Debate on the Address in the Lords--Conservative Majority in the
New Parliament--Sir R. Peel's Audience of the Queen--Auspicious
Policy of Peel--Council at Claremont--Change of Ministry--Lord
Melbourne's Message to Sir R. Peel--What Sir R. Peel said to
the Queen--Lord Melbourne's View of the recent Appointments at
Court--The Duke of Wellington on the recent Appointments--A
Party at Windsor--Future Course of Events predicted--Visit to
Woburn--Junius--Jobbing at the Foreign Office--Contempt for the
late Government--Summary--Louis Philippe--Forgery of Exchequer
Bills--The Tower Fire--Birth of the Prince of Wales--Delicate
Questions--Prince Albert receives the Keys of the Cabinet
Boxes--Charles Elliot--Strength of the Government--Lord Ripon and
John Macgregor--French Intrigues in Spain.
_London: August 25th, 1841._--The Duke of Bedford has just come here
with an account of the House of Lords last night.[8] Lord Spencer
was good; Lord Ripon very good indeed, the best speech he ever heard
him make. The amendment to the Address was admirably composed, most
skilful and judicious. Melbourne was miserable; he never made so bad
a speech, mere buffoonery, and without attempting an answer to Ripon.
The Duke of Richmond was strong both in manner and matter, threatening
if the new Government did anything, _as some said they would_, that
they would turn them out likewise. The Duke of Wellington complimented
Melbourne handsomely on the judicious advice and the good instruction
he had given the Queen. Lord Lansdowne was good, and quoted with
effect a speech of Mr. Robinson's in favour of a fixed duty. Brougham
was very bitter; he voted with the Government, but attacked Melbourne,
and taunted him with not having answered Ripon's speech. Lord John had
communicated the Queen's Speech to Peel on Monday, in order that he
might have time to frame his amendment. He behaved very well about
this. He said that it was a very extraordinary occasion: that as the
Speech was one which invited an amendment, it was fair to give the
other side an opportunity of framing it in the most advisable manner,
his great object being that the Queen's dignity and _position_ should
be consulted and cared for. Accordingly he proposed to the Cabinet
that he should be authorised to send the Speech to Peel, to which they
would not agree. On this he took it upon himself to do so, and he
wrote to Fremantle, and told him if Peel would like to see the Speech
he would send it him. Peel was very glad to have it, so Lord John
sent it through Fremantle, and this gave them time to consider their
amendment, and excellently done it is. The Duke of Wellington wrote
to Lord John during the debates, to offer to adjourn the House till
Friday. All these proceedings are decorous and graceful, and when such
a spirit animates the Leaders, one feels that the great interests must
be safe.
In the other House a very bad debate, Roebuck making a clever speech,
and attacking John Russell and the Whigs, which shows how little
union there is likely to be in the Opposition. Lord John has been in
communication with Lord Stanley for a good while. When he found how
the elections were going, and that the Government was virtually at
an end, he began communicating with Stanley about certain colonial
matters which, he thought, had better be left to the discretion of his
successor; and they seem to have been corresponding very amicably on
the subject for some time.
The Duke of Bedford has sent in the Duchess's resignation, as he found
that Peel meant to require the retirement of the three Ladies of the
Household connected with the Government--Sutherland, Bedford, and
Normanby.
[Footnote 8: [The first Session of the New Parliament opened on
August 24, the Whigs being still in office. Lord Ripon moved an
Amendment to the Address in the House of Lords, which was carried
by a majority of 72 against Ministers. In the House of Commons
Ministers were defeated on the Address upon the 28th August by a
majority of 91.]]
[Sidenote: DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.]
_August 28th._--The House divided last night, and gave the Opposition
a majority of ninety-one, almost all the Conservatives attending, and
some of the others being absent. Peel seems to have spoken out, and
to have announced to friend and foe that he will resolutely follow
his own course. If he adheres to this and takes a bold flight, he
may be a great man. Yesterday morning Arbuthnot told me that the Duke
certainly would not come to the Council Office. He does not like it,
says he knows nothing of the business, and won't have anything to do
with it; but he told me what surprised me more, and that is, that
two years ago, when everybody supposed he was to have been President
of the Council, he was in fact to have been Secretary for Foreign
Affairs; and it would not much surprise me if he were to take the
Foreign Office again, for whatever others may think, he fancies
himself as fit as ever to do the business of any office.
The answer to the Lords' Address was given yesterday and was
satisfactory; but there is some perplexity as to the answer to the
Commons, whether Melbourne can give it, or if it must be left to
Peel. To show how difficult it is to get at the truth on any subject,
Clarendon told me yesterday that John Russell never had proposed to
the Cabinet to send the speech to Peel; that it was after the Cabinet
on Friday that he (Clarendon) suggested it to Lord John, who at first
objected to it, but afterwards did it, and told his colleagues at
Windsor that he had done so. Lord John also sent to Peel and offered
to bring in the Poor Law Bill for a year, if he liked it. Peel sent
him word he was much obliged to him for the offer, but that he must
exercise his own discretion in the matter. They thought this very
_Peelish_ and over-cautious, but I don't know that he could do
otherwise. It is creditable and satisfactory to observe the good tone
and liberal feeling mutually evinced between the Leaders. The other
night Goulburn made a really excellent speech in reply to Baring, and
after the debate Baring came over and shook hands with him, saying,
'You have made an admirable speech to-night.'
