The Press.
London, England, 1857-01-03 00:00:00

PRESIDENT BUCHANAN.

PHYSICALLY he is a large, powerfully built man ;
indeed, neither physically, morally, nor politically, is
there any thing little about him. He is above six
feet high, large limbed and of fair complexion, and,
although past sixty years of age, still shows that he
was in earlier days what the other sex, who must be
allowed to decide in such matters, call a handsomer
man. He has the habit (that historians attribute to
Alexander the Great) of holding his head somewhat
inclined to one side, and sometimes partially closing
one eye, as if to prove, what was undoubtedly the
case during his mission in this country, that he could
see a vast deal more with half an eye, than all our
Ministers when they opened both theirs to the fullest
extent, as they had to do more than once, if all tales
be true, during the course of their " transaction of
business" with Mr. Buchanan. He is hale and
vigorous, of regular and active habits, and unexcep-
tionable moral conduct ; concientiously religious, a
Presbyterian, with more indulgence for those of other
creeds than is sometimes found in persons of that
persuasion ; kind-hearted, generous, and charitable,
as many instances reported by those who know him
will prove ; much beloved by relations and depen-
dants; distinguished for great prudenee and sagacity
in making his decisions, and for firmness in their
execution when taken. He has forethought and coot
self-possession :—conservative in opinion and policy,
and proves the soundness of his judgment by being,
favourable to the Conservative party in England.
He has been heard to say more than once—" It is
remarkable that the Conservative leaders and party
in England have always been more inclined to be
friendly with the United States than the Whigs."
(In this, by the way, he is not singular ; for we have
ourselves heard a similar opinion expressed by other
distinguished Americans).
He has been from early life a successful lawyer in
extensive practice. He has for years most ably fille,l
the highest posts in his Government next to that of
President, having been senator, secretary of state
envoy to St. Petersburg, Sze., Scc.
He never was married .—an early and mutua
attachment is spoken of by his friends, whose objet;
was, by one of those terrible dispensations which
certain steadfast natures never can forget, snatched
from him. Like another distinguished American,
Washington Irving, who suffered a similar bereave-
ment, lie has remained faithful to the memory of her
whom he has lost. Although the private lives of men
in high stations are considered as belonging to the
public domain, it would not, we think, be delicate to
allude more particularly, than by this slight notice,
to the romantic circumstances attendant on this deep
affliction in the outset of the career of Mr. Buchanan.
What we have said suffices to show that no cold in-
sensibility of character condemned him to celibacy.
In manner Mr. Buchanan is courteous, and in
conversation mild and deliberate, with a smack of
the formality of the old school. His bearing is calm
and dignified, his temper and language under com-
plete control :—although on occasions, when he has
conceived that personal or official slight was intended,
he has: shown that though his parents were Irish,
he can vindicate the claim of his family to a Scotch
origin, by acting up to the motto, "Nemo me impure
kzeessit."

The opinion formed of Mr. Buchanan, in certain
Ministerial circles in this country, was not favourable.
Some of those high in office considered him as a sort
of diplomatic hedgehog—violently prejudiced against
England, hostile to her Government and people, and
a thorough Philo-Russian. Those who saw most of
him when here do not share in this opinion, and are
far from anticipating the adoption of any such violent
and explosive measures as may possibly be predicated
from the tenor of the Ostend manifesto. But the
marked courtesies and flattering attentions showered
upon him in St. Petersburg, not only within the pre.

JANUARY 3, 1857•

oincts of the imperial palace, but by all the highest
nubility of Russia, may not unnaturally have rendered
him alive to the contrast presented in this country,
by the coldness he experienced from certain mem.
bers of our aristocracy. He was, however, on very
friendly terms with many persons of distinction here,
and it certainly speaks in his favour, that those who
knew him best liked him most; while, on the other
hand, it must be allowed that certain members of
our aristocracy, especially some with whom he was
brought in contact by his official position, regarded
him much as Washington Irving describes the old
Dutch families of New York to have looked upon the
Yankees, " with great respect and abhorrence."
Americans have also informed us, that he left
England with personal feelings of the deepest re-
spect, admiration, and kindly esteem for the highest
personages in the realm ; but having lost much of
such feelings for those who compose the councils of
our floverarasat.
Our own opinion, founded on that of some experi-
enced Americans, as to the future policy of Mr. Bu-
chanan, is, that it will be eminently conservative, and
that the more a similar policy is adopted by England,
the moro friendly will his relations be with our
Government.—New Quarterly Review.

