ham. There were irreconcil- together. He asked me what I was doing on the Commission. I told him I was drawing my salary with scrupulous care, but that the Commissioners had decided not to hold another meeting until I had received an "imprest" from the Treasury. That very afternoon he called on me-it was Mr (now Sir) Brampton Gurdon-and asked me to let him take back the offensive epistle. The following week I received a letter in which, without any reference to their former effusion, "my Lords" sent me the imprest I had asked for. The Home Secretary asked me to take the secretaryship, and to give my best help to the new Chairman. This was early in 1876, but some valuable time was lost owing to the characteristic action of the Treasury. It appeared that the Duke had taken my predecessor abroad with him, intending to draft the report of the Commission during his voyage to India. And when I took over the work I found the accounts in such a hopeless muddle that I could not venture to accept any responsibility for them. Lord Aberdeen accordingly called a meeting of the Commission and explained matters to his colleagues; and as the result I was directed to write to the Treasury, detailing all the circumstances, and asking for money to enable us to carry out the wishes of the Secretary of State. In due course my letter brought me a reply which was unusually offensive even for the Treasury. I put it aside and took no notice of it. Happening to meet one of my Treasury friends in the Park one morning on my way to Whitehall, we walked down When at last we met for business it looked as if the Commission would end in s wrangle; but Lord Aberdeen's imperturbable bonhomie at last prevailed. prevailed. The Duke's draft report, which had been circulated to the members, was scouted; and a series of resolutions, adopted after discussion, became the basis of a report which the new Chairman undertook to prepare during the autumn recess. The Commission met again on the 14th November (1876), and on the 2nd February following this new report was signed. on The Royal Observatory of Edinburgh Commission, which which also I was engaged during 1876, deserves a passing notice. Every task of the kind won for me new friends, and in this connection I gained the friendship of the Royal Astronomer and Mrs Piazzi Smythe. I should mention also the Chairman, Lord Lindsay (now Earl of say he was medically Crawford), and Professor Tait; of the Commission had anand the acquaintance I then nounced his intention of preformed with Sir George Airy, paring the report himself. the Astronomer-Royal, proved But during my summer holivaluable to me afterwards in day I had a letter from him some of my literary work. to One of the chief points in the inquiry was the failure of the transit instrument of the Observatory. The instrument was mounted on two stone pillars, each a monolith, let down into the rock of the Calton Hill. It was seemingly "one of the most stable things on the earth with which to measure the movements of the stars." Thus it was that Professor Piazzi Smythe described it; but he went on to explain that, owing to the extraordinary nature of the stone of the piers, the heat of the little lantern which an astronomer uses in his work sufficed to warp them to such an extent as to throw the instrument out of gear; and much of the work of the Observatory had been thus rendered valueless during all the years before the mystery of the stone had been discovered. I had remonstrated against my being appointed on such a commission, for, as I told the Secretary of State, I did not know the difference between a transit instrument and a pump; but I became so interested in the inquiry that at its close I was able to write the report which led to the removal of the Observatory from the Calton Hill to its present site. This duty devolved on me unexpectedly. The Chairman It ordered to avoid all work for Lindsay to return by such a train; would he kindly let me go? He took up his pen and added his signature! Unlike these temporary commissions, the Prison Commission is a branch of the permanent Civil Service. It is a sub-department of the Home Office, and it was owing to the nature of its initial duties that it had to be constituted as a Commission. The various counties and municipalities of England were formerly responsible to provide accommodation for their prisoners. The Prison Act, 1865, maintained that responsibility, while introducing many reforms, and providing that the prisons should be open to full Government inspection by officers appointed by the Secretary of State. By the Prison Act, 1877, on the other hand, all prisons became vested in the Secretary of State, and all the responsibilities and duties of prison administration were transferred to Government, subject to inspection by committees of justices representing the former Prison Authorities. This change involved elaborate inquiries and accurate records as to the jail accommodation provided in each locality, and as to the services and emoluments of the staff. The extent of these inquiries may be estimated when I add that the prisons thus taken over by Government numbered 112, and that under Government administration this number was