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.A HISTORY

OF

OTIE OWN TIMES

FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO
THE GENERAL ELECTION OF 1S80

Br JUSTIN McCAETHY
I . .
AUTHOR oy "the waterdalb neighbors" "my enemy's da:ughter" etc.

in two voluwes
Vol. L-

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
EEANKLIN SQUARE
\ t%0

CONTENTS OF VOL. L

CHAPTER I. PAoi.
The King is Dead ! Long Live the Queen !  r>
CHAPTER II.
Statesmen and Pakties  21
CHAPTER IIL
Canada and Lord Dukham  3G
CHAPTER IV.
Science and Speed  58
CHAPTER V.
Chartism  70
CHAPTER VL
Question de Jupons  88
CHAPTER VII.
The Queen's Marriage  08
CHAPTER VIIL
The Opium War .  112
CHAPTER IX.
Decline and Fall op the Whig Ministry  124
CHAPTER X.
Movements in the Churches  1.39
CHAPTER XL
The Disasters op Cabul  151
CHAPTER XIL
The Repeal Year  182
CHAPTER XIII.
Peel's Administration  203

4 CONTEKTS OF VOL. I.
CHAPTER XIV. PAQE
Fkee-trade and the League  216
CHAPTER XV.
Famine forces Peel's Hand  210
CHAPTER XVI.
Mr. Disraeli  256
CHAPTER XVII.
Famine, Commercial Trouble, and Foreign Intrigue .... 275
CHAPTER XVIII.
Chartism and Young Ireland  291
CHAPTER XIX.
Don Pacifico  317
CHAPTER XX.
The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill  839
CHAPTER XXL
The Exhibition in Hyde Park .  353
CHAPTER XXIL
Palmerston  S71
CHAPTER XXIIL
Birth of the Empire; Death of "The Duke"  399
CHAPTER XXIV.
Mr. Gladstone  ,  423
CHAPTER XXV.
The Eastern Question  .... 433
CHAPTER XXVI.
Where -was Lord I'ALMERsyeN?  462
CHAPTER XXVn.
The Invasion of the Crimea . .  4g5
CHAPTER XXVIIL
The Close of the War  ... 505
CHAPTER XXIX.
The Literature of the Reign. First Survey  52i'-

A HISTORY OP
OUR O^WN TIMES.

CHAPTER I.
THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN !
Befoee half-past two o'clock on the morning of June 20th,
1837, William IV. vvas lying dead in Windsor Castle, while
the messengers were already hurrying off to Kensington
Palace to bear to his successor her summons to the throne.
The illness of the King had been but short, aiyi at pne time,
even after it had been pronounced alarmihgj it seepied to
take so hopeful a turn that the physicians began -to think it
would pass harmlessly away. But the King was an old man
— was an old man even when he came to th-e "throne — and
when the dangerous symptoms again exhibited themselves,
their warning was very soon followed by fulfilment. The
death of King William may be fairly regarded as having
closed an era of our history. With him, we may believe,
ended the reign of personal government in England. Wil
liam was, indeed, a constitutional king in more than mere
name. He was to the best of liis lights a faithful represent
ative ofthe constitutional principle. He was as far in ad
vance ofhis two predecessors in understanding and accept
ance ofthe principle as his successor has proved herself be
yond hira. Constitutional government has developed itself
gradually, as everything else has done in English politics.
The, written principle and code of its system it would be as
vain to look for as for the British Constitution itself. King
William still held to and exercised the right to dismiss his
ministers when he pleased, and because ho pleased. His fa-

6 A HISTORY OF OUK OWN TIMES.
ther had held to the right of maintaining favorite ministers
in defiance of repeated votes ofthe House of Commons. It
would not be easy to find any written rule or declaration of
constitutional law pronouncing decisively that either was in
the wrong. But iu our day we should believe that the con
stitutional freedom of England was outraged, or at least put
in the extremest danger, if a sovereign were to dismiss a
ministry at mere pleasure, or to retain it in spite of the ex
pressed wish of the Blouse of Commons. Virtually, there
fore, there was still personal government in the reign of
William IV. With his death the long chapter of its history
came to an end. We find it difficult now to believe that it
was a living principle, openly at work among us, if not open
ly acknowledged, so lately as in the reign of King William.
The closing scenes of King William's life were undoubted
ly characterized by some personal dignity. As a rule, sover
eigns show that they know how to die. Perhaps the neces
sary consequence of their training, by virtue of which they
come to regard themselves always as the central figures in
great State pageantry, is to make them assume a manner of
dignity on all occasions when the eyes of their subjects may
be supposed to be on them, even if the dignity of bearing is
not the free gift of nature. The manners of William IV.
had been, like those of most ofhis brothers, somewhat rough
iind overbearing. He had been an unmanageable naval
officer. He had again and again disregarded or disobeyed
orders, and at last it had been found convenient to with
draw him from active service altogether, and allow him to
rise through the successive ranks of his profession by a
merely formal and technical process of ascent. In his more
private capacity he had, when younger, indulged more than
once in unseemly and insufferable freaks of temper. He
had made himself unpopular, while Duke of CTarence, by his
strenuous opposition to somo of the measures which were
especially desired by all the enlightenment of the country.
He was, for example, a determined opponent of the meas
ures for the abolition ofthe slave-trade. Ho had wrant^led
publicly, in open debate, with some of liis brothers in the
House of Lords; and words had been interchanged amono-
the royal princes which could not be heard in our day even
in the hottest debates ofthe more turbulent House of Com-

THE KING IS DEAD ! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! 7
mons. But William seems to have been one of the men
whom increased responsibility improves. He was far bet
ter as a king than as a prince. He proved that he was able
at least to understand that first duty of a constitutional sov
ereign which, to the last day of his active life, his father,
George III., never could be brought to comprehend — that
the personal predilections and prejudices ofthe King must
sometimes give way to the public interest.
Nothing perhaps in life became him like to the leaving of
it. His closing days were marked by gentleness and kindly
consideration for the feelings of those around him. When
he awoke on June 18th he remembered that it was the anni
versary of the battle of Waterloo. He expressed a strong
pathetic wish to live over that day, even if he were never to
see another sunset. He called for the flag which the Duke
of Wellington always sent him on that anniversary, and he
laid his hand upon the eagle which adorned it, and said he
felt revived by the touch. He had himself attended, since
his accession, the Waterloo banquet; but this time the Duke
of Wellington thought it would perhaps be more seemly to
have the dinner put off", and sent accordingly to take the
wishes of his Majesty. The King declared that the dinner
must go on as usual, and sent to the Duke a friendly, simple
message expressing his hope that the guests might have a
pleasant day. He talked in his homely way to those about
him, his direct language seeming to acquire a sort of tragic
dignity from the approach of the death that was so near.
He had prayers read to him again and again, and called
those near him to witness that he had always been a faith
ful believer in the truths of religion. He had his despatch-
boxes brought to him, and tried to get through some busi
ness with his private secretary. It was remarked with some
interest that the last oflicial act he ever performed was to
sign with his trembling hand the pardon of a condeinned
criminal. Even a far nobler reign than his would have re
ceived new dignity if it closed with a deed of mercy.
When some of those around him endeavored to encourage
hiin with the idea that he might recover and live many
years yet, he declared, Avith a simplicity which had some
thing oddly pathetic in it, that he would be willing to live
ten years yet for the sake ofthe country. The poor King

8 A. HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
was evidently under the sincere conviction that England
could hardly get qn without him. His consideration for his
country, whatever whimsical thoughts it raay suggest, is eiir
titled to some, at least, of the respect which we give to the
dying groan of a Pitt or a Mirabeau, who fears with too
much reason that he leaves a blank not easily to be filled.
"Young royal tarry -breeks " William had been jocularly
called by Robert Burns fifty years before, when there was
yet a popular belief that he would come all right and do
brilliant and gallant things, and become a stout sailor in
whom a seafaring nation might feel pride. He disappoint
ed all such expectations ; but it must be owned that when
responsibility came upon him he disappointed expectation
anew in a different way, and was a better sovereign, more
<leserviiig of the complimentary title of patriot-king, than
even his friends would have ventured to anticipate.
There were eulogies pronounced upon him after his death
in both Houses of Parliament, as a matter of course. It is
not necessary, however, to set down 'to mere court homage
or parliamentary form some of the praises that were be
stowed on the dead King by Lord Melbourne and Lord
Brougham and Lord Grey. A certajn tone of sincerity, not
quite free, perhaps, from surprise, appears to run through
some of these expressions of admiration. They seem to say
that the speakers were at one time or .-mother considerably
surjy-ised to find that, after all, William really was able and
willing on grave occasions to subordinate his personal lik
ings and dislikings to considerations of State policy, and to
what was shown to him to be for the good of the nation.
Ill this sense at least he may be ealled a patriot-king. We
have advanced a good deal since that time, and we require
somewhat higher .and more positive qualities in a sovereign
now to excite our political wonder. But we must judge
William by the reigns that went before, and not the reiirn
that came after him; and, with that consideration borne in
mind, we may accept the panegyric of Lord Melbourne and
of Lord Grey, and admit that on the whole he was better
than his education, his early opportunities, and his early
promise. William IV. (third son of George IIL) had left no children
who could have succeeded to the throne, and the crown

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE TIIE QUEEN ! 9
passed, therefore, to the daughter of his brother (fourth son
of George), the Duke of Kent. Tiiis was the Princess Al
exandrina Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace on
May 24th, 1819. The Princess was, therefore, at this time lit
tle more than eighteen years of age. The Duke of Kent died
a few months after the birth of his daughter, and the child
was brought up under the care ofhis widow. She was well
brought up : both as regards her intellect and her character
her training was excellent. She was taught to be self-reli
ant, brave, and systematical. Prudence and economy were
inculcated on her as though she had been born to be poor.
One is not generally inclined to attach much importance
to what historians tell us of the education of contempora
ry princes or princesses ; but it cannot be doubted that tho
Princess Victoria was trained for intelligence and goodness.
"The death of the King of England has everywhere
caused the greatest sensation. . . . Cousin Victoria is said
to have shown astonishing self-possession. She undertakes
a heavy responsibility, especially at the present moment,
Avhen parties are so excited, and all rest their hopes on her."
These words are an extract from a letter written on July
4th, 1837, by the late Prince Albert, the Prince Consort of so
many happy years. The letter was written to the Prince's
father, from Bonn. The young Queen had, indeed, behaved
Avith remarkable self-possession. There is a pretty descrip
tion, which has been often quoted, but Avill bear citing once
more, given by Miss Wynn, of the manner in Avhich the
young sovereign received the news of her accession to a
throne. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and
the Lord Chamberlain, the Marquis of Conyngham, left Wind
sor for Kensington Palace, Avhore the Princess Victoria had
been residing, to inform her of the King's death. It Avas
two hours after midnight when they started, and they did
not reach Kensington until five o'clock in the morning.
"They knocked, they rang, they thumped for a considerable
time before they could rouse the porter at the gate ; they
Avere again kept Availing in the court-yard, then turned into
one of the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by ev
erybody. They rang the bell, and desired that the attend
ant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her
lloA'al Highness that they requested an audience on business
1*

10 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to
inquire the cause, the attendant Avas summoned, who stated
that the Princess Avas in «uch a sweet sleep that she could
not venture to disturb her. Then they said, " We are come
on business of state to the Queen, and even her sleep must
give way to that." It did ; and to prove that she did not
keep them waiting, in a few minutes she came into the room
in a loose Avhite night-gown and shawl, her nightcap thrown
off, and her hair falling upon her shoulders, her feet in slip
pers, te.ars in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified."
The Prime-minister, Lord Melbourne, Avas presently sent for,
and a raeeting of the privy council summoned for eleven
o'clock, Avhen the Lord Chancellor administered the usual
oaths to the Queen, and her Majesty received in return the
oaths of allegiance of the cabinet ministers and other privy
councillors present. Mr. Greville, who Avas usually as little
disposed to record any enthusiastic admiration of royalty
and royal personages as Humboldt or Varnhagen von Ense
could have been, has described the scene in words well
Avorthy of quotation:
"The King died at twenty minntes after two yesterday
morning, and the young Queen raet the council at Kensing
ton Palace at eleven. Never Avas anything like the first
impression she produced, or the chorus of praise and ad
miration which is raised about her manner and behavior,
and certainly not without justice. It Avas very extraordi
nary, and something far beyond what Avas looked for. Her
extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the
Avorld concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to
see how she would act on this trying occasion, and there
Avas a consider.able assemblage at the palace, notwithstand
ing the short notice Avhieh was given. The first thing to
be done Avas to teach her her lesson, Avliich, for this purpose,
Melbourne had himself to learn. . . . She bowed to the
lords, took her seat, and then read her speech in a clear, dis
tinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of
fear or embarrassment. She Avas quite plainly dressed, and
in mourning. After she had read her speech, and taken and
signed the oath for the security of the Church of Scotland,
the privy councillors Avere sworn, the two royal dukes first
by theraselves; and as these tAvo old men, her uncles, knelt

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! 11
before her, swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw
her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast between
their civil and their natural relations, and this Avas the, only
sign of emotion which she evinced. Her manner to them
was very graceful and engaging; she kissed themboth, and
rose from her chair and moved toward the Duke of Sussex,
who was farthest from her, and too infirm to reach her. She
seemed ralher bewildered at the multitude of men who Avere
sworn, and Avho came, one after another, to kiss her hand,
but she did not speak to anybody, nor did she raake the
slightest difference in her manner, or shoAV any in her coun
tenance, to any individual of any rank, station, or party. I
particularly watched her when Melbourne and the ministers,
and the Duke of Wellington and Peel approached her. She
went through the Avhole ceremony, occasionally looking at
Melbourne for instruction Avhen she had any doubt what to
do, which hardly ever occurred, and Avith perfect calmness
and self-possession, but at the same time Avilh a graceful
modesty and propriety particularly interesting and ingra
tiating." Sir Robert Peel told Mr. Greville that he Avas amazed at
" her manner and behavior, at her apparent deep sense of
her situation, and at the same time her firmness." The
Duke of Wellington said in his blunt way that if she had
been his own daughter he could not have desired to see her
perform her part better. "At twelve," says Mr. Gre-viiie,
"she held a council, at Avhich she presided with as much
ease as if she had been doing nothing else all her life ; and
¦though Lord Lansdowne and my colleague had contrived,
between them, to make some confusion with the council pa
pers, she was not put out by it. She looked very well ; and
thougli so small in stature, and without much pretension to
beauty, the gracefulness of her manner and the good ex
pression of her countenance give her, on the whole, a very
agi'eeable appearance, and, Avith her youth, inspire an exces
sive interest in all Avho approach her, and which I can't help
feeling myself ... In short, she appears to act Avith every
sort of good taste and good feeling, as well as good sense;
and, as far as it has gone, nothing can be more favorable
than the impression she has made, and nothing can promise
better than her manner and conduct do; though," Mr. Gre-

12 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ville somewhat superfluously adds, "it Avould be rash to
count too confidently upon her judgment and discretion in
more weighty matters."
The interest or curiosity with which the demeanor of the
young Queen Avas watched was all the keener because the
Avorld in general knew so little about her. Not merely Avas
the world in general thus ignorant, but even the statesmen
and officials in closest communication with court circles were
in almost absolute ignorance. According to Mr. Greville,
Avhose authority, however, is not to be taken too implicitly
except as to matters Avhich he actually saw, the young Queen
had been previously kept in such seclusion by her mother
— "never," he says, "having slept out of her bedroom, nor
been alone with anybody but herself and the Baroness Leh-
zen" — that "not one of her acquaintance, none of the at
tendants at Kensington, not even the Duchess of Northum
berland, her governess, have any idea what she is or Avhat
she promises to be." There Avas enough in the court ofthe
two sovereigns Avho Avent before Queen Victoria to justify
any strictness of seclusion Avhich the Duchess of Kent raight
desire for her daughter. George IV. was a Charles II. Avitli-
out the education or the talents; William IV. Avas a Fred
erick William of Prussia Avithout the genius. The ordinary
manners of the society at the court of either had a full fla
vor, to put it ill the softest Avay, such as a decent tap-room
Avould hardly exhibit in a time like the present. No one
ran read even the most favorable descriptions, given by con-
leinporaries ofthe manners of those two courts without feel
ing grateful to the Duchess of Kent for resolving that her
d.aughter should see as little as possible of their Avays and
their corapany.
It Avas remarked with some interest that the Queen sub
scribed herself simply " Victoria," and not, as had been ex
pected, "Alexandrina Victoria." Mr. Greville mentions in
his diary of December 24th, 1819, th.at "the Duke of Kent
gave the name of Alexandrina to his daughter in compli
ment to the Emperor of Russia. She Avas to have had the
name of Georgiana, but the Duke insisted upon Alexandrina
being her first name. The Regent sent for Lieven" (the
Russian ambassador, husband of the famous Princess de Lie
ven), "and made him a great many compliments, ew leper-

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE TIIE QUEEN ! 13
siflnnt, on tho Emperor's being godfather, but informed him
tiiat the name of Georgiana could be second to no other in
this country, and therefore she could not bear it at all." It
Av.as a very Avise choice to eraploy simply the name of Vic
toria, around Avhich no ungenial associations of any kind
hung at that time, and Avhich can have only grateful asso
ciations in the history of this country for the future.
It is not necessary to go into any formal description of
the various ceremonials and pageantries Avhich celebrated
the accession of the new sovereign. The proclamation of
the Queen, her appearance for the first time on the throne
in the House of Lords when she prorogued Parliament in
person, and even the gorgeous festival of her coronation,
which took place on June 28th, iu the following year, 1838,
may be passed over with a mere Avord of record. It is
Avorth mentioning, however, that at the coronation proe(>s-
sion one ofthe most conspicuous figures Avas that of Marshal
Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, the opponent of Moore and Wel
lington in the Peninsula, the commander of the Old Guard
at LUtzen, and one of the strong arms of Napoleon at Wa
terloo. Soult had been sent as ambassador-extraordinary
to represent the French Government and people at the cor
onation of Queen Victoria, and nothing could exceed the en
thusiasm Avith Avhich he was received by the crowds in the
streets of London on th.at day. The Avhite- haired soldier
Avas cheered wherever a glimpse of his face or figure could
be caught. He appeared in the procession in a carriage, tho
frame of which had been used on occasions of state by some
of the Princes of the House of Conde, and Avhich Soult had
had splendidly decorated for the ceremony of the coron.a-
tion. Even the Austrian ambassador, says an eye-witness,
attracted less attention than Soult, although the dress of
the Austrian, Prince Esterhazy, "down to his A'ery boot-
heels, sparkled with diamonds," The comparison savors noAv
ofthe ridiculous, but is remarkably expressive and effective.
Prince Esterhazy's name in those days suggested nothing
but diamonds. His diamonds may be said to glitter through
all the light literature of the time. When Lady Mary Wort-
ley Montagu wanted a comparison Avith Avhich to illustrate
excessive splendor and brightness, she found it in "Mr.
Pitt's diamonds." Prince Esterhazy's served the same pur-

14 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
pose for the writers of the early years of the present reign;
It Avas, therefore, perhaps, no very poor tribute to the stout
old moustache ofthe Republic and the Erapire to say that
at a London pageant his war-worn face drew attention aAvay
from Prince Esterhazy's diamonds. Soult himself felt very
Avarmly the genuine kindness ofthe reception given to him.
Years after, in a debate in the French Chamber, when M.
Guizot was accused of too much partiality for the English
alliance. Marshal Soult declared himself a Avarm champion
of that alliance. " I fought the English down to Toulouse,"
he said, " Avhen I fired the last cannon in defence of the na
tional independence ; in the mean time I have been in Lon
don, and France knows the reception Avhich I had there.
The English themselves cried 'Vive Soult!' — they cried
' Soult forever !' I had learned to estimate the English on
the field of battle ; I have learned to estimate them in peace ;
and I repeat that I am a warm partisan of the English alli
ance." History is not exclusively made by cabinets and
professional diplomatists. It is highly probable that the
cheers of a London crowd on the day of the Queen's corona
tion did something genuine and substantial to restore the
good feeling between this country and France, and efface
the bitter memories of Waterloo.
It is a fact well worthy of note, amidst whatever records
of court ceremonial and of political change, that a few days
after the accession of the Queen, Mr. Montefiore Avas elected
Sheriff of London, the first Jew Avho had ever been chosen
for that office ; and that he received knighthood at the
hands of her Majesty Avhen she visited the City on the fol
lowing Lord Mayor's day. He was the first Jew Avhom roy
alty had honored in this country since the good old tiraes
Avhen royalty Avas pleased to borrow the Jew's raoney, or
order instead the extraction of his teeth. The expansion of
the principle of religious liberty and equality, Avhieh has
been one of the raost remarkable characteristics of the reign
of Queen Victoria, could hardly have been more becomingly
inaugurated than by the compliment which sovereio-n and
city paid to Sir Moses Montefiore.
The first signature attached to the Act of Allegiance pre
sented to the Queen at Kensington Palace was that of her
eldest surviving uncle, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. The

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! 15
fact may be taken as an excuse for introducing a few Avords
liere to record the severance that then took place betAveen
the interests of this country, or at least the reigning family
of these realms, and another State, Avhich had for a long time
been bound up together iu a manner seldom satisfactory to
the English people. In the Avhole history of England it will
be observed that few things have provoked greater popular
dissatisfaction than the connection of a reigning family Avith
the crown or rulership of some foreign State. There is an
instinctive jealousy on such a point, Avhich, even Avhen it is
unreasonable, is not unnatural. A sovereign of England had
better be sovereign of England, and of no foreign State.
Many favorable auspices attended the accession of Queen
Victoria to the throne ; sorae at least of these Avere associ
ated Avith her sex. The country was in general disposed to
think that the accession of a Avoman to the throne Avould
somewhat clarify and purify the atraosphere of the court.
It had another good effect as Avell,and one of a strictly po
litical nature. It severed the connection Avhich had existed
for some generations between this country and Hanover.
The connection was onlj' personal, the successive kings of
England being also by succession sovereigns of Hanover.
The crown of Hanover Av.as limited in its descent to the
male line, and it passed on the death of William IV. to his
eldest surviving brother, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. The
change was in alraost every Avay satisfactory to the English
people. The indirect connection betAveen England and
Hanover bad at no time been a raatter of gratification to
the public of this country. Many cooler and raore enlight
ened persons than honest Squire Western had vieAved Avith
disfavor, and at one time with distrust, the division of in
terests which the ownership of the tAVO crowns seemed al
most of necessity to create in our English sovereigns. Be
sides, it must be owned that the people of this country were
not by any means sorry to be rid of the Duke of Cumber
land. Not many of George III.'s sons Avere popular; the
Duke of Cumberland Avas probably the least popular of ali.
He Avas believed by raany persons to have had something
raore than an indirect, or passive, or innocent share in the
Orange plot, discovered and exposed by Joseph Hume in
1835, for setting aside the claims ofthe young Princess Vic-

16 A HISTORY" OF OUR OWN TIMES.
toria, and putting hiraself, the Duke of Curaberland, on the
throne; a scheme which its authors pretended to justify by
the preposterous assertion that they feared the Duke ot
Wellington would otherwise seize tlie crown for himself.
His manners Avere rude, overbearing, and sometiraes even
brutal. He had personal habits Avhich seemed rather fitted
for the days of Tiberius, or for the court of Peter the Great,
tiian for the time and sphere to which he belonged. Ruraor
not unnaturally exaggerated his defects, and in tho mouths
of many his name was the symbol ofthe darkest and fiercest
passions, and even crimes. Some of the popular reports
Avith regard to him had their foundation only in the. com
mon detestation ofhis character and dread of his influence;
but it is certain that he was profligate, selfish, overbearing,
and quarrelsome. A raan Avith these qualities Avould usual
ly be described in fiction as at all events bluntly honest and
outspoken ; but the Duke of Curaberland Avas deceitful and
treacherous. He Avas outspoken in his .abuse of those Avitli
Avhom he quarrelled, and in his style of anecdote and jocular
conversation ; but in no other sense. Tlie Duke of Welling
ton, Avhom he hated, told Mr. Greville that he once asked
George IV. why the Duke of Cumberland Avas so unpopular,
and the King replied, " Because there never Avas a father
Avell with his son, or husband with his Avife, or lover Avith
his mistress, or friend Avith his friend, that he did not try to
make mischief betAveen them." The first thing he did on
his accession to the throne of Hanover Avas to abrogate the
constitution Avhich had been agreed to by the Estates ofthe
kingdom, and sanctioned by the late King, William IV.
"Radicalism," said the King, Avriting to an English noble
man, "has been here all the order of the day, .and all the
lower class appointed to office were more or less imbued
Avith these laudable principles. . . . But I have cut the Avings
of this democracy." He Avent, indeed, pretty vigorously to
Avork, for he dismissed from their offices seven ofthe most
distinguished professors of the University of Gottingen, be
cause they signed a protest against his arbitrary abrogation
ofthe constitution. Among the men thus pushed from their
stools Avere — Gervinus, the celebrated historian and Shak-
s-pearian critic, at th.at time professor of history and litera
ture; Ewald,the Orientalist and theologian ; .lacob Grimm ;

THE KING IS DE.\.D! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! 17
and Frederick Dahlmann, professor of political science.
Gervinus, Griram, and Dahlmann Avere not merely deprived
of their offices, but Avere actually sent into exile. The ex
iles were accompanied across the frontier by an immense
concourse of students, Avho gave them a triumphant Geleit
in true student fashion, and converted Avhat Avas meant for
degradation and punishment into a procession of honor.
Tlie offence against all rational principles of civil govern
ment in these arbitrary proceedings on the part of the new
King Avas the more flagrant because it could not even be
pretended that the professors Avere interfering Avith politi
cal raatters outside their province, or that they were issuing
manifestoes calculated to disturb the public peace. The
University of Gottingen at that time sent a representative
to the Estates of the kingdom, and tiie protest to which the
seven professors attached their names Avas addressed to the
academical sen.ate, and simply declared that they Avould take
no part in the ensuing election, because of the suspension of
lhe constitution. All this led to somewhat serious disturb
ances in Hanover, Avhich it needed the employment of mil
itary force to suppress.
It was felt in England that the mere departure of the
Duke of Curaberland from this country would have made
tiie severance of the connection with Hanover desirable, even
if it had not been in other Avays an advantage to us. Later
limes have shoAvn how ranch Ave have gained by the separa
tion. It Avould have been exceedingly inconvenient, to say
the least, if the crown Avorn by a sovereign of England had
been haz.arded in the Avar between Austria and Prussia in
1866. Our reigning family must have seemed to suffer in
dignity if that croAvn had been roughly knocked off the head
of its wearer, Avho happened to be an English sovereign ; and
it Avould have been absurd to expect that the English people
could engage in a quarrel with Avhich their interests and hon
or had absolutely nothing to do, for the sake of a mere fam
ily possession of their ruling house. Looking back from
tins distance of time, and across a change of political and
social manners far greater than the distance of time might
seera to explain, it appears difficult to understand the pas
sionate emotions Avhich the accession of the young Queen
seems to have excited on all sides. Some influential and

18 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
prominent politicians talked and Avrote as if there Av-ere real
ly a possibility of the Tories attempting a revolution in fa
vor of the Hanoverian branch of the royal family ; and if
sorae such crisis had again come round as that which tried
the nation Avhen Queen Anne died. On the other hand, there
Avere heard loud and shrill cries that the Queen Avas destined
to be conducted by her constitutional advisers into a precip
itate pathAvay leading sheer down into popery and anarchy.
The Times insisted that " the anticipations of certain Irish
Roman Catholics respecting the success of their warfare
against Church and State under the auspices of these not
untried ministers into Avhose hands the all but infant Queen
has been compelled by her unhappy condition to deliver her
self and her indignant people, are to be taken for nothing,
and as nothing, but the chimeras of a band of visionary trai
tors." The Times even thought it necessary to point out
that for her Majesty to turn papist, to marry a papist, "or in
any manner follow the footsteps of the Coburg family, Avhom
these incendiaries describe as papists," would involve an
"immediate forfeiture ofthe British croAvn." On the other
hand, some ofthe Radical and more especially Irish papers
t.alked in the plainest terms of Tory plots to depose, or even
to assassinate, the Queen, and put the Duke of Cumberland
in her place. O'Connell, the great Irish agitator, declared
in a public speech that if it Avere necessary he could get
"five hundred thousand brave Irishmen to defend the life,
the honor, and the person of the beloved young lady by
Avhom England's throne is noAV filled." Mr. Henry Grattan,
the son of the famous orator, and like his father a Protes
tant, declared, at a raeeting in Dublin, that " if her Majesty
Avere once fairly placed in the hands ofthe Tories, I Avould
not give an orange-peel for her life." He even Avcnt on to
put his rhetorical declaration into a raore distinct form: "If
some ofthe low miscreants ofthe party got j-ound her Maj
esty, and had the mixing of the royal bowl at night, I fear
she Avould have a long sleep." This language seeras alraost
too absurd for sober record, and yet Avas hardly raore absurd
than many things said on Avhat raay be called the other side.
A Mr. Bradshaw, Tory meraber for Canterbury, declared at
a public raeeting in that ancient city that the sheet-anchor
ofthe Liberal Ministry Av.as the body of "Irish papists and

THE KING IS dead! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! 19
I'itpparees Avhom the priests return to the House of Com
mons." "These are the men avIio represent the bigoted sav
ages, hardly more civilized than the natives of New Zealand,
but animated with a fierce, undying hatred of England. Yet
on these men are bestowed the countenance and support of
the Queen of Protestant England. For, alas ! her Majesty
is Queen only of a faction, and is as rauch of a partisan as
the Lord Chancellor himself." At a Conservative dinner in
Lancashire, a speaker denounced the Queen and her minis
ters on the same ground so vehemently, that the Command
er-in-chief addressed a remonstrance to some military offi
cers Avho Avere among the guests at this excited banquet,
pointing out to them the serious responsibility they^ incurred
by remaining in any assembly Avhen such language Avas ut
tered and such sentiments Avcre expressed.
No one, of course, Avould t.ake impassioned and inflated
harangues of this kind on either side as a representation of
the general feeling. Sober persons all over the country
must have known perfectly Avell that there Avas not the slight
est fear that the young Queen Avould turn a Roraan Catholic,
or that her rairiistry intended to deliver the country up as a
prey to Rome. Sober persons everywhere, too, must have
known equally well that there Avas no longer the slightest
cause to feel any alarm about a Tory plot to hand over the
throne of England to the detested Duke of Curaberland.
We only desire, in quoting such outrageous declarations, to
raake more clear the condition of the public mind, and to
shoAV Avhat the state ofthe political Avorld must have been
Avhen such extravagance and such delusions were possible.
We have done this partly to shoAV what Avere the trials and
difficulties under which her M.ajesty carae to the throne, and
jiartly for the raere purpose of illustrating the condition of
the country and of political education. There can be no
doubt that all over the country passion and ignorance Avere
at work to make the task of constitution,al governraent pecul
iarly difficult. A vast nuraber ofthe folloAvers ofthe Tories
in country places really believed that the Liberals Avere de
terrained to hurry the sovereign into some policy tending to
the degradation of the monarchy. If any cool and enlight
ened reasoner Avere to argue Avith them on this point, and
endeavor to convince them ofthe folly of .ascribing such pur-

20 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
poses to a number of English statesmen Avhose interesfs,
position, and honor were absolutely bound up with the suc
cess and the glory ofthe State, the indignant and unreason
ing Tories Avould be able to cite the very Avords of so great
and so sober-minded a statesman as Sir Robert Peel, Avho, in
his famous speech to the electors of TaniAvorth, proraised to
rescue the constitution frora being made the " victim of false
friends," and the country from being "trampled under the
hoof of a ruthless democracy." If, on the other hand, a sen
sible person Avere to try to persuade hot-headed people on
the opposite side that it Avas absurd to suppose the Tories '
really meant any harm to the freedom and the peace of the
country and the security of the succession, he might be in
vited, Avith significant expression, to read the manifesto is
sued by Lord Durham to the electors of Sunderland, in which
that eminent statesman declared that "in all circumstances,
at all hazards, be the personal consequences Avhat they may,"
he Avould ever be found ready Avhen called upon to defend
the principles on Avhich the constitution of the country Avas
tlien settled. We know now very Avell that Sir Robert Peel
and Lord Durham Avere using the language of innocent meta-
])hor. Sir Robert Peel did not really fear much the hoof of
the ruthless democracy; Lord Durham did not actually ex
pect to be called upon at any terrible risk to himself to fight
the battle of freedom on English soil. But Avhen those
Avhose minds had been bcAvildered and AA'bose passions had
been inflamed by the language of the Times on the one
side, and that of O'Connell on the other, came to read the
(-aimer and yet sufficiently impassioned Avords of responsible
statesmen like Sir Robert Peel and Lord Durham, they might
bo excused if they found rather a confirmation than a ref
utation of their arguments and their fears.
The truth is that the country Avas in a very excited condi
tion, and that it is easy to imagine a succession of events
Avhich might in a raoraent have throAvn it into utter confu
sion. At home and abroad things Avere looking ominous
for the new reign. To begin Avith, the last tAvo reigns had,
on the Avhole, done much to loosen, not only the personal
feeling of allegiance, but even the general confidence in the
virtue of monarchical rule. The old plan of personal gov
ernment had become an anomaly, and the system of a gen-

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 21
nine constitutional government, such as avo know, had not
yet beeu tried. The very manner in Avhich the Reform Bill
had been carried, tho political stratagem Avhich had been re
sorted to Avhen further resistance seemed dangerous, Avas not
likely to exalt in popular estimate the value of Avhat Avas
then gracefully called constitutional government. Only a
short time before, the country had seen Catholic emancipa
tion conceded, not from a sense of justice on the part of rain
isters, but avowedly because further resistance must lead to
civil disturbance. There Avas not much in all this to impress
an intelligent and independent people Avith a sense of tlie
great Avisdom of the rulers of the country, or of the indis
pensable advantages of the system which they represented.
Social discontent prevailed almost everyAvhere. Economic
laws Avere hardly understood by the country in general.
Class interests were fiercely arrayed against each other.
The cause of each man's class filled him Avith a positive
fanaticism. He was not a mere selfish and grasping partisan,
but he sincerely believed that each other class was arrayed
against his, and that the natural duty of self-defence and
self-preservation corapelled him to stand firmly by his own.

CHAPTER IL
STATESMEN AND PARTIES.

LoED Melbourne was the First Minister of the CroAvn
Avhen the Queen succeeded to the throne. He Avas a man
Avho then and always after made himself particularly dear
to the Queen, and for Avhom she had the strongest .regard.
He Avas of kindly, somcAvhat indolent nature; fair and even
generous tOAvard his political opponents; ofthe most genial
disposition tOAvard his friends. He was emphatically not a
strong man. He Avas not a man to make good grow where
it was not already groAving, to adopt the expression of a
great author. Long before that time his eccentric wife, Lady
Caroline Lamb, had excused herself for some of her follies
and frailties by pleading that her husband Avas not a man to
Avatch over any one's morals. He Avas a kindly counsellor
to a young Queen ; and, happily for herself, the young Queen

22 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES:
in this case had strong, clear sense enough of her OAvn not to
be absolutely dependent on any counsel. Lord Melbourne
Avas not a statesman. His best qu.alities, personal kindness
and good-nature apart, were purely negative. He Avas un
fortunately not content even with the reputation for a sort
of indolent good-nature which he might have Avell deserved:
he strove to make himself appear hopelessly idle, trivial,
and careless. When he really Avas serious and earnest, he
seeraed to make it his business to look like one in whom no
human affairs could call up a gleam of interest. He became
the fanfaron of levities Avhich he never had. We have
amusing pictures of him as he occupied himself iu blowing a
feather or nursing a sofa-cushion Avhile receiving an impor
tant and perhaps highly sensitive deputation from this or
that commercial "interest." Those who knoAV him insisted
that he really Avas listening Avith all his raight and raain ;
that he had sat up the whole night before, studying the
question Avhich he seemed to think so unworthy of any at
tention ; and that, so far from being, like Horace, Avholly ab
sorbed in his trifles, he Avas at very great pains to keep up
the appearance of a trifler. A brilliant critic has made a
lively and amusing attack on this alleged peculiarity. "If
the truth must be told," says Sydney Sraith, " our viscount
is somewliat of an impostor. Everything about him seems
to betoken careless desolation ; any one Avould suppose from
his manner that he Avas playing at chuck-farthing with hu
man happiness; that he'was always on the heel of pastime;
that he would giggle aAvay the Great Charter, and decide
by the method of teetotum Avhether my lords the bishops
should or should not retain their seats in the House of Lords.
All this is but the mere vanity of surprising, and making us
believe that he can play Avith kingdoras as other m^n can
Avith ninepins. ... I am sorry to hurt any man's feelings,
and to brush away the magnificent fabric of levity and gay-
L-ty he has reared ; but I accuse our minister of honesty and
diligence; I deny that he is careless or rash: he is nothing
more than a raan of good understanding and good principio
disguised in the eternal and soraewhat Avearisome affectation
of a political rowe."
Such a masquerading raight perhaps have been excusable,
or even attractive, iu the case of a man of really brilliant

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 23
and commanding talents. Lookers-on are always rather
apt to be fascinated by the spectacle of a man of Avell rec
ognized strength and force of character playing for the mo
raent the part of an indolent trifler. The contrast is cliarm-
ing in a brilliant Prince Hal or such a Sardanapalus as By
ron drcAV. In our own time a considerable araount of the
popularity of Lord Palmerston Avas inspired by the amusing
antagonism betAveen his assumed levity and his well-knoAvn
force of intellect and strength of Avill. But in Lord Mel
bourne's case the affectation had no such excuse or happy
effect. He Avas not by any means a Palmerston. He Avas
only fitted to rule in the quietest times. He Avas a poor
speaker, utterly unable to encounter the keen, penetrating
criticisms of Lyndhurst or the vehement and remorseless
invectives of Brougham. Debates were then conducted
Avith a bitterness of personality unknoAvn, or at all events
very rarely knoAvn, in our days. Even in the House of
Lords language Avas often interchanged ofthe most virulent
hostility. The rushing impetuosity and fury of Brougham's
style had done rauch then to inflame the atmosphere whicii
in our days is usually so cool and moderate.
It probably addeti to tlie Avarintli of the attacks on the
ministry of Lord Melbourne that the Prime-minister Avas
supposed to be an especial favorite Avith the young Queen.
When Victoria came to the throne tho Duke of Wellington
gave frank expression to his feelings as to the future of his
party. He Avas of opinion that the Tories Avould never
have any chance Avith a young Avoman for sovereign. " I
have no small-talk," he said, "and Peel has no manners." It
had probably not occurred to the Duke of Wellington to
think that a Avoraan could- be capable of as sound a consti
tutional policy, and could show as little regard for personal
predilections in the bnsines of governraent, as any raan. All
this, hoAvever, only tended to embitter the feeling against
the Whig government. Lord Melbourne's constant attend
ance on the young Queen was regarded Avith keen jealousy
and dissatisfaction. According to some critics, the Prime-
minister was endeavoring to inspire her with all his own
gay heedlessness of character and teraperament. Accord
ing to others. Lord Melbourne's purpose Avas to raake him
self agreeable and indispensable to the Queen; to surround

- 24 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
her with his friends, relations, and creatures, and thus get
a lifelong hold of poAver in England, in defiance of political
changes and parties. It is curious noAV to look back on
much that Avas said in the political and personal heats and
bitternesses of the time. If Lord Melbourne had been a
French mayor of the palace, whose real object Avas to make
himself virtual ruler of the State, and to hold the sovereign
as a puppet in his hands, there could not have been greater
anger, fear, and jealousy. Since that time Ave have all learn
ed on the very best authority that Lord Melbourne actually
Avas himself the person to advise the Queen to sIioav some
confidence in the Tories — to "hold out the olive-branch a
little to them," as he expressed it. He does not appear to
have been greedy of power, or to have used any unfair
means of getting or keeping it. The character ofthe young
sovereign seems to have impressed him deeply. His real or
affected levity gave Avay to a genuine and, lasting desire
to make her life as happy, and her reign as successful, as ho
could. The Queen always felt the Avarmest affection and
gratitude for him, and shoAved it long after the public had
given up the suspicion that she could be a puppet in the
hands of a minister.
Still, it is certain that the "Queen's Prime-minister Avas by
no raeans a popular raan at the tirae of her accession. Even
observers Avho had no political or personal interest Avhat-
ever in the conditions of cabinets Avere displeased to see the
opening of the new reign so much, to all appearance, under
the influence of one who either was or tried to be a mere
lounger. The deputations Avent aAvay offended and dis
gusted Avhen Lord Melbourne played Avith feathers or dan
dled sofa-cushions in their presence. The almost fierce en
ergy and strenuousness of a man like Brougham shoAved
in overAvhelming contrast to the happy-go-lucky airs and
graces of the Premier. It is likely that there was quite as
much of affectation in the one case as in the other ; but the
affectation of a devouring zeal for the public service told at
least far better than the other in the heat and stress of de
bate. When the new reign began, tiie ministry had tAvo
enemies or critics in the House of Lords of the most formi
dable chara,cter. Either aldne would have been a trouble
to a minister of far stronger mould than Lord Melbourne;

STATESMEN. AND PARTIES. 25
but circumstances thrcAv them both, for the moment, into a
chance alliance against him.
One of these was Lord Brougham. No stronger and
stranger a figure than his is described in the modern history
of England. He Avas gifted Avith the raost varied and strik
ing talents, and Avith a capacity for labor Avhich sometimes
seemed almost superhuman. Not merely had he the capac
ity for labor, but he appeared to have a positive passion for
Avork. His restless energy seemed as if it must stretch itself
out on every side seeking new fields of conquest. The study
that Avas enough to occupy the Avhole time and v.ear out
the frame of other men was only recreation to him. He
might have been described as one possessed by a very de
mon of AVdik. His physical strength never gave Avay. His
high spirits never deserted him. His self-confidence Avas
boundless. He thought he knew everything, and could do
everything, better than any other man. He delighted in
giving evidence that he understood the business ofthe spe
cialist better than the specialist himself. His vanity was
overAveening, and made him ridiculous almost as often and
as much as his genius made him admired. The comic liter
ature of more than a generation had no subject more fruitful
than the vanity and restlessness of Lord Brougham. He
was beyond doubt a great Parliamentary orator. His style
was too diffuse and sometimes too uncouth to suit a day
like our own, Avhen form counts for more than substance,
Avlien passion seems out of place in debate, and not to ex
aggerate is far more the object than to try to be great.
Brougham's action Avas Avild, and sometimes even furious ;
his gestures Avere singularly ungraceful; his manners were
grotesque ; but ofhis poAver over his hearers there could be
no doubt. That poAver remained Avith him until a far Later
date ; and long .after the years Avhen men usually continue
to take part in political debate. Lord Brougham could be
impassioned, impressive, and even overwhelming. He Avas
not an orator of the highest class: his speeches have not
stood the test of time. Apart front the circumstances of
the hour and the personal power of the speaker, they could
hardly arouse any great delight, or even interest ; for they
are by no means models of English style, and they have lit
tle of that profound philosophical interest, that pregnancy
L— 2

26 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of thought and meaning, and that splendor of eloquence,
Avhich make the speeches of Burke always classic, and even
in a certain sense always popular among us. In truth, no
raan could have done Avith abiding success all the things
Avhich Brougham did successfully for the hour. On laAV, on
politics, on literature, on languages, on science, on art, on
industrial and commercial enterprise, he professed to pro
nounce Avith the authority of a teacher. " If Brougham
kneAv a little of law," said O'Connell, when the former be
came Lord Chancellor, " he Avould know a little of every
thing." The anecdote is told in another Avay too, whicli
perhaps makes it even raore piquant. " The ncAV Lord
Chancellor knows a little of everything in the Avorld — even
of law."
Brougham's Avas an excitable and self-asserting nature.
He had during many years shown himself an embodied in
fluence, a living, speaking force in the promotion of great
political and social reforms. If his talents Avere great, if his
personal vanity Avas immense, let it be said that his services
to the cause of human freedom and education Avere simply
inestimable. As an opponent of slavery in the colonies, as
an advocate of political reform at home, of laAV reform, of
popular education, of religious equality, he had Avorked Avith
indomitable zeal, Avith resistless passion, aud Avith splendid
success. But his career passed through two remarkable
ch.anges Avhich, to a great extent, interfered Avith the full effi
cacy ofhis extraordinary powers. The first was Avhen from
popular tribune and reformer he became Lord Chancellor in
1830 ; the second Avas Avhen he Avas left out of office on the
reconstruction ofthe Whig Ministry in April, 1835, and he
passed for the remainder of his life into the jiosition of an
independent or unattached critic of the measures and policy
of other men. It has never been clearly knoAvn Avliy the
Whigs so suddenly thrcAv over Brougham. The common
belief is that his eccentricities and his almost savage temper
made him intolerable in a cabinet. It has been darkly hint
ed that for awhile his intellect Avas actually under a cloud,
as people said that of Chatham Avas during a momentous
• season. Lord Brougham Avas not a man likely to forget or forgive
the Avrong Avhich he must have believed that he had sus-

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 27
tained at the hands of the Whigs. He became the fiercest
and most forraidable of Lord Melbourne's hostile critics.
Tlie other opponent Avho has been spoken of Avas Lord
Lyndhurst. Lord Lyndhurst resembled Lord Brougham in
tiie length of his career and in capacity for Avork, if in noth
ing else. Lyndhurst, who Avas born in Boston the year before
the tea-ships Avere boarded in that harbor and their cargoes
flung into the water, has been heard addressing the House
of Lords in all vigor and fluency by men Avho are yet far
from middle age. Ho Avas one ofthe most effective Parli.a-
inentary debaters of a time which has knoAvn such men as
Peel and Palmerston, Gladstone and Disraeli, Bright and
Cobden. His style Avas singularly and even severely clear,
direct, and pure; his manner Avas easy and graceful; his
voice remarkably SAveet aud strong. Nothing could have
been in greater contrast than his clear, correct, nervous ar
gument, and the impassioned invectives and overAvhelming
strength of Brougham. Lyndhurst had, as has been said, an
immense capacity for work, when the Avork had to be done;
but his natural tendency was as distinctly toward indolence
as Brougham's Avas toward unresting activity. Nor Avere
Lyndhurst's political convictions ever very clear. By the
habitude of associating Avith the Tories, and receiving office
from thera, and speaking for thera, and attacking their ene
mies with argument and sarcasm, Lyndhurst finally settled
doAvn into all the Avays of Toryism. But nothing in'his varied
history shoAved that he had any particular preference that
Avay; aud there Avere many passages in his career Avhen it
Avould seem as if a turn of chance decided Avhat path of po
litical life he Avas to folloAv. As a keen debater he Avas, per
haps, hardly ever excelled in Parliament; but he had neither
the passion nor the genius of the orator; and his capacity
Avas narrow indeed in its range when compared with the
astonishing versatility and omnivorous mental activity of
Brougham. As a speaker he Avas ahvays equal. He seem
ed to knoAV no A'arying moods or fits of raental lassitude.
Whenever he spoke he reached at once the same high level
as a debater. The very fact may in itself, perhaps, be taken
as conclusive evidence that he Avas not an orator. The
higher qualities of the orator are no more to be summoned
at Avill than those of the poet.

28 A HISTORY OF OUR OAVN TIMES.
These tAvo men Avere Avithout any comparison the tAvO
leading debaters in the House of Lords. Lord Melbourne
had not at that time in the Upper House a single man of
first-class or even of second-class debating power on the
bench ofthe ministry. An able Avriter has Avell remarked
that the position of the ministry in the House of Lords
might be corapared to that of a Avater-logged Avreck into
Avhich enemies from all quarters are pouring their broad
sides. The accession of the Queen made it necessary that a new
Parliament should be summoned. The struggle betAveen
parties among the constituencies Avas very animated, and
Avas carried on in some instances Avith a recourse to manceu-
vre and stratagem such as in our time Avonld hardly be pos
sible. The result Avas not a very raarked alteration in the
condition of parties ; but, on the Avhole, the advantage re
mained Avith the Tories. SomcAvhere about this time, it
may be remarked, the use of the Avord " Conservative," to
describe the latter political party, first came into fashion.
Mr. Wilson Croker is credited with the honor of having first
employed the word in that sense. In au article in the Quar
terly Review some years before, he spoke of being decidedly
and conscientiously attached "to Avhat is called the Tory,
but Avhich might Avith raore propriety be called the Con
servative, party." During the elections for the ncAv Parlia
ment, Lord John Russell, speaking at a public dinner at
Stroud, raade allusion to the ncAv narae Avhich his opponents
Avere beginning to affect for their party. "If that," he s.aid,
" is the name that pleases thera, if they say that the old dis
tinction of Whig and Tory should no longer be kept up, I
am ready, in opposition to their name of Conservative, to
take the name of Reformer, and to stand by that opposition."
The Tories, or Conservatives, then, had a slight gain as the
result ofthe appeal to the country. The new Parliamenr,
on its assembling, seems to have gathered in the Coraraons
an unusually large number of gifted and proraising raen.
There Avas something, too, of a literary stamp about it, a fiict
not much to be observed in Parliaments of a date nearer to
the present time. Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece, sat for
the city of London. The late Lord Lytton, then Mr. Edward
Lytton Bulwer, had a scat— an advanced Radical at that dav.

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 29
Mr. Disraeli came then into Parliament for tho first time.
Charles Buller, full of high spirits, brilliant humor, and the
very inspiration of keen good-sense, seeraed on the sure Avay
to that career of renoAvn Avhich a preraature death cut short.
Sir William MolesAvorth Avas an excellent type ofthe school
Avhich in later days Avas called the Philosophical Radical.
Another distinguished meraber of the sarae school, Mr. Roe
buck, had lost his seat, and Avas for the moment an outsider.
Mr. Gladstone had been already five years in Parliament.
The late Lord Carlisle, then Lord Morpeth, Avas looked upon
as a graceful specimen of the literary and artistic young no
bleman, Avho also cultivates a little politics for his intellectu
al amusement. Lord John Russell had but lately begun his
career as leader of the House of Commons ; Lord Palmerston
Avas Foreign Secretary, but had not even then got the credit
of the great ability Avhich he possessed. Not many years
before Mr. Greville spoke of him as a raan who "had been
twenty years in office, and had never distinguished himself
before." Mr. Greville expresses a mild surprise at the high
opinion which persons Avho knew Lord Palmerston intimate
ly Avere pleased to entertain as to his ability and his capac
ity for Avork. Only those Avho knew him very intimately
indeed had any idea of the capacity for governing Parlia
raent and the country Avhich he was soon afterward to dis
play. Sir Robert Peel was leader ofthe Conservative party.
Lord Stanley, the late Lord Derbj"-, Avas' still in the House of
Commons. He had not long before broken definitively with
the Whigs on the question of the Irish ecclesiastical estab
lishment, and had passed over to that Conservative party of
Avhich he afterward became the most influential leader, and
tlie most powerful Parliamentary orator. O'Connell and
Shell represented the eloquence of the Irish national party.
Decidedly the House of Coraraons first elected during Queen
Victoria's reign was strong in eloquence and talent. Only
two really great speakers have arisen, in the forty years that
followed, who Avere not members of Parliament at that time —
Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright. Mr. Cobden had come forAvard
as a candidate for the borough of Stockport, but Avas not
successful, and did not obtain a seat in Parliament until four
years after. It was only by what may be called an accident
that Macaulay and Mr. Roebuck Avere not in the Parliament

30 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of 1837. It is fair to say, therefore, that, except for Cobden
and Bright, the subsequent forty years had added no first-
class name to the records of Parliamentary eloquence.
The ministry was not very strong in the House of Com
mons. Its conditions, indeed, hardly alloAved it to feel itself
strong even if -it had had more powerful representatives in
either House. Its adherents Avere but loosely held together.
The more ardent reformers Avere disappointed Avith minis
ters; the Free-tr.adc movement was rising into distinct
bulk and proportions, and threatened to be formidably in
dependent of mere party ties. The Government had to rely
a good deal on the precarious support of Mr. O'Connell and
his followers. They Avere not rich in debating talent in tho
Commons any more than in the Lords. Sir Robert Peel,
the leader of the Opposition, AA^as by far the raost poAverful
man in the House of Commons. Added to his great quali
ties as an administrator and a Parliamentary debater, he had
the virtue, then very rare among Conservative statesmen, of
being a sound and clear financier, Avitli a good grasp of the
fundamental principles of political economy. His high au
stere character made him respected by opponents as Avell
ns by friends. He had not, perhaps, many intimate friends.
His temperament was cold, or at least its heat was self-con
tained; he thrcAv out no genial gloAv to those around hira.
He Avas by nature a reserved and shy raan, in Avhose man
ners shyness took the form of porapousness and coldness.
Something might be said of him like that Avhich Richtor
s.aid of Schiller: he Avas to strangers stony, and like a preei-
jiice from Avhich it Avas their instinct to spring back. It is
certain that he had Avarm and generous feelings, but his
A'ery sensitiveness only led him to disguise thera. The con
trast betAveen his emotions and his lack of demonstrative-
iiess created in hira a constant artificiality which often seem
ed mere aAvkwardness. It w.as in the House of Commons
tiiat his real genius and character displayed themselves:.
The atmosphere of debate was to him Avhat Macaulfiy says
Avine Avas to Addison, the influence Avhich broke the spell
under Avhich his fine intellect seemed otherwise to lie im
prisoned. Peel Avas a perfect master of the House of Com
mons. He Avas as great an orator as any man could be who
addresses himself to the House of Commons, its Avays and

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 31
its purposes alone. He Avent as near, perhaps, to the rank of
a great orator as any one can go Avho is but little gifted Avitli
imagination. Oratory has been Avell described as the fusion
of reason aud passion. Passion always carries something
ofthe imaginative along Avith it. Sir Robert Peel had little
imagination, and almost none of that passion which in elo
quence sometimes supplies its place. His style was clear,
strong, and stately ; full of various argument and apt il
lustration draAvn from books and from the Avorld of politics
and commerce. He followed a difficult argument home to
its utter conclusions; and if it had in it any lurking fallacy
he brought out the Aveakness into the clearest light, often
Avith a happy touch of humor and quiet sarcasm. His
speeches might be described as the very perfection of good-
sense and high principle clothed in the most impressive lan
guage. But they Avere something more peculiar than this,
for they were so constructed, in their argument and their
style alike, as to touch the very core ofthe intelligence ofthe
House of Commons. They told of the feelings and the in
spiration of Parliament as the ballad-music of a country tells
of its scenery and its national sentiments.
Lord Stanley Avas a far more energetic and impassioned
speaker than Sir Robert Peel, and perhaps occasionally, in
his later career, came now and then nearer to the height of
genuine oratory. But Lord Stanley Avas little more than a
splendid Parliamentary partisan, even Avhen, long after, he
Avas Prime-minister of England. He had very little, indeed,
of that class of information Avliich the modern world requires
of its statesmen and leaders. Of political economy, of
finance, of the development and the discoveries of modern
science, he knew almost as little as it is possible for an able
and energetic man to know Avho lives in the throng of active
life and hears Avhat people are talking of around hira. He
once said good-huraoredly of himself, that he Avas brought
np in the pre-scientific period. His scholarship was mere
ly such training in the classic languages &s alloAved him to
liave a full literary appreciation of the beauty of Greek and
Roman literature. He had no real and deep knowledge of
the history of the Greek and the Roraan people, nor proba
bly did he at all appreciate the great difference betAveen the
spirit of Roman and of Greek civilization. Ho had, in fact.

32 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Avhat Avould have been called at an earlier day an elegant
scholarship; hehad a considerable knoAvledge ofthe politics
ofhis time in most European countries, an energetic, intrepid
spirit, and Avith him, as Macaulay Avell said, the science of
Parliamentary debate seemed to be an instinct. There Avas
no speaker on the ministerial benches at that tirae Avho could
for a moment be corapared Avith him.
Lord John Russell, Avho had the leadership of the party
in the House of Commons, Avas really a much stronger man
than he seemed to be. He had a character for dauntless
courage .and confidence among his friends; for boundless
self-conceit among his enemies. Every one remerabers Syd
ney Smith's famous illustrations of Lord John Russell's un
limited faith in his OAvn power of achieveraent. Thomas
Moore addressed a poem to him at one time, when Lord
John Russell thought or talked -of giving up political life, in
Avhich he appeals to " thy genius, thy youth, and thy name,"
declares that the instinct of the young statesman is the
same as " the eaglet's to soar Avith his eyes on the sun," and
implores him not to " think for an instant thy country can
spare such a light from her darkening horizon as thou."
Later observers, to Avhom Lord John Russell appeared prob
ably remarkable for a cold and formal style as a debater,
.and for lack of originating power as a statesman, may find
it difficult to reconcile the poet's picture Avith their OAvn im
pressions ofthe reality. Bnt it is certain that at one time
the reputation of Lord John Russell was that of a rather
reckless man of genius, a sort of Whig Shelley. He h.ad, in
truth, rauch less genius than his friends and adrairers be
lieved, and a great deal more of practical strength than
either friends or foes gave him credit for. He became, not
indeed an orator, but a very keen debater, who was espe
cially, effective in a cold, irritating sarcasm which penetrated
the Aveakness of an opponent's argument like some dissolv
ing acid. In the poem from which we have quoted, Moore
speaks ofthe eloquence ofhis noble friend as "not like those
rills from a height, which sparkle and foam and in vapor
are o'er; but a current that Avorks out its way into lio-ht
through the filtering recesses of thought and of lore." Al
lowing for the exaggeration of friendship and poetry this
IS not a bad description of wh.at Lord John Russell's style

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 33
became at its best. The thin bright stream of .argument
Avorked its Avay sloAvly out, and contrived to Avear a path
for itself through obstacles Avhicli at first the looker-on
might have felt assured it never could penetrate. Lord
John Russell's swordsmanship Avas the swordsmanship of
Saladin, and not that of stout King Richard. But it Avas
very effective SAVord-play in its own Avay. Our English sys
tem of governraent by party makes the history of Parlia
ment seem like that of a succession of great political duels.
Two raen stand constantly confronted during a series of
years, one of Avhom is at the head ofthe Government, Avhile
the other is at the head of the Opposition. They change
places Avitli each victory. The conqueror goes into office ;
the conquered into opposition. This is not tlie place to dis
cuss either the merits or the probable duration of the prin
ciple of government by party; it is enough to say here
that it undoubtedly gives a very animated and varied com
plexion to our political struggles, and invests them, indeed,
Avith much of the gloAV and passion of actual Avarfare. It
has often happened that the two leading opponents are men
of intellectual and oratorical powers so fairly balanced that
their folloAvers may Avell dispute among themselves as to
the superiority of their respective chiefs, and that the public
in general may become divided into tAvo schools, not raerely
political, but even critical, according to their partiality for
one or the other. We still dispute as to whether Fox or
Pitt Avas the greater leader, the greater orator ; it is prob
able that for a long time to come the same question Avill
be asked by political students about Gladstone and Disra
eli. For many years Lord John Russell and Sir Robert
Peel stood thus opposed. They will often come into con
trast and comparison in these pages. For the present it is
enough to say that Peel had by far the more origin.al mind,
and that Lord John Russell never obtained so great an in
fluence over the House of Commons as that Avhich his rival
long enjoyed. The heat of political passion afterAvard in
duced a bitter critic to accuse Peel of lack of originality be
cause he assimilated readily and turned to account the ideas
of other men. Not merely the criticism, but the principle
on Avliich it Avas founded, was altogether wrong. It ouglit
to be left to childrdn to suppose that nothing is original but
2-*

3-4 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that Avhieh Ave make up, as the childish phrase is, " out of
our OAvn heads." Originality in politics, as in every field
of art, consists in the use and application of the ideas Avhicli
Ave get or are given to us. The greatest proof Sir Robert
Peel ever gave of high and genuine statesmanship was in
his recognition that the time had come to put into practi
cal legislation the principles which Cobden and Villiers and
Bright had been advocating in the House of Commons.
Lord John Russell Avas a born reformer. He had sat at the
feet of Fox. He was cradled in the principles of Liberalism.
He held faithfully to his creed ; he Avas one of its boldest
and keenest champions. He had great advantages over
Peel, in the mere fact that he had begun his education in a
more enlightened school. But he wanted passion quite as
much as Peel did, and remained still farther than Peel be
low the level of the genuine orator. Russell, as we have
said, had not long held the post of leader of the House of
Commons Avhen the first Parliament of Queen Victoria as
sembled. He Avas still, in a manner, on trial ; and eveti
among his friends, perhaps especially among his friends,
there Averc whispers that his confidence in himself Avas
greater than his capacity for leadership.
After the chiefs of Ministry and of Opposition, the most
conspicuous figure in the House of Commons was the colos
sal form of O'Connell, the great Irish agitator, of whom we
shall hear a good deal more. Araong the foremost orators
of the House at that time Avas O'Connell's impassioned lieu
tenant, Richard Lalor Shell. It is curious hoAV little is noAV
remembered of Slieil, whora so many well-qualified authori
ties declared to be a genuine orator. Lord Beaconsfield, in
one of his novels, sjDeaks of Shell's eloquence in terras of the
highest praise, and disparages Canning. It is but a short
time since Mr. Gladstone selected Shell as one of three re
markable illustrations of great success as a speaker, achieved
in spite of serious defects of voice and deliveiy ; the other
two examples being Dr. Chalmers and Dr. NoAvmah. Mr.
Gladstone described Shed's A^oice as like nothing but the
sound produced by "a tin kettle battered about from place
to place," knocking first against one side and then against
another. " In anybody else," Mr. Gladstone went on to say,
"I would not, if it had been in my choice, like to haA'e lis-

STATESMEN AND PARTIES. 35
tened to that voice ; but in him I Avould not have changed
it, for it Avas part of a most remarkable Avhole, and nobody
over felt it painful while listening to it. He Avas a great or
ator, and an orator of much preparation, I believe, carried
even to words, Avith a very vivid imagination and an enor
mous poAver of language, and of strong feeling. Tliere Avas
a peculiar character, a sort of half-Avildness in his aspect and
delivery ; his Avhole figure, and his delivery, and his voice
and his raatter, were all in such perfect keeping with one
another that they formed a great Parliamentary picture;
and although it is noAV thirty-five years since I heard Mr.
Shell, my recollection of him is just as vivid as if I had been
listening to him to-day." This surely is a picture of a great
orator, as Mr. Gladstone says Shell Avas. Nor is it easy to
understand hoAv a man, Avithout being a great orator, could
have persuaded two experts of such very difi'erent schools
as Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Disraeli that he deserved such a
name. Yet the after-years have in a curious but unmistak
able way denied the clairas of Shell. Perhaps it is because,
if he really was an orator, he Avas that and nothing more,
that our practical age, finding no mark left by him on Par
liament or politics, has declined to take much account even
of his eloquence. His career faded away into second-class
ministerial oflice, and closed at last, somcAvhat prematurely,
in the little court of Florence, Avhere he Avas sent as the rep-
]-esentative of England. He is Avorth 'mentioning here, be
cause he had the promise of a splendid reputation; because
the charm of his eloquence evidently lingered long in the
memories of those to Avliom it Avas once familiar, and be
cause his is one of the most brilliant illustrations of that
career of Irish agitator, which begins in stormy opposition
to English goverument, and subsides after awhile into meek
recognition of its title and adoption of its ministerial uni
form. O'Connell Ave have passed over for the present, be
cause Ave shall hear of him again ; but of Shell it is not nec
essary that we should hear any more.
This was evidently a remarkable Parliament, Avith Russell
for the leader of one party, and Peel for the leader of anoth
er; with O'Connell and Shell as independent supporters of
the ministry; Avith Mr. Gladstone still coinpar.atively ncw
to public life, .and Mr. Disraeli to address the Commons foi'

36 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the first time ; Avith Palmerston still unrecognized, and St.au-
ley lately gone over to Conservatism, itself the neAvest in
vented thing in politics ; Avith Grote and BuUver, and Joseph
Hume and Charles Buller ; and Ward and Villiers, Sir Fran
cis Burdett and Smith O'Brien, and the Radical Alcibiades
of Finsbury, " Tom " Duncombe.

CHAPTER IIL
CANADA AND LORD DURQAM.

The first disturbance to the quiet and good promise of
the noAV reign came from Canada. The P.arliament which
Ave have described met for the first tirae on November 20th,
1837, and Avas to have been adjourned to February 1st, 1838 ;
but the news Avhich began to arrive from Canada Avas so
alarming, that the ministry were compelled to change their
purpose and fix the reassembling of the Houses for January
16th. The disturbances in Canada had already broken ont
into open rebellion.
The condition of Canada Avas very peculiar. LoAver or
Eastern Canada was inhabited for the most part by raen of
French descent, Avho still kept up in the midst of an active
and moving civilization most of the principles and usages
Avhich belonged to France before the Revolution. Even to
this day, after all the changes, political and social, that have
taken place, the traveller frora Europe sees in many of the
towns of LoAver Canada an old-fashioned France, such as he
had known otherwise only in books that tell of France be
fore '89. Nor is this only in small sequestered towns and
villages Avhich the irapulses of modern ways h.ave yet fiiiled
to reach. In busy and trading Montreal, Avilh its residents
made up of Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Americans, as well
.as the raen of French descent, the visitor is more iraraediate
ly conscious of the presence of Avhat m.ay be called an old-
fashioned Catholicism than he is in Paris, or even indeed
in Rome. In Quebec, a city, Avhich for picturesqueness and
beauty of situation is not equalled by Edinburgh or Flor
ence, the curious interest of the pl.ace is further increased,

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 87
the novelty of the sensations it produces in the visitor is
raade raore piquant, by the evidences he raects Avith every
Avhere, through its quaint and stcepy streets and under its
antiquated archAvays, of the existence of a society Avliich has
hardly in Franco survived the Great Revolution. At tho
opening of Queen Victoria's reign, the undiluted character
of this French medifevalisra was, of course, rauch more re
markable. It Avould doubtless have exhibited itself quiet
ly enough if it were absolutely undiluted. LoAver Canada
Avould have dozed aAvay in its sleepy picturesqueness, held
fast to its ancient Avays, and alloAved a bustling, giddy Avorld,
all alive with commerce and ambition, and desire for novel
ty and the terribly disturbing thing Avhich unresting people
called progress, to rush on its Avild path unheeded. But its
neighbors and its newer citizens Avere not disposed to alloAv
LoAver Canada thus to rot itself in ease on the decaying
Avharves of the St. LaAvrence and the St. Charles. In the
large towns there Avere active traders from England and
other countries, Avho Avere by no means content to put u])
with Old- World ways, and to let the magnificent resources
of the place run to Avaste. Upper Canada, on the olher hand,
Avas all new as to its population, and Avas full ofthe modern
desire for commercial activitj'. Upper Canada was peopled
almost exclusively by inhabitants from Great Britain.
Scotch settlers, Avith ail the energy and push of their coun
try ; men from the northern province of Ireland, Avho might
be described as virtually Scotch also, came there. The emi
grant from the south of Ireland Avent to the United States
because he found there a country more or less hostile to Eng
land, and because there the Catholic Church Avas understood
to be flourishing. The Ulsterman Avent to Canada as the
Scotchman did, because he saAv the flag of England flying,
and the principle of religious establishment which he admired
at home still recognized. It is almost needless to say that
EnglLshraen in great numbers Avere settled there, Avhose chief
desire Avas to make the colony as far as possible a copy of
the institutions of England. When Canada Avas ceded to
England by Fr.ance, as a consequence of the victories of
Wolfe, the population Avas nearly all in the loAver province,
and therefore Av.as nearly all of French origin. Since the
cession the groAVth of tho population of the other province

38 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
had been surprisingly rapid, and had been almost exclusive
ly the growth, as Ave have seen, of immigration from Great
Britain, one or two of the colonizing states of the European
continent, and the American Republic itself
It is easy to see on the very face of things some ofthe dif
ficulties Avhich must arise in the development of such a sys
tem. The French of Lower Canada Avould regard with al
raost raorbid jealousy any legislation Avhich appeared likely
to interfere with their ancient Avays and to give any advan
tage or favor to the populations of British descent. The
latter would see injustice or feebleness in every measure
Avhicli did not assist them in developing their more energetic
ideas. The home Government, in such a condition of things,
often has especial trouble Avith those Avhora Ave may call ils
own people. Their very loyalty to the institutions of the
Old Country impels them to be unreasonable and exacting.
It is not easy to make them understand Avhy they should
not be at the least encouraged, if not indeed actually ena
bled, to carry boldly out the Anglicizing policy Avhich they
clearly see ia to be for the good of the colony in the end.
The Government has all the difficulty that the mother of a
household has Avhen, Avith the best intentions and the most
conscientious resolve to act impartially, she is called upon to
manage her OAvn children and the children of her husband's
former marriage. Every Avord she says, every resolve she is
induced to acknowledge, is liable to be regarded av ith jeal
ousy and dissatisfaction on the one side as Avell as on the
other. "You are doing everything to favor your own chil
dren," the one set cry out. " Ybu ought to do something
more for your CAvn children," is the equally querulous re
monstrance ofthe other.
It would have been difficult, therefore, for the home Goa'-
ernment, however Avise and far-seeing their policy, lo m.ake
the Avheels of any system run smoothly at once in such a
colony as Canada. Bivt their policy certainly does not seera
to have been either Avise or far-seeing. The plan of govern
ment adopted looks as if it Avere especially devised to bring
out into sharp relief all the antagonisms that Avere natural
to the existing state of things. By an Act called the Con
stitution of, 1791, Canada was divided'into Iavo provinces,
the Upper and the Lower. Each province had a separate

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 89
system of government — consisting of a governor; an execu
tive council appointed by the CroAvn, and supposed in some
Avay to resemble the Privy Council of this country ; a legis
lative council, the raembers of Avhich Avere appointed by the
CroAvn for life; and a representative assembly, the members
of which were elected for four years. At the same time the
clergy reserves Avere established by Parliament. One-sev
enth of the Avaste lands of the colony Avas set aside for the
maintenance of the Protestant clergy — a fruitful source of
disturbance and ill-feeling.
When the tAvo provinces Avere divided in 1791, the inten
tion Avas that they should remain distinct in fact as Avell as
iu name. It was hoped that LoAver Canada Avonld remain
altogether French, and that Upper Canada Avould be exclu
sively English. Then it Avas thought that they might be
governed on their separate systems as securely and with as
little trouble as we now govern the Mauritius on one system
and Malta on another.
Those Avho formed such an idea do not seem to have taken
any counsel Avith geography. The one fact, that Upper Can
ada can hardly be said to ha\-e any means of communication
Avitli Europe and the whole Eastern Avorld except through
Lower Canada, or else through the United States, ought to
have settled the question at once. It Avas in Lower Canada
that the greatest difficulties arose. A constant antagonism
grew up betAveen the majority ofthe legislative council, w'lO
Avere nominees ofthe Crown, and the majority ofthe rep 'c-
sentative assembly, Avho were elected by the population of
the province. The home Government encouraged, and in
deed kept up, that most odious and dangerous of all instru
ments for the supposed management of a colony — a "British
party" devoted to the so-called interests ofthe mother-coun
try, and obedient to the word of command from their mas
ters and patrons at home. The majority in the legislative
council constantly thwarted the resolutions ot the vast ma
jority of the popular assembly. Disputes arose as to the
voting of supplies. The Government retained in their ser
vice officials Avhom the representative assembly had con
demned, and insisted on the right to pay them their salaries
out of certain funds of the colony. The representative as
sembly took to stopping the supplies, and the Government

40 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
clairaed the right to counteract this raeasure by appropriat
ing to the purpose such public moneys as happened to be
Avithin their reach at the time. The colony — for indeed on
these subjects the population of LoAver Canada, right or
Avrong, was so near to being of one mind that Ave may take
the declarations of public meetings as representing the colo
ny — demanded that the legislative council should be made
elective, and that the colonial governraent should not be al
lowed to dispose ofthe moneys ofthe colony at their pleas
ure. The House of Commons aud the Governraent here re
plied by refusing to listen to the proposal to raake the legis
lative council an elective body, and authorizing the provin
cial government, Avithout the consent of the colonial repre
sentation to appropriate the raoney in the treasury for the
administration of justice and the maintenance ofthe execu
tive system. This Avas, in plain Avords, to announce to the
French population, Avho made up the vast majority, and
Avhom we had taught to believe in the representative form.
of government, that their Avishes would never count for any
thing, and that the colony Avas to be ruled solely at the
pleasure ofthe little British party of officials and Crown nom
inees. It is not necessary to suppose that in all these dis
putes the popular majority Avere in the right and the officials
in the Avrong. No one can doubt that there Avas much bit
terness of feeling arising out ofthe mere differences of race.
The French and the English could not be got to blend. In
sorae places, as it Avas afterward said in the famous report of
Lord Durham, the two sets of colonists never publicly met
together except in the jury-box, and then only for the ob
struction of justice. The British residents complained bit
terly of being subject to French laAV and procedure in so
many of their affairs. The tenure of land and many other
conditions ofthe system were antique French, and the Frencli
laAV Avorked, or rather did not Avork, in civil affairs side by
side Avilh the equally impeded British laAv in criminal m.at-
ters. At last the representative assembly refused to vote
any further supplies or to carry on any further business.
Tiiey formulated their grievances against the horae Govern
ment. Their complaints Avere of arbitrary conduct on the
part of the governors ; intolerable composition of the legis
lative council, which they insisted ought to be elective; ilie-

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 41
gal appropriation of the public money ; and violent proroga
tion of the provincial Parliaraent.
One ofthe leading men in the movement Avhich afterward
became rebellion in Lower Canada Avas Mr. Louis Joseph
Papineau. This man liad risen to high position by his tal
ents, his energy, and his undoubtedly honorable character.
He had represented Montreal in the Representative Assem-
l)ly of LoAver Canada, and he afterward became Speaker of
the House. He made himself leader of the movement to
protest against the policy of the governors, and that of the
Governnient at home, by Avhom they Avere sustained. He
held a series of meetings, at some of Avhich undoubtedly
rather strong language was used, and too frequent and sig
nificant appeals Avero made to the example held out to the
population of LoAver Canada by the successful revolt of the
United States. Mr. Papineau also planned the calling to
gether of a great convention to discuss and proclaim the
grievances of the colonies. Lord Gosford, the governor, be
gan by dismissing several militia officers Avho had taken
part in some of these demonstrations ; Mr. Papineau him
self was an officer of this force. Then the governor issued
warrants for the apprehension of many members ofthe pop
ular Assembly on the charge of high -treason. Some of
these at once left the country ; others against Avhom Avar-
rants Avere issued Avere arrested, and a sudden resistance
Avas made by their friends and supporters. Then, in the
manner familiar to all who have read anything of the his
tory of revolutionary movements, the resistance to a capture
of prisoners suddenly transforraed itself into open rebellion.
The rebellion Avas not, in a railitary sense, a very great
thing. At its first outbreak the military authorities Avere
for a moment surprised, and the rebels obtained one or two
trifling advantages. But the commander-in-chief at once
showed energy adequate to the occasion, and used, as it Avas
his duty to do, a strong hand in putting the movement
down. The rebels fought Avith soraething like desperation
in one or Iavo instances, and there Avas, it must be said, a
good deal of blood shed. The disturbance, hoAvever, after
aAvhile extended to the upper province. Upper Canada too
had its complaints ag.ainst its governors and the home Gov
ernment, and its protests against having its offices all dis-

42 A, HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
posed of by a " family compact ;" but the rebellious mover
ment does not seem to have taken a genuine hold of the
province at any time. There Avas some discontent ; there
Avas a constant stimulus to exciteraent kept up from across
the American frontier by sympathizers with any republican
raovement ; and there Avere some excitable persons inclined
for revolutionary change in the province itself Avhose zeal
caught fire Avhen the flame broke out in Lower Canada.
But it seems to have been an exotic movement altogether,
and, so far as its railitary history is concerned, deserves no
tice chiefly for the chivalrous eccentricity of the plan by
Avhich the governor of the province undertook to put it
down. The governor Avas the gallant aud fanciful soldier
and traveller, Sir Francis, then Major, Head. He who had
fought at Waterloo, and seen much service besides, was
quietly performing the duties of Assistant Poor LaAV Com
missioner for the county of Kent, Avhen he was suramoned,
in 1835, at a moment's notice, to assume the governorship
of Upper Canadii. When the rebellion broke out in that
province. Major Head proved himself not merely equal to
the occasion, but boldly superior to it. He promptly re
solved to Avin a grand moral victory over all rebellion then
and for the future. He Avas seized with a desire to shoAv to
the Avhole Avorld how vain it was for any disturber to think
of shaking the loyalty of the province under his control.
He issued to rebellion in general a challenge not unlike that
Avhich Shakspeare's Prince Harry offers to the chiefs of the
insurrection against Henry IV. He invited it to come on
and settle the controversy by a sort of duel. He sent all
the regular soldiers out of the province to the help of the
authorities of LoAver Canada ; he allowed the rebels to ma
ture their plans in any Avay they liked ; he permitted them
to choose their own day and hour, and when they Avero
ready to begin their assaults on constituted authority, ho
summoned to his side the militia and all the, loyal inhabi
tants, and Avith their help he completely extinguished the
rebellion. It Avas but a very trifling affair ; it went out or
collapsed in a moment. Major Head had his desire. He
shoAved that rebellion in that province Avas not a thino- se
rious enough to call for the intervention of regular troops.
The loyal colonists Avere for the raost p.art delighted Avith

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 43
the spirited conduct of their leader and his ncw-itishioned
Avay of dealing with rebellion. No doubt tiie moral effect
Avas highly imposing. The plan Avas almost as original aa
tliat described in Herodotus and introduced into one of
Massinger's plays, Avhen the moral authority of the masters
is made to assert itself over tho rebellious slaves by the
mere exhibition of the symbolic whip. But the- authorities
at home took a someAvhat more prosaic view of the policy
of Sir Francis Head. It was suggested that if the fears of
many had been realized, and the rebellion had been aided
by a large force of sympathizers from the United States, the
raoral authority of Canadian loy.alty might have stood
greatly in need of the material presence of regular troops.
Ill the end Sir Francis Head resigned his office. His loyal
ty, courage, and success Avere acknoAvledged by the gift of a
baronetcy ; and he obtained the admiration not merely of
those Avho approved his policy, but even of many among
those Avho felt bound to condemn it. Perhaps it may bo
mentioned that there Avere some Avho persisted to the last
in the belief that Sir Francis Head Avas not by any means
so rashly chivalrous as he had alloAved hiraself to be thought,
and that he had full preparation made, if his raoral demon
stration should fail, to supply its place in good time with
more commonplace and effective measures.
The news of the outbreaks in Canada created a natural
excitement in this country. Tliere was a A'ery strong feel
ing of sympathy among many classes here — not, indeed,
Avith the rebellion, but Avith the colony which complained
of Avhat seemed to be genuine and serious grievances. Pub
lic meetings were held at Avhich resolutions Avere passed
ascribing the disturbances, in the first place, to the refusal
by the Government of any redress sought for by the colo
nists. Mr. Hume, the pioneer of financial reform, took the
side of the colonists very Avarmly, both in and out of Parlia
raent. During one of the Parliaraentary debates on the sub
ject. Sir Robert Peel referred to the principal leader of the
rebellion in Upper Canada as "a Mr. Mackenzie." Mr.
Hume resented this Avay of speaking of a prominent colo
nist, and remarked that " there Avas a Mr. Mackenzie as
there might be a Sir Robert Peel," and created some amuse
ment by referring to tiie declarations of Lord Chatham on

44 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the American Stamp Act, which he cited as the opinions df
" a Mr. Pitt." Lord John Russell, on the part ofthe Govern
ment, introduced a bill to deal Avith the rebellious province.
Tiie bill proposed, in brief, to suspend for a time the con
stitution of Lower Canada, and to send out from this coun
try a governor -general and high -commissioner, Avith full
powers to deal with the rebellion, and to remodel the con
stitution of both provinces. The proposal met Avith a good
deal of opposition at first on very different grounds. Mr.
Roebuck, who was then, as it happened, out of Parliament,
appeared as the agent and representative ofthe province of
Lower Canada, and demanded to be heard at the bar of both
the Houses in opposition to the bill. After some little de
mur his demand Avas granted, and he stood at the bar, first
of the Commons, and then of the Lords, and opposed the
bill on the ground that it unjustly suspended the constitu
tion of Lower Canada in consequence of disturbances pro
voked by the intolerable oppression of the home Govern
ment. A critic of that day remarked that most orators
seemed to make it their business to conciliate and propitiate
the audience they desired to Avin-over, but that Mr. Roebuck
seemed from the very first to be deiermined to set all his
hearers against him and his cause. Mr. Roebuck's speeches
Avere, hoAvever, exceedingly argumentative and poAverful ap-
jieals. Their effect was enhanced by the singularly youth
ful appearance of the speaker, Avho is described as looking
like a boy hardly out of his teens.
It Avas evident, hoAvever, that the proposal of the Govern
raent must in the main be adopted. The general opinion of
Parliament decided, not unreasonably, that that Avas not the
moment for entering into a consideration ofthe past policy
of the Governraent, and that the country could do nothing
better just then than send out sorae man of coramanding
ability and character to deal with the existing condition oV
things. There Avas an almost universal admission that the
Governraent had found the right raan when Lord John Rus
sell raentioned the name of Lord Durham.
Lord Durham was a man of remarkable character. It is
a raatter of surprise hoAV little his narae is thought of by the
present generation, seeing Avhat a strenuous figure he seeraed
in the eyes ofhis contemporaries, and hoAV striking a part he

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 45
played in the politics of a time Avhich has even still some living
representatives. He belonged to one of the oldest families
in England. The Lambtons had lived on their estate in the
North, in uninterrupted succession, since the Conquest. The
male succession, it is staled, never Avas interrupted since the
tAvelfth century. They Avere not, however, a family of aris
tocrats. Their Avealth was derived chiefly from coal mines,
and grew up in later days ; the property at first, and for a
long time, Avas of inconsiderable value. For more tli.an a
century, hoAvever, the Lambtons had come to take rank
among the gentry of the county, and some member of the
family had represented the city of Durham in the House of
Commons from 1727 until the early death of Lord Durham's
father in December, 1797. William Henry Lambton, Lord
Durham's father, Avas a stanch Whig, and had been a friend
and associate of Fox. John George Lambton, the son, Avas
born at Lambton Castle in April, 1792. Before he Avas quite
twenty years of age, he made a romantic marriage at Gretna
Green Avith a lady Avho died three years after. He served
for a short time in a regiment of Hussars. About a year
after the death of his first Avife ho married the eldest daugh
ter of Lord Grey. He Avas then only tAventy-four years of
age. He had before this been returned to Parliament for
the county of Durhara, and he soon distinguished himself
as a very advanced and energetic reformer. While in the
Commons he seldom addressed the House, but Avhen he did
speak, it Avas in support of some measure of reform, or
against' what he conceived to be antiquated and illiberal
legislation. He brought out a plan of his own for Parlia
mentary reform in 1821. In 1828 he Avas raised to the peer
age, with the title of Baron Durham. When the ministry
of Lord Gi'ey was formed, in November, 1830, Lord Durham
became Lord Privy Seal. He is said to have had an almost
complete control over Lord Grey. He had an impassioned
and energetic nature, which sometimes drove him into out
breaks of feeling Avhich most of his colleagues dreaded. Va
rious highly-colored descriptions of stormy scenes between
him and his companions in office are given by writers of the
time. Lord Durham, his enemies and some ofhis friends
said, bullied and broAvbeat his opponents in the cabinet,
and Avould soraetimes hardly allow his father-in-law and of-

46 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ficial chief a chance of putting in a Avord on the other side,
or in mitigation of his tempestuous mood. He Avas thor
ough in his reforming purposes, and wonld have rushed at
radical changes Avith scanty consideration for the tirae or
for the temper of his opponents. Pie had very little rever
ence indeed for Avhat Carlyle calls the majesty of custom.
Whatever he wished he strongly Avished. He had no idea
of reticence, and cared not much for the decorum of office.
It is not necessary to believe all the stories told by those
Avho hated and dreaded Lord Durham, in order to accept
the belief that he really was somewhat of an enfant terrible
to the stately Lord Grey, and to the easy-going colleagues
Avho Avere by no means absolutely eaten up by their zeal for
reform. In the powerful speech which he delivered in the
House of Lords on the Reform Bill there is a specimen of
his eloquence of denunciation which might Avell have star
tled listeners, even in those days when the license of speecli
Avas often sadly out of proportion Avith its legalized liberty.
Lord Durham Avas especially roused to anger by some ob
servations made in the debate of a previous night by the
Bishop of Exeter. He described the prelate's speech as an
exhibition of " coarse and virulent invective, malignant and
false insinuation, the grossest perversions of historical facts
decked out Avith all the choicest floAA'ers of pamphleteering
slang." He was called to order for these words, and a peer
moved that they be taken doAvn. Lord Durham Avas by
no means dismayed. He coolly declared that he did not
mean to defend his language as the most elegant or grace
ful, but that it exactly, conveyed the ideas regarding the
bishop Avliich he meant to express ; that he believed the
bishop's speech to contain insinuations Avhich Avere as false
as scandalous ; that he had said so ; that he now begged
leave to repeat tho Avords, and that he paused to give any
noble lord Avho thought fit an opportunity of taking them
doAvn. Not one, however, seemed disposed to encounter
any further tliis impassioned adversary, and Avhen he had
had his say. Lord Durham became somewhat mollified, aud
endeavored to soften the pain of the impression he had
made. He begged the House of Lords to make some al
lowance for him if he had spoken too Avarmly; for, as he
said Avilh much pathetic force, his mind had lately been.

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 47
tortured by domestic loss. He thus .alluded to the recent
death of his eldest son — " a beautiful boy," says a Avriter
of some years ago, "Avhose features Avill live forever in tlie
Avell-known picture by LaAvrence."
The whole of this incident — the fierce attack and the sud
den pathetic expression of regret — will serve Avell enough to
illustrate the emotional, uncontrolled character of Lord Dur
ham. He Avas one of the men who, even Avhen they are
thoroughly in the right, have often the unhappy art of seem
ing to put themselves completely iu the Avrong. He Avas the
raost advanced of all the reformers in the reforming ministry
of Lord Gre}'. His plan of Reform in 1821 proposed to give
four hundred members to certain districts of toAvn and coun
try, in Avhich every householder should have a vote. When
Lord Grey had forraed his reform ministry. Lord Durham
sent for Lord John Russell and requested him to draw up a
scheme of reform. A committee Avas formed on Lord Dur
ham's suggestion, consisting of Sir James Grahara, Lord
Duncannon, Lord John Russell, and Lord Durham himself
Lord John Russell drew up a plan, Avhich he published long
•after, with the alterations Avliich Lord Durham had sng-
cested and Avritten in his OAvn hand on the margin. If
Lord Durham had had his way the ballot Avould at that
time have been included in the programme of the Govern
ment ; and it Avas, indeed, understood that at one period of
the discussions he had Avon over his colleagues to his opin
ion on that subject. He Avas, in a Avord, the Radical mem
ber of the cabinet, Avith all the energy Avhich became such
a character; Avith that "magnificent indiscretion" which
h.ad been attributed to a greater man — Edmund Burke;
with all that courage of his opinions Avhich, in the Frenchi
fied phraseology of modern politics, is so much talked of, so
rarely found, and so little trusted or successful Avhen it is
found. Not long after Lord Durham Avas raised in the peerage
and became an earl. His influence over Lord Grey contin
ued great, but his differences of opinion Avith his former col
leagues — he had resigned his office— became greater and
greater every day. More than once he had taken the pub
lic into his confidence ih his characteristic and heedless Avay.
He Avas sent on a mission lo Russia, perhaps lo get him out

48 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of the way, and afterward he Avas made ambassador at the
Russian court. In the interval between his mission and his
ibrmal appointment he had come back to England and per
formed a series of enterprises Avhich in the homely and un
dignified language of American politics Avould probably be
called "stumping the country." He was looked to Avilh
much hope by the more extreme Liberals in the country, and
Avith corresponding dislike and dread by all Avho thought
the country had gone far enough, or much too far in the
recent political changes.
None of his opponents, hoAV«ver, denied his great ability.
He Avas never deterred by conventional beliefs and habits
from looking boldly into the very heart of a great political
difficulty. He Avas never afraid to propose what, in times
later than his, have been called heroic remedies. There Avas
a general impression, perhaps, even atnong those Avho liked
him least, that he Avas a sort of " unemployed Caasar," a man
Avho only required a field large enough to develop great
qualities in the ruling of men. The difficulties iu Canada
seeraed to have come as if expressly to give him an opportu
nity of proving himself all that his friends declared hira to
be, or of justifying forever the distrust ofhis eneraies. He
Avent out to Canada Avith tho assurance of every one that
his expedition Avould either raake or mar a career, if not a
country. Lord Durham Avent out to Canada with the brightest
hopes and prospects. He took Avitli him two of the men
best qualified in England .at that time to m.ake his mission
a success — Mr. Charles Buller and Mr. Edward Gibbon
Wakefield. He understood that he Avas going out as a dic
tator, and there can be no doubt that his expedition Avas re
garded in this light by England and by the colonies. We
have remarked that people looked on his mission as likely to
make or mar a career, if not a country. What it did, how
ever, Avas someAvhat different from that Avliieh any one ex
pected. Lord Durham found out a new alternative. He
made a country, and he marred a career. He is distinctly
the founder of the system Avhich has since Avorked Avith sucTi
gratifying success in Canada ; he is the founder, even, of the
principle Avhich allowed the quiet development ofthe prov
inces into a confederation Avith neighboring colonies under

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 49
the name of the Dominion of Canada. But the singular
quality which in home politics had helped to mar so much
of Lord Durham's personal career Avas in full work durino-
his visit to Canada. It Avould not be easy to find in modern
political history so curious an example of splendid and last
ing success combined with all the appearance of ulter and
disastrous failure. The mission of Lord Durham saved Can
ada. It ruined Lord Durham. At the moment it seemed lo
superficial observers lo have been as injurious to the colony
as to the man.
Lord Durhara arrived in Quebec at the end of May, 1838.
He at once issued a prochunaiion, in style like that of a dicta
tor. It was not in any Avay unworthy ofthe occasion, Avhicii
especially called for the intervention of a brave and enlight
ened dictatorship. He declared that he would unsparingly
punish any who violated the laws, but he frankly invited the
co-operation ofthe colonies to form a new system of govern
ment really suited lo their Avants and to the altering condi
tions of civilization. Unfortunately, he had hardly entered
on -his Avork of dictatorship Avhen he found that he was no
-longer a dictator. In the passing ofthe Canada Bill through
Parliament the powers Avhich he understood were to be con
ferred upon him had been considerably reduced. Lord Dur
hara went to Avork, however, as if he Avere still invested Avith
absolute authority over all the laAvs and conditions of the
colony. A very Csesar laying doAvn the lines for the future
government of a province could hardly have been more
boldly arbitrary. Let it be said, also, that Lord Durham's
arbitrariness Avas for the most part healthy in effect and just
in spirit. But it gave an immense opportunity of attack on
himself and on the Government to the enemies of both at
horae. Lord Durhara had hardly begun his work of recon
struction Avhen his recall Avas clamored for by vehement
voices in Parliament.
Lord Durham began by issuing a series of ordinances in
tended to provide for the security of LoAver Canada. He
proclaimed a very liberal amnesty, to Avhich, however, there
¦ft'ere certain exceptions. The leaders of the rebellious
movement, Papineau and others, Avho had escaped frora the
colony, Avere excluded from the amnesty. So likewise were
certain prisoners Avho either had voluntarily confessed thom-
L— 3

W-P

50 A HISTORY OF OUR OAVN TIMES.
selves guilty of high-treason, or had been induced to make
such an acknowledgment in the hope of obtaining a mitigated
punishment. These Lord Durham ordered to be transported
to Bermuda ; and for any of these, or ofthe leaders Avho had
escaped, Avho should return to the colony without permis
sion, he proclaimed that they should be deemed guilty of
high-treason, and condemned to suffer death. It needs no
learned legal argument to prove that this Avas a proceed
ing not to be justified by any ofthe ordinary forms of laAv.
Lord Durham had not poAver to transport any one to Ber
muda. He had no authority over Bermuda ; he had no au
tliority Avhich he could delegate to the officials of Bermuda
enabling them lo detain political prisoners. Nor had ho
any power to declare that persons Avho returned to the col
ony Avere to be liable to the punishment of death. It is not
a capital offence by any of the laws of England for even a
transported convict to break bounds and return to his home.
All this Avas quite illeg.al ; that is to say, Avas outside tho
limits of Lord Durham's legal authority. Lord Durham Avas
Avell aAvare of the fact. He had not for a raoraent supposed
tiiat he Avas acting in accordance with ordinary English laAv.
He Avas acting in the spirit of a dictator, at once bold and
merciful, Avho is under the impression that he has been in
vested Avith extraordinary ]iowers for the very reason that
the crisis does not admit ofthe ordinary operations of law.
For the decree of death to banished men returning without
permission, he had, indeed, the precedent and authority of
acts passed already by the colonial Parliament itself; but
Lord Durhara did not care for any such authority. He
found that he had on his hands a considerable number of
prisoners Avhom it Avould be absurd to put on trial in LoAver
Canada Avith the usu.al forms of laAv. It Avould have been
absolutely impossible to get any unpacked jury to convict
them. They Avould have been triumphantly acquitted. The
authority ofthe Crown would have been brought into great
er contempt than ever. So little faith had the colonists in
the impartial Avorking ofthe ordinary laAV in the governor's
hands, that the universal impression in Lower Canada Ava3
that Lord Durham Avould have the prisoners tried by a
packed jury of his own officials, convicted as a matter of
course, aud executed out of hand. It Avas Avith amazement

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 51
people found that the new governor Avould not sloop to the
infamy of packing a jury. Lord Durhara saw no better Avay
out of the difficulty than to impose a sort of exile on those
Avho adinitled their connection Avitli the rebellion, and lo
)ireveiit by the threat of a severe penalty the return of those
Avho had already fled from the colony. His amnesty meas
ure Avas large and liberal; but he did not see that ho could
alloAV prorainent offenders to remain unrebuked in the col
ony ; and to attempt to bring them to trial Avould have been
to secure for thera, not punishment, but public honor.
Another measure of Lord Durham's Avas likewise open
to the charge of excessive use of poAver. The act Avhich
appointed hira prescribed that he should be advised by a
council, and that every ordinance of his should be signed
by at least five of its members. There Avas already a coun
cil in existence nominated by Lord Durham's predecessor.
Sir J. Colborne — a sort of provisional governnient put to
gether to supply for the moment the yjlace of the suspended
political constitution. This council Lord Durham set aside
altogether, and substituted for it one of his OAvn m.aking,
and composed chiefly of his secretaries and the members of
his staff. In truth, this Avas but a part of the policy Avhich
he had marked out for himself. He Avas resolved to play
the game Avliieh he honestly believed he conld play better
than any one else. He had in his raind, partly frora the
inspiration of the gifted and Avell- instructed men Avho ac
corapanied and advised him, a plan Avhich he Avas firraly
convinced Avould be the salvation of the colony. Events
have proved that he Avas right. His disposal of the prison
ers Avas only a clearing of the decks for the great action of
remodelling the colony. He did not alloAv a form of laAv
to stand belAA'een him and his purpose. Indeed, as we have
already said, he regarded himself as a dictator sent out to
reconstruct a Avhole system in the best Avay he could. When
he Avas accused of having gone beyond the laAV, he asked
Avith a scorn not Avholly unreasonable : " What are the con
stitutional principles reraaining in force Avhere the whole
bonstitution is suspended ? What principle of the British
constitution holds good in a country Avhere the people's
raoney is taken from them without the people's consent ;
Avhere representative government is annihilated; Avhere mar^

52 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tial laAV has been the law of the land, and Avhere trial by
jury exists only to defe'at the ends of justice, and to provoke
the righteous scorn and indignation ofthe coraraunity?" ^
Still there can be no doubt that a less impetuous and im
patient spirit than that of Lord Durham might have found
a Avay of beginning his great reforms Avithout provoking
such a storm of hostile criticism. Lie Avas, it must always
be remembered, a dictator who only strove to use his pow
ers for the restoration of liberty and constitutional govern
ment. His mode of disposing ofhis prisoners was arbitrary
only in the interests of mercy. He declared openly that he
did not think it right to send to an ordinary penal settle
ment, and thus brand with infamy, men Avhom the public
feeling of the colony entirely approved, and whose cause,
until they broke into rebellion, had far more of right on its
side than that of the authority they complained of could
claim to possess. He sent them to Bermuda simply as into
exile ; to remove thera from the colony, but nothing more.
He lent the Aveight of this authority to the colonial Act,
Avhich prescribed the penalty of death for returning to the
colony, because he believed that the men thus proscribed
never Avould return.
But his policy raet Avitli the severest and most unmeas
ured criticism at home. If Lord Durham had been guilty
ofthe Avorst excesses of power which Burke charged against
Warren Hastings, he could not have been more fiercely de^
nounced in the House of Lords. He was accused of having
promulgated an ordinance which would enable him to hang
men Avithout any trial or form of trial. None of his oppo
nents seemed to remember that Avhether his disposal of tho
prisoners was right or Avrong, it Avas only a small and inci
dental part of a great policy covering the readjustment of'
the whole political and social system of a splendid colony.
The criticism went on as if the promulgation of the Quebec
ordinances Avas the be-all and the end-all of Lord Durham's
mission. His opponents made great complaint about the
cost ofhis progress in Canada, Lord Durham had undoubt
edly a lavish taste and a love for something like Oriental
display. He raade his goings about in Canada like a gor
geous royal progress ; yet it was well known that he took
no remuneration whatever for himself, and did not even ac-

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 53
cept his OAvn porson.al travelling expenses. He afterAvard
stated in the House of Lords that the visit cost him person
ally ten thousand pounds at least. Mr. Hume, the advocate
of economy, made sarcastic comment on the sudden fit of
parsimony Avliich seemed to have seized, in Lord Durham's
case, men Avhom he had never before known to raise their
voices against any prodigality of expenditure.
The ministry Avas very Aveak in debating poAver in the
House of Lords. Lord Durham h.ad made enemies there.
The opportunity Avas tempting for assailing him and the
ministry together. Many ofthe criticisms were undoubted
ly the conscientious protests of men Avho saAV danger in any
departure from the recognized principles of constitutional
law. Eminent judges and laAvyers in the House of Lords
naturally looked, above all things, to the proper administra
tion ofthe laAV as it existed. But it is hard to doubt that
political or personal enmity influenced some of the attacks
on Lord Durham's conduct. Almost all the leading men in
the House of Lords Avere against him. Lord Brougham
and Lord Lyndhurst Avere for the time leagued in opposition
to the Government and in attack on the Canadian policy.
Lord Brougham claimed to be consistent. He had opposed
the Canada coercion from the beginning, he said, and he op
posed illegal attempts to deal with Canada noAv. It seems
a little hard to understand hoAV Lord Brougham could really
have so far raisunderstood the purpose of Lord Durham's
proclamation as to believe that he proposed to hang men
Avithout the form of laAV. However Lord Durhara may have
broken the technical rules of law, nothing could be more
obvious than the fact that he did so in the interest of mer
cy and generosity, and not that of tyrannical severity. Lord
Brougham inveighed against him with thundering eloquence,
as if he Avere denouncing another Sejanus. It must be oavu-
ed that his attacks lost some of their raoral effect because
of his known hatred to Lord Melbourne and the ministry,
and even to Lord Durham himself People said that
Brough.am had a special reason for feeling hostile to any
thing done by Lord Durham. A dinner was given to Lord
Grey by the Reforraers of Edinburgh, in 1834, at Avhich Lord
Broughara and Lord Durhara Avere both present. Brough
ara Avas called upon to speak, and in the course ofhis speech

¦¦ '

54 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
he took occasion to conderan certain too-zealous Reforraers
Avho could not be content Avith the changes that had been
made, but must demand that the ministry should rush for
Avard into Avild and extravagant enterprises. He enlarged
upon this subject Avith great vivacity and Avitli amusing
variety of humorous and rhetorical illustration. Lord Dur
ham assumed that the attack Avas intended for him. His
assumption Avas not unnatural. When he came in his turn
to speak, he Avas indiscreet enough to reply directly to Lord
Brougham, to accept the speech of the former as a personal
challenge, and in bitter Avords to retort invective and sar
casm. The scene Avas not edifying. The guests Avere scan
dalized. The effect of Brougham's speech was wholly spoil
ed. Brougham Avas made to seem a disturber of order by
the indiscretion Avhieh provoked into retort a raan notorious
ly indiscreet and incapable of self restraint. It is not unfair
to the memory of so fierce and unsparing a political gladia
tor as Lord Broughain, to assume that Avhen he felt called
upon to attack the Canadian policy of Lord Durham, tiie
recollection of the scene at the Edinburgh dinner inspired
Avith additional force his criticism ofthe Quebec ordinances.
The ministry were Aveak, and yielded. They had in the
first instance approved of the ordinances, but they quickly
gave Avay and abandoned them. They avoided a direct at
tempt on the part of Lord Brougham to reverse the policy
of Lord Durham by announcing that thej' had determined
to disallow the Quebec ordinances. Lord Durham learned
fbr the first time frora an American paper that the Govern
ment had abandoned him. He at once announced his deter
mination to give up his position and to return to England.-
His letter announcing this resolve crossed on the ocean the
despatch from home disallowing his ordinances. With cha,r-
acteristic imprudence, he issued a proclamation from the
Castle of St. Lewis, in the city of Quebec, which Avas virtual
ly an appeal to the public feeling of the colony against liie
conduct of her Majesty's Government. When tiie news of
this extraordinary proclamation reached home. Lord Durham
Avas called by the Times newspaper "the Lord High Sedi-
tioner." The representative of the sovereign, it Avas said,
had appealed to the judgment of a still rebellious colony
against the policy of the sovereign's OAvn advisers. Of

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 55
course Lord Durliam's recall was unavoidable. The Govern
raent at once sent out a despatch removing him from his
place as Governor of British Nortii Ameiica.
Lord Durham had not Availed for the forraal recall. He
returned to England a disgraced man. Yet even then there
Avas public spirit enough among the English people to refuse
to ratify any sentence of disgrace upon him. When he
landed at Plymouth he Avas received Avitii acclamations by
liie population, although tlie Government had prevented
any ofthe oflicial honor usually shoAvn to returning govern
ors from being offered to him. Mr. John Stuart Mill has
claimed Avith modest firmness and Avilli perfect justice a lead
ing share in influencing public opinion in favor of Lord Dur
ham. "Lord Durham," he says in his autobiography, " Avas
bitterly attacked from all sides, inveighed against by ene
mies, given up by timid friends; while those Avho Avould
willingly have defended him did not know Avliat to say. He
a])peared to be returning a defeated and discredited man.
I had foUoAved the Canadian events from the beginning; I
had been one of the prompters ofhis prompters; his policy
Av.as almost exactly Avhat mine Avould have been, and I Avas
in a position to defend it. I Avrote and published a mani
festo ifi the [Weslniiiistei-] Heview, in Avhicli I took the very
highest ground in his behalf, claiming for him not mere ac
quittal, but praise and honor. Instantly a number of other
Avriters look up the tone. I believe there Avas a portion of
truth in Aviiat Lord Durham soon after, Avilh polite exaggera
tion, said lo rae, that lo lliis article raight be ascribed the
almost triuraphal reception Avhich he met Avith on his arrival
ill England. I believe it to have been the word in season,
Avhich .at a critical moment does much to decide the result;
the touch Avhich determines Avhether a stone set in motion
at the top of an eminence shall roll doAvn on one side or on
the other. All hopes connected Avith Lord Durham as a po
litician soon vanished; but Avith regard to Canadian , and
generally to colonial policy the cause AA'as gained. Lord
Durham's report, Avritten by Charles Buller, partly under the
inspiration of Wakefield, began a neAv era; its recommenda
tions, extending to complete internal self-government, Avere
in full operation in Canada Avithin two or three years, and
have been since extended to nearlv all the other colonies of

oQ A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
European race Avhich have any claim to the character of
important communities." In this instance the victa' causa
pleased not only Cato, but, in the end, the gods as Avell.
Lord Durham's report Avas acknowledged by enemies as
well as by the most impartial critics to be a masterly docu
ment. As Mr. Mill has said, it laid the foundation of the
political success and social prosperity not only of Canada
but of all the other important colonies. After having ex
plained in the raost exhaustive raanner the causes of discon
tent and backAvardness in Canada, it Avent on to recommend
that the governraent ofthe colony should be put as much as
possible into the hands ofthe colonists themselves, that they
themselves should execute as well as make the laAvs,tlie limit
of the Imperial Government's interference being in such
matters as affect the relations of the colony Avith the raolh-
er-country, such as the constitution and form of government,
the regulation of foreign relations and trade, and the dis
posal of the public lands. Lord Durham proposed to estab
lish a thoroughly good systera of municipal institutions ; to
secure the independence of the judges; to make all provin
cial officers, except the governor and his secretary, responsi
ble to the colonial legislature ; and to repeal all former leg
islation Avith respect to the reserves of land for the clergy.
Finally, he proposed that the provinces of Canada should be
reunited politically and should become one legislature, con
taining the representatives of both races and of all districts.
It is significant that the report also recomraended that in
any act to be introduced for this purpose, a provision should
be raade by Avhich all or any of the other North American
colonies should, on the application of their legislatures and
with the consent of Canada, be admitted into the Canadian
Union. Thus the separat'ion _ which Fox thought unAvise
was to be abolished, and the Canadas Avere to be fused into
one system, which Lord Durham Avould have had a federa
tion. In brief. Lord Durham proposed to make the Canadas
self-governing as regards their internal affairs, and the germ
of a federal union. It is not necessary to describe in detail
the steps by Avhich the Government gradually introduced
the recommendations of Lord Durham to Parliament and
carried them to success. Lord Glenelg, one of the feeblest
and most .apathetic of colonial secretaries, had retired from

CANADA AND LORD DURHAM. 57
office, i^artly, no doubt, because of the attacks in Parliament
on his administration of Canadian affairs. He Avas succeed
ed at the Colonial Office by Lord Normanby, and Lord Nor
manby gave way in a few months to Lord John Russell, Avho
Avas full of energy and earnestness. Lord Durham's succes
sor and disciple in the AVork of Canadian governraent. Lord
Sydenham — best knoAvn as Mr. Charles Poulett Thomson,
one of the pioneers of free-trade — received Lord John Rus
sell's cordial co-operation and support. Lord John Russell
introduced into the House of Commons a bill Avhich he de
scribed as intended to hay the foundation of a permanent
settleraent ofthe affairs of Canada. The measure .Avas post
poned for a session because sorae statesmen thought that
it would not be acceptable to the Canadians themselves.
Some little sputterings ofthe rebellion had also lingered af
ter Lord Durham's return to this country, and these for a
short tirae had directed attention away from the policy of
reorganization. In 1840, hoAvever, the Act was passed Avhich
reunited Upper and LoAver Canada on the basis proposed
by Lord Durham. Further legislation disposed of the cler
gy reserve lands for the general benefit of all churches and
denominations. The Avay Avas made clear for that scherae
Avhich in times nearer to our OAvn has formed the Dominion
of Canada.
Lord Durham did not live to see the success of the policy
he had recomraended. We raay anticipate the close ofhis
career. Within a few days after the passing ofthe Canada
Government Bill he died at CoAves, in the Isle of Wight, on
July 28th, 1840. He was then little more than forty-eight
ye.ars of age. He had for some time been in failing health,
and it cannot be doubted that the mortification attending
his Canadian mission had AVOTn aAvay his strength. His
proud and sensitive spirit could ill bear the contradictions
and humiliations that had been forced upon him. His was
an eager and a passionate nature, full of that sceva indigna-
tio which, by his own acknowledgment, tortured the heart
of Swift. He wanted to the success of his political career
that proud patience which the gods are said to love, and by
virtue of Avhich great raen live down misappreciation, and
hold out until they see themselves justified and hear the re
proaches turn into cheers. But if Lord Durham's personal

58 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
career Avas in any way a failure, his policy for the Canadas
Avas a splendid success. It established the principles Of co
lonial government. There Avere undoubtedly defects in the
construction of the actual scheme Avhich Lord Durham ini
tiated, and Avhich Lord Sydenham, avIio died not long after
liim, instituted. The legislative union of the Iavq Canadas
was in itself a makeshift, and Avas only adopted as such.
Lord Durham Avould have had it otherwise if he might; but
he did not see his way then to anything like the complete
federation scheme afterward adopted. But the success of
the policy lay in the broad principles it established, and lo
Avhich other colonial systems as Avell as th.at of the Domin
ion of Canada oAve their strength and security to-day. One
may say, Avith little help frora the raerely fanciful, that the
rejoicings of emancipated colonies might have been in his
dying ears as he sank into his early grave.

CHAPTER IV.
science AND SPEED.

The opening of the reign of Queen Victoria coincided
Avitli the introduction of many ofthe great discoveries and
applications in science, industry, and comraerce Avhicli Ave
consider specially representative of modern civilization. A
reign Avhich saAv in its earlier years the application of the
electric current to the task of transmitting mess.ages, the
first successful atterapts to raake use of steam for the busi
ness of transatlantic navigation, the general development of
tlie railway system all over these countries, and in the in
troduction of the penny- post, must be considered to have
obtained for itself, had it secured no other memorials, an abid
ing place in historj\ A distinguished author has lately in-
veigiied against the spirit Avhich Avould rank such improve
ments as those just mentioned Avith the genuine triumphs
ofthe human race, and has gone so far as to insist that there
is nothing in any such Avhich might not be expected from
the self-interested contrivings of a very inferior anira.al nat
ure. Amidst the tendency to glorify beyond measure the
mere mechanical improvements of modern civilization, it is

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 59
natural that there should arise some angry questioning, some
fierce disparagement of all that it has done. There Aviil al-
Avays be natures to which the philosophy of conleniplation
must seem far nobler tlian tiie philosopiiy Aviiicii expresses
itself in mechanical action. It may, however, be taken as
certain that no people Avho Avere ever great in tiiougiit and
in art Avilfully neglected to avail themselves of all possible
contrivances for making life less laborious by the means of
mechanical and artificial contrivance. The Greeks Avere, to
the best of their opportunity, and Avhen at the highest point
of their glory as an artistic race, as eager for the application
of all scientific and raechanical contrivances to the business
of life as the raost practical and boastful Manchester man or
Ciiicago raan of our own day. We shall .afterAvard see that
tlie reign of Queen Victoria came to have a literature, an
:irt, and a philosophy distinctly its OAvn. For the moment
Ave have to do Avilh its industrial science; or, at least, Avilh
the fir.st remarkable movements in that direction Aviiich ac
corapanied the opening ofthe reign. Tiiis at least raust be
said for thera, that they have changed the conditions of hu
man life for us in such a raanner as to make the history of
the past forty or fifty years almost absolutely distinct from
tliat of any preceding period. In all that part of our social
life Avhich is affected by industrial and mechanical appli
ances, the man of the latter part of the eighteeiitii century
Avas less Avidely removed from tlie Engl'ishm.an of the days
of the Paston Letters than avo aro removed from the ways
ofthe eighteenth century. The man ofthe eighteenth cen
tury travelled on land and sea in mucii the same Avay tiiat
his forefathers had done hundreds of years before. His
communications by letter Avith his fellows AA'ere carried ou
in very much the same method. He got his news from
abroad and at home after the same slow, uncertain fashion.
His streets and houses Avere lighted very mueli as they
might have been Avhen Mr. Pepys was in London. His
ideas of drainage and A'entilation were equally elementary
and simple. We see a complete revolution in, all these
things. A man of the ]>reseiit day suddenly thrust back
fifty years in life Avould find himself almost as aAvkwardly
unsuited to the Avays of that time as if he Avere sent back
to the .age Avlien the Romans occupied Britain. He Avould

60 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
find himself harassed at every step he took. He could do
hardly anything as he does it to-day. Whatever the moral
and philosophical value of the change in the eyes of think
ers too lofty to concern theraselves Avith the coraraon Avays
and doings of human life, this is certain at least, that the
change is of iramense historical importance ; and that even
if we look upon life as a mere pageant and shoAV, interesting
to wise men only by its curious changes, a wise man of this
school could hardly have done better, if the choice lay with
him, than to desire that the lines of his life might be so cast
as to fall into the earlier part of this present reign.
It is a somcAvhat curious coincidence that in the j'ear
when Professor Wheatstone and Mr. Cooke took out their
first patent "for improvements in giving signals aud sound
ing alarms in distant places by means of electric currents
transmitted through metallic circuit," Professor Morse, the
American electrician, applied to Congress for aid in the con
struction and carrying on of a small electric telegraph to
convey messages a short distance, and made tho application
Avithout success. In the following year he came to this
country to obtain a patent for his invention ; but he was
refused. He had come too late. Our own countrymen were
beforehand Avith him. Very soon after Ave find experiments
made with the electric telegraph between Euston Square
and Camden Town. These experiments Avere made under
the authority of the London and North-Avestern Raihvay
Company, immediately on the taking out of the patent by
Messrs. Wheatstone and Cooke. Mr. Robert Stephenson
Avas one of those Avho carae to watch the operation of this
ncAV and wonderful attempt to make the currents of the air
man's faithful Ariel. Tlie London and Birmingham Rail
way was opened through its Avhole length in 1838. The
Liverpool and Preston line was opened in the sarae year.
The Liverpool and Birmingham had been opened in the year
before; the London and Croydon Avas opened the year after.
The Act for the transmission of the mails by raihvays Avas
passed in 1838. In the sarae year it Avas noted as an unpar
alleled, and to many an almost incredible, triutnph of hu
man energy and science over time and space, that a loco
motive had been able to travel at a speed of thirty-seven
railes an hour.

