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    December 10, 1853] THE LEADER. 13:89

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    treaty seated with all the seals of the ...

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    THE GOVERNING CLASSES. No. XIII. VISCOUN...

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    December 10, 1853] The Leader. 13:89

    December 10 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . 13 : 89

    Treaty Seated With All The Seals Of The ...

    treaty seated with all the seals of the Archiepiscopate . ¦ ¦ '• ' ¦ ' ' ¦ ¦ ' ¦ . - ' . . . ¦ ¦ - ¦¦ ¦ :- . ¦ ¦ .. ¦ ¦ Without entering into the merits of the litigant parties , it may be positively maintained that the-Papal Church in Baden is absolutely wrong- at law in pretending that the State has no right to interfere in its affairs .

    The Governing Classes. No. Xiii. Viscoun...

    THE GOVERNING CLASSES . No . XIII . VISCOUNT PALMEESTCXNV The difficulty of daguerreotyping Proteus would be comparable with the perplexity of a biographer in attempting a sketch of the career of Henry John Temple , Viscount Palmerston . 3 for , though the individuality is , at all stages , identical , there are four different personages to deal with : Palmerston , who was the raging young Peelite ; Palmerston , the adolescing Canningite ; Palmerston , the juvenile Whig ; and Palmerston , the attaining-years-of-discretion Coalitionist . There is none of the Ciceronian symmetry in the career ; beginning , middle , and end : —it is-all- beg inning . Lord Palmerston , it is said , was born in 1784 ; and , it is known , has gray hair and much detenuity about the limbs ; but if he is old it is in the same sense as some of Pugin ' s churches are in ruins , or as Birkenhead is a premature Palmyra . Youth , with all its virtues , as well as with all its vices , is the principal characteristic of Lord Palmerston ; and as his eternal youth cannot , in a material age , be supposed to be the gift of the gods , the political physiologist must attribute the ever-during felicity of this

    felicitous man to the complex accident of a good stomach and a bad memory—the last ensuring a perpetual fresh start , without the slightest arridrepensee , at every period , and in all predicaments . The daring and the indifference of youth are the salient points in a character which is indebted to its coolness for most of its eonspicuousness ; and it will be found , in consequence , that from the early period when Lord

    Palmerston , on behalf of Canning , undertook to crush "the Duke , " to his most recent manifesto , when he announced his intention to put down Providence , Lord Palmerston hag always , in that sense , been the same . But his mobile intellect has taken so much the hue of each period he has passed through , that , beyond the unfading vivacity , there are only traditions and statistics to assure us that the perpetual Palmerston is one personalty .

    The late Dr . Maginn , writing of the mythically old Mr . Jerdan , said ^ that " after passing the first eighty or ninety years of his age in the usual dissipations of youth , he began to bethink him of a profession ; " and in the same way the biographer of Lord Palmerston has to mention , that the illusfcrioxis career commenced when his Lordship was attaining half a hundred years . Some men only begin to be great with the gout ; as if it only occurred to thorn to look after immortality as they feel the approach of denth . Indeed , the instances of men doing" miracles in age are us numerous as the

    instances of men accomplishing wonders in youth ; and as the animals and plants which grow slowest attain the greatest age , so an Admiral Blake may be more eminent than a Don 'John of Austria ; and Lord Palmeraton may be a greater man than Mr . Pitt . NatioiiH , wo are- told by writers , who do not believe in opinion , and , therefore , appeal to poetry , should rely upon their youth ; but nations don ' t—they open Casinos for their youth ; and so sceptical are mankind of that precocity which in wise at second-hand , and of that energy which is a fever , that not one in a million over

    gets Iu ' k chance before ho in forty . Lord PalmorHton , a Peer at eighteen , was in the Houho before he wan in a beard ; but tho nileuco of twenty years intimated his profound conviction that tho Roinatm were ri ^ ht iu admitting to tho nenato only tho . se who had attained t <> tho dignity of forty yearn : jind , iu fact , be wan only politically of ago when , repudiating hi . s guardians , tho Tories , ho diHOovored ( in IKISO ) that " life" wan onl y to be aeon with tho W | vi ( . 'H . Antony the WhigH

    ho hntt lived , reckloHsry Mid gaily ; tynd , at thin moment , wo encounter him , bin hot blood tamed , roturn-UJK t ° thy oonnoxionB ho foraook , and acknowledging " > iit conservative morality which ho once , when the J > uko wan HKxldloHomo at tho War OfHoo , ho furvoufcly 'Iwpifmd . That Lord Pahnoraton Iuin had Iuh wild "ittn ih very certain : and nn wild oatu nhoiild alwayii ' »(> ( rrteu , it iH purliapH to bo regretted that hin windom Win nil in 1 u " h naiad tlayn , und hi « folly all in tho Hero . " » t ho Helootod silence an his talent when other men

