Page:The invasion of the Crimea Vol 7.djvu/505

 APPENDIX. 461 p. 308), but Lord Panmure did not. About ten days after his resolve of the 12th of February, he abandoned it, saying it was ' useless to resist the storm, we must try and guide it. ' — Private letter, February 23d. Note 69. — Mr Henry Grenfell (before entering Parliament) served under Lord Panmure as his private secretary, and is one to whose opinion I cannot help attaching great weight. In the following thoughtful words, he says :'...! naturally should like that what you liave to say of my old master should do justice to him. There is one private letter to Lord Raglan which shows tlie exact nature of the man.* In it he describes the reasons why he accepted the place which the Duke of New- castle vacated. Lord Panmure was in fact a thorough gentle- man, violent, absolute, and strong-willed. Very impatient of contradiction, and conscious of the disadvantages under which he laboured from a want of polish which his antecedents pre- vented him from attaining, and which was possessed by all those among whom he sat, he still was in heart and conduct a homo rjenerosus. As to his mind, you may judge from his despatches. He had, I believe, found his want of education early in life, and set himself to cure it by living at Edinburgh for the purpose of improving himself after he left the army. . . . As to his power of work when he had not the gout, it was unlimited. He rose early, worked at home till two, came to the office, where he staid as long as any one could stay with him, and then went home to a light dinner, and worked till two or three in the morning. Whatever he did, he did with his might. But of epigrams, verses, sentiment, or light accomplisliments, he knew nothing and cared less.' Note 70. — In one instance known to me, a sagacious physician inferred the access of gout from signs of mental disturbance, and within a few weeks, the accuracy of his diagnosis was jiroved ; for the malady breaking out visibly assailed one of the sufferer's limbs. The mental disturbance then ceased, and did not return. The mental disturbance thus caused is not necessarily accom- panied by any delusion, and may show itself only in an access of morbid energy, ill directed and ill controlled by the judgment. Note 71. — Of the soundness of tliis very plain negative I hold decisive proof ; for first, I see Lord Panmui-e writing : ' I cannot ' find that your lordship has been in the habit of keeping H.M. 's ' Government acquainted in a clear and succinct manner with ' the operations in which you are engaged, the progress which of Feb. 1855 from which I liavo quoted at pp. 298, 299.
 * I believe the private letter above alluded to is the one of the 12th