Contributions of illustrative quotations came from most diverse
and unexpected sources, and the arrival of each new word or happy
quotation was quite an event, and gave such pleasure to the recipients as
can only be fully understood by those who have shared in such pursuits.
The volume was dedicated in affecting terms to his elder brother, Sir
George Yule, who, unhappily, did not survive to see it completed.
In July 1885, the two brothers had taken the last of many happy journeys
together, proceeding to Cornwall and the Scilly Isles. A few months later,
on 13th January 1886, the end came suddenly to the elder, from the effects
of an accident at his own door.[71]
It may be doubted if Yule ever really got over the shock of this loss,
though he went on with his work as usual, and served that year as a Royal
Commissioner on the occasion of the Indian and Colonial Exhibition of
1886.
From 1878, when an accidental chill laid the foundations of an exhausting,
though happily quite painless, malady, Yule's strength had gradually
failed, although for several years longer his general health and energies
still appeared unimpaired to a casual observer. The condition of public
affairs also, in some degree, affected his health injuriously. The general
trend of political events from 1880 to 1886 caused him deep anxiety and
distress, and his righteous wrath at what he considered the betrayal of
his country's honour in the cases of Frere, of Gordon, and of Ireland,
found strong, and, in a noble sense, passionate expression in both prose
and verse. He was never in any sense a party man, but he often called
himself "one of Mr. Gladstone's converts," i.e. one whom Gladstonian
methods had compelled to break with liberal tradition and prepossessions.
Nothing better expresses Yule's feeling in the period referred to than the
following letter, written in reference to the R. E. Gordon Memorial,[72]
but of much wider application: "Will you allow me an inch or two of space
to say to my brother officers, 'Have nothing to do with the proposed
Gordon Memorial.'
"That glorious memory is in no danger of perishing and needs no memorial.
Sackcloth and silence are what it suggests to those who have guided the
action of England; and Englishmen must bear the responsibility for that
action and share its shame. It is too early for atoning memorials; nor is
it possible for those who take part in them to dissociate themselves from
a repulsive hypocrisy.
"Let every one who would fain bestow something in honour of the great
victim, do, in silence, some act of help to our soldiers or their
families, or to others who are poor and suffering.
"In later days our survivors or successors may look back with softened
sorrow and pride to the part which men of our corps have played in these
passing events, and Charles Gordon far in the front of all; and then they
may set up our little tablets, or what not - not to preserve the memory of
our heroes, but to maintain the integrity of our own record of the
illustrious dead."
Happily Yule lived to see the beginning of better times for his country.
One of the first indications of that national awakening was the right
spirit in which the public, for the most part, received Lord Wolseley's
stirring appeal at the close of 1888, and Yule was so much struck by the
parallelism between Lord Wolseley's warning and some words of his own
contained in the pseudo-Polo fragment (see above, end of Preface), that he
sent Lord Wolseley the very last copy of the 1875 edition of Marco Polo,
with a vigorous expression of his sentiments.
That was probably Yule's last utterance on a public question. The sands of
life were now running low, and in the spring of 1889, he felt it right to
resign his seat on the India Council, to which he had been appointed for
life. On this occasion Lord Cross, then Secretary of State for India,
successfully urged his acceptance of the K.C.S.I., which Yule had refused
several years before.
In the House of Lords, Viscount Cross subsequently referred to his
resignation in the following terms. He said: "A vacancy on the Council had
unfortunately occurred through the resignation from ill-health of Sir
Henry Yule, whose presence on the Council had been of enormous advantage
to the natives of the country. A man of more kindly disposition, thorough
intelligence, high-minded, upright, honourable character, he believed did
not exist; and he would like to bear testimony to the estimation in which
he was held, and to the services which he had rendered in the office he
had so long filled."[73]
This year the Hakluyt Society published the concluding volume of Yule's
last work of importance, the Diary of Sir William Hedges. He had for
several years been collecting materials for a full memoir of his great
predecessor in the domain of historical geography, the illustrious
Rennell.[74] This work was well advanced as to preliminaries, but was not
sufficiently developed for early publication at the time of Yule's death,
and ere it could be completed its place had been taken by a later
enterprise.
During the summer of 1889, Yule occupied much of his leisure by collecting
and revising for re-issue many of his miscellaneous writings. Although not
able to do much at a time, this desultory work kept him occupied and
interested, and gave him much pleasure during many months. It was,
however, never completed. Yule went to the seaside for a few weeks in the
early summer, and subsequently many pleasant days were spent by him among
the Surrey hills, as the guest of his old friends Sir Joseph and Lady
Hooker.
