Opening of Parliament--State of Parties--The Duke of
Wellington's health--The Duke's Correspondence with Lord
Haddington--Constitution of the Judicial Committee--Debate on the
state of Ireland--Lord Hertford's Will--A Pun of Jekyll's--Lord
Melbourne--The Irish Church--The Privy Council Bill--Anecdote of
Mr. Pitt's Peers--Cambridge--Lord Ellenborough's Recall--Lord
Brougham's hostility--The Factory Bill--Lord Hardinge
Governor-General of India--Lord Brougham on Lord Hertford's
Case--The Emperor of Russia in London--Government Defeat on the
Sugar Duties--Sir Robert Peel resolves to resign--The Opening
of Letters at the Post Office--The Case of 'Running Rein'--Lord
Brougham's Privy Council Bill--Summary of Events--The Tahiti
Quarrel with France--The O'Connell Judgement--Lord Stanley goes to
the Upper House.
_London, February 2nd, 1844._--Parliament opened yesterday; as usual
with a Speech saying nothing, the Government apparently pretty
confident, and the Opposition bent on mischief.
_February 8th._--The session has opened favourably enough for
Ministers. The first night Peel made a decided speech, and he has
taken a decided attitude. He declared that he did not mean to make
any alteration at all in the present Corn Law, either as to duty or
scale. This was such an agreeable announcement to his friends, that
it put them at once into good humour, and they will now fight with
him cordially and vigorously, and we shall at least have a clear
line of demarcation, and good fair stand-up party contests. While
he has made himself strong and his party united _for the present_,
the Opposition have no unity of opinion, Howick and John Russell
being evidently opposed to each other, and probably all of them
entertaining all sorts of shades and gradations of opinion. Peel
evidently means to give up the notion of appealing to the reason of
the country, and the moderation which he hoped would help him through
his _juste milieu_ course, and thinks only of rallying the great Tory
body round him, and exhibiting himself as the master of certain and
willing majorities. As long as this Parliament lasts, it makes him as
firm as a rock, after which, God knows what will happen. The Irish
trials are almost over. O'Connell made a miserable speech; Sheil and
Whiteside were very good, especially the latter. The episode of the
Attorney-General's challenge came very opportunely for the first
night's debate, and the Government stood by him gallantly, which they
probably were right in doing, for no Government will be well and
heartily served, unless it throws its shield over its people when they
fall into difficulties.
[Sidenote: DUKE OF WELLINGTON AT THE CABINET.]
_February 9th._--As everything is interesting that relates to the
Duke of Wellington, it is so to hear the observations of those whose
situation enables them to watch the descending course of this great
luminary. Nobody has such opportunities as my brother. I was telling
him yesterday what Lord Wharncliffe had said to me, that it was
pleasant to see the extraordinary deference and attention which are
shown to him by his colleagues at the Cabinet. He always sits in the
same place, and each person who has anything to say or any subject
to bring forward invariably goes and sits next to him, to enable him
to hear better the material part of what is going forward, and the
greatest respect is evinced to his opinions on all subjects. He told
me that this was also very apparent in the correspondence of his
colleagues, who addressed him in the most deferential manner, and
often expressed their readiness to give up propositions which did not
meet with his concurrence. But he said that he grew more and more
irritable, and often expressed himself even to his colleagues with an
asperity which was matter of great regret to him (Algernon Greville),
and that frequently he felt the strongest desire to alter and
soften the tone of his letters, but that this was quite impossible:
nobody ever dared say anything to him, _he_ could not, and it would
be useless if he did, as it was not an accidental ebullition, but
proceeded from the increased and increasing irritability of his mind.
He instanced two cases lately, one of a letter to Sir Robert Peel,
and another to Lord Haddington, not on very material subjects, but in
which a tone of ruffled temper and something like pique was apparent,
very unlike his old disposition. The only person who sees his letters
is Arbuthnot, who never ventures to object, or to criticise them; and
if he did, Algy much doubts whether the Duke would take the trouble
to alter what he has once written. However, he is a wonder, be his
infirmities what they may.
_February 11th._--Yesterday Algy showed me the Duke's correspondence
with Haddington,[75] which is a terrible rigmarole, lengthy, angry,
mistaken, and altogether sadly demonstrative of a falling off in his
great mind. The subject is so insignificant that it would be waste
of time to say a word on it, if it were not for the interest which
attaches to the great man to whom it relates. Admiral Parker wrote a
warm panegyric on his nephew, Captain Wellesley, which he wound up by
saying, he spoke cautiously and reservedly (or some such expression)
for fear his motives should be misunderstood. The sentence was an
awkward one, but the sense was clear, and could only mean that he
was afraid it might be thought he praised the nephew in order to pay
court to the uncle, and therefore he in reality said rather less
than more than he deserved. The Duke chose to take it in an exactly
opposite sense, and insisted that it could only mean that _he_ was so
obnoxious that even his relative was not to receive his just meed of
praise--a thing not only quite improbable and absurd, but absolutely
unmeaning. On this he descanted very angrily, and then went off on
his own services, and that he never asked for anything for any of his
belongings, and a great deal of very pitiful balderdash. Haddington
seems to have _tombé de son haut_, at getting this extraordinary
ebullition, and wrote back what he meant to be a soother, assuring
the Duke that he had never thought of taking it in that sense, far
from it, and he added all that was respectful and obliging of himself
and his nephew, as well as what was reasonable and true; but the old
hero's blood was up, he had got his head the wrong way, and the devil
would not get it right again. He insisted on his own version of the
Admiral's letter, declared nobody could possibly read it in any other
sense (nobody could possibly see it in his), and fired back another
sulky broadside upon the First Lord of the Admiralty.
[Sidenote: LORD BROUGHAM'S JUDICIAL COMMITTEE BILL.]
The night before last Brougham came down to the House of Lords and
announced a bill which he is going to bring in to _amend!_ the working
of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, or, as he called it,
to 'remedy its imperfections.' Yesterday Wharncliffe gave me the
history of this transaction, which, if he is allowed successfully
to carry on, will be one of the most impudent jobs that ever was
perpetrated, and assuredly the Government must be strong which can
afford to be a consenting party to it. In the state of incessant
activity he has long been in he has, it seems, an ardent longing to
do something for _himself_. Money I do not believe he cares about,
though probably not averse to be well furnished with the means of
feasting his numerous clients, and the noble, honourable, learned and
fashionable friends with whom he cultivates or affects intimacies
in all ranks and all parties; but he wants some distinction, and
something which at least may give him the air of having authority
somewhere and a kind of official right to be still more meddling and
intrusive and dictatorial than he already is. Who knows, too, whether
his excursive mind does not look to the possibility of his making any
official or quasi-official situation a stepping-stone to the Woolsack,
under certain circumstances or contingencies, which may glimmer to
his mind's eye in the distant future? Be this as it may he has been
pestering the Chancellor to make him Vice-President of the Judicial
Committee. The Chancellor, who is very anxious to retain him in his
service, has already committed himself to an opinion expressed in the
House of Lords that it would be a good thing to give the Judicial
Committee a vice-president (_i. e._ a judicial head), and he has also
said that those who come and work there ought to be paid for their
services, and without such pay nobody ought to be required or expected
to attend. This last _dictum_ was purely selfish and to excuse
himself from giving his own services during the many years he was out
of office and doing nothing. When the Judicial Committee was first
constituted Brougham intended to make a job of it, and framed several
provisions accordingly; but meeting with some resistance (which I
contrived to spirit up Lord Lansdowne to make), and finding that if
there was any patronage the disposal of it would not be allotted to
him (then Chancellor), he became indifferent on that score, and no
provision was made for the payment of any members of the committee not
deriving emoluments from other sources. For many years accordingly the
clause which empowered the Queen to appoint certain persons who had
not held judicial offices in England to be members was not acted upon
at all. By arrangements made from time to time a quorum was always
secured consisting of persons either in office or holding judicial
pensions. These arrangements were not free from difficulties and
objections, still with a little trouble and occasional obstacles the
business went on pretty well; latterly, however, in consequence of
certain new duties which have been imposed on the Common Law judges,
we have in great measure lost the services of those of the judges
who are members of our Court. On the other hand, as soon as Campbell
relinquished the Great Seal in Ireland, he consented to be appointed
a judge in the Privy Council (though having no pension), and he has
ever since attended as a volunteer, punctually, generously, and
efficiently. His aid has been the principal support of the Court, and
it has lately obtained the equally important aid of Pemberton Leigh,
who was made a Privy Councillor when he was appointed Chancellor of
the Duchy of Cornwall on the express condition of his sitting in the
Judicial Committee, which he declared his readiness to do, and he was
appointed accordingly. There never was any question of Pemberton's
receiving a salary; indeed, if it had been contemplated that whoever
was named to the vacant seat in the Judicial Committee should be
paid, Peel would probably have looked for some man to whom the salary
would have been an object, and to whom it would have been an object
to him to give it, instead of throwing away a lucrative office on
one who is so rich that he has no occasion for it. However, Brougham
was resolved to get himself made Vice-President, which is, in fact,
President of this Court; but he was aware that it would be by no means
palatable to some of the other members, especially Campbell, and
probably Pemberton, that he should put himself over their heads, and
as there is not the slightest occasion for any such change, and no
reason to believe that either of the two volunteers desires or expects
any salary, the matter was not very easy. Still he made such a bother
about it that the Chancellor had a meeting with Lord Wharncliffe, the
Duke, and Peel, to consider of it. The Duke said if there was any
honorary appointment which would gratify him, and which they could,
not improperly, confer on him, he thought, _considering the way he
worked for them_, it would be as well to let him have it; but they
agreed that they could not propose anything in the way of emolument,
and at last it was settled that he should be made Vice-President.