    are most talkative ; was ,. for twenty years ( from . . 18 . 05 to 1828 ) , a mere official subordinate ; and we can only criticise him from the * moment when he commenced to perform . If , indeed , we were to study the official , as well as the statesman , we should find material for sustained astonishment . He was the Secretary at War who signed warrants for the conveyance of Napoleon the First to St . Helena , and he was the Secretary : of State who offended his Sovereign by recognising that Napoleon the Third had commenced to reign . He was about nineteen years in office . under the Tories ;

    and about sixteen years in office under the-Whigs . As Tadpole would say , he is a , wonderful man ,-r ^ he haa had the longest innings on records—and , he is wonderful , not for his batting , but for his baulk . And as Lord John Russell says in , his "Fox , " of another Whig , the retention of office is attributable , not to the desire for its emoluments , but to a "love for its activity . " His : offices assuredly have been no sinecures ; and that , whatever the office , Lord Palmerston would be officious , ; , is evidenced in the circumstance , that when they put him into the quiet Home Department , he insisted upon dealing with Providence as a Foreign Power . He

    was Secretary at War m war time ; and his sixteen years of foreign secretaryship were sixteen years of attempts to break the peace . He has a passion for work ; and he has indulged it without , as yet , any of the ordinary dismal results of obeying Natures There is age in the hair , the limbs , and the voice ; but this is physical decay only , —the intellect is unconscious of decline ; the sword is not less sharp that it gradually cuts through the scabbard . If the Duke of Wellington was a marvel at eighty , Lord Palmerston , at seventy , is a miracle . And he is happy in the foils supplied by the fade Ms of his present colleagues .

    It may , nevertheless , be remarked that , as the moral qualities of the sailor were proved by his capacity to play on the fiddle , Lord Palmerston ' s statesmanship has been chiefly illustrated in keeping in the service of the State . His career has been all beginning , because he has never had anything to finish ; and a not unnatural estimate has been formed of him that , as he has kept in , to baulk and not to score , his ambition is

    rather that of a busybody than of a philosopher . In other words , it is said that this illustrious man has , witli all his chances , been a failure . But this is unphilosophical . For that life cannot be pronounced a failure which never had an object . Lord Palmerston has never had a policy ; and , therefore , has been so politic . He haa been hotnvie d ' etat , not statesman . Bom into the governing classes he consented to the work of his caste its the Chinese son of a Chinese

    houso-pamter consent . " ! to live the adorner of mansions ; and it will not be denied that he is one of the most perfect governors of modern times . His faculties az'e critical—not creative ; administrative—not originative ; and his forte , as every member of Parliament knows , is to answer , not to propose , questions . This is not to flay that he is a clerk , like Sir Jarno « Graham ; but it is to my that , with all his vast vigour , unbounded knowledge , and relentless logic , ho i « not of ho fine an or < lor of mind , eveu as Lord John liuanell , who , with antithetical feebleness , holdtf a higher place in the

    world ' s estimation , simply because of tho opifiodical possession of tho poetic intellect -at once creative and analytical . Lord Palinernton ' H gcniuH ih nothing but a genius for . common seoHC . He iH « aid to bo the only Peer of pure Saxon descent ; and he Iuin alwayw struck me , as being tho intonHost EiigUYdunan in English public life . The . Duke of Wellington was nai < l , in tho Hamo way , to have been tho impersonation of tho . ' ISng-HhIi character : and comulcriug that he , liko Lord

    Palmeinton , wan an Irishman , thiH ih peculiar ; mid I fancy , that if tho Duke of Wellington had had a parliamentary , in lieu of a military education , bo would hsvvo been much the name man that Lord Pahnorxton has ho long been . The man , who ( Uncovered that great , first principle , that tho Queen ' . ) Uovermnont must he carried on , imlieatod hm iilnoHS for tho carriage ; and that in Iho principle which in to b « detected aa tho key to tho ( mrevr of Lord 1 'almeraton : Never loft

    mifliciently loiujin OppoHition to nturty into croohetineHN , ho w-ih early imbued with a reverence for the practical and a partiality for the poMHible ; and never having acquired n , prejudice he , like all men to that extent wi . se , wm no \ w hampered with a principle . Official li | b , In a country like England , governed by an oligarchy , loudrt to very concrete polities In hhcIi a country , tliere ih tin OHotorio Hyntem , which only tho Infl e < W

