The Sun.
London, England, 1864-08-11 00:00:00

Grey and Ripon, and Hartington. Nor is this all
'the New Zealander will not only conclude that
there were two or three Lord Palmerstons in the
course of the century, but that there must have been
more than one at the same time, and that they must
all have been very young men too. The proof of
this he will adduce from the fact that this Lord.
Palmerston, even so late as 1864, appears to be in
various places simultaneously. One day he is stated-
to be in Northamptonshire, the next day he is in
London ; again he is the subject of a public ovation
at Bradford, the next instant he is at half-a.dozen
other places, and before the distances could
well be
traversed he is again Prime Minister in London.
Then there are 20 speeches, all purporting to be de'
livered within a fortnight of each other by a "ilord
Palmerston ;" and it is quite clear that, even if one
man could have made them all, they are in as many'
varieties of style, and that they are therefore the
speeches of different persons. No man could be at
once an incipient Statesman iu 1804 and a young
Prime Minister in 1561; nor can any man be in
twenty places and make as many speeches in ne
many styles in half the number of days. The de-
duction of the historical essayist in New Zealand
will therefore be clear that there were not only:seve4
ral Lord Palmerstons in England during the nine'
teenth century, but that there were several simul-
taneously. It will be construed to bo merely an
official title taken by many, and not dissimilar to
that which a French journal less pardonably termed,
some time ago, " Lord Chiltern Hundreds, an Office
in her Majesty's household." We are very Bar*"
to reflect that there is a limit to political activity in
producing public reputation, and that the haze
tt
antiquity tends to lend a doubt whether a greao
variety of actions extending over a corresponding
variety of time can reasonably be ascribed to a single
individual, For ourselves, we have a good old C°l34
servative belief that there was one Hengist, 0"
Hercules, one Zoroaster—and only one; and s 0 00.
But, nevertheless, we cannot wholly dispel our
prehension that it may at some distant period be A'
favourite subject for college essays in New Zealand
—" How many Palmerstons were there in the Dine:.
teenth century ? and could there have been less than
three Palmerstons at any one time ?" It
is the con-
verse of Whately's " Historic Doubts;"
and the 8"
guments for the übiquity or plurality of Palmerston
will beat all those that have been raised for he
vagueness of Napoleon. At Bradford, certainly'
Lord Palmerston has come forward in anything but
is
the character of a Minister to whom business
wearisome or fatiguing. " The more the merrier,..o
is, in fact, the drift of his speech from first to lasbl
The first care of the hardest working Premier yin
has ever governed England was to expose a PeP-oi
lar fallacy concerning " the labours and anxieties e
office." He tells at once that ho believes these
labours and anxieties to be a sheer chimera- IL;artl
man's testimony is to be taken on such a subject,
I
the verdict of a Minister who has had an officias
experience of fifty years, and whose activity ilss
absorbed all the duties of every office that he d 0
held, certainly ought to be conclusive. If Pau at
your duty, Lord Palmerston says in effect, W d
business have you to complain of labours an
anxieties ? If you don't, then, no doubt, you 111-0..
very well be harassed. All this work and resr„.
sibility seems mere child's play to Lord Painacrst%
It is only to be compared to rolling a stone d„ciwica
hill. One thing, however, Lord Palmerston au° d
to harass even him. It is, whatever " time anh
opportunity prevent him from doing." That
4%1
Ministers do, he tells us, is to them a source of 8,1
faction; they are of the nature of anvils; net".l,7;
wearies them; nothing puts their adminietr,a—rd
machinery out of gear. Can, again, this be the -us
erg
Palmerston of sixty years ago ? Perhaps, howevtehr;
his lordship's character is best to be described in
words he has himself used to shadow out the Peelid;
liarities of the English people ; and these w,er,i,
seems to have caught the fancy of the peopf
Bradford. " The English character," sills
o-
d
Palmerston, " is marked by perseverance, iridust
enterprise, judgment, and courage in pursuing t‘he
which has been undertaken." This he tel
people of Bradford, represents especially their °W,h
character, for they have done wonders thon,7A
perseverance and hard labour ; they have converted
a great and barren moor into a great and thrivings
commezcial town, though in fact their progress
but begun, and Bradford is destined to see grew,'
days. All this must be very pleasant to the Britz.a;
fordites ; but, whatever may be the fulfilment of the
prediction there can be no doubt that, as fasrth:
things have gone at present, Bradford deser
fveel icity
encomium passed upon it. With the same
Lord Palmerston passes on to other subjects ;
told
swers the knight of Northamptonshire, who
him at Towcester that he had
while his colleagues got nothing of all the halfpence
but kicks,by EaY
that
that the merits of the Administration were in
marked degree the collective merits of all, and the
no other Cabinet ever possessed a greater proportion
an-
of men of first-class intellect. Possibly this is true!!
but at the same time popular instincts are not often
very wide of the mark ; and when everybody oluri
bines to think that all these first-eiass men would
do but little without Lord Palmerston, it been°, e"
hard to gainsay the universality of the opinion;
The country is generally inclined to think that '
owes more to Lord Palmerston than it has owed t:
any man since the Duke of Wellington ; and weal
inclined to think that, however partial its dis2°s".
tion, its judgment is not altogether inaccurate.