Stanley Lane-Poole

“ Lane's pre-eminent gifts were a sensitive sympathy in interpretation of his subjects, and a delicacy and precision of touch, in which, as a lithographer, he had no rival. In spite of the ‘woolliness' of the material his fine pencil gave a sharpness and brilliancy to his lithographs, which were carried as far in elaboration as a finished line-engraving, for which, indeed, at first sight, they might almost be mistaken. ”

“ He went to Paris, however, after the emperor's abdication, saw the king make his entry, and was presented to Louis XVIII. On that occasion he ‘saw, and never saw again, the handsome youth who was destined to hold the reins of empire in Russia, to keep all Europe in alarm for thirty years, and to close a proud career under the pressure of a disastrous war.’ He met, for the first and last time, his lifelong enemy, the Czar Nicholas. ”

“ This was the most important act of Stratford Canning's life. Apart from the reputation thus acquired by the young diplomatist, the gain to Europe was immense. The negotiations which ended in the treaty of Bucharest laid the foundations of that predominating influence which England has ever since exerted at the Porte, and established the extraordinary personal prestige which enabled Canning to maintain that influence at Constantinople through times of severe strain and confusion. ”

“ More than this, it released Tschitschakoff's army of the Danube at the precise moment when it was needed to aggravate the discomfiture of the French in their retreat from Moscow, an opportune achievement, which the Duke of Wellington characterised as ‘the most important service to this country and the world that ever fell to the lot of any individual to perform.’ Canning had gone to Constantinople when Turkey was in open rupture with us, and almost in the arms of Napoleon. ”

“ The interest of England pointed distinctly to effecting the release of the army of the Danube, as a weapon against France; and though we were then technically at war with Russia, as with the rest of Europe, it was still possible for our minister to mediate, since Russia in her present straits had already begun to show leanings towards England. Canning saw that his duty lay in obtaining the best terms of peace he could for Turkey, and thus at once conciliating the good opinion of the Porte for England, and releasing the Russian army against England's great antagonist. ”

“ During the later stages of the war Stratford was greatly oppressed with the loss and destruction of life it involved, and painfully conscious of England's inability to keep on furnishing a continual supply of fresh troops, and he directed his influence towards a coalition with other powers. When the war was over he returned to London in 1858 and resigned his embassy for the last time, but paid a complimentary visit of farewell—his seventh journey to Constantinople—to Sultan Abd-el-Mejid, for whom he entertained a real regard and esteem. ”

“ England, though triumphant everywhere at sea, and wielding a power which was capable of making itself felt wherever the enemy or his forced allies presented a weak point upon the coast or a distant colonial possession worth attacking, had to bear up against a heavy financial pressure, and to encounter much occasional discontent at home. She was nominally at war with every European government controlled by France, and as far as ever from any approach towards peace with that country ”

“ The conclusion of a peace between the belligerents on the Danube had become a matter of pressing importance. The balance of victory was decidedly on the Russian side, and it was obvious that Turkey could not expel the czar's army from her territory. At the same time Russia pursued the war but languidly, for her army on the Danube was urgently needed to meet Napoleon's threatened march to Moscow. ”

“ The result was the Crimean war. To have led England into so futile an adventure would indeed be an unworthy termination to a long career of wise statesmanship. The Crimean war, however, was not to be averted by diplomacy. Russia was resolved upon war long before it actually broke out. Above all Nicholas was bent upon crushing the hateful ambassador who had so long successfully bearded the Emperor of All the Russias. What Stratford did was to make the war impossible to a moral state. ”

“ For a year and a half from this date Canning performed the duties of first secretary at Constantinople. The business of the ambassador was to induce Turkey to prefer the influence of England to that of France, at a time when France meant nearly all Europe, and England was her only overt antagonist. Adair did indeed contrive to keep the Porte in a friendly disposition towards England, and to check in some measure the French chargé d'affaires; but there was little stirring at the embassy, and Canning had leisure to amuse himself with riding, and with the scanty society of the place. ”

“ Stratford was not responsible for the fatal alliance with Louis Napoleon, which produced the virtual separation of England and France from the European concert, and threw the burden of upholding Turkey upon the two western powers instead of upon all Europe. That was Palmerston's doing, and Palmerston admitted afterwards that he had ‘been made a catspaw of at Vienna, as Stratford wrote we should.’ If supporting a weak state against the unwarrantable demands of a stronger power caused the war, Stratford was so far responsible, but in no other sense did he contribute to the Crimean war. ”

