COALITION BUT NOT UNION
1852-1853
The Aberdeen Ministry--Warring elements--Mr. Gladstone's
position--Lord John at the Foreign Office and Leader of the
House--Lady Russell's criticism of Lord Macaulay's statement--A
small cloud in the East--Lord Shaftesbury has his doubts
THERE is no need to linger over the history of the next few months, for
in a political sense they were barren and unfruitful. The first Derby
Administration possessed no elements of strength, and quickly proved a
mere stop-gap Cabinet. Its tenure of power was not only brief but
inglorious. The new Ministers took office in February, and they left it
in December. Lord Palmerston may be said to have given them their
chance, and Mr. Gladstone gave them their _coup de grace_. The Derby
Administration was summoned into existence because Lord Palmerston
carried his amendment on the Militia Bill, and it refused to lag
superfluous on the stage after the crushing defeat which followed Mr.
Gladstone's brilliant attack on the Budget of Mr. Disraeli. The chief
legislative achievement of this short-lived Government was an extension
of the Bribery Act, which Lord John Russell had introduced in 1841. A
measure was now passed providing for a searching investigation of
corrupt practices by commissioners appointed by the Crown. The affairs
of New Zealand were also placed on a sound political basis. A General
Election occurred in the summer, but before the new Parliament met in
the autumn the nation was called to mourn the death of the Duke of
Wellington. The old soldier had won the crowning victory of Waterloo
four years before the Queen's birth, and yet he survived long enough to
grace with his presence the opening ceremony of the Great
Exhibition--that magnificent triumph of the arts of peace which was held
in London in the summer of 1851. The remarkable personal ascendency
which the Duke of Wellington achieved because of his splendid record as
a soldier, though backed by high personal character, was not thrown on
the side of either liberty or progress when the hero transferred his
services from the camp to the cabinet. As a soldier, Wellington shone
without a rival, but as a statesman he was an obstinate reactionary.
Perhaps his solitary claim to political regard is that he, more than any
other man, wrung from the weak hands of George IV. a reluctant consent
to Catholic Emancipation--a concession which could no longer be refused
with safety, and one which had been delayed for the lifetime of a
generation through rigid adherence in high places to antiquated
prejudices and unreasoning alarm.
The strength of parties in the new Parliament proved to be nearly evenly
balanced. Indeed, the Liberals were only in a majority of sixteen, if
the small but compact phalanx of forty Peelites be left for the moment
out of the reckoning. The Conservatives had, in truth, gained ground in
the country through the reverses of one kind and another which had
overtaken their opponents. Lord Palmerston, always fond, to borrow his
own phrase, of striking from his own bat, declared in airy fashion that
Lord John had given him with dismissal independence, and, though Lord
Derby offered him a seat in his Cabinet, he was too shrewd and
far-seeing a statesman to accept it. The Liberal party was divided about
Lord Palmerston, and that fact led to vacillation at the polling booths.
Ardent Protestants were disappointed that the Durham Letter had been
followed by what they regarded as weak and insufficient legislative
action, whilst some of the phrases of that outspoken manifesto still
rankled in the minds of ardent High Churchmen. The old Conservative
party had been smashed by Peel's adoption of Free Trade, and the new
Conservative party which was struggling into existence still looked
askance at the pretensions of Mr. Disraeli, who, thanks to his own
ability and to the persistent advocacy of his claims in earlier years by
his now departed friend, Lord George Bentinck, was fairly seated in the
saddle, and inclined to use both whip and spurs.
[Sidenote: DISRAELI'S POSITION]
In the autobiography recently published of the late Sir William
Gregory[26] a vivid description will be found of the way in which the
aristocracy and the squires 'kicked at the supremacy of one whom they
looked at as a mountebank;' and on the same page will be found the
remarkable assertion that it was nothing but Mr. Disraeli's claim to
lead the Conservative party which prevented Mr. Gladstone from joining
it in 1852.[27] Disraeli's borrowed heroics in his pompous oration in
the House of Commons on the occasion of the death of Wellington, and his
errors in tactics and taste as leader of the House, heightened the
prevailing impression that, even if the result of the General Election
had been different, the Derby Administration was doomed to failure. All
through the autumn the quidnuncs at the clubs were busy predicting the
probable course of events, and more or less absurd rumours ran round the
town concerning the statesmen who were likely to succeed to power in the
event of Derby's resignation. The choice in reality lay between Russell,
Palmerston, and Aberdeen, for Lansdowne was out of health, and therefore
out of the question.
