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    LETTERS TO CHARTISTS. VI. Feargus O'Conn...

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    The executive committee of the National ...

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    L () V K In A M A Z Ill. Madame <Le Stiu...

    five minutes—what then are w to say to five acts ° Let me state the positions . Rupert and Lucy are cousins , destined for each other from their infancy , and loving each other heartily . Their uncle to try them sends both into the world : Rupert into the army , Lucy to London . Lucy becomes a woman of fashion , and counts Lord Miniver among her adorers , nay , among her favorites , for she is somewhat dazzled by the coronet . The period fixed for the marriage is the than Lord

    arrives . No sooner ceremony over Miniver calls away the bridegroom , and insists on fighting him upon some frivolous pretext ox other . The bride thus deserted at the very church door , returns home alone , indignant , convinced her husband does not love her !! ! Rupert slightly wounds Miniver , and then brings him home to the hall in his own carriage . Miniver thus housed with his mistress plays upon her feelings , encourages her indignation , and suggests to both husband and wife that they should obtain a divorce , to which they , believing each

    other indifferent , consent . Now , I beg to ask : Did the author mean us to suppose that Lucy was , or was not , corrupted by town influences , so as to prefer Miniver to Rupert ? Because , if she was—and a very proper and dramatic collision might have been wrought out of this — the episode of the duel and its consequences is perfectly idle ; if she was not corrupted , if her heaxt really were given to her husband , she never could suppose he did not love her because he was forced to leave her at such a moment to fight a duel . Annoyed she might have been ; but a word would have explained all , and that word must have escaped her husband . It only escapes him at the end of the fifth act , and then it suffices ! I cannot bring myself to believe that the sympathy of any audience can be excited by such unnatural stories . A dramatic basis should be

    broad , solid ; this is a mere pin ' s point . Although I have a great objection to Love in a Maze being considered as a comedy , or as a literary work of pretensions , although it did not interest me during its performance , although it contains none of those scenes or touches which revisit the memory and induce one to see it again , I should be belying the very nature of my office were this article to go forth without an emphatic addition of praise for the cleverness with which old materials are worked up , and the animation of the dialogue which sparkles

    pleasantly and without effort . My office is twofold : first that of Taster to the Public , intimating what dishes are piquant , pleasant , stimulating , or nauseous and unwholesome ; secondly that of Critic , intimating what is good and what is bad in respect of Art . If in my second capacity I condemn this comedy , in my first I am bound to recommend it , for the audience certainly relished it ; and it has a hearty , healthy tone which did it more service even than its vivacity : Rupert , Tony , and Lucy have the proper feelings of human beings , and the expression always commanded the applause of the audience .

    The piece is delightfully acted . I have no space to enter upon details , bui would especially commend CharleB Kean for his acting in the scene where he discovers Lord Miniver on his knees to his wife , as the bearing of a dignified gentlemanly sorrow far more touching thun any " explosion" ; and I would also whisper to Mrs . Winstanley that she is somewhat loud and over emphatic . The rest will excuse my passing at once to

    THE NEW TRAGEDIAN who made his debut at the Haymarket last Saturday , and who , as the son of Henry Wallack und nephew of James Wallack , was sure of a favourable hearing from an English public . I waa not present at the debilt , but went on Monday , when the house presented a dreary aspect of empty boxes and scanty pit , enough to try the courage of any actor . My sympathies are so excited by every debutant that I should like to have nothing but cheers to give . It is so affecting to Bee a young man standing on the

    threshold of the grout temple claiming to be admitted—to see youth and energy full ot courage , of hope , of ambition , of conscious power witli " soul in arms and eager for the fray "—to see a man starting on a long and arduous career , forced to il ^ lit every inch of the way , and to be told at last that he does not light like those who fought before him ! If ever cheqra should be given unstintingly , it is then . If ever criticism should be in abeyance to good wishes , it is then . If ever an ounce of merit should outweigh five of demerit , it is then .

    Well , Mr . J . W . Wallack gained Inn welcome : he lias now to earn it As C . ioethe finely miys , it in easier to weave laurel crowns than to find u head worthy to be crowned : — 41 Ein Krnnz ist gar viol Inichter binden Aluihiu fin wiirdig Htiuptzu linden . " The public linn woven a crown ; but I must see Mr . J . W . Walluck in other parts , before 1 admit his right to wear it . JIih Othello showed that ho had a tall commanding figure , handsome faco , and familiarity with stage buHinens ; but I defer criticism on Iuh interpretation of Othello , and on his style generally . Vivian ,

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    Letters To Chartists. Vi. Feargus O'Conn...

