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plicated subject to explain, he got rid at will of his abstract phrases and of his double negatives. His budget speeches are masterpieces of lucidity; and the House will long recollect the relief which it felt in monetary discussions, when his famous question of "What is a pound?" with its plain-spoken materialistic solution, used to sweep away the foggy masses of Birmingham financial metaphysics, like a sudden shift of wind to the north.

Sir Robert Peel's qualifications as a speaker have, on the whole, been justly appreciated. He had little capacity for that elevated rhetoric which, like every other form of eloquence, reached its perfection in Demosthenes; but he had a quality for which the great Athenian orator was equally distinguished a thorough understanding of his audience, and a steady view to practical results. His voice was musical and powerful, but his action was eminently ungraceful, and his perorations were sometimes more pompous than impressive: on the other hand, his arrangement of topics was admirably skillful, his memory unfailing, and his readiness as a debater seldom equalled. His playfulness was happier than is commonly supposed, and it was all the more effective from its general reference to the familiar conventionalities of Parliament. His transient allusions to individuals, his smiles, and gestures, and quotations, used to convulse the House with laughter, which seemed unaccountable when reported in the newspapers. The professional nature of his jokes, perhaps, deprives him of some of the credit which he deserved. They served their purpose at the time; and success is the best test of the rhetorical fitness of humor, if not of its intrinsic value. It may be, also, that in Parliament, as in every private circle, there is as much genuine playfulness exercised in dealing with ancient jests and accustomed associations, as in conceiving the more recondite and startling combinations which are recognized as specimens of humor by the world at large. To the character of a wit, Sir Robert Peel had no pretension. Not a single good saying remains to preserve the memory of the skilful banter which so often excited the amusement of his hearers, and disturbed the composure of his adversaries. Nor do we anticipate that his speeches will survive him. Their chief merit consisted in their admirable fitness to their immediate purpose. Where information was required, no statesman of his time was equal ly capable of supplying it, nor could any contemporary orator adapt himself better to the

temper of his audience; but in style, the sole preservative of speeches or of writings, his rhetoric was altogether deficient. His greatness as a speaker must rest on the solid basis of success. For twenty years, among able reasoners and brilliant declaimers, some of them his superiors in almost every assignable quality of an orator, he led the House with a recognized superiority to all parliamentary competitors, of which no example had been offered since the time of the elder Pitt. At the time when his power out of doors was greatest, he had still a special and peculiar influence which was confined to the walls of the House of Commons; and, even in the days of newspaper reporting, it is no inconsiderable proof of tact and skill in a speaker to convey impressions to his immediate hearers which are lost in the written record of his discourse. The least valuable parts of his speeches were those which were, perhaps, introduced rather to gratify himself than to persuade his audience. Abstract propositions, and solemn declarations of faith, were not the figures of rhetoric in which he was qualified by nature to excel.

The circumstances and personal demeanor of Sir Robert Peel were well calculated to strengthen his influence in the country. The recent elevation of his family by manufacturing prosperity, while it appealed to the sympathy of the most active and rising section of the political community, seemed to account for the untiring and business-like industry of his habits, and for his consummate familiarity with the mysteries of trade and of finance. A more real support, however, was added by the possession of a princely fortune, administered in perfect accordance with the tastes and customs of Englishmen, and furnishing him with the means of moving on an equal level with the most powerful class of the aristocracy. If some of the body, in anger or in jealousy, confided to their sycophants their incurable distrust and dislike for the blood of the cotton-spinner, he was not the less surrounded by the homage which rank in this country prudently pays to wealth and substantial power. The ablest living politician, born a millionaire, was careful to present, in his own person, to his social equals, the type of the wealthy English gentleman of the nineteenth century. The first who ever took double honors at Oxford, he possessed the classical accomplishments which the traditions of his youth attributed to the statesmen of the past generation, perhaps in higher perfection than any of them. We have no doubt that he knew Greek bet

ter than Pitt or Fox; perhaps he knew it better than Grenville or Canning. In later life, he appropriated, with ready tact, the popular sciences which modern taste prescribes to the enlightened aristocrat. Political economy he practised rather than talked; but the applauding public saw among the list of his guests the geologists and the agricultural chemists, and rejoiced to know that its favorite ruler solaced his leisure with the studies or the conversation which in structed and amused itself. Artists also, and men of letters, were flattered by his notice, and repaid it by the credit which their society conferred on his taste and judgment. His character, however, as a landlord and a farmer came nearer to the hearts of his coun

