SIR J. GRAHAM DECLINES OFFICE.
On Sunday he came to me again. He told me he had called on Stanley and had a good deal of conversation with him. Stanley found fault with Clarendon's letter, which he thought insufficient for the re-suspension of the Habeas Corpus,84and Graham said it appeared to him very meagre. He then went on to say that he felt great difficulty in supporting such a coercive measure, when unaccompanied by any remedial measures whatever; that he did not wish to do or say anything to embarrass the Government, but he could not conceal his opinion that remedial measures ought to be brought forward, especially the payment of the Irish Clergy, and he felt the more difficulty about this, because Disraeli in his speech had made an evident appeal to Protestant bigotry by treating this question as altogether gone by and defunct, and one which never could be raised again, and against this he thought a protest ought to be made. He said he was much struck by the absence of all allusion to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus in both Stanley's and Disraeli's speeches, and he could not help thinking they were preparing to embarrass the Government by some opposition to it, and consequently that the task of carrying it through the House of Commons would not be so easy as Government imagined. He gave me to understand that he wished me to communicate to John Russell what he had said to me.
The next day I went and told Lord John what had passed, and afterwards I told Lord Lansdowne. Yesterday morning I saw Graham again, when I found him no longerinclined to think that Stanley would take any part against the Habeas Corpus Bill. When I got to the office, I saw Lord Lansdowne, who told me (albeit not used to talk politics with me) that what I had said to John Russell had had such an effect upon him, that he had determined, as he (Lord Lansdowne) thought very unwisely, and much to his regret, to propose the renewal for six months only instead of for a year as had been intended. I was exceedingly annoyed at this, and told Lord Lansdowne that Lord John must have misunderstood me, or exaggerated the importance of what I had said, and I hoped it was not too late to revert to the original intention, as I was quite certain there was no necessity for limiting the period, and that if there was opposition from any quarter, it would be as great for six months as for twelve. He begged me to go to John Russell at the House of Commons and say so to him, which I did; but he said merely that they had resolved to adopt a former precedent, and should take it for six months. In the evening I saw Lord Lansdowne, who was evidently extremely mortified and disappointed, and said to me, 'I think we have made a great mess of it,' which was a great deal for him. All this proves that there has been considerable difference of opinion in the Cabinet, and it shows a vacillation and infirmity of purpose, which has been all along the besetting sin of this Government.
February 9th.—It appears that the change from twelve to six months was a sudden turn of Lord John's under the influence of fear. He had got it into his head that there would be a strong opposition to the longer period, but not to the shorter. Accordingly at two o'clock on Tuesday he summoned his Cabinet, and to the great astonishment of all or most of them, announced his intention to make this alteration. There was evidently a considerable struggle. Clanricarde told me he did not believe the Bill was necessary at all, and he would rather have let it drop. Labouchere owned yesterday morning it was all wrong. George Grey and Wood evidently went with Lord John.
DISTRESS IN IRELAND.
On Wednesday night the Government found themselvesin a great dilemma. When Charles Wood proposed his grant of 50,000l.he had no idea of meeting with any opposition, for he told me he was not sure whether he shouldgivethe Irish 50,000l.or 100,000l.; but the English members and constituencies have become savage and hard-hearted towards the Irish, and one after another of all parties jumped up and opposed the grant. Graham said he was for giving it, with the understanding that it should be the last, whereas Charles Wood proposed it as the first of a series of grants. Nobody knows whether it will be carried or not, but it is quite certain that nothing more will be given, let the consequences be what they may. Meanwhile the state of things is monstrous and appalling.
Ireland is like a strong man with an enormous cancer in one limb of his body. The distress is confined to particular districts, but there it is frightful and apparently irremediable. It is like a region desolated by pestilence and war. The people really are dying of hunger, and the means of aiding them do not exist. Here is a country, part and parcel of England, a few hours removed from the richest and most civilised community in the world, in a state so savage, barbarous, and destitute, that we must go back to the Middle Ages or to the most inhospitable regions of the globe to look for a parallel. Nobody knows what to do; everybody hints at some scheme or plan to which his next neighbour objects. Most people are inclined to consider the case as hopeless, to rest on that conviction, and let the evil work itself out, like a consuming fire, which dies away when there is nothing left for it to destroy. All call on the Government for a plan and a remedy, but the Government have no plan and no remedy; there is nothing but disagreement among them; and while they are discussing and disputing, the masses are dying. God only knows what is to be the end of all this, and how and when Ireland is to recover from such a deplorable calamity. Lord Lansdowne, a great Irish proprietor, is filled with horror and dread at the scheme that some propound, of making the sound part of Ireland rateable for the necessities of the unsound, which he thinks is neither more nor lessthan a scheme of confiscation, by which the weak will not be saved, but the strong be involved in the general ruin. Charles Wood has all along set his face against giving or lending money, or any Government interference in the capacity of capitalist, and he contemplates (with what seems like very cruelty, though he is not really cruel) that misery and distress should run their course; that such havoc should be made amongst the landed proprietors, that the price of land will at last fall so low as to tempt capitalists to invest their funds therein, and then that the country will begin to revive, and a new condition of prosperity spring from the ruin of the present possessors. This may, supposing it to answer, prove the ultimate regeneration of Ireland; but it will be at a cost of suffering to the actual possessors and to the whole of the present generation such as never was contemplated by any system of policy. Lord Lansdowne thinks Trevelyan85is the real author of this scheme, who, he tells me, has acquired a great influence over Charles Wood's mind.
