HOME TALK.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 339, 8 January 1866, Page 2

HOME TALK.

(From the Home News, October 23.1 Loud Palmerston is dead. In the last of these letters it was aaid-“ it is certain that ho has boon very ill.” But, except in the fact that he wasnearly eighty-one, there was no reason, until within a few hours of the end, to expect so sudden a ter* mination to his long career. He had, however, been suffering from a complaint which requires rest and care, and he was not the man to bestow cither. He was at his seat, Brocket, in Hertfordshire, and not only attended to business, but went in all weathers, moresito. In one of his drives—this was on a Friday—he caught cold, and distressing symptoms appeared. The best advice was summoned, and he was thought to be going on well, when a relapse came, he succumbed, and on the following Tuesday the language of the physicians implied that the end was approaching. Ho expired without suffering, at a quarter to eleven, on Wednesday, October 28. The news was telegraphed all over the country on Wednesday afternoon, and I have known no such general feeling of regret. The departed statesman was the friend of all, and all parties vie in expressions of respect' ful affection for his memory. To the political results of the event reference will doubtless bo found in another column ; I record merely its social aspects. There is to be a public funeral to-morrow. ~Jfc bad been intended, and it had been Lord Palmerston’s wish that there should bo no display at his obsequies, but the Queen, who had been hourly supplied with information as to his condition, intimated, from her Highland palace, that it was due to the memory of the venerable Premier, and to the feelings of the nation, that ho should receive public honors and a grave in the Abbey. His remains were therefore brought to Cambridge-house, Piccadilly, on Monday, and while 1 write, the large dining room in which his constant hospitalities were so pleasantly dispensed, is darkened by the presence of his coffin. He will bo laid in the great mausoleum of English worthies, between Fox and Pitt and as near his friend, Q-eorge Canning, as is possible. The most illustrious of his survivors will attend, and the general concourse will be immense. Carefully prepared biographies had; long been lying ready for the mournful event, and they duly appeared opjhe day after its occurrence, bat few of them add anything to what was known by all

wl®>. take an interest in political history. The Premier’s personal character was thoroughly understood by all, and hence one of the great causes p£ his unexampled popularity. He was not a speech-maker, in the ordinary sense of the epithet. Orations lie despised, but he spoke for the purpose of effecting an object, and held that to be the best speech which most easily accomplished that purpose, with the least offence to others. 1 heard many of his addresses in Parliament, about 1850—1-2, and especially I heard the miracle of a speech, as one of the journals calls it, on the 25 th June, ISSO, when there was a four night’s debate on his foreign policy, and on the second of these nights he spoke for nearly five hours, without notes, and took all the points on his target.” He described his policy not merely in gross, but in extreme detail, and took us round and across- the world. I think he sketched about ten groups of political characters, in as many different localities of the world, showed how he had dealt with each nation, and summed up with an emphatic declaration that ho had clone his best for the interests of England, 'ihe storm of applause which followed was overwhelming, and it had scarcely subsided when, in answer to some remark across the table, the veteran sprangup,apparently un fatigued, and gave the information sought. I was also present at the debate when Lord Russell hud caused him to be dismissed, and heard Lord John’s justification, and Palmerston’s rather scornful reply, “ All the Ministers, according to the noble Jo-d, were free to express opinions on foreign politics, save the only man who had studied them.” He speedily avenged the wrong by upsetting the coach over the Militia Bill. His days of fighting ended when he took up the fighting for us, and brought all his powers, and all his War-office knowledge, to bear upon our war, then languishing. With the successful result of this, his popularity was finally established, and he had only to show himaelf among his fellow-citizens to be hailed as a beloved friend. His splendid constitution and unflagging spirits sustained him through labors and exertions that would be too much for most men. 1 doubt whether, except in fun, ho ever declared himself “ bored” in the course of his life, and lie took a great interest in amusements of an outdoor kind, to the last. I ' o not I hint he cared much about theatricals and the like, but he had had enough of that sort of thing in the gay times of hi* youth, when he was as devoted to pleasure as any man of the day. People forget that Lord Palmerston was a “ swell” of the first water, that be was so fascinating as to have received from a great lady and long retained Ho name of “Cupid," that he was a superb waltzcr, and that his renown os a lady-killer was something portentous. All the qualities which made him successful in society toned down with age, but remained to contribute to a less brilliant but more general popularity, and his wondrous elas*icily never left him. He Was a fearless and dashing rider, though not, according to sportsmen and grooms, a good one, but ho almost always managed to be in at death. He did not win the Derby, though his horses worT good races, and Mainstone might have done the groat thing but for an accident. He betted very- listle indeed, in fact, his bets were mere play. Is it going below the d gnity of hi tory to add that he had a splendid appetite, but was very tem perate with wine, that he wrote, chiefly, standing, and, he whistled enormously, thought not ‘ for want of thought?” I ought to say, too, that though of late years he used to say that he hod no time to read anything except MS., in early life he was somewhat literary, and contributed squibs to “ Joim Ball,” and wrote the best thing in the Hew Whig Guide. Earl Russell is the new Premier. Having held that office before, it- was a matter of etiquette that it should bo offered to him in the first instance, and he accepted it, though it was rather unceremoniously hinted to him by the press that he is an old man, and not very popular, and so forth. There were several other names held up as those of favorites, notably, Mr Gladstone’s, but he is to lead to the Commons, as Earl Russell could hardly be expected to servo under him, and he is favored with advice not to be so terribly in earnest about everything, not to be proud and easily irritated, not to make long speeches of a profound character, when short and shallow ones will do, and, above all. not to scold the Cor mons, who will stand anything but that. So he will go to .school, and know what- lessons he is expected to learn. Then there was Lord Granville, who at 50 has just married a beautiful bride of eighteen. Everybody likes him, and he is sweet fem|,er personified, and as he cannot be Premier he will probably go to Paris, where his father (the best whist-player in Europe) was ambassador long and successfully. Lord Clarendon was also talked of, and it is stated that he takes the Foreign Office instead of Earl Russell. -I have heard that Robert Lowe, of •whom the antipodes have also head, is wanted back into the Ministry. In short, there will be no particular difficulty in rearranging the Ministerial party for the meeting of Parliament, and the rest is in the hands of fate. I have a private opinion, which may be taken for what it is worth, to the effect that Earl Russell will not be the Prettier of England very long. The Foreign Minister has a piece of business on his hands, and it may or n ay not be troublesome. The Americans have sent in their claim for compensation for the damage done, during tln-ir war, to the property of t he cit izens, by vessels of British origin, as the Alabama and Shenandoah. Earl Eusssii has replied that wc did all that we could ' to prevent the fitting out of such vessels, and therefore wc are blameless, and he refuses all compensation. The American envoy proposes an appeal to arbitration. This Earl Russell, also refuses, declaring that there can bo no question in the case and that our Government, are the guardians of their own honor. He offers to submit such cases as the two Powers can agree upon as subjects for discussion to a Commission, to be named by the two Governments, and Mr Adams has taken to submit this position to the chief, but does not seem to think that it will be accepted, and almost hints that Earl Russell knew this. That is where the dispute stands at present, and where Lord Clarendon will have to take it up. We al so. had another sensation of American xnamifactwCv. T h.e press of Hie States has its m- r.ts, hut a-superstitious roverci.o: tot truths and the

