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    lie always said , lie would not ; and if they chose to give jiim office , why they must look out for a deuce of a jjjess— -and there always was a deuce of a mess . He liked office , of course ; it enabled him to provide for friends and relatives ; it added to the social distinction ; and it must be pleasant , on a death-bed , to recall that one has been Secretary of State and Lord of the Treasury ; besides , it enhanced the fun of the history which he was requested to act . The race is more exciting when you have something to lose ; and taking office was , with Lord Derby , regarded as a sort of bet with

    the Opposition . Those who study the drama of politics in the theatre , and not in the closet—who judge of an actor not by the dialogue , but by his look and voice—and because so few do , there is in England great knowledge of politics , but total ignorance of politicians—have ever come to the same conclusion about Lord Derby : that in public life he is merely the sportsman and the gladiator . He used to call O'Connell a " heavy weight , " and his great attacks on that eminent giant , " rounds . " Lord Derby was—he is growing bald now—the ideal of a " sparrer . " When he

    spoke in Parliament , his lithe , sinewy fame , " breed " in every fibre , and bis handsome face , lit up with a daring smile , suggested"fight ; " and his style was always a fighting style ; he never argued , he replied and attacked . Even when Premier , and steadied into a good deal of discretion , he couldn't keep his hands off tempting faces . And the moment he left Premierdom he breathed freely again , and relapsed . As he quitted office he made an assault on Sir James Graham , merely because Sir James Graham happened to be

    sitting in the gallery , killing time ; and since Lord Derby has been in Opposition again , he has twice driven Lord Aberdeen , and once Lord Clarendon , and every day the Duke of Newcastle , into a passion . Nor has he done with the Coalition yet ; for though exploded as a political chief , he has still a career , as a . veteran bruiser , to train young Tory peers , who have very small heads and a venomous belief that a hatred of primogeniture is at the bottom of Eadidicalism .

    Mr . Stanley became a Whig because the House of Derby , ' with its inveterate tendency to the weaker side , was Whig ; and while the " Whigs were struggling at the era of the Reform Bill , Mr . Stanley was a capital Whig . It is an historical incident how he leaped on the table at Brookes ' , and poured out his passionate noftBense to keep the waverers togetherwhich the nonsense , being a future Earl ' s , really did . But he became a waverer himself directly the Whigs got safe into Downing-street ; and the moment that they were going to make Ireland sure for ever to

    England , by the ruin of the Iriah Church , off he went , a desperate young Tory . His father , a solid Whig , who voted for Lord John to the last day of his life , shook his venerable and worthy head , and took to ruining the property by collecting the Stanleys—all the odditiesof the brute and bird creation into a menagerie at Knowsley , which was the admiration of Lancashire , and the terror of Africa and Asia ; but neither tho remonstrances of family connexion , party , or purse , stopped the chivalrous defender of that ecclesiastical institution , tho most dishonest , and

    disgraceful , and despotic , which modem mankind have permitted to exist ; the Whigs were getting too strong , were really annihilating tho Tories , and a Tory champion would Lord Stanley thoroforo be . That pugnacity had its consequences — it ruined the Whigs . They could have done without tho intellects and tho honouru of Lord Stanloy and Sir James Graham ; but Lord Stanloy mado such a clattor in his desertion that tho aristocracy got frightened ; tho Whig- lords told tho Whig loaders that Radicalism "would not do ; that they wero getting on a littlo too fast ; and from that day to thin tho Whigs never pro-1

    posed- ahold measure !— wero passed by tho Toriofi , in bold measures , and have sunk behind tho Tories in a Coalition . Pool flourished whon Stanley joinod him in Opposition ; and Pool , Graham , and Stanloy gave tone to Opposition , re-collected a Tory party , and ttmcli as Wellington did for GonBorvatiBm , it in probable that Pool owod hifl rapid return to power in 1841 * noro to Lord Stanley than to tho Duke . A clover poor in Huch a card for an ambitious parvonu , and poor Pool had ho very fowf Thon jjord Stanloy wont buck to tho Colonial Office , to tho groat dolighfc of tho dorks and tho horror of Canadijuw , Australians , West

