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OLIPHANT,
Laurence (1829—88) author of, "Piccadilly",
only child of (Sir) Anthony Oliphant (1793 - 1859) by his wife Maria,
daughter of Colonel Campbell of the 72nd Highlanders, was born at Capetown
in 1829. Thomas Oliphant, the musician was his uncle.
His father who was third
son of Ebenezer Olphant, of Condie and Newton, Perthshire, by Mary
daughter of Sir William Stirling of Ardoch, had been called to the bar at
Lincoln’s Inn in 1821, and practised for a time in London as an equity
draughtsman, but just before his son’s birth he was appointed
Attorney-General at the Cape. Laurence’s father and mother were both
fervent evangelicals. The mother returned to Europe on account of her
health and took her son with her. He was sent to the school of a Mr. Parr
at Durnford Manon, Salisbury. He spent part of his holidays with his
mother at Condie, an ancestral home of the Oliphant family. His father was
in 1830 made Chief of Ceylon and was knighted. Lady Oliphant rejoined him
in Ceylon in 1841.
Laurence was sent out in
the winter of the same year in charge of a private tutor who continued to
teach him in Ceylon: but his education was much interrupted. His father
returned on two years leave about 1846, and spent the time in a
continental tour. Laurence was allowed to accompany his parents instead of
going to Cambridge as had been intended. The family spent the winter of
1846---7 at Paris, travelled through Germany and the Tyrol during 1847,
and at the end of the year crossed the Alps to Italy. Here young Oliphant
was present at some of the popular disturbances at the beginning of 1848.
He went with his parents to
Greece, and then accompanied them to Ceylon, where he acted as his
father’s private secretary, and was
called to the colonial bar. At the age of 22, he says, he had been engaged
in 23 murder cases. In December 1851 he was invited by Jung Bahadur, who
had touched at Ceylon on a return voyage from England, to join a hunting
excursion in Nepaul. After reaching Khatmundu, he returned to Ceylon. A
few months later he came to England with his mother, and at the end of
1851 began to keep terms at Lincoln’s Inn. Besides studying law he took an
interest in various labours undertaken by Lord Shaftesbury and others
among the London poor.
In the spring of 1852 he published
an account of his tour in Nepaul, called "A Journey to Khatmandu". He
resolved to be called to the Scottish, as well as the English bar, and
began his studies in Edinburgh in the summer of 1852.
In August 1852 he started with Mr.
Oswald Smith for a visit to St. Petersburg, thence of Nyni-Novgorod, and
ultimately to the Crimea. He published an account of part of the journey
"The Russian Shores of the Black Sea" in the autumn of 1852, and "A tour
through The Country of the Don Cossacks" at the end of 1853. The approach
of the Crimean War gave special interest to this book,
which soon reached a fourth edition. Lord
Raglan applied to him for information, and he was engaged to write for the
"Daily News". While keenly interested in this he received an offer of an
appointment from James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin, then Governor-General of
Canada, with whose family Lady Oliphant was intimate.
Oliphant acted as Secretary
to Lord Elgin during the negotiation at Washington of the reciprocity
treaty with Canada. The treaty "floated through on champagne" was signed
in June, and Oliphant then accompanied Lord Elgin to Quebec. There he was
soon appointed "Superintendent of Indian Affairs", and made a journey to
Lake Superior and back by the Mississippi and Chicago, described soon
afterwards in "Minnesota and the Far West" in 1855. Dancing, travelling,
and political business filled up his time agreeably: but on Lord Elgin’s
retirement at the end of 1854, he declined offers of an appointment under
Sir Edmund Head, Elgin’s successor.
He came back to England. whither his
father had finally returned. He put forward a plan suggested by his
previous journeys, which is described in a pamphlet called "The
Trans-Caucasian Provinces the proper Field of Operation for a Christian
Army" 1855. He succeeded in obtaining from Lord Clarendon a recommendation
to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.
