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POLITICAL STUDIES
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REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN
£
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOL. II.
BY ALEX. CHARLES EWALD, F.S.A.
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PRINCE CHARLES STUART," "THE LIFE OF SIR
ROBERT WAL
WALPOLE," ETC.
MICHIGAN
University of
LONDON
CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY
1879
GENERAL LIKE
DA
28
·E94
Ad
能
​LONDON:
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.
CONTENTS OF VOL. II.
LORD ELDON, THE DELIBERATIVE MINISTER (1751—
JANUARY 13, 1838)
CANNING, THE BRILLIANT MINISTER (1770-August 8,
1827)
•
•
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON, THE CONSCIENTIOUS MINIS-
TER (1769—SEPTEMBER 14, 1852)
SIR ROBERT PEEL, THE MINISTER OF EXPEDIENCY (1788
-JULY 2, 1850)
PALMERSTON, THE ENGLISH MINISTER (1784-OCTOBER
18, 1865)
PAGE
. 136
•
1
64
217
294
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
LORD ELDON,
THE DELIBERATIVE MINISTER.
1751-JANUARY 13, 1838.
In his interesting biography of Lord Eldon, Horace
Twiss tells us there were few maxims the old Tory
was more fond of upholding than that anything is
done quickly enough provided it be only done well
enough. Sat cito si sat bene was his invariable
and sometimes provoking reply to litigants and poli-
ticians who murmured at his slow and wary circum-
spection. As a nation we would do well occasionally
to imitate the caution and reflection that are contained
in the Eldon policy. At the present day, with every-
thing around us at high pressure, the bene is for-
gotten, and, for the matter of that, often forgiven in
the cito. We travel express. We dispatch every
message by telegram. We drive furiously, or ride at
VOL. II.
B
2
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
a terrible pace, for now stamina is sacrificed to speed.
Time is too precious to permit us to sail, we must
only steam. So much daily work and so much daily
pleasure have to be gone through, that we are always
in a hurry lest the swift hours should overtake us.
We hasten after wealth, indifferent to the unhealthy
speculation, the ruinous competition, and the low
tone of morality such ardour never fails to engender.
We hasten after the prizes of life, worried beneath
the burden of work, taking upon ourselves more than
we can possibly perform, seeking no leisure, obtaining
no repose, till we reach the goal worn, pallid, and
unmanned—the laurel wreath of victory speedily to
be changed for the funeral garland. We hasten after
the advantages of education till we mistake cram for
knowledge, and hollowness for profundity. We
hasten after the solaces of religion, and are satisfied
when our emotional feelings mistake superstition for
self-denial, and ceremonial observances for piety. In
all that we do and think we reverse the maxim of
Lord Eldon and say, sat bene si sat cito-it is done
well enough if it be but done quickly enough. A
creed that is bringing forth fruit abundantly in con-
stitutions shattered and labour scamped, in super-
ficiality just clever enough to conceal but not to
enlighten ignorance, in class-agitation and mob-
credulity, and in a thoroughly unsound and unwise
sigh
LORD ELDON.
3
state of things, sapping the vitality of our social and
political organization.
The views of the great Tory leader were, on the
other hand, carried to the opposite extreme, and in
the study of comparative evil, it would be curious to
learn which of the two is the more mischievous, the
injury that ensues from over haste, or that which
attends upon over deliberation. The career of Lord
Eldon is the biography of a man never content with
half-measures or hurried duties. His intellectual
grasp was so powerful that he was never satisfied
until he had fathomed the subject that interested
him to its lowest depths. Not slow, but patient,
laborious, and intensely deliberative, he would weigh
and analyze every argument that he read, heard, or
uttered, till he felt it impossible that the deductions
he arrived at could be erroneous. The severest
master he had to satisfy was himself. Though
destitute of imagination, his was one of those quick,
acute minds which see objections where others fail
to perceive them, and comprehend a question from
so many points of view that decision necessarily be-
comes a matter of always long and painful process.
So anxious was he to do his work well, that he
considered the time engaged upon it as purely of
secondary consideration. In after life, when seated
on the Judicial Bench, his almost too careful ad-
4
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
herence to his cherished maxim was brought up as a
complaint against him. It was said that it would
have been better for his suitors if he had been con-
tent with getting through his work quicker, even at
the risk of doing it less well. His reply may be read
with profit in these days of hasty conclusions and
immature opinions.
"I confess," said he, "that no man ever had more
occasion than I had to use the expression, which was
Lord Bacon's father's ordinary word, 'You must give
me time.' I always thought it better to allow myself
to doubt before I decided, than to expose myself to the
misery, after I had decided, of doubting whether I
had decided rightly and justly. It is true that too
much delay before decision is a great evil; but in
many instances delay leads eventually to prevent
delay; that is, the delay which enables just decision
to be made accelerates the enjoyment of the fruits of
the suit; and I have some reason to hope that, in a
great many cases, final decision would have been
infinitely longer postponed, if doubt as to the sound-
ness of original judgment had led to rehearings and
appeals, than it was postponed, when infinite care, by
much and anxious and long consideration, was taken
to form an impregnable original decree." More
than one unhappy litigant will refrain from demur-
ring at this doctrine. If all the judgments given
-
LORD ELDON.
5
by our Courts of First Instance had been the result
of the same patient thought and earnest inves-
tigation as those delivered by the deliberative Lord
Eldon, our Courts of Appeal would have been relieved
from much of their labours.
To
The instincts of his genius naturally led him to
read for the Bar. He cared little for literature or the
fine arts; he was ignorant of science; he had no
taste for those subjects which appeal to the imagina-
tion. All the hopes and aspirations of Lord Eldon
were engrossed and bounded by the study of the
law. Coke upon Littleton, law journals, reports of
causes, judicial proceedings, and the rest, were his
one and only favourite branch of literature.
stand up in court and plead an uphill case when a
young man, or in after-life to listen to counsel from
the serene heights of the Bench, were the two
greatest pleasures of his existence.
Unlike many of
his brethren, he was indifferent to sport, seldom
went to the opera or the theatre, and regarded
society as a bore. Thus, in his earlier days, when
unknown to fame, and struggling for the patronage
of solicitors, he was kept free from many of the
temptations that ordinarily beset the legal student.
Whilst his friends were dining out, or dancing at
balls, or wandering from one country house to
another in quest of sport and amusement, young
/
6
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
[
Scott was poring over the pages of those luminaries
-household names in the Temple and Lincoln's
Inn-which were to make him in after-life the for-
midable advocate and the weighty judge. That curious
ottoman in the House of Lords has been pressed by
more than one man whose rise to the dizzy pinnacle
of power has been due to none of the advantages of
birth and fortune, but by few whose success has been
more self-made or more worthily deserved than that
of "plain John Scott."
It is often the fashion with biography either to
greatly exalt the lineage of its hero in order to show
that there is nothing incompatible between good
blood and great talents, or else to be unduly depre-
ciatory, the better to display the power and persis-
tency of genius as well as the liberality of the
institutions of the country. Thus Lord Eldon, not
being of very lofty birth, has been called the son of
a coalheaver; as a matter of fact, he was no more
the son of a coalheaver than the son of a brewer is
the son of a publican. William Scott, the father
of the future adviser of George III., was a respect-
able, well-to-do coalmerchant and shipowner, who,
though claiming no illustrious descent, yet came of a
good old stock, and was a highly esteemed citizen of
Newcastle. There, in his northern home, two sons
were born him, both, thanks to an accomplished
LORD ELDON.
7
mother's care, to turn out distinguished men, and to
swell the ranks of the aristocracy. The elder of the
lads was William, afterwards Lord Stowell, the famous
jurist, whilst the younger, who was born in 1751,
was John, destined to be Lord High Chancellor of
England.
At an early age both the brothers were sent to
the Newcastle Grammar School, the head master
of which was the Rev. Mr. Moises, a sound scholar
and an excellent man, for whom both of his distin-
guished pupils in after-life ever retained the highest
esteem. "I shall hold his memory," writes Lord
Eldon, “in the utmost veneration whilst I continue
to exist." It is pleasing to find that gratitude is
not so rare a virtue as the cynics would make us
imagine, for when Lord Eldon came into possession
of the Great Seal he at once offered his old master
high preferment in the Church-an offer which was,
however, modestly declined.
After giving evidence of his brilliant talents, the
elder brother went up to Oxford, where at the early age
of sixteen he gained a scholarship at Corpus Christi.
The career of William was thus settled. He would
take his degree, become a fellow, enter the Bar, and,
in fact, be the gentleman of the family. John was
to follow in the steps of his father, and ultimately
succeed to the business. Before, however, appren-
8
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
ticing the boy, the worthy coalmerchant wrote to the
elder son, whose opinion he, like many uneducated
fathers who have a brilliant child, thought a good
deal of, informing him of his intention, and asking
his counsel. William, better acquainted with his
brother's abilities than was his sire, at once replied,
"Send Jack up to me; I can do better for him here."
Accordingly John Scott set out on the Newcastle
stage-coach for Oxford, giving up all thoughts of
Wallsend and the family barges for a university
career and all that follows in its wake-not always to
result in such substantial advantages as those he had
left behind him. How accidental are the circum-
stances which often decide the whole future of a life
and lead men on to greatness! Had Handel followed
the study of civil law, should we enjoy his wondrous
oratorios? Had Smeaton agreed to be articled to an
attorney, would he have been handed down to pos-
terity as one of the greatest of engineers? Had the
mill in which Rembrandt was reared been lighted
from the side instead of from the top, would he have
become known as the master of that peculiar light
and shade which has made his name immortal? Had
Mendelssohn missed becoming acquainted with that
vagrant Polander, would the "Jewish Socrates" ever
have been heard of? Had Rousseau ever taken his
seat at his father's cobbler's stall, would literature have.
LORD ELDON.
9
been enriched by the "Confessions" and "Emile"?
Had Petrarch been admitted to the Italian bar, would
the sonnets to Laura ever have been written? Had
Boccacio not been taken to see the tomb of Virgil
should we have ever read the "Decameron"? Had
Hume been engaged in commerce, as his father
desired, would he have become famous as an his-
torian ? Had Turner followed the trade of cutting
hair and shaving chins would critics worship him as
the Shakespeare of English landscape painters? And
what would have been the career of Lord Eldon had
he taken to coal instead of to Coke-upon Littleton?
"In
It was whilst journeying to Oxford that young
Scott saw the motto which was afterwards to be so
characteristic of his actions. On the panels of the
coach was the modest inscription, "Sat cito si sat
bene," and the words went straight to his heart, and
raised many a reflection. Years afterwards he thus
spoke of this apparently trivial circumstance:
all that I have had to do in life, professional and
judicial, I always remembered the admonition on the
panels of the vehicle which carried me from school
-Sat cito si sat bene. It was the impression of this
which made me that deliberative judge-as some
have said, too deliberative and reflection upon all
that is past will not authorise me to deny that
whilst I have been thinking sat cito si sat bene, I
10
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
may not have sufficiently recollected whether sat bene
si sat cito has had its due influence.”
On the 15th of May, 1766, he matriculated as
a member of the University of Oxford, and entered
University College. Here he read hard, committed
villainous puns, took very kindly to the common-
room port, and at the end of three years went up for
his degree. In these days of competitive examina-
tions, school boards and mechanics' institutes, the
ordeal Scott had to pass does not strike us as very
terrible. He thus describes it :-"I was examined
in Hebrew and history. What is the Hebrew of the
place of a skull ? ' I replied 'Golgotha.' 'Who
founded University College?' I stated (though by
the way the point is sometimes doubted) that 'King
Alfred founded it.' 'Very well, sir,' said the exa-
miner, 'you are competent for your degree.'" Now-
adays examiners, whether at the university or else-
where, are scarcely so accommodating.
An event now took place which was again to alter
the course of his life. He had intended to enter the
Church, and then bide his time till a good college
living, which his fellowship would command, fell
vacant. There was little in his ideas or tastes to
induce him to take holy orders, but it was necessary
for him to follow some profession, and he found
nothing very disagreeable in the prospect of a parish,
<
-
-
LORD ELDON.
I I
He was,
to commerce.
provided its endowments were handsome.
however, to be lost to the Church, as he had been lost
At Newcastle there lived a charming
brown-eyed beauty, one Bessy Surtees, the daughter
of a well-to-do banker in that town. Young Scott
was deeply smitten; the object of his attentions was
not unkind; but Mr. Surtees père, though in trade
himself, felt that he must draw the line somewhere,
and accordingly drew it at coal. No alliance could
permitted between the son of the man who drew
his wealth from the deposits in the earth, and the
daughter of the man who drew his wealth from the
deposits of his clients! Such a union was not to be
heard of.
Oblivious of these delicate social considerations,
John Scott took the matter in hand himself, and
one romantic dark night fled with his lady-love
across the border, and was married by a Scotch
clergyman, to the disappointment of the blacksmith
of Gretna Green. Unlike the generality of such
unions, the marriage was a very happy one. Mrs.
Scott was a most devoted wife, affectionate, frugal,
and bound up in the interests of her husband
and her children. "Poor Bessie!" mused the old
chancellor to a fellow-townsman when his helpmeet
had been taken away from him, "if ever there was
an angel on earth, she was one. The only reparation
12
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
which one man can make to another for running
away with his daughter is to be exemplary in his
conduct towards her." The power of love certainly
impels its victims to commit strange acts.
No one
who knew the cautious, deliberative Lord Eldon
would have imagined that he had been guilty of so
volatile a proceeding as an elopement.
Married, deprived of his fellowship, and dependent
upon his own exertions, the young man cast about
seeking what occupation he should embrace. In a
happy hour he decided upon the Bar, and had
himself entered at the Middle Temple. Years after-
wards, when a peer of the realm, and the proprietor
of a splendid estate, he pointed out to a friend
walking with him up Chancery Lane the home of
his early struggles. There," said he, standing in
front of a mean house in Cursitor Street, "there was
my first perch; many a time have I run down from
here to Fleet Market to buy sixpenn'orth of sprats
for our supper." Lodgings in a tenth-rate district,
a meal off the pauper's favourite fish, and then to
blossom forth as Lord High Chancellor of England!
What barrister need despair? Still it was only by
the strictest adherence to his maxim that he worked
his way up to fame: Sat cito si sat bene. Though
conscious of great abilities, he gave himself none of
the airs of a genius. He did not criticize with
((
LORD ELDON.
13
lofty superiority at mess the decisions of the judges.
He did not deem a diligent student of the law
beneath him, relying, like certain of his brethren,
only on his powers of penetration and "gift of the
gab" to win honours in his profession. He knew
that a sound lawyer was essentially made and not
born. Until he had mastered the subtleties of juris-
prudence he declared that he would shun all other
kinds of literature and be a Spartan in his indif-
ference to pleasure. With time he could attain to
a profound knowledge of the law, and then let him
enter the lists and go forth to fight and be rewarded
with the victor's crown.
Shutting himself up in his rooms at Cursitor Street,
he busied himself with work in stern earnest. He read
Coke upon Littleton till he knew it as a priest knows
his breviary. A kindly conveyancer gave him the
run of his chambers, and there he spent a good half-
year examining drafts of cases and compiling an
immense collection of precedents. He went through
a systematic course of reports, till he knew the
names of most of the cases that had been recorded.
Reading, observing, copying, learning by heart, com-
menting, by these means he was creating the founda-
tion on which he reared the illustrious name of
Eldon. "Before he had ever pleaded a cause," writes
Lord Campbell," he was fit to preside on the Bench;
G
14
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and there he would have given more satisfaction
than most other members of the profession who
could boast of their lucubrationes viginti annorum.'
It must be remembered always that he had by
nature an admirable head for law, and that he seemed
almost by an intuitive glance to penetrate into its
most obscure mysteries."
The career of a distinguished lawyer always pre-
sents very much the same features-early struggles,
more or less long according to the favours of oppor-
tunity and the brilliancy of talent, then an extensive
practice, a seat in the House of Commons, the posts
of Solicitor-General and Attorney-General, a Lord-
Chief-Justiceship, or the blue ribbon of the Bar, the
office of Lord High Chancellor. Through these
stages passed the fortunate John Scott. He joined
the northern circuit, displayed his solid abilities and
sound knowledge of the law in one great case,
became inundated with briefs, was elected for
Weobley, made a fool of himself in his maiden speech,
as so many before him had done, and then won the
ear of the House, not by his oratory or rhetoric, but
by the soundness of his judgment and the acuteness
of his penetration. He became Solicitor-General in
1788, Attorney-General five years later, was raised to
the Bench as Lord Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas in 1799, and ennobled as Baron Eldon of
LORD ELDON.
15
Between the years
Eldon in the county of Durham.
1801 and 1806, and 1807 and 1827, he held the
Great Seal, and on the coronation of George IV. was
created Viscount Encombe and Earl of Eldon. Then,
early in the first month of 1838, he bade farewell to
his titles and passed to his rest.
When we read his life in the charming pages of
Twiss, what a series of triumphs is his career, how
equal he is to every occasion, how easily he avails
himself of every opportunity! Can romance weave
a tissue of greater improbabilities-a rough northern
lad, of no distinguished parentage, with no powerful
friends, simply by the sheer force of intellect and unre-
mitting perseverance raises himself to the highest post
but one that a subject can attain to, and becomes the
bosom friend of two sovereigns, and the chief con-
fidential adviser of a great political party-a party
representing the flower of the aristocracy and the
pink of the English gentry? Nor is the career of
Lord Eldon a solitary instance in the romance of the
woolsack. Other men, whose birth has been quite
as obscure, have succeeded in fighting their way to
the front of the Bar, to the front of the House of
Commons, to the front of the House of Lords, till
they, peers of but yesterday, give the law to the
country, and control the proceedings of the Chamber
in which the descendants of a Howard or a Somerset
16
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
譬
​have sat for centuries. But how have they reached
the goal? Not by a brilliant spurt-speed with no
stamina till they fall out of the race, quitting juris-
prudence for novel-writing, dramatic literature, or
journalism; not by a timorous ambition, ready to
sacrifice everything for a poor certainty-some small
Government post at home, or petty colonial appoint-
ment abroad; not because they wish to belong to a
profession that gives them some little social rank they
may stand in need of, or because they are acquainted
with a few solicitors, or because their Inn is an
agreeable club, or because they have been to the
university, and know of no other profession which
will admit them so easily. It was not with such
ideas and aspirations that men like Kenyon, Thurlow,
Erskine, Eldon, and Westbury entered themselves at
the Bar.
Read the biography of Lord Eldon-a more chatty
book our literature does not possess. See how labo-
riously he studied; with what single-mindedness he
devoted himself to his profession; how carefully he
mastered his briefs, with what intense patience—pa-
tience that stole much from his leisure-he prepared
his judgments! Hard work-hard work that admits
of no rivals—is the very atmosphere he breathes; and
the climate agreed with him, for he lived to a good
old age, and could put enough port under his belt
LORD ELDON.
17
L
to give in these degenerate days gout to a whole
circuit. Of Portugal's generous vintage he was
always fond, and his devotion dates back to the time
when he was an undergraduate. Lord Sidmouth
relates that one morning, talking to William Scott,
afterwards Lord Stowell, about his early days, when
reading for the Bar with his brother, the future Chan-
cellor, he asked him: "You used to dine together on
the first day of term?" "We did," replied William
Scott. "You drank some wine together, I dare say."
"Yes." "Two bottles?" "More." "What! three
bottles?" "More." "What! four bottles!" "More
-do not ask any more questions." Idle students
have often defended their habits of dissipation by
quoting how Lord Eldon, when a young man, used
to love, perhaps not wisely, but too well, his bottle
of port. But, Lord Campbell hints, they forget how
he also pored over the pages of his Coke upon
Littleton. If they imitate the festivity of the great
chancellor, let them also imitate his industry.
The biography of Lord Eldon naturally divides
itself into two parts-that of the lawyer and that of
the politician. The years during which he held office
were fraught with events of great and terrible interest
to English domestic and foreign life-the French
Revolution and all that followed in its wake, the rise
of Napoleon, the Union of Great Britain and Ireland,
VOL. II.
с
18
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the Treaty of Amiens, the illness of George III., the
renewal of the war against France, the abolition of
the Slave Trade, the victories of Wellington, the war
with the United States, the Congress of Vienna, the
disturbances in India, the clamour for Reform, the
nasty affair about Queen Caroline, and other issues,
though of minor importance, yet not the less requir-
ing vigilance on the part of a ministry. In politics,
Lord Eldon-as became a man whose maxim of sat
cito si sat bene was carried to an excess-
-was the
most unbending of Tories. He hated change, for
every reform was, in his eyes, a leap in the dark, and
an exchange of the certain for the uncertain. The
past had done its work well; he was content if the
future only followed in its steps. The wisdom of
ages was to be preferred to all modern innovations.
Rather than part with a brick in the edifice of the
Constitution, he would let the whole structure be
strained to the utmost.
When George III. was stricken by his first illness,
and Pitt and Fox were debating as to the establish-
ment of a regency, Eldon, then Sir John Scott, the
Solicitor-General, warmly supported the right of Par-
liament to elect a regent, and to restrict the powers
of a regency. He rose up in his place in the House
of Commons and contended that the King was still, in
contemplation of law, as perfect as ever, and that the
LORD ELDON.
· 19
right of the Prince of Wales to the regency was, in
the present case, clearly undefined. No precedent,
he declared, could be furnished from the legal records
of the Constitution that established it as a right, *
and it thus devolved upon Parliament to establish a
precedent which the contingency of past ages had
not furnished. He held that the Lord Chancellor
was fully empowered, during the King's incapacity,
to affix the Great Seal to a commission for opening
Parliament, and for giving the royal assent to the
Regency Bills.
For his part he was determined, he
said, to support the law, because the law supported
the King on the throne. The throne was at present
full of the monarch, and no man dared to say that
*"This celebrated difference between Pitt and Fox respecting the
Prince's right to the regency will be found upon examination to be
little more than verbal. When, during the American war, the right
of taxing the colonies was so often insisted on by Lord North and his
supporters, Burke argued, with true wisdom, that it was vain to talk
about an abstract right; the question was, whether it was politic and
expedient to exercise and enforce that right. By right in these dis-
cussions was meant a legal power. When, however, Fox spoke of the
Prince's right to the regency, he meant not a legal power (the exist-
ence of which nobody thought of asserting) but a strong and over-
whelming moral claim. That the Prince of Wales possessed such a
moral claim Mr. Pitt did not dispute; nor did he ever entertain an
idea either of conferring the regency upon any other person, or of
associating the Prince with a Council. The real question at issue be-
tween Fox and Pitt on this occasion was, not as to the choice of the
regent, about which they were agreed, but as to the imposition of
restrictions. Pitt proposed certain limitations to the regent's power,
whereas Fox maintained that he ought to possess all the regal power
and prerogatives undiminished."-SIR G. C. LEWIS's Administrations,
p. 120.
20
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
(C
his Majesty was deficient in his natural capacity.
He would therefore vote for the commission upon
the simple ground of preserving the forms of the
Constitution; for, be it remembered, he added with
his staunch Toryism, that upon the preservation of
the forms depends the substance of the Constitution.
As a justification of the use of the Great Seal
in the King's name, I must observe," he said, “that,
notwithstanding his Majesty's temporary incapacity,
in the eye of the law his politic capacity remains
entire. Therefore there would be no illegality in
passing a Regency Bill in his name, and in no other
way can a regent be lawfully appointed. .. Gen-
tlemen may talk as they please about legal meta-
physics; the law is as I have explained it."
Happily, whilst this measure was being debated,
all further discussion became unnecessary by the
recovery of the King. I have no other business
with you, Sir John Scott," said the Sovereign to his
Solicitor-General, whom he had desired to come to
Windsor, "than to thank you for the affectionate
fidelity with which you adhered to me when so
many had deserted me in my malady." And that
affectionate fidelity" was ever displayed throughout
the different recurring attacks of the King's illness.
Nor was it unappreciated. To the last the old
monarch called Lord Eldon, "My Chancellor."
،،
•
LORD ELDON.
21
}
It was the intensity of his loyalty to the Throne
that made Lord Eldon a staunch supporter of royalty's
great ally, the Church. He regarded the Church of
England not only as a grand old historical corpora-
tion, but as a body in which would be found a purer
doctrine, a deeper faith, and a more enlightened
discipline, than in any other community. His views
on religious matters were those of the old-fashioned
Englishman of his day; his social instincts made
him dislike a Dissenter, his religious principles made
him dislike a Roman Catholic. He believed that
the Church of England was precisely the communion
suited to the tastes and habits of his countrymen—
its creed was Protestant, its clergymen were gentle-
men, and its discipline was orderly without mummery.
Under the influence of these opinions, he sternly
opposed the emancipation of the Roman Catholics,
and the sacerdotal pretensions of certain of the High
Church party.
"The British Constitution," he
argued, "was not based upon the principles of equal
rights to all men indiscriminately, but of equal rights
of all men conforming to, and complying with, the
tests which that Constitution required for its secu-
rity." It was on this occasion that he made the
memorable remark, "The union between Church and
State is not supported to make the Church political,
but the State religious."
((
22
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN:
His devotion to the Church of England was, how-
ever, so far as he was concerned, seldom put into a con-
crete form, for he hardly ever entered a place of public
worship. His absence gave rise to the well-known story:
his character being discussed by some lawyers, one of
them extolled him as "a pillar of the Church." "No,"
retorted the other, "he may be one of its buttresses,
but certainly not one of its pillars, for he is never
seen inside its walls." Yet Lord Eldon was a reli-
gious man—pure of life, honourable in his dealings, a
firm believer in the truths of Christianity, though, it
must be confessed, supremely indifferent to external
forms and observances. None, save the bigot, can read
Lord Eldon's touching letters when suffering from
family bereavement, or watch his conduct on certain
trying occasions, without coming to the conclusion
that he was a sincere Christian and a good man.
Indeed, so fond was he of scriptural phrases and
allusions, that the ill-natured called him a cant.
Impressed with this strong belief in religion, an
ardent royalist, a devoted supporter of all existing
institutions, it is not surprising that Lord Eldon,
when one of the law-advisers of the Crown under
Mr. Pitt's Government, should have shown scant
mercy to the seditious and the disloyal who were
endeavouring to overthrow the English Constitution
with the weapons of Jacobinism, As Attorney-
LORD ELDON.
23
General it devolved upon him to carry out the
stern policy of Pitt, and not only suppress but
stamp out the baneful theories then being trans-
planted from France to English soil. The work was
in accordance with his creed and convictions, and he
set himself to the task in right earnest. During the
State Trials he strained the law to its utmost extent
to carry a verdict against the prisoner. He brought
in a bill rendering it high treason to furnish naval
or military stores to France, and to invest English
capital in French funds. He suspended the Habeas
Corpus Act; in after years, when censured for this
proceeding, he said, "I will venture to say that
to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act is
owing the preservation of the Crown in the House
of Hanover; and that by it late and former con-
spiracies have been broken to pieces." He prohibited
the holding of public meetings, unless with the
consent of certain functionaries, and placed several
impediments upon the right of petitioning. He
protected the monarch from the hand of the assassin
by the amplification of the clauses of a statute of the
third Edward. He was the most active enemy of
the libellous, and boasted that "in the last two years
there were more prosecutions for libels than in any
twenty years before." He discouraged the scurrility
of journalism by introducing a bill which regulated
24
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the publication of newspapers. From 1793 to 1799
short and sharp was the punishment meted out to
the would-be regicide, the atheist, the agitator, the
Jacobin, and the sedition-monger.
For his spirit of persecution on this occasion the
Attorney-General has been as bitterly censured as
Pitt. From me, however, he will receive no word of
dispraise. He had to deal with men who had more
than once meditated the murder of his King, who
sought to blot out the Christian religion, who pre-
ferred the license of republicanism to the order and
liberty of a constitutional monarchy, who befouled
literature with their blasphemous and treasonable
invective, and whose aim was to inspire a spirit of
revolt and discontent amongst the lower classes. The
Attorney-General was resolved to uproot the seed
before it had time to germinate, and to visit upon
the unholy sower all the severities of an outraged
civilisation. Still, though his duties made him un-
popular with the mob-as every man must be un-
popular with the people who shatters its idols-his
conscientiousness, his open enmity to agitation, and
the manly courage of his opinions gained him at the
time, if not the approval, at least the respect of his
political colleagues and associates. "Sir John Scott,
writes William Wilberforce, "used to be a great deal
at my house.
I saw much of him then, and it is no
""
LORD ELDON.
25
more than his due to say that when he was Solicitor
and Attorney General under Pitt, he never fawned
and flattered as some did, but always assumed the
tone and station of a man who was conscious that
he must show he respects himself if he wishes to be
respected by others."
In the summer of the year 1799, owing to the
death of Sir James Eyre, the Attorney-General was
raised to the Bench as Chief Justice of the Common
Pleas, and created Baron Eldon of Eldon in the
County Palatine of Durham, much to the delight of
the worthy coal-merchant's widow, who exclaimed,
"To think that I should live to be the mother of
a lord!" The good woman, however, was soon to
hear of her son gaining still further honours. On
the resignation of Mr. Pitt, consequent upon the
question of Catholic Emancipation, and the accession
to power of Addington, Lord Eldon was offered the
Great Seal. Throughout his political career the Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas had strongly iden-
tified himself with the Protestant interest. He had
disputed the right of Roman Catholic peers to frank
letters sent through the post. He maintained that
whatever was required by toleration had already been
conceded to the Roman Catholics, and that to grant
them further privileges would be to endanger the
welfare of the State. He denied that the Roman
26
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Catholics of Ireland had any reason to complain
of their political position, for greater latitude was
allowed to them in the form of their oath of alle-
giance than was permitted to the English Dis-
senters.
This severe and narrow-minded Protestantism was
cordially appreciated by the King, who, mindful of
the days of Jacobite intrigue, regarded the Papists
as the special enemies of his house-his prejudices
being rendered all the keener from the premonitory
symptoms of insanity under which he then laboured.
He resolved that Lord Eldon should succeed Lord
Loughborough upon the woolsack. The Chief Jus-
tice was sent for to attend at Buckingham House.
"When I went to him," writes Lord Eldon, "he
had his coat buttoned thus (one or two buttons
fastened at the lower part), and putting his right
hand within he drew out the seals from the
left side, saying, 'I give them to you from my
heart!''
The appointment was eminently satisfactory both
to his Majesty and to Lord Eldon. The King,
who, in all his negotiations with former states-
men, and especially with those of the Whig houses,
had always been forced to accept the list of ministers.
made out by the incoming Premier, and who had
regarded Pitt with a dread which the talents of
LORD ELDON.
27
Addington certainly did not inspire, was particularly
pleased at having the power and opportunity to
choose his own Keeper of the Royal Conscience.
Lord Eldon thenceforth became my Lord Chancellor
-the special object of the confidence and the friend-
ship of the Sovereign-in contradistinction to such
holders of the Great Seal as had been named by the
Prime Minister and approved of by the King, whether
willingly or unwillingly. In like manner the Lord
Chancellor regarded his office as differing from the
usual character of such appointments. He had not
been nominated to hold the Great Seal by the Prime
Minister, but by the King himself; accordingly he
maintained the strange and unconstitutional theory
that, not being appointed by the Prime Minister, but
by the Sovereign, he was especially the King's Lord
Chancellor, and not bound by those political ties
which usually subsist between the Keeper of the
Great Seal and the head of the Cabinet.
The negotiations with Bonaparte which terminated
in the Treaty of Amiens, received the cautious and
critical approval of Lord Eldon-an approval which
holds the balance between the bitter view of Canning
and the eulogistic view of the admirers of Addington.
"(
In advising his Majesty to make peace," said the
Chancellor in the House of Lords, "I would perish
sooner than I would sacrifice any of the essential
28
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
interests of the country; but when I say this I must
not be understood to vapour in praise of the peace as
if it were a very honourable one." On another occa-
sion he added, "I am not ready to assert that the
present is a glorious peace, but I have discharged my
duty conscientiously in advising his Majesty to sign
it, and I trust that, if candidly viewed, it will be
found as good a peace as was likely to be obtained,
all the circumstances under which it was made taken
into consideration."
Still, in spite of being the author of the Treaty
of Amiens, and of the advantages that certain of
his followers predicted would ensue from it, the
reign of Addington was, as we have already shown,
very brief. Hostilities had again broken out between
England and Napoleon, a powerful opposition con-
fronted the Prime Minister in the House of Com-
mons, and it was felt by all that the last days of
the administration were at hand. The course that
Lord Eldon now pursued was one little honourable
to himself and to the high post he held. Whether
he thought that as the King's Lord Chancellor he
was at liberty to act disloyally to the leader of the
Cabinet, or that he entertained the opinions of Can-
ning upon the position of the Premier, it is certain
that he entered into secret negotiations with Pitt for
the overthrow of Addington. It was through the
LORD ELDON.
29
medium of Lord Eldon that the views of Pitt re-
specting the new administration he was to form
were laid before the King, and that an interview took
place between his Majesty and the son of the great
commoner. As Lord Brougham pithily puts it, "The
upshot of the whole intrigue is that Mr. Pitt shoves
Mr. Addington out of his place, which he takes him-
self, and retains his coadjutor in the business as
Chancellor, 'his ally within the besieged garrison,
who opened the gate to him under the cloud of
night while the rest slept.'
In justification of his conduct on this occasion
Lord Eldon used to say in after-life that "with
respect to the Chancellorship I was indebted for
that office to the King himself, and not as some
supposed to Mr. Addington, and as some of Mr. Ad-
dington's friends supposed." Such an excuse is not
tenable for a moment. Lord Eldon, as a great lawyer,
must have known that within the last generation
political unanimity in the Cabinet had been recog-
nised as a political maxim, and that it had been an
established principle that all administrations were to
be constructed on some basis of political union agreed
upon by the members composing the same when
they accept office together. It was perfectly open
for Lord Eldon to disapprove of the policy of his
chief, and to attach himself to the interests of Mr.
""
30
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Pitt. Had he informed Addington of his inability
to support the existing administration on account of
his political sympathies with the ex-Prime Minister,
and had he tendered his resignation to the King, his
conduct would have been not only free from censure,
but honourable and straightforward. That he pre-
ferred, whilst holding office under one Prime Minister,
to intrigue for the restoration of a rival, and for the
overthrow of a Cabinet of which he was a member,
speaks most unfavourably for his sense of honour and
fidelity, and is utterly inconsistent with those allu-
sions to his "principles," his "conscience," and to
((
the blessings of the Divine Providence," so
frequently to be met with in his speeches and his
judgments.
During the short tenure of the Pitt Administra-
tion, Lord Eldon, though continued in his office as
Chancellor, took little part in political affairs. He
was more occupied in retaining the personal friend-
ship of the King and in endeavouring to soften the
differences between the Sovereign and the heir-
apparent, than in interesting himself in the warlike
policy of his chief. On the death of Pitt and the
formation of the Grenville Cabinet, he resigned the
Great Seal, and was succeeded by Lord Erskine. "I
took leave of the Court of Chancery this morning,'
he writes to his wife. I cannot describe my own
((
""
LORD ELDON.
31
•
situation in point of health and feeling otherwise
than as excellent-as that which a man has a right
to possess, who, having done his duty to God, his
King, and to every individual upon earth, according
to the best of his judgment, has a right to support
himself under heavy affliction by the consciousness of
proud and dignified integrity." The heavy affliction
he alluded to was the loss of his cherished eldest
son.
The exclusion of Lord Eldon from office was, how-
ever, very brief. The King had never cordially sup-
ported the Grenville Administration, and he cleverly
availed himself of the first opportunity that presented
itself to dismiss his Ministers. The Cabinet had
decided to introduce into the Annual Mutiny Bill a
clause enabling the King to grant military commis-
sions to any of his subjects without distinction of
religion, the object being to allow Roman Catholics to
hold commissions in the army. At first the King gave
his permission to the insertion of the clause, but on
reflection-reflections much assisted, it is said, by the
counsels of Lord Eldon-withdrew his assent. Not
content with the acquiescence of the Cabinet in his
views, his Majesty demanded that every one of its
members should hand to him a written declaration to
the effect that no further concession to the Roman
Catholics should be proposed. The Ministers de-
32
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
!
clined to give this assurance and resigned their
offices.
On the formation of the Portland Administration,
Lord Eldon found himself again in the possession of
the Great Seal, which he now held without inter-
ruption until the elevation of Mr. Canning to the Pre-
miership the longest reign of any Lord Chancellor
since the foundation of the monarchy.
For the next twenty years Lord Eldon took a pro-
minent part in the political history of the country.
Jealous of the prestige of England, and detesting with
the stout old Toryism of his nature the French, he
upheld the policy of the Government in waging war
against the ambition of Napoleon. He warmly sup-
ported the issue of the Orders in Council denying that
they were contrary either to international or municipal
law. The seizure of the Danish fleet received his full
approval. "So far from feeling himself dishonoured
as an Englishman," he said in reply to the bitter at-
tacks by Lord Sidmouth and Lord Ellenborough
upon this bold stroke of Canning's, "by the measure
adopted, he should have felt himself dishonoured if
under all the circumstances he had hesitated to
concur in advising it."
When the marked insanity of the King called
upon the Legislature to introduce a Regency Bill,
Lord Eldon stood by the Throne as long as adherence
LORD ELDON.
33
was possible. He declared that the present malady
was no worse than its predecessors, and that his
Majesty would speedily recover. Reports of phy-
sicians, he said, should not operate to prevent him
from exercising his own judgment in whatever re-
garded the interests of his royal master. Rather
than desert his allegiance by shrinking from any step
pointed out to him by his duty and his office, he
would bear to perish ignominiously on the scaffold.
Until his Majesty should vacate his throne by de-
scending into his grave to no other person would he
acknowledge himself a subject.
This misplaced loyalty, for the physicians around
the King had held out no hopes of recovery, gave
rise to some ugly disclosures. It was incontestably
shown that in the years 1801 and 1804, Lord
Eldon, as Chancellor, had culpably made use of
the King's name without the King's sanction,
and had criminally exercised the royal functions
when the Sovereign was labouring under a moral
incapacity to authorise such a proceeding. In
vain the Lord Chancellor endeavoured to justify
his conduct; it was impossible for him to deny
that the King, whilst in an unsound state of
mind, had been allowed to sign commissions for
passing bills, to swear in Privy Councillors, and to
perform other acts of State. Though, according to
VOL. II.
D
34
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
1
the best constitutional authorities Lord Eldon was
not to blame for the course he had pursued,* Par-
liament resolved not to afford him either the power
or the opportunity of repeating his offence, and the
Regency Bill became law.
In nothing was the peculiar Toryism of Lord
Eldon more pertinaciously displayed than in his
wholesale opposition to the reforms which were then
being agitated by the more liberal-minded. Every
measure dictated by humanity, toleration, and com-
mon-sense, that interfered with the existing state of
things, he strenuously resisted. Sat cito si sat bene.
For him the machinery of the Constitution worked
both well and quickly enough; its speed might be
increased by the removal of certain clogs—the eman-
cipation of Papists, toleration to Dissenters, a relaxa-
tion of the criminal code, and the like but only at
the expense of ruining the whole organization.
"Mistrusting the most specious improvements," wrote
a keen critic, "considering any organic change ast
synonymous with confusion, and satisfied that
audacity in reform was the principle of revolution, he
* Lord Campbell says: "Regard being had to all the circumstances
of the case, both in 1801 and 1804, Lord Eldon deserved well of the
country by assuming the competency of the King, instead of suspend-
ing the functions of the executive government, conjuring up the
phantom and having debates on a Regency Bill which would have
been stopped before they had made much progress by the King's entire
recovery."
LORD ELDON.
35
paid too little heed to the advancing spirit of inves-
tigation, and persisted in following at the flood those
ancient fords and pathways which could only be pur-
sued with safety at an ebb tide."
Though a man in his private life of a warm and
kindly nature-as is evidenced by his affectionate
letters to his brother and children, and by the dif-
ferent generous acts which characterized his distribu-
tion of patronage—yet throughout his political career
he set his face sternly against all such reforms as were
calculated to mitigate the severity of the law without
interfering with the balance of justice. At the pre-
sent day the only crimes punishable with death are
high treason and murder, but in the earlier part of
this century offences which would now be visited
with a brief term of imprisonment were considered
worthy of the gallows. Yet when Sir Samuel
Romilly, with the nobleness of his tender nature, was
appealing to the Legislature to relax the awful harsh-
ness of the criminal code, he found no more bigoted.
opponent to his humane amendments than Lord Eldon.
"After the most serious consideration," replied the
Lord Chancellor, "it is the conviction of my mind.
that as long as human nature remains what it is, the
apprehension of death will have the most powerful
co-operation in deterring from the commission of
crimes, and I think it unwise to withdraw the salu-
36
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tary influence of that terror." On another occasion
he cried, “Is it an encouragement or discouragement
in the eyes of any man of common-sense to commit
a crime that, instead of being hanged if he commits
it, he will at most only be transported?" Few who
listen to this false and distorted teaching will dispute
the opinion which Lord Campbell passes upon it.
"I make great allowance," he writes, "for narrow-
minded prejudice, but it would be to confound all
the distinctions of right and wrong not to praise the
enlightened efforts of Romilly, and not to censure
the systematic opposition of Lord Eldon, by which
they were long rendered ineffectual.”
-
And the same hostility to every advance, animated
by toleration and humanity, is painfully evident
throughout his political career. He strongly opposed
all relaxation of the law of imprisonment for debt,
contending that it was essentially necessary for our
prosperity as a commercial nation. He objected to
the abolition of the Slave Trade, believing that the
measure would not diminish the transport of negroes,
or save the life of a single individual, whilst it would
be "utterly destructive of the British interests in-
volved in that commerce." When Sir Robert Peel
the elder brought in his bill regulating the hours
of labour in manufactories, and protecting young
children from being employed, Lord Eldon rose
LORD ELDON.
37
up when the measure came before the House of
Lords, and said, "he hoped he should not be
suspected of hard-heartedness, if he confessed him-
self one of those who really thought that philan-
thropy had not taken its right course in modern
times. Varied and conflicting interests should be
well balanced before a man of discretion and honesty
would pronounce a fair decision. The overworking
of children was a misdemeanour at common law, and
adults should be allowed to take care of themselves."
What would his lordship have said to the various
measures of the last generation, which have had for
their object to restrain the avarice of the capitalist
and the negligence of the working classes?
Through the instrumentality of Lord Eldon the
Dissenters Bill, which was supported by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and by most of the prelates,
was rejected. The purpose of this Bill was to
enable those who objected to be married according
to the rites of the Church of England to be
married by their own clergy in their own place
of worship. The Lord Chancellor declared that a
worse measure had never been submitted to Parlia-
ment; it contained principles inconsistent with the
protection of the Established Church; and on ac-
count of the Dissenters themselves he should oppose
it, as "there could not be enlightened toleration
38
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
without the Established Church." Another Marriage
Bill had met with no better fate at his hands. In
the session of 1822 a bill was introduced to render
valid marriages celebrated in the face of the
Church without certain required formalities; where
the parties believed they were regularly contracting
matrimony, and continued for a certain time to live
together as man and wife.” This measure Lord
Campbell calls an excellent one, and most people not
blinded by sectarian fanaticism will agree with him.
The Lord Chancellor, however, furious at being in a
minority, considered the bill "a legal robbery."
"But to say the best of this measure," he cried, "I
consider it neither more nor less than a legal robbery,
so help me God. I have but a short time to remain
with you, but I trust it will be hereafter known that
I used every means in my power to prevent it
passing into a law."
When the repeal of the Test Act was carried
through the House of Commons and sent up to the
House of Lords, the indignation of the Chancellor was
a mixture of rage and despair. He vowed it was a
revolutionary bill;" yet he knew that those who
opposed it would be in a wretched minority, "though
the individuals who compose it will, as to several, I
think, be of the most respectable class of peers." He
held that if the measure became law it would be de-
..
(C
LORD ELDON.
39
structive of the Church Establishment. He implored
those who were the guardians of the Church to pause
before they allowed her to be stripped of those safe-
guards by which she had been so long protected, lest
the miseries from which she had been so happily
rescued should return, and their prevention become im-
possible. "The proposed Declaration," * he said, “was
no security; it might even be made by a Jew or an
infidel. The Sacramental Act, though often assailed,
had remained ever since the reign of Charles II., and
the annual indemnity took away all its harshness.
The obnoxious Act did not interfere with the right
of conscience, as it did not compel any man to take
the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of
England, and only deprived him of office if he did not.
He had voted against such a bill before some
of their lordships now supporting it were born; and
he might say the same of some of the right reverend
prelates who were so strangely showing their attach-
ment to the Church. The last time the question
was agitated in the House of Commons was in 1796,
when there was a majority of 187 against it. No-
* According to the Test Act no person could hold office under the
Crown without first taking the Sacrament according to the rites of the
Church of England. It was now provided that in the place of taking
the Sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, there
should-for the safety of the Church-be substituted a Declaration by
which the person entering upon an office pledged himself not to use
its influence as a means of subverting the Established Church.
40
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
thing had occurred since to make it less mischievous.
His prayer to God was that the individuals who sup-
ported it might find that, as they intended no mis-
chief to the Church, no mischief had ensued. Giving
them credit for sincerity, he claimed a similar allow-
ance for himself, when he solemnly said, as he did
from his heart and soul, not content." On the
passing of the measure, the Lord Chancellor entered
in the journals a strong protest against it, in which
he was joined by the Duke of Cumberland and a few
other peers.
"The Bill," he writes to his daughter,
"is, in my poor judgment, as bad, as mischievous, and
as revolutionary as the most captious Dissenter could
wish it to be."
It was not to be expected that one who showed
himself so narrow and intolerant to those of his own
faith, but of a different communion, should prove a
whit more generous in his views when the disabilities
were being considered by the State of such as
belonged to an alien and a hostile creed. Against the
emancipation of the Roman Catholics Lord Eldon
exhibited a decided and uncompromising front. He
held the old-fashioned opinions of the extreme Tory
of his day upon the subject. In his eyes it was im-
possible, from the nature of his religion, and from the
spiritual fealty he had to acknowledge, that a Papist
could be a patriotic Englishman and a good subject.
LORD ELDON.
4I
He objected to the admission into the counsels of
the empire of one who, when the interests of his
creed clashed with the interests of his country,
would prove himself more of an Italian than an
Englishman. The Roman Catholics had nothing to
complain of. They were not persecuted as in former
times; they were not forced to flee the country;
they were allowed to build convents and monasteries,
and celebrate the rites of their Church without inter-
ference from the State. It was true that they did
not enjoy the political liberty of the rest of their
countrymen ; their nobles could not sit in the House
of Lords; their squires could not sit in the House of
Commons; their sons could not be educated at the
two great universities of the land; but that they
laboured under these disadvantages they had only
themselves to blame. History had proved that
Popery was the enemy of a Protestant Government
and a Protestant Church, and as the supremest law
was to provide for the safety of the Commonwealth,
it was both right and expedient that such an enemy
should have its power curtailed and its activity
restrained.
Holding these opinions, when the bill to relieve
Roman Catholics from their civil disabilities was in-
troduced by the Duke of Wellington's Government,
Lord Eldon rose up in his place in Parliament to
42
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
oppose the measure with all the weight of his name,
and with all the uncompromising hostility of his Pro-
testantism. He declared that since the Bill of Rights
no measure so important had been submitted to
Parliament, or one so destructive of the law, the reli-
gion, and the liberty of the country. "If I had a
voice," he passionately cried, "that would sound to
the remotest corner of the empire, I would re-echo
the principle that if ever a Roman Catholic is per-
mitted to form part of the Legislature of this country,
or to hold any of the great executive offices of the
Government, from that moment the sun of Great
Britain is set for ever."
During a long course of years he had, he said,
considered the nature and tendency of such a bill
as this with all the attention in his power, yet with
every disposition to discover the error in his
opinion, if error there was; he had considered
this question over and over again in every possible
point of view, and after all that consideration
he would say that, so help him God! he would
rather perish that moment than give his consent to
the bill before their lordships. The bill was the
most dangerous that had ever been presented to the
consideration of Parliament. "I believe," he con-
tinued with that solemnity which he so frequently
introduced into his speeches as to mar their effect,
LORD ELDON.
43
that I know something of the Catholic clergy, and
of their feelings towards our Protestant Church; and
though it is late in life for me to alter my opinion, I
should be willing to think better of them if I could.
But I do declare, my lords, that I would rather
hear at this moment that to-morrow my existence
was to cease-an illustration, however, which I put
as of no great force, since I should look upon that
event as anything but an affliction than to awake
to the reflection that I had consented to an act which
had stamped me as a violator of my solemn oath,
a traitor to my Church, and a traitor to the Consti-
tution!" In spite of his zealous resistance the bill,
as we know, was passed by a large majority, and in
spite of his efforts to induce the King to withhold
the royal assent, the measure became law. 'The
fatal bill received the royal assent yesterday after-
noon," writes Lord Eldon to his daughter. "God
bless us and His Church!"
It will fall within my province again to allude to
this subject, and it will then be found that of all the
great statesmen who interested themselves in the
question of Catholic Emancipation two only proved
themselves firm and consistent. The first was Can-
ning, who had been foremost in his efforts to relieve
the Roman Catholics from their disabilities, and un-
flinchingly and disinterestedly adhered to the opinions
44
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
he held. The second was Lord Eldon, who never
wavered or shifted in his opposition, but was to the
last the most consistent and resolute of the enemies
to the measure. We may refute the arguments of
Lord Eldon-indeed, they have been refuted by the
upright and loyal conduct of the Roman Catholic
party during the last forty years—and we may wholly
disagree with the intolerance and one-sided aspect of
his teachings, but it is impossible not to respect the
genuine earnestness and the perfect consistency of
his opposition. Whilst the Duke of Wellington and
Mr. Peel were trimming their political sails to court
the breezes of public agitation, Lord Eldon stood
true and fast to the policy he had always maintained,
and to the peculiar Protestantism he had always pro-
fessed. It was not a lofty position to occupy, but at
least it was one that could be understood and respected.
((
To the Reform Bill he exhibited a similar hostility.
Like the Dissenters Marriage Bill, the Repeal of the
Test Act, the Catholic Emancipation Act, it was
'the most mischievous measure ever introduced."
If it became law it would introduce into its train
such abominations as universal suffrage, annual
parliaments, and vote by ballot. It would "un-
hinge the whole frame of society." It was
war with the preservation of the British Constitu-
tion, it was incompatible with the existence of a
at
LORD ELDON.
