LORD-LIEUTENANTS AND CHIEF SECRETARIES
Any Irishman who has reached the shady side of threescore years and ten
must remember many Lord-Lieutenants--the pompously visible symbols of
much vacillating misdirection.
To analyse them would be the work of an historian, to criticise would be
superfluous. They have been so many Malvolios, all alike anxious to win
the favour of that capricious Lady Olivia Erin, and not one of them has
succeeded, though several have merited better fortune than they met with
on Irish soil.
The first Lord-Lieutenant I personally met was Lord Carlisle.
He was a gentleman, but not otherwise remarkable. He had come into the
Government on the resignation of the Peelites, and his popularity in
Ireland was greater than any other holder of the post in the century,
possibly owing to his negative qualities, and also to a charm of manner
more effusive than usual among Englishmen.
He had a habit of dropping his state, and going about Dublin, if not
like Haroun Alraschid, at least with the independence of men in less
august positions.
On one occasion, needing some local information, he went to see the Lord
Mayor of Dublin, but finding him out, was given the address of an
alderman who could tell him what he wanted to know.
The alderman was not in either, but his wife was, and begged him to stop
to lunch, which was just being served.
Lord Carlisle told her he hardly ever ate lunch, and was not in the
least hungry.
But under pressure he sat down to the meal, and got on very well with
it, whereat the lady remarked:--
'You see, your Excellency, eating is like scratching: when you once
begin it is hard to stop.'
His predecessor, Lord Clarendon, had been in office when Lord John
Russell, the Prime Minister, urged on the House of Commons a bill for
the abolition of the Lord-Lieutenancy. The great point that he made was
that the Chief Secretary might become a mayor of the viceregal palace, a
thing that has now long been the case, for the Lord-Lieutenant has to be
a plutocrat of high descent, and the Chief Secretary is the virtual
administrator of Ireland--a thing unknown, however, until the advent of
Mr. Foster. The second reading was carried by a majority of over a
hundred and fifty, but it was then dropped.
The story went that the Duke of Wellington had suggested to Prince
Albert the possible diminution of respect for the Crown in Ireland
without a visible representative, and the Teutonic mind could not endure
such a notion.
Lord Clarendon upheld the dignity of his position, though he was liked
by neither party in Ireland. He is the only Lord-Lieutenant who ever
administered sharp discipline to the Orangemen--who regard their loyalty
as permitting them a good deal of licence--for he removed the name of
their leader, Lord Roden, from the Commission of the Peace because he
encouraged a turbulent procession at Dolly's Brae. With his pompous
manner he made a very Brummagem monarch, quite indifferent to his
unpopularity. As a matter of fact, some allege that all Lord-Lieutenants
are hated by the disloyal section of the populace, and if they go
through the farce of currying popularity, they can only do so by largely
patronising about a dozen shopkeepers, who eventually curse because yet
more has not been spent. But this is altogether too limited to be true.
Lord Kimberley followed Lord Carlisle. In those days he was Lord
Wodehouse, and the Fenians used to issue mock proclamations, in ridicule
of his, signed 'Woodlouse.' He was an experienced parliamentarian--a man
who held office for many years, and worked conscientiously, according to
his lights.
In Ireland he always appeared to be a naturalist, perplexed at not
understanding the species among which his lot was for the time cast.
His mother was subsequently married to Mr. Crosbie Moore, and she ran
away with Colonel Fitz-Gibbon, afterwards Lord Clare.
Mr. Crosbie Moore had not much sense of humour, as the following tale
will show.
He was presiding at Ballyporeen Petty Sessions, when a village tailor
was summoned for having his pig wandering on the road.
The fellow pleaded that it was due to great curiosity on the part of the
pig, who saw some constabulary passing by, and rushed out to see what
they were like.
He made this explanation in such humorous fashion that most of the
magistrates were for letting him off; but Mr. Crosbie Moore said it was
scandalous that they had directed the police to summon people on that
very ground, and they wanted to acquit the culprit because he had made a
joke.