He wished to be sent as an envoy to Schamyl with a view to a diversion
against the Russians. His father accompanied him to Constantinople. They
found Lord Stratford about to visit the Crimea, and accompanied him
thither. Oliphant had a glimpse of the Siege of Sebastopol: and, though he
could not obtain an authorisation for his scheme, was invited by the Duke
of Newcastle to join him on a visit to the Circassian coasts. He sailed at
the end of August, and made a short rush into the country. He afterwards
joined the force under Omar Pasha, and was present at the battle of the
Ingour. The fall of Kars made the expedition fruitless: and after much
suffering and a consequent illness during the retreat, he returned to
England at the end of 1855. "The TransCaucasian Campaign . . . under Omar
Pasha: A. Personal Narrative" 1856, describes his experiences.
He had been acting as
correspondent of "The Times" during this expedition and in 1856 he was
invited by the editor, Delane, to accompany him on a visit to the United
States. He travelled through the Southern States to New Orleans, and there
joined the filibuster Walker. His motive, he says, was partly the fun of
the thing, and in some degree an offer of confiscated estates if the
expedition should succeed. The expedition fell in with H. M. S. "Cossack"
at the mouth of the St. Juan river. Her captain. Cockburn, came on board,
declared his determination to prevent a fight, and carried off Olipliant,
who had admitted himself to be a British subject. Oliphant was made
welcome as a guest on board the "Cossack". and, after a few excursions,
returned to England. An account of his first trip in the "Circassia", and
of this adventure, is given in his "Patriots and Filibusters: Incidents of
Political and Exploratory Travel" 1860.
In 1857 Oliphant became
private secretary to Lord Elgin on his visit to China. He went with Elgin
to Calcutta when the outbreak of the Mutiny made it necessary to change
the destination of the Chinese force. He then accompanied Elgin to Hong
Kong, was present at the bombardment of Canton, and helped to storm
Tientsin. He was employed in several minor missions, and visited Japan
with the expedition. He published a "Narrative of the Earl of Elgin’s
Mission to China and Japan in the years 1857-8-9" in 1859; translated into
French in 1860, with an introductory letter from Guizot. His father, with
whom he was always upon the most affectionate terms, had died just before
his return. Oliphant was without employment for a time, but in 1860 amused
himself by a visit to Italy, where he saw Cavour, and formed a plot with
Garabaldi for breaking up the ballot boxes at Nice on occasion of the vote
for annexation to France. He gave his view of the value of a plebiscite in
a pamphlet called "Universal Suffrage and Napoleon the Third" 1860.
Garabaldi’s expedition to Sicily broke up the Nice scheme.
In
1861 Oliphant travelled in Montenegro
and elsewhere and soon afterwards accepted an appointment as First
Secretary of Legation to Japan. He arrived at Yeddo at the end of June
1861. On the evening of 5 July a night attack was made on the Embassy.
Oliphant rushed out with a hunting-whip, and was attacked by a Japanese
with a heavy two-handed sword. A beam, invisible in the darkness,
interfered with the blows, but Oliphant was
severely wounded, and sent on board ship to
recover. He had to return to England after a visit to the Corea, where he
discovered a Russian force, occupying a retired
bay, and obtained their retirement.
Visits to Corfu with the
Prince of Wales, then on his way to Palestine, and afterwards to the
Herzegavina and the Abruzzi, were his only occupations in 1862. He was now
compelled by "family considerations" to retire from the Diplomatic
Service. Early in 1863 he ran over to look at the insurrection in Poland
and later in the year, made another attempt, but was turned back. He then
travelled in Moldavia, and went northwards to see a little of the
Schleswig-Holstein war. He was
now disposed to settle down. He had already once or twice canvassed the
Stirling Burghs, and made himself popular with the electors.
In 1864 he joined Sir Algernon
Borthwick and some other friends in starting a journal called "The Owl",
of which Thomas Onwhyn was the publisher. It was suggested at a dinner
party in fun, and was intended to be partly a mystification, supported by
an affected knowledge of profound political secrets. Sir Algernon
Borthwick undertook to print it, and it caused much amusement to the
initiated. Oliphant contributed only to the first ten numbers, retiring
when it was taken up more seriously. In the following year he published
"Piccadilly": "A Fragment of Contemporary Biography", in "Blackwood’s
Magazine" (republished, with illustrations by R. Doyle, in 1870).
