IRELAND’S ADIEU TO THE EMPRESS.
[Hunting in Meath being “ Boycotted,” the Empress of Austria will not come to SunnyhLU, as was arranged, bat has just written, through her Chamberlain, to take Combermere Abbey, in Cheshire, again. ]
Oh, sad. is the news, and our hearts are full sore,
The “ Kaiserinn ” hunts in ould Ireland no more ; The Sunnyhill walls shall no more as a guest,
Receive the great lady who rides with the best;
The Meath Hunt is “ Boycotted,”—where is our sense ? The Empress will come not to fly o’er the fence.
And England will win what we lose ; ’tis with pain We hear that at Combermere Abbey again
The Empress will hunt, and all Cheshire rejoioe
At the light of her smile and the sound of her voioe; She ’ll ride as of old, well and straight as a man, And we can but dream of her leading the van.
Oh, Irishmen, tell us, whate’er be your creed, Or politics, do you not blush for the deed ? Is this the old chivalrous spirit that made Historic renown for the Irish Brigade ?
But still we shaR hope to wipe out such a stain, And welcome the Empress to Ireland again.
FROM YOUTH TO AGE.
(A Confidential Correspondence between Eminent Personages.) “ Immortal Ago beside immortal Youth,
And ail I was in ashes.”—Tithonus.
No. YI.—From Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen, M. P. for Sandwich (1857-80), to Lord Braboume.
My Lord,
Ir is with feelings of proper respect that I venture to address your Lordship. I know my place, or perhaps I should say my places, for I was always glad to get anything that turned up. I
trust your Lordship knows me too weU to think that in thus approaching you unsoli
cited I desire to impose upon earlier acquaintance or former service.
I at least know your Lordship weU enough to be convinced that such an attempt, if it were made, would be quickly and properly rebuffed.
But, as your Lordship knows, I have too deeply-rooted a rever
ence for rank to indulge in any such impertinence. There’s a couplet from a pen which might have reached eminence greater even than my own it other pursuits had not interfered to distract attention. I allude to the rhymed remark -
“ Let laws and commerce, arts and learning die But spare, 0 spare our old nobili-tie! ”
I humbly apologise for mentioning JonN Manners in a letter to your Lordship. He is, 1 know, merely a.commoner; but his alliance with a ducal family may do mo needed service in excusing me in your Lordship’s mind for this passing vulgarity.
If one so humble as myself might express sympathy with your Lordship, I would like to revert to the pain I have felt at observing the reception which your Lordship’s recent noble efforts in public life have met with. It appears to the vulgar eye as if by the course it has pleased your Lordship to adopt, you have earned the contempt of your old friends, without gaining the recognition of your new associates. Herein, however, your Lordship shares the common fate of great minds, some of whom are known, in common parlance, by titles of really respectable antiquity.
It is not for me to criticise, or even to characterise any steps it may have pleased your Lordship to take since you were elevated to a sphere for which you were born. But if I venture n remark, it would be to say that your Lordship has done exactly what might have been expeoted of you, and that you have taught a wholesome
lesson to persons like Mr. Gladstone, whose father, I believe, was a Liverpool merchant, and who, for this and other reasons, cannot be expected to enter into tho feelings of personages gifted like your Lordship. It is quite possible that the assiduous court paid to the coming 1 rime Minister at a time when your Lordship’s career was
unfulfilled, may have led to misapprehension ; whilst the sturdy Liberalism which 1 always professed scarcely prepared people for the
antique Toryism which your Lordship has assumed in common with the heads of some of our oldest Houses. It may suggest to some minds,
as it is said to do to the genial one of Lord Sherbrooke, that simile of a bottle of thin claret, which on being decanted, declared it was fruity old port. These are the slights of envy, the stings of malice, the venom of vulgarity. Your Lordship has not only earned a peerage, but at the outset has endowed it with attributes rarely found m the House of Lords. A contemplation of your career as far as it has gone fills with sincerest admiration
Your humble and devoted Servant,
E. Knatchbull-Hugessen.
No. VII.—From the Marquis of Lome, (1842), to the Duke of Argyle.
Mr dear Duke,
I take advantage of your comparative leisure and surcease of oare of the Universe, to write you a short letter. Writing letters,
not always short, has, as you know, been a great solace to me through a well-spent life. It is close upon forty years since there appeared my famous Letter to the Peers, from a Peer s Son. There was, I remember, a little murmuring and groaning at the time. I believe the Duke of Wellington offered a few heated remarks on what he ventured to call “ the presumption of a priggish young man.” Of course, the Duke was a privileged person, very well in war, but a nuisance in times of peace.
