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«• THE STRANGEIT IN PARLIAMENT. [The res...
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The " Globe" At War. We Are Not Usually ...
owm soldiers with ' reckless ferocity ; ls ^ it msant that the / ' brought reckless ferocity to the enemies of their country 2 It . was not their business to punish .-. the Bbl 4 iei »; defiaieni generals were sent to Paris to account for tiieip defection . The * times , indeed , were . exceptional j perhaps , a Whig journalist cannot conceive exceptional timea ^—except when fclie Whige are not ia office , J 3 ufc who was the Member of the Committee of Public Safety , by whom , as Minister of "War ,, the of of these military
nomination every one commissaries of the Convention was ap * - proved and signed ? Why , Gabkot , Memfter of the Gommittee of Public Safety and Minister of War during the whole " Eeign of GtTerror "— Gabnot , who , according to the Globe , " put a period to the blind and blun--dering direction of the Gommittee of Public Safety collectively and its emissaries . " Tne General' Jottbdast , who , if we are to trust the historical teaching of the Globe , 4 t wa » one of the most emphatic in denying
* il obligation to the Terrorist Gommitteemen on the part " of the army , " happens to have heen , par excellence , the Kepublican General , ^ treated in t by the Gommittee of Public Safely . Marshal de St . Gxb , the Globe informs tis , left his testimony against the Commissaries of the Convention . It ia quite possible that Marshal de St . Ctb , a moderately , distinguished soldier , but not remarkable for other qualities , may have insulted the Republic , in his Memoirs , written during the
Eestora-* ion . Writing in the midst of a profound reaction , affcer serving three ^ regimes ^ the Marshal can hardly be accepted as an impartial witness . Besides , it is not to be wondered atLthat professional soldiers should « onstitutionally resent the interference of ¦ civilianB , especially of eivHia « s who , finding it hopeless to contend' strategically and
tacti-- < stily , against veteran troops with inexperienced commanders and raw recruits , revolutionised the whole art of war , and overran Europe with the bayonet and the JUarseillaise . To conclude : the dexterous Whig Journalist , not unaccustomed to seasonable adulations , would have done well to remember ijhat- it was the Commissaries -of- the
Convention who found out a young and ob-• scure officer of artillery at the siege of Toulon , and when that young officer offered * o take- Toulon in the teeth of all the incagables , gave him his opportunity . That j-oung officer was Natox / eon Bonapabte .
Im Fle ^Eaprr. R [Satttkday ^
im flE ^ EAPRR . r [ Satttkday ^
«• The Strangeit In Parliament. [The Res...
«• THE STRANGEIT IN PARLIAMENT . [ The responsibility of the Editor in regard to these OoAtributionfl is limited to the act of giving- them publicity : The opinions , expuesaed an those of the writer : feoth the , Leader and " The Stranger" benefit by the . freedom which ia left to his pen and discretion , j A crowded House of Commons last night for the . enjoyment of the new crisis—third of the seasonthe . hvtr du ruieau of this session being rather a lengthy ! light piece ; Bnt the crowded House was not farmed . Mr . Disraeli had said the previous night 4 hat the feeling with which the new difficulty is iaced is a . feelings of " consternation . " But Mr , Disraeli does -not understand Lord Palmerston , and what Mr . Disraeli himself would call' the " reproduc-ALye power" o £ the country in the way of Ministers . Lord Palmers ton always found fault with Peel that 4 le had only three courses to follow : Lord Palmer-4 rton himself has always half-a-dfzen . Granted that most of his eminent men have left him , and that jjone of the outside eminent men will join' him . Bis is ^ man who would gpto the messengers , of the , House , And . put tienk an- the Treasury beucfc— -and very reirpectable-Iooklng Ministers would they make—it ftfrftoukl getnooneelse . He himself says—and the Avustt know ; that before it collected yesterday into an AudJenca expecting to be amused— -that he could * carry on the-Government with , a bundle of sticks "—^ cKTtndeed , Is all be is likely to get . It would lw ** t Qatfeltal'company- —mafemms et trois ou quatrt p * imttB . txx short , a Marionette Ministry . Didn't ^ M ^ WNilk : de «| tiidtfoine'c 2 uuige « « to our
goycra-Of course the sensitive English public will doubt the assertion that the House of Commons on such an occasioncould be otherwise than as the public isintent , anxious , fearful . Undoubtedly there was much said of sympathy for the suffering troopsfcoat-bitten * starving , ill-clothed . Why that ' s awful . But there are 50 , 000 English out of work , and starving , within half an hour ' s walk of Palace-yard . Are they less precious than the soldiers ?—is the winter here less severe ?—and what is done to remedy the metropolitan Balaklava ? Still it must be admitted that the House of Commons , at one moment yesterday evening , was excited , vehement , fierce . It was when awful F . Scott rose at eight , and when members took the opportunity to rush , to dinner , overcrowding the dining-rooms . For , alas I at half-past eight , there was not a potato to be had . Worse , the cutlets were underdone !
