EFFECTS OF PEEL'S DEATH.
It is impossible to foresee the political effects of Peel's death. To John Russell and to his Government it is a great loss, and the time may come when his absence will beseverely felt. Standing aloof from parties, known to have no views of personal ambition, and giving them the benefit of his influence and countenance, he would have been able to afford them efficacious aid in the event of any Radical pressure, and as long as he had lived he would have proved a powerful coadjutor in resisting any attempts to assail or undermine the Monarchy or the Constitution, It is against the Radical supporters of the Government, and not against the Protectionist Opposition, that he would have been mainly serviceable. So far as these are concerned his death is more likely to remove than to create difficulties in the way of Lord John, inasmuch as he becomes more indispensable than ever; and the certainty that there is no alternative between him and Stanley—no Peel who in a great emergency might have been called in—will certainly prolong his term of office. Peel is a great loss to the Queen, who felt a security in knowing that he was at hand in any case of danger or difficulty, and that she could always rely upon his devotion to her person and upon the good counsel he would give her. But his relations with the Court at different periods are amongst the most curious passages of his political history. In 1838, when the Bedchamber quarrel prevented his forming a Government, there was probably no man in her dominions whom the Queen so cordially detested as Sir Robert Peel. Two years afterwards he became her Prime Minister, and in a very short time he found means to remove all her former prejudice against him, and to establish himself high in her favour. His influence continued to increase during the whole period of his administration, and when he resigned in 1846 the Queen evinced a personal regard for him scarcely inferior to that which she had manifested to Lord Melbourne, while her political reliance on him was infinitely greater. To have produced such a total change of sentiment is no small proof of the tact and adroitness of Peel; but it was an immense object to him to ingratiate himself with his Royal Mistress; he spared no pains for that end, and his success was complete.
He appears to have suffered dreadful pain during thethree days which elapsed between his accident and his death. He was sensible, but scarcely ever spoke. He had arranged all his affairs so carefully that he had no dispositions to make or orders to give. Sir Benjamin Brodie says that he never saw any human frame so susceptible of pain, for his moral and physical organisation was one of exquisite sensibility. He was naturally a man of violent passions, over which he had learnt to exercise an habitual restraint by vigorous efforts of reason and self-control. He was certainly a good, and in some respects a great man; he had a true English spirit, and was an ardent lover of his country; and he served the public with fidelity, zeal, and great ability. But when future historians shall describe his career and sum up his character, they will pass a more sober and qualified judgement than that of his admiring and sorrowing contemporaries. It is impossible to forget that there never was a statesman who so often embraced erroneous opinions himself, and contributed so much to mislead the opinions of others. The energy and skill with which he endeavoured to make the worse appear the better cause were productive of enormous mischief; and if on several occasions his patriotism and his ability were equally conspicuous, and he rendered important public service, his efforts were in great measure directed to repair the evils and dangers which he had been himself principally instrumental in creating.
LORD CLARENDON ON THE LATE DIVISION.
July 16th.—I have seen Graham once or twice lately, when we have talked over his own position and the state of affairs. He told me he had had very friendly communication with John Russell, who had intimated to him that Peel's death would necessarily place him in a position more important and responsible. Graham, however, repudiated the notion of his accepting any such position, and declared that he was quite unfit to influence the opinions and regulate the conduct of other men. He thought Peel was not unconscious of the power he possessed in the country, and he had not long ago announced with great energy that if any attempt was made in any shape to reimpose a duty on Corn, there wasnothing he would not do to oppose it; and he thinks that he would not have shrunk from any means he might have deemed conducive to that object; that he would have taken office if necessary, or have allied himself with any person or party; in short, shrunk fromnothingin the most extensive sense of the term. Graham is much alarmed at the reckless course Stanley is taking in the House of Lords, especially with reference to the Irish Franchise Bill, and augurs some very serious consequences from it.
July 19th.—Clarendon arrived from Ireland a few days ago. He told me he had only seen John Russell for a few minutes, in a great hurry as he was going to the Cabinet, when these few words passed about foreign affairs. Clarendon said 'they had got well out of their difficulties on that score.'
Lord John.—Yes, I think it did—very well.
Lord Clarendon.—Yes; but don't misunderstand me. If what has passed serves as a lesson to Palmerston, and induces him to begin another course of conduct, I shall think you got very well indeed out of it; but if he only regards what has happened as a triumph, and as sanctioning and approving all his previous proceedings, then I shall think you got very ill out of it, and that your success was a misfortune; but I hope the former alternative is the truth.
Lord John.—I hope so, too; but it is very difficult to get any man who has long pursued any particular course to change that course, more especially when that man is Palmerston.
From this Clarendon inferred that Palmerston means to go on just as before and will not take a lesson from what has occurred, and he is confirmed in this idea by something Charles Wood said to him in the same strain.
