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tween eight and eleven o ' clock ; for who would leave Grisi for Wisby , or Mario for Washy ? The House did not fill till near midnight ; nearly until Lord John rose there were empty benches—Lord Stanley representing the whole of the Opposition : and twenty Radicals , who were all intending to speak , and fraternally contesting for the Speaker ' s eye with one another , constituting the House ; and good speaking to thin audiences is as impossible as good acting to thin audiences ; so that it * was all very dull indeed . Dr . Phillimore , the mover , made a beautifully clear and exquisitely-balanced speech , impressed upon the twenty
Kadical gentlemen by the polished manner and the fine voice ; but the good speaking ended there , until Mr . Bright ' s turn came , and his vigorous sententious ^ ness told as usual , —it was so good to hear Mr . Bright , " as a real friend to the church , " advising Sir Robert Inglis to have some sense . There was no getting over the hideous impression of boredom affected by Sir William Clay . The pretentious flatulence of that worthy gentleman is not acceptable on summer evenings ; but he spoke long enough , and loosely and heavily enough , to give the hue of his own dreariness to the debate ; and all that followed was ditto of Sir William Clay ,
the thin House unconsciously sinking from the oratorical into the conversational , and carrying on the discussion droningly , as in a committee . There is a Mr . E . Ball in the House , who followed soon after the cognate Sir William ; and the effect of Mr . E . Ball , who speaks in a sort of weeping howl , with a bass voice in mourning , is to be conceived on a question of church rates . Mr . Hume could not inspirit on such an occasion ; and Mr . Edward Miall , however admirable his leading article would have been in print , added nothing to lift the House out of its yawn , and into oblivion of Clay and Ball . Mr . Peto , on the voluntary principle—he , the
very illustration of it , the greatest subscriber of his age—was unaffected , energetic , and earnest , and was cheered , as he deserved , by Mr . Miall ; but Mr . Peto speaks so very like a Dissenting pastor of deaf sheep , that he failed to fascinate beyond the twenty Radical gentlemen around him ; and as nineteen of them bounced up when he sat down ^ it is to be presumed they did not regret his prism yet loud peroration . Then came Sir George Grey , as the benches got more occupants , with a flood of impetuous commonplace , and vehement truisms , —speed is his distinction as an orator—he tears along like an express engine—which has
no carriages behind it ; and then succeeded Lord John , —a coal-wagon after a special , slow , and not more sure—feeble and cold , a leader leading in felted shoes , and summoning his forces in a whisper ; the old Whig being laughed at by the young Tories , who are more abreast of the age , and growled at by the middle-aged Radicals , who take for granted that they are ahead of it , —sneered at and fumed at , or * course , by the men behind him , — Molesworth , who despised such a timorous policy , and Gladstone , who , at any rate , after having made his Government strong by a grand Budget , naturally objects to being led into a minority lobby once in every week , which is Lord John ' s way . All these aspects and influences were obvious when Lord John was on his legs ; lie was palpably a man who
had no hold of the House , and who had no business whatever in that attitude of leader , seeing that he was not only behind the spirit of the time , but not up to the tone of the House itself ; as Mr . Bright , who followed , excited by the then filled House , and rattling along in all the pride of intellectual energy , and animal strength , and with tlio impetus of strong- convictions , and with tho encouragement of perfect knowledge and mastery of h is audience , brusquely told tho Veneer member of the Cabinet , the rough hint , bringing down n general cheer from tho Ministerial aide , and Hiipplying a " mom ., " which Mr . Disraeli took , and will not forget to muke use- of when tho occasion arrives for liis inevitable criticism upon tho " unities" of Coalition Governments , as evidenced in tho concluding
and astounding division . Tlioro is one nmno in tho division-list which requires separate notice . Mr . Augustus Stafford—an undoubted model CliriHtian , inoro particularly with regard to a commandment enjoining intelligibility and oxplicitnos 8 in statements , piirliainontnry and otherwise , who would not admit Jews because they would unehristiunizu tho legislature , and an equally undoubted model in bin speciality as a Churchman—volwl with tho
ProirresHivts Tories for the motion , and then against tho amendment . Very good for a Derbyite . But it is ono of those questions of tho day which must take its turn to be answered hoiuo night ,-Ought not Mr . Stafford to tako a Sabino farm in tho Hundreds of Bucks ? It is pleasanter to havo hia vote for than against the settlement of tho church-rates controversy , but instead of giving that vote , lie ought to have been at thiitBlathervvykc-park—which brings him in 25 , 000 / . n-year , and which envoa hia " personal honour" accord *
