UC-NRLF $B EfiS 7D2 - ^^ a mm^ - OF THi: University of California. ^ Received G2 C>/ . . iSq ^ . Accession 1^0.7/2 2^7 'Class No. Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/cliaracterofgentlOOIiebricli THE CHARACTER THE GENTLEMAN FEANOI.S LIEBEK, C. MEMBKR OF TRF INSTITUTK OF FRAKCE, AUTHOR OF " CIVIL UBSRTY ANP SELF-flOVKRyjIKNT," ETC. CTbiri) aub mnrij OSnlarigciJ (Biiition. PHILADELPHIA: J. B. LIPPINOOTT & CO. 18G4. ' '*^ ■t^'- A . Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1800, by FRANCIS LIEBKR, in the Clerk's OflRcc of the District Court of the United States for tlio Hontliern District of New York. >^2.JK. 21J CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. to correspond to one and the same sense of the main word. The different meanings of words branch out in different directions, and their derivatives and cognate terms branch out for themselves. It frequently happens, esj)e- cially in the English language, ■yiatthe_adjec- tive formed of a noun receives an additional birth ; if he derives it from his grandfather, he is termed a gentleman of blood ; and if he succeeds to the same from his great-grandfather or other more distant pro- genitor, he is entitled a gentleman of ancestry ; if he obtains the grant himself, he is simply a gentleman of coat-armor. From these facts it is readily seen, that ■when once a family is created by a grant of heraldic honors, it obtains at every remove from the founder an added dignity in the scale of descent, and an acknow- ledged precedency of worth and estimation, as compared ■with others of later origin. The admirers of ancient blood look ■with comparatively little respect on arms granted at a period subsequent to the reign of the Tudors, and venerate -with an almost superstitious regard the possessors of arms deduced from the asra of the Plantagenets. There are still certain appointments con- nected "with the court -which can only be filled by gentle- men of ancient families; and it is much to be regretted that the good and wise regulation which excluded from the profession of tlie bar all but gentlemen of four descents of coat-armor was ever rescinded." ^ CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 23 ^®^^!££__2L„^J^® widely dif ferent from that '^^lli?]^„.'^®^^-^-liIm~et;£ jrlace for a3 Img-j ji an ir ksome sTtuatTon ihd make dependent upon yoq/. You are bound by all thafis sacred and gentlemanly not to use -those mftans and artifices towards a helpless and uneducated witness, which a wit- ness of education and standing would quickly stop by an appeal to the bench. You are bound to follow the plain and direct dictates of an ingenuous man, in the simplicity of his heart, OF Tl ive: ^ CALM lA--^ 62 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. and clearly to remember that the p ^^actlce o f every profession, be it that of the lawyer, the army, the church, t he author, the phy gi dan, the nayy, or any other, h a s a natural tendency to blunt or misdi rect the feel i ngs of its votar ies in comjjlicateii cases of p r ofessional mora lity. A usage perhaps correct in the main is laid down in a sententious manner, perhaps in Latin, and soon it becomes a cruel bed of Procrustes, w^hile the professional hauteu r makes deaf to all protests of the non-professional. Nearly ♦ill grpfif, T(^f( ^rrna have begun with those who / 1 did not b elong to the respective profession, or ^12:. positively grant or not positively withhold. In order to obtain this important end, it is necessary that every advocate consider him- self pledged to grant his services to whomso- ever may apply for them. The " custom" of the English bar, settled by repeated decisions of the bar itself, is to accept any retainer as it comes. It is considered " ungentlemanly" not to do it, unless there be particular and urgent reasons for declining, such as abhor- a grocer at Brixton who kept a receiving-house, was convicted of stealing a post letter containing a check for 16Z. The check was cashed on the afternoon on which it was posted ; and the prisoner paid away two five-pound notes which were given by the bankers in change for the check. The attempt at defence, by Mr. Ballantine, was rather remarkable. He insinuated that the letter might have been stolen by the man who carried the letter-bag from Brixton to London, — a very improbable suggestion, as no explanation was attempted of the manner in which one at least of the notes came into Harrison's possession the same evening; nor was any evidence offered against the letter-carrier. Both Mr. Baron Alderson and Mr. Justice Coleridge checked the counsel in his reckless course ; and on the second interference of the bench, Mr. Ballantine desisted from his charge against the letter-carrier. The sentence was two years' imprison- ment. 74 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. rence of the very principle to be established. It happened in Erskine's life that he was re- tained for "the First