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Leader (1850-1860), 19th May 1855, Edition 1 of 2, Page 471, Untitled Article

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      Untitled Article

      about irimBelf ; being effective only when giving expression to his cherished disbelief in Lord Ellenborough and exquisite derision of Lord Derby . Why will not the public estimate this Lord Derby by the opinion winch his class entertain of liim ? On Tuesday Lord Grey spoke , with . a horror that was humorous , of a Lord Derby governing England and the same chivalric nobleman had to endure the further indignity of Lord Clanricarde—who looks in noways concerned that the moral leading journals of a moral country have been condemning him of late—testifying that a Tory Government , under a Derby , Ellenborough , and Disraeli , would be too ridiculous . Lord Clanricarde , who knows the

      outrages that are the privileges of his class , can stand , a good deal ; but he can't stand that . Lord Clanricarde can rise in his place without fear of being coughed down by the Bishops , and cannot have a very elevated idea of his country . Yet -blase * as he may be as to religion , morality , patriotism , and so on , Lord Clanricarde is too good an Englishman not to be timid of England getting into the hands of a jockey like Lord Derby . Lord Palmerston is thus kept in his placebecause l » e is better than the only possible alternative . For there is no sign yet that the " Administrative Reform Movement" is moving , and too much

      reason to believe that if Mr . Lindsay got into place he would unintentionally drive the fiercest Radical among . us into a reactionary love of lords . Lord Palmerston will obtain a fresh look of safety from the divisions next week on Lord Grey ' s and Mr . Gibson ' s too sensible motions ; and , as to Mr . Layard , Mr . Layard , with all his vigour , has not the courage to face the fact that the way in which the old Commons governed the Government was bystopping the supplies . Mr . Layard , in a minority in Parliament , does not venture to obey the majority out of doors—dare not provoke the revolution—has $ 00 much taste to risk martyrdom . Mr . Layard , therefore , will come , to nothing next Thursday .

      Not that Lord Paimerston , all this time , is not doing his best to become weak again . He ga-ve the country a taste of old Whiggery on Wednesday on church-rates , and the same evening talked , at the Mansion House , as polite a set of platitudes as you could expect from the oldest old Lord , And Lord John is helping him : Lord John is making the Colonial-office as detestable as ever Lord Grey made it . He is bungling with his Australian bills in a fashion to make Lord Charles weep and Melbourne rebel ; and though Mr . Lowe and Mr . Duffy , speaking in the name of the colony , are warning him of the consequences , he toddles on with his renowned complacency right into the mess : his

      absurd sub , Mr . John Ball , squiring him with a frightened obsequiousness and ignorant hazardousness which beautifully illustrate the colonial systemthese two old women admirably representing the Messrs . Mothercountry . Lord John probably thinks that Australian pressure from without will'be a long time reaching him , who wants only the royal assent to be thoroughly " passed " in any future political arrangement ; and meanwhile he is not going to be intimidated by a couple of Radical journalists . It contents him to be proposed at a Mansion House feed as

      representative of the House of Commons : —the faot he does not care about : —and he is now so far gone in indifference to public opinion and decency , that he is not oppressed by the flattery ( the Duke of Argyle gave the toast ) of a colleague who is one of our rulers and cabinet councillors merely because his mother-in-law is a Lady of the Bedchamber . The governing classes seem to keep in that young Duke by way of a frightful example , to be pointed out on the proper occasion , of the consequences of conceding to the clamour against old Lords !

      Lord Panmuro ' s scheme for the consolidation of the war departments amounts to this—a new office is created . Of course . When these departments were " consolidated" last session , a new office with 5000 / . per annum salary was created ; and if there is a good pressure from without the governing classes will be . very glad to go on consolidating for the next half century . Lord John Russell , Sir G . C . Lewis , and Sir James Graham , were holding a quiet council in" a quiot cornor laal night : they got together that way every

      night : — so we may soon expect to hour that Lord John has again obleegcd Lady John by upsetting the Cabinet . Why does not Lord Pulmorston invent another mission for his noble friend and his noble friend ' s family of thirty-two ? A man with a family of thirty-two must bo tho lean man to any Cmsar . Whenever an Elliott got an appointment , Charles Bull or need to say , " Dear mo , that's very hard on the Greys : " and tha Greys and Cowpers , and Lambs are now doing so well that tho Elliotts arc getting disgusted . Who killed Cock Ucbin was a question of tho day last night , as an Irish member said ; and was debated with solemnity . Who killed Captain Christie ? Being sixty , and looking ninety , it is a possibility