    LETTERS TO CHARTISTS . VI . Feargus O'Connor and New Aspects of Chartism . Mr . Edward O'Connor , better known by his political prefix of " Feargus , " is an anti-unique leader , presenting points of great curiosity , but not less of public instruction . Certainly no politician among us ever traded upon so small an argumentative capital . Paine put noble thoughts into everlasting sentences ; Cartwright often taught us national principle ; even Cuttle wrote things we do not profit by forgetting ; Cobbett , the loquacious and untiring Cobbett , tne giant of details , put a new power of advocacy into the hands and heads of his countrymen ; O Connell , in his best daysmoved Europe by an impassioned

    , eloquence , and was at all times a fund of divertisement Not to cite others who crowd to be named , what shall we say of O'Connor , who , without anybody ' s talent , has , by an art of his own , in face of numerous able men , contrived to monopolize a popular movement—to keep it , and to extinguish it at discretion . If any doubt the homoeopathic amount of literary capital upon which the Chartist chieftain does public business , nobody will doubt the extraordinary nature of the material of which that capital is composed , nor of the original manner in which it is employed . __ . „ ..., ... , -r ,.. ham

    The honourable member for Notting lays Europe and poetry under contribution for a select stock of phrases , which from time immemorial he has relentlessly kept on weekly duty . From Napoleon he borrowed his " Old Guards ; " and from the Iron Duke that interesting adjuration , " Up and at ' em ;" from Alderman Brooks he borrowed that profound observation , beginning , " Lord , love ye , we are all for ourselves in this world ; " and from himself , Mr . O'Connor obtained the loan of that graceful simile , ' The whole hog , bristles and all ; " varied with the " Charter , pure and simple , " to which Mr . Ernest Jones has added , " No surrender . " When we are dazzled by this sublime prose , Mr . O'Connor considerately relieves us by that scarce distich : —

    " United you stand . Divided you fall ;" followed by that tremendous defiance ( repeated most frequently when nobody is visible ) : — " Come one , come all , this rock shall fly , From its firm ba 3 e as soon as I ! !" These phrases , Mr . O'Connor must have had " kyanized , " or done into gutta-percha , seeing their durability , elasticity , and toughness . Whole dictionaries of political sobriquets have been worn out since the founder of the Land Plan introduced those we have cited—yet his stock is as fresh as ever , and seems likely to be worn for evermore . Judging from the mode of their use , the ingenious captain of the " unshorn chins" is no less a rhetorician than a politician . Thrown into the hat of the Commander of

    the " Imperial Chartists , " the ^ e phrases " when taken , " seem to be " well shaken , " and they arrange themselves according to the laws , not of Quinctilian , but . of specific gravity . The poetry , being most aerial , floats at the lop , and is commonly found at the head of the honourable member ' s weekly letter to his " dear children . The " sacrifices" of the writer , being the next lightest material , follow in order ; then the dinners he has not eaten at the people ' s expense . Midway Alderman Brooks comes tumbling down the column , and the ' whole hog , " having most ponderosity , makes his way to the bottom . This is a tolerably " full , true , and correct account " of the art , quality , and capacity displayed in those weekly effusions from the immortal pen of him who delights to call himself the Bailiff of Snigg ' s-end .

    Mr . O'Connor is not the man to object to a laugh at all this : he must laugh at it himself . But how comes it about that working men of England , who would not tolerate such wordy incoherence , even in a tap-room , many weeks together , have been able to live on such political rhapsodizing for so many yeara ? The answer is not without its moral . Determined to take some part in political redress they have taken the only part they could , and have listened to tho only advocacy vigorously vouchsafed to them . Whatever demerits some may find in Mr . O'Connor , he ut least hus the great virtue of incessant activity . He floes work , after his fashion . Nothing drives him out of the path . His influence may die by his own

    hand , but he will no doubt perish in the Chartist rut . And for this he is to be accredited . AH attempts to annul his potency by personal attack Imve failed , her cause he hud more energy thun all his opponents put together . Outraged , disappointed , or weuried , they retired . Mr . O'Connor never retires . He has come to represent the working classes of England , because he is always in tho v \ ay ; and whoever looks in his direction aro sure to see him . If any think him an impediment they can only remove him by putting in u resolute and pertinacious uppearunce themselves—by occupying public attention in his stead -by putting into a minority all who represent his unsleeping antagonism—Jiis unconscious mendacity .