The rest of the Bench had to acquiesce, and the tailor was fined one
shilling.
He paid his shilling, and said:--
'I have no blame to you at all, gentlemen, except to Mr. Crosbie Moore;
and, indeed, if he reflected, he should have known that no live man
could keep a woman or a pig in the house when she wanted to be off.'
A subscription raised for him outside the Court realised twenty-three
shillings.
Tradition goes that when Lord Kimberley, Lord Carlingford, and Lord
Granville were all in Mr. Gladstone's Cabinet, Mr. Chamberlain--then at
the Board of Trade--in a moment of vexation called them 'Gladstone's
grannies,' and if the phrase is not his, it most certainly was apt and
truthful.
Lord Kimberley was known as 'Pussy' among a gang of disrespectful
subordinates. He really did as little to earn respect as he did to
forfeit it; in fact he was a pre-eminently respectable mediocrity of the
kind that, towards the close of the mid-Victorian period, clung like
barnacles to office, and he was a Whig during the period that Whiggism
was growing obsolete.
The Duke of Abercorn certainly had no tendencies towards the lavish
extravagance by which a modern Lord-Lieutenant has to pay his footing. A
short time before he was chosen he had claimed the Dukedom of
Chatelherault in France, and was known in consequence among the
malcontents as the 'French Frog.' His wife was the daughter of one Duke
of Bedford, and when another came to stay at the viceregal, it was for a
time called the 'Dukeries.' The A.D.C.'s, who were particularly
good-looking, were at once known as the 'Duckeries.'
The Duke of Marlborough settled down well to his work. He was frankly
the friend of the landlords, and did his best for them. But he brought
no English politicians in his train; he never thought he could settle
every Irish question after he had smoked a pipe over it; and he was
never inaccessible.
He came on a visit to Muckross when Sir Ivor Guest had the shooting, and
I dined there to meet him. He visited Killarney on several occasions,
and on each of them I had long talks with him. I always thought him a
painstaking, well-meaning man.
Lord Cowper was an honest nonentity who left the country in disgust
because he was not backed up by the Government. Several modern
figureheads would be very much surprised at any Government expecting
them to do more than 'understudy Royalty.' But Cowper thought himself a
diplomatist; was fond of authoritatively laying down the law on
continental affairs, as though he had the refusal of the Foreign Office
in his pocket; and felt he ought to have as much support as Palmerston
obtained from the various Cabinets he burdened with European embroglios.
However, Lord Spencer, on being reappointed for a second term, took up
the thankless task at an especially black moment. He was as brave as a
lion; and if his red beard gained him the nickname of 'Rufus,' the Red
Viceroy was as fearless as though his life were absolutely secure,
instead of depending wholly on the vigilance of those surrounding him.
We all admired Lord Spencer for his firmness; but this was soon
discovered to be due to the fact that he absolutely followed the sage
advice of Sir Edward Sullivan, the Lord Chancellor, and after the death
of the latter, Lord Spencer's weakness was quite as remarkable as his
previous firmness.
He was seen on one occasion with his hands pressing his back.
Said one man:--
'I fear his Excellency has lumbago.'
'Not at all,' replied his friend; 'he is feeling for his backbone.'
The state of Westmeath was really the worst feature of the period of his
rule, yet Lord Spenser was in the country all the while, and allowed
matters to degenerate with his eyes open.
He rode hard to hounds, in spite of countless threats, and might have
had a less uncomfortable time had the head of the Constabulary been as
thoroughly capable as his subordinates.
Lord Carnarvon very nearly ruined the Government by his communications
with Mr. Parnell. He meant well, and struck out a patriotic line of his
own, which failed because it was made in absolute ignorance of the Irish
character. But he never intended to involve his colleagues, although
numbers of people chose to regard him as a Tory Home Ruler. His previous
action in resigning the Secretaryship of the Colonies in Lord Derby's
third administration, owing to a difference of opinion on parliamentary
reform, and his subsequent resignation because he disapproved of Lord
Beaconsfield's Eastern action in 1878, showed him to be a man of marked
and fearless opinions. Lord Salisbury ought to have known that he was
thrusting a brand into the fire when he sent him to be the official
bellows-blower of the Hibernian pot.
