COLONEL SIBTHORP.

Keeley, enters upon the stage; nay, even when his well-known voice is heard at the To Colonel Sibthorp belongs the dis- wings-it is the signal for an universal roar tinction of being, without exception, the from the delighted audience. They are greatest oddity in the House of Commons. grateful in their pleasure, their laughter is He is also now the "father" of the droll a mixture of memory and expectation, and personages of that assembly, dating his they greet him as much for what he has empire over the general risibilities from a done as for what they know he will do. period far anterior to the parliamentary ex- And he, too, who is the object of all this istence of any of the gentlemen whose oc- involuntary flattery, how well he knows his casional absurdities now enliven the de-footing! He smiles, bows, executes some bates. Many times his supremacy has favorite antic, and then another roar ! been temporarily threatened; but the There is a perfect harmony, a thorough unoriginality and perpetual fecundity of his derstanding, between them. From that humor (which is not always involuntary, be moment the actor may say and do almost it known) have carried him through tri- whatever he likes, and still is sure of a kind umphantly against the most audacious of interpretation. Now, the influence of Colohis competitors. Many a meteoric oddity nel Sibthorp over the house of Commons is has he seen laughed into a brief notoriety, not very unlike this of the favorite Dictaonly to be laughed down again into oblivion by his own superior power of absurdity. His reign may have been turbulent, but his empire over the risible muscles of his five or six hundred auditors is henceforth secure. For who could hope to vie with Colonel Sibthorp?

tor of a Haymarket audience. Let us suppose that the political feelings of a crowded House have been swayed during many hours by the artistical debating power of a Peel, or their imagination stimulated by the brilliant oratory of a Macaulay, or that they have been wrought up to the highest pitch We have often endeavored to account of passionate excitement by the spirit-stirfor the peculiar reception he meets with, ring appeals of a Shiel. To a multitudifor the patience and even satisfaction with nous roar of cheering has succeeded for a which he is listened to by a crowded House, few instants that quiet which awaits a new often at the most critical and exciting mo- orator, or a confused low murmur of approments of a debate; for, be it known, his bation at the speaker who has just sat imperial pride is sometimes not to be satis- down. Suddenly another sound, one the fied with a less distinguished field for dis- least expected, assails the ear. The very play. Is it his ogre-like appearance? walls shake under that shout of laughter That alone would not be enough; for the which resounds from five hundred voices House boasts among its members some far throughout the building; not exactly the more formidable persons. Is it his cou- laughter of mere ridicule, but a convulsive rage, in standing up so bravely to battle expression of delighted amusement. You for his crotchets at the most inopportune look around for the cause. Lo! far up the moments? No; for there are other bores mountain of benches, close by one of the who do the same, and are ruthlessly coughed pillars of the side-gallery, there stands a down. Is it his humor? No; for it only figure which defies classification. It is flashes out occasionally in any shape to en- unique. It would, at first glance, merely able you to separate it from his other od-excite ridicule; but, at a second, you perdities. Then is it his dauntless frankness ceive a something indicative of strength, of in speaking of public men, or his strong manliness, of self-possession, which minsubstratum of common sense? We gles a kind of involuntary respect with suspect it is a little of each, and that the your laughter. It looks like the débris of latter element of interest predominates; what must once have been a magnifico. A for Colonel Sibtherp speaks mere unadul- majestic air of tawdry grandeur reminds you terated truth in a week than is heard from of how King Joachim might have looked others in the House of Commons in a when he found that the game was up at twelvemonth. He is a licensed jester, and Naples, or of the exaggerated despair of utters grave censures from under his cap that most magnificent of modern potentates, and bells. King Bland. This spectre-like form When a favorite comedian, who is more breaks on you in detail, but still defying all especially a physical actor, not to say a efforts to fix it as of any known order of buffoon-when a Liston, a Buckstone, a men. The costume is a perfect kaleido

