The Press. — London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 17,1858. TO A BITTER BARONET. sin,—l laughed heartily at the amusing anger you displayed last Monday night. As you were always pert in power, so you intend to be o ffensive in opposition. You assailed the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE QUER because he had shown the courtesy due to Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S station in the House of Commons. Your temper, probably, was sorely tried by the Noble Member for London showing that he was opposed to a factious hostility to Lord DERBY. That course would not suit you or the " desperate ex-subordinates" of the late Administration. You wish to be their mouthpiece, but the mediocrity of your powers will not enable you to shine in debate or to succeed in invective. I was once present at a comedy written by a " literary Whig." The piece was damned, but it contained one capital part, Sir Cavil Wordy, which was well played. The Palmerston comedy was also condemned, though, like the present Opposition, it could show an inimitable per sonification of Sir Cavil Wordy. It is most ridiculous for you to think of setting up as a Leader in Opposition. It is true that Lord PALMERSTON is old, and that his popularity is at an end ; it is true that Lord JOHN RUSSELL is an " Emperor without an army;" but it does not therefore follow that the Opposition would choose a Sir Cavil for a chief. You have been about thirty years in Parliament ; you were Private Secretary in stormy times to your noble father-in-law during his Premiership ; you have lived in office for years, and you once left it because you could not get "more" When your noble brother-in-law acted the part of Robinson Orme, and retired from the Whigs to a political island of his own dis covering, you were his man Friday. You had then vacated a post which was filled the other day by the honourable and unpolite Member for Dover. No one digs deeper into Hansard than Mr. OSBORNE, and you can ask him for the particular volume in which Sir ROBERT PEEL sneered at your affected independence :—" You left the Government " upon principle. It was no paltry squabhle about office—no pique " that you or your relations were not promoted that induced your re " tirement"! Sir, you rose by " your relations," and it is fated that you will sink by them. You married into a Whig clan. You saw your brother-in law Secretary of State for the Colonies, your wife's first cousin Secre tary of State for the Home Department, at the time when you by family influence became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Another of your wife's brothers was private secretary to an illustrious Prince, and your wife's sister was a Bedchamber Woman to her Majesty. The Buck hounds were given to another cousin, and the Governor-Generalship of Canada was bestowed on the Scotch Peer who married into the clan. Even the Private Secretaryship of the then Prime Minister was held by another of the family ! I should be fatigued by giving you a cata logue of their posts, but you can refer to Mr. James WILSON for a list of all the salaries monopolized by them. It is evident that you now wish to set up for yourself. The ablest and most respected member of your Whig relations has given public proof that he is wearied of small faction. His relations are angry with him because he shows that they have exhausted his patience and encumbered his reputation. Ycu, therefore, will set up as chief of the e'en in the Lower House. Since Lord PALMERSTON and Lord JOHN Res- SELL cannot be reconciled, you fancy that there is a great post open for you to take. You know all about the interesting little dinner party at which it was hoped that the fallen ex-chiefs were to have met over "three courses." You know how both invitations were accepted, each being apprised that the other was to be there, and how a hospitable muse had expected to harmonise their discordant notes. You know how a brief epistle, as effective as a Durham Letter," had shattered the notion of a cordial reconciliation; you read the public prints, and see how the followers of the rival leaders attack each other with ran corous reciprocity; you hear what Mr. OSBORNE says of one, and you can read what Mr. Lowe, or somebody else, writes about the other of them, and you think that there is an excellent opportunity for your putting yourself forward. The manner in which you tried to do so on Monday night will not conduce to your success. The late Leader of the Commons dealt in bluster, and was contumelious to all who were not his followers. The present Leader of the House offended you because he was courteous and complimentary. