The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-01-18
Morning Star and Catholic Messenger
NEW ORLEANS, SUNDAY. JANUARY ls. 1874.
Contemporary statesmen-Earl Russell.
| From the London Register

From the London Register
A lady, illustrious and beloved, had
given birth to her first born son, and with
the delight of young mother was mingled
the pride of princess who has given an
heir to q great throne. But the dmdri
aliquid, which lessons all earthly joys,
arose the form of an anxious fear for the
life of the babe precious, who had
arrived before he was expected, and did
not possess all the strength that would
have accompanied complete maturity. To
relieve these maternal apprehensions, it
was suggested, by one who was herself the
daughter Of a great Wing house, that Lord
John Russell had been seven months child.
1t is said that the effect of this information
upon the Royal mind was less reassuring
than had been anticipated. Had the
Princess been familiar with the illustrations
of our comic press, it might have given her
fatal shock to represent to herself her
darling grown-up into the sembance of the
queer little man to whom Her Majesty lin
Punch) is expressing her fear that he is
"not strong enough for tho place ;" or of
that still more elaborate effort of Pello
grini's pencil, which realises perfectly the
traditional idea of the capricous and
spiteful creature known in Irish fairy my
thology as the Lcprachawn. The child for
whom those fears were entertained has
grown up, thank God, into fair and
sbapely boy, quite the antithesis of Lord
Russell in personal appearance, and, let
US hope, in moral characteristics also.
Some apology. is due to our public for
presenting Lord Russell to them as a
contemporary statesman." His time
might fairly be considered as past. If we
could not say to him, I" Rest and be thank
full" we should say at least, I" Rest and be
'sorrowful," if we thought that such q cal
vinized conscience could be moved to con-
triton. "Time was that; when the brain
was out, the man would die. The malig-
nant genius who presided at Lord Russelrs
untimely birth may be supposed to rejoice
in his prolonged existence. But if we are
compelled, while he is not only alive but
kicking, to treat him as q contemporary,
there is no obligation, we must admit, to
consider him as a statesman. He would be
a good subject for one Of those propositions
which are used in logic as examples of rea-
soning. "John is small" That is evident.
John is a statesman" That would be
denied, simplicitcr, though granted, per.
statesman" would be universally conceded,
if not as a good conclusion, at least "a an
indsputable fact. whether smallness were
predicsted of the stature or the statesman
ship. One is greatly puzzled to conjecture
what John Russell would have been fit for,
of those great families to whom the govern
ment of this empire used to fall as part
of their Inheritance. Having produced, in
the vigor and freshness of his intellect, an
unread tragedy and an unreliable novel,
he might have asplred without presumption
to the post Of Warren's poet. His physical
conformation indicates an adaptability to
the calling of tailor. If he had actually
followed that occupation, it would natur-
ally be expected that he should know how
to make coat. Applying such practical
test to the question of his craftsmanship,
we have never heard of anything except
the old Reform Act which could be cited as
l. Al.
such as it was, he had numerous and able
assistants. Mr.. Gladstone is prone, in that
fervor which is not unusual with him, to
cxaggerate the merits of those whom he
makes the subject of his oulogy; as when,
the other day, he spoke of the late Bishop
suited St. Augustine. In the same way, he
once said of Lord Russell, that if he had
received decoration for every one of his
public services, his breast would be covered
with stars. We think there is one too
many there already. Whether Mr.. Glad
stone would add to the public services of
Lord Russell the efforts he has been assidu-
ously making to give all the annoyance in
his power to the present Government, we
do not undertake to say; but those efforts
are much on n par, both in motive and re
suit, with all the other "services " he has
rendered the public.
Tom Moore once wrote enthusiastically
OF this " fruit of the old Russell tree"
The innumerable persons whose teeth it
has set on edge know too we'll that it is
very sour crab. With the one exception we
have FAMED every step of his administrative
career has been marked by disappointment
or disgrace-the Irish famine, for which his
bungliug remedies were as "pills to cure
the earthquake ;" the epistolary rashness
of 1850, followed by the legislative abortion
of 1851; the treachery of his colleagues in
he Aberdeen Ministry; the Vienna episode,
for which be was round-robined ont of
office; the meddling and muddling of
his later years. Recalling the severe but
happy characterization ofSydney Smith, it
may be said that all his edifces have col
lapsed in ruin, all his fleets have been sunk
by the enemy, all his patients have died
under the knife, and yet the vain and fond
old man, with the same foolhardiness
unabashed by failure which has been his
most conspicuous quality, still speaks and
acts as if all his works were perfect, and as
if glory, and not ridicule, had been their
unfailing concomitant. The great concep
tions of great statesmen, which he some
times appropriated, were always mutilated
in his hands. The Irish Encountered Es-
tates Acts, as it left the Wing thinkers,