The Press.
London, England, 1857-08-08 00:00:00

PERIODICAL LITERATURE.

THE New Quarterly contains some clever political
writing. The article upon Sir Robert Peel is certain
to attract attention, from the great knowledge it,
displays of persons and events which cannot lose
their interest with the public for many years to come.
The following sketch of the Reform Ministry is an
excellent specimen of the writer's powers :
From the first day that the Reform Bill was launched
before Parliament, the feelings of the Movement party
rose violently. Then, indeed, was witnessed one of the
most formidable coalitions that ever ruled England. The
King's Ministers, and the masses of the population, were
all on the same side. The Cabinet itselt was variously
composed. Some of its chief members (it is must im-
portant to recollect) were ex-Tory statesmen, who had
been outraged by the unparliamentary mode in which the
Catholic claims were carried by the Duke of Wellington.
In that Ministry were found the estimable Duke of Rich•
mond—frank, gallant, and intelligent—a choice specimen
of the aristocracy of England. By his side was the Earl
of Ripon, bred in the system of Lord Liverpool. The
Secretaryship of the Home Department was given
to Viscount Melbourne, whose mind was essentially Tory,
and who wanted that sanguine confidence in mankind, or
that callous indifference to consequences, which ought to
mark a patrician Radical. Viscount Palmerston, the
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, had held office under " the
bloody Perceval and Castlereagh." He was then a bud-
ding Whig of forty-seven, just as old as William l'itt
when he died, in 1800. IVith these statesmen were
found the consistent reformer, Earl 3rey, an aristocratic
Whig, graceful in his bearing and eloquence, and almost
a great man, along with the universally honoured Marquis
of Lansdowne—statesman without spot, and scholar with-
out pedantry—a public man without a foe. Lord
Brougham—tierce, versatile, and overwhelming, a prodigy
of power, a leviathan of Liberalism, who soon stranded
himself, and whose fury was mocked at by those who
once feared and admired his surging career—gave pas-
sionate energy to the action of the Cabinet. Lord
Durham, a millionnair•e and a leveller, though a decided
aristocrat in his prejudices, Lord Holland, and others
of the old Whig party, were in that singular combination.
The character of Sir R inert Peel himself is drawn
with some severity—perhaps even more than is his
due—yet there is truth and wisdom in the concluding
remarks of the reviewer :

779

We believe, sincerely, that the " Peel Papers," taken in
connection with other evidence, establishes clearly this
truth :—That, however able in affairs, in persuasion, in
debate, Sir Robert Peel had not that peculiar kind of
political genius which could form, after the examples of
Walpole, Chatham, Pitt, or Fox, a great parliamentary
school. He was not a creative spirit. He was not a man
suited for symbolising political ideas ; and Peel, therefore,
is not the representative type which should be selected
by aspiring politicians, with considerable originality and
many patriotic aspirations, with brilliant eloquence and
high personal and parliamentary qualities, that impart
unborrowed lustre to their names. Their genius and
individuality shoull not be compromised by subservience
to past controversies.

The article on " The Whigs and Parliamentary Re-
form" is very full of matter, of which, perhaps, the most
has scarcely been made; out it is a very damaging
broadside. The fact is the Whig party in England,
ever since the modern questions of Reform arose,
have been in a false position. They originally ac-
quired the reputation of lovers of liberty by curtail-
ing the power of the Crown ; they have been obliged
to maintain it by pretending to curtail their own.
Close boroughs and exclusive manners were quite
compatible with resistance to a king, bat they have
proved somewhat embarrassing to the preachers of
the sovereignty of the people. The consequence is
that the Whigs have been driven to adopt subterfuge
after subterfuge, and to ally themselves with the
strangest associates in order to conceal the anomaly
of their situation. This is the general truth of which
the article before us is an illustration in detail. We
have said that it contains a great deal of curious
informs...ion ; the following conversation, now for the
first time made public, is a specimen :

In 1835, a severe contest took place in a western county,
for which a Minister was candidate. The Minister lost
his election. A large Reform dinner Rai given immedi-
ately atter the polling, and at which dinner Sir William
Molesivoith was seated by the side of the defeated can-
didate. Another Minister was also present. The member
for Cornwall made a powerful speech in favour of the
Ballot, and on other liberal topics not germane to the
Whigs. He sat down, and while Mr. Charles Buller was
speaking in a similar strain, the following coin ersation
occurred between the Minister and Sir William Moles-
worth :
MINISTER: You must be fully aware, Sir William, that it is
impossible for any Ministry to propose, and still less to carry,
measures so extreme as those you have justaenunciated. It is
a waste of time to dwell on them.

