The Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle. — 1866-02-17 (Stourbridge, West Midlands, England)

THE CRITIC CRITICISED.  The " Flaneur" of the Morning Star makes the following remarks on a recent article in the Pall Malt Gazette:— In an article pleasantly reminding the reader of Mr. Thackeray's playful style, the Pall Mall Ga:dte, one evening last week, congratulated itself and its readers on its first anniversary, and was partiuclarly jubilant at having rid itself of that parasite of journalism, "the British 'liner." The careful sub-editing t,f most of our daily journals has rendered the performances of this functionary far less ridiculous than they were a few years since ; his choicest epithets are pared down, his , boldest expletives are rejected, and he is for the most part reduced to a plain record of his murder, fire, or accident. But just at the time when we are congratulating ourselves that gentlemen whose powers of word-painting are tempered wirli common sense have replaced the verbose and grandiloquent 'liner, we find our old friend putting in a gorgeous appearance in a new and most unexpected place. In all the honours of large type, and from no lees lofty a pulpit than the columns of the Tinto, he dilates in his own delicious style on the "Opening of Parliament." After a brilliant beginning, he tells us that "the only peculiarity in the appearance of the House that excited the attention of those familiar with it in former times was the throne, which was covered, and had all its gilded ornaments concealed by something that at first glance looked like a white sheet thrown loosely over it. ' A little inquiry elicited the explanation that the , article was an ordinary covering, nothing else, in fact, than Her Majesty's robe of state, which she usually wore on all great occasions of ceremonial, but which she could not be persuaded to wear on this, because state and herself were no longer in accord. The robe was there, but the heart to put it on was wanting !" A little further on, a friend tells us that "a few peers" retired to the robing room, whence theyspeedily emerged rolymt with the scarlet robes and the state cross bands which indicate their rank in the aristocratic hierarchy. In the name of philosophy what is that? From the context it is plain to perceive that the writer dues not mean the Bench of Bishops—a supposition which alone could give meaning to his words and he must therefore have hit upon the phrase at random as a round and sonorous one. It is, however, in his description of her Majesty that the writer attains his highest flight: " Queen wire a black—some say a dark purple robe--which, whether it were purple or black, looked intensely black in the dim light of the chamber, trimmed with miniver, and a white lace cap a la Marie Stuart, to the portraits of which unfortunate lady she bore in this attire a remarkable similitude!" Such a preposterous statement as this argues either that the writer was totally ignorant of what he wrote, or made a wilful misstatement, relying iin the ignorance of his readers. There are very few English uses, no matter how humble, in which is not to be founda portrait of our Queen; letthat portrait be compared with the effigy of Mary Stuart on her monument in Westminster Abbey, with her medallion in profile at the British Museum, with her portrait at the National Portrait Gallery, with the whole length portrait of her at Windsor Castle, or with the admirable miniature of her in the possession of Mr. William Stirling, M. P., and it will be seen that neither in effigy nor medallion portrait nor miniature is there the slightest resemblance to the Queen. The comparison was probably intended to be flattering, but the attachment of the English people to their Sovereign and.,  to the throne Whereon she sits, whose deep foundations lie In veneration and the people's love . Whose steps are equity, whose soul is law— is far too earnest and too sacred to be tickled with such