There are occasions every now and then on which Radicals
think it a moral duty to talk solemn nonsense. The appointment of Military Attaché at St. Petersburg was vacant, and as the attache there to be of any use must be a good officer, a good 'linguist, and an aristocrat, Lord Granville gave the berth to Captain Wellesley. Thereupon he is accused of having sanctioned a job in favour of a "scion" of a great house. It is the merest nonsense. The first necessity in these appointments is not to secure a man acceptable to the House of Commons, but a man acceptable to the Court whose Army is to be studied, for if he is not acceptable he will hear nothing. The Russian Court likes well-born men, and if it liked red -haired men, Lord Granville's duty would have been to hunt for the 'cleverest, best educated, carroty-headedest man he could discover. We should have thought that the true Radical principle was to utilize any quality found useful, and especially one so worthless as birth, but everybody thinks of everything except the advantage of the State. What is the use of sending the ablest blue-eyed man under heaven to extract information out of a society which persistently ostracizes blue-eyed men ? Is it our business to teach them wisdom?
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