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1262 [THE LEADER. [Saturday,
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THE GOVERNING CLASSES. ¦ 'No.-XVI. THE D...
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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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Political Morality.* One's Enemies Don't...
is the resource of eccentric historians . If Alcibiades had made a hit at Syracuse , Greece , not JRome , might have been mistress of the world . If Montcahn , in America , or Lally , in India , had conquered the English , there never -would have been a French Revolution , and England would have become a third-rate power . But if there had been no Mr . Disraeli , would British politics have been purer ? Was it Mr . Disraeli who retained the Protectionists , selfish and stupid ; or did he only turn to account the already-created
Marquises of Garabas—Lord George Bentinck and Lord Derby ? Was he the cause of the electoral corruption which was exhibited by the country at the last general election ? Mr . Disraeli , clearly , is the consequence , not the creator of a system ; only in a very bad system indeed could Mr . Disraeli , with such tactics as he has adopted , have been a success . A state is generally worthy of its statesmen , a people of its heroes . Our Brutus attributes the condition , and assigns the future , of Rome to Csesar , as Madame de Stael believed French political scoundrelism and servitude the effects of the
inhuman genius of Bonaparte . A sounder view , however , is , that Mr . Disraeli and Mr . George Hudson are the creatures of political and social corruption—perhaps also the victims of it . States —says this author , who refers , with schoolboy acuteness , to Greece and Rome—States sink when public men forget the laws of public morality and private virtue . So they do : but not for that reason ; it is because the public applaud these improper heroes . Mr . Disraeli ' s career is a career of shifts , and shams , and combinations ; but he has , in some sense , redeemed his own errors by the keenest anatomy of the want of intellect and the want of principle of all the contemporary statesmen whose careers have been like his own .
This shocked moralist complains that Mr . Disraeli , as a writer , has made Rigby ridiculousj and as a politician , is always sneering and laughing at " our most distinguished" public men . Why should he not ? Rigby was Gil Bias ; and the punishment of human contempt was to be inflicted , not by 640 pages of inflated rebuke , such as this , but by a Le Sage ' s sketch , such as Coiringsby ' s . And why should Mr . Disraeli be immolated , as the Peelites are perpetually demanding , on the altar of Sir Robert Peel ? This enlightened nation is partial to that statesman's
name : he wronged parties , but he righted a people . But , if it be true , as our sages tells us , that the constitution is only to be carried on by " party Government , " are parties to forgive traitors ? Sir Robert Peel , several successive times , betrayed the confidence of honest gentlemen : and he merited every castigation which he received : and , at least , not for him is to be claimed delicacy in the rebukes of opponents , for on two occasions , to the two most distinguished of modern House of Commons' personages , he , himself , had resort to dastard and vulgar satire , —he
hinted m 1828 that Canning kept office because Canning was poor , and his only reply in 1846 to the magnificent—and as long as party orations are read , immortal—attacks of Mr . Disraeli , was the suggestion that in 1841 Mr . Disraeli would have been very glad to take office from him . Who are Mr . Disraeli ' s victims now P Sir Jnmes Graham , who is not only as unprincipled , but dull ; Lord Palmerston , who would be more dangerous but for Mr . Disraeli ; Lord Aberdeen , who needs criticism ; and Lord John Russell , who was only saved , from 1846 to 1851 , from worse disasters by Mr . Disrael ' s opposition . Are any of these men so loftily pure , or so palpably wise , that we could do without the relentless and daring penetration ot
Mr . Disraeli ? We do not believe that , in regard to any of these competitors , lie is influenced by private hate . At least , he need not envy them ; ho faces Mr . Gladstone , as the second hero , in the shrewdest assembly in tho world ; and , even if personal hate were at work , we should not think less of a man who is a good hater . Undoubtedly , it improves the piquancy of debates;—and if the State la being rumed , let iih at leant be amused . The moral , then , of this elaborately announced , and intimidatingly pretentious , work , glances ii'om Mr . Disraeli to the class among whom ho is only one actor . And since the public , us in regard to Sir Robert Peel , is pleased with men in proportion to the benefits they confer , a consideration of Mr . Disraeli's career is well calculated to increase
his popularity . In the first place , he has amused and iti likely to amuse the nation . In the next place , whatever he has done among factions and confederations , for or against them , he has served
the people in confounding and confusing " Government by party . " His books have had a vast influence in possessing the people with a proper conception of the delusive history of the . Whig party . And his speeches from ' . 1847 to 1851 ^ - ending with his Budget—have succeeded in destroying the Protectionist , or Tory , party . And his personal position and potency , when next session opens , will be a complete demonstration that Parliament must be very much in need of Reform . * Vindex .
