IN

CHAPTER XII

Autumn Days

N days to come historians will mark the decade 1870-80 as being of great importance in the history of our English social life. Great as was the outward prosperity during the Whig ascendancy, the inevitable and logical result of the Liberal principles that were in the air was the growth of the power of the democracy and the lessening of that of the great nobles. Accordingly we find that a succession of blows was struck by those Liberal ministries which even down to our own time were made up to a great extent of members of, or dependents on, the great Whig Oligarchy. The Russells and the Cavendishes diligently sawed off the main branches of the political tree on which they sat. Reform, the abolition of the Corn Laws, and the following and inevitable agricultural depression, began the ruin which the Finance Bill will doubtless complete in process of time.

Those who believe that the survival of great families is not the result of luck or chance, but of certain definite qualities that are of service to the family as

such in the struggle for existence, will expect to find that some will survive even under the most adverse conditions. Darwin and Wallace, Huxley and Haeckel have made it plain to us, however much we may dislike the conclusion, that social equality is impossible in the nature of things. I believe that both science and history point to the survival of fighting races and men, and to the ultimate subjection to them of the men of learning and commerce. The man who fights has a natural tendency to that feeling for the clan, the subordination to a head, the desire to work for the common interests of its members, which is by no means the least important among the qualities that enable families to survive and to rule.

Hundreds and thousands of families in our English middle classes have opportunities for founding a clan, of which they do not avail themselves. Every one must note the positive aversion of many well-to-do Englishmen from helping their own relatives. The money they will gladly expend on charities or on strangers, is denied to the necessitous among those of their own blood. Now it is just the opposite of this that is the source of the vital power and energy of great families. They desire to forward the interests of all who bear their name, and they receive in return from those they help, loyal support and respect.

The story of the Duke of Beaufort's life shows us the force of the blows that have fallen on the great

landed families, which yet survive the disasters which have overtaken them. To compare small things to great, the continued existence of our ruling families is historically a parallel to one of the causes of the survival of the Church of Rome, viz., the coherence and unity of its members.

These thoughts, which come almost unbidden at this point of our story, prepare us for the shadows that fell across the closing years of the eighth Duke's life. The story of adversity shows him at his bestalways strong, cheery, and full of thought for the pleasures of others, and ever anxious that his own cares should cast no gloom over the joy of those about him. He showed that fine courage that does not think the whole world should be in tears because it is sad, or grudge to others a joy impossible to itself.

Yet the full weight of agricultural depression was not felt at once, though already there were signs of the times. The Duke was himself a good farmer and an experienced landlord, and was in touch with the practical farmers among his tenants. What has since happened did not then take him altogether by surprise. His life at this period had so many interests and occupations that time passed swiftly, bringing with it the changes that approach with footsteps so light and soft that they startle us when at last we realise their presence.

The Duke of Beaufort occupied a peculiar position.

He was looked up to as a man whose advice

might be sought with advantage on a variety of subjects. By the general public he was regarded as a sort of king of the world of sport. His opinion on such matters was even sought by those who were themselves no mean authorities.

To the events of his life as they followed one another we must turn our attention, for the Duke's is a life of action rather than of thought. He had still twenty-nine years of a busy life before him. In another chapter I have referred to the successful time of racing that began in 1870. His long connection with the town of Bristol as High Steward brought him much to fill his time besides that regular county business which is part of the ordinary routine of a great land-owner's life. Of this part of his life I have said but little, for such services, though valuable to the country, deal with petty, though by no means unimportant details, and do not make interesting reading. Moreover, they are given and accepted so much as a matter of course, that they make but little mark. Yet in days to come the historian of the nineteenth century will have to record how the wide gap between imperial and parish affairs was filled up voluntarily by the squires and parsons. County Councils and Parish Councils have now altered methods, but the men who have leisure and good-will, who are trusted and beloved by their neighbours, still continue to earn their meed of influence and consideration by service. Circumstances now pointed to a change at the