of the richest and most important districts of Persia, districts in which Russian trade has largely developed of late years. Both commercially and for strategic purposes this line would be in every way superior to one connecting with the Transcaspian railway. It would start from Erivan, which is now being joined by rail with Alexandropol (for Kars) and Tiflis, and it would reach Tabriz by way of Khoi, where it would pick up the traffic of the Erzerum-Trebizond caravan route.

In favour of the curious dénoûment of the RussoPersian railway discussions of 1889-90, it may well be urged that Persia was not yet ready for railways. The more promising alternative of road-construction was next taken up, as more in keeping with the needs of the country. It may be said with some truth that, in the matter of internal communications, Persia was not much more advanced in 1889 than in the days of Marco Polo. Arterial roads for wheel-traffic from Tabriz and from Resht (on the Caspian) to Teheran, and thence to the Karun ports in the south, were proposed. Concessions for the roads from Resht to the capital, and from the capital to the Karun, were obtained by Russian and British establishments respectively. The Russian road, notwithstanding the immense physical difficulties presented by the great and sudden rise from the low level of the Caspian Sea to the tableland of Central Persia, was completed about two years ago; while the British road, which, unfortunately, owing to local circumstances, had to be commenced at the wrong end, viz. at Teheran, has only advanced one fourth of its projected length. It therefore serves merely as a prolongation of the Russian road, which, as far as Teheran, serves Russian trade only. Aided thus by reduced transport charges and in receipt of Government stimulus, that trade is enabled to compete successfully with British as far south as Isfahan, Yezd and Sultanabad. A Russian Consul was appointed to Isfahan two or three years ago, Yezd being included in his circle of observation.

In justice to the promoters of the British road-the Imperial Bank of Persia-it must be said that the road enterprise was thrust upon them, British capitalists being at the time ill-disposed towards Persia. They stepped in to fill the breach at an important juncture. But the

resources which they could spare were found insufficient to complete the task in hand; the Persian Government was without any available funds, and financial assistance could not be procured from either the British or the Indian Government. On the other hand, the Russian company-a syndicate of merchants in Moscow-upon whom the construction of the Russian road devolved, were helped out by their Government when they had come to the end of their capital, but not of their extremely onerous undertaking. The Russian Government took up debentures in the concern to the extent of the capital (100,000l.). When this was insufficient, a further sum of 50,000l. was forthcoming from the same source. As a result, we are now enabled to travel in comparative luxury all the way from London to the Persian capital. On the British side, we have already spoken of the caravan road from Ahwaz on the Karun to the tableland of Persia at Isfahan. It may be hoped that the Bank project is destined to be realised in the same manner; and that any obstacle may be removed which stands in the way of the extension of the northern road from the capital to the Karun ports.

This necessary development of our trade routes from the south should be accompanied, we venture to suggest, by a substantial increase in our Consular establishment. Englishmen, and not merely Persians acting as British agents, should be appointed to these posts. At the present time our Consular service in Persia is being starved by the British Treasury. For every shilling saved hundreds of pounds will either be lost or will have to be spent to regain our ascendency. The Persians are keenly observant of the signs of the times; and any indifference on the part of our Government is at once perceived. The Consuls form centres for the spread of our influence as well as for the assistance of our commerce. It is important that their number should be sufficient to place them in evidence throughout Southern Persia, not only on the coast and in the valley of the Karun (where a Consul is urgently needed), but also on the tableland from Yezd and Kerman to Hamadan and Kermanshah.

Art. XIII.-LADY SARAH LENNOX.

The Life and Letters of Lady Sarah Lennox, 1745-1826. Edited by the Countess of Ilchester and Lord Stavordale.

Two vols. London: John Murray, 1901.

THERE is a glamour about Holland House which it is difficult to define. It seems at first sight to be the outcome of a long tradition; but in reality it is due to the genius and charm of a single man, and to the talkative brilliance of a motley group who, without showing more than a family likeness to Agamemnon, succeeded to his merits. It is true that the ghost of Addison was brought into the family by a marriage that was little to his credit; but the greatest spirit of all that rise at the sound of the name is Charles James Fox, though even in his day the main stream of Whig policy did not flow through Holland House. The mention of Lord Rockingham calls up the figure of Burke. The Duke of Portland resided at Burlington House, the property of his kinsman, the Duke who came after the king of the Whigs'; while Sheridan was at home, if anywhere in London, with Fox's Duchess. The truth is that the great day of Holland House was a day of high talk, but, so far as the Whigs were concerned, of small things. Whiggery seems to have passed abruptly from the state of a grandiose ideal into that of a venerable tradition. There was no summer. The illusions of promise gave way without a break to the legends of memory. There is no gap and no link between Charles Fox, generous and full of faith, with the broad light of a great epoch upon him, retaining to the last the virtues of youth when its failings had deserted him, and Lord Holland, whom we figure as essentially and permanently elderly, monumental between the fuss of Lord John Russell and the flow of Macaulay, and ever ready to temper or to instruct the present with an example or a maxim of my uncle.'

