MADDYN'S CHIEFS OF PARTIES.*
Lira Mr. Maddyn's former political works, Chiefs of Parties is a combination of political speculation, historical narrative, and sketches of " character," the last being the fullest and most ela- borate feature, for persons form the substance even of the narrative. The book opens with essays or articles on party and leadership, in 'which the author makes some clever remarks, and comes to the not very recondite conclusions, that party is necessary to English Parliamentary government, and that the leader of a party re- quires many and rare qualities over and above mere speaking.
A Day with Fox " and " a day with Pitt" introduce the chiefs of parties. The papers aim at exhibiting the great statesmen through the occurrences of a day that each might have lived,
* Chiefs of Parties, Past and Present, with Original Anwsdees. By Daniel Owen Maddyn, Esq., of the Inner Temple. Author of "The Age of Pittand Fox," Ac. In two volumes. Published by Skeet. and are of course a combination of fact and imagination. The Grenvilles are next handled, the family power being treated as prominently as even Lord Grenville himself ; and the ante- Reform period is wound up with a very favourable portrait of Lord Castlereagh, whose merits were perhaps undervalued during his life, and for some years afterwards, if they are even rightly appreciated now. A disquisition on the state of parties and politicians on the Eve of the Reform Era brings us to the story of the Reform Ministry, nominally of " 1831-'2-'3-'4," but in reality to the last expulsion of the Melbourne Government. Peel, or the Great Ambiguity, is pursued through three chapters, and is followed by an estimate of the real character and influence of Holland House, with a trenchant criticism on its master and his literary productions. Perhaps the place of this paper should have been immediately after the downfall of the old Whigs, both as a question of chronology and of fact, the influence of the genius loci and the life of its lord departing about that time. However, this is of no consequence ; the paper is a sharp and bitter attack upon Lord Holland, though undoubtedly founded in truth. The career and character of Croker succeeds to Holland House, and likewise belongs to an earlier period ; for his power of spite- ful annoyance began to decline in effect soon after the Reform Bill, as he himself, in consequence of a vow, withdrew from Par- liament. The remaining subjects are living men, though not all " chiefs of parties," or always very influential politicians. Lord Clarendon is prominent as a diplomatist and Foreign Minister, but possesses little party or Ministerial weight. Macaulay is 'a mere orator, untrusted with business, and incapable in debate. Graham and Gladstone in their several ways possess more Perlin- liamentary power than the two previous men, and are both well versed in public businessGraham, indeed, being a most able administrator, if not Gladstone also. Actual events, as well as their own position and qualities give considerable interest to the three chiefs that finish the catalogue, namely Palmerston, Lord John Russell, and Disraeli. The volumes close with a hapter called, Reform and the Two Public Minds, which last Mr. Mad- dyn defines as political and social. The Political Mind is that class which attends meetings, is active at elections, and exhibits a feverish eagerness about _Parliamentary debates, &o. ; while the Social Mind constitutes the bulk of the community, which generally speaking is more intent upon its own business than public matters. This in short is the great Mr. John Bull whose weight renders him somewhat indisposed to unwonted efforts, but who when he does move settles things out of hand. We have already mentioned the literary characteristics of the work. Its attraction mainly rests in its subjects. There is an interest in biography in general ; that interest is increased when it relates to men who have influenced the fortunes of our country ; it is still further excited when they are our contemporaries, or have left such an impress on the public mind that tradition and talk almost supply the place of experience. There is in Mr. Maddyn a great familiarity with his subject derived from reading, conversation, and in the case of contemporaries from actual obser- vation. He has too that species of sympathetic knowledge which arises from having been in some way actually engaged in the affairs he is dealing with. His perception of qualities is frequently true, but his judgement of that complex thing called character is somewhat limited and superficial ; so that as often as not he labours upon the obvious to the neglect of the latent ; as in the ease of Palmerston the notorious fact of his having belonged to all kinds of administrations is brought out in greater prominence than any other feature. Partial, perhaps, Mr. Maddyn cannot be called, but he is not so indifferent as in " Ireland and its Rulers," though he effects his object less by what he does than by what ho omits to do. In Peel, the Great Ambiguity, he dwells as may be supposed upon the equivocal conduct of the minister in 1829 and 1846 ; and reechoes the common remark that he should have left it to the Whigs to carry the measures, without reflecting that left to them the measures would not have been carried. We know as matter of fact and from their own confession that they could not have effected the Repeal of the Corn Laws. It ie extremely doubtful whether they would have at- tempted Catholic Emancipation. While the questionable points in Peel's character are thus forced into notice, and his great merits are slurred or passed over, Disraeli's something more than faults are omitted altogether. The character of this "chief " indeed is scarcely entered upon by Mr. Maddyn, but in quoting, he en- dorses a notice from "a hand" which is "now for ever power- less." In this article the earlier tergiversations of the political adventurer are described as the " restlessness of a creative mind, the struggles of a strong and solitary will," &c. In later life, the unprincipled abandonment of every pledge, when it became inconvenient, and the brazen adoption of an opponent's measure when it answered a purpose are passed unmentioned. In the chieftainship time of his life, the conduct of Mr. Disraeli is such as cannot be characterized in measured terms. Peel at all events regarded the public interest when running counter to his party. When Mr. Disraeli forced his followers to smother their convictions, and desert their principles, he regarded no one's in- terest but his own. There are other blemishes of a similar kind, but the great defect of the book is that the mind of the author is hardly equal to hie theme. He is more at home with men like O'Connor than with the spirits that guide or govern nations. There are clearness, keenness, vigour, and matter in the volumes, with a fluency that renders them readable ; but they are de me in tone, and rather belong to the article than the, book. This remark applies to the work as a whole ; there are passages of Treat discrimination and power to boot. Take a part of the criticism on Macaulay as an example of nice appreciation.