_September 1st._--On Monday morning Peel went down to Windsor. He was
well enough satisfied with his reception. The Queen was civil, but
dejected; she repeated (what she said two years ago) the expression
of her regret at parting with her Ministers. Peel, with very good
taste, told her that, as he had never presumed to anticipate his
being sent for, he had had no communications with anybody, and was
quite unprepared with any list to submit to her, and must therefore
crave for time. It was settled that he should have another audience
this morning. Up to this time no appointment is known but that of Lord
de Grey as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. Peel sent for Francis Egerton
and told him that he should have proposed that post to him, had he not
known that it would not suit him to go to Ireland; and Francis said he
was quite right, and that it was not his wish to take any office. If
Peel had any occasion for his assistance, he would readily afford it,
but he apprehended that his difficulty would be found rather in the
abundance than the lack of candidates for office. Peel shook his head,
and said it was so indeed, and added that he had not had a single
application for office from anybody who was fit for it. It seems clear
that the Duke will hold no office. In June he wrote a letter to Peel
urging all the reasons why he should not hold office, but expressing
his readiness to do anything he might think most serviceable to his
Government. Among other reasons he said that a war was not improbable
in the unsettled state of European politics, and in the event of its
breaking out he should most likely have to take the command of an
allied army in Germany, thus exhibiting his own reliance on his moral
and physical powers. I did not know (what I heard yesterday) that
last year the King of Prussia sent to the Duke, through Lord William
Russell, to know if he would take the command of the Forces of the
German Confederation in the event of a war with France. He replied
that he was the Queen of England's subject, and could take no command
without her permission; but if that was obtained, he felt as able as
ever, and as willing to command the King's army against France.
[Sidenote: SIR R. PEEL'S LIBERAL POLICY.]
It is impossible for Peel to have begun more auspiciously than he has
done. I expected that he would act with vigour and decision, and he
has not disappointed my expectations. His whole conduct for some time
past evinced his determination. Those liberal views, which terrified
or exasperated High Tories, High Churchmen, and bigots of various
persuasions; those expressed or supposed opinions and intentions which
elicited the invectives of the 'British Critic,' or the impertinences
of 'Catholicus,' were to me a satisfactory earnest that, whenever he
might arrive at the height of power, he was resolved to stretch his
wings out and fly in the right direction. He must be too sagacious a
man not to see what are the only principles on which this country can
or ought to be governed, and that, inasmuch as he is wiser, better
informed, and more advanced in practical knowledge than the mass of
his supporters, it is absolutely necessary for him immediately to
assume that predominance over them, and to determine their political
allegiance to him, without establishing which his Government would be
one of incessant shifts and expedients, insincere, ineffective, and
in the end abortive. I never doubted that, if he had the boldness and
the wisdom to take a high line, and assume a high tone at the outset,
they would all, _bon gré, mal gré_, succumb to him, and follow and
support him on his own terms. He has now a grand career open to him,
and the means of rendering himself truly great. The mere possession
of office and the dispensation of patronage can be nothing to him;
worse than nothing, to hold office on terms he could not but feel
to be humiliating, which would not lead to fame, and would probably
in the end entail downfall and disgrace. It is not worth his while,
with his immense fortune, high position, and great reputation, to be
a mere commonplace Minister, struggling with the embarrassments and
the prejudices of his own party. This would be mere degradation and
loss of character. He must therefore contemplate the illustration
of his administration by the establishment of principles at once
sound and popular, combining the essence both of Conservatism and
Reform, scrupulously preserving from all assaults the Constitution
in all its purity, and carefully extending every sort of improvement
and reform that the wants of the people or the imperfections of
particular institutions may require. He must reconcile Conservatism
with Reform, and prove to the world that instead of their being
antagonistic principles, they only appear to be, or are rendered so
by the exaggerations and perversions with which interested or bigoted
men invest them both. He must satisfy the people of this country, that
by the maintenance of the ancient Constitution, and the suppression
of Radicalism, their real and permanent interests will be promoted
and secured, and animate and invigorate the sentiment of loyalty and
attachment to the Crown and Constitution, by teaching the universal
lesson, that under its protecting shade the greatest attainable
amount of happiness and prosperity may in all human probability be
obtained. The Opposition fondly hope that Peel's followers will desert
him rather than subscribe to his more liberal and generous maxims of
government. I do not believe it. If success attends him, and they see
his policy producing prosperity and tranquillity, they will be too
happy to 'increase the triumph and partake the gale,' and, after all,
their greatest object must be to secure the Constitution from Radical
inroads, and exclude from power a Government which they believe could
only retain it, if restored, by enormous concessions of a democratic
tendency. I think, therefore, Peel is in no danger of being abandoned
by the great body of the Conservatives, and if the liberality of some
of his measures entails the loss of some Ultra Tories, it will be so
much the better for him. What he has to do is to make himself popular
with the country--not with 'the uninformed mob that swells a nation's
bulk,' but with 'those who are elevated enough in life to reason and
reflect, yet low enough to keep clear of the venal contagion of a
Court,'--as Burns terms them, 'a nation's strength.'
[Sidenote: SIR R. PEEL'S ADMINISTRATION.]
