Page:The Strand Magazine (Volume 3).djvu/419

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THE MARQUIS OF DUFFERIN AND AVA.
421

their counterparts being also seen in other parts of the house.


Library, Clandeboye.
From a Photo. by J. Mack, Coleraine.

In 1860 Lord Dufferin went as British Commissioner to Syria, to regulate the home policy of the Lebanon district, then a scene of perpetual turmoil and a very maëlstrom of blood-feud, but which has since become the most peaceful and prosperous portion of the Turkish Empire. On his return, he gave a most interesting lecture, entitled "Notes on Ancient Syria," at the Young Men's Christian Association in Dublin. The address has since been published, and in it the following passage occurs:—"The first visit a man pays to Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, produces a greater revolution in his ideas, a larger expansion of thought, a warmer stimulus to his imagination, than any other process his mind can undergo.... Along the path leading from the village of Nain," Lord Dufferin went on, "little effort is required to picture to one's self the memorable procession that once left its streets—the veiled and weeping mother, the friends and neighbours with their sad burden, and above all, that beloved and awful Presence Whose memory is associated with every step we take among the hills of His earthly home."


Drawing-room, Clandeboye.
From a Photo. by J. Mack, Coleraine.

In 1872 Lord Dufferin was sent as Governor-General of Canada, when the tact and personal influence exercised during his tours through the vast provinces of the North-West, brought about the pacification of British Columbia, then