Arthur Conan Doyle: A Life in Letters
Page 45
Goodbye, my own dearest Mam. We appreciate your big heart more, when we see the little ones of others. But dont correspond with C & W about this. Nothing can come from it, save that you will also be dragged into a quarrel.
to Mary Doyle LORD’S CRICKET GROUND, LONDON, AUGUST 1900
You must have misunderstood something which I said. I have nothing but affection and respect for Touie. I have never in my whole married life had one cross word with her, nor will I ever cause her any pain. I cannot think how I came to give you the impression that her presence was painful to me. It is not so.
William’s argument re Connie, himself and you, is most unsound. He is not Touie’s mother. If he were I should have expected him to see it with a mothers eye. I should be unreasonable if I expected sympathy from Mrs Hawkins. But I expect the attitude of a friend & a brother from William and I got neither. I cant think how he came to impress you with an argument which seems to me so absurd.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, AUGUST 27, 1900
I had a letter from Boraston, the Liberal Unionist agent, asking if I would stand, and suggesting Dundee. I am inclined to stand but not for Dundee—an odious place with every disadvantage. I wrote & said I would meet him and talk it over with him.
I am 41 and the next General Election I will be 48 which is too old to begin. It is now or never if I am to do it.
The position is this. I have property worth roughly 20,000 to 30,000 pounds. Of this about 15,000 is readily realisable. That is enough to meet all calls if anything happened to me. Meanwhile I have (without work) an income of over 2,000 a year—over 3,000 for the next few years. Very little work makes it over 4,000. Of course if I were not in Parliament my income would probably be larger, but there is no certainty of that. In a word then I can afford to do it.
Why should I do it? What is to be gained? A full and varied and perhaps useful life. The assurance that come what may I have at least tested my fate, and done my duty as a Citizen. The participation in many interesting scenes.
What is against it? I shall be bored by dinners, deputations, functions &c. I shall have less freedom—(enjoy it all the more when I do get it)—less sport (could do with less as I grow older). Sometimes my duties will be irksome (not a bad thing in life).
On the whole I think that the ayes have it. After all it is not irreversible. If I found the position for any reason intolerable I could always resign. Let me have your views about it, dear one. I value your opinion more than all—yours and hers—for love may give clearness of vision.
Willie came down to cricket—by the way I bowled old W. G. Grace out*—and I was very cordial to him, and had him to meet Touie and Mary at dinner. I wont have any family split. But I do feel it all the same—we both can never quite forget it. Their point of view is really quite unthinkable to me. If I had confided to them that I had a guilty liaison with an impossible woman what more could they have done? It is really ludicrous to think of you, and Lottie and above all her own dear mother condoning the thing, and then Connie jibbing at it.* If it is good enough for those who are intimately affected by it why on earth should it not be good enough for her. Is it not strange! Willie I can quite understand & half expected. But the other astounded me.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, AUGUST 1900
I saw the political Agent yesterday. He mentioned Edinburgh (Eastern Division) as a possible seat & was much excited when he heard that I held so strong a card as having been born there. It appears that it is hopeless to win it—majority of 2000 against you—but if I would pull that majority down I would do a party service which would make them grateful & they would run me for a sure seat afterwards. I directed him to make enquiries as to how far my candidature would be acceptable. I should bargain that the Party pay the whole cost since the job is acknowledged to be hopeless. I will do the work—but why should I pay?
Another proposition was that I should oppose Campbell Bannerman in the Sterling Burghs. That naturally appealed much to my sporting nature. But the Agent thinks that the vacancy is promised.
Yes, dearest, I had to tell Jean all about Connie & Willie. In any case I would no doubt have done so, since I hate secrets, but as matters stood it was unavoidable because you understand that on the first night both W and C received my confidence in the most sympathetic way and promised to lunch next day at Lords. Naturally I told Jean who was as pleased as I was. When they changed their minds (God knows why) I naturally had to tell Jean. She saw the letters which passed also. She is very sweet and reasonable about it, but naturally hurt just as I am. I asked her not to tell her mother.
Write direct here, darling. Your letters are quite safe. I often dont go to London for a week & so your letters get hung up. You can trust my discretion.
British politics were evolving rapidly at the time. The two principal parties were the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Salisbury, and the Liberals, whose earlier prime minister William Gladstone had seen a major division of his party in 1885-86 follow his support for Home Rule in Ireland. Conan Doyle sided with the Liberal Unionists, led by Joseph Chamberlain, who opposed Home Rule. His preferred opponent, Henry Campbell-Bannerman (a future prime minister), came from the opposing wing of the Liberal Party. The 1900 campaign was the so-called khaki election, fought largely over British policy in the Boer War, and resulted in a tremendous Conservative victory.
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, SEPTEMBER 1900
How absurd of me not to send on that wire but I got it into my head that you had one. It reached here on Wednesday, undated, from Jubbulpore. ‘Married. Oldham’ voila tout.* Dear old Lottie is quite a mature matron by now—bless her!
