LORD STANLEY.
"HE is a very able man is Lord Stanley," said an old Indian who had been thrown into close contact with him, "only he is so damned sensible !" That is a rough but precise expression of the failure which weakens a mind otherwise of unusual power. No speech has been uttered during this recess, not even by Mr. Gladstone, so full of practical ability as the one spoken by Lord Stanley on Mon- day to his constituents at Lynn. Almost every political sub- ject now before the public is discussed, and on every one there is a hard, definite, working opinion offered, an opinion on which men can act, and which even when they dislike it they must respect for its consistency and clearness. No matter what the subject, the Italian craving for Rome or the desire of financial reformers for direct taxation, the quarrel with the Australian colonies or the reforms to be made in the German Confederation, there is a clear in- telligible conclusion, short as an aphorism, neat as an attorney's statement of an unanswerable case. The impres- sion of an attorney's office indeed rests somehow on all the paragraphs of the speech. Each topic is taken up in turn, examined, docketted, tied in red tape, and laid aside, as if human intellect had done its best and settled that matter out of sight. And it is well settled. If Lord Stanley were really what his speech shows him, anxious to be Factor for the Universe, no tenant could raise any very plausible objection to his action, could hope to prove that his interests were neglected, would have any resource except to spring at his throat in sheer despair at having things so unpleasant proved by arguments so irresistibly reasonable. If all the tenants were thinking machines without prejudices or aspirations, or dreams or follies, we doubt whether Lord Stanley would not even be popular as well as respected, for granting those impossible data, never were ideas more perfectly worked out. Their only fault, as the Indian said, consists in their overplus of sense, in their lack of sympathy for beings who are governed sometimes by desires which are lower, sometimes by impulses which are higher than mere sense, in their failure of consideration for the strengths and the weak- nesses of mankind, for passion and prejudice, and patriotism and all spiritual emotion,—in a word, in their lack of imagi- nation. Lord Stanley is as able as it is given to mortal to be without imagination. His remark on Rome is a perfect illus- tration of his mind, reverberates exactly the key to which every tune he plays is arranged. He is quite willing Italians should have their capital, quite tolerant of their feelings, quite willing to respect every prejudice which has in it any element of power. But he does not understand why they care about Rome. History is nothing to him, or tradition, the worship of recollections is weakness and the charm of associations absolutely impercepti- ble. Tell him of" water-privileges" and he sympathizes, tell him of the soothing effect of falling water and he only makes the necessary deduction from his estimate of your brain. "I do not think we in England can easily understand the extreme importance which the Italians attach to the possession of what is an unhealthy and decaying town, possessing no peculiar military and commercial advantages, and with nothing to re- commend it except an historical name." Ho allows for emotions of course as forces, as he would allow for the wind in rifle shooting, but for himself he would pull down the Coliseum to make a site for a new market, or run a tunnel under Calvary to secure commerce for Jeruaalem. He refers to Germany, takes into account everything except the popular wish for unity, and calmly decides that Prussia and Austria must absorb all the minor States, and that England ought te approve, for they "answer no political end." He speaks of non-intervention and approves it absolutely, referring to "feel- ing and political passion "—that is, to the desire of freemen to see freedom universal—as merely a disturbing influence which may thrust itself across the only path of wisdom. It is this defect, this inability to perceive that nations are swayed by the imagination as much as by the understanding, by feeling rather than sense, by sudden desires rather than carefully-con- sidered plans, which constitutes Lord Stanley's weakness, and which, superb administrator as he promises to be, will one day involve him in some great failure, possibly in some collision with the people. For the rest, Lord Stanley produces a bundle of opinions and proposals all moderate, all reasonable, and all more or less likely to succeed. His views on finance in particular are- as sound as they are courageous. The very deficiency of his imagination makes him lucid, for he cannot bear to see any subject or plan surrounded with the soft haze which the imagi- native love ; to leave any prospect half-defined, any menace- lying in the shadow. Fearing his constituency very little and his party not at all, he calmly tells the people of Lynn that he expects frequent surpluses, and that he is prepared to sim- plify the tariff still further by taking off the taxes on corn, timber, and other of the few articles still remaining on the list, thus giving up the last relics not only of the Protec- tionist system but of the Protectionist faith. Unmindful of agricultural meetings, he announces distinctly that- he shall not support the repeal or immediate reduction of the malt tax, that abolition would reduce the revenue from spirits as well as cost 6,000,0001., and that tea has in his opinion a preferential claim. What the Conser- vatives of Essex will think of the douche of cold water he has poured over their pet enthusiasm we are unable to predict, but if we understand them they will endorse most emphatically the remark of our Indian friend. Nor will the Conservative middle class of the towns, whose representative he really is, be much better pleased with his sound apology for retaining the income-tax. They hate it not for its amount, but because it is levied in a worrying way, by a self-assessment which tries their consciences, and an exposure of their affairs which is to a reserved race as annoying as cross-examination on their religious creed. Lord Stanley makes no remark upon all that, refers only to the weight of the tax, and defends it as absolutely necessary to a just balance between taxation on property and taxation on wages. Nothing can be sounder than his argument, though it lacks the felicitous touches, the popular illustrations Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Cobden would have given it ; only it does not strike the real point, the sore feeling produced by the mode of collection. It convinces people that they must submit, but does not reconcile them to submission. So with his remarks on the insurance duty. Lord Stanley holds the tax bad, proposes to reduce it to sixpence, and then suggests that with that low figure the exemption enjoyed by farming stock and machinery may as well be abolished. The thought that the farmer clings to his exemption as a bit of justice, as a little relic of privilege, as something worth the money twice over because he is in other respects unduly "put upon," never crosses his mind. There is the expedient course, and what matter nonsensical feelings of that kind? Of course as a statist he is quite right, but a statesman would have remembered also that votes are not unfrequently alienated by proposals which statistically are unanswerable. And lastly, the same defect of imagination pervades his able summary of the work pressing immediately to be done. We must, he says, "consolidate and simplify our cumbrous and complicated law ; " "do away with the purchase of commissions at least in the higher grades of the army ;" solve "that intricate problem the law of settle- ment ;" utilize "the vast funds at the disposal of the chari- ties ;" reform "a licensing system which satisfies nobody ;" "regulate marriage laws in Ireland and Scotland ;" make "private legislation more satisfactory ;" "amend the patent system ;" and remove "the inconvenien,ce of having cases tried over again in private in the Home Office after they have been publicly tried by a judge and jury." Nothing can be more reasonable than that bill of fare, and nothing less appetizing. It is all cold mutton, very good wholesome food no doubt, and plenty of it; but then even hungry men do not look very eagerly forward to cold mutton alone. In the whole speech, masterly as we acknowledge it to be, powerful as must be the mind of the speaker who prepared it, there is not one flash of genius, one scintilla of fancy, one ray of wit, one sentence indicating that Lord Stanley understands even the meaning of humour. The British Association when lately discussing the diet of English- men demonstrated that oatmeal was the very beat food for man. It contains most carbon and most nitrogen, most of the muscle- producing fibre' and most of the quality which encourages the growth of bone. It is as cheap as good wheat and as easy to cook, requires fewer condiments and leaves the sense of having been fed, which men who work with their hands so keenly appreciate. The solitary objection to it is that English- men do not like it. Lord Stanley's speeches are like that—the very oatmeal of politics.
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