I felt it my duty then to lecture the Peers, as I have since, from time to time, felt it my duty as well as my privilege, to lecture other people. In fact, I think there’s some truth in what Salisbury says, that if I had not been born a Duke, I would have made a fair living as an itinerant lecturer on controversial topics; whether religious,
sooial, or political, would, of course, not have mattered to a man of
myattainments. Salis
bury didn’t .’mean to be complimentary, but I take the remark as such. I think I may
add, that if need had been I would have
made a fair living with my pen; but Heaven made me a Duke, and I have done the best under the circum
stances. When I say
“ I,” my dear Macullum More, of course,
I mean you; but the
first person singular comes natural to me, and practically it’s all the same. You would never have been what you are but for me.
You did quite right to leave the Ministry last year. It was a dreadful blow to them, and it remains a marvel how they have survived it. Time was, as Shakspeaiie, I think, has observed before me, when the brains were out the man would die. When the prop of a house was removed, the premises came down. But every
thing is changed now ; and though you ’ve withdrawn, the Cabinet goes on just as if nothing particular had happened. Nevertheless, you had a good time during the debate on the Land Bill. It didn’t last long, but it was worth anything in the way of salary or Ministerial position. If you had remained on the front Bench, and de
livered an ordinary Ministerial speech, the House would have been moderately empty. As it was, I am told, there was scarcely sitting
room, and Salisbury himself led off the cheers from the Opposition benches. It was a good speech, though I think I could have made a better one myself. Your phrases are nicely composed, though a little reminiscent of the lamp ; and, besides, with your fine gestures and imposing appearance, a good deal is lost when you speak from a back bench. The floor of the House is the place for you; and I would advise you, till you join the next Ministry, to sit on the front Bench below the Gangway, where you won’t find the companionship of Derby too exciting.
As for style, let me recommend you to read again the Letter to the Peers from a Peer s Son, and that other interesting work, On the
Duty and Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church of Scotland, as determined by Considerations of Con
stitutional Law. 1 have always thought, and have been supported in my view by eminent authorities, that tho title alone stamps this work as a masterpiece. To parody a misapplied saying, let me con
clude with the injunction that if you would become a master of Scottish-English, you must spend your days and nights with
Your good friend and patron, Lorne
new BOOK.
Sinners and their Drums. By the Author of Saints and their
Symbols.
[Hunting in Meath being “ Boycotted,” the Empress of Austria will not come to SunnyhLU, as was arranged, bat has just written, through her Chamberlain, to take Combermere Abbey, in Cheshire, again. ]
Oh, sad. is the news, and our hearts are full sore,
The “ Kaiserinn ” hunts in ould Ireland no more ; The Sunnyhill walls shall no more as a guest,
Receive the great lady who rides with the best;
The Meath Hunt is “ Boycotted,”—where is our sense ? The Empress will come not to fly o’er the fence.
And England will win what we lose ; ’tis with pain We hear that at Combermere Abbey again
The Empress will hunt, and all Cheshire rejoioe
At the light of her smile and the sound of her voioe; She ’ll ride as of old, well and straight as a man, And we can but dream of her leading the van.
Oh, Irishmen, tell us, whate’er be your creed, Or politics, do you not blush for the deed ? Is this the old chivalrous spirit that made Historic renown for the Irish Brigade ?
But still we shaR hope to wipe out such a stain, And welcome the Empress to Ireland again.
FROM YOUTH TO AGE.
(A Confidential Correspondence between Eminent Personages.) “ Immortal Ago beside immortal Youth,
And ail I was in ashes.”—Tithonus.
No. YI.—From Mr. Knatchbull-Hugessen, M. P. for Sandwich (1857-80), to Lord Braboume.
My Lord,
Ir is with feelings of proper respect that I venture to address your Lordship. I know my place, or perhaps I should say my places, for I was always glad to get anything that turned up. I
trust your Lordship knows me too weU to think that in thus approaching you unsoli
cited I desire to impose upon earlier acquaintance or former service.
I at least know your Lordship weU enough to be convinced that such an attempt, if it were made, would be quickly and properly rebuffed.
But, as your Lordship knows, I have too deeply-rooted a rever
ence for rank to indulge in any such impertinence. There’s a couplet from a pen which might have reached eminence greater even than my own it other pursuits had not interfered to distract attention. I allude to the rhymed remark -
“ Let laws and commerce, arts and learning die But spare, 0 spare our old nobili-tie! ”
I humbly apologise for mentioning JonN Manners in a letter to your Lordship. He is, 1 know, merely a.commoner; but his alliance with a ducal family may do mo needed service in excusing me in your Lordship’s mind for this passing vulgarity.
