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PUBLIC CHARACTERS.

No. 1.

[Our design in the following sketches of our more distinguished contemporaries, is not to furnish full-length portraits, but, if possible, faithful etchings; not to enter into a minute detail of each event or occurrence in the life of the individual selected, but to note such as may have affected his conduct or opinion, and thereby influenced the general event, and to specify those peculiarities of manner and opinion which may characterize him amongst his fellows. These profiles of character, it is intended, shall be chiefly parliamentary. There are two good reasons for this selection. The first is, we possess, and mean to make available, peculiar opportunities of daily witnessing the display of the intellectual and official energies of each member of the legislature, so as to impart to our decisions, the confidence of results valued by a relative as well as a positive standard. Our second reason is derived from the effects of that great engine of public opinion in a free country, a free press; which, by giving publicity to, and freely commenting upon, the proceedings in Parliament, thereby converting every man in the empire into a vigilant and interested spectator of those proceedings---has made the character of the actors in theirs a kind of public property, which need only be defined to be duly appreciated and respected. Having no party to serve, or particular interest to promote, our sketches will have one merit, that of being impartial.]

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The first impression that the British House of Commons might produce upon an intelligent foreigner, would be a curious, and perhaps not uninstructive, speculation. The oaken wall, compact size, and Spartan plainness of the chamber itself, might induce him to believe that he was among the legislators of a Helvetic or Dorian republic, did not a strange mixture of freedom and reserve, of dignity and homeliness of manner, and the peculiar business-like look of men, much less regardful of the appearance than the actual possession of wealth and distinction, persuade him the assembly before him was composed of English gentlemen. The very absence of uniformity of deportment-the heterogeneousness of the materials-the alternation of loquacity and silence--of prim decorum and careless negligence

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of hats off and hats on-of buttoned up box-coats, and top boots, and embroidered waistcoats, and silk stockings, the, in fact, do-as-I-please air of men, resolved to attain their end by every means not subversive of the rights of another- must convince him that he is in the land of freedom and of wealth-thence of individuality of character-in a word, in the land of John Bull. As yet, no one member would appear to the stranger of more personal consideration than another; for the influence of station and ability would be swallowed up in the to him apparently confused equality of the proceedings. His curiosity would therefore be naturally employed in endeavouring to identify some of the individuals before him, with his preconceived notion of the personal appearance, and the moral and intellectual character, of our leading orators and statesmen. From observing that all eyes are strained and pointed, as faithfully as the needle to the pole, to a certain seat or passage north-west of the Speaker's chair, known by the name of the Treasury benches, he will soon learn to distinguish the ins and the outs, the temporary disinterested talker about patriotism and economy, and, if they themselves can, the permanent dispensers of place, wealth, and distinction. This knowledge will greatly assist him in his attempts to identify persons with preconceived notions. He has now merely to look at the seat of power, to at once recognize the graceful mien, the classical head, the chiselled features, the speaking eye, the dilated nostril of genius, and the playful smile of wit, lurking about the mouth of the Right Honorable Secretary. Equally legible to the physiognomist are the characteristic features of that eloquent man's colleagues; the shrewd intellect, sound judgment, and patient industry of the head of the magistracy, Mr. Peel; and the manly frankness, the candour, and the insinuating ingenuousness of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Nor, on the other side, will he be long at a loss as to the identity of the leading spirits of " His Majesty's opposition." The keen penetrating intellect, cutting irony, and inimitable manner of Mr. Tierney,―the vehement sarcasm and various readings of Mr. Brougham,--the refined taste, proud integrity, and alternate energy and languor of Sir Francis Burdett, and the Cocker scrutiny, calculating attention, indefatigable perseverance, and figurative style of Mr. Hume, betray themselves in the appearance of their possessors. Without also a particular revelation, the possessors of the fee-simple of heaven (as well as of the good things on earth), are ascertainable by those who seek to find them out. The evangelical sleekness of mien and vesture, the heaven-viewing formation of vision, the Wolsey humility, the philanthropic disclosure of our neighbour failings, the sanctified African sympathies, and the holy nasal sonorousness of speech, characteristic of the disciples of Wesley, Southcote, and Wilberforce, are discernible in St. Fowell Buxton, and his ebony-loving brethren of the cross bench.

