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    • - As a . spectacle , which that assembly must hare Men intended for by the Constitution—vide Sir C . Barry- ^ tlieHonBe of Lords was worth attending tot'i ^ gJlliieiae ^ wti ^ m of war is fashionable : ind j ^ leaaer ^ of the W « st » concerned for the question ©* the East , had resolved to practise for ft * boning of Govent-gaTden Theatre on Saturday Ifgbgalci % le # I ^ aon * a l > eauty totfteir Lordships * WliiRj ^^^ fS ^ ^^ ce-- 1 ) e wild ering for the Bishop * , . f ^ acg- ^ were present more ladies than lords : as the policemea phrased it , " hundreds of

    which again sent the young Peers' heels into the air , and convinced the ladies that Mlalmesbury was a wag—of the melancholy Jaques sort . Lord Lansdowne finished the procession , and walked across the stage with dignity and without a leer , and was properly cheered by the Puke of Argyle , who is attentive to his seniors , and who wanted to convincenia beautiful relatives in the galleries that he was not without a certain function on the occasion . But the astute

    mournfully echo to about one hundred members Perhaps it was tie better speech for that ; lie wasn ' t teased or interrupted ; and talked out his robust thoughts with a clearness of language , and an excellence of elocution , which will not be soon forgotten by those who were present . Think of what a than House it must have bees when a Mr . John Ball , a small Irish member looking for a large English place , got a hearing—Mr . Ball "being in the attitude of defending the Ministry—standing between them and public opinion—certainly being opaque enough . Think of

    wha ~ t the House must have been which gave the Marquis of Granby half an hour . The "Marquis of Granby ' s head" comes up naturally in war time ; and the wood is improved out of which comes carved this epigramt— "We are gwoingw to hware w-wai w-with Turkwey , becauthw we hwave thivil w-war in tie Cwabinevrt . " But the House was crammed when Lord Palmerston was " up ;" and was nationally representating in incoherent crowding when Mr . Disraeli ( who has taken the Times' hint , and got rid of repetitive verbosity ) was demonstrating that the Coalition had done it all .

    Ministers might , no doubt , have been in a better position last night if they had taken in time Mr Disraeli ' s advice to appoint an arbitration for the settlement of their Cabinet squabbles—if , in a word , thej could effect the same secresy with regard to their personal opinions of one another which they secure with regard to wfiat this great , country is doing in foreign policy . Bat their weaknesses entirely arise from their strength : it is because they are so strong that they are so careless . We aU know now , thanks to Mr . Disraeli ' s attentive

    guidance of public perceptions , that all the Ministers are at sixes and sevens , particularly sevens , and the laugh , no doubt , is rather with the malignant Be * douin Jew gentleman whom the Coalition conquered , out of the government of this Anglo-Saxon and . excruciatingly Christian land . But we all knowthat the Ministry is perfectly safe , nevertheless r we laugh at it because it -can afford to be treated with disrespect . Lord Aberdeen indicates such an intense abhorrence of any one ) resigning that we may be sure he has no thought of that

    irrational proceeding himself ; and as long as Lord Aberdeen , chooses to stay in Downing-stieet he will find some sort of Coalition ready to sink their differences for 5000 ? . a yean each , and to go backwhenever they go through the form of ^ signing—on th « grounds of patriotism—such as Mr Baines——think of Mr . Baines being missed ! has made such us « of , amid " loud cheers . " Mr . Disraeli , who is leading a guerilla party just now , may now and then pick off a stray straggler , and render individuals ridiculous ; but that sort of fighting does not

    destroy , and hardly harasses , a strong army—whicl the Coalition is . It would be just as well if so strong a Government was not beaten thre « tiroes in two months by a Mr . Thomaj Chambers , and if such miserable episodes , as that which has enabled Opposition spite to elevate a fourth-rate subordinate like Mr . Baines into a day ' s importance , were avoided . It would be just as well if Lord Joh . a Russell and Mr . Gladstone did not give the House distinctly contradictory advice on the one evening , as they did on Tuesday , when Lord Join asked the

