The Press.
London, England, 1856-11-15 00:00:00

Obituarg.

THE RIGHT HON. NATHANIEL CURZON, Baron
Scarsdale, died at Farnab-hall, near Derby, on Wed-
nesday last. The late Lord Scarsdale was born on
the 9rd of January, 1781, and was consequently in
his seventy•sizth year. The Rev. Alfred Curzon, of
Kedleston, second son of the late Hon. and Rev.
Alfred Curzon, born in 1801, and married, in
1825, Sophia, daughter of R. Holden, Esq., succeeds
to the title.

SIR EDWARD SHERLOCK GOOCH, BART., M.P., died at
his residence, Benacre hall, Suffolk, on Sunday las t.
The baronetcy of the Gooch family was instituted in
1740, and the late baronet succeeded to the title on
the death of his father in 1851. The bon. baronet
was educated at Westminster and Trinity College,
Cambridge, which he left in 1819, to enter as cornet
in the 14th Dragoons; he sold out, however, as
captain, in 1837. In the following year be married
a daughter of Sir G. Prescott, Bart., but was left a
widower in 1838. In 1839, he married, secondly, a
daughter of J. J. Hope Were, Esq., of Craigie-hall,
county Linlithgow, by whom he has left a youthful
family. His eldest son, Edward, has succeeded to
the baronetcy. The deceased baronet for the last
ten years has been a representative of the Conserva-
tive interest for the eastern division of the county of
Suffolk. In 1851 Sir Edward was installed Provin.
cial Grand Master of the most ancient and honour-
able Order of Freemasons, which office he held to
the time of his death.

MR. HUMI'HREY BROWN, M.P., AT
TEWKESBURY.

ON Monday last the members of the Tewkesbury
Corporation dined together, pursuant to annual cus-
tom, on the election of a new Mayor. Mr. Humph-
rey Brown, M.P., the ex-mayor (the gentleman who
is supposed to be capable of otr-ring 70,000
good reasons why he became a director of the
Royal British Bank), was also present, and on rising
was loudiy cheered. He said that he was one of the
best abused men in the country :
He (Mr. Brown) had, as they all knew, been lately
placed in a situation of excessive difficulty and extreme
peril ; but it was an old saying, " that it was a long lane
that had no turning." He was in this unpleasant position,
that (for the sake of others, not for himself) he was core-
pletely tongue•tied; he was bound, as a director under the
Charter of Incorporation, not to divulge any secrets of the
Royal British 13ank until he had obtained the permission
to do so of some competent tribunal, and he was expecting
to see in the Times every day some report from the official
manage' as to his position in regard *co that establishment,
which report he was sure would falsify the first very unfair
statements which had been made respecting it. But he
was happy to say that he was now on the verge of explana-
tions which would enable him to place his conduct in its
true light before the world ; and he could assure his friends
that he should be able then to show, on the most indis-
putable evidence, that he had " been more sinned against
than sinned "

Referring to some local attacks, he said :
He had instructed his solicitor, by the advice of 3lr.
Solemn Wilkins, to apply for a criminal informati3n
against the proprietor of the one•sid€d peAny publication
which had indulged in these gross Mande!! kgainst

N OVEMBER 15. 1856.

Yitcraturt.

