Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851Various
General
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 69, No. 427, May, 1851
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
I'll tell you why we want you, and I shall do so with the most perfect
frankness and unreserve. Our best men are used up. In the opinion
of the Secret Committee, of whose views I am the humble expositor,
Cobden is no longer worth his weight in oakum for any practical
purpose whatever. We committed a monstrous mistake in subscribing that
unlucky fund. We ought to have remembered the story of the soldier
who carried with desperate gallantry a redoubt the morning after he
had been rooked of his last penny at cribbage, but who invariably
declined to volunteer for any subsequent enterprise, in consequence
of the injudicious douceur awarded him by the commanding officer.
Just so has it been with Cobden. The testimonial turned his head. You
remember the awful exhibition he made of himself, when, in attempting
to lecture the farmers on the best method of cultivating land, he
assumed the character of a country gentleman; and the undying ridicule
which was excited by the immediate publication of a lithographed plan
of his estate, which, in a good year, might pasture a couple of cows,
and afford precarious subsistence besides to a brood of goslings?
Then came his Peace platform tomfoolery, just at the very time when
war was becoming universal on the Continent, and revolutions were
springing like mines under the feet of every government. Then, again,
instead of cajoling the bucolics, he chose openly to defy and insult
them at Leeds; and the result has been that, from that hour, every
man connected in the most remote degree with the landed interest
has drawn off from our body. In the House of Commons he can hardly
command an audience. The Liberal whippers-in say that a speech of his
is equivalent to a dozen votes added to the Opposition minority, and
they never see him crossing the threshold without quaking with terror
lest he should take it into his head to commence a harangue. Bright's
eloquence is usually smothered by cries of "Oh, oh," and derisive
cheering. He is a sturdy chap in his way, but woefully injudicious;
and he has been so exceedingly rude to Lord John Russell, that the
Whigs will have nothing to say to him. Old Joe is rapidly becoming
imbecile. He can no longer fumble with figures as he used to do; and
his perception, in most cases, is not sufficiently clear to enable him
to state the "tottle of the whole" with accuracy. I love and revere
the veteran, but I am afraid his best days are gone by. Milner Gibson
won't do; and of course we have too much respect for our cause to allow
M'Gregor to come down to Westminster without his muzzle. We require,
of all things, a new hand with gentlemanly manners, an easy address,
some flow of language, and a slight dash of humour--one who will not
weary the House with interminable statistics, or get into a passion
because he is contradicted, or fasten upon his opponent with the brute
ferocity of a bull-dog. We want some fellow not fully committed to
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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