_September 4th._--Went yesterday to Claremont for the Council, at
which the new Ministers were appointed--a day of severe trial for the
Queen, who conducted herself in a manner which excited my greatest
admiration and was really touching to see.[9] All the Members of the
old Government who had Seals or Wands to surrender were there (not
Melbourne), and in one room; the new Cabinet and new Privy Councillors
were assembled in another, all in full dress. The Household were in
the Hall. The Queen saw the people one after another, having already
given audience to Peel. After this was over she sent for me to inform
her in what way the Seals were to be transferred to the new men. I
found her with the Prince, and the table covered with bags and boxes.
She desired I would tell her what was to be done, and if she must
receive them in the Closet, or give them their Seals in Council.
I told her the latter was the usual form, and it was of course
that which she preferred. Having explained the whole course of the
proceeding to her, she begged I would take the Seals away, which I
accordingly did, and had them put upon the Council table. She looked
very much flushed, and her heart was evidently brim full, but she
was composed, and throughout the whole of the proceedings, when her
emotion might very well have overpowered her, she preserved complete
self-possession, composure, and dignity. This struck me as a great
effort of self-control, and remarkable in so young a woman. Taking
leave is always a melancholy ceremony, and to take leave of those who
have been about her for four years, whom she likes, and whom she
thinks are attached to her, together with all the reminiscences and
reflexions which the occasion was calculated to excite, might well
have elicited uncontrollable emotions. But though her feelings were
quite evident, she succeeded in mastering them, and she sat at the
Council Board with a complete presence of mind, and when she declared
the President and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland her voice did not falter.
Though no courtier, I did feel a strong mixture of pity and admiration
at such a display of firmness. The Household almost all came to
resign, but as Peel had not got their successors ready, she would not
accept their resignations, and she was right. They came to me to know
what was to be done. I went to Peel, who wrote down the only people
he had to name--Master of the Horse, Steward, and Vice-Chamberlain. I
gave the paper to the Queen, and it was settled that Errol and Belfast
should alone resign. Lord Jersey kissed hands as Master of the Horse,
and the rest continued to discharge their functions as before. Peel
told me that she had behaved perfectly to him, and that he had said to
her that he considered it his first and greatest duty to consult her
happiness and comfort; that no person should be proposed to her who
could be disagreeable to her, and that whatever claims or pretensions
might be put forward on the score of parliamentary or political
influence, nothing should induce him to listen to them, and he would
take upon himself the whole responsibility of putting an extinguisher
on such claims in any case in which they were inconsistent with
her comfort or opposed to her inclination. I asked him if she had
taken this well, and met it in a corresponding spirit, and he said,
'Perfectly.' In short, he was more than satisfied; he was charmed with
her. She sent to know if any of the new Ministers wished to see her,
but the only one who did so was the Duke of Wellington, who had an
audience of a few minutes. He told me afterwards that she reproached
him for not taking office, and had been very kind to him. He told her
that she might rely on it he had but one object, and that was to serve
her in every way that he possibly could; that he thought he could be
more useful to her without an office than with one; that there were
younger men coming on whom it was better to put in place; and in or
out, she would find him always devoted to her person in any way in
which he could render himself useful to her. So that everything went
off very well, plenty of civilities, and nothing unpleasant; but, for
all these honeyed words, affable resignation on her part, and humble
expressions of duty and devotion on theirs, her heart is very sore,
and her thoughts will long linger on the recollections of the past.
[Sidenote: LORD MELBOURNE'S MESSAGE TO SIR R. PEEL.]
In the evening I dined at Stafford House and met Melbourne. After
dinner he took me aside and said, 'Have you any means of speaking to
_these chaps_?' I said, 'Yes, I can say anything to them.' 'Well,'
he said, 'I think there are one or two things Peel ought to be told,
and I wish you would tell him. Don't let him suffer any appointment
he is going to make to be talked about, and don't let her hear it
through anybody but himself; and whenever he does anything, or has
anything to propose, let him explain to her clearly his reasons. The
Queen is not conceited; she is aware there are many things she cannot
understand, and she likes to have them explained to her elementarily,
not at length and in detail, but shortly and clearly; neither does
she like long audiences, and I never stayed with her a long time.
These things he should attend to, and they will make matters go on
more smoothly.' I told him I would certainly tell Peel, and then I
told him how well she had behaved in the morning, and all Peel had
said to me, and that he might rely on it Peel wished and intended
to consult her comfort in every way, and that he had spoken to me
with great feeling of the painful situation in which he was placed,
and how impossible it was for any man with the commonest feelings of
a gentleman not to be annoyed to the greatest degree at being the
instrument, however unavoidably, of giving her so much pain. I told
him that I knew Peel, so far from taking umbrage at the continuance of
his social relations with her, was desirous that they should not be
broken off. Melbourne said, 'That was a very difficult matter, not on
Peel's account, for he had never imagined he would feel otherwise,
but from other considerations.' This morning I called on Peel and
told him word for word what Melbourne had said to me. He said, 'It
was very kind of Lord Melbourne, and I am much obliged to him; but do
you mean that this refers to anything that has already occurred?' I
said, 'Not at all, but to the future.' Melbourne, knowing the Queen's
mind better than Sir Robert possibly could, wished to tell him these
things in order that matters might go on more smoothly. He said that
he had hitherto taken care to explain everything to her, and that he
should not fail to attend to the advice. I then repeated to him pretty
much of the conversation I had had with Melbourne, and added that I
had told him I was sure from what I had heard from others (not from
Peel himself), that so far from taking umbrage at any continuance of
the social intercourse between him and the Queen, he was perfectly
content it should continue. He said that 'it was ridiculous to suppose
he could have any jealousy of the kind, that he had full reliance on
the Queen's fairness towards him, and besides he knew very well how
useless it would be to interfere, if there were any disposition to act
unfairly towards him, as he was sure there would not be. Nothing he
could do could prove effectual to prevent any mischief, and therefore
implicit confidence was the wisest course. People told him that Mr.
