Page:Eminent English liberals in and out of Parliament.djvu/294

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
280
EMINENT LIBERALS OUT OF PARLIAMENT.

guage- which is taught in their schools and colleges, and which forms a regular part of their education. Their customs, their feelings, their ways of thought, their character, and sometimes their very look, are English. To English literature they have turned in the attempt to oppose it to that of Germany. English is the language which they seem to have chosen even in preference to French or German, which would have afforded a better link of communication between themselves and the nations of that great continent on whose outer edge their fortunes are cast, and to which they cling desperately, with nothing but the bravery and the stern virtues of the old Norse race to maintain them on their narrow foothold."

"Dark as are the clouds, and cruel as is the game which is being played out, I am determined to remain constant to my belief that I have both visited Arcadia and seen a 'patriot army.' Do you blame me in this nineteenth century for cherishing two such illusions, if illusions they are?"

While I am about it, I may as well finish the record of Mr. Herbert's warlike experiences. No sooner had he left the Dybböl lines than he sought those before Richmond, where the silent, inflexible Grant had at last got secession firmly by the throat. The taciturn general gave him a kindly reception, but was not to be "drawn." Not a man on the staff could move him to the faintest demonstrativeness. At last a dispute arose as to the distance between two places. One officer said five miles, another four, another six. "Three and a half," interjected Grant with a tone of decision. He alone was right. The general had been drawn, and everybody was satisfied. President Lincoln, to whom