The Press.
London, England, 1856-02-16 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

FEBRUARY 16, 1856.

For Cambridge staunch Walpole's returned
(Mr. Denman most wisely drew back),
Colonel (?) Sleigh has for Midhurst been spurned,
And Macaulay's succeeded by Black.

The Timea, with its venomed abuse,
Is pursuing two cavalry lords,
Declaring they both played the deuce
With the cause which enlisted their swords.

Then the Irish Bench is assailed

By a spiteful and slanderous elf;
And his motion of course has not failed,
For the Premier supports it himself.

Quoth Pam, " The idea all fudge is
That very old fellows must doat ;
But I'd like to appoint the next judges,
So I'll give Sir John Shelley my vote."

Lord Stanley will handle a tax
Confined to poor devils of clerks,
Mid free this sad load from their backs
In spite of the Treasury sharks.

I've left nought unsaid in my billet,
But occurrences just now are few,
However, I've managed to fill it,
So now, my dear cousin, adieu!

PAM, PATRONAGE, AND PENNEFATHER.
(Corrected Report of the Premier's Speech on Thursday night.)

LORD PALMERSTON said that a good deal of good indignation had been
wasted upon this subject. [Sir John Shelley's motion for giving the
Government some patronage by removing the elder Irish judges.]
Nobody found fault with anybody, and he thought that the affair might
be treated much more good-humouredly. The House surely understood
the real object of the motion of his friend the Member for Westmins-
ter. (Hear, hear). The idea of ill-treating a man because he was old
was quite out of the question. (Hear, hear). Some men improved
by age. Premiers did, like port, sometimes, though, like old port, they
might get too crusty, as the Noble Earl his predecessor had done.
(Laughter). There now—that was the spirit in which to discuss the
matter, and as he had got the House into good humour, he would say,
at once, that he had the utmost respect for Baron Twopennyfather—
(shouts of laughter)—well, Pennyfather then—he had actually set too
high a value on him, it seemed—only it would be highly convenient if
he would get off the bench. As to his being eighty-five years of age,
that in itself was nothing; he (Lord Palmerston) did not like very
young men. (Hear.) He remembered a capital thing he had heard
in some comedy—the Ladies' Club, he believed. A lady proposed
a nobleman as member, her husband, unknown to her, listening.
"I propose," she said, " Lord Toddles. He's not a boy." " No,"
murmured the husband, " he's eighty." " But," she continued,
"so polished." " I'll polish him," grunted the husband- (Laughter.)
That was just Baron Pennefather's case, and he (Lord Palmerston)
wanted to polish him,—in fact, to polish him oft (Cheers)
It was perfectly true, as Mr. Napier had said, that Go-
vernment had rather held back from expressing their views
upon the subject of the motion, but the silence of some
people was more eloquent than the language of others ; and if
Government were silent when it was sought to extrude from his court
a judge of unblemished character and high intellect, it was, he should
have thought, pretty clear what they meant by holding their tongues
so obtrusively (Hear, hear.) It was not that they loved Pennefather less,
but that they loved patronage more. (Cheers.) Could the House
suppose for a single moment that if this had been a question to be
taken up in a serious mood, Government would have allowed it to he
brought forward by such an absolute Pump—(roars of laughter)—as
his Honourable Friend the Member for Westminster? No. But they
had no objection to work the pump-handle. (Cheers.) What, in the
name of humbug, were the Irish judges to Jack Shelley—(Order,
order)—he meant the Honourable Baronet? Were there not a hundred
and five Irish members, lots of them lawyers more or less notorious—
he meant distinguished—and would it not rather have been the duty
of one of these to bring forward a question vitally affecting the
interests of Ireland, if it had been felt in Ireland that the question
ought to be raised? Instead of that, it is left to Sir John Shelley, of
Maresfield, to bring forward the mare's nest. (Laughter.) He hoped
that Honourable Gentlemen opposite would see that in allowing such
a person to do certain work, Government could have no intention of
seriously annoying the Learned Judge. Could a judge feel insulted
a t anything from a Shelley ? But a hint might be conveyed
in
a bit of fun, and he sincerely hoped that the hint which
it was now intended to convey would be transmitted to the
Learned Judge by some of his friends opposite, whose attach-
ment to hint did them great credit. His friend the Home
Secretary had certainly, in his heart, made a mistake when he inter-
rupted the Honourable Member for Buckinghamshire by exclaiming
that Lord Lyndhurst was not a judge. The Home Secretary was a
hasty man, and also a religious man, and, like a good many other reli-
gious men, he scorned the worldly pride and vanity of triumphing
over his own bad temper—(laughter)—and upon this occasion he had
been betrayed into a mistake, for which he would be sorry when he

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read the Times next morning. But even such a ridiculous blunder as
that—he would not deny that it was so, although he had a great
liking, and indeed love, for his Right Honourable Friend and his party
in the Cabinet—(Hear, hear)—but such a blunder showed that the
Government had taken up the subject, not on its merits, but on the
merits of somebody else whom they wanted to promote. (Chars.)
He would say no more, because he felt that he had now put the
matter right and had appealed to what he might call the political
good feeling of gentlemen opposite. They might themselves one day
have friends to reward—of course, it would be his unfortunate duty
to retard that day as long as possible—(laughter)—and they would
then know the extreme inconvenience occasioned to her Majesty's
Government when the occupants of office refused to make room for
successors. There was precedent for stimulating a veteran judge to
retire when his place was wanted No Irishman would forget how
Lord Plunket was shoved out of the Irish Chancellorship by the Whigs,
against his declared wish, in order that his place might be held from
June to September by John Lord Campbell. What a Piunket had
done a Pennefather might do. He should therefore " support the
motion upon constitutional grounds." (Hear, hear).

SIR BENJAMIN HAVES, K• C• B
•
What next, and what next? for an answer we pause !
It is come, " Ecce signum "—Sir Benjamin Hawes.
Do our senses deceive us ? Can this be a blunder,
Of a marvellous age the most marvellous wonder?
Colonel Gordon is laden with honour and gold,
They have knighted B. Hawes What remains to be told ?
Oh, poor K.C.Bs. ! pray take this for your text
When you write to your friends—" What next, and what next ? "