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LORD MACAULAY'S LAST TOUR IN ITALY.

1856.

Lord Macaulay to Earl Stanhope.

MY DEAR STANHOPE,

Holly Lodge, Kensington,
November 1, 1856.

I have dated my letter wrongly. I am writing at the table of our board room,' while Panizzi is reading the minutes of the last meeting, Hamilton examining vouchers, and the Duke 2 on one side of me, and the Dean3 on the other, listening to the secretary, with an attention which puts me to shame. I am very well-for me, and have had a most delightful tour. The passage of Mont Cenis, the Lake of Como, Milan, Verona, Venice, Genoa, and the beautiful and magnificent road along the Mediterranean from Genoa to Nice, have filled my mind with pleasant thoughts and images, which will last me my life. I availed myself of your introduction to your friend at Venice.* He was as well known to my courier and my gondolier as the Campanile of St. Mark. He proved a most friendly and intelligent cicerone. We shall have many

1 At the British Museum. 2 Of Somerset.

3 Of St. Paul's.

4 Rawdon Brown, Esq.
H 2

opportunities of talking over what I have seen. On the whole, I think that the finest landscape that I saw was the view on the Italian side of Mont Cenis; the finest building, the Cathedral of Milan; the finest relique of antiquity, the Amphitheatre at Verona; the finest picture, Titian's Assumption of the Virgin; and the finest city, Genoa. But Venice, though not exactly the finest, is beyond all doubt the most interesting city that I visited.

I am now stationary, and am beginning to work again, though with very little expectation of living to publish anything more. But the employment itself is a pleasure.

I have read De Tocqueville's book, and agree with you in thinking highly of it.

I have been greatly amused by your Devonshire anecdotes. I was not aware that haunted houses were still to be found in England.1

My kindest regards to Lady Stanhope, and to my Valentine.

Ever yours truly,

T. B. MACAULAY.

the neighbours declared it to be haunted.

1 In reference to an account | years had remained unlet because which I had given him of a cottage belonging to me in a remote rural parish, which for several

A MOTTO FOR A MEDAL.

1846.

Sir Walter C. James, Bart., to the Right Hon.
Sir Robert Peel.

DEAR SIR ROBERT, Whitehall Place, June 15, 1846.

I send you the Medal,' as I promised. The artist begs that I will add, it is as yet in an incomplete condition.

The mottos we have thought of are

Pax quaeritur bello.

Leges inter arma.

Catervae consiliis repressae.

Vincit qui patitur.

The first is the general favourite.

Lord Mahon

thinks Pax quaesita bello more elegant than quaeritur. Pax in bello is the motto of the Godolphins.

Lord Hardinge's own family motto, which, I suppose, he will not change, is Posterâ laude recens—a very good one, but not, I think, so appropriate to this medal as some of those I have named.

Ever, my dear Sir Robert, &c.,

W. C. JAMES.

1 Lord Hardinge's Medal.

Sir Robert Peel to Sir Walter James.

MY DEAR SIR Walter,

Whitehall, June 16, 1846.

I return the Medal, which is very creditable to the artist.

I am afraid none of the mottos have any specific reference to the exploits on the Indus.

.

The character of those exploits was this:

An unjust aggression was instantly repelled, and honourable terms of peace were voluntarily granted to the vanquished assailant.

Pax quaesita bello is not very applicable to that result; at least not more applicable than it is to any other just war, of whatever duration, ending in peace.

Almost every party to a war (except one of pure confiscation of territory) would allege peace to have been the object.

Leges inter arma is hardly applicable to a lawless state like the Punjaub.

Catervae consiliis repressae omits daring valour and military skill.

Vincit qui patitur, if true, should be the motto of the Sikhs. They were the sufferers.

Venit-vicit-pacem dedit, or confecit, is objectionable from the plagiarism. Still, it is the truth.

Hostibus victis pax perfecta, or something like it, is

in Sallust; but the fault is, it is not specifically appropriate.

I wish I could have rendered you more assistance.

1 The Motto finally chosen was "Mens æqua in arduis," and it was so satisfactory to Lord Hardinge

Ever yours, &c.,

R. PEEL.1

that (on his peerage) he chose it in preference to that of his own family. (W. C. J., 1862.)

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