HENRY LABOUCHERE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LVII, Issue 6535, 6 February 1882, Page 5

HENRY LABOUCHERE.

The early career of Mr Labouohere is told by Mr Joseph Hatton in bis article on 11 Journalistic London” which appears in this month’s Harper'* Magazine, and it will be read abroad with quite at much interest and pleasure as it has been at home:—A representative man in journalism, diplomacy, politics, and finance j a leading proprietor of the Daily News, editor of Truth, and Member of Parliament for Northampton, with the famous Pope’s villa as his country residence, and a town house overlooking Bt James’ Park, Mr Henry Labouchere fills a prominent position in the ranks of London notabilities. He has bad an interesting, not to say romantic, career. Born in London, 1831, he was educated at Eton and Cambridge. During bis two years at Trinity he had perpetual rows with the dons. Discipline did not sit easily on his shoulders. On leaving Cambridge he went travelling. Mexico was a country he desired to see. Having resided in the capital some little time, he rode off on his own horse, and with fifty dollars in his pocket. After a ramble of 18 months he returned to the capital, and fell in love with a lady of the circus. He travelled with the troupe, a sort of "Onida”-ish hero, and took money at the doors, or rather oranges and maize, the equivalents for coin. By-and-by he tired of this occupation, and went to the United States. He found himself at St Paul, which was then only a cluster of houses. Here he met a party of Cbippeway Indians going back to their homes. He went with them, and lived with them for six months, hunting buffalo, joining in their work and sports, playing cards for wampum necklaces, and living what to Joaquin Miller would have been a poem in so many stanzas, but which to the more prosaic and eccentric Englishmen was just seeing life and passing away the time. He went to New York, and, making that city his headquarters, visited the towns round about. It occurred to him to go into the diplomatic service. He had influence, and he went into it. " There were no examinations then,” he remarked, as he related this incident in bis career to me the other evening, smoking a cigar at his comfortable house overlooking St James’ Park. The inference conveyed was that if there had been an educational ordeal to pass through, be would not have entered the service; but Mr Labouchere, in spite of his political audacity and his journalistic arrogance, is a very modest man, and is full of depreciation of his many accomplishments, except when he thinks he is jarring the sensibilities of some especially moral person by relating incidents in hu gaming and theatrical experiences' (all of which have been harmless enough as the world goes), and then he suddenly remembers rather startling episodes of his varied career. He was appointed attache at Washington, and could not be found. Picking up a newspaper during a journey westward, he read the announcement of his appointment to the position he desired. Eventually he turned up at Washington, where he lived for two years. During the Crimean War he aided and abetted the crimping of American citizens for the English army, and was kicked ont of the legation. It was this young who excited the ire of a certain American citizen who called to see Mr Orampton. " I want to see the boss,” “ You can’t; he is out: see me,” replied Labouchere. “ You are no good to me ; 1 must see the boss ; I can wait.” “ Very well,” said the attache, going on with his letter-writing; “take a seat.” Thevisitorwaited for a considerable time. At last he said “ Stranger, I have been fooling ronnd here two hours; has the chief come in yet ? ” "No; you will see him drive up to the front door when he returns.” “ How long do you reckon he will be before he comes ?’’ “ Well,” said Labouohere, “ he went to Canada yesterday ; 1 should say he’ll be here in about six weeks.” The English attache was fond of gambling, and he takes pleasure, when in a conversational mood, in relating his troubles and adventures over cards. He once nearly starved, he says, owing to his passion for gambling. “ While I was attache at Washington,” he says, "I was sent by the Minister to look after some ‘ Irish patriots ’ at Boston. I took up my residence at a small hotel, and wrote down ’Smith’ in the hotel book as my name. In the evening I went to a gambling establishment, where I incontinently lost all the money I bad with me except half a dollar. Then I went to bed, satisfied with my prowess. The next morning the bailiffs seized on the hotel for debt, and all the guests were requested to pay their bills and to take away their luggage. I could not pay mine, and so I could not take my luggage to another hotel.. All that I could do was to write to Washington for a remittance, and to wait two days for its arrival. The first day I walked about, and spent my half-dollar on food. It was summer, so I slept on a bench on the Common, and in the morning went to the bay to wash myself. I felt independent of all the cares and troubles of civilisation. But I had nothing with which to buy myself a breakfast. 1 grew hungry, and toward evening so exceedingly hungry, that I entered a restaurant and ordered dinner, without any clear idea how I was to pay for it, except by leaving my coat in pledge. In those days Boston restaurants were mostly in cellars, and there was a bar near the door, where the proprietor sat to receive payment. As I ate my dinner, I observed that all the waiters, who were Irishmen, were continually staring at me, and evidently speaking of me to each other. A guilty conscience made me think that this was because I had an imptcunious look, and that they were discussing whether my clothes would cover my bill. At last one of them approached me and said, / I beg your pardon, sir; are you the patriot Meagher?’ Now this patriot was a gentleman who had aided Smith O’Brien in his Irish rising, and had been sent to Australia, and had escaped thence to the United States. It was my business to look after * patriots,' so 1 put my finger before my lips, and said,'Hush!' while I cast my eyes to the ceiling, as though I saw-a vision of Erin beckoning to me. It was felt at once that 1 was Meagher. The choicest viands were placed before me, and most excellent wine. When I had done justice to all the good things, I approached the bar, and asked boldly for my bill. The proprietor, also an Irishman, said," From a man like you, who has suffered in the good cause, I can take no money; allow a brother patriot to shake you by the hand.” I allowed him. I further allowed all the waiters to shake hands with me, and stalked forth with the stern, resolved, but somewhat condescendingly dismal air, which I have seen assumed by patriots in exile, a gain I slept on the common, again I washed in the bay. Then I went to the post-office, found a letter for me from Washington with some money in it, and breakfasted.” On leaving the United States, the young diplomat was ordered successively to St Petersburg, Munich, Frankfort, Stockholm, Florence, and finally to Constantinople. Wherever his post might be, that, it seems, was the last place to find him. Once he received notice that he had been promoted to be the first Secretary of Legation at the Republic of Parana. He did not go thither; for, unknown to the Foreign Office, the Republic in question had ceased to exist. At the end qf six months he was indignantly asked by Lord Russell why he was not at Parand. Labouohere replied that ho had imagined that he had been appointed a secretary in partihn* infideliwn on account of his exemplary services, and that he might enjoy the salary in Europe. The official reply was a command to start at once. Labouohere asked "whither,” whereupon the Government discovered that n#

Republic to which they had appointed him had collapsed some ten months before. He was ordered to go to 8t Petersburg. Six months afterwards he was heard of at Horn* burg. Lord Bussell was once more very indig* nant. Labouohere replied that his means were small, bnt his zeal great, and that as neither his purse nor the Government liberality ran to the cost of trains, he was walking to Bnssia, and hoped to reach St Petersburg in the course of the year. The scapegrace wha worried the dons at Cambridge, it will be seen, led the Government a dance during his employment in the diplomatic service. There is a certain air of mischief to-day in his journalistic exploits, bnt he has brought to his work as a writer and an editor an amount of worldly experience and knowledge which serves him well, and enriches his chatty criticisms of men and things with a variety of wayside illustration and incident which is the secret of the success of his style.