The Press.
London, England, 1858-01-16 00:00:00

LORD RAGLAN'S MONUMENT.

ROBERT PEEL told the Conservatives to depend
on their social influence, that eminent states.
man was correct in thinking that the Conser-
vatives nnuld rote VaTlitment so long as the
Monarchy and Olturily were in danger; but,
on tin #oer ban if ililr. CROKER to some
exte. . gera
dpew of revolution in
Eng d, at ken ticveteran contro-
vers s 4 s ikg t il ' tieipation that if
the n tutiow sit AA the Grey Bill,
wouldl Eng cl be expoeed to tho despotism
of a es ascendancy.
" Revon ution" is not much to be feared in
our times ; but there is great danger that the
Liberals will make another step to organise
still further a class ascendancy for themselves.
There is danger, beyond doubt, of some huge
political jobbery being palmed off upon the
country by the Whigs; and let not people bo
deceived by the mere name of Lord PALMERS-
TON. The country may be deluded, the public
mind may be irritated, and Parliament may be
trifled with by a deceptive scheme; and it is
impossible to calculate what might occur from
one of those periodical bursts of indignation
to which all free communities are subject.
" I believe," said Mr. DISRAELI, in his speech
at Newport Pagnell, " that political change,
" unless called for by a political necessity, is in
" a country like England a great social evil."
So it undoubtedly is, for it is " a great evil " to
distract attention unnecessarily from the social
reforms which require attention without any
regard to mere politics. "But," continued the
Right Honourable Gentleman, " I have looked
" always on the remedial agencies which
" would be exercised in arrangements that
" may have been factiously brought about by
" the good sense and common feeling of
" Englishmen." We, too, have a large faith in
those " remedial agencies," but we cannot
trust implicitly to them. In the same bril-
liant speech, teeming with practical con-
siderations, Mr. DISRAELI warned his hearers,
"You would be acting a suicidal part if, know-
" ing quite well that a Reform Bill was to be
" introduced in deference to those who think
" that claims connected with the land have
" too much political power, you were not to
" awaken the country to the real state of the
" case." Let Conservatives, therefore, recol-
lect that even the " Coalition " which over-
threw Lord DERBY'S Government committed
itself to the opinion that the county repre-
sentation of England should have forty-six
members added to it. If the Palmerston Bill
be a revolutionary one, the Conservatives
would defeat the measure and overturn its
authors. But what is more to be anticipated
is that the scheme proposed will be a factious
one, and contrived for the solo purpose of
maintaining an official ascendancy for Libe-
ralism. In order to prevent such a measure
becoming law, the vigilance of the Conserva-
tive party and its united action will be, as we
trust, successfully applied ; but both Lord
DERBY and Mr DISRAELI have announced that
they will give their dispassionate attention to
any bona-fide scheme brought forward with
the view of making a truly fair and permanent
adjustment of a political question that at
present interferes with the progress of most
desirable social reforms.

OUR British Demus, contemporaneously with
his advance in social importance, has suc-
ceeded to a share in certain enviable privi-
leges hitherto restricted to the aristocrat.
Among other luxuries he now boasts a whole
legion of parasites, flatterers, and led captains.
He has long been taught to believe himself
the very greatest man which the universe has
ever seen—invincible in war, infallible in
wisdom, unrivalled in generosity. Every class
above him has been proportionably depre-
ciated—and, indeed, this is a task which his
servants find peculiarly to their taste. Does a
member of the hated order perform a great or
gallant action, the rodent tribe are imme-
diately upon him. Either his birth or his
actions are instantly called in question. If
the one cannot be denied, the other must.

ra,"
difivesna en ti:o,
t e
rs;
wr-.-
dependstates.
1
the Conser•
io long as the
DKER to sonic
revolution in
eteran contro-
pation that if
Grey Bill,
ho despotism
be feared in
tiger that the
p to organise
or themselves.
of some huge
off upon the
not people bo
Jord PALMERS-
[ed, the public
iament may be
me; and it is
:ht occur from
if indignation
.0 subject.
, in his speech
litical change,
necessity, is in
at social evil."
great evil" to
1:om the social
i without any
continued the
I have looked
;encies which
Igements that
iught about by
in feeling of
large faith in
it we cannot
he same brit-
practical con-
!d his hearers,
1 part if, know-
Bill was to be
use who think
be land have
u were not to
al state of the
erefore, recol-
" which over-
nt committed
county repre-
have forty-six
almerston Bill
Conservatives
1 overturn its
be anticipated
11 be a factious
lo purpose of
aucy for Libe•
uch a measure
the Conserve-
will be, as we
it both Lord
nnounced that
to attention to
forward with
mod permanent
)stion that at
)gress of most
UMENT.
raucously with
Ince, has suc-
3nviable privi-
le aristocrat.
masts a whole
d led captains.