Look here, dearest! From the day that I accept a nomination I shall be in the hands of these parliament folk. I am free now. J comes to London on Thursday and you will have a letter within a post or two from her to tell you her future plans. If she is clear could we not go at once—say next Tuesday—to Paris. I so fear that politics or something may come and spoil everything. How would that suit your dear self. That is most important of all.
About politics I have had a letter from Boraston which J will send you. He now suggests Central Edinburgh, which Cranston was to have fought but he is Lord Provost. It is in the hands of the enemy but might be won. My conditions are that if the party run me for a difficult or impossible seat the party must pay my expences. If they give me a safe seat I will.pay my own. That is fair enough. Of course one’s standing in the Party is enormously improved by one fighting and winning a seat. One enters with éclat. My own desire was to oppose Campbell Bannerman, the leader of the Opposition. That would have been good sport. After all if others pay the bill what does it matter if I fight and get beaten. They are bound to find me a safe seat afterwards.
I dont think the Agent has any pecuniary interest—I mean the General Agent, Boraston. He has a yearly salary, and cannot get anything out of the election. The local agent certainly is paid, but he is usually the best Solicitor in the district and his bill is taxed. Of course Boraston would try to make any use of me which he thought best for the party interest, but I am ready to be so used. I think that is the right spirit in which to approach politics. But let the party pay—they are the richest party in England.
I think the war is fizzling to an end, and my book is all ready when it comes. If we went on Tuesday you could come down on the Monday. I am rather sick of Morley’s and inclined to try the ‘Golden Cross’ where Nelson stayed. Or shall we be true to the other?
to Mary Doyle UNDERSHAW, SEPTEMBER 1900
I have seen it announced in the papers that I am the Chosen Candidate but have had no direct intimation. I had a note from Boraston yesterday asking (from them) if I were a Catholic. I said ‘that I came of a Catholic family but was not myself a Catholic.’ I think that was right. Absurd to become a martyr for a faith which you dont believe in.
We are all ready whenever we hear definitely from you. I have the history nearly up to date so it wont interfere with my electioneering.
&nb
sp; to Mary Doyle THE ATHENAEUM, PALL MALL, LONDON*
What is this about my losses? I was so surprised. No, I have been most fortunate. My heaviest loss was in the most conservative speculation I ever went into, the largest coffee estate in the world, advised by experts to do it. I wish to goodness I had kept that money in what you would call speculative stocks. I don’t call well-proved & old established mining or land shares in South Africa speculative. If they have kept up their values during this war they are not likely to lose them in the future. But I am very discreet in my purchases of these, and never make a mistake while I often by using my wits make a considerable gain. Last week for example I sold a stock at an advance of £361 clear gain. I could not lose on it as it was a dividend paying stock and I was prepared to keep it as an investment. I should like to go over my stock with you, when next we meet, and show you how many have been my successes & how few my real failures. Naturally it is better to hold African stock than to sell it while the war still keeps down the price, but those stocks which I bought before the war are steadily creeping up to their old figure. Australia is a failure, I acknowledge. I will never again touch an Australian mine. But I have no considerable investment out there. My larger investments are Undershaw (£10-12000) Ford’s House (£1850) Cyrils (£850) Tucks (£1000) McClure (£1000) Bessons (£800) Dumont’s Coffee (£2500) Bournemouth Land £500 Newnes £500. All pretty solid—but not more so than the bulk of my South Africans. I call it gambling when you take up stock & don’t pay for it. It is legitimate speculation & using of your wits when you choose your stock & buy it right out, prepared either to retain it as an investment or to sell it at a large advance.
Excuse all this financial lecture but you brought it on your own poor head.
I shall rejoice to go & meet Lottie and I will go by sea since both of you are so keen upon it. I fear the Paris plan wont work but I have a wider & more comprehensive one which I think I could carry through without any danger at all. Was there ever such a love story as ours since the world began!
Adieu, dearest. I am very fit, physically, mentally & financially.
Looking back in later years at his decision to stand for Parliament, Conan Doyle admitted to some mystification. ‘If anyone were to ask me my real reasons for doing so,’ he mused in Memories and Adventures, ‘I should find it difficult to give them an intelligible answer.’ The campaign began September 25th, with the Liberal Unionists given poor odds of carrying its Central district. ‘My opponent [George Mackenzie Brown] was not formidable,’ Conan Doyle felt, ‘but I had against me an overwhelming party machine with its registered lists, and record of unbroken victory. It was no light matter to change the vote of a Scotsman, and many of them would as soon think of changing their religion.’ But Conan Doyle, a native son of Edinburgh, threw himself into the campaign wholeheartedly as always. From his hotel, owned by the family of Robert Boraston, the party’s agent, he sent a series of optimistic and increasingly excited reports.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
All going well—working desperately.
I am gaining ground all the time.