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 61
/" The prospect of travelling from the metropolis to Liver
pool, a distance of Iavo hundred and ten miles, in ten hours,
calls forcibly to mind the tales of fairies and genii by Avliich
Ave were amused in our youth, and contrasts forcibly Avilli
the fact, attested on the personal experience of the Avriter
of this notice, that about the comraencement of the pres
ent century this same journey occupied a space of sixty
hours." These are the Avords of a Avriter Avho gives an in
teresting account of the raihvays of England during tlie
first year of the reign of Queen Victoria. In the same vol
ume from which this extract is taken au allusion is made to
tiie possibility of steam communication being successfully
established betAveen England and the United States. "Prep
arations on a gigantic scale," a Avriter is able to announce,
" are now in a state of great forAvardness for trying an ex
periment in steam navigation which has been the subject
of much controversy araong scientific men. Ships of an
enormous size, furnished Avitli steam -poAver equal to the
force of four hundred horses and upAvard, Avill, before our
next volurae shall be prepared, have probably decided the
question whether this description of vessels can, in the pres
ent state of our knowledge, profitably engage in transat
lantic voyages. It is possible that these attempts may fail —
a result which is, indeed, predicted by high authorities on
this subject. We are more sanguine in our hopes; but
should these be disappointed, we cannot, if avo are to judge
frora our past progress, doubt that longer experience and
a further application of inventive genius Avill, at no very
distant day, render practicable and profitable by this means
the longest voyages in Avhich the adventurous spirit of man
Avill lead him to embark." The experiment thus alluded to
Avas made with perfect success. The Sirius, the Great West
ern, and the Royal William accomplished voyages between
New York and this country in the early part of 1838; and
it was remarked that "Transatlantic voyages by raeans of
steam may now be said to be as easy of accomplishment,
Avith ships of adequate size and poAver, as the passage be
tween London and Margate." Tiie Greai Western crossed
the ocean from Bristol to Noav York in fifteen days. She
Avas followed by the Sirius, Avliich. left Cork for New York,
and made the passage in seventeen days. Tlie controversy

62 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
as to the possibility of such voyages, which Avas settled by
tiie Great Western and the Sirius, had no reference to the
actual safety of such an experiment. During seven years
the mails fbr the Mediterranean had been despatched by
means of steamers. The doubt was as to the possibility
of stowing in a vessel so large a' quantity of coal or other
fuel as Avould enable her to accomplish her voyage across
tlie Atlantic, Avhere there could be no stopjiiiig-placeaud no
])0ssibility of taking in new stores. It Avas found, lo the
delight of all those Avho believed in the practicability of tho
enterprise, tiiat the quantity of fuel Avhich each vessel had
on board Avhen she left her port of departure proved amply
sufficient for the completion of the voyage. Neither the
Siritis nor the Gi-eat Western was the first vessel to cross
the Atlantic by means of steam propulsion. Nearly tAventy
years before, a vessel called the Savannah, built at New
York, crossed the ocean lo Liverpool ; and sorae years later
an English-built steamer raade several voyages between
Holland and the Dutch West Indian colonies as a packet
vessel in the service of that Government. Indeed, a voyage
had been made round the Cape of Good Hojie more lately
still by a steamship. These expeditions, however, had real
ly little or nothing to do with the problem Aviiich Avas solved
by the voyages ofthe Sirius and tiie Great Western. Iu the
former instances the steam-power was employed raorely as
an auxiiiar}-. The A'essel made as iiiucli use of her steam
]iropulsion as she could, but she had to rely a good deal on
her capacity as. a sailer. This Avas quite a different thing
from the enterprise of the Sirius and the Great Western,
Avhich Avas to cross the ocean by steam propulsion, and
steam propulsion only. It is evident that, so long as the
steam-power was to be used only as an auxiliary, it Avould
be impossible to reckon on speed and certainty of arrival.
The doubt Avas Avhether a steamer could carry, Avith, her
cargo and p.assengers, fuel enough to serve for the whole
of her voyage across the Atlantic. The expeditions of the
Sirius .and the Great Western settled the Avliole question.
It Avas never again a matter of controversy. It is enough
to say tiiat two years after the Great Western Avent out
from Bristol to Ncav York the Cunard line of steamers was
established. The steam, communication between Liverpool

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 63
and New York became thenceforth as regular and as unva
rying a part ofthe business of commerce as the journeys of
tiie trains on the Great Western Railway between London
and Bristol. It Avas not Bristol Avhich benefited most by
the transatlantic voyages. They raade tiie greatness of
Liverpool. Year by year the sceptre of the comraercial
marine passed away from Bristol to Liverpool. No port in
the Avorld can shoAv a line of docks like those of Liverpool.
There the stately Mersey flows for miles belAveen the superb
and massive granite Avails of the enclosures Avithin whose
shelter the ships of the Avorld are arrayed, as if on parade,
for the adrairation of the traveller Avho has hitherto been
accustomed to the irregular and straggling arrangements of
the docks of London or of New York.
On July Sth, 1839, an unusually late period of the year,
the Chancellor ofthe Exchequer brought forAvard his annual
budget. The most iraportant part ofthe financial stateinen',
so far as later times are concerned, is set out in a resolution
])roposed by the finance minister, Aviiich, perhaps, represents
the greatest social improveraent brought about by legisla
tion in modern times. The Chancellor proposed a resolution
ileclaring that " it is expedient to reduce the post.age on let
ters to one uniform rate of one penny charged upon every
letter of a weight to be hereafter fixed by law ; Parliament.a-
ry privileges of franking being abolished and official frank
ing strictly regulated ; this House pledging itself at t.ie
same time to make good any deficiency of revenue Avhieh may
be occasioned by such an alteration in the rates of the ex
isting duties." Up to this time the rates of postage had
been both high and various. They Averc varying both as to
distance and as to the Aveight and even the size or the sliape
of a letter. The district or London post Avas a separ.ate
branch of tlie postal department ; and the ch.arge for the
transmission of letters Avas made on a different scale in Lon
don from that Aviiich prevailed belAveen toAvn and tOAVii.
The aver.age postage on every chargeable letter tiirougii-
out the United Kingdom Avas sixpence farthing. A letter
from London to Brighton cost eightpence; to Aberdeen one
shilling and threepence h.alf-peniiy ; to Belfast one shilling
and fourpence. Nor Avas this all ; for if the letter Avere Avrit
ten on more than one sheet of paper, it came under the oper-

64 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ation of a higher scale of charge. Members of Parliament
had the privilege of franking letters to a certain limited ex
tent; members of the Government had the privilege of
franking to an unlimited extent. It is, perhaps, as Avell to
mention, for the sake of being intelligible to all readers in an
age Avhich has not, in this country at least, knoAvn practical
ly the beauty and liberality ofthe franking privilege, that it
consisted in the right of the privileged person to send his
OAvn or any olher person's letlers through the post free of
charge by merely writing his name on the outside. This
raeant, in plain Avords, that the letters of the class who could
best afford to pay for thera Avent free of charge, and that
those Avho could least afford to pay had to pay double —
the expense, that is to say, of carrying their own letters and
the letters ofthe privileged and exempt.
The greatest grievances Avere felt everywhere because of
this absurd system. It had along with its other disadvan
tages that of encouraging Avhat may be called the smug
gling of letters. Everywhere sjirang up organizations for
the illicit conveyance of correspondence at loAver rates than
those imposed by the Government. The proprietors of al
raost every kind of public conveyance are said to have been
engaged in this unlawful but certainly not very unnatural
or unjustifiable traffic. Five-sixths of all the letters sent
belAveen Manchester and London Avere said to have been
conveyed for years by this process. One great mercantile
house Avas proved to have been in the habit of sending sixty-
seven letters by what Ave may call this undergound post-
office for every one on Avliich they paid the Government
charges. It was not merely to escape heavy cost that these
stratagems were eraployed. As there Avas an additional
charge Avhen a letter Avas Avritten on more sheets than one,
there Avas a frequent and almost a constant tampering by
officials Avith the sanctity of sealed letters for the purpose
of ascertaining Avhether or not they ought to be taxed on
the higher scale. It Avas proved that in the years betAveen
1815 and 1835, Avhile the population had increased thirty per
cent., and the stage-coach duty had increased one hundred
and twenty-eight per cent., the Post-office revenues had
shoAvn no increase at all. In other countries the postal rev
enue had been on the increase steadily during th.at time;

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 65
in the United States the revenue had actually trebled, al
though then and later the postal system of America was full
of faults Avhich at tiiat day only seemed intelligible or ex
cusable Avhen placed in comparison Avith those of our own
systera. Mr. (afterward SirRoAvland) Hill is the man to Avhom this
country, and, indeed, all civilization, owes the adoption ofthe
cheap and uniforra systera. His plan has been adopted by
every State Avliich professes to have a postal systera at all.
Mr. Hill belonged to a remarkable family. His father,
Thomas Wright Hill, Avas a teacher, a man of advanced and
practical vicAvs in popular education, a devoted lover of sci
ence, an advocate of civil and religious liberty, and a sort
of celebrity in the Birmingham of his day, where he took
a bold and active part in trying to defend the house of Dr.
Priestley against the mob Avho attacked it. He had five
sons, every one of Avhom m.ade himself raore or less conspic
uous as a practical reformer in one path or another. The
eldest of the sons was Matthew Davenport Hill, the philan
thropic recorder of Birmingham, Avho did so much for prison
reform and for the reclamation of juvenile offenders. The
third son Avas RoAvland Hill, the author of the cheap postal
system. RoAvland Hill Avhen a little Aveakly child began to
show some such precocious love for arithmetical calculations
as Pascal showed for matheraatics. His favorite arausenient,
as a child, was to lie on the hearth-rug and count up figures
by the hour together. As he grew up he became teacher
of raathematics in his father's school. Afterward he Avas
appointed Secretary to the South Australian Coraraission,
and rendered ranch valuable service in the organization of
the colony of South Australia. His early love of raasses of
figures it may have been Avhich in the first instance turned
his attention to the number of letlers passing through the
Post-oflice, the proportion they bore to the nuraber of the
population, the cost of carrying them, and the amount which
the Post-office authorities charged for the conveyance of a
single letter. A picturesque and touching little illustration
of the veritable hardships of the existing system seems to
have quickened his interest in a reform of it. Miss Marti
neau thus tells the story :
" Coleridge, when a young man, Avas walking through the

66 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Lake district, Avhen he one day saAV the postman deliver a
letier to a woraan at a cottage door. The Avoman turned it
over and examined it, and then returned it, saying she could
not pay the post.age, Avhich Avas a shilling. Hearing that
the letier Avas frora her broiher, Coleridge paid the postage,
ill spite of the manifest unwillingness of the AVoraan. As
soon as the postraan Avas out of sight she showed Coleridge
how his money had been Avasted as far as she Avas concerned.
The sheet was blank. There Avas an agreement between her
brother and herself that as long as all Avent Avell Avith him
he should send a blank sheet in this Avay once a qu.arter;
and she tliushad tidings of him without expense of postage.
]Most persons Avould have remembered this incident as a
(-iirions story to tell; but there Avas one mind which Avakcu:
ed up at once to a sense of the significance of the fact. It
struck Mr. Rowl.and Hill that there must be sometiiiiig
Avrong in a system Avhich drove a brother and sister to
ciieating, in order to gratify tiieir desire lo hear of one an
other's Avelfare."
Mr. Hill gradually Avorked out for himself a comprehensiA'ij
scheme of reform. He put it before the world early in 1837..
Tlie public Avcre taken by surprise Avlien the plan came be-
i'ore them in the shape of a pamphlet, Avhicli its author mod
estly entitled "Post-office Reform; its impoitance and prac
ticability." The root of Mr. Hill's system lay in the fact,
made evident by hira beyond dispute, that the actual cost
of the conveyance of letters through the post Avas A^ery tri
fling, and Avas but little increased by the distance over which
tliey had to be carried.
His proposal was, therefore, that the rates of postage should
be diminished to the minimum; that at the same tirae the
speed of conveyance should be increased, and that there
should be much greater frequency of despatch. His princi-
])le Avas, in fact, the very opposite of that Avhich had prevail
ed in the calculations of the authorities. Their idea w^a;/
that the higher the charge for letters the greater the retui.
to the revenue. He started on the assumption that the
smaller the charge the greater the profit. He, tlierefore,
recommended the substitution of one uniform charge of one
jienny the half-ounce, without reference to the distance Avith
in the limits ofthe United Kingdom Avhich the letter had to

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 67
be carried. The Post-office authorities were at first uncom
promising in their ojiposition to the scheme. The Post
master-general, Lord Lichfield, said in the House of Lords,
that of all the Avild and extravagant schemes he had ever
heard of, it Avas the Avildest and most extravagant. "Tlie
mails," he said, " Avill have to carry lAvelve times as much
Aveight, and therefore the charge for transmission, instead of
£100,000, as iioAA", must be tAvelve times that araount. The
Avails of the Post-office Avould burst; the avIioIo area in
Avhich the building stands Avould not be large enough to re
ceive the clerks and the letters." It is irapossible not to bo
struck by the paradoxical peculiarity of this arguraent. Be
cause the change Avould be so rauch Avelcomed by the public.
Lord Lichfield argued that it ought not to be made. He
did not fall back upon the then familiar assertion that tho
])ublic Avould not send anything like the number of letlers
tlie advocates of the scherae expected. He argued that they
would send so many as to make it troublesome for the Post-
office authorities to deal Avith them. In plain Avords, it
Avould be such an immense accommodation to the population
in general that the officials could not undertake the trouble
of carrying it into effect. Another Post-office official, Colonel
Maberley, was, at all OA-enls, more liberal. "My constant
language," he said afterward, "to the heads ofthe depart
ments Avas — This plan Ave knoAV Avill fail. It is our duty to
take care that no obstruction is placed in tiie Avay of it by
the heads of the departments, and by tho Post-office. The
allegation, I have not the least doubt, will be raade at a sub
sequent period, that this plan has failed in consequence of
the unAvillingness of the Governraent to carry it into fair
execution. It is our duty, as servants of the Government,
to take care that no blame eventually shall fall on the Gov
ernraent through any unAviliingness of ours to carry it into
jiroper effect." It is, perhaps, less surprising that the routine
raind of officials should have seen no future but failure for
the scheme, when so vigorous .and untrammelled a thinker
!xs Sydney Smith spoke Avith anger and contempt ofthe fact
that "a raillion of revenue is given up in the nonsensical
Penny-post scherae, to please my old, excellent, and univer
sally dissentient friend, Noah Warburton." Mr. Warburton
was then member for Bridport, and,Avith Mr. Wallace, anolli-

68 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
er meraber of Parliaraent, Avas very active in supporting and
promoting the views of Mr. Hill. " I admire the Whig Min
istry," Sydney Sraith went on to say, " and think they have
done more good things than all the ministries since the Rev
olution ; but these concessions are sad and unAvorthy marks
of Aveakness, and fill reasonable men with alarm."
It Avill be seen from this remark alone that the ministry
had yielded somewhat more readily than might have been
expected to the arguments of Mr. Hill. At the time his
])araphlet appeared a coraraission Avas actually engaged in
inquiring into the condition of the Post-office department.
Their attention Avas draAvn to Mr. Hill's plan, and they gave
it a careful consideration, and reported in its favor, although
tiie Post-office authorities were convinced that it must in
volve an unbearable loss of revenue. In Parliament Mr.
Wallace, Avhose name has been already mentioned, moved
for a committee to inquire into the Avhole subject, and es
pecially to examine the mode recommended for charging
and collecting postage in the pamphlet of Mr. Hill. The
coramittee gave the subject a very patient consideration,
and at length raade a report recomraending uniform charges
and prepayment by stamps. That part of Mr. Hill's plan
Avhich suggested the use of postage-stamps Avas adopted by
him on the advice of Mr. Charles Knight. The Governraent
took up the scheme Avith some spirit and liberality. The
revenue that year shoAved a deficiency, but they determined
to run the further risk which the proposal involved. The
commercial community had naturally been stirred greatly
by the project Avhicli promised so much relief and advan
tage. Sydney Smith Avas very much mistaken, indeed, when
he fancied that it Avas only to please his old and excellent
friend, Mr. Warburton, that the ministry g.aA'e Avay to the
innovation. Petitions from all the commercial communities
Avere pouring in to support the plan, and to ask that at least
it should have a fair trial. The Government at length de
terrained to bring in a bill Avhich should provide for the al
most immediate introduction of Mr. Hill's scheme, and for
the abolition of the franking system except in the case of
official letters actually sent on business directly belonging
to her Majesty's service. The bill declared, as an introduc
tory step, that the charge for postage should be at the rate

SCIENCE AND SPEED. 69
of fourpence for each letter under half an ounce in Aveight,
irrespective of distance, Avithin the limits ofthe Uniled King
dom. This, hoAvever, Avas to be only a beginning; for on
January lOlh, 1840, the postage Avas fixed at tho uniform
rate of one penny per letter of not more thjin half an ounce
in Aveight. The introductory raeasure Avas not, of course,
carried Avithout opposition in both Houses of Parliament.
The Duke of Wellington, in his characteristic Avay, declared
that he strongly objected to the scheme; but, as the Govern
ment had evidently set tlieir hearts upon it, he recomraended
the House of Lords not to offer any opposition to it. In the
House of Commons it Avas opposed by Sir Robert Peel and
Mr. Goulburn,botli of Avliom strongly conderaned the Avhole
scherae as likely to involve the country in vast loss of rev
enue. The measure, however, passed into law. Some idea
ofthe effect it has produced upon the postal correspondence
of the country may be gathered from the fact that in 1839,
the last year of the heavy postage, the number- of letters
delivered in Great Britain and Ireland Avas a little more
than eighty-tAVO millions, Avliich included some five millions
and a half of franked letters returning nothing to the reve
nues ofthe country; whereas, in 1875, more than a thousand
millions of letlers Avere delivered in the United Kingdom.
The population during the same tirae has not nearly dou
bled itself. It has already been remarked that the principle
of Sir Rowland Hill's reform has since been put into oper
ation in every civilized country in the Avorld. It may be
added that before long Ave shall, in all human probability, see
an interoceanic postage established at a rate as low as peo
ple sometimes thought Sir Rowland Hill a madman for rec
ommending as applicable to our inland post. The time is
not far distant when a letter Avill be carried from London to
San Francisco, or to Tokio in Japan, at a rate of charge as
small as that which made financiers stare and laugh Avhen it
Avas suggested as profitable remuneration for carrying a let
ter from London to the toAvns of Sussex or Hertfordshire.
The "Penny-post," let it be said, is an older institution than
that which Sir Rowland Hill introduced. A penny-post for
the conveyance of letters had been set up in London so long
ago as 1683 ; and it was adopted or annexed by the Govern
ment some years after. An effort was even made to set up

70 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
a half-penny post in London, in opposition to the official pen
ny-post, in 1708 ; but tho Governraent soon crushed tliis vex
atious and intrusive rival. In 1738 Dr. Johnson Avriles to
Mr. Cave "to entreat that you Avill be pleased to inform ine,
by the penny-post, Avhether you resolve to print the poem."
After aAvhiie the Governraent changed their penny-post to
a tAvopenny-post, and gradually made a distinction betAveen
district and other postal systems, and contrived to swell the
price for deliveries of all kinds. Long before even this time
ofthe penny-post, the old records ofthe city of Bristol con
tain an account of the payment of one penny for the car
riage of letters to London. It need hardly be explained,
however, that a penny in that tirae, or even in 1683, Avas a
payment of very different value indeed from the modest sum
Avhich Sir RoAvland Hill Avas successful in establishing. The
ancient penny-post resembled the modern penny-post only
in name. •

CHAPTER V.
CHARTISM.
It cannot, hoAvever, be said that all the omens under which
the noAV Queen's reign opened at horae Avere as auspicious
as the coincidences which raade it contemporary Avilli the
first chapters of these neAV and noble developments in the
history of science .and invention. On the contrary, it began
amidst many grim and unpromising conditions in our social
affairs. Tiie Avinter of 1837-'38 Avas one of unusual severity
and distress. There would have been much discontent and
grumbling iu any case among the class described by French
Avriters as tlie proUtaire ; but the complaints Avere aggr.a-
valed by a common belief that the young Queen Avas Avholly
under the influence of a frivolous and selfish minister, Avho
occupied her Avilli amusements Avhile the poor Avere starving.
It does not appear that there Avas at any time the slightest
justification for such a belief; but it prevailed among the
Avorking-classes and the poor very generally, and added to
the sufferings of genuine Avant the bitterness of imaginary
Avrong. Popular education Avas Ijttle looked after; so far

CIIART1S.\L 71
as the Slate AA'as concerned, might be said not lo be looked
after .at all. The laAvs of political economy Avere as yet only
Avithin the appreciation of a few, avIio Avere regarded not un-
eoinnionly, because of their theories, someAvliat as phrenolo
gists or raesinerists might be looked on in a more enlighten
ed tirae. Sorae Avriters have made a great deal of the case
of Thora and his disciples as evidence of the extraordinary
ignorance that prevailed. Thom was a brokcn-doAvii brew
er, and in fiict a inadmau, Avho had for some time been going
about in Canterbury and other parts of Kent bedizened in
fantastic costume, and styling himself at first Sir William
Courtenay, of PoAvderham Castle, Knight of Malta, King of
Jerusalem, king of tho gypsy races, and Ave kiioAv not what
else. He announced himself as a great political reformer,
and for aAvhile he succeeded in getting many to believe in
and support liiin. He was afterward confined for some time
in a lunatic asylum, and Avhen he came out he presented him
self to the ignorant peasantry in the character of a second
Messiah. He found many folloAvers and believers again,.
among a humbler class, indeed, than thoso Avhom he had
formerly won over. Much of his influence over the poor
Kentish laborers was due to his denunciations of the new
Poor Law, Avhicli Avas then popularly hated and feared Avitii
an almost insane intensity of feeling. Thora told them he
had come to regenerate the Aviiole Avorld, and also to save
his folloAvers from the new Poor LaAv ; and the latter an
nouncement commended tiie former. He assembled a crowd
of his sujiporters, and undertook to lead them to an attack
on Canterbury. With his OAvn hand he shot dead a police
man Avho endeavored to oppose his moveraents, exactly as
a savior of society of bolder pretensions and greater suc
cess did at Boulogne not long after. Tavo companies of
soldiers came out frora Canterbury to disperse the rioters.
The officer in command Avas shot dead by Thora. Thom's
followers then charged the unespecting soldiers so fiercely
that for a raoraent there Avas sorae confusion ; but the sec
ond company fired a volley Avhich stretched Thom and sev
eral of his adherents lifeless on the field. That Avas an end
of the rising. Several of Thom's folloAvers were afterward
tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced ; but some pity
Avas felt for their ignorance and their delusion, and they Avere

72 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMEg.
not consigned to death. Long after the fall of their pre
posterous hero and saint, many of Thom's disciples believed
that he would return from the grave to carry out the prom
ised AVork ofhis mission. All this Avas lamentable, but could
hardly be regarded as specially characteristic of the early
years of the present reign. The Thom delusion was not
much more absurd than the Tichborne mania of a later day.
DoAvn to our oAvn lime there are raen and AVoraen among the
Social Democrats of cultured Germany Avho still cherish the
hope that their idol Ferdinand Lassalle Avill come back from
the dead to lead and guide them.
But there Avere political and social dangers in the open
ing of the present reign more serious than any that could
have been conjured up by a crazy raan in a fantastic dress.
Tiiere Avere delusions having deeper roots and showing a
more inviting shelter lli.an any that a religious fanatic ofthe
vulgar type could cause to spring np in our society.
Only a few Aveeks after the coronation of the Queen a
great Radical raeeling Avas held in Birrainghara. A raani-
festo Avas adopted there Avhich afterward came to be known
as the Chartist petiiion. With that movement Chartisra be
gan to be one ofthe raost disturbing influences ofthe polit
ical life of the country. It is a movement Avhich, althougli
its influence may now be said to have wholly passed away,
Avell deserves to have its history fully Avritten. For ten
years it agitated England. It sometimes seeraed to threat
en an actual uprising of all the proletaire against Avhat Avere
then the political and social institutions ofthe country. It
might have been a very serious danger ifthe State had been
involved in any external difficulties. It Avas backed by
much genuine enthusiasm, passion, and intelligence. Jt ap
pealed strongly and naturally to Avhatever there Avas of dis
content among the working-classes. It afforded a most ac
ceptable and convenient means by Avhich ambitious politi
cians of the self-seeking order could raise themselves into
temporary importance. Its fierce and fitful flame Avent out
at last under the influence of the clear, strong, and steady
light of political reform and education. The one great les
son it teaches is, that political agitation lives and is formi
dable only by virtue of Avhat is reasonable in its demands.
Thousands of ignorant and miserable men all over the coun-

CHARTISM. 73
try joined the Chartist agitation avIio cared nothing about
the substantial value of its political claims. They were
poor, they Avere overAVOrked, they Avere badly paid, their
lives Avere altogeliier Avretched. They got into their heads
some wild idea that the People's Charter Avould give them
better food and Avages, and lighter AVork if it Avere obtained,
and that for that very reason the aristocrats and tho officials
Avould not grant it. No political concessions could really
have satisfied these men. If the Charter had been granted
iu 1838, they Avould no doubt have been as dissatisfied as
ever iu 1839. But the discontent of these poor creatures
Avould have brought Avith it little danger to the Stale if it
had not become part ofthe support of an organization Avhicii
could show some sound and good reason for the demands it
ra.ade. The raoraent that the clear and practical political
grievances Avere dealt Avith, the organization melted Avay.
Vague discontent, however natural and excusable it may
be, is only formidable in politics Avhen it helps to swell the
strength and tiie numbers of a crowd Avhich calls for some
reform that can be made and is Avitliheld. One ofthe vul-
garest fallacies of state-craft is to declare that it.is of no
use granting the reforms Avhich Avould satisfy reasonable de
mands, because there are still unreasonable agitators Avhom
these Avill not satisfy. Get the reasonable men on your side,
and you need not fear the unreasonable. This is the lesson
taught to statesmen by the Chartist agitation.
A funeral oration over Chartisra Avas pronounced by
Sir John Campbell, then Attorney-genera!, afterAvard Lord
Chief-justice Campbell, at a public dinner at Edinburgh on
October 24th, 1839. He spoke at some length and Avitli
much complacency of Chartism as an agitation Avhich had
passed away. Some ten days afterward occurred the most
foi'inidablo outburst of Chartism that had been known up to
tliat time, and Chartism continued to be an active and a dis
turbing influence in England for nearly ten years after. If
Sir John Campbell had told his friends and constituents
at the Edinburgh dinner that the influence of Chartism was
just about to make itself really felt, he Avould have shown
himself a soineAvhat more acute politician than Ave noAV un
derstand him to be. Seldom has a public man setting up
to be a political authority made a Avorse hit than ho did in
L— 4

74 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that memorable declaration. Campbell was, indeed, only a
clever, shreAvd laAvyer of the hard and narroAV class. He
never made any pretension to statesmanship, or even to
great political knoAvledge ; and' his unfortunate blunder
might be passed over Avithout notice Avere it not that it il
lustrates fairly enough the raanner in Avhich men of better
inforraation and judgment than he Avere at that time in the
habit of disposing of all inconvenient political problems.
The Attorney-general Avas aware that there had been a fcAv
riots and a fcAV arrests, and that the laAV had been what he
Avould call vindicated; and as he had no manner of sympa
thy Avith the motives Avhich could lead men to distress them
selves and their friends about imaginary charters, he as
sumed that there Avas an end of the matter. It did not oc
cur to hira to ask himself Avhether there might not be some
underlying causes to explain, if not to excuse, the agitation
that just then began to disturb the country, and that con
tinued to disturb it for so raany years. Even if he had in
quired into the subject, it is not likely that he would have
come to any Aviser conclusion about it. The dramatic in
stinct, if Ave may be alloAved to call it so, which enables a
man to put himself for the moment into the condition and
raood of men entirely unlike himself in feelings and condi
tions, is an indispensable element of real statesmanship ; but
it is the rarest of all gifts among politicians of the second
order. If Sir John Campbell had turned his attention to
the Chartist question, he Avould only have found that a num
ber of men, for the most part poor and ignorant, AA'cre com
plaining of grievances Avhere he could not for himself see
any substantial grievances at all. That Avould have been
enough for hira. If a solid, Avealthy, and rising lawyer could
not see any cause for grurabling, he Avould have made up
his mind that no reasonable persons worthy the considera
tion of sensible legislators Avould continue to grurable after
they had been told by those in authority that it Avas their
business to keep quiet. But if he had, on the other hand,
looked Avith the light of sympathetic intelligence, of that
dramatic instinct Avhich has just been raentioned, at the con
dition of the classes among whom Ch.artism was then rife,
he would have seen that it Avas not likely the agitation could
be put doAvii by a few prosecutions and a fcAV arrests, aud

CHARTISM. 75
the censure of a prosperous Attorney -general. He would
have seen that Chartism Avas not a cause but a consequence.
The intelligence of a very ordinary man avIio approached
the question in an impartial mood might have seen that
Chartism Avas the expression of a vague discontent Avilh
very positive grievances and evils.
We have, in our time, outlived the days of political ab
stractions. The catchAvords Avhicli thrilled our forefathers
Avith emotion on one side or the other fall Avith hardly any
meaning on our ears. We smile at such phrases as " the
rights of man." We hardly know Avhat is meant by talk
ing of "the people" as the Avords Avere used long ago, Avhen
"the people" was understood to mean a vast mass of wrong
ed persons Avho had no representation, and Avere oppressed
by privilege and the aristocracy. We seldom talk of " lib
erty ;" any one venturing to found a theory or even a decla
mation on some supposed deprival of liberty Avould soon find
himself in the aAvkward position of being called on to give
a scientific definition of what he understood liberty to be.
He Avould be as much puzzled as Avere certain English work
ing-men, Avho, desiring- to express to Mr. John Stuart Mill
their sympathy with Avhat they called in the slang of Conli-_^
nental democracy " the Revolution," were calmly bidde- '"¦"
the great Liberal thinker to ask themselves Avhat thf, "' ,^. ^'
by "theRevolut/^*^°''-;"h revolution, what rev. "' ^o/"!^'
why they syir-^f^'^-^J^f '¦'-•• But perhaps ^'''r'' °'' "V
little too A V^-^V^^-^^ to go muc , ^^^ Jrn the AA-ay of
,. . liian at a laler period Mr. Cooucn or Mr. Bright
no living n „,, ^ . ^ .="
. 1, ^,! gone. Ihere Avas more than once a sort of ap-
'-, , ;i Avorking-men ofthe country Avhich, however dif-
' ^ , mav have been meant, certainly sounded in their
convevecl '
.J it Avere an intimation that in the event ofthe bill
Y , ^ -^sisted too long it might be necessary to try Avhat
^, i,i'englh of a popular uprising could do. Many years
j^^gf, in the defence of the Irish state-prisoners at Clonmel,
the counsel who pleaded their cause insisted that they had
Avarrant for their conduct in certain proceedings Avhich Avere
in preparation during the Reforra agitation. He talked Avith
undisguised significance ofthe teacher being in the ministry
and the pupils in the dock; and quoted Captain Macheath
to the effect that if laAVS Avere made equally for every de
gree, there might even then be rare company on Tyburn

76 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that it Avas full of meaning then. So it Avas Avith " the peo
ple," and "the rights of the people," and the "rights of
labor," and all the other grandiloquent phrases Avhich seem
to us so empty and so meaningless noAV. They are empty
and meaningless at the present hour ; but they have no ai>
plication noAV chiefly because they had application then.
The Reform Bill of 1832 had been necessarily, and perhaps
naturally, a class measure. It had done great things for the
constitutional system of England. It had averted a revo
lution Avhich without some such concession Avould probably
have been inevitable. It had settled forever the question
Avhich Avas so fiercely and so gravely debated during the
discussions of the reform years, Avhether the English Con
stitution is or is not based upon a system of popular repre
sentation. To many at present it may seem hardly credible
that sane men could have denied the existence of the repre
sentative principle. But during the debates on the great
Reform Bill such a denial Avas the sirong point of many of
the leading opponents of the measure, including the Duke
of Wellington himself. The principle of the Constitution, it
Avas soberly argued, is that the sovereign invites whatever
immunities or interests he thinks fit to send in persons to
motjament io take council Avith him on the affairs ofthe na-
tionsTiSlJiis idea Avas got rid of by the^^orm Bill. That
it is the ragd fifty-six noininatia^politiciau boroughs, and
order. If Sitjf the repre^^fhad turned hi-ty others ; it
the Chartist qiiiseat^iiHlvould only have founcuxty-five ad-
ber of men, for the most part poor and ignorantiferring the
plaining of grievances where he could not for s, Birraing-
any substantial grievances at all. That Avould wns Avhicli
enough for him. If a solid, wealthy, and rising lavjord John
not see any cause for grurabling, he Avould have he bill in
his mind that no reasonable persons AVorthy the coiiyes to
tion of sensible legislators would continue to grumble* aire-
they had been told by those in authority that it Avas tlieK.
business to keep quiet. But if he had, on the other hand,
looked Avith the light of syrapathctio intelligence, of that
dramatic instinct Avhich has just been mentioned, at the con
dition of the classes among Avhom Ch.artisrn was then rife,
he would have seen that it Avas not likely the agitation could
be put doAvii by a few prosecutions and a fcAV arrests, and

CHARTISM. 77
the peculiar franchises which made the Avorking-mcn voters.
There Avere communities — such, for example, as that of Pres
ton, in Lancashire — where the system of franchise existing
created something like universal suffrage. All this Avas
smoothed aAvay, if such an expression may be used, by the
Reform Bill. In truth, the Reform Bill broke doAvn the mo
nopoly which the aristocracy and landed classes had enjoy
ed, and admitted the middle classes to a share of the law
making poAver. The represenlalion A\'as divided between the
aristocracy and the middle class, instead of being, as before,
the exclusive possession ofthe former.
The working-elass, in the opinion of many of their ablest
and most influential representatives, Avere not merely left
out but shonldered out. Tiiis Avas all the more exasperat
ing because the excitement and .agitation by the strength
ofAvhich the Reform Bill Avas carried in the teeth of so much
resistance were kept up by the Avorking-men. There Avas,
besides, at the time of the Reform Bill, a very high degree
of Avhat may be called the temperature ofthe French Rca'o-
lution still heating the senses and influencing the judgment
even of the aristocratic leaders of the movement. What
Rich ter calls the "seed -grains" ofthe revolutionary doc
trines had been bloAvn abroad so Avidely that they rested
in some of the highest as Avell as in most of the loAvliest
places. Some of the Reform leaders — Lord Durham, for in
stance — Avere prepared to go much farther in the Avay of
Radicalism than at a later period Mr. Cobden or Mr. Bright
Avould have gone. There Avas more than once a sort of ap
peal to the Avorking-men ofthe country Avhich, however dif
ferently it may have been meant, certainly sounded in their
ears as if it Avere an intimation that in the event ofthe bill
being resisted too long it might be necessary to try Avhat
the strength of a popular uprising could do. Many years
after, in the defence of the Irish state-prisoners at Clonmel,
the counsel who pleaded their cause insisted that they had
Avarrant for their conduct in certain proceedings which Avere
in preparation during the Reforra agitation. He talked Avith
undisguised significance ofthe teacher being in the ministry
and the pupils in the dock; and quoted Captain Macheath
to the effect that if laAVS Avere made equally for every de
gree, there might even then be rare corapany on Tyburn

78 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tree It is not necessary to attach too much importance lo
assertions of this kind, or to accept them as sober contribu
tions to history; but they are very instructive as a means
ofenabling us to understand the feeling of soreness which
remained in the rainds of large masses of the population
Avhen, after the passing ofthe Reform Bill, they found them
selves left out in the cold. Rightly or wrongly, they be
lieved that their strength had been kept in reserve or in ter-
rorem to secure the carrying of the Reforra Bill, and that
Avhen it Avas carried they Avere immediately thrown over by
those whom they had thus helped to pass it. Therefore, at
the time Avhen the young sovereign ascended the throne,
the Avorking-classes in all the large towns were in a state
of profound disappointment and discontent, almost, indeed,
of disaffection. Chartism-Avas beginning to succeed to the
Reforra agitation. The leaders Avho had corae from the
ranks of the aristocracy had been discarded or had with-
draAvn. In some cases they had withdraAvn in perfect good
faith, believing sincerely that they had done the work which
they undertook to do, and that that Avas all the country re
quired. Men drawn more immediately from the working-
class itself, or who had in some Avay been dropped doAvn
by a class higher in the social scale, took up the popular
leadership now.
Chartism may be said to have sprung definitively into ex
istence in consequence of the forraal declarations of the lead
ers of the Liberal party in Parliament that they did not in
tend to push Reforra any farther. At the opening of the
first Parliament of Queen Victoria's reign the question Avas
brought to a test. A Radical meraber of the House of Com
mons raoved as an amendment to the address a resolution
dccl.aring in favor of the ballot and of shorter duration of
Parliaments. Only twenty members voted for it; and Lord
John Russell declared distinctly against all such attempts
to reopen the Reform question. It Avas impossible that this
declaration should not be received Avith disappointment
and anger by great masses of the people. They had been
in the full assurance that the Reform Bill itself was only
the means by Avhich greater changes Avere to be brought
.about. Lord John Russell said in the House of Commons
that to push Reform any farther then Avould be a breach of

CHARTISM. 79
faith tOAvard those Avho helped him to carry it. A great
m.any outside Parli.ament not unnaturally regarded the re
fusal to go any fiirther as a breach of faith toward them on
the part of the Liberal leaders. Lord John Russell was
right frora his point of view. It would have been impossi
ble to carry the Reform movement any farther just then.
In a country like ours, Avhere interests are so nicely bal
anced, it must always happen that a forward movement in
politics is followed by a certain reaction. The parliamen
tary leaders in Parliament Avere already beginning to feel the
influence of this law of our political growth. It Avould have
been hopeless to atlempt to get the upper and middle classes
at such a time to consent to any further changes of consid
erable importance. But the feeling of those Avho had helped
so materially to bring about the Reforra raoveraent was at
least intelligible Avhen they found that its effects Avere to
stop just short of the measures Avhich alone could have any
direct influence on their political position.
A conference Avas held almost immediately between a few
of the Liberal members of Parliament who professed radical
opinions and some of the leaders of the Avorking-men. At
this conference the programrae, or Avhat Avas always after
ward known as "the Charter," Avas agreed upon and draAvn
up. The name of" Charter" appears to have been given to
it for the first time by O'Connell. "There's your Charier,"
lie said to the secretary of the Working-men's Association ;
".agitate for it, and never be content Avith anything less."
It is a great thing accomplished in political agitation to have
found a telling name. A name is alraost as important for a
new agitation as for a ncAV novel. The title of "The Peo
ple's Charter" would of itself have launched the movement.
Quietly studied now, the People's Charter does not seem
a very formidable document. There is little smell of gun
powder about it. Its "points," as they were called, Avere
six. Manhood Suffrage came first. It was then called uni
versal suffrage, but it only meant manhood suffrage, for the
promoters ofthe movement had not the slightest idea of in
sisting on the franchise for Avomen. The second Avas Annual
Parliaments. Vote by Ballot Avas the third. Abolition of
the Property Qualification (then and for many years after
required for the election of a member to Parliament) was

80 A HISTORY. OF OUR OAVN TIMES.
the fourth. The Payment of Members was tho fifth ; and
the Division of the Country into Equal Electoral Districts,
the sixth. of the famous points. Of these proposals some, it
will be seen, were perfectly reasonable. Not one Avas so ab
solutely unreasonable as to be outside the range of fair and
quiet discussion among practical politicians. Three of the
points — half, that is to say, of the Avhole number — have
already been made part of our constitutional system. The
existing franchise may be virtually regarded as manhood
suffrage. We have for years been voting by means of a
Avritten paper dropped in a ballot-box. The property quali
fication for raembers of Parliament could hardly be said to
have been abolished. Such a Avord seems far too grand and
dignified to describe the fate that befell it. We should
rather say that it was extinguished by its own absurdity
and viciousness. It never kept ont of Parliament any per
son legally disqualified, and it was the occasion of incessant
tricks and devices Avhich would surely have been counted
disreputable and disgraceful to those Avho engaged in them,
but that the injustice and folly of the system generated a
sort pf false public conscience where it was concerned, and
made people think it as lawful to cheat it, as at one time the
raost respectable persons in private life thought it alloAvable
to cheat the revenue and Avear srauggled lace or drink smug
gled brandy. The proposal to divide the country into equal
electoral districts is one Avhich can hardly yet be regarded
as having come to any test. But it is alraost certain that
sooner or later some alteration of our present system in that
direction Avill be adopted. Of the two other points of the
Charter, the payment of merabers may be regarded as de
cidedly objectionable; and that for yearly parliaments as
embodying a proposition Avhicli Avould make jiublic life an
almost insufferable nuisance to those actively concerned in
it. But neither of these tAVO proposals Avould be looked
upon in our time as outside the range of legitimate political
discussion. Indeed, the diflSculty any one engaged in their
advocacy Avould find just noAv Avould be in getting any con
siderable body of listeners to take the slightest interest in
the argument either for or against them.
The Chartists might be roughly divided into three classes
— the political Chartists, the social Chartists, and the Char-

CHARTISM. 81
lists of vague discontent, Avho joined the movement because
they were Avretched and felt angry. The first Avere the reg
ular political agitators, Avho Avanted a Ayider popular repre
sentation ; the second Avere chiefly led to the movement by
their hatred ofthe "bread- tax." These two classes Avere
perfectly clear as to Avhat they Avanted : some of their de
mands were just and reasonable ; none of them Avere Avithout
the sphere of rational and peaceful controversy. The dis
ciples of mere discontent naturally swerved alternately to
the side of those leaders or sections who talked loudest and
fiercest against the law-makers and the constituted authori
ties. Chartisra soon split itself into two general divisions— r
the raoral force, .and the physical force Chartism. Nothing
can be more unjust than to represent the leaders and pro
moters of the raovement as mere factious and self-seeking
demagogues. Some of them Avere men of great ability and
eloquence ; sorae were impassioned young poets drawn from
the class Avhom Kingsley has described in his "Alton Locke;"
somo Avere men of education ; many Avere earnest and de
voted fanatics ; and, so far as avc can judge, all, or nearly all,
Avere sincere. Even the man avIio did the movement most
harm, and Avho made himself most odious to all reasonable
outsiders, the once famous, now forgotten, Feargus O'Con
nor, appears to have been sincere, and to have personally
lost more than he gained by his Chartism. Four or five
years after the collapse of what may be called the active
Chartist agitation, a huge Avhite-headed, vacuous-eyed man
Avas to be seen of mornings Avandering through tlie arcades
of Covent Garden Market, looking at the fruits and floAvers,
occasionally taking up a floAA'er, smelling at it, and putting
it doAvn,Avith a smile of infantile satisfaction; a raan who
raight have reminded observers of Mr. Dick in Dickens's
"David Copperfield ;" and this Avas the once renoAvned, once
dreaded and detested Feargus O'Connor. For some time
before his death his reason had wholly, deserted him. Men
did not knoAV at first in the House of Commons the meaning
of the odd pranks Avhich Feargus was beginning to play
there to the bewilderment of the great assembly. At last
it was seen that the fallen leader of Chartism Avas a hopeless
madraan. It is hardly to be doubted that insanity h.ad long
been gf-owing on him, and that some at least ofhis political
4-*

82 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
follies and extravagances were the result of an increasing
disorder of the brain. In his day he had been the very
model for a certain class of demagogue. He Avas of com
manding presence, great stature,and almost gigantic strength.
He had education; he had mixed in good society; he be
longed to an old family, and, indeed, boasted his descent from
a line of Irish kings, not Avithout sorae ground for the claim.
He had been a man of some fashion at one time, and had led
a life of Avild dissipation in his earlj' years. He had a kind
of eloquence Avhich told Avith immense power on a mass of
lialf-ignorant hearers ; and, indeed, men Avho had no manner
of liking for him or sympathy Avith his doctrines have de
clared that he Avas the most effective mob orator they had
CA'er heard. He Avas ready, if needs were, to fight his Avay
single-handed through a Avhole mass of Tory opponents at a
contested election. Thomas Cooper, the venerable poet of
Ciiartism, has given an amusing description, in his autobiog
raphy, of Feargus O'Connor, avIio Avas then his hero, leaping
from a Avagon at a Nottingham election into the midst of a
crowd of Tory butchers, and with only two stout Chartist
followers fighting his Avay through all opposition, " flooring
the butchers like ninepins." " Once," siiys Mr. Cooper, " the
Tory lambs fought off all Avho surrounded hira and got him
doAvn, and ray heart quaked — for I thought they Avould kill
him. But in a very few moments his red head emerged
again frora the rough human billows, and he was fighting
his Avay as before."
There Avere many men in the movement of a nobler moral
nature than poor huge, wild Feargus O'Connor. There Avere
men like Thoraas Cooper hiraself, devoted, impassioned, full
of poetic aspiration, and no scant measure of poetic inspira
tion as Avell. Henry Vincent Avas a raan of unirapeachable
character and of sorae ability, an effective popular speaker,
Avho has since maintained in a very unpretending way a con
siderable reputation. Ernest Jones Avas as sincere and self-
sacrificing a man as ever joined a sinking cause. He had
proved his sincerity more in deed than Avord. His talents
only fell short of that height Avhich might claim to be re
garded as genius. His education Avas that of a scholar and
a gentleman. Many men of education and .ability were
draAvn into sympathy,if not into actual co-operation, AVith the

CHARTISM. 83
Chartists by a conviction that some of their claims Avere
Avell-founded, and that the grievances ofthe Avorking-classes,
Avhich Avere terrible to contemplate, Avere such as a Parlia
ment better representing all classes would be able to rem-
ed3^ Some of these men have since made for themselves an
honorable name in Parliament and out of it; some of them
have risen to high political position. It is necessary to read
such a book as Thoraas Cooper's autobiography, to under
stand hoAV genuine Av.as the poetic and political enthusiasm
Avhich was at the heart ofthe Chartist raovement, and hoAv
bitter was the suffering Avhich drove into its ranks so raany
thousands of stout Avorking-raen Avho, in a country like Eng-
l.and, might Avell have expected to be able to live by the
hard Avork they Avere only too Avilling to do. One must
read the Anti-Corn-law rhymes of Ebenezer Elliott to un
derstand hoAV the " bread - tax " became identified in the
minds of the very best of the Avorking-class, and identified
justly, with the system of political and economical legisla
tion which was undoubtedly kept up, although not of con
scious purpose, for the benefit of a class. In the minds of
too many, the British Constitution meant hard Avork and
half-starvation. A Avhole literature of Chartist newspapers sprang up to
advocate the cause. The Northern Star, OAvned and con
ducted by Feargus O'Connor, Avas the most popular and in
fluential of them; but every great tOAvn had its Chartist
press. Meetings Avere held at Avhich sometimes very violent
language was eraployed. It began to be the practice to hold
torch-light meetings at night, and raany men Avent armed to
these, and open clamor Avas made by the Avilder of the Char
tists for an appeal to arms. A forraidable riot took place in
Birnjingham, Avhere the authorities endeavored to put down
a Chartist meeting. Ebenezer Elliott and other sensible
sympathizers endeavored to open the eyes of the more ex
trerae Chartists to the folly of all schemes for measures of
violence; but, for the time, the more violent a spe.aker was,
the better chance he had of becoming popular. Efforts were
made at times to bring about a compromise Avith the mid
dle-class Liberals and the Anti-Corn-law leaders; but all
such attempts proved failures. The Chartists would not
give up their Charter; many of them would not renounce

84 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the hope of seeing it carried by force. The Governraent
began to prosecute sorae of the orators and leaders of the
Charier movement; and some of these Avere convicted, im
prisoned, and treated Avith great severity. Henry Vincent's
imprisonment at NcAvport, in Wales, Avas the occasion of an
attempt at rescue Avhich bore a very close resemblance in
deed lo a scheme of organized and armed rebellion.
Newport had around it a large mining population, and the
miners Avere nearly all pliysical-force Chartists. It Avas ar-
rano-ed amonsr them to march in tliree divisions to a certain
rendezvous, and Avlieii they had formed a junction there,
Avliich Av.as lo be two hours alter midnight, .to inarch into
Newport, attack the jail, and effect the release of Vincent
and other prisoners. The attempt Avas to be under the chief
comraand of Mr. Frost, a trader of Newport, Avho had been
a magistrate, but Avas deprived ofthe commission of tho
peace for violent political speeches — a man of respectable
character and conduct up to that time. This Avas on No
vember 4th, 1839. There Avas some inisunderstanding and
delay, as alraost invariably happens in such enterprises, and
the divisions ofthe little array did not effect their junction
in time. When they entered NeAvport, tliey found the au
thorities fully prepared to meet thera. Frost entered tlie
tOAvn at tlie head of one division only, another following him
at some interval. The third Avas noAvhere, as far as the ob
ject of the enterprise Avas concerned. A conflict took place
betAveen the rioters and the soldiery and police, and the riot
ers were dispersed Avith a loss of some ten killed and fifty
Avonnded. In their flight they encountered some of the oth
er divisions coraing up to the enterprise all too late. Noth
ing Avas raore remarkable than the courage shoAvn by the
mayor of NoAvport, the magistrates, and the little body of
soldiers. The mayor, Mr. Phillips, received tAvo gunshot
Avounds. Frost Avas arrested next day along Avith sorae of
his colleagues. They were tried on June 6th, 1840. The
charge .against them Avas one of high-treason. There did
really appear ground enough to suppose ,that the expedition
led by Frost Avas not merely to rescue Vincent, but to set
going the great rebellious raovement of.Avhich tho physical-
ibrce Chartists had long been talking. The Chartists ap
pear at first, to h.-iA-c numbered somo ten thons.and — twenty

CHARTISM. 85
thousand, indeed, according to other accounts — and they
were arraed with guns, pikes, SAvords, pickaxes, and bludgeons.
If the delay and misunderstanding had not taken place, and
they had arrived at their rendezvous at the appointed time,
the attempt might have led to very calaraitous results. The
jury found Frost and two of his companions, Williams and
Jones, guilty of high-treason, and they Avere sentenced to
death ; the sentence, hoAvever, was commuted to one of trans
portation for life. Even this Avas afterAvard relaxed, and
Avhen some years had passed aAvay, and Chartism had ceased
to be a disturbing influence. Frost Avas alloAved to return to
England, Avherc he found that a ncAv generation had grown
up, and that he Avas .all but forgotten. In the mean time the
Corn-law agitation had been successful; the year of revolu
tions had passed harmlessly over; Feargus O'Connor's day
Avas done.
But the trial and conviction of Frost, Williams, and Jones
did not put a stop to the Chartist agitation. On the con
trary, that agitation seemed rather to Avax and strengthen
and grow broader because of the atterapt at NcAvport and
its consequences. Thomas Cooper, for example, had never
attended a Chartist meeting, nor knoAA'n anything of Char
tism beyond Avhat he read in the newspapers, until after the
conviction of Frost and his companions. There Avas no lack
of Avhat Avere called energetic measures on the part of the
Government. The leading Chartists all over the country
Avere prosecuted and tried, literally by hundreds. In most
cases they Avere convicted and sentenced to terms of im
prisonment. The imprisonment served r.ather to raake the
Chartist leaders popular, and to advertise the movement,
than to accomplish any purpose the Governraent had at
heart. Tiiey helped to raake the Government very un
popular. The working-classes groAV more and more bitter
against the Whigs, avIio, they said, had professed Liberalism
only to gain their own ends, and Avere really at heart less
Liberal than the Tories. Noav and then an imprisoned rep
resentative of the Chartist movement got to the end of his
period of sentence, and came out of durance. He Avas a hero
all over again, and his return to public life Avas the signal
for fresh deraonstrations of Chartism. At the general elec
tion of 1841, the vast majority of the Chartists, acting on

86 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the advice of some of their raore extreme leaders, threw all
their support into the cause of the Tories, and so helped tho
downfall ofthe Melbourne Administration.
Wide and almost universal discontent among the AA'ork-
ing -classes in toAvn and country still helped to SAvell the
Chartist ranks. The Aveavers and stockingers in some of
the manufacturing tOAvns Avere miserably poor. Wages
Avere low everywhere. In the agricultur.al districts the
coraplaints against the operation of the new Poor LaAV Avere
vehement and passionate; and although they Avere unjust
in principle and sustained by monstrous exaggerations of
stalement, they Avere not the less potent as recruiting
agents for Chartism. There Avas a profound distrust ofthe
middle class and their leaders. The Anti-Corn-law agita
tion Avhich Avas then springing up, and Avhich, one might
have thought, must find its most strenuous support among
the poor artisans ofthe towns, Avas regarded Avith deep dis
gust by some ofthe Chartists, and Avith downright hostility
by others. A very temperate orator of the Chartists put
tlie feeling of himself and his fellows in clear terms. "We
do not object to the repeal of the Corn LaAvs," he said ; " on
the contrary, when we get the Charier avo Avill repeal the
Corn Laws and all the bad laws. But if you give up your
agitation for the Charter to help the Free-traders, they Avill
never help you to get the Charter. Don't be deceived by
tiie middle classes again ! You helped them to get the Re
form Bill, and Avhere are the fine promises they made you?
Don't listen to their humbug any more. Stick to your
Charier. Without your votes you are veritable slaves."
The Cliartists believed theraselves abandoned by their nat
ural leaders. All manner of socialist doctrines began to
creep in among them. Wild and infidel opinions Avere pro
claimed by many. Thomas Cooper tells one little anecdote
which he says fairly illustrates the feelings of many of the
fiercer spirits among the artisan Chartists in some of the
tOAvns. He and his friends Avere holding a meeting one day
in Leicester. A poor religious stockinger said : "Let us be
patient a little longer; surely God Almighty Avill help us
soon." "Talk to us no more about thy Goddle Mighty,"
was the fierce cry that came, in reply, from one of the au
dience ; " there isn't one ! If there Avas one, he Avouldn't let

CIIARTISM. 87
US suffer as Ave do !" About the same time a poor stocking
er rushed into Cooper's house, and throwing himself Avildly
on a chair, exclaimed, " I Avish they Avould hang me ! I have
lived on cold potatoes that Avere given rae these two days,
and this morning I've eateli a raw potato for sheer hunger.
Give me a bit of bread and a cup of coffee, or I shall drop !"
Tiioraas Cooper's remark about this time is very intelligi
ble and simple. It tells a long, clear story about Chartism.
" How fierce," he says, " my discourses becarae now in the
Market-place on Sunday evenings ! My heart often burned
Avith indignation I knew not hoAV to express. I began, from
sheer sympathy, to feel a tendency to glide into the depraved
thinking of some of the stronger but coarser spirits among
the men."
So the agitation Avent on.' We need not follow it through
all its incidents. It look in some places the forra of indus
trial strikes; in others, of socialistic assemblages. Its fanat
icism had in many instances a strong flaA'or of nobleness aud
virtue. Some men under the influence of thoughtful lead
ers pledged theraselves to total abstinence from intoxicating
drinks, in the full belief th.at the agitation Avould never suc
ceed until the Avorking-classes had proved theraselves, by
their self-control, to be Avorthy of the gift of freedom. In
other instances, as has been already remarked, the disap
pointment and despair of the people took the forra of infi
delity. There Avere many riots and disturbances ; none, in
deed, of so seemingly rebellious a nature as that of Frost
and his companions, but raany serious enough to spread
great alarm, and to furnish fresh occasion for Government
prosecutions and imprisonments. Some of the prisoners
seem to have been really treated Avith a positively Avanton
harshness and even cruelty. Thoraas Cooper's account of
his own sufferings in prison is painful to read. It is not
easy to understand Avhat good purpose any Government
could have supposed the prison authorities were serving
by the unnecessary degradation and privation of raen Avho,
Avhatever their errors, Avere conspicuously and transparently
sincere and honest.
It is clear that at that time the Chartists, Avho represented
the bulk ofthe artisan class in most ofthe large toAvns, did
in their very hearts believe that England Avas ruled for the

88 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
benefit of aristocrats and millionnaires who AveVe absolutely
indifferent to the sufferings of the poor. It is equally clear
that raost of Avhat are called the ruling class did really be
lieve the English working-raen who joined the Chartist raove
raent to be a race of fierce, unmanageable, and selfish com
munists Avho, if they Avere allowed their own Avay for a
moment, Avould prove themselves determined to overthroAV
throne, altar, and all established securities of society. An
ignorant panic prevailed on both sides. England Avas in
deed divided then, as Mr. Disraeli's novel described it, into
two nations, the rich and the poor, in towns at least ; and
each hated and feared the olher Avith all that unthinking
hale and fear which hostile nations arc capable of showing
even amidst all the influences of civilization.

CHAPTER VL
QUESTION DE JOPONS.

Meanavhile things Avere looking ill Avith the Melbourne
Ministry. Sir Robert Peel Avas addressing great meetings
of his folloAvers, and declaring with much shoAv of justice
tiiat he had cre.ated anew the Conservative party. The po
sition of the Whigs Avonld in any case have been difficult.
Their mandate, to use the French phrase, seemed to be ex
hausted. They had no ncAv thing to propose. They came
into power .as reformers, and now they had nothing to offer
ill the way of reform. It may be taken as a certainty that
in Englisli politics reaction must always follow advance.
The Whigs must just then have come in for the effects of
reaction. But they had more than that to contend Avith.
In our OAvn tirae, Mr. Gladstone had no sooner passed his
great raeasures of reforra than he began to experience the
effects of reaction. But there Avas a great difference be
tAveen his situation and tliat ofthe Whigs under Melbourne.
He had not failed to satisfy the demands of his folloAvers.
He had no extreme Aving of his party clamoring against him
on the ground that he had made use of their strength to
help him in carrying out as much ofhis programme as suit
ed his OAvn coterie, and that he had then deserted them. Tliis

QUESTION DE JUPONS. 89
Avas the condition of the Whigs. The more advanced Lib
erals and the Avliole body ofthe Chartists, and the Avorking-
classes generally, detested and denounced them. Many of
the Liberals had had some hope Avliile Lord Durhara slill
seeraed likely to be a ])o4itical poAver, but Avith the fading
of his influence they lost all interest in the Whig Ministry.
On the other hand, the support of O'Connell Avas a serious
disadvantage to Melbourne and his party in England.
But the Whig ministers Avere always adding by some
mistake or other to the difficulties of their position. Tiie
Jamaica Bill put them in great perplexity. Tiiis Avas a
measure brought in on April 9th, 1839, to make teraporary
provision for the governraent of the island of Jamaica, by
setting aside the House of Assembly for five years, and dur
ing that time empoAvering the governor and council Avitli
three salaried coraraissioners to manage the affairs of tlio
colony. In other words, the Melbourne Ministry proposed
to suspend for five years the constitution of Jamaica. No
body of persons can be more awkwardly placed than a Whig
Ministry proposing to set aside a constitutional government
anyAvhere. Such a proposal may be a necessary measure ;
it may be unavoidable; but it always comes Avith a bad
grace from Whigs or Liberals, and gives their enemies a
handle against them Avhich they cannot fail to use to some
purpose. What, indeed, it^niay be plausibly asked, is the
raison d^etre of a Liberal Government, if they have to re
turn to the old Tory policy of suspended constitutions and
absolute laAV ? Wiien Rabagas, become minister, tells his
master that the only Avay to silence discontent is by the lit
eral use ofthe cannon, the Prince of Monaco remarks very
naturally that if that Avas to be the policy, he might as Avell
have kejit to his old ministers and his absolutism. So it is
with an English Liberal Ministry advising the suspension
of constitutions.
In the case ofthe Jamaica Bill there Avas some excuse for
the harsh policy. After the abolition of slavery,,the former
masters in the island found it very hard to reconcile them
selves to tho new condition of things. They could not all
at once understand that their former slaves Avere to be their
equals before the laAV. As avc have seen much more lately
in the Southern States of America, after the civil Avar and

90 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the emancipation of the negroes, there Avas still a pertina
cious atterapt made by the planter class to regain in sub
stance the poAver they had had to renounce in narae This
was not to be justified or excused; but, as human nature is
made, it was not unnatural. On the other hand, some of the
Jamaica negroes Avere too ignorant to understand that they
had acquired any rights; others Avere a little too clamor
ous in their assertion. Many a planter Avorked his men and
Avhipped his Avoraen just as before the emancipation, and
tiie victims did not understand that they had any right
to complain. Many negroes, again, Avere ignorantly and
thoughtlessly " bumptious," to use a vulgar expression, in
the assertion of their newly-found equality. The imperial
governors and officials Avere generally and justly eager to
in-otect the negroes ; and the result was a constant quarrel
lietween the Jamaica House of Assembly and the represent
atives of the home Government. The Assembly became
more insolent and offensive every day. A bill, very neces
sary in itself, Avas passed by the imperial Parliaraent for the
better regulation of prisons in Jamaica, and the House of
Assembly refused to submit to any such legislation. Under
these circumstances, the Melbourne Ministry proposed the
suspension of the constitution of the island. The raeasure
Avas opposed not only by Peel and the Conservatives, but
by many Radicals. It was argued that there Avere many
courses open to the ministry short of the high-handed pro
ceeding they proposed ; and, in truth, there Avas not that
confidence in the Melbourne Ministry at all Avhich Avould
have enabled thera to obtain from Parliament a majority
sufficient to carry through such a policy. The ministry was
Aveak and discredited ; anybody might noAV throw a stone
at it. They only had a majority of five in favor of their
measure. This, of course, Avas a virtu.al defeat. The minis
try acknowledged it, and resigned. Tiieir defeat was a hu
miliation ; their resignation an inevitable submission ; but
they came back to office alraost immediately under condi
tions that raade the hurailiation more humbling, and ren
dered their subsequent career more diflncult by far than
their past struggle for existence had been.
The return of the Whigs to office — for they cannot be
said to have returned to power — came about in a very odd

QUESTION DE JUPONS. 91
Av.ay. Gulliver ought to have had .an opportunity of telling
such a story to the king of the Brobdingnagians, in order
tiie better to impress him Avith a clear idea ofthe logical
beauty of constitutional government. It Avas an entirely
noAV illustration of the old cherchez la femme principle, the
femme in this case, however, being altogether a passive and
innocent cause of trouble. The famous controversy known
as the "Bedchamber Question" raade a Avay back for the
Whigs into place. When Lord Melbourne resigned, the
Queen sent for the Dnke of Wellington, Avho advised her to
apply to Sir Robert Peel, for the reason that the chief dif^
ficulties of a Conservative Governraent Avould be in the
House of Coraraons. The Queen sent for Peel, and Avhen he
came, told him, Avith a simple and girlish frankness, that she
Avas sorry to have to part with her late ministers, of Avhose
conduct she entirely approved, but that she boAved to con
stitutional usage. This must have been rather an astonish
ing beginning to the grave and formal Peel ; but he was not
a raan to think any Averse of the candid young sovereign
fbr her outspoken Avays. The negotiations went on very
smoothly as to the colleagues Peel meant to recoraraend to
her Majesty, until he happened to notice the composition of
the royal household as regarded the ladies most closely in
attendance on the Queen. For example, he found that the
Avife of Lord Normanby and the sister of Lord Morpeth
Avere the Iavo ladies in closest attendance on her Majesty.
Noav it has to be borne in mind — it Avas proclaimed again
and again during the negotiations — that the chief difficulty
of the Conservatives would necessarily be in Ireland, Avhere
their policy Avould be altogether opposed to that of the
Whigs. Lord Normanby had been Lord-lieutenant of Ire
land under the Whigs, and Lord Morpeth, Avliom Ave can all
remeraber as the amiable and accomplished Lord Carlisle of
later time, Irish Secretary. It certainly could not be satis
factory for Peel to try to work a new- Irish policy while the
closest household companions of the Queeii were the wife
and sister ofthe displaced statesmen Avho directly represent
ed the policy he had to supersede. Had this point of vicAv
beeu made clear to the sovereign at first, it is hardly possi
ble that any serious difficulty coidd have arisen. The Queen
must have seen the obvious reasonableness of Peel's request;

92 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
nor is it to be supposed that the tAVO ladies in question could
have desired to hold their places under such circurastances.
But unluckily some misunderstanding took place at the very
beginning ofthe conversations on this point. Peel only de
sired to press for the retirement of the ladies holding the
higher offices ; he did not intend to ask for any change af
fecting a place lower in official rank than that of lady ofthe
bedchamber. But somehoAv or other he conveyed to the
mind ofthe Queeii a different idea. She thought he meant
to insist, as a matter of principle, upon the removal of all
her familiar atiendants and household associates. Under
this impression she consulted Lord John Russell, Avho ad
vised her on what he understood to be the state ofthe facts.
On his advice, the Queen stated in reply that she could not
" consent to a course Avhich she conceives to be contrary to
usage and is repugnant to her feelings." Sir Robert Peel
held firm to his stipulation ; and the chance ofhis then form
ing a ministry Avas at an end. Lord Melbourne and his col
leagues had to be recalled ; and at a cabinet meeting they
adopted a minute declaring it reasonable " that the great
offices of the Court and situations in the household held by
raembers of Parliament should be included in the political
arrangements raade on a change in the Administration; but
they are not of opinion that a similar principle should be
applied or extended to the offices held by ladies in her M.aj-
csty's household."
Tlio matter Avas natur.ally made the subject of explana
tion in both Houses of Parliament. Sir Robert Peel Avas
undoubtedly right in his vicAV of the question, and if he had
been clearly understood the right could hardly have been
disputed; but he defended his position in language pf Avhat
now seems rather ludicrous exaggeration. He treated this
question de jupons as if it Avere of tiie last importance not
alone to the honor of the ministry, but even to the safety
of the realm. " I ask you," he said, " to go baok to other
times : take Pitt or Fox, or any other minister of this proud
country, and answer for yourselves the question, is it fitting
that one man shall be the minister, responsible ibr the most
arduous charge that can fall to the lot of man, and that the
wife of the other — that other his raost formidable political
eneray — shall, Avith his express consent, hold office in imme-

QUESTION DE JUPONS. 93
diate attendance on the sovereign?" "Oh, no!" he ex
claimed, in an outburst of indignant eloquence. " I felt
that it Avas impossible ; I could not consent lo tliis. Feel
ings more powerful than reasoning told me that it Avas not
for ray OAVii honor or for the public interests that I should
consent to be minister of England." This high-flown lan
guage seeras oddly out of place on the lips of a statesman
Avho, of all his conteniporaries, w.as the least apt to indulge
in bursts of overwrought sentiment. Lord Melbourne, on
the other hand, defended his action in the House of Lords
ill language of equal exaggeration. "I resume office," he
said, "unequivocally and solely for this reason, that I Avill
not desert my sovereign in a situation of difficulty and dis
tress, especially Avhen a demand is made upon her Majesty
Avith Avliich I think she ought not to comply — a demand in
consistent Avith her personal honor, and Avhich, if acquiesced
in, Avould render her reign liable lo all the clianges and va
riations of political parties, and make her domestic life one
constant scene of unhappiness and discomfort."
In the country the incident created great excitement.
Some Liberals bluntly insisted that it was not right in such
n matter lo consult the feelings of the sovereign at all, and
lliat the advice ofthe minister, and his idea of Avhat Avas for
the good ofthe country, ought alone to be considered. On
the other hand, O'Connell burst into impassioned language
of praise and delight, as he dAvelt upon the decision of the
Queen, and called upon the PoAvers above to bless "the
young creature — that creature of only nineteen, as pure as
she is exalted," Avho consulted not her head, but "the over
flowing feelings of her young heart." "Those excellent
Avonien Avho h.ad been so long attached to her, who had
iiursed and tended to her Avants in her childhood, Avho had
Avatched over her in her sickness, Avhose eyes beamed Avith
delight as they saAV her increasing daily in beauty and in
loveliness — Avhen they Avere threatened lo be forced away
from her — her heart told her that she could as well part
Avith that heart itself as Avith those Avhom it held so dear."
Feargus O'Connor went a good deal farther, however, Avhen
he boldly declared that he had excellent authority for the
stateraent that if the Tories had got the young Queen into
their hands by the agency of the noAv ladies of the bed-

94 A HISTORY OF OUR OAVN TIJtES.
chamber, they had a plan for putting her out of the Avay
and placing " the bloody Cumberland " on the throne in her
stead. In O'Connell's case, no mystery Avas made of the
fact that he believed the ladies actually surrounding llie
young Queen to be friendly to what he considered the cause
of Ireland ; and that he Avas satisfied Peel and the Tories
Avere against it. For the Avild talk represented by the
words of Feargus O'Connor, it is only necessary to say that,
frenzied and foolish as it must seem noAv to us, and as it
must even then have seeraed to all rational beings, it had
the firm acceptance of large masses of people throughout
the country, who persisted in seeing in Peel's pleaduigs for
the change of the bedchamber Avomen the positive evidence
of an unscrupulous Tory plot to get possession ofthe Queen's
person, not indeed for the purpose of violently altering the
succession, but in the hope of poisoning her mind against all
Liberal opinions.
Lord Brougham Avas not likely to lose so good an oppor
tunity of attacking Lord Melbourne and his colleagues. He
insisted that Lord Melbourne had sacrificed Liberal princi
ples and the interests of the country to the private feelings
of the sovereign. "I thought," he declared, in a burst of
eloquent passion, " that Ave belonged to a country in Avhicii
the government by the Crown and the Avisdom of Parlia
ment was everything, and the personal feelings of the sov
ereign Avere absolutely not to be named at the sarae time.
• • ¦ I little thought to have lived to hear it said by the
Whigs of 1839, 'Let us rally round the Queen; never
raind the House of Coraraons; never raind measures; throAV
principles to the dogs ; leave pledges unredeemed ; but for
God's sake rally round the throne' Little did I think the
day Avould come Avhon I should hear such language, not
from the unconstitutional, place-hunting, king-loving Tories,
Avho thought the public Avas raade for the king, not the king
for the public, but frora the Whigs theraselves ! The J.a-
maica Bill, said to be a most important measure, had been
brought forward. The Government slaked their existence
upon it. They Avere not able to carry it; they therefore
conceived they had lost the confidence ofthe House of Com
mons. They thought it a measure of paramount necessity
then. Is it less necessary noAv? Oh, but that is altered! The

QUESTION DE JUPONS. 95
Jamaica question is to be new-fashioned; principles are to be
given up, and all because of Iavo ladies of the bedchamber."
Nothing could be more undesirable than the position in
Avliich Lord Melbourne and his colleagues had alloAved tho
sovereign to place herself. The raore people in general
carae to think over the matter, the more clearly it Avas seen
that Peel was in the right, although he had not made him
self understood at first, and had, perhaps, not shoAvn all
through enough of consideration for the novelty of the
young sovereign's position, or for the difficulty of finding
a conclusive precedent on such a question, seeing that since
the principle of ministerial responsibility had come to be
recognized among us in ils genuine sense, there never beforo
had been a Avoraan ou the throne. But no one could de
liberately raaintain the position at first taken up by tho
Whigs ; and, in point of fact, they Avere soon glad to drop
it as quickly and quietly as possible. The Avhole question,
it raay be said at once, was afterward settled by a sensi
ble comproraise which the Prince Consort suggested. It
Avas agreed that on a change of ministry the Queen Avould
listen to any representation from the incoming Prime-rain-
ister as to the composition of her household, and would ar
range fer the retirement, " of their own accord," of any la
dies who were so closely related to the leaders of Opposi
tion as to render their presence inconvenient. The Whigs
came back to office utterly discredited. They had to tinker
np somehoAV a new Jamaica Bill. They had declared that
they could not remain in office unless they Avere allowed
to deal in a certain way with' Jamaica; and noAv that they
Avere back again in office, they could not avoid trying to do
soraething with the Jaraaica business. They, therefore, in
troduced a noAV bill, Avhich was a mere compromise put to
gether in the hope of ils being allowed to pass. It Avas al
lowed to pass, after a fashion ; that is, Avhen the Opposition
in the House of Lords had tinkered it and amended it at
their pleasure. The bedchamber question, in fact, had throAVii
Jamaica out of perspective. The unfortunate island must
do the best it could now; in this country statesmen had
graver matter to think of Sir Robert Peel could not gov
ern with Lady Normanby; the Whigs would not govern
Avithout her.

90 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
It docs not seem by .any means clear, hoAvever, that Lord
Melbourne and his colleagues deserved the savage censure
of Lord Broughara merely for having returned to office and
given up their original position Avith regard to the Jamaica
Bill. What else remained to be done ? If they had refused
to come b.ack, the only result Avould have been that Peel
raust have become Prime-minister, with a distinct minority
in the House of Commons. Peel could not have held his
ground there, except by the favor and mercy of his oppo
nents; and those Avere not merciful days in politics. He
Avould only have taken office to be called upon at once to
resign it by some adverse vote of the House of Commons.
The stale of things seeras, in this respect, to be not unlike
that Avhicli existed Avhen Mr. Gladstone Avas defeated on the
Irish University Bill in 1873. Mr. Gladstone resigned, or
rather tendered his resignation ; and by his advice her Maj
esty invited Mr. Disraeli to form a cabinet. Mr. Disraeli did
not see his Avay to undertake the government of the country
Avith the existing House of Commons; and as the conditions
under Avhich he Avas willing to undertake the duty Avere not
conveniently attain.able, the negotiation carae to an end.
Tho Queen sent again for Mr. Gladstone, Avho consented to
resume his place as Prirae-niinister. If Lord Melbourne re
turned lo office Avith the knoAvIedge that he could not carry
the Jaraaica Bill, Avliich he had declared to be necessary, Mr.
Gladstone resumed his place at the head ofhis ministry Avith
out the remotest hope of being able to carry his Irish Uni
versity measure. No one ever found fault Avith Mr. Glad
stone for having, under the cn-cumstanCes, done the best he
could, and consented to meet the request of the sovereign
and the convenience ofthe public service by again taking ou
hiraself the responsibility of government, although the meas
ure on Avhich he had declared he Avould stake the existence
ofhis ministry had been rejected by the House of Commons.
Still, it cannot bo denied that the Melbourne Governraent
Avere prejudiced in the public mind by these events, and by
the attacks for Avhich they gave so large an opportunity.
The feeling in some parts ofthe country was still sentimen
tally Avith the Queen. At many a dinner-table it becarae the
fashion to drink the health of her Majesty Avith a punning
addition, not belonging to an order of Avit any higher than

QUESTION DE JUPONS. '97
Ihat Avliich in other days toasted the King " over the water;"
or prayed of heaven to "send this crumb Avell down." The
Queen AVas toasted as the sovereign of spirit wlio " would
not let her belles be peeled." But the ministry Avere almost
iiiiiversaliy believed to have placed themselves in a ridicu
lous light, and to have crept again into office, as an able
writer puts it, "behind the petticoats ofthe ladies in wait
ing." The death of Lady Flora Hastings, Avliich occurred
almost immediately, tended further to arouse a feeling of
dislike to the Whigs. This melancholy event does hot need
any lengthened comment. A young lady AA'ho belonged to
the household ofthe Duchess of Kent fell under an unfound
ed, but, in the circumstances, not Avholly unreasonable, sus
picion. It was the classic story of Calislo, Diana's unhappy
nymph, reversed. Lady Flora Avas proved to be innocent;
but her death, imminent probably in any case frora the dis
ease which had fastened on her, Avas doubtless hastened by
the humiliation to which she had been subjected. It does
not seem that any one was to blame in the matter. The
ministry certainly do not appear to have done anything
for which they could fairly be reproached. No one can
be surprised that those Avho surrounded the Queen and the
Duchess of Kent should have taken sorae pains to inquire
into the truth or falsehood of scandalous rumoi's, for which
there miglit have appeared to be sorae obvious justification.
But the Avhole story was so sad and shocking ; the death of
the poor young lady folloAved Avith sucii tragic rapidity upon
the establishment of her innocence; the natural complaints
of her mother Avere so loud and impassioned, that the minis
ters Avho had to ansAver the mother's appeals Avere unavoid
ably placed in an invidious and a painful position. The de
mands of the Marchioness of Hasiings for redress Avere un
reasonable. They endeavoi'cd to make out the existence of
a cruel conspiracy against Lady Flora, and called for the
pereraptory dismissal and disgrace ofthe eminent court -phj--
sician, who had merely performed a Inost painful duty, and
whose report had been the especial tneans of establishing the
injustice of the suspicions Avliich -ivere directed against her.
But it Avas a damaging duty for a minister to h^ve to vS'rite
tb the distracted mother, as Lord Melbourne found it nec-
e'ssary to do, telling her that her demand Avas "so unprcct-'
I.— 5

98 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TI.MES.
dented and objectionable, that even the respect due to your
ladyship's sex, rank, fainily, and character Avould not justify
me in more, if, indeed, it authorizes so much, than acknoAvl-
edging that letter for the sole purpose of acquainting your
Ladyship that I have received it." The "Palace scandal,"
as it was called, became knoAvn shortly before the dispute
about the ladies of the bedchamber. The death of Lady
Flora Hastings happened soon after it. It is not strictly in
logical propriety that such events, or their rapid succession,
should tend to bring into disrepute the ministry, Avho can
only be regarded as their historical contemporaries. But
the Avorld must change a great deal before rainisters are no
longer held accountable in public opinion for anything but
tho events over which they can be shown to have somo
control.

CHAPTER VIL
THE queen's marriage.

On January 16tli, 1840, the Queen, opening Parliament in
person, announced her intention to marry her cousin. Prince
Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha — a step Avliich she trusted
Avould be "conducive to the interests of my people as Avell
as to my own domestic happiness." In the discussion which
followed in the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel ob
served that her Majesty had " the singular good fortune to
be able to gratify her priv.ate feelings, while she performs
her public duty, and to obtain the best guarantee for happi
ness by contracting an alliance founded on affection." Peel
spoke the simple truth ; it Avas, indeed, a marriage founded
on affection. No marriage contracted in the humblest class
could have been more entirely a union of love, and more
free from Avhat might be called selfish and Avorldly consider.a-
tions. The Queen had for a long time loved her cousin. He
Avas nearly her OAvn age, the Queen being the elder by three
months and two or three days. Francis Charles Augustus
Albert Emmanuel Avas the full name of the young Prince.
He was the second son of Ernest, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-
Saalfeld, and ofhis Avife Louisa, daughter of Augustus, Duke
of Saxe-Gotha-Altenbcrg. Prince Albert Avas born at the

THE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE. 99
Rosenau, one of his father's residences, near Coburg, on Au
gust 26th, 1819. The court historian notices Avith pardon
able complacency the " remarkable coincidence " — easily ex
plained, surely — that the same accoucheuse, Madama Siebold,
assisted at the birth of Prince Albert, and of the Queen somo
three months before, and that the Prince Avas baptized by
the clergyraan. Professor Genzler, avIio had the year before
officiated at the raarriage of the Duke and Duchess of Kent.
A marriage betAveen the Princess Victoria and Prince Albert
had been thought of as desirable among the families on both
sides, but it Avas always Avisely resolved that nothing should
be said to the young Princess on the subject unless she her
self showed a distinct liking for her cousin. In 1836 Prince
Albert Avas brought by his father to England, and made the
personal acquaintance of the Princess, and she seems at once
to have been drawn toward him in the manner which her
family and friends Avould most have desired. Three years
later the Prince again came to England, and the Qneen, in a
letier to her uncle, the King of the Belgians, Avrote of hini
in the Avarmest terras. "Albert's beauty," she said, " is
most striking, and he is most amiable and unaffected — in
short, very fascinating." Not many days after she Avrote lo
another friend and faithful counsellor, the Baron Stockmar,
to say, "I do feel so guilty I know not how to begin my let
ter ; but I think tho news it Avill contain Avill be sufficient
to insure your forgiveness. Albert has completely won my
lieart, and all Avas settled betAveen us this morning." Tho
Queen had just before informed Lord Melbourne of her in
tention, and Lord Melbourne, it is needless lo say, expressed
Ills decided approval. There was no one to disapprove of
sncli a marriage.
Prince Albert Avas a young raan to Avin the heart of any
girl. He Avas singularly handsome, graceful, and gifted.
In princes, as we knoAV, a small measure of beauty and ac
complishment suffices to throAV courtiers and court ladies
into transports of admiration ; but had Prince Albert been
the son of a farmer or a butler, he must have been admired
for his singular personal attractions. He had had a sound
and a varied education. He had been brought up as if he
Avere to be a professional musician, a professional chemist or
botanist, and a professor of history and belles-lettres and the

•100 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
fine arts.' The scientific and the literary Avere remarkably
blended in his bringing-up ; remarkably, that is to say, for
some half-century ago, Avhen even in Germany a system of
education seldom aimed at being totus, teres atque rotundus.
He had begun to study the constitutional history of St.ateSj
and Avas preparing himself to take an interest in politics.
There Avas much ofthe practical and business-like about him,
as he showed in after-life ; he loved farming, and took a deep
interest in raacbinery and in the growth of industrial science.
He was a sort of combination of the troubadour, the savant,
and the man of business. His tastes Avere for a quiet, domes
tic, and unostentatious life — a life of refined culture, of happy,
calm^ evenings, of art and poetry and genial communion Avith
Nature. He was made happy by the songs of birds, and de
lighted in sitting alone and playing the organ. But there
was in hira, too, a great deal of the political philosopher.
He loved to hear political and other questions well argued
out, and once pbserved that a false arguraent jarred on his
nerves as much as a false note in rausic. He seems to have
had from his youth an all-pervading sense of duty. So far
as Ave can guess, he was almost absolutely free frora the
ordinary follies, not to say sins, of youth. Young as he Avas
Avhen he raarried the Queen, he devoted himself at once to
Avhat he conscientiously believed to be the duties ofhis sta
tion Avith a self-control and self-devotion rare even araong
tiic aged, and almost unknoAvn in youth. He gave up every
habit, hoAvever familiar and dear, every predilection, no mat
ter how SAveet, every indulgence of sentiraent or amuseraent
th.at in any way threatened to interfere Avith the steadfast
perforraance of the part he had assigned to himself No
man ever devoted himself raore faithfully to the difllicult
duties of a high and a new situation, or kept more strictly
to his resolve. It was no task to him to be a tender hus
band and a loving father. This was a p.art of his sweet,
pure, and affectionate nature. It may Avell be doubled
Avhether any other queen ever had a married life so happy
as thai of Queen Victoria.
The marriage of the Queen and the Prince took place on
February 10th, 1840. The reception given by the people in
general to the Prince on his landing in England a fcAv days
before the ceremony, and on the day ofthe marrLage, Avas

THE queen's MARRIAGE. 101
cordial, and even enthusiastic. But it is not certain Avhether
there Avas a very cordial feeling to the Prince among all
classes of politicians. A rumor of the most absurd kind
had got abroad in certain circles that the young Albert Avas
not a Protestant — that he was, in fact, a member of the
Church of Rome In a different circle the belief Avas curi
ously cherished that the Prince Avas a free-thinker in raat
ters of religion, and a radical in politics. SomcAvhat unfort
unately, the declaration of the intended marriage to the
privy Council did not mtjution the f^ct that Albert Avas a
Protestant Prince. The cabinet no doubt thought that the
leaders of public opinion on all sides of politics Avould have
had historical knowledge araong them to teach them that
Prince Albert belonged to that branch of the Saxon family
Avhich since the Reformation had been conspicuously Prot
estant. "Tiiere has not," Prince Albert himself wrote to
the Queen on December 7th, 1839, "been a single Catholic
]u-incess introduced into the Coburg family since the appear
ance of Luther in 1521. Moreover, the Elector Frederick
the Wise of Saxony Avas the very first Protestant that ever
lived." No doubt the ministry thought also that the con
stitutional rule Avhich forbids an English sovereign to mar
ry Avith a Roman Catholic under penalty of forfeiting the
croAvn, would be regarded as a sufficient guarantee that
Avhen they announced the Queen's approaching marriage it
must be a marriage with a Protestant. All this assumption,
however reasonable and natural, did not find warrant in the
events that actually took place. It Avould have been better,
of course, if the Government had assumed that Parliaraent
and the public generally knoAV nothing about the Prince and
his ancestry, or the constitutional penalties for a meraber of
the Royal Faraily marrying a Catholic, and had formally
announced that the choice of Queen Victoria had happily
fallen on a Protestant. The wise and foreseeing Leopold,
King ofthe Belgians, had recoramended that the fact should
be specifically mentioned ; but it Avas, perhaps, a part of Lord
Melbourne's indolent good-nature to take it for granted that
people generally Avould be calra and reasonable, and that all
would go right Avithout interruption or cavil. He therefore
acted on the assuraption that any forraal mention of Prince
Albert's Protestantism would be superfluous; and neither

102 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ill the declaration to the privy council nor in the announce
ment lo Parliament was a AVord said upon the subject. The
result was that in the debate on the address in the House
of Lords a somewhat mnseemly altercation took place, an al
tercation the more to be regretted because it raight have
been so easily spared. The question Avas bluntly raised by
no less a person than the Duke of Wellington Avhether the
future husband of the Queen Avas or Avas not a Protestant.
Tiie Duke actually charged the ministry Avilh having pur-
])Osely left out the Avord "Protestant" in the aftnouuce-
iiients, in order that they might not offend their Irish and
Catholic supporters, and by the very charge did much to
strengthen the popular feeling against the statesmen Avho
Avere supposed to be kept in ofiice by virtue of the patron
age of O'Connell. The Duke raoved that the Avord "Prot
estant" be inserted in the congratulatory address to the
Queen, and he carried his point, although Lord Melbourne
held to the opinion that the AVord Avas unnecessary in de
scribing a Prince who Avas not only a Protestant, but de
scended from the most Protestant family in Europe. The
lack of judgraent and tact on tlie part ofthe ministry Avas
never more clearly shoAvn than iu the original omission of
the Avord.
Another disagreeable occurrence Avas the discussion that
took place Avhen the bill for the naturalization of the Prince
Avas brought before the House of Lords. The bill in its title
merely set out the proposal to provide for the naturalization
of the Prince ; but it contained a clause to give him prece
dence for life " next after her Majesty, in Parliament or else
where, as her Majesty might think proper." A great deal
of objection was raised by the Duke of Wellington and Lord
Brougham to this clause on its OAvn merits; but, as was nat
ural, the objections were infinitely aggravated by the singu
lar Avant of judgment, and even of coraraon propriety, wliii-h
could introduce a clause conferring on the sovereign powers
so large and so noAV into a mere naturalization bill, Avithout
any previous notice to Parliament. The raatter Avas ulti
mately settled by alloAving the bill to remain a siraple nat
uralization measure, and leaving the question of precedence
to be dealt with by Royal prerogative. Both the great po
litical parties concurred, Avithout further diflSculty, in an ar-

TIIE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE. 103
rangcment by Avliich it Avas provided in letters-patent that
the Prince should thenceforth upon all occasions, and in all
raeetings, except Avhen otherwise provided by Act of Par
liaraent, have precedence next to the Queen. There never
Avould have been any difficulty in the matter ifthe ministry
had acted with any discretion ; but it would be absurd to
expect that a great nation, whose constitutional system is
built up of precedents, should agree at once and Avithout de
mur to every new arrangeraent Avliich it might seera conven
ient to a ministry to make in a hurry. Yet another source
of dissatisfaction to the palace and the people Avas created
by the manner in Avliich the ministry took upon themselves
to bring forward the proposilion for the settlement of an
annuity on the Prince. In forraer cases — that, for exam
ple, of Queen Charlotte, Queen Adelaide, and Prince Leopold
on his marriage Avith the Princess Charlotte — the annuity
granted had been £50,000. It so happened, however, that
the settlement to be made on Prince Albert came in tiraes
of great industrial and commercial distress. The days had
gone by when economy in the House of Coraraons Avas looked
upon as an ignoble principle, and Avhen loyalty to the sover
eign was believed to bind members of Parliament to grant,
Avithout a murraur of discussion, any sums that raight be
asked by the minister in the sovereign's narae. Parliaraent
Avas beginning to feel raore thoroughly its responsibility as
the guardian ofthe nation's resources, and it Avas no longer
thought a fine thing to give away the money ofthe tax-pay
er Avith magnanimous indifference. It Avas, therefore, absurd
on the part of the ministry to suppose that because great
sums of raoney had been voted Avithout question on forraer
occasions, they would be voted Avithout question noAv. It is
quite possible that the Avhole raatter might have been set
tled without controversy if the ministry had shown any
judgment Avhatever in their conduct of the business. In
our day the ministry would at once have consulted the lead
ers of the Opposition. In all matters Avhere the grant of
money to any one connected with the sovereign is concern
ed, it is now understood that the gift shall come with the
fullconcurrence of both parties in Parliament. The leader
ofthe House of Commons Avould probably, by arrangement,
propose the grant, and the leader of the Ojiposition Avould

104 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
second it. In the case of the annuity to Prince Albert, the
ministry had the almost incredible folly to bring forward
their proposal Avithout having invited in any Avay the, con
currence of the Opposition. They introduced the proposal
Avithout discretion; they conducted the discussion on it
Avithout teraper. They answered the most reasonable objec
tions with imputations of Avant of loyalty; and they gave
some excuse for the suspicion that they Avished to provoke
the Opposition into sorae expression that might make them
odious lo the Queen and the Prince Mr. Hume, the econo
mist, proposed that the annuity be reduced from £50,000 to
£21,000. This Avas negatived. Thereupon Colonel Sibthorp,
a once famous Tory fanatic of the most eccentric manners
and opinions, proposed that the sum be £30,000, and he re
ceived the support of Sir Robert Peel and other eminent
members ofthe Opposition; and the amendment Avas carried.
These were not auspicious incidents to prelude the Royal
marriage. There can be no doubt that for a tirae the Queen,
still raore than the Prince, felt their influence keciily. The
Prince shoAved remarkable good -sense and appreciation of
the condition of political arrangeraents in England, and read
ily coraprehended that there Avas nolhing personal to him
self in any objections Avhich the House of Commons raight
have raade to the proposals of the ministry. The question
of precedence Avas very easily settled when it came to be
discussed in reason.able fashion ; .although it Avas not until
many years after (1857) that the title of Prince Consort Avas
given to the husband ofthe Queen.
A few months after the marri.age, a bill Avas passed provid
ing for a regency in the possible event of the death of the
Queen, leaving issue With the entire concurrence ofthe lead
ers of the Opposition, Avho were consulted this time. Prince
Albert Avas named Regent, folio Aving the precedent which had
been adopted in the instance of the Princess Charlotte and
Prince Leopold. The Duke of Sussex, uncle of the Queen,
alone dissented in the House of Lords, and recorded his. pro
test against the propos,al. The passing of this bill was nat
urally regarded as of much importance to Prince Albert. It
gave him to some extent the status in the country Avhieh he
had not h.ad before It also proved that the Prince him
self had risen in the estimation ofthe Tory party during the

THE queen's MARRIAGE. 105
few months that elapsed since the debates on the annuity
and the question of precedence. No one could have started
Avilh a more resolute determination to stand clear of party
politics than Prince Albert. He accepted at once his posi
tion as the husband of the Queen of a constitutional coun
try. His own idea ofhis duty Avas that he should be the
private secretary and unofficial counsellor of the Queen.
To this purpose he devoted hiraself unsAvervingly. Outside
that part ofhis duties, he constituted himself a sort of min
ister Avithout portfolio of art and education. He took an
interest, and often a leading part, in all projects and move
ments relating to the spread of education, the culture of art,
and the promotion of industrial science. Yet it Avas long
before he Avas thoroughly understood by the country. It
Avas long before he became in any degree popular ; and it
may be doubted Avhether he ever Avas thoroughly and gen
erally popular. Not, perhaps, until his untimely death did
the country find out how entirely disinterested and faith
ful his life had been, and hoAV he had made the discharge
of duty his business and his task. His character Avas one
which is liable to be regarded by ordinary observers as
])ossessing none but negative virtues. He was thought to
be cold, forraal, and apathetic. His raanners were some
Avhat shy and constrained, except Avhen he Avas in the com
pany of those he loved, and then he commonly relaxed into
a kind of boyish freedom and joyousness. But to the pub
lic in general he seemed formal and chilling. It is not
only Mr. Pendennis Avho conceals his gentleness under a shy
and pompous demeanor. With all his ability, his anxiety
to learn, his capacity for patient study, and his willingness
to welcome neAv ideas, he never, perhaps, quite understood
the genius of the English political system. His faithful
friend and counsellor. Baron Stockm.ar, Avas not the raan
best calculated to set him right on this subject. Both were
i'ar too eager to find in the English Constitution a piece
of symmetrical mechanism, or to treat it as a Avritten code
from which one might take extracts or construct summaries
for constant reference and guidance. But this was not, in
the beginning, the cause of any coldness toward the Prince
on the part of the English public. Prince Albert had not
the Avays of an Englishman ; and the tendenev of English?
5*

106 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
men, then as now, was to assume that to have manners oth
er than those of an Englishman was to be so far unworthy
of confidence. He was not made to shine in comraonplace
society. He could talk admirably about something, but
he had not the gift of talking about nothing, and probably
would not have cared much to cultivate such a faculty. He
Avas fond of suggesting small innovations and improveraents
in established systems, to the annoyance of raen with set
ideas, who liked their oavu Avays best. Thus it happened
that he remained for many years, if not exactly unappre
ciated, yet not thoroughly appreciated, and that a consid
erable and very influential section of society was ahvays
ready to cavil at Avhat he said, and find motive for suspicion
in most things that he did. Perhaps he was best under
stood and most cordially appreciated among the jioorer
classes of his wife's subjects. He found also raore cordial
approval generally among the Radicals than among tiie
Tories, or even the Whigs.
One reforra which Prince Albert worked earnestly to
bring about Avas the abolition of duelling in the array, and
the substitution of sorae systera of courts of honorable ar
bitration to supersede the barbaric recourse to the decision
of weapons. He did not succeed in having his courts of
honor established. There Avas something too fanciful in the
scheme to attract the authorities of our tAvo services ; and
tiiere were undoubtedly many practical difficulties in the
Avay of making such a systera effective. But he succeeded
so far, that he induced the Duke of Wellington and the
heads of the services to turn their attention very seriously
to the subject, and to use all the influence in their power
for the purpose of discouraging and discrediting the odious
practice of the duel. It is carrying courtly politeness too
far to attribute the total disappearance of the duelling sys
tera, as one biographer seems inclined to do, to the personal
efforts of Prince Albert. It is enough to his honor that he
did his best, and that the best Avas a substantial contribu
tion tOAvard so great an object. But nolhing can testify
more strikingly to the rapid growth of a genuine civiliza
tion in Queen Victoria's reign than the utter discontinuance
of the duelling systera. When the Queen carae to the throne,
and fpr years after, it Avas still in full force The duel plays

THE queen's MARRIAGE. 107
a conspicuous part in the fiction and the drama ofthe reign's
earlier years. It was a coraraon incident of all political con
troversies. It Avas an episode of raost contested elections.
It Avas often resorted to for the purpose of deciding tho right
or Avrong of a half-drunken quarrel over a card-table. It
forraed as common a theme of gossip as an elopement or a
bankruptcy. Most ofthe eminent statesmen who were prom
inent in the earlier part of the Queen's reign had fought
duels. Peel and O'Connell had made arrangements for a
" meeting." Mr. Disraeli had challenged O'Connell, or any
of the sons of O'Connell. The great agitator himself had
killed his raan in a duel. Mr. Roebuck had gone out; Mr.
Cobden, at a rauch later period, had been visited Avith a
challenge, and had had the good sense and the moral cour
age to laugh at it. At the present hour a duel in England
Avould seem as absurd and barbarous an anachronism as
an ordeal by touch or a witch-burning. Many years have
liassed since a duel Avas last talked of in Parliament; and
then it Avas only the subject of a reprobation that had some
Avork to do to keep its countenance while administering the
proper rebuke. But it was not the influence of any one
man, or even any class of men, that brought about in so
short a time this striking change in the tone of public feel
ing and morality. The change Avas part of the groAvth of
education and of civilization; of the strengthening and
broadening influence of the press, the platform, the cheap
book, the pulpit, and the less restricted intercourse of classes.
This is, perhaps, as suitable a place as any other to intro
duce some notice of the atterapts that Avere made from time
to time upon the life ofthe Queen. It is proper lo say some
thing of thera, although not one possessed the slightest po
litical iraportance, or could be said to illustrate anything
more than sheer lunacy, or that morbid vanity and thirst
for notoriety that is nearly akin to genuine madness. The
first attempt Avas made on June 10th, 1840, by Edward
Oxford, a pot-boy of seventeen, who fired Iavo shots at the
Queen as she Avas driving up Constitution Hill Avith Prince
Albert. Oxford fired both shots deliberately enough, but
happily missed in each case He proved to have been an
absurd creature, half crazy Avith a longing to consider him
self a political prisoner and to be talked of When he Avas

108 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tried, tiie jury pronounced hira insane, and he Avas ordered
to be kept in a lunatic asylum during her Majesty's pleas
ure. Tlie trial corapletely dissipated sorae wild alarras that
Avere felt, founded chiefly on absurd papers in Oxford's pos
session, about a tremendous secret society called " Young
England," having among its olher objects the assassination
of royal personages. It is not an uninteresting illustration
of the condition of public feeling, that some of the Irish
Catholic papers in seeming good faith denounced Oxfprd as
an agent of the Duke of Cumberland and the Oraiigemen,
and declared that the object Avas, to assassinate the Queen
and put the Duke on the throne. The trial shoAved that
Oxford Avas the agent of nobody, and Avas impelled by noth
ing but his OAvn crack-brained, love of notoriety. The find
ing of the jury was evidentlj' something of a compromise,
for it is very doubtful Avhether the boy was insane in the
medical sense, and Avhether he Avas fairly to be held irre
sponsible for his actions. But it Avas felt, perhaps, that the
Avisest course was to treat him as a madman ; and the result
did not prove unsatisfactory. Mr. Theodore Martin, in his
" Life of the Prince Consort," expresses a different opinion.
He thinks it Avould have been Avell if Oxford had been dealt
Avitli as guilty in the ordinary Avay. "The best comraen-
tary," he says, " on the lenity thus shown Avas pronounced
by Oxford hiraself, on being told ofthe sirailar attempts of
Francis and Bean in 1842, when he declared that if he had
been hanged there would have been no raore shooting at the
Queeii." It may be reasonably doubted Avhether the au
thority of Oxford, as to the general influence of criminal leg
islation, is very valuable Against the philosophic opinion
ofthe half-crazy young pot-boy, on which Mr. Martin places
so rauch reliance, may be S£t the fact that in other countries
where attempts on the life ofthe sovereign have been pun
ished by the stern award of death, it has not been found that
the execution of one fanatic Avas a safe protection against
the murderous fanaticism of another.
On May 30th, 1842, a man named John Francis, son of a
machinist in Drury Lane, fired a pistol at the Queen as she
Avas driving down Constitution Hill, on the very spot Avhere
Oxford's attempt Avas made This Avas a somewhat serious
attempt, for, Francis was not more than a few feet from the

THE QUEEN'S MARRIAGE. 109
carriage, Avhich fortunately Avas driving at a very rapid rate.
The Queen shoAved great composure. She Avas in some
measure prepared ibr the attempt, for it seems certain that
the same man had on the previous evening presented a pis
tol at the royal carriage, although he did not then fire it.
Francis Avas arrested and put on trial. He was only tAventy-
tAvo years of age, and although at first he endeavored to
brazen it out and put on a sort of raelodraraatic regicide
aspect, yet when the sentence of death for high-treason was
passed on him he fell into a swoon and Avas carried insensible
from the court. The sentence Avas not carried into effect.
It Avas not certain Avhether the pistol Avas loaded at all, and
Avhether the Avhole performance was not a mere piece of bru
tal play-acting done out of a longing to be notorious. Her
Majesty herself Avas anxious that the death-sentence should
not be carried into eff'ect, and it Avas finally corarauted to
one of transportation for life. The very day after this mit
igation of punishment became publicly, knoAvn, another at
terapt Avas raade by a hunch-backed lad named Bean. As
the Queen Avas passing from Buckingham Palace to the
Chapel Royal, Bean presented a pistol at her carriage, but
did not succeed in firing it before his hand Avas seized by a
prompt and courageous boy Avho Avas standing near. The
pistol Avas found to be loaded with poAvder, paper closely
rammed doAvn, and some scraps of a clay pipe. It may bo
asked whether the argument of Mr. Martin is not fully borne
out by this occurrence, and whether the fact of Bean's at
tempt having been made on the day after the commutation
ofthe capital sentence in the case of Francis is not evidence
that the leniency- in the former instance was the cause ofthe
attempt made in the latter. But it Avas raade clear, and the
fiict is recorded on the authority of Prince Albert hiraself,
that Bean had announced his determination to make the at
tempt several days before the sentence of Francis was com
muted, and Avhile Francis Avas actually lying under sentence
of death. With regard to Francis himself, the Prince Avas
clearly of opinion that to carry out the capital sentence
Avould have been nothing less than a judicial murder, as it
is essential that the act should be committed Avilh intent to
kill or Avound, and in Francis's case, to all appearance, this
Avas not the fact, or at least it was open to grave doubt. In ,

110 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tills calm and Avise way did the husband ofthe Queen, who
had always shared with her whatever of danger there might
be in the attempts, argue as to the manner in Avhich they
ought to be dealt Avith. The ambition which most or all of
the miscreants Avho thus disturbed the Queen and the coun
try Avas that of the mountebank rather than of the assassin.
Tiie Queen herself showed how thoroughly she understood
the significance of all that had happened, when she declared,
according to Mr. Martin, that she expected a repetition of
the attempts on her life so long as the law remained unal
tered by Avhieh they could be dealt Avith only as acts of high-
treason. The seeming dignity of martyrdom had soraething
fascinating in it to niorbitl vanity or crazy fanaticism, while,
oil the olher hand, it was almost certain that the martyr's
jienalty Avould not in the end be inflicted. A very appro
priate change in the laAV Avas effected by Avhich a punish
ment at ouce sharp and degrading Avas provided even for
mere mountebank attempts ag.ainst the Queen ^a punisli-
iiient Avhich Avas certain to be inflicted. A bill Avas intro
duced by Sir Robert Peel making such attempts punishable
by transportation for seven years, or by imprisonment for a
term not exceeding three years, "the culprit to be publicly
or privately Avhipped as often and in such manner as the
court shall direct, not exceeding thrice." Bean Avas con
victed under this act, and sentenced to eighteen months' im
prisonment in Millbank Penitentiary. This did not, hoAv-
ever, conclude the attacks on the Queen. An Irish brick
layer, named Harailton, fired a pistol, charged only with
powder, at her Majesty, on Constitution Hill, on May 19th,
1849, and Avas sentenced to seven years' transportation. A
man named Robert Pate, once a lieutenant of hussars, struck
her Majesty on the face Avith a stick as she Avas leaving the
Duke of Cambridge's residence in her carriage on May 27th,
1850. This man Avas sentenced to seven years' transporta
tion, but the judge paid so much attention to the plea of in
sanity set up on his behalf, as to omit from his punishment
the Avhipping which raight have been ordered. Finallj^
on February 29th, 1872, a lad of seventeen, named Arthur
O'Connor, presented a pistol at the Queen as she Avas enter
ing Buckingham Palace after a drive. The pistol, hoAvever,
proved to be unloaded — an antique and useless or harmless

THE queen's MARRIAGE. Ill
weapon, with a flintlock Avhich Avas broken, and in the barrel
a piece of greasy red rag. The Avretched lad held a paper
in one hand, Avhich was found to be some sort of petition
on behalf of tho Fenian prisoners. When he came np for
trial a plea of insanity Avas put in on his behalf, but he did
not seem to be insane in the sense of being irresponsible for
his actions or incapable of understanding the penalty they
involved, and he Avas sentenced to twelve months' imprison
ment and a whipping. We have hurried over many years
fbr the purpose of completing this painful and ludicrous cat
alogue of the attempts made against the Queen. It Avill be
seen that in not a single instance Avas there the slightest
political significance to be attached to them. Even in our
own softened and civilized time it sometimes ha])pens that
an atlempt is made on the life of a sovereign which, how
ever we may condemn and reprobate it on moral grounds,
yet does seem lo bear a distinct political raeaning, and to
show that there are fanatical minds still burning under somo
sense of national or personal wrong. But in the various
attacks Avhicli were made on Queen Victoria nothing of the
kind Avas even pretended. There was no opportunity for
any vaporing about Brutus and Charlotte Corday. The im
pulse, where it was not that of sheer insanity, was of kin to
the vulgar love of notoriety in certain minds Avhich sets on
those Avhoin it pervades to mutilate noble Avorks of art and
scraAvl their autographs on the marble of immortal monu
ments. There Avas a great deal of wisdom shown in not
dealing too severely with most of these offences, and in not
treating them too much au sbrieuK. Prince Albert himself
said that " the vindictive feeling of the common peoj)le
Avould be a thousand times more dangerous than the mad
ness of individuals." There Avas not, indeed, the slightest
danger at any time that the "common people" of England
could be Avrought up to any sympathy Avilh assassination;
nor Avas this Avhat Prince Albert raeant. But the Queen
and her husband Avere yet noAV to power, and the people had
not quite lost all memory of sovereigns Avho, well-meaning
enough, had yet scarcely understood constitutional govern
ment, and there Avere Avild rumors of reaction this way and
revolution that way. It might have fomented a feeling of
distrust and dissatisfaction ifthe people had seen any dispo-

112 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
sition on the part of those in authority to strain the criminal
law for the sake of enforcing a death penalty against creat
ures like Oxford and Bean. The most alarming and unnerv
ing of all dangers to a ruler is that of assassination. Even
the best and most blameless sovereign is not Avholly secure
against it. The hand of Oxford might have killed the Queen.
Perhaps, however, the best protection a sovereign can have
is not to exaggerate the danger. There is no safety in mere
severity of punishment. Where the attempt is. serious and
desperate, it is that of a fanaticism which holds its life in its
hand, and is not to be deterred by fear of dealh. The tort
ures of Ravaillae did not deter Damiens. The birch in the
case of Bean and O'Connor raay effectively discountenance
enterprises Avhich are born of the raountebank's and not the
fanatic's spirit.

CHAPTER VIIL
THE opium: war.

The Opium dispute Avith China Avas going on when the
Queen came to the throne. The Opium War broke out soon
after. Ou March 3d, 1843, five huge wagons, each of them
drawn by four horses, and the Avhole under escort of a de
tachment ofthe 60th Regiment, arrived in front ofthe Mint.
An imraense crowd folloAved the Avagons. It Avas seen that
they were filled with boxes; and one ofthe boxes having
been soraewhat broken in its journey, the crowd Avere able
to see that it was crammed full of odd-looking silver coins.
The lookers-on were delighted, as Avell as amused, by the
sight of this huge consignment of treasure ; and Avhen it be
came knoAvn that the silver money Avas the first instalment
of the China ransom, there were lusty cheers given as the
Avagons passed through the gates of the Mint. This was a
payment on account of the Avar indemnity iraposed on Chin.a.
Nearly four millions and a half sterling was the sura of the
indemnity, in addition to one raillion and a quarter Avhich
had already been paid by the Chinese authorities. Many
readers may remember that for some time "China money"
Avas regularly set down as an item in the revenues of each

TIIE OPIUM WAR. 113
year Avitli Avliich the Chancellor of the Exchequer had to
deal. The China War, of Avhich this money was the spoil,
Avas not, perhaps, an event of Avliich the nation was entitled
to be very proud. It Avas the precursor of other wars ; the
policy on Avhich it Avas conducted has never since ceased
altogether to be a question of more or less excited contro
versy; but it may safely be asserted that if the same events
Avere to occur in our day it Avould be hardly possible to find
a ministry to originate a Avar, for which at the sarae time it
must be OAvned that the vast majority of the people, of all
politics and classes, Avere only too ready then to find excuse
and even j,ustificalion. Tho Avagon-loads of silver conveyed
into the Mint amidst the cheers ofthe crowd were the spoils
of the faraous Opium War.
Reduced lo plain Avords, the principle for Avhich we fought
in the China War Avas the right of Great Britain to force a
peculiar trade upon a foreign people in spite ofthe prolest.a-
tions ofthe Government and all such public opinion as there
Avas of the nation. Of course this was not the avoAved mo
tive of the Avar. Not often in history is the real and inspir
ing motive of a Avar proclaimed in so many Avords by those
who carry it on. Not often, indeed, is it seen, naked and
avowed, even in the minds of its promoters Ihemselves. As
the quarrel between this country and China Avent on, a great
many minor and incidental subjects of dispute arose, Avhich
for the moraent put the one main and original question ont
of people's minds; and in the course of these discussions it
happened more than once that the Chinese authorities took
some steps which put thera decidedly in the Avrong. Thus
it is true enough that there were particular passages ofthe
controversy when the English Governraent had all or nearly
all of the right on their side, so far as the immediate incident
of the dispute was concerned ; and Avhen, if that had been
the Avhole matter of quarrel, or if the quarrel had begun
there, a patriotic minister raight have been justified in think
ing that the Chinese Avere deterrained to offend England
and deserved humiliation. But no consideration of this kind
can now hide from our eyes the fact that in the beginning
and the very origin of the quarrel we Avere distinctly in the
Avrong. We asserted or at least acted on the assertion of
a claim so unreasonable and even monstrous, that it never

114 A HISTORY OF OUR OAVN TIMES.
could have been made upon any nation strong enough to
render its assertion a matter of serious responsibility. The
most important lessons a nation can learn frora its oavu his
tory are found in the exposure of ils OAvn errors. Llistori.ans
have soraetimes done more evil than court flatterers Avhen
they have gone about to glorify the errors of their own peo-
])le, and to make Avrong appear right, because an English
Government talked the public opinion of the time into a
confusion of principles.
The whole principle of Chinese civilization, at the time
Avhen the Opium War broke out, was based on conditions
Avhieli to any modern nation must seem "erroneous and un
reasonable The Chinese governments and people desired
to have no political relations or dealings whatever with any
other State. They Avere not so obstinately set against privaie
and comraercial dealings ; but they Avould have no political
intercourse Avith foreigners, and they 'would not even recog
nize the existence of foreign peoples as Slates. They Avere
jierfectly satisfied Avith themselves and their oavu systems.
They Avere convinced that their own systems Avere not only
Avise but absolutely perfect. It is superfluous to say that
tliis Avas in itself evidence of ignorance and self-conceit. A
belief in the perfection of their OAvn systems could only ex
ist among a people Avho kncAv nothing of any other systems.
But absurd as the idea must appear to us, yet the Chinese
might have found a good deal to say for it. It was the re
sult of a civilization so ancient that the oldest events pre
served in European history Avere but as yesterday in the com
parison. Whatever its errors and defects, it Avas distinctly
a civilization. It Avas a syste-ra with a literature and laws
and institutions of ils OAvn ; it was a coherent and harmo
nious social and political system Avhich had, on the Avhole,
Avorked tolerably Avell. It Avas not very unlike, in its prin
ciples, the kind of civilization Avhich at one time it Avas the
Avhim of raen of genius, like Rousseau and Diderot, to ideal
ize and adraire The European, of Avhatever nation, may be
said to like change, and to believe in its neeessitj'. His in
stincts and his convictions alike tend this Avay. The sleep
iest of Europeans — the Neapolitan, Avho lies with his feet in
the Avater on the Chiaja; the Spaniard, Avho smokes his cigar
and sips his coffee as if life h.ad no active business Avhatever;

THE OPIUM AVAR. 115
the fldnetir ofthe Paris boulevards; the beggar Avho lounged
from cabin to cabin in Ireland a generation ago — all these,
no matter Iioav little inclined for change themselves, Avould
be delighted to hear of travel and enterprise, and of ncAV
things and new discoveries. But to the Chinese, of all East
ern races, the very idea of travel and change Avas something
repulsive and odious. As the thought of having to go a
day unwashed would be to the educated Englishman of our
age, or as the edge of a precipice is to a nervous man, so
Avas the idea of innovation to tlie Chinese of lliat time. The
ordinary Oriental dreads and detests change ; but the Clii-
iiese at that tirae went as far beyond the ordinary Oriental
as the latter goes beyond an average Englishman. In the
present day a considerable alteration has taken place in this
respect. The Chinese have had innovation after innovation
forced on them, until at last they have taken up with the new
order of things, like people Avho feel that it is idle to resist
their fate any longer. The emigration from China has been
as remarkable as that from Ireland or Germany ; and the
United States finds itself confronted Avitli a question of the
first magnitude Avhen it asks itself what is to be the influ
ence and operation of the descent of the Chinese popula
tions along the Pacific slope. Japan has put on modern
and European civilization like a garment. Japan effected
in a few years a revolution in the political constitution and
tiie social habits of her people, and in their very Avay of look
ing at things, the like of Aviiich no olher Slate ever accom
jilished in a century. But nothing of all this was thought
of at the time ofthe China War. The one thing Avhich China
asked of European civilization and the thing called Modern
Progress was to be let alone. China's prayer to Europe was
that of Diogenes to Alexander — "Stand out of my sunshine."
It Avas, as we have said, to political relationships rather
than to private and commercial dealings Avith foreign peo-
])les that the Chinese felt an unconquerable objection. They
did not, indeed, like even private and commercial dealings
Avith foreigners. They Avould much ralher have lived with
out ever seeing the face of a foreigner. But they had put
up Avith the private intrusion of foreigners and trade, and
had had dealings Avith American traders, and Avith the East
India Company. The charier and the exclusive rights of

116 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the East liidia Company expired in April, 1834; the charter
Avas renewed under difi'erent conditions, and the trade Avilh •
China Avas thrown open. One of the great branches of the
East India Company's business with Cliina Avas the opium
trade. When the trading privileges ceased this traffic was
taken up briskly by private merchants, who bought of the
Company the opium Avhich they groAv in India and sold it
to the Chinese. The Chinese governments, and all teachers,
moralists, and persons of education in China, had long de
sired to get rid of or put doAvn this trade in opium. They
considered it highly detrimental to the morals, the health,
and the prosperity of the people. Of late the destructive
effects of opium have often been disputed, particularly in
tiie House of Commons. It has been said that it is not, on
tiie average, nearly so unwliolesome as the Chinese govern
ments always thought, and that it does not do as rauch pro-
jiortionate harm to Cliina as the use of brandy, whiskey, aud
gin does to England. It seems to this Avriter hardly possi
ble to doubt that the use of opium is, on the Avhole, a curse
to any nation ; but even if this were not so, the question be
tween England and the Chinese governments Avould remain
just the same The Chinese governments may have taken
exaggerated views of the evils ofthe opium trade; their
raotives in Avishing to put it down may have been mixed
with considerations of interest as much political as philan
thropic. Lord Palraerston insisted that the Chinese Gov
ernment Avere not sincere in their professed objection ou
moral grounds to the traflfic. If they were sincere, he asked,
Avhy did they not prevent the growth of the poppy in
China? It Avas, he tersely pnt it, an "exportation of bullion
question, an agricultural protection question ;" it was a ques
tion of the poppy interest in China, and of the economists
Avho Avished lo prevent the exportation ofthe precious met
als. It is curious that such argnments as this could have
Aveighed Avith any one for a moment. It was no business
of ours to <ask ourselves Avhelher the Chinese Governraent
Avere perfectly sincere in their professions of a lofty morality,
or Avhether they, unlike all other governments that have ever
been knoAvn, Avere influenced by one sole motive in the mak
ing of their regulations. All that had nothing to do with
the question. States are not at liberty to help the subjects

THE OPIUM WAR. " 117
of Other States to break the laAvs of their own governmenls.
Especially Avhen these laws even profess to concern ques
tions of inor.als, is it the duty of foreign Stales not lo inter
fere Avith the regulations Avhich a government considers it
necessary to impose fbr the protection of its people. All
traffic in opium Avas strictly forbidden by the governments
and laws of China ; yet our English traders carried on a
brisk and profitable trade in the forbidden article. Nor
Avas this merely an ordinary sinugglhig, or a business akin
to that of the blockade-running during the American civil
Avar. The arrangements with the Chinese Government al
lowed the existence of all establishments and machinery for
carrying on a general trade at Canton and Macao; arid un
der cover of these arrangements the opium traders set up
tiieir regular head-quarters in these towns.
Let us find an illustration intelligible to readers of the
present day to shoAV hoAv unjustifiable Avas this practice.
The State of Maine, as every one knows, prohibits the com
mon sale of spirituous liquors. Let us suppose that several
companies of English merchants Avere formed in Portland
and Augusta, and the other toAvns of Maine, for the purpose
of brewing beer and distilling Avhiskey, and selling both to
the public of Maine in defiance of the State laws. Let us
further suppose that when the authorities of Maine proceed
ed to put the Slate laws in force against these intruders,
our Governraent here took up the cause ofthe Avhiskey-sell-
ers, and sent an iron-clad fleet to Portland to compel the
people of Maine to put up Avilh them. It seems impossible
to think of any English Government taking such a course as
this; or ofthe English public enduring it for one moraent.
In the case of such a nation as the United Slates, nothing
of the kind Avould be possible. The serious responsibilities
of any such undertaking would raakei even the most thought
less minister pause, and would give the public in general
some time to think the matter over; and before any freak
of the kind could be altempted the conscience of the nation
Avould be aroused, and the unjust policy Avould have to be
abandoned. But in dealing with China the ministry never
seems to have thought the right or Avrong ofthe question a
matter worthy of any consideration. The controversy Avas
entered upon Avilh as light a heart as a modern Avar of slill

118 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
graver moment. Tlie people in general kneAV nothing about
the matter until it had gone so far that the original point
of dispute Avas alraost out of sight, and it seemed as if the
safety of English subjects and the honor of England Avere
compromised in some Avay by the high-handed proceedings
of the Chinese Government.
The English Government appointed superintendents to
manage our comraercial dealings Avith Chin.a. Unluckily
these superintendents were invested Avilli a sort of political
or diplomatic character, and thus from the flrst became ob
jectionable to the Chinese authorities. One of the first of
these superintendents acted in disregard of the express in
structions of his own Government. He Avas told that he
must not pass the entrance of the Canton River in a vessel
of Avar, as the Chinese authorities always raade a marked
distinction between ships of Avar and merchant vessels in re
gard to the freedom of intercourse Misunderstandings oc
curred at every ucav stej) of negotiation. These misunder
standings Avere natural. Our people kncAV hardly anything
about the Chinese. The limitation of our means of commu
nication with them made this ignorance inevitable, but. cer
tainly did not excuse our acting as if we Avere in possession
ofthe fullest and most accurate information. The manner
in which some of our official instructors went on Avas Avell
illustrated by a sentence in the speech of Sir James Graham,
during the debate on the Avhole subject in the House of
Commons in April, 1840. It Avas, Sir Jaraes Graham said, as
if a foreigner Avho Avas occasionally perraitted to anchor at
the Nore, and at tiraes to land at Wapping, being placed in
close confinement during his continuance there, Avere to pro
nounce a deliberate opinion upon the resources, the genius,
and the character ofthe British Erapire.
Our representatives Avero generally disposed to be un
yielding; and not only that, but to see deliberate offence
in every Chinese usage or ceremony Avhich the authorities
endeavored to impose on them. On the other hand, it is
clear that the Chinese authorities thoroughly detested them
and their mission, and all about them, and often made or
countenanced delays that Avere unnecessary, and interfer
ences Avhich Avere disagreeable and offensive. The Chinese
believed from the fiist that tiie superintendents Avere there

THE OPIUM WAR. 119
merely to protect the opium trade, and to force on China
political relations Avith the West. Practically this Avas tho
effect of their presence. The superintendents took no steps
to aid the Chinese authorities in stopping the hated trade.
The British traders naturally enough thought that the Brit
ish Government Avere deiermined to protect thera in carry
ing it on. Indeed, the superintendents themselves might
Avell have had the same conviction. The Government at
home allowed Captain Elliott, the chief superintendent, to
make appeal after appeal for instructions without paying
the slightest attention to him. Captain Elliott saAV that the
opium traders Avere groAving raore and more reckless and
audacious; that they were thrusting their trade under the
very eyes ofthe Chinese authorities. He also saAA', as every
one on the spot mnst have seen, that the authorities, Avho
had been somewhat apathetic for a long time, Avcre now at
last determined to go any lengths to put doAvn the traifie.
At length the English Government announced to Captain
Elliott the decision which they ought to have made knoAvii
months, not to say years before, that "her Majestj's Gov
ernment could not interfere for the purpose of enabling Brit
ish subjects to violate the laws of the coiintry with which
they trade;" and that "any loss, therefore, Avhich such per
sons may suffer in consequence of the more effectual execu
tion of the Chinese laAvs on this subject must be borne by
the parties Avho have brought that loss on themselves by
their OAvh acts." This A-ery wise and proper resolve came,
hoAvever, too late. The British traders had been alloAved to
go on for a long time under the full conviction that the pro
tection of the English Government was behind them, and
Avholly at their service. Captain Elliott hiraself seems to
have now believed that the announcement of his superiors
Avas but a graceful diplomatic figure of speech. When the
Chinese authorities actually proceeded to insist on the for
feiture of an immense quantity ofthe opium in the hand of
British traders, and took other harsh but certainly not un
natural measures to extinguish the traffic. Captain Elliott
sent to the Governor of India a request for as many ships
of Avar as could be spared for the protection of the life and
property of Englishmen in China. Before long British ships
arriA;ed, and the two countries Avere at Avar.

120 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
It is not necessary to describe the successive steps by
Avhich the war came on. It was inevitable from the mo
ment that the English superintendent identified himself with
the proteclion of the opium trade. The English believed
that the Chinese authorities were determined on Avar, and
only waiting for a convenient moment to raake a treacher
ous beginning. The Chinese were convinced that. from tbe
first Ave had meant nothing but Avar. Such a condition of
feeling on both sides Avould probably have made A^'ar uii.a-
voidable, even in the case of two nations Avho had far ranch
better Avays of understanding each other than the English
and Chinese. It is not surprising if the English people
at home knoAv little of the original causes of the contro
versy. All that presented itself to their raind Avas the fact
that Englishraen Avere in d.anger in a foreign country; that
they Avere harshly treated and recklessly imprisoned ; that
their lives Avere in jeopardy, and that the flag of England
Avas insulted. There Avas a -general notion, too, that the
Chinese Avere a barbarous and a ridiculous people, who had
no alphabet, and thought themselves rauch better than .any
other people, even the English, and that on the Avhole it
Avould be a good thing to t.ake the conceit out of theni.
Those who remember Avhat the common feeling of ordinary
society was at the time, Avill admit that it did not reach a
much loftier level than this. The matter Avas, hoAvever,
taken up more seriously in Parliament.
The policy of the Governraent Avas challenged in the
House of Commons, but Avith results of raore importance to
the existing composition of the English Cabinet than to the
relations between this country and China. Sir James Gra-
h.am moved a resoltition condemning the policy of ministers
for having, by its uncertainty and other errors, brought about
the war, Avliich, however, he did not then think it possible to
avoid. A debate Avhich continued for three days took place.
It Avas marked by the same curious mixture of parties which
Ave have seen in debates on China questions in days nearer
to the present. The defence ofthe Government was opened
by Mr. Macaulay, Avho had been elected for Edinburgh and
appointed Secretary at War. The defence consisted chiefly
in the argument that Ave could not have put the trade in
opium down, no matter hoAv earnest Ave had been, and that

THE OPIUM AVAR. 121
it Avas not necessary or possible lo keep on issuing frequent
instructions to agents so far aAvay as our repi-esenlatives in
China. Mr. Macaulay actually, drew, from our experience
in India, an argument in support of his position. '\Ye can
not govern India from London, he insisted; we must, for tiio
most part, govern India in India. One can iinagine how
Macaulay Avould, in one of his essays, have torn into pieces
such an argument coining from any advocate of a ]iolicy op-
jiosed to his oavu. The reply, indeed, is almost too obvious
to need any exposition. In India the complete materials of
administration Avere in existence There Avas a Governor-
general; there Avere councillors; there Avas an army. The
men best qualified to rule the country were there, provided
Avith all the appliances and forces of rule. In Ciiiua Ave had
an agent Avith a vague and anomalous office dropped down
in the middle of a hostile people, possessed neither of recog
nized authority nor of power to enforce its recognition. It
Avas probably true enough that Ave could not have put doAvii
the opium trade; that even Avith all the assistance ofthe
Chinese Government Ave could' have done no more than to
drive it from one port in order to see it make its appearance
at another. But Avhat Ave ought to have done is, therefore,
only the raore clear. We ought to have announced from the
first, and in the firmest tone, that we Avould have nothing to
do Avith the trade; that we Avould not protect it; and Ave
ought to have held to this determination. As it Avas, we al
lowed our traders to remain under the impression that Ave
Avere willing lo support them, until it Avas loo late to un
deceive them Avith any profit to tiieir safety or our credit.
The Chinese authorities acted after awhile Avilh a high
handed disregard of fairness, and of anything like what Ave
should call the responsibility of law; bul it is evident that
lliey believed they Avere themselves the objects of laAvless
intrusipn and enterprise. There Avere on the part ofthe Gov
ernment great efforts made to represent the motion as an
attempt to prevent the ministry from exacting satisfaction
from the Chinese Governnient, and from protecting the lives
and interests of Englishmen in China. But it is unfortu
nately only too often the duty of statesmen to recognize the
necessity of carrying on a Avar, even Avhile they are of opin
ion that they Avliose mismanagement brought about the Avar
L— 6

122 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
deserve condemnation. When Englishmen are being impris
oned and murdered, the innocent just as well as the guilty,
in a foreign country— Avhen, in short, Avar is actually going
on — it is not possible for English statesmen in opposition to
say, " We will not alloAV England to strike a bloAV in defence
of our fellow-countrymen and our flag, because we are of
opinion that better judgment on the part of our Government
Avould have sp.ared us the beginning of such a war." There
Avas really no inconsistency in recognizing the necessity of
carrying on the Avar, and at the same time censuring the
ministry Avho had alloAved the necessity to be forced upon
us. Sir Robert Peel quoted Avilh great effect, during the
debate, the example of Fox, Avho declared his readiness to
give every help to the prosecution of a war Avhich the very
same day he proposed to censure the ministry for having
brought upon the country. With all their efforts, the^ min
isters Avere only able to coraraand a majority of nine votes
as the result of the three days' debate.
The Avar, hoAvever, went on. It Avas easy Avork enough so
fiir as England Avas concerned. It was on our side nothing
but a succession of cheap victories. The Chinese fought
very bravely in a great many instances; and they shoAved
still more often a Spartan-like resolve not to survive defeat.
When one of the Chinese cities Avas taken by Sir Hugh
Gough, the Tartar general Avent into his house as soon as he
saw that all Avas lost, raade his servants set fire to the build
ing, and calraly sat in his chair until he Avas burned to dealh.
One of the English officers Avrites of the sarae attack, that it
Avas impossible lo compute the loss ofthe Chinese, "for when
they found they could stand no longer against us, they cut
the IhroAts of their Avives and children, or drove them into
Avells or ponds, and then destroyed themselves. In many
houses there Avere from eight to twelve dead bodies, and I
myself saAv a dozen Avomen and children droAvning them
selves in a small pond the day .after the fight." We quick
ly captured the island of Chusan, on the east coast of China;
a part of our squadron Avent up the Peiho River to threaten
the capital ; negotiations were opened, and the preliminaries
of a treaty were made out, to Avhich, hoAvever, neither the
English Governraent nor the Chinese Avould agree, and tho
Avar Avas reopened. Chusan Avas again taken by us; Ning-

THE OPIUM WAR. 123
po, a large city a foAV miles in on the main-land, fell into our
hands; Amoy, farther south, Avas captured; our troops Avere
before Nankin Avhen the Chinese Government at last saw
how futile Avas the idea of resisting our arms. Their Avomen
or their children might just as well have attempted to en
counter our soldiers. With all the bravery Avhich the Chi
nese often displayed, there Avas soinething pitiful, pathetic,
ludicrous, in the simple and childlike attempts which they
made lo carry on Avar against us. They made peace at last
on any terms Ave chose to ask. We asked, in the first in
stance, the cession in perpetuity to us ofthe island of Hong-
Kong. Of course avc got it. Then Ave asked that five ports
— Canton, Araoy, Foo-ChoAV-Foo, Ningpo, and Shanghai —
should be throAvn open to British traders, and that consuls
should be established there. Needless to say that this, too,
Avas conceded. Then it Avas agreed that the indemnity al
ready mentioned should be paid by the Chinese Govern
ment — some four millions and a half sterling, in addition lo
one million and a quarter as compensation for the destroyed
opium. It Avas also stipulated that correspondence between
officials of the tAvo Governraents Avas thenceforth to be car
ried on upon equal terms. The Avar Avas over for the pres
ent, and the thanks of both Houses of Parliament Avereyoled
to the fleet and army engaged iu the operations. The Duke
of Wellington raoved the vote of thanks in the House of
Lords. He could hardly help, one Avould think, forming in
his mind as he spoke an occasional contrast betAveen the ser
vices Avhich he asked the House to honor, and the sort of
Avarfare Avhicli it had been his glorious duty to engage in so
long. The Duke of Wellington was a simple-minded man,
Avith little sense of humor. He did not, probably, perceive
himself the irony that others might have seen in the fact
that the conqueror of Napoleon, the victor in years of Avar-
fare against soldiers unsurpassed in history, should have had
to move a A'Ote of thanks to the fleet and army Avhich tri
umphed over the unarmed, helpless, childlike Chinese
The whole chapter of history ended, not inapprojiriately
perhaps, Avith a rather pitiful dispute betAveen the English
Government and the English traders about the amount of
compensation to Avhich the latter laid claim for their de
stroyed opium. The Government Avere in something of a

124 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
diificulty; for they had formally announced that they were
resolved to let the traders abide by any loss which their
violation ofthe laAvs of China might bring upon thera. But,
on the other hand, they had identified themselves by the
Avar Avith the cause of the traders ; and one of the condi
tions of peace had been the compensation for the opium.
Tli'e traders insisted that the araount given for this purpose
by the Chinese Government did not nearly-raeet their losses.
The English Governraent, on the other hand, Avould not ad
mit that they Averc bound in any Avay further to make good
the losses of the merchants. The traders demanded to be
compensated according to the price of opium at the time
the seizure was made ; a demand Avhich, if we admit any
claim at all, seems only fair and reasonable. The Govern
ment had clearly undertaken their cause in the end, and
Avere hardly in a position, either logical or dignified, Avhen
they afterAvard chose to say, "Yes, we admit that we did
undertake to get you redress, but w^ do not think noAv that
Ave are bound to give you full redress." At last the matter
Avas compromised ; the merchants had to take Avhat they
could get, something considerably beloAV their demand, and
give in return to the Government an immediate acquittance
in fuU- It is hard to get up any feeling of sympathy Avitli
the traders Avho lost on such a speculation. It is hard to
feel any regret even if the Governraent Avhich had done so
much for them in the Avar treated them so shabbily Avheii
liie Avar was over; but that they Avere treated shabbily in
the final settlement seems to us to allow of no doubt.
The Chinese Avar, then, Avas over for the time. But as the
children say that suoav brings more suoav, so did that war
Avith China bring olher Avars to folloAV it.