“ Nearly half a million was spent on building cottages, and half as much on drainage, new roads, and bridges. His love of his old profession was manifested in a long series of wise foundations and endowments in aid of sailors. In 1851, on the occasion of the Great exhibition, he offered a prize for the best model of a lifeboat, and his influence led to a new activity in the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, brought into practical use the self-righting lifeboat, and promoted the establishment of lifeboat stations all round the coasts of the British Isles. ”

“ The value of the ‘Modern Egyptians’ lies partly in the favourable date to its composition, when Cairo was still a Saracenic city, almost untouched by European influences; but chiefly in its microscopic accuracy of detail, which is so complete and final that no important additions have been made to its picture of the life and customs of the Muslims of modern Egypt, in spite of the researches of numerous travellers and scholars. It remains after more than half a century the standard authority on its subject.
Lane's next work was executed in England. ”

“ In the first matter he had to carry out his cousin's instructions, which were dictated by enthusiastic sympathy for the Greeks, and included virtually the separation of Greece from the Ottoman empire. The time was ill chosen for such mediation, and it may be doubted whether the ambassador, with all his pity for the Greeks, would have himself selected this moment for intervention. When the insurrection was in its first strength, it might have been less difficult to induce the Porte to accord favourable terms to the Greeks. But the arms of Turkey were now triumphant, and the Greeks desperate. ”

“ The importance of the dictionary was instantly appreciated by the orientalists of Europe, and the lexicon at once became indispensable to the student of Arabic.
Lane continued his labours in spite of increasingly delicate health and growing weariness. In the midst of his engrossing labours he contrived to help in the education of his sister's children and grandchildren, who lived under his roof, and in spite of his retired life and devotion to study the conversation and manner possessed unusual charm and grace. ”

“ The Polyglott Bible was published in 1657, and Castell was already in the throes of its great sequel, the ‘Lexicon Heptaglotton, Hebraicum, Chaldaicum, Syriacum, Samaritanum, Æthiopicum, Arabicum, conjunctim, et Persicum separatim.’ In the dedication to Charles II prefixed to the ‘Lexicon,’ when at length it was published in two volumes folio in 1669, the story of its composition is told with a sad simplicity that atones for a pedantic display of varied learning. ”

“ Between two and three years' study not only made him a fluent Arabic speaker, but gave him such a knowledge of the language that he was allowed to be more learned than the Ulema themselves; and knotty points of interpretation were brought to him for solution by the doctors of the law at Aleppo, just as twenty years later the Ulema of the Azhar at Cairo used to apply to Lane to lay down the law for them in intricate matters of Islamic doctrine and exegesis. ”

“ From the time of the adjustment of the struggle with Mohammed Aly in 1841 to the outbreak of the Crimean war in 1853, Turkey enjoyed an interval of absolute peace, and these twelve years were productive of improvements in the internal administration of the empire, insomuch that Lord Palmerston in 1853 declared that during the preceding twenty years Turkey had made more progress than any other state of Europe. Canning's name is intimately associated with the reforms that characterised the reign of the young Sultan Abd-el-Mejid. ”

“ COOPER, WILLIAM RICKETTS (1843–1878) , oriental student, began life as a designer of carpet patterns, an occupation which he exchanged for that of a London missionary, until the influence of Joseph Bonomi the younger [q. v.] directed his varied energies to the study of Egyptian antiquities, to which the rest of his short life was devoted. Without being precisely a scholar, he accomplished a great deal of valuable work. ”

“ But all his personal ascendency could not at this moment avail against the forces that were then working in Turkey. The first hostile element was Sultan Mahmud himself. Writing in later years, Canning describes this famous sultan as ‘in temper and policy a caliph and a despot;’ and, notwithstanding the admiration which his resolution and energy in army and other reforms excited, Canning's opinion of Mahmud was disparaging. Russia was the next obstacle. While originally anxious to interfere by force in favour of the Greeks, the czar had no idea of preferring their cause to his own interests ”

“ Among the British Museum MSS. Cureton lighted upon some fragments of a Syriac version of the Gospels, differing decidedly from the ordinary Peshito version, and, as the discoverer maintained, representing the original Hebrew of St. Matthew much more closely than the Peshito. The ‘Curetonian Gospels’ will always remain a monument of his discernment and industry. Another important discovery was that of the ‘Festal Letters of Athanasius,’ which Cureton hastened to publish through the Oriental Text Society in 1848 ”

