PUBLIC MEN: OVERT ACTS OF TREASON.
THE Courier last night had a very well-written letter from a cot respondent, who professes to be "One who owes Nothing to Lord Brougham," on the subject of that remarkable person's present position. The writer admits that many of the expressions dropped by Lord BROUGHAM, and much of his conduct, have of late given him "horrible suspicions ;" but he trusts that his Lordship's public acts are still " on the right side."
" I hate and abhor the eharlatanerie of public men ; but in those few who eo not exhibit it, is it from the want of will or the want of power? Can any public man arrive at his station without some exhibition of mountebankism ? Is the public itself so enlightened as to be able to do without prestige? With all his talents, and the weight of unknown virtues to boot, would the noble Lord have reached his zenith had he been so transparently true? or worn his heart upon his lips instead of in his bosom? Would Canning, with all his robustness of intellect, his vastness of mental perspective, have been Prime Minister, had be not been a trickster? It is indeed miserable to know that a man must forfeit hia own self-esteem ere be can gain that of the public and the powerful; but alas! such is the constitution of things, there is no reaching the temple of honour except from the dirty quarters of the Jews or by passages which all ur mind shrinks from. if you think you have a set of men or one man as een! nently endowed with goodness as talent, fur God's sake produce them or his If you have not, why displace a really great man with all his faults for a less.) or why plunge into the unknown?"
This is the doctrine which the Chronicle has been labouring at for a month or two; only expressed with a greater appearance of sincerity, and therefore with more effect. It is but the old com- monplace fallacy dressed up, that " all public men are rogues:" the Chronicle, we believe, sometimes drops the " public," and affirms that " all men are rogues." We spurn the ethics from which such a maxim is borrowed ; and deny its application. Our faith is considerable, that all men —all public men— are not rogues : that even now, some honest public men, endowed with faculties and the disposition to serve their country, may be found among us, and that many more will be formed. But they will not be formed by lowering the moral standard to a roguish level. Neither are we called upon to wink at the misdoings of great men, or pretend they are virtuous, because no " faultle:s monster of perfection" may be ready to step into the place of the delinquent. There is a difference between right and wrong, though the High Chancellor of England may not have discovered it; there is such a thing as truth, though Lord %toy OHMS may not, as a politician, practise it.
The Courier's energetic correspondent laments that Lord BROUGHAM ever entered the House of Lords : a fatal step, no doubt, but one which revealed the latent weakness —the moral flaw—in the man. If the Barony of BROUGHAM and VAux shall descend, the story of its origin, in some future "Anatomy of the Peerage," will not be in all particulars creditable to the founder: it will bring to mind proceedings and declarations in the House of Commons, that looked tricky at the time ; and from that day, which many observers mistook for a triumph, the decline and ruin of a splendid character will be dated.
The friendly writer proposes to "wait ;" because he thinks that Lord BROUGHAM, already an historical character, with posterity staring him in the face, "dares not recede. He forgets that Lora BROUGHAM is in the House of Lords, and in office, to which he clings as the sole means of retaining consideration and influence. As HENRY BROUGHAM, or even as Lord BROUGHAM the Dowager Chancellor, removed from the temptations which office or the struggle for it holds out to his intriguing nature, the love of a purer fame and regard for posterity might possibly resume their sway. But being a Lord, without a party, yet greedy of power, and engaged in a continual turmoil of ambition, his public con- duct must be governed by other views; and we may expect to find it irregular, fickle, inconsistent, treacherous upon occasion, never trustworthy, seldom respectable.
Again- " Notwithstanding some indiscreet sentences, he has hitherto committed no overt act of treason against his principles."
Here we are at issue with the letter-writer. The words of such a man as Lord BROUGHAM, when publicly and deliberately uttered, are to be viewed in the light of acts; and we say that his overtures to the Tories—even' such comparatively remote overtures as his declaration on the night when his Local Courts Bill was rejected, that "he would willingly creep along inch by inch with them "—were acts of treason against his principles. His gross flattery of the Peers, and depreciation of the People's Represen- tatives, coming in collision with them at the close of last session, was an act of treason. His conduct between the resignation of Earl GREY and the promotion of Lord MELBOURNE, was "hor- ribly suspicions," if not treasonable. But there is no need for diving into the hidden or half-disclosed mysteries of that period : we name, in one word, the Warwick Bill! an overt act which could not be mistaken, and which, adding to what he did in the House of Lords, what he said and caused to be circulated concerning it in the country, will probably settle Lord BROHGHAM's public character.
But "why should we displace a really great man for a less?" This is not the true state of the question at issue. The public service does not require a "great man" of Loid BROUGHAM s ver- sitality and powers of representation (in the French sense). There would be no difficulty in finding a more learned, experienced, and discreet Judge than Lord BROUGHAM, for the Court of Chancery; a more dignified, conciliatory, and useful Speaker for the House of Lords • and a more thoughtful, wise, and trustworthy counsellor for the Cabinet. There is not the least necessity for concentrating in one individual the anomalous powers and duties which Lord BROUGHAM is called upon to exercise and perform. Nay, more— the very fact that he retains these incompatible functions after the ' declarations, and promises he has himself made, is an abandon- ment of his former principles—an "overt act of treason" to the People.
Previous page
