The Press.
London, England, 1858-04-17 00:00:00

THE PRESS, APRIL 17,1858.

TO A BITTER BARONET.

sin,—l laughed heartily at the amusing anger you displayed last
Monday night. As you were always pert in power, so you intend to be
offensive in opposition. You assailed the CHANCELLOR of the EXCHE-
QUER because he had shown the courtesy due to Lord JOHN RUSSELL'S
station in the House of Commons. Your temper, probably, was sorely
tried by the Noble Member for London showing that he was opposed
to a factious hostility to Lord DERBY. That course would not suit you
or the " desperate ex-subordinates" of the late Administration. You
wish to be their mouthpiece, but the mediocrity of your powers will
not enable you to shine in debate or to succeed in invective. I was
once present at a comedy written by a " literary Whig." The piece
was damned, but it contained one capital part, Sir Cavil Wordy, which
was well played. The Palmerston comedy was also condemned,
though, like the present Opposition, it could show an inimitable per-
sonification of Sir Cavil Wordy.

It is most ridiculous for you to think of setting up as a Leader in
Opposition. It is true that Lord PALMERSTON is old, and that his
popularity is at an end ; it is true that Lord JOHN RUSSELL is an
" Emperor without an army;" but it does not therefore follow that the
Opposition would choose a Sir Cavil for a chief. You have been about
thirty years in Parliament ; you were Private Secretary in stormy
times to your noble father-in-law during his Premiership ; you have
lived in office for years, and you once left it because you could not get
"more" When your noble brother-in-law acted the part of Robinson
Orme, and retired from the Whigs to a political island of his own dis-
covering, you were his man Friday. You had then vacated a post
which was filled the other day by the honourable and unpolite Member
for Dover. No one digs deeper into Hansard than Mr. OSBORNE, and
you can ask him for the particular volume in which Sir ROBERT PEEL
sneered at your affected independence :—" You left the Government
" upon principle. It was no paltry squabhle about office—no pique
" that you or your relations were not promoted that induced your re-
" tirement"!

Sir, you rose by " your relations," and it is fated that you will sink
by them. You married into a Whig clan. You saw your brother-in-
law Secretary of State for the Colonies, your wife's first cousin Secre-
tary of State for the Home Department, at the time when you by
family influence became Chancellor of the Exchequer. Another of your
wife's brothers was private secretary to an illustrious Prince, and your
wife's sister was a Bedchamber Woman to her Majesty. The Buck-
hounds were given to another cousin, and the Governor-Generalship
of Canada was bestowed on the Scotch Peer who married into the clan.
Even the Private Secretaryship of the then Prime Minister was held
by another of the family ! I should be fatigued by giving you a cata-
logue of their posts, but you can refer to Mr. James WILSON for a list
of all the salaries monopolized by them.
It is evident that you now wish to set up for yourself. The ablest
and most respected member of your Whig relations has given public
proof that he is wearied of small faction. His relations are angry with
him because he shows that they have exhausted his patience and
encumbered his reputation. Ycu, therefore, will set up as chief of the
e'en in the Lower House. Since Lord PALMERSTON and Lord JOHN Res-
SELL cannot be reconciled, you fancy that there is a great post open for
you to take. You know all about the interesting little dinner party at
which it was hoped that the fallen ex-chiefs were to have met over
"three courses." You know how both invitations were accepted, each
being apprised that the other was to be there, and how a hospitable
muse had expected to harmonise their discordant notes. You know
how a brief epistle, as effective as a Durham Letter," had shattered
the notion of a cordial reconciliation; you read the public prints, and
see how the followers of the rival leaders attack each other with ran-
corous reciprocity; you hear what Mr. OSBORNE says of one, and you
can read what Mr. Lowe, or somebody else, writes about the other of
them, and you think that there is an excellent opportunity for your
putting yourself forward.
The manner in which you tried to do so on Monday night will not
conduce to your success. The late Leader of the Commons dealt in
bluster, and was contumelious to all who were not his followers. The
present Leader of the House offended you because he was courteous
and complimentary. The CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER put a case
that if certain resolutions were to be offered by any single member of
the House of Commons, no one from his standing could be more
entitled to move them than the Noble Member for London. That was
the meaning of Mr. DISRAELfS complimentary remarks, and so they
were Interpreted by Lord JOHN RUSSELL himself. But you thought it
opportune to go on as Sir Cavil Wordy, and you charged the Govern-
ment. with intending to " abdicate their duties on a subject of primary
importance." The "desperate ex-subordinates" cheered you vocife-
rously, and one of them immediately rushed off to write a leader, with-
out waiting for a reply to your ridiculous charge. Early recollec-
tions supplied him with PALEY'S illustration of the plank after ship-
wreck. When the late Ministry foundered ou the Walewski sands, un-
like Mr. OSBORNE and Mr. WILSON, the active article-monger, who is a
Privy Councillor at Westminster, and a journalist at Blackfriars,
found no solid pension to cling to. But his freaks and fancies arc
of no real importance.
Believe me, Sir, that you are not suited for a chief in Opposition.
When did you ever make a speech worth remembering ; or, after all your
official opportunities, when did you ever introduce a successful measure ?
You have changed from office to office, smart and small in each, great
and eminent in none. Your claims to Parliamentary distinction origin-
ate in what Sir RICHARD BETHELL would call the “jIDI matrimonii ;" but
the Commons and the country are sick of such pretensions, and other
vuig families wish that their small smart men were introduced to

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office. You aspire to be " Lord Halifax?' Hurts and Lord MACAULAY
have used the finest strokes of their pens in delineating the brilliant
and accomplished SAVILLE, in whose nature there wits nothing splene-
tic, or egotistically peevish. I doubt whether even the Whigs, if mis-
fortune gave them the power, would consent to satisfy your ambition
by metamorphosing you into a " Lord Halifax :" bat the tenth of the
Lord HALIFAX'S " Maxims of State " is pregnant with wisdom, and its
truth has been exemplified in the present week—viz., "That Pride is
" as loud a brawler as want, and a great deal more saucy."

MAX PZPPIRLIr.

A TITLE TO HONOUR.
"My dear father, one of the greatest events of my life Is to hare been under Ware General
Havelock."—Extraet of a letkr front Corporal Duggan, of H.3l.'s 84th Regiment.
"I've borne the heat and burthen
Of many a weary day,
Have quell'd the coward mutineer
In many a vengeful fray;
But more than these, and more than all,
A theme for manly pride,
Tie m;ne to say, whate'er befal,
' I fought at Havelock's side.'

" What the' I reap no harvest
Of India's golden ore,
Tho' scant the gleanings I can bring
To aid a Father's store,
Yet have I won a loftier meed
To wealth and pow'r denied,
A share in many a deathless deed—
' I fought at Havelock's side.' "

Thus wrote a simple soldier,
Untrain'd to polish'd phrase.
Yet by a gen'rous instinct taught
The truest, noblest praise.
Who now will search the rolls of Fame
For Valour sternly tried.
Nor own the brief. emphatic claim—
" He fought at Havelock's side" ?

Long hence, at festal banquet—
When Peace has still'd the din
Of arms from Himalayan snow
To sea-washil Comorin—

Where Mem'ry in the wine-cup glows,
And gilds the ruby tide,
The warmest pledge shall be " To those
Who fought at Havelock's side."

And when associate Valour,
That sorrows for the brave,
Shall rear the stone and carve the verse
Above a soldier's grave,
Around the sleeper's honor'd clay . 0
A hallowing spell shall bide,
If but the simple legend say,
" He fought at Havelock's side."