The Peelite 8 wouldn't , be Marionettes : —that is the conclusion one came to hearing Sir James Graham in bis first-class counsel defence of himself . It was too technical to be altogether reliable . Sir Graham ' s tone was the tone of a man who had found out that he was not sufficiently consulted in the Cabinet , arid who accordingly took an excellent pretext to stand on his dignity — the pretext of the Committee . He incidentally confessed that be had made the discovery by Tuesday last that the Palmerston Government was just as little in possession of the House ' s confidence as the Aberdeen Government bad been ; and bow natural that Sir James , foreseeing a speedy crash , should hurry to get out of a false position and into his taunt
a thoroughly good position ? What did , that Lord Palmerston was the real deserter , mean , but that the Peelite party in the Cabinet did not choose to have a Dictator in their First Minister ? Mr . Sidney Herbert ' s vindication was in a different line from his old friend ' s . It was not a special pleader ' s ; it was that of an intellectual man of honour , whose main motive for his resignation arose in his aversion to the committee . But he also innocently indicated some things not intended to be explained . His argument against the committee is that it would be " a sham . " Why , Lord Palmerttton , the practical man , knows that , and therefore lets the poor stupid House have its committee . Mr . Herbert is . not so practical and more logical . But when he is older he -will discover that Lord
Palmerston is now quite right in doing the best he can in a dilemma—and keeping in . That is to say , Lord Palmerston has done the best thing he could . But at the same time Mr . Gladstone , without proving Lord Palmerston in the wrong , proved . hiruself in the right : and at any rate liberals will rejoice at finding Mr . Gladstone at last in his right position—not merely with Sir Robert Peel ' s followers , again isolated from both sections of the aristocracy , but now entrenched against both sections of the aristocracy amidst the intellectual middle - class Radicals who mean middle - class power . Not that Mr . ' Gladstone indicated any
consciousness of the significance -whicb . the . House attaches to his retirement from the Treasury Bench to the bench from which he last night spoke : he confined his speech to a logical argument against the Committee . Perhaps it was a speech which might just mittee . But for an hour and a half the closelypacked House , piled to the back seats of the side galleries , listened with scarcely an interruption—the interruptions being no more than murmurs of extorted applause— to the fast flow of the exquisitely balanced sentences o £ an orator who , in a minority of half a dozen , was convincing an audience of five hundred that the five hundred were in error . What a rhetorical triumph—what a tribute to genius !
When the retiring Ministers walked up the floor , turned up the gangway , and took their places among the Radicals—ostentatiously welcomed by Mr . Bright the full House buzzed its astonished comments on so significant a proceeding . Sir James Graham was full of impatient importance , and the House was eager to begin the evening . Some formalities were got through ; it was time . But no Palmerston . Five minutes past ; ten minu . es ; fifteen miuutes ; still no Palmerston ; Mr . Berkeley and Lord Mulgrave were in and out , despatching messengers and cabs , and cheered ironically by the Tories , when at intervals they turned up at the Treasury to report to tho bewildered colleagues that the Premier was non eat . The fact is Lord
Palmerston , who takes all things coolly— -so far a Civis Momanut , that not Pyrrhus ' s elephant would intir midate htm—had not considered it necessary to hurry , and was , all the time , sauntering in St . James ' s Park , getting his usual exercise before he went to work ! He turned up , amid great laugh tor , at his usual time , quite unconcerned , and went to sleep before Sir James had well got through his exordium ; Sir James was , perhaps , glad of that ; it is easily conceivable that he is rather afraid of that intellect , more crafty and more unscrupulous than his own ., Sir James Graham ' s speech was a surprise ; he spoke merely as to the past ; he did not Advance a word . —* " Radical bid" was counted on us to the future , , aj to w * r ex peace . After him
there should have been a Minister . Every eye was oh Lord Palmerston , when the Speaker boomed " Bright . " Mr . Brljght , was going to rejoice over his new allies ? Not at all . Mr . Bright was supporting Jjord Palmerston ' s government !—proffering his friendship if the noble lord would get peace . That was not the most marvellous change in him ; he denounced the agitation against the governing classes ; he did not like opinions expressed in passion , fomented amid the excitements of public meetings : —in fact ., he forgot for the moment that there was once such a thing as the Anti-Corn Law League . These were grave blunders for a man so genuinely great . But the solemn and and religious feelings
