PARLIAMENTARY SKETCH.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 184, 26 July 1859, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY SKETCH.

A contribution to the Patriot^ March 241h, gives the following personal sketch of the opening of the Great Reform debate which ended in the defeat of the Derby Ministry:— In former days it was tho custom at the play that the farce should come after the tragedy of the drama, so as to soothe and exhilarate the feelings that might have been too deeply roused. But in modern times the fashion has been to reverse to a certain extent, the course of-proceeding. The habit seems catching, and was last week transferred from the theatrical to the political stage, where, on Friday, as a prelude to the expected drama of "A Tory Reform or Stirring Events," was reproduced in a somewhat novel form the farce of " Box and Cox," the principal characters being enacted by tho honorable mem.bers for 'Sheffield and Einsbury. Mr. Cox

having promised his constituents that ho would join Lord John Russell and Lord Palmerston to a declaration of their respective creeds on Reform, had^ with this view given notice that he would on the adjournment fr6m Friday to Monday recommend that the Reform Bill should be dealt with in the same way as the Indian Bill last year, and that the House should declare by resolutions in Committee the exact amount of tinkering to which the Constitution should be subjected. That such a brilliant idea should be monopolised by the Finsbury broad brim was, however too much for the Sheffield cabinet-maker. Such an usurpation of his functions could not be borne by one whose professed business it was equally to break up old and to construct new Cabinets. Jealousy of the invasion of this prescriptive prerogative overrode every other idea; and Mr. Roebuck, who undoubtedly, only the week before, had given in his cordial adhesion to Lord John Russell's resolution—nay, it is suppose^ by some, had even been a party to moulding it into shape—-hastened breathless to his seat below the gangway and, just as the clock barely pointed to half-past four, and just as the bewildered Cox entered the House, rose to move the adjournment from Friday.to Monday, and propounded to Lord John Russell and to Mr. Disraeli the very question of which the member for Finsbury had given notice. Surprise at this unexpected event_ was gradually beginning to resolve itself into hopefulness among "the Ministerialists, and dismay among the Liberals, lest this should be the first catching symptoms of serious defection in their ranks, when the injured Cox arose and seconded the appeal with melodramatic gravity, accompanying it, at the same time, with an amount of tow comedy action that convulsed the whole House with laughter. The success of the farce was complete, and the jocular interlude coming at the close of one week helped to brighten and refresh the spirits of those who had to prepare for the more serious business of another. On Monday, at last, the curtain rose for the first act of the heavy drama. Long before the hour for the commencement of the performance every place in the House was filled, and the building resounded with the busy hum of the many conjectures as to the probable success of the new play to be produced under the auspices of the Peelo-Whig-Radical Joint Stock Company. In vain had the keen-edged razor of the Sheffield knife-grinder searched its joints on Friday. Its advent to power loomed on the horizon, and menaced to drive out of the field all competitors for stage management.

A few minutes before five Lord John Russell rose in his place—the first front seat below the gangway on the Opposition side of the House —and, in a speech remarkable for calm, temperate, and statesmanlike views, exposed the fatal errors and the retrogade tendency of the Government Reform Bill. He was listened to with breathless and eager attention, except when the silence was broken by the hearty cheers of his supporters. The noble lord spoke for an hour and five minutes. But the selection of the Government, unfortunately for them, fell on Lord Stanley, who, whatever his abilities and his power of earnest application, does not inherit his father's readiness and skill in debate. On this occasion especially, he committed the extraordinary mistake not only of writing out his intended speech in detail, but of actually delivering it at the table of the House with the manuscript before him. The natural consequence was, therefore, as might bo expected, that although a very neatly turned essay as it appears in print, it contained no real reply to Lord John Russell's speech— and fell as dull as ditch-water on the ears of the House. Even his own friends, who in general are the most vociferous partycheerers in the House, felt the chilling effects of a political lecture written in anticipation of arguments of which Lord John Russell did not make use, and delivered with indistinct enunciation, arising from physical defects, which in general.renders it difficult for any one to follow the speeches of Lord Stanley. In appearance he is above the middle height, with a stern and somewhat forbidding countenance, and in some respects not unlike what his father was as a young man. Apparently of a cold and deliberative temperament, he seldom if ever displays anything approaching to the enthusiasm which is generally the concomitant of real genius, and in his arguments addresses himself constantly rather to the intellect than to the feelings of his audience. On this occasion his effort, was a decided failure, and before he had half concluded his oration it was evident, from the buzz of conversation that he had lost the attention of the House, But if wearied by this unsatisfactory effort of a Cabinet Minister, the house was soon rallied to mirth and excitement by the exceedingly clever and well delivered philippic of Mr. G. Stuart, the member for Dorsetshire, who in the short space of a quarter of an hour, delivered from the back row in the Ministerial benches, some of the smartest hits against the bucolic minds of country members in general, and against the Government Bill in particular, amidst the laughter and the cheera of the Opposition, filling his 'own friends with dismay, and making the Chancellor of the Exchequer in an audible whisper, as ho eyed the honourable gentleman through his glass, exclaim with consternation, c< He's surely mad." This, it is believed, is the maiden speech of Mr. Stuart, although he has been a member of the House since 1847- In appearance he is young and good-looking, with a playful expression of clever mischief about the eye and mouth, He was evidently prepared to make this essay, if one may judge from the careful style of his dress, and the sparkling whiteness of his waistcoat. Altogether, a more successful first efforg has seldom if ever been witnessed, especially as it was rendered the more remarkable and pungent by the.sym-■