It occurred to them, however, that as the Judicial Committee was a
Parliamentary creation it was not quite certain that the Queen had
power to make the appointment, and that it would be right to consult
the Attorney and Solicitor-General thereupon. The law officers said
they would not assert that the Queen had not the power, but as it
was in the nature of a change they thought it would be safer to do
it by Act of Parliament. The Ministers therefore told Brougham they
could not do it, and they declined bringing in any Bill; on which he
said, with some reflexions on their want of spirit, that he would
himself bring in a Bill, and accordingly he gave this notice the
other night. I have not yet seen the Bill, and I don't know whether
he has communicated with any of his colleagues on the subject, and
in what light they regard the matter; but I am exceedingly desirous
of defeating such a job, as it appears to be, if I can, and most
assuredly I will endeavour to do so.
[Footnote 75: [Lord Haddington was First Lord of the Admiralty, a
circumstance which gave rise to this correspondence.]]
[Sidenote: VICE-PRESIDENCY OF THE JUDICIAL COMMITTEE.]
_February 15th._--Nothing could exceed the satisfaction of the
Government at the result of the trial at Dublin, which, after all
the blunders and accidents, ended very well indeed for them, and far
better than they ever expected.[76] The unanimity of the judges they
scarcely hoped for; then the jury were unanimous and determined, and
yet considerate, and not violent. The poor devils were locked up,
without any necessity, from Saturday night till Monday morning, for
there would have been no risk in taking the verdict on Sunday. The
Chief Justice's charge was more like an advocate's speech than a
judicial charge, stronger by far than any of our judges would have
thought of delivering. This verdict arrived very opportunely for the
debate which began on Monday, and was a heavy blow and discouragement
to the Opposition. Most people regard it with satisfaction and think
it will do a world of good. The agitation which has been suspended
will not now be renewed. The notion of O'Connell's infallibility which
had got hold of the people has been destroyed, and the Irish have
seen that the Government is resolved to put the law in force, and
that the law is able to smite those who violate it. The display of
talent on this trial appears to have excited general admiration. Mr.
Justice Burton said that he remembered the days of Ireland's forensic
eminence, of Flood and his contemporaries, but that he had never seen
such ability displayed as upon this trial. The speeches of Sheil and
Whiteside, and the summing-up of the Solicitor-General, have been the
most admired.
Lord John Russell opened the debate in a speech three and a half hours
long, the greater part of which was very good.[77] His attack upon
Lyndhurst was imprudent, unfair, and in bad taste, and his notice of
Bradshaw pitiful. Graham made a very good speech in reply to him.
The most important circumstance in these speeches was the respective
declarations of the speakers about the Irish Church. John Russell went
further, and spoke more decisively than he had ever done before,
and declared for a complete equality between Catholics, Anglicans,
and Presbyterians; Graham, that he would not consent to touch the
Protestant or endow the Catholic Church.
[Footnote 76: [On February 12th, after a trial which lasted
twenty-five days, O'Connell was found guilty on all the eleven
counts of the indictment relating to conspiracy; an appeal was
entered, and judgement deferred. The verdict was subsequently set
aside, as will shortly be seen, on a purely technical ground.]]
[Footnote 77: [On February 13th Lord John Russell moved for a
Committee of the whole House to enquire into the state of Ireland.
It was rejected by a majority of ninety-nine.]]
[Sidenote: DEBATE ON IRELAND.]
_February 17th._--The debate has moved on heavily. The most remarkable
speeches have been Howick's, Sir George Grey's, Disraeli's, and
Stanley's. Howick spoke out and declared at once he would make the
Catholic the established religion of Ireland. Disraeli made a very
clever speech, not _saying_ so much, but implying it, and under
the guise of compliment making an ingenious and amusing attack on
Peel, Stanley, and Graham. Stanley's speech satisfied his people and
elicited their cheers, one of his slashing harangues, and perhaps he
gave a sufficient reply to John Russell; for the fact is, that such
speeches as theirs are quite useless and unmeaning, do not advance
the question, or tend in the slightest degree to a solution of the
enormous difficulties of our position; for it cannot be denied
that to whatever plan, or rather experiment, any man may lean, the
difficulties of execution are such as to terrify and embarrass the
clearest head and the boldest heart. The debate will last some
days more, but what may be said of it is this, that it will be the
commencement of a new war of principles. The Opposition, however, are
still divided and subdivided into many shades of opinion, and nothing
but the necessity of union for party purposes will bring about those
mutual concessions, without which no union can be accomplished. There
is a long interval still between Howick and John Russell. The fear
is, that this new Catholic question will be met by a new 'No Popery'
cry; though the Tory leaders will prevent this if they can, still it
is clear that their declarations must draw them closer to the Church,
and cement the alliance between them; whilst the Dissenters and the
Scotch, however they may prefer a Whig connexion, will be pretty sure
to join in opposition to the Catholics, and to anything like the
establishment or endowment of the Catholic Church. Dundas told me
to-day that hardly any Scotch Member could safely vote for a Catholic
endowment.
_February 22nd._--The debate is still going on. By far the most
remarkable speech that has yet been made was Macaulay's--an essay
perhaps it may be called, but still a brilliant oration, and the end
of it, with his reply to Stanley and his appeal to Peel, admirable.
He reserved himself for another occasion to speak about the Church,
which meant that he was in dread of his constituents. Follett followed
him, but disappointed everybody. Tuesday night was entirely occupied
by Wilde, and last night by Smith, the Irish Attorney-General, both
very able. Wilde was supposed to have made a very damaging assault on
the trial and its incidents, to a great part of which Smith replied
very successfully, and his speech was very well received. I met Lady
Palmerston at dinner on Tuesday, and asked her if Palmerston was
going to speak. She said he would not if he could help it. After
dinner I talked to her about the strange condition of the question,
when she said that 'everybody was agreed.' I said I thought no two
people were agreed and pointed out how John Russell said one thing,
Howick another, and so of all the rest, none seeming to have any
fixed opinion what should be done, though all insisted that something
must. She said John Russell had better not have said what he did, and
they did not mind what Howick said, that Palmerston agreed with the
Government, and that, in fact, their plan (of giving glebes to the
Catholic clergy) was his, and that he had not only suggested it, but
had acted on it as far as the law permitted. Peel is certainly acting
very shrewdly in letting this debate go on as long as anybody chooses
to continue it, for _quot homines, tot sententiæ_, and nothing can
better excuse the Government for not adopting some decisive measures
than the manifestation of such a chaos of sentiment and opinion as the
opposite benches afford. Stanley's speech a few nights ago, which was
delivered in his best style, and much praised by his adherents, is
severely censured by all but his adherents. It seems to have exhibited
all that acrimony and disposition to bigotry which it is so desirable
to get rid of, and though it may have been exhilarating to the spirits
of his friends, it was much less suitable to his station, and less
adapted to the great purposes of Government than Graham's.