But the most important individual in the House yet remains unnoticed-him to whom the domestic manufactures and foreign commerce of the country are entrusted. The stranger is aware how much the high place of England, in the scale of nations, is dependant

on her commercial pre-eminence; and of the great changes that have been effected, during late years, in the system of commercial policy, by which it was supposed that pre-eminence was cherished and promoted; and, he is also aware, that the great natural opposition to these changes required an extraordinary degree of firmness, ability, and perseverance to resist and overcome; and must, therefore, seek, with some degree of impatient curiosity, for the person of the at the same time official guardian and great revolutionist of the system of the trade of Great Britain. His curiosity will soon be gratified, and his expectations realized, in the square manly form, stern grey eye, and marked Cromwellian features of-Mr. Huskisson. He will behold a man who, of all modern statesmen, would have made the most distinguished figure in the senates of ancient history; who would have been a Lycurgus at Sparta, or an Aristides at Athens. He will behold a man who, though the least classical in his language and opinions, and whose character has been cast in the truest national mould, would most strongly remind him of the stern simplicity of Cimon, the austere firmness of Cato, and the republican inflexibility of our own glorious Commonwealth-man. He will behold a man who, in a strange country, neglected his anatomical studies, to take part in the proceedings of the red-hot republicans of the French revolution. He will behold that man, without the stain of apostacy, by the mere firmness of his temper, and the solidity and inflexible structure of his intellect, some thirty years afterwards, raised from the obscure practice of a comparatively humble profession, to one of the most important stations in the government of his country; pos- . sessing withal, on every subject he discusses, a weight and authority in Parliament, and a degree of confidence and respect out of doors, that no other President of the Board of Trade could ever lay claim to. He will behold a Member of Parliament, the least observant of the adventitious means of obtaining a patient hearing, listened to with the most marked deference, respect, and attention of all parties in the House. Nor, indeed, need this great influence of character surprise him. It is founded on a system of conduct wisely adopted in early life, and firmly adhered to in all weathers, and under the most trying circumstances, and on the fact that Mr. Huskisson, take him all in all, is the ablest statesman in either House of Parliament. He does not, it is true, possess the flowing eloquence of Mr. Canning, or the quick perception of Mr. Tierney, or the logical acumen of Mr. Plunkett, or the lofty declamation of Earl Grey, or perhaps the precision of Lord Liverpool; but in shrewdness and inflexibility of judgment, comprehensiveness of views, and firmness in maintaining them, in the rare faculty of connecting the demonstrations of facts with the probability of arguments, in prophetic sagacity, and in profound knowledge of finance and the other important subjects of political economy, he is scarcely rivalled by any member of the legislature. This is high praise; the merit of deserving it is the secret of Mr. Huskisson's rise to power and distinction. In this he stands almost alone; at least, it would not be easy to find a perfect parallel

