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September 17,1853.] THE LEADER- 901
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THE GOVERNING CLASSES. No. III.—THE EARL...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Piou.Soxal Manjjinrs. - ' . . ^ Somb Fad...
man , a crowd of men looked on , afraid to interfere . A little incident this week shows i the same tendency among people of a higher class . A Kiu ^ s landsomnihus . ' . full of gentlemen , was passing through the city . It was raining very , hard at the time , -and a , lady hailed the 'bus . The co nductor " thought it a pity not to accommodate her ; " though he had taken more than its number , he put her in , fearing that she should £ -et cold if forced to sit outside . His civility was illegal , however , as the 'bus had its allotted number of passengers . The twelve gentlemen inside objected to the entrance of the lady , and one of them summoned the conductor . The
prosecutor admitted that the conductor was always a most civil man , but the magistrate seeing that the man pleaded guilty , had to fine him 5 s . andcosts . The cab-strike amusinglyillustrated the citizens' lack of physical energy : gentlemen felt it grievous to be forced to walk three or four miles . In the police reports daily we find other instances of an inability towards physical action . Two or three men choke up a shopkeeper at a street corner : burglars bully householders with ease : fathers and brothers see daughters and sisters outraged , and never think of raising a hand : a whole neighbourhood hear the screams
of a wife , and hesitate to interpose . When fired with military ardour , Londoners rushed to Chobham to witness the glories of mimic war , these soldiers in spirit , if not in fact , were frighted from the field because they could not afford to pay for a vehicle from Chertsey to Chobham . A fourmile march cowed the cockneys . Englishmen are changed since Wat Tyler struck down the officer who laid insulting hand on his daughter , or since a Lord Mayor aided the King by killing the rebel with his own hand . For better or for worse we are become a milder and a meaner people .
Sad to see , the best things done to-day arc done in a mechanical way by contract , by institution , or organization . We do not compass our own means of progress : our bodies are handed over to a railway company , and though they often wound , and sometimes kill us , we are still like babies in their hands , crying but at their mercy . We ' know that dirt pioneers for the cholera , yet helpless in ourselves , we call out to Boards and officials to do something , instead of working with our neighbours to clear away the nuisance before our own doors . In relieving
distress , the necessary work might be done if people helped their poor neighbours ; but we build up a costly and comparatively inefficient institution , and are still vexed by daily mendicancy in the street . This very week , all the travellers complain like children that they havo been overcharged by hotel-keepers , and , unable to suggest any remedy , ask tho leading journal to do something , when half the evil could ' be met by previous inquiry . When peojde sec brutalities they call for tho police : when rotten nouses fall they send for a surveyor : when cholera comes , they ask for medical officers , and tiimlc
ol llight . In higher things tho same tone obtains . A man does not secure woman ' s lovo by personal virtues : ho ties her to him by a bond , or detains her with money . Tho general purity of our homes is preserved by means of a peculiar iinstitution in our highways , —a sower for vjco . Tho olden habit of individual aspiration is ooeetively accomplished by a company of men flailed clergymen , who pray to God by contract , and show spirit in parochial platoons . Our amusemonts betray the same tendency . In times of old , tho members of a family acted their own
amusements : they sang gi 00 H > mui danced lo tfotuor . In a modern " party , " tho singing is mostly done by hired vocalists , and though paid "anorrs havo not yet hIiowii off in our drawingioodks , wo may noon expect tho innovation . * viUMi plays instead of operas were in voguo , the Pcopio m tho pit joined in tho interpretation of oimkspero through a conscientious attention and « t In-cly eriticiHin , often audible . Now , the lounjrors m Covent-gardeH assent to the beauty 1 Uie inusK )
, and l ; heir best exertion hIiovvh luit 'jo ( -ultivation of a naturnl-Hense of complex vil l " l > ! n'lilim ( 1 "V Honu ! ycai-H ago , indi-* "mil mombdrs got lawn made : evinced by tho uuher of old iiotn bearing mombora ' namoH . ' Hut » nU \ independent member * " l (> ave the matter ¦• l «¦»< ' lumcln « f the Government , " and silently " ° . i '' choked at the " advanced period of the WH j SK . n . Tho fipitlitMul sl . ow giVoH our last i ., u i ! ° ' , K I 1 (! lltfiHt riU ' Al AVIIH a ino (; hanical wnm . y— the screw of tho WcUivqton was more
admired than that national Jack Tar so much honoured when George the Third was King . These things merely suggest thoughts : no man can plan their reform . Sometimes we have done our own part by advising that the people both in town and country should be properly trained in manual , exercises . Military training offers two advantages : it would give a spirited tone to the mind , as well as supply the healthful habit of physical exertion . Besides , it would bring people of different classes together , and accustom men to know one another personally .
