The Sun.
London, England, 1870-04-16 00:00:00

THE REFORM CLUB.

Every one knows the Hon. Laurence Fitz Patrick.
How he ever managed to achieve his election for the Irish
borough that he represents is a mystery even to his most
intimate friends. Of course he is a Liberal—Liberal to
the backbone ; but that sort of thing pays well in Kerry.
Ask him his opinion of the Reform. Why does he belong
there? Why does he go there so often? Does he like
the members? Does he believe in its influences? "My
dear fellow" he will candidly inform you, "if you ask
me in confidence why I keep my name on the books of
this place, I will tell you. My reasons are mainly two.
In the first place, as clubs go, it is an exceedingly com-
fortable crib. The rooms are cozy. The smoking room
is well ventilated. The whist just suits me. The dinners
are capitally cooked. We have fewer of those restric-
tions in the matter of strangers than obtain elsewhere,
and, after repeated trials, I find I can always depend on
the wine. In the second place, there is no place in Lon-
don where I have so many opportunities for doing the
bills I require as here. They call us a political
club. My own private opinion is that we are
nothing of the sort. Two thirds of the members
don't care that---," and Mr. Laurence Fitz
Patrick fillips his finger in a most eloquent
and expressive manner—" whether the Irish Church is
swept to the bottom of the Dead Sea. We are a non-
descript club altogether. Of course the political element
exists among us ; but then we have introduced so many
other elements that we have almost swamped it. No,
sir," adds Mr. Fitz Patrick, in an emphatic tone of voice,
"well-to-do money-lenders and deucedly good dinners,
those are our two specialites : and, sir, let me tell you,"
continues Mr. Fitz Patrick in a smothered but significant
whisper, "no such bad things either when one's purse is
empty and one's stomach follows suit."

THE CARLTON CLUB.
Suppose that for four hours at the House of Commons,
say that from 9.30 p.m. to 1.30 a.m., there has raged a hot
party-fight, such an one as was an every day occurrence
when the Reform Bill of 1868 was in transitu. At last
it is all over, the division has taken place, and St. Stephen's
is cleared of its latest members. But the suspension of
existence at Westminster is but the signal of its com-
mencement in Pall Mall. Look up at the windows of
the Carlton, they are ablaze with light, and will continue
to be for some hours to come. '[he smoking-room is a
scene of brilliant animation. Here the battles which have
already been fought in the arena of the House are fought
once more over again. Small passages of arms, of which
the public will know nothing when it reads over the,
columns of the debate in its morning Times, are dili-
gently dwelt upon and systematically explained. The
members of the Carlton whom you see to-night are great
upon the personnel of politics. There is nothing like
gossip of this order for robbing the science of statesman-
ship of its philosophical character, and reducing it to a
mere scheme of individual agency, wire-pulling, and
scene-shifting. There are persons who will tell you that
the success of a measure in the House simply means the
triumph of a great principle. Confide that notion to
these diplomatists of the smoking-room--they will pooh-
pooh your credulity to your face. In these days we have
done with principles. They may be all very well in their
way, but they are not business. If you want to win a
division, you must drill your men. It is a question of
strategy. It was, we believe, young Lord Milford in
" Sybil," who declared that the success of the Liberals
on a certain occasion was entirely due to the fact " that
they dined their men more than the Conservatives."
That may be a reductio act absurdunz, of this view of
political leadership, but the gist of such conversation as
that, which you may listen to to-night, points in the
direction of the conclusion thus indicated. You have
before you between a score a half-a-hundred of our sena-
torial body. Their grilled bones are consumed, and over
a late cigar they discuss the pitched battle of the evening
lqefore they retire to rest. The triumph of principles I
,I;Adiculous. The true fact of the matter is that Gladstone
cannot keep his temper, and a man who does not know
how to manage himself is scarcely likely to know 1)1W to
manage a party,