The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-22 00:00:00

WHO IS LORD PANMURE ?

NOT long since we were heartily amused by
the variety of answers given in a general
circle to the question, " Who is Lord PAN-
MURE ?" One glibly answered, "Oh ! he's
" something to Lord DALHOUSIE." "I think
" his family name is Maule," replied some one
else. "Not so," interposed a third, "you'll
" find he is a Ramsay."
Now, after we have had our laugh at these
good plain folk, who are not conversant with
political coteries, it is really a most remark-
able thing how little is known about the War
Minister of England. How his Lordship ever
came to have such a hold on the Whig families
is a most singular fact. The Ramsays are a
Tory stock, and he is paternally one of their
race, while, by the mother's side, his Lordship
is a Manic. The Secretary to the Admiralty
might be facetious on the meaning of such a
name. In the active voice it might certainly
answer very well for a Minister of War, but in
the passive one (as used in the Kars war
school) it is painfully suggestive. By his
patent of creation his Lordship is " Baron
" Panmure of Brechin and Navar." An enemy
of ERSKINE, the orator used often to torture
" Chancellor Ego " by reiterated harpings on
his Lordship's second title as " Baron Erskine
" and C/ackmannan." Splendid as are the asso-
ciations called up in French history by
" Navarre," and that first of kingly gentlemen,
HENRY IV., very dissimilar ones must be
evoked by the Scotch " Navar " of our War-
office. Mr. MACAULAY will never chant the
glories of Lord PANMURE in an historic ballad.
Our " epic historian " has sung the " Battle of
Troy," and the white plume of its glorious
hero. The White Feather of a War Minister
who left Kars to its fate would only be a sub-
ject for satirical song.
Apart from these points, it is really most
strange, we repeat it emphatically, that so
little should be known about our War Minis-
ter. Travel where you please, go into any
hotel, coffee-house, or commercial-room in
England, ask " Who is Lord PANMURE ?" and
you will be at once amused at the ignorance
shown of the personal antecedents of our War
Minister. There never was a public charac-
ter, holding a great office, about whom so
little was popularly known. Yet Lord PAN-

THE PRESS.

MITRE is not a young man. He is seven
years older than Mr. PITT when the latter
died, and he is nearly of the same age as
was at his decease that celebrated Whig
by whose name he was baptised. Burn in
1801, our War Minister was called " Fox"
after the great Whig orator, and his speeches
show that his talent for silence is his finest
gift. There is something exquisitely ludi-
crous in " Fox " being prefixed to the name
of such a speaker as Lord PANMURE. But
one holding such a post might exclaim,
" Words are but wind, actions speak the
" mind ;" and General WILLIAms would like
that the saying was acted up to in Downing-
street, and that it was translated into deeds
which the Turks might construe without the
help of Doctor JO/114:80N.
But it cannot be denied that, as Lord PAN-
MURE has vast nominal pretensions to be an
orator, so his Lordship has great matrimonial
claims to be installed in the War-office. Mr.
LABOUCHERE and Mr. SMITH are accepted as
Whigs, because one married a Lady MARY of
the Howarcls, and the other espoused a Lady
MARY of the Greys. In a similar way Lord
PANMURE, though not a man of military mind,
married one of the Abercrombies ; and, as his
lady belongs to a military family. the Whigs, in
his case, acknowledge, according to their cus-
tom, the jut; matrimonii, and place hint in the
War-office, where he equals Lord CHATHAM in
the gout, and burlesques him in everything
else.

Yet, even when his family antecedents aro
stated, we have got no satisfactory answer to
" Who is Lord PANMURE?" The question has
a political as well as a personal signification.
His Lordship never did aught in either House
of Parliament to merit so great a distinction
as he now possesses. Let us be told, if any
one can mention them, of any actions of his
previous career which displayed bright con-
ceptions, happy sagacity, or an enlarged in-
tellect. He had the shrewdness common to
every Highland laird. He had considerabls
activity as a small but resolute factionist in
the train of the Melbourne Whigs.
We recollect, also, that the only occasions
in which Fox MAULE'S name used to come
prominently before the House of Commons
were in connection with the Scotch distilling
interests, and we do him but simple justice in
admitting that his Lordship was a most per-
severing and practical friend to the Scotch
distillers. We do not see any connection
between his Lordship's championship of those
particular interests and his fitness for the
War-office, unless it be out of respect to the
sentiments of Burns :
Inspiring bold John Barleycorn !
What dangers thou canst make us scorn I

True. The old political friend of the Barley-
corn interest did " scorn " the " dangers " of
the gallant WILLIAMS and Lis army at Kars.
Such a War Minister may help Scotch agricul-
turists to sow larger fields of barley, but he
will never reap a harvest of laurels in the
field.