MILITARY REWARDS.
IN the Postscript to the second edition of our last Number, we al- luded fo a rumour mentioned in the Standard of Saturday even- .ing, that Sir SIDNEY SMITH and a Captain PELLEW were to be proposed as representatives for Westminster. We remarked at the same time, that the strong recommendation of these candi- dates in embryo by-the Standard, was what we had not been pre- pared to expect from so consistent an opponent to Ministers. Our contemporary says we taunted him with his inconsistency. As- suredly, this was not our meaning. It is not with the feeling . which expresses itself in taunts, that we regard any departure from consistency in so able a journal ;—for the recommendation of two hand-and-foot-bound Ministerialists, in preference to tiro in independent members, is, we repeat, a great and manifest depar- ture from consistency, in a writer who so strongly inculcates in- dependence. • But our contemporary has found out a new reason for support- ing the defender of Acre. As a warrior, he is, it seems, the greatest man living ; and we are not to withhold the merited wreath of national gratitude from his brow until we have satisfied ourselves that he shall be a better representative of Westminster than Sir FRANCIS BURDETT. The House of Commons is, then, to be turned into a Temple of Fame, where superannuated cap- tains and colonels are to be niched ; and instead of crosses and stars, the reward of a siege or a victory is to be the order of M. P.! Did our contemporary, before he uttered this sentiment, which he corroborates, appropriately enough we allow, by quoting an equally notable one from the Morning Herald,—did he for a moment ask himself what members of Parliament are made for ? All that we demand in a member of Parliament, is fitness for the task, and independence to fulfil it. The Standard has hitherto asked something more ; or rather, he has placed all fitness and independence, in opposing the Duke of WELLINGTON in every possible way. Yet he gravely proposes to send a man into Par- liament to support the Duke, and thus to do what, on his own showing, must be injurious to the nation, his constituents, and himself, by way of proving that the people of England are grateful for the advantages derived from the skilful defence of a petty town in Syria five-and-thirty years ago! Acknowledging, as we do, the undischarged amount of the debt, we must confess we never before heard of so droll a plan of liquidation.
Previous page
