TUX HWtiE MEMORIAL
Lv the memorializing mood of the English public, the Nightingale testimonial does not exclusively monopolize attention or active. cooperation : it has been determined to found a memorial to Joseph. Hume. We say it is determined, because, although the proceedings are only in the preliminary stage, there have already been such earnests of success, and the proposition itself is so well suited to the temper of the time, that in general terms the result is settled already. The true memorial of Joseph Hume was, indeed, founded in his own services; and until we erase some very im- portant chapters in hlnglish history, there is no, probability that he can be forgotten. In our day, however, when we zee that a man is destined to survive, WA seek to identify ourself with his success, and claim to assistat his immortality—so, as it were, going down to posterity with him, There is a use beyoud, this in such a memento. It is said that the opinion of foreign nations resembles that of a contemporary posterity : is. the opinion of a oonaiderable multitude we extract the germ of & future opinion, and thus pro- cure, from our own day, evidence, that the purpose impersonated. in a public man is not transitory, but is destined to survive, even as the stone or the edifice or the institution which we tweet, This kind of process clinches our own resolve, and inereases the utility of the services which it recognises.
It gratifies a desire, which we all have,, to express deeply seated or widely-shared feelings, in some outward or visible sign. Joseph. Hume was successful in his main objects, and all ranks desire to show that they participate in the qualities and feelings which secured his success. The Parliament men, even those who have by inheritance or creation been translated to the Upper House, are subscribing, because Hume essentially belonged to the plat- form class of public men. By birth and habits of mind he belonged strictly to the middle class ; and perhaps his convic- tions are nowhere more completely perpetuated than among the middle class. But his services for the working class were too sub- stantial not to have engaged the multitude, and the multitude, we are convinced, will be represented in the subscription. Hume was respected as much for his independence, as for his perseverance. Though he had laboured to procure the repeal of the Combination- laws, he retained that personal independence which made him re- fuse a testimonial from certain of the working classes when they were combining to the detriment of the public and of their own poor countrymen. He could at once relieve them from a tyranny and rebuke them for a mutiny against the welfare of society. He could serve them, and withstand their flattery. The last characteristic is the most remarkable, since it was not amongst the virtues of Joseph Hume to be free from vanity. His love of approbation was large, and its influence was seen in the expansion of his eouritenanee when he met the approval of a large
body of his countrymen. It mattered not who—Tories, Whigs, Radicals, or Chartists, it was the same; praise was delightful, even when the praised man refused to return the quid pro quo in conceding the point which the flatterers sometimes sought by that seductive process. He would say, like limner, " Flatter me, Mr. l3opes!" but he would pursue his own style of painting still.
Like most " representative men," who present some public qualities in great force with the due allowance of personal foibles, Rime's character comprised apparent incompatibilities. Mr. Roe. buck says of him, that " he never sought anything for himself, and was above all considerations of pecuniary benefit." Perhaps not all. He made a fortune, and he knew how to employ a certain retinue of assistants without a corresponding expenditure. If he never sought anything for himself, in his frequent applications to the Government departments he enjoyed the exercise of patronage for others; those others sometimes not widely disconnected from himself, and always adding to the number of his grateful friends. Still he avoided anything resembling oorrnption—recommended only those that he thought meritorious ; and unquestionably he preferred the public to any private advantage.
His eulogist Mr. Roebuck disclosed the foot that "he very much, desired to be made a member of the Privy Council"—" a mark of respect on the part of the country which might have been cheaply and easily conferred." But for what purpose Mr. Hume could scarcely suppose that his being made a Privy Councillor would. enable him to continue those tutelary calls upon his Sovereign which had been paid in• a friendly capacity at Kensington Palace? Disraeli succeeded by a certain coup d'aat in being medal " right honourable," but that does not give him access to the ear of Victoria; nor does Lord Palmerston require his attendanoe at the Privy Council meetings. The neat result of this desire would, perhaps have been,, that plain Joseph Hume would have been "the Right Honourable Joseph Hume " ; which could scarcely have added to the real honour and dignity that unquestionably he attained. The "right honourable" does- not go down to posterity we do not talk of " the Right Honourable Edmund Burke." With whatever weaknesses, however, Hume had vigour enough for many men, and in his single person he realized successes for classes. Elie example is interesting at the present day, for one moral at least that it teaches out of many. If he was not indiffes- ent to the titles which Royalty can confer—if he was accessible to the popular flattery—if he could keep an eye upon the main chance —he still remained independent, public-spirited, and industrious. Thus he showed, in this day of middle-class and trading influences,, that sterling virtues can be reconciled with worldly prosperity. He repeated for our edification, in these days of Reform optimism, the moral of his model, Benjamin Franklin,—only, in his secret heart, he wished he could invest the practical patriot-philosopher in a white waistcoat, and he, as it were, a " Right Honourable Benjamin Franklin."
Previous page
