She has four children. The eldest, twenty-one, is a 
 teacher of French and German in some German town. 
 The second, the Fraulein here who waits on us, is a 
 neat, pretty, happy girl of nineteen, who speaks English 
 schlecht , but French vorldufig. The two boys of six- 
 teen and twelve are at school in Belgium. All this 
 out of ^150 a year is marvellous. Everything around 
 you is neat if not elegant, and scrupulously clean. As it 
 they had not enough to do with their money, they have 
 adopted two children of a brother-in-law who died here 
 three months ago, I fear from the hardship of getting the 
 works in order, for he had to be for whole days up to his 
 waist in water. The two little orphans came in to me this 
 morning. A little girl of four took hold of my hand and 
 said, “ Mein Vater ist gestorben.” “ Ja. Das macht mich 
 traurig.” “Aber du wein’st nicht fur meinen Vater.” 
 “ Nein, Liebchen, ich wiirde fur ihren Vater weinen wenn 
 ich ihn zu leben bringen konnte.” The other, a year older, 
 told me her mother had gone to see some relations, to see 
 whether God, in His great goodness, had sent a message 
 from heaven that they should help those who were left 
 when God called their father to heaven. They wanted to 
 
28o 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 know why God had called him. Had He any mines there 
 which He wished to be worked ? And would the father 
 have drier gangways to work in than he had at Wohlfahrt ? 
 I told her that God would give him plenty of work, for 
 though hell might be a place of idleness, heaven must be 
 one of work. I thought, however, that he might have less 
 hard work than as a miner. However, I found that I had 
 not brought consolation, for when I suggested that possibly 
 he was not working in mines in heaven, the little child 
 became sad, and said, “ Ach Gott ! denn ist er nicht mehr 
 glucklich." I gave it up, feeling that religious consolation 
 was not my forte. ... I think you may like to hear that 
 on representing the case of the orphans to some of my co- 
 directors, I have got up a subscription of §150 for them — 
 nothing very great, but which the mother will think 
 much of. 
 
 London, July yth, 1878. 
 
 To-day I had a delightful afternoon with the Hookers 
 of Kew. Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker are giving three 
 large garden parties at the Royal Gardens. They received us 
 in a tent where refreshments were served. All the scientific 
 notables were there. When I told him that I had taken 
 my passage for America, he envied me very much, and 
 said that he would like to visit the kind Russells at 
 Nahant. . . . There was a phonograph in one of the 
 rooms in the house, and there was a good deal of fun 
 in making it speak. This morning I spent two hours 
 with Lord Granville. He was rather dismayed at my 
 going to America, and is not at all sure that there will 
 not be a dissolution in my absence, but I quieted him by 
 the assurance that I would try to be back early in October. 
 
 July 2 6th, 1878. 
 
 Yesterday I dined at the St. Stephen’s Club with Mr 
 Raikes, the Chairman of Committees. After dinner I went 
 in to the Dean of Westminster’s. There I found a very 
 small party, but they appeared to be all clergymen, and I 
 found myself like a fish out of water. Looking about for a 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 28l 
 
 layman, I saw a desperately black negro, with superb white 
 teeth. So I thought I might get something out of him. 
 He spoke perfect English, and was quite a gentleman. He 
 told me he had been a fortnight in England, and enjoyed 
 visiting it very much, for his own country, Bonny, was 
 very uncivilised. I asked him if he were a missionary, on 
 which he smiled and said he employed missionaries. 
 “ Then," said I, “have I the honour of speaking to a native 
 Bishop ? " Upon which he said with perfect courtesy, 
 smiling, “Dr Lyon Playfairs name is familiar in Bonny, 
 but mine does not seem to have reached England." 
 “ Excuse me, sir," I said, “ but I addressed you as a 
 stranger, and I have not the advantage of knowing your 
 name." Upon that my cultured negro replied, “ I am the 
 King of Bonny, and I have come over here with my Prime 
 Minister to furnish myself again with a little of your civili- 
 sation." So I had a long talk with him. He said that to 
 cultivate the society of English gentlemen was, after all, 
 more pleasant than having his subjects crawling up to him 
 on their stomachs, for he found it both dangerous and 
 difficult to introduce civilisation too fast in his extensive 
 kingdom. He asked me about the microphone and the 
 phonograph, and was obviously a most enlightened poten- 
 tate. His age seemed about twenty-eight. In another 
 part of the room I saw another negro, quite as black as my 
 shoe, and apparently as well polished. So I went to him. 
 He, I found, was the Bishop of Hayti. He told me he 
 had gone to Hayti with a hundred American negroes. 
 The climate did not agree with them. In a year he buried 
 forty, and, grinning with his white teeth in a way that 
 looked like a smile, but I suppose it was not, “ five of them 
 were my own family." He told me he had eight churches 
 and four hundred communicants. He was quite a culti- 
 vated man, having been educated in an American Uni- 
 versity. So having been successful with two negroes, I 
 tried a third. He proved to be the Prime Minister, and 
 talked good English also. He was not so polished as 
 His Majesty, but gave me interesting information about 
 Bonny. 
 
282 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Seacox Heath, Hawkhdrst, July 29 th, 1878. 
 
 I am staying here with Mr Goschen, who has the most 
 lovely place in Sussex, not far (three miles) from Hastings. 
 The scenery is the perfection of English landscape, with 
 undulating hills and wide plains richly wooded. The house 
 is quite palatial in the size of the rooms, and the central 
 hall is square, with two galleries, one above the other, 
 running right round. I am in a bedroom on the upper 
 gallery, and have an English landscape from my window 
 from which I have always fresh enjoyment. Sir Rowland 
 Blennerhasset, a Catholic landlord, is the only guest besides 
 myself. He is very learned in foreign politics, but I fear 
 from my trivial character I enjoy more romping with the 
 children than talking politics with the two politicians. I 
 am sony- that Goschen has abandoned the idea of going 
 to America as I could not promise to travel with him. 
 Besides, the rumours of a dissolution revive again, and he 
 thinks it hazardous to leave even till early in October. 
 On Saturday I dined with about two hundred doctors at 
 Greenwich. Many of them were Conservatives, and my 
 friends among them doubted whether I should be well 
 received. They were certainly a frigid assembly, and 
 drank “ The Oueen ” and other toasts in silence. I became 
 frozen, and when my health was drunk I had congealed. 
 But, to my amazement, the whole audience started up and 
 gave me three times three cheers. The chairman, an 
 ardent Conservative, then whispered, “ All right ; your 
 seat won’t be contested.” However, even the cheers did 
 not thaw me, and I made a very bad speech, but I agree 
 with the president that my reception was very encouraging 
 for the next election. 
 
 After his marriage to Miss Russell, Playfair and his bride 
 returned to England from New York by the Germanic. 
 
 To MlSS Alice Russell. s. S. Germanic, November 10 th, 1878. 
 
 We expect to get into Queenstown to-night about 
 10 p.m., but as the sea is heavy and the ship rolling much, 
 
PARLIAMENTARY WORK. 
 
 283 
 
 Edith cannot write home. I fancy that her letter from 
 Liverpool will reach you as soon as this from Queenstown. 
 Our voyage has been prosperous though slow. Nearly all 
 the winds have been favourable, but there must have been 
 a serious N.E. storm in advance of us, for the sea was 
 heavy against us for two days, and we had a good deal of 
 pitching. Now it is with us, and gives the agreeable 
 diversity of heavy rolling. In all seas the Germanic is 
 a splendid vessel, rising and falling without jars or shocks, 
 very much like a yacht. 
 
 I have purposely made free extracts from the corre- 
 spondence between Playfair and the family of which he 
 was about to become a member, because these letters cast 
 a light upon his character and individuality which is 
 hardly supplied by the record^ of his working life. To 
 understand the secret of his success as an organiser and 
 administrator, it is necessary to understand something of 
 the lighter side of his character, the unfailing buoyancy of 
 spirits which made him a welcome visitor in every home, 
 the frank charm of manner which enabled him to win his 
 way even into hearts that did not naturally incline towards 
 him. Those who enjoyed his friendship knew what this 
 charm of manner was ; but it is only in such letters as those 
 from which I have printed extracts that any traces of this 
 characteristic are to be found by those who knew him not. 
 In his business relations he was always intensely business- 
 like. But in his social relationship, and even in the casual 
 meetings with the chance acquaintances of the dinner- 
 table, the severity of public life absolutely vanished, and 
 he won his way into the goodwill of those with whom he 
 came in contact, not merely by his admirable skill as a 
 raconteur , but by that unfailing gift of sympathy which 
 made everybody feel that he was a friend in much more 
 than the conventional meaning of the word. 
 
 Playfair’s marriage with Miss Russell in 1878 may be 
 said to mark the commencement of the third term in his 
 
284 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 life. From this time forth he went out more into general 
 society, he entertained more largely in his own house, and, 
 whilst as unremitting as ever in his devotion to public 
 work, he became gradually more and more of a figure 
 in the social as well as in the political and scientific life 
 of London. He was still a man with many cares. He 
 always had many irons in the fire. With all his devotion 
 to his duties as a public man, he had also to fight his own 
 personal battle with the world. Never wealthy, he was 
 never able to dispense with the necessity of augmenting 
 his income by his own exertions. His task of earning his 
 own living he discharged with characteristic thoroughness. 
 But it was always regarded by him as a secondary task. 
 The best of his talents, the most conspicuous of his 
 sendees, were freely rendered to his country. A passion 
 for public work seemed to have possession of his soul, 
 and, though he could enter into all the affairs of private 
 business with which he had to deal with the thorough- 
 ness that characterised him in every department of 
 labour, it was into those enterprises in which he was 
 working not for his own but for the general good that 
 he threw himself with the greatest enthusiasm. No one 
 who knew him could doubt that these were the things 
 which appealed most strongly to his heart. His marriage 
 to Miss Russell provided him with a companion who 
 shared all his enthusiasms, and who not only aided but 
 encouraged him in his public ambitions. Through her he 
 was brought into contact with the strenuous public and 
 individual life of America ; and, as has been said already, 
 from the time of this marriage he combined with his 
 English modes of thought and action much of the quickness 
 and receptiveness which are the distinguishing marks of the 
 best class of public men on the other side of the Atlantic. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 Playfair’s Liberalism becoming More Pronounced — His Seat in Danger — 
 Letters from Edinburgh. Autobiography : Appointed Chairman and 
 Deputy-Speaker : Irish Obstruction : Suspending the Obstructionists : 
 Resignation : Letters from Mr Gladstone, the Speaker, and Sir Stafford 
 Northcote: A Reaction: Made a Knight Commander of the Bath: 
 In Defence of Vivisection and Vaccination : Grand Committees. Why 
 Playfair refused the Office of Chief Whip — His Suspension of Irish 
 Obstructionists— A Correspondence with Mr Chaplin— The Absorbing 
 Character of His Duties as Chairman — His Loyalty as an Independent 
 Member— His Personal Popularity with the Irish Members — Securing 
 a Knighthood for Professor Owen. 
 
 The political situation from 1876 onwards till the General 
 Election was anxious and disturbed. The great struggle 
 between the foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield and that 
 of Mr Gladstone was at its height. The country was 
 passing, in Eastern Europe and in Asia, through successive 
 crises which on more than one occasion brought it to the 
 very brink of war. At home men's minds were disturbed 
 by the fierceness with which the conflict between the two 
 great leaders of the day was maintained. Playfair, 
 although he had stood carefully apart from the ordinary 
 struggles of parties, in obedience to his conception of his 
 duties as member for the Universities of Edinburgh and 
 St. Andrews, did not conceal his warm sympathy with Mr 
 Gladstone's views on the Turkish Question. It may be 
 gathered, indeed, from the letters published on previous 
 pages, that his Liberalism was becoming more pronounced 
 with the passage of time. It was always a sane and sober 
 Liberalism, moving upon the old historic lines, and 
 
286 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 conspicuously free from any sympathy either with the 
 Socialism which was making itself felt in certain advanced 
 democratic circles, or with the “ fads" of organised cliques, 
 who were at this time very busy, more especially in the 
 ranks of the Liberal party. But although he was then, 
 as he continued to be to the end of his days, the object 
 of the bitter hostility of Socialists, anti-vaccinators, anti- 
 vivisectionists, and many active and powerful sections of 
 the Liberal party, he made it clear to the world that on 
 the great questions of the time he was in full sympathy 
 with the doctrines of Liberalism as he had known them 
 from his early manhood upwards, and as they were now 
 represented by Mr Gladstone. 
 
 During 1878 and 1879 rumours of an impending dissolu- 
 tion were constant, and, along with these general rumours, 
 others more particularly affecting himself reached Play- 
 fair’s ears. He learned that his Liberal opinions were 
 becoming increasingly distasteful to many of his con- 
 stituents, and that his seat for the University was seriously 
 threatened. With his usual alacrity he set himself to the 
 task of measuring and meeting the opposition which he 
 had thus to face. He went to Edinburgh in April, 1879 — 
 as it happened, just a year before the dissolution took 
 place — in order to grapple with the situation on the spot. 
 
 Playfair to his Wife . Edinburgh, April 11th, 1879. 
 
 I have little to tell you. I found, as I suspected, a good 
 deal of irritation among the medical men here. They 
 thought that I was not earnest enough about the Medical 
 Bill. Why, I know not, unless the Tory M.D.’s have 
 been making capital out of this feeling ; for the Bill has 
 not yet been introduced into the Lower House, and in the 
 Lords it was not my business to interfere. However, I am 
 smoothing their ruffled feathers fast, and the M.D.’s have 
 asked me to dine with them on Monday at six, so I hope 
 to complete the pacification. I have interviews all day 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 287 
 
 long, so have no general news to tell you, as you would 
 not care for precis of conversations on conjoint boards and 
 on vivisection. The general impression is that my seat 
 will not be attacked. I am just going out to return calls ; 
 but it is now 3.30, and I have had no air or “Good 
 Friday," for I have been interviewed all day by M.D.’s 
 and advocates. 
 
 Sa?ne to the same. St. Andrews, April 12 th, 1879. 
 
 I arrived here all right about the middle of the day. 
 Then I went to lunch with Bob Mitchell, and spent the 
 afternoon calling on professors. They are all angry 
 because, as a University Commissioner, I did not raise all 
 their salaries to £ 600 a year. I said that truly I was a 
 Commissioner, but I was only one of many. Besides, 
 twenty professors at _£6oo per annum from the State meant 
 600 x 20 =.£12,000, and that divided by their 150 students 
 meant that they asked the State to pay £80 for each 
 student out of Imperial funds ! However, they are very 
 cross, and think I could remove mountains, and that I did 
 not fight for them enough. However, I have laughed and 
 quizzed, and hope they are a little ashamed. . . . 
 
 I intend to have a little fun to-night. There is at the 
 “ Cross Keys ” a Gandeamus or farewell dinner of the 
 “ Classical Society " — that is a debating Society of Students. 
 I used to belong to this society, and when I left college I 
 was made an “Honorary Member" of it. So I intend 
 after dinner to offer to drink a tumbler of toddy with my 
 old society, and beg to be admitted. They do not know 
 that I am in the hotel, and will be astonished. So far as I 
 can find out there is no real purpose of opposition here, 
 though the professors are rather grumpy at me because, 
 as a University Commissioner, I did not make an ass 
 of myself. 
 
 Same to the sa?ne. St. Andrews, April 13 th, 1879. 
 
 I have just come from church, and rushed here for shelter 
 from the most pelting snowstorm and bitter easterly wind. 
 The sea is raging finely in front of the windows, and makes 
 
288 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 me feel gruey at the thought of having to cross the Firth 
 of Forth to-morrow morning. Last night I spent with 
 about fifty or sixty students at the Gaudeamus of the 
 Classical Society. They were greatly pleased at my offer 
 to go down. After my speech, they rose and sang 
 
 “ For he’s a jolly good fellow, 
 
 For he’s a jolly good fellow, 
 
 Which nobody can deny. 
 
 Hip, hip, hurrah ! ” 
 
 I sat with them till ten, then proposed the health of the 
 chairman and departed. All stood up as I left, and gave 
 me three times three. There was capital fun — good songs 
 and an excellent sermon by one of the students to the text 
 of “ Old Mother Hubbard." Remind me to tell you of 
 this sermon, which kept me in a roar of laughter all 
 through its delivery. 
 
 I have seen but few people yet. The professors either 
 keep out of the way or they do not know where to call, 
 and the weather is too inclement to find them outside. I 
 dine with the Graces to-night, and shall probably have 
 Principal Shairp or some other dignitary there. 
 
 Same to the same . April 1 5/A, 1879. 
 
 I should reach you about a quarter to eight on the same 
 day that you receive this. Yesterday I dined with about 
 seventy medicals from all parts of Scotland. When my 
 health was proposed there was strong thumping from a few 
 devoted adherents, but an ominous silence in the body of 
 the hall. I made a long speech, and at the end everybody 
 was enthusiastic, and I found that I had won. It is quite 
 clear that the enemy has been persuading the M.D.’s that 
 I am an opponent of their views about the Medical Bill, 
 while in reality I am a strong supporter of theirs. The 
 meeting last night did me much good. The Principal still 
 seems grumpy, for he has not been to see me. I went 
 yesterday to call on his wife, but she was not at home. 
 However, I have done my work pretty well, and am in a 
 much better position than when I came here. I have 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 289 
 
 found out that the two men, Prof. Lister and Dr Matthews 
 Duncan, whom the Conservatives asked to oppose me at 
 their expense, have positively declined. 
 
 Having done what he could to make himself secure 
 in his seat, Playfair waited patiently until the actual 
 dissolution came, and he found himself in the field con- 
 fronted by a formidable opponent who had the support 
 of the Conservatives and of those medical men who 
 were displeased with their old member’s attitude towards 
 certain measures affecting their profession. He went to 
 Edinburgh in March, 1880, prepared to fight to the end for 
 his seat in the House of Commons. He was soon joined 
 by his wife, who remained with him during the contest. 
 Before she arrived in Edinburgh, he had written a letter to 
 her, which affords a passing glimpse of the historic episode 
 of the Midlothian campaign. The letter is written from 
 Dalmeny, where Mr Gladstone was staying with Lord 
 Rosebery. 
 
 Same to the same . Dalmeny, March 2.1st, 1880. 
 
 I wrote you a short letter from Silverknowe to-day, and 
 now must tell you about my Sunday stay here. We had 
 twenty-two to dinner yesterday — Gladstones, Moncrieffs, 
 the Youngs, and various barristers and their wives, also Mr 
 Donaldson, who wrote those letters in my favour addressed 
 to teachers. Lord and Lady Rosebery were very pleasant. 
 I took young Mrs Moncrieff in to dinner, and she sat next 
 Mr Gladstone, so we had a pleasant conversation together. 
 Gladstone looked jaded, but his work has been immense. 
 To-day he looks much better. The Gladstones went in to 
 church, and I took a five-mile walk with Lord Rosebery, 
 and we made satisfactorily to ourselves the new Cabinet, if 
 the Liberals get into power — no doubt widely different from 
 that which will really be formed. Then he drove into 
 town, and I went to the 's, expecting lunch ! But 
 
 T 
 
290 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 they live in such a primitive fashion in the winter, with 
 one woman, that they could only give me a biscuit and a 
 glass of sherry, so that I am now looking with interest to 
 the dinner, which will be in half an hour. I had a long 
 talk with Gladstone this afternoon, and he is full of hope 
 for the Liberal party. 
 
 Don’t you think you could join me for a week ? I dare 
 not leave the field of battle. The enemy is looking round 
 in all directions, and it would be utterly unsafe to rely on 
 my strength until it is absolutely secure. The voting papers 
 will be posted at the end of this week, and I must myself 
 see to all this being done well. The nomination is a mere 
 formality, but the issue of the voting papers and the return 
 of them is a stem reality. Until 2,600 voting papers are 
 actually in the safe, I am not absolutely safe. Of this 
 number 2,300 are promised , but I have to get the promises 
 in and 300 more votes somehow. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — X. 
 
 1880 to 1882. 
 
 I NOW come to a stormy period of my Parliamentary 
 life. In the spring of 1880 there was a General Election. 
 I was again returned as member for the Universities of 
 Edinburgh and St. Andrews, after a hard contest with Mr 
 Bickersteth, a medical man from Liverpool. The result of 
 the election was that Mr Gladstone had a large Liberal 
 majority. In forming his Government, Mr Gladstone was 
 anxious that I should become Patronage Secretary of the 
 Treasury, and Lord Granville and Lord Wolverton were 
 deputed to induce me to accept this office. Its duties are 
 better known by the conventional phrase of “ first Whip," 
 though that really does not explain them. He is an 
 intermediary between the supporters of the Government 
 and the Prime Minister, and must be in constant touch 
 with both. It has always been a characteristic of Mr 
 Gladstone that if he is convinced of the honesty and 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 291 
 
 straightforwardness of his first Whip, he is perfectly unre- 
 served, and places the most entire confidence in him. 
 The party as a whole are, therefore, much interested as 
 to the person who is to obtain this post. I was much 
 surprised that it was offered to me, because my relations 
 with Mr Gladstone, though always polite and courteous, 
 had never been intimate. It was impossible that he 
 should forget how often I had been in opposition to his 
 measures. Lord Granville and Lord Wolverton, however, 
 assured me that Mr Gladstone was anxious that I should 
 accept the office. But as I did not think myself adapted 
 to fulfil its duties, I positively declined, and Lord Richard 
 Grosvenor was appointed. Soon afterwards I was offered the 
 office of “ Chairman and Deputy-Speaker of the House of 
 Commons,” and, in an unhappy hour for my own peace of 
 mind, I accepted it. The Chairman presides technically 
 over “Ways and Means,” but also over the whole House 
 after a Bill has passed the Second Reading and goes 
 into the Committee stage. He is not subordinate to the 
 Speaker, who has no control over him. If he rule 
 wrongly, there may be an appeal to the House, but 
 not to the Speaker. In his capacity as Deputy-Speaker, 
 the Chairman takes the Speaker’s chair during the latter’s 
 absence, and exercises all his power. 
 
 When I assumed office Ireland was in a disturbed 
 state, and Irish Members had elaborated their tactics of 
 obstruction to all Government measures. This was 
 effected by endless discussion on trivial clauses of Bills and 
 by incessant motions for adjournment. These obstructive 
 tactics were used whether the Speaker or the Chairman 
 presided. The Speaker holds an office of great dignity, 
 sits on a throne dressed in a robe and court dress, wearing 
 a large wig, and having before him the mace of the House, 
 a mace which has remained there ever since Cromwell 
 said, “Take away that bauble!” Though the Chairman 
 exercises the authority of the Speaker, everything shows 
 his minor importance. The Chairman sits beside the 
 clerks, dressed in plain clothes ; while the mace, 
 denoting the authority of the House, is placed under the 
 
292 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 table whenever he presides. The two presiding officers 
 of the House are, therefore, placed under very different 
 conditions of dignity, and, although equal in power, are by 
 their surroundings differently situated for its efficient 
 exercise. At this time, Mr Brand, now Lord Hampden, 
 was Speaker, and filled the office in the most dignified 
 and efficient manner. 
 
 As Irish obstruction increased during the progress of the 
 Parliament, both the Speaker and the Chairman received 
 the constant censure of the Press for not being more 
 arbitran r in the exercise of their power. The work, how- 
 ever, chiefly fell upon me, because obstruction generally 
 was carried on in Committee of the whole House. The 
 Chairman was more easily attacked than the Speaker, and 
 he became the subject of incessant attack by the Press, 
 which no doubt represented the indignation of the country 
 at the friction of the Parliamentary machine. My censors 
 were varied in their attacks. Sometimes I was supposed to 
 be too lenient, and at one time it was even alleged that I 
 had a secret understanding with the Irish members . 1 At 
 other times, I was censured for being too arbitrary, for it 
 seemed clear to the newspapers that I was trying to drive 
 the members from Ireland into open rebellion against the 
 rules of the House. It never seemed to occur to our critics 
 that the rules of the House were at fault, because of their 
 insufficiency to meet obstruction, and that the Speaker and 
 the Chairman had no power to make rules, but could only 
 administer them according to precedent. 
 
 The work of a Chairman may be understood when I state 
 that at that time I had to be in the House every morning 
 at eleven o’clock to preside over the Private Bill Legis- 
 lation of Parliament, and that I rarely left it till between 
 two and three o’clock next morning. When the “ Pro- 
 tection of Person and Property (Ireland) Bill " was under 
 
 1 The origin of this belief was that during a division I was seen to be 
 in conversation with Mr Parnell and other Irish members behind the 
 Speaker’s chair. The fact was that Mr Parnell had asked me whether I 
 considered the repeated motions for adjournment were an infraction of the 
 rules of the House, and I replied that I did so, and would suspend those 
 members who continued them. He then abandoned them. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 293 
 
 discussion in February, 1881, obstruction rose to a height 
 which required the full powers of the Speaker to suppress 
 it. Hitherto the rule regarding obstruction had been 
 applied to individuals only, but not to a combination of 
 members acting in concert. Both Mr Brand and I agreed 
 that we might give to it this extension, and the former 
 announced from the Chair on the 1st February that he might 
 be compelled to act against the whole body of obstruc- 
 tionists. On that occasion there was a whole night sitting, 
 and the Speaker, being exhausted with the previous day's 
 labour, left me to preside as Deputy-Speaker during the 
 night. I promised him that I would not act under this 
 new interpretation of the rule till he returned to the Chair 
 next morning. The Conservatives tried to force my hand 
 all through the night, and because I would not suspend the 
 offending members en bloc , the Opposition rose in a body 
 and left the House to show their disapprobation of my 
 conduct. Next morning the Speaker returned as arranged, 
 and suspended the whole body of Irish obstructors. The 
 first application of this new interpretation of the rule ought 
 clearly to have been made by the Speaker, as the presiding 
 officer of the highest dignity. Even then it was thought 
 to be an unconstitutional proceeding, but it was absolutely 
 necessary to prevent Parliament being made the laughing- 
 stock of the country. The action of Mr Speaker was 
 challenged in the House, but was confirmed. (Hansard, 
 cclviii., 21.) 
 
 In the following year, July, 1882, it became my duty to 
 carry out this extended application of the rule against 
 obstruction, when the “ Prevention of Crimes (Ireland) 
 Bill " was under discussion in Committee. 
 
 The House had become most impatient. The Home 
 Secretary (Sir W. Harcourt) and the Leader of the Opposi- 
 tion (Sir Stafford Northcote) had been pressing me to close 
 the discussion by the application of the rule for some time 
 before I did so. The House was sitting continuously night 
 and day, apparently with the hope of tiring out the 
 Chairman by physical exhaustion, for Irish members went 
 away in what were called “ sleeping gangs," to return 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 refreshed for the continuation of obstruction. I gave three 
 distinct warnings that I must suspend the whole of the 
 Irish obstructive members if these tactics were continued. 
 At nine on the morning of the second day, Mr Biddulph 
 rose and asked “ whether the time had not come to bring 
 this farce to an end ?” To this I replied as Chairman : “ I 
 have been painfully impressed for some time past with the 
 manner in which this Committee has been conducted for 
 twenty-three days, and on this particular clause for nineteen 
 hours. The House has committed to it the examination 
 and amendment of the Bill, but a limited number of mem- 
 bers have systematically frustrated the progress of business 
 by a mass of amendments, some of a practical and fair 
 character, but by far the greater number only intended to 
 raise under new forms questions which had already been 
 decided b)^ large majorities of the Committee. These 
 amendments were made the occasion for endless repe- 
 tition of the same arguments, and for irrelevant talk, 
 deliberately planned to waste time. I think that the 
 period has now arrived when, if the Committee is to 
 carry on rationally and fairly the duty entrusted to it, 
 the Committee must protect itself by the rule of the 
 House intended to meet obstruction. I must express 
 the sense of the Chair that deliberate and planned obstruc- 
 tion exists in the Committee, and I may soon have to 
 indicate the names of members who, in my opinion, are 
 engaged in systematic obstruction.” 
 
 Notwithstanding this distinct warning, the game went on 
 as before, and at last I rose and named sixteen of the most 
 prominent obstructionists, who were accordingly suspended, 
 and by five o’clock on the same day the Bill finally passed 
 through Committee. Though I had followed carefully to 
 the minutest particulars the precedent established by the 
 Speaker in the previous year, and had certainly displayed 
 continued patience and command of temper, I was assailed 
 by the Press in unmeasured terms for my arbitrary conduct. 
 The Cabinet said they could no longer support this inter- 
 pretation of the rule ; although it was Mr Gladstone him- 
 self who moved the suspension of twenty-eight members 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 295 
 
 in one resolution the preceding year. Curiously enough, 
 the members who were most kind to me on this occasion 
 were the very men whom I had suspended. Both by 
 private letter and by speech in the House, the Irish mem- 
 bers expressed their strong confidence in my fairness, 
 patience, and impartiality. My action certainly scotched 
 obstruction, and it has never again since then manifested 
 itself in this acute form. But my position as Chairman had 
 become intolerable, and after receiving warning from a 
 serious illness that I could not safely continue such heavy 
 work, I privately intimated to the Prime Minister that I 
 would resign at the end of the Session. As much criticism 
 of the performance of the duties which devolved upon me 
 in these troublous times of Parliamentary history has been 
 made, it may be useful to give the opinions of the three 
 most competent witnesses, the Prime Minister, the Speaker, 
 and the Leader of the Opposition, Sir Stafford Northcote. 
 The first letter is from Mr Gladstone. 
 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair. Downing Street, July 4th, 1882. 
 
 My dear Mr Playfair, — I had hoped to speak to 
 you in the House, but as you are wisely kept at home 
 I cannot refrain from writing you a line of sympathy 
 and just acknowledgment. I am not surprised that you 
 should to-day find a little rest to be necessary. I am 
 only astonished that you have been able to bear the 
 strain so long. 
 
 With an office of less authority than the Speakership, 
 you have had to discharge duties (all things taken together) 
 perhaps more difficult, certainly more harassing. It can be 
 no wonder if disputes at length arise upon some point in 
 the proceedings. The marvel to me has been the calm 
 temper, the indefatigable application, the close and acute 
 discernment which you have applied to your work. 
 
 It seems to me that, apart from considering this man or 
 that, the burdens of your office are becoming such as to 
 pass beyond human endurance. Only the most drastic 
 and searching reforms in the rules for transacting business 
 
296 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 can, in my opinion, save either it or the Chair, or the House 
 itself. On no account trouble yourself to answer this, but, 
 believe me, with sincere regard, 
 
 Faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 The above letter was written soon after the suspension 
 of the Irish members, and still warmer letters were sent 
 when in August I intimated my intention to retire ; but 
 these are marked “ Private and Confidential.” As there 
 was an autumn Session the public were not let into the 
 secret till February in the following year (1883), and then, 
 in the usual courtesy, I told the Leader of the Opposition. 
 The following is his reply : — 
 
 20, St. James’s Place, 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote to Playfair . February 23 rd, 1883. 
 
 Dear Mr Playfair, — Many thanks for writing to 
 me. I shall take care to be in my place when you make 
 your announcement. I am sure there never has been a 
 Chairman upon whom harder or more unthankful tasks 
 have been imposed than those which have fallen to your 
 lot ; and I hope that the House will duly express its 
 appreciation of your labours. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 Stafford H. Northcote. 
 
 The Speaker and I were cordial friends all through 
 this difficult period. He invariably supported me in the 
 House, and in communications to the Cabinet and to the 
 Opposition. The following letter is the last of many 
 which I received from him : — 
 
 Glynde, Lewes, 
 
 Mr Speaker Brand to Playfair . January 5 th, 1883. 
 
 Dear Mr Playfair, — I hear from Mr Gladstone that 
 he has it in view to nominate Sir A. Otway to the Chair 
 which you have so well filled in difficult times. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 297 
 
 I cannot let the occasion pass without once more saying 
 how sorry I am, both on personal and public grounds, to 
 lose so efficient a helpmate. I still hope to see you serving 
 the State in some higher and more congenial position. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 H. Brand. 
 
 On my resignation the House passed with its usual 
 kindness a complimentary motion, but I have little doubt 
 that it, as well as I, was relieved by my resignation at that 
 time. A curious reaction followed my retirement. For a 
 considerable time I became one of the most popular 
 members in the House, for whenever I rose in the course 
 of a debate I was warmly cheered by all parts of the 
 House, including the Irish section. This might be ex- 
 plained in two ways, either that the House felt it had done 
 me scant justice when I sat in the Chair, or that it felt 
 relieved by the absence of my arbitrary rule. In either 
 case I simply record a fact which was a good deal noticed 
 at the time. 
 
 This year the Queen, on the recommendation of Mr 
 Gladstone, appointed me to be a Knight Commander 
 of the Bath. As a mark of Royal favour, in order that I 
 might wear the decoration and assume the rank of Knight 
 on her birthday, the Queen conferred the honour by 
 Royal Warrant and without the usual accolade. 
 
 As soon as I was released from the duties of the Chair I 
 again took an active part in social questions. In this year, 
 1883, there were two determined attacks on vivisection and 
 vaccination. I have already referred to the former subject 
 in mentioning the Bill introduced by me in 1876 to regulate 
 vivisection, which it was now sought to repeal. The attack 
 on Compulsory Vaccination was still more determined, and, 
 on the 19th June, 1883, the Government were so alarmed 
 by the opposition that the Cabinet decided to leave it an 
 open question. The epidemic of 1871 had been pandemic, 
 probably as a consequence of the Franco-German war, 
 and this weakened confidence in the protective power of 
 vaccination. It is quite true that the Vaccination Acts are 
 
298 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 not sufficient to resist a great epidemic wave, but they act 
 as a breakwater and lessen its force. Great epidemics are 
 like huge tidal waves, which may roll over any ordinary 
 embankment. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that these embankments are 
 never wholly continuous, for the unvaccinated are like 
 holes in them, through which the flood of disease finds 
 its way. Vaccination is, under ordinary conditions, a suffi- 
 cient protection, but in the presence of a great epidemic 
 it is overtopped, and small-pox spreads over a country, 
 attacking the unvaccinated, and those whose protection has 
 been worn out by age. As it increases in volume the vacci- 
 nated, too, are carried away by it, but vaccination is their 
 life-belt, and they rarely perish. It was so in Scotland in 
 the great epidemic of 1871. When such an epidemic strikes 
 a population they become terrified, and they rush in crowds 
 to be vaccinated. At that time the compulsory law had 
 only existed for eight years in Scotland, and only the infant 
 population had come under its influence. But still the 
 people of Scotland, not being cursed with anti-vaccination 
 societies, rapidly extended vaccination among themselves, 
 and stamped out the epidemic. Since then small-pox has 
 scarcely existed in that country. For the last few’ years 
 the total number of deaths have not exceeded ten per 
 annum. 
 
 In examining the state of vaccination w’e must compare 
 the mortality from small-pox w’ith that of the last century ; 
 This, Dr Farr tells us, w’as 3,000 per million of the popula- 
 tion annually for the wfliole country. For the first forty 
 years of this century vaccination v r as promoted among the 
 people by charitable agencies, and the mortality had fallen 
 to 600 per million by 1840, or was then only one-fifth the 
 rate of last century. Still, 600 per million is a high rate 
 of mortality, and Parliament began in 1841 to give funds 
 for gratuitous vaccination, so as to spread it more rapidly 
 among the people. This continued till 1853, and the 
 mortality w r as now r 305 per million, so that gratuitous 
 vaccination by the State reduced the mortality to one half. 
 Then, in 1853, Parliament passed an obligator}’ law’, w’hich 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 299 
 
 remained without administrative means of enforcing it till 
 1871 ; but still, during this period of obligatory vaccination, 
 the mortality fell to 223 deaths per million. In that year 
 a law was passed making it compulsory on Boards ot 
 Guardians to appoint vaccination officers, and since that 
 time the average mortality has been 156 per million. 
 Every successive step, then, in promoting vaccination has 
 been followed by a great reduction in the rate of mor- 
 tality. Voluntary efforts reduced the mortality of the last 
 century from 3,000 to 600 per million, gratuitous vaccina- 
 tion by the State reduced it to 305, obligatory law 
 inefficiently administered reduced it to 223, and the same 
 law under vaccination officers further reduces it to 156. 
 
 Against such facts as these the opponents of vaccination 
 asserted that the compulsory laws were a violation of 
 personal liberty. To this I replied in my speech as 
 follows : — 
 
 “We have many laws interfering with personal liberty. We 
 restrict hours of labour to working men, although many of them 
 think our restrictions unjust. We punish the rash traveller who 
 jumps into a train in motion, although it would injure no one but 
 himself. If small-pox affected an adult individual only, his right to 
 take it could scarcely, however, be disputed. We do not punish a 
 man for burning down his own isolated mansion if no one is injured 
 but himself. But we do punish him if he risk a neighbour’s pro- 
 perty by his act. Every case of small-pox is a new centre of con- 
 tagion. A man may exercise his own personal taste for any disease 
 which he chooses, provided he does not injure his neighbours by his 
 idiosyncrasy. But when he produces omissional infanticide of his 
 own and his neighbours’ children by neglect of duty, the State may 
 intervene to protect the young population from a fatal and mutila- 
 tive disease. This disease is just as fatal and hideous as it was in 
 the last century, but it has been controlled by wise and beneficent 
 laws. Will you allow the country to slip back to the period of 
 voluntary vaccination, and disseminate many thousands of new 
 centres of contagion among the community ? That is the question 
 which you are asked by the vote to-night to determine.” 
 
 The result of this speech on the House of Commons 
 has often been quoted as a proof how much effect may 
 be produced on the votes upon a question in which 
 political differences are not involved. The Government, 
 
300 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 which expected the anti-vaccinators to be victorious, were 
 surprised at the success of the amendment. It was as 
 follows : — “ That in the opinion of this House the practice 
 of vaccination has greatly lessened the mortality from 
 small-pox, and that laws relating to it, with such modi- 
 fications as experience may suggest, are necessary for the 
 prevention and mitigation of this fatal and mutilative 
 disease." In fact, nearly the whole House walked into 
 the division lobby with me, for the votes were : — 
 
 For Mr Taylor’s motion against vaccination . . 16 
 
 For Sir Lyon Playfair’s amendment .... 286 
 
 Majority .... 270 
 
 Though the victory was crushing, the anti-vaccination 
 societies never accepted their defeat, and tried to make my 
 life miserable by incessant personal attacks. These attacks 
 pleased them, but did not hurt or even annoy me. 
 
 At the end of 1882 a resolution had been passed appoint- 
 ing Grand Committees to consider non-contentious Bills. 
 These had been long in contemplation, because the con- 
 sideration of such Bills by a Committee of the whole House 
 practically resolved itself into a Committee of persons 
 specially interested in the subject-matter of the Bill. This 
 devolution of business was, in Mr Gladstone’s opinion, 
 one of the most important measures of procedure which 
 the House could adopt. Two Grand Committees, one on 
 Trade and the other on Law, were appointed in 1883 to 
 examine and report on all Bills referred to them, and a 
 panel of half a dozen of the most experienced members of 
 the House was appointed from which a chairman should be 
 selected to preside over the deliberations of the Grand 
 Committee upon each separate Bill. Over this panel of 
 chairmen I acted as president. The experiment of these 
 Grand Committees was fairly tried in 1883 and 1884, and 
 gave such encouraging results that when Parliament re- 
 sumes its legislative functions by getting rid of this Irish 
 difficulty, it will doubtless use them more frequently as a 
 means of devolving detailed work upon competent bodies 
 outside the House. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 301 
 
 Playfair always regarded it as one of the less fortunate 
 incidents of his life that he had been induced to accept the 
 office of Chairman of Committees at a time when the 
 duties of that post were of peculiar difficulty. To some, 
 indeed, it is a surprise that he should have refused the 
 post of chief Whip, which was offered to him by Mr 
 Gladstone in the Ministry of 1880. It is true that from 
 the official point of view, the Patronage Secretary to the 
 Treasury holds a lower position in the Ministerial hierarchy 
 than the Postmaster-General, and Playfair was certainly 
 entitled by his services to a much higher office in the 
 new Government. But there have been many cases in 
 which men have made a heavy sacrifice in nominal position 
 in order that they might take the office which, next to that 
 of the Prime Minister or Leader of the House, is of greatest 
 party importance in the House of Commons. All who 
 knew Playfair must have felt that he was exceptionally 
 well-equipped for the duties of chief Whip. It is hardly 
 an exaggeration to say that from 1850 onwards he had 
 always been discharging a Whip’s duties in one position or 
 another. From the time when he was brought in contact 
 with the Prince Consort during the preparations for the 
 Exhibition of 1851 he was always one of those who were 
 employed behind the scenes, and was always engaged in 
 that work of organisation and manipulation which is the 
 chief task laid upon a Parliamentary Whip. His brilliant 
 success in conducting many difficult negotiations to a 
 successful issue justified his friends in believing that 
 in his hands the duties of the chief Whip would be dis- 
 charged in the most effective manner. 
 
 It might indeed be difficult to understand why 
 Playfair should have hesitated to accept a position for 
 which he was so eminently qualified, if it were not for 
 one reason — that is the fact that the chief Whip is 
 essentially a party man. His whole work is devoted 
 
302 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to the advancement of the interests of his own party, 
 and it is for that object that he may be said to live. 
 Playfair, as the reader has seen, abstained as a matter of 
 principle from any keen partisanship whilst he remained 
 member for the University of Edinburgh. This was the 
 reason which led him to turn aside from the proposal, and 
 to accept an office for which, as it turned out, he was not 
 so well equipped as he was for that of chief Whip. The 
 story he has told of his occupancy of the Chair during the 
 stormy Sessions of 1880 and 1881 does bare justice to the 
 work he accomplished and the sacrifices he had to make 
 during his tenure of office. Upon him even more fully than 
 upon the Speaker himself fell the brunt of that terrible battle 
 with Irish obstruction in the course of which Parliamentary 
 procedure nearly suffered shipwreck. It was the most 
 trying crisis in the history of the House of Commons since 
 the days of the Stuarts, and though it cannot be claimed for 
 Playfair that in that stormy epoch he achieved one of the 
 notable triumphs of his life, his friends may justly demand 
 that he should receive credit for the tenacity with which he 
 clung to his post and discharged his duty to the historic 
 assembly whose fortunes were momentarily committed to 
 his keeping, without regard to the sacrifices which his 
 devotion entailed upon himself. 
 
 As the suspension of the Irish members in 1882 was an 
 incident of grave importance in the history of the House of 
 Commons, it may be well to supplement Playfair’s state- 
 ment in the foregoing chapter of Autobiography with some 
 of the documents in which the points at issue are stated 
 with greater fulness. 
 
 68, Onslow Gardens, 
 
 Playfair to Mr Speaker Brand. J ul y r 7 ^. l8g 2. 
 
 Dear Mr Speaker, — I enclose a memorandum on 
 the action taken by me in naming members on July 1st. 
 You do not require to be assured that I carefully followed 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 303 
 
 precedents upon that occasion, but the memorandum may 
 be useful to Mr Gladstone in considering the course to be 
 pursued in relation to Mr Gorst’s notice of a vote of cen- 
 sure on the Chairman. That notice, and the two amend- 
 ments on it by Mr Dillwyn and Mr Anderson, are founded 
 on the error that the standing order is limited to the 
 suspension of individuals, and does not apply to a combi- 
 nation of members to obstruct. I consider it to be of 
 extreme importance that they should be met by a counter 
 motion that the Chairman acted in accordance with prece- 
 dent when he applied the standing order to a combination. 
 A vote of the House in this sense will give to that standing 
 order a most important disciplinary force. To the personal 
 censure I attach very little importance, but to Mr Gorst’s 
 interpretation of the standing order I see very grave 
 objections. In the view of our future procedure I should 
 be glad if an opportunity were given to discuss it, and 
 meet it by a resolution which would confirm the Speaker’s 
 and Chairman's interpretation of the rule. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 MEMORANDUM as to the action of the Chairman in naming Members 
 on Saturday , July 1st, 1882. 
 
 To understand the ruling of the Speaker and precedents estab- 
 lished for the enlarged action of the rule of 28th February, 1882, 
 Standing Order 173a, it is necessary to refer to last year’s proceedings 
 during the protracted sittings. 
 
 (1) On the 1st February, 1881, Sir Richard Cross appealed to the 
 Speaker to rule whether, “ taking into consideration the speeches of 
 honourable members, and the whole course of debate, that this mode 
 of carrying on the debate is not, in the terms of the rule, persistent 
 and wilful obstruction of the business of the House.” 
 
 Upon this the Speaker gave a clear ruling, all of which bears on 
 the point, but of which the following extract is sufficient for explana- 
 tion : “ If I found that there was a distinct and clear combination 
 on the part of members of this House wilfully and persistently to 
 obstruct the business of the House by combination, I should consider 
 that this Standing Order should apply.” 
 
 The Speaker left the chair, and Mr Playfair, as Deputy Speaker, 
 took the chair. Early in the morning of Wednesday, 2nd February, 
 
304 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote pressed him to apply the rule as interpreted 
 by the Speaker, and Mr Childers promised the support of the Govern- 
 ment if the Deputy Speaker would so enforce the rule. The debate 
 went on, the Irish members protesting against such an application 
 of the rule, and some English members desiring that it should be 
 so enforced. 
 
 After hearing these observations the Deputy Speaker again read 
 the ruling of Mr Speaker, given before he left the Chair, and then 
 spoke as follows : — “ Agreeing with Mr Speaker that what has 
 occurred in the debate would go far to bring some of the members 
 who have taken part in it within the scope of the Standing Order if 
 they individually persisted in obstruction when called upon to desist, 
 I shall watch with great care that no waste of the time of the House takes 
 place on Motions of Adjournment." 
 
 The House, which was of course ignorant that the Speaker 
 intended next morning to close the debate, strongly manifested 
 disapproval that I did not at once name the members obstructing, 
 and the Conservatives in a body rose up and left the House with a 
 certain number of Liberal members. A division on the question of 
 adjournment soon followed. As I left the Chair for the retiring 
 room I found Mr Parnell and the leading Home Rulers waiting for 
 me behind the Chair ; and they asked me to explain what I meant 
 by the portion of the ruling which I have underlined. I stated that 
 while the rule had hitherto been applied to individual cases of 
 obstruction, it was now extended to combination ; and while I would 
 apply the rule to individuals in the old way, I should consider con- 
 tinued dilatory motions for adjournment as a proof of combination, 
 and I would apply it to all members taking part in them. The Home 
 Rulers then made no more such motions, but spoke on the main 
 question till the Speaker resumed the Chair next morning and ended 
 the debate. That they fully understood this interpretation is shown 
 by the fact that they did not then, nor have they ever since, 
 obstructed by continued dilatory motions. 
 
 (2) Up to this time there had been no precedent for applying the 
 Standing Order to more than one member, a separate vote being 
 taken on each. On the 3rd February the double action of the rule 
 was enforced. Three members (Dillon, Parnell and Finigan) per- 
 sisted in motions that Mr Gladstone be no further heard, which Mr 
 Speaker ruled were evidence of wilful and persistent obstruction, 
 and they were individually named and suspended. Then twenty- 
 eight members defied the authority of the Chair, although admonished, 
 and the Speaker named the whole twenty-eight members to the 
 House as defying the authority of the Chair. Thereupon Mr 
 Gladstone moved in a single resolution that the twenty-eight 
 members (naming them) be severally suspended. 
 
 Note. — This action of Mr Speaker and of Mr Gladstone in naming 
 and moving the suspension of the twenty-eight members in a single 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 305 
 
 resolution was challenged at the time by Mr A. J. Balfour and Mr 
 Gorst, and was over-ruled. 
 
 (3) Mr Playfair acted on these precedents with great care. The 
 Committee had lasted for twenty-three days, and the debate on the 
 17th Clause for nineteen hours, when he acted. On the previous 
 evening, 30th June, an appeal was made to the Chair whether the 
 time had not come to put an end to these proceedings. Mr Playfair 
 then said, “The time has come when I must seriously call the 
 attention of the Committee to the very prolonged mode in which 
 these debates are being carried on, and I trust that the Committee 
 will support me in my efforts to confine the speeches of members 
 directly to the amendment.” The Home Secretary (Sir William 
 Harcourt) said : “ On a Clause of secondary importance, a Clause 
 which involves no constitutional principle, time has been expended 
 equal to two whole working days of the House of Commons, to the 
 enormous inconvenience of individual members and to the scandal 
 of the country. It has been done deliberately; it has doubtless 
 been done in an adroit manner, but it has been done intentionally 
 and the adroitness has not in the least degree concealed the deliber- 
 ate intention of blocking and impeding a measure for the prevention 
 of crime in Ireland. This is a course of proceeding which I ask the 
 House and the country to take note of, because in view of the terrible 
 condition of Ireland, the time has come when this House should 
 adopt some method of putting an end to this course of proceeding.” 
 
 Sir Stafford Northcote then spoke as follows : — “ The Home Secre- 
 tary spoke in the name, not of the Government nor of himself in- 
 dividually, but of the whole House generally. The House is well 
 aware of the real situation, and it is an insult to our common sense 
 to divert us from the real situation by such flimsy pretexts as have 
 been put forward during the time I have been in the House. Do 
 hon. gentlemen suppose that those who have been away for some 
 hours are not perfectly aware of the tactics intended to be pursued ? ” 
 
 Mr Playfair had left the Chair at 1 a.m., but he never left the 
 House. He was up from his sofa at 6 a.m. trying to gather all the 
 information of the proceedings during his few hours’ absence, and 
 he had a careful precis of the above speeches made for him by Mr 
 Shaw Lefevre, who was in the Chair. At g a.m. Mr Playfair resumed 
 the Chair, and found the Committee fully engaged in discussing 
 obstruction and not the clause. Unwilling still to act, he brought 
 the Committee back to the clause, but the House was in no humour 
 to continue. Repeated appeals were made to him to exercise the 
 authority of the Chair. Mr Biddulph rose and asked whether the 
 time had not come to bring this farce to an end. Thereupon Mr 
 Playfair spoke as follows 1 : — 
 
 # # # # * 
 
 1 Playfair’s reply has already been given in his Autobiography on p. 294. 
 — Editor. 
 
 U 
 
3°6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 The warning of the preceding night and this express warning 
 were followed by no results. Mr Redmond continued the debate 
 with the same irrelevance, and had to be repeatedly called to order 
 for irrelevant talk. Finding the warning of the Chair treated with 
 contempt, and the sense of the House strongly expressed, the Chair- 
 man named to the Committee sixteen members. To meet combined 
 obstruction the rule had to be applied with sufficient force, and these 
 names were selected after careful consideration of the number of 
 times they had spoken and voted in dilatory amendments. That 
 some members were absent at the time in relays, did not exclude 
 them from a rule applying to combination. I conclude by stating 
 that I acted strictly according to precedent and to the sense of the 
 Committee. When, a few hours later, more members were sus- 
 pended, I followed the same precedents, and did not act till after 
 due warning, and till I had ascertained the general sense of the 
 House, as explained by the leaders on both sides, and by unmis- 
 takable evidence from the body of the House. If the Speaker’s 
 view and my own of the extent of the rule be right, there certainly 
 was no impatience shown in acting upon the sense of the Com- 
 mittee, and every part of the precedent was followed to the minutest 
 detail. 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 I have quoted this memorandum at full length because 
 Playfair is entitled to have his defence of an act which was 
 severely criticised at the time placed before the world. No 
 one now will question the extreme difficulty of the position 
 m which he was placed, nor will anyone deny that he did 
 not merit the harsh judgments which it pleased certain 
 politicians of both parties to pass upon him. He was in 
 the unfortunate position of having to wield great and 
 exceptional powers, whilst holding an office to which the 
 House of Commons did not attach great or exceptional 
 authority. The House had bowed to the ruling of the 
 Speaker in the previous year, when he had executed a coup 
 d'etat in the interests of freedom of debate. The majority 
 of its members were desirous that a similar stroke should 
 be dealt at obstruction in 1882 by the Chairman of Com- 
 mittees ; and Playfair, seeing clearly that the vital interests 
 of Parliamentary debate and his own duty as Chairman 
 demanded this action, was courageous enough to take it. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 307 
 
 He acted, as his memorandum shows, with the strictest 
 regard to precedent. He certainly did not act hurriedly or 
 under the influence of any mental excitement. He bore 
 with provocations which the leaders of both parties had 
 declared to be insufferable, and he turned a deaf ear to the 
 taunts and gibes of those who, forgetting the difficulties of 
 his position, believed that he was neglecting his obvious 
 duty as Chairman by not putting a speedier end to the 
 obstruction practised by the Irish members. When at last 
 he acted he did so with thoroughness and efficiency. The 
 barrier of obstruction which had been reared was swept 
 away, and the Bill was enabled to proceed through Com- 
 mittee. But no sooner had this step been taken than he 
 became the subject of the severe criticisms of which he has 
 spoken in his chapter of Autobiography. Many of the men 
 who had been loudest in denouncing obstruction now 
 turned round, after the easy fashion of Parliamentary 
 politicians, and denounced the agent by whom the ob- 
 struction had been overcome. Playfair, who had been 
 blamed in the first instance for his imagined weakness, 
 was blamed now on the ground that he had overstrained 
 his authority. It is a story with which most men who 
 have been mixed up with public affairs are only too 
 painfully familiar. I do not say that Playfair was to any 
 unusual degree a victim of the tendency of Parliamentary 
 parties to oscillate between one extreme and another. 
 All that I claim for him is that his plain exposition of 
 his own action should have due weight given to it, and 
 that the censures to which he was exposed at the time 
 by those who proclaimed that his Chairmanship of Com- 
 mittees was a failure should be treated as being worth just 
 what they were. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is idle to conceal the fact that Playfair's 
 chairmanship was wrecked upon that rock of the Irish 
 question which has proved fatal to so many Parliamentary 
 
308 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 reputations. He had to stand in the breach, as I have 
 already said, at a most critical moment in the history of 
 the House of Commons. He did his duty manfully, and 
 the world knows now that to him and to Mr Brand 
 the House of Commons is indebted for the fact that its 
 freedom of action and debate was not submerged under 
 the flood of revolutionary obstruction. It was the au- 
 thority which these two men exercised, the one as Speaker 
 and the other as Chairman of Committees, that brought 
 the whole question of obstruction to a head, and compelled 
 the unwilling Government — or one ought rather to say, the 
 unwilling leaders of both political parties — to recognise the 
 fact that circumstances imperatively demanded some altera- 
 tion in the old rules of the House of Commons. Whatever 
 else may be denied to Playfair in connection with his 
 Chairmanship of Committees, it is hardly possible to 
 deny to him the credit of having had a substantial 
 share in that amendment of the rules of Parliament 
 which has once more made debate possible despite the 
 tactics of deliberate and intentional obstruction. 
 
