IMPUDENCE.
pERHAPS the happiest specimen of impudence known to the English public, is the picture of Bailey Junior, in t‘ Martin Chuzzlewit," but that is an ideal. The living specimen of it which will strike Englishmen most just now, is the figure of Lord Randolph Churchill. Impudence is sometimes nothing more than a premature evidence of self-confidence and power. Mr. Disraeli depicted unlimited impudence in "Vivian Grey," without depicting any real power, whether premature or otherwise. But the power was in himself, whether it was in Vivian Grey or not ; and the political effrontery of his own early career was perhaps vindicated (intellectually) by the singular achievements of his later life. In cases like this, impudence is probably an equivalent for force, though for force deficient in that self-distrust and consciousness of inadequacy to the problems of life, which any high degree of intellectual vision brings with it. Bnt that is hardly true impudence, in the sense which we attach to Bailey Junior's impudence when he asks after "our fair friend, Sairah," and remarks, "with genteel indiffer- ence," that "there's the remains of a fine Woman about Sairah," but "too much crumb, you know, too fat, Poll ;" or in the sense which we attach to Lord Randolph Churchill's im- pudence when he compliments the Birmingham democracy in almost precisely the same spirit,—as having the remains of attrac- tiveness in it, though of an attractiveness now going to wreck in
the Radicalism of Mr. Bright and Mr. Chamberlain. Mrs. Gamp, when she is told by Bailey Junior-that she is "all a-blown" and a-growin'," is not—as our readers will remember—dis- pleased. She says :—" Drat the Bragian boldness of that boy. What an imperent young sparrow it is ! " and her evident satisfaction is regarded by Mr. Bailey as a flattering indication of her hopeless attachment to himself. Apparently Birmingham feels much the same towards Lord Randolph. She is not offended at his bold compliments, — rather the contrary. "There's nothini he don't know, in my opinion," says Mrs. Gamp of Bailey Junior; -" all the wickedness of the world is Print to him ;" and she looks upon his knowingness with a sort of fascination. Does not Birmingham feel the same P The young upstart tells her, it is true, that Free Trade is a delusion, that the chief work of Mr. Bright in life has been a failure, and that he intends to reform popular politics altogether ; but Birmingham is hall-fascinated by the spectacle of such self- confidence in a Tory, and simpers with satisfaction at the audacity of his proposals.
Impudent people make others all but believe what they want them to believe, just as Bailey Junior almost made Mr.
Sweedlepipe believe, that he had a beard to he shaved off, and that, as a barber, he was at liberty "to do wot he liked with the bits of whisker," although his face was in reality "as smooth as a new-laid egg." And just so, Lord Randolph Churchill is as indifferent to his influence over the Tory ex-Cabinet as Bailey
Junior was to "the bits of whisker" for which he said that he did not care. "I am not the least bit in the confidence of the leaders, and though I have laboured hard anclunremittingly, and, as your great kindness to me to-night proves, not altogether without success, I must admit that I do not enjoy the high honour of their friendship. Only the- other night, one of them accused me in the House of Commons of being in secret and fraudulent alliance with the Prime Minister for the destruction of the Tory Party. I have not been able to gather from their speeches or their acts what would be the policy they would adopt if the responsibility for government were placed upon them." "If she isn't" in the Gazette, says Bailey Junior, speaking of his old mistress, "she will be,—that bisness never can be carried on without me;" and Lord Randolph manages to convey to Birmingham precisely the same impression of the one condition without which the Tory Party could never Carry on the business with the smallest hope of success. And though Sir Stafford Northcote sends a flying missile at his head now and then, just as Mrs. Todgers sent "small articles• of iron- mongery and hardware at the boy," Sir Stafford thereby only confirms Lord Randolph, if not in his conviction, at least in his determination to seem convinced, that the Tory adminis- tration will soon be bankrupt without the support of his abilities. And unquestionably he has gained something of the repute of a leader by the very same means by which Bailey Junior gained something of the repute of a man,—by unblushingly assuming the repute, and acting precisely as if he really were what he assumes to be.
