THE NEW GREAT UNKNOWN.
THE issue of the great Corn-law debate, on Friday last, seemed to put a quondam Ministerial contemporary into a phrensy of irritation, so extravagant that all our respect cannot prevent us from being. amused. After setting forth the majority of 97, the Protectionist writer exclaims, " This is a frightful and disgusting exhibition !" But all is not lost : the debate has done great things for the country: it has evolved a phtenomenon; and, happily, the said pheenomenon is not singular- " In the progress of this debate many great men have made themselves known for the first tune to the country; and more will follow, to prove that there has hitherto been latent among the silent Conservatives more real talent than is pos- sessed by the Whigs and Bed-tapers taken together." Like Mrs. Malaprop's tears, it is unknown the great men we have. We fly to the list of speakers to ascertain those who made themselves known for the first time to the country; but we must confess that we are rather puzzled to decide which among the fifty-five Protectionist speakers are the great men. The Standard says that they disclose themselves " for the first time"; a phrase that would seem to imply some others than Mr. Hudson, Mr. Ferrand, Mr. Borthwick, or even Mr. Francis Scott ; since the greatness of those gentlemen has been disclosed, to the utmost of their ability, long ago. It must therefore be Mr. William Deed., Lord Brooke, Mr. Halsey, Lord Charles Churchill, and Mr. Seymer.
As to one illustrious name we are not left in this painful doubt: one great man is specified, and his history is instructive. To truly national cause he has for years sacrificed himself with heroic devotion. We all know what vital interests hang upon maintaining the breed of race-horses ; and to that care has our hero bent every energy for the term of nearly a generation. Nay, more, he has been a steady reformer—the Jockey Code has profited largely by the wisdom of the noble Lycurgus. One grand national desideratum seemed for years to be unattainable • the efforts of suc- cessive patriots proved unavailing; but at length, in the person of this great man, ingenuity and perseverance were triumphant— British jockies now achieve a fair start." Our hero has not been without his martyrdom : Aristides was ostracized, Themis- tocles was exiled, the British benefactor was the object of innu- merable " qui tam" actions.
Such were the high affairs that for eighteen years engrossed the public services of the truly great man : he now turns his attention to a minor subject—the national supply of food. This remarkable man is—Lord George Bentinck !
"Lord George has sat in Parliament for eighteen years; and last night ad- dressed the House for the first time in a speech which, for clearness of arrange- ment, force of logic, fulness and accuracy of knowledge of the agriculture and commerce of the empire, even to the minutest details, cannot be surpassed, and which for general eloquence of style has been rarely equalled. We challenge a comparison of this speech with the speech of the Prune Minister, with the speech of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, of Sir George Clerk, or Mr. Cardwell, as a mere business exposition; and we are confident of an award in its favour. A challenge on the ground of its manly eloquence would be unfair to the noble Lord's competitors, for manly eloquence is the language only of a good cause."
We protest that, until we read this eulogium, all those excel- lences had escaped our observation ; but now we are much struck with some beautiful passages in Lord George's speech. With extraordinary good taste, wit, and novelty of idea, he asked Mr. Charles Villiers, "whether, as an Examiner of the Court of Chan- cery, and receiving a handsome salary from that office, he him- self did not come within the category of annuitants and tax- consumers ?" With no less felicity of feeling he reminded Sir Robert Peel, that "at no distant period" Drayton Manor be- longed to "the old landed aristocracy " ; and, with that singular appretiation of human nature which the great derive from com- muning with their own souls, he observed, that there was a mea- sure passed in 1819 which is said to have added half a million to his (the Premier's) family,"—meaning, we presume, half a million pounds sterling added to the property of the family; not, as in vulgar grammar the words would imply, half a million of souls added to the family itself. Such an addition would not only be *very surprising, but, we believe, not warranted by the family re- cords at Tamworth.
" The speech of Lo d George Bentinck proves something more than anything could prove as a mere argument. It is a testimony to the encouraging fact that the House of Commons possesses men whose ability to conduct public affairs has been hitherto unknown and even unguessed at. Here is a nobleman, silent for eighteen years, because he was satisfied with the conduct of his party leaders— unambitious, and perhaps diffident"
" Perhaps diffident" 1 In this very speech Lord George ap- pears to have said—" He believed, although the debate had lasted for twelve nights, he [himself, the last of all the speakers] was the only gentleman in that House who had entered at length into the real question." But this great speech is a great lesson to the British nation. If great men limit their attention to horse-racing and such things, and look at corn-laws and so forth only once in eighteen years, the matter of national food must be of small account, and the turf must be the really great thing. We know of but one living parallel to this edifying example : Santa Anna, the quondam Dictator of Mexico, is devoting himself in exile to the noble pur- suit of cock-fighting. Nay, we forget—did not our own Grant- ley Berkeley recommend more stringent game-laws as the mea- sure for national redemption ; while his brother Craven now objects to free admission of grain for food ? Let the English nation leave manufactures and imports, and take to shooting, cock-fighting, and horse-racing. " Come," as Swift says, " let us leave child's play and go to push-pin."
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