 The letter marked “ Private and confidential,” to which 
 Playfair alludes in his Autobiography as having been 
 received by him from Mr Gladstone after his announce- 
 ment of his intended retirement from the Chairmanship, 
 is as follows : — 
 
 io, Downing Street, Whitehall, 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair . August 4th, 1882. 
 
 My dear Mr Playfair, — I receive your letter with 
 much regret. When you come to act upon the inten- 
 tion you describe as formed, it will not be an easy matter 
 to fill your place. There is certainly a point at which 
 domestic calls must begin to assert themselves against 
 Parliamentary engagements. I am very glad, however, 
 that you do not contemplate any early step, and that you 
 propose to keep your determination secret until the time 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 309 
 
 for acting upon it shall come near. It would be disastrous 
 were either the act or the promulgation to be so timed as 
 to stand in any apparent connection with the late struggle 
 to maintain the authority of the Chair. Unquestionably 
 the burdens of your office have been beyond all common 
 measure ; but it is (as they say) upon the cards that they 
 may be prospectively lightened by an effective measure of 
 devolution, if the House can muster sufficient courage to 
 adopt one. Should such a thing happen, there will be 
 nothing so far as I am concerned to hinder your recon- 
 sideration of the subject of your letter. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 Same to the same. Hawarden Castle, January 3rd, 1883. 
 
 My dear Mr Playfair, — I lose no time in informing 
 you that we have decided on proposing Sir Arthur Otway 
 as your successor in those offices of Chairman of Com- 
 mittees and Deputy Speaker which you have discharged 
 with so much ability in such difficult times. It is almost 
 superfluous for me to bespeak your interest on behalf of 
 Sir Arthur Otway, who will, I have no doubt, at once 
 apply his very considerable Parliamentary abilities to the 
 work of acquiring the special knowledge necessary for the 
 office for which he will be, I hope, a successful candidate. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Most faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 26, Lower Belgrave Street, 
 
 Sir Arthur Otway to Playfair. February 17th, 1883. 
 
 My dear Mr Playfair, — I thank you for affording 
 me a perusal of your able memorandum relative to the 
 suspension of the Irish members in July last. 
 
 I have no doubt that the effects of your action will be 
 beneficial should unhappily a similar state of things arise. 
 
3io 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 I must offer you a word of congratulation on the 
 “evident sense of the House” on your taking the Chair 
 last night. It would have pleased you to know the 
 observations which reached my ears, sitting at the end 
 of the Opposition benches near the Chair. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 Arthur Otway. 
 
 Before I leave this question of the suspension of the Irish 
 members, and the consequent amendment of the forms of 
 the House with a view to the prevention of organised 
 obstruction, I may quote the following correspondence 
 which passed between Playfair and Mr Chaplin as a con- 
 sequence of a speech in which the latter had cast some 
 doubt upon the principles on which the former had acted. 
 
 Playfair to the Right Hon. Henry Chaplin . 
 
 November 14 th, 1882. 
 
 Dear Mr Chaplin, — I observe in reading your speech 
 that you asked me the specific question as to whether 
 I accepted the interpretation of the Speaker that “the 
 general sense of the House ” meant the sense of the House 
 at large. Had I been in my place during your speech, 
 I would gladly have answered your question. Before 
 doing so, let me remind you of a precedent which I tried 
 to establish on the ist of July last. The suspensory rule 
 was then to be applied to combined obstruction. That 
 rule leaves the initiative to the Chairman. But no Chair- 
 man could act under such circumstances without believing 
 that he did so in accordance with the general sense of the 
 House. The Chair during the night had repeated appeals 
 from individual members to put an end to the obstruction. 
 My own view of the position had been expressed on the 
 preceding day by an emphatic warning. It was not, how- 
 ever, until the Home Secretary’ made a solemn protest 
 against obstruction, and till Sir Stafford Northcote stated 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 31 
 
 that this protest expressed the opinion, not only of the 
 Opposition but of the House at large, that I considered 
 the time had come to apply the rule in the large sense 
 laid down by the Speaker in the previous year. Upon 
 this belief I acted in taking the initiative to suspend the 
 first list of members. Later in the day obstruction again 
 appeared, and individual members once more appealed to 
 the Chair to apply the suspensory rule. I replied that my 
 own opinion as to the existence of obstruction was decided ; 
 but before taking the initiative I waited to see whether 
 the general desire of the House was with me. When Sir 
 Richard Cross, then in charge of the Opposition Front 
 Bench, and Mr Gladstone, in charge of the Government 
 Front Bench, both expressed their view that obstruction 
 prevailed, I felt that I had gathered the general sense of 
 the House, and that I was justified in taking the initiative. 
 Having thus tried to establish a precedent that the sus- 
 pensory rule as applied to combined obstruction should 
 only be exercised as an expression of the House at large, 
 you can have no doubt as to my full accordance with the 
 interpretation which the Speaker has given of a rule 
 which expressly enjoins that the Chair shall only take 
 the initiative when it has ascertained the general sense of 
 the House. 
 
 The Right Hon . Henry Chaplm to Playfair. 
 
 Stafford House, November 15 th, 1882. 
 
 Dear Mr Playfair, — I have to thank you for your 
 letter which I have received to-night, and for your very 
 courteous reply to my inquiry. I raised the question in 
 the House of Commons regarding your opinion, in common 
 with many of my friends, upon the interpretation to be 
 placed upon the first resolution, as of the first importance ; 
 and it is gratifying to find from your letter that our antici- 
 pations and hopes are equally fulfilled. I do not know 
 how far I may be justified in making it known, or whether 
 you would wish it to be public, but under any circum- 
 stances I should be glad, with your permission, to make it 
 known among the members of the party who have looked 
 
3 12 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 with so much aversion upon the first resolution in its 
 present form. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Chaplin. 
 
 The battle between the authorities of the House and the 
 forces of obstruction has been dwelt upon already in this 
 chapter at sufficient length. That Playfair had to take an 
 important part in that struggle I have endeavoured to show, 
 nor can he be denied the credit which I have claimed for 
 him of a not inconsiderable share in the ultimate triumph 
 of Parliamentary procedure over Parliamentary lawless- 
 ness. There was, however, another side to Playfair’s life 
 as Chairman of Committees upon which he has touched 
 but lightly in his Reminiscences. The outside world has 
 but a limited conception of the labours which fall to the 
 lot of its public servants. Above all, it has little knowledge 
 of the strain which is thrown upon members of a Govern- 
 ment during their term of office. “ Flesh and blood cannot 
 stand more than five years of official life at a stretch,” are 
 the words said to have been uttered by a distinguished 
 Minister of the Crown. The burden laid upon flesh and 
 blood in all the offices of the State is undoubtedly a heavy 
 one, and Playfair had to bear his full share of that burden 
 during his Chairmanship of Committees. Some idea of its 
 weight will be gathered from the subjoined extracts from 
 letters to his wife, who had preceded him on their annual 
 visit to America, at this period of his career. These letters 
 deal only with the proceedings of a few days, and yet they 
 furnish the reader with a startling glimpse of what passes 
 behind the scenes at times when the outer world sees only 
 the public aspect of the questions at issue. It was the 
 cruel pressure of this burden far more than the difficulty 
 of deciding upon the nicest questions of Parliamentary 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 313 
 
 procedure at a moment’s notice, that led Playfair to retire 
 from his post of Chairman of Committees. Whilst he held 
 that post all his other occupations were of necessity brought 
 to a standstill. Even with all his immense power of work, 
 he could not combine with his official duties his usual course 
 of study and labour. As for his domestic peace, and the 
 possibility of enjoying the repose and happiness of his own 
 home, it was, for the time being, absolutely destroyed. 
 These were the urgent reasons which led him to retire 
 from his office after the Session of 1882 had come to an 
 end ; and that they were substantial reasons the letters I 
 subjoin will conclusively prove. 
 
 Playfair to his Wife. August 18 th, 1880. 
 
 The Session shows no sign of drawing to a close. Last 
 night we passed only 14 votes out of 68, and we had 
 calculated on passing 42, so the prospect is bad enough. I 
 fear that we shall sit till the first fortnight of September. I 
 am right glad that you are out of it, and will get some 
 summer. The very first day I am at liberty will see me on 
 board, though I fear the voyage will be uncomfortable 
 with Equinoctial gales. The poor Baltic was run down 
 yesterday in the Mersey, and has to go into dock, so there 
 is one ship less for the traffic. To-night I dine with Lord 
 Granville, so there will be a little break in the monotony 
 of work. 
 
 Auntie says, “Fly to good E as quickly as possible.” 
 
 No need to counsel me to do this, as it is the only pleasant 
 waking dream I have amid the chatter of the obstruc- 
 tionists. 
 
 Same to the same. August 19 th, 1880. 
 
 I am so kept up to the collar just now that I positively 
 have not a moment to write. I was home at 4 a.m. 
 to-day, and now at 12 am just going into the Chair, with 
 five minutes to eat something. But I do not like to let 
 you be without a line. I am wonderfully well, though 
 
314 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 how I shall stand Saturday and the great Irish attack on 
 Monday and Tuesday, when we are threatened with forty- 
 eight hours’ consecutive sitting, remains to be seen. 
 
 Hartington spoke yesterday of the 4th for prorogation, 
 but I think that too sanguine. In that case I could sail 
 on the 2nd. 
 
 Same to the same. Saturday, August 21 st, 1880. 
 
 Still no surety of the end of the Session, but I have faint 
 hopes that I may get away on the 2nd, if the House 
 adjourn that week. Everything will depend on the Irish 
 row on Monday and Tuesday. They still threaten a forty- 
 eight hours’ sitting ; I have stipulated in that case for a 
 chairman to take my place for six horns on the second day. 
 I am quite up to twenty-four hours on a stretch. If this 
 breaks down with a single day of twenty-four hours we 
 may finish by the 4th. I am now going upstairs to pack 
 up for Brighton. I thought of Tunbridge, but I wish some 
 sea air and some cheerfulness to prepare me for Monday. 
 “ Order, Order,” “ The ayes have it,” “ Strangers must 
 withdraw,” become very monotonous duties of a Chairman, 
 and require some alleviation. 
 
 Same to the same. Brighton, Sunday, August 22 nd, 1880. 
 
 To-morrow is to be the great trial of physical strength 
 between the Irish and ourselves, so I may have no time to 
 write for two or three days. Their tactics are to prevent 
 Irish Estimates being passed, and to keep me in the Chair 
 as long as physical endurance permits. Of course some 
 amateur chairmen must be provided to help me. So I 
 have come here to lay in a stock of health and sleep, and 
 the weather is glorious, and the result much better than at 
 Henley. I have been sunning myself all day. I sat down 
 on the pier beside a queer-looking man, who, when he 
 stood up, was nearly eight feet high, and then I recognised 
 him as the Norwegian giant, who has been exhibiting at 
 the Aquarium in London for 1/-. As my stature did not 
 contrast favourably with his I quickly got out of proximity 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 315 
 
 to him. I had hoped your telegram would have reached in 
 time yesterday, but when I left at two it had not arrived, 
 nor could it before post-time, 5.30, as I told them to send 
 it on. You must therefore have had rather a slow passage. 
 But I think with so much pleasure that you are now, at 
 least, with your father, and you may even be in the act ol 
 taking the 11 o’clock train on Sunday for Nahant — for 
 though it is three here, it is earlier with you. 
 
 I hope that my eyes will be cheered with the news ot 
 the arrival of the ship in the 1 Times ’ to-morrow. “Eyes” 
 remind me that I should not be writing even to you 
 to-day, as they require all the nursing I can give them 
 for the long sitting in prospect. 
 
 Same to the same . Tuesday, August 24 th, 1880. 
 
 I am so pleased to think that as I am writing (12.30) 
 you are probably in the act of going down to your first 
 breakfast in the dear home. I am so rejoiced that you 
 went, and that you will have some summer weather at 
 Nahant. Last night was to be the first of our forty-eight 
 hours’ fight with the Irish. They were very excitable, and 
 determined that we should not get a single vote in supply. 
 About 11.30 I found that the Government had failed to get 
 any reason out of them, so I asked Lord Hartington to let 
 me try my powers of conciliation. Accordingly, as the 
 Speaker was in the Chair and likely to be kept all night— 
 for their tactics were to prevent me getting into it — I laid 
 myself in the way of the more moderate and influential 
 men, and pointed out how much their motives would be 
 misconstrued by the country. I then suggested that they 
 might take the non-contentious votes in supply that night, 
 and take the constabulary vote to-day. Most of the Irish 
 laughed at me, and told me I should not succeed, as they 
 had held a meeting and determined on obstruction. How- 
 ever, after a little I talked them over, and at one got into 
 the Chair and passed twelve votes, greatly to their own 
 surprise and that of the Government, who have asked me 
 to take the management of affairs to-day also. So instead 
 of sitting up forty -eight hours I got to bed at three. To-day 
 
3 l6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the job is more difficult, but the Irish like me, and will do 
 a good deal to please me. 
 
 I have some hopes that I may sail in the Adriatic on 
 the 7th. This is by no means sure, and will depend 
 much upon our progress to-day. 
 
 Same to the same . August 26 th, 1880. 
 
 Still uncertain news as to my chance of leaving. It all 
 depends on to-night's battle. Hitherto we have shirked 
 fighting the Irish, but we have determined to sit up to- 
 night. So I have brought razor and toothbrush ! My 
 purpose is to sit up all through the night till 6 a.m., and 
 then ask relief till 12. I shall get five hours’ sleep, a wash, 
 and some breakfast — of course not going home but sleeping 
 in the House, so that if the amateur Chairman cannot keep 
 order I may be called in. If we break the neck of this 
 senseless obstruction in one night’s sitting, I may be able 
 to get away in the Adriatic on the 7th, presuming that I 
 can get a passage in her. 
 
 Same to the same. August 30 th, 1880. 
 
 I have had a very heavy week of it. I give you a diary. 
 
 Thursday — Chair 5 p.m., continued in it to 6.20 a.m. 
 Friday, then slept one and a half hours ; rested 
 on couch three-quarters of an hour, dressed, 
 breakfasted, and consulted Speaker again. 
 
 10 a.m. in Chair, continued till 1. Went home, had 
 four hours’ sleep, returned to House and took Chair 
 9 p.m. till 3.20 a.m. Saturday morning. Went 
 home, got five hours’ sleep, and took Chair — 
 (Saturday). 
 
 12 a.m., and continued with ten minutes’ intermission 
 for lunch at 3 till 11.30 p.m. I got hold of two 
 ham sandwiches during a division, and munched 
 them secretly in the Chair about 10. 
 
 On Sunday I had my revenge, and did not rise till 12. 
 I went out in the afternoon to the Grant Duffs’, who 
 had the Osborne Morgans with them. They wished me 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 3 T 7 
 
 to stay for the night, but I longed for my own bed and no 
 need for rising early. I am as fresh as a lark still, but the 
 poor Speaker looks jaded and worn. I fancy it must be 
 worse sitting up doing nothing than being actively engaged. 
 At 9.30 on Friday morning, when I was shaved, dressed, 
 and breakfasted, I found the Speaker sitting in a very dusty 
 Court dress, unshaven and battered, in his armchair. He 
 was asleep, but uncomfortably so. He told me he had 
 passed most of the night in Mrs Brand’s gallery, pitying 
 me being badgered by the Irish obstructives, while I 
 enjoyed the fun. The House has certainly been much 
 pleased at my endurance, for they always cheer me 
 loudly as I leave the Chair. I have taken my passage 
 in the Adriatic for the 7th — or rather have written for 
 one — so I shall soon join my lassie and her and my 
 dear ones over the water. 
 
 Playfair returned from America at the close of 1880 
 completely restored to his usual state of vigorous health. 
 
 Same to the same, December 15 th, 1881. 
 
 Count Bismarck and I left [Walmer Castle] at 1 1 to-day 
 and returned home. Yesterday we had two Engineer 
 officers from Dover who joined our party, but they were 
 strangers to Lord and Lady Granville, and were shy, so 
 they did not add to our entertainment. 
 
 I enjoyed my visit much, and got to like the children, 
 especially the heir, Lord Leveson. He is nine, but singularly 
 intelligent, and we had nice walks together. He told his 
 mamma that he had never seen such a man, for stories ran 
 out of my brain as fast as he asked for a new one ! And 
 he asked me to write a book for children ! 
 
 I went up to the school-room, which no visitor had ever 
 done, and told the girls about the habits of animals, and I 
 think was popular with all the young ones. 
 
 When I came to the hotel I found your two dear letters. 
 I am so glad that you got on so comfortably, and that you 
 enjoy yourselves. 
 
318 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 From the correspondence which Playfair maintained with 
 the family of his wife, I make the following extracts : — 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell, Esq. February 22nd, 1879. 
 
 Our politics just now are very uninteresting ; both Lords 
 and Commons feel that the Parliament is old and nearly 
 moribund, and there is little interest felt in our discussions, 
 either inside or outside the House. The Zulu war is a sad 
 affair, but inevitable. Our colonies in South Africa have no 
 natural boundaries, and it is cheaper to conquer border 
 savage tribes than to make regular boundaries to keep 
 them out. This is really the secret of Russia's great exten- 
 sions and of England’s annexations. I see in the future 
 that England must fight every few years till she gets to the 
 great Lake regions of Victoria Nyanza ; and it is possible 
 that we may meet Egypt stretching out her arms into the 
 same region. Ultimately we may have to swallow Egypt 
 also, and the English future will be to civilise Africa when 
 perhaps we have lost our hold on India. Of course I shan’t 
 live to see all this accomplished, but I daresay Edith will. 
 The Anglo-Saxon has certainly a future greater than the 
 Latin race, and will some day be dominant in three out of 
 four quarters of the globe. 
 
 Same to the same. London, April 6 th, 1879. 
 
 My dear Russell, — I have not written to you for a 
 long time, but by the time my business letters are ended I 
 get such a dislike to writing more that I easily reconcile to 
 my conscience to postpone private correspondence. . . . 
 
 The Government are having a bad time of it with their 
 little wars — Afghan, Zululand, and Burmah in prospect. 
 And yet the Chancellor of the Exchequer does not add 
 one penny to the taxes. He takes the easy way of saying, 
 “ If we have a surplus in the three following years we can 
 pay our debts out of that.” So his Budget will be popular, 
 for people do not like to pay increased taxation, and 
 postponing one’s creditors is an easy, if not honest, policy. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 319 
 
 Windsor Hotel, New York, 
 
 Playfair to Miss Alice Russell. November 8 th, 1879. 
 
 I fancy that I must be a simpleton in my looks, for twice 
 have I been beset by “ confidence ” men since I started. 
 Once was in the cars, where a Western, in a huge, broad- 
 brimmed hat, tried to get me to take some shares in a gold 
 mine ; and to-day an innocent youth spent five cents to 
 get into an omnibus to find out whether I was the Rev. 
 Mr Dodds of San Francisco. The same innocent, with a 
 much sharper-looking companion, dogged me down Broad- 
 way and the Fifth Avenue, and tried to entice me into 
 conversation. A policeman appeared, and I suggested that 
 it would be interesting to me to find out whether there was 
 any law in New York to protect strangers from impertinent 
 intrusion ; and they vanished like greased lightning. 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell, Esq. January 15 th, 1881. 
 
 Politically we are in a sad state. We see no end to the 
 obstruction of the Irish members. They have already had 
 nine days’ talk on the Queen’s Speech, and all next week 
 we expect a flow of Irish garrulity before the measures of 
 coercion are even introduced. ‘ Punch’s’ cartoon this 
 week well illustrates the situation. Gladstone as Don 
 Quixote on a charger is charging through a fog with huge 
 rocks of obstruction in the foreground. Yet what can we 
 do ? If we introduce new rules on debate they must be 
 passed, and it would probably take ten days, sitting night 
 and day, to put them through the House. Nothing will 
 do but cloture , that is, the House having power to stop 
 debate when it has exceeded fair proportions. But neither 
 side of the House likes the idea. It is foolish not to pass 
 it, for a majority responsible to the public will never so 
 abuse rules as an irresponsible minority do against a majority. 
 In France Guizot says that since an experience of cloture 
 began in 1814, there has never been an instance when free 
 and ample discussion has been prevented by it. The state 
 of Ireland is indeed desperate. The Queen’s Courts are 
 powerless to administer justice, for no witnesses can be got 
 
320 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 to testify to crime, and no juries can be got to convict. 
 But the Land League Courts flourish when the Queen’s 
 Courts are in contempt, and these self-constituted courts 
 are merciless. Take an instance : A priest spoke against 
 the prevailing lawlessness. An edict went out from the 
 Land League Court that no dues were to be paid him at 
 Christmas beyond one shilling. A well-to-do farmer sent 
 him as usual 20/-. That same night all the fanner’s ricks 
 were burned to the ground. Within the last few weeks the 
 outrages have diminished, but that is because the system of 
 terrorism is so complete. For the decrees of these self- 
 constituted courts are no longer disobeyed. 
 
 Already Fenian movements are springing up in England. 
 Yesterday an attempt was made to blow up barracks at 
 Salford, though luckily only two people perished. The 
 anger of the English and Scotch is rising so much that I 
 fear the Government may be forced into imprudent action. 
 I have difficulty in explaining to others the American 
 action. Most of the funds for this agitation come from the 
 United States : when, coupled with this, an insolent and 
 defiant motion is made in Congress with a prospect of being 
 carried, it is not surprising that the English do not know 
 how to separate the Americans from the Irish and the 
 Democratic Congress. Our statesmen, like Gladstone, 
 Granville and Forster, know that there is no real American 
 sympathy with the Irish agitators. But the general 
 public see in the Davitts, Devoys and others sent over by 
 ‘The Irish World’ newspaper from New York, agents of 
 American agitation. If we get the Habeas Corpus Act 
 suspended, short work will be made of them, but this may 
 produce complications with your Government until your 
 new Republican Congress comes into operation. As yet I 
 have not had much to do, but I should not be surprised if 
 after next week we may sit night and day, in which case 
 the Speaker and Deputy-Speaker will have to sit alternately. 
 Luckily my Private Bill legislation will not occupy me 
 much till the middle of February, so I hope to get through 
 work without too great a strain upon me. We all look 
 with so much interest to letters from Boston, as they keep 
 us well up with our dear American home. 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 321 
 
 Same to the same. February 28 th, 1882. 
 
 Sometimes I feel inclined to rebel at my ungrateful work, 
 and feel disposed to throw it up, and wait for something 
 more congenial to my taste and head. For my work is 
 really no better than that of a master in a badly-behaved 
 school. Our political condition is not encouraging. Troubles 
 in Colonies, troubles in Ireland, and general dissatisfaction 
 with our Parliamentary paralysis, have given the Govern- 
 ment a bad time, and have not increased its support in the 
 country. Your “Skirmishing Fund” in America keeps us 
 in constant watchfulness. One day Windsor Castle is 
 threatened ; another day the Docks ; a third day West- 
 minster Abbey is supposed to be the subject of dynamite 
 and petroleum. We outsiders laugh, but the Govern- 
 ment do not, and constantly surround the places threatened 
 with detectives and police. Even the Volunteers cannot 
 have the use of their arms lest they should be seized by 
 the Fenians. Yet the “Skirmishing Fund” collected in 
 America does not appear to be more than $100,000. 
 Certainly it seems to be enough to send over lots of very 
 suspicious passengers by the steamers. Last week double 
 the number of suspicious characters arrived in London that 
 have come in any week since our troubles began. Sir 
 Edward Thornton is well-informed, and keeps the Foreign 
 Office fully advised, and singular precautions appear to be 
 taken at the houses of our public men. Notwithstanding 
 my unpleasant fights with Irish members, I have not even 
 had a threatening letter, and feel in perfect security, what- 
 ever others may do. I was once threatened on leaving 
 the House by a huge, half-drunken fellow, who wished to 
 punch my head in the snow ; but he thought that I was an 
 Irish obstructive, and wished to teach me what English- 
 men thought of obstruction. Our suspension of the Habeas 
 Corpus Act is now nearly passed, and the steamers to 
 America are being filled with ruffians, so we may soon 
 hope to escape these periodical scares. 
 
 v 
 
322 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Playfair to Mrs Russell. Bath, December nth, 1882. 
 
 This will probably reach you at Christmas time, and I 
 wish you all happy returns of the season. We are likely 
 to spend it in a more lonely though not less happy way 
 than you, for Edith and I are perfectly alone together, 
 not knowing one human being in this town. But we are 
 quite happy and contented. Edith has been a capital 
 nurse during my illness. The coming year will, I hope, 
 restore more of family life to me. I have no intention of 
 being so much of a Parliamentary man next Session, 
 whatever happens. I may, or what is more probable, may 
 not have other official work to do ; but in any case I do 
 not intend to spend fourteen or fifteen hours daily away 
 from home, as formerly. 
 
 The history of the House of Commons between 1883, 
 when Playfair quitted office, and 1885, when the dissolution 
 took place, was a troubled one. Cross currents — to use a 
 phrase which has since attained notoriety — were the order 
 of the day. The Liberal party was struggling with two 
 great questions — those of Ireland and of Egypt — and was 
 witnessing the gradual spread of those rifts within its own 
 borders which bv-and-by were to reduce it to something 
 like impotence. No one in those years clearly foresaw 
 the future ; few dreamed of the course which the Home 
 Rule question was about to take. Fewer still realised the 
 fact that this Parliament of 1880, which had been elected 
 on the crest of a great wave of enthusiasm, was to be the 
 last Parliament in which the historic Liberal party would 
 act unitedly and serve under a common leader. Playfair, 
 by his retirement from the post of Chairman of Com- 
 mittees, had secured a position of personal independence in 
 the House. He found himself one of a small company of 
 distinguished men who, like himself, had been relieved 
 through their own action from the fetters of office. Mr 
 Bright, Mr Forster, and Mr Goschen were of their number. 
 It was natural that when men of so much weight in Parlia- 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 323 
 
 ment, belonging to the party then in office, had taken up 
 an independent position, the spirit of criticism should be 
 rife in the House. Probably the acts of no Ministry were 
 ever more severely criticised from its own side of the 
 House than were those of the Ministry of 1880 during the 
 last two years of its existence. It was known that even in 
 the Cabinet divisions existed. It was believed that there 
 was a party in the Government, strong in its influence if 
 not in its numbers, which wished to come to terms with 
 Mr Parnell and the Home Rulers of Ireland. Events in 
 Egypt had done much to discredit Ministers in the eyes ot 
 their fellow-countrymen ; and there was no question upon 
 which they were more unpopular than upon those asso- 
 ciated with the names of Khartoum and General Gordon. 
 If Playfair had been a man in whose soul any rancour was 
 harboured, if he had been one to whom personal advance- 
 ment was everything, it can hardly be doubted that he 
 would have found, during 1883 and the two following years, 
 an ample opportunity of distinguishing himself in the 
 House by his hostile criticisms of the proceedings of the 
 Ministry. But he was the last man in the world to seek 
 shelter in any Cave of Adullam. That sweetness of temper 
 which characterised him in private life was not less con- 
 spicuous in his public career. The political principles he 
 professed were dear to him as sacred things. He had left 
 office ; he was independent ; he saw Ministers floundering 
 deeper and deeper in the quagmire in which they had 
 become involved; he knew that he could secure the 
 enthusiastic support of the majority of his own con- 
 stituents if he turned upon the falling Government and 
 enrolled himself among the band of relentless critics who 
 hung upon its flank. But he absolutely refused to take 
 this course, and when the great moment came for arriving 
 at a decision upon the gravest political question that had 
 been submitted to Parliament and to the country during 
 
324 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 his lifetime, he unhesitatingly took the unpopular side upon 
 the question of Home Rule, and by doing so cut himself 
 adrift from the majority of his old personal friends and 
 political associates. 
 
 These facts must be borne in mind by those who wish to 
 estimate Playfair's character aright. It would have been 
 so easy and, in a certain measure, so natural for him to 
 have joined the band of malcontents after his retirement 
 from office, that only an unflinching loyalty to principle, 
 and to what he regarded as the truth, allied with a 
 temper of more than common equanimity, could have 
 enabled him to resist the temptation. During these 
 years of the 1880 Parliament, he worked with as much 
 industry and enthusiasm in the House as though he were 
 still in office. He maintained his independence as he 
 had done throughout his Parliamentary career, but it was 
 an independence which displayed itself in his devotion to 
 causes which, though important in themselves, could not 
 command the support of recognised political parties. He 
 stood during these years, as he had stood so long, as the 
 spokesman and representative of interests great in them- 
 selves but devoid of that Parliamentary influence which 
 goes for so much in the eyes of politicians. He never 
 stopped to weigh the popularity or unpopularity of the 
 cause he espoused, but flung himself fearlessly into the 
 breach when battle had to be waged on behalf of scientific 
 truth or the moral and material welfare of the people. 
 He has told us something of what he did on the subject of 
 vaccination. More than any other man in Parliament he 
 was responsible for the defeat of the movement against the 
 Vaccination Laws, and to the end of his days he was justly 
 proud of that achievement. 
 
 Another cause in which he had to face a still stronger 
 current of unpopularity was that in which is involved 
 the right of men to perform experiments upon living 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 325 
 
 animals in the interests of scientific truth. Playfair, as 
 all who were acquainted with him knew, had a heart 
 that was always open to the appeal of suffering, and 
 a mind that was singularly sensitive upon questions of 
 moral responsibility. But his humanitarianism led him 
 to believe that, after all, the greatest good of the greatest 
 number was the object to be pursued in public life, and 
 he did not hesitate to stand forth boldly in defence of 
 those who claimed the right to further the interests of 
 humanity, and to widen the bounds of medical knowledge 
 by means of experiments on living animals. He became, 
 as was but natural, an object of intense dislike to the 
 opponents of vivisection. There is no need to argue the 
 question of vivisection in these pages — it is not even 
 necessary to touch upon the notorious exaggerations which 
 are used for the purpose of prejudicing an ignorant public 
 against those who dare to run counter to the views of the 
 Anti- Vivisection Society. Playfair’s opinions on this 
 question must be left where he himself would have had 
 them left — to the judgment of the men who know : his 
 fellow men of science and the medical profession. But 
 his biographer must call attention to the fact that in the 
 House of Commons he was in these years of unfettered 
 independence what he had been during his whole Parlia- 
 mentary career — a courageous advocate of causes which he 
 believed to be true, and from the defence of which no 
 amount of unpopularity could drive him. 
 
 Nor was it only in the advocacy of unpopular causes of 
 supreme interest to the health of the community that Play- 
 fair showed his stern loyalty and courage at this period of 
 his career. He was just as little afraid to espouse the cause 
 of an unpopular man as that of an unpopular truth. He 
 himself has noted the fact that at the very time when he 
 was compelled by his official position to wage war against 
 the Irish members, he enjoyed amongst these gentlemen a 
 
326 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 remarkable degree of personal popularity. Whilst they did 
 everything in their power to obstruct him and embarrass 
 him in his Chairmanship, they took all possible means of 
 showing that personally they regarded him with sympathy 
 rather than with antipathy, and he himself, far from being 
 soured by his conflicts with the Irish party in the House of 
 Commons, was large enough and magnanimous enough to 
 regard their action from a purely impersonal point of view. 
 It was in 1885 that he took a step which, whilst it caused 
 some surprise to his ordinary political associates, endeared 
 him to the great body of the Irish members. Dining one 
 of his visits to the United States he had met Mr John 
 Boyle O’Reilly at Boston. Mr Boyle O’Reilly was an 
 Irish rebel who had once served in the English army. He 
 was proscribed by the British Government, and forbidden 
 leave to return to his native country. Playfair met him in 
 mixed company in Boston, and found him to be a man of 
 culture, refinement, wide knowledge and gentle disposition. 
 Whatever might be his position in Irish politics, Playfair 
 came to the conclusion that he was an honest and honour- 
 able man ; and when, in the heat of the struggle over the 
 Irish question, his name was mentioned in debate in the 
 House of Commons, Playfair at once rose, and facing a 
 hostile audience of Englishmen and Scotchmen, bore his 
 testimony to Mr O’Reilly’s character, and urged that the 
 Government should withdraw its refusal to allow" him to 
 return to his native country. It w r as a characteristic act, 
 the courage and magnanimity of w-hich can only be fully 
 recognised by those who remember the height wdiich 
 national passions and animosities attained in that bitter 
 period of political warfare in the United Kingdom. 
 
 Mr Boyle O'Reilly to Playfair . Boston, February 18th, 1885. 
 
 Dear Mr Playfair, — Allow- me, though still under 
 ban, to send you my most sincere thanks for your kindly 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 32 7 
 
 interest in my request to your Government to be allowed 
 to visit Canada and Great Britain. The Home Secretary, 
 as you probably are aware, has refused the request. Mr 
 Bagenal sent to me your letter (copy) to the Irish Secretary. 
 I shall always remember it with pleasure and gratitude. 
 I had no intention of meddling with politics in any way 
 had I gone to either country, so that your word would 
 have been quite safe on my account. I trust that when 
 you visit America again I may have the great pleasure of 
 thanking you in person. 
 
 I am, dear Sir, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
 John Boyle O’Reilly. 
 
 As one of the few men of science in the House of 
 Commons, Playfair found constant opportunities of ad- 
 vancing the interests of science in that assembly. Nor 
 was science in the abstract the only matter for which he 
 cared. He was for years the recognised guardian of the 
 interests of scientific men in their dealings with the Govern- 
 ment, which has not even yet fully recognised their claims 
 to public support and approval. It is strange to think that 
 in the year 1883 there should have been any hesitation on 
 the part of a Prime Minister, and especially of one so 
 enlightened as Mr Gladstone, as to the desirableness of 
 conferring a mark of honour upon so eminent a man ol 
 science as Professor Richard Owen. Yet the following 
 correspondence appears to establish this fact : — 
 
 British Museum, Cromwell Road, 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Professor Owen to Playfair. June 28 th, 1883. 
 
 Dear Lyon Playfair, — I have received a private 
 letter from an official friend, informing me that “ the 
 K.C.B., vacant by the demise of Sir Edward Sabine, 
 which was given for scientific services, ought to fall to 
 your share.” It would not have occurred to me, nor was 
 
328 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 I aware of the alleged relation. I have never entertained 
 any personal wish on the subject, and on the verge of 
 entering upon my eightieth year, such indifference may be 
 condoned. The chief satisfaction I should feel by such an 
 instance of Her Majesty’s gracious recognition would be in 
 regard to the relation of my own to that of other countries 
 in the estimate which has been allotted to me. This con- 
 sideration has led to the enclosed memorandum, which it 
 might be proper to submit to the Prime Minister, and there 
 is no friend to whom I could have confided it for that 
 purpose except one with whom of old I had the pleasure to 
 be associated in the application of science to the public good. 
 
 Believe me, dear Playfair, 
 
 Most truly yours, 
 
 Richard Owen. 
 
 The memorandum which accompanied the above letter, 
 and which Playfair lost no time in placing in the hands of 
 Mr Gladstone, is a document of so remarkable a character 
 that it may well find a place in these pages. For the fact 
 that men of science no longer have to suffer the neglect 
 which was so long their lot at the hands of those with 
 whom rests the recommendation of suitable recipients of 
 the Royal favour, the country is indebted more largely to 
 Lyon Playfair than to any other man. 
 
 MEMORANDUM. 
 
 At the period when Sir Edward Sabine was elected correspondent 
 of the Academic des Sciences, Paris, I was chosen one of the eight 
 foreign members of the Institute (on the death of Robert Brown, 
 justly esteemed the greatest botanist after Linnaeus). 
 
 About the same period, the King of Prussia decreed that a certain 
 very limited number of the Cross of the Order for Merit should be 
 conferred on discoverers in science, and confided this application of 
 the Order to Humboldt. I was early honoured by being selected for 
 its reception. 
 
 Of every Academy of Science of Europe and America I have been 
 elected member. 
 
 These may be the best testimonies to a status in science of a 
 contemporary and countryman that ja Minister may deem worthy of 
 
CHAIRMAN AND DEPUTY-SPEAKER. 
 
 3 2 9 
 
 consideration ; but a large proportion of my working time has been 
 devoted to improved and extended applications of national institu- 
 tions for scientific progress. The Hunterian Museum of Physiology, 
 purchased by Government in 1789, remained until 1830 uncatalogued 
 — i.e. devoid of any adequate manuscript or printed description of 
 its contents and aims. In 1826 I was chosen by the Council of the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, to whom in 1800 the Hunterian Museum 
 had been confided, to assist in the formation of the catalogues which 
 Hunter’s executor, Sir Everard Horne, had promised to prepare, but 
 did not. My first catalogue in quarto appeared in 1830, and was 
 followed by successive volumes, which in 1855 supplied the long- 
 felt need. 
 
 In 1856 I was honoured with my present appointment in the 
 British Museum. The state in which I found the collections of 
 natural history led to the Report ordered by the House of Commons 
 to be printed in 1859. The main requisites therein defined have 
 been attained for the benefit of both the scientific and general public 
 in the British Museum of Natural History, Cromwell Road. 
 
 These public duties have precluded my acceptance of any re- 
 munerative scientific office elsewhere, such as the Secretaryship of 
 the Royal Society, etc. I have not, however, deemed it proper to 
 refuse such services as might be required by Government in re- 
 lation to commissions or inquiries needing scientific knowledge. 
 The Commission on the health of towns was followed by that on the 
 health of the Metropolis, which led to a third on Smithfield Market 
 and the meat supply of London. The only name which would be 
 found on these three Commissions is that of the present writer, 
 
 Richard Owen. 
 
 No one will question either the sufficiency of the 
 claims set forth by Professor Owen or the modesty of the 
 statement in which they are named. 
 
 10, Downing Street, Whitehall, 
 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair . June 29 th, 1883. 
 
 Dear Mr Playfair, — Though I cannot make a 
 promise about Professor Owen, I will consider your sug- 
 gestion very carefully, and it will give me much pleasure if 
 I find I can comply. Most faithfully yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 Playfairs application to Mr Gladstone was not un- 
 successful, and Owen received the Knight Commandership 
 of the Bath which he so richly merited in January, 1884. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 Playfair’s Ties with America— Why he never became a Cabinet Minister 
 — His Acceptance of Home Rule — Appointed Honorary Secretary of 
 the Commission for the 1851 Exhibition — His Views on the Functions 
 of a Minister for Scotland — Decides to retire from the Representation 
 of Edinburgh University — His Candidature for South Leeds — The 
 Constituency described — His Brilliant Victory — His Connection with 
 the “ Hawarden Kite” — Appointed Vice-President of the Council. 
 Autobiography : Celebration of the Tercentenary of Edinburgh 
 University : With the British Association at Montreal and at 
 Aberdeen : At Glamis Castle again : Reform of the Medical 
 
 Profession : Re-election for South Leeds. 
 
 The chapters of Playfair’s Autobiography which follow 
 that which I have last quoted are brief and fragmentary. 
 As I explained in the opening chapter of this work, the 
 Autobiograph) T , which was commenced in 1882 and chiefly 
 written during his visits to America, was never revised, and a 
 great part of it was written somewhat hurriedly, the writer's 
 intention having been to produce something more detailed 
 and satisfactory if time and his strength permitted. This pur- 
 pose he never accomplished, and we are consequently without 
 that connected story of Playfair’s life after 1880 which he 
 gave us prior to that date. This fact is the more to be 
 regretted, because the closing years of his public career 
 form, in many respects, the most interesting and important 
 period of his life. Happily, he has left behind the means 
 of forming a correct judgment upon his character and 
 action during these years. His marriage to Miss Russell 
 had led to what he playfully described as his adoption of 
 a second country. Those annual visits to Boston and 
 Nahant, of which the reader has already learnt something, 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 331 
 
 were not only a bright feature of Playfair's life as it drew 
 towards a close, but the means of establishing a bond of 
 affection between himself and his wife's family in America, 
 which led to the interchange of a correspondence from 
 which may be gathered those details of his life that are no 
 longer recorded in his Autobiography. His letters to his 
 wife’s father, Mr Russell, have a special interest, because 
 of the light that they throw upon a side of Playfair’s 
 character that does not appear either in his Autobiography 
 or in his official correspondence. They are full of revela- 
 tions, slight in themselves, but nevertheless convincing, of 
 the warmth of his affections, the gaiety of his temper, and 
 the sweetness of his disposition. His relations with his 
 wife’s family, from the time of his marriage down to the 
 day of his death, were indeed of a peculiarly intimate and 
 affectionate kind. He entered into the life of the house- 
 hold at Nahant with the ardent interest of a boy. He 
 became a real member of the American family into which 
 he had been admitted by marriage, and he was never so 
 happy as when, turning aside from the engrossing cares of 
 public life in London, he sat down to chat on paper with 
 those relatives in the United States to whom the English 
 official world was a closed book. For their sake he ex- 
 plained many things which Englishmen are supposed 
 instinctively to understand. The fashions and customs of 
 our political world ; the ceremonial of great functions ; the 
 little personal touches which enable one at a distance to 
 understand the character of a public man, were matters 
 upon which he loved to dwell, in order that he might give 
 pleasure to friends to whom he was devoted on the other 
 side of the Atlantic. 
 
 I propose to bring together a number of Playfair’s letters 
 to the members of the Russell household, not merely 
 because of their intrinsic interest, but because of the light 
 which they throw upon a side of his character that was 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 hidden from the outer world. For the present, however, 1 
 recur to his life during the later years of the 1880 Parlia- 
 ment. It was, as the reader has seen in the last chapter, a 
 very busy life, though the cares of office did not enter into 
 it. Recognising the fact that his tenure of his seat at 
 Edinburgh was coming to an end, Playfair felt free to 
 throw himself more unreservedly than he had hitherto 
 done into the battle of politics. It had been his personal 
 misfortune to become known in the House of Commons as 
 a member for a Universfiy. In that capacity he had 
 served his country well in connection with the advance- 
 ment of science and of education. He had spoken, as 
 upon the questions of vaccination and vivisection, for the 
 cultured classes. He had been one of the most powerful 
 agents in promoting the growth of technical instruction. 
 He had been an arbitrator to whose judgment many grave 
 questions affecting the welfare of the community had been 
 unhesitatingly submitted by successive Governments. But 
 through it all he had been compelled to feel that he was 
 in a certain sense an outsider in the political arena. He 
 had distinguished himself so greatly on the non-contentious 
 side of politics that the statesmen of his own party seemed 
 to have come to the conclusion that he was in no sense a 
 party man. But for this fact it is probable that Playfair 
 would have taken a very different position in the political 
 world from that which he secured — honourable and dis- 
 tinguished as that position was. But the political leaders 
 on both sides seemed to regard him as a man whose 
 enormous power of work, whose learning, and whose 
 intelligence were to be devoted solely to the service 
 of the public in those fields which offer little scope for the 
 gratification of political ambition. 
 
 This is not the place in which to enter upon a disquisi- 
 tion as to the comparative value of public work of a non- 
 partisan character, and of that which is done within strict 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 333 
 
 party limits. Playfairs life is itself a sufficient vindication 
 of the importance and value of the services which can be 
 rendered to the community and to the world by a public 
 man who stands outside the narrow limits of mere par- 
 tisanship ; but it is not to be denied that a man who, 
 conscious of his own ability, seeks to become a distinct 
 power in the Senate, is more likely to attain his object by 
 throwing himself unreservedly into the arms of a party, 
 than by confining himself to that class of work which lies 
 outside the region of party conflicts. 
 
 Playfair would unquestionably have received a Cabinet 
 appointment but for the disadvantage under which he 
 laboured as member for a University in which a 
 majority of the voters were Tories. As the Parliament 
 of 1880 drew to a close, he found himself being gradually 
 emancipated from the bonds that had hitherto fettered 
 him ; and whilst he continued to take a special interest in 
 those questions of education and of scientific inquiry which 
 had always absorbed so large an amount of his time and 
 thought, he did not neglect those purely political topics 
 which were the subject of party controversies. A great 
 convulsion, which was destined to bring about something 
 like a revolution in the condition of parties in the House of 
 Commons, was approaching, whilst Mr Gladstone s Ministry 
 of 1880 was slowly drawing near to its appointed end. 
 This is not the place in which to tell the history of the 
 Home Rule movement, nor indeed can that history as yet 
 be told to its end. When Mr Gladstone, breaking away 
 from the policy of a lifetime, boldly resolved to attempt to 
 settle the great question of Ireland in the interests of the 
 United Kingdom as a whole, he drew with him on his 
 perilous and difficult path many men of eminence and high 
 principle, though he had to part from some of those who 
 had been his most faithful colleagues and followers in his 
 previous career. Playfair was one of the men who, in that 
 
334 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 great crisis, stood by Mr Gladstone. The very fact 
 that he had occupied a position of ^tfsz-independence 
 strengthened the importance of his adhesion to the Glad- 
 stonian policy at a time when so many of the Liberal 
 leader’s devoted personal adherents were falling from him. 
 The letters I shall presently quote will throw some light 
 upon this step on Playfairs part. But all who knew him 
 will need no evidence to convince them that it was a step 
 taken under the pressure of strong conviction, and from 
 the highest of personal motives. 
 
 Many public duties occupied Pla}ffair after his resignation 
 of the Chairmanship of Committees, but none was more 
 important than that which devolved upon him in connec- 
 tion with the Commission for the Exhibition of 1851. He 
 had come back to the body with which he had been 
 officially connected in his early career. He came back to 
 find that its affairs had become involved, that its finances 
 were embarrassed, and that its prospects were gloomy. He 
 set himself with characteristic resolution to the task of 
 setting the house of the Commission in order, and one of 
 the first steps which he took was that of becoming hono- 
 rary secretary". It was a post of great labour, and of great 
 responsibility, but there was no one better qualified for it 
 than the man who, in 1851, had been one of the ablest 
 instruments of the Prince Consort in carrying out the 
 beneficent scheme of that year. 
 
 Cumberland Lodge, 
 
 H.R.H. Prince Christian to Playfair. March 26th. 1884. 
 
 Dear Sir Lyon Playfair, — I have received your 
 interesting statement with resume of the position of 
 affairs of the Commissioners of 1851. Having read that 
 statement, it seems to me that there can be no doubt 
 that it will be impossible for us to secure the sendees of a 
 paid secretary. The question remains, therefore, whether 
 you will be able — if you should be inclined — to undertake 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 335 
 
 for another year the duties of an honorary secretary. I feel 
 that it is hardly fair to ask you to do so, or to sacrifice so 
 much of your valuable time for the sake of extricating Her 
 Majesty’s Commissioners out of their difficulties. At the 
 same time, I venture to express the hope that you may be 
 able to carry on the business of an honorary secretary for 
 another year, as I do not know how we shall get on in the 
 present state of affairs without your valuable assistance. I 
 have sent your letter to Mr Knollys, and asked him to lay 
 it before the Prince of Wales as soon as he returns. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Christian v. Holstein. 
 
 The post which Playfair had accepted of honorary 
 secretary he retained for several years afterwards, and the 
 reader will presently have an opportunity of seeing how 
 great was the work which he accomplished in that 
 capacity. 
 
 Among the measures contemplated by the Government 
 of Mr Gladstone in the Session of 1885 was one for 
 creating a Minister for Scotland. Playfair held strong 
 views as to the duties which such a Minister ought to 
 discharge. He was not personally favourable to the 
 creation of this office, but he was clear in his own mind 
 as to the functions which ought to be exercised by its 
 holder. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to Mr Gladstone . December 8th, 1884. 
 
 Dear Mr Gladstone, — I am anxious to put before 
 you some points regarding the Bill which will come before 
 us next Session, creating a Minister for Scotland. 
 
 (1) If a Scotch Minister had merely Home Office work 
 to perform, the natural thing would be that the Lord 
 Advocate should look after his work in the House of 
 Commons, and that the Scotch Minister should generally 
 be in the House of Lords. 
 
336 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 (2) But the Scotch municipalities wish to re-organise the 
 office, and feel that the Minister would have small func- 
 tions as a Home Minister. They therefore desire to attach 
 Scotch Education to his office. No such desire has been 
 shown by the School Boards. This combination would 
 completely alter the nature of the Minister. He would 
 then be chiefly Scotch Minister of Education with Home 
 Office duties attached. 
 
 (3) In this altered position the Minister must not 
 generally be in the House of Lords. You could not put 
 the education of the people in charge of a Minister not in 
 the House of the people. The Lord Advocate could hot 
 be his proper representative in the lower House, for he 
 would have the functions of Attorney-General in England. 
 
 (4) Education in Scotland is the essential source of pros- 
 perity in a country which has scarcely any natural sources 
 of wealth. The junction, therefore, of education with 
 Home Office duties would entirely alter the conception of 
 a new Scotch Minister. The Prime Minister, who selects 
 for the office, would have to bear in mind the educational 
 qualifications of his Minister as much as if he were appoint- 
 ing a Vice-President of the Council. 
 
 (5) I have never been in favour of a Scotch Minister, 
 but if he is to be appointed, his function should be wide 
 enough to justify his appointment, and in this point of view 
 there are arguments for giving him the charge of Scotch 
 education. 
 
 (6) But I think this would be a disastrous combination 
 for Scotland, unless he were a House of Commons Minister, 
 able to watch over the education of the Scotch people. 
 
 (7) This will be all the more necessary, because if you 
 sever English from Scotch education (a policy of which I 
 entirely disapprove), the differences between the two will 
 raise many enemies in the House to the peculiarities of 
 Scotch education established in relation to the higher sub- 
 jects taught under the elementary grant. Unless, therefore, 
 you have the Minister in the House of Commons, Scotch 
 education, instead of gaining, will be materially deteriorated. 
 I wish, with these convictions, merely to point out that the 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 337 
 
 proposed - combination of education with Home Office 
 duties in the new Ministry profoundly alters its original 
 conception, and must be borne in mind in any Bill which 
 the Government intends to bring forward. 
 
 As 1885 advanced, it became clear that the Ministry was 
 not likely to survive the Session, but before the final catas- 
 trophe which led to Mr Gladstone’s defeat and the 
 accession of Lord Salisbury as Prime Minister took place, 
 Playfair’s views, set forth in the foregoing letter, upon 
 the appointment of a Minister for Scotland had led to a 
 crisis in his own affairs. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell , Esq. Ma y 2 oth, 1885. 
 
 I write to tell you that I have finally broken off with 
 my constituency of the Universities, and have formally 
 announced that I will not seek for re-election. My reason 
 for this is that the Government has introduced a Bill for 
 separating Scotch and English education, and putting the 
 former in the hands of a “ Scotch Secretary ” about to be 
 created. This I highly disapprove, as I think it will be 
 ruinous to Scotch education. But as many of my Liberal 
 supporters approve of this step, it is clear that I cannot 
 stand for a University when the Liberal voters are not 
 united on an educational question. No doubt I shall be 
 much censured for this step, but I do not feel bound to 
 stand for a constituency that gives me a contest every time 
 after seventeen years’ service, when no other Universities 
 disturb their members if they do their duty. I am already 
 offered several seats, but I shall bide my time, and only 
 take one which will both be safe and less expensive than 
 that which forced a contest upon me at each election. 
 Leeds and Dundee both wish to have me, and are nego- 
 tiating with me. There are plenty of towns looking for 
 candidates, so I do not intend being hasty, as it would not 
 break my heart if I did not get into Parliament again ; but 
 this I do not think is likely. The old University members 
 
 w 
 
338 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 are much distressed, as they think my practical expulsion 
 from my seat will sound the knell for University representa- 
 tion. I hope it will not have this effect. 
 
 No sooner did it become known that Playfair had 
 finally resolved to retire from the representation of Edin- 
 burgh, than he was overwhelmed with applications from 
 constituencies in different parts of the country, anxious to 
 secure him as their representative. His choice for some 
 time, as the foregoing letter indicates, fluctuated between 
 Leeds, Dundee, and Birmingham, but eventually he decided 
 in favour of the first place; and in the autumn of 1885 
 was formally accepted as the Liberal candidate for South 
 Leeds. The constituency represented the most Radical 
 element of a Radical borough. South Leeds is inhabited 
 almost entirely by working men, the artisans employed in 
 the great engineering shops, and their foremen and over- 
 lookers, most of whom have themselves risen from the 
 ranks. It would, in short, be difficult to find anywhere in 
 the country a more democratic constituency than South 
 Leeds. But democratic and advanced in opinion as it is, it 
 represents the best elements in the working classes. The 
 voters are a hard-headed and intelligent lot, and they 
 are capable of appreciating superior intellectual qualities 
 whenever and wherever they meet with them. 
 
 There could hardly have been a greater contrast between 
 any two constituencies than that which existed between 
 South Leeds and the Universities of Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews. Many of Playfairs friends felt somewhat dubious 
 as to the wisdom of the choice he had made when he 
 resolved to fight South Leeds as a Liberal candidate ; but 
 never were doubts more brilliantly dispelled than by the 
 result of this experiment. No sooner had Playfair appeared 
 among the electors of South Leeds than he won from them 
 an almost enthusiastic appreciation, which quickly developed 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 339 
 
 into a feeling of warm confidence and affection. They 
 recognised his wide knowledge, his experience, his great 
 capacity for work ; they rejoiced in his power of lucid 
 exposition, in the homely arguments and illustrations by 
 means of which he enforced his views ; above all, they 
 valued the sobriety and seriousness with which he dis- 
 cussed with them the great questions of the day. Clap- 
 trap was something that was hateful to Playfair through- 
 out his life ; and playful and gay as was his spirit in his 
 moments of relaxation, he never allowed himself to be 
 flippant or shallow when dealing in public with public 
 affairs. He made it his business when about to address a 
 meeting of working men in Hunslet (the district of Leeds 
 which constitutes the Parliamentary division of South 
 Leeds) to prepare himself as thoroughly for the duty as 
 though he had to appear before a company of philosophers 
 in Edinburgh or Albemarle Street. 
 