Yesterday Normanby came to take leave of me before returning to Paris. He has been very much dissatisfied and annoyed at Palmerston's goings on, and at therôlewhich was imposed on him, and he told me he did not like Palmerston's tone, which was much too triumphant, and he was very much afraid he would not change his ways of proceeding.His best hope was that no case would occur to elicit any fresh conduct or language of his of a questionable nature.
July 28th.—This day week the Radicals gave Palmerston a dinner at the Reform Club. It was a sorry affair—a rabble of men, not ten out of two hundred whom I know by sight. They asked John Russell who would not go, and then they thought it better to ask no more of Palmerston's colleagues. Neither Lord John nor any of them liked it, but of course they said nothing. Palmerston would have done better to repose on his House of Commons laurels, and find some pretext for declining this compliment. The Court are just as much disgusted with him as ever, and provoked at his success in the House of Commons.123
Brighton, August 26th.—I have been here for a week past. On Sunday last the death of Arbuthnot took place at Apsley House, where he had been gradually sinking for some time. He is a great and irreparable loss to the Duke of Wellington, who is now left alone in the world. Arbuthnot was almost always with him, he had his entire confidence. The Duke told him, and talked to him, about everything, and on the other hand, all who wanted to approach the Duke for whatever purpose, communicated through Arbuthnot. The Duke, who has for a long time been growing gradually more solitary and unsocial, more irritable and unapproachable, is now left without any friend and companion with whom he can talk over past events, and to whom he can confide present grievances and complaints. He will feel it as acutely as at his age and with his character he can feel anything.
DEATH OF MR. ARBUTHNOT.
Arbuthnot's career has been remarkable. He had noshining parts, and never could have been conspicuous in public life; but in a subordinate and unostentatious character he was more largely mixed up with the principal people and events of his time than any other man. He might have written very curious and interesting memoirs if he had only noted down all that passed under his observation, and the results of his political information and connexions, for few men ever enjoyed so entirely the intimacy and unreserved confidence of so many statesmen and ministers, and therefore few have been so well acquainted with the details of secret history. He was successively the trusted adherent and intimate friend of Lord Liverpool, Lord Castlereagh, and the Duke of Wellington, and more or less of almost all their colleagues, besides being on very good terms with many others with whom he had no political opinions in common. He had in fact a somewhat singular and exceptional position; much liked, much trusted, continually consulted and employed, with no enemies and innumerable friends. This was owing to his character, which was exactly calculated to win this position for him. Without brilliant talents, he had a good sound understanding and dispassionate judgement, liberality in his ideas, and no violent prejudices. He was mild, modest, and sincere; he was single-minded, zealous, serviceable, and sympathetic (simpatico), and he was moreover both honourable and discreet. The consequence was that everybody relied upon him and trusted him, and he passed his whole life in an atmosphere of political transactions and secrets. After the death of his wife he lived at Apsley House when in London, and during a great part of the rest of the year with the Duke at Walmer and Strathfieldsaye, and he went hardly at all into the world; but he rather extended than contracted the list of his personal and political friends, for as the Whig Ministers had often business to transact with the Duke, they generally found it convenient to communicate with Arbuthnot too; and, as he was always ready to render any service, public or private, in his power, he made many acquaintances and acquired friends in that party, specially theDuke of Bedford, with whom he had long been intimate, and who was in the habit of communicating with him very unreservedly on political matters. The preceding pages exhibit many proofs of Arbuthnot's familiarity with the political history of his time, as well as of his good sense and liberality. He was buried at Kensal Green, and the Duke is said to have been very much affected at the funeral.
Brighton, August 27th.124—Yesterday morning Louis Philippe expired at Claremont quite unexpectedly, for though he had been ill for a long time, it was supposed he might still live many months. Not long ago his life was the most important in the world, and his death would have produced a profound sensation and general consternation. Now hardly more importance attaches to the event than there would to the death of one of the old bathing-women opposite my window. It will not produce the slightest political effect, nor even give rise to any speculation. He had long been politically defunct. The effect that presents itself as most likely is its paving the way to a reconciliation between the two branches of the Bourbons, and a fusion of their interests; but as the late King had consented to this fusion and desired it, while the Duchess of Orleans was opposed to it, this consummation is more likely to be prevented than brought about by his death. His character has been often described with more or less of truth and justice, and of course there will be many fresh descriptions of it now. I cannot attempt it, for I never knew anything of him except at second-hand. He had certainly many good qualities and an amiable disposition, and probably no vices but selfishness and insincerity. These were, however, universally ascribed to him, and consequently out of the limited circle of his own family and afew friends and old servants, who were warmly attached to him, he inspired neither affection nor respect. The worst kings have seldom been destitute of many devoted adherents; but in his day of tribulation, although he may rather be accounted amongst the best than the worst, he was abandoned by all France, and his fall was not only unresisted, but suffered to take place with scarcely a manifestation of sympathy and regret.