Lord Aberdeen will always be remembered as the husband of his wife. Lady
Aberdeen was a more ardent Home Ruler than even her brother, Lord
Tweedmouth. On one occasion Lord Morris was next her at dinner, and she
said she supposed the majority of people in Ireland were in favour of
Home Rule.
'Indeed, then, with the exception of yourself and the waiters, there's
not one in the room,' was his answer.
'Of course, not in the Castle,' she replied with dignity; 'but in your
profession, and when you are on circuit, surely you must meet a good
many?'
'Occasionally--in the dock,' he drily retorted, after which she
discreetly dropped the subject.
Lord Aberdeen was most exemplary during his brief tenure of office, and
certainly it was not in his time that the folk christened the royal box
at the theatre the 'loose box,' in allusion to the rather dubious
English guests of the vivacious viceroy.
Lord Londonderry and Lord Zetland may be both briefly bracketed together
as having done their duty admirably in times less out of joint than
those of their predecessors. Lord Londonderry always drank Irish whisky
himself, and recommended it to his guests as a capital beverage--a thing
which the licensed victuallers did not mind mentioning to Paddy and Mick
when they were having a drop, despite their vaunted contempt of all at
'the Castle.'
No other Lord-Lieutenant ever had such a mournful experience as Lord
Houghton. Son of Monckton Milnes, the 'cool of the evening,' he needed
his father's temperament to enable him to endure the boycott which Irish
society inflicted on him as the representative of the Home Rule
disruption policy. With no class did he go down, and on a crowded
market-day in Tralee not a hat was raised to him.
One of his A.D.C.'s was subsequently on the veldt, and when asked if it
was not lonely, he replied:--
'Not more than Dublin Castle, when Houghton was the king.'
On one occasion some people were officially commanded to dine. Not a
carriage was to be seen as they drove up to the Viceregal Lodge, so the
gentleman told his coachman to drive round the Phoenix Park, as they
must be too early. There was still no sign of any gathering as they
again approached the official residence, and when they entered they
found they were the only guests, and the infuriated Lord Houghton, as
well as all his household had been kept waiting twenty minutes by this
hapless pair.
Another story, which was much enjoyed in Ireland as showing the
pomposity of his Excellency, may be recalled. Whether true it is now
difficult to say, but there is no doubt that the tale was started among
the very house-party who were at Carton at the time.
The beautiful _châtelaine_, the lovely Duchess of Leinster, was walking
through the fields one Sunday afternoon with Lord Houghton.
They came to a gate, which he opened, but to her astonishment proceeded
to walk through it first himself.
The indignant Duchess haughtily remarked:--
'The Prince of Wales would not think of passing through a gate before
me.'
'That may be; but I represent the Queen,' replied Lord Houghton, with
unruffled imperturbability.
Lord Cadogan and Lord Dudley come so absolutely into contemporary
history that on them nothing can here be said, except that their
munificence has rendered it impossible for any peer of moderate private
means to hold the office.
In sober truth, however, the administration of Government really rests
with the Chief Secretary in recent times, although it was not so before
the advent of Mr. Foster. Men like Lord Naas, Sir Robert Peel the
younger, and Mr. Chichester Fortescue--afterwards Lord Carlingford--were
mere official cyphers, but after Mr. Gladstone's 1880 ministry this has
never been the case.
Of Sir Robert Peel it was wittily said that when Chief Secretary he went
through the country on an outside car, which made him take a one-sided
view of the Irish question.
Lord Morris said to an inquiring Scottish M.P.:--
'Did you ever know a Scottish Secretary who was not Scottish, or an
Irish Secretary who was Irish?'
'No,' said the Scotsman.
'Well, go home and moralise over that as a possible solution of some
Irish difficulties, for may be, if an Irishman was sent over, by
accident, to be Chief Secretary, the official would not fall into the
mistake of trying to reconcile the irerconcilable.'
