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Leader (1850-1860), 7th March 1857, Edition 2 of 2, Page 16, NATURE AND ART IN DISEASE. Of Nature and...

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      Sir Robert Peel's Memoirs. Memoir* Hi/ T...

      his misfortuae from 1841 to 1845 to preside over a Cabinet in which the narrowest doctrines were urged in a spirit of the narrowest pedantry ,- he was frequently in a minority among his own colleagues ; he was continually applied to for pledges , which he refused to give ; he foresaw the great poLitical necessities of the future , but explained them in vain to the sightless mediocrity of the old family peers and rural representatives . They _ atterwards charged him with treachery , and being little more than barely articulate themselves , employed a rhetorical adventurer to vilify -Feel m human language , while they assented in shouts and cries—the language o ± the Eastern forest and the Western prairie . The statesman , however , has avenged himself from his tomb upon Benjamin Disraeli , who fancied , in former days , that he had helped to break Peel ' s heart . Why , Peel never once alludes to him , treats him as altogether insignificant , does not think it worth while to bestow so much as a passing mention upon the studious elocutionist , who imagined , while he committed hard plrrases to memory , that he was about to blister the parliamentary middleman ' s mind , and bum a stigma real leasure to Disraelifriends to

      into his memory . It must be a p Mr . ' s find him thus ignored . On no occasion did Peel defer to the egotism of 3 ns once obsequious follower , who had played in every political part , except that of a leader , and who illustrated the proverb which describes what sort of a cart may go down the street after the chariot of Augustus . Sir Robert Peel avoided coalitions ; he would not combine with "Viscount Melbourne , Lord Stanley , and the other scattered leaders in 1834 , and refused , upon other occasions , to promote the official union of men divided upon questions of permanent , principle . Nor was he disposed , as a minister , to sustain himself in power in the presence of an unfriendly majority ; though often urged by the Duke of Wellington to overlook repeated defeats , he invariably declined , and laid it down as a maxim that the government could not be constitutionably or creditably carried on by a minister in a minority . At the same time , however , he by no means believed it necessary that one questionable success on the part of an opposition rendered it necessary for an administration either to retire from office or to cast itself upon the chances of a general election .

      The first Memoir in this volume contains " a short account of a short administration "—that which was headed by Sir Robert Peel from November , 1834 ; , to March , 1835 . The history of that administration was not a little remarkable . In July , 1835 , Earl Grey and "Viscount Althorp resigned , and the King invited Lord Melbourne to calculate the probabilities of a ministry formed of the coalesced leaders of all parties . Such a project involved an abandonment of the traditional methods of parliamentary government , to which an important organized opposition is necessary . The politicians applied to , in the first instance , were Sir Robert Peel , the puke of Wellington , and Lord Stanley , who concurrently declared against the King ' s idea . They were opposed to the government of the day on vital questions of policy ; they could not destroy their objections to the measures by joining the men ; the King was disappointed ; Lord Melbourne was not surprised , and Sir Robert Peel went to Rome . At Rome , it has been said , he counted the hours while awaiting a summons to London . The insinuation is wholly unfounded . He received two letters on the 25 th of November , from William Rex and the Duke of Wellington : —

      On my return , on the night of Tuesday , the 25 th . of November , from a ball at the Duchess of Torlonia's , those letters were delivered to me at my residence in Rome , the Hotel deTEurope . I had seen in the public papers the intelligence of the death of Earl Spencer ( Lord Althorp ' s father ) one or two days before Mr . Hudson ' s arrival v and although Ithought it probable that the necessary removal of Lord Althorp from the House of Commons would have a material bearing on the position and the interests of the Government , I did not contemplate the sudden dissolution of it . I was about to leave Rome for Naples on the day or day but one after Mr . Hudson's arrival , and had made arrangements for my return from Naples , after staying there a short time , by the steamboat which plied between Naples and Genoa . I had actually taken the passage for our return to Civita Vecchia for myself , Lady Peel , and our travelling companions . Cobbett's " Baronet and cotton-weaver" was now on his way to London to become Prime Minister of Great Britain : —