ingly . whateverhemaydo—say , readingLord Brougham ' s speech the other day , on the increase of perjury in the lower orders . The House—the public at least—expected that after the report of the Committee he would have given up his seat ; but he has great " pluck ;"a less mild name might be given to the quality : — he is resolved to face all the Purists dare hint , and now it becomes a serious difficulty to decide what should bo done . No man likes the initiative , in
such a business ; and yet to allow Mr . Stafford to escape altogether , would be mischievous to the reputation of the whole House . There is a provocation to extreme proceedings , in his jaunty demeanour : the insensibility to a sense of proper shame demands correction , even a violent one . Mr . Stafford is quite right in concluding that he only illustrates a general system , and that ho is not much worse than the best member of the Commons , which is not a sensitive or scrupulous body , in regard to public morality , and which , privately , is still partial to Mr . Stafford ' s society . But , beyond the House , he might detect the existence of a people , which does not
live in club routine , and which heartily despises him , » nd would relentlessly punish him ; and that he is so indifferent , because of his confidence in the sham of tho House itself , argues unpleasant philosophy among tho governing classes , and a want of nationality , implying that the country is getting rather too enlightened in its tolerations . Mr . Stafford is too small a person , of too petty and contemptible crimes , for an impeachment , but he ia large enough for a resolution of censure ; and , after that , even though he still lounged about the lobbies , in the old How-do manner , he would be as marked as Hudson , —in , but not of , the House ; and to the
Northampton Nemesis might be left the conclusive vindictiveness of rejection . As Mr . Disraeli kindly says of Lord John , it would not matter to turn him out , because Lord John has " a resource , "it maybe remembered , in a consolatory way , that Mr . Stafford—who has accomplishments that shtiuld have elevated him above the offices of an attorneying party tool—may avenge his fall , as Bolingbroke avenged his , by writing books , bewailing the imperfections of the political man . Martyrdom has its comforts : even at the stake he may enjoy the sight of legislative hypocrisy ; and perhaps it
is the apprehension of the sneers , as he would fall , which withhold * the blow . Mr . Keating ' s notice , " to call the attention of the House" to the report of the committee , is too vague , and is too studiously not personal to satisfy the demand felt rather than expressed , but felt forcibly . But the discussion even brought on that way will call for a new combination of parties , and will put L ord John in another difficulty—Lord John , doubtless , being again prepared to stultify and to cast suspicion on "t he first assembly of gentlemen in Europe . "
The Government , however , get on when Lord John is away , and the work done last night by Lord Aberdeen in the Lords , and by Mr . Gladstone in the Commons , was calculated to put the members of the Cabinet in sufficient good humour with ono another and the world to prevent quarrelling at the council to-day . In the first place , the attempt made respectively by Mr . Disraeli and Lord Mahncsbury to convict Ministers of a false move at Constantinople was palpably premature ; for there were no facts on which to baso tho contemplated insinuation ; and the Opposition attitude became consequently tho unworthy one of cavilling for the
cavil ' s sake—objecting but not advising ; and at the same time getting no information . Hut the " interpellations" which passed in the gaping and gobcmouelio senate were a commendable illustration of Kossuth ' s recent remarks on our " secret diplomacy . " Tho interpellations obtained the most reverent attention because they were almost the possibilities of an European war ; but tho parties to them were esoteric statesmen ; the represented public was profoundly ignorant of the influences at work and of the cause at stake , and was not impertinent enough to ask for instruction-. The William Williams and Lord Monteagle class of
members trembled and were perplexed ; but they knew nothing , and had no chance of knowing anything , of what was going on nor of what they had to expect , and they sat silent , Not , however , that they had great trust in Lord John or in Lord Clarendon ; but because they are accustomed to tho Parliamentary system which leaves the jxioplo utterly powerless in regard to British jw > licy outside Great Britain . M . Kos-Houtli , reading these interpellations to-day , will continue his astonishment at our national flattery of ourselves , that we are a decidedly free and unreservedly self-governing country .
