The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-07-03 00:00:00

Lord Palmerston was particularly horrified to find that the
compositor had given him the " waist of a giant." He

thr6.tened, it is

:unate printer

r.
for so foully libelling him, and he was only induced to
abandon his bloodthirsty intentions on a solemn promise that
every reparation should be immediately offered for th c un-
happy mistake. We have therefore to intimate that the
waist of Lord Palmerston is the size of the waist of a gnat,
and not of that of a giant. His Lordship is prepared to
make an affidavit to this effect, if it be necessary. For the
bitterest of states, &c., read the pettiest of states; and for
his speeches are mere ands, ands, ands, read words, word s
words.

SIR GEORGE SINCLAIR

Unless our readers are in the habit of perusing with great
attention the reports of the parliamentary debates and of
proceeding most seriously over the dusty folios of the Mirror
of Parliament, the name of Sir George Sinclair will not be
well known to them. Most of our good friends will ask
who is Sir George Sinclair ? What of him, that he is to be
placed in the foremost rank of Political Characters.' We
have heard little or nothing of him. We recollect not see-
ing his speeches form the matter of the leading article of the
Times, or the Chronicle, or the Post, or the Standard. He
has held no great office ; he has not highly distinguished
himself; he is unknown to fame; he is, in short, a cipher
and nothing more. Why then write about him?" Softly,
good reader, softly. True it is that Sir George Sinclair has
never occupied much space in the public eye; true it is that
he is not a captain of five or of ten or of twenty in the Con-
servative camp; true it is that he has never exposed himself
to the stupid malignity of the Chronicle, or the miserable
drivelling of the Globe, and never needed the powerful ad-
vocacy of the Times, or the Standard, or the Post ; true it is
also that he is little more than a unit in the party to which
he belongs ; that all the really efficient aid he gives it is the
aid of his solitary vote. This is true, all true, but Sir G.
Sinclair is not therefore a man to be passed over without no-
tice, he is not therefore to be numbered with such small fry
as. the Hawes, the Prymes, the Erles, and people of their
class. No, the hon. member for Caithness belongs not to
these, with them he has nothing in common.
Althongh Sir George Sinclair seldom takes any share in the
publiebtmitiess of the country, he is possessed of command-
ing talents, talents which might raise him to a high rank in
the legislature. Instead, however, of devoting these talents
to their legitimate objects, he has hitherto occupied them in
what, he will allow us to say, is little better than frivolity and
trifling. The times in which we live are full of difficulty and
danger, they are such as to require the unceasing and watch-
ful care of our greatest statesmen ; yet the administration
by which we are governed is one of the most contemptible
and most despicable that ever swayed the destinies of a mighty
kingdom. Oh ! it is enough to make a man's soul burn
within him to see such a country as ours going to rack and
ruin through the mismanagement of the wretched ministers
of the crown, backed and supported only as they are by a
miserable clique of Papists, Infidels, and Radicals, men who
would willingly revolutionise the country to gain their nefa-
rious ends. Still Sir George Sinclair, with abilities emi-
nently fitted for parliamentary distinction, is content to fill
merely a most subordinate station in the ranks of those
righteous men who are opposed to the 'ministerial gang. He
sees the conflict between the two parties raging, but stands a
listless and unconcerned spectator of the stirring scene ; oc-
casionally perhaps he may venture forth, but it is only when
the battle's din is hushed, when the wordy liver is over. Then
he will prove that he is well qualified to be a leader in the
camp ; then he will criticise the doings that have taken place,
and point out what it would have been better to have done.
But this is not what we want. We want men of action, not
of words ; of deeds, not of thoughts. We have a claim on
the exertions of Sir George Sinclair; he is able, and, as a
Conservative, of course willing, to serve his country. We
call upon him to do it ; earnestly, most earnestly, do we en-
treat him to bestir himself

