ANGELA GEORGINA, BARONESS BURDETT-COUITS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 79

ANGELA GEORGINA, BARONESS BURDETT-COUITS.

If you a-sk for a monument of the life* work" of Lady Btirdett-Coutts, look about you. You will find it in the splendid building in the heart of the East End that still testifies to perhaps the most ambitious enterprise ever planned by private philanthropy : or in v drinkingtiough for horses outside the Zoological Gardens. You will find it recorded in the history of three great bishoprics ot our Empire over-seas, or In reports ot nil sorts and conditions of men irom .. i . •- 'pected corners of the globe. '"Since , •*, Baroness Bm'dett -Coutts first gave a cotton gin the mission at Abeokeuta,'' wrote a special correspondent on the Gold Coast, "the cotton trade, which is almost entirely in the hands of the natives, has it-creased -.vonderfully, the approximate yearly export being upwards of 10,000 : bales." In the immense range of "the Baroness's"' generosity there is something that appeals to the imagination. Hers was a philanthropy that had learned "to think imperially" long before the phrase beeanae a- catchword. "Yet," Mr BurdettCoutts once said to the writer,' "I doubt whether the mere enumeration of the philanthropic work she has accomplished would ever adequately represent the influence she has always exercised and still exercises. It coes, I think, a good deal deeper. The secret of it probably lies in the power of example and initiative." — The Power of Example. — All who have had the privilege of being connected- with Lady TSurdrett-Goutts-. in any phase of her work, seem to be impressed by the same quality. It is not only the achievements that have won their admiration, but the penetration and clearsighted intellect, the statesmanship of philanthropy, on which these achievements are based. When the Baroness was organising the section devoted to t-he philanthropic work of British women in the Columbian Exhibition of 1893, she characteristically excluded all reference to the part she herself had played therein. The managers appealed to one of her most; intimate friends, the late Duchess of Teck, to rectify this omission. The Duchess gladly complied by arranging a record v illustraiing the chief events of her friend's philanthropic work. "But," she, wrote, "I would, like to add two remarks. ; Great £ts have been the intrinsic benefits that the Baroness has conferred on others, i the most signal of all has been the power of example — an incalculable quantity, which no record of events can measure. She' has ever sought, also, to increase the usefulness- of women in their homes, tc extend their opportunities of self-improve- ' merit, and to deepen the sources of influence which they derive from moral worth and Christian life." The force .exercised by one personality over others is perhaps always- rightly described as an "incalculable quantity"' ; but the impression the Baroness leaves on all who come into contact with her is always the same. For her philanthropy has ever been only a matter of giving;, but of giving in such a way as to ensure the most wholesome and most enduring results of the benefac- ! tion. She never cared for the easier part of' the haphazard Lady Bountiful. To her philanthropy was more than a mood or an incidental occupation ; it was a career to which she devoted the talents of head and heart — a career that has covered and outlasted the longest reign in history. — How the Fortune Came. — In the year or Queen Victoria's accession the youngest daughter of Sir Francis Burdett, the generous champion of Catholic emancipation, entered into the possession of her wealth. That a fortune so vast as it then seemed should, be placed in the hands of a young girl enlisted more than common interest. Moreover, the story of her inheritance had some savour oi- romance that appealed to the popular imagination. When Mr Thomas Coutts, the founder of the firm that bears his name, and the banker of George 111, died, in 1822, he left his fortune to his second wife. She, before her marriage, had been Harriett Mellon, the actress, whom Sheridan had discovered in the provinces and brought to Driiry Lane, where her Lydia Languish won a cordial reception from the critics. En secondes noces, she married the fourteenth Duke of St. Albans. One of i,he banker's daughters by his first wife had married Sir Francis Burdett, and her yoimgest daughter in turn became the heiress of her step-grandmother. Young, immensely wealthy, and distin-i guished by birth and family connection, polite society was at her feet. Her energy^ and independence of character alone prevented her from making cultured idleness or pleasure-seeking the business of her life. She elected to put her talents to, other uses. In the forties she endowed the bishoprics of Capetown and Adelaide. li few years later, at the cost of £50,000^ she founded and endowed the see ol British Columbia. In her father's old con^ stituency of Westminster she built anc& furnished St. Stephen's .at the cost off £6.000. It would be tedious even to enu« fc nierate the number of churches she ha*;

