The Cecil Whig., 1881-05-21

CARLYLE AND BEACONSFIELD.
sPASMODIC INJUSTICE-HOW THE WORIl
wAGs IT'S HEAD As THE WIND BLOWS.

1t matters little what Mr.. FrOude may
have said with regard to poor Mary
Stuart. Ones belief in her fundamental
tai wickedness of disposition seems to be
purely matter of romantic sentiment.
His attitude towards her and towards
some other historical perSonages and
events has been blamed as partial, mar
row, even purposely awry, and he had
been set down by not a few as one of
those unfortunately constituted persons
who have a special aptitude for plunging
headlong into mistakes beyond the power
of recovering themselves. Whether he
really deserves to wholesale a condcmna-
reputation most wofully by his precipi-
tate publication of Carlyle's Reminis-
cences. And what is the result? Not, we
mean, for Mr.. Froude, for that is clear;
or for Mr.. Carlyle, for that has been ex-
haustively discussed; but for the world
at large? Simply this; an explosive de-
| vclopmcnt of one of the saddest faults of
collective humanity-a spasmodic injus-
tice, which may last shorter or 4 longer
time (fur this sort of thing has endured
for centuries) according to circumstances.
tice turns soon with reaction, like a
projcctile of vituperation impellcd into
the air and, scarcely resting, coming back
at once, and with a velocity increasing as
the square of the distance travcrsed, to
the ordinary level of human understand
ing. And this might occur in the case of
the violent Indignation now felt at Car
lyle, but that it is itself reaction, and
therefore the more likely to live. He has
been worshipped, and it is much more
difficult to cement shattered god than
the greatest effect of Mr. Froude's indis-
cretion, an abnormal agitation of the
feelings of men adverse to fellow man.
is thus apt to wear out more of our re-
spectful memory of great one thau the
commonplace world can well spare.
The most Immediate and palpable evil
dencc OF this has been the stoppage, vir-
tually, of subscriptions for Il Carlyle
memorial or monument. In the meau-
time subscriptions are started for a me-
mortal to Lord Beaconsfield. Now, TAX
ing these two, one in either hand as it
were (most men will put Carlyle i'll the
right, that hand being usually the strong
er,) who will hesitate to say which
weighs morco Which of US need ask till
tomorrow to decide whether the maker
of books has done greater service to man
kind OF even to big little England? We
are not defending Carlyle. He should
have no defender. His tremendous in
tellect was mountainous weapon, and
he was able, and is now able, by what
good tlings-both good and great-he
has left with us. to defend himself The
pettincss ot his character, as shown by
his querulous and egotistic treatment of
others as great as, in one way or another,
and better than himself is inexcusable
in view of the magnificent intelligence
in him. which could not have been other
than safeguide if he had only let it.
Who that loves Lamb-and who is there
that does not?-and admires or respects
other sweet targets for his splenetic az
rows, is not angry with him? But this
should not lead us to do him an injustice
and to forget that he has been one of the
master-thilrkers of this century, has add
ed lav;shly to our fund of fact and To-
mauce-such romance as comes only from
the brain of a man who thinks solidly and
to some end--and was, in his better mo-
mcnts, lovable, if somewhat priggish.
Through all his faults, very great because
the man was very great, shine the pierre
ing sunlight of 4 grand intellect and the
gcntler radiance of a heart which had its
cherished affections and was not without
sympathy, for all the ranting and dema-
.o.ic ieunoclasm that sounded from bis
eloquent throat But whether we admit
OF not that there was anything lovable
about him Gas there seems but too little
proof of such quality) the fact remains
that he has laid the world under an I'M
payable debt to him by thinking broadly
for it, and it is an injustice that sucl
slight tokens of remembrance, ii not, in
any great measure, of respect or at all OF
love, as the proposed memorial should
now be denied him in a pet at his inius-
ticc to others: and it is not worth of men
as Il brotherhood.
Turn to my lord the dead statesman.
If the bigoted Scotchman was selfish,
what was the liberal Jew? If the tailor
who made over the clothes of men was
devoted to himself and his hobbies. t.
what was directed the unwavering atten,
tion of the court costumer who made fol
his queen an imperial crown and 4 coru-
net for himselfaa Which is moro repre-
heusibe, to carry through life the intol
Grant habit of thought engcndered by the
sternest form of the Christian religion
while sliding partly out of that religion
by honest conviction, or to cling with un
shaken fidelity to an inherited belle
assuming whatever form of worship best
served political aims2 1t is not probable
that we shall ever know just what phase:
, ofreligious thought either passed through
or whether each was not too busily en-
gagged in smashing everything = to think
deeply in that strain in any direction
after he had once got fairly into battle.
Both men were selfish to an eHtraordina,
ry degree, but manifested their selfish,
ness differently. Carlyle scowled and
grumbled and made himself disagreeable
because things were not to his taste, and
seems to have been in a good hEmOl
when somebody or something tickled him
Beaconsfield smiled like diplomatist anG
set about adapting himself to things ant
things to himself, meanwhile making
himself generally beloved by those will
whom he came in personal contact. Eacl
man had II way of his own of being self
sh, and Carlyle's although the more
honest, was by far the less agreeable. st
far as either opened his mind and heart
largely to the interests of his fellow meI
and worked for noble ends both stand
at the feet of the worlds heroes, and are
not worthy to loose the latchets Of theil
shoes. Carlyles "reminiscences revea
his feeling towards others, and the whole
- e.