แ

But

scope; it belongs to no mundane mode. laughter from all sides proclaim that it is The more you look, the more it aids your something good. The truth is, that this imagination to mystify you with Hoffman- gallant colonel is a sort of self-constituted like transformations. Now, it gives the tribune; and the object of his tribunitian. wearer the ultra-rakish air of an outsider efforts is, the unmaking and hunting down of the betting-ring; now, a tyrannical idea of all humbugs. And certainly he has a fuses all clear outlines of coat, vest, and first-rate scent, and a magnificent manner pantaloons, into a loose, enveloping drape- of operation. Nor is it a mere pastime ry, till you behold a sallow and bearded with him; it is a labor in earnest, and it Turk, indulging in the dreamy oblivious- often leads to triumphant results. ness of his opium sine. At one moment, Colonel Sibthorp has his weaknesses. you think this figure must have walked out There are certain men and classes of men of Holywell Street on a daily avocation, towards whom he is actuated by a rabies. and have strayed into the House by mis- There is no concentration of human feeling take; the next, and you have an image of equal to his hatred of a "commission." the real original of the Saracen's Head Were the sacred choir to appear on earth fumbling his way home, haggard, and with again for the benefit of man, to the gallant disordered hair and beard, in the grey colonel they would be objects of suspicion if dawn of morning, after a night of the en- they were commissioners." The only joyment forbidden to the children of the "commissioner" he could ever be brought Prophet. Now, for an instant, the face is to endure was Mr. Foster of The Times. in repose, and its aspect is Ugolino-like in For he neither received the public pay, nor its melancholy emaciation. Bah! it has produced a "blue book." To the colonel, changed the tragic mask for the grotesque; all other "commissioners," and more espeand now it is more like one of W. H. cially their.gigantic productions, are sheer Payne's very capital ogres, or friend" humbugs. That is his favorite word Punch's bete noir-the terrible Sha-la-bi-la! when under exacerbation of bile against It is, indeed, a puzzling face. Finely out- them. In his eyes, they are damnable inlined, Caucasian even to the ideal of a Dis-ventions of corrupt ministers to cram surraeli, time has yet reduced it to a Quixotic reptitiously briefless barristers and governleanness and hardness of feature; and ment underlings with the plunder of the there is, withal, a wild fire in the eye; and public. In an access of one of his fits of the sallowness and pallor of the complexion, this kind, he confounds all commissioners with the shaggy moustache, and irregular stubble of dark hair scattered over the lower part of the face, losing itself in a formidable pair of whiskers struggling to be a beard; -all these strange symptoms would suggest painful ideas, were it not for the good humor that for ever reigns in the countenance, and the perfect self-possession and average good sense of the eccentric owner.

in one dangerous and disgraceful category. The evil of making a commissioner is to him greater than any possible good he could effect; the remedy is worse than the disease. Need we, then, tell the reader how awful has his indignation ever been against the great arch-commission itself, or how irresistible in their comical vehemence have been his denunciations of the New PoorBut observe his manner of addressing law? That "base, wicked, tyrannical, himself to the House. He does not argue unconstitutional," measure has educed the or appeal; he propounds or denounces. master-pieces of Sibthorp. Here he has Observe his magisterial air-the intensely been electrical. And, in justice, it must be pompous gravity which reigns on his coun- said, that the terrible earnestness and sintenance, while that shaggy mouth is mov-cerity of his denunciations give to them at ing with such rapid utterance. Observe, times a something of power which flashes too, how he waves his arm, as commanding out like eloquence. attention-how profusely adorned are the Once for all, let it be observed, that howdigits of his small white hand with spark-ever much one may be tempted to laugh from ling brilliants-how comfortably and fa- time to time at Colonel Sibthorp, he is not miliarly he dangles that enormous gold to be regarded, as many persons who see eye-glass and chain, which he never by any accident uses for its destined purpose! And what is he uttering in that low, rumbling, scarcely articulate voice? Well, it is rather difficult to say; but the bursts of

him for the first time are inclined to regard him, as a person simply ridiculous. There is a method even in what seems to be on his part sheer foily. It is impossible to avoid laughing at his grotesque figure and