As in a mirror Lady Russell's journal reflects what she calls the alarm
in the Whig camp at the rumour of the intended resignation of the Derby
Cabinet if Disraeli's financial proposals were defeated, and the hurried
consultations which followed between Lord Lansdowne, Lord Aberdeen, and
Lord John, Sir James Graham, Mr. Cobden, and Mr. Bright. Two days before
the division which overthrew the Government on December 17, Lord John
was at Woburn, and his brother, the Duke of Bedford, asked him what
course he thought the Queen should adopt in case the Ministry was
beaten. He replied that her Majesty, under such circumstances, ought to
send for Lord Lansdowne and Lord Aberdeen. This was the course which the
Queen adopted, but Lord Lansdowne, old and ill, felt powerless to
respond to the summons. Meanwhile, Lord John, who certainly possessed
the strongest claims--a circumstance which was recognised at the time by
Mr. Gladstone--had determined from a sense of public duty not to press
them, for he recognised that neither Palmerston nor the Peelites, who,
for the moment, in the nice balance of parties, commanded the situation,
would serve under him. He had led the Liberal forces for a long term of
years, both in power and in opposition, and neither his devotion nor his
ability was open to question, in spite of the offence which he had
given, on the one hand to a powerful colleague, and on the other to
powerful interests.
[Sidenote: LORD ABERDEEN]
Lord Aberdeen was regarded by the followers of Peel as their leader. He
was a favourite at Court, and a statesman of established reputation of
the doctrinaire type, but he was not a man who ever excited, or probably
was capable of exciting, popular enthusiasm. On the day after Disraeli's
defeat Lord Aberdeen met Lord John by chance in the Park, and the
latter, waiving personal ambition, told him that, though he could say
nothing decisive for the moment, he thought he should accept office
under him. On the morrow Lord Aberdeen was summoned to Osborne, and
accepted the task of forming an Administration. Next day her Majesty
wrote to Lord John announcing the fact, and the letter ended with the
following passage: 'The Queen thinks the moment to have arrived when a
popular, efficient, and durable Government could be formed by the
sincere and united efforts of all professing Conservative and Liberal
opinions. The Queen, knowing that this can only be effected by the
patriotic sacrifice of personal interests and feelings to the public,
trusts that Lord John Russell will, as far as he is able, give his
valuable and powerful assistance to the realisation of this object.'
This communication found Lord John halting between two opinions.
Palmerston had declined to serve under him, and he might, with even
greater propriety, in his turn have refused to serve under Aberdeen. His
own health, which was never strong, had suffered through the long strain
of office in years which had been marked by famine and rebellion. He had
just begun to revel, to quote his own words, in 'all the delights of
freedom from red boxes, with the privilege of fresh air and mountain
prospects.'
[Sidenote: 'SHOEBLACK' TO ABERDEEN]
He had already found the recreation of a busy man, and was engrossed in
the preparation of the 'Memoirs and Journal' of his friend, Thomas
Moore. The poet had died in February of that year, and Lord John, with
characteristic goodwill, had undertaken to edit his voluminous papers in
order to help a widow without wounding her pride. In fact, on many
grounds he might reasonably have stood aside, and he certainly would
have done so if personal motives had counted most with him, or if he had
been the self-seeker which some of his detractors have imagined. Here
Lord Macaulay comes to our help with a vivid account of what he terms an
eventful day--one of the dark days before Christmas--on which the
possibility of a Coalition Government under Aberdeen was still doubtful.
