Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 2.djvu/495

 Picturesque and Historical.' 1888.
 * 1) 'Westminster Abbey,' 1890; abridged edit. 1894.
 * 2) 'London City,' 1891.
 * 3) 'The Inns of Court and Chancery,' 1893: new edit. 1895.
 * 4) 'Whitehall' ('Portfolio' Monographs, No. 10), 1895.
 * 5) 'London Afternoons,' 1901.
 * 6) 'The Colour of London,' illustrated by Yoshio Markino, 1907.

Loftie's books on art include: Other publications were:
 * 1) 'A Plea for Art in the House' 12mo, 1876.
 * 2) 'Catalogue of the Prints and Etchings of Hans Sohald Beham,' 16mo, 1877.
 * 3) 'Lessons in the Art of Illuminating: Examples from Works in the British Museum,' 4to, 1885.
 * 4) 'Landseer and Animal Painting in England,' 1891.
 * 5) 'Reynolds and Children's Portraiture in England,' 1891.
 * 6) 'The Cathedral Churches of England and Wales,' 1892.
 * 1) 'A Century of Bibles, or the Authorised Version from 1611 to 1711,' 1872.
 * 2) 'Windsor: a Description of the Castle, Park, Town, and Neighbourhood,' folio, 1886.



LOFTUS, AUGUSTUS WILLIAM FREDERICK SPENCER (1817–1904), diplomatist, born at Clifton, Bristol, on 4 Oct. 1817, was fourth son of John Loftus, second marquis of Ely in the peerage of Ireland (1770-1845), by his wife Anna Maria, daughter of Sir Henry Watkin Dashwood, baronet, of Kirtlington Hall, Oxfordshire. His mother was lady of the bedchamber to Queen Adelaide, and his sister-in-law, Jane (daughter of James Joseph Hope-Vere), wife of his brother, John Henry Loftus, third marquis, held the same post in the household of Queen Victoria from 1857 till 1889. Having been privately educated by [q. v. Suppl. I], afterwards bishop of St. Albans, Lord Augustus spent several months in 1836-7 abroad with his father, and saw King Louis-Philippe, Talleyrand, and other notabilities. He was early introduced at the court of King William IV, who undertook to 'look after him' in the diplomatic service. His first appointment, which he received from Lord Palmerston, was dated 20 June 1837, the day of the king's death, in the name of his successor. Queen Victoria.

Until 1844 he was unpaid attaché to the British legation at Berlin, at first under Lord William Russell, and from 1841 under, Lord Burghersh, afterwards eleventh earl of Westmoreland [q. v.]. The intimate relations into which Loftus came with the Prussian court lasted with a few interruptions, till 1871. In 1844 he was appointed paid attaché at Stuttgart. Russia was represented there by Prince Gortchakoff, with whom Loftus formed an enduring intimacy. The British legation was also accredited to Baden; and in the summer months Loftus soon accompanied his chief to Baden-Baden, where he maintained a summer residence till 1871.

Just before the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848, Loftus, at the request of Sir (afterwards Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe) [q. v.], joined his special mission to several European courts, when on his way to Constantinople. He thus witnessed many episodes in the revolutionary movement at Berlin, Munich, and Trieste. He persuaded Canning to desist from attempting mediation at Venice between the insurgents and the government. During the Baden revolution of 1840 Loftus remained in Carlsruhe or Baden-Baden. In personal meetings with insurgents he showed himself cool and outspoken; and he witnessed amid personal peril the surrender of Rastatt to the Prince of Prussia, which ended the rebellion.

An appointment in 1852 as secretary of legation at Stuttgart, to reside at Carlsruhe, was quickly followed in February 1853 by promotion to the like post at Berlin. In September 1853 Loftus acted there as chargé d'affaires in the absence of the British minister. [q. v.]. The moment was one of critical importance in European affairs. The Crimean war was threatening, and direction of the foreign policy of Prussia was passing at the time into the hands of Bismarck, whom Loftus 'always considered to be hostile to England, however much he may have occasionally admired her' (Reminiscences, 1st ser. i. 207). With the diplomatic history of the Crimean war Berlin was little concerned. Loftus warmly repudiated the charge brought against him in the memoirs of Count Vitzthum of having obtained by surreptitious means the Russian plan of proposed operations at Inkerman; the plan was supposed to have been communicated by the Tsar to Count Münster, and by him to the King of Prussia (ibid. 1st ser. i. 251;, St. Petersburg and London, 1852-64, i. 90). At the close of the war, Loftus reported as to the British consulates on the German shores of the Baltic, several of which had been