NOTES AND QUERIES.
WHAT could have induced the leadets of the Derby Opposition to appear before the Queen, on Monday, in the Windsor uniform ? They have "a right to do it," by courtesy, it seems, but no obli- gation; and it must have been choice that made them fetch from its retreat the dress of office. Was it to remind her Majesty, that, if wanted again, there they were—always ready, with their very clothes not the worse for wear? John Woodville confesses that even mourning costume has its vanities, and why not the blue Windsor ? Ladies are said to like the opportunity of seeing how applicants for a footman's place will look in the family livery; and, as Punch has recorded a doubt in the Royal mind on one occasion, whether "John" was "strong enough for the place," or big enough for the waistcoat of the last occupant, the gentlemen who "want places" might not be sorry of an occasion for up- peering, as it were, in plush.
Nor would patriotic motives be wanting : it has been discovered by an experimental philosopher, who ought to know best, that the thing which has now brought upon our race War and all its woes is Aberdeen ; if Peace be wanted with all its prosperities, the Queen has but to send for it from the ex-Treasury bench, where it stands ready harnessed in Windsor uniform—the true Arabian blood in its heart—a budget, a mission, and a policy, in its saddlebag.
A soi-disant Englishman has been building ships for our enemy the Czar, as a distinguished Liberal traveller designed gunpowder for the same potentate on free-trade principles, and as a person in Canada has been detected—has indeed confessed that he was in conspiracy with the Czar for the conquest of that British colony. The conspirator proves to be a quack-doctor or dealer in patent medicines ; and the wiseacres of Quebec and London are laughing at the Canada Monteagle, whoever he may be, for helping the man to advertise his wares. But why laugh ? How many shapes of devilry has not the Czar assumed, that we should sus- pect this alliance with the doctor as impossible ? Are not quack- medicines a greater scourge of any country subject to their con- quest than armies or pestilence ? Old Nieh. does not despise them. Let those who jeer take the medicine, and they will laugh on the wrong side of their mouths. They will discover, too late, that the enemy is at the bottom of the affair.
Talking of Muscovy,—Nicholas, it is reported, is offended at being called " Czar ": he admits that he is Czar "of Muscovy," as Victoria is Lady of the Isle of Man ; but he is also Emperor of All the Russias, &c. So much the worse for Europe. It would be far better if he were only "Emperor of some of the Russias," if any. People ask for "the object of the war" : why not let it have for object the restoration of Nicholas_as "Czar of Muscovy," pure and simple ?
"Who is Mr. Lloyd Phelps ? " asks the Times. Will not the rules of research by internal evidence suffice to tell us, more cer- tainly than "Junius" has been discovered ? Mr. Gladstone pro- poses measures sound in themselves—a tax justly continued, and afterwards a tax justly extended ; people liable to the extended tax recoil from it ; and he wants a plainspoken man, liable to the tax, capable of stating the case powerfully as a grievance, yet with mind so reasonably disinterested as to be publicly refuted, "pour encourager lea entree." Lloyd Phelps inventus est. In his re- futation, Gladstone points out the fall of prices consequent on remission of indirect duties : subsequently, however, under the working of foreign trade, harvest deficiency, and war, prices rise, and an occasion is wanted to show people that remitted duties are still practically operating to abate prices. Reenter Phelps. It is an old resource of art. Horne Tooke, in the Diversions of Purley, puts his happiest philological strokes as repartees to Burdett; Berkeley proves the nonexistence of everything by the happy way In which he makes his imaginary controversialist state their exist- ence. "B" is still Tooke playing dumby for himself; the crude asserter of matter is still no other than the Berkeley who dis- preves it. Apply the rule' and Phelps is Gladstone. Nay, if we concede the licence allowed to anagrammatists in America, it will be perceived that "Lloyd Phelps, Birmingham," is the anagram of "William Ewart Gladstone."
Perhaps those "old ancients" who were perplexed with fear of oliange at the coming of comets were not so much behind the "new moderns" in their wisdom. The instinct of children some- times makes them apprehend great truths, which the conceit of early manhood doubts, and mature reason confirms. Periods of war are apt to be periods of other disorder and of change : even health has something to do with the matter, though the history of pathology is defective in its chronological relations With politics. Strange portents in the heavens, pestilenees, and famines—those disturbances of the universe and atmosphere in which we live—why should they not affect men's blood and stir souls to deeds great or terrible ? Many phenomena of the opening war suggest parallels ; upon the whole, how- ever, in our favour. In '93 we took up arms ; but it was against France,—and not only against the crimes which stained that land, but against the freedom which resented absolute tyranny, such as we are now combating in Russia—at that time our ally. Then falling Consols were a portent : we see them still floating at 85 or 87, and do not fear to have them down at 61. Change was rampant in '93, because progress was arrested; and while Charles Grey was vainly moving his reform in a Tory House of Commons, the musket and the guillotine were writing a terrible Reform Bill in France with characters of blood. We stopped that Reform then as well as our own • and have now, like Lord John, to help in moving a supplemental own; Bill by way of amendment on the Czar's reactionary proposition. Deaths marked that time by wholesale, but not entice that of Mansfield—in the course of nature. George Gordon paid by death in prison the penalty of a heated enthusiasm fevered by the bigotry of that day ; and the Reform Bill of France was carried in divi- sions of blood which loaded the obituary of Europe. Far different our own day, when Protectionist Portland departs with a word of respect from Free-trade England for his unpretendingly pious funeral ; when the Liberal country gives a hearty farewell to Tory Londonderry .for his warm and gallant heart ; when revolutionary De Iam iumens is regretted by scholarly Conservatism ; and when 'Christopher North" lies down in his last bed with a cordial good- -night from those who forget party differences and remember only the genius, the strong nature, the kindly heart, and the extraor- dinary form of power, which showed itself alike in the field and the study.
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