2 JULY 1870, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

LORD CLARENDON. LORD CLARENDON was not a great man, but his death is a loss both to the Cabinet and the country. To the former he brought a kind of aid which, of all the Cabinets that have ruled England, this one most requires, the aid of a thorough man of the world, not very earnest, not much inclined to sympathize with popular movements, not greatly respecting middle-class ideas of government, but shrewd, observant, incapable of excitement, and unusually fami- liar with men. An aristocrat by birth, a Whig by tradi- tion, a cosmopolitan by training, he was "society," "good society," embodied ; and the criticism of "society," though usually wrong, and always feeble, is a criticism which it is good for a Premier to hear before his measures are submitted to the world. It compels him to consider practicabilities as well as his own wishes for mankind. Any Bill of Lord Clarendon's would possibly have been a very useless affair, but Lord Clarendon's remarks on any Bill—his short, easily- worded private opinion as to its merits and defects—were things for statesmen to ponder with attention ; with all the more attention if the would-be legislator were a man with the defect of the day, a tendency to exaggerate possible results. Like Lord Palmerston, Lord Melbourne, Sir C. Lewis, and, in a previous generation, Lord North, Lord Clarendon had a kind of courage, based on a large experience and deep knowledge of some sides of human nature, which, though not mental force, yielded .many 'of its advantages—this one among the rest, that he could never believe that things would go so badly as politicians of the drawing-room were inclined to /indict. A man of that kind is a loss to any Cabinet, and especially to a Cabinet in which every kind of capacity, except that of the keen, slightly patronizing family friend, is so fully represented. To the country his service was of a very similar kind. Lord Clarendon was one of the statesmen, now growing few, who believe that the world is still governed by indi- viduals, and individuals for the most part well-born,—who think that to know them, and to manage them, and be to them persona grata, is to be efficient. That idea, quite false in stormy times, and in countries where the opinion of ordinary citizens is in the last resort irresistible, is quite true in quiet times and in the Continental States with which Great Britain has in such times most to do ; and Lord Clarendon was, under such circumstances, most efficient. He was quite capable of believing that Austria was sure to defeat Prussia because Austria was gentlemanly, or of underrating the force of a popular movement like that which forced Germany to fight Denmark, or of over-estimating, as in Ireland in the Birch affair, the mental feebleness of the masses ; but he was not capable of irritating Napoleon's amour propre, or mistaking the drift of a slightly acid despatch from St. Petersburg, or being led into a trap by any individual diplomatist. He profoundly annoyed the country during the negotiations at Paris after the Crimean War, by assenting to the threats addressed to the Belgian Government and Press, but he put down the absurd pretensions of the Russian Plenipotentiary with a determined hand, and contrived to let the Emperor of the French feel that there were limits to English regard for his alliance, without setting Europe once more by the ears. There never was such a difficult part as he had then to play, with Russia beaten but haughty, Prussia full of sympathy for the North because Austria inclined to the West, Napoleon determined to have peace on any terms lest he should be compelled to appeal to the Revolution, and Britain more than half ready to fight the world rather than sign a peace without visible advantages ; and the fact that he played it so as to retain the esteem, not to say the friendship, of all sides, was proof of capacity of an unusual kind. Count Cavour, Baron Usedom, or Sir James Hudson would have made that Treaty a very different affair, but at a risk which Lord Clarendon, while making a peace that has lasted, managed to avoid ; and in national as in private affairs, the cool club-man who, whenever the matter is not of the first moment, can tell you precisely what to do, is a very valuable ally. In dealing with America he has not been quite so fortunate, failing, as it seems to us, to see the sentimental side of the American grievance, and believing that a victory in argument over Mr. Fish, particularly if it were a brilliant victory, would tend to remove an irritation which was only increased by his cool and lucid reasoning. In the recent Greek affair also, in which none of his special qualities- were of use—Greeks being diplomatists by nature. instead of' training—he, in our judgment, failed as a man of far less power would not have done ; made a demand inadmissible by any State ; got flurried, and, as we understand his last some- what apologetic speech, was conscious that he had been flurried, and therefore was loud in words and rather feeble in action, which was not his usual attitude. Still, the mistakes recorded of him are few, and cool, almost cynical as he was,. indisposed to action, and jealous of popular pressure, he never- forgot to maintain the place of his country among the nations. of the world. Not being able to fear, he never skulked,. though he had a trick of yielding the path rather than under- go the pushing in which brawnier and coarser men woul1/41 have rejoiced.

It is fortunate that Lord Clarendon's place can be filled by- e, man who, to all his qualities and much of his special know- ledge, adds a certain strength and comprehension of popular forces which will make him a much more formidable opponent to any diplomatist with whom he may have controversy.. Lord Granville's administration of the Colonial Office has, in our judgfnent, been utterly bad,—so bad as to imperil the Empire ; but it has been bad because based on a wrong idea,. not bad because of any incapacity in the Secretary himself.. On the contrary, he has been most firm in an injurious course,. most adroit in securing the wrong end, most lucid in his exposition of erroneous facts, most dignified in his display of contempt for our most valuable friends. If the object of British statecraft were the isolation of Great Britain among English-speaking peoples, no one could have pursued it with. more unswerving tenacity, with greater rigour of logic, or with_ a happier adaptation of means to ends than Lord Granville,, who, moreover, wields a pen which gives to every argument he may employ even more than its natural incisiveness. It was not his method, but his end, which called forth the. resistance which ultimately induced him, as a Member of a. popular Government, to reconsider his course and retrace his steps. Let but the end be wise, and no one deserves more, confidence than Lord Granville, and in the Foreign Office his. end is nearly sure to be wise. He must as diplomatist, Liberal,. and noble, mean peace without dishonour. He is not likely to. vacillate, to lay down opinions without adhering to them, or to pay too much respect to momentary cries; he does not desire that England should be less than a great power ; and he is not afraid' when the time comes, of decided action. No diplomatist has the smallest chance of taking him at a disadvantage, no people except his own will ever threaten him with effect, and, we may add, he will be no party to guarantees which he does not intend to enforce. Suave and cautious in speech, and clear with his pen, full of cosmopolitan knowledge, hard as polished steel, yet when necessary as flexible, Lord Granville may yet prove the ideal Foreign Minister for Great Britain. At all events he will be in his place, and in the Colonial Office he is not, and the double gain may compensate the Cabinet for the loss it has undoubtedly sustained.

The compensation will be all the more perfect, if advantage be taken of the misfortune to bring new vigour into a Cabinet upon which man showers favours and Heaven blows. With Mr. Bright in retreat, and Mr. Childers ill, and Mr.. Bruce unpopular, and Mr. Cardwell unappreciated, this Cabinet, all-powerful as it is, is not in the Commons really strong, and is specially weak upon the popular side. It will not be a bit stronger if Mr. Cardwell takes the Colonies, for then the Army must go to the Lords just at a moment when the Minister, to be strong against internal resistance, must be able to plead the Commons' will. There is nothing in Lord Kimberley's career to show that he wishes the Empire to become a Holland ; Lord de Grey will make th,e most perfect of Privy Seals ; and as President of the Council Mr. Forster will not only be responsible for the department of which he is already the soul, but will bring to the Cabinet the aid of the one strong Radical whom Tories seem able to understand.