      that Captain Christie mas killed—somewhat like Byron ' s Irish Gentleman " Who died of love ( through drink ) last year "less by Mr . Layard , and less by Sir James Graham , than by his age . But it was a good opportunity , in the attempt to bring in a verdict of Captaincide , to worry Mr . Layard ; land but that Mr . Bright and Mr . Roebuck threw themselves before him , there would have been over again the Mazeppa-ish howling scene of that day fortnight . Mr . Layard escaped with little hurt . But he again produced an

      unfavourable impression ; and why ? Because in the House of Commons a member must be a gentleman ; and a gentleman never loses his temper . Whenever any one attacks Mr . Layard , he behaves in such a , way that one feels sure it would be a relief to him if the Speaker < would allow him to swear . He says the House " shan ' t" bully him . What he may be more certain of is , that he will never be able to bully the House . It is an assembly which the Constitution makes a club ; and in all clubs manners make the member .

      Mr . Disraeli is occupied , it is said , in suggesting to the young aristocracy that in this national crisis the land must go in and win , and beat down both Plutocracy and Bureaucracy —which is doubtless the hideous coalition against us people . The result of his counsels is being seen ; for the last four or five weeks young squires and lordlingsfaave been getting Trp and « a * ving the nation by ; sj ? eeches whichare inaudible to the gallery . This is a great mistake : * they will ruin their order if they condescend to compete with the more talented classes . There was a Scotch Education Bill on last night ; all the Scotch members who cannot speak English have a variety of amendments to improve this measure . There was a handsome young

      member " up" for nearly an hour : with his eyes on the floor ; his hands clutching his coat-tails ; a sentence coming out every now and then—minuteTguns signalling distress . It was a fine , clever head : what you could make of the matter suggested strong sense , and the struggle to say it showed honest earnestness . Who was this ? A man of a splendid name , of historic lineage , and broad , lands — Sir Archibald Campbell . How shocking that this sort of man should be ruining his comfort by descending to an effort to rival the vulgar adventurers ¦ - — the Disraelis , Gladstones , Bright 6 , and Lowes , and Layards—who only labour to be talkers , because faculty of talk brings them alongside the Sir Archibald Campbells ! Saturday Morning . " A Strangek . "

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      IIC IUII DEPARTMENT , AS ALL OPINIONS , HOW ^ VEIt BXTBKME , ABB ALLOWED AN EXPRESSION , THE EDITOlt NECESSARILY HOLDS UI 1 * . SELK RESPONSIBLE VOV . NONE . ]

      Untitled Article

      « THE LEADER" ON MR . SILK BUCKINGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY . ( To the Editor of the Leader .. ) Sir , —I have been almost a constant reader and admirer of the Leader , ever since its first establishment , as advocating , illustrating , and enforcing the political and social reforms , to the promotion of which forty of the best years of my life have been devoted ; and for which , as the world well knows , I have been deprived of a handsome fortune , and punished most severely , without trial or conviction , for daring to advocate the very doctrines which it is tho avowed purpose of the Leader to sustain . If , therefore , from any paper in England I might have expected at least courteous treatment , it was from it . A protracted and painful illness of many months ' duration , and whicli unhappily still continues , prevented my seeing oven my accustomed papers regularly -, and tho one containing your notice of my Autobiography was purposely withheld from me , lest the offensive and contemptuous terms applied to nyself and my writings should aggravato my illness . Accident , however , has since thrown that number in my way ? and I am less painfully affected by it than my friends apprehonded , because I believe its violence and extravagance will have defeated its avowed purposo , and excite , with tho majority of your readers , moro pity for tho writer of tho notice than contempt for myself .

      There is indeed , but one oxcuso for him , and that is , tho ignorance which ho confessos to bo in respecting niy history ami antecedents ; as ho avows that ho knows nothing of mo boyond the general fact that I had travelled extensively—had established a sort of club for foreigners , and got into a controversy with Punch . I prcsumo from these avowals that the writer of tho notice is a very young manand still younger ae a reviewer . Like most

      unqualified beginners , he evidently thought his " slashing article , " would crush the literary reputation of his victim for ever ; and that the supposed wit of tying-a wet towel round his head to prepare for some prodigious jnental effort , « s well > as Ma facetious description of the engraved portrait , would establish his fame as a rising Jeffrey or Macaulay at least . But age and experience lyjll no doubt subdue this exuberance—and bring him to a more modest estimate of-his own powers . To give = him some of . theinihrmaiionun < whaeh . lie admits himself to be deficient , I enclose 'a fewv papers , which I will thank you to forward to him for . quiet and careful perusal ; and I will only add , that vrtien

