The Press. — London, England, 1854-03-11 00:00:00

47:etSk ~:.~ OEM II ~ ~ ~ ~ 'l~ s `.I c: :1 1 5MOMMMIL="=aat • Zbit rt 6,5 :; . • • :.' 4c.-11 t ez (LT,CLiiLL.:;.IOIA.,.. L.Vt • I + t 1 t rtss. LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1854. WHATEVER may be the errors of Lord JOHN RUSSELL, and to say and do many things which are unjustifiable is, perhaps, inevitable in an active parliamentary life of forty years' duration, there has been on the whole, throughout his career, a certain dignity of behaviour which is peculiar to those whose feelings, not absorbed in the present hour, yield to the " last infirmity of noble mind," and dare to dream of posterity. Though often factious, his conduct has never been base; though sometimes malignant, it has never been mean. He has contrived, on the whole, to combine an unscrupulous devotion to his party with a certain historic career, which it has been his personal object to pursue and fulfil. In the exigency of the moment he has not hesitated at an appropriation clause, or an Edinburgh letter; but these, when they had served their purpose, were thrown aside, and, as he flattered himself, forgotten. They were the manoeuvres of Brookes's, and the schemes of Woburn Abbey. The personal policy of Lord JOHN RUSSELL was of a different order : it connected his name with great principles, great measures, and a great cause. It has often been pursued without the sympathy — sometimes even against the will—of his party. He has advocated views on religious liberty which many of his friends think unnecessarily extreme ; he has proposed schemes of Par liamentary Reform against which some of his followers have openly rebelled. Yet these are the subjects which will transmit his name to a future age, and will secure for him a place in the history of that country of which he is proud to be a son, and which, in turn, is favoured by being the birthplace of the house of Russell. But the subject with which above all others Lord JOHN RUSSELL has sought to identify himself is that of Parliamentary Reform. Measures which affect the disposition and distribution of political power are the measures which live in history. The reform of tariffs and the revision of taxation are soon forgotten. The franchise that is gained lasts for ever ; the memory of the duty which is repealed passes away with the generation which bore the burden. Years hence, when the duties on corn and sugar will be subjects for the antiquary, Magna Charta and Habeas Corpus, the Bill of Rights and the Reform Act of 1832, will be fresh and dear in the memory of a proud people. No one knows this better than Lord Joss RUSSELL ; and, surrounded by the intriguers of the hour, with whom he often condescends to intrigue, still, in his innermost self, he cherishes his historical position, and looks forward to the day when some aristo cratic champion of public liberty may quote his name in the House of Commons with the same reverence as he now invokes the classical authority and august shade of Lord SOMERS. A jealousy of any interference by another with the construction of the House of Com mons is a principal characteristic of its present leader. This feeling probably was the cause of his too precipitately deserting his position of " finality," which, had it been more largely considered, and more deeply treated, and described in better English, was, for the successor of Earl GREY, a sound posi tion. But the Chartist movement disturbed Lord JOHN ; the avowed intentions of the Manchester school, whose political influence was then much overrated, to revolutionise the county constituencies, alarmed him ; the parliamentary compromise suggested by the blundering adroitness of Mr. Hu ME in his annual motions perplexed him ; the impossi bility of a limited franchise coexisting in England with universal suffrage on the other side of the Channel disquieted that shrewd, shallow, meddling class of men who are fairly represented by a Duke of Bedford ; the oc casion seemed exigent, Lord JOHN could not permit the unhallowed hand of JOSEPH HUME to touch the ark, and in 1850-1, after much anxious deliberation, he became a progressive Reformer. In all this his conduct must entirely be distinguished from that of an ordinary politician ; like Sir JAMES GRAHAM for ex ample. Sir JAMES GRAHAM takes up Parlia mentary Reform to spite Lord DERBY and punish the country gentlemen ; he chuckles with glee over some Conservative peer, who was his former supporter, losing a seat, and rubs his hands at the drastic effects of the ten-pound franchise in counties on tradi tionary influences. He views Parliamentary Reform merely as a partisan, as, indeed, he views everything, even the command of our fleets. Strange that a man who is always changing sides