TOPICS OF THE DAY.
itu. Plague LOSS.
THE death of led, snatched from us . while yet another cycle of his great career seemed to remain to him, is. felt to be more than a common lesson on the mutability of human affairs. All men die; and may die suddenly ; great statesmen must yield to the common fain; and there was nothing in Peel to exempt him from the casualties that may occur to any. horseman. But we measare our surprise by the weight of the atahl'inity as well as the unex- iectedness. or suddenness—by the value, of. the thing lost. Peel was familiar to our thoughts as the leachog mind, self-developed, in the political history of our time ; ideutificd with the, growth of the nation. He woo an himself an institation • and when he is sud- denly removed., people are conscious of a bereavement so severe, that at the first shock they rush to the extreme of helpless astonish- ment, and ask how affairs are to get on. without him.?
The great statesman,. towering in his pride of place, is suddenly Struck dovin,and from,a creature of power. becomes a suffering ob- ject of sympathy. For the man himself we feel regret at his being thus cut off with enfllled years, as we might with a younger man. Yet from regretting,the. loss, we may turn to what he has gained as a matter of personal history. If hislife has been shorter than the full measure,. 'nits curtailed span has been crowded an amount of enjoyment such as few lives contain. Born to wealth, his natural faculties,. his attainments, and his connexion, gave him the com- mand of. ppwer.. Ile has run a career, of manifold success—success repeated on.many fields. Even his temporary failures,became the lessons to leach him new successes. He was ambitious, and the house which his father founded he has allied to the nobility, to the land, andlo the history of his country. In polities he had created Parties and destroyed them ; he had stamped his name on two great changes in the march of improvement; he was elevated above place, to be acknowledged as the great comacillor of the Crown, of statesmen, and of the nation. No further honours remained for him, except the common adjunct of titles, vain as an ornament of his re- nown, and burdened with the condition of removal from his conge- nial and favourite arena. Slaw in the development of his character and faculties, he had been much underrated and•misoonceived in the earlier stages and even in the middle of his political life : latterly the public felt that an injustice had been done to him, and there was an increasing desire to repair the wrong : mistrust, if not dislike, wai replaced by confidence and esteem. .If we may pass from so grave and great a theme to a point concerning our own estimate of him we are entitled to remind our readers, that this journal was among, the first to recognize, at a time when it was of great importance to ascertain, the true character and dispositions of the man ; and the sequel amply rewarded the opprobrium which we then incurred for being in advance of the party called "Liberal." Although not the slightest communica- tion ever passed between the departed statesman or his friends and this journal; the Spectator was accused cf being "Peel's organ"; the insight into his policy-, which we derived from nothing more than a critical scrutiny of his public conduct, was ascribed to di- rect information. About a year later, we had the satisfaction of seeing one of our most heated assailants condescend to write in such a manner that the composition read like a rewriting of our own, so long impugned. Thenceforward the popular estimation of Peel rapidly became more true to the fact. • Some years before his death, he enjoyed a degree of public es- teem attained by very few men in their lifetime ; at the last he was confessedly the man of his day, possessing the implicit confi- dence of the nation. This must have been very dear to such a mind as Peel's. What more could he desire ?—only to see his seed rising to continue his history in. a living succession ; and of that sequel the best promise had already gladdened his eyes. His career was full. Wealth,. honours, the appliances of art, the suffrage of the nation, the very course of events acknowledging his Master-hand, had done him homage : an unretarded death has saved him from the downward close, and, without the melancholy tribute wrung from declining powers to the despotism of time- d- the very clitimx of his glory—he is translated to immortality.. But perhaps, if Peel has not lost another volume of recorded honours, the nation has lost another stage of public service from the best of its servants ? This is uncertain. Probably he had done all that Was in him, while the effects of his labour remain to us. The earliest of his great measures, the restoration of the cur- rency, is uniinpeached. Law reform, of Which he set so beneficial an example, has been taken up by men more techni- cally qualified, under the advantage of a favouring public opinion which Peel has helped to establish • beyond power of reaction. He not only adopted Catholic Emancipation, but has since had time to attest his sincerity in that hasty conversion, and to teach the true spirit in which that and cognate measures should be egrried out He constructed a party for the special par- pose of teaehing the " conservative " genius of P.nglish statesman- sbip to reconcile itself to advancing opinions,--how to consult the wishes of the people generously, how to combine the growth of. the nation with, the maintenance of its institutions, how to ffirefend the encroachments of democracy by anticipating its just and inevitable wants; and that policy as now stamped upon the statesmanship of the 'country. In his last speech, delivered on the vetarmorning of his -fatal accident, he applauded the Wlig Premier, who had ousted him from office,- for ,ving pursued at home a
"liberal and conservative policy "--preoisely the key to his own conduct He had given to the matured convictions of political economy the effect of law. In all these branches of statesmanship Sir Robert Peel had been enabled to complete the task which he set himself: so far as he was concerned, his work was thoroughly done, nothing left imperfect.
But the slowness of his intellectual movements, his method of proceeding only upon actual and matured facts, his patiently con- structive modes, demanded for each great process perseverance, time, and unceasing physical exertion. It is very doubtful whe- ther a complete cycle remained to him, even if he had lived the full complement of human years. The public had perceived no signs of decay ; but he himself had avowed a consciousness of dc- dining strength, not only by his words but also by his conduct., What if in his feebler Tears he had made mistakes ? The doubt is not idle. A mistake in Peel would have thrown discredit upon past work—might even have loosened what no smaller hand can shake. From that fatal chance the country is saved. There is an integrity and roundness, a nettete about the work done, as Peel leaves it, which forbids tampering. It is in the best state for being carried on from the point at which it stands—from a fresh point of departure. New and difficult questions rcinaiik;behimi, needing longer years and perhaps convictions less preeeenpied ; tasks which it was too late for him to learn, though brims ad- mirably prepared the way for them. Peel's death has released the country from the clog of doubts which might have beset his de- clining faculties, and it inherits the full mildknee impressed upon its councils by his unabated intelligence. Among modern statesmen his career is singular for the com- pleteness of the political change in. himself. It may teach those who desire to emulate him, that it is never too late to learn ; that courage is safe, and that the candour which revises the convictions of youth and dictates an altered course will survive the hasty mis- construction of the day if it be steadfast in its purpose ; hat a public policy suggested by close observation, based upon facts, and supported by the sanction of the nation' , is irresistible. Slowly de- veloping himself as events were slowly developed Peel was in the public view successively a mere official wedded to the bureaucracy, a mere Tory, a time-server and renegade, a practical politician justly interpreting the signs of his day, a powerful master of statesmanship, and a great patriot devoted to the service of his country, insomuch that he and he alone possessed her perfect con- fidence. Courage, strength, patience, perseverance, faith in facts, and honest heart, were needed to fill up that career. It was filled. Those who had wrongly described the slowly-expanding bud knew • the truth when the flower was fully opened to their view and they could see within. Unaided by the lighter arts of courting popu- larity face to face with the multitude, Peel won the esteem of the people by serving it through good and evil report; and when he is removed, the sorrow struck upon the whole heart of the country makes it first know the extent to which esteem had ripened into friendship.
Previous page
