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Leader (1850-1860), 24th September 1853, Edition Country of 2, Page 16

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      The Governing Classes. No, Iv.—The Duke ...

      not because he is a debater , for the Duke of Argyll ranks as next bore to Lord Monteagle in the Lords ' chamber . Why , then , is the Duke of Argyll in the Cabinet P . The territorial influence of the Campbells is not as necessary to Queen Victoria as it was to George the First , and the Duke of Argyll is not a man to have family ' influence . A son-in-law of the Duchess of Sutherland has , of course , fine prospects in this self-governed country , and Lord Aberdeen would probably not be indisposed , on a hint , to promote his

      young friend from the Western Highlands . But there would still be a mystery , as the Whigs would have had a . veto when the Coalition was formed ; and no truth ought to be attached to the story that Lord John let in the Duke of Argyll on condition of Sir Charles Wood being endured by the Peelites . The Duke of Argyll belonged as much to the Whigs as to the Peelites ; in reality he was of neither party , of no party , and was just the man no one would have calculated on either Lord John or Lord Aberdeen running after . The name of the new Lord Privy Seal astounded and perplexed people ; and no appointment

      is good Which , astonishes . The quidnuncs nf & cted to trace the taste of the Prince Consort in the choice ; but in this self-governed country , where the Government is as much an affair of mystery as it is in Kussia , if not more , the quidnuncs are always wrong . The appointment was , to the governed classes , inexplicable , and , for that class , still remains so , which renders a portrait of the Duke of Argyll peculiarly apposite to a series with the moral attached to the present . A Cabinet Minister about whom nobody knows anything , is surely an interesting study for a self-governed country ?

      An old head on young shoulders is a disfigurement , of course ; but it is a . dingurement which may be redeemed . It may be redeemed by the old head being a clever old head . It is made worse and more unsightly when the old head put on the young shoulders is a commonplace old head . When a young man has an old head on his shoulders , and the old head gives you nothing but the impression of ago , his appearance displeases in the same way as the appearance displeases of an old woman with a young ringleted " front . " Such

      an impression of incongruity is what the Duke of Argyll invariably produces . He is a young man who has never had youth ,- and that sort of young man is never popular . Eternally the world , however moral , will prefer the Tom Joneses to the Blifils ; and the young gentlemen who have never gone through a course of husbandry with wild oats , seldom attain to the acquisition of such laurels as arc worth having . It was clever , no doubt , of the Duke of Argyll to write , at nineteen , a pamphlet on the question whether Bishops are more loveablo than Presbyters ; but the world , with unerring instincts , distrusts young men who do such things at

      the ago when they should be ruining their constitutions , and getting philosophic ; views of life . You admire children who , at ton , can repeat a book of the , / Eneid , and beat you at chess ; but you would prefer that they should bo spoiling their clothes and rolling savagely in ditches . It indicates a bizarre ambition , —a young Duko seeking position among polemics and archaeologists . It is quito right that a . young Duke should bring himself up piously ; and a Scotch young duko could scarcely avoid the contagion of ecclesiastieo-seorbutics peculiar to that land of passionate Christians , and careful traders . But Mac Calluin Mooro wagging his pow in a pulpit ! We live in an n < n ; when we are not

      startled to hear the- last of the Plnntagcuots , tho Marquis of ChandOH , praised an " a man of business ; " but tho ambition of being " useful" is an ambition in which tho spirit of tho times will sympathise-, —the ambition of tho Marquis of Lorn to . share / kino with Scotch Dissenting canters wns ft vulgarity which tho good taste of tho times condemns . And that first net of the life of

      tho Duko of Argyll may bo dwelt upon , because at nineteen ho was old , and nt thirty he is just tho man he wan nt nineteen . As ho commenced ho went on , and in going on ; und the Duko of Argyll , at , thirty , may bo described an a young nmn who linn ftono into the Cabinet , not us tho organ of tho Whig , nor us tho organ of tho Tory party—but , simply and grandly , as

      the organ of—the Tea Party . The Coalition includes all parties ; and perhaps that is why the Duke of Argyll was made Privy Seal . You see , at a glance , when you go into the House of Lords , any night in Session , that the Duke of Argyll is , of all the young men of this country , eminently fitted to excel in that party . You see that he is clever , but that it is commonplace cleverness . You can see such a head as his—large without being massive , and not

      effective , because so symmetrical—in any Convocation meeting , for it is eminently the parsonical hear ?; and ^ such a style as his you can hear at any meeting-house , when half a dozen gentlemen , connected with the Gospel , meet to talk professionally . It is fluent commonplace : good enough , in its way , if offered with the humility of mediocrity , but insufferable , from the air with which the speaker insists upon impressing it upon you , and from the obvious tribune of self-esteem from which