If one so humble as myself might express sympathy with your Lordship, I would like to revert to the pain I have felt at observing the reception which your Lordship’s recent noble efforts in public life have met with. It appears to the vulgar eye as if by the course it has pleased your Lordship to adopt, you have earned the contempt of your old friends, without gaining the recognition of your new associates. Herein, however, your Lordship shares the common fate of great minds, some of whom are known, in common parlance, by titles of really respectable antiquity.
It is not for me to criticise, or even to characterise any steps it may have pleased your Lordship to take since you were elevated to a sphere for which you were born. But if I venture n remark, it would be to say that your Lordship has done exactly what might have been expeoted of you, and that you have taught a wholesome
lesson to persons like Mr. Gladstone, whose father, I believe, was a Liverpool merchant, and who, for this and other reasons, cannot be expected to enter into tho feelings of personages gifted like your Lordship. It is quite possible that the assiduous court paid to the coming 1 rime Minister at a time when your Lordship’s career was
unfulfilled, may have led to misapprehension ; whilst the sturdy Liberalism which 1 always professed scarcely prepared people for the
antique Toryism which your Lordship has assumed in common with the heads of some of our oldest Houses. It may suggest to some minds,
as it is said to do to the genial one of Lord Sherbrooke, that simile of a bottle of thin claret, which on being decanted, declared it was fruity old port. These are the slights of envy, the stings of malice, the venom of vulgarity. Your Lordship has not only earned a peerage, but at the outset has endowed it with attributes rarely found m the House of Lords. A contemplation of your career as far as it has gone fills with sincerest admiration
Your humble and devoted Servant,
E. Knatchbull-Hugessen.
No. VII.—From the Marquis of Lome, (1842), to the Duke of Argyle.
Mr dear Duke,
I take advantage of your comparative leisure and surcease of oare of the Universe, to write you a short letter. Writing letters,
not always short, has, as you know, been a great solace to me through a well-spent life. It is close upon forty years since there appeared my famous Letter to the Peers, from a Peer s Son. There was, I remember, a little murmuring and groaning at the time. I believe the Duke of Wellington offered a few heated remarks on what he ventured to call “ the presumption of a priggish young man.” Of course, the Duke was a privileged person, very well in war, but a nuisance in times of peace.
I felt it my duty then to lecture the Peers, as I have since, from time to time, felt it my duty as well as my privilege, to lecture other people. In fact, I think there’s some truth in what Salisbury says, that if I had not been born a Duke, I would have made a fair living as an itinerant lecturer on controversial topics; whether religious,
sooial, or political, would, of course, not have mattered to a man of
myattainments. Salis
bury didn’t .’mean to be complimentary, but I take the remark as such. I think I may
add, that if need had been I would have
made a fair living with my pen; but Heaven made me a Duke, and I have done the best under the circum
stances. When I say
“ I,” my dear Macullum More, of course,
I mean you; but the
first person singular comes natural to me, and practically it’s all the same. You would never have been what you are but for me.
You did quite right to leave the Ministry last year. It was a dreadful blow to them, and it remains a marvel how they have survived it. Time was, as Shakspeaiie, I think, has observed before me, when the brains were out the man would die. When the prop of a house was removed, the premises came down. But every
thing is changed now ; and though you ’ve withdrawn, the Cabinet goes on just as if nothing particular had happened. Nevertheless, you had a good time during the debate on the Land Bill. It didn’t last long, but it was worth anything in the way of salary or Ministerial position. If you had remained on the front Bench, and de
livered an ordinary Ministerial speech, the House would have been moderately empty. As it was, I am told, there was scarcely sitting
room, and Salisbury himself led off the cheers from the Opposition benches. It was a good speech, though I think I could have made a better one myself. Your phrases are nicely composed, though a little reminiscent of the lamp ; and, besides, with your fine gestures and imposing appearance, a good deal is lost when you speak from a back bench. The floor of the House is the place for you; and I would advise you, till you join the next Ministry, to sit on the front Bench below the Gangway, where you won’t find the companionship of Derby too exciting.
As for style, let me recommend you to read again the Letter to the Peers from a Peer s Son, and that other interesting work, On the
Duty and Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church of Scotland, as determined by Considerations of Con
stitutional Law. 1 have always thought, and have been supported in my view by eminent authorities, that tho title alone stamps this work as a masterpiece. To parody a misapplied saying, let me con
clude with the injunction that if you would become a master of Scottish-English, you must spend your days and nights with
Your good friend and patron, Lorne
new BOOK.
Sinners and their Drums. By the Author of Saints and their
Symbols.