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER put a case that if certain resolutions were to be offered by any single member of the House of Commons, no one from his standing could be more entitled to move them than the Noble Member for London. That was the meaning of Mr. DISRAELfS complimentary remarks, and so they were Interpreted by Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself. But you thought it opportune to go on as Sir Cavil Wordy, and you charged the Govern ment. with intending to " abdicate their duties on a subject of primary importance." The "desperate ex-subordinates" cheered you vocife rously, and one of them immediately rushed off to write a leader, with out waiting f or a re ply t o y our r idiculous charge. Early recollec tions supplied him with PALEY'S illustration of the plank after ship wreck. When the late Ministry foundered ou the Walewski sands, un like Mr. O SBORNE an d M r . W ILSON , th e ac ti ve a r ticle-monger, who is a Privy Councillor at Westminster, and a journalist at Blackfriars, found no solid pension to cling to. But his freaks and fancies arc of no real importance. Believe me, Sir, that you are not suited for a chief in Opposition. When did you ever make a speech worth remembering ; or, after all your official opportunities, when did you ever introduce a successful measure ? You have changed from office to office, smart and small in each, great and eminent in none. Your claims to Parliamentary distinction origin ate in what Sir RICHARD BETHELL would call the “jIDI matrimonii ;" but the Commons and the country are sick of such pretensions, and other vuig families wish that their small smart men were introduced to 873 - . office. You aspire to be " Lord Halifax?' Hurts and Lord MACAULAY have used the finest strokes of their pens in delineating the brilliant and accomplished SAVILLE, in whose nature there wits nothing splene tic, or egotistically peevish. I doubt whether even the Whigs, if mis fortune gave them the power, would consent to satisfy your ambition by metamorphosing you into a " Lord Halifax :" bat the tenth of the Lord HALIFAX'S " Maxims of State " is pregnant with wisdom, and its truth has been exemplified in the present week—viz., "That Pride is " as loud a brawler as want, and a great deal more saucy." MAX PZPPIRLIr. A TITLE TO HONOUR. "My dear father, one of the greatest events of my life Is to hare been under Ware General Havelock."—Extraet of a letkr front Corporal Duggan, of H.3l.'s 84th Regiment. "I've borne the heat and burthen Of many a weary day, Have quell'd the coward mutineer In many a vengeful fray; But more than these, and more than all, A theme for manly pride, Tie m;ne to say, whate'er befal, ' I fought at Havelock's side.' " What the' I reap no harvest Of India's golden ore, Tho' scant the gleanings I can bring To aid a Father's store, Yet have I won a loftier meed To wealth and pow'r denied, A share in many a deathless deed— ' I fought at Havelock's side.' " Thus wrote a simple soldier, Untrain'd to polish'd phrase. Yet by a gen'rous instinct taught The truest, noblest praise. Who now will search the rolls of Fame For Valour sternly tried. Nor own the brief. emphatic claim— " He fought at Havelock's side" ? Long hence, at festal banquet— When Peace has still'd the din Of arms from Himalayan snow To sea-washil Comorin— Where Mem'ry in the wine-cup glows, And gilds the ruby tide, The warmest pledge shall be " To those Who fought at Havelock's side." And when associate Valour, That sorrows for the brave, Shall rear the stone and carve the verse Above a soldier's grave, Around the sleeper's honor'd clay . 0 A hallowing spell shall bide, If but the simple legend say, " He fought at Havelock's side." A JUDICIOUS HINT. A word with you, Sir Charles Wood ; Mid fallen Whigs, 'tis understood, You seek to be a leader : Now White's and Brookes's both agree That, henceforth, you should often be Of Chesterfield a reader— For so your manners you might mend, And your sour speeches find an end. M. P. PARLIAMENTARY NOTICES. Ma. ROBERT Lows—To move on the first open day for a Special Committee on the best method of bringing the Channel into Uowning•street, so as to facilitate the ingress of Colonial craft. Ma. J. D. FITZGERALDTO move for a return of the number of murders committed in Ireland daring Lord Carlisle's Viceroyalty, distinguishing those whose authors have been discovered, and those in which the prosecutions failed. Sim BENJAMIN HALL—A return of the number of the Baronets who have been raised to the Peerage since the commencement of the Reform era. Ma. Hagar motion. .To move the previous question on Sir Benjamin Hall's MR. W. WILLIAMS—TO move for, I. A return of the ontiay on the competition of architects for the new Public Offices, and a statement of the result of the competition 2. A return of the like kind as to the proposed Wellington monument—S. A return of the expenditure of the Board of Works on the inquiries relative to the Main Drainage of London. Ma. BERNAL Ossoatrz—To move that in the opinion of the Ho rse retiring pensions to official persons wbo may be forced to resign ought to commence, in all cues, on the com pletion of two years' service. MR. THOMAS BUNCOMBE—To ask Lord Palmerston whether—seeing that the late Cabinet did not draft any Reform Bill—he will have the kindness to inform the House what, in his opinion, would have been the leading previsions of etteb a Bill, it it bad been drafted. Whi g falnilie - s — Wlsh — tii - t 112 -j oiTs - mall ---- sm - art men were introduced to ' inea" . "" i drafted us 1115 dratted. w ""‘ "." ..-- -- ---- . - ----- - ---- --' - - ,