Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1873-07-31
10 d IVES bury.

Of the late Lord Westbury, whose
death was recently announced, Justin
Mccarthy wrote some months ago in
the Ga71Ty
con the right of the lord chanccllor's
seat, and with his back to the public gal
lcrics, there sometimes rises in debate
now a man who, when he occupied the
place. made the wOolsack seem the seat
of the scorner. He is worth Observing.
He is a stout, florid, handsome man
with closely shaven face. rather fat
cheeks, and smooth, shiny forehead He
is nearly bald, but is otherwise well
preserved, for he is seventY-two years
of age. He is man of sanity, or per-
haps oily, eXpressiOn-sOmewhat like a
sleek and handsome MIR. Peckspiff.
When he begins to speak it is with eyes
half closed and look of benignant humil-
itv His voice is naturally acrid in its
tone, but he manages to edge out his
words with such elaborate meekness that
they carry suggestion of self-abase-
ment and sanctity in every syllable. He
has hardly spoken a sentence when a
laugh runs round the houSe-that pecu-
liar kind of laugh with which men greet
an ill-natured gibe which yet they can
not help applauding; for this saint-like
parsonage never opens his mouth but to
SQUIRT some little spray of venom or Wit
riol on somebody. Every sentence tells,
and every sentence stings. When the
speaker has something peculiarly bitter
and personal to say, he nearly closes his
ewes, subdues his voice to its blandest
tone, and so shapes the expression of
his mouth that it seems as if, to use a
vulgar old saying, butter would not melt
in it. This is Lord Wesbury, once lord
chancellor, twice attorney general,
known at the bar and in the House of
Commons as Richard Bethel, one of the
ablest lawyers in England, and perhaps
the most advanced of all our law re-
formers a man of powerful and pene-
trating intellect, owner of great head,
a cold heart and the sharpest tongue that
ever scathed an adversary. Lord West
bury is perfect master of yitriOlic sar-
casm. He is far too clever at it, for he
is always tempted to display his talent
and IT has always made him enemies.
His bitter sayings are constantly being
told in London society. ROebuck, who
used to be accounted one of our prime
fencers in political sarcasm, attacked
him once in the House of Commons, but
was made nothing of in few minutes.
Half dozen words blandly edged out
between the corners of Bethell's mouth
made even Disraeli once seem positively
ridiculous. When, as chancellor, he
entered the House of Lords, Westbury
was once heavily assailed by the late
Lord Derby, the tory leader (Westbury,
of course, was a liberaD, who was the
great orator and gladiator of his party.
But Westbury did, with half-closed eyes
and aspect of medieval saint, pour out
such a flood of corrosive acid over the
tory chief and his followers that these
latter would not sit patiently under it,
and the House of Lords became positive
ly tumultuous. Lord Westbury, how
ever. is under sort of cloud. People
say all manner of things about his pri-
vate life; there was faint of partiality
or more than partially in some of his
appointments when he held the office of
lord chancellor, and in fact the House
of Lords actually passed vote of cen
sure on his conduct and compelled him
to resign the place. There were excuses
for him; he was dragged into discred-
table course by endeavoring to uphold
worthless scamp, one of his sons; but
the censure of the House of Lords closed
his career. He is old now, and doubtless
disappointed. Few people like him;
many have at all times detested him. He
was always unsparing, and public opin-
ion did not spare him when perhaps
there was much to be pleaded on his be-
half. Evil report almost always pur-
sues him, even now that he is old. His
integrity, his moral character, his deal
ings with his family, with his friends,
with his servants everything about him
has been disparaged by hostile opinion,
except his intellect, his knowledge of
law and his power of sarcasm. He has
probably the greatest intellectual force
of any lawyer who has made way in
parliament in my time; for Bethel, like
Sir Rounded Palmer, brought into the
house a fame already won at the bar,
and fully sustained in parliament the re-
pute he had earned in the courts.