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    January 17, 1857.] THE LDA BE R. ' 61

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    SMINTHEUS THE GREA.T. Our lively neighbo...

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    If Andrews, Then Kinglake. Southampton H...

    • Those who expected that Lord Palmekston ' s testimonial would tell in favour of Mr . We & uei / IW are disappointed . There are several reasons for the resolve of the constituents . Mr , Weghtelin's friends have not managed well . The late Liberal representative had left the constituency in a mood very ill satisfied , and any one from , a distance would have found it difficult to steer his course so as

    to conciliate the offended constituency . By himself Mr . "Wegtjelin miglit have done so ; but his friends appear to have thrust him forward in a manner that hurt the pride of the electors . The consequence was a ready acceptation of every story that could be got up against him , including his former business connexion with Russia . No desire to sympathize with a Liberal constituency asserting its rights could make us join in the cry against a really able and distinguished man . Mr . WegueIiIn's abilities have been attested

    by his own successes as well as by general repute . It is well known that the IRussian Merchants of London desired a vigorous prosecution of the war , on the intelligible ground that it would thus be brought sooner to a . termination ; and it is equally well known that such was the opinion of Mr . "Weguelin . Nevertheless , there is no denying that Mr . 'Wegtjeiin- had been a Russian Merchant . Again , he belongs to the suspicious class of Commissioners *

    holding a gratuitous appointment on the commission to settle the civil service superannuation . But , worst of all , he had the avoved good wishes of the Premier , ostentatiously brought forward by his own friends . What is this but 'dictation ? ' Here is the strongest motive which has determined the choice of the electors . "Whatever attempts there may be to explain away Lord Palmebston ' s expression of opinion , he had expressed an opinion , he is Premier , his letter

    was brought forward on the side of a Government Commissioner , he was dictating a stranger to the constituency , and he was disparaging Hichard Andrews ; -who is as much the champion of Southampton at the present day , as Sir Bevis oy Hampton was the champion of the district in the days of chivalry . If Sir Bevis slew the dragon , Sir Andrews slays the "Weguelot ; and Southampton gives the palm to the man of its choice .

    "We have no objection to the choice , if the principle on which it is based were carried out somewhat further . We agree with those who say that Mr . Wegueli ^ t might be better able to assist the debates upon certain specific subjects ; but the constituency of Southampton declines to consider the election a mere matter of debating . It insists upon having the constituency represented by a of the

    man people ; it considers the House of Commons as intended chiefly to check the expenditure , and to control the Government in administration as well as in law-making . This is sound , constitutional sense ; but we shall gain nothing in substituting Mr . Andrews for Mr . Weguelin , unless we can carry out the same principle , and replace class representation b y national representation .

    Mr . Kinglake handled tliis subject vigorously in addressing the electors of Newport , not a hundred miles from Southampton . The high offices of this country are unduly distributed among persona of particular families , belonging to a particular class of society , without due regard to their qualifications . As well select persons whose names begin with tho letter ' A , ' or who live in a particular street . Tho House of Peers , elected by tho accident of birth , contains as large a proportion of able men as the House of Commons , which is said to bo selected by

    the people . The fault lies with the constituencies ; they do > not send their own representatives , still less the representatives of the unenfranchised class ; but they accept the representatives of the classes which are called " above them ; " and , elected by subservient constituencies , those ww-representatives go into the House of Commons impressed with the feeling that one class must bow to the other . As electors bow to members , members bow to Ministers . They believe that their own . parliamentary existence depends upon maintaining the established order of

    things . They are paralyzed if they are told that any independent conduct on their part will cause a change of Government ; that if they are too independent , England will be left with " no Government . " " ] N " , what they really mean Tvhen they say that is , that England will be left without a Government selected from the accustomed class ; hut when the day comes that England is to be without a government of that kind , " said . Mr . Kin & lake , "it will be a fortunate day , and not a day of danger ; for it will be a day when the representatives of the people will overcome the domination , of exclusive families . "

    If the constituencies desire to carry out the legitimate policy implied by the choice of Andeews rather than Wegttelin , they ought to place Kinglake in the House of Commons ; they ought to send other men to support Andeews and Kinglake ; and then we might see a really popular party appointing its own Ministry for the people .

    January 17, 1857.] The Lda Be R. ' 61

    January 17 , 1857 . ] THE LDA BE R . ' 61

    Smintheus The Grea.T. Our Lively Neighbo...