M---- was a person to be guarded against, but he treated all such
intimations with the greatest contempt. The idea of a Prime Minister
having anything to fear from Mr. M--, or anybody in his situation, was
preposterous.'
[Sidenote: SIR R. PEEL'S CONVERSATION WITH THE QUEEN.]
He then talked of his communications with the Queen. He said that
he had told her that if any other Ministerial arrangement had been
possible, if any other individual could have been substituted for him,
as far as his personal inclinations were concerned, he should have
been most ready to give way to such person; but it was impossible
for him not to be aware that no man but himself could form the
Government, and that he had taken on himself responsibilities, and
owed obligations to his Party, which compelled him to accept the task.
The Queen had agreed upon this necessity, and upon the impossibility
of anybody else being substituted for him. He said a great deal to me
of his own indifference to office, of the enormous sacrifices which it
entailed upon him; and as to power, that he possessed enough of power
out of office to satisfy him, if power was his object. He had told the
Queen that his present position enabled him to make concessions to her
which it was impossible for him to do in '39, when he was so weak and
in a minority in the House of Commons; that now he could consult her
wishes in a manner that was then out of his power, and with regard to
her Household she should have no one forced upon her contrary to her
own inclination. As to her Ladies, he hoped, under the circumstances,
she would take Conservatives, but he had no desire to suggest any
particular individuals. Those who were most agreeable to her would be
most acceptable to him, and he begged her to make her own selection.
As to the men, she had said she did not care who they were, provided
they were of good character; but every appointment had been made in
concert with her, and it so happened that they were all exactly such
as he had wished to make, as well as such as she liked to have. He
then repeated that he would not suffer her to be annoyed with the
pretensions of any people who would be disagreeable to her. He knew
that there were many expectations, and would be many disappointments,
but he could not help that, and if Conservatives were not ready to
make some personal sacrifices--if for the advantage of having their
Party placed in power they would not postpone their claims--he could
not help it, and must take the consequences whatever they might be.
He was a good deal disappointed at the Duchess of Buccleuch's refusal
to be Mistress of the Robes. Besides the extreme difficulty of finding
a fit person for the office, it is awkward and mortifying to have
so much difficulty in filling up these high places; and the Duke of
Rutland's refusal to be Chamberlain, and the subsequent offer to Lord
Exeter (who had not given his answer), made it more mortifying to
those candidates to whom no offers are made. He has, in fact, deeply
offended and mortified a great many expectants of office, and first
and foremost the Duke of Beaufort, who, after having received the
Queen at his house, and been distinguished with rather peculiar marks
of favour, fully expected that he would have been selected as one
especially agreeable to Her Majesty, instead of finding himself in
a manner proscribed, he cannot tell why. The Irish lords, Glengall
and Charleville, are also furious, and consider Ireland--that is,
Orange Ireland--insulted and neglected in their persons; the Beauforts
are only sulky. Wilton is another disappointed aspirant; but the
Irish lords are open-mouthed and abusive. On the other hand, his
Whig enemies accuse him of endeavouring to shift the odium of these
exclusions on the Queen, which is certainly not true; but in these
times bitterness and disappointment never fail to engender swarms of
lies.
With regard to Peel and his conduct, I think he is doing well,
and acting a fair, manly, and considerate part. He was wrong, I
think, to ask her to name Conservative Ladies. The principle of a
mixed household having been admitted, he had better have placed no
limitation on her discretion, and she would probably have taken
Conservatives. While he was talking to me, I felt some surprise--some
at his tone about office and power, some at what he said about M--,
and all that. I thought to myself, 'You are a very clever man; you
are not a bad man; but you are not great.' He may become as great
a Minister as abilities can make any man; but to achieve real
greatness, elevation of mind must be intermingled with intellectual
capacity, and this I doubt his having. There is a something which
will confine his genius to the earth instead of letting it soar on
high. I dare say he can be just, liberal, generous and wise, but he
has been so long habituated to expedients, to partial dissimulation,
to indirect courses, and has such a limited knowledge of the world
and human nature, and so little disposition or desire for reciprocal
confidence with other men, that I doubt his mind ever expanding
into a true liberality and generosity of feeling. However, he has
never before been in possession of real and great power, his course
has been impeded and embarrassed by all sorts of obstructions and
difficulties. It remains to be seen how he will act in his new
capacity, and whether he will assert his independence to its fullest
extent; above all, whether he will elevate his moral being to 'the
height of his great argument.'
[Footnote 9: Sir Robert Peel's Administration was composed as
follows:
First Lord of the Treasury Sir Robert Peel
Lord Chancellor Lord Lyndhurst
Lord President Lord Wharncliffe
Lord Privy Seal Duke of Buckingham (and, on his
retirement, the Duke of Buccleuch)
Chancellor of the Exchequer Right Hon. H. Goulburn
Home Secretary Sir James Graham
Foreign Secretary Earl of Aberdeen
Colonial Secretary Lord Stanley
Secretary at War Sir Henry Hardinge (and, on his
departure for India, Right Hon.
Sidney Herbert)
Board of Control Lord Ellenborough (and, on his
departure for India, Lord
FitzGerald--on his death, Earl of
Ripon)
Board of Trade Earl of Ripon (and subsequently Mr.