Excellent reception.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
Fighting desperately and gaining ground but doubtful if I can gain so much ground as all that. Have a letter absolutely damning my opponents character on public grounds, grandfather embezzled public money & bolted. Grandson refuses to make reparation of any sort though rich. I don’t want to use it—but it is very interesting. Four meetings today. I am very well—quite myself again.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
Doing very well, fighting very hard, keeping very well. 10 meetings in 2 days. Last nights speech was a huge success. The crowds were so great that the men who had to support the resolutions could never approach the Hall at all. It was really fine, the whole thing. I may lose, but it’s a great fight.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
Fighting furiously. Six meetings & six long speeches yesterday. I speak in the streets and the people are wonderfully good & nice. All agree that I am making great progress but no one can say if it is enough to wipe out the huge balance against us. If we dont win we will go very near to it. Thursday is the Election. We have a letter which would damn our opponent utterly but I wont let them use it. It is below the belt. Adieu, dearest. I loved your letter today (though indeed I have hardly had time to digest it). It is sweet to me to think of J with your sweet motherly arms round her. The dear soul gets these fits of depression (it is her artistic nature) and then her remorse is terrible and she writes, poor soul, as if she had done some awful thing. I never love her more than at such moments. Dearest, I dont know how to thank you for all your goodness to us. I hope my cold did not ever make me an irritable or bad companion. I recognise all your sweetness & goodness.
[P.S.] My hand is black with the hands I have shaken. The Porter’s description of my meeting yesterday was ‘Mun, the perspiration was just runnin’ down the stair.’ It is only 12 o’clock but I have already made two speeches. Everyone says if I win it will be the greatest political thing done in Scotland in our time.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
They say this is the fight in Edinburgh which is exciting the people most since the days of Lord Macauley—It is tremendous. I had the Operetta house packed, they followed me in crowds to the Hotel, Princes Street was blocked, and I had to speak from the steps of the Hotel. I did 14 speeches in 3 days—pretty good! Dear old Mammie, I should like to meet you alone sometime and have a good chat over all my affairs & my future when once I know if I am in or not. It will be exciting on Thursday. I have hopes now of winning my own Division, which is the most difficult one, and of carrying in Unionist members in every other Division by my speeches, since voters of all Divisions come to hear them.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
I gave a very successful speech yesterday on just about the very spot where I was born. I daresay I made more noise on the former occasion.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, EDINBURGH
Day of rest! Thank God! Though I must work at the history all day. This contest is going to be historical. If things go on I shall not only carry the Central Division but all Edinburgh for the other candidates. That is really a fact for it is a delirium of excitement. It is curious but I am as cool as ice myself. The people for two nights have followed me—a thousand at least—from my meeting, and block Princes Street until I wish them goodnight. They crowd round me to touch me. It is that my words have found their higher feelings and that they respond. It looks as if I were sweeping all before me—but there are still 3 days. May there be no contretemps. It is religion, I fear. But if it rises I shall be as straight as a die. I dont believe in the ‘Vaut une messe’ principle. Nor is it policy.
[P.S.] Nesbitt our old bootmaker seconded my resolution one night. The next night the crowds were so great that neither proposer nor seconder could get into the Hall.
And then he lost. The night before the election, allowing no time to react, a bitter anti-Papist named Plimmer papered the district with bills accusing Conan Doyle of being a Roman Catholic and agent of the Jesuits, plotting to subject Scottish Protestants to the Pope. ‘It was very cleverly done, and of course this fanatic alone could not have paid the expenses,’ Conan Doyle wrote in Memories and Adventures. ‘My unhappy supporters saw crowds of workmen reading these absurd placards and calling out, “I’ve done with him!”’ when just a few hundred more votes would have sent him to Westminster.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, OCTOBER 1900
We think that we have two cases, one to unseat Brown, and the other for civil damages against Plimmer, the man who devised the placard. He is the agent of some fanatical Protestant trust and, as such, has plenty of money at his back. Counsel’s opinion was in our favour but we shall know more to
morrow. I would put the damages at ten thousand pounds. Now, mind, dearest, you are not to mix in this matter in any way. It is complex and we must have all the threads in our hands. Brown does not know the storm which is about to burst.
The election law is very stringent and there seems to have been a clear infringement. The party have stood all my election expences, and will stand all these also, I think, if advised that we have a case. It will be a tremendous hit if I get in after all.
to Mary Doyle OLD WAVERLEY TEMPERANCE HOTEL, OCTOBER 1900
We have after much discussion abandoned the idea both of a petition for voiding the seat and also for an action against the wretched fanatic Plimmer. In the former the result must be uncertain and if I failed I should lose the good effect which my contest has produced. In the latter the man has no money, would glory in cheap martyrdom, and I should pay all Xs. But it is hard, is it not? My fatalism however carries me through.
I shall go south by the night train and be home tomorrow evening. I must get onto some fresh work as soon as possible. That is the best rest. You will get ‘the Boer War’ presently. Now mind you are to read it every word.
They think I should write a dignified letter to the Scotsman stating my religious position and showing the wrong which has been done to me. That I shall now do.