built or restored. The Church rarely appealed to her in vain, even where its claims on her were of the slightest. Thus, in the sixties, the incumbent of one of the poorest districts in Carlisle, lacking a more suitable place of worship, had to conduct the services in a disused workhouse. "Have you ever thought of askinc Miss Burdett-Coutts to help you?" asked Dr Tait, then Bishop of Ripon. Having not a shadow of claim on her generosity, his friend was reluctant to approach her. "I think she would rather like it, ' said Dr Tait. In answer to this appeal Miss Burdett-Coutts built another St. Stephen's, seating 600 people, in Carlisle.

Charles Dickens Her Guide. — Very early in life the young heiress elected to look the naked realities of voverty and squalor in the face. Her guide Mas Charles Dickens. With him she visited some of the worst plague spots of the Bast End. A festering sore at that time was Nova Scotia Gardens in Bethnal Green, where "violence, cruelty, immodesty, and uncleanliness were unmitigated and almost unconcealed." The place was wholly evil, and reeked of evil. As if by a stroke of the pen she blotted it out. On its site in 1862 she built the first block of model dwellings, with accommodation for two hundred families, erected in London for the poor. If the Columbia Rquare buildings were the first of their kind, they can still, in many respects, bear comparison with many modelled on them Liter. Jt was the first practical experiment in the great problem of the housing of the poor, and it remains an enduring success to this day. Columbia Square became the scene of its founder's most ambitious and daring experiment. Three years later, she built here the Columbia Market, with a view of establishing a food supply for the poor direct from the producer to the consumer. In other words, it aimed 1 at the elimination of the middleman and of intermediate profits. Nothing that money could provide was spared to> equip the market. It cost close on a quarter of a million. "If," said an astonished prelate on entering the Central Hall, "1 could see a pulpit, I could imagine myself in the nave of a cathedral." In some ways, indeed, it bears a striking likeness to the side aisles of Westminster Abbey. Opened with great state in 1869, the market wa=s an immediate and conspicuous failure. Into the reasons of its failure it would be idle to enter. They go deep into abstruse problems of economy. Every vested interest was arraigned against it, and every "ring" boycotted it. Miss Burdett-Coutts, by deed of gift, transferred the market to the Corporation of London. The Corporation did nothing with masterly diplomacy for several years. In 1884 Mr Burdett-Coutts reopened it as a fish market. In the teeth of opposition he kept it open for two years. But be had relied on the co-operation of the great railway companies, and the railways failed him. For the second time the market had to be closed. So to-day the beautiful Columbia Market stands for the record of a faikire, but of a failure great enough to. be worthy

of so splendid a monument.

— In Ireland. —

On a hardly less heroic scale than her philanthropic experiments in the East End is the relief work the Baroness has acompKshed in the south-west corner of Ireland. Here what may be called the statesmanship of her philanthropy is most conspicuously illustrated. Her aim has always been, as Mr Burdett-Coutts once piit it, that "whatever she did should not be of a finite but of reproductive character, improving the- moral as well as the material condition of those whom she assisted." In the grievous famine year of '62 the Roman Catholic priest of Baltimore appealed to her compassion. On the mainland and in. the islands the people were starving. Mr W. H. Wills, the friend of Charles Dickens, who visited the district ->n her behalf, confirmed the piteous tale. She then despatched three parties of emigrants to Canada. At the suggestion of Sir Robert Peel, Miss Burdett-Coutts opened relief stores at Cape Clear. But before long she had to explain that these stores were not to be mistaken for Elisha's cruse. Instead of supporting the recipients of her bounty indefinitely, she set about to put their industries — embroidery andi fishing — on their feet. For years the work went on quietly, unobtrusively, and at great expense. The natural resources of the coast lay in its fisheries. Since the great famine they had been wholly neglected, while the fishing fleets of Scotland, France, and Holland harvested in Irish waters. While Gal way Bay was alive with fish, "the people in the western towns were eating their potatoes with herrings cured in Scotland." The need, apart from the apathy in Which the people had sunk, was for sea-going boats and suitable gear. Large capital was needed tc supply these deficiencies. In 1880 the Baroness advanced £3 0.000, and encouraged the men to form small companies to repay the loans advanced in instalments of 10 per cent. Kvery advance was punctually repaid. Only one man deliberately tried to default. He was publicly "named" from the pulpit, ;<nd public opinion saw to it that he never defaulted again. Within five years the fishing fleet of Baltimore was valued at £50,000. Its harbour, formerly deserted, now sheltered a fleet of four hundred sail. The revival of the fishing industry meant the lasting return of prosperity to a desolate countryside.