Eegiment of Guards;" but it was found that the " First Eegiment of Guards" is no legal person that can appear in court. It became necessary, therefore, to drop the name of the First Eegiment of Guards and to substitute the names of indivi- dual officers. The attorney of the opposite party sent at once his retainer to Erskine; for he was no longer retained by the regi- ment, and not yet again retained by the per- sons substituted for it ; and, however distaste- ful to the great advocate this particular case happened to be, he declared — and it is the general opinion in England — that it is one of the most important rights of the subject, that every advocate must allow himself to be re- tained, so long as he is not retained by the opposite side. If an advocate happen to know the foulness of a transaction which he is called upon to defend, he must decline; but, in doing so, the utmost circumspection and a very high degree CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 75 of conviction are requisite; for he must not forget that by his declining he in a degree prejudges a case still to be tried. It is in this sense, I believe, that we must understand the words of Tronchet, the counsel of Louis XYI., when at the bar of the Convention. Tronchet said, "Every man thus publicly called upon to defend an accused person cannot decline his services without taking upon himself the responsibility of pronouncing a judgment, — precipitate [his word is Umeraire] before the ex- amination of the case, and barbarous after it." There is no fairer occurrence in our Re- volution than the defence of the British sol- diers who had killed and wounded a number of citizens at the tumult in Boston, on the 5th of March, 1770. Their bold defenders at' the bar of justice were John Adams and Mr. Quincy, both young and ardent patriots, and for that reason implored by the father of the latter not to defend " murderers." .^^hey" simply answered that the soldiers had not yet been tried; and in doing so they may have shown more coura^'e than Socrates did when 76 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. he defended Theramenes; for it requires greater resolution to face the indignation of your fellow-patriots or of your own family than to brave the power of hated tyrants. It was noble when M. de Martignac, dis- missed from the ministry by Prince Polignac, nevertheless defended the latter after the revolution of 1830, because called upon to do so by Polignac, when arraigned before the peers. All this is as it ought to be; but the advocate is not therefore absolved from moral obligations, as the barrister in the case alluded to must have presumed.* ^ Y'v^^^C^Z- If advocates were the only persons on earth who stand absolved from the obligations of truth, morality, and justice, society would have placed itself under a very absurd despotism, and their whole order ought speedily to be abolished. It is, on the contrary, a fact that the institution of the advocate exists every- where along with civil liberty, and is indis- * The case alluded to is the one I have now sup- pressed. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 77 pensable to it :* therefore, let them be gentle- men. The prosecuting officer, on the other hand, ■^ I have dwelt on this subject more at length in the chapters on the Judge, Jury, and Advocate in " Political j .\ ^ \ Ethics." The enemies of civil liberty know well the im- 1 * portance of the institution of the advocate for civil liberty. Archbishop Laud and Earl Strafford show, in their corre- spondence, the most inveterate hatred against lawyers, without whom, they confess to each other, it would be easy to establish the king's " absolute" sovereignty, their adored idol; and Duclos (page 335, vol. 76, of Collect, des M^moires, second series) says that the foreign minis- ters applauded, in the name of their masters, the regent, Duke of Orleans, for having repressed ces legistes (in 1718), that is, having incarcerated three presidents of the Parliament. Laud and Strafford, however, ought not to have forgotten those lawyers who, as Audley, successor to Sir Thomas More, urged it as a claim to promotion, **had willingly incurred all manner of infamy to serve the government." Previous to my writing the "Character of the Gentle- man," I had dwelt on the duties of the advocate in my <' Political Ethics" and in my "Legal and Political Her- meneutics." Since then I have endeavored clearly to fix the position of the lawyer in the great polities of modern free nations and to ascertain the boundaries of their pri- vileges derived from it, in my " Civil Liberty and Self- Government," where I speak of the high position of the advocate as one of the guarantees of our Anglican n liberty. / 78 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. must not forget that the indicted person is placed in his power, which he may abuse seriously, scandalously, and in an ungentle- manly manner, as history most amply shows ; that the prisoner is yet to be tried ; that the object of the trial is justice, not to oppress, worry, or hunt down the prisoner, or to as- perse his character so foully that, though he may be acquitted, his reputation may be ruined for life, and that too, perhaps, merely by insi- nuations. In the course of your studies you will find instances of what I say in Sir Ed- ward Coke and in Bacon, — him who would never have been so deplorably wrecked that he saved little more than immortal fame of intellect, had he felt like a gentleman instead of cringing before a James and fawning upon a Buckingham, being ready for their least commendable work. Bacon was, unfortunately, void of dignity and honor.