February 11th.—I heard from Clarendon last night. He takes the matter of the Habeas Corpus more quietly than I expected, but he says, 'I thank you for telling me the cause of what I consider great vacillation and cowardice on the part of the Government. In the speeches there is no evidence of opposition that could justify a Government in turning away from its purpose.'
Madame de Flahault told me an anecdote about the new French Ambassador, Admiral Cécille, creditable to all the parties concerned. When the Embassy here was offered him, he told the President that he had always been attached to Louis Philippe, and if he was to be made the instrument of saying or doing anything disagreeable to him or his family, he could not accept it. The President said he might be perfectly easy on that score, and that he might go and pay his respects at Claremont as soon as he arrived if he pleased. Accordingly the Admiral sent to the King to offerto wait on him, but Louis Philippe very sensibly said it would only place him in a position of embarrassment, and that he had better not come. I met Duchâtel at dinner on Thursday at Lansdowne House. He spoke highly of the French Ministry and of the President, and he evidently thinks the Monarchy or Empire is more likely to be revived in his person than in that of any other candidate.
THE CEYLON COMMITTEE.
February 15th.—The Government got good divisions the other night on their Irish questions. Graham told me (the morning of the discussion) that he would strongly advise them to make a declaration of their intention to revise local taxation, and connect that question with the Poor Laws. I wrote Charles Wood word what he said, and John Russell acted on the advice. Lord Lansdowne did not conceal from me his disgust at the resolution to which the Cabinet had come of proposing a sort of rate which is to embrace under certain restrictions all Ireland.
February 24th.—Last Tuesday was as disastrous a night as any Government ever suffered, for it was injurious and humiliating. Baillie86had given notice of a motion for a Committee of Enquiry into the administration of Ceylon, British Guiana, and Mauritius, with a view to their better government. He afterwards withdrew Mauritius, and the Government resolved to give the Committee about the other two; and they did this, though they knew that what was really meant was an attack on Lord Torrington87about Ceylon, and on Lord Grey on both scores. Ellice and I told Grey, whom we met at dinner the day before, that they ought not to give the Committee; but he seemed to be all for it, whethernolensorvolensI know not. On Tuesdaynight this motion came on, when Baillie made the most bitter and abusive speech that could be uttered. He said that he meant it as a vote of censure, and he accused Lord Grey (who was sitting under the gallery all the time) of the most disgraceful and dishonourable conduct, especially in reference to the celebrated Jamaica Memorial in the House of Commons last year. The House went with Baillie, and against Grey and Torrington. The Government met the case in a very poor, blundering, low way; a sort of dodge was attempted and totally failed in the shape of an amendment proposed by Ricardo. Peel said a few damaging words, and John Russell made a very poor speech, which had all the air of throwing Grey over. The motion for a Committee was carried without any division or resistance, and with scarcely any alteration. The effect was as bad as it could possibly be. The Government and their people were mortified and dejected, Grey immensely disgusted, and the Opposition, especially Protectionists, insolent and elated. It is generally believed that if they had divided, they would have been beaten, for all the scattered sections of the Opposition and some of their own friends would have voted against them, and this has revealed the disagreeable truth that they have in fact no hold in the House of Commons, no certain majority, and that whenever all the other parties can find a common ground to meet upon, the Government are sure to be beaten.
Graham called on me on Thursday to talk over this debate. He thought it very damaging and very bad; John Russell wretched; he thought after Baillie's speech he ought to have refused the Committee and abided by the consequences, standing up and manfully defending both his colleague and his employé. He said he had observed that Peel had latterly been more ill-natured to the Government, and that he still bitterly resented Lord John's speech reviving the old dispute on the Appropriation Clause. Lord Aberdeen says the same thing, adding that Peel had never liked Lord John, and that he thought his conduct in attacking him, after the support he had given him, was very bad, and heresented it accordingly, and this was not the last proof he would give of his resentment.
