The Press.
London, England, 1853-12-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

prophesied should be taken ; if Sproggs should triumph—and the
" sad necessity of the guillotine be called into play—l much fear. I
say, that Liberals and Conservatives will Lind themselves in the same
boat—Chnron's. 1 shall find myself cheek-by-jowl in the tumbril
with my accomplished Whig friend Iles .ell Sidney Delamiere, and
we will die like gentlemen—in company.

But, waiving these melancholy seenlathins, knowilig that,
Mew are crowns to be broke !"

which no thickness will save, before matters go so far as all that,
where, ask you, is the mighty force of Radicalism, if the Radical
literati be, as I say, inferior to their late predecessors ? 1 think we
may say that, first of all, of course, much that seems formidable is
formidable only in sound ; but that, at all events, the preternatural
«cticity of Rathealismis more remarkable than its force.

. .
Now, how much depends on this element of activity? Consider
the 'sorbs* pedienhnis of which Sylla died : it is a funding pe4hePdaris of
its kind which is attacking old Europe ! The insects are all alive, and
work with never-ceasing zeal. A man who preaches in a cathedral
must induce people to come to the cathedral ; if he preaches from a
tub, he can roll it front place to place. and find an audience every-
where. Good Mr. Freville of Freville Likes life easily : but Professor
Cockroach is always on the wing, demolishing St. Paul at Manchester,
polishing off the Middle Ages at Preston, showing up aristocracy in
Cow-lane, all in the same week ! Squitt the novelist has a press
which never stands still, pouring out incessant exposures of a
ruffian." While Tennyson is in seclusion, and Browning quiet at
Florence, Squally the Radical poet is singing incessantly : you 1111111 t
hear him whether you like it or no ! While you fondly believe that in
order to understand politics you must study history and the
philosophers, a dozen fellows like Sproggs know far better, and are
chattering with insane activity the prejudices of the hour. While one
humorist esteems it absolutely necessary to his talent to study
Horace and Erasmus, the Radical Jester, his neighbour, does not so
waste his time, but is crackling with incendiary sarcasm all about the
public streets. Let us always remember the advantage the attacking
party, too, has. When a house is burning the tire feeds itself and
leaps up by its own force : the water to put it out must be forced up by
machinery. How profoundly conservative must the natural English
mind be to be so faithful to institutions in the midst of such au uproar
of assault !

John Aniseed Potts, Esq., author of the " Vast Abyss " (a poem),
" Lives of Great Men " a series, of which the thirtieth is in prepara-
tion), is an illustration of these remarks. He will drop the "John "
in a year or two, and call himself simply Aniseed Potts." He is the
most " pushing" man in Europe, as insatiable and imperturbable a
seeker of success as Dando of oysters. Ho will want a crest some
day ; he will take a erest—as he would take the best potato or the
liver-wing ; or, as he would march into your drawing-room and propose
to your daughter.
Does he require the aid of the eminent Mr. Sampson, with whom
he has a slight acquaintance ? he sets the knocker going. " Mr.
Sampson is at dinner—a party, sir !" " Ile will see Mr. Potts ; Mr.
Aniseed Potts !" He is asked in ; he is asked to take a glass of wine ;
he instantly begins to talk; and unpack all his intellectuality and his
knowledge as readily as a pedlar. It is the inalienable and most
blessed conviction of Potts that pm cannot kick him out, you knmr.
And you don't kick him out. He carries his point everywhere.
Potts was born a Radical, inasmuch as he found out at his first
plush of knowledge that the British Constitution had not made a
proper provision for—Potts. To harmonise this unnatural state of
things was his immediate object, and antagonism his natural attitude
towards English institutions. As writing in our days is evidently a
matter of inspiration chiefly, Potts wrote very early. In the army or
the navy no such bore could have been tolerated by his associates, had
their professions been within his reach. But in " literature" Potts
was at home, for no man can define what " literature " is, in the sense
in which it is used to signify a profession. Clearly (as we see every
day), everybody who writes is a literary man, if he chooses to tall him-
self so. Potts writes, ergo, &c. In a little while he was the "distin-
guished Mr. Potts." fur who is to settle the degree of fame which en-
titles a man to that appellation?
It is the advantage of the Radical man of letters that he can
embody his radicalism in so many forms like garlic, it suits a dozen
dishes, according to taste. To biography, poems, reviews, &c. &c., the
charming flavour can be imparted. Potts cannot add an argument or
an idea to any of those disseminated by his brother Radicals of whom
I have discoursed. But he can propagate them through the medium of
polite letters, insinuate them in vanotis ways, and use his " genius " to
convey them, even as an ass caned Silenns, in certain processions of anti-
quity. A "pushing man, sir; a pushing man, said Mr. Sampson of
Potts, and, with all England beti ire him, he may push away successfully
for years to come. Biography alone is field enough for one man, if he
goes actively to work,—if, having finished a saint, he takes up a soldier,
and keeps his eye on a martyr while working away at the statesman he
has in hand. Time improves everything ; a gosling learns to fly by
watching the geese do it; and a pushing man by degrees learns how
the polite world pronounces names like Thucydides and Herodotus.
and thus refines and improves on his education. Potts, I have heard,
astonished a man or two by freaks of pronunciation, which Wert: at
first supposed to be contributions of his own to a " large measure " of
University Reform, but, from his having adopted the ordinary customs
of the world in the matter since, it is supposed that the peculiarity
was the result of early circumstances.
- - - -

It is satisfactory to know that the institutions 44 Entflanil. if they
do not meet the approval. yet enjoy the careful attention of the n►nny
Aniseed Pottses who adorn our current literature.

781

APPLICATIONS FOR LORD PALMERSTON'S
PLACE.

Tut: moment that the intelligi•nee of I PAI.SII:IIAToN.% resignation
got wind on Thura,tlay last it was remarked at the arious Chiba that
there was a sudden rush to the writing-tables. This as not under-
stood by non-politie4l members. but the results were painfully appa
rent to Lord amtorEN that evening. Many letters arrived litter. by
railway parcels. from various parts of the kingdom. Mid LI Ira Arimi-
EN's servant?, weir being perpetually rolled out or bed all Thursday
night to take them in. The numbers were mike.' by his lordship. and
denote the order in which the documents were received. We have
been favoured with the sight of the epistle,. and are permitted to pub-
lish some of the moat interesting :