45
House of Lords, it would lead to the confiscation of
the estates of the landed gentry, it would abolish
corporations, it would render property insecure; "for
who would have the boldness to say that property
was secure when near one hundred boroughs were
being swept away and almost all the corporations in
the country?" "I, my lords," said Lord Eldon
with his too frequent impressiveness, "have nearly
run my race in this world, and must soon go to my
Maker and my dread account. What I have said in
this instance, in all sincerity, I have expressed out
of my love to your lordships; and in all that sin-
cerity I will solemnly assert my heartfelt belief that
with this bill in operation, the monarchy cannot
exist, and that it is totally incompatible with the
existence of the British Constitution." When, how-
ever, he found that if the measure were further
opposed by the Upper House additional peers would
be created to overpower the votes of the anti-
reformers, he thought it wiser to absent himself
from his seat in Parliament and allow the Bill to pass
rather than by a futile opposition to inflict a severe
humiliation upon the order to which he belonged.
To the statesman who piques himself upon being
far-sighted and capable of predicting the conse-
quences that will ensue from the adoption of certain
measures, there can be no more profitable reading than
46
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the biography of Lord Eldon. Here was a man of
the keenest intellect, whose past training had emi-
nently fitted him to weigh evidence and to draw sound
conclusions, yet every prophecy that accompanied
his strenuous opposition to the different acts that
came before him, both as a peer of the realm and as
the Chief of the Court of Chancery, has been stultified
by experience. The Dissenters have been relieved
from the political disabilities under which they once
laboured, they can be married according to their own
rites, they can hold office under the Crown, their
sons are no longer excluded from the advantages of a
university career, the abolition of Church rates has
freed them from an unjust and irritating taxation,
soon the same toleration exhibited towards the living
will be shown towards the dead-for it can be but a
question of time for the Burials Bill to become law-
yet instead of the dangers anticipated by Lord Eldon
from this emancipation, the Nonconformists have
proved themselves second to none in the sincerity of
their loyalty to the Crown, or in their readiness to
labour for the State; whilst, liberated from galling
and envious restrictions, their hostility to the Estab-
lished Church, save amongst the least worthy of
their members, has manifestly declined. It raises a
smile when we remember that in the eyes of the
great Chancellor such liberty was pronounced “in-
LORD ELDON.
47
consistent with the protection of the Established
Church," and when the strange doctrine was pro-
mulgated that "there could not be enlightened
toleration without the Established Church."
..
The terrible punishments which were once both
the scandal and the terror of our criminal code have
been blotted out of the Statute Book, and yet crime
has not increased within the present century, nor
has "the wisdom of the principles and practice by
which our criminal code was regulated" been turned
into foolishness. The repeal of the Test Act has not
proved itself a "revolutionary" measure. The eman-
cipation of the Roman Catholics has not "broken
down the barriers of our Constitution," it has not
subverted the law, the religion, and the liberty of
the country," nor has the "sun of Great Britain set
for ever.
The Reform Bill has led to further ex-
tension of the suffrage, and yet the "rights of pro-
perty" have not been swept away, "the whole frame
of society" has not been unhinged, nor has it proved
totally incompatible with the existence of the
British Constitution." From time to time various
reforms have taken place in the laws which relate to
bankruptcy, to real property, to municipal adminis-
tration, and to certain of our commercial industries,
yet neither “confusion” nor "confiscation" nor an
"unnecessary interference" has been the result.
(C
""
Gadg
48
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Opposition is written all over the political career of
Lord Eldon, yet it is impossible to find one single
instance where such opposition was worthy of his
intellect, or realised the grave consequences he fore-
told.
The truth is that Lord Eldon was one of the last
of those stout, narrow, unflinching Tories of the
eighteenth century who deemed all innovations as
destructive, and all reforms as revolutionary. He
had the eighteenth century views of the might
and majesty of the Prerogative; he had the
eighteenth century views of the Church of England,
it was orthodox, it was loyal, it was attached to
the State and identified its interests with those of
the higher classes; he had the eighteenth century
views of the power and grandeur of the aristocracy,
of the position and patriotism of the landed gentry,
and of the rightful state of serfdom of the people.
He believed that there was nothing good, nothing
sound, nothing worthy of notice out of England—
except perhaps port wine.
He hated a Frenchman, he hated a Scotchman,
he hated a Papist, he hated a Dissenter. He
was not indifferent to the lower classes, provided
they kept in their place and were content with
remaining in a becoming
a becoming state of social and
political vassalage. In his eyes the working man
LORD ELDON.
49
should be a working man, content, as his ancestors
had been before him, with his position in life,
and not pretend to education, or claim admission to
the suffrage or combine against capital. He believed
in a trade that was thoroughly protected, and op-
posed with all his might the new-fangled notions of
the Cobdens of his day. He had the interests of
England strongly at heart, and to him those interests
signified—the honour of our flag always to be upheld,
for where could be found more splendid soldiers or
finer sailors than in England?-the power of the
Crown to be a reality and not a fiction, for where
was monarchy more illustrious or more blessed than
in England?—the privileges of the aristocracy to be
jealously guarded, for who more capable of governing
than a body of educated gentlemen, all of whom had
a vast stake in the country?—the House of Commons
to be filled by the younger sons of nobles, and the
representatives of the landed gentry, who, as became
the members of an inferior assembly, would be obe-
dient to the behests of their Sovereign, and content
to be controlled by the wisdom of the Upper House;
and as for the masses, they should be led by their
rulers, pastors, and masters, and do their duty in that
state of life unto which it had pleased Providence to
call them,—in other words, that they should love
God, fear the King, and obey the Government. Such
VOL. II.
E
50
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
was the political creed of Lord Eldon, and though it
is not devoid of certain advantages, we may congratu-
late ourselves that it is now a belief of the past and
numbers no longer its worshippers.
On the formation of the Canning Administration
Lord Eldon, in company with several of the extreme
Tory party, sent in his resignation. Between the
Chancellor and Canning there had never been a cor-
dial feeling. The bigoted Tory regarded the brilliant
statesman with some of the prejudices then fashion-
able in certain circles. Canning was a "political
adventurer;" a "writer in newspapers;" he was defi-
cient in "the earnestness and weight of character that
should characterize a statesman;" his "wit and sense of
humour unfitted him to preside over the grave councils
of a Cabinet;" whilst some of the badinage which the
author of the Anti-Jacobin had directed against Ad-
dington, as the son of a doctor, was now made to
recoil upon himself, and spiteful allusions were heard
as to the inconsistency of a proud nation like Eng-
land being represented by the son of a third-rate
actress.
*
That Lord Eldon was unfavourable to the ele-
vation of Canning is evident from his corre-
spondence. Various circumstances had tended to
increase this antipathy in the breast of the Lord
Chancellor. In the House of Commons Canning
LORD ELDON.
51
had sneered at Lord Eldon's ultra-Toryism, had
branded his speeches as those of a "pettifogging
lawyer," and had pronounced his numerous touching
predictions of the evils that would ensue from the
adoption of certain measures as worthy of "an
almanack-maker." Nor could Lord Eldon forget.
that on a former occasion it had been gravely pro-
posed by Canning that the Great Seal should be
transferred to Mr. Perceval. He also had to remem-
ber that during the unhappy days of the trial of
Queen Caroline Canning had stood staunchly by the
side of the unhappy woman; had declined to court
the King's good graces by taking part in the pro-
ceedings against her; and rather than be the means
of oppressing one who had been his friend, had
preferred to quit the country. On the other hand,
Lord Eldon, who had been once on terms of great
intimacy with the Queen; who had advised her upon
different delicate matters; and who had frequently
visited her at Blackheath, had veered round to please
his "young master;" had suppressed the evidence
he had collected in her favour; and had been called
upon to preside at her trial. The consistency of the
one and the inconsistency of the other, was a some-
what humiliating and irritating reflection for the
Chancellor to indulge in; and this, coupled with the
past remarks of Canning and the difference of their
52
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
political opinions, rendered cordiality between the
two out of the question.
Still, in spite of this personal dislike, it is doubtful
whether the Chancellor would have positively declined
to serve under Canning had he not been compelled to
follow the course adopted by his anti-Catholic col-
leagues. No man was more attached to the power
and activity of office than Lord Eldon. Beyond the
regions of the House of Lords and of the Court of
Chancery, all was stale, flat, and unprofitable to him.
He took no interest in literature; he was destitute
of any taste for the fine arts; he was a miserable
sportsman. His whole soul was bound up in the
manœuvres of political intrigue, in the agitations of
parliamentary life, and in the pomp and majesty of
the judicial career. He had so long held the Great
Seal, and enjoyed to the full the milk and honey of the
official Canaan, that he could not bring himself to think
of the day when he should have to quit the woolsack
and return to the wilderness of the Opposition.
In the negotiations that ensued he did not
assume the decided attitude either of the Duke of
Wellington or of Mr. Peel. When the King in-
formed him that he had intrusted to Mr. Canning's
hands the formation of a new administration, Lord
Eldon did not express any refusal to serve under the
in-coming Premier. In his interview with Canning
•
LORD ELDON.
53
he left the Minister under the impression that the
Great Seal need not be transferred to a successor. It
was not until an interval of two days had elapsed, and
after he had learnt that the Duke of Wellington, Mr.
Peel, and Lords Bathurst, Melville, and Westmore-
land had refused to take office in the new Cabinet,
that he felt if he was to preserve his reputation for
consistency he too must also send in his resignation.
In explaining the reasons for his secession, Lord
Eldon said that holding his views upon the Catholic
claims it was impossible for him to remain in office
under an administration based on principles so
hostile to his own. He could not allow that the
new administration had been formed upon the same
principles as the administration of Lord Liverpool.
That noble lord had been as zealous, honest, and
candid an opponent of the Catholic claims as he gave
full credit to Mr. Canning for being a zealous, honest,
and candid supporter of them. He denied that he
had concerted his resignation with others. He denied
that he had presumed to dictate to the King the
choice of his Ministers; but, at the same time, "if
any man were asked by his Majesty for his advice on
the subject, no censure could be too harsh for him if
he refused to give the Sovereign his sincere and
honest opinion whether the Ministers whom he chose
could be able to serve him usefully."
54
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
In withdrawing himself from the Canning Admi-
nistration Lord Eldon was under the impression that
his exclusion from office would only be temporary,
and that he would soon again take his seat upon the
woolsack. He was mistaken; never again did he
hold the Great Seal. Cabinets were broken up, new
Premiers kissed hands, but the once powerful Lord
Chancellor was never summoned to Windsor Castle.
It was felt that one whose Toryism was so bigoted,
so narrow-minded, so intolerant, was unfit to hold
office at a time when men's minds were absorbed in
the great work of national progress. What sympathy
had Lord Eldon, the staunch laudator temporis acti,
with the removal of Catholic disabilities, with a
reformation of our representative system, with the
introduction of a new Poor Law Scheme, with a re-
modelling of the Bankruptcy Laws, with the combi-
nations that labour had organized against capital, with
the principles of Free Trade, and with the numerous
other measures that an enlightened civilisation was
anxious to enrol in its Statute Book?
The "good old times" that Lord Eldon loved to
dwell upon were never restored. Everything around
him was so changed that the ex-Chancellor hardly
knew either himself or his country. He was nobody,
he said, and it mattered little when he took him-
self off from the busy scene. His own party had
LORD ELDON.
55
(C
adopted another name; there were Tories no longer,
but Conservatives. He saw Catholic peers taking
their seats on the red benches of the House of Lords,
and he felt that the Protestantism of the country
could not survive the intrusion. He saw members
entering the House of Commons who had no busi-
ness within its walls; men with no breeding or
education representing boroughs; men without an
acre representing shires. "Hume, member for the
great metropolitan county of Middlesex!" he sneers.
Brougham for the great county of York! Neither
with an acre of land!!!" Everywhere he saw the
axe of reform cutting down and marking for destruc-
tion all his cherished privileges, prerogatives, and
precedents. When I look at the state of the
country," he said, "and see, or think I see, the
monarchy, the peerage, the owners of property, sink-
ing, I fear inevitably sinking, under the rule and
domination of democrats, I have no comfort in look-
ing forward." He was the last of the Tories-preju-
diced, short-sighted, and hostile to change, yet he
was ever honest and consistent in his opposition; in
his eyes the creed he professed was the only true
faith, and he declined to depart from its teaching;
though we differ from his views, let us honour him
for his loyalty to all that he held sacred, and for the
sincerity of his aversion to all that he held dan-
(C
Cate
56
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
gerous. He was brought up in the old school, and
we cannot condemn so true and devoted a pupil.
Whilst the adherence of Lord Eldon to the maxim
of Sat cito si sat bene made him as a politician
narrow-minded and culpably opinionative, it had a
contrary effect upon his purely judicial career. With-
out pretending to the brilliancy of language and
splendour of rhetoric that are conspicuous in the
judgments of several of his predecessors and suc-
cessors, he was one of the soundest judges that ever
held the Great Seal. "I do not hesitate a moment,”
writes Lord Campbell, no blind admirer of the Chan-
cellor, and whose independent knowledge of his
subject and professional criticisms render his work
a most valuable commentary upon the biography of
Twiss, "to place him, as a judge, above all the
judges of my time. For law he had a natural genius,
which was improved by long, severe, and unwearied
discipline. The law of real property was his forte;
this he knew more profoundly, more accurately, and
more familiarly than any man in the profession either
on the Bench or at the Bar. But his great merit
was his earnest desire to do justice between man and
Notwithstanding all his professions and all
his fears, this he really felt, and by this he was
steadily actuated. There have been judges (in former
days) who cared not in how perfunctory a manner
man.
LORD ELDON.
57
they did their duty-with no anxiety but to keep
their places and to avoid open censure—who would
on no account have done anything positively dis-
honourable, but who were rather indifferent as to the
arbitrary rules of right and wrong as established by
prior decisions, and who cared nothing for the credit
of the system of jurisprudence which they adminis-
tered beyond their own time. Lord Eldon had a
disinterested, a passionate wish to decide rightly—
and to gain his object there was no labour that he
was not willing to undergo."
We are told by Lord Eldon that for the more
efficient administration of justice he always set three
distinct points steadily before him for consideration.
"Looking back to my judicial conduct," he said in
one of his judgments, "I hope, with no undue par-
tiality or self-indulgence, I can never be deprived of the
comfort I receive when I recollect that in great and
important cases I have endeavoured to sift all the
principles and rules of law to the bottom, for the
purpose of laying down, in each new and important
case as it arises, something in the first place which
may satisfy the parties that I have taken pains to do
my duty; something in the second place which may
inform those who, as counsel, are to take care of the
interests of their clients, what the reasons are upon
which I have proceeded, and may enable them to
58
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
examine whether justice has been done; and further,
something which may contribute towards laying down
a rule so as to save those who may succeed to me in
this great situation much of that labour which I
have had to undergo by reason of cases having
been not so determined, and by reason of a due
exposition of the grounds of judgment not having
been so stated."
ments.
It was the intensity of this desire to deal out only
the strictest justice between man and man that made
him so painfully deliberative in after-life in his judg-
He would weigh every fact put before him
in the minutest of mental scales, ponder over the
conflicting arguments of counsel, sum up with won-
derful acuteness, but hesitate before rendering his
decree final, and quit the Bench saying that he
would reserve judgment. "On one occasion," writes
Lord Campbell, "having spoken very luminously for
two hours on the merits of a case which he had
heard, and having intimated a strong opinion in
favour of the defendant, he finished by saying, 'How-
éver, I will take home the papers and read them
carefully, and will tell the parties on a future day
what my judgment will be.' Sir Samuel Romilly,
rising from his seat and turning round to the juniors,
said, 'Now is not this extraordinary? I never heard
a more satisfactory judgment; and yet the Chancellor
LORD ELDON.
59
professes that he cannot make up his mind. It is
wonderful; and the more so because, however long he
takes to consider a cause, I scarcely ever knew him
differ from his first impression." "
The immensity of the interests that were depen-
dent upon his decisions made him hesitate before he
dared to express his opinion. When, however, he
did summon up courage to pass sentence, it was
found that his views were so logical, so accurate, and
so thoroughly in harmony both with the rigour of
the law and the clemency of equity, that his judg-
ments were never reversed. Sat cito si sat bene. But
there were many who would have infinitely preferred
even a reckless conclusion to this cunctative practice
of the old Chancellor. Dark stories were circulated
that in his slow, laborious efforts to dispense justice,
terrible injustice was often done to unhappy litigants.
It was said that men who had vast sums locked up
in Chancery had died from absolute poverty on
account of Lord Eldon's morbid propensity in not
deciding at once. Another told how valuable cargoes
of perishable property had gone to rot and ruin
because the Chancellor doubted what judgment he
should pronounce on motions for an injunction.
Then there were rumours of suitors going mad, or
fretted to death by care and anxiety, from this
"denial of justice by refusing to decide." The news-
60
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
papers took the matter up, and in the ordinary
course the question came before the House of Com-
mons. Sir Robert Peel rose up to reply, and in his
apology for the cunctative Chancellor is not forgetful
of the value of the sat cito si sat bene maxim.
"If Lord Eldon's delay," said Sir Robert, "had
been one arising from his indulgence in pleasure or
in frivolous amusements, it would have been a subject
of just reprehension; but when a man was seen de-
voting twelve out of the twenty-four hours without
remission to the public business, and allowing himself
no longer a vacation than three weeks out of fifty-
two, it would be but fair to pass with a light hand
over the venial fault of him who decided slowly, from
the peculiar constitution of his mind and his ultra
anxiety to decide justly."
Another and singular feature in the judicial career
of Lord Eldon, and one which to a great extent
accounts for the dilatoriness of his judgment, was his
habit of often investigating the cases that came
before him for himself. He declined to receive his
instructions solely from the lips of counsel. From
his own practice at the Bar, he knew full well the
value of ex-parte statements, and how often the
pleading of even the best of advocates is hasty and
incomplete. He made it his duty to read all the
documents that came before him, and to consider not
LORD ELDON.
61
only the facts and points stated and made at the
Bar, but all the facts in the cause, and all the points
that might be made on either side. "I know," said
he, alluding to this practice, "I know, yes, I could
swear upon my oath, that if I had given judgment on
such information and statements only as I have re-
ceived from counsel on both sides, I should have dis-
posed of numerous estates to persons who had no more
title to them than I have; and believe me that I feel
a comfort in that thought—a comfort of which all the
observations on my conduct can never rob me.
""
In spite, however, of his unjustifiable and unac-
countable hesitation in passing judgment, he was
popular with the Bar, and with the profession gener-
ally. No judge was at the same time more kindly
and genial, and yet more dignified than he. Remem-
bering the time when he had his perch in Cursitor
Street, and supped on the Fleet Market sprats, he
was always tender and considerate to young counsel
-never repelling them with judicial sternness, or
taking delight in exposing the knowledge of the law
they were supposed to have acquired. He was emi-
nently a kindly, benevolent man, prone to much chat
and gossip, and liking nothing better than to talk
over old days with a friend, or to draw upon his
large stores of anecdote for the benefit of an appre-
ciative circle of the fair sex. His manners were very
62
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
fine-dignified without pomposity, and courteous
without effort. In society he was much liked, and
though his wife-mindful of the times when she had
to keep the household books on a very slender allow-
ance-was somewhat stingy in her hospitalities, his
house in Hamilton Place was always one of the popular
places of resort in town for fashion and politics.
As a man he was very handsome, his features
regular, his eye bright and full, his smile singularly
sweet, and his figure, though not above the middle
size, light and well-made. It was, however, as
the humorous companion and the genial wit that
Lord Eldon, away from the precincts of Lincoln's
Inn, was best known. Fond of the comforts of life,
keeping an excellent table, and indulging with the
freedom of his day in the grape of Oporto, he dearly
loved, when the women had retired, to pass the
bottle and keep his guests merry with story after
story of the struggles of his early life, or of the
verbal duels between the Bar and the Bench, or of
the Court of George III. He loved a joke, and
in his latter years was rather prone to convulse
his court with witticisms of a somewhat feeble
character-but what audience is more easily amused
than the Bar when a judge is the jester?
That his integrity was undoubted is only to say
that he was an English judge. On one occasion, an
LORD ELDON.
63
""
A
attempt was made to tamper with his principles.
Welsh woman—a future suitor-sent him a goose,
with the hope that "her munificence would not
incline him to favour her, as she did not mean it as
a bribe." "I think Taffy the Welshwoman," writes
the Chancellor to his daughter, "will be much sur-
prised when she receives my letter informing her
that, being a judge, she might as properly apply to
her goose for advice as to me."
With regard to the judicial career of Lord Eldon,
the voice of posterity has confirmed that of his con-
temporaries. His decrees have suffered no reversal ;
his judgments, though inelegantly worded, tortuous,
and involved, are looked upon as marvels of wisdom
and learning; and in all that appertains to the prin-
ciples of his court his knowledge has never been
surpassed. "Amid the war of jarring factions,"
writes Lord Campbell, "while he was still on the
woolsack he was considered an oracle of law, both
by foes and friends; since then his authority has in
no degree declined; and there is no rashness in pro-
phesying that for ages to come, his opinion, where it
can be discovered, will rule the cases to which it is
applicable.
Laudari a laudato is indeed praise.
CANNING,
THE BRILLIANT MINISTER.
1770-AUGUST 8, 1827.
Ir is one of the characteristics of genius to feel
itself independent of all traditional systems, and to
strike out a path of action which shall not be shaded
or overgrown by precedents and preconceived notions,
but be made bright and clear with the blaze of in-
tellectual eminence alone. The invalid needs his
crutches to support his feeble body, but the strong
man, conscious of his strength and the vigour work-
ing within him, walks by himself. Mediocrity, or
the talent that is cleverness without genius, requires
in the efforts it makes or the policy it institutes to
have in some degree the sanction of the past. It
does what has been done before-what, perhaps, has
not been previously so fully or so ably done, but still
the past offers a precedent for actions or suggestions.
Such a gift does not create; it but improves. But
genius knows no law save its own--hence the bless-
CANNING.
65
ings that attend it when rightly directed, the miseries
when guided by base motives.
In politics, in finance, in social science, we see
generation after generation acting upon the labours.
of its predecessors, adding here, reforming there,
but still always building on the same plan, till some
"commanding spirit" appears on the scene, razes the
structure to the ground, and appoints itself, for the
weal or woe of the country, its future architect.
When Hildebrand awed the monarchs of Europe
into obedience, what, cared he for the constitutional
policy of the Vatican? When Wolsey determined
upon making his master great, was he restrained by
the parade of precedents, the theories of party tactics,
or even the rights of the subject? What recked
Richelieu for the policy of his predecessors when he
oppressed the people, intimidated a proud aristocracy,
and utilised a scheming priesthood to make France
powerful? What regard had Cromwell for the ruling
of lawyers or the privileges of caste, provided he
made England free and great? What respect had
Napoleon for tradition when he stood at the helm of
the French Revolution and made order out of chaos?
What consideration had Bismarck for the theories of
the past, or the principles in vogue at the Berlin
chancery, when his iron will resolved that the Father-
land should be united? And, in a lesser degree,
VOL. II.
F
66
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
how full of reliance upon themselves, how free from
the conventionalities of their calling, have been the
careers of such masters in statescraft as De Witt,
Ximenez, Alberoni, Cavour, Metternich, Oxenstiern,
Talleyrand, and Nesselrode? Did such military
heroes as Julius Caesar, Condé, Turenne, Marlborough,
Soult, Tilly, Masséna, Clive, or Wellington confine
their tactics alone to the hackneyed rules of strategy,
and the limited scope of professional teaching? They
were not satisfied till they had discovered what
education had failed to teach them. Talent absorbs
but does not create. Genius not only absorbs but
creates.
Among the category of men of genius the name of
George Canning worthily holds a prominent place.
His was one of those brilliant intellects which not
only adorns, but impregnates with a grace and a
vigour, peculiar to itself, whatever it touches. When
he spoke his oratory was of the very highest order—
the language of a refined scholar, the arguments lucid
and well arranged, no hesitation and yet no glibness,
a voice like a musical instrument, whilst all was set
off by attitudes and gesticulations which never failed
to show that the speaker was a gentleman as well as
an、 orator. His wit was as keen as it was ready.
When he composed a State Paper, save at those
times when his sense of humour made him turn
CANNING.
67
grave matters into burlesque, it was written with the
ease and the force of a man who has enriched his
literary abilities by a loving study of the culture of
the ancients.
In his intellect there was a combination of gifts
not often to be found in the same person. He
was a scholar and a statesman. There have been
men who, though scholars, have yet attained to
high honours in the State, but throughout their
lives it is plain to see that the atmosphere of
the library and not of the senate is the air they
should breathe. Their speeches read like essays ;
they lack tact; they have no knowledge of men ;
and they deem the diplomacy which humours whilst
it governs human nature beneath them. They are
men of thought, not of action. On the other hand,
there have been statesmen ambitious of literary dis-
tinction whose writings have been as great failures,
as their speeches and administrative rule have been
successes. But in Canning the two talents were
united. His knowledge of the classics, his logical
mind, his love of books and the style in which he
expressed his thoughts, all showed plainly that
literature had lost what the State had gained.
As a politician he was in the first rank. In his com-
prehension of events he was not only quick-sighted
but far-sighted. He saw keener than most men the
+
68
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
nature of complications and the results that must
ensue from them; hence his direction of affairs often
anticipated the future. In seasons of grave crisis
his policy was firm and audaciously bold. When
danger had to be crushed or avoided he was no
believer in compromise or middle measures. There
was no hesitation or indecision in his conduct when
once his mind was clear as to the course to be pur-
sued; witness his dispatch of the fleet to the Tagus
and his seizure of the Danish squadrons. "I have
at all times," he said, "exhausted myself in en-
deavours to give more vigour and sharpness to poli-
tical hostility, and more decision and scorn of com-
promise to every action of Government; being at all
times since I have had a share in public transactions
convinced that our enemies were such as could be
reclaimed only by being crushed, and our cause one
which must finally triumph if clearly and unequi-
Vocally defined, and firmly and invariably main-
tained up to the truth."
Canning was an excellent debater, and his speeches
were exactly in accordance with the taste of the
House; not, like those of many a scholar, above
his audience, but interpreting its sentiments and
commanding its support. Though a party man
he was not bound and chained by the opinion of
his order. His sense of individuality was strong,
CANNING.
69
<<
and he did not believe in its repression or ex-
pansion according to certain fixed rules of partisan
adherence or partisan opposition. In his eyes a man
of commanding genius who thought for himself and
acted upon his own convictions was a far more
dangerous foe or a far more useful friend than one
nursed in a certain particular creed and merely the
spokesman or the disciple of a party. It was the
individual and not the policy that he believed in.
Away," he cried on one occasion when England,
under an incompetent administration, was roused and
intimidated by the acts of Napoleon-" away with
the cant of measures, not men—the idle supposition
that it is the harness and not the horses that draw
the chariot along. No, sir, if the comparison must
be made-if the distinction must be taken-measures
are comparatively nothing, men everything. I speak,
sir, of times of difficulty and danger of times when
systems are shaken, when precedents and general
rule of conduct fail. Then it is that not to this or
that measure, however prudently devised, however
blameless in execution, but to the energy and cha-
racter of individuals a state must be indebted for its
salvation. Then it is that kingdoms rise and fall in
proportion as they are upheld, not by well-meant
endeavours (however laudable these may be) but by
commanding, overawing talent--by able men
70
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
2.
Look at France, and see what we have to cope with,
and consider what has made her what she is—a
man ! . I am no panegyrist of Bonaparte; but
I cannot shut my eyes to the superiority of his
talents—to the amazing ascendency of his genius.
Tell me not of his measures and his policy. It is
his genius, his character, that keeps the world in awe.
Sir, to meet, to check, to curb, to stand up against
him, we want arms of the same kind. I am far
from objecting to the large military establishments
which are proposed to you. I vote for them with
all my heart. But for the purpose of coping with
Bonaparte one great commanding spirit is worth
them all!"
(C
1
Men, not measures"—in these three words the
political creed of George Canning is summed up. It
mattered little to him whether a man was Whig or
Tory, Papist or Protestant, provided that in seasons
of crisis he knew how to mould circumstances to the
best advantage, to inspire confidence in his followers,
and to do battle against the common danger till it
bites the dust. . History teaches us that in this
maxim of Canning there is no little truth. Had
Richard II. been a man like Louis XIV., would Henry
of Lancaster ever have succeeded to the throne?
Had Henry VII. been an effeminate worldling like
Charles II., would the battle of Bosworth ever have
CANNING.
71
taken place? If Queen Elizabeth had been a Queen
Anne, our island might now be a Spanish dependency.
If Charles I. had been a Henry VIII., would there
have been the great Rebellion? If Richard Crom-
well had been like his father, we might now be a
republic. If William of Orange had been an
Edward II., the Stuarts might still be on the throne.
If Louis XVI. had been a Henri Quatre, would the
French Revolution have taken place? If a John
Sobieski had been on the throne instead of King Stanis-
laus, would there have been the partition of Poland ?
There can be no doubt, looking upon the question
from one point of view, that Canning was right
in saying that men are everything in times of
difficulty and measures comparatively nothing; but
regard the question as a whole, and it will be seen
how dangerous the consequences would be of intrust-
ing everything to the individual. The horse is of
more use than the harness, but the one would be of
little service without the other. If the maxim of
(C
Men, not measures" were to be carried out in its
entirety and on all occasions, how unlimited would
be the scope for individual ambition, how endless
the intrigues, how unscrupulous the party tactics,
how often the national good would be sacrificed to
the selfish interests of the brilliant aspirant! Accept
the creed "Men, not measures as the rule of poli-
""
72
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tical or social life, and it will be necessary soon to
supplement it with the favourite excuse of expediency,
"The end justifies the means.'
""
Before that vicious and finical dandy, the fourth
George, became personally acquainted with Canning,
he described him as "not a gentleman." No de-
finition could be falser, and the fashionable monarch
was afterwards the first to admit its injustice. Can-
ning came of a good old Warwickshire stock, but
his family, like several of the representatives of the
landed gentry, had suffered reverses. His father
had married a young lady without fortune, and on
differences arising between sire and son had been
disinherited. Being a member of the Bar, and pos-
sessing some taste for literature, Mr. Canning senior
amused himself by writing articles that did not pay,
and rejecting briefs which might have led him on to
comfort. He died in debt, and his widow, left pro-
visionless with one son-the future statesman—to
take care of, went upon the stage. Her career was
not, however, very successful; she was a pretty
woman, with little dramatic talent, and never at-
tained to anything approaching distinction. At this
moment a rich brother of her husband, a respectable
merchant, much in the confidence of the Whig party,
agreed to look after the lad.
Young Canning was sent to Eton and to Christ
CANNING.
73
*
Church, and early gave proof of the brilliancy of his
talents. At Eton his contributions to the Microcosm-
a paper conducted by the boys-comprising verses,
humorous criticisms, and political squibs, made his sig-
nature of "Gregory Griffin" a household name in the
school, and not unknown to the greater world out of
doors. His fame was not less at the university. His
tutors applauded his love for study, and felt they could
add little to his classical lore; he was the most brilliant
speaker at the debating club; his wit and repartee
* "The Microcosm was the first school periodical which attracted
much notice beyond the walls of the school itself; and to this, perhaps,
as much as to the intrinsic merit of the papers it contained, is due its
great success, which led to numerous literary ventures of the same
kind at other of our great public schools. Some of the papers in the
Microcosm contain unmistakable promise of considerable literary ability,
and one at least-Canning's Essay on the Epic of the Queen of Hearts
--will probably maintain its place in English literature as a classical
specimen of burlesque criticism."-Memoir of John Hookham Frere,
vol. i. p. 18.
Let me give an extract from this satire on the pedantry and far-
fetched conclusion of commentators :--
"The queen of hearts
She made some tarts
All on a summer's day."
"All on a summer's day."
"I cannot leave this line without remarking that one of the Scrib-
leri, a descendant of the famous Martinus, has expressed his suspicions
of the text being corrupted here, and proposes, instead of 'All on,'
reading 'Alone,' alleging, in the favour of this alteration, the effect of
solitude in raising the passions. But Hiccius Doctius, a High Dutch
commentator, one nevertheless well versed in British literature, in a
note of his usual length and learning, has confuted the arguments of
Scriblerus. In support of the present reading he quotes a passage from
a poem written about the same period with our author's, by the cele-
74
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
made him always a welcome visitor in the rooms of
the undergraduates; he dressed well, and coming up
from Eton with a great reputation, and reported to
be the heir of a rich uncle, he lived with the best set
of his time. On quitting the university he became
a member of Lincoln's Inn, with the intention of
studying for the Bar. Law books and drawing up
briefs were, however, not much to his taste, and as at
Eton and at Christ Church, so now in London he
became the centre of a little band of contributors
whose articles and political satires were read with as
much attention as amusement by an influential circle
of admirers.
The name of Canning began to be talked about.
It was in the days before reform bills, when the
governing families reigned supreme, and close
boroughs and nomination boroughs became the prizes
of ambitious youths whose heads were better stocked
than their purses. The leaders of the great parties
who swayed the opinions of Parliament were always
brated Johannes Pastor (most commonly known as Jack Shepherd),
entitled, 'An Elegiac Epistle to the Turnkey of Newgate,' wherein the
gentleman declares, that rather, indeed, in compliance with an old
custom than to gratify any particular wish of his own, he is going
All hanged for to be
Upon that fatal Tyburn tree.'
"Now, as nothing throws greater light on an author than the con-
currence of a contemporary writer, I am inclined to be of Hiccius's
opinion, and to consider the 'All' as an elegant expletive, or as he more
aptly phrases it, 'elegans expletivum.'
999
CANNING.
75
on the watch for talent that might serve their
political ends. Many a young man by a happy
pamphlet or a clever speech, or a bitter satire, found
himself safely seated on the green benches of the
House of Commons as the representative of a borough
in the hands of a powerful lord or of an opulent
squire, without his election having cost him a single
sou. Where inferior men had been successful,
Canning was not likely to be overlooked.
He was
sent for by Pitt. The haughty statesman, in his
precise way, said that "he had heard of Mr. Can-
ning's reputation as a scholar and a speaker, and
that if he concurred in the policy which the Govern-
ment was then pursuing, arrangements would be
made to bring him into Parliament."
It has been said that the temptations held out by
this offer were too strong to be resisted by the young
man, and that Canning deliberately changed his poli-
tical principles to advance his personal interests. At
first sight there appears to be some grounds for this
statement. Canning had been the favourite nephew
of a conspicuous Whig, he had lived much in Whig
society, he had held strong views with regard to the
French Revolution, and all that he had written and
spoken had led his friends to believe that he was far
more an adherent of Fox than of Pitt. Again, when
a man, by the change of his political creed, obtains
76
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
advantages that he would not otherwise have pos-
sessed, he naturally lays himself open to misconstruc-
tion. To an ambitious genius like Canning, the
scion of no great house and heir to no great fortune,
adherence to the Whigs signified political extinction.
The Whigs were an exclusive party; among their
body were men of the highest distinction. In taking
his seat amongst them Canning would, therefore,
find himself surrounded by celebrities who had claims
far beyond his own, and thus might have to wait for
years till the Whigs, who always rewarded sparingly
outside their immediate coterie, thought him worthy
of notice. On the other hand, in accepting the pro-
posal of Pitt, an assured career opened out before
him. Pitt was Prime Minister, and had almost
everything in his gift; his tenure of power seemed
secure; it was acknowledged that he stood staunchly
by his friends; above all the Tory party, though
daily increasing in strength, was deficient in rising
talent. Every advantage was thus on the side of
Pitt, every disadvantage on the side of Fox. Can-
ning accepted the offer of Pitt, and through the
influence of the Prime Minister was returned, in
1793, as member for the borough of Newport.
His former friends, somewhat hurt at what they
considered his change of political opinion, quizzed his
apostasy in the following lines :----
CANNING.
77
:
"The turning of coats so common is grown,
That no one would think to attack it;
But no case until now was so flagrantly known
Of a schoolboy turning his jacket."
Yet there was no apostasy. War had broken out
between England and France, and men's minds were
divided as to the benefit or evils that were to result
from the French Revolution. A few of the Whigs
led by Fox and Grey were in favour of the new
principles, and looked upon the war with France as
most unjustifiable, whilst the Whigs represented by
the Duke of Portland, Windham, and Burke, con-
demned the principles of republicanism as most
dangerous to the welfare of every civilised com-
munity, and considered that Pitt had no alternative
but to declare hostilities. At Oxford, and during
the first year or two whilst reading for the Bar,
Canning was in favour of the French Revolution.
As long as France was struggling for freedom he, in
common with many in England, cordially sympa-
thized with her, but when she became the tool, first
of the demagogue, who massacred her people, and
then of a despot, who used her for his own ends, his
sympathy was turned into disgust, and no follower
of Pitt was a more resolute opponent of Napoleon.
Months before his interview with the Prime Minister,
Canning had written to a friend :-
"With regard to France, so long as they were strug-
78
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
gling for their own liberty, so long as they were clearing
the way for the erection of that Constitution of which
the inhabitants of the country, as if with one soul and
one voice, had decidedly and unanimously expressed
their choice, and demanded the trial, I wished most
piously and heartily for the total overthrow and de-
struction of every impediment that should be thrown
into the way of their exertions. And this from a
thorough persuasion that the right of a nation to choose
for itself its own Constitution is a right which they
claim from God and nature alone, and for the exercise
of which to God and nature alone they are amenable."*
And then he adds that when he sees the use French-
men have made of their liberty-their lawless pro-
ceedings at home, their arrogance towards Europe—
he cannot but regard their conduct with anything
less than contempt and dread and execration.
In the same letter he expresses his political views,
and thus proves how false were the ideas of those who
regarded him as a supporter of Fox. "As a profes-
sional man," he writes from his chambers in the
Temple, "it is of little consequence of which party a
man is, but I believe it to be better to be of none at
all; and as a politician, when I shall arrive (as I
purpose doing at some time or other) at that honour-
able character, I cannot but think it would be of
George Canning and his Times," by A. G. Stapleton, p. 7.
(C
CANNING.
79
<<
some credit and advantage to be perfectly free to
choose my own party..
You will, perhaps, be
somewhat surprised at hearing this language from
me, for I think it not unlikely that you are one of
those who may have conceived that there are some
ties stronger than those of mere habit and acquaint-
ance which connect me with certain individuals in
opposition. I will not now explain to you how and
why this is not so, but I will prove to you that it is
not so by a fact which, if you think me (as I sup-
pose you do think me) a man of honour, will be
much more convincing than any explanation that
is, by assuring you that were I at this present moment
of consequence enough to make my opinion and sup-
port of any worth and consideration, in plain words,
were I (where I some time hope to be) in Parliament,
my support and opinion would go with Mr. Pitt."
Nothing," remarks Mr. Hookham Frere,* "was
more natural or less needing explanation than Can-
ning's early adhesion to Pitt. As schoolboys, while
I was by association a Tory and by inclination a
Pittite, Canning, by family connection and association
was a Whig, or rather a Foxite. This was, I believe,
almost the only point on which our boyish opinions
in those days very materially differed; but it did
not prevent our being great friends, and I am sure
* "Memoirs of John Hookham Frere," vol. i. p. 26.
80
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
•
that a young man of Canning's views and feelings
entering Parliament at such a time could not long
have been kept in opposition to Pitt. Canning's
uncle and guardian was a Whig, and at his house
Canning met most of the leaders of the Whigs, and
they were not slow in recognising his ability, and
tried to attach him to their party. It showed Can-
ning's sagacity, as well as his high spirit and confi-
dence in himself, that he determined to take his own
line and judge for himself. When I went to see him
at Oxford he showed me a letter he had received
from Mrs. C, whose husband was a great Whig
leader. It enclosed a note from the Duke of Port-
land, offering to bring Canning into Parliament. The
offer was a very tempting one to so young a man.
But Canning refused it, and he told me his reason.
'I think,' he said, 'there must be a split. The
Duke will go over to Pitt, and I will go over in no
man's train. If I join Pitt I will go by myself.""
[This prediction was, we know, fulfilled by the "split
amongst the Whigs upon the question of the French
Revolution, and the consequent transfer of the alle-
giance of Portland, Windham, Burke, and others from
Fox to Pitt.] ". . . . He had much more in common
with Pitt than any one else about him, and his love
for Pitt was quite filial, and Pitt's feeling for him was
more that of a father than a mere political leader.”
"
CANNING.
81
Thus we see that Canning, at a time when he had
no idea of the intention of Pitt to introduce him into
parliamentary life, was opposed to the principles of
Fox and Grey, and was a Whig only as Burke, who
afterwards gave in his adherence to the Prime
Minister, was a Whig, whilst he openly avows that
should the opportunity ever arrive when he should
have to decide under which leader he was to serve,
his "support and opinion would go with Mr. Pitt.”
A plainer or more satisfactory refutation of the
charge of political apostasy cannot exist.
During the first three years that Canning was in
Parliament he took very little part in the debates.
His first speech was a failure, and he, it was said, by
the advice of Pitt remained silent for some time, in
order to become familiar with the House of Com-
mons. Yet he was not idle. Shortly after embrac-
ing politics as a profession, he connected himself
with a paper, edited by Gifford, called the Anti-
Jacobin. To a man of Canning's culture and social
predilections, who, from the nature of his brilliant
talents and past associations, had lived much among
the higher classes, the levelling tendencies of the
French Revolution and the atrocities of the Sanscu-
lottes were all that was abominable. It was a saying
of his that a republican and a fool were synonymous
terms. To combat with the keen weapons of satire
VOL. II.
G
82
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and ridicule the communistic principles which the
French Revolution had made popular among certain
of our countrymen, the Anti-Jacobin was started,
and many of its most pungent articles flowed from
the pen of Canning. The first number of this
famous publication appeared on November 7, 1797;
the thirty-sixth and last on July 9, 1798.*
Who is there that has not read "The Friend of
Humanity and the Knife-Grinder "—that exquisite
parody on the philanthropy which ever attributes the
condition of the poor to the oppression of the rich,
and never to the vice and misconduct of the pauper?
<<
FRIEND OF HUMANITY.
Needy knife-grinder! whither are you going?
Rough is the road, your wheel is out of order-
Bleak blows the blast;—your hat has got a hole in't,
So have your breeches!
"Weary knife-grinder! little think the proud ones,
Who in their coaches roll along the turnpike
Road, what hard work 'tis crying all day 'Knives and
Scissors to grind O!'
"Tell me, knife-grinder, how came you to grind knives?
Did some rich man tyrannically use you?
Was it the squire ? or parson of the parish?
Or the attorney?
"
* The publication of the Anti-Jacobin was discontinued at the direct
instance of Pitt, "from an apprehension not under the circumstances
at all unreasonable, that the satirical spirit to which so much of the
success of the Anti-Jacobin was due might in the long run prove a
less manageable and discriminating ally than a party leader would
desire."-Memoirs of John Hookham Frere, vol. i. p. 43.
CANNING.
83
"Was it the squire, for killing of his game? or
Covetous parson, for his tythes distraining?
Or roguish lawyer, made you spend your little
All in a lawsuit ?
66
(C
(Have you not read the 'Rights of Man,' by Tom Paine ?)
Drops of compassion tremble on my eye-lids,
Ready to fall, as soon as you have told your
Pitiful story."
KNIFE-GRINDER.
Story! God bless you! I have none to tell, sir,
Only last night a drinking at the Chequers,
This poor old hat and breeches, as you see, were
Torn in a scuffle.
"Constables came up for to take me into
Custody; they took me before the justice;
Justice Oldmixon put me in the parish
Stocks for a vagrant.
"I should be glad to drink your honour's health in
A pot of beer, if you will give me sixpence;
But for my part, I never love to meddle
With politics, sir."
FRIEND OF HUMANITY.
"I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first-
Wretch! whom no sense of wrongs can rouse to vengeance-
Sordid, unfeeling, reprobate, degraded,
""
Spiritless outcast!
[Kicks the knife-grinder, overturns his wheel, and exit in a transport
of republican enthusiasm and universal philanthropy.]
How keenly too is mocked the despotic and ill-
conditioned austerity of republicanism in the "In-
scription for the door of the cell in Newgate where Mrs.
Brownrigg, the prenticide, was confined previous to
her execution"-a parody upon Southey's inscription
84
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
for the apartment in Chepstow Castle, where Henry
Martin, the regicide, was imprisoned !—
Nov. 20, 1797.
For one long term, or e'er her trial came,
Here Brownrigg linger'd. Often have these cells
Echoed her blasphemies, as with shrill voice
She screamed for fresh Geneva. Not to her
Did the blithe fields of Tothill, or thy street,
St. Giles, its fair varieties expand;
Till at the last, in slow-drawn cart, she went
To execution. Dost thou ask her crime?
She whipp'd two female 'prentices to death,
And hid them in the coal-hole. For her mind
Shaped strictest plans of discipline. Sage schemes!
Such as Lycurgus taught, when at the shrine
Of the Orthyan goddess he bade flog
The little Spartans; such as erst chastised
Our Milton when at college. For this act
Did Brownrigg swing. Harsh laws! But time shall come
When France shall reign, and laws be all repeal'd!
"The
The New Morality" is the masterpiece of the
Anti-Jacobin, and with the exception of a few lines,
the whole of it was contributed by Canning.
reader," writes a careful and judicial critic on the
literary remains of George Canning,
"who comes
fresh from Dryden or Pope, or even Churchill, will
be disappointed on finding far less variety of images,
sparkling antithesis, or condensed brilliancy of ex-
pression. The author exhibits abundant humour and
eloquence, but comparatively little wit; if there be
any truth in Sydney Smith's doctrine that the
P
* Edinburgh Review, 1858, No. 219.
(C
*
C
CANNING.
85
feeling of wit is occasioned by those relations of ideas
which excite surprise, and surprise alone.' We are
commonly prepared for what is coming, and our
admiration is excited rather by the justness of the
observations, the elevation of the thoughts, and the
vigour of the style, than by a startling succession of
flashes of fancy. If, as we believe, the same might
be said of Juvenal, and the best of his English imita-
tors, Johnson, we leave ample scope for praise; and
"New Morality" contains passages which have been
preserved to our time, and bid fair to reach posterity,
by their poetry and truth." How often are the lines
on Candour quoted in entire ignorance or forgetful-
ness of their author-
"Much may be said on both sides."-Hark, I hear
A well-known voice that murmurs in my ear,-
The voice of CANDOUR.-Hail! most solemn sage,
Thou drivelling virtue of this moral age,
CANDOUR, which softens party's headlong rage.
CANDOUR, which spares its foes; nor e'er descends
With bigot zeal to combat for its friends.
CANDOUR,-which loves in see-saw strain to tell
Of acting foolishly, but meaning well;
Too nice to praise by wholesale, or to blame,
Convinced that all men's motives are the same;
And finds, with keen discriminating sight,
BLACK's not so black ;-nor WHITE so very white.
"Fox, to be sure, was vehement and wrong:
But then, PITT's words, you'll own, were rather strong.
Both must be blamed, both pardon'd; 'twas just so
With Fox and PITT full forty years ago!
So WALPOLE, PULTENEY;-factions in all times
Have had their follies, ministers their crimes."
-
86
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Give me th' avow'd, th' erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet-perhaps may turn his blow;
But of all plagues, good Heav'n, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh! save me from the Candid Friend!
Nor is the prose of the Anti-Jacobin less keen
and humorous than its poetry. How deliciously
are the egotism of Erskine and the republicanism of
Mackintosh, under the name of Macfungus, caricatured
in the pretended report-evidently inspired by
Tickell's "Anticipation"-of a meeting of the
Friends of Freedom at the Crown and Anchor
Tavern! At this meeting Erskine is made to end
his speech with the following peroration :
"Mr. Erskine concluded by recapitulating, in a
strain of agonizing and impressive eloquence, the
several more prominent heads of his speech :—He had
been a soldier and a sailor, and had a son at Win-
chester School-he had been called by special re-
tainers, during the summer, into many different and
distant parts of the country-travelling chiefly in
post-chaises—he felt himself called upon to declare
that his poor faculties were at the service of his
country—of the free and enlightened part of it at
least he stood here as a man- he stood in the eye,
indeed in the hand, of God-to whom (in the pre-
sence of the company and waiters) he solemnly ap-
pealed he was of noble, perhaps royal, blood-he
had a house at Hampstead-was convinced of the
CANNING.
87
necessity of a thorough and radical reform-his
pamphlet had gone through thirty editions, skipping
alternately the odd and even numbers-he loved the
Constitution, to which he would cling and grapple-
and he was clothed with the infirmities of man's
nature—he would apply to the present French rulers
(particularly Barras and Reubel) the words of the
poet-
'Be to their faults a little blind;
Be to their virtues very kind,
Let all their ways be unconfined,
And clap the padlock on their mind!'
And for these reasons, thanking the gentlemen who
had done him the honour to drink his health, he
should propose 'Merlin, the late Minister of Justice
and Trial by Jury!'"
Mackintosh, after having delivered a glowing
sketch of the Temple of Freedom, which is to be
erected on the ruins of all ancient institutions, is
thus made to proceed—
"There our infants shall be taught to lisp in
tender accents the Revolutionary Hymn-there with
wreaths of myrtle and oak and poplar and vine and
olive and cypress and ivy; with violets and roses
and daffodils and dandelions in our hands, we will
swear respect to childhood and manhood and old age
and virginity and womanhood and widowhood; but,
above all, to the Supreme Being.
88
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
"These prospects, fellow-citizens, may possibly be
deferred. The Machiavelism of Governments may
for the time prevail, and this unnatural and execrable
contest may yet be prolonged; but the hour is not
far distant; persecution will only serve to accelerate
it, and the blood of patriotism, streaming from the
severing axe, will call down vengeance on our
oppressor in a voice of thunder. I expect the con-
test, and I am prepared for it. I hope I shall never
shrink, nor swerve, nor start aside, wherever duty
and inclination may place me. My services, my life
itself, are at your disposal-whether to act or to
suffer, I am yours-with Hampden in the field, or
with Sidney on the scaffold. My example may be
more useful to you than my talents; and this head
may, perhaps, serve your cause more effectually, if
placed on a pole upon Temple Bar, than if it was
occupied in organizing your committees, in preparing
your revolutionary explosions, and conducting your
correspondence.'
"Ridicule," said Lord Chesterfield, "though not
founded upon truth, will stick for some time, and, if
thrown by a skilful hand, perhaps for ever." In stem-
ming the tide of republicanism in England, in expo-
sing its false and unhealthy philosophy, and in warn-
ing the nation of the dangers which truth, morality,
and civilisation would incur from the introduction of
CANNING.