Sir WILLIAK: And yet, had the Ballot been in operation, you
would now be member for the county.
All nitwits : That may be: but, remember, the Reform Bill is
a final act of legislation. You and your friends allow that the
measure far exceeded your expectation—and it was given large
and generous proportions, in order that the subject should be
set at rest for ever. We are pledged in honour to the country,
to Parliament, and to the Crown. that the bill be final. Our
public characters are at stake on that point; and, were no other
reason to be adduced, you yourself must acknowledge, that •
further advance of power to the people, which upon a parity of
action might riot be final, would endanger the House of Peers,
and, more than that, shake the foundation of the Throne itself.

Sir WILLIAM: It might have been better if the chatigt. under
the bill had been made gradual. As it is, the people only
,hunanil that the Reform Bill should not be a mockery. Undue
influences are as rife as ever, of which your defeat is a proof;
for the people are with you. I appeal for corroboration to my
friend on my right, who has been indefatigable and close in b:s
canvass throughout the western portion of the county. You
have been beaten by the clergy, who should be deprived of the
power of spiritual abuses. the constant apposition also of the
bishops in the House of Peers to popular reforms, warrant the
demand that they should be confined to the duties of their
dioceses.

MINISTER: Such propositions would be nothing less than the
reform of a reform Just passed, and involve doctrines which we
shall always oppose. It can never be.
Sir WiLt.imit: In that case you must not count upon the sup-
port of those with whom I act.
MtsisrEit : I cannot help it; if the Radicals desert., the
Tories will support us, and to our liberal measures you cannot,
upon principle, help giving us your assistance. You and your
friends are playing the Tory game, and, it you succeed in turn-
ing us out, you will bring them in without doing yourselves any
good.

Some further revelations concerning Sir Wm. Moles-
worth and the Cornwall elections are exceedingly dis-
graceful to the Whig party. The papers upon
" Land Tenure in India," and upon " The Times
and the French Elections," are able and opportune.
In literature we have au excellent review of the
"Letters of Horace Walple,".by Mr. I'. Cunning.
ham, thoughtful, and at the same time smart and
pointed in style ; and a very sensible and discrimi-
nating review of " New Novels," in which Mr.
Dickens is very accurately criticised. The article on
Mure's "Literature of Ancient Greece" we clo not
like quite so well. We think the distinction drawn
between the old and the new way of
personages unsound. In Middleton'
_ .

Cicero,"and in Bolingbroke's comparison
Demosthenes, we find quite as " hump
of treatment as anything in Mitre or
good articles are those upon " Chine
'Napier," and " Tourists and Travellers.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED-Ai
BOOKS.

Quinland; or, Varieties in American Lif

Memorials and Correspondence of Charles
Edited by Lord John Russell. Vol.
Lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers
of England. Jam Lord Campbell,
Vol. VIII.

r treating classical
leton's " Life of
arison of him with
uman " a method
or Grote. Other
ina," "Sir Charles
tilers."
)--At:Gusr 6.
fe. Two Vols.
Bentley
7harles James Fax.
IV. Bentley
)err of the Great Seal
11, LLD., F.R.S.E.
Murray

ISO

Epitaph: from the Greek Anthology.
Recreations of Christopher Nei& VoL I. Blackwoods
Victoria and the Australian Gold Mines in 1857. William
Weitg.trth. Smith and Elder
The Autobiography of Laths llah. Edited by E. B. East-
wick, F.R.S., F.S.A. Smith and Elder
Ties Classed Catalogue of the Educational Division of the
South Kensington Mateum. S pottisweode
Holland, its Institutiuni, its Pr ess, Kings, and Prisons E.
Meeter. Hope
The Intellectualism of Locke. An Essay. Thomas E.
Webb, M.A. Longmans
Tom Burke " Ours." Charles Lever. Vol 11.
Chapman and Hall
China, Australia, and the Pacific Islands in the Years 1855.6.
.T. D'Ewes, Esq. R. Bentley
Sinai, the Hedjaz., and Soudan. James Hamilton.
R. Bentley