MR. PETER BORTHWICK.

attitudes, or at his simulated gravity, when the public have been accustomed to receive assailed on all sides by the merriment of no small portion of instruction together his audience; nor is it without an admix- with their amusement. ture of that pity which is not the most flattering to a man's amour propre, that one sees the imploring yet half-despairing glances he casts from time to time from under As an oddity, and one of the permanent his shaggy eyebrows, up towards the gallery butts of the House of Commons, the name appropriated to the press. But these of Mr. Peter Borthwick is almost as nooddities are constantly redeemed by the torious as that of Colonel Sibthorp; but sound sense and forcible, if rather rude, his notoriety is not associated with so many truth of his observations. Nor should we reminiscences of amusement. The House forget that Colonel Sibthorp has done of Commons can very well bear the something. He is one of the few "private" loss of Mr. Borthwick; but they could not members of the House of Commons ("pri- do without their Sibthorp. The one, if he vate," that is to say, as distinguished from be occasionally too prolix, obtruding, too, the leaders or direct servitors of party) his remarks at inconvenient seasons, is at who have defeated a government. We least the cause of hearty laughter, which need hardly remind the reader that we is much more often the laughter of symrefer to that memorable motion of the pathy than of derision; but the other, gallant colonel, the result of which was the always prolix, and unmerciful in his inreduction of the proposed vote to Prince flictions on the House, only rarely uttered Albert of 50,000l. a year to 30,000l. This was a great triumph for Colonel Sibthorp-the grand event of his life.

any sentiment or opinion rising above the level of mere sententious platitudes, and if he raised a laugh, it was at his own expense. Within the last two years, the gallant Yet it would be unfair to be undiscrimicolonel has been in a dreadful dilemma. nating in censure, even upon one who has For many years past he has been a staunch somehow or other acquired the name of and consistent Conservative partisan-a being the greatest "bore" in the House of laudator temporis acti-a panegyrist even Commons. We shall find that there are to excess of Sir Robert Peel; and he has redeeming points even in Mr. Peter Borthdistinguished himself above all other mem-wick, and that it is his own fault if he makes bers by his exaggerated hatred and abuse himself ridiculous.

of the Whigs. But the defection of Sir In the first place, it is an evidence of Robert from some of the principles of his talent of some sort or other, that Mr. party leaves Colonel Sibthorp without an Borthwick should have been able for so object of worship. To have one is essen- many years to keep his place in the House tial to him. He does not like to turn of Commons, in spite of the evidence round and abuse Sir Robert, after his elo- which every day's newspapers must have quent praises of that statesman which are carried down to the good people of Evesham, on record; nor, on the other hand, does he that their representative was not the brightlike openly to laud Lord John Russell and est ornament, or the most favored member the Whigs, whom he has so often denounced, of the senate. His maiden speech decided amidst the cheers and laughter of his friends, his fate as far as the House was concerned; as the incarnation of everything that is and for some time after the catastrophe wicked and despicable in statesmanship. which attended it, he never rose there but He halts, therefore, between the two, and to be saluted with coughs, laughter, and his vocation is for a time partially suspend- every species of opposition permitted in ed. He is sorely puzzled between the that assembly. But courage, nay, even present, the past, and the future; and his obstinate perseverance, always commands demeanor in his new position is very a certain influence with a multitude; and comical. But there is hope for Colonel as it became very apparent that not only Sibthorp. Ere long parties must settle was Mr. Borthwick afflicted with a desire down, and there will then again be afforded to prove to the world that his eloquence scope for that frankness of disposition, combined all the beauties of Burke and and that habit of unflinchingly uttering the most bizarre truths, which have made the gallant colonel so famous, and from which it is only justice to say, that the house and