And to my mind Lord Morris had the last word in every sense.
Mr. W.E. Forster was far too honest to be the tool of Mr. Gladstone's
Hibernian dishonesty. He was perfectly fearless, but, beneath his rugged
exterior, deeply sensitive. He winced under 'buckshot,' and many other
epithets; but abuse and danger alike never prevented him from doing what
he had to do to the best of his ability. His earliest acquaintance with
Ireland had been in the famine, when he was one of the deputation of
succour organised by the Society of Friends, and everybody who has read
Mr. Morley's _Life of Cobden_ will remember the appreciation of their
efforts by the great free-trader.
Mr. Forster did not think the Irish administration should be all 'a
scuffle and a scramble,' and he inaugurated a reversal of the old
balance between Lord-Lieutenants and Chief Secretaries which has never
been subsequently changed. Indeed, it is often only the latter who has a
seat in the Cabinet. He was the victim of many misapprehensions--the
bulk of them wilful--but one which worried him was a widespread
conviction that he was a slow man. His delivery was slow, his manner
deliberate, and he did not lightly give an opinion. Yet emphatically he
was not a slow man, and as an instance may be stated the fact that he
elaborated his scheme of decentralising the powers of the Irish
Government in a single evening in December 1881. I know he was harassed,
nay, martyrised, beyond endurance, through the evasive volubility of Mr.
Gladstone, which, both by mouth and letter, formed a heavier burden than
all the Irish attacks; but he was a just and conscientious man, and I
never heard of a case where appeal was made to him on which he did not
act as reasonably as was compatible with loyalty to such a Prime
Minister.
His courage in walking unarmed and without police escort in Tulla and
Athenry was as great as ever was displayed by a knight-errant of old.
The Nationalist papers, no longer able to taunt him with cowardice, took
to declaring him to be a person notorious for ferocious brutality.
Sir Wemyss Reid said that in the House of Commons his fellow-members had
literally seen his hair whiten during those two years of patriotic
martyrdom in Ireland, and I always feel that the inner life of this
reticent, commanding statesman would have made a wonderful human
document. His capacity, if not his forbearance, has been inherited by
his adopted son, Mr. Arnold Forster, the present Secretary for War, who
acted as his private secretary in the latter years of his life.
When I read Lord Rosebery's speech advocating a Cabinet of business men,
I instinctively thought of the late Mr. W.E. Forster, and it is his heir
who is the first illustration of the Liberal Peer's theory. Since
Cromwell cleared out the House of Commons, no one has done so much as
Mr. Arnold Forster, for he upset the seats of the mighty in the War
Office three months after he kissed hands. I wonder how he would have
dealt with Parnellism and crime.
Mr. Forster's predecessor, Mr. James Lowther, was an uncommonly capable
man, and gifted with a fund of humour which prevented him from taking
the Irish too seriously. In 1879 I heard the Irish members in the House
of Commons vituperating him after a manner that subsequently became
unpleasantly familiar, but was then regarded as a gross breach of the
conventions of debate. 'Jim' lay back on the Treasury bench with his hat
over his eyes, and to all appearance sound asleep. Never once did he
show sign of hearing their verbal tornado; but eventually he sprang to
his feet, and with infectious gaiety literally chaffed them to madness.
I have often thought that the long-limbed Tory member for Hertford, who
was then private secretary to his uncle, Lord Salisbury, must have taken
note of the methods of Mr. Lowther in dealing with the Irish party, for
it was absolutely on the same lines that he subsequently developed that
superb flow of sarcasm which made him, Mr. A.J. Balfour, the popular
idol ten years later.
It has been a practice for many years to appoint a man Chief Secretary
for Ireland in order to see if he is fit for anything else. This plan
turned out well in the case of Mr. A.J. Balfour, for he knew Ireland
better than any other Chief Secretary, and when he came to know it
properly he was removed.
His brother did as much harm in Ireland as Mr. Arthur Balfour did good.