      the balmy orator is addressing you . It was said of an emphatic elocutionist that he talked in italics : the Duke of Argyll talks in capital letters , with a note of admiration after each sentence . A Duke has a chance of knowing something of the world , if he passes a not strictly Christian youth , and , in his early manhood * only dwells in decencies when he goes to his castles . But a duke who passes his life in studying the history of Presbytery , and the strata of the rocks about Inverary , the rocks trodden b y Effie Deans and her sister

      can have no conception of the thoughts or actions at work in the British empire . And this is visible in the tone of the Duke of Argyll , when he addresses that courtly House of Peers , which doesn't hiss , and can't laugh . You hear a young gentleman , who is gifted with a certain sort of logical faculty , and who has read several books and all the papers , ( that morning , ) who has got up his subject logically , at secondhand , and who is

      pouring out his " views" just as Mr . Delarue's machine pours out cut envelopes—mechanically . Once upon a time even a Duke would hesitate before he addressed an educated body of men , unless he were quite sure he had some of the qualities of a public speaker : but the Duke of Argyll , knowing merely that he can talk fluentlyin that lanky , loose , flaccid , Peel style , which is hideous — -and that he can remember what he read in the works of that eminent divine , M'Yell , talks to the Lords with the confidence of a Chatham , and a good deal oftener . All this , arises from the simplicity and the good faith of a good-natured young man , who is coaxed into conceit by his coterie of relations , and who hasn't the slightest notion either of himself or of other men . As a lecturer at occasional Mechanics' Institutes ho gratifies—the populace is pleased to encounter a Duke who can talk like a . book : in the Duke's case very like a book . But a Duke among peers is no great hit and

      the Duke of Argyll has unconsciously drifted and drivelled into boredom . Such speaking as his , indeed , is possible nowhere ; half homily , half l eading arlicle , it is chokingly dry and dull . lie has no wit , no humour , no imagination , no originality of ken .- it i . all the high and dry level of a weary quasi- \ o ^\ cw \\ l y , which is not even generalized , but i . s minutely and pedanticall y accurate ; and all this with an Argj ' llshiro accent which convinces that Mac Calhun Moro is a great gun in the General Assembly . Why , then , is tho Dnke of Argyll a British Cabinet Minister P NON-KliJEOTOTt .

      928 The Leader. [Saturday.

      928 THE LEADER . [ Saturday .

      Tun Nollmjmhn Ov 'I'Lla V 1<1. '1'Irkuu ...

      TUN NOllMJMHN OV 'I'llA V 1 < 1 . ' 1 ' irKUU jiro merchants of England who seem Princes by tho grace of their own aeln . ( Such jh Thomas Halt , of Saltairo . Even ignoring the energy and inlogril . y essential to bin great success in life , the generous nature of tho mini ' s soul speaks in what ho linn done in ( ho Jittlo plneo lio found a villngo , and has made a ( own . To lodgo tlio workmen of his new great alpaca factory near Bradford ho ) mn added to Salfairo woven hundred Iiousom . Wide' Htrool . H , and spacious squaron , and commodious baUis , givo airiness and health : pleasant tf'irdenn and playgrounds pl' ^ Ho l /! m oyo mid glad tho spirit ; while , schools toacli ouldron , ui ( d a pretty church romindM tho people of ( Jod ho other da

      I y the honofactor of this good work gftVo u dinner parly ( o l , j H friend . s . It whh a monster mooting of ¦ ffiioHts : throo thousand , woven hundred poern , mayors and workmen—nu t down to the giganticfoaHt . JYftor dinner ' tho hoHfc ordered a special train and oarriagoH for hi , ! , irionrtH , and took thom | , St . Goorgo'H Hall , Bradford aiuUroaled thom to a limt-rato concert . This was wlinc tho Jioni on a n . oro thuil rpyill HCfl , o < Another instance of t in good-wdl of trado . smci , occur * Miiu week . William JJ mwii , membnr for South Lancashire , has given Hix hoummd pound ,, , „ , mi |(| H ( . . (! libmr ' ,,, * ,, ( nvn ( * Liverpool . 1 ipho « o | :. s Htnnil woll Hido ' hywdo with thn docdH of that King of Industry who hiiH fouilt tho J ) ubUn

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      [Ib- This Department, As Ail Opinions , ...

