The Marquis of Dufferin and Ava.
Clandeboye.
HE most interesting items of information are apt to pall if subject to too frequent repetition, and the feats
of statesmanship, of diplomacy, and of oratory of the Marquis of Dufferin and Ava—who spends his life in adding new letters to the "alphabet streaming behind him," as someone writes in verse—are so well known that it is refreshing to turn to less broken ground, and mingle an account of the more serious portion of his life with that which deals in anecdote and incident chiefly, if not only.
In a speech made on St. Andrew's Day, in Calcutta, two or three years ago, Lord Dufferin declared himself to be a Scotchman, though, as he admitted, "greatly improved by three hundred years' residence in Ireland." Notwithstanding this assertion and the fact that he was born in Florence, we may still look on him as the most Irish of the Irish, a statement which the remark above quoted does not tend to disprove.
As a direct descendant of Sheridan, and the son of one of the most brilliant and gifted women of her day, it must always have been held probable that Lord Dufferin would make some mark in the world, but not many might have cared to hazard so bold a forecast as to say he would in turn become Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India, Ambassador to Paris, to St. Petersburg, to Rome, and to Constantinople, arbiter of the destinies of the fellaheen on the banks of the Nile, and of the Men of the Mountain in the province of Syria, as well as "Maid of all Work to Her Majesty's Cabinet ministers," as he wittily styled himself in Parliament when appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
By the unfortunate means of the early death of his father, Lord Dufferin began life very young; he was only fourteen when he was called away from Eton to take possession of his estate.
His mother, Helen, Lady Dufferin, Miss Sheridan by birth, a member of an ancient Celtic family in the county Cavan, was the grand-daughter of the great dramatist and statesman, and is still remembered through numerous beautiful and pathetic verses set to music by the hand of their talented composer, and sung by her with exquisite taste
