Huskisson, and the decided preponderance of the more liberal-minded
members of the Cabinet, were regarded with favour by all their
colleagues. Personally distasteful to many of them because of their want
of aristocratic connection, the innovating character of their policy,
and their views, which were closely assimilated on most points to those
of the Whigs separated them entirely from the representatives of the old
Tory party. They seem to have had but one point in common--their
opposition to parliamentary reform. Lord Liverpool's Government had from
the first been one of compromise. One of the greatest questions of the
day, which had already caused the fall of more than one ministry, had
been allowed to fall from the list of Cabinet questions, and it had been
agreed that Catholic emancipation should stand entirely upon its own
merits. But this was a point on which men felt very keenly, and there
had thus arisen a complete division in the ministry; on the one side
were ranked the followers of Canning, including such men as Huskisson,
Wellesley; Robinson, Sturges-Bourne, and Lord Palmerston; and on the
other the high Tory or Protestant party, at the head of which was
Liverpool himself, Lord Eldon, and the Duke of Wellington, and, although
he was regarded as less bigoted, Peel. How great the split between the
parties was is made plain not only by the strong if decorous language to
be found in Lord Eldon's correspondence, but by the more outspoken
expressions of Palmerston in his private letters. In the election of
1826, though himself a member of the ministry, Palmerston had been
opposed at Cambridge by Goulbourn (also one of the administration), and
all the influence of the Tory section had been used against him. In a
letter describing the effects of that election, he says, "As to the
commonplace balance between Opposition and Government, the election will
have little effect upon it. The Government are as strong as any
government can wish to be, as far as regards those who sit facing them;
but in truth the real Opposition of the present day sit behind the
Treasury bench. It is by the stupid old Tory party, who bawl out the
memory and praises of Pitt, while they are opposing all the measures and
principles which he held most important, it is by these that the
progress of the Government in every improvement which they are
attempting is thwarted and opposed. On the Catholic question, on the
principles of commerce, on the corn laws, on the settlement of the
currency, on the laws regulating the trade in money, on colonial
slavery, on the game laws, which are intimately connected with the moral
habits of the people; on all these questions, and everything like them,
the Government find support from the Whigs and resistance from their
self-denominated friends." While again, speaking of the foolish
obstruction to the Catholic claims, he writes of his colleagues in most
unmeasured terms: "I can forgive old women like the Chancellor, spoonies
like Liverpool, ignoramuses like Westmoreland, old stumped-up Tories
like Bathurst, but how such a man as Peel, liberal, enlightened, and
fresh-minded, should find himself running in such a pack is hardly
intelligible." It is plain that a Government thinking so differently on
the most important topics of the day must have been near its
dissolution. It was held together in fact only by the tact and personal
influence of Lord Liverpool; and when, on the 17th February, the Premier
was found struck with an apoplectic fit it was certain that a
ministerial crisis must arise.
[Sidenote: Difficulties attending the formation of a new ministry.]
[Sidenote: Necessity of a change in the corn laws.]
The difficulty in the formation of a new permanent Government was likely
to be increased by the two great questions which were expected to occupy
the session. One of these was a change in the corn laws, and an attempt
to bring them more into harmony with the new commercial views of
Huskisson and his friends; the other the Catholic emancipation, on which
already the existing Cabinet was so much divided. The constant
repetition of temporary measures required by the existing state of the
law, the fluctuation of prices, and the consequent suffering of the
poor, proved to those who were not pledged to the interests of the
landowning and agricultural party that some alteration in the
arrangements with regard to corn was necessary. With much care Canning
and Huskisson, although both were too ill to allow of personal
communication, had arranged a joint measure, by which foreign corn might
be imported free of duty, to be warehoused and admitted to the market
for home consumption, regardless of the price of corn, on the payment of
duties varying in accordance with a certain scale; when wheat was at
seventy shillings the duty was to be one shilling, and to increase two
shillings with every decrease of one shilling in price. The Bill was
passed on the 12th of April, during the interval it was thought decent
to allow for the possible restoration of Lord Liverpool's health. It did
not come on in the Upper House till after the new Government was formed,
but it was there thrown out in favour of an amendment produced by the
Duke of Wellington, declaring that foreign corn should not be taken out
of bond till corn had reached sixty-six shillings. The object of the
Bill, which was to supply foreign corn whenever the sale of it was
remunerative, was thus entirely frustrated and the Bill abandoned.
