The Sun.
London, England, 1862-08-26 00:00:00

SKETCH OF MR. BOUPELL.

Mr. Roupell has been sketched from memory as
follows, by an observer who used to notice him from
the ladies' gallery of the house:—" Mr. Roupell
was well known in the house, not from his standing
therein, or any influence which he possessed, but
rather as a young man representing a large consti-
tuency, which from its magnitude is supposed to be
beyond the reach of corruption, and which never-
theless cost Mr. Roupell upwards of £9,000, when
he sought the privilege of representing it. Up to
March last Mr. Roupell was looked upon in the
house as one of the wealthy commoners of England.
A domain in the immediate neighbourhood of the
metropolis bore his name, and Roupell-park had
only to be mentioned in the southern districts of the
metropolis to conjure up, in the mind of the hearer,
visions of vast wealth and territorial power.
When Mr. Roupell was elected, he drove round the
chief streets of Lambeth at the bead of a length-
ened cortege, which looked like the procession of a
conqueror, as indeed it was. Mr. Roupell was at
that time regarded as the man of gold of Lambeth,
and when he rode in triumph round the borough,
with his mother seated in the carriage beside him,
there were few who looked upon him who did not
feel something akin to envy at the brilliant destiny
to which, apparently, he had been called. We well
recollect the first appearance of Mr. Roupell in the
House of Commons. In the way of oratory or
statesmanship nothing was ever expected of him,
and therefore no one was disappointed at his legis-
lative career. He could, however, speak not only
with fluency, but with appropriate taste. We
heard his first speech in the House of Commons
and we heard his last; and the last, too, that he
can ever made in any assembly of the kind,
whatever may be his future destiny. Although
Mr. Roupell entered the legislature so triumph-
antly, yet his Parliamentary career was beset with
thorns from the very commencement. He had
not been in the house many weeks before the omi-
nous threats of a petition was heard, and it was
speedily carried out. His election was petitioned
against on the ground of corruption, and a length-
ened investigation took place. Before the com-
mittee appointed to try the merits of the petition
Mr. Roupell was himself examined at great length,
and we remember that in the course of that exami-
nation he was asked a question and gave an answer
which are worth recalling as a kind of commentary
upon the proceedings of the past week. He was
closely questioned with regard to his payments on
account of the public-houses, and as to some alleged
underhand proposition that bad been made to him,
which he repudiated. The examining counsel then
put this question to him :—' Suppose such a pro-
position had been made to you, what course would
you have adopted with regard to it ?' And the an-
swer of Mr. Roupell was this : 'Catty man were to
make such a proposition to me, or to make any kind
of dishonourable proposition, I would knock him
down.' It is believed that the apparent frankness
of that answer greatly influenced tbr committee in
their decision, and they declared Mr. Roupell duly
elected. And yet at that very moment he was
raising money upon deeds that be had himself
forged, upon spurious documents which he himself
had concocted, and upon a fictitious will which he
had manufactured almost in the presence of his dead
father's body. And who could ever have enter-
tained a suspicion of these things fame an observa-
tion of the man in the House of Commons ? No-
body. He looked like a frank gentleman ; but it is
now unhappily demonstrated that he vas dissimu-
lation itself. He was rather short in Stature; had
an open, ingenuous countenance, which was adorned
with a profusion of light beard, and et a distance
he presented a strong personal resemblance to the
late Mr. Albert Smith."