A BREACH OF NEUTRALITY.
March 2nd.—A day or two ago Bankes asked a question in the House of Commons about the stores furnished to the revolutionary Sicilian Government, to which Palmerston made a reply, and the matter dropped. It is very singular that none of the Opposition leaders got hold of it, for there never was a stronger case coupled with all the rest of Palmerston's Sicilian doings. They have so entirely mismanaged their case, and contrived to give him so great a triumph, and to establish such a prestige of his success and dexterity, that it is now difficult, if not impossible, to take the field against him afresh with any prospect of success. But the Sicilian case is so strong and so bad, that even now, when the papers are published, they may make a good deal of it, and do Palmerston some damage if they manage the case well. His case for the maritime interference after the capture of Messina has been thrown over completely by the speech of General Filangieri in the Neapolitan Parliament, which bears every mark of truth; and I have since heard how he got up the story of atrocities supposed to be committed, which he put into the mouth of the Queen in her speech in Parliament, and which he repeated himself with so much effrontery in the House of Commons, and made Lord Lansdowne so innocently repeat in the House of Lords. Long after, I believe two months after the intervention, he wrote to Lord Napier, and desired him to instruct the British Consul at Messina to collect details of the Neapolitan atrocities, and to send them to him, and this was the evidence on which he made the statements which so materially assisted in carrying him through the debate the first night of the session. The mention in the Queen's Speech of the 'King ofNaples,' instead of the King of the Two Sicilies, is now said to have been a mere inadvertence, but I have no doubt it was overlooked by his colleagues, but put in by him intentionally and with a significant purpose. It is his whole antecedent conduct from first to last which confers such importance on the case of the stores. Sicilian agents came over hereand applied to the Government contractor to supply them, with stores. He said he had none ready, having just supplied all he had to Government, but that if Government would let him have them back, he would supply them to the agents, and replace the Government stores in a short time. The Sicilians had no time to lose, and by their desire the contractor applied to the Ordnance, stating the object of his application. If the matter had been merely treated commercially, and the contractor, without stating his object, had asked the Government to oblige him as a convenience to himself, it would have been quite harmless; but the object having been stated, it became a political matter. So the Ordnance considered it, and they referred the request to Palmerston as Foreign Secretary, who gave his sanction to the transaction. This made the whole thing a political affair, and a direct assistance rendered by Government to the Sicilian insurgents. The Neapolitan Minister heard of it, and an apology to his Government became necessary. All the Ministers saw the gravity of this matter, but by the extraordinary good fortune which never deserts Palmerston, nobody found it out, and not a word was said about it the first night, to the great joy and surprise of the Ministers, who were trembling lest this delicate point should be touched upon.88
BATTLE OF CHILLIANWALLAH.
The rate in aid for Ireland is making a great stir and very bad blood in Ireland. The evidence before both Committees is very much against it. Labouchere told me yesterdaythat the Commons Committee had been much shaken by the evidence of one of the Poor Law Commissioners examined before them yesterday, and the same effect has been produced in the House of Lords. Lord Lansdowne cannot endure it, and, though it is a Government measure, the Cabinet are anything but unanimous about it. Clarendon does not like it either, but he must have money,quocunque modo rem.
In the midst of more important affairs the exposure that has just been made of Hudson's railway delinquency89has excited a great sensation, and no small satisfaction. In the City all seem glad of his fall, and most people rejoice at the degradation of a purse-proud, vulgar upstart, who had nothing to recommend him but his ill-gotten wealth. But the people who ought to feel most degraded are those who were foolish or mean enough to subscribe to the 'Hudson Testimonial,' and all the greedy, needy, fine people, who paid abject court to him in order to obtain slices of his good things.
March 7th.—The news from India of Gough's disastrous and stupid battle90filled everybody with indignation and dismay, and a universal cry arose for Sir Charles Napier. On Saturday evening I met Lord John Russell at Lord Granville's, and told him so, entreating him to send him out. He answered, in his cold, easy way, that 'it was too late now,' that the campaign could not last beyond the end of this month or middle of the next, and that he therefore could not get out in time; that they had appointed Sir William Gomm, and that the Duke of Wellington gave hima high character, and he thought all would do well; in short, he seemed not inclined to do anything.
