CHARLES DELHER. *
THIS "story of the day" is a political novel, in which most of the public characters and the various political parties of the country are displayed to the reader. The dramatis personm figure as types of these political parties ; and the hero and heroine, somewhat sui gene- ris, serve to embody the ideas of the writer on politics as a pur- suit, and the peculiar results that spring from new riches. Dis- raeli figures favourably, as Jacobi; Lord Palmerston, who is admir- ingly drawn, as Lord Tiverton ; Graham, rather harshly painted, as Sir Everad Grimstone ; and so on with other celebrities. Peel is not disguised at all, and Lord John Russell scarcely ; but, except perhaps the old Duke of Newcastle, they are exhibited wholly in their public capacities. The persons who carry on the business of the novel are not so marked by known traits ; but the idea of the
• Charles Delmer: a Story of the Day. In two volumes. Published by Bentley.
most prominent seems to have been taken from living individuals, modified according to the requirements of art. Plynlimon, the ismidulent trustee and gigantic speculator 'with other people's money, looks like a combination of Tawell and a great Railway potentate; Charles Delmer has some traits in common with the late Charles Buller. The scheme of the novel is well planned to accomplish the ob- jects of the writer; • which are to exhibit the classes of English society chiefly but not wholly in their political aspects, and to animate this exhibition by the introduction of men to whose names a personal interest attaches. The heroine, Naomi Worksworth, has become, by a series of rapid deaths, the heiress of the immense wealth accumulated by several Quaker brothers in a manufactur- ing county. The habits, both social and religious, which caused such riches to be heaped up, render her isolated from society, and almost ignorant of the power of her wealth. Such a person— possessed, too, through her property, of political influence both in county and borough—is not likely to be left in obscurity. She is not without suitors of rank and fashion, and courtship either for her hand or her influence introduces her into political houses. Partly in compliance with the advice of an early friend, and partly to see how Manchester differ from Whig politics, she pays a visit to her connexions in Lancashire ; observes its notabilities, and penetrates its social defects. She enters the exclusive circle of fashionable life, and proceeds with her introducer to Paris on a visit of inquiry and curiosity ; and high London and fashionable Parisian life are drawn and coloured very darkly. The necessity of a position and a protector, rather than any deep affection for the man, leads to an engagement with the heir to a dukedom. But the rascality of Mr. Plynlimon, by reducing her to apparent ruin, breaks off the match. The friend of her youth, George Pe- vensey, member and manufacturer, restores her affairs to moderate but not great wealth ; and the book closes with an exemplification of a theory of the author—that a woman of spirit, intelligence, and ample means, may be very comfortable in a single condition. Charles Delmer, the hero, is a first love of the heroine ; but pride withholds him from avowing his affection till he be in a position to offer himself on a footing of something like equality. By the time this arrives, Naomi's love has cooled, from the apparent neglect of Charles, and from an idea she has formed of his want of deci- sion and spirit ; the real origin of which is in failing health. The true interest connected with Charles Delmer, however, is the story of the poor gentleman who deserts a profession to follow politics as a pursuit. His mother, a woman of high spirit and ambition, has trained him to look for distinction in Parliament, and to office as almost a means of living. He is able and eloquent ; he adheres faithfully to the Whig standard, when independence, with a spice of something more, would have given him greater popularity, and perhaps power. On the expulsion of Peel in 1846, he expects office; but old party or family influences are too strong for the Minister, and "the boat is full" 'without him. He struggles on after this ; but the blow has been struck, and he dies, just as his friend Jacobi reaches office.
As a novel, the attraction of the book is slight. The personal character of Naomi does not interest us much ; and the love of Charles Delmer is kept in the background, subordinate to his politi- cal career. Neither are the incidents many or of a striking kind. The book, in fact, is to be looked at as a series of sketches of public men, and as an exposition of the author's views on English politics, social characteristics, and social prospects, thrown into the form of narrative and dialogue, with frequent discussion. Considered in this way, Charles Delmer is a remarkable book ; exhibiting a wide acquaintance with the biography and personal traits of public men, the result of considerable thought on parties and politics, with some perception of what lies behind them though too often forgotten or used only to turn a period—the wellbeing of mankind. The matter is presented in a style not devoid of force, point, or lightness, but somewhat deficient in dramatic spirit. The political opinions of the author are not easy to lay hold of ; for he makes allowances for all sides. The following passage from the state of parties in a borough where some of the scenes are laid, would seem to show that he really holds Whig principles, though not at all regardful of Whig leaders.