Indeed, in the whole nineteenth century no other incompetent Chief
Secretary misunderstood Ireland with such complete complacency, and if
it had not been for the supervision which 'A.J.' undoubtedly gave, Mr.
Gerald Balfour would have a still worse record.
There was a poem, not particularly brilliant, which may be quoted
because it is not widely known:--
'If I had a Balfour who wrong would go,
Do you think I'd tolerate him?--No, no, no!
I'd give him coercion in Kilmainham jail,
And return him to Arthur, who'd laugh at his wail.'
In fact the impression prevailed that Ireland was then sacrificed to the
nepotism of Lord Salisbury, who had inflicted the least capable of the
House of Cecil on the distressful country.
When the Duke of York was in Ireland, he stayed with Lord Dunraven, and
Mr. Gerald Balfour as Chief Secretary was one of the house-party, and
the mother of the Knight of Glin was also there.
A short time before, a chemist from Cork, who had been appointed
sub-confiscator, and desired to secure his own position, had heavily cut
down the Fitzgerald rents.
Mr. Balfour, by way of making polite conversation, observed to Mrs.
Fitzgerald:--
'I believe your son's property has been a long time in the family.'
'Yes,' she said, 'we got it in the reign of Edward I., and held it until
last year, when the Government sent an apothecary from Cork to rob us of
it.'
The conversation dropped.
Mr. Arthur Balfour was very plucky, not only personally, but in his
legislative efforts, and he did wonders for Ireland--the light railways
relieving numbers from starvation, and opening up the country.
An English journalist went down to the West, and tried to make inquiries
about the popularity of the Chief Secretary.
He came to the cabin of a man who had been rescued from starvation by
getting Government employment, and had thrived so well that he had
become possessed of a pig.
This pig, on the appearance of the Englishman, escaped into a
potato-field, and he heard the woman of the house shout to her son:--
'Mickey, look sharp and turn out Arthur Balfour before he does any
mischief.'
The name of the pig showed the gratitude of the family.
When alluding to Mr. Lowther I omitted to mention that he was always of
opinion that a well-planned scheme of education was the best panacea for
the Irish troubles, and it certainly would have brought up a generation
less keenly sensitive to the exaggerated wrongs of the country to which
both sexes are so frantically attached. During his not very lengthy
tenure of the office of Chief Secretary it was asserted that Sir George
Trevelyan also had some such idea; but whether he went so far as to
draft his plan, and it was consigned to some forgotten pigeon-hole by
Mr. Gladstone, I cannot say.
When the Duke of Argyll described Sir George Trevelyan as a jelly-fish,
he made a comparison which, from my personal experience, I should call
particularly apt.
Ireland had very little use for such a flabby politician, and it may be
added, he had very little use for Ireland.
He was in such a devil of a fright at being forced to succeed poor Lord
Frederick Cavendish that it was some time before the pressure put upon
him sufficed to make him accept office, nor would he be induced to go
over to Dublin Castle at all until he had been given Cabinet rank. As
for the Cabinet, they were so anxious to settle upon a living target for
the Home Rulers to practise upon, and so afraid that through his default
one of themselves might have to undertake the unpleasant office, that
they would have given the prospective victim almost anything he liked,
on the principle of letting the condemned criminal choose what he
prefers for his final meal before that brief interview with the hangman.
Directly after the formation of the following Radical Government, I met
an Englishman of considerable political importance in Pall Mall, and he
observed:--
'The new Cabinet is quarrelling among themselves.'
'Who are fighting?' I asked.
'Chamberlain and Trevelyan,' he replied.
'What about?'
'Chamberlain says that he brought the party back into office, and he
wants the Colonial Office; but Gladstone insists on his being content
with the Local Government Board. Trevelyan says that, as he has for
years had experience in naval affairs, he ought to be made First Lord.
But Gladstone, though he cannot prevail on him to be Chief Secretary,
has sent him to the India Office.'
'And may give him free lodgings in Kilmainham if he is refractory,' I
chimed in. 'And so these two are like pigs with their bristles hurt,
poor things. There's a pity.'