1262 [The Leader. [Saturday,
1262 [ THE LEADER . [ Saturday ,
The Governing Classes. ¦ 'No.-Xvi. The D...
THE GOVERNING CLASSES . ¦ ' No .-XVI . THE DUKE OF BEDFORD , K . G . I once met that celebrated political critic , the "intelligent foreigner . " He was desirous of studying our free institutions ; and I , proud of the privileges of a Great Briton , obtained him " orders " for the galleries of both . Houses . It was a double debate night : both Houses were sitting ; and the Lords sat late , —there was no opera that evening ; and our noble aristocracy were consequently being so good as to arrange the destinies of one of our finest colonies . We ' got first into the Commons , the People ' s House of which we are all so gratified to speak , an d I pointed out , in succession , to the intelligent foreigner , all the young Lords and Honourables with whose names I had the pleasure of being acquainted . To information of this kind , the intelligent foreigner , puzzled , as he always is , merely replied " Ah . '> I then directed his attention to other Members , such as Mr . Bright , Mr . Osborne , and various plain Misters—I am afraid I even said " Cobden , " " Rieardo , " " Smith , " and so on ; and , apparently , not struck by the sight of these
farfamed deputies , the sagacious but perplexed foreigner still confined his comment to an' ejaculation hardly worthy of his well-known intellect . When I found that E had shown all the notabilities , —those whom / knew , —I proposed that we should have a look at the Upper House . Fortunately for my talented but not loquacious friend , this chamber was full , —Lord Derby was speaking , Lord Lyndhurst had been , the Duke was expected to speak , and Lord Brougham had spoken several times . Here , also , I named all the names , and with a facility which convinced the
strangers around me , who grew respectful , and made inquiries beginning with " Sir , " that I must at least be a valet to a peer . But I made no impression on the intelligent foreigner . His eyes expanded ; he was wondering with his usual vigour . The division came , the House decided that the colony could not possibly judge of its own affairs , particularly not whether the Governor was an assassin , though he had hung ten . per cent , of them—and we were turned out . The intelligent foreigner was tired ; and we
walked home , being bullied out of the building by policemen , who incessantly discovered that we were in the Peers' way . Timid at tho prolonged taciturnity of my companion , and afraid , lest he should have been led to unfavourable notions of our free institutions , by the slight respect which tho police had exhibited to me , a freeman , I did not venturo to put a decided question to him for somo time . He , at last , having made up his mind , answered thus : — ( I do nofc attempt his picturesque English )— " The difference between the House of Commons and the
House of Lords is , that in tho House of Commons only half tho deputies have small heads , and that in tho IIouso of Lords all the deputies have small heads . "
Struck by this remark , which applied to our illustrious aristocracy , who so patriotically practice silence and stares in tho Commons in order to fit themselves for tho duties of their rank in tho Lords , I subsequently studied , with peculiar interest , this feature in our institutions , —the small heads of our Governing Classes : and as I found that the intelligent foreigner was right , as ho invariably is when
out of his own country , I was enabled , posscBscd of this fact , to account for many things which had previously puzzled , and , indeed , —as I fully appreciate tho Bentiment of that gushing poet , tho Itight Honourable Lord John Manners , with reference to our old nobilitic , —distressed inc . This vras n fact which answered tho question—Why bo few of our noble families , though they are all the ornaments of
society and the glory of our country ( whatever the town may say ) , obtain distinction in the world , why evenin their own political world they have to hire statesmen as they hire cooks ? Can , it , indeed , be true that our aristocracy is worn ouV—just like all preceding and contemporary aristocracies ? It is a humiliating conclusion ; but every physiologist is a democrat , and it is to be feared that this conclusion is not to be resisted . Small heads are a beauty , as
