TOPICS OF THE DAY.
DO THE TIMES MAKE THE MAN ?
A wrrrir writer of our day* maintains, that whenever the times need such and such a character, it is sure to arise. He believes that the right man ever comes to the surface of events ; and that the leading spirits in a community may be regarded as exponents of the pervading sentiments at the period. He holds that the anchorite and fakir denote the prevalence of ascetic religious feeling ; the sturdy Luther, that of uneasy craving after religious freedom of thought. The searching reasonings of a Hobbes, he believes, were prompted by a strong appetite in the seventeenth century for philosophical theory ; whilst the mild and attractive but inconclusive writings of a Dugald Stewart and a Mackintosh naturally find favour with the less robust-minded community of the nineteenth. These, out of many more examples, are cited in illustration of his proposition : which, nevertheless, we cannot allow to supply a complete explanation of the success of par- ticular individuals at given periods. There are accidental cir- cumstances, in most cases, which connect themselves with the qualities of the man, forming the vantage-ground from which he passes on to power or to fame. It is impossible, for instance, to treat of the political events that are passing before our eyes without admitting that Sir Robert Peel does represent the actual condition of the reflecting mind of Eng- land ; and that he deals with the government of the country ac- cordingly, after a fashion that no other statesman would venture to practise. But there is no ground for believing that his personal talent and pertinacious will are the whole cause of his present ascendancy. The wealth to which our Premier succeeded by in- heritance counts for much in gaining the estimation and confi- dence of the public of England, and stands quite apart from his personal character. Then, he is not a.young man: his age in- apirsa a belief in his sagacity-, which would have been withheld fro him twenty years ago. Further, he has adopted a policy distasteful to the bulk of his party; which is a guarantee for his sincerity in following it up, since their displeasure must cause him very considerable pain. The reigning Monarch, again, happens to concur in his present views of what is fitting to be done for the Irish : a lucky accident, which had it existed in 1800, would have crowned the endeavours of William Pitt to consolidate the Union on a secure basis. And, which perhaps is not among the least important circumstances of Sir Robert Peel's position, the nation entertains a sober conviction, that his rivals, the Whigs, are at once incapable and insincere politicians; and, as such, it desires no fresh experiment of their management of public affairs, coupled with perhaps a quarrel with our French neighbours, resulting from the personal arrogance of a leading member of their party. With such fortunate accessory advantages on his side, it is diffi- cult to determine whether Sir Robert Peel is so much the product- of his times, as hO is, simply, the only instrument suited to them, whichis at our disposal. Nor, after all, is it very creditable to the generative force of "the times," that one man should be found playing two such different parts in his life as Sir Robert Peel has assuredly done. That no one man has sprung upon the stage, pospessing patriotic impulses and commanding qualities, with the fresh stamp and impress of his times upon him, would seem to ne- gative, in some sort, the foregoing hypothesis ; inasmuch as, for Want of such a one to direct a new form of things, we are obliged to adapt to the purpose one fashioned in an opposite school. Perhaps the real solution of this is to be found in the peculiar temper of our-present transition state. From the predominance of the desire for peace and-quiet, and the facilities they afford for car- out all sorts of material improvements in the community, the Minister whose prudence can secure us from agitating discord is the man for the middle classes, to whom " order" is as the breath of life. "The collective impersonation of false pretences," (as some one called the French Chamber,) which fills the halls of St. Stephen's, no longer excites the community to any interest in its agency as an engine of government. This political collapse, whilst it is unfavourable to the production of a statesman-hero' is favourable to a government of expediency par excellence ; for which, as has often been shown, Sir Robert Peel's is extremely well suited. The day may come when a reconstructive genius shall be necessary, to mould anew the elements of controlling power which recent dislocations and the action of new forces have partially de- ran d ; when God grant that "the right man" wig arise 1 But the tendenuyaf legislation at this present time is not so much towards piOncipled reformation as a bit-by-bit amendment : and for this, no :wonderful genius but ordinary guides with honest intentions will,be found to suffice. For instance: reformation in what re- gwYia most widely spread of our national grievances—the fitful expensiveness of all kinds of justice (amounting to a practical denial of justice so far as a large proportion of us are c,oncerned)—will hardly be undertaken on any comprehensive scale;, but peddling laws will from time to time be framed, to tinker particular defects now existing, and appease certain class of sufferers. And so we shall go on, probably fora number of years, until the great difficulty occur on the subject of the un- employed, yed, ' e. surplus labour of England • the most formidable me store or the -governing minds of this vast and en-
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Meanwhile, the measures pending in Parliament for pacifying the Irish Catholics are, unquestionably, distasteful to the sincere Church-of-Englander and sectarian Protestant: bat what reme- dial measure is ever otherwise? It is the inevitable fate of pos- terity to suffer for the misdeeds of their progenitors : we are " posterity" in relation to the Government of the eighteenth century., and we must either retrieve their errors or commit -simi- lar ones. Fortunately, no set of aspirants to office are found, just now, willing to turn the popular prejudices to account, or we should reckon with less confidence than we do on the carrying of our Minister's conciliatory policy into effect. Nay, we might even be destined to behold renewed coercion bills, backed by glit- tering bayonets, once more at work in the Emerald Isle. But these, we trust, will never again be employed, unless, after England and the English shall have ceased to be in the wrong, the Irish forfeit their claim to our sympathy by refusing to be content with a fair measure of reparation.
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