On Sunday I called on Arbuthnot at Apsley House, where I found the Duke. I talked to him of the battle; he shook his head, and lifted up his hands. I said they ought to send out Napier; he said he had long ago wanted to do so, that now he could not get out till the campaign was over; that he hoped it would all end well, though it had been a bad affair, and ill-managed. I asked him would Napier go if they would appoint him. He said, 'Oh yes; he would go, he would go,' he repeated. He then went away. When he was gone, Arbuthnot said to me, 'Though the Duke puts a good face upon it, and endeavours to make the best of it, I can tell you (though he will not say so to you or to anybody) that he is extremely alarmed, and thinks the state of things most serious.' He then said that the Duke would like exceedingly to send out Napier, but that he would express no opinion, and give no advice; that he always said he was not a Cabinet Minister, and it was not for him to tender advice, but he would give it if it was asked. I said I had spoken to John Russell the evening before, when Arbuthnot said, if I could do anything with the Government to induce them to send Napier out, it would be doing a great service, and he knew that the Duke would afford every assistance in his power for that purpose. I said I would try. I determined to go and speak to Hobhouse.91In my way to Brooks', where I went to look for him, I met Lord Lansdowne, when I urged him to send out Napier. He said he would not go. I told him I knew he would, and then repeated what had passed at Apsley House. He said John Russell had seen the Duke the day before, who had said nothing about it. I told him the Duke would not say anything unless he was asked, but then he would, and would give his opinion. I then went to Hobhouse, found him, and urged him, as strongly as I could, to send Napier out, telling him how clamorous everybody was for it, and what the Duke and Arbuthnot had said to me. He acknowledged that it wasthe only thing to do, but that he did not know how the Directors were to be brought to consent to it, and that his having the seat in Council or not made the difference between 8,000l.or 18,000l.a year to him, to say nothing of the insult which Napier considered would be put upon him by excluding him from the Council. Hobhouse then said, 'You do not know the difficulties I have had with these men. I have brought the Government, the Duke of Wellington, and the Queen all to bear upon them, and all in vain. It was only the other day, after the affair in which Cureton was killed, that I made another attempt. I sent to Sir James Lushington, and asked him if it was not then possible to send Napier out to India. The next day he sent me word that it was impossible, for if it was proposednot one manwould vote for it.'
SIR CHARLES NAPIER SENT TO INDIA.
I replied, since all the powers had failed, that I would bring one more to bear upon them, viz. the House of Commons, and advised him to go down and announce the appointment of Napier as Commander-in-Chief; and if the Directors refused the seat in Council, to cast all the responsibility on them, and ask Parliament for the additional salary. He approved of the plan, if it should become necessary. I ended by urging him to probe the Duke of Wellington, who would tell him his real opinion (he was to see him the next morning), and then to take a decisive step, and send Napier out. I told him his Government wanted credit, and that while in the event of any fresh disasters they would incur an enormous responsibility, and be called to a severe account for not having sent the best man they could find, by doing so now, they would acquire reputation, vigour, and resolution. The next morning early he went to Lord John Russell, and they agreed to appoint Napier. Hobhouse went to the Duke, and it was settled at once, greatly to the Duke's satisfaction. Napier, however, took twelve hours to consider of it, and the Duke told me he did not at all like it. The Directors behaved well, and, whether agreeable to them or not, they acquiesced with a good grace. Ellenborough advised Napier to demand powers greater than had everbeen given to any commander-in-chief, but Napier consulted Hardinge, who advised him to do no such thing. He said there was no necessity for them, and that he had much better go out as all his predecessors had done. This was sound advice, and Napier took it. It would have been most unwise in a man appointed under such circumstances to make extraordinary demands upon the authority which only with the greatest reluctance could be induced to give him any powers at all. Hardinge told me this in the House of Lords last night.
The satisfaction at Napier's appointment is great and universal, but I really believe it is in a considerable degree attributable to the accident of my seeing the Duke on Sunday, and bringing him and the Government to an understanding on the subject. If I had not seen Hobhouse on Sunday afternoon, I doubt if any change would have been made, and am inclined to think Gomm's appointment would have been carried out.
Last night in the House of Lords Palmerston got the hardest hit he has ever yet had, though his skin is so impenetrably thick that he will hardly feel it. Some nights ago Bankes had asked a question about the Sicilian arms, which Palmerston answered in his usual offhand way, and as usual the matter fell flat, nobody appearing to think or care anything about it. Palmerston made a sort of explanation, such as it was, without a word in it of regret or excuse, as if it had been all quite natural and right. But the matter did not go off so easily in the Lords. Stanley stated the case he had heard, and asked if it was true. Lord Lansdowne at once owned it was true; he called it 'an inadvertence'! But he said that as soon as it was known to the Cabinet, they were deliberately of opinion that the permission ought to have been withheld, and that instructions had been sent to Temple in case any complaint was made, to apologise, explain, and promise nothing of the sort should ever recur. A more mortifying declaration for Palmerston (if anything can mortify him) could not well be, and it was besides an exposure not to be mistaken. Ifthis affair had stood alone, it might have passed for an inadvertence, but conjoined with all the other circumstances of the case, and the general tenor of Palmerston's Italian policy, nothing can well be worse. Palmerston issafeenough as far as his office is concerned, and the Government will not be shaken, but it is damaging beyond all doubt, and when the question comes to be regularly discussed, Stanley, though now too late, will give him a tremendous dressing.