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lity of his irritated opponents. The accusations of falsehood and meanness were reserved for Peel alone, while his lofty colleague was assailed with such harmless missiles as raving insinuations of his treasonable designs on the Crown. The ex-member for Oxford had his own conscience alone to console him for the invectives of the crowd, and the anger of his alienated friends. He might foresee that ealmer reflection would exonerate him from the charge of interested motives in resigning the leadership of a powerful party, and opening the way to a speedy downfall of a Ministry which had appeared to be destined for permanence; but it was impossible to blind himself to the fact, that the reputation and power which he had been building up for more than twenty years was destroyed, and that the public belief in his consistency and political foresight was rudely, if not irrevocably, shaken. There can be no doubt that he deserved censure, not for consenting to the Catholic Relief Bill, in 1829, but for opposing it in previous years. The reasons for the change had become little stronger, and the benefits to be obtained by it had been, in a great measure, sacrificed by delay. The excuse for his conduct is, that he was grown wiser by experience, and the best

trymen. The importance which he attributed to his celebrated short-horn bull, gave rise to much justifiable laughter; but his prelections on green crops, and his extensive system of draining, secured to him the respect of a class which practically believes the longpreached doctrine, that the substitution of two blades of grass for one is better than all the achievements of political philosophy. Nor was he deficient in the lighter accomplishments which become the country squire. He was unfortunately not a bold or skilful rider, and we are not aware whether he had culti-compensation for his error was the self-sacrivated the art of fishing, in which he must have been eminently qualified to excel; but he was well known as a keen and killing shot, and his zeal as a game preserver is said to have sometimes conflicted inopportunely with his devotion to the interests of the farmer. Whatever propensities to innovation existed in his nature were directed to serious political ends; in all his personal habits, both from inclination and prudence, he conformed to established custom; and in the avoidance of all religious or irreligious extremes, as well as in the uniform propriety and decorum of his domestic character, he reflected and shared the virtues which are most esteemed by the strongest and steadiest portion of the community.

The portions of his public career which have been most diligently canvassed are the two great changes in opinion which he underwent, and effected in practice, with respect to Catholic Emancipation and the Corn-laws. In 1829 he held only the second place, although he incurred almost all the odium which was heaped on the lately Protestant Cabinet. It is remarkable that the Duke of Wellington, while he justly obtained the chief credit of the patriotic change overawed by the weight of his character the scurri

ficing courage with which he redeemed it. The bitter resentment which punishes the desertion of a party by its leader was about the same time curiously contrasted with the general tolerance for a mere change of opinion, especially in the popular direction. Lord Melbourne and Lord Palmerston, with the rest of Canning's immediate followers, veered round on the more important question of Parliamentary Reform as directly as Peel had done with respect to the Catholics, at the same time that the Duke of Richmond took his seat with Lord Ripon in the Cabinet directed by Lord Grey. We censure neither the change itself nor the indifference with which it was generally regarded; but the remembrance of similar profitable gyrations may well have served to mitigate the anger expressed for the apostate, who was, at least, a martyr to his apostacy.

The struggle of the Reform Bill restored him in a short time to the command of his alienated party. He contended with abundant vigor and ability against the change which had become inevitable; but the experience of very few following years must have convinced him of the error of his judgment. If personal ambition had been his ruling motive, he would have rejoiced to see that

while he was relieved from his old depend- flowers:-" He enabled me," he candidly said, ence on the borough-owners of his party, a "to remain a Tory, as I was born, without new class of politicians had risen into impor- the necessity of being, at the same time, a tance, of whom he was eminently qualified fool." The use of such a teacher, not mereto be the leader. We cannot doubt that only to his immediate pupils, is best shown by public grounds, when his early apprehen- the spirit which now actuates the reactionsions were removed by time, he appreciated ary side of the French Assembly. The the security which the Constitution had de- future of their country would look brighter if rived from the excision of abuses, which they had now a Peel to persuade them that were even more dangerous by the scandal the cure for a past revolution is not necessawhich they justly caused than by the practi- rily a counter-revolution. cal evils which they produced. To his individual fame and greatness the passing of the Reform Bill was greatly serviceable. He was relieved from a barren combat, in which he might have wasted his life by the defence of an untenable position, or compromised his reputation by deserting it at last. He had mistaken the merits of the dispute while it lasted; but he at once, and apparently alone, understood the practical result. He saw the resources which still remained to the defeated party, and determining at once to re-organize it, he relieved it from the crippling traditions which confined it to the office of mere indiscriminate resist

ance.