89
revolutionary tenets, the squibs and satires of the
Anti-Jacobin were of no contemptible assistance to
the Government of the day. The only regret ex-
pressed by Canning in after-life in connection with
the paper, was not that he had been a contributor, but
that he had not taken more pains with his articles.
In the spring of 1796 Canning was appointed
Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, with Lord Gran-
ville for his Chief. He entered upon his duties at
one of the most exciting moments in history.
Everywhere the ambition of Buonaparte had been
fired to fresh efforts by success. Belgium, Holland,
Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sardinia, had all to own
their subjection to the greatest military genius the
world has ever seen. Aware of the power attached
to his name, Buonaparte now determined to make a
bold stroke for the supreme government of the State.
He dissolved the Directory; he shut up the Council
of Elders, whilst his soldiers expelled the Council of
Five Hundred from their chamber of assembly.
These truly Cromwellian proceedings ended, a Con-
sulate of Three was established, of which Buona-
parte was in reality the supreme head. Thus the
vaunted principles of Jacobinism, which had been
pressed upon almost every Government in Europe
at the point of the sword, had been weighed in the
balance, and been found wanting they had been
90
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tried and had failed. The boasted doctrines of
Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity, which were to re-
generate the world, had resulted in oppression, confis-
cation, wholesale bloodshed, and the establishment of
a military despotism. Buonaparte, "the child and
champion of Jacobinism," had dealt his parent a
deadly blow.
To Canning this complete collapse of the prin-
ciples of the Revolution-a collapse he had so
frequently predicted in the pages of the Anti-
Jacobin was hailed with boisterous delight.
"Huzza! huzza! huzza!" he writes to his friend
Lord Boringdon,* "for no language but that of
violent, and tumultuous, and triumphant exclama-
tion can sufficiently describe the joy and satisfaction
which I feel at this complete overthrow and extinc-
tion of all the hopes of the proselytes to new prin-
ciples. Buonaparte, an apostate from the cause of
liberty-Buonaparte, the avowed tyrant of his
country, is an object to be contemplated with en-
thusiasm—to be held up to the admiration and grati-
tude of mankind. . . No! no! it is the thorough
destruction of the principles of exaggerated liberty
-it is the lasting ridicule thrown upon all systems
of democratic equality—it is the galling conviction
carried home to the minds of all the brawlers for
* " George Canning and his Times," p. 43.
CANNING.
91
freedom in this and every other country, that there
never was, nor will be, nor can be, a leader of a mob
faction, who does not mean to be the lord and not
the servant of the people. It is this that makes the
name of Buonaparte dear to me-this his one act
has done, let him conduct himself as he may here-
after; let him be a general, or a legislator, or a
monarch, or a captive, crowned or beheaded, it is all
the same for this purpose. Buonaparte may flourish,
but the idol of Jacobinism is no more.'
<<
""
So highly did Pitt estimate Canning's abilities that
it is probable he would have been promoted to the
post of Secretary of State for the Home Department
had not the obstinacy of the King with regard to
the Catholic Question forced the Premier to send in
his resignation. On the withdrawal of Pitt from the
Cabinet, Canning, in spite of the urgent request of
the Prime Minister that he should continue in his
office, at once followed the example of his Chief.
When Addington became Prime Minister," writes
Mr. Frere,* "Pitt wanted Canning to remain in
office; but such was Canning's contempt for the
whole set and his dislike to the Peace of Amiens,
that nothing would induce him to do so, though his
refusal led to a temporary coolness with Pitt. I
have no doubt Pitt foresaw what would happen. He
"Memoirs of John Hookham Frere," vol. i. p. 54.
92
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
did not wish to have to make the peace which was in-
evitable, and knew he must come in again soon after
it was made; and he wished, on his return, to find
Canning in office, where he might have retained him
(without difficulty from his aristocratic supporters),
but Canning would not let him."
To a man of Canning's sense of humour, with his
warm devotion to Pitt, his strong patriotic feelings,
and his appreciation of the dangers to be anticipated
from France, the accession to power of Henry
Addington, the son of the first Lord Chatham's con-
fidential physician, aroused all the wit and scorn in
his nature. That a man who was the very incarna-
tion of mediocrity should be the successor of the
brilliant Pitt,
Pitt, that the
that the destinies of England
at a time of great gravity should be intrusted
to such hands, that such a Minister should be
the statesman to cope with the ambition and
power of Napoleon, were monstrous. "Pitt is to
Addington," he cried, "what London is to Pad-
dington.' "Of his fitness to be Minister," he writes
to his friend, "Lord help us all! Never was a
more unfortunate event for the country than his
being placed there." He stigmatized the Treaty of
Amiens as "this most disgraceful and calamitous
treaty of peace," and declared that he would have
rather cut off his right hand than have signed it.
CANNING.
93
Because Addington refused to give way to Pitt
when he was required, because Addington declined to
be made a tool of, because from the respect shown
him by the King and from his following in the
House of Commons he had at last been led to
imagine that he held his high position by virtue of
his statesmanship and abilities, because he acted as
nine men out of ten would have acted, the vials
of Canning's wrath and satire were to descend in one
continuous bitter flow upon his persecuted head.
During the two years of the Addington Administra-
tion the pen of Canning was incessant in its ridicule
of the Doctor. From the full quiver of his satire let
us select a few barbed arrows.
MODERATE MEN AND MODERATE MEASURES.
[A song sung at Apothecaries' Hall, April 1, 1803, at the celebration
of the Anniversary of the Definitive Treaty.]
Praise to placeless proud ability,
Let the prudent muse disclaim;
And sing the statesman-all civility-
Whom moderate talents raise to fame.
He, no random project urging,
Makes in wild alarms to feel;
With moderate measures gently purging
Ills that prey on Britain's weal.
CHORUS.
Gently purging,
Gently purging,
Gently purging Britain's weal.
Addington, with measur'd motion,
Keep the tenour of thy way;
To glory yield no rash devotion,
Led by luring lights astray;
94
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Splendid talents are deceiving,
Tend to councils much too bold;
Moderate men we prize, believing
All that glitters is not gold.
GRAND CHORUS.
All that glitters,
All that glitters,
All that glitters is not gold.
THE DOCTOR: AN ODE.
SCENE-Treasury Chambers.
"I do remember an apothecary,—
And hereabouts he dwells."-Romeo.
Doctor! Doctor! what doses! narcotic, emetic,
Diuretic, cathartic, or diaphoretic;
What injections, or lotions,
Plasters, powders, or potions;
What decoctions, what blisters, what clysters, what pills,
What bark, rhubarb, or senna, salts, manna, or squills,
Can retrieve your poor country's deplorable case,
Her destruction avert, or repair her disgrace?
When with gait consequential and dignified pace,
You were strutting behind little C-
´s mace;
When you mov'd to the chair,
With so solemn an air,
When your looks were so pompous, important, and dull,
When your gown was so ample, your wig was so full;
With what rapture we own'd as the farce we survey'd,
That the chair and the Speaker of one block were made.
But, dear Doctor! this case is quite out of your line!
Though with Hob-'s or Hawkey's your wisdom you join;
Though you prate and debate,
About matters of State,
With V-t and H-vy, and H-y, and B-ge,*
You've surrender'd our conquests, dishonour'd our flug,
You've disbanded our army, dismantled our fleet!
And in vain su'd for peace at the Corsican's feet!
Yet as adverse ingredients in nostrums are found,
These low deeds with high words you still love to compound,
* Vansittart, Hervey, Hiley, Bragge.
CANNING.
95
Where so mingled appear
Both your pride and your fear,
That no mortal can guess what the truth of the fact is,
Oh! quit thee your patient or alter your practice ;
Little peace can she hope for, small respite or ease,
While she takes your prescriptions, and you take her fees.
MORE OF THE DOCTOR.
Old Rome in times of danger sought
Dictators from the plough,
And prosper'd; we in England take
A different practice now;
For when compell'd with Modern France
And Buonaparte to wrestle,
We borrow our Dictator from
The mortar and the pestle.
AN INSCRIPTION.
As sick in her cradle poor Britain was laid
Between two silly nurses that rock'd her,
O Pitt! she exclaim'd, prithee haste to my aid,
Or you see I shall die of the Doctor.
TO THE PEACEMAKER.
Ye bards attune your halcyon lays,
To Addington address your praise,
Who bade war's horrors cease;
Without the aid of wit, or parts,
And not a grain of statesman's arts,
This Premier gave us peace.
So have I seen a chimney blaze,
And dart around terrific rays;
But soon the sparks expire.
If 'midst the flames the bird of kings,
A goose, is dropp'd, with frighted wings
She flaps down smoke and fire.
THE NEW NORVAL.
My name's the Doctor: on the Berkshire hills
My father purg'd his patients-a wise man ;
Whose constant care was to increase his store,
96
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
t
And keep his eldest son-myself—at home.
But I had heard of politics, and long'd
To sit within the Commons' House, and get
A place and luck gave what my sire denied.
GOOD INTENTIONS.
[In the concluding lines of this poem how courteously Addington is
reminded that he is no conjuror, that he will not set the Thames
on fire, and that no one will credit him with the discovery of gun-
powder, although he is quite competent to rival "the feathered
saviour of the Capitol."]
""Twere best, no doubt, the truth to tell,
But still, good soul, he means so well !”
Others, with necromantic skill,
May bend men's passions to their will,
Raise with dark spells the tardy loan,
To shake the vaunting Consul's throne;
In thee no magic arts surprise,
No tricks to cheat our wondering eyes;
On thee shall no suspicion fall,
Of sleight of hand, or cup and ball;
E'en foes must own thy spotless fame,
Unbranded with a conjurer's name!
Ne'er shall thy virtuous thoughts conspire
To wrap majestic Thames in fire !
And if that black and nitrous grain,
Which strews the fields with thousands slain,
Slept undiscovered yet in earth—
Thou ne'er hadst caus'd the monstrous birth,
Nor aided (such thy pure intention)
That diabolical invention!
Hail then-on whom our State is leaning!
O Minister of mildest meaning!
Blest with such virtues to talk big on,
With such a head (to hang a wig on).
Head of wisdom-soul of candour-
Happy Britain's guardian gander,
To rescue from th' invading Gaul
Her "commerce, credit, capital!"
While Rome's great goose could save alone
One Capitol of senseless stone.
S
CANNING.
97
A PARALLEL.
6
"All the world has heard of the five promises' which Bonaparte
made, and all the world knows how he has broken them. Addington
has yet made but three ;-he promised his country continued peace, a
million surplus at the end of the year, and fifty sail to be ready within
one month in case of emergency. To do our Minister justice, he has
not deviated from his great example; for, though he has fallen short
in the number of his promises, it must be confessed he has broken those
he has made with all the religion of Bonaparte." *
Mordant and severe-many of them in the worst
taste as these squibs and epigrams were, we must
regard their discharge from the point of view of
Canning. Between safety and danger stood Adding-
ton; between genius and mediocrity stood Adding-
ton; between England's honour and dishonour stood
Addington. Addington had signed the peace which
had given Napoleon breathing time, and by which
England had been grossly deluded. A formidable
army was encamped at Boulogne with the avowed
intention of making a descent upon our coast, and
at such a critical time in our history an amiable
dullard stood at the helm of Government.
Pitt was
willing to return to power, but Addington, his head
turned by the position he occupied, declined to
resign; he deemed himself equal to the crisis; he
would have Pitt as a colleague, but not as a Chief.
He would not openly quarrel with Pitt for the course
* For these squibs see "Spirit of the Public Journals," vols. vii.
and viii.
VOL. II.
H
98
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the ex-Premier had pursued, nor would he resign and
set him at defiance; he trimmed and manoeuvred so
as to continue in office.
Thus everything that is bitter and ungenerous
in human nature was aroused in the breast of
Canning. He loved and admired Pitt with all the
warmth of his affectionate nature, yet he was forced
to see the object of his reverence ousted by one for
whom, as a statesman, he had the meanest contempt.
His patriotism as an Englishman was galled and
humbled at the welfare of his country put in jeopardy
by a feeble and incompetent Minister. And when
he saw this puppet of the hour, whom accident alone
had exalted to his high station, pompous, command-
ing, and giving himself the airs of one who has been
rightly summoned to govern a nation, his spite, his
humour, his invective knew no restraint, and declined
to be bridled.
On the other hand the apologists of the conduct
of Addington have good grounds for their defence.
On the resignation of Pitt, Addington succeeded, at
the request both of the King and of Pitt, to the post
of Prime Minister. Having fulfilled to the satisfac-
tion of the country the duties imposed upon him,
why, it was asked, should he resign to suit the views
of Pitt, and thus stamp himself as incompetent and
wanting in proper pride and self-respect? He would
CANNING.
MARRA
University
const int
W AND THE WANTED WAS ON THE
99
share the Government with Pitt, but he declined to
be regarded as a mere puppet acting according to the
will and the pleasure of the wire-puller, to be exalted
one moment, to be deposed the next. "This," his
friends said, "he could not do without degradation
-without in a certain sense proclaiming himself to
be unworthy of the position which he actually filled,
of the Royal favour and of the public confidence
which he undoubtedly enjoyed. No man could
expose himself voluntarily, and as yet under no
pressure of adverse circumstances, to such humi-
liation."
GENERAL LIBRARY
Nor, mediocrity though he was-nay, perhaps, as
the very consequence of his mediocrity-was it sur-
prising that he should regard himself as a statesman
competent to perform the duties intrusted to him.
He had given peace to the country. He was the con-
fidential friend of the King. The landed gentry
rallied round him. He was the leader of the Pro-
testant party in the nation. He had enhanced his
popularity by organizing the volunteer system.
Sneer as Canning might at the power and talent of
Addington, there can be no doubt but that he was
an important factor in the political system of his
day. When Pitt was restored to office the despised
Addington had a seat in the Cabinet, and when the
Grenville Administration succeeded to that of Pitt
100
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
•
still the support of Addington, "vile fellow" though
he was, could not be dispensed with.
*
Was he not bound then," writes Dean Milman to
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, who had passed some
severe strictures upon the character of Addington ;
"in justice to the King, in justice to himself, in
justice to his colleagues in the Cabinet, in justice to
his friends in the House and in the country, to
attempt to stand alone? He did attempt, and as far
as I can judge, not in a 'shabby,' but bold and manly
way. He failed, as it was inevitable that he should
fail, with such an array against him-Pitt, Fox, Lord
Grenville, Windham, Sheridan, Canning with but
few supporters as debaters in the Commons of weight
and power; with what, I suspect, was but the dubious
aid of Eldon, and some others in the Lords; and what
I admit in the fullest manner his own inferiority, I
believe his conscious inferiority in debate. Having
made the attempt, finding his majority diminishing
as a Constitutional Minister ought to do and must
do, he resigned. He resigned without conditions,
without afterthought of his own interests; he left
the field clear and open for Mr. Pitt."
On the death of Pitt, Canning remained out of
office until the formation of the Portland Administra-
tion in 1807, consequent upon Lord Grenville's refusal
*"Administrations," p. 276.
CANNING.
101
to pledge himself to abandon all ideas of concession
to the Roman Catholics. In this Cabinet Canning
held the seals as Foreign Secretary, his brother
secretaries being Lord Hawkesbury as Home Secre-
tary, and Lord Castlereagh as the War Secretary. .
It needed a bold and far-sighted mind to steer
England then through the stormy seas of European
politics, and the brilliant Foreign Secretary was the
right man in the right place. He held that England
was a country not only to be respected but to be
feared; that when she had pledged her word, either
by treaty or convention, to carry out what she had
promised, no selfish interests should stay her proceed-
ings, and that with the advantages of her position,
the strength of her fleet, and the bravery of her
men, she was a Power that none dare despise. Proud
of his country, he was resolved, so far as the respon-
sibility rested upon his shoulders, that the British
Empire should never be sacrificed for the pettier ob-
jects of the island. With a lofty scorn for the ideas
of the Manchester school, and of certain scheming
politicians of the present day, who would wish Eng-
land to be merely an island and not an empire-the
Imperial on every occasion to give place to the Insular
-Canning maintained that, though by our geo-
graphical position we were happily severed from
many of the dangers that menace Continental nations,
102
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
yet our welfare as a great colonial power was so in-
timately connected with European politics, that in
seasons of crisis we could only retire from inter-
ference at the expense not only of our prestige, but
of our safety. Yet, his policy, spirited and patriotic
though it was, was never aggressive; it was far-
seeing, it was resolute, it was loyal, but it had nothing
of the bluster and shuffling of the bully in its cha-
racter. When he penned a State Paper respecting
the attitude of England during certain grave moments
of political action, it was known at every European
embassy that the Foreign Secretary would be as good
as his word; what he had pledged himself to support
he would maintain; what he had threatened would
take place, and at his bidding fleets would sweep the
seas, and regiments be ordered to the front to carry
out his resolve. No man more deprecated war than
he; no man more despised the degrading doctrine of
(C
peace at any price."
His dauntless policy was soon to be called into
action. The break-up of the confederacy against
Napoleon caused by the victory of Austerlitz left the
French Emperor master of Europe. Prussia was
well-nigh at her last gasp. Russia, with a Turkish
war on her hands, had to cope singly against the all-
conquering foe. The battle of Friedland made the
Muscovite sue for mercy, and the Treaty of Tilsit
CANNING.
103
ensued. Among the secret articles of this treaty
was one agreeing that France should seize the fleet
of Denmark then lying in the waters of Copenhagen.
A spy brought the intelligence to Canning, and the
Foreign Secretary at once proceeded to act as became
a "great commanding spirit" superior to the com-
mon-place measures of mediocrity. Should this
secret article be carried out Canning knew that the
position of England would be one of extreme danger.
The union of the fleets of France, Spain, and Den-
mark would create a naval force which would strain
the resources of Great Britain to the utmost to resist
effectually. With the whole of Europe against her,
England could ill afford to see her maritime supre-
macy imperilled, and the rich convoys of her mer-
chantmen the prizes of foreign privateers. At all
hazards the Foreign Secretary resolved to defeat the
underhand tactics of Napoleon.
Adde
It was true that England was at peace with Den-
mark, but the Danes had already exhibited signs of
hostility to British interests, which did not augur well
for our future should France be allowed to menace
Copenhagen. Against the demands either of France
or England, Denmark alone was powerless to resist.
If France requested the Danes to deliver their fleet
into her hands, the Danish Government would be
incapable of offering anything approaching to effec-
104
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tual opposition. Nor would she be a whit less de-
fenceless if England were to make the same demand.
The possession of the Danish fleet thus resolved
itself into the simple question of priority of claim.
Was France to make the demand before England, or
England before France? Canning determined to be
the first in the field. Without loss of time a power-
ful force was sent to Copenhagen, ordering Denmark
to surrender her fleet, to be returned uninjured at
the conclusion of a peace; and the Danes bombarded
by British guns had no alternative but to obey. This
high-handed, yet statesman-like act gave rise to
several motions in the House of Commons, censuring
both the necessity and the policy of the measure, but
in every division the Government obtained a large
majority. Napoleon was perfectly paralyzed at the
turn events had taken. Fouché writes that "
never saw the Emperor in such a violent rage; he
was completely stunned by the promptitude of the
resolution of the English Minister in carrying out
this vigorous coup de main." As became a French-
man, who never will admit that he has been defeated
or outwitted by the virtue of superiority, Napoleon at
once declared that he had been betrayed. The Gaul
is never beaten, but always betrayed.
"he
Ever foiled in his movements by the diplomacy of
England, Napoleon now determined upon a bitter
CANNING.
105
retaliation. He had abandoned all ideas of invading
England; he had no opportunity of meeting English
troops; the only course open for him was if possible
to ruin the maritime supremacy of Great Britain by
the destruction of British commerce. The well-
known "Berlin and Milan Decrees" were issued,
prohibiting all along the coast of Europe the intro-
duction of merchandise from this country. The
British Government at once replied to this attack by
the circulation of the celebrated "Orders in Council,"
with which Canning identified himself, forbidding
goods passing to the Continent by any other course.
Thus the result of these retaliatory measures was to
cause the ports of Europe to be guarded by soldiers
who were to enforce the "Decrees," whilst English
ships swept the seas to carry out the "Orders." The
wisdom of this policy led to much cavil and criticism
at the time, but our Foreign Secretary was above the
hesitating tactics of ordinary men. It was a season
of crisis, and his commanding spirit was true to his
maxim of "Men, not Measures." He saw that the
interests of England were at stake, and, coûte que
coûte, he was resolved that her commerce should not
be crippled, nor neutral states increase the power of
France by bringing goods into her ports. Very
speedily all mercantile ships, save those of Great
Britain and the United States, disappeared from off
106
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the face of the ocean, and in the hands of England
was the monopoly of the navigation of the world.
So far the policy of the Portland Adminis-
tration had met with the support of the House of
Commons and the approval of the country, but the
course now to be adopted by the Government led to
no little difference of opinion in the public mind.
South of the Pyrenees Napoleon, mad with the lust
of conquest, was busy with his wily machinations.
Under the pretence of defending the Iberian penin-
sula from the English, he marched large forces into
Spain, passed strong detachments from his main body
through the country and occupied Portugal. In the
autumn of 1807 Lisbon was held by Junot, and the
House of Bragança was compelled to seek shelter in
Brazil. A few months later Murat entered Madrid,
the old King, Charles IV., was deposed, and his son
Ferdinand VII. was called to the throne. But the
reign of Ferdinand was brief. He had succeeded to
the sceptre in the March of 1808; in the May of
the same year he was ordered to abdicate, and Murat
was declared Viceroy; then, in the following June,
Murat himself had to retire from his lieutenancy of
the Spanish Monarchy, and Joseph Buonaparte was
proclaimed King.
To a proud and passionate people these dictatorial
proceedings of Napoleon were met with a sudden vin-
CANNING.
107
cedes the explosion.
dictiveness that was but the murmuring which pre-
Throughout the Peninsula the
name of a Frenchman was hated with the hate of the
weak who have had to submit to the strong, with
the hate of subjection made all the more bitter by
the arrogance, cruelty, and contempt of the con-
queror. A rising was effected against the invader.
Juntas, as the local centres of the national insurrec-
tion were called, were created throughout the country.
The patriotic flame burst forth in Asturia. From this
province the insurrection spread into Galicia, and
into several districts of Leon. An assembly con-
vened at Oviedo published a formal declaration of
war against the French Government. The French
fleet was seized at Cadiz by the Spaniards, and a co-
operation with the English fleet established. Deputies
were sent to England to petition assistance and to
excite the popular feeling in favour of the resisting
party. The prayer was immediately acceded to, and
a proclamation issued by the King stating that Great
Britain was at peace with the Spanish nation, and
war was declared against Buonaparte. Then followed
the battle of Baylen, and the flight of Joseph from
Madrid to Burgos.
As soon as the news of the Spanish rising reached
England, the greatest enthusiasm prevailed in favour
of the patriotic party. Jealousies, antipathies,
108
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
national suspicions were all at once forgotten, and
Spain was remembered no longer as the foe of Eng-
land, but as the Power fighting for liberty and exist-
ence against the arch-aggressor of Europe.
To no
one was the resistance of the Spanish patriots more
warmly welcome than to Canning. From his place
in the House of Commons he supported the move-
ment in the name of the Cabinet, and declared that
..
His Majesty's Ministers saw with the deepest and
liveliest interest the noble struggle which a part of
the Spanish nation was making to resist the unex-
ampled atrocity of France, and to preserve the inde-
pendence of their country, and that they had the
strongest disposition to afford every practical aid in
a contest so magnanimous. . . . In endeavouring to
afford this aid it would never occur to them to con-
sider that a state of war may exist between Spain
and Great Britain. We shall proceed," he cried,
upon the principle that any nation of Europe that
starts up with a determination to oppose a Power
which, whether professing insidious peace or declar-
ing open war, is the common enemy of all nations,
whatever may be the existing political relations of
that nation with Great Britain, becomes instantly
our essential ally. We shall have three objects in
view; the first, to direct the efforts of the two
countries against the common foe; the second, to
((
CANNING.
109
direct those efforts as shall be most beneficial to the
new ally; the third, to direct them in a manner con-
ducive peculiarly to British interests. But of these
objects the last will be out of the question as com-
pared with the other two."*
This manly declaration of the Foreign Secretary was
cordially re-echoed by the nation, and no time was lost
in carrying out the intentions it expressed. Sir Arthur
Wellesley, whose military talents were now giving
promise of the full glory they afterwards obtained,
sailed from Cork at the head of an expeditionary
force. The victories of Roliça and Vimiera led to
the strongly disapproved of Convention of Cintra,
by which the French army agreed to evacuate
Portugal. Still Napoleon had no intention of being
thus so easily checkmated. Marching at the head
of an immense army he invaded Spain, entered
Madrid, and replaced his brother on the throne.
Satisfied with his success he returned to Paris, leav-
ing his generals to complete the details of the cam-
paign. Everywhere the Spanish insurgents were de-
feated; the English forces were compelled to beat
a retreat; and on the death of Sir John Moore re-
embarked at Corunna for England.
The failure of the English expedition into Spain
* House of Commons, June 15, 1808. Quoted from "George Can-
ning and his Times," p. 155.
110
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
gave rise to much dissatisfaction at home. The sub-
ject came before the House of Commons, and the
Government narrowly escaped the condemnation of a
vote of censure. As is always the case when the
executive is considered by the public to have failed
in its duty, dissensions sprang up in the Cabinet,
and each Minister attributed the misconduct of the
war to his colleague. The Ministry," writes Mr.
Grenville, "when they speak in confidence, speak of
the English war in Spain as over; and each of the
Ministers begins to extend the circle of his confiden-
tial communications, which are full of complaints of
each other, and which announce, beyond all disguise,
the bad opinion they entertain of their own perma-
nence." "One hears much," writes Lord Grenville
on the same subject, "of the squabbles among the
Ministers, the usual consequence of embarrassments
and disgraces, which each labours (in such cases) to
throw upon his colleagues.'
""
To Canning the return of the expedition was
a grievous disappointment. He saw that the Iberian
Peninsula was the one territory in Europe where
the power of Napoleon might be effectually re-
sisted. Between the safety of England stood Spain.
Should the Emperor make himself the master of
Spain, all Europe would be at his feet, and our
Foreign Secretary feared that England might even
CANNING.
11 I
have to do battle for her individual existence
within the very precincts of her island home. It
was for this reason that his was almost the only voice
in the Cabinet, that was raised in favour of prosecut-
ing further hostilities against France in Spain. He
was among the first to recognise the splendid genius
of Sir A. Wellesley; and conscious of the fact that
England now possessed a general to whose hands her
forces could be intrusted, he did not rest until he
had secured the re-appointment of the future Duke
to the command of the British army in Portugal.
He refused to admit, what was heard on all sides,
that our support of the Spanish cause was a mis-
take, and should be abandoned. "Even if the ship
in which we are embarked," he cried, "is sinking, it
is our duty to struggle against the boisterous ele-
ments; but I can never acknowledge that such is
our state; we are riding proudly and nobly, buoyant
on the waves. When the great general was
hampered by the Opposition at home, and adverse
criticisms on his military tactics were being freely in-
dulged in, it was Canning, and Canning alone, who rose
up to defend and praise the absent soldier. We know
how the prophecies of our brilliant Foreign Secretary
were fulfilled; and we also know how the Iron Duke
repaid the support and fidelity of his protector.
* Jan. 31, 1809.-" George Canning and his Times," p. 168.
112
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
As
Taking advantage of the insurrection in the Penin-
sula, Austria thought the moment opportune to
declare war against Napoleon and enlist in a struggle
for the recovery of her conquered dominions.
soon as the views entertained at Vienna became
known at St. James's, the English Government re-
solved to divert the French arms by an expedition
to the Scheldt, especially as Napoleon was attempt-
ing to convert Antwerp and Flushing into great
naval depôts. Under the command of Lord Chatham
and Sir Richard Strahan, a force of forty thousand
men with thirty-seven sail of the line was dispatched
to the Scheldt. Owing to the utter incompetence of
the two commanders the expedition proved singu-
larly unsuccessful: marsh fever broke out amongst
the English troops and compelled them to withdraw
into the island of Walcheren, but as the mortality
continued to increase, orders were issued for the
evacuation of the island, and before the Christmas of
1809 the entire force had embarked. Such was the
notorious Walcheren expedition, which cost the
country twenty millions, wasted seven thousand lives,
and failed in accomplishing a single object for which
it was intended.
On the return of this expedition the memorable
quarrel between Canning and Lord Castlereagh en-
sued. For some months past Canning had arrived
CANNING.
113
at the conclusion that Lord Castlereagh was unequal
to the responsibilities of the War Department. The
Convention of Cintra, the superseding of Sir Arthur
Wellesley at Vimiera, the failure of the expedition
under Sir John Moore, were all attributed by Can-
ning to the injudicious counsels of the Secretary at
War. He had, therefore, felt himself bound to
write to the Duke of Portland to the effect that
unless a change was made in the War Department
he should deem it his duty to retire from the public.
service. The change that he desired should take
place was the substitution of Lord Wellesley for Lord
Castlereagh as Secretary for War.
"The great
object," writes the Prime Minister to Lord Eldon,
"and indeed the sine qua non with Canning, is to
take from Lord Castlereagh the conduct of the war ;
and perhaps Canning may go so far as to wish that
he may not keep the seals, but have some other
Cabinet office. But if Lord Castlereagh gives up
the War Department, I think Canning would be
satisfied for the present at least."
A series of negotiations now ensued between the
Duke of Portland and Canning, and as the Prime
Minister had no wish to weaken his Administra-
tion by accepting the resignation of his brilliant
Foreign Secretary, it was finally agreed that Lord
Castlereagh should retire and be succeeded at the
VOL. II.
Ι
•
114
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
War Office by Lord Wellesley. Accordingly Lord
Camden, who was related by marriage to Lord
Castlereagh, was instructed by the Duke to inform
the Secretary at War of the decision that had been
arrived at. Lord Camden, however, being unwilling
to lay this unpleasant intelligence before his
relative, kept the matter to himself, intending to
make the necessary communication when a favour-
able opportunity presented itself. On the return
of the Walcheren expedition Canning requested
the Duke to fulfil his promise, and transfer the
seals from Lord Castlereagh to Lord Wellesley;
and it then transpired that Lord Camden had failed
to perform the duty intrusted him. At the same
time the Duke of Portland informed Canning that he
intended to retire from office, and that the King had
been pleased to appoint Mr. Perceval as his successor.
On the receipt of this news, the Foreign Secretary,
who considered that he had prior claims to Mr.
Perceval to be at the head of an administration, and
that his objections to Lord Castlereagh had been over-
ruled, at once sent in his resignation.
It was now that Lord Camden called upon his
relative and informed him of the nature of the
message he had been intrusted to deliver, and of the
opinions Canning had expressed upon the mismanage-
ment of the War Department. Lord Castlereagh,
CANNING.
115
considering that he had been virtually dismissed
from office without his knowledge, immediately re-
signed the seals and wrote to the ex-Foreign Secre-
tary to demand satisfaction. A hostile meeting was
arranged, the combatants aimed at each other, and
Canning was wounded in the leg, whilst a button
was shot off the coat of Lord Castlereagh.
Remembering that in the early part of the nine-
teenth century, the arbitration of the pistol or the
rapier was the accepted mode of avenging insult, it
is impossible to condemn Lord Castlereagh for the
course he pursued. He considered that he had been
the victim of a mean and underhand conspiracy.
He had met Canning at council after council of the
Cabinet, and yet had been allowed to remain in
ignorance of the charges preferred against him. He
had acted as the Chief of a great department whilst
in reality for weeks past the seals had been handed
over to another. He had dispatched the expedition
to the Scheldt, and yet in spite of the grave respon-
sibilities of his position, he had not been informed of
the change, that was not meditated, but decided upon.
He considered that both his official and personal hon-
our had been insulted, and that it was imperative upon
him to call out his traducer. Yet on examination the
quarrel between Lord Castlereagh and Canning is one
of those rare disputes in which both the parties are
116
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
right and neither is to blame for the differences that
ensued. It is true that Canning demanded either
that Lord Castlereagh should retire from the War
Office, or that he himself should be permitted to send
in his resignation. But he was no underhand plotter.
Throughout the affair he urged that no concealment
should be practised towards Lord Castlereagh; he
offered more than once to resign if it would in any
way facilitate disclosure, and up to a very late period
he was under the belief that Lord Camden had per-
formed the task intrusted to him, and that Lord
Castlereagh was aware of the change that had been
agreed to between the Duke of Portland and the
King. It however appears that Canning had been
unhappily misled by the Duke. "The truth is,
writes Mr. Stapleton, "the Duke of Portland, doubt-
less under a misapprehension, assured Mr. Canning
that the communication had actually been made to
Lord Castlereagh, and it was in reliance of the
correctness of the assurance that Mr. Canning was
contented to go on."
""
Thus Lord Castlereagh was led to believe that
he had been purposely kept in ignorance of the
alteration proposed by Canning, whilst Canning,
under the impression that Lord Castlereagh was
perfectly aware of the negotiations that had taken
place, continued to be his colleague in the
CANNING.
117
Cabinet until the seals should be transferred to
Lord Wellesley. Had Lord Castlereagh demanded
an explanation from Canning, and had Canning's
impetuosity of temperament granted it, no challenge
would in all probability have been sent.
"But easy
as it may be," writes Mr. Stapleton, "at this distance
of time to point out what might, or ought to, have
been done by both parties in accordance with the
more Christian views of this age on this subject,
yet if we could place ourselves exactly in the same
positions in which the principals were placed, we
should feel that great allowance ought to be made
for Lord Castlereagh's irritation, when the whole
transaction was disclosed to him, as well as for that
sensitiveness which made Mr. Canning's mind rebel
against offering explanations, when he was assailed
with what he knew to be unfounded accusations."
""
It has been asserted that in his endeavour to oust
Lord Castlereagh from the War Department, Canning
was influenced by motives purely of personal ambi-
tion. Aware that the failing health of the Duke of
Portland would soon break up the Cabinet, the
Foreign Secretary, it was said, was scheming to
succeed his Grace as Prime Minister, and the
removal of Lord Castlereagh would thus free him
*"Canning and his Times," p. 177. "Annual Register," 1809.
Sir G. C. Lewis's "Administrations," pp. 315, 316,
118
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
from the competition of a formidable rival. This,
however, is one of those spiteful assertions which
political malice so frequently loves to make against a
foe, but which, on inquiry, is at once proved to be
without the slightest foundation. In the first place
Canning did not request the withdrawal of Lord
Castlereagh from the Cabinet, but only that he
should retire from the War Department, consequently
if Lord Castlereagh were an obstacle to the ambition
of the Foreign Secretary, he would be equally an
obstacle whatever was the office he held. In the
second place if Canning was actuated by personal
motives in objecting to Lord Castlereagh, why should
he have sought to introduce into the Cabinet Lord
Wellesley, a statesman whose brilliant talents and
splendid powers of administration might well raise
him to the position of a formidable rival and
completely overshadow any claim that Lord Castle-
reagh might have urged to the post of Premier ?
The fact is that in the Portland Administration
Canning considered he had but one formidable
competitor for the Premiership, Mr. Perceval, yet
so far from intriguing against this colleague or
endeavouring to remove him from the leadership of
the House of Commons, he openly acknowledged
the high position occupied by Mr. Perceval, and
never attempted to conceal that it was not Lord
CANNING.
119
Castlereagh, it was not Lord Wellesley, but Mr.
Perceval alone who barred the way to his eleva-
tion as Chief of the Cabinet. Had Canning been the
selfish and interested adventurer his enemies allege,
he would have ignored Lord Castlereagh and em-
ployed all his efforts against the one who was in
very truth a formidable rival. That he was the
hostile critic of Lord Castlereagh and on excellent
terms with Mr. Perceval, is sufficient proof that in
objecting to the appointment of the Secretary at War
he was not actuated by personal ambition, but
simply by a sense of duty which compelled him
to move for the retirement of an incompetent
Minister.
Several years had now to elapse before Canning
occupied the same seat he had held in the Cabinet of
the Duke of Portland; but during those years he
did not cease to take a keen interest in public
affairs. Whilst Mr. Perceval was lamenting the
state of the finances, whilst a party in his Adminis-
tration was complaining that Talavera had been a
barren victory, and whilst the Whigs were disparaging
Lord Wellington and deprecating the necessity of
hostilities in the Peninsula, it was Canning who
vigorously supported the policy of Lord Wellesley,
his successor at the Foreign Office, and maintained,
throughout the dark hours of commercial depression
120
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and Cassandra forebodings, that since all was not lost
in Spain all could be retrieved. He had his reward
in the brilliant victories of the great general he so
warmly encouraged, and in the final overthrow of the
enemy of Europe at Waterloo.
On the assassination of Mr. Perceval, Canning
was offered the Foreign Office by Lord Liverpool,
who, on the failure of Lord Wellesley to form a
Ministry, had been installed as Premier, but he
refused the post on the ground that he declined
to serve under Lord Castlereagh, who as Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer was to lead the House
of Commons. In the autumn of 1814 he had
resolved to pass the winter at Lisbon on account of
the delicate health of his eldest son, and the Govern-
ment hearing of his intention pressed upon him
the appointment of Ambassador at Lisbon, which
he accepted. Upon this point in after-life Canning
said, “I consider my having accepted the Lisbon
Embassy as a great political mistake; in all proba-
bility I should have had the most influential post in
the Government in the House of Commons long before,
had I not fallen into that error. I laboured hard to
avoid accepting the appointment, but it was so urged
upon me by the King's Government, that I thought
I had not the moral right as a public man to refuse
it. If, therefore, the things were now with past
CANNING.
121
experience to be done over again, I should act the
same part, and conscious of right I must brave the
consequences.
" *
On his return to England Canning was appointed
President of the Board of Control with a seat in the
Cabinet, but resigned in 1821, owing to his refusal
to participate in the unhappy proceedings against
Queen Caroline. The wretched woman had placed
great confidence in the judgment of Canning, and
had frequently communicated with him on the sub-
ject of her own affairs; he therefore stated that it
was impossible for him to take any part in crimina-
tory proceedings against one towards whom he had
stood in so confidential a relation. During the trial
of the Queen he went abroad, but finding on his
return that the discussion respecting her Majesty in
the House of Commons would be so intermixed with
the general business of the Session, that he could
not absent himself without abandoning his parlia-
mentary duties, whilst on the other hand to be
present as a Minister, and yet to scrupulously avoid
the discussions that would ensue would so embarrass
himself and perplex his colleagues, that he felt he
had no alternative but to tender his resignation to
the King. The following year he came to the con-
clusion to seek a new career in the East, and even had
"George Canning and his Times," p. 210.
122
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
accepted the office of Governor-General of Bengal,
when the death of Lord Londonderry opened to him
the post of all others he most earnestly had desired,
the Secretaryship of State for Foreign Affairs with
the leadership of the House of Commons.
On resuming the seals of the Foreign Office,
Canning saw at once the policy that should be
adopted. As long as Napoleon had been the bug-
bear of Europe, any power that opposed him was
worthy of the cordial alliance of England, but now
the all-conquering Emperor had passed to his rest,
and the Continent no longer trembled at his name.
The cause which had led England to cast in her lot
with foreign nations being removed, Canning deter-
mined that unless British interests were affected by
any Continental complications, our island should hold
herself aloof from all disputes which did not imme-
diately concern her. The key-note of this policy was
struck in his speech to his constituents at Liverpool
before taking office.
((
'In the times in which we live," he said, "there
is (disguise it how we may) a struggle going on-
in some countries an open, in some a tacit struggle
-between the principles of monarchy and de-
mocracy. God be praised that in that struggle
we have not any part to take.
It is not
as it appears to me the duty of this country to
•
•
-
CANNING.
123
side either with the assailants when they aim at
too much, nor with those who stand upon the defen-
sive when they will grant nothing. England has
only to maintain herself on the basis of her own
solid and settled Constitution firm, unshaken-a
spectatress interested in the contest only by her
sympathies; not a partisan on either side but for
the sake of both, a model, and ultimately perhaps an
umpire. Should we be led by any false impulse of
chivalrous benevolence to participate in the struggle
itself, we commit, and thereby impair our authority ;
we abandon the position in which we might here-
after do most good, and may bring the danger of a
foreign struggle home to our own hearths, and to
our own institutions."
As he spoke to his supporters so he spoke to
the King. "The true position of your Majesty,"
he counsels, "in the existing shock of adverse
theories and extreme opinions is a neutral position;
neutral as much between conflicting principles
as between contending nations; and that it is
by preserving that position which belongs to your
Majesty alone among all the sovereigns of Europe,
that your Majesty will at once carry your own
people to the highest pitch of prosperity, and be best
enabled to save other countries from the dangers
which may threaten almost all of them in their
124
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
turn." In the Continental complications that came.
within his province, we see these views rigidly
carried out. He identified England with the cause
of constitutional reform. The Holy Alliance was
dissolved by the influence he exercised. When the
French invaded Spain to overthrow the Spanish
Constitution, it was through the vigilance of
Canning that the invasion which he was powerless
to prevent was confined alone to France. The
troops he dispatched to Lisbon averted the invasion
of Portugal by the Spaniards. In spite of the strongest
opposition from the King, from his colleagues in the
Cabinet, and from almost all Europe, he resisted the
efforts of France and Russia to assist Spain in the
recovery of her American possessions; and he recog-
nised the independence of the Spanish colonies on
the mainland of America as well as of Brazil. By the
Treaty of London, which was the result of Canning's
diplomacy, the liberation of Greece was finally
secured, and England united to France and Russia
for the emancipation of the Hellenic people. "No
English statesman of modern times," writes Sir
Cornewall Lewis, "has left on the Continent of
Europe a name so identified with a great and
generous policy as Canning."
With regard to the two great questions which
were then agitating politicians at home, Catholic
CANNING.
125
Emancipation and Parliamentary Reform, the views
of Canning were equally outspoken and decided.
He was strongly in favour of the removal of Roman
Catholic disabilities, and had taken, much to the
prejudice of himself,* an active part in endeavouring
to obtain their abolition. No one more rejoiced than
he that we had separated from the Church of Rome,
and had purified the doctrines and discipline of our
own Church from Papal glosses and corruptions; but
he failed to see that there was sufficient in the creed
of the Roman Catholic to justify Protestants in de-
nouncing Popery as incompatible with the discharge
of the duties of a good and loyal subject of the
State. He, therefore, considered the exclusion of the
Papist as unjust, and not to be persevered in. He
held that by Catholic Emancipation the discontent in
Ireland would cease, and that, therefore, it was not
only just but sound policy to press the Legislature to
pass the measure. That opinion he maintained
throughout his official life, and it is to his generous
* "To represent the university in which I was educated, formed,"
said Canning, "the first visions of my youthful ambition. Before that
object all others vanished into comparative insignificance. It was
desirable to me, beyond all the blandishments of power, beyond all the
rewards and favours of the Crown. I had a fair chance of accomplish-
ing this object when the Catholic Question crossed my way. I was
warned, fairly and kindly warned, that the adoption of that cause
would blast my prospect. I adhered to it, and forfeited all my long-
cherished hopes and expectations.”—George Canning_and_his_ Times,
p. 250.
126
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
efforts in their behalf that the Roman Catholics were
finally indebted for the removal of their disabilities.
Respecting the agitation in favour of Parlia-
mentary Reform, Canning took the opposite view.
He was emphatically the opponent of reform. He
held that a reform in the House of Commons, "on
the principle of general improvement," was neither
safe nor necessary. Mindful of the days when he
wrote in the Anti-Jacobin, he dreaded the invasion
of a democracy. "The so-called reformers," he said,
mean democracy, and nothing else; and give them
but a House of Commons constructed on their own.
principles, the Peerage and the Throne may exist for
a day, but may be swept from the face of the earth
by the first angry vote of such a House of Commons.'
He was satisfied with the Constitution as it then
stood, the balance of monarchy, aristocracy, and de-
mocracy, he said, was as nearly poised as human
wisdom could adjust it, and its disturbance would
only bring confusion on the nation. He was a warm
advocate of the system of popular representation, but
he believed as the suffrage then existed, that "of
popular representation England had enough for every
purpose of jealous, steady, and efficient control over
the acts of the Crown." The House of Commons,
he declared, was not to be the organ of the people,
but of an educated minority. Institute universal
"C
CANNING.
127
suffrage and a military Cæsarism would have to be
created to control it. "If you obtain a perfect re-
presentation of the will of the people-an immediate
and obedient organ of that will," he asked, "what
room is there for any other? There may be a multi-
tude of counsellors, but there can be but one authori-
tative agent. History has not left us in the dark as
to the inference to be drawn from such a system, nor
as to the consequences practically deducible from it.”
These views only tend to prove how little in advance
of his age is even the ablest and most far-sighted
statesman. We have had the Reform Bills of 1832
and of 1867, yet the House of Commons has swept
away neither the Throne nor the Peerage; the balance
of the Constitution has been disturbed by the intro-
duction of a preponderating democracy, yet neither
ruin nor confusion has been brought upon the nation.
What a chapter could be written upon the unfulfilled
prophecies of the diplomatist and the politician! How
often upon the introduction of a new measure, or the
signing of a new treaty, has the diminution of British
commerce and British power been predicted; how
often has the "era of England's glory" passed away;
how often has "the sun of Great Britain set for ever!"
Upon the ill-health of Lord Liverpool, rendering a
reconstruction of the Cabinet necessary, Canning
aspired to the post of Premier.
Unfortunately for
128
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
his claims, his advocacy of Roman Catholic disabili-
ties was regarded as a great bar to his promotion.
The King was opposed to Catholic Emancipation, and
the opinions of his Majesty were entertained by
many who formed Lord Liverpool's Cabinet. Of
this anti-Catholic party the Duke of Wellington and
Mr. Peel were the two most important representa-
tives. Negotiations ensued between the Court and
the Cabinet, and for a time affairs were at a dead-
lock. Not a proposal was made but it was check-
mated by some grave objection. The King had no
wish to exclude Canning from serving the Crown, but
he proposed that a peer of anti-Catholic opinions
should be placed at the head of the Cabinet. In
reply Canning declined to take office unless with the
rank of Prime Minister; he objected, he said, to the
"superinduction of an anti-Catholic First Minister
over his head," though he expressed himself perfectly
willing to withdraw his claims, and send in his
resignation, provided the King would constitute a
Government exclusively of those hostile to the
Catholics. This offer was, however, not acceptåble to
his Majesty. As a solution of all difficulties, it was
then proposed that the Duke of Wellington should
take office as Prime Minister, the Catholic question
being left as it had been under Lord Liverpool, an
open question, but to this arrangement Canning
CANNING.
129
declined to accede. Mr. Peel being junior to Can-
ning, did not aspire to succeed Lord Liverpool, but
at the same time he declined to serve under Mr.
Canning.
Matters thus stood: The King would not form a
Government hostile to the Roman Catholics, knowing
it to be, in the then state of affairs, and especially of
Irish affairs, impracticable, or, if practicable, ruinous
to the country. Canning would only take office as
Prime Minister, though he was indifferent whether
he led the Cabinet as First Lord of the Treasury or
Foreign Secretary. The Duke of Wellington de-
clined to serve under Canning. Mr. Peel, though he
put in no claims for the Premiership, yet refused to
acknowledge Canning as his chief. At the end of two
months the King, finding that compromise was out
of the question, and that a decided course must be
adopted, commissioned Canning to reconstruct the
Cabinet. No sooner had these instructions become
known, though the in-coming Prime Minister had
announced his intention of carrying out the policy of
Lord Liverpool, than the Duke of Wellington, Lord
Eldon, Mr. Peel, and others, sent in their resignation.*
Thus deprived of the assistance of the most important
among his former colleagues, Canning had to create
* The history of this defection will be more fully entered into in
my sketch of Wellington.
VOL. II.
K
130
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
a Ministry out of the best materials at his disposal,
and at a later period effected a junction between
himself and a certain section of the Whig party.
On the re-assembling of Parliament, Canning pro-
ceeded to lay before the House of Commons an ac-
count of the recent ministerial movements, and of the
reasons which had induced him to accept the Premier-
ship. He deeply regretted, he said, the resignation of
Mr. Peel, but he felt from the beginning of the discus-
sions on the Catholic claims, that such a result was
inevitable. "Would to God," said Canning, "I
could now persuade myself that his retirement will
be only for a short period. If the necessity which
made the resignation of one of us inevitable had
been left in my own hands, my decision would have
been in favour of my own resignation." In his
formation of the Government he had sought, he said,
to exclude no one. When he heard that his advocacy
of the Catholic claims was likely to impede the
creation of a new Administration, he had at once
advised the King to frame a Government united in
opposition to the Catholic Question, and had laid his
resignation at the feet of his Sovereign. This counsel
was not accepted, for it was found impossible to form
a Cabinet on such a basis. Since his own retirement
from office was not accepted, and he was resolved to
have no part in an Administration which inflexibly
CANNING.
131
excluded the Catholic Question, he had no alterna-
tive but to assist, as far as he could, in the recon-
struction of the divided Government upon Lord
Liverpool's plan, with, of course, the necessary con-
sequence that the Catholic Question was not to be
made a Cabinet measure. Yet, what had been pro-
posed to him? He had been advised to reconstruct
the Government, all the old members retaining office,
but to place at the head of affairs some peer who was
known to entertain anti-Catholic sentiments. What
was the inference to be drawn from such an arrange-
ment? It was plainly this, that the opinions he
held were a disqualification for his filling the highest
office in the Administration.
G
ever;
"Office," cried Canning, "he would quit for
for office he cared not, but to possess
it on terms so degrading was the last stigma which
he could suffer in his own person, and only next
to that of bearing a part in an Administration
avowedly formed for excluding the Catholic Ques-
tion." But he had been accused of forming a
Government chiefly Catholic. Was this a subject for
blame ? His first object had been to quit office ;
his next to remain in it with all his old colleagues
exactly upon the same terms as he and they had
hitherto acted towards each other upon this very
Catholic Question. Was he to be reproached because
132
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
((
•
six Protestant members of the late Government had
tendered their resignation, and had thus disturbed
the balance of opinions in the Cabinet? He knew
not in what way he had sinned against his colleagues
so as to provoke their late refusal to act with him.
He was utterly at a loss to know how he had excited
their angry feelings against him. He regretted this
circumstance, but he was sure it was through no fault
of his own that such a secession had taken place.