      By dint cf considerable exertion my preparations yiera completed the following day , and we left Rome about three o ' clock on " Wednesday , the 26 th of November . I had taken the precaution of providing myself with a separate passport , in case Lady Peel should be unable to bear the fatigue of rapid and continued travelling . She accompanied me , however , the whole way to Dover , where v / e landed on the evening of the 8 th of December . We travelled eight nights out of the twelve we were on the road , having no choice but to halt on four of them . We stayed one night at Massa ( at least a few hours of the night ) in consequence of a rapid torrent , which could not bo safely ferried over bv dark ; one nig-ht at Susa , previously to crossing Mont Cenis

      one night at Lyons , which had been lately declared en ctat de siege , and where it was necessary to have the passports vise ; one night at Paris , where 1 expected , letters that it might be useful for me to receive previously to my arrival in England . Wellington wrote confidentially to his friend and future colleague to describe the incidents of the Melbourne abdication . " The former ministers , " he said , ' l- were sulky enough . " They even hesitated to give up their seals . " The King had expected it , and had desired mo to have members of council in readiness . They were called in that I might be sworn . " In another letter ho wrote : —

      He [ the King ] mentioned that had threatened that ho would not put the Groat Seal to a Commission to prorogue the Parliament . This is the only name suppressed in the second Memoir . Lord Brougham , we believo ,, insisted upon its omission ; but whom could he expect to mystify ? He was Lord Chancellor ; and who but he could have had anything to do with refusing to affix the great seal to a public document ? Peel undertook to form a government . Neither Lord Stanley nor , Sir James Graham would then act with him , although they gladly accepted his appointments in 1841 . They foresaw , probably , that his would be a shortlived administration ; he himself , also , counted innumerable difficulties ahead : — \ JSH ^ im P <> rUnt question I found practically , and perhaps unavoidably , decided «™/\ y a"lval > ~ nam «» ly , tho disaolution of the existing Parliament . Every one ^ 7 , ° navo taken it for granted that tho Parliament must bo dissolved , and preparations «»<* accordingly been made ulmoat universally for tho coming contest . i ^ w papawates had declared thomaolyea for mwiy placoa—every newspaper wag

      filled with addresses to constituents—and considerable expense in the prosecuti ~ t electioneering warfare had been already incurred . won or I lave little doubt , however , that supposing on my arrival the question of dis « lution had been res Integra , and that a perfectly free and unfettered judgment 7 nM have been formed upon it by me , I should have decided to dissolve without djl I was , indeed , no advocate for frequent or abrupt dissolutions . I had more than had occasion in council to express my distrust in them as remedies for the weak 6 of a Government , constantly bearing in mind the remark of Lord Clarendon at ^ commencement of his History of the Eebellion , upon the evil effects of an . ' illsidered exercise of this branch of the prerogative . "No man , " says he , " can ~^ ' me a source from whence these waters of bitterness -we now taste have more probaM flowed than , from those unreasonable and precipitate dissolutions of Parliament " And again , _ " The passion and distemper gotten and received into Parliament cannot be removed and reformed by the more passionate breaking and dissolving of it " However , he did dissolve ; the majority was hostile ; the " Whi « s defeated him again and again ; and he retired , having gained immense accession of popularity , as well as increased respect among the rival political leaders

      In his statement on the repeal of the Corn Laws , illustrated by quotations from correspondence , Peel demonstrates clearly enough that he never had pledged himself to protection , that he was in no way committed to the rabid Toryism of his supporters and his colleagues . Nor did he take his colleagues by surprise ; he communicated his opinions to them at an early period . ° As to the general body of Conservatives he writes :- — In the particular case , when was this communication to have been made by me ? Was it to have been made during that interval after the 1 st of November 1845 when you and two other members of the Cabinet were the only ones who agreed with me ? There is not one of Lord ' s fourteen ox fifteen who would not have sided with Lord Stanley and the dissentients .

