The Press.
London, England, 1855-12-15 00:00:00

SIR ROBERT PEEL.

WE chanced sonic years since to be sitting
near an American gentlemanjunder the gallery
of the House of Commons. An Irish Member
inheriting an historic name was making himself
particularly absurd. " Can it be possible,"
asked the American, " that the Member on
" the floor is son of the celebrated
naming a deceased orator. He was express-
ing his astonishment at being answered in
the affirmative, when a person sitting before
him suddenly turned round, and said, iu a
tone and voice we never shall forget—" Ah !
" Sir, we sons of great men are poor creatures."
And the person who made this strange remark
was the commonplace son of a distinguished
literary character.

We never hear or read a speech of the pre-
sent Sir ROBERT PEEL without thinking of
that incident. That the eminent statesman
now no more should be succeeded by so sin-
gular a son is one of the exceptional facts
which puzzle ethnologists with their arbitrary
ideas of " race." But the Peel family is not
the . only one in Parliamentary history pre-
senting such singular contrasts. CHATHAM
was our greatest War Minister, and CHATHAM'S
eldest son was that unhappy General with
whom the disasters of Walcheren are igno-
miniously associated. In an arithmetical ratio
the first Lord CHATHAM was to the second one
as the late Sir ROBERT PEEL was to the present
Baronet.
We have no wish to deal harshly with the
escapades of a young man, and the indiscre-
tions of early years ought always to receive
large allowance. But Sir ROBERT PEEL
has doubled Cape Thirty, and we cannot
forget the fact that he holds a post at the Ad
miralty. He has recently been exercising his
tongue in ways entirely inconsistent w;th the
rules of the public service. We do not now
allude to the strange speeches about the
" Army and Navy," on which we previously
remarked, but a still more extraordinary
harangue is reported of him in this week.
It seems, according to the Times of last
Monday, that this Lord of the Admiralty, who
is Captain of the Anglesea Troop of the
Staffordshire Yeomanry Cavalry, entertained at
some hotel "the non-commissioned officers and
" privates of his troop," and that he " proposed
" the toast of The Army and Navy,' in a style
" which betokened universally strong feeling
" upon the subject." The mere " style " of
Sir ROBERT PEEL'S speeches would not deserve
comment. Their desperate attempts to attain
the soapbubble lustre of the rhetoric of the
Secretary at the Admiralty remind us of
Lurram.is coarsely clever definition of French
cookery at an English hotel.
Not one, but two speeches, were delivered
by him to the Staffordshire Yeomanry. The
first appears to have been intended as an
amendment of the former harangue. 'Here is
a sample of its " style " :—" Sooner than in-
" sinuate a slur against the navy," quoth the
Lord of the Admiralty, " he would rather lose
" the utterance of his lips, the power of speech
" which God had given him," &c. If ho lost
some of the too fluent "utterance," and
acquired more reticence, the readers of news-

SATURDAY,

papers would not so often smile at his gre--
tesque illustrations of " Every man his own
Punch." Neither Doyle nor Leech could
equal 4, Igenutte tihticature Sir ROBERT'S
queer gaikbols. ,
As ,§ir holm& : EL if,
.iot only a public
but 'ii an o .taiial Ilto.aracter, we feel
our ye fully j •I:.ific, n directing spe-
cial tt on to ?1 i e
~t• 1; ranee of his lips."
i
Th in s setbon4 ;,,. •, he delivered him-
self ws :---="r . 1., limes is no longer
"an tegral part of ussia, and it never must
li
" be, and lie would add it never should be. Let
" them think of the carcases of their countrymen,"
&c. Are we to accept this " style" of speak-
ing as a specimen of " the power of speech
" which God had given him" ? _

It is really true that a stop should be put
to such " utterances " from an official sup-
ordinate. Mr. OSBORNE complains that he is
not allowed to speak, yet others may " brag "
as much as they please. There ought to he
more equality in the taciturnity of underlings.
Either let them loose altogether, or insist that
they study Orator Mum in Mr. OSBORNE'S
edition. " Sell or sail," wrote the Duke of
WELLINGTON to a colonel wanting to avoid
foreign service. " Hold your tongue, or don't
" hold your office," should be Lord PAL.
MERSTON'S orders to his pet Lord of the Admi-
ralty. The rules of the public service are not to
be set at defiance for the caprice or eccentricity
of any individual. British foreign policy is to
be taken from the Ministers of the Crown, and
not from the juniors of the departments.