    Indians , Ionians , and in fact all the outl y ing subjects of Her Majesty ; and there for two or three years Lord Stanley , in the intervals of racing , amused himself enormously , and , according to those who have studied his proceedings , developed an amazing genius for confusion—the Topsy of the Colonial Office . Colonies were to him games and counters ; and Government a rouge et noir . Dealing with them came out the inveterate combative spirit of his family ; and it was a matter of course that he should set one against another , and all of them against England . His

    grandfather died , and in bed , m witnessing a pair of game cocks ( the Derby breed is celebrated in the north ) spurring one another to death on his coverlet . And the grandson enjoyed the dignity of his position—having colonies for cocks . In his consulship , in fact , appeared the school of colonial reformers , and Charles Buller , Lord Ho wick , Mr . Rintoul , and Sir William Molesworth , spoke and wrote a great deal in the amusing apprehension that they were making the Colonial Secretary very angry . Then came the Maynooth and Irish Colleges question . The same Lord Stanley , who would not appropriate the revenues of the Irish Establishment , should now have resigned , as Mr . Gladstone

    did , on an attempt to endow and organize the Irish Roman Catholic Priesthood ; and so Lord Stanley would have resigned but for one reason—the . Peel Ministry was tottering in consequence of so daring a proposal . Desert the weak of course he would not , so he stayed and carried Peel through that crisis ; for the old Peers and young Conservatives , both with remarkably small heads , which is the characteristic of British aristocracy , had now all the more confidence in him that he had once been a revolutionary Whig , besides liking and loving him for his fine nature and his magnificent manner . But then came Peel ' s proposal in the Cabinet to repeal the Corn laws . That carried in the Cabinet without a dissentient—would have carried

    Peel as Premier to the end of his days ; would have made the Ministry eternal ; would have consolidated the Tory party , and taken the ground from under the Whigs . Now , tlien , was Xiurd Stanlt- ^' a limo -go on winning for ever ? Not he ; he resigned . Singular that such a man should have such power ; but the history England is now living-is the consequence of Lord Stanley ' s resignation in 1846 . He had ruined the Whigs , he now ruined Peel . Lord Stanley ' s was a name ; without it there could have been no presentable Protectionist party ; with his name to rally round , a new

    great furious party was a matter of course ; Peel was separated from the Tories ; all the skilful admin istrators who had adhered to Peel , like honest men , were separated from the Tories ; and now , as "the result of all that , we have a Coalition—not of parties , but of men ; so that Lord Stanley , by virtue of simple recklessness , has been enabled , in a short lifetime , "to destroy every party in turn ! How he must onjoy all that ? He , certainly , enjoyed tho Protectionist fight—simply bocause it was so hopeless . Tlio glee with which ho must have brought out Lord George Bontinck , whom ho

    told to go in and win!—that sporting nobleman going in accordingly , and not winning , with glorious animal energy and strength of lungs . Peel wan ho slow and solemn , and discreet and good , that Lord Stanley must have pined , when Hitting by him in tho Cabinet , to show him up—or to double him up ; and ho used , undoubtedly , to read Disraeli ' s superbly malignant Peolics with tears in his eyes . It is only a Lord Stanloy who would have encouraged such a man an Mr . Disraeli to hope for great office ; but of all tho jokes Lord Stanloy had oncountcrcd in politics , tho

    joko of presenting Mr . Disraeli as leader of tho bigoted Tory and Protestant party , must have struck him ; w tho most uniquely sublime f Mr . DihijioH was a man after Lord Stanley ' s own heart ; and tho way ho kept him xip—despito tho consternation and tho remonstrances of tho Irigliflos and tho old Pooih of his now party—does tho highest credit to hia character an a wacf . Notoriously all tho dull and docorouR Hmall

    heads wero for giving Mr . Dinraoli a mnall office out of tho Cabinet , whon , in oonHoquonco of tho royal row botwoonLord John and Lord PahnorHton , tho Protectionists—booauHo thoro woh nobody elms—got in ; but Lord Derby had a Hcrow to lift Mr . Disraeli , —ho threatened to go down again to tho Lords and tell thorn , tho truth , —that in tho wholo Tory aristocracy of ' England tlioro won not a man fit to prosido in n Government bureau J Ho said that onoo , as a capital joko ; and ho

    was just the man to say it again if they wouldn't let him have his way ! So he landed Mr . Disraeli into the lead of the Commons : and . we can fancy Lord Derby saying to himself , "Tandem , I have completed my fame , as a kicking peer of the realm ; I have made a fashionable novelist Chancellor of the British Exchequer ; and now , I can die happy ! " Yet he was not content , even with that ; he made Mr . Walpole a Secretary of State , and put him up to proposing a Militia Franchise ! More ; he took all his squad down to Oxford and made