* Earl Strafford * With sadness, indeed, we find a new and appalling confirmation of Pope's "greatest, meanest of mankind," in the lately renewed inquiry into the tria,l of the Count- ess of Somerset for the murder of Overbury : — "The Great CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 79 said, after his trial for high treason, " Glynne and Maynard have used me like advocates, but Palmer and Whitelock like gentlemen, and yet left out nothing that was material to be urged against me." Does not every one understand at once what he meant ? And do not my hearers feel that Strafford himself, in uttering these words, felt that fairness and liberality of judgment which is " becoming a gentle- man" ? It seems to me that the opening speech of Mr. Clifford, Attorney-General of Massachu- setts, on the trial of Professor Webster for the murder of Dr. Parkman, in 1850, was a Oyer of Poisoning : the Trial of the Earl of Somerset for the Poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury, &c." By Andrew Amos. London, 1846. Since the preceding lines of this note were written, two works have made their appearance, — Mr. Spedding's edition of Bacon's Works, and Mr. Hepworth Dixon's "Personal History of Lord Bacon, from Unpublished Papers," — both considered by many persons, it would seem, as presenting Bacon in such a light that, as the latter author says, "The lie, it may be hoped, is about to pass away." Every gentleman will rejoice if by these efforts Bacon's memory shall be again rehabilitated among that of gentlemen ; but I doubt whether the attempt has been, so far, successful. 7 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. model of good sense and propriety in this respe ct. Do not believe that you Avill lastingly pro- mote even your worldly interests as lawyers by any infraction of the strictest rules of a gentlemanly conduct. Every advocate of ex- perience, I venture to say, will tell you that a fairly established reputation as gentlemen will be an efficient agent in promoting your career as advocates. Is it necessary to dwell on the disastrous consequences to the law, justice, and security of the citizen, to liberty and truth, when the judge, that eminently essential, high, and peculiar functionary in our civil systems, swerves from the path of a high-minded gen- tleman ? Is it necessary to recall to your memory the conduct of the Stuart judges, " ruffians in ermine" ? Is it necessary to point out that in some respects the judge has far greater discretionary power in our system, and must have it, than in many other govern- ments, because he must be independent, and CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 81 tha t for this reason he must, in the spirit of a gentleman, self-limit this power? The healing art stands no less in nee doj bein g practised hy o;eiit1eTnf^ii tlin n the law In no profession is a constant acting uj)on the strictest principles of gentlemanliness more indispensable in a general point of view, as well as with especial reference to professional success, than in the practice of medicine and surgery. We know, indeed, that there have been physicians of eminence who have signal- ized themselves alike by professional skill and commensurate success on the one hand, and offensive bluntness on the other; but we know, too, that, instead of following out their noble mi ssion of alleviating suffering in all its details, they have wantonly added to the affliction of their patients, and that the very highest degree of skill and knowledge was requisite to counterbalance the evil conse- quences of their ungentlemanly manners. I speak of manners only ; for if the physician be void of the principles of the gentleman his ruin must be the inevitable consequence. lUU CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. The aim of the healing art is to cure or alle- viate human suifering in this life, in which it is the lot of man to suifer much, — to heal, as the name imports; and the medical adviser efficiently aids his purely therapeutic efforts by soothing the heart of the patient and by comforting the anxious souls of those who watch the sick-bed in distress and gloom. I do not know that man can appear in a brighter phase than as a physician, full