their
eye on one portion of their canvas, and work that up to a high
perfection, while leaving the rest of the picture misty and vague. Even
in that case the subordinate figures, if subdued in fogginess, should
not be falsely drawn, but Mr. Strachey, intent upon the violent portrait
of Gordon, is willing to leave his Baring and Hartington and Wolseley
inexact as well as shadowy. The essay on General Gordon, indeed, is the
least successful of the four monographs. Dexterous as he is, Mr.
Strachey has not had the material to work upon which now exists to
elucidate his other and earlier subjects. But it is difficult to account
for his apparently not having read Mr. Bernard Holland's life of the
Duke of Devonshire, which throws much light, evidently unknown to Mr.
Strachey, on the Gordon relief expedition. He ought to know that Sir
Evelyn Baring urged the expedition, while Chamberlain was one of its
opponents. Mr. Strachey does not seem to have noticed how much the issue
was confused by conflicting opinions as to whether the route to be taken
should be by Suakin or up the Nile.

No part of his book is more vigorous or picturesque than the chapter
dealing with the proclamation of Papal Infallibility. But here again one
is annoyed by the glibness with which Mr. Strachey smoothly asserts what
are only his conjectures.

In his account of Manning's reception in Rome--and this is of central
importance in his picture of Manning's whole career--he exaggerates the
personal policy of Pio Nono, whom he represents as more independent of
the staff of the Curia than was possible. Rome has never acknowledged
the right of the individual, even though that individual be the Pope, to
an independent authority. Mr. Odo Russell was resident secretary in Rome
from 1858 to 1870, and his period of office was drawing to a close when
Manning arrived; he was shortly afterwards removed to become Assistant
Under Secretary of State at our Foreign Office. The author of _Eminent
Victorians_ is pleased to describe "poor Mr. Russell" as little better
than a fly buzzing in Manning's "spider's web of delicate and clinging
diplomacy." It is not in the memory of those who were behind the scenes
that Odo Russell was such a cipher. Though suave in address, he was by
no means deficient in decision or force of character, as was evidenced
when, some months later, he explained to Mr. Gladstone his reasons for
stating to Bismarck, without instructions from the governme