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    yet , and * when tee have * , berMajesty haa a finechoice rtfll in the squircwrehy to make iievr Peers . Let democrats—such democrats as are pointing to invalid Mr . Roebuck , as the master of the situation ( that is , of theMin * 3 try of War)—reconsider the resources of oor . glorions cdnntey . ¦ . Parliament , then * being still merely . a public amusement for the public , let trs be grateful to Lord John Russell—as a drole . Perhaps he may ruin himself - he has—he is so fond of symmetry in affaire—turned Downing-street into a Balaklava of aTsortive campaigning ; and he may ascertain that the

    Premiership is his Sebastopol . But then , fortunately , his prescient colleague , Mr . Gladstone , has just brought in a Superannuation Act , so that in Richmond Lodge he may affluently edit Schedule A and B in the serene retirement of the baulked British statesman . Let us consider , in calculating the compensation due to him ,, that , last Tuesday , Parliament had nothing whatever to meet for—Lord John himself could only think of an Educational measure until he hit on this happy idea of being Curtius— minus the gulf . The fearful blank prospect , for Parliament , was so thoroughly

    understood at the beginning o the week , that at the meeting ; on Tuesday there were not thirty members present in the Commons—there wasn't " a House . " There would not have been thirty , only that there were ten hew members who were eager for their privilege of being bored , and ten Irish members , ¦ who had peculiar reasons for coming to an early , definitive settlement with Hayteras to what be is going to stand this session . And the pervading look of the assembly—the same look that comes over Convocation at its annual bathos in Jerusalemchamber—was the look of men who were

    interrogating their souls as to what they were there for . Sir Benjamin Hall made a serious mistake in supposing it was fojr him and his bills : no sooner had lie risen , than the House fled . Ministers evidently didn't know . Each tried to say something , and to give some notices of something sounding like business . The Coalition being about to break up , Mr . Cardwell announced with complacency that fie had a new Law of Partnership . There being no news , Mr . Gladstone said he was going to make the newspapers cheap ; and so on . Lord John pitied the House : he tried a make-believe of public affairs , and said something about the negotiations . But it was a dead failure . He had nothing to tell , and he broke down , under the pressure of Mr . Bright , with

    the confession that , after all , " the position of the negotiations " seemed to be , so far as he knew , that there were—no riegotiations . It " was absurd . ~ No- ~ body—not one of the thirty—would have appeared again on Thursday only for the Club circulation of Lord John ' s lucky expedient—which is para lleled by that of Guy Fawkes—for ho intended to blow up the Parliament , and has only ruined himself : —then , of course , there was a crowd . Clearly , we hadn't had a ministerial crisis , we should have had a session in which there would have been nothing but a dreary , though , perhaps , constitutionally gratifying illustration of what all our constitutional writers assert as the inalienable right of the English people to—tax themselves .

    There was , of course , a great crowd of gobe-Kwuches down at the new Palace of Westminster yesterday evening ; it was the period of gobemoucherie ; and the Great Briton did not sound as sensible ns the metropolitan Great Briton should while enjoying the ludicrous gossip and insane rumours prevalent among London clubbists , innocent of the actual political position of thoir enlightened country , on every aucli occasion . Concentrated was the attention while Lord John passed up the lobbies , while he sidled up the House , and took his seat on that back bench which his figure and character so

    well become . Excited was the sensation of the House —if feeble—very feeble—the cheers which from a few friends nppcarcd to greet the unfortunate ns he mounted the scaffold on which he was about to commit his conspicuous fclo do sc . Tho dramatic proprieties of such House of Commons spectacles wero observed . There was going to be a aceno ; and there is nothing tho House of Commons likes bo well as a scene . Tho strangers credited tho crisis : the clubbists wore confident there would be a revelation : tho now members settled themselves into their seats with dignity : only tho old inhabitants who

    comprehend their country were cognizant that they were going to be puzaled—but still , which amused thea > , interested . It was interesting to observe the solemnity with whiclv the habitual prolusion was got through . Aa if the truth was ever told at such times ! As if there were not . court reasons and cabinet reasons , and reasons of conspirators and diplomatists , who preserve the honour of depredators , why the truth-caimo * be told . As . if there was not always

    an understanding as to the pretext to be protruded on a nation distinguislied ,, among other symptoms greatness , by its simplicity ! Who , of the outside public * even , those who have votes among us , and may have the advantage of returning an Apsley Pellatt or a W . Williams to . represent us in our Commons' House , knows the truth of the row , but a year ago > between Russell and Palmerston ? Who of us is now likely to ascertain the facts as to the row between Russell and . Aberdeen ?