of knowledgeand skill, calm, careful, bold, and_with the s oothing a'djuncts oTgentlema nly bland ness. The phy- sici^jijjnoi'eover, must needs be adniittedjiiot only into the recess of the sick-chamber, but ver;)^^requently into the recessesofTTTspatTent*s heartiaimmto ^Ke^^^samrtim with its virtues and its failings and frailties. If he do not carry with hTmTFicstandi^ the purest honor; if he take t he sligh test advantage of his position ; Jf he fail to keep pvhat he sees and hears buried in secrecy as )' inviolable as that of the confessor; if he ex- I pose what must be revealed to him, — he falls from his high station, and becomes an afflict- CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 83 ing injurer and sower of evil instead of a comforter, allaying pain and stilling sorrow where he can. The eifect of a gentlemanly spirit and consequent manners is even great in that branch of the healing art in which you may least expect it, — in surgery. I have passed months in hospitals, and have had ample opportunity to observe the different effects produced upon the patients, though soldiers and sailors they were, during serious operations, even the amputation of limbs, by kindly, gentlemanly surgeons, and by those who chilled their victim's heart with gruff words or handled him with hasty and mechanic hands. How gratefully do the poverty-stricken remember a kind word of the physician under whose care they have been in the hospital ! How lasting an impression of horror does the harshness of those physicians produce who make the patient bitterly feel his poverty in wealth and friends, in addition to his bodily pain and an aching heart ! _Spme of you, no doubt, will become editors of newspapers. \ The journal has become a 84 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. prominent agent of modern civilization, and {he~edrtor hol ds greatrpowfrTin comparison w^ Tth his fellow-citizens. He daily speaks to many; he can reiterate; he is aided by the greater weight which, however unfounded the opinion may he, is attached by the minds of almost all men to every thing printed, over that which is merely spoken; and he is sure that the contradiction of what he states will not run precisely in the sanae channels through which the first assertion was conveyed. All this, and the consideration that the daily re- peated tone in which a paper publishes or discusses the many occurrences of the day produces a sure effect upon the general tone of the community, ought to warn an editor that if the obligations of a gentleman are binding upon any one, they are indubitably so upon him. The evil influence which some papers in our country, very active but very ungentlemanly in their tone and spirit, have ah-eady exercised upon our community, cannot be denied. Let me in addition point out one especial application of the general duty of CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN 85 editors always to conduct their pa^^ers as gentlemen : I mean the abstaining from un- authorized publication of private letters, con- fidential conversations, and, in general, from any exposure of strictly private affairs. The publishing of private letters, indelicately au- thorized by those to whom they are addressed, is a failing of more frequent occurrence in this than in any other country; and no gentle- manly editor will give his aid in thus con- founding public and private life, deteriorating public taste and trespassing upon a sacred right of others, as clearly pronounced and protected by positive law, as it obviously flows from the nature of the case, — the distinct rule that the writer's consent is necessary for a lawful publication of letters/-^ It was neces- * There is an interesting account of the decisions and the law, as it now stands in England, on " the Copyright of Private Letters," appended by the Bishop of Llandalf to the "Letters of the Earl of Dudley," new edition, Lon- don, 1841. r Jb'or the general reader it may be stated here that he will find in Lord Campbell's "Lives of the Lord Chancellors," vol. v. p. 54, Life of Lord Hardwicke, the first case, Pope v. Curte, in which it was settled that the 86 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. saiy to mention this palpable infraction of a gentlemanly conduct; but it is so obvious a deviation from the regard which one gentle- man owes to another, that, once being men- tioned, I hold it to be unnecessary to say any thing more about it. That the universal obligation of veracity is emphatically binding upon the editor, is evi- dent, but it does not belong exclusively to the subject of gentlemanly conduct. The obliga- tion of truthfulness is as general, and as neces- sary for the individual and society, as the requisite of light is for the life of nature. C gfficor a of the nrmy r\■\ ^c] the nnvy a re cveryAyhere expect e d to conduct themselv es as gentlemen towards one another, and ought to be gentlemen in the truest sense of the term towards every one out of the army and navy, man or woman, lady or seam stress, as well as towards the men under thfiin— com- mand. The practice of the high attribute of * writer of a letter retains bia copyright in it, — in other L words, that it cannot lawfully be published without his consent. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 87 the gentleman, that he allows his subordinates or the weak to feel his power as little as is consistent with duty, is not only elevating to the officer, but, in a point of common expe- diency, highly profitable. Soldiers and sailors, like all other human beings, honor, and, when the trial comes, cling to, the man who has habitually treated them in a gentlemanly way. Th ere w as a time — not even half a century ago • — when in all armies except th e French it was believed that caning and flogging were ^he best TTat^ nna of disoipliri^e . Prussia, soon after her defeat in the year 1806, profiting by the example of her victors, abolished the dis- graceful stick, — though not without the loudest protests of the " conservatives," — and rapidly raised the army punishments from the inflic- tion of mere physical pains, more and more to those that appeal to honor and morality, the king declaring, each time a change was made, by royal decree, that the last improve- ment of the military punishment had so far improved the spirit of the army that a further improvement was admissible; until 8 L 88 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. at last punishment in that army may be said to have become wholly unbrutalized. England has not followed this marked improvement of our race as much as is desired by many , because, as the Duke of Wellington publicly declared, the British army is composed of enlisted men, often the scum of society; but before Sebasto- pol the British officers were ashamed of the cat-o'-nine-tails in presence of the French; and Admiral Collingwood, called the strictest dis- ciplinarian of the navy, never ceased to pro- test against flogging in the navy, during his whole protracted command of the Mediterra- nean fleet in the times of Napoleon.* I know nothing individual of the officer who as quietly as on parade went down with his soldiers un- der arms in rank and file, in the Birkenhead; but I conclude he must have habitually treated his men like a gentleman. Such command over men at such an hour requires more than a commission. * See " Public and Private Correspondence of the Vice-Admiral Collingwood, -with Memoirs of his Life." Third edition. London, 1828. ^'^2^^^<'^^ CHARACTER OP THE GENTLEMAN. 89 X^^.£^^acter oft be j^eiitleman in the sphere o f political action, or in all that can be called public life, is one of far the most important topics belonging to our subject. If entire instructive books have been written on the citizen, it would be neither an unprofitable nor an ungrateful task to write an entire volume on the character of the gentleman as citizen. I shall merely mention some points. The greater the liberty is which we enjoy in any sphere of life, the more binding, neces- sarily, becomes the obligation of self-restraint, and, consequently, the more important become all the rules of action which flow from our reverence for the pure character of the gentle- man, — an importance which is enhanced in the present period of our country, because one of its striking features, if I mistake not, is an intense and general attention to rights without a paral- lel and proportionately clear perception of cor- responding obligations. But right and obliga- tion are twins : they are like the binary flames of Castor and Pollux, which the sailors of the Mediterranean consider as a sure sign of fair 90 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. weather and prosperous winds; but if one alone is seen illumining the yard's end, the mariner fears foul weather and danger. Eight and obligation are each other's complements, and cannot be severed without undermining the ethical ground on which we stand, — that ground on which alone civilization, justice, virtue, and real progress can build enduring monuments. Eight and obligation are the warp and the woof of the tissue of man's moral, and therefore, likewise, of man's civil life. Take out the one, and the other is in worthless confusion. We must return to this momentous principle, the first of all moral government, and, as fairness and calmness are two prominent ingredients in the character of the gentleman, it is plain that this reform must be materially promoted by a general diffusion of a sincere regard for that cha- racter. Liberty, which is the enjoyment of^ unfcttercd_a ction, necessarily leads to licen- tiousn CjSP, witlinnt. np inc reased binding power wntl np ; for liberty offers to man, indeed, a free choice of action, but it cannot absolve CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 91 him from the duty of choosing what is right, fair, liberal, urbane, and handsome. Where there is freedom of action, no matter in what region or what class of men, there always have been, and must be, parties, whe- ther they be called party, school, sect, or "fac- tion.''