 Nor was this all. Whilst he took full advantage of the 
 freedom he had now secured in order to give expression to 
 those political opinions which he had firmly held through- 
 out his life, he did not forget those less contentious ques- 
 tions which had absorbed so many of the years of his man- 
 hood. He spoke out with clearness and freedom on the 
 political topics of the day, and left his auditors in no doubt 
 as to the robustness of his political creed. But from time 
 to time he diverted their attention from the burning topics 
 of the hour in order to address them upon such questions 
 as the future of English industry, the need for technical 
 instruction of the English working men, and the economic 
 doctrines upon which our commercial prosperity depends. 
 To an outsider, accustomed to the ordinary course of a 
 contested election in this country, it might have seemed 
 that Playfair was making a great mistake when, instead of 
 treating the working men of South Leeds to the flowing 
 rhetoric and easy platitudes of the ordinary politician, he 
 
340 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 called them together in order that they might listen to 
 closely reasoned arguments, crammed full of facts and 
 figures, on such questions as those I have named. Yet the 
 end justified the means, and from personal observation I 
 can testify that in the fierce electoral struggle of 1885 
 there were no meetings more densety crowded or more 
 appreciative and enthusiastic in all the wide county of 
 Yorkshire than those which Lyon Playfair addressed in the 
 Mechanics’ Institution and similar buildings in the manu- 
 facturing district of Hunslet. 
 
 This, it should be borne in mind, was the first occasion 
 on which the redistribution of seats that followed the 
 passing of the County Suffrage Bill was carried into effect. 
 South Leeds was thus, to all intents and purposes, a new 
 constituency. It was no longer a mere section of the 
 great constituency of the united borough of Leeds. It 
 had entered upon a new political life. Its candidate, soon 
 to become its member, was in the same condition. He, 
 too, had entered upon a new political life. No more 
 interesting election took place in England during that year 
 of 1885. It was not by any means a typical election. 
 The reader has seen how small a degree Lyon Playfair had 
 in him of the arts and practices of the ordinary candidate. 
 There was something quaint in the spectacle which this man 
 of years and learning presented when he stood up to appeal 
 to a great working-class constituency, and sought to win 
 their sympathies by instructing them upon topics which 
 even in cultured society are regarded as too grave and 
 serious to be tolerated unnecessarily. Yet, as I have said, 
 the experiment succeeded. Playfair had found a con- 
 stituency which suited him admirably, which he could 
 influence and control as effectually as if he had been one of 
 the bom masters of oratory ; and South Leeds had found a 
 member whom it regarded with mingled pride and affection, 
 and in whom it reposed a confidence which it never with- 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 341 
 
 drew from him during the remainder of his life. To many 
 of us it seems a pity that Playfair was not permitted to 
 enter upon this phase of his public life at an earlier stage. 
 If he had done so, his career might have been still more 
 remarkable than it was. 
 
 The struggle of 1885 was a severe one in Leeds as else- 
 where. In the towns, the verdict given was adverse to the 
 Liberal party, and if it had not been for the way in which 
 the newly enfranchised voters in the counties rallied to the 
 standard of Mr Gladstone, an overwhelming defeat would 
 have been incurred. In Leeds, as in most of the great 
 towns, the Liberal party received a severe check. Three 
 of the five seats were won by Conservative candidates ; but 
 in South Leeds Playfair achieved a brilliant victory, and 
 had a majority of 2,339 votes over his opponent. Those 
 who were present in the Leeds Town Hall on the night of 
 the election can still remember the calmness and dignity 
 with which Playfair received the announcement of this 
 signal victory. It was his first battle in the open, the first 
 occasion on which he had taken part as one of the princi- 
 pals in an appeal to a popular constituency. Most men 
 would have been excited and elated by the victory he had 
 achieved ; but Playfair was calm and collected, and his first 
 thought was not for himself but for those comrades in the 
 fight who had been less successful. One of these, as it 
 happened, was an eminent scientific man, an old friend of 
 his own. This gentleman, Professor Rucker, had stood in 
 the Liberal interest for North Leeds, and had been defeated 
 by a narrow majority. The present writer remembers the 
 warm, almost tender, sympathy which was shown by 
 Playfair to Professor Rucker, and the coolness and sound 
 judgment with which he forecast the result of the General 
 Election as a whole. His own personal victory, highly as 
 he esteemed it, did not for a moment blind his eyes to the 
 fact that the tide of battle was turning against his party, or 
 
34 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 blunt his sympathies with those who had been less 
 fortunate than himself. 
 
 Not many days had elapsed after the close of the General 
 Election, when the country was startled by the news of Mr 
 Gladstone’s conversion to Home Rule. It is only neces- 
 sary here to note a small incident which associates Playfair 
 indirectly with the promulgation of this news. No man 
 knew more accurately than he did all that was passing 
 behind the scenes in different political circles. He was 
 quick to observe, in December, 1885, certain movements 
 among the leaders of the Radical section of the Liberal 
 party, which seemed to him to portend something out of 
 the common. He made it his business to ascertain what 
 had passed at certain mysterious conferences between Mr 
 Chamberlain and some of his political associates ; and it 
 was the communication of the knowledge he acquired on 
 this subject that led directly to the publication of the 
 statement in the newspapers commonly called at the time 
 “The Hawarden Kite.” This statement was the first 
 intimation given to the public of Mr Gladstone’s changed 
 position with regard to Home Rule. 
 
 When the new Ministry was formed, under the presi- 
 dency of Mr Gladstone, Playfair was offered the post of 
 Vice-President of the Council — the position being in reality 
 that of Minister of Education. It seems strange that he 
 should have had to wait so long for a post for which he was 
 so eminently qualified. Years before, his friends had con- 
 gratulated him upon a rumour of his appointment to this 
 office. The rumour was false, but the readiness with which 
 it was accepted among members of all parties afforded 
 evidence of the fact that public opinion had already pointed 
 him out as the ideal Minister of Education. After all these 
 years of waiting and of work, the prize which had once 
 seemed so desirable was placed within his grasp. But the 
 times were changed, and it was with unfeigned reluctance 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 343 
 
 that Playfair now consented, under the strong personal 
 pressure of Mr Gladstone, and of his old friend, Lord 
 Granville, to accept the post of Vice-President of the 
 Council. He realised clearly that the Ministry, of which 
 he thus became a member, was destined to have a short 
 and stormy life. Convinced that the Irish question had 
 reached a stage in which justice demanded that a large 
 measure of concession should be made to the views of the 
 Irish people, he was earnest and loyal in his support of 
 the general policy of Mr Gladstone. But he cherished 
 no illusions. The sobriety of judgment and keenness of 
 apprehension which always distinguished him in his 
 dealings with public affairs did not desert him now ; and 
 he realised that the Parliament of 1885 could never settle 
 the Home Rule question. Nor was he blind to the fact 
 that those who entered the Ministry of Mr Gladstone had 
 to confront difficulties such as no previous Government of 
 modern times had been called upon to face. Yet, under 
 the pressure which was put upon him, and with a loyal 
 obedience to the voice of duty, he accepted the office of 
 Vice-President, and went sturdily to work, as was his wont, 
 to snatch some good for the public from the stormy sea ot 
 political controversy. 
 
 The six months’ Parliament of 1885 did little that was 
 remarkable beyond shattering itself upon the rock of Home 
 Rule. But one important Bill at least became law during 
 its brief existence. This was the Bill for the organisation 
 of the medical profession, which Playfair succeeded in 
 carrying as Vice-President of the Council. Looking back, 
 it seems strange that any measure could have been passed 
 during that time of indescribable political tumult and 
 agitation. But it was no surprise to his friends that, 
 if such a success were to be attained, the man who 
 attained it was Playfair. 
 
344 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — XI. 
 
 1884 to 1886. 
 
 In the spring of 1884 the University of Edinburgh held 
 its tercentenary. This was the best celebration of its 
 kind which I have ever attended, and I have taken part in 
 similar demonstrations in Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
 and at Harvard University, Massachusetts. Eminent men 
 of science, literary men and jurists, came from all parts of 
 the world and formed a gallant array in their academic 
 robes, varying in colour from canary yellow and light blue 
 to the sober black of our Scotch robes. There were three 
 days of festivity during which there was ample opportunity 
 of showing any defects in the organisation of the proceed- 
 ings, but none were manifest. The students behaved 
 with perfect decorum, which was a new feature in their 
 gatherings. 
 
 There was some difficulty in getting a Royal recognition 
 of this celebration on the part of the Queen, on account 
 of her strong objection to vivisection, which she believed 
 was carried on by the medical faculty of the University. 
 The original charter of James VI. of Scotland (James I. of 
 England) directed that the Edinburgh University should be 
 called “ our University,” and as such should be specially 
 recognised by the King and his successor. I wrote to the 
 Queen's Secretary to this effect, and ventured to suggest 
 that Her Majesty should send a message of welcome to the 
 distinguished foreign savants gathered together to celebrate 
 the tercentenary of her University. The Queen in reply 
 said that she would gladly do so if I could assure her that 
 no experiments on living animals were carried on within its 
 precincts. It was easy to explain that we were celebrating 
 the foundation of the University, not that of the Medical 
 College, which was not even in contemplation when the 
 former was founded. But the explanation was not deemed 
 to be satisfactory, and, on the chief day of the celebration, 
 the Queen started from London to Coburg without any 
 recognition of the celebration from Her Majesty being sent 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 345 
 
 to the Chancellor. During the whole day I received tele- 
 grams from different parts of the Royal journey, asking 
 for further explanations, which were sent by telegram in 
 advance of the journey, and ultimately the Royal welcome 
 was read at the great banquet in the afternoon. The Prince 
 of Wales, to whom I had also written, remembered that 
 he had been a student, and was then a graduate, of the 
 University, and sent warm congratulations. 
 
 While on this subject it may be stated that two years 
 later (1886) I attended, as delegate from the Edinburgh 
 University, the celebration of the 150th year of Harvard 
 University, which has done such signal service for higher 
 education in America. The exercises on this occasion were 
 simple and impressive, but without the splendour of the 
 Edinburgh celebration. I had the pleasure to receive the 
 degree of LL.D., which made my sixth doctorate. The 
 admirable decorum of the Harvard students struck me as 
 much superior to that of English and Scotch students. 
 
 In the year 1884 the British Association for the Advance- 
 ment of Science met at Montreal under the presidency of 
 Lord Rayleigh. The occasion was important, as it was 
 the first time that the meeting was held beyond the seas. 
 The charter of the Association uses designedly the words 
 “ British Empire.” Science is catholic, and embraces the 
 universe, but British science has a wide extension to 
 colonies and dependencies covering 8J million square 
 miles, inhabited by 300 millions of people. This was 
 the first attempt to federate science. Canada had a 
 just claim to invite the British Association to meet at 
 Montreal. There has been an active study of science in 
 Canada. The Geological Survey, under the direction of 
 Sir William Logan, had done excellent work. He was no 
 longer alive, though his memory was bright to many of us. 
 Logan came frequently to England, and co-operated with 
 our scientific bodies. I think it was in 1855 that he came 
 over to the French Exhibition in charge of a splendid 
 collection of the mineral resources of Canada. It occurred 
 to me that this would be a fitting occasion to recognise 
 colonial science by conferring upon him a Royal honour, 
 
346 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 and accordingly I wrote to the Prince Consort asking him 
 to move the Queen to confer a knighthood on Logan, and 
 this was graciously bestowed. 
 
 This was the first occasion on which colonial science 
 received an honorary recognition. The people of Montreal 
 subscribed for a commemorative piece of plate to celebrate 
 the honour, and entrusted me with its execution. The 
 plate was decorated with fossil flora and fossils discovered 
 by Canadian geologists. A whole generation had passed 
 since that event, and successors to Sir William Logan still 
 laboured in illustrating the geolog} 7 of Canada. Sir William 
 Dawson and Mr Sterry Hunt were no mean representa- 
 tives of that science at the Canadian meeting. I recollect 
 that an important fact in science was communicated to 
 the President of the Natural History section in an amusing 
 way. He, with his wife, had been travelling by the 
 Canadian Pacific Railway, and returned in time for the 
 meeting at Montreal. Here he found telegrams from 
 England awaiting his arrival, announcing the serious ill- 
 ness of his son. He telegraphed for the latest news, and a 
 return message was put into his hands, which he gave to his 
 wife that she might have the first pleasure of assurance 
 that her son was better. She opened it and read : “ The 
 Duck-billed Platypus is oviparous ” ! This was telegraphed 
 from Australia by an investigator, who had been sent to 
 that country by the Royal Society in order to study the 
 habits of the Ornithorhyncus paradoxicus. At that time I 
 was President-Elect of the Association for 1885, and to 
 show our appreciation of Canadian science, Sir William 
 Dawson was elected President for 1886, when the meeting 
 was to be held at Aberdeen. This federation of science 
 should be extended to all the Anglo-Saxon countries of the 
 world. Our great men are their great men. In literature, 
 Shakespeare, Milton, Bums, and Tennyson ; in science, 
 Newton, Dalton, Faraday, and Darwin, belong to them 
 as much as to us. A common possession and mutual 
 sympathy should induce international gatherings of 
 the investigators and promoters of science among the 
 great Anglo-Saxon nations of the world. Before leaving 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 347 
 
 Montreal the McGill University gave some of us a 
 pleasing memorial of our visit by conferring upon us the 
 degree of LL.D. 
 
 In 1885 the British Association met at Aberdeen in 
 September, when I acted as President for the year. It 
 had met in that city in 1859 under the presidency of the 
 Prince Consort, who then gave one of his admirable 
 addresses on the relations of science to the State. This 
 was made the subject of my address, with the advantage 
 that science was now generally acknowledged as a hand- 
 maid of the State, its objects and purposes being far wider 
 than those of statecraft. The meeting at Aberdeen was 
 successful and enjoyable. The President has the least 
 enjoyment of a meeting of this kind, because his duties 
 occupy every moment of his time. During the week the 
 Queen invited Lord Rayleigh (the President at Montreal) 
 and myself to pay a visit to Balmoral. We arrived shortly 
 before dinner, and found, in addition to the Queen and 
 Royal Family, my old friend, Sir Stafford Northcote (after- 
 wards Lord Iddesleigh), as Minister in attendance. After 
 dinner the Queen spoke to me chiefly about the Prince 
 Consort and his interest in science, but she did not intimate 
 any desire to renew the conversation on the following day. 
 Accordingly, as our presence was necessary in Aberdeen, 
 Lord Rayleigh and I left the castle at six in the morning 
 on our return to the duties of the Association. At eleven 
 the Queen sent for us to attend at her rooms, and was 
 astonished to find that we had departed, as she had 
 intended to present us with copies of the various works 
 which she has written on her Highland home. However, 
 two days later the Queen sent Mr. Profeit, her land 
 agent, to Tillypronie, the seat of Sir John Clark, which is 
 about twenty miles from Balmoral, with whom I was 
 then staying, and the prized volumes were delivered, 
 each volume being inscribed with our names and with 
 the Queen's signature. 
 
 The meeting in Aberdeen will be long remembered, by 
 those who attended it, for its pleasant hospitality. The 
 neighbourhood of Haddo House, where Lord and Lady 
 
348 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Aberdeen are such genial hosts, was used for both private 
 and public hospitality. It was too distant for me to live at 
 Haddo House, as I had to perform my duties as President, 
 but we spent some days there. Our hosts in Aberdeen 
 were Lord Provost Matthews and Mrs Matthews, and we 
 could not have been better entertained. 
 
 My wife and I took the opportunity of being in Scot- 
 land to pay many long-promised visits among our friends. 
 Our headquarters were with our friends Mr and Mrs Lyell 
 (now Sir Leonard and Lady Lyell), of Kinnordy, the 
 former seat of Sir Charles Lyell, the founder of modem 
 geology. Lord and Lady Strathmore showed us the hos- 
 pitalities of Glamis Castle. It was a delight to me, under 
 the guidance of Lady Strathmore, to visit all the haunts 
 about the estate which were dear to me nearly fifty years 
 ago as a boy, when I spent my vacations with my uncle, 
 Dr Lyon, the minister of Glamis. 1 Another friend, the 
 Dowager Countess of Airlie, who then lived at Cortachy 
 Castle, though she now lives “at the bonny house of 
 Airlie,” added to our enjoyment by her hospitality in both 
 houses. Lady Airlie is often mentioned in the Memoirs of 
 the Carlyles. She is a woman of much culture and charm- 
 ing manner. To my wife she has been long a devoted 
 friend. The late Lord Airlie died in the United States, 
 which he frequently visited, as members of his family 
 resided there. When we could we made arrangements to 
 cross the Atlantic together, and I have always regretted 
 that we were not companions in his last illness. 
 
 There was a General Election in the autumn of the year 
 1885. Ever since 1868 I had been the Parliamentary 
 representative of the Universities of Edinburgh and St. 
 Andrews. I had to fight for my seat at each election, and 
 the cost of the contests, always very heavy, was making 
 serious encroachments on my modest fortune. This fact 
 made me desirous to give up my seat. There was 
 another fact which rendered this inevitable. All University 
 seats are essentially Tory. I had represented the two 
 Scotch Universities for a long period, as a Liberal, partly 
 1 See ante, p. 32. 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 349 
 
 because I was intimate with the needs of my constituents, 
 but chiefly on account of the excellent relations which 
 always subsisted between me and my past pupils. When 
 they graduated and became University voters, they still 
 supported their old professor, regardless of his politics. In 
 the course of seventeen years a new race of students 
 had arisen, and they exercised a preponderance of voting 
 power which eliminated the personal part of the equation 
 in my favour. 
 
 I therefore felt that my chances of re-election in 
 1885 were hopeless, and declined to fight the seat 
 again. Having been a representative of Universities 
 for so many years, no popular constituency was likely 
 to ask for my services, so I believed that my Parlia- 
 mentary life had come to an end, and we departed to 
 spend some months on the Continent. We had not got 
 further than Paris when we were re-called, as no less than 
 thirteen large towns in different parts of England, Scotland 
 and Ireland offered to make me their representative. For 
 some time I hesitated between Birmingham and Leeds, 
 both of which towns sent influential deputations to London 
 to offer me liberal support. Ultimately I fixed on the 
 South division of Leeds, which was a manufacturing con- 
 stituency of highly intelligent artisans. I feared that my 
 academic style of speaking would be unsuited to popular 
 gatherings, but it appeared that my constituents had made 
 their selection because I attended to subjects of social 
 welfare, such as public health, education, labour and trade, 
 and they preferred that their member should represent 
 them on these subjects rather than as a combative 
 party politician, for which I never was suited by nature. 
 The Tories started an opposition, but after a hard, 
 though fair contest, I was elected by the large majority 
 of 2,339 votes. 
 
 In the Parliament of 1886 Mr Gladstone appointed me 
 to the office of Vice-President of the Council, practically 
 the Minister of Education in the House of Commons, 
 though he has miscellaneous duties to perform. There 
 was little movement in education during this year, and my 
 
350 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 chief work consisted in carrying through a Bill for the 
 reform of the medical profession. Already between twenty 
 and thirty Bills had been brought forward for this purpose, 
 though all of them had been defeated by the jealousies of 
 the numerous licensing medical examining boards. Nobody 
 seemed to believe that my Bill would be more successful 
 than its predecessors. It gave direct representation to the 
 great body of medical practitioners upon the General 
 Medical Council, and it abolished all partial licenses, 
 making ever) r medical man in future obliged to pass 
 examination in the three subjects of medicine, surgery, and 
 midwifery. By adequate firmness, combined with a spirit 
 of conciliation, the Bill was steered through both Houses 
 without a single amendment on its main principles, and 
 by becoming law it settled the angry controversies of the 
 medical profession. 
 
 In July, 1886, there was a General Election, owing to the 
 failure of Mr Gladstone’s Home Rule Bill for Ireland. 
 Again I was returned for South Leeds, by the diminished 
 majority of 1,741. A Parliament met in which a new Tory 
 Government, under Lord Salisbury, was kept in power for 
 six years by Liberal Unionists. This new Government 
 soon forgot its promises at the General Election that a 
 Coercion Bill was unnecessary for the government of 
 Ireland. A Coercion Act of much severity was passed, 
 and made perpetual. It was administered by Arthur 
 Balfour with ability, though it was followed by the im- 
 prisonment of Irish members under circumstances of 
 humiliation which roused the anger of the country, and 
 ultimately led to its disuse. As Liberal Unionists were 
 supporters of the Government and determined their 
 majority, various Liberal measures, such as free education, 
 local government for Great Britain, and allotments of land 
 to the poor, were passed during the six years of Tory 
 Administration. They were naturally Liberal measures 
 daubed with Tory paint, and will give a future Liberal 
 Government much trouble to rub off the paint and present 
 them to the country in a more Liberal form. 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 
 
 351 
 
 Playfair to his Son. Hotel Liverpool, Paris, May 31 st, 1885. 
 
 My dear George, — . . . I do not know whether you 
 have noticed that I have given up my seat for the Uni- 
 versities. I felt the absence of active support, and did not 
 care, under the circumstances, to spend my whole time in 
 fighting for a seat that I was not likely to win. If thfey felt 
 me indispensable to victory, I ought to have received more 
 support, and a contribution to my expenses. Since my 
 letter of resignation appeared, I have been much gratified 
 by finding myself so much in request. I have received 
 already invitations to represent Leeds, Bristol, Sheffield, 
 Birmingham, Dundee, Paddington, Aberdeen, and Lanark- 
 shire. Most likely I shall accept Birmingham as the most 
 important town. I had nearly fixed on Leeds, but the 
 Liberal Association has not fulfilled two of my conditions : 
 (1) unanimity in nomination ; (2) invitation from the two 
 hundred selected Liberals. I therefore wrote at once to 
 say I was quite free, and by next post Birmingham came 
 in competition. Bright, Chamberlain, Broadhurst, and 
 Schnadhorst are the other Liberal candidates there. The 
 Committee wrote to me that they knew I was not a keen 
 party politician, but that they selected me in honour of my 
 efforts to mitigate the ills and to promote the well-being 
 of the people by long labours in social reform. This is 
 exactly the position which I occupy in the Universities, 
 and its recognition by a large city like Radical Birmingham 
 is a compliment which I much appreciate. By the time 
 you receive this letter, you will probably see in the papers 
 whether I have definitely settled with Birmingham. 
 
 As the reader already knows, it was not Birmingham 
 which in the end secured Playfair as candidate. The South 
 Leeds Liberals complied with his conditions, and he 
 forthwith accepted the candidature which they had pressed 
 upon him. 
 
 Playfair's correspondence with Mr Russell during 1885 
 and 1886 adds something to the story told in his Auto- 
 biography. 
 
35 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell , Esq. December 5th, 1885. 
 
 Your watch arrived safely, and has been much admired 
 bjr us all. I shall value it exceedingly. We are getting the 
 arms and monogram engraved on it, and inside, “To Lyon 
 Playfair, from S. H. and Louisa Russell, 1885.” It will be 
 to me a precious memorial of the affection which both of 
 you have given to me. I am about to get some more 
 copies of my address, and will send you a small packet of 
 them. We are in a thorough fix as to our political position. 
 The Liberals are progressing firmly, but are only recovering 
 their losses in the towns by the new voters in the counties. 
 Still, we cannot expect more than seventy or eighty majority 
 over the Tories. If we get the last number we should still 
 be five under the Tories and Pamellites combined ; and this 
 makes Parnell master of the situation. Gladstone is much 
 excited, and wishes to form a Government. This is, I 
 think, a great mistake, for Chamberlain and the Radicals 
 are not in an accommodating spirit. It would be better to 
 remain in opposition, and let the Tories disgrace themselves 
 by the alliance, and then go back to the country in another 
 year for a new election. In any case the political situation 
 is most critical. Some sort of Home Rule will have to be 
 given to the Irish, but in their present temper they will 
 accept none compatible with Imperial interests. 
 
 Same to the same . South Kensington, January 27th, 1886. 
 
 Gladstone is again busy to-day, no doubt forming his 
 Ministry. I do not think he appreciates me, or perhaps 
 he measures me better than the House generally does. I 
 doubt whether he will offer me office, and I am not inclined, 
 if he does, to accept office, unless I were tempted by 
 the Post Office, which I really like as work. But before 
 this reaches you the telegraph will tell you all about the 
 results of the change of Ministry. 
 
 Sa me to the same. Athenaeum Club, February 4th, 1886. 
 
 You will have heard to-day that I am Vice-President of 
 the Privy Council. I was offered it yesterday but declined 
 
VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. 35^ 
 
 it. I met Mr Gladstone at dinner at Marlborough House, 
 and he told me how deeply he was grieved, and entreated 
 me to reconsider my refusal. Lord Granville and Lord 
 Spencer pressed me also very strongly. To-day I saw Mr 
 Gladstone, and was received first by Mrs Gladstone. She 
 told me that he was very poorly, and that I was the cause, 
 for he was quite upset by my refusal. The G.O.M. then 
 expressed his disappointment. He said that he knew I 
 was in sympathy with him, and could not understand my 
 reasons for refusing to join him ; that as I had taken little 
 interest in party politics he could not put me in the 
 Cabinet, but that anyone who stood by him in his emer- 
 gency had a right to look to that soon. Of course I had to 
 yield, and so I am Minister. I made the condition that I 
 should have a free hand in debate. 
 
 Windsor Hotel, New York, 
 
 Playfair to Mr and Mrs Russell. November nth, 1886. 
 
 My dearest Pater et Mater,— A bright day and 
 calm sea give us promise of a fair start, though we both 
 leave America with heavy hearts. You both have been so 
 supremely kind during our stay with you that we must 
 have hearts of stone if we left you without great regret. I 
 have enjoyed every moment of my time during my stay, 
 and never felt even the sensation of dulness in quiet Nahant. 
 You have adopted me so completely into your family that 
 I feel as if I were leaving home for a strange country. 
 When we reach home many duties will occupy both of us, 
 though they will not exclude our thoughts of you. 
 
 Ever yours lovingly, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 x 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE AND INTERNATIONAL 
 ARBITRATION. 
 
 Autobiography : The Jubilee Service in Westminster Abbey : Progress of 
 the Nation during the Queen’s Reign : Foreign Royalties : Represent- 
 ing England at the Centenary of the Declaration of American 
 Independence: A Memorial to President Cleveland in favour of 
 
 Arbitration: Opposing “Fair Trade”: A Plea for Technical 
 
 Education : The future Fiscal Policy of the United States. Legalising 
 the Sale of Margarine. 
 
 The following chapter of Playfair's Reminiscences does 
 not call for much either in the way of introduction or of 
 supplement from his biographer. It deals almost exclu- 
 sively with the year 1887, with the Queen’s Jubilee, which 
 was the great event in home affairs, and with Playfair’s 
 visit to the United States in the autumn, when he was 
 enabled to take an important part in connection with the 
 movement in favour of a system of International Arbitra- 
 tion. About his own life at home during this year Playfair 
 is almost entirely silent. It was, however, a life of work. 
 The Jubilee celebrations laid a load of labour upon him in 
 his position as Deputy-Chairman of the Commissioners of 
 the Great Exhibition ; whilst he was at the same time 
 actively employed on a Royal Commission which had been 
 appointed to inquire into the state of our endowed schools. 
 His Parliamentary duties, though not at this time severe, 
 were faithfully performed. He kept up his close connec- 
 tion with his constituents in South Leeds, and was as 
 active as ever in promoting the cause of scientific and 
 technical education in different parts of the country. In 
 the early part of the year, Mr Stanhope, the Secretary or 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 355 
 
 State for War, invited him to preside over a small depart- 
 mental Committee which was to be appointed to inquire 
 into the alleged deficiencies in the cutlasses supplied on 
 board our men-of-war. It seemed a curious subject upon 
 which to enlist the assistance of Playfair ; but the very fact 
 that he was asked to undertake this minor though not 
 unimportant task bespeaks the position which he had 
 gained in Parliament as a general referee on all questions 
 connected, however remotely, with science. For once 
 Playfair was unable to comply with a request of this kind : 
 and he declined to take part in this cutlass inquiry on the 
 sufficient ground that he was already engaged in a much 
 more laborious inquiry instituted by the State, and that 
 his spare time was absolutely limited. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — XII. 
 
 1887. 
 
 Tuesday, the 21st of June, 1887, will be long remembered 
 as the Jubilee of the Queen, who ascended the throne in 
 1837. The ceremonial of thanksgiving was held in West- 
 minster Abbey, which had been elaborately prepared for 
 the occasion. The sum of £ 17,000 had been voted by the 
 House of Commons for the purpose, and certainly was well 
 and economically expended. There was no jarring effect 
 by the galleries and the upholstery upon the venerable and 
 impressive character of the Abbey. Every available space 
 was filled, the galleries almost touching the roof ; but when 
 filled by persons in uniform, military, naval, civic and 
 diplomatic, and by ladies in semi-state dresses, the picture 
 was one of great beauty. To do honour to the Queen 
 there were four Kings — viz. those of Belgium, Saxony, 
 Greece, and Denmark ; two Queens, one of Belgium, one 
 from the Sandwich Islands. The choir, transepts and 
 sacrarium were occupied by princes, members of the two 
 Houses in Court dresses, judges in their scarlet robes, 
 
35 6 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 diplomatists covered with orders, and a general public in its 
 best attire, forming a resplendent ten thousand. The dais 
 was placed under the lantern, and was carpeted with crim- 
 son cloth ornamented with the Cross of the Bath. In the 
 middle of this was the Coronation chair, covering the old 
 gray stone brought from Scotland, upon which so many 
 monarchs have been crowned. That, however, was con- 
 cealed by cloth of gold thrown over it. When the Queen’s 
 procession came in, headed by the clergy in their gorgeous 
 copes made in the time of Charles I., and only worn at 
 great State ceremonies, the scene was most imposing. The 
 foreign kings and princes sat facing the throne, while the 
 Royal princes related to the Queen either by descent or 
 marriage stood on her right and the princesses on her left. 
 My seat, as a Privy Councillor, was the second row next 
 to the dais, so that I had an excellent place from which 
 to witness the ceremony. Among the princesses, the 
 Princess of Wales, exquisitely dressed in white, eclipsed 
 all others by her grace and beauty. The Queen was 
 visibly moved. The musical part of the religious service 
 began with the Te Deum Laudamns of the late Prince 
 Consort. This had been naturally selected by the Queen, 
 though much doubt was felt as to whether it was suited 
 for such an important occasion. It was originally written 
 for soli, chorus and orchestra, but had been adapted to 
 organ and brass instruments. It is in the key of C, and 
 had a solemn, devotional, and impressive effect. 
 
 After the religious service had been completed a scene 
 very unusual in a church took place. The Prince of 
 Wales approached, bent low, and kissed the hand and then 
 the cheek of the Queen. Then the Imperial Prince of 
 Prussia and the Duke of Hesse, her sons-in-law, knelt and 
 kissed hands, but were not saluted on the cheek. All the 
 Royal Princes and Princesses followed in turn to receive 
 the double salute. The Queen then seemed to remember 
 that she had not shown this mark of favour to the Prince 
 of Prussia and the Duke of Hesse, who were recalled and 
 saluted on the cheek. The repetition of this gracious act 
 might seem to have a curious effect in a church, but it was 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 357 
 
 done with so much dignity that it simply appeared to be 
 a befitting act of love and recognition on both sides. 
 Beautiful as the Abbey was on this occasion, I fancy that 
 the state of the streets and houses in the line of procession 
 must have been still more interesting. To me the whole 
 celebrations of the day were full of memories. All the 
 sons and daughters of the Queen I had known as children, 
 and it was interesting to see her grandchildren nearly as 
 old as I was when I first knew their parents. 
 
 The Queen must have had many recollections of love, 
 sorrow, and pride in this day. Her kingdom is much more 
 advanced in well-being and in intellect than it was in 1837. 
 When I returned from the Abbey I tried to make com- 
 parisons of the advance in civilisation by taking several 
 subjects as indices of progress. My old scientific master, 
 Baron Liebig, used to say that progress was best shown by 
 the consumption of soap, inasmuch as cleanliness is next to 
 godliness. If that be a true index, progress has been small 
 in this country, for each head of the population consumed 
 7J lb. of soap in 1837, an d in 1887 it h as on ly increased to 
 10 lb. per head. The price of rags is a truer measure of 
 civilisation, because, when converted into paper, it gives the 
 measure of intellectual diffusion. The comparison is very 
 favourable to the fifty years of the Queen’s reign ; in 1837 
 only i\ lb. of paper was consumed by each person in the 
 population, whereas now 12 lb. are consumed. Even as 
 regards other countries England stands at the head of this 
 index of civilisation in 1887 : 
 
 Switzerland would stand high, but the figures are not 
 available. If further statistics are required in corroboration 
 of the intellectual advance, it may be mentioned that in 
 1837 each person of the population spent annually less 
 than two shillings per head on books and newspapers ; now 
 nine shillings are spent. When the Queen ascended the 
 
 The United Kingdom 
 United States 
 Germany 
 France 
 
 10 ,, 
 
 9 »» 
 8 „ 
 
 4 >> 
 
 12 lb. 
 
 Italy - 
 
35§ MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 throne nine letters were posted by each individual : now 
 thirty-eight stand to the credit of each. It would be 
 absurd to ascribe the amelioration in the physical, moral, 
 and intellectual condition of the people to the immediate 
 action of the throne. The marvellous progress of science 
 and the abolition of class privileges have been the main 
 causes of improvement. The Queen has deserved the love 
 and gratitude of her people by her constitutional action 
 as a Sovereign, and by her concern for the welfare of her 
 subjects. The Court influences social life, and it is well 
 for the country that throughout her long reign she can 
 appropriate Tennyson’s lines 
 
 “ .... thro’ all this tract of years, 
 
 Wearing the white flower of a blameless life, 
 
 Before a thousand peering littlenesses, 
 
 In that fierce light which beats upon a throne.” 
 
 The Jubilee week did not pass over without the usual 
 jealousies and misunderstandings. The Queen certainly 
 did her part of the hospitalities without stint. Buckingham 
 Palace was filled to overflowing, and Buckingham 
 Palace Hotel had its sign taken down, and became a 
 dependance of the Palace for the occasion. It was said 
 that one official in the Royal kitchens was so over- 
 whelmed with his work that he threw himself into the 
 Serpentine, but was fished out alive by the police. 
 Holkar, great as an Indian prince, found himself only 
 a small prince in London. The only person who found 
 herself greater in England than in her own dominions 
 was the Queen of the Sandwich Islands. This potentate 
 refused a guard of Hussars, and said she would not leave 
 the hotel unless Life Guards were sent to her as a crowned 
 head, and she got her way. Another story was that the 
 actual kings struck, and refused to give their arms to the 
 sable queen at the State balls, so the Duke of Edinburgh 
 and the Duke of Connaught had to discharge this duty. 
 It was surprising how well this island queen maintained 
 her royal dignity. I waited upon her majesty one evening, 
 and she received me and conversed through an interpreter 
 in excellent style. 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 359 
 
 One of my most pleasant recollections of the Jubilee 
 week was an evening at the house of the Due d’Aumale. 
 He had invited only six English friends in all, including my 
 wife and myself, but his house was full of the French and 
 Spanish princes who had come over to attend the Jubilee. 
 Among the most delightful of these was the Infanta Eulalia 
 of Spain, sister to the late king. She spoke English per- 
 fectly, as in fact do all the younger generation of Con- 
 tinental Royalties. The King and Queen of Portugal 
 were at the party, the latter being a daughter of the 
 Comte de Paris. We again met them on the following day, 
 when we dined with the Portuguese naval attache , the 
 Count de Sena, at a banquet given to the King and Queen 
 of Portugal. Their Majesties were as agreeable as they 
 had been the previous evening. 
 
 The Queen founded a Jubilee medal as a memorial 
 of her fifty years’ reign, to be worn as a decoration. I 
 received one in memory of my relations with the Prince 
 Consort. 
 
 I had occasionally opportunities during my autumnal 
 visits to America to show my friendly feelings for the 
 people of the United States. In this year (1887) I found 
 occasion to forward an idea which I have long entertained, 
 that there should be an intimate union of heart and 
 interests between the English-speaking people throughout 
 the world, and more especially between England and the 
 United States. The centenary of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence was held at Philadelphia on the 17th September, 
 1887. It was celebrated with great rejoicings in the 
 presence of the President, the Governors of the States, and 
 about 25,000 troops sent to take part in the celebration. 
 The Centennial Commission, over which Mr Kasson pre- 
 sided, were desirous to have England represented at this 
 great festival, and they invited Mr Gladstone and Mr John 
 Bright, who both declined on account of their age and 
 occupations. Failing these great men, the Centennial 
 Commission invited me to take part in the ceremonies. 
 At first I declined, as I did not think myself of sufficient 
 importance to act as a representative of England, but when 
 
360 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 I found that no other Englishman would be present to 
 answer for the sentiment of “ England, our Mother 
 Country,” I yielded to a second pressing invitation, and 
 went to Philadelphia, where I was received with much 
 kindness as a guest of the Commission. The celebration 
 lasted three days, and was interesting throughout, but my 
 own part in it was limited to the last day, when the great 
 meeting and banquet were held. Behind the Hall, in 
 which the independence of the United States was declared, 
 and the Constitution framed with such consummate 
 wisdom, an immense platform had been built. President 
 Cleveland, supported by the chief officers of his Cabinet, by 
 the Governors of the States, by the judiciary and by the 
 invited guests, sat among a circle of people which made 
 this centennial celebration more remarkable than any that 
 can be held in future times. For on the platform around 
 the President were the grandsons of nearly all the men 
 who built the constitution and signed the famous charter. 
 When another centennial celebration comes round this 
 link between the past and the present will have 
 disappeared. Beyond the platform in the Square was an 
 immense concourse of people who patiently waited for the 
 conclusion of the orations, not one word of which could 
 have reached their ears. The whole surroundings made 
 the ceremony most impressive. 
 
 A little incident occurred as I left the platform which 
 showed the good temper prevailing among the crowd. As 
 I was trying to push my way through, an American 
 working man addressed me good-naturedly as “ John Bull,” 
 and asked me to shake hands. “ Well,” he said, “ if our 
 two countries would only feel as friendly to each other as 
 I do to you as an Englishman, the peace of the world 
 would be preserved.” This gave me courage for my part 
 of the work of the day. The great banquet to celebrate 
 the event was held in the Academy of Music. The tables 
 were classified ; thus there was a table for Governors, one 
 for Congress, one for Science, one for Senators, and so on. 
 My place was at the Science table, where I found my 
 University friends. The galleries were filled with ladies, 
 
THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 
 
 3 61 
 
 conspicuous among whom was the beautiful and graceful 
 Mrs Cleveland, wife of the President. The acoustic 
 properties of the Hall, that night at least, were bad, and 
 few of the speeches were audible at my table. I felt, if I 
 spoke from my seat, not a word would be heard throughout 
 the Hall, so when the toast of England was about to be 
 proposed I went up to the Senators’ table, at which I was 
 warmly welcomed, and spoke from that place. The toast 
 of “ England, our Mother Home,” was proposed by the 
 Chairman, and most warmly received. I had been told 
 that it was a critical sentiment to answer, as there was a 
 good deal of irritation in regard to the Fisheries question, 
 and I had been advised to avoid all thorny points. If 
 there were any such feeling it was not manifested in the 
 slightest degree, for the whole of my speech was received 
 with the warmest acclamations. 
 
 Next day I received from Professor Pepper, the Chair- 
 man of the banquet, the following letter : — 
 
 “ I am sorry that I did not have the chance of telling 
 you how delighted I was with what you said on Saturday 
 evening. It was the opportunity of the evening, I think, 
 and I am sure you took advantage of it. Everyone was 
 so greatly pleased with your speech.” 
 
 The speech itself was as follows : — 
 
 It is impossible for an Englishman to reply without emotion to a 
 toast such as this, or without mingled feelings of pride, humiliation 
 and confidence. With pride, because this celebration is the triumph 
 of the principles of political liberty, and of constitutional govern- 
 ment of a people by the people, in entire accord with the great 
 traditions which have made England the cradle of political liberty. 
 With humiliation, because England, in the reaction which followed 
 the Cromwellian revolution, and which lasted until the close of the 
 reign of George III., forgot many of its old traditions, and in its 
 relation to the American colonies tried to suppress, instead of to 
 foster, the growth of government by the people. With confidence, 
 because England and the United States now know that they are the 
 chief guardians of political liberty and constitutional government 
 throughout the world, and that they ought to be linked for evermore 
 by the bonds of friendship and kinsmanship. 
 
 On such an occasion as this you will not desire that I should refer 
 to the political blunders of England which led to the wars of 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 362 
 
 independence and of 1812. In our present mood you would rather 
 acknowledge the benefits which you have received from the mother 
 country in laying the foundations of constitutional government. 
 Your ancestors brought with them, as their most precious birthright, 
 the principles of constitutional liberty. The Magna Charta, the 
 Habeas Corpus Act, the Bill of Rights and the common law are 
 your safeguards for liberty as they are our safeguards in England. 
 
 Cromwell was the political father of Washington, because both 
 were champions of individual and constitutional liberty, and they 
 both taught kings that government can only secure permanent 
 obedience when it consults the safety and happiness of the people. 
 The Acts which led to the outbreak at Lexington and the battle of 
 Bunker’s Hill were in themselves not very oppressive, but they were 
 a continuation of slow and constant interference with the natural 
 growth of constitutional liberty. The whole country uprose after 
 the final Tea Party which was given to the British at Griffin’s 
 Wharf in Boston, because the people knew, though they had scarcely 
 felt the tyranny, that the mere exposure to it was the destruction of 
 freedom. 
 
 For what avails the plough or sail, 
 
 Or land or life, if freedom fail ? 
 
 How I wish that either of those whom I am proud to call my 
 friends — William Gladstone or John Bright — were here to-day to 
 reply to the toast now given. I am only a humble Englishman, 
 half scientist, half politician, with no other claim to address you 
 than the fact that while I ardently love my own country, I warmly 
 love yours also. I speak in a city which framed the Declaration of 
 Independence and built the constitution. If Boston may claim the 
 credit of infusing fresh blood into the young commonwealth, it was 
 in Philadelphia that its brain was nurtured and matured. 
 
 The occasion of this celebration, the place and all its environ- 
 ments, inspire thoughts, but do not fit them for condensation into 
 an after-dinner speech. I shall say nothing more as to your war of 
 independence beyond this, that without it you would never have 
 become a great nation. Great nations must have a history, and 
 that war created history for you, and gave you illustrious traditions 
 and ancestors of your own to whom you can point with pride as 
 the founders of your fatherland. 
 
 This day we are celebrating your second, though peaceful revolu- 
 tion. It is true that the thirteen States had become a nation by a 
 loose confederation. But that nation, though of one promise, had 
 thirteen performances, and no nation has ever preserved its unity 
 with even two executives. It was therefore a veritable revolution 
 when the convention of 1787 framed that marvellous production of 
 human genius, political foresight and practical sagacity — the consti- 
 tution of the United States. Its first words : “ We, the people of 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 363 
 
 the United States,” not “ We, the States,” show the greatness of 
 the revolution. It was as if the people had instructed the conven- 
 tion in the words of Shakespeare : “ We must have liberty withal, 
 as large a charter as the wind.” 
 
 The Anglo-Saxon spirit breathes through every word of the con- 
 stitution. Notwithstanding your boundless and continuous territory, 
 its framers recollected that great free nations only succeed when 
 they are composed of smaller States, because there is a longing 
 among men of our race for local independence as opposed to 
 centralisation. With what skill and wisdom were the execu- 
 tive powers given to the nation while all the essentials of local 
 government were reserved to the States. Ah, there were intellectual 
 giants in those days. When will you, or the lovers of liberty 
 throughout the world, ever forget the names of the master-builders 
 of the constitution — Washington, Hamilton, Sherman, Madison, 
 Pinckney and the aged Franklin ? It does not lessen, but it 
 enhances the value of the constitution that the best parts of 
 English constitutional law are preserved in it, set like jewels in a 
 golden casket. Hamilton gloried in this fact at a later time. And 
 so the constitution, both in its inception and execution, even in your 
 last terrible struggle for unity, has remained the bright polar star of 
 liberty. When I think of it I feel inclined to exclaim, in the words 
 of Shakespeare : “ How beauteous mankind is ! Oh, brave new 
 world that has such people in’t.” 
 
 But in speaking of the object of this celebration, I have left but a 
 few moments to reply to the sentiment of the toast, “ Our Mother 
 Country.” The people of the United States, as well as the people of 
 the United Kingdom, are the joint and common possessors of their 
 respective glories and traditions. Shakespeare, Milton, Bacon and 
 Locke, Burns, Scott and Moore are your great authors, as they are 
 ours. When I see their statues in your parks or museums I think it 
 quite as natural as when I see the monument of Longfellow in 
 Westminster Abbey. As you grow older in history our great 
 Walhalla in London will claim its right to possess a record and 
 share in the illustrious men born on this side of the Atlantic. Even 
 now, Emerson, Longfellow, Wendell Holmes and Whittier are the 
 cherished inmates of every cultivated English home. Hume and 
 Macaulay teach history to your schools, just as Prescott, Motley 
 and Parkman extend historical knowledge in England. Science has 
 no country, though its investigators have birthplaces. In Phila- 
 delphia I, as an ex-professor, cannot forget that one man, to whom 
 all my life I have given hero-worship, lived and laboured in this 
 city. In his old age he co-operated with Washington to humble 
 King George III. But before that he had actually swept out of the 
 universe a much more powerful prince. When Benjamin Franklin 
 drew down lightning from the clouds he freed religion from a 
 degrading superstition. Till then the “ prince of the power of the 
 
364 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 air ” troubled the world with thunderstorms, and Popes blessed 
 bells and set them ringing to frighten the turbulent prince. 
 Franklin was more powerful than the Pope, for he knocked the 
 prince on the head. “ Eripuit ccelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis” 
 Another of your great Americans, Benjamin Thompson (Count 
 Rumford), taught mankind the correlation of forces and founded 
 the Royal Institution in London, which has produced a Davy, a 
 Faraday, and a Tyndall. It was right that an Englishman should 
 found your great Smithsonian Institution at Washington. 
 
 Long may we cherish our common possessions and national 
 sympathies ! When America rejoices, England is glad. When you 
 mourn a great national calamity, we join in your grief. When 
 Lincoln and Garfield fell by the acts of assassins, the colours of 
 English ships all over the world were lowered “half mast” in 
 honour of their great names. At the death of your great general, 
 Grant, I felt I was with you in body and spirit when I, with some 
 thousand Englishmen, attended the solemn services at Westminster 
 Abbey in commemoration of his services to your country, and to the 
 cause of liberty throughout the world. When Ireland, unhappy 
 Ireland, suffered from famine, we do not forget that the United 
 States sent over a frigate laden with provisions for the starving 
 people. Your acts of sympathy with us in our joys and sorrows 
 have been many. Let us continue to cherish our common glories 
 and past traditions, and never cease to aim at a community of 
 interests and pride in our national prosperity. It is no insignificant 
 evidence of the friendly feeling now existing between England and 
 the United States that a memorial signed by more than two hundred 
 Members of Parliament is about to be presented to the President, 
 urging that any political differences which may from time to time 
 arise between the two countries should in the last resort be settled 
 by arbitration. This memorial is the actual outcome of the work- 
 ing men of England, who have pressed it upon their representatives. 
 
 I know that I have been far too long, but you will forgive me, 
 because the toast unites two great nations in one sentiment. The 
 small islands in the northern seas, from which your ancestors came 
 to found this great nation, even now contain only 36,000,000 
 of people, while already you have 60,000,000, and have in your vast 
 continent an immense potentiality of growth. We know that you 
 must become our big brother, and we ask you to cherish in the 
 future that feeling of pride in our common ancestry, and that 
 sympathy for an allied people, which we now possess. If we do so 
 the great Anglo-Saxon race throughout the world will become a 
 security of peace, and a surety for the continued growth of constitu- 
 tional liberty. 
 
 On the 31st October, 1887, a remarkable memorial in 
 favour of a treaty of arbitration between Great Britain and 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 365 
 
 the United States was presented to the President (Cleveland) 
 at Washington. It was signed by 233 members of the 
 House of Commons, or by more than one-third of its 
 whole number. Originally this memorial was promoted 
 by the Peace Society of Working Men, and was taken up 
 by the Labour representatives in the House of Commons 
 much more warmly than that society could have antici- 
 pated. Some of the working-men representatives in Parlia- 
 ment desired to join in the presentation of the memorial 
 signatures, and came over for that purpose. I fancy that 
 funds were provided for them by Mr Carnegie, the liberal 
 iron manufacturer of Pittsburg. Other Members of Parlia- 
 ment came over at their own cost. As none of them had 
 official Parliamentary rank, they desired that, as I was then 
 in Boston, I should come to Washington and head the 
 Parliamentary deputation. A telegram urging me to do 
 this was sent by the British Minister, Lord Sackville. Mr 
 Carnegie made all the preliminary arrangements for our 
 reception by the President. The memorial was then 
 presented to the President by me with the following 
 remarks : — 
 
 Mr President : I have the high honour to represent a deputation 
 of twelve Members of Parliament who present to you, as the head of 
 this great nation, and through you to Congress, a memorial in 
 favour of the arbitration of political differences when diplomatic 
 agencies have failed to adjust them. This memorial has been 
 signed by 233 members of the House of Commons, or by more than 
 one-third of its whole number. It is really the outcome of an ardent 
 desire on the part of the working men of the United Kingdom to 
 perpetuate the friendship and peace which now happily exists 
 between the kindred people on both sides of the Atlantic. The 
 representatives of the people have given expression to this feeling 
 among the constituents by signing the memorial. Even if it do not 
 effect an immediate or proximate treaty of arbitration, you will, Mr 
 President, recognise that the memorial is a remarkable expression 
 of the brotherly feeling which our working classes entertain for their 
 kinsmen in the United States. International arbitration, if estab- 
 lished, would only be one step further in the history of civilisation. 
 When individuals quarrel, society does not permit them to settle the 
 dispute by violence, but it refers them to courts of equity or law, in 
 order that the differences may be composed. Why should not this 
 principle be extended to nations, especially when, as in the case 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 366 
 
 of the United Kingdom and the United States, they are allied by 
 blood and knit together by love ? We are both the common 
 inheritors of the traditions and glories of the Anglo-Saxon race from 
 which we have obtained the spirit of conciliation, a spirit that has 
 so aided the national development of both countries. 
 
 The time is favourable for a consideration of the question, because 
 the whole world is startled at the new aspect of war, which the 
 progress of science is making a huge engine for the brutal butchery 
 of men and the wanton waste of property. Its increasing cost 
 threatens the basis of national credit, and even of national solvency. 
 In ten years the cost of European armaments has increased by at 
 least twenty-five per cent, while it amounts to three per cent, of the 
 whole earnings of Europe. The United States almost alone among 
 nations can keep down its combatant expenditure, because it does 
 not consider it necessary to anticipate war with foreign nations. It 
 is here, therefore, rather than in Europe, that the proposals for 
 treaties of arbitration might naturally be made. At all events we 
 might devise a treaty of arbitration between the United Kingdom 
 and the United States. That would be a glorious example to other 
 nations, and might lead to the two great Anglo-Saxon nations being 
 the peacemakers of the world. That is the feeling which has 
 induced so many Members of Parliament to offer their co-operation 
 to Members of Congress in settling political differences by arbitra- 
 tion. If our two countries succeed in doing so, it will give an 
 eminent illustration that nations as well as individuals can compose 
 their differences without violence, by adherence to the principles of 
 equity and of international law. 
 
 President Cleveland admitted to me in private conversa- 
 tion that his feelings in favour of international arbitration 
 were warmer than those expressed by his speech. The 
 Presidential Election was impending, and he had not 
 viewed with favour the presentation of the English 
 memorial, because he feared that the deputies might 
 make some compromising remarks. In this fear he was 
 agreeably disappointed, and he promised to submit the 
 memorial to Congress. This was done, and in April, 1889, 
 a joint resolution of the House of Representatives and the 
 Senate adopted the principle of international arbitration, 
 authorising the President to make treaties with friendly 
 Powers for carrying it into effect. An article by me in the 
 October number (1890) of the ‘ North American Review’ 
 discussed the subject in detail. 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 367 
 
 Undoubtedly the Government of the United States is 
 best fitted among all nations to promote the cause of inter- 
 national arbitration. It is strong in its resources, and is 
 free from the national jealousies which prevail in Europe. 
 But the democracy is divided into parties, and the need 01 
 parties to secure votes causes a fickleness in its policy and 
 an undue susceptibility to supposed insults. This makes 
 Europe afraid of the continuance of its friendship. All this 
 will disappear when there is increased consolidation of 
 interests in its vast area. When we are struck by the un- 
 wisdom of legislation in the United States we forget its 
 youth. England not long since, in the time of Walpole, 
 had Parliamentary faults far greater than those we lament 
 in the Congress of the United States. The British Parlia- 
 ment has purged itself of many political errors, and so will 
 the Congress by the light of time and experience. 
 
 On returning from America in the autumn of 1887, I 
 found that there had been a gathering of delegates of 
 Conservative Associations at Oxford. The chief subject 
 discussed was “ Fair Trade,” which is nothing but Protec- 
 tion disguised in a domino. A resolution which, if it meant 
 anything, indicated taxation of food and foreign imports, 
 was passed at a meeting of a thousand delegates, only 
 twelve hands being held up against it. The resolution was 
 as follows : — 
 
 “ That the continued depression in trade and agriculture, the 
 increase in the scarcity of employment, and the consequent distress 
 among all classes, render speedy reform in the policy of the United 
 Kingdom as regards foreign imports and the influx of indigent 
 foreigners a matter of vital necessity.” 
 
 Little notice of this meeting was taken by our leading 
 politicians, as they found that the constituencies cared only 
 for speeches relating to Ireland. I felt the danger of letting 
 the Tories sow tares in our fields while the Liberals were 
 asleep, so I went to Leeds and addressed my constituency 
 “ On Fair Trade and the Depression in Agriculture.” This 
 speech attracted much attention, and was printed and 
 largely distributed, to the extent of 40,000 copies, by the 
 Cobden Club. About 100,000 copies were quickly sold by 
 
368 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the publishers. Among many letters which I received, 
 thanking me for “ having pricked the bubble of Fair 
 Trade,” the following one was from the great apostle of 
 Free Trade, John Bright. 
 