Gladstone)
Duchy of Lancaster Lord Granville Somerset
Postmaster-General Lord Lowther
First Lord of the Admiralty Earl of Haddington
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland Earl de Grey
Woods and Forests Earl of Lincoln]
[Sidenote: CONVERSATION WITH THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.]
_September 6th._--Yesterday I called on Melbourne and told him what
had passed between Peel and myself. We had a great deal of talk about
things and people connected with the Court, about the appointments and
the exclusions which were producing so much heartburning. The woman
the Queen would prefer for her Mistress of the Robes is Lady Abercorn.
She said Peel was so shy, that it made her shy, and this renders their
intercourse difficult and embarrassing, but Melbourne thinks this may
wear off in time. I said it might be eased by his cultivating the
Prince, with whom he could discuss art, literature, and the tastes
they had in common. After a good deal of loose talk, we parted, he
saying that if anything else occurred to him he thought desirable
to communicate, he would send to me. So here am I strangely enough
established as the medium of communication between the present and the
past Prime Ministers, and have got the office of smoothing away the
asperities of royal and official intercourse. If I can do any good,
and prevent some evil, above all destroy the effects of falsehood and
malignity, and assist in making truth prevail, I shall be satisfied.
_September 7th._--I fell in with the Duke of Wellington yesterday
coming from the Cabinet, and walked home with him. He seemed very
well, but totters in his walk. The great difference in him is his
irritability, and the asperity with which he speaks of people.
Everybody looks at him, all take off their hats to him, and one
woman came up and spoke to him. He did not seem to hear what she
was saying, but assuming as a matter of course that, she wanted
something, he said, 'Do me the favour, Ma'am, to write to me,' and
then moved on as quickly as he could. Not that by her writing she
would get much, for he has answers lithographed, to be sent to his
numerous applicants, which is rather comical because characteristic.
I had some talk with him about the applicants, when he told me, in
confirmation of what Melbourne had said, that it was the Prince who
insisted upon spotless character. He said it was impossible to explain
all this, and he was aware how mortified and angry these people are,
but he said some means must be found of pacifying them in other ways,
and he talked in such terms of Beaufort's capacity that I began to
think he was contemplating an embassy for him. They have been very
fortunately delivered from the embarrassment of Lord Londonderry by
the extravagance of his pretensions. They offered him Vienna, which he
rejected with disdain; he wanted Paris, and not getting this, he went
off in high dudgeon, and they were too happy to make him their bow
and have done with him. In my opinion they were very wrong to offer
him anything at all. It was a great blunder six years ago to have
proposed to send him to Petersburg. He is neither useful abroad nor
dangerous at home, and might very properly be left to his fate and his
indignation.
_September 8th._--Peel's troubles about the Household are drawing to
a close, as he has prevailed on the Duchess of Buccleuch to take the
Robes, and most of the others are named--on the whole pretty well, but
with some exceptions.
[Sidenote: CANDIDATES FOR OFFICE.]
_September 17th._--A Council at Windsor on Wednesday, the first
since the change. It went off very well, all the new Ministers being
satisfied with their reception. The Queen was very gracious and
good-humoured. At dinner she had the Duke next to her (his deaf ear
unluckily) and talked to him a good deal. After dinner she spoke to
Aberdeen and then to Peel, much as she used to her old Ministers. I
saw no difference in her manner. She talked for some time to Peel,
who could not help putting himself into his accustomed attitude
of a dancing master giving a lesson. She would like him better if
he would keep his legs still. When we went into the drawing-room
Melbourne's chair was gone, and she had already given orders to the
Lord-in-waiting to put all the Ministers down to whist, so that there
was no possibility of any conversation, and she sat all the evening
at her round table with Lady De la Warr on one side and Lady Portman
on the other, perhaps well enough for a beginning, but too stupid
if intended to last. There was no general conversation. The natural
thing would have been to get the Duke of Wellington to narrate some
of the events of his life, which are to the last degree interesting,
but this never seems to have crossed her mind. Peel told me that
nobody could form an idea of what he had had to go through in the
disposal of places, the adjustment of conflicting claims, and in
answering particular applications, everybody thinking their own case
the strongest in the world, and that they alone ought to be excepted
from any general rule. I take it the examples of selfishness and
self-sufficiency have been beyond all conception. A few I heard of:
old Maryborough at seventy-nine years old is not content with passing
the few years he may have to live in repose, and is indignant that
nothing was offered to him. Lefroy, Peel told me, was with him for
an hour consuming his precious time, and he had been forced to tell
him that he must and would make his judicial appointments according
to his own sense of their fitness and propriety. Chin Grant wanting
to be Chairman of Ways and Means; everybody, as Peel said, fancying
that to any office they had ever held they had a sort of vested right
and title, and forgetting that younger men must be brought forward. I
told him that he had had a great escape in Londonderry's refusal to
go to Vienna, and that the appointment would have done him infinite
mischief. The Duke of Beaufort has now applied for the Embassy at
Vienna by letter to Peel.
_September 22nd._--Peel is going on skirmishing in the House of
Commons, where a Whig or a Radical every now and then fires a little
shot at the new Government. John Russell is gone into the country.
The grand topic of complaint is the refusal of Government to bring
forward any measures of relief to the suffering interests, and any
financial projects, before the usual period of meeting next year.