[Sidenote: Increasing importance of the Catholic question.]
It was during the same period, while the Government was in abeyance,
that the Roman Catholic question was brought on. The settlement of this
question in one way or other had become almost a necessity. It has been
seen how Pitt was compelled, by fear of the old King's health, to give
up a cause which he undoubtedly regarded as just, and how the obstinacy
of George III. upon the same point had ruined Lord Grenville's ministry.
During Mr. Perceval's ministry, which was formed on the avowed principle
of withstanding the claims of the Catholics, the dangers attendant upon
the war afforded sufficient excuse for alleging that the time was
inconvenient to move so critical a question; but during the whole of
that period they had, by means of an organization and the establishment
of a central Catholic committee, kept their claims before the world,
waiting till a favourable time should come. Lord Liverpool had found it
impossible, as already stated, to form a ministry unanimous on the
point, and year after year, as Bills in favour of the Catholics were
introduced in the House, Castlereagh and Canning had been seen
supporting them in opposition to most of their colleagues.
[Sidenote: Disturbances in Ireland.]
[Sidenote: Failure of Wellesley's administration. 1822.]
[Sidenote: Formation of the Catholic Association. 1823.]
In Ireland, meanwhile, the question had naturally become the watchword
of parties, and, like every other political question in that country,
had assumed a national form and was leading to a division of races. Both
the Protestant Orange Lodges and the Catholic Associations of White Boys
had again sprung into existence, and so great was the disorder that in
1822 the Habeas Corpus Act had been suspended. At the same time, in
agreement with the uncertain and half-hearted policy of Lord Liverpool's
Government, Lord Wellesley, a favourer of the Catholic claims, was made
Lord-Lieutenant, and Plunkett (in whose hands the chief management of
Catholic parliamentary affairs was) Attorney-General, but yoked to Mr
Goulbourn, who was a strong anti-Catholic, as Chief Secretary. The hopes
of the Irish, not unreasonably raised by these appointments, were
disappointed. Received upon his arrival with every sign of admiration
and attachment, before long Wellesley was publicly assaulted and pelted
in the theatres. He had attempted, in the midst of the wild excitement
of the passionate Irishmen of both parties, to follow a cool and
impartial policy. His chief object was to suppress secret societies and
to compel all parties to submit quietly to the law. By the use of very
stringent measures, by the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and by
the Insurrection Act, which allowed him to establish where necessary
something nearly equivalent to martial law, he had succeeded in
weakening the secret societies and in lessening the amount of crime; he
thus earned for himself the hearty dislike of the extreme Catholics. At
the same time the restraint which he put upon the Orange societies and
Protestant demonstrations roused the extreme Protestants to fury, so
that riots took place in Dublin which could only be checked by the
military. He thus laid himself open to the charges brought against him
by the ultra-Protestants of England, who urged, with a show of truth,
that he had proved himself inefficient, and that it was plain that
lenity and conciliatory measures would not produce the expected effect.
And now, seeing that their hopes in their Lord-Lieutenant were not
realized, and wishing to gain favour with classes to whom secret
societies were abhorrent, the Catholic party of Ireland, under the
leadership of O'Connell, set on foot the great organization known as the
Catholic Association, which, while it held aloof from secret societies,
and kept itself as far as possible within the limits of the law, was
inspired as completely with fanaticism as any of its predecessors had
been. Its avowed object was the preparation of petitions to Parliament;
but it held regular sessions, had its committee of grievances, ordered a
census of the population, and exacted a tax known as the Catholic rent.