    Now the day of reaction has come , and working men are beginning to ask whether they are to be represented for ever in Parliament and Europe , and judged through the spectacles of a politician who does not exercise the slightest influence on his Parliamentary colleagues , or on any educated compeer . Now this query is raised , he , the great Denouncer , is being denounced in his turn . I who differ from him explicitly , and never hesitate to tell him the whole truth , will not do him an injustice—will not take any part in the unmeasured reproaches hurled at himwill not , indeed , conceal that he has many excellent Qualities besides activity . No one can know him *

    and not be sensible of his genial and generous nature . The delicious unction in which some of his most pernicious speeches are delivered , make you forgive hU political errors . Even that which in O'Connell men called mendacity , is in O'Connor as in O'Connell an affair of blood . In all O'Connor's quarrels with his coadjutors , and the name is Legion , he always appeared to advantage , his measureless blusterings seldom had bad nature in them . Attacked by invectives , he always comes off victor , because he has no rival in the art of political Billingsgate . If those

    who differ from him would leave him alone in these respects , and simply confine themselves to examining the intellectual value of his teachings—to matching O'Connor against O'Connor—avoiding all imputation , keeping close to the single query , What is the political wisdom of what he says ?—the result would be inevitable . Mr . O'Connor could not object to this . No man who cannot bear this test can maintain influence , or ought to enjoy any . If he is extinguished by the process the fruit is his own , if he comes out victor so much the better for the public .

    The sort of comedy Mr . O'Connor has so long played in the name of politics is certainly used up ; intellectual working men in every part of the country say so . The way to put an end to it all is easy enough . Unimputative speeches and cool heads are all that are wanting . In that high arena , where statesmen contest for the common weal , Mr . O'Connor is a political baby , and they treat him as such ; but on the excited platform , in the angry roar of a

    Chartist meeting , where tribune-compeers compete for popularity or empty leadership , Mr . O'Connor is a Triton—he is the grandest of them all . But poke the Chartist Hippopotamus with the sharp point of an argument : without anger , or bluster , or hate , harpoon the Democratic whale with a syllogism , and you soon elicit the well-known blubber of the grampus . Mr . O'Connor is apolitical Achilles , with this difference , that his vulnerable part is not in the heel but in the head .

    Some change must take place if Mr . O'Connor ' s influence is to last . At present any working class member of a Mechanics' Institution could conduct a better exponency , having a closer relation to public taste and public needs , than that which the honourable member for Notting ham conducts , and the whole truth , for the sake of working men , ought to be told . Tyranny could not purchase , the whole wit of the Crown could not invent a man who could so cover the cause of the people with public contempt as Mr . O'Connor has for many years done . That his intentions are patriotic , there is no manner of doubt , but the failure of his efforts ought to be known to him ,

    that they may not be continued till those whom he aeeks to serve , irreparably suffer from them ; yet it would be to conduct a political advocacy devoid of generous spirit , not to cordially and even gratefully acknowledge the inexplicable good Mr . O'Connor has lately done indirectly . His own late Manchester Conference passed resolutions of a most salutary nature , the very opposite of the principles of his whole political life ; and he has put the Northern Star , which so long misdirected and misrepresented the working class mind of Britain , under the editorship of a gentleman whose advocacy seems calculated to redeem and reestablish Chartism . This cannot be done without Mr . O'Connor ' s consent ; and he atfeast

    deserves the credit of affording to others the opportunity of that wiser advocacy which we must all be glad to recognize . Kvery day brings us new traits of progress ; old causes put on now faces , and the fresh aspects are hopeful ; and of hopeful aspects , tho new one of Chartism , in the pages of the Star , deserves special purticularizatiou . Ion .

    The Executive Committee Of The National ...

    The executive committee of the National Charter Association met on Wednesday evening last—present , Messrs . Arnott , llolyoake , Hunt , Milne , and Reynolds . Messrs . ( irassby , Ilarney , Jones , and O ' Connor were absent through unavoidable engagements . John Milne wan called to the chair . Correspondence was read from Barnwley , Chepstow , Duilmgton , Edinburgh , Limchouso , Torquay , and Worcester , remitting money ; from Holm firth , disapproving , and from Huddersfiuld , approving , of tho Convention F und ; ulso from Arnold , lievonport , and Glasgow , announcing the formation of four new localities ; and from Clitheroe and Lundport , on general business . It was ununimoimlyagreed : —" Thata sub-committee , consisting of Messrs . Arnott , Hurney , llolyoake , Hunt , and JoneH , be appointed to prepare the neceesary pinna to be submitted to tho Conferonce in furtherance

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), March 15, 1851, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_15031851/page/18/