still more seriously by the proceedings of not a few Liberals of inferior rank. It is needless to stir up again the memories of the dissensions which unhappily characterised the Opposition in 1877 and 1878. But some allusion must be made to them, in order that justice may be done to the discretion, the tact, and the self-forgetfulness with which Lord Hartington during those stormy sessions fulfilled the duties of the leadership. It is by the exercise of these qualities, and by the avoidance of the blunders into which so many abler men have fallen, that he has justified with unexpected completeness the action of his party in selecting him as its official chief. That he has proved himself to be a much abler man than he was believed to be ten years ago, will be admitted by the most censorious of his critics. It may be true that he has not yet revealed those higher qualities of statesmanship, those deeper and rarer political instincts, which go to the making of a really great party leader. But once or twice in his more recent utterances, when the outer crust of seeming apathy has disappeared, and he has shown warmth and vigour as well as shrewdness in argument, he has come very near to the point at which the politican is merged into the statesman. Such a speech, for example, as that which he recently made at Newcastle, would have done credit to any of the statesmen who have nothing but their abilities and their zeal to trust to for the maintenance of their position in their party. It was a speech which Lord Hartington himself would never have dreamt of making a dozen years ago. In short, he has grown and is growing; and remembering what Lord Palmerston once was and what he eventually became, one may cherish the hope that when he next takes office, Lord Hartington will show that he is entitled to high administrative rank, in virtue of something better than his birth and his aristocratic savoir faire. [THE Right Honourable Sir ROBERT PEEL is the eldest son of the late Sir Robert Peel. He was born in 1822, and was educated at Harrow and Christ Church, Oxford. Married, in 1856, Lady Emily Hay, youngest daughter of the Marquis of Tweeddale. First returned for Tamworth in 1850. Was attached to the British Embassy at Madrid from June 1844 to May 1846; Secretary to Legation at Berne from December 1846 to June 1850; a Lord of the Admiralty from February 1855 till May 1857; and Chief Secretary for Ireland from July 1861 till 1865. Was Secretary to the Special Mission to Russia at the coronation of the Czar in 1856.] |