From out of the solid phalanx of Tory peers eligible for the post Lord
Salisbury chose the Earl of Zetland, and sent him to Dublin. The
viceroy was then in his forty-fifth year, was chiefly distinguished by
his fondness for horse-racing, while a painstaking press recorded the
fact that his mother was an Irishwoman. In 1871 he married Lady Lilian
Lumley, a daughter of the ninth Earl of Scarborough, and the following
year he was elected for the family borough of Richmond, Yorkshire. The
death of his uncle in 1873 terminated his career in the House of
Commons, and until his appointment to Ireland in 1889 he led the life
of a country gentleman and a sportsman.
His viceroyalty was somewhat similar to that of Lord Londonderry's,
though he soon lost the aid of Mr. Balfour, who was replaced by Mr. W.
L. Jackson, raised to the peerage as Lord Allerton in King Edward's
Coronation year. He had not been long in office when the report of the
Parnell Commission became the sensation of the season; indeed, it was
all Parnell and no Zetland from the beginning to the end of his term.
The Commission was followed by the divorce case that {304} extinguished
the Irish leader; then came the sharp and bitter party schisms, the
intervention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and last of all the death
of the central figure of the sordid and miserable tragedy. It was
quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than
be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis
called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have
a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to
be up and doing. Lord Zetland was disinclined to create precedents or
seek to alter established things. Every good cause received his
approval and the benediction of Lady Zetland. They were not more
political than they had to be, while the viceroy's fondness for the
Turf was not without its effect, although the Irish sportsman is quite
a different type to the Irish, and 'never the twain shall meet.' The
viceroyalty jogged on gently to its predestined end, and the General
Election giving Mr. Gladstone a majority the six-year-old Salisbury
Administration came to an end.
[Sidenote: Mr. Gladstone in power]
The return of Mr. Gladstone to the premiership caused great
perturbation in Unionist circles in Ireland. At last the polls had
given him a mandate for Home Rule, and there was no prospect of
rebellious Liberals rising again to destroy their chief. There
remained the House of Lords, ever the bulwark of the liberties of the
people--whether the people appreciated it or not; but there was a doubt
whether the Upper Chamber would peril its existence by defying
Gladstone again. Nevertheless, Unionist Ireland, with a {305}
fanaticism and a determination not unworthy of the Irish Nationalist
representatives, determined to fight the odds against them inspired by
a 'No surrender' spirit. They resolved not to touch Gladstone or his
noble representative with a forty-foot pole, and, numbering in their
ranks the majority of the gentry and nobility, their decision to
boycott the incoming viceroy meant much more than it appeared on the
surface. It is true that any Tory viceroy can create the sort of court
he pleases, and so can a Liberal in ordinary circumstances, but Lord
Houghton was viceroy at a time when every snob, whether he took any
interest in politics or not, became a Unionist in order to be known as
a member of the gentlemanly party. It was simply 'bad form' to favour
Home Rule, and that was sufficient to unite Unionists as they have
never been united before or since.
Mr. Gladstone was in the position of having very few candidates for the
viceroyalty. Mr. John Morley was, of course, the Chief Secretary, and
he could be depended upon to do all the political work. The premier
offered the viceroyalty to the then Lord Houghton, and it was accepted
in the hope that it would lead to better things.
[Sidenote: Lord Houghton]
Lord Houghton was born in 1858, on January 12, so that he was in his
thirty-fifth year when he was sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
His official training had been meagre, comprising the not fatiguing
post of Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville during part of
that statesman's occupancy of the Foreign Office in Mr. Gladstone's
second Administration, and a few months as Lord-in-Waiting {306} to
Queen Victoria in 1886. The son of Monckton Milnes was always an
object of interest to students of history, literary and political, and
Lord Houghton had shown that he was not inexpert by writing a number of
stray verses that exhibited a talent for rhyming. His ability for
statesmanship was, however, more doubtful, and, as events proved, he
was not the man to conciliate the important body of opinion adverse to
the Government he represented. The position, certainly, was most
difficult, and abler men than Lord Houghton would have failed. He
could not forget his own dignity, and therefore never attempted to
conciliate the Opposition. The distrust of the Nationalists must have
struck him as savouring of ingratitude, and as every Liberal viceroy
has found it, Lord Houghton was an object of suspicion and distrust to
all Irishmen.
