The Express.
London, England, 1859-01-11 00:00:00

(Stamped !d. Acklitioad.) [T

TBE COKING SESSION.

(From the Eclectic Review.)
There is always a certain degree of curiosity felt
at the beginning of a seseion as to the position which indivi-
duals of note and their adherents may take in either house of
parliament. In the Leith., the vacillating element generally
gravitates towards its natural place on the cross benches,
which are algal& antly open st both ends, as if to enable
our modem trimmers the more easily to slide alterna-
tively into either of the opposite scales. Ex-ministers,
who think they have not been sufficiently appreciated,
or who have splintered of from their friends on some
special question, think It dignthed to sulk conaptcsionaly
on them equivocal ceehions; and flatter themselves that at
each recurring pinch they are of more importance when they
rise to pronounce theft respective opinions. After the break-
up of Sr Hobert Peel's government, in 1848, the late Duke
of Wellington always eat on the moos bench nearest to
the table; wishing it to be understood, that though he re-
tained the command of the army he was rowdy to take his
sham as a peer in the work of legislation, though he had
done with party politics. Here siso sat the bite Earl Grey,
when on rare occasions he attended the home, after his
retirement from office in 1834. And here may now be
seen the liberally-dispmed bed Whirdistruming Duke
of Newcastle, who hen had the ill luck to be sought sad sa-
crificed by alt parties in turn; and who has, nevertheless, a
very good chance of being one day or other premier. The
Court never disguised its feeling that he was hardly dealt
with in 1855. Lord John Russell was quite right in thinking
that he wail not the beat man for Minister of War; but Lord
Aberdeen erred lamentably in not deciding so in time: and
the Pashto ham hardly been yet thoroughly forgiven by his
grew, for remaining in office after he had been thrown over-
board. There den base doubt that the old earl heal& he
owed him some amends; end If rumour he not wridlTYTaTes,
he leas IMllutte last spring to use the influence he peewees
in high quarters, to have him placed at toe heed of a new
coelitioa. The attempt was premature, and the project
failed. Meanwhile the duke has agreed to accept the useful,
thonghuopolitical post of President of the Commission of
Enquiry into National Education, for the duties of which, his
unwearied indutry, and entire freedom from eectarian ex-
clusivenem, eminently fit him. Lord Aberdeen .it last ses-
sion a little apart from, but not very far off the Whig chiefs
on the Opposition side. There also sat Lord Shaftesbury,
and some- few other member. of the Caelton Club, who had
supported the Palmerston government, and who warmly re-
sented its overthrew.
Lord Lyndhurst sticks to his party more steadily than
most of his forensic and political contemporaries have done.
Every afternoon that the hours sat last session be might be
seen creeping steadily to his place behind the ministers se the
dial pointed to five • and there he would sit watching pater-
nally over their proceedings, and occsaionallv interchanging
observation@ with more than one of them. Mever were such
speeches delivered on such • variety of topics, and delivered so
impreesively, by a man in his eighty-fifth year. Other old men
of genies seem to be now and then rekindled by some exciting
occasion into a transient blaze of light we believed we had
lost ; but when the resuscitating breath of the passing emotion
subside', the eye grows dim and the hand fells, end the
tones of the eloquent voice grow faint and inarticulate once
more. It is not so with Lord Lyndhurst. All the impulse
and sustaining power with him seem to come from within.
Instead of growing fitful or dull with age, his political judg-
ment memo, like choice wine, only to ripen more and more
perfectly as it grows old. His grasp of facts, whether fami-
liar or strange, is as easy and firm as it was half a watery
ago; End his power of arrangement and exposition remains,
what it always was, unrivalled. A reply of Lord Claren-
doles to one of his rearehing and suggestive speeches
on foreign affairs used to remind one of the tuning of
the orchestra after a symphony of Beethoven's. We hear
that the illustrious octogenarian has worn well this winter,
end that he is ready to rename his post of Nester in the con-
servative host when parliament meets. Lord Brougham,
who likes to spend December and January at Lis seat near
Cannes, will probably be there too, sage( to press on the
Chancellor the propriety of taking early in head some of the
various measures of law amendment which Sir Fitzroy Kelly
has been preparing during the meas. And there will un-
doubtedly be Lord Granville, with • smile mad a shake of the
hand for everybody ; and the Duke of Aegyll, with his tire-
some though tart commonplace, for all who will lend an ear.
Nor is it likely that Lord Grey, acrid and arrogant, but
always able, will be absent. Haughty and independent
as he whoa name be beam, and inheriting much of his talent
end all his tenacity of opinion, the present Earl Grey is a
man to whom may be applied the memorable words in which
Chatham described a distinguished opponent, es " one whom
early errore had not tested with his youth, end who had re-
mained uninstructed in spite of experience." By his way-
ward and petulant conduct in 1839, when he quitted the
Melbourne cabinet sooner than tolerate the ballot being made
an open question, he contributed essentially to the final fall
of the liberal administration. Excluded from the coalition
in 1853, he endeavoured to deter parliament from lending
its enaction to the Rambla war ; and he consoled himself
by periodically copies at the policy of the Pal-
merston cabinet, criticising its mesaures, and contri-
buting, as far as in him lay, to precipitate its fall.
