The Press.
London, England, 1854-02-11 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

FEBRUARY 11, 1854.

THE PEELITES.---No.IV.
TO THE EDITOR OF "THE PRESS."
SlR,—When the Caledonian Cynic who for the present refreshes
his exhausted Radicalism by weekly inspirations from Clumber made
acquaintance with certain prominent Peelites, he, or his frills Achates,
exclaimed with appreciative sympathy, " These are precisely the old
Radicals,' with the addition of a conscience." The author of this
notable phrase may possibly be absolved of a sarcastic intent, though
he gave utterance to a sarcasm. Radicalism and a tender conscience
combine naturally when they are set in the same key, but not when
they are disconnected by a considerable interval. Had the Peelites been
less Radical or in their sense less conscientious, they might have pre-
served their equilibrium, but the combination of hysterical ethics with
democratic opinions has been a never-failing source of perplexity and
hesitation. Their conscience has been incessantly getting between
their legs and tripping them prostrate ; and, if their Scotch panegyrist
had described them as old Radicals with the addition of tails, he
could not have awarded them a more inconvenient appendage.
Mr. GLADSTONE is the recognised type of the Peelite sect, and it
may serve those whose political memories are treacherous to observe
that I allude to the same Mr. GLADSTONE who was described by
MACAULAY as " the rising hope of the stern and unbending Tories."
The " stern and unbending," par excellence, is now CHANCELLOR of the
EXCHEQUER in a Cabinet which threatened a democratic Reform Bill,
avowedly too large for the Whig Lord PALMERSTON, and which, in its
modified shape, may yet be found too large for the Conservative
noblemen and gentry of England. At the same time the Stern and
unbending casts wistful glances towards the benches occupied by
his quondam associates ; and this, I remark, is precisely what might
be expected from an old Radical with the inconvenient encumbrance
of a Conservative conscience.
All that I contend for on behalf of Mr. GLADSTONE is allowance for
that hybrid Peelite nature which he participates with the feeblest of
his feeble brethren, and for his enforced submission to the sad
necessity which deprives him of the power of gratifying his conflict-
ing inclinations.
As an illustration of the same unhappy predicament I call to
mind that at the outset of his career Mr. GLADSTONE made certain
ecclesiastical professions for the remembrance of which he is still

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venerated by young Oxford. He inscribed his devotional exercises
to his Alma Mater as to one who "had been tried and not found
wanting in the hope that the temper of his pages might be found not
alien from her own." It is true that he afterwards supported the
grant to Maynooth and the admission of the Jews to Parliament; that
he forwarded the Dissenters' Chapel Bill, and the confiscation of the
Canada clergy reserves ; that he sustained the pretensions of Cardinal
WISEMAN against the colleagues with whom he is at present leagued to
procure the abrogation of that Roman Catholic oath which has been
hitherto esteemed one of the chief securities of Protestantism ; but I
doubt whether when another election occurs at Oxford the slightest
suspicion will cross his ingenuous mind that the temper of his con-
stituency is alien from his own, or that he has been subsequently
tried and in these particular respects found wanting.
In 1838, when he was publishing the fourth edition of the same
spiritual exercises, he was so perfectly unconscious of his equivocal
pretensions that he protested that " the lapse of time and opportu-
nities for reflection " had " brought out into much clearer conscious-
ness the confession he had made two years and a half ago." A
corollary of that confession, if I may credit Mr. MACAULAY, was a coin-
, mination of the British Government in India " for distributing a small
sum among the Catholic priests who minister to the spiritual
wants of our Irish soldiers." Since then, if I mistake not, I have
heard a Government charged with the distribution of small sums to
ministering Papists in the British army, and, whatever foundation
there may have been for that charge, I have no doubt as to the con-
siderable sums paid, with Mr. GLADSTONE'S acquiescence, to minister-
ing papists, priests, and professors at Maynooth.
In the acquirement of a clearer consciousness of his own convic-
tions Mr. GLADSTONE has satisfied himself, but has not succeeded in
making them as clear to his constituency or to the public. It is one
of the most pleasing proofs that hero-worship is not extinct—that a
considerable number of gentle M.A.'s and ruminating curates still con-
fide in his churchmanship. As bears live through the winter on the
fat they have accumulated in summer, Mr. GLADSTONE and his asso-
ciates are enabled to draw largely on their acquired reputation. The
stern and unbending Tories may be practically democrats; the
Oxford churchmen may be patrons of papistry and dissent ; but
allowance is properly made for the pressure of circumstances upon
slight and debilitated natures already overstrained in the conflict of
their good intentions.
I remain, sir, your obedient servitor,

JOHN OF THE FUNNELS.