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    and'America : and though a man , as Mrs . Crew * said , may go round the world , and never be in it , yet lord Stanley seems to have bad a talent foi peeing , arid , in consequence of actual inspection and study on the spot , became at once in the House of Coniriiona , crowded with men who could hare corrected mere " cram , " an authority on two classes of question of the highest importance — questions relating to India , and questions ' relating to the . sugar-producing colonies . Knowledge , the most' flimsy person will tell you , ia power ; but

    not one . in one thousand , - however conscious of the advantage , will work for that pre-eminence which he attains who is master of his subject . No one , whose tastes lie in the direction of political research , can attend the discussions of the Houses of Parliament -without observing , with astonishment , the general ignorance of the mass of speakers on tlie hUtory of " questions ; " and the apparent reason is , that only the fluent and the clever speak , and that the fluent and the clever trust to their fluency and their cleverness , and their grasp of the mere current

    topic , - to carry them through successful statements , and—still easier task—successful replies . Iiord Stanley / inheriting fluency—and although , in our day , fluency alone would not suffice to obtain power—< couldhare got on very well in . well-set speeches , based upon , the chat of a dinner-party , and the hints of £ newspaper . But he seems to have been guided by a . solid , ambition to obtain a substantial position . He was quite right : from year to year the tone of our Parliainent is necessarily becoming less orafo-, rical and more precise . For reasons not now to be

    dilated 6 nV but which have reference to the circumstance that the House of Commons ia ceasing to be a Senate , and becoming a Board , Lord Derby , when he TenteredParliairient , was compelled to be less reckl « ss thiBAwas Charles Fox , when Charles Fox commenced : ^ and ^ Iiord Derby's son , influenced by the gradual 'change . of i the : times * was compelled' to be more ^ u « fulthaa IiOrd ; Derby , was . Taste , lather than tact , ^ may bare dictated this- All the . Stanleys , it lias Vbeen noticed , are combative , and , appear to conceive - $ hat only that amount of science is necessary which ^ U ^ blerto spar . , But ; the : last Stanley—the present

    -onerrseenis tohave . started with afreshidiosyncracy : and a grave demeanour , a compact manner , and a courteous style , never suggest the sneer with which -ine ^ iQCi ^ lage siways ' welcomes ambitious youth . It is the old members who go about whispering that the coming . man is actually arranging for the arrival ; and , indeed , it was a pleasant picture , last session , to see Lord Stanley seated on the gangway step , iCompreMedly listening to the experienced private . common-place of the revered Mr . Hume . For one . thought that this ^ Alcibiades was sure to have the jchance-of putting into political history this rSocrates '

    gossip . : . Why , however , elderly persons will ask , so much . writing about so young a man—a young man -who Juts not been a young Pitt—and whose solitary Parliamentary monument is a sugar-loaf ? If " NontElector" had been alive ( and had failed-in apolitical ^ agitation ) in 1815—1820 , he would have asked two or . three columns of the Leader of that day to talk alxmt a slim , sickly , little noticed , young man , known at ^ Holland House as John Russell , who , up to that timely had done nothing in Parliament but second fibpelessWhig motions in attenuated speeches : and be would have asked this for the same reasons

    that make him consider Lord Stanley a subject for' study now . We live in a country , which is governed , in the end , no doubt , ly a great people , but which ' is administered by an oligarchy ; and as the oligarchy is composed of a deplorable set of dull dogs , nothing can be more safe than the prediction , . when a clever young oligarch turns up , that when he is a middle-aged oligarch he will be either Prime or a Principal Minister . And as oar destinies are to oepend on this young man , is it not of the highest

    importance to us to endeavour to foresee our future in his present tenden < Ae ., traite , and characteristics ? Undoubtedly there ia very little to ascertain accurately ; but that little is attended with some circumstances which permit of a hope that we shall have ia him rather a decent « rovernor . Entering upon politics xt a period when politics were in confusion , ^ hen two Kroat parties were expiring , the Whigs from inanition and

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    rtir THIS DHPAHTUBirr , AS AIX OPINIONS , nOWBVXB KXTRKHK , ABB AIAOWBD Aft KXPBKSSION , THE ED 1 TOK HKCKSSiKILT HOLDS HIM-8 KLF SESPORSIBLB FOB ROUE . ]

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    PRINCE ALBERT . Kempt own , January 5 th . ( 7 b the Editor of the Leader . ) Sir , —How long shall Prince Albert continue to be the only irresponsible Minister of the Crown ? How long will the British nation allow its enormous resources to be wielded for the aggrandisement of the House of Coburg , -which is allied to nearly every despot or pretender in Europe ? Will it allow the

    independence of Turkey , like that of Hungary , to be sacrificed to the dynastic interests of Bourbons and Hapsburgs ;—her people to be massacred and her fairest provinces ravaged by a horde of sanguinary barbarians ? What means the Law of Nations , if . the most powerful and civilised people in the world permit weaker nations to be successively crushed and enslaved , without making an effort to free them from their Muscovite invaders ?

