The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Let us, however, proceed to Lord BROUGHAM'S
picture. " Born with talents of the highest
" order, these had been cultivated with an
" assiduity and success which placed him in
the first rank amongst the most accomplished
" scholars of the day." Such a sentence could
never be applied to Viscount PALMERSTON, who
was a political subordinate for twenty years,
having been outstripped by most of his con-
temporaries, and who for twenty successive
years was second to Lord JOHN RUSSELL. No
one could place Lord PALMERSTON amongst
" the first scholars of the day," and we have
heard the Noble Viscount's accomplishments
RR a linguist called in question.
Lord BROUGHAM then proceeds to charac
terise the wit, eloquence, and argumentative
powers of CANNING. He speaks of " the rich
profusion" of the gifts of Mr. CANNING. He
particularises his " most lively original fancy."
Now, we challenge any panegyrist of the Prime
Minister to mention one passage of "original
fancy" in any speech ever delivered by him
The pleasantest speech ever made by him was
his jocose onslaught on Mr. ROWCLIFFE, and
his best jest was about the " Old, Old Hats."
That, however, was a well-seasoned, weather-
beaten, joke. Lord BROUGHAM then refers to
Mr. CANNING'S "happily retentive and ready
" memory ;" and the Prime Minister has a ready
recollection of jokes, but the Noble Viscount
(unlike Lord JOHN RUSSELL and others) cannot
remember arguments in a discussion. His
attempts to sum up at the conclusion of a
debate, contrasts feebly with performances in
the same line by Sir R. PEEL, Lord J. RUSSELL,
or Mr. DISRAELI, or Mr. GLADSTONE.

In fact, the Premier is truly great as a wag,
but decidedly a fitilure as a wit. Let our
readers try, if they can, to recollect a single
brilliant thing ever said by him. Now, Lord
BROUGHAM records at length " all the varieties
" of Mr. CANNING'S wit," and describes it as
" lending a charm to dry chains of close rea-
" soning." It would be as vain to look for
" close reasoning," as for " original wit," in the
speeches of the Premier. Lord BROUGHAM
also records how Mr. CANNING'S declamation
was always " beautifully ornate, being never
" deficient in admirable diction," a sentence
which would read like most galling sarcasm
if applied to the eloquence (?) of Viscount
PALMERSTON.

But there were certain points in which the
waggish Prime Minister shows that he is a
servile pupil of Mr. CANNING. In commenting
on the defects of Mr. CANNING'S character Lord
BROUGHAM observes, " His irritable temper has
" been noted ; he had a love of trifling, and a
" fondness for indulging in pleasantry, more in-
" jurious to his estimation with ordinary men
" than his temper." That Lord PALNIEnsToN
affects to be an imitator of Mr. CANNING in
these inferior roints, is quite obvious. Imita-
tors always exaggerate the faults of their
models, and Lord PALMERSTON burlesques Mr.
CANNING. " These qualities greatly marred."
continues Lord BROUGHAM, " the effect of Mr.
" CANNING'S more solid and important talents."
We could wish that the Prime Minister would
profit by the hints for improvement which
nearly every page of Lord BROUGHAM'S descrip-
tion would suggest. "The grave points of his
" discourses were perfectly sustained ; they
" were unmixed with ribaldry." Alas ! Such a
sentence could not be penned about Viscount
PALMERSTON. One might think that Lord
BROUGHAM had written this description with
an oblique reference to " the pupil " now
before us.

" Bred up in office from his early years, Mr.
" CANNING had become so much accustomed to
" its pleasures that he felt uneasy when they
" were taken away from him." And further
on we are told, " The unfortunate love of
" power carried too far, and felt so as to make
" the gratification of it essential to existence,
"is ruinous to the character of a statesman. It
" leads often to abandonment of principle, con-
" stantly to compromise; it subjects him to
" frequent dependence ; it lowers the tone of
" his mind," and, in a word, it produces all
those debilitatory effects which may be ob-
served in the present Prime Minister of Eng-
land.

On another day we may refer to several
other points in this elaborate piece from Lord

in

BROUGHAM'S pen, which seem like Parliamen-
tary " asides " for the benefit of Lord PAL-
MERSTON. In " lively fancy," "original wit,"
" chains of close reasoning," " sustained decla-
mation," " admirable diction," there can be
no comparison between CANNING and "his
pupil ;" but recent exhibitions of a " lament-
able " kind would warrant us in saying that
in "irritable temper," " love of trifling,"
" fondness for indulging in pleasantry," as
well as in " love of power curried too far;' the
pupil has far exceeded his master, and the
interior imitator has greatly outstriped the
original. The example, imitable in its faults,
is apt to deceive, and it is not of the dazzling
merits or splendid qualities of Mr. CANNING
that the present Prime Minister is the exag-
gerating copyist. An angry wag ditl't.trs vastly
from an original wit, as much as a perennial
placeman from a mighty statesman, or a
merely smart debater from a soul stirring
orator.