Some time later, when I heard Messrs. Chamberlain and Trevelyan were so
disgusted with the Home Rule Bill that they were leaving the Government,
says I to myself, 'I wonder if Mr. Gladstone in his own heart thinks if
he had gratified their wishes about office he could have retained them.'
But as a matter of fact both are patriots far above such demeaning
insinuations.
Mr. John Morley was a very well-meaning Chief Secretary, but a very
misguided man.
In a conversation with me, Mr. Morley observed that, owing to the
agitation, he saw no alternative but to make Parnell Chief Secretary.
I said that would be no use, for if he attempted to do his duty he would
be shot, even more readily than I should.
Mr. Morley retorted:--
'He is the leader of the Irish nation.'
'I admit it,' I replied, 'and he is the only man you can make terms
with.'
'How?' says he.
'You had better ask him,' says I, 'to nominate some foreign potentate to
appoint commissioners who will say to Mr. Parnell, "Let Ireland pay her
share of the national debt and buy out every loyal person who wishes to
leave the country," and then, if Mr. Parnell says, "We are not able to
do that," let them retort, "We will then disfranchise you, for this
humbug has been going on long enough."'
'That's about it, according to your lights,' replied Mr. Morley.
Was I not right?
It is a singular fact that Ulster and Alsace-Lorraine have about the
same acreage--5,322,334 to 3,586,560--and about the same
population--1,581,357 to 1,719,470. The French and Germans are each
willing to spend a hundred millions of money and half a million lives,
the one to recover, the other to retain, the province, and yet Mr.
Gladstone proposed, not only to abandon Ulster, but to put it under the
rule of the people the Ulsterites hate most on earth.
It is also remarkable that at the time of the Union the population of
Belfast was 35,000, and Dublin 250,000. Now Belfast is 335,000, while
Dublin remains at a quarter of a million. Belfast, in point of customs,
is the third largest city in the British dominions, coming next after
London and Liverpool, whilst it is the finest shipbuilding town in the
world.
Yet its inhabitants were to be sold as though they were African slaves,
for the sole purpose of getting votes for the Liberal Government.
I was one day invited by Froude to come to his home to argue out the
Irish question with Mr. Jacob Bright and Mr. John Morley.
I counted on having Mr. Froude on my side, knowing his strong views, but
as host he would not interfere. However, Miss Cobbe was there, and to my
mind was equal to any of the company. With her on my side, I flatter
myself we were too many for the others; but the worst of all arguments
is that the arguing rarely serves any purpose except to make either
party more obstinate.
I knew John Bright very well.
He was far and away the most honest man of all the Liberal party, and he
fully realised the fact that a visible concentration of property and
universal suffrage could not exist together. He was therefore anxious to
enlarge the number of proprietors, but he did not countenance it being
done entirely at the expense of the English Government without the
tenants having to find such a sum of money out of their own pockets as
would give them an interest in paying off the Government charges.
He was a very broad-minded man, with a simplicity of character which was
admirable. I liked him much, and my one complaint against him was that
he would never accept my invitations to come and pay me a visit in
Kerry.
I never heard him make a speech, but with his beautiful voice it was a
great treat to hear him read Milton. On one occasion he took me to the
House specially to see Mr. Gladstone, but after nearly an hour he had
reluctantly to tell me that the Prime Minister could not find leisure
for our conversation that day owing to pressure of business, and another
opportunity never came.
Although I regret not having met Mr. Gladstone, I yet feel glad that I
never shook him by the hand. I may here mention that I never met Mr.
Parnell, though I have seen him in the House.
From my point of view Mr. John Morley has a dual existence. As man and
as historian he is Jekyl, but as politician he is Hyde.
There is a well-known story about him, so familiar to some of us that it
is possibly forgotten in England, wherefore I venture to relate it once
more.
He was on a car, and asked the driver:--
'Well, Pat, you'll be having great times when you get Home Rule?'
'We will, your honour--for a week,' replied the man.
'Why only a week?' inquired the politician.
'Driving the quality to the steamers.'