 John Bright to Playfair. January 1 5 th, 1888. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have a copy of your speech, 
 sent by you, I suppose. I thank you for it, and for the 
 speech itself, which I think one of the best, if not the best, 
 spoken on the question. I do not know anyone but your- 
 self who could have dealt so admirably with the subject 
 of it. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 John Bright. 
 
 The purport of my speech was to show that depression 
 in modern times had nothing to do with the fiscal arrange- 
 ments of nations. They were universal and synchronous 
 in all machine-using countries, and depended upon the 
 revolutions in manufactures and commerce which had been 
 produced by modem inventions. The world had not yet 
 adapted itself to the new applications of science, which had 
 dislocated all forms of labour, lowering the value of labour 
 of quantity, which is little more than brute animal force, 
 and heightening the value of labour of quality, guided by 
 skilled and trained intelligence. The depressions due to 
 this dislocation of labour and to the cheapness of all com- 
 modities have occurred in all countries, whether they be at 
 peace or war, whether they have Protection or Free Trade, 
 whether they have a gold or a bimetallic currency. A 
 universal result must have a universal cause, and that is the 
 rapid interchange produced by the electric telegraph, the 
 facilities of distribution through improved steam communi- 
 cation by sea and by land, and the substitution of machine 
 for manual labour. It was necessary to follow up the Free 
 Trade speech by a series of proofs of the major proposition. 
 Accordingly I made a speech on the dislocation of labour 
 at the City Liberal Club in London, and enlarged it into 
 
THE QUEEN’S JUBILEE. 
 
 369 
 
 an article for the ‘ Contemporary Review’ of March, 1888. 
 Shortly afterwards I addressed a meeting of the National 
 Liberal Club “ On Industrial Competition and Commercial 
 Freedom.” This address also was largely circulated by the 
 Cobden Club, and produced the following letter from Mr 
 Gladstone : — 
 
 Hawarden, 
 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair. May 28th, 1888. 
 
 My dear Playfair,— I cannot sufficiently thank you 
 for your admirable tract ; so comprehensive, clear, simple 
 in statement, rich in illustration. I hope it will draw 
 attention, and I feel bound to send this cop3^ to our 
 Reading Room here. In two points I should like to 
 strengthen a little what you have said, from the recollec- 
 tions of my youth. You speak of seven or eight months as 
 the term of the double passage to India. My father sent 
 the first private ship to India. He built the largest high 
 class ship that had ever sailed out of Liverpool, the Duke 
 of Lancaster. He also built (I mean owned, for the actual 
 builder was Wilson) the fastest ship known in the long 
 voyages of the time, the John d Gaunt, which used to get 
 1 os. to 20s. per ton extra freight from China because she 
 was pretty sure to arrive first. She would certainly have 
 performed the double voyage in the time you name. But 
 earlier, say in 1820, four months was the quickest voyage 
 from Liverpool to Calcutta, five months being more 
 common ; and from the absence of postal arrangements, 
 the ordinary return of post from India was near twelve 
 months. I write from memory, but memory of earlier 
 events is for an old man clearer and safer than of later 
 ones. Then as to manning. The John d Gaunt was about 
 420 tons, though I do not recollect her complement of 
 men. The Duke of Lancaster was 560 tons (found too 
 large as things then went), and the crew all told were 
 thirty-three — you may say six men per 100 tons ; so the 
 number you give as forty per thousand tons in 1873 would 
 have been a short time further back sixty. 
 
 At that time, in the glorious days of the Navigation 
 Law, the American liners carried everything worth having 
 
 Y 
 
37 ° 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 between the two countries, and the English had only the 
 scum and refuse of the trade. How beautiful they looked 
 sailing out of the Mersey with all their canvas spread, and 
 their light brown hulls ! We cannot meet with that sight 
 now. Again thanking you, and with our best compliments 
 to Lady Playfair, 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 In all of these addresses relating to industry the necessity 
 was enforced for increased technical education of the 
 people. The following is an extract from the address to 
 which Mr Gladstone refers : — 
 
 You will readily comprehend from my argument in what manner 
 we must prepare to keep our position in the increasing struggle of 
 nations. We must give more of a trained intelligence to our pro- 
 ducers, intelligence to the rank and file, high technical education to 
 the officers of our industrial armies. What is technical education ? 
 It is simply the rationale of expert empiricism. We must convert, 
 as much as we can do, labour of quantity into labour of quality. 
 We now know with tolerable certainty the conditions which produce 
 low wages, and those which produce high wages. Our interest as a 
 nation is to aim at the latter. What class of labourers produce 
 dear things ? They are ignorant labourers with faint ambition, 
 who are badly housed, badly clothed and fed, who have few 
 pleasures of the mind, and who trust to the Poor Law to stand 
 between them and starvation. These are the labourers who are 
 content to work for low wages, but the product of their labour is 
 low and its cost is high. What class of workmen produce cheap 
 things ? They are the working men of technical skill and trained 
 intelligence, who seek more education for themselves and children, 
 because they know that it both dignifies and fructifies their labour. 
 They are men who, by combination, have raised their position and 
 shortened their hours of labour, so that they may enjoy some of the 
 pleasures as well as take their share in the toil of the world. They 
 hate the workhouse as much as they hate that kingdom over which 
 the devil is supposed to reign. Their wages are high, but so is their 
 productiveness, and consequently they give us our cheap things. 
 They are the men who are the props of our industries. Though 
 their wages are high they are cheap at the price. Protection is not 
 
THE QUEEN'S JUBILEE. 
 
 37 1 
 
 a force to raise wages. If it were they should be high on the 
 Continent of Europe. The interest of a labourer is to sell his labour 
 dear and to buy his commodities cheap. Protection enhances the 
 price of the latter ; but how can this benefit the labourer ? Though 
 the labourer does not gain by Protection, the monopolist does, and it 
 is he who is encouraged and over-remunerated by high tariffs. 
 England has abolished monopolies, and refused to support 
 privileged classes by taxation. She is a country small in area 
 and limited in population, but great in productive energies. She 
 is a world-wide trader, because her manufacturers can barter on 
 advantageous terms with other nations which seek her free ports for 
 the disposal of their commodities, and are forced to accept English 
 goods in exchange. The industrial prosperity of England is as 
 much due to commercial freedom as her social condition is due to 
 her political liberties. 
 
 Of course my visits to the United States enabled me to 
 give ample illustrations of the effects of Protection in that 
 country. At the present time (1889) that country is on 
 the top of the wave of Protection : it will ere long be in 
 the trough of the sea. It will take many years before the 
 United States can pursue the wise policy of moderate tariff 
 duties for revenue. When it reaches this point England 
 will find its greatest competitor in the foreign markets of 
 the world ; though I have such profound conviction of the 
 benefits of Free Trade that I believe the ultimate result of 
 its adoption by the United States will be to benefit the 
 trade of England also. At present the United States has a 
 large area of internal Free Trade, inasmuch as there is no 
 tariff line between the boundaries of its separate States. 
 When its manufactures have grown into a surplus beyond 
 the demand, a clamour will arise for freedom of commercial 
 intercourse with the outside world. The first efforts will 
 be for reciprocity between the United States and Pan- 
 American markets, and in course of time these will extend 
 to trade on fair terms with all foreign countries. I was 
 much blamed by the American Press for writing an article 
 on the Presidential Election, in which I stated that the 
 next election would be carried out upon a platform of com- 
 mercial reform. Perhaps I may live long enough to 
 witness one more General Election of this kind in 1892, 
 and then I shall see the fulfilment of my prophecy. 
 
37 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to say that Playfairs hope was 
 gratified. He lived to see not only the Presidential 
 Election of 1892, but that which came four years later; 
 and with regard to both, his prediction of the character 
 which political contests in the United States were likely 
 to assume was amply realised. 
 
 Playfair makes no mention in his Autobiography of 
 one of the incidents of the Session of 1887. This was 
 the passage of a Bill which, under certain conditions, legal- 
 ised the sale of margarine as a substitute for butter. With 
 that severely practical turn which distinguished him in 
 most things, Playfair strongly advocated the cause of 
 margarine. Though it was not butter, it was a harmless 
 and palatable substitute for it, infinitely to be preferred 
 to butter of an inferior quality or in bad condition. This 
 was Playfair’s contention, and though it was hardly a 
 popular one, it was not the less stoutly maintained on 
 that account. His share in making “the poor man’s 
 butter,” or, to be strictly accurate, substitute for butter, 
 easily procurable was not a small one. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 
 
 A Touching Incident. Autobiography : Opening of the Glasgow Exhibi- 
 tion : Mistaken for a State Prisoner : Death of the Emperor Frederick of 
 Germany : The Widowed Empress and Prince Bismarck : Resigning 
 the Honorary Secretaryship of the Exhibition Commission : A Pre- 
 sentation : Supporting a Royal Grant : The General Election of 1892 : 
 Raised to the Peerage : Farewell to South Leeds. The South Leeds 
 Election — An Interesting Colloquy — Appointed a Lord-in- Waiting to 
 the Queen — Letters from Windsor Castle — Work on the Aged Poor 
 Commission — Grand Cross of the Bath — In Canada. 
 
 Playfair's Reminiscences in a connected form may be 
 said to have come to an end with the chapter in which he 
 dealt with the Jubilee of 1887. He himself lived to take 
 part in the Diamond Jubilee ten years later, and to set 
 on foot in connection with that great celebration the 
 movement for its national commemoration which was sub- 
 sequently adopted by Parliament. But after 1887 the 
 demands upon his time and strength were such that he 
 had but little leisure for continuing his autobiographical 
 work. In this chapter I propose to include the two final 
 instalments of the Reminiscences, and their fragmentary 
 character sufficiently indicates the fact that they cannot be 
 regarded as a complete record of his life during the term 
 with which they deal. Yet the ten years which remained 
 to him of public labour after 1887 formed by no means 
 the least useful or important stage in his history. From 
 first to last they were years of unceasing activity, and they 
 included some of his most valuable services to his country 
 and his fellow-men. The story will be gathered more from 
 
374 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 his correspondence and the concluding chapters of this 
 work than from his own Reminiscences. 
 
 Sandringham, Norfolk, 
 
 Playfair to his Sister-in-law . January 15th, 1888. 
 
 It is curious that there are two people here — the Turkish 
 Ambassador, Rustem Pasha, and Sir Edward Bradford — 
 who have been maimed by wild beasts. The latter had 
 the whole of his left arm up to the elbow joint munched 
 away by a tiger ; and the Turkish Ambassador has half 
 his right hand and part of his left tom away by a bear. 
 Both tell me that they felt no pain during the mutilation, 
 and they suppose that their intense desire to defend them- 
 selves prevented them from feeling the pain. Livingstone, 
 the African traveller, when his arm was munched by a lion, 
 told me the same thing — that he could not recollect having 
 suffered any pain. 
 
 It was during Playfair’s visit to the United States in 
 the autumn of 1888 that a touching incident, referred 
 to in the following letters, took place. He visited the 
 Perkins Institute for the Blind at Boston, and was 
 greatly interested in the case of one of the children, a 
 little girl named Edith Thomas. This child had been 
 deaf, dumb, and blind from birth. When Playfair saw 
 her, she had on one of her fingers a little brass curtain 
 ring, the possession of which seemed to afford her much 
 satisfaction. Always fond of children and full of sympathy 
 with the afflicted, Playfair’s heart was moved by the 
 condition of the child. He returned to the Institute 
 next day, carrying with him a pretty finger-ring, which 
 he left for the child, who received it with delight. 
 
 Kindergarten, Perkins Street, 
 
 Isabel Greeley to Playfair. Boston, U.S.A. November 8th, 1888. 
 
 Sir Lyon Playfair, — The little deaf, dumb, and 
 blind child was very happy over the ring you so kindly 
 
u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 375 
 
 sent to her, and she has written you the enclosed, which 
 can scarcely be called a letter, but it is her second 
 successful attempt at writing one. The first was written 
 to Mr Anagnos about a week ago. 
 
 I am, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Isabel Greeley. 
 
 Edith Thomas to Playfair. 
 
 Dear Sir Lyon Playfair, — Sir Lyon Playfair sent 
 Edith ring in box. Edith thank Sir Lyon Playfair for 
 ring. Sir Lyon Playfair come to see Edith. 
 
 Good-bye, 
 
 Edith. 
 
 During his first visit, the child had examined him 
 closely, feeling his hands, wrist, arm, and face, the sense 
 of touch being, as is so often the case, abnormally 
 developed in the absence of other means of observation. 
 In the following year, Playfair, during his visit to Boston, 
 went to the Institute once more in order to see Edith 
 Thomas. The child remained in the afflicted condition 
 in which he had first found her. When Playfair arrived 
 she was merely told that a gentleman wished to see her, 
 her teacher being anxious to know if she would recognise 
 her former friend by touch. At first the girl felt Playfair’s 
 hands rather indifferently, but on touching the skin on 
 his wrist under the shirt cuff, her face suddenly lighted 
 up, and, becoming greatly excited, she spelt rapidly on 
 her fingers, “ It is the Englishman who gave me the 
 ring ; ” and then she flung her arms about his neck, 
 seeming delighted to meet again one who had done her 
 a kindness. During the whole of his visit to the 
 Institute, the poor girl clung to him w r ith every demon- 
 stration of affection, constantly stroking his face and 
 hands. 
 
376 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED.— XIII. 
 
 1888 to 1890. 
 
 In May (9th), 1888, the Great International Exhibition 
 of Glasgow was opened by the Prince and Princess ot 
 Wales. They stayed with Lord Hamilton of Dalziel, who 
 had invited a party to meet them. Unfortunately Home 
 Rule politics were too strong to make this house party of 
 the mixed character which it should have been, and which 
 Lord Hamilton of Dalziel desired. Political pressure was 
 put upon the Scotch Secretary, Lord Lothian, the Duke of 
 Buccleuch, and others to decline the invitation to Dalziel. 
 The only Conservatives who resisted this pressure were the 
 Earl and Countess of Strathmore and Mr Cochrane Baillie. 
 The other guests were Lord and Lady Herschell, Lord and 
 Lady Rosebery, the Commander-in-Chief for Scotland, and 
 ourselves. Whether the Prince and Princess and their 
 suite knew of this political difficulty I do not know ; at all 
 events they were as usual charming, and made the visit a 
 very agreeable one. 
 
 The opening day, Tuesday, the 9th of May, was sunny, 
 unlike the usual Glasgow weather. The Exhibition Build- 
 ings were erected on a commanding site near the University. 
 Glasgow distinguished itself by the preparations made, and 
 all the streets were gaily decorated. Of the many public 
 receptions of this character which I have seen, this 
 one was among the most brilliant and successful. The 
 Royal procession, in twelve carriages, passed for several 
 miles through a dense mass of people, the volunteers and 
 military keeping the route clear. After lunching with 
 Lord Provost King, who lived close to the Buildings, the 
 Prince and Princess opened the Exhibition with the usual 
 ceremonies. On the return procession to the railway a 
 droll accident happened to myself. Being anxious to see 
 the chemical exhibits I separated myself from the Royal 
 party and found that it had started on the return route, 
 leaving a carriage for me to follow. When I entered it, 
 the guard of moimted police, about twenty in number, who 
 
u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.'’ 377 
 
 were to form the rear of the procession, came behind and 
 at the sides of the carriage. The people in the crowded 
 streets could not understand this, and, seeing a single person 
 in a carriage closely guarded by mounted police, obviously 
 thought I was a State prisoner, and, for the several miles 
 which I had to pass through the crowded streets, gave the 
 poor captive signs of sympathy and applause. It was 
 impossible to keep a grave countenance when I saw all the 
 occupants of the windows anxiously consulting their pro- 
 grammes to find out who this strongly guarded individual 
 could be. Luckily I reached the railway just as the train 
 was starting for Dalziel, and amused the party with an 
 account of my accidental adventure. 
 
 On the 15th of June, 1888, the Emperor Frederick died. 
 I received the information from Prince Christian in the 
 following letter. 
 
 Cumberland Lodge, 
 
 H.R.H. Prince Christian to Playfair . June 15th, 1888. 
 
 Dear Sir Lyon Playfair, — We have received to-day 
 the sad news of the Emperor's death, and though we had 
 been prepared for it for a long time, still it is impossible not 
 to feel deeply moved and grieved at such a sad fate. I 
 personally have lost the truest and best friend I had, whom 
 I had known for thirty-seven years. I leave to-morrow for 
 Berlin, and shall, of course, not be able to attend to any 
 business for the present, nor can I tell when I shall be back. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Chris, v. Holstein. 
 
 The universal sorrow and sympathy for the Empress and 
 our own Queen exhibited by all classes was very striking. 
 I went the following day to Dollis Hill, the country house 
 of Lord Aberdeen, to a gathering of foreign missionaries 
 who at present are holding a convention in London. At 
 least five hundred missionaries were present, two hundred 
 being from America. Mourning was almost universal, 
 and the feelings of sorrow were touching. Gladstone was 
 
378 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 present, but he declined to address the assembly as he 
 feared that he might be misunderstood, especially as a 
 telegram had just reached us of the great Liberal victory at 
 Ayr, and he did not desire that any manifestation should 
 be made by his followers. I wrote an account of the 
 sorrow shown by this assemblage of missionaries to Prince 
 Christian at Berlin, and the Prince of Wales afterwards told 
 me that he took this letter to the widowed Empress, who 
 appreciated the sympathy shown on that occasion. 
 
 I had not seen much of the Emperor in late years, but 
 when he was Crown Prince and visited this country, I 
 occasionally dined with him and the Princess. It was 
 impossible not to admire the manly character and simplicity 
 of the Prince. Full of natural intelligence, he never pro- 
 fessed knowledge when he did not possess it, and was 
 always anxious to obtain information. His kindliness of 
 disposition endeared him to this nation as well as to 
 Germany. He once said sadly that the political conditions 
 of Europe had undergone such profound changes since he 
 had been educated as a successor to the throne, that he 
 doubted his powers to adapt himself to the new conditions. 
 No one else doubted his ability, or his desire to sustain the 
 peace of Europe, had his health been preserved. In the 
 Jubilee procession of 1887 he was the noblest-looking man 
 in that great array of Kings and Princes. I was within a 
 few feet of him during the celebration at Westminster 
 Abbey. I knew then that the best medical opinion in 
 London was that he suffered from cancer, and that before 
 many months he must pass away. This conviction made 
 the ceremony of rejoicing for the Jubilee one of melancholy 
 to me. A few days afterwards his devoted wife asked me 
 to tell her the prevailing feeling among medical men, but 
 I thought it was best to profess ignorance, especially as I 
 had no professional judgment of my own. I have a 
 memento of the late Emperor which I much value. It 
 consists of two large vases in Berlin porcelain, which were 
 given to me by the Emperor William upon the recommenda- 
 tion of the Crown Prince. 
 
 In January, 1889, the widowed Empress came over to 
 
11 BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 379 
 
 England and visited Sandringham. She expressed a wish 
 that Lord and Lady Granville and my wife and myself 
 should be invited to meet her in memory of old acquaint- 
 ance when she was Crown Princess of England. The rest 
 of the party consisted of her three daughters and the 
 family of the Prince of Wales. 
 
 The whole party were in deep mourning, though the 
 Empress did her best not to cast a gloom over the young 
 party of her nephews and nieces. She discussed with me 
 quite openly and frankly the difficulties and unpopularity 
 which came upon her after the death of the Emperor. 
 I was particularly struck with her defence of Bismarck 
 when I remarked that his behaviour to her did not indicate 
 love for England. She assured me that as a statesman he 
 fully valued the alliance and friendship of England, and 
 always worked to maintain it. The newspapers blamed 
 her for the publication of extracts from the Emperor’s 
 diaries, showing that it was the Emperor, and not Prince 
 Bismarck, who had desired the unity of Germany. She 
 told me that she was pained by this publication, and had 
 nothing to do with it. On the death of the Emperor she 
 had found his journal in a carefully sealed packet, with 
 instructions outside that it was to be deposited in the State 
 archives. This she did the day after his death. The pre- 
 mature publication of extracts the Empress attributed to 
 the over-zeal of a friend of the Emperor, possibly Professor 
 Geffcken, employed by him to copy parts of the journal 
 written on the field of battle in pencil notes. His friend 
 had probably kept the original pencil entries, or copies ot 
 them, in the hope of some day giving full credit to the 
 Emperors share in the achievement of national unity. It 
 will be remembered that Prince Bismarck must have 
 thought so also, as he took steps to prevent any further 
 publication of the diary by Professor Geffcken. 
 
 In May of 1889 I received a presentation of plate from 
 the Prince of Wales at Marlborough House. The occasion 
 was my resignation of the Honorary Secretaryship of the 
 Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851. This Com- 
 mission administered the landed property bought out of the 
 
380 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 profits of that Exhibition, the value of the estate having 
 largely increased since the date of the purchase. The 
 object of this purchase was to find sites for public buildings, 
 and to promote education in science and art. The South 
 Kensington Museum, the Natural History Sections of the 
 British Museum, the Royal Albert Hall, the Imperial 
 Institute, the Royal College of Music and other institu- 
 tions are built on this property. When General Scott, the 
 Secretary of the Commission, died, I found that a long 
 course of over-building had brought the affairs of the Com- 
 missioners to a financial crisis, and I volunteered to act as 
 Honorary Secretary until they were restored to a sounder 
 position. The debts of the Commissioners were then 
 ^180,000, and the annual deficit near £ 2 , 000 . When 
 I resigned, the debt had been reduced to the comparatively 
 small amount of £ 26 , 000 , and there was a substantial 
 surplus income. 
 
 But the age of seventy years had arrived, and I thought 
 it prudent to give up some of my work. The Commis- 
 sioners in their private capacity subscribed a sufficient 
 sum to buy a service of old silver plate of the time ot 
 George II., and this was given to me in a very gratifying 
 way at Marlborough House. The Commissioners attended 
 and the presentation was made in a friendly speech by the 
 Prince of Wales in the presence of the subscribers, among 
 whom were Their Royal Highnesses the Prince of Wales, 
 the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of Connaught, Prince 
 Christian ; the Duke of Teck and the Marquis of Salisbury 
 (Prime Minister), Mr Gladstone, Earl Carnarvon, Earl 
 Granville, Earl Rosebery, Lord Cranbrook (President 
 of the Council), Mr W. H. Smith (First Lord of the 
 Treasury), Lord Herschell and Lord Selbome (two past 
 Lord Chancellors), Lord Thring, Mr Goschen (Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer), Mr Childers, Mr Mundella, Mr Plunkett, 
 Sir W. Hart-Dyke, Sir Sidney Waterlow, Admiral Sir A. 
 Milne, Sir Dighton Probyn, V.C., Sir G. Bruce (President 
 of the Institution of Civil Engineers), General Sir T. 
 Biddulph (Treasurer to the Queen), Sir F. Leighton (Presi- 
 dent of the Royal Academy), and General Ellis. 
 
u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 38 1 
 
 Not a single member of the Commission declined to sub- 
 scribe, though many of them were my political opponents ; 
 indeed, the first subscription sent in was that of Lord 
 Salisbury, the Prime Minister. The secret had been so well 
 kept that I only knew of it by being summoned to attend 
 a meeting at Marlborough House a few days before the 
 presentation. In replying to the Prince of Wales’s speech, 
 I alluded to this circumstance : — 
 
 The secret was so well kept from me that it was only within 
 the last few days I knew of the purpose of presenting me with 
 any token of recognition. I receive with pride and pleasure, at 
 the hands of your Royal Highness, this gift from my colleagues 
 on the Commission. Its original purpose of offering sites for 
 public institutions is now nearly completed, but there is a future 
 before it in the improved condition of its finances which will extend 
 its object to the promotion of education in sciences and arts to the 
 provincial towns as well as to London. This development of its 
 original intention will make it a national memorial of the Great 
 Exhibition of 1851, carried out by your illustrious father the Prince 
 Consort under great difficulties. That Exhibition had an enormous 
 influence on the industries of the country, and it has been by the 
 exertions and example of your Royal Highness that this influence 
 has never been allowed to die out. 
 
 The purpose indicated in the latter part of the speech 
 has since been accomplished. Scholarships in all the 
 leading colleges throughout the country and the Colonies 
 have been established. Their annual value is .£150, and 
 they are tenable for two or three years. As they are 
 only bestowed on graduates, who have shown capacity 
 for research, it is hoped that they may be of use in 
 encouraging promising students to devote their lives to 
 the advancement of science. Huxley, Sir William Thom- 
 son, Roscoe, Lockyer, and other men of science, gave me 
 willing aid in framing a scheme for these scholarships. 
 
 A proposal to increase by ^40,000 the annual vote to 
 the Prince of Wales as a means of providing for his family 
 produced much discussion in the House of Commons at 
 this time, though it was ultimately carried. The division 
 list showed that the Liberals as a party were strongly 
 against it, and Mr Gladstone and I were almost the 
 
382 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 only members of the party who voted for the grant. 
 This vote astonished my constituency at South Leeds, 
 and I immediately went down to defend my action. 
 The meeting was crowded, and though I received an 
 attentive hearing, the feeling was at first decidedly against 
 my support of the increased royal grant. I pointed out 
 that every great nation must have a Head to represent 
 its greatness and dignity. It mattered little whether the 
 Head was called a King or a President, provided that 
 both are surrounded by constitutional safeguards against 
 the abuse of their high position. 
 
 It is only a question of expediency whether the head 
 of the State should be appointed by hereditary succession 
 or by election. By the former method the head of the 
 State represents the dignity of the whole people ; by 
 election he represents only the majority, and naturally 
 favours that at the cost of the minority. The United 
 States forms the best example of an Electoral Head of 
 the State, and its experience has now covered a century. 
 But this system has grave inconveniences. The President 
 is elected for four years, during only two of which he does 
 effective administrative work. The first year is practically 
 wasted in fulfilling the electoral promises made during 
 the contest ; and the last of the four years in preparing 
 for the next election. 
 
 The relative cost of a King by succession and a President 
 by election is much in favour of the former. In the case 
 of the United Kingdom our monarchs have royal property 
 administered by the Government, and its revenues largely 
 diminish the need of taxation. In fact, the whole taxa- 
 tion of the people for the support of the Queen and Royal 
 Family is less than a penny a head per annum, while 
 the cost of electing a President of the United States is 
 estimated at half a dollar, or two shillings per head, 
 every year. 
 
 Politically, the Sovereign of the United Kingdom has 
 much less power than the President of the United States, 
 whose Cabinet is personal, and not within or accountable 
 to Congress. This independence by the Executive of 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 383 
 
 Parliamentary control takes away much powei from the 
 people. In England the Sovereign can never practically act 
 without the consent of Parliament, for the Ministers are 
 responsible to it, whereas in the United States they are 
 responsible to the President. 
 
 The splendour which surrounds our throne does not 
 mean that the Guelphs are great in themselves, but that 
 they reflect the greatness of the people. If they were 
 compelled to lessen the glitter of the throne by petty 
 economies, they would lessen the lustre of the empire 
 which represents all that is brilliant as well as all 
 that is good, earnest, and true. It is well for the 
 people that they should pay a sensible sum to represent 
 the dignity and glory of the nation, and I look with 
 apprehension to the rapid improvement of the Crown 
 revenues, which will before long suffice as an endowment 
 for Monarchy, and render it independent of the con- 
 tribution of the people. It is certainly not much that 
 is asked from the population of the United Kingdom 
 that each person should contribute one penny yearly for 
 the maintenance of the Head of the Empire. 
 
 As I continued to speak in this vein, I saw that 
 the feeling of the large meeting was coming round to 
 my views, and at the end of the speech I challenged a 
 vote as to whether I still preserved their confidence. 
 Out of a meeting of about 1,000, three hands were held 
 up against me, and all the others in my favour. 
 
 AUTOBIOGRAPHY CONTINUED. — XIV. 
 
 1892. 
 
 In 1892 the Government of 1886 came to an end, leaving 
 behind it both good and bad records of legislation. The 
 former consisted in establishing representative Local Govern- 
 ment in Great Britain, including a London County Council. 
 It is customary to discount these measures on account of 
 their incompleteness, but it was a considerable feat in 
 legislation to have established them at all. Logically a 
 like measure should have been passed for Ireland, but the 
 
384 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Bill for this purpose was brought in amid the last groans of 
 an expiring Government, and was obviously framed for 
 show and not for use. The Tor}" Government also passed 
 a measure which to a large extent gave free education in 
 elementary schools. No doubt the measure was halting 
 and imperfect, but it is surprising that it received the 
 support of the Conservative party. The late Government 
 had been kept in power by the Liberal Unionists who 
 deserted Mr Gladstone in 1886, and the Conservatives had 
 to pass some Liberal measures to satisfy their allies. 
 
 Ireland during these six years has been under a Coercion 
 Act, administered by Mr A. Balfour, the Irish Secretary. 
 Mr Balfour is a man of great ability, but he had to wan his 
 experience as an administrator. For some years he thought 
 excessive firmness was requisite to keep down discontent in 
 Ireland, and he imprisoned Irish Members of Parliament 
 for speeches which would have been perfectly legal in 
 England. This severity might have been tolerated had he 
 not committed the error of treating these political offenders 
 against the Coercion Act as common criminals, who should 
 be obliged to wear prison dress and subsist on prison diet. 
 A reaction followed this rigour, and as the General Election 
 approached the Coercion Act was disused. At last, in 
 June, Parliament was dissolved, and a General Election 
 followed. I had a short though sharp contest at South 
 Leeds with Mr Neville, who reduced my majority of 1,700 
 in 1886 to about 1,530 in 1892. The seat was known to be 
 a safe one for me, and perhaps we were over confident, as 
 I spent part of the election in aiding candidates in the 
 surrounding constituencies, including some in Lancashire 
 and Cheshire. 
 
 The result of the General Election was that Mr Gladstone 
 had a narrow majority of forty above Conservatives and 
 Liberal Unionists combined. The interest of the country 
 was greater than in previous elections. The ' Daily 
 Graphic ' published daily the returns in the form of two 
 ladders placed side by side. On the right-hand ladder 
 Lord Salisbury started high up with his large majority, 
 while Gladstone was at the bottom. Day by day the 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 385 
 
 Grand Old Man was seen slowly creeping up to his rival, 
 and ultimately passing him. At the final poll Gladstone 
 was shown at the top rung sitting down, and mopping his 
 brow, obviously perplexed as to what he should do next. 
 This graphic representation of the Election was a great 
 success, and established the 1 Daily Graphic ' as a paper. 
 In the clubs, during the Election, members sat up all 
 through the night to see the records of the elections posted 
 up on large screens as the telegraphic records arrived from 
 the provinces. 
 
 Lord Salisbury met the new Parliament, and was defeated 
 by the majority of forty. Mr Gladstone had to form a 
 new Government, and met with some difficulties. His 
 former colleagues were advancing in age, and the younger 
 politicians were afraid that they would not be included in 
 the Government if the old politicians came back. There 
 was therefore a dead set in the newspapers against the 
 veteran politicians. Of his late colleagues, I was, though 
 ten years younger, still the next oldest to Gladstone him- 
 self, and then Stansfeld came next to me. It was obvious 
 that the chief set of the younger Radicals was against us on 
 account of our age, and there was much that was reason- 
 able in this feeling. Accordingly I did not make the least 
 effort to be included in the new Government, and, in fact, 
 felt relieved that I should not be called upon to undergo 
 the fatigues of a Cabinet Minister in the House of 
 Commons. I therefore watched the formation of the 
 Government with equanimity. I was surprised one morn- 
 ing to receive a letter from Mr Gladstone, which I presumed 
 was to ask me to join the Government. Its object, how- 
 ever, was of a different character. The letter was as 
 follows : — 
 
 1, Carlton Gardens, 
 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair . August 13 th, 1892. 
 
 My dear Playfair,- -I recognise, and am confident 
 the nation would recognise, your fitness to receive an offer 
 of Cabinet office on the present occasion, were it not for 
 the operation of an inexorable law, by which I ought to be 
 the first person proscribed. But as I am not permitted to 
 
 z 
 
386 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 profit by what at my age would be simply a favour, I have 
 only the painful duty of recognising that a public opinion, 
 not upon the whole unreasonable, deems us, the members 
 of the last Liberal Government, too old to resume our 
 charges as a body. I fear, therefore, it is not within the 
 scope of my present commission to make any proposal 
 which would give us the benefit of direct assistance from 
 your high character and your great knowledge, experience, 
 and ability. There is, however, a mode in which a marked 
 acknowledgment might be given to your services, and if it 
 is agreeable to you I should have sincere pleasure in sub- 
 mitting your name to Her Majesty for a Peerage. 
 
 Believe me, with much regard, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 Playfair to Mr Gladstone. August 13th, 1892. 
 
 Dear Mr Gladstone, — I fully recognise the diffi- 
 culties of age in my own case, though not in yours, and I 
 determined not to make the least effort to obtain office. 
 Had you resolved, without any mark of favour, to fill up 
 the Ministry without me, I would have written to assure 
 you of my loyal support as a member of your party. The 
 offer which you make I fully recognise as a high expression 
 of your esteem, which I am proud to possess. Allow me 
 twenty-four hours to consider it. It is not impossible, as 
 my three children happen to possess independent means 
 and are richer than their father. But I hope you will not 
 consider it unreasonable if I ask till to-morrow before I 
 give a definite reply. In the meantime, with sentiments of 
 profound appreciation for your friendly communication, 
 Believe me, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Same to the same. August 14 th, 1892. 
 
 Dear Mr Gladstone, — Having considered your kind 
 proposal to submit my name to Her Majesty for a peerage, 
 
u BARON PLAYFx^IR OF ST. ANDREWS." 387 
 
 I place myself at Her Majesty’s commands should Her 
 Majesty be graciously pleased to confirm your kind re- 
 commendation. Yours, etc., 
 
 Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Playfair to Sir Henry Ponsonby. London, August 23 rd. 
 
 I do not know whether it is proper for me to express 
 through you to Her Majesty my feeling of profound grati- 
 tude for the dignity which Her Majesty has been pleased 
 to confer upon me. But I do not like to sail for America 
 without showing my great appreciation of this high mark 
 of Her Majesty’s favour, and I leave it to you to express 
 my sentiments of devotion and gratitude if you think it 
 right to do so. 
 
 In thanking Mr Gladstone for this mark of his favour- 
 able regard, I asked for a short delay in order to consult 
 my family. Personally I am too poor to accept a peerage, 
 but my three children have independent means. My son 
 is in the Mauritius, as an artillery officer, with his wife and 
 my only grandson, Lyon. Unfortunately I could not 
 consult the person most interested in the hereditary 
 succession to the peerage, but as the rest of my family 
 urged me to accept the offer I did so. The Queen, I 
 understand, was pleased with Mr Gladstone’s request to 
 make me a peer, and consented to it in terms of gracious 
 kindness. In acknowledging my letter of thanks General 
 Sir Henry Ponsonby, Her Majesty’s Secretary, wrote to me 
 as follows : — 
 
 Sir Henry Ponsonby to Playfair. Osborne, August 28 th, 1892. 
 
 Dear Sir Lyon Playfair, — When I showed the 
 Queen your letter of thanks, she said it gave her great 
 pleasure to confer a peerage on one of her old friends. 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 Henry Ponsonby. 
 
 The title which I selected was “ Baron Playfair of St. 
 Andrews." In that ancient city my ancestors had lived for 
 
388 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 several generations, and my father, mother, and uncles, as 
 well as my grandparents, are buried in the old churchyard 
 of the ruined cathedral. The authorities of the City and 
 University expressed their satisfaction that I had associated 
 St. Andrews with my barony. 
 
 The newspapers of both parties were favourable to my 
 elevation to the peerage, but there was one circumstance 
 which gave me so much pain that it was a long time before 
 I derived any pleasure from the peerage. I allude to the 
 fact that I had to separate myself from the constituency of 
 South Leeds. This is essentially a working man’s con- 
 stituency. The electors largely consist of skilled mechanics 
 and coal miners. They have always shown the warmest 
 friendship for me, and I have reciprocated that friendship. 
 I believe that it was nearly as much pain to them as to 
 myself that our official connection was severed. As it is a 
 thoroughly Radical constituency I feared that they would 
 think I had treated them with scant courtesy. But at the 
 first meeting to consider the vacancy caused by the peerage, 
 they unanimously passed the following resolution : — 
 
 Having heard the letter of the Right Hon. Sir Lyon Playfair, this 
 meeting reciprocates the feeling of pain and, in some measure, the 
 pride and satisfaction at the recognition by Her Majesty the Queen 
 of the services of the right hon. gentleman by his elevation to the 
 peerage of the United Kingdom, and expresses the hope that his fife 
 may be long spared to add to a life made noble by a record of un- 
 tiring efforts in promoting the social and intellectual advancement of 
 the people ; and also records its thanks for the able and disinterested 
 manner in which he has represented this constituency for the past 
 seven years. 
 
 I hope that the new member for South Leeds will 
 appreciate the merits of the constituency as much as I 
 have done. 
 
 I may as well mention here that on the 23rd of February, 
 1894, the South Leeds constituency invited Lady Playfair 
 and myself to an entertainment at Leeds, and presented 
 her with a silver blotting case and envelope case, and my- 
 self with a beautiful illuminated address, congratulating me 
 on the peerage and expressing their warm friendship. 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 389 
 
 It is unnecessary to dwell upon Playfairs political 
 position during the years covered by the last fragmentary 
 instalments of his Reminiscences. It remained very much 
 what it had been during the whole of his Parliamentary 
 career. He was active in support of the Liberal cause 
 during the years which preceded Mr Gladstone’s return 
 to office in 1892 ; and not only at Leeds, but in many 
 other great centres of industry and population, he addressed 
 meetings on those economic and political questions in 
 which he took so deep an interest. His exclusion from 
 the Cabinet of 1892 — an exclusion due entirely, as Mr 
 Gladstone stated, to his age — did not prevent his being 
 engaged in serious political work, first as a supporter 
 and subsequently as a member of the Ministry. The 
 event which he felt most was, as he has stated, the 
 severance of his connection with the South Leeds con- 
 stituency. The peerage which Mr Gladstone offered to 
 him, and which he accepted, was no compensation to 
 him for the loss of his position as representative of a 
 body of men whom he had learnt not only to respect, 
 but to love. Yet the weight of years which prevented 
 his taking a leading part in the deliberations of the new 
 Ministry made it desirable that he should be relieved 
 from the wear and tear of life in the House of Commons. 
 He left that House with deep regret, and it may be 
 said with confidence that he left behind him not a 
 single man who was other than his friend. To his son, 
 who was at that time stationed at the Mauritius, where 
 he passed through the terrible experience of the great 
 hurricane of 1892, he addressed the following letters : — 
 
 Playfair to his Son. Onslow Gardens, May 23rd, 1892. 
 
 We have received your telegram to Mr Hickman telling 
 us that you are safe, and we were intensely relieved. 
 Your kind letter arrived on my birthday, and your 
 
390 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 telegram also, only a few hours later than the news of 
 the disaster. We suppose that Jemingham was Acting- 
 Governor when the disaster occurred, and his activity 
 seems to have been admirable. I suppose that all of 
 you had to work hard to help the poor people, who 
 had suffered severely. We trust that little Lyon was 
 not made worse by the fright. In our moderate climate 
 it is difficult to realise your position in being kept 
 perhaps twenty-four hours shut up in the house, and 
 unable to help even your nearest neighbours. I hope 
 that your men did not suffer, but it must have been an 
 anxious time for you at a considerable distance from 
 the troops. 
 
 I send you to-day a speech which I delivered at Leeds. 
 
 I had for the first time some difficulty, because I voted 
 against the eight hours' labour day by Act of Parlia- 
 ment. However, only from ten to twenty of a very 
 crowded meeting voted against me, and even they came 
 up to me afterwards, and said it was only a demon- 
 stration, and that they would vote for me at the election. 
 We expect the dissolution about the 25th June or there- 
 abouts. What the result will be no one can tell ; probably 
 the Gladstonians will get in by a small majority. At 
 present I have no opponent. 
 
 Same to the same. Onslow Gardens, July 2 5 th , 1892. 
 
 My election was pretty hard work, as so many candi- 
 dates wanted my help. I spoke for seven candidates in 
 Yorkshire and Cheshire, besides my own work. Some- 
 times I made three speeches daily — always two. My 
 opponent, Neville, was a nice young fellow. He fought 
 hard, and I could not neglect the fight, though I had a 
 majority of 1,535. I got the support of sixty per cent, 
 of the voters, and he of forty per cent. Edith came to 
 Leeds, driving about in a landau, the horses and coachman 
 gaily decorated in yellow, and Edith’s dress brilliant with 
 the same colour of the party. She was in the gallery of 
 the Town Hall during the counting of the votes, and when 
 the result was thrown upon a screen by a magic lantern, 
 
“ BARON 
 
 PLAYFAIR OF 
 
 ST. ANDREWS. ' 
 
 391 
 
 Playfair 
 
 • • • 
 
 4.829 
 
 
 Neville 
 
 . 
 
 3.294 
 
 
 
 Majority 
 
 L535 
 
 
 Edith accompanied me to the front of the platform to 
 receive the cheers of thirty or forty thousand people, 
 who, of course, did not hear one word of my speech of 
 thanks. As I was going into the hall a clergyman, 
 obviously belonging to the High Church, put his hands 
 to his mouth and groaned at me. Unfortunately for 
 him, my chairman, Alderman Gilston, was behind me, 
 and he went up to the clergyman and said, “I do not 
 know who you are, but I will find out. My name is 
 Alderman Gilston, and I tell you you are a disgrace to 
 your cloth and your profession.” The poor cleric slunk 
 into the crowd as far as possible. Another election story 
 may interest you. I had been speaking in the Colne 
 Valley division for the Liberal candidate, Sir James Kitson 
 (now M.P.), and in coming back by the train I went 
 into a smoking carriage where a gentleman was having 
 a cigar. The following colloquy took place : — 
 
 Stranger : Are you from Leeds ? 
 
 L. P. : I am going there. 
 
 Stranger : Do you belong to Leeds ? 
 
 L. P. : I am a candidate for a seat there. 
 
 Stranger : You are Lawrence Gane. I know all about you. 
 
 L. P. : No, I am Lyon Playfair. 
 
 Stranger : You do not know how interested I am to meet you. 
 You and the poet Burns have made me what I am. I owe every- 
 thing to you. Sir, my father was the drunkard of the village, and I 
 was brought up as the street Arab. When my father died he called 
 me to his bedside and implored me to keep off drink, which had 
 ruined him and his family. I went to school and learned to read, 
 and I got hold of a copy of Burns, who opened my mind. Then 
 I happened to see in a newspaper a speech by you on technical 
 education and the dignity of labour. This made me join a 
 
 Mechanics’ Institute at M , and now I am its President. Every 
 
 scrap that I see of a speech by you I read with eagerness, and 
 you have formed my life, next to Burns. 
 
 L. P. : That is very gratifying to me. Seed sown broadcast 
 comes up after many days in places least expected. 
 
392 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR* 
 
 This stranger had so far profited by Playfair’s advice 
 that he was himself one of the candidates for Parlia- 
 ment in the General Election of 1892. 
 
 Onslow Gardens, 
 
 Playfair to his Brother. February 10 th, 1893. 
 
 My dear Lambert, — We are all eager to hear about 
 the Irish Bill on Monday. There never has been such a 
 rush for places as on this occasion, probably the greatest 
 effort, and perhaps the final one, of the G. O. M. I met him 
 two days ago at dinner at Marlborough House, and we left 
 together. The night was bleak, and my brougham was at 
 the door, so I offered to drive him home. But, no ! the 
 brisk youth said a walk stimulated circulatic n, and he went 
 off jauntily, while his juniors put up their collars and 
 jumped into carriages with closed windows. Yet you 
 Tories have nothing but abuse for this wonderful specimen 
 of humanity. 
 
 During the autumn Playfair was surprised to receive a 
 communication from Mr Gladstone, inviting him to accept 
 the post of Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen. 
 
 Private. 
 
 Hawarden Castle, Chester. 
 
 Mr Gladstone to Playfair . October 20th, 1892. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — It would, I think, gratify the 
 Queen if I could persuade you to let me propose your name 
 to her as a Lord-in-Waiting. You are, I dare say, aware 
 that you would find on the list of colleagues one very 
 distinguished name, that of Lord Acton, and it would, I 
 think, be in your option to take charge of Scotch business 
 in the House of Lords, which may be much more than 
 formal. 
 
 You are aware, I dare say, that we were obliged to cut 
 off the political appointments in the Lords almost wholly 
 outside the Cabinet, and that the Lordship-in- Waiting, 
 unlike most of the Household appointments, facilitates 
 the maintenance of personal relations with the Queen. 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 393 
 
 I do not know if you are aware that the French Pro- 
 tectionists promised an increase of £&, 000,000 from the 
 new tariffs, and that the result is likely to be a deficit ! 
 
 With our kind regards to Lady Playfair, 
 
 I remain, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 W. E. Gladstone. 
 
 Playfairs work as Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen, though 
 valued by him as keeping up his connection with the Royal 
 Family, a connection which had extended over the greater 
 part of his life, was made specially congenial because it 
 placed him in intimate relations with more than one 
 department of the Government of which he had to act as 
 the representative in the House of Lords. From his 
 letters to his wife during his “ waits ” at Windsor a few 
 extracts may be made. 
 
 Windsor Castle, 
 
 Playfair to his Wife . Sunday, June 25th, 1893. 
 
 I had better write, as there is some doubt as to whether 
 I go to London to-morrow to the levee. The Queen holds 
 a Privy Council to-morrow, and wishes me to be present as 
 one of her Privy Councillors, so Ponsonby is telegraphing 
 to see if they can get a Lord-in-Waiting to supply my place 
 at the levee. 
 
 Last night arrived the Duchess of Edinburgh, Princess 
 Victoria, and Princess Alexandra ; and also Lord Wolseley 
 and Admiral Hoskyns. I dined with the Queen, and send 
 you the plan of the dinner, which had more of State than 
 usual. You will see that the Duchess of Edinburgh was on 
 the right of the Queen, then I came between the Duchess 
 and her very agreeable daughter, Princess Victoria. They 
 were both very affable, the Queen frequently joining in 
 our conversation. After dinner there was “ a reception ” 
 of the ladies of the Household. 
 
 To-day the Queen kindly sent to say that she was to 
 attend a service in the Mausoleum of the Prince Consort, 
 and she thought I might like to join it. Accordingly I 
 
394 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 walked through the grounds to Frogmore, I should think 
 about a mile. The walk through the Home Park is lovely. 
 This Mausoleum to me was very touching. Over the altar 
 is a large picture of Christ coming out of the tomb, and the 
 Roman soldiers falling down under their shields, overcome 
 by this triumph over death. On each side of the Mauso- 
 leum are two large pictures, one of the Crucifixion and the 
 other of the Disciples’ Visit to the Empty Tomb. In the 
 middle is the sarcophagus of the Prince Consort, with 
 bronze angels supporting it, and the recumbent figure of the 
 Prince in white marble. In a recess is an exquisite monu- 
 ment in pure white marble to Princess Alice. You recollect 
 that she died of diphtheria, after nursing her child through 
 its illness, and the child lies beside her, clasped to her 
 breast. I had just time to go round the Mausoleum when 
 the Queen arrived. There were three rows of chairs. In 
 the first row sat the Queen, the Duchess of Edinburgh, 
 Princess Beatrice, and Princess Leiningen. In the second 
 row Lady Antrim and the three Edinburgh Princesses, one 
 a little girl. In the third row two Ladies-in-Waiting, Miss 
 Macneill and Miss Cadogan, Sir John Macneill, Sir F. 
 Edwards and myself. The music was hidden, but the choir 
 was good. The Dean of Windsor and a Bishop, unknown 
 to me (though he came up and talked with me), officiated. 
 
 The whole service was pleasing, and I felt touched, as it 
 was the first time I had seen the Prince Consort’s tomb. I 
 walked back in a roundabout way with Edwards and 
 Macneill, and saw all the beauties of Frogmore. The 
 Queen goes there every morning and does her work upon 
 the Government despatches in a pleasant tea house, 
 attended by her secretaries. After the service at the 
 Mausoleum she went to the tea house to get through 
 her morning work, which follows her on Sundays as on 
 other days. 
 
 Same to the same. Windsor Castle, December nth, 1893. 
 
 To-day we have had a most eloquent sermon from the 
 Bishop of Ripon (Dr Boyd Carpenter), and I did not go 
 out at all, as the weather was so inclement. 
 
u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS/' 395 
 
 Yesterday I had a pleasant walk with Bishop Barry, and 
 he took me over the ecclesiastical precincts of St. George’s 
 Chapel. In the garden there is a blighted willow tree. It 
 was planted from a cutting of the willow tree which I saw 
 growing over Napoleon’s tomb at St. Helena. It grew and 
 waxed to be a goodly tree, growing on the ashes where the 
 last martyrdom by fire took place at Windsor. On the day 
 of the battle of Sedan, when the power of Napoleon III. 
 fell, there was a heavy storm at Windsor, and a stroke of 
 lightning knocked the chief branch from the willow tree. 
 Still it stood, and was stunted, not blighted. Years after 
 there was another heavy storm, and lightning again struck 
 the tree and carried off the second great arm. It was 
 afterwards ascertained that this accident happened just at 
 the hour in which the Prince Imperial was killed in Africa 
 by the Zulus ! There is a wonderful Napoleonic story 
 for you ! 
 
 Same to the same. Windsor Castle, July 1 6 th, 1894. 
 
 Yesterday I went to the private chapel in the morning 
 (12 o’clock) and to St. George’s Chapel in the afternoon 
 (5 o’clock). The singing there is beautiful, and the whole 
 surroundings make the service most attractive. 
 
 At nine I dined with the Queen. Princess Alix was on 
 one side of me and the Dean’s wife, Mrs Elliot, on the 
 other. Occasionally the Cesarevitch joined in our con- 
 versation, and then it became general at the top of the 
 table — the Queen, Princess Beatrice and Bishop of Ripon 
 joining. The bishop is a capital raconteur , and is a good 
 guest at a Royal table. I liked Princess Alix and found 
 her very agreeable when we did talk together. After 
 dinner I had a long talk with the Cesarevitch, and found 
 him singularly well read. It required all my knowledge of 
 geography to keep up with him in his talk about the 
 Kurile Islands, which stretch from Yezo to Kamschatka. 
 
 During the whole term of the existence of the Govern- 
 ment of 1892, first under the premiership of Mr Gladstone, 
 and subsequently under that of Lord Rosebery, Playfair’s 
 
396 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 services were in constant requisition. Whenever any one 
 of those questions with which he had been associated 
 during his life was on the tapis, Ministers applied to him 
 for advice and assistance. How varied and how onerous 
 were the demands thus made upon his time and attention 
 may be gathered from the fact that during the Session of 
 1894, h e received in succession the following offers of posts 
 of a more or less laborious character : — The Chairmanship 
 of the Royal Commission on Secondary Education ; the 
 post of Representative of Great Britain at the International 
 Colonial Conference at Ottawa ; and the Chairmanship of 
 a Commission to inquire into the education given in our 
 Naval Schools. He was at the time engaged in the heavy 
 work of the Aged Poor Commission, and was compelled in 
 consequence to decline the appointments thus offered to him. 
 
 Playfair to his Son. Onslow Gardens, April nth , 1894. 
 
 You may be interested to know that the Government, 
 having been asked to send an Imperial representative to a 
 conference to be held in June and July at Ottawa, in the 
 interests of Canada and Australia, have asked me to attend 
 on the part of this country. Had it been in autumn I 
 would have accepted, but liberties with my health, at my 
 age, are not permissible, and I was afraid of the effects of a 
 month of the Canadian summer. So I have refused. 
 
 Before he left for his usual visit to the United States in 
 the autumn of this year, Playfair took some steps to secure 
 a place of burial for himself and his family at St. Andrews. 
 The old burial ground attached to the ruined cathedral 
 had been closed. It was here that • Playfair's ancestors 
 of several generations were buried, and he would have 
 been glad to think that when his own time came, he 
 would be laid to rest beside them. But this ancient 
 burial ground had been closed for sanitary reasons, and 
 he was much too earnest in his regard for the public 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 397 
 
 health to desire that it should be re-opened merely to 
 gratify his own natural wishes. Happily, the new ground 
 adjoined the old. 
 
 His work on the Aged Poor Commission became more 
 absorbing than ever towards the close of 1894. The 
 history of that Commission is already well known. Its 
 purpose was to devise if possible some means by which 
 the dream of Old Age Pensions for all who stood in 
 need of them could be realised. The Prince of Wales 
 occupied a seat on the Commission, and attended its 
 meetings with great regularity. It was a powerful body, 
 containing the representatives of different schools of 
 thought. Its President was Lord Aberdare, between 
 whom and Playfair a warm feeling of friendship and 
 mutual confidence had been maintained for many years. 
 Mr Chamberlain and the late Dr Hunter, one of the 
 members for Aberdeen, were also members of the Com- 
 mission. It gathered a vast amount of useful information 
 with regard to the condition of the aged poor, and to 
 the proposals of different kinds which had been made 
 for the provision of some system of Old Age Pensions. 
 But when the time came for the consideration of the 
 Report, serious differences of opinion were found to exist 
 among the members, and it became apparent to Lord 
 Aberdare, who was then in failing health, that he was 
 being thwarted by some of the younger men, who looked 
 upon the whole question from a political rather than an 
 economic point of view. Lord Aberdare was in constant 
 communication with Playfair during the anxious months 
 when the Commissioners were engaged in a fierce 
 struggle over the terms of their Report ; and when 
 increasing illness compelled him to retire from his duties 
 as Chairman, it was Playfair who took his place, and 
 carried on the work to its conclusion. 
 