A man is always bettered by being known more to his fellow-men , and an animating emulation is thus aroused . Without these habits Englishmen may naturally lose much of their old pluck . People destroy a power by not using it ; and this applies to muscular as well as to moral power . Physiology explains how women want the natural strength of the supporting muscles superseded by stays , and that spirit and that power , half moral and half physical , which accompanies habits of manual exertion , are almost quenched in our citizens by a weak trust in others , and a very lazy life .
September 17,1853.] The Leader- 901
September 17 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER- 901
The Governing Classes. No. Iii.—The Earl...
THE GOVERNING CLASSES . No . III . —THE EARL OF CLARENDON . Yotr could not pass Lord Clarendon in the street without perceiving- at once that he belongs to the Governing Classes . Breed is the distinctive characteristic of his physiognomy and physique : you detect at a glance that he was born into the management of British affairs . You would be astonished if you saw " West Australian" between the shafts of a cab ; you would be puzzled to meet Siitingbourne as tho off-horse of a 'bus ; and you would stare , as at an incongruity , if you encountered Lord Clarendon anywhere bnt in the British bureaux for human destinies , which a special caste of Britons inherits , —constitutionally . Lord Clarendon is to be regarded as the type of his class . Undoubtedly there are classes within the class . Great men are occasionally born to the Governing Classes : though not often , as every one will admit , if they run over the list of Premiers and Commons ' Leaders since Pitt : and such men standout conspicuous from the mass of men , and are worshipped , not as Peer ;? , but as heroes , —as Wellington . Lord Clarendon is tho type of his class , as an average class , —of its mediocrity . Ho is now K . G ., and a Secretary of
State—of course his Earldom gave a great impetusin due order , just as Smith and Jones , in the Custom House , got their 200 L a year pension , after so many years service . There is promotion in tho Governing-Classes for those who work and labour , and wait pa " tiently , and havo ordinary ability ; and Lord Clarendon is high in office , merely by right of length of service . Ho worked so many years , wailed so many
years , and lie " gots on , " having claims . The governed classes say he is " a very able man , " seeing him in succession in great posts ; and , of course , lie lias done his business very well . Governing is a business—a profession in Una country like any other ; and if you compare a practised governor liko Lord Clarendon , with an ordinary man who is only raw material for a governor , Lord Clarendon iippenrs a very able man .