    House to reconsider the order for the Convents Inspection Committee ; and vrhen Mr . Gladstone warned the House not to do anything so unusual as rescind such an order . It would be just as well , in short , if individuality were suppressed for what the populace terms the good of the country , and if , in this Government by departments ., there was in each department less of that dangerous but conscientious commodity termed zeal . The Government has got into a mess this session , simply because it did not detect Mint the national tendency" ,

    oat of which the Coalition itself springs , is , at present , to have peace and quietness , —more particularly during a war . There is the Reform Bill : there is some confusion about that : and who ¦ wants the Reform Bill ? There is confusion about Mr . iiaines ' s blundering bill : and why could not tint ponderous and useful man have been kept down in hia bureau , awing the clerks into careful correspoalenco by his unlimited look of omniscience and punctual appearance opposite the Horse Guards nt nine a . m . ? There is to bo a defeat on the Oatlia

    marquis shirked as adroitly as Lord Aberdeen had shirked any answer -to Lord Derby ' s appeal to the Government—which was an entreaty that Parliament , at the moment of being called upon to sustain a war , should be informed— -what that war was for ! Does not such a question , so unanswered , suggest the moral of the spectacle ? Yet all the actors were very patriotic .

    The House of Commons was boundlessly patriotic . Mr . Disraeli who , if he have a sensation , must feel an afflicting contempt for England , talked amid applause of his " patriotism , " and of the determination of the gentlemen around him to " rally round the Throne *'—some of t&ose gentlemen in white neckcloths being evidently in a condition to commence immediate practice of circuitous movements . Mr . Bright had pointed out to them that it was real property -which would have to pay for the war , —Mr . Bright had said , with no intention of a sneer at

    Ottoman " worse thaan savages" ( Burke)—that every landed gentlemen would shortly have a Turk on his back ; and still these gentlemen cheered furiously , deliriously , Lord Palmerston ' s grossly dishonest misrepreseatation and unscrupulous caricature of Mr . Bright ' * opinion on the war * The House , ia short , voted the address unanimously , although nine out of every ten men who are members were convinced by Mr . Layard , Mr . Bright , and Mr . Disraeli , that the war could have been avoided altogether , or should have commenced six months ago , —that is , were convinced that the Government had blundered . Lord

    John ' s speech was a dry statement of facts ; a newspaper " summary" grandiosed by the lofty mispronunciation of a great official , with a Vivat lijegina peroration , which reminded one of " Widdieombe ;" lad-Lord Palmerston ' s speech was neither debating , speech , nor statement—was awkward , ungainly , insignificant , and resultless , and was clearly only ^ spoken as a sham effort to suggest to uninformed JSuropc and deluded England an impossible unanimity yin the ; Cabinet . Government was attacked , put in the Wrong , and Government-was not defended , and was left in the wrong , which , however , doesn't matter to the Coalition , while the war is popular , and principles havn'fc come up .

    I understand that Mr . Layard ' s elaborate analysis of the Cabinet's Plundering , consequent upon the Cabin « t's discordancies , was very telling ; and as Mr . Layard has studied the subject , and is possessed of a monomania malignancy on that subject , Mr Layard could contrive to make a hit . But what I heard of him suggested that his force depended entirely on his matter , and not at all on his manner . After the practice he has had he ought to have caught some of the House ' of Commons' style , which

    is a good , and at any rate a necessary style to success in the House of Commons ; but he appears to have got further from it than ever , and his speech last night sounded like a Rigby review from the " Quarterly" read by a Sussex Farmer , —with the Farmer ' s own ejaculations , at good passages , such as " goodness gracious 1 " Canning ' s " good God , sir , " put down ; but is " good gracious to succeed it—are we to have Lord Henry Lennox moving th « adjournmentof the debate " by Jove , Sir ? " Mr . Bright , who has tnken an historical position about this war , and who "will have all England on his side in six months ,

    made one of tho greatest—most sustainedly greatspeeches I ever listened to . He rose with Mr . Layard , but was not elected by the Speaker ; and the result was tliat he followed Mr . Layard—and Government had to endure , and cower under , two successive terrible blows , both assailants powerful , and both in earnest . But then , Mr . Bright spoke atliwart the dinner hour ; and though one of the greatest intellects in England , and the first orator in t ^ e House , I believe the best position is accorded to him even by those who charirarid Lord Palmerston to a stupid libel on him—he spoke a speech which historians will liave to reproduce , and this empire will ere 1855