I sit where I now do," he concluded, "by
no seeking of my own. I proposed at first my own
exclusion-it was not accepted. Then conditions
were offered to me which I refused, because they
were accompanied by an admission of my own dis-
qualification, to which, if I had submitted, I should
have been for ever degraded. In the year 1822 I
was appointed to an office fraught with wealth,
honour, and ambition. From that office I was called,
not only not on my own seeking, but contrary to my
own wish, and I made a sacrifice—a sacrifice, be it
remembered, of no inconsiderable nature to a poor
man; and the offer of a share in the Administration
was made to me, so help me God, without any stipu-
lation. But if that offer had been made—as it
ought to have been if I was to be ousted now-if
that offer had been made with the condition that,
if the highest place in the Administration should
CANNING.
133
become vacant, the opinions which I held on the
Catholic Question were to be a bar to my succeeding
to it, I would have turned the offer back with the,
disdain with which I turned back that of serving
under a Protestant (using the term Protestant in the
familiar manner in which we are accustomed to use
it) Premier as the badge of my helotism and the
condition of my place."
His elevation to power was, however, of short
duration. On the 10th of April, 1827, he had re-
ceived the royal command to prepare, "with as little
delay as possible, a plan for the reconstruction of the
Administration." He died August 8, 1827.
"No imaginative artist," writes Lord Dalling and
Bulwer, the latest biographer of George Canning,
in his "Historical Characters," "fresh from study-
ing his career, would sit down to paint this
Minister with the broad and deep forehead, the
stern, compressed lips, the deep, thoughtful air of
Napoleon Bonaparte. As little would the idea of his
eloquence or ambition call to our recollection the
swart and iron features, the bold and haughty dignity
of Strafford. We cannot fancy in his eye the
volumed depth of Richelieu's, the volcanic flash of
Mirabeau's, the offended majesty of Chatham's.
Sketching him from our fancy, it would be as a few
still living remember him, with a visage rather
134
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
marked by humour and intelligence than by medita-
tion or sternness; with something of the petulant
ningling in its expression with the proud; with much
of the playful overruling the profound. His nature,
in short, exhibited more of the genial fancy and the
quick irritability of the poet and the speaker, than
of the inflexible will of the dictator who puts his foot
on a nation's neck, or the fiery passions of the tribune
who rouses a people against its oppressors. Still,
Mr. Canning, such as he was, will remain one of the
most brilliant and striking personages in our his-
torical annals. As a statesman, the latter passages
of his life cannot be too deeply studied; as an
orator, his speeches will always be models of their
kind; and as a man, there was something so grace-
ful, so fascinating, so spirited in his bearing, that
even when we condemn his faults, we cannot avoid
feeling affection for his memory and a sympathetic
admiration for his genius.'
>>
Such was Canning. An accomplished scholar, a
brilliant yet powerful debater, a keen politician, he
takes rank among the very first of those practical
statesmen who have the best interests of their country
at heart, whose aim is to render the people happy
and contented, to make government firm, tolerant,
and judicious, and to keep the national honour
stainless in all its dealings.
CANNING.
135
NON OMNIS MORIAR.
Farewell, bright spirit! brightest of the bright!
Concentrate blaze of intellectual light!
Who show'd, alone, or in the first degree,
Union so apt, such rich variety;
Taste, guiding mirth, and sport-enlivening sense;
Wit, wisdom, poetry, and eloquence.
Profound and playful, amiable and great;
And first in social life, as in the State.
Not wholly lost! thy letter'd fame shall tell
A part of what thou wast. Farewell! Farewell!
Farewell great statesman! whose elastic mind
Clung round thy country, yet embraced mankind;
Who, in the most appalling storms, whose power
Shook the wide world, wast equal to the hour.
Champion of measured liberty, whence springs
The mutual strength of people and of kings,
'Twas thine, like Chatham's patriot task, to wield
The people's force, yet be the monarch's shield.
Not wholly lost! for both the worlds shall tell
Thy history in theirs. Farewell! Farewell!
Farewell, dear friend! in all relations dear,
In all we love, or honour, or revere;
Son, husband, father, master, patron, friend:
What varied grief and gratitude we blend!
We, who beheld, when pain's convulsive start ·
Disturb'd the frame, it could not change the heart;
We, whose deep pangs to soften and console,
Were the last efforts of thy flying soul.
Not wholly lost! our faith and feelings tell
That we shall meet again. Farewell! Farewell! *
* Lines on the Death of Mr. Canning, by Mr. Croker.
THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON,
THE CONSCIENTIOUS MINISTER.
1769-SEPTEMBER 14, 1852.
Or all the qualities which constitute the higher
human nature there are few more powerful or more
exemplary than a keen sense of duty. Unlike some
of those virtues which are almost selfish and isolated
in their character, duty is composed of so many
moral elements, as to appear an epitome of all that
is noble and good. A man impressed with a high
idea of duty, and who acts up to his convictions,
possesses a catalogue of excellences such as is com-
prised in no other special virtue, Duty signifies a
love of the public good in preference to private con-
siderations: its follower must therefore be disinter-
ested and unselfish. Duty implies the carrying out
of views and decisions often unpopular and opposed
to the general feeling its follower must therefore
possess courage and determination in no ordinary
degree. Duty scorns evasion, deception, and under-
:
G
WELLINGTON.
137
hand measures: its true follower must then of neces-
sity be honourable, truthful, and single-minded.
Honesty of purpose, fidelity, self-control, industry, a
sound morality, a strict sense of justice, yet tempered
with mercy, should all be discerned in the lover of
duty. Religion is but duty. Our duty towards the
Supreme Being is the first command; in our duty
towards our neighbour lies the second. "Duty,"
writes a modern author, "is the cement which binds
the whole moral edifice together; without which all
power, goodness, intellect, truth, happiness, love
itself, can have no permanence, but all the fabric of
existence crumbles away from under us, and leaves
us at last sitting in the midst of a ruin, astonished
at our own desolation.
Of all the Heroes of Duty whose names history
proudly cherishes none occupies a more conspicuous
position on the list than England's greatest General.
With Wellington duty was the absorbing principle of
his life. It was the guiding star of all his actions.
When he said it was "his duty" to proceed in any par-
ticular course, men knew it to be worse than useless to
endeavour to turn him from his purpose. Throughout
his dispatches, throughout his orders, throughout his
vast private correspondence, it is curious to observe
how often the word "duty" occurs. Nor was there
in this love of Wellington for duty anything of
""
138
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the courtier or the aspirant: he did not set before
him fame, glory, or reward; he did his duty because
it was his duty-simply because it was the right
thing to do. "There is little or nothing in this life
worth living for," said he who had attained to the
highest honours a subject could expect, and who at
one time was the idol of Europe, "but we can all of
us go straight forward and do our duty."
It seemed so imperative upon Wellington on all
occasions to act up to his high standard, that it would
have been well if he had more fully understood that
all natures were not cast in the same iron mould as
himself. The performance of duty is often a cold and
arduous task, and is therefore open to being cheered
by encouragement and approval. But to "the Duke
the mere fact of a man doing his duty was so ordinary
an act, was so heinous a fault if omitted, that it never
entered his head to offer praise for what he could
not bring himself to think any one would shun.
The soldiers under his command gallantly faced the
enemy, stormed ramparts, calmly received the furious
onset of the foe, or charged without flinching upon
the armoury of bayonets that opposed their progress.
It was their duty. They were Englishmen—the
bravest of the brave-and to praise them for their
courage would be an insult. To express approval
would be tantamount to entertaining doubt. Very,
""
WELLINGTON.
139
very seldom did the Duke of Wellington pass com-
mendation; but when his thin disciplined lips gave
forth words of praise, rest assured that something
more than ordinary courage and ordinary military
skill had been exhibited. Gradually the men became
accustomed to this stern coldness, and something of
their chief's devotion to duty was communicated to
the ranks. At Waterloo, when the troops closed up
to receive a charge of cavalry, Wellington rode into
one of his infantry squares, and said, "Stand steady,
lads; think of what they will say of us in England!"
The men answered back with a cheer, "Never fear,
sir; we know our duty!" A grim smile of approval
overspread the impassive features of the Commander-
in-chief as he heard his favourite maxim re-echoed.
The life of Wellington naturally divides itself into
two sections the one embracing his military career,
the other his civil: both in the camp and in the
senate we shall see how firm in the main he was to
his watchword Duty. Reading the history of the
great Duke, we are often compelled to pause and
reflect whether we are not entering upon the domain
of fiction, so splendid are his triumphs, so uninter-
rupted his successes, so dazzling the glory that
attends upon his steps and rewards his services.
What commander, either in ancient or modern
history, can compare with him? What are the
140
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
achievements—brilliant though they be-of Alex-
ander, Scipio, Hannibal, Cæsar, Turenne, the great
Condé, Tilly, Luxembourg, Marlborough, Saxe,
Suwarrow, to the victories of Wellington? No
matter in what country, or against what enemy, he
is uniformly successful. He is triumphant in India,
in Portugal, in Spain, in France. None can resist
his tactics, his subtle stratagems, his skill in mar-
shalling the forces at his command. His men were
ill-provisioned, he was hampered by conflicting orders,
an irritable Opposition at home did all in its power
to thwart his designs, yet what a list of glories he
added to the annals of the British arms! Assaye,
Argaum, Ahmednuggur, victories on the plains of
India which crushed the insurrection of the Mahratta
chieftains-Roriça, Vimiera, Busaco, victories which
expelled the French from the valleys and mountains
of Portugal-Talavera, Fuentes d'Oñoro, Almeida,
Badajoz, Ciudad Rodrigo, Salamanca, Vittoria, vic-
tories which forced the French to quit the Peninsula
-the battles of the Pyrenees, Toulouse, and the
crowning triumph of Waterloo, which exiled the
despot of Europe" to the lonely isle of St.
Helena. No wonder, when the great General re-
turned to London, that people flocked to gaze upon
his hard yet kindly face, that honours were showered
with a lavish hand upon him, and that he was the
((
WELLINGTON.
141
hero of the hour. Coriolanus was never more
worshipped.
"All tongues spake of him, and the bleared sights
Were spectacled to see him.
Stalls, bulks, windows,
Were smothered up, leads filled, and ridges horsed
With variable complexion; all agreeing
In earnestness to see him
The matrons flung their gloves,
Ladies and maids their scarfs and handkerchiefs,
Upon him as he passed; the nobles bended
As to Jove's statue; and the commoners made
A shower of thunder with their caps and shouts."
Categ
•
As in the history of warfare the successes of Wel-
lington had been unique, so in the history of rewards
were his honours unparalleled. On his breast he
wore almost every grand decoration possessed by
foreign Courts. Spain and Portugal vied with each
other in ennobling him with their titles. But it was
in England, as was natural, that his services were the
most appreciated. As victory after victory had been
gained he rose a step in the ranks of the peerage.
The battle of Talavera created him Baron Douro of
Wellesley and Viscount Wellington of Talavera. On
the fall of Ciudad Rodrigo he was created an earl.
After Salamanca he was raised to the rank of a
marquis, and on his return to England in 1814 he
was created Marquis of Douro and Duke of Welling-
Three times had he received the thanks of
Parliament acknowledgments often accompanied
ton.
142
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
by no mean grants from the Crown. Yet these
honours were obtained without any hint or applica-
tion on his part. "Notwithstanding the numerous
favours that I received from the Crown," he writes
to a friend who begged him to procure an honorary
distinction, "I have never solicited one; and I have
never hinted, nor would any one of my friends or
relations venture to hint for me, a desire to receive
even one; and much as I have been favoured, the
consciousness that it has been given spontaneously
by the King and Regent gives me more satisfaction
than anything else. I recommend to you the same
conduct and patience.
On taking his seat for the first time among his
brother peers, the Lord Chancellor, after returning
the thanks of the House for his Grace's "great and
eminent services to his King and country," thus ad-
dressed the new Duke:
""
"I cannot forbear to call the especial attention of
all who hear me to a fact in your Grace's life, sin-
gular, I believe, in the history of the country, and
infinitely honourable to your Grace, that you have
manifested upon your first entrance into this House
your right, under various grants, to all the dignities
in the peerage of this realm which the Crown can
confer. These dignities have been conferred at vari-
ous periods, but in the short compass of little more
WELLINGTON.
143
than four years, for great public services occurring
in rapid succession, claiming the favours of the
Crown."
Commoners have frequently walked up the House
of Lords, made their obeisance before the Lord Chan-
cellor, and showed their patents and rights of sum-
mons as viscounts and earls, but no instance, save
that of the Duke of Wellington, has been known of
a commoner appearing for the first time in the Upper
House having been promoted from the lowest to the
highest ranks of the peerage.
For the lovers of facts let me briefly sketch the
outlines of the Duke's biography. The third son of
the first Earl of Mornington, he was born on the
1st of May, 1769, at Dangan Castle, Meath, Ireland.
After an education at Eton and at private tutors', he
was gazetted an ensign in the 73rd Regiment of
Foot. Without entering into the details of promo-
tion, he became in September, 1793, lieutenant-
colonel of the 33rd Foot. The following year he
landed at Ostend to join the British army under the
Duke of York, then in the Netherlands.
His con-
duct in checking and assaulting the enemy during
this disastrous campaign, when the British were
forced to retreat before the French into Holland, was
specially noticed in the dispatches of the time. From
1798 to 1805 he was engaged in crushing the power
144
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
of the Mahratta chieftains, Holkar and Scindia. For
his conduct on this occasion he received the thanks
of Parliament and was knighted. The year following
he married Lady Catherine Pakenham, third daughter
of the Earl of Longford, and was elected member for
Rye. In 1807 he was appointed Secretary for Ire-
land, and in the same year obtained a command in
the expedition sent to Copenhagen under Lord Cath-
cart and Admiral Gambier. For his gallantry on
this occasion he again received the thanks of the
House of Commons. Napoleon purposing to overrun
the Iberian Peninsula, the Spaniards declared against
the invader and begged assistance from England.
Peace was proclaimed between Spain and Great
Britain, and in 1808 Sir Arthur Wellesley was ap-
pointed to the command of the forces intended for
the Peninsula. The history of the war that ensued,
from the landing at Coruña to the withdrawal of the
Allied Armies from France, is matter of general his-
tory, and too well-known to be repeated. After the
battle of Waterloo the military life of Wellington
terminated. In 1819 he was appointed to the office
of Master-General of the Ordnance, and took his seat
in the Cabinet as a member of Lord Liverpool's
Administration. In 1822 he proceeded to the Con-
gress at Verona as the representative of Great Britain.
Four years later he was sent to St. Petersburg on a
WELLINGTON.
145
special mission, the object of which was to induce
the Czar to unite with Great Britain and the other
Powers as mediators in the quarrel between Turkey
and Greece. On the death of the Duke of York, in
1827, Wellington was appointed Commander-in-chief
of the Forces. When Canning succeeded to office as
Premier in the same year, the Duke resigned all his
appointments and withdrew from the Cabinet. In
1828 he became himself Prime Minister, but resigned
in 1830, owing to the Reform Question, which he
steadily opposed. In 1829 he had been appointed
Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. When Sir Robert
Peel was gazetted as First Lord of the Treasury in
1834, the Duke became Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs; and again, in 1841, on the resignation of
the Melbourne Ministry, he accepted a seat in the
Cabinet, but this time without taking office. In
1842 he became for the second time Commander-in-
chief, and performed the duties of that office until
his death. He died on the 14th of September, 1852.
In studying the biography of Wellington, we see
how his motto, "Do your Duty," was the axis upon
which his whole moral system revolved. Examine
his military career and watch the stern, almost
Quixotic obedience he paid to what he considered
duty. Conscious of the talents working within him
-of his knowledge of all the arts of strategy, of his
VOL. II,
Ꮮ .
146
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
splendid powers of combination he never when
placed in a subordinate position attempted to teach
his superior or murmured against orders. Strict in
exacting obedience, he was equally strict in setting.
the example. "In the course of my military career,'
he said to an officer who grumbled at being appointed
to a command inferior to his expectations, "I have
gone from the command of a brigade to that of my
regiment, and from the command of an army to that
of a brigade or division, as I was ordered, and with-
out any feeling of mortification." It was his duty
to obey, and he allowed no personal views of his
own to interfere in the matter. He was excessively
punctilious about all questions of discipline. When
Seringapatam was about to be attacked, Wellington
(then Colonel Wellesley) had been ordered by General
Harris to lead the assault. At the appointed time
the troops were in readiness, but no Wellesley ap-
peared. General Harris, dreading that the favour-
able moment for the attack would be lost, was about
to direct General Baird to assume the vacant com-
mand, when suddenly Wellesley stepped on the
scene. By some omission in the Adjutant-General's
office, he had only just then been informed that he
was to lead the attack, and it was his rule never to
undertake any duty unless apprised in the proper
official form. A verbal order from General Harris
"}
WELLINGTON.
147
Q
might have led to misrepresentations, but a written
command from the Adjutant-General was a docu-
ment about which there could be no mistake. No-
thing is more fruitful of strife and ill-blood in a
campaign than questions relating to disputed orders.
Can we not remember the quarrels that broke out
during the Crimean War on the subject?
Like all men whose standard of duty is unusually
high, Wellington never allowed an interested ambi-
tion to militate against the public good. It was a
principle of his that an officer should always forego
private considerations when public duty was in ques-
tion. "I have never had much value," he writes to
the Honourable H. Wellesley, "for the public spirit
of any man who does not sacrifice his private views
and convenience when it is necessary." Whilst
warring against the Mahrattas he had been offered
the command of an expedition to Batavia. Such a
position was promotion, and calculated to lead to
important results, but Wellesley declined the offer,
feeling that it was for the welfare of our Indian
Empire that he should remain in the Mysore and
crush the power of the daring marauder Dhoondia.
<<
I cannot think," he wrote to Lord Clive, "of relin-
quishing the command with which your lordship has
entrusted me at this interesting period for any object
of advantage or credit to be gained in another place.'
""
148
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
In a young soldier such disinterested conduct is not
often exhibited.
And this lofty standard of duty-of what was due
to himself as chief in command, of what was due
to the men who served under him, of what was due
to the enemy he attacked and to the country he
invaded-is apparent throughout the whole period
of his military life. In India, in Denmark, in the
Peninsula, we see Wellington not only as the brilliant
general, but as the humane, the upright, the con-
scientious man-the man who sets before him certain
lofty principles, and resolves to act up to them.
We read that in India he left behind him an im-
perishable reputation. For long years afterwards,"
writes Stocqueler, "the name of Wellesley was
synonymous in India with truth, justice, humanity,
and good faith. The natives of Mysore had found in
him a firm and honest friend, and the army recog-
nised in Wellesley the general who was always sure
to conduct them to victory. His unceasing activity
in procuring supplies, his stern reprehension of in-
fractions of discipline, his excellent example of
patience and endurance when long and forced marches
tried the spirits and strength of his companions, his
assertion of the interests and regard for the comforts
of the soldiery, all tended to raise the character and
condition of the army, and render it an efficient agent
WELLINGTON.
149
in the accomplishment of the important object he
was called upon to accomplish."
During his stay with the army in Zealand Sir Arthur
Wellesley treated the inhabitants with the most chival-
rous kindness. Everything that the troops required
was paid for, and if a Danish peasant had ought to
complain of against an English soldier redress was in-
stantly granted him. Theft was punished with the
utmost severity. As most of the Danish peasantry
were serving in the army of their country the
farmers had the greatest difficulty in obtaining
labourers to gather in the harvest. Hearing of this,
with characteristic generosity the English commander
ordered his men to assist in the work of the fields,
and soon the hay was stacked, the granaries were
filled, and the territory of a foe saved from agri-
cultural distress, by the hand of its victor.. We are
not surprised, therefore, to read that the Danes had
become so attached to the English soldiery, that they
anticipated with much uneasiness the day when the
British forces would, by the capitulation of Copen-
hagen, evacuate the island.
It was the same in the Peninsula. There Wel-
lington did all in his power to keep his men from
committing acts of cruelty and rapine whilst march-
ing through hostile countries. He appealed to the
sense of duty of the soldiers not to pillage or ill-
Ch
150*
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
·
treat the inhabitants of the various towns in which
they were quartered; and though his orders were
not always obeyed, yet the conduct of the British
troops in Spain and Portugal compares most favour-
ably with the brutal ravages perpetrated by the
French in the districts through which they passed.
The Duke trusted his men to behave like soldiers,
and not like robbers and murderers;
he put
them as it were upon their honour; he appealed to
their better feelings; and his troops appreciated the
compliment paid them. Other commanders had
treated them like machines, the Duke treated them
like human beings. But woe to the offender who
was caught red-handed, and brought into the camp
convicted of robbery, rape, or cruelty; in vain he
appealed for mercy—he was shot on the spot.
It is true that the Commander-in-chief was not
always able to restrain the passions and predatory in-
stincts of his troops, and that after an arduous battle,
or a protracted siege, the men let loose the devilry that
had been pent up within them—(what campaign does
not tell the same story?)—yet when the details of
the Peninsula War are examined it will be found that
never was there a campaign conducted on the same
scale where property was less wilfully wrecked, the
lives of inhabitants more carefully protected, and the
honour of women more jealously guarded. And for
WELLINGTON.
151
this safety and clemency, Spaniards and Portuguese
have to thank the stern sense of duty inherent in
the English Commander-in-chief.
Nothing more clearly reveals the temper and the
sound common-sense of the Iron Duke in military
affairs than a perusal of his orders and instructions.
We see in them a clemency just yet soldierlike, the
fruits of a judgment keen and well-balanced, and a
knowledge of the world which only experience grafted
on tact and foresight can possess. Let us make a
brief selection from his dispatches.
The army had entered Portugal and it was ab-
solutely necessary that good order should be pre-
served and nothing arise to militate against the
interests of the Portuguese. The following general
order was issued to prevent theft :—
"LEYRIA, Oct. 3, 1816.
"The Commander of the Forces is concerned to
have been under the necessity of carrying into execu-
tion the determination which he has so long an-
nounced, of directing the immediate execution of any
soldiers caught plundering; and that a British and a
Portuguese soldier have consequently been hanged this
day for plundering in the town of Leyria, where they
were contrary to order and for criminal purpose.
He trusts that this example will deter others from
those disgraceful practices in future; and the troops
152
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
may depend upon it that no instance of this kind
will be passed over. They are well fed and taken
care of, and there is no excuse for plunder, which
could not be admitted on any account."
Several of the soldiers, tempted by the French,
had gone over to the enemy, the Commander-in-
chief thus speaks of the deserters :—
"PERO NEGRO, Nov. 10, 1810.
"The Commander of the Forces is concerned to
have received reports from some of the regiments of
the desertion of British soldiers to the enemy; a
crime which, in all his experience in the British
service in different parts of the world, was till lately
unknown in it; and the existence of which at the
present moment he can attribute only to some false
hopes held out to those unfortunate criminal persons.
The British soldier cannot but be aware of the
difference between their situation and that of the
enemy opposed to them; and the miserable tale told
by the half-starved wretches whom they see daily
coming into their lines, ought alone, exclusive of
their sense of honour and patriotism, to be sufficient
to deter them from participating in their miserable
fate.
(C
"However, although the Commander of the Forces
laments the fate of the unfortunate soldiers who have
WELLINGTON.
153
committed this crime, he is determined that they
shall feel the consequence. of it during their lives,
and that they shall never return to their friends or
their homes.
((
He accordingly requests that the commanding
officers of regiments from which any soldier has
deserted to the enemy will, as soon as possible, send
to the Adjutant-General's office a description of his
person, together with an account when he was en-
listed with the regiment, where born, and to what
parish he belongs, in order that the friends of these
soldiers may be made acquainted with the crime
which they have committed; may be prepared to
consider them as lost for ever, and may deliver them
up to justice in case they should ever return to their
native country.”
Lord William Bentinck had been appointed to the
command of an army in Sicily, he is thus advised by
Lord Wellington :—
"The first measure of a country to adopt, is to
form an army, and to raise a revenue from the people
to defray the expense of the army.
Above all, to
form a Government of such strength, as that army
and people can be forced by it to perform their duty.
This is the rock upon which Spain has split; and
all our measures in any other country which should
154
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
afford hopes of resistance to Bonaparte should be
directed to avoid it. The enthusiasm of the people
is very fine, and looks well in print; but I have
never known it produce anything but confusion. In
France, what was called enthusiasm was power and
tyranny acting through the medium of popular
societies, which have ended by overturning Europe,
and in establishing the most powerful and dreadful
tyranny that ever existed. In Spain, the enthusiasm
of the people spent itself in vivas and vain boasting.
The notion of its existence prevented even the at-
tempt to discipline the armies, and its existence has
been alleged, ever since, as the excuse for the rank
ignorance of the officers, and the indiscipline and
constant misbehaviour of the troops.
tr
"I, therefore, earnestly recommend you, wherever
you go, to trust nothing to the enthusiasm of the
people. Give them a strong and a just, and, if
possible, a good Government; but, above all, a strong
one, which shall enforce upon them to do their duty
by themselves and their country; and let measures
of finance to support an army go hand-in-hand with
measures to raise it. I am quite certain that the
finances of Great Britain are more than a match for
Buonaparte, and that we shall have the means of
aiding any country that may be disposed to resist
his tyranny. But those means are necessarily limited
WELLINGTON.
155
in every country by the difficulty of procuring specie.
This necessary article can be obtained in sufficient
quantities only by the contributions of the people ;
and although Great Britain can and ought to assist
with money, as well in other modes, every effort of
this description, the principal financial as well as
military effort ought to be by the people of the re-
sisting country."
Joseph Bonaparte had been transferred from the
throne of Naples to that of Spain, it is thus that
Wellington essays to animate the Spaniards to do
their duty :-
(c
Spaniards! it should be clearly understood
that the pretended king is an usurper, whose autho-
rity it is the duty of every Spaniard to resist; that
every Frenchman is an enemy, against whom it is
the duty of every Spaniard to raise his arm.
•
Spaniards! you are reminded that your enemies
cannot much longer resist; that they must quit your
country if you will only omit to supply their
demands for provisions and money, when those de-
mands are not enforced by superior force. Let every
individual consider it his duty to do everything in
his power to give no assistance to the enemy of his
country, and that perfidious enemy must soon en-
tirely abandon in disgrace a country which he
،،
156
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
entered only for the sake of plunder, and in which
he has been enabled to remain only because the in-
habitants have submitted to his mandates, and have
((
2
supplied his wants.
Spaniards! resist this odious tyranny, and be
independent and happy."
On entering France the following order was issued
to protect the French people from the vindictiveness
and predatory instincts of the invading soldiery :
“HEAD-QUARTERS, Nov. 1, 1813.
"Upon entering your country, I announce to you
that I have given the most positive orders (a trans-
lation of which is joined to this) to prevent those
evils which are the ordinary consequences of the
invasion of a hostile army (an invasion which, you
'know, is the result of that which your Government
made into Spain), and of the triumphs of the allied
army under my command.
"You may be certain that I will carry these
orders into execution, and I request of you to cause
to be arrested and conveyed to my head-quarters,
all those who, contrary to these dispositions, do you
any injury. But it is required you should remain in
your houses, and take no part whatever in the opera-
tions of the war, of which your country is going to
become the theatre.”
WELLINGTON.
157
No one more detested Napoleon's maxim, that
war should be made to support war, than Wellington.
In the presence of such orders and instructions it
is impossible to regard the great Duke in any other
light than that of a most chivalrous soldier and a
most humane foe.
In turning from the Duke's military career to his
political, we recognise the same devotion to what was
regarded by his Grace as his duty. But here his
guiding star is veiled by a mist, and its light dim-
mer than when shining on his warlike deeds. Un-
fortunately for political history, the Duke, though
splendidly qualified as a soldier, was but slenderly
endowed with the gifts of a statesman; his preju-
dices narrowed his sense of judgment; he was too
hasty in arriving at his conclusions; he was too un-
sympathetic and exclusive to interpret aright the
feelings and wishes of the country; and whilst in
the belief that he was in the right path he was often
led astray. Duty is, after all, a relative phrase;
what one man considers as meet and right another
regards as mischievous and unwise. It is, therefore,
most important that he who makes the performance
of duty his great aim in life, should be sure that he
is being guided by a polestar and not by a "will o'
the wisp." Born in the purple, surrounded by all
that was great and noble, and with strong aristo-
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REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
cratic sympathies, the Duke was a Tory in his
loyalty to the Throne and to all that appertained to
his order, but a Whig in his pride of birth and social
exclusiveness.
To uphold the English Constitution as it then stood,
with all its unjust partialities and irritating restric-
tions, and to maintain the articles of the Treaty
of Vienna in their integrity, were the two great
principles of Wellington's political creed. In the ad-
vancement of the people, in the spread of education,
in the removal of the fetters that hindered the
development of our commerce, in the abolition of
intolerant laws, in the introduction of reforms where
reform had been shown to be advantageous, he took
only sufficient interest to raise his voice in opposi-
tion to the liberal measures that were proposed. He
was satisfied with the existing order of things. To
educate the lower orders was to render them discon-
tented with their present condition, whilst disquali-
fying them for a superior position; they would be
too learned for manual labour, yet not learned
enough for intellectual labour. To extend the
suffrage was to lower the character of the House of
Commons, and to endanger the power of the House
of Lords as a mighty weight in the balance of the
State. To emancipate the Catholics was to pave the
way for the destruction of our Protestantism. To
WELLINGTON.
159
liberate the slave was to render him unfit for free
labour, and usher in the ruin of our West Indian
colonies. To abolish the duty on corn was to im-
peril the agricultural interest. The English Consti-
tution was a splendid edifice, and it wanted neither
repairs nor alterations.
As the views of the Duke were narrow and firm
in matters relating to domestic policy, so were they
equally narrow and firm where foreign measures were
discussed. The Duke of Wellington had been one
of the authors of the Treaty of Vienna, and in
after-life he saw no reason to revise his handiwork.
As the map of Europe had been arranged at that
memorable congress, so he considered it should con-
tinue. He was the foe of republican principles;
he had no sympathy for the union of race with
race; he was opposed to all extensions of frontier
and absorptions of territory unless specially sanc-
tioned by that treaty which directed and controlled
his administration of foreign affairs. He objected
to German unity, to Italian unity, to Russian en-
croachments, to the independence of Belgium, and
to the acquisition by France of Algiers. Any mea-
sure which tended to disturb the equilibrium of
Europe as settled at Vienna met with his warm
opposition; any measure which tended to confirm
the opinions of the Congress received his warm
A
Ito
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
approval. Thus the political views of the great
Duke are easily fathomed; his home policy signified
the protection of the English Constitution against
the assaults of the reformers; his foreign policy
signified the protection of the Treaty of Vienna
against the designs of monarchical ambition, ethno-
logical sympathy, and the wrecking hand of repub-
licanism.
Having thus divided the political career of the
Duke into two sections-its domestic policy and its
foreign policy-let us first briefly examine the course
pursued by his Grace for the maintenance of the
English Constitution. On establishing himself in
London, Wellington became one of the strongest
supporters of the King and of the Court party.
When the question relating to the unhappy Queen
Caroline was raised, he stoutly advocated the policy
of the husband. He considered it the duty of a
peer and a loyal subject always, to use a favourite
phrase of his, "to stand by the King," and to him,
a man naturally haughty, and recognising the claims.
of descent, there was something intensely offensive
in this attempt of the Opposition to dishonour the
Throne. He was as indifferent to the hoots and
hisses of the mob because he supported the un-
popular side, as he had been to the cheers and
applause of the people when he had been their idol.
1
WELLINGTON.
161
In his opinion the Queen was one of the most shame-
less of her sex, and it was his duty, as one who stood
by the King, as a peer, and as a gentleman, to advo-
cate the passing of the Bill of Pains and Penalties,
which was to deprive the wife of her rights and pri-
vileges as Queen, and dissolve the marriage.
We now come to the Canning episode. Great as
is the admiration of every Englishman for the
memory of the Duke, firm as is our belief in his
high tone of honour, strict as was his devotion to
duty, it is impossible to acquit him of unworthy
proceedings in the severing of his connection with
Canning. To Canning, Wellington had never been
cordial; and such conduct seems not only strange
but ungrateful. When the great General was ham-
pered by the Opposition at home, and adverse
criticisms on his military tactics were freely indulged
in, it was the voice of Canning which was always
raised in the defence and the praise of the absent
soldier. He it was who advocated the continuance
of the war, and encouraged the nation to have full
confidence in the wisdom and skill of their com-
mander. His views and hopes had been brilliantly
realised; the English General had everywhere been
successful, and had returned home covered with
honours. We should have thought that Wellington
would have been one of the very first to warmly
VOL. II.
M
162
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
support the Minister who had so generously believed
in his ability and had defended him against the
injustice of parliamentary spite.
Yet it was not so. In all his ideas Wellington
was an aristocrat; between his order and the middle
classes was an immense gulf; he never entertained
a warm friendship for any beneath him; all his
favourite generals and aides-de-camp were men of
birth, and he delighted in promoting to the higher
posts in his gift such as would shed the lustre
of an ancient name upon their trust. Canning was
of the middle class. His father, though coming
of a gentle stock, was a poor barrister. His mother
had been a third-rate actress. It was the day
of the "great governing families," of close boroughs,
of exclusive privileges, when birth was placed on
the pinnacle from which wealth has now ousted it.
In spite of his brilliant talents, his wit, his ser-
vices, there was a strong prejudice among the proud
nobles of England against the supremacy of Can-
ning. That this prejudice was entertained by Wel-
lington, great as his mind was, is evident.
Nor was this ignoble dislike free from the bitter
and estranging influence of jealousy. Between Wel-
lington and the supreme power in the State there
stood only Canning. Though the Duke pretended
that the Premiership was the last thing he desired,
WELLINGTON.
163
((
mad" to covet
and avowed that he should be
an office for which he was not qualified, subse-
quent events hardly support the modesty of this
statement. The reader can judge for himself. In
the February of 1827 Lord Liverpool, the head of
the Cabinet, was struck down by paralysis, and the
King had to think of appointing his successor. Now
the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool, as we know, had not
been united on the great political question of the
day—the emancipation of the Roman Catholics. In
the Liverpool Ministry there were men who voted
for the emancipation, and those who voted against
it, but it had been agreed that Catholic Emancipation
was to remain an open question, each Minister main-
taining his own individual opinion, but not lending
the influence of his particular department in the sup-
port of it. To succeed Liverpool, Canning was sent
for. And now ensued a struggle for personal ascen-
dancy. Canning refused to give way to his colleagues
upon the subject of the Premiership. He was the
last survivor of the great race of statesmen who had
been contemporaries with Pitt and Fox, and he
regarded the office as his by right of succession. Το
use his own words, "the office of Premier," he said,
was his by inheritance; he could not, from consti-
tution, hold it above two years, and then it would
descend to Peel."
"mad "
164
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
The anti-Catholic members of Lord Liverpool's
Cabinet, however, declined to serve under Canning.
Canning in his turn refused to acknowledge the
leadership of a pro-Catholic Minister; he would
retire from the contest altogether, provided the.
King formed an exclusively anti-Catholic Adminis-
tration; but if his services were to be retained
he would permit no one to preside over the Cabinet
but himself. Three courses were thus open to
the King. He could call into existence an anti-
Catholic Ministry. He could form an Administration
on the basis of Lord Liverpool's Cabinet, with a pro-
Catholic Minister at the head of affairs. He could
send for Mr. Canning. The first course he knew
would be ruinous to the country; by the second
course he lost the services of Canning; by the third
course he lost the adherence of the anti-Catholic
section. Carefully weighing the advantages and
disadvantages of each of these courses, the King
finally decided upon intrusting Canning with the
formation of a Cabinet-the question of the Roman
Catholics remaining an open one as in the Liverpool
Administration.
When this resolve of his Majesty became known
several of the Ministers of the late Cabinet sent in
their resignations. The Duke of Wellington not only
resigned his seat in the Cabinet, but he threw up the
WELLINGTON.
165
command of the army and the Master-Generalship of
the Ordnance. Why? Let us listen to the explanation
which the Duke laid before the House of Lords.
There were two points, said his Grace, with which
he intended to trouble their lordships-the first was
his retirement from the Councils of his Majesty ;
and the second his resignation of the office of Com-
mander-in-chief, a post which he admitted might be
held with perfect propriety by a person who stood in
no political intimacy with the Cabinet. With regard
to the first point, he had received, on the 10th of·
April, a letter from Mr. Canning, stating that a new
Administration was to be formed on the principles of
Lord Liverpool's, and expressing a hope that his
Grace would continue to form part of it. In this
letter no mention was made of the members who
would constitute the new Cabinet, or of the members
of the old Cabinet who had resigned, or of those who
were expected to resign. Nor was his Grace desired to
come and receive explanations as to the evident omis-
sions of the letter, nor was he referred to any person
who could give him information on these points. He
had since ascertained that this was not the line of con-
duct pursued towards his other colleagues. They had
either been invited to go to the intended Minister and
receive such explanations as they required; or the
Minister had gone to them in person to give them
166
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
these explanations; or he had sent his personal
friends to give the necessary explanations for him.
To himself, however, continued his Grace, no ex-
planations had ever been given; nor had he been
referred to any person who could give them.
Though somewhat surprised at this departure from
the forms of intimacy which had distinguished the
intercourse between Mr. Canning and himself, his
Grace still determined that nothing should prevent
him from communicating with the Minister in the
most open and amicable manner. Accordingly he
wrote to Mr. Canning expressing his anxiety to con-
tinue in his Majesty's Councils, but stating his wish
to be informed who was to be placed at the head of
the Ministry. To this Mr. Canning replied that it
was usually understood that the individual who was
intrusted by the King with the formation of a
Government was to be himself at the head of it,
and that it was not intended to depart from that
custom in the present instance. On the receipt of
this answer his Grace turned his attention particularly
to the point whether he could consistently with his
avowed principles join in the new Administration.
He sincerely wished that he could bring himself to a
conviction that the new Government was to adhere
to the line of policy pursued by Lord Liverpool. He
thought that it would be a great advantage if it
WELLINGTON.
167
would be so constituted; but he was afraid that it
would not. He conceived that the principles of
Lord Liverpool's policy had been already abandoned,
and that the measures of a Government, consti-
tuted on the principles of Mr. Canning, would be
viewed with suspicion by foreign Governments, and
would give no satisfaction to the people at home.
Under these circumstances his Grace requested Mr.
Canning to communicate to his Majesty that he
wished to be excused from serving in the new Cabinet.
His Grace had been informed that his letter to
Mr. Canning, inquiring who was to be the head
of the Government, had given that gentleman great
offence. Surely such sensitiveness was uncalled
for? Recent political negotiations had clearly shown
that a command to form an Administration did not
necessarily imply that he to whom such command
was given-as in the instances of the Marquis
Wellesley and Lord Moira-was to be at the head
of the Government. And what had been the conduct
of Mr. Canning himself on the death of Mr. Perce-
val? After the assassination of Mr. Perceval, Lord
Liverpool waited on Mr. Canning by command of
the Prince Regent, and requested that he would
consent to form part of the Administration. Yet
the very first question put by Mr. Canning to Lord
Liverpool was, who was to be at the head of that
168
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Administration ? "Now," continued his Grace, "if
that was the first question which the right honour-
able gentleman thought proper to put in 1812, I do
not see why I should be censured for putting it in
1827. Moreover in the right honourable gentle-
man's letter it was stated that in the formation of a
Ministry, it was not intended to depart from the line
of policy adopted under the Administration of the
Earl of Liverpool. Now if that policy were to be
continued, I could never suppose that the right
honourable gentleman would be at the head. I am
sure that the right honourable gentleman is utterly
incapable of misrepresenting my meaning or of wil-
fully taking offence; but I had no intention of
giving offence in asking the question."
Therefore, on being informed who was to be the
Premier, his Grace asserted that he had no alterna-
tive but to resign. Would he not have been degrad-
ing himself and deceiving the public in sitting in a
Cabinet with Mr. Canning at its head, whose prin-
ciples he felt bound. to oppose? It was no answer
to tell him that the present Cabinet acted upon the
same principles with that of which Lord Liverpool
had been the head. The two Cabinets materially
differed; and the chief difference between them was
this-that the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool was founded
on the principle of maintaining the laws as they now
WELLINGTON.
169
were; whilst that of Mr. Canning was founded on
the principle of subverting them. Those who formed
part of Lord Liverpool's Cabinet knew well what it
was to which they pledged themselves; for they
knew that his lordship was conscientiously opposed
to all changes in the existing form of government.
But those who coalesced with Mr. Canning had no
idea how far their coalition was to carry them; for
Mr. Canning was the most able, and active, and
zealous partisan of those changes with which the
country was threatened. The principles of Lord
Liverpool were principles by which any man might
safely abide; the principles of Mr. Canning fluctuated
every day, and depended upon transitory reasons of
temporary expedience. These were the conscientious
reasons of his resignation. He had been accused of
seeking after the post of Prime Minister himself, but
they knew little of his character who thought his
ambition ran in such a channel. He was conscious
of his incapacity to fill such an office, and he would
have been mad and worse than mad if he had ever
entertained the insane project which certain indivi-
duals for their own base purposes had imputed to
him. In conclusion, the Duke stated, that as the
Commander-in-chief was daily in communication
with the Prime Minister, and though under ordinary
circumstances he would have remained at the Horse
170
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Guards, he felt that after what had passed, it would
be impossible for him to consider the continuance of
his relation with Mr. Canning either serviceable to
the country or creditable to himself. He therefore
sent in to his Majesty the resignation of the two offices
which he held under the appointment of the Crown.*
"Annual Register," 1827. Correspondence referred to by the
Duke of Wellington:-
"TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
"FOREIGN OFFICE, April 10, 6 P.M., 1827.
"MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON,
"The King has, at an audience from which I have just re-
turned, been graciously pleased to signify to me his Majesty's com-
mands to lay before his Majesty, with as little loss of time as possible,
a plan for the reconstruction of the Administration. In executing
these commands, it will be as much my own wish as it is my duty to
his Majesty, to adhere to the principles upon which Lord Liverpool's
Government has so long acted together. I need not add how essen-
tially the accomplishment must depend upon your Grace's continuing
a member of the Cabinet.
"Ever, my dear Duke of Wellington,
"Your Grace's sincere and faithful servant,
GEORGE CANNING."
"TO THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING.
"LONDON, April 10, 1827.
"MY DEAR MR. CANNING,
"I have received your letter of this evening, informing me
that the King had desired you to lay before his Majesty a plan for the
reconstruction of the Administration; and that, in executing these
commands, it was your wish to adhere to the principles on which Lord
Liverpool's Government had so long acted together. I anxiously desire
to be able to serve his Majesty, as I have done hitherto in his Cabinet,
with the same colleagues. But, before I can give an answer to your
obliging proposition, I should wish to know who the person is you
intend to propose to his Majesty as the head of the Government.
"Ever, my dear Mr. Canning, yours most sincerely,
"WELLINGTON."
WELLINGTON.
171
<<
These
conscientious reasons" call
call for a few
remarks. If the Duke really believed that the
emancipation of the Roman Catholics was so dan-
gerous to the nation, and that the principles of
"TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.
"FOREIGN OFFICE, April 11, 1827.
"MY DEAR DUKE OF WELLINGTON,
"I believed it to be so generally understood that the King
usually entrusts the formation of an Administration to the individual
whom it is his Majesty's gracious intention to place at the head of it,
that it did not occur to me, when I communicated to your Grace yes-
terday the command which I had just received from his Majesty, to
add, that in the present instance, his Majesty does not intend to depart
from the usual course of proceeding on such occasions. I am sorry to
have delayed some hours this answer to your Grace's letter; but, from
the nature of the subject, I did not like to forward it without having
previously submitted it (together with your Grace's letter) to his
Majesty.
"Ever, my dear Duke of Wellington,
Your Grace's sincere and faithful servant,
"GEORGE CANNING."
"TO THE RIGHT HON. GEORGE CANNING.
"LONDON, April 11, 1827.
"MY DEAR MR. CANNING,
"I have received your letter of this day, and I did not under-
stand the one of yesterday evening as you explained it to me. I
understood from yourself that you had in contemplation another
arrangement, and I do not believe that the practice to which you refer
has been so invariable as to enable me to affix a meaning to your
letter which its words, in my opinion, did not convey. I trust that
you will have experienced no inconvenience from the delay of this
answer, which I assure you has been occasioned by my desire to
discover a mode by which I could continue united with my recent
colleagues. I sincerely wish that I could bring my mind to the con-
clusion that, with the best intentions on your part, your Government
could be conducted practically on the principles of that of Lord Liver-
pool; that it would be generally so considered; or that it would be
172
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Canning were calculated to subvert the laws of the
country, why did he not support the proposal to
form an anti-Catholic Government? Either Canning
was dangerous or not. If dangerous, why permit
him, when the option had been offered the Duke
and his colleagues, to be still more dangerous as head
of the Cabinet? If he was not dangerous, why should
they have deserted him? "They ought either,"
wrote Sir Walter Scott, "to have made a stand
without Canning, or a stand with him; for to abdi-
cate as they have done was the way to subject the
country to all the future experiments which this
Catholic Emancipation may lead those that now
carry it to attempt, and which may prove worse, far
worse, than anything connected with the question
itself." "If Mr. Peel," comments Sir G. C. Lewis,
"and the anti-Catholic members of Lord Liverpool's
Cabinet were sincerely persuaded of the goodness
of their cause, they ought to have set Mr. Canning
adequate to meet our difficulties in a manner satisfactory to the King,
or conducive to the interests of the country. As, however, I am con-
vinced that these principles must be abandoned eventually; that all
our measures would be viewed with suspicion by the usual supporters
of the Government; that I could do no good in the Cabinet; and that
at last I should be obliged to separate myself from it, at the moment
at which such separation would be more inconvenient to the King's
service than it can be at present; I must beg of you to request his
Majesty to excuse me from belonging to his Councils.
Ever, my dear Mr. Canning, yours most sincerely,
"WELLINGTON."
WELLINGTON.
173
at defiance, and to have formed an anti-Catholic
Government; if they had not that sincere conviction,
they ought not to have refused to join his Ministry."
Again, upon what grounds did the Duke asperse the
political honour of Canning? If the Roman Catholic
Question had been an open one under the Adminis-
tration of Lord Liverpool, why could it not also
continue an open question under Mr. Canning?
Beyond the hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness
of political jealousy, by what right did the Duke
infer that "the lines of policy pursued by Lord
Liverpool" would be abandoned; that a Cabinet
presided over by Canning "would give no satisfac-
tion to the people at home;" and that "the prin-
ciples of Mr. Canning fluctuated every day, and
depended upon transitory reasons of temporary ex-
pedience"? What had there occurred in the con-
sistent and high-minded political career of Canning
to justify such coarse and ungenerous accusations ?
If there had flowed in the veins of the new Premier
the blood of a Somerset or a Howard, the anti-
Catholic section would have found it no more im-
possible or inconsistent to have served under Can-
ning, than the pro-Catholic section had found it
impossible or inconsistent to have served under Lord
Liverpool. It had been agreed that the question of
Emancipation was to be an open one (the statement
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that Canning had pledged himself to the King never
to bring forward the Catholic Question has been
refuted by the late Sir Robert Peel), and the Duke
and his colleagues were no more justified in with-
drawing their support from Canning on the grounds
that he would not act up to his assurances, than the
pro-Catholics would have been in declining to take
office under Lord Liverpool, because they refused to
accept the promise of one who was hostile to the
cause they affected.
"I, for one," writes Sir Walter Scott, "do not
believe that it was the question of Emancipation,
or any public question, which carried them out. I
believe the predominant motive in the bosom of
every one of them was personal hostility to Can-
ning." There can be little doubt but that per-
sonal antipathy and not political principle was at the
bottom of this secession. Subsequent events plainly
confirm this view. Not many months after the vin-
dication of his motives the Duke, without endanger-
ing his sanity, became Prime Minister, and carried
out the very measure which he professed was the one
great obstacle to his coalition with Canning. He
had given as his excuse for severing himself from the
Canning Administration, that he was opposed to the
Emancipation of the Papists, and that he could not,
therefore, act in unison with one who was a pro-
WELLINGTON.
175
nounced advocate for Catholic relief. Yet the Roman
Catholics were released from their disabilities, not by
the man who, always with an unselfish generosity,
had supported their cause, but by his rival, who had
been among their most obstinate opponents.
It was
not the Cabinet of Canning that passed the Roman
Catholic Emancipation Act, but that of the Duke of
Wellington.
That one so high-principled and conscientious as
Wellington, should have convinced himself—and un-
doubtedly he did so convince himself—that he was
acting in accordance with his idea of duty in rejecting
the offers of Canning, whilst only gratifying spite, is
a painful instance of the mastery of prejudice and
delusion over a noble and lofty mind.
On the downfall of the short-lived Goderich Ad-
ministration, the Duke of Wellington was authorised
by the King to form a Cabinet. He obeyed. He
was perfectly aware that but a few months ago he
had declared he would have been mad to accept
the post of Premier, and had said that he was un-
fitted for its duties; he, therefore, well knew the
abuse and charges of inconsistency that would be
hurled against him, but his sense of what was due to
the Throne rendered him indifferent to all purely
personal considerations. His Sovereign had com-
manded him to create an Administration, and it was
K
-
176
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
his duty to obey. He might fail in organizing a
Cabinet, but at least it was his duty to make the
attempt. "When I received his Majesty's com-
mands," he informed his brother peers, "to give my
opinion respecting the formation of a Ministry, it
was far from my wish to place myself at its head;
but, finding in the course of the negotiations which
arose out of the commands of his Majesty, a difficulty
in getting another individual to fill the place, and
that it was the unanimous wish of those who are
now my colleagues that I should take it, I deter-
mined to accept it." One would be curious to know if
his Majesty had commanded the Duke to serve under
Mr. Canning whether his Grace's sense of duty would
have been so amenable to the royal will. The new
Cabinet consisted of Tories, and four Canningites;
and the burning question of the hour, the emancipa-
tion of the Roman Catholics, was to be left open.
Scarcely had Parliament assembled than the repeal
of the Test and Corporation Acts was brought for-
ward by Lord John Russell. By these Acts, Dissen-
ters were theoretically excluded from office, on
account of their inability to take the Sacrament
according to the ritual of the Church of England,
though practically all restrictions were removed by
the passing of an annual Indemnity Act, permitting
Nonconformists to accept service under the Crown
WELLINGTON.
177
without such test.