to him in the list of our bye-gone ministers. To Mr. George Grenville he bears more points of resemblance, in the frame of his temper and intellect, and in the nature of some of his opinions and measures, than to any other modern statesman within our recollection. Like that great man, Mr. Huskisson, under an austere and rather forbidding abord, covers a heart throbbing with the tenderest sympathies of humanity. Like him, also, the rigid path of public duty is never deflected from to gratify the feelings of private friendship. There is the same unbending punctuality in business, the same unostentatious integrity, the same endeavour to rather merit than obtain popularity. Not that Mr. Huskisson is indifferent to public opinion-by no means. Although he would not bend any measure to accommodate the views of party, or win the applause of the multitude, no man displays more earnestness to satisfy and convince his hearers of the purity of his motives, and of the propriety of his conduct. His speeches, on this account, are frequently loaded with facts and arguments almost to tediousness. And with all his power of arrangement, copiousness of diction, and the consequent freedom from gaps in his discourse, he will not drop a subject, nor be content to rest upon a host of arguments already adduced, while there remains a single reason in his own mind that he thinks would serve his purpose. Mr. Grenville early reprobated and foretold the evil consequence of Parliaments countenancing the efforts of factious demagogues and fanatical incendiaries in the colonies. Mr. Huskisson, also, almost alone, long since denounced the legislature's encouraging flagrant violation of property, and the abrupt rooting out of established usages, by listening, without reproof, to the inflammatory mis-statements and canting falsehoods of a party who no longer happen to be holders of property in the West Indies. The points of resemblance do not terminate here. It was a maxim with Mr. Grenville, and indeed with every sound statesman, that all changes which were unavoidable, and were in harmony with the progress and sound opinion in any country, should be met half way by its government; otherwise, the constitution, like a vessel between icebergs, from the shock of two masses moving in opposite directions, might be crushed to pieces. We have in the philosophy of this maxim, the origin of Mr. Huskisson's adversary of the present system of free trade. And here we beg leave to point out to the studious in the science of human nature, and the observer of dissimilar effects from similar causes,-the working of the one principle at different periods of Mr. Huskisson's life, and under very different circumstances. We have said, that Mr. Huskisson, when a young man, took part in the first proceedings of the French revolution. He did-but not on account of the philosophy of Voltaire and the Encyclopedists, who, in the words of Lord Byron, " might have. "written their fingers off" before they would have influenced him,nor from the contagion of the American revolution, or the financial embarrassments of a despotic form of the government; but from a conviction, that the degree and kind of knowledge possessed by the French people, far exceeded the measure of their political liberty,

and that the retention of a number of forms and institutions not suited to the growing knowledge and expanding opinion of the age, was injurious to the society, and should be overcome.

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This was his theory of the revolution; and this made him a Jacobin. In his mind, all other causes were influential in producing that great political earthquake, only in as much as they co-operated with this- the main spring of the revolution; without which, they were but "dashing with the oar to hasten the cataract," or waving "with a fan to give swiftness to the wind." This necessity then of accommodating forms and institutions to the growing intelligence of the age, made a Jacobin of Mr. Huskisson in 1790, influenced him in 1820 to introduce the Free Trade System into England, and stimulated him throughout life to advocate the great cause of civil and religious liberty.

The writings of Locke, Hume, and Smith, had long since established in Great Britain the abstract truth of the free trade theory, which, as Mr. Huskisson well knew, the interests of mankind would soon teach them to appreciate, so as to render its adoption in practice unavoidable. The only consideration left then to Mr. Huskisson was, the when and how of introducing the Free Trade policy into a country where the contrary system had long existed. And however opinion may differ, this is the only point on which controversy can arise; upon it, therefore, Mr. Huskisson has been severely censured. The silk trade, the corn factor, and the shipping interest, have successively assailed him, and with threats and intreaties, besought him to re-adopt the ancient system of prohibition. Mr. Huskisson, trenched behind a barrier of sound doctrine and philosophical principles, stood firm and inflexible; and told them, that as they could not sweep a room without being annoyed by dust, so they could not pass from an old absurd system to a contrary one without some temporary inconvenience; he maintained to them, that the clouds that hung over their respective interests, were but the presaging mist of a sunny day, and should be considered but as the exhalations of a soil teeming with fruitfulness, which would shortly disappear before the bright sunshine of England's prosperity. Our limits do not allow at present enquiring into the validity of these propositions, but we shall take an early opportunity of going minutely into the question. At present, we shall merely say, that we are converts to the Free Trade System in the abstract; but are fearful, under the peculiar circumstances of the country, lest its advantages should be too much on the side of foreigners. It is doubtless a proposition demonstrated by Adam Smith," that in every country it "always is, and must be, the great interest of the people to buy "whatever they want of those who sell it cheapest." But, however true this may be in the closet, we fear a country with a debt of 900,000,000 sterling, cannot hastily adopt it in practice. The truth is, a perfect freedom of trade, under any circumstances, is a philosophical vision, which never will be realized. All that can be done, is to make it the general rule, and approach it as nearly as we with safety

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