The Press. — London, England, 1855-05-19 00:00:00

MAY 19, 1855. larity. The poem, therefore, is distinguished by a flatness and monotony that may be com pared to the kind of effect that would be brought out by a piece of music—if music it could be called—in which the notation, instead of being scattered over the staff, should be oonfined to a single line. . Philosophical, religious, and philanthropic, the composition is intended to celebrate the blessings of peace. Its moral and metrical pretensions may be simultaneously exhibited in the following passages. The opening dis- courses of the marvels of creation, subjectto eon tain ellipses in the argument; and it censures man for misunderstanding what Mr. Stirling acknowledges to be a " mystery profound" : To us, 'tie true, the world's a mystery profound, We see that sun, and moon, and stars, the world surround; But how the mystic circle formed, the radiant zone, His ignorance the most enlightened man must own ! The whole world created, " God saw that it was good," Is it, ought it, by man to be misunderstood? And shall a system, perfect thus in every part, Be subjected to man's frail reason, pride of heart ? Wars came into the world at the Fall, and we learn that wars will continue till we shall suc ceed in establishing peace : War—yes, 'twas war, that fell enemy, first began, When from his high estate fell disobedient man : And wars the heart within itself, and ever will, Unless we seek with peace the vacancy to fill. The general statement is undeniable ; but the particular application is obscure. If we are to fill a vacancy with peace, we should have some clue by which we are to find out the vacancy. The present war Mr. Stirling seems to con sider a war of mere pride and vainglory, an odd opinion to dedicate to the Prime Minister:— And war, dire war, now rages o'er the prostrate world ; And sudden, friends or foeruen, to destruction hurled; And but for pride, vain of glory, or that want of case Only that healthful peace can give, would all this please? If Lord Palmerston approves of this kind of verse, as we must assume he does, he is amenable to the charge of carrying into literature the error by which his departmental arrangements are disfigured. In this instance he certainly has not put the right man in the right place, and his poet is as unfortunate an appointment as his First Lord of the Admiralty, or his last Under• Secretaryship. On the other side of the question comes Nemo, who attacks the late Administration under the title of The Seven-Mile Cabinet (7), in a satirical poem, heavily laden with copious notes. Whatever we may think of the justice of Nemo's accusations against the Govern ment by whose culpable neglect and incapacity so much blood and treasure has been profli gately sacrificed, we cannot extend to his Irregular cantos the same measure of approba tion. His theme demanded more powerful treatment, and a subtler wit. He writes like a man in a passion, which is not the true temper of satire ; and in his eagerness to expose the weak points on the other side, he betrays his own. The edge of his sarcasm is too coarse to cut deeply; and, like voluble people who think that success in scolding consists in the quantity of words, rather than their force and fitness, he overwhelms his opponents with rant instead of argument. Nor is he in other respects a master of his weapons. His style is totally unformed, and whatever telling effects he occasionally produces may be reckoned amongst the happy accidents that wait upon earnestness. He has poured into the notes a multitude of matters that might have been advantageously spared—extracts from letters and speeches, which weary and distract the attention. The disproportion between the poem and the annotations is in jurious to both. The text is buried under the commentary. You cannot see the tree for the leaves. A part of his sketch of the Aberdeen Cabinet may be selected as a favorable specimen of his general manner : Old A—bd--n is wearing very fast; We do not think he could much longer last, And he has got so terrible a cough, The judge believes he soon must let him off. He keeps three doctors, who must all declare How much they think that every man can bear. He don't intend to kill them—but to make ksamples of them for the nation's sake. This anile sinner, when his cough will cease, Keeps growling out—" tak' the wan ! " (7) The Seven.' I ile cabinet; or, the Doleful Story War. By Nemo. London; Slum. THE PRESS. A wag remarked in fun "he'd look much smarter, If decorated with the vacant Garter." The judge replied, he thought that " it would be Much fitter for his neck than for his knee." But of Church patronage, for upright care The judge says he may claim indulgence fair, And he will let him, ere he is released— Send to St. Olave's—for the parish priest. The Ch—no—1 —r, compelled to wear his wig, Looks in his bright costume a wondrous prig; The flowing wig, sans w—ls—k, ro—b—s, or s—L, A curious contrast with the duck reveals; lie swears " It is not equity that he For N—we—le's neglects should punished be," Forgetting the whole Cabinet should share The wisdom of each councillor that's there, And that the nation thus should reap the gains (What harvest !) of their whole collective brains ; And thus to each department there should fat Suggestions gathered from the minds of all. The substitution of blanks for names which the reader cannot fail to detect, unnecessarily deforms the verse. The age of that kind of open inuendo is gone by. Last in our catalogue of war poets, we find Mr. Westland Marston, who, leaving for awidle the stage of mimic oe, comes out with the Death-Ride (8) into the field of real tragedy. The subject of his short poem is the fatal charge at Balaklava, which he describes in a few striking and picturesque verses, not always very clear in their purport, and somewhat affected in their phraseology, but spirited and energetic. The scene is supposed to be de scribed by one of the cavalry engaged in it, who, first briefly noting the preliminary situation, thus proceeds after the order to advance has been received . We ride our last march—let each crest be borne high ! We raise our last cheer—let it startle the sky And the land with our brave farewell ; For soon never more to our voice shall reply Rock, hollow, fringed river, or dell.