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Leader (1850-1860), 30th April 1853, Edition 1 of 1, Page 426, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      Chancellor of the Exchequer under Lord Melbourne , and is supposed to possess " administrative ability /' which may be defined as a habit of early rising , bringing you to your office at nine , agreeing with your clerks in everything , being ill the House precisely at half-past four , p . m ., being never well dressed , and always able to bully independent members when they happen to catch your clerks in a mess . Now , Sir Francis on Thursday was worse than Cobden , worse than Moore ; he did not talk to meetings nor to Lady Baring , but he made a speech for the purpose of causing some malicious pleasure to about six personages , they being

      the statesmen left out of the coalition , —Earl Grey , Sir George Grey , Labouchere , Goulburn , and some few more , who don't agree with you that the coalition can get on , and who think that it is great nonsense to be praising the Budget in this way , —who allow that Gladstone is rather clever , but then he's copied my idea about , &c . &c . ; and who were delighted at Sir Francis's moral courage ( I notice that your crack honesfc and moral courage men have always bad expressions in their face and ill-condition in their voices ) in telling Gladstone that he had blundered about Ireland . The statesmen left out , —Sir George , and

      Labouchere , and Goulburn , present , did not cheer , but they were rewarded by Hayter ' s uneasiness , Lord John ' s gloom , and Mr . Gladstone ' s extra hilarity ; and they thought more meanly than ever of the Irish members who cheered , and who , poor innocents , thought Sir Francis was trying to please them—as if Sir Francis cared one straw for Ireland . But , then , the House saw through all this , detected the spite of a disappointed man , and arranged to enjoy the next moral courage speaker who should tell the secret . Who was Mr . Cardwell ? A gentleman never hesitating at ill-natured things , and not a Whig associate , and who insinuated

      a telling reply to the sneering assailant ; adding an assault on Mr . Moore , which was less well taken ; and , in fact , accepting what appeared an inevitable necessity , and turning the whole of the further talk for the night into an Irish debate—on the old question , under a new aspect , of justice to Ireland—under which infliction no opposition was made to the further adjournment of the division until Monday . Throughout the whole of last evening , though the attendance was fuller than before , the speaking was tame , the Protectionists launching no heavier orator than Mr . Henley ; and Government loosing no more responsible talker than

      the Mr . Cardwell aforesaid—smart and accurate on facts before him , and useful to be thrown out in a debate as a Cabinet picquet ; the Independent interest proffering no more important person than Mr . Cairns , a fluent Chancery barrister , who talked for an Irish constituency , and by personal allusions , rapid attacks on always-assailable Sir Charles Wood ( who had spoken on the preceding day ) , point being given to flimsy material by the satisfied and easy air of the speaker : —this gentleman—who was elaborately got up , dressed for the occassion as a dandy orator , to produce an

      effectthis gentleman did manage to get up running cheers , and to sit down in a roar of Protectionist applause , completing a " hit" in the House . Hut this was nt midnight , when seats were full , in readiness for the possibility of Disraeli and division . Up to the last half liour of Mr . Cairns , the House was thin , and teasingly Inattentive ; a promenade ami a club lounge , rather than a legislative assembly ; the fact being , that up to ten , members were as much in tho Lords , watching the Jew Bill debute , as in their own place ; and that from ten to eleven they could do nothing but bur in and out their wonder and their comment

      upon the Government defeat . Looking down from tho galleries at about ton , you could see there was some sensation outside , utterly disconnected from the orator inside , who was hammering away about differentiation , and lifting bin voice over all the insulting hum and Imntli ! to the reporters . There was news brought in by honourable newsmongers in hot haste , whispered about at the Imr , and then radiated right and left , and up and down the Houhc . Lord John and Mr . DiHrueli had their eyes on tho news at tho ono

      moment ; they got at it at about tho same moment . Lord John know that his colleague , Rothschild , had l > con rejected again by tho Peers ; and Lord John drew ]) is hut over I iih head , tightened his arms round his chest , and talked reservedly with ( Jruhnni . Mr . Disraeli , then supi > osed to bo about to rino at cloven , mid , in Iuh capacity an leader of tho Country Gentlemen Jind Protestant Opposition—know that his race and religion had received a now insult from tho party which ho was nerving — simply because tho conscientious IIouho of Lords would not , mifliristiimiHO tho Houho of

