The outbreak of the South African War initiated a display of disloyalty
in Ireland which might have embarrassed a less adroit Administration.
The policy of killing Home Rule by kindness had not succeeded, and it
was very evident that the throwing open of practically every office to
the people had not satisfied them. Every Boer victory was received
with jubilation, but it was mostly superficial. An English tourist,
tactfully extracting the opinions of a cabdriver, was informed that the
English deserved to be beaten, as he hoped they would, adding with a
grin of delight, 'But we did make them run, sor, didn't we?' referring
to the account of an English victory over the enemy the day before in
which an Irish regiment had gained fresh laurels. Nothing is more
ludicrous than the fervent politician who attempts unearthly
consistency in thought, word, and deed. Few persons take seriously the
over-serious politician.
The General Election of 1900 was preceded by a visit from Queen
Victoria--the last of a successful series. It was a tribute to the
good sense of the Irish and their innate loyalty, and Lord Cadogan did
much to bring the queen to Ireland by {314} assuring the Cabinet that
there was not the slightest danger. Four and a half years' residence
in the country had taught the viceroy a great deal about the Irish
people, and his trust and confidence in them were confirmed when, on
April 3, 1900, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Sir Thomas D. Pile, Bart.,
presented Her Majesty with the keys of the city and the civic sword.
She entered Dublin in triumph, and was received by Lord and Lady
Cadogan at the Viceregal Lodge amid great rejoicing and splendour. The
following day more than 50,000 children were reviewed in the Phoenix
Park by the queen--a happy inspiration on the part of her advisers.
There was, of course, a review of the troops, the queen's youngest son,
the Duke of Connaught, in command, and several other incidents of an
historic occasion passed off with as much success as though there was
'no such a thing' as Irish disloyalty. Thousands of persons who had
cheered Boer victories without quite knowing why they did it cheered
the queen until they were hoarse, because heart and head combined to
welcome their illustrious visitor. Well might the aged monarch write a
letter reflecting the emotion of a grateful and proud queen. No other
monarch had the happy inspirations Queen Victoria constantly displayed
in her messages to her people, and the secret of it all was that she
wrote them as a woman, though compelled to publish them as a queen.
Shortly after the conclusion of her visit she wrote to Lord Cadogan:
'How very much gratified and how deeply touched she had been by her
{315} reception. After the lapse of thirty-nine years her reception
had equalled that of previous visits, and she carried away with her a
most pleasant and affectionate memory of the time she had spent in
Ireland, having been received by all ranks and creeds with an
enthusiasm and affection which cannot be surpassed.'
[Sidenote: Death of Queen Victoria]
The next important event was the reconstruction of the Salisbury
Ministry following the Election of 1900. Mr. Gerald Balfour, not too
successful at the Irish Office, was transferred to the Board of Trade,
and Mr. George Wyndham took his place in Ireland. The new Chief
Secretary was eager to effect reforms, but the influence of the
Lord-Lieutenant and the Prime Minister compelled him to pursue the
conventional course of Chief Secretaries who are neither poets nor
dandies. The death of Queen Victoria in January placed the court in
mourning for a year, and when that was over the resignation of Lord
Salisbury became an imminent event. To Lord Cadogan it meant something
more than the severance of old ties. Lord Salisbury and he were bound
together by numerous social and political ties, and when the great
statesman resigned in the summer of 1902 Lord Cadogan immediately
tendered his resignation to the king of the high office of
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Speaking to his tenantry on the subject,
the viceroy declared that all his political life had been bound up with
Lord Salisbury's, and he had no desire to continue in it now that his
old chief was retiring. He had spent seven years in Ireland--seven
years of peace--and {316} his success was notable and inspiring. Mere
wealth could not have achieved it unaided; it was personality and the
desire to be as non-political as one in his position could be. It is
no exaggeration to say that his departure was universally regretted.
For the time the acerbities of political life were forgotten, and
Ireland turned out to say good-bye to a good friend and his charming
comrade, Lady Cadogan. On all sides people expressed the opinion that
Mr. Balfour would find it impossible to nominate a suitable successor,
and bad times were predicted for the man brave enough to attempt to
follow Lord Cadogan in the viceroyalty.