decencies of life, is among the conventionalities which, are discarded by writers for an advanced people. Some of the Yankee journals invented a list of subscribers to the Confederate loan, and put down Mr Gladstone, the editor of the Times, and a variety of other well-known persons as men who had thus supported the rebels. Mr Bright’s organ, which considers it a crime to' doubt anythat is printed by the sacred and enlightened press of America, republished this list, and the other papers were immediately filled with denials, by the accused parties, that they had anything to do with the loan. My reference to the three unpleasant subjects of the day shall be very brief. The cattle-disease has not been checked, its ravages are very great, and no one has as yet discovered how to deal with it. Wholesale slaughter is the only device which has commended itself to the minds of the authorities. Ido not know what the masses will do for animal food, if the plague continues. Is it possible for you to slay and preserve meat, and send it over to us ? The demand will bo extraordinary. The Archbishop of Canterbury has prepared a prayer, which has been said in all the churches, and which is not well written, as it ought to have been, considering the noble models in the liturgy. The cholera does not much terrify us, nevertheless it is among us, and has done work of death. The Irish treason appears to have been more successfully treated than our other afflictions. A large number of Fenians are in captivity ; there is no rising to deliver them; the American brethren send money, some of which we intercept, and bluster, which does no harm, bet no frigates with “ the green flag glittering o’er them" appear in Irish water —on the contrary, Mr Seward sends us hints as to the Fenians, and is frightfully abused by the American press for' doing so. I do not wish to cast any imputation, on men who 1 dare say are honest when I add that if any of the prosecutions fail, it will not be for want of the most explicit and distinct evidence on the part of the Crown witnesses. All parties agree in approving the conduct of the Government in putting down these Fenian idiots—a conviction in time saves nine. The unexampled weather, to which I gratefully referred in my last, was protracted until we were into this month, but has now given way, and we have heavy rains, which were needed, and cold, which will operate beneficially in abating disease, or at least it is hoped so. Those who have no country-houses, are now back again in London. Our Queen still lingers in Scotland, but will be home again in a day or two, and the Prince of Wales is already in town, not brought up, one may suppose, by the melancholy incident of the time, as his Royal highness has been visiting the theatres. He has been deer-stalking and salmon-fishing. I suppose that the last Prince of Wales never 'saw deer except in Windsor park, and probably believed that salmon grew in the form of cutlets. The nation is not displeased;to read that the future King has something of King Nimrod in him, instead of King Ramrod, like The petty German sovereigns, whose great pleasure is a review, of their twopenny armies. The Prince killed a salmon in very good stylo, last week, splashing up to his middle in the water, like a true fisherman. Some deaths, in a lowlier sphere than the great death, but still of interest, have occurred. Vincent Wallace, the composer, has long suffered and is now at rest. Ho had more original genius than any of our musical writers, and though his last work, Lurline, did not achieve the success which much of it deserved, no musician could fail to recognise the advance which the writer had made, and the fact that had circumstances been more propitious, he might have been a great man. He was not however, strong enough to “achieve greatness.” Then Ernst, the celebrated violinist, is gone, having been also delivered from protracted suffering, and having left a kindly recollection in the hearts of all who knew him. As I report the folly as well as the wisdom of the table, I ought to mention that the favorite toy for grown people as well as children, at this time, is an abomination invented by chemistry. It is a thing called “ Pharaoh’s Serpents,” though why I do not know. The Mosaic history by no means prepare us to believe that what the magicians, “ did with their enchantments” was to place a little cone, about an inch high, and covered with tinfoil, like a bit of chocolate, in the centre of a dish, and apply a light to the apex. But if we uothis, having paid sixpence for the article, there arises a cylindrical series, almost interminable, of brown, lazily oozing folds, by no means pleasant to the eye, and the wonderment is that such an immense quantity can be produced out of so small a pyramid. The means are a preparation of mercury, the smell is poisonous, and you are strictly charged not to inhale the smoke. As will be percieved by the advertisements, this elegant trifle is the talk of the light-hearted.