Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/73

 rack-rented Irish estate, but no more Irish than Tim Bobin. Cobden insisted that he was essentially Irish. If he let his beard grow for a week and ceased to wash his face no one could distinguish him from a hodman from St. Giles. Whatever was least pleasant in Irishmen might be found in him: ill-timed levity, braggadocio, and unfathomable insincerity. The conversation went off on Sharman Crawford's Bill, which Sharman explained and defended a good deal too like a professor for a dinner-table. He does not talk, he harangues. It is fine, however, to note the genuine sympathy of this big proprietor with the working farmer.

"Cobden said Ireland did not exhibit much discretion in the choice of representatives. In the present Parliament, for the first time in his memory, she sent men apparently moved by public motives, and who might, it seemed, be trusted to do what they promised! I said O'Connell relied on himself, and wanted agents, not colleagues—a fatal mistake when the purpose was to persuade hostile and prejudiced opponents. The bulk of the present men were not only better than their predecessors, but some of the worst of the old set were excluded, and for ever, it might be hoped.

"Speaking of the Irish members Bright said his kinsman Lucas was a man of great vigour and sincerity. He would make a better use of his life, however, if he crossed over the House and sat by him (Bright). I laughed, and said he ought to be shot for a spy if he came into our camp to recruit for the other side. Lucas, however, was beyond his influence. Some one said of him that he was born a Quaker and turned a Catholic; he was born an Englishman, but he turned Irishman. I told them a mol Sergeant Murphy made about Lucas and Bright which would have been very effective if Lucas were a blockhead, but, being what he was, it altogether lost its point. Lucas (said Murphy) is Lucus a non lucendo—Lucas, not Bright.

"Listening to Cobden and Bright, I thought it highly creditable to the English people that the former was recognised as the leader. Bright has more public gifts, a finer voice, a more emphatic manner, a more self-confident bearing, and a more habitual consciousness of power; but Cobden was