CHAPTER IX.
DECLINE AND FALL OP THE AVHIG MINISTRY.
The Melbourne Ministry kejit going from bad to Avorse.
There Avas a great stirring in the country all around them,
Avhicli raade their feebleness the raore conspicuous. We
sometimes read in history a defence of some particular sov-

DECLINE AND FALL OF ' THE WHIG MINISTRY. 125
ereign whom common opinion cries doAvn, the defence being
a reference to the number of excellent raeasures that Avere
set in motion duriug his reign. If avo Avere to judge of the
Melbourne Ministry on the same principle, it might seem, in
deed, as if their career Avas one of extreme activity and fruit-
fulness. Reforms Avere astir in almost every direction. In
quiries into the condition of our poor and our laboring
classes Avere, to use a cant phrase of the time, the order of
the day. The foundation of the colony of Noav Zealand
Avas laid Avilh a philosophical deliberation and thoughtful-
ness which raight have reminded one of Locke and the Con
stitution of the Carolinas. Some of the first comprehensive
and practical measures to mitigate the rigor and to correct
tho indiscriminateness of the death punishment Avere taken
during this period. One ofthe first legislative enactments
which fairly acknoAvledged the difference belAveen an Eng
lish wife and a purchased slave, so far as the despotic poAvcr
of the master Avas concerned, belongs to the same time.
This was the Custody of Infants Bill, the object of which
Avas to obtain for mothers of irreproachable conduct, Avho
through no fault of theirs were living apart from their hus
bands, occasional access to their children, Avitli the permis
sion and under the control of the Equity Judges. It is cu
rious to notice how long and how fiercely this modest meas
ure of recognition for what may almost be called the natu
ral rights of a wife and a mother Avas disputed in Parlia
ment, or at least in the House of Lords.
It is curious, too, to notice Aviiat a clamor Avas raised over
the small contribution to the cause of national education
Avhich was made by the Melbourne Government. In 1834
tiie first grant of public money for the purposes of element
ary education was made by Parliament. The sum granted
Avas tAventy thousand pounds, and the same grant Avas made
every year untU 1839. Then Lord John Russell asked for
an increase of ten thousand pounds^ and proposed a change
in the manner of appropriating the money. Up to that time
the grant had been distributed through the National School
Society, a body in direct conneclion Avilh the Church of
England, and the British and Foreign School Association,
Avhich adinitled children of all Christian denominations
Avithout imposing on them sectarian teaching. The money

126 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES. ' ,
Avas dispensed by the Lords of the Treasury, Avho gave aid
to applicants in proportion to the size and cost of the school
buildings, and the number of children who attended them.
N.aturally the result of such an arrangement Avas that the
districts Avhich needed help the raost got it the least. If a
place was so poor as not to be able to do anything for itself,
the Lords of the Treasury would do nothing for it. Nat
urally, too, the rich and powerful Church of England secured
the greater part of the grant for itself. There Avas no in
spection ofthe schools; no reports were raade to Parliament
as to the manner in Avhich the system Avorked ; no steps
Avere taken to find out ifthe teachers were qualified or the
teaching was good. " The statistics of the schools," says a
Avriter in the Edinburgh Review, " were alone considered —
the size ofthe school-room, the cost ofthe building, and the
nuraber of scholars." In 1839 Lord John Russell proposed
to increase the grant, and an Order in Council transferred
its distribution to a committee of the privy council, com
posed of the president and not more than five members.
Lord John Russell also proposed the appointment of in
spectors, the founding of a model school for the training of
teachers, and the establishment of infant schools. The mod
el school and the infant schools were to be practically un-
sectarian. The comraittee of the privy council were to be
allowed to depart from the principle of proportioning their
grants to the amount of local contribution, to establish in
poor and crowded places schools not necessarily connected
Avith either of the two educational societies, and to extend
their aid even to schools where the Roraan Catholic version
of the Bible Avas read. The proposals of the Governnient
Avere fiercely opposed in both Houses of Parliament. The
raost various and fantastic forms of bigotry corabined against
them. Tlie application of public mouey, and especially
through the hands of the committee of grivy council, to
any schools not under the control and authority of tho
Church of England was denounced as a State recognition
of popery and heresy. Scarcely less marvellous to us noAV
are the speeches of those Avho promoted than of those Avho
opposed the scheme. Lord John Russell himself, Avho Avas
much in advance of the common opinion of those among
Avhom he moved, pleaded for the principles of his measure

DECLINE AND FALL OP THE AVHIG MINISTRY. 127
in a tone-rather of apology than of actual vindication. Ho
did not venture to oppose point-blank tlio claim of thoso
Avho insisted that it Avas part of the sacred right of the Es
tablished Church to have the teaching all done in her own
way or to allow no teaching at all.
The Government did not get all they sought for. They
had a fierce fight for their grant, and an amendment nioved
by Lord Stanley, to the effect that her Majesty be requested
to revoke the Order in Council appointing the Comraittee
on Education, Avas only negatived by a majority of tAvo votes
— 275 to 273. In the Lords, to Avliich the struggle was trans
ferred, the Archbishop of Canterbury actually moved and
carried by a large majority an address to the Queen pray
ing her to revoke the Order in Council. The Queen replied
firmly that the funds voted by Parliament Avould be found
to be laid out in strict accordance Avith constitutional usage,
the rights of conscience, and the safety of the Established
Church, and so dismi-ssed the question. The Government,
therefore, succeeded in establishing their Committee of Coun
cil on Education, the institution by Avhich our system of pub
lic instruction has been managed ever since. The ministry,
on the Avhole, showed to advantage in this struggle. They
took up a principle, and they stood by it. If, as we have
said, the speeches made by the proraoters ofthe scheme seem
amazing to any intelligent person of our time beeause ofthe
feeble, apologetic, and almost craven tone in which they as
sert the claims of a system of national education, yet it must
be admitted that the principle was accepted by the Govern
ment at some risk, and that it was not shabbily deserted in
the face of hostile pressure. It is worth noticing that Avhile
the increased grant and the principles on which it was to be
distributed were opposed, by such raen as Sir Robert Peel,
Lord Stanley, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Disr<aeli,it had the sup
port of Mr. O'Connell and of Mr. Smith O'Brien. Both these
Irish leaders only regretted that the grant Avas not very
rauch larger, and that it was not appropriated on a more
liberal principle. O'Connell Avas the recognized leader of
the Irish Catholics and Nationalists; Smith O'Brien was an
aristocratic Protestant. With all the Aveakness of the Whig
Ministry, their terra of office raust at least be remarkable for
the noAv departure it look in llio matter of ii.ational educa-

128 A HISTORY OF OUR, OWN TIMES.
tion. The appointment ofthe Committee of Council marks
an epoch.
Indeed, the history of that time seems full of Reform proj
ects. The Parliamentary annals contain the names bf va
rious measures of social and political improvement Avhich
might in themselves, it would seem, bear Avitness to the most
unsleeping activity on the part of any ministry. Measures
for general registration ; for the reduction ofthe stariip duty
on ncAvspapers, and ofthe duty on paper; for the improve
ment of the jail system ; for the spread of vaccination ; for
liie regulation of the labor of children ; for the prohibition
of the employraent of any child or young person under
twenty-one in the cleaning of chimneys by climbing; for
the suppression ofthe punishment ofthe pillory; efforts to
relieve the Jews from civil disabilities — these are but a few
of the many projects of social and political reforra that oc
cupied the attention of that busy period, which somehow
appears, nevertheless, to have been so sleejiy and do-nothing.
How does it corne about that Ave can regard the ministry in
Avhose time all these things Avere done or attempted as ex
hausted and Avortiiless ?
One ansAver is plain. The reforming energy Avas in the
time aud not in the ministry. In every instance public opin
ion Avcnt far ahead ofthe inclinations of her Majesty's min
isters. There Avas a just and general conviction that if the
Government were left lo themselves they Avould do nothing.
When they Avere diiven into any course of improvement
they usually did all they could lo minimize the amount of
reform to be effected. Whatever they undertook they seem
ed to undertake reluctantly, and as if only Avith the object
of preventing other people from having anything to do with
it. Naturally, therefore, they got. little or no thanks for any
good they raight have done. When they brought in a raeas
ure to abolish in various cases the punishment of death, they
fell so far behind public opinion and the inclinations of the
eomraission that had for eight years been inquiring into the
state of our crirainal laAv, that their bill only passed by very
narrow majorities, and impressed m.any ardent reformers as
if it Avere meant rather to Avilhhold than to advance a gen
uine reforra. In truth, it Avas a period of enthusiasm and
of groAvth, and the ministry did not understand this. Lord

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIG MINISTRY. 129
Melbourne seems to have found it hard to persuade himself
that there Avas any real anxiety in the mind of any one to
do anything in particular. He had, apparently, got into his
mind the conviction that the only sensible thing the people
of England could do Avas lo keep up the Melbourne Minis
try, and that, being a sensible people, they would naturally
do this. He had groAvn into something like the condition
of a parapered old hall-porter, Avho, dozing in his chair, be
gins to look on it as an act of rudeness if any visitor to his
master presumes to knock at the door and so disturb him
from his comfortable rest.
Any one Avho doubts that it Avas really a tirae of enthusi
asm in these countries has only to glance at its history.
The Church of England and the Church of Scotland Avere
alike convulsed by movements Avliich Avere the offspring of
a genuine and irresistible enthusiasm — enthusiasm of that
strong, far-reaching kind which makes epochs in the history
of a church or a people. In Ireland Father MathcAA', a pi
ous and earnest friar, Avho had neither eloquence nor learn
ing nor genius, but only enthusiasm and noble purpose, had
stirred the hei^rts of the population in the cause of temper
ance as thoroughly as Peter tho Hermit might h.ave stirred
the heart of a people to a crusade. Many of the efforts of
social reform Avhieh are still periodically raade among our
selves had their beginning then, and can scarcely be said to
have made much advance from that day to this. In July,
1840, Mr. Hume moved in the House of Commons for an ad
dress to the Throne, praying that the British Museum and
the National Gallery might be opened to the public after
Divine service on Sundays, "at such hours as taverns, beer-
shops, and gin-shops are legally open." The motion Avas, of
course, rejected ; but it is Avorthy of mention iioav as an evi
dence of the point to Avhich the spirit of social reform had
advanced at a period Avhen Lord Melbourne had seemingly
made up his raind that reform had done enough for his gen
eration, and that ministers might be alloAved, at least during
his time, to eat their meals in peace Avithout being disturbed
by the urgencies of restless Radicals, or threatened Avith
hostile majorities and Tory successes.
The Stockd.ale case Avas a disturbance of ministerial repose
Avhicli at one time Ihreatcned lo bring about a collision be-
C'-=

130 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tween the privileges of Parliament and the authority of the
law courts. The Messrs. Hansard, the Avell-knoAvn Parlia
mentary printers, had published certain Parliamentary re
ports on prisons, in Avhich it happened that a book published
by J. J. Stockdale Avas described as obscene and disgusting
in the extrerae. Stockdale proceeded against the Hansards
for libel. The Hansards pleaded the authority of Parlia
ment; but Lord Chief-justice Denman decided that the
House of Coraraons Avas not Parliaraent, and had n6 author
ity to sanction the publication of libels on individuals. Out
of this contradiction of authorities arose a long and often a
very unseemly squabble. The House of Coraraons would
not give up its privileges; the law courts would not admit
its authority. Judgment was given by default against the
Hansards in one of the many actions for libel Avhich arose
out of the affair, and the sheriffs of London were called on
to seize and sell some of the Hansards' property to satisfy
the demands of the plaintiff. The unhappy sheriffs Avere
placed, as the homely old saying would describe it, between
the devil and the deep sea. If they touched the property
of the Hansards they Avere acting in contemjit of the privi
lege of the House of Commons, and Avere liable to be com
mitted to NoAvgatc. If, on the other hand, they refused to
carry out the orders of the Court of Queen's Bench, that
court would certainly send them to prison for tho refusal.
The reality of their dilemma Avas, in fact, very soon proved.
The amount ofthe damages Avas paid into the Sheriff's Court
in order to avoid the scandal of a sale, but under protest;
the House of Coraraons ordered the sheriffs to refund the
money to the Hansards ; the Court of Queen's Bench Avas
moved for an order to direct the sheriffs to pay it over to
Stockdale. The sheriffs Avere finally committed to the cus
tody of the sergeant-at-arms for contempt of the House of
Coraraons. Tiie Court of Queen's Bench served a Avrit of
habeas corpus on the sergeant-at-arras calling on him to pro
duce the sheriffs in court. The House directed the sergeant-
at-arms to inform the court that ho held the sheriffs in cus
tody by order of the Coraraons. The sergeant-at-arras took
the sheriffs to the Court of Queen's Bench and made his
statement there ; his explanation Avas declared reasonable
and sufficient, and he marched his prisoners back again. A

DECLINE AND FALL OF TIIE WHIG MINISTRY. 131
great deal of this ridiculous sort of thing Avent on Avhich it
is not UOAV necessary to describe in any detail. The House
of Commons, Avhat Avith the arrest of llie sheriffs and of
agents acting on behalf of the pertinacious Stockdale, had
on their hands batches of prisoners Avith whom they did not
know in the least Avhat to do ; the Avhole affair created im
mense popular exciteraent mingled with much ironical laugh
ter. At last the House of Commons had recourse to legisla
tion, and Lord John Russell brought in a bill on March 3d,
1840, to afford summary protection to all persons eraployed
in the publication of Parliamentary papers. The preamble
of the measure declared that " Avhereas it is essential to the
due and effectual discharge of the functions and duties of
Parliament that no obstruction should exist to the publi
cation of the reports, papers, votes, or proceedings of either
House, as such House should deem fit," it is to be lawful
" for any person or persons against Avhom any civil or crimi
nal proceedings shall bo taken on account of such publica
tion to bring before the court a certificate under the hand
of the Lord Chancellor or the Speaker, stating that it was
published by ^he authority of the House, and the proceed
ings should at once be stayed." This bill was run quickly
through both Houses — not without sorae opposition or at
least murraur in the Upper House — and it becarae law on
April 14th. It settled the question satisfactorily enough,
although it certainly did not define the relative rights of
Parliament and the courts of laAV. No diflSculty ofthe sarae
kind has since arisen. The sheriffs and the other prisoners
Avere discharged from custody after aAvhile, and the public
excitement went out in qniet laughter.
The, question, however, Avas a very serious one; and it is
significant that public opinion Avas alraost entirely on the
side of the laAV courts and the sheriffs. The ministry must
have so fallen in public favor as to bring the House of Com
mons into disrepute along with them, or such a sentiraent
could not have prevailed so Avidely out-of-doors. The pub
lic seeraed to see nothing in the whole affair but a tyranni
cal House of Commons Avielding illimitable powers against
a fcAV hurable individuals, some of Avhom, the sheriffs, for in
stance, had no share in the controversy except that imposed
on them by official duty. Accordingly, the sheriffs Avere the

132 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
heroes of the hour, and Avere toasted and applauded all over
the country. Assuredly it Avas an aAvkAvard position for the
House of Commons to be placed in Avhen it had lo vindicate
its privileges by committing to prison men Avho Avere merely
doing a duty Avhicli the law courts imposed on them. It
Avould have been better, probably, if the Governraent had
more firmly asserted the rights ofthe House of Commons at
the beginning, and thus allowed the public to see the real
question Avliich the Avhole controversy involved. Nothing
can be more clear now than the paramount importance of
securing to each House of Parliament an absolute authority
and freedom of publication. No evil that could possibly
arise out of the misuse of such a power could be anything
like that certain to come of a stale of things Avhich restricted
by libel laAvs, or otherwise, the right of either House to pub
lish Avhatever it thought proper for the public good. Not
a single measure for the reform of any great grievance, from
the abolition of slavery to the passing ofthe Factory Acts,
but might have been obstructed, and perhaps even prevent
ed, if the free exposure of existing evils were denied to the
Houses of Parliament. In this country. Parliament only
Avorks tlirough the power of public opinion. A social re
form is not carried out simply by virtue ofthe decision of
a cabinet that something ought to be done The attenlion
ofthe Legislature and ofthe public has to be called to the
grievance again and again, by speeches, resolutions, debates,
and divisions, before there is any chance of carrying a meas
ure on the subject. When public opinion is ripe, and is
strong enough to help the Government through Avith a re
form in spite of prejudices and Acsted interests, then, and
not till then, the reform is carried. But it would be hardly
possible to bring the matter up lo this stage of groAvth if
those Avho Avere interested in upholding a grievance had the
power of Avorrying the publishers ofthe Parliaraentary reports
by legal proceedings in the earlier sl.ages of the discussion.
Nor Avould it be of any use to protect merely the freedom
of debate in Parliament itself It is not through deb.ate,
but through publication, that the public opinion of the coun-
ti-y is reached. In truth, tlie poorer a man is, the weaker
and the humbler, the greater need is there that he should
call out for the full freedom of publication to be vested in

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIG MINISTRY. 133
the hands of Parliaraent. The factory child, the climbing
boy, the apprentice under colonial systems of modified slav
ery, the seaman sent to sea in the rotten ship ; tiie Avomaii
clad in unworaanly rags Avho sings her "Song of a Siiirt;"
the other Avonian, alraost literally unsexed in forra, function,
and soul, Avho in her filthy trousers of sacking dragged on
all-fours the coal trucks in the mines — tliese are the tyrants
and the monopolists for Avlioin Ave assert the privilege of
Parliamentary publication.
The operations Avhich took place about this tirae in Syria
belong, perhaps, rather to the general history of the Ottoman
Empire than lo that of England. But they had so impor
tant a bearing on the relations belAveen this country and
France, and are so directly connected Avith subsequent events
in Avhich England bore a leading part, that it would be im
possible to pass them over without sorae notice here. Mo
haramed Ali, Pasha of Egypt, the most poAverful of all the
Sultan's feudatories, a man of iron avIU and great capacity
both for war and admiiiistratioii, had made himself for a
tirae raaster of Syria. By the aid of the Avarlike qualities
of his adopted son, Ibrahim Pasha, he had defeated the
armies of the Porte Avherever he had encountered them.
Mohammed's victories had, for the tirae, compelled the Porte
to allow hiin to remain in power in Syria; but the Sultan
had long been preparing to try another effort for the reduc
tion ofhis ambitious vassal. In 1839 the Sultan again de
clared Avar against Mohammed Ali. Ibrahira Pasha again
obtained an overwhelming victory over the Turkish army.
The energetic Sultan Maiimoud, a man not unAvorthy to
cope Avith such an adversary as Mohammed Ali, died sud
denly; and immediately after his death the Capitan Pasha,
or Lord High Admiral of the Ottoman fleet, Avent over to
the Egyptians Avilli all his vessels; an act of alraost unexam
pled treachery even in the history ofthe Ottoman Empire.
It was evident that Turkey Avas not able to hold her oavu
against the forraidable Moharamed and his successful son ;
and the policy of the Western Powers of Europe, and of
England especially, had long been to maintain tiie Ottoman
Empire as a necessary part of the common Slate system.
The policy of Russia Avas to keep up that empire as long
as it suited her own purposes; to take care that no other

134 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Power got anything out of Turkey; and to prepare the
Avay for such a partition of the spoils of Turkey as Avould
satisfy Russian inlerests. Russia, therefore, Avas to be found
noAv defending Turkey, and now assailing her. The course
taken by Russia was seemingly inconsistent; but it was
only inconsistent as the course of a sailing ship may be
Avhich now tacks to this side and iioav to that, but has a
clear object in view and a port to reach all the while. Eng
land Avas then, and for a long time after, steadily bent on
preserving the Turkish Empire, and in a great measure as
a rampart against the schemes and ambitions imputed to
Russia herself France Avas less firmly set on the maiute-
iiance of Turkey; and France, moreover, had got it into her
iniud that England h.ad designs of her own on Egypt. Aus
tria was disposed to go generally with England; Prussia
was little more than a nominal sharer in the alliance that
Avas now tinkered np. It is evident that such an alliance
could not be very harmonious or direct in its action. It
Avas, hoAvever, effective enough to prove too sirong for the
Pasha of Egypt. A fleet made up of English, Austrian, and
Turkish vessels bombarded Acre; an allied army drove the
Egyptians from several of their strongholds. Ibrahim Pasha,
Avith all his courage and genius, Avas not equal lo the odds
against Avhich he now saAv himself forced to contend. He
had to succumb. No one could doubt that he and his fa
ther Avere incomparably better able to give good govern
raent and the chances of development to Syria than the
Porte had ever been. But in this instance, as in others,
tiie odious principle was upheld by England and her actual
allies that the Turkish Empire raust be raaintalned, at no
matter Avhat cost of suffering and degradation to its subject
populations. Mohammed Ali Avas deprived of all his Asiatic
possessions, but Avas secured in his government of Egypt.
A convention signed at London on July 15th, 1840, arranged
fpr the imposition of those terms on Mohamraed Ali.
The convention Avas signed by the representatives of Great
Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, on the one part, and of
the Ottoman Porte on tlie other. The name of France w.as
not found there. France had draAvn back from the alliance,
and for some time seemed as if she Avere likely to take arms
against it. INf. Thiers Avas then her Primc-ministor : lie Avas

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE AVHIG MINISTRY. 135
a man of quick fancy, restless and arabitious teraperament,
and Avliat avc cannot help calling a vulgar spirit of national
self-sufficiency — we are speaking now of the Thiers of 1840,
not of the wise and capable statesraan, tempered and tried
by the fire of adversity, Avho reorganized France out of the
ruin and Avelter of 1870. Thiers persuaded hiraself and the
great majority of his countrymen that England was bent
upon driving Moharamed Ali out of Egypt as Avell as out of
Syria, and that her object was to obtain possession of Egypt
for herself For sorae months it seenied as if war Avere inev
itable between England and France, although there Avas not
in reality the slightest reason Avliy the tAvo States should
quarrel. France Avas just as far away from any thought of
a really disinterested foreign policy as England. England,
on the other hand, had not the remotest idea of becoming
the possessor of Egypt. Fortunately Louis Philippe and IM.
Guizot Avere both strongly in favor of peace ; M. Thiers re
signed ; and M. Guizot became Minister for Foreign Affairs,
and virtually head ofthe Government. Thiers defended his
policy in the French Chamber in a scream of passionate and
almost hysterical declamation. Again and again he declared
th.at his mind had been made up to go to Avar if England did
not at once give Avay and modify the terms of the conven
tion of July. It cannot be doubted that Thiers carried Avilli
hira rauch ofthe excited public feeling of France. But tho
King and M. Guizot Avere happily supported by the raajor
ity in and out ofthe Charabers; and on July 13th, 1841, the
Treaty of London was signed, which provided for the settle
ment ofthe affairs of Egypt on the basis ofthe arrangement
already made, and Avhicli contained, moreover, the stipula
tion, lo be referred to more than once hereafter, by which
the Sultan declared himself firraly resolved to raaintain the
ancient principle of his erapire — that no foreign ship of Avar
Avas to be admitted into the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus,
with the exception of light vessels for Avhich a firman Avas
granted. The public of this country had taken but little interest in
the controversy about Egypt, at least until it seemed like
ly to involve England in a Avar with France. Some of the
episodes of the Avar Avere indeed looked upon with a certain
satisfaclion by people here at home The bravery of Ciiarles

136 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Napier, the hot-headed, self-conceited commodore, Avas en
thusiastically extolled, and his feats of successful audacity
Avere glorified as though they had sliOAvn the genius of a
Nelson or the clever resource of a Cochrane. Not many of
Napier's admirers cared a rush about the merits of the quar
rel belAveen the Porte and the Pasha. Most of them Avould
have been just as Avell pleased if Napier had been fighting
for the Pasha and against the Porte ; not a few Avere ut
terly ignorant as to Avhether he Avas fighting for Porle or
for Pasha. Those Avho claimed to be more enlightened had
a sort of general idea that it Avas in some Avay essential to
the safety and glory of England that Avhenever Turkey Avas
in trouble Ave should at once become her champions, tame
her rebels, and conquer her eneraies. Unfounded as were
tiie suspicions of Frenchmen about our designs upon Egypt,
they can hardly be called very unreasonable. Even a very
cool .and impartial Frenchman might be led to the conclu
sion that free England Avould not Avithout some direct pur
pose of her own have pledged herself to the cause of a base
and a decaying despotism.
Steadily, meauAvhile, did the ministry go from bad to
Avorse. They had greatly damaged their character by the
manner in Avliich they had again and again put up Avith de
feat, and consented to resume or retain office on .any excuse
or pretext. ThcA"- Avere remarkably bad administrators;
tlieir finances Avere Avretchedly managed. In later times
Ave have come to regard the Tories as especially Aveak in the
matter of finance. A AA-ell-managed revenue and a comfort
able surplus are generally looked upon as in some Avay or
other the monopoly of a Liberal administraiion ; Avhile lav
ish expenditure, deficit, and increased taxation are counted
among the necessary accompaniments of a Tory Govern
ment. So nearly does public opinion on both sides go to
.accepting these conditions, that there are many Tories who
take it rather as a matter of pride that their leaders are not
mean economists, and Avho reg.ard a free-handed expenditure
of the national revenue .as soraething peculiarly gentleman
like, and in keeping Avith the honor,able traditions of a great
country party. But this was not the idea Avliich prevailed
in the days ofthe Melbourne Ministry. Then the universal
conviction Avas that tho Whigs Avcre incapable of managing

DECLINE AND FALL OF THE WHIG MINISTRY. 137
the finances. The budget ofthe Chancellor ofthe Excheq
uer, Mr. Baring, showed a deficiency of nearly two millions.
Tills deficiency he proposed to meet in part by alteration in
tlie sugar duties; but the House of Commons, after a long
debate, rejected his proposals by a raajority of thirty-six.
It Avas then expected, of course, that ministers Avould resign ;
but they Avere not yet willing to accept the consequences
of defeat. They thought they had another stone in their
sling. Lord John Russell had previously given nolice of
his intention to move for a corarailtee of the whole House
to consider the state of legislation Avith regard to the trade
in corn ; and he nowbrought forAvard an announcement of
his plan, which Avas to propose a fixed duty of eight shil
lings per quarter on Avheat, and proportionately dirainished
rates on rye, barley, and oats. Except for its effect on the
fortunes ofthe Melbourne Ministry there is not the slightest
importance to be attached to this proposal. It Avas an ex
periment in the direction ofthe Free-traders, who Avere just
beginning to be poAverful, although they Avere not nearly
strong enough yet to dictate the policy of a governraent.
We shall have to tell the story of Free-trade hereafter; this
present incident is no part of the history of a great raove-
ijieut; it is merely a small party dodge. It deceived no
one. Lord Melbourne had ahvays spoken with the utter
most contempt of the Free-trade agitation. With charac
teristic oaths, he had declared that of all the mad things
he had ever heard suggested. Free-trade Avas the m.addest.
Lord John Russell hiraself, although fiir raore enlightened
than the Prime-minister, had often condemned and sneered
at the demand for Free-trade The conversion of tlie min
isters into the official advocates of a moderate fixed duty
Avas all too sudden for the conscience, for the very storaacli
ofthe nation. Public opinion Avould not endure it. Noth
ing but harm came to the Whigs from the attempt. In
stead of any new adherents or fresh sympathy being won
for them by their proposal, people only asked, "Will noth
ing, then, turn them out of office? Will they never have
done Avith trying new tricks lo keep in place?"
Sir Robert Peel took, in homely phrase, the bull by the
liorns. He proposed a direct vote of want of confidence —
a resolution declaring that ministers did not possess con-

138 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
fidence of the House sufficiently to enable them to carry
through the measures Avhich they deemed of essential im
portance to the public Avelfare, and that their continuance
in office under such circumstances was at A^ariance with the
spirit ofthe Constitution. On June 4th, 1841, the division
was taken ; and the vote of no-confidence was carried by a
majority of one. Even the Whigs could not stand this.
Lord Melbourne at last began to think that things Avere
looking serious. Parliament was dissolved, and the result
of the general election was that the Tories were found to
have a majority even greater than they themselves had an
ticipated. The moment the new Parliament was assembled
ainendments to the address were carried in both Houses in
a sense hostile to the Government. Lord Melbourne and
his colleagues had to resign, and Sir Robert Peel was in
trusted with the task of forming an administration.
We have not much more to do Avilli Lord Melbourne in
this history. He merely drops out of it. BetAveen his ex
pulsion from office and his death, Avhich took place in 1848,
lie did little or nothing to call for the notice of any one. It
Avas said at one time that his closing years Avere lonesome
and melancholy; but this has lately been denied, and indeed
it is not likely that one Avho had such a genial temper and
so many friends could have been left lo the dreariness of a
not self-sufficing solitude and to the bitterness of neglect.
He Avas a generous and kindly man; his personal character,,
although often assailed, Avas free of any serious reproach ;
he was a failure in office, not so much from want of ability,
as because he Avas a politician Avithout convictions.
The Peel Ministry came into poAver with great hopes. It
had Lord Lyndhurst for Lord Chancellor ; Sir .lames Gra
ham for Home Secretary ; Lord Aberdeen at the Foreign
Office ; Lord Stanley Avas Colonial Secretary. The most re
markable man not in the cabinet, soon to be one of the fore
most statesmen in the country, Avas Mr. W. E. Gladstone.
It is a fact of some significance in the history of the Peel
administration, that the elections Avhich brought the ncAV
ministry into power brought Mr. Cobden for the first tirae
into the House of Commons.

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 139

CHAPTER X.
MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES.
While Lord Melbourne and his Whig colleagues, still in
office, AVcre fribbling aAvay their popularity on the pleasant
assumption that nobody was particularly in earnest about
anything, the Vice-chancellor and heads of houses held a
meeting at Oxford, and passed a censure on the celebrated
"No. 90," of "Tracts for the Times." The movement, of
Avhich some important tendencies Avere forraally censured in
the conderanation of this tract, Avas one of the most momen
tous that had stirred the Church of England since the Ref
ormation. The author of the tract Avas Dr. John Henry
Newman, and the principal ground for its censure, by voices
claiming authority, was the principle it seemed to put for
Avard — that a man might honestly subscribe all the articles
and formularies of the English Church, while yet holding
raany of the doctrines ofthe Church of Rome, against Avliich
those articles were regarded as a necessary protest. The
great raoveraent M'hich Avas thus brought into sudden ques
tion and publicity was in itself an offspring of the imraense
stirring of thought which the French Revolution called up,
and Avhich had its softened echo in lhe English Reforra Bill.
The centre ofthe religious movement was to be found in the
University of Oxford. When it is in the right, and Avhen it
is in the Avrong, Oxford has always had more of the senti
mental and of the poetic in its cast of thought than its rival
or colleague of Cambridge. Tiiere Avere two influences then
in operation over England, both of which alike aroused tho
alarm and the hostility of certain gifted and enthusiastic
young Oxford men. One Avas the tendency to Rationalism
draAvn from the German theologians ; the other Avas the
raanner in Avhich the connection of the Church Avith the
State in England was beginning to operate to the disad
vantage of the ChurcTi as a sacred institution and teacher.
The Reform party everywhere Avere assailing the rights and

140 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
properly ofthe Church. In Ireland, especially, experiments
Avere made Avhich every practical man Avill now regard with
approval, wheiher he be Churchman or not, but which seemed
to the devoted ecclesiast of Oxford to be fraught Avith dan
ger to the freedom and influence of the Churcii. Out ofthe
contemplation of thesedangers sprang the desire to revive
the authority pf the Church; to quicken her Avith a noAV vi-
t.ality ; to give her once again that place as guide and in
spirer ofthe nation,al life Avhich her ardent votaries believed
to be hers by right, and lo have been forfeited only by the
carelessness of her authorities, and their failure to fulfil the
duties of her Heaven-assigned mission.
No movement could Avell have had a purer source. None
could have had more disinterested and high-minded pro
moters. It Avas borne in upon some earnest, unresting souls,
like that ofthe SAveet and saintly Keble — souls " Avithout
haste and Avithout rest," like Goethe's star — that the Church
of England had higher duties and nobler claims than the
business of preaching harmless sermons and the poAver of
enriching bishops. Keble could not bear to think of the
Cliurch taking pleasure since all is well. He urged on some
of the more vigorous and thoughtful minds around him, or
rather he suggested it by his influence and his exaraple, tliat
they should reclaim for the Church the place Avhich ought to
be hers, as the true successor of the Apostles. He claimed
for her that she, and she alone, Avas the real Catholic Church,
and that Rorae had Avandered away from the right palli, and
foregone the glorious mission which she might have main
tained. Among those Avho shared the spirit and purpose of
Keble Avere Richard Hurrell Froude, the historian's elder
brother, Avho gave rich promise of a splendid career, but avIio
died Avhile still in comparative youth; Dr. Pusey, afterward
leader of the school of ecclesiasticism Avhich bears his name ;
and, most eminent of all. Dr. Newman. Keble had taken
part in the publication of a series of treatises called "Tracts
i'or the Times," the object of Avliich Avas to vindicate the real
mission, as the Avriters believed, of the Church of England.
Tills Avas the Tractarian movement, Avhich had such various
and meraorable results. NoAvman first started the project
of the Tracts, and Avrote the raost rem'arkable of thera. He
had, up to this time, been distinguished as one of the most

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 141
unsparing enemies of Rome At the same time he Avas, as
he h,as liimself siiid, "fierce" against the "instruments" and
the "manifestations" of " the Liberal cause" While ho
Avas at Algiers once, a French vessel put in there, flying tho
tricolor; NoAvman Avould not even look at iicr. "On my
return, though forced to stop twenty- four hours at Paris,
I kept in-doors the Avhole time, and all that I saw of that
beautiful city Avas what I saw from the diligence." He had
never had any raanner of association Avith Roman Catholics;
had, in fact, knoAvn singularly little of them. As Newman
studied and wrote concerning the best Avay to restore the
Church of England to her proper place in the national life,
he kept the thought before him "th.at there was something-
greater than the Established Church, and that that Avas tho
Cliurch Catholic and Apostolic, set up from the beginning,
of Avhich she Avas but the local presence and the organ.
She Avas nothing unless she Avas this. Slie must be dealt
Avith strongly, or she Avould be lost. There Avas need of a
second Reformation." At this time the idea of leaving the
Church never. Dr. Newraan himself assures ns, had crossed
his imagination. He felt alarmed for the Church between
Gerraan Rationalism and man-of-the-Avovld liberalism. His
fear Avas that the Church would sink lo be the servile instru
ment of a State, and a Liberal Slate.
The abilities of Dr. NoAvman Avere hardly surpassed by
any conleraporary in any department of thought. His po
sition and influence in Oxford were almost unique. There
Avas in his intellectual teraperaraent a curious combination
of the mystic and the logical. He was at once a poetic
dreamer and a sophist — in the true and not the corrupt and
ungenerous sense ofthe latter Avord. It had often been said
of him and of another great Englishman, that a change in
their early conditions and training would easily have made
of NoAvraan a Stuart Mill, and of Mill a Newraan. England,
in our tinie, has hardly had a greater master of argument and
of English prose than Newman. He is one ofthe keenest of
dialecticians; and, like Mill, has the rare art that dissolves
all the difficulties of the most abstruse or perplexed subject,
and shoAvs it bare and clear even to the least subtle of read
ers. His words dispel mists; and Avhether they who listen
agree or not, they cannot fail to understand. A penetrating,

142 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
poignant, satirical humor is found in most of his writhigs, an
irony sometimes piercing suddenly through it like a darting
pain. On the other hand, a generous vein of poetry and of
pathos informs his style ; and there are raany passages of
his works in which he rises to the height of a genuine, and
noble eloquence.
In all the arts that make a great preacher or orator NeAv-
raan Avas strikingly deficient. His manner Avas constrained,
ungraceful, and even aAvkAvard ; his voice Avas thin and weak.
Liis bearing Avas not at first impressive in any way. A
gaunt, emaciated figure, a sharp and eagle face, a cold, raedi
tative eye, ralher repelled than attracted those Avho saiv him
for the first time. Singularly devoid of affectation, Newman
did not always conceal his intellectual scorn of raen who
made loud pretence Avith inferior gifts, and the men must
have been foAv indeed Avhose gifts Avere not inferior to his.
NoAvman had no scorn for intellectual inferiority in itself; he
despised it only when it gave itself airs. His influence Avhile
he Avas the vicar of St. Mary's at Oxford Avas profound. As
Mr. Gladstone said of him in a recent speech, " Avithout os
tentation or effort, but by simple excellence, he was continu
ally drawing undergraduates raore and more around him."
Mr. Gladstone in the same speech gave a description of Dr.
NcAvraan's pulpit style Avhich is interesting : "Dr. NoAvraan's
inanner in the pulpit was one Avhich, if you considered it in
its separate parts, Avould lead you to arrive at A'ery unsat
isfactory conclusions. There Avas not very much cliange in
the inflection of the voice ; action there Avas none ; his ser
mons Avere read, and his eyes Avere ahvays on his book; and
all that, you Avill say, is against efficiency in preaching. Yes ;
but you take the raan as a Avhole, and there Avas a stamp and
a seal upon him, there was a solemn music and sweetness in
his tone, there Avas a completeness iu the figure, taken to
gether Avith the tone and Avith the manner, Avhich made even
his delivery, such as I have described it, and though exclu
sively Avith Avritten sermons, singularly attractive." The
stamp and seal were, indeed, those Avhich are impressed by
genius, piety, and earnestness. No opponent ever spoke of
Newraan but Avith admiration for his intellect and respect
for his character. Dr. Newman had a younger brother, Fran
cis W. NcAvman, Avho also possessed remarkable ability and

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 143
cajncstiiess. He, too, Avas distinguished at Oxford, and seem
ed to have a great career there before him. But he Avas
draAvn one Avay by the Avave of thought before his more fa
mous brother had been draAvn the other Avay. In 1830, the
younger NeAvman found hiraself prevented by religious scru
ples from subscribing the Thirty-nine Articles for his mas
ter's degree. He left the university, and Avandered for years
in the East, endeavoring, not very successfully, perhaps, lo
teach Christianity on its broadest base to Mohammedans ;
and then he carae back to England to take his place among
the leaders of a certain school of free thought. Fate had
dealt Avith those brothers as Avith the tAvo friends in Ricli-
ter's story : it " seized their bleeding hearts, and flung them
different Avays."
When Dr. NcAvman Avrote the famous Tract " No. 90," for
Avhich he Avas censured, he boAved to the authority of his
bishop, if not to that of the heads of houses ; and he discon
tinued the publication of such treatises. But he did not ad
mit any change of opinion ; and, indeed, soon after he edit
ed a publication called The British Critic, in Avhich many of
the principles held to be exclusively those of the Church of
Rome were enthusiastically claimed for the English Church.
Yet a little and the gradual Avorking of NeAvman's raind be
carae evident to all the world. The brightest and most pen
etrating intellect in the Church of England Avas AvithdraAvn
irom her service, and NcAvman Avent over to the Church of
Rome His secession Avas described by Mr. Disraeli, a quar
ter of a century afterward, as having "dealt a blow to the
Church of England under which she slill reels." To this re
sult had the inquiry conducted him Avhich had led his friend
Dr. Pusey merely to endeavor to incorporate some of the
mysticism and the syrabols of Rome Avith the ritual of the
English Protestant Church ; Avhich had brought Keble only
to seek a more liberal and truly Christian temper for the
faith of the Protestant ; and Avhich had sent Francis New
man into Radicalism and Rationalism.
In truth, it is not difficult uoav to understand how the
elder Newman's mind became draAvn toAvard the ancient
Church which Avon him at last. We can see from his OAvn
candid account of his earlier sentiments how profoundly
mystical Avas his intellectual nature, and hoAA', long beforo

144 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
he Avas conscious of any such tendency, he was draAvn toward
the very symbolisms of the Catholic Church. Pascal's early
and unexplained mastery of mathematical problems Avhicii
no one had taught him is not more suggestive in its Avay
than those early drawings of Catholic symbols and devices
Avhich, done in his childhood, Newraan says surprised and
Avere inexplicable to hira Avhen he came on theni in years
long after. No place could be better fitted to encourage
and develop this tendency to mysticism iu a thoughtful mind
than Oxford, Avith all its noble memories of scholars and of
priests, Avilli its picturesque and poetic surroundings, and
its never-fading medisevalism. Newraan lived in the past.
His spirit Avas Avith inediseval England. His thoughts were
of a time when one Church took charge of the souls of a
Aviiole united, devout people, and stood as the guide and au
thority appointed for thein by Heaven. He thought of sucii
a tirae until first he believed in it as a thing of the past,
and next came to have faith in the possibility of its restora
tion as a thing of the present and the future. When once
he had come to this point the rest followed, "as by lot God
wot." No creature could for a moraent suppose that that
ideal Church Avas to be found in the English Establishment,
submitted as it Avas to Stale-made doctrine, and to the de
cision of the Lord Chancellor, Avho might be an infidel or a
free-liver. The question Avhieh Cardinal Manning tells us
he asked himself years after, at the time ofthe Gorham case,
mnst often have presented itself to the mind of NeAvman —
Suppose all the Bishops of the Church of England should
decide unanimously on any question of doctrine, Avould any
<me receive the decision as infallible? Of course not. Such
is not the genius or the principle of the English Church.
The Church of England has no pretension to be considered
the infallible guide of the people in matters even of doc
trine. Were she seriously to put forward any such preten
sion, it Avould be rejected Avitli conterapt by the common
mind of the nation. We are not discussing questions of
dogma or the rival claims of Churches here; we are merely
])ointing out that to a man with Newman's idea of a church,
the Church of England could not long afford a home. That
very logical tendency, Avhich in the mind of Newman, as
of that of Pascal, contended i'or supremacy Avith the ten-

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 145
dency to devotion and mysticism, only impelled him more
rigorously on his Avay. He could not put up with coni-
jiromises, and convince himself that he ought to be con
vinced. He dragged every compromise and every doctrine
into the light, and insisted on knowing exactly Avhat it
amounted to and Avliat it meant to say. The doctrines and
compromises ofhis own Church did not satisfy him. There
are minds Avliich, in this condition of beAvilderment, might
have been content to find " no footing so solid as doubt."
NcAvman had not a mind of that class. He could not be
lieve ih a world without a church, or a church without Avliat
lie held to be inspiration ; and accordingly he threw his
-whole soul, energy, genius, and fame into the cause of the
Church of Rome.
This, however, did not come all at once Wc are antici
pating by a few years the passing over of Dr. Newman, Car
dinal Manning, and others to the ancient Church. It is
clear that Newman Avas not himself conscious for a long
time ofthe manner in which he was being drawn, surely al
though not quickly, in the direction of Rorae. He used lo
be accused at one time of having remained a conscious Ro
man Catholic in the English Church, laboring to make uoav
converts. Apart from his oavu calm assurances, and from
the singularly pure and candid nature of the man, there are
reasons enough to render such a charge absurd. Indeed,
that siinjjle and childisli conception of human nature Avhich
assumes that a raan raust always see the logical consequences
of certain admissions or inquiries beforehand, because all men
can see thera afterward, is rather confusing and out of place
Avlien we are considering such a crisis of thought and feeling
as that which took place in Oxford, and such men as those
AvIio were principally concerned in it. For the present it is
enough to say that the object of that movement was to raise
the Church of England i'rom apathy, from dull, easy-going
acquiescence, frora the perfunctory discharge of forraal du
ties, and to quicken her again Avith the spirit of a priesthood,
to arouse her to the living Avork, spiritual and physical, of
an ecclesiastical sovereignty. The impulse overshot itself
in some cases, and Avas misdirected in others. It proved a
failure, on the Avhole, as to its definite aims; and it some
times left behind it only the ashes of a barren symbolism.
L— 7

146 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
But in its source it was generous, beneficent, and noble, and
it is hard to believe that there has not been throughout the
Church of England, on the Avhole, a higher spirit at work
since the famous Oxford movement began.
Still greater Avas the practical importance, at least in de
fined results, of the raovement which went on in Scotland
about the same tirae. A fortnight before the decision ofthe
heads of houses at Oxford on Dr. NoAvman's tract. Lord
Aberdeen announced in the House of Lords that he did not
see his way to do anything in particular Avilh regard to the
dissensions in the Church of Scotland. He had tried a meas
ure, he said, the year before, and half the Church of Scotland
liked it, and the other half denounced it, and the Govern
ment opposed it ; and he, therefore, had nothing further to
suggest in the raatter. The perplexity of Lord Aberdeen
only faintly typified the perplexity of the ministry. Lord
Melbourne was about the last man in the world likely to
have any sympathy with the spirit which animated the Scot
tish Reforraers, or any notion of how to get out of the diffi
culty which the whole question presented. Differing as they
did in so many other points, there was one central resem
blance between the movement in the Kirk of Scotland and
that which Avas going on in the Church of England. In
both cases alike the effort of the reforming party Avas to
emancipate the Church from the control of the State in raat
ters involving religious doctrine and duty. In Scotland Avas
soon to be presented the spectacle of a great secession from
an Established Church, not because the seceders objected to
the principle of a Church, but because they held that the
Establishraent Avas not faithful enough to its mission as a
Church. One of the seceders pithily explained the posi
tion ofthe controversy when he said that he and his fellows
Avere leaving the Kirk of Scotland, not because she Avas too
"churchy," but because she Avas not "churchy" enough.
The case was briefly this: During the reign of Queen
Anne an Act was passed Avhich took frora the Church courts
in Scotland the free choice as to the appointment of pastors,
by subjecting the power of the presbytery to the control
and interference of the laAV courts. Harley, Bolingbroke,
and Swift, not one of Avhom cared a rush about the supposed
sanctity of an ecclesiastical appointment, Avere the authors

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 147
of this compromise, which was exactly of the kind that sen
sible men of the world everyAvhere might be supposed likely
to accept and approve. In an immense number of Scotch
parishes the minister was nominated by a lay patron; and
if the presbytery found nothing to condemn in him as to
" life, literature, and doctrine," they Avere compelled to ap
point him, hoAvever unwelcome he raight be to the parish
ioners. Noav it is -obvious that a man raight have a blarae-
less character, sound religious a'Ibavs, and an excellent edu
cation, and nevertheless be totally unfitted to undertake the
charge of a Scottish parish. The Southwark congregation,
Avho appreciate and delight in the ministrations of Mr. Spur-
geon, might very well be excused if they objected to having
a perfectly moral Charles Honeyman, even though his relig
ious opinions were identical with those of their favorite,
forced upon them at the Avill of some aristocratic lay patron.
The effect ofthe power conferred on the laAv courts and the
patron Avas simply in a great number of cases to send fami
lies away from the Church of Scotland and into voluntaryism.
The Scotch people are above all others impatient of any at
tempt to force on them the services of unacceptable minis
ters. Men clung to the National Church as long as it was
national — that is, as long as it represented and protected the
sacred claims of a deejjly religious people Dissent, or rath
er voluntaryism, began lo make a progress in Scotland that
alarmed thoughtful Churchmen. To get over the difficulty,
the General Asserably, the highest ecclesiastical court in
Scotland, and likewise a sort of Church Parliaraent, declared
that a veto on the nomination of the pastor should be exer
cised by the congregation, in accordance with a fundamental
law of the Church that no pastor should be intruded on any
congregation contrary to the Avill of the people. The Veto
Act, as this declaration was called, worked well enough for
a short time, and the highest legal authorities declared it
not incompatible with the Act of Queen Anne. But it di
minished far too seriously the poAver of the lay patron to be
accepted without a struggle. In the celebrated Auchterar-
der case the patron won a victory over the Church in the
courts of law, for having presented a minister Avhose appoint
ment was vetoed by the congregation ; he obtained an order
from the civil courts deciding that the presbytery must take

148 A HISTORY OF OUR OAVN TIMES.
liira on trial, in obedience with the Act of Queen Anne, as he
Avas qualified by life, literature, and doctrine. This question,
however, was easily settled by the General Asserably of the
Church. They left to the patron's nominee his stipend and
his house, and took no further notice of hira. They did not
recognize hira as one of their pastors, but he might haA'e, if
he Avould, the manse and the money Avhich the civil courts
had declared to be his. They merely appealed to the Legis
lature to do something which might raake the civil law in
harmony Avith the principles of the Church. A raore serious
question, however, presently arose. This was the famous
Strathbogie case, which brought the authority ofthe Church
and that of the State into irreconcilable conflict. A minis
ter had been nominated in the parish of Marnoch who was so
unacceptable to the congregation that 261 out of 300 heads
of families objected to his appointment. The General As
serably directed the presbytery of Strathbogie, in Avhich the
parish lay, to reject the minister, Mr. Edwards. The pres
bytery had long been noted for its leaning toAvard the clairas
of the civil power, and it very reluctantly obeyed the com
mand ofthe highest authority and ruling body ofthe Church.
Another minister was appointed to the parish. Mr. Edwards
fought the question out in the civil court and obtained an
interdict against the ncAv appointment, and a decision that
the presbytery Avere bound to take himself on trial. Sev
en members, constituting the majority of the presbytery,
deterrained, Avithout consulting the General Assembly, to
obey the civil power, and they admitted Mr. EdAvards on
trial. The seven were brought before the bar of the Gen
eral Assembly, and by an overwhelming majority were con
demned to be deposed from their places in the ministry.
Their parishes were declared vacant. A more complete an-
tagonisra between Church and State is not possible to iraag-
ine. The Church expelled from its ministry seven men for
having obeyed the coraraand of the civil laws.
It was on the motion of Dr. Chalraers that the seven min
isters Avere deposed. Dr. Chalmers became the leader of
the movement Avhich was destined Avithin Iavo years frora
the time Ave are now surveying to cause the disruption of
the ancient Kirk of Scotland. No man could be better fitted
for the task of leadership in such a movement. He was be-

MOVEMENTS IN THE CHURCHES. 149
yond comparison the foremost man in the Scottish Church.
He was the greatest pulpit orator in Scotland, or, indeed, in
Great Britain. As a scientific writer, both on astronomy
and on political economy, he had made a great mark. Frora
having been in his earlier days the minister of an obscure
Scottish village congregation, he had suddenly sprung into
fame. He was the lion of any city Avhich he happened to
visit. If he preached iu London, the church was crowded
Avith the leaders of politics, science, and fashion, eager to
hear him. The effect he produced in England is all the
raore surprising seeing that he spoke in the broadest Scot
tish accent conceivable, and, as one adrairer admits, mispro
nounced almost every Avord. We have already quoted Avhat
Mr. Gladstone said about the style of Dr. Newman; let us
cite also Avhat he says about Dr. Chalmers. " I have heard,"
said Mr. Gladstone, " Dr. Chalmers preach and lecture Be
ing a man of Scotch blood, I ara very much attached to
Scotland, and like even the Scotch accent, but not the
Scotch accent of Dr. Chalmers. Undoubtedly the accent of
Dr. Chalmers in preaching and delivery Avas a considerable
impediment to his success ; but notAvithstanding all that, it
Avas overborne by the power of the man in preaching — over
borne by his power, which melted into harmony with all the
adjuncts aud incidents of the man as a Avhole, so much so,
that although I Avould have said that the accent of Dr. Chal
raers Avas distasteful, yet in Dr. Chalmers himself I would not
have had it altered in the smallest degree." Chalmers spoke
with a massive eloquence in keeping Avith his poAverful frame
and his broad brow and his comraanding presence. His
speeches Avere a strenuous blending of argument and emo
tion. They appealed at once to the strong common-sense and
to the deep religious convictions of his Scottish audiences.
His whole soul was in his work as a leader of religious move
raents. He cared little or nothing for any popularity or fame
that he might have won. Sorae strong and characteristic
Avords ofhis own have told us Avh.at he thought of passing
renown. He called it "a popularity which rifles home of
ils sweets ; and by elevating a raan above his fellows places
him in a region of desolation, Avhere he stands a conspicuous
mark for the shafts of malice, envy, and detraction ; a pop
ularity Avliich, Avith its head among storms and its feet on

150 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the treacherous quicksands, has nothing to lull the agonies
of its tottering existence but the hosannas of a drivelling
generation." There is no reason to doubt that these Avere
Chalmers's genuine senliraenls; and scarcely any man ofhis
time had come into so sudden and great an endoAvment of
])opularity. The reader of to-day must not look for ade
quate illustration of the genius and the influence of Chal
mers in his published works. These do, indeed, show him
to have been a strong reasoner and a man of original mind;
but they do not shoAV the Chalmers of Scottish controversy
that Chalmers must be studied through the traces, lying
all around, of his influence upon the mind and the history
of the Scottish people. The Free Church of Scotland is his
monument. He did not make that Church. It was not the
Avork of one man, or, strictly speaking, of one generation.
It grew naturally out of the inevitable struggle between
Church and State. But Chalmers did more than any other
in.an to decide the moment and the manner of its coming
into existence, and its success is his best raonuraent.
For Ave may anticipate a little in this instance as in that
of the Oxford movement, and mention at once the fact that
on May 18th, 1843, some five hundred ministers of the
Church of Scotland, under the leadership of Dr. Chalmers,
seceded from the old Kirk and set about to form the Free
Church. The Government of Sir Robert Peel had made a
Aveak effort at compromise by legislative enactment, but had
declined to introduce any legislation which should free the
Kirk of Scotland from the control of the civil courts, and
there was no course for those who held the vicAvs of Dr.
Chalmers but to Avithdraw from the Church which admitted
that claim of State control. Opinions may differ as to the
necessity, the propriety of the secession — as to its effects
upon the history and the character of the Scottish people
since that time; but there can be no difference of opinion as
to the spirit of self-sacrifice in which the step was taken.
Five hundred rainisters on that memorable day went delib
erately forth from their positions of comfort and honor, from
home and competence, to meet an uncertain and a perilous
future, with perhaps poverty and failure to be the final re
sult of their enterprise, and with misconstruction and mis
representation to make the bitter bread of poverty more bit-

THE DISASTERS OP CA.BUL. 151
ter Still. Ill those pages avo have notliing to do Avith tho
merits of religious controversies ; and it is no part of our
concern to consider even the social and political efl'ects pro
duced upon Scotland by this great secession. But Ave need
not withhold our admiration from the men Avho risked and
suffered so much in the cause of Avhat they believed to be
their Church's true rights ; and we are bound to give this
admiration as cordially to the poor and nameless ministers,
the men of the rank and file, about whose doings history so
little concerns herself, as to the leaders like Chalmers, who,
Avhether they sought it or not, found fame shining on their
path of self sacrifice. The history, of Scotland is illustrated
by raany great national deeds. No deed it tells of surpasses
in dignity and in raoral grandeur that secession — to cite the
Avords of the protest — "from an Establishment which avc
loved and prized, through interference Avitli conscience, the
dishonor done to Christ's croAvn, and the rejection of his
solo and supreme authority as King in his Church."

CHAPTER XL
THE DISASTERS OF XiABUL.

The earliest days of the Peel Ministry fell upon trouble,
not indeed at horae, but abroad. At home the prospect still
seemed bright. The birth of the Queen's eldest son was
an event welcomed by national congratulation. There Avas
still great distress in the agricultural districts ; but there
Avas a general confidence that the financial genius of Peel
would quickly find some way to raake burdens light, and
that the condition of things all over the country would be
gin to mend. It Avas a region far removed from the knoAvl-
edge and the thoughts of raost Englishmen that supplied
the noAvs now beginning to come into England day after
day, and to thrill the country Avith the tale of one of the
greatest disasters to English policy aud English arras to
be found in all the record of our dealings Avith the East.
There are many still living Avho can recall with an impres
sion as keen as though it belonged to yesterday the first ac
counts that reached this country of the surrender at Cabul,

152 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
and the gradual extinction of the array that tried to make
its retreat through the terrible Pass.
This grim chapter of history had been for sorae time in
preparation. It raay be said to open with the reign itself
News travelled sloAvIy then; and it was quite in the ordi
nary course of things that some part of the empire raight be
torn Avith convulsion for months before London knew that
the even and ordinary condition of things had been disturbed.
In this instance the rejoicings at the accession of the young
Queen Avere still going on, Avhen a series of events had begun
in Central Asia destined to excite the profoundest emotion
in England, and to exercise the most poAverful influence upon
our foreign policy down to the present hour. On September
20th, 1837, Captain Alexander Burnes arrived at Cabul, the
capital of the Slate of Cabul, in the north of Afghanistan,
and the ancient capital of the Emperor Baber, whose tomb
is on a hill outside the city. Burnes Avas a famous Oriental
ist and traveller, the Burton or Burnaby of his day ; he had
conducted an expedition into Central Asia; had published
his travels in Bokhara, and had been sent on a mission by
the Indian Government, in Aviiose service he was, to study
the navigation of the Indus, lie was, it raay be remarked,
a meraber ofthe faraily of Robert Burns, the poet himself
having changed the original spelling of the name which all
the other members of the family retained. The object of
the journey of Captain Burnes to Cabul in 1837 was, in the
first instance, to enter into coniinercial relations Avith Dost
Mahoraed, then ruler of Cabul, and with other chiefs of the
Avestern regions. But events soon changed his business
frora a coramercial into a political and diplomatic mission;
.and his tragic fate would m.ake his journey memorable lo
Englishmen forever, even if other events had not grown out
of it Avhich give it a place of more than personal importauce
in history.
The great region of Afghanistan, with its historical boun
daries as varying and difficult to fix at certain times as those
of the old Dukedom of Burgundy, has been called the land
of transition between Eastern and Western Asia. All the
great ways that lead from Persia to India pass through that
region. There is a proverb Avhich declares that no one can
be king of Hindostan without first becoming lord of Cabul.

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 153
The Afghans are the ruling nation, but among them liad
long been settled Hindoos, Arabs, Armenians, Abyssinians,
and men of other races and religions. The Afghans are
Mohammedans ofthe Shunite sect, but they allowed Hindoos,
Christians, and even the Persians, who are of the hated dis
senting sect ofthe Shiites, to live among them, and even to
rise to high position and influence The founder of the Af
ghan Empire, Ahraed Shah, died in 1773. He had made an
empire which stretched from Herat on the Avest to Sirhind
on the east, and from the Oxus and Cashmere on the north
lo the Arabian Sea and the mouths of the Indus on the
south. The death of his son, Timur Shah, delivered the
kingdom up to the hostile factions, intrigues, and quarrels
of his sons : the leaders of a powerful tribe, the Barukzyes,
took advantage of the events that arose out of this condi
tion of tilings to dethrone tho descendants of Ahmed Shah.
When Captain Burnes visited Afghanistan in 1832, the only
part of all their great inheritance which yet remained Avilli
the descendants of Ahmed Shah was the principality of He
rat. The remainder of Afghanistan Avas parcelled out be
tween Dost Mahoraed and his brothers. Dost Mahomed
Avas a man of extraordinary ability and energy. He would
probably have made a name as a soldier and a statesraan
nnyAvhere. He had led a stormy youth, but had put away
with maturity and responsibility the vices and follies ofhis
earlier years. There seeras no reason to doubt that, although
he Avas a usurper, he was a sincere lover ofhis country, and
on the whole a Avise and just ruler. When Captain Burnes
visited Dost Mahoraed, he was received with every mark of
friendship and favor. Dost Mahoraed professed to be, and
no doubt at one tirae Avas, a sincere friend of the English
Government and people. There was, however, at that time
a quarrel going on between the Shah of Persia and the Prince
of Herat, the last enthroned representative, as has been al
ready said, of the great family on Avhose fall Dost Mahomed
and his brothers had mounted into poAver. So far as can
now be judged, there does seera to have been serious and
genuine ground of complaint on the part of Persia against
the ruler of Herat. But it is probable, too, that the Persian
Shah had been seeking for, and in any case would have
found, a pretext for making Avar; and the sirong impression
7-*

154 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
at the time in England, and among the authorities in India,
Avas that Persia herself was but a puppet in the hands of
Russia. A glance at the map will show the meaning of this
suspicion and the reasons which at once gave it plausibility,
and Avould have rendered it of grave importance. If Persia
were merely the instrument of Russia, and if the troops of
the Shah AVcre only the advance guard of the Czar, then, un
doubtedly, the attack on Herat might have been regarded
as the first step of a great movement of Russia toward onr
Indian dominion.
There Avere other reasons, too, to give this suspicion some
plausibility. Mysterious agents of Russia, officers in her serr
vice and others, began to shoAV themselves in Central Asia
at the time of Captain Burnes's visit to Dost Mahomed.
Undoubtedly Russia did set herself for sorae reason to win
the friendship and alliance of Dost Mahomed ; and Captain
Burnes Avas for his part engaged in the same endeavor. All
considerations of a merely coramercial nature had long since
been put away, and Burnes was freely and earnestly negoti
ating Avith Dost Mahomed for his alliance. Burnes always
insisted that Dost Mahomed himself was sincerely anxious
to become an ally of England, and that he offered more than
once, on his OAvn free part, to dismiss the Russian agents even
A\'ilhout seeing thern, if Burnes desired hira to do so. But
for some reason Burnes's superiors did not share his confi
dence. In DoAvning Street and in Simla the profoundest dis
trust of Dost Mahomed prevailed. It was again and again
impressed on Burnes that he must regard Dost Mahomed as
a treacherous eneray, and as a man playing the part of Per
sia and of Russia. It is impossible noAV to estimate fairly
all the reasons which may have justified the English and
the Indian Governments in this conviction. But we know
that nothing in the policy afterAvard followed out by the
Indian authorities exhibited any of the judgment and Avis
dom that Avould Avarrant us in taking anything for granted
on the mere faith of their dictum. The story of four years
— almost to a day the extent of this sad chapter of English
history — will be a tale of such misfortune, blunder, and hu
miliation as the annals of England do not anywhere else pre
sent. Blunders which were, indeed. Averse than crimes, and a
principle of action Avhich it is a crime in any rulers to sane-

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 155
tion, brought things to such a pass with us that in a few
years from the accession of the Queen we had in Afghanis
tan soldiers who Avere positively afraid to fight the enemy,
and some English officials who Avere not ashamed to treat
for the removal of our most forraidable foes by purchased
assassination. It is a good thing for us all to read in cold
blood this chapter of our history. It will teaph us hoAV vain
is a policy founded on evil and ignoble principles ; how vain
is the strength and courage of men Avhen they have not lead
ers fit to command. It raay teach us, also, not to be too
severe in our criticism of other nations. The failure ofthe
French invasion of Mexico under the Second Empire seeras
like glory when compared with the failure of our atterapt
to impose a hated sovereign on the Afghan people.
Capiain Burnes then Avas placed in the painful difficulty
of having to carry out a policy of Avhicli he entirely disap
proved. He believed in Dost Mahomed as a friend, and he
Avas ordered to regard him as an enemy. It Avould have
been better for the career and for the reputation of Burnes
if he had simply declined to have anything to do with a
course of action which seemed to him at once unjust and un-
Avise But Burnes was a young man, full of youth's energy
and ambition. He thought he saw a career of distinction
opening before him, and he was unAvilling to close it abrupt
ly by setting himself in obstinate opposition to his superi
ors. He was, besides, of a quick mercurial temperaraent, over
which raood followed raood in rapid succession of change.
A slight contradiction sometimes threw him into moraenta
ry despondency ; a gleam of hope elated hira into the assur
ance that all was won. It is probable that after awhile he
may have persuaded himself to acquiesce in the judgment
ofhis chiefs. On the other hand. Dost Mahomed was placed
in a position of great difficulty and danger. He had to
choose. He could not remain absolutely independent of all
the disputants. If England Avould not support him, he must
for his own safety find alliances elsewhere — in Russian state
craft, for example. He told Burnes of this again and again,
and Burnes endeavored, without the slightest success, to im
press his superiors Avith his own views as to the reasonable
ness of Dost Mahomed's arguments. Runjeet Singh, the dar
ing and successful adventurer who had annexed the Avhole

156 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
province of Cashmere to his dominions, Avas the enemy of
Dost Mahomed and the faithful ally of England. Dost Ma
homed thought the British Government could assist him iu
coming to terras Avilh Runjeet Singh, and Burnes h.ad as
sured hira that the British Government Avould do all it could
to establish satisfactory terms of peace between Afghanistan
and the Punjaub, over which Runjeet Singh ruled. Burnes
Avrote from Cabul to say that Russia had raade substantial
offers to Dost Mahoraed ; Persia had been lavish in her bid
dings for his alliance ; Bokhara and other slates had not been
backward; "yet in all that has passed, or is daily transpir
ing, the chief of Cabul declares that he prefers the syrapathy
and friendly offices ofthe British to all these offers, however
alluring they may seem, frora Persia or frora the Emperor;
Avhich places his good-sense in a light more than prominent,
and in my humble judgraent proves that by an earlier atten
tion to these countries we might have escaped the whole of
these intrigues and held long since a stable influence in Ca
bul." Burnes, however, Avas unable to irapress his superiors
Avilh any belief either in Dost Mahomed or in the policy
which he hiraself advocated, and the result Avas that Lord
Auckland, the Governor-general of India, at length resolved
to treat Dost Mahoraed as an enemy, and to drive him from
Cabul. Lord Auckland, therefore, entered into a treaty with
Runjeet Singh and Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, the exiled repre
sentative of Avliat Ave may call the legitimist rulers of Af
ghanistan, for the restoration ofthe latter to the throne of
his ancestors, and for the destruction of the poAver of Dost
Mahomed. It ought to be a waste of tirae to enter into any argument
in condemnation of such a policy in our d.ays. Even if its
results had not proved in this particular instance its most
striking and exemplary condemnation, it is so grossly and
flagrantly opposed to all the principles of our more modern
statesmanship that no one araong us ought now to need a
Avarning against it. Dost Mahoraed Avas the accepted, pop
ular, and successful ruler of Cabul. No raatter Avhat our
quarrel Avith him, Ave had not the slightest right to make it
an excuse for forcing on his people a ruler Avhom they had
proved before, as they were soon to prove again, that they
thoroughly detested. Perhaps the nearest parallel to our

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 157
policy in this instance is to be found in the French invasion
of Mexico, and the disastrous attempt to impose a foreign
ruler on the Mexican people. Each experiraent ended in ul
ter failure, and in the raiserable death of the unfortunate
puppet prince Avho Avas put forward as the figure-head of the
enterprise. But the French Eraperor could at least have
pleaded in his defence that Maxirailian of Austria had not
already been tried and rejected by the Mexican people. Our
protkgi, had been tried and rejected. The French Emper
or might have pleaded that he had actual and substantial
Avrongs to avenge. We had only problematical and possi
ble dangers to guard against. In any case, as has been al
ready said, the calamities entailed on French arms and coun
sels by the Mexican intervention read like a page of brilliant
success when compared Avith the immediate result of our en
terprise in Cabul. Before passing away from this part of
the subject, it is necessary to mention the fact that among
its many unfortunate incidents the campaign led to somo
peculiarly humiliating debates and some lamentable accusa
tions in the House of Coraraons. Years after Bnrnes had
been flung into his bloody grave, it Avas found that the Eng
lish Government had presented to the House of Commons
his despatches in so mutilated and altered a forra, that Burnes
Avas made to seem as if he actually approved and recora
mended the policy Avhich he especially Av.arned us to avoid.
It is painful to have to record such a fact, but it is indispen
sable that it should be recorded. It Avould be vain to at
tempt to explain hoAV the principles and the honor of Eng
lish statesmanship fell, for the hour, under the demoralizing
influence which allowed such things to be thought legiti
mate. An Oriental atmosphere seemed to have gathered
around our official leaders. In Afghanistan they were en
tering into secret and treacherous treaties; in England they
were garbling despatches. When, years after. Lord Palmer
ston was called upon to defend the policy Avhich had thus
dealt Avith the despatches of Alexander Burnes, he did not
say that the documents were not garbled. He only con
tended that, as the Governnient had deterrained not to act
on the advice of Burnes, they Avere in nowise bound to pub
lish those passages of his despatches in Avhich he set forth
assumptions Avhich they believed lo be unfounded, and ad-

158 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
vised a policy which they looked upon as mistaken. Such
a defence is only to be read with wonder and pain. The
Governraent were not accused of suppressing passages which
they believed, rightly or wrongly, to be Avorthless. The ac
cusation was that, by suppressing passages and sentences
here and there, Burnes was made to appear as if he were
actually recommending the policy against which he was at
the tirae most earnestly protesting. Burnes Avas himselfthe
first victim ofthe policy Avhich he strove against, and which
all England has since conderaned. No severer word is need
ed to condemn the mutilation of his despatches than to say
that he was actually made to stand before the country as
responsible for having recommended that very policy. "It
should never be forgotten," says Sir J. W. Kaye, the histori
an of the Afghan War, " by those who would form a correct
estimate of the character and career of Alexander Burnes,
that both had been misrepresented in those collections of
State papers which are supposed to furnish the best materi
als of history, but Avhich are often in reality only one-sided
compilations of garbled docuraents — counterfeits, which the
ministerial stamp forces into currency, defrauding a present
generation, and handing down to posterity a chain of dan
gerous lies."
Meanwhile the Persian attack on Herat had practically
failed, OAving mainly to the skill and spirit of a young Eng
lish officer, Eldred Pottinger, Avho was assisting the prince
in his resistance to the troops of the Persian Shah. Lord
Auckland, hoAvever, ordered the assemblage of a British
force for service across the Indus, and issued a famous man
ifesto, dated from Simla, October 1st, 1838, in Avhich he set
forth the raotives of his policy. The Governor- general
stated that Dost Mahoraed had made a sudden and unpro
voked attack upon our ancient ally, Runjeet Singh, and that
Avhen the Persian array Avas besieging Herat, Dost Mahomed
Avas giving undisguised support to the designs of Persia.
The chiefs of Candahar, the brothers of Dost Mahomed, had
also. Lord Auckland declared, given in their adherence to
the plan of Persia. Great Britain regarded the advance of
Persian arms in Afghanistan as (in act of hostility toward
herself. The Governor-general had, therefore, resolved to
support the claims of the Shah Soojah-ool-Moolk, Avhose do-

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 159
minions had been usurped by the existing rulers of Cabul,
and Avho had found an honorable asylum in British territo
ry ; and " Avhose popularity throughout Afghanistan " — Lord
Auckland Avrote in AVords that must afterward have read
like the keenest and cruellest satire upon his policy — "had
been proved to his Lordship by the strong and unanimous
testiraony of the best authorities." This popular sovereign,
this favorite of his people, Avas at the tirae living in exile,
Avithout the faintest hope of ever again being restored to his
dominions. We pulled the poor man out of his obscurity,
told him that his people Avere yearning for him, and that we
Avould set him on his throne once more. We entered for the
purpose into the tripartite treaty already mentioned. Mr.
(afterward Sir W. H.) Macnaghten, Secretary to the Govern
ment of India, Avas appointed to be envoy and minister at
tlie court of Shah Soojah ; and Sir Alexander Burnes (who
had been recalled from the court of Dost Mahomed, and re-
Avarded with a title forgiving the advice which his superiors
thought absurd) was deputed to act under his direction. It
is only right to say that the policy of Lord Auckland had
the entire approval of the British Government. It Avas af
terAvard stated in Parliament on the part of the ministry
that a despatch recommending to Lord Auckland exactly
such a course as he pursued crossed on the way his despatcli
announcing to the Governraent at home that he had already
undertaken the enterprise.
We conquered Dost Mahomed and dethroned him. He
made a bold and brilliant, sometiraes even a splendid resist
ance. We took Ghuznee by bloAving up one of its gates
with bags of powder, and thus admitting the rush of a
storraing-party. It was defended by one ofthe sons of Dost
Mahomed, who became our prisoner. We took Jellalabad,
Avhich Avas defended by Akbar Khan, another of Dost Ma
homed's sons, Avhose name came afterAvard to have a hateful
sound in all English ears. As we approached Cabul, Dost
Mahomed abandoned his capital and fled with a few horse
men across the Indus. Shah Soojah entered Cabul accom
panied by the British officers. It Avas to have been a tri
uraphal entry. The hearts of those Avho believed in his
cause raust have sunk within them when they saAv how the
Sh.ali Avas received by the people Avho, Lord Auckland was

160 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
assured, Avere so devoted to him. The city received hira in
sullen silence. Few of its people condescended even to turn
out to see him as he passed. The vast majority stayed
aAvay, and disdained even to look at him. One would have
thought that the least observant eye must have seen that
h,is throne could not last a moment longer than the time
during which the strength of Britain Avas Avilling to support
it. The British army, however, withdrcAV, leaving only a
contingent of some eight thousand men, besides the Shah's
own hirelings, to maintain him for the present. Sir W.
Macnaghten seems to have really believed that the work
Avas done, and that Shah Soojah Avas as safe on his throne as
Queen Victoria. He was destined to be very soon and very
cruelly undeceived.
Dost Mahomed made more than one effort to regain his
place. He invaded Shah Soojah's dorainions, and raet the
corabined forces of the Shah and their English ally in more
than one battle. On November 2d, 1840, he won the admi
ration of the English theraselves by the brilliant stand he
raade againgt thera. With his Afghan horse he drove our
cavalry before him, and forced thera to seek the shelter of
the British guns. The native troopers would not stand
against him : they fled, and left their English officers, who
vainly tried to rally thera. In this battle of PurAvandurrah
victory raight not unreasonably have been clairaed for Dost
Mahomed. He Avon at least his part of the battle. No
tongues have praised hira louder than those of English his
torians. But Dost Mahoraed had the Avisdora of a states
man as Avell as the genius of a soldier. He knew Avell that
he could not hold out against the strength of England. A
savage or semirbarbarous chieftain is easily puffed up by a
seeming triumph over a great Power, and is led to his de
struction by the vain hope that he can hold out against it
to the last. Dost Mahoraed had no such ignorant and idle
notion. Perhaps he knew well enough, loo, that time Avas
wholly on his side; that he had only to Avait and see the
sovereignty of Shah Soojah tumble into pieces. The even
ing after his brilliant exploit in the field Dost Mahoraed rode
quietly to the quarters of Sir W. Macnaghten, met the en
voy, Avho Avas returning from an evening ride, and to Mac
naghten's niter amazeraent announced himself as Dost Ma-

THE DISASTERS OP CABUL. 161
homed, tendered to the envoy the sword that had flashed
so splendidly across the field of the previous day's fight,
and surrendered himself a prisoner. His sword was return
ed ; he was treated Avith all honor ; and a few days after
ward he was sent to India, where a residence and a revenue
Avere assigned to him.
But the AvithdraAval of Dost Mahoraed frora the scene did
nothing to secure the reign of the unfortunate Shah Soojah.
The Shah Avas hated on his OAvn account. He Avas regarded
as a traitor who had sold his country to the foreigners. In
surrections began to be chronic. They Avere going on in tho
very raidst of Cabul itself Sir W. Macnaghten was Av.arned
of danger, but seeraed to take no heed. Some fatal blind
ness appears to have suddenly fallen on the eyes of our peo
ple in Cabul. On November 2d, 1841, an insurrection broke
out. Sir Alexander Burnes lived in the city itself; Sir W.
Macnaghten and the military commander. Major-general
Elphinstone, were in cantonments at some little distance.
The insurrection might have been put doAvn in the first in
stance with hardly the need even of Napoleon's famous
" whiff of grape-shot." But it Avas alloAved to groAV up with
out attempt at control. Sir Alexander Burnes could not
be got to believe that it was anything serious, even when
a fanatical and furious mob were besieging his own house
Tlie fanatics Avere especially bitter against Burnes, because
they believed that he had been guilty of treachery. They
accused him of having pretended to be the friend of Dost
Mahomed, deceived him, and brought the English into the
country. How entirely innocent of this charge Burnes Avas
Ave all noAV know ; but it would be idle to deny that there
was much in the external aspect of events to excuse such a
suspicion in the mind of an infuriated Afghan. To the last
Burnes refused to believe that he was in danger. He had
always been a friend to the Afghans, he said, and he could
have nothing to fear. It was true. He had always been
the sincere friend of the Afghans. It was his misfortune,
and the heavy fault ofhis superiors, that he had been made
to appear as an enemy of the Afghans. He had noAV to pay
a heavy penalty for the errors and the wrong-doing of oth
ers. He harangued the raging mob, and endeavored to bring
them to reason. lie does not seem to have understood, up

162 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
to the very last moment, that by reminding them that he
Avas Alexander Burnes, their old friend, he was only giving
them a noAV reason for demanding his life. He was murder
ed in the tumult. He and his brother and all those Avith
them were hacked to pieces Avith Afghan knives. He Avas
only in his thirty-seventh year Avhen he Avas murdered. He
Avas the first victim of the policy which had resolved lo in
tervene in the affairs of Afghanistan. Fate seldom shoAved
Avith more strange and bitter malice her proverbial irony
than when she made hira the first victim ofthe policy adopt
ed in despite ofhis best advice and his strongest Avarnings.
The murder of Burnes was uot a climax ; it Avas only a
beginning. The English troops Avere quartered in canton
ments outside the city, and at some little distance from it.
These cantonments Avere, in any case of real difficulty, prac
tically indefensible. The popular monarch, the darling of
his people, Avhom Ave had restored to his throne, Avas in the
Balla Hissar, or citadel of Cabul. From the moraent when
the insurrection broke out he raay be regarded as a prisoner
or a besieged raan there. He Avas as utterly unable to help
our people as they Avere to help hira. The Avhole country
threw itself into insurrection against him and us. The Af
ghans attacked the cantonments, and actually corapelled the
English to abandon the forts in Avhich all our commissariat
Avas stored. We Avere thus threatened with faraine, even
if Ave could resist the enemy in arms. We were strangely
unfortunate iu our civil and military leaders. Sir W. Mac
naghten was a man of high character and good purpose,
but he was weak and credulous. The commander. General
Elphinstone, was old, infirm, tortured by disease, broken
doAvn both in mind and body, incapable of forraing a pur
pose ofhis own, or of holding to one suggested by anybody
else. His second in coraraand Avas a far stronger and abler
raan, but unhappily the two could never agree. " They were
both of them," says Sir J. W. Kaye, "brave men. In any
olher situation, though the physical infirmities of the one
and the cankered vanity, the dogmatical perverseness ofthe
other, might have in sorae measure detracted frora their ef
ficiency as railitary comraanders, I believe they Avould have
exhibited sufficient courage and constancy to rescue an army
from utter destruction, and the British name from indelible

THE DISASTERS OP CABUL. 163
reproach. But in the Cabul cantonments they Avere miser
ably out of place. They seem to have been sent there, by
superhuman intervention, to Avork out the ulter ruin and
])i-ostration of an unholy policy by ordinary human means."
One fact must be mentioned by an English historian — one
Aviiich an English historian has happily not often to record.
It is certain that an officer in our service entered into nego
tiations for the murder of the insurgent chiefs, Avho were
our Avorst enemies. It is more than probable that he be
lieved in doing so he was acting as Sir W. Macnaghten
Avould have had him do. Sir W. Macnaghten Avas innocent
of any complicity in such a plot, and was incapable of it.
But the negotiations Avere opened and carried on in his name.
A new figure appeared on the scene, a dark and a fierce
apparition. This was Akbar Khan, the favorite son of Dost
Mahomed. He Avas a daring, a clever, an unscrupulous
young man. From the raoraent when he entered Cabul he
became the real leader ofthe insurrection against Shah Soo
jah and us. Macnaghten, persuaded by the military coni-
iiiander that the position of things was hopeless, consented
to enter into negotiations Avith Akbar Khan. Before the
arrival of the latter the chiefs of the insurrection had offer
ed us terras which made the ears of our envoy tingle. Such
terms had not often been even suggested to British soldiers
before. They were simply unconditional surrender. Mac
naghten indignantly rejected them. Everything went Avrong
Avith him, however. We Avere beaten again and again by
the Afghans. Our officers never faltered in their duty; but
the melancholy truth has lo be told that the men, most of
whora Avere Asiatics, at last began to lose heart and Avould
not fight the enemy. So the envoy Avas compelled to enter
into terms Avith Akbar Khan and the olher chiefs. Akbar
Khan received him at first Avith conteraptuous insolence — as
a haughty conqueror receives some ignoble and humiliated
adversary. It was agreed that the British troops should
quit Afghanistan at once; that Dost Mahomed and his fara
ily should be sent back to Afghanistan ; that on his return
the unfortunate Shah Soojah should be alloAved to take him
self off to India or where he would ; and that some British
officers should be left at Cabul as hostages for the fulfilment
of the conditions.

1G4 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
The evacuation did not take place at once, although the
fierce winter was setting in, and the snow was falling heav
ily, ominously. Macnaghten seems to have had still some
lingering hopes that something Avould turn up to relieve
him from the shame of quitting the country ; and it raust
be OAvned that he does not seera to have had any intention
of carrying out the terras of the agreement if by any chance
he could escape from them. On both sides there Avere dal
lyings and delays. At last Akbar Khan made 'a new and
startling proposition to our envoy. It Avas that they tAvo
should enter into a secret treaty, should unite their arms
against the other chiefs, and should keep Shah Soojah on
the throne as nominal king, with Akbar Khan as his vizier.
Macnaghten caught at the proposals. He had entered into
terras of negotiation Avith the Afghan chiefs together ; he
now consented to enter into a secret trealy Avith one ofthe
chiefs to turn their joint arras against the others. It Avould
be idle and shameful to atterapt to defend such a policy.
We can only excuse it by considering the terrible circum
stances of Macnaghten's position, the raanner in which his
nerves and raoral fibre had been shaken and shattered by
calamities, and his doubts whether he could pl.ace any reli
ance on the promises of the chief's. He had apparently sunk
into that condition of mind which Macaulay tells us that
Clive adopted so readily in his dealings Avith Asiatics, and
under the influence of which men naturally honorable and
high-minded come to believe that it is right to act treacher
ously with those Avhoin we believe to be treacherous. All
this is but excuse, and ralher poor excuse. When it has all
been said and thought of, we must still be glad to believe
that there are not raany Englishmen Avho would, under any
circumstances, have consented even to give a hearing to the
proposals of Akbar Khan.
Whatever Macnaghten's error, it was dearly expiated.
He Avent out at noon next day to confer with Akbar Khan
on the banks of the neighboring river. Three of his officers
Avere Avith him. Akbar Khan was ominously surrounded
by friends and retainei's. These kept pressing round the
unfortunate envoy. Some remonstrance was made by one
of the English officers, but Akbar Khan said it Avas of no
consequence, as they Avere all in the secret. Not many

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 165
Avords Avero spoken ; the expected conference had hardly
begun Avhen a signal Avas given or an order issued by Akbar
Khan, and the envoy and the officers Avere suddenl}' seized
frora behind. A scene of Avild confusion foUoAved, in Avhich
hardly anything is clear and certain but the one most horri
ble incident. The envoy struggled Avith Akbar Khan, Avho
had himself seized Macnaghten ; Akbar Khan drew from his
belt one of a pair of pistols which Macnaghten had present
ed to him a short time before, and shot hira through the
body. The fanatics Avho Avere croAvding round hacked the
body to pieces Avith their knives. Of the three officers one
Avas killed on the spot ; the olher Iavo Avere forced to mount
Afghan horses and carried aAvay as prisoners.
At first this horrid deed of treachery and blood shoAvs
like that to Avhich Clearchus and his companions, the chiefs
ofthe famous ten thousand Greeks, fell victims .at the hands
of Tissaphernes, the Persian satrap. But it seems certain
that the treachery of Akbar, base as it Avas, did not contem-
])late more than the seizure of the envoy and his officers.
There avcic jealousies and disputes among the chiefs of the
insurrection. One of them, in especial, had got his mind
filled Avith the conviction, inspired, no doubt, by the unfort
unate and unparalleled negotiation already mentioned, that
the envoy had offered a price for his head. Akbar Khan
was accused by hira of being a secret friend of the envoy
and the English. Akbar Khan's father Avas a captive in tho
hands ofthe Englisli, and it raay have been thought that on
his account and for personal purposes Akbar Avas favoring
the envoy, and even intriguing Avith him. Akbar offered
to prove his sincerity by making the envoy a captive and
handing hirn over to the chiefs. This Avas the treacherous
])lot Avhich he strove to carry out by entering into the se
cret negotiations with the easily-deluded envoy. On the
fatal day the latter resisted and struggled ; Akbar Khan
heard a cry of alarm that the English soldiers were coming
out ofthe cantonments to rescue the envoy ; and, Avild with
passion, he suddenly drew his pistol and fired. This Avas
the stateraent made again and again by Akbar Khan him
self It does not seera an improbable explanation for Avhat
otherwise looks a murder as stupid and purposeless as it was
brutal. The explanation does not much relieve the dark-

166 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ness of Akbar Khan's character. It is given here as histo
ry, not as exculpation. There is not the slightest reason
to suppose that Akbar Khan Avould have shrunk from any
treaohery or any cruelty which served his purpose. His
OAvn explanation of his purpose in this instance shows a de
gree of treachery Avhich could hardly be surjiassed even in
the East. But it is well to bear in mind that the suspicion
of perfidy under Avhich the English envoy labored, and
which Avas the main impulse of Akbar Khan's movement,
had evidence enough to support it in the eyes of suspicious
enemies ; and that poor Macnaghten Avould not have beeu
murdered had he not consented to raeet Akbar Khan and
treat Avith him on a proposilion to which an English official
should never have listened.
A terrible agony of suspense followed among the little
English force in the cantonments. The military chiefs after
Avard slated that they did not know until the folloAving day
that any calamity had befallen the envoy. But a keen sus
picion ran through the cantonments that some fearful deed
had been done. No step was taken to avenge the dealh of
Macnaghten, even Avhen it became known that his hacked
and mangled body had been exhibited in triumph all through
the streets and bazars of Cabul. A par.alysis seeraed to
have fallen over the councils of our military chiefs. On
December 24th, 1841, carae a letter frora one of the officers
seized by Akbar Khan, accompanying proposals for a treaty
from the Afghan chiefs. It is hard now to understand how
any English officers could have consented to enter into
terras with the murderers of Macnaghten before his mangled
body could Avell have ceased to bleed. It is strange that it
did not occur to most of them that there Was an alternative;
that they Avere not ordered by fate to accept Avhatever the
conquerors chose to offer. We can all see the difficulty of
their position. General Elphinstone and his second in com
mand. Brigadier Shelton, Avere convinced that it -would be
equally impossible to stay where they Avere or to cut their
Avay through the Afghans. But it might have occurred to
many that they Avere nevertheless not bound to treat with
the Afghans. They might have reraerabered the famous an
swer of the father in Corneille's immortal drama, who is
asked Avhat his son could have done but yield in the face of

TIIE DISASTERS OP CABUL. 167
such odds, and exclaims in generous passion that he could
have died. One English officer of mark did counsel his
superiors in this spirit. This was Major Eldred Pottinger,
whose skill and courage in the defence of Herat we have
already mentioned. Pottinger was for cutting their way
through all enemies and difficulties as far as they could, and
then occupying the ground with their dead bodies. But his
advice Avas hardly taken into consideration. It Avas deter
mined to treat with the Afghans ; and treating Avilh the Af
ghans noAV meant accepting any terms the Afghans chose
to impose on their fallen enemies. In the negotiations that
Avent on some Avritten documents were exchanged. One of
these, drawn up by the English negotiators, contains a short
sentence Avhich we believe to be absolutely unique in the
history of British dealings with armed enemies. It is an ap
peal to the Afghan conquerors not to be loo hard upon the
vanquished ; not to break the bruised reed. " In friendship,
kindness and consideration are necessary, not overpoAvering
the weak with sufferings !" In friendship ! — we appealed to
the friendship of Macnaghten's murderers; to the friendship,
in any case, ofthe man Avhose father we had dethroned and
driven into exile. Not overpowering the Aveak Avith suffer
ings! The Aveak Avere the English! One might fancy he
Avas reading the plaintive and piteous appeal of some forlorn
and feeble tribe of helpless half-breeds for tlie mercy of arro
gant and mastering rulers. " Suffolk's imperious tongue is
stern and rough," says one in Shakspeare's pages, when he
is bidden to ask for consideration at the hands of captors
Avhom he is no longer able to resist. The tongue Avith which
the English force at Cabul addressed the Afghans was not
iraperious or stern or rough. It A\'as bated, raild, and plain
tive. Only the other day, it would seem, these men had
blown up the gates of Ghuznee, and rushed through the
dense smoke and the falling ruins to attack the enemy hand
to hand. Only the other day our envoy h.ad received in sur
render the bright sword of Dost Mahomed. Noav the same
men Avho had seen these things could only plead for a little
gentleness of consideration, and had no thought of resistance,
and did not any longer seem to knOAV how to die.
We accepted the terms of treaty offered to us. Nothing
else could be done by men Avho Avere not prepared to adopt

168 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the advice of the heroic father in Corneille The English
Avere at once to take theraselves off out of Afghanistan, giv
ing up all their guns except six, Avhich they were allowed to
retain for their necessary defence in their raournful journey
horae; they were to leave behind all the treasure, and to
guarantee the payraent of something additional for the safe-
conduct of the poor little array to PeshaAvur or to Jellala
bad ; and they Avere to hand over six officers as hostages for
the due fulfilraent of the conditions. It is of course under
stood that the conditions included the iraraediate release of
Dost Mahoraed and his faraily and their return to Afghanis
tan. When these should return, the six hostages were to be
released. Only one concession had been obtained from the
conquerors. It Avas at first demanded that some ofthe mar
ried ladies should be left as hostages; but on the urgent
representations of the English officers this condition Avas
Avaived — at least for the moment. When the treaty Avas
signed, the officers Avho had been seized Avhen Macn.aghten
Avas murdered Avere released.
It is AVorth mentioning that these officers Avere not badly
treated by Akbar Khan Avliile they were in his power. On
the contrary, he had lo make strenuous efforts, and did make
tliem iu good faith, to save thera from being raurdered by
bands of his fanatical foUoAvers. One of the officers has
himself described the alraost desperate efforts Avhich Akbar
Khan had to raake to save him from the fury of the mob,
Avho thronged thirsting for the blood of the Englishman up
to the very stirrup of their young chief "Akbar Khan,"
says this officer, " at length drcAV his SAvord and laid about
him right manfully " in defence of his prisoner. When, how
ever, he had got the latter into a place of safely, the impet
uous young Afghan chief could not restrain a sneer at his
captive and the cause his captive represented. Turning to
the English officer, he said more than once, "in a tone of
triumphant derision," some words such as these: "So you
are the man Avho came here to seize my country?" It must
be OAvned that the condition of things gave bitter raeaning
to the taunt, if they did not actually excuse it. At a later
])eriod of this melancholy story it is told by Lady S.ale.that
croAvds of the fanatical Ghilzyes Avere endeavoring to per
suade Akbar Khan to slaughter all tho English, and thqjp

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 169
Avhen he tried to pacify them they said that Avlien Burnes
came into- the country they entreated Akbar Khan's fatlier
lo have Burnes killed, or he Avould go back to Hindostan,
and on some future day return and bring an army Avith him,
" lo take our country from us;" and all the calamities had
come upon them because Dost Mahomed would not take
their advice. Akbar Khan either Avas or pretended to be
moderate He raight, indeed, safely put on an air of mag
nanimity. His enemies Avere doomed. It needed no com
mand from him lo decree their destruction.
The Avithdrawal from Cabul began. It Avas the heart of
a cruel Avinter. Tiie English had to make their way through
the awful pass of Koord Cabul. This stupendous gorge
runs for mine five miles betAveen mountain ranges so narrow,
lofty, and grim, tliat in the Avinter season the rays ofthe sun
can hardly pierce its darkness even at the noontide. Down
the centre dashed a precipitous mountain torrent so fiercely
lliat the stern frost of that terrible time could not stay its
course. The snow lay in masses on the ground ; the rocks
and stones that raised their heads above the snow in the
Avay of the unfortunate travellers Avere slippery Avith frost.
Soon the Avhite snow began to be stained and splashed with
blood. Fearful as this Koord Cabul Pass Avas, it Avas only a
degree Avorse than the road Avhich for two AvhoIe days the
English had to traverse to reach it. The army Avhich set
out from Cabul numbered more than four thousand fighting
men — of Avhom Europeans, it should be said, forraed but a
small proportion — and sorae twelve thousand camp followers
of all Rinds. There were also many woraen and children.
Lady Macnaghten, Avidow ofthe murdered envoy; Lady
Sale, whose gallant husband Avas holding Jellalabad, at the
near end of the Khyber Pass, toward the Indian frontier ;
Mrs. Sturt, her daughter, soon to be Avidowed by the death
of her young husband; Mrs. Trevor and her seven children,
and many other pitiable fugitives. The winter journey
Avould have been cruel and dangerous enough in tirae of
peace; but this journey had to be accomplished in the midst
of something far Avorse than common Avar. At every step
ofthe road, every opening of the rocks, the unhappy crowd
of confused and heterogeneous fugitives Avere beset by bands
of savage fiinatics, Avho Avilh their long guns and long knives
" L— 8

1(0 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
were murdering all they could reach. It Avas all the Avay
a confused constant battle against a guerilla enemy of the
most furious and merciless teraper, Avho Avere perfectly fa
miliar Avith the ground, and could rush forward and retire
exactly as suited their tactics. The English soldiers, weary,
Aveak, and crippled by frost, could make but a poor fight
against the savage Afghans. "It Avas no longer," says Sir
J. W. Kaye, " a retreating array ; it Avas a rabble in chaotic
flight." Men, woraen, and children, horses, ponies, camels,
the Avounded, the dying, the dead, all croAvded together in
almost inextricable confusion araong the suoav and amidst the
relentless eneraies. " The raassacre " — to quote again from
Sir J. W. Kaye, " Avas fearful in this Koord Cabul Pass.
Three thousand men are said to have fallen under the fire of
the eneray, or to have dropped down paralyzed and exhaust
ed to be slaughtered by the Afghan knives. And amidst
these fearful scenes of carnage, through a shower of match
lock balls, rode English ladies on horseback or in camel-pan
niers, sometiraes vainly endeavoring to keep their children
beneath their eyes, and losing them in the confusion and be
Avilderment ofthe desolating march."
Was it for this, then, that our troops had been induced to
capitulate? Was this the safe-conduct which the Afghan
ciiiefs had promised in return for their accepting the igno
minious conditions imposed on thera? Sorae ofthe chiefs
did exert themselves to their utmost to protect the unfort
unate English. It is not certain Avhat the real wish of
Akbar Khan raay have been. He protested that he had no
power to restrain the -hordes of fanatical Ghilzye? Avhose
own immediate chiefs had not authority enough to keep
them from murdering the English Avhenever they got a
chance. The force of some foAV hundred horsemen Avhom
Akbar Khan had Avith hira Avere utterly incapable, he de
clared, of maintaining order among such a mass of infuriated
and lawless savages. Akbar Khan constantly appeared on
the scene during this journey of terror. At every opening
or break of the long straggling flight he and his little band
of followers shoAved themselves on the horizon: trying still
to protect the English frora utter ruin, as he declared ; corae
to gloat over their misery, and to see that it Avas surely ac
complished, some ofthe unhappy English Avere ready to be-

THE DISASTERS OP CABUL. 171
lieve Yet his presence was something that seemed to give
a hope of protection. Akbar Khan at length startled tho
English by a proposal that the Avoraen and children Avho
Avere with the army should be handed over to his custody
to be conveyed by hira in safety to PeshaAvur. There was
nothing better to be done. The only raodification ofhis re
quest, or coramand, that could be obtained Avas that the hus-
liands of the married ladies should accoinjjany their Avives.
With this agreement the AVomen and children were handed
over to the care of this dreaded enemy, and Lady Mac
naghten had to undergo the agony of a personal interview
Avith the man whose own hand had killed her husband.
FoAV scenes in poetry or romance can surely be more thrill
ing with emotion than such a meeting as this must have
been. Akbar Kh.an Avas kindly in his language, and de
clared to the unhappy widoAv that he Avould give his right
arra to undo, if it Avere possible, the deed that he had done.
The Avomeii and children and the married men whose wives
Avere among this party Avere taken from the unfortunate
army and placed under the care of Akbar Khan. As events
turned ont, this proved a fortunate thing for thera. But
in any case it was the best thing that could be done. Not
one of these women and children could have lived through
the horrors ofthe journey which lay before the reranant of
Avhat had once been a British force. The march Avas re
sumed ; new horrors set in ; new heaps of corpses stained tho
snow; and then Akbar Khan presented hiraself with a fresh
proposilion. In the treaty made at Cabul between the Eng
lish authorities and the Afghan chiefs there Avas an article
Avhich stipulated that " the English force at Jellalabad shall
march for PeshaAvur before the Cabul array arrives, and shall
not delay on the road." Akbar Khan was especially anx
ious to get rid ofthe little army at Jellalabad, at the near
end of the Khyber Pas.?. He desired above all things that
it should be on the march home to India; either that it
might be out ofhis way, or that he might havea chance of
destroying it on its way. It was in great measure as a se
curity for ils moving that he desired to have the Avomen
and children under his care. It is not likely that he meant
any harm to the women and children ; it raust be remember
ed that his father and many of lhe Avomeii of his family Avere

172 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
under the control ofthe British Governnient as prisoners in
Hindostan. But he fancied that if he had the English Avom
en in his hands the army at Jellalabad could not refuse to
obey the condition set doAvn in the article of the treaty.
Now that he had the AVomen in his poAver, however, he de
manded other guarantees Avith openly acknowledged pur
pose of keeping these latter until Jellalabad should have
been evacuated. He demanded that General Elphinstone,
the coraraander, Avith his second in coraraand, and also one
olher officer, should hand theraselves over to him as host
ages. He promised, if this were done, to exert himself more
than before to res-train the fanatical tribes, and also to pro
vide the army in the Koord Cabul Pass with provisions.
There AA'as nothing for it but to subrait ; and the English
general himself becarae, Avitli the Avomcn and children, a
captive in the hands ofthe inexorable eneray.
Then the raarch of the array, Avithout a general, Avent on
again. Soon it became the story of a general without an
army ; before very long there Avas neither general nor arnij'.
It is idle to lengthen a tale of mere horrors. The straggling
reranant of an array entered the Jugdulluk Pass — a dark,
steep, narrow, ascending path between crags. The raiserable
toilers found that the fanatical, implacable tribes had bar
ricaded the pass. All was over. The army of Cabul Avas
finally extinguished in that barricaded pass. It Avas a trap;
the British Avere taken in it. A fcAV raere fugitives escaped
from the scene of actual slaughter, and Avere on the road lo
Jellalabad, Avhere Sale and his little army Avere holding their
own. When they Avere Avithin sixteen miles of Jellalabad
the number Avas reduced to six. Of these six, five Avere kill
ed by straggling marauders on the way. One raan alone
reached Jellalabad to tell the tale. Literally one man. Dr.
Brydon, came to Jellalabad out of a moving host which had
numbered in all some sixteen thousand Avhen it set out on
its raarch. The curious eye will search through history or
fiction in A!(|»in for any picture more thrilling with the sug
gestions of an awful catastrophe than that of this solitary
survivor, faint and reeling on his jaded horse, as he appear
ed under the Avails of Jellalabad, to bear the tidings of our
Thermopylae of pain and shame.
This is the crisis of the story. With this, at least, the

THE disaster:: of cabul. 173
Avorst of the paiii and shame Avere destined to end. The
rest is all, so far as Ave are concerned, reaction and recoverj-.
Our successes are coraraon enough; Ave may tell their tale
briefly in this instance. The garrison at Jellalabad had re
ceived, before Dr. Brydon's arrival, an intiraation that they
Avere to go out and march toAvard India in accordance Avith
the terms of the treaty extorted frora Elphinstone at Cabul.
They very properly declined to be bound by a treaty Avhieh,
as General Sale rightly conjectured, had been " forced from
our envoy and military commander with the knives at their
throats." General Sale's determination Avas clear and simple.
"I propose to hold this place on the part of Government un
til I receive its order to the contrary." This resolve of Sale's
Avas really the turning-point of the history. Sale held Jellal
abad ; Nott Avas at Candahar. Akbar Khan besieged Jellal
abad. Nature seemed to have declared herself emphatical
ly on his side, for a succession of earliiquake shocks shattered
tile Avails of the place, and produced more terrible destruc
tion than the raost forraidable guns of modern Avarfare could
liave done But the garrison held out fearlessly; they re
stored the parapets, re-established every battery, re-trenched
the Avliole of the gates, and built up all the breaches. They
resisted every attempt of Akbar Khan to advance upon their
Avorks, and at length, Avlieii it became certain that General
Pollock Avas forcing the Khyber Pass to come to their relief,
they determined to attack Akbar Khan's army ; they issued
boldly out of their forts, forced a battle on the Afghan chief,
and completely defeated him. Before Pollock, having gal
lantly fought Ills Avay through the Khyber Pass, had reach
ed Jellalabad, the beleaguering army had been entirely de
feated and dispersed. General Nott at Candahar Avas ready
noAv to co-operate Avilh General Sale and. General Pollock for
any movement on Cabul Avhich the authorities might advise
or sanction. MeauAvhile the unfortunate Shah Soojah, whom
Ave had restored with so rauch porap of announcement to the
throne of his ancestors, Avas dead. He was assassinated in
Cabul, soon after the departure of the British, by the orders
of sorae ofthe chiefs who detested him ; and his body, strip
ped of its royal robes and ils many joAvels, Avas flung into a
ditch. Historians quarrel a good deal over the question of
his sincerity and fidelity in his dealings with us. It is not

174 A history of our own times.
likely that an Oriental ofhis temperament and his weakness
could have been capable of any genuine and unmixed loyal
ty to the English strangers. It seems to us probable enough
tiiat he may at important moments have Avavered and even
faltered, glad tp take advantage of any movement that might
safely rid him of us, and yet, on the whole, preferring our.
friendship and our proteclion to the tender mercies Avhich
he Avas doomed to experience Avhen our troops had left him.
But if Ave ask concerning his gratitude to us, it may be Avell
also to ask Avhat there Avas in our conduct toward him which
called for any enthusiastic display of gratitude. We did not
help him out of any love for him, or any concern for the jus
tice of his cause It served us to have a puppet, and Ave
took him Avhen it suited us. We also abandoned him Avhen
it suited us. As Lady Teazle proposes to do Avith honor in
her conference Avith Joseph Surface, so Ave ought to do with
gratitude in discussing the merits of Shah Soojah — leave it
out of the question. What Shah Soojah OAved to us Avas a
few weeks of idle pomp and absurd dreams, a bitter aAvaken-
ing, and a shameful death.
During this time a new Governor-general had arrived in
India. Lord Auckland's time had run out, and during its
latter months he had become nerveless and despondent be
cause ofthe utter failure of the policy which, in an evil hour
for himself and his country, he had been induced to under
take It does not seem that it ever Avas at heart a policy
of his OAvn, and he kncAv that the East India Company Avere
altogether opposed to it. The Company Avere well avvare of
the vast expense which our enterprises in Afghanistan must
impose on the revenues of India, and they looked forAvard
eagerly to the earliest opportunity of bringing it to a close.
Lord Auckland had been persuaded into adopting it against
his better judgment, and against even the Avhisperings of
his conscience; and noAV he too longed to be done with it;
but he Avished to leave Afghanistan as a magnanimous con
queror. He had in his own person discounted the honors of
victory. He had received an earldom for the services he Avas
presumed to have rendered to his sovereign and his country.
He had, therefore, in full sight that raournful juxtaposition
of incongruous objects Avliich a great English Avriter has de
scribed so touchingly and tersely — the trophies of victory

THE disasters OP CABUL. 175
and the battle lost. He Avas an honorable, kindly gentle
man, and the news of all the successive calamities fell upon
him Avith a crushing, an overAvhelming Aveight. In plain
language, the Governor-general lost his head. He seemed
to have no other idea than that of getting all our troops as
quickly as might be out of Afghanistan, and shaking the
dust of the place off our feet forever. It may be doubted
Avhether, if Ave had pursued such a policy as this, we might
not as well have left India itself once for all. If Ave had al
lowed it to seera clear to the Indian populations and princes
that we could be' driven out of Afghanistan with humiliation
and disaster, and that Ave Avere unable or afraid to strike one
blow to redeem our military credit, Ave should before long
have seen in Hindostan many an attempt to enact there the
scenes of Cabul and Candahar. Unless a moralist is pre-
jiared lo say that a nation Avhich has coraraitled one error
of policy is bound in conscience to take all the Avorst and
most protracted consequences of that error, and never raake
any attempt to protect itself against thera, even a moralist
of the most scrupulous character can hardly deny that avo
Avere bound, for the sake of our interests in Europe as Avell
as in India, to prove that our strength had not been broken
nor our counsels par.alyzed by the disasters in Afghanistan.
Yet Lord Auckland does not appear to have thought any
thing of the kind either needful or within the compass of
our national strength. He Avas, in fact, a broken man.
His successor came out Avith the brightest hopes of India
and the Avorld, founded on his energy and strength of mind.
Tiie successor Avas Lord Ellenborough, the son of that Ed-
Avard LaAV, afterward Lord Ellenborough, Chief -justice of
tlie King's Bench, Avho had been leading counsel for Warren
Hastings when the latter was impeached before the House
of Lords. Tiie second Ellenborough was, at the time of his
appointment, filling the office of President ofthe Bpard of
'Control, an office he had held before. He Avas therefore Avell
acquainted, Avith the affairs of India. He had come into of
fice under Sir Robert Peel on the resignation of the Mel
bourne Ministry. He Avas looked upon as a raan of great
ability and energy. It Avas known that his personal predi
lections Avere for the career of a soldier. He Avas fond of
telling his hearers then and since that the life of a camp Avas

176 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that Avhich he should have loved to lead. He Avas a raan
of great and, in certain lights, apparently splendid abilities.
There Avas a certain Orientalism about his language, his as
pirations, and his policy. He loved gorgeousness and dr.a-
inatic — ill-natured persons said theatric — effects. Life ar
ranged itself in his eyes as a superb and showy pageant, of
Avhieh it Avould have been his arabition to form the central
figure. His eloquence Avas ofteii of a lofty and noble order.
Men Avho are still hardly of raiddle age can remember Lord
Ellenborough on great occasions in the House of Lords, and
can recollect their having been deeply impressed by hiin,
even though they had but lately heard such speakers as
Gladstone or Bright in the other House. It Avas not easy,
indeed, soraetiraes to avoid the conviction that in listening
to Lord Ellenborough one Avas listening to a really great
orator of a somewhat antique and stately type, Avho attuned
his speech to the pilch of an ago of loftier and less prosaic
aims than ours. When he had a great question to deal Avilh,
and when his instincts, if not his reasoning power, had put
hira on the right or at least the effective side ofil, he could
speak in a tone of poetic and elevated eloquence to whicli it
Avas impossible to listen Avithout eniotiou. But if Lord El
lenborough Avas in some respects a man of genius, he Avas
.also a raan Avliose love of raere effects often made him seem
like a quack. There are certain characters in Avliich a little
of unconscious quackery is associated with some of the ele
ments of true genius. Lord Ellenborough was one of these.
Far greater men than he must be associated in the sarae cat
egory. The elder Pitt, the first Napoleon, Mirabeau, Boling
broke, and many others, Avere men in whom undoubtedly
some ofthe charlatan Avas mixed up with some ofthe very
highest qualities of genius. In Lord Ellenborough this
blending Avas strongly and soraetimes even startlingly ap
parent. To this hour there are men who knew him Avell in
])ublic and privaie on whora his Aveaknesses raade so dispro-
])oi-tionate an irapression that they can see in hira little more
than a mere charlatan. This is entirely unjust. He Avas a
man of great abilities and earnestness, Avho had in hira a
strange dash ofthe play-actor, Avho at the most serious rao
ment of emergency ahvays thought of hoAV to display him
self effectively, and Avho Avould have met the peril of an era-

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 177
pire, as poor Narcissa met dealh, Avilh an overmastering de
sire to sliow to the best personal advantage.
Lord EUenborough's appointment was hailed by all par
ties in India as the most auspicious that could be made.
Here, people said, is surely the great stage for a great act
or; and noAV the great actor is coming. There Avould bo
something fascinating to a teraper like his in the thought
of redeeming tiie military honor ofhis country and standing
out in history as the avenger ofthe shames of Cabul. But
those Avho thought in this Avay found theraselves suddenly
disappointed. Lord Ellenborough uttered and wrote a few
shoAvy sentences about revenging our losses and " re-estab
lishing in all its original brilliancy our railitary character."
But when he had done this he seeraed to have relieved his
mind and to have done enough. With him there Avas a con-
slant tendency to substitute grandiose phrases for deeds ;
or perhaps to think that the phrase Avas the thing of real
moment. He said these fine Avords, and then at once he an
nounced that the only object of the Government was to get
the troops out of Afghanistan as quickly as might be, and
alraost on any terras. The whole of Lord EUenborough's
conduct during this crisis is inexplicable, except on the as
sumption that he really did not knoAV at certain times hoAV
to distinguish betAveen phrases and actions. A general out
cry Avas raised in India and araong the troops in Afghanis
tan .against the. extraordinary policy Avhich Lord Ellenbor
ough propounded. Englishraen, in fact, refused to fcelieve in
it; took it as soinething that must be put aside. English
soldiers could not believe that they Avere to be recalled after
defeat ; they persisted in the conviction that, let the Gov
ernor-general say Avhat he might, his intention niHst be that
the army should retrieve ils fame and retire only after cora-
])lele victory. The Governor-general hiraself after aAvhile
quietly acted on this interpretation of his meaning. Lie al
lowed the mililary commanders in Afghanistan to pull their
resources together and prepare for inflicting signal chastise-
iiient pn the enemy. They were not long in doing this.
Tiiey encountered tlie enemy Avherever he shoAved himself
and defeated hiin. They recaptured town after tOAvn, until
at length, on September 15th, 1842, General Pollock's force
entered Cabul. A fcAV days after, as a lasting mark of retri-

178 a HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
bulion for the criraes Avhich had been committed there, the
British commander ordered the destruction of the great ba
zar of Cabul, Avhere the mangled remains ofthe unfortunate
envoy Macnaghten had been exhibited in brutal triumph and
joy to the Afghan populace.
It is not necessary to enter into detailed descriptions of
the successful progress of our arms. The Avar raay be re
garded as over. It is, hoAvever, necessary to say something
of the fate of the captives, or hostages, Avho Avere hurried
away that terrible January night ati the command of Akbar
Klian. One thing has first to be told Avhich some may uoav
receive Avith incredulity, but which is, nevertheless, true —
there Avas a British general Avho Avas disposed to leave them
to their fate and take no trouble about them, and who de
clared himself under the conviction, from the tenor of all
Lord EUenborough's despatches, that the recovery of the
]irisoners Avas "a raatter of indifference to the Governraent."
There seeras to have been some unhappy spell Avorking
against us in all this chapter of our history, by virtue of
Avliich even its most brilliant pages Avere destined to have
soinething ignoble or ludicrous Avritten on thera. Better
counsels, however, prevailed. General Pollock insisted on
.an effort being raade to recover the prisoners before the
troops began to return to India, and he appoinled to this
noble duty the husband of one of the hostage ladies — Sir
Robert Sale. The prisoners Avere recovered Avith greater
ease than Avas expected — so raany of them as Avere yet alive.
Poor General Elphinstone had long before succumbed to dis
ease and hardship. The ladies had gone through strange
privations. Thirty-six years ago the tale of the captivity
of L.ady Sale and her companions was in every raouth all
over England; nor did any civilized land fail to take an in
terest in the strange and pathetic story. They Avere hur
ried from fort to fort as the designs and the fortunes of Ak
bar Khan dictated his disposal of thera. They suffered al
most every fierce alternation of cold and heat. They had
to live on the coarsest fare; they were lodged in a manner
Avhich Avould have raade the raost wretched prison accom
modation of a civilized country seem luxnrious by compari
son ; they Avere in constant uncertainty and fear, not know
ing Avhat might bcfiill. Yet they seem to have held np

THE D1SA,STERS OF CABUL. 179
their courage and spirits Avonderfully Avell, and to have kept
the hearts ofthe children alive Avilli mirth and sport at mo
ments of the utmost peril. Gradually it became more and
more suspected that the fortunes of Akbar Khan Avere fall
ing. At last it Avas beyond doubt that he had been conir
pletely defeated. Then they Avere hurried aAvay again, they
knew not Avhilher, through ever-ascending raountain-passes,
under a scorching sun. They Avere being carried off lo the
Avild, rugged regions ofthe Indian Caucasus. They Avere
bestowed in a miserable fort at Bameeaii. They Avere uoav
under the charge of one of Akbar Khan's soldiers of fortune
This man had begun to suspect that things Avere well-nigh
hopeless Avith Akbar Khan. He Avas induced by gradual
and very cautious approaches to enter into an agreement
Avith the prisoners for their release. The English officers
signed an agreement Avith him to secure him a large reward
and a pension for life if he enabled them to escape. He
accordingly declared that he ^renounced his allegiance to
Akbar Khan ; all the more readily seeing that news came in
of the chief's total defeat and flight, no one knew Avliilher.
The prisoners and their escort, lately their jailer and guards,
set forth on their way to General Pollock's camp. On their
Avay they raet the English parties sent out to seek for them.
Sir Robert Sale found his Avife again. "Our joy," says one
ofthe rescued prisoners, " was too great, too overAvhelming,
for tongue to utter." Description, indeed, could do nothing
¦for the effect of such a meeting but lo spoil it.
There is a very different ending to the episode of the
English captives in Bokhara. Colonel Stoddart, Avho had
been sent to the Persian camp in the beginning of all these
events to insist that Persia must desist frora the siege of
Herat, Avas sent subsequently on a mission to the Ameer of
Bokhara. The Ameer received him favorably at first, but
afterAvard became suspicious of English designs of conquest,
and treated Stoddart Avilh marked indignity. The Ameer
appears to have been the very model of a melodramatic East
ern tyrant. He Avas cruel and capricious as another Calig
ula, and perhaps, in truth, quite as mad. He thrcAv Stod
dart into prison. Captain Conolly Avas appointed two years
after to proceed to Bokhara and olher countries ofthe same
region. He undertook to endeavor to effect the liberation

180 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
of Stoddart, but could only succeed in sharing his sufferings,
and, at last, his fate. The Ameer had Avritten a letter to
the Queen of England, and the ansAver Avas Avritten by the
Foreign Secretary, referring the Ameer to the Governor-
general of India. The savage tyrant redoubled the ill-treat
ment of his captives. He accused them of being spies and
of giving help lo his enemies. The Indian Government Avere
of opinion that the envoys had in some manner exceeded
their instructions, and that Conolly, in particular, had con
tributed by indiscretion to his oavu fate. Nolhing, there
fore, Avas done to obtain their release beyond diploma;tic ef
forts, and appeals to the magnaniraity of the Ameer, Avhich
had not any particular effect. Dr. Wolff, the celebrated
traveller and missionary, afterAvard undertook an expedi
tion of his OAvn in the hope of s.aving the unfortunate cap
tives; but he only reached Bokhara in tirae to hear that
they had been put to death. The raoraent and the actual
manner of their dealh caninjt be knoAvn to positive certain
ty, but there is little doubt that they Avere executed on the
same day by the orders of the Aineer. The journals of
Conolly have been preserved up to an advanced period of
his captivity, and they relieve so far the raelancholy of the
fate that fell ou the unfortunate officers by shoAving that the
horrors of their hopeless imprisonraent Avere so great that
their dearest friends raust have been glad to knoAv of their
release even by the knife of the executioner. It is perhaps
not the least bitter part of the story that, in the belief
of raany, including the unfortunate officers themselves, tho
course iiursued by the English authorities in India had done
more to hand them over to the treacherous cruelty of their
captor than to release them from his power. In truth, the
authorities in India had had enough of intervention. It
Avould have needed a great exigency, indeed, to stir them
into energy of action soon again in Central Asia.
This thrilling chapter of English history closes with some
thing like a piece of harlequin.ade. The curtain fell amidst
general laughter. Only the genius of Lord Ellenborough
could have turned the mood of India and of England lo
mirth on such a subject. Lord Ellenborough was equal to
this extraordinary feat. Tlie never-to-be-forgotten procla
mation about the restoration to India of tho gates of the

THE DISASTERS OF CABUL. 181
Temple of Somnauth, redeemed at Lord EUenborough's or
ders Avlien Ghuznee Avas retaken by the English, Av.as first
received Avilh incredulity as a practical joke; then Avith one
universal burst of laughter; then Avith indignation; and
then, again, Avheii the natural anger had died aAvay, Avilh
laughter again. " My brothers and ray friends," Avrote Lord
Ellenborough " to all the princes, chiefs, and people of India,"
— " Our victorious army bears the gates of the Temple of
Somnauth in triumph from Afghanistan, and the despoiled
tomb of Sultan Mahmoud looks upon the ruins of Ghuznee
The insult of eight hundred years is at last avenged. The
gates of the Temple of Somnauth, so long the memorial of
your humiliation, are become the proudest record of your
national glory ; the proof of your superiority in arms over
the nations beyond the Indus."
No Avords of pompous man could possibly have put to
gether greater absurdities. The brothers and friends Avere
Mohammedans and Hindoos, Avho were about as likely to
agree as to the effect of these symbols of triumph as a Fe
nian and an Orangeman Avould be to fraternize in a toast to
the glorious, pious, and immortal memory. To the Moham
medans the triumph of Lord P]llenborough was simply an
insult. To the Hindoos the offer Avas ridiculous, for the
Temple of Soinnauth itself Avas in ruins, and the ground it
covered Avas trodden by Mohammedans. To finish the ab
surdity, the gates proved not to be genuine relics at all.
On October 1st, 1842, exactly four years since Lord Auck
land's proclamation announcing and justifying the interven
tion to restore Shah Soojah, Lord Ellenborough issued an
other proclamation announcing the coraplete failure and the
revocation ofthe policy ofhis predecessor. Lord Ellenbor
ough declared that " to force a sovereign upon a reluctant
people would be as inconsistent Avith the policy as it is Avitli
the principles of the British Government ;" that, therefore,
tliey Avould recognize any government approved by the Af
ghans themselves ; that the British arms Avould be withdrawn
from Afghanistan, and that the Government of India Avould
remain "content Avilh the limits nature appears to have
assigned to its empire." Dost Mahomed Avas released from
his captivity, and before long was ruler of Cabul once again.
Thus ended the story of our expedition to reorganize the in-

182 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ternal condition of Afghanistan. After four years of unpar-
.alleled trial and disaster everything Avas restored to the con
dition ill Avhich we found it, except that there Avere so many
brave Englishmen sleeping in bloody graves. The Duke of
Wellington ascribed the causes of our failure to making war
Avith a peace establisliment ; making war without a safe base
of operations ; carrying the native army out of India into
a strange and cold climate ; invading a poor country Avliich
Avas unequal to the supply of our wants; giving undue pow
er to political agents ; want of forethought and undue con
fidence in the Afghans on the part of Sir W. Macnaghten ;
placing our magazines, even our treasure, in indefensible
])laces; great military neglect and mismanagement after the
outbreak. Doubtless these Avere, in a railitary sense, the
reasons for the failure of an enterprise which cost the rev
enues of India an enormous araount of treasure. But the
causes of failure Avere deeper than any military errors could
explain. It is doubtful wheiher the genius of a Napoleon
and the forethought of a Wellington could have avou any
]ierraanent success for an enterprise founded on so false and
fatal a policy. Nothing in the ability or devotion of those
intrusted with the task of carrying it out could have made
it deserve success. Our first error of principle Avas to go
completely out of our Avay for the purpose of meeting mere
speculative dangers; our next and far greater error Avas
made Avhen avo altempted, in the AA'ords of Lord EUenbor
ough's proclamation, to force a sovereign upon a reluctant
people.

CHAPTER XIL
THE REPEAL TEAK.