39 § 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Duffryn, Mountain Ash, 
 
 Lord Aberdare to Playfair . South Wales, October 31 St, 1894. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I am very sorry to hear of 
 your anxiety for Mr Russell, and your inevitable detention 
 at Boston. Brown will have told you of my corre- 
 spondence with Chamberlain, and of the lines I have 
 taken. ... I am certainly better — physically as well 
 as any reasonable octogenarian could desire — but I find 
 my head incapable of continuous close attention for even 
 a short hour, and therefore avoid all my usual public 
 work — college, university, etc. — and am rapidly arriving 
 at the conclusion that at this present rate of progress, I 
 have no chance of being able effectually now, without 
 injury probably permanent, to perform the duties of the 
 chair. For these I, and I believe the Commissioners 
 generally, look to you, and I hope that no official duties 
 will stand between you and them. . . . 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 Aberdare. 
 
 Same to the same. December 6 th, 1894. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Your letter has greatly relieved 
 me, for I came to the conclusion that my presence on 
 the nth would be rather embarrassing than helpful, and 
 anything but agreeable to myself. I shall depend upon 
 you for making the necessary explanations. I know by 
 certain tests I have applied that I cannot give that 
 amount of close, continuous attention to the discussions 
 on the Report which are expected from the Chairman. 
 If it were merely a question of peril to my health, I 
 might venture, but I am convinced that after the lapse 
 of a year I should prove myself unequal to the task. 
 Nor have I any ground for supposing that I should be 
 substantially fitter in February next. ... As for the 
 chairmanship, I am convinced that you are not only 
 the best man, but the only one. I earnestly hope that 
 you may succeed in persuading the majority to meet on 
 the 15th January for the purpose of finishing the Report. 
 
u BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 399 
 
 I anticipate some difficulty and many objections, but I 
 hope that you will persist, and if necessary divide. 
 
 Ever sincerely yours, 
 
 Aberdare. 
 
 Lord Aberdare did not long survive the writing of the 
 above letter. He died on February 26th, just one day 
 before the Report of the Royal Commission was sub- 
 mitted for signature. But for some months his work 
 had been discharged by Playfair, upon whom had rested 
 the burden of revising the Report. A very heavy burden 
 it was. The diverse elements of which the Commission 
 was composed were not to be reconciled even by the 
 most adroit and conciliatory of presidents. Playfair did 
 his best, and strove to induce Mr Chamberlain to fall 
 into line with his colleagues, and to agree to a Report 
 upon which practical action might have been taken ; but 
 he failed to do so. The majority Report, for which 
 Playfair was mainly responsible, refused to recommend 
 Mr Chamberlain’s scheme for voluntary assisted insurance. 
 It reported strongly in favour of an extension of outdoor 
 relief, and the improvement of workhouse accommodation. 
 It declined to recommend any of the schemes which 
 had been submitted to it for giving State assistance to 
 the aged poor. A memorandum, drawn up by Playfair 
 himself, appeared at the end of the Report of the Royal 
 Commission. It was a succinct summary of the history 
 of that body. “ The Commission began their work in 
 February, 1893, under the presidency of Lord Aberdare, 
 who was in the chair during the examination of nearly 
 all the witnesses. He drafted the Report, and presided 
 at the meetings at which it was discussed until the 
 adjournment at the end of July, 1894. The Commission 
 re-assembled on the nth December, 1894, but the state 
 of Lord Aberdare’s health prevented him from being 
 
400 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 present at that or subsequent meetings, although he con- 
 tinued to take a deep interest in the progress of then- 
 work to within a few days of his death. At the meeting 
 on the nth December, 1894, I was unanimously elected 
 to act as chairman during Lord Aberdare’s inability to 
 attend. Some of the Commission, present and absent, 
 desired that further proceedings should be deferred until 
 the opening of Parliament, while others were in favour 
 of an earlier resumption of the deliberations, which had 
 already been greatly protracted. By way of compromise, 
 it was agreed, with the practical unanimity of those 
 present, that meetings should be resumed on the 29th 
 January, 1895.” 
 
 The actual summary in which the conclusions of the 
 Report were lembodied, was written by Playfair, and sub- 
 mitted to Lord Aberdare, who saw and approved it a few 
 days before his death. Mr Chamberlain and some other 
 members of the Commission signed an independent report, 
 describing the recommendations of the chief report as 
 “ inadequate.” The solution of the problem of our aged 
 poor was not reached during Playfair’s lifetime— has not, 
 indeed, been arrived at to the present hour ; but the work 
 of the Royal Commission which reported in 1895 will 
 always remain on record, because of the thoroughness with 
 which it investigated the great question with which it had 
 to deal, and of the frankness and courage with which Lord 
 Aberdare and Lord Playfair vindicated those doctrines of 
 political economy upon which the wealth of nations 
 depends. This Royal Commission was, of course, only one 
 of many in which Playfair took part during his public career. 
 If it achieved no practical result, it was not on that account 
 a less laborious piece of work in the sendee of his country. 
 
 On the Queen’s birthday, in 1895, Playfair was the re- 
 cipient of an honour which came to him most unexpectedly, 
 
“BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS." 401 
 
 and which he valued all the more highly because it was the 
 spontaneous and unsolicited recognition not only of his life- 
 long services to the country, but of the work which he had 
 been doing in the public service since his accession to the 
 Peerage. The announcement that he was to receive the 
 honour of the Grand Cross of the Bath was conveyed to 
 him in the following letter from the Prime Minister : — 
 
 10, Downing Street, Whitehall, 
 
 The Earl of Rosebery to Playfair. May 12 th, 1895. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I propose on the occasion of 
 the Queen’s birthday to recommend you for the honour 
 of the G.C.B. I have no time to explain why I do this, 
 because the record of your single-minded services to the 
 public is too long for a letter. I will only say that you 
 have never been deaf to the call of duty, however arduous, 
 or fallen short of its requirements. That is a great thing 
 to say, and of few can it be said. I must add, however, 
 the expression of my personal gratitude for the valuable 
 work that you are doing for the present Government in 
 the House of Lords. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Rosebery. 
 
 No recognition of his work could possibly have been 
 more gratifying to Playfair than this cordial acknowledg- 
 ment, by a statesman for whom he entertained a warm 
 admiration, of the value of his services to his country. 
 
 The Liberal Ministry resigned on its defeat in the House 
 of Commons in the following June, and Playfair of course 
 ceased to hold the office of Lord-in- Waiting. 
 
 Before leaving for his annual visit to the United States, 
 Playfair went to Osborne to be invested with the insignia 
 of his new honour. It had been discovered by the Heralds’ 
 
 A A 
 
402 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 College that a curious mistake had been made with regard 
 to his previous promotion to the Knight Commandership 
 of the Bath, which the following letter explains : — 
 
 Playfair to his Daughter ( the Hon. Mrs R. M. Stewart). 
 
 Onslow Gardens, August 6 th , 1895. 
 
 Many thanks for your letter of affectionate farewell. I 
 hope that you and Stewart will have a very pleasant 
 autumn, and that all will go well with you in our absence. 
 My visit to Osborne on Friday was very pleasant. You 
 will have seen that I was knighted, as it appears that I 
 was never legally “ Sir Lyon.” When made K.C.B. in 
 1885, the Queen thought I would like to wear the decora- 
 tion on her birthday a few days after being gazetted, and 
 so under the sign-manual had given me a dispensation from 
 knighthood “ until such time as Her Majesty can con- 
 veniently confer it.” This I had not observed, and so 
 I was never knighted. This was discovered by the 
 Heralds’ College, and accordingly I had to get the accolade 
 as well as the G.C.B. The official termination of my 
 position as Lord-in-Waiting has ended very graciously. 
 The Queen sent to me an engraved portrait of herself, 
 and desired me to send for her album a cabinet portrait 
 of myself. . . . With much love to you both, 
 
 Yours lovingly, 
 
 Playfair. 
 
 In the autumn of 1895, when paying his usual visit to 
 Boston, Playfair took the opportunity of making, with 
 his wife, a short tour in Canada. His reception in the 
 Dominion was more cordial than ever. 
 
 135, Beacon Street, Boston, 
 
 Playfair to his Son. October 18 th, 1895. 
 
 We have come back from Canada, where our trip was 
 very successful. The hospitality of the Canadians is un- 
 bounded, and we might have lunched and dined three 
 
“ BARON PLAYFAIR OF ST. ANDREWS.” 403 
 
 times at least daily. A beautiful banquet was given to me 
 by the bankers, or rather by the president of one bank, to 
 enable me to meet the other bankers of Montreal. At 
 Quebec, which Edith had never seen, the same hospitality 
 was shown us — rather more of it, because the British 
 Ambassador to the United States, Sir Julian Pauncefote, 
 came there after us, and we joined forces, and did every- 
 thing together. The artillery gave His Excellency a 
 parade in the Citadel, and we dined at the mess in the 
 evening. Since I was there last a splendid hotel has been 
 built on the platform, with a glorious view. Our sitting- 
 room was in the turret, and had thirteen windows, so we 
 commanded every side. The owners of Montmorency 
 Falls asked us to an afternoon party, and the glorious 
 Falls, twice the height of Niagara, though much less in 
 volume, were under our windows. The President of the 
 Union Pacific sent his car to the Ambassador, so we 
 returned in delightful comfort, with an excellent cook and 
 good wines. In ten days we leave Boston, and on the 
 30th sail in the Majestic . 
 
 During his visit to Canada, in a conversation with a 
 newspaper reporter at Montreal in October, 1895, h e 
 delivered himself of some of those sentiments with regard 
 to imperial affairs, and the union of Great Britain and her 
 colonies, which he had always held. Referring to the 
 complications which existed at that time in Eastern 
 Europe, and the menacing position of Russia, he said to 
 his interlocutor : — 
 
 “ I do not think European peace will be disturbed at present through 
 these complications ; but, at any rate, as far as England is concerned 
 you may have noticed that in some way, whatever the difficulty, 
 England has come out all right in the end.” His lordship will not 
 allow that the Liberal party is disheartened. “ We are as reso- 
 lute as ever, though we do not see the possibility of getting back 
 to power for another five or six years. The majority against us 
 s overwhelming, but this is not because the people are against 
 Liberal principles, but because we went to the country with too 
 many questions. We should have had one or two well-defined 
 measures, which we should have offered to the people, who, 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 4O4 
 
 on the contrary, were mystified by a long and indefinite programme. 
 We had Local Option, Disestablishment, Home Rule, Registra- 
 tion, and other matters, which bred confusion and uncertainty 
 in the mind. We needed definiteness, and, not having it, we 
 lost ” ... To the suggestion that the Liberal party has been 
 accused of lukewarmness towards the Colonies, whereas it was 
 the policy of the Conservatives to bind them closer to the Mother 
 country, his lordship said that it was to be remembered that 
 Lord Rosebery was the chairman of the Imperial Federation League, 
 whose object was to unite the whole Empire in closer bonds. “ I 
 myself was an active member of the Society, which unfortunately 
 has been disbanded, but I can assure you that there is a strong feel- 
 ing in favour of Imperial Federation, and that the Society did good 
 work in fostering it. We do indeed desire closer relations, though 
 we would never consent to bring them about by taxation (as was 
 proposed at Ottawa at your recent conference) of foreign produce, 
 which is so much greater than all our trade with the Colonies at 
 present. That would be disastrous for us, and no Government 
 would think of entertaining such a question. The Colonies will 
 grow, and our trade with them will increase, but England will never 
 go back to Protection principles, even for the purpose of making a 
 bond between the scattered members of her family.” 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 Playfair’s Sojourns at Nahant — Almost a Citizen of the United States — 
 Letters to Lady Playfair’s Family — The Venezuelan Crisis — Nego- 
 tiating Peace — Correspondence with Mr Chamberlain and Mr 
 Bayard — Playfair’s Share in the Settlement of the Dispute. 
 
 It seems desirable to say something about what may be 
 fittingly called the American side of Playfair’s life, and 
 those visits to the United States which occurred so re- 
 gularly during the last twenty years of his life. His 
 letters to his American friends and relatives sufficiently 
 prove the affectionate intimacy of his intercourse with 
 them ; but they do not convey any idea to the reader 
 of the importance which these annual visits to the 
 United States assumed in Playfair’s life. The reader 
 has probably noticed that after his marriage with Miss 
 Russell he invariably left England at the earliest pos- 
 sible moment after his release from the labours of the 
 Parliamentary Session, and spent some months of the 
 recess either in Boston or at Nahant, the beautiful 
 watering-place which is so well known to all visitors to 
 New England. His father-in-law, Mr Russell, had a 
 summer residence at Nahant, and here Playfair spent 
 many weeks almost every year from 1879 onwards. 
 The climate and the scenery of Nahant were both to 
 his taste. From the heights of the little peninsula on 
 which the village stood, the visitor looks across the 
 Atlantic upon an expanse of water that stretches from 
 his feet to the shores of Spain. Beautiful walks and 
 
4 06 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 drives are to be found at every turn ; whilst Nahant 
 has happily remained free from the features of the 
 fashionable watering-place, and from the dissipations of 
 summer resorts better known to the outer world. It 
 was not, however, merely the beauty and quietude of 
 Nahant that constituted its charm in the eyes of 
 Playfair. The society of the place, although limited, 
 was of no ordinary kind. In the old days it was the 
 summer residence of Prescott, the historian; of Long- 
 fellow, Motley and Agassiz; and these men naturally 
 drew to it many friends of distinction from all parts 
 of the United States as well as from Europe. When 
 Playfair became a yearly resident in his father-in- 
 law’s cottage, some of the eminent men I have named 
 had passed away ; but others, not less eminent, remained. 
 Among these were Longfellow and Wendell Holmes, and 
 with them Playfair’s friendship became intimate. It was 
 at Nahant that Longfellow had written some of his finest 
 poetry, and it was the scenery of the watering-place that 
 had inspired not a few of his seaside poems. It was a 
 delight to Playfair to be able to enjoy frequent inter- 
 course with the venerable and illustrious poet. Agassiz 
 he did not know, as death had removed him from the 
 scene ; but the widow of the great naturalist survived, 
 and with her also Playfair was on terms of intimate 
 friendship. 
 
 It was characteristic of him that just as he had en- 
 tered into the life of his wife’s family as fully and frankly 
 as if he had been one of them by birth, so, during his 
 sojourn in America, he became almost a citizen of the 
 United States, taking the keenest interest in all public 
 affairs affecting the Republic, and discussing American 
 politics with as much interest and intelligence as he 
 brought to bear upon the politics of his own land. He 
 was, of course, specially interested in the public schools 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 407 
 
 and charitable institutions of the United States, and he 
 never paid his annual visit to Boston without going to 
 see some school or public charity or prison. It often 
 happened that one who was received with honour as a 
 distinguished public man from the Old Country was called 
 upon to take some public part in his visits to these institu- 
 tions, and it is probable that he never went to America 
 without having to make a number of speeches to audiences 
 varying from school-children to Ministers and statesmen. 
 One notable incident during these American visits has 
 already been dealt with. That was the occasion when 
 Playfair took part in a remarkable meeting that was held 
 at Boston for the purpose of receiving a deputation from 
 Great Britain, who had crossed the Atlantic in order to 
 appeal to the President and people of the United States 
 in favour of a Treaty of Arbitration. At this meeting 
 Playfair was introduced to the audience as one who had 
 more reasons than some to love Boston, for his wife was a 
 Bostonian, and the daughter of an honoured citizen who 
 was present on the platform. He spoke with his accus- 
 tomed plainness and clearness upon the subject that the 
 meeting had been called to consider, concluding his speech 
 with these words : — 
 
 “ Let us look at the peculiarities of John Bull and Brother 
 Jonathan, and see if there is anything to prevent the proposed 
 treaty. John Bull is a man full of honest purpose, but he was 
 born on an island and is steeped in insular prejudices. He has 
 a sincere conviction that he is always right and that everybody 
 else is always wrong. Brother Jonathan has the greatest intoler- 
 ance of discussion, and there is underneath this intolerance a 
 spirit of sweet reasonableness. Now, why should not this honest 
 purpose of John Bull and this sweet reasonableness of Brother 
 Jonathan work in harmony, and form a union which would exer- 
 cise a power for good which would be felt throughout the length 
 and breadth of the world ? ” 
 
 This homely appeal was made long before Lord Salis- 
 bury attempted to frame in concert with the American 
 
408 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Government a Treaty of Arbitration, and it represents one 
 of the strongest sentiments in Playfair’s heart during the 
 last years of his life. 
 
 He had long been an advocate of a system of arbi- 
 tration for the settlement of international disputes. In 
 this year, 1887, as he has told us in his Reminiscences, 
 he took part in the movement which was started by the 
 friends of peace in Great Britain in favour of the establish- 
 ment of arbitration between England and the United 
 States. He visited Washington as a member of the 
 English deputation, and was there received by the 
 President. His speech to the President (Mr Cleveland) 
 has been given on an earlier page. In replying to it, 
 the President spoke in conciliatory and friendly terms. 
 He gave no hint of that future when the relations of 
 England with the United States became so strained 
 that war between the two countries seemed to be 
 imminent ; and Playfair himself, when he addressed 
 President Cleveland, can have had no inkling of the fact 
 that a few years later he was to be engaged in devising, 
 not a general scheme of arbitration, but arbitration upon 
 a particular and specific question, in order to save the 
 world from the calamity of a fratricidal struggle between 
 the two great branches of the English-speaking race. His 
 interest in this question of arbitration never failed, and 
 in 1890, under the title of “ A Topic for Christmas,” he 
 contributed to the 1 North American Review’ an essay 
 in which he set forth the whole case in favour of a treaty 
 of arbitration, and appealed to the people of the United 
 States to come forward as the champions of that method 
 of settling the disputes of nations. How strongly he felt 
 upon the subject may be gathered from the closing passage 
 of his contribution to the ( North American Review’ : — 
 
 “ While Continental countries in Europe groan under these 
 burdens, it is the privilege and duty of English-speaking people 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 409 
 
 to preach and to practise the doctrine of peace. Every Sunday 
 morning the prayer arises in England — ‘ Give peace in our time, 
 0 Lord.’ This prayer is national, but it is followed by another — 
 catholic and unique, applying to all nations, that they may have 
 ‘ unity, peace, and concord.’ A few hours after these prayers have 
 been made in the churches of England, they are repeated in those of 
 the United States, and pass with the rising light till they girdle 
 the whole world. The realisation of these prayers is within the 
 power of the Anglo-Saxon race. They are animated by the spirit 
 of love, liberty, and order, which has already done so much to 
 ameliorate humanity; and in the triumph of their mission will 
 there be the maintenance of peace between nations.” 
 
 But whilst his visits to the States were thus associated 
 to some extent with public purposes, and whilst they 
 undoubtedly gave Playfair, as a member of the House 
 of Commons, an almost unique position, owing to the 
 extent and thoroughness of the knowledge which he had 
 acquired of American party politics, his chief desire in his 
 yearly visits to Boston and Nahant was to enjoy himself 
 in the midst of a family life which seemed to be peculiarly 
 suited to his own temperament. I have had occasion 
 already to speak of his relations with Mr and Mrs Russell, 
 the father and mother of his wife. I now bring together 
 a few letters which not only illustrate, more fully than 
 any comments of mine could, the character of his friend- 
 ship with them, but which have an interest of their own. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell , Esq. January 3rd, 1887. 
 
 You will see that the Government has been in a political 
 crisis, which I am glad to say has not broken it up, as 
 we were not ready to take advantage of it, and did not 
 want another dissolution. Goschen has been the cement 
 to fill the crack, but it will not much longer hold together. 
 Still it may last through this Session, but it may not. I 
 am very busy just now helping to start the Imperial 
 Institute, which is to be the offering of love and loyalty 
 to the Queen on the fiftieth anniversary of her reign. All 
 
4io 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the Lord-Lieutenants and Mayors meet at St. James's 
 Palace on the 12th. It depends a good deal upon the 
 Prince’s speech at that meeting whether it will start well. 
 He is a good speaker, and I am sure will distinguish himself 
 on that occasion. At present we have only £10,000 
 out of .£500,000. Every district wishes its own little 
 testimonial, so it is difficult to get money for a great 
 object. The latest proposal is to make the great Jubilee 
 offering a gold cup for the best Cheddar cheese ! That 
 manuscript [his Reminiscences], which I was engaged in 
 writing at Nahant, has now got to the year 1878 — a year 
 very dear to me, and one for which I am grateful every 
 day of my life. 
 
 Windsor Hotel, New York, 
 
 Playfair to Mr and Mrs Russell. October 28 th, 1890. 
 
 ( On leaving America after his annual visit.) 
 
 My dearest Pater et Mater, — If a million mi- 
 crobes can inhabit with comfort and liveliness the point 
 of a needle, why is it necessary that the great Atlantic 
 should divide people who wish to live together ? Our 
 heart is sad because of this need of our existence, but 
 we have so many things to be grateful for that there 
 should be no room for sadness. Mater’s guests have 
 departed, but she will soon forget her cares in love for 
 the absent child and son-in-law, who she knows fully 
 appreciated all her love and tenderness. Pater will have 
 no one to instruct with his wide and great knowledge 
 of history. And so it is all over for a few months, and 
 bright memories remain for us of all your love and 
 goodness to us, and I hope pleasant memories to you 
 of those who have left. 
 
 Sandringham, Norfolk, 
 
 Playfair to Mrs Russell. November 23 rd, 1890. 
 
 You will see by the above address where I am, though 
 Edith unfortunately could not accompany me. Our party 
 is not very large — the Danish Minister and Madame de 
 Bille, Lord Herschell, Archdeacon Farrar, Sir Frederick 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 411 
 
 Leighton (the President of the Royal Academy), Sir F. 
 Abel, and myself. The two young Princes are on their 
 travels, so only the Princesses Victoria and Maud are here. 
 Archdeacon Farrar gave us a most interesting sermon, 
 abounding in illustration. He brought in quotations from 
 Goethe, and Rabelais even, with a good deal of science 
 to show that little things make up a man’s life, and that 
 these, being done properly, constitute human happiness. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell, Esq. January 26th, 1891. 
 
 I have just finished an article on American finance, 
 which will appear in ‘The New Review’ for February. 
 It is entitled ‘The Demas Invitation to substitute Gold 
 for Silver in the United States.’ If you wish to be re- 
 minded who Mr Demas was, look up your ‘ Pilgrim’s 
 Progress,’ and you will find Christian’s last temptation 
 before entering the Golden City was by Demas tempting 
 him to abandon the Gold and join “the Silver Fraternity.” 
 It is a capital skit on the bi-metallic views which Bunyan 
 must have known in his time. I have made it the 
 apologue of my article. You are sure to have the 
 
 ‘ Review ’ in your Club, but in any case I will send you 
 a copy. 
 
 Same to the same . J ul y J 9 th, 1892. 
 
 It is still possible we may sail on the 10th August. I 
 must stay to vote my want of confidence in the present 
 Government in any case, but that should be determined 
 by, say, the 8th. Lord Salisbury sticks to office till 
 Parliament meets, which is not till the 4th. Three days 
 will be required for swearing in and electing a Speaker ; 
 and after that, two days, the 8th and 9th, will be required 
 for the vote. It is doubtful whether we can catch the 
 steamer on the 10th, and we prefer to sail by the large 
 steamers, either the Majestic or the Teutonic. So it 
 may, and probably would, be the 24th before we could 
 sail. The Radicals think me too moderate, and do not 
 wish me in the Government. 
 
412 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to Mr and Mrs Russell. February ist, 1893. 
 
 Edith was at the ceremony in the House of Lords 
 yesterday, and for the first time took her seat in the 
 Peeresses’ Gallery. The House of Lords was en grande 
 tenue for the occasion, the ceremonial entrance for Peers 
 being opened, and servants in scarlet being in attendance. 
 I suppose this was done in honour of the unusual number 
 of Peers introduced. The Lord High Chamberlain, the 
 Earl Marshal (Duke of Norfolk), the Garter King at Arms 
 (Sir A. Woods), and the Black Rod (Admiral Drummond), 
 dressed in their gorgeous costumes, conducted each peer in 
 succession through the queer ancient ceremonial of which 
 we send you a programme. I was seventh in the list, 
 and each presentation took ten minutes. The procession 
 consisted of seven : — 
 
 1 — Black Rod, in black clothes ; 2 — The Earl Marshal, Duke of 
 Norfolk; 3 — Lord Ancaster, Hereditary Lord High Chamberlain; 
 4 — Garter King at Arms ; 5, 6 and 7 — Lord Brassey, Lyon, Lord 
 Monkswell, in Baron’s robes. 
 
 Garter wore a crimson velvet robe, embroidered all over, 
 both before and behind, with golden lions. The Duke of 
 Norfolk's scarlet robes were like a priest’s — much embroi- 
 dered. The Lord High Chamberlain was in the robes of 
 an earl — scarlet, with deeper ermine than the baron’s. They 
 filed up in Indian file to the Lord Chancellor, where Garter 
 gave me my Patent : a large roll of parchment, illumi- 
 nated on the margin with arms, thistles, etc. This is the 
 Warrant for future generations. This patent I, kneeling, 
 handed to the Lord Chancellor, who gave it to the senior 
 clerk, who read it aloud at the table, the peers in the 
 procession standing round. Then I handed the writ of 
 summons to the House, which was also read. Then, after 
 taking the oath of fealty to the Queen, I signed the roll. 
 Again the procession forms, and files down the spiritual 
 side of the House, and the peer, with his supporters, was 
 taken to the upper bench, where Brassey, Monkswell, 
 and I sat down, putting on our cocked hats, and rising 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 413 
 
 and bowing solemnly three times to the Lord Chancellor. 
 Then the procession was re-formed, and filed out of 
 the House. 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to Mrs Russell. February 26 th, 1893. 
 
 I am exceedingly busy with work, but it seems to suit 
 me. Two Royal Commissions, one on a university for 
 London, and the other on the Poor Law, occupy me four 
 days in the week. With my companies also these engage- 
 ments occupy all my days till dinner time. The House of 
 Lords is not exacting, for it occupies generally only one 
 and a half hours. Later, it will give me some work, as I 
 represent three Government departments — the Board of 
 Trade, the Post Office, and Scotland — and have to answer 
 all questions relating to these, and carry through their Bills. 
 At the Commission on the Aged Poor the Prince of Wales 
 attends, and we often have luncheon together. 
 
 Mynde Park, Hereford, 
 
 Playfair to S. H. Russell , Esq. Ma y i 8 93 - 
 
 I suppose that Edith has told you all about this beautiful 
 place, so I will go back to my visit to Windsor. I arrived 
 at the Castle just in time to get fifteen minutes for my 
 dressing, but with a capital valet I managed to get into the 
 Windsor uniform — dark blue coat with red collar and 
 red cuffs, trousers buttoning close at the ankles, stockings 
 and pumps. My decorations required most time to put 
 on. Then I went into the long State corridor, where the 
 rest of the party, except the Royalties, were assembled. 
 
 took the Lord-in- Waiting’s place (who dined with the 
 Maids-of- Honour). There were only eight or ten at 
 
 table. After dinner we again went to the long corridor, 
 where the Queen sent for her guests in rotation. I 
 enjoyed a talk with her about old times, and her im- 
 pressions at the late ceremonial of opening the Institute. 
 After about half an hour the Queen left with the Princess 
 Beatrice, and I had a long talk with the Princess’s husband, 
 after which I joined the ladies of the Household in their 
 drawing-room, and had a pleasant time till 1 1 o’clock. 
 
MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 414 
 
 South Kensington, 
 
 Playfair to Mrs Russell. Ma y 13^. 1895. 
 
 My dear Mater, — In your country honours are 
 difficult to understand, and therefore you may be puzzled 
 to know how I became C.B., then K.C.B., and now, on 
 the Queen’s birthday, become G.C.B., or Grand Cross of the 
 Bath. Instead of wearing the riband round my neck, it 
 goes across the body ; and where the riband used to be, 
 a collar of gold and enamel is substituted on “ collar 
 days." Dear Mr Russell, had he been alive, would have 
 been much gratified. . . You will, when you receive 
 
 this, be in Nahant ; and though your return will be full 
 of sadness, I hope the change will do you very much 
 good. You can associate every rose and flower with him 
 whom you loved so well. 1 
 
 In many ways, the most important and interesting 
 feature of Playfair’s connection with the United States 
 was the part he played at a time when President Cleve- 
 land’s actions with regard to Venezuela brought the two 
 countries into a state of dangerous antagonism. When 
 the storm of passion aroused by President Cleveland’s 
 message swept over the surface of the United States, no 
 one in this country was filled with deeper anxiety as to the 
 ultimate issue of the dispute which had been raised so 
 gratuitously than Playfair. The warmth of his friendship 
 with many eminent Americans, and his sympathetic in- 
 terest in the political development of the United States, 
 gave a peculiar poignancy to the grief with which he saw 
 the outburst of a hostile feeling on the part of the Americans 
 towards his native land, the existence of which had hardly 
 been suspected. His view of the action of President Cleve- 
 land was that of most Englishmen, but his whole desire 
 was for peace, and, with characteristic courage and enthu- 
 siasm, he had no sooner realised the fact that the diplomacy 
 
 1 Mr Russell had died during Playfair’s visit to the United States in the 
 previous autumn. 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 415 
 
 ol the two countries had fallen into a state of deadlock 
 than he set about to devise some means by which the 
 difficult knot might be disentangled. Immediately after 
 Mr Cleveland’s message he received many communica- 
 tions from his friends in the United States discussing the 
 position of affairs, pointing out its gravity, and imploring 
 him to take some action in the interests of international 
 peace. One eminent American wrote to him as follows, 
 on Christmas Eve, 1895 : — 
 
 “ We are young — England is old, and as the young 
 feel a veneration for those who are older, so we have a 
 feeling of regard for England that is ill-concealed by our 
 often-assumed tone of perfect equality. The term ‘ mother 
 country’ not only means a great deal, but it carries with 
 it an influence which begets filial feeling. And notwith- 
 standing all this, the people of the United States are 
 roused, and in mood for war, because they look upon 
 the action of Great Britain as a menace to our integrit}^ 
 and to our institutions. I have never known the people, 
 North and South, so united and so much in earnest : so 
 ready to suffer any consequences rather than permit 
 unjust aggression against a sister republic. They will 
 await the result of the investigation by the Commission 
 appointed by the President, and if that result unfavour- 
 ably to the claims of Lord Salisbury, I fear the worst. 
 This is the reason I write. I cannot persuade myself 
 that the English can meditate injustice. It is necessary 
 that our people should be made to see this, that they 
 may touch and feel it, that they may recognise on the 
 part of England a delicacy with regard to the rights of 
 Venezuela which would cause her to recede the moment 
 she sees she is wrong. We hoped to have this come about 
 through arbitration. That hope has deceived us, and the 
 concert of accord with England on the part of the Con- 
 tinental Press makes it doubtful in the minds of many 
 whether any Government in Europe would act with 
 impartiality in the matter. Calmness, justice, and, as 
 
41 6 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Mr Gladstone says, common-sense, must preside over the 
 decision of this disputed question, and it must be made 
 clear that there is nothing in the whole matter which 
 threatens the integrity of Venezuela ; and indirectly (as 
 we understand it) the integrity of the United States.” 
 
 Partial and inadequate as this expression of the American 
 point of view may be, it deserves to be noted because 
 of the extent to which it prevailed on the other side of 
 the Atlantic. Playfair, who did not forget that the 
 dignity and the integrity of Great Britain had just as 
 good a right to be respected as those of Venezuela or 
 the United States, clearly realised that President Cleve- 
 land’s action in abstaining from any reply to Lord Salis- 
 bury’s despatches, and in nominating a Commission to 
 deal with a question in which the sovereign rights of 
 England were concerned, made straight for war. For 
 the moment the appointment of the Commission delayed 
 the catastrophe. But unless some steps were taken to 
 extricate the two great nations involved from the pre- 
 dicament created by Mr Cleveland’s undiplomatic diplo- 
 macy war, it was morally certain, must ensue. 
 
 It was in these circumstances, and stimulated by the 
 appeals he received from American friends, that Playfair, 
 at the request of Mr Chamberlain, took action. On the 
 1 2th January, 1896, after a conversation with the Colonial 
 Secretary, he saw the American Ambassador, Mr Bayard, 
 with whom he was on terms of intimate friendship, and 
 handed to him a memorandum which, in his own opinion, 
 might furnish the basis of an equitable agreement between 
 the two countries. The memorandum began by pointing 
 out that the fact that the President of the United States 
 had sent no reply to the last two despatches of Lord 
 Salisbury seemed to offer an opening for private negotia- 
 tions, by means of which the two Governments might 
 again be brought together. It then proceeded : — 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 417 
 
 “ 2. The Monroe doctrine, which essentially is ‘ that European 
 nations having interests in America shall not seek to extend their 
 influence in that hemisphere ,’ and which is not now accepted inter- 
 nationally, might be made international between the countries 
 now having colonies in America. If the United States Govern- 
 ment were to propose a conference of these nations to this end, 
 England would accept the Monroe doctrine. 
 
 “ 3. It might or it might not be wise to submit to this conference 
 the question whether the dispute as regards the Venezuela boundary 
 comes within the Monroe doctrine. 
 
 “ 4. Venezuela. — In Mr Olney’s despatch there was an admission 
 that the United States would not interfere with the friendly arrange- 
 ment of the boundary between the two nations. Of course Vene- 
 zuela at present will not do anything without the approval of the 
 United States. Could not some such friendly arrangement or 
 arbitration be made in this way ? — 
 
 “ A. There are no Venezuelan settlements inside the Schom- 
 burgk line. 
 
 “ B. There are no English settlements beyond the Schomburgk 
 line. 
 
 “ Irrespective of that line, could not the general condition be 
 accepted that all English and all Venezuelan settlements be 
 excluded from arbitration, but that all the country between the 
 settlements be settled by a Court of Arbitration, and a line be drawn 
 by that court which shall be accepted by both countries ? It would 
 be possible to add English and Venezuelan Commissioners to the 
 Commission already appointed by the United States, but that would 
 be too large and cumbrous a Commission. Would it not be better 
 to appoint two or three from the United States Commission to 
 represent the knowledge they have acquired, two or three from 
 England, and two or three from Venezuela ? If the principle were 
 accepted that the districts already settled by the English and 
 Venezuelan Governments or people should not be arbitrated upon, 
 there would be no difficulty in settling a line on a friendly arbitra- 
 tion. I believe the English Government would accept such a 
 proposal coming from the United States Government.” 
 
 This important memorandum was undoubtedly founded 
 upon communications which had passed between Playfair 
 and members of Lord Salisbury’s Government. It indi- 
 cates roughly, as the reader will perceive, the settlement 
 which was eventually arrived at ; but when he read it to 
 Mr Bayard on that Sunday afternoon in January, 1896, the 
 two countries were still far from being ready to come to 
 terms, and a prolonged correspondence — in the first place 
 
 B B 
 
418 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 private and confidential, and subsequently official — had to 
 pass between the representatives of both before an agree- 
 ment was come to. Mr Chamberlain has kindly permitted 
 me to include in this narrative his own letters in the 
 following correspondence. It need only be said by way of 
 introduction that Mr Bayard was as keen to bring about a 
 pacific solution of the difficulty as anyone in this country 
 was, and that, whilst safeguarding the rights and dignities 
 of the United States, he was eager to assist Playfair in the 
 work in which he was now engaged. 
 
 Embassy of the United States, London, 
 Mr Bayard to Playfair. January 13/A, 1896. 
 
 Dear Lord Playfair, — I return with thanks the 
 memorandum enclosed in re Venezuela which you handed 
 me yesterday. I cabled the purport (confidential) to the 
 Secretary of State, and believe the candid and friendly 
 acceptance by this country of the Monroe doctrine, and 
 non-extension of European holdings in the Americas, will 
 be promotive of a better feeling, by dispelling an indefinite 
 apprehension of European intervention and control in 
 Transatlantic local Governments, which has been fostered 
 by a party of foes to the international peace. I sent over 
 also your project of disregarding the Schomburgk line, but 
 reserving actual “ settlements ” from the scheme of arbitra- 
 tion. While I anticipate good results from non-insistence 
 in advance of the Schomburgk line, yet I do not know 
 how far the actual occupation of the disputable territory 
 has progressed on either side of the dispute. The con- 
 cession of mining rights has been very reckless and vague 
 and corrupt, as a consequence of leaving the boundary so 
 long an open question ; and a great deal of fictitious 
 purchase and sale and unscrupulous manufacture of title 
 has no doubt followed. If we can initiate the disposition 
 to settle in good temper, it will rapidly progress ; and 
 I am not willing to doubt that good feeling and good 
 sense will prevail. Sincerely yours, 
 
 T. F. Bayard. 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 419 
 
 On January 17th Mr Bayard informed Playfair that 
 his Government was indisposed to assent to a conference 
 being called to deal with the Monroe doctrine. 
 
 The Right Hon. Joseph Chamberlain to Playfair . 
 
 Highbury Moor Green, Birmingham, 
 January 19 th, 1896. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Surely the Americans would be 
 wrong not to accept a conference to adopt the Monroe 
 doctrine. Such an international confirmation would tend 
 to clear the air, and remove from the minds of all the 
 American people the idea — so extraordinary to us — that 
 either we or any other European nation covets one 
 additional inch of soil on the American continent. 
 
 Besides this advantage, this plan would in our eyes 
 appear to be more regular and more in accordance with the 
 proceedings of diplomacy. However, if Mr Bayard does 
 not like it, I am not inclined to press for it strongly. 
 
 I think there would be no objection to introducing an 
 article to some convention establishing a general arbitra- 
 tion between Great Britain and the United States for all 
 cases of (i) disputed boundaries in unsettled territories, 
 (2) complaints by nations of one side alleging injury by 
 officials of the other. (This is a very common case, 
 involving much correspondence, and admirably suited for 
 arbitration.) 
 
 The above would of course include the Venezuelan case, 
 in regard to which, however, it would not be enough 
 merely to provide that the disputed boundaries should be 
 “ taken into account." In my view, occupied places and 
 districts ought to be mutually excluded. Mr B. is wrong 
 in thinking that Venezuela has few settlements. On the 
 contrary, I believe her settlements come nearer to the 
 Schomburgk line on her side than ours do on our side 
 of the line. 
 
 Assuming that there was agreement on this point, which 
 is a point of principle, it would remain to define “ settle- 
 ments ” and to decide on the Commission. My own idea 
 is that Venezuela must be represented, and I should have 
 
420 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 thought that a Boundary Commission like the Commission 
 for the Pamirs or for Delimitation of Frontiers of the Gold 
 Coast would be the most practical way of dealing with the 
 business. In all the cases quoted, the Commissioners have 
 been able to agree among themselves, or in exceptional 
 cases they referred a point to their respective Govern- 
 ments, who have at once come to an understanding. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. Chamberlain. 
 
 On January 20th Playfair had another interview with 
 Mr Bayard, and learned from him that the American 
 Government was exceeding^ anxious to provide for the 
 exclusion of all bogus claims of settlement. This he 
 reported to Mr Chamberlain. 
 
 Colonial Office, 
 
 Mr Chamberlain to Playfair. January 23 rd , 1896. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have received your two last 
 letters. Of course no concession without serious occupa- 
 tion would be considered a settlement. I think five years’ 
 bond fide occupation would be a fair definition. I do not 
 think there is any reliable map or book showing accurately 
 the lines of such settlements on either side the Schomburgk 
 Boundary, but I am telegraphing for information. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. Chamberlain. 
 
 Mr Bayard to Playfair. January 29 th , 1896. 
 
 Dear Lord Playfair, — I have a communication to 
 make to you, and will see you at 3 p.m. to-day, or to- 
 morrow at 10.30 a.m. at my residence, or will await your 
 decision as to time and place. To-night I am tied by an 
 engagement. Sincerely yours, 
 
 T. F. Bayard. 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 421 
 
 At the interview which followed, Mr Bayard read to 
 Playfair the telegrams which he had received from 
 Washington with regard to the suggestions made in Play- 
 fair s memorandum. In all the communications which had 
 been made from this side of the Atlantic, the exclusion of 
 the settled districts from any arbitration had been insisted 
 upon. Mr Bayard himself had fully understood this, 
 and had impressed it upon his Government. Playfair 
 found to his disappointment that the Executive of the 
 United States seemed disposed to pass this condition 
 by. He reported to Mr Chamberlain accordingly. 
 
 Highbury Moor Green, Birmingham, 
 Mr Chamberlain to Playfair. February 1st, 1896. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I have to acknowledge your 
 letter of yesterday, and feel sure that my request for 
 information from the United States Government will be 
 favourably considered. In regard to your previous letter, 
 of 29th ultimo, I have to point out to you that although 
 the necessity and practical advantage of confining any 
 inquiry by a Commission, or Tribunal of Arbitration, to the 
 unsettled lands on both sides has formed a prominent part 
 of every representation you have made to Mr Bayard, yet 
 there is no allusion to it in the suggestions which come 
 from Washington, although Mr Bayard says that this con- 
 dition is, he believes, understood and desired. 
 
 In my view it is an essential condition of any settlement 
 on the lines you have been following. In this controversy 
 Great Britain has been contending for men, and not for 
 territory ; for the rights of settlers whom we have en- 
 couraged to take up residence, and to invest their fortunes 
 in the colonies, and not for a mere question of so many 
 acres more or less of land. 
 
 I think, therefore, that the time has come when the tacit 
 understanding on which you have proceeded should be 
 formally confirmed ; failing which, I fear there will be no 
 advantage in our continuing our private conference to find 
 
422 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 a satisfactory and honourable solution. If, however, 
 this point is accepted on both sides, I believe there 
 will be no difficulty on other heads. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. Chamberlain. 
 
 Mr Bayard to Playfair. February 23 rd, 1896. 
 
 Dear Lord Playfair, — I am grieved to learn of your 
 being so much indisposed, and that we shall be deprived of 
 the expected pleasure of having Lady Playfair and yourself 
 to dine on Tuesday next. Pray get well ; you are needed. 
 And now let me say a word about Venezuela. During the 
 long pause in our informal but earnest colloquies, it is 
 evident that a strong and most wholesome public sentiment 
 has proved its existence on both sides of the Atlantic ; and 
 while it encourages the efforts of co-operative international 
 amity, it also notifies the enemy, so that it behoves us to 
 clinch our arrangements without loss of time, and thus pre^ 
 vent the question from being cast into the furnace of the 
 political canvass upon which the people of the United 
 States will enter in a few short months. Surely the 
 practicable remedy contained in the suggestions I last made 
 to you, and upon which, when we last met, I conceived we 
 were in substantial accord, ought not to be imperilled or 
 lost because of the conjectural or possible transfer of 
 property rights in the terra incognita of Guiana from one 
 political jurisdiction to another ? 
 
 The phrase in Mr Chamberlain's note to you of February 
 1 st, and through which you ran your pencil, that the object 
 in Anew of Her Majesty’s Ministers was “men, and not 
 territory,” surely does not state the case as it actually 
 exists ; because, if the native occupation and possession of 
 the land is held irrevocably to tie the land to the owner, 
 the land equally with the man would be excluded from the 
 proposed submission to arbitration. I need not say to you 
 that respect for the law, its moral principles and conscience, 
 is equally shared by both branches of our race, and that 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 
 
 423 
 
 Spanish-American methods of dealing with property and 
 personal rights would be as little likely to find favour, or 
 have influence, with the commissioners on the part of the 
 United States as with those selected here. So that if there 
 should turn out to be some “ hard cases ” of honest pro- 
 prietorship in the disputable region, in which honest 
 purchasers without notice would suffer, and over which 
 the application of equitable principles favourable to the 
 protection of vested rights need not, in the face of the clear 
 facts, be extended, surely provisional arrangements for 
 compensation and indemnification for such cases could 
 be made without serious difficulty. 
 
 I must say to you that I am impressively instructed 
 to urge co-operation by those in authority here without 
 loss of time ; and with such a spirit as now exists, with 
 a Commission such as is contemplated, containing such 
 elements of legal learning, justice, equity, and amicable 
 patriotism as would be entrusted, together with the 
 (possible, but not probable) resort to the ultimate decision 
 of the highest two judicial officers of the respective 
 countries, it seems humanly impossible that serious wrong 
 should be done to any man. If with such methods and 
 such machinery justice should not be evolved, where in 
 the range of human nature can it be found ? 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Sincerely yours, 
 
 T. F. Bayard. 
 
 40, Princes Gardens, S.W., 
 
 Mr Chamberlain to Playfair. February 25 th , 1896. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — I now return you, according to 
 your request, the letter from Mr Bayard of February 23rd. 
 
 I am sorry that I cannot but regard its contents as 
 unsatisfactory. 
 
 I think it well at this stage to remind you of the course 
 of our informal negotiations. When I first saw you, I 
 pointed out that the message of the President appeared 
 to place the two countries in direct antagonism, and 
 
424 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 that accordingly the object of all friends of peace should 
 be to find some third course which both Governments 
 could accept without going back on their previous declara- 
 tions. I observed that while successive English Govern- 
 ments had uniformly refused an unlimited arbitration, it 
 might be possible to arrange for an arbitration under con- 
 ditions which might be acceptable to both parties ; and 
 I suggested inter alia that if settled districts on both 
 sides of the Schomburgk line were excluded, there would 
 probably be no difficulty in arriving at a boundary to be 
 drawn by a competent tribunal, between the settlements 
 in either country. This suggestion was submitted by 
 you, and on the 17th January a telegram from Mr 
 Olney was received, which suggested that in the reference 
 to arbitration specific provision should be made that long- 
 continued occupation should be taken into account. 
 
 On January 19th I replied that the exclusion of the 
 settled districts was a matter of principle, and that the 
 words, “be taken into account,” did not seem to me to 
 be sufficient. 
 
 On the 20th January you gave me an account of your 
 interview with Mr Bayard, in which you reported that 
 he was anxious that in the definition of settlement bogus 
 claims should be excluded ; but he stated that he quite 
 understood that the principle of exclusion underlay our 
 proposal. 
 
 On the 23rd January I suggested five years’ bona-fide 
 occupation as the definition of a settled district. 
 
 On the 29th January you forwarded to me a definite 
 proposal from Mr Olney, in which, however, no reference 
 was made to settled districts. You stated that you had 
 pointed this out to Mr Bayard, who said that he believed 
 that the principle was understood and desired. On the 
 same day I replied to you, pointing out that the exclusion 
 of settled districts was stated to be the essence of the 
 arbitration. Mr Bayard explained that Mr Olney in- 
 sisted on bona-fide as contrasted with snatch settlements ; 
 and you suggested the words “ effective occupation ” as 
 meeting the case. 
 
PLAYFAIR AND THE UNITED STATES. 425 
 
 This being substantially the history of the negotiation, 
 I am surprised to find that in Mr Bayard’s last letter, of 
 February 23rd, he goes back to the original proposal for 
 an open and unconditional arbitration, and ignores the 
 continued insistence by both you and me on the principle 
 of exclusion. To surrender this principle now would be 
 to cut away the ground on which we have sought an 
 amicable compromise, and would stultify the repeated 
 declarations of the British Governments, from Lord 
 Aberdeen to the present day. * 
 
 As the abstract which I have given of our correspondence 
 shows that this point has from the first been steadily kept 
 before Mr Olney, I tnust express my great disappointment 
 that the United States Government should apparently 
 desire to withdraw from the position which I think we 
 both understood they originally accepted. In this case 
 I can only hope that some other compromise may be 
 found in the course of the negotiations, and as I under- 
 stand that these are now officially in progress, I think 
 no object will be served by continuing the informal dis- 
 cussion, which has unfortunately failed to bring about a 
 complete understanding. 
 
 Sincerely appreciating the efforts which you have made, 
 and trusting that although at present they have led to 
 no practical result, they may have had the effect of 
 clearing the ground for further negotiations, 
 
 I am, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 
 J. Chamberlain. 
 
 Mr Chamberlain’s summary, admirably clear and concise, 
 sufficiently indicates the part which Playfair had in the 
 inception of the earliest negotiations that followed the 
 unfortunate rupture occasioned by President Cleveland’s 
 message. The negotiations which, on the strength of his 
 personal knowledge of American politicians and politics, 
 Playfair had initiated, did not, it will be seen, result in the 
 definite settlement of the question at issue. But the official 
 
426 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 negotiations which followed, and which advanced along 
 the line first indicated by Playfair in his memorandum of 
 January 12th, brought about that happy result. In the 
 autmnn of 1896 a Court of Arbitration was agreed upon, 
 and it was accepted by both Governments as ah essential 
 point that settled districts were to be excluded from arbitra- 
 tion. For the definition of settled districts, it was agreed 
 by the two countries that the same lapse of time which 
 protected natives in civil life from having their title ques- 
 tioned should also protect the English colony in the 
 disputed district. The reader will not, I trust, think that I 
 have occupied too much space in telling this story of Play- 
 fair’s intervention in the great dispute. The phase of that 
 question with which he had to deal has now passed into 
 the domain of history, but it is impossible to forget that for 
 several anxious months Great Britain and the United States 
 seemed to be drifting towards a fratricidal war, the worst 
 of all the calamities which could now overtake the civilised 
 world. Xo man who had any part in averting that catas- 
 trophe could fail to feel justly proud of his share in the 
 work ; and Playfair, during the remainder of his life, was 
 glad to know that his own efforts had in this respect been 
 of some service, not only to his fellow-countrymen, but to 
 the people of a country with which he had become con- 
 nected by so dear a tie. 
 
 After the successful conclusion of the official negotiations 
 for the setting up of the Court of Arbitration, Playfair had 
 a friendly note from Mr Bayard, referring to various private 
 matters, in which the following lines occur : — “ I think you 
 and I can shake hands over the settlement of the Vene- 
 zuelan matter, which has passed the stage of inflamation, 
 and healing is almost accomplished. (I believe there are 
 two ‘ m’s ' in inflamation, but I drop one as some English- 
 men might drop an 1 h/) but de minimis non curat , and we 
 can stand together in the main result.” 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 Scientific Appreciation of Playfair by Professor Crum-Brown — Sir Edward 
 Frankland on his Investigations into the Best Coal for the Royal 
 Navy — Playfair on Health and Disease — On Vivisection — On the 
 Applications of Science to Commerce — On the Connection between 
 Man’s Necessities and the Industrial Arts — Playfair’s Work as an 
 Exhibition Commissioner — The National Buildings at South Kensing- 
 ton his Monument — Initiator of “The Victoria and Albert Museum.” 
 
 Playfair’s position in the world of science can, in the 
 nature of things, only be determined when sufficient time 
 has been allowed to elapse to bring him and his contempo- 
 raries in scientific work into their true focus. The reader 
 has seen how full and busy his life was, and how from first 
 to last he was ever striving to give practical application 
 to the successive discoveries of science. Throughout his 
 career his chief object seemed to be to bring all the stores 
 of knowledge which he had at his command, all the teach- 
 ings of experience, to the service of his fellow-men. It was 
 in Parliament, on Royal Commissions, as the active spirit 
 in a hundred different agencies for advancing our social 
 welfare, that he played his most conspicuous part ; and 
 naturally enough, it is as the practical man who turned to 
 good account the labours of the scientific men of his time 
 that he made his greatest mark upon his own generation. 
 But amid the incessant pressure of this practical work in 
 legislation and social reform, Playfair never ceased to be 
 more or less of a student, and his mind was never free from 
 the study of questions which belonged to the region of 
 science rather than to that of politics. Of his position in 
 
428 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the scientific world no better account has been given than 
 that which I am permitted to quote from the pen of 
 Professor Crum-Brown. It is a lucid and brief, but not 
 incomplete survey of his career as a man of science, and 
 as it brings within short compass the whole of Playfair’s 
 labours in this domain, it will not be without interest to 
 the readers of this biography. 
 
 “Lyon Playfair,” says Professor Crum-Brown, “came home for 
 his education from India to St. Andrews, where his grandfather had 
 been Principal of the united College of St. Salvator and St. Leonard, 
 and where his uncle, Sir Hugh Lyon Playfair, after a distinguished 
 career in the Indian Army, retired in 1834, not to repose, but to new 
 battles against dirt, disease, and ruin — battles the result of which we 
 see in the clean, prosperous, and healthy city of St. Andrews. We 
 may well believe that Lord Playfair derived some of his enthusiasm 
 for sanitation and order from his uncle, ‘ the eccentric and energetic 
 soldier who begged, bullied, and wheedled away the filth and 
 ruinous neglect which bade fair to entomb the ancient city.’ 
 
 “ After some years in St. Andrews, he went to Glasgow to study 
 medicine, but was attracted to chemistry by the teaching of 
 Graham, then Professor of Chemistry in the Andersonian. After 
 a short visit to India, he resumed his chemical studies under 
 Graham, in the University College, London. In 1838 he went to 
 Liebig’s laboratory at Giessen, where he worked at organic chemis- 
 try, and produced his first scientific paper ‘ On a New Fat Acid in 
 the Powder of Nutmegs.’ Liebig was not only his teacher but his 
 friend, and when Liebig, on the invitation of Prince Albert, came to 
 this country to lecture on agricultural chemistry, Playfair acted as 
 his assistant and interpreter, and was thus introduced to the Prince 
 — an introduction which had an important effect on his subsequent 
 life. 1 For two years he managed the chemical department of 
 Messrs Thomson’s Printing Works at Clitheroe. In 1843 he was 
 appointed Professor of Chemistry in the Royal Institution at 
 Manchester. In 1844, on the recommendation of Sir Robert Peel, 
 he was appointed a member of a Royal Commission for the exami- 
 nation of the sanitary condition of large towns and populous 
 districts. This was the beginning of what was to be a large part of 
 the work of his life. In 1845 he was one of the Commissioners on 
 the Irish Famine, and from that time till his death there was no 
 year during which he was not appointed to serve on a Royal 
 
 1 This is a mistake, Playfair’s introduction to Prince Albert having, 
 as told on a previous page, been made through the instrumentality of 
 Sir Robert Peel. 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 429 
 
 Commission or a Select Committee of the House of Commons, in 
 very many cases as chairman. Among the Commissions on which 
 he served, besides those already named, may be mentioned the 
 Exhibition of 1851, the Exhibition of 1862, the Cattle Plague, the 
 Reorganisation of the Civil Service (the Report of which is still 
 known officially as the Playfair Scheme), Pensions for the Aged 
 Poor, the University of London, the Herring Fisheries of the United 
 Kingdom, Coal for the Navy. In 1846 he was appointed Chemist to 
 the Museum of Practical Geology, and Professor of Chemistry in 
 the Government School of Mines. 
 