The " Table Talker" of the Morning Post, a short time
since, gratified his readers with an article on the subject of
our present sketch. Glad indeed should we be could we find
room for the whole of the " Table Talker's" most excellent
lucubration ; but as this is not possible, we must content
ourselves by making one or two extracts, in which all that
we could wish to say of Sir George Sinclair is beautifully
expressed. "Of all men in the House of Commons," says
our author, and we may be allowed to observe, in passing,
that he is one who has the happy tact of combining in his
writings the very best instruction with the most refined
amusements, " the most puzzling even to the most observant,
is Sir George Sinclair. it is no exaggeration to say that he
makes from time to time cleverer speeches, and more re-
moved from the ordinary common place of parliamentary
discussion, than any other man in the house, whether leader
or follower. He is more witty, more pointed, shows more
resources of literature in his allusions than any other man,
and indicates a deeper sympathy with the general interests
and feelings of humanity ; and yet with all this, Sir George
is by no means considered as a first-rate man in the House
of Commons, and were he to retire from it, or cease to be
elected, very little notice would probably be taken of the
circumstance. His speeches do not make much impression
on the house, and out if they do not appear to make any
impression at all. It is to be observed, that Sir George is
not a man of action and of business, but for the most part a
critic merely. He is the Jacques of the House of Commons,
And goes about moralising in sententious phrase, but sharing
little, and sympathising less, in the senatorial occupations of
those around him. Following this criticising vein, and mo-
ralising his matter into `a thousand similes,' the worthy sena-
tor sometimes falls into the course of a debate with singular
force and finish. The harangues of Sir George make too
much demand upon the intellectual attention of the auditory
to be popular in the House of Commons. They seem to be
prepared beforehand ; they are a condensation of good things,
as if a long oration of the ordinary pudding character had
been first prepared, and then all the plums picked out to
make a choicer and smaller dish. To give the
what he says, you must hear all he says.
" Sir George Sinclair is, as it were, the antithesis of Mr
Joseph Hume; inure direct opposites can scarcely be ima-
gined. The latter, with an intellect not three removes from
that of an animal that chews the thistle, with no sympathy

substance of

e)
rous—without the faintest glimmering of literature or know-
ledge of language beyond the commonest sort of colloquial
clumsiness, has yet contrived to be a person of some practi-
cal importance. The secret of this lies in his dogged perse-
vering interference in matters of practical business. He can
no more comprehend any matter of large importance, than a
common bat can cover St. Paul's with the shadow of its
wings ; but he can interfere and say something, and at great
length, about that which he does not understand, and he can
be for ever doing this, night after night, during the sitting of
parliament for 20 years. He is a leathery excrescence upon
the surface of legislation, which nothing will rub off. he is
an everlasting impediment—a thing that never feels, bat al-
ways makes itself felt, because always in the way. A nonen-
tity or a nuisance in every position where understanding, in-
formation, or sympathy are essential, Mr. Hume is a very
effective man in the House of Commons, while Sir George
Sinclair, with much more than an ordinary share of all the
three, is without any effective power in the house beyond his
single vote in the division. Such and so great is the distinc-
tion which exists in England between a critic and an actor
in respect of public affairs."
In every word here borrowed from our friend (if so we may
venture to call him) the " Table Talker," we most cordially
concur. We beg, then, once more to impress upon Sir
George Sinclair most respectfully, but most firmly, the ne-
cessity of action. " Act ! act ! act !" we would thunder into
his ears every time he crosses the threshold of the House of
Commons. These are not the times, we repeat, for mere
dreamers—these are not the times for mere visionaries—
these are not the times for your mere calm and patient ob-
servers of the world. No—these are the days of stirring
events, and they require men of energy, men of action, men
of lofty talent. Talent, we have said, Sir George Sinclair
does not need. Will he let it lay longer idle ? Will he not
rather enrol himself without delay with our Stanleys, and
Peels, and Grahams, and Lyndhursts, and Wellingtons, and
aid them in their arduous exertions for the benefit of their
country ? Will he be a dreamer instead of an actor—one of
the slothful rather than one of the industrious ? No, no ;
we hope not, we trust not. Awake, then, Shiclair ! arouse
ye ! be up ! be stirring!
" There is a kind of character in thy life
That, to the observer, doth thy history
Fully unfold ; thyself and thy belongings
Are not thine own so proper, as to waste
Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee.
Heaven doth with us as we with torches do ;
Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike
As if we had them not."