"The year 1843," said O'Connell, " is and shall be the
great Repeal year." In the year 1843, at all events, O'Con
nell and his Repeal agitation are entitled to the foremost
place. The character ofthe man himself well deserves somo
calm consideration. We are now, perhaps, in a condition to
do it justice. We are far removed in sentiraent and politi
cal association, if not exactly in years, from the tirae Avhen
O'Connell Avas the idol of one party, and the object of all tho

THE REPEAL YEAR. 183
bitterest scorn and hatred ofthe other. No man ofhis time
Avas so madly Avorshippod and so fiercely denounced. No
man in our lime Avas ever the object of so much abuse in the
iiCAvspapers. The fiercest and coarsest attacks that avc can
remember to have been made in English journals on Cobden
and Bright during the heat of the Anti-Corn-law agitation
seem placid, gentle, and almost compliraentary Aviieii coin-
liared Avilh the criticisms daily applied to O'Connell. The
only vituperation Avhich could equal in vehemence and scur
rility that poured out upon O'Connell was that which O'Con
nell himself poured out lipon his assailants. His hand Avas
against every man, if every man's hand Avas against hini.
He asked for no quarter, and he gave none
We have outlived not the times merely, but the Avliole
spirit of the times, so far as political controversy is concern
ed. We are uoav able to recognize the fact that a public
raan raay hold opinions Avliich are distasteful to the raajority,
and yet be perfectly sincere and Avorlhy of respect. We arc
Avell aware that a man may differ from us, even on vital
questions, and yet be neither fool nor knave. But this view
of things Avas not generally taken in the days of O'Connell's
great agitation. He and his enemies alike acted in their
controversies on the principle that a political opponent is
necessarily a blockhead or a scoundrel. It is strange an.l
somewhat melancholy to read the strictures of so enlightenc I
a AVoman as Miss Martineau upon O'Connell. They are all
based upon Avhat a humorous Avriter has called the " fiend-
iii -human-shape theorj'." Miss Martineau not merely as-
Bilraes that O'Connell Avas absolutely insincere and untrusl-
Avorthy, but discourses of him on the assuraption that he Avas
knoAvingly and purposely a villain. Not only does she hold
that his Repeal agitation was. an unqualified evil for his
country, and that Repeal, if gained, would have been a curse
to it, but she insists that O'Connell himself Avas thoroughly
convinced ofthe facts. She devotes Avhole pages of lively
and acrid arguraent to prove not only that O'Connell Avas
ruining his country, but that he kneAv he was ruining it, and
persevered in his wickedness out of pure self-seeking. No
Avriter possessed of one-tenth of Miss Martineau's intellect
and education would uoav reason after that fashion about
nuy public man. If there is any coraraon delusion of past

184 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
days Avhich may be taken as entirely exploded noAV, it is the
idea that any raan ever swayed vast raasses of people, and
becarae the idol and the hero of a nation, by the strength of
a conscious hypocrisy and iraposture
O'Connell in this Repeal year, as he called it, was by iiir
the most prominent politician in these countries Avho had
never been in office. He had been the patron of the Mel
bourne Ministry, and his patronage had proved baneful to
it. One of the great causes ofthe detestation in Avhich the
Melbourne Whigs Avere held by a vast number of English
people Avas their alleged subserviency to the Irish agitator.
We cannot be surprised if the English public just then Avas
little inclined to take an impartial estimate of O'Connell.
He had attacked sorae of their public raen in language of
the fiercest denunciation. He had started an agitation
Aviiich seemed as if it Avere directly meant to bring about a
break-up of the Imperial systera so lately completed by the
Act of Union. He Avas opposed to the existence ofthe St.ate
Church in Ireland. He Avas the bitter enemy ofthe Irish
landlord class — of the landlords, that is to say, Avho took
their title in any Avay from England. He Avas farailiarly
known in the graceful controversy ofthe time as the "Big
Beggarman." It Avas an article of faith Avilh the general
jmblic that he was enriching himself at the expense of a
])oor and foolish people. It is a raatter of fact that he had
given up a splendid practice at the bar to carry on his agi
tation; that he lost by the agitation, pecuniarily, far more
than he ever got by it; that he had not himself received
from first to last anything like the amount ofthe noble trib
ute so becomingly and projierly given to, Mr. Cobden, and so
honorably accepted by hira ; and that he died poor, leaving
his sons poor. Indeed, it is a reraarkable evidence of the
purifying nature of any great political cause, even Avhere the
object sought is but a phantora, that it is hardly possible to
give a single instance of a great political agitation carried
on in these countries and in modern tiraes by leaders Avho
had any priraary purpose of making money. But at that
time the general English public Avere firmly convinced that
O'Connell Avas simply keeping u]) his agitation for the sake
of pocketing "the rent." Sorae ofthe qualities, too, that
specially endeared him to his Celtic countrymen made him

TIIE REPEAL YEAR. 185
particularly objectionable to Englishmen ; and Englishmen
have never been famous for readiness to enter into the feel
ings and accept the point of view of other peoples. O'Con
nell was a thorough Celt. He represented all the impul
siveness, the quick-changing emotions, the passionate, exag
gerated loves and hatreds, the heedlessness of statement, the
tendency to confound impressions with facts, the ebullient
humor — all the other qualities that are especially character
istic of the Celt. The Irish people were the audience to
Avhich O'Connell habitually played. It may, indeed, be said
that even in playing lo this audience he commonly played
to the gallery. As the orator of a popular assembly, as the
orator of a monster meeting, he probably never had an equal
in these countries. He had many of the physical endow
ments that are especially favorable to success in such a
sphere. He had a herculean frarae, a stately presence, a face
capable of expressing easily and effectively the mostrapid
alternations of mood, and a voice Avhich all hearers admit
to have been almost unrivalled for strength and sweetness.
Ils poAver, its pathos, its passion, its music have been de
scribed in Avords of positive rapture by men Avho detested
O'Connell, and Avho would rather, if they could, have denied
to him any claim on public attention, even in the matter of
voice. He spoke Avithout studied preparation, and of course
had all the defects of such a style. He fell into repetition
and into carelessness of construction ; he Avas hurried a-Avay
into exaggeration and sometimes into raere bombast. But
he had all the peculiar success, too, Avhich rewards theoralor
who can speak Avithout preparation. He ahvays spoke right
to the hearts of his hearers. On the jilatform or in Parlia
ment, whatever he said Avas said to his audience, and AA'as
never in the nature of a discourse delivered over their heads.
He entered the House of Coraraons when he Avas nearly fifty-
four years of age. Most persons supposed that the style of
speaking he had formed, firsi in addressing juries, and next
in rousing Irish raobs, must cause his failure Avhen he came
to appeal to fhe unsympathetic and fastidious House of
Commons. But it is certain that O'Connell becarae one of
the most successwl Parliaraentary orators ofhis lime. Lord
Jeffrey, a professional critic, declared that all other speakers
in the House seemed to him only talking school-boy talk af-

186 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
ter he had heard O'Connell. No raan we uoav know of is-
less likely to be carried aAvay by any of the clap-trap arts
of a false demagogic style than Mr. Roebuck ; and Mr, Roe
buck has said that he considers O'Connell the greatest orator
he ever heard in the House of Commons. Charles Dickens,
Avhen a reporter in the gallery, Avhere he had few equals, if
any, in his craft, put doAvn his pencil once when engaged in
reporting a speech of O'Connell's on one ofthe tithe riots in
Ireland, and declared that he conld not take notes of the
speech, so nioved Avas he by its pathos. Lord Beaconsfield,
Avho certainly had no great liking for O'Connell, has spoken
iu terms as high as any one could use about his power over
the House. But O'Connell's eloquence only helped him to
make all the more enemies in the House of Commons. He
Avas reckless even there in his denunciation, although he took
care never to obtrude on Parliament the extravagant and
unmeaning abuse of opponents Avhich delighted the Irish
mob meetings.
O'Connell Avas a crafty and successful laAvyer. The Irish
peasant, like the Scottish, is, or at least then Avas, remarka
bly fond of litigation. He delighted in the quirks and quib
bles of laAV, and in the triumphs M'on by the skill of lawyers
over opponents. He admired O'Connell all the more when
O'Connell boasted and proved that he could drive a coach
and six throngh any Act of Parliament. One ofthe pet he
roes of Irish legend is a personage Avhose cleverness and craft
]ii-ocni-e for hira a sobriquet Avliich has been rendered into
English by the Avords "lAvisls upon twists and tricks upon
tricks." O'Connell Avas in the eyes of raany of the Irish
peasantry an embodiment of "tAvists upon twists and tricks
upon tricks," enlisted in their cause for the confusion of
tlieir adversaries. He had borne the leading part in carry
ing Catholic eraancipation. He had encountered all the dan
ger and responsibility of the soineAvhat aggressive move
ment by Avliich it was finally secured. It is true that it Avas
a reforra Avhicli in the course of civilization must have been
carried. It had in its favor all the enlightenment of the
time. The eloquence of the greatest orators, the intellect of
the truest philosophers, the prescience of the Avisest states
men had pleaded for it and helped to make its way clear.
No man can doubt that it must in a short time have been

THE REPEAL YEAR. 187
carried if O'Connell had never lived. But it Avas carried
just then by virtue of O'Connell's bold agitation, and by
the Avise resolve of the Tory Governnient not to provoke a
civil Avar. It is deeply to be regretted that Catholic eraan
cipation Avas not conceded to the claims of justice. Had it
been so yielded, it is very doubtful whether Ave should ever
have heard much of the Repeal agitation. But the Irisii
people saw, and indeed all the Avorld Avas made aware of the
fact, that emancipation Avould not have been conceded, just
then at least, but for the fear of civil disturbance. To an
Englishman looking coolly back from a distance, the differ
ence is clear ,betAveen granting to-day, rather than provoke
disturbance, that Avhich every one sees must be granted
sorae tirae, and conceding what the vast m.ajority of the
English people believe can never with propriety or even
safety be granted at all. But Ave can hardly wonder if the
Irish peasant did not make such distinctions. All he kneAV
was that O'Connell had demanded Catholic eraancipation,
.and had been answered at first by a direct refusal; that he
had said he Avould compel its concession, and that in the
end it Avas conceded to him. When, thereibre, O'Connell
said that he would compel the Government lo give him re-
])eal of the Union, the Irish peasant naturally believed that
he could keep his Avord.
Nor is there any reason to doubt that O'Connell hiraself
believed in the possibility of accomplishing his purpose
We are apt uoav to think ofthe union belAveen England and
Ireland as of time-honored endurance It had beeu scarce
ly thirty j'ears in existence Avlien O'Connell entered Parlia
ment. The veneration of ancient lineage, the majesty of
custora, the respect due to the " Avisdora of our ancestors"
— none of these familiar claims could be urged on behalf
ofthe legislative union between England and Ireland. To
O'Connell it appeared simply as a modern innovation which
had nolhing to be said for it except that a majority of Eng
lishmen had by threats and bribery forced it on a majority
of Irishmen. Mr. Lecky, the author of the " History of Eu
ropean Morals," may be cited as an impartial authority on
such a subject. Let us see Avhat he says in his Avork on
"The Leaders of Public Opinion in Ireland," with regard to
the movement for repeal'of the Union, of Avliich it seems al-

188 A HISTORY -OF OUR OWN TIMES.
most needless to say he disapproves. " O'Connell perceived
clearly," says Mr. Lecky, " that the tendency of affairs in
Europe Avas toward the recognition of the principle that a
nation's Avill is the one legitimate rule of its government.
All rational men acknoAvledged that the Union Avas imposed
on Ireland by corrupt means, contrary to the Avish of one
generation. O'Connell was prepared to shoAA', by the pro
test of the vast raajority of the people, that it Avas retained
Avithout the acquiescence of the next. He had allied him
self with the parties that Avere rising surely and rapidly to
poAver in England — Avilh the democracy, Avhose gr.adual
progress is effacing the most venerable landjnarks of the
Constitution — Avith tlie Free-traders, Avhose approaching
triumph he had hailed and exulted in from afar. He had
•perceived the possibility of forming a poAverfiil party in Par
liament, Avhicli Avould be free to co-operate Avilli all English
parties Avithout coalescing Avilh any, and might thus turn
the balance of factions and decide the fate of ministries.
He saw, too, tiiat while England in a time of peace might
resist the expressed Avill ofthe Irish nation, ils policy would
be necessarily modified in time of Avar ; and he predicted
that should there be a collision with France Avliile the na
tion Avas organized as in 1843, Repeal Avould be the imme
diate and the inevitable consequence. In a AVord, he be
lieved that under a constitutional government the Avill of
four-fifths of a nation, if peacefully, perseveringly, and ener
getically expressed, must sooner or later be triuraphant. If
a Avar had broken out during the agitation — ifthe life of
O'Connell had been prolonged ten years longer — if any wor
thy successor had assuraed his mantle — if a fearful famine
had not broken the spirit of the people — Avho can say that
the .agitation Avould not have been successful V" No one,
Ave fancy, except those Avho are ahvays convinced that noth
ing can ever come to pass Avhich they think ought not to
corae to pass. At all events, if an English political philoso
pher, surveying the events after a distance of thirty years,
is of opinion that Repeal Avas possible, it is not surprising
that O'Connell thought its attainment possible at the time
Avhen he set hiraself to agitate for it. Even if this be not
conceded, it Avill at least be alloAved that it is not very sur
prising if the Irish peasant saw no absurdity in the raove-

THE REPEAL YEAR. 189
ment. Our system of government by parly does not lay
claim to absolute perfection. It is an excellent mechanism,
on the Avliole ; it is probably the most satisfactory that the
Avit of man has yet devised for the management ofthe af
fairs of a State; but ils greatest admirers avUI bear to be
told that it has its drawbacks and disadvantages. One of
these undoubtedly is found in the fact that so few reforms
are accomplished in deference to the claims of justice, in
comparison Avith those that are yielded to the pressure of
numbers. A great English statesman in our own day once
said that Parliament had done many just things, but few
tilings because they Avere just. O'Connell and the Irish
people saw that Catholic emancipation had been yielded to
jiressure rather than to justice ; it is not Avouderful if they
thought that pressure might prevail as avcU in the matter
of Repeal.
In many respects O'Connell differed from more modern
Irish Nationalists. He Avas a thorough Liberal. He Avas a
devoted opponent of negro slavery ; he Avas a stanch Free
trader; he Avas a friend of popular education; he Avas an
enemy to all excess ; he Avas opposed to strikes ; he Avas an
advocate of religious equality everywhere; and he declined
to receive the commands of the Vatican in his political agi
tation. "I ara a Catholic, but I am not a Papist," Avas his
own definition of his religious attitude He preached the
doctrine of constitutional agitation strictly, and declared
that no political Reform Avas Avorth the shedding of one'
drop of blood. It may be asked how it carae about that
Avilh all these excellent attributes, Avhich all critics noAV al-
loAV to hira, O'Connell Avas so detested by the vast majori
ty ofthe English people. One reason, undoubtedly, is, that
O'Connell deliberately revived and worked up for his polit
ical purposes the almost extinct national hatreds of Celt and
Saxon. As a phrase of political controversy, he may be said
to have invented the Avord " Saxon." He gave a terrible li
cense to his tongue. His abuse Avas outrageous; his praise
Avas outrageous. The very effusiveness of his loyalty told
to his disadvantage People could not understand how one
Avho perpetually denounced "the Saxon" could be so enthu
siastic and rapturous in his professions of loyalty to the Sax
on's Queen. In the common opinion of Englishmen, all the

190 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
evils of Ireland, all the troubles attaching to the connection
betAveen the two countries, had arisen from this unmitigated,
rankling hatred of Celt for Saxon. It Avas irapossible for
them to believe that a man Avho deliberately applied all the
force of his eloquence to revive it could be a genuine p.ati-iot.
Il appeared intolerable that Avhile thus laboring to make the
Celt hate the Saxon he should yet profess an extravagant
devotion to the Sovereign of England. Yet O'Connell Avas
probably quite sincere in his professions of loy.alty. He Avas
in no sense a revolutionist. He had from his education in
a French college acquired an early detestation of the prin
ciples of the French Revolution. Of the Irish rebels of
'98 he spoke with as savage an intolerance as the narrow
est English Tories could show in speaking of hiraself The
Tones, and Eraraetts, and Fitzgeralds, Avhom so many of the
Irish people adored, Avere, in O'Connell's eyes, and in his
Av ords, only "a gang of miscreants." He grew angry at the
slightest expression of an opinion among his followers that
seemed to denote even a Avillingness to discuss any of the
doctrines of Coramnnisra. His theory and his policy evi
dently Avere that Ireland was to be saved, by a dictatorship
intrusted to himself, Avith the Irish priesthood acting as his
officers and agents. He maintained the authority of the
priests, and his oavu authority by means of thera and over
them. The political system of the country for the purposes
of agitation was to be a sort of hierarchy; the parish priests
occupying the lowest grade, the bishops standing on the
higher steps, and O'Connell himself supreme, as the pontiff,
over all.
He had a Parliamentary system by means of Avliich he
proposed to approach more directly the question of Repeal
of the Union. He got seats in the House of Comnions for
a number of his sons, his nephcAvs, and his sworn retainers.
"O'Connell's tail" Avas the precursor of " the Pope's Brass
Band" in the slang ofthe House of Commons. He had an
almost supreme control over the Irish constituencies, and
Avhenever a vacancy took place he sent doAvn the Repeal
candidate to contest it. He ahvays inculcated and insisted
on the necessity of order and peace. Indeed, as he proposed
to carry on his agitation altogether by the help ofthe bish
ops and the priests, it Avas not possible for him, even were

THE REPEAL YEAR. 191
he SO inclined, lo conduct it on any other than peaceful prin
ciples. "Tiie raan Avho coramils a crime gives strength to
tiie eneray," Avas a maxim Avhieli he was never Aveary of im
pressing upon his foiloAvers. The Temperance movement set
on foot Avith such remarkable and sudden success by Father
MatiicAV Avas at once turned to account by O'Connell. He
Avas hiraself, in his later years at all events, a very temperate
man, and he was delighted at the prospect of good order and
discipline Avhicli the Temperance raovement afforded. Fa
ther MatheAV Avas very far from sharing all the political opin
ions of O'Connell. The SAveet and siraple friar, Avhose power
Av.as that of goodness and enthusiasm only, and who had but
little force of character or intellect, shrank from political ag
itation, and Avas rather Conservative than otherAvise in his
views. But he could not afford to repudiate the support
of O'Connell, avIio on all occasions glorified the Temperance
movement, and called upon his folloAvers to join it, and Avas
ahvays boasting of his " noble army of Teetotallers." It Avas
probably when he found that the mere fiict of his having
supported the Melbourne Governraent did so rauch to dis
credit that Governraent in the eyes of Englishmen, and lo
bring about its fall, that O'Connell Avent deliberately out
of the path of raere Parliamentary agitation, and started
that system of agitation by monster raeeling Avhich has since
his time been regularly established among us as a principal
part of all political organization for a definite purpose. He
founded in Dublin a Repeal Association Avhich raet in a place
ou Burgh Quay, and Avhich he styled Conciliation Hall.
Around him in this Association he gathered his sons, his rel
atives, his devoted folloAvers, priestly and lay. The Nation
noAvspaper, then in its youth and full of a fresh literary vig
or, Avas one ofhis most brilliant instruments. At a laler pe
riod ofthe agitation it Avas destined to be used against him,
and with severe effect. The famous monster meetings were
usually held on a Sunday, on some open spot, mostly selected
for its historic farae, and Avith all the picturesque surround
ings of hill and streara. From the dawn ofthe summer day
the Repealers Avere thronging to the scene of the meeting.
They came frora all parts of the neighboring country for
miles and miles. They Avere coniraonly raarshalled and
guided by their parish priests. They all attended the ser-

192 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
vices of their Church before the meeting began. The influ
ence ofhis religion and ofhis patriotic feelings Avas brought
to bear at once upon the impressionable and emotional Irish
Celt. At the meeting O'Connell and several of his chosen
orators addressed the crowd on the subject of the wrongs
done to Ireland by "the Saxon," the claims of Ireland to the
restoration of her old Parliament in College Green, and the
certainty of her having it restored if Irishmen only obeyed
O'Connell and their priests, Avere sober, and displayed their
strength and their unity.
O'Connell himself, it is needless to sa\', Avas ahvays the
great orator of the day. The agitation developed a great
deal of literary talent among the younger men of education ;
but it never brought out a raan who Avas even spoken of as
a possible successor to O'Connell in eloquence. His mag
nificent voice enabled him to do Avhat no genius and no elo
quence less aptly endoAved could have done. He could send
his lightest Avord thrilling to the extreme of the vast con
course of people Avhoni he desired to raove. He SAvayed
ihem Avith the magic of an absoliite control. He understood
all the moods of his people; to address himself to them
came n.aturally to him. He made them roar Avith laughter;
lie made them Aveep ; he raade them thrill Avith indignation.
As the shadow runs over a field, so the impression of his
varying eloquence ran over the assemblage. He command
ed the emotions ofhis hearers as a consummate conductor
sways the energies of his orchestra. E\'ery allusion told.
When, in one of the meetings held in his native Kerry, he
turned solemnly round and appealed to " yonder blue moun
tains Avhere you and I Avere cradled ;" or in sight of the ob
jects he described he apostrophized Ireland as the "land
of the green valley and the rushing river" — an admirably
(•liaracteristio and complete description; or recalled some
historical association connected with the scene he surveyed
— each Avas some special appeal to the instant feelings of his
peculiar audience. Sometimes he indulged^n the grossest
and Avhat ought to have been the most ridiculous flattery
of his hearers — flattery Avhich Avould have offended and dis
gusted the dullest English audience. But the Irish peasant,
Avilh all his keen sense of tlie ridiculous in others, is singu
larly open to the influence of any appeal to his oavu v-anity.

THE REPEAL YEAR. 193
There is a great deal of the " eternal-Avomanly " in the Cel
tic nature, and it is not easy to overflattcr one of the race
Doubtless O'Connell knew this, and acted purposely ou it;
and this Avas a peculiarity ofhis political conduct Avhich it
Avould be hard indeed lo coniinend or even to defend. But,
in truth, he adopted in his agitation tho tactics he had em
ployed at the bar. "A good speech is a good thing," he
used to say; "but the verdict is the thing." His flattery
of his hearers was not grosser than his abuse of all those
Avhom they did not like. His dispraise ofteii had absolute
ly no meaning in it. There Avas no sense Avhatever in call
ing the Duke of Welliuglon "a stunted corporal ;" one might
as Avell have called Mont Blanc a niole-hiU. Nobody could
have sho« 11 more clearly than O'Connell did that he did not
believe tiie Times to be "an obscure r.ag." It Avould have
been as humorous and as truthful to say that there was no'
such pa:per as the Times. But these absurdities raade an
ignorant audience laugh for the moraent, and O'Connell had
gained the only point he just then Avanled to carry. He
Avould probably have ansAvered any one avIio remonstrated
Avith him on tlie disingenuousness of such sayings, as Mrs.
^Tlirale,, say^'Burkfe^ once ansAvered her Avhen she taxed him
Avith a Avant of literal accuracy, by quoting, "Odds life, must
one swear to the truth of a song?" But this recklessness
of epithet and description did much to make O'Connell dis-
trnsted and disliked in England, Avhere, in Avhatever heat of
political controversy, AVords are supposed to be the expres
sions of some manner of genuine sentiment. Of course many
of O'Connell's abusive epithets Avere not only full of huraor,
but did, to sorae extent, fairly represent tho Aveaknesses at
least of those against Avhom they Avere directed. Some of
his historical allusions Avere of a raore mischievous nature
than any mere personalities could have been. "Peel and
Wellington," he said. at Kilkenny, "may be second Crom-
Avells ; they may get CroinAvell's blunted truncheon, and they
raay — oh, sacred heavens! — enact on the fair occupants of
that gallery" (pointing to the ladies' gallery), "the murder
of the Wexford women. Let it not be supposed that when I
made that appeal to the ladies it Avas but a flight of my im
agination. No! Avhen CromAvell entered the toAvn of Wex
ford by treachery, three hundred ladies, tho beauty and love-
L— 9

194 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
liness of Wexford, the young and the old, the'maid and the
matron, Avere collected round the Cross of Christ; they pray
ed to Heaven for mercy, and I hope they found it; they
prayed lo the English ibr humanity, and CromAvell slaugh
tered them. I tell you this: three hundred Avoraen, the
grace and beauty and virtue of Wexford, were slaughtered
by the English ruffians — sacred heaven !" He Avent on then
to assure his hearers that " the ruffianly Saxon paper, the
Times, in the number received by me to-day, presumes to
tiireaten us again with such a scene" One Avould like to
see the copy of the Times Avliich contained such a threat,
or, indeed, 'any Avords that could be tortured into a sem
blance of any such hideous meaning. But the great agit.a-
tor, when he found that he had excited enough the horror
of his audience, proceeded to reassure them by the means
of all others most objectionable and dangerous at such a
time. "I am not imaginative," he said, " Avhen I talk of tho
possibility of such scenes anew ; but yet I assert that there
is no danger to our Avomen noAv, for tho men of Ireland
Avould die to the last in their defence." Here the Avhole
meeting broke into a storm of impassioned cheering. "Ay,"
the orator exclaimed, Avlien the storra found a raonientary
hush, " Ave Avere a paltry rcr.inaiit then; Ave are millions
iioAA'." At MuUaghmast, O'Connell made an impassioned
allusion to the massacre of Irish chieftains, said to have
taken place on that very spot in the reign of Queen Eliza
beth. "Three hundred and ninety Irish chiefs perished
here ! They came, confiding in Saxon honor, relying on
the protection of the Queen, to a friendly conference. In
tlie midst of revelry, in the cheerful light of the banquet-
house, they Avere surrounded and butchered. None return
ed save one. Their Avives Avere widoAvs, their children fa
therless. In their homesteads Avas heard the shrill shriek
of despair — the cry of bitter .agony. Oh, Saxon cruelty,
hoAv it cheers my heart to think that you dare not attempt
such a deed again !" It is not necessary to point out Avhat
the effect of such descriptions and such allusions must have
been upon an excitable and an ignorant peasant audience —
on men who Avere ready to believe in all sincerity that Eng
land only Avanted the opportunity to re-enact, in the reign of
Queen Victoria, the scenes of Elizabeth's or CromAvell's day.

TIIE REPEAL VEAR. 195
The Late Lord Lytton has given, in his poem "St. Ste
phens," a picturesque description of one of these meetings,
and of the effect produced upon himself by O'Connell's elo
quence. " Once to my sight," he says, "the giant thus Avas
given ; Availed by wide air and roofed by boundless heaven."
He describes " the human ocean " lying spread out at the
giant's feet ; its " wave on Avave " floAving " into space away."
Not unnaturally. Lord Lytton thought, "no clarion could
have sent ils sound even to the centre" of that crowd.
"And as I thought, rose the sonorous swell
As from some church tower swings the silvery bell ;
Aloft and clear from airy tide to tide,
It glided easy as a bird may glide.
'To the last verge of that vast audience sent,
It played with each wild passion as it went ;
Now stirred the uproar — now the murmur stilled,
And sobs or laughter answered as it willed.
Then did I know what spells of infinite choice
To rouse or lull has the sweet human voice.
Then did I learn to seize the sudden clew
To the grand troublous life antique — to view.
Under the rock-stand of Demosthenes,
Unstable Athens heave her noisy seas."
The crowds Avho attended the monster meetings came in
a sort of military order and Avith a certain parade of military
discipline. At the raeeting held on the Hill of Tara, where
O'Connell stood beside the stone said to have been used for
the coronation of the ancient monarchs of Ireland, it is de
clared, on the authority of careful and unsympathetic wit
nesses, that a quarter of a million of people must have been
present. The Government natur.ally felt that there was a
very considerable danger in the massing together of such
vast crowds of men in something like military array and un
der tlie absolute leadership of one man, avIio openly avowe<i
that he had called them together to show England Avhat
Avas the strength her statesmen Avould have to fear if they
continued lo deny Repeal to his demand. It is certain uoav
that O'Connell did not at any tirae mean to employ force
for the attainment ofhis ends. But it is equally certain that
lie Avished the English Government to see that he had the
command of an immense number of raen, and probably even
to believe that he Avould, if needs wore, hurl thera in rebel-

196 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
lion upon England if ever she should be embarras.sed Aviih
a foreign Avar. It is certain, too, that many of O'Connell's
raost ardent adrairers, especially among the young men,
Avere fully convinced that some day or other their leader
Avould call on them to fight, and were much disappointed
when they found that he had no such intention. The Gov
ernment at last resolved to interfere. A meeting Avas an
nounced to be held at Clontarf on Sunday, October 8th, 1843.
Clontarf is near Dublin, and is famous in Irish history as tho
scene of a great victory of the Irish over their Danish in
vaders. It was intended that this raeeling should surpass
in numbers and in earnestness the asserablage at Tara. On
the very day before the 8th the Lord -lieutenant issued a
proclamation prohibiting the meeting as "calculated to ex
cite reasonable and well-grounded apprehension," in that its
object Avas " to accomplish alterations in the laAvs and con
stitution of the realm by intimidation and the demonstra
tion of physical force." O'Connell's poAver over the people
Avas never shown raore effectively than in the control Avhich
at that critical moment-he Avas still able to exercise. The
jiopulations Avere already coming in to Clontarf in streams
I'roin all the country round when the proclamation of the
Lord - lieutenant was issued. No doubt the Irish Govei-n-
inent ran a terrible risk Avhen they delayed so long the issue
of their proclamation. With the people already assembling
in such masses, the risk of a collision with the police and the
soldiery, and of a consequent massacre, is something still
shocking to contemplate. It is not surprising, perhaps, if
O'Connell and many ofhis followers made it a charge against
the Government that they intended to bring about such a
collision in order to raake an example of some of the Repeal
ers, and thus strike terror through the country. Some sort
of collision would almost undoubtedly have occurred but fbr
the promptitude of O'Connell himself. He at once issued a
proclamation ofhis OAvn to Avhich the populations Avere liiie-
ly to pay far more attention than they Avould to anything
coming frora Dublin Castle. O'Connell declared that the or
ders of the Lord-lieutenant must be obeyed ; that the meet
ing must not take place; and that the people must return to
their homes. The " uncroAvned king," as some ofhis admirers
loved to call him, Avas obeyed, and no n.oeting was held.

THE REPEAL YEAR. 197
From that raoraent, however, the great power of the Re
peal agitation Avas gone. The Government had accomplish
ed far more by their proclamation than they could possibly
have imagined at the time. They had, without knowing it,
compelled O'Connell to show his hand. It was now made
clear that he did not intend lo have resort to force. Frora
that hour there Avas virtually a schisra belAveen the elder
Repealers and the younger. The young and fiery followers
of the great agitator lost all faith in hira. It would in any
case have been irapossible to maintain for any very long tirae
the state of national tension in which Ireland had been kept.
It must soon come either to a climax or to an anti-climax.
It came to an anti-climax. All the imposing deraonstrations
of physical strength lost their value Avhen it was raade posi
tively known that they Avere only demonstrations, and that
nothing Avas ever to come of them. The eye of an attentive
foreigner Avas then fixed on Ireland and on CConnell ; the
eye of one destined to play a part in the political history of
our tirae Avhich none olher has surpassed. Count Cavour had
not long returned to his oavu country from a visit made Avilh
the express purpose of studying the politics and the gen
eral condition of England and Ireland. He Avrote to a friend
about the crisis then passing in Ireland. " When one is at
a distance," he said, "from the theatre of events, it is easy
to make proj)hecies Avhich have already been contradicted by
facts. But according to my vieAv O'Connell's fate is sealed.
On the first vigorous demonstration of his opponents he has
draAvii back ; frora that moraent he has ceased to be danger
ous." Cavour Avas perfectly right. It Avas never again pos
sible to bring the Irish people up to the pitch of enthusiasm
Avhich O'Connell had wrought them to before the suppres
sion of the Clontarf raeeting ; and before long the Irish na
tional movement had split in two.
The Government at once proceeded to the prosecution of
O'Connell and some of his principal associates. Daniel
O'Connell hiraself, his son John, the late Sir John Gray, and
Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, were the most conspicuous of those
against Avhom the prosecution Avas directed. They Avere
charged Avith conspiring to raise and excite disaffection
among her M.ajesty's subjects, to excite them to hatred and
contempt ofthe Government and Constitution of the realm.

198 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
The trial Avas, in many Avays, a singularly unfortunate pro
ceeding. The Governraent prosecutor objected to all the
Catholics Avhose names Avere called as jurors. An error of
the sheriff's in the construction of the jury-lists had already
reduced by a considerable number the roll of Catholics en
tilled to serve on juries. It therefore happened that the
greatest of Irisli Catholics, tlie representative Catholic of
his day, the principal agent in the Avork of carrying Catho
lic Emancipation, was tried by a jury composed exclusively
of Protestants. It has only to be added that this was done
in the metropolis of a country essentially Catholic; a coun
try five-sixths of whose people Avere Catholics ; and on a
question affecting indirectly, if not directly, the Avhole posi
tion and clairas of Catholics. The trial Avas long. O'Connell
defended himself; and his speech Avas universally regarded
as Avanting the power that had made his defence of others
so effective in forraer days. It Avas for the most part a sober
and somewhat heavy argument to prove tiiat Ireland had
lost instead of gained by her union with England. The jury
found O'Connell guilty, along with most of his associates, and
he was sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment and a fine
of £2000. The others received lighter sentences. O'Connell
appealed to the House of Lords against the sentence. Iu
the mean time he issued a proclamation to the Irish people
commanding them to keep perfectly quiet and not to com
mit any offence against the laAV. "Every man," said one of
his proclaraations, " Avho is guilty of the slightest breach of
the peace is an enemy of me and of Ireland." The Irisli peo-
])le took him at his Avord, and remained perfectly quiet.
O'Connell and his principal associates Avere coraraitled to
Richmond Prison, in Dublin. The trial had been delayed
in various Avays, and the sentence Avas not pronounced until
May 24th, 1844. Tiie appeal lo the liouse of Lords — we
raay pass over intermediate stages of procedure — was heard
in the following September. Five law lords Avere present.
The Lord Chancellor (Lord Lyndhurst) and Lord Brougham
Avere of opinion that the sentence ofthe court beloAv should
bo affirmed. Lord Denman, Lord Cottenham, and Lord
Carapbell were of the opposite opinion. Lord Denman, in
particular, condemned the mannei^ in Avhich the jury-lists
had been prepared. Sorae of his Avords on the occasion be-

THE REPEAL YEAR. 199
came memorable, and passed into a sort of proverbial ex
pression. Such practices, he said, Avould make of tlie law " a
mockery, a delusion, and a snare." A strange and memor.a-
ble scene followed. The constitution of tlie House of Lords
then, and for a long time after, made no difference between
law lords and others in voting on a question of appeal. As
a raatter of practice and of fairness the lay peers hardly
ever interfered in the voting on an appeal. But they had
an undoubted right to do so ; and it is even certain that in
one or two peculiar cases they had exercised the right. If
the lay lords Avere to vote in tliis instance, the fate of O'Con
nell and his companions could not be doubtful. O'Connell
Ijad ahvays been the bitter eneray of the House of Lords.
He had A'ehemently denounced its authority, ils practices,
and its leading raembers. Nor, if the lay peers had voted
and confirmed the judgment of tlie court beloAv, could it
have been positively said that an injustice was done by their
interference The m.ajority of the judges on the Avrit of er
ror had approved the judgment of the court beloAV. In tho
House of Lords itself the Lord Chancellor and Lord Brough
am Avere of opinion that the judgment ought to be sustained.
Tliere would, therefore, have been some ground for main
taining that the substantial justice ofthe case had been met
by the action of the lay peers. On the other hand, it Avould
have afforded a ground for a positive outcry in Ireland if a
question purely of law had been decided by tho votes of lay
jieers against their bitter enemy. One peer. Lord Wharii-
cliffe, made a timely appeal to the better judgment and feel
ing of his brethren. He urged them not to take a course
Avhicli might alloAV any one to say that political or personal
feeling had prevailed in a judicial decision ofthe House of
Lords. The appeal had its effect. A moment before one
lay peer at least had openly declared that he Avould insist
on his right to A'Ote When the Lord Chancellor AA'as about
to put the question in the first instance, to ascertain in the
usual Avay Avhether a division Avould be necessary, several
lay peers seemed as if they Avere determined to vote. But
the appeal of Lord Wharncliffe settled tiie matter. All the
lay peers at once Avithdrew, and left the matter according to
tiie usual course in the hands ofthe law lords. The majority
of these being .against the judgment ofthe court beloAv, it

200 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
W.as accordingly reversed, and O'Connell and his associates
were set at liberty. The propriety of a lay peer voting on
a question of judicial appeal Avas never raised again so long
as the appellate jurisdiction ofthe House of Lords Avas still
exercised in the old and noAV obsolete fashion.
Nothing could Avell have been more satisfactory and more
fortunate in ils results than the conduct of the House of
Lords. The effect upon the mind of the Irish people Avould
have been deplorable if it had been seen that O'Connell was
convicted by a jury on Avhich there were no Roman Catho
lics, and that the sentence Avas confirmed, not by a judicial
but by a strictly political vote of the Liouse of Lords. As
it Avas, the influence of the decision Avhich proved that even
in the assembly most bitterly denounced by O'Connell he
could receive fair play, Avas in the highest degree satisfactory.
It cannot be doubted that it did something to weaken the
force of O'Connell's own denunciations of Saxon treachery
and wrong-doing. The influence of O'Connell Avas never
the sarae after the trial. Many causes corabined to bring
about this result. Most Avriters ascribe it, above all, to the
trial itself, and the evidence it afforded that the English
Government were strong' enough to prosecute and punish
even O'Connell if he provoked them loo far. It is some
Avhat surprising to find intelligent raen like Mr. Green, the
author of "A Short History of the English People," coun
tenancing such a belief If the House of Lords had, by the
votes ofthe lay peers, confirmed the sentence on O'Connell,
he Avould have come out of his prison at the expiration of
his period of sentence more popular and more poAverful than
ever. Had his strength and faculty of agitation lasted, he
might have agitated thenceforth Avith more effect than ever.
If the Clontarf meeting had not disclosed to a large section
ofhis folloAvers that his policy, after all, Avas only to be one
of talk, he might have come out of prison just the man he
had been, the leader of all classes of Catholics and Nation
alists. But the real blow given to O'Connell's popularity
Avas given by O'Connell himself The moinent it Avas made
clear that nothing Avas to be done but agitate, and that all
the monster meetings, the crowds and banners and bands
of music, the marshalling and marching and revioAving,
meant nothing more than Father Mathew's temperance

THE REPEAL YEAR. '201
meetings meant — that moment all the youth of the move
ment fell off from O'Connell. The young men Avere very
silly, as after-events proved. O'Connell was far more Aviso,
and had an infinitely better estimate ofthe strength of Eng
land than they had. But it is certain that the young men
were disgusted with the kind of gigantic sham Avhich tho
great agitator seemed to have been conducting for so long a
time. It would have been impossible to keep up forever
such an excitement as that which got together the monster
meetings. Such heat cannot be brought up to the burning-
point and kept there at Avill. A reaction was inevitable.
O'Connell was getting old, and had lived a life of work and
Avear-and-tear enough to break down even his constitution
of iron. He had kept a great part of his oavu foUoAvers in
heart, as he had kept the Governraent in alarm, by leaving
it doubtful Avhether he would not, in the end, make an appeal
to the reserve of physical force which he so often boasted
of having at his back. When the Avhole secret Avas out, ho
ceased to be an object of fear to the one, and of enthusiasm
to the other. It was neither the Lord-lieutenant's procla
mation nor the prosecution by the Government that impair
ed the influence of O'Connell. It was O'Connell's oavu proc
lamation, declaring for subraission to the laAV, that dethroned
hira. From that moment the political raonarch had to dis
pute with rebels for his crown ; and the crown fell off in
the struggle, like that which Uhland tells of in the pretty
poem. For the Clontarf raeeting had been the cllraax. There
was all manner of national rejoicing when the decision of
the House of Lords set O'Connell and his fellow-prisoners
free. There were illuminations and banquets and meetings
and triumphal processions, renewed declarations of alle
giance to the great leader, and rencAved protestations on
his part that Repeal Avas coraing. But his reign Avas over.
His death may as Avell be recorded here as later. His
health broke down ; and the disputes in which he became
engaged with the Young Irelanders, dividing his party into
two hostile camps, Avere a grievous burden to him. In Lord
Beaconsfield's Life of Lord George Bentlnck, a very touch
ing description is given of the last speech raade by O'Con
nell in Parliament. It was on April 3d, 1846 : "His aiip.ear-
9*

202 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ance," says Mr. Disraeli, " Avas of great debility, and the
tones of his voice A\'ere very still. His Avords, indeed, only
reached those Avho were immediately around him, and the
ministers sitting on the other side of the green table, and
listening Avith that interest and respectful attention Avhich
became the occasion." O'Connell spoke for nearly Iavo
hours. " It Avas a strange and touching spectacle to those
Avho remembered the form of colossal energy and the clear
and thrilling tones that had once startled, disturbed, and
controlled senates. ... To the House, generally, it Avas a
performance in dumb shoAv: a feeble old raan rautlering be
fore a table ; but respect for the great Parliamentary per
sonage kept all as orderly as ifthe fortunes of a party hung
upon his rhetoric; and though not an accent reached the
gallery, means were taken that next morning the country
siiould not lose the last, and not the least interesting, of the
speeches of one Avho had so long occupied and agitated the
mind of nations."
O'Connell became seized Avilh a profound melancholy.
Only one desire seeraed left to hira, the desire to close his
stormy career in Rome. The Eternal City is the capital,
tlie shrine, the Mecca ofthe Church to which O'Connell was
undoubtedly devoted Avith all his heart. He longed to lie
down in the shadow of the dome of St. Peter's and rest
there, and there die. His youth had been Avild in more Avays
than one, and he had long been under the influence of a pro
found penitence. He had killed a man in a duel, and Avas
through all his after-life haunted by regret for the deed, al
though it was really forced on hira, and he had acted only
as any olher raan ofhis time would have acted in such con
ditions. But now, in his old and sinking days, all the errors
of his youth and his strong manhood came back upon him,
and he longed to steep the painful memories in the sacred
influences of Rome. He hurried to Italy at a time Avhen
the prospect of the famine darkening down upon his coun
try cast an additional shadow across his outAvard path. He
reached Genoa, and he Avent no farther. His strength AvhoUy
failed him there, and he died, still far from Rome, on May
15tli, 1847. The close ofhis career Avas a mournful collapse;
it was like the sudden crumbling in of some stately and
comraanding tower. The olher day, it seemed, he filled a

PEEL'S ADMINISTRATION'. 203
space of almost unequalled breadth and height in the polit
ical landscape ; and now he is already gone " Even Avith
a thought the rack disliinbs, and m.akes it indistinct, as Ava-
ter is in Avater."

CHAPTER XIII.
peel's administration.

Some important steps in the progress of Avhat may be de
scribed as social legislation are part of the history of Peel's
Governraent. Tlie Act of Parliament Avhich prohibited ab
solutely the employraent of Avomen and girls in mines and
collieries was rendered unavoidable by the fearful exposures
made through the instrumentality of a commission appoint
ed to inquire into the whole subject. This commission Avas
appointed on the motion ofthe then Lord Ashley, since bet
ter knoAvn as the Earl of Shaftesbury, a raan who during the
Aviiole of a long career has ahvays devoted hiraself — some
times Avisely and successfully, sometimes indiscreetly and lo
little purpose, always with disinterested and benevolent in
tention — to the task of brightening the lives and lightening
the burdens of the working-classes and the poor. The com
mission found many hideous evils arising from the employ
ment of AVOmen and girls underground, and Lord Ashley
made such effective use of their disclosures tiiat he encoun
tered very little opposition Avhen he came to propose re
strictive legislation. In some ofthe coal-mines Avomen Avere
literally employed as beasts of burden. Where the seam of
coal was too narrow to alloAV them to stand upriglit, they
had to crawl back and forward on all-fours for fourteen or
sixteen hours a day, dragging the trucks laden Avith coals.
The trucks were generally fastened to a chain which passed
between the legs ofthe unfortunate woraen, and was then
connected Avith a belt Avhich was strapped round their naked
Avaists. Their only clothing often consisted of an old pair
of trousers made of sacking ; and they Avere uncovered from
the waist up — uncovered, that is to say, except for the grime
and filth that collected and clotted around them. All man
ner of hideous diseases Avere generated in these unsexed bod-

201 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ies. Unsexed almost literally some of thera became ; for
their chests Avere often hard and flat as those of men ; and
not a fcAV of them lost all reproductive power — a happy con
dition, truly, under the circumstances, Avhere women, Avho
bore children only Avent up to the higher air for a week
during their confinement, and Avere then back at their work
again. It Avould be superfluous to say that the iramorality
engendered by such a state of things Avas in exact keeping
Avith the other evils Avhich it brought about. Lord Ashley
had the happiness and the honor of putting a stop to this
infaraous sort of labor forever by the Act of 1842, -which de
clared that, after a certain liraited period, no woman or girl
Avhatever should be employed in mines and collieries.
Lord Ashley was less completely successful in his en
deavor to secure a ten hours' liraitalion for the daily labor
of Avoruen and j'oiing persons in factories. By a vigorous
annual agitation on the general subject of factory labor, in
which Lord Ashley had followed in the footsteps of Mr.
Michael Thoraas Sadler, he brought the Government up to
the point of undertaking legislation on the subject. They
first introduced a bill which combined a limitation of the
labor of children in factories Avith a plan for compulsory ed
ucation araong the children. The educational clauses of the
bill had to be abandoned in consequence of a somewhat nar-
row-rainded opposition among the Dissenters, who feared
that too much advantage was given to the Church. After
ward the Government brought in another bill, Avhich be
came, in the end, the Factories Act of 1844. It was during
the passing of this raeasure that Lord Ashley tried unsuc
cessfully to introduce his ten hours' limit. The bill dimin
ished the Avorking hours of children under thirteen years of
age, and fixed thera at six and a half hours each day ; ex
tended somoAvhat the time during Avhich they Avere to be
under daily instruction, and did a good raany other useful
and wholesorae things. The principle of legislative inter
ference to protect youthful workers in factories had been
already established by the Act of 1833, and Lord Ashley's
agitation only obtained for it a soraewhat extended appli
cation. It has since that tirae again and again received fur
ther extension ; and in this time, -as in the forraer, there is a
constant controversy going on as to Avhether ils principles

peel's ADMINISTRATION. 205
ought not to be so extended as lo guard in almost every
Avay the labor of adult women, and even of adult men. The
controversy during Lord Ashley's agitation Avas always
Avarm and often irapassioned. Many thoroughly benevo
lent men and Avomen could not bring themselves to believe
that any satisfactory and permanent results could corae of
a legislative interference Avilli Avhat raight be called the
freedom of contract between employers and employed.
They argued that it Avas idle to say the interference was
only made or sought in the case of women and boys ; for if
the woraen and boys stop off working, they pointed out,
the raen must perforce in most cases stop off Avorking too.
Some of the public men afterward most justly popular
among the English artisan classes were opposed to the
measure on the ground that it Avas a heedless atterapt to in
terfere Avith fixed economic laAvs. It Avas urged, too, and
Avith much semblance of justice, that the interference ofthe
State for the protection or the compulsory education of
children in factories would have been much belter employ
ed, and Avas far more loudly called for, in the case of the
children eraployed in agricultural labor. The lot of a fac
tory child, it was contended, is infinitely better in most re
spects than that ofthe poor little creature who is employed
in hallooing at the crows on a farm. The mill-hand is well
cared for, Avell paid, Avell able to care for himself and his
wife and his family, it was argued ; but what of the raiser
able Giles Scroggins of Dorsetshire or Soraersetshiro, avIio
never has raore in all his life than just enough to keep body
and soul together ; and for whora, at the close, the work
house is the only haven of rest? Why not legislate for him
— at least for his wife and children ?
Neither point requires much consideration from us at
present. "We have to recognize historical facts ; and it is
certain that this country has made up its mind that for the
present and for a long time to come Parliament will inter
fere in Avhatever Avay seems good to it Avith the-conditions
on Avhicli labor is carried on. There has been, indeed, a very
marked advance or retrogression, Avhichever raen may please
to call it, in public opinion since the ten hours' agitation.
At that tirae compulsory education and the principles of
Mr. Gladstone's Irish Land Act Avould have seemed alike

206 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
impossible to raost persons in this country. The practical
iiiiud of the Englishman carries lo an extreme the dislike
tiiid conterapt for Avhat the French call les pi-iticipes in pol
itics. Therefore Ave oscillate a good deal, the pendulum
sAvinging uoav very far in the direction of non-interference
Avith individual action, and uoav still farther in the direc
tion of universal interference and regulation — what Avas once
humorously described as grandmotherly legislation. With
our recent experiences avo can only be surprised that a few
years ago there Avas such a repugnance to the modest
amount of interference Avitli individual rights Avhich Lord
Ashley's extremest proposals Avould have sought to intro
duce. As regards the other point, it is certain that Parlia
ment Avill at one tirae or anolher do for the children in the
fields something very like that Avhich it has done for the
children in the factories. It is enough for us to knoAV that
])ractically the factory legislation has Avorked very well ;
and that the non-interference in the fields is a far heavier re
sponsibility on the conscience of Parliament than interfer
ence in the factories.
Many other things done by Sir Robert Peel's Governraent
."iroused bitter controversy and agitation. In one or two re
raarkable instances the ministerial policy Avent near to pro
ducing that discord in the Conservative jiarty Avhich Ave shall
presently see break out into passion and schisra Avhen Peel
came to deal Avith the Corn-laws. There Avas, for exaraple,
the grant lo the Roraan Catholic College of Maynooth, a
college for the education specially of young men Avho sought
to enter the ranks of the priesthood. Tlie grant Avas not a
ncAv thing. Since before the Act of Union a grant had been
made for the college. The Government of Sir Robert Peel
only proposed to make that Avhich Avas insufficient sufficient;
to enable the college to be kept in repair, and to accomplish
the purpose for Avhicli it Avas founded. As Macaulay put it,
there was no more question of principle involved than there
Avould be in the sacrifice of a pound instead of a penny-
Aveight on some particular altar. Yet the rainisterial prop
osition called np a very tempest of clamorous bigotry all
over the country. What Macaulay described in fierce scorn
as "the bray of Exeter Hall" Avas heard resounding every
day and night. Peel carried his measure, although nearly

peel's ADMINISTRATION. 207
half his OAvn party in the House of Commons voted against
it on the second reading. The Avhole controversy has little
interest now. Perliaps it Avill be found to live in the mem
ory of many persons, chiefly because ofthe quarrel it caused
between Macaulay and his Edinburgh constituents, and of
the annual motion for the AvithdraAval of the grant Avliich
Avas so long afterward one ofthe regular bores ofthe House
of Commons. Many of us can Avell remember the venei-able
forra of the late Mr. Spooner as year after year he address
ed an apathetic, scanty, and half-amused audience, pottering
over his papers by the light of two candles specially placed
for his convenience on the table in front ofthe Speaker, and
endeavoring in vain to arouse England to serious attention
¦ on the subject of the aAvful fate she was prepaiiiig for her
self by her toler.ation of the principles of Rorae. The May
nooth grant Avas abolished, indeed, not long after Mr. Spoon-
er's death ; but the manner of its abolition Avould have given
him less comfort even than its introduction. It was abol
ished when Mr. Gladstone's Governraent abolished the St.ate
Church in Ireland.
Another of Peel's measures Avhich aroused much clamor
on both sides Avas that for the establishment of Avhat Avere
afterAvard called tho "godless colleges" in Ireland. O'Con
nell has often had the credit of applying this nickname '^o
the new colleges ; but it Avas, in fact, from the extremest of
all no-popery men, Sir Robert Harry Inglis, that the expres
sion carae. It was, indeed, from Sir Robert Inglis's side that
the first note sounded of opposition to the scheme, although
O'Connell afterAvard took it vigorously up, and the Pope and
the Irisli bishops condemned the colleges.
There Avas objection Avithin the ministry, as well as Avith
out. Mr. Gladstone, Avho had been doing admirable work,
first as Vice-president, and afterward as President, of tho
13oard of Trade, and who had supported the Queen's colleges
scheme by voice and vole, resigned his office because of the
Maynooth grant. He acted, perhaps, Avith a too sensitive
chivalry. He had Avritten a work, as all the world knows,
on the relation of Church and State, and he did not think
the vicAvs expressed in that book left him free to co-oper
ate the ministerial measure. Some staid politicians Avere
shocked ; many more smiled ; not a few sneered. The public

208 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
in general applauded the spirit of disinterestedness Avhich
dictated the young statesman's act.
The proposal of the Government Avas to establish in Ire
land three colleges — one in Cork, the second in Belfast, and
the third in Galway — and to affiliate these to a new univer
sity, to be called the " Queen's LTniversity in Ireland." The
teaching in these colleges Avas to be purely secular. Noth
ing could be more admirable than the intentions of Peel .and
his colleagues. Nor could it be denied that there might
have been good seeming hope for a plan which thus pro
posed to open a sort of neutral ground in the educational
controversy. But from both sides of the House and from
the extreme party in each Church came an equally fierce
denunciation of the proposal to separate secular frora relig
ious education. Nor, surely, could the claim of the Irish
Catholics be said even by the Avarmest advocate of unde
nominational education to have no reason on its side. The
small minority of Protestants in Ireland had their college
and their university established as a distinctively Protestant
institution. Why should not the great majority Avho were
Catholics ask for something ofthe same kind for theraselves ?
Peel carried his raeasure ; but the controversy has gone on
ever since, and Ave have yet to see whether the scheme is a
success or a failure.
One small instalment of justice to a rauch - injured and
long-suffering religious body was accoraplished Avithout any
trouble by Sir Robert Peel's Government. This was the
bill for removing the test by which Jews were excluded
from certain municipal offices. A JeAV might be high-sheriff
of a county, or sheriff of London, but Avitli an inconsistency
Avhicli was as ridiculous as it Avas narrow-minded, he was
prevented from becoming a mayor, an alderman, or even a
member of the Common Council. The oath which had to
be taken included the Avords " on the true £ailh of a Chris
tian." Lord Lyndhurst, the Lord Chancellor, introduced a
measure to get rid of this absurd anomaly ; and the House
of Lords, Avho had firraly rejected sirailar proposals of relief
before, passed it without any difficulty. It was, of course,
passed by the House of Commons, Avhieh had done its best
to introduce the reform in previous sessions, and Avithout
success.

peel's ADMINISTRATION. 209
The Bank Charter Act, separating the issue from the bank-
ing department of the Bank of England, limiting the issue
of notes to a fixed amount of securities, and' requirino- the
Avhole of the further circulation to be on a basis of bullion
and prohibiting the formation of any uoav banks of issue, is
a characteristic and an important measure of Peel's Govern
ment. To Peel, too, Ave OAve the establishment ofthe income-
tax on its present basis^a doubtful boon. The copyright
question Avas, at least, advanced a stage. Raihvays were reg
ulated. The raihvay mania and railway panic also belong
to this active period. The country went Avild Avilh raihvay
speculations. The South Sea scheme was hardly more of a
bubble, or hardly burst more suddenly or disastrously. The
Aulgar and flashy successes of one or Iavo lucky adventurers
turned the heads ofthe whole community. For a time it
seemed to be a national article of faith that the capacity of
the country to absorb new railway schemes and raake them
profitable was unlimited, and that to make a fortune one had
only to take shares in anything.
An odd feature of t.he tirae was the outbreak of what Avero
called the Rebecca riots in Wales. These riots arose out of
the anger and irapatience of the people at the great increase
of {.uil-bars and tolls on the public roads. Some one, it was
supposed, had hit upon a passage in Genesis which supplies
a motto for their grievance and their complaint, "And they
blessed Rebekah, and said unto her ... let thy seed possess
the gate of those which hate thera." They set about, ac
cordingly, to possess very effectually the gates of those which
hated them. Mobs assembled every night, destroyed turn
pikes, and dispersed. They met Avith little molestation in
raost cases for awhile. The mobs wore ahvays led by a man
in Avoraan's clothes, supposed to represent the typical Rebec
ca. As the disturbances went on, it was found that no easi
er raode of disguise could be got than a Avoman's clothes, and,
therefore, in many of the riots petticoats-might alraost be
said to be the uniforra of the insurgent force. Night after
night for months these midnight musterings took place.
Rebecca and her daughters became the terror of many re
gions. As the work went on it became more serious. Re
becca and her daughters groAV bold. There Avere conflicts
Avith the police and Avilh the soldiers. It is to be feared

210 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that raen and even Avoraen died for Rebecca. At last the
Government succeeded in putting doAvn the riots, and had
the Avisdora to appoint a commission to inquire into the cause
of so much disturbance; and the commission, as will readily
be iraagined, found that there Avere genuine grievances at the
bottom of the popular excitement. The farmers and the la
borers Avere poor; the tolls Avere seriously oppressive. The
Government dealt lightly Avith most ofthe rioters who had
been captured, and introduced measures Avhich removed the
grievances most seriously complained of Rebecca and her
daughters were heard of no more. They had raade out their
case, and done in their wild niuraraing Avay something of a
good work. Only a short tirae before the rioters would
have been shot down, and the grievances would have been
allowed to stand. Rebecca and her short career mark an
advancement in the political and social history of England.
Sir Jaraes Graham, the Home-secretary, brought himself
and the Government into some trouble by the raanner in
Avliich he made use ofthe power invested in the Administra
tion for the opening of private letters. Mr. Duncombe, the
Radical meraber for Finsbury, presented a petition, from Jo
seph Mazzini and others coraplaining that letters addressed
to them had been opened in the Post-office. Many of Maz-
ziiii's friends, and perhaps Mazzini himself, believed that the
contents of these letters had been communicated to the Sar
dinian and Austrian Governments, and that, as a result, raen
Avho Avere supposed to be implicated in projects of insurrec
tion on the Continent had actually been arrested and put to
death. Sir James Graham did not deny that he had issued
a Avarrant authorizing the opening of sorae of Mazzini's let
ters; but he contended that the right to open letters had
been specially reserved to the Government on its responsi
bility, that it had been always exercised, but by him Avith
special caution and moderation ; and that it would be im
possible for any Governraent absolutely to deprive itself of
such a right. The public excitement Avas at first very great;
but it soon subsided. The reports of Parliaraentary coramit
tees appointed by the two Houses showed that all Govern
ments had exercised the right, but naturally with decreasing
frequency and greater caution of late years ; and that there
Avas no chance uoav of its being seriously abused. No one,

211
not even Thomas Carlyle, Avho had Avritten to the Times in
generous indignation at the opening of Mazzini's letters,
Aveiit so far as lo say that such a riglit should never be ex
ercised. Carlyle admitted that he Avould tolerate the prac
tice " Avhen some uoav Gunpowder Plot raay be in the wind,
some double-dyed high-treason or imminent national wreck
not avoidable otherwise" In the particular case of Mazzini
it seemed an odious trick, and every one Avas asharaed ofil.
Such a feeling Avas the surest guard against abuse for the
future, and the matter Avas allowed to drop. The minister
is to be pitied who is compelled even by legitimate necessi
ty to have recourse to such an expedient; he Avould be de
spised now by every decent man if he turned to it Avithout
such justification. Many years had to pass aAvay before Sir
James Graiiam Avas free from innuendoes and attacks on the
ground that he liad tampered Avith the correspondence of an
exile. One remark, on the olher hand, it is right to make
An exile is sheltered in a country like England, on the as
sumption that he does not involve her in responsibility and
ilanger by using her protection as a shield behind whicli
to contrive plots and organize insurrections against foreign
Governments. It is certain that Mazzini did make use of
the shelter England gave hirn for such a purpose. It Avould
in the end be to the heavy injury of all fugitives from des-
])Otic rule if to shelter thera brought such consequences ou
the countries that offered them a home.
The Peel Adrainistration Avas made memorable by many
remarkable events at home as. Avell as abroad. It had, as we
have seen, inherited Avars and brought them to a close : it
had AV.ars of ils oavu. Scinde Avas annexed by Lord Ellen
borough in consequence of tlie disputes Avliich had arisen be
tween us and the Ameers, Avhom Ave accused of having bro
ken faith Avith us. They were said to be in correspondence
Avitli our enemies, which may possibly h.ave been true,'and
to have failed to pay up our tribute, Avhicli Avas very likely.
Anyhow we found occasion for an attack on Scinde; and
the result was the tot.al defeat ofthe Princes and their army,
and the annexation of the territory. Sir Charles Napier won
a splendid victory — splendid, that is, in a military sense —
over an eneray outnumbering hira by more than twelve to
one at the battle of Meeanee ; and Scinde Avas ours. Peel

212 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
and his colleagues accepted the annexation. None of them
liked it ; but none saw hoAv it could be undone. There Avas
nothing to be proud of in the matter, except the courage of
our soldiers, and the genius of Sir Charles Napier, one of the
raost brilliant, daring, successful, eccentric, and self conceited
captains who had ever fought in the service of England since
the days of Peterborough. Later on, the Sikhs invaded our
territory by crossing the Sutlej in great force. Sir Hugh
Gough, afterAvai-d Lord Gough, fought several fierce battles
Avith them before he could conquer thera; and even then
they Avere only conquered for the time
We Avere at one moraent apparently on the very verge of
Avhat must have proved a far more serious Avar much nearer
home, in consequence ofthe dispute that arose between this
country and France about Tahiti and Queen Pomare Queeii
Pomare was sovereign of the island of Tahiti, in the South
Pacific, the Otaheite of Captain Cook. She was a pupil of
some of our missionaries, and Avas very friendly to England
and its people. She had been induced or compelled to put
herself and her dominion under the protection of France ; a
step which Avas highly displeasing to her subjects. Some
ill-feeling tOAvard the French residents of the island Avas
shown; and the French adrairal, Avho had induced or cora
pelled the Queeii to put herself under French protection,
now suddenly appeared off the coast, and called ou her to
hoist the French flag above her own. She refused; and he
instantly effected a landing on the island, pnlled doAvn her
flag, raised that of France in its place, and proclaimed that
the island Avas French territory. The French admiral ap
pears to have been a hot-headed, thoughtless sort of raan,
the Coramodore Wilkes of his day. His act was at once
disavoAved by the French Government, and condemned in
strong terms by M. Guizot. But Queen Pomare had ap
pealed to the Queen of England for assistance. "Do not
cast rae aAvay, my friend," slie said ; " I run to you for ref
uge, to be covered under your great shadow, the same that
.afforded relief to ray fathers by your fathers, who are noAV
dead, and whose kingdoras have descended to us, the weaker
vessels." A large party in France alloAved themselves to
become inflamed with the idea that British intrigue Avas at
the bottom ofthe Tahiti poojile's dislike to the protectorate

peel's ADMINISTRATION. 213
of France, and that England Avanted lo get Queeii Pomnre's
dominions for herself. They cried out, therefore, tliat to take
dovvn the flag of France from ils plaee in Tahiti Avould be
to insult the dignity ofthe French nation, and to insult it at
the instance of England. The cry Avas echoed in the shrill
est tones by a great number of French newspapers. Where
the flag of France has once been hoisted, they screamed, it
must never be taken down; which is about equivalent to
saying that if a man's officious servant carries ofl' the xirop-
erty of some one else, and gives it to his raaster, the mas
ter's dignity is lowered by his consenting to hand it back to
its oAvner. In the face of this clamor the French Govern
ment, although they disavoAved any share in the filibuster
ing of their adrairal, did not show themselves in great haste
to undo Avhat he had done. Possibly they found themselves
in something of the same difficulty as the English Govern
ment in regard to the annexation of Scinde. They could
not, perhaps, with great safety to Ihemselves have ventured
to be honest all at once; and in any case they did not Avant
to give up the protectorate of Tahiti. While the raore hot
headed on both sides ofthe English Channel Avere thus snarl
ing at each other, the difficulty Avas iraraensely complicated
by the seizure of a raissionary named Pritchard, Avho had
been our consul in the island up to tlte deposition of Po
mare A French sentinel had been attacked, or Avas said
to have been attacked, in the night, and in consequence the
P'rench commandant seized Pritchard in reprisal, declaring
him to be " the only raover and instigator of disturbances
among the natives." Pritchard Avas flung into prison, and
only released to be expelled from the island. He carae home
to England Avilh his story ; and his arrival Avas the signal
for an outburst of indignation all over the country. Sir
Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen alike stigmatized the treat
ment of Pritchard as a gross and intolerable outrage; and
satisfaction was demanded of the French Government. The
King and M. Guizot were both willing that fidl justice should
be done, and both anxious to avoid any occasion of ill-feel
ing with England. The King had lately been receiving, with
effusive show of affection, a visit frora our Queen in France,
and was about to return it. But so hot AA'as popular passion
on both sides, that it avouUI hove needed stronger and juster

214_ A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
natures than those of the King and his minister to venture
at once on doing the right thing. It Avas on the last day of
the session of 1844, September 5th, that Sir Robert Peel Avas
able to announce that the French Government had agreed
to compensate Pritchard for his sufferings and losses. Queen
Pomare Avas nominally restored to power, but the French
protection proved as stringent as if it Avere a sovereign rule.
She might as Avell have pulled doAvn her flag, for all the sov
ereign right it secured to her. She died thirty-four years
after, and her death recalled to tho memory of the English
public the long-forgotten fact th.-it she had once so nearly
been the cause of a Avar between England and France
The Ashburton Treaty and the Oregon Treaty belong
alike to the history of Peel's Administration. The Ashbur
ton Treaty bears date August 9th, 1842, and arranges finally
the north-western boundary between the British Provinces
of North America and the Uniled States. For many years
the Avant of any clear and settled understanding as to the
boundary line belAveen Canada and the State of Maine had
been a source of sorae disturbance and of much controversy.
Arbitration between England and the United States had
been tried and failed, both parties declining the award. Sir
Robert Peel sent out Lord Ashburton, forraerly Mr. Baring,
ns plenipotentiary, to Washington, in 1842, and by his intel
ligent exertions an arrangeraent Avas corae to Avhich appears
to have given mutual satisfaction ever since, despite of tho
sinister prophesyings of Lord Palmerston at the tirae. Tlie
Oregon question Avas more complicated, and Avas the source
of a longer controversy. More tiian once the dispute about
the boundary line in the Oregon region had very nearly be
come an occasion for Avar between England and the United
States. In Canning's time there Avas a crisis during Avhicli,
to quote the Avords of an English statesman, Avar could have
been brought about by the holding up of a finger. The
question in dispute Avas as to the boundary line between
English and American territory west of the Rocky Moun-
-tains. It had seemed a matter of little importance at one
time, Avhen the country Avest of the Rocky Mountains was
reo-arded by most persons as little better than a desert i^le. -
But Avhen the vast capacities and the splendid future ofthe
Pacific slope began to be recognized, and the iraportance to

PEEL S ADMINISTRATION. 215
us of sorae station and harbor there came to be more and
more evident, the dispute naturally swelled into a question
of vital interest lo both nations. In 1818 au atlempt at
arrangement Avas made, but failed. The two Governments
then agreed to leave the disputed regions to joint occupa
tion for ten years, after Avhich the subject Avas lo be opened
again. When the end of the first term came near. Canning
did his best to bring about a settleraent, but failed. The
dispute involved the ownership of the raouth of the Colum
bia River, and of the noble island Avhich bears the name of
Vancouver, off the shore of British Columbia. The joint oc
cupancy Avas renewed for an indefinite tirae; but in 1843
the President ofthe United States somcAvhat peremptorily
called for a final settlement ofthe boundary. The question
Avas eagerly taken up by excitable politicians in the Ameri
can House of Representatives. For more than Iavo years
the Oregon question became a parly cry in America. With
a large proportion of the American public, including, of
course, nearly all citizens of Irish birth or extraction, any
President would have been popular beyond measure Avho
had forced a Avar on England. Calmer and Aviser counsels
prevailed, hoAvever, on both sides. Lord Aberdeen, our For
eign Secretary, Avas especially moderate and conciliatory.
He offered a compromise Avhich was at last accepted. On
June 15th, 1846, the Oregon Trealy settled the question for
that time at least ; the dividing line Avas to be " the forty-
ninth degree of latitude, frora the Rocky Mountains Avest
to the middle ofthe channel separating Vancouver's Island
from the main-land; thence southerly through the middle
of the channel and of Fuca's Straits to the Pacific." The
channel and straits Avere to be free, as also the great north
ern branch of the Columbia River. In other Avords, Van
couver's Island reraained to Great Britain, and the free navi
gation of the Colurabia River was secured. We have said
that the question Avas settled, " for that time ;" because an
important p.art of it carae up again for settlement many
years after. The commissioners appoinled to determine that
portion ofthe boundary which Avas to run southerly through
th'e middle of the channel Avere unable to come to any agree
ment on the subject, and the divergence of the claims raade
on one side and the other constituted a new question, which

216 A HISTORY OF OUR OVv^N Tl.AlES.
became a part ofthe faraous Treaty of Washington in 1871^
and Avas finally settled by the arbitration ofthe Eraperor of
Germany. But it is much to the honor ofthe Peel Admiiii
istration that a dispute Avhich had for years been charged
Avith possibilities of Avar, and had becorae a stock subject of
political agitation in America, should have been so far set
tled as to be removed forever after out of the category of
disputes Avhich suggest an appeal to arms. This Avas one
of the last acts of Peel's Government, and it Avas not the
least of the great things he had done We have soon to tell
how it came .about that it Avas one of his latest triumphs,
and hoAv an Administration which had come into power Avith
such splendid proraise, and had accomplished so much in such
various fields of legislation, was brought so suddenly to a
fall. Tlie story is one of the most remarkable and important
chaptersin the history of English politics and parties.
During Peel's time we catch a last glimpse of the famous
Arctic navigator. Sir John Franklin. He sailed on the ex-
pedition Avhich was doomed to be his last, on May 26th,
1845, Avith his two vessels, JSVe&i^s and Terror. Not mucii
more is heard of him as among the living. We may say of
him as Carlyle says of La Perouse, "The brave navigator
goes and returns not; the seekers search far seas for him in
vain ; only some mournful, mysterious shadow of him hovers
long in all heads and hearts."

CHAPTER XIV.
FEEE-TEADB AND TIIE LEAGUE.
;
Few chapters of political history in modern times have
given occasion for more controversy than that which con
tains the story of Sir Robert Peel's Adrainistration in ils
dealing Avith the Corn-laAvs. Told in the briefest forra, the
story is tiiat Peel camo into office in 1841 to maintain the
Corii-laAVS, and that in 1846 he repealed thera. The contro
versy as to the wisdoin or unwisdom of repealing the Corn-
laws has long since come to an end. They who were the
uncompromising opponents of Free-trade at that time aro
proud to call themselves ils uncompromising zealots noAv.

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 217
Indeed, there is no more chance of a reaction against Free-
trade in England than there is of a reaction against the rule
of three. But the controversy still exists, and Avill probably
always be iu dispute, as to the conduct of Sir Robert Peel.
The Melbourne Ministry fell, as Ave have seen, in conse
quence of a direct vote of want of confidence moved by
their leading opponent, and the return of a majority hostile
to them at the general election that followed. The vote of
Avant of confidence Avas levelled against their financial poli
cy, especially against Lord John Russell's proposal to sub
stitute a fixed duty of eight shillings for Peel's sliding scale.
Sir Robert Peel came into office, and he introduced a reor
ganized scheme of a sliding scale, reducing the duties and
improving the system, but maintaining the principle. Lord
John Russell proposed an amendment declaring that the
House of Coraraons, " considering the evils which have been
caused by the present Corn -laws, and especially by the
fluctuation of the graduated or sliding scale, is not prepared
to adopt the raeasure of her Majesty's Government, which is
founded ou the sarae principles, and is likely to be attended
by sirailar results." The amendment was rejected by a large
majority, no less than one hundred and tAventy-three. But
the question between Free-trade and Protection was even
more distinctly raised. Mr. Villiers proposed another amend
ment declaring for the entire abolition of all duties on' grain.
Only ninety votes were given for the amendment, while three
hundred and ninety- three were recorded against it. Sir
Robert Peel's Governraent, therefore, carae into power dis
tinctly pledged to uphold the principle of protection for
h-orae-groAvn grain. Four years after this Sir Robert Peel
proposed the total abolition of the corn duties. For this he
Avas denounced by some raerabers of his party in language
more fierce and unmeasured than ever since has been applied
to any leading statesman. Mr. Gladstone was never assailed
by the stanchest supporter of the Irish Church in words so
vituperative as those which rated Sir Robert Peel for his
supposed apostasy. One eminent person, at least, made his
first farae as a Parliamentary orator by his denunciations of
the great minister Avhora he had previously eulogized and
supported. "The history of agricultural distress," it has been well
L— 10

218 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
observed, " is the history of agricultural abundance." This
looks at first sight a paradox; but nothing can in reality be
raore plain and less paradoxical. " Whenever," to follow
out the passage, " Providence, through the blessing of genial
seasons, fills the nation's stores with plenteousness, then, and
then only, has the cry of ruin to the cultivator been pro
claimed as the one great evil for legislation to repress."
This is, indeed, the very meaning of the principle of protec
tion. When the commodity Avhich the protected interest
has to dispose of is so abundant as to be easily attained by
the common body of consumers, then, of course, the protect
ed interest is injured in its particular way of making money,
and expects the State to do something to secure it in the
principal advantage of its monopoly. The greater quantity
of grain a good harvest brings fbr the benefit of all the peo
ple, the less the price the corn-grower can charge for it. His
interest as a monopolist is ahvays and inevitably opposed to
the interest of the coraraunity.
But it is easy even now, when Ave have almost forgotten
the days of protection, to see that the corn-grower is not
likely either to recognize or to admit this conflict of inter
ests betAveen his protection and the public welfare. Apart
frora the natural tendency of every raan to think that that
Avliich does him good must do good to the coraraunity, there
was, undoubtedly, something very fascinating in the theory
of protection. It had a charming give and take, live and let
live, air about it. "You give me a little more than the
market price for my corn, and don't you see I shall be able
to buy all the more of your cloth and tea and sugar, or to
pay you the higher rent for your land?" Such a compa(?.t
seems reasonable and tempting. Alraost up to our own time
the legislation of the country Avas in the hands of the classes
Avho had more to do with the groAving of corn and the own
ership of land than Avith the raaking of cotton and the work
ing of raachinery. The great object of legislation and of
social compacts of Avhatever kind seemed to be to keep the
rents ofthe land-owners and the prices ofthe farmers up to
a comfortable standard. It is not particularly to the dis
credit of the landlords and the farmers that this Avas so.
We have seen, in later tiraes, how every class in succession
has resisted the movement of the principle of Free -trade

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 219
when it came to be applied to ils own particular interests.
The paper manufacturers liked it as little in 1860, as tho
landlords and farmers had done fifteen years earlier. When
the cup coraes to be commended to the lips of each interest
in turn, we always find that it is received as a poisoned chal
ice, and taken Avith much shuddering and passionate protes
tation. The particular advantage possessed by vested inter
ests in the Corn-laws Avas that for a long time the landlords
possessed all the legislative power and all the prestige as
well. There Avas a certain reverence and sanctity about the
oAvnership of land, with ils hereditary descent and its patri
archal dignities, Avhich the manufacture of paper could not
pretend to claim.
If it really Avere^true that the legitimate incomes or the
legitiraate influence of the landlord class in England went
down in any Avay because of the repeal of the Corn-laws,
it would have to be adraitted that the landlords, like the
aristocrats before the French Revolution, had done sorae
thing theraselves to encourage the growth of ncAV and dis
turbing ideas. Before the Revolution, free thought and the
equality and brotherhood of raan Avere beginning to be pet
doctrines araong the French nobles and araong their Avives
and daughters. It Avas the whira of the hour to talk Rous
seau, and to affect indifference to rank, and a general faith
in a good tirae coming of equality and brotherhood. In
something of the same fashion the aristocracy of England
were for some time before the repeal of the Corn-laws il
lustrating a sort of revival of patriarchal ideas about the
duties of property. The influence was stirring everyAvhere.
Oxford was beginning to busy itself in this revival of the
olden influence of the Church. The Young England party,
as they were then called, were ardent to restore the good
old days when the noble was the father ofthe poor and the
chief of his neighborhood. All manner of pretty whimsies
were caught up Avith this ruling idea to give them an ap
pearance of earnest purpose. The young landlord exhibited
himself in the attitude of a protector, patron, and friend to
all his tenants. Doles were formally given at stated hours
to all who would come for them to the castle gate. Young
noblemen played cricket with the peasants on their estate,
and the Saturnian Age Avas believed by a good many per-

220 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
sons to be returning for the express benefit of Old, or rather
of Young, England. There was something like a party being
forraed in ParUament for the realization of Young England's
idyllic purposes. It comprised araong its numbers several
raore or less gifted youths of rank, who were full of enthusi
asm and poetic aspirations and nonsense ; and it had the en
couragement and support of one man of genius, who had no
natural connection with the English aristocracy, but who Avas
afterward destined to be the successful leader of the Con
servative and aristocratic party; to be ils savior when it
was all but down in the dust ; to guide it to victory, and
make it once morOj for the tirae at least, supreme in the po
litical life of the country. This brilliant champion of Con
servatism has often spoken of the repeal of the Corn-laAvs
as the fall of the landlord class in England. If the land
lords fell, it must be said of thera, as has been fairly said of
raany a dynasty, that they never deserved better, on the
Avhole, than just at the tirae Avhen the blow struck them
down. The famous Corn -law of 1815 was a copy of the Corn-
law of 1670. The former measure imposed a duty on the
importation of foreign grain which amounted to prohibition.
Wheat might be exported upon the payment of one shilling
per quarter customs duty; but imjjortation Avas practically
prohibited until the price of wheat had reached eighty shil
lings a quarter. The Corn-law o^' 1815 Avas hurried through
Parliament, absolutely closing the ports against the impor
tation of foreign grain until the price of our horae-grown
grain had reached the magic figure of eighty shillings a
quarter. It Avas hurried through, despite the most earnest
petitions from the coraraercial and manufacturing classes.
A great deal of popular disturbance attended the passing of
the measure There Avere riots in London, and the houses
of several of the supporters of the bill Avere attacked. In
cendiary fires blazed in many parts of the country. In the
Isle of Ely there Avere riots Avhich lasted for two days and
two nights, and the aid of the military had to be called in
to suppress them. Five persons Avere hanged as the result
of these disturbances. One might excuse a demagogue who
compared the event to the suppression of sorae of the food
riots in France just before the Revolution, of which we only

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 221
read that the people — the poor, that is to say — turned out de
manding bread, and the ringleaders were immediately hang
ed, and there Avas an end of the matter. After the Corn-
laAV of 1815, thus ominously introduced, there were Sliding-
scale Acts, having for their business to establish a varying
system of duty, so that, according as the price of home-
produced Avheat rose to a certain height, the duty on im
ported Avheat sank in proportion. The principle of all these
raeasures was the same It was founded on the assumption
that the corn grew for the benefit of the grower first of all ;
and that until he had been secured in a handsome profit
the public at large had no right lo any reduction in the cost
of food. When the harvest Avas a good one, and the golden
grain Avas plenty, then the soul of the grower was afraid,
and he called out to Parliaraent to protect him against the
calamity of having to sell his corn any cheaper than in years
of faraine. He did not see all the time that ifthe prosperi
ty of the couutry in general Avas enhanced, he too must corae
to benefit by it.
Naturally it Avas in places like Manchester that the falla
cy of all this theory Avas first commonly perceived and most
Avarraly resented. The Manchester manufacturers saw that
the customers for their goods were to be found in all parts
of the Avorld ; and they knew that at every turn they were
hampered in their dealings with the customers by the sys
tera of protective duties. They wanted to sell their goods
Avherever they could find buyers, and they chafed at any
barrier belAveen thera and the sale. Manchester, from the
tirae of its first having Parliaraentary representation — only
a foAV years before the foundation ofthe Anti-Corn-laAv
League — had always spoken out for Free-trade The fasci
nating sophism Avhich had such charms for other communi
ties, that by paying more than was actually necessary for
everything all round, Dick enriched Tom, while Tom was at
the same time enriching Dick, had no charms for the intel
ligence and the practical experience of Manchester. The
close ofthe year 1836 was a period of stagnant trade and
general depression, arising, in some parts of the country, to
actual and severe suffering. Some members of Parliaraent
and other influential men Avere stricken with the idea, which
it docs not seem to have required much strength of observa-

222 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tion to foster, that it could not be for the advantage ofthe
country in general to have the price of bread very high at a
time when wages Avere very low and AVork was scarce. A
raoveraent against the Corn -laws began in London. An
Anti-Corn-law Association on a sraall scale was forraed.
Its list of members bore the names of more than twenty
members of Parliament, and for a time the society had a
look of vigor about it. It carae to nothing, however. Lon
don has never been found an effective nursery of agitation.
It is too large to have any central interest or source of ac
tion. It is too dependent, socially and economically, on the
patronage of the higher and wealthier classes. London has
never been to England what Paris has been to France. It
has hardly ever raade or represented thoroughly the public
opinion of England during any great crisis. A new centre
of operations soon had lobe sought, and various causes cora
bined to raake Lancashire the proper place. In the year
1838 the town of Bolton -le-Moors, in Lancashire, was the
victim of a terrible commercial crisis. Thirty out of the
fifty manufacturing establishments which the toAvn contain
ed Avere closed ; nearly a fourth of all the houses of business
Avere closed and actually deserted ; and more than five thou
sand workmen were Avithout homes or means of subsistence.
All the intelligence and energy of Lancashire was roused.
One obvious guarantee against starvation was cheap bread,
and cheap bread meant, of course, the .abolition of the Corn-
laAvs, for these laws were constructed on the principle that
it Avas necessary to keep bread dear. A raeeting Avas held
in Manchester to consider measures necessary to be adopted
for bringing about the complete repeal of these laAvs. The
Manchester Chamber of Commerce adopted a petition to
Parliament against the Corn-laws. The Anti-Corn-law agi
tation had been fairly launched.
From that time it grew, and greAV in iraportance and
strength. Meetings were held in various towns of England
and Scotland. Associations Avere forraed everyAvhere to co
operate Avith the movement, Avhich had its head-quarters in
Manchester. In Newall's Buildings, Market Street, Man
chester, the AVork of the League was really done for years.
The leaders of the movement gave up their time day by
day to its service. The League had to encounter a great

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 223
deal of rather fierce opposition from the Chartists, avIio loud
ly proclairaed that the Avhole raoveraent was only meant to
entrap thera once raore into an alliance Avith the raiddle
classes and the employers, as in the case of the Reforra Bill,
in order that when they had been raade the cat's-paw again
they might again be throAvn contemptuously aside. On the
other hand, the League had from the first the cordial co-op
eration of Daniel O'Connell, Avho became one of their prin
cipal orators Avhen they held meetings in the metropolis.
They issued pamphlets by hundreds of thousands, and sent
lecturers all over the country explaining the principles of
Free-trade. A gigantic propaganda of Free-trade opinions
Avas called into existence. Money Avas raised by the hold
ing of bazars in Manchester and in London, and by calling
for subscriptions. A bazar in Manchester brought in ten
thousand pounds ; one in London raised rather more than
double that sura, not including the subscriptions that Avere
contributed. A Free- trade Hall Avas built in Manchester.
Tiiis building had an interesting history full of good omen
for the cause. The ground on which the hall Avas erected
Avas the property of Mr. Cobden, and Avas placed by him at
the disposal of the League. That ground Avas the scene of
what was knoAvn in Manchester as the Massacre of Peterloo.
On August 16th, 1819, a meeting of Manchester Reformers
Avas held on th.at spot, which Avas dispersed by an attack of
soldiers and militia, Avith the loss of many lives. The mera
ory of that day rankled in the hearts of the Manchester Lib
erals for long after, and perhaps no belter means could be
found for purifying the ground from the stain and the shame
of such bloodshed than ils dedication by the modern apos
tle of peace and Free-trade as a site whereon to build a hall
sacred to the proraulgation ofhis favorite doctrines.
The times were peculiarly favorable to the new sort of
propaganda Avhich carae into being with the Anti-Corn-law
League. A few years before such an agitation would hardly
have found the means of making its influence felt all over the
country. The very reduction of the cost of postage alone
must have facilitated its labors to an extent beyond calcula
tion. The inundation of the country with pamphlets, tracts,
and reports of speeches would have been scarcely possible
under the old system, and Avould in any case have swalloAv-

224 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ed up a far larger amount of money than even the League
Avith its ample resources would have been able to supply.
In all parts of the country railways Avere being opened, and
these enabled the lecturers of the League to hasten from
town to town and to keep the cause always alive in the pop
ular mind. All these advantages and many others might,
hoAA'ever, have proved of little avail if the League had not
frora the first been in the hands of men Avho seemed as if
they came by special appointment to do its work. Great
as the Avork was Avhich the League did, it will be remem
bered in England al.raost as much because of the men who
Avon the success as on account ofthe success itself.
The nominal leader of the Free-trade party in Parliament
was for many years Mr. Charles Villiers, a man of aristo
cratic family and surroundings, of reraarkable ability, and of
the steadiest fidelity to the cause he had undertaken. Noth
ing is a more familiar phenomenon in the history of English
political^agitation than the aristocrat Avho assumes the pop
ular cause and cries out for the " rights " of the " unenfran
chised millions." But it was soraething noAv lo find a man
of Mr. Villiers's class devoting himself to a cause so entirely
practical and business-like as that ofthe repeal ofthe Corn-
laAVS. Mr. Villiers brought forAvard for several successiive
sessions in the House of Commons a raotion in favor of the
total repeal of the Corn-laws. His eloquence and his argu
mentative power served the great purpose of drawing the
attention ofthe country to the Avhole question, and making
converts to the principle he advocated. The House of Com
mons has ahvays of late years been the best platform from
which to address the country. In political agitation it has
thus been made to prepare the Avay for the schemes of leg
islation which it has itself ahvays begun by reprobating.
But Mr. Villiers might have gone on for all his life dividing
the House of Coraraons on the question of Free-trade, Avith
out getting much nearer to his object, if it were not for the
manner in which the cause was taken up by the country, and
more particularly by the great manufacturing towns ofthe
North. Until the passing of Lord Grey's Reform Bill these
towns had no representation in Parliaraent. They seemed
destined after that event to make up for their long exclusion
from representative influence by taking tlie governraent of

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 225
the country into their oavu hands. Of late years they have
lost some of their relative influence They have not now all
the power that for no inconsiderable time they undoubted
ly possessed. The reforms they chiefly aimed at have been
carried, and the spirit which in times of stress and struggle
kept their populations almost of one mind has less necessity
of existence now. Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds are
no whit less iraportant to the life of the nation now than
they were before Free-trade. But their supreraacy does not
exist noAv as it did then. At that time it was town against
(Country; Manchester representing the town, and the whole
Conservative (at one period alraost the whole land-owning)
body representing the country. The Manchester school, as
it was called, then and for long after had sorae teachers and
leaders Avho Avere of theraselves capable of raaking any school
poAverful and respected. With the Manchester school began
a new kind of popular agitation. Up to that time agitation
meant appeal to passion, and lived by provoking passion.
Its cause might be good or bad, but the way of promoting
it was the sarae. The Manchester school introduced the ag
itation which appealed to reason and arguraent only ; which
stirred men's hearts with figures of arithmetic, rather than
figures of speech, and which converted mob raeetings to po
litical econoray.
The real leader ofthe movement was Mr. Richard Cobden.
Mr. Cobden Avas a man belonging to the yeoman class. He
had received buti a moderate education. His father dying
while the great Free-trader Avas still young, Richard Cob
den was taken in charge by an uncle, Avho had a wholesale
warehouse in the City of London, and who gave hira em
ployment there. Cobden afterward became a partner in a
Manchester printed -cotton factory; and he travelled occa
sionally ou the coraraercial business of this establishment.
He had a great liking for travel ; but not by any means as
the ordinary tourist travels; the interest of Cobden was not
in scenery, or in art, or in ruins, but in men. He studied the
condition of countries with a vicAV to the manner in which
it affected the men and woraen of the present, and throngh
them was likely to affect the future. On everything that
he saAV he turned a quick and intelligent eye; and he saAv
for himself and thought for hiraself Wherever he went he
10*

226 A HISTORY S>F OUR OWN TIMES.
Avanted to learn soraething. He had in abundance that
peculiar faculty Avhich sorae great men of widely different
stamp from him and frora each other have possessed ; of
Avhich Goethe frankly boasted, and which Mirabeau had
raore largely than he Avas always Avilling to acknowledge;
the faculty which exacts from every one with whom its
owner comes into contact sorae contribution to his stock
of information and to his advantage. Cobden could learn
something frora everybody. It is doubtful Avhether he ever
came even into moraentary acquaintance with any one whom
he did not compel to yield him soraething in the Avay of in
forraation. He travelled very Avidely for a time, when trav
elling Avas raore difficult work than it is at present. He
made hiraself farailiar with most ofthe countries of Europe,
Avith many parts ofthe East, and, Avhat was then a rarer ac
complishment, with the United States and Canada. He did
not make the familiar grand tour, and then dismiss the places
he had seen frora his active memory. He studied them, and
visited many of them again to compare early Avith later im
pressions. This was in itself an education of the highest
value for the career he proposed to pursue. When he Avas
about thirty years of age he began to acquire a certain repu-
t.alion as the author of pamphlets directed against some of
the pet doctrines of old-fashioned statesmanship — the bal
ance of poAver in Europe ; the necessity of raaintaining a
State Church in Ireland; the iraportance of allowing, no
European quarrel to go on without England's intervention;
and similar dogmas. Mr. Cobden's opinions then Avere very
much as they continued to the day of his death. He seemed
to have come to the maturity ofhis convictions all at once,
and to have passed through no further change either of
growth or of decay. But Avhatever might be said then or
iioAv ofthe doctrines he maintained, there could be only one
opinion as to the skill and force which upheld them Avith
pen as Avell as tongue. The tongue, hoAvever, was his best
weapon. If oratory were a business and not an art — that
is, if its test Avere its success rather than its form — then it
might be contended reasonably enough that Mr. Cobden
Avas one of the greatest orators England has ever knoAvn.
Nothing could exceed the persuasiveness ofhis style. His
manner Avas simple, SAveet, and earnest. It Avas persuasive,

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 227
but it had not the sort of persuasiveness Avhich is raerelj'
a better kind of plausibility. It persuaded by convincing.
It was transparently sincere. The light of its convictions
shone all through it. It aimed at the reason and the judg
ment ofllie listener, and seemed to be convincing him to bis
own- interest .against his prejudices. Cobden's style was al
most exclusively conversational; but he had a clear, Avell-
toned voice, Avith a quiet, unassuming poAver in it Avhicli en
abled him to make his AVords heard distinctly and Avithout
effort all through the great raeetings he had ofteii to address.
His speeches were full of variety. He illustrated every argu
ment by "something drawn from his personal observation or
from reading, and his illustrations were always striking, ap
propriate, and interesting. Lie had a large amount of bright
and winning humor, and he spoke the simplest and purest
English. He never used an unnecessary sentence, or failed
for a single moment to make his meaning clear. Many
strong opponents of Mr. Cobden's opinions confessed, even
during his lifetime, that they sometimes found Avith dismay
their most cherished convictions crumbling aAvay beneath
his floAV of easy argument. In the stormy tiraes of national
passion Mr. Cobden Avas less powerful. When the question
Avas one to be settled by the rules that govern man's sub
stantial interests, or even by the standing rules, if such an
expression may be allowed, of morality, then Cobden Avas
unequalled. So long as the controversy could be settled
after this fashion — "I will show you that in such a course
you are acting injuriously to your own interests;" or "You
are doing Avhat a fair and just man ought not to do" — so
long as argument of that kind could sway the conduct of
men, then there Avas no one Avho could convince as Cobden
could. But Avhen the hour and mood of passion came, and
a man or a nation said, "I do not care any longer Avhether
this is for my interest or not — I don't care Avhether you call
it right or Avrong — this way ray instincts drive me, and this
Avay I ara going" — then Mr. Cobden's teaching, the very
perfection as it was of comraon-sense and fiiir phiy, Avas out
of season. It could not ansAver feeling Avith feeling. It Avas
not able to "overcrow," in the AVord of Shakspeare and
Spenser, one emotion by another. The defect of Mr. Cob
den's style of mind and temper is fitly illustrated in the de-

228 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ficiency of his method of argument. His sort of education,
his modes of observation, his Avay of turning travel to ac
count, all went together to make him the man he was. The
apostle of coraraon-sense and fair dealing, he had no syrapa
thy with the passions of men ; he did not understand them;
they passed for nothing in his calculations. His judgment
of men aud of nations was based far too much on his knowl
edge of his own motives and character. He knew that in
any given case he could always trust himself to act the part
of a just and prudent man; and he assumed that all the
Avorld could bo governed by the rules of prudence and of
equity. History had little interest for him, except as it testi
fied to man's advancement and steady progress, and furnish
ed arguraenis to shoAv that raen prospered by liberty, peace,
and just dealings Avith their neighbors. He cared little or
nothing for mere sentiments. Even where these had their
root in some huraan tendency that was noble in itself, he did
not reverence them if they seemed to stand in the Avay of
men's acting peacefully and prudently. He did not see why
the mere idea of nationality, for exaraple, should induce peo
ple to disturb themselves by insurrections and Avars, so long
as they were tolerably Avell governed, and allowed to exist
in peace and to make an honest living. Thus he never rep
resented more than half the English character. He was al-
Avays out of sympathy with his countrymen on some great
political question.
But he seemed as if he Avere designed by nature to con
duct to success such an agitation as that against the Corn-
laAvs. He found some colleagues who Avere Avorthy of him.
His chief companion in the carapaign Avas Mr. Bright. Mr.
Bright's fame is not so completely bound up with the repeal
of the Corn-laws, or even with the extension of the suffrage,
as that of Mr. Cobden. If Mr. Bright had been on the wrong
side of every cause he pleaded ; if his agitation had been as
conspicuous for failure as it Avas for success, he would still
be faraous araong English public men. He Avas what Mr.
Cobden was not, an orator of the A'ery highest class. It is
doubtful whether English public life has ever produced a
man who possessed more ofthe qualifications of a great ora
tor than Mr. Bright. He had a coramanding presence; not,
indeed, the stately and colossal form of O'Connell, but a mas-

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 229
sive figure, a large head, a handsome and expressive face.
His voice Avas powerful, resonant, clear, Avith a peculiar vi
bration in it Avhich lent unspeakable effect to any passages
of pathos or of scorn. His style of speaking was exactly
Avhat a conventional demagogue's ought not to be. It was
pure to austerity; it Avas stripped of all superfluous orna
ment. It never gushed or foamed. It never allowed itself
to be mastered by passion. The first peculiarity that struck
the listener was its superb self-restraint. The orator at his
most poAv^erful passages appeared as if he Avere rather keep
ing in his strength than taxing it with eflbrt. His voice was,
ibr the most part, calm and measured; he hardly ever in
dulged in rauch gesticulation. He nevCr, under the pressure
of Avhatever emotion, shouted or stormed. The fire of his
eloquence was a white -heat, intense, consuming, but never
sparkling or sputtering. He had an admirable gift of hu
mor and a keen ironical power. He had read foAv books, but
of those he read he was a master. The English Bible and
Milton were his chief studies. His style was probably forra
ed, for the most part, on the Bible ; for although he raay have
moulded his general way of thinking and his simple, strong
morality on the lessons he found in Milton, his mere lan
guage bore little trace of Milton's stately classicism Avith
its Hellenized and Latinized terminology, but was above all
things Saxon and simple Bright was a man of the mid
dle-class. His family were Quakers of a somewhat austere
.mould. They Avere manufacturers of carpets in Rochdale,
Lancashire, and had raade considerable money in their busi
ness. John Bright, therefore, Avas raised above the tempta
tions which often beset the eloquent young man Avho takes
up a democratic cause in a country like ours ; and, as our
public opinion goes, it probably Avas to his advantage, when
first he made his appearance in Parliament, that he was Avell
known to be a man of some means, and not a clever and
needy adventurer.
Mr. Bright himself has given an interesting account of his
first raeeting with Mr. Cobden :
" The first tirae I becarae acquainted with Mr. Cobden was
in connection with the great question of education. I went
over to Manchester to call upon him and invite hira to come
to Rochdale to speak at a raeeting about to be held in the

230 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
school-room of the Baptist Chapel in West Street. I found
hira in his counting-house. I told hira what I wanted ; his
countenance lighted up with pleasure to find that others
Avere working in the same cause. He, Avithout hesitation,
agreed to come. He came, and he spoke ; and though he
was then so young a speaker, yet the qualities of his speech
Avere such as remained Avith hira so long as he was able to
speak at all — clearness, logic, a conversational eloquence, a
persuasiveness Avhich, when corabined Avith the absolute trutli
there was in his eye and in his countenance, becarae a power
it was almost irapossible to resist."
Still more remarkable is the description Mr. Bright has
given of Cobden's first appeal to him to join in the agita
tion for the repeal of the Corn-laws :
"I Avas in Leamington, and Mr. Cobden called on me. I
Avas then in the depths of grief — I may almost say of de
spair — for the light and sunshine of ray house had been ex
tinguished. All that was left on earth of ray young wife,
except the raeraory of a sainted life and a too brief happi
ness, was lying still and cold in the chamber above us. Mr.
Cobden called on me as his friend and addressed me, as you
may suppose, Avith Avords of condolence. After a time he
looked up and said : ' There are thousands and thousands of
homes in England at this moment Avhere Avives and mothers
and children are dying of hunger. Now, Avhen the first par-
oxysra of your grief is passed, I Avould advise you to come
Avilh me, and Ave Avill never rest until the Corn-laAvs are
repealed.' "
The invitation thus given Avas cordially accepted, and
from that time dates the almost unique fellowship of these
two raen, who Avorked together in the closest brotherhood,
Avho loved each other as not all brothers do, who were as
sociated so closely in the public raind that until Cobden's
death the narae of one Avas scarcely ever raentioned without
that of the other. There Avas soraething positively roraantlc
about their rautual attachraent. Each led a noble life ; each
AA'as in his oavu way a man of genius; each Avas siraple and
strong. Rivalry between theni Avould have been impossible,
although they Avere every day being compared and contrast
ed by both friendly and unfriendly critics. Their gifts were
admirably suited to make them powerful allies. Each had

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 231
something that the other wanted. Bright had not Cobden's
Avinning persuasiveness nor his surprising ease and force of
argument. But Cobden had not anything like his compan
ion's oratorical power. He had not the tones of scorn, of
pathos, of humor, and of passion. The Iavo together made a
genuine power in the House of Coraraons and on the plat
forra. Mr. Kinglake, who is as little in sympathy with the
general political opinions of Cobden and Bright as any raan
well could be, has borne adrairable testiraony to their ar
gumentative power and to their influence over the House
of Commons : " These two orators had shown Avilli Avhat a
strength, Avith Avhat a masterly skill, with what patience,
Avilh what a high courage, they could carry a scientific truth
through the storms of politics. They had shown that they
could arouse and govern the assenting thousands who listen
ed to them with delight — that they could bend the House
of Commons — that they could press their creed upon a
Prirae-rainister, and put upon his mind so hard a stress, that
after awhile he felt it to be a torture and a violence lo his
reason to have to make a stand against them. Nay, raore.
Each of these gifted men had proved that he could go brave
ly into the raidst of angry opponents, could show thera their
fallacies one by one, destroy their favorite theories before
their very faces, and triuraphantly argue them down." It
Avas, indeed, a scientific truth which, in the first instance,
Cobden and Bright undertook to force upon the recognition
of a Parliaraent composed in great raeasure ofthe very raen
who were taught to believe that their own personal and
class interests were bound up Avith the raainten.ance of the
existing economical creed. Those who hold that because it
was a scientific truth the task of its advocates ought to have
been easy, Avill do Avell to observe the success of the resist
ance which has been thus far ofiered to it in alraost every
country but England alone.
These men had many assistants and lieutenants Avell
worthy to act Avith them and under tliem. Mr. W. J. Fox,
for instance, a Unitarian minister of great popularity and
remarkable eloquence, seemed at one time alraost to divide
public adrairation as an orator Avith Mr. Cobden and Mr.
Bright. Mr. Milner Gibson, who had been a Tory, Aveiit over
to the raoveraent, and gave it the assistance of trained Par-

232 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
liamentary knowledge and very considerable debating skill.
In the Lancashire tOAvns the Leaglie had the advantage of
being- officered, for the most part, by shrewd and sound men
of business, who gave their time as freely as they gave their
money to the advancement of the cause It is curious to
compare the manner in which the Anti-Corn-law agitation
Avas conducted with the manner in which the contemporary
agitation in Ireland for the repeal ofthe Union was carried
on. In England the agitation Avas based on the most strict
ly business principles. The leaders spoke and acted as if the
League itself were some great coraraercial firm, which was
bound, above all things, to fulfil its promises and keep to the
letter as well as the spirit of its engagements. There was
no boasting ; there was no exaggeration ; there were no ap
peals to passion; no roraantlc rousings of sentimental erao
tion. The system ofthe agitation was as clear, straightfor
ward, and business - like as ils purpose. In Ireland there
were monster meetings, with all manner of dramatic and
theatric effects — with rhetorical exaggeration, and vehement
appeal to passion and to ancient meraory of suffering. The
cause Avas kept up frora day to day by assurances of near
success so positive that it is soraetiraes hard to believe those
Avho made thera could theraselves have been deceived by
them. No doubt the difference Avill be described by many
as the mere result of the difference betAveen the one cause
and the other; betAveen the agitation for Free-trade, clear,
tangible, and practical, and that for repeal of the Union,
Avith its shadowy object and its visionary impulses. But a
better explanation ofthe difference will be found in the dif
ferent natures to which an appeal had to be made. It is
not by any raeans certain that O'Connell's cause Avas a mere
shadow ; nor will it appear, if avo study the criticism of the
time, that the guides of public opinion who pronounced the
repeal agitation absurd and ludicrous had any better Avords
at first for the movement against the Corn-law. Cobden
and Bright on the one side, O'Connell on the other, knew
the audiences they had to address. It would have been im
possible to stir the blood of the Lancashire artisan by means
ofthe appeals which went to the very heart of the dreamy,
sentimental, impassioned Celt ofthe South of Ireland. The
Munster peasant would have understood little of such clear.

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 233
penetrating, business-like argument as that by Avhich Cobden
and Bright enforced their doctrines. Llad O'Connell's cause
been as practical and its success been as immediately attain
able as that of the Anti-Corn-law League, the great Irish
agitator Avould still have had to address his followers in a
different tone of appeal. "All men are not alike," says the
Norman butler to the Flemish soldier in Scott's "Betrothed :"
" that Avhich Avill but warm your Flemish hearts will put
Avildfire into Norman brains ; and what may only encourage
your countrymen to man the walls, will raake ours fly over
the battleraents." The raost impassioned Celt, however, Avill
admit that in the Anti-Corn-law movement of Cobden and
Bright, with its rigid truthfulness and its strict proportion
betAveen capacity and promise, there Avas an entirely new
dignity lent to popular agitation which raised it to the con
dition of statesmanship in the rough. The Reform agitation
in England had not been conducted without some exaggera
tion, much appeal to passion, and some not by any raeans
indistinct allusion to the reserve of popular force which
might be called into action if legislators and peers proved
insensible to arguraent. The era ofthe Anti- Corn -laAv
movement was a new epoch altogether in English political
controversy. The League, however, successful as it might be through
out the country, had its great AVork to do in Parliaraent.
The Free-trade leaders must have found their hearts sink
wilhin thera when they came sometimes to confront that
fortress of traditions and of vested rights. Even after the
change made in favor of manufacturing and middle-class in
terests by the Reform Bill, the House of Commons was still
coraposed, as to nine-tenths of its whole number, by repre
sentatives ofthe landlords. The entire House of Lords then
Avas constituted of the owners of land. , All tradition, all
prestige, all the dignity of aristocratic institutions, seemed
to be naturally arrayed against the new raovement, conduct
ed as it was by manufacturers and traders for the benefit,
seemingly, of trade and those Avhom it employed. The artisan
population, who might have been formidable as a disturbing
element, were, on the whole, rather against the Free-traders
Ih.an for thera. Nearly all the great official leaders had to
be converted to the doctrines of Free-trade Many of the

234 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Whigs were willing enough to adrait the case of Free-trade
as the young Scotch lady mentioned by Sydney Sraith ad
raitted the case of love, "in the abstract;" but they could
not recognize the possibility of applying it in the compli
cated financial conditions of an artificial system like ours.
Some of the Whigs were in favor of a fixed duty in place of
the existing sliding - scale. The leaders ofthe movement
had, indeed, to resist a very dangerous temptation coming
from statesmen who professed to be in accordance with
them as to the mere principle of protection, but who were
always endeavoring to persuade them that they had better
accept any decent comproraise, and not push their demands
to extremes. The Avitty peer who in a former generation
answered an advocate of moderate reforra by asking him
Avhat he thought of moderate chastity, might have had
many opportunities, if he had been engaged in the Free-
trade raoveraent, of turning his epigram to account.
Mr. Macaulay, for instance, wrote to the electors of Edin^
burgh to remonstrate Avith them on Avhat he considered their
fanatical and uncompromising adherence to the principle of
Free-trade " In my opinion," Mr. Macaulay wrote to his
constituents, " you are all wrong — not because you think
all protection bad, for I think so too ; not even because you
avow your opinion and atterapt to propagate it, for Ihave
ahvays done the sarae, and shall do the sarae ; but because,
being in a situation where your only hope is in a corapro-
raise, you refuse to hear of compromise ; 'because, being in a
situation Avhere every person who will go a step with you
on the right road ought to be cordially welcoraed, you drive
from you those who are willing and desirous to go Avith you
half-way. To this policy I will be no party. I avUI not
abandon those with whom I have hitherto acted, and with
out Avhose help I am confident that no great improveraent
can be effected, for an object purely selfish." It had not oc
curred to Mr. Macaulay that any party but the Whigs could
bring iu any measure of fiscal or other reforra worth the
having ; and, indeed, he probably thought it Avould be sorae
thing like an act of ingratitude araounting to a species of
sacrilege to accept reforra from any hands but those of its
recognized Whig patrons. The Anti-Corn-laAV agitation in
troduced a game of politics into England which astonished

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 235
and considerably discomfited steady-going politicians like
Macaulay. The League men did not profess to be bound
by any indefeasible bond of allegiance to the Whig party.
They Avere prepared to co-operate Avith any party Avhatever
wiiich Avould undertake to abolish the Corn - laAvs. Their
agitation would have done some good in this way, if in no
other sense It introduced a raore robust and indejjendent
spirit into political life. It is alraost ludicrous soraetimes to
read the diatribes of supporters of Lord Melbourne's Gov
ernment, for example, against any one who should presume
to think that any object in the raind of a true patriot, or at
least of a true Liberal, could equal in importance that of
keeping the Melbourne Ministry in power. Great reforms
have been made by Conservative governments in our own
days, because the new political temper Avhich was growing
np in England refused to affirm that the patent of reform
rested in the possession of any particular party, and that if
the holders of the monopoly did not find it convenient, or
Avere not in the humor to use it any further just then, no
one else must venture to interfere in the matter, or to, un
dertake the duty Avhich they had declined to perform. At
the tirae that Macaulay wrote his letter, however, it had
not entered into the mind of any Whig to believe it possi
ble that the repeal of the Com-laAvs Avas to be the work of
a great Conservative minister, done at the bidding of two
Radical politicians.
It is a significant fact that the Anli-Corn-laAv League
Avere not in the least discouraged by the accession of Sir
Robert Peel to power. To them the fixed duty proposed
by Lord John Russell was as objectionable as Peel's sliding-
scale Their hopes seem rather to have gone up than gone
down Avhen the minister came into power Avhose adherents,
niiliko those of Lord John Russell, Avere absolutely against
the very principle of Free-trade. It is of some iraportance,
in estimating the morality ofthe course pursued by Peel, to
observe the opinion formed ofhis professions and his proba
ble purposes by the shrewd men Avho led the Anti-Corn-law
League. The grand charge against Peel is that he betray
ed his party; that he induced them to continue their alle
giance to hiin on the promise that he would never concede
the principle of Free-trade ; and that he used his power to

236 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
establish Free-trade when the time came to choose between
it and a surrender of office. Now it is certain that the
League always regarded Sir Robert Peel as a Free-trader in
heart; as one who fully admitted the principle of Free-trade,
but who did not see his way just then to deprive the agri
cultural interest of the protection on which they had for so
many years been allowed and encouraged to lean. In the
debate after the general election of 1841 — the debate which
turned out the Melbourne Ministry — Mr. Cobden, then for
the first tirae a meraber ofthe House of Coraraons, said: "I
am a Free-trader; I call myself neither Whig nor Tory. I
am proud to acknowledge the virtue of the Whig Ministry
in coming out frora the ranks ofthe monopolists and advan
cing three parts out of four in my own direction. Yet if
the right honorable baronet opposite (Sir R. Peel) advances
one step farther, I will be the first to meet hira half-Avay and
shake hands Avitli hira." Some years later Mr. Cobden said,
at Birmingham, " There can be no doubt that Sir Robert
Peel is at heart as good a Free-trader as I am. He has told
us so in the House of Coraraons again and again ; nor do I
doubt that Sir Robert Peel has in his inmost heart the de
sire to be the man Avho shall carry out the principles of
Free-trade in this country." Sir Robert Peel had, indeed,
as Mr. Cobden said, again and again in Parliaraent express
ed his conviction as to the general truth of the principles of
Free-trade. In 1842, he declared it to be utterly beyond the
power of Parliaraent, and a mere delusion, to say that by any
duty, fixed or otherAvise, a certain price could be guaranteed
to the producer. In the same year he expressed his belief
that "on the general principle of Free-trade there is noAv no
great difference of opinion, and that all agree in the general
rule that Ave should buy in the cheapest and sell in the dear
est market." This expression of opinion called forth an iron
ical cheer from the benches of opposition. Peel knew well
Avhat the cheer Avas meant to convey. He knoAV it meant
to ask him Avhy, then, he did not allow the country to buy
its grain in the cheapest market. He promptly added — "I
know the meaning of that cheer. I do not wish to raise a
discussion on the Corn-laws or the Sugar Duties, Avhich I
contend, hoAvever, are exceptions to the general rule, and I
will not go into that question now." The press of the day.

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 237
whether for or against Peel, commented upon his declara
tions aud his measures as indicating clearly that the bent
of his mind was tOAvard Free-trade even in grain. At all
events, he had reached that mental condition when he re
garded the case of grain, like that of sugar, as a necessary
exception, for the time, to the operation of a general rule.
It ought to have been obvious that if exceptional circura
stances should arise, pulling more strongly in the direction
of the League, Sir Robert Peel's oavu explicit declarations
must bind him to recognize the necessity of applying the
Free-trade principles even to corn. " Sir Robert Peel," says
his cousin. Sir Laurence Peel, in a sketch of the life and char
acter of the great statesman, " had been, as I have said, al-
Avays a Free-trader. The questions to which he had declined
to apply those principles had been vicAved by hira as excep
tional The Corn-law had been so treated by raany able
exponents ofthe principles of Free-trade." Sir Robert Peel
himself has left it on record that during the discussions on
the Corn-law of 1842 he was more than once pressed to give
a guarantee, " so far as a- minister could give it," that the
amount of protection established by that laAv should be per
manently adhered to ; " but although I did not then contem
plate the necessity for further change, I uniformly refused to
fetter the discretion of the Government by any such assur
ances as those that were required of me." It is evident that
the condition of Sir Robert Peel's opinions was, even as far
back as 1842, soraething very different indeed frora that of
the ordinary county raeraber or pledged Protectionist, and
that Peel had done all he could to make this clear to his
party. A minister who, in 1842, refused lo fetter the dis
cretion of his Government in dealing with the protection
of horae-groAvn grain ought not, on the face of things, to be
accused of violating his pledges and betraying his party, if,
four years later, under the pressure of extraordinary circum
stances, he raade up his raind to the abolition of such a pro
tection. Let us test this in a manner that will be familiar
to our own time. Suppose a Prime-minister is pressed by
some of his own party to give the House of Commons a
guarantee, " so far as a minister could give it," that the
principle of the State Church Establishment in England
shall be permanently adhered to. He declines to fetter the

238 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
discretion of the Governraent in the future. Is it not evi
dent that such an answer would be taken by nine out of
ten of his listeners to be orainous of some change to the
Established Church ? If four years after the same minister
were to propose to disestablish the Church, he might be de
nounced and he might even be execrated, but no one could
fairly accuse hira of having violated his pledge and betrayed
his party.
The country party, hoAvever, did not understand Sir
Robert Peel as their opponents and his assuredly under
stood hira. They did not at this time believe in the possi
bility of any change. Free-trade Avas to them little raore
than an abstraction. They did not much care who preached
it out of Parliament. They Avere convinced that the state
of things they saAV around them Avhen they were boys Avould
continue to the end. They looked on Mr. Villiers and his
annual motion in favor of Free-trade very rauch as a stout
old Tory of later tiraes raight regard the annual raotion for
woraan suffrage. Both parties in the House — that is to say,
both of the parties frora whom ministers were taken — alike
set theraselves against the introduction of any such measure.
The supporters of it were, Avith one exception, not raen of
faraily and rank. It was agitated for a good deal out-of-
doors, but agitation had not up to that time succeeded in
raaking much way even Avith a reformed Parliaraent. The
country party observed that some men among the two lead
ing sets went farther in favor of the abstract principle than
others : but it did not seera to them that that really affected
the practical question A-ery rauch. In 1842 Mr. Disraeli
hiraself was one of those Avho stood up for the Free-trade
principle, and insisted that it had been rather the inherited
principle of the Conservatives than ofthe Whigs. Country
gentleraen did not, therefore, greatly concern theraselves
about the practical Avork doing in Manchester, or the pro
fessions of abstract opinion so often made in Parliament.
They did not see that the raind of their leader Avas avowed
ly in a progressive condition on the subject of Free-trade.
Because they could not bring themselves to question for a
moment the principle of protection for horae-grown grain,
they made up their rainds that it Avas a principle as sacred
with him. Against that conviction no evidence could pre-

FREE-TRADE AND THE LEAGUE. 239
vail. It Avas Avith thera a point of conscience and honor;
it would have seeraed an insult to their leader to believe
even his OAvn words, if these seemed to say that it was a
mere question of expediency, convenience, and time with
hira. 'Perhaps it Avould have been better if Sir Robert Peel had
devoted hiraself more directly to Avhat Mr. Disraeli after
Avard called educating his party. Perhaps if he had made
it part of his duty as a leader to prepare the minds of his
folloAvers for the fact that protection for grain, having ceased
to be tenable as an economic principle, Avould possibly sorae
day have to be given up as a practice, he might have taken
his party along Avi'^ii him. He might have been able to
show them, as the events have shoAvn thera since, th<at the
introduction of free corn would be a Viiessing to the popula
tion of England in general, and Avould do nothing but good
for the landed interest as Avell. The influence of Peel at
that tirae, and indeed all through his adrainistration up to
the introduction of his Free-trade measures, Avas limitless, so
far as his party were concerned. He could have done any
thing with thera. Indeed, Ave find no evidence so clear to
prove that Peel had not in 1842 made up his raind to the
introduction of Free -trade as the fact that he did not at
once begin to educate his party to it. This is to be regret
ted. The measure might have been passed by common ac
cord. There is something not altogether Avithout pathetic
influence in the thought of that country party whom Peel
had led so long, and Avho adored hira so thoroughly, turning
away from him and against him, and mournfully seeking an
other leader. There is something pathetic in the thought
tiiat, rightly or wrongly, they should have believed them
selves betrayed by their chief But Peel, to begin with, was
a reserved, cold, soraewhat aAvkAvard man. He was not
effusive; he did not pour out his emotions and reveal all his
changes of opinion in bursts of confidence even to his habit
ual associates. He brooded over these things in his own
mind ; he gave such expression to them in open debate as
any passing occasion seemed strictly to call for; and he as
suraed, perhaps, that the gradual changes operating in his
views when thus expressed were understood by his foUoAV-
ers. Above all, it is probable that Peel himself did not see

240 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
until almost the last raoment that the time had actually
come Avhen the principle of protection must give Avay to
olher and more weighty claims. In his speech announcing
his intended legislation in 1846, Sir Robert Peel, with a
proud frankness which was characteristic of him, denied that
his altered course of action Avas due exclusively to the fail
ure of the potato crop and the dread of faraine in Ireland.
" I will not," he said, " Avithhold the homage which is due
to the progress of reason and of truth by denying that my
opinions on the subject of Protection have undergone a
change. ... I will not direct the course of the vessel by
observations taken in 1842." But it is probable that ifthe
Irish famine had not threatened, the moment for introducing
the new legislation might have been indefinitely postponed.
The prospects of the Anti-Corn-law League did not look by
any means bright when the session preceding the introduc
tion of the Free -trade legislation came to an end. The
number of votes that the League could count on in Parlia-^
ment did not much exceed that Avhich the advocates of
Home Rule have been able to reckon np in our day. Noth
ing in 1843 or in the earlier part of 1845 pointed to any im
mediate necessity for Sir Robert Peel's testing the progress
of his own convictions by reducing them into the shape of
practical action. It is, therefore, not hard to understand
how even a far-seeing and conscientious statesraan, busy
with the practical work of each day, might have put off tak
ing definite counsel Avith hiraself as to the introduction of
raeasures for which just then there seeraed no special neces
sity, and which could hardly be introduced without bitter
controversy.

CHAPTER XV.
FAMINE rORCES peel's HAND.
We see how the two great parties of the State stood with
regard to this question of Free - trade. The Whigs Avere
steadily gravitating toward it. Their leaders did not quite
see their wa}' to accept it as a principle of practical states
manship, but it Avas evident that their acceptance of it Avas

FAMINE FORCES PEEL's HAND. 241
only a question of time, and of no long time The leader of
the Tory party was being draAvn day by day more in the
same direction. Both leaders, Russell and Peel, had gone
so far as to admit the general principle of Free-trade Peel
had contended that grain Avas, in England, a necessary ex
ception ; Russell was not of opinion that the time had come
Avhen it could be treated otherwise than as an exception.
The Free-trade party, sraall, indeed, in its Parliamentary
force, but daily growing more and more powerful with the
country, would take nothing from either leader but Free-
trade sans phrase; and would take that from either leader
without regard to partisan considerations. It is evident to
any one who knows anything of the working of our system
of governraent by party, tiiat this must soon have ended in
one or other ofthe tAvo great ruling parties forming an alli
ance with the Free-traders. If unforeseen events had not
interposed, it is probable that conviction would first have
fastened on the minds of the Whigs, and that they Avould
have had the honor of abolishing the Corn -laws. They
Avere out of office, and did not seem likely to get back soon
to it by their oavu poAver, and the Free-trade party Avould
have come in time to be a very desirable ally. It AA'ould be
idle to pretend to doubt that the convictions of political par
ties are hastened on a good deal under our system by the
yearning of those who are out of office to get the better of
those Avho are in. Statesmen in England are converted as
Henry of Navarre becarae Catholic : Ave do not say that they
actually change their opinions for the sake of raaking them
selves eligible for poAver, but a change which has been grow
ing up imperceptibly, and Avhich might otherwise have taken
a long time to declare itself, is stiraulated thus to confess
itself and corae out into the light. But in the case of the
Anti-Coru-laAv agitation, an event over Avhich political par
ties had no control intervened to spur the intent ofthe Prirae-
minister. Mr. Bright, raany years after, when pronouncing
the eulogy of his dead friend Cobden, described what hap
pened in a fine sentence: "Famine itself, against which Ave
had warred, joined us." In the autumn of 1845 the potato
rot began in Ireland.
The vast majority of the Avorking population of Ireland
Avere knoAvn to depend absolutely ou the potato for subsist-
L— 11

242 A history op our own times.
ence. In the northern province, Avhere the population Avere
of Scotch extraction, thei oatmeal, the brose of their ances
tors, still supplied the staple of their food ; but in the south
ern and western provinces a large proportion ofthe peas
antry actually lived on the potato, and the potato alone. Iu
these districts Avhole generations grcAV up, lived, married, and
passed away, without having ever tasted flesh meat. It
Avas evident, then, that a failure in the potato crop would be
equivalent to famine. Many of the laboring class received
little or no money wages. They lived on what Avas called
the " cottier tenant system ;" that is to say, a man Avorked
for a land-owner on condition of getting the use of a little
scrap of land for himself, on Avhich to groAV potatoes to bo
the sole food of himself and his family. The news came, in
the autumn of 1845, that the long continuance of sunless wet
and cold had imperilled, if not already destroyed, the food
of a people.
The cabinet of Sir Robert Peel held hasty, meetings close
ly foUoAving each other. People began to ask whether Par
liament was about to be called together, and Avhether the
Government had resolved on a bold policy. The Anti-Corn-
law League were clamoring for "the opening of the ports.
The Prime-rainister hiraself was strongly in favor of such a
course. He urged upon his colleagues that all restrictions
upon the importation of foreign corn should be suspended
either by an Order in Council, or by calling Parliament tOr
gether and recommending such a measure frora the throne.
It is UOAV known that in offering this advice to his colleagues
Peel accompanied it Avith the expression of a doubt as to
Avhether it would ever be possible to restore the restrictions
that had once been suspended. Indeed, this doubt must
have filled every mind. The League Avere openly declaring
that one reason why they called for the opening ofthe ports
Avas that, once opened, they never could be closed again.
The doubt was enough for some of the colleagues of Sir
Robert Peel. It seeras marvellous now hoAv responsible
statesraen could struggle for the retention of restrictions
Avhich Avere so unpopular and indefensible that if they Avere
once suspended, under the pressure of no matter what excep
tional necessity, they never could be reimposed. The Duke
of Wellington and Lord Stanley, however, opposed the idea

FAMINE FORCES PEEL'S HAND. 248
of opening the ports, and the proposal fell through. The
Cabinet merely resolved on appointing a commission, con
sisting of the heads of departraents in Ireland, to take sorae
steps to guard against a sudden outbreak of famine, and the
thought of an autumnal session was abandoned. Sir Robert
Peel himself has thus tersely described the manner in Avhich
his proposals Avere received : " The cabinet by a very con
siderable majority declined giving its assent to the proposals
which I thus made to them. They were supported by only
three members of the cabinet — the Earl of Aberdeen, Sir
James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert. The other mera
bers of the cabinet, some on the ground of objection to the
principle of the measures recoramended, others upon the
ground that there was not yet sufficient evidence of the
necessity for them, withheld their sanction."
The great cry all through Ireland Avas for the opening of
the ports. The Mansion House Relief Corarailtee of Dublin
issued a series of resolutions declaring their conviction, from
the raost undeniable evidence, that considerably more than
one-third of the entire potato crop in Ireland had been al
ready destroyed by the disease, and that the disease had not
ceased its ravages, but on 'the contrary was daily expanding
more and mo_re. " No reasonable conjecture can be formed,"
the resolutions went on to state, " with respect to the limit
of its effects short ofthe destruction ofthe entire remaining
crop ;" and the document concluded with a denunciation of
the ministry for not opening the ports or calling Parliament
together before the usual time for its asserabling.
Two or three days after the issue of these resolutions Lord
John Russell Avrote a letter frora Edinburgh to his constitu
ents, the electors of the City of London — a letter Avhich is
one ofthe historical docuraents ofthe reign. It announced
his unqualified conversion to the principles ofthe Anti-Corn-
law League. The failure of the potato clop was, of course,
the immediate occasion of this letter. " Indecision and pro
crastination," Lord .John Russell Avrote, " may produce a
state of suffering Avhich it is frightful to contemplate 
It is no longer worth Avhile to contend for a fixed duty. In
1841 the Free-trade party would have agreed to a duty of
8s. per quarter on wheat, and after a lapse of years this duty
might have been further reduced, and ultimately abolished.