Macaulay states that he went to Lansdowne House, on December 20, on a
hasty summons to find its master and Lord John in consultation over the
Queen's letter. He was asked his opinion of the document and duly gave
it. 'Then Lord John said that of course he should try to help Lord
Aberdeen: but how? There were two ways. He might take the lead of the
Commons with the Foreign Office, or he might refuse office, and give his
support from the back benches. I adjured him not to think of this last
course, and I argued it with him during a quarter of an hour with, I
thought, a great flow of thoughts and words. I was encouraged by Lord
Lansdowne, who nodded, smiled, and rubbed his hands at everything I
said. I reminded him that the Duke of Wellington had taken the Foreign
Office after having been at the Treasury, and I quoted his own pretty
speech to the Duke. "You said, Lord John, that we could not all win
battles of Waterloo, but that we might all imitate the old man's
patriotism, sense of duty, and indifference to selfish interests; and
vanities when the public welfare was concerned; and now is the time for
you to make a sacrifice. Your past services and your name give us a
right to expect it." He went away, evidently much impressed by what had
been said, and promising to consult others. When he was gone, Lord
Lansdowne told me that I had come just as opportunely as Bluecher did at
Waterloo.'[28] It is only right to state that Lady Russell demurs to
some parts of this account of her husband's attitude at the crisis.
Nothing could be further from the truth than that Lord John's
vacillation was due to personal motives, or that his hesitation arose
from his reluctance to take any office short of the Premiership. Lady
Russell adds 'this never for one moment weighed with him, so that he did
not require Lord Macaulay or Lord Lansdowne to argue him out of the
objection.' Lord John's difficulty was based upon the 'improbability of
agreement in a Cabinet so composed, and therefore the probable evil to
the country.' Letters written by Lady Russell at the moment to a
relative, of too private a character to quote, give additional weight to
this statement. One homely remark made at the time may, however, be
cited. Lady Russell declared that her husband would not mind being
'shoeblack to Lord Aberdeen' if it would serve the country.
The Aberdeen Ministry came into existence just as the year 1852 was
ending. It was, in truth, a strange bit of mosaic work, fashioned with
curious art, as the result of negotiations between the Whigs and the
Peelites which had extended over a period of nearly six months. It
represented the triumph of expediency, but it awakened little enthusiasm
in spite of the much-vaunted ability and experience of its members.
Derby and Disraeli were left out on the one side and Cobden and Bright
on the other, a circumstance, however, which did not prevent men
comparing the Coalition Government to the short-lived but famous
Ministry of all the Talents. The nation rubbed its eyes and wondered
whether good or evil was in store when it saw Peel's lieutenants rowing
in the same boat with Russell. The vanished leader, however, was
responsible for such a strange turn of the wheel, for everyone
recognised that Sir Robert had 'steered his fleet into the enemy's
port.' His followers came to power through the dilemma of the moment and
the temporary eclipse of politicians of more resolute convictions. The
Whigs were divided, and with Ireland they were discredited, whilst the
Radicals were still clamouring at the doors of Downing Street with small
chance of admission, in spite of their growing power in the country. The
little clique of Peelites played their cards adroitly, and though they
were, to a large extent, a party without followers, they were masters of
the situation, and Russell and Palmerston, in consequence, were the only
men of commanding personality, outside their own ranks, who were
admitted to the chief seats in the new Cabinet. Russell became Foreign
Secretary, whilst Palmerston took control of the Home Office.
[Sidenote: ONE OF LIFE'S LITTLE IRONIES]
So great was the rush for place that Lord Derby with a smile informed
the Queen that, as so many former Ministers expected a seat, he thought
that less than thirty-two could hardly be the number of the new Cabinet.
Tories of the old school looked on with amazement, and Radicals of the
new with suspicion. All things seemed possible in the excitement of
parties. 'Tom Baring said to me last night,' Greville remarks, '"Can't
you make room for Disraeli in this Coalition Government?" I said: "Why,
will you give him to us?" "Oh yes," he said, "you shall have him with
pleasure."' Great expectations were, however, ruthlessly nipped in the
bud, and the Cabinet, instead of being unwieldy, was uncommonly small,
for it consisted only of thirteen members--an unlucky start, if old
wives' fables are to be believed. Five of Sir Robert Peel's
colleagues--the Premier, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James Graham, Mr.