In 1865 Oliphant was returned at the
General Election for the Stirling Burghs. He did little in Parliament, and
was not much edified, it appears, by the manoeuvres which attended the
passage of the Reform Bill of 1867. A singular change now took place in
his life.
His rambling and adventurous career
had given him much experience, but had not made up for a desultory
education. He loved excitement, was a universal favourite in society, and
had had flirtations in every quarter of the globe. He was a. clear-headed
man of business, had seen the mysteries of official life, and was a
brilliant journalist. From his earliest years, however, he had also strong
religious impressions, and in his letters to his mother speculations upon
his own state of mind and the various phenomena of religions of all
varieties had alternated with sparkling descriptions of adventure and
society. He had been interested successively in many of the books which
reflect contemporary movements of thought. He had read Theodore Parker, W.
Smith’s "Thorndale". Maurice’s writings, and Morell’s "History of
Philosophy". His want of intellectual ballast, however, left him at the
mercy of any pretender to inspiration. His official and social experience
had dispersed many illusions, and his "Piccadilly" very brightly written,
is not a novel proper, but a satire directed against the various
hypocrisies and corruptions of society. He had come, he says, to think
that the world at large was a ‘‘lunatic asylum’’, a common opinion among
persons not themselves conspicuous for sanity. He mentions in it "the
greatest poet of the age. Thomas Lake Harris" author of "The Great
Republic: a Poem of the Sun". Harris is also typified in a mysterious
prophet who meets the hero and was in fact the head of a community in
America. The creed appears to have been the usual mixture of scraps of
misunderstood philosophy and science, with peculiar views about ‘physical
sensations’’ caused by the life of Christ in man and a theory that
marriage, should be a platonic relation. Oliphant had also some belief in
‘‘spiritualism’’ though he came to regard it as a rather diabolical than
divine.
In 1867 he resigned his seat in
Parliament., and joined Harris’ community at Brocton, or
‘‘Salem-on-Erie’’. Harris was in the habit of casting out devils and
forming magnetic-circles among his disciples. Oliphant became his
spiritual slave. He was set to work on the farm, was ordered to
drive teams and ‘‘cadge strawberries on the railway’’ and, after walking
all day, was sent out at night to draw water ‘‘till his fingers were
almost frostbitten". He made over all his money to the community.
Oliphant’s mother also joined the community in 1868, and, though living at
the same place, was not allowed to hold any confidential communication
with him. After going through this probation the disciples were to
regenerate the world, and mother and son are said to have ‘‘found perfect
peace and contentment’’.
In 1870 Oliphant returned under
Harris’s orders and was supported by a small allowance. He resumed his
former occupation by becoming ‘‘Times’’ correspondent in the Franco-German
war. He was with the French and afterwards with the German armies, and
suddenly returned to America, in obedience, it is said, to a sign
prescribed by Harris, namely by a bullet grazing his hair. He soon came
back, however, and was again ‘‘Times" correspondent at Paris towards the
end of 1871. His mother was permitted to join him there. There
he met Alice, daughter of Mr. Henry le Strange of
Hunstanton,
Norfolk. and step-daughter of Mr. Wynne-Finch. All who knew her speak of
her wonderful fascination. She was 26
and had been much admired in society, but shared some of Oliphant's
dissatisfaction with the world. She adopted his creed, and they were
engaged at the beginning of 1872. The consent of Harris, however, was
required, and the genuine ‘‘human
sentiment’’ was to be considered as an ‘‘abstract and spiritual passion’,.
a text upon which Oliphant discourses in letters quoted by his biographer.
Her family were naturally displeased at the pecuniary arrangements as the
‘‘whole of her property was placed unreservedly in the hands’’ of
Harris. (1) Oliphant appears (2) to have equivocated upon this occasion in
a rather painful way, though the details are not very clear. He was
married in June 1872 at St.
