FACILITY DESTRUCTIVE.
DIE position of the Premier, suddenly afflicted with a clear stage and no favour by the disappearance of Mr. Baillie, has more than one historical parallel. Lord John expected a vote of no-confi- dence; he had made all his arrangements for an imposing array of fortitude, and finds a ludicrous absence of fortitudinous necessity. His naturally limping progress is not to be disguised by a contes- tation of magnified dangers. He is like a man who issues forth with goloshes, mackintosh, and umbrella, on a cloudless day : the very beauty of the path before him becomes a reproach and a mockery ; his heart sickens at the total want of puddles ; he des- pairs of the most fortuitous splashing.
Lydia Languish's complaint, that she was to be married "and no elopement" after all, has not half the force of Lord John's, that he is to get his Budget and no want of confidence. He is not to be allowed the pursuit of ways and means under difficulties : he is to pursue them under facilities ; which is harrowing, for we all know what Sir Charles Wood does when he has everything his own way. Lord John's feelings perhaps approach nearest to those of Rous- seau when he had claimed a public rehearsal of his first unstudied piece of music. All stood triumphantly ready ; not a disaster could be hoped to arrest the completed preparations ; and the con- ductor, horribly conscious of his real incompetency, must proceed as if it were to a triumph, and not to an inevitable crash equally humiliating and grotesque. The manceuvre attempted by Lord John and outmanceuvered by Mr. Baillie has its parallel on the mimic stage. It is the privilege of the chief actor to retreat a few feet behind the other prominent performers, in order to gain a more favourable position in the group. An eminent tragedian was noted for abusing this privi- lege, and it is related that he once found his match. As the Lord John Russell of the stage drew back, he was dismayed and angered to note that his fellow performer, the Mr. Baillie of the night, drew back also : no whispered remonstrance, no extremity of pri- vileged retreat, could defeat the perversity of the buskined Baillie ; the alternate backing of the two continued to the back-scene, until at last the great tragedian was fain to escape from the undignified contest by coming once more to the foot-lights ; just as Lord John must go on with his Budget etcetera, unable to outdo Mr. Baillie in backwardization.
Previous page
