The southern press., 1851-11-20
From Csriyis's Liz Of JoA~ Sterling.
A Newspaper Rditor.

I'd his labors ia tho Times, which were now in
their full flower He mad influence of sort !;
went busly among busy public men and en-
Loved, in the questionable form attached To
Journalism and anonymity, social consideration
and position which were abundantly gratifying
10 him. A singular figure of this epoch aud
when you came TO know him, which it was
easily 10 fail OF doing, If you had not eyes and
candid insight, gallant, truly gifted, and man
fdi figure, Of his kind We saw much of him in
this house, much of all his family; and had
grown to love them all right well-hm toa
though that was the difficult part of the feat.
For in his Irish way he played the conjuror
very much-"lhree hundred and sixty-fve opn-
Ions In the year upon every subject" as wag
once said.
In fact his talk, ever ingenious, emphatic and
spirited in detail, was much effective in earnest.
ness at least in clear earnestness, of purport and
outcome, but went tumbling as if in mere wei
ters Of explosive unreason; a volcano heaying
under vague deluges Of scorie, ashes and i'm
ponderous pumlc stones, you could not say IN
what direction, nor well whether in auy. Not
till after good study did you see the deep molten
flood, which simered steadily enough, and
showed very well by and by whittier it was
bound. For must say of Edward Sterling, af
ter all his daily explosive sophistries and fala-
cies Of talk he had a stubborn instructive sense
OF what was manful, strong, and worthy recog-
nized with quick feeling the charlatan under its
solemnest wig; knew clearly as any man
pusianimous tailor in bucram. an ass under
the lions skin, and did with his whole heart des.
pise the same
The sudden changes of doctrine in the Times
which failed not to excite loud censure and in
dignant amazement in those days, were first in
n uha cap IN ipfa
them as his changes. These sudden whirls from
east to west on his part, and total changes OF
party and artculate opinion at days warning,
lay in the nature of the man, and could not be
helped; products of his fiery impotence, of the
combined impetuosity ard limitation of an intel
lect which did, nevertheless continually gravitate
towards what was loyal true, and right on all
manner Of subjects. These, as define them
were the mere scoria and pumice wreck of
steady central lava-food, which truly was voca-
mic and explosive to strange degree, but did
rest as few others on the grand fre-depths of
the world. Thus, If he stormed along ten
thousand strong in time Of the reform bill, in
dignantly denOuncing toryism and its obsolete
insane pretensions; and then if, after some ex
perience Of whig management, he Gscerned that
Wellington and Peel, by whatever name entitled,
were the men to be depended on by England
sstency far more important than the superficial
one, so much clamored after by the vulgar
Which is the lions skin; which is the real lion?
Let man, if he is prudent, ascertain that before
speaking; but above and beyond all things, let
him ascertain it, and stand valiantly to it when
ascertained! In the latter essential part Of the
operation, Edward Sterling was honorably sue
cessful to really marked degree; in the former,
or prudential part, very much the reverse, as his
history in the journalistic department at least,
was continually teaching him.
An amazingly impetuous hasty. explosive
man, this Captain Whirlwind," as used to
call him! Great sensibility lay in him, too
real sympathy, and affectionate pity and soft
ness which he had an over tendency to express
even by tears--a singular sight in 80 leonine
man. Enemies called them maudln and hypo-
critical, these tears; brt that was nowise the
complete account of them. On the whole there
did conspicuously lie dash of ostentation,
selfcOnsciousness apt TO come loud and brag.
gart, over all ne said and did and felt; this was
the alloy of the man, and you had to be thank
ful for the abundant gold along with it,
Quizzing enough he got among us for all this,
and for the singular chiaroscur0 manner of pro-
cedure, like that of Archimagus Cagiostro
or Kaiser JOSEF h Incognito, which his anony.
nous sknown-unknown thunderings in the Times
necesstated in him and much we laughed
not without explosive counter bearings on his
part--but in fine, one could not do without him
one knew him at heart for right brave man
"By Jove, sir" thus he would swear to you,
with radient face; sometimes, not often, by u
deeper oath. With persons Of dignity, esr ecal
" with women, to whom he was always very
gallant, he had courtly, delicate manners, verg-
ing towards the wiredrawn and elaborate on
common occasions he bloomed out at once into
jolly familiarity Of the gracefully bosierous
kind, reminding You of mess rooms and old
Dublin days.
His off-hand mode of speech was always pre-
else, emphatic, ingenious his laugh, which was
frequent rather than. otherwise had sincerity
of banter, but no real depth of sense for the |
ludicrous and soon ended, if it grew too loud, in
a more dissonant stream. He was broad, well
built stout of stature--and walked, or sat, in |
an erect decisive manner. A remarkable man
and playing, especially in those years, ls3o-40,
a remarkable part in the world.
For it may be said the emphatic, big voiced, |
always influential, ard often strongly unreason-
able, Times newpaper, was the express emblem
of Edward Sterling; he, more than any other
man Of circumstance, was the Times newspaper, |
and thundered through it 10 the shaking cf the |
spheres. And let us assert withal that his and
its influence in those days was not grounded,
but rather well that the loud manifold unrea
son, often enough vituperated and groaned over,
was of the surf ce mostly; that his conclusion s,
unreasonable, partial, hasiy, as they might at
first be, gravitated irresistiby towards the right
in virtue of which grand quality, indeed, the
root of all good insight in man, Times oratory
found acceptance, and Influential audence amid
the loud whir of an England itself logically
very stupid, and wise chiefly by instinct
Connected with this matter a remarkable
note has come into my hands-hoDorable to
the man am writing Of, aud in some sort, to
another higher man-which, as it nay now (un.
happilylfor us alp be published without scruple,
will not withhold here The support, by
Edward Sterling and the Times, OF Sir Robert
Peel's first mini try, and generally Of Peel's
statesmanship was conspicuous fact in its day;
but the return it met with from the person
chiefly interested, may e considered well worth
recording. The following letter, after meander-
ing through know not what intricate conduts,
and consultations of the mysterious entity