After no little opposition from
the High Church party, the measure passed through
the Commons, and was carried up to the House of
Lords. The chief opponents to the repeal were the
bishops and the old-fashioned Tories of the school of
Lord Eldon, who looked upon every concession to
the Dissenters as dangerous to the Established
Church. The Duke of Wellington, Tory though he
was, declined to lend his influence to those who were
hostile to the repeal. He did not, he said, consider
that the maintenance of the Test and Corporation
Acts was absolutely necessary for the security of the
Church of England, and for the preservation of the
union existing between Church and State. If he
thought it calculated to weaken the securities at pre-
sent enjoyed by the Church he would be the first to
vote against the Bill. It was true that in the first in-
stance he had agreed to oppose the measure, in order
to preserve the blessings of religious peace.
He was
desirous of preserving the system which had given
the country this peace for forty years; for during
that time the name and claims of the Dissenters had
not been heard of. But now the Nonconformist
party had come forward, their claims had been ap-
proved of by a large majority in the Lower House,
and he feared that the opposition of their lordships
to the repeal of these Acts would carry hostility
VOL. II.
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178
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
throughout the country, and introduce a degree of
rancour into every parish of the kingdom which he
should not wish to be responsible for.
"My lords," said his Grace, "I am very dubious as
to the amount of security afforded through the means
of a system of exclusion from office, to be carried into
effect by a law which it is necessary to suspend by an
annual act that admits every man into office whom it
was the intention of the original framers of the law to
exclude. It is perfectly true it was not, the intention
of those who brought in that suspension law origin-
ally, that Dissenters from the Church of England
should be permitted to enter into corporations under
its provisions. The law was intended to relieve those
whom time or circumstances had rendered unable to
qualify themselves according to the system which
Government had devised. However, the Dissenters
availed themselves of the relaxation of the law for
the purpose of getting into corporations, and this
the law allowed. What security, then, I ask, my
lords, is to be found in the existing system?
So
far from Dissenters being excluded by the Corpora-
tion and Test Acts from all corporations, so far is
this from being the fact, that, as must be well known
to your lordships, some corporations are absolutely
and entirely in the possession of Dissenters. Can
you suppose that the repeal of laws so inoperative as
WELLINGTON.
179
these can afford any serious obstacle to the perfect
security of the Church, and the permanent union of
that establishment with the State? The fact is,
that the existing laws have not only failed completely
in answering their intended purpose, but they are
anomalous and absurd—anomalous in their origin,
absurd in their operation."
We know the result. After the introduction of a
few unimportant verbal amendments by the Peers,
the measure became law. The old religious test was
replaced by a declaration from the holder of office,
that he would never use any power he might possess,
in virtue of his office, to injure the Established
Church.
The Dissenters thus liberated from the chains of
intolerance, the Roman Catholics now raised their
voice for emancipation. The two great cries of the
hour were Catholic Relief and the Repeal of the Corn
Laws.
66
'What, still those two infernal questions,
That with our meals and slumbers mix,
That spoil our tempers and digestions,
Eternal Corn and Catholics.
"Gods! were there ever two such bores?
Nothing else talk'd of night and morn,
Nothing in doors or out of doors
But endless Catholics and Corn."
So sang Moore, and the Tories fully agreed with him.
The agitation respecting the Repeal of the Corn Laws
180
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
caused little disturbance to the Duke; it was in its
infancy, and he felt that resistance would not lead to
any serious consequences. The Corn Laws," said
his Grace, with one of his usual blundering prophe-
cies, "worked well, and he was convinced that they
could not be repealed without injury to the country."
It was, however, very different with regard to the
movement for Catholic Relief, Daniel O'Connell was
every day becoming more and more dangerous. Ire-
land only required the slightest provocation to blaze
forth into unanimous revolution. Feuds between the
Orangemen and the Papists were of daily occurrence,
and the Protestants became alarmed at the insecurity
of their position. The Catholic party in England
were as mischievous and seditious as their colleagues
across St. George's Channel. "The time is come,"
cried O'Connell to the Clare electors, "when the sys-
tem which has been pursued towards this country
must be put a stop to. It will not do for the future
to say, 'Sweet friend, I wish you well,' but it must
be shown by acts that they do wish us well. It is
time that this system should be put an end to; and
I am come here to put an end to it." 'Such is the
extraordinary power of the Catholic Association,"
wrote the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, "or rather of
the agitators, of whom there are many of high ability,
of ardent mind, of great daring, that I am quite cer-
(C
((
WELLINGTON.
181
tain they could lead on the people to open rebellion
at a moment's notice; and their organization is such
that in the hands of desperate and intelligent leaders
they would be extremely formidable." Agitation so
pregnant with revolt it was impossible for any
Government to ignore. Ireland was as dangerous as
she had been in the days of Elizabeth.
It was a saying of the Duke of Wellington that in
politics it was impossible always to be consistent. “If
the world were governed by principles," he said, "no-
thing would be more easy than to conduct even the
greatest affairs; but in all circumstances the duty of
a wise man is to choose the lesser of any two difficul-
ties which beset him." He was now to carry this
theory into practice. Three courses lay before him.
He could sever the connection between England and
Ireland by repealing the Union. He could accede to
the demands of the Papists and emancipate the
Catholics from their disabilities. He could suppress
the agitation in Ireland by the terrible power of the
sword. The repeal of the Union was a step which no
English Minister could seriously advise. To subdue
the Irish by waging civil war in their midst was an
alternative too awful to be counselled. "I am one of
those," said the Duke, after he had consented to the
clauses of the Emancipation Act, "who have probably
passed a longer period of my life engaged in war than
182
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
most men, and principally in civil war; and I must
say this, that if I could avoid, by any sacrifice what-
ever, even one month of civil war in the country to
which I was attached, I would sacrifice my life in
order to do it. I say, there is nothing which destroys
property, eats up prosperity by the roots, and de-
moralises the character, to the degree that civil war
does. In such a crisis, the hand of man is raised
against his neighbour, against his brother, and against
his father; servant betrays master, and the whole
scene ends in confusion and devastation. Yet, my
lords, this is the resource to which we must have
looked these are the means which we must have
applied-to put an end to this state of things, if we
had not made the option of bringing forward the
measures for which, I say, I am responsible. But let
us look a little further. If civil war is so bad, when
it is occasioned by resistance to the Government—if
it is so bad in the case I have stated, and so much to
be avoided-how much more is it to be avoided when
we are to arm the people, in order that we may con-
quer one part of them by exciting the other part
against them?"
He chose the lesser evil, and a bill was brought in
by Mr. Peel for the relief of the Roman Catholics.
At first the King refused to give his consent to the
introduction of such a measure, but on the Duke and
WELLINGTON.
183
Mr. Peel tendering their resignations, the obstinacy of
his Majesty had to yield. In the Commons the bill
was read a second time by a majority of 353 to 183,
and a third time by a majority of 320 to 142. In
the House of Lords there were 217 to 112 votes for
the second reading, and 214 to 109 for the third
reading. The bill received the royal assent April 13,
1829. We may here remark," reflects the acute
Sir George Cornewall Lewis,* "that the three great
questions of the last thirty years—the Catholic Ques-
tion, Parliamentary Reform, and the Repeal of the
Corn Laws have been all carried by political asso-
ciations whose object was rather to intimidate than to
convince the Legislature. The existence of the
Catholic Association, the Political Unions, and the
Anti-Corn Law League may prove the freedom of our
constitutional system, and the safety of its working
even when its machinery is deranged by external in-
fluences; but it speaks little for the wisdom of the
leading statesmen who had made so long and so
stubborn a fight in defence of the established insti-
tutions, and rendered each of these three great settle-
ments a capitulation to a victorious enemy rather
than a grant of an acknowledged right. In each
case the Legislature had the appearance of passing
a wholesome measure upon compulsion, not because
"Administrations," p. 161.
((
184
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
it was wholesome, but because it could no longer
be withheld."
It was impossible that the inconsistency of the
Prime Minister should pass without calling forth
severe strictures. The Tories of the school of Eldon
and Perceval branded the Duke as a traitor. He
was accused by Lord Winchilsea of carrying, under
the cloak of some coloured show of zeal for the
Protestant religion, insidious designs for the infringe-
ment of our liberties and for the introduction of
Popery into every department of the State, and a duel
between the Duke and his libeller was the result. The
Canningites hotly declared that their late leader had
been "hunted to death" by men who, for their own
selfish ends, and to gratify a purely personal feeling,
had withdrawn their support from Canning, and had
abused his policy, only to follow in his steps and
carry out his intentions when his spirit had passed
away. The Press, which had always been treated by
the Duke with the most marked contempt, revenged
itself, now it had the opportunity, for numerous past
slights by holding up the Prime Minister to the supreme
scorn of the country, as a cant, a turncoat, a proud
dictator, a tyrant, and an unscrupulous schemer.
Nor was such abuse totally undeserved. Where
were now, it was asked, the "conscientious reasons
which had precluded the Duke from serving under
""
WELLINGTON.
185
((
Canning? His Grace had denied that he aspired
after the Premiership, and within a few months after
the statement had been made he had placed himself
at the head of an Administration! His Grace had
declared that the policy of Canning was dangerous
to the country, and yet, so far as the present Govern-
ment had interested itself in legislation, it was the
policy of Canning that had alone been carried out.
His Grace had posed as the Protestant champion of
the country, and had based his secession from the
Canning Cabinet on the grounds of his hostility to
the cause of Roman Catholic Relief, and yet he it was
who, to pass this very Emancipation Act, had com-
pelled the King to break his Coronation Oath, had
deceived the Tories, who had been his most loyal sup-
porters, and had stolen a march upon the country.
Still the Duke affirmed that what others stig-
matized as his inconsistency had only been "his
duty." He had been sent for by the King to form
an Administration; it was his "duty" as a subject
to obey. He had opposed relief to the Catholics, but
when such emancipation had been desired by the
country, and had been proposed by the Government
acting as a Government to the Legislature, it was his
'duty" to overcome the prejudices of the Sovereign
and pass the measure.
That the Duke was perfectly sincere in these ex-
186
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
planations of his conduct no one who reads his bio-
graphy aright can doubt. He was too high-minded,
too proud, too indifferent to office to stoop to the
wiles and subterfuges of the political intriguer. Yet
the slightest experience of the world teaches us that
there are men who, in avoiding what they dislike, as
in carrying out what they desire, are always under
the impression of being influenced by what they
term their “sense of duty." If they denounce what
they once upheld, or advocate what they once op-
posed, they have been guided alone, as they assert
and really think, by what they conscientiously con-
sider as their "duty." Such men are narrow-minded,
short-sighted, intolerant, and influenced by strong
prejudices, but they are not necessarily insincere.
When the Duke withdrew his support from Canning,
he doubtless conscientiously believed that the policy
Canning would introduce would be baneful to the
country, and that the emancipation of the Roman
Catholics would be fraught with great danger to
our Protestantism. It was therefore his duty to
resign the seals and pass out into opposition. He
lacked the sympathy and the political foresight
which would have taught him that, though the
question of relieving those who held the creed
of the Vatican might for a time be deferred, yet
in the present spirit of the country, it was im-
WELLINGTON.
187
possible that so large a body of English subjects
could for long remain under the galling restraint of
an unjust and intolerant exclusion. He had declared
that he did not aspire after the Premiership, that he
would have been mad to think of such a post, and that
the one office he most desired, but which he had felt it
his duty to resign, was the command of the forces.
"Can any man believe," asked his Grace, at the
time of his secession from Canning, in the spirit of
one who is making a great sacrifice in the righteous
cause of duty; "can any man believe that after I
had raised myself to the command of the army, I
would have given it up for any but conscientious
reasons? I say raised myself-not because I under-
value the support received from my noble and gallant
friends around me—not because I have forgotten the
services of the officers and soldiers who acted under
me—not because I do not entertain a proper sense of
the gracious favour and kindness of his Majesty
towards me but because I know that, whatever his
Majesty's kindness might have been towards me, he
could not have exalted me through all the grades of
military rank to the very highest, if I had not ren-
dered to him and to my country some service of
which he entertained a high sense. Will any man
then believe, that, when I was in a situation which
enabled me to recommend to the notice of his Majesty
188
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
all my former friends and companions in arms, and
to reward them according to their merits, for the
exertions which they had formerly made under my
command in the field, I would voluntarily resign a
situation so consonant with my feelings and my habits,
for the mere empty ambition of being placed at the head
of the Government? I know that I am disqualified
for any such an office; and I therefore say, that feel-
ing as I do with respect to the situation which I re-
cently filled at the head of the army-liking it, as I
did, from the opportunities which it gave me to im-
prove the condition of my old comrades-in-arms—
knowing my own capacity for filling that office, and my
incapacity for filling the post of first Minister, I should
have been mad, and worse than mad, if I had even enter-
tained the insane project which certain individuals,
for their own base purposes, have imputed to me.”
Yet, as we know, within a few months of this
solemn statement, he resumed the command of the
army
and became the head of an Administration. Nor
did the Duke deem himself inconsistent.
The same
sense of duty which made it clear for him to resign,
made it also clear for him to lead a Cabinet when
commanded by his Sovereign. He had opposed the
emancipation of the Roman Catholics as he had op-
posed the Corn Laws, but when he saw the country in
earnest that both measures should be enrolled upon
WELLINGTON.
189
the Statute Book, he felt it his duty to compel the
King to accede to the relief of the Papists, and to
stand by Peel when he deserted from the cause of pro-
tection. Consistency in a Minister is a subject for
praise, but it can often be construed into a term of re-
proach. It may signify an honourable and enlightened
political career, or it may signify that a man is
so much in love with his own opinions that nothing
can convince him that he is mistaken in the
course he pursues. It is better never to have sup-
ported a policy that is unsound or intolerant, but it
is far better to abandon such a policy than to pique
oneself upon the consistency of never having de-
serted it. The Duke of Wellington was no remark-
able statesman. The very qualities which had made
him a brilliant soldier, the rapidity he arrived at
conclusions, the abject obedience he enforced, his
belief in the aristocratic influence-interfered with
the principles of true statescraft. Imbued with
strong prejudices, and consequently narrow-minded,
the views he held as a man he often found untenable
as a Minister. He maintained his opinions, which were
nearly always adverse to the spirit of progress, as
long as they could be supported; it was his duty so
to advocate them; then, when he found they were un-
popular, or that they had been proved to be unsound,
he "was open to conviction," wished the "thing to be
190
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
settled one way or another," and ended by discover-
ing it to be his duty to abandon what he had up-
held and pass what he had denounced. It is not,
therefore, a matter of surprise that one so deficient
in political prescience, and who formed his conclu-
sions on such insufficient data, should have been led
to change his views. It is only surprising that so
able a man, and one so amenable to conviction,
should have interpreted so falsely the spirit of the
times in which he lived.
The emancipation of the Roman Catholics did not
tend to strengthen the position of the Government.
The Papists had been relieved from their disabilities
by the cordial co-operation of the Whigs with the
Duke and his colleagues, but as soon as the measure
which instituted the union had become law the
alliance between the two parties gradually dissevered
itself. The Wellington Administration thus stood
alone. The emancipation of the Catholics had
alienated the Tories from the Government. The
short-sighted refusal of the Duke to allow Mr. Hus-
kisson to withdraw his hasty offer of resignation had
alienated the Canningites,* whilst the policy of the
* Mr. Huskisson having divided against his colleagues in the
Ministry upon the East Retford Bill, considered that this act had
compromised himself with the Premier, and tendered his resignation.
It was at once accepted. Mr. Huskisson, not prepared for this sudden
acceptance of his offer, endeavoured to withdraw his resignation, and
said that his meaning had been mistaken. The Duke replied, "It is
WELLINGTON.
191
Government in opposing itself to such measures as
would lead to the mitigation of the agricultural and
commercial distress then prevalent, rendered the
Cabinet far from popular. In short, the position of
the Duke was one of complete isolation. He had
been too liberal for the Tories, he was not liberal
enough for the Whigs. The Tories regarded the
Prime Minister as an apostate from their faith, and
declined to place any confidence in the man who
had dealt such a blow to the Protestantism of the
country as the emancipation of the Papists. The
Canningites viewed the Duke with aversion on ac-
count of his conduct both towards Canning and
towards Huskisson. The Whigs, on the other hand,
loudly asserted that the Administration which had
carried through so liberal a measure as the removal
of Catholic disabilities, should be consistent with
itself and usher in Parliamentary Reform, the repeal
of the Corn Laws, and the extension of the currency.
But the Duke resolutely refused to walk in the path
marked out for him by the friends of progress.
Like many men who have been forced to abandon
one article of their creed, he resolved to atone for
no mistake, it can be no mistake, and shall be no mistake." The
resignation of Mr. Huskisson led to the resignation of the other Can-
ningites of the Cabinet. It also led to the Clare election and to the
formidable opposition of O'Connell, and eventually to the passing of
the Catholic Emancipation Act. From such trifling beginnings do
great events often follow.
192
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the desertion by a more bigoted adherence to the
articles that remained. The Corn Laws worked
well. To extend the currency was but to cause an
unlimited creation of paper money, which would
bring the nation to the verge of ruin. The manu-
facturing distress was much exaggerated, and would
soon cease if labour were once again substituted for
machinery and steam. With regard to the question
of Parliamentary Reform, his Grace declared that he
"was not only not prepared to bring forward any
measure of this nature, but that he would at once
declare that, as far as he was concerned, so long as
he held any station in the government of the
country, he should always feel it his duty to resist
such measures when proposed by others." Thus the
conduct of the Wellington Administration met with
the usual fate of inconsistency. It was neither Tory
nor Whig, whilst its liberalism dissatisfied the Tories,
and its Toryism dissatisfied the Whigs. "It is a Tory
Government with a Whig policy," said the squires
and the clergy, mindful of the Emancipation Act,
"and no dependence can be placed in it." "In spite
of its one liberal measure it is still a high Tory Ad-
ministration," said the Whig and the manufacturer,
and it is idle to expect its assistance in our efforts.
Between two stools is always a dangerous position.
Whilst the affairs of the country were in this
<<
}}
WELLINGTON.
193
condition-the Government weak but obstinate, the
people irritated but not aggressive George IV.
died, and the sailor King ascended the throne.
Parliament was dissolved as a matter of course, and
a new Parliament summoned to meet in the begin-
ning of November. The elections took place under
the influence of an excitement hostile to Toryism.
Across the Channel, Frenchmen, wearied by the vice
and tyranny of priestly Bourbonism, had dethroned
Charles X., and Louis Philippe reigned in his stead.
The sympathy of insurrection spread to other lands.
Belgium rose up against the authority of Holland,
and created itself into an independent kingdom. In
Warsaw the Poles had broken out into open revolt
against the government of the Grand Duke Con-.
stantine, and were fighting with all the patriotism of
their race for freedom from the Tartar rule. Bruns-
wick had expelled its Duke, and Saxony was agitating
for a new Constitution. The efforts of Europe to free
herself from the fetters of arbitrary government now
found a ready response in the hearts of the English
people. Parliamentary Reform was the cry through-
out the country, and almost in every shire and in
every borough its supporters saw themselves at the
head of the poll. It was reckoned that out of 256
English members who then sat for counties and for
boroughs more or less open, only 79 were ministerial
VOL. II.
0
194
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
•
votes; 141 were in avowed opposition, and 16 were
neutral.
The days of the Wellington Administration were
now numbered. The Duke stood alone. He had
endeavoured to win over the Canningites, but his
offers had ended in failure. He was detested in the
country by his stubborn resistance to the cause of
reform. He had angered the City by advising the
King to absent himself from a banquet given by the
new Lord Mayor. He was ridiculed by the Press.
Deserted by the Tories, opposed by the Whigs, re-
jected by the Canningites, he had to face an angry
majority in Parliament. The consequences were
easily foreseen. When the question of the Civil List
for the new reign came before the House of Com-
mons, it was moved that the subject be referred to
a select committee. The motion was opposed by
the Government, but carried by a majority of 29.
On the same day a proposition for Parliamentary
Reform was to be brought to a division, and as the
Ministers expected a defeat they at once resigned
their seals, and Earl Grey was authorised, as head
of the Whig party, to form a new Administration.
The history of the remainder of the Duke's
political career is soon sketched. Though he con-
tinued to take a prominent interest in all the ques-
tions of the day, save during the agitation on the
WELLINGTON.
195
resignation of the Grey Ministry, when he failed to
form an Administration, and when he held the seals.
as Foreign Secretary under Sir Robert Peel, he never
assumed the responsibilities of office. Yet his voice
in the Upper House was a most potent one; he was
still the confidential adviser of the Sovereign, and
men never felt satisfied about any subject till they
had ascertained "what the Duke thought of it."
As an aristocrat, and with strong Conservative sym-
pathies, he disapproved of almost all the measures
that were advocated by the Liberal party during the
latter part of the first half of this century. He
strenuously opposed Parliamentary Reform, and de-
clared that from the period of its adoption he should
date the downfall of the Constitution. He opposed
the admission of Jews into Parliament.
He was
unfriendly to the abolition of slave labour in the
colonies. He set his face against any reduction in
the number of Protestant Irish Bishops. Vote by
ballot he considered un-English. He was in favour
of church-rates. He was long a staunch advocate
for the maintenance of the Corn Laws, asserting that
the price of corn would be raised by their repeal.
Still, with regard to all these measures, the re-
sistance of Wellington was not blindly obstinate ;
"he would be led," he said, "by the pressure of
events." His view of politics was, as I have already
196
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
stated, that it was impossible always to be consistent.
((
If the world were governed by principles, nothing
would be more easy than to conduct even the
greatest affairs; but in all circumstances the duty of
a wise man is to choose the lesser of any two diffi-
culties which beset him." In this statement we
have the key to much of his political conduct. Out
of the numerous measures passed and discussed in
his lifetime, three stand prominently forward, tower-
ing above their fellows-the Roman Catholic Eman-
cipation Act, the Reform Bill, and the Repeal of the
Corn Laws. To the Emancipation Act the Duke
had at first been strongly opposed; then when he
saw the measure not unpopular with the country he
wished it "settled either one way or the other;
and at last, when he found that the country had
made up its mind on the subject, and that it was a
choice between repealing the Act and civil war, he
chose the lesser of the two difficulties, and acceded
to the wishes of the Papists.
"
"I was and am," writes the Duke to a friend,*
"still very much concerned that many for whom
and their opinions I have always felt the highest
respect, differed from me upon the course which I
considered it my duty to follow upon the subject
of the disabilities affecting his Majesty's Roman
* ( 'Wellington's Dispatches," November 30, 1836, vol. vii.
WELLINGTON.
197
•
Catholic subjects. I cannot but think that I was
placed in a situation to enable me to know more
upon that subject then than others did; and I
decided upon the course which appeared to me at
the time to be attended by the greatest benefit to
the public. My opinion upon it has never
altered; and recent events have tended to convince
me not only that what I did was right, but that if
the measure which I proposed had not been adopted
the country, divided in opinion upon an important
Irish question, would, in addition to its other diffi-
culties, have been at this moment involved in a civil
contest in Ireland."
It was the same with the Corn Laws: he opposed
them; declined to be persuaded by Sir Robert Peel;
broke up the Cabinet; then, when the Queen re-
called Sir Robert, and it was explained to his Grace
that either the restrictions must be repealed or a
rebellion would arise in England, whilst his opposi-
tion would only cause annoyance to the Queen and
mischief to the incoming Minister, the opposition of
the Duke was overcome; he yielded, declaring it
was his duty to stand by his friend and serve her
Majesty. He thought, he said, that the formation
of a Government in which her Majesty would have
confidence was of greater importance than any
opinion of any individual upon the Corn Law or any
198
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
other law. He saw that the Corn Laws were an
untenable measure, and that of the two difficulties it
was better to throw over his personal views upon
the subject than to irritate the country and embarrass
the Queen. Obedience to the Throne was his first
duty.
\
With regard to the question of reform he was more
consistent. He cordially detested the Bill, deeming
it revolutionary and most dangerous to the consti-
tution of Parliament. Yet on the resignation of Earl
Grey, and to avoid the creation of extra peers to
manufacture a majority, he was willing to form an
Administration and effect a compromise with the
Reformers, provided they would be content with less
sweeping measures. "I was called upon," he ex-
plained to his brother peers, "to rescue my Sove-
reign from the embarrassment in which he was placed
by his own servants. When his Majesty did me the
honour of commanding my aid to enable him to
resist a most pernicious counsel, if I had answered,
'I see the difficulties of your Majesty's situation;
but I cannot afford you any assistance, because I
have, in my place in Parliament, expressed strong
opinions against a measure to which your Majesty is
understood to be friendly,' I should have been
ashamed to show my face in the streets. No, I
adopted the course which I am sure would have
WELLINGTON.
199
been that of the veriest enemy of the Bill; I endea-
voured to assist the King in the distressing circum-
stances in which he was pleased to call for my
advice. I repeat, that the question which I was
called on by the King to consider, was not the prac-
ticability of forming a Ministry on my own personal
views of reform, but to enable him to resist the
creation of a multitude of peers for a most unconsti-
tutional and dangerous purpose.
The number
of peers whom it would be necessary to create, to
carry the Reform Bill as it now stands, would, at the
lowest calculation, amount to a hundred.
When I first heard that Ministers had such a pro-
ceeding in contemplation, I treated the rumour as an
absurdity. I believed that not a Minister could be
found wicked enough to propose such a measure.
Many know well that I have ever denounced it as
an impossibility; and while no man entertains a
more deep sense of the constitutional right of the
Crown to create peers, under certain circumstances,
I hold it would be an unjust and unconstitutional
exercise of that Prerogative to create a body of peers
for the purpose of carrying some measure obnoxious
to the House of Lords at large. It was to enable
the Crown to resist the application for so unconsti-
tutional an exercise of Prerogative, that I consented
to assist in forming an Administration on the prin-
•
200
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
ciples I have stated. When, however, I found, from
the tone and result of the discussion which took
place in the other House of Parliament on the resig-
nation of Ministers, and from the opinion of many
leading men in the House of Commons, who were
strenuously averse to a creation of peers, that no
Government could hope to gain the confidence of
that House which did not undertake to carry
through a reform as extensive and efficient as that
now on the table, I had to inform his Majesty that
it was not in my power to fulfil the important com-
mission with which he had honoured me."
As we know, the Reform Bill was carried through
the Upper House by the peers who were hostile to
the measure absenting themselves from the Chamber
at the suggestion of the King.
We now turn to the Duke's foreign policy. The
chief articles of the Treaty of Vienna concerned Italy,
the Netherlands, Poland, and Germany, and the
arrangements then made with regard to these coun-
tries the Duke did not wish to see disturbed. He
did not sympathize with the efforts of the Italians to
release themselves from the hated Austrian yoke,
and to transform their Peninsula into one united
kingdom. When the Belgians were seeking to over-
throw the rule of the Dutch, the insurrection did
not meet with the approval of his Grace. It was
WELLINGTON.
201
the fate of war that Poland should be annexed to
Russia, and it was idle for the conquered people to
break out into revolt against the rule of the Czar; a
nation that showed itself incapable of government
must be governed. By the Treaty of Vienna the
Confederation of the Rhine had been superseded by
the Germanic Confederation, and the Duke saw no
reason why this union of the States of the Father-
land should be disturbed in order to minister to the
ambition of Prussia, and to the degradation of the
Empire of Austria. Union is strength, and a united
Germany in the centre of Europe would be a king-
dom unwise to call into being and calculated to dis-
turb the balance of power on the Continent. But
the chief feature in the foreign policy of the Duke of
Wellington is the sound common-sense and patriotic
foresight that he exercised in the discussion of the
Eastern Question. No man saw clearer the designs
of Russia upon Constantinople, and the necessity of
combating her ambition by the most firm and vigi-
lant resistance. He was not deceived by the high
moral motives ostentatiously professed at St. Peters-
burg that the only object of the Czar in waging war
upon the Mussulman was to relieve the Christians
from the persecutions of the Turk. No statesman
knew better the duplicity of the Russian character,
and the aims of Russian diplomacy. He knew that
202
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Russia had but one object in the settlement of the
Eastern Question-to establish herself upon the
Bosphorus, and secure the command of the Mediter-
ranean. He cared not for imperial promises or
imperial professions; he knew how to appraise at
their full value the pledges and guarantees of Russian
diplomacy; he had been a diplomatist himself, and
he was not ignorant of the subterfuges of a Foreign
Minister, or the masked reading of a State
Paper. Disguise it as she might, conceal her greed
under the cloak of religion, envelop her correspond-
ence in a cloud of verbiage and double meanings, to
Russia the Eastern Question signified the destruction
of the Turk and the possession of Constantinople.
"I confess," writes the Duke to Lord Aberdeen,* at
a time when the Czar was pressing hardly upon the
Sultan, "that it makes me sick when I hear of the
Emperor's desire for peace.
If he desires peace why
does he not make it? Can the Turks resist him for
a moment? He knows that they cannot. Why not
state in conciliatory language his desire for peace and
reasonable terms to which the Porte can accede?
This would give him peace to-morrow.
He is look-
ing to conquest; and by-the-bye, the plunder of
Constantinople, if nothing else, would satisfy more
than one starving claimant upon his bounty, besides
what it would give to the public treasury."
* "Wellington's Dispatches," Aug. 21, 1829.
WELLINGTON.
203
""
Nor was this the opinion of one who had arrived
at his conclusions without any good grounds for
their maintenance. The Duke had taken an impor-
tant part in Russian affairs. In the
In the year 1826, when
the Greeks were struggling for independence, the
revolt had assumed a form dangerous to English
interests. Greece had proved herself a most formi-
dable rebel, her cause had excited much sympathy in
Europe, and she only required the open support of
one of the Great Powers to emancipate herself com-
pletely from the Ottoman rule. Russia saw her
opportunity and was on the point of availing herself
of it. She would aid Greece to crush her hereditary
foe, and hold the coveted Stamboul in her grasp.
((
A war with the Porte," writes the Duke, "under-
taken on any ground would undoubtedly have placed
the Greek case in the hands of the Emperor of
Russia. The Greeks would have become his Im-
perial Majesty's allies, and he would have stipulated
for them what he pleased at the termination of such
war;
in other words a Greek Power would be
established in the Mediterranean "under the influ-
ence and acting in the system of Russia."
menace to England could not be permitted.
policy of the British Government," states the Duke,
"has invariably been to prevent the overthrow of the
Turkish Power in Europe, and the substitution for it
Such a
"The
204
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
of a Russian Power, or a Power under Russian in-
fluence at Constantinople. . . . It must here be
observed that the interest which the British Govern-
ment feel in the maintenance of the Turkish Power
in Europe is common to the rest of the world, Russia
excepted. Neither France, nor Spain, nor Portugal,
nor the Netherlands, nor Austria, nor even Prussia,
could see without alarm the establishment at Con-
stantinople of a Russian Power or one under Russian
influence; and in this as well as in many other re-
spects our well-understood interests are consistent
with those of the rest of the world." Under these
circumstances the insurrection in Greece from its
commencement excited the utmost interest through-
out Europe, and particularly in England. There
were certain unsettled questions between Russia and
the Porte concerning the Principalities of Wallachia
and Moldavia, and it was feared that the Czar would
create a quarrel between himself and the Sultan,
unite his armies with the Greeks, invade Turkey, and
become the master of Constantinople.
"It was
generally understood and apprehended," writes the
Duke, “in the autumn of 1825, that his Imperial
Majesty was preparing to take these unsettled ques-
tions into his own hands, and to push them to all ex-
tremities with the Porte. . . a war by Russia against
the Porte would be a war of ambition and conquest."
WELLINGTON.
205
Fortunately for England Canning stood at the
helm of Government, and he resolved to check-mate
this interference of the Czar. Russia as an inde-
pendent agent dealing with the Greeks could not be
trusted, but Russia as an ally of England in the
cause of mediation between Turkey and Greece would
be prevented, from the very nature of such alliance,
from imposing her own terms upon the Mussulman.
It was considered advisable to dispatch a special
ambassador to St. Petersburg in order to induce the
Czar to act in union with England, and with the other
Powers for the restoration of peace between the Sul-
tan and his rebellious vassal. The Duke of Welling-
ton, from his high rank, his past illustrious services,
and the friendship that existed between him and the
Czar Nicholas, was pointed out by the public voice as
the most fitting agent to undertake this delicate
mission. He accepted the post, and as we know
most successfully accomplished the duties intrusted
to him. By his tact and diplomatic counsel he
obtained the consent of Russia to act in concert
with England, and to agree not to go to war
with the Porte in order to enforce a reconciliation
between the Turks and the Greeks. A treaty
was ultimately concluded between England, France,
and Russia, for the pacification of Greece, Turkey
had to accept the terms offered her, and Athens
206
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
once more became the capital of an independent
kingdom.
"The affair of Greece," writes Wellington, "was
taken up in 1826 in order to prevent a war
between Russia and the Porte, and to prevent
the establishment in Greece of an exclusive Russian
influence." Unfortunately Turkey raised her voice
in opposition to the Powers, and declined to
acknowledge the independence of the Greek king-
dom. Irritated at this refusal, Russia, independently
of her recent allies, determined to compel the
Porte by force of arms to recognise the new
State. In the opinion of the Duke of Wellington
there was no necessity for Russia to have assumed
the aggressive. She was only one of the signing
Powers to the Treaty of London; the obstinacy of
Turkey need not have been resented by the Czar
more hotly than by France or England; nor in the
refusal of the Porte was there any objection that
could not be overcome by the efforts of diplomacy.
His Grace strongly deprecated the independent con-
duct of Russia; he considered it at variance with
the promises he had received; and he asserted the
right of the English Government to watch over the
progress of the contest, and to examine its results.
The Duke well knew that in the struggle between
the Czar and the Sultan it was only a question of
WELLINGTON.
207
time for Turkey to be at the feet of her hereditary
foe. He therefore expressed his opinion to the
Court of St. Petersburg that "the most complete
success in the justest cause would not entitle the
stronger party to demand from the weaker sacrifices
which would affect its political existence, or would
infringe upon that state of territorial possession upon
which the general peace has rested." He also stated
that "demands of indemnity and compensation might
be carried to such an extent as to render compliance
scarcely practicable without reducing the Ottoman
Power to a degree of weakness which would deprive
it of the character of an independent Power." In
reply Russia declared that she had no intention to
make conquests or to aim at the destruction of the
Ottoman Empire. The result of the struggle was
never in doubt. The Turks fought with their
accustomed bravery, but the overwhelming forces of
their enemy carried the day, and the Porte, at the
advice of the Powers, threw itself upon the mercy of
the Czar, and gave in its adhesion to the Treaty of
Adrianople—the articles of which were strongly dis-
approved of by the Duke.
As a statesman, the Duke of Wellington is at his
best when we regard him as a Foreign Minister. He
was too exclusive and unsympathetic when he had
to deal with the welfare of the people at home, but
208
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
on all Continental topics he was essentially in his
element. He knew from his personal acquaintance
with the leaders of European diplomacy what were
the wishes and ambitions of every State in the
family of nations. Though a thorough Englishman
in his tastes and sentiments-he boasted that the
reason Russian spies working their intrigues in the
drawing-rooms of London society disliked him, was
because he was the head of an “English Administra-
tion"-he was yet a noble in almost every country
in Europe. He was a Duke of Ciudad Rodrigo, in
Spain, a Duke of Brunoy, in France, a Duke of
Vittoria, in Portugal, a Prince of Waterloo, in the
Netherlands; he held the bâtons of eight Marshals;
whilst on his breast hung the noblest orders that
monarchs can confer on their subjects. Thus, from
the peculiarity of his position, and from the foreign
intimacies he had cultivated during his brilliant
career, he was more familiar with what may be
termed the practical part of the work of a Foreign
Secretary than falls to the lot of most men. He did
not deal with his subject in the spirit of one who has
acquired his matter from books and the theories of
others, but as one whose personal intercourse had
made him acquainted with the political aspirations
of a people, and with the views of those who swayed
Cabinets. With all the great Foreign Ministers he
•
WELLINGTON.
209
was on terms of cordial intimacy. He was the re-
spected friend of every monarch. Hence, when he
penned a State Paper, his opinions, from the independ-
ent knowledge that he possessed of his subject, car-
ried a weight with them that few Ministers of Foreign
Affairs can command. Unless the interests of England
were calculated to be imperilled by any course that
foreign policy suggested, he considered it his duty to
exert himself to the utmost to secure the political and
commercial prosperity of every country in Europe.
This, he was of opinion, could be best attained by a
careful adherence to the clauses of the Treaty of
Vienna. He was a lover, but no blind and unmanly
lover, of peace; and the surest means in his eyes to
preserve European tranquillity, was not to disturb the
balance of power that the Treaty of Vienna had ad-
justed. That the Duke of Wellington erred in some
of his predictions as when he feared the conse-
quences of the French occupation of Algiers and of
the creation of Belgium into a separate kingdom-
does not invalidate the truth and sound common-
sense conspicuous in the foreign policy he advocated.
We have yet to learn whether the recent alterations in
the map of Europe are more calculated to promote
the peace of the future or to minister to the greed
of territorial annexation.
In summing up the biography of the Duke of
VOL. II.
P
I
210
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Wellington, both as soldier and as statesman, we can
arrive at no other conclusion than that he was a
great Englishman-haughty, proud with all the faults
and virtues of his order, but the pink of honour,
most just in the disposal of his patronage, indifferent
to public applause or public hate, yet ever sensitive
to the verdict of his own conscience, brave, truthful,
straightforward, patriotic.
"I was marvellously struck," writes Charles Gre-
ville in his Memoirs, after a ride through St. James's
Park with the Duke of Wellington, "with the pro-
found respect with which the Duke was treated,
everybody we met taking off their hat to him, every-
body in the park rising as he went by, and every
appearance of his inspiring great reverence. I like
this symptom, and it is the more remarkable because
it is not popularity, but a much higher feeling
towards him. He has forfeited his popularity more
than once; he has taken a line in politics directly
counter to the popular bias; but though in moments
of excitement he is attacked and vilified, when the
excitement subsides there is always a returning senti-
ment of admiration and respect for him, kept alive
by the recollection of his splendid actions, such as
no one else ever inspired. Much, too, as I have
regretted and censured the enormous errors of his
political career (at times), I believe that this senti-
WELLINGTON.
211
ment is in a great degree produced by the justice
which is done to his political character, sometimes
mistaken, but always high-minded and patriotic, and
never mean, false, or selfish. If he has aimed at
power and overrated his own capacity for wielding
it, it has been with the purest intentions and the
most conscientious views. I believe firmly that no
man had ever at heart to a greater degree the honour
and glory of his country; and hereafter, when justice
will be done to his memory, and his character and
conduct be scanned with impartial eyes, if his capa-
city for government appears unequal to the exigen-
cies of the times in which he was placed at the head
of affairs, the purity of his motives, and the noble cha-
racter of his ambition will be amply acknowledged.
He coveted power, but he was perfectly dis-
interested, a great patriot if ever there was one, and
he was always animated by a strong and abiding
sense of duty."
"He died
As he had lived; his country's boast and pride,
Statesman and warrior, who, with patient toil,
Scant and exhausted legions taught to foil
Skill, valour, numbers. One who never sought
A selfish glory from the fields he fought;
Lived, breathed, and felt but for his country's weal,
Her power to 'stablish, and her wounds to heal.
The dread of France, when France was most the dread."
It was impossible for a man who lived so much
before the public, whose every action was watched,
212
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and who was regarded by country visitors as one of
the chief "sights of London," not to be the hero of
many a story. The anecdotes told of the old Duke
are innumerable. A man eminently genial and
kindly in his own set, and to those whom society
introduced him, he yet hated, with all the exclusive-
ness of the haughty aristocrat, to be intruded upon
by strangers, to be asked questions, and to have his
private habits inquired into. His sense of courtesy
"it was his duty"-impelled him to reply to all
queries put to him, but he considered he had satis-
fied the claims both of courtesy and of duty in the
mere fact of replying, and took scant pains to render
his answer either polite or encouraging. Let us cull
-from the readable pages of Stocqueler-a few
specimens of his Grace's now historical correspond-
ence with those who, though perfect strangers, yet
constantly asked his opinions on subjects, worried
him for subscriptions, or desired to "interview" him.
Royalty was about to visit him at his country seat
at Strathfieldsaye, and one of the "gentlemen of the
press" requested permission to be admitted as a re-
porter on the interesting occasion: "Field-Marshal
the Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to
Mr. and begs to say that he does not see what
his house at Strathfieldsaye has to do with the public
press."
WELLINGTON.
213
((
An Irish historical writer was anxious to know
the opinion of the Duke upon the question, whether
Napoleon was guilty of the murder of his prisoners
at Jaffa Field-Marshal the Duke of Wellington
presents his compliments to Mr. H. He has also
received Mr. H.'s letter, and begs leave to inform him
he is not the historian of the wars of the French
Republic in Egypt and Syria."
Authors frequently applied to him to subscribe to
their works: "The Duke begs to decline to give his
name as a subscriber to the book in question; but
if he learns that it is a good book, he may become a
purchaser."
It was in the days of the railway mania, and the
Duke was pestered with touting applications from
the City to become a Director: "F.-M. the Duke of
Wellington presents his compliments. He begs to
decline allowing the use of his name, or giving his
opinion of the proposed line of railway, of which
he knows nothing."
A tradesman requested the Duke to pay a bill of
his son, the Marquis of Douro, then travelling on the
Continent: "F.-M. the Duke of Wellington presents
his compliments to Mr. G. The Duke is not the col-
lector of the Marquis of Douro's debts."
A perfect stranger had begged the Duke to re-
commend him for some appointment: "F.-M. the
214
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Duke of Wellington presents his compliments to Mr.
M'D- The Duke cannot recommend him to the
office, for he knows nothing of him or his family.
The Duke's leisure ought not to be wasted by having
to peruse such applications.
These replies soon found their way into the news-
papers, and the public were much amused by the
grim rudeness of his Grace. During the Chartist
agitation, the people were led to believe that the
Duke was desirous of crushing the disaffection by
physical force. Richard Oastler called upon him,
and in the course of the interview the following con-
versation ensued : "The working people are by your
enemies taught to believe that your Grace wishes to
feed them with bullets and steel.' 'Are they?' asked
Is your Grace
With serious
,,
the Duke. They are, your Grace.
thus inclined? I do not believe it.'
emotion the Duke said: 'I am the last man to wish
for war.
I have gained all that the sword can give,
the Crown excepted, and it is my duty to serve the
Crown.' 'May I tell the people so?' Certainly.
Tell them I hate war, that I shall be the last man to
recommend the sword." "
This assertion went the round, and struck a severe
blow at the mischievous tactics of the Radicals.
An artist had painted a picture of the Battle of
Waterloo, which the Duke bought. As desired, the
WELLINGTON.
215
man of the brush called upon his Grace for payment,
and the Duke proceeded to count out some bank-
notes. The artist, anxious that the time of the Duke
should not be taken up in this manner, suggested
that a cheque on his Grace's bankers would be a
simpler arrangement. The gracious reply was, "And
do you suppose I would allow Coutts's people to
know what a fool I have been?"
cr
The Duke's valet was Kendall; one day his son, a
little boy, was spending the holidays at Apsley
House, and attracted the attention of the Duke.
Whose boy is that?" asked the Duke of his ser-
vant. My son, your Grace.” "I did not know
you had a son, Kendall; send him in and leave him
with me." The boy was ushered into the presence
of the great man, who kindly shook him by the hand
and asked him if he knew who he was. "Yes, sir-
I mean your Grace.” "Oh, my little fellow, it will
be easier for you to call me sir-you call your school-
master sir, don't you?-then call me sir, if you
choose, to-day. Can you play at draughts?" The
boy answered in the affirmative, and the two sat
down to play. The Duke won. "But I really
thought I should have beaten him the second game,
said the lad afterwards to his father; "but he laid a
trap for me, and laughed because I did not observe
it." The game ended, the Duke said to his little
((
>>
216
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
(c
guest, "Well, you shall dine with me to-day—but as
I shall not dine yet, perhaps you would like to see
my pictures?" The boy gladly assented, and the
Duke, acting as guide, took young Kendall through
the galleries, explaining the paintings and statuary
to him. Stopping before his own bust the Duke
asked the boy if it was like his schoolmaster, mean-
ing of course himself. Yes," said the lad, laughing,
"it is very like my schoolmaster." 'Oh, indeed,"
replied the Duke; "well, he is a very good man of
his sort." After this the Duke said, "Come, now we
will go to dinner. I have ordered an early dinner,
as I suppose you dine early at school." "We dine
at one o'clock, sir," answered the boy.
And a very
good hour," rejoined his Grace; "I did so when I
was at school." Having said grace the Duke said
to his guest, "I shall have several things brought to
table, and I shall help you to a little of each, as I
know little boys like to taste all they see." At table
the Duke chatted in the kindest way to the lad, and
when dinner was over dismissed him with these
words, "Now go to your father-be a good boy-do
your duty."
<<
tr
SIR ROBERT PEEL,
THE MINISTER OF EXPEDIENCY.
1788-JULY 2, 1850.
THE statesman who frames the lines of his policy
upon the principles of expediency must expect to be
accused of inconsistency. His opposition or his
adherence to certain recognised measures is influenced
not by the bigotry of his personal opinions, but by
the course events have taken. He supports what he
once opposed; he rejects what he once upheld;
not necessarily because he is weak and interested,
but because he finds, from the force of surrounding
circumstances, that it is unwise to attempt to stem
the tide of public opinion. Such a man may be a
scheming adventurer, trimming his sails to catch
every passing breeze, or he may be a politician,
influenced by the highest and the most honourable
motives. It is only from the context of his life that
we are able to decide whether he is unscrupulous or
conscientious, and not from the individual fact of his
desertion of former principles.
218
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
In no pursuit is inconsistency more pardonable
than in the pursuit of politics. The gift of pro-
phecy is no longer in the possession of mankind,
and without being able to foretell what will happen
in the future, political consistency is a phrase.
Measures we resisted at one time will at another
come before us in so different a light that it would
be perverseness of the most culpable nature to
continue our opposition. Opinions that we held
on certain subjects will, by the progress of events,
be rendered no longer tenable. However much we
may wish to lag behind, we must march with the
times. We may be slower than others in casting
away our prejudices, or in arriving at conclusions.
that have already been approved of, but unless
we wish to be considered as devoid of common-
sense we cannot, for the mere sake of consistency,
encourage what has been shown to be mischievous,
or oppose what has been proved to be sound. There
are men who can see further into the future than
others, who can foretell the course certain events
will take, and who, by a careful study of the spirit of
the age in which they live, are able to form opinions
which they will not be called upon to change, and
anticipations which one day they will see realised.
Such men are, however, not the "apostles of
expediency," but possess mental characteristics utterly
1
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
219
opposed to the short-sighted, who take expediency
as their guide. Sir Robert Walpole was the type
of the one, Sir Robert Peel was the type of the
other. In Walpole we see a man of keen and
comprehensive foresight, of profound knowledge
of character, holding views in advance of his age,
an intelligence creative and self-reliant, a politi-
cian who instinctively knew the result of certain
combinations, and whose anticipations as to the
future were seldom at fault. Nature had cast Sir
Robert Peel in a very different mould. The moral
qualities that Walpole lacked he possessed, in the
intellectual gifts with which the great Minister of
Peace was so richly endowed he was painfully defi-
cient. His mind was receptive, not creative; and
being devoid of imagination and originality, he was
given to rely too much upon the suggestions and
influences of others. He could follow, but he could
not lead. In dealing with the present, his judgment
was sound and accurate; but he was incapable of
fashioning his policy so that it might meet the re-
quirements of the future. He could look back; the
range of his vision took in all that was in his imme-
diate neighbourhood, but he could not see beyond.
He failed to read aright the spirit of his age and the
direction which events were shaping for themselves.
Hence it was his misfortune to be constantly mis-
220
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
taken in his estimate of public questions. When he
supported or opposed a measure, he regarded the
matter only as it affected the present, and he never
seemed to take into consideration that such hos-
tility or advocacy might one day be attended with
the most baneful consequences. When he opposed
the currency schemes of Mr. Horner, the emancipa-
tion of the Roman Catholics, and the repeal of the
Corn Laws, his antagonism was as decided as it was
short-sighted. Wanting prescience, he could only
look upon these questions as they then appeared to
his view, and not as they might in the future be
made to appear.
The result was that his mind,
lacking self-reliance and those statesman-like gifts
which can, to a certain extent, anticipate the course
of events, was always open to new impressions.
None but the most malevolent will accuse Sir Robert
Peel of having changed his political creed from base
and interested motives. It was his misfortune to
come to a conclusion at one moment, which at
another he felt it was his duty to abandon. Where
a politician is persistently mistaken, and where he
gains by the rectification of his errors, it is of course
easy to attribute such change of opinion to selfish
and mercenary reasons. The whole career of Sir
Robert Peel is, however, at variance with such an
interpretation of his conduct. His high tone of
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
221
honour, his love of truth, the pure and disinterested
character of his ambition, the very frankness with
which he avowed his past errors, and his conversion
to new principles, all prove that though his mind was
narrow, and too prone to form untenable conclusions,
he was yet a man honest and sincere of purpose.
His prejudices were strong, and the grasp of his
intellect narrow; and it is the character of such
minds to warmly espouse a cause at one moment,
which at another they as warmly throw over.
Always dependent upon others, always open to con-
viction, they are moved according as their superiors
direct. When Sir Robert Peel rose up in opposition
to the financial propositions of Mr. Horner, he was
fully of opinion that he was in the right in con-
demning them; nor did he consider his integrity
sullied when he admitted that he had become a
convert to Mr. Horner's views. When he opposed
the emancipation of the Roman Catholics, it was his
conscientious impression that to relieve the subjects
of the Pope of their disabilities was a favour which
would be most prejudicial to the interests of the
State; nor did he deem it incompatible with a keen
sense of honour for him afterwards to rise in his
place and to state that circumstances had made him
change his opinions, and that the time had now
arrived when he felt that it was expedient to move
222
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
It
for the emancipation of the Roman Catholics.
was the same with his opposition to the repeal of the
Corn Laws, and his subsequent conversion. He had
refused to countenance these measures in all honour
and good faith; time had shown him how false and
short-sighted had been his opposition, and he was
anxious to repair the mistakes of the past.