also are small extremities ; small heads , like small ears , parts of the head , are the evidences of breed , or of what is called " blood : " and it is obvious that the physical refinement which is the characteristic of an idle class is a proof of mental degeneracy . The man who founds a house must be a first-rate man , and his characteristics continue long through his race ; but as soon as the house gets settled it gets dull : — -strength only coming after struggle , — brains with labour . Clever men have seldom clever
sons , for the sons have place and fortune ready made , with no need for effort : and how can we expect a clever man to have a clever great-great-grandson , unless the earlier descendants spend all the money , which the British aristocracy provide against by entail ? And when three or four generations go on , reposed in facile grandeur , the big-headed founder is represented by a little-headed peer ; if he is a tenth or twelfth peer , probably slightly cracked , somewhat cretin , and tolerably imbecile . Some aristocracies hold out a long time . The Roman and
the French kept themselves fighting , and in tolerably good mental order , until the Marius and the Richelieu period , when it became a fashion to be , not heroes , but dandies . The ¦ Venetians were magnificent at tvro periods : when they were fighting for their State ' s pre-eminence in Italy , and when they had to fight for their own existence , —a struggle for life being as good as any other struggle to cultivate the mind . For a similar reason cleverer nobles went back to Paris with the Bourbons than fought against the Republic with the DuTce of Brunswick . For a similar reason the Orleans Princes were always cleverer than
the Bourbon Princes ; as , for a similar reason , the youngest son of a peer , dull dog as he is , is generally not so dull a dog as the eldest son ; while peers ' daughters are always cleverer as women ( particularly poor peers' daughters ) than peers' sons are aa men . It is well known that the Whig peera of England are ordinarily cleverer than the Tory peers ; and the palpable reason is , that the Whigs were so long in opposition—an opposition being invariably more brilliant than a Ministry ; and a Radical , like Sir William Molesworth or Bernal O « borne , caught and converted into Conservatives , ceasing to be talented ;
the moment they get on the right of Mr . Speaker . The English aristocracy are comparatively fortunate in some preservatives . They hunt , shoot , ride , and walk a good deal ; and , in that wayr they somewhat counteract the vicious results of their birth and youth , —born of women who areluxuriated into the delicacy of Eastern sultanas —and bred at Universities where the countenances of tho preceptors and the hints of t he immortal classics drive the honestest youth to bitter beer , tobacco , Curacoa punch , and a season in Paris or Vienna—London society finishing tho education a #
a liqueur concludes a dinner . Then there is some slight mental education to stimulate into partial exploration faculties flaccid with excessive fortune . Ho must be a hopelessly idiotic young man who does not get somo social knowledge from French novels , and some political sagacity from a Session of Lord John and Disraeli , Bright and Bornal Osborne ; and largo nambors of the Governing Classes learn French from ballet girls , and get e lected by closo boroughs . Our male aristocracy do raovo about m tno open air , and do hoar or seo a groat deal of politics j tor
—all their " governors" being political consp ira s , on one side or other ; and the result is , at least , that our malo aristocracy aro well made , though they are weak , and can say a little—all of thom-thoii 8 » only one or two of thorn can talk . But if » class J » to bo clever it must think : and the art of thinking is not practised , because it can bo done without , DJ our peera and our detrimentals , —tho latter boi " ' * all events , tolerably sure of a place after forty , J ^ up to forty calculating on a heiress . Thero are classes of idiots : the positive pauper and tho posu , peer : the wild weed and tho over-cultivut « a no
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 31, 1853, page 14, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_31121853/page/14/
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