The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-10-08
LADY PALMERsTON.

dence OF general repute, IL may be assumed
that no more capable person has ever pre-
sided over political and fashionable draw
ing-room. Lady Palmerston properly devoted
all her energies to the promotion of her hus-
bands interests; and in cultivating his popu-
larity she both served his party, and inciden-
tally she contributed to the comfort and good
humor of large and various society. The
tact, the temper and the general accomplish
ments of statesman wife are advantages as
legitimate as birth or fortune, OF dignihed
personal bearing; and it happened that Lady
Palmerston, after her succession to the
estates of her family, possessed the means for
exercising splendid hospitality. As Foreign
Minister in the Cabinets of Lord Melbourne
and Lord John Russell, Lord Palmerston pos
sessed great power, while his pecunlary cir
cumstances were still comparatively narrow;
but it is probable that Cambridge House aud
its mistress had something to do with the un-
contested supremacy which he enjoyed in his
vigorous and genial old age. The privilege
of mingling three or four times in season
with a well-dressed crowd of shaking hands
with Minister, and of bowling to his wife,
is not perhaps extraordinarily valuable; but
the leader of a party is less likely to be
thwarted by an habitual guest than by an
austere stranger who happens only to be a
political adherent. The Cambridge House
receptions afforded Lord Palmerston an oppor-
tunity of exhibiting the cordial demeanor
which he had probably cultivated the more
sedulously because he found it natural and
easy. His own personal sympathies were, as
he showed on more than one occasion, exclu-
sively aristocratic; but probably all the world,
beyond the limits of his own private circle,
was to him equally welcome and equally in
different. 1t was the business of his wife to
avoid for him as far as possible all occasions
of giving personal offense, and it would seem
that she discharged her duty with remarkable
skill Although Lord Palmerston took no in
terest in literature, its representatives were
admitted to his house, if their success had
given them social position or political im-
portance. All guests who were worth court
ing and winning were gladly received and
those among them who were distinguished by
rank or by personal eminence served the ad-
ditional purpose Of acting as decoys to the
common herd.
1t may we'll be believed that the organiza-
tion and management of such assemblies re-
quired feminine ability of high order. A
cynic or political purist might object that
there is no reason why man should govern
great country because he has a clever wife
but it is not easy to disentangle the gifts of
Fortune from the other conditions of power
with which they may happen to be inter
twined. Lord Palmerston would probably
have been Prime Minister if he had been un-
married OF if his wife had been an unambi-
tious recluse; and if he was indebted to Lady
Palmerston for any portion of his political
triumphs, the result which she may have
achieved was not necessarily inconsistent with
the public interest knowledge of human
nature, displayed personally OF by deputy, is
not an insignificant qualification for the
rulers of men; and it is especially necessary
where political power is concentrated in the
hands of privileged class. The relative i'm
portance attached respectively to measures
and to men varies largely in proportion to the
numbers of those who share directly or indi-
rectly in the Government. The House of
Commons intuitively trusts it's ablest leaders,
although they may perhaps discountenance
plausible changes in legislation or in politics;
and the constituencies, on the other hand,
Judge q Minister by the comprehensive
nature of his professions, and to certain
extent by his performances. For them the
gifts and graces of a statesmans wife
whom they will never see possess no pos
sible attraction. With the enlargement of
the electoral body the personal preferences of
members have become comparatively insight
fcant. A statesman who has alienated half
his followers, or who needlessly irritates his
adversaries, may defy discontented adherents
as long as he enjoys the confidence of the
country. The change is not wholly advanta-
geous, for the nearest observers are the best
Judges of character, and men are, in an as
sembly which governs instead of merely pass
ing laws, even more indispensable than mea-
sures. 1t is highly improbable that Lady
Palmerston should ever have cared for politi-
cal doctrines. If the doors of Cambridge
House were once more open, it would be
almost useless to conciliate members who
know that they will be rigidly called to ac-
count by their constituents; yet voluntary
support is, on the whole, preferable to COM
PEELED obedience 1t may perhaps have been
partly the merit of Lady Palmerston that in
her time there were no Caves or tea-room Sc
cessions. The kind of influence which she
exercised is not to be confounded with the
mischievous interference of intriguing women
in courts or cabinets. 1t was never suspected
that she had any object except the exaltation
and security of a husband who reserved to
himself the choice of his political course.
| When woman who has got the ear of a king
OF of a powerful statesman fancies that she
has political or religious convictions of her
own, she becomes an intolerable nuisance
| The disgraces of Louis XIV's later life were
largely attributable to the piety of Madame
| de Malntenon; nor are more recent instances
wanting of female pressure exercised in the
same direction In England, since the Revo-
| luton, the power of royal wives and
mistresses has been restrained within
narrow limits; and it happens that Ministers
have never allowed the reins of government
| to pass into female hands. Between the
Duchess of Marlborough and Lady Palmerston
it would be difficult to find any statesman s
wife who was supposed to have any perceptibIe
share in his elevation, and with all her faults
the Duchess of Marlborough was exclusively
loyal to her husband. Fox, who willingly
accepted the worship of ladies of rank, always
contriyed to inSnire them with n dayot;on q