Sidney Herbert, and Mr. Gladstone--represented the moderately
progressive views of their old leader. Russell and Palmerston
represented the Whigs, but, thanks to one of life's little ironies, the
statesman who passed the Reform Bill was installed for the moment at the
Foreign Office, and the Minister who was a Liberal abroad and a
Conservative at home was intrusted with the internal affairs of the
nation. The truth was, Lord Palmerston was impossible at the Foreign
Office if Lord Aberdeen was at the Treasury, for the two men were
diametrically opposed in regard to the policy which England ought to
adopt in her relations with Europe in general, and Russia in particular.
In fact, if Lord John Russell was for the moment out of the reckoning as
Premier, Lord Palmerston ought unquestionably to have had the reversion
of power. Unfortunately, though growingly popular in the country, he had
rendered himself unwelcome at Court, where Lord Aberdeen, on the
contrary, had long been a trusted adviser.
Even if it be granted that neither Russell nor Palmerston was admissible
as leader, it was a palpable blunder to exclude from Cabinet rank men
of clean-cut convictions like Cobden and Bright. They had a large
following in the country, and had won their spurs in the Anti-Corn-Law
struggle. They represented the aspirations of the most active section of
the Liberal Party, and they also possessed the spell which eloquence and
sincerity never fail to throw over the imagination of the people. They
were not judged worthy, however, and Milner Gibson, in spite of his
services as a member of the Russell Cabinet, was also debarred from
office; whilst Mr. Charles Villiers, whose social claims could not be
entirely overlooked, found his not inconsiderable services to the people
rewarded by subordinate rank. The view which was taken at Court of the
Aberdeen Ministry is recorded in the 'Life of the Prince Consort.' The
Queen regarded the Cabinet as 'the realisation of the country's and our
own most ardent wishes;'[29] and in her Majesty's view the words
'brilliant' and 'strong' described the new Government. Brilliant it
might be, but strong it assuredly was not, for it was pervaded by the
spirit of mutual distrust, and circumstances conspired to accentuate the
wide divergence of opinion which lurked beneath the surface harmony.
However such a union of warring forces might be agreeable to the Queen,
the belief that it realised the 'most ardent wishes' of the nation was
not widely held outside the Court, for 'England,' to borrow Disraeli's
familiar but significant phrase, 'does not love Coalitions.' In the
Aberdeen Cabinet, party interests were banded together in office; but
the vivifying influences of unity of conviction and common sentiment
were absent from its deliberations. After all, as Sir Edward Bulwer
Lytton drily remarked when the inevitable crisis arose, there is 'one
indisputable element of a Coalition Government, and that is that its
members should coalesce.' As a matter of fact, they not only drifted
into war but drifted apart. 'It is a powerful team and will require good
driving,' was the comment of a shrewd political observer. 'There are
some odd tempers and queer ways among them.'
[Sidenote: ABERDEEN AS DRIVER]
Lord Aberdeen had many virtues, but he was not a good driver, and when
the horses grew restive and kicked over the traces, he lacked nerve,
hesitated, and was lost. Trained for political life at the side of
Pitt,[30] after a distinguished career in diplomacy, which made him
known in all the Courts of Europe, he entered the Cabinet of the Duke of
Wellington in 1828, and afterwards held the post of Secretary for the
Colonies in the first Peel Administration of 1834, and that of Secretary
for Foreign Affairs during Sir Robert's final spell of power in the
years 1841-46. He never sat in the House of Commons, but, though a Tory
peer, he voted for Catholic Emancipation. He swiftly fell into line,
however, with his party, and recorded his vote against the Reform Bill.
He never, perhaps, quite understood the temper of a popular assembly,
for he was a shy, reserved man, sparing in speech and punctilious in
manner. Close association with Wellington and Peel had, of course, done
much to shape his outlook on affairs, and much acquaintance with the
etiquette of foreign Courts had insensibly led him to cultivate the
habit of formal reserve. Born in the same year as Palmerston, the
Premier possessed neither the openness to new ideas nor the vivacity of
his masterful colleague; in fact, Lord Aberdeen at sixty-eight, unlike
Lord Palmerston, was an old man in temperament, as well as conservative,
in the sense of one not given to change. Yet, it is only fair to add
that, if Aberdeen's views of foreign policy were of a somewhat
stereotyped kind, he was, at all events at this period in their careers,
more progressive on home policy than Palmerston, who was too much
inclined not to move for the social welfare of the people before he was
compelled.
