TOPICS OF THE DAY.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL.
Clams coteries, and journals, are discussing what shall be done with L ' Lord Joh''. Russell ; and, as a preliminary to the decision, are criticizing the statesman out of place in the freest and fullest manner We have reviews of his political life, from his first entry into Parliament, forty-three years ago, down to his return. from Vienna, eighteen months ago, and his retirement to the back-benches of the House of Commons. He is already treated as a person more historical than present. It has been remarked of Rossini the musical composer, that he had the peculiar fate of being fashionable, going out of fashion, being revived, and be- coming " a classic' in his lifetime. What happened to Rossini musically has happened to Lord John Russell politically ; his life in the House of Commons is treated as a thing of the pest. Yet we still have Lord John on hand, and the question is, what to do with him ? The commonplace idea is, to had him a niche in the British Walhalla, the House of Lords. Clubs and coteries were talking to this effect when we alluded to the gossip some weeks back: the distinct utterance appears to have concentrated the purpose of the noblemen and gentlemen who consider themselves responsible for disposing of Lord John : and they have somepresentable reasons for the course which they sug- gest. In the House of Commons, Lord John is as it were a rival to Lord Palmerston : he is prescriptively the leader of the House of Commons, but there are two leaders there —one Lord John, who is the Parliamentary head of the Liberal there,--one
and the other Lord Palmerston, who in a Parliamentary sense must rank second, but in a Cabinet sense takes the pas. Hence Lord John is de trop. Besides, he is always supposed to have a Reform Bill in his pocket ; which is just now accounted an inconvenient anachron- ism. It would be very lucky if he could be persuaded, that after forty-three years' experience he is weary of the House of Com- mons, and had better retire to more tranquil scenes. If he should attempt to remain in the representative chamber, he might find that his constituency is of him. If he could be persuaded to the proposed " elevation, " he would supply what Lord. Palmerston much lacks, an effective Parliament man in the Upper House. He could still give to the world his Education Bill from that lofty region, and any Reform Bill memoir that may lie among his papers would become harmless.
There is something amusing in this public discussion about the manner of disposing of Lord John during his absence. Some of the reasons have cbusiderable force in them, but .perhaps they have not so much roece at present as they will acquire by a little keeping. As to Lord. John's constituency being tired of him, we do not believe it. Such might have been the case a year or two back, but towards the close of the last session Lord John op or- tunely reminded Government of certain traditional sympa which this country, supposes itself to have with Liberal struggles for self-government on the Continent. Besides, political circum- stances have altered since London City was inclined to criticize Lord John with severity. The historical critics are at present echoing each other's remarks about Vienna, and affecting to put on rather a " lenient" spirit ; apparently forgetting, that if Lord John failed to make peace at Vienna, he and M. Drouyn de Lhtiys suggested that very principle, if not the literal arrange-
ment, which was after all adopted in the treaty of Paris. And, whatever the public may think, nobody appears to have defini- tively asked the important question what Lard John himself may think. Does he desire a Peerage ? Is he tired of the House of Commons ? A Peerage was proposed for him once before, and it did not prove to his taste. That was natural. Born to a ducal house, he is by far the most important man of his family ; and he would gain no elevation, politically, socially, or historically, by being, made a Peer. Why should he consent to be disrated by a promotion for the convenience of a political rival ? If Lord John went into the House to be Premier, with younger colleagues in the Lower House, and with the power of explaining his own measures from a Parliamentary point of view, the arrangement would not be unsuitable to his position in the state.
Lord John is not likely to look upon the House of Lords as a
-retreat for a political pensioner, consenting to go out of the House of Commons without saying good-bye in a manner which history would remember. The only way to render his elevation a welcome event to himself would be, to assist him in terminating his career in the House of Commons with some crowning achievement. Give hum a success to finish off with—purchase his retirement with the carrying of a Reform Bill or an Education Bill, and he might not refuse his political apotheosis.
There is one public reason why we might regret to see Lord John's removal to the Upper House precipitated. We have never been among his adulators ; but, reviewing the whole of his
Parliamentary life looking to the spirit of his actions, to his faults as well as to his best qualities—we cannot find any man who exceeds him in a strong abiding sense of his-duty as a _Mem- ber of Parliament ; and there are few men, very few indeed, who retain the same vivid sense of "a Member's rights and responsibili- ties. Lord John sits in the House of Commons by virtue- of the British constitution, as the other Members do ; but the difference between them is, that he knows it and is never asleep to the fact. There are other men who have studied the usages and customs of the House ; there is one who is understood to have qualified.him- self for the Speaker's chair; but none preserves the same political
consciousness of his own position as the representative of the Bri- tish people, the conservator of popular rights distinguished from the rights of the Peers and the rights of the Crown—the upholder of the British constitution against the encroachments of time or the more insidious treachery of easy indifference. At the present day, when average Members are so willing to surrender the rights of the Commons in deference to Ministerial convenience, party expediency, railway interest, or the mauvaise honte of the com- monplace Englishman afraid to contradict the fashion, it is not desirable to part with a man who is proud of being a British Member of Parliament, knows what the office is, and is resolved not to abate its power.
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