" There was not a Whig in all Shuttlefield, very strange to relate. There were Ultra-Tories, and Liberal-Tories, and Radicals, and Tory-Radicals. There were Chartists, and even Communists ; but not a Whig. The Whip had given Shuttlefield municipal freedom, had stricken fetters off of its dif- ferent sects, had widened the old electoral body ; had done, in fact, more for Shuttlefield than whole centuries of past politicians. And yet the Whigs were detested, ignored, and forgotten in Shuttlefield. As to Whig principles, real Whig principles, no doubt hundreds entertained them—there never was a sensible man in normal times who ever entertained any other ; but no one would call himself a Whig. One would think the word meant mad dog in Shuttlefield, as indeed it does in Ireland. "The active Mayor, Sir Jonathan Jukes, for example, was a very good Whig ; but he could not own to such a thing. There had been a terrible hullabaloo made about the Poor-law in Shuttlefield. Some clauses had, moreover, sorely injured, or been said to injure the town. The Tories ex- aggerated the cry ; the Radicals repeated and illustrated it ; the Chartists trumpeted it. A black sheep was as popular as a Whig in Shuttlefield; and so the amiable Sir Jonathan Jukes called himself a Liberal-Conservative. But he would have suffered himself to be burnt at the stake rathtr than define what he meant by the words. The fact was, he was for maintaining every- thing—even privileges for State Church and Aristocracy—that could safely be maintained, and for gracefully abandoning what was not wise to keep. Sir Jonathan Jukes was not unpopular with the artisan, for he was yielding. He was one of those who would have sabred them at Peterloo in the good old times, but who now would give them an Eleven-Hours Bill by way of com- promise. The name of Liberal-Conservative meant, that he was as aristo- cratic as he thirst be, and as democratic as he was compelled to be."
The writer has few sympathies with the Manchester school; he has too wide an observation and reflection for that : but he has placed one part of their case in a stronger point of view than they do for themselves.
" The world has been treated to many a harrowing picture of starving operatives ; very true, no doubt, and unexaggerated. Irish famine beggared even that, and the distresses of Hibernian landlords were adduced as a fear- ful instance of affluence reduced to penury. We have never seen pictures drawn or heard of pity spent on the manufacturers of Stockport or Shuttle- field, who in a very short space of time were ejected from their mills, which they had put up and worked with ample capital, but which capital, both the fixed and the circulating, had melted away in the progress of invention and the backwardness of markets, in such a way that all their ingenuity could not detect nor all their industry counteract. Old Mr. Pevenscy was wont ,to argue that farming tenants deserved particular consideration ; for they might be ruined before they were aware, arithmetic not being appli- cable to their business: but the weaver's gains are not more exempt than the plough from the mistake of the sanguine owner, and the success of the go-ahead competitor. And when numerous heads of families of the middle class are flung down from their position, their capital annihilated and their families reduced to beggary, such victims to fortune suffer more, perhaps, than the outcast of high life or the destitute of low. The former find some- thing to recline upon ; their very rank and education suggest other means of life and earnings. The destitute poor are accustomed to struggle with poverty ; but your capitalist, who has never worked with hand nor with head, and to whom money. has been the very instrument of his trade, he undergoes a ruin the most irreparable to himself and the most fearful to his family."
Here again is a thoughtful comparison of the past and the pre- sent.
"It is a common reflection made, how much happier the world is than it used to be ; how much more free, more enlightened, more full of pleasure, of objects of interest, of comfort ; and how rare is cruelty and oppression. The Inquisition thine away with—torture and the stake—even pestilence and accidents abated. Yes, no doubt ; and modes of enjoying life have vastly increased, and the chances for shortening life and inflicting bodily torture have as vastly diminished. But in return, the moral pains of life, and the uncertainty of subsistence have in an equal proportion increased.
'
In the old time things and men's' fortune might progress slowly; still the fortunes of all did progress. There was no class swept away—no crop of men cut down by the might of advancing civilization, to make way for an- other crop. There were no epochs of transition, which demanded coolly, under the name of improvement, the holocaust of a generation. There were no machines that immortalized the inventor and enriched his tribe while impoverishing hundreds of thousands. There was no great abun- dance—no great wealth then ; but the agriculturist was hopeful in his farm, the shopman behind, his counter, the artisan on his working stool.
"Here, before Miss Worksworth, was the most melancholy of sights--an entire family, of different ages and callings, all unhappy, all disappointed, all uncertain of the future, and ill insured of comfortable subsistence. Tha old man that had tilled and reaped for half a century, the man engaged in one of England's staple manufactures as a capitalist and a master, the workman who laboured for his daily hire, and the women who tended on and shared in the wants and anxieties of these men, were all unhappy— all conscious of a decline in their state, all looking to the future with anxiety. Even the children had their youthful hopes dashed with care— as if a cloud hung over what once was merry England, and that cloud fraught with care, discontent, and destitution !"
This is a shrewd remark.
"The greatest boon in a minister's gift, is certainly the appretaissage to office. Let a man have once possession of official experience, let him have served in important however subordinate functions, let him command a seat in Parliament, and have the privilege of expressing himself, he can force his. way. No minister, or obstacle, save his own imprudence or impertinence, can bar him. But without the official experience, without the initiation Into the machinery of government, politicians are in England mere children ; and the cleverest men may be defied and mocked, and put down in a debate, by the dullest. " People complain that the Radicals have not produced a statesman. It may be true. But it is because Whigs and Tories have never given them a chance : these have got the school-house, with the primer, dictionary, and elements of the profession ; and they keep the door closed as carefully as that of the Mint. On coming into office, the Whip have often asked the Radicals what they would have; and the nia is, i. e. the simpletons of Radi- cals, have asked for some measure—the Penny Postage or some other piece of twaddle—to serve the public. Why did they not ask for secretary ships, or even under-secretaryships, for their very selves ? Only conceive what Moles- worth would be had he been Under-Secretary for the Colonies, or Cobden had he been Under-Secretary of the Treasury. No fiddle-faddle minister, Whig or Tory, could have stood a week against them."
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