The Sun.
London, England, 1867-06-24 00:00:00

MR. AYRTON.

Mr. Ayrton is a curious example of the power of
immense Parliamentary knowledge and lucid busi-
ness-capacity, apparently without, any higher
qualities, and in spite of some very disagreeable
ones, to raise a man in the House of Commons. He
has now been ten years in the house, and session
by session he becomes evidently more powerful
there, though certainly not more popular. And
yet he never makes an eloquent or hearty speech. He
is always giving needless and bitter offence.
He is not trusted, for he flirts with both parties,
and only the other day, after he had secured for the
Tower Hamlets, and for the West-end the
additional representation for which, as a metropli-
tan member, be was bound to contend, voted
against Mr. Laing's motion to give additional re-
presentation to the other great cities. Mr.
Disraeli, too, has taken to complimenting him,
which is always a dangerous sign. And yet
though his Liberalism is ambiguous, and his political
temper is of the worst, nobody doubts now that if a
new Liberal Government were to come in before he
had done anything to break with the Liberal party,
he would be included in the next Liberal Ministry,
not perhaps as a Cabinet Minister, but in an office of
some importance. And yet no man is more generally
disliked in the house. In some respects he is a sort
of bourgeois Lord Westbury. Though without
his superfine manner and without his wide abstract
intellect, Mr. Ayrton not unfrequently reminds
observers of Parliament of Sir R. Bethell's wound-
ing little speeches on questions of detail, and of the
absolute manner in which be laid down the law for
those who were his inferiors in knowledge. Of
course Mr. Ayrton has not the tone of serene
elevation which gave to Sir R. Bethell's man-
ner so much of its special character. There
is almost always beat in his style, even when
he is most satirical, and there is never an
approach to heat in Lord Westbury. Mr. Ayrton
has not the air of a god descended into human de-
bate, and consequently his bitterness is sometimes
savagery, and has even a shade of vulgarity.
There are signs of inflammation, of " proud flesh,"
in his manner. He seems to apply to others
the biting caustic which would be most salu-
tary for himself. The sardonic tone seldom
quite deserts him, and it is closely connected with
that lucidity of understanding, and that complete
range
efef e
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fia ldl e
nce a politicalnd
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apt
n
shuaSb,jeinctsa,ll probability, actually fed it in Lord West-
bury and Mr. Ayrton alike. Of course, as a mere
lawyer, Mr. Ayrton has no claim to intellectual
greatness. He has not devoted himself to the
law since his entrance into Parliament, but has
devoted his whole powers to Parliamentary
business. It is only in a certain measure of intel-
lectual arrogance and self-confidence, partly legiti-
mate in both, that Mr. Ayrton resembles Lord
Westbury. There is nothing Olympian about the
former. In the very bitterness of his mostscornful
remarks, he proclaims himself a creature of like pas-
sions with ourselves. In short, the resemblance
we have suggested is only sufficient to mark the
greater difference. Lord Westbury has a wide spe-
culative intellect ; Mr. Ayrton apparently one rather
specially averse to large and theoretic questions.
Lord Westbdry's cynicism arises from deeply rooted
intellectual contempt for understandings poorer than
his own; Mr. Ayrton's from impatient intolerance
of understandings slower and clumsier than his
own, Lord Westbury loves to dissect, where Mr.
Ayrton only scarifies. The latter never lays bare
the theoretic backbone even of a blunder, but only
brands it with a drop of vitriol as he passes. What
has hitherto kept, and may yet keep, Mr. Ayrton
back from the first rank of Parliamentary ability,
has been a want of breadth of intellect, a preference
for detail, a too great addiction to the mint and
anise and cumin of Parliamentary business.

For Mr. Ayrton, with all his remarkable ability,
is entirely wanting in both broad political principles
and popular feelings. He seems to have some of
that impatience of both, which men of great concrete
powers and an extraordinary range of special in-
formation so ofen evince.—Spectator.

LIVERPOOL COTTON MARKET—This Day.

The market opens quiet at Saturday's rates.
Sales probably 8,000 or 10,000 bales.

GIFT TO TILE TOWN OF DERBY.—On Saturday
afternoon last Mr. M. T. Bass, who for 20 years has boon
one of the members for Derby, presented a public re-
creation ground to the inhabitants. It consists of six
acres, and is situate on the banks of the Dervveut, on the
east side of Derby, being part of the Holmes, and is not
distant more than 500 yards from the Market-place.
THE VETERAN ACTOR LEMAITRE, who played
Robert Macairo at the Olympic Theatre in London, 30
years ago, is still on the boards in Paris and draws on the
Boulevards. Gill, the great caricaturist of the Lune, lately
asked him for his autograph to lithograph at the foot of a
charge of him which he proposed to publish. M. Lemaitro's
answer, now to be seen in all the shop windows, is original
and touching. He says, "Lune—Caricature young people;
Time does the work for the old."