    SMINTHEUS THE GREA . T . Our lively neighbours , generically known as the " intelligent foreigner , " and popularly immortalized by Mr . Albeet Smith , under the style and title of Mossu , have had a hard time of it of late in their pursuit of the English language , and of English life and manners , under difficulties . The acrobatic performances on the English tongue of a distinguished contortionist , who happens to be afflicted with the name and inheritance of a

    great departed statesman , have not unnaturally created what is called a sensation among those ingenious continental aliens , who in their ignorance of the English language call London Londres . If the spirits of the great departed could be perturbed in their sublime abode by the antics of foolish heirs , the shade of Peel miglit well be thought to wince at that Adderley performance , and at the criticism of attentive Europe , but we may be permitted , without irreverence , to believe , that in their graves , at least , even statesmen rest , and that

    the serenity of Immortals is unruffled by the private griefs of public men . No , the fame of the father will survive the folly of the son ; but in what degree our national reputation may bo aftected by the serious blunders of tho intelligent foreigner , who takes hasty and occasional notes upon our institutions , is another and very different consideration . The popular instructor of Adderley , being a junior , and civil , Lord of the Admiralty , is at once set down by our Continental contemporaries as in some way or other connected with the helm of that

    terribly weather-beaten old Tub , the Vessel of the State . His -words are peeled as if each contained a secret pearl , and all tho dictionaries are ransacked in . vain for the French equivalents of English slang . They do not understand that in an extraordinary mission which was designed to represent the living forces of English society , tlio clown ( see " the divine Williams" passim ) was properly included , and that tho nearest lYencli transition or' tho diplomatic Pidel is JPaillasse . Accustomed to tlio mild felicities of sugared

    water , they cannot grasp the toddy , to which neither the peel nor the acid juice are wanting . They are fairly bewildered at this * Gent' of High Life , this enfant terrible of the political nursery , this Pasqtjin of representative diplomacy . In the frantic attempt to translate some of the choicest bits of Sir Peel , they know not—how should they know ? that " soft sawder" belongs to the American , and not to the English language . They might , we think , have reasonably supposed the . sometime representative of her Britannic Majesty at Berne and Madrid to be a linguist .

    But , the truth is , our lively neighbours , who are essentially revolutionary in spite of their institutions , cannot realize one of the most marked features in our national character , which , in spite of our officious liberalism , makes us the best regulated and most conservative people on earth . We mean that sympathy with . High Life which presides over our Court Circular , makes noble

    lecturers , such as the amiable and accomplished Va : ne Tempest , so acceptable to Town Halls and Institutes , and Baronets with 50 , 0001 . a year , so witty and instructive . It is to this wholesome public sense of aristocratic condescension , far more than to the fun of the exposure , that the success of the performances at Adderley and JDurham . is to be attributed . " Were it not for a conviction

    that the stability of our institutions depends upon , the prevalence of this healthy public feeling , we should hesitate to point it out to foreign publicists . " We beg our contemporaries over the water to cudgel their brains no longer about the language of Peel , and respectfully suggest to that Alcibiades of the platform to divert the notice of the Athenians , if not by cutting off his dog ' tail , at all events by shortening his own ears . We will do our best to create a

    diversion , by calling the attention of Continental conservatives , admirers of our fine old English institutions , to a very pleasing picture of our surviving feudalism in the harmless form it now wears in the Counties . Does the foreign publicist ever peruse an English provincial paper ? If not , he can have no adequate idea of these conservative forces and influences alive among our rural population , which , like so many scattered ra } r s of minor loyalties , concentrate themselves and culminate in the

    ardent loyalty of a free nation to a limited Throne . We take up one of the leading journals of the third commercial city of the kingdom , and what do we iind in the List number of the Bristol Times ? Up and down three mortal columns of close type a perfect eruption of Smith . " Who or -what , in the name of all the illustrious Obscure , and of all tho magnificent Unknown , is the fortunate Smyth that occupies three columns or so of a leading journal of tho third

    commercial city in the British Empire ? This is a question which the redactcurs of the Paris journals may very fairly ask , and which we , for our part , shall have some difficulty in explaining to their satisfaction . The name of Smyth is not unknown abroad , nor uncommon at homo . Classical genealogists have traced tlio lineage of Smyth to Smintiieus , a son of AroLiiO , and wo cheerfully surrender tho point to the

    classical genealogists . But this will not satisfy the JLssemhlee Nationalc Only M . » e Mont ale mbkkt could explain as succinctly , and wo hope wo may say as intelligibly as wo are about to tlo , tins sudden and tempestuous eruption of Smyth in a Bristol journal . Tho simple fact , as wo discover it with a curious eye , appears to bo that an ingenuous and interesting young man has just loft school , and succeeded to tho name of S . m . ytii , aud to a

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 17, 1857, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17011857/page/13/