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    struggle for which Koasuth asked their sympathies . The excitement spread and waxed . A fine stalwart fellow , who looked almost too free in his bearing for an officer of regulars , and whom I took for a revolutionary colonel , with rough ringlets overhanging a manly brow , and black moustache overhanging the portal of a magnificent voice , made the place ring with calls to battle against the tyrants . The whole meeting rose and cheered , many times . The cool Edwardes shared the general fervour , and , in seconding the bearded speaker , he declared that " the men of Marylebone had come forward , and thus supported , the patriots of Italy and Hungary would not quail before their gigantic but cowardly oppressors . " It would

    be impossible to describe the piercing thunder crash of applause that followed that declaration of war : an Hungarian gentleman on the platform leaned over and shook hands with Edwardes , who extended his own hand to the audience , and introduced his foreign friend to them in dumb show , as Maria Theresa showed her son to the Hungarians . Many women were undisguisedly in tears ; and I am not sure that the lights did not dance before my own eyes in a magnified and uncertain brilliancy . When the tumult had a little subsided , a feeling of discordant though suppressed uneasiness betrayed itself on the platform ; and I found it was occasioned by an intruder , who was gradually making his way amongst us . The scene which followed was not pleasant , especially after the rest .

    The people on the platform mostly shrank from him with an air strangely blending dislike , fear , and contempt % the chairman announced him to the meeting with a forced nonchalance , and the loud applause from a small section of the audience only marked the more strongly the passive silence of the rest . The speaker did not conciliate favour by his aspect . A mien and dress that civilians might call " military , " was made up of a blue frock coat and an unconquerable effrontery . A large head , colourless eyes , and a natural wig of luminous curls—a piercing voice broken by " ahems , " with a mincing utterance—a bustling manner , with hands in coat pockets , elbows stuck out behind , and breast expanded—were traits that conspired to stamp the gentilldtre with unquenchable vulgarity and ineffectual presumption . His speech was a farrago of bombastic oratory—violent in adjectives , without a single practical proposition ; violent in denunciations of certain " oppressors " at home , who rivalled Austria in nefariousness :

    copious m insinuations that . class must be natural enemy to class , and strewn with artfully contrived innuendos against the sincerity of every speaker but himself . His adjectives delighted his own party . The " amendment" which he moved appeared to me to be subjected to some impromptu alteration ; while he rounded his inflated periods , his wandering eye—not the less cunning for a certain glassy wildnessscanned the numbers of his adherents ; and probably seeing that he could not prevail in any real division , he ended by moving a " rider , " which was nothing more than a democratic truism . The chairman hesitated to submit this truism to the vote : and then the scene of feebleness

    -contending with false bluster was humiliating . At last , however , the chairman did " pnfc " tl » o moticrcx - , and It was scouted by nine-tenths of the bold En glishmen , who declined the responsibility of saying something or other about " the people "—I forget what , but it was very harmless . The cunning demagogue then , making the most of the chairman ' s hesitation , " discovered the motive / ' for , with shameless and overt disregard to facts before our eyes , he declared that his amendment had been supported I »« r ftfn . "I - » ^ m . 1 J __ 1 * _ 1 11 TfcT ill " ¦¦• ¦¦• - « ¦» . - b decided Nevertheless

    y " a majority . " , advising his adherents " to . be quite peaceable , " and declaring that , in spite of the infamous treatment which " the working classes " had received in his person , Hungary should still rejoice in his support , lie " waived his right to put the question over again , " and magnanimously retired into a cons picuous position . The painful tiling was to see real men of the working classes connive at the barefaced farce ; scarcely less so to see sturdy Englishmen of middle class taking the farce for a formidable tragic drama .

    The tone of cordiality and courage was soon restored by the nppenrancc <> f a gentleman who " had just seen Kossuth ; " the stream of sympathizing elo quence flowed once more ; and , after " resolving" various insinuations that England would not suffer Austria , &c . "to ride rough shod over bleed-»» £ ? and weeping nations , " we broke up the public council with " three times three cheers for Kossuth and Mazzini . "

    A lew of our platform friends went home with us to supper , Conway « i » d the bearded man among them , and one silent man named Davis . The > evolutionar y colonel proves to be a young English artist , " and a very fine ellow he seems . The spirit of the meeting continued at the supper table , a »« the talk was animated . Conway did not say much ; but , hearing what mm of English clergymen , I was astonished at the freedom with which () lers tnlkcd around him , and at the perfect ease which he displayed a " tl ¦ UU inecssant cross lirc () f tnc lllO 8 t subversive allusions . Politics , * " letica , morals , religion itself , were glanced nt ; the people talking were Jinn ,, * and vigorous in tongue . Walter Stanhope , the artist , is an avowed M » ntualist , " a new sort of Deistif I understand the term rightly ;