reduced to 60.1 Mr (now Viscount) Cross, from whom I had received many favours, asked me to undertake these duties, as Secretary to the Commission. This preliminary task completed, I threw myself con amore into the general work of the Department. The Chairman, Sir Edmund du Cane, I had known for years as Chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons. And though the other Commissioners, and the Inspectors appointed under the statute, were strangers to me, we soon became close friends, and I eagerly responded to their efforts to draw me into their work and to interest me in all branches of prison administration. But I was now a "civil servant," and I came to appreciate the wisdom of the maxim quoted in a previous chapter, “In the Civil Service, do as little as you can, and as quietly as you can." The one man whose goodwill was of practical importance to me was the Chairman, and the more active and zealous I became in the work of the Department, the more unpleasant did my relations become with Sir Edmund du Cane. Indeed, after Sir William Harcourt came to the Home Office his bearing toward me became extremely unpleasant. One of his special friends 1 Convict prisons, being already Government establishments, were not within the Prison Act, 1877. at last explained the mystery to me. Du Cane resented there being any communication with the Home Office on Prison matters save by himself, and, as I was in and out of the Under Secretary's room every day for Mr Liddell's friendship for me never flagged,and in my Secret Service work I was frequently closeted with the Secretary of State, Du Cane was jealous of me. I changed front at once. I never visited another prison, nor did I ever do a real day's work again in prison business. When the proofs of my repentance became manifest, I received a dinner invitation from Sir Edmund. Then came Saturday to Monday invitations to his house at Coombe, and we had many a country walk together, in which we talked on every imaginable subject except prisons. He was my firm friend ever afterwards, and helped me in many ways. The moral of all this may seem very immoral; but, while I vouch for the facts, I disclaim responsibility for the use people may make of them. that he had experience of the inside of a prison. An equivocal expression this; but his experience was not acquired as a convict, but as a Prison Governor. He was not only a most valuable member of the Board, but a charming colleague and companion. As Perry-Watlington lived in the country, and came to the office only as and when the work required his presence, he was kind enough to change rooms with me, and I thus obtained one of the pleasantest rooms in the whole building. "The Admiral," as we all called him, had the adjoining room, and he always liked to keep the door between us open. Though he was so much my senior in years we became regular chums, and he was excellent company. He had many a yarn about his seaservice, and stories innumerable about Knowsley, where he had been "Controller" for twenty years in the days of the great Lord Derby. His Knowsley life brought him into touch with all the great Conservative leaders, and he was well posted in the political gossip of the party. And even if he had been a civil servant from his youth up he could not have been fonder of a chat during office hours, especially when he had anything he deemed peculiarly confidential to impart. Once I had made my peace with the Chairman, we were a pleasant coterie on the Commission. The Commissioners were four in number-Sir E. F. du Cane, Admiral Wyndham Hornby, afterwards gazetted a K.C.B., Mr Perry-Watlington, who represented the county Justice element, and Captain This reminds me of an amusWalter Stopford, one of the ing incident which may be "Gentlemen Ushers" in the worth recounting. "Anderson, Royal Household. His fitness I have something to tell you for the Prison Department was in strict confidence," he an week I went into the City to make inquiries about them. Failing to find the broker who had bought for me, I applied to another Stock Exchange nounced one morning, as he sat down in my arm-chair. And he went on to tell me, as a State secret, that the Government had a scheme on foot which was certain to benefit acquaintance. He told me that Turkey. He had therefore in the City they could learn telegraphed that morning to nothing to explain the rise, his broker to buy some Turkish but it was evident that someBonds. He then went out, as thing was known in official I afterwards discovered, to give circles, as one day lately a the same tip "in strict con- number of orders to buy had fidence" to a number of his been telegraphed from the special friends in the various different Government offices. Government offices. I was I cleared out at £12, and the younger than I am now, and Bonds soon fell back to their the bait took. Turkish Bonds normal value. were quoted that morning at £8, so I decided to go in for a "deal," and I telegraphed to a stockbroker friend to buy for me. The Bonds began to go up, and one day the following I cannot say whether this story is typical of Stock Exchange ways, but it is thoroughly typical of Whitehall, and especially of my friend "the Admiral." |