Sir Robert Peel has been stigmatized by many as a
"turncoat" and a "traitor," but to those who carefully
study his political career, he will appear more in the
light of a conscientious convert than of a self-seeking
apostate. That he was a statesman in the highest sense
of the word—in the sense of a man whose genius offers
a practical creed to his party, who inspires his fol-
lowers with the spirit of his ideas, and whose tact and
temper keep even discordant elements in harmony-
it is idle, in the face of such open changes of opinion,
to attempt to make Sir Robert Peel appear. There
are authors who only want originality for their works
to be brilliant successes. Give them a plot or a
leading idea, and their beauty of style, their know-
ledge of human nature, and their powers of descrip-
tion will create a novel or a play which will deeply
interest all its readers or spectators. What such
men are in literature Sir Robert Peel was in politics.
Give him a policy and none knew better than he how
to make it acceptable to his followers, how to excite
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
223
the approval of the country, and how to work upon
the sympathies and prejudices of the House of Com-
mons. Without a policy he was like a builder who
has his men and materials around him, but who has
been unable to engage the services of an architect.
The purely receptive character of the intellect of Sir
Robert Peel failed to raise him to the position of a
great statesman, but his abilities, his eloquence, his
powers of debate, his subtle knowledge of all the
strategies of political warfare, have caused him
instead to be handed down to posterity as the
greatest Member of Parliament, next to Walpole, that
England has ever seen.
Sir Robert Peel, the second baronet of the line,
was sprung from that class, which in days bygone
was a great power in the country, and not to be
compared with the feeble community it has since
degenerated into, the yeomanry. His father, having
amassed a large fortune as a successful cotton-spinner,
entered the House of Commons for the borough of Tam-
worth, in the neighbourhood of which town he had
bought an extensive property. A man of sound judg-
ment, of great wealth, and an authority on all commer-
cial and financial questions, he became one of the most
enthusiastic supporters of the second Pitt, and his ad-
herence, after some ten years of parliamentary devo-
tion, was rewarded by that Minister with a baronetcy.
224
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
The first baronet was not slow to perceive that
in his eldest son he had an heir who would one
day reflect no little honour upon the new title.
Already the future statesman had as a lad given
signs of that promise which in after-life was SO
completely fulfilled. He was passionately fond of
reading, and what he read he remembered; he took
the interest of a man in the topics of the day; he
gave no signs of the brilliancy of genius, but all who
came in contact with him were struck by his pro-
digious memory, his common-sense, the facility with
which he expressed himself, his thoughtful demean-
our, and the severity of his application. His proud
father, sensible of the lad's gifts, declared that they
should be devoted to the State, and in a spirit of
paternal vanity, inspired by the precedent of his
admired leader, Mr. Pitt, prophesied that his son
would one day become Prime Minister.
After a preparatory education at the hands of a tutor
at home, young Peel was sent to Harrow. Here his
studious habits, the information he had already ac-
quired, and the regularity of his conduct, soon raised
him into notice. "I remember," writes Lord Dalling
in his interesting and careful sketch of the statesman,
that my tutor, Mark Drury, who, some years pre-
vious to my becoming his pupil, had Peel in the
same position, preserved many of his exercises; and
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
225
on one occasion brought some of them down from a
shelf, in order to show me with what terseness and
clearness my predecessor expressed himself both in
Latin and English." Lord Byron confirms this testi-
mony. "Peel," he says, "the orator and statesman that
was, or is, or is to be, was my form-fellow, and we
were both at the top of our remove, in public school
phrase. We were on good terms, but his brother
was my intimate friend. There were always great
hopes of Peel amongst us all, masters and scholars,
and he has not disappointed them. As a scholar he
was greatly my superior; as a declaimer and actor I
was reckoned at least his equal; as a schoolboy out
of school I was always in scrapes-he, never." The
boy is father of the man. We see Peel here as he
was in after-life-the scholar, or the man rich with
the erudition of others, the ready speaker, the clear
writer, endowed with the gifts that command atten-
tion but do not dazzle, the man pure of life and
of irreproachable conduct. From Harrow he went
up to Christchurch, and distinguished himself by
taking the highest honour the University can bestow
—a double first-class. Nor did he pose as the mere
reading-man who despises all amusement.
His shy-
ness had worn off, and he was a frequent guest in
the rooms of old Harrovians; he played cricket; he
boated on the river; he rode to hounds when there
VOL. II.
226
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
was a meet in the neighbourhood, yet, whilst enjoying
the pleasures of life, he studiously avoided its vices.
A year after quitting Oxford, he took his seat in the
House of Commons as member for Cashel, a borough
which the wealth of his father had purchased for him.
The period of his entrance into the arena of par-
liamentary life was favourable to youthful ambition.
Mr. Perceval was then at the head of affairs. His
Cabinet was weak and divided by internal jealousies,
the men in whom the country had confidence were
incompetent, whilst those whose abilities were un-
questioned were regarded with mistrust. There was
a lack of rising talent on the Ministerial side of the
House, and Mr. Perceval gladly welcomed the en-
trance of young Peel into the ranks of his supporters.
The new member was chosen to second the Address,
and made a most favourable impression upon his
audience. His earlier speeches, though they were
marked by no especial eloquence, were yet clever
specimens of special pleading, and plainly fore-
shadowed the distinction to which the speaker in
later years attained. After a couple of years of
apprenticeship he was appointed Under Secretary
for the Colonies, a post which he shortly afterwards
exchanged, on the assassination of Mr. Perceval, for
the high and responsible office of Chief Secretary for
Ireland.
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
227
G
In the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool the emancipation
of the Roman Catholics had, as we know, been decided
upon being left an open question. Among the fol-
lowers of the Prime Minister were men like Canning,
who held that the time had now arrived when all
English subjects who were under the sway of the
Vatican should be relieved from their disabilities,
and men like Lord Eldon who were of opinion that
it was as impossible to serve God and Mammon as it
was to serve the Pope and the King. Still much as
they differed upon this subject the members of the
Government were in perfect harmony upon all other
matters that fell within their consideration. The
young Chief Secretary had ranged himself on the
side of those who disagreed from the views of
Mr. Canning. To him the emancipation of the
Roman Catholics was one of those questions which it
was impossible to settle without paving the way for
further demands which it would be most dangerous
to the interests of the State to grant. Admit the
Roman Catholic peer to the House of Lords, and the
Roman Catholic commoner to the House of Com-
mons, and the privilege would only serve as the thin
end of the wedge for further concessions. The
Roman Catholic politician would at once agitate for
the removal of those obstacles which debarred him
from holding the seals of office. The Roman Catholic
228
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
barrister would seek to exchange the gown of the
advocate for the ermine of the judge. The advisers
of a Protestant Sovereign might thus be selected
from those of a hostile creed; and a terrible picture
was drawn of the King being surrounded by a
Roman Catholic Cabinet, with a Roman Catholic
Chancellor as the keeper of the royal conscience,
a Roman Catholic Privy Council to advise, and a
Roman Catholic Bench to interpret the laws.
Nor was this all. Religion was the predominating
influence in every earnest and enlightened mind, and
the Roman Catholic, relieved of his political disabi-
lities, would not be content until his religious dis-
abilities were also removed. He would require the
rank of his own bishops and clergy to be openly
recognised; his Church to be treated as the equal
of the established creed of the land; and across
St. George's Channel the protestantism of a minority
no longer to dominate over the hereditary faith of
the majority. To Robert Peel, a representative Tory,
the emancipation of the Roman Catholics signified
the leavening of Protestant institutions with a dis-
loyal and mischievous Popery and the abolition of
the Irish Church.
"I am not one of those," said the Chief Secretary
when opposing the motion of Mr. Grattan in 1813, for
the immediate consideration in a committee of the
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
229
(C
whole House of the laws affecting the Roman Catholics,
'I am not one of those who think that the removal
of the present restrictions upon the Catholics is an
object of little concern to them. It is only natural
that those who embark in the lottery of life should
be desirous to have the chance, at least, of attaining
the highest prizes. But let the Catholics recollect
that they are not only unwilling to pay the same
price for political privileges that is exacted from the
other subjects of his Majesty, but that they have
hitherto refused to submit to the same restrictions.
that, with their own consent, are imposed upon the
Catholics of other countries wherein the Government
is not Catholic; and this with the Pope's consent.
When gentlemen refer us to the state of the Catholics
of Canada, and to their admission to offices there and
in Russia, let them recollect that the cases are not
parallel. That, in Canada, the Protestant Sovereign
of this country has the appointment of the Catholic
bishops of Quebec, and that when the Empress
Catherine founded the Catholic Church of Mohilau,
the Pope, as a matter of course, granted his sanction
to the appointment of a bishop nominated by the
Empress. Let gentlemen recollect, when they charge
us with bigotry and with intolerance, that the claims
now advanced by the Catholics are claims which
unquestionably would have been rejected without
230
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
hesitation at a time when Catholic Princes were
upon the throne of these realms, and when Catholics.
composed its Legislature. I am not now inquiring
whether those securities which have been required
from the Catholics are adequate or not adequate for
the purpose proposed; but I contend that, whilst
they are neither unprecedented nor unreasonable,
and are yet withheld by the Catholics themselves,
they have no ground-not the slightest to complain
of the injustice of their own disqualifications.
Sir, we are told that, because we have granted
so much, we cannot with consistency withhold that
which we now refuse to concede. That, having given
to the Catholics the elective franchise, we have given
them substantially political power; and that it is
only absurd to allow a Catholic to be represented,
and yet not allow him to be a representative. I will
not now argue whether the grant of the elective
franchise was a wise one or not; but I can see
reasons for that concession which in no way apply to
the concession of the farther privileges now de-
manded. We have said to the Catholics, you are
possessed of property, and you shall have the fran-
chise which that property confers; you shall not be
taxed without your own consent-you shall exert
influences in the State; but we insist on this qualifi-
cation on your representative, that he shall disavow
(C
1
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
231
<<
opinions and tenets which we believe to be hostile to
the establishments of the country in Church and
State. And where is the hardship of this-at all
events to those represented? Does it weaken the
exertions of the friends of the Catholics because they
are bound to abjure the Catholic faith? If we admit
Catholics into Parliament, shall we find them more
eager in the cause than some of their Protestant
friends at present are?
Sir, there is only one other point to
which I will advert. The right honourable gentle-
man says, that the Catholics have disclaimed all the
dangerous tenets that have been imputed to them;
and that the answers of the universities, and the
oaths which the Catholics take, must satisfy every
reasonable mind that there is no danger to the State
in their present opinions. Sir, I own that I require
more than the mere disclaimers of such doctrines as
these, that the Pope has the power of deposing
sovereigns, or that faith is not to be kept with
heretics. Whilst the supremacy of any earthly
prince is admitted within these realms, of whatever
nature that supremacy may be, spiritual or temporal,
it ought to be defined, without the possibility of
error or of misconstruction.
We know that, at pre-
sent, it is not so. Catholic writers themselves have
told us, that whilst the spiritual supremacy of the
232
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Pope, unexplained and unlimited as it is, is admitted,
no great security must be expected from restrictions
on the exercise of his temporal authority. Surely it
behoves the Catholic Prelates to meet in synod, and
to remove the possibility of misconception on this
point. They must be aware there is a great jealousy
of the exercise of any foreign authority within these
realms; there have been instances in the history of
this country in which the spiritual supremacy of the
Pope has been called in to countenance proceedings
which might justify an apprehension that the limits
of spiritual authority were not sufficiently defined.
Sir, we are told we are not to treat with,
but legislate for, Catholics; yet when the right
honourable gentleman is asked what securities he
will propose, he answers that he has not any to pro-
pose, and that to one he will not consent; that is, to
the veto.* But what sort of legislation is this?
Why is the veto abandoned? Because the Catholics
will not consent to it. And if we abandon it on
these grounds, upon what principle can we insist on
domestic nomination, which we have every reason to
believe to be equally objectionable to Catholics?
There was a time, sir, when, by Catholic prelates
themselves, the veto was admitted not to be incom-
((
*The Roman Catholics refused to grant the Crown a veto on the
appointment of Roman Catholic bishops in Ireland.
1
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
233
patible with the Catholic religion. That admission
they have retracted; but they have not accompanied
that retraction with any admission that domestic
nomination is more consistent with it. If, then, you
think securities absolutely necessary; and if these
prelates have recently issued a formal declaration
that, in the present state of their Church, no altera-
tion, at this time, can take place in the mode of their
appointment, I should think that every person-save
those who wish to see all privileges granted to Catho-
lics without any restriction whatever-must see the
utter impossibility of coming to any final or concilia-
'tory adjustment of Catholic claims at the present
moment, and oppose the motion of the right honour-
able gentleman.
He raised the same objections a few years later,
when Mr. Grattan again brought the question before
the House of Commons:
""
Do you
"If you give the Catholics," said he, "that fair
proportion of national power to which their numbers,
wealth, talents, and education will entitle them, can
you believe that they will, or can remain, contented
with the limits which you assign to them?
think that when they constitute, as they must do,
not this year or next, but in the natural and there-
fore certain order of things, by far the most powerful
body in Ireland-the body most controlling and
234
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
directing the government of it-do you think, I say,
that they will view with satisfaction the state of your
Church or their own? Do you think that if they
are constituted like other men-if they have organs,
senses, affections, passions like ourselves; if they
are, as no doubt they are, sincere and zealous pro-
fessors of that religious faith to which they belong;
if they believe your intrusive Church to have
usurped the temporalities which it possesses, do you
think that they will not aspire to the re-establishment
of their own Church in all its ancient splendour? Is it
not natural that they should?
If I argue
argue from
my
own feelings, if I place myself in their situation, I
answer that it is. May I not then, without throwing
any calumnious imputations upon any Roman Catho-
lics
I not, arguing from the motives by
may
which men are actuated, from the feelings which
nature inspires—may I not question the policy of ad-
mitting those who must have views hostile to the
religious establishments of the State to the capacity
of legislating for the interests of those establish-
ments, and the power of directing the Government of
which those establishments form so essential a part?"
This opposition of the Irish Secretary to the
claims of the Catholics at once brought him into a
collision with O'Connell, which, at one time, nearly
resulted in an appeal to arms. By the Protestants
•
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
235
Peel was regarded as one of their most stalwart de-
fenders, whilst the Papists, uniting his name with his
principles, nicknamed him "Orange Peel." Yet the
views of the Irish Secretary, though hostile to the
demands of the Catholic Association at that time,
show that he was far from being an intolerant and
bigoted foe. The leaven of expediency was even
then working in his mind and making its presence
felt. He was desirous of mitigating the antagonism
between Protestant and Catholic by the advantages
of education. He admitted that the Protestant had
much to fear, and that from the Catholic point of
view there were grievances to redress; if the Pro-
testant could soften his prejudice and the Papist
grant the securities that were desired, the question
might be settled. His speech upon the position of
the Irish Church shows that he was fully alive to the
manner in which the English Government was ruling
the sister kingdom. He felt that the day would
come when civil equality would have to be accorded
to the Roman Catholics, and that as the natural
result of such a measure religious equality would
also have to be granted. But the hour had not yet
arrived. With a Sovereign warmly opposed to
emancipation, and supported by the Prime Minister,
by half the Cabinet, by most of the landed gentry,
and all the Anglican clergy, it was most inexpedient
236
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
to advocate a Catholic policy. Still, at a future
moment and under other circumstances, what was
now unwise and impracticable might not only be
possible, but be just. Therefore he had said-and
these words may be remembered when the charge of
inconsistency is brought against him-"I should
think that every person-save those who wish to see
all privileges granted to Catholics without any restric-
tion whatever-must see the utter impossibility of
coming to any final or conciliatory adjustment of
Catholic claims at the present moment, and oppose
the motion of the right honourable gentleman."
He was now, after six years of devoted service, to
resign his Irish duties. The Speaker of the House
of Commons had been raised to the peerage, and a
vacancy had thus been created in the representation
of the University of Oxford. The seat was keenly
coveted, and Peel and Canning entered the lists as
competitors. Aided by the interest of Lord Eldon
and the anti-Catholic party, the Irish Secretary was
returned at the head of the poll. Shortly after this
satisfactory result had been obtained, Peel retired
from the Liverpool Administration. What were the
reasons which induced him to take this step we know
not. He may have wished, as the representative of
one of the most important of English constituencies,
to enter more intimately into the political life of the
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
237
He
House of Commons, and to have increased opportuni-
ties of coping with his brilliant rival Canning.
may have thought it "expedient" to withdraw him-
self from a Government which, always weak and
divided, had now fallen, to use Lord Dudley's words,
"into a state of discredit and insignificance." He
may have felt that, in the present condition of
Ireland, he was unable to profit or carry out those
measures which he considered necessary for the wel-
fare of the country. Whatever were the causes
which led him to resign the seals as Chief Secretary
for Ireland, he returned to the House of Commons,
and for the next three years remained out of office.
His administration of Irish affairs had added much
to his reputation as a practical statesman. Disap-
proving of the constant employment of the military
to repress civil outrages and mob discontent, he had
proceeded to introduce a new police force, which to
this day is still called "Peelers." He encouraged
education, believing that many of the evils under
which Ireland laboured would be removed by a wise
and enlightened system of instruction. Real, sub-
stantial, and permanent reform," he said, "amongst
the lower classes, could be looked for only from the
general diffusion of knowledge, and from enlightening
their minds. From such sources of reform he anti-
cipated the grandest and the noblest results. He could
((
238
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
state it as a fact within his own knowledge, that the
greatest eagerness for instruction prevailed amongst
the lower classes. It was the duty of every one,
even in these times of economy, not to obstruct the
progress or the limits of education, which ought to
be as widely as possible diffused. It would be infi-
nitely better for Ireland and for this country to have
a well-instructed and enlightened Catholic population
than an ignorant and bigoted one!"
Though it had been necessary for him to adopt, as
every Irish Secretary before him had adopted, the
policy of coercion, he essayed his utmost to temper
severity with leniency and forbearance. It was not
long before those who had bitterly assailed his mea-
sures had to admit that, considering the culpable
manner in which the Government then ruled Ireland,
Robert Peel had proved himself far more of a friend
to the country than a harsh official carrying out cruel
instructions, and blind to everything save the self-
interest which was to be found in a dependent and im-
plicit obedience.
During the brief period of his exclusion from
office he rose rapidly in the estimation of the House
of Commons. His eloquence was never of the
highest order, but it was characterized by a business-
like mastery of details and a clearness of exposition
which by many was preferred to the brilliancy of
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
239
Canning.
He had the peculiar gift of selecting from
a mass of irrelevant matter only that which was of
importance, and of dealing with his subject without
unnecessary digression or verbiage. He was always
ready in debate, and as he made a point of making
himself thoroughly familiar with the various ques-
tions that came up for discussion, he was a dangerous
antagonist for the superficial to encounter. Diligent
in his attendance upon committees, a weighty
speaker, and gradually becoming recognised as one of
the chief authorities in the House on all matters
relating to finance, the paternal prophecy that he
would one day become Prime Minister was far from
being an empty boast giving little promise of reali-
sation.
Not a political discussion of any importance
arose but found Robert Peel among the names of
those who took a prominent part in the debate. He
defended the "Peterloo Massacre," and warmly
supported the Ministers against the attacks of the
Opposition. He approved of the passing of the
notorious Six Acts. He refused, however, to side
with the Government in the persecution of the un-
happy Queen Caroline, and, like Canning, held him-
self aloof from the intrigues of the Court party on
that occasion. But the great question which at this
time occupied his undivided attention, was the ques-
240
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tion of the Currency. Towards the close of the
eighteenth century the Bank had declared that its
notes would not be converted, on presentation, into
gold. We were then harassed by a grievous war,
and in consequence of this decision of its directors,
the Bank was enabled to make larger advances to the
Government than it otherwise could have done, and
thus to materially assist the country under the dis-
tressing circumstances in which she was then placed.
Still, the resolution pressed most severely upon the
mercantile community. A bank-note which could
be converted into gold on presentation was equivalent
to gold; but a bank-note which "simply specified
the obligation to pay gold for it some day or other,"
caused its value to be dependent on the credit at-
tached to the promise.
At home, because the English people had con-
fidence in the Government, and knew that the
Bank of England was so safe as to have passed
into a proverb, little inconvenience or depreciation
arose from the consequences of this transaction.
A twenty-shilling bank-note bought the same goods,
and was the same value to the tradesman or the
customer as twenty shillings in silver. But on
the Continent a very different view prevailed. Gold
was gold all the world over, but a paper bank-
note of England depended upon the solvency of the
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
241
,,
Bank and the security of the English Government.
It was a promise to pay, not the payment itself.
"If an English merchant had to purchase goods on
the Continent, and he sent out bank-notes, the mer-
chant at St. Petersburg would have less confidence in
the English bank-note than the Manchester merchant,
and he would therefore say, 'No, pay me in gold;
or if you want to pay me in bank-notes I will only
take them at the value I place on them.' In pro-
portion, therefore, to the extent of purchases abroad
was the natural abasement of paper money at home,
and the increase in the value of gold as compared
with paper.
The consequence of this false state
of things was to send gold out of the country where
it could command its real, and not its nominal,
value, until exportation had so drained England of
its precious metals, that "fifteen shillings in coin
became at last equivalent to twenty shillings in bank-
notes.
""
The question of the Currency had been frequently
brought before the House of Commons by Mr. Horner
during his lifetime, but as the resumption of cash
payments could not take place without great loss
both to the individual and the public, his sugges-
tions had failed to command the attention they
* Quoted from Lord Dalling's "Sketch of Sir Robert Peel," where
the whole case is most clearly put.
VOL. II.
R
242
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
deserved. The country was now at peace, and,
thanks to the agitation of the economists, the matter
was again seriously discussed. A select committee
was appointed to deal with the question, and Robert
Peel was voted to the chair. Up to this date he
had invariably opposed the motions of Mr. Horner, but
after having listened to the evidence brought before
him, and to the conclusions that the greatest political
economists of the day had arrived at, he candidly
admitted his change of opinion.
"He was free to say," he informed the House when
introducing the report of the Secret Committee on the
state of the bank, "that in consequence of that evi-
dence, and the discussions upon it, his opinion with
regard to this question had undergone a material
change. He was ready to avow, without shame or
remorse, that he went into the Committee with an
opinion very different from that which he at present
entertained, for his views of the subject were most
materially different when, in 1811, he voted against
the resolutions brought forward by Mr. Horner as the
Chairman of the Bullion Committee." He now, in a
close and well-reasoned speech, advised that the Bank
should at the earliest possible period resume cash pay-
ments, and that a metallic standard of value should
be adopted. Sir Isaac Newton," he stated, "retiring
from the sublime studies in which he chiefly passed
(c
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
243
his life-from the contemplation of the heavenly
bodies, and from an investigation of the laws by
which these motions were guided-entered upon the
examination of this subject. But that great man
came, at last, back to the old-the vulgar-doctrine,
as some called it, that the true standard of value
consisted in a definite quantity of gold bullion.
Every sound writer on the subject came to the same
conclusion, that a certain weight of gold bullion with
an impression on it, denoting it to be of that certain
weight, and of a certain fineness, constituted the
only true, intelligible, and adequate standard of
value; and to that standard the country must
return, or the difficulties of our position would be
aggravated as we proceeded."
The result of this speech, and of the labours of the
Finance Committee, was to compel the Government
to repay the sums which it owed to the Bank, and to
force the Bank to resume cash payments at a date
which that corporation anticipated by resuming them
in 1821. In the division that ensued, it was curious
to see father and son for the first time in their lives
in political opposition. Sir Robert Peel was in
favour of paper money, and it is reported that he
was heard to say with great bitterness, on the pass-
ing of the Cash Payments Bill, "Robert has doubled
his fortune, but ruined his country!"
244
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
In his conduct on this occasion we see the peculiar
faults and virtues which characterize the future
statesman. He had opposed the scheme of Mr.
Horner because at the time it was proposed it was
impracticable-the State required advances from the
Bank, which the Bank, owing to the system that
then prevailed, was able to grant; the action of
commerce was fettered by the war which was being
waged; whilst the resumption of cash payments
would have inflicted a great loss upon the Govern-
ment, already deeply involved, and upon the indi-
viduals already much pinched by heavy taxation.*
Mr. Peel, therefore, pursued a wise and sound course
in voting against the motion of Mr. Horner. But his
opposition should only have been temporary. Had
he been gifted with the prescience of a statesman,
and with a mind creative and independent, he would,
as soon as peace had been restored, have foreseen
the evils that arose from the circulation of incontro-
vertible paper, and have anticipated his conversion
by the arguments of the economists.
Yet such was
his candour and freedom from the fears of incon-
* For many years in England every transaction had been carried
on in paper. Individuals had borrowed money in it, and had received
this money in bank-notes. If they were called upon to repay it in
gold, they paid twenty-five per cent. beyond the capital they had
received. On the other hand, if individuals had purchased annuities,
the seller, whether the Government or an individual, had to pay them
twenty-five per cent. more than they had purchased.-LORD DALLING.
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
245
sistency, that the moment he was convinced of the
unsoundness of his opposition, he not only avowed,
without shame and remorse," his change of opinion,
but, as in the case of the Corn Laws, was the spokes-
man and chief agent in passing the measure that he
had been amongst the foremost in denouncing. Mr.
Peel is not to be blamed for having adopted the
views of Mr. Horner, he is only to be blamed that it
was ever necessary for the economists to have
educated him up to their standard. Had he been as
far-seeing as he was open to conviction, it would not
have fallen to his lot to have been mistaken in
almost every policy that he first counselled.
The Government of Lord Liverpool, from the dis-
integrating influences in the Cabinet, its anti-Catholic
policy, and its persecution of Queen Caroline, was
both weak and unpopular. To propitiate the Catho-
lics office was offered to Mr. Wynn, who was the
representative of the Grenvilles, whilst as a counter-
balance and as a sop to the Protestant party, the
seals of the Home Office were intrusted to the hands
te
of Mr. Peel. These two appointments greatly
strengthened the Government. The post of Home
Secretary was one peculiarly suited to the methodical
habits of Mr. Peel, whilst his genius for arrangement
and the humanity of his sentiments found a wide
field for action. He introduced various improve-
246
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
ments in the then terrible state of the criminal law.
Availing himself of the labours of Sir James Mackin-
tosh and Sir Samuel Romilly, he essayed to erase
from the Statute Book the terrible penalties that were
inflicted for trifling offences. He endeavoured to
bring the police, as he had done in Ireland, into a
state of efficiency. He instituted several beneficent
reforms in prison discipline, and sought to improve
the revolting condition in which our cells and dun-
geons were then kept. He removed those restric-
tions which imposed any temporary or extraordinary
restraint on thẻ liberty of the subject. In the dis-
charge of these duties and in the establishment of
these reforms, he was as much influenced by the
practical knowledge of the statesman as the humanity
of the philanthropist.
On the retirement of Lord Liverpool, the struggle
ensued between the two divisions of the Tory party,
which ended in the supremacy of Canning. Peel
threw in his fortunes with the Duke of Wellington.
His Grace declined to serve under Mr. Canning; Mr.
Canning refused to acknowledge the Duke as his
chief. Since the contest had been narrowed to a
personal competition between Wellington and Can-
ning for the Premiership, Mr. Peel gave in his
adherence to the great warrior. Both his principles
and his ambition influenced him in arriving at this
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
247
decision. The Duke and he were at one with regard
to the Catholic Question; with the Duke in the
Upper House as the head of the Cabinet, he would
be left supreme in the House of Commons, whilst
those who were his own political friends supported
the views of the Duke and not of Mr. Canning.
On the other hand, should he consent to take office
in the mixed Cabinet proposed by Canning, he would
find himself overshadowed in the House of Com-
mons by the presence and position of his chief; he
would be associated with colleagues who were per-
sonal strangers to him, and with whose political
principles he disagreed, and he would feel himself iso-
lated by the views he held upon the Catholic Question.
Under these circumstances Mr. Peel tendered his re-
signation, in union with the Duke of Wellington and
Lords Eldon, Westmoreland, Melville, and Bathurst.
With regard to this withdrawal of Mr. Peel from
the Canning Cabinet much has been said and written.
Yet it appears to me that it requires little explana-
tion, and is capable of the simplest construction.
Mr. Peel had no objection to serve with Mr. Canning,
but the rivalry between them compelled him to refuse
to serve under Mr. Canning. He saw that by casting
in his lot with the Duke of Wellington he would best
further his own interests, and he unhesitatingly
severed his connection with the brilliant orator.
248
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
There is nothing in the career of Mr. Peel to show
that he was above the promptings of ambition, or
that an interested course was foreign to his political
principles. He thought it expedient to desert Can-
ning, and he deserted him. That the advocacy of
the Catholic claims by the Premier was the sincere
and conscientious reason which caused Mr. Peel to
decline office at the time even the warmest apologist
for his conduct will scarcely accept. None knew
better than Mr. Peel that, in spite of every resist-
ance, Catholic emancipation was a measure that was
doomed to become law, and his subsequent conduct
only proves how lightly his objections sat upon him,
and how flimsy and insincere were the excuses he
gave to mask a purely interested policy.
His exclusion from office was of brief duration.
Mr. Canning's tenure of power lasted but a few
months, and on the fall of the Goderich Administra-
tion the Duke of Wellington was summoned to form
a Cabinet, and Mr. Peel sat upon the Treasury bench
as leader of the House of Commons, whilst resuming
his duties as Home Secretary. The new Ministry
had held office but a few months when it became
evident to the less bigoted of the advisers of the
Crown that Catholic emancipation must be carried.
The desertion of the Canningites had weakened the
Government. O'Connell was lashing the Irish into
1
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
249
furious opposition by his powerful eloquence, whilst
the efforts of the Catholic agitators on both sides of
St. George's Channel were every day becoming more
menacing and successful. It was a choice between
two evils-between the restoration of peace by
granting the Catholic claims, or the inciting of civil
war by resisting them. As Lord Anglesea, the Irish
Viceroy, put it, there was no way of dealing with the
Catholic organization but by satisfying the demands
of the Catholics.
Mr. Peel was rapidly becoming converted to the
same view. Under former Administrations, with
a mixed Cabinet, a divided House of Commons,
agitation seething but not boiling over, and Ireland
sullen but not aggressive, it had been expedient
to oppose the claims of the Catholics. But such
resistance was now impolitic, and Mr. Peel, true to
his maxim of expediency, was prepared to grant
what he had before refused. It was true, he said,
that he had uniformly opposed Catholic emancipa-
tion, and his opinions had rested on broad and
uncompromising grounds. He admitted that his
views had not materially changed upon the subject,
and he expressed a wish that he could believe that
if full concessions were made, they would be exempt
from the dangers he had anticipated, or result in the
advantage their advocates so fondly hoped. Yet,
250
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
whatever was his opinion, he could not conceal from
himself that the state of Ireland under existing cir-
cumstances was most unsatisfactory, and that it
became necessary to make a choice between different
kinds and different degrees of evil. Was it not better
to encounter every eventual risk of concession than
to submit to the certain continuance or perhaps the
certain aggravation of existing evils? Such was now
his opinion. He believed that there was, on the whole,
less of danger in making a decided effort to settle the
Catholic Question, than in leaving it, as it had before
been left, an open one. The time had now arrived
when the settlement of this difficulty should be full
and complete. So wrote Mr. Peel to the Duke of
Wellington.*
Mr. Peel was aware of the accusation of incon-
sistency that would be levelled against him, but with
him it was not a point of honour to persevere
in measures when convinced of their impropriety.
Political expediency," he said in reply to his critics,
and striking the keynote of his character, "was not
at all times the same. What at one time might be
considered consistent with sound policy, might at
another be completely impolitic." His views were
accepted by the Cabinet, and the Catholic Disabilities
Bill was introduced into the House of Commons.
*"Letters," August 11 and 25, 1828.
(c
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
251
After justifying his change of measures as a states-
man, upon the ground of a State necessity, Mr. Peel
said the Government was placed in a position in
which it could not remain. It could not remain
stationary; it must advance or it must recede. It
must grant further political privileges to the Roman
Catholics or it must retract those already given.
Could they be retracted? "We cannot replace the
Roman Catholics," he said in one of the few illustra-
tions that he permitted himself, "in the position in
which we found them when the system of relaxation and
indulgence began. We have given them the oppor-
tunities of acquiring education, wealth, and power.
We have removed with our hands the seal from the
vessel in which a mighty spirit was enclosed; but it
will not, like the genius in the fable, return within
its narrow confines to gratify our curiosity, and to
enable us to cast it back into the obscurity from
which we evoked it." If they cannot recede they
must advance. "I am asked," he cried, "what new
light has broken in upon me-why I see a neces-
sity for concession now which was not evident before.
True it is that this House of Commons did last year,
and for the first time, recognise the principle of con-
cession that last year the divisions between the
two Houses of Parliament were renewed. But the
same events, I am told, have happened before, and
252
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
therefore the same consequences ought to follow! Is
this the fact? Are events in politics, like equal quan-
tities in numbers or mathematics, always the same?
Are they, like the great abstract truths of morality,
eternal and invariable in their application? May not
the recurrence--the continued recurrence of the
very same event totally alter its character, at least its
practical results? Because divisions betwixt the Lords
and Commons may be tolerated for five years, or for
ten years, must they therefore be tolerable for ever?"
He then entered into a personal explanation.
When he had found himself in a minority in the
House of Commons on this question, whilst holding
office under Lord Liverpool, he had tendered his
resignation, and he had only been induced to recon-
sider his decision on being informed that his retire-
ment would have produced a dissolution of the
Ministry. A few weeks ago he had adopted the
He had desired to retire from the
Administration, and at first his request had been
granted, but finally, at the particular and earnest
solicitation of the Duke of Wellington, he had con-
sented to remain. "I resolved, therefore," he said,
"and without doubt or hesitation, not to abandon
my post, but to take all the personal consequences
of originating and enforcing as a Minister the very
measure which I have heretofore opposed.
same course.
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
253
((
I was now called upon to make those sacrifices
of private feeling which are inseparable from apparent
inconsistency of conduct from the abandonment of
preconceived opinions-from the alienation of those
with whom I had heretofore co-operated.
Sir, I
have done so; and the events of the last six weeks
must have proved that it is painful in the extreme to
prefer to such considerations even the most urgent
sense of public duty.
("
"""Tis said with ease-but oh! how hardly tried
By haughty souls, to human honour tied-
Oh! sharp, convulsive pangs of agonizing pride.'
P
999
Sir, I return to objects of more public
concern. I detailed on the former occasion that a
dreadful commotion had distracted the public mind
in Ireland; that a feverish agitation and unnatural
excitement prevailed to a degree scarcely credible
throughout the entire country. I attempted to
show that social intercourse was poisoned there in
its very springs; that family was divided against
family, and man against his neighbour; that, in a
word, the bonds of civilised life were almost dis-
severed; that the fountains of public justice were
corrupted; that the spirit of discord walked openly
abroad; and that an army of physical force was
marshalled in defiance of all law, and to the immi-
nent danger of the public peace. I ask, sir, could
254
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
this state of things be suffered to exist? and, if not,
what course were we to pursue? Perhaps I shall be
told, as I was on a former occasion, in forcible though
familiar language, 'This is the old story! That all
this has been so for the last twenty years, and that,
therefore, there is no reason for a change.' Why,
sir, this is the very reason for the change. It is
because the evil is not casual and temporary, but
permanent and inveterate; it is because the detail of
the misery and outrage is nothing but 'the old
story,' that I am contented to run the hazard of
change. We cannot, sir, determine upon remaining
idle spectators of the discord and anarchy of Ireland.
The universal voice of the country declares that
:; something' must be done. I am but echoing the
sentiments of all reasonable men when I repeat that
something must be done. I wish, however, to take
nothing for granted, but to found my argument, not
upon a general assent, but upon unquestionable fact.
I ask you to examine the state of his Majesty's
Government for the last thirty-five years, and to
remark the bearing of the Catholic Question upon
that Government, to note the divisions it has created
amongst our statesmen, the distraction it has occa-
sioned in our Councils, and the weakness it has con-
sequently produced. I ask you then to observe
what has been the course of Parliament for the same
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
255
period; and I ask you to note what has been the
consequence the practical consequence to Ireland-
of these divisions in the King's Councils, and dis-
union betwixt the two Houses of Parliament."
He then showed how dangerous was the condition
of Ireland under these circumstances, in case of a
war between England and a foreign Power. He
detailed the numerous special acts that had been
passed to check the turbulent condition of the Irish
people. He described the power of the Catholic
associations in the country, reviewed the relative
numbers of Catholics and Protestants in the different
Irish provinces, and finally expressed his views con-
cerning the danger of civil insurrection should this
Bill be rejected.
"I well know, sir," he said with pathetic elo-
quence, "that, instead of acting as I have done, I
might have taken a course more popular perhaps,
and certainly more selfish. I might have held lan-
guage much more acceptable to the friends with
whom I have long acted, and to the constituents
whom I have lately lost. 'His ego gratiora dictú
alia esse scio; sed me vera pro gratis loqui et si
meum ingenium non moneret, necessitas cogit.
Vellem equidem vobis placere; sed multo malo vos
salvos esse, qualicunque ergo me animo futuri estis.'
In the course I have taken I have been mainly in-
256
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
fluenced by the anxious desire to provide for the main-
tenance of Protestant interests, and for the security
of Protestant establishments. This is my defence.
This is my consolation. This shall be my revenge.
"Sir, I will hope for the best. God grant that
the moral storm may be appeased; that the turbid
waters of strife may be settled and composed; and
that, having found their just level, they may be
mingled with equal flow in one clear and common
stream. But if these expectations were to be disap-
pointed; if, unhappily, civil strife and contention
*shall survive the restoration of political privilege; if
there really be something inherent in the spirit of
the Roman Catholic religion which disdains equality,
and will be contented with nothing but ascendency;
still am I contented to run the hazard of the change.
The contest—if it be inevitable-will be fought for
other objects and with other arms. The struggle,
sir, will then be-not for the abolition of civil dis-
tinctions, but for the predominance of an intolerant
religion..
"Sir, I contemplate the progress of that struggle
with pain; but I look forward to its issue with
perfect composure and confidence. We shall have
dissolved the great moral alliance that has hitherto
given strength to the cause of the Roman Catholics.
We shall range on our side the illustrious authorities
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
257
which have heretofore been enlisted upon theirs.
The rallying cry of civil liberty' will then be all
our own. We shall enter the field with the full
assurance of victory; armed with the consciousness
of having done justice, and of being in the right;
backed by the unanimous feeling of England,-by
the firm union of orthodoxy and dissent,-by the
applauding voice of Scotland; and, if other aid be
requisite, cheered by the sympathies of every free
State in either hemisphere, and by the wishes and
prayers of every good man and every free man, in
whatever clime, or under whatever form of govern-
ment his lot may have been cast.”
The speech was loudly applauded on both sides of
the House, and most powerfully strengthened the
hands of the Government. Yet there were not a
few who keenly criticized its sentiments. They did
not blame the speaker for his change of opinion, but
they bitterly bewailed that his conversion had come so
late. Only a few months ago Peel had declared that
the one obstacle to his connection with Canning had
been his difference of opinion upon the settlement of
the Catholic claims, and now, as the Economists had
converted him to the views of Mr. Horner, so the
Catholic Association had converted him to the views
of Canning. Doubtless he believed that his change
of opinion was sincere, but had he really thought
VOL. II.
S
258
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
differently upon the subject when asked by Canning
to enter his Cabinet? Was not his conversion from
an opponent to an advocate very sudden, and under
somewhat suspicious circumstances ? Had he not
deserted Canning to suit his own interested pur-
poses? Was there no truth in the charge that he
and his colleagues had persecuted Canning, had
hunted him down, to further their own political
ends? These were the accusations that Mr. Peel
had to encounter in the hour of his triumph. He
met them, and, so far as the charge of persecution
is concerned, the refutation is complete and satis-
factory.
"I will not conceal from the House," he said,
that, in the course of this debate, allusions have
been made to the memory of my right honourable
friend (Mr. Canning) which have been most painful
to my feelings. An honourable Baronet has spoken
of the cruel manner in which my right honourable
friend was hunted down.' Whether the honourable
Baronet was one of those who hunted him down,' I
know not; but this I do know, that whoever did
join in the inhuman cry which was raised against
him, I was not one. I was on terms of the most
friendly intimacy with my right honourable friend,
down even to the day of his death; and I say, with
as much sincerity of heart as man can speak, that I
(C
<
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
259
wish he were now alive to reap that harvest which he
sowed, and to enjoy the triumph which his exertions
gained. I would say of him, as he said of the late
Mr. Perceval, 'would he were here to enjoy the fruits
of his victory!'
'Tuque tuis armis, nos te poteremur Achille.'”
The Catholic Emancipation Act received the royal
assent April 19, 1829.
Only those who confound memory with imagina-
tion can accuse Sir Robert Peel of originality of
design where his political creed was concerned.
Every one of the great measures with which his
name is connected was the result of the labours of
his predecessors; of every one of these measures he
was at one time an opponent; yet every one of these
measures was indebted to him and not to its original
author for its enrolment upon the Statute Book.
Mr. Horner advocated the resumption of cash pay-
ments by the Bank; Mr. Peel opposed the motion,
yet it was through him that the Currency Bill be-
came law. Mr. Canning passed his life in struggling
with the Legislature for the removal of Catholic dis-
abilities; Mr. Peel was one of the most prominent of
the opponents of the measure, yet it was through
him that the Emancipation Act was carried. Mr.
Cobden was the advocate of the repeal of the Corn
200
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Laws; Sir Robert Peel was the chief of the great
party which was most hostile to the efforts of the
Manchester school, yet it was Sir Robert, and not
Mr. Cobden, and not Lord John Russell, who re-
moved the restrictions upon the importation of grain.
He was the receiver of other men's ideas; he passed
them through the mill of his intellect, elaborated
them, polished them, methodized them; still, in
spite of the finish with which they were turned out
for the approval of the House of Commons, they
were no less the borrowed schemes of others of the
men who were once his antagonists. What the
compiler and the adapter are in literature, Sir Robert
Peel was in politics. Yet, if his life was "one great
appropriation clause," no man was more loyal in his
reference to his authorities, or more frank in acknow-
ledging his obligations. What he said of Canning
he said of Horner, and we shall hear him speak of
Cobden in the same tone of eulogium.
The passing of the Emancipation Act failed to
greatly strengthen the Wellington Administration.
In Ireland the removal of Catholic disabilities did
not lead to the suppression of the existing discontent
as had been anticipated, whilst in England the
government of the Duke was unpopular. Both the
Duke and Mr. Peel were considered by the high
Tory party to have betrayed the trust reposed in
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
261
them; the Duke was hissed when he showed himself
in public, and Mr. Peel was rejected by the Uni-
versity of Oxford in favour of Sir Robert Inglis.
Various causes led to the unpopularity of the Govern-
ment. The Duke was too much of the despotic
commanding officer for civil rule; his foreign policy
was weak and hesitating; and at a time when the
whole Continent was under the influence of revolu-
tionary principles, he posed as the uncompromising
opponent of reform, which, now that the Catholic
claims had been settled, was the burning question of
the hour. Being defeated on a motion respecting
the arrangements of the Civil List, the Wellington
Cabinet resigned, and was succeeded by that of Earl
Grey.
During the agitation for reform, Sir Robert Peel
(he had succeeded to the title by the death of his
father in the March of 1830) supported his late
Chief in his opposition to the measure. It was the
tendency of Sir Robert Peel always to be dependent
either upon the policy of others, or upon qualities
that he considered superior to his own. At this
time he was under the magic wand of the Duke of
Wellington. He believed that the Duke, from his
rank, his influence with the Court and the aristo-
cracy, his past brilliant services, the respect with
which his name was regarded on the Continent, was
262
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the Minister for England, and that his tenure of
power was assured for many years. Accordingly he
gave in his loyal adherence to the Duke, re-echoed
the views of his Grace, and opposed the tactics of
the democratic party. In the whole course of Sir
Robert Peel's life he never showed himself more
wanting in foresight than on this occasion. Had he
been gifted with the prescience of the true states-
man, he would have controlled the hasty and impe-
rious proceedings of the Duke, and not have been
controlled by them. He would have reconciled the
differences between his Grace and Mr. Huskisson,
and not have permitted what might have been a
powerful Government to have tottered to its ruin by
the desertion of the Canningites. A temperate policy
of concession would have satisfied the demands of
agitation; but in its stead the Cabinet showed a
front of stern and unyielding resistance. Hence the
efforts of the reforming party, aggravated by a short-
sighted and unreasoning opposition, increased in
their activity and in the nature of their requests.
The disfranchisement of a few corrupt boroughs, and
the extension of a few votes to populous but un-
* "From the moment of the Duke's appointment," writes Peel in
his Memoir, "to the chief place in the Government, not a day had
passed without the most unreserved communication, personally or in
writing; not a point had arisen on which (as my correspondence
with the Duke will amply testify) there had not been the most com-
plete and cordial concurrence of opinion."
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
263
represented towns, would at one time have been
sufficient to smooth over the difficulties of the situa-
tion, but now little short of "the bill, the whole
bill, and nothing but the bill," would satisfy the
reformers. Against these sweeping demands Sir
Robert Peel raised his voice in powerful opposition.
He saw that the country was resolved to have a
reform in its representation, and, now that circum-
stances had shown him how short-sighted had been
the policy of his leader, he was not hostile to a
reform bill. He would sanction, he said, "safe,
moderate reform; he admitted that some measure
of reform was now not only expedient but necessary;
and he was disposed to concede "alterations in our
representative system founded on safe principles,
abjuring all confiscation, and limited in their degree."
But he was not prepared to support revolution under
the mask of reform. When the revised Bill of Lord
John Russell was submitted to the House of Com-
mons, he rose up and concluded a powerful argument
against the measure in these words:
"I will continue my opposition to the last," he
said, with that emphasis which always made an
impression upon his hearers, "believing, as I do,
that this is the first step not directly to revolution,
but to a series of changes which will affect the
property and totally transmute the character of the
""
264
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
mixed constitution of this realm. I will oppose it
to the last, convinced that, although my opposition
will be unavailing, it will not be fruitless, because
the opposition now made will become a bar to
further concessions hereafter. If the whole House
were now to join in giving way, it will have less
power to resist future changes. On this ground I
take my stand; not opposed to any well-considered
reform of any of our institutions that need reform,
but opposed to this reform in our Constitution, be-
cause it tends to root up the feelings of respect-the
feelings of habitual reverence and attachment which
are the only sure foundations of a government.
I
will oppose to the last, sir, the undue encroachments
of that democratic spirit to which we are advised to
yield without resistance. We may make it supreme.
We may establish a republic-full of energy—
splendid in talent, but, in my conscience, I believe
fatal to our real liberty, our security, and our
peace!
>>
The opposition of Sir Robert Peel was, as we
know, unavailing. The bill passed the Commons,
but was rejected by the Lords. The Prime Minister
went to the palace and placed two alternatives before
the King-the resignation of the Cabinet or the
creation of peers sufficient to form a majority in the
Upper House. His Majesty preferred to accept the
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
265
•
resignation of Earl Grey. The Duke of Wellington
was now summoned to form a Government and to
propose a new reform bill. Sir Robert Peel was
invited to join the Cabinet, and to assist his Grace
in carrying out the commands of the Sovereign. He
declined. If he could not see into the future, no
man was cleverer than Sir Robert in judging the
exact position of the present. In the petitions that
were sent up from every town in the country, in the
monster meetings that were daily held, in the efforts
of political unions, in the decided tone of the mob,
he saw that the Duke was not the Minister for the
occasion, and that a compromise was out of the
question. The country was in one of her most
feminine moods; she not only wanted her own will,
but she would not rest content until she had her
own will in her own way.
With no uncertain voice
she had declared that Earl Grey should be restored·
to power, and that no reform bill which was not
the measure of his Cabinet should meet with her
approval. Nor was the victory with her opponents.
The Duke of Wellington retired, Earl Grey was
appointed his successor, the opposition of the peers
gave way, and on the 4th of June the Reform Bill
was read a third time, and passed by a majority of
106 to 22.
The reign of the Reform Ministry was not of long
266
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
duration. When men of different political opinions
agree to unite for the purpose of remedying abuses
there will be always those amongst the number who
on every occasion advocate reform, as well as those
who are nervously sensitive about meddling with
established institutions unless when absolutely com-
pelled. There will be the men who wish to uproot
the tree, the men who are content with lopping off
a branch here and there, and shoring up its trunk,
and the men who fear to disturb vitality by any
interference. These disintegrating elements soon
appeared in the Grey Cabinet. One Minister sent in
his resignation because the policy of the Government
was not liberal or sweeping enough; a second quitted
office because he would not pledge himself to re-
forms which he did not consider necessary; whilst
other members were subject to influences which had
little sympathy with the views and prejudices of an
elderly Premier. Ireland, too, was a terrible thorn
in the flesh, and a source of constant annoyance to
the Government. The Roman Catholic peasants
refused to pay tithes to the Protestant Establish-
ment, whilst O'Connell was incessant in his agitations
for a repeal of the union. The Government endea-
voured to crush disorder by strenuous coercion, and
by such a course alienated several of its supporters.
It then tried conciliation, but with no better result.
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
267
Coercion was "intolerable severity," conciliation was
"truckling to O'Connell." On the resignation of
Earl Grey, the easy-going Lord Melbourne was in-
stalled in power.
His tenure of office lasted but a
few months. The King was wearied with the re-
forms of his Ministers, he disapproved of their Irish
policy, he had little sympathy either with themselves
or with their measures, and a favourable opportunity
offering itself, by the elevation of Lord Althorp to
the Upper House, to break up the Government, he
dismissed Lord Melbourne and called in the Duke of
Wellington.
On receiving the royal summons, his Grace de-
clined to lead a Cabinet, but recommended Sir
Robert Peel for the post. The nomination was well
deserved. During the administration of the Reform
Ministry, Sir Robert had adopted a course which at
once marked him out both in the House of Com-
mons and in the country as deserving of the highest
favours the State could offer. He was not only the
Chief of the Opposition, but he was the Opposition
itself. His powers of debate, his business-like
capacity for dealing with details, the confidence
with which his character inspired his followers,
his patience, his general knowledge, his exquisite
plausibility, which made what was one-sided ap-
pear impartial, and what was inconsistent perfectly
268
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
straightforward, caused him to tower above those
who surrounded him. What he counselled his fol-
lowers carried out; his approval or disapproval gave
the cue to those who sat behind him, and seldom
had he occasion to complain of disobedience in the
ranks.