    , 1 At IVllK / l . i .. 1 . II II . ., . *_ . _ ... ¦ * ^ ( hvuides talks blank Atheism in Church of England dialect ; you know my \ ™ v ' # V Vseult , like all artists , is religious , but her creed seemed to 11 ! 1 i ' Jlrmiltivo kind , that might have frightened a gentleman in a clerical con " ( ' from tllc a"PP « r tid >] v , ' Conway , however , joined in the ^^ nveivsation with the readiest reciprocity , only I observed that he never r ur ( lt 'd an exposition of bin own ; he performed in the contest the part of am "' Ualcilovm qilft » tity . In politics he did not scruple to be positive , and U ) "g them all he was the most sanguine us to the effect' of the present

    movement in England . Austria must be stopped ; and England at last would know her duty , not only to the freedom of the people , but to the continuance of constitutional thrones . Stanhope joined him , and asked Edwardes what he thought ? " I think , my boy , " he answered , " that I will take that pale ale if you will hand the bottle over . You can't get this in Italy ; it is the newest of our '* free institutions /—and the best . " " Don't trifle with serious questions , Edwardes , " said Conway ; " you are asked what we shall do next ?" " What next ? Do you mean in the ' movement , ' as you call it ? Why , then , I say that we shall do—nothing . " " Nothing ! What ! not after glorious meetings like this to-night ?—not after all the excitement that Kossuth has awakened ? Surely you don't believe— " " < Excitement !'—' glorious meeting V Conway , I will get you a place on the Morning Advertiser , as reporter ; you have quite caught the style . Well , I beg your pardon , I will be serious . Will you tell me what we can do next ?" " Make good our word . What we can do ! Why , what is that England cannot do ?" " Nothing—except that which she doesn't feel inclined to . If she were to ' make good her word / might it not lead her into a war ? Well , then , there is one thing that England won't do—she won ' t go to war . That is her single , her fixed idea in foreign politics . " " But her sympathy ?—her interest in keeping up constitutional principles ?—her sense of right ?" Edwardes coolly emptied his tall glass of pale ale . " Do you mean , " I said , breaking the long pause , " that all this turmoil , this movement , this bold promising , will come to nothing ? You have been resolving to-night ; shall you not do anything upon your own resolutions ? And ' the men of Marylebone' — have not they come forward at your own acclaim ?" " The men of Marylebone ! " sneered Edwardes , his voice sinking to a whisper of contempt : " if they come forward with five shillings why , then , the committee-men will have so much the less to pay for ' the expenses . '" .

    It is needless , if it were possible , to repeat our whole conversation . The substance of it was , that these " demonstrations" really mean nothing at all . Edwardes , indeed , denied such a conclusion ; he thought that " there was a moral effect" from the implied threat ; and he could not be made to see that to threaten , and to declare your intention of not fulfilling your threat , is really not a menace but a licence . He could not be made to see that by the double , the manifold farce , Englishmen are beating ; down their respect for each other—man to man , class to class . " It is so , " he rejoined , "in all other matters . We meet , move , and resolve ; but public meetings are not an official department , and nobody thinks tl \ e \ n so . They express public opinion , and that , in its quiet way , is the real ruler of England . Meanwhile England succeeds , for herself , to herself , and in herself . Let well alone . As to expecting that England will do anythin g to follow up Marylebone in a crusade against Austria—you might as well believe that Lord John really means to pass some new Reform Bill , or that Disraeli would intend to restore Protection . " " How can you say , " cried Conway , " that public opinion rules , when public opinion—that is , the opinion of the public—never stands forth ?" "No , " cried Stanhope ; " no man declares his opinion—except Mrs . Edwardes ; such a face as that cannot cover a prevaricating 1 tongue ; anil when her soft coral moves in its ivory-guarded couch , the music of truth penetrates through the mob-babble of hypocrisy . IJut no man " " If you make my wife blush , Stanhope , I must make your ribs blush deeper . " " We'll knock the buttons off the foils to-morrow morning . Itut tell me , Edwardes , who else speaks what he thinks ? You don ' t ; for you are an atheist , and speak in good round churchwarden slang . Davis , here ; upon my soul I don't know what be is ; but I only know that be bidet * it all . And Conway is " " A clergyman of the Church of England , " said Conway , in u melancholy but firm tone . A loud laugh celebrated the repartee , in a manner that all afterwards felt to jar with the sad expression of Conway's face . "You exaggerate , Walter , " cried Yseult , drawing off attention to herself ; " many speak the truth . You do , for one ; so does he , " pointing to me , " and so does my worthy husband here , in his conduct , whatever he may think it right to do with a tongue enrolled as M ' . K . C . S . " " Nay , nay , " cried Conway . " Come , " . interrupted Edwiirdes , " let us leave vain opinions , and havesome music . Art is always true ; its dissonances are hut the coy reluctances of harmony ; its resolutions are not vain ; its law wins obedience alike from ruler and vagabond . Let us close the night reverently with Jaw , Yscult ; and be thou the enthroned Queen of Truth . " We all rose from table , and Yseult moved to take her place at the pianoforte ;; but half way she stopped , and declared that she coukl not sing n . note . Her white and quivering li ]>« made good her words ; she was evidently struggling with some revulsion of mind ; and as a diversion to it , she began to caress the anxious Margaret , who had thrown her arms round her . Edwardes wna scarcely less pale than bis wife . Our visitora hastily

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    September 4 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 857 ' ^ l ^^^^ i ^ mmmmmm ^ mmmmm'mammtmmmamt ^ mma ^ mimmHm ^ Hamtm ^ Ktm ^ ttammmMmtm ^^ mamimm ^ mmmmmmmtimmm ^^

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 4, 1852, page 857, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1950/page/21/