to the particular time of the dissolution on which Mr. North lays so much stress, the Ministry having declared the alternative of suicide or submission kindly suggested to them by those disinterested persons, Lord John Russel and Lord Palmerston, respectively, and the dissolution having been forced on by the act of the Opposition, it was obvious that there was no choice of times and seasons at their command; and, more than that, Mr. North knows as well as I do, that statesmen of all parties have ever held that, pending delicate and difficult negociations, it is for the public advantage that the executive should not be hampered and compromised by the indiscreet interference by friends or foes. Indeed, no one pretends that if Austria, France and Sardinia had gone to war during the recess, Parliament would have been called together in consequence. It is transparent therefore, that Mr. North’s real objection is not that there should be no Parliament sitting at this crisis, but that his own party should not be in power during the interval, whilst I, on the contrary, consider it a blessed thing for the country that our strenuous armaments have not been interrupted even for a day, and that we have had Pakington and Peel, vice Wood and xxxxxxx, even if it should be for a month. I see, with regret, that the elation of recent triumph has caused our worthy Member to o’erstep the usual modesty of his nature. He has come our regular bumptious, but I would remind him in all humility that there are two states of mind appropriate to two different conditions – one for him who buckles on his armour before the combat, and one for him who takes it off after the victory. In a country like this, which holds together as it were, by the two principles – credit and compromise – ‘war to the knife’ is a dangerous and unwise cry; that knife is a two-edged weapon, and may chance to cut the fingers of him who may attempt to use it…..I have reason to believe that ‘Froggy’ [a metaphor employed by Mr. North] will be supported by a noble band of independent members whose watchword is ‘Old England and fair-play, first, and party afterwards’”
“May 18th 1859” “S. Leonardensis”
(Other correspondence re Mr. North will be found in the next chapter)
A Royal Visit
Her Royal Highness, Princess Frederica of Hanover visited Mrs. Taylor, of 65 Eversfield Place, and afterwards went to look at 5 & 6 Breeds Place, where her father, the late King of Hanover, and her grandfather and grandmother (the Duke and Duchess of Cumberland) resided in 1832-3. She also went over the old Castle, the Ladies swimming bath and the Pier, and after expressing her pleasure at what she had seen, she drove through St. Leonards and took train at the West Marina station for London.