his great contemporaries, but also that he was determined, as far as constant speechmaking and a resolute maintenance of his rights could do it, to force his own convic

tion on his audience also. Strange to say, his persistence gained him his point. Of course, he could not expect the House to listen. He might harangue to empty benches, or amidst the loud murmur of general conversation, but still he did speak. And at last, even the reporters, who were much indebted to him for so constantly interrupting more important speeches, took compassion on him. If they took the liberty of very much compressing his speeches, they also suppressed the running commentary of his audience; so that when the good people of Evesham saw the name of their member so often in the papers, they began to take him at his word, and to think him almost as great a man and as accomplished an orator as those whom he sets up as his models.

MR. MUNTZ.

Looking at the exterior of Mr. Muntz, one would be far, indeed, from believing that he is so sensible a man as, his vagaries of dress set aside, he really is. Of all the oddities in parliament, he is the one who especially goes out of his way to make himself an object for laughter, by flying in the face of all ordinary custom as to dress and manners. How he could have at first brought himself to adopt the semi-barbarous costume he wears, it is almost impossible for any man of ordinary habits of mind to conceive; but he certainly has persisted in it with a steadfastness, and has defied public criticism with a bravery, worthy of a better cause.

gloried in Mr. Muntz for a model. Forget his outré dress, and you might think you had before you some magnificent old feudal baron, with nobility and command in every look and gesture.

Mr. Muntz is a man of almost herculean proportions; he has a large head, a large Ambition is the ruin of Mr. Borthwick. body, large limbs. But he is also what Had he been anything but a member of is called a "heavy" man, especially in parliament-an advocate, a public lecturer his gait. He has, however, a handsome (which for a time he was), or a teacher of countenance, and a well-formed person; elocution, he would have been an useful and, with very slight attention to the member of society. And even as a mem- choice of his dress, he would be univerber of parliament, if he would have sensibly sally regarded as a very fine and striking confined himself to a subordinate position, exception to the usual forms of humanity and have applied himself to such matters as in these days of degeneracy and effeminacy, are within the range of his capacity, he when men seem to think that they approach might have earned a respectable character, the nearer to the highest standard of genand have ere now attained what has, per-tility the more they adopt the habits and haps, been the object of his ill-directed manners of women. Rubens would have efforts, some office in the service of the public; for Mr. Borthwick is by no means a fool, as nine-tenths of those who go to the House of Commons suppose: it is only his persisting in appearing on so grand a stage that has attracted attention to his But the Mr. Muntz whom you see in the peculiarities. He is apparently a man of House of Commons, or whom you meet in good education; indeed, he was a Fellow- the street, stalking along with the strides o Commoner of Downing College, Cambridge. a Seven-league-Boots,-like an ogre, with He is well read, has applied himself practi-a club in hand, seeking his breakfast,cally, with great industry, to the many is a very different person. His face is alquestions which have been discussed in most covered with an enormous mass of dark parliament during the last fifteen years; hair; his coat, large and loose, might fit a and as to his speeches themselves, although giant; and his trousers are two sacks, jointhey are wordy, and occasionally inflated ed at the hither end. At each long stride and bombastic in their language, yet, when he disposes of nearly a yard of ground, and reported verbatim, as they were at one time, he bears in his hand, wherewith he strikes in some of the papers, they "read" incom- the ground as if with a paving-rammer, parably better than those of some men something between a stick and the trunk of holding a much higher standing in the a tree,-a sort of gigantic club, or shilleHouse of Commons. Occasionally, we have heard from him passages that were really eloquent; at other times, a question has been argued by him with singular power and lucidity and certainly very respectable aphorisms might be culled from some of his speeches.

lagh, the like of which, for size, you would not find in Tipperary. Surely it is Fee-fifo-fum come out for his morning walk. Or, fancy a Cossack dropped in London, and, straying into the Minories, fitting himself out at Moses and Son's, hap-hazard, with the largest clothes he could find! Lately,

times he is only regarded, taken altogether, as a curiosity-as a person worthy of being studied, but too respectable to be laughed at. But, when he addresses the House on any great political question, he becomes of more importance, because he certainly represents not in name only, but in opinion, the