The new Ministry ran well until it was hindered by complications in the
East. In the middle of February, a few days after the meeting of
Parliament, Lord John retired from the Foreign Office, and led the House
through the session with great ability, but without taking office. It is
important to remember that he had only accepted the Foreign Office under
strong pressure, and as a temporary expedient. It was, however,
understood that he was at liberty at any moment to relinquish the
Foreign Office in favour of Lord Clarendon, if he found the duties too
onerous to discharge in conjunction with the task of leadership in the
Commons. The session of 1853 was rendered memorable by the display of
Mr. Gladstone's skill in finance; and the first Budget of the new
Chancellor of the Exchequer was in every sense in splendid contrast with
the miserable fiasco of the previous year, when Mr. Disraeli was
responsible for proposals which, as Sir George Cornewall Lewis said,
were of a kind that flesh and blood could not stand. The trade of the
country had revived, and, with tranquility, some degree of prosperity
had returned, even to Ireland. Lord John Russell, true to his policy of
religious equality, brought forward the Jewish Disabilities Bill, but
the House of Lords, with equal consistency, threw out the measure. The
Law of Transportation was altered, and a new India Bill was passed,
which threw open the Civil Service to competition. Many financial
reforms were introduced, a new proposal was made for a wider extent of
elementary education, and much legislative activity in a variety of
directions was displayed.
[Sidenote: THE COALITION GOVERNMENT]
Lord Aberdeen had taken office under pressure and from a sense of duty.
It had few attractions for him, and he looked forward with quiet
satisfaction to release from its cares. Lord Stanmore's authority can be
cited for the statement that in the summer of 1853 his father deemed
that the time had come when he might retire in Lord John Russell's
favour, in accordance with an arrangement which had been made in general
terms when the Cabinet was formed. There were members of the Coalition
Government who were opposed to this step; but Lord Aberdeen anticipated
no serious difficulty in carrying out the proposal. Suddenly the aspect
of affairs grew not merely critical but menacing, and the Prime Minister
found himself confronted by complications abroad, from which he felt it
would be despicable to retreat by the easy method of personal
resignation. There is not the slightest occasion, nor, indeed, is this
the place, to recount the vicissitudes of the Aberdeen Administration in
its baffled struggles against the alternative of war. The achievements
of the Coalition Government, no less than its failures, with much of its
secret history, have already been told with praiseworthy candour and
intimate knowledge by Lord Stanmore, who as a young man acted as private
secretary to his father, Lord Aberdeen, through the stress and storm of
those fateful years. It is therefore only necessary in these pages to
state the broad outlines of the story, and to indicate Lord John
Russell's position in the least popular Cabinet of the Queen's reign.
Lord Shaftesbury jotted down in his journal, when the new Ministry came
into office, these words, and they sum up pretty accurately the
situation, and the common verdict upon it: 'Aberdeen Prime Minister,
Lord John Russell Minister for Foreign Affairs. Is it possible that this
arrangement should prosper? Can the Liberal policy of Lord John square
with the restrictive policy of Lord Aberdeen? I wish them joy and a safe
deliverance.'
FOOTNOTES:
[26] _Sir William Gregory, K.C.M.G.: an Autobiography_, edited by Lady
Gregory, pp. 92, 93.
[27] Mr. Gladstone's comment on this statement is that it is interesting
as coming from an acute contemporary observer. At the same time it
expresses an opinion and presents no facts. Mr. Gladstone adds that he
is not aware that the question of re-union with the Conservative party
was ever presented to him in such a way as to embrace the relations to
Mr. Disraeli.
[28] _Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay_, by the Right Hon. Sir George
Otto Trevelyan, M.P., vol. ii. p. 340.
[29] Sir Theodore Martin's _Life of the Prince Consort_, vol. ii. p.
483.
[30] Pitt became guardian to the young Lord Haddo in 1792.