[Sidenote: LORD HERTFORD'S WILL.]
All day yesterday I was listening to law in the Privy Council. Follett
made a very able reply in the appeal of Croker against Lord Hertford.
After which the Court proceeded to discuss the judgement. There were
two points: one, whether Lord Hertford's codicil confirming all
former codicils made good those which were not properly attested; the
other, whether the will having been executed at Milan, and being good
according to the _lex loci_, it was good here. If the first point
was decided in favour of the appellant, the second would not arise,
so they agreed to begin by considering the first. Dr. Lushington,
Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce, Baron Parke, and Lord Campbell concurred
with the judgement; Abinger, Denman, and Brougham were against it;
Tindal, who heard the first part of the case but not the last, was
not there. After a great deal of talk they agreed to meet again and
reconsider the case. They held the second point to be very difficult,
but very little passed about it. Nothing can exemplify more the
objection there would be to the Judges in our Court giving their
opinions _seriatim_ than this case. It would be very unsatisfactory
to have so close a division made public; if Tindal should incline to
the side of Brougham, Denman, and Co., I see that Knight Bruce will
go over to them in all probability, and turn the scale the other way.
In that case, if the Judges were to deliver their opinions, it is
abundantly probable that the arguments of the minority would appear
the soundest law, and it would be a curious anomaly that such a case
would be decided by the casting vote of a man whose real opinion was
at variance with that which he would have to express. The parties had
better have tossed up for the money at first.
The other day (_ut misceam dulcia utilibus_) Bobus Smith gave us at
dinner at Lady Holland's a good pun of Jekyll's (I so regret never
having met him). He was asked to dine at Lansdowne House, but was
engaged to the Chief Justice. It happened that the ceiling of the
dining-room at Lansdowne House fell in, which when Jekyll heard, he
said he had been invited to 'ruat cælum,' but was engaged to 'fiat
Justitia.'
_Sunday, February 25th._--On Friday night, after nine nights' debate,
the longest since the Duke of York's case, the division took place,
with 99 majority for the Government. The Attorney-General, Roebuck,
O'Connell, and Peel occupied the last night: the Attorney-General
very good; O'Connell spoke well, temperately, becomingly, was well
received, and made a favourable impression; Peel an able speech
of nearly four hours, very successful in repelling his opponent's
attacks, a very good party speech, but in my opinion not well argued
as to the Church question, and certainly containing nothing definite
or satisfactory. Some thought it indicated a consciousness of the
frail tenure by which the Church maintains itself, but he evinced no
disposition under any circumstances to be a party to the alienation
of its revenues. The general opinion is that the debate has reflected
great credit on the House of Commons; the Speaker says he never heard
one so good. There has been a great display of ability on both sides;
the lawyers, the statesmen, and the orators have equally distinguished
themselves; and, what is almost higher praise, the temper, the taste,
and the tone have been excellent, just what becomes a discussion upon
a subject so important and delicate. The best speeches have been those
of John Russell, Sir George Grey, Howick, Macaulay, Wilde, and Sheil;
Peel, Graham, Stanley, and the two Attorney-Generals; Disraeli very
clever and original, full of _finesse_, in some respects the most
striking of all. I think that on the whole it will do good: as far as
the Government are concerned, it will strengthen them for a time; but
from this moment a new Catholic question will begin, though it would
be indeed rash to predict when it will end. The Opposition all cry
out that O'Connell has not had a fair trial, and the Government were
extremely annoyed at Wilde's speech, which they felt was damaging. But
the imputed unfairness amounts at most to this, that although the
case was clearly proved against him, it is just possible, if the jury
list affair had not occurred, that some strong Catholic or Repealer
might have been on the jury, by means of whose obstinate determination
not to consent to a verdict of guilty he might have got off.
[Sidenote: LORD MELBOURNE ON O'CONNELL'S TRIAL.]
I dined at Palmerston's yesterday; Melbourne was there. He could not
say O'Connell had not had a fair trial; and Luttrell said, which
seemed to hit off Melbourne's own notion, that he had had a _fairish_
trial. Melbourne said an odd thing which showed that he has not
abandoned all idea of taking office again, though I hardly think
he would if it came to the point. It was this, 'There is not much
chance of the House of Commons coming to a vote against Government;
but still such a thing is possible, and I was kept awake half the
night thinking, suppose such a thing did occur, and I was sent for
to Windsor, what advice I should give the Queen'--'it kept me long
awake,' he repeated, 'and I determined that I would advise her not to
let Mr. O'Connell be brought up for judgement.' It was very strange,
and everybody looked amazed. He has been a very curious man all his
life, and he is as strange as ever now, in the sort of make-believe
with which he tries to delude himself and others. Whilst all indicates
the decay of his powers, and his own consciousness of it, he assumes
an air and language as if he was the same man, and ready to act his
old part on any stage and at any time. His friends are, I think, vexed
and pained, and think it, as it is, a rather melancholy spectacle.
_March 9th._--During the last fortnight there has been a great deal of
discussion about the great debate, and there is a general impression
that it will prove productive of good. Peel's speech is much commented
on, and considered to signify his own opinion that the Irish Church
must be dealt with sooner or later, but also his resolution to have
no hand in the arrangement. At all events it is thought that his
sentiments, as set forth in his speech, are very different from
Stanley's, and even from Graham's. Some days ago John Russell called
on me, and talked the thing over. He said this about Peel, whom he
so dislikes that whatever he says of him is always rather tinged with
bitterness; and with regard to his own notions, he said that he was
not opposed to the establishment of the Catholic religion, provided
the Protestant was preserved. He is in fact prepared to go farther
than I was aware of.
Last night Brougham brought in his Privy Council Bill. I dined at
Lansdowne House. Lord Lansdowne had been at the beginning of the
discussion, and Melbourne and Normanby came in later, having stayed
it out. They all thought it was impossible such a Bill could pass.
Cottenham made a very good speech. The only point on which there
seemed any agreement was on the expediency of naming a President of
the Court, and Lyndhurst, who was appealed to, limited his opinion to
this alone. Brougham pretended that the precedence he claimed was only
intended to be _in_ the Court--which was a mere pretence, because by
putting in the Lord Privy Seal, who is not a member of the Court, he
showed what he wanted. It is to be hoped that his trickery will fail
altogether and the Bill be thrown out.
[Sidenote: LORD BROUGHAM'S GAIETY.]
_March 16th._--Brougham has been outdoing himself about his Bill.