It is remarkable that the stage in Sir Robert Peel's life which Lord John Russel, selected for special mention and praise was that in which he formed and trained the new Conservative party, and at last established it in office. The safe working of the Reform Bill, in the opinion of its proposer, was mainly secured by the temperance and foresight of its most powerful opponent. In teaching his followers to act in the spirit of the new Constitution, he saved them not only from the errors of reaction, but from the opposite dangers of popular irritation and alarm. His ancient adversary, long versed in party warfare, and in the anxious responsibilities of political leadership, is, perhaps, at the distance of many years, the most competent judge of the qualities which were displayed in that ten years' conflict. Lord John's thoughtful recognition of the greatness of his rival's merits in the portion of his career in which they were most formidable to himself, is as creditable to his sagacity of observation as to the generosity which has prompted every allusion he has made to the deceased, and which has sought, in every becoming manner, to accumulate honors on his tomb.

The services which the organizer of the new Conservative party conferred on those who have since most deeply resented his conduct, were justly expressed by one of his fol

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Notwithstanding the success which rewarded his ten years' opposition, and the brilliant reputation which he acquired by his six months' tenure of office in 1834-5, it is perhaps, a just subject for regret that for so long a period his administrative activity was suspended, and the practical statesman absorbed in the party leader. From the moment of his return to office he devoted himself wholly to the country. His followers complained, not unnaturally, that, after making them his instruments for acquiring power, he had forgotten their interests as a party. The gulf which separated him from them in the autumn of 1845 had been threatening to open long before. The bold. imposition of the Income-tax, accompanied by the Customs' reductions of 1842, was not the measure which might have been expected from the champion of the aristocracy of the land. The more extensive reform of the tariff, which he effected two years later, was recommended by the success and popularity of the changes which preceded it, and facilitated by the commencement of a period of general prosperity and confidence. It was not until 1845 that disaffection among his adherents openly burst forth, on the Minister's determination to substitute a permanent endowment for the annual grant to Maynooth. Many well-meaning zealots were scandalized at the slight supposed to be offered to Protestantism; and an occasion or an excuse was afforded for the brilliant acrimony of Mr. D'Israeli, and the persevering hostility of the Times. Still the bulk of the party adhered, though dissatisfied, to their leader. A minority of them cordially approved his policy, and waited in hope for its development. The remainder knew the futility of opposition on minor points. to a Minister who never propounded a measure without resolving to establish it by law.

It would be useless to speculate for the hundredth time, on the motives which finally determined Sir Robert Peel to abolish the Corn-laws. It is probable that the moment

selected for the change was decided, as he |
always afterwards declared, by the failure of
the potato crop in Ireland. The formidable
organization of the Corn-law League may
not have been without its influence on his
policy; but we incline to the belief that the
success of his own commercial reforms pro-
duced the most decisive effect on the pecu-
liar constitution of his mind. In defending
his changes of the tariff, he had been com-
pelled again and again to enforce the main
axioms of political economy; and the sophis-
try involved in his defence of the Corn-laws
as an exceptional case must every day have
proved more painful. Habitually attentive
to facts, he required experimental proof be-
fore he became an entire convert to the Free-
trade theory; but a few tangible results,
produced by himself, relieved him from all
farther hesitation. It was painful to confess
a long course of error, and to be alienated
from the great body of his friends and sup-
porters; and yet when he determined on his
final change of policy, there must have been
a consolation to a generous mind in the re-
flection that he could personally only suffer
loss from the resolution which was to confer
benefits so signal on his country. Mean op-
ponents, in the belief that his wealth consist-
ed chiefly of personal property, insinuated a
suspicion that his object was to lower the
price of land, in anticipation of becoming af
terward a purchaser. The son of a duke
was not ashamed to ask, in the House of
Commons, for the particulars of his private
fortune, pretending to believe, or, more
basely still, believing, that the acting sove-
reignty of England had been wilfully barter-
ed for an increase of ten or fifteen per cent.
on an already enormous income. To the
duty of carrying out his new convictions, Sir
Robert Peel deliberately sacrificed the party
leadership which he had so long possessed,
and the office in which he was apparently
fixed for life without fear or competition.
His opponents had shortly before professed
the same change of opinion, when nothing
else could secure them in power; he changed
when nothing else could endanger it. They
had occupied, in common with him, an un-
tenable position; but when both moved in
the same direction, they fell back on the
bulk of their forces; he, moving in advance,
was separated from his. Thus it was that
the same change in one party was applauded
as a master-piece of strategy, in the other
was branded as desertion. The country at
large, apart from the conflicting camps,
viewed the rivals with more impartial justice.

He who could only lose by change was not sacrificed to those who, though equally honest in their convictions, could only gain by yielding to them. But there was a more important distinction between the converted Minister and those who had preceded him, in their abandonment of the Corn-laws. Whoever might denounce the grievance, he was known to have the power to remove it; and accordingly, six months after the public declaration of his resolution, the anomaly disappeared from the statute-book.