[Illustration: Lord Crewe]
Irish society boycotted the Liberal viceroy. He started badly by
declining to receive a loyal address because it contained a reference
to the Home Rule question. Lord Houghton, being temperamentally
incapable of inspiring affection in inferiors, adopted an attitude of
extreme _hauteur_, offending every class in turn. Mr. Gladstone was in
the midst of the battle of his life, ably seconded by Mr. John Morley;
but the Lord-Lieutenant of the Government sat in gloomy solitude in
Dublin, cognisant no doubt of the fact that for the first time since
1172 Dublin Castle and Viceregal Lodge invitations were being declined
or ignored by a society which in the ordinary course of events would
sacrifice {307} anything rather than the _entree_ to the miniature
court of the viceroy. No help could come from Ireland, where the
masses watched the efforts to plant a Parliament in College Green with
a sullenness of demeanour that indicated their lack of enthusiasm. The
educated classes were almost to a man and a woman Unionists, and the
movement against the viceroy was inspired by party feelings, but Lord
Houghton's personality did not tend towards the softening of the
austerities. The members of his _entourage_ suffered from the general
disfavour, and the aides-de-camp, who are usually almost danced to
death every season, ended their labours as fresh as they began them.
The entertaining that had to be done was in the capable hands of the
Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker, Lord Houghton's sister, a lady of many
accomplishments. The viceroy was a widower then, and some years from a
second wife, an earldom, an heir, and a marquisate.
Lord Houghton's position in Ireland was certainly unique. In a country
overwhelmingly Nationalist--using the word in its party sense--he was
supposed to belong to the popular side. Hitherto, the Lord-Lieutenant
had been more or less a Tory, for the average Liberal was too superior
to descend into the cockpit of Irish politics; but Lord Houghton was
the Heaven-sent embodiment of Ireland's hopes of legislative
independence. He was a member of the Government that had for its first
and only object the settlement of the Irish question, and yet the
viceroy, with all these aids, might have been the most {308} bigoted
Tory of Tories, judging by the attitude of the Nationalists. The
native politician well maintained his reputation for suspecting his
best friends. The prophets of gloom foretold of the fatal intervention
of the House of Lords, and were so certain of defeat as to contribute
towards it themselves. Lord Houghton was regarded as a sham,
Gladstone's noble self-sacrifice as a mere trick; the whole body
politic seemed destitute of honour and honesty. Wherever the viceroy
went he was received in silence; there were no popular demonstrations
in town or country. Ireland was in the position of the beggar who
awaits charity with curses ready on her tongue in the case of refusal
or dissatisfaction. She could not--would not--believe and understand
that Mr. Gladstone was risking his own life, and that of his party, in
his endeavour to grant the Nationalist demands. Eventually he wrecked
Liberalism, but it has since recovered--Ireland has not.
The House of Lords is the stock enemy of Liberalism, but the peers did
Lord Houghton a good turn when they rejected Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule
Bill and numbered the days of the ministry. Heroically enough, the
viceroy agreed to continue in office when Lord Rosebery was
unexpectedly given the premiership; but all men knew that the
Government was merely a makeshift, and that a General Election and a
Conservative-Unionist triumph was to be expected as a matter of course.
It came in 1895, and with it the end of Liberalism for ten years. Lord
Houghton resigned with the ministry, and left {309} Dublin as glad to
be out of the country as the country was as pleased to see the last of
him. When the whirligig of time brought its revenges, and the Lord
Houghton of the 1892-95 viceroyalty was an earl of ten years' standing,
earls being remarkably scarce on the Liberal red benches, he was
admitted to the Cabinet in the respectable capacity of Lord President
of the Council. This post was vacated for a time when in Mr. Asquith's
Ministry he was Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the
Colonies. In 1910 he became Secretary of State for India, exchanging
offices with Viscount Morley.