IWir

THE PRESS, JANUARY 16, 1858.

- -
llAsTisos and HAVELOCK were not gentlemen—
Lord RAGLAN was not a soldier.
At the head of these time-servers during
the late war the led captain stood pre-eminent.
Though in the trenches or the field of battle
he was still the property of his patron, and
thought far less of his military duty than of
picking up any bits of official incapacity to
tickle the palate of Demus. We must. all
remember his success. We have now to wit-
ness his rebuke, which silent though it be, can
hardly fail to affect him with some degree of
shame.
The letter written by the Earl of W:,:sT-
IMORLAND to Lord FORTESCUE in consequence
of the speech delivered by the latter in the
House of Lords last year, only comes to swell
the tribute now generally offered to the con-
summate ability of Lord RAGLAN. It has been
acknowledged by the unanimous voice of the
highest branch of the Legislature, by the
leading writers of the day, and by the gallant
generals of our allies, who have scorned to
accept flattery at the expense of the brave
and highminded Englishman. It has now
been pretty well determined that in the three
leading points on which Lord RAGLAN differed
from his colleagues his Lordship was right
and the French General in the wrong. To
pursue the enemy after the battle of Alma and
Inkermann, and to assault Sebastopol imme-
diately after the latter action, was the course
on each occasion recommended by Lord
RAGLAN. Had the last piece of advice been
followed, Sebastopol would in all human pro-
bability have fallen in the month of November,
and our army have been spared the horrors of
that ineinorablh winter.
Many another man thus thwarted in the
moment of victory, and compelled to share the
blame of calamities which he had no part in
producing, would have grown morose and
reserved, and have augmented the perils of our
position by an estrangement between the two
forces. But never even in his most brilliant
displays of gallantry did Lord RAGLAN'S cha-
racter shine with a brighter and purer flame
than throughout his intercourse with the
French. He was indeed a true patriot. Like
his groat master, non sibi sed patrice was his
motto through life. All personal considera-
tions he threw to the winds. He lent his best
energies to the prevention of dangers which
but for neglect of his own advice had never
been incurred. His intimacy with the French
leader was never for a moment impaired, and
lie left -behind him as high a reputation for
courtesy and fidelity as for chivalrous personal
courage.
Such are Lord RAGLAN'S recommendations
to posterity ; but such are not his
.only claims
to the honour of a public monument. If the
general who himself undergoes unparalleled
trials with heroic patience, who saves an army
threatened with total dissolution, who reor-
ganises and redisciplines his broken forces,
and is finally rewarded by leading them to
a splendid triumph, be deserving of all the
Honours which his native country can bestow,
how much more he who is cut off when the
toil is now over, but the fruits still ungathered.
Who has ploughed, and sown, and harrowed,
and then, when the harvest reddens, is him-
self stricken down by the universal Reaver
who bore the burdens of other men as well as
his own, and yet received no wages ! Surely,
in all our military history, in the long line of
British worthies, there are few to whom all
that posthumous honours can accomplish was
So thoroughly due as to that brave and gentle
spirit.
No means should he neglected of per-
petuating the character of Lord RAGLAN. It
deserves and will repay the attention of all
military students. It has been too much the
fashion to suppose that a great general is
usually " a hard man "—that his career is
fatal to the affections and amenities of do-
mestic life. In Lord RAGLAN we have an emi-
nent proof that such is not necessarily the case.
In him we see high military qualities united
with all the moral virtues, and a strong will
and capacity of endurance with the highest
graces of manner and singular kindness of
heart.
There are, then, two whole classes c. f reasons
in favour of some national and lasting testi-
monial to Lord RAGLAN'S greatness. It is need-

ful, on the one hand, to record a perpetual
protest against the calumnies with which him-
self and his order were assailed—a lasting
warning to us to beware of similar accusations
in future, and to suspect ignorance and
malignity beneath professions of unimpeach-
able information and patriotism. The one
simple fact that Lord RAGLAN was charged
with isolating himself front the troops, only
because he went his rounds in so unostenta-
tious a manner that these well-informed ac-
cusers actually did not know him, speaks
volumes by itself, and would justify the in-
fliction of some public stigma on the authors
and disseminators of the lie. On the other
hand, all well wishers to the aristrocacy of the
country and all friends to the cause of religion
would desire to see Lord RAGLAN placed
among those other great men who have so
eminently adorned both. Westminster Abbey
or St. Paul's, the two great national mausolea
redolent of glory and antiquity, should contain
some monument of one who was a model in
his own person of the soldier, the gentleman,
and the Christian.