    At the time that England allowed Russia to march her conquering armies into Hungary , in aid of the perjured House of Hapsburg , the British people were not cognizant of the extent of Prince Albert's interference in their home and their foreign affairs : they were not aware that he was always present when the Queen received her Ministers , and took an active and often a leading part in their deliberations : and

    that he was carrying oh a private correspondence with British diplomatists abroad , with foreign Courts , unknown to Lord Palmoraton . If the people had known all these mysteries of secret diplomacy , England , perhaps , had then proved herself worthy of the occasion , and , in emancipated Hungary , had found a sure barrier against the encroachments of Russia . Now that Russian diplomacy ia everywhere suc-

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    the Toriesfrom poison , it would indeed be surprising if Lord Stanley had been enabled to talce up a positive position , or to announce a definitive policy . " Filius dilectissimus meus , " with a piety that perhaps was partly the consequence of perplexity , followed his father : and how do we know but that when the Tory Troy fell ( it was a hearty ten years' siege ) , JErieas was not calculating upon carrying Priam to a new Conservative realm ? Can the wisest of us , not actors in that secret history which is our curse ,

    tell what is Lord Derby ' s policy ? or Mr . Disraelis policy ? Who can say of the body of Tory gentlemen who will sit next session opposite the Queen's Ministers , what are their views upon England ' s present or upon England ' s future ? Should we look , then , for a programme to Lord Stanley ? Like the venerable and confiding Scotch lady , who never ventured on the presumption of understanding the minister of the Kirk , Lord Stanley may regard himself as too young to suggest a plan to a party led by

    his parent : and we must allow for the difficulty of such a position . In a few years Lord Stanley , with the impetus and prestige derived from his rank , will overtake Mr . Disraeli , as Charles Fox overtook Burke ; and will leadi&he Tory party in the House of Commons : and then we shall see the singular spectacle of father and son managing Parliament in departments . This is the only future for Lord Stanley for very many years to come ; and for very many years to cotne ^ therefore , we shall hardly have to regard him . as a free agent . /

    But a son , who is in the Commons , has a most unnatural advantage over a father , who is in the Lords ; and from this vantage ground might not Lord Stanley lead under Lord Derby ? Certainly political confusion ia the great opportunity for young politicians : and what a magnificent career is not possible to him who , as it were , inherits the lead of the Tory party , at the moment when the Tory party are about to meet Parliament almost without a principle —clearly without a policy ! And now the chances of

    greatness are increased by the circumstance that this young leader of the ToTy party will take his post at the moment when the Whigs disappear ! Most of all —is not the crisis superb when , moreover , the people have no plan ! We are at a point in our history when , bewildered and amazed , the first great , bold , man who maps a path will lead in it . There is political chaos not only in England , but in Europe ;

    and the cry is for light . No doubt , however , the great bold man must l > e of the Governing Classes : Browns who preach startling gospels are not attended to at the moment ; and Jones ' s lantern would not sell—darkness being more genteel than day purveyed by a vulgarian . The greater , then , the chances , just now , for young oligarchs who have meaning and manhood . All the old shibboleths are hushed : all

    the old landmarks are shattered : all the old fences broken down : there is no party , and on the 31 st every politician starts fresh . The dull men will search for the old routine : defend . Ministers , if they are Ministerialists , on foreign policy , and oppose them , if they are in opposition , for an opposition ' s eternal technical reasons ; the dull and decorous of both sides will "believe that the test of enlightenment is Lord John's Bill , and will hope that on eitlier side of this gage of Lord John ' s ,

    Whigs and Tories will re-arrange themselves . But original minds will reject these " unities " of politics : and insist on a new supply of " principles" for a new generation . Let us trust that a young Dory leader , with the " moral of Catholic ^ mancipation , the ^ Reform Bill , and the Free Trade measures fresh in his mind , will not be contented to renew the oldL dreary Toryism of resistance . Let us trust that a young Tory leader will see that a wise Conservative would check the democracy Lord Derby dreads by leading it—not by

    fighting it . We identify , in our day , Toryism with resistance to popular demands ; and Whiggism -with concession to popular demands . But both theories , as dogmatic theories , are false and fallacious . Position , not principle , has ever governed party in this country : the Whigs liave , at times , been more conservative than the Tories : the Tories more " radical " than the Whigs . A young Tory leader of acuteness , observing that that' middle class who curried the Reform Bill and Free Trade are now " Peace" fanatics and Conservative negotiators , and that there is

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    no sympathy between the capitalist and the labouring-class ( a pity , but a fact to be noticed by politicians ) , " would put himself at the head of the people , and so oust the Whigs for ever from " popularity , " The history of the Ten Hours' Bill should have shown the Tories that this lord-loving nation , though it may have lost feudal instincts , is most lord-loving among ^ the masses , who at present find the landed aristocracy their natural allies ; and the Tories should also observe , that as the next great struggle will be ( if the Church doesn't change ) about the Church , it would be prudent bravery at once to defy

    the Dissenting middle class . This is a nation with two aristocracies ; and as its democracy is conscious of impotence , it is fatuity in the Tories not to bid for a popularity which would be safe . - The Church is too rich to be energetic ; otherwise , in a few years , it could win the people from infidelity ; and , for analogous reasons , were universal suffrage granted to-morrow , Lord Stanley and Lord John Manners , if they would but consent to resign the petty perquisites of their class for the veritable glory and real power of the actual lead of the people , could carry Manchester from Mr . Bright , and Birmingham from Mr . Muntz . Thus , if the Tories would face with

    effect a Coalition which is only carrying on the Queen ' s Government , they will next session appeal , beyond the combinations of parties in an anarchical club , to the common sense of the nation . There are two questions of the day—Reform and Russia . As to the first , a great Tory leader would now say , * 'Let us have a real Reform ; we may lose our close , boroughs , but we snail gain our great

    cities . " As to the second , he would say , " All existing pacts of mankind are . broken—let us not talk of treaties , let us not seek order and diplomacy—let us not ' negotiate' with Destiny . Civilisation and Barbarism are at war , one with the other—the Hun is swooping upon Italy—Russia is the common enemy of mankind—let us destroy Russia , or be destroyed . " - 5 . Non-Elector .

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    , 16 THE LEADER . CSaturpa y ,

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    There is no learned ^ man but will confess he hath 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 tolerable for his adversary to write . —Mii / TON

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Jan. 7, 1854, page 16, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2020/page/16/