He begins by naming a committee, very numerous, but containing
hardly any of the Whigs or of those who would be likely to oppose
him, none at least that he could possibly help naming. On Monday
an article appeared in the 'Morning Chronicle,' very bitter and
smart, and written by Clarendon, which stung him to the quick. He
got up the next day in the House of Lords, and alluding to his
having been accused of bringing in this Bill with personal views,
rejected the accusation with vehement indignation, and in the most
extravagant language, 'amidst loud laughter,' as the report said,
'in which the Lord Chancellor heartily joined.' None but Brougham
himself can be his parallel; no other man would have dared to get
up, and, in the presence of at least half a dozen men who knew the
whole truth, deliberately and vehemently tell a parcel of impudent
lies--lies too which, if he succeeds in his object, must be exposed
to the whole world. But one of the most curious characteristics
is his utter shamelessness. With an inordinate vanity and a morbid
activity, which prompts him to be eternally doing and talking, he
has lost all care for his serious reputation, and for the applause
and approbation of the best part of the world. To flourish away, and
become Cock-of-the-Walk among silly and dissolute people of fashion,
to talk incessantly in a strain of boisterous levity, and make free
and frivolous men and women roar with laughter at his coarse, but not
witty pleasantries, seems now the height of his ambition. He passes
days and hours at Chesterfield House and Gore House; his most intimate
associate is D'Orsay; and from the nonsense and idleness of such
houses as these, he rushes away to mix in the high matters of politics
and legislation, in an eternal whirl and bustle of alternate business
and gossip, a sad spectacle to those who remember what he once was;
and he has not even the merit of success in his new vocation, for
whereas he was once more brilliant and amusing than anybody, he is now
become an arrant bore. He has frittered down his really great powers
to the level of his new friends and companions, but he has no notion
how to converse or 'live with ease,' and nothing can be more awkward
and ungraceful than the exhibition he makes of himself as a man of
fashion. What a contrast it is, when one turns from the vagaries of
this impure and degraded buffoon, who has been guilty of debasing
and rendering useless the rare talents with which Nature endowed
him, to the dignified old age and mild wisdom of Mr. Grenville--who
counts only twenty years more than Brougham--so inferior in genius
and intellectual power, so superior in moral worth, in rectitude of
understanding, and in all the graces and proprieties of social life.
Writing of Mr. Grenville, I must mention an anecdote he told me the
other day, illustrating the facility with which Pitt gave peerages to
anybody who had a fancy for the honour. Mr. Grenville one day asked
his cousin, Lord Glastonbury, what had induced him to get made a peer,
for he could not think he had ever cared much for a title. He said,
'God, Devil!' (for such it seems was his queer habit of expressing
himself) 'I'll tell you. I never thought of a peerage; but one day I
took up the newspaper, and I read in it that Tommy Townshend was made
a peer. Confound the fellow, said I, what right had he to be made a
peer I should like to know. Why, I am as rich again as he is, and have
a much better right. So I resolved to write to Pitt and tell him so. I
wrote, and was made a peer the following week.'
[Sidenote: THE TEN HOURS BILL.]
_March 31st._--I never remember so much excitement as has been
caused by Ashley's Ten Hours Bill,[78] nor a more curious political
state of things, such intermingling of parties, such a confusion
of opposition; a question so much more open than any question ever
was before, and yet not made so or acknowledged to be so with the
Government; so much zeal, asperity, and animosity, so many reproaches
hurled backwards and forwards. The Government have brought forward
their measure in a very positive way, and have clung to it with great
tenacity, rejecting all compromise; they have been abandoned by nearly
half their supporters, and nothing can exceed their chagrin and
soreness at being so forsaken. Some of them attribute it to Graham's
unpopularity, and aver that if Peel had brought it forward, or if a
meeting had been previously called, they would not have been defeated;
again, some declare that Graham had said they were indifferent to the
result, and that people might vote as they pleased, which he stoutly
denies; then John Russell voting for 'ten hours,' against all he
professed last year, has filled the world with amazement, and many
of his own friends with indignation. It has, I think, not redounded
to his credit, but, on the contrary, done him considerable harm. The
Opposition were divided, Palmerston and Lord John one way, Baring and
Labouchere the other. It has been a very queer affair. Some voted,
not knowing how they ought to vote, and following those they are
accustomed to follow; many who voted against Government afterwards
said they believed they were wrong. Melbourne is all against Ashley;
all the political economists, of course; Lord Spencer strong against
him. Then Graham gave the greatest offence by taking up a word of the
'Examiner's' last Sunday, and calling it a _Jack Cade legislation_,
this stirring them to fury, and they flew upon him like tigers. Ashley
made a speech as violent and factious as any of O'Connell's, and old
Inglis was overflowing with wrath. Nothing could be so foolish as
Graham's taunt; he ought to have known better how much mischief may be
done by words, and how they stick by men for ever. Lyndhurst rubbed
his hands with great glee, and said, 'Well, we shall hear no more of
'aliens' now, people will only talk of Jack Cade for the future,' too
happy to shift the odium, if he could, from his own to his colleague's
back. The Ministers gave out, if they were beaten last Friday, they
would resign; but they knew there was no chance of it. Some abused
Ashley for not going on and fighting again, but he knew well enough
it would be of no use. The House did certainly put itself in an odd
predicament, with its two votes directly opposed to each other. The
whole thing is difficult and unpleasant. Government will carry their
Bill now, and Ashley will be able to do nothing, but he will go on
agitating session after session; and a philanthropic agitator is more
dangerous than a repealer, either of the Union or the Corn Laws. We
are just now overrun with philanthropy, and God knows where it will
stop, or whither it will lead us.
[Footnote 78: [The Government had brought in a Bill limiting the
hours of labour in factories. Lord Ashley moved amendments in the
House of Commons and carried them against the Government, of which
he was a warm supporter. But eventually Lord Ashley's substantive
proposal was also defeated. The Committee was discharged and a new
measure introduced.]]
_May 1st._--This interval I passed at Newmarket (two weeks), where
I took my books and papers, resolving to write, and go on with my
pamphlet on Ireland; but it does not signify, I find it impossible at
that place to put pen to paper or to open a book. It is one incessant
course of active idleness, which with me at least utterly precludes
all occupation, and even thought. The last day of the last week I
went over to Cambridge to my nephew George Egerton, and took a look
at some of the lions, none of which, strange to say (though I have
frequented Newmarket so many years), with the exception of King's
College Chapel, I had ever seen. I walked over the gardens, through
the University Library, saw Lord Fitzwilliam's pictures, and looked
at the Fitzwilliam Museum; but nothing is to be compared to King's
College Chapel, which I beheld again, as one always does really great
and perfect works, with increased admiration and delight.
On arriving in town, I found the world had been rattled out of its
torpor by the astounding news of Ellenborough's recall by the Court
of Directors, admitted by Ministers in both Houses, in reply to
questions asked of them. I was astonished, because after the letter
which Wharncliffe showed me some weeks ago, in which he had, as it
were, dared the Directors to recall him, and their not doing so at the
time, I thought the quarrel had blown over; and as his great measures
are accomplished, I concluded they would make up their differences
by some means. Therefore I was anything but prepared for this _coup
d'état_. There is a strong feeling of exasperation on the side of the
Government, as well as on that of the Court. The Duke of Wellington is
particularly incensed. He has all along taken Ellenborough under his
especial protection, and encouraged and supported him with his praise
and approbation. All his irritability is therefore stirred up on this
occasion, and he expressed himself in the House of Lords the night
before last in reference to the Directors in very strong terms, which
was not very becoming, and still less prudent. Peel in the other House
was much more reserved and discreet. At present nobody knows exactly
the merits of the case, although the Directors and their friends give
out theirs, and to a certain degree the Government do the same. But
as the papers must shortly be produced (for the public will insist on
having materials wherewith to form its judgement, and that speedily),
it is better to see what they contain, instead of guessing, and
forming opinions on hypothetical cases and imaginary circumstances.
The Government must have a very strong case indeed to exonerate them
from the reproach of having allowed matters to come to this extremity;
and having had full knowledge of the feelings, and ample notice of the
intentions of the Directors, they ought to have made some arrangement
with them, instead of exhibiting to the world an open breach. They
say, however, that they could not be parties to Ellenborough's recall,
or in any way consent to it, lest they should stultify themselves,
having already approved of all his acts. But this strikes me to be
very bad reasoning. They were bound to deal with the case as they find
it. They may think it a bad thing that the Directors should have such
a power, and a worse that they should exercise it; it was the duty of
the Government to adopt such measures as should provide against the
exercise of it becoming injurious to the public interests. The safety
and prosperity of India are of infinitely greater consequence than
the consistency, real or apparent, of the Ministry, and it would have
been far better to have had Ellenborough recalled quietly, with some
management and arrangement as to time and circumstance, than to suffer
matters to be pushed to such extremities, and establish such hostile
feelings between the Court of Directors and the Government as has now
been done; nor can I see how the consistency of the Government could
be affected by their deference to a power, created by the Legislature,
and which they have no means of controlling. They have protested
against its exercise, they have argued and remonstrated, but all in
vain; and that being the case, they might with perfect consistency
have taken some measures in concurrence with the Court as to the
manner and time of his recall, while protesting against the measure
itself, and repudiating all responsibility.