      he shall have devoted his best energies "for half tne number of years that I shave done to the advocacy lot political and social reform , and shall h . aye evinced the sincerity of his convictions by sacrificing fortune to maintain principles , and defying all the allurements and threats of . power and authority , rather than succumb to either—my conviction is that he will look back upon the splenetic and contemptuous article in which he has spoken of my writings and character , with a feeling of sorrow , if not of shame , at having so treated an old , faithful , and successful fellow-labourer in the cause of human improvement , having at least an equal claim to the courtesy of a gentleman < with himself . I am , Sir , your obedient servant , J . S . Buckingham . Stanhope Lodge , St . John ' s Wood .

      Untitled Article

      [ As a matter of course we forwarded Mr . Buckingham ' s remonstrance to theTeviewer of the Autobiography . That gentleman has sent us , in return , the subjoined answer *—] ( To the Editor of the Leader . " ) Sir , —Mr . Buckingham ' s letter has just reached me . I find that I have nothing whatever to do with the first paragraph in it—I mean the paragraph in which your correspondent is good enough to say that the Leader is the exponent of his own particular views . It is quite clear that I am not the exponent of Mr . Buckingham ' s views on the subject of Mr . Buckingham ' s Autobiography .

      The second paragraph states that Mr . Buckingham has been , and continues to be , ill—( that my review of his book was for a time mercifully withheld from him—and that after at length reading it by accident he finds himself none the worse : being sustained by a charitable conviction that nobody will despise him , and that everybody will pity me . I don ' t object to be pitied ; and I am glad to hear that I have not done Mr . Buckingham any bodily harm . I am inclined to imagine that he is rather toughly constituted ; and that if disrespectful articles could have hurt him , he would have been . in a very dilapidated condition indeed , long before my notice of bis Autobiography was written .

      In the third paragraph , Mr . Buckingham presumes that I am a -very young man ( I am old enough to appreciate that presumption as a compliment ); criticises me as " an unqualified beginner" ( what should I have been if I had praised the Autobiography ?); sniffs at me as emulous of the fame of Jeffrey or Macaulay ( why not ? Why despise the lowly youth who writes these lines for being ambitious of fame ?); and accuses me of designing to crush the literary reputation of my victim for ever . This charge I repel as entirely unfounded . Wha , t does Mr . Buckingham s literary reputation matter tome ? I don't want to crush it : I only disbelieve

      that he has it . The papers which he has sent for the humane purpose of enlightening my ignorance on this point have not converted me . J have looked over them , and have found them to bear a strong resemblance to the papers in which patent medicines are wrapped up . The sort of document by whicli Professor Holloway tries to persuade me that he is a great doctor , is also the sort of document by which Professor—I beg pardon , I mean Mr . —Buckingham tries to persuade me that lie is an eminent author . But I am not to bo taken in m that way . Young as I am , I was not absolutely born vesterdav . 1 am an unqualified beginner , but I think

      I know a puff when I see it ; and I tancy mum a am met capable of distinguishing the difference between a man who scrambles his way to temporary notoriety and a man who wins a literary reputation . The last paragraph insinuates that I have not treated Mr . Bucking ham like a gentleman . He did not come before mo in that capacity . He presented husclf to me as the writer of a vain rambling , foolish book , the dullness of winch was rehoved hero and there ( as I took good care to mention in my notice ) by one or two pleasant records of travelling oinSence . When I meet Mr . Buckingham wearing motley in public , I laugh at him without ceromoiry . If I should ever see him in his private coBtume , ho may rest assured that I shall know how to treat him with " tho courtesy of a gentleman . " I am , sir , your faithful servant , Tub Youth who Rbvidwbd Mr . Bucking-ham ' s AuxoiuoanATinr .

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      There is no learned man but will confess he bath much profited by reading controversies , his senses awakened , and his judgment sharpened . If , then , it be profitable for him . to read , why should it not , at least , be toitraolefor his adversary to write . —Milton .

      Untitled Article

      I M ^* 9 , I 855 . ] THE JjEADEB , 473 .

  • Citation
    • Leader (1850-1860), May 19, 1855, page 471, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2091/page/15/