THE GOD OF OUR IDOLATRY.

Southland Times, Issue 1268, 21 June 1870, Page 4

THE GOD OF OUR IDOLATRY.

. . ___ —^_ ■. (From the Fall Mall Gazette.) To all good men praise is due, and - praise should be given to them ; for it is not only their reward, but their support. It is. at once payment for benefits received and security for benefits to come. It rathe gifTthat blesseth thrice— them ■ that give/ and them that take, and them that reap the rich aftermath of refreshed and exhilarated virtue. On no account, therefore, would we willingly discourage outspoken gratitude for good serviceto do so even at a time when there is a .great deal more of the one than of the other in political affairs, is unhandsome • and.., unprofitable. Enough that it is ' unhandsome. "Mr' Gladstone is a man of remarkable endowment. Nature blessed him with most of the finer faculties of statesman- ' ship; and labor. -has nourished them, art! has ripened them to perfection. More- j over, 'there is about him a sort of political j — chastity" which better statesmen have not been hallowed with. Minerva on his \7 i^hthand, Diana on the left, have guided liim with steady steps through a long course of exceeding usefulness ; and, widening and illuminating his path before him,, have left no reproach to dog hina from behind. Not even his own :. shadow darkens the way — so little is , - there in him of the gross corporality of our common nature, and so much of the s ' radiance of mind. He is an Englishman to- abide by as well as to be proud of. , *^cie i ace able to look up to him not only with admiration for what he is, but with confident hope and expectation of what . he may do for us ; wherein he differs in a mofet : advantageous way from other statesmen and politicians of similar """"cnaracler, and"' equal or even superior intellect. But though all this may be said of Irim with perfect sincerity, it is neverthe--1 less possible to overpraise him. There is a point at which grateful admiration ' : passes into a vague rhapsodical sort of /worship ; and between the two things the difference is very great indeed The one (is good to: have and to bestow — honorable in its origin, wholesome in its operation. The other is bad from first to last. . , The grudging spirit is an evil one, Dili; it 1 is' even less pernicious than the '''^'gushing spirit. The first must always be prepared with some reasonable excuse, for by its very nature it invites question and challenges rebuke ; the other begins by.disdaining the limitations of xjommon ; 4 sense, and altogether refuses to be put into the sieve, so to speak. And though both are .injurious, both mischievous, there is also this important difference ireTween tßein— - that T while the grudger is ; like the fruit that dries and withers .; apart, the gusher infects the whole basket with-a moist corrupticn ; fast spreading, ' and growing more^npxipus as it spreads. : * i:r^£Hs niot necessary either to grudge or to gush ; but on all grounds the one thing iß',bfitfaef than. ,the -other, if we are dealing not with our sweethearts but with T Ministers and political personages. It is better and -more creditable for us, and ■i'r fiot the^n. also; The excess of affection bestowed Tjpon Mr G-ladstone by the whole body pf "his admirers, the , female "■■ Mnd of worship that, prevails amongst - , : them, is not only a degradation of them- : . selves, but it is or. ought, to be no acceptable gift -to him, The exultation of a ■ handsome married music-master amidst a . bevy of ; ; adoring school girls, is not good for ' the . music-master, all the less "because the girls will live to laugh at ; their aspiration, much as they may yet : respect a genius for music. Toungpbets, preachers, graceful and eloquent, may like to be regarded with moist eyes, and to hear their names uttered with a sob ; but, a first Lord of the Treasury should beware of such unnatural manifestations of political esteem. Mr Gladstone, were he wise in all things, would immediately ■ instruct a butcher t$ hack the spurs from .', Sir Thomas Bazley's heels, as a warning to other ardent malevolent lovers ; and -'■ next he would order his secretaries to a circular letter to all Liberal orators and j ournalists whatsoever, desiring ■~" tfiatTle be treated in future more like a British man of business, and less like a 'JDowniiig'StreetiSussairaa, or ravishing ■ political 'Costa diva. T^or it is in the nature of the passion with which he is too generally' and" too fondly regarded that it does not last ; and if it do not last, then what is not and. never can be a very honorable possession will become a real loss; we know what happens when ardor declines into esteem. A statesman who has been called" The People's William," and whose lovers swarm about the country carving that dear name on every platform, may feel a pleasant giddiness thereat ; but what they have got into their brains is a very weak and injurious kind of folly " '— 4what he into nis a dangerous afflation. No woman is honored, or, made happier in the end, by having her beauties described in chalk upon all the neighbor-' ing walls; and this is precisely the coarse, " comprQmising," and rather con temptible way in which Mr Gladstone'^ political virtues are celebrated* by his admirers.- .For our own part, we hope we know — we know we respect— his many - merits. ? But -even if they were more *'■■■ numerous and greater than they are, we should hold aloof from the crowd that — "^cps"— hrhis presence r with love and awe; the dismal way Jerry Cruncher " flopped "in pious misery. Of course, 5 we understand why the Premier's colf leagues particularly should proclaim their worship of the man as of one who is more r than mortal The explanation !is :< noV perhaps, that he is. so verify great, but that. they are rather small. For mediocrities, it is polite to laud aB superhuman the genius that demonstrates • their own inferiority ; but what is politic in them if doubly mischievous for us. If they succeed, they must not only abate and vulgarise the public idea of true .greatness, but they likewise diffuse : a most unfortunate obscurity over true littleness ; as to which we are dull enough » at all times. And this is what is going

on now, nobody being gainers bat the little-great people. A diligent, wise, and patriotic Minister is involved in ridicule, the popular idea and expectation of statesmanship is-fuddled, and there is a general prevalence of maudlin effusion in politics which credits neither those who indulge nor him who suffers it.