* These will often act the one against the other; but, as a matter of course, they are not allowed to dispense with any of the principles of morality. The principle that every thing is permitted in politics is so shame- less, and ruinous to all, that I need not dwell upon it here. But there are a great many acts, as has been stated before, which, though it miay not be possible to prove them wrong according to the strict laws of ethics, never- theless appear at once as unfair, not strictly honorable, ungentlemanlike ; and it is of the utmost importance to the essential prosperity of a free country that these acts should not be resorted to; that in the minor or higher * In the conclave the cardinals used to di-vide into Spanish, French, &c. factions, i.e. parties; possibly they do so still. 92 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. assemblies and in all party struggles, even the intensest, we ought never to abandon the standard of the gentleman. It is all-import- ant that parties keep in " good humor," as Lord Clarendon said of the whole country. One deviation from fairness, candor, decorum, and "fair play" begets others and worse in the opponent, and from the kindliest difference of opinion to the fiercest struggle of factions, sword in hand, is but one unbroken gradual descent, however great the distance may be; while few things are surer to forestall or arrest this degeneracy than a common and hearty esteem of the character of the gentleman. We have in our country a noble example of calmness, truthfulness, dignity, fairness, and urbanity, — constituents of the character whicli we~are considering, — in the father of our coun- try ', for JWashington) the wise and steadfast plitfiot, was also the high-mmclea gentlemiin. When the malcontent officers of his army in- formed him that they would lend him their support if he were willing to build himself a throne, he knew how to blend the dictates of CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 93 his oath to the commonwealth, and of his patriotic heart, with those of a gentlemanly feeling towards the deluded and irritated. In the sense in which we take the term here, it is not the least of his honors that, through all the trying periods and scenes of his remark- able life, the historian and moralist can write him down, not only as Washington the "Wise, not only as Washington the Pure and Single- minded, not only as Washington the Perse- vering and Tenacious, but also as Washington the Gentleman. If in a country of varied, quick, and ardent political action and manifold excitement, in which changes and new combinations must often take place, the standard of the high-bred gentleman is abandoned, the effect is as bane- ful as that of a prying and falsifying secret police in despotic governments. Mr. Eanke relates, in his " History of the Popes," that the utmost caution of each toward every one pre- vailed in Pome, because no one knew how he might stand with his best friend in a year's time. The same destruction of confidence and 94 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. mutual reliance must spread over the land where freedom reigns but a gentlemanly cha- racter does not at the same time prevail. Lord Shaftesbury, the brilliant, energetic, and reck- less Alcibiades of English history, rigidly ob- served the rule, during all his tergiversations, " that he never betrayed the secrets of a party he had left, or made harsh personal observa- tions on the conduct of his old friends, — not only trying to keep up a familiar private in- tercourse with them, but abstaining from vin- dictive reflections upon them in his speeches or his writings."* This observance and his Habeas Corpus Act go far with us in redeem- ing the character of this profligate and un- princij^led statesman. If you wish to see the disastrous efi'ects of a general destruction of confidence and mutual reliance, you must * Lord Campbell's " Lives of the Chancellors," vol. iii. p. 290. I am aware that Sir Samuel Romilly took a somewhat different view of the blending of private in- tercourse with political opposition, as appears from his " Life and Correspondence" by his son ; but I believe the difference is more seeming than real, to judge him by his own life. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 95 study Spanish history; for I believe that the worst effect of the Inquisition has been the total change of the Spanish national cha- racter. Even dukes became spies, and that once noble nation was filled with truculent suspicion, in the dark shades of which the character of the gentleman cannot prosper. I must not omit making mention at least of the importance of a gentlemanly spirit in all international transactions with sister nations of our race, — and even with tribes which follow different standards of conduct and mo- rality. Nothing seems to me to show more undeniably the real progress which humaa society has made, than the general purity of judges,* together with the improvement of the * I have lived for long periods in Italy, Germany, France, England, and the United States, and never heard, in the four last-mentioned countries, of a judge suspected of bribery. Yet only a short period has elapsed since satire and comedy teemed with the standing subjects of bribed judges, criminal advocates, and irksome wedlock; and Lord Campbell, in the work cited in the preceding note, says, "England, during the Stuart reigns, was cursed by a succession of ruffians in ermine, who, for the sake of court-favor, violated the principles of yt) CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. whoie administration of justice, so far at least as the leading nations are concerned, and the vastly improved morals of modern intexna- tional intercourse, holding diplomatic fraud and international trickery, bullying, and pet- tifogging, as no less unwise than immoral. History, and that of our own times especially, teaches us that nowhere is the vaporing brag- gart more out of place, and the true gen- tleman more in his proper sphere, than in conducting international affairs. Fairness on the one hand, and collected self-respect on the other, will frequently make matters easy, w^here swaggering taunt, or reckless conceit and insulting folly, may lead to the serious misunderstanding of entire nations, and a san- guinary end. The firm and dignified carriage of our Senate, and the absence of petty pas- sion or vain-gloriousness in the British Par- liament, have brought the Oregon question to a fair and satisfactory end, — an affair which but a short time ago was believed by many law, the precepts of religion, and the dictates of hu- manity." CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 97 to be involved in difficulties which the sword alone was able to cut short. Even genuine personal urbanity in those to whom interna- tional aifairs are intrusted is very frequently of great importance for a happy ultimate good understanding between the mightiest nations. " We may express a similar opinion wit h re- fere nce to w ar. I^othing mitigates so much its hardships, and few things depending upon individuals aid more in preparing a welcome peace, than a gentle manly s p irit in the com - manders, officers, and, indeed, in all the com- batants, towards their enemies, whenever an opportunity offers itself. Instead of numerous" instances that might be given, I may add that the mention of the names of Prince Eugene and of the Duke of Marlborough ought never to be omitted when the progress of civilization in connection with this or similar subjects is under discussion. It was these two captains that treated their captives of war in such a manner that soon a great improvement in the treating of prisoners of war was effected all UNIVERSITT 98 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. u: round, became a portion of the modern law of war, and forms now one of the character- istics of our civilization.* I must add, as a fact worthy of notice, that political assassination, especially in times of war, was not looked upon in antiquity as in- * A gentlemanly spirit, of which dh and equally dignified forbearance, as w ell as tr uthful- ness, are essential element s, isjhe basi s of a large por- 'tion of the mod^ern law of nations, in peace as well a s ■wai\_ The law"oT"nations is the result of the principle of self-government applied to the intercourse of many great nations existing at one and the same time, drawing abreast, like Olympic chariot-horses, the car of civiliza- tion, — that great fact in history which constitutes the very opposite to the obsolete idea of a universal mon- archy, once more recommended in our times from that quarter which is vindicated as the concentration of all civilization. The law of nations requires, before all other things, that nations treat and respect one another as equals ; and if I had ever doubted that a gentlem anly c onducts even tnwn,rd<^ the enemy, is an essen t ial efemonl of that branch of the law of nations which is called the l aw and usages of war , it would have most clearly pre- sented itself to my mind when I was drawing up the code of "Instructions for the Government of Armies of the United States in the Field," which, revised by proper I authority, has been promulgated by the President of the United States. CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 99 admissible; that Sir Tliomas More mentions the assassination of the hostile captain as a wise measure resorted to by his Utopians; that Queen Elizabeth called Sir Amyas Paulet " a dainty fellow/' because he was unwilling to lend a hand in ridding her of the captive Mary Queen of Scots, and Cardinal Eetz quietly weighed the expediency of murdering Cardinal Mazarin, his successful rival in the civil broils of France ; that Charles II. j)ro- mised, by proclamation, a high reward and civil elevation to whomsoever would poison or otherwise destroy " that mechanic fellow Crom- Avell;'' that the Commonwealth-men in exile were picked off by assassination ; while Charles Fox, during the war with the French, arrested the man who offered to assassinate Napoleon, informed the French Government of the fact, and sent the man out of the country ;'^ and Admiral Lord St. Yincent, the stern enemy of the French, directed his secretary to write the following answer to a similar offer made by a * Pell's "Life of Cbarles James Fox," p. 592. 