General ----. He was thought to be a first-rate
man; neglected nothing, looked to things himself, conceived admirable
plans, and at last got an important command. Then to the universal
surprise, nothing came of it; ---- they said, "could do everything that a
commander should do, except say, _Quick march_." There are plenty of
politicians of that stamp, but Mr. G. decidedly not one of them. I
mentioned a farewell dinner given to ---- in the spring, by some rich man or
other. It cost L560 for forty-eight guests! Flowers alone L150. Mr. G. on
this enormity, recalled a dinner to Talfourd about copyright at the old
Clarendon Hotel in Bond Street, and the price was L2, 17s. 6d. a head. The
old East India Company used to give dinners at a cost of seven guineas a
head. He has a wonderfully lively interest for these matters, and his
curiosity as to the prices of things in the shop-windows is inexhaustible.
We got round to Goethe. Goethe, he said, never gave prominence to duty.

_J. M._--Surely, surely in that fine psalm of life, _Das Goettliche_?

_Mr. G._--Doellinger used to confront me with the _Iphigenie_ as a great
drama of duty.

He wished that I had known Doellinger--"a man thoroughly from beginning to
end of his life _purged of self_." Mistook the nature of the Irish
questions, from the erroneous view that Irish Catholicism is ultramontane,
which it certainly is not.

_Saturday, Dec. 19._--

What is extraordinary is that all Mr. G.'s versatility, buoyancy, and the
rest goes with the most profound accuracy and intense concentration when
any point of public business is raised. Something was said of the salaries
of bishops. He was ready in an instant with every figure and detail, and
every circumstance of the history of the foundation of the Ecclesiastical
Commission in 1835-6. Then his _savoir faire_ and wisdom of parliamentary
conduct. "I always made it a rule in the H. of C. to allow nobody to
suppose that I did not like him, and to say as little as I could to
prevent anybody from liking me. Considering the intense friction and
contention of public life, it is a saving of wear and tear that as many as
possible even among opponents should think well of one."

_Sunday, Dec. 20._--At table, a little discussion as to the happiness and
misery of animal creation. Outside of man Mr. G. argued against Tennyson's
description of Nature as red in tooth and claw. Apart from man, he said,
and the action of man, sentient beings a