The Portland daily press., 1869-04-21
The British Tory.

Mr.. Justin Mccarthy, writing in the May
number of the Galaxy, thus satircally CHAR
acterizes al once the average British Tory, and
the greatest of the Tory leaders:
1t was not a mere epigram which Mr.. Mill
uttered when he described the Tories as the
stupid party. An average Tory really is q stu
pid man. He is gentleman in ali the ordina-
~ acceptation OF the word. He has been to
oxford or Cambridge; he has received de-
cent classical education; he has travelled along
the beaten tracks-made what would have
been Pee called in Mary Wortley Montagues day
the grand tour; he has birth and high breed
ing; he is a good fellow, with manly, honora-
Bile ways, and that genial consideration for the
feelings of others which is the fundamental
condition, the vital element of gentlemanly
breeding. But ne Is; with all this, stupid. His
mind is narrow, dull, infexible; he cannot c4Af-
meet cause with effect, or see that change is
coming, or why it should come; with him pos.
hoe always means prOpter hoe; he cannot account
for Goodwin Sands otherwise than because of
Tenterden stseple. You cannot help liking
him, and sometimes laughing at him. 1t may
seem paradoxical, but / at least am unable to
get out of my mind the conviction that there
is solid basis Of stupidity in the mind of the
great Conservative Chief, Lord Derby. Let
iae explain what mean. The Earl OF Derby
is in one sense highly accomplished man.
lie is good classical scholar, and can make
speech in Latin. He has produced some very
spirited translatiens from Horace; and like
his version of the Iliad better on the whole
than any other know. He is splendid de-
6ater1Macauiay said very truly that with
Lord Derby the science of debate was an in
stinct. He will roll out resonant rotund, YER
bose sentences by the hour. by the yard; he is
great at making hits and points; he has im-
mense power of reply and repartee-of GER
tain easy and obvious kind; his voice is fine,
his manner is noble, his invective is powerful
But he has no ideas. The light he throws out
is a polarized light. He adds nothing new to
the political thought of the age. have heard
many of his finest speeches.; and can re-
member that they were very telling, in Par
liamentary point of vifw; bat Il cannos re-
member anything he SAID ho il always ssz1oa-'
preting into eloquent and effective words the
commonplace Philistine notions, the heredita-
ry conventionalties of his party-and nothing
more. His mind is not open to new impress
sions, and he is not able to appreciate the
cause, the purpose or the tendency of change
This / hold to be the essential characteristic of
stupidity; and this is an attribute OF Lord
Derby, with all his Greek, his Latin, his i'm
petaous rhetoric, his debating skill and his
audaclous blunders, which sometimes almost
deceive one into thinking him man of gem
ius. Now the Earl Of Derby is the greatest
Tory living; and if I have fairly described
the highest type OF Tory, one can easily form
some conception of what the average Tory
must be. Every one likes Lord Derby, and /
.NHJ SS&.~'> - " s~AS .e'Ss she.e eHOSc WV
know him best like him best. cannot inn
agine Lord Derby doing mean thing; 1
cannot imagine him naughty to a poor
man, or patronizingly offensive to
timid visitor of humble BIRTH
Look at Lord Derby through the wrong end of
the intellectual telescope and you have the av-
erage British Tory. The Tory's knowledge is
confined to classics and field sports-when he
knows anything. Even Lord Derby has been
guilty of the most fagrant mistakes in geogla-
ply and modern history. People are never tired
of alluding to a famous blunder of his about
Tambov in Russia. 1t is also told of him that
he once spoke in Parliament of Demerara as
an island; and when one of his colleagues after
wards demonstrated with him on the mistake,
he asked with ingenuousness and naiUeH
How on earth was to know that Demerara
was not an island? % He once, at a public
meeting, spoke Of himself very frankly as hay-
ing been born " in the pre-scientifc period"
the period but too recently closed, when En-
glish Universities and high class schools trou-
bled themselves only abont Greek and Latin,
and thought it beneath their dignity to show
much interest in such vulgar, practical studies
as chemistry and natural history, to say moth
ing. of that nngentlemanly and ungenerous
study, the science of political economy. The
average British Tory is Lord Derby without
eloquence, brains, official habits and political
experience