Current:

Leader (1850-1860), 25th September 1852, Edition Country of 2, Page 15

Page 15
Page 15
15 of 24

On this page

  • Text (3)
  • Transcript

    • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

      Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

      Hints To New M.P.'S. By An Experienced "...

      aw kward individuals . The only quality lie displays in a speech is clearness of intellect , developed in that which somebody has said is the definition of House of Commons' talk— " elegant conversa tion . " He rarely ventures on a little eloquence : that the House of Commons will not endure ; for it does not want to be excited—it wants to be guided ; it calculates—it does not feel . Clearly , then , people who want to succeed with the Commons must , as near as possible , adopt Mr . Disraeli ' s system . Take the next great men—Lord Palmers ton

      and Lord John Russell . Fancy a spirited despatch being calmly read to the Queen—and you gain an exact idea of Lord Palmerston ' s style of speaking . The thoughts are cheered , for Lord Palmerston is intensely the Englishman , above party , and always talking from the national cue ; but the spirited sentences would have no chance but for the calm manner . Again , Lord John Russell is always for preserving his country—in ice . The frigid voice , the didactic tone , the reserved gesture—consisting of cat-like and cautiously

      placing his hand on the table , and slowly withdrawing it—are very repulsive to a stranger , who cannot understand how that cold nature got a leadership . But Lord John Russell is essentially a House of Commons' hero : deeply imbued with the tone of the place , bred up in all its knacks and mannerisms , and as an orator , in the House of Commons' sense , keeping parties togetherhe still holds the first place . Lord John Rus 3 ell is often truly eloquent , delivering fine " passages , " when the occasion demands an ascension above the dead routine : but those who have

      admired such passages must not suppose that the manner corresponded to the vigorous idea . The melancholy of the manner , and the sad serious ness of the voice , but deepen as the thought expands ; and the heartiest cheering which he has ever enjoyed has not induced him to quicken Ms speech by one syllable . Enter the House while Lord John is in the midst of a peroration , and you might think that some one was pronouncing

      a funeral iloge , and that all the mourners were hooting him . There is the excitement visible in the House itself , but the excitement is not even apparently shared in by the speaker . So that when Mr . Patrick Somers , who was a very competent judge , said that the House of Commons was the best night-house in London , he meant only , as in other such places , for the audience , not for the performers .

      The use of the term " debate leads to a common misapprehension . It implies discussion ; and , properly speaking , there never is any discussion in the House of Commons . A " debato" is simply a series of speakers speaking for themselves , or for numbers , —offering advice to the whole . There arc allusions hero and there in these speeches to other speeches ; but there is little or no replieatory argument . There wero debates once when there were giants in the House of Commons ; but those wero days when there wero also dwarfs . Size is assimilated now . There are no dull , gaitered , bovine , country gentlemen ; and what nominees for towns are left - 'ire nctivo .-m ' indad keen follows . avJio are matches

      for first ministers in men ; logic . Between tho orator and the audience there is no great difference in intellect ; and all the speaking assumes that the audience m too clever to need the elimination of obvious commonplaces , to endure flatulent eloquence , or to bear with any pretentious tone of superiority . Take examples of failures , and learn by them . The bores of the llouao of Commons are as well luiowii as tho pots ; and it is very remarkable , that the bores are acknowledged to be about the cleverest men going . The bore , par excellence , was Indeed out at the last election ; and it in a l > itv , for ho was to bo studied , on the principle

      which rules the cooking of cucumbers , lie wuh i wonderful man—n , man of genuine genius . Hi . memory was wax to receive and marble to rotain . ' . is acuteness was miraculously rapid . His hoiK'Hty was beyond all question . lie could "peak glibly—and for nix hours at a time , if need w < n * o . 'Phis man devoted himself to the House of (' oininoiiN ; sacrificing to it splendid professional ¦ proHpee | , H ; and bold in that sacrifice , in the coik-M i <> UNnenH of ability , integrity , mid noble inteutioiiH , he concluded' that he vVas entitled to he a Pei-Hona ^ e . Accordingly , lie attacked every Huhl ' <' - Ho was in every debate , on every committee . Ho moved for nny returns . Jle introduced any ; grievance , fiiqaro here , . ' Myaro