    The pretext is not clever this time . We are being led to wonderful political conclusions just now . One growing faith is that thegoyerning classes must give up being the . governing classes . A proposal was made in the course o the last night ' s debate ( by Mt - Henry Drummohd ) and was not groaned down—was , indeed , hear-heared as a capital idea—probably by those who had welcomed Lord John , and thought that the Cincinnatus was not far off—that we should , in our national scrape , resort to a Dictator . These

    ideas may be premature . ; : but there was one conviction which must have been yesterday forced on the minds of all who witnessed the parliamentary proceedings—that representative institutions now and then admit of great public silliness . Lord John Russell , who gave the tone to the Government , could not have impressed himself on the oldest Whig as a man . of genius . Take not . only the pretext—in which you are welcome to believe , if you will—but the manner in which it was put forward .

    In a low voice , a husky manner , mispronunciation in every second word , bad grammar in every sentence , thi 3 . eminent Parliamentarian commenced his vindication by answering the bold Times' severe sneer at his recess oratory at mechanics' institutions : he had been overworked , he assured them—in leading the House !—last Session ; and he had a right , so he had , to go into the country in . Recess , and make little speeches . Then , he went on—the House more and more wondering—he had not intended to resign on Tuesday morning : he resigned on Tuesday evening on hearing Roebuck ' s motion , because he admitted there had been mismanagement in the Crimea , and because he had proposed in November

    that Lord Palmerston should take the Duke of Newcastle ' s place . That was the defence : he had refused to resign when Lord Aberdeen refused to do that which he ( Russell ) believed to be vital to the welfare of the army and the sa ety o the nation ; but he resolved on resigning—without again offering Lord Aberdeen the alternative—when , as if he must not have calculated in December on some such motion , an hon . member , at the meeting o Parliament , proposed that there should be an inquiry whether the Government was responsible for the failure in the Crimea . Well , as he got tediously-at these facts , every one admitted that he had had a perfect right , in his conceit of Lord Palmerston ,

    to resign ; but every one also saw , that it was due to the conceit of himself that his resignation should have taken place as a patriot protest in November , or last spring , and should not have been delayed , as a freak , till January . But Lord John was not content with this silliness ; with increasing dignity he went on to plunge deeper into bathos . His peroration was to show that , on his own grounds , ho ought not to havte resigned ; for , said Lord John , the public impression that our national position in this war is rather bad is a complete mistake . Our allies , France and Austria , may be relied on ; and we must win in an immediate peace or after a safe war . More : he gloried in the

    course he had taken ( in sacrificing the Whig party ) in joining tho Coalition Government . Lord Aberdeen was a Christian , but a statesman : fond of peace , but with a horror of an unreal peace . Mr . Gladstone was a great man , tho genius of finance , whose intellect was so splendid , that it had cast light on all his colleagues . To tho patient cleverness of Lord Clarendon wns it to bo attributed that Austria had been secured . Lord Palmerston was a man of pre-eminent capacity . The Duke of Newcastle and Mr . Sidney Herbert had only failed because- they were not old enough , with the authority of experience , to bully the public offices , lit ccttera . Yet ho hod resigned .

    There is no describing the perplexed expression of tho House nt these gratuitous criticisms—to be explained only on tho supposition that Lord John , hesitating to burn his ships behind him , was cagor to compliment all tho alternative Premiers all round . But tho ( angularity of the exposure of his shallow nature did not end here . He had heard a rumour , that afternoon , that Lord Aberdeen , in a fright , hud given way , and mado Palmerston "War Minister , lie stated that to the House : he , congratulated Lord Pttlmorston and tho House , and he gloried in hia

    retirement as having led . to thatresult . Boos . old Lord John : there ia not . even that Eesulti Xocd Pair * merston blandly denied the whole ataxy ! When Lord John Easaell sat downvamid a . few pitying cheers , the House , disgusted , was in a derisive mood : and there , was—the criairv nntwitfastanfling—the poor army , victim , erf tbese jocularities notwithstanding — " anxious and alarmed Europe notwithstanding—decided merriment . ' There , was something humourous in Lord Palmerston ' s position : he , the friend far whom Lord . John * had sacrificed himself , had . to rebuke , inevitably satirical , Lord John ' s ludicrous coaduet ; and , apart from that , there is always something