AFFAIR OF THE SICILIAN ARMS.
March 16th.—I have been entirely occupied with the labour and trouble of migration from Grosvenor Place to Bruton Street, where I took up my abode yesterday evening, and the consequence is that I have not found time to write a line about passing events.92
A day or two after Lord Lansdowne's explanation in the House of Lords about the Sicilian arms Bankes made another interpellation in the House of Commons, the object of which was to ask the same question that Stanley had done. But unlike his chief he made a long, rambling, stupid speech, which gave Palmerston one of those opportunities of which he never fails to avail himself with so much dexterity, and accordingly he delivered a slashing, impudent speech, full of sarcasm, jokes, and clap-traps, the whole eminently successful. He quizzed Bankes unmercifully, he expressed ultra-Liberal sentiments to please the Radicals, and he gathered shouts of laughter and applause as he dashed and rattled along. He scarcely deigned to noticethequestion, merely saying a few words at the end of his speech in replying to it. All this did perfectly well for the House of Commons, and he got the honours of the day. Stanley was furious, and all the Anti-Palmerstonians provoked to death, while he and his friends chuckled and laughed in their sleeves. John Russell also came to his rescue, and made an apology for him, which in his mouth was very discreditable, for it was in fact inconsistent with what Lord Lansdowne had said in the House of Lords.
Difficult Position of the Government—A Cloud in the East—Italian Affairs—Suppression of a Despatch—Sir Charles Napier goes to India—Sir James Graham's Alarms—Lord John Russell's Position—Battle of Novara—Opposition to the Repeal of the Navigation Laws—Sir James Graham's Pusillanimity—State of France—Conflicting Views on Irish Relief—Lord John contemplates a Peerage—Interview of Lord Clarendon with Sir Robert Peel—The Navigation Bill—Maiden Speech of Sir R. Peel's second Son—An Omission of Lord Palmerston's—Lord Palmerston's Opponents—Lord Palmerston's Defence—A Trip to Scotland—Dr. Candlish's Sermon—History of the Debates on Foreign Affairs—Extension of the Suffrage—The Queen's Visit to Ireland—A Council at Balmoral—Prince Albert's Conversation—Lord Aberdeen's Views—Lord John's Defence of Lord Palmerston.
London, March 16th, 1849.—On Thursday in last week Mr. Disraeli made his promised display in favour of the landed interest. His speech was vehemently praised by the Tories, but regarded with very different opinions by different people; on the whole it was not much admired. The night before last, the debate having been adjourned for several days, Charles Wood answered it in one of the best speeches that has been heard for a long time, and by far the best he ever made. Peel warmly congratulated him, and he told Ellice it was not merely a good, it was a great speech. This has been very useful to the Government as well as to the Chancellor of the Exchequer himself, and both required something of credit. The Government are (as heretofore) hampered with measures which they have brought forward with very doubtful means of being able to carry them. The Rate in Aid and the Navigation Laws are both in jeopardy, though this time by no fault of the Government, who have done all they could to pass both. It is a state of things full of difficulty and uncertainty. Everyparty is strong enough to thwart and embarrass its opponents, and to obstruct and damage measures it dislikes, and none is strong enough to have its own way, and carry matters with a high hand. All this was foreseen as the inevitable result of the Reform Bill, but so many years elapsed during which peculiar circumstances prevented the actual occurrence of the result, that people forgot the prediction, and everybody fancied matters were to be carried on exactly as they used to be before the Reform Bill had destroyed the machinery of rotten boroughs, and let in a flood of popular influence.
A CLOUD IN THE EAST.
March 20th.—The complication of foreign affairs is not a little increased by the bad humour into which we have thrown the Emperor of Russia by our proceedings at Constantinople. Brunnow, generally socouleur de roseand such a fast friend of Palmerston, holds language quite unusual with him. Graham told me he met him at a great dinner of diplomats and politicians at Aberdeen's last Wednesday, when he talked to him with much vehemence and in a very menacing tone. The case is this:—By the treaty of Ackerman the Hospodars in the provinces are elected for seven years, by that of Adrianople the election is for life. The Emperor desired to revert to this former mode, and proposed it to the Turks. They were disposed to consent, when Stratford Canning interposed, prevailed on them to refuse, and so excited them that they assumed a military attitude and began to arm. This is Brunnow's version of the affair; at the same time intimating that he attributed it more to Stratford Canning than to Palmerston himself. It is well known that Stratford Canning is strongly anti-Russian, both politically and personally, but I don't believe he would take any serious course without being assured of Palmerston's concurrence; and Eddisbury93told me he had done quite right. We suppose that Russia and Austria have a perfect understanding,and if it be so, this is the result of Palmerston's having quarrelled with Austria.