The effect of this Association was for a time to alienate the Catholics
of England, and to make the question a more distinctly national one, and
by 1825 the Association had become so formidable that, by a large
majority, a Bill was passed rendering it illegal and attempting to
dissolve it. The Bill declared that political associations were
incapable of adjournment for more than fourteen days, incapable of
having corresponding societies, of levying contributions, or of
requiring oaths. The dissolution of the Association was only nominal, a
new Association was immediately formed, and the Catholic body were
advised to proceed by all political and legal means.
[Sidenote: Rejection of the Catholic Relief Bill. 1826.]
[Sidenote: Rejection of Burdett's resolution. March 5, 1827.]
The Catholics had in fact gained a very important step in compelling
Parliament to recognize the existence of the Association. It was no
longer possible to postpone the consideration of their claims, and in
March 1826, Sir Francis Burdett brought in what was called a Relief
Bill, of which O'Connell, entirely falsely, claimed to be the chief
author. Besides the Bill for the relief of disabilities there were two
subsidiary Bills, the one raising the Catholic franchise to £10 instead
of £2, which was thought to be a sop to the Protestants, the other to
supply a State provision for the Catholic clergy, by which it was
thought the other party might be pleased. Freed from the dread of the
Association, the English partisans of the Catholic claims used all their
influence and eloquence in favour of the Bill, and it passed the Commons
by a considerable majority. Its fate in the House of Lords was
different. It there encountered an opposition verging upon the
unconstitutional; the Duke of York, the heir to the crown, adopting all
his father's old scruples, declared, in distinct allusion to his
probable succession to the throne, that under no circumstances and in no
position would he assent to such a Bill. He succeeded in obtaining its
rejection by a majority of forty-eight. The Duke's action was highly
popular; it seems pretty certain that the feeling of the majority of
Englishmen was against the Catholics. The plea that the Coronation Oath
stood in the way of the royal assent to such a Bill no longer found
defenders except with the extremest Tories, but the feeling of race
which had been excited, the fear, not wholly ungrounded, that a measure
so anxiously desired by the priests must hide some considerable
advantage to the Roman Church, and the occasional rash declaration of
some furious partisan that obedience to the Papal See was superior to
any earthly obedience, made the majority of those who were not guided by
reason and principle desire to retain the disabilities which still
existed. The effect of their defeat in the House of Lords was not to
dishearten the Catholics, on the contrary, they took courage at their
success in the Commons, and were only eager if possible to complete
their triumph before the accession of the bigoted Duke of York should
throw a fresh obstacle in their way. A Catholic petition was therefore
prepared, which Sir Francis Burdett presented during the illness of Lord
Liverpool, proposing at the same time a resolution that the affairs of
Ireland required immediate and earnest attention. But an election had
taken place since the last Bill had been introduced, and the
anti-Catholic feeling had apparently gained ground in the new
Parliament; in spite of all the support which Canning could give it, the
resolution was rejected. It was the last defeat the champions of
emancipation were destined to meet.
[Sidenote: Canning Prime Minister. April 10, 1827.]
[Sidenote: Canning's new ministry. 1827.]
[Sidenote: Death of Canning. Aug. 8, 1827.]
