account of the conference. "One evening," she says, "stands out clear in my memory among many which I spent in Mr Drummond's company. I was spending a day and night at the Kers'. After dinner Lieutenant Drummond called, and presently he asked for a private interview with Mr Ker. They just stayed with us for tea, and retired; and it was very late before they looked in upon us. On his part it was only to say, 'Good night,' and then Mr Ker told us what it was about. Lord Althorp, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, had sent for Mr Drummond to ask him to be his private secretary, dwelling much on this being the united wish of the Cabinet.' Mr Drummond also dwelt much on this, and so did Mr Ker in telling us-repeating the words again and again. Mr Ker's answer to the request for advice was not advice, but setting forth the alternative choice of scientific and political life. Mr Drummond was quite sure that he could hold by his profession, and return to it at pleasure. Mr Ker insisted that, whatever Mr Drummond now believed and intended, he would pass over entirely into political life, and live and die in it. They left off, differing as to the liberty which would remain if the office were accepted, but both evidently wishing that it should be accepted. Mr Ker fully believed that night that it would be, and he certainly desired it."* In the end he did accept the office, and became for a time the right hand of Lord Althorp.

Lord Althorp (afterwards Earl Spencer) was leader of the House of Commons as well as Chancellor of the Exchequer, so that Drummond's attention was now directed to all the political questions of the time. He was at once doing good work and serving an appren

* Letter to Mr Robert Cox of Edinburgh, June 17, 1865.

ticeship. "The duties of his office," says General Larcom, " gave him much valuable insight into the details of public life, but were chiefly useful in enabling him to cement the esteem in which he was held by the members of the Government, and by none more than his noble chief, to whom the clearness of his conceptions and the straight-forward honesty of his mind were eminently congenial. There could be no greater compliment paid to him than was paid by Lord Spencer. 'One of the most pleasing recollections of his political life,' he is stated to have said, was that it made him acquainted with Mr Drummond.'”

The friendship which sprang up between his lordship and Mr Drummond continued till death interrupted it. In 1839 Lord Spencer, hearing that Drummond was in London, wrote to him to come to Althorp. "This gives me a chance of seeing you again once more before I die." Death was, however, to overtake the younger man first. When it did, the noble lord hastened to address to the bereaved mother words of comfort and consolation. It would be unfair to cite the tribute he then paid to the amiable qualities and indefatigable energy of his friend; a tribute in which, to enhance the merit of another, he made a surrender of much that was his own. The language of consolation is apt to be exaggerated, and eulogy in such a case to be strained to yield comfort. There must, however, have been a substantial foundation for the great regard, admiration, and appreciation which that letter expressed.

During 1833, Drummond's mother and sister were residing in London or its vicinity, and the correspondence, by means of which his course of action has so often been tracked, was suspended. From Miss Martineau, however, we have some notes of his occupations. "As

his business then lay in Downing Street," she says, “and I lived in the next street, Fludyer Street, he used to come to my study from Lord Althorp or Lord Grey when they wanted my opinion on measures which they were then preparing. Our express business was (commonly) discussion of certain items of Lord Althorp's forthcoming budget, and changes in some of them, and consultations about Lord Grey's tithe measure, now forgotten in the final settlement. In these conversations I was impressed, as at all times, with Lieutenant Drummond's (as he was then called) diligent and earnest attention to the business in hand. In those days it was the one disclosure of the ardour which was otherwise concealed by a reserve, even distance or coldness of manner, which few then understood. The truth all came out when he went to Ireland. Before that, the impression of even his friends was, that while the most upright, honourable, diligent, and able of public servants and private gentlemen, he was somewhat cold of nature, and, in his personal regards, politic beyond even the repute of Scotsmen. All that set of impressions was effaced from the moment when his enthusiasm on behalf of Ireland began to shine out. By its light the former attributes became translucent and very beautiful; and warm admiration and affection succeeded to the respect and favourable expectation (cordial enough in their way) with which he had always been regarded.

"Yet there were signs by which people might have known more than they did; e.g., he was full of concern, was really gravely concerned, while his friends were laughing at him for his apprehensions, that we must conquer China.' They nicknamed him 'The Conqueror of China,' while he had good reasons to give, and actually

did lay down the plan of future events, almost as accurately in the main features as if it had been done thirty years later. When the events happened, the friends. remembered him and his reasons, and the gravity with which he offered them."

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go;

The summer session of 1833 having ended, Drummond set off on a series of long vacation visits. From Sir George Philips' he went to Lord Althorp's, and thence to Brougham Hall. To the last place he seems not to have been particularly desirous to go, but the imperious Brougham would take no refusal. 'He seems determined," says Brougham's secretary, "that you shall and he adds, when you are together you can do a good stroke of work. He also says that he has written to the King, strongly adverting to your services, a strong panegyric on Drummond's services about the Borough Bill.' You must come. I know from experience that when he once sets his heart on anything, there is no rest till he has his way." He was obliged to go, and early in October returned to town, accompanied by the Chancellor.

By the following spring his mother had returned to the north, and the correspondence recommenced. There is not much to be learned from it, however. The spring was occupied with preparations for new bills on tithes, the poor-law, and church-rates. The letters abound in criticisms on the opposition of the Times to the new poor-law, and its assaults on the "lath and plaster Cabinet;" many of the letters, written to be shown to the late lamented Charles Maclaren, contain hints and suggestions for leaders in the Scotsman. If the Scotsman still receives such assistance, no one need wonder at its information being at once early and correct. Communications to, or for behoof of, Mr

M

Maclaren were made almost daily. At the same time Drummond was supporting the Government through the press in London, the Globe and Morning Chronicle being the chief of the Government papers. In the Chronicle at this time he wrote some leading articles, chiefly on questions of finance.

In May 1834, the attitude assumed by the majority of the Cabinet in regard to the question of the appropriation of the surplus fund of the Irish Church (raised first by a bill of Ministers in the previous year, and now again by an independent resolution brought forward by Mr Ward), led to the resignation of Mr Stanley and Sir James Graham, and also of the Duke of Richmond and Lord Ripon. This dissolved the Administration of Lord Grey. For a time it was doubtful who would succeed to the seals of office. The Commons, it was understood, desired an administration with Althorp for its head. His lordship, on the other hand, sick of government, was longing to escape from its cares. 'He is so desirous to keep out," says Drummond, "that I do not think it likely that any combination of circumstances will prevent him." He was, however, prevented. The King sent for Lord Melbourne; and the condition on which Lord Melbourne would alone agree to undertake the difficult task of forming a Government was, that Althorp should continue to be Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader of the Lower House. much hesitation Althorp consented. "His services and situation entitled him," says Drummond, "if he had been actuated by the feelings of ordinary politicians, to expect that, if the Government continued in the hands of the Whigs, and if he was called to take a part in it, he should be placed at its head. He has sacrificed every feeling of this kind, if he has any; he has sacrificed his

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