While clouds are gathering in that quarter, and the Hungarian war seems far from its termination, the Danes have denounced their armistice, and the King of Sardinia his, the Sicilians seem resolved to reject the King of Naples' terms, and war is about to break again with fresh fury over half of Europe, France and England alone remaining at peace within themselves, with each other, and with all the world.
March 25th.—Lord Aberdeen made a strong attack on Palmerston on Thursday night about the affairs of Piedmont, denouncing his partiality for Sardinia and against Austria, and particularly his suppression of an important despatch in the papers he had laid before Parliament at the beginning of the last session. Lord Lansdowne replied with his usual spirit, but he could not parry the attack, and was reduced to the necessity of making a somewhat discreditable defence. Brougham rose afterwards and lashed the whole transaction, and there it ended; but Lord John was amazed at what had occurred, and said that he never saw the Blue Books before they are presented, and therefore had not known what was put before Parliament and what was not. It was a very damaging discussion to Palmerston, as far ascharacteris concerned, but he does not mind that sort of damage, and no other can be done to him.
The Government are dissatisfied with Dalhousie,94and it appears to be in agitation to recall him. Hobhouse told me that Napier had proposed to him to make him (Napier) Governor-General. It was not indeed a formal proposal, but he said, 'Why don't you make me Governor-General at once?' They would have given him a peerage if he had insisted on it as the condition of his going to India, but this he did not know. When the command was offered him, he would not give his answer without twenty-four hours' consideration, in spite of all pressing to accept at once. TheDirectors swallowed the pill with a good grace enough. Three of them voted against his having a seat in Council, the rest agreed.
A PEERAGE SUGGESTED FOR LORD JOHN.
March 30th.—At Althorp the last three days, for Northampton races. The day before I went there I sate for two hours with Sir James Graham, who was very serious and very sad about everything, more especially Ireland and India. I think he now regrets not having gone to India, and would go if it were again offered him. He is now prodigiously alarmed at the opposition the Rate in Aid is meeting with from the Northern Irish, and greatly staggered by Twistleton's95evidence and resignation, in short he is shrinking from his original opinions on this subject, expressed a great wish to talk to Clarendon, and discussed Palmerston and foreign affairs,cum multis aliis. Amongst other things he spoke of the conduct of the Chancellor to Romilly, Solicitor-General, about the report of a committee, of which Romilly was chairman last year, to enquire into legal abuses. Romilly had drawn up a report, and he said because it affected the Master's offices, the Chancellor insisted on burking it, and frightened Romilly from going on with it. As he made it out, it was a very bad case.
Graham talked much of John Russell, and said his loss would be so great that if he was unable to face the severe work of the House of Commons, he had better go to the Lords and retain his office. At Althorp I told the Duke of Bedford all that had passed between Graham and me. He was so much struck by what he had said about Lord John, which chimed in with his own feelings, that he resolved to write to him and propose to him to take this course, and the next morning he told me he had done so; and that he intended, if Lord John did it, with Tavistock's assent to make him a sufficient dotation. This is so great an object for him and for his son, that it will probably reconcile him in great measure to the sacrifice of quitting the House of Commons.
Yesterday came the news of the defeat of the Sardinians96and the abdication of Charles Albert, which was received with universal joy, everybody rejoicing at it except Palmerston, who will be excessively provoked and disappointed, though he will not venture, and is too clever, to show it. Clarendon had a conversation with him a few days ago, in which he told Palmerston how much he wished that Radetzky might crush the King of Sardinia, when Palmerston did not disguise the difference of his own opinions, and his wishes that the Austrians might be defeated. Yesterday there was a Drawing-room, at which everybody, the Queen included, complimented and wished joy to Colloredo, except Palmerston, who, though he spoke to him about other things, never alluded to the news that had just arrived from Italy. I met Colloredo at Madame de Lieven's (who was in a state of rapturous excitement), and he told us so there. Nothing could be more striking than this marked difference between the Foreign Secretary and his Sovereign, and all his countrymen, and we may be sure Colloredo will not fail to make a pretty story of it to his Court. The moral, however, is deplorable, for while it must satisfy the Austrians that England has no bad feeling towards Austria but the reverse, they cannot but see that Palmerston is permitted to drag the English Government and nation wherever it pleases his crotchets, caprices, or prejudices to make them go. I certainly never saw a more general expression of satisfaction than the intelligence of Radetzky's victory excited here.