S
For the first time in his life he now stood
alone. As he had in his earlier days gradually
severed himself from Lord Eldon, so he now was
gradually freeing himself from the shackles of the
Duke of Wellington's control. He saw that the un-
bending Toryism of the great soldier was out of
harmony with the spirit of the times. Nor could he
find either in the House of Commons or the House
of Lords one to whom he could attach himself—one
who had those gifts in which he was deficient, who
was fertile in resources, whose tact and judgment
could be relied upon, and who commanded the
respect of the country. When he deserted Lord
Eldon he had found a successor, but he saw that when
he became emancipated from the Duke of Wellington
the only successor must be himself. Therefore, in
common with most wise men, he instituted a policy
of compromise. He took up a middle position
between the inflexibility of Toryism and the destruc-
tiveness of Radicalism. He was not prepared to
build up afresh or to lay before his party the designs
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
269
of the architect, but he would add when necessary
to the fabric, and restore where it was crumbling.
He called himself a Conservative, a new term, which
offered him freer play of action than did the Toryism
of his youth, and which was significant of the policy of
expediency. He would conserve all that was beneficial
to the country in our old institutions, but where
abuses plainly showed themselves he would be on
the side of reform. Thus the practice of his creed
would all turn upon the interpretation of the word
abuses. What might be wise and expedient at one
time might at another develop into an abuse.
Hence, should he advocate what he once denounced,
or condemn what he once proposed, there would be
no inconsistency in his conduct-it would simply be
that a measure in which he had once believed
served its purpose, but had now degenerated into an
abuse and should be removed. In other words, the
Conservatism of Sir Robert Peel signified that he
would be guided by the spirit of the times, and float
down the stream as the current took him. He did
not lead the country, the country led him.
Sir Robert Peel was at Rome when the message
from the Duke arrived inviting him to form an Ad-
ministration. He hurried home, and at once under-
took the duty intrusted to him. Could he have
avoided the task he would no doubt have been glad
270
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
of an excuse. He saw that though the country was
hostile to the Whigs it was not yet ripe for a Tory
Government. He knew that his power must depend
upon the result of a general election, and that he
would enter Parliament with a minority. Had he
been in England at the time of the dismissal of the
Melbourne Cabinet he would have advised delay, but
he had now no choice except to act as desired by
the Duke. He felt it his duty," he said, in the
House of Commons, "in spite of the prospects before
him, to maintain the post which had been offered
him, and to stand by the trust which he did not
seek, but which he could not decline."
He at once began to carry out his creed of Con-
servatism, and to show that he was no longer the re-
presentative of narrow prejudices and absolute views.
He invited two of the most prominent reformers, Lord
Stanley and Sir James Graham, to enter his Cabinet, an
offer which, however, they declined. In his manifesto
to the electors at Tamworth he denied that he was an
opponent of rational reform, or a defender of abuses.
He declared that he considered the Reform Bill "a
final and irrevocable settlement of a great constitu-
tional question--a settlement which no friend to the
peace and welfare of the country would attempt to
disturb either by direct or insidious means." On
taking his seat upon the Treasury Bench he bade for
{
<<
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
271
support by a most tempting programme. He offered
the prospect of continued peace-the restored confi-
dence of powerful States that were willing to seize
the opportunity of reducing great armies, and thus
to diminish the chances of hostile collision. He
offered reduced estimates, improvements in civil juris-
prudence, reform of ecclesiastical law, the settlement
of the Irish Tithe Question, the removal of any real
abuse in the Church, and the redress of such grie-
vances as the Dissenters had just reasons to murmur
against. Nor would he exclude the reform, where
reform was really requisite, of ancient institutions.
Still, in spite of these winning proposals, we know
the fate he met with. Aware that he was holding
power in face of a majority, he exerted all his arts to
avoid an open battle. The old Tories, looking upon
Conservatism as Whiggery under a new name, had
deserted him. Many of the Liberals, mindful of the
Peel who had opposed the Reform Bill, doubted his
sincerity and stood aloof. The voice was that of
Jacob, they said, but the hands were those of Esau.
From the February of 1835 to the beginning of
April, the Premier sought to shun a pitched struggle,
but his settlement of the Irish Tithe Question forced
him at last to come out of cover. Lord John Russell
had moved that the House resolve itself "into a
committee of the whole House in order to consider
272
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
the present state of the Church Establishment in
Ireland, with the view of applying any surplus of the
revenues not required for the spiritual care of its
members to the general education of all classes of
the people without distinction of religious persuasion."
Sir Robert Peel felt bound to oppose the motion.
He denied the right of the Legislature to alienate
ecclesiastical property for secular purposes. He
described the move of Lord John as a proposal to
affirm an abstract right to deal with an imaginary
surplus at some indefinite period whith might never
arrive. What was to be gained, he asked, by the
affirmation of so vague a proposition? It might
serve as another firebrand to kindle the inflammatory
mass of Irish religious sentiment, but it could not
lead to any practical good. The House, however,
approved of Lord John Russell's motion by a
majority of thirty-three, and Sir Robert Peel, after a
few months of office, sent in his resignation.
Two political results," writes Mr. Doubleday in
his political biography of Sir Robert Peel, “unques-
tionably sprung out of this short and singular
episode. One was, that Sir Robert Peel, by the
nerve and readiness which he displayed, added to
his reputation as a first-rate debater and man of
business. The second was the confidence in his
future strength, which he now acquired from the
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
273
<
contemplation of the altered position of his political
rivals. This renewal of confidence was quite appa-
rent in those addresses which his presence at certain
civic festivals, got up probably for that purpose,
enabled him to utter; and the emphatic advice of
Register! register! register!' with which he
greeted his friends on one of these occasions, demon-
strated that he trusted to open for himself the avenue
to future power, and distinctly foresaw a time when
he should again hold in his hand the destinies of his
country." His foresight was not at fault. From
1835 to 1841, with but one brief interruption, the
Melbourne Government remained in power. We
know the few beneficial measures it passed, the
numerous blunders it made, and the weak and
hesitating policy which characterized it. It fell amid
expressions of universal contempt, and Sir Robert
Peel was once more installed in office.
It has been said that everything comes to the man
who knows how to wait. Sir Robert Peel had played
a waiting game, and he was. now to reap his reward.
During the few years in which the Melbourne
Government was in power it had managed to disgust
and weary all classes. It is true that it had in-
troduced popular suffrage into the system of
municipal government, that it had relieved Dissenters
from several of the grievances under which they were
VOL. II.
T
274
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
•
labouring, that it had commuted tithes and in-
troduced the penny postage system; but on the other
hand it had created differences between us and our
colonies, it had indulged in a vast expenditure, and
it had gravely irritated the working classes by turn-
ing a deaf ear to their petitions. With Lord Mel-
bourne at the head of affairs the political barometer
had invariably pointed to stormy. Work was scarce,
and idleness and destitution furthered the mischiev-
ous agitation of the Chartists. The high price of
wheat led the poor to fear the terrors of famine.
Ireland was on the eve of revolt. All classes of the
community had suffered from the extravagance and
incapacity of the Whigs.
A Tory reaction had set in, and it was felt that the
one man who could revise the finances and remove the
gloom that hung over all the commercial interests of
the country was Sir Robert Peel. A few years ago he
had come into power with a scanty following, he was
now a powerful Minister commanding a large majority.
He saw that an unbending Toryism was as much out of
harmony with the age as a destructive Radicalism.
His object, therefore, had been to create a party
which should be composed of moderate men drawn
from the ranks of the less bigoted Tories and the
less violent Radicals. Compromise was to be the
very essence of his policy. Abroad he would seek
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
275
to uphold the prestige of England without un-
necessary activity and interference. In Ireland he
would distribute a fair share of patronage amongst
the Roman Catholics, whilst rigidly maintaining the
integrity of the Protestant Church. At home he would
carry out such reforms as he deemed advisable, whilst
his commercial policy, though liberal, would yet be
without injury to vested interests. He declined,
however, to be fettered by opinions from which he
dissented. "If I accept office," he said, "it shall be
by no intrigue; it shall be after no unworthy con-
cession of constitutional principle, it shall be by no
unnatural and factious combinations with men
honest I believe them to be-entertaining extreme
opinions from which I entirely dissent. If I attain
office, it shall be by walking in the open light, and
in the direct paths of the Constitution. If I exercise
power, it shall be upon my conception-perhaps im-
perfect, perhaps mistaken-but yet my sincere con-
ception of public duty. That power, I repeat, I will
not hold unless I can hold it consistently with the
maintenance of my own opinions; and that power I
will relinquish the moment I am satisfied that I am
not supported in the maintenance of them by the
confidence of this House and the people of this
country."
+
Into the oft-told history of his Administration it
276
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
is needless for me to enter. Sir Robert Peel restored
order to the national finances by introducing the In-
come Tax, and by framing a new tariff which lowered
the prices of certain essential articles of food and
reduced the duties on the raw material of manufactures.
He abolished several abuses in the Poor Law system
by the passing of a Poor Law Renewal Act.
He re-
pressed Irish agitation by rendering O'Connell
ridiculous. He created a large saving by converting
the 3 per cents. into the 3 per cents. He satisfac-
torily reorganized the Bank of England by means of
the Bank Charter Act. He framed laws for the
regulation of our railway system, he remitted numer-
ous duties, he reformed the whole system of Welsh
turnpike trusts, but all these schemes, financial and
legislative, are dwarfed and hidden in comparison
with the one great measure which has made his
Administration so memorable-the Repeal of the
Corn Laws.
From the general principles of Free Trade Sir
Robert Peel never at any time withheld his approval.
"I believe," he said, when laying his new Tariff be-
fore the House of Commons, "that on the general
principles of Free Trade there is now no great differ-
ence of opinion; and that all agree in the general
rule that we should purchase in the cheapest market
and sell in the dearest.'" From the application of
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
277
1
this principle he, however, excepted the sugar duties
and the corn laws. He held that the abolition of
the duties on corn would deal a most severe and
unjust blow to the agricultural interest at home,
whilst to remit the taxation on sugar would visit
hardly upon our West Indian colonies, already
crippled by the emancipation of their slaves. At
this time there were four great parties in the State,
each holding different views upon this important
question. There were the Whigs, who were now in
favour of a fixed duty upon corn. There were the
Conservatives, who were in favour of a varying duty.
There were the Ultra-Protectionists, who objected to
any modification of the Corn Laws. And there were
the Free Traders, who contested for the abolition of
all duties upon corn. Sir Robert Peel on taking
office was in favour of a varying duty; in the pre-
sent agitation of the country he felt himself bound
to reconsider the state of the laws affecting the
importation of corn, and he believed that by the adop-
tion of a sliding scale the compromise he so dearly
loved would be effected between severe protection on
the one hand, and total abolition on the other. Ac-
cordingly he proposed that when home-grown wheat
was at 50s. and under 51s. per quarter the duty on
foreign corn should stand at 20s.; when home-grown
wheat rose to 54s. the duty should decline to 18s.;
278
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and so on, until when home-grown wheat rose to 75s.
and upwards the duty should sink to 1s. By the
adoption of this plan he had considered that the price
of wheat would be kept at a moderate level.
As the efforts of the Corn Law League increased in
their intensity, as their teaching daily made fresh con-
verts, and as the lower orders were now as determined
to have the Corn Laws repealed as they were a few years
ago determined to pass the Reform Bill, it began
gradually to dawn, both upon Lord John Russell as
leader of the Whigs, and upon Sir Robert Peel as
leader of the Conservatives, that the existing state of
things could not be maintained. This opinion was all
the more confirmed by an alarming evil that now
appeared upon the scene. The poorer Irish were
entirely dependent for their means of sustenance upon
the potato, and there was every prospect of this means
of nourishment failing them, owing to a terrible blight
which had now attacked the roots of this vegetable.
The Peel Cabinet in the midst of the agitation upon
Corn Law repeal were called upon to face an Irish
potato famine, fraught with all the miseries and sedi-
tions attendant upon such a visitation. The Prime
Minister saw that in the event of so awful a catastrophe,
the maintenance of an artificial restriction for the
benefit of a particular class was not only impracticable,
but inhuman. He felt that the only solution of the
sa
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
279
difficulty, in spite of his past objections, was that
advocated by the Economists-the absolute repeal of
the Corn Laws. As in the days of Catholic agitation
so now in the days of agrarian agitation, it was Ire-
land that forced the hand of the Government.
The position of Sir Robert Peel was embarrassing.
He had taken office pledged to resist repeal; his
followers were composed of men greatly dependent
upon the land for their rents and resources; to the
squire and the farmer the abolition of the duties
on home-grown corn would result in a grave loss
of income. The agricultural interest had already
murmured against the removal of various protective
duties in the new Tariff of the Premier, and were in-
disposed to yield further concessions. Already "one
solitary voice" on the Tory side of the House, with
all the wit of mordant epigram, and all the keen-
ness of a polished invective, had declared that Pro-
tection was on the eve of betrayal, and that it stood
now in the same position as had Protestantism in
1828-to be jilted by the very man who had vowed
himself the champion of the cause. Lord John
Russell was fettered by no such obstacles. To the
mass who made up the larger portion of his following
-the bankers, merchants, manufacturers, and smaller
tradespeople, who derived their income from capital
and not from land-the repeal of the Corn Laws
280
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
would be a measure warmly welcomed, whilst its only
opponents would be a few Whigs of the severer type.
As matters then stood both the head of the Govern-
ment and the leader of the Opposition had arrived at
the same conclusion that the laws protective of
agriculture must be expunged from the Statute Book.
The question now arose by whom were they to be
repealed-by the Liberals under Lord John Russell,
or by the Conservatives "educated" up to the new
opinions by their Chief? If the Corn Laws were to
be annulled Sir Robert Peel was most desirous of
being the repealer. He saw no inconsistency, as he
had seen no inconsistency in the other political acts
of his life which had called forth a change of opinion,
in passing a measure which he had been brought
into power to resist, and which up till now he had
uniformly denounced. In his opposition to the repeal
of the Corn Laws he had not been conscious of the evils
which necessarily followed in the wake of agrarian
protection; he had resisted the total abolition of the
duty upon corn because he had conscientiously believed
that such resistance was only due to the agricultural
interest of the country; the Free Traders had, how-
ever, convinced him both of the cruelty and short-
sightedness of such a policy, and the prospect of a
neighbouring nation, a portion of the empire, becoming
convulsed by famine had strengthened his convic-
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
281
tions and cleared the mist that had clouded his true
view of the matter. He had entered office pledging
himself to remove all abuses, provided that the griev-
ances complained of should prove themselves to be
abuses. It was evident to all, save those whose
selfish interests were at stake, that the Corn Laws
were an abuse, and as such it became his duty, and
fell within his programme, to reform them.
Whilst considering the course to be adopted, Sir
Robert Peel was startled into sudden action by the
famous Edinburgh Letter. Whilst on a visit to the
splendid city of the North, in the beginning of the
winter of 1845, Lord John Russell had addressed a
letter to his London constituents commenting upon
the state of affairs. In this memorable epistle he
declared that the present condition of the country,
in regard to its supply of food, could not be viewed
without apprehension. Forethought and bold pre-
caution," he said, may avert any serious evils-
indecision and procrastination may produce a state of
suffering which it is frightful to contemplate." Par-
liament had met and separated without affording any
promise of seasonable relief, it became therefore the
duty of the Queen's subjects to consider how the
impending calamities could be averted, or at least miti-
gated. To effect this there was but one plan, the
repeal of the Corn Laws. His Lordship confessed that
(6
<<
282
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
his views on this subject had undergone a great alter-
ation. "I used to be of opinion," wrote Lord John,
"that corn was an exception to the general rules of
political economy; but observation and experience
have convinced me that we ought to abstain from all
interference with the supply of food. Neither a
government nor a legislature can ever regulate the corn
market with the beneficial effects which the entire free-
dom of sale and purchase are sure of themselves to
produce." It was useless to contend now, as he had
once contended, for a fixed duty. "The imposition of
any duty," he wrote, " at present, without a provision
for its extinction within a short period, would but pro-
long a contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity
and discontent. The struggle to make bread scarce and
dear, when it is clear that part, at least, of the addi-
tional price goes to increase rent, is a struggle deeply
injurious to an aristocracy which (this quarrel once
removed) is strong in property, strong in the construc-
tion of our Legislature, strong in opinion, strong in
ancient associations and the memory of immortal
services. Let us, then, unite to put an end to a system
which has been proved to be the blight of commerce,
the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter divisions
among classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality,
and crime among the people.
The letter was dated November 22, 1845.
""
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
283
After so candid an expression of opinion on the
part of his rival, Sir Robert Peel saw that further
hesitation or delay would be most dangerous to his
position. He summoned a Cabinet Council, and en-
deavoured to convince his colleagues that the entire
repeal of the Corn Laws had now become not a
matter of choice, but a political necessity. Like
most short-sighted men, his inspection of all that
came within his immediate ken was most minute,
and he saw what few of the opponents of Free Trade
at that time were able to perceive. As a rule the
protection of most industries only directly affects the
minority; consequently the opposition such protec-
tion encounters is limited to the clique whose welfare
is being especially affected. The protection of pig-
iron might agitate a class, but it would not excite a
nation, for the simple reason that a large portion of
the country can live independent of the rise and fall
in the value of pig-iron. But the protection of corn
was a very different matter. It was the most im-
portant article of food in the country, it was the staff
of life, it was as much a necessary to existence as
air and water. With the exception of the agricul-
tural interest, all the consuming classes were on this
occasion united in their efforts to remove the restric-
tions upon the manufacture of cheap bread. Con-
sequently the Protectionists were a coterie against the
284
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
nation, and in a free country like ours, when a
minority endeavours to suppress the views of an
active and powerful majority, the issue of the struggle
can have but one end.
Sir Robert Peel saw that the repeal of the Corn
Laws had developed from a party question into a
national question, and that resistance was daily be-
coming more and more impracticable. Lord Stanley
and the advocates of Protection, however, thought
differently, and declined to adopt the sound and
accurate view of the matter which the Premier had
now arrived at. Unable to convert his Cabinet to
his opinions, there was only one honourable course
for Sir Robert Peel to pursue. Convinced that if
the Corn Laws were retained Ireland would be laid
low by famine, and throughout Great Britain there
would be scarcity of food, the Prime Minister tendered
his resignation, and it was accepted. Lord John
Russell was intrusted with the task of forming a
Cabinet, but owing to the refusal of Earl Grey to
unite with him, he was unable to comply with his
Sovereign's commands. Lord Stanley felt that he
was not strong enough to succeed where Lord John
had failed, and the consequence was that Sir Robert
Peel, pledged to carry repeal, resumed his post as
Prime Minister. With the exception of Lord Stanley,
all his former colleagues served again with him. As
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
285
we know, the Bill for the abolition of the duties upon
corn became law June 26, 1846.
<<
Never in the whole annals of parliamentary history
was change of opinion more bitterly and more
fiercely criticized than this conversion of Sir Robert
Peel from the principles of Protection to those of
Free Trade. He was branded as a man who never
originated an idea," as "a mere watcher of the
atmosphere-a man who, as he says himself, takes
his observations, and when he finds the wind veers
towards a certain quarter trims to suit it." He
might be a powerful Minister, but it was said with a
bitter sneer that he was no more a great statesman
than the man who gets up behind a carriage is a
great whip; "both may, perhaps, get a good place,"
laughed his terrible assailant, but how far the ori-
ginal momentum is indebted to their powers, and
how far their guiding prudence regulates the lash or
the rein, it is not necessary for me to notice." He
was likened to the Turkish admiral who, summoned
to defend his country's shores, steered at once into
the enemy's port. Destitute of originality, his life
was one long "appropriation clause;" he was in-
debted to others for the schemes he passed; "he
saw the Whigs bathing and he stole their clothes."
He had, it was alleged, but one ambition, to seize
upon office and to remain in it at all hazards.
*C
286
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Now, were these reproaches deserved? The career
of Sir Robert Peel is certainly one open to criticism;
as we read his life we are dazzled by no great brilliancy
of intellectual power, our pulse does not beat with a
quicker throb as we listen to generous thoughts and
watch the deeds which elevate men above the dead
level of human nature, there is little that is great, or
noble, or chivalrous in his career; yet on the other
hand, though narrow, commonplace, and perhaps
selfish, it is eminently respectable. We are not sur-
prised that Sir Robert Peel should be the Minister of
England specially beloved by the middle classes, for
he was the best representative of their order that the
State has ever raised to power. He had none of that
brilliancy of talent which, in the eyes of the middle
classes, is deemed so dangerous. Except in the
House of Commons he was dull, tedious, and shy,
which, to his admirers, were only so many more
proofs of his soundness and solidity of character. He
had in an eminent degree those practical habits in busi-
ness and that love for detail, without the possession.
of which no politician in the opinion of the middle
classes can become a statesman. He had no vices;
his life was pure and unsullied; and though a high
tone of morality is appreciated by all whose good
word is worth obtaining, by none is it more highly
valued than by the middle classes. Again, the fact
SIR ROBERT .
PEEL.
287
that he was himself one of the middle class, that he
had no social ambitions, and that he had determined not
to quit the House of Commons for the serener regions of
the House of Lords, showed that he was satisfied with
the order to which he belonged, and thus his fidelity
shed a lustre and a dignity upon the middle classes,
which they were not slow to respect and appreciate.
Sir Robert Peel might meet with rebuffs at the
hands of a proud aristocracy, he might be hated by
the Protectionists, but he was always the idol and
the hero of the middle class. When he was in power
the backbone of the nation trusted him, and felt that
their interests were in safe keeping. In Canning
the middle classes never had confidence; they res-
pected, but they had scant sympathy with, the
Duke of Wellington; they trembled for everything
they held dear under the negligent rule of Lord
Melbourne; but "they believed in Peel." They
understood his speeches, they understood his finan-
cial schemes, his sound common-sense appealed to
them, they liked and respected his character, he was
never mysterious, and he was always to be compre-
hended. Nor was this confidence misplaced. Through-
out a long public career it is impossible to find any-
thing in the life of Sir Robert Peel which reflects
upon his political character. He changed his opinions,
but he frankly owned the reasons why he changed
PEEL288
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them; and though those reasons prove him to be
short-sighted and hasty in arriving at his conclusions,
yet his honour passes through the trial pure and un-
scathed. It is unfortunate for a statesman to be
perpetually mistaken, but it is certainly better for a
statesman to candidly avow that his judgment has
been in error than to pursue a policy which he knows
to be mischievous in order to save appearances and
preserve a culpable consistency.
The mistake which a man like Sir Robert Peel made,
whose mental range of vision was limited, and who was
most open to conviction, was to express any decided
opinions upon such questions as did not immediately
deal with the present. Conscious of his lack of prescience
and of his incapacity to deal with those combina-
tions which lead some men to forecast the future, he
should have expressed himself guardedly, and have
paved the way for retreat when necessary, with respect
to those greater measures which he must have known
would one day come before the nation for final
settlement. Had he exercised this discretion he
would have escaped many of the charges of treachery
and inconsistency which the hate and disappointment
of those who had seceded from him were wont to
indulge in. That he was inconsistent, in the sense
that a man is inconsistent who holds different views
on the same question at different times and under
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
289
different circumstances, cannot be denied. Sir Robert
Peel would have been the first to admit the charge,
for in his eyes there was a consistency which certain
politicians piqued themselves upon possessing which
was only a euphemism for obstinacy and a blindness
to progress.
But in what respect can he be branded as a traitor?
Sir Robert Peel has been accused of treachery for
the part he played in repealing the Corn Laws. It
seems to me that it was impossible for him to play
any other part, nor was his conduct on that occasion
aught than that of an honourable and high-minded
man. He had changed his views with regard to
agrarian protection; he is to be blamed not for having
changed his views, but for not having changed them
sooner. On examination he had found that the Corn
Laws were impracticable. He had compared the
results of periods of abundance and low prices with
periods of scarcity and high prices, and he had come
to the conclusion that Protection was not tenable.
He did not believe that the rate of wages varied with
the price of food, or that with high prices wages.
would necessarily vary in the same ratio.
He saw
that protection to domestic industry was perni-
cious. It had been said that because England
laboured under a heavy debt and high rate of taxa-
tion, she must be protected from competition with
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290
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
foreign industry. That argument had proved itself
unsound, for the experience of the last three years
had taught him that "a large debt and heavy taxa-
tion were best encountered by abundance and cheap-
ness of provisions, which rather alleviated than added
to the weight of the burden."
Converted to this view-a view which only
insanity nowadays would contradict-the Prime
Minister pursued a course as justifiable as it was
unselfish. He endeavoured to impress his own
opinions upon his colleagues, but without success.
Then feeling that it was impossible for him to oppose
the repeal of the Corn Laws he tendered his resigna-
tion, generously offering to co-operate with Lord John
Russell in the work of reform. Lord John Russell,
as we have seen, was unable to constitute a Cabinet.
The Protectionists under Lord Stanley were not
strong enough to take office. Consequently, Sir
Robert Peel was again sent for, most of his colleagues
rallied round him, and it fell to him to repeal the
objectionable laws. Where was the treachery? He
had frankly avowed his change of opinion; he had
endeavoured to bring his Cabinet to accept his view
of the question; he had failed in the attempt, and had
given his opponents the opportunity both of abolish-
ing the restrictions upon corn and of confirming the
principles of Protection; his rivals were unable to
avail themselves of his offer, and thus it became his
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
291
duty to be the instrument in passing this great mea-
sure. Where was the treachery? If any conduct
could be honourable, could be straightforward, could
be generous, it was the course pursued by Sir Robert
Peel on this occasion. And as it was his custom,
whenever it fell to him to carry out a policy which
had been originated and advocated by others, he gave
credit where the credit was due. The repeal of the
Corn Laws was not owing to the efforts of Lord
John Russell, nor to the support of the Whigs, nor
to the advocacy of Peel and the party he led. “The
name," cried Sir Robert, "the name which ought to
be, and will be associated with the success of these
measures, is the name of one who, acting I believe
from pure and from disinterested motives, has with
untiring energy made appeals to our reason, and has
enforced those appeals with an eloquence the more to
be admired because it was unaffected and unadorned.
The name which ought to be chiefly associated with
the success of these measures is the name of RICHARD
COBDEN."
With the repeal of the Corn Laws the political
career of Sir Robert Peel comes to an end. Before
the passing of this measure the Government had
framed a Bill for the protection of life in Ireland,
where the most terrible outrages upon peaceful citi-
zens had been greatly on the increase. The Bill had
been introduced in the House of Lords, had passed
292
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
that Chamber without opposition, and had been sent
down to the Commons for approval. Thanks to the
support of the Protectionists the first reading of the
Bill had been carried against a formidable opposition.
Between the first and second reading, however, the
Corn Laws had been repealed, and the disappointed
Protectionists now resolved to revenge themselves,
even at the expense of their own consistency, upon
the Minister who had "betrayed their cause." "It is
time,” cried Lord George Bentinck, "that atonement
should be made to the betrayed honour of Parlia-
ment, and the betrayed constituencies of the empire.
The time has now come when they who love
the treason that has recently been committed, though
they hate the traitor, should join with those who sit
on the Protectionist benches, in showing that they do
not approve the recent conduct of Ministers."
This vindictive cry was no idle threat. The union
of the Protectionists with the Whigs and the Free
Traders was successful, and on the second reading of
the Bill, the Government was defeated by a large
majority. Sir Robert Peel now resigned. His words
on quitting office were among the most impressive
that had ever fallen from his lips. "In relin-
quishing power," he said, "I shall leave a name
severely censured, I fear, by many who, on public
grounds, deeply regret the severance of party ties—
deeply regret that severance, not from interested
SIR ROBERT PEEL.
293
or party motives, but from the firm conviction
that fidelity to party engagements—the existence
and maintenance of a great party-constitutes a
powerful instrument of government. I shall sur-
render power severely censured also by others who,
from no interested motives, adhere to the principle
of Protection, considering the maintenance of it to be
essential to the welfare and interests of the country;
I shall leave a name execrated by every monopolist
who, from less honourable motives, clamours for Pro-
tection because it conduces to his own individual
benefit; but it may be that I shall leave a name
sometimes remembered with expressions of good will
in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labour and
earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow,
when they shall recruit their exhausted strength
with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because
it is no longer leavened with a sense of injustice.
During the remaining years of his life he gave a
general support to the Russell Ministry, which, save
for his influential support, must have yielded to the
constant attacks of a powerful opposition. His death
was occasioned by a fall from his horse.
"Peace to
his ashes!" writes his once most virulent antagonist.
"Peace to his ashes! His name will be often
appealed to in that scene which he loved so well
and never without homage even by his opponents.
""
""
PALMERSTON,
THE ENGLISH MINISTER.
1784-OCTOBER 18, 1865.
THERE are few virtues more open to misrepresenta-
tion, more often assumed to cover interested motives,
or more easily counterfeited, than that of Patriotism.
The agitator, banned by society and the outlaw of
respectability, gathers to himself a credulous follow-
ing, drawn from the rude and the ignorant, fans the
discontent of the masses, excites a hatred between
class and class, and is ever thundering against evils
that do not exist and oppression long since removed,
under the outraged name of Patriotism. The poli-
tician with country on his lips hut office in his heart,
who is always addressing his constituents, always
advising the House, and always searching through
the Statute Book in quest of grievances, conceals his
mischievous activity under the sacred garb of Patriot-
ism. The malicious, the disappointed, the envious
-the men who sit opposite to the Treasury Bench
PALMERSTON.
295
instead of being, as they think they should, upon it,
who are at the tail of the poll instead of at the head,
who plead in a black gown instead of deciding in
purple or scarlet, who have to labour instead of com-
manding labour-all discharge their criticisms, plot
their combinations, and offer their reforms in the
name of Patriotism. "A patriot!" cried the cynical
Sir Robert Walpole, "a patriot! why, sir, patriots
spring up like mushrooms! I could raise fifty of
them within the four-and-twenty hours. I have
raised many of them in one night! It is but refusing
to gratify an unreasonable or an insolent demand,
and-up starts a patriot!
Yet, happily the picture is not all shade. There
are men whose patriotism is loyal and single-minded,
to whom politics is a creed and not a profession, and
whose efforts to increase the prosperity of their coun-
try and the welfare of its people, are purely animated
by honest and unselfish motives. To this class be-
longed Lord Palmerston. In the finest sense of the
word he was a patriot. Throughout his long and
faithful service to the State, his one object was to
uphold English interests, to jealously maintain the
prestige of England, and on all necessary occasions
to assert the authority and influence of England.
To him England was the first and greatest country
in the world; her men the bravest and most accom-
""
G
296
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
plished; her women the handsomest; her commerce
the most prosperous; her resources the most fertile ;
her opulence the most marked. As in the proudest
days of Imperial Rome, her citizens boasted of their
birth, so Lord Palmerston gloried in the fact that he
was an Englishman-an Englishman in the sense
that he was a son of Great Britain.
Civis sum
Romanus," he exclaimed more than once in the
House of Commons, and it is impossible to read his
speeches or to examine his dispatches without observ-
ing how this sentiment coloured the current of all
his actions. Did diplomacy attempt to disparage
the honour or the influence of England, how keenly
he resented it. Was an insult passed upon an
English citizen travelling on the Continent, how
instant and direct were his demands for redress!
When a foreign Power attempted to evade its obliga-
tions, or to tamper with treaties and conventions to
which England had been one of the signing parties,
how outspoken was his reproof, how sternly he
declined to sanction or permit such infringement!
However persons differed from his political views, all
Englishmen felt that the honour of their country at
least was in safe keeping so long as stout Lord
Palmerston stood at the helm.
((
His tenure of power satisfied those who obeyed
his sway. A man of rank, of old blood, bearing a
PALMERSTON.
297
name honoured by a distinguished ancestry, it was
considered right that he should be at the head of
affairs. He was no upstart manufacturer, no schem-
ing adventurer, no pushing son of the people;
he was born in the purple, and it was his due
to wear the colour. An exclusive aristocracy
and a prejudiced squirearchy could indulge in
none of the ungenerous sneers that had been
cast at Addington, at Canning, at Peel, and at
others of more recent times. There was nothing
humiliating or galling in the proudest having to
acknowledge himself a vassal of such a Premier.
With those in a lower social scale the same feeling
prevailed; the smaller gentry, the moneyed classes,
and the shopkeepers, who like when they are
governed to be governed by one in a higher sphere,
experienced a pride and a satisfaction at the rule of
Lord Palmerston, not entirely because he was a
thorough Englishman and the staunchest of sup-
porters of English interests, but because he was a
man of rank, a man of fashion, a star of much splen-
dour in the social firmament. In former days the
Prime Ministers were drawn from the proudest nobles,
and in this matter the prejudiced and the vulgar
prefer that history should repeat itself. The name of
Palmerston was considered a worthy addition to the
roll that had inscribed upon its list a Newcastle, a
298
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Rockingham, a Shelburne, a Portland, a Grenville, a
Wellington, an Aberdeen, and a Derby.
The son of an Irish peer, whose family had been
distinguished gentry for centuries, Harry Temple was
born October 20th, 1784, and after a brief boyhood
passed amid the lakes and valleys of sunny Italy was
sent to Harrow. Here, as throughout life, his frank,
manly, humorous nature, made him a great favourite,
and he quitted the school generally regretted.
When I went to Harrow in 1797," writes Sir
Augustus Clifford, "the late Lord Palmerston was
reckoned the best-tempered and most plucky boy in
the school, as well as a young man of great promise.
We were in the same house, which was Dr. Bromley's,
and by whom we were often called when idle 'young
men of wit and pleasure.' I can remember well
Temple fighting behind school' a great boy called
Salisbury, twice his size, and he would not give in,
but was brought home with black eyes and a bloody
nose, and mother Bromley taking care of him.
According to a passing fashion of his day, instead
of at once proceeding to the university, he took up
his abode at Edinburgh, and there studied political
economy and moral philosophy under the guidance of
Dugald Stewart, whose lectures were then attracting
much attention. The subject, so dry and repulsive
to many minds, had especial fascination for young
(C
•
""
PALMERSTON.
299
Temple, and we are told that his notes were so accu-
rate and exhaustive as to be of the greatest service
to Sir William Hamilton when publishing Stewart's
lectures on economical science. "I lived with
Dugald Stewart," writes Lord Palmerston in his
"Autobiography;" "and attended his lectures at
the University. In these three years I laid the
foundation of whatever useful knowledge and habit
of mind I possess. Nor was the master less com-
plimentary than the pupil: "His talents are un-
commonly good," wrote Dugald Stewart to a friend
in reference to Henry Temple, "and he does them
all possible justice by assiduous application. In
point of temper and conduct he is everything his
friends could wish. Indeed, I cannot say that I
have ever seen a more faultless character at his time
of life, or one possessed of a more amiable disposi-
tion."
""
Quitting Edinburgh in 1803 he entered himself at
St. John's, Cambridge, and found that, thanks to his
Scottish Professor, his English tutor had little to
teach him. "I had gone further at Edinburgh," he
writes, "in all the branches of study pursued at
Cambridge than the course then followed at that
university extended during the two first years of
attendance. But the Edinburgh system consisted in
lectures without examination; at Cambridge there
300
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
was a half-yearly examination. It became necessary
to learn more accurately at Cambridge what one has
learned generally at Edinburgh. The knowledge
thus acquired of details at Cambridge was worth
nothing, because it evaporated soon after the exami-
nations were over. The habit of mind acquired by
preparing for these examinations was highly useful."
He distinguished himself in the schools, and was
looked upon as a young man of great promise.
For the moment political ambition was now to
interfere with his university career. A few months
before going to Cambridge his father died, and Henry
Temple, now Lord Palmerston, on entering the univer-
sity, became enrolled among the "tufts" of the time.
When, however, it was known that in addition to
rank and a fair fortune the young Irish peer was a
sound scholar, of ready wit and richly endowed with
those social gifts which command popularity, his
name began to receive that attention which high
birth, when allied to great talents, seldom fails in
obtaining. "My private tutor at Cambridge," he
writes, more than once observed to me that as I
had always been in the first class at college examina-
tions, and had been commended for the general
regularity of my conduct, it would not be amiss to
turn my thoughts to standing for the University
whenever a vacancy might happen." Early in 1806
((
PALMERSTON.
301
Mr. Pitt died, and the University was called upon
to choose a new member. Lord Palmerston was
brought forward to contest the representation. "I
was just of age," he writes, "and had not yet
taken my degree; nevertheless I was advised by my
friends at St. John's to stand; the other candidates
were Lord Althorp and Lord Henry Petty. I was
supported by my own college, and by the exertions
of the friends of my family; but the Pitt party in
the University was broken up. Most men thought
that the new Government would for many years have
the disposal of the patronage, as well as the com-
mand of the power of the country; and I stood
at the poll where a young man, circumstanced
as I was, could alone expect to stand; that
is to say, last. It was an honour, however, to
have been supported at all, and I was well satisfied
with my fight."
He had every reason for this feeling of satisfaction.
The fact that he had been selected by an important
section in the University to stand as its representa-
tive at once raised him into notice, and in an age
when clever young men were much courted and intro-
duced into the House by the convenient "Open
Sesame" of pocket boroughs, could not but be of
advantage to him. On the formation of the Port-
land Ministry he was appointed one of the Junior
302
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Lords of the Admiralty, and failing a second time in
being returned for his university, chiefly through
scruples highly honourable to himself, he entered Par-
liament as member for Newtown in the Isle of Wight.
His maiden speech was delivered in defence of the
Copenhagen expedition, and was a success.
Lord
Palmerston fully justified Canning's brilliant stroke,
the seizure of the Danish fleet. He showed that the
Danish fleet and Zealand were objects to France;
that Buonaparte never respected neutrality, and that
therefore the neutrality of Denmark would have been
no protection; that Denmark was coquetting with
France, and that we had acted most wisely in putting
it out of her power to assist an enemy or to become
a danger to English interests. He was frequently
cheered, and on sitting down was warmly compli-
mented by his friends. "The speech," writes Lord
Dalling and Bulwer, "was evidently composed
with much care, and in those parts which had been
carefully consigned to memory was spoken with great
ease and facility; but in others there was that hesi-
tation and superabundance of gesture with the hands
which were perceptible to the last, when Lord Palmer-
ston spoke unprepared and was seeking for words;
for though he always used the right word it often
caused him pains to find it."
Thus, in commenting upon the career of Lord
PALMERSTON.
303
Palmerston at this time, everything was in his favour.
He was of noble birth; he was thoroughly the
gentleman; his character stood high; he was most
popular in society, and he had a fair reputation as a
scholar. Yet men had entered Parliament who
had possessed rank, who had been of unimpeachable
conduct, who had been good fellows, and who had
taken brilliant degrees at the university, only to
turn out, from the moment they had taken their seats
upon the green benches of the House of Commons,
political failures or political bores, useless in debate,
useless in committees, mere voting machines and
Wednesday orators. Such, however, was not to be
the case with Lord Palmerston. All who heard him
deliver his first speech recognised the ability, the
shrewdness, the sound conclusions, of one who
promised to become a power in the House, of
one who only required practice and experience
to develop into the keen debater and the practical
statesman.
This favourable opinion was soon to receive a most
flattering exemplification. On the break-up of the
Cabinet, owing to the quarrel between Lord Castlereagh
and Canning, and the accession to power of that political
mediocrity Mr. Perceval, Lord Palmerston, at the age
of twenty-five, was offered the post of Chancellor of
the Exchequer. Such a proposal is the best evidence
304
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
of the light in which his talents were considered at
this time. At the present day, when we regard high
office as the prize of long parliamentary service and
political experience, the appointment of so young a
man to a post in the Cabinet would be looked upon
with disfavour both by the nation and by the House
of Commons; but in the eighteenth century, and in
the early part of the nineteenth century, the State
was frequently served by those on the sunny side of
middle age. Walpole was a Cabinet Minister and
leader of the House of Commons before thirty.
Bolingbroke was Secretary at War at six-and-twenty.
The Marquis of Rockingham was First Lord of the
Treasury at five-and-thirty. The first Marquis of
Lansdowne was President of the Board of Trade at
six-and-twenty. Pitt was Chancellor of the Exche-
quer at twenty-four, and at the same age Sir Robert
Peel was Chief Secretary for Ireland. Thus prece-
dent sanctioned the acceptance of Mr. Perceval's
offer. But with that sound common-sense which
so well ballasted the abilities of Lord Palmerston,
the flattering proposal was declined. Of course
one's vanity and ambition," he wrote to Lord
Malmesbury, "would lead to accept the brilliant
offer; but it is throwing for a great stake and
where much is to be gained, very much also may
be lost. I have always thought it unfortunate for
<<
PALMERSTON.
305
any one, and particularly a young man, to be put
above his proper level, as he only rises to fall the
lower." Lord Palmerston knew that he had then
little acquaintance with finance. He was diffident
about his oratory. He feared that instead of
assisting Perceval he would only hamper the Govern-
ment and make himself ridiculous. "By fagging
and assistance," he writes, "I might get on in the
office, but fear that I never should be able to act
my part properly in the House. A good deal of
debating must of course devolve upon the person
holding the Chancellorship of the Exchequer; all
persons not born with the talents of Pitt or Fox
must make many bad speeches at first if they speak
a great deal on many subjects, as they cannot be
masters of all, and a bad speech, though tolerated in
any person not in a responsible situation, would make
a Chancellor of the Exchequer exceedingly ridiculous,
particularly if his friends could not set off against
his bad oratory a great knowledge and capacity for
business."
He declined the Chancellorship but accepted the
Secretaryship at War, feeling confident that by hard
work and by availing himself of the assistance that
would be given him, he could perform the duties of
the post.
"From what one has heard of the War
Office," he writes, "it seems one better suited to a
VOL. II.
X
306
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
beginner, and in which I might hope not to fail,
or in which one would not be so prominent if
one did not at first do as well as one ought to do."
His surmise was correct. For nearly twenty years
-under the successive Administrations of Mr.
Perceval, the Earl of Liverpool, Mr. Canning, Lord
Goderich, and the Duke of Wellington-he remained
at the War Office, exercising a zealous and vigilant
control over the strength and the welfare of the
British troops. His voice was ever opposed to the
crotchets of the splenetic and omniscient who, both
in and out of Parliament, are always to be found
lamenting over shortcomings and suggesting reforms.
It was said that the military estimates should be re-
duced; that the system of military education adopted
on the Continent should be enforced in our English
military schools; and that our officers should be sent
abroad to learn how to ride, how to plan fortifica-
tions, and how to learn their drill. As became a
statesman proud of his country and a firm believer
in its superiority, Lord Palmerston received such re-
commendations with the contempt they deserved
from his loyal, English heart. To maintain her poli-
tical prestige as a Great Power, to defend her colonies,
to protect her vast commercial interests, it was abso-
lutely necessary for Great Britain, unless she wished
to sink from an empire into an island, to keep her
PALMERSTON.
307
military establishments at an efficient strength: "The
plain question for the House to consider," he said in
one of his speeches on this subject, "was, whether
they should reduce all the military establishments of
the country below their just level: and whether if
they did so the saving would bear any comparison
with the injury that it might produce. For after all,
even if the plans of retrenchment so loudly called
for were adopted, the diminution of expenditure
would not be half so great as the country and the
House seemed to imagine. Would it therefore be a
wise or expedient course under these circumstances
to abdicate the high rank we now maintained in
Europe to take our station amongst secondary Powers,
and confine ourselves entirely to our own island?
and compel the Crown to abandon all our
colonial possessions, the fertile sources of our com-
mercial wealth, and descend from that high and ele-
vated station which it had cost us so much labour, so
much blood, and so much treasure to attain ?
""
Then in reply to those who asserted that the English
soldiers the soldiers who had stormed Badajoz, had
won at Salamanca, and had charged at Waterloo-
should imitate the discipline of the French, and the mi-
litary culture of the Germans, he said, with the pride of
a civis Romanus, "that he wished to see the British
soldiers with a British character, with British habits,
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REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
with a British education, and with as little as possible
of anything foreign." Certainly the conduct of the
French in the Peninsula, or the conduct of the
Prussians in Belgium, hardly justified either nation
then to give us a lesson in military tactics.
"After
reading through the private correspondence of Lord
Palmerston as Secretary at War," writes Lord Dalling
and Bulwer, "I feel bound to state that I have never
found in any compositions of the same kind, so clear,
straightforward, and simple a style, such attention to
details, such comprehensive views, such regard for
private and public interests, such independence of
thought, for the highest authority only weighs with
him where the arguments are authoritative."
On the assassination of Mr. Perceval, Lord
Liverpool had succeeded to the post of Prime
Minister. As is well known, his Cabinet was divided
into two sections: the one opposed to Roman
Catholic Emancipation, Free Trade and Parliamentary
Reform, of which Lord Eldon and the Duke of
Wellington were the chief representatives; the other
in favour, with certain reservations, of Free Trade at
home, of religious toleration, and of Reform, of
which Canning was the most prominent member.
To the latter section Lord Palmerston had attached
himself.
The great question of the hour was that of Catholic
PALMERSTON.
309
Emancipation, and the whole nation was divided into
two factions—the "Protestants" who opposed Eman-
cipation, and the "Catholics" who were in favour of
it. Lord Palmerston was the cautious friend of the
Papists. He had little sympathy with Roman
Catholicism; he knew the dangers to be apprehended
from it; he disliked the whole machinery of its
system, still as it was the creed of a large portion of
the inhabitants of the British Empire, he deemed it
wiser to propitiate the Papists by removing the re-
strictions they complained of, than to increase their
disaffection by refusal. "The question is," he said,
"not whether we would have so large a part of
the population Catholic or not. There they are, and
we must deal with them as we can. It is in vain to
think that by any human pressure we can stop the
spring which gushes from the earth. But it is for us
to consider whether we will force it to spend its
strength in secret and hidden courses, undermining
our fences and corrupting our soil, or whether we
shall at once turn the current into the open and
spacious channel of honourable and constitutional
ambition, converting it into the means of national
prosperity and public wealth."
He saw that the question was one which it was
impossible for any Government to shelve, and that
in the excited state of the public mind across St.
•
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REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
George's Channel it would be dangerous long to
ignore the religious passion of a wild and tur-
bulent people. "The Catholic and anti-Catholic
war," he writes, after a visit to his estates in
Ireland, "is carried on more vigorously than ever,
and the whole people are by the ears like an undis-
ciplined pack of hounds. It is most marvellous,
to be sure, that sensible statesmen should be
frightened by the bugbear of foreign interference
clashing with domestic allegiance, and should
see with calmness and apathy a civil war raging
throughout Ireland, engrossing all the thoughts and
passions of the people, diverting them from the pur-
suits of industry and retarding the progress of
national prosperity, and menacing in the event of
foreign hostilities inconveniences of the most formi-
dable and embarrassing description. I can for-
give old women like the Chancellor, spoonies like
Liverpool, ignoramuses like Westmoreland, old
stumped-up Tories like Bathurst; but how such
a man as Peel, liberal, enlightened, and fresh-
minded, should find himself running in such a pack
is hardly intelligible. . . But the day is fast
approaching, as it seems to me, when this matter
will be settled as it must be.
It is strange
that in this enlightened age and enlightened country,
people should be still debating whether it is wise to
PALMERSTON.
311
convert four or five millions of men from enemies to
friends, and whether it is safe to give peace to
Ireland."
((
Brought up in the school of Canning, and
holding that brilliant Minister's sound and liberal
ideas upon the subjects which then divided the
Cabinet, Lord Palmerston had scant sympathy with
the views of those "old women," spoonies," and
'stumped-up" Tories who constituted the majority
in the Government of Lord Liverpool. The Go-
vernment," he writes to his brother, "are as strong
as any Government can wish to be as far as regards
those who sit facing them; but in truth, the real
Opposition of the present day sit behind the Treasury
Bench; and it is by the stupid old Tory party, who
bawl out the memory and praises of Pitt while they
are opposing all the measures and principles which
he held most important—it is by these that the pro-
gress of the Government in every improvement which
they are attempting is thwarted and impeded. On
the Catholic Question; on the principles of com-
merce; on the Corn Laws; on the settlement of
the currency; on the laws regulating the trade in
money; on colonial slavery; on the Game Laws,
which are intimately connected with the moral habits
of the people; on all these questions, and everything
like them, the Government find support from the
((
،،
312
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Whigs, and resistance from their self-denominated
friends.'
""
A disciple of Canning, and, consequently, a be-
liever in the wisdom of a liberal and tolerant policy,
there could be little doubt as to the cause Lord
Palmerston would espouse when it became a question
who was to succeed Lord Liverpool. We know that
the King, after much deliberation, finally decided
upon intrusting Canning with the formation of a
Cabinet, and that as soon as his Majesty's resolve
became known Lord Eldon, the Duke of Wellington,
and those who thought with them, at once sent in
their resignations, declining to serve under the new
Premier. Lord Palmerston, after having been
offered the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, which
offer Canning for political reasons was afterwards
obliged to withdraw, and on refusing to go out to
India as Governor-General, continued his services as
Secretary at War, but with a seat in the Cabinet, an
honour he had declined when called to the War
Office by Mr. Perceval.
The reign of Canning was, as we know, very
brief, and on Lord Goderich becoming First Lord
of the Treasury, Palmerston was again offered the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer, but George IV.,
who entertained a strong dislike towards him,
opposing the appointment, he continued in his
4
PALMERSTON.
313
post at the War Office. The rule of Lord Goderich
was as short as that of his predecessor, and on the
Duke of Wellington being appointed to succeed him,
the Canningites were desired to form part of the
Cabinet. The inducements held out to them were that
the Catholic Question was to be, as before, an open
question, and that the principles of trade advocated
by Mr. Huskisson were to be adopted. After some
hesitation and discussion the offer was accepted.
We
accepted it," writes Lord Palmerston, "not as indi-
viduals, but as a party representing the principles
and consisting of the friends of Mr. Canning. We
joined the new Government in January; we left it
in May. We joined as a party; as a party we
retired." Between the stout Toryism of Wellington,
and the neither Whig nor Tory, but Canningite
Liberality of Palmerston and his colleagues there was
•
((
•
* What were the principles of the Canningite party?
Let me
answer the question in the words of Lord Dalling: The Canningite party
was not in favour of an extensive suffrage. "It favoured the existence
of a powerful and wealthy landed aristocracy; it was not opposed to
that system of so-called rotten boroughs.
Still, it tolerated
universal suffrage as an exhibition of popular feeling in certain
localities; it opposed the pretensions of aristocratic pride to exclusive
power; and it defended its adherence to the existing parliamentary
constitution, on the plea that that constitution brought practically the
best men, poor and rich, and of almost every station, into the House
of Commons." It patronised constitutional opinions abroad and
adopted, though not without reservations, the doctrine of free trade
at home, and the withdrawal of religious qualifications for political
functions. Huskisson, Dudley, Grant, William Lamb, and Lord
Palmerston, were the Canningites in the Wellington Administration.