Had he chosen to do so, the retiring viceroy might have taken a high
post in Mr. Balfour's ministry, but he stood aside to accompany Lord
Salisbury into private life--that is, as private as the husband of a
political hostess can be. His social services were still at the
disposal of the party to which he belonged, and they were strong
supporters of the Balfour regime.
In 1907 Lady Cadogan died, and this tragedy was succeeded by the death
of his eldest son, Viscount Chelsea, in 1908. Two years later his
grandson and heir passed away. These events isolated Lord Cadogan, and
he led a somewhat lonely life until he married for a second time. The
marriage took place on January 12, 1911, the bride being the Countess
Adele Palagi, a cousin of the bridegroom.
About two years after Lord Cadogan's retirement from the viceroyalty a
deputation of leading {317} Irishmen called at his London residence to
present him with a token of the esteem in which he was held by all
those who had come in contact with him during his viceroyalty. The
deputation was headed by Lord Iveagh, and included Sir David Harrel,
Sir James Blyth, Sir Thomas Pile, Sir Lambert Ormsby, and Sir James
Henderson. They represented all Ireland, and on their behalf the
chairman presented the earl with an address, a silver bowl, and his
portrait painted by Mr. Solomon J. Solomon, R.A. It was a unique
ceremony, this tribute to one of the most successful viceroys Ireland
had ever known.
[Sidenote: Lord and Lady Dudley]
Lord Dudley succeeded to the viceroyalty at the youthful age of
thirty-five. For seven years he had been Parliamentary Secretary to
the Board of Trade, and had proved himself to be a hard-working,
ambitious peer. Immensely wealthy and generous, he was the most
suitable man to follow Lord Cadogan, especially as Lady Dudley was a
hostess of renown--one of the most popular of the younger
hostesses--and a general favourite with royalty.
The Dudley reign in Ireland was full of incident, social and political.
It opened unluckily enough, for in the early days of December, 1902,
Lady Dudley was seized with a serious illness at the Viceregal Lodge,
and at one time the gravest fears were entertained. The operation for
appendicitis, however, was successful, and the countess recovered to
adorn the office she shared with her husband. The mother of a young
family, she won the hearts of all Ireland by sending one of {318} her
daughters to the Alexandra High School--an institution deservedly
famous for its successful training and teaching of girls. This was one
of many triumphs achieved by tact and good nature, and within a few
months of her arrival in Ireland there was no more popular person in
the country. Mr. Balfour had been fortunate, indeed, in finding a Lady
Dudley to follow a Lady Cadogan, while the Lord-Lieutenant at once
proved himself to be strong, fearless, open-minded, and just. It was
said of a Chief Secretary--Sir Robert Peel--that his one-sided opinions
of Irish affairs were due to the fact that he had driven through the
country on an outside car. Lord Dudley went all over Ireland in a
motor-car, and therefore could not help but see both sides. Ever an
enthusiastic motorist, His Excellency pursued his hobby all the time he
was in Ireland, and unexpected visits to remote hamlets were numerous.
This passion for motoring had a practical result--it enabled the
viceroy to gather a great deal of first-hand information about the
country and the people; and when he consented to become chairman of the
Royal Commission on Congestion in Ireland, the year he retired from the
viceroyalty, he brought to bear upon the subject and the problem a
knowledge unequalled by any other non-Irish member of the Board.
[Illustration: Lord Dudley]
[Sidenote: The Wyndham Land Act]
The supreme political event of Lord Dudley's term was undoubtedly Mr.
George Wyndham's Land Act of 1903. Had Gladstone lived to witness a
Tory Chief Secretary piloting such a measure through Parliament he must
assuredly have gasped. {319} It caused great searchings of heart
amongst the colleagues of Mr. Wyndham, but it came into the
statute-book--another proof of the political axiom that the Tory party
have done more for Ireland than the Liberal, that Tory Cabinets have
worked more for Home Rule than their political rivals.