[Sidenote: RECALL OF LORD ELLENBOROUGH.]
The town is full of speculation as to Ellenborough's successor, and
nothing can exceed the difficulty of finding one who is competent. All
sorts of men are mentioned, most of them the most unfit and incapable
that can be imagined. Metcalfe is in Canada, and could not be got home
in time; Lord Elgin in Jamaica, to whom therefore the same objection
applies. They talk of Lord Seaton, Fitzroy Somerset, Lincoln, Clare,
Gladstone, and I know not whom besides. Graham will not go; he would
have gone some time ago, but he will not now. My own opinion is, and
I record it on this 1st of May, that Haddington will be sent. He is
not a very brilliant, but a sensible, right-minded man, who has gained
credit by his fairness and courtesy at the Admiralty. I declare I do
not see where they could find a better man.
I find Brougham is come back from Paris in a very peevish humour
with everybody. He wrote a letter to the Duke of Bedford last week,
complaining bitterly of the attack (as he called it) which John
Russell had made upon him in the House of Commons, boasting that
nobody had ever gained anything by attacking him, and then proceeded
(as he said) to give an account of the transaction to which this
attack referred. This account was as usual a tissue of lies, and
there were in it two statements which I have not the least doubt are
lies also. One was, that this Government had recently offered him a
judicial office of 7,000_l._ a year; and the other, that the Duke of
Wellington had employed Lord Wellesley to prevail upon him to take
office with them. He is nearly as angry with Peel as he is with John
Russell, for what he said in his speech in reply to the latter, and
wrote to Peel on the subject. Meanwhile he is flourishing about, and
was at the Temple Church on Sunday, with a tail of fashionables.
[Sidenote: LORD ELLENBOROUGH AND THE DIRECTORS.]
_May 4th._--When I told Lord Wharncliffe that I thought Haddington
would be the man for India, he told me he was quite out of the
question, and would on no account go. He said Hardinge might possibly
go, and I inferred from his manner of speaking of such an appointment
that it was the most probable.[79] Lord Aberdeen says that the
Government and the East India Directors are going to make their
matters up, and that the Duke of Wellington's speech had been a great
cause of embarrassment and annoyance to them. The papers will not be
produced, because they are really not producible. Aberdeen owns that
Ellenborough's conduct and language to the Directors had been such as
it was impossible for them to endure, and he said both they and the
Government were sensible how inexpedient it would be to publish such a
correspondence. Accordingly these belligerents will agree to bury the
past in oblivion, and make it all up. The greedy and curious public,
and the eager and malicious Opposition, will be cheated of the banquet
of political scandal they are both so anxiously expecting.
[Footnote 79: [Lord Hardinge was shortly afterwards appointed
Governor-General of India.]]
_May 12th._--The Indian affair went off very quietly; all was made
up; Peel made a very skilful and temperate speech; the Duke himself
made a sort of apology in the House of Lords, saying he did not mean
to offend the Directors, and everybody was obliged to be satisfied.
The Duke's wrath is, however, by no means mitigated, and his _fidus
Achates_, Arbuthnot, poured forth to me the other day a torrent of
abuse of the Directors. Peel has gained immense credit by his measure
(and speech) about the Bank Charter. His Government is unquestionably
strengthened prodigiously by such measures as these, such good
business done, and accordingly he is invulnerably strong, and, barring
accidents, one does not see when the Government is to be brought to an
end.
_May 26th._--The usual occupation of this time of the year has
prevented my writing anything in this book, and now I will briefly
bring up the arrears of all I have to notice. I was at Gorhambury when
the division on the Factory Bill took place, and Government got the
extraordinary and unexpected majority of 135. Nothing could exceed the
universal astonishment, and many of their supporters grumbled much
at having been compelled to vote with them or stay away, without any
necessity. But they were wrong, for it was of great consequence to
get such a majority as should put an end to the question, which this
has done. It was a great triumph to Graham, who deserves it; for his
conduct on this occasion, and the ferocious personality with which
he has been assailed, have conciliated the sympathies of many, even
of his enemies and opponents. But no man ever rose so much as he has
latterly done. His capacity and administrative powers are admitted by
all to be first-rate, and he has evinced so much more of temper and
moderation, avoiding giving offence by a bitter and sarcastic tone,
that he has disarmed a great deal of hostility and aversion, and there
is a general disposition to do justice to his firmness, ability, and
honesty on this occasion. This division is also a pregnant proof
of the strength and power of the Government, when they choose to
exert it; and when their position now is compared with that in which
they were placed at the end of last session, everybody must see how
enormously they have gained.
The Indian storm has quite blown over. Hardinge's dinner at the
India House went off with a profusion of compliments and civilities
exchanged between the Directors, the Ministers, and the new
Governor-General, and no more allusion was made to Ellenborough than
if he never had existed.
Meanwhile Brougham has been signalising himself both in the House
of Lords and in the Judicial Committee. His railroad job in the
former produced an exposure to the last degree discreditable, and
not the less deplorable because the Duke of Wellington and the Tory
Lords who were present were mean enough to vote with him. He was,
nevertheless, beaten by one, after making _eleven_ speeches. In the
Judicial Committee he made a desperate effort to get a hearing for
Madame Zichy (which was in fact a rehearsing of Croker's cause), but
we had taken care to make use of the authority of the Lord President
in convoking the Committee, and he was overruled by the majority,
after a smart discussion. The circumstances of this case are quite
sufficient to prove to me that the paramount authority of the Lord
President is indispensable to make this machine work well, certainly
so long as Brougham attends it, and I believe will be always useful
to prevent jealousies and dissensions among the Judges. The Lord
President is above them, and while he never would think of exercising
his own authority, except for purposes of regulation, for composing
differences and taking care that no injustice is done, he never can
himself come into legal competition with, or be himself an object of
jealousy to, any of them.
[Sidenote: THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA IN LONDON.]
_June 10th._--For the last week this town has been kept in a fever by
the brief and unexpected visit of the Emperor of Russia. Brunnow told
me he was at Petersburg, and had given up all idea of coming here, and
the very next day the telegraph announced that he was at the Hague,
and would arrive in London in twenty-four hours. Nobody knows now what
was the cause of this sudden and rapid expedition, for he travelled
without stopping, and with extraordinary rapidity, from Petersburg,
with the exception of twenty-four hours at Berlin, and forty-eight
hours at the Hague. He alighted at the Palace, embraced the Queen,
and after his interview went to establish himself at Brunnow's. He
immediately visited all the Royal Family, and the Duke of Wellington.
The Duke attired himself in the costume of a Russian Field-Marshal to
receive the Emperor. On Monday he went to Windsor, Tuesday to Ascot,
Wednesday they gave him a Review, which went off very badly, owing
to mistakes and bad arrangement, but with which he expressed himself
very well satisfied. The sight was pretty, glorious weather, 3,000 or
4,000 Guards, Horse, Foot, and Artillery in the Park, the Queen _en
calèche_ with a brilliant suite. It was striking when the Duke went
and put himself at the head of his regiment, marched past, and saluted
the Queen and Emperor. The air resounded with acclamations as the old
warrior passed, and the Emperor rode up to him and shook him by the
hand. He did the same by the Prince and Duke of Cambridge as they
respectively marched by at the head of their regiments, but neither
of them was so cheered as the Duke. There was a blunder about the
artillery. The Queen cannot endure firing, and the Duke had ordered
that the guns should not be fired till she left the ground. By some
mistake contrary orders were given, and they advanced and fired not
far from Her Majesty. The Duke was furious, and would not be pacified,
though Emperor, Queen, and Prince did their best to appease him; he
blew up, and swore lustily, and ordered the luckless artillery into
the rear. It was a mighty small concern for the Emperor, who reviews
100,000 men, and sees 15,000 mount guard every day; but he expressed
his satisfaction, and when the Queen said her troops were few in
number, he told her that she must consider his troops at her disposal
exactly the same as her own.
