BALFOUR’S BROKEN ROMANCE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21032, 22 May 1930, Page 11

BALFOUR’S BROKEN ROMANCE

AN INTERESTING- REVELATION. . Was the broken romance of the late Lord Balfour the love affair which kept him from marriage with Mary Gladstone? Hitherto it has been supposed that it was the/death of her cousin which shadowed Balfour’s life. There is some striking evidence in the “Diaries and Letters” of Mary, Gladstone (Mrs Drew) which have just been published. It occurs in a passage in a letter of Mary to her uncle. Lord Lyttelton, announcing her engagement to the Rev. ■ Harry Drew. “ I wrote Alice to-day at Whittingehame,” she says,, “so do tell A.J.B. . . . Only don’t let him ever try to marry without the real loving.” It will be noticed that there are omissions in the print of this letter, and, in view of the friendship between Mary and the Balfoura, one conclusion only seems to suggest itself. ' There' is something very striking in the thought that Gladstone’s third daughter might have married her father’s great opponent. It has hitherto been supposed that the broken romance of Lord Balhour’s life was with Mary Gladstone’s cousin, Mary Catherine Lyttelton, sister of Alfred Lyttelton. She died on March 21, 1876, at the age of. 24, Arthur Balfour beiqg then 27. Perhaps Lord Balfour’s biography, when it is written, may clear up the point. The two families were in very close relations in Mary’s- earlier years. Her diary has many references to the four gifted Balfour brothers, and- especially Arthur. She spent happy days with them at Hatfield and at Whittingehame —days of romping, talking, playing, quarrelling, and, above all, of music, music. The Balfours were all musicians. Arthur was a first-rate performer on the concertina, on which he used to play the compositions of Handel and Bach. His instruments were known as “ Infernal?” The recitals must have been delightful to listen to. It is quite clear that Mary, at least, in those days, was more than a little in love with Arthur Balfour. As time went on disagreements crept in. The political strain ruffled the friendship a little. There were references to his “ spiteful ” speeches. But the friend-’ ship in the end stood the strain, and the Balfours and the Gladstones never - lost touch. Mary, whatever were her feelings for Arthur Balfour, fully shared her father’s opinion of Disraeli. To' 'both of them he was the incarnation of all the evil forces. She was, if possibls, more hostile to him than her father. There are some very curious entries In the diary at the time of Disraeli’sdeath, and the “ consequent rush of high-est-flown praise. First-rate nonsense rampaged for a week.” Mary notes briefly Liddon’s sermon on the event. “There was something very awful in his concluding words; only in so far as they, are like God, will they be acceptable to, God, or some such words.’’ Evidently she considered that this test boded ill for the dead statesman in the next world. Then, again: “Father said Lord Beaconsfleld had lowered the whole standard of morality in politics, especially among Conservatives, in a lesser degree among Liberals., I asked him why then he proposed a national memorial of him? * Parliament and the nation had backed him up,’ he said, * they were responsible for him, a statue should be given to a man according to the place he occupied in the public estimation. History must eventually judge as to the result’ ” Mr Gladstone went on to justify his* - refusal to pronounce judgment openly In a characteristic sentence; “If all the wits in the world were gathered into one man, and that man occupied the whole of his lifetime in the judgment of a moral action,' he would be incompetent to do it.” ! All the greater lights in later Victorian; politics, art, and literature flit through... the diary. Ruskin was a specially dear' friend. Tennyson impressed Mary rather unfavourably at times. “He uses very vehement language in talking and Is not altogether good tempered,” she notes after, their first meeting. “He doesn't seem' much of a Christian, though I expect he' is very really religious.” Browning was a more sympathetic, character, though she found some of Lis ways trying., “Ho talks everybody down with his person in such disgusting proximity to yours and puffs and spits in your ' face. I try to think of his Abt Volger,,. but it was no use—he. couldn’t ever have-' written it.” . But when Browning died she wrote ofthe loss as “ UhgetOverable.” He was, of course, a follower of Mr Gladstone politically, while Tennyson was not.