      [ IB- THIS DEPARTMENT , AS AIL OPINIONS , HOWEVES EXTn **™ ABE ALLOWED AN EXPBESSION , THE EDIXOB 2 fBCBSSAn ^ l HOLDS HIMSELF BESPONSIBLE FOB NONE . ] ° "AitIiy

      There Is No Learned Man But Will Confess...

      There is no learned man but will confess he hath rm-, t , profited by reading controversies , his senses awakS and ms judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for horn to read , why should it not , at least , be toS for his adversary to write . —Milton " ^ waDie

      The Law As To Servants' Charactees . {To...

      THE LAW AS TO SERVANTS' CHARACTEES . { To the Editor of the Leader . ) Sie , —Through the medium of your journal my stten . tion was especially directed , in-glancing , at the table of contents , to the " Law as to Servants ' Characters " and upon reading it , my mind forcibly dwelt upon the injustice , as it appears by this article , affecting this class of society . The systems in England and Ireland are totally different ¦; and I would say , that the system adopted here is very much superior . We are obliged to give servants , if they have lived for three months with the master or mistress , a written discharge , which of course the person must substantiate when called upon by a new employer ; but by the

      custom which the article in your paper depicts , the servant is wholly and solely dependent upon the character which her former mistress gives to her next one . Now , then , supposing a servant has been unfortunate , and having displeased her mistress , is dependent for her bread upon the character she may be pleased to give ; it is likely her last mistress will not speak of her in most favourable terms . She is then kept walking about until , in despair , hunger compels her to seek her sustenance , and alas ! too often in not the most reputable way ; whereas , in this country , if one discharge is prejudicial , she has perhaps five or six from former mistresses , which she produces as a strong proof of her general character . The idea in this country preponderates as to the virtue of tho servants over those of the

      sister country ; and this system , I feel sure , you will see is calculated to protect our servants . Yours , & c , A HoUSEHOIiWEK . 26 , Mary Abbey , Dublin , Sept . 20 , 1853 .

      The Early Edition Of The "Leader." (To T...

      THE EARLY EDITION OF THE " LEADER . " ( To the Editor of tho Leader . ) Sir , —I am glad that tho repeal of tho advertisement duty has enabled newspaper proprietors to issue two editions without incurring tho serious tax of pay ing double duty upon all their advertisements . Employed in a printing-office , these matters have conic under my 1 * 1 notice ; but whatever may have been tho reason wJiicn induced you to iasuo an early Saturday morning of tho Leader , I , in common with many other working men , am glad of it . In every part of the country tho advantage by this timo must have been felt . The Lewie )'

      now reaches Glasgow and Edinburgh on the Suturduy night ; , and though too lato to be delivered that nigh ' , it can be had on the Sunday morning in every t <> in Scotland . Beeauso there is no post delivery <> " Sunday in our towns , many are not aware that tho Lec « < _ 1 can be had , but any subscriber who directs it to >«! sent to him can havo it on application at tho Von - offico , an them is alwirys a delivery to applicants licfi'i' - church time in the inorning . If this was grNonijly known , 1 am sure it would bo of advantage <<> <; ll (! ° " | dilation of the Lender . It is more generally i ' > il (

      hero than any other London paper , and 1 > IIVO " \ told by -. vorkmen in England that it i » tho win ]*' . many ' other phu-t-n . If you think thin letter _ w > rUi j | . " Hortiii £ , 1 can fiend you n fact or two illustrative » assertion . Yours respectfully , PicAur , Wii ^ ox .

      Notrokb To Oolfkichl'ondknth. ^^ {Y " An...

      NOTrOKB TO OOlfKICHl'ONDKNTH . ^^ " An Trmh NatioiwliHf , " in aarrcc . t in mij >|> o » i" / T ' ¦ "I ! " ,. ; , „ - ulludocl ( , o ( . lift hidrionio « UiinooratH wli «» wo H | io" <> "' p ^ vi-si pnuitidfililo oloiinoiit ; " mid wo uro fjliid to flu" I ;"' ' " 11 of our oontompt i ' or Unit miHornl > l « JiVnntt ' / U / Ufiiti-on . ilinH of Air . . 'Mm MiWKVHwtv ' titwwnulloUw , <» ' <¦''» H ' | . " ., jorii »<» - ( JliiH fiow , ih liotiiinff U'Uur tliiui ii r « nfnii { ffti oi nntwrtionn . i 'n NW' '"' " A Lovor of Ai ( h" will / liul hin inqniry tmltemH w 112 , 111 ) , 121 ( Vol . Jii . ) , of iha Loader . " A JJJhoIc PirilotfopUor , " in type ,

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1853, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24091853/page/16/