WHAT IS SAID ABOUT MESSRS. HAWES AND PEEL.
Ma. HAWES is not he of the two about whom the most is said. On the contrary, his ease is generally dismissed in a few words, and
with hardly any difference of opinion. He has retired from politi- cal life to be a well-paid clerk ; is lucky to have escaped complete wreck; is not over-rewarded for five years of dirty work reluctantly performed to order, at the cost of opinions abandoned, pride deeply wounded, considerable talents wasted in prostitution, a promising reputation lost, and prospects of respectable statesmanship utterly destroyed. The disease which has at length closed his political career appears to have been a weakness of character amounting to slavishness. He is one of the many victims of Lord Grey's evil passions, but differing from the others in having seemed at least to court and like what he has suffered, as if he deemed it meritorious and honourable to make a sacrifice to his "noble friend" of all that self-respecting public men hold dearest. But the world moves fast nowadays, and Mr. Hawes will soon be forgotten in the ob- scurity of his new position. Let us, therefore, after giving him joy of that advantage in being shelved, turn to his successor. So speaketh common opinion. A great deal more is said about Mr. Peel. The mere name ex- cites curiosity and speculation ; and the speculation is the more active because, if any public importance attaches to this appoint- ment, nobody knows anything about it out of a very narrow circle. If there is a secret to keep, it is capitally well kept. Being as ignorant as everybody else, we merely note what different people say in giving utterance to their guess-work. One story has it, that Mr. Peel, having a taste for hard work, has accepted this office for the purpose of getting something to do, and for no other purpose. He has kept himself aloof from every party, has consulted none of his father's friends about enlisting with the Whig Government, and will merely represent the Colo- nial Office in the House of Commons as directed by Lord Grey, without exercising any will or judgment of his own, being con- tent for the present with the wholly subordinate though laborious functions which become his youth and inexperience. Another and more common opinion is, that important changes in the personnel of a Government, when not produced by the shock of party votes in Parliament, generally come about gra- dually, the first steps being small and not remarkable ; that the object of such gingerly motion is to prevent the public from ex- pecting a change of policy when only a change of persons is in- tended ; that there is no real difference of policy between the actual Government and the Peelites ; that the leading Peelites are about to join the Government in office, Mr. Peel's appointment being a sort of pilot-balloon sent up to show no more at present than the direction of the wind ; and that shortly before the meet- ing of Parliament in February, we may probably see the most in- firm or otherwise incapable members of the Government retire from office, to be succeeded by the most capable and eminent of Sir Robert Peel's late colleagues. According to this view, the whole matter is settled, as respects both retiring and incoming persons, and the plan of change will be gradually carried into effect so as not to excite false expectations with regard to change of policy. More reflecting and wary politicians do not yet believe that Mr. Peel's appointment to an Under-Secretaryship is connected with any so important a design as the retirement of four or five Whig Ministers to make room for as many Peelites. They know not what to think. Whatever they may wish, they naturally doubt whether the aristocratic Whig families, who seriously be- lieve that the order of nature is disturbed when their party does not govern England, will ever consent to share power with men who are not Whigs. But these believers in Whig tenacity of place are a good deal puzzled. They cannot account on ordinary grounds for Mr. Peel's appointment. The new Under-Secretary is not an ordi- nary man. They cannot understand how a person supposed to in- herit many . of his father's best qualities, possessing a for- tune ample in proportion to his wants, reputed to be not only prudent but very cautious and circumspect, and almost pointed out, it may be said, by public opinion for the enjoyment in due time of a high position in the politics of his country, should have consented to endorse all Lord Grey's dishonoured bills ; should have engaged to defend in the House of Commons a long course of blunders and disasters in Colonial government; should have been willing to act for an hour as the organ of such a judg- ment and such a temper as Lord Grey's • should have deliberately and so gratuitously have placed himself in public collision with those of his father's colleagues who have opposed some of Lord Grey's principal measures, and given notice of their purpose to stir questions of Colonial policy in the coming session of Parliament. Either, say these sceptics, we have totally mistaken the character of Mr. Peel—his capacity, his ambition, his foresight, his self- respect, and even his patriotism—or we are sure that he has not agreed to take the position which Mr. Hawes has occupied since 1846. Nor is the puzzle in any measure solved by supposing that Mr. Peel might do the same work as Mr. Hawes without incurring the same mortifications and discredit, by doing it in a manner more independent and public-spirited. It is not a question of manner. The work itself, in whatever manner performed, would not be Mr. Peel's, but Lord Grey's: for an Under-Secretary, even with the tamest of chiefs, can be but an Under-Secretary ; and the Under- Secretary of the obstinate and imperious Lord Grey must needs be a submissive and obedient underling. May we imagine that Lord Grey's tyrannical character has been changed, and his wild ideas of Colonial policy abandoned ? If not, those may be held to take a reasonable view of this subject, who fancy that it was not for nothing Lord Grey started away to Northumberland the other day when her Majesty was sitting in Privy Council, and that some difference with his colleagues makes it possible that Mr. Peel's chief may ere long be a Prodigal Son of Whiggery restored contrite to the arms of his parent.
Another set of speculators, hangers-on of the Whig Government, knowing that Lord Grey's freaks have more than once brought the party into serious peril, and fearing the issue of Colonial debates next session, opine, according to their wishes, that Lord John Rus- sell, who is so clever at party management, may have hit upon a means of taming his dangerous colleague. Mr. Peel has inde- pendence of mind. He will not be a mere tool of the unpopular Office and more unpopular Lord Grey. Having to take care of Colonial subjects in the more important of the two Houses, he will be able to keep Lord Grey in order, to control his temper, to check and lead him—in a word, to make him, Lord Grey, vir- tually the Under-Secretary. In this way, the Colonial policy of England would be, if not reformed, at least so far improved as to be no longer dangerous for the Whig Government and party ; and the comfortable alteration would take place without any rapture of the Cabinet. Or, at the worst, if Lord Grey should not submit to this wholesome guidance, Mr. Peel's ruin, in the attempt to do the Whigs a great present service, would be no despicable future gain, considering how important he would become if the attempt should succeed, and what he might have been if he had bided, un- whigged, the proper time of his father's son.
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