But the Opposition have made no case, though perhaps Peel would
have done wisely to call Parliament together again in November. The
appointments are most of them completed, except the diplomatic posts,
which are still uncertain, and the Governor-Generalship of India.
This was offered to Haddington, who refused it, and it is a curious
circumstance that a man so unimportant, so destitute not only of
shining but of plausible qualities, without interest or influence,
should by a mere combination of accidental circumstances have had at
his disposal three of the greatest and most important offices under
the Crown, having actually occupied two of them, and rejected the
greatest and most brilliant of all. He has been Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, he refuses to be Governor General of India, and he is First
Lord of the Admiralty. To the list of the discontented I find one may
be added in the person of Chief Justice Burke, who came over here to
bargain for his retirement and solicit a peerage. He has held on that
a Conservative Government might dispose of his office, and he thinks
he has a good claim to be made a peer. But he has not only not got
what he wants, but complains that Peel has been wanting in courtesy in
not having any personal communication with him. He expected Peel would
send for him, but he did not, and the Chief is gone back to Ireland
with a strong sense of neglect and ill-usage.
[Sidenote: A POLITICAL FORECAST.]
_September 27th._--Went on Friday to Woburn, and returned yesterday.
Nobody there but Sir George Seymour and his wife, and old Lord
Lynedoch, who is ninety-six, and just going to Italy for the winter.
Not much talk on politics, but, with reference to the sanguine
expectations of Palmerston of a speedy restoration to office, the
Duke confirmed what I before thought, that, even if the road was
again open, the old Government never could be reconstituted, and
that, whatever others might do, Lord John never would consent to its
restoration _tale quale_, for example, with Melbourne at its head,
with all his vacillation and weakness. But as the Queen has no notion
of a Whig Government except that of Melbourne, and cares for nobody
else, it would not at all meet her wishes and expectations to propose
the formation of a Cabinet with any other Chief. I suspect Lord John
would agree to no plan which did not make himself Prime Minister, and
he would be quite right. Palmerston would agree to anything which
took him back to the Foreign Office; but he would find the Foreign
Office under Lord John a very different thing from the Foreign
Office under Melbourne; and as the vindictive nature of Palmerston
will never forgive Lord John for the part he took in the Eastern
business, and as Lord John, though with a strange facility he became
reconciled to Palmerston, has no confidence in him, I do not see how
they could possibly go on.[10] It is very pleasant to be at Woburn,
with or without society, a house abounding in every sort of luxury
and comfort, and with inexhaustible resources for every taste--a
capital library, all the most curious and costly books, pictures,
prints, interesting portraits, gallery of sculpture, garden with the
rarest exotics, collected and maintained at a vast expense--in short,
everything that wealth and refined taste can supply.
I read there a Diary of John Duke of Bedford (Junius's Duke), which
is not at all interesting, but it affords strong evidence to show the
injustice of Junius, and that he was a very good sort of man instead
of being the monster that Junius represents him. The Duke told me that
the intimacy in which Sir Philip Francis had lived with his uncle,
and his having been an habitual guest at Woburn, was quite enough to
account for his concealing and denying that he was the author. It
would certainly have drawn a host of enemies upon him, as all the
Russells and Fitzroys would have felt in duty bound to resent the
fierce and savage attacks of Junius upon their grandfather and father.
He had every motive for concealment, and none for disclosure, and as
to his vanity, that must have been amply gratified by the general
suspicion and acknowledgement (implied by the suspicion) that he was
_capable_ of writing Junius. I never had a doubt that Francis was
Junius, and that belief is growing very general.
Nothing new in politics. Lord John is gone to Endsleigh, but
Palmerston sticks to his place in the House of Commons. There is a
good deal of skirmishing, and Peel's opponents have done him great
service by making very feeble and ineffective attacks on him, which
just enabled him to make good speeches in reply, and to put forth his
case to the country, for the course he is pursuing, in the manner most
likely to make an impression. His answer last Friday to a pert speech
of Patrick Stewart's was excellent.
[Footnote 10: [This is precisely what did occur, though it was
many years afterwards. Lord John Russell returned to office as
Prime Minister in 1846, and Lord Palmerston resumed the direction
of Foreign Affairs; but, after innumerable disputes, which will
be related here _en temps et lieu_, his colleagues could endure
it no longer and turned him out in December, 1851; but this event
led shortly afterwards to the dissolution of Lord John Russell's
Government as is here foretold.]]
_September 29th._--Mellish gave me an account, last night, of
Palmerston's last doings at the Foreign Office. He created five new
paid attachés without the smallest necessity, and all within a few
days of his retirement. This was done to provide for a Howard, an
Elliot, and a Duff, and a son of Sir Augustus Poster, whose provision
was made part of the conditions of another job, the retirement of Sir
Augustus to make way for Abercromby, Lord Minto's son-in-law,--all
foul jobbing at the public expense, and to all this useless waste the
austere and immaculate Francis Baring, Chancellor of the Exchequer,
the Cerberus who growls at every claimant on the Treasury, no matter
how just his claims may be, gave his consent, complacent to his daring
and unscrupulous colleague. Mellish told me another anecdote of
Palmerston, that eleven thousand pounds (I put it in letters, because
in figures some error might have been suspected) had been spent in
_one year_, at the Foreign Office, in chaises and four conveying
messengers to overtake the mail with his private letters, which never
were ready in time. Nothing ever equalled the detestation in which
he is regarded at that Office; still, they do justice to his ability
and to his indefatigable industry, and they say that any change
of Government which would take place must include him in the new
arrangement.