The dignity and patriotism of his conduct after retiring from office have been generally and justly acknowledged. He could not, perhaps, deny to himself that there was some foundation for the reproaches and the anger of his alienated friends. It had been one of the greatest errors of his political life to meet the party move of the fixed duty in 1841 by a successful party resistance. The penalty of the blunder was justly inflicted when, after five years, he fully redeemed it. The vulnerable parts of his conduct were eagerly fastened upon by his assailants, and the nourishment which they found was sufficient to pamper into sudden bulk two parasitical Parliamentary reputations. The hard-mouthed invectives of Lord George Bentinck, and the brilliant sarcasms of Mr. D'Israeli, derived all their interest and importance from the greatness of their intended victim. The survivor, once an undervalued man of genius, can feel but a qualified satisfaction in the applause which was refused to his polished eloquence when it advocated large and generous theories, and lavishly conceded to his witty expositions of party disappointment, and his skill in tormenting and persecuting obnoxious greatness.

It has been justly remarked that part of Sir Robert Peel's power was founded on the very slowness of his progress. In the development of his political views, he represented the changes which took place during his fifetime in public opinion and feeling. Neither lagging behind nor venturing far in advance of the general progress of the age, he was able to understand, and guide, and realize the tendencies by which he was himself influenced. The principal test of his individual greatness is to be found in the constant enlargement of his character; somewhat narrow in youth, and in maturity only an abler and more judicious partisan, he gradually expanded, by experience and reflection, into a generous and comprehensive statesman. It is not uncommon for early vivacity to condense, as youthful spirits dis

appear, into worldly keenness and common- | purposes of not unfriendly or disrespectful place; and many instances will have occurred to a thoughtful observer of the genial influence of time on pedantry and formality, when it arises from a narrow education and not from a prosaic nature. Prudence and decorum have sometimes their wild oats to sow, and leave the ground clearer after a preliminary crop of prejudices. By far the greater number contract with age; but the larger and stronger natures expand, as Peel's expanded, by observation, and still more by

action. Attentive from the first to his immediate duties, he was rewarded for his diligent inspection of what was near him by a constantly increasing circle of vision. His character was strong enough to correspond with the enlargement of his intellectual views; and he had the courage to follow his convictions when they were bold and new, as he had acted upon them when they were recommended by the traditions and practice of the teachers and colleagues of his youth. Even his outward appearance corresponded in its development to his mind. The sagacious but common-place countenance of his earlier manhood was marked, as he advanced in years, by a peculiar expression of refined and somewhat playful acuteness. The ready adaptation of his features to the

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caricature, was chiefly facilitated by the more
recent traits of countenance to which we
refer. A faithful portrait conveyed so much
of his character, that the slightest exaggera-
tion immediately represented the humorous
or satirical purpose of the artist. No carica-
turist could have made him look dull, or
silly, or intemperate; but his sagacious look
was easily converted into a glance of
triumphant slyness or sometimes of compla-
cent superiority. By far the best portraits
of him which remain are to be found among
the sketches of HB. and of Punch.
hope that, among the various memorials
which are to be erected in his honor, there
will be found at least one which may pre-
serve the memory of his features, and be
worthy of its subject and of the country;
but even if our artists add another failure to
the long list of our national shortcomings,
we have no fear that history will fail to do
justice to an honest and generally successful
statesman. The emotion which has been
occasioned by his death is honorable to the
character of the country, and to himself it
constitutes a memorial so noble and befitting
a worthy ruler,

"That kings for such a tomb might wish to die."

BOOK TRADE OF THE EAST.

We have learned with pleasure that the Board of Education is extending the number of its publications in the native languages. After all that can be said of our English (and much can,) it must be owned that neither here nor anywhere can the body of any people be addressed to a good purpose but in their own tongue. The art of printing has made great advances of late years in Bombay, particularly the lithographic branch, for which the chief Eastern languages are well adapted. We were told the other day that as many as six different editions of the entire Koran in Arabic have been lately worked off in Bombay, consisting in the aggregate of about 15,000 copies. There is great facility for such work in Bombay, and "the freedom of the press,' must thus already be dear to na

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tions who only enjoy it from a distance. The Koran, we are told, thus printed in Bombay, is despatched to Persia, Arabia, &c., and instead of costing fifteen, twenty, or thirty rupees each, as very ordinary copies used to do, now sells for three, and sometimes two rupees, with a good profit to the printer. In this way Bombay may now be considered the book-store of a great part of Central Asia. It is strange to think that the arts of Christians should thus be used in spreading so much of idolatry and error. But as the sun shines on the just and on the unjust, so are these arts applied for good purposes as well as bad. It is consolatory to know that good will be the crowning result.-Indian Paper.

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