The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-11 00:00:00

THE LATE

WEBSTER.

(I rom the Times)
To the remarkable deaths which will hereafter
signalize the obituary of 1852 we may now add that
of the man who by common consent was reputed the
greatest among the statesmen of the New World.
The knowledge generally possessed by Englishmen
respecting the life and services of Daniel Webster
will, perhaps, hardly prepare them for the sensation
which his decease has created in the country of his
birth. He is spoken of in America almost as Peel
was spoken of in England. The journals of the
States appear in mourning for the departed states-
. .

man, writers of all political denominations concur i❑
eulogistic biographies, and the reception of the intel-
ligence in every town of the Union is chronicled with
uniform testimony to the popularity of the subject,
As far, indeed, as concurrence of admiration can be

taken for proof, we should be justified in ranking
Daniel Webster among the truly great men of
his age.
in this opinion, however, it is not probable that the
voice of Europe or the decision of history will en-
tirely concur. The truth is, that Mr. Webster's re-
putation was eminently American, and the apparent
randeur of its proportions was due in no small de-
gree to that spirit of hyperbole in which the citizens
of the States are accustomed to address themselves

to all national topics. They magnify their statesmen
as they magnify their scenery or their strength, not,
it must be owned, for purposes of delusion, and still
less with the emptiness of Asiatic boasting, but with
the exaggeration incidental to Democratic institutions
and national adolescence. Besides this, Mr. Webster's
qualities appealed directly to the passions and senti-
ments of his countrymen. His oratorical powers
were remarkable, and in no country does popular
oratory exercise so great an influence as in the United
States. Americans are enchained by speeches, and
when Daniel Webster addressed an audience already
predisposed to admiration, his eloquence rarely failed
to rouse them to enthusiasm. In justice to his me-
mory, it should be added that this eloquence was
usually employed on the side of genuine policy. Nor
would it, indeed, be easy, with certain recent excep-
tions, to point out any question in which his
authority was not ultimately exerted in the general
interests of conciliation and peace.
But it was not from this personal gift that Mr.
Webster's reputation derived its most characteristic
feature. He, above all others, was peculiarly the,
person in whom American statesmanship was die-'
played before the eyes of Europe. He was the cub-
ventional representative of his countrymen in their
diplomatic relations with the other great Powers of
the world. It was not that he enjoyed any extraor-
dinary tenure of those Ministerial appointments to
which such functions are committed, hut his terms of
office coincided remarkably with some of the most

critical conjunctures of the foreign policy of the
Union, and to the consideration of these subjects he
brought an extensive store of jurisprudential informa-
tion, great personal aptitudes. and a wisdom, if not
liberality of view, beyond that usually prevailing
around him. It is true that he was an American, but
he was an American who had seen the world, and he
recognized those necessities of international inter-
course for which Republican politicians are sometimes
fain to substitute the suggestions of impulse, interest,
or power. In this capacity he commanded a respect
more universal than attached to him as a Whig sena-
tor or a popular speaker. He tilled with considerable
success what would otherwise have been almost a void
i❑ the pretensions of his countrymen. I❑ him they
saw an American who had not only carried American
elections and guided the discussions of Congress, but
who had met the diplomatists of Europe on fair ground
without discredit, and who enjoyed in the capitals of
the Old World a distinction which in other cases was
limited to the towns of the Union. The extent, if not
the character, of this renown, is sufficiently evinced
by the attention now paid to his memory. We do
not imagine, as we have already intimated, that the
verdict of Europe will altogether support the natural
partialities of America; but, at any rate, the event
❑ow announced will be esteemed of European impor-
tance, and it will be universally admitted that a states-
man of the world has been lost in the senator of
Massachusetts.
It is in this representative capacity that he has
been so remarkably endeared to the people of the
Union, nor was there any more striking feature in the
recent political rivalries than the respect which in the '
most passionate heats of conflict was uniformly paid
to his general pretensions. Even those who opposed
his elevation acknowledged his claims, and so univer-
sally was he recognized as a " great man," that his
adversaries were compelled to show cause why great
men should not always be made Presidents. He was
a distinguished and successful lawyer, a writer of
considerable repute, a triumph orator, a veteran Par-
liamentarian, and, above all, a celebrated American.
It is unfortunate that his latest displays should have
been so unfavourable to his renown. On the present
occasion we should be naturally reluctant to bring
these blemishes conspicuously into view, but it can-
not be denied that the questions of the bay fisheries
and the Lobos Islands placed the departed statesman
in no creditable light either as a Minister or a civilian.
We are the less called upon, indeed, to conceal or
qualify our opinions, since the instice of our strictures
was afterwards confirmed by the reversal of American
policy in Mr. Webster's own hands. Either from
declining strength or incidental disability, or some
increase of that extraneous bias from which few
American politicians can remain exempt, it is manifest
that he took a wrong course, without evidence of any
laudable motive. In his earlier views of foreign
policy he was both mere successful and correct. At
various times it became his duty to assist at or con-
duct some of the most important negotiations in
which the Government of the Union was ever engaged.
The North• Eastern boundary, the provisions of
mutual extradition, the right of search on the high
sea-, and the Oregon frontier constituted successive
questions of policy, involving the highest interests of
more than one State, and in all these discussions the
influence of Mr. kVebster's authority was both power-
fully and meritoriously evinced. On paints, too,
of more exclusively local interest, such as the
annexation of Texas, the Mexican war, the reception
of new States into the Union, and the compromise of
the slavery disputes, his voice was heard on the side
of moderation and equity. Indeed, when not biased
by the temptations of party, or swayed by the pres-
sure of a political crisis, he was far too sagacious to
be seduced into error or excess, and his support might
be confidently anticipated by the promoters of right
and reason.