The revolutionary Tory Chief Secretary aroused the suspicions of his
friends. Loud-voiced Unionists in Ireland declared that he was at
heart a Home Ruler, and when the Lord-Lieutenant declined to take this
accusation seriously he was in his turn labelled Home Ruler, too.
Reports were sent to London of the dreadful backsliding of Lord Dudley.
As time crawled by he was described as an out-and-out Nationalist, a
traitor to the party he was sent to represent in Ireland. The
devolution scheme ascribed to Lord Dunraven, the late Captain Shaw, and
others, was said to have received the viceroy's benediction.
Superficially, that plan seemed the easiest method by which the eternal
Irish question could be settled; it appeared so nice and equitable.
But there was the dangerous rock of finance, on which all devolution
schemes must be wrecked. During the uproar the Lord-Lieutenant was
compelled to adopt measures of precaution. The party leaders in
England demanded a sign from him, for it would not do to permit Liberal
and Nationalist orators to assure receptive and eager audiences night
after night that the Tory Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had learned by
experience in Ireland that the only cure for the evils of the country
was Home Rule. The Wyndham Land Act was merely a palliative, {320}
they added. It was deemed necessary that Lord Dudley should write an
elaborate explanation of his views on Ireland, and entrust the document
to Lord Lansdowne, the leader of the Government in the House of Lords.
This precious epistle was to recline in the noble marquis's pocket
until, goaded by the taunts of the Opposition, he should be able to
produce it dramatically and confound the scoffers and unbelievers. The
letter was written, but never read in the Lords, the minds of men
turning to other matters when Mr. Wyndham was recalled from Ireland and
Mr. Walter Long appointed Chief Secretary. It was Mr. Balfour's way of
announcing his dislike of the already dead and buried devolution plan.
The period of doubt left the viceroy unshorn of his friends. Those who
knew him personally were well aware that he was a genuine friend of
Ireland, and the whole country knew that this English nobleman stood
rather to lose than gain by any active display of good-will towards the
people he ruled in the name of the king. The personal popularity of
Lord and Lady Dudley was such that no political crisis could affect
materially. Lady Dudley, a clever woman of rare charm, an artist and a
linguist, was not without experience of the vicissitudes of life, and
her knowledge of things human had been increased thereby. The daughter
of a once wealthy banker, she knew what poverty was, and at one time
she was associated along with her sister in the millinery shop their
mother started in London soon after the Gurney bank failure. The shop
was not a {321} success, and had to be abandoned. The girls were
adopted by friends of the family, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford
taking charge of Miss Rachel Gurney. Under their wing she made the
acquaintance of the young Earl of Dudley, and they were married in
1891, society, headed by the Prince of Wales, attending the function.
Never very strong, and often suffering great pain, Lady Dudley,
nevertheless, preserved a sweetness of temper and a kindliness to all
and sundry that both in Ireland and Australia helped immensely in
establishing the influence of her husband. In Ireland, especially, a
viceroy's wife has many opportunities, and they are not always easy to
grasp. Lady Dudley succeeded every time, and it is not to be wondered
at that by thousands of those whose experience entitle them to be
considered experts on the subject she is named as the most successful
and popular 'vicereine' the country has known for over a hundred years.
[Sidenote: Royal visitors]
The busiest social year of the Dudley regime was that of 1903, when
King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited Ireland. It was the first
occasion a King of England was seen in Ireland for eighty-two years,
and the people marked the honour by a display of enthusiasm unequalled
in the history of the country. The king and queen were greatly touched
by the loyalty of the Irish, and under the capable direction of Lord
and Lady Dudley the series of festivities went with a vim that
gratified the distinguished visitors and added fresh laurels to those
already earned by the _chatelaine_ of the Viceregal Lodge and Dublin
Castle. {322} A royal visit produces more anxiety than pleasure, as a
rule, for those whose duty it is to see that the arrangements for
entertaining the guests are perfect and carried out to the letter; but
a genius for organization displayed itself in the arrangements devised
for the filling up of their Majesties' programme, and that was the
genius of the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife. The most significant event
of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the
leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and
religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count
upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic
Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose
political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was
historic--a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the
worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it--and
it was almost unprecedented. With characteristic good feeling and
understanding all classes and creeds attended to do homage to His
Majesty, who had the gratification of receiving many notable Irishmen
and seeing them mingling together, their differences forgotten in the
presence of their Sovereign. The success of that Levee was a splendid
tribute to Lord Dudley's tenure of the post of Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland. Another visit by King Edward and Queen Alexandra the
following April was equally successful.
