in this country. The Stephen clan, however, is
widespread, and there are eminent Stephens scattered all over the
world. "Any Stephen," said Mr. Froude in his "Oceanea," "could not
fail to be interesting." Sir Alfred Stephen, the deputy governor of
New South Wales, is declared by Mr. Froude to be regarded as the
greatest Australian, by nine out of every ten of the people of Sydney.
But the judicial renown of Fitzjames, the literary fame of Leslie, and
the colonial reputation of Sir Alfred, all pale their ineffectual
fires before the marvellous claims of George Milner Stephen, across
whom Mr. Froude stumbled in New Zealand, and who has now turned up
unexpectedly in London. He is, as Mr. Froude said, a very noticeable
person. In fact, he is a thaumaturgist of the first order. While his
relatives in the old country have devoted all the energy of their
intellect to demonstrate the absurdity of all the superstitions built
upon any arbitrary interference with the invariable laws of nature,
their kinsman George Milner suddenly displays at the antipodes a gift
of healing which, if the veracious records of colonial and American
newspapers can be relied upon, rivals the most famous exploits of
apostolic times. Not, indeed, that George Milner has yet raised the
dead to life. That is beyond his powers. But all the minor marvels,
such as making the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak,
and the lame to walk, are accomplished by him in the ordinary course
of his daily practice. Although this miracle-working Stephen is a
physician whose patients are healed by the touch, he is nevertheless a
physician practising the healing art like other eminent
authorities--for the prescribed fee of the ordinary medical
practitioners. The only difference is that whereas the ordinary
physician attends his patient daily for weeks and sometimes months,
Mr. Stephen's course, if a course at all, ends at the latest in three
visits, and the charges, therefore, are correspondingly low. Two
guineas for consultation fee, one guinea each subsequent visit, or
four guineas at the outside, are to be regarded as his retaining fee;
but in those cases--and they are said to constitute a large proportion
of those submitted to him--in which he effects a complete cure he
naturally expects to be remembered by the grateful patient whom he has
restored to health. This, however, by the way. In response to an
invitation to the _Pall Mall Gazette_ office, Mr. George