November 10th.—After a lapse of nearly three months I resume my notices of past and present events, these three months having furnished very little matter worth recording nearly up to the present time. For the last month, however, the world has been sufficiently agitated, on different accounts and in different places, to afford ample opportunity for either description or comment even to the most superficial observer. I might, however, I have very little doubt, write that which would be acceptable to one person or another by recording my own personal experiences and the communications that I have with different people on different matters, which certainly are ludicrously miscellaneous. Some people like politics, some gossip, and almost all like political gossip. I have had within these few weeks consultations and communications on the most opposite subjects: men coming to be helped out of scrapes with other men's wives, adjustments of domestic squabbles, a grand bother about the Duke of Cambridge'sstatusin the House of Lords, a fresh correspondence with Lady Palmerston about the 'Times' attacking her husband, communication from Cardinal Wiseman about the troubled state of ecclesiastical affairs, and so forth; odds and ends not altogether uninteresting, and making a strange miscellany in my mind. It is needless to attempt to say anything about the solution of the German question, touching which I have no private information whatever.125It is a drama, at whichall the world is audience, and I have not been behind the scenes. I think we have played a very paltry part in it, and Palmerston's policy and conduct are so unintelligible to me that I shall say nothing about them. I agree in all that the 'Times' has written thereon, and its strictures have hit hard, as is evident by the resentment expressed by Lady Palmerston.
The Duke of Cambridge and his family have been, and still are, excited about the place he is entitled to occupy in the House of Lords,126and they are very angry with me because I said, in my pamphlet on Prince Albert's precedence ten years ago, that he was only entitled to sit as Duke of Cambridge according to the date of his peerage, and this I adhere to now. It is incredible what importance they attach to this nonsense. The Duchess of Gloucester sent to me to beg a copy of that old pamphlet, and afterwards the Chancellor did the same. I have had a correspondence with Lord Redesdale about it, who has taken up the Duke's cause, and sustained it by some very bad arguments and very inapplicable precedents. I have stuck to my original opinion, but nevertheless am now endeavouring to help the Duke to attain his purpose, and have furnished him with a better precedent than he and his advisers have been able to find for themselves.
THE PAPAL AGGRESSION.
But such trifles as these, and such serious matters as an impending German war, are uninteresting in comparison with the 'No Popery' hubbub which has been raised, and which is now running its course furiously over the length and breadth of the land. I view the whole of this from beginning to end, and the conduct of all parties with unmixed dissatisfaction and regret. The Pope has been ill-advised and very impolitic, the whole proceeding on the part of the Papal Government has been mischievous and impertinent,and deserves the severest censure. Wiseman, who ought to have known better, aggravated the case by his imprudent manifesto. On the other hand, the Protestant demonstration is to the last degree exaggerated and absurd. The danger is ludicrously exaggerated, the intention misunderstood, and the offence unduly magnified. A 'No Popery' cry has been raised, and the depths of theological hatred stirred up very foolishly and for a most inadequate cause. John Russell, who acted prudently in declaring his Protestant sympathies, joining the public voice in condemnation of the Pope's proceedings, and clearing himself and his Government from any suspicion of being indifferent to them, nevertheless writes a very imprudent, undignified, and, in his station, unbecoming letter. He might have said all that it was necessary to say without giving any offence; he might have taken the movement into his own hands, and satisfied the Protestants, and at the same time not dissatisfied the Catholics, pouring oil on the waters, and moderating the prevailing effervescence. But his letter has had a contrary effect. On one hand it has filled with stupid and fanatical enthusiasm all the Protestant bigots, and stimulated their rage; and on the other it has irritated to madness all the zealous Catholics, and grieved, shocked, and offended even the most moderate and reasonable. All wise and prudent men perceive this, and strongly disapprove of his letter; all his colleagues with whom I have spoken, and I have no doubt all the rest, do so; and Clarendon writes me word that the effect it has produced in Ireland is not to be told. I have already had a practical proof of the mischief it has done. Two days ago Bowyer came to me from Cardinal Wiseman, who was just arrived, to ask my opinion whether anything could be done, and what. I said if he had sent to me some time ago, and told me what was contemplated, I might have done him some service by telling him what the consequences would be; but that now it was too late to do anything, John Bull had got the bit in his mouth, and the Devil could not stop him. He told me the Cardinal was drawing up a loyal address to be signed by ecclesiastics and laymen, and askedme to look at it. I agreed, and he brought it the next day. I said it was very well as far as it went, and only suggested that the new Bishops should take care to sign their names only, and omit all allusion to their sees. This he engaged for. I then talked over the case, and what might be done. I said of course we could not expect the Pope to retract; but that if he was really desirous of doing what could be done to allay the prevailing irritation, he had better do that which he still could consistently; that he had not yet pronounced any decision as to the Irish Colleges, and he might either give one in their favour, or at least abstain from giving any at all, and the Cardinal would do well to urge this at Rome. Bowyer replied that this might have been possible before, but Lord John's letter had made it impossible now, and that this letter would be regarded as so insulting at Rome, and such a proof of the hostility of the British Government to the Roman Catholic religion, that they would put no trust in the writer of it, and it would be impossible to ask the Pope, nor would he be induced, to do anything in deference to the objects or wishes of this Government.