    gay , reckless , laughing , in his voice , even an Ms . serious occasions . The fun now was obvious * q" 4 when , vigorously seeking to be grave , he assured Lord John that bygones were bygones * and that they were excellent friends , and that they need not ; be the less friends because , aa separated Ministers , he ( Palmerston ) had to assure his late colleague that his late colleague bad on the whole behaved somewhat ungenerously , not very patriotically , and unequivocally foolishly ;—why then the House couli not help it—the House grinned on . every bench . Mr . Disraeli , an excellent ; actor , was laughing outright ; and Mr . Gladstone was exercising all bis mental

    energy in keeping his countenance . And when Lord Palmerston , with his unhappy habit of perorating , went on , ollowing Lord John ' s suit , to compliment Louis Napoleon , the responsible House of Commons , satisfied that the personal matter was over , and perfectly indifferent to a mere speech , even about our " admirable ally , " was in a buzz of jocose and insouciant conversation . Considering that this was Lord Palmerston ' a first appearance as leader in the House of Commons , the disrespect did not promise well for the new arrangemeta . They were always inattentive to Lord John ; but they never laughed at him—he was too awful a leader for Ihat . > '

    The farce went on . Lord Paknerston had announced ( Lord Aberdeen was at the same time , with still greater coolness , notifying it to the other House ) , that the Government would venture to face the battery of Mr . Roebuck . Mr . Roback ipse i paralytic , but patriotic : —but the House went to dinner , Mr . Roebuck was at this moment getting his first chance of a Ministry ; the chance was in . connexion with Lord John BusselL&nd the Whig s * But , observe the grand independence of this honest Englishman , whose life has been of little use to the England which puts its Roebucks by ua favour of old lords . He commenced , pointing his finger at Lord John Russell : " You have said you will take no part in debating or voting for my motion—the motion that you , as a Minister , could not venture

    to resist ; and I therefdre say , my lord , you are not so patriotic as you suppose . " That was cheered by the remaining be-dined ; and the- cheers encouraged Mr . Roebuck . He began to speak in a clear , ringing voice , in his own old sharply-cui sentences—model style for House of Commons talk . But it was an expiring gleam of a brilliant intellect ; the effort , was , too much , forJiim ; andjthose who had remembered in the scene betweenHussell and Palmerston , the scene between Burke and Fox , were now afforded another parliamentary reminiscence—the dying speeches of Chatham . Mr . Roebuck could not keep his feet : his mind wandered ; he reserved strength enough to move his resolution ; and then fell back into his seat—faint with five minutes ' speech . The House is fond of its heroes : and it was greatly touched .

    Farce recommenced , however . A great crisis—a resolution just moved which meant impeachment and yet there were now , at 6 o ' clock , loud cries fora division—nobody knowing , nevertheless , how they would vote . A Minister must speak : Mr . Herbert got up and made an elaborate defence of a great Government to fifteen senators . Fortunately it will be reported : it was exquisitely delivered , and they indeed must be desperate Whigs to whom Mr . Herbert fails to show in that one cogent and statesmanlike speech , that it is not he—it is the systemwhich is to blame . His speech leads to the infer ence that he holds the generals responsible ; but he will live to admit that tho great error was in going to the Crimea . Lord John overlooked that blunder when , in tho month he was gasconading about ^ b" - topol , ho was consenting to the appointment of that Duke of Newcastle who will not monopolise tl » e

    military appointments for Whig creatures . Then loitered into tho House the indignant patriots who had been at dinner . Mr . HenryDrumrnond was sarcastically forcible to members to showing ( in support of tho motion !) that there wa * no use censuring individuals : the Pe * ce U * d cwatffid tiio evils which have led to failure in War . The Marquis of Granby made a got-off discourse to ao effect : his lenders absent , consulting , doubtless , bow thoy would require the Marquia to vote . Mr . W- 8 Lindsay , a man of City precision of intellect , contributed , in a speech of good delivery and wellbalance d periods , a general opinion that tho war was lot being done- as ho , a man of business , would Hko

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    JaaaFAgg 27 , 1855 . ] mE LEABjB , 89

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 27, 1855, page 87, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2075/page/15/