*
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REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
little in common. The ill-assorted union, like all
such coalitions, was soon severed, owing to dissen-
sions on the vexed questions of Catholic Emancipa-
tion, Parliamentary Reform, the Corn Laws, and the
treatment of Mr. Huskisson by the Duke, and
from 1828 to 1830 the subject of this sketch
had to content himself with the exclusion of Op-
position.
He was soon, however, to bask in the sunshine of
office. On the resignation of the Duke of Welling-
ton, owing to the opposition of his Grace to Parlia-
mentary Reform, Earl Grey came into power.
Palmerston was now offered the Foreign Office, and
for the next eleven years, except when the Duke of
Wellington succeeded him during the short-lived Peel
Administration, he held the seals as Foreign Minister.
It was during this period-from 1830 to 1841-that
the name of Lord Palmerston became so celebrated
throughout Europe as a statesman: straightforward,
decided, vigilant, he was relentless in opposition when-
ever English interests were in the faintest degree
menaced. His dispatches lie before us, and throughout
their pages it is plain to see how firm, how jealous,
how far-sighted, yet how just was the man in his
direction of our foreign policy. Let those who
maintain that our empire should be sacrificed
for the selfish prosperity of our island read the
PALMERSTON.
315
..
Palmerston correspondence, and have their patriotism
restored them. Civis sum Romanus rings in every
line.
The first question that occupied his grave atten-
tion on taking office was the delicate subject of
Belgian independence. As is well known, the union.
between Belgium and Holland, cemented by the
Allied Powers in 1814, had never been popular.
The elements of discord between the two peoples
were numerous. They spoke different languages,
had different customs, and were engaged in opposite
commercial interests. The Belgians were bigoted
Roman Catholics; the Dutch were rigid Calvinists.
The Belgians complained that they were treated as a
conquered country; that they were saddled with a
heavy taxation; that their language was forbidden
to be spoken at the Bar, or used in State Papers ;
and that the Dutch were appointed to all the public
offices. In the August of 1830 an insurrection
broke out at Brussels in favour of Belgian independ-
ence. The agitation spread throughout the country;
Antwerp was seized by the insurgents, and on the
10th of November, 1830, the independence of
Belgium was proclaimed by the National Congress at
Brussels. The question that now attracted the
attention of Lord Palmerston was, how to prevent
France from gaining any advantage by this disturb-
316
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
ance. He saw that if the union between Belgium
and Holland, as laid down by the Treaty of
Vienna, was to be enforced, a second insurrection
would take place in Belgium, the Belgians would
appeal to the French, who spoke their language
and held their religion, and the result would
be the annexation of Belgium to France, and
the acquisition of a seaboard most dangerous to
England.
Our Foreign Secretary therefore saw that if we
wished to prevent Belgium from becoming a French
province, we must arrange some plan for giving her
a separate and distinct existence. The desire of
Belgium was to be created into a kingdom, with a
king of her own and a recognised constitution. That
desire was encouraged by England, and, in a certain
measure, by France. But beneath the consent of
France there lurked selfish motives. France wished
that one of her princes of the blood, the Duc de
Nemours, should wear the new Belgian crown, and
that Luxembourg should be handed over to her.
Both these requests were firmly opposed by Lord
Palmerston. He had every wish to preserve the
entente cordiale between England and France, but
not at the expense of English interests.
He was, as
he said, a man of peace, but not of peace at any
price. If France placed a son of hers on the Belgian
PALMERSTON.
317
throne, or annexed a foot of Belgian territory, Eng-
land would at once demand redress at the point of
the bayonet.
(C
Listen to some of Lord Palmerston's instructions
to Lord Granville, then British Ambassador at
Paris" It may not be amiss for you to hint, upon
any fitting occasion, that though we are anxious to
cultivate the best understanding with France, and to
be on the terms of the most intimate friendship with
her, yet that it is only on the supposition that she
contents herself with the finest territory in Europe,
and does not mean to open α new chapter of
encroachment and conquest."
Pray take care, in all your conversations with
Sebastiani,* to make him understand that our desire
for peace will never lead us to submit to affront
either in language or in act.”
The French Government are perpetually telling
us that certain things must, or must not be done, in
order to satisfy public opinion in France; but they
must remember that there is a public feeling in
England as well as in France; and that although
that feeling is not as excitable upon small matters as
the public mind in France, yet there are points (and
Belgium is one) upon which it is keenly sensitive,
* General Sebastiani, who had just become Foreign Minister in
France.
318
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
and
upon which, if once aroused, it would not easily
be appeased."
We are reluctant even to think of war, but if
ever we are to make another effort this is a legiti-
mate occasion, and we find that we could not submit
to the placing of the Duc de Nemours on the throne
of Belgium without danger to the safety and a sacri-
fice to the honour of the country. We are ready to
agree to any reasonable proposition which can be made
for giving a sovereign to Belgium unobjectionable to
any party, . but we require that Belgium should
be really and not nominally independent.'
<<
""
Talleyrand said to me to-day, 'When you write
to Lord Granville, pray tell him not to treat the
Belgian affair comme une grande chose; en main-
tenant ce n'est qu'une petite chose, it can be soon
and easily settled.' This may be very well for
France to say, but we never can look upon the
Belgian affair as a trifling matter, but, on the con-
trary, as one of the greatest importance to England."
We feel strongly how much a cordial good
understanding and close friendship between England
and France must contribute to secure the peace of
the world, and to confirm the liberties and promote
the happiness of nations. We are deeply convinced
that it is greatly for the interest of England and of
France that this friendship should be intimate and
(C
PALMERSTON.
319
unbroken. But true friendship cannot exist without
perfect confidence on both sides. Each party must
be convinced that the other has no secret views and
selfish objects to be pursued to the detriment of the
other. Suspicion and distrust are fatal to confidence
and friendship."
The result of this manly, straightforward conduct
on the part of our Foreign Secretary-so different
from the evasions of ordinary diplomacy!—was that
France recognised England to be in stern earnest in
all she said. England was firmly resolved that no
son of France should ascend the throne of the new
Belgian kingdom; that the French troops should
evacuate Belgian territory (they had entered Belgium
promising to retire when the Dutch had retreated
to Holland, but appeared to hesitate about keeping
their word); and that the fortresses which it was
considered desirable to dismantle should be dis-
mantled.
"On Thursday next," writes Palmerston to Lord
Granville, "Vyvyan renews his motion on Belgium.
On that day at latest I shall be compelled to give the
House of Commons a categorical answer, Yes, or No,
to the Question, Do the French troops evacuate Bel-
gium or not? Pray enable me to give an answer
by that day, and let not the French Government mis-
take the import of the answer which they may enable
320
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
me to give. The Yes, or No, which I shall have to
utter will imply events of most extensive conse-
quence to the two countries and to all Europe.
"We fully mean to dismantle many of these Bel-
gian fortresses; but we will never endure that France
should dictate to us in this matter at the point of the
bayonet.
"One thing is certain-the French must go out of
Belgium, or we have a general war, and war in a
given number of days.”
About the instructions of Lord Palmerston there
was nothing of the "meddle and muddle" policy of
the timid and the hesitating, nothing of the bluster
and withdrawal of the bully, but the words of a man
conscious that he was in the right, and resolved at
whatever cost to carry them into effect. France
withdrew all her demands and objections. Prince
Leopold of Saxe-Coburg was raised to the Belgian
throne, and the question of the independence of the
new kingdom was fully settled.
"To be just," writes Lord Palmerston's biographer,
one must acknowledge there were many phases in
these transactions, and it is difficult to take any one
and affirm that this party was entirely right in it
and that one entirely wrong; but I may say that
throughout them Lord Palmerston kept his eye
fixed steadily on the general result, taking for his
(C
PALMERSTON.
321
guide the desire to place the two countries in such
a position as would tend, when the generations
which had raised their hands against each other had
passed away, to draw their descendants together by
connecting interests, instead of tearing them apart
by conflicting passions. The wisdom of Lord Pal-
merston's policy can be tested now, when we ask
ourselves—at nearly forty years' distance-whether,
if either Holland and Belgium were threatened to-
morrow by an invading army, they would not be
more likely to coalesce as separate states for their
common defence, than when their names were united
and their hearts divided under The Kingdom of the
Netherlands.""
(
But there were other foreign questions, besides
those of Belgian Independence, at this time, which
required all the tact and patriotic vigilance of Lord
Palmerston to encounter. Russia, with that hideous
brutality which has invariably characterized her mode
of warfare, had crushed the Polish insurrection and
drowned Polish nationality in seas of blood. The
German sovereigns had entered into a Teutonic league
to suppress the liberties that had been accorded to
their subjects. The Eastern Question had assumed
a new phase from Mehemet Ali, the governor of
Egypt, having overrun Syria and threatened Con-
stantinople. In Italy, Austria had interfered to
VOL. II.
Y
322
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
uphold the power of the Vatican. Greece had ob-
tained a new sovereign and an advantageous rectifi-
cation of her frontier. In Spain and Portugal Don
Carlos and Don Miguel were laying their pretensions
to the throne, and endeavouring to substitute arbi-
trary for constitutional government.*
Our Foreign Secretary was, however, keenly watch-
ing every move on the European chessboard. In
conjunction with France he formed the Quadruple
Alliance between Great Britain, France, Spain, and
Portugal, for the support of constitutional principles
in the Iberian Peninsula. The claims of Maria II.
of Portugal, daughter of Don Pedro, ex-Emperor of
Brazil, to the throne, had been opposed by Don
Miguel. After a sharp contest Don Miguel capi-
tulated at Evora Monte, and signed an agreement
to abstain from interference in
interference in the affairs of
Portugal, and renounced his claim to the throne.
"I have been very busy ever since I returned
* The pragmatic sanction by which Ferdinand VII. abolished the
Salic law in Spain, and made his daughter heiress to the throne, was
recognised by France and England, but the Northern powers, as well
as the Pope, refused to acknowledge it. Spain itself was divided into
factions. The Liberals and moderate party supported the Queen,
and were 'hence called Christinos, while the Serviles declared for Don
Carlos, and were called Carlists. The strength of the Carlists lay
chiefly in the Basque provinces, which had been injured by the
system of centralisation adopted by Ferdinand after the French
model. The insurrection afterwards spread to other provinces, and
the Basque army, which gradually increased to 25,000 men, found an
excellent leader in Zumalacarregui.
PALMERSTON.
323
from Broadlands," writes Lord Palmerston to his
brother, "working out my Quadruple Alliance be-
tween England, France, Spain, and Portugal, for the
expulsion of Carlos and Miguel from the Portuguese
dominions. . . . . I reckon this to be a great stroke.
In the first place, it will settle Portugal and go some
way to settle Spain also. But what is of more per-
manent and extensive importance, it establishes a
quadruple alliance among the constitutional states of
the West, which will serve as a powerful counterpoise
to the Holy Alliance of the East." On another
occasion he writes, "This Treaty was a capital hit,
and all my own doing. Nothing ever did so
well as the Quadruple Treaty; it has ended a war
which might otherwise have lasted months."
He had every reason to express this self-praise.
At a time when various states in Europe were dealing
out despotic measures to their subjects, it behoved
England, the representative of constitutional prin-
ciples, to set an example of toleration, justice, and
sound freedom. "This Treaty," writes Lord Dalling,
"was the full completion of Mr. Canning's policy.
It brought together a combination of nations in the
West, in support of the institutions we enjoyed, as a
counterpoise to a combination that still existed in
the North against such institutions.
In that
Treaty the British and French Governments recog-
324
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
nised liberal principles in a manner which gave to
those principles in the eyes of the world a certain
weight and power. Their declaration in favour of
those principles also, though bold, was safe. To
select noble ends, to pursue them perseveringly, and
attain them peaceably is statesmanship; and after
the signature of the Quadruple Alliance, Lord Palmer-
ston held the rank of a statesman on the continent
of Europe."
In the revolt of Mehemet Ali, Lord Palmerston
took a still more active part. He saw that if
Mehemet declared himself independent of the
Sultan, and separated Syria and Egypt from the
Ottoman Empire, war would ensue between the
Turks and the Egyptians; "that in such conflict,"
wrote the Foreign Secretary to Lord Granville, “ the
Turkish troops would probably be defeated; that
then the Russians would fly to the aid of the Sultan,
and a Russian garrison would occupy Constanti-
nople and the Dardanelles; and once in possession
of those points the Russians would never quit them.”
Accordingly, the Mediterranean fleet was dispatched
to Alexandria to support the Sultan, and to show
Mehemet what he had to expect if he persisted in
his designs. With the exception of France, all the
Great Powers which had agreed to uphold the in-
tegrity of the Ottoman Empire were opposed to the
PALMERSTON.
325
ambitious Pasha of Egypt. France, however, pur-
sued a shifting course. She dared not break with
the Great Powers, and yet she wished to support
Mehemet Ali so as to constitute herself the protec-
tress of Egypt and Syria-in other words, to hold the
key of the high-road to our Indian Empire. Such an
aim, so fatal to English interests, was at once check-
mated by Lord Palmerston. In the plainest lan-
guage he declared that if France assisted Mehemet
in disturbing the integrity of the Ottoman Empire,
war would ensue between England and France; that
in such a conflict England would be supported by the
Powers, and that France, finding herself isolated,
would be severely defeated.
S
The sturdy English spirit of Lord Palmerston was
not to be intimidated by threats or bluster from
across the Channel. Listen again to his instructions
to our Minister at Paris: "The French may say
what they like; they cannot go to war with the four
Powers in support of Mehemet Ali.
The
French may talk big, but cannot make war for such a
cause. It would be very unwise to underrate the force
of France and the evils of a war with her in a case in
which she had a national interest and a just cause,
but it would be equally inexpedient to be daunted
by big words and empty vapouring in a case in which
a calm view of things ought to convince one that
326
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
France alone would be the sufferer by a war, hastily,
capriciously, and unjustly undertaken by herself."
"Thiers will probably at first swagger; but we are
not men to be frightened by threats; and he will be
far too wise to do any rash things that would bring
him into collision with England alone, to say
nothing of the other three Powers, especially in a
matter in which France is wholly in the wrong.'
((
"I dare say all you say of Thiers is true; but,
after all, Thiers at the utmost can only be France;
and we none of us intend that France shall domineer
over the other Powers of Europe, or even over
England alone. Of all mistakes in public affairs, as
well as in private, the greatest is to truckle to
swagger and bully, or even to unjustifiable violence."
Notwithstanding the mysterious threatening with
which Thiers has favoured us, I still hold to my
belief that the French Government will be too wise
and prudent to make war, . . . . besides, bullies
seldom execute the threats they deal in; and men of
trick and cunning are not always men of desperate
resolves. But if Thiers should again hold to you the
language of menace, however indistinctly and vaguely
shadowed out, pray retort upon him to the full extent
of what he may say to you,
if France throws
down the gauntlet we shall not refuse to pick it up;
and that if she begins a war she will to a certainty
""
1
PALMERSTON.
327
lose her ships, colonies, and commerce before she
sees the end of it; that her army of Algiers will
cease to give her anxiety; and that Mehemet Ali
will just be chucked into the Nile. I wish you had
hinted at these topics when Thiers spoke to you; I
invariably do so when either Guizot or Bourqueney
begin to swagger; and I observe that it always acts
as a sedative."
The result of these direct hints was greatly to
embarrass France. She did not wish to abandon
Mehemet Ali; she dared not assume the aggressive,
and so, halting between two opinions, she hesitated,
blustered, but did nothing. Meanwhile Russia,
England, Austria, Prussia, and Turkey, concluded a
treaty at London for the expulsion of the Egyptians
from Syria. We know the issue.
We know the issue. Beyrout was
bombarded, Acre taken, the Egyptians forced to quit
Syria; then peace was restored between Egypt and
Turkey; Mehemet Ali was created hereditary Vice-
roy of Egypt, but deprived of Syria.
This stern determination to uphold English
interests, to permit no invasion upon English rights,
and to regard all foreign matters from the point of
view of an Englishman, is visible in all the
transactions and in all the decisions of Lord Pal-
merston. By a treaty between Great Britain and
the kingdom of the Two Sicilies, the Neapolitan
328
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Government had pledged itself to grant to no
other country commercial privileges detrimental to
the welfare of England. In defiance of this stipu-
lation, however, the King of Naples had accorded
to a French company a monopoly of all the sulphur
worked in Sicily, to the injury of the English trade
in sulphur. Representations were made to the
Neapolitan Government; it promised to withdraw
the monopoly, then equivocated, and finally declared
that the sulphur contract was no violation of the
treaty with Great Britain. Lord Palmerston was not
the man to tolerate this shuffling. "We cannot
stand any longer," he writes to his brother, then the
British representative at Naples, "the postponement
of the abolition of the sulphur monopoly. It is a
clear violation of the Treaty of 1816, which gives
our subjects in Sicily a right to dispose of their per-
sonal property of whatever kind, by sale in any way
they like, without hindrance or loss. We must have
not only the repeal of the monopoly, but full com-
pensation for losses.' This demand was supported
by the presence of the Mediterranean Fleet. Naples
was at first refractory, but finding that her ships fell
easy prizes to our men-of-war, she accepted the
mediation of France on the terms agreed upon by
Lord Palmerston.
""
The Mc Leod affair is another instance of the
PALMERSTON.
329
courage and patriotism of the Foreign Secretary.
During the rebellion in Canada, an American steam-
ship called the Caroline, which had been engaged in
supplying the rebels with arms, was boarded, whilst
lying within the jurisdiction of the State of New
York, by a party of loyalists, set on fire, and hurled
over the falls of Niagara. In this affair an American
citizen lost his life. Shortly afterwards a British
subject, one Alexander Mc Leod, was arrested in
New York State on a charge of complicity in the
destruction of the Caroline, and imprisoned on a
charge of murder. His release was at once de-
manded on the ground that he was acting under
orders, and that whatever responsibility attached to
the deed rested with the British Government, and
not with an individual such as Mc Leod. The reply
of the United States was that it could not interfere
with the internal concerns of the State of New York.
"If any harm should be done to Mc Leod," writes
Lord Palmerston to the English Minister at Washing-
ton, "the indignation and resentment of all England
will be extreme. Mr. Van Buren should understand
this, and that the British nation will never permit a
British subject to be dealt with as the people of New
York propose to deal with Mc Leod, without taking
a signal revenge upon the offenders. Mc Leod's
execution would produce war, war immediate and
330
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
frightful in its character, because it would be a war
of retaliation and vengeance." Happily the question
was solved by the jury at Utica bringing in a verdict
of not guilty.
Lord Palmerston held that if a nation wishes to
preserve peace and escape from being constantly im-
posed upon, she must be prepared to support what-
ever demands she brought forward by the most
decisive measures. To yield once is but to pave the
way for further exactions. His maxim was, "Never
give up a pin's head that you ought to keep and
think you can keep; and even if you think that in
the last extremity you will not be able to keep it,
make as many difficulties as you can about resigning
it, and manifest a doubt as to whether you should not
sooner go to war than resign it." The habit of making
concessions and creating a belief that concessions
will be made, must, he asserted, be fatal to a nation's
((
interest, tranquillity, and honour. 'You give up,"
he said, "to-day to the Americans, who are an en-
croaching people, a point that you deem of small
importance: this is certain to lead to your being asked
to give up another point of more importance to-
morrow; and you will thus eventually be brought to
give up something of great importance, or to fight
because you decline to do so. Nor is this all. If
you
still say, 'Don't let us fight,' you avoid war with
PALMERSTON.
331
the Americans; but other nations who have watched
your conduct with them will imitate their conduct
to you, and the quarrel you avoided in the first in-
stance will multiply into a thousand quarrels before
you have done with the consequences of indifference
or timidity."
In the foreign questions not immediately con-
nected with English interests, Lord Palmerston con-
tented himself with observing their combinations and
prophesying their consequences.
Nor was he an
incorrect seer. He said that the laws framed for the
oppression of the German people were a grave mis-
take.*
We know what became of those laws. He
said that the Austrian rule in Italy would not last.
He was right. He said that the temporal power of
the Pope would not last. He was right. He fore-
told events as well as he controlled them. "In
those eleven years," writes his biographer, "which
intervened between 1830 and 1841 he had kept up
England as 'The Great State,' morally and materially,
* With what foresight did Lord Palmerston predict the future of
Germany as established by the policy of Prince Bismarck! "Nature,"
he writes to his brother, "has not been bountiful to Prussia, at least
to the district round Berlin, as regards soil and perhaps climate; but
she has been more liberal as to mental endowments, and one cannot
visit the country without being struck with the great intellectual
activity which shows itself in all classes. There is scarcely a man in
the country who cannot read and write. In short Prussia is taking the
lead in German civilisation; and as Austria has gone to sleep and will
be long before she wakes, Prussia has a fine career open to her for many
years to come.”
332
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
of Europe. He had always expressed her ideas;
he had always maintained her interests. His lan-
guage was clear and bold; and when he menaced
action, or thought action necessary, he had ever been
ready by his deeds to make good his language; yet
in no instance had his free speech and ready courage
led to those wars which timid politicians fear and
bring about frequently by their apprehensions. He
had, in fact, been eminently a peace Minister, and
chiefly so because he had not been saying that he
would have peace at any price." How often have
some of us who live after his time-when we have
seen English Ministers humbly submissive to foreign
demands, agreeing to iniquitous annexations, and
tearing up treaties framed at a terrible cost,—when
we have seen compromise instead of courage, and
national prestige sacrificed to commercial prosperity
-how often have we been ready to cry, "Oh, for an
hour of Palmerston !"
M
A period of rest from the cares and responsibilities
of office was now to fall to the lot of the watchful and
hard-worked Foreign Secretary. The elections of
1841 having gone against the Melbourne Govern-
ment, the Conservative Ministry of Sir Robert Peel
came into power, and for the next five years Lord
Palmerston was one of the keenest and most un-
sparing critics in the ranks of the Opposition.
PALMERSTON.
333
"On no leading topic of legislation," writes Lord
Dalling, quoting from a friend, "whether of the first
or second grade of importance, while Sir Robert Peel
was Minister, was Lord Palmerston silent. The dis-
tress of the country, Lord Ashley's Bill for the better
regulation of mines and collieries, bribery at elections,
the Ashburton Treaty, Lord Ellenborough and his
Somnauth Proclamation, the affairs of Servia, the
outrage on Mr. Pritchard at Tahiti, the Greek Loan,
and the émeute at Athens; the state of Ireland, the
Protestant Bishopric of Jerusalem, the affair of
Scinde, the suppression of the Slave Trade, in which
Lord Palmerston made more than one speech of at
least three hours' duration, our relations with Brazil,
the imprisonment of Don Carlos, the inclosure of
commons, duelling in the army, gaming, and the
question of recovering by law debts incurred at play;
the sugar duties, the shipping interest, France and
Morocco, the income tax, Maynooth College, railway
accidents, and national defences-all obtained his
attention and called forth his remarks."
In other words, Lord Palmerston made himself
familiar with every subject of European and domestic
interest. Any measure calculated to promote the
interest of England-" the interest of England," he
said, "was his Polar star"-he advocated; every
measure that could work to her disadvantage he
334
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
(C
opposed. It seems to me," he wrote to Lord John
Russell, with a disinterested unselfishness that certain
of his successors would do well to imitate, "that the
straightforward course of an honest Opposition is to
look to the real interests of the country in respect of
its relations with foreign Powers, and to uphold
those interests, whether by so doing it may support
or attack the Government of the day. If the Govern-
ment is doing its duty in this respect, it ought not to
be thwarted by the Opposition; if it is neglecting or
violating its duty, it ought to be rebuked or
admonished.”
He did not fear France, but he doubted the cor-
diality of her friendship towards England; he there-
fore advocated our national defences being kept at a
warlike strength—our dockyards fortified, our fleet
ready to sail, our troops ready to embark, a strong
mass of reserves in existence to be drawn upon
when necessary. "Fidarsi è bene, ma non fidarsi è
meglio," he said, should be our maxim in regard to
France. "I have no doubt," he writes to Lord
Normanby, "that Louis Philippe hates me; but I
am not ambitious of being le bien aimé of any French
sovereign, and I care not for dislike which is founded
on nothing but a conviction that I am a good
Englishman, and that I see through, and will do my
best to thwart, all schemes of foreign Powers hostile
PALMERSTON.
335
He was a staunch
to the interest of my country."
opponent of the system of the Slave Trade. "It is,
indeed, worthy of notice," writes Lord Dalling,
"that there was no subject which, during his long
political life, was taken up by Lord Palmerston with
so much zeal and earnestness as the suppression of
the Slave Trade. He was a man of the world, and it
was a subject which did not interest men of the
world in general. He was a politician, and it was a
subject which did not much interest the ordinary run
of politicians. It caused great trouble; it very often
thwarted and crossed other views and combinations;
it was the hobby in England of a class of men who
generally opposed Lord Palmerston's views as
England's relations with foreign countries; and it
was wholly misunderstood abroad, where some pro-
found scheme of selfish advantage was generally pre-
sumed to be concealed under the cloak of dis-
interested philanthropy. Still Lord Palmerston's
conduct was unvarying and consistent. He never
lost an occasion for advancing his humane object,
nor even pardoned an agent who overlooked it."
He supported Lord Ashley in his humane efforts for
the restriction of factory labour. He was in favour
of the Maynooth Grant, rightly deeming that, as
Roman Catholicism must exist, it is better that
Papists should be enlightened by education than
336
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
continue in ignorance. "There is no use," he said,
“in entertaining delusive expectations, and in aiming
at impossibilities. To proselytize the Irish people
and to convert them to Protestantism, is in the exist-
ing state of things impossible. Our only choice is
between leaving six millions of men in comparative
ignorance, and in consequent bigotry and supersti-
tion, or endeavouring to enlighten them, and at least
to make them good Catholics if we cannot make
them Protestants; and in making this choice we
must not forget, as some men in their zeal seem to
do, that Roman Catholics are Christians."
The Ashburton Treaty, which, whilst defining the
boundaries between the United States and the British
American possessions, made unworthy concessions to
the United States with regard to the Right of Search,
was strongly disapproved of by Lord Palmerston,
who considered Lord Ashburton, who conducted
the negotiations, "half a Yankee," and the last
man to have been sent out on such a mission.
"We seem to have made," he writes to his brother,
((
a most disgraceful and disadvantageous agree-
ment with the Americans; but how could it be
otherwise when we sent a half Yankee to conduct
our negotiations? Lord Ashburton has, if possible,
greater interests in America than in England. He
thinks the most important thing to England,
PALMERSTON.
337
because it is the most important to himself, is peace
between England and America; and to preserve
that peace he would sacrifice anything and every-
thing but his own private and personal interests.
He moreover holds the opinion that the loss of
Canada would be rather a gain than an injury to
England; and that was the man the Government
chose to negotiate a matter, the chief importance of
which to us was its bearing upon the security of
Canada. It quite makes me sick to think of it.".
"This Ashburton Treaty," he reiterates, "is a most
disgraceful surrender to American bully, for I cannot
even give Ashburton and the Government the credit
of having been outwitted. They must have known
the value and extent of all the concessions they were
making." In the excited debates upon the Corn
Laws, Lord Palmerston took little share.
After an interval of five years' repose, he was
again to take his seat at the Foreign Office. The
causes which led to the dissolution of the Peel
Government we have already related. On the fall
of the member for Tamworth, Lord John Russell
became First Lord of the Treasury, and Palmerston
for the third time held the seals as Secretary of State
for Foreign Affairs. Scarcely had he resumed his
duties when diplomacy was scandalized by the miser-
able subterfuges which resulted in the Spanish mar-
VOL. II.
Z
338
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
riages. Into this shameless act-the infamous
work of M. Guizot-we need not enter at length;
those who wish to read a thrice-told tale in a
new light cannot do better than consult the
volumes of Lord Dalling-who was then our
representative at Madrid-upon Lord Palmerston.
It may be remembered that on this occasion the
interests of France and England were brought into
collision. France was anxious that the Bourbon
line should continue upon the Spanish throne, whilst
England desired that a Prince of the House of
Coburg should be the accepted suitor of the young
Queen. The Queen-mother, Christina, had been
anxious for her daughter Isabella to marry the Duke
of Montpensier, son of Louis Philippe, but by the
Treaty of Utrecht it was expressly stated that no
Prince of the House of Orleans should ever fill the
Spanish throne; such a union was therefore impos-
sible unless France preferred to act in defiance of
that Treaty. The candidates whom France one after
the other proposed were, the Count of Aquila,
brother to the King of Naples, Count of Trapani,
elder son of Don Carlos, and the two sons of Don
Francisco. As Louis Philippe had promised that
his son should not enter the lists as a candidate for
the hand of the Queen of Spain, Lord Aberdeen in
return agreed to support no other prince but one of
PALMERSTON.
339
the House of Bourbon, and the French Cabinet ex-
pressly reserved to itself the right, if England should
dvance the claims of a Prince of Coburg, of making
a French prince his competitor.
The English agent in Spain, however, did not
adhere to the instructions of his superior.* An
invitation even was addressed to the Duke of
Coburg, who was at that time in Lisbon, to come
to Madrid, in order to negotiate the marriage of
a Prince of his House. Queen Christina was
probably aware of the terms that had been agreed
upon between France and England, and hoped
that France, now released from her engagements,
would make the Duke of Montpensier a com-
petitor for the hand of her eldest daughter. But
scarcely had Lord Aberdeen informed the French
Ministry of this unexpected step on the part of the
Spanish Government, and forbidden the English
Ambassador to enter into the Spanish proposal, when
Sir Robert Peel's Ministry resigned, and was replaced
by the Whigs, with Lord Palmerston as Foreign
Secretary. Guizot, dreading now the English in-
fluence, and seeing the impracticability of uniting
the son of Louis Philippe to Queen Isabella, pro-
posed for her husband her cousin, Francis d'Assiz,
* For the vindication of his conduct on this occasion, see Lord
Dalling's "Life of Palmerston,” vol. iii.
340
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
Duke of Cadiz, the eldest son of Francis de Paula,
a young man incapable both in mind and body, while
he destined the Duke of Montpensier for Isabella's
youngest sister, Maria Louisa. To this the Queen-
mother, Christina, at last consented. At the same
time Louis Philippe promised the English Govern-
ment that the marriage of his son with the Infanta
should not take place till Isabella had given birth to
an heir to the throne. The young Queen manifested
her aversion for her selected lover, but by the machi-
nations of Guizot and Christina, her scruples were
overcome, and the King of the French and his un-
scrupulous Minister, sacrificing without remorse the
domestic happiness of the young Queen, gained a
most dishonourable triumph by the fait accompli of
a simultaneous marriage of Isabella with Francis
d'Assiz, and of Montpensier with Maria Louisa.
These marriages taking place in direct violation
of the solemn promise given by France to Eng-
land, caused considerable coldness between the two
countries.
"The feeling of the Queen, Lord John Russell,
Clarendon, and all our colleagues who have thought
of these matters is alike," writes Lord Palmerston.
(
t
We are all indignant at the bad faith and unscru-
pulous ambition and base intrigues of the French
Government. It is hard to say whether they have
PALMERSTON.
341
behaved worst in forcing upon poor Isabella a hus-
band whom she dislikes and despises, and who may
be a husband only in name, or towards us in pro-
moting a marriage to which they well knew we had
strong and well-founded political objections, and
which Louis Philippe and Guizot had personally
assured the Queen and Aberdeen should in no case
take place till Isabella should have children and till
the succession should thus have been secured. . . . .
Do not mention it to any one, but the Queen has
written the King of the French a tickler* in answer
to a letter he sent her."
A
"I must say," writes Lord Palmerston again
on the same subject, "Guizot cuts a most pitiful
figure in the whole transaction, but I suppose that
all he cares for is carrying his point, and that he
is indifferent as to how he may stand in the argu-
ment. I should have thought, however, that he
would have showed more regard to character.'
And yet the French Minister affected to be an
austerely religious man! Exquisite piety, which
infamously wrecks the whole domestic life of a
young girl, and cheats, and shuffles, and lies for
the cold, selfish ends of politics! On Guizot's head
rest the frailties of Isabella's career.
>>
*For this "tickler," see Mr. Theodore Martin's "Life of the
Prince Consort."
342
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
The year 1848 was perhaps the most anxious in
the annals of chronology for every Minister of
Foreign Affairs. Scarcely a country in Europe
escaped the dire contagion of revolution. In France
Louis Philippe was forced to fly, and a republic
took the place of a monarchy. Austria was in
revolt against Ferdinand I., and Prince Metternich
had been compelled to quit the country; an insur-
rection broke out in Berlin; the Italians were in
revolt against Austria; our old friends, Schleswig
and Holstein, were at daggers drawn; riots were
occurring in Naples, owing to the offensive govern-
ment of the weak and cruel Bomba; Rome was in
revolt, and the Pope had to quit the city in disguise ;
the Magyars were doing their best to dismember the
Austrian Empire; Portugal was torn by internal
dissensions; and Narvaez had upset constitutional
government in Spain, and established in its stead a
"monstrous despotism."
.f
With Spain we were directly connected, for we
had endeavoured to maintain
maintain a constitutional
monarchy within her dominions. Accordingly, our
Minister was instructed by Lord Palmerston to
recommend to the Spanish Government a line of
conduct more in accordance with constitutional
usages. "The recent fall of the King of the
French," wrote his Lordship, "and of his whole
PALMERSTON.
343
family, and the expulsion of his Ministers, ought to
teach the Spanish Court and Government how great
is the danger of an attempt to govern a country in a
manner at variance with the feelings and opinions of
the nation, and the catastrophe which has happened
in France must serve to show that even a large and
well-disciplined army becomes an ineffectual defence
for the Crown, when the course pursued by the Crown
is at variance with the general sentiments of the
country." Sir Henry Bulwer was instructed to
suggest to the Spanish Government that its basis
should be enlarged by calling to its Councils "some
of those men who possess the confidence of the
Liberal party." Against this interference with
the internal affairs of his country Narvaez vigorously
protested. Sir Henry Bulwer was insulted. He
was accused of having furthered the insurrection, of
having employed her Majesty's ships to row round
the Spanish coast in order to excite revolt, and of
having corrupted the Spanish troops by presents of
English guineas. He was dismissed from the capital
under the frivolous pretext that his life was in
danger. Such behaviour was a direct insult to
England. Lord Palmerston, as became him, pro-
posed to the Cabinet prompt and decided measures;
he was in favour of a fleet being at once sent to
Cadiz to demand satisfaction.
344
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
"We had but to send a fleet to Cadiz," writes
Lord Dalling, "and hold up our little finger, and
Narvaez and his seconds would have fallen down
like a pack of cards. The Queen-mother, who
trembled for a large portion of her property engaged
in speculations in Cuba, would have been the first
to desert him; the army, not a regiment of which
he could rely upon, would have shouted vivas to his
successor. There is no satisfaction we could have
demanded that would not have been gratefully given
and prodigally offered." But the colleagues of Lord
Palmerston declined to support him.
Some were
not sorry that the policy of the Foreign Secretary
should receive a rebuff which did not damage; some
belonged to that school which looks upon national
honour as a shadow that is always to be sacrificed to
the substance of immediate interest; and some had
been so alarmed by the wild doctrines which were
then beginning to threaten society in France, that
they thought that military despotism should rather
be protected than attacked, and that one Narvaez
was better than twenty Louis Blancs."
66
The insult was considered to be sufficiently avenged
by the dismissal of the Spanish Minister at the Court
of St. James's and the rupture of diplomatic relations
between the two countries. What was the result of
such pusillanimity? It was said that England would
PALMERSTON..
345
•
not fight.
Narvaez was the hero of the hour. Am-
bitious men who aimed at despotic rule followed his
example. Russia had an impetus given to her own
selfish designs. "Never," writes Lord Dalling, was
extreme caution the parent of more desperate conse-
quences. But for these consequences Lord Palmerston
was not responsible. Had his advice been followed, it
is more than probable that Queen Isabella would still
have been on her throne in Madrid; that a constitu-
tional government would have been long since esta-
blished firmly in France; and that the campaign
of the Crimea would have been avoided.”
..
During this eventful year the policy of Lord
Palmerston was to preserve peace by the exercise of
English influence. He favoured the development of
German unity. He advised Austria not to maintain
a sanguinary conflict in order to preserve her Lom-
bard kingdom. "The real fact is," he wrote to Lord
Ponsonby, "that the Austrians have no business in
Italy at all, and have no real right to be there.
Providence meant mankind to be divided into separate
nations, and for this purpose countries have been
founded by natural barriers, and races of men have
been distinguished by separate languages, habits,
manners, dispositions, and characters. There is no
case on the globe in which this intention is more
marked than that of the Italians and the Germans,
•
346
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
kept apart by the Alps, and as unlike in every-
thing as two races can be. Austria has never
possessed Italy as part of her empire, but has
always held it as a conquered territory. There
has been no mixture of races. The only Austrians
have been the troops and the civil officers. She
has governed it as you govern a garrison town,
and her rule has always been hateful." Any
one who remembers the condition of North Italy
before the Villafranca Treaty-the intensity of
the social and political hate of the Italians, and
especially of the Italian ladies, against the despotism
of the alien race—will confirm even in stronger terms
the opinion of Lord Palmerston. The defeat of
Novara, however, deferred the relief of the Peninsula
from Austrian rule until the troops of the Emperor
Napoleon and of Victor Emanuel entered Milan some
ten years afterwards.
In the revolt of Hungary against Austria the
sympathies of Lord Palmerston were hotly on
the side of the Magyars. He saw Hungary fighting
against terrible odds in defence of her consti-
tution and for the execution of promises that had
been basely made only to be broken, and the Eng-
lishman's love of right and of natural sympathy for
the resistance of the weak against the powerful rose
strong within him. "The Austrians," he writes,
PALMERSTON.
347
..
are really the greatest brutes that ever called them-
selves by the undeserved name of civilised men.
Their atrocities in Galicia, in Italy, in Hungary, in
Transylvania, are only to be equalled by the pro-
ceedings of the negro race in Africa and Hayti." At
first success had attended upon the gallant efforts of
the Magyars, but Austria, calling in the help of
Russia, soon compelled Hungary to bite the dust.
And now ensued a complication in which England
took a deep and active interest. Numerous Poles
and Hungarians-amongst them Kossuth and Za-
moyski-on the defeat of their country had taken
shelter within Turkish territory, and the Porte
was summoned by Austria and Russia to surrender
the fugitives. The Turk has, however, never been
slow to recognise the laws of hospitality, and to main-
tain them as an article of his religion. The Sultan
firmly refused to betray the trust reposed in him by
the refugees, and declined to comply with the request
of the "two imperious and imperial bullies," as Lord
Palmerston called Austria and Russia.
In this re-
fusal of the Porte the sympathies of England were
fully enlisted. The co-operation of France was
asked for and obtained. The English and French
squadrons in the Mediterranean were ordered to
anchor in the Dardanelles, and to be ready to go up
to Constantinople if invited by the Sultan. "We in-
348
•
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
tend," said Lord Palmerston, "to let the two Govern-
ments of Russia and Austria see that the Turk has
friends who will back him and defend him in time of
need.” The firm attitude assumed by our Foreign
Secretary gained the day. Austria and Russia did
not think the surrender of the fugitives of sufficient
moment to declare hostilities, and after much nego-
tiation the affair was peaceably settled by the two
Imperial Powers being content to withdraw their
demands. The Hungarian refugees were kept in
honourable captivity at Kutayeh, but after an im-
prisonment of some months released. To maintain
the prestige of England during this revolutionary
season, and yet at the same time to keep clear of
being drawn into the whirlpool of actual aggression,
required no little tact and decision on the part of our
Foreign Secretary. As Lord Palmerston pugilisti-
cally put it to the deputation which came
congratulate him on the liberation of the Poles
and Hungarians, "Much generalship and judg-
ment had been required, and that during the
struggle a good deal of judicious bottle-holding was
obliged to be brought into play." Cannot we well
remember Tenniel's clever portrait of "Old Pam,"
with a sprig in his mouth, as "the judicious bottle-
holder" ?
to
[
But we must draw this sketch to a conclusion.
PALMERSTON.
349
The later events in the life of Lord Palmerston, and
the opinions he held on the subjects then stirring
men's minds, are remembered by most of us. Un-
deterred by the menaces of France, and what he
called the "swagger of Russia," he compelled the
Greek Government to give full compensation for the
injuries received by English subjects from the Greeks
during the disturbances in 1826. He disapproved
of the Papal Bull establishing a Roman Catholic
hierarchy in England, not so much because of the
nature of its clauses as of the offensive manner in
which it was issued. "The thing itself in truth,"
he writes, "is little or nothing, and does not
justify the irritation. What has goaded the
nation is the manner, insolent and ostentatious, in
which it had been done.
Nobody would
have remarked or objected to the change if it
had been made quietly and only in the bosom of
the Church. What the Pope and his priests have
lately done has materially injured the Catholic cause.'
Lord Palmerston was a warm admirer of the late
French Emperor-deeming the Bourbons as the here-
ditary foes of England and, as we know, his too hasty
acknowledgment of the coup d'état led to serious differ-
ences between himself and his Chief, and finally to his
resignation of the seals as Foreign Secretary. As a
believer in the possibility of invasion, his voice was
""
350
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
always earnestly raised in favour of keeping a vigilant
eye upon the state of our national defences, and
especially with regard to the fortifications upon the
south coast. He firmly upheld the necessity of
maintaining the integrity of the Ottoman Empire,
and of excluding the Russians-whose sharp un-
scrupulous diplomacy never deceived him-from
Constantinople. He knew that the Muscovite
was our natural geographical enemy, and that our
foreign policy would be gravely at fault if we allowed
him to approach our Indian frontier or settle himself
near the Mediterranean.
On the fall of the Coalition Ministry, in which he
was Home Secretary, owing to its feeble prosecution
of the Crimean War, Lord Palmerston succeeded Lord
Aberdeen as Prime Minister. For three years he
retained his post at the head of the Treasury, when
the introduction of his Conspiracy to Murder"
Bill, in consequence of the attempted assassi-
nation of Louis Napoleon by Orsini and others
being considered a measure brought forward in too
great deference to the wishes of a foreign potentate,
and a strong feeling in the country being roused
against him, he was forced to retire and give place
to the Conservative government of Lord Derby. In
1859, however, he overcame the Conservative party,
returning once more to power as Premier, in which
<<
PALMERSTON.
351
During
office he remained until his death in 1865.
these last years he ably directed our policy in the
Italian War and the American Civil War.
No modern statesman has been more fully entitled
to bear the proud title of a Minister of England than
Lord Palmerston. During an unusually lengthened
political career, whatever were the errors he fell into,
he never allowed English interests to be put in
jeopardy, or a sickly sentimentality, or an unworthy
ambition, to obscure his view of what was best for
the welfare of his country. As he declared over and
over again from his place in Parliament, he desired
to be at peace with all nations; but the chief object
of his policy-the maxim which regulated his con-
duct as a statesman-was "the protection of English
interests," and when these were endangered he knew
no rest till the threatening evils had not only been
removed, but satisfactorily removed. It was his
wish, as he once said in the House of Commons
when his foreign policy was being keenly criticized,
that "as the Roman in days of old held himself free
from indignity when he could say, Civis Romanus
sum,' so also a British subject, in whatever land he
may be, shall feel confident that the watchful eye
and the strong arm of England will protect him
against injustice and wrong.”
To Lord Palmerston England and all her associations
(
352
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
were very dear, and it was because he was so thoroughly
the Englishman that he owed much of his popularity
at home. He possessed all the tastes and qualities
of the typical son of Albion. In his words and
actions he was frank, straightforward, and eminently
truthful. He detested shuffling and equivocation,
rightly regarding them as the diplomacy of the coward
and the knave. He stood staunchly by those who
served him, and never permitted a mean fear of
public opinion to control his movements.
"It is
the duty of those," he wrote to Lord Normanby, at
a time when the English Ambassador at Paris was
not on the best of terms with M. Guizot, "who are
charged with the conduct of a branch of the service
to support those who are acting with them, and to
back them up well through the difficulties to which
they may be exposed; and you may rely upon it
that I shall always do that, which I hold to be the
sine quâ non condition upon which the co-operation
of men of honour can be expected." His disposal of
patronage was most just, and he possessed the great
charm of enhancing a gift, or softening a disappoint-
ment, by genuine and well-chosen expressions of con-
gratulation or regret. It was well said that to be
refused by Lord Palmerston was almost as agreeable
to our amour-propre as to be granted a favour by
another man.
PALMÈRSTON.
353
Though the social instincts of Lord Palmerston
were aristocratic, he had the real welfare of the
people at heart. In the letters recently published we
see him asking after the servants of his household,
and alluding to them in a manner which showed his
appreciation of their service. When at the War
Office he did not think it beneath the pro-
vince of the Secretary of State to inquire into the
domestic condition of the common soldier; he re-
quested that the barrack accommodation of the
private should be made more comfortable, his sani-
tary arrangements more rigidly looked after, and
everything that could minister to his happiness care-
fully considered. When the First Commissioner of
Works was diminishing the space open to the public
in the parks by the erection of iron hurdles and
undue planting, Lord Palmerston remonstrated. "I
cannot agree with you," he writes, "as to the prin-
ciple on which the grass in the park should be
treated. You seem to think it a thing to be looked
at by the people, who are to be confined to the
gravel walks.
I regard it as a thing to be walkeḍ
upon freely and without restraint by the people, old
and young, for whose enjoyment the parks are main-
tained; and your iron hurdles would turn the parks
into so many Smithfields, and entirely prevent that
enjoyment. As to people making paths across the
VOL. II.
A A
1
.354
REPRESENTATIVE STATESMEN.
grass, what does that signify? If the parks were to
be deemed hayfields, it might be necessary to prevent
people from stopping the growth of the hay by
walking over the grass; but as the parks must be
deemed places for public enjoyment, the purpose for
which the parks are kept up is marred and defeated
when the use of them is confined to a number of
straight gravel walks. When I see the grass worn
by foot traffic, I look on it as a proof that the park
has answered its purpose, and has done its duty by
the health, amusement, and enjoyment of the people.
To cut up the Green Park into enclosed
shrubberies and plantations would be. materially to
interfere with the enjoyment and free recreation of
the public; and I must positively forbid the prose-
cution of any such scheme."
This interest in their welfare was fully appreciated
by the people. To them Lord Palmerston was not so
much a great statesman, powerful in debate, and the
leader of Cabinets, as he was a thorough English gentle-
man, a kind landlord, an excellent shot, a good judge of
horseflesh, a man fond of all manly sports, and one who
often gained his ends by a joke where the dull scholar
and the heavy legislator would have failed. They
liked to see him on the heath at Newmarket, on the
downs at Epsom, at the coverside, and riding in the
Row. To them he was not the Prime Minister, but
PALMERSTON.
"Old Pam." In society, both in London and in
Paris, his exquisite tact and the charm of his manner
made him most popular. It was a favourite saying
of his that in every man there is some good, and
that we should content ourselves with the good and
overlook the bad. Carrying this theory into practice,
it is not surprising that the number of the enemies
he made was small, whilst his friends were legion.
The history of Lord Palmerston is that of a man who
attained to power and kept it, not by a birth more
illustrious than that of many of his contemporaries,
nor by an industry which was insatiable, nor by talents
of the very highest order; but because his patriotism
was loyal and undaunted, his honour and good faith
undoubted, his tact consummate, his knowledge of
the world accurate and varied, his sympathy with the
people over whom he ruled ready, sincere, and never
at fault-because in tastes and characteristics he was
the most representative Englishman of his day. On
the list of our Premiers he will be remembered as he
himself would wish to be remembered, not as the
greatest, but as the most English of our statesmen.
THE END.
355
PRINTED BY VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED, CITY ROAD, LONDON.
By the same Author.
THE LIFE
LIFE AND TIMES OF PRINCE
PRINCE CHARLES.
STUART, commonly called the Young Pretender, from the
State Papers and other sources. 2 Vols.
"Mr. EWALD has examined, and made excellent use of, a mass of Papers regarding
the Prince's life which have been lying untouched and unheeded at the Public Record
Office. With great care, and by exercising sound judgment as to what was really
worth printing, he has selected from the piles of diplomatic dust and rubbish much
that helps to give the reader an insight into the character of Charles."-Spectator.
“Mr. EWALD lacks neither the intelligence nor the industry fitting him for the task
he undertook, and it will readily be allowed that there is no previous book which, like
that before us, has arranged the existing materials as a connected whole, and con-
structed out of them a personal biography complete in all essentials of fact."-
Saturday Review.
"Entertaining volumes."--Athenæum.
"Full of interest both for the ordinary reader and the historical student.”—Daily
News.
THE LIFE OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE. A Political
Biography. One Volume.
"Any one who wishes to know what manner of man Walpole was, and what manner
of work he did, may pleasantly and safely be referred to this volume."-Spectator.
"The general view taken by Mr. EWALD of the character and career of Sir Robert
Walpole as a politician is effectively placed before the reader, and gives proof of a
certain candour and vigour of judgment in which on previous occasions we have found
Mr. EWALD to be by no means deficient. . A perusal of this biography cannot fail
to bring to mind the singular combination of abilities which enabled the great Minister
of Peace, as Mr. EWALD appropriately calls Sir Robert Walpole, to hold his own
against his rivals and adversaries.”—Saturday Review.
•
"In weighing in the balance the character of Walpole, and in describing his merits
and his faults, Mr. EWALD has liberated himself from the mists of error and prejudice
which have too often obscured the consideration of that statesman's career. . . . In
Mr. EWALD'S volume candid criticism will allow that the conception which he has
formed of the character of his subject is corroborated by an independent study of he
politics of the age."-Ac idemy.
"His book is a valuable addition to political biography.”—Morning Post.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF ALGERNON SYDNEY.
Two Volumes.
"We welcome this Biography as the means of making an illustrious Englishman
better known to modern readers, and because it will bring the noble letters and other
writings of Algernon Sydney within easier reach of a great mass of people who think
and talk much of politics. Mr. EWALD has ably defended the illustrious patriot
against a calumny which has been adopted by Macaulay and even by Hallam.
The defence against the Barillon calumny is triumphantly conclusive."- Athenæum.
• •
Four Political
• •
THE CROWN AND ITS ADVISERS.
Lectures. One Volume.
"We congratulate Mr. EWALD on the possession of a popular style and a clear
method. . . . Everything he says connected with the usages of Parliament is sound,
and calculated to be very useful to the audiences to whom they were addressed.”—
Pull Mall Gazette.
1
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