The Sun.
London, England, 1855-06-18 00:00:00

ALBANY FONBLANQUE.

Albany Fonblanque is one of the most distinguished
writers of our time. He is one of the few men who
have shown that they possessed the originality of thought
requisite to form a peculiar and distinctive style, with
the flexibility of attention and sympathy indispensable
for the useful treatment of every-day affairs. Unrivalled
in the power of epigram, his mind seems instinctively
to seek out the portion of every subject which, practi-
cally, most needs to be lighted up by sparkling anecdote
or humour. And yet a sense of grave responsibility is
ever present to him ; and his varied faculties of illustra-
tion and sarcasm are habitually held subordinate to the
fixed and earnest purpose of a man who loves the truth,
and who through life has ever been as ready to do battle
for it when unpopular as in the noontide of success and
recognition. In a word, Mr. Fonblanque is a man of
genuine worth as well as of genuine wit. He has been
the consistent and courageous advocate of nearly every
great measure of popular good for which a serious
struggle has been waged in this country during the last
thirty years ; and the chief cause why it is not easy to
designate the value of the services he has rendered to
the public lies in the versatility of the talents that have
been in turn devoted to every object on the attainment
of which the people have sgt theifhearts. •••,, 4
And this is the man whose appointment—to an office
of 8001. a year our administrative doctrinaires of the
Gladstone and Trevelyan school would single out as an
instance of what needs reformation in our civil service

"The abilities of Mr. Fonblnnque," said Sir S. North-
cote in Friday night's debate, "I do not deny ; but
being a total stranger to the department into which he
was imported in 1847, his nomination may be taken as
an example of the thoroughly vicious' system on which
our public offices are constituted." Had a dictum so

ineffably presumptuous and absurd fallen from other lips
in any other place we should not have deemed it de-
serving of notice. Bat, apart from the circumstances to
which we are about to refer, we perceive without wonder
but not without regret, that the folly and injustice of
the sentiments thus expressed, met with as much of an
approving response when uttered as the attenuated con-
dition othe house during the hon. baronet's speech
could well afford. The instincts of resentment and aver-
sion towards one who, as a literary tribune of the people,
has often lashed the short-comings of oligarchy, both in
office and in Parliament, may possibly be thought only
natural. But we venture to suggest to the gentlemen
who joined by their cheers in the attack thus made upon
the rightful claims of men of letters to a share in the A-
dministration, that it would be more prudent in them to
adhere to the pretence of fair play, and not needlessly to
exasperate those feelings of hostility that are daily
growing up between Parliament and the press. Is it
not enough that these hereditary monopolists of power,
and dignity, and pay should have systematically ignored,
with few and rare exceptions, the civil existence of the
class who more than any other in the community govern
opinion and influence public affairs ? Or is it because,
as a class, men of letters have never asserted in this
country the full measure of their political rights, that
whipaters of quality and Treasury hacks and the whole
rank and file of jobbery think they may with impunity
raise a shout when wanton insult is offered to a man
who has contributed more in his time to the instruction
and improvement of governors as well as governed than
their whole tribe put together? It is highly to the credit
of Mr. Labouchere, by whom the appointment in.ques-
tion was made, that he should not only defend it as spe-
cifically unobjectionable, but that he should have ern•
phatically declared the satisfaction he continued to feel
at having had it in his power to recognise the claims of
one so distinguished as a writer. But it may be. per-
hap, as well to state shortly the true history of this
curiously misrepresented case.
The statistical department of the Board of Trade was
originally formed under the direction of Mr. Deacon
Hume, and placed under the superintendence of the late
Mr. Porter. Sir S. Northcote is lavish of his praise of
the constitution and the working of the department so
formed ; but he forgets, in his eagerness, to render the
civil service a close and exclusive profession, to state
that Mr. Porter-was himself originally engaged in mer-
cantile pursuits, and that he Ntas taken from them to
aid in the conduct of an executive department. But
this, it will perhaps be said, was done by the Whigs.
There is another curious incident in the History of the
Board of Trade under Peelite management, which it is
still more edifying to find that the hon, baronet•has for-
gotten. From being private secretary to Mr. Gladstone
he was himself promoted to be assistant-secretary in the
Board of Trade, an office which began and ended with
him, for upon hii retirement it was found to be super-
fluous, and was consequently abolished. Wo do not
assert that during his sojourn in the department Sir S.
Northcote may not have contrived to find useful and
honourable occupation ; but we submit that under the
circumstances, ho is about the last man who ought to
raise a cry of prejudice against what he is pleased to
term " strangers" being imported into a particular
branch of the service. We are far from wishing to
undervalue the results of Mr. Porter's labours as a
statistician. Nor do we think it necessary to argue that
other and higher posts might have been more appropri-
ately offered to a man of the diversified experience and
information -of Mr. Fonblanque. But common justice
requires, as the question ha 4 been raised, that a judg-
ment should be expressed upon the comparative merits
of the official works formerly published by the Board of
Trade and those of more recent date. There is not, we be-
lieve, a man who has had frequent occasion to consult, for
purposes of study, the undigested compilations of ten
years ago. relative to trade and navigation, and the ad-
mirable digests lately issued by the statistical depart-
ment, who will hesitate as to which deserve the prefer-
ence. Mr. Fonblimque would be the last man, we are
satisfied, who would seek to appropriate the undivided
credit of the works last mentioned, mus.th of which is
unquestionably due to Mr. Valpy and other gentlemen
who act under him. But when invidious comparisons
are rashly and recklessly instituted the public will in-
sist on seeing both sides, and happily, in this instance,
the individual availed is not likely to be injured by full
inquiry. We frankly own, indeed, that Mr. Fonblanque
is open to two great charges. He is not'connected with
the aristocracy, and he has often let the world hear him
laugh at the pedantry and pretensions of Puseyite and
I'eehte politicians. In mitigation of the former offence
we have nothing to say. We bare no doubt that had he
been a man of family, like the Hon. Francis Lawler for
example, he would have been deemed qualified by right
divine for any executive office in the State ; he might
have been able to point to nothing previously done worth
mentioning as a warrant of his capacity or as a claim of
merit ; but if his father had been a peer, or if he himself
happened to be member for a rotten borough, he might
readily have secured at six and twenty something very
different in rank and profit from the post which is now
grudged to him. As to the latter crime, that of exercis-
ing the right of private judgment in a public way, and
of chastising the follies and errors of public men, in the
best English, with the keenest wit, we confess our in-
ability to say more within the bounds of temper and for-
bearance than we have already done.—Laily News.