      There is not time for a Minister to hold separate communications with Lord This and Mr . That , and go through the whole series of facts and arguments , the combination , the general result of which has led him to form a settled but still debatable conclusion . Nothing but that full and ample detail which can be made once for all in Parliament will do justice to the case , and gain the assent of reluctant supporters . I am perfectly satisfied that if at any time between the 1 st of November and the day on which ( having resumed the Government , on which neither Lord John Russell nor Lord Stanley would venture ) I announced in the House of Commons the intended repeal of the Corn Laws , 1 had tried to gain acquiescence , either by belabouring individuals separately , or by summoning the party generally , I should have received scarcely one promise of support . I should have had , on the part of the most mouerate , a formal protest against the course I intended to pursue ; to the most violent I should have given facilities for organized opposition ; I should have appeared to be flying in the face of a whole party , and contumaciously disregarding their opinion and advice after I had professed to consult them ; but ( what is of infinitely moie importance ) I should have failed in carrying the repeal of the Corn Laws ,

      Now I / was resolved not to fail . I did not fail ; and if I had to fight the battle over again , I would fight it in the same way . Lord John Russell , he here says , would not venture to form a government . We are afraid it must be admitted that the ambitious strategy of Sir Robert Peel was employed to baffle the ambitious caution of Lord John Russell . Lord Stanley ' s pretentions were at that moment ridiculous ; had lie accepted office there must have been civil conflict in England ; but had Sir Robert Peel chosen to explain himself , the Whig statesman could have entered Downing-street in triumph , proposed and carried Corn Law Hepeal , and not have left the policy of the new Whigs to be developed into practice b y the leader of the old Tories . However , it was Peel ' s desire to sweeten with a sense of justice the bread of the poor ; and his tactics did not , perhaps , exceed the limits of justifiable parliamentary emulation . On one point there can be no doubt : Peel was convinced in favour of free trade . He keptfoi months an almost daily record of the fearful menaces of famine and of national trouble , forcing upon the Government a policy of remission and relief . He did what he could to persuade liis party ; but failing , he didwliat he was bound to do to mitigate the sufferings of the country .

      This volume is full of interesting matter—cabinet memoranda , confideatial correspondence , and personal remarks on men and on events , addressed to posterity by the late Sir Robert Peel .

      232 The Leader. [No. 363, Saturday ,

      232 THE LEADER . [ No . 363 , Saturday ,

      Nature And Art In Disease. Of Nature And...

      NATURE AND ART IN DISEASE . Of Nature and Art in the Cure of Disease . By Sir John Forbes , M . D . Churchill . Sir John Fokbes leaves as a legacy to his younger brethren this result of a long- medical career : Put not your trust in Medicine ! He Has the smallest faith in drugs which it is possible for a wise physician to get on with . He has the profoundest conviction that Nature is capable of curing herself in all curable cases . The Art of Medicine will do much to alleviate and to prevent , but cures are the work of Nature and not of Mcdicino . How to discriminate the precise influence of Art , and how to know when Nature had better be left to herself , is the great problem of Medicine , and Sir Jolin Forbes directs attention to it . His book addresses itself to the intelligent reader quite as emphatically as to the young physician , for the reader , be he never so intelligent in general matters , is apt to be a considerable blockhead in matters of medical treatment : — , . The following aro a few of the many ways in which the ignorance of the public , in regard to Beveral parta of medicine which they are competent to understand , influences

      injuriously the conduct of physicians : 1 . Ignorance of tho natural course and progress of diseases which are essentially alow and not to bo altered by any artificial means , often leads tho friends of the patient to bo urgent with the medical attendant to employ rtore powerful measures , or at least to change tho means used , to give more frequent or more powerful doses , & c . & c . . . 2 . Ignorance of tho power of Nature to euro diseases , and an unduo estimnto oftlic power of medicines to do so , sometimes almost compel practitioners to prcscribo remedies when they are . either useless or injurious . « 3 . Tho same ignorance not soldom occasions dissatisfaction with , and Ios 9 o confidence in , those practitioners who , from conscientious motives , ami on *' juateat grounds of Art , refrain from having recourao to measures of undue activity , or from prescribing medicines unnecossarily 5 and leads to tho countenance and c ^ P "" mont of men who have obtained tlio reputation of greater activity tuvl hoUincss , through their i rance of tho true character and requirements of their art .

      very gno 4 . It ia tho same state of mind that lends the public generally to give car to tuc moat ridiculous promises of charlatans , also to run after the professors and procurers of doctrines utterly absurd and useless , aa in tho instance of Homoeopathy mid- Mcarooriarn . or dangerous , except in the proper cases , qs in , the instance of Hy dropathy-

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), March 7, 1857, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_07031857/page/16/