      there ! He speedily advanced into boredom , Put down , counted out , he retaliated ; he lectured the House , he expostulated , be abused , he reviled . No men are ever misunderstood in the House of Commons . They said he was clever ; and if they had had time they would have taken a pleasure in his speaking . But they had no timethey did not require instruction or enlightenment from a man who stood aloof from parties , and speaking , therefore , only for himself , spoke for one no other M . P . cared one curse about . He had not patience or tact enough to study the men he wanted to master ; and . the result was ,

      that with all his capacity , he was the most signal failure , in proportion to the pretension , ever recorded . He had trusted to good speaking—to the readiness that delighted debating societies ; and he ftmnd that good speaking was the last article in the list of weapons necessary in a coup de main on the House of Commons . In another way , there is a signal illustration to be referred to of the inefficiency of the mere orator to gain a position in such an assembly . Such was the great bore in the Parliament from 1841 to 1846 . He was , perhaps , the finest speaker ever heard . As an elocutionist

      I never heard his equal ; and it was universally admitted that he was an accomplished , clever man . He talked , perhaps—delighting in his own voice , and in his smooth , elegant sentences , somewhat too frequently and too long ; but all that he said was to the point , and was well said . Yet when he spoke , the House emptied itself , and if he talked for three hours , not three lines appeared in the newspapers . Why ? I asked a member once ; and the answer was , " Because

      he spoke so well . " He was only an elocutionist ; he was not of a party , speaking that which would be followed up ; and abstract essays were , of course , despised . This gentleman is now in his proper sphere . As a journalist , he may have financial reasons to know he never is read ; but , at least , he has the gratification of seeing 312 columns of abstract cleverness put into print during the year . Printers devils never count out .

      The moral is to be pursued through other notorious failures . The two most brilliant Irishmen of the day are Mr . Whiteside and Mr . G . Moore . Both are poets , wits , and scholars ; both are consummately fine speakers . Mr . Whiteside ' s celebrated state-trial speech in defence of his political opponent O'Connell , stands conspicuous among the great speeches of the Irish bar—as the greatest . Yet the failure of Mr . Whiteside in the House of Commons was most overwhelmingand most deservedly . Fresh from the contentions of the native arena , he imported his polemical zeal into the Senate , where there is at least a philosophic contempt for sectarian squabbles : and in his first sentence he made one-third of the

      House of Commons his enemies for life . Ihink of a man making way in the British House of Commons by violently assaulting a largo section of it ! From the first moment he was condemned , and has never recovered the defeat . His powerful style , his graceful turn of thought , tho neatness of his illustrations , and tho solid grasp of his argument—in a word , the finished oratory—• are recognised andadmired . But even the Inglises take part with tho Keoghs when Inglises and Keoghs have sat together in one assembly . A section was insulted—the whole were offended . Talking from the very opposite tribune , Mr . M . ooro commits precisely the same fault—with some others . He is so full of talent that he has

      no room for tact . Too clever to repress a sarcasm , he talks at the Irish papers and not at the House , and consequently never makes way in the House . Besides this defect in tone—greatly exasperated during the lever of the Ucclesiastical Titles' Bill —Mr . Moore errs in another respect . lie repudiates the knack of the House of Commons , and is elaborate , ornate , polished , brilliant—and is not listened to . The House laughs at his epigrams , not because tho preparation of the extempore ; iH detected , but because the manner demands

      attention and announces conceit , in Ireland it is said , by the different parties , that tho Mooros arid Whitosides are failures in tho .. English House of Commons because they have " the brogue . " This is a blunder exposed by every day ' s experience . Mr . Whitesido does not Hpeak with ho much of an Irish brogue as the Duke of Argyle speaks with a Scotch brogue ; nnd the burr of Lord Brougham was once the terror of London drawing-rooms . These second-rate Irishmen of to-day forget the Irishmen who have succeeded

      in the House of Commons . Burke ' s brogue was notorious ; Grattan was national in his accent ; and Plunkett never learned the trick of talking what the Dublin exquisites called " English . " Every singularity is to be avoided , perhaps , for comfort ; and in that sense , a strong , distinctive accent is to be regarded as a personal defect . But it is only a personal defect , and House of Commons records tell how little such disadvantages

      count against tact and perseverance—meaning physique . An obliquity in moral character tells so little against a bold and useful man , in actual life , and especially in the life of the Senate , that it is possible a statesman who stammered would be endured if he only brought in good budgets and practical bills . Mr . Disraeli overcame the obstacles of race and creed , and reached the mastery of the most Christian . House of

