New-York tribune., 1878-07-27
CIVIL SERVICE REFORM.
GAIL HAMILToNs PAPERS.
XIII.

leaders The very strongest and staunehest of the
partsans and spoilsmen and machine politicians Of
the past the men who fought their way step by
step and who conquered because they were irwin
chile; these men our modern reformers have as
sumed as their prototypes simply because these men
we're victorious. Ignoring their real work, decry-
ing their methods and denOuncing their principles,
our reformers have coolly named themselves with
their great names and weakly clutched their laures
for their own wearing.
Butte is Mr.. Eaton's man, not Burke. 1t was Butte,
not Burke, who deplOred parties and despsed poll
ticians whose superior moral virtue attested it
self in the high sentiment that he early in life
had the meanest opinion of pOliticlans-opiniOns
that mature age and dear-bOught experience too
well confirm" 1t was not Burke, man among men,
stalwart and stable, ii was Butte. dawdling in a
drawingrOOm with bgOted. widowed princess and
her infant boy, who affected an Indifference to
power and fOndRess for arts and letters and de
clared that the King ought not govern by party;
but whose indifference to power manifested itself
in the petty and cOwardly expedient of trying to
become Secretary of State by making Lord Holder
ness pretend to quarrel with his colleagues and re-
sign in apparent anger; whose only Improvement
upon paTtisanship was underhand cum
ming. and who. graspiug power when the
opportunity came with the utmost promptness.
out with so stubborn blindness his great reform Of
"the dissolution of party connections and the as
eendancy of the King oyer the Parliament" that he
involved his country in an eight-years war and the
disgrace of violent loss Of her most splendid terri
torial possessions.
1t was his apt pupil. George Ill, narrow, stub
born, bent on governing by his own will even to the
dismemberment of his kingdom, who was Z" shocked
at the base arts all these men have used "-"all
these men" being Lord Chatham and his crew."
as be characterized in rather unkingly phrase the
most able men in his Government; and who saw in
Lord Chatham fighting for Parliamentary and Con-
stitutiona administration of law, only "that per-
fidious man who would certainly make me a slave
for the remainder of my days; and whatever they
may pretend. would go to the most unjuStiiable
lengths of cruelty and destruction"
The minister who declared that he abhorred in
trigue' that he abhorTed all parties and that his
disposition was best suited to private ife" was not
the blameless Lord Rockingham, but his intriguing
rival Lord Sheburne, who is said to have been the
only Prime Minister of England, the truth of whose
word. when publicly pledged has been publicly
eontradicted, and whom his opponents have di
rectly accused of falsehoOd"-a man, of whom his
own comrades had so low an opinion, that the King
who used him discarded him, the young minister
when he elevated to leadership, carefully excluded
HIM from his government and when this nOn-parti-
san and participating statesman fell from place, he
sank into complete insignifcance and extinction
1t was he who recommended to the noble Lord
seeking Office at his hands, :" a high independent
line" 1t was he who loftily advised Lord Carlisle
"nOt to have anything to do with such dirty work"
as influencing members Of Parliament High moral
sentiment his resort, as it has always been the
resort of his kind, to enable him to keep places in
r 5.
tisanship superior morality, was the mere selfish
tool of a man whom his own allies could not
trust because his intrigues were constant.
1t was not Pitt-straightforwar and direct self
respecting and loyal to the poor old crazed King
whose name went out TO the English people the
synonym of honesty and loyalty to be engraved on
eignet rings and embroidered on love tokens. 1t
was Lord Thurlow, sly and crafty. intriguing with
the Prince when the Kings madness seemed hope
less and sobbing his way back to the King when
the cloud lifted. holding steady before his mental
vision one only object-to retain his place if the
Prince of Wales should be Regent, and not forfeit it
shoald the King be restored to reason; and who,
after prOtracted and anxious oscillation between
King and Prince, finally concluded that the King
was his best card and left the woosack to electrfy
loyal England with the fearful exclamation, when
forget my King, may my God forget mep
tations of loyalty but simply honest men, and
who knew the ChancelOrs character and course,
were not deceived. We all remember Wilkess pro-
fame comment: "God forget you! He will see you
ID frstp And Burke, disgusted, muttered ::
"Tbe best thing that can happen to your And
Pitt, whom the Chancellor had eluded, and would
have deceived perhaps, but for having left his tell
tale hat in the Princes closet, rushed out of the
house. crying in rage: "Oh! what a rascalp but
the Chancellor with profound and prophetic faith
in the power Of humbug, which no generation can
more easily understand than this, caught the
auspciOus moment to utter the eloquent words
which were soon embossed on every snuf-bOx in
England and was looked upon by the people as
the fearless asserter Of his sovereigns rghts-as
strictly honest man. prepared if need should be, to
suffer for his honestyp
II was the partsans and spoilsiren who made the
glory of the English Parliamentary history, and
whose tradition preserves the memory of that glory
TODAY Mighty men of Yalor, they waged Eng
lands war against the continent against ignorance
and malee at home, often, * must be said against
each other. Eager and sturdy, in the hot combat
they did not ALWAYS aim right, but they fought
good fight. The victory did not always come with
evening bells. Sometimes the tide Of battle bore
them aloft and sometimes il overswept them. But
through storm and stress, through the calumny Of
political opposition of personal malignity, and OF
popular misrepresentation, these strong men beat
their way along, just as strong men forge ahead to-
day. "Obloquy," said Burke in one of those great
speeches whose echoes are like living voice, OBJ
loQuy is a necessary ingredient in the composition
of all true glory; it was not only IN
the Roman CUSTOMS but it is in the
nature and constitution of things. that calumny
and abuse are essential parts of triumph" So also
spoke greater even than BuTke-a name which in
the record of National history is above every
name--WasIingtOn: "Why should expect to be
erennnt frnm censnre the nnfailing lot of an ele-