244 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
But the imposition of any duty at present, Avithout a provi
sion for its extinction Avithin a short period, would but pro
long a contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity and
discontent." Lord John Russell then invited a general un
derstanding, to put an end lo a system " Avhich has been
proved to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agricult
ure, the source of bitter division among classes, the cause of
penury,fever, mortality, and crime among the people." Then
the Avriler added a significant remark to the effect that the
Government appeared to be Availing for some excuse to give
up the present Corn-laAV, and urging the people to afford
them all the excuse they could desire, " by petition, by ad
dress, by remonstrance."
Peel himself has told us in his Memoirs Avhat Avas the ef
fect Avhich this letter produced upon his oavu councils. It
" could not," he points out, " fail to exercise a very material
influence on the public mind, and on the subject-raatter of
our deliberations in the cabinet. It justified the conclusion
that the Whig party was prepared to unite Avilh the Anti-
Corn-laAv League in deraanding the total repeal of the Corn-
laAvs." Peel Avould not consent now to propose siraply an
opening ofthe ports. It Avould seem, he thought, a mere
submission, to accept the minimum of the terms ordered by
the Whig leader. That would have been Avell enough when
he first recomraended it to his cabinet ; and if it could then
have been offered to the country as the spontaneous move
ment of a united ministry, it Avould have been becoming of
the emergency and of the men. Bnt to do this uoav would
be futile ; would seem like trifling Avith the question. Sir
Robert Peel, therefore, recommended to his cabinet an early
meeting of Parliament Avith the vioAv of bringing forward
some measure equivalent to a speedy repeal of the Corn-
laAvs. ^
The recommendation Avas Avise : it was, indeed, indispen
sable. Yet it is hard to think that an impartial posterity
will form a very lofty estimate of the wisdom with which
the counsels of the two great English parties Avere guided
in this moraentous eraergency. Neither Whigs nor Tories
appear to have forraed a judgment because of facts dr prin
ciples, but only in deference to the political necessities of
the hour. Sir Robert Peel hirhself denied that it Avas the

245
resistless hand of faraine in Ireland which had brought hira
to his resolve that the Corn-laAvs ought to be abolished.
He grew into the conviction that they Avere bad in principle.
Lord John Russell had long been growing into the same
conviction. Yet the League had been left lo divide Avith
but sraall numbers against overwhelraing m.ajorilies made
up of both parlies, until the very session before Peel pro
posed to repeal the Corn-laAvs. Lord Beaconsfield, indeed,
indulges in something like exaggeration Avhen he says, in
his " Life of Lord George Bentinck," that the close of the
session of 1845 found the League nearly reduced to silence.
But it is not untrue that, as he says, " the Manchester con
federates seenied to be least in favor Avith Parliaraent and
the country on the very eve of their triumph." "They lost
at the same time elections and the ear of the House ; and
the cause of total and immediate repeal seemed in a not less
hopeless position than when, under circumstances of infinite
difficulty, it Avas first and solely upheld by the terse elo
quence and vivid perception "of Charles Villiers." Lord
Beaconsfield certainly ought to know Avhat cause had and
Avliat had not the ear of the House of Commons at that
time ; and yet Ave venture to doubt, even after his assurance,
Avhether the League and its speakers had in any Avay found
their hold on the attention of Parliament diminishing. But
the loss of elections is beyond dispute. It is a fact alluded
to in the very letter from Lord John Russell Avhich was cre
ating so much commotion. " It is not to be denied," Lord
John Russell Avrites, " that many elections for cities and
towns in 1841, and sorae in 1845, appear to favor the asser
tion that Free-trade is not popular Avith the great raass of
the coraraunity." This is, from Avhatever cause, a very cora
raon phenoraenon in our political history. A raovement
Avhich began Avith the promise of sweeping all before it
seeras after awhile to lose its force, and is supposed by raany
observers to be now only the Avork and the care of a fcAV
earnest and fanatical men. Suddenly it is taken up by a
minister of commanding influence, and the bore or the
crotchet of one Parliament is the great party controversy
of a second, and the accomplished triumph of a third. In
this instance it is beyond dispute that the League seemed to
be somcAvhat losing in strength and influence just on the eve

246 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of its coraplete triuraph. He raust, indeed, be the very op-
tiraist of Parliamentary governraent Avho upholds the man
ner of Free-trade's final adoption as absolutely satisfactory,
and as reflecting nothing but credit upon the counsels of
our tAVO great political parties. Such a well-contented per
sonage might be fairly asked to explain why a systera of
protective taxation, beginning to be regarded by all thought
ful statesmen as bad in itself, should never be examined
with a vieAv to its repeal until the force of a great emer
gency and the rival biddings of party leaders came to render
its repeal inevitable. The Corn-laAvs, as all the world noAV
admits, were a cruel burden to the poor and the working-
class of England. They were justly described by Lord John
Russell as " the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture,
the source of bitter division among classes; the cause of
IDenury, fever, mortality, and crirae araong the people" All
this Avas independent of the sudden and ephemeral calamity
of the potato rot, Avhich at the time when Lord John Rus
sell Avrole that letier did not threaten to become nearly so
fatal as it afterward proved to be. One cannot help asking
hoAV long Avould the Corn-laAvs have been suffered thus to
blight commerce and agriculture, to cause division among
classes, and to produce penury, mortality, and crime among
the people, if the potato rot in Ireland had not rendered it
necessary to do soraething Avithout delay ?
The potato rot, however, inspired the M'riting of Lord
John Russell's letter; and Lord John Russell's letter in
spired Sir Robert Peel Avith the conviction that soraething
must be done. Most of his colleagues Avere inclined to go
Avith hira this tirae A cabinet council Avas held on No
veraber 25th, almost iraraediately after the publication of
Lord John Russell's letter. At that council Sir Robert Peel
recommended the suraraoning of Parliament with a view to
instant measures to combat the famine in Ireland, but with
a view also to some announcement of legislation intended to
pave the way for the repeal of the Corn-laAvs. Lord Stan
ley still hesitated, and asked time to consider his decision.
The Duke of Wellington Avas unchanged in his private opin
ion that the Corn-laAvs ought to be maintained; but he de
clared with a blunt simplicity that his only object in public
life Avas " to support Sir Robert Peel's administration of the

FAMINE FORCES PEEL'S HAND. 247
Government for the Queen." "A good government for the
country," said the sturdy and simple old hero, " is more im
portant than Corn-laAvs or any oilier consideration." One
raay smile at this notion of a good government Avithout ref
erence to the quality of the legislation it introduces ; it re
minds one a little of the celebrated study of history Avith
out reference to time or place. But the Duke acted strictly
up to his principles of duty, and he declared that if Sir Rob
ert Peel considered the repeal ofthe Corn-laAvs to be not
right or necessary for the Avelfare of England, but reqiiisile
for the maintenance of Sir Robert Peel's position " in Par
liaraent and in the public view," he should thoroughly sup
port the proposal. Lord Stanley, however, Avas not to be
changed in the end. He took tirae to consider, and seeras
really to have tried his best to persuade himself that he
could fall in Avith the new position Avhich the Premier had
assumed. MeauAvhile the most excited condition of public
feeling prevailed throughout London and the country gen
erally. The Times newspaper came out on December 4lh
with the announcement that the ministry had made up its
mind, and that the Royal speech at the commenceraent of
the session would recommend an immediate consideration
of the Corn-laAvs preparatory to their total repeal It would
be hardly possible to exaggerate the exciteraent caused by
this startling piece of neAvs. It was indignantly and in
unqualified terms declared: a falsehood by the ministerial
prints. Long arguments Avere gone into to prove that even
if the fact announced Avere true, it could not possibly have
been known to the Times. In Disraeli's " Coningsby " Mr.
Rigby gives the clearest and raost convincing reasons to
prove, first, that Lord Spencer could not be dead, as report
said he Avas ; and next, that eyen if he were dead, the fact
could not possibly be known to those Avho took on them
selves to announce it. He is hardly silenced even by the
assurance of a great duke that he is one of Lord Spencer's
executors, and that Lord Spencer is certainly dead. So the
announcement in the Times Avas fiercely and pedantically
argued against. " It can't be true ;" " the Times could not
get to know of it ;" " it must be a cabinet secret if it Avere
true;" "nobody outside the cabinet could possibly knoAv of
it;" "if any one outside the cabinet could get to knoAV of

248 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES,
it, it would not be the Times;" it would be this, that, or the
other person or journal ; and so forth. Long after it had
been raade certain, beyond even Mr. Rigby's power of dis
putation, that the announceraent was true so far as the re
solve of the Prirae-rainister was concerned, people contin
ued to argue aud controvert as to the raanner in which the
Times became possessed of the secret. The general conclu
sion corae to araong the knowing Avas that the blandish
ments of a gifted and beautiful lady Avith a dash of polit
ical intrigue in her had somehow extorted the secret from
a young and handsome member of the cabinet, and that
she had communicated it to the Times. It is not impossible
that this may have been the true explanation. It Avas be
lieved in by a great many persons who might have been
in a position lo judge of the probabilities. On the other
hand, there Avere surely signs and tokens enough by which
a shrewd politician might have guessed what Avas to come
without any intervention of petticoat diplomacy. It seems
odd noAv that people should then have distressed theraselves
so rauch by conjectures as to the source of the information
Avhen once it Avas made certain that the information itself
Avas substantially true. This it undoubtedly Avas, although
it did not tell all the truth, and could not foretell. For
there was an ordeal yet to be gone through before the
Prinie-minister could put his plans into operation. On De
cember 4th the Times made the announcement. On the 6th,
having been passionately contradicted, it repeated the as
sertion. "We adhere to our original announcement that
Parliament Avill meet early in January, and that a i-epeal
ofthe Corn-laAvs will be proposed in one House by Sir R.
Peel, and in the other by the Duke of Wellington." But,
in the raean tinie, the opposition in the cabinet had proved
itself unraanageable. Lord Stanley and the Duke of Buc
cleuch intimated to the Prime-rainister that they could not
be parties to any raeasure involving the ulliraate repeal of
the Corn -laws. Sir Robert Peel did not believe that he
could carry out his project satisfactorily under such cir
cumstances, and he therefore hastened to tender his resig
nation to the Queen. " The other merabers of the cabinet,
Avithout exception, I believe " — these are Sir Robert Peel's
own words — " concurred in this opinion ; and under these

FAMINE FORCES PEEL'S HAND. 249
circumstances I consider it to be my duty lo tender my
resignation to her Miijesty. On the 5th of December I re
paired to Osborne, Isle of Wight, and humbly solicited her
Majesty to relievo me from duties which I felt I could no
longer discharge with advantage to her Majesty's service."
The very day after the Times made its famous announce
ment, the very day before the Times repeated it, the Prime-
minister Avho Avas lo propose the repeal ofthe Corn -laws
went out of office.
Quern dixere chaos! Apparently chaos had come again.
Lord John Russell was sent for frora Edinburgh. His letter
had, without any such purpose on his part, Avritten him np
as the raan to take Sir Robert Peel's place. Lord John
Russell came to London, and did his best to cope Avitli the
raany difficulties ofthe situation. His party Avere not very
strong in the country, and they had not a majority in the
House of Coraraons. He very naturally endeavored to
obtain from Peel a pledge that he Avould support the im
mediate and complete repeal of the Corn-laws. Peel, Avril-
ing to the Queen, " humbly expresses his regret that he
does not feel it to be consistent Avitli his duty lo enter upon
the consideration of this important question in Parliament
fettered by a previous engagement of the nature of that
required of liiM." The position of Lord John Russell Avas
awkward. He had been forced into it because one or Iavo
of Sir Robert Peel's colleagues Avould not consent to adopt
the policy of their chief. But the very fact of so stubborn
an opposition from a man of Lord Stanley's influence shoAved
clearly enough that tne passing- of Free-trade measures Avas
not to be effected without stern resistance from the country
parly. The Avhole risk and burden had seemingly been
thrown on Lord John Russell; and uoav Sir Robert Peel
would not even pledge himself to unconditional support of
the very jjolicy Avhich was understood to be his oavu. Lord
.lohn Russell shoAved, even then, his characteristic courage
He resolved to form a ministry without a Parliamentary
majoritj'. He Avas not, however, fated to try the ordeal.
Lord Grey, Avho was a feAV months before Lord HoAvick, and
who had just succeeded to the title ofhis father (the stately
Charles Earl Grey, the pupil of Fox, and chief of the cabinet
which passed the Reform Bill and abolished slavery)^»-Lord
11*

250 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Grey felt a strong objection to the foreign policy of Lord
Palmerston, and tliese two could not get on in one ministry,
as it Avas part of Lord John Russell's plan that they should
do. Lord Grey also Avas strongly of opinion that a seat in
the cabinet ought to be offered to Mr. Cobden ; but other
great Whigs could not bring theraselves to any larger sacri
fice to justice and coraraon-sense than a suggestion that the
office of Vice-president ofthe Board of Trade should be
tendered to the leader ofthe Free -trade movement. Mr.
Macaulay describes the events in ,a letter to the Edinburgh
Chamber of Commerce. "All our plans were frustrated by
Lord Grey, who objected to Lord Palmerston being Foreign
Secretary. I hope that the public interests will not suffer.
Sir Robert Peel must noAV undertake the settlement ofthe
question. It is certain that he can settle it. It is by no
means certain that we could have done so. For Ave shall to
a man support him ; and a large proportion of those Avho
are uoav in office would have refused to support us." One
passage in Macaulay's letter will be read Avith peculiar in
terest. "From the first," he says, "I told Lord John Rus
sell that I stipulated for one thing only — total and immedi
ate repeal ofthe Corn-laAvs; that ray objections to gradual
abolition were insurraountable ; but that if he declared for
total and immediate repeal I would be as to all other mat
ters absolutely in his hands; that I Avould take any office,
or no office, just as suited him best; and that he should
never be disturbed by any personal pretensions or jealous
ies on ray part." No one can doubt Macaulay's sincerity
and singleness of purpose. But it is surprising to note the
change that the agitation of little more than Iavo j'ears has
raade in his opinions on the subject of a policy of immedi
ate and unconditional abolition. In February, 1843, he was
pointing out to the electors of Edinburgh the" unAvisdom of
refusing a compromise, and in December, 1845, he is writing
to Edinburgh to say that the one only thing for Avhich he
must stipulate was total and immediate repeal. The Anti-
Corh-laAV League might Avell be satisfied Avith the propagan
dist work they had done. Tlie League itself looked on very
composedly during these little altercations and embarrass
ments of parties. They knew Avell enough uoav that let Avho
Avould take power, he raust carry out their policy. At a

FAMINE FORCES PEEL's HAND. 251
meeting of the League, Avhich was held in Covent Garden
Theatre on the I7th of this memoi-cable raonth, and Avhile the
negotiations were still going on, Mr. Cobden declared that
he and his friends had not striven to keep one party in or
another out of office. " We have Avorked Avith but one prin
ciple and one object in view ; and if avo raaintain that prin
ciple for but six months raore, we shall attain to that state
which I have so long aud so anxiously desired, when the
League shall be dissolved into ils primitive elements by the
triumph of its principles."
Lord John Russell found it impossible to form a ministry.
He signified his failure to the Queen. Probably, having
done the best he could, he Avas not particularly distressed to
find that his efforts Avere ineffectual The Queen had to
send for Sir Robert Peel to Windsor, and tell hiin that she
must require him to withdraAV his resignation and to remain
in her service. Sir Robert of course could only coraply.
The Queen offered to give him sorae time to enter into com
munication with his colleagues, but Sir Robert very wisely
thought that he could speak Avith much greater authority
if he were to invite them to support hira in an effort on
Avhich he Avas deterrained, and which he had positively un
dertaken to raake. He, therefore, returned frora Windsor
on the evening of December 20lh, "having resumed all the
functions of First Minister of the CroAvn." The Duke of
Buccleuch AvithdreAv his opposition lo the policy Avhich Peel
Avas now to carry out; but Lord St.anley remained firra.
The place of the latter Avas taken as Secretary of State
for the Colonies by Mr. Gladstone, Avho, hoAvever, curiously
enough reraained Avithout a seat in Parliament during the
eventful session that was now to corae. Mr. Gladstone had
sat for the borough of NoAvark, but that borough being un
der the influence of the Duke of NcAvcastle, avIio had Avith-
draAvii his support frora the ministry, he did not invite re
election, but remained Avithout a seat in the House of Cora
raons for some months. Sir Robert Peel then, to use his
oAvn words in a letter to the Princess de Lieven, resumed
])OAver "with greater means of rendering public service than
I should have had if I had not relinquished it." He felt, he
said, " like a man restored to life after his funeral service
had been preached."

252 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Parliament Avas summoned to raeet in January. In the
mean tirae it Avas easily seen hoAv the Protectionists and the
Tories ofthe extreme order generally Avould regard the pro
posals of Sir Robert Peel. Protectionist meetings Avere held
in various parts ofthe country, and they Avere all but unan
imous in condemning by anticipation the policy of the re
stored Premier. Resolutions Avere passed at many of
these meetings expressing an equal disbelief in the Prime-
minister and in the famine. The utmost indignation Avas
expressed at' the idea of there being any famine in prospect
Avliich could cause any departure from the principles which
secured to the farmers a certain fixed price for their grain,
or at least prevented the price frora falling beloAV Vhat they
considered a paying amount. Not less absurd than the prot:
estations that there would be no faraine were sorae of the
reraedies which were suggested for it if it should insist on
coming in. The Duke ofNorfolk of that tirae raade himself
particularly conspicuous by a beneficent suggestion Avhich
he offered to a distressed population. He Avent about rec
ommending a curry powder ofhis OAvn device as a charm
against hunger.
Parliament met. Tlie opening day Avas January 22d,
1846. The Queen in person opened the session, and the
speech from the throne s.aid a good deal about the condition
of Ireland and the failure ofthe potato crop. The speech
contained one significant sentence. " I have had," her Maj
esty was made to say, " great satisfaction in giving my as
sent to the raeasures which you have presented to rae frora
time to time, calculated to extend comraerce and to stimu
late doraestic skill and industry, by the repeal of prohibitive
and the relaxation of protective duties. I recoraraend you
to take into j-our early consideration Avhether the principle
on Avhich you have acted may not Avith advantage be yet
more extensively applied." Before the address in reply to
the speech frora the throne Avas nioved. Sir Robert Peel gave
notice of the intention of the Governraent on the earliest
possible day to subrait to the consideration of the House
measures connected Avith the commercial and financial affairs
ofthe country.
There are few scenes more animated and. exciting than
that presented by the House of Commons on some night

FAMINE FORCES PEEL'S HAND. 253
when a great debate is expected, or Avhen some moraentous
announceraent is to bo made. A coinmon thrill seems to
tremble all through the asserably, as a breath of Avind runs
across the sea. The House appears for the raoment to be
one body, pervaded by one expectation. The ministerial
benches, the front benches of opposition, are occupied by the
men of political renown and of historic name The bench
es everyAvhere else are croAvded to their utmost capacity.
Members who cannot get seats^on such an occasion a good
ly number — stand beloAv the bar or have to dispose them
selves along the side galleries. The celebrities are not con
fined to the Treasury benches or those ofthe leaders of op
position. Here and there, among the independent members
and below the gangAvay on both sides, are seen men of in
fluence and renoAvn. At the opening of Parliament in 1846
tills Avas especially to be observed. The rising fame ofthe
Free-trade leaders made them almost like a third great par
ty ill the House of Commons. The strangers' gallery, the
Speaker's gallery, on such a night are crowded to excess.
The eye surveys the Avhole House and sees no vacant place.
In the very hum of conversation th.at runs along the benches
there is a tone of profound anxiety. The minister Avho has
to face that House and make the .announcement for Avhicli
all are waiting iu a most feverish anxiety is a man to be en
vied by the ambitious. This time there Avas a curiosity
about everything. What was the minister about to an
nounce? When and in Avhat fashion Avould he announce it?
Would the Whig leaders speak before the ministerial an
nouncement? Would the Free-traders? What voice Avould
first hint to the expectant Commons the course Avhich polit
ical events Avere destined to take ? The moving of an ad
dress to the throne is always a forraal piece of business. It
Avould be hardly possible for Cicero or Burke to be very in
teresting when perforraing such a task. On the olher hand,
it is an excellent chance for a young beginner. He finds
the House in a sort of conteraptuously indulgent mood, pre
pared to welcome the slightest evidence of any capacity of
speech above the dullest mediocrity. He can hardly say
anything absurd or offensive unless he goes absolutely out
of his Avay to make a fool of himself ; and, on the other hand,
he can easily say his little nothings in a graceful way, and

254 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
receive grateful applause, accordingly, from an asserably
Avhicli counts on being bored, and feels doubly indebted to
the speaker Avho is even in the slightest degree an agree
able disappointraent. On this particular occasion, however,
the duty of the proposer and seconder of the address was
raade specially trying by the fact that they had to interfere
Avith raerely formal utterances between an eager House and
an exciting announcement. A certain piquancy AA'as lent,
hoAvever, to the perforraance of the duty by the fact, which
the speeches raade evident beyond the possibility of rals
take, that the proposer ofthe address knew quite Avell what
the Government were about to do, and that the seconder
knew nolhing whatever.
Now the forraal task is done The address has been moved
and seconded. The Speaker puts the question that the ad
dress be adopted. Now is the tirae for debate, if debate
there is to be. On such occasions there is always sorae dis
cussion, but it is commonly as mere a piece of formality as
the address itself. It is understood that the leader of op
position Avill say something meaning next to nothing ; that
two or three raen will grumble vaguely at the ministry;
that the leader of the House will reply ; and then the affair
is all over. But on this occasion it Avas certain that some
momentous announcement would have to be made ; and the
question was vvhen it would come. Perhaps no one expect
ed exactly what did happen. Nothing can be more unusual
than for the leader ofthe House to open the debate on such
an occasion ; and Sir Robert Peel was usually someAvhat of
a formalist, Avho kept to the regular ways in all that per
tained to the business of the House. No eyes of expecta
tion were turned, therefore, to the rainisterial bench at the
moment after the forraal putting of the question by the
Speaker. It Avas rather expected that Lord John Russell, or
perhaps Mr. Cobden, would rise. But a surprised raurmur
running through all parts ofthe House soon told those who
could not see the Treasury bench that soraething unusual
had happened ; and in a raoment the voice ofthe Prime-minis
ter Avas lieard — that marvellous voice of which Lord Beacons
field says that it had not in his time any equal in the House,
" unless Ave except the thrilling tones of O'Connell "—and it
was known that the great explanation was coming at once.

FAMINE FORCES PEEL'S HAND. 255
The explanation even now, hoAvever, Avas somewhat de
ferred. The Prime-minister showed a deliberate intention,
it might have been thought, not to come to the point at
once. He Avent into long and labored explanations ofthe
manner in Avhich his mind had been brought into a change
on the subject of Free-trade and Protection ; and he gave
exhaustive calculations to shoAV that the reduction of duty
Avas constantly foUoAved by expansion of the revenue, and
even a raaintenance of high prices. The duties on glass, the
duties on flax, the prices of salt pork and domestic lard, the
contract price of salt beef for the navy — these and many
olher such topics Avere discussed at great length and Avith
elaborate fulness of detail in the hearing of an eager Honse
anxious only, for that night, to know whether or not the
minister raeant to introduce the principle of Tree -trade
Peel, however, made it clear enough that he had become a
complete convert to the doctrines ofthe Manchester school,
and that, in his opinion, the tirae had come Avhen that pro
tection Avhich he had taken office to maintain must forever
be abandoned. One sentence at the close of his speech was
made the occasion of much labored criticism and some sc-
A'ere accusation. It was that in Avhich Peel declared that ho
found it "no easy task to insure the harmonious and united
action of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and a
reformed Liouse of Commons."
The explanation Avas over. The House of Commons were
left rather to infer than to understand what the Government
proposed to do. Lord John Russell entered into some per
sonal explanations relating to his endeavor to form a min
istry, and the causes of its failure. These have not much
interest for a later time. It might have seemed that the
Avork of the night Avas done. It Avas evident that the min
isterial policy could not be discussed then ; for, in fact, it had
not been announced. The House knew that the Prirae-rain
ister was a convert to the principles of Free-trade ; but that
Avas all that any one could be said to knoAv except those
who Avere in the secrets of the cabinet. There appeared,
therefore, nothing for it but to wait until the time should
come for the formal announcement and the full discussion
of the Government measures. Suddenly, however, a new
and striking figure intervened in the languishing debate,

256 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
and filled the House of Coraraons with a fresh life. There
is not often to be found in our Parliaraentary history an ex
ample like this of a sudden turn given to a Avhole career by
a timely speech. The member who rose to comment on the
explanation of Sir Robert Peel had been for many years in
the Honse of Commons. This Avas his tenth session. He
had spoken often in each session. He had made many bold
attempts to Avin a name in Parliament, and hitherto his
political career had been simply a failure From the hour
Avheii he spoke this speech it Avas one long, unbroken, brill
iant success.

CHAPTER XVL
ME. DISEAELI.
The speaker Avho rose into such sudden prominence and
something like the position of a party leader was one of the
most remarkable raen the politics of the reign have pro
duced. Perhaps, if the word remarkable were to be used
in its raost strict sense, and Avithout particular reference to
praise, it would be just to describe him as emphatically the
most reraarkable man that the political controversies of tho
present reign have called into poAver. Mr. Disraeli entered
the House of Commons as Conservative member for Maid
stone in 1837. He Avas then about thirty-two years of age.
He had previously made repeated and unsuccessful atterapts
to gel a seat in Parliament. He began his political career
as au advanced Liberal, and had come out under the auspices
of Daniel O'Connell and .losepli Hume. He had described
hiraself as one avIio desired to fight the battle ofthe people,
and Avho Avas supported by neither ofthe aristocratic parties.
He failed again and again, and apparently he began to think
that it Avould be a Aviser thing to look for the support of
one or other of the aristocratic parties. He had before this
given indications of remark.able literary talent, if indeed it
might not be called genius. His novel, "Vivian Grey,"
published Avhen he Avas in his twenty-third year, Avas suffused
Avith extravagance, affectation, and mere aniraal spirits ; but
it was full of the evidences of a fresh and brilliant ability.
The son of a distinguished literary man, Mr. Disraeli had

MR. DISRAELI. 257
probably at that time only a young literary man's notions
of politics. It is not necessary to charge him Avith deliber
ate inconsistency because from having been a Radical ofthe
most advanced vieAvs he became by an easy leap a romantic
Tory. It is not likely that at the beginning ofhis career he
had any very clear ideas in connection Avilh the Avords Tory
or Radical. He Avrote a letter to Mr. W. J. Fox, already
described as an eminent Unitarian niinister and rising poli
tician, in Avhich he declared that his forte was sedition.
Most clever young men Avho are not born to fortune, and
Avho feel drawn into political life, fancy too that tX\e\r forte
is sedition. When young Disraeli found that sedition and
even advanced Radicalism did not do much to get him into
Parliament, he probably began to ask hiraself Avhether his
Liberal convictions Avere so deeply rooted as to call for the
sacrifice of a career. He thought the question over, and
doubtless found hiraself crystallizing fast into an advocate
of the established order of things. In a purely personal
light this Avas a fortunate conclusion for the ambitious young
politician. He could not then have anticipated the extraor
dinary change Avhich was to be Avrought in the destiny and
the composition of the Tory party by the eloquence, the
arguments, and the influence of Iavo men Avho at that time
Avere alraost ab.solulely unknown. Mr. Cobden stood for the
first tirae as a candidate for a seat in Parliaraent in the year
that saw Mr. Disraeli elected for the first tirae, and Mr. Cob
den Avas unsuccessful. Cobden had to wait four years before
he found his Avay into the House of Commons; Bright did
not become a meraber of Parliament until some Iavo years
later still. It Avas, however, the Anti-Corn-laAV agitation
Avhich, by conquering Peel and making him its advocate,
brought about the memorable split in the Conservative
party, and carried away from the cause of the country
squires nearly all the men of talent Avho had hitherto been
Avith them. A new or middle party of so-called Peelites
Avas formed. Grahara, Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, Cardwell,
and other raen of equal mark or proraise, joined it, and the
country party Av.as left to seek for leadership in the earnest
spirit and very raoderate talents of Lord George Bentlnck.
Mr. Disraeli then found his chance. His genius Avas such
that it must have ra.ade a Avay for hira anyAvhere and in

258 A HISTORY OF OUR' OWN TIMES.
spite of any corapetition ; but it is not too much to say that
his career of political advancement might have been very
different if, in place of finding himselfthe only man of first-
class ability in the party to Avhich he had attached hiraself,
he had been a raenilber of a party which had Palmerston and
Russell and Gladstone and Graham for its captains, and
Cobden and Bright for ils habitual supporters.
Tills, hoAvever, could not have been in Mr. Disraeli's
thoughts Avhen he changed from Radicalism to Conserva
tism. No trace ofthe progress of conversion can be found
in his speeches or his Avritings. It is not unreasonable to
infer that he took up Radicalism at the beginning because
it looked the most picturesque and romantic thing to do,
and that only as he found it fail to ansAver his personal ob
ject did it occur to him that he had, after all, more affinity
Avilh the cause of the country gentlemen. The reputation
he had made for himself before his going into Parliament
Avas of a nature rather calculated to retard than to advance
a political career. He Avas looked upon almost universal
ly as an eccentric and audacious adventurer, who was kept
from being dangerous by tho affectations and absurdities of
his conduct. He dressed in the extremest style of prepos
terous foppery; he talked a blending of cynicism and senti
raent ; he had made the most reckless statements ; his boast
ing Avas .almost outrageous ; his rhetoric of abuse was, even
in that free-spoken tirae, astonishingly vigorous and unre
strained. Even his literary efforts did not then receive any
thing like the appreciation they have obtained since. At
that tirae they Avere regarded rather as audacious Avhimsi-
calities, the fantastic freaks of a clever youth, than as genu
ine works of a certain kind of art. Even when he did get
into the House of Commons, his first experience there Av.as
little calculated to give him much hope of success. Reading
over this first speech noAV, it seeras hard to understand why
it should have excited so rauch laughter and derision ; Avhy
it should have called forth nothing but laughter and deri
sion. It is a clever speech, full of point and odd conceits;
very like in style and structure raany ofthe speeches Avhich
in later years Avon for the sarae orator the applause of the
Honse of Comnions. But Mr. Disraeli's reputation had pre
ceded him into the House. Up lo this tirae his life had been,

MR. 'disraell 259
says an unfriendly but not an unjust critic, "an almost un
interrupted career of follies and defeats." The House was
probably in a humor to find the speech ridiculous because
the general impression Avas that the man himself Avas ridicu
lous. Mr. Disraeli's appearance, too, no doubt, contributed
something to the contemptuous opinion Avhich was forraed
of hira on his first attempt to address the assembly Avhich
he afterAvard came to rule. He is described by an observer
as having been attired "in a bottle-green frock-coat and a
Avaistcoat of Avhite, of the Dick Swiveller pattern, the front
of Avhich exhibited a net-Avork of glittering chains ; large
fancy-pattern pantaloons, and a black tie, above Avhich no
shirt -collar Av.as visible, completed the outward man. A
countenance lividly pale, set out by a pair of intensely black
eyes, and a broad but not very high forehead, overhung by
clustering ringlets of coal-black hair, Avhich, combed aAvay
frora the right temple, fell in bunches of Avell- oiled small
ringlets over his left cheek." His manner Avas intensely die-
alric; his gestures Avere wild and extravagant. In all this
there is not rauch, however, to surprise those Avho knew Mr.
Disraeli in his greater days. His style was ahvays extraA^a-
gant ; his rhetoric constantly degenerated into vulgarity ;
his Avhole raanner was that of the typical foreigner Avhom
English people regard as the illustration of all that is ve-
heraent and unquiet. But whatever the cause, it is certain
that on the occasion of his first atterapt Mr. Disraeli raade
not merely a failure, but even a ludicrous failure. One who
heard the debate thus describes the raanner in Avhich, baffled
by the persistent laughter and other interruptions of the
noisy House, the orator withdrcAv frora the discussion, de
feated but not discouraged. "At last, losing his teraper,
Avhicli until noAV he had preserved in a Avonderful manner,
he paused in the midst of a sentence, and looking the Liber
als indignantly in the face, raised his hands, and, opening his
mouth as Avidely as its dimensions would admit, said, in a re
markably loud and almost terrific tone, 'I have begun, sev
eral tiraes, many things, .and I have often succeeded at last;
a)', sir, and though I sit down now, the time will come when
you Avill hear me'" This final prediction is so like Avhat a
manufacturer of biography wonld make up for a hero, and is
so like what was actually said in one or two other remarka-

260 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ble instances, that a reader raight be excused for doubting
its authenticity in this case. But nothing can be more cer
tain than the fact that Mr. Disraeli did bring to a close his
maiden speech in the House of Commons with this bold pre
diction. The Avords are to be found in the reports published
next raorning in all the daily papers of the raetropolis.
It was thus that Mr. Disraeli began his career as a Parlia
mentary orator. It is a curious fact that on that occasion
almost the only one of his hearers Avho seems to have ad
mired the speech Avas Sir Robert Peel. It is by his philip-
])ic against Peel that Disraeli is uoav about to convince the
House of Commons that the man they laughed at before is
a great Parliaraentary orator.
Disraeli Avas not in the least discouraged by his first fail
ure. A foAV days after it he spoke again, and he spoke three
or four times raore during his first session. But he had
learned some Avisdom by rough experience, and he did not
malce his oratorical flights so long or so ambitious as that
first attempt. Then he seenied after awhile, as he grew
more familiar Avith the House, to go in for being paradoxi
cal; for making hiraself ahvays conspicuous; for taking up
positions and expounding political creeds which other men
Avould have avoided. It is very difficult to get any clear
idea of Avhat his opinions Avere about this period of his ca
reer, if he had any political opinions at all. Our irapression
is that he really had no opinions at that tirae ; that he was
only in quest of opinions. He spoke on subjects of Avhicli
it was evident that he knoAv nothing, and soraetiraes he raan
aged, by the sheer force of a strong intelligence, to discern
the absurdity of econoraic sophistries Avhich had baffled raen
of far greater experience, and Avhich, indeed, to judge from
his personal declarations and political conduct afterward, he
allowed before long to baffle and bcAvilder himself More
often, hoAvever, he talked Avith a grandiose and oracular
vagueness which seeraed to iraply that he alone of all men
saw into the very heart of the question, but that he of all
men must not yet reveal what he saAv. At his best of tiraes
Mr. Disraeli Avas an exaraple of that class of being Avhoin
Macaulay declares to be so rare that Lord Chatham appears
to him almost a solitary illustration of it — " a great man
of real genius, and of a brave, lofty, and commanding spirit,

MR. DISRAELL 261
Avithout siraplicity of character." What Macaulay goes on
to say of Chatham will bear quotation too. "He was an
actor in the closet, an actor at council, an actor in Parlia
raent; and even in privaie society he could not lay aside his
theatrical tones and attitudes." Mr. Disraeli Avas at one pe
riod of his career so affected that he positively affected af
fectation. Yet he was a man of undoubted genius; he had
a spirit that never quailed under stress of any circumstances,
however disheartening; he commanded as scarcely any
statesman since Chatham himself has been able lo do ; and
it would be unjust and absurd to deny to a man gifted Avith
qualities like these the possession of a lofty nature.
For some tirae Mr. Disraeli then seeraed resolved to make
himself remarkable — to be talked about. He succeeded ad
mirably. He Avas talked about. All the political and satir
ical journals of the day had a great deal to say about him.
He is not spoken of in terms of praise as a rule ; neither has
he rauch praise to shower about him. Any one who looks
back lo the political controversies of that time will be As
tounded at- the language Avhich Mr. Disraeli addresses to
his opponents of the press, and Avhich his opponents address
to hira. In some cases it is no exaggeration to say that a
squabble betAveen Iavo Billingsgate fish-women in our day
Avould have good chance of ending without the use of Avords
and phrases so coarse as those Avhich then passed belAveen
this brilliant literary man and some of his assailants. We
have all read the history of the controversy between him
and O'Connell, and the savage ferocity of the language Avith
which O'Connell denounced him as " a miscreant," as " a
Avretch," " a liar," " whose life is a living lie ;" and, finally, as
" the heir-at-law of the blasphemous thief who died impeni
tent on the Cross." Mr. Disraeli begins his reply by de
scribing himself as one of those who " Avill not be insulted
even by a Yahoo Avithout chastising it ;" and afterAvard, in
a letter to one of Mr. O'Connell's sons, declares his deSire to
express "the utter scorn in which I hold his [Mr. O'Connell's]
character, and the disgust with Avhich his conduct inspires
me;" and informs the son that "I shall take every opportu
nity of holding your father's name up lo public contempt,
and I fervently pray that you or some one of your blood
may attempt to avenge the inextinguish.able hatred with

262 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Avliich I shall pursue his existence." In reading of a contro
versy like this betiveen two public meuj Ave seem to be trans
ported back to an age having absolutely nothing in common
with our OAvn. It appears almost impossible to believe that ^
men still active in political life were active in political life
then. Yet this is not the most astonishing specimen ofthe
sort of controversy in Avhich Mr. Disraeli became engaged in
his younger days. Nothing, perhaps, that the political lit
erature of the time preserves could exceed the ferocity of
his controversial duel with O'Connell ; but there are many
samples of the rhetoric of abuse to be found in the journals
of the time which Avould far less bear exposure to the gaze
of the fastidious public of our day. The duelling- system
survived then and for long after, and Mr. Disraeli always
professed himself ready to sustain with his pistol anything
that his lips might have given utterance to, even in the reck
less heat of controversy. The social temper Avhich in our
lime insists that the first duty of a gentleman is to apologize
fur an unjust or offensive expression used in debate, Avas un
known then. Perhaps it could hardly exist to any great ex
tent in the company ofthe duelling system. When a man's
Avithdrawal of an offensive expression might be impu.ted to a
Avant of physical courage, the courtesy Avhich impels a gen
tleraan to atone for a Avrong is not likely to triumph very
often over the fear of being accounted a coward. If any
one doubts the superiority of manners as well as of morals
Avhich comes of our milder Avays, he has only to read a foAV
specimens ofthe controversies of Mr. Disraeli's earlier days,
Avhen raen who aspired to be considered great political lead
ers thought it not unbecoraing to call names like a coster-
monger, and to swagger like Bobadil or the Copper Captain.
Mr! Disraeli kept hiraself Avell up to the level of his tirae
in the calling of naraes and the swaggering; but he was
making himself remarkable in political controversy as well.
In the House of Commons he began to be regarded as a dan
gerous adversary in debate. He was wonderfully ready
Avilh retort and sarcasm. But during all the earlier part of
his career he was thought of only as a free lance. He had
praised Peel when Peel said soraething that suited hira, or
Avhen to praise Peel seemed likely to wound some one else,
But it Avas during the debates on the abolition of the Corn-

MR. DISRAELL 263
laAvs that he first rose to the fame of a great debater and a
powerful Parliamentary orator. We use the words Parlia
mentary orator Avith the purpose of conveying a special
qualification. He is a great Parliamentary orator Avho can
employ the kind of eloquence and argument which tell most
readily ou Parliament. But it must not be supposed that
the great Parliamentary orator is necessarily a great orator
in the wider sense. Some of the men Avho made the greatest
successes as Parliamentary orators have failed to Avin any
genuine reputations as orators of the broader and higher
school. The fame of Charles ToAvnshend's "champagne
speech" has vanished, evanescent almost as the bubbles from
which it derived its inspiration and its name. No one now
reads raany even ofthe fragments preserved for us of those
speeches of Sheridan Avhich those Avho heard thera declared
to have surpassed all ancient and modern eloquence. The
Liouse of Commons ofteii found Burke dull, and the speeches
of Burke have passed into English literature secure of a per
petual place there. . Mr. Disraeli never succeeded in being
more than a Parliamentary orator, and probably would not
have cared to-be anything raore. But even at this compar
atively early dale, and Avhile he had still the reputation of
being a Avhirasical, self-confident, and feather-headed advent
urer, he soon Avon for himselfthe narae of one who could hold
his OAvn in retort and in sarcasra against any antagonist.
The days of the more elaborate oratory were going by, and
the tirae Avas coraing when the pungent epigram, the spark
ling paradox, the rattling attack, the vivid repartee, Avould
count for the most attractive part of eloquence Avith the
House of Commons.
Mr. Disraeli Avas exactly the man to succeed under the
new conditions of Parliamentary eloquence Hitherto he
had wanted a cause to inspire and justify audacity, and on
Avhich to employ with effect his reraarkable resources of sar
casm and rhetoric. Hitherto he had addressed an audience
out of syrapathy with him for the most part. Now he Avas
about to become the spokesman of a large body of raen who,
chafing and almost choking with wrath, Avere not capable of
speaking effectively for themselves. Mr. Disraeli did, there
fore, the very wisest thing he could do Avhen he launched
at once into a savage personal attack upon Sir Robert Peel.

264 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
The speech abounds in passages of audaciously poAverful
sarcasm. "I am not one ofthe converts," Mr. Disraeli said.
" I am perhaps a meraber of a fallen party. To the opinions
Avhich I have expressed in this House in favor of Protection
I still adhere. They sent me to this House, and if I had re
linquished them I should have relinquished my seat also."
That was the key-note ofthe speech. He denounced Sir
Robert Peel, not for having changed his opinions, but for
having retained a position Avhich enabled him to betray his
party. He corapared Peel to the Lord High-Admiral ofthe
Turkish fleet, Avho, at a great warlike crisis, when he was
placed at the head ofthe finest armament that ever left the
Dardanelles since the days of Solyman the Great, steered at
once for the eneray's port, and Avhen arraigned as a traitor,
said that he really saAv no use in prolonging a hopeless strug
gle, and that he had accepted the comraand ofthe fleet only
to put the Sultan out of pain by bringing the struggle to a
close at once. "Well do Ave remember, on this side ofthe
House — not, perhaps, Avithout a blush — the efforts we made
to raise him to the bench where he now sits. Who does not
remember the sacred cause of Protection for Avhich sover
eigns were thAvarled, Parliament dissolved, and a nation
taken in ?" " I belong to a party which can triuraph no
more, for avo have nothing left on our side except the con
stituencies Avhich we have not betrayed." He denounced
Peel as "a man who never originates an idea; a watcher
of the atmosphere ; a man who Lakes his observations, and
Avhen he finds the wind in a particular quarter trims his sails
to suit it;" and he declared that "such a man Inay be a
powerful niinister, but he is no raore a great statesraan than
the man who gets up behind a carriage is a great Avhip."
"The opportune," says Mr. Disraeli himself in his "Lord
George Bentinck," "in a popular assembly has soraetiraes
more success than the Aveightiest efforts of research and
reason." He is alluding to this very speech, of which he
says, Avilh perhaps a superfluous modesty, that " it Avas the
long -constrained passion ofthe House that uoav found a
vent, far more than the sallies of the speaker, that changed
the frigid silence of this senate into excitement and tumult"
The speech Avas indeed opportune. But it Avas opportune
in a far larger sense than as a timely phUippic rattling up

MR. DISRAELI. 265
an exhausted and disappointed House. That moment when
Disraeli rose was the very turning-point of the fortunes of
his party. There was genius, there Avas positive statesman
ship, in seizing so boldly and so adroitly on the moment.
It Avould have been a great thing gained for Peel if he
could have got through that first night Avithout any alarm-
note of opposition from his own side. The habits of Par
liamentary discipline are very clinging. They are hard to
tear away. Every impulse of association and training pro
tests against the very effort to rend theni asunder. A once
poAverful rainister exercises a control over his long obedi
ent folloAvers soraewhat like that of the heart of the Bruce
in the fine old Scottish story. Those Avho once followed
will still obey the name and the symbol even when the act
ual poAver to lead is gone forever. If one other night's hab
itude had been added to the long discipline that bound his
party to Peel, if they had alloAved themselves to listen to
that declaration of the session's first night without mur
mur, perhaps they might never have rebelled. Mr. Disraeli
drew together into one focus all the rays of their gathering
anger against Peel, and made them light into a flame. He
showed the genius of the born leader by stepping forth at
the critical moraent and giving the word of comraand.
From that hour Mr. Disraeli was the real leader of the
Tory squires ; from that moment his voice gave the Avord
of command to the Tory party. There was peculiar cour
age, too, in the part he took. He must have knoAvn that he
was open to one retort frora Peel that might have crushed
a less confident man. It was well knoAvn that when Peel
Avas coming into power Disraeli expected to be offered a
place of some kind in the ministry, and Avould have accept
ed it. Mr. Disraeli afterward explained, when Peel made
allusion to the fact, that he never had put himself directly
forward as a candidate for office; but there had undoubt
edly been some negotiation going forward which was con
ducted on Mr. Disraeli's side by sorae one who supposed he
Avas doing what Disraeli would like to have done ; and Peel
had not taken any hint, and would not in any way avail
hiraself of Disraeli's services. Disraeli raust have known
that Avhen he attacked Peel, the latter Avould hardly fail to
make use of this obvious^ retort ; but he felt little daunted
I.— 12

266 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
on that score. He could have made a fair enough defence
of his consistency in any case, but he knew very Avell that
Avhat the indignant Tories wanted just then was not a man
who had been uniforraily consistent, but one Avho could at
tack Sir Robert Peel Avithout scruple and Avith effect. Dis
raeli made his oavu career by the course he took on that
memorable night, and he also made a new career for the
Tory party.
Now that he had proved himself so brilliant a spadassin
in this debate, men began to remember that he had dealt
trenchant blows before. Many of his sentences attacking
Peel, Avhich have passed into farailiar quotation alraost like
proverbs, Avere spoken in 1845. He had accused the great
rainister of having borroAved his tactics from the Whigs.
" The right honorable gentleman caught the Whigs bathing,
and he walked aAvay Avith their clothes. He has left thera
in the full enjoyment of their liberal position, and he is hira
self a strict conservative of their garments." " I look on
the right-honorable gentleman as a man who has tamed the
shrew of Liberalism by her own tactics. He is the political
Petruchio Avho has outbid you all." " If the right-honor
able gentleman would only stick to quotation instead of
having recourse to obloquy, he may rely upon it he would
find it a safer Aveapon. It is one he always Avields Avith the
hand of a master, and when he does appeal to any authority
in prose or verse, he is sure to be successful, partly because
he seldom quotes a passage that has not already received
the meed of Parliamentary approbation." We cau all read
ily understand hoAV such a hit as the last Avould tell in the
case of an orator like Peel, Avho had the old-fashioned way
of introducing long quotations from approved classic au
thors into his speeches, and who not unfrequently introduced
citations which Avere received Avith all the better welcome
by the House because of the familiarity of their language
More fierce and cutting was the reference to Canning, with
Avhom Peel had quarrelled, and the implied contrast of Can
ning with Peel. Sir Robert had cited against Disraeli Can
ning's faraous lines praying to be saved frora a " candid
friend." Disraeli seized the opportunity thus given. "The
narae of Canning is one," he said, " never to be mentioned,
I am sure, in this House without emotion. We all admire

MR. DISRAELI. 267
his genius ; Ave all, or at least most of us, deplore his un
tiraely end ; aud Ave all sympathize with hira in his severe
struggle Avith suprerae prejudice and sublirae mediocrity,
Avith inveterate foes and Avith candid friends." The phrase
" sublime mediocrity " had a raarvellous effect. As a hostile
description of Peel's character it had enough of seeming
truth about it to tell most effectively alike on friends and
enemies of the great leader. A friend, or even an impartial
enemy, would not indeed admit that it accurately described
Peel's intellect and position ; but as a stroke of personal
satire it touched nearly enough the characteristics of its ob
ject to impress itself at once as a inaster-hit on the minds
of all who caught its instant purpose. The Avords reraained
in use long after the controversy and ils occasion had passed
aAvay ; and it Avas allowed that an unfriendly and bitter
critic could hardly have found a phrase more suited to ils
ungenial purpose or more likely to connect itself at once in
the public mind Avitli the name of him who was its object.
Mr. Disraeli did not, in fact, greatly adraire Canning. He
has left a very disparaging criticism of Canning as an ora
tor in one of his novels. On the other hand, he has shown
in his "Life of Lord George Bentinck" that he could do full
justice to sorae ofthe greatest qualities of Sir Robert Peel.
But at the raoment of his attacking Peel and crying up Can
ning he was only concerned to disparage the one, and it Avas
on this account that he eulogized the other. The famous
sentence, too, in Avhich he declared that a Conservative Gov
ernment Avas an " organized hypocrisy," Avas spoken during
the debates of the session of 1845, before the explanation of
the minister on the subject of Free-trade All these brill
iant things men now began to recall. Looking back from
this distance of time, Ave can see well enough that Mr. Dis
raeli had displayed his peculiar genius long before the
House of Coraraons took the pains to recognize it. Frora
the night ofthe opening of the session of 1846 it Avas never
questioned. Thenceforward he Avas really the mouth-piece
and the sense-carrier ofhis party. For some time to come,
indeed, his nominal post might have seemed to be only that
of its bravo. The country gentlemen Avho cheered to the
echo his fierce attacks on Peel during the debates ofthe ses
sion of 1846, had probably not the slightest suspicion that

268 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the daring rhetorician Avho Avas so savagely revenging theni
on their now hated leader Avas a man of as cool a judgment,
as long a head, and as complete a capacity for the control
of a party as any politician Avho for generations had appeared
in the House of Commons.
One immediate effect ofthe turn thus given by. Disraeli's
timely intervention in the debate Avas the formation of a
Protection party in the House of Coraraons. The leader
ship of this perilous adventure Avas intrusted to Lord
George Bentinck, a sporting nobleraan of energetic charac
ter, great tenacity of purpose and conviction, and a not in
considerable aptitude for politics, which had hitherto had
no opportunity for either exercising or displaying itself
Lord George Bentinck had sat in eight Parliaments with
out taking part in any great debate. When he was sud
denly drawn into the leadership of the Protection party in
the House of Commons, he gave himself up to it entirely.
He had at first only joined the party as one cf its organ
izers; but he showed himself in many respects Avell fitted
for the leadership, and the choice ofleaders Avas in any case
very limited. When once he had accepted the position, he
Avas uuAvearying in his attention to ils duties ; and, indeed,
up to the moment of his sudden and premature death he
never allowed himself any relaxation from the cares it im
posed on him. Mr. Disraeli, in his "Life of Lord George
Bentinck," has indeed overrated, Avith the pardonable ex
travagance of friendship, the intellectual gifts of his leader.
Bentinck's abilities Avere hardly even ofthe second class;
and the amount of knoAvledge which he brought to bear on
the questions he discussed with so much earnestness and
energy Avas often and of necessity little better than mere
cram. But in Parliaraent the essential qualities of a leader
are not great powers of intellect. A man of cool head,
good temper, firra Avill, and capacity for appreciating the
serviceable qualities of other men, may always, provided that
he has high birth and great social influence, raake a very
successful leader, even though he be wanting altogether in
the higher attributes of eloquence and statesraanship. It
may be doubted whether, on the whole, great eloquence and
genius are necessary at all to the leader of a party in Parlia
ment in times not specially troublous. Bentinck had pa-

MR. DISRAELI. 269
tience, energy, good - humor, and considerable appreciation
of the characters of men. If he had a bad voice, Avas a poor
speaker, talked absolute nonsense about protective duties
and sugar and guano, and made up absurd calculations to
prove impossibilities and paradoxes, he at least ahvays spoke
in full faith, and Avas only the raore necessary to his party
because he could honestly continue to believe in the old
doctrines, no matter Avhat political econoray and hard facts
raight say to the contrary.
The secession was, therefore, in full course of organization.
On January 27th Sir Robert Peel carae forward to explain
his financial policy. It is almost superfluous to say that
the raost intense anxiety prevailed all over the country, and
that the House was croAvded. An incident ofthe night,
Avhich then created a profound sensation, Avould not be
Avorth noticing noAV but for the evidence it gives ofthe bit
terness with Avhicli the Proteclion party were filled, and of
the curiously bad taste of which gentlemen of position and
education can be guilty under the inspiration of a blind
fanaticism. There is something ludicrous in the pompous
tone, as of righteous indignation deliberately repressed, with
Avhich Mr. Disraeli, in his "Life of Bentinck," announces the
event. The proceedings in the House of Coraraons, he says,
" were ushered in by a startling occurrence." What Avas
this portentous prelirainary ? " His Royal Highness the
Prince Consort, attended by the Master of the Horse, ap
peared and took his seat in the body of the House to listen
to the stateraent of the First Minister." In other words,
there was to be a statement of great importance and a
debate of profound interest, and the husband of the Queen
was anxious to be a listener. The Prince Consort did not
understand that because he had married the Queen he was
therefore to be precluded from hearing a discussion in the
House of Commons. The poorest man and the greatest
raan in the land Avere alike free to occupy a seat in one of
the galleries of the House, and it is not to be Avondered at
if the Prince Consort fancied that he too might listen to a
debate without unhinging the British Constitution. Lord
George Bentinck and the Protectionists Avere aflarae with
indignation. They saw in the quiet presence of the intelli
gent gentleman who came to listen to the discussion an at-

270 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tempt to overawe the Commons and compel them to bend
to the will of the Crown. It is not easy to read Avithout a
feeling of shame the absurd and unseemly comments Avhich
were made upon this harraless incident. The Queen herself
has given an explanation of the Prince's visit which is
straightforAvard and dignified. "The Prince raerely Avent,
as the Prince of Wales and the Queen's other sons do, for
once, to hear a fine debate, Avhich is so useful to all princes."
" But this," the Queen adds, " he naturally felt unable to do
again." The Prime-minister announced his policy. His object Avas
to abandon the sliding-scale altogether; but for the present
he intended to impose a duty of ten shillings a quarter on
corn when the price of it Avas under forty-eight shillings a
quarter; to reduce that duty by one shilling for every shil
ling of rise in price until it reached fifty-three shillings a
quarter, Avhen the duty should fall to four shillings. This
arrangement was, hoAvever, only to hold good for three
years, at the end of Avhicli time protective duties on grain
were to be AvhoUy abandoned. Peel explained that he in
tended gradually to apply the principle of Free-trade to
manufactures and every description of produce, bearing in
mind the necessity of providing for the expenditure of the
country, and of sraoothing away sorae of the difficulties
which a sudden AvithdraAval of protection might cause. The
differential duties on sugar, Avhich Avere professedly intended
to protect the growers of free sugars against the competition
of those Avho cultivated sugar by the use of slave labor, were
to be diminished, but not abolished. The duties on the im
portation of foreign cattle Avere to be at once removed. In
order to compensate the agricultural interests for the grad
ual Avithdrawal of protective duties, there Avere to be sorae
readjustments of local burdens. We need not dAvell much
on this part of the explanation. We are familiar in late
years Avith the ingenious raanner in Avhich the principle of
the readjustment of local burdens is AVorked in the hope of
conciliating the agricultural interests. These readjustments
are not usually received with any great gratitude or attend
ed by auy particular success. In this instance Sir Robert
Peel could hardly have laid rauch serious stress on them.
If the land-OAvners and farmers had really any just ground

MR. DISRAELL 271
of complaint in the abolition of protection, the salve which
was applied to their Avound Avould scarcely have caused
them to forget its pains. The iraportant part of the expla
nation, so far as history is concerned, consisted in the fact
that Peel proclaimed himself an absolute convert to tho
Free-trade principle, and that the introduction of the prin
ciple into all departraents of our comraercial legislation Avas,
according to his intention, to be a raere question of tirae
and convenience. The struggle Avas to be betAveen Protec
tion and Free-trade
Not that the proposals of the ministry wholly satisfied
the professed Free-traders. These latter would have en
forced, if they could, an immediate application of the prin
ciple without the interval of three years, and the devices
and shifts which were to be put in operation during that
raiddle time. But of course, although they pressed their
protest in the form of an amendment, they had no idea of
not taking Avhat they could get when the amendment failed
to secure the approval of the majority. The Protectionist
amendment amounted to a distinct proposal that the poli
cy of the Government be absolutely rejected by the House.
The debate lasted for twelve nights, and at the end the Pro
tectionists had 240 votes against 337 given on behalf of
the policy ofthe Government. The majority of 97 was not
quite so large as the Government had anticipated ; and the
result was to encourage the Protectionists in their plans of
opposition. The opportunities of obstruction Avere many.
The majority just mentioned Avas merely in favor of going
into committee of the whole House to consider the existing
Customs and Corn Acts; but every single financial scheme
which the minister had to propose raust be introduced, de
bated, and carried, if it was to be carried, as a separate bill.
We shall not ask our readers to follow us into the details
of these long discussions. They were not important ; they
Avere often not dignified. They more frequently concerned
theraselves about the conduct and personal consistency of
the minister than about the merits of his policy. The ar
guments in favor of Protection, Avhich doubtless seemed
effective to the country gentlemen then, seem like the prat
tle of children noAV. There Avere, indeed, some exciting
passages in the debates. For these the House Avas niainlv

272 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
indebted to the rhetoric of Mr. Disraeli. That indefatigable
and someAvhat reckless champion occupied hiraself with in
cessant attacks on the Prime-minister. He described Peel
as " a trader on other people's intelligence ; a political bur
glar of other men's ideas." "The occupants ofthe Treasury
bench," he said, were "political peddlers, who had bought
their party in the cheapest market and sold it in the dear
est." This was strong language. But it Avas, after all, more
justifiable than the attempt Mr. Disraeli made to revive an
old and bitter controversy between Sir Robert Peel and Mr.
Cobden, which, for the sake of the former, had better have
been forgotten. Three years before, Mr. Edward Drum
mond, private secretary of Sir Robert Peel, was shot by an
assassin. There could be no doubt that the victim had been
mistaken for the Prime-minister himself The assassin turn
ed ont to be a lunatic, and as such was found not guilty of
the murder, and was consigned to a lunatic asylum. The
event naturally had a profound effect on Sir Robert Peel;
and during one ofthe debates on Free- trade, Mr. Cobden
happening to say that he would hold the Prime -minister
responsible for the condition of the countiy. Peel, in an ex
traordinary burst of excitement, interpreted the words as a
threat to expose hira to the attack of an assassin. Nothing
could be more painfully absurd; and nothing could. better
show the unreasoning and discreditable hatred of the Tories
at that time for any one who opposed the policy of Peel,
than the fact that they actually cheered their leader again
and again Avhen he made this passionate aud half-frenzied
charge on one of the purest and noblest men who ever sat
in the English Parliament. Peel soon recovered his senses.
He saw the error of Avhich he had been guilty, and regretted
it; and it ought to have been consigned to forgetfulness;
but Mr. Disraeli, in repelling a charge made against hira
of indulging in unjustifiable personalities, revived the whole
story, and rerainded the House of Coraraons that the Prime-
minister had charged the leader of the Free-trade League
Avith inciting assassins to murder him. This unjustifiable
attempt to rekindle an old quarrel had, hoAvever, no other
effect than to draAV from Sir Robert Peel a renewed expres
sion of apology for the charge he had made against Mr.
Cobden, " in the course of a heated debate, when I put an

MR. DISRAELL 273
erroneous construction on sorae expressions used by the hon
orable member for Stockport." Mr. Cobden declared that
the explanation made by Peel Avas entirely satisfactory, and
expressed his hope that no one on either side of the House
would attempt to revive the subject or make further allu
sion to it.
The Governraent prevailed. It would be superfluous to
go into any details as to the progress of the Corn Bill.
Enough to say that the third reading ofthe bill passed the
House of Commons on May 15th, by a majority of 98 voles.
The bill Avas at once sent up to the House of Lords, and, by
means chiefly ofthe earnest advice ofthe Duke of Welling
ton, Avas carried through that House Avithout rauch serious
opposition. But June 25th, the day when the bill Avas read
for a third tirae in the House of Lords, Avas a raemorable day
ill the Parliamentary annals of England. It saw the fall of
the ministry Avho had carried to success the greatest piece
of legislation that had been introduced since Lord Grey's
Reform BUI
A Coercion Bill for Ireland was the measure Avhich brought
this catastrophe on the Government of Sir Robert Peel.
While the Corn Bill was yet passing through the House of
Commons, the Governraent felt called upon, in consequence
ofthe condition of crirae and outrage in Ireland, to intro
duce a Coercion Bill. Lord George Bentinck at first gave
the measure his support ; but during the Whitsuntide recess
he changed his views. He uoav declared thaf he had only
supported the bill on the assurance ofthe Government that
it Avas absolutely necessary for the safety of life in Ireland,
and that as the Government had not pressed it on in ad
vance of every other measure — especially, no doubt, of the
Corn Bill — he could not believe that it was really a raatter
of irarainent necessity ; and that, furtherraore, he had no long
er any confidence in the Government, and could not trust
them with extraordinary powers. In truth, the bill was
placing the Governraent in a serious difficulty. All the
Irish followers of O'Connell would, of course, oppose the co
ercion measure The Whigs, when out of office, have usual
ly made it a rule to oppose coercion bills if they do not
come accompanied Avith some promises of legislative reform
and concession. The English Radical members, Mr. Cobden
12*

274 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
and his foUoAvers, Avere almost sure to oppose it. Under
these circumstances, it seeraed probable enough that if the
Protectionists joined Avith the other opponents of the Coer
cion Bill, the Government must be defeated. The tempta
tion Avas too great. As Mr. Disraeli himself candidly says
of his parly, " Vengeance had succeeded in most breasts to
the raore sanguine sentiment. The field Avas lost, but at any
rate there should be retribution for those Avho had betrayed
it." The question Avith many of the indignant Protection
ists Av.as, as Mr. Disraeli himself puts it, "How was Sir Rob
ert Peel to be turned out?" It soon became evident that
he could be turned out by those Avho detested him and
longed for vengeance voting against him on the Coercion
Bill. This Avas done. The fiercer Protectionists A'oted Avith
the Free-traders, the Whigs, and the Irish Catholic and Lib
eral raembers, and, after a debate of rauch bitterness and
passion, the division on the second reading of the Coercion
Bill took place on Thursday, .Tune 25th, and the rainistry
Avere left in a minority of 73. Two hundred and nineteen
votes only were given for the second reading of the bill, and
292 against it. Some eighty of the Protectionists foUoAved
Lord George Bentinck into the lobby to vote against the
bill, and their votes settled the question. Mr. Dif5raeli has
given a soraeAvhat porapous description of the scene " as the
Protectionists passed in defile before the minister to the hos
tile lobby." "Pallas te hoc vidnere, Pallas immolat" cries
the hero of the JEneid, as he plunges his sword into the
heart ofhis rival. "Protection kills you; not your Coer
cion Bill," the irreconcilable Protectionists might have said
as they trooped past the rainistry. Chance had put Avithin
their grasp the means of vengeance, and they had seized it,
and raade successful use of it. The Peel Ministry had fallen
in its very hour of triuraph.
Three days after Sir Robert Peel announced his resigna
tion of office. His speech " Avas considered one of glori
fication and pique," says Mr. Disraell It does not so im
press most readers. It appears to have been full of dignity,
and of eraotion, not usual Avith Peel, but not surely, under
the circumstances, incompatible Avitli dignity. It contained
that often-quoted tribute to the services of a former oppo
nent, in Avhich Peel declared that " the name Avhich ought.

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 275
to be and Avhich Avill be associated with the success of these
raeasures is the name ofthe man who, acting, I believe, from
pure and disinterested raotives, has advocated their cause
Avith untiring energy, and with appeals to reason enforced
by an eloquence the more to be admired because it is unaf
fected and unadorned — the narae of Richard Cobden." An
added effect Avas given to this well-deserved panegyric by
the little. irregularity Avhich the Prime-minister comraitted
Avlieu he mentioned in debate a meraber by name. The
closing sentence of the speech was eloquent and touching.
Many would censure hira. Peel said ; his narae -would per
haps be execrated by the monopolist, who would maintain
protection for his OAvn individual benefit; "but it raay be
that I shall leave a narae sometimes remembered with ex
pressions of good-will in those places which are the abode of
men Avhose lot it is to labor and to earn their daily bread by
the sweat of their brow — a narae remembered Avith expres
sions of good-will Avhen they shall recreate their exhausted
strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter be
cause it is no longer leavened Avith a sense of injustice."
The great minister fell. So great a success followed by
so sudden and complete a fall is hardly recorded in the Par
liaraentary history of our modern tiraes. Peel had crushed
O'Connell and carried Free -trade, and O'Connell and the
Protectionists had life enough yet to pull hira down. He is
as a conqueror Avho, having Avon the great victory of his life,
is struck by a hostile hand in sorae by-Avay as he passes
horae to enjoy liis triumph. ^
^,0

CHAPTER XVIL
FAMINE, COMMEECIAL TEOUBLE, AND FOREIGN INTEIGDE.
LoBD John Russell succeeded Sir Robert Peel as First
Lord of the Treasury; Lord Palmerston becarae Foreign
Secretary; Sir Charles Wood Avas Chancellor of the Ex
chequer; Lord Grey took charge of the Colonies; and Sir
George Grey Avas Horae Secretary. Mr. Macaulay accept
ed the office of Paymaster-general, Avith a seat in the cabi
net, a distinction not usually given to the occupant of that

276 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES,
office. Tlie ministry was not particularly strong in admin
istrative talent. The Premier and the Foreign Secretary
were the only members of the cabinet who could be called
statesmen of the first class ; and even Lord Palraerston had
not as yet won more than a soraewhat doubtful kind of
fame, and was looked upon as a man quite as likely to do
mischief as good to any ministry of Avhich he might happen
to form a part. Lord Grey then and since only .succeeded
somehow in missing the career of a leading statesman. He
had great talents and sorae originality ; he was independent
and bold. But his independence degenerated too often into
impracticability and even eccentricity; and he was, in fact,
a politician Avith whora ordinary men could not work. Sir
Charles Wood, the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, had
solid sense and excellent administrative capacity, but he
Avas about as bad a public speaker as ever addressed the
House of Coraraons. His budget speeches were often raade
so unintelligible by defective manner and delivery that they
might alraost as well have been spoken in a foreign lan
guage. Sir George Grey was a speaker of fearful fluency,
and a respectable administrator of the second or third class.
He was as plodding in adrainistration as he was precipitate
of speech.
"Peel," Avrote Lord Palraerston to a friend a short time
after the formation of the new ministry, " seems to have
raade up his mind that for a year or two he cannot hope to
form a party, and that he must give people a certain time'
to forget the events of last year ; in the raean while, it is
evident that he does not Avish that any other Government
should be formed out ofthe people on his side of the House,
because of that Governraent he Avould not be a meraber.
For these reasons, and also because he sincerely thinks it
best that Ave should, for the present, remain in, he gives us
very cordial support, as far as he can, Avithout losing his in
dependent position. Grahara, Avho sits up under his old pil
lar, and never comes down to Peel's bench even for personal
communication, seeras to keep hiraself aloof frora everybody,
and to hold hiraself free to act according to circurastances ;
but as yet he is not considered as the head of any party.
George Bentinck has entirely broken down as a candidate
for ministerial position ; and thus we are left niasters of the

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 277
field, not only on account of our OAvn merits, which, thougli
we say it ourselves, are great, but by virtue of the absence
of any efficient competitors." Palmerston's humorous esti
mate ofthe state of affairs was accurate The uoav rainistry
Avas safe enough, because there Avas no party in a condition
to corapete with it.
The position ofthe Governnient of Lord John Russell Avas
not one to be envied. The Irish faraine occupied all atten
tion, and soon seemed to be an evil too great for any rainis
try to deal Avith. The failure of the potato Avas an over
whelraing disaster for a people alraost wholly agricultural
and a peasantry long accustoraed to live upon that root
alone. Ireland contains very foAV large tOAvns ; when the
names of four or five are mentioned the list is done Avith,
and Ave have to come to mere villages. The country has
hardly any manufactures except that of linen in the north
ern province. In the south and Avest the people live by ag
riculture alone. The cottier systera, which prevailed alraost
universally in three of the four provinces, Avas an arrange
ment by Avhich a man obtained in return for his labor a
right to cultivate a little patch of ground, just enough to
supply hira Avith food for the scanty maintenance of his fara-
il}'. The great landlords Avere for the raost part absentees;
the smaller landlords were often deeply in debt, and Avere,
therefore, compelled to screw every possible penny of rent
out of their tenants-at-will. They had not, hoAvever, even
that regularity and order in their exactions that might at
least have forced upon the tenants sorae habits of fore
thought and exactness. There Avas a sort of understanding
that the rent Avas always to be soraoAvhat in arrear ; the
supposed kindness of a landlord consisted in his allowing
the indebtedness to increase more liberally than others of
his class would do. There was a demoralizing slatternliness
in the whole system. It was almost certain that if a ten
ant, by greatly increased industry and good fortune, made
the land which he held more valuable than before, his rent
Avould at once be increased. On the other hand, it was held
an act of tyranny to dispossess him so long as he made even
any fair promise of paying up. There was, therefore, a thor
oughly vicious systera established all round, demoralizing
alike to the landlord and the tenant.

278 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Underlying all the relations of landlord and tenant in
Ireland were two great facts. The occupation of land Avas
virtually a necessity of life to the Irish tenant. That is the
first fact. The second is that the land system under which
Ireland Avas placed Avas one entirely foreign to the tradi
tions, the ideas, one might say the very genius, of the Irish
people. Whether the system introduced by conquest and
confiscation Avas better than the old one or not does not in
the slightest degree affect the Avorking of this fact on the
relations belAveen the landlord and the tenant in Ireland.
No one Avill be able to understand the Avhole meaning and
bearing of the long land struggle in Ireland Avho does not
clearly get into his mind the fact that, rightly or wrongly,
the Irish peasant regarded the right to have a bit of land,
his share, exactly as other peoples regard the right to live.
It Avas in his raind something elementary and self-evident.
He could not be loyal to, he could not even understand, any
system Avhich did not secure that to him. According to
Michelet, the land is the French peasant's mistress. It Avas
the Irish peasant's life.
The Irish peasant, Avilh his Avife and his family, lived on
tlie potato. Hardly in any country coraing wilhin the pale
of civilization Avas there to be found a whole peasant popu
lation dependent for their living ou one single root. W^hen
the potato failed in 1845 the life-system of the people seem
ed to have given Avay. At first it Avas not thought that
the failure must necessarily be anything more than partial.
But it soon began to appear that for at least two seasons
the Avhole food of the peasant population and of the poor in
towns Avas absolutely gone. Lord John Russell's Govern
ment pottered Avilh the difficulty rather than encountered
it. In their excuse it has to be said, of course, that the
calamity they had to meet was unprecedented, and that it
must have tried the resources of the most energetic and
foreseeing statesraanship. Still, the fact remains that the
raeasures ofthe Government Avere at first utterly inadequate
to the occasion, and that afterAvard sorae of thera Avere even
calculated to make bad Avorse. Not a county in Ireland
AvhoUy escaped the potato disease, and raany of the south
ern and Avestern counties Avere soon in actual faraine. A
peculiar form of fever — faraine-fever it Avas called — began

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 279

to show itself everyAvhere. A terrible dysentery set in as
Avell In some districts the people died in hundreds daily
from fever, dysentery, or sheer starvation. The districts of
Skibbereen, Skull, Westport, and other places obtained a
ghastly supremacy iu misery. In some of these districts
the parochial authorities at last declined to put the rate
payers to the expense of coffins for the too frequent dead.
The coroners declared it impossible to keep on holding in
quests. There Avas no time for all the ceremonies of that
kind that Avould have to be gone through if they made any
pretence at keeping up the system of ordinary seasons. In
other places Avhere the formula Avas still kept up the juries
added to their verdicts of dealh by starvation some charge
of Avilful murder against Lord John Russell, or the Lord-
lieutenant, or some olher official Avhose suppe^i'd neglect
Avas set down as the cause ofthe death. Unfortunately the
Government had to show an immense activity in the intro
duction of coercion bills and other repressive measures. It
would have been impossible that in such a country as Ire
land a faraine of that gigantic kind should set in Avithout
bringing crimes of violence along with it. The peasantry
had always hated the land tenure system; they had always
been told, not surely without justice, that it Avas at the bot
tom of all their miseries; they were now under the firm
conviction that the Government could have saved them if it
.Avould. What wonder, then, if there were bread riots and
agrarian disturbances ? Who can noAV wonder, that being
so, that the Government introduced exceptional measures
of repression ? But it certainly had a grim and a disheart
ening effect on the spirits ofthe Irish people Avlien it seemed
as ifthe Government could only potter and palter with fam
ine, but could be earnest and energetic Avhen devising coer
cion bills.
Whatever might be said ofthe Government, no one could
doubt the good-will of the English people. In every great
English community, from the metropolis doAvnward, sub
scription lists Avere opened, and the most liberal contribu
tions poured in. In Liverpool, for example, a great nuraber
of the merchants ofthe place put doAvn a thousand pound?*
each. The Quakers of England sent over a delegation of
their number to the specially famine- stricken districts of

280 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Ireland to administer relief Many other sects and bodies
foUoAved the example. National Relief Associations were
specially formed in England. Relief, indeed, began to be
poured in frora all countries. The United States eraployed
sorae of their Avar vessels to send gifts of grain and other
food to the starving places. In one Irish seaport the joy-
bells of the town Avere kept ringing all day in honor of the
arrival of one of these grain -laden vessels — a mournfully
significant form of rejojcing, surely. One of the national
Avriters said at the lime that the misery of Ireland touched
" even the heart of the Turk at the far Dardanelles, and he
sent her in pity the alms of a beggar." It was true that
from Turkey, as from most olher countries, had come some
contribution toward the relief of Irish distress. At the
sarae tirae there were some very foolish performances gone
through in Dublin under the sanction and patronage of the
Lord-lieutenant — the soleran "inauguration," as it would
be called by a certain class of Avriters now, of a public soup-
kitchen, devised and managed by the fashionable French
cook M. Soyer, for the purpose of showing the Irish people
Avhat remarkably sustaining potage might be made out of
the thinnest and cheapest materials. This exposition would
have been Avell enough in a quiet and practical way, but
performed as a grand national ceremony of regeneration,
under the patronage of the Viceroy, and with accompani
ment of brass- bands and pageantry, it had a remarkably
foolish and even offensive aspect. The performance Avas re
sented bitterly by raany of the impatient young spirits of
the national party in Dublin.
MeauAvhile the misery Avent on deepening and broaden
ing. It Avas far too great to be effectually encountered
by subscriptions, however generous ; and the Governraent,
raeaning to do the best they could, were practically at their
wits' end. The starving peasants streamed into the nearest
considerable tOAvn hoping for relief there, and found too
often that there the very sources of charity Avere dried up.
Many, very many, thus disappointed, merely lay down on
the pavement and died there. Along the country roads one
met everywhere groups of gaunt, dim-eyed wretches clad in
raiserable old sacking, and Avandering airalessly with some
vague idea of finding food, as the boy in the fable hoped to

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 281
find the gold Avhere the rainbow touched the earth. Many
remained in their empty hovels, and took dealh there when
he came. In some regions the country seeraed unpeopled
for miles. A fervid national writer declared that the im
pression made on him by the aspect of the country then was
that of " one silent, vast dissolution." Allowing for rhet
oric, there Avas not much exaggeration in the words. Cer
tainly the Ireland of tradition was dissolved in the opera
tion of that faraine. The old system gave way utterly.
The landlordism ofthe days before the famine never revived
in its forraer strength and its peculiar ways. For the land
lord class there carae out of the famine the Encumbered
Estates Court ; for the sraall farmer and peasant class there
floated up the American emigrant ship.
Acts and even conspiracies of violence, as we have said,
began to be not uncoramon throughout the country and in
the cities. One peculiar syraptora of the tirae Avas the glass-
breaking mania that set in throughout the towns of the
south and Avest. It is, perhaps, not quite reasonable to call
it a mania, for it had melancholy method in it. The work
houses Avere overcroAvded, and the authorities could not re
ceive there or feed there one-fourth of the applicants Avho
besieged them. Suddenly it seemed to occur to the minds
of many of famine's victims that there were the prisons for
Avhich one raight qualify hiraself, and to Avhich, after quali
fication, he could not be denied admittance. The idea Avas
simple : go into a town, smash deliberately the windows of
a shop, and some days of a jail and of substantial food must
follow. The plan became a favorite. Especially Avas it
adopted by young girls and women. After a time the puz
zled magistrates resolved lo put an end to this device by
refusing to inflict the punishment which these unfortunate
creatures sought as a refuge and a comfort. One early re
sult of the famine and the general breakdown of property
is too significant to be allowed to pass unnoticed. Some of
the landlords had been living for a long tirae on a baseless
systera, on a credit which the failure of the crops brought
to a crushing test. Not a few of these were utterly broken.
They could maintain their houses and halls no longer, and
often were only too happy to let them to the poor-laAV
guardians to be used as extra Avorkhouses. In the near

282 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
neighborhood of many a distressed country tOAvn the great
house ofthe local magnate thus became a receptacle for the
pauperism Avhich could not find a refuge in the overcrowd
ed asylums which the poor-law system had already pro
vided. The lion and the lizard, says the Persian poet, keep
the halls Avhere Jamshyd gloried and drank deep. The pau
per devoured his scanty dole of Indian meal porridge in the
hall where his landlord had gloried and drunk deep.
When the famine Avas over and its results came to be es
timated, it Avas found that Ireland had lost about two raill-
ions of her population. She had corae doAvn from eight
millions to six. This was the combined effect of starvation,
of the various diseases that followed in its path gleaning
Avhere it had failed to gather, and of eraigration. Long af
ter all the direct effects of the failure of the potato had
ceased, the population still continued steadily to decrease
The Irish peasant had in fact had his eyes turned, as Mr.
Bright afterward expressed it, tOAvard the setting sun, and
for long years the stream of emigration Avestward never
abated in its volume. A ncAv Ireland began to grow up
across the Atlantic. In every great city of- the United
States the Irish element began to form a considerable con
stituent of the population. From Noav York to S.an Fran
cisco, from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Noav Orleans, the Irish ac
cent is heard in every street, and the Irish voter comes to
the polling-booth ready, far too heedlessly, lo vote for any
politician who Avill tell hira that America loves the green
flag and hates the Saxon.
Terrible as the iraraediate effects of the famine were, it is
impossible for any friend of Ireland to say that, on the whole,
it did not bring much good Avith it. It first applied the
scourge which Avas to drive out of the land a thoroughly
vicious and rotten system. It first called the attention of
English statesmen irresistibly to the fact that the system
Avas bad to its heart's core, and that nothing good could
come of it. It roused the attention ofthe humble Irishman,
too often inclined to put up with everything in the lazy spir
it of a Neapolitan or a fatalist, to the fact that there was for
hira too a Avorld elsewhere. The famine had, indeed, many
a bloody after-birth, but it gave to the Avorld a new Ireland.
The Government, as it may be supposed, had hard Avork

FAMINE, COMMERCI.iL TROUBLE, ETC. 283
to do all this tirae. They had the best intentions tOAvard
Ireland, and Avere ahvays, indeed, announcing that they had
found out sorae ncAv Avay of dealing Avith the distress, and
modifying or withdrawing old plans. They adopted raeas
ures from tirae to time to expend large suras in something
like systematic employment for the poor in Ireland ; they
modified the Irish Poor-laAVs ; they agreed at length to sus
pend temporarily the Corn-laAVS and the Navigation LaAVS,
so far as these related to the importation of grain. A tre
mendous coramercial panic, causing the fall of great houses,
especially in the corn trade, all over the country, called for
the suspension of the Bank Charter Act of 1844, and the
measures of the ministers were, for the most part, treated
considerately and loyally by Sir Robert Peel ; but a uoav
opposition had formed itself under the nomin.al guidance of
Lord George Bentinck, and the real inspiration of Mr. Dis
raeli. Lord George Bentinck brought in a bill to raake a
grant of sixteen raillions' to be expended as an advance on
the construction and coraplelion of Irish raihvays. This
proposal was naturally very welcome to many in Ireland.
It had a lavish and shoAvy air about it ; and Lord George
Bentinck talked grandiosely in his speech about the readi
ness Avith Avhich he, the Saxon, Avould, if his measure were
carried, ansAver Avith his head for the loyalty of the Irisli
people. But it soon began lo appear that the scherae Avas
not so much a question ofthe Irish people as of certain mon
eyed classes Avho might be helped along at the expense of
the English and tlie Irish people. Lord George Bentinck
certainly had no other than a direct and single-minded pur
pose to do good to Ireland; but his measure Avould have
been a failure if it had been carried. It was fairly open in
some respects to the criticism of Mr. Roebuck, that it pro
posed to relieve Irish landlordism of its responsibilities at
the expense of the British tax-payer. The measure Avas re
jected. Lord George Bentinck Avas able to Avorry the min
istry somewhat effectively Avhen they introduced a measure
to reduce gradually the differential duties on sugar for a fcAv
years, and then replace these duties by a fixed and uniform
rate This Avas, in short, a proposal to apply the principio
of Free-trade, instead of that of Protection, to sugar. The
protective principle had, in this case, however, a certain fas-

284 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
cination about it, even for independent rainds ; for an excep
tional protection had been retained by Sir Robert Peel in
order to enable the planters in our colonies to compensate
themselves for the loss they might suffer in the transition
from slavery to free labor. Lord George Bentinck, there
fore, proposed an araendraent to the resolutions of the Gov
ernment, declaring it unjust and impolitic to reduce the duty
on foreign slave-groAvn sugar, as tending to check the ad
vance of production by British free labor, and to give a great
additional stimulus to slave labor. Many sincere and inde
pendent opponents of slavery. Lord Broughara in the House
of Lords araong them, Avere caught by this vioAV ofthe ques
tion. Lord George and his brilliant lieutenant at one time
appeared as if they were likely to carry their point in the
Commons. But it was announced that if the resolutions of
the Governraent Avere defeated rainisters would resign, and
there was no one to take their place. Peel could not return
to poAver; and the time Avas far distant yet when Mr. Dis
raeli could form a ministry. The opposition crumbled away,
therefore, and the Government raeasures Avere carried. Lord
George Bentinck made himself for awhile the champion of
the West India sugar-producing interest. He was a man
Avho thrcAV himself with enormous energy into any Avork he
undertook ; and he had got up the case of the West India
planters with all the enthusiasm that inspired him in his
more congenial pursuits as one of the principal men on the
turf The' alliance betAveen him and Mr. Disraeli is curious.
The tAVO men, one Avould think, conld have had absolutely
nothing in common. Mr. Disraeli knew nothing about horses
and racing. Lord George Bentinck could not possibly have
understood, not to say sympathized with, many ofthe lead
ing ideas of his lieutenant. Yet Bentinck had evidently
formed a just estimate of Disraeli's political genius; and Dis
raeli saAV that in Bentinck were many of the special qualities
Avhich go to make a powerful party leader in England. Time
has amply justified, and more than justified, Bentinck's con
victions as to Disraeli; Bentinck's premature death leaves
Disraeli's estimate of him an untested speculation.
There Avere troubles abroad as well as at home for the
Governnient. Almost immediately on their coming into
office,' the project of the Spanish marriages, concocted be-

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 285
tween King Louis PhUippe and his minister, M. Guizot, dis
turbed for a tirae, and very seriously, the good understand
ing between England and France It might, so far as this
country was concerned, have had rauch graver consequences,
but for the fact that it bore ils bitter fruit so soon for the
dynasty of Louis Philippe, and helped to put a ncAv ruler on
the throne of France. It is only as it affected the friendly
feeling between this country and France that the question
ofthe Spanish marriages has a place in such a Avork as this;
but at one time it seemed likely enough to bring about con
sequences Avhich Avould link it closely and directly with the
history of England. The arabition of the French minister
and his raaster Avas lo bring the throne of Spain in some
way under the direct influence of France. Such a scheme
had again and again been at the heart of French rulers and
statesmen, and it had always failed. At least it had ahvays
brought with it jealousy, hostility, and Avar. Louis Philippe
and his minister were untaught by the lessons of the past.
The young Queen Isabella of Spain was unmarried, and of
course a high degree of public anxiety existed in Europe as
to her choice of a husband. No delusion can be raore pro
found or more often exposed than that which inspires am
bitious princes and enterprising statesmen to imagine that
they can control nations by the influence of dynastic alli
ances. In every European war Ave see princes closely con
nected by marriage in arms against each other. The great
political forces Avhich bring nations into the field of battle
are not to be charmed into submission by the rubbing of a
princess's wedding-ring. But a certain class of statesman,
a man of the order who in ordinary life would be called too
clever by half, is always intriguing about royal marriages,
as if thus alone he could hold in his hands the destinies of
nations. In an evil hour for theraselves and their fame, Louis
Philippe and his minister believed that they could obtain
a virtual oAvnership of Spain by an ingenious marriage
scheme. There was at one time a project, talked of rather
than actually entertained, of raarryihg the young Queen of
Spain and her sister to the Due d'Auraale and the Due de
Montpensier, both sons of Louis Philippe. But this Avonld
have been too daring a venture on the part of the King of

286 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the French. Apart from any objections to be entertained
by other slates, it Avas certain that England could not " view
Avith indifference," as the diplomatic phrase goes, the pros
pect of a son of the French King occupying the throne of
Spain. It may be said that after all it Avas of little concern
to England Avho married the Queen of Spain. Spain was
nothing to us. It Avould not follow that Spain must be the
tool of France because the Spanish Queen raarried a son of
the French King, .any raore than it Avas certain in a forraer
day that Austria raust link herself Avith the fortunes of the
great Napoleon because he had raarried an Austrian princess.
Probably it Avould liave been Avell if England had concerned
herself in nowise Avith the doraestic affairs of Spain, and had
allowed Louis Philippe to spin what ignoble plots he pleased,
if the Spanish people theraselves had not Avit enough to see
through and poAver enough to counteract thera. At a later
])eriod France brought on herself a terrible war and a crush
ing defeat because her Emperor chose lo belicA'e, or allowed
himself to be persuaded into believing, that the security of
France would be threatened if a Prussian prince were called
to the throne of Spain. The Prussian prince did not ascend
that throne; but the Avar between France .and Prussia went
on ; France Avas defeated ; and after a little the Spanish
people themselves got rid ofthe prince Avhom they had con
sented to accept in place of the obnoxious Prussian. If tho
French Eraperor had not interfered, it is only too probable
that the Prussian prince Avould have gone to Madrid, reigned
there for a foAv unstable and tremulous months, and then
have been quietly sent back to his oavu country. But at
the tirae of Louis Philippe's intrigues about the Spanish
marriages the statesmen of England were by no means dis
posed to take a cool and philosophic view of things. The
idea of non-intervention had scarcely come up then, and the
English minister Avho was chiefly concerned in foreign affairs
Avas about the last man in the world to admit that anytbing
could go on in Europe or elsewhere in Avhich England was
not entitled to express an opinion, and to make her influence
felt. The marriage, therefore, of the'young Queen of Spain
had been long a subject of anxious consideration in the
councils of the English Government. Louis Philippe knew
very well that he could not venture to marry one. of his sons

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 287
to the young Isabella. But he and his minister devised a
scheme for securing to themselves and their policy the same
effect in another Avay. They contrived that the Queen and
her sister should be married at the same time — the Queen
to her cousin, Don Francisco d'Assis, Duke of Cadiz ; and
her sister to the Duke de Montpensier, Louis Philippe's son.
There Avas reason to expect that the Queen, if inarried to
Don Francisco, would have no children, and that the Avife of
Louis Philippe's son, or some of her children, would come to
the throne of Spain.
On the moral guilt of a plot like this it Avould be super
fluous to dAvell Nothing in the history of the perversions
of huraan conscience and judgment can be more extraordi
nary than the fact that a man like M. Guizot should have
been its inspiring influence. It came Avilh a double shock
upon the Queen of England and her ministers, because they-
had every reason to think that Louis Philippe had bound
himself by a solemn promise to discourage any such policy.
When the Queen paid her visit to Louis Philippe at Eu,
the King made the raost distinct and the most spontaneous
promise on the subject both to her Majesty and to Lord
Aberdeen. The Queen's own journal says : " The King told
Lord Aberdeen as well as rae he never would hear of Mon t-
pensier's raarriage Avith the Infanta of Spain — Avhich they are
in a great fright about in England — until it was no longer a
political question, Avhich Avould be Avhen the Queen is mar
ried and has children." The King's OAvn defence of himself
afterAvard, in a letier intended to be a reply to one written
to his daughter, the Queen of the Belgians, by Queen Vic
toria, admits the fact. " I shall tell you precisely," he says,
" in what consists the deviation on my side. Simply in my
having arranged for the marriage of the Due de Montpen
sier, not before the marriage of the Queen of Spain, for she
is to be raarried to the Due de Cadiz at the very moment
Avhen my son is raarried to the Infanta, but before the Queen
has a child. That is the whole deviation, nolhing raore,
nothing less." This Avas surely deviation enough frora the
King's promise to justify any charge of bad faith that could
be made. The Avhole question was one of succession. The
objection of England and other Powers Avas, from first to
last, an objection to any arrangeraent Avhich might leave

288 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the succession to one of Louis Philippe's ehUdren or grand
children. For this reason the King had given his word to
Queen Victoria that he would not hear ofhis son's marriage
with Isabella's sister until the difficulty about the succession
had been removed by Isabella herself being married and
having a child. Such an agreement Avas absolutely broken
when the King arranged for the marriage of his son to the
sister of Queen Isabella at the same time as Isabella's own
raarriage, and when, therefore, it Avas not certain that the
young Queen would have any children. The political ques
tion — the question of succession — remained then open as be
fore. All the objections that England and other Powers
had to the marriage of the Due de Montpensier stood out as
strong as ever. It Avas a question ofthe birth of a child,
and no child was born. The breach of faith was made in
finitely more grave by the fact that in the public opinion of
Europe Louis Philippe was set down as having brought
about the marriage of the Queen of Spain with her cousin
Don Francisco in the hope and belief that the union would
be barren of issue, and that the wife ofhis son would stand
on the next step ofthe throne.
The excuse which Louis Philippe put forAvard to palliate
what he called his "deviation" from the proraise to the
Queen was not of a nature calculated to allay the ill feeling
which his policy had aroused in England. He pleaded in
substance that he had reason to believe in an intended piece
of treachery on the part of the English Governraent, the
consequences of which, if it Avere successful, Avould have
been injurious to his policy, and the discovery of Avhich,
therefore, released hira from his promise. He had found
out, as he declared, that there was an intention on the part
of England to put forward, as a candidate for the hand of
Queen Isabella, Prince Leopold of Coburg, a cousin of Prince
Albert. There was so little justification for any such sus
picion that it hardly seemed possible a man of Louis Phi
lippe's shreAvdness can really have entertained it. The Engr
lish Government had ahvays steadfastly declined to give
any support Avhatever to the candidature of this young
prince. Lord Aberdeen, who Avas then Foreign Secretary,
had ahvays taken his stand on the broad principle that the
marriage of the Queen of Spain Avas the business of Isabella

FAMINE, COMMERCIAL TROUBLE, ETC. 289
herself and ofthe Spanish people; and that so long as that
Queen and that people Avere satisfied, and the interests of
England were in noAvise involved, the Government of Queen
Victoria Avould interfere in no raanner. The candidature of
Prince Leopold had been, in the first instance, a project ofthe
Dowager Queen of Spain, Christina, a Avoman of intriguing
character, on Avhose political probity no great reliance could
be placed. The English Governraent had in the most de
cided and practical raanner proved that they took no share
in the plans of Queen Christina, and had no sympathy Avith
thera. But Avhile the Avhole negotiations were going on, the
defeat of Sir Robert Peel's Ministry brought Lord Palmer
ston into the Foreign Office in place of Lord Aberdeen. The
very name of Palmerston produced on Louis Philippe and
his minister the effect vulgarly said to be wrought on a
bull by the display of a red rag. Louis Philippe treasured
ill bitter memory the unexpected success which Palmerston
had Avon from him in regard to Turkey and Egypt. At
that time, and especially in the court of Louis Philippe, for
eign politics Avere looked upon as the field in Avhich the
ministers of great Powers contended against each other
Avith brag and trickery and subtle arts of all kinds ; the
plain principles of integrity and truthful dealing did not
seera to be regarded as properly belonging to the rules of
the game. Louis Philippe probably believed in good faith
that the return of Lord Palmerston to the Foreign Office
must mean the renoAved activity of treacherous plans against
himself This, at least, is the only assumption on which we
can explain the King's conduct, if Ave do not Avish to believe
that he put foiAvard excuses and pretexts Avhich Avere Avilful
in their falsehood. Louis Philippe seized on some Avords in
a despatch of Lord Palraerston's, in Avhich the candidature
of Prince Leopold Avas siraply mentioned as a matter of fact ;
declared that these words shoAved that the English Govern
ment had at last openly adopted that candidature, professed
hiraself relieved from all previous engagements, and at once
hurried on the raarriage betAV.een Queen Isabella and her
cousin, and that of his oavu son with Isabella's sister. On
October lOlh, 1846, the double raarriage took place at Ma
drid ; aiid on February 5th foUoAving, M. Guizot told the
French Chambers that the Spanish marriages constituted
I.— 13

290 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES
the first great thing France had accoraplished corapletely
single-handed in Europe since 1830.
Every one knows what a failure this scheme proved, so
far as the "objects of Louis Philippe and his minister Avere
concerned. Queen Isabella had children ; Montpensier's Avife
did not corae to the throne; and the dynasty of Louis Phi
lippe fell before long, its fall undoubtedly hastened by the
position of utter isolation and distrust in Avhich it Avas placed
by the scheme of the Spanish marriages and the feelings
Avhich it provoked in Europe. The fact Avith Avhich Ave have
to deal, hoAvever, is that the friendship between England and
France, frora which so raany happy results seeraed likely to
corae to Europe and the cause of free governraent, was nec
essarily interrupted. It Avould have been impossible to trust
any longer to Louis Philippe. The Queen herself entered into
a correspondence Avith his daughter, the Queen of the Bel
gians, in which she expressed in the clearest and most em
phatic raanner her opinion of the treachery Avith Avhich Eng
land had been encountered, and suggested plainly enough her
sense of the raoral Avrong involved in such ignoble policy.
The whole transaction is but another and a most striking
conderanation of that odious creed, for a long lime tolerated
in state-craft, that there is one moral code for private life and
another for the Avorld of politics. A man Avho in private
affairs should act as Louis Philippe and M. Guizot acted
Avould be justly considered infamous. It is impossible to
suppose that M. Guizot, at least, could have so acted in pri
vate life. M. Guizot was a Protestant of a peculiarly austere
type, Avho professed to make religious duty his guide in all
tilings, and Avho doubtless did make it so in all his dealings
as a private citizen. But it is only too evident that he be
lieved the policy of states to alloAv of other principles than
those of Christian morality. He alloAved himself to be gov
erned by the odious delusion that the interests of a state
cau be advanced and ought to be pursued by raeans which
an ordinary man of decent character would scorn to eraploy
for any object in private life. A man of any high principle
Avould not employ such arts in private life to save all his
earthly possessions, and his life and the lives ofhis wife and
children. Any one Avho Avill take the trouble to think over
the Avhole of this plot — for it can be called by no other

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 291
name — over the ignoble object Avhicli it had in vieAV, tho
base means by Avhich it Avas carried out, the ruthless disre
gard for the inclinations, the affections, liie happiness, and
the morality of its principal vicliras ; and avIU then think of
it as carried on in private life in order to come at the re
version of some young and helpless girl's inheritance, Avill
perhaps find it hard to understand how the shame can be
any the less because the principal plotter was a king, and
the victims Avere a queen and a nation.

CHAPTER XVIIL
CHAETISM AND YOUNG lEELAND.
The year 1848 was an era in the modern history of Eu
rope. It Avas the year of unfulfilled revolutions. The fall
of the dynasty of Louis Philippe may be said to have set
the revolutionary tide flowing. The event in France had
long been anticipated by keen-eyed observers. There are
many predictions, delivered and recorded before the revo
lution Avas yet near, Avhich show that it ought not to have
taken the Avorld by surprise. The reign of the Bourgeois
King was unsuited in its good and in- its bad qualities alike
to the genius and the temper of the French people. The
people of France have defects enough Avhich friend's and en
emies are ready to point out to them; but it can hardly be
denied that they like at least the appearance of a certain
splendor and magnanimity in their systems of governnient.
This is, indeed, one of their Aveaknesses. It lays thera open
to the allurements of any brilliant adventurer, like the First
Napoleon or the Third, avIio can promise them national
greatness and glory at the expense perhaps of domestic lib-
ertj'. But it makes thera peculiarly intolerant of anything
mean and sordid in a system or a ruler. There are peoples,
no doubt, Avho could be persuaded, and Avisely persuaded, to
put up Avith a good deal of the ignoble and the shabby in
their foreign policy for the sake of domestic comfort and
tranquillity. But the French people are ahvays impatient
of anything like meanness in their rulers, and the govern
raent of Louis Philippe Avas especially raean. Its foreign

292 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
policy Avas treacherous; its diplomatists Avere commissioned
to act as tricksters ; the Avord of a French minister at a for
eign court began to be regarded as on a level of credibility
Avith a dicer's oath. The home policy ofthe King Avas nar
row-minded and repressive enough ; but a man Avho played
upon the national weakness more Avisely might have per
suaded his people to be content Avith defects at home for
the s.ake of prestige abroad. From the hour Avhen it be
came apparent in France that the nation Avas not resjjected
abroad, the fall of the dynasty Avas only a matter of time
and change. The terrible story of the De Praslin family
helped to bring .about the catastrophe ; the alternate Aveak
ness and obstinacy ofthe Governraent forced it on; and tho
King's OAvn lack of decision raade it impossible that Avhen
the trial had come it could end in any Avay but one.
Louis Philippe fled to England, and his flight Avas the
signal for long pent-up tires to break out all over Europe.
Revolution soon was aflarae over nearly all the courts and
capitals of the Continent. Revolution is like an epidemic ;
it flnds out the Aveak places in systems. The Iavo European
countries which, being tried by it, stood it best, were Eng
land and Belgium. In the latter country the King made
frank appeal to his people, and told them that if they Avish
ed to be rid of hira he Avas quite Avilling to go. Language
of this kind is noAV in the mouths of sovereigns ; and the
Belgians' are a people Avell able to appreciate it. They de
clared for their King, and the shock of the revolution pass
ed harmlessly aAvay. In England and Ireland the effect
of the events in France Avas instantly raade manifest. The
Chartist agitation at once carae to a head. Sorae of the
Chartist leaders called out for the dismissal of the ministry,
the dissolution of the Parliament, the Charter and " no sur
render." A nation.al convention of Chartists began ils sit
tings in London to arrange for a monster demonstration on
April 10th. Some ofthe speakers openly declared that the
people Avere now quite ready to fight for their Charter.
Others, more cautious, advised that no step should be taken
against the law until at least it was quite certain that the
people Avere stronger than the upholders of the existing
laAVS. Nearly all the leading Chartists spoke of the revolu
tion in France as an exaraple offered in good tirae to the

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 293
English people; and it is somcAvhat curious to observe hoAV
it Avas assumed in the most evident good faith that what
Ave may call the Avage-receiving portion of the population
of these islands constitutes exclusively the English people.
What the educated, the Avealthy, the OAvners of land, the
jiroprietors of factories, the ministers of the different denom
inations, the authors of books, the painters of pictures, the
bench, the bar, the army, the navy, the medical profession —
what all these or any of them might think Avilh regard to
any proposed constitutional changes was accounted a mat
ter in noAvise affecting the resolve ofthe English "people."
The moderate men araong the Chartists themselves Avere
soon unable to secure a hearing; and the word of order
Avent round among the body, that "the English people"
raust have the Charter or a Republic. What had been
done in France enthusiasts fancied might Avell be done in
England. It Avas determined to present a monster petition to the
House of Commons deraanding the Charter, and, in fact, of
fering a last chance to Parliament to yield quietly to the
demand. The petition Avas to be presented by a deputation
Avho Avere to be conducted by a vast procession up to the
doors of the House. The procession was to be formed on
Kennington Common, the space then unenclosed Avhich is
now Kennington Park, on the south side of London. There
the Cliartists were to be addressed by their still trusted
leader, Feargus O'Connor, and they Avere to march in mili
tary order to present their petition. The object undoubt
edly Avas to make such a parade of physical force as should
overaAve the Legislature and the Governnient, and demon
strate the impossibility of refusing a demand backed by
such a reserve of power. The idea Avas taken frora O'Con
nell's policy in the raonster meetings ; but there Avere many
of the Chartists Avho hoped for something more than a mere
demonstration of physical force, and Avho would have been
heartily glad if some untiraely or unreasonable interference
on the part ofthe authorities had led to a collision. A strong
faith still survived at that day in Avhat Avas grandiosely
called the might of earnest numbers. Ardent voung Char-
lists Avho belonged to the time of life when anything seems
possible to the brave and faithfid, and Avheii facts and exam-

294 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN 'HMES.
pies count for nothing unless they favor one's OAvn vicAvs,
fully believed that it needed but the firing of the first shot,
"the sparkle of the first SAVord draAvn," to give success to
the arras, though but the bare arras, of the people, and to
inaugurate the reign of liberty. Therefore, hoAvever differ
ently and harmlessly events may have turned out, Ave may
be certain that there went to the rendezvous at Kenning
ton Common, on that April 10th, many hundreds of ignorant
and excitable young men Avho desired nothing so much as
a collision with the police and the military, and the reign
of liberty to foUoAv. The proposed procession Avas declared
illegal, and all peaceful and loyal subjects Avere Avarned not
to take any part in it. But this was exactly Avhat the more
ardent among the Chartists expected and desired to see
They Avere rejoiced that the Government had proclaimed
the procession unlaAvful Was not that the proper occasion
for resolute patriots to shoAV that they represented a cause
above despotic laAv ? Was not that the very opportunity
offered to thera t'o prove that the people Avere more mighty
than their rulers, and that the rulers must obey or abdicate?
Was not the whole sequence of proceedings thus, far ex
actly after the pattern of the French Revolution ? The
people resolve that they will have a certain demonstration
in a certain Avay; the oligarchical Government declare that
they shall not do so; the people persevere, and of course
the next thing must be that the Government falls, exactly
as in Paris. When poor Dick Swiveller, in Dickens's story,
is recovering frora his fever, he looks forth of his miserable
bed and makes up his mind that he is under the influence of
some such magic spell as he has become familiar Avilh in the
"Arabian Nights." His poverty-stricken little nurse claps
her thin hands Avitli joy to see him alive ; and Dick makes
up his mind that the clapping of the hands is the sign un
derstood of all Avho read Eastern romance, and that next
mnst appear at the princess's summons the roAv of slaves
Avith jars of joAvels on their heads. Poor Dick, reasoning
from his experiences in the "Arabian Nights," Avas not one
Avhit raore astray than enthusiastic Chartists reasoning for
the sequence of English politics frora the evidence of Avhat
liad happened in France. The slaves Avith the jars of jeAvels
on their heads Avere just as likely to foUoAv the clap of the

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 295
poor girl's hands, as the events that had followed a popular
demonstration in Paris to follow a popular demonstration
in London. To begin with, the Chartists did not represent
any such power in London as the Liberal deputies of the
French Chamber did in Paris. In the next place, London
does not govern England, and in our tirae, at least, never did.
In the third place, the English Governnient kncAv perfectly
Avell that they Avere strong in the general support of the
nation, and Avere not likely to yield for a single raoraent
to the hesitation Avhich sealed the fate of the French mon
archy. The Chartists fell to disputing among themselves very
much as O'Connell's Repealers had done. Some Avere for
disobeying the orders of the authorities and having the pro
cession, and provoking rather than .avoiding a collision. At
a meeting of tlie Chartist Convention held the night before
the demonstration, "the eve of Liberty," as some ofthe or
ators eloquently termed it, a considerable number were for
going armed to Kennington Common. Feargus O'Connor
had, however, sense enough still left to throw the Aveight of
his influence against such an insane proceeding, and to insist
that the demonstration raust shoAV itself to be, as it Avas frora
the first proclairaed to be, a strictly pacific proceeding. This
Avas the parting of the Avays in the Chartist as it had been
in the Repeal agitation. The raore ardent spirits at once
AvithdreAV from the organization. Those avIio might even at
the very last have done mischief if they had remained part
of the movement, withdreAV frora it ; and Chartism Avas left
to be represented by an open-air meeting and a petition to
Parliament, like all the olher demonstrations that the me
tropolis had seen to pass, hardly heeded, across the field of
])olitics. But the public at large Avas not aAvare that the
fangs of Chartism had been drawn before it Avas let loose to
play on Kennington Coraraon that raemorable 10th of April
London aAvoke in great alarm that day. The Chartists in
tiieir most sanguine moments never ascribed to themselves
half the strength that honest alarmists of the bourgeois class
Avere ready that morning to ascribe to thera. The Avildest
ruraors Avere spread abroad in raany parts of the metropolis.
Long before the Chartists had got together on Kennington
Common at all, various remote quarters of London Avere filled

296 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Avitii horrifying reports of encounters betAveen the insurgents
and the police or the military, in Avhich the Chartists inva
riably had the better, and as a result of Avhich they were
marching in full force to the particular district where the
moraentary panic prevailed. London is worse off than most
cities in such a time of alarm. It is too large for true ac
counts of things rapidly to diffuse themselves. In April,
1848, the street telegraph was not in use for carrying ncAvs
through cities, and the rapidly succeeding editions of the
cheap papers were as yet unknoAvn. In various quarters of
London, therefore, the citizen was left through the greater
part ofthe day to al^the agoiiies of doubt and uncertainty.
There Avas no lack, hoAvever, of public precautions against
an outbreak of arraed Chartisra. The Duke of Wellington
took charge of all the arrangeraents for guarding the public
buildings and defending the metropolis generally. He act
ed with extreme caution, and told several influential persons
that the troops Averein readiness everyAvhere, but that they
would not be seen unless an occasion actually rose for call
ing on their services. The coolness and presence of mind of
the stern old soldier are Avell illustrated in the fact that to
several persons of influence .and authority Avho came to hini
Avith suggestions for the defence of this place or that, his al
raost invariable answer Avas " done already," or " done two
hours ago," or something of the kind. A vast nuraber of
Londoners enrolled theraselves as special constables for the
maintenance of laAv and order. Nearly Iavo hundred thou
sand persons, it is said,Avere sworn in for this purpose; and
it will ahvays be lold as an odd incident of that famous
scare, that the Prince Louis Napoleon, then living in Lon
don, was one of those Avho volunteered to bear arms in the
preservation of order. Not a long time was to pass aAvay
before the raost laAvless outrage on the order and life of a
peaceful city Avas to be perpetrated by the special coramand
of the man Avhp Avas so ready to lend the saving .aid of his
constable's staff to protect English society against some poor
hundreds or thousands of English AVorking-men.
The crisis, however, luckily proved not to stand in need
of such saviors of society. The Chartist deraonstration
was a Avretched failure. The separation of the Chartists
-who wanted force from those who wanted orderly proceed-

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 297
ings reduced the project to nothing. Tlie meeting on Ken
nington Cornraon, so far from being a gathering of half a
million of men, Avas not a larger concourse than a temper
ance demonstration had often drawn together on the same
spot. Some twenty or twenty-five thousand persons Avere
on Kennington Common, of whora at least half Avere said lo
be mere lookers-on, come lo see Avhat Avas to happen, and
caring nothing Avhatever about the People's Charter. The
procession Avas not formed, O'Connor himself strongly insist
ing on obedience to the orders of the authorities. There
Avere speeches of the usual kind by O'Connor and others ;
and the opportunity Avas raade available by some of the
more extreme, and consequently disappointed Cliartists, to
express in very vehement language their not unreasonable
conviction that tlie leaders of the convention Avere hum
bugs. The whole affair, in truth, Avas an absurd anachro
nism. The lovers of laAV and order could have desired noth
ing belter than that it should thus come forth in the lio-ht
of day and shoAV itself The clap of the hand Avas given,
but the slaves Avith the jars of jeAvels did not appear. It is
not that the demands of tiie Chartists Avere anachronisras
or absurdities. We have already shown that raany of theni
Avere just and reasonable, and that all came Avithin the fair
scope of political arguraent. The anachronism Avas in the
idea that the display of physical force could any longer be
needed or be allowed to settle a political controversy in
England. The absurdity Avas in the notion that the Avage-
receiving classes, and they alone, are " the people of Eno--
land." The great Chartist petition itself, Avhich Avas to have
raade so profound an impression on the House of Commons,
proved as utter a failure as the demonstration on Kenning
ton Common. Mr. O'Connor, in presenting this portentous
document, boasted that it would be found to have five raill
ion seven hundred thousand signatures in round numbers.
The calculation was made in very round numbers indeed.
The Coramittee on Public Petitions Avere requested to make
a minuie examination ofthe document, and to report to the
Liouse of Commons. The committee called in tlie service
of a Jittle army of law-stationers' clerks, and went to Avork
to analyze the signatures. They found, to begin Avith, that
13*

298 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the whole number of signatures, genuine or otherwise, fell
short of tAVO millions. But that Avas not all. The commit
tee found in many cases that Avhole sheets of the petition
were signed by the one hand, and that eight per cent, ofthe
signatures were those of Avomen. It did not need much in
vestigation to prove that a large proportion of the sign.a-
tures Avere not genuine. The name ofthe Queen, of Prince
Albert, of the Duke of Wellington, Sir Robert Peel, Lord
John Russell, Colonel Sibthorp, and various other public
personages, appeared again and again on the Chartist roll.
Some of these eminent persons Avould appear to have car
ried tiieir zeal for the People's Charter so far as to keep
signing tiieir names untiringly all over the petition. A
large number of yet stranger allies Avould seem to have been
drawn lo the cause ofthe Charter. "Cheeks the Marine"
Avas a personage very farailiar at that time to the readers
of Captain Marryat's sea stories ; and the name of that
mythical hero appeared Avith bewildering iteration in the
petition. So did "Davy Jones;'' so did various persons de
scribing themselves as Pugnose, Flatnose, Wooden-legs, and
by other such epilhels acknowledging curious personal de
fects. We need not describe the laughter aud scorn Avhich
these revelations produced. There really Avas not anything
very marvellous in the discovery. The petition Avas got
up in great haste and Avilh almost utter carelessness. Its
sheets used to be sent anywhere, and left lying about any
Avhere, on a chance of obtaining signatures. The tempta
tion to schoolboys and practical jokers of all kinds Avas ir
resistible Wherever there Avas a mischievous iiand that
could get hold of a pen, there Avas some name of a royal per
sonage or some Cheeks the Marine at once added to the
muster-roll of the Chartists. As a matter of fact, alraost all
large popular petitions are found to have sorae such buffoon
eries mixed up Avith their serious business. The Committee
on Petitions have on several occasions had reason to draw
attention to the obviously fictitious nature of signatures
appended to such documents. The petitions in favor of
O'Connell's movement used to lie at the doors of chapels all
the Sunday long in Ireland, Avith pen and ink ready for all
Avho approved to sign ; and it Avas many a lime the favor
ite amusement of school-boys to scraAvl doAvn the most gro-

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 299
tesque naraes and nonsensical iraitations of naraes. But the
Chartist petition had been so loudly boasted of, and the
Avhole Chartist movement had created such a scare, that the
delight ofthe public generally at any discovery that thrcAv
both into ridicule Avas overAvhelming. It Avas made certain
that the number of genuine signatures Avas ridiculously be-
loAV the estimate formed by the Chartist leaders ; and the
agitation, after terrifying respectability for a long time, sud
denly shoAved itself as a thing only to be laughed at. The
laughter Avas stentorian and overwhelming. The A'ery fact
that the petition contained so many absurdities Avas in itself
an evidence of the sincerity of those Avho presented it. It
Avas-not likely that they Avould have furnished their enemies
Avitli so easy and tempting a Avay of turning thera into ridi
cule, if they had known or suspected tiiat there Avas any lack
of genuineness in the signatures, or tiiat they Avould have
provided so ready a raeans of decrying their truthfulness as
to claira five millions of naines for a docuraent Avhich they
kncAV to have less than two raillions. The Chartist leaders
in all their doings shoAved a want of accurate calculation,
and of the frame of mind Avliich desires or appreciates such
aecuracy. The famous petition Avas only one other ex.am-
ple of their habitual Aveakness. It did not bear testimony
.against their good faith.
The effect, however, of this unlucky petition on the Eng
lish public mind Avas decisive. From that day Charlisni
never presented itself lo the ordinary middle-class English
man as anything but an object of ridicule. The terror of
the agitation Avas gone. There Avere efforts made again and
again during the year by some of tiie more earnest and ex
treme ofthe Chartist leaders to renew the strength ofthe
agitation. Tiie outbreak of the Young Ireland movement
found many sympathizers among the English Chartists, more
especially in its earlier stages; and some ofthe Chartists in
London and other great Englisli cities endeavored to light
up the fire of their agitation again by the help of some brands
caught up from the pile of disaffection Avhich Mitciiel and
Meagher Avere setting .ablaze in Dublin. A monster gath
ering of Chartists Avas announced for Whit-Monday, June
12lli,and again the metropolis Avas thrown into a momen
tary alarm, very different in strength, however, frora that of

300 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the famous 10th of April. Again precautions were taken
by the military authorities against the possible rising of an
insurrectionary mob. Nothing came of this last gasp of
Chartisra. The Times of the following day reraarked that
there Avas absolutely notliing'vto record, " nothing except the
blankest expectation, the raost raiserable gaping, gossiping,
and grumbling of disappointed listeners ; the standing about,
the roaming to and fro, the dispersing and the sneaking-
home of some poor simpletons Avho had wandered forth iu
the hope of sorae miraculous crisis in their affairs." • It is
impossible not to pity those who Avere thus deceived ; not
to feel some regret for the earnestness, the hope, the igno
rant, passionate energy Avhich were throAvn aAvay.
Nor can we feel only surprise and contempt for th'ose
Avho iraagined that the Charter and the rule of Avhat Avas
called in their jargon "the people" Avould do something lo
regenerate their raiserable lot. They had at least seen that
up to that time Parliament had done little for them. There
had been a Parliaraent of aristocrats and landlords, and it
had for generations troubled itself little about the class from
Avhom Chartism Avas recruited. The sceptre of legislative
power had passed into the hands of a Parliament made u])
in great measure of the Avealthy middle ranks, and it had
thus far shown no inclination to distress itself overmuch
about thera. Almost every single measure Parliament has
passed to do any good for the Avages-receiving classes and
the poor generally has been passed since the tirae Avhen the
Chartists began to be a power. Our Corn-laAvs' repeal, our
factory acts, our s.aiiitary legislation, our raeasures referring
to the homes ofthe poor-^all these have been the work of
later times than those Avliich engendered the Chartist move
ment. It is easy to imagine a Chartist replying, in the early
days of the raoveraent, to some grave remonstrances from
wise legislators. He might say, " You tell me I am mad to
think the Charter can do anything for me and my class.
But can you tell rae Avhat else ever has done, or tried to
do, any good for thera ? You think I am a crazy person, be
cause I believe that a popular Parliament could make any-^
thing of the task of government. I ask you Avliat have
you and your like made of it already? Things are Avell
enough, ho doubt, for you and your class, a pitiful minority;

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 301
but they could not be any Avorse fbr us, and Ave might make
them belter, so far as the great m.ajority are concerned.
We may fairly crave a trial for our experiment. No mat
ter how Avild and absurd it may sefiin, it conld not turn out
for the majority any AVorse than your scheme has done."
It Avould not have been very easy then to ansAver a speaker
Avho took this line of argument. In truth there Avas, as we
have already insisted, grievance enough to excuse the Char
tist agitation, and hope enough in the scheme tlie Chartists
proposed to Avarrant ils fair discussion. Such moveraents
are never to be regarded by sensible persons as the Avork
merely of knaves and dupes.
Chartism bubbled and sputtered a little yet in sorae of
the provincial towns, and even in London. There were
Chartist riots in Ashton, Lancashire, and an affray Avilh the
police, and the killing, before the affray, it is painful to have
to say, of one policeraan. There Avere Chartists arrested
in Manchester on the charge of preparing insurrectionary
moveraents. In Iavo or three public-houses in London some
Chartist juntas Avere arrested, and the police believed they
had got evidence of a projected rising to take in the whole
of the metropolis. It is not impossible that some Avild and
frantic schemes ofthe kind Avere talked of and partly hatch
ed by some of the disappointed fanatics of the raovement.
Some of them Avere fiery and ignorant enough for anything;
and throughout this memorable year thrones and systems
kept toppling down all over Europe in a raanner that might
Avell have led feather-headed agitators to fancy that nothing
Avas stable, and that in England, too, the Avhistle of a few
conspirators might bring about a transformation scene. All
this folly came to nothing but a foAV arrests and a few not
heavy sentences. Among those tried in London on charges
of sedition merely Avas Mr. Ernest Jones, who Avas sentenced
to Iavo years' imprisonraent. Mr. Jones has been already
spoken of as a man of position and of high culture ; a poet
Avhose verses soraetimes might alraost claim for their author
the possession of genius. Lie Avas an orator whose speeches
then and after obtained the enthusiastic admiration of John
Bright. Lie belonged rather to the school of revolutionists
which established itself as Young Ireland, than to the class
ofthe poor Fussells and Cuffeys and uneducated Avorking-

802 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
men Avho made up the foremost ranks of the aggressive
Chartist raoveraent in its later period. He raight have had
a brilliant and a useful career. He outlived the Chartist
era; lived to return to. peaceful agitation, lo hold public
controversy with the eccentric and clever Professor Blackie,
of Edinburgh, on the relative advantages of republicanism
and raonarchy, and to stand for a Parliaraentary borough at
the general 'election of 1868 ; and then his career Avas closed
by death. The close Avas sadly premature even tlien. He
had plunged immaturely into politics, and although a Avhole
generation had passed aAvay since his debut, he Avas but a
young man comparatively Avheii the last scene came.
Here comes, not inappropriately, to an end the history of
English Chartism. It died of publicity ; of exposure to the
air; ofthe Auti-Corn-laAV League; ofthe evident tendency
ofthe time to settle all questions by reason, argument, and
majorities; of growing education; of a strengthening sense
of duty among all the more influential classes. When Sir
John Campbell spoke its obituary years before, as Ave have
seen, he treated it as siraply a monster killed by the just
severity ofthe law. Ten years' experience taught the Eng
lish public to be Aviser than Sir John Campbell. Chartism
did not die of its own excesses; it became an anachronism;
no one wanted it any more. AU that Avas sound in its
clairas asserted itself, and Avas in time conceded. But its ac
tive or aggressive influence ceased Avitii 1848. The history
of the reign of Queen Victoria has not any further to con
cern itself about Chartism. Not since that year has there
been serious talk or thought of any agitation asserting its
claims by the use or even the display of armed force in
England. The spirit ofthe time had, meauAvhile, made itself felt in
a different Avay in Ireland. For some months before the
beginning of the year the Young Ireland p.arty had been es
tablished as a rival association to the Repealers who still
believed in the policy of O'Connell. It was inevitable that
O'Connell's agitation should beget some such movement.
The great agitator had brought the temperaraent of the
younger men ofhis party up to a fever heat, and it Avas out
of the question that all that heat should subside. in the veins
of young collegians and school-boys at the precise raoment

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 303
Avlien the leader found that he had been going too far, and
gave the AVord for peace and retreat. The influence of
O'Connell had been Avaning for a time before his dealh. It
Avas a personal influence depending on his eloquence and his
power, and these of course had gone down Avith his personal
decay. The Nation newspaper, Avhich Avas conducted and
Avritten for by some rising young men of high culture and
remarkable talent, had long been writing in a style of ro
mantic and sentimental nationalism Avhich could hardly give
rauch satisfaction to or derive much satisfaction from the
soracAvhal cunning and trickisli agitation Avhich O'Connell
had set going. The Nation and the clever youths Avho
Avrote for it Avere all for iiationalisra ofthe Hellenic or French
type, and Avere disposed to laugh at constitutional agitation,
and to chafe against the influence ofthe priests. The faraine
had created an immense amount of unreasonable but certali-
ly not unnatural indignation against the Governraent, Avho
Avere accused of having paltered Avilh the agony and danger
of the tirae, and having clung lo the letier of the doctrines
of political economy Avhen death Avas invading Ireland in
full force. The Young Ireland party had received a new
support by the adhesion of Mr. William Smith O'Brien to
their ranks. Mr. O'Brien Avas a man of considerable influ
ence in Ireland. He had large property and high rank. He
Avas connected Avitii or related to many aristocratic farailies.
His brotlier Avas Lord Inchiquin; the litle ofthe marquisate
of Thoraond was in the family. He Avas undoubtedly de
scended frora the famous Irish hero and king, Brian IBoru,
and was almost inordinately proud ofhis claims of long de
scent. He had the highest personal character and the finest
sense of honor; but his capacity for leadership of any move
ment Avas very slender. A poor spe.aker, Avitli little more
than an ordinary country gentleman's share of intellect,
O'Brien Avas a Avell-raeaning but Aveak and vain man, Avhoso
head at last became almost turned by the homage Avhich his
followers and the Irish people generally paid to him. He
Avas, in short, a sort of Lafayette manque; under the happi
est auspices he could never have been more than a successful
Lafayette. But his adhesion to the cause of Young Ireland
gave the raoveraent a decided irapulse. His rank, his legen
dary descent, his undoubted chivalry of character and purity

304 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
of purpose, lent a romantic interest to his appearance as the
recognized leader, or at least the figure-head, of the Young
Irelanders. Smith O'Brien Avas a man of raore raature years than most
ofhis companions in the movement. He was sorae forty-three
or four years of age Avhen he took the leadership of the move
ment. Tiioraas Francis Meagher, the most brilliant orator of
the party, a m'an who under other conditions migiit have risen
to great distinction in public life, Avas then only about two
¦or three and twenty. Mitchel and Duffy, Avho Avere regard
ed as elders among the Young Irelanders, Avere perhaps each
sorae thirty years of age There were many men, more or
less prominent in the raoveraent, who Avere still younger than
Meaglier. One of these, Avho afterAvard rose to sorae distinc
tion in America, and is long since dead, Avrote a poem about
the time Avhen the Young Ireland movement vvas at its
height, in Avliich he comraemoraled sadly his attainment of
his eighteenth year, and deplored that, at an ago Avhen Chat-
terton Avas raighty and Keats had glimpses into spirit-land —
the age of eighteen, to Avit — he, this young Irish patriot, had
yet accomplished nothing for his native country. Most of
Ills companions sympathized fully Avitli him, and thought his
impatience natural and reasonable. The Young Ireland agi
tation Avas at first a sort of college debating society raove
raent, aud it never became really national. It Avas com
posed for the most part of young journalists, young schol
ars, amateur litterateurs, poets en herbe, orators moulded on
tlie finest patterns of Athens and the French Revolution, and
aspiring youths ofthe Cherubino time of life, Avho Avere am
bitious of distinction as heroes in the eyes of young ladies.
Among the recognized leaders ofthe party there was hardly
one in want of money. Sorae of them Avere young men of
fortune, or at least tiie sons of Avealthy parents. Not many
of the dangerous revolutionary eleraents Avere to be found
araong these clever, respectable, and precocious youths.
The Young Ireland raovement was as absolutely unlike the
Chartist mo-frement in England as any political agitation
could be unlike another. Unreal and unlucky as the Char
tist movement proved to be, its ranks Avere recruited by
genuine passion and genuine misery.
Before the death of O'Connell the forraal secession of the

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 805
Young Ireland parly from the regular Repealers had t.aken
place. It arose out of an attempt of O'Connell to force
upon the Avliole body a declaration condemning the use of
physical force — ofthe SAvord,as it Avas grandiosely called —
in any p.atriotic movement Avhatever. It was in itself a sign
of O'Connell's failing powers and judgraent that he expected
to get a body of men about the age of Meagher to make a
formal declaration against the weapon of Leonidas and Mil-
tiades, and all the other heroes dear lo classically-instructed
youth. Meagher declaimed .against the idea in a burst of
poetic rhetoric Avhich made his folloAvers believe that a ncAV
Grattan of bolder style Avas coming up to recall the manhood
of Ireland that had been banished by the agitation of O'Con
nell and the priests. "I am not one of those tame moral
ists," the young orator exclaimed, " Avho say that liberty is
not Avorth one drop of blood. . . . Against this miserable
maxim the noblest virtue that has saved and sanctified hu
manity appears in judgment. From the blue Avalers of the
Bay of Salaniis; from the valley over Avhicli the sun stood
still and Ut the Israelite to victory; from the cathedral in
Avhicli the sword of Poland has been sheathed in the shroud
of Kosciusko ; from the convent of St. Isidore, Avhere the fiery
hand that rent the ensign of St. George upon the plains of
Ulster has mouldered into dust ; from the s.ands of the des
ert, Avhere the Avild genius of the Algerine so long has scared
the eagle of the Pyrenees ; from the ducal palace in this
kingdom, Avhere the memory of the gallant and seditions
Geraldine enhances raore than royal favor the splendor of
his race ; from the solitary grave Avithin this mute city Avhich
a dying bequest has left Avithout an epitapli — oh ! from ev
ery spot Avhere heroism has had a sacrifice or a triumph, a
voice breaks in upon the cringing crowd that cherishes this
maxim, crying, Away Avilh it — away Avith it!"
The reader will probably think that a gener,ation of young
men raight h'ave enjoyed as rauch as they could get of this
sparkling declaraation Avithout ranch harm being done there
by to the cause of order. Only a crowd of well-educated
young Irishmen fresh from college, and Avitli the leaching of
their country's history Avliich the Nation was pouring out
Aveekly in prose and poetry, could possibly have understood
all its historical allusions. No harm, indeed, Avould have

306 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
come of this graceful and poetic movement Avere it not for
events Avhich the Young Ireland parly had no share in bring
ing about.
The Continental revolutions of the year 1848 suddenly
converted the movement from a literary and poetical organ
ization into a rebellious conspiracy. The fever of that wild
epoch spread itself at once over Ireland. When crowns
Avere going doAvn everywhere, Avhat Avonder if Hellenic
Young Irelandisra believed that the moraent had come when
the crown ofthe Saxon invader too Avas destined to fall?
The French Revolution and the flight of Louis Philippe set
Ireland in a rapture of hope and rebellious joy. Lamartine
became the hero of the hour. A copy of his shoAvy, super
ficial " Girondists " Avas in the hand of every true Young
Irelander. Meagher Avas at once declared to be the Vergn-
iaud of the Irish revolution. Sraith O'Brien Avas called
upon to become its Lafayette A deputation of Young Ire
landers, with O'Brien and Meagher at their head. Availed
upon Lamartine, and were received by hira Avith a cool good-
sense Avhich made Englishraen greatly respect his judgment
and prudence, but Avhich rauch disconcerted the hopes of
the Young Irelanders. Many of these latter appear to have
taken in their raost literal sense sorae -words of Laraartine's
about the sympathy of the new French Republic Avith the
struggles of oppressed nationalities, and to have fancied that
the Republic would seriously consider the propriety of go
ing lo Avar with England at the request of a few young men
from Ireland, headed by a country gentleraan and member
of Parliaraent. In the raean time a fresh and a stronger in
fluence than that of O'Brien or Meagher had arisen in Young
Irelandisra. Young Ireland itself noAV split into two sec
tions, one for iraraediate action, the other for caution and
delay. The parly of action acknowledged the leadership of
John Mitchel. The organ of this section was the ncAvspa-
per started by Mitchel in opposition to the Nation, Avhich
liad groAvn too slow for hira. The new journal Avas called
the United Irishman, anH in a short time it had completely
distanced the Nation in popularily and in circulation. The
deliberate policy of the United Irishman was to force the
hand first of the Government and then of the Irish people.
Mitchel had made up his mind so to rouse the passion ofthe

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 307
people as lo compel the Government lo take steps for the
prevention of rebellion by the arrest of some ofthe leaders.
Then Mitchel calculated upon the populace rising to defend
or rescue their heroes — and then the game Avould be afoot ;
Ireland Avould be entered in rebellion ; and the rest Avould
be for fate to decide
This looks noAv a very Avild and hopeless scheme. So, of
course, it proved itself to be. But it did not appear so hope
less at the time, even to cool heads. At least it may be
called the only scherae Avhicli had .the slightest chance of
success ; we do not say of success in establishing the in
dependence of Ireland, Avhich Mitchel sought for, but in set
ting a genuine rebellion afoot. Mitchel Avas the one forrai
dable man among the rebels of '48. He Avas the one man
Avho distinctly kncAv Avhat he Avanted, and Avas prepared to
run any risk lo get it. He Avas cast in the very mould of
the genuine revolutionist, and under different circurastances
might have played a formidable part. He came from the
northern part ofthe island, and Avas a Protestant Dissenter.
It is a fact AVorthy of note that all the really forraidable
rebels Ireland has produced in modern times, from Wolfe
Tone to Mitchel, have been Protestants. Mitchel Avas a man
of great literary talent ; indeed a man of something like
genius. He wrote a clear, bold, incisive prose, keen in ils
scorn and satire, going directly to the heart of its purpose.
As mere prose, some of it is Avorlli reading even to-day for
its cutting force and pitiless irony. Mitchel issued in his
paper week after Aveek a challeng'e to the Government to
prosecute hira. He poured out the most fiery sedition, and
used every incentive that Avords could supply to rouse a hot
headed people lo arms, or an impatient Government to some
act of severe repression. Mitchel Avas quite ready to make
a sacrifice of hiraself if it Avere necessary. It is possible
enough that he had persuaded hiraself into the belief that a
rising in Ireland against the Governraent might be success
ful. But there is good reason to think that he Avould have
been quite satisfied if he could have stirred up by any proc
ess a genuine and sanguinary insurrection, which would
have read well in the papers, and redeemed the Irish Nation
alists from Avhat he considered the disgrace of never having
sliOAvn that they kncAv Iioav to die for their cause. He kept

308 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
on urging the people to prepare for warlike effort, and every
Aveek's United Irishman contained long descriptions of how
to make pikes and hoAV to use them; hoAv to cast bullets,
how to raake the streets as dangerous for the hoofs of caval
ry horses as Bruce made the field of Bannockburn. Some
of the recipes, if avc may call them so, Avere of a peculiarly
ferocious kind. The use of vitriol Avas recommended among
other destructive agencies. A feeling ef detestation was
not unnaturally aroused against Mitchel, even in the rainds
of many Avho sympathii^ed Avith his general opinions; and
those Avhom we may call the Girondists of the party some
Avhat shrank from him, and Avould gladly have been rid of
him. It is true that the most ferocious of these vitriolic
articles Avere not Avritten by him; nor did he knoiv ofthe
famous recommendation about the throwing of vitriol until
it appeared in print. He was, however, justly and properly
as well as technically responsible for all that appeared in a
paper started with such a purpose as that ofthe United Irish
man, and it is not even certain that he Avould have disap
proved of the vitriol -throAving reeoramendation if he had
known of it in time. He never disavowed it, nor took any
pains to shoAV that it Avas not his oavu. The fact that he
Avas not its author is, therefore, only mentioned here as a
matter more or less interesting, and not at all as any excuse
for Mitchel's general stylo of newspaper Avar-making. He
Avas a fanatic, clever and fearless; he Avould neither have
asked quarter nor given it; and, undoubtedly, if Ireland had
had many raen of his desperate resolve she Avould have been
plunged into a bloody, an obstinate, and a disastrous contest
against the strength of the British Government.
In the mean time that Governraent had to do something.
The Lord -lieutenant could not go on forever alloAving a
noAvspaper to scream out appeals to rebellion, and to pub
lish every week rainute descriptions ofthe easiest and quick
est Avay of killing off English soldiers. The existing laws
Avere not strong enough to deal Avith Mitchel and to sup
press his paper. It Avould have been of little account to
proceed against him under the ordinary laws which con
deraned seditious speaking or writing. Prosecutions were,
in fact, set on foot against O'Brien, Meagher, and Mitchel
himself for ordinary offences of that kind ; but the accused

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 309
men got bail, and Avent on meantime speaking and Avriting
as before, and Avhen the cases carae lo be tried by a jury the
Government failed to obtain a conviction. The Government,
therefore, brought in a bill for the belter security of the
Crown and Government, making all Avritten incitement to
insurrection or resistance to the law felony, punishable Avith
transportation. This measure Avas passed rapidly ihrougli
all its stages. It enabled the Government to suppress ucavs-
papers like the United Irishman, audi to keep in prison with
out bail, Avhile aAvaiting trial, any one charged Avith an of
fence under the new Act. Mitchel soon gave the authorities
an opportunity of testing, the efficacy ofthe Act in his per
son. He repeated his incitements to insurrection, Avas ar
rested alid thrown into prison. The climax of the excite
ment in Ireland Avas reached when Mitchel's trial came on.
There can be little doubt that he Avas filled Avith a strong
hope that his folloAvers Avouid attempt to rescue him. He
Avrote from his cell that he could hear around the Avails of
his prison every night the tramp of hundreds of sympathiz
ers, "felons in heart and soul." The Government, for their
part, Avere in'full expectation that sorae sort of rising would
t.ake place For the tirae. Smith O'Brien, Meagher, and all
the other Young Irelanders Avere thrown into the shade, and
the eyes of the Avhole country Avere turned upon Mitchel's
cell. Had there been anolher Mitchel out-of-doors, as fear
less and reckless as the Mitchel in the prison, a sanguinary
outbreak Avould probably have taken place. But the lead
ers ofthe raoveraent outside Avere by no means clear in their
OAVU minds as to the course they ought to pursue. Many of
thera were Avell satisfied ofthe hopelessness and folly of any
rebellious raovement, and nearly all were quite aAvare that,
in any case, the country just tlien was AvhoUy unprepared for
anything of the kind. Not a few had a shreAvd suspicion
that the raoveraent never had laken any real hold on the
heart of the country. Sorae were jealous of Mitchel's sud
den popularity, and in their secret hearts were disposed lo
curse hira for the trouble he had brought on them. But
they could not atterapt to give open utterance to such a
sentiraent. Mitchel's boldness and resolve had placed them
at a sad disadvantage. He had that superiority of influence
over them that doAvnright deterraination ahvays gives a man

310 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
over colleagues Avho do not quite know Avhat they Avould
have. One thing, hoAvever, they conld do; and that they
did. They discouraged any idea of an attempt to rescue
Mitchel. His trial came on. He Avas found guilty. He
raade a short but poAverful and impassioned speech from the
dock ; he Avas sentenced to fourteen years' transportation ;
he Avas hurried under an escort of cavalry through the streets
of Dublin, put on board a ship of war, and in a few hours
Avas on his Avay to Bermuda. Dublin reraained perfectly
quiet ; the country outside hardly knew Avhat Avas happen
ing until Mitchel Avas well on his way, and far-seeing per
sons smiled to theraselves and said the danger Avas all over.
So, indeed, it proved to be. The reraainder ofthe proceed
ings partook rather of the jiature of burlesque. The Young
Ireland leaders becarae more demonstrative than ever. The
Nation newspaper now Avent in openly for rebellion, but re
bellion at some unnaraed tirae, and when Ireland should be
ready to meet the Saxon. It seemed to be assuraed that the
Saxon, with a characteristic love of fair-play, Avould let his
foes make all the preparations they pleased Avithout any in
terference, and that Avhen they announced themselves ready,
then, but not until then, Avould he come forlh to fight Avith
them. Smith O'Brien Avent about the country holding re-
vicAvs ofthe "Confederates," as the Young Irelanders called
themselves. The Government, hoAvever, shoAved a contempt
for the rules of fair-play, suspended the Habeas Corpus Act
in Ireland, and issued Avarrants for the arrest of Smith
O'Brien, Meagher, and other Confederate leaders. The
Young Irelanders received the news of this unchivalric pro
ceeding Avith an outburst of anger and surprise which AVas
evidently genuine. They had clearly made up their minds
that they Avere to go on playing at preparation for rebel
lion as long as they liked lo keep up the game They were
completely puzzled by the new condition of things. It Avas
not very clear Avhat Leonidas or Vergniaud Avould have done
under such circumstances; it Avas certain that if they Avere
all arrested the country Avould not stir hand or foot on their
behalf Some of the principal leaders, therefore — Smith
O'Brien, Meagher, Dillon, and others — left Dublin and Avent
down into the country. It is not certain even yet whether
they had any clear purpose of rebellion at first. It seems

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 311
probable that they thought of evading arrest for aivhile, and
trying meantime if the country Avas ready to follow them
into an armed raovement. They held a series of gatherings
which might be described as raeetings of agitators, or inar-
shallings of rebels, according as one Avas pleased to interpret
their purpose. But this sort of thing very soon drifted into
rebellion. The principal body of the followers of Smith
O'Brien came into collision Avith the police at a place called
Ballingarry, in Tipperary. They attacked a small force of
police, Avho took refuge in the cottage of a poor AvidoAv
naraed Cormack. The police held the house as a besieged
fort, and the rebels attacked them from the faraous cabbage-
garden outside. The police fired a foAV volleys. The rebels
fired, Avith Avhat Avretched muskets and rifles they possessed,
bnt Avilhout harming a single policeman. After a few of
thera had been killed or Avounded — it never Avas perfectly
certain that any Avere actually killed — -the rebel array dis
persed, and the rebellion Avas all over. In a few days after,
poor Smith O'Brien Avas taken quietly at the raihvay station
in Thurles, Tipperary. He Avas calmly buying a ticket for
Limerick when he Avas recognized. Ho made no resistance
Avhatever, and seemed to regard the Avhole mummery as at
an end. He accepted his fate with the composure of a gen
tleman, and, indeed, in all the part Avhich Avas left for hira
to play he bore himself Avith dignity. It is but justice to an
unfortunate gentleman lo say that sorae reports Avhich Avere
rather ignobly set abroad about his having shoAved a lack
of personal courage in the B.aliingarry affray were, as all
Avill readily believe, quite untrue. Some of the police de
posed that during the fight, if fight it could be called, poor
O'Brien exposed his life Avith entire recklessness. One
policeman said he could have shot him easily at several
periods of the little drara.a, but he felt reluctant to be the
slayer of the misguided descendant of the Irish kings. It
afterward appeared, also, that any little chance of carrying
on any manner of rebellion was put a stop to by Smith
O'Brien's own resolution that his rebels must not seize the
privaie property of any one. He insisted that his rebellion
must pay its way, and the funds Avere soon out. The Con
federate leader Avoke from a dream Avhen he saAv his folIoAv-
ers dispersing after the first volley or two from the police.