[Sidenote: WEAKNESS OF THE LATE GOVERNMENT.]
Last night Charles Buller told me he did not think Peel's Government
would last, because he did not go the way to make it last, but that
he thought Peel himself had done admirably well in every respect;
and he must own the Government, as far as they had gone, had
behaved properly and handsomely, especially about the Poor Laws and
Canada--better than the late would have done as to the last. It is
remarkable that the very people belonging to the late Government had
no respect for it and no confidence in it. He owned to me that it was
time such a miserable apology for a Government as the late Cabinet was
(these were my words, not his) should come to an end: a government
of departments, absolutely without a chief, hating, distrusting,
despising one another, having no principles and no plans, living from
hand to mouth, able to do nothing, and indifferent whether they did
anything or not, proposing measures without the hope or expectation
of carrying them, and clinging to their places for no other reason
than because they had bound themselves to the Queen, who insisted on
their continuance in spite of their feelings of conscious humiliation
and admitted impotence, merely because she loved to have Melbourne
domesticated at Windsor Castle, and she could not have him there on
any other terms.
_November 8th._--Above a month since I have written anything in this
book. I left London the second week in October; went to Burghley,
thence to Newmarket, to Thornhill's; Newmarket again, Charles
Drummond's, and London this day week. In this interval my history is
very brief and uninteresting. The principal events consist of the
affair at Canton, and the failure of the Spanish Christina plot, the
Exchequer Bill business, the burning of the Tower, and now we are
occupied with the approaching delivery of the Queen, and the probable
death of the Queen Dowager.
Elliot[11] is expected home any day. There is a mighty clamour against
him, but he confidently asserts, and his friends fondly hope, that
he will be able to make his case good. The Government will treat him
impartially, for Lord Wharncliffe said to me the other day that he was
not at all sure it would not turn out that Elliot was quite right in
what he had done at Canton; but the disappointment, and disapprobation
of the General and the Admiral have naturally damaged him in public
opinion here, and people are so sick of this silly, inglorious, but
mischievous war, that they are exasperated at any opportunity having
been lost of terminating it by a decisive blow.
In the Spanish business Louis Philippe has been intriguing up to
the chin, without the participation, but not at least without the
knowledge of Guizot. Everybody knows this, and our press has let
loose against him without reserve; but we must screen his delinquency
as well as we can, and pretend not to see it. It is a marvellous
thing that so wise a man can't be a little honest, and, as has been
remarked, a striking fact that, notwithstanding his great reputation
for sagacity, he is constantly engaged in underhand schemes, in which
he is generally both baffled and detected; and it is also remarkable
that, though a humane and good-natured man, and both brave and
politic, and felt to be necessary to France and Europe, he is both
disliked and despised. His history and his character afford materials
for a fine moral essay.
The Exchequer Bill business is very disagreeable, coming in the midst
of our other embarrassments, and the depth of it is not yet fathomed.
The Government were very much dissatisfied with Monteagle,[12] who,
they thought, did not evince a disposition to act cordially and
effectually with them: not that they suspected him of any improper
motive or culpable conduct, but he made difficulties, and stood on
absurd punctilios, which provoked and annoyed them; but latterly they
have been better satisfied.
[Sidenote: BIRTH OF THE PRINCE OF WALES.]
The Tower will cost money,[13] but there is no great loss sustained
except that of some new percussion muskets, about 11,000. The old arms
were useless and unsaleable, so that they are rather glad to have got
rid of them.
[Footnote 11: [Captain, afterwards Sir Charles Elliot, had been
the diplomatic agent of the Government in the ports of China at
the time of the seizure of opium by the Chinese Government. He was
blamed at the time, but subsequent events showed him to have been
right.]]
[Footnote 12: [Lord Monteagle was Comptroller of the Exchequer
when this great forgery of Exchequer Bills took place, to a very
large amount, which the Treasury lost. These bills were put into
circulation by a man named Rapallo, the same who advanced money to
Louis Napoleon for his Boulogne expedition in 1840. It is probable,
therefore, that there was some connexion between the two events.]]
[Footnote 13: [A fire broke out in the Tower of London, Oct. 31,
which consumed the grand storehouse and small armoury. The total
loss in stores and buildings was estimated at 200,000_l._]]
_November 11th._--The Queen was delivered of a son at forty-eight
minutes after ten on Tuesday morning the 9th. From some crotchet of
Prince Albert's, they put off sending intelligence of Her Majesty
being in labour till so late that several of the Dignitaries, whose
duty it was to assist at the birth, arrived after the event had
occurred, particularly the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord
President of the Council. At two o'clock a Council was held, and the
usual thanksgiving ordered. Last year the Prince took the chair, which
was all wrong; and this time I placed him at the top of the table
on the left, the Archbishop next him. None of the Royal Dukes were
summoned. 'God save the Queen' was sung with great enthusiasm at all
the theatres, and great joy manifested generally. The event came very
opportunely for the Lord Mayor's dinner. It was odd enough that the
same day Peel had been engaged with two or three more to dine at the
Palace, and had been forced to send excuses to the Lord Mayor, though
the Queen must have known it was Lord Mayor's Day. Melbourne under
similar circumstances would have gone to the Mansion House, but these
people are forced to stand rather more on ceremony than he was.