    ' em Doctors ! As a collective joke , perhaps that was his finest . But his ministry was altogether a practical joke . In a minority in Parliament , detested and despised in the country , he appreciated the furious joke of persisting in remaining in power in the face of the opposition , not only of Parliament , but of people he looked upon the whole business as a fight—as a race , and he did his best to win , —taking the

    oddsand ends , as in Major Beresford . He posted his money ; he made all the rich peers post their money ; and he got together an enormous sum of money , and he did his best to bribe the majority out of the electors ; and he did get 300 for a laughing chorus , and would have got all , but that the Whigs bribed enormously too , and that there are certain places which won't be bribed , which would not take the

    joke , and which did send up Radicals ; —¦ Whigs , Radicals , and the floating balance of Roman Catholics and waverers accordingly turning him out . They turned him out because he did not know when to stop joking . Mr . Disraeli ' s was a funny Budget ; but Budgets are serious things ; and the result was that such slow men as Lord Aberdeen and Mr . Gladstone came in—to govern us seriously . And the worst of it was , that Lord Derby had joked away his own party , too ; for in putting up Mr . Disraeli to laugh at the

    notion that Lord Derby had ever been a Protectionist , the country might have been amused ; but the Newdegates ( prices were not as high then as they are now ) were disgusted . So that when Lord Derby left power lie left patty ; a .-nd t . lio Coalition carries all before it . Perhaps , therefore , he is now , for the first time in hia life , beginning to think and look serious ; for there ia neither a party to desert nor to join ! In his desperation he has undertaken to anticipate a party—a democratic party—to whom ho bids defiance valiantly . But

    that ' s hardly funny ; all jokers overstrain the point now and then . Yet the satire is very fine . It is a veiy rich notion —a Democracy in England ! — a Democracy in a country which has seen Lord Derby a Minister , and made him chief governor ! A Democracy in a country which permits such an electoral Hyntcni that a man liko Lord Derby can break up Ministries by leaving them , or by joining them ! Until we realize what a thoroughly ludicrous people wo are , we can never understand uuch a man aa Lord Derby . English politics

    are a joko ; and he only evidences bin superior naturo and finer honesty in openly laughing at all the shams , and grinningly taking advantage of them . Wero wo , indeed , a self-governed , self-reliant people—if wo woro thoughtful and wine—if wo were free at homo , and did not adore our nobility—if wo had a polity abroad , and bad tho manhood to work it out -Lord Derby would bo steadied into greatnesH by respect for hi « countrymen . Ah it in , lie in tempted into intolerant Tory win by bin very dcriHion of thom Non-Elkctou .

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    October 29 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER . ^ 1047

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    NOTION TO ( JOitKTO . SrONDNNTH . Wu aro iiirniii unavoidably compelled to poHtpono tho first of a Hcrit'H ofarticles , of extrouio inturoHf , and importance , on Kijhhjan-Hkii » i ) Om for whicli wo aro iudol . Uul Id tho diHlin ^ ulHluul ptiu of M Aloxaiidro Hmveii . . Ki / hhian Skih'dom hhimI , how bo iriado an European QuoHtion : not liko Undo 'J ' omimn , a HUlUntl-llouBO QuchUoii . Movoral lottorH to ouvOpon Council , and other nrtioleu , aro iMxtcHtmrily omitted thin wiwk .

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    PltlNTlNU FOIl THW HoUHKH Ol ' PaIU . IAMKNT . . Cho expense to tho public for printing for tho Houbob of Parliament last year wim G 4 , 0 'MH . CoiiLNOTION oir Tiuc Kicvjonijm . —In tho year ended tho Rth January lant tho ehargon of collection on tho rovojiuo amounted to 2 , 61 ) 8 , 7 ' i '< il .

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 29, 1853, page 1047, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2010/page/15/