On Thursday they went to Ascot again, where they were received very
well by a dense multitude; on Friday to London, where they gave him
a party at the Palace, omitting to ask half the remarkable people,
especially of the Opposition. On Saturday a breakfast at Chiswick,
a beautiful _fête_, and perfectly successful. Everything that was
distinguished in London was collected to see and be seen by the
Emperor. All the statesmen, fine ladies, poets, artists, beauties,
were collected in the midst of a display of luxury and magnificence,
set off by the most delicious weather. The Emperor lunched in a room
fitted up with his arms and ensigns, and afterwards held a sort of
circle on the grass, where people were presented to him, and he went
round talking to one after another. His appearance on the whole
disappointed me. He is not so tall as I had heard he was--about 6
feet 2, I should guess; and he has no remains of the beauty for which
he was once so celebrated, and which at his age, forty-eight, need
not have so entirely faded away; but the cares of such an Empire
may well have ravaged that head on which they sit not lightly. He
is become bald and bulky, but nevertheless is still a very fine and
grand-looking personage. He accepts his age and its consequences, and
does not try to avert them by any artificial appliances, and looks
all the better for so doing. Though he has a very imposing air, I
have seen much nobler men; he does not bear the highest aristocratic
stamp; his general appearance is inferior to that of Lord Anglesey
or Lord Granville (both twenty-five years older), and to others. He
gives me more the idea of a Thracian peasant raised to Empire, than
of the descendant of a line of kings; still his head, and especially
his profile, is very fine, and his manners are admirable, affable
without familiarity, cordial yet dignified, and particularly full
of deference and gallantry to women. As he moved round the circle
all smiling and urbane, I felt a sensation of awe mixed with that of
curiosity at reflecting that I saw before me a potentate so mighty and
despotic, on whose will and pleasure or caprice depended the fortune,
the happiness, and the lives of millions of creatures; and when the
condition of these subject millions and the frequent exercise of such
unbounded power flitted over my mind, I felt a pleasant consciousness
that I was beyond the sphere of its influence, free as the birds in
the air, at least from him, and I enjoyed that involuntary comparison
of my freedom with the slavery of his subjects, which is in itself
happiness, or something like it.
[Sidenote: THE EMPEROR AT ASCOT.]
The Emperor seems to have a keen eye for beauty, and most of the
good-looking women were presented to him. He was very civil to M. de
St. Aulaire (and so he had been to Van de Weyer the night before),
and very civil to Lord Harrowby, Lord Granville, Lord Lansdowne,
to Clarendon, whom he had known in Russia, and to Palmerston. Lord
John Russell was not presented to him, which was very wrong and
ill-managed. Of all men he ought to have made acquaintance with the
remarkable leader of the Whig party; but the Queen had not asked
him to her party the night before, so that he never approached the
Emperor at all. His Majesty thanked Lord Melbourne for having come
to the breakfast, and afforded him the opportunity of making his
acquaintance. He went away early, and the departure was pretty; the
Royal equipages, the escort of Lancers with their pennons glancing
in the sun, the steps and balcony clustered over with women to speed
the parting guest; and as he bade the Duke of Devonshire a kind
farewell, and mounted his carriage, while the Russian Hymn struck up,
and he took his departure for ever from the gay scene and brilliant
assemblage, proceeding on the march of his high and hard destiny,
while we all turned to our humble, obscure, peaceful, and uneventful
occupations, it was an exhibition to stir the imagination and excite
busy thoughts.
[Sidenote: DEFEAT OF THE GOVERNMENT.]
_June 21st._--While we were still gossiping about the Emperor's visit
and discussing in great tranquillity all its incidents, we were roused
by a rumour, which, as it swelled into importance, soon consigned
his Imperial Majesty to oblivion. On Friday night the Government
were defeated on the Sugar duties by a majority of 20.[80] A meeting
had taken place previously at Peel's, at which some strong language
was held by Sir John Rae Reid and some of the West Indians; and many
of the Government people expected they should be beaten, without
apparently attaching much consequence to their defeat, if it occurred.
On Saturday afternoon vague rumours were afloat of resignation,
to which nobody paid any attention. In the course of Sunday these
rumours acquired consistency and importance, and it became known that
there really was something in it. The town became curious, busy, and
bustling; the clubs were full; and little knots of anxious politicians
were to be found at the corner of every street. There had been a
Cabinet on Saturday, the Queen came to town, and there was another
Cabinet on Monday; still on Sunday night nobody believed Peel would
really seriously meditate resigning. The Tories went about saying
it was settled and made up; and the Whigs, who were anything but
prepared to take office, cried out against the notion of resignation
quite as lustily as the Tories themselves. On Monday it gradually
came out that matters were in a very critical and alarming state.
Peel, long dissatisfied with his party, had been exceedingly incensed
at the language held at the meeting, and the adverse vote made him
resolve to stand it no longer. He accordingly convened a Cabinet on
Monday, and then they agreed, with the full concurrence of Graham
and Stanley, who, Wharncliffe told me, were quite as decided as Peel
himself to adhere to their measure, to signify their resolution to the
House of Commons, and, if beaten again, to resign. Peel went down
and made a speech which appeared to everybody very injudicious. It
was long and dull. It put forth pretensions which men of all parties
said were not to be tolerated, for they construed what he said into
an intimation that if the House of Commons did not do all he chose
to insist upon, he would throw the government up; and with much bad
taste and without any necessity, he lugged in the House of Lords also,
in reference to the Bangor Bishopric Bill. His speech was determined
enough, but it was very offensive and dictatorial, and people of all
parties were exasperated and disgusted with it. For some time the
fall of the Government was considered inevitable; nobody saw any
prospect of their getting a majority, and it was thought that many
people would be so shocked and offended at his speech that they would
vote against him, for no other reason than to mark their opinion of
it. The dissatisfaction was universal; however, he got a majority
of twenty-two, and the storm blew over. Many who had not voted at
all on Friday came and voted with him now; some went away, and the
Leaguers remained firm and voted with Government again. But it was
their doing so that saved him, and a capital speech of Stanley's is
supposed to have done a great deal of good; but Peel's own moderate
friends severely blamed both his conduct and language--men, for
example, like Sandon and Francis Egerton--and the multitude were still
more bitter and angry than before. It is generally admitted that the
Government has been excessively weakened by this transaction, and
that it will be very difficult for them to go on at all when such
mutual feelings of estrangement and aversion are entertained by the
leader of the party. Peel's personal reputation has suffered severely.
He is thought to have been injudicious and unjust, and to have been
influenced by personal motives and a morbid sensitiveness unworthy
of a great man and of one who took on himself to govern the country.
Those who admit that he has received great provocation, and that his
party have been insulting in their tone and lukewarm or hostile in
their conduct, still maintain that his party have equal reason to
complain of him. They complain that he is unsocial and reserved, that
he never consults their wishes and opinions, and that their feelings
towards him are in a great measure attributable to himself. There
are, no doubt, grave faults on both sides, and it is not improbable
that fresh subjects of disagreement will occur, and that some fresh
crisis will bring his Government to an end. On the other hand, there
is so much reluctance to see any change, and such a dread of a general
election, that it is just possible this breeze may have alarmed the
Tory malcontents, and that the necessity for a better understanding
may tend to produce it. Peel is at the head of a weak, discontented
party, and both Lords and Commons are animated towards him with an
unfriendly spirit, and merely look upon him as a necessary evil. One
striking circumstance is his forgetfulness of the Queen's condition,
so near her confinement, and his not shrinking from exposing her to
the difficulty and embarrassment into which his resignation must have
thrown her. This indicates a predominance of selfish feeling, and a
want of gallantry. He ought to have made every personal sacrifice, not
absolutely incompatible with his public duty, rather than do anything
to annoy her at such a moment, and nobody accepts the excuse he makes
as a sufficient apology for the course which he adopted.
