On this page

• Text (2)

  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.

  • 

    Untitled Article

  • 

    Untitled Article

• 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.

    Untitled Article

    man , a crowd of men looked on , afraid to interfere . A little incident this week shows the same tende ncy among people of a higher class . A Kiugsland omnibus , full of gentlemen , was passing through the city . It was raining very hard at . the time , and a lady hailed , the'bus .: The conductor " thought it a pity not to accommodate her ; " and though he had taken more than its number , he put her in , fearing that she should jret cold i ? forced to sit outside . His civility was illegal , however , as the 'bus had its allotted number of passengers . The twelve gentlemen inside objected to the entrance of the lady , and one of them summoned the conductor . The

    prosecutor admitted that the conductor was always a most civil man , but the magistrate seeing that the man pleaded guilty , had tp fine him 5 s . andcosts . The cab-strike amusinglyillustrated the citizens' lack of physical energy : gentlemen felt it grievous to be forced to wal k three or four miles . In the p olice reports daily we find other instances of an inability towards physical action . Two or three men choke up a shopkeeper at a street corner : burglars bully householders with ease : fathers and brothers see daughters and sisters outraged , and never think of raising a hand : a whole neighbourhood hear the screams

    of a wife , and hesitate to interpose . When fired with military ardour , Londoners rushed to Chobham to witness the glories of mimic war , these soldiers in spirit , if not in fact , were frighted from the field because they could not afford to pay for a vehicle from Chertsey to Chobham . A fourmile march cowed the cockneys . Englishmen are changed since Wat Tyler struck down the officer who laid insulting hand on his daughter , or since a Lord Mayor aided the King by killing the rebel with his own hand . For better or for worse we are become a milder and a meaner people . Sad to the best

    see , things done to-day are done in a mechanical way by contract , by institution , or organization . We do not compass our own means of progress : our bodies are handed over to a railway company , and though they often , wound , and sometimes kill us , we are still like babies in their hands , crying but at their mercy . We know that dirt pioneers for the cholera , yet helpless in ourselves , we call out to Boards and officials to do something , instead , of working with our neighbours to clear away the nuisance before our own doors . In relieving distress , the necessary work might be done if people helped their poor neighbours ; but we

    build up a costly and comparatively inefficient institution , and are still vexed by daily mendicancy in the street . This very week , all the travellers complain like children that they have been overcharged by hotel-keepers , and , unable to suggest ; any remedy , ask the leading journal o do something , when half the evil could ' be met by previous inquiry . When people see bru-Uhties they call for tho police : when rotten ¦ Houses fall they send for a surveyor : when cholera comes , they ask for medical officers , and inuc ot

    " ihghfc . in higher things tho same tone obtains . A man does not secure woman ' s love fy personal virtues : he tics her to him by a bond , or detains her with money . Tho general Purity of our homos is preserved by means of a Peculiar , nstitution in our highways , —a sewor for »» co . J . J 10 olden habit of individual aspiration is co ocUvely accomplished by a company of men ca eel cler gymen , who pray to God by contract , «»« show spirit in parochial latoons . Our

    amusep « u . nts betray tho same tendency . In times of . the members of a family acted their own tSi ° T they 8 an " tf ' lecs ' nnd d ! lllCGd mm ' li Xl \ ™ ' ™ " Party , " tho flinging is im / , ° n 0 hy lurcd vocalists , and though paid room ' V ° nofc yofc Bluwn ofF in ° 'ir drawing-Wl m T ° ™ - fiOOU cxPccfc tho innovation . Deo . 1 ' I * 1 Ilsto » Ml of opcniH were in vogue , the Sh ,, K Ul , pit -i 0 " 10 * 1 in iho i » torprotntion of tlro