While Canning was thus defeated on the two questions he had most at
heart,--the improvement of the corn laws and the Catholic
emancipation,--he found himself called upon to undertake the duties of
Prime Minister. There was indeed no one in the existing ministry who
could well compete with him, and the popular voice at once nominated him
as Lord Liverpool's successor. Yet from the first it was clear that his
appointment implied a complete change of ministry. It was not to be
expected that his opponents in the Cabinet, whether on aristocratic and
personal or on political grounds, would consent to serve under him. The
King, who had lately been drawing more towards the anti-Catholic party,
himself hesitated, but when a cabal of Tory Lords threatened him with
the loss of their support should he appoint Canning, his mind was at
once made up to resent the affront, and Canning was sent for. His
appointment was followed by the resignation of all the most important
members of the ministry; Wellington, Melville, Eldon, Bathurst,
Westmoreland, Bexley, and Peel, chiefly on account of the obligations
under which he felt as member for the Protestant University of Oxford,
with several less important ministers, withdrew. As Canning was willing
to consent that the Catholic question should still remain open, this
great defection seems to show how clearly defined his general liberal
tendencies had become. From among his own friends, and such of the
Tories as would still serve with him, by the 27th of April a new
Government was formed. The Duke of Clarence, since the death of the Duke
of York (Jan. 5, 1827) heir-presumptive, was made Lord High Admiral,
Copley, made Lord Lyndhurst, became Chancellor, Lord Dudley, a very able
though eccentric man, went to the Foreign Office, Mr. Robinson became
Lord Goderich, and led the party in the Upper House as Secretary for the
Colonies, Sturges-Bourne went to the Home Office, Mr. Huskisson
remaining at the Board of Trade. These first appointments were however
provisional; so also was Canning's own acceptance of the place of
Chancellor of the Exchequer. The new Prime Minister, after the secession
of his colleagues, was received with such marked approbation by the
Whigs, that it was not difficult to see that his coalition with them
would be only a matter of time; and as they would require their fair
share in the administration, it was necessary to keep some of the high
places in hand, or only provisionally filled. As far as the support of
parties in the House went, the union between the Canningites and the
Whigs was accomplished; Brougham, Burdett, and Tierney sat on the
Government side of the house; but, although Lord Lansdowne had already a
seat in the Cabinet, Canning did not live long enough to complete the
fusion of parties in the ministry. After the Easter holidays, during
which the ministry were got together, little business of public
importance was transacted, and the session was spent in a series of
vehement attacks and personalities directed against Canning by his old
friends. The only fact of importance was the failure of the Corn Bill in
the Upper House, which has been already mentioned. In July, to the
relief of all parties--for the bitter feelings lately excited had
rendered the session an unusually disagreeable one--Parliament was
prorogued. On the 8th of the next month Canning died of an illness
caught at the funeral of the Duke of York, and rendered worse by the
effects of the constant attacks to which he had been subjected acting
upon his sensitive nature. Thus was prematurely terminated a change in
the position of parties which, by uniting the moderate Tories and the
Whigs, and placing the united forces under the command of so able a
leader as Canning, seemed full of promise for the constitutional advance
of England.
[Sidenote: Character and policy of Canning.]
The death of Canning was felt to be a national loss. In spite of every
effort to render his funeral private, vast crowds attended, and Whigs
and Tories joined in doing him honour. It was only the exclusive clique
which, like Chatham, he had broken through which retained its enmity and
regarded him to the end as a renegade adventurer. His title to greatness
can scarcely be questioned. Adorned with the richest gifts of body and
mind, a noble and attractive presence, overflowing wit, and a majestic
eloquence, he showed himself an essentially practical statesman. On most
subjects his views were large and liberal; by his assistance his friend
Huskisson was enabled to launch England upon a fresh course of
commercial prosperity, and by so doing to alleviate the miseries under
which the people were groaning. As a foreign minister he enabled the
country to assume a great place among nations. Two principles formed the
bases of his policy--peace, and the greatness of his native country,
which he regarded as indissolubly connected with its national
individuality. He thus broke from the trammels of the Holy Alliance, and
set on foot the policy of non-intervention, which, though its misuse has
much destroyed its credit, is, when the dignity of the country is
properly supported, the true policy to be pursued by a people at once
desirous to secure peace and to allow to other nations the opportunity
of working out their own development, and of securing that national
freedom of action which it claims for itself. There were undoubtedly
inconsistencies in his political views. Like his successor, Peel, he
belonged to a transition time, and had a mind capable of growth.