Mr. Muntz visited the continental capital, famous for the enormous beards of its male inhabitants, where the hair, in fact, is gaining such an ascendency, is encroaching so on the nobler features of the face, that, ere long, it will leave but the eyes ungarnished, so that a man will literally look like an owl in a bush. Well, here, one would have" men of Birmingham," who may be consithought, Mr. Muntz might have expected dered themselves as the representatives of to be at home-to pass unnoticed among large masses of the industrial population, the hirsute monsters who abound. But, no. who must sooner or later take an important What was the fact? You heard him spok- share in electoral affairs. In such speeches en of only as "the Englishman with the Mr. Muntz is eminently English. He allies beard!" This was the sole name by which himself to no party, nor does he openly he was known. And the most singular part avow allegiance to any leader; but he of the matter is, that this propensity for speaks his conviction, the result of thought outré dress appears to run in the family. and observation, with no other view than Occasionally, you may see in London, and the common good. He would give an inoften in Birmingham, three living things, dependent support to any statesman whom walking abreast in the street, that make he believed to be working, not for party, you think involuntarily of a certain establish- but for the nation. At the same time it ment in the Regent's Park. They belong to no order known to naturalists, yet are evidently of the same species. The largest of the three is as we have described him There is then a second, with not quite such a large club, and not quite such loose dress, not quite so elephantine a stride; and on the other side, there is a third, a young specimen of the species, not fully developed, but rapidly approaching the hirsute state. They naturally excite great interest in the passers-by, who, at first somewhat alarmed by this fierce-looking trio, soon become reassured when they discover that they are singularly mild in their habits, and that there is an orderly effect produced by their all striding simultaneously, and rapping their clubs on the ground in exact time. This at once removes all idea of wildness or ferocity, and wholly dissipates fear.

Seriously, Mr. Muntz is a man of somewhat more than the average proportion of common sense, and with a force of character which adds weight to his public acts and sayings. In the House of Commons, where men have become accustomed to his eccentricities of dress and manner, he is much respected, and is always listened to with attention. He is a man of prejudices and fixed ideas, but they are not of an offensive character. They very seldom clash with the other prejudices prevailing in that assembly, because they are on a subject which is too seldom discussed there. Mr. Muntz is a disciple of the Birmingham Currency Doctors, and occasionally startles and amuses the House by blurting out in his curt, frank fashion, their peculiar doctrines. At such

must be understood, that he has fixed and most decided political opinions. He is an ultra-Radical if he is anything, but holds himself at liberty to take a wholly independent course.

His speeches are brief, but pregnant. He fires off his short sentences in quick volleysso quick, that it is with difficulty he is understood, as his deep bass voice is heard from the recesses of his beard, like a bear growling from a bush. But he is clearheaded; his language is simple, but most forcible. He uses Saxon idioms and Saxon words.

He

He speaks like a man who has thoroughly made up his mind, and wishes to declare it without circumlocution. does not reason, but delivers conclusions. Short, continuous, but emphatic, he talks on till he comes suddenly to a stop, and sits down abruptly, as he rose. A speech from him sounds like the spring of a clock running down. When speaking in public, his voice is gruff, harsh, and toneless: when conversing in private, it becomes more soft, almost melodious; and then the contrast between his manners, and his unique costume and air, is most amusing. You think of the transformed Prince in the Fairy Tale, when he speaks to Beauty in the Rose Garden. In the House, Mr. Muntz usually sits apart, never speaking to any one.

MR. BLEWITT.

Mr. Blewitt is undoubtedly an oddity, but one of a puzzling order. He is not wilfully an oddity, like a Sibthorp, a Borthwick, or a Muntz; nor does he pro