SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 706, 19 January 1853, Page 2

SIR JAMES GRAHAM.

[From the “ Times-”J Sir James Graham is returned for Carlisle. When it is considered of what man and of what place this is said, it may appear an announcement hardly worth notice among the three or four hundred fast pouring in. The man has been in the foremost rank of (he public service now for thirty-two years. He was a member of the Government that passed the Reform Bill, and assisted to prepare it. In office or out of office, he had a prominent part in the measures for the removal of religious distinctions, the admission of the Roman Callxolics to political privileges, the emancipation of the negroes, municipal reform, free trade, and a multitude of other measures which, as a whole, are now justly regarded by all parties as the very salt of our legislation, and the saving of our country. Among the last and not the least of his services he was (he man who prepared the County Courts Bill, a measure the utility of which seems to recall the fabulous era when Heaven-sent kings brought justice to every man's door. Of Sir James's eloquence in the Senate, and powers of business in office, it is needless to speak; almost as needless to observe that he has been often spoken of as a possible, not to say probable Premier ; and, as far as talent is concerned, nobody doubts his capacity for the officej should the political wheel only turn in his favour. Such is the man The place is a remote, secondrate county town, with some Siislorical associations, all lire more striking because there is little else remarkable, with about a thousand electors, and the embers of an ancient border warfare still smouldering among the gentry of the neighbourhood. It is no flattery to the man, or disparagement to the place, to say that in the scale of political achievements Sir James’s success at Carlisle is almost a ridiculous event. That such a constituency should have to be wooed and won, and flattered and prized, and addressed in speeches worthy of the grandest Parliamentary occasion, and lit to he spoken at the crisis of a great nation’s fate, is an absurdity that requires explanation. Why should so great a spirit care so much for so humble a triumph? When many lesser men, whotwere never in office, who cannot even gain the ear 6f the Senate, and are incapable of framing one useful or practicable measure, are (he honoured representatives of millions or half-millions, of a province or a metropolis, why is this man of heroic mould to esteem it a great favour to be returned by a handful of tradesmen in a small county town? Such is the a priori view of the cas#, and it is, to say, (lie least, a political paradox. But, when we look closer into the matter, it is evident that Sir James’s success at Carlisle is a very noticeable event, and that (here are circumstances that lessen (he natural disproportion between the place and the man. That Sir James Graham should be indebted to the citizens of Carlisle for a respectable seal is only part of a larger fact, embracing a party and a policy, together with the man. What is Sir James, at this moment, but a political ishmacl —a wanderer from constituency to constituency ; his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him? As he tells the electors of Carlisle, he represented them twenty-six years ago. Since that he has sal for Cumberland, Pembroke, Dorchester, Ripon, if not some other places, and it only remains that bo should represent Dover and St. Ive’s to complete (he maritime circuit of England. What centrifugal force can it lie that drives an acknowledged statesman from the mighty centres to the feebler extremities of the empire, and drives him (o hug at last the little honour a prophet may still have in his own country ? It is only another form of the same question to ask by what repulsion Sir James, after co-operating —and that on no ordinary occasions—with Lord John Russell, Lord Derby, Sir Robert Peel,and every old statesman of his day, is almost without friends; after sharing the most glorious political triumphs is almost without a party ; after helping his country at (he greatest emergencies has little popularity ; after actually framing the most beneficial measures is almost without a policy, and is not so much the shadow of a great name, as a shadow whereof the substance, the original, the merits, ami services, never had a distinct and individual place in the popular appreciation and affection. Sir James has to tight hard for a place which he represented in the last generation, and which was the starting-point, in his case, of a splendid and generally beneficial career. Rut if he has now to fall back upon “Auld lang syne,” it is because he has not exchanged local for national attachments, and his position as a statesman is as precarious as bis seal at Carlisle.