312 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
From that moment he behaved like a dignified gentleman,
equal to the fate he had brought upon hira.
Meagher and two of his corapanions Avere arrested a few
days after, as they Avere Avandering hopelessly and aimlessly
through the mountains of Tipperary. The prisoners were
brought for trial before a special commission held at Clon
mel, in Tipperary, in the following September. Sraith
O'Brien Avas the first put on trial, and he was found guilty.
He said a few AVords Avith grave and dignified coraposure,
siraply declaring that he had endeavored to do his duty to
his native country, and that he was prepared to abide the
consequences. He was sentenced to death after the old form
in cases of high-treason — to be hanged, beheaded, and quar
tered. Meagher Avas afterward found guilty. Great com
miseration Avas felt for him. His youth and his eloquence
made all men and Avomen pity him. His father Avas a
Avealthy man Avho had had a respected career in Parliament;
and there had seemed at one time to be a bright and happy
life before young Meagher. The short address in Avhich
Meagher vindicated his actions, Avhen called upon to shoAv
cause Avhy sentence of death should not be passed upon him,
Avas full of manly and pathetic eloquence. He had nothing,
he said, to retract or to ask pardon for. " I ara not here to
crave Avith faltering Up the life I have consecrated to the
independence of ray country. ... I offer to ray country,
as sorae proof of the sincerity with Avhicii I have thought
and spoken and struggled for her, the life of a young
heart. . . . The history of Ireland explains ray crime, and
justifies it. . . . Even here, Avliere the shadoAvs of dealh
surround me, and from which I see my early grave opening
for me in no consecrated soil, the hope Avhich beckoned me
forth on that perilous sea Avhereon I have been Avrecked, ani
mates, consoles, enraptures me. No, I do not despair of my
poor old country, her peace, her liberty, her glory."
Meagher Avas sentenced to death Avith the sarae hideous
formularies as those Avliich had been observed in the case
of Smith O'Brien. No one, hoAvever, really believed for a
raoment that such a sentence was likely to be carried out
in the reign of Queen Victoria. The sentence of death Avas
changed into one of transportation for life Nor Avas even
this carried out. The convicts Avere all sent to Australia,

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 313
and a few years after Mitchel contrived to make his escape,
folloAv;ed by Meagher. The raanner of escape Avas at least
of doubtful credit to the prisoners, for they were placed
under parole, and a very nice questioii was raised as to
whether they had not broken their parole by the attempt to
escape. It was a nice question, which in the case of men of
very delicate sense of honor could, one would think, hardly
have arisen at all. The point in Mitchel's case was, that he
actually went to the police court Avithin whose jurisdiction
he was, formally and publicly announced to the magistrate
that he AvithdreAv his parole, and invited the magistrate to
arrest hira then and there. But the magistrate was unpre
pared for his coming, and was quite thrown off his guard.
Mitchel Avas armed, and so was a friend Avho accompanied
- him, and Avho had planned and carried out the escape.
They had horses wailing at the door, and when they saw
that the magistrate did not knoAV what to do, they left the
court, mounted the horses, and rode aAvay, It Avas contend
ed by Mitchel and by his corapanion, Mr. P. J. Smyth (af
terAvard a distinguished raeraber of Parliaraent), that they
had fulfUled all the conditions required by the parole, and
had formally and honorably withdrawn it. One is only sur
prised how men of honor could thus puzzle and deceive
themselves. The understood condition of a parole is that a
man who intends to withdraw it shall place himself before
his captors in' exactly the same condition as he was Avhen
on his pledged word of honor they allowed him a compara
tive liberty. It is evident that a prisoner Avould never be
allowed to go at large on parole if he were to make use of
his liberty to arrange all the conditions of an escape, and,
when everything was ready, take his captors by surprise,
tell them he Avas no longer bound by the conditions of the
pledge, and that they might keep hira if they could. This
was the view taken by Sraith O'Brien, who declined to have
anything to do Avith any plot for escape while he was on
parole. The advisers of the Crown recoramended that a
conditional pardon should be given to the gallant and un
fortunate gentleraan who had behaved in so honorable a
manner. Smith O'Brien received a pardon on condition of
his not returning to these islands ; but this condition was
Avithdrawn after a tirae, and he carae back to Ireland. He
L— 14

314 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
died quietly in Wales, in 1864. Mitchel settled for awhile
in Richraond, Virginia, and became an ardent advocate of
slavery and an irapassioned charapion ofthe Southern, rebel
lion. He returned to the North after the rebellion, and
more lately came to Ireland, where, oAving to some defect in
the crirainal law, he could not be arrested, his time of penal
servitude having expired, although he had not served it. He
Avas still a hero Avith a certain class of the people ; he was
put up as a candidate for an Irish county, and elected. Lie
Avas not alloAved to enter the House of Comnions, however ;
the election was declared void, and a new writ M'as issued.
He Avas elected again, and sorae turmoil Avas expected, Avhen
suddenly Mitchel, who had long been iu sinking health, was
AvithdraAvn from the controversy by death. He should have
died before. The later years of his life were only an anti
climax. His attitude in the dock in 1848 had something of
dignity and heroism in it, and even the stanchest enemies
ofhis cause admired him. He had undoubtedly great liter
ary ability, and if he had never reappeared in politics the
Avorld Avould have thought that a really brilliant light had
been prematurely extinguished. Meagher served in the
army of the Federal States when the war bi'oke out, and
showed rauch ofthe soldier's spirit and capacity. His end
Avas preraature and inglorious. He fell from the deck of a
steamer one night; it Avas dark, and there was a strong
current running; help came too late. A false step, a
dark night, and the muddy waters of the Missouri closed
the career that had opened Avith so much promise of bright
ness. Many of the conspicuous Young Irelanders rose to some
distinction. Charles Gavan Duffy, the editor ofthe Nation,
Avho was tAvice put on his trial after the failure ofthe insur
rection, but Avhom the jury Avould not on either occasion
convict, became a member of the House of Commons, and
¦afterAvard emigrated to the colony of Victoria. He rose lo
be Prime- minister there, and received knighthood and a
pension. Thoraas Darcy M'Gee, another prorainent rebel,
Avent to the United States, and thence lo Canada, Avhere he
rose to be a minister of the Crown. He was one of the
most loyal supporters of tho British connection. His un
timely death by the hand of an assassin Avas lamented in

CHARTISM AND YOUNG IRELAND. 315
England as Avell as in the colony he had served so Avell
Some of the young Irelanders remained in the United States
and won repute; others returned to England, and of these
not a few entered the House of Coraraons and Avere respect
ed there, the follies of their youth quite forgotten by their
colleagues, even if not disowned by themselves. A remark
able illustration of the spirit of fairness that generally per
vades the House of Coraraons is found in the fact that ev
ery one there respected John Martin, Avho to the day of
his death avowed himself, in Parliament and out of it, a con
sistent and unrepentant opponent of British rule in Ireland.
He Avas respected because ofthe purity of his character and
the trartsparent sincerity of his purpose. Martin had been
devoted to Mitchel in his lifetime, and he died a few days
after Mitchel's death.
The Young Ireland movement came and vanished like a
shadow. It never had any reality or substance in it. It
Avas a literary and poetic inspiration .altogether. It never
took the slightest hold of the peasantry. It hardly touch
ed any men of mature years. It Avas a rather pretty plaj--
ing at rebellion. It Avas an imitation ofthe French Revolu
tion, as the Girondists Imitated the palriots'of Greece and
Rome But it might, perhaps, have had a chance of doing
meiinbrablc mischief if the policy of tiie one 'only man in
the-biisinefes -ivho really was in earnest, and Avas reckless,
had been carried oiit. It is anolher illustration ofthe fact,
Avliich O'Connell's- movement had exemplified before, that
in Irish politics a climax cannot be repeated -or recalled.
Tiiere is something fitful in ail 'Irish agitation. Tbe na
tional eraotion can be Avrought up to a certain teraperature ;
and if at that boiling-point nothing is done, the heat sud
denly goes out, and no bloAving of Cyclopean bellows can
rekindle it. The Repeal agitation was brought up to this
point when the meeting at Clontarf Avas convened ; the dis
persal of the meeting was the end of the Avhole agitation.
With the Young Ireland movement the trial of Mitchel
formed the climax. After that a wise legislator would
have known that there was nothing more to fear. Petion,
the revolutionary Mayor of Paris, knew that Avhen it rained
his partisans could do nothing. There were, in 1848, ob
servant Irishmen Avho knew that after the Mitchel climax

316 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
had been reached the crowd would disperse, not to be col
lected again for that tirae.
These two agitations, the Chartist and the Young Ireland^
constituted what may be called our tribute to the power
of the insurrectionary spirit that Avas abroad over Europe
in 1848. In almost every other European Slate revolution
raised its head fiercely, and fought out its claims in the very
capital, under the eyes of bewUdered royalty. The whole
of Italy, from the Alps to the Straits of Messina, and from
Venice to Genoa, Avas thrown into convulsion; "Our Italy"
once again " shone o'er Avith civil SAVords." There was in
surrection in Berlin and in Vienna. The Eraperor had to
fly from the latter city as the Pope had fled frora Rome.
In Paris there came a Red Republican rising against a Re
public that strove not to be Red, and the rising Avas crushed
by Cavaignac with a terrible strenuousness that raade some
of the streets of Paris literally to run with blood. It was
a grim foreshadowing of the Coramune of 1871. Another
reraarkable foreshadowing of Avhat was to come was seen in
the fact that the Prince Louis Napoleon, long an exile from
France, had been allowed to return to it, and at the close of
the year, in the passion for laAv and order at any price born
of the Red Republican excesses, had been elected President
of the French Republic. Hungary was in arms ; Spain was
in convulsion; even Switzerland was not safe. Our contri
bution to this general commotion Avas to be found in the
demonstration on Kennington Common, and the abortive
attempt at a rising near Ballingarry. There could not pos
sibly be a truer tribute to the solid strength of our system.
Not for one raoraent was the political constitution of Eng
land seriously endangered. Not for one hour did the safety
of our great coramunities require a call upon the soldiers in
stead of upon the police. Not one charge of cavalry was
needed to put down the fiercest outburst of the rebellious
spirit in England. Not one single execution took place.
The meaning of this is clear. It is not that there were no
grievances in our system calling for redress. It is not that
the existing institutions did not bear heavily down on many
classes. It is not that our political or social system Avas so
conspicuously better than that of some European countries
which Avere torn and ploughed up by revolution. To iraag-

DON PACIFICO. 317
ine that we owed our freedom from revolution to our free
dom from serious grievance, would bo to misread altogether
the lessons offered to our statesmen by that eventful year.
We have done the work of whole generations of Reforraers
in the interval between this time and that. We have made
peaceful reforms, political, industrial, legal, since then, Avhich,
if not to be had otherwise, Avould have justified any appeal
to revolution. There, hoAvever, Ave touch upon the lesson of
the time. Our political and constitutional systera rendered
an appeal to force unnecessary and superfluous. No call to
arms Avas needed to bring about any reforra that the cora
raon judgment of the country might demand. Other peo
ples floAv lo arms because they were driven by despair; be
cause there Avas no Avay in their political constitution for
the influence of public opinion to make itself justly felt; be
cause those Avho were in power held it by the force of bay
onets, and not of public agreement. The results of the year
were, ou the Avhole, unfavorable to popular liberty. The re
sults of the year that followed were decidedly reactionary.
The tirae had not corae, in 1848 or 1849, for Liberal princi
ples to assert theraselves. Their " great deed," to quote
some of the Avords of our English poetess, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, " was too great." We in this country Avere saved
alike from the revolution and the reaction by the universal
recognition ofthe fact, among all who gave theraselves time
to think, that public opinion, being the ultimate ruling pow
er, was the only authority to which an appeal Avas needed,
and that in the end justice would be done. All but the very
wildest spirits could afford to wait ; and no revolutionary
raoveraent is really dangerous which is only the work of the
wildest spirits.

CHAPTER XIX.
DON PACIFICO.
The narae of Don Pacifico Avas as farailiar to the world
some quarter of a century ago as that of M. Jecker was
about the time of the French invasion of Mexico. Don
Pacifico became famous for a season as the man Avhose quar-

318 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
rel had nearly brought on a European Avar, caused a tera
porary disturbance of good relations belAveen England and
France, split up political parties in England in a manner
hardly ever known before, and established the reputation of
Lord Palraerston as one of the greatest Pariiamentary de
baters of his time Among the memorable speeches deliA'-
eredin the English House of Coraraons, that of Lord Palmer
ston on the Don Pacifico debate raust ahvays take a place.
It was not because the subject of the debate Avas a great
one, or beeause there Avere any grand principles involved.
Tlie question originally in dispute Avas unutterably trivial
and paltry; there Avas no particular principle involved; it
Avas altogether Avhat is called in coramercial litigation a
question of account; a controversy about the amount and
time of payment of a doubtful claira. Nor was the speech
delivered 'by Lord Palraerston one bf the grand historical
displays of oratory that, even Avhen the sound of them is
lost, send their eichoes to "roll from soul to soul." It was
not like one of Burke's great speeches, or one ,of Chatham's.
It Avas not one calculated to provoke keen literary contro
versy, like Sheridan's celebrated " Begum speech," Avhich all
contemporaries held to be unrivalled, but Avhich a later gen
eration assumes to have been rather flashy rhetoric. There
are no passages of splendid eloquence in Palmerston's Pa
cifico speech. Its great merit Avas its Avonderful power as a
contribution to Parliamentary argument ; as a masterly ap
peal to the feelings, the jirejudices, and the passions of the
House of Commons ; as a complete Parliamentary A-ictory
over a combination of the most influential, eloquent, and
heterogeneous opponents.
Don Pacifico Avas a Jcav, a Portuguese by extraction, but
a native of Gibraltar, and a British subject. His house in
Alliens Avas attacked and plundered in the open day, on
April 4lii, 1847, by an Athenian mob, Avho Avore headed, it
Avas .affirmed, by two sons of the Greek Minister of War.
The attack came about in this way : It had been customary
in Greek towns to celebrate Easier by burning an effigy of
Judas Iscariot. In 1847 the police of Athens Avere ordered
to prevent this performance, ahd the mob, disappointed of
their favorite amusement, ascribed the noAv orders to the
influence of the Joavs. Don Pacifico's house happened to

DON PACIFICO. , . ¦ ,'. 319
stand near the spot Avhere the Judas Avas annually burnt;
Don Pacifico Avas knoAvn to be a Jew, and the anger ofthe
mob was Avreaked upon hira accordingly. There could be
no doubt that the attack Avas lawless, and that the Greek
authorities took no trouble to protect Pacifico against it.
Don Pacifico raade a claim against the Greek Government
for compensation. He estimated his losses, direct and iii-
dii'ect, at nearly thirty-two thousand pounds sterling. An
other claim was made at the same time by anolher British
subject, a man of a very different stamp from Don PacificOi
This Avas Mr. Finlay, the historian of Greece Mr. Finlay
had gone out to Greece in the enthusiastic days of Byron
and Cochrane and Church and Hastings; and he settled in
Athens when the independence of Greece had been estab
lished. Some of his land had been taken for the purpose
of rounding off the new palace gardens of King Otho; and
Mr. Finlay had declined to accept the terms offered by the
Greek Government, lo Avhicli other land-owners in the same
position as himself had assented. Some, stress Avas laid by
Lord Palmerston's antagonists, in the course of the debate,
on the fact that Mr. Finlay thus stood out apart from olher
land-owners in Athens. Mr. Finlay, however, had a perfect
right to stand out for any price he thought fit. He Avas in
the same position as a Greek resident of London or Man
chester whose land is taken for the purposes of a raihvay or
other public, improvement, and Avho declines to accept the
amount of compensation tendered for it in the first instance.
The peculiarity of the case was that Mr. Finlay Avas not
left, as the supposed Greek gentleman assuredly Avould be,
to make good his clairas for hiraself in the courts of law.
Neither Don Pacifico nor Mr. Finlay had appealed to the
law courts at all. But about this time our Foreign Office
had had several little complaints against the Greek authori
ties. We had taken so considerable a part in setting up
Greece that our ministers not, unnaturally thought Greece
ought to shoAV her. gratitude by attending a little more
closely to our advice. On the other hand. Lord Palmerston
had made up his mind that there Avas constant intrigue .go
ing on against our interests araong the, foreign diplomatists
in Athens. |He was convinced that France .Avas perpetually
plotting against us there, and that Russia Avas AvatclVing an

320 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
opportunity to supersede once for all our influence by com
pletely establishing hers. Don Pacifico's sheets, counter
panes, and gold watch had the advantage of being made the
subject of a trial of strength between England on the one
side, and France and Russia on the other.
There had been other complaints as well. Ionian subjects
of her Majesty had sent in remonstrances against lawless or
high-handed proceedings; and a midshipman of her Majes
ty's ship Fantome, landing from a boat at night on the shore
of Patras, had been arrested by mistake. None of these
questions would seem at first sight to wear a very grave
international character. All they needed for settlement, it
might be thought, was a little open discussion, and the exer
cise of some good sense and moderation on both sides. It
cannot be doubted that the Greek authorities were lax and
careless, and that acts had been done which they could not
justify. It is only fair to say that they do not appear to
have tried to justify some of them; but they were of opin
ion that certain of the claims Avere absurdly exaggerated,
and in this belief they proved to be well sustained. The
Greeks Avere very poor, and also very dilatory ; and they
gave Lord Palmerston a reasonable excuse for a Utile irapa
tience. Unluckily Lord Palraerston becarae possessed with
the idea that the French minister in Greece Avas secretly
setting the Greek Government on to resist our clairas; for
the Foreign Office had raade the clairas ours. They had
lumped up the outrages on Ionian seamen, the mistaken ar
rest of the midshipman (who had been released with apol
ogies the raoment his nationality and position were discov
ered), Mr. Finlay's land, and Don Pacifico's household fur
niture in one claira, converted it into a national demand,
and insisted that Greece must pay up within a given time
or take the consequences. Greece hesitated, and according
ly the British fleet was ordered to the Piraeus. It made its
appearance very promptly there, and seized all the Greek
vessels belonging to the Governnient and to private mer
chants that Avere found within the waters.
The Greek Governraent appealed to France and Russia as
Powers joined with us in the treaty to protect the indepen
dence of Greece. Prance and Russia were both disposed to
make bitter complaint of not having been consulted, in the

DON PACIFICO. 321
first instance, by the British Governnient ; nor Avas their
feeling greatly softened by Lord Palmerston's pereraptory
reply that it Avas all a question betAveen England and Greece,
Avith which no other Power had any business to interfere.
The Russian Governraent wrote an angry and, indeed, an of
fensive remonstrance. The Russian Foreign Minister spoke
of "the very painful impression produced upon the raind of
the Eraperor by the unexpected acts of violence which the
British authorities had just directed against Greece;" and
asked if Great Britain, "abusing the advantages which are
afforded to her by her immense maritime superiority," in
tended to "disengage herself from all obligation," and to
" authorize all Great Powers, on every filling opportunity, to
recognize toward the weak no other rule but their own Avill,
no other right but their own physical strength." The French
Government, perhaps under the pressure of difficulties and
uncertain affairs at home, in their unsettled slate showed a
better temper, and intervened only in the interests of peace
and good understanding. Something like a friendly arbitra
tion was accepted frora France, and the French Government
sent a special representative to Athens to try to come to
terms with our minister there. The difficulties appeared
likely to be adjusted. All the clairas, except those of Don
Pacifico, were matter of easy settlement, and at first the
French coraraissioner seeraed even willing to accept Don
Pacifico's stupendous valuation ofhis household goods. But
Pacifico had introduced other demands of a more shadowy
character. He said that he had certain claims on the Port
uguese Governraent, and that the papers on which these
claims rested for support were destroyed in the sacking of
his house, and therefore he felt entitled to ask for £26,618,
as compensation on that account also. The French corarais
sioner was a little staggered at this deraand, and declined
to accede to it without further consideration; and as our
minister, Mr. Wyse, did not beljeve he had any authority to
abate any of the noAV national demand, the negotiation was
for the tirae broken off. In the mean tirae, hoAvever, negotia
tions had still been going on belAveen the English and French
Governraents in London, and these had resulted in a conven
tion disposing of all the disputed clairas. By the terms of
this agreeraent a sum of eight thousand five hundred pounds
14*

322 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Avas to be paid by the Greek Governmerit, to be divided
among the various elaimarits; find Greece Avas also to pay
Avhatever sum might be found to be fairly due on account
of Don Pacifico's Portuguese claims, after these had been in
vestigated by arbitrators. This Avould seem a very satisfac
tory and honorable arrangement. But sorae demon of mis
chief appeared to have this unlucky affair in charge from the
first. The two negotiations going on in London and Ath-
isiis simultaneously got in each other's Avay. Instructions as
to Aviiat had been agreed to in London were not forwarded
to Athens quickly enough by the English Government, and
Aviien tiie French Governraent sent out to their coraraission
er the news of the convention, he found that Mr. Wyse knew
nothing about the matter, and had no authority Avhich, as he
conceived, Avould have Avarranted hira in departing frora the
course of action he was foUoAving out. Mr. Wyse, therefore,
proceeded with iiis raeasures of coercion, and at length the
Greek Governnient gave Avay. The convention having, hoAV-
ever, been made in the mean time in London, there then arose
a question as to Avhether that couA'ention or the terras ex
torted at Athens should be the basis of arrangement. Over
this trumpery dispute, Avhich a foAV words of frank good sense
and good temper on both sides Avould have easily settled, a
new quarrel seeraed at one tithe likely to break out between
England and France. The French Government actually
Avithdrew their ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, frora Lon
don; and there Avas for a short time a general alarm over
Europe. But tlie question in dispute Avas really too small
and insignificant for any t\vo rational -governments td make
it a cause of serious quarrel ; and aftei; awhile our Govern
ment gave way, a;iid agreed to an arrangement Avhich was,
in tlie main, ail that France desired. When, after a long
lapse of time, the arbitrators came to settle the claims of
Don Pacifico, it Avas found that he was entitled to about one-
thirtieth of the sum he had .originally demanded. He had
asses.«ed all his clairas on the same Uber.al and fanciful scale
as that Avhich he adopted in estimating the value of his
household property. Don Pacifico, it seems, charged in his
bill one hundred and fifty pounds sterling for a bedstead,
thirty jwuiids for the sheets of the bed, lAvehty-five pounds
for tAVO coverlets, and ten pounds for a pillow-case Cleopa-

DON PACIFICO. 323
tra might have been contented Avilh bed furnilure so luxuri
ous as Don Pacifico represented himself to have in his com
mon use The jewellery of his Avife and daughters he esti
mated at two thousand pounds. He gave no vouchers for
any of these claims, saying that all his papers had been de
stroyed by the mob. It seemed, too, that he had always
lived iu a humble sort of way, and Avas never supposed by
his neighbors to possess such splendor of oi-nament and
household goods.
While the controversy betAveen the Englisli and French
Governmenls was yet unfinished, a Parliamentary controver
sy belAveen the former Government and the Opposition in
the House of Lords was to begin. Lord Stanley proposed
a resolution Avhich Avas practically a vole of censure on the
Governraent. The resolution, in fact, expressed the regret
ofthe House to find that "various claims against the Greek
Government, doubtful in point of justice, or exaggerated in
araount, have been enforced by coercive measures,' directed
against tiie conimerce and people of Greece, and calculated
to endanger the continuance of our friendly relations Avilh
foreign Powers." The resolution Avas carried, after a debate
of great spirit and energy, by a majority of thirty-seven.
Lord Palmerston was not dismayed. A ministry is seldom
greatly troubled by an adverse vote in the House of Lords.
The Foreign Secretary, writing about the result ofthe di
vision the following day, merely said : " We Avere beaten last
night in the Lords by a larger raajority than Ave had, up
to the last raoraent, expected ; but when avc took office we
kncAV that our opponents had a larger pack in the Lords
than we had, and that whenever the two packs Avere to be
fully dealt out, theirs would shoAV a larger number than
ours." Still, it Avas necessary that something should be done
in the Coraraons to counterbalance the stroke of the Lords,
and accordingly Mr. Roebuck, acting as an independent mem
ber, although on this occasion in harmony Avith the GoA'ern-
raent, gave notice of a resolulion Avhich boldly affirraed that
the principles on which tlie foreign policy of the Govern
ment had been regulated Avere " such as Avere calculated to
maintain the honor and dignity of this country, and in tiraes
of unexampled difficulty to preserve peace belAveen England
and the various nations ofthe Avorld." On June 24th, 1850.

324 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
a night meraorable in Parliamentary annals as the opening
night ofthe debate which established Lord Palmerston's po
sition as a great leader of parly, Mr. Roebuck brought for
ward his resolution.
A reader unaccustomed to Pariiamentary tactics may fail
to observe the peculiar shrewdness of the resolution. It was
framed, at least it reads as if it had been framed, to accom
plish one purpose while professing to serve another. It was
intended, of course, as a reply to the censure of the House
of Lords. It was to proclaim to the world that the Repre
sentative Chamber had reversed the decision of the House
of Peers, and acquitted the ministry. But Avhat did Mr.
Roebuck's resolution actually do? Did it affirm that the
Government had acted rightly with regard to Greece ? The
dealings Avith Greece Avere expressly censured by the House
of Lords; but Mr. Roebuck proposed to affirm that the gen
eral policy of the ministry deserved the approval of the
Liouse of Commons. It Avas well known that there were
many raen of Liberal opinions in the House of Commons who
did not approve ofthe course pursued with regard to Greece,
but who would yet have been very sorry to give a vote
Avhich might contribute to the overthrow of a Liberal Gov
ernment. The resolution was so fraraed as to offer to all
such an opportunity of supporting the Governraent, and yet
satisfying their consciences. For it might be thus put to
them: "You think the Government were too harsh with
Greece? Perhaps you are right. But this resolution does
not say that they were quite free of blarae in their Avay of
dealing with Greece. It only says that their policy, on the
Avhole, has been sound and successful; and of course you
raust adrait that. They may have made a little mistake with
regard to Greece; but admitting that, do you not still think
that on the whole they had done very well, and much better
than any Tory minister would be likely to do? This is all
that Roebuck's resolution asks you to affirm ; and you really
cannot vole against it."
A large number of Liberals were, no doubt, influenced by
this view ofthe situation, and by the framing ofthe resolu
tion. But there Avere some who could not be led into any
lapproval of the particular transaction which the resolution,
if not jnteiided to cover, Avould certainly be made to cover.

DON PACIFICO. 325
There Avere others, too, who, even on the broader field opened
purposely up by the resolution, honestly believed that Lord
Palmerston's general policy was an incessant violation of
the principle of non-intervention, and was, therefore, injuri
ous to the character and the safety of the country. In a
prolonged and poAverful debate sorae ofthe foreraost men on
both sides ofthe House opposed and denounced the policy of
the Governraent, for which, as everyone knew, Lord Palraer
ston Avas alraost exclusively responsible. " The allied troops
Avho led the attack," says Mr. Evelyn Ashley, in his life of
Lord Palmerston, " were English Protectionists and foreign
Absolutists." It is strange that an able and usually fair-
minded raan should be led into such absurdity. Lord Palm
erston hiraself called it "a shot fired by a foreign conspir
acy, aided and abetted by a domestic intrigue." But Loi^
Palraerston Avas the rainister personally assailed, and raight
be excused, perhaps, for believing at the moment that war
ring monarchs Avere giving the fatal wound, and that the
attack on hira was tho work of the corabined treachery of
Europ'e A historian looking back upon the events after an
interval of a qu.arter of a century ought to be able to take
a calraer vieAv of things. Araong the " English Protection
ists" Avho took a prominent part in condemning the policy
of Lord Palmerston were Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cobden, Sir
Robert Peel, Sir Williara Molesworth, and Mr. Sidney Her
bert. In the House of Lords,Lord Broughara, Lord Canning,
and Lord Aberdeen had supported the resolution of Lord
Stanley. The truth is that Lord Palmerston's proceedings
Avere fairly open to difference of judgment, even on the part
of the raost devoted Liberals and the most independent
thinkers. It did not need that a man should be a Protec
tionist or an Absolutist to explain his entire disapproval of
such a course of conduct as that Avhich had been followed
out Avith regard to Greece. It seeras to us now, quietly
looking back at the whole story, hardly possible that a man
Avilh, for example, the teraperaraent and the general views
of Mr. Gladstone could have approved of such a policy; ob
viously impossible that a man like Mr. Cobden could have
approved of it. These men simply followed their judgment
and their conscience.
The principal interest of the debate noAv rests in the man-

326 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ner of Lord Palmerston's defence. The speech was, indeed,
a raasterpiece of Parliaraentary argument and address. It
Avas, in part, a complete exposition and defence ofthe whole
course of the foreign policy Avhich the noble speaker had
directed. But although the resolution treated only of the
general policy of the Government, Lord Palraerston did not
fail to raake a special defence of his action toAvard Greece.
He based his vindication of tiiis particular chapter of his
policy on the ground which, of all others, gave him most ad
vantage in addressing a Parliamentary assembly. He con
tended that in all he had done he had been actuated by the
resolve that the poorest claimant Avho bore the name of au
English citizen should be protected by the Avhole strength
of England against the oppression of a foreign Government.
His speech Avas an appeal to all the elementary emotions
of manhood and citizenship and good-fellowship. To vote
against him seemed to be to declare that England was un
able or unAvilling to protect her children. A man appeared
to be guilty of an unpatriotic and ignoble act Avho censured
the minister Avhose only error, if error it Avere, Avas a loo
proud and generous resolve to make tiie name of England
and the rights of Englishmen respected throughout the
Avorld. A good deal of ridicule had been heaped, not unnat
urally, on Don Pacifico, his clairas, his career, andliis costly
bed furniture. Lord Palraerston turned that A'ery ridicule
to good account for his own cause He repelled with a
Avarrath of seemingly generous indignation the suggestion
that because a man Avas lowly, pitiful, even ridiculous, even
of doubtful conduct in his earUer career, therefore he Avas
one Avilli Avliom a^foreign Government Avas not bound lo ob
serve any principles of fair dealing at all He protested
against having serious things treated jocosely; .as if any
man in Parliaraent had ever treated serious tilings more
often in a jocose spirit. He protested against having the
House kept " in a roar of laughter at the poverty of one suf
ferer, or at the miserable h.abitation of another; at the na
tionality of one raan, or the religion of another ; as if because
a man Avas poor he might be bastinadoed and tortured Avilh
impunity, as if a man Avho Avas born in Scotland might be
robbed Avithout redress, or because a raan is ofthe JcAvish
persuasion he is a fair mark for any outrage" Lord Palraer-

DON PACIFICO. 327
sion had also a great advantage given to him by the argu
ment of some of his opponents, that Avhatever the laws of ,a
foreign country, a stranger has only to abide by thera, and
that a Government claiming redress for any Avrong done lo
one of its subjects is completely answered by the statement
that he has suffered only as inhabitants of the country them
selves have suffered. The argument against Lord Palmer
ston was pushed entirely too far in this instance, and it gave
hira one of his finest opportunities for reply. It is true, as
a general rule in the intercourse of nations, tiiat a stranger
Avho goes voluntarily into a country is expected to'.abide by
its laws, and that his Government Avill not protect him from
their ordinary operation in every case where it raay seem to
press hardly or even unfairly against him. But in this un-
dej-standing is always involved a distinct assuinjition that
the laAvs of the State are to be such as civilization Avoul^l
properly recognize,' supposing that the State in question
professes to be a civilized State. It also distinctly assumed
that the Slate must be able and Avilling lo enforce its oavu
laws where they are fairly invoked on behalf of a foreigner.
If, for instance, a foreigner has a just claim against some con
tinental Government, and that Governraent will not recog
nize the claim, or, recognizing it, will not satisfy it, and the
Governraent ofthe injured man intervenes and asks that his
claira shall be met — it Avould never be accounted a sufficient
answer to say that many of the inhabitants of the country
had been treated just in the sarae Avay, and had got no re
dress. If there were a law in Turkey, or any other slave-
owning State, that a raan Avho could not pay his debts was
liable to have his Avife and daughter sold into slavery, it is
certain that no Governraent like that of England would hear
ofthe application Of such a laAv lo the family of a poor Eng
lish trader settled in Constantinople. There is no clear rule
easy to be laid doAvn ; perhaps there can be no clear rule on
the subject at ali. But it is evident that the goveirnments
of all civilized countries do exercise a certain protectorate
over their subjects in foreign countries, and do insist in ex
treme cases that the laws of the country shall not be applied
or denied to them in a manner which a native resident might
think himself compelled to endure without protest. It is
not even so in tho case of raanif'esth' harsh and barbarous

328 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
laAVS alone, or ofthe denial of justice in a harsh and barbar
ous way. The principle prevails even in regard to laws
Avhicli are in theraselves unexceptionable and necessary.
No Governraent, for example, will allow one of its subjects
living in a foreign country to be brought under the law for
thelevying ofthe conscription there, and compelled to serve
in the army of the foreign State.
All this only shows that the opponents of Lord Palmerston
made a mistake when they endeavored to obtain any gen
eral assent to the principle that a minister does wrong who
asks for his fellow-subjects at the hands of a foreign Gov
ernment any better trealraent than that which the Govern
ment in question administers, and without revolt, to its own
people. Lord Palmerston was not the man to lose so splen
did an opportunity. He really made it appear as if the
question belAveen him and his opponents was that of the
protection of Englishmen abroad ; as if he Avere anxious
to look after their lives and safety, while his opponents were
urging the odious principle that when once an Englishman
put his foot on a foreign shore his own Governraent re
nounced all intent to concern themselves with any fate that
might befall hira. Llere was a new turn given to the de
bate, a new opportunity afforded to those who, while they
did not approve exactly of what had been done with Greece,
were nevertheless anxious to support the general principles
of Lord Palraerston's foreign policy. The speech Avas a
marvellous appeal to Avhat are called "English interests."
In a peroration of thrilling power Lord Palraerston asked
for the verdict of the House to decide " Avhether, as the Ro
man in days of old held hiraself free from indignity when
he could say ' Civis Roraanus sura,' so also a British subject,
in Avhatever land he raay be, shall feel confident that the
watchful eye aud the strong arra of England will protect
him against injustice and wrong."
When Lord Palmerston closed his speech the overwhelra
ing plaudits of the House foretold the victory he had won.
It Avas, indeed, a masterpiece of telling defence. The speech
occupied sorae five hours in delivery. It was spoken, as
Mr. Gladstone afterward said, frora the dusk of one day to
the dawn of the next. It was spoken Avithout the help of a
single note. Lord Palraerston ahvays Avisely thought that

DON PACIFICO. 329
in order to have full command of such an audience a man
should, if possible, never use notes. He was quite conscious
ofhis own lack of the higher gifts of imagination and emo
tion that raake the great orator; but he knew also what a
splendid weapon of attack and defence Avas his fluency and
readiness, and he Avas not Avilling to Aveaken the effect of
its spontaneity by the interposition of a single note. AU
this great speech, therefore, full as it was of rainute details,
names, dates, figures, references of all kinds, Avas delivered
with the sarae facility, the same lack of effort, the same ab
sence of any adventitious aids to memory, which character
ized Palmerston's ordinary style Avhen he answered a simple
question. Nolhing could be raore complete than Palmer
ston's success. " Civis Roraanus " settled the matter. Who
was in the House of Coraraons so rude that would not be a
Roman ? Who Avas there so lacking in patriotic spirit that
Avould not bave his countrymen as good as any Roman citi
zen of them all ? It was to little purpose that Mr. Gladstone,
in a speech of singular argumentative power, pointed out that
"a Roraan citizen Avas the member of a privileged caste, of
a victorious and conquering nation, of a nation that held all
others bound down by the strong arm of power — which had
one law for him and another for the rest ofthe world, which
asserted in his favor principles which it denied to all others."
It Avas in vain that Mr. Gladstone asked whether Lord Palm
erston thought that was the position Avhich it would becorae
a civilized and Christian nation like England to claim for
her citizens. The glory of being a "civis Roraanus" was
far too strong for any mere argument drawn from fact and
common-sense to combat against it. The phrase had carried
the day. When Mr. Cockburn, in supporting Lord Palraer
ston's policy, quoted from classical auihority to show that
the Romans had always avenged any wrongs done to their
citizens, and cited the words, "Quot bella raajores nostri
suscepti erint, quot elves Roraani injuria affecti sunt, navicu-
larii retenli, niercatores spoliati esse dicerentur," the House
cheered raore turaultuously than ever. In vain was the calra,
grave, studiously moderate remonstrance of Sir Robert Peel,
who, Avhile generously declaring that Palmerston's speech,
" made us all proud of the man Avho delivered it," yet re
corded his firm protest against the style of policy which

330 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Palmerston's eloquence had endeavored to glorify. The
victory Avas all Avith Palmerston. He had, in the words of
Shakspeare's Rosalind, Avrestled Avell, and overthroAvn more
than his enemies.
After a debate of four nights, a majority of forty-six Avas
given for the resolution. The ministry carae out not only
absolved but triuraphant. The odd thing about the whole
proceeding is that the rainisters in general heartily disap
proved of the sort of policy Avhich Palmerston put so ener
getically into action — at least they disapproved, if not his
principles, yet certainly his Avay of enforcing thera. Before
this debate came on. Lord John Russell had made up his
mind that it Avould be impossible for hira to reraain in office
Avith Lord Palmerston as Foreign Secretary. None the less,
hovvever, did Lord John Russell defend the policy of the
Foreign Office in a speech which Palraerston himself de
scribed as "admirable and first-rate." The ministers felt
bound to stand by the actions Avhich they had not repudi
ated at the time when they were done. They could not
alloAV Lord Palmerston to be separated from them in polit
ical responsibility when they had not separated theraselves
from moral responsibility for his proceedings in time. There
fore they had to defend in Parliament what they did' not
pretend to approve in private. The theory of a cabinet al
ways united when attacked rendered, doubtless, such a course
of proceeding necessary in Parliamentary tactics. It would,
perhaps, be hard to make it seem quite satisfactory to the
simple and unsophisticated mind. No part of our duty calls
on us to atlempt such a task. It Avas a famous victory-^we
must only settle the questioii as old Caspar disposed of the
doubts about the propriety ofthe praise given to the Duke
of Marlborough and " our good Prince Eugene." " It is not
telling a lie," says some one in Thackeray, "it is only voting
with your party." But Thackeray had never been in the
House of Commons.
Of many fine speeches made during this brilliant debate
Ave must notice one in particular. It Avas that of Mr. Cock
burn, then member for Southampton — a speech to Avhicli
.allusion has already been raade. Never in our time has a
reputation been more suddenly, corapletely, and deservedly
raade than Mr. Cockburn Avon by his brilliant display of in-

DON PACIFICO. ¦ ,- 331
genious argument and stirring Avords. The raanner of the
speaker lent additional effect to his clever and captivating
eloquence. He had a clear, sweet, penetrating voice, a flu
ency, that seemed so easy as to make listeners sometimes
fancy that it ought to cost no effort, and a grace of gestures
such as it must be owned the courts of law Avliere he had
had his training do not ofteii teach. Mr. Cockburn defend
ed the policy of Palmerston Avith an effect only inferior to
that produced by Palraerston's own speech, and Avith a rhe
torical grace and finish lo which Palmerston made no preten
sion. In Avriting to Lord Normanby about the debate. Lord
Palmerston distributed his praise to friends and enemies Avith
that generous impartiality Avhich Avas a fine part ofhis char
acter. Gladstone's attack on his policy he pronounced "a
first-rate performance." Peel and Disraeli he praised like-
Avise. But " as lo Cockburn's," he said, " I do not knoAV that
I ever in the course of niy life heard a better speech from
anybody, Avithout any exception." The effect Avliich Cock
burn's speech produced on- the House was Avell described in
the House itself by one Avho rose chiefly for the purpose of
disputing the principles it advocated. Mr. Cobden observed
that when Mr. Cockburn had concluded his speech, " one-
half of the Treasury benches Avere left empty, Avhile honor
able members ran after one anolher, tumbling over each
other in their haste to shake hands Avith the honorable and
learned member." Mr. Cockburn's career Avas safe, from
that hour. It is needless to say that he Avell upheld in
after years the reputation he Avon in a night. The brilliant
and sudden success ofthe member for Southampton Avas but
the'flttiug prelude to the abiding distinction Avon by the
Lord Chief-justice of England.'
One association of profound melancholy clings to that
great debate. The speech delivered by Sir Robert Peel
Avas the last that Avas destined to come from his lips. Tho
debate closed on the morning of Saturday, June 29th. It
Avas nearly four o'clock Avhen the division Avas taken, and
Peel left the House as the sunlight was already beginning
to stream into the corridors and lobbies. He Avent home to
rest ; btit his sleep could not be long. He had to attend a
meeting ofthe Royal Commissioners of the Great Industrial
Exhibition at lAvelve, and the meeting was important. The

332 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
site of the building had to be decided upon, and Prince Al
bert and the Coraraissioners generally relied greatly on the
influence of Sir Robert Peel to sustain them against the
clamorous objection out-of-doors to the choice of a place in
Hyde Park. Peel went to the meeting, and undertook to
assurae the leading part in defending the decision of the
Commissioners before the House of Commons. He return
ed home for a short time after the meeting, and then- set ont
for a ride in the Park. He called at Buckingham Palace,
and wrote his name in the Queen's visiting-book. Then, as
he was riding up Constitution Hill, he stopped to talk to a
young lady, a friend of his, who was also riding. His horse
suddenly shied and flung him off; and Peel clinging to the
bridle, the aniraal fell with its knees on his shoulders. The
injuries which he received proved beyond all skill of sur
gery. He lingered, now conscious, uoav delirious with pain,
fbr two or three days; and he died about eleven o'clock on
the night of July 2d. Most of the raerabers of his family
and some ofhis dearest old friends and corapanions in polit
ical arms were beside hira when he died. The tears ofthe
Duke of Wellington in one House of Parliaraent, and the
eloquence of Mr. Gladstone in the other, were expressions as
fitting and adequate as might be of the universal feeling of
the nation.
There was no honor which Parliament and the country
¦would not wUlingly have paid to the memory of Peel.
Lord John Ru.ssell proposed, with the sanction of the
Crown, that his remains should be buried with public hon
ors. But Peel had distinctly declared in his will that he
desired his remains lo lie beside those of his father and
mother in the family vault at Drayton Bassett. All that
Parliament and the country could do, therefore, was to de
cree a monument to him in Westminster Abbey. The offer
of a peerage Avas made to Lady Peel, but, as might perhaps
have been expected, it was declined. Lady Peel declared
that her OAvn desire Avas to bear no other narae than that by
which her husband had been known. She also explained
that the express wish of her husband, recorded in his will,
Avas that no member of his faraily should accept any title or
other roAvard on account of any services Peel might have
rendered to his country. No desire could have been more

DON PACIFICO. 833
honorable to the statesman who had formed and expressed
it; none certainly more in keeping with all that Avas knoAvn
of the severely unselfish and unostentatious characler of Sir
Robert Peel Yet there were persons found to misconstrue
his raeaning, and to discover offence to the order of aristoc
racy in Peel's deterraination. A report went about that the
great statesman's objection to the acceptance of a peerage
by one of his family implied a disparagement of the order
of peers, and was founded on feelings of conterapt or hostil
ity to the House of Lords. Mr. Goulburn, who Avas one of
Peel's executors, easily explained Peel's meaning, if indeed
it needed explanation to any reasonable raind. Peel Avas
impressed with the conviction that it Avas better for a man
to be the son of his own Avorks ; and he desired that his
sons, if they Avere to bear titles and distinctions given thera
by the Stale, should win thera by their oavu services and
worth, and not siraply put them on as an inheritance from
their father. As regards himself, it raay avoU be that he
thought the narae under which he had made his reputation
became him better than any new title. He had not looked
for reward of that kind, and might well prefer to mark the
fact that he did not specially value such distinctions. Nor
Avould it be any disparagement to the peerage — a thing
Avhich in the case of a man with Peel's opinions is utterly
out ofthe question — lo think that much of the dignity of a
title depends on its long descent and its historic record, and
that a fire-new, specially invented title to a man already
great is a disfigurement, or at least a disguise, rather than
an adornment. When titles were abolished during the great
French Revolution, Mirabeau coraplained of being called
"Citizen Riquetti" in the official reports of the Asserably.
"With your Riquetti," he said, angrily, " you have puzzled
all Europe for days." Europe knew Count Mirabeau, but
was for sorae tirae bewildered by Citizen Riquetti. Sir
Robert Peel may well have objected to a reversal of the
process, and to the bewildering of Europe by disguising a
faraous citizen in a new peerage.
"Peel's death," Lord -Palmerston wrote to his brother a
feAV days after, putting the remark at the close of a long
letter about the recent victory of the Government and the
congratulations he had personally received, " is a great ca-

334 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
iamity, and one that seems to have had no adequate cause.
He was a very bad and aAvkAvard rider, and his horse miglit
have been sat by any better equestrian ; but he seems some
how or other to have been entangled in the bi-idle,'and to
have pulled the horse to step or kneel upon him. The in
jury to the shoulder Avas severe but curable; that which
killed him Avas a broken rib forced Avilh great violence iii-
Avard into the lungs." The cause of Peel's death 'Avoiild
certainly not have been adequate, as Lord Palmerston put
it, if great men needed prodigious and portentous' events
to bring about their end. But the stumble of a horse has
been found enough in other instances too. Peel seemed des
tined for great things yet when he died. He Avas but in his
sixty- third year; he Avas some years younger than Lord
Palraerston, Avho may be said, Avithout exaggeration, to have
just achieved his first' great success. -Many circumstances
Avere pointing to Peel as likely before long to be summoned
again -to 'the leadership in the government of the country.
It is superfluous to say that his faculties as Parliamentary
orator or statesman Avere not showing any signs of decay.
An English public man is not supposed to show signs of
decaying faculties at sixty-two. The shying horse, aud per
haps the bad ridership, settled the question of Peel's career
between thera. We have already endeavored to estimate
that career and to do justice to Peel's great qualities. ' He
Avas not a man of original genius, but he Avas one of the best
administrators of other men's ideas that ever kncAV how and
Avhen to leave a party and to serve a country. He Avas
never tried by the severe tests Avliich tell whether a raan is
a statesman of the highest order. He was never tried as
Cavour, for example, Avas tried, by conditions which placed
the national existence of his country in jeopardy. He had
no such trials to encounter as were forced on Pitt He was
the minister of a country always peaceful, safe, and prosper
ous. But he Avas called upon at a trying raoment to take a
step on Avhich assuredly much of the prosperity of the peo
ple and nearly all the hopes of his party, along Avith his
OAvn personal reputation, Avere imperilled. He did not want
courage to take the step, and he had the judgraent to take
it at the right time. He bore the reproaches of that which
had been his party Avith dignity and composure. He was

¦ DON PACIFICO. 335
undoubtedly, as Lord Beaconsfield calls him, a great raera
ber of Parliaraent ; but he Avas surely also a great minister.
Perhaps he only needed a profounder trial at the hands of
fate to have earned the title of a great man.
To the same year belongs the close of anolher remarkable
career. On August 26th, 1850, Louis Philippe, lately King
of the French, died at Claremont, the guest of England.
Few men in history had gone through greater reverses.
Son of Philippe Egalite, brought up in a sort of blending of
luxury and scholastic self-denial, under the contrasting in
fluence of his father, and of his teacher, Madame de Gen-
lis, a Avoman full, at least, of virtuous precept and Rousseau
like profession, he shoAved great force of character during
the Revolution. He still regarded France as his country,
thongh she no longer gave a throne to any of his family.
He had fought like a brave young soldier at Valray and
Jemappes. "JEJgalite Fils," says Carlyle, spe.aking of the
young man at Valray — "Equality Junior, a light, gallant
field-officer, distinguished himself by intrepidity — it is tho
sarae intrepid individual Avho uoav, as Louis Philippe, with
out the Equality, struggles under sad circurastances to be
called King of the French for a season." It is he who, as
Carlyle also describes it, saves his sister with such spirit and
energy, Avheii Madame de Genlis, with all her fine precepts,
would have left her behind to whatever danger. "Behold
the young Princely Brother, struggling hitherAvard, hastily
calling; bearing the Princess in his arras. Hastily he has
clutched the poor young lady up, in her very night-gown,
nothing saved of her goods except the Avatch from the pil-
loAV ; Avith brotherly despair he flings her in, araong the
bandboxes, into Genlis's chaise, into Genlis's arras. . . .
The brave young Egalite has a most Avild morrow to look
for; but now only hiraself to carry through it." The brave
young Egalit'e had, indeed, a Avild tirae before hira. A Avan-
derer, an exile, a fugitive, a teacher in Swiss and American
schools; bearing many and various naraes as he turned to
many callings and saAV many lands, ahvays, perhaps, keeping
in mind that Danton had laid his great hand upon his head
and declared that the boy must one day be King of France.
Then in the Avhirligig of time the opportunity that long
might have seemed impossible came round at last ; and the

336 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
soldier, exile, college teacher, wanderer among American
Indian tribes, resident of Philadelphia, and of Bloomin.gdale
in the New York suburbs, is King of the French. Well had
Carlyle gauged his position, after sorae years of reign, Avhen
he described him " as struggling under sad circumstances
to be called King of the French for a season." He ought
to have been a great man ; he had had a great traininw.
All his promise as a man faded Avhen his seeming success
began to shine. He had apparently learned nothing of ad
versity; he was able to learn nothing of prosperity and
greatness. Of all men whom his time had tried, he ought
best to have known, one might think, the vanity of human
schemes, and the futility of trying to uphold thrones on
false principles. He intrigued for power as if his previous
experience had taught him that power once obtained was
inalienable. He seeraed at one tirae to have no real faith, in
anything but chicane. He raade the fairest professions, and
did the meanest, falsest things. He talked to Queen Vic
toria in language that might have brought tears into a
father's eyes; and he Avas all the time planning the detest
able juggle of the Spanish marriages. He did not even
seem to retain the courage ofhis youth. It went, apparent
ly, with whatever of true, unselfish principle he had when
he was yet a young soldier of the Republic. He was like
our own James IL, who as a youth extorted the praise of
the great Turenne for his bravery, and as a king earned the
scorn of the world for his pusillanimous imbecility. Some
people say that there remained a gleam of perverted princi
ple in Louis Philippe which broke out just at the close, and,
unluckily for him, exactly at the wrong time. It is assert
ed that he could have put down the movement of 1848 in
the beginning with one decisive word. Certainly those
Avho began that raoveraent were as little prepared as he for
its turning out a revolution. It is generally assuraed that
he hailed and dallied and refused to give the word of com
mand out of sheer weakness of mind and lack of courage.
But the assuraption, according to some, is unjust Their
theory is that Louis Philippe at that moraent of crisis Avas
seized with a conscientious scruple, and believed that having
been called to poAver by the choice of the people — called to
rule not as King of France, but as King of the French — as

DON PACIFICO. 337
King, that is to say, of the French people so long as they
chose to have hira — he Avas not authorized to maintain him
self on that throne by force. The feeling Avould have been
just and right if it Avere certain that the French people, or
any majority of the French people, really Avished hiin away,
aud Avere prepared to Avelcorae a republic. But it was
hardly fair to those who set him on the throne to assume at
once that he Avas bound to come down from it at the bid
ding of no matter whom, hoAV few or hoAV raany, and Avith
out in some Avay trying conclusions to see if it were the
voice of France that suramoned him to descend, or only the
outcry of a moment and a crowd. The scruple, if it existed,
lost the throne ; in which Ave arc far from saying that France
suffered any great loss. We ai« bound to say that M.
Thiers, who ought to have knoAvn, does not seem to have
believed in the operation of any scruple of the kind, and
ascribes the King's fall simply to blundering and to bad
advice. But it Avould have been curiously illustrative of
the odd contradictions of human nature, and especially
curious as illustrating that one very odd and mixed nature,
if Louis Philippe had really felt such a scruple and yielded
to it. He had carried out Avith full deliberation, and in
spite of all remonstrance, schemes Avhicli tore asunder hu
man lives, blighted huraan happiness, played at dice Avith
the destinies of Avhole nations, and might have involved all
Europe in Avar, and it does not seem that he ever felt one
tAvinge of scruple or acknowledged one pang of remorse.
His policy had been unutterably mean and selfish and de
ceitful. His very bourgeois virtues, on which he Avas so
rauch inclined to boast himself, had been a sham; for he
had carried out schemes Avhich defied and flouted the first
principles of huraan virtue, and raade as light of the honor
of woman as of the integrity of man. It would humor tlie
irony of fate- if he had sacrificed his croAvn to a scruple
Avhich a raan of really high principle Avould well have felt
justified in banishing from his mind. One is reminded of
the daughter of Macklin, the famous actor, who having
made her success on the stage by appearing constantly in
pieces Avhicli compelled the most liberal display of form and
limbs to all the house aud all the tOAvn, died of a slight in
jury to her knee, Avhich she allowed to grow mortal rather
L— ] 5

338 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
than permit any doctor to look at the suffering place. In
Louis Philippe's case, too, the scruple Avould shoAv so oddly
that even the sacrifice it entailed could scarcely raake us
regard it with respect.
He died in exile araong us, the clever, unwise, grand, mean
old man. There was a great deal about hira which raade
him respected in private life, and Avhen he had nothing to
do Avith state intrigues and the foreign policy of courts.
He was much liked in England, where for many years after
his sons lived. But there Avere EngUshraen -(vho did not
like him, and did not readily forgive hira. Oiie of these Avas
Lord Palraerston. Lord Palraerston Avrote to his brother a
feAV days after the death of Louis Philippe, expressing his
senliraenls thereupon Avitli the utmost directness. "The
death of Louis Philippe," he said, " delivers me from my
most artful and inveterate enemy, ivhose position gave him
in many Avays the poAver to injure me." Louis Philippe al-
Avays detested Lord Palmerston, and, according to Thiers,
Avas constantly saying Avitty and spiteful things ofthe Eng
lish rainister, Avhich good-natured friends as constantly
brought to Palmerston's ears. When Lord Palmerston did
not feel exactly as a good Christian ought to have felt, he
at least never pretended to any such feeling. The sarae
letier contains iraraediately after a reference to Sir Robert
Peel. It, too, is characteristic. " Though I am sorry for
the death of Peel from personal regard, and because it is no
doubt a great loss to the country, yet, so far as my OAvn
political position is concerned, I do not think that he Avas
ever disposed to do me any good turn." A little Avhile be
fore. Prince Albert, writing to his friend Baron Stockmar,
had spoken of Peel as having somcAvhat unduly favored
Palmerston's foreign policy in the great Pacifico debate, or
at least not having borne as severely as he might upon it,
and for a certainly not selfish reason. "He" (Peel) "could
not call the policy good, and yet he did not wish to damage
tho ministry, and this solely because he considered that a
Protectionist Ministry succeeding them would be dangerous
to the country, and had quite deterrained not to take office
hiraself But Avould the fact tliat his health no longer ad
mitted ofhis doing so have been sufficient, as tirae Avent on,
to raake his foUoAvers and friends bear Avilh patient resigna-

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 339
tion their own permanent exclusion from office ? I doubt
it." The Prince mighl Avell doubt it : if Peel had lived, it is
all but certain that he Avould have had to take office. It is
curious, hoAvever, to notice how completely Prince Albert
and Lord Palmerston are at odds in their Avay of estimating
Peel's political attitude before his death. Lord Palmer
ston's quiet way of setting Peel doAvn as one Avho Avould
never be disposed to do hira a good turn is characteristic
of the manner in which the Foreign Secretary went in for
the game of politics. Palmerston Avas a raan of kindly
instincts and genial teraperament. He Avas much loved by
his friends. His feelings Avere ahvays directing him tOAvard
a certain half-indolent benevolence. But the game of poli
tics Avas lo hjm like the hunting-field. One cannot stop to
help a friend out of a ditch, or to lament over him if he is
doAvii and seriously injured : for the hour the only thing is
to keep on one's Avay. In the political game Lord Palraer
ston Avas playing, enemies Avere only obstacles, and it Avould
be absurd to pretend to be sorry Avhen they Avere out of his
path : therefore there is no affectation of generous regret
for Louis Philippe. Political rivals, even if privaie friends,
are soraething like obstacles too. Palmerston is of opinion
that Peel Avould never be disposed to do him a good turn,
and therefore indulges in no sentimental regret for his death.
He is a loss to the country, no doubt, and personally one
is sorry for him, of course, and all that: "Avhicii done, God
take King EdAvard to his mercy, and leave the world for
me to bustle in." The world certainly Avas more free hence
forth for Lord Palmerston's active and unresting spirit to
bustle in.

CHAPTER XX.
THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL.
The autumn of 1850 and the greater part of 1851 were
disturbed by an agitation which seems strangely out of
keeping with our present condition of religious liberty and
civilization. A struggle with the Papal Court might ap
pear to be a practical impossibility for the England of our
time. The mind has to go back sorae centuries to put it-

340 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
self into Avhat would appear the proper fraracAvork for such
events. Legislation or even .agitation against Papal aggres
sion Avould seera about as superfluous in our modern Eng
lish days, as the use of any of the once -popular charms
which Avere believed to hinder Avilches of their Avill. The
story is extraordinary, and is in many ways instructive.
For some time previous to 1850 there had been, as Ave
have seen already, a certain movement among some schol
arly, mystical men in England tOAvard the Roman Church.
We have already shoAvn how this movement began, and
hoAV little it could fairly be said to represent any actual im
pulse of reaction among the English people. But it unques
tionably made a profound impression in Rome. The court
of Rome then saw everything through the eyes of ecclesias
tics ; and a Roraan Catholic ecclesiastic not well acquainted
Avith the actual conditions of English life might Avell be ex
cused if, Avhen he found that two or three great Englishmen
had gone over to the Church, he fancied that they were but
the vanguard of a vast popular or national movement. It
is clear that the court of Rorae Avas quite mistaken as lo
the religious condition of England. The most chimerical
notions prevaUed in the Vatican. To the eyes of Papal en
thusiasm the whole English nation Avas only Availing for
sorae Avord in season to return to the- spiritual jurisdiction
of Rorae. The Pope had not been fortunate in raany things.
He had been a fugitive frora his own city, and had been re
stored only by the force of French arras. He Avas a thor
oughly good, pions, and genial man, not seeing far into the
various Avays of human thought and national characler;
and lo his mind there Avas nothing unreasonable in the idea
that Heaven might have made up for tho doraestic disasters
ofhis reign by making him the instrument of the conver
sion of England. No better proof can be given ofthe man
ner in Avhich he and his advisers misunderstood the English
people than the step Avith Avliich his sanguine zeal inspired
him. The English people, even while they yet boAved to
the spiritual supremacy of the Papacy, Avere alvvays keenly
jealous of any ecclesiastical attempt to control the political
action or restrict the national independence of England.
The history of the relations between England and Rome,
for long generations before England had any thought of re-

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 341
nouncing the faith of Rorae, raight have furnished ample
proof of this to any one Avho gave himself the trouble to
turn over a few pages of English chronicles. The Pope did
not read English, and his advisers did not understand Eng
land. Accordingly, he took a step, with the view of encour
aging and inviting England to become converted, which
Avas calculated specially and instantly to defeat its own pur
pose. Had the great raajority of the English people been
really drawing toward the verge of a reaction to Rome,
such an act as that done by the Pope raight have startled
them back to their old attitude. The assumption of Papal
authority over England only filled the English people with
a new deterraination to repudiate and resist every preten
sion at spiritu.al authority on the part of the court of Rome
The time has so completely passed aAvay, and the sup
posed pretensions have corae to so little, that the most zeal
ous Proiestant can afford to discuss the Avhole question now
Avilh absolute impartiality and unruffled calmness. Every
one can clearly see now that if the Pope was mistaken in
the course he took, and if the nation in general Avas amply
justified in resenting even a supposed atterapt .at foreign
interference, the piece of legislation to which the occasion
gave birth Avas riot a raasterpiece of statesraanship, nor was
the raanner in Avhich it was carried through always credita
ble to the good-sense of Parliaraent and the public. The
Papal aggression in itself was perhaps a measure to smile at
rather than to arouse great national indignation. It con
sisted in the issue of a Papal bull, " given at St. Peter's,
Rorae, under the seal of the fisherman," and directing the
establishraent in England " of a hierarchy of bishops deriv
ing their titles from their own sees, which we constitute by
the present letter in the A'arious apostolic districts." It is a
curious evidence of the little knoAvledge of England's con
dition possessed by the court of Rome then, that although
five-sixths at least ofthe Catholics in England Avere Irish by
birth or extraction, the newly-appointed bishops were all,
or nearly all. Englishmen unconnected Avith Ireland.
An Englishman of the present day Avould be probably in
clined to ask, on hearing the effect of the bull. Is that all ?
Being told that that was all, he would probably have gone
on to ask. What does it matter? Who cares Avhether the

842 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Pope gives neAV titles to his English ecclesiastics or not ?
What Protestant is even interested in knowing whether a
certain Catholic bishop living in England is called Bishop
of Mesopotamia, or of Lambeth? There ahvays Avere Cath
olic bishops in England. There were Catholic archbishops.
They Avere free to go and corae, to preach and teach as they
liked ; to dress as they liked ; for all that nineteen out of
every twenty Englishmen cared, tbey might have been also
free to call themselves Avhat they liked. Any Protestant
Avho mixed Avith Roraan Catholics, or knew anything about
their usages, knoAV tbat they Avere in the habit of calling
their bishops " my lord," and their archbishops " your grace."
He knew, of course, that they had not the slightest legal
right to use such high-sounding titles, but tliis did not trou
ble him in tbe least. It Avas only a ceremonial intended for
Catholics, and it did not give him either offence or concern.
Why then should he be expected to disturb his mind be
cause the Pope chose to direct that the English Roraan
Catholics should call a man Bishop of Liverpool or Arch
bishop of Westminster ? The Pope could not compel him
to call them by any such names if he did not think fit; and
unless his attention had been very earnestly draAvn to the
fact, he never, probably, Avould have found out that any
new titles had been invented for the Catholic hierarchy in
England. This Avas the way in Avhich a great many Englishmen re
garded the raatter even then. But it must be owned that
there Avas something about the tirae and manner of the
Papal bull calculated to offend the susceptibility of a great
and independent nation. The mere fact that a certain move
ment tOAvard Rome had been painfully visible in the ranks
ofthe English Church itself, was enongh to raake people sen
sitive and jealous. The plain sense of raany thoroughly im
partial and cool-headed Englishraen shoAved thera that the
two things Avere connected in the raind of the Pope, and that
he had issued his bull because he thought the time Avas act
ually coming when he raight begin to take measures for the
spiritual annexation of England. Liis pretensions might be
of no account in themselves ; but the fact that he raade thera
in the evident belief that they were justified by realities,
produced a jarring and painful effect on tho mind of Eng-

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 343
land. The offence lay in the Pope's evident assumption that
the change he Avas making Avas the natural result of an act
ual change in the national feeling of England. The anger
Avas not against the giving of the iioav titles, but against
the assumption of a new right to give titles representing
territorial distinctions in this country. The agitation that
sprang up Avas fiercely heated by the pastoral letter of the
chief of the noAV hierarchy. The Pope had divided England
into various dioceses, Avhich he placed under the control of
an archbishop and tAvelve suffragans ; and the new archbish
op was Cardinal Wiseraan. Under the title, of. Archbishop
of Westminster and Administrator Apostolic ofthe Diocese
of Southwark, Cardinal Wiseman Avas now to reside in Lon
don. Cardinal Wiseman Avas already well knoAvn in Eng
land. He Avas of English descent on his father's side, and
of Irish on his mbther's; he Avas a Spaniard by birth, and a
Roraan by education. His family on both sides was of good
position; his fatlier came of a long line of Essex gentry.
Wiseman had held the professorship of Oiieiital languages
in the English College at Rome, and afterAvard became rec
tor ofthe college. In 1840 he was appointed by the Pope
one of the Vicars Apostolic in England, and held his posi
tion here as Bishop of Melipotaraus in partibus infidelium.
He Avas Avell known to be a fine scholar, an accomplished
linguist, and a poAverful preacher and controversialist. But
he was believed also lo be a man of great ecclesiastical ara
bition— arabition for his Church, that is to say — of singular
boldness, and of much political abilitj-. The Pope's action
was set doAvn as in great measure the Avork of Wiseman.
The Cardinal himself Avas accepted in the minds of most
Englishmen as a type of the regular Italian ecclesiastic —
bold, clever, ambitious, and unscrupulous. The very fact of
his English extraction only militated the more against him
in the public feeling. He Avas regarded as in , sorae sense
one Avho had gone,over to the eneray, and Avho Avas the raore
to be dreaded because of the knowledge he carried Avith
him. Perhaps it is not too much to say that in the existing
mood ofthe English people the very title of Cardinal exas
perated the feeling against Wiseraan. Had he come as a
siraple archbishop, the aggression might not have seeraed
so marked. . Tiie title of -Cardinal brought back unAvelcome

844 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
memories to the English public. It reminded them of a pe
riod of their history Avhen the forces of Rome and those of
the national independence Avere really arrayed against each
other in a struggle Avhich Englishraen might justly look on
as dangerous. Since those times there had been no cardinal
in England. Did it not look ominous that a cardinal should
present hiraself now ? The first step taken by Cardinal
Wiseraan did not tend to charra aAvay this feeling. He is
sued a pastoral letter, addressed to England, on October 7th,
1850, Avhich was set forlh as "given out ofthe Flarainian
Gate of Rorae." This description of the letter Avas after
Avard staled to be in accordance Avith one of the necessary
formularies ofthe Church of Rome; but it was then as
sumed in England to be an expression of insolence and au
dacity intended to reraind the English people that frora out
of Rorae itself carae the assertion of supremacy over thera.
This letter was to be read publicly in all the Roman Cath
olic churches in London. It addressed itself directly to the
English people, and it announced that " your beloved coun
try has received a place araong the fair churches which, nor
mally constituted, form the splendid aggregate of Catholic
communion ; Catholic England has been restored to its orbit
in the ecclesiastical firmament from Avhich its light had long
vanished ; and begins now anoAV its course of regularly-ad
justed action round the centre of unity, the source of juris
diction, of light, and of vigor."
It must be alloAved that this was rather imprudent lan
guage to address to a people peculiarly proud of being Prot
estant ; a people of Avhom their critics say, not Avholly with
out reason, that they are somcAvhat narroAV and unsympa
thetic in their Protestantism ; that their national tendency
is to believe in the existence of nothing really good out
side the limits of Protestantism. In England the National
Church is a symbol of victory over foreign enemies and
domination at home. It Avas not likely that the English
people could regard it as anything but an offence to be told
that they Avere resuming their place as a part of an ecclesi
astical systera to Avhich they, of all peoples, looked with dis
like and distrust. We are not saying that the feeling Avith
which the great bulk of the English people regarded Cardi
nal Wiseman's Church was just or liberal. We are simply

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 345
recording the unquestionable historical fact that such was
the manner in Avhich tho English people regarded the Roman
Church, in order to show hoAV slender Avas the probability
of their being moved lo anything bnt anger by such expres
sions as those contained in Cardinal Wiseman's letter. But
tbe letier had hardly reached England Avhen the country
was aroused by another letter coming frora a very different
quarter, and intended as a counterblast to the Papal assump
tion of authority. This Avas Lord John Russell's famous
Durhara letter. Russell had the art of Avriting letters that
exploded like bomb-shells in the midst of some controversy.
His Edinburgh letter had set the cabinet of Sir Robert Peel
on to recognize the fact that soraething must be done Avitli
the Free-trade question ; and noAV his Durham letter spoke
the AVOrd that let loose a very torrent of English public feel
ing. The letter Avas in reply to one from the Bishop of
Durham, and Avas dated " Downing Street, November the
4th." Lord John Russell conderaned in the most unmeas
ured terras the assumption of the Pope as "a pretension of
supremacy over the realm of England, and a claim to sole
and undivided SAvay, Avhich is inconsistent with the Queen's
supremacy, with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and
Avith the spiritual independence of the nation as asserted
even in the Roraan Catholic times." Lord John Russell
Avent on lo say that his alarm was by no means equal to his
indignation; thaf the liberty of Protestantism had been
enjoyed too long in England to "alloAV of any successful
attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon men's minds and
consciences, and that the laAvs ofthe country should be care
fully exarained, and the propriety of adopting sorae addi
tional measures deliberately considered. But Lord John
Russell Avent farther than all this. He declared that there
Avas a danger that alarraed hira more than any aggression
frora a foreign sovereign, and that Avas " the danger Avithin
the gates frora the uuAvorthy sons ofthe Church, of England
herself" Clergymen of that Church, he declared, had been
" leading their flocks step by step to the verge of the preci
pice." What, he asked, meant "the honor paid to saints,
the claim of infallibility for the Church, the superstitious
use ofthe sign ofthe Cross, the muttering ofthe Liturgy so
as to disguise the language in Avhich it is Avritten, the recom-
15*

346 A HISTORY OP our O'WN TIMES.
raendation of auricular confession, and the adniiiiistration of
penance and absolution ?" The letter closed Avith a sentence
Avhich gave especial offence lo Roman Catholics, but Avhich
Lord John Russell afterward explained, and indeed the con
text ought to have shoAvn, Avas not raeant as any attack on
their religion or their cereraoiiial: "I have little hope that
the propounders and fraraers of these innovations will desist
from their insidious course ; but I rely Avith confidence on
the people of England; and I Avill not bate one jot of heart
or hope so long as the glorious principles and the immortal
martyrs ofthe Reformation shall be held in reverence by
the great mass of a nation which looks with contempt on
tlie muniineries of superstition, and with scorn at the labori
ous endeavors Avhich are now raaking to confine the intellect
and enslave the soul." It is uoav clear, frota the very terms
of this letter, that Lord John Russell raeant to apply these
Avords lo the practices within the English Church which he
had so slroiigly conderaned in the earlier passages, and Avhich
alone, he said, he regarded Avith any serious alarm. But tlie
Roman Catholics in general, and the raajority of persons of
all sects, accepted them as a denunciation of "Popery."
The Catholics looked upon them as a declaration of Avar
against Catholicism ; the fanaj.ical of the other side wel
coraed them as a trumpet-call to a noAV "No Popery"
agitation. The very day after the letier appeared -(vas the Guy Faux
anniversary. All over the country the effigies of the Pope
and Cardinal Wiseraan took the place of the regulation
" Guy," and Avere paraded and burnt amidst tumultuous
demonstrations. A colossal procession of "Guys" passed
doAvn Fleet Street, the principal figure of which, a gigantic
forra of sixteen feet high, seated in a chariot, had to be bent
doAvn, compelled to " veil his crest," in order to pass under
Temple Bar. This Titanic "Guy" was the new Cardinal in
his red robes. In Exeter a yet raore elaborate Anti-Papal
demonstration Avas made A procession of tAvo hundred per
sons in character-dresses marched round the venerable cathe
dral amidst the varied effulgence of colored lights. Tlie pro
cession represented tho Pope, the new Cardinal, and the In
quisition, various ofthe Inquisitors brandishing instruments
of torture Considerable sums of money Avere spent on these

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 347
popular demonstrations, the only interest in Avhich noAV is
that they serve to illustrate the public sentiment of the
hour. Mr. Disraeli good-naturedly endeavored at once to
foment the prevailing heat of public temper, and at the same
time to direct its fervor against the ministry themselves, by
declaring in a published letter that he could hardly blame
the Pope for supposing hiraself at liberty to divide England
into bishoprics, seeing the eiicourageraent he had got frora
the rainisters theraselves by the recognition they had offered
to the Roraan Catholic hierarchy of Ireland. "The fact is,"
Mr. Disraeli said, " the Avliole question has been: surrendered
and decided in favor of the Pope by the present Govern
raent. The ministers avIio recognized the pseudo-Archbish
op of Tuam as a peer and a prelate cannot object to the
appointment of a pseudo- Archbishop of Westminster, even
though he be a cardinal." As a matter of fact, it was not
the existing Governnient that had recognized the rank of
the Irish Catholic prelates. The rocognilion liad been for-
niJiUy arranged in January, 1845, by .a royal Avarrant or com
mission for carrying out the Charitable Bequests Act, Avliich
gave the Irish Catholic prelates rank iraraediately after the
prelates of the Established Church of the same degree. But
the letter of Mr. Disraeli, like that of Lord .lohn Russell,
served to inflame passions ou both sides, and to put the coun
try in the Avorst possible mood for any raanner of wholesorae
legislation. Never during the sarae generation had there
been such an outburst of anger on both sides ofthe religious
controversy. It Avas a curious incident in political history
that Lord John Russell, Avho had, raore than any Englishman
then living, been identified Avith the principles of religious
liberty, who had sat at tiie feet of Fox, and had for his
closest friend the Catholic poet, Thomas Moore, came to be
regarded by Roman Catholics as the bitterest enemy of
their creed and their rights of worship.
The ministry felt that something must be done. They
could not face Parliament without some piece of legislation
to satisfy public feeling. Many, even araong the raost zeal
ous Protestants, deeply regretted that Lord John Russell
had Avritten anything on the subject. Not a feAv Roraan
Catholics of position and influence bitterly lamented the in
discretion of the Papal court. The mischief, however, was

348 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
noAV fairly afoot. The step taken by the Pope had set the
country aflarae. Every day crowded and tumultuous raeet
ings Avere held to denounce the action ofthe court of Rome.
Before the end of the year something like seven thousand
such meetings had been held throughout the kingdom.
Sometimes the Roman Catholic party mustered strong at
such demonstrations, and the result Avas rioting and dis
turbance Addresses poured in upon the Queen and the
ministers calling for decided action against the assumption
of Papal authority. About the same time Father Gavazzi,
an Italian republican who had been a priest, came to Lon
don and began a series of lectures against the Papacy. He
was a man of great rhetorical poAver, with a remarkable
coraraand of the eloquence of passion and denunciation.
His lectures Avere at first given only in Italian, and there
fore did not appeal to a popular English audience. But
they were reported in the papers at much length, and they
contributed not a little to swell the tide of public feeling
against the Pope and the court of Rome. The new Lord
Chancellor, Lord Truro, created great applause and tumult
at the Lord Mayor's dinner by quoting from Shakspeare the
Avords, " Under my feet I'll stamp thy cardinal's hat, in spite
of Pope or dignities of Church." Charles Kean, the trage
dian, Avas interrupted by thundering peals of applause and
the rising of the Avhole audience to their feet when, as King
John, he proclairaed that "no Italian priest shall tithe or
toll in our dorainion." Long afterAvard, and Avhen the storra
seenied to have Avholly died away. Cardinal Wiseraan, going
in a carriage through the streets of Liverpool to deliver a
lecture on a purely literary subject to a general audifence,
Avas pelled Avitli stones by a mob who remembered the Pa
pal assuraption and the passions excited by the Ecclesias
tical Titles Act
The opening of Parliament came. The ministry had to
do something. No ministry that ever held poAver in Eng
land could have atterapted to raeet the House of Commons
without some project of a raeasure to allay public excite
raent. On February 4th, 1851, the Queen in person opened
Parliaraent. Lier speech contained some sentences Avhich
Avere listened to Avith the profoundest interest because they
referred to the question Avhicli was agitating all England.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 349
" The recent assuraption of certain ecclesiastical titles con
ferred by a foreign Power has excited strong feelings in
this country ; and large bodies of my subjects have present
ed addresses to me expressing attachment to the Throne,
and praying that such assumptions should be resisted. I
have assured them of my resolution to maintain the rights
of my crown and the independence ofthe nation against all
encroachments, from whatever quarter they may proceed.
I have at the sarae tirae expressed ray earnest desire and
firm deterraination, under God's blessing, to raaintain unim
paired the religious liberty Avhich is so justly prized by the
people of this country." How little of inclination to any
measures dealing unfairly with Roraan Catholics Avas in
the raind ofthe Queen herself raay be seen frora a letter in
Avhich, Avhen the exciteraent Avas at its height, she had ex
pressed her opinion to her aunt, the Duchess of Gloucester.
"I Avould never have consented to anything Avhich breathed
a spirit of intolerance. Sincerely Protestant as I always
have been and always shall be, and indignant as I ara at
those Avho call themselves Protestants while they are, in
fact, quite the contrary, I rauch regret the unchristian and
intolerant spirit exhibited by raany people at the public
raeetings. I cannot bear to hear the violent abuse of the
Catholic religion, Avhich is so painful and so cruel toAvard
the raany good and innocent Roman Catholics. HoAvever,
Ave raust hope and trust this excitement will soon cease,
and that the Avholesome effect of it upon our OAvn Church
Avill be lasting."
" The Papal .aggression question," Lord Palmerston Avrote
to his brother just before the opening of Parliaraent, " Avill
give us sorae trouble, and give rise to storray debates. Our
difficulty Avill be to find out a raeasure which shall satisfy
reasonable Protestants without violating those principles
of liberal toleration which Ave are pledged to. I think we
shall succeed. . . . The thing itself, in truth, is little or noth
ing, and does not justify the irritation. What has goaded
the nation is the raanner, insolent and ostentatious, in whicli
it has been done. . . . We raust bring in a raeasure. The
country would not be satisfied Avithout some legislative en
actment. We shall make it as gentle as possible. The vio
lent party will object to it for its mildness, and will endeavor

350 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
to drive us farther." A measure brought in only because
something must be done to satisfy public opinion is not like
ly to be a very valuable piece of legislation. The ministry
in this case were embarrassed by the fact that they really
did not pai-ticiilarly want to do anything except to satisfy
public opinion for the moment, and get rid of all the contro
versy. They Avere placed between tAvo galling fires. On
the one side Avere the extreme Protestants, to Avhora Palm
erston alluded as violent, and Avho Avere eager for severe
measures against the Catholics ; .and on the other Avere the
Roman Catholic supporters of the rainistry, Avho protested
against any legislation Avhatever on the subject. It would
have been siraply impossible to find any safe and satisfactory
path of coraproraise Avhich all could consent to walk. The
ministry did the best they could to frame a measure Avhich
should seem to do sonietliiiig and yet do little or nolhing.
Two or three days after the raeeting of Parliament, Lord
.Tohn Russell introduced his bill to prevent the assumption
by Roman Catliolics of titles taken from any territory or
place Avilhin the United Kingdom. The measure proposed
to prohibit the use of all such titles under penalty, and to
render void all acts done by or bequests made to persons
under such titles. The Roman Catholic Relief Act imposed
a penalty of one hundred pounds for every assumption of a
title taken from an existing see. Lord John Russell pro-
]iosed now to extend the penalty to the assumption of any
title whatever from any place in the United Kingdom. The
reception which was given to Lord .Tohn Russell's inotioii
for leave to bring in this bill Avas not encouraging. Usually
leave to bring in a bill is granted as a raatter of course.
Some feAV general observations , of extemporaneous and
guarded criticism are often raade; but the coraraon practice
is to offer no opposition. On this occasion, hoAvever, it was
at once raade raanifest that no measure, however " gentle,'-'
to use Lord Palmerston's word, Avould be allowed to pass
Avithout obstinate opposition. Mr. Roebuck described the
bill as "one ofthe meanest, pettiest, and most futile ineas-
ures that ever disgraced even bigotry itself" Mr. Bright
called it " little, paltr}', and raiserable — a mere sham to bol
ster up Church ascendency." Mr. Disraeli declared that he
would not oppose the introduction ofthe l)ill ; but he spoke

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 351
of it ill language of as much contempt as Mr. Roebuck and
Mr. Bright had used, calling it a mere piece of petty perse
cution. "Was it for this," Mr. Disraeli scornfully asked,
"that the Lord Chancellor trampled on a cardinal's hat
amidst the patriotic acclamations of the metropolitan munic
ipality ¦?" Sir Robert Inglis, on the part ofthe more extreme
Protestants, objected to the bill on the ground that it did
not go far enough. The debate on the motion for leave to
bring in the bill Avas reneAved for night after night, and the
fullest promise of an angry and prolonged resistance was
, given. Yet so strong Avas the feeling in favor of some leg
islation that Avhen the division was taken, three hundred and
ninety-five votes were given for the motion and only sixty-
three against it. The opponents ofthe raeasure had on their
side not only all the prorainent champions of religious liber
ty, like Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Cobden, and
Mr. Bright, but also Protestant politicians of such devotion
to the interests ofthe Church as Mr. Roundell Palraer, after
Avard Lord Selborne, and Mr. Beresford Hope ; and of course
they had Avith thera all the Irish Catholic raerabers. Yet
the raotion for leave to bring in the bill Avas carried by this
overwhelming raajority. The ministers had, at all events,
ample justification, so far as Parliamentary tactics Avere
concerned, for the introduction of their raeasure.
If, hoAvever, avo corae to regard the mtliisterial proposal as
a piece of practical legislation, the case to be made out for
thera is not strong, nor is the abortive result of their efforts
at all surprising. They set out on the enterprise Avithout
any real interest in it, or any particular confidence in its
success. It is probable tiiat Lord John Russell alone of all
the ministers had any expectation of a satisfactory result to
come of the piece of legislation they Avere attempting. We
have seen Avhat Lord Palmerston thought on the whole sub
ject. The ministers Avere, in fact, in the difficulty of all
statesmen avIio bring in a measure, not because they them
selves are clear as lo its necessity or its efficacy, but because
they find that something raust be done lo satisfy public feel
ing, and they. do not know of anything better to do at the
moraent. The history of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was,
tlierefore, a history of blunder, unlucky accident, and failurt'
frora the moment it Avas brought in until its ignominious and

352 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ridiculous repeal raany years after, and Avheii its absolute
impotence had been not merely demonstrated but forgotten.
The Government at first, as Ave have seen, resolved to im
pose a penalty on the assuraption of ecclesiastical titles by
Roraan Catholic prelates from places in the United Kino--
dora, and to raake null and void all acts done or bequests
made in virtue of such titles. But they found that it would
be absolutely impossible to apply such legislation to Ire
land. In that country a Catholic hierarchy had lono- been
tolerated, and all the functions of a regular hierarchy had
been in full and forraal operation. To apply the new raeas
ure to Ireland would have been virtually to repeal the Ro
man Catholic Relief Act and restore the penal laws. On
the other hand, the ministers were not willing to raake one
law against titles for England and another for Ireland. They
were driven, therefore, to the course of withdrawing two of
the stringent clauses of the bill, and leaving it little more
than a raere declaration against the assuraption of unlaAvfiil
titles. But by doing this they furnished stronger reasons
for opposition to both ofthe tAvo very different parties who
had hitherto denounced tlieir Avay of dealing with the crisis.
Those Avho thought the bill did not go far enough before
were, of course, indignant at the proposal to shear it of what
ever little force it had originally possessed. They, on the
other hand, Avho had opposed it as a breach of the principle
of religious liberty could now ridicule it Avith all the great
er effect, on the ground that it violated a principle without
even the pretext of doing any practical good as a corapensa-
tion. In the first instance, the rainistry might plead that the
crisis Av.as exceptional; that it called for exceptional raeas
ures; that something must be done; and that they could
not stand on ceremony even Avilh the principle of religious
liberty when the interest of the State Avas at stake. Now
they left it in the power of their opponents to say that
they Avere breaking a principle for the sake of introducing a
nonentity. The debates Avere long, fierce, and often passionate. The
bill, even cut down as it Avas, had a vast majority on its
side. But some of the most illustrious naraes in the House
of Coraraons Avere recorded against it; by far the most elo
quent voices in the House Avere raised to condemn it. The

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 353
Irish Roman Catholic members set up a persistent opposi
tion to it, and up lo a certain period of its progress put in
requisition all the forms of the House to impede it. This
part ofthe story ought not to be passed over Avithout men
tion of the fact that among olher effects produced by the
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill, perhaps the raost distinct Avas the
creation of the raost Avorlhless band of agitators who ever
pretended to speak Avith the voice of Ireland. These were
the men who Avere called in the House "the Pope's Brass
Band," and Avho Avere regarded Avith as rauch dislike and
distrust by all intelligent Irish Catholics and Irish Nation
alists as by the raost inveterate Tories. These raen leaped
into influence by their denunciations of the Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill. They Avere successful for a tirae in palraing
theraselves off as patriots upon Irish constituencies. They
thundered against the bill; they put in motion every mech
anism of delay and obstruction ; some of thera were really
clever and eloquent; raost of them were loud-voiced; they
had a grand and heaven-sent opportunity given lo them, and
they made use of it. They had a leader, the once famous
John Sadleir. This raan possessed marked ability, and was
further gifted with an unscrupulous audacity at least equal
to his ability. He Avent to Avork deliberately to create for
himself a band of followers by whose help he might mount
to power. He was a financial SAvindler as well as a political
adventurer. By raeans of the money he had suddenly ac
quired, and by virtue ofhis furious denunciations ofthe anti-
Catholic policy of the Governraent, he was, for a time, able
to Avork the Irish popular constituencies so as to get his own
followers into the House and become for the hour a sort of
little O'Connell. He had with hira some tAvo or three hon
est men, whom he deluded into a belief in the sincerity of
hiraself and his gang of swindling adventurers; and it is only
fair to say that by far the most eloquent raan of the party
appears to have been one of those on whom Sadleir Avas thus
a'ble to impose. Mr. Sadleir's band afterAvard came to sad
grief He coraraitled suicide himself to escape the punish
ment of his frauds ; some of his associates fled to foreign
countries and hid themselves under feigned names. James
Sadleir, brother and accomplice of John, Avas among these,
and underwent that rare mark of degradation in our days,

354 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
a formal expulsion frora the House of Coraraons. The Pope's
Brass Band and its subsequent history, culrainaling in the
suicide on Harapstead Heath, was about the only practical
result of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
The bill, reduced in stringency as has been described
made, however, some progress through the House. It was
interrupted at one stage by events which had nothing to do
Avith its history. The Government got into trouble of an
other kind. At the opening ofthe session Mr. Disraeli in
troduced a motion to the effect that the agricultural distress
of the country called upon the Government to introduce
Avithout delay some raeasures for its relief. This motion
Avas, iu fact, the last spasmodic cry of Protection. Many in
fluential poUticians still believed. that the cause of Protec
tion Avas not AvlioUy lost ; that a reaction Avas possible ; that
the Free-trade doctrine would prove a failure and have lo
be given up; and they regarded Mr. Disraeli's as a very im
portant motion calling for a. strenuous effort in its favor.
The Government treated the motion as one for restored
Protection, and threw all their strength into the struggle
agaiiist it. They Avon, but only by a raajority of fourteen.
A few days after, Mr. Locke King, member for East Surrey,
asked for leave to bring in a bill to assimilate the county
franchise to that existing in boroughs. Lord John Russell
opposed the motion, and the Governraent were defeated by
100 voles against 52. It Avas evident that this Avas only
Avhat is called a " snap " vote ; that the House Avas laken by
surprise, and that the result in nowise represented the gen
eral feeling of Parliaraent. But still it Avas a vexatious oc
currence for the ministry already humiliated by the small
majority they had obtained on Disraeli's motion. Their
budget had already been received with very general marks
of dissatisfaction. The Chancellor of the Exchequer only
proposed .a partial and qualified repeal ofthe Avindow-ta'x, an
impost Avhich Avas justly detested^ and he continued the in
come-tax. The budget was introduced shortly before Mr.
Locke King's motion, and every day that had elapsed since
its introduction only more and raore developed the public
dissatisfaction Avilh Avliich it was regarded. Under all these
circurastances Lord John Russell felt that he had no alter
native but to tender his resignation to the Queen. Leaving

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 355
his Ecclesiastical Titles Bill suspended in air, he announced
that he could no longer think of carrying on the government
of the country.
The question was, avIio should succeed him. The Queen
sent for Lord Stanley, afterward Lord Derby. Lord Stan
ley offered to do his best to form a Government, but Avas
not at all sanguine about the success of the task, nor eager
to undertake it. He even recomraended that before he raade
any experiment Lord John Russell should try if he could
not do something by getting some of the Peelites, as they
Avere then beginning lo be called — the followers of Sir Rob
ert Peel who had held with him to the last — lo join hirn, and
thus patch up the Government anew. This Avas tried, and
failed. The Peelites Avould have nothing to do Avitli the Ec
clesiastical Titles Bill, and Lord John Russell Avould not
go on Avithout it. On the other hand. Lord Aberdeen, the
chief of the Peelites in the House of Lords, Avould not at
tempt to forra a rainistry of his own, frankly acknowledging
that in the existing teraper of the country it Avould be im
possible for any Governraent to get on Avithout legislating
in sorae Avay on the Papal aggression. There was nothing
for it but for Lord Stanley to try. He tried without hope,
and of course he Avas unsuccessful. The position of parties
was A'ery peculiar. It Avas irapossible to form any combina
tion whicli could really agree upon anything. There Avere
three parties out of which a ministry might be formed.
These Avere the Whigs, tho Conservatives, and the Peelites.
The Peelites Avere a very rising and promising body of men.
Among them Avere Sir James Graham, Lord Canning,- Mr.
Gladstone, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Mr. Cardwell, and sorae oth
ers almost equally Avell knoAvn. Only these three groups
Avere fairly in the competition for office; for the idea of a
ministry of Radicals arid Manchester men Avas not then like
ly lo present itself lo any official mind. But how eould any
one put together a ministry forraed from a combination of
these three? The Peelites Avould not coalesce Avith the To
ries because of the Protection question, lo Avhich Mr. Dis
raeli's motion had given a new semblance of vitality, and be
cause of Lord Stanley's own declaration that he still regard
ed the policy of Free-trade as only an experiraent. The
Peelites Avould not ctirabino Avitli the Whigs because ofthe

356 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. The Conservatives Avould not dis
avow protective ideas ; the Whigs would not give up the Ec
clesiastical Titles Bill. No statesman, therefore, could form
a Governraent Avithout having to count on two great parties
being against him on one question or the other. All man
ner of delays took place. The Duke of "Wellington was con
sulted ; Lord Lansdowne Avas consulted. The wit of raan
could suggest nothing satisfactory. The conditions for ex
tracting any satisfactory solution did not exist. There was
nothing better to be done than to ask the ministers who had
resigned to resume their places and muddle on as they best
could. It is not enough to say that there Avas nothing bet
ter to be done: there Avas nothing else to be done. They
Avere, at all events, still administering the affairs ofthe coun
try, and no one woul.d relieve thera ofthe task. Ipso facto
they had to stay.
The ministers returned to their places and resuraed the
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. It Avas then that they made the
change in its conditions Avhich has already been mentioned,
and thus created new argument against them on both sides
of the House of Coraraons. They struck out of the bill ev
ery word that raight appear like an encroachraeiit on the
Roraan Church Avithin the sphere of its OAvn ecclesiastical
operations, and made it simply an Act against the public
and ostentatious assuraption of illegal titles. The bill was
wrangled over until the end of June, and then a large nura
ber, sorae seventy, of the Irish Catholic merabers publicly
seceded from the discussion, and announced that they would
take no further part in the divisions. On this some of the
strongest opponents of the Papal aggression, led by Sir
Frederick Thesiger, afterward Lord Chelmsford, brought in
a series of resolutions intended to make the bill more strin
gent than it had been even as originally introduced. The
object ofthe resolutions was principally to give the power
of prosecuting and claiming a penalty to anybody, provided
he obtained the consent ofthe law-officers ofthe Crown, and
to make penal the introduction of bulls. The Government
opposed the inlrodnction of these araendraents, and Avere put
in the aAvkward position of having to act as antagonists of
the party in the country Avho represented the strongest hos
tility to the Papal aggression. Thu^, for the moment, the

THE ECCLESIASTICAL TITLES BILL. 357
author of the Durham letier Avas seemingly converted into
a champion ofthe Roman Catholic side ofthe controversy.
His clfampionship Avas ineffective The Irish members took
no part in the controversy, and the Government Avere beat
en by the ultra-Protestant party on every division. Lord
John Russell Avas bitterly taunted by various of his op
ponents, and was asked Avilh indignation why he did not
Avithdraw the bill when it ceased to be any longer his oavu
scherae. He probably thought by this tirae that it really
made little raatter Avhat bill was passed so long as any bill
Avas passed, and that the best thing to do was to get the
controversy out of the Avay by any process. He did not,
therefore, AvithdraAv the bill, although Sir Frederick Thesiger
carried all his stringent clauses. When the measure carae
on for a third reading. Lord John Russell raoved the omis
sion of the added clauses, but he Avas defeated by large ma
jorities. The bill Avas done Avith so far as the House of
Coraraons Avas concerned. After an eloquent and poAverful
protest frora Mr. Gladstone against the measure, as one dis
paraging to the great principle of religious freedom, the bill
was read a third time. It Avent up to the House of Lords,
Avas passed there without alteration, although not Avithout
opposition, and soon after received the Royal assent.
This was practically the last the Avorld heard about it.
In the Roman Churcli everything Avent on as before. The
new Cardinal Archbishop still called himself Archbishop of
Westminster; some of the Irisli prelates made a point of
ostentatiously using their territorial titles, in letters address
ed to the rainisters theraselves. The bitterness of feeling
Avhich the Papal aggression and the legislation against it
had called up did not indeed pass away very soon. It broke
out again and again, sometimes in the form of very serious
riot. It turned aAvay, at many an election, the eyes and
minds ofthe constituencies from questions of profound and
genuine public interest to dogmatic controversy and the
h.ates of jarring sectaries. It furnished political capital for
John Sadleir and his band, and kept thera flourishing for
aAvhile; and it set up in the Irisli popular raind a, purely im
aginary figure of Lord John Russell, who became regarded,
as the ni-aUgn enemy of the Catholic faith and of all relig
ious liberty. Btit, save for the quarrels aroused at the time.

358 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the act of the Pope and the Act of Parliament were alike
dead letters. Nothing came of the Papal bull. England
was not restored to the communion of the Roman Catholic
Church. The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of
London retained their places and their spiritual jurisdiction
as before. Cardinal "Wiseman remained only a prelate of
Roman Catholics. On the other hand, the Ecclesiastical Ti
tles Act Avas never pnt in force. Nobody troubled about
it. Many years after, in 1871, it was quietly repealed. It
died in such obscurity that the outer public hardly knew
Avhether it Avas above ground or below. Certainly, if the
Avhole agitation showed that England was thoroughly Prot
estant, it also shoAved that English Protestants had not
much of the persecuting spirit They had no inclination to
molest their Catholic neighbors, and only asked to be let
.alone. The Pope, they believed, had insulted thera ; they
resented the insult: tbat AA'as all.

CHAPTER XXI.
the exhibition in HYDE PAEK.
The first of May, 1851, avUI always be raemorable as the
day on Avhich the Great Exhibition Avas opened in Hyde
Park. The year 1851, indeed, is generally associated in the
raeraory of Englishraen Avith that first Great International
Exhibition. As we look back upon it pleasant recollections
corae up of the great glass palace in Hyde Park, the palace
" upspringing from the verdant sod," Avhich Thackeray de
scribed so gracefully and with so rauch poetic feeling. The
strange crowds ofthe curious of all provinces and all nations
are seen again. The raarvellous and at that time wholly
unprecedented collection of the products of all countries;
the glitter of the Koh-i-Noor, the palra- trees beneath the
glass roof, the leaping fountains, the statuary, the ores, the
ingots, the huge blocks of coal, the lace-work, the loom-work,
the Oriental stuffs — all these made on the mind of the or
dinary inexpert a confused irapression of lavishness, and
profusion, and order, and fantastic beauty Avhich Avas then
wholly novel, and could hardly be recalled except in mere

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 359
raemorj'. The novelty of the experiment Avas that which
made it specially memorable. Many exhibitions of a similar
kind have taken place since. Some of these far surpassed
that of Hyde Park in the splendor and variety of the collec
tions brought together. Tavo of them at least — those of
Paris in 1867 and 1878 — were infinitely superior in the array
and display of the products, the dresses, the inhabitants of
ftir-divided countries. But the irapression Avhicli the Hyde
Park Exhibition made upon the ordin.ary mind was like that
of the boy's first visit to the play — an impression never to
be equalled, no matter by Avhat far superior charm of spec
tacle it may in after-years again aud again be foUoAved.
Golden, indeed, Avere the expectations Avilh Avhich hopeful
people welcomed the Exhibition of 1851. It Avas the first
organized to gather all the representatives of the Avorld's
industrj' into one great fair; and there Avere those Avho
seriously expected that men avIio had once been prevailed
upon to meet together in friendly and peaceful rivalry Avould
never again be persuaded to raeet in rivalry of a fiercer kind.
It seems extraordinary iioav to think that any sane person
can have indulged in such expectations, or can have imag
ined that the tremendous forces generated by the rival in
terests, ambitions, and passions of races could be subdued
into harmonious co-operation by the good sense and good
feeling born of a friendly meeting. The Hyde Park Exhi
bition, and all the exhibitions that foUoAved it, have not as
yet made the slightest perceptible difference in the Avarlike
tendencies of nations. The Hyde Park Exhibition Avas
often described as the festival to open the long reign of
Peace. It might, as a mere matter of chronology, be called
Avithout any impropriety the festival to celebrate the close
ofthe short reign of Peace. From that year, 1851, it may
be said fairly enough that the Avorld has hardly knoAvn a
Aveek of peace. The coup d''etat in France closed the year.
The Crimean War began almost immediately after, and Avas
followed by the Indian Mutiny, and that by the war between
France and Austria, the long civil Avar in the United States,
the Neapolitan enterprises of Garibaldi, and the Mexican
intervention, until Ave corae to the Avar belAveen Austria,
Prussia, and Denmark ; the short, sharp struggle for Gerraan
supreraacy between Austria and Prussia, the Avar betAveen

360 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
France and Germany, and the Avar between Russia and Tur
key. Such were, in brief suraraary, the events that quickly
followed the great inaugurating Festival of Peace in 1851.
Of course those who organized the Great Exhibition Avere
in no way responsible for the exalted and extravagant ex
pectations Avhich were forraed as to its effects on the history
ofthe Avorld and the elements of human nature. But there
Avas a great deal too much of the dithyrambic about the
style in which many Avriters and speakers thought fit to
describe the Exhibition. With some of these all this was
the result of genuine enthusiasm. In other instances the
extravagance was indulged in by persons not habitually
extravagant, but, on the contrary, very sober, methodical,
and calculating, Avho by the very fact of their possessing
eminently these qualities were led into a total misconcep
tion of the influence of such assemblages of men. These
calm and wise persons assuraed that because they them
selves, if shoAvn that a certain course of conduct was for
their material and moral benefit, would instantly follow it
and keep to it, it must therefore follow that all peoples and
states Avere .amenable to the same excellent principle of self-
discipline. War is a foolish and improvident, not to say
iraraoral and atrocious, Avay of trying to adjust our disputes,
they argued; let peoples far divided in geographical situa
tion be only brought together and induced to talk this over,
and see how rauch raore profitable and noble is the rivalry
of peace in trade and commerce, and they Avill never think
of the coarse and brutal arbitrament of battle any more.
Not a few others, it must be OAvned, indulged, in the high-
floAvn glorification ofthe reign of peace to come because the
Exhibition Avas the special enterprise of the Prince Consort,
and they had a natural aptitude for the production of courtly
strains. But among all these classes of psean-singers it did
happen that a good deal of unmerited discredit Avas cast
upon the results of the Great Exhibition, for the enterprise
Avas held responsible for illusions it had of itself nothing to
do Avith creating, and disappointments which were no con
sequence of any failure on its part. Even upon trade and
production it is very easy to exaggerate the beneficent in
fluences of an international exhibition. But that such enter
prises have sorae beneficial influence is beyond doubt; apd

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 361
that they are interesting, instructive, Avell calculated to edu
cate and refine the minds of nations, may be admitted by
the least enthusiastic of men.
The first idea of the Exhibition was conceived by Prince
Albert ; and it Avas his energy and influence which succeed
ed in carrying the idea into practical execution. Probably
no influence less great than that which his station gave to
the Prince would have prevailed to carry to success so diffi
cult an enterprise. There had been industrial exhibitions
before on a sraall scale and of local lirait ; but if the idea of
an exhibition in which all the nations of the world were to
compete had occurred to other minds before, as it raay well
have done, it was raerely as a vague thought, a day-dreara,
without any claim to a practical realization. Prince Albert
was President of the Society of Arts, and this position se
cured him a platform for the effective promulgation of his
ideas. On June 30th, 1849, he called a meeting ofthe Soci
ety of Arts at Buckingham Palace. He proposed that the
Society should undertake the initiative in the promotion of
an exhibition ofthe works of all nations. The raain idea of
Prince Albert was that the exhibition should be divided into
four great sections — the first to contain raw raaterials and
produce ; the second, raachinery for ordinary industrial and
productive purposes, and mechanical inventions of the more
ingenious kind ; the third, manufactured articles ; and the
fourth, sculpture, models, and the illustrations of the plastic
arts generally. The idea was at once taken up by the Soci
ety of Arts, and by their agency spread abroad. On October
17th in the sarae year a raeeting of merchants and bankers
was held in London to promote the success of the under
taking. In the first few days of 1850 a forraal Coramission
Avas appointed " for the promotion of the Exhibition of
the Works of All Nations, to be holden in the year 1851."
Prince Albert was appointed President of the Commission.
The enterprise was uoav fairly launched. A few days after,
a meeting Avas held in the Mansion House to raise funds in
aid ofthe Exhibition, and ten thousand pounds Avas at once
collected. This, of course, Avas but the beginning, and a
guarantee fund of two hundred thousand pounds was very
soon obtained.
On March 21st, in the same year, the Lord Mayor of Lon-
L— 16

362 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
don gave a banquet at the Mansion House to the chief
magistrates ofthe cities, towns, and boroughs ofthe United
Kingdom, for the purpose of inviting their co-operation in
support of the undertaking. Prince Albert Avas present, and
spoke. He had cultivated the art of speaking with much
success, and had almost entirely overcome whatever difficul
ty stood in his way from his foreign birth and education.
He never quite lost his foreign accent. No man coraing to
a new country at the age of manhood as Prince Albert did
ever acquired the new tongue in such a manner as to lose
all trace of a foreign origin; and to the end ofhis career
Prince Albert spoke with an accent which, however careful
ly trained, still betrayed its early habitudes. But, except
for this slight blemish. Prince Albert may be said to have
acquired a perfect mastery of the English language, and he
becarae a reraarkably good public speaker. He had, indeed,
nothing of the orator in his nature. It was but the extrav
agance of courtliness which called his polished and thought
ful speeches oratory. In the Prince's nature there was nei
ther the passion nor the poetry that are essential to genuine
eloquence ; nor were the occasions on which he addressed
the English people likely to stimulate a man to eloquence.
But his style of speaking was clear, thoughtful, stately, and
sometimes even noble. It exactly suited its purpose. It
Avas that of a man who did not set up for an orator; and
who, Avhen he spoke, wished that his ideas rather than his
AVords should impress his hearers. It is very much to be
doubted whether the English public would be quite delight
ed to have a prince Avho was also a really great orator.
Genuine eloquence would probably impress a great many
respectable persons as a gift not exactly suited to a prince.
There is even still a certain distrust of the artistic in the
English mind as of a sort of thing which is very proper in pro
fessional writers and painters and speakers, but which would
hardly become persons of the highest station. Prince Al
bert probably spoke just as well as he could have done with
successful effect upon his English audiences. At the dinner
in the Mansion House he spoke with great clearness and
grace of the purposes of the Great Exhibition. It was, he
said, to "give the world a true test, a living picture, of the
point of indifstrial developraent at which the whole of man-

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 863
kind has arrived, and a new starting-point from Avhioh all
nations will be able to direct their further exertions."
It must not be supposed, however, that the project of
the Great Exhibition advanced AvhoUy without opposition.
Many persons were disposed to sneer at it ; raany Avere scep
tical about its doing any good; not a few slill regarded
Prince Albert as a foreigner and a pedant, and were slow to
believe that anything really practical was likely to be de
veloped under his irapulse and protection. A very whim
sical sort of opposition was raised in the House of Commons
by a once famous eccentric, the late Colonel Sibthorp. Sib
thorp was a man who raight have been drawn by SraoUett.
His grotesqiie gestures, his overboiling energy, his uncouth
appearance, his huge mustache, marked him out as an object
of curiosity in any crowd. He was the subject of one ofthe
most arausing pieces of impromptu parody ever thrown off
by a public speaker — that in which O'Connell travestied the
famous lines about the three poets in three different ages
born, and pictured three colonels in three different countries
born, winding up with: "The force of Nature could no far
ther go ; to beard the' one she shaved the other Iavo." One
of the gallant Sibthorp's especial weaknesses was a distrust
and detestation of all foreigners. Foreigners he lumped to
gether as a race of beings Avhose chief characteristics were
Popery and immorality. While three -fourths ofthe pro
moters of the Exhibition were dwelling Avith the strongest
emphasis on the benefit it would bring by draAving into
London the representatives of all nations. Colonel Sibthorp
Avas denouncing this agglomeration of foreigners as the
greatest curse that could fall upon England. He regarded
foreigners much as Isaac of York, in " Ivanhoe," regards the
Knight Templars. " When," asks Isaac, in bitter remon
strance, "did Templars breathe aught but cruelty to men
and dishonor to women ?" Colonel Sibthorp kept asking
some such question with regard to foreigners in general and
their expected concourse to the Exhibition. In language
somewhat too energetic and broad for our more polite time,
he warned the House of Coraraons and the country of the
consequences to English raorals which raust corae of the in
flux of a crowd of foreigners at a given season. " Take
care," he exclaimed, in the House of Commons, "of your

364 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Avives and daughters ; take care of your property and your
lives!" He declared that he prayed for some tremendous
hail-storm or visitation of lightning to be sent frora heaven
expressly for the purpose of destroying in advance the
building destined for the ill-oraened Exhibition. When
Free-trade had left nothing else needed to coraplete the ruin
of the nation, the enemy of mankind, he declared, had in
spired us with the idea of the Great Exhibition, so that the
foreigners who had first robbed us of our trade might novv
be enabled to rob us of our honor.
The objections raised to the Exhibition were not by any
raeans confined to Colonel Sibthorp or to his kind of argu
raent. After sorae consideration the Royal Coraraissioners
had fixed upon Hyde Park as the best site for the great
building, and many energetic and sorae influential voices
Avere raised iu fierce outcry against what was called the prof
anation of the park. It was argued that the public use of
Hyde Park would be destroyed by the Exhibition; that the
park would be utterly spoiled ; that ils beauty could never
be restored. A petition Avas presented by Lord Cariipbell
to the House of Lords against the occupation of any part of
Hyde Park Avith the Exhibition building. Lord Brougham
supported the petition with his characteristic impetuosity
and vehemence He denounced the Attorney-general with
indignant eloquence because that official had declined to file
an application to the Court of Chancery for an injunction to
stay any proceeding with the proposed building in the park.
He denounced the House of Lords itself for what he consid
ered its servile deference to royalty in the matter ofthe Ex
hibition and its site. He declared that Avhen he endeavored
to raise the question there he was received in dead silence ;
and he asserted that an effort to bring on a discussion inthe
House of Coraraons was received with a silence equally pro
found and servile. Such facts,' he shouted, only showed
raore painfully " that absolute prostration of the under
standing which takes place even in the minds of the bravest
Avhen the word prince is mentioned in this country!" It is
probably true enough that only the influence of a prince
could have carried the scherae to success against the storms
of opposition that began to blow at various periods and
from different points. Undoubtedly a vast number, prob-

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 365
ably the great majority, of those who supported the enter
prise in the beginning did so siraply because it Avas the proj
ect of a prince Their numbers and their money enabled
it to be carried on, and secured it the test of the world's
examination and approval. In that sense the very servili
ty which accepts with delight Avhatever a prince proposes
stood the Exhibition in good stead. A courtier may plead
that if English people in general had been more independent
and less given to admiration of princes, the excellent project
devised by Prince Albert would never have had a fair trial
Many times during ils progress the Prince hiraself trerabled
for the success of his scheme. Many a tirae he must have
felt inclined to renounce it, or at least to regret that he had
ever taken it up.
Absurd as the opposition to the scheme raay uoav seera,
it is certain that a great many sensible persons thought the
moment singularly inopportune for the gathering of large
crowds, and Avere satisfied that some inconvenient, if not
dangerous, public demonstration must be provoked. The
smouldering embers of Chartisra, they said, were everywhere
under society's feet. The crowds of foreigners whom Col
onel Sibthorp so dreaded would, calraer people said, natu
rally include large numbers of the "Reds" of all Conti
nental nations, who Avould be only too glad to coalesce with
Chartism and discontent of all kinds, for the purpose of dis
turbing the peace of London. The agitation caused by the
Papal aggression was slill in full force and flame. By an
odd coincidence the first column of the Exhibition building
had beeu set up in Llyde Park alraost at the same raoraent
with the issue ofthe Papal bull establishing a Roman Cath
olic hierarchy in England. These conditions looked gloomy
for the project. " The opponents of the Exhibition," wrote
the Prince hiraself, "Avork Avith might and raain to throw
all the old AVomen here into a panic and to drive myself
crazy. The strangers, they give out, are certain to com
mence a thorough revolution here, to murder Victoria and
myself, and to proclaim the Red Republic in England ; the
plague is certain to ensue frora the confluence of such vast
multitudes, and to swallow up those Avhom the increased
price of everything has not already SAvept away. For .all
this I am to be responsible, and against all this I have lo

366 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
make efficient provision." Most of the Continental sover
eigns looked coldly on the undertaking. The King of Prus
sia took such alarm at the thought of the Red Republicans
whom the Exhibition would draw together, that at first he
positively prohibited his brother, then Prince of Prussia,
now German Eraperor, from attending the opening ceremo
nial ; and though he afterward withdrew the prohibition, lie
reraained full of doubts and fears as to the personal safety
of any royal or princely personage found in Hyde Park on
the opening day. The Duke of Carabridge, being appealed
to on the subject, acknoAvledged himself also full of appre
hensions. The objections to the site continued to grow up
to a certain time. " The Exhibition," Prince Albert wrote
once to Baron Stockmar, his friend and adviser, "is noAV at
tacked furiously by the Times, and the House of Commons
is going to drive us out of the park. There is iramense ex
citement on the subject. If we are driven out of the park
the work is done for." At one tirae, indeed, this result
seeraed highly probable ; but public opinion gradually uii-
derAvent a change, and the opposition to the site was defeat
ed in the House of Coraraons by a large majority.
Even, however, when the question of the site had been
disposed of, there reraained immense difficulties in the way.
The press Avas not, on the Avhole, very favorable to the proj
ect; Punch, in particular, Avas hardly ever weary of mak
ing fun of it. Such a project, while yet only in embryo,
undoubtedly furnished many points on Avhich satire could
fasten ; and nothing short of complete success could save it
frora falling under a raountain of ridicule. No half success
Avould have rescued it. The ridicule Avas naturally provoked
and aggravated to an unspeakable degree by the hyperbol
ical expectations and preposterous dithyrambics of sorae of
the well-meaning but unwise and soraeAvhat too obstreper
ously loyal supporters of the enterprise. To add to all this,
as the tirae for the opening drew near, sorae of the foreign
diploraatists in London began to sulk at the whole project.
There were sraall points of objection made about the posi
tion and functions of foreign ambassadors at the opening
ceremonial, and what the Queen and Prince meant for po
liteness was, in one instance at least, near being tAvisted into
cause of offence. Up to the last raoment it Avas not quite

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 867
certain whether an absurd diplomatic quarrel might not have
been part of the inaugural ceremonies of the opening day.
The Prince did not despair, however, and the project went
on. There was a great deal of difficulty in selecting a plan
for the building. Huge structures of brick-Avork, looking
like enormous railway sheds, costly and hideous at once,
were proposed ; it seeraed alraost certain that some one of
thera must be chosen. Happily, a sudden inspiration struck
Mr. (afterward Sir Joseph) Paxton, who was then in charge
of the Duke of Devonshire's superb grounds at ChatSAvorth.
Why not try glass and iron ? he asked himself Why not
build a palace of glass and iron large enough to cover all
the intended contents of the Exhibition, and which should
be at once light, beautiful, and cheap ? Mr. Paxton sketch
ed out his plan hastily, and the idea was eagerly accepted
by the Royal Coraraissioners. He raade many improve
ments afterAvard in his design ; but the palace of glass and
iron arose within the specified time on the green turf of
Hyde Park. The idea so happily hit upon was serviceable
in more ways than one to the success of the Exhibition. It
made the building itself as much an object of curiosity and
wonder as the collections under its crystal roof Of the
hundreds of thousands who came to the Exhibition, a good
ly proportion were draAvn to Hyde Park rather by a wish to
soe Paxton's palace of glass than all the Avonders of indus
trial and plastic art that it enclosed. Indeed, Lord Palmer
ston, Avriting to Lord Normanby on the day after the open
ing of the Exhibition, said : "The building itself is far more
Avorth seeing than anything in it, though many of its con
tents are worthy of admiration." Perhaps the glass build
ing was like the Exhibition project itself in one respect. It
did not bring about the revolution Avhich it was confidently
expected to create. Glass and iron have not superseded
brick and stone, any raore than competitions of peaceful in
dustry have banished arbitraraent by Avar. But the build
ing, like the Exhibition itself, fulfilled admirably its more
modest and iraraediate purpose, and was in that way a com
plete success. The structure of glass is, indeed, in every
mind inseparably associated with the event and the year.
The Queen herself has written a very interesting account
ofthe success ofthe opening day. Her description is inter-

368 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
esting as an expression of the feelings of the Avriter, the
sense of profound relief and rapture, as well as for the sake
of the picture it gives of the ceremonial itself The enthusi
asm ofthe wife over the complete success ofthe project on
Avhich her husband had set his heart and staked his name is
simple and touching. If the importance of the undertaking
and the araount of farae it was to bring to ils author may
seera a little overdone, not many readers will complain ofthe
Avoraanly and Avifely feeling Avhich could not be denied such
fervent expression. "The great event," wrote the Queen,
"has taken place — a coraplete and beautiful triuraph — a glo
rious and touching sight, one which I shall ever be proud of
for ray beloved Albert and ray country. . . . The park pre
sented a wonderful spectacle — crowds streaming through it,
carriages and troops passing, quite like the Coronation-day,
and for rae the same anxiety — no, much greater anxiety, on
account of my beloved Albert. The day Avas bright, and
all bustle and excitement. . . . The Green Park and Hyde
Park were one densely crowded mass of huraan beings, in
the highest good-huraor, and raost enthusl-istic. I never
saw Hyde Park look as it did — as far as the eye conld
reach. A little rain fell just as we started, but before we
carae near the Crystal Palace the sun shone and gleamed
upon the gigantic edifice, upon which the flags of ail nations
were floating. . . . The glimpse of the transept through the
iron gates, the Avaving palms, flowers, statues, myriads of
people filling the galleries and seats around, Avith the flour
ish of trumpets as Ave entered, gave us a sensation which I
can never forget, and I felt rauch raoved. . . . The sio-ht as
Ave came to the middle was magical — so vast, so glorious,
so touching — one felt, as so many did Avhom I have since
spoken to, filled with devotion — more so than by any ser
vice I have ever heard. The tremendous cheers^ the joy
expressed in every face, the immensity of the building, the
mixture of palms, flowers, trees, statues, fountains; the or
gan (with two hundred instruments and six hundred voices,
Avhich sounded like nothing), and my beloved husband the
author of this peace festival, which united the industry of
all nations of the earth — all this Avas moving, indeed, and it
Avas and is a day to live forever. God bless my dearest Al
bert ! God bless my dearest country, which h.as shown it-

THE EXHIBITION IN HYDE PARK. 369
self SO great to-day ! One felt so grateful to the great God,
Avho seemed to pervade all and to bless all !"
The success of the opening day was, indeed, undoubted.
There Avere nearly thirty thousand people gathered together
Avithin the building, and nearly three-quarters of a raillion
of persons lined the Avay between the Exhibition and Buck
ingham Palace ; and yet no accident whatever occurred,
nor had the police any trouble iraposed on thera by the
conduct of anybody in the crowd. " It was impossible,"
wrote Lord Palraerston, " for the invited guests of a lady's
drawing-room to have conducted themselves Avilh more per
fect propriety than did this sea of human beings." It is
needless to say that there Avere no hostile demonstrations
by Red Republicans, or malignant Chartists, or infuriated
Irish Catholics. The one thing- Avhich especially struck for
eign observers, and to Avhicli many eloquent pens and
tongues bore Avitness, Avas the orderly conduct of the peo
ple. Nor did the subsequent history of the Exhibition in
any Avay belie the promise of ils opening day. It continued
to attract delighted crowds to the last, and more than once
held within ils precincts at one moment nearly a hundred
thousand persons, a concourse large enough to have made
the population of a respectable Continental capital. In an
other Avay the Exhibition proved even raore successful than
was anticipated. There had been some difficulty in raising
money in the flrst instance, and it was thought soraething
of a patriotic risk when a foAV spirited citizens combined to
secure the accoraplishraent of the undertaking by means of
a guarantee fund. But the guarantee fund became in the
end merely one ofthe forms and ceremonials ofthe Exhibi
tion ; for the undertaking not only covered its expenses, but
left a huge sum of raoney in the hands ofthe Royal Com
missioners. The Exhibition was closed by Prince Albert
on October 15th. That, at least, may be described as the
closing day, for it was then that the awards of prizes were
made known in presence ofthe Prince and a large concourse
of people. The Exhibition itself had actually been closed
to the general public on the eleventh of the month. Tt has
been imitated again and again. It Avas followed by an
exhibition in Dublin ; an exhibition of the paintings and
sculptures of all nations in Manchester ; three great exhibi-
16*

370 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tions in Paris ; the International Exhibition in Kensington
in 1862 — the enterprise too of Prince Albert, although not
destined to have his presence at its opening ; an exhibition
at Vienna ; one in Philadelphia ; and various others. Where
all nations seem to have agreed to pay Prince Albert's en
terprise the compliraent of imitation, it seeras superfluous to
say that it Avas a success. Time has so toned doAvn our ex
pectations in regard to these enterprises, that no occasion
now arises for the feeling of disappointment which was lono-
associated in the minds of once-sanguine persons with the
Crystal Palace of Hyde Park. We look on such exhibi
tions now as useful agencies in the work of industrial de
velopraent, and in promoting the intercourse of peoples, and
thus co-operating Avith various other influences in the gen
eral business of civilization. But the irapressions produced
by the Hyde Park Exhibition were unique. It was the first
thing of the kind ; the gathering of peoples it brought to
getiier was as new, odd, and interesting as the glass build
ing in which the industry of the Avorld was displayed. For
the first time in their lives Londoners saw the ordinary as
pect of London distinctly modified and changed by the in
cursion of foreigners who came to take part in or to look at
our Exhibition. London seemed to be playing at holiday
in a strange carnival sort of way during the tirae the Ex
hibition was open. The Hyde Park enterprise bequeathed
nothing very tangible or distinct to the world, except in
deed the palace Avhich, built out of its fabric, not its ruins,
so gracefully ornaments one of the soft hills of Sydenhara.
But the raeraory of the Exhibition itself is very distinct
Avith all who saw it. None of its followers were exactly
like it, or could take its place in the recollection of those
who Avere its contemporaries. In a year made meraorable
by many political events of the greatest iraportance, of dis
turbed and tempestuous politics abroad and at home, ofthe
deaths of many illustrious men and the failure of many
splendid hopes, the Exhibition in Hyde Park still holds its
place in memory — not for Avhat it brought or accomplished,
but simply for itself, its surroundings, and its house of glass.