Speeches of Eminent British Statesmen during the
Thirty-nine Years Peace. Second Series.
London : Griffin and Co.
IT is much to be desired that a competent
editor would select some of the choicest
specimens of the eloquence of the English
Senate and print them in a form convenient
and useful. We are convinced that, from the
importance of their subjects, as well as from
the intrinsic abilities of the speakers, a
vast number of the orations delivered since
the introduction of parliamentary reporting
richly merit preservation, as having strong
claims to classical rank in our English litera-
ture. Some of them, even when devoid of
passion and elevated diction, deserve to be
admired for the cogency of their reasoning;
and there are many amongst them which are
models of the didactic style, in which com-
plex questions are discussed and solved in
presence of a mixed audience. It is true that
there have been numerous compilations of our
English orators ; but there is no one work on
the subject deserving of a place in a gentleman's
library. Hansard, alone, would cover a side
of a room, awl " Wright's Parliamentary
History" is a work more for reference than
reading. A collection of some sixty speeches,
culled from the mass of our political harangues,
and judiciously illustrated, would be a most
valuable preser.t to the public, and might be
eminently useful as exhibiting the best models
of various styles.
The speeches in the volume before us have
been selected without any fixed rule for
choice. We have here single speeches from
• Mr. Macaulay (tie follow the order of arrange-
ment), the Earl of Derby, Lord Brougham,
Lord Althorp, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Sheil, Mr.
C. P Villiers, Lord Melbourne, Lord Ripon,
Sir R. Peel, Lord Palmerston, and Lord
Lyndhurst. The selection is evidently made
by one not versed in political mutters, or
familiar with the finest efforts of the various
speakers. Not one of the speakers (if they
could be consulted) would approve of the
choice made, with the single exception of the
present Premier. The editor has taken the
speech of Lord Palmerston in the Pacifico
debate (June 25, 1850) as an example of the
Viscount's eloquence. Beyoed doubt that
speech was the best ever made by the Premier,
and it was none the worse for having under-
gone a long process of incubation. It was
spoken on a subject with which he was com-
pletely familiar, and he had fully a fortnight
for its preparation. It was well delivered.
and had nothing of the jauntiness which gives
so trivial an expression to the Premier's ordi-
nary efforts. It also deserves praise for
having compressed a large amount of matter
into a four hours' address. There is one par-
ticular ppssple in it to which we shall call
special attention.
It will be recollected that in the debate in
the House of Lords the Earl of Derby had,
with much poignant wit and ridicule, exposed
the whole absurdity of the Pacifico business
with the most effective sarcasm. Lord
Palmerston, in the House of Commons, took a
gilive tone, and thus affected to rebuke Lord
Derby :
In discussing these cases I am concerned to have to say
that they appear to me to have been dealt with elsewhere
in a spirit and in a tone which I think was neither befitting
the nersons concerning whom, nor the persons by whom,
nor the persons before whom, the discussion took place.
It is otter more convenient to treat matters with ridicule
than with grave argument, and we have had senous things
treated jocosely, and grave men kept in a roar of laughter
for an hour together at the poverty of one sufferer or at
the miserable habitation of another; at the nationality of
one injured man or the religion of another: as if because
man was poor he might be bastinadotd and tortured with
impunity ; as if a man who was born in Scotlana might be
robbed without redress, or because a man is of the Jewish
persuasion he is fair game fur any outrage. It is a true
sqving, and has often been repeated, that a very moderate
share of human wisdom is sufficient fur the guidance of
LIIIIII4II affairs. but there is another truth equally indis-
putable, which i that a man who aspires to govern
mankind ought to bring to the task generous sentiments,
compassionate sympathies, 112 d noble and elevated thoughts.
That taunt brought down many party cheers.
But tie ask the Premier's flatterers to recollect
the constant levity which from first to last has

THE PRESS.

accompanied his career Even when a
Dritish army was rotting in rags, and when
" horrible and heartrending " accounts had
shocked the country so much so that the
ordinary places of public amusement were
nearly deserted, and festive intercourse sus-
pended,even then the spirit of a Merry Andrew
too often animated the present Premier on
his legs. Joe Millers trickled from his lips ;
the grimace was on his countenance ; our
weekly comic contemporary grew jealous of
its rival in the House of Commons ; and,
amidst the cheers of a full house, Mr Bright,
some months afterwards, delivered such a
lecture to Lord Palmerston as no parliamen-
tary leader ever received in our days. The
speeches delivered by Lord Palmerston during
the Coalition would not suit the tone of the
above extract. These speeches, to use his
own words, were neither " befitting the per-
" sons concerning whom, nor the persons by
" whom, nor the persons before whom, the
" discussion took place ;" and it is a pity that
the Premier then did not give the Crimean army
the benefit of the " generous sentiments and
" compassionate sympathies " which he had
so profusely lavished on Don Pacifico.
The best speech for closet reading in this
volume is the address of Mr. Macaulay (Feb
6th, 1833), on the " Repeal of the Union." It
reads well, but it had only moderate success
on delivery, because it was delivered out of
season. It was spoken on the debate upon
the Address in the first Reformed Parliament ;
and Mr. O'Connell, with masterly art, declined
to bring Repeal before the House, but fought
a battle against the Whigs with unparalleled
truculence of tone. Mr. Macaulay's essay
(for it is substantially one) fell rather fiat,
therefore, as being obviously a set speech.
The following passage in that speech told
well at the time, when it was cheered by a
crowded house. Addressing himself to Mr.
O'Connell, Mr. Macaulay said :

I can assure him that men who faced the cry of No
Popery are not likely to be scared by the cry of Repeal.
The time will come when history will do justice to the
NVhigs of England, and will faithfully relate how much they
did and suffered for Ireland ; how, for the sake of Ireland,
they quitted office in 1807 ; how, for the sake of Ireland,
they remained out of office more than twenty years, braving
the frowns of the Court, braving the hisses of the multi-
tude, renouncing power, and patronage, and salaries, and
peerages, and garters, and yet not obtaining in return even
a little fleeting popularity. I see on the benches near me
men who might by uttering one word against Catholic
emancipation—nay, by merely abstaining from uttering a
word in favour of Catholic emancipation—have been re-
turned to this house without difficulty or expense, and who,
rather than wrong their Irish fellow•subjects, were content
to relinquish all the objects of their honourable ambition,
and to retire into private life with conscience and fame un-
tarnished. As to one eminent person, who seems to be
regarded with especial malevolence by those who ought
never to mention his name without reverence and grati-
tude, I will only say this :—that the loudest clamour which
the honourable and I..arned gentleman can excite against
Lord Grey will be trifling when compared with the clamour
which Lord Grey withstood in order to place the honour-
able and learned gentleman where he now sits. Though a
young member of the Whig party, I will venture to speak
in the name of the whole body. I tell the honourable ass
learned gentleman, that the same spirit which sustained us
in a just contest for him will sustain us in an equally just
cortest against him. Calumny, abuse, royal displeasure,
popular fury, exclusion from office, exclusion from Parlia-
ment, we were ready to endure them all, rather than that
he Qhmild be less than a British subject. We never will
safer him to be more.