    ^ ea ^^ - ' - ' ^ te ^ tameA mruy" for want of room . ^^^ d ; riii ^ iflcent , in the long gay line of ^ Pfgjy&fiwwig morning costumes ; and but for -the yejeriini , whpie " heads look like snow scattered ^; er « ihei red benches of the Uj » per House , — o ^ y that the Opposition won ' t fight—one would have frou ^ l ||; idj - ; a tournament . Not that there were not young Peers , crowded , like junior forms , behind ^^ iir- | tejhui ancles -anl cousins ; the junior heredtauyclegislators always . turfe up , as they go to the Opera , whenifiere is a novelty , and an excitement the for which

    w ^ -jg ^ wt of privilege the " Temple For ^ m ^ aj ^ tiieB them , invl which they never value - ^^• W ^ S ^ 'J | flSfti ^ 8 ^»* p ! pM « ilM ^ ' ^ i ^ . g ** political cohviction ^;^ ere are always young Peers when the ladies' galleries are full ; and . the ladies' gallery is a w ^^ ppljwe- | t » r the- feinale r aristocracy —for ^^^ ^¦ 0 ^! % ^ r ^^^ q ^ '' f ^ : ^ mo . | g ^ . % ^ "iH ^; . fi ^ : ana , &r . those . ' who bare n ^^ h ^ Ook ^ ^ eir ^ P ^ r to lean aver , and . angle 4 » J ^« p « wet ^^ to a pretty fi ^ tii ^ 0 ^^^ &ii 0 i ^ ik' Measure to $ e derived from d

    ^ I ^ Sf m ^^^^ m ^ yy- ^ last * igKt it . Wifts ^^^ S ^^^ fel ^^^ fc ^ T ^ W a ^ tt ^ - ^ eera ana "; all $ h « gyig |^^^ His ^ orijcal pktores are always dull : the Lords were dull ; and they were dull without being quite dignified . I ^ ord ¦ ^^^^ ^^^ ¦ j ^ fen t ^ -hu Majeaty , T p ^^^^^^^^ kad : respectfully slowit ^ w ^ i ; . an ^ lelegyr : ,: Qn :. the , peace he murdered ^ and he was olegiac Lord Derby , too , in his Kra ^ hat botched peroration , appealed with ll ^^^^^ fe ^ '^ Pwidence —whom JMttriiX " ' obvioioalv ; r *» f » n * 1 ncp * nin th « iPA * Kamon ia-rv

    _ ¦^ l ^^^^^ n ^^ pptlhefplace'Vto crown with swjc ^ the -Eiigush amis—an appeal which he ! ttujjjg ^^ to , inasmuch j ^^| b ^|^^ ' ^ rati ^ bd-to see . us in alliance w ^ th France . But it was only at tie last moment ^ batiiLord Derby was as grave as the occasion;— -his « peechi under the influence of the grand audienceaaid : inen speak better as well as fight better in sight of ladies' colours ( when they are firom a West-end

    miuiner)—was a noisy , buoyant , bullying , Opposition-Jteadera smart assault on the Minister;—he quoted Shakspeare , and Louis Napoleon's mots , ( you should Xord Derby's French accent I ) and made sparry hits at Lords Clarendon and Aberdeen , all with the slightest possible remembrance that that was not -the time when Europe looked to Lord Derby to put " on the gloves , " or to take his customary " round or two" before dinnerr The ladies laughed immensely at his French and his Shaksperian gustation , and

    pronounced Inn "delightful ; " and indeed he was y&cy funny when he paralleled the Tamboff blunder 'fey innocently telling England that last session the 'ittcome-tax was renewed " for only four W five 'years ! " Th * n Lord Aberdeen did not at all seem overcome by the imminence of the war he has wept to avoid ; he was in great spirits , terribly malicious and consequently rather jovial . As first Minister , ' the austere intriguer ,, , you would have expected some solemn sobs and hard expressions of horror;—at least you would have expected liim to say something appropriate . But Lord Aberdeen , on this night off nights , devoted half an hour , in the

    most " august" assembly in Europe , to answering a newspaper article ! Ete got up " roars of laughter ;" every peeress had her head buried in a cambric shroud ; the Hieels of all the young peers were in the air—at intervals . Yes , Lord Aberdeen was funny and satirical ; the fun being in the " ' re another" style © f retort , and the satire being of that delicate description which consists in telling your opponent that lie has told a falsehood . Lord Malmeabury didn't Improve on Lord Aberdeen ; he was melancholy and mouthy—he can ' t help that ; but he was jocular too , and his joke was in suggesting that tho Press had luibed Lord Aberdeen to puff it into a circulation ,

    Untitled Article

    304 THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), April 1, 1854, page 304, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2032/page/16/