should be such an acrinlonious adherent! Lord JOHN RUSSELL has staked the fortunes of the Whig party, and his own fame, on a remodelling of the House of Commons. He has done this after deep thought and long calculation. He will not be deterred from his object by the captiousness of followers, whose want of prescience he despises. To secure his end, he condescended to become the subordinate of Lord ABERDEEN, and in that capacity he is content to remain, if Lord ABERDEEN and his convenient following will effect the purposes of the Leader of the House of Commons, knowing very well that in that event the name of RUSSELL, the Parliamentary Reformer, will figure in the page of history, while that of Lord ABERDEEN, as Prime Minister, will be as obscure, or as dis esteemed, as those of Lord WILMINGTON or Lord BUTE. If they cannot effect his purpose, he will not remain in his subordinate posi tion, but will assume that one which is more likely to conduce to the attainment of his sovereign purpose. If the Coalition, unable to accomplish this purpose, were to break up, Lord JOHN RUSSELL would be at the head of an united and powerful Opposition. He would not be, as in 1851, the chief of a small band of shattered Whigs, surrounded by insolent or ambitious confederacies. The day of sec tions would be over. He would sit in his place the foremost Reformer of the land. The followers of Sir ROBERT PEEL, instead of clustering below the gangway, and supporting by a subvention a conceited newspaper, for the sole purpose of proving that Lord JOHT4 RUSSELL was not fit to govern, would wear his badge ; the philosophical Radicals, the dis ciples of BENTHAM and of GROTE, instead of mouthing pedantic platitudes, would subside into devoted and well-trained cheerers ; the Manchester menagerie, with their teeth drawn and their claws cut, would quail before a Reformer more advanced than their seditious societies ; while the former impudence of BERNAL OSBORNE, instead of flashing second hand sarcasms from a distant bench, with the glance and attitude of a Sadler's Wells 'ago, would be exchanged for the servile solicitude that fetches, at the right moment, a welcome orange for an exhausted chief. We recommend the Conservative party not to slumber at their posts. The Reform Bill is not shelved—we doubt whether it will be again postponed. Lord JOHN RUSSELL will not sacrifice to petty interests, and to the cavils of little minds, his historical career. That is his master passion ; but we must do him the justice to acknowledge that he believes the real interests of the 'Whig party are identified with the fulfilment of his ambition. The con duct of men who aspire to posthumous fame is not to be calculated by the motives which in fluence ordinary individuals. What seems a blunder to a venerable political intriguer is triumph to the prescient vision of a man of genius ; what figures as success to an ordinary politician is a barren commonplace to a states man. After some disappointments and many mortifications Lord JOHN RUSSELL finds him self in a commanding position. Either he will early Parliamentary Reform as a Minister, or he will dictate his policy as the head of a powerful Opposition. But he will not remain in a position which p;-atifies neither his ambi tion nor his love of fame. He will sacrifice every minor consideration for his historical career. Persons of his temperament are in flexible : it is the sagacity of pensive habits which makes men firm, or, as the superficial suppose, contumacious. His strong will, in spired by the thoughts of hereafter, will master his mutinous party, and it will require all the energies and all the vigilance of the Conserva tives to maintain the present character of our Constitution, and to guard themselves from a terrible discomfiture. THE DEPARTURE OF THE BALTIC FLEET—DINNER TO SIR CHARLES NAPIER. Wz believe we are correct in stating that the fleet intended for the Baltic will quit our shares this day. If we cannot without emo tion contemplate the departure of so many noble ships and gallant men, the feeling is accompanied neither with depression of spirit nor foreboding of evil. Humanly speaking, Sir CHARLES NAPIER goes to assured victory. The circumstances and conditions under which we enter into this contest are totally and auspiciously different to those under which NELSON sailed for Trafalgar. By a strange destiny the heir and nephew of our most powerful enemy at that time is now our close and trusted ally. His empire, though not invested with the dazzling glare of con quest, is as potent as the first, and far more firm, because it is avowedly based on the foundations of justice and respect for the No. 45.—VoL. 11. LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 11, 1854. PRICE SIXPENCE.