SIR EDWARD LYTTON UPON CHARITABLE
SCHOOLS.
Stu EDWARD LYTTON presided at the Commercial
Travellers' School anniversary, held at the London
Tavern on Saturday evening. After the usual loyal
toasts, Sir Edward rose to propose the toast of the
evening, " Prosperity to the Commercial Travellers'
School." He said :

I call upon you to rejoice in the prosperity of that inati•
tution on behalf of which we are now assembled. In a
neighbouring country various attempts have been made at
what they call " fraternity," but as they have insisted upon
establi hing that idea with the imperative condition of
equalit , so the first operation of fraternity naturally was
to bring all the brothers to an equal standard of size by
cutting down the great brother and trampling down the
little brother. That process was found so remarkable that
it brought the relation into such odious repute that at this
day you could scarcely utter the very name of fraternity in
the streets of Paris without some little brother informing
against you, or some big brother committing you to prison.
Now, in England we have not yet attempted to establish
fraternity upon the same plan. Far from asserting the
doctrine that all men are equal, we are willing to acknow-
ledge those inequalities of life and condition which render
it the duty of a man who finds himself comfortably seated
at the top of the ladder, to lend a helping hand to his dis-
tressed brother, who would otherwise starve at the foot.
Therefore our brotherhood has been successful, because
the bond which unites them is not a mere rope of sand,
but a strong chain which binds heart to heart, and pro-
sperity to distress, by links of human compassion and
Christian charity. Nor is there anything more honourable
to our age and country than that these institutions, which
are everywhere formed around us. are formed for the
simple and disinterested object of doing good, of giving to
penniless age a refuge from the workhouse, to desolate
childhood a fostering home, and opening up to it an honour.
able career in life.
We are endeavouring to carry out those principles of
humanity at a time when it seems as if the chief care of
the State was to provide for the children of felons, and to
extend to the adult who may already have violated the laws
of the country, a chance of reformation, and a cheering
prospect of an honest livelihood in the future. Now, I do
not stop to prove or to criticise, much less to condemn
that direction of a benignant and merciful policy, but I do
contend that great care must be taken, or else it will come
to be rather an advantage than otherwise to be the child of
a felon. Certainly the children of honest men ought not
to be much worse off than the children cf those who have
" left their country for their country's good." Therefore it
behoves all honest men of this brotherhood to be up and
stirring, in order to redress that balance of charity which
would otherwise be falsely weighted, and which might
offer absolute premiums to dishonesty. It behoves us to
be up and stirring, in order to secure to the children of
men who, though they may be beaten down by adversity,
have been useful and honourable members of society, and
to provide for them a home more tender, an education
much better, and a career more promising than that which
the professional thief may have the consolation of leaving
to his degraded but inleresting offspring. That is the first
object of this society which now appeals to you for aid and
support.
e may well be proud of our merchants and traders,
not only because of their wealth and enterprise, and the
commercial genius which has exalted this island into an
empire, and made our shores the markets of the world,
but for the more touching and sacred cause that prosperity
has never hardened their hearts, and that their wealth has
ever been the treasury of the distressed. It has been
mainly by the sympathy, zeal, and indefatigable exertions
of the traders of this country that we have founded those
magnificent institutions—charitable asylums, hospitals,
and schools—which are at once a blessing and an orna•
went to our land. But among all such institutions there
is none more appropriate to commerce than this Commer-
cial Travellers' School.

Well, we talk of honest parents. In what class of
society can honesty he more essential than among those
in which ercry lapse from honesty must. be a breach of
trust, where a man's certificate of integrity is in the confi
donee 'of his employer, whom habits of business naturally