 “ As Special Commissioner in charge of the department of juries 
 at the Great Exhibition of 1851, Playfair had an entirely new task 
 before him. This was the first international exhibition ; he had no 
 precedent to work upon. What he did was quite original, and it 
 was so well done that it became the model for all succeeding inter- 
 national exhibitions. There can be no doubt that the success of the 
 1851 Exhibition was to a great extent due to Playfair’s clear view of 
 what ought to be done and of what could be done, and to his 
 untiring energy in doing it and getting other people to do it. The 
 value of this work was recognised in the highest quarters, and 
 Playfair became a Companion of the Bath and Officer of the 
 Household of the Prince Consort. A more striking proof of the 
 value set by others on his services was the fact that he was asked to 
 undertake the same duty in connection with the Exhibition of 1862, 
 as also that of the Paris Exhibition in 1878. The Prince of Wales, 
 who was President of the British Commission, appointed him 
 Chairman of the Finance Committee. 
 
 “ The 1851 Exhibition led in 1853 to the foundation of the 
 Department of Science and Art, and Playfair and the late Sir 
 Henry Cole were appointed joint secretaries. In 1856 Playfair 
 became Inspector-General of Government Museums and Schools of 
 Science. These offices he held till 1858, when, on the death of 
 Professor Gregory, he was appointed to the Chair of Chemistry in 
 the University of Edinburgh. In Edinburgh he created, practically 
 out of nothing, a really useful teaching laboratory. The rooms then 
 available were very ill-suited for the purpose, and the funds quite 
 inadequate ; but he made the most of the former, and supplemented 
 the latter, spending on the department the whole of his professorial 
 income during the first year, and a large part of it during sub- 
 sequent years of his tenure of office. Playfair was an original 
 member of the Chemical Society of London, over which he presided 
 in 1857-59. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1848, 
 and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1859. He was President 
 of the Chemical Section of the British Association in 1855 and in 
 1859, and of the Association in 1885. 
 
 “ Playfair had a truly scientific mind, and was always busy; and 
 yet we do not find a great deal of original scientific work recorded 
 
430 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 under his name in the ‘ Royal Society Catalogue of Scientific Papers.’ 
 His work lay mostly in another direction, and as he belonged not 
 only to the world of science, but also to that of practical business, 
 he was specially fitted to act as an interpreter between them. Such 
 an interpreter is needed. The man of science does not always 
 know what the business man wants, and the business man often 
 does not understand what the man of science tells him. Such 
 services are, perhaps, appreciated more highly by the man who 
 immediately feels the benefit of them — the statesman, the manu- 
 facturer, or the merchant — than by the man of science. But we 
 should remember that if science takes a higher place now than it 
 took fifty years ago, if the opportunities for the genuine study of 
 science and for the prosecution of scientific investigation are greater 
 now than they were then, if science is taking more nearly its right 
 place in the education of the country, that is due to a large extent 
 to Playfair’s wisdom and hard work. Of Playfair’s contributions to 
 pure chemistry, the most important is the discovery and investiga- 
 tion of the nitro-prussides ; and to applied chemistry, the report on 
 the work undertaken by him, along with Bunsen, on the gases 
 evolved in iron furnaces. But besides what was published in 
 scientific journals, or in the Transactions of learned societies 
 Playfair did a great deal of original scientific work — how much, 
 no one can now tell — incidentally in the course of the investigations 
 of the numerous Commissions of which he was a member.” 
 
 No competent person will question the accuracy of 
 Professor Crum-Brown s summary of Playfair’s labours 
 as a man of science ; and the tribute which he pays to 
 the part that Playfair had in bringing science and states- 
 manship, science and industry, into close and practical 
 alliance, will be endorsed by all men of science and all 
 practical workers who knew the story of his career. 
 
 Sir Edward Frankland, one of Playfair’s many pupils 
 who attained distinction in the scientific world, has 
 favoured me with an account of his investigations into 
 the best coal for use in the Royal Navy — one of the 
 many inquiries conducted by him in connection with 
 those Royal Commissions to which Professor Crum-Brown 
 alludes in the foregoing paper. In Sir Edward Frankland’s 
 opinion, this particular investigation was a typical 
 example of Playfair’s mode of work, and furnishes a 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 431 
 
 model for all engaged in similar inquiries. It occupied 
 many years of Playfair’s life — all the time he could 
 spare from his regular avocations being devoted to it. 
 He himself has passed by the whole of this vast 
 amount of labour with little more than a casual mention 
 in his Autobiography. Sir Edward Frankland 1 declares 
 that for plan of procedure, scientific accuracy, and thorough- 
 ness of execution, Playfair’s reports on this investigation 
 will bear favourable comparison with any ever presented 
 to Parliament by command of Her Majesty. 
 
 The ordinary reader will obtain the best idea of the 
 extent of Playfair’s knowledge, and of the peculiar place 
 which he occupied in the world of science, from a perusal 
 of the little book, published in 1889, entitled 1 Subjects 
 of Social Welfare.’ In this book Playfair brought together 
 a number of the papers and addresses which he had 
 delivered upon different occasions, not merely to scientific 
 but to popular audiences. The subjects dealt with are 
 various, ranging from the Public Health and the Phenomena 
 of Sleep to Bimetallism and the Relations of the Uni- 
 versities to Professional Education. But whatever the 
 subject, it is always treated by Playfair in a manner that 
 illustrates his special standpoint as a man of science. His 
 great object throughout his life was to bring scientific 
 knowledge and discovery into direct relationship with the 
 practical work of life. The Fates had made it impossible 
 that he should pursue his early path as a scientific in- 
 vestigator. He had been drawn away from the fascinating 
 delights of that path by his absorption in public business. 
 For many years he was the man of affairs, dealing either 
 in the Council Chamber or in Parliament with those 
 questions which directly affect the welfare of society. But 
 he never forgot his first love ; and whenever he had 
 
 1 Whilst these pages were passing through the press Sir Edward 
 Frankland died (July, 1899). 
 
432 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the opportunity he strove to impress upon those with whom 
 he was brought in contact the virtues of science as a great 
 ameliorating influence of life, and its uses in the develop- 
 ment of the resources of a people, and in the removal of 
 the evils to which society is a prey. His style, both in 
 speaking and in writing, was at once delightfully simple 
 and delightfully picturesque. The illustrations by which 
 he sought to enforce the truths he was teaching were 
 drawn from the commonest objects, and were made 
 effective by the ingenuity with which they were applied 
 to the subject in hand. He was one of the few men 
 who could make even an oration upon Bimetallism in- 
 teresting to the uninformed. In turning over the pages 
 of ‘ Subjects of Social Welfare/ I find many passages 
 illustrating his peculiar method in dealing with abstruse 
 questions, and the remarkable ability with which he was 
 able to make complex problems intelligible to the ordinary 
 mind. I find also in the book some of those master- 
 strokes which made Playfair one of the great practical 
 teachers and pioneers of our time. Other men dug more 
 deeply into the soil in search of abstract truth, but he 
 had at least a wonderful knack of laying his hands upon 
 the nuggets in the mine in which others wrought, and 
 of bringing them to the light of day. 
 
 The first paper in the volume of which I am speaking 
 consists of an address which he gave as President of 
 the Health Section of the Social Science Congress at 
 Glasgow ; and some extracts from it will show, not only 
 the clearness with which he pursued any line of argu- 
 ment, but the poetic fancy which enabled him to bring 
 it home in its most picturesque form to those whom 
 he addressed. 
 
 Comparing the body politic to the body of the individual 
 man, he pointed out that the latter was composed of 
 distinct particles, and that disease meant that some of 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 433 
 
 these particles were being wasted more rapidly than they 
 were being restored. 
 
 “ So in the body politic, when the rate of mortality is too high — 
 that is, when the individuals of its population which constitute the 
 particles of the State, waste too rapidly — the State suffers from 
 public maladies. Hence the State medical officer and the private 
 physician work on like principles ; for to the former the community, 
 to the latter the individual, is the patient. This relation of the indi- 
 vidual to the community, and the reflex action of the community on 
 the individual, give a double motive for sanitary action. For the 
 community, depending as it does on all the moments of health of 
 individuals, requires to watch and cherish them ; while each indi- 
 vidual must feel that it is his interest to watch the health of his 
 neighbour, upon whose soundness rests the foundation of his own 
 well-being. So that the common law of health is the Christian law : 
 
 ‘ Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.’ . . . The more we 
 
 study the question of public health the simpler does the problem 
 become in theory, though its attainment is difficult in practice. All 
 that we need aim to secure is purity, air, cleanliness in the house, 
 the air and the water, and genuineness in the food and clothes. In 
 fact a great part of sanitary science can be comprised in that one 
 word, * cleanliness.’ No epidemic can resist clean houses, clean air, 
 and clean water. Disease, like the evil demons of old, shuns cleanly 
 places. In olden times, as among the Jews, evil spirits dwelt in filthy 
 places, especially loving tombs and ordure. Every private closet 
 contained a special demon of its own, and it is so to the present day, 
 in a different sense. I am quite sure that the chamber of Sara, the 
 daughter of Raguel, as described in the Book of Tobit, must have 
 overlooked a dung-hill, otherwise she would not have been so griev- 
 ously afflicted by the unclean spirit, Asmodeus, who, out of love for 
 her, strangled her husbands. But Tobias, her eighth husband, for 
 whom his father-in-law considerately dug a grave as soon as the 
 marriage was performed, obviously knew that there might be smells 
 even too bad for a demon ; for on the bridal night he threw the 
 powdered heart and liver of a fish on some burning embers in her 
 chamber, and, as the narrative tells us, ‘ the which smell when 
 the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the uttermost parts of Egypt.’ 
 To my mind the Book of Tobit is a distinct hygienic allegory. The 
 good Tobit had a craze for burying dead bodies, and had all his 
 troubles in consequence of his hygienic propensities. Sleeping in a 
 vile place, the sparrows muted filthy dung into his eyes, and ren- 
 dered him blind ; but Raphael (that name by interpretation means 
 1 the medicine of God ’) comes as an angelic guide to his son Tobias, 
 and puts all things right by his hygienic knowledge, conquering even 
 the foul demon, Asmodeus, and curing Tobit of his ophthalmia — 
 acquired, as our workhouse children now get it, by foul air.” 
 
 C C 
 
434 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 There is a picturesque force in this illustration, drawn 
 from the Apocrypha, which everybody will acknowledge. 
 Nor is the same quality lacking in the following passage, 
 describing the demon of filth as it was to be encountered in 
 our own Middle Ages : — 
 
 “ It is not a pleasant task to dwell on the habits of the population 
 even in our country in past times. Go back only to the time 
 previous to the Reformation, and you can have no difficulty in 
 understanding why luxury and squalor produced the plagues of the 
 times of the Tudors and the Stuarts. High above all other dwel- 
 lings were the castles and the monasteries, but the cabin of the 
 peasant was worse than any to be now found in the furthest islands 
 of Scotland. It was made of reeds and sticks, plastered over with 
 mud. In these wigwams lived an ague-stricken population. In the 
 towns the mechanics lived in rooms without glass windows, slept on 
 straw beds, and worked in workshops unheated by coal fires. Even 
 in well-to-do houses rushes covered the earthen floors, and got satu- 
 rated with scraps of food which remained to putrefy under a new 
 layer of rushes scattered over it, so that the petremen came to dig 
 saltpetre out of the floors. Filth, instead of being abhorred, was 
 almost sanctified. The monks imitated the filthy habits of the her- 
 mits and saints of early Christian times, for the early Fathers com- 
 mended them. Even St. Jerome used to praise the filthy habits of 
 hermits. He especially commends an Egyptian hermit, who only 
 combed his hair on Easter Sunday, and never washed his clothes 
 at all, but let them fall to pieces by rottenness. . . . But this 
 
 association of filth with religion was unhappy in its consequences, 
 for men ceased to connect disease with uncleanness, and resorted to 
 shrines and winking virgins for cures of maladies which were pro- 
 duced by their own physical and moral impurities. Even the 
 palaces of kings were filthy, according to the Duchess of Orleans 
 memoirs of the splendid Court of Louis XIV. Under all these in- 
 fluences plagues were very destructive in England. Men first began 
 to connect them with filth by some striking examples. Thus in 1665, 
 when the Court and Parliament assembled at Oxford, it had an immu- 
 nity from plague ; and the reason of this immunity was traced to 
 the thorough cleansing which the magistrates gave to the city to fit 
 it for its distinguished guests. The Great Fire of London also 
 taught Englishmen a wholesome lesson, for it came as a great sani- 
 tary agent to extirpate the foul nests of disease in the metropolis ; 
 and so at last the moderns learned what the ancients knew very 
 well, that public health can only be assured by cleanliness, and that 
 filth is the parent of disease, both among individuals and communi- 
 ties. . . . We forget the experience of our forefathers, that every 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 435 
 
 cesspool has its own particular evil spirit residing within it, and we 
 are surprised when the demon emerges, especially at night, and 
 strikes down our loved ones with typhoid fever or other form of 
 pestilence. Perhaps we go a step further in the hygiene of moderns, 
 and do throw the foul matter into drains, which empty themselves 
 into our once beautiful rivers, that in many cases are still used as a 
 beverage by people lower down in the stream. And when they 
 remonstrate with us we surly wolves growl at the poor innocent 
 lambs because they object to drink our abominations. This country 
 once gloried in her beautiful rivers, but they are now mere open 
 ditches, which pollute the districts through which they flow. Rivers 
 in their normal state contain dissolved air sufficient to oxydise and 
 destroy any accidental organic contaminations. This purifying 
 power of air dissolved in water is essential, because no water, either 
 in rivers or springs, could otherwise be pure. All sources of water 
 are ultimately obtained from rain, and that is never pure, because 
 it washes out organic impurities from the- atmosphere. At the same 
 time, it carries down air in solution, so that it presents, with the 
 poison, its natural antidote. The air-purifying process is very 
 limited, and is altogether insufficient for streams polluted with town 
 sewage and manufacturing refuse.” 
 
 This was the practical gospel which Playfair proclaimed 
 when dealing with questions relating to the public health. 
 In discussing those questions before popular, or even before 
 scientific audiences, he brought the whole subject back, 
 as will be perceived, to the simplest first principles. Men 
 of science may possibly regard this teaching, and the 
 illustrations by which it was enforced, as being so simple 
 as to be positively puerile. But Playfair knew what he 
 was about ; and made it his business to state the practical 
 conclusions at which he had arrived, in such a fashion 
 that he who ran might read. It was in this way that 
 he was enabled to do more than the most eminent of 
 pure men of science in impressing upon men of affairs 
 their duty with regard to the public health. Nor did 
 he lack that fine moral courage which enables a man to 
 speak the truth, even though he knows that by doing 
 so he has to face unpopularity and misrepresentation. 
 He has spoken in his Autobiography of the part he 
 
436 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 played with regard to the question of compulsory vaccin- 
 ation . 1 It was a part in which the spirit of compromise 
 was not to be found. 
 
 No less uncompromising was his language Upon a 
 subject which has excited even keener controversies than 
 compulsory vaccination — the question of vivisection. The 
 justification of vivisection, he declared, was that man’s 
 duty to man was greater than his duty to beasts. “ If I 
 thought,” he said in the House of Commons, “ that a 
 comparative argument as to cruelty had much force, I 
 could allude to the continued sufferings of the horses, 
 mules, and camels in the Afghan and Egyptian wars, in 
 terms which would be too horrible for this House to 
 listen to. Even in the relation of man to man, how 
 otherwise than by a common or national benefit could 
 we justify the sacrifice of whole battalions in assaulting 
 fortified positions ; or how could we justify the frightful 
 suffering which a surgeon inflicts when he excises a joint, 
 or cuts out a huge tumour ? How otherwise could we 
 justify a parent when he corrects a child, or the State 
 when it flogs a garotter ? It is not the mere, or even 
 the continuous, infliction of pain which is an offence 
 against the moral law, but the unnecessary infliction of 
 pain without an adequate motive to benefit mankind by 
 the act. It is not the mere act, but the motive for that 
 act which either makes it an offence against morality or 
 gives to it a justification.” 
 
 In the same speech there occurred a striking passage 
 which deserves to be preserv ed, on another aspect of this 
 much vexed question. 
 
 “ Nothing is more short-sighted than the utilitarian cry of the 
 ignorant against investigators in science. It is as superficial as 
 the remark of Savarin, when he said, ‘ He who invents a new dish 
 does more for humanity than he who discovers a star.’ But exactly 
 
 1 See ante, p. 297. 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 437 
 
 as navigation is the outcome of astronomy, or as bleaching or 
 dyeing is the outcome of chemistry, or as engineering is the applica- 
 tion of mathematics, so is medicine the outcome of the sciences of 
 physiology and pathology. To strangle these sciences by refusing 
 to them the only modes of research which render their progress 
 possible, would be to relegate the medicine of the future to em- 
 piricism and quackery. Indeed, nothing is more certain than that 
 every abstract truth given to the world constantly leads to the most 
 unexpected and most useful applications to humanity. Thus when 
 Galvani put a copper hook through the spine of frogs, and hung 
 them on the iron rails of his balcony at Bologna in order to study 
 the muscular contractions which were thus produced, who could 
 have predicted that this experiment was to originate the science 
 of Galvanism, and lead to the discovery of the electric telegraph 
 to the electric light, to new motors for our machinery, and to the 
 important use of electricity in the cure of disease and relief of 
 human suffering ? So it is with other discoveries in physiology, 
 which, even when they appear remote from practical application, 
 constantly lead to the most important benefits. When Pasteur and 
 Lister made experiments on the minute organisms which appear 
 during fermentation and putrefaction, who could have predicted 
 that the experiments of the former philosopher would have opened 
 up a wide field of promise in the treatment of diseases which afflict 
 our flocks and herds ; or that the observations of Lister would give 
 us that admirable method of antiseptic treatment which now ranks 
 as one of the greatest improvements of modern surgery ? And yet 
 Lister had to go abroad to perform a few experiments on animals, 
 as the present Act was too restrictive for him to perform them in 
 this country, though the pain inflicted was not greater than the 
 healing of some slight wound. When you recall the horrible pain 
 which used to be inflicted after a surgical operation by burning 
 the bleeding vessels with a red-hot iron, the successive steps in 
 surgery which have attended experiments in the healing of wounds, 
 and which have culminated in the antiseptic treatment of Lister, 
 have surely justified the small amount of brute suffering by giving 
 comparative safety to the most formidable surgical operations in 
 the case of man.” 
 
 All through his addresses and speeches upon these 
 questions affecting the welfare of our race, Playfair found 
 opportunities for impressing facts upon those whom he 
 addressed by means of novel views and illustrations. Thus, 
 discussing with his Leeds constituents the question of 
 agricultural depression, and of the proposed adoption of 
 what is known as Fair Trade in order to remedy that 
 
438 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 depression, he pointed to one cause which had been 
 overlooked by the advocates of Fair Trade. 
 
 “ There was a deeper cause at work than the temporary failure of 
 our crops. The economical applications of science in the vast 
 improvements of the telegraph, the railroads, and the steamships 
 have changed the whole system of commerce. The effect of this 
 has been to destroy local markets, and to consolidate all into one 
 market — the world. If our landlords and farmers want to know the 
 names of the three persons who have knocked out the bottom of our 
 old agricultural system, I can tell them. Their names are Wheat- 
 stone, Sir Henry Bessemer, and Dr Joule. The first, by telegraphy, 
 has changed the whole system by which exchanges are made ; the 
 second, by his improvements in steel, has altered profoundly the 
 transportation of commodities by sea and by land ; and the third, 
 by his discoveries of the mechanical equivalent of heat, has led to 
 great economy of coal in compound engines. By these changes the 
 United States, Canada, India, and Russia have their com crops 
 brought to our doors. The effect of these discoveries upon the 
 transport of corn will be realised when I state that a small cube of 
 coal which would pass through a ring the size of a shilling, when 
 burned in the compound engine of a modem steamboat, would drive 
 a ton of food and its proportion of the ship two miles on its way 
 from a foreign port. This economy of coal has altered the whole 
 situation. Not long since a steamer of 3,000 tons going on a long 
 voyage might require 2,200 tons of coal, and carry only a limited 
 cargo of 800 tons. Now, a modem steamer will take the same 
 voyage with 800 tons of coal, and carry a freight of 2,200 tons. 
 While coal has thus been economised, human labour has been 
 lessened. In 1870 it required 47 hands on board our steamships for 
 every 1,000 tons capacity. Now (1887) only 28 are necessary. All 
 these changes going on in the economy of fuel and of labour have 
 led to increased production at a small cost. Four men in the 
 United States, working for one year in the growing, milling, and 
 transportation of wheat, could produce flour for a year’s consump- 
 tion of 1,000 other men, allowing one barrel of flour to each adult. 
 
 I need not elaborate this point further, for you will all see how this 
 has acted upon agriculture. It has made the grain market one 
 all over the world.” 
 
 One of the most important of Playfair’s addresses 
 gathered together in the volume from which I am 
 quoting, is that entitled “ The Inosculation of the Arts 
 and Sciences,” an address which, as he has himself recorded, 
 he delivered as President of the Midland Institute at 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 439 
 
 Birmingham in 1870. One striking passage I must quote 
 from this address as a further illustration of his method 
 of treating his subjects. 
 
 “ The industrial arts spring clearly out of the necessities of man. 
 Man is peculiarly helpless as regards his own personal and physical 
 belongings. With an intellect which, when developed, approaches 
 that of an angel, he has a naked, unprotected body like that of an 
 earthworm. Covered neither with chitine like the lobster, nor thick 
 hide, nor with fur nor feathers, he looks as helpless at his birth as 
 the unfledged gosling, but, unlike it, never gets a better protection 
 from wind or weather as he grows older. The earthworm can mine 
 and tunnel, so as to seek protection underground ; but even this is 
 denied to man. Every lower animal has within itself admirable 
 tools for work. The tailor-bird can sew, the fishing-frog can throw 
 out lines and bait, the beaver can build bridges, the silkworm can 
 spin, the spider can weave, the bees can manufacture sugar, the 
 ants can construct storehouses for their corn — all of them self- 
 provided with admirable tools for the purpose, existing within 
 themselves, and capable of being renewed by themselves when 
 wasted by work. Man has neither in hands nor feet tools sufficient 
 for his protection or sustenance. We know of no race of savages so 
 absolutely wild as to possess no arts. . . . Nakedness and want of 
 tools form the stimulant to man’s industry, and the arts grow slowly, 
 and at first almost imperceptibly, from his necessities. The experi- 
 ence which he thus acquires becomes an inheritance of common 
 knowledge. Science is the evolution of that knowledge, and the 
 mode of it is worthy of your consideration. Accumulated facts are 
 necessary for science, but do not create it ; for that arises only when 
 man’s reason acquires dominion over his senses, and teaches him to 
 verify the impressions conveyed by them. In savage life science is 
 not developed, because the gratification of the senses and subordin- 
 ation of everything to them are incompatible with the evolution of 
 science from any number of facts. Even in civilised life it is long 
 before men learn how to subdue their senses to their reason. If 
 you doubt it, look to the lamentable hold which spirit-rapping and 
 table-turning got upon our communities. The believers in such 
 phenomena tell you that they saw them with their own eyes, or 
 heard them with their own ears. So they did, but they do not 
 understand that to see rightly and to hear with accuracy are about 
 the last things a man learns. When an experimental philosopher 
 thinks that he has made a discovery, he does not rely even on his 
 trained faculties of observation, but spends months — sometimes 
 years — in testing and looking at his discovery in every possible light 
 before he announces it to the world. Yet an untrained observer, if 
 he see a table turn round, or listen to a physical rap on the floor or 
 
440 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 ceiling, believes that he is justified in ascribing it to some odylic or 
 spiritual influence.” 
 
 I have perhaps quoted too many passages from 1 Subjects 
 of Social Welfare,’ but no biography of Playfair would be 
 complete which did not afford the reader some knowledge 
 of the manner in which he treated those great scientific 
 truths which it was his mission in life to impress upon the 
 world. Nor was it only with practical science that he 
 dealt in this fashion. He was a Political Economist of the 
 orthodox type. To him the laws of supply and demand 
 were as true as the multiplication table ; and as a politician 
 he made it his business to instruct his constituents, and 
 other bodies of British voters, in those truths of political 
 economy in which he had so firm a faith. He was always 
 sane and clear-headed in his opinions. He abhorred fads 
 and popular superstitions with all his heart. Above all, he 
 was an individualist, and one of the great objects for which 
 he wrought in Parliament, on the platform, and in the Press 
 was the widening of the bounds of that human freedom 
 upon which he constantly maintained that human progress 
 itself depended. 
 
 When I turn from this side of Playfair’s labours to 
 the practical work which he did in furthering those great 
 interests connected with the scientific and technical instruc- 
 tion of the people, I am naturally confronted at once by the 
 task he accomplished as a member of the Royal Commission 
 of the 1851 Exhibition. In a previous chapter the story has 
 been told of the beginnings of the Science and Art Depart- 
 ment at South Kensington, and of the part which Playfair 
 had in founding the world-famed Museum and the Royal 
 College of Science. His official connection with the Science 
 and Art Department was brought to a close by his appoint- 
 ment to his professorship at Edinburgh in 1858 ; and for a 
 time it was only as an outsider that he promoted the 
 objects which the Exhibition Commissioners had in view. 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 
 
 44 1 
 
 In 1869, the year following his election to Parliament, he 
 returned to the Commission — no longer as one of its ser- 
 vants, but as a Commissioner. It need hardly be said 
 that he quickly became one of the most active members 
 of that body. Soon after he joined the Commission a 
 series of exhibitions was given by the Commissioners in 
 new permanent galleries which had been erected for the 
 purpose. In all of these Playfair took a very active 
 part, his vast experience in organising such exhibitions 
 being of the greatest service to the Commissioners. But 
 the Commission, as a whole, was in a somewhat unsatisfac- 
 tory state at that period ; and in 1874 a special Inquiry 
 Committee was formed for the purpose of reorganising 
 the Commission. The members of this Committee were 
 Lord Granville, Lord Ripon, Lord Carnarvon, Lord Spencer, 
 and Playfair. The Committee practically undertook the 
 management of the affairs of the Commission until 1883, 
 when General Scott, the secretary, died. Playfair was 
 then induced by the Prince of Wales and his fellow- 
 Commissioners to become honorary secretary temporarily, 
 until another paid secretary could be appointed. He 
 undertook to fill this position for six months : he actually 
 held it for six years. From 1883 to 1889 he was engaged 
 in the important work of reorganising the financial posi- 
 tion of the Commissioners. When he began his duties as 
 honorary secretary there was a serious annual deficit on 
 the accounts, and the work of the Commissioners was, in 
 consequence, greatly hampered. When he gave up the 
 honorary secretaryship in 1889, he had already converted 
 the deficit into a surplus of .£5,000 a year, and had placed 
 the management upon such lines that this surplus revenue 
 has since been more than doubled. 
 
 From 1889 to 1891 he was engaged in a task almost as 
 important as that of bringing the finances of the Com- 
 mission into a state of solvency. This was the elaboration 
 
442 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 of a plan for disposing of these surplus funds in such a 
 manner as to make them of the greatest benefit to the 
 cause of scientific education. He had long seen that what 
 was required in this country in order to give students an 
 opportunity of acquiring scientific training as good as that 
 to be obtained on the Continent, was the foundation of a 
 number of science scholarships, which would enable 
 students, when they had finished their ordinary educa- 
 tion, to devote two or three years to research work in the 
 great laboratories and teaching institutions both in this 
 country and on the Continent. He had never ceased to 
 advocate the foundation of these scholarships, and when 
 the finances of the Commissioners had been put in order 
 he felt that his time had come, and that he might fairly 
 appeal to the Commission to employ the surplus funds 
 which they now had at their disposal for this purpose. In 
 the Report of the Commissioners to the Crown in 1889, 
 they announced that they had directed the preparation of a 
 scheme for assisting the promotion of scientific education 
 by devoting a sum of not less than .£5,000 a year to the 
 establishment of scholarships, to enable the most promising 
 students in provincial colleges of science to complete their 
 studies, either in those colleges or in the larger institutions 
 of the metropolis. A committee was appointed to act in 
 conjunction with Playfair in drawing up a scheme for these 
 scholarships. Playfair, who acted as chairman, invited the 
 different members of the Committee to formulate proposals 
 with regard to the scholarships, and eventually selected 
 a scheme which had been drawn up by Professor Sir 
 Norman Lockyer. The scope of this new and most 
 important departure in our educational system will be 
 gathered from the Report of Playfair's Committee to the 
 Exhibition Commissioners in June, 1890. 
 
 “The Committee have had their attention drawn to the fact that 
 there is a large number of scholarships in the country ; and if the 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 443 
 
 Commissioners act on the same lines as those already occupied, it 
 is possible that education will gain little by their action, as the 
 endowment of the Commissioners may interfere with the establish- 
 ment of new scholarships by private liberality. Hence it is desir- 
 able that the scholarships with which this Committee have to deal 
 should be of a higher order than most of those now existing ; in 
 fact, their functions should begin where the ordinary educational 
 curriculum ends. This system has been adopted with excellent 
 effects by the French ficole Pratique des hautes Etudes. 
 
 “The Committee propose : — (1) That the scholarships shall be of 
 £150 a year in value, and shall be tenable for two years, but in rare 
 instances may be extended to three years by special resolution of 
 the Commissioners. The continuation each year after the first 
 shall depend upon the work done in the previous year being satis- 
 factory to the Scientific Committee, which it is suggested shall be 
 appointed by the Commissioners. 
 
 “ (2) That the scholarships shall be limited to those branches of 
 science (such as physics, mechanics, and chemistry) the extension of 
 which is specially important for our national industries. 
 
 “(3) That the Commissioners shall from time to time select a 
 certain number of provincial and colonial colleges in which special 
 attention is given to scientific education, and give to each the power 
 of nominating a student of not less than three years’ standing to a 
 scholarship, on condition that he indicates high promise and 
 capacity for advancing science or its applications. 
 
 “ (4) That the Commissioners shall appoint a Committee of 
 Advice, who will consider and report upon the reasons for which the 
 nominations are made by the respective colleges ; and the Com- 
 missioners will appoint to the scholarships upon the report of their 
 Committee. 
 
 “ (5) That the scholarships, when awarded, shall be tenable in 
 any University, either at home or abroad, or in some other institu- 
 tion to be approved of by the Commissioners. The holder of a 
 scholarship must give an undertaking that he will wholly devote 
 himself to the object of the scholarship, and that he will not 
 hold any position of emolument during its continuance.” 
 
 This was the basis of a scheme which has proved to be 
 of the greatest practical importance in the educational 
 work of this country. Even within a year of the estab- 
 lishment of these scholarships, the Commissioners were 
 able to speak with great satisfaction of the results attained ; 
 and now that the scheme has been tried for nearly ten 
 years, it is evident to all cognisant with the subject that 
 
444 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the progress of the nation in scientific instruction, and its 
 consequent ability to meet the fierce competition of other 
 countries, have been materially increased by its operation. 
 The Commissioners, in their successive Annual Reports, 
 have borne testimony to the remarkable character of the 
 results which have been already attained. The holders of 
 the scholarships have been qualified not only to hold 
 posts of importance in our great workshops, but to act as 
 teachers of science in our technical schools and Colonial 
 universities ; and small as was the seed originally sown, 
 the plant has attained such a growth that there is reason 
 to believe that the reproach which so long attached to 
 this country of doing nothing in a systematic way to 
 further the growth of technical and science teaching will 
 soon be entirely removed. To Playfair, more than to any 
 other single man, the credit for this beneficent revolution 
 must be given. He it was who first, in far distant days, 
 advocated the establishment of science scholarships. It 
 was through his labours in reorganising the finances of the 
 Royal Commission that the necessary funds for the endow- 
 ment of these scholarships were obtained. And, finally, it 
 was he who, in conjunction with a band of trained col- 
 leagues of high scientific repute, selected a scheme which 
 has since worked so admirably. In the Report of the 
 Royal Commissioners issued in July, 1898, the Science 
 Scholarships Committee, after dwelling with satisfaction 
 upon the fact that seventy -nine students had already re- 
 ceived scholarships under the scheme, of whom no fewer 
 than thirty-nine were engaged as teachers in science 
 colleges or other educational institutions, whilst twenty-six 
 had obtained engagements in manufacturing firms or in 
 public departments, proceed to say : — 
 
 “ The Committee cannot pass from this branch of the Report 
 without reminding the Commissioners that the idea of the science 
 scholarships originated with the late Lord Playfair ; that he made 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 445 
 
 the carrying out of the scheme, which has proved so successful in 
 its working, his particular care ; and that for the five years to which 
 this portion of the Report relates he took, as chairman of this 
 Committee, almost the entire burden of its management. The 
 Committee think that this work will hereafter be allotted a high 
 place amongst the many services which that eminent man rendered 
 to his country.” 
 
 These words, though warmer than most official state- 
 ments, will not strike those who knew what Playfair did in 
 this connection as being extravagant. As a matter of fact, 
 if he had done nothing else than the accomplishment of 
 this task he would have been entitled to live among the 
 great benefactors of his country. 
 
 I have said that in 1889 Playfair retired from the post of 
 secretary to the Commission, which he had held for six 
 years. His retirement from that arduous office drew forth 
 expressions of deep regret from his eminent colleagues, and 
 from the illustrious chairman. 
 
 Marlborough House, 
 
 H.R.H. the Prince of Wales to Playfair. Ma y 6th, 1889. 
 
 My dear Playfair, — Your letter of the 6th reached 
 me to-day, and I lose no time in assuring you how deeply 
 I regret your determination to resign the honorary secre- 
 taryship of the Royal Commission of 1851. We are indeed 
 most grateful to you for the valuable time you have been 
 able to give to the many difficulties which beset the Royal 
 Commission during the six years which you have devoted 
 to its interests. Nobody but yourself could have got us 
 out of the serious pecuniary embarrassments in which we 
 found ourselves placed. . . . 
 
 I am, 
 
 Yours very sincerely, 
 
 Albert Edward. 
 
 The Commissioners did not confine their expressions 
 of approval to such warm and generous words as the 
 
446 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 foregoing. As he has told us in his Reminiscences, they 
 subscribed to procure a valuable service of plate, which 
 was presented to him by the Prince of Wales, at a meeting 
 of the Royal Commission at Marlborough House, and 
 acknowledged by Playfair in words which have already 
 been quoted. His retirement from the honorary secretary- 
 ship did not, however, mean that Playfair took a less active 
 part in the proceedings of the body of which he had 
 become so important a member. From 1889 till 1896 he 
 acted as vice-chairman of the Board of Management, in 
 addition to holding the office of chairman of the Science 
 Scholarships Committee, which he had held from the 
 formation of that body. The pressure of years compelled 
 him in 1896 to retire from both these offices, though he 
 continued to retain until his death his position as member 
 of the Commission. On his retirement he addressed to 
 Prince Christian, the Chairman of the Board of Manage- 
 ment, the following memorandum : — 
 
 Playfair to H.R.H. Prince Christian. June gth, 1896. 
 
 Sir, — I am anxious to draw the attention of your Royal Highness, 
 as Chairman of the Board of Management of the Royal Com- 
 missioners for the Exhibition of 1851, to our general policy of the 
 past in the allocation of our surplus funds. This is desirable, as I 
 intend to resign my position as (practical) deputy chairman of the 
 Board, and also that of chairman of the Committee of Scholarships. 
 My many years of service in these capacities will justify me in 
 asking this relief. 
 
 It may be useful to refer to the financial policy which has enabled 
 the Board to secure a sound condition for our revenue. That got 
 into confusion because, under the administration of Mr Bowring 
 and General Scott, there was too great a tendency to use capital in 
 the erection of new buildings. This policy got us largely into debt, 
 and we had for a long time galleries on our hands for which there 
 was no demand, and which therefore produced no rent. At one 
 time, in addition to our large fixed debt of about £180,000, we were 
 yearly creating a floating debt by borrowing from the Bank of 
 England £2,000 or £3,000 a year to supply deficiencies in revenue 
 and expenditure. At present, our debt is wholly extinguished, and 
 there is a satisfactory clear revenue to aid the objects for which we 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 447 
 
 act as trustees. It is not yet a safe surplus revenue, and if I felt 
 myself able to continue for some years more on the Board, I would 
 counsel the formation of a Reserve Fund of at least £20,000 before 
 we show much increased liberality to the institutions which we now 
 aid by annual grants in London, and in the provinces and the 
 Colonies, by scholarships to their universities and colleges, for the 
 promotion of research in sciences relating to the industries of the 
 Empire. 
 
 Formerly the provinces and the Colonies were much discontented 
 with the appropriation of the Commissioners’ money ; and this dis- 
 content, manifested by deputations, memorials, and questions in 
 Parliament, became so grave that means had to be provided to 
 meet the public desire that the provinces and the Colonies, which 
 had done so much to ensure the success of the Great Exhibition of 
 1851, should feel that they had a direct participation in the profits 
 which they had helped to create. The scheme of scientific scholar- 
 ships placed at the disposal of the provincial and Colonial universi- 
 ties and colleges has removed this discontent, and is working 
 admirably. New and important discoveries have been made by 
 our scholars, who are in constant demand for teachers and pro- 
 fessors, both in this country and in the Colonies and in the United 
 States. Suppose, for instance, by this system one great discoverer 
 like Faraday or Stephenson were to appear among the young scholars 
 thus encouraged by £150 annual grants, a gift would have been 
 presented to this country which would have been cheap had the 
 nation contributed a million sterling to his production. This 
 promotion of research is the reason why Germany is running 
 us so hard in commercial competition ; and our scholarship 
 scheme is doing an important work in this country to the extent 
 of our means by encouraging young scientists with capabilities of 
 original discovery. 
 
 In reorganising the Board of Management there should be, on 
 my retirement, a member who should specially devote himself to 
 this work, which is not light, and requires aptitude and scientific 
 judgment. Sir Henry Roscoe seems to me the one who could best 
 step into my shoes for this special work of supervision. I do not 
 desire to abandon the work suddenly, but at my age, ability to 
 perform it may at any time abandon me ; and I wish your Royal 
 Highness as Chairman to know the conditions of the case in 
 advance. As to the administrative ability which you require to 
 supply the vacancies on the Board, there is abundant talent for 
 selection in the Commission. The Prince of Wales and your Royal 
 Highness will readily suggest names. We have already allocated 
 annual sums for the support of the Royal College of Music, 
 the Research Laboratory of the Imperial Institute, and for the 
 provincial and Colonial scholarships held in universities and 
 colleges. A further considerable annual sum is applied towards 
 the maintenance of the Royal Albert Hall. 
 
448 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 After competent provision for all the work which we have under- 
 taken, and with the security of a reserve fund which has already 
 been begun, which will be a compensation for fluctuating revenue 
 and secure steadiness in the annual grants, I think a natural use 
 of our surplus funds would be for the promotion of specific objects 
 in the work of the Imperial Institute — carefully avoiding their use 
 for such purposes as rates and taxes, structural additions, lighting 
 and warming, or the club and pleasure purposes of the Institute. 
 The recent vote of money to the Research Laboratory was a grant 
 highly to be commended, and did not produce a note of public 
 criticism. . . . 
 
 I have the honour to be, etc., 
 
 Playfair. 
 
 The Commissioners, in the Report in which the above 
 memorandum is embodied, state that the Prince of Wales, 
 after hearing Lord Playfair’s statement of his wish to 
 retire from his offices, on behalf of the meeting expressed 
 the thanks of the Commissioners for the great benefits 
 which Lord Playfair had conferred upon the Ro}'al Com- 
 mission by having willingly undertaken and successfully 
 carried out for so many years the principal part in the 
 management of its business. 
 
 “ The rapid improvement in the financial position of the 
 Royal Commission,” said the Prince, “ which had fre- 
 quently been a subject of congratulation at these meetings, 
 proved how valuable Lord Playfair’s assistance had been 
 in that department. But as chairman of the Scholarships 
 Committee his sendees had been indispensable. One of 
 the first persons in this country to point out the necessity 
 of technical education, the scheme of Science Scholarships 
 was originated entirely by him. He had proceeded to 
 work out all the details of the scheme, and since it had 
 been in operation he had taken by far the most active 
 part in its practical management. The results showed 
 that the work is of great public utility, and one the 
 Commissioners might well be proud of.” 
 
 With these gracious words of His Royal Highness, the 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 449 
 
 story of Playfair’s connection with the Royal Commission 
 of 1851, and with that splendid work of scientific instruc- 
 tion in which it still happily plays so prominent a part, 
 may be fitly concluded. There were, however, other 
 subsidiary labours connected with his position on the 
 Royal Commission in which Playfair had to play a 
 considerable part. Thus he was one of those to whom 
 the management of the Royal Albert Hall was for a long 
 time entrusted. He withdrew from his position as Vice- 
 President of the Albert Hall Corporation some years before 
 his retirement from the Deputy-Chairmanship of the Royal 
 Commission. This step he took in consequence of being 
 unable to approve of the manner in which the Hall was 
 being managed. Shortly before the Royal Jubilee of 
 1887, the idea of celebrating that memorable anniversary 
 by erecting the Imperial Institute was promulgated, and 
 met at once with widespread acceptance. A site at South 
 Kensington was suggested as that most suitable for the 
 Institute, and the idea was put forward that the Royal 
 Commissioners of 1851 should not only furnish the site, 
 but should transfer to the Institute the whole of their re- 
 sources. This proposal, when it was mooted to Playfair, met 
 with his strenuous opposition, and most fortunately, as we 
 know, was not carried further. But Playfair took a keen 
 interest in the scheme for commemorating Her Majesty’s 
 Jubilee by the erection of an Institute representing and 
 serving all parts of the Empire, and drew up a memoran- 
 dum for submission to the Prince of Wales, in which he 
 embodied his own ideas of the manner in which such an 
 Institute might be made of greatest service to the Queen’s 
 subjects. 
 
 Marlborough House, 
 
 Sir Francis Knollys to Playfair. November 17 th, 1886. 
 
 Dear Sir Lyon Playfair, — I am desired by the 
 Prince of Wales to express an earnest hope that you will 
 
 D D 
 
450 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR* 
 
 have the goodness to afford him the benefit of your assist- 
 ance in connection with the proposed Imperial Institute, 
 by consenting to serve on a temporary Committee which 
 he has formed to advise him as to a scheme. Both His 
 Royal Highness and the Committee are very anxious to 
 learn your views respecting the South Kensington site as 
 soon as possible. Perhaps you will not mind kindly 
 sending me a line directly you arrive. 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Francis Knollys. 
 
 Memorandum for the consideration of His Royal Highness the President 
 of the Royal Commission of the Exhibition of 1851. 
 
 (1) I cannot separate my position as honorary secretary of the 
 Royal Commission from that of a member of the Committee of 
 Advice regarding the Imperial Institute, and I therefore desire to 
 have His Royal Highness’s approval of my outline of proposals 
 dealing with the Commissioners’ property. 
 
 (2) Subject to the relief of the mortgage on our property, I would 
 submit the following considerations : — 
 
 The property must be considered as wholly in relation to — 
 
 (a) The probable claims of the Government for the 
 development of additional buildings (such as a 
 Conservatoire des Arts et des Metiers , etc.) already 
 reported on by a special Committee. 
 
 (b) The galleries already rented by the Government. 
 
 (1 c ) The Royal Albert Hall. 
 
 (d) The Royal College of Music. 
 
 (e) The Schools of Science of the Government and of the 
 Guilds. 
 
 (3) An Imperial Institute may be an important supplement to 
 these, but it should neither compete nor dispense with them. 
 
 (4) It will be necessary to make a road across the property 
 somewhere about, but perhaps more to the north of, the blue line 
 [marked upon a plan enclosed with the memorandum]. 
 
 (5) The Government should receive the offer of the land to the 
 south of this road, 1 for the development of these important ends, 
 upon such terms as may be agreed on. 
 
 (6) The land upon which the Imperial Institute might be built is 
 to the north of this road, about nine acres being available, without 
 touching the proposed gardens of the Albert Hall. 
 
 1 Since sold to the Government, and now allotted to the Science Museum. 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 45 1 
 
 (7) I presume that the Imperial Institute will consist of two 
 sections — A, the Colonial and Indian ; B, the United Kingdom. 
 
 (8) There seems to be no chance of English manufacturers taking 
 up the proposal warmly, unless it is embodied before them in the 
 attractive form of a centre for the technical education of the nation. 
 
 (9) For this purpose I deem it essential to success that the Com- 
 missioners should continue to pledge themselves (as they have 
 actually done in their last Report) not to spend their surplus income 
 in buildings or endowments, but in the promotion of technical 
 education, free scholarships and prizes, connecting the provinces 
 with the scheme. 
 
 (10) The Central Imperial Institute will not have the individual 
 support of Colonists and of English manufacturers unless there is 
 associated with it a scheme of — 
 
 (a) Colonial combined industries or separate Colonies. 
 
 (1 b ) United Kingdom ; separate industries or separate centres 
 of industry. 
 
 For this purpose the Exhibition galleries will be indispensable. 
 Thus the Colonies might have the western, and the United Kingdom 
 the eastern galleries. This, however, assumes that the Government 
 give up these galleries, of which they are now tenants, by providing 
 buildings for themselves. At present they are sources of revenue to 
 the Commissioners. . . . We could not promise to give these 
 
 galleries to the Imperial Institute without crippling our resources 
 in regard to the promotion of technical education, which must be 
 pushed to the forefront if the co-operation of this country is to be 
 secured. We can only indicate that there are the galleries, and 
 that they will probably be available on moderate terms. 
 
 (11) These varying exhibitions of separate industries, colonies or 
 localities will be the life-blood of the Imperial Institute. These 
 will represent the scientific and industrial resources of the Empire, 
 but the periodical exhibitions will bring in the co-operation of the 
 people, and that is necessary to influence the Governments. The 
 gardens and music of the Royal Albert Hall will add attractions 
 to the whole scheme, and are an essential condition for its success. 
 
 (12) If His Royal Highness the President approves of my 
 offering, on the part of the Commission, to give co-operation on 
 these lines, subject of course to the further approval of the Com- 
 mission itself, I shall know how far to go in agreeing to or helping 
 to make a scheme for the Imperial Institute. I am obliged to con- 
 sider the whole interests involved in the property, and can readily 
 foresee misapprehensions which should be guarded against in 
 the outset. 
 
 Lyon Playfair, 
 
 Hon. Secretary . 
 
45 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Though this scheme, with the exception of one para- 
 graph, met with the approval of the Prince of Wales, it 
 was not that which was eventually adopted. If it had 
 been adopted, the fate of the Imperial Institute might 
 possibly have been different ; but the scheme is of interest 
 in itself, not only as showing the practical bent of Play- 
 fair’s mind, and the lessons he had learnt from his pro- 
 longed experience in connection with scientific and in- 
 dustrial exhibitions, but because of the evidence it affords 
 of the pertinacity with which he fought for the great object 
 of his public life — the maintenance and improvement of 
 a system of scientific and technical instruction. 
 
 So long as South Kensington continues to exist in its 
 present state, there will be no need to raise any monument 
 to the memory of Lyon Playfair. That piece of ground, 
 stretching from the Kensington High Road to Cromwell 
 Road, which the Commissioners of the 1851 Exhibition 
 found a mere region of dairy farms and meadows, is now 
 covered with a unique collection of buildings devoted to 
 great national and Imperial purposes. If we except the 
 Imperial Institute — shortly to become the home of the 
 London University — and the Natural History Museum, 
 all these buildings, and the institutions which are housed 
 in them, are more or less the offspring of the Great 
 Exhibition of 1851. The national memorial to the Prince 
 Consort most fittingly looks down upon this group of 
 palaces devoted to the advancement of the arts and 
 sciences, and to the instruction of the British people in the 
 practical knowledge which is needed to enable them to 
 hold their place in the world. Prince Albert was the 
 father of the noble scheme, and to him this country owes 
 a debt that it can never forget or refuse to acknowledge. 
 But I do not claim for Playfair more than is his due when 
 I say that among all the eminent men who served under 
 the Prince Consort there was none who was able to render 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 453 
 
 such efficient service in carrying forward to completion 
 the original ideas which led to the foundation of South 
 Kensington, and in developing those ideas in harmony 
 with our widening knowledge and our growing sense of the 
 national needs, as that which he supplied. The reader has 
 been told of the part he took in connection with the 
 realisation of the “ fairy dream” of the Prince Consort. 
 More fortunate than his illustrious leader, he lived to see 
 the great scheme of the South Kensington Home of Light 
 and Learning brought almost to its completion. In his 
 green old age, when he drove from his house in Onslow 
 Gardens to the Park, his eye would brighten as he passed 
 the range of stately buildings where the great schools and 
 institutions, to the foundation of which he had given so 
 many years of unselfish toil and thought, have found a 
 worthy home. Of all the rewards of his life of labour, 
 there was none dearer to him than the knowledge that in 
 these buildings were embodied the fruits of his own self- 
 sacrificing efforts. He had been one of the chief instru- 
 ments in securing this potential wealth of learning and 
 enlightenment for the land he loved, and in providing 
 these noble palaces for the people. To few public servants 
 has so great a reward fallen ; by none could it have 
 been more highly valued. 
 
 But as his life drew to an end he was ever conscious 
 of one blot upon the plan, one glaring defect that still 
 remained to be remedied. In spite of all the appeals that 
 had been made by himself and others, the two great 
 institutions which were the first and most direct fruits of 
 the Exhibition of 1851, and with which he had been 
 associated from their birth, remained without a fitting 
 home. The Art Museum was still housed in part in the 
 old Brompton “ boilers,” and in scattered buildings that 
 were a disfigurement to their stately surroundings ; and his 
 own especial child — truly the child of his love — the Royal 
 
454 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 College of Science, was confined for the most part to a 
 series of hovels that were almost squalid in their meanness 
 and inconvenience. He resolved that, if possible, this 
 discreditable condition should not continue, and that the 
 South Kensington Museum and the science collections and 
 class-rooms should be provided with homes worthy of their 
 importance as great national institutions. 
 
 In the summer of 1897 the country was to celebrate 
 the completion of the sixtieth year of the Queen’s reign. 
 Many projects were suggested as to the best way of com- 
 memorating this Diamond Jubilee. To Playfair one mode 
 of celebration seemed to be superior to all others. On 
 February 8tli, having first ascertained that Her Majesty 
 was inclined to look favourably on the suggestion, he 
 wrote to the 1 Times ' as follows : — 
 
 “The proposals to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee are chiefly 
 philanthropic or local, and depend upon private subscriptions. 
 Everyone will wish them success. But, so far as I have observed, 
 there is no proposal to celebrate the auspicious event by a per- 
 manent national memorial out of public funds. In the year 1835 a 
 Committee of the House of Commons was appointed ‘ to inquire 
 into the best means of extending a knowledge of the arts and of the 
 principles of design among the people (especially the manufacturing 
 population) of the country.’ In 1837, the first year of Her Majesty’s 
 reign, a vote was taken, and a Museum and School of Design were 
 opened at Somerset House. This initial effort to promote technical 
 education has developed into the magnificent art collections and art 
 instruction at South Kensington. For the purposes of technical 
 instruction in art these collections are superior to any in Europe. 
 Berlin and Vienna have avowedly founded new museums on the 
 English type, while Paris has re-arranged her museums to some 
 extent in the like way. 
 
 “ The Museum at South Kensington was opened by Her Majesty, 
 accompanied by the Prince Consort, on June 22, 1857. It was due 
 to the constant care and support of the Prince Consort that the 
 collections assumed their national importance. Parliament sup- 
 ported the Museum and Schools with liberality, having spent on 
 buildings upwards of £400,000. Since 1884 the energies of the 
 nation seem to have been exhausted, for though steps have been 
 taken at various times to complete the Museum, nothing has come 
 of the good intentions of the Government. In 1891 a limited 
 
SERVICES TO SCIENCE AND EDUCATION. 455 
 
 competition of designs for the completion of the fa$ade was invited 
 by the Office of Works, and the selected plans were exhibited in 
 the library of the House of Commons, and in the Museum. In the 
 faith that Parliament would ultimately complete the Museum, the 
 public have actively co-operated in enriching the collections by 
 giving or bequeathing to the nation objects of art to the value of 
 considerably more than a million sterling. 
 
 “The position of the Museum at the present time is, that its 
 collections are splendid ; the rooms for exhibition are good, though 
 inadequate in extent ; but the Museum itself has no fitting setting. 
 In front of it there are bare brick walls, ‘ the Brompton boilers,’ 
 shabby railway vans and sheds, and altogether a general squalor 
 which humiliates the nation in the eyes of foreigners who come in 
 large numbers to visit the Museum. Is the nation so poverty- 
 stricken that it cannot complete what Parliament has always 
 intended to finish as a great national possession ? 
 
 “ My early official connection with the Museum during its organi- 
 sation, and my later Parliamentary responsibility for it when Vice- 
 President of the Council, may perhaps justify me in suggesting that 
 the completion of the Museum would be a worthy public memorial 
 of Her Majesty’s long reign. There can be no doubt that the Queen 
 takes a deep interest in the Museum. In January, 1862, Her 
 Majesty wrote a letter to the Lord President of the Council, then 
 Lord Granville, in which he is desired to inform the authorities of 
 the Museum that ‘ it is Her Majesty’s intention to take the South 
 Kensington Museum under her special and personal protection.’ 
 The Government might ask Her Majesty’s permission to change the 
 meaningless local name of the ‘South Kensington Museum’ into 
 the honoured national name of ‘ the Victorian Museum,’ and take a 
 small supplementary vote this year towards the commencement of 
 the fagade, which would require some years to build. The small 
 beginning made by Parliament in 1837 ^ as developed by 1897 into a 
 great Museum, which has done much to advance the arts, the 
 industry, the technical education and the enjoyment of the Queen’s 
 subjects, and the completion of the Museum would be welcomed by 
 them as a memorial of the great benefits which they have received 
 during her long and happy reign.” 
 
