The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-27 00:00:00

THE CABINET MAKERS

Amongst the-dabs of London,'Eis in most other places,
are to be found a number of crotchetty individuals, who,
having no business of. their own to manage, devote them-
selves with great zeal to the management of other people's.
During the past week this ingenious class have been busily
engaged in constructing a cabinet for Sir Robert Peel ; and,
from the variety of lists put forward, all of course conjec-
tural, it really does seem that the right hon. baronet has a
somewhat perplexing task before him,—arising, however,
from a source which it cannot but be gratifying to the coun-
try to notice, from its contrast to that which has of late
formed the difficulty of whig cabinet-making.
The difficulty of Sir Robert will be, not the paucity, but
the absolute abundance' of the materials at his disposal
and that abundance, even, is essentially different in its na-
ture from that which would perplex Lord John Russell in
manufacturing the patchwork thing, which whigs would call
a cabinet. It is not an abundance of protruding individuals
—blue and Yellow reviewers, anti-corn-law spouters, and
novel-writers—men whose claims to notice consist in their
being endowed with the best possible opinion of themselves,
or with some tenth cousinship to a bedchamber favourite ;
and amongst which the great difficulty of selection would be
in finding these who, on vacating their seats to accept office,
would not be kicked contumeliously by their various consti-
tuencies : but, on the contrary, an abundance of men of high
character and talent in the, estimation of the country, amongst
whom the only difficulty of selection is, that, whichever of
them become members of the administration, there must be
left behind men whom an almost unanimous people would
wish to see in office. The conservative baronet will not, for
any of his appointments, be driven to a kind of " Hobson's
choice"—this or none. There is, for instance, no plain
John Campbell amongst the lawyers of his party, who cen-
tralises in hie person.all the qualities required for an Attor-
ney-General, amongst which the most essential is a sure seat
in the House of Commons. Sir Robert need not be driven,
either, to
." Macheath's choice"—" How happy could I be
with either !"—whilst balancing the comparative claims of
any two rival competitors for this or that secretaryship or
judgeship. But he may possibly be in a more perplexing
dilemma than' any other, and be bewildered to discover, out
of the many " good• men and true" around him, which are
in every respect the very best I
It would indeed be wonderfill if the oracles of the whig
press, in their anxiety to keep up the spirits of their party
did not discover this particular difficulty of the right lion.
baronet. They have discovered it ; and, from the very
strength of conservative talent in the house, we are sagely
and gravely told that the forthcoming administration will be
absolutely eat up Conservatism was but the other day
only " the whisper of a faction" ; and we are now, it seems,
so overgrown that we are likely, in agricultural phrase, to
die of the " fat rot." We were but the other day so many
" duck-legged drummer boys" waddling at the rear of the
march of intellect ; and now that we have been well recruit-
ed, it seems we all want to be in the grenadier company.
Very distressing it is really; and yet, even at the risk of
putting our whig friends further into the seventh heaven, we
must have our little growl at the arrangements of the con-
servative cabinet-makers. We do not see in any of the lists
hitherto put forward by these ingenious gentlemen, the name
of either of our own noble representatives ; and we are quite
sure that either of them would adorn the administration of
Sir Robert Peel, and almost certain that one of them at
least—Lord Sandon —the country will expect to see a mem-
ber of that administration.. We arc willing, however, to wait
until Sir Robert has time to form his own arrangements ;
and if he disappoint us in our just expectations—if Lord
Sandon be doomed to continue member for Liverpool only,
we shall—do nothing very desperate, reader; but at least
console ourselves with the reflection of a certain English
monarch, that we have within our land
" Three hundred good as he."
Should Lord Sandon, however, be—as we hope he will—a
member of the cabinet, some other individual of perhaps
equal talent and worth must be excluded ; and the admirers
of that individual must—and we trust will—imitate our phi-
losophic temper.