    learn , which onl y those who have , been yeaw . in fully learn , and which once thoroughly mastered , obtains ofor the adept the awe and the veneration of radicals , eternal Outa , who only know one-half of the game . The high position , therefore , of Lord Palmerston in the House of Commons , is attributable , not at all to any conviction that he is a first-rate inleUect leading the century ; but is the result of a well-founded b ^ Hsf , that he is of a most emphatically " practical" character , polished into something like statesmanshi p by the awful experience of forty years of responsible '' office . " Arid tp

    he . WQaldse ^ m have been sought for in every Cabinet , not as tho mari to steer , but . as . the man to triinthe sails- —not as a man who could tell you very well where he was going , but as a man who could snuff ; and rather relished , a gale of wind . Thus , Lord Palnierston has always been , a departmental minister ; and having lived , during his most sagacious years , in that department , the functions of which best enabled him to subordinate the preposterous pretensions of his countrymen to European priority , he appears never to have ambitioned the rdle of leader or arbitrator in the petty

    squabbles and parochial competitions of Tories and Whiga , Conservatives andEadicals . Distinguished by an aptitude for the management of men , that is to say , a na PPy manner ; enabling him to use his knowledge of men , he has always contrived to be a popular minister ; his felicitous concessions to current cants , being all the more impressive . and enduringly influential , from the significant sparsehess of his Parliamentary appearances . But his management of men has been illustrated chiefly * private , and not in jmblic ; wisely he arranged for the plaudits of the chorus ; but wisely he has always considered the confidence of the Governing

    Classesjnost desirable for . a Government . The temptations to Lord Palmerston to become a Parliamentary chatterer—a Derby , or a Sidney Herbert—have been considerable . With great volition , self-possession , and knowledge , he was always fluent ; practice gave him , in perfection , the knack of the place ; and prolonged habits of dictating despatches bestowed upon him the fortunate peculiarity of being the only Parliamentary personage who spoke sentences not needing the emendation of the poor gentlemen in the gallery . Lord Palmerston , however , fully comprehending the delusions of Parliamentary government , has taken little care to

    conceal from the / tab dues of the " House" his accomplished contempt for the constitutional doctrine , that the ignarixml , Brown and ltobinson , because they are elected by the boors of Swillshire , or the barbarians of Briboton , are consequently entitled to voices in the direction of the affairs of the British Empire . Whatever the office he might have happened to hold , he would have cleverly checked the encroaching conceit of his countrymen ; but , educated in the Foreign Office , into the accurate annals of England , made conscious in thatj department of the absolute despotism of a British

    Cabinet , ho has . always taken advantage of his position to , subdue our notions that wo are a Keif-governed people . He can talk , he has alwayn talked , with wellacted vehemence , tho BermondHey policy- —a policy which lias its mapiraiion in the belief that Britain in tho first and freeat of countries . To Inling'ton deputations , indeed , jmtl to other deputations of . Britons , who " Bympathisod" with KoH . suth while . applauding Ward in ( Jophalonia and Clarendon in Dublin , Lord Palmoi'Hton ban been Hatiricwlly revolutionary . Hut the Bunnondney policy never yot into any but those despatcheH which were manufactured for the eventual Wuo Book , compiled to mislead . It , oontu very little

    trouble to dqceivo a people sit once conceited and confiding it i . s only . iiectwHary to flatter them ; it ia only dull men , liko Lord Malinc-nlnny , who cannot , at tho eaino time , conciliate the Continent and command England . No doubt , however , a man must be si Whig to bo a Hiu . 'coasful English Secretary of Foreign Affairs . "Le Whitf , " nay . s Balzac , *' eHt la femino < Ie votr " o gouvernoinent ( Anylais ) . " The Whigs an * tho . so weakminded iiiemherN of the Governing ClaH . son who took to cunning to compenHatu for want of power ; anil it ih only tho Whig , prjietiHod at homo in playing cI .-ihh a / jsiiiiHt chiHH , who Ikih the n

    TIioho who huvo been caroful ob . sorvorH of Lord . Palmoiflton , inipartially balancing word . ) against doodH aro not dinponed to coincido either in tho orood off Mr . 't / rquhsirt , or on tho ereduli | , y of the proHontora < if tho portrait . Tho improaflion produced by liord . Pidmeratati

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 10, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_10121853/page/13/