In tho second place , thfl Government got " strong lust night by its relmfFn of tho feeble , quiwi-1 ' rotectionint opposition to tho Budget . Lord Derby , querulous , testy , and misehiovoufl , bad tho folly t <> fight a regular pitched battle with tho Government , in the Lords , on tho Succession Tax
( Legacy Duty Extension ) ; and , in evidence how com * pletely the Coalition has broken up the Conservatives , and how largely Lord Derby has sunk as a " safe " guide in the confidence of the Peers , he was beaten easily . There was great anxiety about the division , because , as the first real struggle the ins and the outs have had in the Lords , there was much doubt of the issue . Lord Derby erred doubly in the course he took , first , because he got the question so put as to make the division a Peers' division—content or non-content with the Budget , certain to damage his chances and lessen his leadership if he was left in a minority ; and secondly ,
he has blundered in risking the question , —had he a constitutional rig ht to force on the Lords a controversy about the finance of the Commons ? No very general object ion will be taken to his . arrangements for political suicide ; but his own class is intensely interested in his bad temper and fussy ambition , not being allowed to bring the Upper House into a false position . Lord Derby , with his instinctive longing for excitement , will not face the fact , that the . Lords are a quiet court of registration , which wise lords like Lord Aberdeen are willing that it should be , that being the condition of its existence at all ; and , accordingly , such " marry
come up" speeches which Lord Derby spoke at the Commons gallery last night—impotent exhibitions of fidgetty enviousness , certainly not calculated to impart dignity to the " order" the orator affects to vindicate . For the Peers to confess to an ignorant impatience of taxation could never be judicious , and was , last night , an exhibition least of all serviceable to their interests , seeing that they attacked precisely that portion of the Budget ( which has other defects ) which is the most popular . And whatever justification Lord Derby might have had , could he have got a majority , he remains without any , after a defeat : —as directly after the
defeat was buzzed about along the great corridor into the Commons , and even among the whilom Protectionist and subsequent believers in chivalry benches . From the- one House to the other was rung the change 'in scenes-of the same play : the curtain fell on Lord Derby and rose on Mr . Butt . The selfish ruse having failed , the patriotic generosity was being attempted . Lord Aberdeen having refused to give up the legacy duty on land , Mr . Butt , a usefully-loquacious Derbyite , was put up to insist upon an exemption from income-tax of all incomes under 150 £ . a-year ; and on that there was a division , too ; and on tliat also the Government gained
strength . But Mr . Butt was only a guerilla . Mr . Disraeli left the House when the motion was made , —• Mr , Disraeli sitting still and sf ? ern , all argument having surrendered to the triumphant destinies of Gladstone ; and Mr . Butt , who wants a judgeship when Mr . Disraeli is next in office , was therefore unhappily unappreciated , and had to endure Mr . Gladstone ' s sneers , without reward or consolation . Yet Mr . Butt was far more statesmanlike than Lord Malmesbury or Lord Derby had been that evening ; for the Lords repudiating legacy duty were just as ludicrous as Mr . Tollemache , as member for Cheshire , denouncing the reduction in
tho import duty on cheese ; and Mr . Hutt was worthy of a better fate than being laughed at as a busy Irish barrister , seeking patronage from English governing classes . Mr . Gladstone demolished Mr . Butt as ho had demolished all Mr . Uutt ' s predecessors ( that evening ) in the moving of impossible amendments . Mr . Gladstone has a quiet , contemptuous way , which is a great hit in committee , and which is enabling him to pass tho clauses of his Budget bill with most workmanlike rapidity . His knowledge on the minutest points of detail is marvellously elaborate , and yet he lias tho faculty of never letting his hciirers sink among tho details , while his explanations are so clear , and bo complete , that he has never to " explain . " To all
these gifts , specially happy in a finance Minister having to defend at all points a surprisingly complicated scheme of taxation , he adds the gift , —of being insensible to labour . Fighting that Inconie-Tax Bill through Committee for woven hours last night , was a work equal to a many-briefed barrister ' s whole single term in Chancery ; and yet at one in the morning , Mr . Gladstone was entreating the House to " go on . " He has been " surprised" so niueli lately at motions for adjournment on this Hudget , Mint lie is gradually getting tho House- out of its modern Hrothcrtonian habits . The rule is now wetting in for members to go homo at daylight , wondering how they will get down to their committees » ' ¦ J ! ¦
Hut Mr . Gladstone i « not fully employed with tho Budget . Ho has taken up another labour in tho Savings Hank Hill , of which he has given notice : ho Hhumiiig Sir Charles Wood , who , never working at all , nover had tho eourngo to grapple with tho subject . Sir Charles hadn't eourngo to govern savings banks ; but lie will got up quito cool , on the IJrd , to govern India . Sir Charles is ii Yorkshire squire , who was never hoard of till tho Greya insisted on his being made
Untitled Article
May 28 , 1853 ] THE LEADER . ' __
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 28, 1853, page 521, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1988/page/17/
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