George’s Hanover Square, though
it would seem the relation was regulated in some way by the spiritual
authorities. (3)
In 1873 Oliphant with his wife and mother returned
to Brocton by Harris’s orders. The wife and mother were employed in menial
offices. Oliphant himself was directed to take part in various commercial
enterprises for the benefit apparently of the community. He was in New
York and Canada and occasionally sent over to England. In 1874 he joined
the ‘‘Direct United States Cable Company" and was ‘‘coaching a bill
through the Dominion Legislature’’. He learnt the secrets of commercial
‘‘ring’s’’, and was kindly treated by the great Jay Gould, upon whose
mercy he threw himself. In 1876 he contributed to ‘‘
Blackwood’s Magazine’’ the
‘‘Autobiography of a Joint Stock
Company‘‘, revealing some mysteries of’ commercial jugglery. He is said to
have show much financial ability in these transactions.
Meanwhile Harris had migrated to
Santa Rosa, near San Francisco, and taken Mrs.
Oliphant with him. In the beginning of 1878
Oliphant went to San Francisco, to the office of Mr. J. D. Walker of San
Rafael, whose friendship he had won by an act at kindness. His purpose was
to see his wife, but permission was refused and he returned to Brocton. In
the following autumn Mrs. Oliphant left Santa
Rosa, though still under Harris’s rule, and
supported herself for a time, first at Vallego and
then at Penecia, by keeping a school. She was warmly appreciated by the
Californians, and Mrs. Walker was able to see her occasionally. It seems
that about this time Harris had discovered not only that the marriage was
not a marriage of "counterparts", but that Oliphant had a spiritual
‘‘counterpart’’ in the other world who inspired him with rhymed
communications and was therefore an obstacle to union
with his earthly wife. His belief in these communications strikes
his biographer as the "only sign of mental aberration" she ever noticed.
Meanwhile Oliphant took up a scheme for colonising
Palestine with Jews, and early in 1879 went to the East to examine the
country and endeavour to obtain a concession from the Turkish Government.
An account of his journey was given in ‘‘The Land of Giliad with
Excursions in the Lebanon’’ 1880. The attempt upon the Turkish Government
failed and the scheme broke down. Oliphant returned to England and there,
in the early winter of 1880, he was rejoined by his wife. She had
obtained Harris’s permission to return by accepting ‘‘irritating
conditions on the freedom of their intercourse’’. They made, however, a
journey to Egypt in the winter, described by him in ‘‘The Land of Kheml,
up and down the Middle Nile’’ 1882. An accidental difficulty at Cairo
prevented them from formally making over to Harris their right
in the land at Brocton.
In May 1881 Oliphant returned to America to see his
mother who was still at Brocton. He found her both ill and troubled by
doubts as to the Harris creed. They went to Santa Rosa, where the sight of
a "valuable ring" of Lady Oliphant’s upon the finger of one of Harris’s
household staggered their faith. Oliphant took his mother,
in spite of order’s from Harris, to a village where was a woman
with an infallible panacea. She there died in the presence of her son and
their kind friend Mrs. Walker. Oliphant himself now became sceptical as to
the prophet’s inspiration and
with the help of Mrs. Walker recovered his lands at Brocton by
legal proceedings. Harris and his disciples took a different view of these
transactions. His wife had received a telegram from Santa Anna during his
absence requesting her sanction to placing him in confinement. This
appears to have ended her allegiance to the prophet.
Oliphant was again in England in January 1882 and
prepared the volume called ‘‘Traits and Travesties" 1882, consisting
chiefly of reprints from "Blackwood’s Magazine". Oliphant now took up the
Palestine colonisation in the summer of 1882 and
settled for some time at Therapia. At the end of the year they moved to
Haifa in the Bay of Acre, in the neighbourhood of various Jewish colonies.
He wrote there his story "Altiora Peto" 1883, in the "Piccadilly" style,
the name being derived from a motto of his branch of the Oliphant family.