with which Mr . Bright regards the war , must explain and excuse not only these points , Jbut the singular bad taste characterising ' his intrusion on the House of Commons of 1855 of a Puritan sermon which would scarcely have told in the days of Sir Harry-Vane . As to his " Angel of Death , " it was an Angel of the Poultry ; and its wings , on which Mr . Bright sailed in a passage scarcely worthy of Henry Vincent , must be pronounced remarkably heavy wings—very rhetorical " property" wings . Well , then , somebody should have answered Mr . Bright ' s appeal as to Peace : it was business-like , earnest , emphatic : it ' startled the idle House into a new conception of the actual position . But , no : Mr , Sidney Herbert
rose to proffer his defence ; and he startled again by an episodical innovation on his ordinary styleproving an unsuspected quality of wit , as in his mots , that Mr . Disraeli ' s support of the Government was a " vituperative support , " and that Lord Palmerston was " a strong man taking a weak course " —this last -being a peculiar happy analysis of the man and the position . Then , another surprise ; a Mr , Gaskell , whom nobody had ever heard before , rose from the back benches of the Tories , and made a capital party speech—well constructed , happily delivered . Next Mr . Drummond . made a speech , without one good thing in it , and in which he virtually gave up the case for the committee by admitconvinced him
ting that Mr " . Sidney Herbert had the powers of the committee ought to be limited . Next ; Lord Seymour , of whom one had been talking , all day as a new Secretary of State , spoke— -in a better manner than he ever spoke before , that is to say , with tact as well as talent—strongly against the committee—thus arresting a considerable set of rumours . Then Mr . Lowe , of whom one has been hearing as a gentleman given to Cambyses *~ vein *_ made a speech , mild in manner , and quiet intone , satirical as to the Times' tone , and logically destructive to the proposition of a Committee : the quidnuncs accordingly abandoning the notion that Palmerston had secured him . At this point the debate ought to have closed —it was eight o ' clock , and the House of Commons
must dine . But small men got up and the House emptied , and very few had the opportunity of hearing the admirable exposition of the political position , delivered by a man hitherto as unknown as Mr . Gaskell—Mr . Vernon . For a long time there was no surprise . Sir John Pakington bored every oneparticularyMrrDIsraeH— -asbe " always does . - Mr . Walpole was sententiously silly , as he always is . But Lord Palmerston ' s speech was a climax of surprise . He did not affect any concern ; he restated the old facts as to how and why he had formed a Government ; he rather incidentally mentioned that he w * as rather sorry he had lost the Peelites—not very , but rather ; and he as incidentally referred to the circumstance that he had not the least intention
to go out . But as to the new Government—the new meu—not a word . As to Mr . Bright , a word or two . As to the wonderful argument of Mr . Gladstone , not a syllable . As to his policy , not a sentence . As to the appointment of Mr . Rawlinson- —who ie tho committee , sent to the Crimea to supersede all the epaulettes—not one remark . lie spoke ten minutes ; sat down ; and went to sleep again ! Mr . Disraeli did not wake him . Mr . Disraeli had only to say the Government could not be very strong , and that it would be rather courteous if Lord Palmerston bad mentioned who was the Government . Not splendid opposition ; and tho speech was a blunder from beginning to end . Mr . Disrneh even missed the point that Mr . Gladstone hud ridiculed Mr . Walpole's argument as to precedents , notwithstanding that Mr . Gladstone had himself
said in a former speech , quoted by himself , that " precedent meant wisdom . " Lord lalmerston had certainly astonished his friendsand he still further astonished them by leaving the House to loiter into confusion on the several nominations to-tho committee , by a " lead ot tlio Houso utterly unequal to the oconsion , and peculiarly offensive to the Houbc But Mr . Disraeli did not in tho least demonstrate the error of tho latterJydeepening impression—that his Parliamentary skin is somewhat fulling off . A " day of humiliation" has been appointed , mo country will probably consider this tho day—when a House of- Commons breaks up before an insolent Minister sublimely asleep to the national afiairs . «« A Swanqeb . '
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 24, 1855, page 18, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24021855/page/18/
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