THE NAVIGATION LAWS.
While I was at Althorp the Duke of Bedford showed me two letters, which Hobhouse had sent him, of the Duke of Wellington's to Dalhousie, containing his advice and opinions on the conduct of the war in the Punjaub, which are admirable,and show that his mind is as vigorous, comprehensive, and sagacious as ever.
April 1st.—I do not think anything Palmerston has done has excited so great a sensation, and exposed him to so much animadversion, as his behaviour to Colloredo at the Drawing-room the day on which the news of Radetzky's victory arrived. Everybody is talking of it; Clarendon told Lord Lansdowne of it, who was both shocked and surprised. The impolicy of this unmistakeable display ofanimusis the more striking, because we are now (through Ponsonby) entreating the Austrian Government to show moderation, and not to exact large contributions. This is not the first time men have suffered more from their small misdeeds than from their great ones.
The Duke of Bedford told me yesterday that Lord John had taken in very good part his proposal, and had promised to discuss the matter with him, but said very justly that he must not quit the House of Commons without a clear necessity, and that it would be very inexpedient to go to the House of Lords just at the moment when a decision of that House may possibly upset the Government. This may take place on the Navigation Laws, for the Government have made up their minds to resign if they are beaten upon it, and Lord John was to propose to the Cabinet that Lord Lansdowne should announce their intention in the House of Lords. Meanwhile it is understood that Lord Stanley means to beat them if he can, and is prepared to take the Government if it is offered to him. The Queen asked Graham the other night if it was true that Stanley really did mean it, and he told her he believed it certainly was true. She then asked him what would be the consequence. He said a struggle between the aristocracy and the democracy of the country, very perilous to the former. She said she entirely agreed in this opinion. Lord John Russell sent on Friday for Ellesmere, and asked him to go and talk to the Duke of Wellington, who is going to vote against the repeal, for they justly think that though he would probably not carry many votes with him if he went with Government,he would carry a good many if he went against them.
Clarendon has had two interviews with Graham with very full, frank, and amicable discussion on all points. Clarendon is struck with his great sagacity, and at the same time with a pusillanimity which goes far to neutralise that sagacity. I have remarked this myself, and that his judgement is often blinded by his fears. We certainly may be approaching a very serious crisis, but nothing will make me believe, till I see it, that Stanley and his crew will come into power, and that the Queen will be reduced to the deplorable necessity, and even degradation, of taking such a pack as he would offer her, and of dissolving Parliament at their bidding. That she would struggle to avert such a calamity, and appeal to all the statesmen of both parties to save her, I do not doubt, but there would appear the fatal obstacle of Palmerston, for assuredly nobody will join in any new arrangement by which he would remain at the Foreign Office.
Reeve, who is just come back from Paris, gives a very unsatisfactory account of the state of things there, and of the miserable uncertainty about everything and everybody in which the country is involved. He says that notwithstanding our close alliance and apparent intimacy, there is really no amicable feeling towards us, but on the contrary great jealousy and secret ill-will. They have no more confidence in our diplomacy than the Powers whom we have sacrificed to the French connexion, and any incident may any day put an end to this connexion. There is absolutely no Government, Odilon Barrot has no weight, influence, or capacity; the President is not unpopular, and that is all that can be said of him. The armythey hopeis still firm, but the greatest efforts are made to corrupt the soldiers, and they read Prudhomme's atrocious journal. He does not think that all France is so resolutely pacific as we fancy, and that a little matter might again kindle a warlike spirit; in short, it is a state of things full of uncertainty and therefore of danger. Thiers is said to have fallen into the lowest discredit. He is now known to have shown great cowardiceon February 24th, and this, which Frenchmen never forgive, together with his recent vacillating conduct, has had a fatal effect on his influence and position, and as he has quarrelled more or less with most of his old friends, he is entirely without political power.
IRISH RELIEF.
April 2nd.—It has been settled between Clarendon, John Russell, and Charles Wood to give up the Rate in Aid and impose on the Irish the income tax, which it is said they prefer. The two Ministers wanted the Irish income tax to be for three years instead of putting it exactly on the same footing as the English. This Clarendon stoutly opposed, representing the extreme impolicy of making any difference, and he at last, but not without difficulty, made them give way. On Thursday last Peel made a great speech, bringing forward very elaborately his views of Irish relief, but without explaininghowhis plan was to be carried out. Graham is dead against him, so much so that they have had no conversation on the subject. Clarendon is equally against him, as are the Government, but Clarendon determined to see him and talk it over with him. They met at Palmerston's on Saturday night, when Peel treated Clarendon with extraordinary cordiality, and Clarendon proposed an interview, which is to take place at Peel's house to-morrow morning.