This odious agitation will continue till it is superseded by something else, or expires from want of aliment more solid than fanatical denunciations. Already sensible people, even those who are indignant at the 'Papal aggressions' as they are termed, begin to think the clamour exaggerated, that we are going too far, and raising a spirit of theological and sectarian hatred and enmity, which is dangerous and will be very troublesome. They begin to reflect that a great movement without a definite and attainable object is a very foolish thing, and as it is quite certain that the Pope will not retract what he has done, and that we can neither punish him nor frighten him, that his ecclesiastical arrangements will be carried into execution here whether we like it or not, and that as we shall take nothing by all our agitation and clamour, we shall probably end by looking very foolish. At present everybody, Protestants, Puseyites, and Catholics, are all angry, excited, and hostile. Some affect to be very angry and make a great noise because they think it answers anend. John Russell is somewhat in this way, for I don't believe hereallycares much; the 'Times' newspaper does the same, and blows up the coals for the sake of popularity; but Delane, who begged me not to write, as I was inclined to do, something in mitigation of the movement, told me he thought the whole thing gross humbug and a pack of nonsense.
ANTI-PAPAL AGITATION.
November 21st.—The Protestant agitation has been going on at a prodigious pace, and the whole country is up: meetings everywhere, addresses to Bishops and their replies, addresses to the Queen; speeches, letters, articles, all pouring forth from the press day after day with a vehemence and a universality such as I never saw before. The Dissenters have I think generally kept aloof and shown no disposition to take an active part. A more disgusting and humiliating manifestation has never been exhibited; it is founded on prejudice and gross ignorance. As usual the most empty make the greatest noise, and the declaimers vie with each other in coarseness, violence, and stupidity. Nevertheless, the hubbub is not the less mischievous for being so senseless and ridiculous. The religious passions and animosities that have been excited will not speedily die away, nor will the Roman Catholics forget the insults that have been heaped on their religion, nor the Vatican all the vulgar abuse that has been lavished on the Pope. In the midst of all this Wiseman has put forth a very able manifesto, in which he proves unanswerably that what has been done is perfectly legal, and a matter of ecclesiastical discipline, with which we have no concern whatever. He lashes John Russell with great severity, and endeavours to enlist the sympathies of the Dissenters by contrasting the splendour and wealth of the Anglican clergy with the contented poverty of the Romanists, and thus appeals to all the advocates of the voluntary system. His paper is uncommonly well done, and must produce a considerable effect, though of course none capable of quieting the storm that is now raging. Wiseman does not evince any intention of receding in the slightest degree, but on the contrary there appears to lurk throughouthis paper a consciousness of an impregnable position, round which the tempest of public rage and fury may blow ever so violently without producing the slightest effect.
Meanwhile the Government are, I suspect, in a great fix. They are all disconcerted and perplexed by Lord John's letter. When the Cabinet met and this letter was shown to them, Lord Lansdowne asked whether the letter had been already sent, and when informed that it had, he declined saying anything. As it was sent and published they thought it necessary to do something, and the law officers were accordingly desired to look into the law on the subject. There can be little doubt that the law will not touch the case, and they will hardly have the egregious folly to propose fresh laws which would be quite inoperative. Violence, menaces, and abuse never made any people flinch from their religious opinions or abandon any line of conduct they might have adopted in relation to them. The Catholics know very well that in these days any serious persecution is not to be apprehended, and, even if it were, the Roman Catholic clergy, to do them justice, have never shrunk from enduring any sufferings or privations to which they were exposed. They would probably rather like than not to see some attempt made here to revive penal laws, and to be exhibited to the civilised world in the character of martyrs. From the beginning I foresaw that we should cut a poor figure in this affair, and this is sure to be the result, whether we do anything or nothing. There is great difference of opinion whether this agitation will prove favourable or the reverse to the Roman Catholic religion in England, that is, to its extension. The Roman Catholics themselves evidently think we have by our violence been playing their game and that it will promote their proselytising views. Time alone can show how this will be. The Queen takes a great interest in the matter, but she is much more against the Puseyites than the Catholics. She disapproves of Lord John's letter.