The dying days of the Balfour ministry found Irish affairs inert. The
respectable Mr. Long was {323} ready to do anything to prove his stanch
Unionist principles, but both countries and parties were in that frame
of mind produced by a sense of impending death. There had been ten
unbroken years of Unionist sway in Ireland; two viceroys of great
wealth and popularity had carried on the Government, assisted by Chief
Secretaries of varying qualities of statesmanship; the country had
grown accustomed to Tory control, and rather liked it, judging by the
experience of Liberal predecessors. Every charitable cause had met
with a ready response from the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife, and for
ten years the viceroy had appeared almost non-political. The
numberless acts of kindness placed to the credit of Lady Cadogan and
Lady Dudley created for them a genuine feeling of admiration and
affection. The heads of the Government in Ireland were no longer mere
party 'jobbers.' The anxiety to be impartial was at times almost
painful, but it was not without effect.
[Sidenote: Social splendour]
Socially, the two viceroyalties had been brilliant successes. The Tory
Government had everything in its favour. Two such hostesses as the
wives of Lords Cadogan and Dudley are rarely met with, and for ten
years in succession the Dublin season was ever one of splendour. There
had been periods of mourning, but, apart from these, the years were
notable.
And yet the cry for Home Rule was not less shrill nor less determined.
Nationalists could say with some reason that all that Lord Cadogan and
Lord Dudley had done could be done again with {324} a Parliament in
College Green. The growing feeling in English constituencies against
the Conservative Government was hailed with delight by the Irish party.
They saw Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, an avowed Home Ruler, gladly and
eagerly putting their demand for Home Rule in the forefront of the
great fight, and when the polls had placed him in power making Home
Rule the first plank in the programme of the resuscitated Liberal party.
England could not be expected to be impressed by the successes of the
Tory Government in Dublin. As a matter of fact, English electors were
feeling rather bored with Irish affairs, and at the polls they scarcely
stopped to think about Home Rule, but voted for the Liberal candidate
for the negative reason that they did not like his opponent. The
General Election was a triumph for the pure, undiluted political faith
of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, besides smashing all hopes that
the Irish party would be the masters of the situation, compelled those
minute particles of Liberalism labelled Imperialists, Radicals, and so
on, to unite under the lead of the new Prime Minister.
[Sidenote: The spirit of conciliation]
In the ordinary course of events Lord Dudley resigned with the
Conservative Ministry, and on the appointment of a successor departed
from Ireland. A few months' previously--September 21, 1905, to be
exact--he had escaped death in the waters of Lough Erne, where, with a
small party, he was unlucky enough to see his yacht capsize during a
race. It was one adventure of many he {325} has experienced in his
comparatively brief life. Following his resignation, he still evinced
a keen interest in Ireland, and when the Liberal premier asked him to
preside over the deliberations of a Royal Commission on Congestion, he
accepted it as one who has never allowed his actions to be guided and
controlled solely by party motives. The work of the Commission
finishing, he went to the other end of the world as Governor-General of
Australia, holding the post for three years, when Lady Dudley's
ill-health compelled him to return home in 1911. This willingness to
serve the Liberal party has been taken by some as additional evidence
of his lukewarm Unionism, but Lord Dudley remains a member of the party
that made him Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and he is a Unionist at
heart, though he permits himself the luxury of thinking on the subject.
It is certain that while in Ireland he examined the claims and
pretensions of the Home Rule party, and endeavoured to arrive at an
understanding. The fact that he was not hounded out of the country by
his fellow-Unionists is proof positive of the fact that a new spirit of
conciliation has arisen, and that Irish political controversialists are
aware that there can be two sides to every question, even an Irish one.
{326}