pathy expressed with the opinion of his political opponents, and the rough handling bestowed on his Conservative friends. Lord Derby, who was in tho Peers' gallery, seemed thoroughly lo enjoy the raciness of the escapade, which disconcerted even the impurtable countenance of the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whoso equanamity did not seem in any degree restored by the speaker's concluding declaration that he should vote for the second reading of the Government measure. Next in succession followed during the middle hours of the evening, when the majority of members repair to dinner, Lord Bury, Mr. Ker Seymer, Mr. Alderman Salomons, and Mr. Liddell. As the House began again to fill towards ten o'clock, Sir C. Woods took up the innings in favor of the resolution; the first to support Lord John from,.the front Opposition Bench. But on him followed the extraordinary exhibition of Mr. Horsman, former Secretary for Ireland in Lord Palmerston's administration, and who, during a racy encounter with tho Irish members last session, was very happily designated by Mr. M'Mahon, the member for Wexford, as the paido postfuturo Premier. But the erratic vagaries of the members for Stroud, while they received the vociferous cheers of tho Ministerial benches, met with nothing but the silent contempt of those with whom he ought to sympathise as his natural political friends, had he not alienated their respect by the course he has pursued ever since he resigned the appointment of Irish Secretary on the extraordinary ground that the office was nothing but a sinecure. After him followed Mr. A. Mills,' Mr. Knatchbull Hugessen, Mr. Newdegate, and Lord Robert Cecil, the only speaker among the Ministerial, supporters, who ventured to defend the Government Bill on its own merits.

A curious lecture on Crinoline has been delivered at the Hanover-square-rooms, to an audience consisting chiefly of ladies, by Mrs. Emilious Holcroft. The lecturer began her discourse by noticing some of the more striking oddities of female attire in England from an early period, which she illustrated by models, and contended that whatever absurdities of dress her sex had adopted from time to time, they had found ample warrant for them in the example set by their lords and masters. She warmly advocated crinoline as pefectly faultless and unexceptionable, and strongly condemned the hoop as not only inconvenient and dangerous, but as the ugliest, most unbecoming, and most disfiguring fashion ever introduced. To call hoop petticoats, crinoline 9 she observed, was to use one of the great misnomers of the day, for the latter was as thoroughly a recognised material as calico, dimity, linsey, or any other substance of which ladies' skirts were made. It consisted of woven horse-hair, or woven horse-hair and cotton combined, and had been used for many years for bonnets and other purposes. It had, therefore, a full, right to have a distinctive name of its own, and " crinoline" was no fancy tarm, but was one deriving its origin from the Latin word crinis- —a band made of horse-hair—and the French word crinier, a worker or dealer in horee-hair. The lecturer next pointed out some of the defects and disadvantages of hoop petticoats, whether made of cane, whalebone, or steel, mentioning that a lady wearing one would, on leaving her home, present a beautiful circle, and yet might, in consequence of a crush sustained in the streets, in an omnibus, or in a theatre, return in the shape of an irregular triangle, or a lopsided octagon. On the other hand, crinoline was light, strong, expansive, and compressible, and though it might not form an unbroken circle, it fell naturally into folds round the figure like the branches of a graceful willow. Mrs. Kolcroft, treated the subject with much vivacity, humour, and delicacj', and frequently elicited applause from her hoarers.—Home News, May 18. JS/aval Gunnery. —All naval powers adopted the Paixhans system ; but not all to the same extent. In the French navy, as well as in our own, a compromise between shell guns and shot guns was arrived at. The superior efficiency of shell-guns against timber (ships) admitted of no doubt; but to the end of battering down stone walls solid-shotted guns were considered more desirable. The Americans have viewed the Paixhans system with more favourable eye; or rather they have contemplated the functions of war ships under a different point of view from either ourselves or the French. The Americans have adopted the Paixhans armament exclusively for all their newest-built, largest, and heaviest war ships. The Merrimac, which lay in Southampton waters a while ago, had not a solid shot on board. Now, the reason wherefore the Paixhans, or incendiary system, has been exclusively adopted in American armaments, but only in part by ourselves, will at once become apparent when the views of American naval men as regards the formation of their warships are stated. They at once concede the insufficiency of their sort of armament for the purpose of attacking Btone walls. The Americans never contemplate that their war ships will be thus employed against any first-class fortress. If ever circumstances were to arise involving tho attack of fortressesfrom seaboard, our friends over the ocean would adopt special means. Their war ships are specially constructed for coping with other war ships, fighting them, and, of course, whipping them; to which end the fullest scope for the play of General Paixhans' devilments has been afforded. And here, lest some hypercritical critic should go. out of his way to intimate that American war-vessels are not armed with Paixhans guns at all, but with ordnance of very peculiar shape, the invention of Commodore Dahlgren, we may concede that much, asserting, nevertheless, that the Dahlgren gun and the Paixhans gun are, functionally regarded, one and the same. In external shape they vary indeed, but in all other points they are alike.