THE SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN QUESTION.
November 26th.—At Brocket from Saturday till Monday. Nobody there; I found Lord Beauvale127in good humour withPalmerston, who, he assured me, had acted a very proper and a very spirited part in reference to German affairs, having had to fight against the violent and inveterate prejudices of the Court, to which some of his colleagues were not disinclined to defer. He said that although the Court were quite powerless in such matters as the Greek or the Sicilian questions, they could do a great deal of mischief in Germany, for being in constant communication with their relations and connexions there, they could exercise a good deal of indirect influence, and he thinks they have not scrupled to encourage the King of Prussia in his absurd conduct. A letter was sent to Palmerston, doubtless written by Prince Albert, in which they talked of Denmark wresting Schleswig from Germany, and that the triumph of Austria would be fatal to the constitutional cause. Palmerston replied that he had never heard that Schleswig belonged to Germany, and as to the constitutional cause it was more in danger from the King of Prussia, whose conduct was putting all thrones in jeopardy. Beauvale also showed me a letter from Berlin in which the writer said that nothing was more important there than the English press; and he begged me, as Palmerston was now really doing all he could in the right direction, to get him any support I could. Nobody knows whether this will end in war or peace. Palmerston, always sanguine, sayspeace; and Beauvale thinks, when Russia, France and England are all trying to avert war, that it cannot ensue.
The Protestant movement goes on with unabated fury, and the quantity of nonsense that has been talked and written, and the amount of ignorance and intolerance displayed, exceed all belief, and only show of what sort of metalthe mass of society is composed. Of all that has been written and spoken there has been nothing tolerable but the Bishop of Oxford's speech, which was very clever; the letter of Page Wood in the 'Times' in answer to Wiseman; and everything without exception which has emanated from the Archbishop of Canterbury. He has displayed a very proper and becoming spirit with great dignity, moderation, and good sense. All the rest is a mass of impotent fury and revolting vulgarity and impertinence, without genius or argument or end and object—mere abuse in the coarsest and stupidest shape. It is not a little remarkable what a strong anti-Papist Clarendon is. He writes to me in that sense, but not so vehemently as he does to others; and I see how his mind is inflamed, which is odd in so practical a man. But this is obviously the result of the bitter hostility he has had to encounter in Ireland from the Roman Catholic clergy, notwithstanding the efforts he made to conciliate them.
December 1st.—I went to Brocket again on Wednesday, and returned on Thursday. Palmerston and Lady Palmerston were there, but I had no talk with her. Beauvale told me that Palmerston was acting with good faith, and doing what he could to avert war. Cowley had written from Frankfort that it was reported there that in the event of war we should support Prussia. Palmerston wrote back that we certainly should not, and desired him to contradict any such report. He sent his letter to the Queen by way of an intimation of his course. Meanwhile Radowitz arrived, and had hardly set foot in England before he was invited to Windsor, the pretext being that he brought over a letter from the King. Palmerston was not there, and John Russell left the Castle the day he arrived.
THE LETTER OF CAROLUS.
December 11th.—I could no longer stand the torrent of nonsense, violence and folly which the newspapers day after day poured forth, and resolved to write a letter, which was published in the 'Times' the day before yesterday, and signed 'Carolus,' for I did not venture to put my own name to it.128Delane could not bear publishing it, because it wasin opposition to the strong line the paper has taken; and he told me beforehand he must attack me. Accordingly they replied to the article they published, but in very complimentary terms and with very feeble arguments. Labouchere told me last night this letter must do good, and make people think calmly. However, the agitation continues with unabated violence, and it is no wonder the masses are so intemperate and absurd, when we see how ignorant and senseless men are who ought to know better, and who pass for being clever and well-informed; and hear the unreflecting nonsense they talk, and the extravagant views they entertain. Bear Ellice, who is by way of being wiser than anybody, and thinks it is his vocation to advise everybody, told me on Monday that he had advised Charles Wood what to do, and this notable scheme was to place matters by legislation on the same footing here that they had been placed on in Prussia byConcordat. I told him it was impossible; and when he insisted, I asked him if he knew what the state of things was in Prussia: to which he was obliged to admit that he knew nothing about it! Then we see the Head-Master of Rugby School petitioning the Postmaster-General to remove a letter-carrier because he is a Roman Catholic! Clanricarde writes a very good answer, which is in the 'Times' of yesterday. Graham came to town yesterday on his way to Windsor, where he is asked to stay three nights, and he came and passed two hours with me yesterday morning. His opinions are precisely like my own, and he has written a letter to Howard of Greystock, exactly in the same spirit as 'Carolus;' he is not only very sensible but very bold on the subject, and quite prepared to confront public opinion in defence of the principles of religious liberty. We discussed the whole subject at great length. He acknowledged that the difficulty of the Government was very great. I enlightened his mind as to the part Palmerston has recently been playing in German affairs, which he was by no means aware of, and I hinted to him that his joining the Government would not be disagreeable. He owned that Palmerston would no longer be an insuperable objection,but that he could not be a party to any measures savouring of religious persecution, or even restriction. The Queen's answers to the addresses will have satisfied him, and all reasonable and moderate people; but I expect the zealots will cry out. Nothing certainly ever was more guarded.
