NEWS OF THE WEEK.
WE have lost the good Earl Spencer. He has died, it may almost be said, at a premature age ; for in a life of rural ease sixty-three is early. But he is among the many victims, illustrious or obscure, to the aristocratic malady, the gout. He will be re- gretted as one of the leading statesmen of the Reform Bill corps, now diminished by defection and death. Although he had of late taken no active part in politics, he leaves a void. An ac- complished gentleman, a bad orator, an influential statesman, a country grazier, and a free-trader, all in one, it is difficult to find his like or to supply his place. And some politicians looked upon " honest Lord Althorp," most liberarbut moderate Earl Spencer, as the man who might, with a probability of success, construct a Cabinet out of the best materials furnished by different parties. But we suspect that it would have needed a man of greater will. " Honest" Lord Althorp was, in the highest sense of the word ; but his good-nature made him too yielding, espe- cially when trespasses on his kindness came in a friendly shape; and "honest Lord Althorp " was the stalking-horse for pettier peoplo His yielding disposition contributed to that backsliding in the. Whig party which led to their downfall as soon as Sir Robert Peel could compete against them in the newly-constructed market of politics, with a newly-constructed party, miscalled Tory. Yet, with his disadvantages as an orator and a quiet honest man, to contend among corrupt and conflicting interests in the House of Commons, Lord Althorp's success was more surprising than his being set aside at last. It was a homage paid by vice to virtue, and was due to that simplicity or frank naturalness of bear- ing which was the striking trait in his character. In that respect he was the opposite of Sir Robert Peel; who, however honest, is certainly not simple.
