The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-08-01

and has taken through many years OF pub
lie life with patience, if not an even tenn
| per, the punishment that caprlclous
opinion and a virulent opposition inevita-
bly inflict upon public man. he mas
been vilitied by the comic papers IN their
| caricatures as man never was BEFORE ana
| that must be peculiarly hard ordeal iof
one who cannot sympathize in any degree
whatever with the fun of which he is the
butt for there probably never hVea
a person more absolutely without the
| sense of humor He has been presented
| in the dull bufooneries OF the LONDON
stage-than which there never was stage
so poverty stricken as to wit and the re-
deeming grace of happy fancy. lie has
been assailed with fierce malignity and
misrepresentation by all the organs OF the
old tory and the new lingo party, and the
rufiianly instincts of the London people
have been exhibited at the expense OF his
windows. Under the infection OF all these
and many other more or less violent DEM
onstrations Of hostility he has always
gone his way quietly and with the stern
resolution of the puritanical sort OF man, OF
which physically and morally he is not
bad type, though intellectually he is better
furnished than whole puritanical revolu-
ton. But as to later assault he seems
disposed to pursue another course.
Earl Beaconsield at q public dinner
spoke OF him as ga sophistical rhetorician
inebriated with the exuberance of his own
verbosity and egotistical imagination.
No doubt this tremendously pumice-stoned
sentence has had great success in London.
1t is Just the sort of ''nice arrangement
of epitaphs" that is fitted to tickle the ears
of the Ifen who in London are supposed to
give tone to opinion. 1t would not touch
the plain people anywhere, for they would
scarcely understand it; and the fact that it
is thus cast in language out OF their reach
would be an additional fortune to it in the
eyes of the men who fancy that critical
taste and nice discrimination will die
with them. Indeed, it is q false coin.
1t is OF that stamp of rhetoric common
with the sharp boys who call black eye
''an optical organ decorated with the in
sigma Of SORROW" But the sturdy liberal
has taken Of this elaborate nonsense notice
that he has not taken of fercer and more
damaging assaults. He has called upon its
author to specify those actions or words of
his which justify the character given to him
in the phrase. Has he done this because
this shaft feathered with all the plumes Of
O rhetorical aviary, has reached sensitive
point in his nature? Probably not. 1t is
not likely that Mr.. Gladstone cared more
for this phrase than for thousands of others
to which he has shown robust indiffer-
ence. But he has simply caught at an
opportunity and is likely to improve it.
He exposes the Premier in q departure from
that code Of good manners in public life
which is more than law in England, which
is seldom violated even in the rough and
tumble of minor conflicts, and the violation
of which in a case like the present is almost
without precedent.
In England the cultivation of the courte-
sizes and amenities Of public life is u re-
ligion, and is all that there is in politics to
which it is required that men should adj
here with the unvarying and unwavering
tenacty with which fanatic adheres to his
faith. Men may change their views, Tor
that results from conviction or the hope Of
motives Men may even vote with the op-
position without a change of convictions,
for that is sometimes tactics. But to forget
the obligations of fair hostility; to assume
an offensive demeanor TO indulge in viru-
lent personalities to carry differences on
points of public policy outside the sphere
in which all such differences are legitimate
and honorable = all this is not permissible,
because it is ungentlemanly; because it
is an ill-bred indulgence Of vindic-
tive impulses; because it sets aside
the advocate OF cause to put in
his place more or less shabby
individual. Such is the unwritten code of
public life in England. 1t is the best prod
uct OF her parliamentary struggles. 1t is
of greater value than the British constitu-
ton. Nowhere in the world can its value
be better appreciated than in our own coun-
try, where the absence Of the restraint ex-
ercised by the common recognition OF such
n standard of good manners is poorly re-
placed by the casual triumph OF the man
who proves the greater adept in ribaldry
and indecent vituperation. Let it be fairly
admitted that Englishmen have justly
valued their country upon this possession.
In France, as well as here, they have seen
representative bodies and canvasses con-
Quoted in the absence of the qualification
that such a restraint gives to the fercenoss
of partisan strife, and it has not inspired any
hope to see a change in their own system.
But is this admirable consideration tow
ard an adversary as we'll sustained in Eng
land now as it was formerly2 Some recent
events give room for doubt on that point.
1t will be remembered with what sensitive