December 13th.—At Windsor yesterday for a Council. My letter 'Carolus' has made a decided hit. Delane told me yesterday that it had certainly produced a considerable effect, as he could tell from the innumerable letters he received about it, some for and some against. The Ministers were for the most part shy of talking to me about it; but John Russell came up to me and said, 'Well, I have derived a great deal of information from your letter. I think it is very good.' I laughed, and said, 'I'm glad you like it; you ought to be pleased, because I have praised you up to the skies, and described your speech as a model of wisdom.' He laughed too, and said, 'Yes, but that was not the part of it I liked the best.'
CONVERSATION WITH LORD PALMERSTON.
I brought Palmerston from the station in my brougham; all very amicable. We talked about Popery and Germany, and agreed very well; he mighty reasonable. I asked him if he had had any conversation with Radowitz. He said none, except of the most general kind. He thought Radowitz had been advised to absent himself from Prussia, and that the King, for the present at least, was entirely with Manteufel. I then asked him what Prince Albert said to the turn affairs had taken. He said Prince Albert was reasonable enough; that he condemned the King of Prussia as much as anybody could; that he had been in favour of strengthening Prussia, and against the old Federation, because he thought the influence of Austria in it was too great, and that it was mischievously exercised; that the condition that no organic change in the Diet could take place there, without a unanimous vote, could not be endured; and that he thought, while the influence of Austria remained paramount, the liberal cause, and all advances in civilisation and general improvement, must be paralysed; and this was to a certain degree true. I said no doubt it wasdesirable to see changes and improvements, and for various reasons that Prussia should be powerful, if her power was only acquired by fair means, and without trampling on the rights of others, and on all obligations human and divine. He said, 'Exactly, that is the real case; but her conduct has been so wanting in prudence, in consistency, and in good faith, that she has arrayed against her those who wish best to her.' He told me the Pope had expressed great surprise at the effect of his measures, and disclaimed any intention of affronting the Queen or this country. The Pope said he had been induced to take the steps he had done by advice from this country, and Palmerston thinks that Wiseman was probably at the bottom of it all.
I went last night to the Royal Academy to hear an anatomical lecture by a Mr. Green.129It was onexpression, and very well done. I never heard a man more fluent; he was very lucid in his expositions and illustrations, and really very eloquent.
Bowood, December 26th.—Went on Tuesday in last week to Panshanger, on Saturday to Brocket, Monday to London, and Tuesday here; we were very merry at Panshanger. The house and its Lord and Lady furiously Protestant and anti-Papal; so we had a great deal of wrangling and chaffing; all in good humour and amusing enough. At Brocket nobody but the Bear (Ellice), who talked without ceasing, and told me innumerable anecdotes about Lord Grey's Government, and different transactions in all of which he had himself played a very important part, and set everything and everybody to rights with his consummate wisdom. He is a very good-natured fellow, entertaining and tiresome, with a prodigious opinion of his ownsavoir faire, vain and conceited, though not offensively so; clever, friendly, liberal, and very serviceable. They put me at Brocket in Melbourne's room, and there I found a MS. book, containing copies of letterswritten by him to Lord Anglesey, while Lord Anglesey was Lord-Lieutenant and he was Chief Secretary—very familiar and confidential. They were very frank, and giving Lord Anglesey a good deal of advice, which on some occasions he seemed to require. Their good sense struck me extremely. There was a detailed account of the Huskisson quarrel, and the resignations thereupon, but it contained nothing that was new to me. William Lamb (as he was then) thought both the Duke and Huskisson were in the wrong; but he resigned with the others, because, he said, 'he had always thought that it was more necessary to stand by his friends when they were in the wrong, than when they were in the right.' Poking about to see what else I could find, I lit on two very different MS. One was a book which I suspect had belonged to Pen Lamb, containing entries and pedigrees of hounds and horses; and the other was a commonplace book of Melbourne's, which I had not time to examine much, full of quotations, criticisms, comments and translations, exhibiting various and extensive reading, especially of Greek literature. The next time I go there, I will look at it again.
DIFFICULTIES AHEAD.