Lord Crewe's marriage in 1898 to Lady Margaret Primrose, the youngest
daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, was a brilliant social function, and
the birth of a son and heir in 1911 was more welcome than the
marquisate which came to the Indian Secretary in the Coronation
Honours' List.
[Sidenote: Tory ascendancy]
The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared
the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were
on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively
Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarrassment of having a
friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable
viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the
ideal viceroy. Twenty years previously they had been members of the
same Government--Lord Salisbury in the Cabinet, and Lord Cadogan
Under-Secretary at the War Office and the Colonial Office in turn.
{310} In Lord Salisbury's Government of 1886-92 he was Lord Privy Seal.
Their political friendship served to cement a private friendship that
lasted until Lord Salisbury's death, and it was the premier's
resignation in 1902 that caused the then viceroy to retire.
[Illustration: Earl Cadogan, K.G.]
Lord Cadogan was born in 1840, and in 1865 he married Lady Beatrix
Craven, who died in 1907. Succeeding to the earldom in 1873, he was
obliged to leave the House of Commons, to which he had been elected by
the citizens of Bath the same year. From the day of his elevation to
one of the wealthiest places in the peerage Lord Cadogan became a
valued asset of the Conservative party. An intimate friend of the then
Prince and Princess of Wales, given to hospitality, married to a lady
with more than the usual gift for entertaining, the owner of Chelsea
House and his wife became social leaders of the party. Lord Salisbury
was fortunate in securing Lord Cadogan for the viceroyalty, and a seat
in the Cabinet was only right and proper for one whose influence and
support were of paramount importance. As Chief Secretary, Mr. Gerald
Balfour accompanied Lord Cadogan, and after an imposing state entry on
August 12, 1895, they settled down to work.
In Dublin Castle there is an object-lesson of the relative political
importance of the two chief executive officers of the Government in
Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant's room is small and unpretentious, that
of the Chief Secretary roomy, well furnished, and comfortable; but
during Lord Cadogan's term he overshadowed his first Chief {311}
Secretary, although the latter was a brother of the leader of the House
of Commons.
[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Cadogan]
Lord and Lady Cadogan quickly earned that popularity which never left
them. Charming to everybody, the soul of courtesy to all ranks and
classes, ideal host and hostess, and spending their great wealth
freely, it would have been surprising, indeed, if the viceroy and his
wife had not achieved success. Nationalists, professional and amateur,
learnt the advantage of having a wealthy Lord-Lieutenant, even if he
had been nominated by the hated and detested Tories, and the
unostentatious munificence of the viceregal pair was not the least
factor that contributed towards their success. As a member of the
Cabinet, Lord Cadogan's political sympathies were obvious, yet in an
extraordinary way he managed to conceal the politician in the
administrator. He was even accused of favouring the Nationalists and
Roman Catholics, and aggrieved place-hunters ruefully declared that the
only qualification for office and promotion was Nationalist leanings or
adherence to the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Lord and Lady Cadogan
lost nothing of their influence over all classes. Every Dublin season
was brilliant and successful, simply because Lord and Lady Cadogan had
the power to do things, and knew how to do them. The visit of the then
Duke and Duchess of York in 1897--a brilliant success--was a triumph
for Lord Cadogan's political perspicacity. The Local Government Bill
of 1898--a measure frankly Liberal in tone--would have wrecked any
other Lord-Lieutenant; it left Lord Cadogan as strong {312} as ever.
It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should
have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his
colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control
of local affairs should pass from the hands of the minority to the
majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County
Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept
out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their
stead. Had Gladstone proposed such a measure, and carried it, there
would have been a revolt of the Unionists in Ireland, but as a
Salisbury Government fathered the Act it was accepted without demur,
and the revolution on the Nationalist side was a peaceful one. In a
single phrase, the Act meant that in future the Catholic majority
should be the masters of the Protestant minority. There is no quarter
given or asked in Irish politics, and from that day to this the
Protestants have had no share in the administration of local government
in the country.
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