[Footnote 80: [A Bill regulating the duties on sugar at different
rates from different countries had been introduced by the
Chancellor of the Exchequer. On June 14th, Mr. Miles carried an
amendment against Government lowering the duties on both British
and foreign sugar not the produce of slave labour. But this vote
was rescinded on the 17th by a majority of 255 to 233, under the
pressure of a threat of resignation of Ministers.]]
_June 22nd._--Peel found an opportunity of making a sort of apology
to his party in the House of Commons two nights ago. Tom Duncombe
attacked him and them in one of his buffoon speeches, and Peel took
advantage of it especially to disclaim the arrogant pretension of
insisting on his party adopting every measure he thought fit to
propose. The ground on which he took the decided part he did last
week was the coalition between his people and the Opposition. He said
he should not have minded the adverse vote; this might have been got
over; but it was the agreement by which it had been brought about
which so deeply offended him. This, together with the personal conduct
and language of many, indicated such a want of confidence in him, and
proved to him that he was in such danger, and must be thrown into
such difficulty, by the possibility of future coalitions of a similar
kind, that he was resolved not to put up with it. It is now made up;
but nothing can repair the mischief that has been done; nothing can
restore that mutual confidence and goodwill which are so necessary
between a Government (especially the leader) and the party which
supports them; nothing can recover for Peel the estimation which he
has forfeited. The dislike of many of his supporters to him will not
be less, their distrust will be greater, and he has now lost their
respect in great measure. His conduct has not been that of a great
man, nor even that of a prudent and judicious man.
[Sidenote: LETTERS OPENED AT THE POST OFFICE.]
_July 5th._--Since I last wrote the political atmosphere has been
getting clearer, and Peel and his party seem to have made it up
pretty well. It is likely enough that he will take more pains to keep
them in good-humour, and that they will be afraid of provoking him
again. However, this affair had hardly subsided before another storm
was raised about opening letters at the Post Office. Tom Duncombe,
indefatigable for mischief, and the grand jobman of miscellaneous
grievances, brought forward the case of M. Mazzini, whose letters had
been opened by Sir James Graham's warrant. This matter, in itself most
ridiculous, inasmuch as Graham had done no more than what every other
Secretary of State did before him, soon acquired a great and undue
importance. The press took it up; the Whig press as a good ground of
attack on the Government, and especially Graham; and the 'Times,'
merely from personal hatred of Graham, whom they are resolved to write
down if they can on account of his honest support of the Poor Law. No
man ever distinguished himself more than Graham has done during this
session, and none ever was so fiercely and unscrupulously assailed and
bitterly vilified on all sides. The question was brought before the
House of Commons, and bruited abroad in such a manner, and with such
comments, that it lit up a flame throughout the country. Every foolish
person who spoils paper and pens fancied his nonsense was read at
the Home Office. The Opposition took it up, and supported Duncombe.
Graham did not deal with the matter very judiciously. He might have
said more or less than he did; he might have said something more for
the necessary irresponsibility of the power, and something less as to
the manner in which it had actually been exercised. But whatever he
said, it was very wrong and very unfair of John Russell not to make
common cause with him, not to vindicate the law and its exercise, and
to say manfully at once that he had done the same thing when he was
in office; instead of this, he both spoke and voted against Graham,
and I am positively assured that no Secretary of State ever was less
scrupulous in the exercise of this power than himself. Palmerston was
more prudent, for he said nothing at all on the subject. It seems Lord
Lichfield left all the warrants which he had received in the office,
and they can be produced. When Graham found himself thus attacked and
reviled, he resolved to cast off all the official reserve in which he
had at first wrapped the question, and to vindicate himself by showing
that he had merely followed the example of his predecessors; and I
conclude he found that he should lose nothing by a comparison of his
proceedings with theirs, so he moved for a Secret Committee, who are
to take evidence and make a report. He has composed it of five Whigs
and four Tories, excluding all who are or have been in office, and
Tom Duncombe the accuser. This concession by no means disarmed his
opponents, and the 'Times' particularly has continued to attack him
with the utmost virulence, but so coarsely and unfairly as quite to
overshoot the mark.
[Sidenote: THE 'RUNNING REIN' CASE.]
On Monday and Tuesday last I was in the Court of Exchequer, to hear
our great cause of 'Orlando' and 'Running Rein,'[81] which ended very
triumphantly by their withdrawing the record early on the second
morning. Our case was admirably got up, owing in great measure to
the indefatigable activity and the intelligence and penetration of
George Bentinck, who played the part both of attorney and policeman
in hunting out and getting up the evidence. The opposite party had
no idea we had got up our case so perfectly; but the trial was over
before we had half developed it in evidence. The whole circumstances
from the beginning to the end are very curious, and it has been
equally interesting and amusing to all concerned in it. We have all
worked hard in different ways, _palmam qui meruit ferat_; and though
there is a feud between George Bentinck and myself, and we do not
speak to each other, I must acknowledge all his great services on this
occasion. The counsel on the other side, Cockburn, made a very violent
attack on him in his speech, and accused him of being party, attorney,
policeman; that he had tampered with the witnesses, clothed, fed, and
paid them. This he was specifically instructed to say, and a great
deal of it was true; but I think he said more than he need or ought to
have done, though the Judge (Alderson) said he had only done his duty.
On this occasion George Bentinck did no more than he was justified in
doing, and he certainly did not tamper with any witnesses, or employ
any unfair means to procure testimony. He wrote on the evening of
the first day a letter of indignant but courteous remonstrance to
Cockburn, to which he alluded in Court on the second. The object of it
was to entreat him to put him in the box, and give him an opportunity
of vindicating himself and telling all he had done in the matter. Some
explanatory civilities were bandied about between George Bentinck,
Cockburn, and the Judge, and it ended amicably.
Brougham has withdrawn the obnoxious clauses of his Privy Council
Bill, making at the same time an asseveration that the judicial
appointment in it was never intended for himself; and he appealed to
his 'noble friends,' who nodded or remained silent, _three_ of whom at
least (the Duke, the Chancellor, and Wharncliffe) knew the contrary,
but they think it worth while to humour him, and to allow him to play
his antics in the House of Lords _ad libitum_. The Duke of Wellington
has lent himself to the sort of tacit compact which exists between him
and the Government, to a degree I never thought he could have done;
but he does not seem to hold the House of Lords in hand in the way he
used to do.
[Footnote 81: [A horse called 'Running Rein' had come in first for
the Derby, 'Orlando' being second. It was proved that 'Running
Rein' was a four-year-old horse, and consequently disqualified.
'Orlando' thereupon took the stakes. This horse 'Orlando' was
afterwards purchased by Mr. Greville for his stud; but he did not
belong to Mr. Greville in 1844.]]
_Bretby, September 8th._--Considerably more than two months have
elapsed since I have written anything in this book. When I have taken
up my pen it has always been occupied in the thing I am writing on
Ireland. But I am reluctant altogether to forsake my old companion
of so many years, and to give up noticing public events; so I have
brought this book down here with me, for the purpose of bringing up
the arrear (briefly and cursorily indeed) to the present time. The
session of Parliament was suspended, though for all active purposes
virtually closed, when the Judges went on the circuit, with, an
understanding that it was to assemble again for the judgement in
O'Connell's case, and then to be prorogued. It ended very differently
for the Government from the last; notwithstanding the severe shock
they had in the middle of it, they left off strong, and with more of
reputation than last year. A good deal had been done, and some of it
well done; and, what is of still greater importance, the country is
peaceful and flourishing.
[Sidenote: DISPUTE WITH FRANCE.]