PALMERSTON. 371

CHAPTER XXIL
PALMEESTON.
The death of Sir Robert Peel had left Lord Palraerston
the raost prominent, if not actually the most influential,
among the statesmen of England. Palraerston's Avas a stren
uous, self-asserting character. He loved, whenever he had
an opportunity, to make a stroke, as he frequently put it
himself, "off his own bat." He had given himself up to the
study of foreign affairs as no minister of his tirae had done.
He had a peculiar capacity for understanding foreign poli
tics and people as well as foreign languages, and he had
come somewhat to pique himself upon his knowledge. As
Bacon said that he had taken all learning for his province,
Palmerston seemed to have made up his mind that he had
taken all European affairs for his province. Liis sympathies
Avere markedly liberal. As opinions went then, they might
have been considered among statesmen alraost revolutiona
ry ; for the Conservative of our day is to the full as Uber.al
as the average Liberal of 1848 and 1850. In all the popular
movements going on throughout the Continent, Palraerston's
syrapathies were generally with the peoples and against the
governraents ; Avhile he had, on the other hand, a very strong
contempt, Avhich he took no pains to conceal, even for the
very best class of the Continental demagogue. It was not,
however, in his syrapathies that Palmerston differed from
most of his colleagues. He was not more liberal even in
his views of foreign affairs than Lord John Russell ; he was
probably not so consistently and on principle a supporter of
free and popular institutions. But Lord Palraerston's en
ergetic, heedless teraperaraent, his exuberant aniraal spirits,
and his profound confidence in hiraself and his opinions,
made him much more liberal and spontaneous in his ex
pressions of syrapathy than a man of Russell's colder nature
could well have been. Palraerston seized a conclusion at
once, and hardly ever departed from it. He never seemed to

372 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
care Avho knew what he thought on any subject. He had a
contempt for men of more deliberate teraper, and often spoke
and wrote as if he thought a man slow in forming an opinion
must needs be a dull man, not to say a fool. AU opinions
not his OAVU he held in good-humored scorn. In sorae of his
letters we find hira Avriting of raen of the raost undoubted
genius and wisdom, whose views have since slood all the
test of tirae and trial, as if they Avere raere blockheads for
Avhora no practical man could feel the slightest respect. It
Avould be almost superfluous to say, in describing a man of
such a nature, that Lord Palraerston sometimes fancied he
saw great Avisdora and force of character in raen for whom
neither then nor since did the world in general show much
regard. As with a man, so with a cause. Lord Palraerston
Avas, to all appearance, capricious in his syrapathies. Calraer
and raore earnest rainds were soraetiraes offended at Avhat
seeraed a lack of deep-seated principle in his raind and his
policy, even Avhen it happened that he and they were in ac
cord as to the course that ought to be pursued. His levi
ty often shocked thera: his blunt, brusque Avays of speaking
and writing sometimes gave downright offence.
In his later years Lord Palraerston's raanner in Parliaraent
and out of it had greatly raellowed and softened and groAvn
more genial. Lie retained all the good spirits and the ready,
easy, raarvellously telling humor ; but he had groAvn raore
considerate of the feelings of opponents in debate, and he
allowed his genuine kindness of heart a freer influence upon
his mode of speech. He had grown to prefer, on the whole,
his friend, or even his honorable opponent, to his joke. They
Avho only remember Palmerston in his very later years in
the House of Commons, and Avho can only recall to raemory
that bright, racy humor which never offended, Avill perhaps
find it hard to understand how many eneraies he made for
hiraself at an earlier period by the levity and flippancy of
his manner. Many grave statesmen thought that the levity
and flippancy were far less dangerous, even Avhen employed
in irritating his adversaries in the House of Commons, than
when exercised in badgering foreign ministers and their gov
ernments and sovereigns. Lord Palmerston Avas unsparing
in his lectures to foreign States. He was always admonish
ing them that they ought to lose no time in at once adopting

PALMERSTON. 873
the principles of government Avhicli prevailed in England.
He not uncommonly put his admonitions in the tone of one
Avho meant to say: "If you don't take my advice you will
be ruined, and your ruin will serve you right for being such
fools." While, therefore, he Avas a Conservative in home
politics, and never even professed the slightest personal in
terest in any projects of political reform in England, he got
the credit all over the Continent of being a supporter, pro
moter, and patron of all manner of revolutionary raoveraents,
and a..disturber ofthe relations between subjects and their
sovereigns. Lord Palraerston was not inconsistent in thus being a Con
servative at home and something like a revolutionary abroad.
He was quite satisfied Avith the state of things in England.
He Avas convinced that Avhen a people had got a well-limited
suffrage and a respectable House of Commons elected by
open vote, a House of Lords, and a constitutional Sovereign,
they had got all that, in a political sense, man has lo hope
for. He was not a far-seeing man, nor a man who much
troubled himself about what a certain class of writers and
thinkers are fond of calling "problems of life." It did not
occur to hira to think that as a matter of absolute necessity
the very reforms Ave enjoy in one day are only putting us
into a mental condition to aspire after and see the occasion
for further reforms as the days go on. But he clearly saw
that most Continental countries were governed on a system
Avhich was not only worn out and decaying, but Avhich was
the source of great practical and personal evils to their in
habitants. He desired, therefore, for every country a politi
cal system like that of Great Britain, and neither for Great
Britain nor for any other country did he desire anything
more. He was, accordingly, looked upon by Continental
ministers as a patron of revolution, and by English Radicals
as the steady enemy of political reforra. Both Avere right
from their own point of vIoav. The familiar saying among
Continental Conservatives Avas expressed in the well-known
Gerraan lines, which affirra that "Ifthe devil had a son, he
must be surely Palmerston." On the other hand, the Eng
lish Radical party regarded hiin as the raost forraidable ene
my they had. Mr. Cobden deliberately declared him to be
the M'orst minister that had ever governed England. At a

874 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
later period, Avhen Lord Palraerston invited Cobden to take
office under hira, Cobden referred to what he had said of
Palraerston, and gave this as a reason to show the irapossi-
bility of his serving such a chief The good-natured stales-
man only smiled, and observed that another public raan Avho
had just joined his Adrainistration had often said things as
bard of him in olher days. " Yes," answered Cobden, quiet
ly, " but I raeant Avliat I said."
Palraerston, therefore, had many enemies araong Europe
an stalesraen. It is now certain that the Queen frequent
ly winced under the expressions of ill-feeling which Avere
brought to her ears as affecting England, and, as she sup
posed, herself, and which she believed to have been draAvn
on her by the inconsiderate and impulsive conduct of Palm
erston. The Prince Consort, on Avhose advice the Queeii
very naturally relied, was a raan of singularly calra and ear
nest nature. He liked to forra his opinions deliberately and
sloAvly, and disliked expressing any opinion until his mind
was Avell raade up. Lord Palraerston, when Secretary for
Foreign Affairs, was much in the habit of writing and an
swering despatches on the spur of the moraent, and without
consulting either the Queen or his colleagues. Palmerston
complained of the long delays which took place on several
occasions when, in raatters of urgent importance, he Availed
to subrait despatches to the Queen before sending them off.
He Avas of opinion that during the memorable controversy
on the Spanish marriages the interests of England were once
in danger of being corapromised by the delay thus forced
upon him. He contended, too, that where the general policy
of a state was clearly marked out and Avell knoAvn, it would
have been idle lo insist that a Foreign Secretary capable of
perforraing the duties ofhis office should wait to submit for
the inspection and approval of the Sovereign and his col
leagues every scrap of paper he wrote on before it was al-
loAved to leave England. If such precautions were needful.
Lord Palraerston contended, it could only be because the
person holding the office of Foreign Secretary was unfit for
his post ; and he ought, therefore, to be disraissed, and some
better qualified man put in his place. Of course there is
sorae obvious justice in this vIcav ofthe case. It Avould per
haps have been unreasonable to expect that, at a tirae when

PALMERSTON. 875
the business of the Foreign Office had suddenly swelled to
unprecedented magnitude, the same rules and formalities
could be kept up which had suited slower and less busy
days. But the complaint made by the Queen was not that
Palraerston failed to consult her on every detail, and lo sub
mit every line relating to the organization of the Foreign
Office for her approval before he sent it off. The coraplaint
Avas clear, and full of raatter for very grave consideration.
The Queen complained that on matters concerning the act
ual policy ofthe State Palmerston was in the habit of acting
on his own independent judgment and authority; that she
found herself more than once thus pledged to a course of
policy which she had not had an opportunity of considering,
and would not have approved if she had had such an oppor
tunity ; and that she hardly ever found any question abso
lutely intact and iincomproraised when it was subraitted to
her judgraent. The coraplaint Avas justified in many cases.
Lord Palmerston frequently acted in a raanner which alraost
made it seera as if he were purposely ignoring the auihority
of the Sovereign. In part this came frora the natural irapa
tience of a quick man confident in his own knowledge of a
subject, and chafing at any delay which he thought "unnec
essary and merely forraal. But it is not easy to avoid a sus
picion that Lord Palmerston's rapidity of action sometiraes
had a different explanation. Two irapressions seem to have
had a place deeply doAvn in the mind of the Foreign Secre
tary. He appears to have felt sure that, roughly speaking,
the sympathies of the English people were Avith the Conti
nental movements against the sovereigns, and that the syra
pathies ofthe English court were with the sovereigns against
the popular raoveraents. In the first belief he was undoubt
edly right. In the second he Avas probably right. It is not
likely that a raan of Prince Albert's peculiar turn of raind
could have admitted rauch syrapathy with revolution against
constituted authority of any kind. Even his Liberalism, un
doubtedly a deep and genuine conviction, did not lead hira
to make much allowance for any disturbing impulses. His
orderly intellectual nature, Avith little of fire or passion in it,
was prone to estimate everything by the manner in which
it stood the test of logical argument. He could understand
arguing against a bad systera better than he could under-

876 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Stand taking the risk of raaking things worse by resisting
it. Sorae .of the published memoranda or other writings of
Prince Albert are full of a curious interest as showing the
way in which a calra, intellectual, and earnest man could ap
proach some of the burning questions of the day with the
belief apparently that the great antagonisms of systems and
of opposing national forces could be argued into moderation
and persuaded into compromise. In Prince Albert there
Avere two tendencies counteracting each olher. His natural
sympathies were manifestly with the authority of thrones.
His education taught hira that thrones can only exist by
virtue of their occupants recognizing the fact that they do
not exist of their oavu authority, and taking care that they
do not became unsuited to the time. The influence of Prince
Albert would, therefore, be something very different frora the
impulses and desires of Lord Palmerston. It is hardly to be
doubted that Palmerston sometimes acted upon this convic
tion. He thought he understood better than others not only
the tendencies of events in foreign politics, but also the ten
dencies of English public opinion Avith regard to thera. He
well knew that so long as he had publicj opinion with him,
no influence could long prevail against hira. LIis knoAvledge
of English public opinion Avas soraething like an instinct.
It could ahvays be trusted. It had, indeed, no far reach.
Lord Palmerston never could be relied upon for a judgment
as to the possible changes of a generation, or even a fcAV
years. But he was an almost infallible guide as lo what a
raajority ofthe English people were likely to say if asked
at the particular raoraent when any question Avas under dis
pute. Palmerston never really guided, but always follow
ed, the English public, even in foreign affairs. He was, it
seems almost needless to say, an incomparably better judge
of the direction English sentiraent Avas likely to take than
the most acute foreigner put in such a place as Prince Al
bert's conld possibly hope to be. It raay be assumed, then,
that some at least of Lord Palraerston's actions were dictated
by the conviction that he had the general force of that sen
timent to sustain hira in case his mode of conducting the
business of the Foreign Office should ever be called into
account. A time came Avhen it Avas called into account. The Qneen

PALMERSTON. 377
and the Prince had long chafed under Lord Palmerston's
cavalier Avay of doing business. So far back as 1849 her
Majesty had felt obliged to draw the attention of the For
eign Secretary to the fact that his office Avas constitutional
ly under the control of the Prime-minister, and that the de
spatches to be submitted for her approval should, therefore,
pass through the hands of Lord John Russell. Lord John
Russell approved of this arrangement, only suggesting — and
the suggestion is of sorae raoment in considering the defence
of his conduct afterAvard made by Lord Palmerston — that
every facility should be given fbr the transaction of business
by the Queen's attending to the draft despatches as soon as
possible after their arrival. The Queen accepted the sug
gestion good-huraoredly, only pleading that she should "not
be pressed for an answer within a fcAv minutes, as is done
now soraetiraes." One can see tolerably Avell what a part
of the difficulty Avas, even from these slight hints. Lord
Palraerston Avas rapid in forraing his judgments, as in all his
proceedings, and when once he had made up his raind Avas
impatient of any delay which seeraed to him superfluous.
Prince Albert was slow, deliberate, reflective, and methodi
cal Lord Palmerston was always sure he was right in every
judgment he formed, even if it were adopted on the spur of
the moment ; Prince Albert loved reconsideration, and Avas
open lo new argument and late conviction. However, the
difficulty was got over in 1849. Lord Palraerston agreed to
every suggestion, and for the time all seeraed likely to go
smoothly. It was only for the time. The Queen soon be
lieved she had reason to complain that the new arrangeraent
Avas not carried out. Things were going on, she thought,
in just the old way. Lord Palmerston dealt as before with
foreign courts according to Avhat seemed best to hira at the
moraent ; and his Sovereign and his colleagues often only
knew of some important despatch or instruction Avhen the
thing Avas done, and could not be conveniently or becoming
ly undone. The Prince, at her Majesty's request, wrote to
Lord John Russell, complaining strongly of the conduct of
Lord Palmerston. The letter declared that Lord Palraerston
had failed in his duty toward her, "and not from oversight
or negligence, but upon principle, and Avith astonishing per
tinacity, against every effort of the Queen. Besides Avliich,

378 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Lord Palmerston does not scruple to let it appear in public
as if the Sovereign's negligence in attending to the papers
sent to her caused delay and annoyance." Even before this
it seeras that the Queen had drawn up a memorandum to lay
doAvn in clear and severe language the exact rules by which
the Foreign Secretary must be bound in his dealings with
her. The memorandura was not used at that tirae, as it was
thought that the reraonstrances of the Sovereign and the
Prirae-rainister alike could hardly fail to have sorae effect on
the Foreign Secretary. This time, however, the Queeii ap
pears to have felt that she could no longer refrain; andj
accordingly, the following important memorandum was ad
dressed by her Majesty to the Prime - rainister. * It is well
worth quoting in full, partly because it becarae a subject of
rauch interest and controversy afterward, and partly because
of the tone of peculiar sternness, rare indeed frora a sover
eign to a minister in our times, in which its instructions are
conveyed. Osborne, August 12th, 1850.
With reference to the conversation about Lord P.nlmerston which the
Queen had with Lord John Russell the other day, and Lord Palmerston's
disavowal that he ever intended any disrespect to her by the various neglects
of which she has had so long and so often to complain, slie thinks it right, in
order to prevent any mistake for the future, to explain wliat it is she expects
from the Foreign Secretary.
She requires:
First. That he will distinctly state what he proposes to do in a given case,
in order that the Queen may know as distinctly to what she has given her
royal sanction.
Second. Having once given her sanction to a measure, that jt be not arbi
trarily altered or modified by the minister ; such an act she must consider
as failure in sincerity toward the Crown, and justly to be visited by the exer
cise of her constitutional right of dismissing that minister. She expects to
be kept informed of what passes between him and the foreign ministers, be
fore important decisions are taken based upon that intevconrse ; to receive
the foreign despatches in good time, and to have the drafts for her approval
sent to her in sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents
before they must be sent off. The Queen thinks it best that Lord John Rus
sell should show this letter to Lord Palmerston.
The tone of the meraorandura was severe, but there was
nothing unreasonable in its stipulations. On the contrary,
it siraply prescribed what every one might have supposed
to be the elementary conditions on Avhich the duties of a

PALMERSTON. 379
sovereign and a foreign minister can alone be satisfactorily
carried on. Custom as Avell as obvious convenience demand
ed such conditions. The Duke of Wellington declared that
Avhen he was Prime-rainister no despatch left the Foreign
Office without his seeing it. No sovereign, one Avould think,
could consent to the responsibility of rule on any other
terras. We have, perhaps, got into the habit of thinking,
or at least of saying, that the sovereign of a constitutional
country only rules through the rainisters. But it would be
a great mistake to suppose that the sovereign has no consti
tutional functions whatever provided by our system of gov
ernment, and that the sole duty of a monarch is to make a
figure in certain state pageantry. It has sometimes been
said that the sovereign in a country like England is only the
signet-ring ofthe nation. If this were true, it might be ask
ed with unanswerable force why a veritable signet-ring cost
ing a few pounds, and never requiring to be renewed, Avould
not serve all purposes quite as Avell, and save expense. But
the position of the sovereign is not one of meaningless in
activity. The sovereign has a very distinct and practical
office to fulfil in a constitutional country. The monarch in
England is the chief magistrate of the State, specially raised
above party and passion and change in order to be able to
look with a clearer eye to all that concerns the inlerests of
the nation. Our constitutional system grows and develops
itself year after year as our requirements and conditions
change; and the position ofthe sovereign, like everything
else, has undergone some modification. It is settled uoav
beyond dispute th.at the sovereign is not to dismiss ministers,
or a minister, siraply from personal inclination or conviction,
as until a very recent day it Avas the right and the habit of
English monarchs to do. The sovereign now retains, in vir
tue of usage having alraost the force of constitutional law,
the rainisters of whora the House of Coraraons approves.
But the Crown still has the right, in case of extrerae need,
of disraissing any minister Avho actually fails to do his duty.
The sovereign is ahvays supposed to understand the business
of the State, to consider its affairs, and to offer an opinion,
and enforce it by argument, on any question submitted by
the rainisters. When the rainisters find that they cannot
allow their judgment to bend to that of the sovereign, then

880 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
indeed the sovereign gives way or the ministers resign. In
all ordinary cases the sovereign gives way. But it Avas
never intended by the English Constitution that the minis
ters and the country Avere not to have the benefit of the ad
vice and the judgment of a magistrate who is purposely
placed above all the excitements and teraptations of party,
its triumphs and its reverses, and who is assumed, therefore,
to have no other motive than the good of the State in offer
ing an advice. The sovereign would grossly fail in public
duty, and would be practically disappointing the confidence
of the nation, who consented to act simply as the puppet of
the rainister, and to sign mechanically and Avithout question
every document he laid on the table.
In the principles Avhich she laid down, therefore, the
Queen was strictly right. But the raeraorandum Avas none
the less a severe and a galling rebuke for the Foreign Sec
retary. We can iraagine with what eraotions Lord Palraer
ston must have received it. He Avas a proud, self-confident
man ; and it carae on hira just in the moraent «f his great
est triumph. Never before, never since, did Lord Palmer
ston win so signal and so splendid a victory as that which
he had extorted by the sheer force of his eloquence and his
genius from a reluctant House of Commons in the Don Pa
cifico debate. Never, probably, in our Parliamentary his
tory did a man of years so advanced accomplish such a feat
of eloquence, argument, and persuasion as he had achieved.
He stood up before the world the foremost English states
raan of the day. It is easy to imagine how deeply he must
have felt the rebuke conveyed in the meraorandura of the
Queen. We knoAv, as a matter of fact, from Avhat he him
self afterAvard said, that he did feel it bitterly. But he kept
doAvn his feelings. Wheiher he was right or wrong in the
raatter of dispute, he undoubtedly showed adrairable self
control and good-teraper in his raanner of receiving the rep
rimand. He wrote a friendly and good-huraored letter to
Lord John Russell, saying, "I have taken a copy of this
memorandum of the Queen, and Avill not fail to attend to
the directions which it contains." The letter then gave a
few lines of explanation about the raanner in which delays
had arisen in the sending of despatches to the Queen, but
promising to return to the old practice, and expressing a

PALMERSTON. 881
hope that if the return required an additional clerk or two,
the Treasury would be liberal in allowing him that assist
ance. Nothing could be more easy and pleasant. It raight
have seemed the ease of absolute carelessness. But it Avas
nothing of the kind. Lord Palmerston had acted deliber
ately and with a purpose. He afterward explained why he
had not ansAvered the rebuke by resigning his office. " The
paper," he said, " was Avritten in anger by a lady as well as
by a sovereign, and the difference between a lady and a
man could not be forgotten even in the case ofthe occupant
of the throne." He had " no reason to suppose that this
meraorandura Avould ever be seen by or be known to any
body but the Queen, John Russell, and myself" Again, "I
had lately been the object of violent political attack, and
had gained a great and signal victory in the House of Cora
raons and in public opinion; to have resigned then would
have been to have given the fruits of victory to antagonists
Avhom I had defeated, and to have abandoned my political
supporters at the very moment Avhen by their means I had
triumphed." But beyond all that. Lord Palraerston said
that by suddenly resigning " I should have been bringing
for decision at the bar of public opinion a personal quarrel
between rayself and ray Sovereign — a step Avhich no sub
ject ought to take if he can possibly avoid it; for the result
of such a course must be either fatal to him or injurious to
the country. If he should prove to be in the wrong, he
would be irretrievably condemned ; if the Sovereign should
be proved to be in the Avrong, the monarchy would suffer."
It is impossible not to feel a high respect for the manner
in which, having come to this deterraination. Lord Palraer
ston at once acted upon it. As he had resolved not to re
sent the rebuke, he would not allow any gleara of feeling to
creep into his letter which could shoAv that he felt any re
sentment. Few men could have avoided the temptation to
throw into a reply on such an occasion soraething of the
tone of the injured, the unappreciated, the raartyr, the
wronged one who endures much and will not complain.
Lord Palraerston felt instinctively the bad taste and unwis
dom of such a style of reply. He took his rebuke in the
most pei-fect good-humor. His letter must have surprised
Lord John Russell. Macaulay observes that Warren Lias-

382 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tings, confident that he knew best and Avas acting rightly,
endured the rebukes of the East India Company with a
patience Avhich was soraetimes raistaken for the patience
of stupidity. It is not unlikely that when the Prirae-rain
ister received Lord Palraerston's reply he may have mis
taken its patience for the patience of downright levity and
indifference. Lord Palraerston werit a step farther in the way of con
ciliation. He asked for an intervioAV with Prince Albert,
and he explained to the Prince in the most emphatic and
indignant terms that the accusation against hira of being
purposely wanting in respect to the Sovereign was absolute
ly unfounded. "Had it been deserved, he ought to be no
longer tolerated in society." But he does not seem, in the
course of the interview, to have done much raore than argue
the point as to the propriety and convenience of the systera
he had lately been adopting in the business of the Foreign
Office. So for the hour the matter dropped. Other events inter
fered ; there were many iraportant questions of doraestic
policy to be attended to; and for sorae tirae Lord Palraer
ston's policy and his way of conducting the business of the
Foreign Office did not invite any particular attention. But
the old question was destined to corae up again in more
serious forra than before.
The failure of the Hungarian rebellion, through the inter
vention of Russia, called up a wide and deep feeling of re
gret and indignation in this country. The English people
had very generally syrapathized Avith the cause of the Hun
garians, and rejoiced in the victories which, up to a certain
point, the arras of the insurgents had won. When the
Hungarians were put down at last, not by the strength of
Austria, but by the intervention of Russia, the anger of Eng
lishmen in general found loud -spoken expression. Louis
Kossuth, Avho had been Dictator of Hungary during, the
greater part ofthe insurrection, and who represented, in the
English mind at least, the cause of Hungary and her nation
al independence, came to England. He was about to take
up his residence, as he then intended, in the LTnited States,
and on his Avay thither he visited England. He had applied
for perraission to pass through French territory, and had

PALMERSTON. 383
been refused the favor. The refusal ouly gave one ad
ditional reason to the English public for Avelcoming him
Avith especial cordiality. Lie was accordingly received at
Southampton, in Birmingham, in London, with an enthusiasm
such as no foreigner except Garibaldi alone has ever drawn
in our tirae from the English people. There Avas much in
Kossuth himself, as well as in his cause, to attract the en
thusiasm of popular assemblages. "He had a strikingly
handsorae face and a stately presence. He was picturesque
and perhaps even theatric in his dress and his bearing. He
looked like a picture ; all his attitudes and gestures seeraed
as if they were meant to be reproduced by a painter. He
Avas undoubtedly one of the most eloquent men Avho ever
addressed an English popular audience. In one of his im
prisonments Kossuth had studied the English language,
chiefly from the pages of Shakspeare. He had mastered our
tongue as few foreigners have ever been able to do ; but
Avhat he had mastered was not the common colloquial Eng
lish of the streets and the drawing-rooms. The English he
spoke was the noblest in its style from which a student
could supply his eloquence : Kossuth spoke the English of
Shakspeare. He could address a public meeting for an hour
or more with a fluency not inferior, seemingly, to that of
Gladstone, with a measured dignity and Avell- restrained
force that were not unworthy of Bright, and in curiously
expressive, stately, powerful, pathetic English, which sound
ed as if it belonged to a higher tirae and to loftier interests
than ours. Viewed as a mere performance, the achievement
of Kossuth was unique It may well be imagined what the
effect was on a popular audience, when such eloquence Avas
poured forth in glowing eulogy of a cause Avith which they
sympathized, and in denunciation of eneraies and principles
they detested. It Avas irapossible not to be impressed by
the force of some of the striking and dramatic passages in
Kossuth's fervid, half-Oriental orations. He stretched out
his l-ight hand, and declared that " the time was when I held
the destinies ofthe House of Hapsburg in the hollow of that
hand !" He apostrophized those who fought and fell in the
rank-and-file of Hungary's champions as "unnaraed demi
gods." He prefaced a denunciation of the Papal policy by
an irapassioned lament over the brief hopes that the Pope

384 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
was about to head the Liberal raovement in Italy, and re
minded his hearers that " there was a time Avhen the name
of Pio Nono, coupled with that of Louis Kossuth, was
thundered in vivas along the sunny shores of the Adriatic."
Every appeal was vivid and dramatic ; every allusion told.
Throughout the whole there ran the thread of one distinct
principle of international policy to which Kossuth endeav
ored to obtain the ass'ent of the English people. This Avas
the principle that if one State intervenes in the domestic
affairs of another for the purpose of putting doAvn revolu
tion, it then becomes the rig^t, and may even be the duty,
of any third Slate to throw- in the weight of her sword
against the unjustifiable intervention. As a principle this
is nothing more than some of the ablest and most thought
ful Englishmen had advocated before and have advocated
since. But in Kossuth's mind, and in the understanding of
those who heard him, it raeant that England ought to de
clare war against Russia or Austria, or both ; the forraer for
having intervened between the Emperor of Austria and the
Hungarians, and the latter for having invited and profited
by the intervention.
The presence of Kossuth and the reception he got excited
a wild anger and alarm among Austrian stalesraen. The
Austrian minister was all sensitiveness and remonstrance.
The relations between this country and Austria seerhed to
become every day raore and raore strained. Lord Palmer
ston regarded the anger and the fears of Austria with a Con
tempt which he took no pains to conceal. Before the Hun
garian exile had reached this country, Avhile he was still un
der the protection of the Sultan of Turkey, and Austria was
in wild alarm lest he should be set at liberty and should
come to England, Lord Palmerston Avrote to a British diplo
matist, saying, "What a childish, silly fear this is of Kossuth !
What great harm could he do to Austria while in France or
England? He would be the hero of half a dozen dinners in
England, at which Avould be made speeches not raore violent
than those which have been made on platforms here within
the last four months, and he would soon sink into compara
tive obscurity; Avhile, on the other hand, so long as he is a
State d'etenu in Turkey he is a martyr and the object of ncA'-
er-ceasing interest." Lord Palmerston understood thorough-

PALMERSTON. 385
ly the temper of his countrymen in general. The English
public never had any serious notion of going to war with
Austria iu obedience to Kossuth's appeal. They sympa
thized generally Avith Kossuth's cause, or Avith the cause
Avhich they understood him to represent; they Avere taken
Avith his picturesque appearance and his really Avonderful el
oquence; they Avanted a new hero, and Kossuth seemed pos
itively cut out to supply the Avant. The enthusiasm cooled
down after aAvhile, as Avas indeed inevitable. The time was
not far off Avhen Kossuth Avas to make vain appeals to al
most empty halls, and Avhen the eloquence that once could
crara the largest buildings Avith excited admirers was to call
aloud to solitude. There came a time when Kossuth lived
in England forgotten and unnoticed ; Avhen his passing away
from England Avas unobserved, as his presence there had long
been. There seeras, one can hardly help saying, soraething
cruel in this Avay of suddenly taking up the representative
of some foreign cause, the spokesman of some " mission ;" and
then, when he has been filled Avith vain hopes, letting him
drop doAvn to disappointment and neglect. It Avas not, per
haps, the fault of the English people if Kossuth mistook, as
many another man in like circumstances has done, the mean
ing of English popular sympathy. The English croAvds Avho
applauded Kossuth at first meant nolhing more than general
sympathy Avitli any hero of Continental revolution, and per
sonal admiration forthe eloquence ofthe man Avho addressed
thera. But Kossuth did not thus accept the homage paid to
him. No foreigner could have understood it in his place.
Lord Palmerston understood it thoroughly, and knew Avhat
it meant, and how long it would last.
The tirae, hoAvever, had not yet corae when the justice of
Lord Palmerston's words was to be established. Kossuth
Avas the hero ofthe hour, the comet of the season. The Aus
trian statesmen were going on as if every word spoken at a
I\!ossuth meeting Avere a declaration of A¥ar against Austria.
Lord Palmerston was disposed to chuckle over the anger
thus displayed. "Kossuth's reception," he wrote to his
brother, " must have been gall and worraAvood to the Aus
trians and to the absolutists generally." Sorae of Lord
Palmerston's colleagues, hoAvever, becarae greatly alarmed
when it Avas reported that the Foreign Minister was about
I.— 17

386 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
to receive a visit from Kossuth in person, to thank him for
the sympathy and protection which England had accorded
to the Hungarian refugees while they Avere still in Turkey,
and Avithout Avhich it is only too likely that they would have
been handed over to Austria or Russia. It Avas thought that
fbr the Foreign Secretary to receive a formal visit of thanks
from Kossuth would be regarded by Austria as a recognition
by England of the justice of Kossuth's cause, and an expres
sion of censure against Austria. If Kossuth were received
by Lord Palmerston, the Austrian ambassador, it was con
fidently reported, would leave England. Lord John Russell
took alarra, and called a meeting of the cabinet to consider
the moraentous question. Lord Palraerston reluctantly con
sented to appease the alarras of his colleagues by promising
to avoid an interview Avith Kossuth.
It does not seera to us that there Avas much dignity in
the course taken by the cabinet. Lord Palmerston actually
used, and very properly used, all the influence England could
coraraand to protect the Hungarian refugees in Turkey. He
had intiraated very distinctly, and Avitli the full approval of
P^ngland, that he Avould use still stronger raeasures if neces
sary to protect at once the Sultan and the refugees. It seems
to us that, having done this openly, and corapelled Russia
and Austria to bend to his urgency, there could be little
harm in his receiving a visit from one of the men Avhora he
had thus protected. Austria's sensibilities must have been
of a peculiar nature indeed, if they could bear Lord Palraer
ston's very distinct and energetic intervention between her
and her intended victim, but could not bear to hear that
the rescued victim had paid Lord Palmerston a formal visit
of gratitude. At all events, it does not seem as if an Eng
lish minister was bound to go greatly out ofhis Avay to con
ciliate such very eccentric and morbid sensibilities. We
owe to a foreign state Avith which Ave are on friendly terms
a strict and honorable neutrality. Our ministers are bound
by courtesy, prudence, and good-sense not to obtrude any
expression of their opinion touching the internal dissensions
of a foreign state on the representatives of that state or the
public. But they are not by any means bound to treat the
enemies of every foreign slate as our enemies. They are
not expected to conciliate the friendship of Austria, for ex-

PALMERSTON. oS7
ample, by declaring that any one who is disliked by the Era
peror of Austria shall never be admitted to speech of thera.
If Kossuth had come as the professed representative of an
established government, aud had sought an official inter
view Avith Lord Palraerston in that capacity, then, indeed,
it Avonld haA-e been proper for the English Foreign Secre
tary to refuse to rective him. Our ministei-s, with perfect
propriety, refii,sed to receive Mr. Mason and Mr. Slidell, the
emissaries ofthe Southern Confederation, as official represent
atives of any state. But it is absurd to suppose that when
the civil Avar Avas OA"er iu Araerica an English statesman in
office Avould be bound to decline receiving a Aisit from Mr.
Jefferson Da\-is. We knoAV, in fact, that the ex-King of
Naples, the ex-King of Hanover, Don Carlos, and the royal
representatives of various lost causes, are constantly re
ceived by English rainisters and by the Queen of England,
and no representatives of any of the established govern
ments Avould think of offering a remonstrance. If the Em
peror of Austria Avas likely to be offended by Lord Palmer-
bion's receiving a Aisit from Kossuth, the only course for an
English minister, as it seems to us, was to leave him to be
offended, and to recover from his anger AA-henever he chose
to alloAv"common- sense to resume possession of his mind.
The Queen of England might as well have taken offence at
the action ofthe American Government, who actually gave,
not merely private receptions, bnt public appointments, to
Irish refugees after the outbreak of 1S4S.
Lord Palmerston, hoAvever, gaAO Avay, and did not receive
the visit from Kossuth. The hoped-for result, that of spar
ing the sensibilities of the Austrian GoA-ernment, was not at
tained. In fact, things turned out a great deal worse than
they might have done ifthe interview between Lord Palm
erston and Kossuth had been quietly allowed to come off.
Meetings were held to express sympathy with Kossuth, and
addresses were voted to Lord Palmerston thanking hira for
the influence he had exerted in preventing the surrender of
Kossuth to Austria. Lord Palmerston consented to receive
these addresses from tbe hands of deputations at the For
eign Office. The deputations represented certain metropoli
tan parishes, and were the exponents of markedly Radical
opinions. Some ofthe addresses contained strong langnage

388 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Avilh reference to the Austrian Government and the Aus
trian Sovereign. Lord Palraerston observed, in his reply,
that there Avere expressions contained in the addresses with
Avhich he could hardly be expected to concur; but he spoke
in a manner which conveyed the idea that his sympathies
generally were with the cause which the deputations had
adopted. This Avas the speech containing a phrase Avhich
was identified Avith Palraerston's narae, and held to be spe
cially characteristic of his Avay of speaking, and indeed of
thinking, for many years after — in fact, to the close of his
career. The noble lord told the deputation that the past cri
sis Avas one which required on the part ofthe British Govern- .
ment rauch generalship and judgment; and that "a good
deal of judicious bottle-holding Avas obliged to be brought
into play." The phrase "bottle -holding," borrowed from
the prize-ring, offended a good many persons who thought
the past crisis far too grave, and the issues it involved too
stern, to be properly described in language of such levity.
But the general public were amused and delighted by the
words, and the judicious bottle-holder became more of a
popular favorite than ever. Sorae of the published reports
put this a good deal raore strongly than Lord Palmerston
did, or at least than he intended to do; and he always in
sisted that he said no more to the deputations than he had
often said in the House of Commons; and that he had ex
pressly declared he could not concur in some of the expres
sions contained in the addresses. StiU, the wh-ole proceed
ing considerably alarraed sorae of Lord Palmerston's col
leagues, and Avas regarded with distinct displeasure by the
Queen and Prince Albert The Queen specially requested
that the matter should be brought before a cabinet council.
Lord John Russell, accordingly, laid the Avhole question be
fore his colleagues, and the general opinion seemed to be
that Lord Palmerston had acle'd Avith Avant of caution. No
formal resolution Avas adopted. It Avas thought that the
general expression of opinion from his colleagues and the
known displeasure of the Queen Avould be enough to impress
the necessity for greater prudence on the mind of the For
eign Secretary. Lord John Russell, in coraraunicating with
her Majesty as to the proceedings of the cabinet council,
expressed a hope that "it will have its effect upon Lord

PALMERSTON. 389
Palmerston, lo Avhom Lord John Russell has written urging
the necessity of a guarded conduct in the present very crit
ical condition of Europe." This letier Avas not written when
startling evidence was on its Avay to shoAV that the irresisti
ble Foreign Secretary had been raaking a stroke off his oavu
bat again, and a stroke this time of capital importance in
the general game of European politics. The possible indis
cretion of Lord P.almerston's dealings with a deputation or
two from Finsbury and Islington became a matter of little
interest when the country was called upon to consider the
propriety of the Foreign Secretary's dealings Avith the new
ruler of a ncAv state systera, with the author of the coit2^
diktat. The news of the coup d''etat took England by surprise.
A shock Avent through the Avhole country. Never, probably,
was public opinion raore unaniraous, for the hour at least,
than in condemnation of the stroke of policy ventured on
by Louis Napoleon, and the savage manner in Avhich it was
carried to success. After awhile, no doubt, a considerable
portion of the English public came to look more leniently
on Avhat had been done. Many soon grew accustomed to
the story of the massacres along the Boulevards of P.aris,
and lost all sense of their horror. Some disposed of the
Avhole affair after the satisfactory principle so comraonly
adopted by English people in judging of foreign affairs, and
assuraed that the system introduced by Louis Napoleon Avas
a. very good sort of thing — for the French. After aAvhile
a certain admiration, not to say adulation, of Louis Napo
leon, began to be a kind of faith with many Englishmen,
and the coup d'''etat was condoned aud even approved by
them. But there can be no doubt that Avhen the story flrst
came to be told in England, the almost universal voice of
opinion condemned it as strongly as nearly all men of gen
uine enlightenment and feeling conderaned it then and
since. The Queen was particularly anxious that nothing
should be said by the British arabassador to commit us to
any approval of Avhat had been done. On December 4th
the Queen Avrote to Lord .Tohn Russell from Osborne, ex
pressing her desire that Lord Normanby, our arabassador at
Paris, should be instructed to rem<ain entirely passive, and
say no Avord that might be misconstrued into a,pproval of

390 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the action of the Prince President. The cabinet met that
same day, and decided that it was expedient to follow most
closely her Majesty's instructions. But they decided also,
and very properly, tliat there was no reason for Lord Nor
manby suspending his diplomatic functions. Lord Nor
manby had, in fact, applied for instructions on this point
Next day Lord Palmerston, as^Foreign Secretary, Avrote to
Lord Normanby, informing him that he was to make no
change in his diplomatic relations with the French Govern
ment. Lord Normanby's reply to this despatch created a
startling sensation. Our ambassador Avrote to say that
when he called on the French Minister for Foreign Affairs
to inform him that he had been instructed by her Majesty's
Government not to make any change in his relations with
the French Government, the Minister, M. Turgot, told him
that he had heard two days before from Count Walewski,
the French arabassador in London, that Lord Palmerston
had expressed to him his entire approval of what Louis Na
poleon had done, and his conviction that the Prince Presi
dent could not have acted otherwise. It would not be easy
to exaggerate the sensation produced among Lord Palraer
ston's colleagues by this astounding piece of news. The
Queen wrote at once to Lord John Russell, asking him if he
kncAV anything about the approval which " the French Gov
ernment pretend to have received ;" declaring that she could
not " believe in the truth of the assertion, as such an ap
proval given bj"- Lord Palmerston Avould have been in com
plete contradiction to the line of strict neutrality aud pas
siveness which the Queen had expressed her desire to see
followed with regard .to the late convulsions at Paris."
Lord .Tohn Russell replied that he had already written to
Lord Palmerston, " s.aying that he presumed there was no
truth in the report." The reply of Lord Palmerston was
delayed for what Lord John Russell thought an unreason
able length of tirae at such a crisis; but when it came it
left no doubt that Lord Palraerston had expressed to Count
WaleAvski his approval of the coup d'etat. Lord Palmer
ston observed, indeed, that Walewski had probably given
to M. Turgot a soraeAvhat highly colored report of Avhat he
had said, and that the report had lost nothing in passing
frora M. Turgot to Lord Normanby ; but the substance of

PALMERSTON. 391
the letter Avas a full admission that Lord Palraerston ap
proved of what had been done, and had expressed his ap
proval to Count Walewski. The letters of explanation
Avhich the Foreign Minister Avrote on the subject, Avhether
to Lord Normanby or to Lord John Russell, were elaborate
justifications of the coup d'etat ; they were, in fact, exactly
such arguments as a minister of Louis Napoleon might with
great propriety address to a foreign Court. They were full
of an undisguised and characteristic conterapt for any one
who could think otherwise on the subject than as Lord
Palraerston thought. In replying to Lord John Russell the
contempt Avas expressed in a quiet sneer ; in the letters to
Lord Normanby it was obtrusively and offensively put for
Avard. Lord John Russell in vain endeavored to fasten
Palmerston's attention on the fact that the question Avas not
Avhether the action of Louis Napoleon Avas historically justi
fiable, but Avhether the conduct ofthe English Foreign Min
ister, in expressing approval of it Avithout the knowledge
and against the judgment ofthe Queen and his colleagues,
w.as politically justifi.able Lord Palmerston simply return
ed to his defence of Louis Napoleon, and his assertion tliat
the Prince President was only anticipating the intrigues of
the Orleans family and the plans of the Assembly. Lord
Palmerston, indeed, gave a very rainute account of a plot
araong the Orleans princes for a railitary rising against
Louis Napoleon. No evidence of the existence of any
such plot has ever been discovered. Louis Napoleon never
pleaded the existence of such a plot in his own justification ;
it I'- now, we believe, universally admitted that Lord Palm
erston was for once the victim of a raere canard. But even
if there had been an Orleanist plot, or twenty Oi'leanist
plots, it never has been part ofthe duty or the policy of an
English Governraent to express approval of anything and
everything that a foreign riifer may do to anticipate or put
doAvii a plot against him. The measures may be unjusti-
fiixble in their principle or in their severity; the plot may
be of insignificant importance, utterly inadequate to excuse
any extraordinary measures. The English Government is
not in ordinary cases called upon to express any opinion
whatever. It had, in this case, deliberately decided that all
expression of opinion should be scrupulously avoided, lest

392 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
by any chance the French Governraent should be led to be
lieve that England approved of what had been done.
Lord Palraerston endeavored to draAV a distinction be
tween the expressions of a Foreign Secretary in conversa
tion with an ambassador, and a formal declaration of opin
ion. But it is clear that the French ambassador did not
understand Lord Palraerston to be raerely indulging in the
irresponsible gossip of private life, and that Lord Palmer
ston never said a word to impress him with the belief that
their conversation had that colorless and unmeaning charac
ter. In any case, it was surely a piece of singular indiscre
tion on the part of a Foreign Minister to give to the French
ambassador, even in private conversation, an unqualified
opinion in favor of a stroke of jDolicy of Avhich the British
Government, as a Avhole, and indeed Avilh the one exception
of Lord Palmerston, entirely disapproved. To give such an
opinion Avithout qualification or explanation Avas to mislead
the French ambassador in the grossest manner, and to send
him aAvay, as in fact he was sent, under the impression that
the conduct ofhis chief had the approval of the Sovereign
and Government of England. Let it be remembered further
that the Foreign Secretary who did this had been again and
again rebuked for acting on his OAvn responsibility, for say
ing and doing things Avhich pledged, or seemed to pledge,
the responsibility ofthe Government Avithout any authority,
that a formal threat of dismissal actually hung over his head
in the event ofhis repeating such indiscretions, and we shall
be better able to form some idea of the sensation Avhich was
created in England by the revelation of Lord Palmerston's
conduct. Many ofhis colleagues had cordially syrapathized
Avith his views on the occasion of former indiscretions ; and
even Avhile admitting that he had been indiscreet, yet ac
knowledged to theraselves that their opinion on the broad
question involved was not different frora his. But even
these droAv back frora any approval ofhis conduct in regard
to the coup d''etat. The almost universal judgraent Avas
that he had gone surprisingly Avrong. Not a few, finding
it irapossible to account otherwise for such a proceeding,
carae to the conclusion that he raust have been determined
somehoAv to bring about a rupture with his colleagues of
the cabinet, and had chosen this high-handed assertion of

PALMERSTON. 393
his will as the best means of flinging his defiance in their
teeth. Lord John Russell made up his mind. He came to the
conclusion that he could no longer go on Avilh Lord Palmer
ston as a colleague in the Foreign Office, and he signified
his decision to Lord Palraerston himself "While I concur,"
thus Lord John Russell wrote, " in the foreign policy of
Avhich you have been the adviser, and much as I adraire the
energy and ability with which it has been carried into ef
fect, I cannot but observe that misunderstandings perpetu
ally rencAved, violations of prudence and decorum too fre
quently repeated, have marred the effects Avhich ought to
have foUoAved from a sound policy and able administration.
I am, therefore, most reluctantly corapelled to corae to the
conclusion that the conduct of foreign affairs can no longer
be left in your hands Avith advantage lo the country."
Rather unfortunately. Lord John Russell endeavored to
soften the bloAV by offering, if Lord Palmerston should be
Avilling, to recoraraend him lo the Queen to fill the office of
Lord-lieutenant of Ireland. This Avas a proposal Avhich we
agree with Mr. Evelyn Ashley,Lord Palmerston's biographer,
in regarding as alraost comical in its character. Lord Palm
erston's whole soul Avas in foreign affairs. He had never
affected any particular interest in Irish business. He cared
little even for the home politics of England; it Avas out of
the question to suppose that he Avould consent to bury him
self in the Viceregal Court of Dublin, and occupy his diplo
matic talents in composing disputes for precedence between
Protestant deans and Catholic bishops, and in doling out the
due proportion of invitations to the various ranks of aspiring
traders and shopkeepers and their wives. Lord Palmerston
declined the offer with open contempt, and, indeed, it can
hardly be supposed for a moment that Lord John Russell
expected he Avould have seriously entertained it. The quar
rel was complete ; Lord Palmerston ceased for the time to
be Foreign Secretary, and his place Avas taken by Lord
Granville. Seldom has a greater sensation been produced by the re
moval of a minister. The effect which Avas created all over
Europe Avas probably just Avhat Lord Palmerston himself
would have desired ; the belief prevailed evervAvhere that
17*

394 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
he had been sacrificed to the monarchical and reactionary
influences all over the Continent. The statesmen of Europe
were under the impression that Lord Palmerston Avas put
out of office as an evidence that England Avas about to Avitli-
draw from her former attitude of sympathy Avith the popu
lar raoveraents ofthe Continent. Lord Palmerston hiraself
fell under a delusion which seems marvellous in a man pos
sessed of his clear, strong common-sense. He conceived that
he had been sacrificed to reactionary intrigue. He wrote to
his brother to say that the real ground for his dismissal Avas
a " weak truckling to the hostile intrigues of the Orleans
faraily, Austria, Russia, Saxony, and Bavaria, and, in some
degree, of the present Prussian Governnient." "All these
parties," he said, "found their respective views and systems
of policy thwarted by the course pursued by the British
Governnient, and they thought that if they could remove
the rainister they Avould change the policy. They had, fbr
a long time past, effectually poisoned the mind of tlie Queen
and Prince against rae, and John Russell giving Avay rather
encouraged than discountenanced tlie desire of the Queeii
to remove rae from the Foreign Office." So strongly did
the idea prevail that an intrigue of foreign diplomatists had
overthrown Palmerston, that the Russian ambassador. Bar
on BrunnoAV, took the very ill-advised step of addressing to
Lord John Russell a disclaimer of any participation in such
a proceeding. The Queen made a proper comment on the
letter of Baron Brunnow by describing it as "very presum
ing," inasmuch as it insinuated the possibility " of changes
of governments in this country taking place at the instig.a-
tion of foreign ministers." Lord Palmerston was, of course,
entirely mistaken in supposing that any foreign interference
had contributed to his removal from the Foreign Office.
The only Avonder is how a man so experienced as he could
have convinced himself of such a thing; al least it would
be a AVonder if one did not knoAv that the most experienced
author or artist can always persuade himself that a dispar
aging critique is the result of personal and malignant hostil
ity. But that the feeling of the Queen and the Prince had
long been against him can hardly admit of dispute. Prince
Albert seems not to have taken any pains to conceal his dis
like and distrust of Palraerston. Nearly two years before.

P.VLMERSTON. 395
Avhen the Freiiuh ambassador Avas recalled for a time, the
Prince Avrote lo Lord John Russell to say that both the
Queen and himself Avere exceedingly sorry to hear of the
recall; adding, "We are not surprised, hoAvever, that Lord
Palraerston's mode of doing business should not be borne
by the susceptible Frencli Government Avith the same good-
humor and forbearance as by his colleagues." At the mo
ment when Lord John Russell resolved on getting rid of
Lord Palraerston, Prince Albert Avrole to him to say that
"the sudden termination of your difference Avith Lord Palm
erston has taken us much by surprise, as Ave Avere Avont to
see such differences terrainate in his carrying his points, and
leaving the defence of them to his colleagues, and tlie dis
credit to the Queen." It is clear frora this letter alone tiiat
the court was set against Lord Palraerston at that time.
The court was sometimes right where Palmerston vvas
Avrong; but the fact tliat he then knew himself to be in an
tagonism to the court is of importance both in judging of
his career and in estimating the relative strengtli of forces
in the politics of England.
Lord Palmerston then Avas dismissed. The: meeting of
Parliament took place on the .3d of February following,
1852. It Avould be superfluous to say that the keenest anx
iety was felt to knoAV the full reasons ofthe sudden dismis
sal. To quote the Avords used by Mr. Roebuck, " The most
marked person in the Administraiion, he around whom all
the party battles of the Administration had been fought,
Avhose political existence had been made the political exist
ence of the Government itself, the person on whose being
iu office the Governraent rested their existence as a gov
ernraent, Avas disraissed ; their right hand was cut off, their
most powerful arm Avas laken away, and at the critical lime
Avhen it was most needi-d." The House of Commons Avas
not long left to Avait for an explanation. Lord John Rus
sell made a long speech, in Avhicli he Avent into the whole
history ofthe differences between Lord Palmerston and his
colleagues; and, Avhat a\ as more surprising to the House,
into a history of the late Foreign Secretary's differences
with his Sovereign, and tlie threat of dismissal Avhich had so
long been hanging over his head. The Prime-rainister read
to the House the Queen's memorandum, Avhich Ave have al-

396 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ready quoted. Lord John Russell's speech Avas a great suc
cess. Lord Palmerston's Avas, even in the estiraation of his
closest friends, a failure. Far different, indeed, was the ef
fect it produced from the almost magical influence of that
Avonderful speech on the "Don Pacifico" question, which had
corapelled even unconvinced opponents to genuine admira
tion. Palraerston seeraed to have practically no defence.
He only Avent over again the points put by him in the cor
respondence already noticed ; contended that, on the whole,
he had judged rightly ofthe French crisis, and that he could
not help forming an opinion on it, and so forth. Of the
Queen's raeraorandum he said nolhing. He did not even
atterapt to explain how it came about that, having received
so distinct and severe an injunction, he had ventured deliber
ately to disregard it in a matter of the greatest national im
portance. Some of his adrairers Avere of opinion then, and
long after, that the reading of the raeraorandum raust have
corae on hira by surprise ; that Lord John Russell must have
sprung a mine upon him; and that Palmerston was taken
unfairly and at a disadvantage But it is certain that Lord
John Russell gave notice to his late colleague of his inten
tion to read the meraorandura ofthe Queen. Besides, Lord
Palmerston Avas one of the raost ready and self-possessed
speakers that ever addressed the House of Commons. Dur
ing the very reading ofthe memorandum he could have found
time to arrange his ideas, and to make out sorae shoAv of a
case for hiraself The truth, we believe, is that Lord Palm
erston deliberately declined to raake any reply to that part
of Lord John Russell's speech which disclosed the letter from
the Queen. He raade up his mind that a dispute between a
sovereign and a subject Avould be unbecoming of both, and
he passed over the memorandura in deliberate silence He
doubtless felt convinced that, even though such discretion
involved him for the raoraent in seeming defeat, it would in
the long-run reckon to his credit and his advantage. Lord
Dalling, better known as Sir Henry Bulwer, Avas present dur
ing the debate, and formed an opinion of Palmerston's con
duct which seems in every Avay correct and far-seeing. " I
must say," Lord Dalling writes, "that I never adraired hira
so much as at this crisis. He evidently thought he had
been ill-treated; but I never heard him make an unfair or

PALMERSTON. 397
irritable remark, nor did he seera in anywise stunned by the
bloAv he had received, or disraayed by the isolated position
in Avhich he stood. I should say that he seeraed to con
sider that he had a quarrel put upon him Avhich it was his
Avisest course to close by receiving the fire of his adversary
and not returning it. He could not, in fact, have gained a
victory against the Preraier on the ground which Lord John
Russell had chosen for the combat, Avhich would not have
been more permanently disadvantageous to him than a de
feat. The faults of Avhich he had accused him did not toucii
his OAvn honor nor that ofhis country. Let them be admit
ted, and there Avas an end of the matter. By-and-by an oc
casion would probably arise in which he might choose an ad
vantageous occasion for giving battle, and he was Avilling to
Avail calmly for that occasion."
Lord Dalling judged accurately so far as his judgment
went. But Avhile Ave agree with him iu thinking that Lord
Palmerston refrained from returning his adversary's fire for
the reasons Lord Dalling has given, Ave are strongly of opin
ion that other reasons too influenced Palmerston. He kncAV
that he Avas not at that time rauch liked or trusted by the
Queen and Prince Albert. He was not sorry that the fact
should be made knoAvn to the world. He thoroughly un
derstood English public opinion, and was not above taking
advantage of its moods and ils prejudices. He did not think
a statesman would stand any the Averse in the general esti
raation of the English public, then, because it was knoAvn that
he was not admired by Prince Albert.
But the almost universal opinion of the House of Cora
raons and of the clubs was that Lord Palmerston's career Avas
closed. "Palraerston is sraashed!" Avas the coraraon saying
ofthe clubs. A night or two after the debate Lord Dalling
raet Mr. Disraeli on the staircase of the Russian Embassy,
and Disraeli remarked to him that "there Avas a Palraerston."
Lord Palmerston evidently did not think so. The letters
he Avrote to friends immediately after his fall show him as
jaunty and full of confidence as ever. He was quite satis
fied with the way things had gone. He waited calmly for
Avhat he called, a fcAV days afterward, "my tit-for-tat with
John Russell," Avhich came about, indeed, sooner than even
he himself could well have expected.

398 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
We have not hesitated to express our opinion that
throughout the Avhole of this particular dispute Lord Palm
erston was in the Avrong. He Avas in the Avrong in raany,
if not raost, ofthe controversies which had preceded it; that
is to say, he was Avrong in committing England, as he so
ofteii did, to measures which had not had the approval of
ttie Sovereign or his colleagues. In the raeraorable dispute
Avhich brought matters to a crisis, he seems to us lo have
been in the Avrong not less in Avhat he did than in his man
ner of doing it. Yet it ought not to have been difficult for
a calm observer, even at the time, to see that Lord Palmer
ston was likely to have the best of the controversy in the
end. The faults of Avhich he Avas principally accused Avere
not such as the English people would find it very hard to
forgive He was said to be too brusque and high-handed in
his dealings Avith foreign slates and ministers; but it did
not seera to the English people in general as if this Avas au
offence for Avliich his oavu countryraen Avere bound to con
demn hira too severely. There Avas a general impression
that his influence Avas exercised on behalf of popular move
ments abroad; and, an impression nearly as general that if
he had not acted a good deal on his own impulses and of
his own authority he could hardly have served any popular
cause so well The coup d''etat certainly Avas not popular in
England. For a long tirae it Avas a subject of general rep
rehension ; but even at that time men avIio conderaned the
coup d'etat were not disposed to condemn Lord Palraerston
overmuch beeause, acting as usual on a personal impulse, he
had in that instance raade a raistake. There was even in his
error something dashing, shoAvy, and captivating to the gen
eral public. He made the influence of England felt, people
said. His chief fault was that he Avas rather too strong for
those around him. If any grave crisis came, he, it Avas mur-
raured, and he alone, Avould be equal to the occasion, and
Avould raaintain the dignity of England. Neither in war
nor in statesraanship does a man suffer much loss of pop
ularity by occasionally disobeying orders and accomplishing
daring feats. Lord Palmerston saw his Avay clearly at a
critical period ofhis career. He saw that at that time there
was,, rightly or Avrongly, a certain jealousy ofthe influence
of Prince Albert, and he. did not hesitate to take advantage

BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 399
ofthe fact. He bore his temporary disgrace with Avell-justi-
fied composure. "The devil aids him, surely," said Sussex,
speaking lo Raleigh of Leicester in Scott's "Kenilworth,"
"for all that Avould sink another ten fathom deep seems but
to raake him float the more easily." Some rival may have
thought thus of Lord Palmerston.

CHAPTER XXIIL
BIETH OF THE EMPIEB ; DEATH OF "tHE DUKE."
The year 1852 was one of profound emotion and even ex
citement in England. An able Avriter has remarked that
the history of the Continent of Europe might be traced
through the history of England, if all olher sources of in
formation Avere destroyed, by the influence Avhich every
great event in Continental affiiirs produces on the raood and
policy of England. As the astronoraer infers the existence
and the attributes of sorae star his keenest' glass Avill not
reveal by the perturbations ils neighborhood causes to some
body of light Avithin his ken, so the student of English his
tory might Avell discover commotion on the Continent by
the evidence of a corresponding movement in England. All
through the year 1852 the national mind of England was
disturbed. The country Avas stirring itself in quite an un
usual manner. A mililary spirit Avas exhibiting itself every
Avhere, not unlike that told of in Shakspeare's "Henry the
Fourth." The England of 1852 seems to threaten that "ere
this year expire we bear our civil SAVords and native fire as
far as France." At least the civil SAVords were sharpened
in order that the country might be ready for a possible and
even an anticipated invasion from France. The Volunteer
raoveraent sprang into sudden existence. All over the
country corps of young volunteers Avere being formed. An
imraense araount of national enlhusiasra accompanied and
acclaimed the formation of the volunteer army, which re
ceived the sanction ofthe Crown early in the year, and thus
became a national institution.
The raeaning of all this movement was explained some
years after by Mr. Tennyson, in a string of verses Avhich did

400 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
more honor perhaps to his patriotic feeling than to his po
etic genius. The verses are absurdly unworthy of Tenny
son as a poet ; but they express with unmistakable clearness
the popular sentiment of the hour ; the condition of uncer
tainty, vague alarm, and very general determination to be
ready at all events for Avhatever might come. " Form, forra,
riflemen, form !" wrote the Laureate ; " belter a rotten bor
ough or two than a rotten fleet and a town in flames." " True
that we have a faithful ally, but only the devil knows what
he means." This Avas the alarm and the explanation. We
had a faithful ally, no doubt ; but Ave certainly did not quite
knoAV what he meant. All the earlier part of the year had
witnessed the steady progress of the Prince President of
France to an imperial throne. The previous year had closed
upon his coup d'etat. He had arrested, imprisoned, banish
ed, or shot his principal enemies, and had demanded from
the French people a Presidency for ten years— a ministry
responsible lo the executive power — hiraself alone — and
two political Chambers to be elected by universal suffrage.
Nearly five hundred prisoners, untried before any tribunal,
even that of a drum-head, had been shipped off to Cayenne
The streets of Paris had been soaked in blood. The Presi
dent instituted a, plebiscite, or vote of the whole people, aud
of course he got all he asked for. There Avas no arguing
with the coraraander of twenty legions, and of such legions
as those that had operated with terrible efficiency on the
Boulevards. The first day of the noAv year saAV the relig
ious cereraony at Notre Dame to celebrate the acceptance
ofthe ten years' presidency by Louis Napoleon. The same
day a decree was published in the name of the President
declaring that the French eagle should be restored to the
standards of the army, as a symbol of the regenerated mili
tary genius of France. A foAV days after, the Prince Presi
dent decreed the confiscation ofthe property ofthe Orleans
family and restored titles of nobility in France. The birth
day of the Emperor Napoleon Avas declared by decree to be
the only national holiday. When the tAVO legislative bodies
came to be sworn in, the President made an announcement
Avhich certainly did not surprise many persons, but Avhich
nevertheless sent a thrill abroad over all parts of Europe.
If hostile parlies continued to plot against him, the Presi-

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OF "THE DUKE." 401
dent intimated, and to question the legitimacy of the power
he had assumed by virtue of the national vote, then it raight
be necessary to deraand frora the people, in the n.ame of the
repose of France, "a new title which will irrevocably fix
upon my head the poAver Avith Avhich they have invested
me." There could be no further doubt. The Bonapartist
Empire was to be restored. A new Napoleon Avas to come
to the throne.
" Only the devil knoAvs Avhat he means," indeed. So peo
ple were all saying throughout England in 1852. The scherae
Avent on to its developraent, and before the year Avas quite
out Louis Napoleon was proclairaed Eraperor ofthe French.
Men had noticed as a curious, not to say orainous, coinci
dence that on the very day when the Duke of Wellington
died the Moniteur announced that the French people Avere
receiving the Prince President everywhere as the Emperor-
elect, and as the elect of God; and another French journal
published an article hinting, not obscurely, at the invasion
and conquest of England as the first great duty of a new
Napoleonic Empire The Prince President, indeed, in one of
the provincial speeches which he delivered just before he avjis
proclaimed Eraperor, had talked earnestly of peace. In his
faraous speech to the Charaber of Commerce of Bordeaux
on October 9th, he denied that the restored Empire would
mean Avar. " I say," he declared, raising his voice and speak
ing with energy and emphasis, " the Empire is peace." But
the assurance did not do much to satisfy Euroiie. Had not
the same voice, it Avas asked, declaimed Avith equal energy
and earnestness the terms of the oath to the Republican
Constitution ? Never, said a bitter eneray of the new Era
pire, believe the AVord of a Bonaparte, unless when he prom
ises to kill somebody. Such Avas, indeed, the coraraon sen
timent of a large number of the English people during the
eventful year when the President became Eraperor, and
Prince Louis Napoleon Avas Napoleon the Third.
It would have been irapossible that the English people
could vieAV all this without eraotion and alarra. It had been
clearly seen hoAv the Prince President had carried his point
thus far. He had appealed at every step to the meraory of
the Napoleonic legend. He had in every possible way re
vived and reproduced the attributes ofthe reign ofthe Great

402 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Eraperor. His accession to power was strictly a military
and a Napoleonic triumph. In ordinary circumstances the
English people wonld not have troubled themselves much
about any change in the form of government of a foreign
country. They might have felt a sirong dislike for the
manner in Avhich such a change had been brought about ;
but it would have been in nowise a matter of personal con
cern to thera. But they could not see with indifference tlie
rise of a noAv Napoleon to power on the strength of the old
Napoleonic legend. The one special characteristic of the
Napoleonic principle Avas its hostility to England. The life
ofthe Great Napoleon in its greatest days had been devoted
to the one purpose of hurailiating England. His plans had
been foiled by England. Whatever hands may have joined in
pressing him to the ground, there could be no doubt that he
OAved his fall principally to England. He died a prisoner of
England, aud with his hatred of her embittered rather than
appeased. It did not seem unreasonable to believe that the
successor Avho had been enabled to mount the Imperial
throne siraply because he bore the narae and represented
the principles ofthe First Napoleon Avould inherit the hatred
to England and the designs against England. Everything
else that savored of the Napoleonic era had been revived ;
Avhy should this, its principal characteristic, be alloAved to
lie in the tomb of the First Emperor? The policy of the
First Napoleon had lighted up a fire of hatred between Eng
land and France which at one tirae seeraed inextinguishable.
There were many Avho regarded that international hate as
something like that of the hostile brothers iu the classic
story, the very flames of Avhose funeral piles refused to min
gle in the air; or like that of the rival Scottish families,
Avhose blood, it was s.aid, Avould never comraingle though
poured into one dish. It did uot seera possible that a new
Emperor Napoleon could arise without bringing a restora
tion of that hatred along Avilh him.
There Avere some personal reasons, too, for particular dis
trust of the upcoraing Eraperor among tlie English people.
Louis Napoleon had lived many years in England. He Avas
as Avell knoAvn there as any prorainent member of the Eng
lish aristocracy. He Avent a good deal into very various so
ciety, literary, artistic, merely fashionable, purely rowdy, as

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 403
Avell as into that political society Avhich might have seemed
natural lo him. In all circles the sarae opinion appears to
have been formed of him. From the astute Lord Palmer
ston to the most ignorant of the horse-jockeys and ballet-
girls Avith Avhora he occasionally consorted, all Avho raet him
seemed to think of the Prince in much the same Avay. It
Avas agreed on all hands that he Avas a fatuous, dreamy,
moony, impracticable, stupid young man. A sort of stolid
amiability, not enlightened enough to keep him out of low
company and questionable conduct, appeared to be his prin
cipal characteristic. He constantly talked of his expected
accession somehow and some time to the throne of France,
and people only smiled pityingly at hira. His atterapts at
Strasburg and Boulogne had covered hira Avith ridicule and
conterapt. We cannot remember one authentic aeconnt of
any Englishman of mark at that tirae having professed to
see any evidence of capacity and strength of raind in Prince
Louis Napoleon.
When the coup d'etat carae and was successful, the araaze-
ment ofthe English public was unbounded. Never had any
plot been raore skilfully and more carefully plannedj'more
daringly carried out. Here evidently Avas a raaster in the
art of conspiracj'. Here was the corabination of steady
caution and boundless audacity. What a subtlety of de
sign ; what a perfection of silent self-control ! Hoav slowly
the plan had been matured; how suddenly it Avas flashed
upon the world and carried to success ! No haste, no delay,
no scruple, no remorse, no fear ! And all this was the work
of the dull dawdler of English drawing-rooms ; the heavy,
apathetic, unraoral rather than iraraoral haunter of English
race -courses and gambling -houses! What new surprise
might not be feared, Avhat subtle and daring enterprise
might not reasonably be expected, from one Avho could thus
conceal and thus reveal himself, and do both with a like
success !
Louis Napoleon, said a member of his family, deceived
Europe twice: first Avhen he succeeded in passing off as an
idiot, and next Avhen he succeeded in passing off as a. states
raan. The epigram had doubtless a great deal of truth in
it. The coup d'etat was probably neither planned nor car
ried to success by the cleverness and energy of Louis Napo-

404 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
leon. Cooler and stronger heads and hands are responsible
for the execution at least of that enterprise. The Prince, it
is likely, played little more than a passive part in it, and
might have lost his nerve more than once but for the great
er resolution of some of his associates, who Avere deterrained
to crown him for their own sakes as Avell as for his. But at
the tirae the world at large saw only Louis Napoleon in the
whole scherae, conception, execution, and all. The idea was
forraed of a colossal figure of cunning and daring — a Brutus,
a Talleyrand, a Philip of Spain, and a Napoleon the First all
in one. Those Avho detested him most admired and feared
him not the least. Who can doubt, it was asked, that he
Avill endeavor to make himself the heir of the revenges of
Napoleon? Who can believe any pledges he may give?
How enter into any treaty or bond of any kind with such a
man? Where is the one that can pretend to say he sees
through him and understands his schemes?
Had Louis Napoleon any intention at any tirae of invading
England ? -We are inclined to believe that he never had a
regular fixed plan of the kind. But we are also inclined to
think''that the project entered into his raind, with various
other ideas and plans more or less vague, and that circum
stances might have developed it into an actual scheme.
Louis Napoleon Avas, above all things, a man of ideas in the
inferior sense of the word ; that is to say, he was ahvays oc
cupying himself with vague, dreamy suggestions of plans
that might in this, that, or the olher case be advantageously
pursued. He had corae to power probably Avith the deter
mination to keep it, and make hiraself acceptable to France
first of all. After this carae, doubtless, the sincere desire to
make France great and poAverful and prosperous. At first
he had no particular notion ofthe way to establish hiraself
as a popular ruler, and it is certain that he turned over all
raanner of plans in his mind for the purpose. Araong these
must certainly have been one for the invasion of England
and the avenging of Waterloo. Lie let drop hints at tiraes
which showed that he was thinking of something of the
kind. Lie talked of himself as representing a defeat. He
Avas attacked Avith all the bitterness of a not unnatural but
very unrestrained animosity in the English press for his
conduct in the coup d'kat; and no doubt he and his cora-

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 405
panions Avere greatly exasperated. The mood of a large
portion of the French people was distinctly aggressive.
Ashamed to some degree of much that had been done and
that they had had to suffer, raany Frenchmen were in that
stale of dissatisfaction with themselves which makes people
eager lo pick a quarrel Avith some one else. Had Louis
Napoleon been inclined, he might doubtless have easily
stirred his people to the Avar raood ; and it is not to be be
lieved that he did not occasionally contemplate the expe
diency of doing something of the kind. Assuredly, if he
had thought such an enterprise necessary to the stability of
his reign, he would have risked even a Avar with England.
But it Avould not have been tried except as a last resource ;
and the need did not arise. No one could have known bet
ter the risks of such an attempt. He knew England as his
uncle never did ; and if he had not his uncle's energy or
military genius, he had far more knoAvledge of the world
and of the relative resources and capabilities of nations.
He would not have done anything rash without great ne
cessity, or the prospect of very certain benefit in the event
of success.
An invasion of England Avas not, therefore, a likely event.
Looking back composedly now on Avhat actually did happen,
we raay safely say that few things Avere less likely. But it
was not by any means an irapossible event. The raore cora-
posedly one looks back to it uoav, the raore he will be com
pelled to admit that it was at least on the cards. The feel
ing of national uneasiness and alarm was not a mere panic.
There were five projects Avith which public opinion all over
Europe specially credited Louis Napoleon Avhen he began
his imperial reign. One was a war with Russia. Another
was a war with Austria. A third Av.as a Avar Avith Prussia.
A fourth was the annexation of Belgium. The fifth was the
invasion of England. Three of these projects Avere carried
out. The fourth Ave know was in contemplation. Our com
bination with France in the first project probably put all
serious thought of the fifth out of the head of the French
Emperor. He got far more prestige out of an alliance with
us than he could ever have^got out of any quarrel Avith us;
and he -had little or no risk. We do not count for anything
the repeated assurances of Louis Napoleon that he desired

406 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
above all things to be on friendly terras with England.
These assurances Avere doubtless sincere at the moment
Avhen they were made, and under the circumstances of that
moment. But altered circumstances might at any time
have induced an altered frame of raind. The very same as
surances were made again and again to Russia, to Austria,
and to Prussia. The pledge that the Empire Avas peace Avas
addressed, like the Pope's edict, urbi et orbi.
Therefore Ave do not look upon the mood of England in
1852 as one of idle and baseless panic. The same feeling
broke into life again in 1859, when the Eraperor of the
French suddenly announced his deterraination to go to war
Avith Austria. It was in this latter period, indeed, that the
Volunteer raoveraent became a great national organization,
and that the Laureate did his best to rouse it into activity
in the verses of hardly doubtful merit to which avo have
already referred. But in 1852 the beginning of an army of
volunteers Avas made, and, Avhat is of more importance to
the iraraediate business of our history, the Government de
termined to bring in a bill for the reorganization of the n,a-
tional militia. ^.^,
Our militia was not in any case a body to be particularly
proud of at that time. It had fallen into decay, and alraost
into disorganization. Nothing could have been a more
proper work for any Government than its restoration to
efficiency and respectability. Nothing, too, could have been
more timely than a measure to raake it efficient in vIcav of
the altered condition of European affairs and the increased
danger of disturbance at home and abroad. We had on our
hands at the tirae, too, one of our little wars — a Caffre war,
Avhich Avas protracted to a vexatious length, and which Avas
not Avithout serious mililary difficulty. It began in the De
cember of 1850, and Avas not corapletely disposed of before
the early part of 1853. We could not, therefore, afford to
have our defences in any defective condition, and no labor
Avas more fairly incumbent on a Government than the task
of raaking them adequate to their purpose. But it was an
unfortunate characteristic of Lord John Russell's Govern
ment that it atterapted so rauch legislation, not because
some particular scheme commended itself to the "mature
Avisdom of the ministry, but because something had to be

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OF "THE DUKE." 407
done in a hurry to satisfy public opinion ; and the Govern
ment could not think of anything better at the raoment
than the first scheme that came to hand. Lord John Rus
sell, accordingly, introduced a Militia Bill, whicli was in the
highest degree inadequate and unsatisfactory. The princi
pal peculiarity of it was that it proposed lo substitute a
local militia for the regular force that had been in existence
Lord Palmerston saw great objections to this alteration, and
urged thera with much briskness and skill on the night
when Lord John Russell explained his measure. When
Palmerston began his speech, he probably intended to be
merely critical as regarded points in the measure which
Avere susceptible of amendment; but as he Avent on he
found more and more that he had the House with him.
Every objection he made, every criticism he urged, almost
every sentence he spoke, drew down increasing cheers.
Lord Palmerston saw that the House was not only thor
oughly Avith him on this ground, but thoroughly against the
Government on various grounds. A few nights after he
foUoAved up his first success by proposing a resolution to
substitute the word " regular " for the Avord " local " in the
bill; thus, in fact, to reconstruct the bill on an entirely dif
ferent principle from that adopted by its framer. The effort
was successful. The Peelites went with Palraerston ; the
Protectionists followed him as well; and the result was that
136 votes Avere given for the araendraent, and only 125
against it. The Government Avere defeated by a majority
of eleven. Lord John Russell instantly announced that he
could no longer continue in office, as he did not possess the
confidence of the country.
The announceraent took the House by surprise. Lord
Palmerston had not himself expected any such result from
his resolution. There was no reason why the Government
should not have amended their bill on the basis of the reso
lution passed by the House. The country wanted a scherae
of efficient defence, and the Governraent were only called
upon to make their scheme efficient. But Lord John Rus
sell was well aware that his Adrainistration had been losing
its authority little by little. Since the time Avhen it had re
turned to power, simply because no one could form a minis
try any stronger than itself, it had been only a Government

408 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
on sufferance. Ministers Avho assume office in that stop-gap
Avay seldom retain it long in England. The Gladstone Gov
ernment illustrated this fact in 1873, Avhen they consented
to return to office because Mr. Disraeli Avas not then in a
condition to corae in, and Avere disraissed by an overwhelm
ing raajority at the elections in the foUoAving spring. Lord
Palmerston assigned one special reason for Lord John Rus
sell's promptness in resigning on the change in the Militia
¦Bill. The great motive for the step Avas, according to Palm
erston, " the fear of being defeated on the vote of censure
about the Cape affairs, Avhich Avas to have been moved to
day ; as it is, the late Governraent have gone out on a ques
tion which they have treated as a motion, merely asserting
that they had lost the confidence ofthe House; Avhereas, if
they had gone out on a defeat upon the raotipn about the
Cape, they Avould have carried with thera the direct censure
ofthe House of Coraraons." The letter from Lord Palm
erston to his brother, from which these Avords are quoted,
begins with a remarkable sentence: "I have had my tit-for-
tat with John Russell, and I turned hira out on Friday last."
Palraerston did not expect any such result, he declared ; but
the revenge was doubtless SAveet, for all that. This was in
February, 1852 ; and it was only in the December ofthe pre
vious year that Lord Palmerston Avas compelled to leave the
Foreign Office by Lord John Russell. The sarae influence,
oddly enough, Avas the indirect cause of both events. Lord
Palmerston lost his place because ofhis recognition of Louis
Napoleon ; Lord John Russell fell from power while endeav
oring to introduce a measure suggested by Louis Napoleon's
successful usurpation. It will be seen in a future chapter
how the influence of Louis Napoleon was once again fatal to
each statesman in turn.
The Russell Ministry had done little and initiated less.
It had carried on Peel's system by throAving open the mar
kets lo foreign as Avell as colonial sugar, and bj' the repeal
of the Navigation Laws enabled merchants to eraploy for
eign ships and searaen in the conveyance of their goods. It
had made a mild and ineffectual effort at a Reforra Bill, and
had feebly favored atterapts to adrait Jews to Parliaraent.
It sank from poAver with an unexpected collapse in Avhich
the nation felt small concern.

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 409

Lord Palmerston did not come to power again at that
raoraent. He might have gone in Avith Lord Derby if he
had been so inclined. But Lord Derby, Avho, it maybe said,
had succeeded to that title on the death of his father in the
preceding year, still talked of testing the policy of Free-trade
at a general election, and of course Palmerston Avas not dis
posed to have anything to do Avith such a proposition. Nor
had Palnierslou in any case much inclination to serve under
Derby, of Avhose political intelligence he thought poorly, and
whom he regarded principally as what he called "a flashy
speaker." Lord Derby tried various combinations in vain,
and at last had to experiment with a cabinet of undiluted
Protectionists. He had to lake office, not because he want
ed it, or because any one in particular Avanted him, but sim
ply and solely because there Avas no one else who could un
dertake the task. He forraed a cabinet to carry on the bus
iness of the country for the raoraent, and until it should be
convenient to have a general election, Avhen he fondly hoped
that by sorae inexplicable process a Protectionist reaction
Avould be brought about, and he should find hiraself at the
head of a strong adrainistration.
The ministry which Lord Derby was able to form was not
a strong one. Lord Palmerston described it as containing
tAVO men of mark, Derby and Disraeli, and a number of ci
phers. It had not, except for these Iavo, a single raan of any
political ability, aud had hardly one of any political experi
ence It had an able laAvyer for Lord Chancellor, Lord St.
Leonards, but he Avas nothing of a politician. The rest of
the members of the Government Avere respectable country
gentlemen. One of them, Mr. Llerries, had been Chancellor
ofthe Exchequer in a short-lived Government, that of Lord
Goderich, in 1827 ; and he had held the office of Secretary
of War for a few months sorae time later. He Avas forgot
ten by the existing generation of politicians, and the gen
eral public only knew that he was still living Avhen they
heard of his accession to Lord Derby's Government. The
Earl of Malmesbury, Sir John Pakington, Mr. Walpole, Mr.
Henley, and the rest, were men whose antecedents scarcely
gave them warrant for any higher claim in public life than
the position of chairman of quarter-sessions ; nor did their
subsequent career in office contribute rauch to establish a
L— 18

410 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
loftier estiraate of their capacity. The head of the Govern
raent was remarkable for his dashing blunders as a politician,
quite as much as for his dashing eloquence. His new lieu
tenant, Mr. Disraeli, had in forraer days christened hira, very
happily, " The Rupert of Debate," after that fiery and gal
lant prince whose blunders generally lost the battles which
his headlong courage had nearly won.
Concerning Mr. Disraeli hiraself it is not too much to say
that many of his own party Avere rather more afraid of his
genius than of the dulness of any of his colleagues. It is
uot a pleasant task, in the best of circumstances, to be at the
head of a tolerated rainistry in the House of Commons : a
ministry Avhich is in a minority, and only holds its place be
cause there is no one ready to relieve it ofthe responsibOity
of office. Mr. Disraeli himself, at a rauch later date, gave the
House of Commons an amusing picture ofthe trials and hu
miliations Avhich await the leader of such a forlorn hope.
He had now to assurae that position Avithout any previous
experience of office. Rarely, indeed, is the leadership ofthe
House of Commons undertaken by any one who has not pre
viously held office ; and Mr. Disraeli entered upon leader
ship and office at the same raoraent for the first tirae. Lie
became Chancellor of the Exchequer and leader of the
House of Coraraons. Araong the many gifts with which
he was accredited by fame, not a single adrairer had hither
to dreamed of including a capacity for the mastery of fig
ures. In addition to all the ordinary difficulties ofthe min
istry of a minority, there was, in this instance, the difficul
ty arising from the obscurity and inexperience of nearly .all
its merabers. Facetious persons dubbed the new adminis
tration the " Who ? Who ? Ministry." Tiie explanation of
this odd nickname was found in .a story then in circulation
about the Duke of Wellington. The Duke, it Avas said, was
anxious to hear from Lord Derby at the earliest moment all
about the composition of his cabinet. He Avas overheard
asking the uoav Prime-minister in the House of Lords the
names of his intended colleagues. The Duke Avas rather
deaf, and, like most deaf persons, spoke in very loud tones,
and of course had to be answered in tones also rather ele-
¦>'ated. That Avhich was meant for a whispered conversation
became audible to the whole Liouse As Lord Derby men-.

BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE; DEATH OF "THE DUKE." 411
tioned each name, the Duke asked in AVonder and eagerness,
"Who? Who?" After each new name carae the sarae in
quiry. The Duke of Wellington had clearly never heard of
raost ofthe new rainisters before. The story went about:
and Lord Derby's Adrainistration was familiarly known as
the "Who? Who? Government."
Lord Derby entered office Avith the avowed intention of
testing the Protection question all over again; but he was
no sooner in office than he found that the bare suggestion
had immensely increased his difficulties. The formidable
organization which had worked the Free-trade cause so suc
cessfully seemed likely to corae into political life again with
all its old vigor. The Free-traders began to stand together
again the moraent Lord Derby gave his unlucky hint. Ev
ery week that passed over his head did soraething to show
him the mistake he had made Avhen he harapered hiraself
with any such undertaking as the revival of the Protection
question. Sorae of his colleagues had been unhappily and
blunderingly outspoken in their addresses to their constitu
ents seeking for re-election, and had talked as if the restora
tion of Protection itself were the grand object of Lord Der
by's taking office. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer
had been far more cautions. He only talked vaguely of
" those remedial raeasures which great productive interests,
suffering from unequal taxation, have a right to expect frora
a just Governraent." In truth, Mr. Disraeli was well con
vinced at this tirae of the hopelessness of any agitation for
the restoration of Protection, and would have been only too
glad of any opportunity for a coraplete and at the same
time a safe disavowal of any sympathy with such a project.
The Governraent found their path bristling with troubles,
created for thera by their own raistake in giving any hint
about the demand for a new trial ofthe Free-trade question.
Any chance they might otherwise have had of making effec
tive head against their very trying difficulties was complete
ly cut away from them.
The Free -trade League was reorganized. A conference
of Liberal merabers of the House of Coraraons was held at
the residence of Lord John Russell in Chesham Place, at
Avhich it was resolved to extract or extort from the Govern
ment a full avoAval of their policy with regard to Protection

412 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
and Free-trade. • The feat Avould have been rather difficult
of accoraplishraent, seeing that the Government had abso
lutely no policy to offer on the subject, and Avere only hop
ing to be able to consult the country as one might consult
an oracle. The Chancellor ofthe Exchequer, Avhen he raade
his financial statement, accepted the increased prosperity of
the few years preceding with an unction Avhich shoAved that
he, at least, had no particular notion of attempting to reverse
the policy which had so greatly contributed to its progress.
Mr. Disraeli pleased the Peelites and the Liberals much
raore by his statement than he pleased his chief or many of
his followers. His speech, indeed, was very clever. A new
financial scheme he could not produce, for he had not had
time to make anything like a complete examination of the
finances of the country ; but he played very prettily and
skilfully with the facts and figures, and conveyed to the
listeners the idea of a man who could do wonderful things
in finance if he only had a little time and were in the humor.
Every one outside the limits ofthe extreme and unconverted
Protectionists was pleased with the success of his speech.
People Avere glad that one who had proved himself so clever
Avith many things should have shoAvn hiraself equal to the '
uncongenial and unwonted task of dealing with dry facts
and figures. The House felt that he was placed in a very
trying position, and was Avell pleased to see hira hold his
own so successfully in it.
Mr. Disraeli merely proposed in his financial statement to
leave things as he found them ; to continue the income-tax
for another year, as a provisional arrangement pending that
coraplete re-examination of the financial affairs of the coun
try to Avhich he intimated that he found hiraself quite equal
at the proper tirae. No one could suggest any -better
course ; and the new Chancellor carae off, on the whole,
with flying colors. His A'ery difficulties had been a source
of advantage to hira. He was not expected to produce a
financial scherae at such short notice ; and if he was not
equal to a financier's task, it did not so appear on this first
oocasion of trial. The Governraent, on the whole, did not
do so badly during this period of their probation. They in
troduced and carried a Militia Bill, for which they obtained
the cordial support of Lord Palraerston ; and they gave a

BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE; DEATH OF "THE DUKE." 413
Constitution to Noav Zealand ; and then, in the beginning
of July, the Parliaraent Avas prorogued and the dissolution
took place. The elections Avere signalized by very serious
riots in many parts of the country. In Ireland, particularly,
parly passions ran high. The landlords and the police were
on one side ; the priests and the popular party on the other;
and in several places there was sorae bloodshed. It was not
in Ireland, however, a question about Free-trade or Protec
tion. The great mass of the Irish people knew nothing
.about Mr. Disraeli — probably had never heard his narae,
and did not care Avho led the House of Coraraons. The
question which agitated the Irisli constituencies was that of
Tenant-right, in the first instance ; and the tirae had not yet
arrived when a great rainister from either party was pre
pared to listen to their demands on this subject. There
was also rauch bitterness of feeling remaining frora the dis
cussions on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. But it raay be
safely said that not one of the questions that stirred up
public feeling in England had the slightest popular interest
in Ireland, and the question which the Irish people consid
ered essential to their very existence did not enter for one
moment into the struggles that were going on all over
England. The speeches of ministers in England showed the same
lively diversity as before on the subject of Protection. Mr.
Disraeli not only thrcAV Protection overboard, but boldly
declared that no one could have supposed the ministry had
the slightest intention of proposing to bring back the laws
that Avere repealed iu 1846. In fact the time, he declared,
had gone by Avhen such exploded politics could even interest
the people of this country. On the other hand, several of
Mr. Disraeli's colleagues evidently spoke in the fulness of
their siraple faith tiiat Lord Derby was bent on setting up
again the once beloved and not yet forgotten protective
system. But from the time of the elections nothing more
Avas heard about Protection, or about the possibility of get
ting a new trial for ils principles. The elections did little
or nothing for the Governraent. The dreams of a strength
ened party at their back Avere gone. They gained a little,
just enough to make it unlikely that any one would move a
vote of want of confidence at the very outset of their reap-

414 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
pearance before Parliaraent, but not nearly enough to give
thera a chance of carrying any measure Avhich could really
propitiate the Conservative party throughout the country.
They were still to be the ministry of a minority — a ministry
on sufferance. They Avere a ministry on sufferance when
they appealed to the country, but they were able to say
then that when their cause had been heard the country
would declare for thera. They now carae back to be a min
istry on sufferance, who had raade the appeal and had seen
it rejected. It was plain to every one that their existence
as a rainistry Avas only a question of days. Speculation was
already busy as to their successors ; and it was evident that
a ncAv Governraent could only be forraed by some sort of
coalition between the Whigs and the Peelites.
Among the noteworthy events of the general elections
Avas the return of Macaulay to the House of Commons.
Edinburgh elected hira in a manner particularly compli
mentary to hira and honorable to herself. He was elected
without his solicitation, without his putting hiraself forward
as a candidate, without his making any profession of faith,
or doing any of the things that the most independent can
didate was then expected to do ; and, in fact, in spite of his
positive declaration that he would do nothing to court elec
tion. He had for some years been absent from Parliament.
Some difference had arisen between him and certain of his
constituents on the subject of the Maynooth grant. Com
plaints, too, had been made by Edinburgh constituents of
Macaulay's lack of attention to local interests, and of the
intellectnal scorn Avhich, as they believed, he exhibited in
his intercourse Avith m.any of those who had supported hira.
The result of this was, that at the general election of 1847
Macaulay Avas left third on the poll at Edinburgh. He felt
this deeply. He raight have easily found sorae other con
stituency; but his Avounded pride hastened a resolution he
had for some time been forraing to retire to a life of private
literary labor. He therefore reraained out of Parliament.
In 1852 the movement of Edinburgh toward him was en
tirely spontaneous. Edinburgh was anxious to atone for
the error of Avhich she had been guilty. Macaulay Avould
go no farther than to say that if Edinburgh spontaneous
ly elected him he should deem it a very high honor, and

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 415
."Should not feel myself justified in refusing to accept a
public trust offered to rae in a raanner so honorable and
so peculiar." But he Avould not do anything whatever to
court favor. He did not want to be elected to Parliaraent,
he said ; he was very happy in his retirement. Edinburgh
elected him on those terms. He was not long alloAved by
his health to serve her; but so long as he reraained in the
House of Coraraons it was as raeraber for Edinburgh.
On September 14th, 1852, the Duke of Wellington died.
His end was singularly peaceful. He fell quietly asleep
about a quarter-past three in the afternoon in Walraer Cas
tle, and he did not wake any more. He Avas a very old
man — in.his eighty-fourth year — and his death had natural
ly been looked for as an event certain to come soon. Yet
When it did corae thus naturally and peacefully, it created
a profound public emotion. No other raan in our time ever
held the position in England Avhich the Duke of Wellington
had occupied for more than a Avhole generation. The place
he had avou for himself was absolutely unique. His great
deeds belonged to a past time. He was hardly anything
of a statesman ; he knew little and cared less about what
may be called states-craft ; and as an administrator he had
made many mistakes. But the trust which the nation had
in him as a counsellor was absolutely unlimited. It never
entered into the mind of any one to suppose that the Duke
of Wellington was actuated in any step he took, or advice
he gave, by any feeling but a desire for the good of the
State. His loyalty to the Sovereign had something antique
and touching in it. There was a blending of personal affec
tion with the devotion of a state servant which lent a cer
tain romantic dignity to the demeanor and character of one
who otherwise had but little of the poetical or the senti
mental in his nature. In the business of politics he had but
one prevailing anxiety, and that was that the Queen's Gov
ernment should be satisfactorily carried on. He gave up
again and again his own most cherished convictions, raost
ingrained prejudices, in order that he might not stand in
the way of the Queen's Government, and the proper carry
ing of it on. This siraple fidelity, soraetiraes rather whim
sically displayed, stood hira often in stead of an exalted
statesmanship, and enabled him to extricate the Government

416 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
and the nation from difficulties in Avhich a political insi^^ht
far more keen than his might have failed to prove a guide.
It was for this true and tried, this simple and unswerving
devotion to the national good, that the people, of England
admired and revered him. He had not what would be called
a lovable temperament, and yet the nation loved hira. He
Avas cold and brusque in manner, and seemed in general to
have hardly a gleam of the emotional in hira. This Avas
not because he lacked affections. On the contrary, his affec
tions and his friendships were warm and enduring; and
even in public he had raore than once given way to out
bursts of emotion such as a stranger would never have ex
pected from one of that cold and rigid demeanor. When
Sir Robert Peel died, Wellington spoke of him in the House
of Lords Avith the tears, which he did not even try to control,
running doAvn his cheeks. But in his ordinary bearing there
was little of the raanner that makes a man a popular idol.
He was not brilliant or dashing, or emotional or graceful;
he Avas dry, cold, self-contained. Yet the people loved hira
and trusted in hira; loved hini perhaps especially because
they so trusted in him. No face and figure were better
knoAvn at one time to the population of London than those
of the Duke of Wellington. Of late his form had grown
stooped, and he bent over his horse as he, rode in the Park
or down Whitehall like one who could hardly keep himself
in the saddle. Yet he mounted his horse to the last, and in
deed could keep in the saddle after he had ceased to be able
to sit erect in an arm-chair. He sometimes rode in a curi
ous little cab of his oavu devising ; but his favorite way of
going about London Avas on the back of his horse. He Avas
called, par excellence, " the Duke." The London working-
man who looked up as he Avent to or from his work and
caught a sight ofthe bowed figure on the horse, took off his
hat and told some passer-by, " There goes the Duke !" His
victories belonged to the past They Avere but traditions
even to middle-aged raen in " the Duke's " later years. But
he was regardca siiU as an embodiment of the national
heroism and success — a raodern St. George in a tightly-but
toned frock-coat and Avhite trousers.
Wellington belonged so rauch to the past at the time of
his dealh, that it seems hardly in place here to say anything

BIRTH OP THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 417
about his character as a soldier. But it raay be remarked
that his success was due in great measure to a sort of in
spired common-sense Avhich rose to something like genius.
He had in the highest conceivable degree the art of winning
victories. In Avar, as in statesraanship, he had one charac
teristic which is said to have been the special gift of Julius
Caesar, and for the lack of Avhich Caesar's greatest raodern
rival in the art of conquest, the first Napoleon, lost all, or
nearly all, that he had won. Wellington not only under
stood what could be done, but also what could not be done.
The wild schemes of almost universal rule which sel Napo
leon astray and led him to his destruction Avould have ap
peared to the strong coraraon-sense ofthe Duke of Welling
ton as irapossible and absurd as they would have looked to
the lofty intelligence of Caesar. It can hardly be questioned
that in original genius Napoleon far surpassed the Duke of
Wellington. But Wellington always knoAV exactly Avhat
he could do, and Napoleon often confounded his ambitions
Avith his capacities. Wellington provided for everything,
looked after everything ; never trusted to his star or to
chance, or to anything but care and preparation, and the
proper application of raeans to ends. Under alraost any
conceivable conditions, Wellington, pitted against Napoleon,
was the raan to Avin in the end. The very genius of Napo
leon would sooner or later have left him open to the un
sleeping watchfulness, the almost infallible judgment, of
Wellington. He was as fortunate as he Avas deserving. No raan could
have drunk more deeply ofthe cup of fame and fortune than
Wellington ; and he Avas never for one raoment intoxicated
by it. After all his long wars and his splendid victories he
had some thirty-seven years of peace and glory to enjoy.
He held the loftiest position in this country that any man
not a sovereign could hold, and he ranked far higher in the
estimation of his countrymen than most of their sovereigns
have done. The rescued emperors and kings of Europe had
showered their honors on hira. Liis farae Avas as complete
ly secured during his lifetime as if death, by removing him
from the possibility of making a mistake, had consecrated it.
No ncAv war under altered conditions tried the flexibility
and the endurance ofthe military genius which had defeated
18*

418 A HISTORY OP OUR^OWN TIMES.
in turn all Napoleon's great.,marshals as a prelude to the
defeat of Napoleon himself If ever any mortal may be
said to have had in life all he could have desired, Welling
ton was surely that man. He might have found a new con
tentment in his honors, if he really cared much about thera,
in the reflection that he had done nothing for himself, but
all for the State. He did not love Avar. He had no inclina
tion whatever for it. When Lord John Russell visited Na
poleon in Elba, Napoleon asked him Avhether he thought
the Duke of Wellington would be able to live thencefor-
Avard without the exciteraent of war. It was probably in
Napoleon's raind that the English soldier Avould be constant
ly entangling his country in foreign complications for the
s.ake of gratifying his love for the brave squares of war.
Lord John Russell endeavored to irapress upon the great
fallen Eraperor that the Duke of Wellington would, as a
raatter of course, lapse into the place of a siraple citizen, and
would look Avith no manner of regret to the stormy days
of battle. Napoleon seeras to have listened with a sort
of melancholy incredulity, and only observed once or twice
that "it Avas a splendid game, war." To Wellington it was
no sjjlendid g,ame, or game of any sort. It was a stern duty
to be done for his Sovereign and his country, and to be got
through .as quickly as possible. The difference betAveen the
two men cannot be better illustrated. It is irapossible to
compare two such men. There is hardly any coraraon basis
of coraparison. To say which is the greater, one raust first
raake up his raind as to whether his standard of greatness is
genius or duty. Napoleon has made a far deeper impression
on history. If that be superior greatness, it Avould be scarce
ly possible for auy national partiality to claim an equal
place for Wellington. But Englishraen may be content
Avith the reflection that their hero saved his country, and
that Napoleon nearly ruined his. We write this without
the slightest inclination to sanction what may be called the
British Philistine view of the character of Napoleon. Up
to a certain period ofhis career it seems to us deserving of
almost unmingled adrairation ; just as his country, in her
earlier disputes Avith the other European PoAvers, seeras to
have been almost entirely in the right. But his success and
his glory were too strong for Napoleon. He fell for the

BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 419
very want of that siraple, steadfast devotion to duty which
inspired Wellington ahvays, and which made hira seera
dignified and great, even in statesraanship for Avhich he Avas
unfitted, and even when in statesmanship he Avas acting in
a manner that Avould have made another man seera ridic
ulous rather than respectable. Wellington more nearly
resembled Washington than Napoleon. Lie Avas a much
greater soldier than Washington ; but he Avas not, on the
Avhole, so great a man.
It is fairly to be said for Wellington that the proportions
of his personal greatness seem to grow ralher than to dAvin-
dle as he and his events are removed from us by time. The
battle of Waterloo does not indeed stand, as one of its his
torians has described it, among the decisive battles of the
Avorld. It AA'as fought to keep the Bonapartes off the throne
of France ; and in twenty-five years after Waterloo, while
the victor of Waterloo Avas yet living, another Bonaparte
was preparing to mount that throne It was the climax of
a national policy which, however justifiable and inevitable
it may have becorae in the end, would hardly noAV be justi
fied as to its origin by one inteUigent Englishman out of
twenty. The present age is not, therefore, likely to become
rhapsodical over Wellington, as our forefathers might have
been, raerely because he defeated the French and crushed
Napoleon. Yet it is impossible for the coolest mind to
study the career of Wellington Avithout feeling a constant
glow of admiration for that singular course of siraple an
tique devotion to duty. LIis was truly the spirit in Avhicli
a great nation raust desire to be served.
The nation was not ungrateful. It heaped honors on Wel
lington ; it Avould have heaped more on him if it knew how.
It gave him its alraost unqualified adrairation. On his death
it tried to give hira such a public funeral as hero never had.
The pageant was, indeed, a splendid and a gorgeous exhibi
tion. It was not, perha]is, very well suited to the tempera
raent and habits of the (-old and simple hero to whose hon
or it was got up. Nor, perhaps, are gorgeous pageants ex
actly the sort of perform rince in which, as a nation, 'England
particularly excels. But in the vast, silent, respectful croAvd
that thronged the London streets — a croAvd such as no other
city in the Avorld could show — there Avas better evidence

420 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
than pageantry or ceremonial could supply ofthe esteem in
which the living generation held the hero of the last. Tlie
name of Wellington had long ceased to represent any hos
tility of nation to nation. The crowds who filled the streets
of London that day had no thought ofthe kind of sentiment
Avhich used to fill the breasts of their fathers Avhen France
and Napoleon were named. They honored WelUngton only
as one who had ahvays served his country ; as the soldier
of England and not as the invader of France, or even as the
conqueror of Napoleon. The homage to his memory was as
pure of selfish passion as his oavu career.
The noAv Parliament was called together in November.
It brought into public life in England a man Avho afterward
made some mark in our politics, and Avhose intellect and de
bating poAver seemed at one time to promise hira a position
inferior to that of hardly any one in the House of Commons.
This Avas Mr. Robert LoAve, who had returned from one of
the Australian colonies to enter political life in his native
country. Mr. Lowe was a scholar of a highly cultured or
der; and, despite some serious defects of dellA'cry, he proved
to be a debater of the very highest class, especially gifted
Avith the weapons of sarcasm, scorn, and invective. He was
a Liberal in the intellectual sense; he was opposed to all
restraints on education and on the progress of a career ; but
he had a detestation for democratic doctrines Avhich alraost
amounted lo a mania. Lie despised with the Avhole force of
a temperaraent very favorable to intellectual scorn alike the
rural Tory and the town Radical. Liis opinions were gener
ally rather neg.alive than positive. He did not seem to have
any very positive opinions of any kind Avhere politics Avere
concerned. He Avas governed by a detestation of abstrac
tions and sentimentalities, and "views" of .all sorts. An in
tellectual Don Juan of the political Avorld, he believed Avith
Molifere's hero that Iavo and two make four, and that four
and four make eight, and he Avas irapatient of any theory
Avhich would coramend itself to the raind on less rigorous
evidence. If conterapt for the intellectual Aveaknesses of
an opposing party or doctrine could have raade a great po-
litican, Mr. Lowe would have Avon that name. In politics,
however, criticism is not enough. One raust be able to orig
inate, to raould the Avill of others, to comproraise, to lead

BIRTH OF THE EMPIRE; DEATH OP "THE DUKE." 421
Avhile seeming to follow, often to folloAv Avhile seeming lo
lead. Of gifts like these Mr. LoAve had no share. He never
becarae raore than a great Parliamentary critic of the acrid
and vitriolic style.
Alraost iraraediately on the asserabling of the new Par
liaraent, Mr. Villiers brought forward a resolution not raere
ly pledging the House of Coraraons to a Free-trade policy,
but pouring out a sort of censure on all Avho had hitherto
failed to recognize its worth. This step Avas thought neces
sary, and Avas indeed made necessary by the errors of which
Lord Derby had been guilty, and the preposterous vaporings
of sorae of his' less responsible followers. If the resolution
had been passed, the Governraent must have resigned. They
Avere willing enough now to agree to any resolution declar
ing that Free-trade Avas the established policy of the coun
try; but they could not accept the triumphant eulogiura
Avhich the resolution proposed to offer to the coramercial
policy of the years Avhen they Avere the uncoraproraising en
eraies of that very policy. They could subrait to the pun
ishraent iraposed on them ; but they did not like this public
kissing of the rod and doing penance. Lord Palmerston,
who, even up to that time, regarded his ultimate acceptance
of office under Lord Derby as a not impossible event if once
the Derby party could shake themselves quite free of Pro
tection, devised an araendraent which afforded thera the
means of a more or less honorable retreat. This resolution
pledged the House to the " policy of unrestricted corapeti
tion firmly raaintalned and prudently extended;" but re
corded no panegyric of the legislation of 1846, and conse
quent conderanation of those Avho opposed that legislation.
The araendraent was accepted by all but the sraall band
of irreconcilable Protectionists : 468 voted for it ; only 53
against it; and the moan of Protection Avas made All that
long chapter of English legislation was closed. Various
comraercial and other "interests" did indeed afterward de
mur to the application ofthe principle of unrestricted com
petition to their peculiar concerns. Bnt they did not plead
for Protection. They only contended that the Protection
they sought for Avas not, in fact. Protection, at all, but Free-
trade under peculiar circumstances. The straightforward doc
trine of Protection perished ofthe debate of November, 1852.

422 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Slill, the Government only existed on sufferance. Their
tenure of office was soraewhat rudely compared to that of a
bailiff put into possession of certain premises, who is liable
to be sent away at any moment Avhen the two parties con
cerned in the litigation choose to come to terms. There Avas
a general expectation that the moment Mr. Disraeli came to
set out a genuine financial scheme the fate ofthe Govern
ment Avould be decided. So the event proved. Mr. Disraeli
made a financial statement which showed reraarkable capac
ity for dealing Avith figures. It Avas subjected to a far raore
serious test tlian his first budget, for that Avas necessarily a
mere stop-gap or makeshift. This was a real budget, alter
ing and reconstructing the financial system and the taxation
ofthe country. The skill Avilh which the Chancellor ofthe
Exchequer explained his measures and tossed his figures
about convinced many even ofhis strongest opponents that
he had the capacity to raake a good budget if he only Avere
alloAved to do so by the conditions of his party's existence.
But his cabinet had come into office under special obliga
tions to the country party and the farmers. They could
not avoid making sorae experiment in the Avay of special leg
islation for the farmers: they had, at the very least, to put
on an appearance of doing soinething for them. The Chan
cellor ofthe Exchequer raight be supposed to be in the po
sition ofthe soldier in Hogarth's "Marcli to Finchley," be
tween the rival claimants on his attention. He has jirora-
ised and voAved to the one; but he knows that the slightest
mark of civility he offers to her Avill be fiercely resented by
the other. When Mr. Disraeli undertook to favor the coun
tr}' interest and the farmers, he must have known only too
well that he Avas setting all the Free-traders and Peelites
against hiin; and he knew at the same time that if he neg
lected the country party he was cutting the ground from
beneath his feet. The principle of his budget was the re
duction ofthe malt duties and the increase ofthe inhabited
house duly. Sorae manipulations ofthe income-tax were to
be introduced, chiefly Avith a vicAV to lighten the impost on
farmers' profits; and there Avas to be a modest reduction
of the tea duly. The Iavo points that stood out clear and
prominent before the House of Commons Avere the reductiorl
of the malt duty and the increase of the duty on inhabited

MR. GLADSTONE. 423
houses. The reduction of the raalt-lax, as Mr. LoAve said in
his pungent criticism, av as the key-stone ofthe budget. That
reduction created a deficit, which the inhabited house duty
had to be doubled in order to supply. The scheme Avas a
coraplete failure. The farmers did not care rauch about the
concession Avhich had been raade in their favor ; those Avho
had to pay for it in doubled taxation were bitterly indignant.
Mr. Disraeli had exasperated the one clairaant, and not great
ly pleased the other. The Government soon saw Iioav things
were likely to go. The Chancellor ofthe Exchequer began
to see that he had only a desperate fight to make The
Whigs, the Free-traders, the Peelites, and such independent
merabers or unattached raembers as Mr. Lowe and Mr. Ber
nal Osborne, all fell on him. It became a corabat d outrance.
It well suited Mr. Disraeli's peculiar teraperaraent. During
the Avhole of his Parliamentary career he has never fought
so well as Avhen he has been free to indulge to the full the
courage of despair.

CHAPTER XXIV.
ME. GLADSTONE.

The debate was one ofthe finest of its kind ever heard in
Parliament during our time. The excitement on both sides
was intense. The rivalry was hot and eager. Mr. Disraeli
was animated by all the power of desperation, and Avas evi
dently in a raood neither to give nor to take quarter. He
assailed Sir Charles Wood, the late Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, with a veheraence and even a virulence Avhich cer
tainly added much to the piquancy and interest of the dis
cussion so far as listeners were concerned, but which more
than once Avent to the very verge ofthe limits of Parliamen
tary decorum. It Avas in the course of this speech that Dis
raeli, leaning across the table and directing his Avords full at
Sir Charles Wood, declared, "I care not to be the right hon
orable gentleman's critic, but if he has learned his business,
he has yet to learn that petulance is not sarcasm, and that
insolence is not invective." The House had not heard the
concluding Avord of Disraeli's bitter and impassioned speech,

424 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Avhen at two o'clock in the morning Mr. Gladstone leaped
to his feet to ansAver him. Then began that long Parlia
raentary duel Avhich only knew a truce when at the close of
the session of 1876 Mr. Disraeli crossed the threshold ofthe
House of Coraraons for the last time, thenceforward to take
his place among the peers as Lord Beaconsfield. During all
the intervening four-and-twenty years these two men Avere
rivals in poAver and in Parliamentary debate as much as
ever Pitt and Fox had been. Their opposition, like that of
Pitt and Fox, Avas one of temperament and character as well
as of genius, position, and political opinion. The rivalry of
this first heated and eventful night was a splendid display.
Those Avho had thought it impossible that any impression
could be made upon the House after the speech of Mr. Dis-
raelij had to acknowledge that a yet greater irapression was
produced by the unprepared reply of Mr. Gladstone. The
House divided about four o'clock in the morning, and the
Government were left in a minority of nineteen. Mr. Dis
raeli took the defeat with his characteristic coraposure. The
raorning Avas cold and Avet. "It Avill be an unpleasant day
for going to Osborne," he quietly reraarked to a friend as
they Avent down Westminster Hall together and looked out
into the dreary streets. That day, at Osborne, the resigna
tion of the ministry was formally placed in the hands of the
Queen. In a few days after, the Coalition Ministry was forraed.
.Lord Aberdeen was Prime-rainister ; Lord John Russell took
the Foreign Office ; Lord Palraerston became Horae Secre
tary ; . Mr. Gladstone Avas Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
public Avere a good deal surprised that Lord Palmerston had
taken such a place as that of Home Secretary. His name
had been identified with the foreign policy of England, and
it Avas not supposed that he felt the slightest interest in the
ordinary business ofthe Horae Department. Palraerston him
self explained in a letter to his brother that the Home Office
Avas his own choice. He was not anxious to join the ministry
at all ; and if he had to make one, he preferred that he should
hold sorae office in Avhich he had personally no traditions.
" I had long settled in my oavu mind," he said, " that I would
not go back to the Foreign Office, and that if I ever took
any office it should be the Home. It does not do for a raan

MR. GLADSTONE. 425
to pass his whole life in one department, and the Horae Office
deals with the concerns of the country internally, and brings
one in contact Avith one's fellow-countrymen ; besides which
it gives one more influence in regard to the militia and the
defences of the country." Lord Palraerston, in fact, an
nounces that he has undertaken the business of the Home
Office for the sarae reason as that given by Fritz, in the
" Grande Duchesse," for becoraing a school -raaster. "Can
you teach ?" asks the Grande Duchesse. " No," is the an
swer; " c'est pour apprendre;" "I go to learn." The reader
may well suspect, hoAvever, that it Avas not only Avith a vicAv
of learning the business of the internal adrainistration and
becoraing acquainted Avith his fellow-countryraen that Palra
erston preferred the Home Office. He would not consent to
be Foreign Secretary on any terms but his own, and these
terms were then out of the question.
The princijial interest felt in the new Government was nol,
however, centred in Lord Palmerston. The new Chancellor
of the Exchequer was the man upon Avhom the eyes of curi
osity and interest were- chiefly turned. Mr. Gladstone was
slill a young man, in the Parliaraentary sense at least. He
Avas but forty-three. His career had been in every way re
markable. He had entered public life at a very early age
He had been, to quote the words of Macaulay, a distinguish
ed debater in the House of Commons ever since he Avas one-
and-twenty. Criticising his book, " The State in its Rela
tions with the Church," Avhich was published in 1838,
Macaulay speaks of Gladstone as " a j'oung raan of unblem
ished character and of distinguished Parliaraentary talents,
the rising hope of those stern and unbending Tories Avho
follow reluctantly and mutinously a leader whose experi
ence is indispensable to them, but whose cautious teraper
and raoderate opinions they abhor." The time Avas not so
far away Avhen the stern and unbending Tories would regard
Gladstone as the greatest hope of their raost bitter eneraies.
Lord Macaulay goes on to overwhelm the vicAvs expressed
by Mr. Gladstone as to the relations between State and
Church, Avith a Aveight of argument and gorgeousness of il
lustration that now seem to have been hardly called for.
One ofthe doctrines ofthe young statesraan which Macau
lay confutes with especial warrath is the principle Avhieh, as

426 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
he States it, " Avould give the Irish a Proiestant Church
whether they like it or not" The author of the book which
contained this doctrine was the author of the disestablish
ment of the State Church in Ireland.
Mr. Gladstone was by birth a Lancashire man. It is not
unAvorthy of notice that Lancashire gave to the Parliaments
of recent times their three greatest orators — Mr. Gladstone,
Mr. Bright, and the late Lord Derby. Mr. Gladstone was
born in Liverpool, and was the son of Sir John Gladstone, a
Scotchman, who founded a great house in the seaport ofthe
Mersey. He entered Parliament Avhen very young as a
prot'eg'e of the Newcastle family, and he soon faithfully at
tached himself to Sir Robert Peel. His knowledge of
finance, his thorough appreciation of the various needs of a
nation's commerce and business, his middle-class origin, all
brought him into natural affinity with his great leader. He
becarae a Free-trader with Peel. He was not in the House
of Coraraons, oddly enough, during the session when the
Free-trade battle was fought and won. It has already been
explained in this history that as he had changed his opinions
with his leader he felt a reluctance to ask the support ofthe
Newcastle faraily for the borough which by virtue of their
influence he had previously represented. But, except for
that short interval, his Avhole career may be pronounced one
long Parliamentary success. He Avas from the very first
recognized as a brilliant debater, and as one who promised
to be an orator; but it Avas not until after the death of Sir
Robert Peel that he proved himself the raaster of Parlia
mentary eloquence Ave all uoav know him to be. It was he
Avho pronounced what may be called the funeral oration
upon Peel in the House of Commons ; but the speech,
although undoubtedly inspired by the truest and the deep
est feelings, does not seera by any means equal to some of
his raore recent efforts. There is an appearance of elabo
ration about it which goes far to mar its effect. Perhaps
the first really great speech made by Gladstone was the re
ply to Disraeli on the raeraorable Deceraber raorning which
Ave have just described. That speech put him in the very
foremost rank of English orators. Then, perhaps, he first
showed to the full the one great quality in Avhich as a Par
liamentary orator he has never had a rival in our tirae — the

MR. GLAD.STONE. 427
readiness which seems to, require no preparation, but can
marshal all its arguments as if by instinct at a given mo
ment, and the fluency Avhich can pour out the most eloquent
language as freely as though it were but the breath of the
nostrils. When, shortly after the formation of the Coalition
Ministry, Mr. Gladstone delivered his first budget, it Avas re
garded as a positive curiosity of financial exposition. It
Avas a perforraance that belonged to the departraent of the
fine arts. The speech occupied several hours, and assuredly
no listener wished it the shorter by a single sentence. Pitt,
Ave read, had the sarae art of raaking a budget speech a fas
cinating discourse ; but in our time no rainister has had this
gift except Mr. Gladstone. Each tirae that he essayed the
sarae task subsequently he accoraplished just the sarae suc
cess. Mr. Gladstone's first oratorical qualification was his
exquisite voice. Such a voice would make comraonplace
seera interesting, and lend soraething of fascination to dul
ness itself It was singularly pure, clear, resonant, and
sweet. The orator never seemed to use tho slightest effort
or strain in filling any hall and reaching the ear of the far
thest araong the audience. It was not a loud voice or of
great volurae ; but strong, vibrating, and silvery. The
words were always aided by energetic action and by the
deep-gleaming eyes of the orator. Soraebody once said that
Gladstone was the only raan in the House Avho could talk in
italics. The saying was odd, but Avas nevertheless appro
priate and expressive. Gladstone could by the slightest
modulation of his voice give all the emphasis of italics, of
small print, or large print, or any other effect he raight de
sire, to his spoken Avords. It is not to be denied that his
wonderful gift of Avords soraetimes led him astray. It Avas
often such a fluency as that of a torrent on which the orator
was carried away. Gladstone had to pay for his fluency by
being too fluent. He could seldom resist the teraptation to
shower too raany words on his subject and his hearers.
Sometiraes he involved his sentence in parenthesis within
parenthesis until the ordinary listener began to think extri
cation an irapossibility ; but the orator never failed to un
ravel all the entanglements, and to bring the passage out to
a clear and legitimate conclusion. There was never any
halt or incoherency, nor did the joints of the sentence fail

428 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
to fit together in the right way. Harley once described a
famous speech as " a ciicunigyration of incoherent words."
This description certainly eould not be applied even to Mr.
Gladstone's most involved passages; but if some of those
were described as a circumgyration of coherent words, the
phrase might be considered germane to the matter. His
style Avas comraonly too redundant. It seeraed as if it be
longed to a certain school of exuberant Italian rhetoric.
Yet it was hardly to be called florid. Gladstone indulged
in feAV flowers of rhetoric, and his great gift was not imag
ination. His fault was siraply the habitual use of too raany
Avords. This defect was, indeed, a characteristic of the Peel
ite school of eloquence. Mr. Gladstone retained sorae of
the defects ofthe school in Avhich he had been trained, even
after he had come to surpass its greatest masler.
Often, however, this superb, exuberant rush of words add
ed indescribable strength to the eloquence of the speaker.
In passages of indignant remonstrance or denunciation, Avhen
Avord followed Avord, and stroke carae doAvii upon stroke,
Avith a Avealth of resource that seemed inexhaustible, the
very fluency and variety of the speaker overwhelmed his
audience. Interruption only gave him a noAv stimulus, and
appeared to supply him Avilh fresh resources of arguraent
and illustration. His retorts leaped to his lips. His eye
caught, soraetiraes, even the raere gesture that indicated dis
sent or question ; and perhaps sorae unlucky opponent who
Avas only thinking of what might be said in opposition to the
great orator found hiraself suddenly dragged into the con
flict, and overwhelmed with a torrent of remonstrance, argu
ment, and scornful Avords. Gladstone had not rauch humor
of the playful kind, but he had a certain force of sarcastic
and scornful rhetoric. He Avas always terribly in earnest.
Whether the subject were great or small, he threw his Avhole
soul into it. Once, in addressing a school-boy gathering, he
told his young listeners that if a boy ran, he ought always
to run as fast as he could ; if he jumped, he ought always
to jurap as far as he could. He illustrated his maxim in
his own career. Lie had no idea, apparently, of running or
jumping in such measure as happened to please the fancy
of the moraent. Lie ahvays exercised his splendid powers
to the uttermost strain.