Difficulties ahead—Lord John Russell resigns—Conduct of the Opposition—Lord Stanley waits on the Queen—Sir James Graham's Views—Ministerial Negotiations—Lord Stanley attempts to form a Ministry—Lord Stanley fails—The Whig Ministry returns to Office—Sir James Graham stands aloof—Dislocation of Parties—Embarrassments arising from the Papal Aggression Bill—Weakness of the Government—Relations of Sir James Graham and the Whigs—Debate on the Papal Aggression Bill—A Measure of Chancery Reform—Lord Stanley at Newmarket—Hostility of the Peelites—Opening of the Great Exhibition—Defeats of the Ministry—The Exhibition saves the Government—M. Thiers in London—Close of the Season—The Jew Bill—Overture to Sir James Graham—Which is declined—Autumn Visits and Agitation—Lord John Russell's Reform Bill—The Creed of a Capuchin—Kossuth's Reception in England—The Kossuth Agitation in England—Mr. Disraeli on Lord George Bentinck—Sir James Graham's Fears of Reform—Dangers from Lord Palmerston's arbitrary Conduct—Case of Greece—Case of Sicily—TheCoup d'Étatof the 2nd December.
London, February 20th, 1851.—I broke off what I was writing two months ago, having been attacked by a severe fit of the gout, which has tormented me on and off ever since, partly deterring and partly disabling me from writing anything whatever. Indeed I have been in a hundred minds whether I should not here and now close my journalising, for I don't feel as if I had, or was likely to have, anything more to say worth writing about. It is perhaps no loss to have omitted any notice of the meeting of Parliament, and what has taken place with reference to the Anti-Papal Bill, and other matters. Are not these things amply narrated in all the newspapers of the day?—and I do not think I have acquired any knowledge or information besides, or at least none of any importance. I shall therefore not attempt to go over the ground or any part of it, that we have been travelling over for the last two months; but I am induced to forego my purpose of shutting up my books and abandoningthis occupation, partly from reluctance to quit it entirely, and partly because I think we are in a very precarious and difficult state, and that a crisis seems imminent, fraught with great interest and great danger. In such circumstances I like to write what I know and hear, and to record my own impressions and opinions.
LORD JOHN RUSSELL RESIGNS.
Brocket, February 24th.—Events have come quickly on us. On Thursday night Locke King brought on his annual motion for extension of the suffrage, and moved for leave to bring in a bill. Lord John opposed it, but pledged himself that he would bring in a measure next Session, if he was still in office. Nevertheless he was beaten by two to one—100 to 52. The Conservatives went away, no trouble was taken, and this was the result. The conduct of the Radicals was offensive. Locke King, after Lord John's promise, wanted not to divide; but Hume, Bright, and their faction insisted on dividing, and one of them (I think Bright) insultingly said, 'If you don't divide and beat him, he will throw over his promise and do nothing.' It must be owned that he gave some colour to this suspicion by his conduct. A few nights before Hume asked him if he was going to bring in any measurethis year. He said he was not, but that he still intended to do so, at what he should deem to be a fit time for it: not a word ofnextyear. This looks very much as if his promise on Thursday was an impromptu got up for the occasion. Still not a creature in or out of the House expected he would regard such a defeat as this as a matter of any importance, and great and general were the surprise and consternation when Lord John got up, just when the Budget was to have come on, and made an announcement which was tantamount to resignation.130The House dispersed in a state of bewilderment, and the town was electrified with the news. At night there was a partyat Lady Granville's, and there it became known that the Government was in fact out. It seemed the more unaccountable because Stanley had sent them word of what had been resolved at his meeting, which was neither more nor less than a sham attack on the Income Tax, which the Tories did not expect or intend to succeed. Lord John, however, had resolved to resign after Friday's check, not on that account only, but on the cumulative case of many unmistakeable symptoms of the hostility of the House of Commons and the impossibility of his going on. So he thought he had better 'do early and from foresight that which he should be obliged to do from necessity at last,' as Mr. Burke said on a different occasion. Nobody knew what he was going to do,—none of his followers and subordinates. He saw the Queen in the morning, to whom he no doubt imparted his intention; then he assembled the Cabinet, where it must have been settled, and then he saw the Queen again. Lord Lansdowne was at Bowood, and ignorant of this decision. Carlisle was engaged in the City, not at the Cabinet, and heard from Grey when he came into the House of Lords that they were out. In the evening I was at home and upstairs, and many of the men came up to talk it all over. Ellice said Lord John was quite right. However, I think such was not the general opinion, nor is it mine. Looking at the state of the country and the obvious difficulty, if not impossibility, of forming any other Government, still more of forming one entitled to, or which could obtain, the confidence and support of the Crown and the country, I am very strongly of opinion that he ought to have fought the battle for some time longer, not to have yielded to any hostile manifestations, or to the probability, however great, of damaging or fatal defeats, but to have encountered without flinching all the opposition he might meet with, and not to desert his post till the worst he apprehended should actually occur. Many people think that, in spite of appearances, he would have weathered the storms; and though in the midst of great difficulties, he would eventually have evaded or surmounted them all.
