The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 10, September, 1836Various
General
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. II., No. 10, September, 1836
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
To complete the review, we must finish our tour of the Chamber, with
the ranges of benches to our left. Do you observe up there on the
third row of benches, with its back against the wall, that figure of a
monkey dressed in a light colored wig, with its mouth awry, and
looking as if it was employed in cracking nuts? Far as this noble Lord
is seated from the head quarters of the tories, he is nevertheless one
of their most important and redoubtable captains. He has been twice
Lord High Chancellor, and held that office in the late cabinet of Sir
Robert Peel; this person is Lord Lyndhurst. Like Lord Brougham, he
passed from the bar, through the House of Commons, to the woolsack.
His extreme ugliness has nothing about it that can be considered
vulgar; on the contrary, he is the only lawyer I have ever seen who
had the air of a man of the world, and the polished manner of one who
had been a courtier. He is more than a lawyer; he is a most finished
orator, always clear, pithy, skilful, well-disciplined, and never
tedious, but concise and agreeable. His voice is full, grave, and
generally calm, but always capable of raising itself to the occasion;
he only grows warm when some personal but secret vexation disturbs
him. He is not troubled with a conscience; the privilege of dispensing
with which, he retains as a lawyer, though he has in other respects
managed to throw off the peculiarities of his profession. Formerly he
was an ultra whig. At heart he is still only an advocate, though
interested with the aristocracy, and affecting their polished good
breeding. He is a tory just now, because toryism has paid him
liberally for his pleadings. To-day, if the reformers could offer him
higher distinctions, he would discover, I am afraid, in his bag, an
abundance of arguments for reform.
Before turning the corner of the extreme left, let us pause a moment
to observe three personages, who centre in themselves all the ultra
toryism of the House. They are seated by the side of each other, at
the end of the last bench on this side.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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