THE

ST. JAMES' MAGAZINE.

THE LAST ADDITION TO THE CABINET.

MR. GLADSTONE has just admitted to that sacred circle within which the affairs of the British Empire are administered, a gentleman who would, in sporting phraseology, be described as " a novice." Mr. James Stansfeld, for some time Secretary to the Treasury, and now President of the Poor Law Board, has gained, with his promotion, a seat in the Cabinet, and is now accordingly one of the leading men in the liberal ministry. The rank of Cabinet Minister is in this country justly thought to be one of such importance, that when we hear that another politician has been raised to it, we are at least justified in asking what are the reasons which have induced the Prime Minister, who is in these matters the fountain of honour, to single out one happy man from a score of candidates, for a mark of favour so signal.

In the present case, we have no difficulty in deciding the reason which has induced Mr. Gladstone to make Mr. James Stansfeld a Cabinet Minister. He has gained that promotion, not because of any high appreciation of his powers on the part of Mr. Gladstone or any other member of the Cabinet, but because, in certain quarters, a blind and ignorant clamour in favour of Mr. Stansfeld's promotion to the Cabinet was raised. That Mr. Gladstone's opinion was not the same as that of the people, who have declared, through the medium of certain Radical journals, their belief that without Mr. Stansfeld's presence in the Cabinet, the Ministry must split up, and make shipwreck of itself, is proved by several circumstances. In the first place, very shortly before the right honourable gentleman was promoted, the opportunity of promot

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ing him occurred, and Mr. Gladstone resolutely refused to avail himself of it. The clamour raised by Mr. Stansfeld's friends was not then too loud to be resisted, and the Premier was delighted to be able to ignore a man in whose much-vaunted "powers" he had himself no belief. But finally, as we have seen, the tumult became too formidable to be resisted, and it resulted in the admission of the member for Halifax to the political paradise.

We wish we could believe that he is likely to be of any service there. Statesmen are not so plentiful now-a-days, but that we must scan the heavens eagerly in search of new stars, and examine closely those which are discovered. Close examination of Mr. Stansfeld's character and career will not, however, be reassuring. The simple fact is that he owes his reputation, such as it may be, to the lucky circumstance that early in life he threw in his lot with the advanced Radicals. He was very advanced in those days; his speeches and his hair were both alike of the true Red cut, and having had the good fortune to become acquainted with Mazzini, the young brewer soon felt himself to be a distinguished member of that select circle, which, under the inspiration of the Italian patriot, believed itself to be destined to regenerate Europe.

Mr. Stansfeld's admission to Parliament as member for the borough of Halifax, where his father's family had some influence, was of course the real starting-point in his public career. He went into the House with the reputation which usually attaches to a young man who has no sort of connection with the great governing families, and who has made himself notorious by the violence of his opinions, and the character of his associates. But when the time came for Mr. Stansfeld to address the House, he agreeably surprised our legislators. It was an old kind of surprise which they enjoyed, but it was, nevertheless, one which has hardly ever been known to fail. Something of precisely the same nature occurred when another distinguished patriot out-of-doors, the O'Donoghue, first addressed the House. Instead of the violent blustering demagogue who had been pictured as the redoubtable Mr. Stansfeld, the House saw a youngish looking man, very carefully dressed, studiously quiet in his demeanour, and perfectly moderate and reasonable in his language. The new member had moreover a certain touch of fluency in speech which was not so common in Parliament in those days, and which was therefore more highly valued than it can be said to be now. In addition to this he was almost complimentary to the Opposition, and decidedly respectful to the Whigs. Who would have believed it possible that a gentleman whose title to fame was acquired on the platform, where he strove beside the atheistic and democratic politicians of the day, could have comported himself in so un

exceptionable a manner in Parliament? This was what everybody said when Mr. Stansfeld sat down; and the general impression was that the young man deserved encouragement-and was sure to get it.

He got it. Lord Palmerston, who had as happy a knack as Walpole himself of discovering what was the very smallest ministerial favour which would secure a man's silence or support, was not long in finding that Mr. James Stansfeld, the supposed light of the young England Radicals, the hope of the unwashed, would be quite willing, nay even thankful, to take the post of Junior Lord of the Admiralty. What the political standing of a Junior Lord of the Admiralty is, we need hardly say. Somebody once irreverently remarked that he would rather be door-keeper to the House of Commons for one year, than sit below the gangway for twenty. The man who is ready to move from a recognised position among the irreconcilables in order to become Junior Lord of the Admiralty, must undoubtedly be of the same opinion. Mr. Stansfeld made then a revelation of the scope of his ambition, the strength of his devotion to the people's cause, and his own knowledge of his own merits, by which it is comparatively easy to judge his subsequent career. As the Saturday Review said at the time, he had pleaded guilty to mediocrity by accepting such a post. But if mediocrity had been his only fault he might have been forgiven.