What puzzles one about impudence, is how far it -is a real force in life, and how far a source of weakness. Bailey Junior, no doubt, advanced himself by his impudence from the position of polishing boots in a boarding-house, to the position of tiger behind the cabriolet of a swindler, and was much more comfortable in the latter position than in the former. Un- doubtedly, Mr. Disraeli, without his political effrontery, might not have risen to the great position which he did attain, and undoubtedly, too, he valued that great position, and would not willingly have been without any quality which raised him to it. Undoubtedly, again, Lord Randolph. Churchill is a much more considerable figure in the public eye than he would have :Wen but for the almost measureless effrontery of his political career; and no doubt he, too, is profoundly aware of what he hao gained by assuming to know that of which he was quite ignorant, and by assuming to be that which he is not But then, there is a great set-off against the advantages of effrontery, which it is impossible to ignore. Bailey Junior's brass got him mixed up with a swindler of. a very dangerous kind, and might easily have implicated him in the toils of the deadly revenge taken on his master. Mr.. Disraeli, with all his striking abilities, had more than once to pay the penalty of very silly and very rash boasts and speeches,—boasts and speeches on which only matchless audacity would have ventured. And it cannot for a moment be doubted that Lord Randolph Churchill's effrontery, though it may place him, in the opinion of the masses, in the rank of
statesmen, will render all the statesmen shy of him, and in all probability disinclined to co-operate with a speaker so ignorant and so presumptuous. The truth is, that in every pur- suit in which blundering is fatal, impudence is fatal also. The impudent engineer is sure to be cured sooner or later of his impudence by finding that his engines will not run, or that his lines will not pay. The impudent lawyer,—impudent, we mean, without knowledge,—even if his impudence gets him clients, will soon oblige those clients to desert him, by the pitfalls into which he leads them. The impudent builder will build what soon falls down again, and the impudent chemist will soon blow him- self into the air. It is only in the case of an empirical art hlte politics, where the authority appealed to is very apt to know as little of the truth as the mountebank himself, that impudence is not so dangerous as to be certainly fatal. Undoubtedly, politics is a field in which a clever mountebank has more chance of deceiving the public for a considerable length of time, than in most others. But even in politics we should say that impudence, unless it be so superficial as to be dropped completely the moment it has answered its purpose of bringing a man into notoriety, is much more of a. mischief than of an advantage. Just look at Lord Randolph Churchill's case. He cannot now accept the principles of Free-trade without being con- stantly taunted with his positive and reiterated declara- tions that -Free-trade is all humbug, and that we owe to the gold discoveries and the extension of railways all, the advantages which Free-traders have attributed to Free-trade. He cannot speak of the present Government in the tone of a statesman, without laying himself open to the retort that either he must have deliberately falsified his opinion of it to gain influence, or must have had so weak a judgment a few months ago, that he had mistaken for a pack of infamous " poli- tical imposters" "never equalled since the days of the famous Cabal," who have "entered on the high-road of political crime," and "whose every act is either a sham or a fraud," statesmen whom he had since discovered to be worthy of all national respect, and of the complete -confidence of a great party. He cannot adopt a sane Egyptian policy without being reminded of his ftrions onslaught on all the opponents of Arabi Pasha. And he cannot even canvass Birmingham without so far alter- ing his former political attitude towards the popular policy as to raise the gravest doubts of his present sincerity. If it were not that political memory is very short, he would already have spoken himself out of every chance of representing either a sane party, or a common-seuse constituency ; and though political memory is, fortunately for him, very short, it is certain that he has already raised in all sound minds a feeling of distrust and contempt, which it would take years of reticence and sobriety to extinguish. Impudence is weakness in all departments of life where it is at once brought to the test of tact; and fortunately, even politics, full as they are of the opportunity for looseness, are tested by facts in the end. The Bailey Juniors of the world get up a step or two in life easily enough; but, as a rule, they get up a few steps only to fall down again, and break their heads. Whether the Bailey Junior of politics will succeed better or worse, must depend on his power to disencumber himself speedily of the ineffable effrontery by the help of which he has made himself what he is.
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