Several remnants of his early political creed hung about him to the
last. He was always a firm opponent to parliamentary reform; while
supporting continually the claims of the Catholics, he would listen to
no arguments in favour of the relaxation of the Test and Corporation
Acts; and he always upheld the repressive measures of Lord Sidmouth. It
is to be remembered that his youth had been passed in the midst of the
French Revolution, against which all the weapons of his wit had been
directed, and that he was the favourite disciple of Pitt at the time
when that minister's energies were chiefly directed to the suppression
of revolutionary and Jacobinical tendencies; while, in his prime,
temperate reform had become so connected with the exaggerated views of
the radical reformers, that it is not to be wondered at that a statesman
trained as Canning had been should object to measures which might open a
door to the admission of so violent a flood of change.
[Sidenote: Goderich's ministry.]
Though its chief was gone, it was determined to continue the ministry
which Canning had formed on the same principle of compromise on the
subject of Catholic reform. The King could not make up his mind to take
any decided step one way or the other, and fixed upon Lord Goderich, a
colourless man, as best fitted to carry on the system. The changes
necessary were few, but some of them important for the future. Lord
Goderich's own place was taken by Huskisson; Lord Lansdowne accepted, at
the King's personal request, the Home Office; the Chancellorship of the
Exchequer, which Canning had held, was, with some want of wisdom,
considering the connection of the Canningites and Whigs, given to Mr.
Herries, a Tory, an appointment which at once shook the administration.
Another important nomination was that of the Duke of Wellington, who,
immediately upon Canning's death, was without difficulty persuaded to
resume the command of the army, showing how far personal enmity had been
the cause of his previous resignation. The accession of these two Tories
was at the time regarded as a sure augury for the early break up of the
Cabinet. "Before six months are over," said Lord Anglesey, who had been
the agent in securing Wellington's adhesion, "he will trip up all your
heels." These forebodings were speedily fulfilled. A quarrel broke out
about the appointment of a chairman to a Finance Committee which was to
be formed at the opening of the session. The position naturally belonged
to Mr. Herries, but Tierney and Huskisson appear to have secured the
appointment of Lord Althorp without Mr. Herries' knowledge (Nov. 29).
Both Huskisson and Herries sent in their resignation; it seemed
impossible to keep them both, and Lord Goderich, unable to take a firm
course in the matter, sent in his own resignation, which, after he had
once weakly withdrawn it, was finally accepted (Jan. 8, 1828). After
seven months of useless life the abortive ministry expired.
[Sidenote: Wellington made Prime Minister. Jan. 1828.]
There was great difficulty in finding a successor for Goderich. Lord
Harrowby declined the position. Huskisson, who was thought of, was
supposed unable to lead the Commons, and the King, weary of compromise,
determined to have recourse to the Tories, and, at the advice of Lord
Lyndhurst, applied to the Duke of Wellington, whose supposed firmness of
character inspired him with confidence. But even yet George attempted to
postpone the final settlement of the Catholic question; the conditions
he laid on Wellington were only to avoid a union with Lord Grey and to
establish a lasting Government. The Duke therefore, in spite of his late
conduct, asked and received the adhesion of Dudley, Palmerston,
Huskisson, and some others. The Whigs of the late Government naturally
retired, and in their place the Tories of Lord Liverpool's Government
resumed office. In fact the attempt was made to reconstitute the
Liverpool Cabinet. Mr. Huskisson declared to his constituents at
Liverpool that the presence of so many Canningites was a guarantee that
that minister's policy would be continued, but it was generally
understood that the accession of Wellington to the premiership was in
fact a Tory triumph, and such it speedily proved. In a very few months
an opportunity, arising from a slight difference of opinion, enabled the
Duke to insist upon the resignation of Mr. Huskisson; with him the rest
of Canning's party left the ministry, and the Government was constituted
entirely on a Tory basis (May).
[Sidenote: Difficulty of the Turkish question.]
[Sidenote: Canning's diplomacy on the subject.]
[Sidenote: Protocol between England and Russia. April 1826.]