— "His Lordship Lady Coutts." — ■

Nor were the benefits of her scheme confined to the place of its first experiment. Chiefly for her advocacy and support the fishery training school for 400 boys, for the instruction of the fisherman's industry on scientific lines, was built at Baltimore in 3887. When "Ins Lordship Lady Coutts," as the foundress was called by a peasantry somewhat puzzled by ths proper style- and title of a peerage conferred on a woman, opened the school, the coast from Queenstown t# Baltimore twinkled

with bonfires. Had she done no other philanthropic work, her well-planned scheme for the revival of the Irish fishing industry Mould have sufficed tc make her xame worthy to be nad in honour. Of ail creditors' the distressful country has ever had, the Baroness is, perhaps, the most generous. When, in 1880. the potato crop faiied, through Mr Burdett-Coutts she offered to advance through the Government a quarter of a million to supply fresh and better seed for 40,000 acres, and on repayment .-f the loan to devote the capital to i-elieving the destitute tenantry from the burden of usurious debts. The late Mr W. H. Smith was probably not an emotional man, but he has left it on record that the munificence of the offer staggered him. "The sum and the idea are so vast," he wrote lo Lady Burdett-Coutts on leceiving the proposal, "that I should wish to know if I am right before I open my lips.' 1

— The Hostess of Great Men. —

Apart from her public acts of beneficence, the Baroness has always made her influence felt in social life. Her sympathies are catholic, and men in every walk in life — in science, in art, and in letters — have Lad reason to acknowledge her helping hand. Always a great lady in the best sense of the word, her quiet charm of manner and the fascination of her conversation combined to make her popularity universal. It has been said of her that if in the Victorian era it had been possible to form a salon, Lady Bur-dett-Coutts, had she cared, was one of the very few hostesses who could have done it. For a period of more than 50 years there were few men of note in our history who were not her frequent guests either at Stratton street or at Holly Lodge. The great Duke of Wellington was one of her earliest friends. The tapestry that hangs (or used to hang) over the pulpit in St. Stephen's, \Westminster, was his gift, and had, at one time, furnished the tent of Tippoo Sahib at Seringapatam. Sir Robert Peel, Beaconsfield, and most other leading statesmen and politicians of the last reign were her frequent guests. Men of science, such as Owen and Buckland, owed .much to her interest in their work. Moffat, Livingstone, and Stanley could attest to her enthusiasm for African exploration.

— Her Wonderful Memory. —

Allusion has already been made to her close friendship with Charles Dickens, and to the influence he exercised over her work. She was among the first to recognise the genius of Henry Irving, who today is one of her oldest friends. Many a painter of note owed some of his first commissions to her discernment One of the last visits General Gordon paid before setling out on his last mission to Khartoum was to Stratton street, and the pocket book she gave him for a keepsake was in his possession when he died. Few will forget her stirring appeal to British women to hasten on the errand of Gordon's rescue. Probably the last messenger to reach Khartoum from the outside world was despatched from Morocco by the Baroness. The late Duchess of Teck during her visits to town was almost invariably her guest at Stratton street, and only death broke her lifelong friendship with Sir Harry Keppel, the father of the navy. Of late years, under the weight of her many years, Lady Burdett-Coutts has inevitably elected to withdraw more and more from public and social life. Yet her wonderful memory, stored with her many recollections of famous men and great events, makes her conversation as fascinating as it ever was, and her mind has lost nothing of its amazing vitality. In the course of a career that never wearied in well-doing, many unique distinctions have been bestowed upon her. She is the only woman on whom a peerage of the United Kingdom has ever been conferred in recognition of public services rendered. She is the only woman who has received the freedom of the city. These and other honours have fitly descended on one who, "after my mother," as his Majesty once said of Lady BurdettCoutts, "is the most remarkable woman in the kingdom."