    a li 7 \ 1 ! »? f » a conaoicnlious attention and loUn , rn 7 . ^ ( < nam ' often audible . Now , tho of n , . OVOI » t-ffardon assent to fcho beauty iho ' ,., ' ij " 1 lsi . ° ' aiwl lihoil " l > esfc oxcrtion sIiowh but « oii m ' i , " ¦ ?> ( i- ' nafcural Bonso of complex vi ( lii ,. i \ , ' arliamon |; , Homo years ago , indi-» w « X \ i r lni'Vra KOi' kwfl madc : orlncod by tho of lal ,. i ° { lclrtI )() ' u' » "ff members ' names . " But in H ,, ' {""^ 'wwnfc members " leavo tho matter «« '" « 11 , < ' » " > Government , " and niloiitly Ho » 8 io » ° m a ' " ^ vanoed period of the i ustn ,.,. " / " ° ^ pillioad show gives our last Uovolixr * i ffrontoflfc fact was a mechanical ' V- —the screw of tho Wellington was more

    admired than that national Jack Tar so much honoured when George the Third was King . These things merely suggest thoughts : no man can plan their reform . Sometimes we have done pur own part by advising that the people both in town and country should be properly trained in manual exercises . Military training offers two advantages : it would give a spirited tone to the mind , as well as supply the healthful habit of physical exertion . Besides , it would bring people of different classes together , and

    accustom men to know one another personally . A man is always bettered by being known more to his fellow-men , and an animating emulation is thus aroused . Without these habits Englishmen may naturally lose much of their old pluck . People destroy a power by nofc using it ; and this applies to muscular as well as to moral power . Physiology explains how women want the natural strength of the supporting muscles superseded by stays , and that spirit and that pow . , half moral and half physical , which accompanies habits of manual exertion , are almost quenched in our citizens by a weak trust in others , and a very lazy life .

    Untitled Article

    THE GOVERN IN a CLASSES . No . III . —THE EARL OF CLAHENDON . Yotr could not pass Lord Clarendon in the street without perceiving at once that be belongs io the Governing Classes . Breed is the distinctive characteristic of bis physiognomy and physique : you defect afc a glance that he was born into the management of British affairs . You would be astonished if you saw " West Australian" between the shafts of a cab ; you would bepuzzled to meet Sittingbourne as the off-horse of a 'bus ; and you would stare , as at an incongruity , if you encountered Lord Clarendon anywhere bnt in the British bureaux for human destinies , which a special caste of Britons inherits , —constitutionally . Lord Clarendon is to be regarded as tbe type of his class . Undoubtedly there are classes within the class . Great men are occasionally born to the Governing Classes : though nofc often , as every one will admit , if they run over the list of Premiers and Commons ' Leaders since Pitfc : and such men stand out conspicuous front the mass of men , and are worshipped , not as Peer ? , but as heroes , —as Wellington . Lord Clarendon is tho typo of his class , as an average class , —of its mediocrity . He is now K . G ., and a Secretary of

    State—of course his Earldom gave a great impetusin due order , just as Smith and Jones , in the Custom House , get their 200 / . a year pension , after so many years service . There is promotion in tho Governing Classes for those who work and labour , and wait patiently , and have ordinary ability ; and Lord Clarendon is high in office , merely by right of length of service . He worked so many years , waited so many

    years , and he " gets on , " having claims . The governed classes say ho is " n very able man , " seeing him in succession in great posts ; and , of course , ho has done his business very well . Governing is a business—a profession in this country like any other ; and if you compare n , practised governor liko Lord Clarendon , with an ordinary man who ia only raw material for a governor , Lord Clarendon appears a very able man .

    There is an average of intellect in trades and professions ; but some professions require a training to bo clover—a knack ; and tho unphilosnphic worl d always thinks tho men who have caught tho knack are very able men . Young men arc sent , to the bar by accident ;; but nriddlo-ngod barristers tiro considered , by society , cleverer and abler thnn middle-ngod stationers , or grocers , or merelmnfcH ; whereas tho difference is simply tho difference of culling and training . In tho same way in iho Governing Classes : a dull boy i « put to the trade of governing , und in courso of time , ns the olll'cfc of ( raining , and acquired Hkillmul caution , bo " risen , " nnd becomes " a very able ' , Sir . " This reasoning in as to tho average men : as ihoro nro Wellingtons horn among poors , ho there arc groat journnliatn groat merchant , —in si word , first men , overywhoro . Hut thin reasoning is to show that an avorngo Earl , becoming Secretary of Stnto , and writing decent despatches , mid making decorous Kpccchop , in not ouowhit . n greater mun , or more *' ablo man , Sir , " than tho

