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DALLING AND BULWER, WILLIAM HENRY LYT...
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DALLING AND BULWER, See also: Shortly after his return to England in 1826, Bulwer published a See also:record of this excursion, under the See also:title of An Autumn in See also:Greece. Meanwhile, See also:bent for the moment upon following in his father's footsteps, he had, on the loth of See also:October 1825, been gazetted as a See also:cornet in the 2nd See also:Life See also:Guards. Within less than eight months, however, he had exchanged from See also:cavalry to See also:infantry, being enrolled on the 2nd of See also:June 1826 as an See also:ensign in the 58th regiment. That ensigncy he retained for little more than a See also:month, obtaining another unattached, which he held until the 1st of See also:January 1829, when he finally abandoned the See also:army. The See also:court, not the See also:camp, was to be the See also:scene of his successes; and for See also:thirty-eight years altogether—from See also:August 1827 to August 1865—he contrived, while maturing from a young attache to an astute and See also:veteran See also:ambassador, to hold his own with ease, and in the end was ranked amongst the subtlest intellects of his See also:time as a See also:master of See also:diplomacy. His first See also:appointment in his new profession was as an attache at See also:Berlin. In See also:April 183o he obtained his next step through his nomination as an attache at See also:Vienna. Thence, exactly a year afterwards, he was employed nearer See also:home in the same capacity at the See also:Hague. As yet ostensibly no more than a careless lounger in the salons of the See also:continent, the young ex-cavalry officer veiled the keenest observation under an See also:air of indifference. His constitutional See also:energy, which throughout life was exceptionally intense and tenacious, wore from the first a See also:mask of languor. When in reality most cautious he was seemingly most negligent. No See also:matter what he happened at the moment to take in See also:hand, the See also:art he applied to it was always that highest art of all, the ars celare artem. His mastery of the lightest but most essential weapon in the armoury of the diplomatist, tact, came to him as it seemed intuitively, and from the outset was consummate. Talleyrand himself would have had no See also:reason, even in Henry Bulwer's earliest years as an attache, to write entreatingly, " pas de zele," to one who concealed so felicitously, even at starting, a lynxlike vigilance under an aspect the most phlegmatic. He had hardly reached his new See also:post at the Hague when he found and seized his opportunity. The revolutionary See also:explosion of July at See also:Paris had been echoed on the 25th of August 183o by an outburst of insurrection at See also:Brussels. During the whole of See also:September a See also:succession of stormy events swept over See also:Belgium,until the popular rising reached its See also:climax on the 4th of October in the See also:declaration of Belgian independence by the provisional government. At the beginning of the revolution, the young attache was despatched by the then See also:foreign secretary at See also: Scarcely had this been accomplished when he wrote what may be called the first See also:chapter of the See also:history of the newly created Belgian kingdom. It appeared in 1831 as a brief but luminous See also:paper in the January number of the See also:Westminster See also:Review. And as the events it recorded had helped to inaugurate its writer's career as a diplomatist, so did his narrative of those occurrences in the pages of the See also:Radical quarterly signalize in a remarkable way the commencement of his See also:long and consistent career as a Liberal politician. Shortly before his See also:appearance as a reviewer, and immediately See also:prior to the carrying of the first Reform See also:Bill, Bulwer had won a seat in the See also:House of See also:Commons as member for See also:Wilton, afterwards in 1831 and 1832 sitting there as M.P. for See also:Coventry. Nearly two years having elapsed, during which he was absent from See also:parliament, he was in 1834 rrl~eturned to Westminster as member for Marylebone. That pcls'ition he retained during four sessions, winning considerable distinction as a debater. Within the very year in which he was chosen by the Marylebone See also:electors, he brought out in two volumes, entitled France—Literary, Social and See also:Political, the first See also:half of a See also:work which was only completed upon the publication, two years afterwards, of a second series, also in two volumes, under the title of The See also:Monarchy of the See also:Middle Classes. Through its pages he made See also:good his claim to be regarded not merely as a keen-witted observer, but as one of the most sagacious and genial delineators of the generic Frenchman, above all of that supreme type of the See also:race, with whom all through his life he especially delighted to hold See also:familiar intercourse, the true Parisian. Between the issuing from the See also:press of these two series, Henry Bulwer had prefixed an intensely sympathetic Life of Lord Byron to the Paris edition of the poet's See also:works published by See also:Galignani,—a memoir republished sixteen years after-wards. A political See also:argument of a curiously daring and outspoken character, entitled The Lords, the Government, and the Country, was given to the public in 1836 by Bulwer, in the See also:form of an elaborate See also:letter to a constituent. At this point his See also:literary labours, which throughout life were with him purely labours by-the-way, ceased for a time, and he disappeared during three decades from authorship and from the legislature. During the See also:period of his holding the position of charge d'affaires at Brussels, Bulwer had seized every opportunity of making lengthened sojourns at Paris, always for him the choicest See also:place of See also:residence. It was in the midst of one of these See also:dolce far niente loiterings on the boulevards that, on the 14th of August 1837, he received his nomination as secretary of See also:embassy at See also:Constantinople. Recognizing his exceptional ability Lord See also:Ponsonby, the See also:British ambassador at Constantinople, at once entrusted to him the difficult task of negotiating a commercial treaty, which had the double See also:object of removing the intolerable conditions which hampered British See also:trade with See also:Turkey and of dealing a See also:blow at the threatening See also:power of Mehemet See also:Ali, See also:pasha of See also:Egypt, by shattering the See also:system of monopolies on which it was largely based. In this difficult task Bulwer was helped by the hatred of See also:Sultan Mahmed II. for Mehemet Ali, but the treaty was none the less a remarkable
See also:proof of his See also:diplomatic skill, and the compliment was well deserved when See also:Palmerston, in writing his congratulations to him from See also:Windsor See also:Castle, on the 13th of September 1838, pronounced the treaty a cape d'See also:opera, adding that without reserve it would be at once ratified. Shortly after this achievement Bulwer was nominated secretary of embassy at St See also:Petersburg. Illness, however, compelled him to delay his See also:northern journey—almost opportunely, as it happened, for in June 1839 he was despatched, in the same capacity, to the more congenial See also:atmosphere of Paris. At that juncture the developments of the See also:feud between Mehemet Ali and the See also:Porte were threatening to bring England and See also:France into armed collision (see MEHEMET ALI). In 1839 and 184o, during the temporary See also:absence of his See also:chief, Lord See also:Granville, the secretary of embassy was gazetted ad See also:interim charge d'affaires at the court of France, and thus during this See also:critical time he had fresh opportunities of winning distinction as a diplomatist.
