Palace and Hovel; Or, Phases of London Life

by Daniel Joseph Kirwan

LORNE AND CHILDERS.

That really handsome young gentleman, who is said to have the best-shaped leg in the House, as well as the friendship of the most charming female members of the aristocracy, as he certainly is the owner of a most beautiful head of hair, of the hue of a new guinea, such as is seen in Carlo Dolce's Virgins—is the member for Argyllshire, the Marquis of Lorne, heir presumptive to George Douglas Campbell, eighth Duke of Argyll, the Liberal Secretary of State for India in the Gladstone Cabinet, a Privy Counsellor, and a Knight of the Thistle. The young marquis, at twenty-five, has the face and skin of a maiden of twenty, and I could not but observe that his trowsers were of a fashion superior to any other known trowsers in the House of Commons. I do not know whether the handsome Marquis inherits the Covenanting piety of the Argyll-Campbells, his ancestors; but he bears a wonderful resemblance to his father, the Duke, and among the frescoes in the corridors of the House there is one by Copely, entitled the "Sleep of Argyll," and I was astonished to notice the strong likeness of the young Marquis—who passed the fresco at the moment—to the face of his illustrious ancestor of two hundred years ago, as it was depicted by the artist—lying on a prison pallet. The Marquis of Lorne, while I was in the gallery, sat behind Mr. Gladstone, on an upper bench, as a Liberal, like his father who sits in the Lords. When the hereditary Campbell got up on his well-shaped legs to speak as a Scotch member on the Parochial Schools bill, he did it quietly, and in a clear, musical voice, that seemed to attract attention.

The Marquis of Lorne has a very ready delivery, though he is not as yet of great account in debate, and he is I believe, from all reports, a marvelously proper young man, compelled to exist upon about £25,000 a year, which amount will be largely augmented when the present Duke is committed to the family vaults.

That big, bulky six-footer, of great shoulders and massive limb, wearing tightly fitting clothes, his forehead overshadowed with dark, reddish-brown hair, and his whole manner indicative of pluck and a contest against life-long odds, is the Right Honorable H.C.E. Childers, member for Pontefract, and First Lord of the Admiralty, an office that in England somewhat resembles the position of Secretary of the Navy of the United States, having this difference only—that the First Lord, while in his place on the Treasury or Cabinet benches in the House of Commons, is compelled to reply to all attacks on the management of the Navy, and to defend the expenditure and estimates of that department. He is now giving facts from a pamphlet which he holds in one hand, while he rests his body on his other hand across the table in a negligent manner, as if he were more used to roughing it in the bush than supporting a minister by a recapitulation of dreary statistics in the House.

Mr. Childers was at one time, I believe, a fellow-member with Mr. Robert Lowe, of the Parliament of Victoria, after both of them had exiled themselves voluntarily to the antipodes. Mr. Childers only became a member of the House in 1860, and his rise to eminence was achieved with more than American rapidity, in a country where it is a cardinal principle that a man should not receive emolument, honor, or position, until he has grown the gray hair of sixty years.

Mr. Childers is the chairman and director also of at least threescore of corporations and foundations of charity of one kind or another, and is said to be very good in figures—a necessary gift in a Lord of the Admiralty. If his mind is half as big as his whiskers, he is certainly a genius. The hard work of defending the Gladstone administration in detail is usually given to Mr. Childers, to W.E. Foster, M.P. for Bradford, or to Mr. Bruce, the Home Secretary. In all Irish matters, Mr. Chichester Fortescue, the Chief Secretary for Ireland, is expected to stand by his leader, Mr. Gladstone, and he has been of great service to him in the Irish Land Bill legislative measures. Mr. Childers, like the young Marquis of Lorne, is a Trinity College, Cambridge, man, but not an Eton boy like the former.

FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY.

The next noticeable person on the ministerial bench, and by all acknowledged to be one of the ablest men in Parliament, is the Right Honorable Robert Lowe, member for London University, an Oxford man, and son of a Church of England clergyman. London University, which Mr. Lowe represents, is the most liberal educational institution in England, and grants University degrees to students, irrespective of their religious belief. A short time ago the Queen opened the new London University buildings, which are, I believe, unequaled in the metropolis for beauty of design and commodious comfort. Mr. Lowe is now in his fiftieth year, and is a member of the Gladstone Cabinet, and Chancellor of the Exchequer—the office formerly held by his illustrious chief, and one of the greatest trust and responsibility in England.