      Commons . Was it u fancy ? but Mr . Disraeli did not uppoar to catch Lord John ' s oyo for tho rost of the night . In tho hurry , it was concluded that Government was damaged b y tho defeat ; but really , tho Coalition had

      got a victory , as on the Canada Clergy Reserves Bill , because new material was thus supplied to them for taking airs as civil and religious liberty champions . They would have preferred winning ; but the next best thing was that Lord Derby should win , since he would win everything but honour . Personally , Lord Aberdeen cannot regret the debate . It was the first opportunity he had had of manifesting the later enlarged liberalism of his nature ; and his bold declaration ofcregret for past intolerance was a noble thing in the old man , and pleasant hearing for the droves of Jew

      gentlemen who were packed in the strangers ' gallery ,- staring at the peeresses , and admiring the disinterestedness of the Peers in charging nothing at the doors for admission . Ministers have also consolation in knowing that all the good speaking was on their side ; and all rational men have reason to rejoice that Archbishop Whately so astounded the right reverend bench by meeting thel charge , about unchristianising the Legislature with the direct , candid statement—which no one had yet made in any of these debates— "Your Houseof Commons is not Christian now

      —one half of them are Deists or Atheists . What was to be said after that ? Nothing ; and I believe that startling truth petrified at least a dozen intending Christian orators , and brought the debate to an abrupt and early close . Fancy Dr . Johnson an Archbishop , and in a debate , and saying that , and you can get an exact notion of how Dr . Whately looked and said it—rolling about in a bilious passion—and utterly indifferent to the horror he was raising behind him among the scrupulous shepherds , shocked at the license assumed by the huge and intellectual vulgarian who was staggering about the table and suggesting the most

      overwhelming logic , based on the most cruel admissions of constitutional shams . Such a saying as Dr . Whately's would have evoked a twenty minutes roar and cheers in the Commons : in the Lords there was solemn silence —they didn't know there how to manage an indiscretion of this sort . They had enjoyed previously the jolly and loosely-Christian suggestiveness of the wild Albemarle , who played round his subject , and cracked good jokes , and conciliated the Puritanical Peers , by admitting that he was in favour of the principle and all that sort of thing , but that he really was as averse as Falstaff to contiguity with the Ebrew Jew . This

      was talk the ladies liked—those ladies who always go to the Lords on no-Opera nights—who add the rustle of silk to the solemnity of politics ; who chatter to one another , and nod and beck amusingly and knowingly to their lords in the den below , and who have that influence on the oratory which private boxes have on the acting at a theatre above half-price . Lord Shaftesbury , fanatically solemn , they said no doubt , was very impressive . The Bishop of Salisbury , inanely twaddling , they could not but regard as gentlemanly —the least a bishop could be—and Lord Darnley , who made a maiden speech , and broke down in his idiotic

      bigotry in a way to suggest that out of his earldom he would have a difficulty in earning his livelihood , except on the recommendation of Lord Shaftesbury to the communistic Blacking Brigade , they could not but conclude to be diffident ; and Lord Albeinarle , as mentioned , they giggled at in n way to delight and inspire into tedious stupidity that plethoric peer . All these lords had talked , not at their lordships , but , in the first place , at tho bishops ; and in the next place , at tho ladies ; going in at once for Christianity and fashiona place in lieaven and a pleasant reputation in Mayfair . But Lord Brougham , who not only talked to tho

      ladies , but did not condescend to look nt the lords , and who would as soon touch a bishop as a Manchester man , —what could the peeresses have thought of Lord Brougham ? First , of his dress , — a sort of Cannes blouse , surmounted by ft woman ' s boa ; next , of his voice - —a raucous yell ; of his gesture , maniacal banging of tho table ? Ho was attempting to fascinate the side-galloriea ; ho terrified them , so that the pink bonnets were thinned long before ho had done . Lord Brougham has been scon in many phases l > cforo ; but ho startling , so bewildering was ho lust night , that ono began to think that tho Lords were having their turn of ft

      lunatic , even less manageable than O'Connor waswith a decidedly louder voico , and more method . What with Whately , Albemarlo , and Brougham , against him , and on hin own side nobody bettor than a Bishop of Salisbury and a foundered young Earl , tho debato may liavo appeared to Lord Derby , as well as to Lord LyndhurHt , both of whom had boon calculated upon , too ludicrous , and too trivial , and too troublesome for thoir control . At any rate , they allowed tho Houso to rush from Brougham to a division . Their silenco in tho debate , and tho rumours current for the few days iHifnrohund , to tho effect that they intended changing their votes , and turning Liberals , suggest a conspiracy to entrap Ministers : and thin iu certain — thut a Whig Minister Haid posi

      tively at eight o'clock , that the Government was safe to win . The vote that Lord Stanley gave for the bill in the Commons , implies that Lord Derby was not indisposed to a decent inconsistency ; but it may be , that he felt the Government was getting on too well , and that a little check to them was necessary to restore his own temper . So Lord Derby passed the word for bigotry , and will attend St . James ' s Church to-morrow with a dear conscience . And he and , Mr . Disraeli will dine together in the evening as usual j and will calculate what is best to be done with an enlightened country . "A Stbangeh . " Saturday Morning .