• Let our trump ring the loudest ; in closest array, Hoof for hoof, let us ride ; for the chief who today Reviews us—is Death the Victorious; Let him look up to Fame, as we perish, and say, " Enrol them, the fallen are the glorious !" We spur to the gorge; from the channel of ire Livid light bursts like surf, its spray leaps iu fire; As the spars of some vessel staunch, Bold hearts crack and fall ; we nor swerve nor retire, Bat in the wind•tempest we launch. We clear the smoke•billows, as wild waves the prow ; The flash of our sabres gleams straight like the glow Which a ploughing keel will break From the grim seas around, with light on her bow, And light in her surging wake. One of the first conditions in a piece of this nature is that it shall tell its story clearly ; but it would be difficult to extricate an intelligible incident from these verses. They might apply to any wild nr€l6e in which a troop of horse be came involved in a sanguinary conflict. This defect seems to arise from the peculiar quality of Mr. Marston's mind, which leads him rather to " darken council " than to simplify details. The versification is indifferent, and has something in it of the broken utterance of the drama—which may be referred also, pro bably, to the poetical habits of the writer. ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM. Selections from the Papers of Lord Metcalfe. Edited by John William Kaye. London : Smith, Elder, and Co. THE appearance of this volume, containing select extracts from the official papers of the late Lord Metcalfe, is a seasonable publication. For some time to come " Administrative Reform " (the term belongs to Mr. Disraeli) must continue to occupy public attention. Under our system of government there may be observed two distinct classes of public administrators, viz., the purely political and the official. Leaders of parties, in or out, of office, are administrators of a particular kind. They are compelled to watch opportunities, study circumspectly the public interests, and to organise their followers. In that class of '•' administrators " our Government since the Revolution has been peculiarly opulent. If the social interests of the whole community had been as carefully provided for as the in terests of great party connections, there would not be that aching sense of deficiency in official aptitude which now prevails in the pub lie mind. Parliamentary abilities have been developed in England to an extraordinary degree ; but when people talk of "Adanaistra- (8) The Death-Ride. A Tale of the Light Westland Marston. London: Mitchell. 477 tire Reform" it is clear that they do not refer to the leaders of senates, but to the men who can deal with solid realities and establish true routine devised with skill and based upon science. The consideration, then, arises how are such minds to be developed, and where shall we seek for them ? Profound knowledge and untiring energy aro the indispensable marks of first-class ad ministrative abilities. Unless the head of a department thoroughly understands the habi tual working of' all the functionaries employed under him, the command over the subordi nates will be lost, and the chiefship of the office become only titular. Thus in commer cial enterprises nothing requires more tho rough knowledge of subordinate parts than to manage satisfactorily the complicated affairs of a great factory. Ist, the things made; 2nd, the raw material from which they are produced, and the mode of procuring them; 3rd, the various methods of manufacturing them; 4th, the training of the artisans, engineers, &c., employed; sth, the work shop department, in which the tools and engines are sometimes made, and generally repaired ; Bth, the counting-house, with its cofinplicated " debits " and " credits "—all these departments must be quite familiar to the mind's eye of the master of the concern. There are instances in which gifted indivi duals, with extraordinary powers of calcula tion, are enabled in a brief time to direct such complicated affairs. But in general nothing but training of a systematic kind, and long continued, can enable men to manage a vast manufactory. "He was a bad man of busi ness," is often alleged as the reason why, in a few years, a capitalist, expecting a flourishing concern, has finished in the Gazette. Igno rance of his affairs, or want of energy in applying his knowledge, has destroyed many a millionaire. If such be the case in private speculations, the rule requiring knowledge and energy is, a fortiori, more imperative in the chiefship of a public department. The lachee of subordi nates in the public service do not become ad visible to the heads of a political office as the faults of the analogous class in private under takings. The extent of view, also, over which a public chief must range will often prevent him from noticing the serious errors of petty officials ; and a knowledge not only of what should be done, but of how it should be ac complished, is therefore of the last importance in our leading functionaries. It is in this respect that grievous mistakes have been often made by many of our British adminis trators. In several instances they have had great energy and the power of acquiring know ledge, but they have allowed themselves to he put into the wrong offices. They have been placed in authority when they did not under stand the every-day working of the various functionaries under them. The principles on which any department is worked, and the details incident to its action, should be as familiar to a chief of a department as medical details to a physician, or legal forms to a bar rister. Nor is it asking too much to expect this exactness of knowledge from administra tors. In the daily life of members of Parlia ment we see numerous examples of gentlemen who, after ten years' experience, really be come " administrators " of no ordinary energy and ability. To represent with practical effect an important shire, or a populous city, really requires no common degree of energy and knowledge. Few men go through more multifarious toil than a hardworking M.P.; and in one sense the lower branch of the Legislature is a House of Administrators. In a hundred different ways a leading member of Parliament has to encounter " men and mea sures." He has to sit on committees, take the charge of public or private bills, attend to the affairs of his constituents, and keep his own personal followers together. In doing all that there is much more labour and discretion required than are commonly•supposed. Thus of the raw material out of which ad ministrative talent is extracted there is a large supply in Parliament. But from certain reasons its aptitude is not specialised. In ob taining the maximum of efficiency for any department it is necessary to regard " appro priate aptitude," and on this point the remarks -a