Ellesmere went to the Duke of Wellington to talk to him about the Navigation Bill, and found him in excellent disposition. He promised to do all in his power to support the Government, and he advised Prince Albert, who called on him a day or two ago, to keep quiet and say as little as possible on the subject to anybody.
April 4th.—The Duke of Bedford told me yesterday morning that Lord John has made up his mind to go to the House of Lords, but that he will not have the Peerage continued to his son. His purpose is to be created with remainder to the Duke. He disapproves of poor Peerages, of men being created without ample patrimonies, and the property which the Duke means to settle on Lord John (he did not tell me the amount or locality, only that it is a good gentleman's property) he does not consider enough for aPeerage. I know not whether he will adhere to this resolution, which, if he does, will form a new precedent. It has only been mentioned to Lord Lansdowne, whose disposition is to retire, but they will never allow him, for his continuing with them is of the greatest consequence to the Government and to Lord John himself; his loss would be irreparable in all ways.
April 6th.—Lord Clarendon97had a long interview with Peel, who received him with the greatest cordiality and even warmth. Their conversation was to the last degree open and friendly, and Peel professed the most earnest desire to do anything in his power to co-operate with Clarendon in doing good to Ireland. They discussed Peel's plans, and Clarendon stated to him frankly all his objections to them, and why a great part of them was quite impracticable. All this Peel received with the utmost candour and goodwill, and Clarendon told me he thought he had completely succeeded in proving to him that much that he proposed (the Commission particularly) was quite impossible. I never saw a man more satisfied than he was at this interview, or more gratified at Peel's reception of him. Peel entreated him with the greatest earnestness not to think of leaving Ireland till he had accomplished something great and important towards the regeneration of the country. This, however, Clarendon is not very sanguine as to his power of doing with the present Government. His indignation against his own political friends is boundless.98He poured it all out to me the other night, and he is equally indignant about the past and hopeless about the future; hopeless, because John Russell is so infirm of purpose, that he will not predominate over his Cabinet and prevent the chaos of opinions andinterests which prevent anything Clarendon proposes being done. Then he says that the Chancellor is a great mortgagee in Ireland, and on account of his own personal interests he resolutely opposes all the plans relating to the transfer of property which by any possibility can affect the mortgagees. Lansdowne and Clanricarde are both Irish proprietors, so they have their own separate interests. The consequence of all this confusion is that he is continually thwarted and baffled in his endeavours to carry measures he thinks essential to the relief of Ireland, and he assures me that he has all along predicted to John Russell and George Grey exactly what has happened. The measures which the Government are now finding themselves obliged to adopt are the very same which he originally proposed and which they rejected. He appears not to have minced matters with John Russell, but to have spoken his mind freely, and visited upon the Cabinet in most unsparing criticism and reproach all their sins of omission and commission.
LANDED INTERESTS IN IRELAND.
Thursday, May 11th (Bruton Street).—For the last fortnight everybody has been occupied with the division in the House of Lords on the Navigation Bill; the greatest whip-up was made on both sides that ever was known, and the lists made and re-made out with such accuracy that every vote was pretty well ascertained, and the numbers quite correctly calculated.99Stanley made a magnificent speech, the best it is said he ever made, and one of the most brilliant and effective ever made by anybody. He made a sort of attack on the Duke of Wellington which was both unjustifiable and in bad taste. The Duke behaved oddly in this matter. He gave repeated assurances to the Government that he would assist them in every way he could, but he really gave them no assistance at all, for he refused positively to communicate with any Peers on the subject, would not speak to those who wished to consult him, and he never opened his lips in the debate. I am compelled to believe that Stanley really meant, if he could have defeatedthis Bill, to have taken the Government if offered to him.
The Protectionists are gone mad with the notion of reaction in the country against Free Trade. Many people, however, say that distress really has produced a very considerable change of opinion, and it is allowed on all hands that in the event of a dissolution the Irish, frantic with distress, would support any Protectionist Government to a man. We hear that Stanley means to overturn the Bill in Committee, as he undoubtedly can, and that the Government will be compelled to restore its integrity again on the report, and this is to be the future progress of the contest.
On Monday night a great event occurred in the House of Commons. Young Peel, Sir Robert's second son,100made a maiden speech (on the Jew Bill) of such extraordinary merit, that it at once placed him at the top of the tree. Its excellence and its great promise were universally admitted. Peel came into the House just at the close of it, and it is said that neither he nor Lady Peel had any idea their son was going to speak. The appearance of a young man who promises something great, is in these days of mediocrity an occurrence of enormous value and importance.