Given a le man,I think your Lordship may expect by and by a polite man."politer"man was to be found in Britain than the rustic Robert Burns:high duchesses were captivated with the chivalrous ways of the man;recognized that here was the true chivalry,and divine leness of bearing,--as indeed they well might,when the Peasant God and se Thor had come down among them again!Chivalry this,if as they do chivalry in Drury Lane or West-End drawing-rooms,yet as they do it in Valhalla and the General Assembly of the Gods.
For indeed,who invented chivalry,politeness,or anything that is le and melodious and beautiful among us,except precisely the like of Johnson and of Burns?The select few who in the generations of this world were wise and valiant,they,in spite of all the tremendous majority of blockheads and slothful belly-worshippers,and sy ugly persons,have devised whatsoever is le in the manners of man to man.I expect they will learn to be polite,your Lordship,when you give them a chance!--is it as a school of human culture,for this or for any other grace or gift,that Parliament will be found first-rate or indispensable.As experience in the river is indispensable to the ferryman,so is kledge of his Parliament to the British Peel or Chatham;--so was kledge of the OEil-de-Boeuf to the French Choiseul.Where and how said river,whether Parliament with Wilkeses,or OEil-de-Boeuf with Pompadours,can be waded,boated,swum;how the miscellaneous cargoes,"measures"so called,can be got across it,according to their kinds,and landed alive on the hither side as facts:--we have all of us our ferries in this world;and must k the river and its ways,or get drowned some day!In that sense,practice in Parliament is indispensable to the British Statesman;but in any other sense.
A school,too,of manners and of several other things,the Parliament will doubtless be to the aspirant Statesman;a school better or worse;--as the OEil-de-Boeuf likewise was,and as all scenes where men work or live are sure to be.Especially where many men work together,the very rubbing against one aher will grind and polish off their angularities into roundness,into "politeness"after a sort;and the official man,place him how you may,will never want for schooling,of extremely various kinds.A first-rate school one can call this Parliament for him;--I fear to say what rate at present!In so far as it teaches him vigilance,patience,courage,toughness of lungs or of soul,and skill in any kind of swimming,it is a good school.
In so far as it forces him to speak where Nature orders silence;and even,lest all the world should learn his secret (which often egh would kill his secret,and little profit the world),forces him to speak falsities,vague ambiguities,and the froth-dialect usual in Parliaments in these times,it may be considered one of the worst schools ever devised by man;and,Ithink,may almost challenge the OEil-de-Boeuf to match it in badness.
Parliament will train your men to the manners required of a statesman;but in a much less degree to the intrinsic functions of one.To these latter,it is capable of mistraining as hing else can.Parliament will train you to talk;and above all things to hear,with patience,unlimited quantities of foolish talk.To tell a good story for yourself,and to make it appear that you have done your work:this,especially in constitutional countries,is something;--and yet in all countries,constitutional ones too,it is intrinsically hing,probably even less.For it is the function of any mortal,in Downing Street or elsewhere here below,to wag the tongue of him,and make it appear that he has done work;but to wag some quite other organs of him,and to do work;there is danger of his work's appearing by and by.Such an accomplishment,even in constitutional countries,I grieve to say,may become much less than hing.Have you at all computed how much less?The human creature who has once given way to satisfying himself with "appearances,"to seeking his salvation in "appearances,"the moral life of such human creature is rapidly bleeding out of him.
Depend upon it,Beelzebub,Satan,or however you may name the too authentic Genius of Eternal Death,has got that human creature in his claws.By and by you will have a dead parliamentary bagpipe,and your living man fled away without return!
Such parliamentary bagpipes I myself have heard play tunes,much to the satisfaction of the people.Every tune lies within their compass;and their mind (for they still call it mind )is ready as a hurdy-gurdy on turning of the handle:"My Lords,this question before the House"--Ye Heavens,O ye divine Silences,was there in the womb of Chaos,then,such a product,liable to be evoked by human art,as that same?While the galleries were all applausive of heart,and the Fourth Estate looked with eyes enlightened,as if you had touched its lips with a staff dipped in honey,--I have sat with reflections too ghastly to be uttered.
A poor human creature and learned friend,once possessed of many fine gifts,possessed of intellect,veracity,and manful conviction on a variety of objects,has he lost all that;--converted all that into a glistering phosphorescence which can show itself on the outside;while within,all is dead,chaotic,dark;a painted sepulchre full of dead-men's bones!
Discernment,kledge,intellect,in the human sense of the words,this man has e.His opinion you do ask on any matter:on the matter he has opinion,judgment,or insight;only on what may be said about the matter,how it may be argued of,what tune may be played upon it to enlighten the eyes of the Fourth Estate.
