The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-04-13 00:00:00

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14,11, LIVIMPOOT

The idea of writing a sketch of Mr. Cresswell, M,P,
for Liverpool, (says a correspondent of the Britannia,)
has led me to make one observation, which, ou consi-
deration, I find to be well founded ; there are no rising
young men on the liberal side of the House of Com-
mons. By rising young men it is understood young
men likely to rise in the house on the score of their
parliamentary abilities. Of a certain class of rising
young men there are some individuals -on that side, of
course; but the claims on which their prospects are
founded are of a very different kind. Such men are,
for instance, Mr. Tom Duncombe, Mr. Wakley, Mr.
Hawes, et id genus omne. Perhaps, also, one might ex-
cept from the sweeping censure a few individuals, such
as Mr. Charles Buller, or Mr. Vernon Smith, a gentle-
man of considerable ability, who is, unfortunately, ra-
pidly dwindling down into a government hack ; but
their pretensions are not of that order to excite the
hopes of the public with regard to their probable fu-
ture efforts. On the conservative side, however, there
are several members who may be fairly looked upon as
rising men—men who have already established their
title to the reputation of talent, and who would be
trusted, should any of the present leaders retire, or
should the public, from any unforseen circumstances,
be deprived of their services. To pass over Sir. Wm.
Follett, whose parliamentary standing is already among
the highest, there are on the conservative side such
men as Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Thesiger, Mr. Fitzroy
Kelly, Mr. Milnes, all of whom fairly belong to the
class of members already indicated. It might be worth
while to inquire into the cause of this apparent ano-
maly, for if the principles of liberalism are what they
are vaunted to be, surely they ought to attract all the
young, ardent, and talented minds of the country, and
conservative principles on the other hand ought to be
embraced only by the worn-out minds, the ignorant,
the bigoted, and the prejudiced. The solution lies in
the fact, that men seldom evince talents, as they seldom
achieve wit, unless they have fixed ideas and principles
which their wit or their talent are employed in illus-
trating. The witti,lst man is generally he who has a
humorously bigoted attachment to some leading idea
or prejudice, and his wit consists in placing that idea
or prejudice in all imaginable shapes, and so eliciting
amusement, either by the inherent ludicrousness of his
views or their pointed contrast with the opposite ideas.
So, in the more ordinary operations of the mind, he
who is engaged in illustrating a foregone conclusion,
has more scope for his talents and more means of dis-
playing their ingenuity and variety than he who is
wandering in a sea of doubt without principle for his
guide, and who must first convince himself of the
truth or rationality of what he is about to utter before
he dare submit it to the comprehension of his auditor.
1 am inclined to think that this circumstance will be
found to account in a great measure for the great su-
periority of talent on the conservative side. It might
be said that education is on their side, but that only
makes more strongly for the argument, to say nothing
of the fact that some of the most effective speakers on
the liberal side are men who have never received a re-
gular classical education. Mr. Cresswell is certainly a
rising member on the conservative side, and his suc-
cessful advocacy of the long-disputed Danish claims,
on a late occasion, renders him an object of temporary
interest. He is a man much valued by his party, be-
cause he brought into parliament a considerable legal
reputation, which was the immediate cause of his elec-
tion for the second commercial community in the
empire. He by no means requires, however, that
claim, in order to make him a valued representative;
for during his short parliamentary career he has dis-
played talents for business, and a tact and self-posses-
sion as a speaker, which make him a man very fit to be
trusted where those qualities are particularly required.
He never says too much on a subject, and what he
does say is complete in itself, and quite to the point.
It would be well for the public could other honourable
members be brought into the same state of sanity ;
there would be fewer long speeches, more practical
business would be done, and constituencies would not
be so often deceived. From these remarks it will be
inferred that Mr. Cresswell does not aspire to play the
orator—a quality which, in these days of bungling
tyioism, amounts to a positive virtue. Such men are
invaluable; men who come into parliament, not to dis-
play themselves before the public eye, but to practically
serve their constituents to the best of their ability.
They disdain to make cats'-paws of the newspaper re-
porters, by delivering speeches eternally, in order to
save themselves the trouble and expense of visiting
their 'constituents. Mr. Cresswell, in fact, generally
confines his parliamentary efforts to questions either
directly interesting to his own constituents, or to the
whole mercantile world, except when some legal sub-
ject is before the house, on which his experience would
be of value. When called upon, by the exigencies of
party, to speak on the great party topics, though he al-
was acquits himself well, yet he does not seem to take
a pleasure in that kind of occupation. His style of
speaking is plain and straightforward; and, I would
also add, quite unaffected, but for a peculiar manner
which he has, that might go to contradict the latter as-
sumption, were it not that I believe the peculiarity to
be one of manner only. For Mr. Cresswell's mind is
quite masculine, and is really utterly incapable of any-
thing like affectation, being decidedly a practical man.
But those who have observed him pleading in a court
of law will recognise what I allude to, when I say that
he has a peculiarly effeminate mode of address that
would lead you to believe him affected. It was a long
time before I could get over the black kid gloves in
which it is his pleasure to plead, or the habit which he
has of constantly pressing together the gloved and ox-
tended fingers of both hands in an angle upwards from
r his chest, like a pert dogmatist propounding. Yet I
do really believe that he is not affected, and that his
apparent effeminacy proceeds only from an excessive
politeness of disposition. In fact, his style of address,
whether at the bar or in the house, resembles that of
an amiable and accomplished gentleman in a ball-room,
talking complimentary badinage to a pretty woman, of
whom he does not stand very much in awe. Mr.
Cresswell's persOnal appearance goes, perhaps, to help
this delusion, for he is more handsome than the gene-
rality of men, has fine eyes, and a fine'set of teeth,
which as he is a good-natured man, and almost always
laughing, he constantly displays very much, to the im-
provement of the general expression of the counte-
nance. His forehead. is high and intelligent, and his
eyebrows are particularly well marked, and arched.
He is well, if not symmetrically, made, and his whole
appearance is as unlike that of a successful lawyer as
can be well conceived. I should prefer not to have
him my rival in a love affair. Strange to say, he
always dresses soberly in deep black ; but, neverthe-
less, I should say he takes great pains in tying his
neckcloth. The events of Mr. Cresswell's life up to
his entrance into parliament, were confined to his suc-
cesses at the bar, which were latterly very rapid. He
is a Queen's counsel. His return for Liverpool took
place in 1837, when he ousted Mr. Ewart. He is the
son of a gentleman named Easterby, resident at Black-
heath, who took the name of Cresswell, on marrying
an heiress of that name.