Not very long after he took office, there came the miserable squabble about the Greco assassination plot, which led to Mr. Stansfeld's retirement from the Ministry. We should not have referred to this affair, were it not that the Right Honourable gentleman has more reason to thank this than anything else for his subsequent advancement in political life. It is true that he was at the time somewhat harshly treated. His friendship with Mazzini was a matter with which the House of Commons had really nothing whatever to do; and a mistake was made when the young Junior Lord was attacked upon such ground. The country knows how the attack succeeded. Mr. Stausfeld resigned, and for some time continued to live upon his reputation as a Radical martyr.

How well that reputation has helped him since we need hardly say. It has made him successively Under-Secretary for India, Secretary of the Treasury, and Vice-President of the Poor Law Board. It has secured for him the esteem of his party in the country, long after his party in the House of Commons had discovered that he was politically a failure. Finally, it has won for him that place in the Cabinet which he now enjoys.

Truly "the thing is neither rich nor rare," but it is not the less curious on that account. Mr. Stansfeld's career conveys a

lesson to all who are beginning life in the House of Commons. It shows that it is not necessary to be very wise, very eloquent, very well-bred, or very well-connected in order to get high office in a Ministry. Enlist the country upon your side; secure the support of Radical newspapers; impress Radical orators with the idea that you are kept out of your due position because of your steadfast adherence to their principles, and the end is soon reached. Every Prime Minister is more or less squeezable; and Mr. Gladstone has just shown the precise amount of pressure which he needed in order to induce him to take "a hard bargain" from his patrons the Radical public.

With respect to Mr. Stansfeld's political abilities it is scarcely necessary to speak. He has now been a good many years in Parliament; but from first to last he has accomplished nothing which entitles him to be distinguished from the ordinary herd of members, and whatever may have been the promise of his youth, he has most signally disappointed it. A certain gassy, stilted rhetoric, which sounds like a village schoolmaster's imitation of Mr. Bright; a trick of hiding his own intense belief in himself, under a veil of quiet self-complacency, and a ready obedience to the behests of his official superiors, are the only qualities of which the Right Honourable James Stansfeld can boast. The House of Commons has long since ceased to form any pectations as to his future, or to trouble itself in any way about

The country, now that it will have a better opportunity it has hitherto enjoyed of studying his powers and capacity, will, without doubt, follow the example of the House of Commons. Mr. Stansfeld, though he has succeeded in climbing into the Cabinet, will never leave his mark upon the political history of England.

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THE LUMLEY ENTAIL.

CHAPTER XXVI.

LAURA'S WEAKNESS.

LADY LUMLEY had forgiven her husband. Possibly some of my readers may think that an apology for this act of weakness on her part is required. But I have none to offer. Like other women, gifted with even, more strength of mind than that which she possessed, Laura had seen reason to regret her rash vow never again to see the man whose name she bore. She had, during the dreary winter's exile at the Eaves House, made the discovery that it is far easier to set an idol up in the heart, than to cast it down. She was not a mere girl now, who might be satisfied with the limits of her mother's home. She had been out in t'a world upon her own account, and she found that she could' longer be happy in that position as Mr. Harcourt's daughter, v it had once been her great pride and delight to fill. Moreover, she loved her husband tenderly. Yes! despite his sins, she still loved him; and through the long months of the winter, when her Lancashire home was so far from being a cheerful or a lively place of residence, she had more than sufficient leisure to frame excuses for his conduct.

There was a long struggle with her pride before she would consent to call him back to her. But at length affection conquered, and she resolved to forgive him absolutely. She never doubted that his pledged word, given to her father, had been kept; and that during these months of separation Sir Arthur Lumley had seen nothing of Grace. So the struggle ended, and the man who had commissioned Carnaby Hickson to dismiss Grace Heaton, was less than a week afterwards re-united to the wife whom he had deceived.

The season was not yet so far advanced that the baronet felt disposed to take up his residence in town; whilst, on the other hand, Laura was anxious that this second honeymoon upon which they were entering should be spent more quietly than it could be