6 APRIL 1850, Page 13

ifi.E HUMILITY OF HAWES.

The main obstacle to a larger introduction of untitled ability into office is to be found, in our opinion, among the very same critics who are loudest in their denunciations of aristocratic patronage. It is scarcely possible for a 'new man' to take a post under Government without being sneered at as a toady and a tufthunter, and insolently congratulated on his supposed social elevation. Mr. Hawes, for example, never rises in the House of Commons, but the eminent Liberals of the Colonial Reform Association are ready with taunts about his '.noble patron; and so forth ; taunts which no gentleman would dream of uttering, and which seem reserved for the

punishment of the plebeian who has vindicated the fair claims of his order, and made his talents necessary to colleagues of far greater original advan- tages.—Globe, April 4.

There may be some -troth in the general opinion here uttered by our Ministerial contemporary: but his particular instance is un- fortunately selected. The "taunts"" in question are not provoked by Mr. Hawes's "newness " but by his own reverential, fearftl, awe- ful lane and tone, when he mentions Lord Grey in connexion with If Canning, Thinlow, the Stowell and don Scotts, or Huskisson, had, when risinp, ever spoken of their immediate su- periors " with 'bated breath and whispering humbleness," they would not have risen to the positions they attained. Mr. Hawes a/tvarsi does this : but there is another and better reason for the • ect with which 'he is treated in the House of Com- mons. e has -utterly abandoned in office the Colonial objects which he pursued in 'Opposition : from one of the moat earnest critics of Colonial Downing Street, he has become its most zealous apologist and panegyrist : above all, since Mr. Hawes possesses enough of the melts sane to make him dislike, as much as Lord Grey enjoya, unsaying and undoing his own words and deeds, his close imitation of Lord -Grey in this respect is attributed to ser- vility. His own manner and his own conduct towards his " noble friend" are the causes of his mortification. His hnaliliation arises from his inordinate humility.