61

"seandalised " at the appointtrient of Lord
CLANRICARDE, and though they may not have
French enough for the cry of "a la porte," they
have sufficient English feeling to make a
genuine demonstration of " Turn him out."
In truth, it is admitted that Lord PAL-
MERSTON has made a most ridiculous blunder
in his nomination of Lord CLANRICARDE. The
report from the Commissioners for inquiring
into electioneering corruption at Galway has
poured additional perfume over the Noble
Marquis, and henceforth " decline and fall "
must be anticipated for the run of luck which
strangely befel Lord PALMERSTON in the even-
ing of his days. The Noble Viscount served
for fourteen years under Lord LIVERPOOL. He
must remember when an application for a
pension was once made to Lord LIVERPOOL,
how that straightforward statesman pencilled
two words on the memorial, and those two
syllables are what the whole British public
apply to the selection of Lord (./LANRICARDE—
" Too bad." Lord PALMERSTON'S last act has
received what never was given to the perform.
ances of RACHEL—sibillation ; and even his
claque are anticipating an " exeunt omnes"
for the Ministers.

TIIE IRISH LAW APPOINTMENTS.
NEVER in the history of the Judicature,
whether English or Irish, have there been so
many changes and alterations about filling up
a legal vacancy as upon the simple question of
the appointment of a successor to the late Mr.
Justice MooRE, of the Queen's Bench in Ire-
land. On Saturday evening, the 9th of this
month, the changes were " finally " fixed at
Dublin Castle in the following manner. Mr.
Sergeant O'BRIEN was "to have been" Judge
in the Queen's Bench, and Mr. CHRISTIAN was
to be made (as he now is) the new Judge in
the Common Pleas in room of Mr. Justice
JACKSON. The Solicitor-Generalship vacated
by Mr. CHRISTIAN was " to have been " given
to Mr. HUGHES, and the Sergeantcy of Mr.
O'BRIEN was " to have been " conferred on Mr.
FITZGIBBON. Twelve hours elapsed, and all
was suspended ; and for three successive days
every variety of paltry intrigue was employed
to advance the interests of a certain person,
whose forensic claims to promotion are far
inferior to those of several gentlemen of his own
faith in religion and party in politics. Three
leading members of the Cabinet have had
what Captain MARRYAT would have called
" a triangular" argument on the question ; and
that notable personage, the Marquis of CLAN..
RICARDE, has not been wanting in pronouncing
" a strong opinion." In this interesting case,
however, a latch-key would not be of the
slightest use. The Premier, to do him
justice, seems to have had a strong suspicion
that " something was wrong" in the system by
which, in recent years, the honours of the pro-
fession have been bestowed in Ireland. These
are striking facts, of which Lord PALMEKSTON
must have had official cognisance, upon which
so astute a politician and so keen a man of
the world might have asked for " explanations"
from the Earl of CLARENDON. Here, for exam-
ple, are some of these facts. Lord CLARENDON
(" with the advice of Lord Chancellor BRADY")
selected Mr. HAICHELL for the Attorney-Gene-
ralship of Ireland; that learned person was
chosen as the representative of the Irish Bar,
and introduced into Parliament for the royal
borough of Windsor. What figure did Mr.
HATeuicia. make in Parliament, and what place
does he now fill? The first question is
answered by citing the cruel kindness of Sir
JAMES GRAHAM, who said, " I feel for him,"
after witnessing one of Mr. HATCHELL'S
attempts to address the House ; and the
second is answered in the statement that an
ex-Attorney-General for Ireland fills now the
subordinate post of a Judge in the Insolvency
Court, and for a similar declension there is no
precedent in the Irish Bar.
Again : Mr. HUGHES (" with the advice of
" Lord Chancellor BRADY") was selected by
Lord CLARENDON for the Solicitor-Generalship
of Ireland about eight years since ; but Mr.
HUGHES was afterwards dropped. and Mr.
KEOGH, and Mr. FITZGERALD, and Mr. Cnats-
TIAN have since been promoted over his head.

I
issigassiA
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