The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1869-04-29
The Earl Of Derby.


It may seem paradOxical, but I at
least am unable to get out of my
mind the conviction that there is a
solid basis Of stupidity in the mind
OF the great Conservative Chief Lord
Derby. Let me explain W at | mean.
The Earl Of Derby is in ouo sense 4
highly accomplished man. lie is a
good classical scholar, and can make
a speech in Latin, lie has produced
some very spirited translations from
Huracci and l like his version of
the lliad better on the whole then
any other I know. lie is a splendid
debater--Macaulay said very truly
bat with Lord Derby the seieucc OF
debate was an instinct, lie will roll
out resonant, rotund, verbose seuten
ces 10y the hour, by the yard he is
great at making hits and points he
has immense power Of reply aud ro
parice-of certain easy aud obvious
kind his voice is 6Be, his manner is
noble, his iuvective is powerful. But
he has no ideas. The light-he throws
vut is q polarized Eght. lie adds
nothing new to tho political thought
of thr age. l have heard many OF
his finest speeches aud can remcm.
Der that they were then very telling,
in a Parliamentary point Of viewi but
| cannot remember anything he said
Tie Is always interpreting into elo-
queut aud effective words the com
mouplaee Philisliuc notions, the her.
cdita-y couveutioualitics of his party,
aud nothing more. His mind is not
open TO new impressions, aud he is
not able to appreciate the caus,, the
purpose or the tendency Of change.
This l hold to DO the essential char
acteristic of stupidityi and this is an
attribute Of lord Derby, with all his
Greek. his Latin, his impotuous rhct-
orc, his debot ng skill aud his aud
acious bluudcrs, which sometimes al
most deceive one into thinking him a
man Of genius. Now the Earl OF
Derby is the greatest Tory living
and if have fairly described the high
est type of Tory, oBe can easily form
some conception of what the average
Tory must b.. Every one likes Lord
Derby, aud fully believe it to be the
fact that those who know him best
like him best. l cannot Imagine
Lord Derby doing mean thiugj |
cannot imagine him naughty to a
poor man, or patrOniEingly offensive
to timid visitor Of humble birth.
Look at Lord Derby through the
wrong end of the intellectual telo-
scope and you have the average Brit
ish Tory. The Tory's knowledge is
confined to classic and field sports
when he knows anything. Even
Lord Derby has been guilty of the
most fagrant mistakes in geography
and modern history. People are
never tired of alludiug to a a famous
bluuder of his about Tamboy in Rus 4.
sia. 1t is also told of him that he
once spoke in parliament of Demera-
ra as an island and when one of his
colleagues afterward demonstrated
with him on the mistake, he asked
with ingonuousness and nair"te "IIow
on earth was | to know that Demera
ra was not an island 2" lie once, at
a public meeting, spoke of himself
very frankly as having been born ain
the pre- scientific period the peri.
cd but too recently closed, when
English Universities aud high class
schools troubled themselves only
about Greek and Latin, and thought
it beneath their dignity to show much
interest in such vulgar, practical stu
dies as chemistry aud natural history,
to say nothing of that ungentlemauly
and ungenerous study, the science OF
political economy. The average
British Tory is Lord Derby with
out eloquence, brains, official habits
aud political experience.-JUsTIN
MCCARTHY, in May GALAXY.