On the 14th of See also:November 1843 he was appointed ambassador at the court of the young See also:Spanish See also:queen See also:Isabella II. Upon his arrival at See also:Madrid See also:signal See also:evidence was afforded of the estimation in which he was then held as a diplomatist. He was chosen arbitrator between See also:Spain and See also:Morocco, then confronting each other in deadly hostility, and, as the result of his See also:mediation, a treaty of See also:peace was signed between the two See also:powers in 1844. In 1846 a much more formidable difficulty arose,—one which, after threatening war between France and England, led at last to a diplomatic rupture between the British and Spanish governments. The dynastic intrigues of See also: The See also:storm sown in the Spanish marriages was reaped in the whirlwind of the February revolution. And the explosion which took place at Paris was answered a month afterwards at Madrid by a similar outbreak. See also:Marshal See also:Narvaez thereupon assumed the dictatorship, and wreaked upon the insurgents a series of See also:reprisals of the most pitiless character. These excessive severities of the marshal-See also:dictator the British ambassador did his utmost to mitigate. When at last, however, Narvaez carried his rigour to the length of summarily suppressing the constitutional guarantees, Bulwer sent in a formal protest in the name of England against an See also:act so entirely ruthless and unjustifiable. This courageous proceeding at once See also:drew down upon the British See also:envoy a See also:counter-stroke as See also:ill-judged as it was unprecedented. Narvaez, with matchless effrontery, denounced the ambassador from England as an See also:accomplice in the conspiracies of the Progressistas; and despite his position as an envoy, and in insolent See also:defiance of the Palmerstonian boast, Civis See also:Britannicus, Bulwer, on the 12th of June, was summarily required to quit Madrid within twenty-four See also:hours. Two days afterwards M. Isturitz, the Spanish ambassador at the court of St See also: Before the year of his return from the See also:peninsula had run out Sir Henry Bulwer was married to the Hon. Georgiana See also:Charlotte See also:Mary See also:Wellesley,. youngest daughter of the 1st Baron See also:Cowley, and niece to the See also:duke of See also:Wellington. See also:Early in the following year, on the 27th of April 1849, he was nominated ambassador at See also:Washington. There he acquired immense popularity. His See also:principal success was the compact known as the See also:Clayton-Bulwer Treaty (q.v.), ratified in May 1850, pledging the contracting governments to respect the See also:neutrality of the meditated See also:ship See also:canal through Central See also:America, bringing the See also:waters of the See also:Atlantic and Pacific into See also:direct communication. After having been accredited as ambassador to the Unite3 States for three years, Sir Henry Bulwer, early in 1852, was despatched as minister plenipotentiary at the court of the grand duke of See also:Tuscany at
See also:Florence. Shortly after his retirement from that post in the January of 1855, he was entrusted with various diplomatic See also:missions, in one of which he was empowered as See also:commissioner under the 23rd See also:article of the treaty of Paris, 1856, to investigate the See also:state of things in the Danubian principalities, with a view to their definite reorganization. Finally he was installed, from May 1858 to August 1865, as the immediate successor, after the See also:close of the See also:Crimean war, of the " See also:Great Elchi," See also:Viscount See also:Stratford de Redcliffe, as ambassador extraordinary to the See also:Ottoman Porte at Constantinople.
In the See also:winter of 1865 Bulwer returned home from the See also:Bosporus, and retired with a See also:pension. He was elected member for See also:Tam-See also:worth on the 17th of November 1868, and retained his seat until gazetted as a peer of the See also:realm on the 21st of See also: Two other kindred sketches, those of Sir See also:Robert See also:Peel and Viscount See also:Melbourne, having been selected from among their author's papers, were afterwards published posthumously. Another work of ampler outline and larger pretension was begun and partially issued from the press during Lord Dalling's lifetime, but not completed. This was the Life of Viscount Palmerston, the first two volumes of which were published in 187o. A third volume appeared four years afterwards. Even then it See also:left the See also:story of the English statesman broken off so abruptly that the work remained at the last the merest fragment. It was completed by See also:Evelyn See also:Ashley. Lord Dalling died unexpectedly on the 23rd of May 1872 at See also:Naples. He had no issue, and the title became See also:extinct. In his public career he enjoyed a three-See also:fold success—as ambassador, as politician and as man of letters. His popularity in society was at all times remarkable, mainly no doubt from his mastery of all the subtler arts of a skilled conversationalist. The apparent languor with which he related an See also:anecdote, flung off a bon mot, or indulged in a momentary stroke of See also:irony imparted See also:interest to the narrative, wings to the wit and point to the See also:sarcasm in a manner peculiarly his own. (C. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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