      Commons ; and surely an Irishman though with a brogue , might lead the English House of Commons , if his serviceable qualities brought him into prominence . There is an " Albino " among you , gentlemen , whom I believe to be a great man , and of whom I predict , much as he may be stared at , that he will be one of the first men in England—if he will notice my examples , and bring his cleverness down to the working

      range . There are further examples and further arguments to be dealt with : and , in reality , the House of Commons is only to be comprehended by an examination of the peculiarities of its heroes .

      September 25, 1852.] The Leader, 923 -——...

      September 25 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER , 923 - —— - ¦ -.-. . . i 11 .. -i . > .....- ... . . . i . . _ , , . . i ... . , i . i . ¦ . . .... i . . . . _ __—^^*^* —

      An Aristocracy Foe The Diggings. Volunte...

      AN ARISTOCRACY FOE THE DIGGINGS . Volunteers of the metropolitan police are invited , to enter a special corps destined for Australia , where the passion of gold-digging has thinned tho ranks of the European police . Will saven-and-sixpenco a day bo sufficient " nexus" to hold "the Peelers" to their duty ? It is barely more than a shepherd ' s wages ; and tho shepherd over men might expect better pay . The nexus , however , is buckled tighter by a penalty of fifty pounds , which may be supposed to go towards an emigration fund for the metropolitan division of police . That fifty pounds fund may be called the metropolitan police bridge to Australia .

      It niay be expected that each policeman may not do much more than give a brief lesson in that graceful execution of duties which is so engagingly exhibited in the streets of London ; and that after that short existence in office , ho will retire to the diggings ; where his whole training and deportment will form an excellent staple for an aristocracy of El Dorado . Unquestionably that is the legitimate apotheosis of the policeman ; and many a future family of Australia will be proud to trace its descent to thoso blue-coated officers who arrived from England in tho year 1853 .

      Lorb Ma.Uieshubv In Jkkskv. A Orhtain Nu...

      LORB MA . UIESHUBV IN JKKSKV . A Orhtain number of French political refugees , including some of the most illustrious names in ( ho proscriptions of December , have taken refuse in Jersey , under shelter ( jis they imagine ) of the British ( lag . Their conduct is retiring and reserved , in no sense of a nature to compromise ) the ( . Government whose- protection they claim and whoso laws they respectfully observe . . Hut the proximity of Jersey to I'Yanee gives umbrage to the proscribe !*; and that the author of Napoleon , tho Jjittlo should be living and breathing within a few leagues of tho enthusiastic Jionapartist population of Cherbourg , disturbs tho slumbers of the Elysce . Accordingly , tho French (« overnment . implies

      to Downing-streot , or , m other words , M . . Louis Honaparto invites bin intiinato personal friend , Lord MalniOHbury , to set a watch upon these exiles , and if he dare not deny them bread and water , at least ; to add tho vexation of espionage to tho bitterness of exile . A prompt compliance with this request appears to have been promised and , so far us tho Foreign Office is concerned , carried out . Orders arc sent to the authorities in Jersey to " furnish a census of tho refugees" in the inland , their names , addresses , habits of life , & c , in duo police form , after I he fashion of tho Rue do Jerusalem . The . Lieutonant-Govcrnor of Jersey cannot chooso but conform to his instructions , but an unexpected resistance presents itself . We road in the Daily Ninas : — ¦

      " The constables of Jersey have been urged not to furnish to the Lieutenant-Governor a census of the refugees of the island , as they have * been ordered to do , nnd the refugees havo been urged by the newspapers of the island not to submit to inquisitorial proceedings , as they art ) a violation of tho island , rit / hts and / irit'i / , ¦;/< : ¦< . Tho Liouleniuit-Govornor , however , is not considered hlameable in Mm matter , as ' it is believed h <> is only acting in accordance with instructions from the Hril . ish Government . " JNovr , these refugees , we may charitably suppose , have adopted Jersey an a residence , not so much for its proximity to France ( though who shall accuse that tfentiniont )

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 25, 1852, page 15, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_25091852/page/15/