"The truth we take to be is, that on these and equally momentous sub- jects, Lord Macaulay has been accustomed to think merely like an orator. He looks only at the external aspects of institutions and systems, and con- siders them from a painter's and not a philosopher's point of view. To por- tray what appears to him, rather than to prove and ascertain the positive- ness of an idea or principle, is the natural function of his ultra-pictorial mind. Goithe looked on the men around him and on the phases of life with the perceptions of an artistic dramatist. Lord Macaulay regards so- ciety, and thinks upon the world's sublime and mysterious history, not as an investigator or an archaeologist, but with the sentiments of a picturesque essayist. Effect—effect—effect—is the perpetual and almost the sole object of his aim. For his originality we must look to his style, not his spirit,—to his utterance, and not to his meditation. He is unrivalled in literature in placing in a striking way what has been known before. Thus when there is only talent in his thoughts, we see genius in his vivid words and sugges- tive diction."
This sketch of Palmerston, in answering the question of his nationality, is very clever.
" The question has been often asked, but never decidedly answered, 'whether Lord Palmerston is an Irishman ? ' When Mr. Fitzstephen French complained that there was no Irishman in Lord Aberdeen's Cabinet, Sir James Graham cried, ' Lord Palmerston.' In his traits of character there are certainly many qualities which are commonly associated with Irish blood. His bantering on the gravest questions, his joviality, his cour- age with too much of bluster, his defiant air, the strong personal spirit which enters into his politics, the rapid transitions between his moods of storm and sunshine, his enjoyment of rows,' his lavish kindness to his political dependants, his peculiar mode of using public patronage, his liking
for a tail,' his incessant hospitality, his recklessness about petty conventions, his biting mockery of all formalists, his rollicking tone even when the game has gone against him, his matchless stock of assurance polished into brazen brilliancy, and the ease with which he makes himself at home with all sorts of characters, reveal the nature of the best type of an Irishman. In many points his personal deportment is strongly suggestive of an Irishman. The personification of pleasantry and pugnacity is thoroughly seen in Lord Palmerston. "The way, also, in which through his Parliamentary career,. he has been accustomed to call a Member of Parliament, not of his connection and with whom he has little intimacy, my honourable friend' is very Irish. " In addressing the Speaker, Lord Palmerston repeatedly uses Six' just like an Irishman.' "
The most bitter thing in the book is the character of Sir James Graham. The artist seems to have studied him thoroughly, and con amore, though there is no love in the delineation. This is about the moat favourable account of him, but with some of Mrs. Candour's touches. It does not, however, come from the life, bat from the Cabinet of 1831-'2-'3-'4.
" Not being born into the regular connexion of the Whigs, it was rather wonderful that they admitted him to their Cabinet, but his talents were even then too marked to be passed over with neglect. Very tall in person, with a handsome and intellectual countenance, Sir James Graham possessed great advantages for addressing an aristocratic assembly. His manner, at first, was apparently so mild that in commencing one of his elaborate at- tacks, the hearer could scarcely conceive how much hoarded ammunition was about to be exploded, with the certainty of doing dreadful damage to his adversaries. When just about to make a spring upon his political foe, there was an air of drawing-room lassitude about the wily descendant of the Gramm that reminded one of his ancestors ; sudden in attack, and al- most as merciless as sudden. Standing at the table in the calm attitude of a May Fair fine gentleman, who could have expected so much fierceness of nature to dwell within that breast ? Yet so it was. In his party combats there was much of a spirit of a Borderer. His sarcasm was less savage, but more subtle than Lord Brougham's, and he could criticize an old friend or a recent enemy in a truly damning style of mellifluous irony, in which it was difficult to determine whether the graceful elocution with which bitter things were said, or the polite air he preserved while torturing his wincing victim was most to be remarked.
" When he chose to prepare himself, no one could compose a speech more artistically calculated to produce effect upon a large audience of high- bred gentlemen ; and as a mere elocutionist, few approached his clear arti- culation, modulated voice, and gracefully subdued tones, that never wearied by monotony. He arranged his facts in consecutive order, and decked them with the flowers of a graceful rhetoric, that always gave one the idea that the speaker was able to do more if he but chose. But these talents and qualifications were marred by 'defects that detracted from his displays. His enemies, and he had a host of them, said that the good qualities of his heart were in the inverse ratio to those of his head, and it was lamented that the sincerity. of his character did not equal the strengthjof his intellect. Others again insinuated that at bottom there was an unsoundness in his general ideas, a laxity in his views of party obligations, and it strong taint of recklessness in his character."
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