But in two years afterwards the Whigs
truckled to O'Connell, and swelled his tribute
money with largesses from the house of
Russell ; and in Lichfield-house a different
language was held from that taken by Mr.
Macaulay. O'Connell triumphed over the
Whigs, and with their concurrence he crowned
himself on Jura Hill ; and it was reserved for
the Conservatives not to allow him "to be
" more than a British subject."
The address of Mr. Stanley (Lord Derby)
in 1833, on the plan for emancipation of the
negroes, is a most able argument, without
claptrap declamation, and exhibiting all the
sinewy strength of the eloquent speaker's
style. It reads like au historical retrospect of
the whole question of negro emancipation,
and we do not doubt but that it would be read
with interest now in America. In commenc-
ing his review of the labours of Parliament
on the subject, Lord Derby observed :

So long ago as the year 1792 (and then, with an
ap logy for his plan having remained unmatured and unex-
hvotel to the public for twelve years) Mr. Burke, in his
celebrated letter to Mr. Dandas, disclosed his plan for

hors.

1095

what he called a Negro Code, and said " that he was con-
vinced the true origin of the slave trade Wad not in the
place it began at, but in the place of its final destination ;"
he then said, I was, therefore, and still am of opinion,
that the whole work ought to he taken up together, end
that the gradual abolition of slavery in the West Indies
should go hand in hand with anything which is done to put
a stop to the supply of negroes from the coast of Africa."
Together with this letter, Mr. Burke inclosed his Negro
Code, embracing regulations for trade, and containing
provisions for putting an end to the system of slavery in
the colonies. The preamble is so remarkable that he
would beg to trouble the house with it. The preamble
began by saying, " Whereas it is expedient, and conform-
able to the principles of the Christian religion, the dictates
of morality, and the rules of sound policy, that an end
should be put to all traffic in the persons of men, and to
the detention of such persons in slavery, as soon as the
same can be effected without great inconveniences from a
sudden change of practices long established ; and during
the continuance of those practices, it is desirable to intro-
duce some regulations to lessen the inconveniences of such
traffic and detention .n servitude until both can gradually
be done away with," (U.
It is remarkable that amidst his other extra-
ordinery labours Burke should have produced
a Negro Code. He was prior even to
Wilberforce and Clarkson in his labours on
the subject, which he commenced to study in
1780. Wilberforce, in his " Diary." records
what enormous knowledge Burke possessed
on the West India question; and down to
1826 the Negro Code of Burke remained in
action, though it was avowedly only an attempt
at compromise. Wilberforce, we recolb,et,
regretted that Burke's morose manner, after
his fall from office in 1784, rendered it
difficult to associate with him. The pre-
amble to Burke's bill, as mentioned in the
foregoing extract, is noticeable for many
reasons. It affirms the principle of slavery
being anti-Christian and anti-social; but it
recognises the difficulty arising from " sudden
" change of practices long established." This
is the germ of the mighty question now so
ardently discussed in America
The speech of Lord Brougham for imme-
diate emancipation of the negro apprentices
(House of Lords, Feb. 20, 1838) is too wordy,
and is too much in the nature of a mere
harangue. We must observe that the fame of
Brougham as an orator was much raised in the
House of Commons by the short and rapid
bursts of vehement expostulation which used
to come from him in committee debates. In
short speeches, like that of Sheridan on the
mutiny at the Nore and on the press (1810),
laurels are often given denied to more elabo-
rate efforts. Some of the finest things that
have ever come from Lord Brougham were in
his short speeches not reported in Hansard.
A similar remark Applies to many other pat-
liamentary celebrities.
We cannot commend the editorial execution
of this volume. The choice of speeches is too
arbitrary. It professes to be matte " from the
" passing of the Reform Bill to the corn-
" mencement of the Russian War," and yet it
does not give a single specimen of the late or
of the present Earl Grey, or of Lord John
Russell,o or Mr. Disraeli, or Mr. Gladstone, or
Sir William Follett, or Sir James Graham !
We hope that some competent person will yet
he found to select the great orations delivered
in our age.

By the Author of Amy Herbert."
London ; Longmans.
IN the department of fiction she has chosen
Miss Sewell has certainly no superior ; we
are almost inclined to add, no rival. We do
not think that the department is a very high
one, or, what is more, a very useful one, but
the authoress has by long practice and obse-
vation of life and unwearied application to '
art succeeded in attaining a pitch of
levee which writers of higher talent
well envy. In her present novel a
very slight, but the action never
Throughout two closely-written
attention is rivetted upon one r
the same time the incidentr
rally out of one another, ar
and easily diversified, the'
no temptation to skint
Lady Augusta Clare
woman, is the kind r
stepmother of the
affectionate, and
willed, imperie
tion has incr