 It is a great thing to know how to strike, but it is still 
 more important to know when to strike. Playfair had 
 chosen the propitious moment. His letter produced an 
 instantaneous response, not only from the general public, 
 but from statesmen and leaders in the educational move- 
 ment. The newspapers supported his proposal ; a me- 
 morial was addressed to the Government on the subject, 
 
456 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 signed by many influential persons ; and, as the result of 
 this happy suggestion, Parliament was induced to grant a 
 sum of .£800,000 to be spent in completing the Museum. 
 On the 17th of May, 1899, Her Majesty herself laid the 
 foundation-stone of the new buildings, and officially 
 declared that henceforth the institution should be known 
 as the Victoria and Albert Museum. Playfair had passed 
 away nearly twelve months before this ceremony took 
 place, but to his happy and opportune suggestion the 
 great work thus inaugurated was due. It was his closing 
 sendee to the great scheme at South Kensington, his last 
 contribution to the development of the technical education 
 of his fellow-countrymen. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Adjudicating in the ‘Statist’ Competition— Speech at the Jubilee 
 Banquet of the Cobden Club — Failing Health — Residence at Torquay 
 — Death — Letters of Condolence to Lady Playfair — Burial at 
 St. Andrews. 
 
 In the year 1896 Playfair completed a task which had 
 occupied him for many months. This was the award 
 of the prize of one thousand guineas, offered by the 
 proprietors of ‘ The Statist ’ for the best essay on the 
 means of drawing the Colonies and the Mother Country 
 into closer union. Lord Salisbury and Lord Rosebery had 
 each been asked to nominate a judge to whom the essays 
 might be submitted. Lord Salisbury had nominated the 
 Marquis of Lome, whilst Playfair was the choice of Lord 
 Rosebery. No fewer than 136 essays were submitted to 
 the judges, and as each was of considerable length, the 
 work of selecting the best was no light one. Nor was this 
 difficulty diminished by the fact that each of the dis- 
 tinguished judges had his own views upon political and 
 economic questions. In their Judgment, dated April 20th, 
 1896, they mentioned eight essays which seemed to them 
 to be of conspicuous merit. a We had no difficulty,” they 
 declared, “as judges, in selecting these eight essays for their 
 conspicuous ability, but we were unable to agree as to 
 which essay would receive the prize. One of us was 
 named as a judge by Lord Salisbury, and the other by 
 Lord Rosebery. Our economical views were known to be 
 different when we were appointed, and it is natural that we 
 
45$ MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 should differ as to the lines of policy which would be most 
 advantageous for a fiscal union of the Empire. We pro- 
 pose, therefore, that the prize of one thousand guineas 
 should be divided into two equal sums of five hundred 
 guineas, and that two prizes instead of one should be given 
 for two essays best representing among those competing 
 the two views of taxation which are entertained in the 
 plans proposed for the fiscal union of the Empire. The 
 majority of the self-governing Colonies have been in favour 
 of placing differential duties on foreign goods, and we both 
 agree that the essay best deserving the prize for this policy 
 of fiscal union is that signed ‘ Defence, not Defiance.' 
 Legislation in the United Kingdom, on the other hand, is 
 now based on the system of Free Trade, and does not tax 
 foreign imports of food and raw materials in favour of a 
 free importation of like articles from the Colonies. The 
 most able essay representing the policy of Free Trade is 
 that with the motto 1 Scrutator,’ and we both agree that 
 this essay should have the other prize.” 
 
 This was not perhaps an ideal award, but it fairly met 
 the merits of the case. Playfair, it need hardly be said, 
 was the judge who insisted that the policy of Free Trade 
 should have its representative in the decision of this great 
 competition. 
 
 In the summer of 1896 his most important public 
 appearance was at the Jubilee banquet of the Cobden 
 Club, when he was selected to speak in response to the 
 toast of The Club. No better choice could have been 
 made. For half a century at least he had been instant, 
 in season and out of season, in maintaining the necessity 
 of Free Trade for the development of the resources of a 
 country like ours. His simple and unadorned eloquence 
 had done much to keep the working men of Yorkshire 
 faithful to the principles of Richard Cobden ; and through 
 all his writings and in all his political career he had main- 
 
THE END. 
 
 459 
 
 tained, in spite of temporary discouragements, the triumph 
 of the Free Trade policy. In his speech, in responding to 
 the toast of The Club, he offered no apologies for the 
 principles upon which it was founded. He took his stand, 
 according to his custom, upon facts and figures, and 
 demonstrated the truth that under Free Trade English 
 commerce has grown as it never did before. “ There have 
 been two recent estimates,” he said, “ of the value of the 
 world’s commerce — an official report of the United States, 
 which places it at three thousand three hundred and one 
 millions sterling, and the other by Mr Gustav Runnig, of 
 Vienna, who gives it as three thousand one hundred and 
 thirteen millions. Either of these will do for my purpose, 
 which is to point out that the commerce of the British 
 Empire in the year of our Jubilee is about one-third of the 
 whole commerce of the world. According to these recent 
 reports, hardly one-third of the entire world’s commerce 
 furnishes the population with food products, while two- 
 thirds supply the other necessities and luxuries of life. In 
 regard to the manufactured goods, three nations — 
 England, Germany, and France — appropriate between 
 them sixty per cent, of the trade of the world ; and of 
 this England takes nearly thirty per cent, as her share, 
 Germany coming next with nearly eighteen per cent., and 
 France third with thirteen per cent. Upon such a splendid 
 position for the British Empire in the commerce of the 
 world we Free Traders may be content to rest our case. 
 We believe Free Trade and great trade to be synonymous 
 terms. . . . The demand that England should re- 
 
 nounce the freedom of her trade in order to differentiate 
 in favour of the Colonies requires criticism, because it has 
 received a sort of conditional support from a responsible 
 Minister of the Crown. It is a policy which is politically 
 dangerous, and would be economically disastrous to our 
 working classes and to our productive industries. We are 
 
460 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 all most anxious to strengthen the bonds which unite the 
 Colonies with the Mother Country, but there can be no 
 fiscal union while England is based on commercial freedom 
 and the Colonies on Protection. The Colonies may be 
 right in upholding Protection in their own interests, and 
 England may be right in upholding Free Trade, but both 
 must be proved to be wrong before we can have a Zoll- 
 verein. For the last fifty years Free Trade has given Great 
 Britain a predominance in the world of commerce. She 
 is now Queen of the realms of commerce and Mistress of 
 the Seas. By continuing steadily in the principles of 
 Free Exchange, she will continue to maintain her 
 glorious supremacy in the trade and navigation of the 
 world.” 
 
 There was, it will be seen, no wavering on the part 
 of Playfair in his adherence to the doctrines which he had 
 held so long and maintained so stoutly. Whatever might 
 be the passing currents of opinion with regard to economic 
 questions, he remained a Free Trader pure and simple 
 to the day of his death. 
 
 Gradually during this year, 1896, and the following year, 
 Playfair withdrew from the multifarious appointments 
 which he had held in the public sendee. He felt at last 
 a steady diminution in his powers of work. The machine 
 which had run so long and so smoothly began to give 
 signs of failing force, and he was under the painful com- 
 pulsion of retiring from many positions which he had 
 held with great advantage to the nation of which he was 
 proud to esteem himself a servant. His retirement 
 from his official work on the Royal Commission of the 
 Exhibition of 1851 has already been recorded. From many 
 other quarters, as he laid down his arms, he met with 
 recognition which was deeply gratifying to him, and which 
 proved that he had not worked in vain. Sir John Simon, 
 the distinguished sanitary reformer, writing to him to 
 
THE END. 461 
 
 acknowledge an honour which had been conferred upon 
 him by the Institute of Public Health, said : 
 
 “ You remind me that we two are old fellow- workers 
 for the Public Health. We indeed are now, I believe, the 
 oldest who have been sharers in that battle, and you 
 referred to me as two years your senior in life ; but you 
 pass without note the fact that long before I had given 
 my serious attention to the cause in which I afterwards 
 became a worker, you were on the Royal Commission 
 which in 1843-45 prepared the way for future Officers of 
 Health ; and you leave it for me to remember, as most 
 gratefully I do, how you were already a participator in 
 the fruit-giving work of that Commission, of which you 
 are now the one survivor, in days when I was yet a mere 
 student of pathology and surgery. Believe me that the 
 honour which has just been conferred on me, whatever 
 charm it may bring as a tribute from the workers of later 
 years, has not its least value to me in the fact that you — 
 the true patriarch of our cause — have been willing to take 
 part in the gift, and to enrich me by your most kind 
 of letters/' 
 
 These graceful and touching words deserve to be in- 
 vested with a wider significance than that which was 
 given to them by Sir John Simon. Playfair was the 
 patriarch in many other noble causes besides that of labour 
 for the public health, and it was with keen sorrow that 
 he recognised the fact that his term of unselfish service 
 was drawing to a close. 
 
 Onslow Gardens, 
 
 Playfair to Sir Lambert Playfair. December 8th, 1896. 
 
 I congratulate you heartily on the warm and friendly 
 feelings shown to you both on leaving Algiers. 1 Mr Ark- 
 wright’s address to the meeting was in excellent taste, and 
 not the least over-stated. It represents an appreciation by 
 
 1 Sir Lambert Playfair had been for many years Consul-General at 
 Algiers. 
 
462 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 your fellow-countrymen that you have a right to be proud 
 of. I am glad that the church will have a permanent 
 record of your services in Algiers. Thirty years form a 
 long period of public service at any time, and one quite 
 remarkable when you recollect in what a low condition 
 of health you were on your return from Aden, and the 
 doubts most of us felt whether you would be fit for public 
 work again. We Playfairs seem to have a latent vitality 
 in us which comes out with wonderful recuperative force. 
 In the United States this autumn I thought the close of 
 my work had come, but now I think I may still be able 
 to go on for a year or two more, if such a hope is not 
 too audacious at my age. . . . We propose to go 
 
 to St. Andrews for August and September. I am glad to 
 hear that you have bought a house in St. Andrews. It 
 is sufficiently near that prelatical chapel to rejoice your 
 hearts with embroidered robes and genuflections. I had 
 not my compass with me when I saw it, but I fancied 
 its orientation was perfect. 
 
 During the winter of 1896-7 Playfairs health was by no 
 means good. His physical strength began to fail, and he 
 was no longer able to indulge his old love of walking. But 
 his spirits were as buoyant as ever, and he still retained 
 that interest in life which may be said to have remained 
 youthful to the very end. It was not until the winter of 
 1897-98 that serious alarm began to be felt by his wife and 
 family with regard to his health. It was believed that the 
 winter in London would be too trying for him, as he 
 suffered from attacks of bronchitis, and from a low fever 
 which refused to yield to any remedies. The Villa Marina 
 at Torquay was secured as a suitable place in which he 
 might spend the winter months away from the fogs of 
 London. 
 
 Villa Marina, Parkhill, Torquay, 
 
 Playfair to his Son. January yd, 1898. 
 
 Many happy returns of the New Year to you and 
 yours. I am so much better and able to take walks in 
 
THE END. 
 
 463 
 
 our beautiful grounds here that I have no apology for not 
 personally thanking you for your many presents, so many 
 that I can scarcely enumerate them— book-rest, box of 
 cigars, partridges, wild ducks, etc. One of the latter I 
 had for my dinner to-day. I have appreciated them all 
 thoroughly. You got a Turkish medal for Christmas, and 
 the Royal Institute of Public Health has voted me the 
 Harben Gold Medal “for distinguished services to public 
 health during the last fifty years.” It has only been 
 twice bestowed before — on Sir John Simon, so long a Chief 
 Health Officer of the Government, and on Professor 
 Pettenkoffer of Munich. The scenery here is absolutely 
 perfect and our grounds delicious. We are all as happy 
 as possible, and my convalescence is steady and rapid. 
 
 The Harben Gold Medal, to which reference is made in 
 the foregoing letter, is the highest distinction which it is in 
 the power of the Royal Institute of Public Health to 
 confer. The presentation of the medal was made by the 
 President, Dr W. R. Smith, in a letter in which on behalf 
 of the Institute he bore testimony to Playfair’s services 
 in promoting during more than half a century all measures 
 for improving the health and social condition of the 
 people of this country. In acknowledging the honour on 
 December 29th, 1897, Playfair wrote : — 
 
 “Your letter is peculiarly gratifying to me. It is true 
 that since 1843 I have taken a keen interest in the pro- 
 motion of public health, and have endeavoured to the best 
 of my ability to improve it. In those early days I had 
 the advantage of the active co-operation of great sani- 
 tarians — Sir Edwin Chadwick, Dr Southwood Smith, Sir 
 Richard Owen, Dr Neil Arnot, Dr Budd of Bristol, Dr 
 Ransome of Manchester, and others, to back me in my 
 efforts to lead the Royal Commission on Public Health (of 
 which I was a member) in the path of progress, and 
 to overcome the obstacles of uninstructed municipal and 
 parochial authorities. Without the combination of such 
 
464 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 powerful sanitarians even the Royal Commission could not 
 have succeeded in amending sanitary law. We met at 
 stated times at simple dinners in each other’s houses to 
 discuss sanitary progress, and called ourselves ‘ Friends in 
 Council.’ Those were days when we had to grope for 
 truth, as bacteria and their congeners were unknown in 
 their relation to disease.” 
 
 Even during his stay at Torquay he bore the burden of 
 his fourscore years so lightly that it seemed impossible to 
 associate him with the idea of advanced age. Nor did he 
 fail to maintain his keen interest in those public affairs 
 which had filled his life for sixty years. Although he 
 knew that his days must necessarily be numbered, he was 
 still as full as ever of projects of work and of zeal in 
 the public service. 
 
 “ The wages of going on ” were still the reward that he 
 coveted. To live in idleness was abhorrent to the man who 
 had scarcely known an idle day during all his life. To die 
 in harness seemed to him then, as it had ever done, to be 
 the end most to be desired. The stay at Torquay did not 
 relieve him from the distressing indisposition from which he 
 suffered — a recurring fever which, raising his temperature, 
 sapped his strength, and for which his physicians were 
 unable to discover any remedy. In April, with the return 
 of spring, he desired to go back to London, in order that 
 he might take his part in the public engagements for which 
 he might still have sufficient strength. Of these, one to 
 which he looked forward with the greatest eagerness was 
 the dinner to be given to the past-presidents of the Chemical 
 Society, of which he had been one of the founders, and of 
 which he was the oldest surviving president. 
 
 Chemical Society, 
 
 Burlington House, Piccadilly, W., 
 Professor Dewar to Playfair. Ma y 9 th < i 8 9 8 - 
 
 Dear Lord Playfair, — For some time past the 
 Council of the Chemical Society have had under their 
 
THE END. 
 
 465 
 
 consideration the measures that should be taken to com- 
 memorate the fact that you and six other past-presidents 
 who have rendered conspicuous service to their science, 
 this year complete fifty years’ fellowship of the Society, 
 viz. Sir J. H. Gilbert, Sir E. Frankland, Professor Odling, 
 Sir F. A. Abel, Bt., Dr A. W. Williamson, and Dr J. H. 
 Gladstone. The Council have now determined that the 
 event shall be celebrated by a banquet at the Hotel 
 Metropole on Thursday, June 9th. 
 
 We are desired by the Council and Fellows to express 
 the hope that you will honour them with your presence on 
 this occasion, which it is intended to make a memorable 
 one in the history of the Society. 
 
 All the foreign members have been specially invited, as 
 well as a number of distinguished guests who are interested 
 in the progress of chemistry in this country. 
 
 We are, dear Lord Playfair, 
 
 Yours very faithfully, 
 
 James Dewar^ 
 President. 
 
 This dinner he agreed to attend, and accordingly, on the 
 15th of April, returned to town. Before the date fixed for 
 the dinner he had passed away, and the celebration was in 
 consequence postponed for several months. 
 
 After his return to his house in Onslow Gardens there 
 was for a time a marked diminution in the fever, and as a 
 new treatment had been decided upon, both he and his 
 family felt hopeful as to the future. Unfortunately he got 
 a slight additional cold early in May, and on the 21st of 
 that month he had, to his own severe disappointment, to 
 spend his eightieth birthday in bed. Many friends sent 
 kind inquiries and congratulations to cheer him in his 
 illness, and he evidently looked forward to an early con- 
 valescence. Mr Gladstone’s death on the 19th of May had 
 affected him profoundly, and on the day after his birthday 
 
 E E 
 
466 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 he penned with difficulty the following letter, writing it 
 in bed in pencil, and giving it to Lady Playfair in order 
 that she might copy it out for Mrs Gladstone. It was 
 his last letter. 
 
 68, Onslow Gardens, South Kensington. 
 Playfair to Mrs Gladstone. Ma y and , 1898. 
 
 Dear Mrs Gladstone,— During the long illness of Mr 
 Gladstone I was unwilling to add to your correspondence 
 by any inquiries as to him and yourself, but now that the 
 greatest and most true-hearted Englishman of our age has 
 passed from suffering to a rest of peace in faith, I ask your 
 permission to express my wife’s and my own intense 
 sympathy with you and your family. I admired and loved 
 Mr Gladstone, not only for his great qualities, but for his 
 intense belief in all eternal and temporal truths. Words 
 fail in showing appreciation of his magnificent character, 
 but you will allow us not to be altogether silent, but to add 
 to the expression of universal sympathy with yourself. My 
 wife writes this for me, as owing to illness I am unable to 
 do so myself. 
 
 On Friday, May 27th, it was discovered that slight 
 congestion of one lung had set in, and that his strength 
 was failing. On the following day, that on which his old 
 chief was buried in Westminster Abbey, his cough became 
 incessant, and his weakness increased to an alarming 
 extent. Even then, however, the cheerfulness which had 
 distinguished him throughout his life was fully maintained. 
 Thoughtfulness for those around him, and above all for the 
 wife who watched over him with so devoted a care, was as 
 marked as it had been at any moment of his life. That 
 day, though unable to read, he looked over some of the 
 books in which he had collected newspaper extracts re- 
 ferring to those great public questions in which he had 
 taken so deep an interest, and was amused when he came 
 upon a caricature of himself, describing to his sister-in-law 
 what it was, and what it meant. On Whit Sunday it was 
 
THE END. 
 
 467 
 
 seen that the end was rapidly approaching, and the absent 
 members of his family were summoned to his side. He 
 himself suffered no pain, and was only conscious of a great 
 weariness, and of a strong desire to sleep. About nine 
 o’clock in the evening (Whit Sunday, May 29th) he asked 
 that the lights should be put out. They were lowered at 
 his request. When this was done he said : “Now I think 
 I can sleep. Good night, good night.” And in a few 
 moments he had passed away without a sound or a 
 struggle. Those who were with him throughout his last 
 illness describe how they never heard him utter an impatient 
 word or a murmur at the successive disappointments which 
 befell his hopes of improvement. Not only his cheerfulness 
 but his keen sense of humour never seemed to forsake him, 
 and when members of his family visited him in his sick 
 room he would joke with them as of old, and talk with 
 tender affection of their domestic affairs. His family life, 
 for reasons already stated, has not played a prominent part 
 in this biography. One or two letters dealing with purely 
 domestic matters have been designedly inserted, not because 
 they bore upon that chronicle of never-ending work of 
 which his life chiefly consisted, but in order that some 
 side-light might be thrown upon his private character, 
 and the depth of his family affections. “No letter he 
 ever wrote,” says one of his children, “ could give an 
 idea of his deep and intense sympathy, of his loving 
 help in any trouble to those dear to him, and even to 
 strangers. I never in the whole of my life have seen 
 him cross, impatient, or known him speak a harsh word 
 to anyone.” Another of his children has pointed out to 
 me that his correspondence with them, dealing as it so 
 frequently did with practical matters of business, afforded 
 but little clue to his real character. “ He made himself 
 charming to all with whom he came in contact, and was as 
 interesting to a young person as to the most advanced 
 
468 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 scientist ; he had such a faculty of adapting his conversa- 
 tion to all people and circumstances. Children were par- 
 ticularly devoted to him, and he delighted in the company 
 of the young. He was generous to a fault, and gave away 
 a great deal in charity without anybody knowing about it. 
 Some years before his death he got a postal order for 
 17s. 6d. The anonymous person who sent him this sum 
 wrote, by way of explanation : ( You may not remember 
 the circumstance, but many years ago I accosted you one 
 night in the docks at Liverpool, and begged for assistance. 
 You found that you had no money, but you took off your 
 coat and gave me your waistcoat. Since then I have made 
 a fortune, and now repay you.’ ” The incident was one 
 which had passed out of Playfair’s mind, and which he had 
 never mentioned to others. 
 
 His death, occurring as it did within a few days of Mr 
 Gladstone’s, took place at a time when the country was so 
 deeply absorbed in the loss of one great Englishman that 
 it might have been supposed that it would hardly be able 
 to take note of the departure of another true and tried 
 public servant, who had so long been one of Mr Glad- 
 stone’s most zealous and active lieutenants. Yet, when the 
 news that Playfair had passed away became known, count- 
 less persons in every rank of life, who had been brought in 
 contact with him, hastened to bear testimony to his worth, 
 and to their own sense of the loss which the country had 
 suffered in his death. From among the many letters 
 received by Lady Playfair, I select one or two as being 
 specially significant and noteworthy. 
 
 H.R.H. The Prince of Wales to Lady Playfair. Ma y 3 Ist - 
 
 Dear Lady Playfair, — To-day the sad news reached 
 me that your kind and excellent husband had “ passed 
 away,” so I do not lose a moment in expressing my 
 deepest sympathy with you at the terrible loss you have 
 
THE END. 
 
 469 
 
 sustained. I have had the advantage of knowing your 
 distinguished husband even before I was ten years old, and 
 during those many years I was on the terms of the most 
 intimate friendship with him. In him I have lost a 
 Master (as I am proud to say I was his pupil), an adviser, 
 and a friend, and I shall always mourn and regret 
 him most deeply. 
 
 The Princess begs me also to express her most sincere 
 condolence with you, and I remain, most sincerely yours, 
 
 Albert Edward. 
 
 POSILIPO, 
 
 The Earl of Rosebery to Lady Playfair . J une 7 th > i 8 9 8 - 
 
 My dear Lady Playfair, — I see with deep regret 
 the news of the departure of your husband, and I must 
 send a line to express my sincerest sympathy. 
 
 He was one of the wisest, fairest, and most loyal men 
 that I have ever known in public life ; and his devotion to 
 work and to duty has never, I think, been surpassed. 
 
 With all this, he preserved a perpetual youth which 
 makes it hard to believe that he has passed away in a 
 ripe old age. 
 
 It must be an unspeakable comfort to you to remember 
 at this time how you sweetened and brightened his life. 
 But at such a moment there is no such thing as comfort ; 
 there is only mitigation. Such as it is, may it abundantly 
 be yours ! 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours sincerely, 
 
 Rosebery. 
 
 Royal Institution of Great Britain, 
 Professor Dewar to Lady Playfair. Ma y 3 IS *. i 8 9 8 - 
 
 Dear Lady Playfair, — I cannot find words to 
 express my sympathy with you on account of the sudden 
 bereavement that has fallen in the passing of your great 
 and illustrious husband, Lord Playfair. These words will 
 not tend to assuage your grief. My excuse must be a life- 
 
470 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 long love and veneration for the great departed. He was 
 my Master in everything, and I owe all to him. If he had 
 only been spared a little longer, I wanted so much to have 
 told him that at last hydrogen had succumbed, and about 
 the new work I have in hand. But it was not to be. He 
 has gone full of years and honours. When will we see his 
 like again ? His memory wall ever remain with me as one 
 of the most abiding treasures of my life. Mrs Dewar is 
 deeply grieved. Lord Playfair was at our marriage. 
 Wishing you all consolation and peace, 
 
 Yours most faithfully, 
 
 James Dewar. 
 
 On Saturday, June 4th, Playfair was laid to rest in the 
 burial-place which had been chosen for him during his life- 
 time, under the shadow of the grey ruins of the old 
 cathedral of St. Andrews, and within sound of the sea 
 beside which he had played as a boy. He was honoured 
 with a public funeral by the authorities of the city. The 
 Senatus Academicus of the University, which he had 
 represented so long in Parliament, attended officially, and 
 the Queen and Prince of Wales were personally repre- 
 sented. There was a great gathering of the representatives 
 of science and the public services, whilst the members of his 
 own family were there without exception. His coffin bore 
 the following inscription : — “ Lyon Playfair, first Baron 
 Playfair of St. Andrews, P.C., G.C.B., F.R.S., LL.D. Bom 
 2 1st May, 1818 ; died 29th May, 1898, aged 80 years. 
 ‘For so He giveth His beloved sleep.' ” The long, sweet 
 sleep, which comes at the end to all, never followed a 
 fuller life of work and achievement than that which has 
 been imperfectly recorded in these pages. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Aberdare, Lord, and the Aged Poor 
 Commission, 397-400 
 
 Africa, Playfair on the probable 
 British destiny in, 318 
 
 Aged Poor Commission, Playfair and 
 the, 397-400 
 
 Agricultural Chemistry, Playfair’s 
 lectures on, 68 ; Liebig’s work on, 
 43, 88, 89 
 
 Airlie, Lord and Lady, their friend- 
 ship with Lord and Lady Playfair, 
 348 
 
 Albert, Prince ( see Consort, H.R.H. 
 the Prince) 
 
 Alexander, Professor, 32-33 
 
 Alice, Princess, entertains Playfair at 
 Kranichstein, 193-194; her refer- 
 ence to him in a letter to the 
 Queen, 194, 204 
 
 Anecdotes : Professor Playfair (kins- 
 man of Lyon) and the Commander- 
 in-Chief for Scotland, 14 ; Lyon 
 Playfair mistaken for the Professor, 
 15 ; Mrs Macdonald (Lyon’s aunt) 
 and her doubts concerning Ba- 
 laam’s ass, 16-17 ; how Sir Hugh 
 Playfair improved St. Andrews, 
 18-19 ; Mr Kettle and his prayers 
 for Lyon, 19 ; Lyon and the Com- 
 munion "token,” 19-20; the Elder 
 and the nurse, 20 ; Lyon intro- 
 duces himself to his father, 21 ; Dr 
 Macvicar and his " popular lec- 
 tures,” 22-23 ; Lyon and his brother 
 George, 26 ; his stratagem for 
 frightening off marauders at Glas- 
 gow, 34-35; his accidental meeting 
 with Lady and Sir Charles Lyell, 
 35-36 ; Mrs Livingstone in search 
 of her children, 37 ; punctuality 
 handsomely rewarded, 44 ; Playfair 
 parleys with labour rioters and 
 becomes their hostage, 55-56 ; a 
 laboratory accident at Manchester, 
 56-57 ; instances of Dr Dalton’s 
 eccentricity, 57-58; one of his eyes 
 
 taken out after death for examina- 
 tion, 58 ; Professor Bunsen and 
 Playfair taken for tramps, 62 ; 
 Sir Edwin Chadwick’s argument 
 from the Devil, 64 ; Follett 
 and the doctrine of the cor- 
 relation of forces, 72-73 ; Fara- 
 day and the bag of powder, 95 ; 
 Playfair and the coal-owner, 95- 
 96 ; the Duke of Wellington and 
 the Chartists, 103-4; arresting a 
 nursemaid and her charge, 104 ; 
 Playfair seized in Paris as an 
 insurgent, 105-6 ; Louis Blanc 
 tricked by Louis Napoleon, 106 ; 
 Sir Henry Cole and the Great 
 Exhibition, 115 ; classifying a 
 walking-stick, 116; a mysterious 
 Chinaman at the opening of the 
 Great Exhibition, 120; the Queen 
 and the exhibitor, 121 ; ludicrous 
 incident at a fete at St. Cloud, 122 ; 
 Lord Derby and the meaning of 
 "denarius;” an episcopal objec- 
 tion to undraped statues, 125 ; 
 Playfair and the hostile member 
 of the Athenaeum, 144; confu- 
 sion between him and Sir Charles 
 Wheatstone, 154; reading secret 
 ciphers, 155-56 ; instance of Bab- 
 bage’s enormous egotism, 156 ; Sir 
 Edwin Chadwick and his epigram 
 on the sanitary condition of Paris, 
 1 62 ; strange beginning of Playfair’s 
 acquaintance with Arles Dufour, 
 163 ; Playfair’s generosity towards 
 a rival, 179 ; Sir James Simpson’s 
 adroit defence of chloroform, 182- 
 83 ; his rashness in trying anaesthe- 
 tics upon himself, 183; Owen Jones 
 on fame, 191 ; the Princess Alice 
 and the luncheon-table, 194 ; the 
 Prince of Wales and the boiling 
 lead, 201 ; the Prince Consort’s 
 superiority to jealousy, 213 ; the 
 romantic story of Lord Dun- 
 
4 7 2 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 donald’s disgrace and rehabilita- 
 tion, 235-39 ; Longfellow and his 
 English visitors, 240; Colonel 
 Holmes and his typical Mexican, 
 242 ; temporary adoption of a young 
 lady as daughter, 243 ; Playfair’s 
 narrow escape from a railway 
 disaster, 243-44 • Playfair and the 
 “electric phenomenon,” 244-45; 
 taken for a mining adventurer in 
 Canada, 248-49 ; meets an enthusi- 
 ast for falconry, 272 ; Playfair and 1 
 the King of Bonny, 281 ; and the j 
 black Bishop of Hayti, 281 ; “ con- 
 fidence” men in New York, 319; j 
 singular communication of a scien- ! 
 tific discovery, 346; Rustem Pasha j 
 and Sir Edward Bradford both 1 
 maimed by wild beasts, 374 ; Play- j 
 fair and the deaf, dumb, and blind j 
 child, 374-75 ; mistaken for a State j 
 prisoner, 376-77 ; a clergyman re- 
 buked by an alderman, 391 ; a ! 
 colloquy with a stranger, 391-92 ; j 
 a Napoleonic story, 395 ; a knight j 
 without being knighted, 402 ; | 
 Playfair gives his waistcoat to a j 
 beggar, 468 
 
 Anglo-Saxon spirit, Playfair on the, j 
 
 363-64 
 
 Arbitration Treaty between Great 
 Britain and the United States, | 
 Playfair on an, 365-67, 407 
 
 Arts, Society of, and the Great I 
 Exhibition, 112 
 
 Ashburton, Lord and Lady, and 
 Playfair, 157 
 
 B. 
 
 Babbage, inventor of the calculating 
 machine, 116, 155 ; his egotism, j 
 i 55 _ 56 
 
 Balfour, the Right Hon. A. J., and 
 Irish Coercion, 384 
 
 Bayard, Mr T. F., American Ambas- 
 sador, and the Venezuelan ques- 
 tion, 416-26 
 
 Beche, Sir Henry de la, see De la 
 Beche 
 
 Berlin, Playfair’s visit to, in 1841, 44 
 
 Birmingham, Playfair invited to con- ! 
 test one of the divisions of, 349, 
 35i 
 
 Blast Furnaces for the Manufacture of 
 Iron, Inquiry into the Chemical 
 Operation of, 61-63 
 
 Bloomfield, Major, son-in-law of 
 Playfair, 164 
 
 Bradford, Sir Edward, attacked by a 
 tiger, 374 
 
 Brand, Mr Speaker, and Playfair, 293, 
 296-97 
 
 Brewster, Sir David, 185-86 
 British Association, meetings of, at 
 Southampton, 101 ; at Montreal, 
 345-46 ; Playfair’s presidency of, at 
 Aberdeen, 347-48 ; his presidency 
 of the Chemical Section of, 429 
 “Brompton boilers,” The, 142, 453 
 Brown, Dr John, Playfair’s acquaint- 
 ance with, 195-96 
 
 Buckingham Palace, Playfair’s inquiry 
 into the sanitary condition of, 94 
 Buckland, Dr, 43 ; meets Playfair at 
 Drayton Manor, 59-60; his appoint- 
 ment to the Deanery of West- 
 minster ; his experiments with new 
 viands, 69 : presses Playfair’s 
 
 claims upon Peel, 77-78 
 Buckland, Frank, 60, 69 
 Bunsen, Professor, and Playfair, 61- 
 
 63 
 
 C. 
 
 Canada : Playfair receives the offer 
 of a professorship from, 58-60 ; his 
 first visit to, 247-50 ; and the British 
 Association, 345-46 ; Playfair’s 
 visit to, in 1895, 402-4. 
 
 Cantor, Low & Co., the Calcutta 
 house which Playfair joined, 41 
 Carnegie, Mr, and an arbitration 
 treaty between Great Britain and 
 the United States, 365 
 Cattle Plague, Royal Commission on 
 the, 192-93, 203-4 
 
 Cezarevitch (the present Czar), Play- 
 fair and the, 395 
 
 Chadwick, Sir Edwin, and sanitary 
 reform, 64 ; and the sanitary con- 
 dition of Paris, 162 
 Chairman and Deputy-Speaker, Play- 
 fair’s tenure of the office of, 291- 
 97, 3 OI < 302-10, 312-17 
 Chamberlain, the Right Hon. Joseph, 
 and the Aged Poor Commission, 
 397» 398. 399. 400 ; and the Vene- 
 zuelan question, 416-26 
 Chaplin, the Right Hon. Henry, and 
 Playfair, 310-12 
 Chartist agitation, The, 103-4 
 Chemical Society, Playfair President 
 of, 179 ; invited to a dinner to the 
 past Presidents of, 464-65 
 Chemistry : Playfair’s boyish experi- 
 ments in, 33 ; wins a first prize in ; 
 his favourite study at Glasgow, 
 36 ; studies it at Giessen under 
 Liebig, 42-43, 428 ; is appointed 
 
INDEX. 
 
 473 
 
 honorary professor of, at Man- 
 chester, 56 ; is offered a professor- 
 ship of, at Toronto, 58-60 ; his 
 researches into the chemical 
 operation of blast furnaces for 
 iron manufacture, 61-63, 430 ; his 
 unsuccessful candidature for the 
 chair of, at Edinburgh, in 1844, 
 66-67 > pursues his work in, at 
 Manchester, 67-68 ; is appointed 
 Chemist to the Geological Survey, 
 72 ; his researches into the atomic 
 volume of salts and into the “ nitro- 
 prussides,” 92, 430 ; his inquiry 
 into the best coals for steam navi- 
 gation, and into accidents in coal 
 mines, 95-97 ; his election to the 
 chair of, at Edinburgh, in 1858, 
 174-76, 429 ; his address on a cen- 
 tury of, in Edinburgh University, 
 180-81 {see also Chemical Society) 
 Chemists, Playfair’s acquaintance 
 with famous, 51-52 
 Chicago, Playfair’s impressions of, 
 241-42 
 
 Chief Whip, Playfair’s refusal of the 
 post of, 290-91, 301-2 
 Christian, H.R.H. Prince, friendly 
 interest of, in Playfair, 195 
 Christison, Sir Robert, 40, 181, 182, 
 186 
 
 Church of England Service, Playfair 
 on the, 273 
 
 Civil Service Commission, Playfair 
 President of, 218-19 
 Clare, Peter, Dr Dalton’s “Boswell,” 
 57 
 
 Clark, Sir James, Playfair’s friendship 
 with, 91 
 
 Cleveland, President, at the centenary 
 celebration of the Declaration of 
 Independence, 360 ; on an arbitra- 
 tion treaty between Great Britain 
 and the United States, 366; and 
 the Venezuelan question, 414-15 
 Coal for Steam Navigation {see Steam 
 Navigation) 
 
 Coal Mines, Inquiries into the causes 
 of accidents in, 95-97 
 Cobden Club, Playfair’s speech at the 
 Jubilee banquet of, 458 
 Cole, Sir Henry, and the Great Exhi- 
 bition, 112, 114, 115, 117, 124, 142, 
 143 ; and the South Kensington 
 Museum, 150 ; and the Inter- 
 national Exhibition of 1855, 162 
 College of Civil Engineers, Putney, 
 Playfair a professor at, 95 
 Commerce, Effects on, of the applica- 
 tions of science to, 438 
 
 Consort, H.R.H. the Prince, the 
 originator of the Great Exhibition, 
 112, 121 ; appoints Playfair a Gen- 
 tleman Usher; Playfair’s tribute 
 to, 124 ; and the Crystal Palace, 
 125 ; and the disposal of the 
 Great Exhibition surplus, 131-33, 
 135-36, 137-39. 14°. 14 1 : and the 
 organisation of the Science and 
 Art Department, 150; his English 
 attacked, 158 ; Playfair resigns 
 the post of Gentleman Usher to, 
 178 ; death of, 188-89 I funeral of, 
 190; the Coburg statue of, 194; the 
 Scottish memorial of, 202-3 ; his 
 superiority to jealousy, 213 ; and 
 the British Association, 347 ; the 
 Te Deum of, sung at the Jubilee 
 service, 356 ; indebtedness of the 
 nation to, in connection with the 
 Great Exhibition and the em- 
 ployment of the surplus fund, 
 452-53 
 
 Crichton, Mr, master of the St. 
 
 Andrews Parish School, 29 
 Crosse, Mr, and spontaneous genera- 
 tion, 70-71 
 
 Crown Princess of Prussia, see Fred- 
 erick, German Empress 
 Crum-Brown, Professor, on Playfair’s 
 scientific career and position, 428- 
 30 
 
 Crystal Palace, Opening of, 125 
 Cullen, Cardinal, an opponent of 
 higher education, 213 
 
 D. 
 
 Dalton, Dr, and Playfair, 57-58 ; 75 
 Dawson, Sir William, and the British 
 Association, 346 
 
 Declaration of Independence, Playfair 
 represents England at the centen- 
 ary celebration of the, 359-64 
 De la Beche, Sir Henry, 43, 64, 72 ; 
 interests Dr Buckland in Playfair, 
 79-80 ; seeks to procure the re- 
 tirement of Mr Phillips from the 
 Museum of Practical Geology in 
 Playfair’s favour, 82-83 1 an a P" 
 preciation of, by Playfair, 93 ; 95, 
 
 96. 1 13 
 
 Dewar, Professor, a pupil of Play- 
 fair’s, 93 ; invites Playfair to a 
 dinner to the past Presidents of 
 the Chemical Society, 464-65 ; 
 condoles with Lady Playfair on 
 her husband’s death, 469-70 
 Douglas, Miss, governess of Playfair, 
 28-29 
 
474 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Dove, the meteorologist, and Play- 
 fair, 44-45 
 
 Ducie, Lord, his model farm, 70 
 Dufferin, Lord, and Playfair, 250 
 Dufour, Arles, and Playfair, 163 
 Duncan, Professor, 32-33 
 Dundonald, Lord (Lord Cochrane), 
 scheme of for taking fortresses, 
 160-61 ; character of, 161 ; disgrace 
 and rehabilitation of, 235-39 
 
 E. 
 
 Eastern Question, Playfair’s views 
 on the, 264, 266, 268, 274, 285 
 Edinburgh, The Duke of, and the 
 Great Exhibition, 122 ; a student 
 in Edinburgh University, 187 
 Edinburgh Museum, Foundation of, 
 
 151 
 
 Edinburgh University, Playfair a 
 student in, 38 ; an unsuccessful 
 candidate for the chair of Chemis- 
 try in, 66-67 ; appointed Professor 
 of Chemistry in, 174-76 ; chief 
 member of the Senate of, in 1858, 
 181-82 ; reform of, 183-85 ; royal 
 students at, 187-88 ; appreciation 
 of Playfair’s services by the 
 Senate of, 197-98 ; representation 
 of in Parliament, conjointly with 
 St. Andrews University, 206, 209; 
 Playfair stands for, and is elected, 
 207-8, 210 ; Tory character of the 
 constituents of, 210-11 ; founda- 
 tion of a chair of Geology in, 222 ; 
 Playfair’s seat for threatened, 
 286-87, 288 ; his retirement from 
 the representation of, 338, 349 ; 
 tercentenary of, 344-45 
 Emerson and Playfair, 240 ; and 
 Longfellow, ib. (footnote) 
 
 Endowed Schools, Playfair President 
 of a Select Committee on, 214 ; 
 member of a Royal Commission 
 to inquire into, 354 
 
 F. 
 
 Faraday, Professor, Story of, about 
 a bag of powder, 95 ; proposal to 
 make him a Privy Councillor, 156 
 Fawcett, Professor, and the Irish 
 University question, 214-15; and 
 the election of a Liberal leader in 
 the Commons, 231-32 
 Fellow of the Royal Society, Playfair 
 elected a, 103 
 
 Fitzwilliam, Lord, visited by Liebig 
 and Playfair, 71 
 
 Follett, Sir W. W., and George 
 Stephenson, 72-73 
 
 “ Food of Man in relation to his 
 Work,” Playfair’s memoir on, 195 
 Forbes, Professor Edward, a fellow- 
 student of Playfair’s at Edin- 
 burgh, 39 ; 93, 181 
 Forbes, Principal, 185-86 
 Forster, W. E., and the Elementary 
 Education Act, 211-12 ; his claims 
 to the Liberal leadership in the 
 Commons, 212, 226-33 
 Frankland, Sir Edward, a pupil 
 of Playfair’s, 93 ; on Playfair’s 
 investigations into the best coal 
 for steam navigation, 430-31 
 Frederick, German Emperor, Death 
 of, 377 • Playfair’s impressions of, 
 377-78 
 
 Frederick, German Empress, 378 ; 
 defends Bismarck, and disclaims 
 responsibility for the publication 
 of the Emperor’s diary, 379 
 Fair Trade, Playfair’s arguments 
 against, 367-71 
 
 Free Trade, Playfair’s final tribute 
 to, 458-60 
 
 “ Friends in Council,” Society of 
 Political Economists, 65 
 
 G. 
 
 Geffcken, Professor, and the publica- 
 tion of the Emperor Frederick’s 
 diary, 379 
 
 Geological Survey, Playfair appointed 
 chemist to the, 72 
 
 George Eliot, and Playfair, 262, 276 
 Giessen, Playfair studies chemistry 
 at, 42-43 
 
 Gillespie, Professor, 32 
 Glamis Castle and Manse, 31-32, 348 
 Gladstone, Mr, and the Irish Uni- 
 versity question, 215-17 ; his 
 generosity towards Playfair in 
 nominating him Postmaster-Gen- 
 eral, 217-18 ; offers him the post 
 of Chief Whip, and then that of 
 Chairman and Deputy-Speaker, 
 290-91 ; nominates Professor Owen 
 for a knighthood, 327-28, 329; 
 urges Playfair to accept the Vice- 
 Presidency of the Council, 353 ; 
 nominates him for a peerage, 385- 
 86 ; his physical hardihood in his 
 old age, 392 ; Playfair deeply 
 affected by the death of, 465-66 
 Goodsir, Professor, and Playfair, 39, 
 181 
 
 Gore House Estate, Kensington, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 475 
 
 purchased by the Royal Commis- 
 sioners of the 1851 Exhibition, 
 140 
 
 Graham, Professor, Playfair’s master 
 in Chemistry, 36, 38, 42 ; as 
 Master of the Mint, 163 
 
 Graham, Sir James, and the Irish 
 potato famine, 99 
 
 Grand Committee’s system, Play- 
 fair’s connection with the, 300 
 
 Grand Cross of the Bath, Playfair 
 receives the, 401 
 
 Grant, Sir Alexander, appointed 
 Principal of Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity, 186 
 
 Granville, Earl, and Playfair, in, 
 112, 113, 158-59 
 
 Great Exhibition, The (1851), the 
 leading work of Playfair’s life, 
 109 ; the starting-point of techni- 
 cal education in England, in; a 
 Royal Commission appointed to 
 organise it ; early difficulties of, 
 112 ; a system of classification 
 for, 115-16; Paxton’s building for, 
 118; scares concerning, 118-20; 
 opening of, 120 ; the building of 
 removed to Sydenham, 125 ; the 
 Prince Consort’s views as to the 
 disposal of the surplus of, 131-33 ; 
 investment of the surplus of, 140- 
 41 ; results of the investment, 452 
 (see also Royal Commission of the 
 1851 Exhibition) 
 
 Gregory, Professor, Playfair’s prede- 
 cessor in the chair of Chemistry 
 at Edinburgh, 179-80 
 
 Grevy, President, and Playfair, 247 
 
 H. 
 
 Halfpenny post-cards, Playfair’s ad- 
 vocacy of, 21 1 
 
 Harben Gold Medal of the Royal 
 Institute of Public Health, Play- 
 fair receives the, 463 
 
 Harcourt, Sir William, and Irish 
 obstruction, 293 
 
 Harrington Estate, Kensington, pur- 
 chased by the Royal Commis- 
 sioners of the 1851 Exhibition, 
 140 
 
 Hartington, Marquis of (Duke of 
 Devonshire), Election of as Liberal 
 leader in the Commons, 212, 226- 
 33 
 
 Harvard University, Playfair and, 
 345 
 
 “ Hawarden Kite,” Playfair’s con- 
 nection with the, 342 
 
 Hayes, President, and Playfair, 244 
 
 Health of Towns, Royal Commission 
 on the, Playfair’s connection with, 
 64-66, 88-89 
 
 Herring Fishery, Royal Commission 
 on the, 190-91 
 
 Holmes, Colonel, and Playfair, 242- 
 43, 252, 253 
 
 Holmes, Wendell, 240-41 
 
 Home Rule, Playfair and, 333-34, 
 342-43 
 
 I. 
 
 Imperial Federation, Playfair’s sym- 
 pathy with, 248 
 
 Imperial Institute, Foundation of 
 the, 449-52 
 
 Indian Salt-tax, Playfair effects a 
 reduction in the, 245-46 
 
 “ Inosculation of the Arts and 
 Sciences,” Playfair’s address on, 
 438-40 
 
 International Exhibition — of 1855, 
 161-62; of 1862, 191, 199; of 1878, 
 246-47, 260 ; of 1888 (Glasgow), 
 376-77 (see also Great Exhibition) 
 
 Irish members, Suspension of at 
 Playfair’s instance, 292 ; his popu- 
 larity with, 297, 325-26 
 
 Irish University question, Playfair 
 and the, 214-17 
 
 J- 
 
 Jones, Owen, and the International 
 Exhibition of 1862, 191 
 
 Joule, Playfair’s recollections of, 73- 
 75 ; experiments of in association 
 with Playfair, 92 
 
 Jubilee celebrations, Playfair’s con- 
 nection with the, 354-59 
 
 K. 
 
 Kane, Sir Robert, 98 
 
 Knight Commander of the Bath, 
 Playfair appointed a, 297, 402 
 
 Kolbe, Professor, an assistant of 
 Playfair’s, 93 
 
 L. 
 
 Labour riots at Clitheroe in 1842, 
 55-56 
 
 Lancashire, Playfair’s report on the 
 sanitation of the large towns in, 
 65-66 
 
 Leeds (see South Leeds) 
 
47 ^ MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Letters, and Extracts from letters, 
 from — 
 
 Aberdare, Lord, to Playfair, on the 
 Aged Poor Commission, 398-99 
 Balfour, Professor, to Playfair, 
 protesting against the latter’s 
 supporting Irish Church Dis- 
 establishment, 207-8 
 Bayard, Mr T. F., American Am- 
 bassador, to Playfair, on the 
 Venezuelan question, 418, 420, 
 422-23 
 
 Beche, Sir H. de la, to Buckland, 
 on the subject of a public appoint- 
 ment for Playfair, 79-80, 82-83 
 Blackie, Professor, to Playfair, on 
 “ Teaching Universities and Ex- 
 amining Boards,” 224 
 Brand, Mr Speaker, to Playfair, 
 on the latter’s resignation of the 
 Chairmanship, 296-97 
 Bright, John, to Playfair, compli- 
 menting him on a speech on 
 Fair Trade, 368 
 
 Buckland, Dean, to Sir Robert 
 Peel, recommending Playfair for 
 a public appointment, 77-78 
 Chamberlain, the Right Hon. 
 Joseph, to Playfair, on the 
 Venezuelan question, 419-20, 
 420, 421-22, 423-25 
 Chaplin, the Right Hon. Henry, 
 to Playfair, on the proceedings 
 taken to combat obstruction, 
 311-12 
 
 Christian, H.R.H. Prince, to 
 Playfair, asking him to retain 
 the post of hon. secretary of the 
 Royal Commission of the 1851 
 Exhibition, 334-35 ; on the death 
 of the Emperor Frederick, 377 
 Coleridge, Sir J. D., to Playfair, 
 on the Tichborne case, 226 
 Consort, H.R.H. the Prince, to 
 Playfair, offering to appoint him 
 a Gentleman Usher, 123-24 
 Dewar, Professor, to Playfair, in- 
 viting him to a dinner as a past- 
 president of the Chemical So- 
 ciety, 464-65 ; to Lady Playfair 
 on her husband’s death, 469-70 
 Dundonald, Lord, to Playfair, 
 sending him the second volume 
 of his Autobiography, 237-38 
 Faraday, Professor, to Playfair, 
 offering him a Professorship at 
 Toronto, 58-59 ; acknowledging j 
 the receipt of a box of the new ! 
 matches, 165-66 ; undertaking to | 
 act as a reference in connection | 
 
 Letters ( continued ) : — 
 
 with his candidature for the 
 Chair of Chemistry at Edin- 
 burgh, 176 
 
 Fawcett, Professor, to Playfair, on 
 the election of Liberal leader in 
 the Commons, 231-32 
 Frankland, Professor (Sir Edward), 
 to Playfair, testifying to the 
 latter’s competence for the Chair 
 of Chemistry at Edinburgh, 
 175-76 
 
 Gladstone, Mr, to Playfair, on the 
 latter’s services as Chairman and 
 Deputy-Speaker, 295-96 ; on his 
 resignation of the post, 308-9 ; 
 announcing his successor, 309 ; 
 on making Professor Owen a 
 K.C.B., 329 ; on Playfair’s 
 
 address “ On Industrial Com- 
 petition and Commercial Free- 
 dom,” 369-70 ; explaining why 
 he is not asked to join the Cabi- 
 net, and offering to nominate 
 him for a peerage, 385-86 ; 
 offering him the post of a Lord- 
 in-Waiting to the Queen, 392-93 
 Graham, Professor, to Playfair, on 
 the latter’s intention to study 
 under Liebig, 45-46 
 Granville, Earl, to Playfair, oh the 
 election of Liberal leader in the 
 Commons, 229, 230-31, 232 
 Greeley, Isabel, to Playfair, en- 
 closing letter from Edith 
 Thomas, 374-75 
 
 Grey, Colonel, to Playfair, on the 
 Great Exhibition, 126, 128-30; 
 on the organisation of a system 
 of technical education, 137-38 ; 
 on the Report of the Exhibition 
 Commissioners, 139 ; sending 
 portraits of the Royal children, 
 146 ; on the proposed School of 
 Practical Science, 146-47; on the 
 arrangements for the Prince 
 Consort’s visit to Birmingham, 
 147-48; on the report of H.R.H. ’s 
 speech, 148 : on the creation of 
 an order of merit for men of 
 science, 164-65 ; on the site for 
 the Scottish Memorial of the 
 Prince Consort, 202, 203 
 Hartington, Marquis of (Duke of 
 Devonshire), to Playfair, on the 
 halfpenny card postage, 223 
 Knollys, Sir Francis, to Playfair, 
 asking his assistance in connec- 
 tion with the proposed Imperial 
 Institute, 449-50 
 
INDEX. 
 