During the recess, however, the dispute which had some time before
begun between us and France took a threatening aspect, and for
some time it was a toss-up whether we went to war or not. Peel
had announced to the House of Commons in very lofty language that
Government would exact an ample reparation for the outrage perpetrated
on Pritchard at Tahiti, while Guizot evinced no disposition to make
any. A long series of semi-diplomatic negotiations ensued. Aberdeen
very prudently did not demand anything specific, but laid the case
before the French Government, expressing his conviction that they
would do everything that justice and propriety demanded. The press
in both countries blew the coals with all their might and main, and
for a long time Guizot refused to make any such _amende_ as we could
possibly take. What we wanted (not demanded) was that some _act_
should be done to mark the sense of the French Government of what
was due to us,--the recall of D'Aubigny or of Bruat, or of both; but
Guizot said, 'Je ne rappellerai personne,' and all he offered was to
express 'regrets et improbation.' This, which was a mere scintilla of
apology, we could not accept as a sufficient reparation for so gross
an outrage, and at one moment up to the day, Tuesday last, when the
Council was held for the prorogation, it looked very bad. That day
Aberdeen told me he thought Guizot's Ministry was on its last legs,
that he did not despair of an amicable settlement, but that he thought
Guizot must fall, and he looked for an arrangement being made by Molé
or Thiers, whichever of them might succeed him. But when matters
appeared nearly desperate, a suggestion was thrown out (I believe by
Jarnac),[82] but in conversation between Jarnac and Aberdeen, and
therefore either made by him or accepted by him, that, besides the
verbal apology, a compensation in money should be made to Pritchard.
On Wednesday the Cabinet met to decide whether they should accept the
final offers of France to the above effect or refuse them; and the
result was that they agreed to accept them. They were very anxious
to be able to announce the pacification in the Queen's Speech, and
they felt that it would be preposterous and absurd to go to war for
so small a matter, and when the principle of making an apology was
on the other side admitted, to haggle about the words of it; and
therefore, though it was slender, they thought it better to take it.
It is, I think, not impossible that the decision of this Cabinet was
in some degree quickened by the reversal of O'Connell's judgement,
which took place the same morning, much to their disgust.[83] I think
they were right, especially as we have certainly done enough to make
the French Government see that we do not intend to submit to any more
impertinence on their part. Our case, too, was one of much complexity
and difficulty, for Pritchard had been turbulent and mischievous, and
had, with the sectarian zeal of a missionary, given all the trouble
and embarrassment he could to the French; they, therefore, had a case
against him, though the French officers were by no means justified in
the violence they exercised. I called one day at Apsley House, saw the
Duke, and found him in a talkative humour on this affair. He has been
for some time urging the Government to make themselves stronger; and
very much in consequence of his advice, measures had been in rapid
progress for equipping ships and preparing a formidable force at sea.
The Duke said that the disposition of the French was to insult us
whenever and wherever they thought they could do so with impunity,
and that the only way to keep at peace with them was to be stronger
in every quarter of the globe than they were; that he had told Lord
Melbourne so when he was in office, and that this was his opinion now.
Wherever they had ships we ought to have a naval force superior to
theirs; and we might rely on it, that as long as that was the case we
should find them perfectly civil and peaceable; and wherever it was
not the case, we should find them insolent and troublesome.
The judgement on O'Connell's case came on the world like a clap of
thunder; though Ministers were aware of it, for Lyndhurst told them
it would be so. Wharncliffe had the greatest difficulty in preventing
the Tory Peers from voting; Redesdale and Stradbroke were especially
anxious, and the former in the highest possible dudgeon. If they had
voted it would have been most injurious to the House of Lords, and
Government must have immediately let O'Connell out of prison.
[Footnote 82: [It was by Lord Aberdeen himself, as now appears by
the published correspondence. But it is worth while to record,
as a matter of fact, that this pecuniary indemnity to Pritchard
_was never paid_. The British Government had resolved, if no
satisfaction was obtained from France to send Mr. Pritchard out in
the 'Collingwood,' and a very strong despatch had been drafted, but
it was never sent to Paris.]]
[Footnote 83: [On August 4th judgement was given by the House of
Lords in the case of O'Connell, and the sentence of the Irish Court
reversed. The law Lords only voted, in consequence of an appeal
made to the House by Lord Wharncliffe to decide the point on legal
grounds only and by the votes of the law lords exclusively.]]
[Sidenote: O'CONNELL RELEASED BY THE LORDS.]
_The Grange, September 14th._--O'Connell, as soon as he got out of
prison, made a long speech, full of sound and fury, threatening
and abusing everybody, but evidently desirous of finding plausible
pretences for suspending all active movements, and for abstaining from
doing anything that may bring him again into collision with the law
or the Government. The high Tories and their press are exceedingly
indignant with Wharncliffe for having interposed to prevent the lay
Lords voting and overruling the law Lords; and much to my surprise I
found Lord Ashburton rather leaning to that opinion, and talking a
great deal of nonsense on the subject; but it is still more curious
that this notion of his has been either produced or confirmed by
a letter from 'that indescribable wretch Brougham,' as O'Connell
calls him. In the House of Lords he backed up Wharncliffe, as it
seemed, with great propriety and good sense, and now he writes to
Lord Ashburton that for the first time in his life he lost his
presence of mind, and takes blame to himself for not having opposed
Wharncliffe, indeed for having supported him. If he had opposed him,
unless the Chancellor had had the good sense and prudence to desire
these Lords not to vote, they infallibly would have voted; indeed,
I do not know if Brougham had urged them on, if they would not have
done so even if the Chancellor had dissuaded them; and if they had,
what a clamour would have been raised in Ireland, and what disgrace
would have fallen on the House of Lords! This has certainly been a
most unfortunate business from the beginning to the end, between the
blunders and the accidents, the various untoward circumstances in
the course of the trial, the unavoidable fact of a wholly Protestant
jury, the undoubted partiality of the Chief Justice; then the division
of opinion among the Judges, and the political character which
the judgement itself displays, all ending with the triumph of the
criminals and the mortification of the Government. But, in spite of
all this, the great end of arresting agitation was accomplished; and
in all probability, notwithstanding his escape, O'Connell has had a
lesson sufficiently severe to deter him from renewing the system of
monster meetings. It is pretty evident that he does not know what to
do next, and the Government is much in the same predicament; nor am I
sure that what has occurred will not prove favourable for an attempt
at conciliation and a reasonable settlement. He has seen the danger
of agitation, and they have seen the difficulty of coping with it;
nor are there wanting some indications of a disposition on his part
to pause, and conditionally to give up Repeal. He makes advances for
a reconciliation with the Whigs, who, he knows, are opposed firmly
to Repeal, and he talks of going round England to make an appeal
to the people, and if this fails, then to work Repeal all the more
strenuously. However, everybody goes on lamenting the state of things,
and saying they don't see what is to be done.
The last day of the session a writ was moved for Stanley, who is going
to the House of Peers; they found they could not go on there any
longer, and Stanley would stay no longer in the House of Commons. He
had taken a disgust to it, and fancied his health was breaking down,
and he gave notice that he would rather resign than remain there.
Brougham was disgusted at Stanley's translation. Graham told me this
about Stanley, and said what a weight it cast on himself and Peel,
and what a loss he was to them there. Ripon is done up; the Duke
of Wellington is grown so much deafer lately that he can no longer
lead the House; Wharncliffe does but moderately; the Chancellor does
nothing at all; and Aberdeen confines himself to his own business.
The Government was therefore left in the degrading position of being
constantly nursed and dandled by Brougham, who sat on the Woolsack
and volunteered to speak for them on all occasions. This position of
his, which was sufficiently anomalous, placed them in one which they
now feel to be very humiliating and ridiculous, and it is to cure this
evil that Stanley has been translated to the other House. He said to
me it was high time somebody should go there, and when he was there
he should make the Chancellor take a more active part. Brougham will
be highly disgusted at his advent because his own occupation will
be gone. Stanley will fight the Government battles himself, and not
suffer Brougham to take the Ministerial bench under his dangerous and
discreditable protection.
[Sidenote: LORD STANLEY RAISED TO THE PEERAGE.]