LORD CARDIGAN'S HUMANITY: UNLUCKY TOM MACAULAY.
COLERIDGE in one of his works expressed regret that the science of casuistry had fallen into neglect—that branch of moral inquiry to which huge tomes were devoted by the divines of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. JEREMY TAYLOR, he complained, was the last of the casuists. Had COLERIDGE survived till this time, he might have hailed with delight the reappearance of a casuist in the Whig Secretary at War. Mr. MACAULAY'S exposition of the case of the Earl of CARDIGAN to the House of Commons was a master- piece in this line. The conduct of the Earl was analyzed with the utmost subtilty : the possible, the probable, and the improbable mo- tives to his whipping Private ROGERS by way of a voluntary at the close of divine service, were all reviewed in detail. On the whole, Mr. MACAULAY inclined to the opinion that the Earl was to blame ; but he arrived at this conclusion with characteristic diffidence, and expressed it with the hesitation of a man who, having studied under Sir Roger de Coverley, knows "much irfay be said on both sides." But Mr. MACAULAY has come an age too late. &mum. Tsynos COLERIDGE is no more, and with him the admirers of casuistry have died out. So decided is the aversion to casuistry in this age, that even the Downing Street journals have taken up the cry against the luckless wight who has attempted to rastablish that branch of study. The Globe protests that Mr. Mecatmay's conclusion is erroneous, with much more confidence than it declared the rumour that Lord BELHAVEN is to be superseded in the office of Commis- sioner to the General Assembly to be unfounded. The Chronicle roundly asserts that "Mr. Macaulay went out of his way to volun- teer a tribute to the humanity of the Earl of Cardigan "; and that "Mr. Macaulay's statement was either irrelevant or untrue." The Chronicle does not pretend to decide which ; and as the two qua- lities are not incompatible, delicately leaves it to be inferred that the statement may be both. The Chronicle is at the pains to mar- shal a formidable array of figures in opposition to the decision of Mr. MACAULAY : and, after mature deliberation, we rather incline to the opinion that the Chronicle is in the right. To only one of the Chronicle's conclusions do we demur—" His laboured tribute to Lord Cardigan's humanity, and his questionable endeavour to shelter his Lordship's indecency under precedent, in order to weaken the %d- ing which his outrageous conduct was calculated to excite, was alto- gether unworthy of Mr. Macaulay." For " unworthy " we would read "worthy." The question with regard to Lord CARDIGAN'S hu- manity is, we admit, not an easy one : no microscopical inquiries are. His friends say, "no man in the Eleventh Hussars has been punished with the lash since 1839 "—are-al his Lordship is humane : it was sheer humanity that made him in such a hurry to punish Private Roeeas—he was anxious that the poor fellow should have it over. On the other hand, Lord Ceameere's adversaries say that "it is understood Lord Cardigan received instructions from head-quarters to diminish the severity of his punishments";- and Sir CHARLES DALDIAC is said to have recorded his opinion that "Lord Cardigan's command had been characterized by unnecessary harsh- ness" So, possibly, the hurry with Private ROGERS may be owing to his Lordship's long abstinence from the infliction of punishment having made him hungry to get a man whipped. Lord Cemmetex seems to be like pitch—he defiles every man who handles him. Last week, a sentimental journalist expressed apprehension, that "-the connexion with Lord Cardigan might prove fatal to Prince Albert's peace." This week the connexion with Lord CARDIGAN has opened the mouth of the Downing Street journals against their own Secretary at War: "the little dogs and all, Tray, Blanche,_ and Sweetheart, how they bark at him!" Having retrenched an un from the Chronicle's worthy, we must transplant it to our own lucky, and use in future the designation unlucky Tom Meestmer, Exiled from Windsor, and carped at by the Globe and Chronicle,. it is clear that his planet has passed its culminating point- " The day of his destiny's over,
And the star of his fate bath declined."
It only remains to be added, that
"Even we, the story hearing, With a sigh can cry poor Tom!"
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