9 100 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. French emigrant: "Lord St. Vincent has not words to express the detestation in which he holds an assasin."* Fox and Yincent acted like Christians and gentlemen."!- * Tucker, " Memoirs of Admirolitics. Outvoted in Par- liament, discarded by the party with whom he came into office, and seeing his successor in j)ower, influence, and honors before him, he still speaks of his whole position, his antago- nists, and his former friends now turned into bitter enemies, with calmness, dignity, and cheerful liberality, readily allowing that in a constitutional country the loss of power ought to be the natural consequence of a change of opinion upon a vital party question, that is, upon a subject of national magnitude. Yet he rejoices at having thus come to diiferent and truer views upon so essential a point as that of the daily bread of toiling multitudes, and frankly ascribes the chief merit of this mo- mentous progress to a person* who belongs to ^ Mr, R. Cobden, Member of Parliament, and leader of the Anti Corn-Law League, has deserved well of mankind. There is but one omission in Sir Robert Peel's speech with which we feel tempted to find fault. No one admires more than myself Mr. Cobden's wise and 120 CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. a sphere of politics totally different from thai in which he himself had been accustomed to energetic course, wliicli, indeed, procured him the offer of a place in the Cabinet from the Whigs when they were forming their new administration ; but even his labors and the arduous exertions of the Leftrgue would have remained unavailing for a long time yet, as it seems, had not divine wisdom sent at this precise juncture the potato-rot, and thus aided one of the greatest advance- ments of mankind to come to maturity. The historian must mention, together with Cobden and the League, the potato-rot. This acknowledgment of Sir Robert PeeVs is another evidence of the invaluable usefulness of that greatest of institutions which characterize our own modern liberty, — principled and persevering opposiiion, to which Sir Robert Peel bore the same striking testimony, when, in 1829, the Catholic Emancipation bill had been carried by the Wellington and Peel cabinet, and the latter said, in the Commons, "One parting word, and I have done. I have received in the speech of my noble friend the member for Donegal, testimonies of approbation which are grateful to my soul ; and they have been liberally awarded to me by gentlemen on the other side of the House, in a manner which does honor to the forbearance of party among us. They have, however, one and all, awarded to me a credit which I do not deserve for settling this question. The credit belongs to others, and not to me: it belongs to Mr. Fox, to Mr. Grattan, to Mr. Plun- ket, to the gentlemen opposite, and to an illustrious and right honorable friend of mine who is no more [mean- CHARACTER OF THE GENTLEMAN. 121 move. It is a gentlemanly speech, leaving a corresponding impression in his own country and throughout ours, conciliating, and com- manding esteem, — an effect such as always attends a c onduc t truly gentlema nly, where civilization d wells among men. ing Mr. Canning]. By their efforts, in spite of my oppo- sition, it has proved victorious." And may not be added here, with propriety, the reforms of the penal code of* England, so perseveringly urged by Sir Samuel Romilly and Sir James Mackintosh, and at length partially adopted by Sir Robert Peel, in 1830? • — ■ Wellington, — who, in a conversation with Canning on certain statements made by the Emperor Nicholas, had said, "I see what you mean; but could I suppose that the fellow was a d liar?" — Wellington, in the House of Lords, in honor of Peel's memory, soon after his sudden death, praised above all his truthfulness. There may be party men who doubt this : I state the fact that a soldier and statesman like Wellington praised above all other things, in a statesman like Peel, his veracity, as a fact deserving to be remembered by all youth of modern free countries. THE END. OF THB TJNIVERSIT LOAN DIPT. Renewed ^ooks^^esub^^^ LD 2lA-50m-8,'61 (Cl795sl0)476B u.^E^-- IB ^^b7U GENERAL LIBRARY - U.C. BERKELEY BOOOaiSSBO d7m\