Since that event ',fled Grey has probably felt less un-
happy within himself; and he has certainly displayed more
sense of vigour. He is beyond comparison the best debater
and the beat-reed politician that the whip have among
them in the Upper House. He may well aspire, therefore,
to be their future leader there; and hie thorough-going
advocacy of whet are genet:illy understood to be the palace,
views of foreign affairs, may render him possibly not unac-
ceptable as • future minister. But it must be understood,
whenever Lord Grey is summoned to the royal closet, that it
will be to aid In the formation of a government of resistance,
not onset progress.
In the Commons there ere no cross benches, though there
have been of late no lack of persons who might appropriately
occupy them. After ea many political furious and severances,
coalitions for sake of office, and piebald combinations to
achieve objects common to various parties in opposition, it
could not well be otherwise. After each cabinet wreck there
have sleety. been an additional number of spars cut tome on
the waters, and obeervsble for some time floating about un-
certain apparently whither they were drifting. Afterthe last
general election the case of more than one individual of note
wee ludicrously diatreesing. It took some time for the irre-
solute who had survived their faith in old party leaders, to
make up their minds on what patticular cushion they could
sit most independently, and at the saute time preeerve the
I =ostensible show of premed coneistenty. The large
of new members rendered this in many reepects
I seem difficult, and when at the beginning of laid year the
"only possible government" was summarily oathiered, and
the overwhelming majority it boasted of was broken up, the
perplexity of parliamentary egotism., each in search of a knoll
where it might raise a conspicuous flag of its own, became
wholly indescribable. We could nares more than one politician
of note who literally could nut make up his mind where to
I sit, or even on which side of the house to settle for many
I days, if not weeks, after the Derby administration resumed
the reins of power, and the story is told of a well-known
personage who imported the lobbies and galleries fur the
Abet fortnight before be could bring his right honourable
up to the mark of plunging T
heo the body of the
Lome,onscious that however straight might dive, he
must commit himself by coming up on one side or other. It
I was strange to see Sir James Graham holding on to his pre- I
elms anchor just below the gangway on the ministerial side,
after every occupant of the Treasury Bench had been
°banged, in consequeoce of the vote of censure of the 19th of
February. The reason he aerigued was, we believe, the ge- ,
veins one—that, utterly severed though he might be from
the new government, he felt lees objection to sit on the
I same side with them than to cross the house with Lord I
Palmerston, whom of all political men he regards with
I antipathy end distrust. Sir James has, of late years, got
beck by degrees to most of his early opirtione, and we have
a sort of conviction that he will take the first opportunity to
declare himself strongly iu favour of tborough.going reform,
When pressed last year to take the lead by coming out deci-
eively tor the ballot, he intimated his belief that it most
come, and that he did not intend to vote any longer against
it ; but after so many changes as he had made of party ties
and connexions., he did not like to seem eager to run ahead
of other men to win popularity. If anything, however can
be deemed certain in a future like that now before um, It la
that the veteran member for Carlisle must occupy a place in
whatever administration emoted+ that of Lord Derby. Under
Lord Palmerston he could hardly with honour consent, in-
deed, to act, and he would hardly be asked to do so. The
chances, however are too small to be worth counting of his
o'l4l
1.111 being called en again to deform a government.
Near to Sir James Graham last year eat, etrange to say,
Mr. Stuart Wortley, whom Lord Palmerston had chorea to
put over the heads of ell the liberal bar, and to make Solicitor
General ; and between him and Sir James Graham through-
out last tension he was to be seen, who by general commit is
now acknowledged se the find orator of the senate, the mem-
ber for the University of Oxford.
Will Mr. Gledstone's place be meant when the House
meetn in February or will he have returned from big lonian
adventure in quest of administrative fame? When asked
to anderothe the theokleas end irksome duty of inquiring
into the grievances of the Septineular Confederation he
to believed to have at tint dectioed ; end his subsequent
seceptance of the Commireionerehip Extraordinary
is said to have been the remit of a com•
munication made through the Duke of Newcastle, expressive
of wallies higher than nnieteriel. However this may be, it
cannot be denied that in consenting to relieve the colonial
department gro Ade eke, and the government generally, from
the responsibility of deciding on the best means of dealing
with the Greek difficulty, Hr. Gladstone has acted • di
terested and patriotic pert. If it was his intention and that
of his Pettit/ friends who remain on the ci-decant tory side,
to join the administration before Easter, that were all the
stronger lemon why he should not have risked the loss of
previous reputation by undertaking a teak in whose perform-
sacs be wee far more likely to lone than gain popularity at
home. To one so femininely susceptible to ridicule, the pro-
posed plunge into modern Greek politics must have had little
temptation. He could hardly have been unseats that
his recent volumes on the poetry end mythology
of the Homeric age had formed the staple of witty, as of
witless sneers in the society of those who envy and hate the