The Sun.
London, England, 1863-04-22 00:00:00

THE HOUSE OP COMMONS.

"The English House of Commons is one of the most
remarkable assemblies that the world has ever seen, and
almost every ambitious man looks forward to attaining a
seat in it as a possible contingency in his career. What
a bishopric is to the aspiring clergyman, the honour of
being a member of Parliament is to the other professions,
and to the man of family or wealth, whatever his condition
in life may be. Hence it is a motley group, and contains
samples of the piety, patriotism, intellect, chivalry, heroism,
wealth, commerce, and crotchets of this eccentric nation.
These strange elements are, however, held in subjection,
and directed to high and noble purposes, by a few of the
most brilliant intellects of the age; for any man who as-
pires to the honour of being a leader in this assembly must
possess faculties and acquirements of no ordinary kind.
The physical labour alone which he will have to go through
is enough to try the very strongest constitution. But be-
sides this untiring application, he must have mastered a
vast amount of knowledge, and have a deep insight into
human nature ; for the legislation of this assembly must be
adapted to the feelings, prejudices, and religions of almost
every race of mankind. Hark there is a gentleman speak-
ing : his address is quiet ; there is an absence of everything
like excitement about him, and those to whom his words are
addressed : it is a question of foreign policy, and the em-
perors and kings of Europe will not retire to rest until the
electric telegraph has conveyed to them the substance of
what he has said. The eyes of the world are fixed upon
j this quiet senate. Every noble soul throughout Western
Europe who longs to break the fetters which bind his
nation in bondage looks to it for encouragement and hope.
The enslaved all over the world, of every creed and colour,
know that they havo few friends who can help them but
God and the British Parliament. Two hundred millions of
people look to it for law•and protection, and the arms of its
authority encircle the earth. In this for um of the world
who would not desire to excel P

" Every shade of ambition may be distinguished here.
The country squire, looking more doltish and out of place
than he does on the bench at quarter sessions, has struggled
hard and spent a few thousands that he may have the
honour of putting M,P. to his name. The restless dema-
gogue, the canker of a calm world and a long peace,'
who has come uppermost in the seething caldron of politi •
cal agita'ion, is borne here on the breath of promises which
never can be fulfilled. Men -made of money, who have
bought the honour and paid for ir, rising barristers, schem-
ing attorneys, hopeful naval and military officers, younger
sons of old families, heirs t-) lordly estates and dukedoms,
are jostling here with Irish agitators, the Pope's brass
band,' the pink of Nonconformity, and the patrons of the
turf. All these may be seen, but they are seldom heard,
and less frequently listened to. They have come here to
Lind themselves in the company of men whose brilliant
souls, like some electric light, make mankind turn their
eyes away from the sickly glare of rushlight intellects.
Those stars of the first magnitude are few, but they are
there, and it is to them that we are to look for the inter-
pretation of the thoughts and feelings of this great
nation,"

Immediately afterwards we have the following de
seription of

MR. DISRAELI IN THE HOUSE.

" In the front seat on the Conservative side of the House
may be observed a man who, if his hat be off, which it
generally is, is sure to arrest one's attention, and we need
scarcely to be told atter having once seen him that he is
the leader of that great party. He is not old, just turned
fifty, we may suppose, but he bears his age well, what-
ever it rosy be. His face, which was once handsome, is
now "mailed e'er with the pale cast of thought." The
head is long, and the forehead massive and finished. The
eye is restless, but full of fire; the hair black and curly.
Nature has evidently taken some pains to finish the exterior.
But he is about to speak; the debate has assumed a party
Aspect; strong things have been said b ith of him end the
party which he represents; Cobden, Bright, Gladstone,
Osborne, have each hid the lash on their political oppo-
nents, and now it is their turn to receive a chastisement
mom the hand of a skilful operator. He is no sooner on
his feet than the House is bushed in silence; his friends
and backers, who have been galled by the heavy fire of their
opponents, now look up with exultation in their eyes; they
all know that he will say what each one of them would
have said if he had been gifted with the ability to give
exoreesion to the thought that was big within him. His
opponents also know that he is not likely to spare them.
Mr. Gladstone looks restless; Lord John Russell pulls
his hat over his oyes until he looks like a frog under a
fungus; John Bright eyes him with drab pugacity, and
Palmerstoa grimly smiles. The orator in the mean-
time beguiles his audience into a good humoured laugh
and then plunges at once into his subject. He
is at horns everywhere : the roost abstruse figures and
recondite facts—no matter what they may be—are at his
fingers' ends, ripe and ready. The hand on the dial-plate
has travelled on for a whole hour, but we are uncon-
scious of the flight of time, for this luminous exposi-
tion of his subject is only the prelude to a reply which shall
demolish the reasonings of his adversaries. In terse, e,,i-
grammatic sentences, sparkling with wit and barbed with
satire, he retorts on his opponents amidst the grins and
impatience of his rivals and the hearty and enthusiastic

cheers of his friends. Another hour is gone, and still the
Senate is spell-bound by his eloquence. His closing sen-
tence is followed by a tremendous cheer. The squire leaves
the house to eat his pheasant, quite sure that the agricul-
tural interest is safe whilst it has such an advocate, and
the proudest of a proud aristocracy is flattered by his
friendship."