The conduct of the Protectionists about the Income Tax showed how uncertain and little adventurous they were. This is partly explained by the revelation that has been made of the opinions of some of their leading men. It has been for some time apparent that there is a great ambiguity in the conduct of the party, different members of which hold the most discordant and inconsistent language. Disraeli the other night declared he was not going for Protection, that it was out of the question in this Parliament, and that the country must settle the question. Granby directly afterwards says he is for Protection. In the House of Lords, on a motion of Lord Hardwicke's when a great Free Trade debate was expected, and when it was well known that Stanley had been preparing a great speech, he never opened his lips, and the whole thing ended briefly and flatly. But the Duke of Richmond made one of his furious harangues, pointed to Stanley as 'the Leader of the Protectionist party,' and gave a eulogistic commentary on Disraeli's speech, asserting that he only meant that the battle of Protection must be fought on the hustings, where it not only would be fought, but would be won. Still Stanley was silent, and did not utter a word in approval or in repudiation of these sentiments and intentions. Notwithstanding these ambiguities, people still talked of the probability or the possibility of a Protectionist Government. It was said that Stanley had made up his mind to take it, if he could get it, and that he was of opinion that, great as the risks and serious as the consequences might be, it was better to encounter them all than to let slip the best opportunity they should ever have of ousting the Whigs, turning back the current of Free Trade, and restoring the Protective system. Everybody was looking with anxious curiosity for the decision of Stanley's meeting on Friday morning, as to the course they should adopt in reference to the Income Tax; and when it was known (which it was not till after John Russell's announcement in the House of Commons), the impression was that they were afraid to fight on that question; but at night I heard a very strange thing, which placed the conditionand prospects of that party in quite a new light. Two of the best men they have in the House of Commons are Walpole and Henley, especially the first. Walpole told Jocelyn in the House of Commons that he would have nothing to do with any Government that would attempt to reimpose any duty on foreign corn, and he added that Henley was of the same mind; and so, in fact, were at least half the members of his party. This statement Walpole made twice over to Jocelyn, and he said the same thing to others besides. If such were the sentiments of some of their best men, what was to become of Protection? how was the battle to be fought on the hustings? and how was Stanley ever to form a Government, and on what principles?
THE PROTECTIONISTS.
However, the Government had resigned; somebody must be sent for, and something must be done. Oddly enough, while all this was going on in the House of Commons, Stanley was dining at the Palace. Yesterday morning the 'Times' (whose editor was at Lady Granville's party) announced the news to the astonished town. I went to my office, where presently Labouchere, Carlisle, Granville, and Evelyn Denison came into my room. Labouchere gave John Russell's reasons for resigning, which to me seemed quite insufficient, and I told them why. Carlisle said nothing, and I suspect agreed with me. Denison did entirely. I then came down here, where I found Brougham fall of indignation and disapprobation of the hasty resignation, and talking mighty good sense about the whole question and the aspect of affairs. We heard this morning that Stanley had been with the Queen, had refused to take office for the present, but said he did not refuse absolutely if no other Government could be formed; and that John Russell, Aberdeen, and Graham met afterwards at the Palace. So matters stand up to this time.131
I have seen a great deal of Graham lately, and he has talked to me with considerable openness about the state of affairs, present and prospective; the condition and prospects of the Government, and their recent conduct, pointing out many of the faults they have committed, and what they might have done. He found great fault with Charles Wood's Budget, and his general opinion was that the Government could not go on, andcoûte que coûtethat we must pass through the ordeal of a Protectionist Government—not that he thought it would stand long, and he was aware that the experiment would be attended with great peril to our institutions, and might lead to very serious consequences. Still that it was inevitable. He said that his joining the Government now would be of no use to them whatever, and he should only involve himself in, without averting, their fate. He was evidently much pleased and satisfied with his own speech on Disraeli's motion.132He was conscious of its success, and of the great service he had rendered the Government; for, while disapproving of much that they have done, he is now desirous of reconciling himself with his old friends, looks hereafter to coming into power with them, and is excessively pleased at having put himself on amicable terms with John Russell. He told me that he had said to John Russell the other day, that though circumstances had separated them, and placed them for a long time in opposition to each other, it would always be satisfactory to him to remember, that on the three great questions which he regarded as the most important of his political life, they had been agreed, and had taken the same part, sometimes together and sometimes independently. These were the Catholic Question, Reform in Parliament, and the Repeal of the Corn Laws.