There in am uverugo of intellect in trades and professions ; but some professions require a training to bo clover—a knack ; and the unphilosophie world always thinks the nion who havo caught tho knack are very able men . Young men are Kent ; to the bar by accident ; but iniddle-agod barristers are considered , by . society , cleverer and abler than , middle-aged Ntationer . s , or grocery , or merchants ; whereas tho difference- is simply tho difl ' erenco of calling and training . j n tho anine "way in the ' Governing CI ^ hhch :. a dull boy
i » put to the trade of governing , and in courwo of time , n « tho efjiiet of traiijing , and acquired nkilland caution , ho rises , " and becomes " a very able man , Sir . " Tina reasoning- i « an to tho average men : m there aro Wellingtons born among peers , ho there aro great journalists , grout merchants , —in u word , first num , everywhere . Hul ; tln . s reasoning is to . show that an average Marl , becoming Secretary of State , and writing decent despatches , and nmking deeorouH npoeoho . s , i « not onowhit a greater man , or more " able man , Sir . " than tho
average grocer , tailor , barrister , or editor . It is like talking a truism ; but does the world not act upon a very different theory—believing that Earls are not only bom into governing , but are born " very able men , Sir ?" , Elegant mediocrity is stamped upon , the face and physiognomy of the Earl of Clarendon . Slightly dreamy , slightly silly , in the expression of the eye and mouth , you see , as he passes to-his . " place , " that that handsome nobleman never won the government of men . Watch him as he " rises" to make a speech , and you
will notice that even yet , in his fifty-fourth year , he is not quite equal to the post to which lie has been promoted by seniority—by length cf service—and that bo knows he is not fit . Study his career , and you will , however , not be surprised that he is where he is . It is only the very strong men or the very weak men succeed , in the large sense of success , in the world . The very strong men ascend by right of strength ; and
very strong men , having succeeded , have an aversion to comparatively strong men who may succeed , and have a partiality for very weak men , who never can be rivals . Very weak men are very amiable , and make friends : Lord Clarendon has passed his life in making friends ; the world invariably taking kindly to man with weak mouths . So gentle , so excellent a character —which , was never but once excited , and then became cruel , as weak natures do—as in the Irish affair of 1848
—could never have been decisive or positive- ' in politics ; and thus Lord Clarendon made friends on all sides . So gentle , but so weak , a nature , would have got into great scrapes in the scuffle and temper of our Parliamentary life ; but Lord Clarendon-was kept out of Parliamentary life , and has no notion of it yet ; and hence his qualities developed quietly in easy posts ; and the abilities which are never required to be manifested are never contested — a very lucky thing for Lord Clarendon , and the secret ot his reputation . Such a career as his , and such a character as his , fitted him ,
par excellence , for the Coalition ; other men might sacrifice a point hei-e and there , for the good of tho country , and might forgive an enmity , for 5000 £ . a year , but Lord Clarendon had nothing to sacrifice—no one to forgive . Long before the Coalition , wlion the Whigs were tottering , and when Lord Clarendon , with a great reputation for having put down a rebellion which never broke out , was in Ireland , he was pointed to as the possible Premier who could combine Peelites and Whigs into a safe Cabinet ; anil to have loft him out of tho Coalition formed laat Christmas , would have . been to have left the salt—ror the oil—out of tho salad . Can
any enlightened Englishman , whose country is represented abroad by this Lord Clarendon , and who regards that nobleman as " a very able man , Sir , " tell off-hand what Lord Clarendon's political opinions aro ? Of course he cannot ; Lord Clarendon is the spirit of the Coalition , and the Coalition has only one opinion , — that tho Queen ' s Government must be carried on ; and that is its appeal to the Governing Classes . Ho is a Whig because he is a Villiers ; but of his Parliamentary
lifo I onl y remember one incident , —he spoke a speech which ho had got by heart , and in which he broke down , becauso he was interrupted , in favour of the second reading of Peel ' s Corn-Law Itcpeal Hill . Never having been under the necessity of writing an address or standing on a hustings , to perform that low , mean , and laughable part , to which the Governing Classes , eveiy Keven yearn , degrade themselves , —for a consideration , Lord Clarendon has never been under the neccs . sH y of
forming an opinion ; and hi . s habits , as a diplomatist , have naturally discouraged hi . s coining to any eoncluisions with hi . s conscience . Were the . Karl of Clarendon . suddenly called . upon , this . 185 : 1 , for a-declaration-of his political faith , by anybody of his countrymen ^ he would probably mention that he was in favour of Kree-tnule : that would be the ; only principle that would occur to him . If pressed , he vro . uld very likely admit a firm conviction that he was n Liberal-Conservative , which
he would explain , if urged , inciint Conservative-Liberalism . This would be partly because the Karl ol Clarendon is a diplomatist ; a good deal hecauso ho really has no mind to make up . That we may form hoiiio notion of the ritatoHinanHhip of thin . statesman , let as revert to the two great events
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 17, 1853, page 13, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_17091853/page/13/
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