A curious point has arisen, interesting to the Guards. It has been the
custom for the officer on guard at St. James's Palace to be promoted
to a majority when a Royal Child is born.[14] The guard is relieved at
forty-five minutes after ten. At that hour the new guard marched into
the Palace Yard, and at forty-eight minutes after ten the child was
born. The question arises which officer is entitled to the promotion.
The officer of the fresh guard claims it because the relief marched
in before the birth, and the keys were delivered over to him; but the
other officer claims it because the sentries had not been changed when
the child was actually born, his men were still on guard, and he
disputes the fact of the delivery of the keys, arguing that in all
probability this had not occurred at the moment of the birth. The case
is before Lord Hill for his decision.
It is odd enough that there is a similar case involving civic honours
at Chester. The Prince being Earl of Chester by birth, the Mayor of
Chester claims a Baronetcy. The old Mayor went out and the new Mayor
came into office the same day and about the same hour, and it is
doubtful which functionary is entitled to the honour. The ex-Mayor was
a Whig banker, and the new one is a Tory linendraper.
I find that, during the Queen's confinement, all the boxes and
business are transmitted as usual to the Palace, and the former opened
and returned by the Prince. He established this practice last year. At
first orders were given to the Foreign Office to send no more boxes to
the Palace; but two days after, fresh orders were received to send the
boxes as usual, and to furnish the Prince with the necessary keys.
[Footnote 14: They found on enquiry that there was no precedent for
the promotion but they have given it notwithstanding. The old guard
got it.]
_November 19th._--Met Captain Elliot at dinner yesterday, who was
very amusing with his accounts of China. He seems (for I never saw
him before) animated, energetic, and vivacious, clever, eager,
high-spirited, and gay. He, of course, makes his own case very good,
and, whatever may be the merit or demerit of his conduct, taken as a
whole, I am inclined to think he will be able to vindicate his latest
exploit at Canton. He casts as much blame on the Admiral and General
as they did on him--that is, he treats them, and their notions and
censures, with great contempt. He also disapproves of the course we
are meditating, and says that we are all wrong to think of waging war
with China in any way but by our ships, and, above all, to wish to
establish diplomatic relations with her.
[Sidenote: LORD RIPON AND MR. MACGREGOR.]
All is quiet enough here. The new Ministers tell me they are strong in
the country, and that a general feeling of satisfaction and security
is diffused by the substitution of a real working Government for the
last batch. They are certainly working very hard, and mean to allow
themselves no repose. Cabinets have been constantly held, and in the
beginning of December they are to meet for the purpose of regular and
unbroken consultation. As yet, whatever Peel may contemplate, he has
proposed nothing to his colleagues, so that no dissensions can have
taken place among them, for the simple reason that there has been no
discussion. I asked Lord Wharncliffe what the Duke of Buckingham would
do when they came to discuss the Corn Laws, etc. He said he did not
know; hitherto he had given no indications, and had, in fact, done
nothing but apply to all the Ministers for places, being exceedingly
greedy after patronage. He describes him as a very ordinary man, and
apparently without any habits of, or taste for, business. Such as he
is, however, he is at the head of a powerful interest, and they did
well to take him in, end as it may. If Peel proposes Liberal measures,
and can prevail on Buckingham to go along with him, his task will
be much easier. If he is obstinate, and they turn him out, it will
tell well with the country. I never contemplate the other alternative
of Peel's succumbing to the Duke of Buckingham and the Corn Law
monopolists.
Meanwhile, Lord Ripon's conduct with regard to Macgregor is not
calculated to excite favourable expectations with reference to Free
Trade,[15] only it may have arisen more from personal than political
motives. As soon as he came into office he told Macgregor that, after
his evidence (on the Import Duties), he could have no confidence in
him, and it was better frankly to tell him so. Macgregor expressed
his regret, said that his opinions were unaltered, and that he was
confident time would prove their correctness, and that Lord Ripon
himself, or whoever might be Minister, would in the end be obliged to
adopt the principles he had propounded. Some days afterwards Ripon
again spoke to him in the same strain, informed him that he had no
confidence in him, and could not, therefore, with any satisfaction
transact business with him. To this Macgregor responded that it was
better he should once for all make known to his Lordship that he had
no intention of resigning, that he should give his best assistance
to him as President of the Board of Trade, without reference to any
political considerations, and that if he chose to turn him out in
consequence of the evidence he had given before the Committee of the
House of Commons, he was of course at liberty to do so. This silenced
Ripon, and he has never since returned to the subject. The truth seems
to be that he wants the place for H. Ellis, and thought he could make
Macgregor resign by what he said to him.
My brother writes me word that Louis Philippe has been plunging
chin-deep into the Spanish intrigues, and is now furious at having
been detected, and at the abuse which is lavished on him. We seem to
have taken a very proper course, keeping matters quiet, and without
any interference, giving the most cordial and amicable assurances to
the Spanish Government. Guizot is supposed to have had no concern in
these underhand dealings, but he can hardly avoid being mixed up in
them, and he will probably in the end be forced to become an unwilling
party to the King's manoeuvres, or to give up his office to Molé, who
will be glad to take it on any terms, and the King too happy to have
him.
[Footnote 15: [Lord Ripon was President of the Board of Trade and a
Protectionist; Macgregor a strong Free Trader, and it is due to him
to add that he contributed considerably as Secretary of the Board
of Trade to the triumph of Free Trade principles, though he was a
very inferior man to his colleague, Mr. Porter.]]