There is nothing surprising in the esteem and affec-
tion with which his name is now regarded throughout
the provinces of the States, for his very faults were
the faults of his countrymen, cherished for their plea-
sure, and caricatured for their benefit. In many re-
spects—in his oratory, for instance, in his popularity,
and in his eminent nationality—he presents a marked
resemblance to Daniel O'Connell; but he enjoys this
superiority over the great agitator, that he never seri-
ously designed to lead his countrymen astray. If he
talked to them after their own fashion, he rarely car-
ri,4l these popular views into the practical administra-
tion of the State ; and if his resistance to public ex-
travagance was not always what might have been de-
sired, it was perhaps as much as could be attempted.
lie was beyond all doubt an accomplished scholar, an
acute lawyer, an experienced diplomatist, and a great
statesman. In this last capacity his proceedings were
occasionally opposed to our ideas of such a character,
but it must be remembered that statesmen are ad-
justed to States, and a Minister who can secure the
permanent approbation of his own countrymen with
as fair a renown abroad as was enjoyed by Daniel
Webster, has achieved as much glory as even the best
politicians are likely to obtain.

FORTUNE-TELLING.--A. fellow,named Tattersall, who
has just been committed to the Rochdale House of Cor-
rection, a short time ego induced a woman, named Ann
Howard, of Facit, near Rochdale, to believe that he pos-
sessed certain supernatural powers; and, amongst other
marvellous revelations, he told her that she was under
the power of some mysterious euchantment, from which
he would deliver her on the payment of ss. The woman
paid the money, and in consequence of a promise she had
made to give herself and children to bo controlled by
him, she became very unhappy, supposing that she had
by that promise rendered herself subject to an infernal
power, from which she could not be released. Her fears
became so alarming as ultimately to dethrone reason,
and aho has been conveyed by the local authorities to
the lunatic asylum.

FATAL RAILWAY ACCIDENT.—On Sunday evening,
an accident, resulting in the death of two highly re-
spectable persons, took place at the Seaforth station of
the Liverpool, Crosby, and Southport Railway. Mr.
Edward Hamnett, of Islington, Liverpool, principal of
an eminent firm in that town, was, with his niece, a
governess in a school at Seaforth, waiting for the arrival
of the 8 p.m. train from that station to Liverpool. It
was rather stormy at the time, and on the arrival of the
train a great many passengers rushed to obtain seats.
Mr. Hamnett, who is upwards of 80 years of ago, was
also endeavouring to obtain a seat, and was getting into
a carriage when the train begin to move off, when ho
'et go tne handle of the carriage door, and, with his
niece, who had hold of his arm at the time, was dragged
under the carriages, and both were instantaneously
THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE Gos.
pan IN FOSEIGN PARTS.—During the past year this society
has paid the following sums in aid of the operations of
the Church in the several colonial dioceses : Madras,
10,905/. ; Calcutta, 9,917/. ; Quebec and Montreal, 7,990/. ;
:
Newfoundland. 6,421/ ; Toronto, 5,338/. ; Nova Scotia, 5,022/ ;
Fredericton, New Brunswick, 5,1431 ; Cape Town, 3,302 ;
Sydney, 2,832'. ; Melbourne, 1,197/. ; Colombo, Ceylon,
1,284/. ; Jamaica, 1,684/. ; Tasmania, Van Diemen's Land,
1,1681.; Guiana, 1,2e31.; Barbadoes, 1,1841.; New Zealand
1,076/. ; Adelaide, 9871. ; Newcastle, Australia, 2761. ; Bo
m'
bay, 5961.; Victoria, China, 123/. ; Antigua, 525/. ; Borneo,
111-
211.; Rupert 's Land, 3191. In addition to these, the
Egypt,society
has granted to Europe, 4741. ; the Seychelles, 2101 ,
5441.; making the total grants, inclading ~ •
78,U0/, operations,