    average grocer , tailor , barrister , or editor . It is liko talking a truism ; but does the world not act upon a very different theory—believing that Earls are nofc only born into governing , but are born " . very able men , Sir ?*' Elegant mediocrity , is stamped upon the face and physiognomy of the Earl of Clarendon . Slightly dreamy , slightly silly , in tho expression of the eye and mouth , you see , as he passes to his " place , " that that handsome nobleman never w On the government of men . Watch him as be " rises" to make a speech , and you

    will notice that even yet , in his fifty-fourth year , he is not quite equal to the post to which he has been promoted by seniority—by length cf service—and that he knows he is nofc fifc . Study his career , and you will , however , not be surprised that he is where he is . It is only the very strong men or the very weak men succeed , in the large sense of success , in the world . The very strong men ascend by right of strength j and

    very strong men , having succeeded , have an aversion-to comparatively strong men who may succeed , and have a partiality for very weak men , who never can be rivals . Very weak men are very amiable , and make friends : Lord Clarendon has passed his life in making friends ; the world invariably taking kindly to men with weak mouths . So gentle , so excellent a character —which was never but once excited , and then became cruel , as weak natures do—as in the Irish affair of 1848

    —could never have been decisive or positive in politics ; and thus Lord Clarendon made friends on all sides . So gentle , bufc so weak , a nature , would have got into great scrapes in the scuffle and temper of our Parliamentary life ; but Lord Clarendon was kept out of Parliamentary life , and has no notion of it . yet ; and hence his qualities developed quietly in easy posts ; and tbe abilities which are never required to be manifested

    are never contested — a very lucky thing for Lord Clarendon > and the secret of his reputation . Such a career as his , and such a character as hig , fitted him , par excellence , for the Coalition ; other men might sacrifice a point here and there , for the good of tho country , and might forgive an enmity , for 5000 J . a year , bufc Lord Clarendon had nothing to sacrifice—no rtno to forgive . Long before the Coalition , when the Whigs were tottering , and when Lord Clarendon , with a great reputation for having put down a rebellion which n ever

    broke out , was in Ireland , he was pointed to as the possible Premier who could combine Peelitos and Whiga into a safe Cabinet ; and to have left him out of tho Coalition formed lanfc Christmas , would havo been to have left the salt—or the oil—out of the salad . Can any enlightened Englishman , whose country is represented abroad by this Lord Clarendon , and who regards that nobleman as " a very able man , Sir , " tell off-hand what Lord Clarendon ' s political opinions arc ? Of course he cannot ; Lord Clarendon ia tho spirit of the

    Coalition , and the Coalition has only one opinion , — that tho Queen ' s Government must bo carried on ; and that is itri appeal to the Governing Classes . Ho ia a Whig becauso he is a Villicrs ; but of his Parliamentary life I onl y remember one incident , —he spoke n speech which ho had got by heart , and in which ho broko down , becauso ho was interrupted , in favour of tho second reading of Peel ' s Corn-Law Repeal Bill . Never

    buying been under the necessity of writing an address or standing on 11 hustings , to perform that low , mean , and laughable part , to which the Governing Classes , every seven years , degrade themselvoH , —( or a consideration , Lord Clarendon has never been under tho necessity of forming an opinion ; and his habits , as n diplomatist , huvo naturally discouraged his coming to any conclusions with his conscience . Wore the Karl of Clarendon

    suddenly culled upon , this l < S . , 'J , for a declaration of bin political faith , by any body of his countrymen , he would probably mention that ho was in favour of I- 'ree-trudo that would bo tho only principle that would occur to him . If presned , ho would very likely admit ; a firm conviction that ho was a . Liberal-Conservative , which ho would explain , if urged , meant Consorvattvo-Libornlism . This would bo partly because tho Kurl of Clarendon is a diplomatist ; a good deal beeuuho ho reull y lmn no mind to make up . That wo may form m > n > o notion of tho statesmansh ip of thia statesman , let us roverfc to the two grci \ fc ovents

    Untitled Article

    September 17 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . 901

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 901, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2004/page/13/