always taken in education, marked him out so distinctly for such a post. And his perception of this, and the extreme desirableness of an appointment which would add a considerable sum to his income without really affecting his special work, had roused him to unusual exertions. During his stay at Oban, and even amid the commotions of the stormy voyage to Ryde, he had occupied himself in writing to all the influential people with whom he was acquainted, stating his modest claim-a claim universally acknowledged in words, if not leading to any immediate assurance of success. It was supposed at first that the chairmanship of the board, with a very considerable salary, might be secured for him; and his friends in Scotland exerted themselves in many ways, even those whom he had no particular reason to consider his friends joining in the effort, to procure this appointment for him. Afterwards, when it became apparent that the fact of his being a clergyman made success in this direction unlikely, the same efforts were directed to obtaining a seat for him upon the board as one of the commissioners. It was at first somewhat bitter for Tulloch to consent to the idea that his churchmanship made him ineligible for the position of chairman. "I have never been clergyman enough to get the support of the order," he says, "but too much clergyman to succeed with politicians." This, however, was only a passing expression of feeling, while his earnestness and interest in the measure, and all its consequences, were always warm and strong. It might be supposed that such an exciting question would have further irritated and weakened a constitution already tried with nervous illness; but, as a matter of fact, the excitement and uncertainty, substituting a real subject for thought and urgent occupation for his imagination, did good instead of harm to the troubled spirit, which was refreshed by any tangible struggle, and only incompetent to battle with itself. While he waited, and discussed, and calculated all the MR STOPFORD BROOKE. 251 chances, going down night after night to the House, and listening eagerly to all prognostications,-finding Mr Ellice always a powerful support, but irritated often by Dr Lyon Playfair, who would give, it would appear, no decided opinion; and in the long afternoons writing sheet after sheet, in which his successive hopes and fears are clearly depicted, to his wife, I find a few occasional notes upon other subjects, all threaded through with the prevailing tissue of his own mood. On the Sunday he went to hear Mr Stopford Brooke, "who has been the fashion this year in London." A strong, vigorous, somewhat conceited man; his style of preaching incisive, interesting, and powerful, but rather cold and hard-telling people to be strong and depend upon themselves, and not yield to nerves, &c. It is easy enough for fellows with abundance of self-conceit and no nerves themselves to talk in this way; but as strength, according to all my experience, is very much a matter of health, it seems to me rather poor preaching to cry it up. He said many striking things, however, in a hard metallic way, and in a very ugly church. In the afternoon I went to All Saints', Margaret Street. A beautiful church, elaborate service, chanting delightful; reading of the chapters and even prayers execrable; happily no sermon. Had I my will I should go in for a grand service (how grand the Psalms are when rightly chanted!) and Broad-Church preaching. Ritualism is all good, save the detestable sacerdotalism at the base of most of it in England. But after the pause of the Sunday, the long letter from the Athenæum carried melancholy news to St Mary's. The bill, after having all its details settled, and passing triumphantly through the House of Commons, was thrown out by the Lords, and this conclusion, though it had been anticipated in cooler moments, now fell upon the Principal's highly raised hopes with a crushing force. "I had pictured to myself what I would do for you and the rest, with £750 in addition for five years," he says; and he apostrophises with indignant force and excusable vehemence "the old idiots-the Peers, I mean "-to whom he owes this disappointment. Fifty-five old gentlemen upsetting the work, in the easiest manner, which Moncreiff has been dragging laboriously along for months and years! Moncreiff is perhaps more to be pitied than anybody. He was visibly affected by the business, which he has contrived to mismanage throughout. There is great discontent with him altogether, not unlikely to end in Baxter being made Secretary of State for Scotland1 next year. I felt lonely coming away here by myself, with all my bright dreams darkened, but I boldly ordered as good a dinner and bottle of wine as the carte provided, and have done the best I could to both. As I entered the dining-room, I found Merivale the historian and Roundell Palmer sitting together. I announced to the former the result. "Ah," the latter said, "then there must have been a large House." They show no emotion, these beggars, at anything. And no doubt their mode of life enables them to take things coolly. Roundell Palmer, for instance, gave up the great position of Lord Chancellor because he could not go the whole length about the Irish Church. Such a fellow is entitled to be nonchalant. The Athenæum is, no doubt, a sustaining place; there is so much life, and so many intellectual swells about it. Still I feel comparatively unsustained to-night. If there was, as there perhaps is, a prospect of my being ultimately put upon the Education Board, perhaps I am well quit of the work for next winter. However, we must have patience. I need patience, I so often think, more than anything-patience, quietness, and strength. It is easy speaking or writing; but temperament is half the bargain, which is as entirely beyond one's control as the colour of one's hair. The naïve yet so natural irritation at "the beggars" of great people who showed no emotion at anything, and probably cared nothing about the Scotch Education Bill which was so all-important to the Scotch Principal, hungering for a little sympathy, brings a gleam of the comic into this climax of disappointment and downfall and spent excitement. But presently he found the consolation of which he stood in need. A second letter of the same date carries a milder and more composed report of feeling to his everanxious confidant. He had intended to leave London at once. 1 It would seem from this suggestion that the idea of a Secretary for Scot. land is not so novel as was generally supposed. DISAPPOINTMENT AND CONSOLATION. 253 I am still here, dearest, as you will see. Pigott called just as I had finished my letters, and I have agreed to stop and dine with him, and have a chat. Dean Stanley has just come in, and he too wanted me to dine, which I couldn't do. He expresses a real regret about the Education business. I have seldom seen him so moved about anything. He is a good, kind soul. Pigott is strong that the bill and board will pass next session, and we must hope the best. Don't bother, dearest, about anything I said in my letter this forenoon, but take it all easily and good-naturedly, as a natural thing for me to say in the circumstances. Pigott is such a kind, sympathising fellow. How strange, after being here alone for so many days, that he and Stanley should turn up together! I hope the survivor of these friends will find a pleasure in the thought of how much his sympathy and good auguries cheered the pangs of disappointment and trouble. The Education Bill did pass in the course of a few years, and Principal Tulloch was appointed one of the Commissioners, but with much lessened advantage in a pecuniary point of view. The result, however, of his wanderings and open-air life, perhaps aided in some degree by this sharp stroke of the actual which rallied all his forces, was his restoration to health-a greater boon than any external advantage, as he was always most ready to acknowledge. 254 CHAPTER IX. PROGRESS IN LIFE-EDUCATION APPOINTMENT-VISIT AFTER the illness and disappointment of the year 1869, the ensuing decade began in quiet and renewed work and comfort, not unenlivened by the hope of what another Education Bill, more successful than the first, might bring. There could be no doubt that the educational needs of Scotland must sooner or later be attended to, nor that the Principal must have some part in the carrying out of the scheme, whatever it might be. An expectation of this kind, whatever may be the anxiety it involves, is perhaps in most cases rather an exciting and sustaining element, giving a certain relief of expectation in the monotony of life, than a depressing or painful prospect. The Principal's family affairs were also furnishing not unagreeable points of interest. His eldest daughter Sara was married in September 1870 to Mr Frank Tarver, an assistant-master at Eton, and the preliminaries of this first marriage in the family brought the usual amusing and enlivening commotion; while the bride's prospects of happiness were so well assured, and the separation so small-it having already become a habit in the family to visit Windsor from time to time-that no cloud of serious parting shadowed a happy event. Mr William Tulloch, the Principal's eldest son-the companion of many of his wanderings, and in all |