In the closing chapter of this biography Mr. Mill
tells us that his sources of information have been
more than ten thousand pages which Mr. Disraeliof
has written, and many thousands of columns
Hansard which he has spoken. From tifinisvceusareneds
he has compiled for us a very come
P works of
literary
the summary of the chief
the brilliant if
the author of Coningsby f
meteor-
like Vivian Grey, written in his boyhood, down to
and Poor. Mr. Di, - °
raeli's
the Two Nations—Richmany
d Heart-appealing history f
extracts
political history
Mr. Mill truly describes as unique
is
The conflict •
Robertofits
others eniitl
from his speeches.
.with Sir
Peel, which M .
kind, is the subject of two very interesting and
tent Lars,chap followed by important
" Second a The Revolt," Rising from.
tonal Matters," " The Man
character ofnith °i'e"a dP i eenrdg:
Uffice," &c.
Per-
the Opposition,"
In summing up the
le hero of his his-
tory, Mr: Mill particularly rem
tense love of truth and resolutea desire'supon "his
in-
nt ,t,o get at
it if possible ;" his versatility of tal
Tientrh(e)falctea,n”ks,:l
to be many things and succeeding in n
ectrl aspiring
all
of them ;" and his amazing industry—"resoylute,
dogged, able, indefatigable work characterises him
!very where." Beyond all this, says Mr. Mill,
`there is one quality which must commend itself
to every one—his fearlessness in expressing his
thought, whatever it may be, whether in advocating
a Jew Bill or opposing a successful Minister.
English:lA-en always admire pluck." Courage is with
them a primary element iu a noble character, arid
this perhaps is one of the secrets of Mr. Disraeli's
influence. The extracts given from those parlia-
mentary philippics would of themselves render this
volume most attractive. It is worthy of attention, ,
likewise, as affording a very truthful portraiture of

• one of our most distinguished public men, And a
very spirited survey of a most remarkable career.
We cannot say much in commendation of the
writer's style of composition. Such a kind of narra-
tire does not demand eloquent writing; an easy,
simple style is all that is required. But Mr. Mill
goes beyond this, and degenerates occasionally in'co
vulgar colloquisrns; as, for example, when quoting
a passage from Mr. Disraeli's famous discourse at
Slough, the writer goes on to say—" It is scarcely
possible to conceive what a row this speech made.'
Such expressions are beneath the dignity of any
work assuming in the smallest degree the character
of history, and should an opportunity be afforded to
Mr. Mill, he will do well to revise his composition.
As it is he has fulfilled his purpose of suggesting an
encouraging example to the ambitious youth of
England, and of according a public tribute to one
who has so many claims on the admiration of his
countrymen.

Oracles from the British Poets. By 'Limes Smith.
Third Edition. Pp. 175, Virtue, Brothers,

and Co.
We hardly wonder at Mr. James Smith's pretty,
little Drawing Room Table-Book having already
won for itself the honours of a third edition. Those
honours it is really entitled to. The volume, or
rather volumette, is worthy of being reprinted. For
the original notion of the work the compiler acknow-
ledges himself indebted to the skill and fancy of tho
compiler of what Mr. Smith, in the first sentence of
his Preface, frankly calls "its American prototype."
It is only the idea of the book that the English
man-of-letters borrows—not a syllable of the con-
tents—not one solitary quotation. Although the
first title of the little Work (given verbatim at the
head of this notice) is happily enough, and
explicitly enough, " Oracles from the British
Poets :" its second title is almost better—par-
ticularly if, in remembrance of the merry old
adage, "Laugh and Grow Fat,• we apply to this
second title anything like a literal significance—
namely, a " Pleasant Companion for a Bound
Party !" In this suggestion, however, we are
shamefacedly conscious of yielding to the
temptation of indulging in what Charles
,Reade's
lady- mother, in Very Hard Cash, all but faints
over the mere mention of, as " jargon." Among the
Poets, by the way, here quoted as Oracles, one we
notice by name—" Twamley." Can it be possible
that this can be that immortal Twam-
ley who once upon a time (see Boswell)
introduced himself in an inn parlour
to Doctor Johnson as—the Inventor of
Warm Flat Irons ? At any rate if not that Great
Original—here is Another Immortal Twamley ! As
a specimen of the sweets now gathered together,
and at the same time as affording a specimen of what
the Book before us is made of—we wouki refer the
reader to the Central GAME or QUESTION in the
Collection, to wit, " What is your favorite Flower ?"
A Question to which fifty distinct answers are
given in the shape of as many excerpts from
various English Poets! Now Bishop giant replies,
for example—

Our England's Lily of the May,
Our Lily of the Vale."
Now Keats whispers to us honeyedly—
" the Woodbine
Of velvet leaves and bugle blooms divine."
Now Mrs. Hemans sings deliciously of—
"The foam-like meadow sweet."
Now Wordsworth cries aloud prophetically (for has
he not in truth made the flower essentially his ow n?)
There's a flower that shall be mine—
'Tis the little Celandine.
And so on, butterfly-like, we flit from bloom to
bloom, accordingly as we may select hap hazard any
number in chancing our reply to the general inquiry
as to what our favourite flower may be. So much,
briefly, by way of welcome to this " Pleasant Com-
panion for"--we cannot help it, Mrs. Dodd! the
phrase is not ours, but the compiler's—"A Round
Party I"