In the standard compilations of Lord Holland himself and Lord John Russell we probably already possess the buik of what Holland House has to contribute to history; but it seems that there are still flowers to be gathered in the by-paths, and we are grateful for the care with which Lady Ilchester and Lord Stavordale have put

together this 'friendship's garland,' still fragrant after the lapse of a hundred years. Lady Sarah Lennox, under whose guidance we can follow the events of almost the whole reign of George III, was the eleventh child of the second Duke of Richmond. Her father had been married, when still a boy, to Sarah, the eldest daughter of the first Earl of Cadogan. In the good old times marriage was often an affair more of prudence than of passion. If the demands of wisdom were satisfied, love, it was held, would come-as in point of fact it not infrequently did-climbing up some other way. In the present case, which is almost unique of its kind, the children were tied together to cancel a bond in the shape of a gambling debt between the parents. When the formalities had been gone through, the young Lord March-who had naturally taken an instinctive dislike to his wife, 'as per agreement'-betook himself to his tutor and his travels. On his return to England, some years afterwards, he happened one evening to go to the play, where his attention was arrested by the beauty of a young lady in the audience. He asked who she was, and was told the reigning toast, the beautiful Lady March.' So he enjoyed the uncommon, if not unique, experience of falling in love with his own wife inadvertently and at second sight. Lady Sarah's brother, the third Duke of Richmond, made less of a mark in politics than might have been expected from his vigour and violence. The King disliked him; and, in opposition to the great Earl of Chatham, he dared what few were equal to, calling the Thunderer an insolent minister' in the House of Lords. But he will always be remembered for the part he played in the most dramatic scene in all our parliamentary history. For it was in the course of the debate on the Duke of Richmond's motion for withdrawing the troops from America that Chatham, on rising to reply to the Duke's second speech, was struck down with the sonorous protest on his lips against the dismemberment of this ancient and most noble monarchy.'

Lady Sarah's own romance will always ensure her a footnote, if not a paragraph, in serious history; but for literary purposes the hour of illusion passed all too soon. It is as with the opening rhesis of an Euripidean drama, when a tiresome messenger or a god, seeing things whole with Olympian detachment, lets us at once into the secret

of the best and the worst. There is this difference, that Euripides is sure to give us finished pieces of choral writing and sentences of humane wisdom that justify themselves, however little they may promote the action; whereas, after the opening chord, Lady Sarah's letters ring flat. They are full of sense; but her charm-and we know that it led to real results, lawful and unlawful-must have appeared in some other way. It seems that Lady Sarah had already taken the fancy of the young Prince of Wales, when in 1760 he succeeded to the throne. That he was no less susceptible to the charms of the female sex than the other princes of his house, appears from the legend of the fair Quakeress; but his behaviour in this case, if we may trust the report of one side, shows him to have been capable of a depth and fidelity of attachment to which his grandfather and his son were alike strangers.

'He is in love with her,' writes Lord Holland; 'and it is no less certain she loves him . . . It were impossible to write down so much discourse as the King held with her; nor was that so remarkable as the language des yeux. Among other things he desir'd his sister to dance "Betty Blue"; "A dance, Madam," says he to Lady Sarah, "that you are acquainted with. I am very fond of it because it was taught me by a lady"-looking very significantly. She really did not know who he meant. "A very pretty lady," says he, "that came from Ireland, November was a twelvemonth." She then knew, but did not then pretend to know. "I am talking to her now," says he; "she taught it me at the ball on Twelve night." "Indeed, Sir," says she, "I did not remember it." "That may be," says he; "but I have a very good memory for whatever relates to that lady. I had got a pretty new country dance of my own for the late King's Birth-day, if he had liv'd to it, & I named it, 'The 25th of February' (which is Lady Sarah's birthday)." She colour'd, & in this pretty way did these two lovers entertain one another & the eyes of the whole ball-room for an hour.'

The real obstacles in the course of what seemed true love to Lord Holland and Lady Sarah will probably never be known. The King was in the hands of a Scotch clique, whose power for mischief did not end with their fall. To such close observers of the main chance it would have seemed fatal to allow the King to set out by pleasing