      Untitled Article

      A HIKT TO THE " POBEIGHT BBANCH OB THE EUG 1 IBH POXICE . " We are glad to learn that science hasbeen subdued to the aid of justice in the detection of criminals . That rather lugubrious newspaper , the Sue and Cry , jealous of the success of an eminent illustrated contemporary , now comes out with finished likenesses , obtained in the , first instance by the daguerreotype , of escaped convicts and absconded rogues . It is a singular evidence of the humanization of criminal justice , that the daguerreotype should now have superseded the thumbscrew ; and that the most ingenious instrument of modern torture should be nothing more than that noble discovery which , brings the eye of Heaven to bear upon the face of guilt , and anticipates , by the finger of the sun , the pen of the recording angel .

      We recommend this method of illustration to the attention of Englishmen who are indignant at the sullying presence of foreign police spies on our shores , in the pay of our Government . The features of these agents of absolutism are well known to many of the refugees ; let their portraits be taken , if not by daguerreotype , at least by some hand that can produce a good likeness . Let those portraits be exposed in 6 hop windows throughout London , that the possessors of the features in question may , " when found , be made a note of , " and treated with all the respect they deserve . Lynch-law is at least as good as Spy-law .

      Untitled Article

      SPEEDY CHANGE OF OPINION . The Earl of Shaftesbury , in his place in the House of Lords , supported the Maynooth inquiry , which he thought necessary , because he believed the number of priests was increasing in an inverse ratio to the increase of population , and that if so , tho condition of the grant was violated . On the next day lie took the chair at a meeting of the Committee of the Protestant Alliance , and helped to pass the following resolution : —

      " This Committee would reiterate the expression of its opinion , already made public on many occasions , that no further inquiry is needed to enable the people of England to arrive at a just conclusion respecting the teaching imparted at the said College , the results of that teaching on the people of Ireland , or the wisdom and necessity of the immediate repeal of the Act of 1845 . Hence tho Committee feel it right to declare without delay , that any report which the proposed Commission of Inquiry may fram e will not in the least preclude the Protestant Alliance from continuing to urge upon the people of Great Britain the propriety and necessity of maintaining their firm and unceasing demand for a total and immediate discontinuance of tho national endowment of that Iloman Catholio Establishment .

      Untitled Article

      v 426 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

      Untitled Article

      NOTICES TO CO-RESPONDENTS . Owing to extreme pressure of Parliamentary and Political mutter , a great number of important Article * and Communications are unavoidably omitted this week . J . 1 ' abkkh . —To have copied is sufficient . J . IIai-i ,, Buckholmeside . —On a question of Scotch excise ho had hotter »» pi > ljr to an Edinburgh office , or to tho Scorotary of the Olasfjow Temporanco Hociety . Z . ( C . W . )—Had not our correspondent , in conformity with our rule , authenticated tho communication by his name and addrcHS , it would certainly not have appeared in our journal . But he will pardon us for adding , that all thn names and addresses in tho world would not convert us to an acceptance ot these Bpirit Manifestations ; and wo hog our correspondent to believe that were wo disposed to sacrifice spuco to aheap of contradictory asHortionn , of more or l « ws value , more or loss irrelevance , wo should have a cloud of witnesses read y to testify , with ouraolvos , to the / lagrancy and tho folly ot tho imposture .

      Untitled Article

      Novices as a TAitT ov Ei > uoation . —Sentiment is a portion in true reality ; all without it is dross and a cctptd niortuum . Lot not your child , sny tho would-bo wise educationists , mid works of fiction ; they enervate , they unfit them for life ' s realities . You and 1 , EusebiuH , deny it in loto . They fit them for everything ; they feed tho heart with noblo sentiment ; they aliow that there aro things , ideal or not , worth nil patience , all fortitude . They thus Htrongtfyon , not enervate , oxccptiii £ by a bane nbusc ; and a high responsibility is thoii'H who havo tho commanding gift and do iilmxo it . Hut it is a coward ' n part to argue from tho abutjo . — Dlacktvood's Magazine for January .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), April 30, 1853, page 426, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1984/page/18/