THE COLONEL AND THE COACHMAN.
"OUT of sight, out of mind," is a proverb the truth of which is manifested by our daily experience. However distinguished a man may have been in his day, it is astonishing to perceive how soon he fades from the memory, if perchance for a few months the glare of notoriety has ceased to fall upon him. Thus it has been with the gallant Colonel SIBTHORPE. A twelvemonth ago, who so re- markable as he? His name was in every man's mouth; it was impossible to take up a newspaper, or read a Parliamentary de- bate, without being crossed by the apparition of the Member for Lincoln. Every one must remember, to his honour, the noble stand which he made against popular encroachments and the nefarious Bill of Reform. He budged not an inch—he was firm and im- movable in his position, and scouted the very idea of Reform. Ridicule, which appals the stoutest hearts, appalled not him. Laughter and jeers fell powerless upon him.
"Bar, benches, gallery, in convulsions hurled, He stood unmoved amidst a bursting world."
We have been led to pay this tribute to the memory of Colonel SIBTHORPE, by observing in the reports of the proceedings of the Marlborough Street Police-office, that he has again stepped forth into public life. The arena for his display, it must be confessed, was but an ignoble one : still we recognize in the conduct and observations of the Colonel the same undaunted spirit of resist- ance to the insolence of low-bred men, which characterized his Parliamentary career,—though, as if fated to meet with continual rebuffs, his efforts were as unavailing in Marlborough Street as in St. Stephen's. We blush to say it, the Colonel was treated by the Magistrate with no more consideration than if he had been a shoe- maker or a weaver. The following is the report to which wp allude.
"Colonel Sibthorpe brought a hackney-coachman before Mr. Dyer, on a charge of having obstructed the passage of his cabriolet in Pall Mall. The sub- stance of the charge was, that the defendant had laid hold of his horse's head, and stopped him as he was driving towards Warren's Hotel in Bond Street. The defendant, refusing to release the animal when desired to do so, complain- ant gave him into the custody of a Policeman, who had been attracted to the spot by the occurrence. The defendant, in reply, made the following statement. He was coming with his coach out of the Haymarket towards Pall Mall, at the speed of about three miles an hoar; when he met the gallant Colonel in his cabriolet, who, on passing him, struck him with his whip across the face. Not choosing to be horsewhipped tamely, especially as he was on his right side of the road, he jumped down and stopped the complainant's horse, demanding the name and the address of the person who struck him. Instead of obtaining it, the Colonel chose to give him into the custody of a Policeman ; who exhibited no reluctance to take the charge, although he was the aggrieved party. The gal- lant Colonel said, the conduct of hackney-coach and cab drivers was generally of the most insolent description ; but having failed to convince the Magistrate that in this particular instance the defendant had been at all in fault, the com- plaint was dismissed."
We are indeed arrived at a fine state of things in England, when a Colonel, who drives a cab, may not give a poor miserable devil of a hackney-coachman a cut across the face, without being called to account for.it by the vulgar creature. But this is the consequence of the Reform Bill. Colonel SIBTHORPE might well say that the "conduct of the hackney-coach and cab drivers was of the most insolent description." They will no longer permit the magnates of the land to honour them with aristocratic stripes. Undaunted, however, as heretofore, we hope that Colonel Sin- THORPE will persist in his new method of restraining the demo- cratic spirit, now so prevalent. As he can expect no assistance in the undertaking from the Marlborough Street Magistrates, we recommend him to try another district. Perhaps Sir PETER LAURIE, or Mr. GESGOEIE, or some other sages of the bench, will evince a better understanding of the motives which induce the Colonel to lay about him. We can promise him that his future exertions in this line shall not go unnoticed, or be suffered to lie hid amidst the rubbish of Police examinations.
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