At Haifa they collected a number of sympathisers,
though they did not form exactly a community. Oliphant, it seems, was now
regarded as a "sort of head of affairs at Brocton", which was no longer in
connection with Harris. Visitors from Brocton as well as natives and
Jewish immigrants, gathered around them. They built a small house at
Dalieh in the neighbourhood, and endeavoured to carry out their ideal of
life. They gave expositions of thier views to various inquirers, and were
not converted to "Esoteric Buddism". A strange book called "Sympneumata"
was written by them in concert and, as they thought, by a kind of common
inspiration. Some who had sympathized however, were alienated ‘‘in fear’’
and others ‘‘in disgust’’. Others regarded it as harmless nonsense.
Oliphant also wrote ‘‘Massallam’’, 1886, which gives his final judgment of
Harris.
During a trip to the Lake of Tiberias, at the end of
1886, Mrs. Oliphant caught a fever, and died on 2 January, 1887. Oliphant
believed that she soon came back to him in spirit, and sent messages
through him to her friends. Her presence was shown by strange convulsive
movements. He returned to England to carry out a tour which they had
planned to take together. He was much broken. though he could still often
talk with his old brightness.
He wrote a series of papers in "Blackwood" published in
1887 as "Episodes in a Life of Adventure; or Moss from a Rolling Stone",
which describes his early career with great spirit. He also published at
Haifa a description of Palestine and "Fashionable Philosophy" 1887, a
collection of various stories. In 1887 he returned to Haifai and wrote a
pamphlet called "The Star in the East" for the benefit of Mahommedans. It
is said to have made one Arab convert, who was not much credit to
his leader. He returned to England and finished h is last book.
"Scientific Religion: or "Evolutionary Forces now Active in Man" 1888. It
helped to bring about him a crowd of ‘‘spiritualists’’ and people capable
of mistaking twaddle about the masculine -
feminine principle for philosophy.
He visited America in 1888 and returned with Miss
Rosamond Dale Owen daughter of Robert Dale Owen, to whom he was married at
Malvern on l6 August. A few days later he was seized with a dangerous
illness at the house of his old friends, the Walkers, at Surbiton. Thence
he was moved to York House, Twickenham, to be the guest of his friend Sir
Mount-Stuart Grant Duff. The illness was hopeless from the first, though
he was flattered by hopes of a miraculous cure. He was still cheerful. and
even witty to the last, and died peacefully on 23
December, 1888.
The charm of Oliphant’s alert and versatile intellect
and sympathetic character was recognised by a wide circle of friends. It
was felt not least by those who most regretted the strange religious
developments which led to the waste of his powers and his enslavement to
such a prophet as Harris. He was beloved for his boyish symplicity and the
warmth of heart which appeared through all his illusions. Suggestions of
insanity were, of course, made but
apparently without definite reasons. Remarkable talents without thorough
training have thrown many minds off their balance, and Oliphant’s case is
only exceptional for the singular combination of two apparently
inconsistent careers. Till his last years, at any rate his religious
mysticism did not disqualify him for being also a shrewd financier, a
charming man of the world, and a brilliant writer. His works have been
mentioned above. He also contributed many articles to "Blackwood's
Magazine" and "The Times!.
Dict. of Nat. Biog. Vol. 12 Leslie Stephen.
1895.
References:
(1) Life p. 115
(2) ib. pp. 120-2
(3) ib. p. 125
Memoir of the Life of Laurence Oliphant and of Alice Oliphant, his
wife, by Margaret Oliphant. W Oliphant, 2 Volumes 1891.
Oliphant’s writings give many details of his early travels and
adventures.
See also Personal Reminiscences of I Oliphant by Louis Leesching. ii.
d.
and, for some account of the Broeton community , from the other side,
Brotherhood of the New Life: a letter from Thomas Lake Harris. 1893. and
the Brotherhood of the New Life by Richard MacCully, Glasgow, 1893,
pp. 146-61. |