 477 
 
 Letters ( continued ) : — 
 
 Liebig, Baron von, to Playfair, on 
 the translation of ‘Agricultural 
 Chemistry,’ 46-51, 89, 90 ; on 
 the writer’s work in connection 
 with agriculture, 167-68, 169-70 
 
 Macdonald, Mrs, to Mrs Playfair, 
 mother of Lyon, 26-27 
 
 McKenzie, The Hon. A., Canadian 
 Premier, to Playfair, on the Paris 
 Exhibition (1878), and on Fenian 
 raids, 261 
 
 Murchison, Sir Roderick, to Play- 
 fair, on the foundation of a 
 Geological Chair in Edinburgh 
 University, 222 
 
 Napier, Admiral Sir Charles, to 
 Playfair, on iron vessels of war, 
 166 
 
 Northcote, Sir Stafford (Earl of 
 Iddesleigh), to Playfair, on the 
 latter’s resignation of the Chair- 
 manship, 296 
 
 Otway, Sir Arthur, to Playfair, 
 congratulating him on “the 
 evident sense of the House,” 
 310 
 
 O’Reilly, Mr John Boyle, to Play- 
 fair, acknowledging the latter’s 
 support of his request for per- 
 mission to visit Canada and 
 Great Britain, 326-27 
 
 Owen, Professor, to Playfair, on 
 the proposal that the writer 
 should be made a K.C.B., 
 327-28 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, to Playfair, 
 inviting him to Drayton Manor, 
 80-81 ; to the Prince Consort, on 
 the Irish famine, 87 ; to Playfair, 
 on the Irish potato famine, 99- 
 100, 108 
 
 Phipps, Sir Charles, to Playfair, 
 on the disposal of the Great 
 Exhibition surplus, 135-36 ; re- 
 questing Playfair to withdraw 
 his resignation as Gentleman 
 Usher, 177 ; on the death of the 
 Prince Consort, 189 
 
 Playfair, Lyon, to his father (at 
 the age of six), 25-26 ; to Pro- 
 fessor Dewar, concerning Joule, 
 73 ' 75 » t0 Dean Buckland, on 
 the offer of a Canadian pro- 
 fessorship, 84-86 ; to James 
 Young, suggesting the manufac- 
 ture of petroleum, 102 ; to 
 Colonel Grey, on the Great 
 Exhibition, 127-28; to Sir H. 
 de la Beche, on the employment 
 
 Letters ( continued ) : — 
 
 of the Great Exhibition surplus, 
 1:34-35 ; to Professor Frankland, 
 inviting a testimonial, 174-75 > 
 to Colonel Grey, resigning his 
 post as Gentleman Usher, 177 ; 
 to the same, on scientific in- 
 struction for the Prince of 
 Wales, 200-1 ; to his daughter 
 Jessie (Mrs Macgregor Stewart), 
 on his voyage to America, 251- 
 52 ; to the same, on his experi- 
 ences in Canada, 252-54 ; to 
 Mrs Oakes, on his reception in 
 the United States, 254-55 ; to 
 his son, on his visit to the State 
 Lunatic Asylum near Washing- 
 ton and to a negro camp for 
 worship, 255-57 ; to his daughter 
 Jessie, on his visit to Lafayette 
 College, 257-58 ; to the same, on 
 the death of his son’s wife, and 
 on the Ladies’ College at Pough- 
 keepsie, 258-59 ; to the same, on 
 a dinner at Dean Stanley’s, 262 ; 
 to Miss Edith Russell and her 
 family, on a visit to Liverpool, 
 262-63 ; to the same, on a visit 
 to Mr (Sir Mountstuart) Grant- 
 / Duff, 263 ; to the same, on the 
 feeling against Russia in 1878, 
 264 ; to the same, on his engage- 
 ments as a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, 264-65 ; to the same, on 
 the danger of war with Russia, 
 
 265- 66 ; to the same, on the 
 Manchester Water Supply Bill, 
 
 266- 67, 267-68, 270-71 ; to the 
 same, on a visit to Ramsgate, 
 268-70 ; to the same, on an 
 invitation to be Vice-President 
 of a society for promoting 
 falconry, on the Church of 
 England service, etc., 271-73 ; 
 to the same, on a visit to Sir 
 John and Lady Lubbock, etc., 
 273-74 ; to the same, on inter- 
 course with the Prince of Wales 
 in Paris, 274-75 » t° the same, 
 on the International Exhibition 
 of 1878, 275, 275-76 ; to the 
 same, on talks with the Crown 
 Princess of Germany (the Em- 
 press Frederick) and George 
 Eliot, 276 ; to the same, on a 
 trip to Antwerp, 276-77 ; to the 
 same, on an excursion in the 
 Hartz Mountains, 277-78, 278- 
 80 ; to the same, on a visit to 
 Sir Joseph and Lady Hooker, 
 
4 7$ MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Letters {continued )'. — 
 
 280 ; to the same, on meeting 
 the King of Bonny and the 
 black Bishop of Hayti at Dean 
 Stanley’s, 280-81 ; to the same, 
 on a visit to Mr Goschen, a 
 dinner with medical men, etc., 
 282 ; to Miss Alice Russell, on 
 the voyage back to England 
 (1878), 282-83; to his wife, on 
 his prospects of re-election for 
 Edinburgh and St. Andrews 
 Universities, 286-87, 287. 288- 
 289 ; to the same, on an evening 
 with St. Andrews students, 287- 
 88 ; to the same, on a visit to 
 Lord and Lady Rosebery at 
 Dalmeny, 289-90 ; to Mr Speaker 
 Brand, enclosing a memorandum 
 defending his measures against 
 obstruction, 303 ; to Mr Chaplin, 
 on “ the general sense of the 
 House ” as to the existence 
 of obstruction, 310-n ; to his 
 wife, on obstruction and the 
 probable close of the session, 
 3 I 3. 313-14. 3i4. 314-15. 315-16, 
 316, 316-17 ; to the same, on a 
 visit to Walmer Castle, 317 ; to 
 S. H. Russell, Esq., on the pro- 
 bable destiny of the British in 
 Africa, 318 ; to the same, on 
 Northcote’s budget, ib. ; to Miss 
 Alice Russell, on his having 
 been beset by “ confidence ” 
 men, 319 ; to S. H. Russell, Esq., 
 on obstruction and the state of 
 Ireland, 319-20 ; to the same, on 
 the " Skirmishing Fund,” 321 ; 
 to Mrs Russell, in view of 
 Christmas, 322 ; to Mr Glad- 
 stone, on the Bill to create a 
 Minister for Scotland, 335-37 ; 
 to S. H. Russell, Esq,, announc- 
 ing his retirement from his con- 
 stituency, 337-38 ; to his son, on 
 his change of constituency, 351 ; 
 to S. H. Russell, Esq., on the 
 prospect of the Liberals at the 
 end of 1885, 352 ; to the same, 
 on his being appointed Vice- 
 President of the Council, 352- 
 53 ; to Mr and Mrs Russell, on 
 returning to England, 353 ; to 
 his sister-in-law, relating a meet- 
 ing with Rustem Pasha and Sir 
 Edward Bradford, 374 ; to Mr 
 Gladstone, in reply to the offer 
 to nominate him for a peerage, 
 386-87 ; to Sir Henry Ponsonby, 
 
 Letters {continued ) : — 
 
 expressing his gratitude to the 
 Queen for the honour of a 
 peerage, 387 ; to his son, on the 
 disaster at the Mauritius, 389- 
 90 ; to the same, describing his 
 re-election for South Leeds, 
 390-91 ; to Sir Lambert Play- 
 fair, giving an instance of Mr 
 Gladstone’s physical hardihood, 
 392 ; to his wife, describing a 
 dinner with the Queen and 
 service in the Mausoleum, 393- 
 94; to the same, recounting a 
 Napoleonic story, 394-95 ; to 
 the same, on another dinner 
 with the Queen, 395 ; to his son, 
 explaining why he declined to 
 go to Ottawa as Imperial repre- 
 sentative, 396 ; to the Hon. 
 Mrs R. M. Stewart, on the 
 discovery that he had never 
 been knighted, 402 ; to his son, 
 on his recent visit to Canada, 
 402-3 ; to S. H. Russell, Esq., on 
 the movement for founding the 
 Imperial Institute, 409-10 ; to 
 Mr and Mrs Russell, on leaving 
 America after his annual visit, 
 
 410 ; to Mrs Russell, from 
 Sandringham, 410-11 ; to S'. H. 
 Russell, Esq., on his article on 
 American finance ; to the same 
 on his projected visit to Nahant, 
 
 41 1 ; to Mr and Mrs Russell, 
 describing his taking his seat in 
 the House of Lords, 412-13 ; to 
 Mrs Russell, on his official work ; 
 to S. H. Russell, Esq., on a 
 dinner at Windsor Castle, 413 ; 
 to Mrs Russell, on his being 
 made a G.C.B., 414 ; to the Times, 
 suggesting the completion of 
 the South Kensington Museum, 
 454-55 • f° Sir Lambert Play- 
 fair, on the latter’s leaving 
 Algiers, 461-62 ; to his son, on 
 receiving the Harben Gold 
 Medal, 462-63 ; to Dr W. R. 
 Smith, acknowledging the Medal, 
 463-64 ; to Mrs Gladstone, on 
 Mr Gladstone’s death, 466 
 
 Plunket, Hon. David, to Playfair, 
 on “Teaching Universities and 
 Examining Boards,” 223-24 
 
 Ponsonby, Sir Henry, to Playfair, 
 acknowledging his letter of 
 thanks to the Queen for the 
 honour of a peerage, 387 
 
 Rathbone, Mr W., to Playfair, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 479 
 
 Letters { continued ) — 
 
 announcing the foundation of 
 Playfair Scholarships for Girls, 
 260 
 
 Rosebery, Earl of, to Playfair, 
 proposing to nominate him for 
 a G.C.B., 401 ; to Lady Play- 
 fair, on her husband’s death, 469 
 Sandford, Sir Francis, to Playfair, 
 requesting him to superintend 
 the Jury Department of the 
 International Exhibition of 
 1862, 199 
 
 Simon, Sir John, to Playfair, on 
 their work for the Public Health, 
 461 
 
 Thomas, Edith, to Playfair, thank- 
 ing him for the gift of a ring, 
 375 
 
 Wales, H.R.H. the Prince of, to 
 Playfair, on his resignation as 
 honorary secretary of the Royal 
 Commission of 1851, 445 ; to 
 Lady Playfair on her husband’s 
 death, 468-69 
 
 Wolverton, Lord, to Playfair, on 
 the election of Liberal leader in 
 the Commons, 230 
 Liberalism, Playfair’s, 206-7, 2 ^4 
 Liebig, Baron von, Playfair studies 
 chemistry under, 42-43 ; his work 
 on Agricultural Chemistry trans- 
 lated by Playfair, 43 ; visits 
 England, 49, 50 ; makes a tour 
 through England and Scotland, 
 69-71 ; on phosphorus disease 
 among match-makers, 166 
 Lincoln, Lord (afterwards Duke of 
 Newcastle), 59, 64, 81 
 Lindley, Professor, 98 
 Liverpool, Playfair and the water 
 supply of, 107 
 
 Livingstone, David, a fellow-student 
 of Playfair’s, 36-37 
 Livingstone, Mrs David, 37 
 Lockyer, Professor Sir Norman, 94 ; 
 draws up the scheme of scholar- 
 ships adopted by the Royal Com- 
 missioners of the 1851 Exhibition, 
 442 
 
 Logan, Sir William, and the Geo- 
 logical Survey of Canada, 345-46 
 London University, the Imperial 
 Institute the future home of the, 
 452 
 
 Longfellow and Playfair, 240 
 Lord-in-Waiting to the Queen, Play- 
 fair appointed a, 392 ; his duties 
 as, 393-95 1 end of his term of 
 office as, 401 
 
 Lome, Marquis of, adjudicates in the 
 Statist competition, 457 
 
 Louis Napoleon and the Royal Com- 
 missioners of the 1851 Exhibition, 
 122 
 
 Lowe, Robert (Lord Sherbrooke), and 
 the Cattle Plague Commission, 
 192-93 ; and the Irish University 
 question, 217 
 
 Lunatic Asylum, State, near Washing- 
 ton, Playfair’s visit to, 244-45 
 
 Lyell, Sir Charles, accidental meeting 
 with Playfair, 35-36 ; 95 
 
 Lyell, Sir Leonard and Lady, and 
 Playfair, 32, 348 
 
 Lyon, Margaret, grandmother of 
 Playfair, 3-4, 16 
 
 Lyon, Rev. Dr, uncle of Playfair, 31 
 
 M. 
 
 Macdonald, Mrs, aunt of Playfair, 
 takes charge of him and his 
 brother, 16; her doubts concerning 
 Balaam’s ass, 16-17 ; her estimate 
 of Playfair’s character as a child, 26 
 Macdonald, Sir John, and Playfair, 
 249 
 
 Macvicar, Rev Dr, and his “popular 
 lectures,’’ 22-23 
 
 McKenzie, the Hon. A., Canadian 
 Prime Minister, and Playfair, 249 
 Manchester, Intellectual society in 
 when Playfair lived there, 73-75 
 
 Water Supply (Thirlmere) 
 
 Bill, Playfair and the, 246, 266-68, 
 270-71, 272-73, 274 
 
 Margarine, Playfair’s share in legal- 
 ising the sale of, 372 
 Medical Reform Bill, Playfair 
 pilots the, 343, 350 
 Memoranda by 
 
 Consort, H.R.H. the Prince, on 
 the disposal of the Great Exhi- 
 bition surplus, 131-133 
 Owen, Professor, on his claims to 
 be made a K.C.B., 328-29 
 Peel, Sir Robert, and Lord Lincoln, 
 conditionally undertaking to give 
 Playfair a post at the Museum 
 of Practical Geology, 81 
 Playfair, Lyon, defending his 
 measures against obstruction, 
 303-6 ; on the Aged Poor Com- 
 mission, 399-400 ; to Mr Bayard 
 on the Venezuelan question, 
 417 ; to Prince Christian on the 
 policy and reorganisation of 
 the Board of Management of 
 
480 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 the Royal Commission of the 
 1851 Exhibition, 446-48 ; on the 
 proposed Imperial Institute, 
 45°"5 I 
 
 “ M. E. O.” brotherhood, The, 39 
 Mercer, Mr, of the Oakenshaw Works, 
 
 Middle Ages, Playfair on the filthy 
 habits of people in the, 434 
 Midland Institute, Birmingham, Play- 
 fair’s presidential address to the, 
 212 
 
 Millington ,J ean Ann .Playfair’s second 
 wife, 164 ; death of, 235 
 Minister for Scotland, Playfair’s views 
 as to the creation of a, 335-37 
 Mitscherlich, discoverer of isom- 
 erism, and Playfair, 44-45 
 Monarchy, Playfair on the cost of, 
 382 
 
 Monroe doctrine, Playfair on the, 417 
 Montreal, Playfair’s reception at, 247 
 Murchison, Sir Roderick, founds a 
 Chair of Geology in Edinburgh 
 University, 222 
 
 Museum of PracticalGeology, develop- 
 ment of, under Sir H. de la Beche, 
 93 
 
 N. 
 
 Nahant, near Boston, U.S.A., Play- 
 fair’s first visit to, 239 ; description 
 of, 405-6 ; the distinguished men 
 whom Playfair met at, 406 
 Napoleon III. and the sanitary con- 
 dition of Paris, 162 
 Napoleonic story, A, 395 
 Negro camp for worship, Playfair’s 
 visit to, 256-57 
 
 Northcote, Sir Stafford (first Earl of 
 Iddesleigh), and Playfair, 293, 
 296, 347 
 
 Norton, The Hon. Caroline, 157-58 
 
 O. 
 
 Oakenshaw Works, Clitheroe, attacked 
 by labour rioters, 54-56 
 
 Oakes, James, brother-in-law of Play- 
 fair, 38 
 
 Oakes, Margaret, Playfair’s first wife, 
 101 ; death of, 164 (footnote) 
 
 Oakes, Mr, father-in-law of Playfair, 
 61-62 
 
 Obstruction, Irish, Playfair and, 291- 
 97, 302-10, 314-17 
 
 Oersted, the founder of electro- 
 magnetism, 101 
 
 O’Reilly, Mr John Boyle, and Playfair, 
 326-27 
 
 Owen, Sir Richard, 64 ; bestowal of 
 a knighthood upon, 327-29 
 
 P. 
 
 Palmerston, Lord, and the Prince 
 Consort’s English, 158 ; and 
 Wheatstone’s cipher, 159 
 Parkes, Dr, and the Cattle Plague 
 Commission, 192 
 
 Peel, Captain, son-in-law r of Playfair, 
 101 
 
 Peel, Sir Robert, invites Playfair to 
 Drayton Manor, and dissuades him 
 from going to Canada, 59-60 ; 
 becomes his friend, 60-61 ; his 
 interest in the agricultural revival, 
 68-69 1 among the philosophers, 
 72-73 ; his memorandum under- 
 taking to give Playfair the rever- 
 sion of Mr Phillips’s appointment, 
 81 ; his desire to procure Playfair’s 
 services for the public, 84 ; his 
 high estimate of Playfair, 86-87 » 
 commissions Playfair and others 
 to report on the Irish potato 
 famine, 98 ; his prompt action, 99- 
 100 ; induces Playfair to become a 
 Special Commissioner of the Great 
 Exhibition, 113; is consulted by 
 Playfair in serious difficulties, 114 
 Peerage, Playfair raised to the, 386- 
 
 388 
 
 Pepper, Professor, and . Playfair’s 
 speech at the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence Centenary, 361 
 Peto, Sir Morton, and the Great 
 Exhibition, 117 
 
 Petroleum, the “salt of the earth” 
 of the Bible, 38 
 
 Industry, The, due to 
 
 Playfair’s suggestion, 102-3 
 Phillips, Mr, of the Museum of 
 Practical Geology, 81-82, 83 
 Playfair, Colonel Sir Lambert, second 
 brother of Lyon, 23 
 Playfair, Ethel (the Hon. Mrs Bloom- 
 field), daughter of Lyon, 164 
 Playfair, George, elder brother of 
 Lyon, 23, 33, 34 
 
 Playfair, George, father of Lyon, 4,16; 
 his relations with his son, 20-22 ; 
 41-42 
 
 Playfair, James, uncle of Lyon, 16, 
 19-20, 34 
 
 Playfair, Janet (nee Ross), mother of 
 Lyon, 22, 24, 33 
 
INDEX. 
 
 481 
 
 Playfair, Jessie (Hon. Mrs Macgregor 
 Stewart), daughter of Lyon, 101 
 
 Playfair, Lady (Miss Edith Russell), 
 makes Playfair’s acquaintance in 
 1875, 239 ; her marriage to him, 
 247, 262 ; her sympathy with all 
 his enthusiasms and interests, 284 ; 
 receives a silver blotting case and 
 envelope case from the electors 
 of South Leeds, 388, 391, 405, 
 407, 412, 462, 466; receives letters 
 of condolence from the Prince of 
 Wales, Lord Rosebery, and Pro- 
 fessor Dewar on her husband’s 
 death, 468-70 
 
 Playfair, Lyon, first Lord Playfair, 
 his youth spent at St. Andrews, 
 4-5 ; his services to his generation, 
 6 ; his work as a sanitary re- 
 former, 7-8 ; as an educationist ; 
 his association with Prince Albert, 
 
 8 ; his work as an economist, 9- 
 10 ; as a politician, 10 ; his 
 personal characteristics, 10-11 ; 
 named after his grandmother, nee 
 Lyon ; birth of, at Chunar, Ben- 
 gal ; sent to St. Andrews to be 
 brought up by Mrs Macdonald, 
 16; loses his communion “token,” 
 19-20 ; makes the acquaintance of 
 his father, 21 ; his governesses, 
 28-29 ; attends the parish school, 
 29 ; is sent to the grammar-school 
 of St. Andrews, 30 ; spends his 
 holidays with the Rev. Dr Lyon 
 at Glamis, 31 ; enters St. Andrews 
 University, 32 ; his boyish experi- 
 ments in chemistry, 33 ; enters 
 his uncle James’s office in Glas- 
 gow ; his stratagem for frightening 
 off marauders, 34 ; makes the 
 acquaintance of Sir Charles and 
 Lady Lyell, 35-36; studies medi- 
 cine at the Andersonian College, 
 Glasgow, 36; has for fellow- 
 students David Livingstone and 
 James Young, 36-38 ; continues 
 his studies at Edinburgh Univer- 
 sity, 38; joins the “M. E. O.” 
 brotherhood, 39 ; abandons the 
 study of medicine and voyages to 
 Calcutta, 40-41 ; enters a mercan- 
 tile office there, 41 ; returns and 
 studies under Professor Graham 
 in London, 42 ; becomes a favour- 
 ite pupil of Liebig at Giessen ; is 
 made Doctor of Philosophy, and 
 undertakes the translation of 
 Liebig’s work on agricultural 
 chemistry, 42-43 ; is appointed 
 
 F 
 
 Playfair, Lyon (< continued ) : — 
 
 chemical manager of print works 
 at Clitheroe, 43-44 ; visits Berlin, 
 44 ; his later recollections of great 
 chemists, 51-52 ; parleys with 
 labour rioters at Clitheroe, and 
 becomes their hostage, 55-56 ; 
 appointed Honorary Professor of 
 Chemistry at Manchester ; re- 
 signs his Clitheroe appointment, 
 56 ; comes into contact with Dr 
 Dalton, 57 ; receives from Fara- 
 day an offer of the Professorship 
 of Chemistry at Toronto, 58-59 ; 
 is invited to Drayton Manor by 
 Peel and dissuaded from accept- 
 ing the offer, 59-60, 80-81 ; refuses 
 to accept from Peel a memor- 
 andum undertaking to give him a 
 suitable post, 60 ; becomes a 
 frequent visitor of Peel’s, 61 ; co- 
 operates with Professor Bunsen 
 in an inquiry into the chemical 
 operation of blast furnaces for the 
 manufacture of iron, 61-62 ; is 
 nominated a member of the Royal 
 Commission on the Health of 
 Towns, 64-66, 88-89 ; an unsuc- 
 cessful candidate for the Chair 
 of Chemistry at Edinburgh, 66-67; 
 publishes a paper “On Sleep,” 
 
 67 ; visits Earl Spencer at Althorp, 
 and has a midnight adventure, 
 
 68 ; meets Dr Buckland at Dray- 
 ton Manor, 69 ; makes an excur- 
 sion through England and Scot- 
 land with Liebig and others, 69- 
 72 ; visits Mr Crosse, and declares 
 an "electrical production” to be 
 a woodlouse, 70-71 ; is appointed 
 Chemist to the Geological Survey, 
 and meets his future chiefs at 
 Drayton Manor, 72 ; Peel’s high 
 estimate of, 86-87 I receives a visit 
 from Sir James Clark, 91-92 ; 
 prosecutes his chemical re- 
 searches, 92-93 ; his distinguished 
 pupils, 93 ; discovers Buckingham 
 Palace to be in an insanitary 
 condition, 94 ; prosecutes inquiries 
 into the best coals for steam 
 navigation, the causes of accidents 
 in mines, and the potato famine 
 in Ireland, 95-101 ; marries Miss 
 Margaret Oakes, 101 ; initiates 
 the petroleum industries, 102-3 I 
 assists the Board of Plealth to 
 stay the cholera ; is elected F.R.S., 
 103 ; is enrolled a special con- 
 stable in the Chartist panic, 104 ; 
 
482 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Playfair, Lyon ( continued ) : — 
 
 goes to Paris as a special corre- 
 spondent during the revolution 
 (1848), 105-6; meets Louis Blanc, 
 106 ; appointed a Special Com- 
 missioner and member of the 
 Executive of the Great Exhibi- 
 tion, 112-14 ; persuades Sir Henry 
 Cole not to withdraw from the 
 enterprise, 115 ; draws up a new 
 classification for the Exhibition, 
 
 1 16; organises the juries; calls 
 the Queen’s attention to one of 
 the exhibits, 121 ; is entertained by 
 Louis Napoleon at St. Cloud, 122 ; 
 is brought into frequent contact 
 with the Royal children ; accepts 
 a C.B., but declines the Legion 
 of Honour, 123 ; is appointed a 
 Gentleman Usher in the Prince 
 Consort’s household, 123-24 ; ad- 
 vises the Prince Consort as to the 
 employment of the Exhibition 
 surplus, 136 ; drafts the Commis- 
 sioners’ Report, 139 ; is appointed 
 secretary of the Science and Art 
 Department, 142 ; organises the 
 Royal College of Science, 143 ; is 
 elected a member of the Athen- 
 aeum Club, 144 ; his association 
 with the Prince Consort, 145-48 ; 
 travels on the Continent to inquire 
 into technical instruction, 149 ; 
 arranges the Food Collection for 
 the South Kensington Museum, 
 150; negotiates the establishment 
 of the Edinburgh Museum, 151 ; 
 begins a crusade in favour of 
 technical education, 152 ; is pre- 
 sent at the Duke of Wellington’s 
 funeral, 153-54 1 his resemblance 
 to Sir Charles Wheatstone, 154- 
 55 ; his intercourse with Babbage, 
 I 55'5^ > urges the Prince Consort 
 to bestow honours on men of 
 science, 156 ; his friendship with 
 Lord and Lady Ashburton, 157 ; 
 meets the Hon. Caroline Norton, 
 158 ; is present at a Cabinet 
 banquet at Lord Granville’s, and 
 explains Wheatstone’s symmetri- I 
 cal cipher, 1 58-59 ; suggests ap- | 
 plications of science to the pur- 
 poses of war, 159-60 ; reports 
 against a scheme of Lord Dun- 
 donald’s for taking fortresses 
 without siege, 160-61 ; appointed 
 a commissioner of the Interna- 
 tional Exhibition of 1855, and 
 makes the acquaintance of French 
 
 Playfair, Lyon ( continued ): — 
 
 statesmen and publicists, 161-62 ; 
 his friendship with Arles Dufour ; 
 declines to stand for the Master- 
 ship of the Mint, 163 ; withdraws 
 his candidature on a later occa- 
 sion ; marries Miss Millington, 
 164 ; sends Faraday a box of the 
 new matches, 165 ; his contempt 
 for misplaced humanitarianism in 
 war, 167 ; is complimented by 
 Liebig on his lecture on agricul- 
 tural experiments, 169 ; a resume 
 of his career up to this point, 
 171-73 ; his passion for scientific 
 research, 173-74 ; again stands 
 for the Professorship of Chemistry 
 in Edinburgh University, 174 ; 
 receives a testimonial from Pro- 
 fessor Frankland, 175-76; Faraday 
 one of his references ; receives 
 the appointment, 176 ; resigns his 
 post in the Prince Consort’s 
 Household, 177-78 ; his style as a 
 scientific lecturer, 179 ; his intro- 
 ductory lecture from the Chair, 
 180 ; a peacemaker among his 
 colleagues, 181-83 ; dissuades Sir 
 James Simpson from a dangerous 
 experiment, 183 ; introduces re- 
 forms into the University, - 183 
 85 ; arbitrates between Principal 
 Brewster and Principal Forbes, 
 185-86 ; refuses to stand for the 
 post of Principal of Edinburgh 
 University, 186 ; receives the 
 Prince of Wales as a student, 187 ; 
 is commanded by the Queen to 
 place himself at the service of the 
 exiled French princes, 188 ; hears 
 the news of the Prince Consort’s 
 death, 188 ; is present at the 
 funeral, 190 ; is President of the 
 Royal Commission on Herring 
 Fisheries, 190-91 ; appoints the 
 jurors for the International Ex- 
 hibition of 1862, and receives 
 honours from foreign sovereigns, 
 191-92 ; serves on the Royal Com- 
 mission on the Cattle Plague, and 
 incurs unpopularity, 192-93 ; visits 
 Kranichstein, and helps the Prin- 
 cess Alice to re-lay the luncheon- 
 table, 193-94 ; is commanded to 
 Coburg for the unveiling of a 
 statue of the Prince Consort, 194- 
 95 ; publishes a memoir on Human 
 Food, 195 ; his intercourse with 
 Dr John Brown, the Marquis of 
 Tweeddale, and Lady Ruthven, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 483 
 
 Playfair, Lyon ( continued ) 
 
 195-96; his services to the Uni- 
 versity recognised by the Senatus 
 Academicus, 197-98 ; his plenary 
 powers in connection with the 
 International Exhibition of 1862, 
 199-200 ; gives the Prince of Wales 
 an object lesson, 201 ; his advice 
 as to the design and site for the 
 Scottish Memorial of the Prince 
 Consort, 202-3 ; bears the brunt 
 of the unpopularity of the Cattle 
 Plague Commission ; the Princess 
 Alice’s reference to him in a letter 
 to the Queen, 204 ; becomes a 
 Liberal candidate for Edinburgh 
 and St. Andrews Universities, 206 ; 
 his election; is appointed one of 
 the Commissioners of the 1851 Ex- 
 hibition, 208 ; the position he took 
 in the House of Commons, 209 ; 
 an advanced Liberal representing 
 a Tory seat, 210-n; success of 
 his first speech in the House ; the 
 founder of the post-card system ; 
 supports Forster’s Elementary 
 Education Bill, 21 1 ; asks Forster j 
 to withdraw his claims to the 
 leadership of the Liberal party 
 in the House, 212 ; delivers an 
 address at Birmingham as Presi- 
 dent of the Midland Institute, 
 212 ; alleged to be the author of 
 the Prince Consort’s speeches, 
 213 ; defends advanced education, 
 213-14 ; supports Fawcett’s Bill 
 for opening Trinity College, 
 Dublin, to Roman Catholics, 214- 
 15 ; attacks Mr Gladstone’s Irish 
 University Bill, 216-17 ; is ap- 
 pointed Postmaster-General, 217- 
 18 ; retires with the Government 
 a few months afterwards, 218 ; 
 presides over the Civil Service 
 Commission, and draws up the 
 “Playfair Scheme,” 218-19; ad- 
 vocates the appointment of a 
 Minister of Education, 220 ; op- 
 poses the abolition of vivisection, 
 220-21 ; reports upon reforms in 
 the Scotch Universities, 221 ; 
 takes part in the movement for 
 founding a Chair of Geology at 
 Edinburgh, 222; the downfall of 
 the Gladstone Government a 
 check to his political career, 224- 
 25 ; suggests evidence in the 
 Tichborne case, 226 ; his services 
 to the Liberal party on Mr Glad- 
 stone’s retirement in preventing 
 
 Playfair, Lyon ( continued ) : — 
 
 a schism, 226-33 ; his domestic 
 affections, 234-35 ; death of his 
 second wife, 235 ; effects the re- 
 habilitation of Lord Dundonald, 
 235-39 ; visits the United States, 
 and forms a friendship with the 
 Russell family, 239 ; his inter- 
 course with the celebrities of 
 Boston, 239-41 ; visits Chicago, 
 241-42 ; travels in a train which 
 narrowly escapes disaster, 243-44 ; 
 visits Washington, 244 ; goes over 
 the Lunatic Asylum, 244-45 ; ad- 
 vocates reduction of the Indian 
 salt-tax, 245-46 ; presides over the 
 Manchester Water Supply Bill 
 Committee, 246 ; acts as Chairman 
 of the Finance Committee of the 
 International Exhibition of 1878 ; 
 revisits America, and marries Miss 
 Edith Russell, 247 ; meets with a 
 cordial reception in Canada, 247- 
 50 ; his interest in and relations 
 with the United States, 250-51 ; 
 his social charm, 283 ; his mar- 
 riage with Miss Russell a new 
 epoch in his life, 284 ; his sym- 
 pathy with Mr Gladstone’s views 
 on the Eastern Question, 285 ; his 
 political views generally, 285-86 ; 
 his seat threatened, 286-90; his 
 re-election, 290; declines the office 
 of Chief Whip, and is appointed 
 Chairman and Deputy- Speaker, 
 290-91 ; has to deal with Irish 
 obstruction, 291-93 ; names the 
 leading obstructionists for suspen- 
 sion, 294 ; decides to resign at the 
 end of the session, 295 ; receives 
 tributes from Mr Gladstone, Sir 
 Stafford Northcote, and Mr 
 Speaker Brand, 295-97 > t ^ e re ' 
 action after his retirement ; is ap- 
 pointed a K.C.B., 297 ; opposes the 
 anti-vivisectionists and anti-vac- 
 cinationists, 297-99 ; remarkable 
 effect of his speech on vaccina- 
 tion, 300 ; presides over the panel 
 in connection with Grand Com- 
 mittees, 300 ; why he refused the 
 post of Chief Whip, 301-2 ; his 
 anti-obstruction measures, 302-8 ; 
 the exacting nature of his duties as 
 Chairman and Deputy-Speaker, 
 312-17 ; his loyalty when out of 
 office, 322-24 ; his support of 
 vaccination and vivisection, 324- 
 25 ; advises the Government to 
 allow Mr Boyle O’Reilly to visit 
 
484 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Playfair, Lyon {continued ) : — 
 
 his native country, 326 ; urges Mr 
 Gladstone to make Professor 
 Owen a K.C.B., 327; why he 
 never received a Cabinet appoint- 
 ment, 333 ; his acceptance of 
 Home Rule, 333-34 ; undertakes 
 the honorary secretaryship of the 
 Commission of the 1851 Exhibi- 
 tion, 334-35 ; his views as to 
 the creation of a Minister for 
 Scotland, 335-37 ; resolves upon 
 a change of constituency, 337, 
 349 ; is overwhelmed with offers, 
 and chooses South Leeds, 338 ; 1 
 his suitability for his new con- 
 stituency, 338-40 ; his brilliant 
 victory, 341 ; his connection with 
 the “ Hawarden Kite,” 342 ; ac- 
 cepts the Vice-Presidency of the : 
 Council, 343, 349 ; induces the 1 
 Queen to recognise the tercenten- 
 ary of Edinburgh University, 344- . 
 45 ; receives an LL.D. from 
 Harvard ; attends the Montreal 
 meeting of the British Asso- 
 ciation, 345 ; suggests the first 
 honorary recognition of Colonial 
 science, 345-46 ; presides over the 
 British Association at Aberdeen ; 
 visits the Queen at Balmoral, 
 and is presented with a copy of 
 Her Majesty’s works on her High- 
 land home, 347 ; visits Glamis j 
 Castle, 348 ; carries through a 
 Bill for the reform of the medi- ; 
 cal profession ; is re-elected for ! 
 South Leeds, 350 ; Mr Gladstone’s 
 urgent desire that he should take 
 office, 353 ; his work in connection 
 with the Queen’s Jubilee, 354; 
 declines to preside over a com- 
 mittee on naval cutlasses, 355 ; 
 his impressions of the Jubilee 
 Service, 355-57 ; meets the King 
 and Queen of Portugal ; receives 
 a Jubilee Medal, 359 ; represents 
 England at the centenary celebra- 
 tion of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, 359-64 ; presents to 
 President Cleveland the English 
 memorial in favour of a treaty of 
 arbitration between England and 
 America, 364-67 ; opposes Fair 
 Trade, 367-71 ; his forecast of the 
 Presidential Election of 1892, 371- 
 72 ; supports the legalisation of 
 the sale of margarine, 372 ; gives 
 a finger-ring to a deaf, dumb, 
 and blind child at Boston, who 
 
 Playfair, Lyon {continued ) : — 
 
 recognises him by touch a year 
 afterwards, 374-75 ; participates 
 in the opening of the Inter- 
 national Exhibition at Glasgow 
 (1888), and is taken for a State 
 prisoner, 376-77 ; is present at a 
 gathering of foreign missionaries 
 at Dollis Hill, 377-78 ; his recol- 
 lections of the Emperor Frederick 
 of Germany, 378 ; meets the 
 widowed Empress at Sandring- 
 ham, 378-79 ; resigns the honorary 
 secretaryship of the Royal Com- 
 mission of the 1851 Exhibition, 
 and receives a presentation of 
 plate from the Prince of Wales, 
 379-81 ; supports the proposal to 
 increase the grant to the Prince, 
 and wins over his constituents, 
 381-83 ; is again elected for South 
 Leeds, 384, 390-91 ; is offered a 
 peerage, and created Baron Play- 
 fair of St. Andrews, 385-88 ; re- 
 ceives the congratulations of his 
 South Leeds constituents, 388 ; is 
 appointed a Lord -in- Waiting to 
 the Queen, 392 ; his life at 
 Windsor Castle, 393-96 ; is obliged 
 to decline several appointments, 
 396 ; secures a place of burial 
 for himself and his family at St. 
 Andrews, 396-97, 412 ; succeeds 
 Lord Aberdare as Chairman of 
 the Aged Poor Commission, and 
 revises the report, 397-400 ; re- 
 ceives the Grand Cross of the 
 Bath, 400-1, 414; is found never 
 to have been knighted, 402 ; pays 
 another visit to Boston and 
 Canada, 402-4 ; his visits to 
 Nahant, 405-6 ; his close relations 
 with the United States, 406-7 ; 
 compares John Bull with Brother 
 Jonathan, 407; his advocacy of 
 arbitration between the two 
 nations, 408-9 ; his affection for 
 the Russells, 409-14 ; his inter- 
 vention in the Venezuelan ques- 
 tion, 415-16; hands to the Ameri- 
 can Ambassador a memorandum 
 as a suggested basis of agreement, 
 416-18 ; his correspondence with 
 the ambassador and with Mr 
 Chamberlain, 419-25; his share 
 in the agreement ultimately 
 reached, 426 ; Professor Crum- 
 Brown’s survey of his career as 
 a man of science, 428-30 ; Sir 
 Edward Frankland's testimony to 
 
INDEX. 
 
 485 
 
 Playfair, Lyon {continued ) : — 
 
 the thoroughness of his investiga- 
 tions into the best coal for the 
 Royal Navy, 430-31 ; extracts from 
 his ‘Subjects of Social Welfare,’ 
 431-40; his work as a member of 
 the Royal Commission of the 
 1851 Exhibition reviewed, 440-52 ; 
 crowns his work by suggesting 
 the completion of the South 
 Kensington Museum, 453-56 ; with 
 Lord Lome, adjudicates in the 
 Statist competition, 457-58 ; his 
 speech at the Jubilee banquet of 
 the Cobden Club, 458-60 ; his 
 gradual withdrawal from his ap- 
 pointments, 460 ; failure of his 
 health, 462 ; receives the Harben 
 Gold Medal from the Royal 
 Institute of Public Health, 463 ; 
 winters at Torquay, and returns 
 to town for a dinner to the past- 
 presidents of the Chemical So- 
 ciety, 464-65 ; his illness, 465 ; is 
 deeply affected by Mr Gladstone’s 
 death, 465-66 ; his death ; the 
 depth of his family affections, 
 467 ; his generosity, 468 ; is hon- 
 oured with a public funeral at St. 
 Andrews, 470 
 
 Playfair, Major George (second Lord 
 Playfair), son of Lyon, 101 
 Playfair, Octavius, fourth brother of 
 Lyon, 23 
 
 Playfair, Principal, grandfather of 
 Lyon, 3-4, 15-16 
 
 Playfair, Professor, a kinsman of Lyon, 
 anecdotes of, 14-15 
 Playfair, Sir Hugh, “the Major,” 
 uncle of Lyon, 4, 16 ; the beautifier 
 of St. Andrews and preserver of 
 the links, 17-19 
 
 Playfair, William, third brother of 
 Lyon, 23 
 
 Playfair, William, uncle of Lyon, 4, 16 
 “ Playfair Scheme,” The, 219 
 Playfair Scholarships, foundation of, 
 260 
 
 Playfairs, The, 3-4, 12-16, 23-24 
 Playfere, old form of the name Play- 
 fair, 12 
 
 Political Economist, Playfair as a, 
 440 
 
 Portugal, Playfair meets the King and 
 Queen of, 359 
 
 Postmaster-General, Playfair’s ap- 
 pointment as, 217-18, 224-25 
 Potato famine in Ireland, Playfair’s 
 report on the, 98-100 
 Potatoes as a diet, 100-1 
 
 Poughkeepsie Ladies’ College, Play- 
 fair’s visit to, 259 
 
 Primrose Works, Clitheroe, Playfair 
 appointed chemical manager of, 
 43. 53-56 
 
 Public Health, Playfair on the, 433 
 
 Q* 
 
 Queen Victoria (see Victoria, Her 
 Majesty Queen) 
 
 R. 
 
 Ramsay, Mrs, mother of Sir Andrew 
 Ramsay, 35 
 
 Ramsay, Sir Andrew, and Playfair, 
 9L 93 
 
 Rathbone, Mr W., founds Playfair 
 Scholarships, 260 
 
 Rayleigh, Lord, and the British 
 Association, 345, 347 
 Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, and the 
 International Exhibition of 1862, 
 191 
 
 Rosebery, Countess of, 376 
 Rosebery, Earl of, and Playfair, 289, 
 376 ; recommends Playfair for the 
 Grand Cross of the Bath, 401 ; 
 nominates him to adjudicate in the 
 Statist competition, 457 ; condoles 
 with Lady Playfair on her hus- 
 band’s death, 469 
 
 Royal Agricultural Society, The, and 
 Playfair, 82-83 
 
 Royal Albert Hall Committee, Play- 
 fair Vice-President of the, 449 
 Royal College of Science, 141, 143 
 Royal Commission of the 1851 Exhi- 
 bition, Playfair a member of, 208, 
 441 ; honorary secretary of, 334-35, 
 441 ; his resignation of the honorary 
 secretaryship of, 379-81 ; results of 
 his administration, 380-81, 441 ; 
 inquiry into the affairs of, by a 
 committee, 441 ; adoption of a 
 scheme of science scholarships by, 
 442-49 ; connection of with the 
 Imperial Institute, 449-52 (see also 
 Great Exhibition) 
 
 Royal Family, Children of the, and 
 Playfair, 122, 123, 357 
 Royal Grants, Playfair’s defence of, 
 382 
 
 Roze, Heinrich, and Playfair, 44-45 
 Rucker, Professor, unsuccessful can- 
 didature of for North Leeds in 
 1885, 341 
 
 Russell, Miss Edith ( sec Playfair, Lady) 
 Russell, Mr S. H. (father-in-law of 
 Playfair), meets him at The 
 
486 
 
 MEMOIRS OF LYON PLAYFAIR. 
 
 Hague ; is visited by him at Nahant 
 (near Boston), 239 ; Playfair’s later 
 visits to, 405, et passim 
 Rustem Pasha, Turkish Ambassador, 
 attacked by a bear, 374 
 Ruthven, Lady, 196 
 
 S. 
 
 Sabbatarianism at Glasgow in Play- 
 fair’s youth, 20 
 
 St. Andrews seventy years ago, 1-2 ; 
 a favourite place of residence for 
 retired officers and East Indian 
 officials, 2 ; the abode of the Play- 
 fairs, 3-4 ; Lyon Playfair’s con- 
 nection with, 4-5, 16 ; beautified 
 by Sir Hugh Playfair, 17-19 ; 
 Playfair created Baron of, 387-88 ; 
 secures a family burial place at, 
 396-97 ; his burial at, 470 
 St. Andrews Grammar School, Play- 
 fair a pupil in, 30 ; “ king ” of, 
 3 ° 
 
 St. Andrews University, its primacy 
 among Scottish universities, 2 ; 
 Playfair a student at, 32-33 ; 
 secures representation in Parlia- 
 ment, conjointly with Edinburgh 
 University, 206, 209 ; the Senatus 
 Academicus of attends Playfair’s 
 funeral, 470 ( see also Edinburgh 
 University) 
 
 Sandwich Islands, Playfair and the 
 Queen of the, 358 
 
 Sanitary Reform, Playfair’s connec- 
 tion with, 64-66, 87-88, 103, 432-35, 
 460-61, 463-64 
 
 Science and Art Department, forma- 
 tion of the, 141-42, 149-50 
 Science, Playfair’s position and career 
 as a man of, 427-40 ( see also Tech- 
 nical and Scientific Education) 
 Scotch Universities Commission, 
 Playfair and the, 221 
 Sherbrooke, Lord ( see Lowe, Robert) 
 Simon, Sir John, and the Institute of 
 Public Health, 460-61 
 Simpson, Sir James, 181, 182-83, 186 
 “ Sleep,” Playfair’s paper on, 67 
 Smith, Dr Angus, 56, 65 
 Smith, Dr W. R., President of the 
 Royal Institute of Public Health, 
 
 463 
 
 South Kensington Museum, 141 ; 
 origin of, 142-43, 150 ; completion 
 of suggested by Playfair, 454 ; 
 foundation-stone of the new build- 
 ings for (the Victoria and Albert 
 Museum) laid by the Queen, 456 
 
 South Leeds, Playfair’s election for, 
 in 1885, 338-42, 349; his re-election 
 for in 1S86, 350 ; defends his vote 
 on Royal grants before the con- 
 ' stituents of, 383 ; his re-election 
 for, in 1892, 384, 390-91 ; con- 
 gratulations of, on his elevation to 
 the peerage, 388 ; his pain at part- 
 ing from, 388, 389 
 
 Spencer, Earl (Lord Althorp), and 
 Playfair, 68 
 
 Spencer, Earl (the present), and the 
 Cattle Plague Commission, 192 
 Statist competition for the best essay 
 on the means of drawing together 
 England and the Colonies, Play- 
 fair adjudicates in, 457-58 
 Steam Navigation, Playfair’s inquiry 
 into the best coals for, 95 
 Stephenson, George, 64 ; his daring 
 speculation as to the original 
 source of power of the steam- 
 engine, 72-73 
 
 Stewart, General Robert Macgregor 
 (son-in-law of Playfair), 101 
 Strathmore, Earls of, and Glamis 
 Castle, 31-32 
 
 , Earl and Countess of, 
 
 348 . 376 
 
 * Subjects of Social Welfare,’ 434-40 
 Swing, Professor, Sermon of, on Dar- 
 winism, 241 
 
 Swinton, Professor Campbell, and the 
 representation of Edinburgh and 
 St. Andrews Universities, 209-10 
 Syme, Professor, 40, 18 1, 182, 186 
 
 T. 
 
 “Teaching Universities and Examin- 
 ing Boards,” Playfair’s pamphlet 
 on, 223-24 
 
 Technical and Scientific Education, 
 the Great Exhibition and, no; the 
 Prince Consort’s scheme for, 131- 
 33, 141-43 ; Playfair and, 134-35, 
 137-38, 140, 142-44, 149, 152-53. 
 214, 370-71 ; adoption of a scheme 
 of, by the Royal Commissioners of 
 the 1851 Exhibition, 442-49 
 Thirlmere, Lake (see Manchester 
 Water Supply Bill) 
 
 Thomas, Edith, and Playfair, 374-75 
 Thomson, Mr, of Clitheroe, engages 
 Playfair as chemical manager, 43 ; 
 his appreciation of punctuality, 
 44 ; a sketch of his character, 53- 
 54 ; his family, 54 ; his death, 56 
 Tichborne case, Playfair and the, 
 225-26 
 
INDEX 
 
 487 
 
 Torquay, Playfair spends his last 
 winter at, 462-64 
 
 Tweeddale, Marquis of, 196 
 
 U. 
 
 United States, Playfair’s first visit to, 
 239-45 ; his second visit to, 247 ; 
 his interest in and links with, 250 ; 
 his later visits to, 330-31, 359-67 ; 
 represents England at the Cente- 
 nary of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence of, 359-64 ; presents a 
 memorial in favour of an Arbitra- 
 tion Treaty with, 365-66 ; his belief 
 in the adoption of Free Trade by, 
 371 ; his intimate relations with, 
 405-26 ; his desire for a Treaty of 
 Arbitration with, 407-9 
 
 University Tests, Playfair’s maiden 
 speech on, 21 1 
 
 V. 
 
 Vaccination Acts, Playfair’s defence of 
 the, 297-300, 324 
 
 Venezuelan Question, Playfair’s action 
 in relation to the, 414-26 
 
 Vice-President of the Council, Play- 
 fair’s appointment as, 342-43, 349- 
 50 . 352 
 
 Victoria, Her Majesty Queen, 94 ; 
 her amusement at an exhibitor’s 
 gaucheru, 121 ; her interest in the 
 Crystal Palace, 125 ; and the in- 
 auguration of the Coburg Statue 
 of the Prince Consort, 194-95 ; her 
 graciousness to Playfair, 218 ; in- 
 vites him to Balmoral, and pre- 
 sents him with a copy of her 
 works, 347 ; her emotion at the 
 Jubilee Service, 356-57; how the 
 kingdom has advanced during 
 her reign, 357-58 ; expresses her 
 pleasure in conferring a peerage 
 on Playfair, 387 ; the Imperial 
 Institute founded as a memorial of 
 her Jubilee, 449-52; scheme for 
 completing the South Kensington 
 Museum as a memorial of her 
 Diamond Jubilee, 454-56; lays 
 
 the foundation-stone of the Vic- 
 toria and Albert Museum, 456 
 Victoria and Albert Museum, present 
 name of the South Kensington 
 Museum, 141, 456 
 
 Villiers Estate, Kensington, purchased 
 by the Royal Commissioners of the 
 1851 Exhibition, 140 
 Vivisection, Playfair’s defence of, 220- 
 21, 325, 436-37; the Queen’s dis- 
 like of, 344 
 
 W. 
 
 Wales, H.R.H. the Prince of, and the 
 Great Exhibition, 122 ; studies 
 manufactures under Playfair at 
 Edinburgh, 187, 200 ; travels 
 
 incognito in the Trossachs, but is 
 recognised, 187 ; experiment of, 
 with boiling lead, 201 ; and the 
 International Exhibition of 1878, 
 246 ; and the tercentenary of 
 Edinburgh University, 345 ; pre- 
 sents Playfair with a service of 
 plate, 379-81 ; increase of the 
 annual grant to, 381-83; and the 
 Aged Poor Commission, 397 ; testi- 
 fies to the value of Playfair’s 
 services on the Royal Commission 
 of the 1851 Exhibition, 448 ; con- 
 doles with Lady Playfair on her 
 husband’s death, 468-69 
 Water supply of towns, Playfair’s 
 inquiry into the, 95, 107 
 Wellington, Duke of, State funeral of, 
 153-54 
 
 Wheatstone, Sir Charles, and Joule’s 
 experiments, 74, 154-55 ; his sym- 
 metrical cipher, 158-59 
 Wilson, DrGeorge.and the “ M.E.O.” 
 brotherhood, 39 ; appointed curator 
 of the Edinburgh Museum, 151 ; 
 his dying epigram, 151-52 
 Wilson, Professor John, 95 
 
 Y. 
 
 Young, James, founder of the paraffin 
 and paraffin oil industry, 37-38, 
 42, 102-3 
 
Printed by 
 
 Cassell & Company, Limited, La Belle Sauvage, 
 London, E.C. 
 
Two Vols. 9 price 32s. 
 THE 
 
 LIFE, LETTERS, AND FRIENDSHIPS 
 
 OF 
 
 RICHARD MONCKTON MILNES, 
 
 FIRST LORD HOUGHTON. 
 
 By Sir WEMYSS REID. 
 
 WITH TWO PORTRAITS. 
 
 This Work has been several times reprinted to meet the large demand. 
 
 The Times : — 
 
 “No more agreeable volumes have appeared for many a day than the two which 
 deal with ‘The Life, Letters, and Friendships of Richard Monckton Milnes, First 
 Lord Houghton.’ The author has been singularly fortunate with his subject, and it 
 will be strange if his work does not attain to the same measure of popular success that 
 was reached by his ‘ Life of W. E. Forster.’ The themes, indeed, are widely different. 
 There is little in common between the career of the strenuous statesman carrying 
 elementary education through Parliament and then breaking his heart in a struggle 
 against Irish perversity, and that of the supreme dilettante , the literary and social 
 epicure, the wit, poet, and conversationalist, Monckton Milnes. But no more perfect 
 subject for the biographer could well be found in these days. Monckton Milnes was 
 in no sense a commanding character, though he had a touch, a perceptible strain, of 
 genius. But he talked, he wrote, he entertained, he read voraciously, he lived long, 
 he knew everybody, and he kept his letters. Hence the volumes which his biographer 
 has compiled are a perfect storehouse of interesting things, grave and gay, political, 
 philosophical, literary, social, witty. At every page we meet with distinguished men 
 and women ; with letters from and to, or conversations with, the men and women 
 who have played leading parts in the vast and complex history of the past three- 
 quarters of a century. Politicians, poets, philanthropists, historians, novelists, men of 
 the world — they all knew 1 Monckton Milnes, were liked and appreciated by him, and 
 wrote to him, or received from him the letters which have been preserved and which 
 can be read in these volumes. It gives some notion of the width and range of 
 Monckton Milnes’s life, both in years and in interests, to record that, while he was 
 one of the most enthusiastic admirers of Mr. Swinburne, not twenty-five years 
 ago, it was he who, in 1832, introduced the veteran poet Campbell to the rising 
 young genius Alfred Tennyson ; and that it was literally true to say of him, as 
 Disraeli said of ‘Mr. Vavasour’ in ‘Tancred,’ that ‘he had dined with Louis 
 Philippe and had given a dinner to Louis Blanc.’ His biography is the record of his 
 contact with a thousand different men and a hundred different interests. Mr. Glad- 
 stone, Lord Tennyson, Sydney Smith, Mrs. Procter, Mrs. Gaskell, George Eliot, 
 Edward Fitzgerald, Robert Browning, W. S. Landor, Thackeray, De Tocqueville, 
 Guizot — these are a few of the names of Milnes’s correspondents, which fill nearly a 
 dozen columns of the author’s excellent index.” 
 
 The Standard : — 
 
 “ In his ‘ Life of Lord Houghton ’ the author has performed a very difficult task 
 with marked success. . . He was specially qualified to carry out the work upon 
 
 which he had been engaged for the last few years. Not even the most exorbitant and 
 
 Lord Playfair. 
 
voracious consumer ot good things will be able to find fault with either the quality 
 or quantity of the repast supplied. The book has hardly a dull page in it from 
 beginning to end.” 
 
 The Daily News : — 
 
 “ ‘ The work of two arduous years,’ as the author describes it in his introduction, 
 is amply rewarded in the production of a book which, while it well repays * the debt 
 of gratitude he owes to the kindest and truest of friends,’ is a delightful record of 
 a striking personality and a most interesting career.” 
 
 The Daily Chronicle: — 
 
 “Full of the most varied interest to students of politics, society and literature. 
 We welcome these volumes as an important contribution to the literary and social 
 history of the Victorian period.” 
 
 The Globe says . — 
 
 “ There are letters here from Matthew Arnold, Miss Berry, John Bright, Lord 
 Brougham, Mrs. Carlyle, Wilkie Collins, De Tocqueville, Dickens, Disraeli, 
 George Eliot, Emerson, Edward Fitzgerald (on Keats and Tennyson), Mrs. 
 Gaskell (on Charlotte Bronte), Mr. Gladstone, David Gray, Guizot, the two 
 Hallams, Julius Hare, Hayward, Helps, Leigh Hunt, Mr. Kinglake, Landor, 
 Longfellow, Macaulay, Mill, Montalembert, Motley, Palmerston, Mrs. Procter, 
 Sydney Smith, Mr. Herbert Spencer, Dean Stanley, Mr. Swinburne (on Landor), 
 Connop Thirwall, Archbishop Trench, Anthony Trollope (on the prices given to 
 novelists), Cardinal Wiseman, and Wordsworth. The mere enumeration of these 
 names, which are fairly representative of the people speaking and spoken of in this 
 w r ork, will give some notion of the edification and enjoyment to be derived from 
 its perusal.” 
 
 The Athenaeum : — 
 
 “The author has produced an excellent and most entertaining book about 
 one of the kindest of men, and most really estimable in spite of faults which lay 
 upon the surface. Lord Houghton is allowed by his biographer to tell his own 
 tales, and right well he tells them ; and the volumes, which would seem to need 
 no lightening, are further brightened by some amusing letters from other persons. 
 It is high praise, but deserved, to say that Houghton’s old friends will be satisfied 
 with this book, and that those who did not kmnv him, or had but a mere acquaint- 
 ance with him, will read it feeling it to be tair and truthful, and by reading it will 
 have their opinion of the man, if they have formed one, raised.” 
 
 The Spectator : — 
 
 “ These charming volumes are more interesting than most novels, and fuller 
 of good stories than any jest-book. The author has done his work admirably, has 
 inserted nothing he should not, and omitted nothing he should retain ; so that for 
 once we have piquancy without ill-nature, and gossip which will neither raise scandal 
 nor give pain. The Life is a perfect repertoire of anecdotes, almost invariably of 
 interest, which turn up in the most unexpected way. . . . Every page is full of 
 
 meat — sweetbread be it understood, and not meat from the joint.” 
 
 LORD ACTON, in The Nineteenth Century. 
 
 “To the present generation the name of Lord Houghton represents, in the 
 apt terms of his biographer, a social moderator and leisured literary expert. But 
 the original Monckton Milnes was known as something more than this, as a serious 
 and effective writer and a busy and apparently dissatisfied politician. The author 
 renders full ju rice to him in his earlier character. Lingering survivors will prefer 
 the anticipated judgment of posterity, and will be inclined to think less of his 
 real success in literature, or his supposed disappointment in politics, than of those 
 qualities which made him the centre of a vast circle ot friends, and gave him a 
 singular and brilliant position at the point where letters, politics, and society 
 meet.” 
 
 CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, London ; Paris , New York and Melbourne. 
 
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