“ Another work, ‘The Aindra School of Sanskrit Grammarians’ (1875) ‘propounded a new theory on the development of grammatical science in India, which, if it has not met with general acceptance, has at all events set scholars thinking and working in a new direction’ (Max Müller) . Many minor communications were also addressed to the ‘Indian Antiquary.’
Burnell’s health had from childhood never been strong, and his excessive exertions, extended over many years, in trying to combine heavy official work with studious labour in the most exhausting of Indian climates, broke him down. ”

“ Their positions were as yet but partially threatened by the Spanish insurrection and the British successes in Portugal. Austria was secretly collecting the means for a fresh trial of strength with the victorious legions of France. Russia was occupied with her military operations against Turkey. Denmark had become the creature of Napoleon, and Sweden, though allied with us by the policy of its gallant and unfortunate king, was drifting towards a change of government destined to prove subversive of the English alliance. ”

“ Yet he so worked upon Turkey by emphasising the growing successes of Wellington in the Peninsula, that the Porte at length confided to him unusual powers. In spite of the fact that Canning was acting entirely on his private responsibility, the sultan threw over the French minister, and invited his English rival to open direct negotiations with D'Italinsky, the Russian plenipotentiary at Bucharest, promising to place exclusive confidence in him, and to permit no French interference. The intrigues of France and Austria furnished weapons which were amply effective in capable hands. ”

“ In 1807 George Canning became foreign secretary, and appointed his cousin to the post of précis writer at the foreign office. The work did not seriously interfere with his Cambridge terms, but it was an office of confidence. His duties kept him constantly in intimate relations with his cousin, in whose house in Downing Street he lived, and at the foot of whose table he sat when the foreign minister entertained the diplomatic circle with a state dinner. ”

“ Russia became more anxious than ever to arrange a peace. But Turkey remained obstinate; the Porte, always trusting to the chapter of accidents, still hoped to get out of the war without loss of territory, and some strong measure was needed to bring it to reason before France opened hostilities. The French minister and Austrian internuncio strenuously encouraged Turkey in the policy of resistance, while Canning, in spite of his confidential position, was still at variance with the Porte on minor matters of commercial rights. ”

“ His personal characteristics were a devotion to duty which has rarely been equalled, a restless energy which lasted to extreme old age, a strong religious belief which induced a constant habit of almost painful self-examination and contrition for the most trifling faults, but which could not restrain the rare kindliness of nature which made him a staunch and unchanging friend and a devoted husband and relation. ”

“ Seldom has the ‘department of printed books’ acquired the services of so variously accomplished a man. A Hebrew scholar of the first rank he was also an excellent classic, and had gained such insight into ancient Greece as only Boeckh could impart ”

“ His scientific tastes drew him into close friendship with George Stephenson, and he was one of the directors of the original Manchester and Liverpool railway, but resigned shortly before its completion. He took an active part in the survey of the line, especially of the part across Chatmoss. The famous House of Commons limitation of railway speed to ten miles an hour, which threatened to destroy the hopes of the promoters of steam locomotion, led Brandreth to invent a machine in which the weight of a horse was utilised on a moving platform, and a speed of fifteen miles an hour was expected ”

“ He never saw active service, though always eager to volunteer in every expedition for fifty years, from the campaign ending in Waterloo in 1815 to the invasion of the Crimea in 1854-5. In 1829 he set out for Constantinople, in the hope of being able to render service to the Turks in the struggle in which they were then engaged with Russia, but arrived only in time to hear of the disastrous peace of Adrianople. ”

“ No man possessed more completely the power of impressive speech when a message had to be delivered to a sovereign or a statesman; none knew better how to combine grace of diction with accuracy, lucidity, and completeness of expression ”

“ It is rather as an orientalist than as a successful editor that Chenery will be remembered. He was a singularly fine Arabic and Hebrew scholar, and wrote and spoke both languages like a native. He possessed the gift of language, and could pick up, with a facility almost equalling that of his friend Strangford, any spoken tongue. ”

“ When Mohammed Aly Pasha, the minister for the navy, and brother-in-law of the sultan, had wantonly murdered a Greek concubine, Canning refused to receive the ruffian, and when the sultan sent to remonstrate with him on such conduct to his majesty's brother-in-law, he replied, ‘Tell the sultan that an English ambassador can never admit to his presence a cruel assassin.’ In the end the minister had to be dismissed from office. Canning had no mercy for cruelty and treachery ”