MR. GLADSTONE. 429
, A distinguished critic once pronounced Mr. Gladstone to
be the greatest Parliamentary orator of our tirae, on the
ground that he had made by far the greatest nuraber of
fine speeches, while adraitting that two or three speeches
had been raade by other raen of the day Avhich might rank
higher than any of his. This is, however, a principle of
criticism Avhich posterity never s.anctions. The greatest
speech, the greatest poem, give the author llie highest
place, though the effort Avere but single. Shakspeare would
rank beyond Massinger just as he does now, had he written
only "The Tempest." We cannot say how many novels,
each as good as "Gil Bias," would make La Sage the equal
of Cervantes. On this point farae is inexorable We are
not, therefore, inclined to call Mr. Gladstone the greatest
English orator of our time Avhen we remeraber sorae of the
finest speeches of Mr. Bright; but did we regard Parlia
mentary speaking as a mere instrument of Parliamentary
business and debate, then unquestionably Mr. Gladstone is
not only the greatest, but by far the greatest English orator
of our tirae; for he had a richer combination of gifts than
any other man Ave can remember, and he could use them
oftenest with effect. He Avas like a racer which cannot in
deed always go faster than every rival, but can win more
races in the year than any olher horse Mr. Gladstone
could get up at any moinent, and no matter how many
times a night, in the House of Coraraons, and be argumenta
tive or indignant, pour out a stream of irapassioned elo
quence or a shower of figures, just as the exigency of the
debate and the moment required. He Avas not, .of course,
always equal; but he was always eloquent, and effective.
He seeraed as if he could not be anything but eloquent.
Perhaps, judged in this Avay, he never had an equal in the
English Parliament. Neither Pitt nor Fox ever made so
many speeches combining so many great qualities. Chat
ham was a great actor rather than a great orator. Burke
Avas the greatest political essayist Avho ever addressed the
House of Coraraons. Canning did not often rise above the
level of burnished rhetorical coraraonplace. Macaulay, who
during his tirae drew the raost crowded houses of any speak
er, not even excepting Peel, was not an orator in the true
sense Probably, no one, past or present, had in corabina-

430 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
tion so many gifts of voice, raanner, fluency and argument,
style, reason and passion, as Mr. Gladstone.
The House of Coraraons Avas his ground. There he was
hiraself; there he Avas ahvays seen to the best advantage.
As a rule, he Avas not so successful on the platform. His
turn of raind did not fit him well for the work of addressing
great public meetings. Lie loved to look too carefully at
every side of a question, and did not always go so quickly
to the heart of it as would suit great popular audiences.
The principal defect of his mind was probably a lack of
siraplicity, a tendency to over-refining and supersubtle ar
guraent. Not perhaps unnaturally, hoAvever, when he did,
during some of the later passages of his career, lay him
self out for the Avork of addressing popular audiences, he
threw away all discrimination, and gave loose to the full
force with Avhich, under the excitement of great pressure,
he was wont to rush at a principle. There seemed a cer
tain lack of balance in his mind ; a Avant of the exact poise
of all his f:. culties. Either he raust refine too much, or he
did not refine at all. Thus he became accused, and with
some reason, of over-refining and all but quibbling in some
of his Parliaraentary arguments ; of looking at all sides of a
question so carefully that it Avas too long in doubt wheiher
he was ever going to forra any opinion of his OAvn ; and he
Avas soraetimes accused, Avith equal justice, of pleading one
side of a political cause before great meetings of his coun
trymen Avith all the passionate blindness of a partisan. The
accusations might seera self-contradictory, if we did not re
member that they Avill apply, and with great force and jus
tice, to Burke. . Burke cut blocks with a razor, and Avent on
refining to an impatient House of Commons, only eager for
its dinner; and the same Burke throAV himself into antag
onism to the French Revolution as if he Avere the wildest
of partisans ; as if the question had but one side, and only
fools or villains could possibly say it had any other.
Mr. Gladstone grew slowly into Liberal convictions. At
the tirae when he joined the Coalition Ministry he Avas still
regarded as one Avho had scarcely left the carap of Toryism,
and who had only joined that rainistry because it was a
coalition. Years after, he was applied to by the late Lord
Derby to join a ministry formed by him ; and it Avas not

MR. GLADSTONE. 431
supposed that there Avas anything unreasonable in the prop
osition. The first impulse toAvard Liberal principles Avas
given to his mind, probably, by his change with his leader
from Protection to Free-trade When a man like Gladstone
saw that his traditional principles and those of his party
had broken doAvn in any one direction, it Avas but natural
that he should begin to question their endurance in other
directions. The Avhole fabric of belief was built up togeth
er. Gladstone's Avas a mind of that order that sees a prin
ciple in everything, and must, to adopt the phrase of a great
preacher, make the ploughing as much a part of religious
duty as the praying. The interests of religion seemed to
him bound up with the creed of Conservatism; the princi
ples of Proteclion must, probably, at one time have seemed
a part of the Avhole creed of which one article was as sacred
as another. His intellect and his principles, hoAvever, found
theraselves compelled to follow the guidance of his leader
ill the matter of Free-trade ; and when inquiry thus began
it was not very likely soon to stop. He must have seen
how much the working of such a principle as that of Protec
tion became a class interest in England, and how irapossible
it would have been for it to continue long in existence un
der an extended and a popular suffrage. In other countries
tho fallacy of Protection did not show itself so glaringly in
the eyes of the poorer classes, for in other countries it Avas
not the staple food of the population that became the prin
cipal object of a protective dutj-. But in England the
bread on which the poorest had to live Avas made to pay a
tax for the benefit of landlords and farmers. As long as
one believed this to be a necessary condition of a great i!n-
questionable creed, it was easy for a young statesman to rec
oncile himself to it. It might bear cruelly on individuals,
or even multitudes ; but so would the law of gravitation, as
Mill has remarked, bear harshly on the best of men when it
dashed hira down frora a height and broke his bones. It
would be idle to question the existence of the law on that
account; or to disbelieve the Avhole teaching ofthe physical
science which explains its movements. But when Mr. Glad
stone came to be convinced that there was no such law as
the Protection principle at all ; that it was a mere shara ;
that to believe in it was to be guilty of an economic heresy

432 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
— then it was impossible for him not to begin questioning
the genuineness of the Avhole system of political thought of
which it formed but a part. Perhaps, too, he Avas irapelled
toward Liberal principles at horae by seeing Avhat the effects
of opposite doctrines had been abroad. He rendered raeino-
rable service to the Liberal cause of Europe by his eloquent
protest against the brutal .treatment of Baron Poerio and
olher Liberals of Naples who were imprisoned by the Nea
politan king — a protest Avhich Garibaldi declared to have
sounded the first trumpet-call of Italian liberty. In render
ing service to Liberalism and lo Europe he rendered service
also to his own intelligence. He helped to set free his own
spirit as well as the Neapolitan people. We find hira, as
his career goes on, dropping the traditions of his youth, al-
Avays rising higher hi Liberalism, and not going back. One
of the foremost of his compeers, and his only actual rival in
popular eloquence, eulogized him as ahvays struggling to-
Av.ard the light. The common taunts addressed to public
men who have changed their opinions were hardly ever ap
plied to him. Even his enemies felt that the one idea al-
Avays inspired hira — a conscientious anxiety to do the right
thing. None accused him of being one of the politicians
Avho raistake, as Victor Hugo says, a weather-cock for a flag.
With raany qualities which seeraed hardly suited to a prac
tical politician; Avith a sensitive and eager temper, like that
of Canning, and a turn for theological argument that, as a
rule. Englishmen do not love in a statesman ; Avilh an im
petuosity that often carried him far astray, and a deficiency
of those genial social qualities that go so far to make a pub
lic success in England, Mr. Gladstone maintained through
the Avhole of his career a reputation against Avhich there Avas
hardly a serious cavil. The Avorst thing that was said of
hira Avas that he was too irapulsive, and that his intelligence
Avas too restless. Lie Avas an essayist, a critic, a Homeric
scholar; a dilettante in art, rausic, and old china; he Avas a
theological controversialist ; he was a political econoraist, a
financier, a practical adrainistrator Avhose gift of mastering
details has hardly ever been equ.alled ; he Avas a statesman
.and an orator. No man could attempt so raany things and
not occasionally raake hiraself the subject of a sneer. The
intense gravity and earnestness of Gladstone's mind ahvays.

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 433
however, saved hira frora the special penalty of such versa
tility ; no satirist described hira as not one, but all raan-
kind's epitome.
As yet, hoAvever, he is only the young statesraan who was
the other day the hope of the more solemn and solid Con
servatives, and in Avhora they have not even yet entirely
ceased to put sorae faith. The Coalition Ministry was so
forraed that it was not supposed a raan necessarily nailed his
colors to any raast Avhen he joined it. More than one of
Gladstone's earliest friends and political associates had a
part in it. The ministry might undoubtedly be called an
Administration of All the Talents. Except the late Lord
Derby and 21r. Disraeli, it included alraost every raan of real
ability Avho belonged to either of the Iavo great parties of
the State. The Manchester School had, of course, no place
there ; but they were not likely just yet to be recognized as
constituting one of the elements out of which even a Coali
tion Ministry might be composed.

CHAPTER XXV.
THE EASTEEN QUESTION.

Foe forty years England had been at peace. There had,
indeed, been little wars here and there with sorae of her Asi
atic and African neighbors ; and once or tAvice, as in the in
stance of the quarrel between Turkey and Egypt, she had
been raenaced for a raoraent Avith a dispute of a raore for
raidable kind and nearer horae. But the trouble had passed
away, and frora Waterloo downward England had knoAvn no
real war. The new generation were growing up in a kind
of happy belief that Avars Avere things of the past for us ;
out of fashion ; belonging to a ruder and less rational soci
ety, like the wearing of arraor and the carrying of weapons
in the civil streets. It is not surprising if it seemed possi
ble to many that the England of the future might regard
the instruments and the ways of Avar with the same curious
wonder as that which Virgil assumes would one day fill the
rainds ofthe rustic laborers Avhose ploughs turned up on
sorae field of ancient battle the rusted swords and battered
I.— 19

434 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
helmets of forgotten warriors. During all the conviilsions
ofthe Continent, England. had remained undisturbed. When
bloody revolutions Avere storming through other capitals,
London Avas smiling over the dispersion of the Chartists by
a few special constables. When the armies of Austria, of
Russia, of France, of Sardinia Avere scattered over vast and
various Continental battle-grounds, our troops were passing
ill peaceful pageantry of review before the well-pleased eyes
of their Sovereign in some stately royal park. A new school
as well as a neAV generation had sprung up. This school, full
of faith, but full of practical, shrewd logic as well, was teach
ing Avith great eloquence and effect that the practice of set
tling international controversy by the sword Avas costly,
barbarous, and blundering, as well as wicked. The practice
of the duel in England had utterly gone out. Battle Avas
forever out of fashion as a means of settling private con
troversy in England. Why then should it be unreasonable
to believe that the like practice among nations might soon
become equally obsolete?
Such, certainly, Avas the faith of a great many intelligent
persons at the time Avhen the Coalition Ministry Avas form
ed. The majority tacitly acquiesced in the belief without
thinking much about it. They had never in their time seen
England engaged in European Avar ; and it was natural to
assume that what they had never seen they were never like
ly to see. Any one who retraces attentively the history of
English public opinion at that time Avill easily find evidence
enough of a commonly accepted understanding that Eng
land had done Avith great Avars. Even then, perhaps, a
shrewd observer might have been inclined to conjecture
tliat by the very force of reaction a change would soon set
in. Man, said Lord Palmerston, is by nature a fighting and
quarrelling animal. This was one of those smart saucy,
generalizations characteristic of its author, and Avhich used
to provoke many graver and more philosophic persons, but
Avhich nevertheless ofteii got at the heart of a question in a
rough-and-ready sort of Avay. In the season of Avhich we
are now speaking, it Avas not, however, the coraraon belief
that man was by nature a fighting and a quarrelling animal,
at least in England. Bad governraent, the arbitrary power
of an aristocracy, the necessity of finding occupation fbr a

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 435
Standing army, the ambitions of princes, the misguiding les
sons of romance and poetry — these and other influences had
converted man into an instrument of Avar. Leave hira to his
own impulses, his own nature, his own ideas of self-interest,
and the better teachings of Aviser guides, and he is sure to
remain in the paths of peace. Such was the coraraon belief
of the year or Iavo after the Great Exhibition — the belief
fervently preached by a few and accepted Avithout contra
diction by the majority, as most common beliefs are — the
belief floating in the air of the time, and becoraing part of
the atraosphere in which the generation was brought up.
Suddenly all this happy, quiet faith Avas disturbed, and the
long peace, which the Iiero of Tennyson's "Maud "says he
thought no peace, was over and done. The hero of" Maud "
had, it Avill be observed, the advantage of explaining his
convictions after the war had broken out. The name Avas
indeed legion of those who, under the same conditions, dis
covered, like hira, that they had never relished the long, long
peace, or believed in it muph as a peace at all.
The Eastern Question it Avas that disturbed the dream of
peace. The use of such phrases as " the Eastern Question,"
borroAved chiefly from the political vocabulary of France, is
not in general to be commended ; but Ave can in this instance
find no more ready and convenient way of expressing clearly
and precisely the raeaning of the crisis which had arisen in
Europe. It was strictly the Eastern " question " — the ques
tion of Avhat to do with the East of Europe. It Avas certain
that things could not reraain as they then Avere, and nothing
else was certain. The Ottoman Power had beeu settled
during many centuries in the south-east of Europe. It had
come in there as a conqueror, and had remained there only
as a conqueror occupies the ground his tents are covering.
The Turk had raany of the strong qualities and even the
virtues of a great Avarlike conqueror ; but he had no capacity
or care for the arts of peace. He never thought of assimi
lating himself to those whom he had conquered, or thera to
hira. He disdained to learn anything from them; he did
not care whether or no they learned anything from him. It
has been well remarked, that of all the races who conquered
Greeks, the Turks alone learned nothing from their gifted
captives. Captive Greece conquered .all the Avorld except

436 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the Turks. They defied her. She could not teach them
letters or arts, comraerce or science. The Turks were not,
as a rule, oppressive to the races that lived under them.
They were not habitual persecutors of the faiths they deem
ed heretical. In this respect they often contrasted favora
bly with states that ought to have been able to show them
a better example. In truth, the Turk, for the most part, was
disposed to look with disdainful composure on what he con
sidered the religious follies ofthe heretical races who did not
believe in the Prophet. They were objects of his scornful
pity rather than ofhis anger. Every now and then, indeed,
some sudden fierce outburst of fanatical cruelty toward some
of the subject-sects horrified Europe, and reminded her that
the conqueror who had settled himself doAvn in her south
eastern corner Avas still a barbarian Avho had no right or
place in civiUzed life. But, as a rule, the Turk did not care
enough about the races he ruled over to feel the impulses
of the perverted fanaticism which would strive to scourge
men into the faith itself believes needful to salvation. '
At one tirae there can be little doubt that all the Powers
of civilized Europe would gladly have seen the Turk driven
out of our Continent. But the Turk was powerful for a long
series -of generations, and it seeraed for awhile rather a ques
tion whether he would not send the Europeans out of their
OAvn grounds. Lie was for centuries the great terror, the
nightmare, of Western Europe. When he began to decay,
and Avhen his aggressive strength Avas practically all gone,
it raight have been thought that the Western Powers would
then have raanaged somehow to get rid of him. But in the
mean time the condition of Europe had greatly changed. No
one not actually subject to the Turk was afraid of him any
raore; and other States had arisen strong for aggression.
The uncertainties of these States as to the intentions of their
neighbors and each other proved a better bulwark for tho
Turks than any Avarlike strength of their own could any
longer have furnished. The growth of the great Russian
erapire was of itself enough to change the whole conditions
of the problera.
Nothing in our times has been raore reraarkable than the
sudden groAvth of Russia. The rise ofthe United States is
not so Avonderful ; for the men Avho made the United States

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 437
Avere civilized men ; men of our own race who might be ex
pected to mafte a Avay for themselves anywhere, and Avho
Avere, moreover, put by destiny in possession of a vast and
splendid continent having all variety of climate and a limit
less productiveness, and Avhere they had no neighbors or ri
vals to molest them. But Russia was peopled by a race
who, even down to our own times, remain in many respects
little better than semi-barbarous; and she had eneraies and
obstacles on all sides. A fcAV generations ago Russia Avas
literally an inland slate. She was shut up in the heart of
Eastern Europe as if in a prison. The genius, the craft, and
the audacity of Peter the Great first broke the narroAV
bounds set to the Russia of his day, and extended her fron
tier to the sea. He was followed, after a reign or tAvo, by
a woraan of genius, daring, unscrupulousness, and profligacy
equal to his own — the greatest Avoraan probably Avho ever
sat on a throne, Elizabeth of England not even excepted.
Catherine the Second so ably followed the exaraple of Peter
the Great, that she extended the Russian frontier in direc
tions which he had not had opportunity to stretch lo. By
the tirae her reign was done Russia was one of the Great
Powers of Europe, entitled to enter into negotiations on a
footing of equality with the proudest States of the, Conti
nent. Unlike Turkey, Russia had ahvays showed a yearn
ing after the latest developraents of science and of civiliza
tion. There was something even of affectation, provoking
the smUes of an older and raore ingrained culture, in the ef
forts persistently raade by Russia to put on the garments
of Western civilization. Calherine the Great, in especial,
had set the example in this Avay. She invited Diderot to
her court She adorned her cabinet with a bust of Charles
Jaraes Fox. While some of the personal habits of herself
and of those who surrounded her at court would have seemed
too rude and coarse for Esquimaux, and Avhile she was put
ting doAvn free opinion at horae with a severity Avorthy only
of some mediaeval Asiatic potentate, she Avas ahvays talking
as though she "were a disciple of Rousseau's ideas, and a pupil
of Chesterfield in raanners. This raay have seeraed ridicu
lous enough sometiraes; and even in our oavu days the con
trast between the professions and the practices of Russia is
a familiar subject of satire But in nations, at least, the bora-

438 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
age which imitation pays often wins for half-conscious hy
pocrisy as rauch success as earnest and sincere endeavor. A
nation that tries to appear raore civilized than it really is
ends very often by becoraing more civilized than its neigh
bors ever thought it likely to be.
The Avars against Napoleon brought Russia into close al
liance with England, Austria, Prussia, and other European
States of old and advanced civilization. Russia Avas, during
one part of that great struggle, the leading spirit of the alli
ance against Napoleon. Lier soldiers Avere seen in Italy and
in France, as well as in the east of Europe. The serai-sav
age state became in the eyes of Europe a power charged,
along Avitli others, with the protection of the conservative
interests of the Continent. She Avas recognized as a valua
ble friend and a most formidable enemy. Gradually it be
came evident that she could be aggressive as A\;ell as con
servative. In the war between Austria and Hungary, Rus
sia intervened and conquered Austria's rebellious Hungari
ans for her. Russia had already earned the hatred of Eu
ropean Liberals by her share in the partition of Poland and
her manner of dealing Avith the Poles. After aAvhile it grew
to be a fixed conviction in the raind of the Liberalism of
Weslei-n Europe that Russia Avas the greatest obstacle then
existing in civilization to the spread of popular ideas. The
Turk was coraparatively harraless in that sense. He Avas
well content now, so much had his ancient ambition shrunk
and his ancient Avar spirit gone out, if his strong and restless
neighbors Avould only let him alone. But he was brought
at more than one point into especial collision with Russia.
Many of the provinces he ruled over in European Turkey
Avere of Sclavonian race, and of the religion of the Greek
Church. They Avere thus affined by a double tie to the Rus
sian people, and therefore the manner in Avhich Turkey dealt
with those provinces Avas a constant source of dispute be
tween Russia and her. The Russians are a profoundly re
ligious people. No matter Avhat one may think of their
form of faith, no matter hoAv he may sometimes observe that
religious profession contrasts Avith the daily habits of life,
yet he cannot but see that the Russian character is steeped
in religious faith or fanaticism. To the Russian fanatic there
Avas something intolerable in the thought of a Sclave popu-

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 489
lation professing the religion ofthe orthodox Church being-
persecuted by the Turks. No Russian ruler could hope to
be popular Avho ventured to shoAV a disregard for the na
tional sentiment on this subject. The Christian popula
tions of Turkey Avere to the Russian sovereigns Avhat the
Gerraans of SchlesAvig-Holstein were to the great Gerraan
princes of later years, an indirect charge to which they
could not, if they Avould, profess any indifference. A Ger
raan prince, in order to be popular, had to proclaim him
self enthusiastic about the cause of Schleswig - Holstein ;
a Russian eraperor could not be loved if he did not declare
his undying resolve to be the protector of the Christian
populations of Turkey. Much of this was probably, sincere
and single-minded on the part of the Russian people and
most of the Russian politicians. But the other States of
Europe began to suspect that mingled up with benign ideas
of protecting the Christian populations of Turkey might be
a desire to extend the frontier of Russia to the southward
in a new direction. Europe had seen by Avhat craft and
what audacious enterprises Russia had managed to extend
her empire to the sea in other quarters ; it began to be com
monly believed that her next object of ambition would be
the possession of Constantinople and the Bosphorus. .It Avas
reported that a Avill of Peter the Great had left it as an in
junction to his successors to turn all the efforts of their pol
icy toward that object. The particular docuraent Avhich
was believed to be a Avill of Peter the Great enjoined on all
succeeding Russian sovereigns never to relax in the extension
of their territory northward on the Baltic and southAvard on
the Black Sea shores, and to encroach as far as possible in
the direction of Constantinople and the Indies. "To Avork
out this, raise wars continually — at one tirae against Turkey,
at another against Persia; make dock-yards on the Black
Sea ; by degrees make yourselves masters of that sea as Avell
as of the Baltic ; hasten the decay of Persia, and penetrate
to the Persian Gftif; establish, if possible, the ancient com
merce ofthe East vid Syria, and push on to the Indies, Avhich
are the entrepot of the world. Once there, you need not
fear the gold of England." We now know that the alleged
Avill was not genuine; but there could be little doubt that
the policy of Peter and of his great follower, Callierine,

•s^ ,fl

440 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
-would have been in thorough harmony with such a project.
It therefore seemed to be the natural business of other Euro
pean Powers to see that the defects of the Ottoman Govern
ment, such as they were, should not be made an excuse for
helping Russia to secure the objects of her special ambition.
One Great Power, above all the rest, had an interest in
Avatching over every raovement that threatened in any way
to interfere with the highway to India ; still more with her
peaceful and secure possession of India itself That Power,
of course, was England. England, Russia, and Turkey Avere
alike in one respect : they were all Asiatic as well as Euro
pean jJowers. But Turkey could never come into any man
ner of collision with the interests of England i.n the East.
The days of Turkey's interfering with any great Slate were
long over. -Neither Russia nor England nor any other Pow
er in Europe or Asia feared her any more. On the contrary,
there seemed soraething like a natural antagonism between
England and Russia in the East The Russians Avere ex
tending their frontier toward that of our Indian empire.
They were showing in that quarter the same mixture of
craft and audacity Avhich had stood them in good stead in
various parts of Europe. Our officers and diplomatic emis
saries reported that they Avere continually confronted by
the evidences of Russian intrigue in Central Asia. We
have already seen how much influence the real or supposed
intrigues of Russia had in directing our policy in Afghan
istan. Doubtless there was some exaggeration and sorae
panic in all the tales that Avere told of Russian intrigue.
Soraetiraes the alarra spread by these tales conjured up a
kind of Russian hobgoblin, bewildering the minds of public
servants, and making even stalesraen occasionally seera like
affrighted children. The question that at present concerns
us is not Avhether all the apprehensions of danger frora Rus
sia Avere just and reasonable, but whether, as a matter of fact,
they did exist. They certainly counted for a great deal in
determining the attitude of the English people toward both
Turkey and Russia. It Avas in great measure out of these
alarras that there grew up araong certain statesmen and
classes in this country the conviction that the maintenance
of the integrity of the Turkish erapire was part of the na
tional duty of England.

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 441
It is not too much, therefore, to say that the States of Eu
rope generally desired the maintenance of the Ottoman em
pire, simply because it Avas believed that while Turkey held
her place she Avas a barrier against vague dangers, Avhich it
Avas not Avorth while encountering as long as they could pos
sibly be averted. Sharply defined, the condition of things
Avas this : Russia, by reason of her sympathy of religion or
race with Turkey's Christian populations, Avas brought into
chronic antagonism with Turkey ; England, by reason of her
Asiatic possessions, was kept in just the sarae state of antag-
orrisra to Russia. The position of England was trying and
difficult. She felt herself corapelled, by the seeming neces
sity of her national inteVests, to maintain the existence of a
Power whicli on its own raerits stood condemned, and for
which, as a Power, no English statesman ever cared to say a
word. The position of Russia had more plausibility about
it. It sounded belter when described in an official docuraent
or a popular appeal. Russia Avas the religious State Avhich
had made it her mission and her duty to protect the suffer
ing Christians of Turkey. England, let her slate her case no
raatter how carefully or frankly, could only affirm that her
motive in opposing Russia was the proteclion of her oavu in
terests. One inconvenient result of this condition of things
Avas that here, among English people, there was always a
wide difference of opinion as to the national policy with re
gard to Russia and Turkey. Many public men of great abil
ity and influence were of opinion that England had no right
to uphold the Ottoman PoAver because of any fancied danger
that raight come to us frora its fall. It Avas the siraple duty
of England, they insisted, lo be just and fear not. In pri
vate life, they contended, Ave should all abhor a raan Avho as
sisted a ruffian to live in a house Avhich he had only got into
as a burglar, merely because there was a chance that the
dispossession of the ruffian might enable his patron's rival
in business to become the OAvner ofthe premises. The dutv,
they insisted, of a conscientious man is clear. He must not
patronize a ruffian, Avhatever comes. Let what will happen,
that he must not do. So it Avas, according to their argu
ment, Avith national policy. We are not concerned in dis
cussing this question just now; we are merely acknowledg
ing a fact which came to be of material consequence when
19*

442 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the crisis arose that thrcAV England into sudden antagonism
Avilh Russia.
That crisis came about during the later years of the reign
of the Emperor Nicholas. He saAv its opening, but not the
close of even ils first volume. Nicholas was a man of re
markable characler. He had many ofthe Avays of an Asiatic
despot He had a strong arabition, a fierce and fitful tera
per, a daring but soraetiraes, too, a vacillating will. He had
many magnanimous and noble qualities, and moods of sweet
ness and gentleness. He reminded people sometiraes of an
Alexander the Great ; soraetiraes of the "Arabian Nights "
version of Haroun Alraschid. A certain excitability ran
through the terajieraraent of all his house, Avhicli, in sorae of
its members, broke into actual madness, and in others pre
vailed no farther than to lead to Avild outbreaks of temper
such as those that often convulsed the frame and distorted
the character of a Charles the Bold or a Cceur de Lion. We
cannot date the ways and characters of Nicholas's family
from the years of Peter the Great. We must, for tolerably
obvious reasons, be content to deduce their origin from the
reign of Catherine II. The extraordinary and almost un
paralleled conditions ofthe early raarried life of that much-
injured, much-injuring Avoman, Avould easily account for any
aberrations of intellect and Avill among her iraraediate de
scendants. Her son Avas a madraan ; there Avas raa'dness, or
soraething very like it, among the brothers of the Emperor
Nicholas. The Emperor at one time Avas very popular iu
England. He had visited the Queen, and he had impressed
every one by his noble presence, his lofty stature, his singular
personal beauty, his blended dignity and familiarity of raan
ner. He talked as if he had no higher arabition than to be
in friendly alliance Avith England. When he wished to con
vey his impression ofthe highest degree of personal loyalty
and honor, he ahvays spoke of the Avord of an English gen
tleraan. There can, indeed, be little doubt th.at the Emperor
was sincerely anxious to keep on terms of cordial friendship
Avith England ; and, Avhat is more, had no idea until the very
last that the Avay he Avas Availing Avas one which England
could not consent to tread. His brother and predecessor
had been in close .alliance Avith England ; his OAvn ideal hero
was the Duke of Wellington ; he had raade up his^mind that

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 443
Avhen the division ofthe spoUs of Turkey carae about, Eng
land and he could best consult for their own interests and
the peace of the Avorld by raaking the appropriation a mat
ter of joint arrangement.
We do not often in history find a great despot explaining
iu advance and in frank words a general policy like that
which the Emperor Nicholas cherished Avilh regard to Tur
key. We are usually left to infer his schemes from his acts.
Not uncommonly Ave have to set his acts and the fair infer
ences from them against his own positive and repeated as
surances. But in the case of the Emperor Nicholas Ave are
left in no such doubt. He told England exactly what he
proposed to do. He told the story twice over; more than
that, he consigned it to Avriting for our clearer understand
ing. When he visited England'in 1844, for the second time,
NTcholas had several conversations with the Duke of Wel
lington and Avith Lord Aberdeen, then Foreign Secretary,
about Turkey and her prospects, and what Avould be likely
to happen in the case of her dissolution, Avhich he believed
to be imminent. When he returned to Russia, he had a
meraorandura drawn up by Count NesselrodOj his Chancel
lor, embodying the views Avhich, according to Nicholas's
impressions, were entertained alike by hira and by the Brit
ish statesmen with Avhom he had been conversing. Mr.
Kinglake says that he sent this document to England with
the view of covering his retreat, having met with no encour
agement from the English statesmen. Our idea ofthe raat
ter is. different. It raay be taken for granted that the Eng
lish statesmen did hot give Nicholas any encouragement,
or at least that they did not intend to do so; but it seems
clear to us that he believed they had done so. The memo
randura drawn np by Count Nesselrode is much more like
a formal reminder or record of a general and oral engage
ment than a AvithdraAval from a proposal Avhich was evident
ly not likely to be accepted. The raeraorandum set forth
that Russia and England were alike penetrated by the con
viction that it was for their common interest that the Otto
man empire should maintain itself in its existing indepen
dence and extent of territory, and that they had an equal in
terest in averting all the dangers that might place its safety
in jeopardy. With this object, the meraorandiira declared,

444 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the essential point was to suffer the Porte to live in repose
Avithout needjessly disturbing it by diplomatic bickering.
Turkey, however, had a habit of constantly breaking her en-
o-ao-eraents ; and the memorandum insisted strongly that
Avhile she kept up this practice it Avas impossible for her in-
te"-rity to be secure ; and this practice of hers was indulged
in because she believed she might do so with impunity,
reckoning on the mutual jealousies of the cabinets, and
thinking that if she failed in her engagements toward one
of thera, the rest would espouse her cause. "As soon as the
Porte shall perceive that it is not supported by the other
cabinets, it will give Avay, and the differences which have
arisen will be arranged in a conciliatory raanner, without
any conflict resulting from them." The memorandura spoke
of the imperative necessity of Turkey being led to treat her
Christian subjects Avith toleration and mildness. On such
conditions it was laid down that England and Russia must
alike desire her preservation ; but the document proceeded
to say that, nevertheless, these Stales could not conceal from
themselves the fact that the Ottoman erapire contained
Avithin itself many elements of dissolution, and that unfore
seen events might at any tithe hasten its fall. " In the un
certainty which hovers over the future, a single fundaraental
idea seems to admit of a really practical application; that
is, that the danger which may result from a catastrophe in
Turkey Avill be much dirainished if in the event of its occur
ring Russia and England have corae to an understanding as
to the course to be taken by thera in coraraon. That under
standing Aviil be the raore beneficial inasmuch as it will
have the full assent of Austria, belAveen whom and Russia
there already exists an entire accord." This document Avas
sent to London, and kept in the archives of the Foreign Of
fice. It Avas only produced and made public Avhen, at a
rauch later day, the Russian press began to insist that the
English Government had always been in possession of the
views of Russia in regard to Turkey. It seems to us evi
dent that the Eraperor of Russia really believed that his
views were shared by English statesmen. The mere fact
that his meraorandura Avas received and retained in the Eng
lish Foreign Office raight well of itself tend to raake Nicho
las assurae that its principles were recognized by the Eng-

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 445
lish Government as the basis of a coraraon action, or at least
a coramou understanding, belAveen England and Russia.
Nothing is more easy than to allow a ianatic or a man of
one idea to suppose that those to Avhoni he explains his
vieAvs are convinced by him and in agreement with him.
It is only necessary to listen and say nothing. Therefore,
it is to be regretted that the English statesmen should have
listened to Nicholas Avithout saying soraething very distinct
to show that they Avere not adraitting or accepting any com
bination or purpose; or that they should have received his
memorandum without some distinct disclaimer of their be
ing in any way bound by its terms. Sorae ofthe statenients
in the memorandura were, at the least, sufficiently remarka
ble to have called for comment of sorae kind frora the Eng
lish statesmen who received it. For exaraple, the Emperor
of Russia professed to have in his hands not alone the policy
of Russia, but that of Austria as Avell. He spoke for Aus
tria, and he stated that he understood himself to be speak
ing for England too. Accordingly, England, Austria, and
Russia were, in his understanding, entering into a secret
conspiracy among themselves for the disposal of the terri
tory of a friendly Power in the event of that Power getting
into difficulties. This might surely be thought by the Eng
lish statesmen to bear an orainous and painful resemblance
to the kind of pourparlers that were going on between Rus
sia, Prussia, and Austria before the partition of Poland, and
raight well have seemed to call for a sirong and unmistak
able repudiation on the part of England. We could scarce
ly have been too emphatic or too precise in conveying to
the Emperor of Russia our determination to have nothing
to do Avith any such conspir.acy.
Time went on, and the Emperor thought he saw an occa
sion for still more clearly explaining his plans and for reviv
ing the supposed understanding Avith England. Lord Aber
deen came into office as Prime-rainister of this country — Lord
Aberdeen, who was Foreign Secretary Avhen Nicholas was in
England in 1844. On January 9th, 1853, before the re-elec
tions which were consequent upon the new rainisterial ap
pointments had yet taken place, the Emperor met our min
ister. Sir G. Harailton Seymour, at a party given by the Arch
duchess Helen, at her palace in St. Petersburg, and he drew

446 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
him aside, and began to talk with him in the most outspoken
manner about the future of Turkey, and the arrangements it
might be necessary for England and Russia to make regard
ing it. The conversation Avas renewed again and again af
terward. FeAV conversations have had greater fame than
these. One phrase Avhich the Emperor employed has passed
into the familiar political language of the world. As long
as there is meraory of an Ottoraan erapire in Europe, so long
the Turkey of the days before the Crimean War will be call
ed " the sick man." " We have on our hands," said the Em
peror, " a sick man — a very sick man ; it will be a great mis
fortune if one of these days he should slip away from us be
fore the necessary arrangements have been raade." The con
versations all tended toward the one purpose. The Emperor
urged that England and Russia ought lo make arrangements
beforehand as to the inheritance of the Ottoman in Europe
— before Avhat he regarded as the approaching and inevita
ble day Avhen the sick man must come to die. The Eraperor
explained that he did not contemplate nor Avould he allow a
permanent occupation of Constantinople by Russia ; nor, on
the other hand, would he consent to see that city held by
England or France, or any olher Great PoAver. He would
not listen to any plans for the reconstruction of Greece in
the form of a Byzantine empire, nor would he allow Turkey
to be split up into little republics — asylums, as he said, for
the Kossuths and Mazziiiis of Europe. It was not made very
clear what the Emperor wished to have done Avith Constan
tinople, if it Avas not to be Russian, nor Turkish, nor English,
nor French, nor Greek, nor yet a little republic ; but it Avas
evident, at all events, that Nicholas had made up his raind as
to Avhat it Avas not lo be. He thought that Servia and Bul
garia might become independent States; that is to say, in
dependent States, such as he considered the Danubian Prin
cipalities then to be, "under my protection." If the reor
ganization of South-eastern Europe raade it seem necessary
to England that she should take possession of Egypt, the Em
peror said he should offer no objection. He said the same
thing of Candia: if England desired to have that island, he
saAV no objection. He did not ask for any forraal treaty, he
said ; indeed, such arrangeraents as that are not generally
consigned to forraal treaties ; he only wished for such an un-

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 447
derstanding as uiight be corae to among gentlemen, as he
Avas satisfied that if he had ten minutes' conversation Avith
Lord Aberdeen the thing could be easily settled. If only
England and Russia could arrive at an understanding on the
subject, he declared that it was a matter of indift'erence to
hini what other Powers might think or say. Lie spoke of
the several millions of Christians in Turkey whose rights he
Avas called upon to Avatch over, and he remarked — the re
raark is of significance — that the right of Avatching over
thera Avas secured to him by treaty.
The Eraperor Avas evidently under the irapression that the
interests of England and of Russia Avere united in this pro
posed transaction. He had no idea of anything but the most
perfect frankness, so far as Ave were concerned. It clearly
had not occurred to him to suspect that there could be any
thing dishonorable, anything England mjghl recoil frora, in
the suggestion that the Iavo Powers ought to enter into a
plot to divide the sick raan's goods between thera while the
breath Avas yet in the sick raan's body. It did not even occur
to him that there could be anything dishonorable in enter
ing into such a compact Avithout the knowledge of any other
of the great European Powers. The Emperor desired to act
like a man of honor ; but the idea of Western honor was as
yet UOAV to Russia, and it had not quite got possession ofthe
mind of Nicholas. He was like the savage Avho is ambitious
of learning the ways of civilization, and who may be counted
on to do whatever he knoAvs to be in accordance Avith these
ways, but who is constantly liable to make a mistake, simply
from not knowing how to apply them in eacll ncAV emer
gency. The very consequences which came frora Nicho
las's confidential corarannicalions Avith our minister Avould
of themselves testify to his sincerity, and in a certain sense
to his siraplicity. But the English Government never, after
the disclosure of Sir Hamilton Seymour, put any faith in Nich
olas. They regarded him as nothing better than a plotter.
They did not, probably, even make alloAvance enough for the
degree of religious or superstitious fervor which accorapanied
and qualified all his ambition and his craft. Huraan nature
is so oddly blent that Ave ought not to be surprised if Ave fi/id
a very high degree of fanatical and sincere fervor in cora
pany Avith a crafty selfishness. The English Government and

448 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
most of the English people ever after looke^on Nicholas as a
deterrained plotter and plunderer, who was not to be made
an associate in any engagement. On the other hand, Nich
olas was as much disappointed as an honest highAvayman of
the days of Captain Macheath might have been who, on
making a handsome offer of a share in a new enterprise to
a trusted and farailiar " pal," finds that the latter is taken
Avith a fit of virtuous indignation, and is hurrying off to Bow
Street to tell the whole story.
The English minister and the English Government could
only answer the Emperor's overtures by saying that they
did not think it quite usual to enter into arrangements for
the spoliation of a friendly Power, and that England had no
desire to succeed to any ofthe possessions of Turkey. The
Emperor, doubtless, did not believe these assurances. He
probably felt convyiced that England had some game of her
own in hand into Avhich she did not find it convenient to ad
mit hira on terras of partnership. He must have felt bitterly
annoyed at the thought th.at he had comraitted hiraself so
far for nothing. The comraunications, were of course, under
stood to be strictly confidential ; and Nicholas had no fear
that they Avould be given to the public at that time. They
were, in fact, not raade publicly knoAvn for more than a year
after. But Nicholas had the dissatisfaction of knowing that
her Majesty's ministers were noAV iu possession ofhis designs.
He had the additional discomfort of believing that while he
had shoAvn his hand to thera, they had contrived to keep
Avhatever designs of their own they were preparing a com
plete secret from him. One unfortun.ate admission, the sig
nificance of Avhich Avill be seen hereafter, Avas made on the
part of the English Government during the correspondence
caused by the conversation belAveen the Emperor and Sir
Hamilton Seyraour. It was Lord John Russell who, inad
vertently no doubt, made this admission. In his letter to Sir
Hamilton Seyraour on February 9th, 1853, he wound up Avith
the Avords, "The raore the Turkish Government adopts the
rules of impartial law and equal adrainistration, the less will
the Eraperor of Russia find it necessary to apply that ex
ceptional protection which his Imperial Majesty has found
so burdensome and inconvenient, though no doubt prescribed
by duty and sanctioned by treaty."

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 449
These conversations Avilh Sir Hamilton Seymour formed
but an episode in the history of the events that were then
going on. It Avas an episode of great importance, even lo
the iraraediate progress ofthe events, and it had much to do
Avith the turn they took toAvard war; but there were great
forces moving toAvard antagonism in the South-east of Eu
rope that raust, in any ease, have corae into collision. Russia,
Avith her arabitious, her tendency to enlarge her frontier on
all sides, and her natural syrapathies of race and religion
Avith the Christian and Sclave populations under Turkish
rule, must before long have come into active hostility Avith
the Porte. Even at the present somewhat critical tirae avo
are not under, any necessity to persuade ourselves that
Russia was actuated in the movements she raade by raerely
selfish ambition and nothing else; that all the wrong was
on her side of the quarrel, and all the right upon ours. It
raay be conceded, Avithout any abrogation of patriotic Eng
lish sentiment, that in standing up for the populations so
closely affined to her in race and religion, Russia was acting
very much as England would have acted under sirailar cir
curastances. If Ave can imagine a number of English and
Christian populations under the sway of sorae Asiatic despot
on the frontiers of our Indian erapire, we shall adrait that it
is likely the senliraenls of all Englishraen in India would be
extremely sensitive ou their behalf, and that it would not
be difficult to get us to believe that we Avere called upon to
interfere for their proteclion. Certainly any one who should
try to persuade us th.at after all these Englishmen were
nearly as Avell off under the Asiatic and despotic rule as
many other people, or as they deserved to' be, would not
have much chance of a patient hearing from us.
The Russian Emperor fell back a little after the failure of
his efforts Avith Sir Harailton Seyraour, and for awhile seera
ed to agree with the English Governraent as to the necessity
of not embarrassing Turkey by pressing too severely upon
her. He Avas, no doubt, seriously disappointed when he
found that England would not go with him; and his cal
culations were put out by the discovery. He therefore saAV
himself compelled to act Avith a certain moderation while
feeling his way to some other mode of attack. But the
natural forces which were in operation did not depend on

450 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the will of any empire or government for their tendency.
Nicholas would have had to raove in any case. There is
really no such thing in modern politics as a genuine autocrat
Nicholas of Russia could no more afford to overlook the
evidences of popular and national feeling among his people
than an English sovereign could. He was a despot by
virtue of the national will which he embodied. The nation
al will was in decided antagonism to the tendencies of the
Ottoraan Power in Europe; aud afterward to the policy
Avhich the English Governraent felt theraselves corapelled
to adopt for the support of that Power against the schemes
ofthe Emperor of Russia.
There had long been going on a dispute about the Holy
Places in Palestine. The clairas of the Greek Church and
those of the Latin Church were in antagonism there. The
Eraperor of Russia was the protector of the Greek Church ;
the Kings of France had long had the Latin Church under
their protection. France had never taken our views as to
the necessity of maintaining the Ottoman Power in Europe.
On the contrary, as Ave have seen, the policy of England and
that of France were so decidedly opposed at the time when
France favored the independence of Egypt, and England
would not hear of it, that the two countries very nearly
came to war. Nor did France really feel any very profound
sympathy Avith the pretensions Avhicli the Latin raonks were
constantly raaking in regard to the Holy Places. There was^
unquestionably, downright religious fanaticism on the part
of Russia to back up the demands ofthe Greek Church; but
Ave can hardly believe that opinion in France or in the cabi
nets of French rainisters really concerned itself rauch about
the Latin monks, except in so far as political purposes might
be subserved by paying some attention to thera. But it
happened soraewhat unfortunately that the French Govern
ment began to be unusually active in pushing the Latin
clairas just then. The Avhole dispute on which the fortunes
of Europe seeraed for awhile to depend Avas of a strangely
raediaeval characler. The Holy Places to which the Latins
raised a claira were the great Church in Bethlehem; the
Sanctuary ofthe Nativity, Avith the right to place a new
star there (that Avhich forraerly ornaraented it having been
lost) ; the Tomb ofthe Virgin ; the Stone of Anointing; the

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 451
Seven Arches ofthe Virgin in the Church ofthe Holy Sep
ulchre. In the reign of that remarkably pious, truthful, and
virtuous monarch, Francis the First of France, a treaty was
raade with the Sultan by Avhicli France Avas acknowledged
the protector of the Lloly Places in Palestine, and of the
monks ofthe Latin Church who took on themselves the care
of the sacred monuments and meraorials. But the Greek
Church afterward obtained firmans frora the Sultan ; each
Sultan gave away privileges very much as it pleased him,
and Avithout taking much thought of the manner in Avliich
his firman might affect the treaties ofhis predecessors; and
the Greeks claimed, on the strength of these concessions,
that they had .as good a right as the Latins to take care of
the Holy Places. Disputes Avcre ahvays arising, and of
course these Avere aggravated by the fact that France Avas
supposed to be concerned in the protection of one set of dis
putants and Russia in that of another. The French and the
Russian Governments did, in point of fact, interfere frora
tirae to tirae for the purpose of making good their claims.
The claims at length came to be identified with the Stales
Avhich respectively protected them. An advantage of the
sraallest kind gained by the Latins was viewed as an insult
to Russia ; a concession to the Greeks was a snub to France.
The subject of controversy seeraed trivial and odd. in itself
But it had even in itself a profounder significance than raany
a question of diplomatic etiquette which has led great States
to the verge of Avar or into war itself Mr. Kinglake, Avhose
brilliant history of the Invasion of the Crimea is too often
disfigured by passages of solemn and pompous monotony,
has superfluously devoted several eloquent pages to prove
that the sacredness of association attaching to some partic
ular spot has its roots in the very soil of human nature.
The custody ofthe Holy Places was, in this instance, a sym
bol of a religious inheritance to the monastic disputants, and
of political poAver to the diplomatists.
It was France which first stirred the controversy in the
time just before the Crimean War. Thaf fact is beyond
dispute. Lord John Russell had hardly corae into office
Avhen he had to observe, in writing to Lord Cowley, our ara
bassador in Paris, that "her Majesty's Governraent cannot
avoid perceiving that the arabassador of France at Constan-

452 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tinople was the first to disturb the status quo in which the
raatter rested." " Not," Lord John Russell went on to say,
" that the disputes of the Latin and Greek Churches were
not very active, but Avithout sorae political action on the
part of France those quarrels Avould never have troubled the
relations of friendly Powers." Lord John Russell also cora
plained that the French arabassador AA'as the first to speak
of having recourse to force, and to threaten the intervention
of a French fleet. " I regret to say," the despatch continued,
" that this evil example has been partly followed by Russia."
The French Government Avere, indeed, unusually active at
that time. The French ambassador, M. de Lavalette, is said
to have threatened that a French fleet should appear off
Jaffa, and even hinted at a French occupation of .lerusalem,
" when," as he significantly put it, " we should have all the
sanctuaries." One French array occupying Rome, and an
other occupying Jerusalem, Avould have left the world in no
doubt as to the supremacy of France. The cause of all this
energy is not far to seek. The Prince President had only
just succeeded in procuring himself to be installed as Em
peror, and he Avas very anxious to distract the attention of
Frenchmen from domestic politics to some showy and star
tling policy abroad. He Avas in quest of a policy of advent
ure. Tills controversy between the Church ofthe East and
the Church ofthe West templed him into activity as one
that seemed likely enough to give him an opportunity of
displaying the poAver of France and of the new system with
out any very great danger or responsibility. Technically,
therefore, we are entilled to lay the blame of disturbing the
peace of Europe in the first instance on the Emperor of the
French. But while we must condemn the restless and self-
interested spirit which thus set itself to stir up disturbance,
we cannot help seeing that the quarrel must have come at
some time, even if the plebiscite had never been invited, and
a new Emperor had never been placed upon the throne of
France. The Eraperor of Russia had raade up his mind that
the time had come to divide the property of the sick man,
and he was not likely to remain long Avithout an opportunity
of quarrelling Avilh anyone who stood althe side ofthe sick
man's bed, and seemed to constitute himself a protector of
the sick man's interests.

THE EASTERN QUESTION, 453
The key of the whole controversy out of Avhioh the East
ern Avar arose, and out of Avhich, indeed, all subsequent cora-
plications in the East carae as Avell, Avas said to be found in
the clause of the Trealy of Kutchuk-Kainardji. During the
negotiations for peace that took place in Vienna while the
Criraean War Avas yet going on, the asserabled plenipoten
tiaries declared that the Avhole dispute was owing to a mis
interpretation of a clause in this unfortunate treaty. In a
time much nearer to our oavu, the discussion on the sarae
clause in the sarae trealy Avas reuoAved with all the old ear
nestness, and with the same difference of interpretation. It
may not, perhaps, give an uninitiated reader any very exalt
ed opinion of the utility and beauty of diplomatic arrange
raents to hear that disputes covering raore than a century
of time, and causing at least Iavo great wars, arose out of
tile irapossibility of reconciling two different interpretations
ofthe meaning of two or three lines of a treaty. The Amer
ican Civil War was said, with much justice, to have been
fought to obtain a definition ofthe limits ofthe rights ofthe
separate States as laid down in the Constitution; the Cri;
raean War was apparently fought to obtain a satisfactory
and final definition of the seventh clause of the Treaty of
Kainardji; and it did not fulfil its purpose. The historic
value, therefore, of this seventh clause may in one sense be
considered greater than that of the famous disputed words
Avhich provoked the censure ofthe Jansenists and the iraraor-
tal letters of Pascal.
The Treaty of Kutchuk-Kainardji was raade in 1774, be
tween the Ottoman Porte and Catherine II. bf Russia. On
sea and land the arms of the great Empress had been victo
rious. Turkey was beaten to her knees. She had to give up
Azof and Taganrog to Russia, and to declare the Criraea in
dependent ofthe Ottoman empire; an event which, it is al
raost needless to say, was followed not raany years after by
the Russians taking the Crimea for themselves and raaking
it a province of Catherine's empire. The Treaty of Kainar
dji, as it is usually called, Avas that Avhich made the arrange
raents for peace. When it exacted from Turkey such heavy
penalties in the shape of cession of territory, it Avas hardly
supposed that one seemingly insignificant clause was des
tined to threaten the very existence of the Turkish erapire.

,454 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
The treaty bore date July 10th, 1774; and it was made, so
to speak, in the tent of the victor. The seA^enth clause de-^
clared that the Sublime Porte promised " to protect con
stantly the Christian religion and its churches; and also to
allow the minister ofthe Iraperial Court of Russia to make,
on all occasions, representations as well in favor ofthe neAv
church in Constantinople, of Avhich mention Avill be made in
the fourteenth article, as in favor of those who officiate there
in, proraising to take such representations into due consider
ation as being made by a confidential functionary of a neigh
boring and sincerely friendly Power." Not rauch possibil
ity of misunderstanding about these words, one might feel
inclined lo say. We turn then to the fourteenth article al
luded lo, in order lo discover if in its wording lies the per
plexity of meaning whicli led to such momentous and calam
itous results. We find that by this article it is siraply per
mitted to the court of Russia to build a public church of
the Greek rite in the Galata quarter of Constantinople, in
addition to the chapel built in the house of the minister;
and it is declared that the new church "shall be ahvays un
der the protection of the ministers of the (Russian) empire,
and shielded from all obstruction and all damage." Here,
then, Ave seem to have Iavo clauses of the simplest meaning
.and by no means of first-class importance. The latter clause
allows Russia to build a uoav church in Constantinople ; the
former allows the Russian minister to raake representations
to the Porte on behalf of the church and of those who officiate
in it. What difference of opinion, it raay be asked, could
possibly arise ? The difference was this : Russia claimed a
right of protectorate over all the Christians of the Greek
Church in Turkey as the consequence of the seventh clause
of the treaty. She insisted that when Turkey gave her a
right to interfere on behalf of the worshippers in one par
ticular church, the same right extended so far as to cover
all the Avorshippers of the same denomination in every part
of the Ottoman dominions. The great object of Russia
throughout all the negotiations that preceded the Crimean
War Avas to obtain from the Porte an admission of the ex
istence of such a protectorate Such an acknowledgment
would, in fact, have made the Eraperor of Russia the patron
and all but the ruler of by far the larger proportion of the

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 455
populations of European Turkey. The Sultan Avould no long
er have been master in his own dorainions. The Greek Chris
tians would naturally have regarded the Russian Emperor's
right of intervention on their behalf as constituting a pro
tectorate far more poAverful than the nominal rule of the
Sultan. They would have knoAvn that the ultimate decision
of any dispute in Avhich they were concerned rested with the
Eraperor, and not Avith the Sultan ; and they Avould soon
have corae to look upon the Eraperor, and not the Sultan, as
their actual sovereign.
Noav it does not seem likely, on the face of things, that
any ruler of a state Avould have consented to hand over
to a more poAverful foreign monarch such a right over the
great raajority of his subjects. Still, if Turkey, driven to
her last defences, had no alternative but to make such a
concession, the Emperors of Russia could not be blamed for
insisting that it should be carried out. The terras of the
article in the treaty itself certainly do not seem to admit
of such a construction. But for the views always advo
cated by Mr. Gladstone, we should say it was self-evident
that the article never had any such raeaning. We cannot,
however, dismiss the argument of such a man as Mr. Glad
stone as if it were unworthy of consideration, or say that
an interpretation is obviously erroneous which he has delib
erately and often declared to be accurate. We raay as Avell
mention here at once that Mr. Gladstone rests his arguraent
on the first line of the fara'ous article. The promise of the
Sultan, he contends, to protect consta'ntly the Christian re
ligion and its churches, is an engagement distinct in itself,
and disconnected frora the engagement that follows in the
same clause, and whi-ch refers to the new building and its
ministrants. The Sultan engages to protect the Christian
churches ; and Avith Avhora does he enter into this engage
ment? With the Sovereign of Russia. Why does he raake
this engagement? Because he has been defeated by Russia
and corapelled to accept terras of peace; and one ofthe con
ditions on which he is adraitted to peace is his making this
engagement. Hoav does he raake the engageraent ? By an
article in a treaty agreed to between hira and the Sovereign
of Russia. But if a state enters into treaty engagement
Avith another that it Avill do a certain thing, it is clear that

456 A HISTORY OF OVR OWN TIMES.
the other state raust have a special right of reraonstrance
and of representation if the thing be not done. Therefore
Mr. Gladstone argues that as the Sultan raade a special
treaty with Russia to protect the Christians, he gave, in
the very nature of things, a special right to Russia to com
plain ifthe protection Avas not given. We are far frora de
nying that there is force in the arguraent; and it is, at all
events, worthy of being recorded for its raere historical im
portance. But Mr. Gladstone's was certainly not the Euro
pean interpretation of the clause, nor does it seera to us the
interpretation that history will accept. Lord John Russell,
as we have seen, raade a soraewhat unlucky adraission that
the claims of Russia to protectorate were "prescribed by
duty and sanctioned by treaty." But this adraission seems
rather to have been the result of inadvertence or heedless
ness, than of any deliberate intention to recognize the jiar-
tioular claim involved. The adraission was afterward made
the occasion of many a severe attack upon Lord John Rus
sell by Mr. Disraeli and other leading merabers of the Op
position. Assuredly, Lord John Russell's adraission, if it is
really to be regarded as such, was not endorsed by the Eng
lish Governraent. Whenever we find Russia putting the
claim into plain words, we find England, through her min
isters, refusing to give it their acknowledgraent. During
the discussions before the Criraean War, Lord Clarendon,
our Foreign Secretary, Avrote to Lord Stratford de Redcliffe
a letter embodying the views of the English Government
on the claira. No Sovereign, Lord Clarendon says, having
a due regard for his own dignity and independence, could
admit proposals which conferred upon a foreign and raore
powerful sovereign a right of protection over his own sub
jects. " If such a concession were made, the result," as Lord
Clarendon pointed out, " would be that fourteen millions of
Greeks would henceforward regard the Emperor as their su
preme protector, and their allegiance to the Sultan Avould be
little more than nominal, while his own independence would
dwindle into vassalage. Diplomacy, therefore, Avas powerless
to do good during all the protracted negotiations that set in,
for the plain reason that the only object of the-Emperor of
Russia in entering upon negotiation at all was one which the
other European Powers regarded as absolutely inadmissible.

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 45'/
The dispute about the Lloly Places was easily settled.
The Porte cared very little about the raatter, and was will
ing enough to come to any fair terms by Avhich the whole
controversy could be got rid of But the demands of Rus
sia Avent on just as before. Prince Mentschikoff, a man of
the Poterakin school, fierce, rough, and unable or unwilling
to control his teraper, Avas sent with demands to Constanti
nople ; and his very raanner of making the demands seemed
as if it were taken up for the purpose of insuring their re
jection. If the envoy fairly represented the sovereign, the
demands must have been so conveyed Avilh the deliberate
intention of immediately and irresistibly driving the Turks
to reject every proposition coraing from such a negotiator.
Mentschikoff brought his proposals Avith hira cut and dry in
the form of a convention which he called upon Turkey to ac
cept without more ado. In other words, he put a pistol at
Turkey's head and told her to sign at once, or else he would
pull the trigger. Turkey refused, and Prince Mentschikoff
withdrew in real or affected rage, and presently the Emper
or Nicholas sent two divisions ofhis array across the Pruth
to take possession of the Danubian principalities.
Diplomacy, however, did not give in even then. The Em
peror announced that he had occupied the principalities not
as an act of war, but with the view of obtaining raaterial
guarantees for the concession ofthe deraa^ds Avhich Turkey
had already declared that she would not concede. The Eng
lish Governraent advised the Porte not to treat the occupa
tion as an act of Avar, although fully admitting that it was
strictly a casiis belli, and that Turkey Avould have been am
ply justified in meeting it by an armed resistance if it Avere
prudent for her to do so. It Avould, of course, have been
treated as Avar by any strong Power. We might well have
retorted upon Russia the harsh but not wholly unjustifiable
language she had eraployed toward us when we seized pos
session of material guarantees from the Greek Government
in the harbor of the Piraeus. In our act, however, there Avas
less of that which constitutes war than in the arbitrary con
duct of Russia. Greece did not declare that our demands
Avere such as she could not admit in principle. She did ad
mit raost of them in principle, but was only, as it seemed to
our Government, or at least to Lord Palraerston, trying to
L— 20

458 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
evade an actual settleraent. There was nothing to go to
war about; and our seizure ofthe ships, objectionable as it
was, raight be described as only a way of getting hold of
a raaterial guarantee for the discharge of a debt which was
not in principle disputed. But in the dispute belAveen Rus
sia and Turkey the claim Avas rejected altogether; it Avas
declared intolerable; ils principle Avas absolutely repudiated,
and any overt act on the part of Russia must therefore have
had, for its object to compel Turkey to subrait to a demand
which she Avould yield to force alone. This is, of course, in
the very spirit of war ; and if Turkey had been a stronger
PoAver, she would never have dreamed of meeting it in any
other way than by an armed resistance She was, however,
strongly advised by England and other Powers to adopt a
moderate course; and, in fact, throughout the whole ofthe
negotiations she showed a remarkable self-control and a dig
nified courtesy which raust sometimes have been very vex
ing to her opponent. Diplomacy went to Avork again, and a
Vienna note was concocted which Russia at once offered to
accept. The four great Powers who were carrying on the
business of mediation were at first quite charmed with the
note, Avith the readiness of Russia to accept it, and with
themselves ; and but for the interposition of Lord Stratford
d.e Redcliffe it seeras highly probable that it would have
been agreed to by all the parties concerned. Lord Stratford,
however, saAV plainly that the note was a virtual concession
to Russia of all that she specially desired to have, and .all
that Europe was unwilling to concede to her. The great ob
ject of Russia Avas to obtain an acknoAvledgrnent, however
vague or covert, of her protectorate over the Christians of
the Greek Church in the Sultan's dorainions ; and the Vien
na note was so constructed as to affirra, rauch rather than
to deny, the claim Avhich Russia had so long been setting
up. Assuredly such a note could at sorae future tirae have
been brought out in triuraph by Russia as an overwhelm
ing evidence of the European recognition of such a protec
torate. Let us make this a little more plain. Suppose the ques
tion at issue were as to the payment of a tribute claimed by
one prince from another. The one had been always insist
ing that the other was his vassal, bound to pay hira tribute ;

THE EASTERN QUESTION. 459
the other ahvays repudiated the claim in principle. This
was the subject of dispute. After awhile the question is left
to arbitration, and the arbitrators, without actually declar
ing in so many Avords that the claim to the tribute is estab
lished, yet go so far as to direct the payment of a certain
sura of money, and do not introduce a single Avord to show
that in their opinion the original claim was unjust in princi
ple. Would not the claimant of the tribute be fully enti
tled in after-years, if any new doubt ofhis claira were raised,
to appeal to this arbitration as confirraing il ? Would he
not be entitled to say, " The dispute was about my right to
tribute. Here is a document awarding to me the payment
of a certain sum, and not containing a word to show that
the arbitrators disputed the principle of my claim. Is it
possible to construe that otherwise than as a recognition of
ray claira?" We certainly cannot think it would have been
otherwise regarded by any irapartial raind. The very readi
ness with which Russia consented to accept the Vienna note
ought to have taught ils frainers that Russia found all her
account in ils vague and arabiguous language. The Prince
Consort said it Avas a trap laid by Russia through Austria ;
and it seeras hardly possible to regard it noAV in any other
light. The Turkish Governraent, therefore, acting under the ad
vice of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, our ambassador to Con
stantinople, who had returned to his post after a long ab
sence, declined to accept the Vienna note unless wifh consid
erable modifications. Lord Stratford de Redcliffe showed
great acuteness and force of characler throughout all these
negotiations. A reader of Mr. Kinglake's history is some
tiraes apt to' becorae nauseated by the absurd porapousness
Avith which the historian overlays his descriptions of " the
great Eltchi," as he is pleased to call hira, and is inclined
to Avish that the great Eltchi could have iraparted some of
his OAVII sober gravity and severe siraplicity of style to his
adulator. Mr. Kinglake Avrites of Lord Stratford de Red
cliffe as if he were describing the all-corapelling raoveraents
of sorae divinity or providence. A devoted iraperial histo
rian would have made himself ridiculous by writing of the
great Napoleon at the height of his power in language of
such inflated mysticism as this educated Englishman has al-

460 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
lowed himself to employ Avhen- describing the manner in
which our ambassador to Constantinople did his duty dur
ing the days before the Crimean War. But the extraordi
nary errors of taste and good-sense into which Mr. Kinglake
occasionally descends cannot prevent us frora doing justice
to the keen judgment and the inflexible will Avhich Lord
Stratford displayed during this critical time. He saw the
fatal defect of the note which, prepared in Paris, had been
brought to its supposed perfection at Vienna, and had there
received the adhesion of the English Governraent along
vs'ith that of the governments of the other Great Powers
engaged in the conference. A hint from Lord Stratford
made the ministers of the Porte consider it with suspicious
scrutiny, and they too saw its weakness and its conscious
or unconscious treachery. They declared that unless cer
tain modifications were introduced they would not accept
the note. The reader will at first think, perhaps, that some
of these modifications were raere splittings of hairs, and
diplomatic, worse even than laAvyer-like, quibbles. But, in
truth, the alterations demanded Avere of the greatest irapor
tance for Turkey. The Porte had to think, not of the im
mediate purpose of the note, but of the objects it might be
raade to serve afterward. It contained, for instance, words
Avhich declared that the Government ofhis Majesty the Sul
tan would reraain "faithful to the letter and the spirit of
the stipulations of the Treaties of Kainardji and of Adri
anople, relative to the protection of the Christian religion."
Tliese words, in a note drawn up for the purpose of satisfy
ing the Eraperor of Russia, could not but be understood as
recognizing the interpretation of the Treaty of Kainardji on
Avhich Russia has always insisted. The Porte, therefore,
proposed to strike out these words and substitute the fol
lowing : " To the stipulations of the Treaty of Kainardji,
confirraed by that of Adrianople, relative to the protection
by the Sublirae Porte of the Christian religion." By these
words the Turkish ministers quietly affirm that the only
protectorate exercised over the Christians of Turkey is that
of the Sultan of Turkey hiraself The difference is simply
that belAveen a claim conceded and a claim repudiated.
The Russian Government refused to accept the modifica
tions ; and in arguing against thera, the Russian rainister.

TEM EASTERN QUESTION. 461
Count Nesselrode, raade it clear to the English Governraent
that Lord Stratford de Redcliffe was right Avhen he held the
note to be full of weakness and of error. For the Russian
rainister argued against the modifications on the very ground
that they denied to the claims of Russia just that satisfac
tion that the statesmanship and the public opinion of Europe
had always agreed lo refuse The Prince Consort's expres
sion Avas appropriate : the Western Powers had nearly been
caught in a trap.
From that time all hopes of peace were over. There
were, to be sure, other negotiations still A ghastly sem
blance of faith in the possibility of a peaceful arrangement
was kept up for aAvhile on both sides. Little plans of ad
justment were tinkered up and tried, and fell to pieces the
moment they Avere tried. It is not necessary for us to de
scribe them. Not many persons put any faith or even pro
fessed any interest in them. They were conducted amidst
the most energetic preparations for war on both sides. Our
troops were moving toward Malta ; the streets of London,
of Liverpool, of Southampton, and other towns, were ringing
Avith the cheers of enthusiastic crowds gathered together to
watch the marching of troops destined for the East. Tur
key had actually declared war against Russia. People now
Avere anxious rather to see how the war would open between
Russia and the allies than when it would open : the time
Avhen could evidently only be a question of a few days ; the
way how was a matter of more peculiar interest. We had
known so little of Avar for nearly forty years, that added to
all the other emotions which the coming of battle must bring
was the mere feeling of curiosity as to the sensation pro
duced by a state of war. It Avas an abstraction to the living
generation — a thing to read of aud discuss and make poetry
and romance out of; but they could not yet realize what
itself was like.

462 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.

CHAPTER XXVL
WHEEE WAS LOED PALMEESTON?
Meantime where was Lord Palmerston ? He of all men,
one Avould think, must have been pleased Avith the turn
things were taking. He had had from the beginning little
faith in any issue ofthe negotiations but war. Probably he
did not really wish for any olher result. We are well in
clined to agree with Mr. Kinglake, that of all the merabers
of the cabinet he alone clearly saw his way, and was satis
fied with the prospect. But, according to the supposed nat
ure of his office, he had now nothing to do with the war or
with foreign affairs, except as every raeraber of the cabinet
shares the responsibilities of the whole body. He had ap
parently about as rauch to do with the Avar as the Postraas-
ter-general or the Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster
might have. He had accepted the office of Home Secretary;
he had declared that he did not choose to be Foreign Secre
tary any more. He affirraed that he wanted to learn sorae
thing about home affairs, and to gel to understand his coun
trymen, and so forth. He was really very busy all this
time in his uoav duties. Lord Palmerston Avas a reraarkably
efficient and successful Home Secretary. His unceasing ac
tivity loved to show itself in whatever department he raight
be called upon to occupy. He brought to the soraewhat
prosaic duties of his new office not only all the virile energy
but also all the enterprise which he had formerly shown iu
managing revolutions and dictating to foreign courts. The
ticket-of-leave system dales from the time of his administra
tion. Our transportation system had broken down; for, in
fact, the colonies would stand it no longer, and it fell to Lord
Palmerston to find something to put in its place; and the
plan of granting tickets-of-leave to convicts who had shown
that they were capable of regeneration Avas the outcome of
the necessity and of his administration. The raeasures to
abate the smoke nuisance by corapelling factories, under pen-

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 463
allies, to consume their OAvn sraoke, is also the offspring of
Palraerston's activity iu the Horae Office. The Factory
Acls were extended by him. He Avent energetically to
Avork in the shutting up of graveyards in the metropolis ;
and in, a letter to his brother he declared that he should like
to " put down beer-shops, and let shopkeepers sell beer like
oil, and vinegar, and treacle, to be carried horae and drunk
with wives and children."
' This little project is Avorthy of notice, because it illus
trates, more fairly perhaps than some far greater plan might
do, at once the strength and the weakness of Palmerston's
intelligence He could not see why everything should not
be done in a plain straightforward way, and why the ar
rangements that were good for the sale of one thing niight
not be good also for the sale of another. He did not stop
to inquire whether, as a matter of fact, beer is a commodity
at all like oil, and vinegar, and treacle ; whether the same
consequences follow the drinking of beer and the consump
tion of treacle. His critics said that he was apt to manage
his foreign affairs on the sarae rough-and-ready principle.
If a systera suited England, Avhy should it not suit all other
places as well? If treacle may be sold safely without any
raanner of authoritative regulation, why not beer? The
answer to the latter question is plain — because treacle is
not beer. So, people said, Avith Palraerston's constitutional
projects for every place. Why should not that which suits
England suit also Spain ? Because, to begin with, a good
many people urged, Spain is not England.
There was one department of his duties in which Palmer
ston was acquiring a new and a soraewhat odd reputation.
That was in his way of answering deputations and letters.
"The mere routine business of the Home Office," Palraer
ston Avrites to his brother, "as far as that consists in daily
correspondence, is far lighter than that of the Foreign Of
fice. But during a session of Parliaraent the Avhole time of
the Secretary of State, up to the tirae when he raust go to
the House of Coraraons, is taken up by the deputations of
all kinds, and interviews with raerabers of Parliament, mili
tia colonels, etc." Lord Palmerston Avas always civil and
cordial; he was full of a peculiar kind of fresh coraraon-
sense, and always ready to apply it to any subject what-

464 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ever. He could at any time say some racy thin^ which
set the public wondering and laughing. He gave some
thing like a shock to the Presbytery of Edinburgh when
they Avrote to hira, through the moderator, to ask whether
a national fast ought not to be appointed in consequence
of the appearance of cholera. Lord Palmerston gravely
admonished the Presbytery that the Maker of the universe
had appointed certain laws of nature for the planet on
Avhich we live, and that the Aveal or woe of mankind de
pends on the observance of those laws — one of them con
necting health " with the absence of those noxious exhala
tions which proceed from overcroAvded huraan beings, or
from decomposing substances, Avhether animal or vegeta
ble" He therefore recommended that the purification of
towns and cities should be more strenuously carried on, and
remarked that the causes and sources of contagion, if alloAv-
ed to remain, " will infallibly breed pestilence and be fruit
ful in dealh, in spite of all the prayers and fastings of a
united but inactive nation." When Lord Stanley of Alder-
ley applied to Lord Palraerston for a special jierraission for
a deceased dignitary of a church to be buried under the
roof of the sacred building, the Home Secretary declined to
accede to the request in a letter that might have come from,
or might have delighted, Sydney Smith. "What special
connection is there between church dignities and the privi
lege of being decomposed under the feet of survivors ? Do
you seriously mean to iraply that a soul is more likely to
go to heaven because the body Avhich it inhabited lies de
composing under the pavement of a church instead of being
placed in a church-yard ? . . . England is, I believe, the
only country in which, in these days, people accumulate pu
trefying dead bodies amidst the dwellings ofthe living; and
as to burying bodies under thronged churches, you raight
as well put them under libraries, drawing-rooms, and dining-
rooms." Lord Palmerston did not see Avhat a very large field of
religious and philosophical controversy he oiiened up by
sorae of his arguments, both as to the fasting and as to the
burial in church-yards. He only saw, for the moment, what
appeared to him the healthy coraraon-sense aspect ofthe po
sition he had taken up, and did not think or care about what

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 465
other positions he might be surrendering by the very act.
He had not a poetic or philosophic mind. In clearing his
intelligence from all that he would have called prejudice
or superstition, he had cleared out also much of the deeper
sympathetic faculty which enables one raan to understand
the feelings and get at the springs of conduct in the breasts
of other men. No one can doubt that his jaunty Avay of
treating grave and disputed subjects offended raany pure
and simple minds. Yet it was a mistake lo suppose that
mere levity dictated his Avay of dealing with the prejudices
of others. He had often given the question his deepest^ at
tention, and corae to a conclusion Avith as ranch thought as
his teraperament Avould have allowed to any subject. The
difference between him and graver men was that when he
had come to a conclusion seriously, he loved to express his
views huraorously. He reserabled in this respect sorae of
the greatest and the most earnest men of his tirae. Count
Cavour delighted in jocose and humorous answers ; so did
President Lincoln ; so at one period of his public career did
Prince Bismarck. But there can be no doubt that Palraer
ston often raade enemies by his seeming levity, when another
raan could easily have raade friends by saying just the sarae
thing in grave words. The majority of the House of Com
mons liked him because he amused thera and raade them
laugh ; and they thought no more of the matter.
But the war is now fairly launched ; and Palraerston is
to all appearance what would be vulgarly called " out of the
swim." Every eye was turned to hira. Lie was like Pitt
standing up on one of the back benches to support the ad
rainistration of Addington. For years he had been identified
Avith the Foreign Office, and with that sort of foreign policy
which would seem best suited to the atraosphere of war;
and now war is on foot, and Palraerston is in the Horae Of
fice pleasantly " chaffing " militia colonels, and raaking sensi
tive theologians angry by the flippancy ofhis replies. Per
haps there was something flattering to Palmerston's feeling
of self-love in the curious wonder with which people turned
their eyes upon him during all that interval. Every one
seeraed to ask how the country was to get on without him
to manage its foreign affairs, and Avhen he would be good
enough to come down frora his quiet seat in the Home Of-
20*

466 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
flee and assurae what seeraed his natural duties. A faraous
tenor singer of our day once had sorae quarrel with his man
ager. The singer withdreAV from the company; sorae one
else had to be put in his place. On the first night, when the
new raan made his appearance before the public, the great
singer was seen in a box calraly watching the perforraance
like any other ofthe audience. The new man turned out a
failure. The eyes ofthe house began to fix themselves upon
the one Avho could sing, but who Avas sitting as unconcern
edly in his box as if he never meant to sing any raore. The
audience at first Avere incredulous. It Avas in a great pro
vincial city where the singer had ahvays been a prime favor
ite. They could not believe that ihey Avere in good faith to
be expected to put up with bad singing while he Avas there.
At last their patience gave Avay. They insisted on the one
singer leaving his place on the stage, and the olher coming
down frora his box and his easy attitude of unconcern, and
resuraing what they regarded as his proper part. They
would have their way; they carried their point; and the
man Avho could sing Avas corapelled at last to return to the
scene ofhis old triuraphs and sing for them again. The at
titude of Lord Palmerston, and the manner in Avhich the
public eyes were turned upon hira during the early days of
the war, could hardly be illustrated more effectively than
by this story. As yet the only wonder was why he did not
take somehow the directorship of affairs; the tirae was to
come Avhen the general voice would insist upon his doing so.
One day a startling report ran through all circles. It Avas
given out that Palmerston had actually resigned. So far Avas
he from any intention of taking on himself the direction of
affairs — even of war or of foreign affairs — that he appeared
to have gone out of the ministry altogether. The report
Avas confirmed: Palmerston actually had resigned. It Avas
at once asserted that his resignation was caused by differ
ence of opinion between hira and his colleagues on the East
ern policy of the Governraent. But, on the other hand, it
was as stoutly affirraed that the difference of opinion had
only to do with the new Reforra Bill Avhich Lord John Rus
sell was preparing to introduce. Noav it is certain that Lord
Palraerston did differ in opinion Avilh Lord John Russell on
the subject of his Reform Bill. It is certain that this was

AVHERE AVAS LORD PALMERSTON? 467
the avowed cause, and the only avowed cause, of Palmer
ston's resignation. But it is equally certain that the real
cause of the resignation Avas the conviction in Palmerston's
mind that his colleagues Avere not up to the demands ofthe
crisis in regard to the Eastern war. Lord Palmerston's let
ters to his brother on the subject are arausing. They re
semble sorae of lhe epistles which used to pass between sus
pected lovers in old days, and in Avhicli the words were so
arranged that the sentences conveyed an obvious meaning-
good enough for the eye of jealous authority, but had a very
different tale to tell to the one being for whom the truth Avas
intended. Lord Palraerston gives his brother a long and
circurastantial account of the differences about the Reform
Bill, and about the impossibility of a Home Secretary either
supporting by speech a Bill he did not like, or sitting silent
during the Avhole discussion on it in the House of Coraraons.
He shows that he could not possibly do otherwise under such
trying circumstances than resign. The whole leller, until
Ave come to the very last paragraph, is about the Reform
Bill, and nothing else. One might suppose that nothing else
Avhatever Avas entering into the writer's thoughts. But at
the end Palraerston just reraerabers to add that the Times
Avas telling "an untruth" when it said there had been no dif
ference in the cabinet about Eastern affairs ; for, in fact, there
had been sorae little lack of agreeraent on the subject, but it
would have looked rather silly, Palraerston thinks, if he Avere
to have gone out of office raerely because he could not have
his own way about Turkish affairs. Exactly ; and in a few
days after Palraerston was induced to withdraw his resigna
tion, and to remain in the Government; and then he wrote
to his brother again explaining hoAV and all about it. He
explains that several raembers of the cabinet told hira they
considered the details of the Reforra BUI quite open to dis
cussion, and so forth. " Their earnest representations, and
the knowledge that the cabinet had on Thursday taken a
decision on Turkish affairs in entire accordance with opinions
which I had long unsuccessfully pressed upon them, decided
rae to withdraw ray resignation, which I did yesterday."
"Of course," Lord Palmerston quietly adds, "Avhat I say to
you about the cabinet decision on Turkish affairs is entirely
for yourself, and not to be raentioned to anybody; but it is

468 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
very important, and will give the allied squadrons the comr
mand of the Black Sea." All this was very prudent, of
course, and very prettily arranged. But we doubt whether
a single man in England who cared anything about the whole
question was iraposed upon for one moment. Nobody be
lieved that at such a time Lord Palmerston would have gone
out of office because he did not quite like the details of a
Reform Bill, or that the cabinet would have obstinately
clung to such a scheme just then in spite of his opposition.
Indeed, the first impression of every one was that Palmerston
had gone out only in order to come back again much strong
er than before ; that he resigned Avhen he could not have
his way in Eastern affairs; and that he Avould resume office
empowered to haye his way in everything. The explana
tions about the Reform Bill found as irapatient listeners
among the public at large as the desperate attempts of the
young heroine in "She Stoops to Conquer "to satisfy hon
est Tony Lumpkin with her hasty and ill-concocted devices
about Shakebag and Green and the rest of thera, whose story
she pretends to read for hira from the letter which is not in
tended to reach the suspicious ears of his mother. When
Lord Palmerston resumed his place in the ministry, the pub
lic at large felt certain that the war spirit Avas now at last
to have its way, and that the dallyings of the peace-lovers
were over.
Nor was England long left to guess at the reason why
Lord Palmerston had so suddenly resigned his office, and so
suddenly returned to it. A great disaster had fallen upon
Turkey. Her fleet had been destroyed by the Russians at
Sinope, in the Black Sea. Sinope is, or was, a considerable
seaport town and naval station belonging to Turkey, and
standing on a rocky promontory on the southern shore of
the Black Sea. On November 30th, 1863, the Turkish squad
ron was lying there at anchor. The squadron consisted of
seven frigates, a sloop, and a steamer. It had no ship ofthe
line. The Russian fleet, consisting of six ships of the line
and sorae stearaers, had been cruising about the Black Sea
for several days previously, issuing from Sebastopol, and
making an occasional swoop now and then as if to bear doAvn
upon the Turkish squadron. The Turkish coraraander Avas
quite aware of the danger, and pressed for re-enforeeraents ;

AVHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 469
but nothing was done, either by the Turkish Governraent or
by the ambassadors ofthe allies at Constantinople. On No
vember 30th, however, the Sebastopol fleet did actually bear
down upon the Turkish vessels lying at Sinope. The Turks,
seeing that an attack Avas coming at last, not only accepted
but even anticipated it ; for they Avere the first to fire. The
fight Avas hopeless for them. They fought with all the des
perate energy of fearless and unconquerable men ; uncon
querable, at least, in the sense that they Avould not yield.
But the odds were too much against them to give them any
chance. Either they would not haul down their flag, which
is very likely, or if they did strike their colors the Russian
admiral did not see the signal. The flght went on until the
whole Turkish squadron, save for the steamer, was destroyed.
It was asserted on official authority that more than four
thousand Turks were killed ; that the survivors hardly num
bered four hundred; and that of these every man Avas
wounded. Sinope itself was much shattered and battered
by the Russian fleet. The affair was at once the destruction
of the Turkish ships and an attack upon Turkish territory.
This was "the massacre of Sinope." When the news
came to England there arose one cry of grief and anger and
shame It was regarded as a deliberate act of treachery,
consumraated amidst conditions ofthe raost hideous barbar
ity. A clamor arose against the Emperor of Russia, as if he
were a monster outside the pale of civilized law, like sorae
of the furious and treacherous despots of raediaeval Asiatic
history. Mr. Kinglake has shown — and, indeed, the sequence
of events raust in tirae have shown every one — that there
¦was no foundation for these accusations. The attack was
not treacherous, but openly raade ; not sudden, but clearly
announced by previous acts, and long expected, as we have
seen, by the Turkish commander himself; and it was not in
breach even of the courtesies of war. Russia and Turkey
were not only formally but actually at war. The Turks
were the first to begin the actual military operations. More
than five weeks before the affair at Sinope they had opened
the business by firing frora a fortress on a Russian flotilla ;
a few' days after this act they crossed the Danube at Wid-
din, and occupied Kalafat; and for several days they had
fought under Oraar Pasha with brilliant success against the

470 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
Russians at Oltenitza. All England had been enthusiastic
about the bravery Avhich the Turks had shoAvn at Oltenitza,
and the success Avhich had attended their first encounter
Avith the enemy. It was hardly to be expected that the
Emperor of Russia would only fight where he Avas at a dis
advantage, and refrain from attack where his power was
overwhelming. Still, there Avas an impression among Eng
lish and French statesmen that Avhile negotiations for peace
were actually going on between the Western PoAvers and
Russia, and while the fleets of England and France Avere
remaining peacefully at anchor in the Bosphorus, whither
they had been summoned by this time, the Russian Eraperor
Avould abstain from Qomplicaling matters by raaking use of
his Sebastopol fleet. Nothing could have been raore unwise
than to act upon an irapression of this kind as if it were a
regular agreeraent. But the English public did not under
stand at that moraent the actual condition of things, and
raay well have supposed that if our Governnient seeraed se
cure and content, there raust have been sorae deflnite ar
rangeraent to create so happy a condition of raind. Lt may
look strange to readers now, surveying this chapter of past
history with cool, unirapassioned mind, that anybody could
have believed in the existence of any arrangement by virtue
of Avhich Turkey could be at Avar with Russia and not at
Avar Avith her at the same time ; which would have allowed
Turkey to strike her eneray when and how she pleased, and
would have restricted the eneray to such time, place, and
method of retort as might suit the convenience of the neu
tral Powers. But at the tirae, Avhen the true stale of affairs
was little known in England, the account of the " raassacre
of Sinope " was received as if it had been the tale of sorae
unparalleled act of treachery and savagery ; and the eager
ness of the country for war against Russia becarae inflamed
to actual passion.
Il was at that moment that Palmerston resigned his office.
The cabinet Avere slill not prepared to go as far as he would
have gone. They had believed that the Sebastopol fleet
would do nothing as long as the Western Powers kept talk
ing about peace ; they now believed, perhaps, that the Em
peror of Russia would say he was very sorry for what had
been done, and promise not to do so any raore. Lord Palra-

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 471
erston, supported by the urgent pressure ofthe Eraperor of
the French, succeeded, however, in at last overcoming their
determination. It was agreed that some decisive announce
ment should be raade to the Emperor of Russia on the part
of England and France ; and Lord Palraerston resuraed his
place, raaster of the situation. This was the decision of .
which he had spoken in his letter to his brother; the deci
sion Avhich he said he had long unsuccessfuUy pressed upon
his colleagues, and whicli would give the allied squadrons
the coramand ofthe Black Sea. It was, in fact, an intiraa
tion to Russia that France and England were resolved to
prevent any repetition ofthe Sinope affair; that their squad
rons Avould enter the Black Sea with orders to request, and,
if necessary, to constrain, every Russian ship raet in the
Euxine to return to Sebastopol ; and to repel by force any
act of aggression afterward attempted against the Ottoman
territory or flag. This was not, it should be observed, sim
ply an intimation to the Emperor of Russia that the Great
Powers Avould impose and enforce the neutrality of the
Black Sea. It was an announcement that if the flag of
Russia dared to show itself on that sea, which washed
Russia's southern shores, the war- ships of two far foreign
States, taking possession of those waters, would pull it down,
or corapel those who bore it to fly ignorainiously into port.
This was in fact war.
Of course Lord Palraerston knew this. Because it raeant
war, he accepted it and returned to his place, well pleased
with the Avay in Avhioh things were going. From his point
of view he was perfectly right. He had been consistent all
through. He believed from the first that the pretensions
of Russia would have to be put doAvn by force of arras, and
could not be put doAvn in any other Avay ; he believed that
the danger to England from the aggrandizement of Russia
was a capital danger calling for any extent of national sac
rifice to avert it. He believed that a war with Russia was
inevitable, and he preferred taking it sooner to taking it
laler. He believed that an alliance with the Emperor of
the French Avas desirable, and a war with Russia Avould be
the best means of making this effective. Lord Palmerston,
therefore, was determined not to reraain in the cabinet un
less sorae strenuous measures were taken, and now, as on a

472 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
memorable former occasion, he understood better than anj
one else the prevailing teraper ofthe English people.
When the resolution of the Western cabinets was com
municated to the Emperor of Russia he withdrew his repre
sentatives from London and Paris. On February 21st, 1854,
the diplomatic relations between Russia and the two aUied
PoAvers were brought to a stop. Six weeks before this the
English and French fleets had entered the Black Sea. The
interval Avas filled up with renewed efforts to bring about
a peaceful arrangement, Avhich were conducted with as
rauch gravity as if any one believed in the possibility of
their success. The Emperor of the French, who always
loved letter- writing, and delighted in Avhat Cobden once
happily called the " monuraenlal style," Avrote to the Russian
Emperor appealing to him, professedly in the interests of
peace, to allow an armistice to be signed, to let the belliger
ent forces on both sides retire from the places to Avhich mo
tives of Avar had led thera, and then to negotiate a conven
tion with the Sultan which might be submitted to a con
ference of thQ»four Powers. If Russia would not do this,
then Louis Napoleon, undertaking to speak in the narae of
the Queen of Great Britain as well as of hiraself, intiraated
that France and England Avould be compelled to leave to
the chances of war what might now be decided by reason
and justice. The Emperor Nicholas replied that he had
clairaed nothing but what was confirraed by treaties; that
his conditions Avere perfectly well known ; that he Avas slill
willing to treat on these conditions; but if Russia were
driven to arras, then he quietly observed that he had no
doubt she could hold her own as well in 1854 as she had
done in 1812. That year, 1812, it is hardly necessary to
say, was the year of the burning of Moscoav and the dis
astrous retreat of the French. We can easily understand
what faith in the possibility of a peaceful arrangement the
Russian Emperor raust have had Avhen he made the allusion,
and the French Eraperor must have had Avhen it met his
eye. Of course if Louis Napoleon had had the faintest be
lief in any good result to come of his letter, he would never
have closed it Avith the threat which provoked the Russian
sovereign into his insufferable rejoinder. The correspond
ence might remind one of that which is said to have passed

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 473
between two Irish chieftains. " Pay rae ray tribute," wrote
the one, "or else!" "I owe you no tribute," replied the
other, " and if—"
England's ultimatum to Russia was despatched on Feb
ruary 27th, 1854. It Avas conveyed in a letter from Lord
Clarendon to Count Nesselrode. It declared that the Brit
ish Governraent had exhausted all the efforts of negotiation,
and was corapelled to announce that " if Russia should de
cline to restrict Avithin purely diploraatic liraits the discus
sion in which she has for some tirae past been engaged with
the Sublirae Porte, and does not, by return of the messenger
who is the bearer of my present letter, announce her inten
tion of causing the Russian troops under Prince Gortschakoff
to coraraence their raarch Avith a view to recross the Pruth,
so that the provinces of Moldavia and Wallachia shall be
corapletely evacuated on April 30th next, the British Gov
ernment must consider the refusal or the silence of the cabi
net of St. Petersburg as equivalent to a declaration of war,
and will take its measures accordingly." It is not, perhaps,
very profitable work for the historian to criticise the raere
terras of a document announcing a course of action which
long before its issue had become inevitable. But it is Avorth
Avhile remarking, perhaps, that it would have been better
and more dignified to confine the letter to the simple demand
for the evacuation ofthe Danubian provinces. To ask Rus
sia to promise that her controversy Avith the Porte should
be thenceforward restricted wilhin purely diplomatic limits
was to make a deraand with Avhich no Great Power would,
or indeed could, undertake to coraply. A raeraber of the
Peace Society itself raight well hesitate to give a proraise
that a dispute in which he was engaged should be forever
confined within purely diplomatic liraits. In any case, it was
certain that Russia would not now make any concessions
tending toward peace. The messenger Avho was the bearer
of the letter was ordered not to wait more than six days for
an answer. On the fifth day the messenger was informed
by word of mouth frora Count Nesselrode that the Eraperor
did not think it becoming in him to give any reply to the
letter. The die was cast. Rather, truly, the fact was re
corded ¦ that the die had been cast. A few days after a
crowd assembled in front of the Royal Exchange to watch

474 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the perforraance of a cereraonial that had been little known
to the living generation. The Sergeant-at-arms, accompa
nied by some of the officials of the City, read from the steps
of the Royal Exchange her Majesty's declaration of war
against Russia.
The causes of the declaration of war were set forth in an
official statement published in the London Gazette. This
document is an interesting and a valuable Slate-paper. It
recites with clearness and deliberation the successive steps
by which the allied Powers had been led to the necessity
of an armed intervention in the controversy belAveen Turkey
and Russia. It described, in the first place, the complaint
of the Emperor of Russia against the Sultan Avilh reference
to the claims of the Greek and Latin Churches, and the ar
rangement promoted satisfactorily by her Majesty's ambas
sador at Constantinople for rendering justice to the claim,
" an arrangeraent to which no exception was taken by the
Russian Governraent." Then carae the sudden unmasking
ofthe other and quite different claims of Prince Mentschi
koff, "the nature of which, in the first instance, he endeavor
ed, as far as possible, to conceal frora her Majesty's arabas
sador." These clairas, " thus studiously concealed," affected
not merely, or at all, the privileges of the Greek Church at
Jerusalem, " but the position of many raillions of Turkish
subjects in their relations to their sovereign the Sultan."
The declaration recalled the various attempts that were
made by the Queen's Government in conjunction with the
Governments of France, Austria, and Prussia, to meet any
just demands ofthe Russian Emperor without affecting the
dignity and independence of the Sultan ; and showed that
ifthe object of Russia had been solely to secure their proper
privileges and immunities for the Christian populations of
the Ottoman erapire, the offers that were made could hot
have failed to meet that object. Her Majesty's Govern
raent, therefore, held it as raanifest that what Russia was
really seeking was not the happiness of the Christian com
munities of Turkey, but the right to interfere in the ordina
ry relations between Turkish subjects and their sovereign.
The Sultan refused to consent to this, and declared war in
self-defence. Yet the Government of her Majesty did not
renounce all hope of restoring, peace between the contending

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 475
parties until advice and remonstrance proving wholly iu
vain, and Russia continuing to extend her military prepara
tions, her Majesty felt called upon, " by regard for an ally
the integrity and independence of Avhose empire have been
recognized as essential to the peace of Europe ; by the sym
pathies of her people with right against wrong; by a desire
to avert from her dorainions raost injurious consequences,
and to save Europe frora the preponderance of a Power
which has violated the faith of treaties and defies the opin
ion of the civilized Avorld, to take up arras, in conjunction
with the Eraperor of the French, for the defence of the
Sultan." Some passages of this declaration have invited criticism
from English historians. It opens, for example, with a
statement of the fact that the efforts for an arrangement
Avere made by her Majesty in conjunction with France,
Austria, and Prussia. It speaks of this concert of the four
Powers down almost to the very close; and then it sudden
ly breaks off, and announces that in consequence of all that
has happened her Majesty has felt compelled to take up
arms "in conjunction Avilh the Emperor of the French."
What strange diploraatic mismanagement, it was asked, has
led to this singular non sequituT? Why, after having car
ried on the negotiations through all their various stages with
three other Great Powers, all of them supposed to be equal
ly interested in a settlement of the question, is England at
the last moment compelled to take up arras with only one
of those Powers as an ally?
The principal reason for the separation of the two West
ern PoAvers of Europe from the other great States was
found in the condition of Prussia. Prussia was then great
ly under the influence of the Russian court. The Prussian
sovereign was related to the Emperor of Russia, and his
kingdora was alraost overshadowed by Russian influence.
Prussia had corae to occupy a lower position in Europe
than she had ever before held during her existence as a
kingdora. It seemed almost marvellous how by any proc
ess the country of the Great Frederick could have sunk to
such a condition of insignificance. She had been corapelled
to stoop to Aiistria after the events of 1848. The King of
Prussia, tampering with the offers of the strong national par-

476 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
ty who desired to raake him Eraperor of Germany, now mov
ing forward and now draAving back, " letting I dare not wait
upon I would," Avas suddenly pulled up by Austria. The
famous arrangement called afterward "the humiliation of
Olmutz," aud so completely revenged at Sadowa, compelled
hira to drop all his triflings with nationalism and repudiate
his forraer instigators. The King of Prussia was a highly-
cultured, araiable, literary man. He loved letters and arts in
a sort of dilettante Avay ; he had good impulses and a weak
nature; he was a dreamer; a sort of philosopher manque.
He was unable to raake up his raind to any momentous de
cision until the time for rendering it effective had gone by.
A man naturally truthful, he Avas often led by very weak
ness into acts that seemed irreconcilable Avith his previous
proraises and engagements. He could say witty and sar
castic things, and when political affairs went wrong with
him he could console himself with one or Iavo sharp sayings
only heard of by those iraraediately around him,; and then
the Avorld raight go its way for hira. He was, like Rob Ro}',
" ower good fbr banning and ower bad for blessing." Like
our oAvn Charles IL, he never said a foolish thing and never
did a wise one. He ought to have been an aesthetic essay
ist, or a lecturer on art and moral philosophy to young
ladies ; and an unkind destiny had made him the king of a
slate specially embarrassed in a raost troublous time. So
unkindly was popular ruraor as well as fate to him, that he
got the credit in foreign countries of being a stupid sensual
ist when he Avas really a man of respectable habits and re
fined nature; and in England at least the nickname "King
CUcquot" Avas long the brand by Avhich the popular and
most mistaken irapression ofhis character was signified.
The King of Prussia was the eld-er brother of the present
German Eraperor. Had the latter been then on the throne
he would probably have taken some timely and energetic
decision with regard to the national duty of Prussia during
the irapending crisis. Right or wrong, he would doubtless
have contrived to see his Avay and make up his mind at an
early stage of the European raovement. It is by no means
to be assumed that he Avould have taken the course most
satisfactory to England and France ; but it_ is likely that
his action might have prevented the war, either by render-

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON!' 477
ing the allied PoAvers far loo strong to be resisted by Rus
sia, or by adding to Russia an influence which would have
rendered the game of war too formidable to suit the calcu
lations of the Eraperor of the French. The actual King of
Prussia, however, went so far Avith the allies as to lead thera
for awhile to believe that he Avas going all the way ; but at
the last moraent he broke off, declared that the interests of
Prussia did not require or allow hira to engage in a war,
and left France and England to Avalk their own road. Aus
tria could not venture upon such a Avar without the co-op
eration of Prussia ; and, indeed, the course which the cara
paign took seeraed likely to give both Austria and Prussia
a good excuse for assuming that their interests Avere not
closely engaged in the struggle. Austria would most cer
tainly have gone to Avar if the Emperor of Russia had kept
up the occupation of the Danubian Principalities ; and for
that purpose her territorial situation made her irresistible.
But when the seat of war was transferred to the Black Sea,
and when after aAvhile the Czar AvithdreAv his troops from
the Principalities, and Austria occupied them by virtue of a
convention with the Sultan, her direct interest in the strug
gle was reduced almost to nothing. Austria and Prussia
Avere, in fact, solicited by both sides of the dispute, and at
one time it was even thought possible that Prussia might
give her aid to Russia. This, however, she refrained from
doing ; Austria and Prussia raade an arrangeraent between
themselves for mutual defence in case the progress of the
war should directly imperil the interests of either ; and Eng
land and France undertook in alliance the task of chastising
the presumption and restraining the ambitious designs of
Russia. Mr. Kinglake flnds much fault with the policy of
the English Governraent, on which he lays all the blarae of
the severance of interests between the two Western States
and the other tAvo Great Powers. But we confess that we
do not see how any course Avithin the reach of England
could have secured just then the thorough alliance of Prus
sia ; and without such an alliance it would have been vain
to expect that Austria would throw herself unreservedly
into tlie policy ofthe Western Powers. It must be remem
bered that the controversy betAveen Russia and the West
really involved several distinct questions, in some of which

478 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Prussia had absolutely no direct interest, and Austria very
little. Let us set out some of these questions separately.
There Avas the Russian occupation of the Principalities. In
this Austria frankly acknowledged her capital interest. Its
direct bearing was on her more than any other Power. It
concerned Prussia as it did England and France, inasmuch
as it was an evidence of an aggressive purpose which raight
very seriously threaten the gener.al stability of the institu
tions of Europe ; but Prussia had no closer interest in it.
Austria Avas the State most affected by it, and Austria was
the State Avhich could with most effect operate against it,
and Avas always Avilling and resolute if needs were to do so.
Then there Avas the question of Russia's claira to exercise
a protectorate over the Christian populations of Turkey.
This concerned England and France in ohe sense as part of
the general pretensions of Russia, and concerned each of
them separately in another sense. To France it told of a
rivalry Avith the right she claimed to look after the interests
ofthe Latin Church; to England it spoke of a purpose to
obtain a hold over populations nominally subject to the
Sultan which might in tirae raake Russia virtual master of
the approaches to our Eastern possessions. Austria, too, had
a direct interest in repelling these pretensions of Russia, for
some of the populations they referred to were on her very
frontier. But Prussia can hardly be said to have had any
direct national interest in that question at all. Then there
carae, distinct frora all these, the question of the Straits of
the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus.
This question of the Straits, which has so rauch to do with
the whole European aspect of the war, is not to be under
stood except by those who bear the conformation ofthe map
of Europe constantly in their minds. The only outlet of
Russia on the southern side is the Black Sea. The Black
Sea is, save for one little outlet at ils south-western extrem
ity, a huge land-locked lake. That little outlet is the nar
row channel called the Bosphorus. Russia and Turkey, be
tween thera, surround the whole ofthe Black Sea Avith their
territory. Russia has the north and sorae of the eastern
shore; Turkey has all the southern, the Asia Minor shore,
and nearly all the western shore. Close the Straits of tin,'
Bosphorus and Russia AA'ould be literally locked into the

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 479
Black Sea. The Bosphorus is a narrow channel, as has been
said ; it is some seventeen miles in length, and in some places
it is hardly raore than half a mile in breadth. But it is very
deep all through, so that ships of war can float close up to
ils very shores on either side. This channel in its course
passes between the city of Constantinople and its Asiatic
suburb of Scutari. The Bosphorus then opens into the little
Sea of Marmora ; and out of the Sea of Marinora the Avay
Avestward is through the channel of the Dardanelles. The
Dardanelles form the only passage into the Archipelago, and
thence into the Mediterranean. The channel of the Darda
nelles is, like the Bosphorus, very narrow and very deep,
but it pursues its course for some forty miles. Any one who
holds a map in his hand Avill see at once hoAV Turkey and
Russia alike are affected by the existence of the Straits on
either extremity of the Sea of Marraora. Close up these
Straits against vessels of Avar, and the capital of the Sultan
is absolutely unassailable from the sea. Close them, on the
other hand, and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea is ab
solutely cut off from, the Mediterranean and the Western
world. But then it has to be remembered that the same
act of closing Avould secure the Russian ports and shores on
the Black Sea from the approach of any ofthe great navies
of the West. The Dardanelles and the Bosphorus being
alike such narrow channels, and being edged alike by Turk
ish territory, Avere not regarded as high seas. The Sultans
always claimed the right to exclude foreign ships of war
from both the Straits. The Treaty of 1841 secured this
right to Turkey by the agreeraent ofthe five Great Powers
of Europe. The treaty acknowledged that the Porte had
the right to shut the Straits against the armed navies of
any foreign PoAver; and the Sultan, for his part, engaged
not to allow any such navy to enter either of the Straits in
time of peace. The closing ofthe Straits had been the sub
ject of a perfect succession of treaties. The Treaty of 1809
belAveen Great Britain and Turkey confirmed by engage
ment "the ancient rule ofthe Ottoman Empire" forbidding
vessels of war at all times to enter the " Canal of Constanti
nople." The Treaty of Unkiar-Skelessi between Russia and
Turkey, arising out of Russia's co-operation with the Porte
to put down the rebellious movement of Mohamraed Ali, the

480 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Egyptian vassal of the latter, contained a secret clause bind
ing the Porte to close "the Dardanelles" against all war
vessels whatever, thus shutting Russia's enemies out of the
Black Sea, but leaving Russia free to pass the Bosphorus,
so far, at least, as that treaty engagement was concerned.
Later, when the Great Powers of Europe combined to put
down the attempts of Egypt, the Treaty of July 13th, 1841,
raade in London, engaged that in time of peace no foreign
ships of war should be admitted into the Straits ofthe Bos
phorus and the Dardanelles. This treaty was but a renewal
of a convention made the year before, while France Avas still
sulking away from the European concert, and did nothing
more than record her return to it.
As raatters stood then, the Sultan was not only permitted
but was bound to close the Straits in tiraes of peace, and no
navy raight enter theni without his consent even in times of
war. But in tiraes of Avar he raight, of course, give the per
mission, and invite the presence and co-operation ofthe arra
ed vessels of a foreign Power in the Sea of Marmora. By
this treaty the Black Sea fleet of Russia becarae literally a
Black Sea fleet, and could no more reach the Mediterranean
and Western Europe than a boat on the Lake of Lucerne
could do. Naturally Russia chafed at this ; but at the same
tirae she was not Avilling to see the restriction withdrawn in
favor of an arrangement that would leave the Straits, and
consequently the Black Sea, open to the navies of France
and England. Her supremacy in Eastern Europe would
count for little, her power of coercing Turkey would be sad
ly diminished, if the Avar-flag of England, for example, were
to float side by side Avith her oavu in front of Constantino
ple or in the Euxine. Therefore it was natural that the am
bition of Russia should tend toward the ultimate possession
of Constantinople and the Straits for herself; but as this,
was an ambition the fulfilment of Avhich seeraed far off and
beset with vast dangers, her object, raean Avhile, Avas to gain
as rauch influence and ascendency as possible over the Otto
raan Government; to raake it practically the A'assal of Rus
sia, and, in any cg,se, to prevent any other Great Power frora
obtaining the influence and ascendency which she coveted
for herself Noav the tendency of this ambition and of all
the intermediate claims and disputes with regard to the

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 481
opening or closing of the Straits Avas of importance to Eu
rope generally as a part of Russian aggrandizement ; but of
the Great Powers they concerned England most ; France as
a Mediterranean and a naval poAver ; Austria only in a third
and remoter degree ; and Prussia at the time of King Fred
erick William least of all. It is not surprising, therefore,
that the two Western PoAvers Avere not able to carry their
accord Avilh Prussia to the extent of an alliance in Avar
against Russia ; and it was hardly possible then for Austria
to go on if Prussia insisted on drawing back. Thus it carae
that at a certain point of the negotiations Prussia fell off ab
solutely, or nearly so ; Austria undertook but a conditional
co-operation, of Avhich, as it happened, the conditions did not
arise; and* the Queen of England announced that she had
taken up arras against Russia " in conjunction Avith the Em
peror of the French."
To the great majority of the English people this war was
popular. It was popular partly because of the natural and
ine-f liable reaction against the doctrines of peace and mere
trading prosperity which had been preached somewhat too
pertinaciously for sorae tirae before. But it was popular,
too, because of its novelty. It Avas like a return to the youth
of the Avorld Avhen England found herself once more prepar
ing for the field. It was like the pouring of new blood into
old veins. The public had grown impatient of the coraraon
saying of foreign capitals that England had joined the Peace
Society, and Avould never be seen in battle any raore. Mr.
Kinglake is right when he says that the doctrines of the
Peace Society had never taken any hold of the higher
classes in this country at all. They had never, Ave raay
venture to add, taken any real hold of the humbler class
es ; of the workingmen, for example The well educated,
thoughtful raiddle- class, Avho knew how much of Avorldly
happiness depends on a regular income, moderate taxation,
and a comfortable horae, supplied raost of the advocates of
" peace," as it Avas scornfully said, " at any price." Let us
say, in justice to a very noble and very futile doctrine, that
there Avere no persons in England Avho advocated peace " at
any price," in the ignominious sense Avhich hostile critics
pressed upon the words. There was a small, a serious, and
a very fespectable body of persons Avho, out of the purest
L— 21

482 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
motives of conscience, held that all war was criminal and
offensive to the Deity. They Avere for peace at any price,
exactly as they Avere for truth at any price, or conscience
at any price. They Avere opposed to Avar as they were lo
falsehood or to impiety. It seemed as natural to thera that
a raan should die unresisting rather than resist and kill, as
it does to raost persons who profess any sentiment of re
ligion or even of honor, that a man should die rather than
abjure the faith he believes in, or tell a lie. It is assumed,
as a matter of course, that any Englishman AVorthy of the
name would have died by any torture tyranny could put on
him rather than perform the old cereraony of trampling on
the crucifix, which certain heathen states were said to have
sometiraes insisted on as the price of a captive's freedom.
To the believers in the peace doctrine the act of war was
a trampling on the crucifix, which brought with it evil
consequences unspeakably Avorse than the raere performance
of a profane cereraonial To declare that they would rath
er suffer any earthly penalty of defeat or national servitude
than take part in a war, was only consistent with the great
creed of their lives. It ought not to have been held as any
reproach to thera. Even those Avho, like this wriier, have
no personal syrapathy with such a belief, and Avho hold that
a Avar in a just cause is an honor to a nation, raay still rec
ognize the purity and nobleness of the principle Avhich in
spired the votaries of peace and do honor lo it. But these
men were, in any case, not many at the lime Avhen the
Crimean War broke out. They had very little influence
on the course of the national policy. They Avere assailed
Avilh a flippant and a somewhat ignoble ridicule. The worst
reproach that could be given to men like Mr. Cobden and
Mr. Bright Avas to accuse them, of being merabers of the
Peace Society. It does not appear that either man Avas a
member of the actual organization. Mr. Bright's religious
creed made hira necessarily a votary of peace ; Mr. Cobden
had attended raeetings called with the futile purpose of es
tablishing peace araong nations by the operation of good
feeling and of comraon-sense. But for a considerable time
the temper ofthe English people Avas such as to render any
talk about peace not only unprofitable but perilous to the
very cause of peace itself. Some of the leading raerabers

WHERE WAS LORD PALMERSTON? 483
of the Peace Society did actually get up a deputation to
the Emperor Nicholas to appeal to his better feelings; and
of course they were charmed by the manners ofthe Eraper
or, who made it his business to be in a very gracious humor,
and spoke them fiir, and introduced them in the most un
ceremonious Avay to his Avife. Such a visit counted for noth
ing in Russia, and at horae it only tended to make people
angry and irapatient, and to put the cause of peace in great
er jeopardy than ever. Viewed as a practical influence, the
peace doctrine as completely broke down as a general reso
lution against the making of money might have done dur
ing the time of the mania for speculation in railway shares.
But it did not merely break down of itself. It carried some
great influences down with it for the time — influences that
were not a part of itself The eloquence that had coerced
the intellect and reasoning power of Peel into a complete
surrender to the doctrines of Free-trade, the eloquence that
had aroused the populations of all the cities of England and
had conquered the House of Coraraons, was destined noAV to
call aloud to solitude. Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright address
ed their constituents and their countryraen in vain. The
fact that they were believed to be opposed on principle to
all wars put them out of court in public estimation, as Mr.
Kinglake justly observes, when they Avent about to argue
against this particular war.
In the cabinet itself there were men Avho disliked the idea
of a war quite as much as they did. Lord Aberdeen, detest
ed war, and thought it so absurd a way of settling national
disputes, that alraost until the first cannon-shot had been
fired he could not bring himself to believe in the possibility
of the intelligent English people being drawn into il. Mr.
Gladstone had a conscientious and a sensitive objection to
war in general as a brutal and an unchristian occupation ; al
though his feelings would not have carried him so far away
as to prevent his recognition ofthe fact that war raight often
be a just, a necessary, and a glorious undertaking on the part
of a civilized nation. The difficullies of the hour were con
siderably enhanced by the differences of opinion that pre
vailed in the cabinet.
There were olher differences there as well as those that
belonged to the mere abstract question ofthe glory or the

484 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
guilt of war. It soon became clear that two parties of the
cabinet looked on the war and its objects with different eyes
and interests. Lord Palmerston wanted simply to put down
Russia and uphold Turkey. Others were specially con
cerned for the Christian populations of Turkey and their
better governraent. Lord Palraerston not merely thought
that the interests of England called for some check to the
aggressiveness of Russia ; he liked the Turk for himself; he
had faith in the future of Turkey : he went so far, even, as
to proclaim his belief in the endurance of her railitary pow
er. Give Turkey single-handed a fair chance, he argued, and
she would beat Russia. He did not believe either in the
disaffection of the Christian populations or in the stories of
their oppression. He regarded all these stories as part of
the plans and inventions of Russia. He had no half beliefs
in the matter at all. The Christian populations and their
grievances he regarded, in plain language, as mere hum
bugs ; he looked upon the Turk as a A'ery fine fellow Avhora
all chivalric rainds ought to respect. He believed all that
was said upon the one side and nothing upon the other; he
had raade up his mind to this long ago, and no arguments or
facts could now shake his convictions. A belief of this kind
raay have been very unphilosophic. It was undoubtedly, in
many respects, the birth of mere prejudice, independent of
fact or reasoning. But the temper born of such a belief is
exactly that which should have the making of a war intrust
ed to it. Lord Palmerston saw his way straight before him.
The brave Turk had to be supported; the Avicked Russian
had to be put down. On one side there Avere Lord Aber
deen, who did not believe any one seriously raeant to be so
barbarous as to go to war, and Mr. Gladstone, who shrank
from war in general, and was not yet quite certain whether
England had any right to undertake this war; the two be
ing, furthermore, concerned far raore for the welfare of Tur
key's Christian subjects than for the stability of Turkey
or the hurailiation of Russia. On the olher side was Lord
Palraerston, gay, resolute, clear as to his oavu purpose, con
vinced to the heart's core of everything Avhicli just then it
was for the advantage of his cause to believe. It Avas im
possible to doubt on which side Avere to be found the mate
rials for the successful conduct of the enterprise which was

THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 485
now SO popular with the country. The most conscientious
men might differ about the prudence or the moral propriety
ofthe Avar; but to those who once accepted its necessity and
Avished our side to Avin, there could be no possible doubt,
even for members ofthe Peace Society, as to the iraportance
of having Lord Palmerston either at the head of affairs or
in charge of the war itself The moment the Avar actually
broke out it becarae evident to every one that Palmerston's
interval of comparative inaction and obscurity Avas well-nigh
over.

CHAPTER XXVIL
^ - THE INVASION OF THE CEIMBA.
England, then, and France entered the war as allies.
Lord Raglan, formerly Lord Fitzroy Somerset, an old pupil
of the Great Duke in the Peninsular War, and who had lost
his right arra serving under Wellington at Waterloo, was
appointed to coramand the English forces. Marshal St. Ar
naud, a bold, brilliant soldier of fortune, was intrusted by the
Eraperor of the French with the leadership of the soldiers
of France. The allied forces went out to the East and as
serabled at Varna, on the Black Sea shore, from Avhich they
were to make their descent on the Crimea. The war, mean-'
time, had gone badly for the Emperor of Russia in his at
tempt to crush the Turks. The Turks had found in Omar
Pasha a coraraander of remarkable ability and energy ; and
they had in one or two instances received the unexpected
aid and counsel of clever and successful Englishmen. A sin
gularly brilliant episode in the opening part ofthe war Avas
the defence of the earthworks of Silislria, on the Bulgarian
bank of the Danube, by a body of Turkish troops under the
direclions of two young Englishmen — Captain Buller, of the
Ceylon Rifles, and Lieutenant Nasmyth, of the East India
Corapany's Service. These young soldiers had voluntarily
undertaken the danger and responsibility of-the defence.
Butler was killed, but the Russians Avere corapletely foiled,
and had to raise the siege. At Giurgevo and other places
the Russians Avere likoAvise repulsed ; and the invasion ofthe
Danubian provinces Avas already, to all intents, a faUure.

486 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Mr. Kinglake and olher writers have argued that but for
the ambition ofthe Eraperor ofthe French and the excited
teraper of the English people the war might Avell have end'
ed then and there. The Emperor of Russia had found, it is
contended, that he could not maintain an invasion of Euro
pean Turkey ; his fleet was confined to ils ports in the Black
Sea, and there Avas nothing for hira but to make peace. But
Ave confess Ave do not see Avith what propriety or wisdom
the allies, having entered on the enterprise at all, could have
abandoned it at such a moment, and alloAved the Czar to es
cape thus merely scotched. However brilliant and gratify
ing the successes obtained against the Russians, they were
but a series of what raight be called outpost actions. They
could not be supposed to have tested the resources of Russia
or Aveakened her strength. They had humbled and vexed
her just enough to make her doubly resentful, and no raore.
It seeras irapossible to suppose that such trivial disasters
conld have affected in the slightest degree the historic march
of Russian ambition, supposing such a movement to exist.
If Ave alloAv the purpose Avith Avhich England entered the
Avar to be just and reasonable, then we think the instinct of
the English people Avas sound and true which Avould have
refused to alloAv Russia to get off Avilh one or two trifling
checks, and to nurse her Avrath and keep her vengeance Avail
ing for a better chance some other time. The allies Avent
on. They sailed frora Varna for the Criraea nearly three
* months after the raising ofthe siege of Silistria.
There is rauch discussion as to the original author ofthe
project for the invasion of the Criraea. The Emperor Na
poleon has had it ascribed to hira ; so has Lord Palmerston ;
so has the Duke of NoAvcastle ; so, according to Mr. King-
lake, has the Times noAvspaper. It does not rauch concern
us to know in whom the idea originated, but it is of some
importance to know that it Avas essentially a civilian's and
not a soldier's idea. It look possession almost simultaneous
ly, so far as we can observe, of the minds of several states
men, and it had a sudden fascination for the public. The
Emperor Nicholas had raised and sheltered his Black Sea
fleet at Seb.astopol That fleet had sallied forth from Se
bastopol to corarait what was called the raassacre of Sinope.
" Sebastopol was the great arsenal of Russia. It Avas the point

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 487
from Avhich Turkey Avas threatened ; from Avhioh, it was uni
versally believed, the embodied ambition of Russia Avas one
day to make its inost formidable eflbrt of aggression. Wilh
in the fence of its vast sea-forts the fleet of the Black Sea
lay screened. From the raoraent Avhen the vessels of Eng
land and France entered the Euxine the Russian fleet had
Avithdrawn behind the curtain of these defences, and Avas
seen upon the open waves no raore. If, therefore, Sebastopol
could be taken or destroyed, it Avould seera as if the whole
raaterial fabric, put together at such cost and labor for the
execution of the schemes of Russia, Avould be shattered at
a bloAv. There seemed a dramatic justice in the idea. It
could not fail to coramend itself to the popular mind.
Mr. Kinglake has given the Avorld an amusing picture of
the manner in Avhicli the despatch of the Duke of Newcastle,
ordering the invasion ofthe Crimea — for it really amounted
to an order — Avas read to his colleagues in the cabinet. It
was a despatch of the utmost importance ; for the terms in
Avhich it pressed the project on Lord Raglan really rendered
it almost impossible for the commander-in-chief to use his
own discretion. It ought to have been considered sentence
by sentence, word by Avord. It Avas read, Mr. Kinglake af
firms, to a number of cabinet ministers, most of Avhom had
fallen fast asleep. The day Avas warm, he says ; the despatch
Avas long; the reading was soraewhat raonotonous. Most
of those who tried to listen found the soporific influence ir
resistible. As Sara Weller would have said, poppies were
nothing to it. The statesmen fell asleep ; and there was no
alteration made in the despatch. All this is very amusing ;
and it is, we believe, true enough that at the particular meet
ing to Avhich Mr. Kinglake refers there was a good deal of
nodding of sleepy heads and closing of tired eyelids. But
it is not fair to say that these slumbers had anything to do
with the subsequent events of the Avar. The reading ofthe
despatch was purely a piece of formality ; for the project it
was to recoraraend had been discussed very fully before, and
the rainds of raost members ofthe cabinet Avere finally made
up. The 28th of June, 1854, was the day of the slumbering
cabinet. But Lord Palmerston had, during the Avhole ofthe
previous fortnight at least, been urging on the cabinet, and
on individual merabers ofil separately, the Duke of New-

488 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
castle in especial, the project of an invasion of the Crimea
and an attempt on Sebastopol. With all the energy and
strenuousness of his nature, he had been urging this by argu
ments in the cabinet, by written memoranda for the consid
eration of each meraber ofthe cabinet separately, and by long,
earnest letters addressed to particular members of the cab
inet Many of these documents, of the existence of which
Mr. Kinglake was doubtless not aAvare when he set doAvn his
vivacious and satirica,l account of the sleeping cabinet, have
since been published. The plan had also been greatly fa
vored and much urged by the Emperor of the French before
the day of the sleep of the statesmen ; indeed, as has been
said already, he receives from many persons the credit of
having originated it. The plan, therefore, good or bad, Avas
thoroughly known to the cabinet, and had been argued for
and against over and over again before the Duke of Newcas
tle read aloud to droAvsy ears the despatch recommending it
to the comraander-in-chief of the British forces in the field.
The perusal of the despatch Avas a raere forra. It Avould,
indeed, have been better if the raost wearied statesman had
contrived to pay a full attention to it, but the Avant of such
respect in noAvise affected the policy ofthe country. It is a
pity to have to spoil so amusing a story as Mr. Kinglake's ;
but the commonplace truth has to be told that the invasion
of the Crimea Avas not due to the crotchet of one minister
and the drowsiness of all the rest.
j The invasion of the Crimea, however, Av.as not a soldier's
I project.. It was not Avelcomed by the English or the French
coraraander. It was undertaken by Lord Raglan out of def
erence to the recommendations of the Governraent ; and by
Marshal St. Arnaud out of deference to the Emperor of the
French, and because Lord Raglan, too, did not see his way to
decline the responsibility of it. The allied forces were, there
fore, conveyed to the south-western shore ofthe Crimea, and
effected a landing in Kalaraita Bay, a short distance north
of the point at which the river Alraa runs into the sea. Se
bastopol itself lies about thirty railes to the south ; and then
more southAvard still, divided by the bulk of a jutting prom
ontory from Sebastopol, is the harbor of Balaklava. The
, disembarkation began on the morning of September 14th,
1 1854. It was completed on the fifth day; and there Avere

THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 489
then some 27,000 English, 30,000 French, and 7000 Turks
landed on the shores of Catherine the Great's Crimea. The
landing was efl'ected Avithout any opposition frora the Rus
sians. On Septeraber 19th, the allies raarched out of their
eneampraents and moved southAvard in the direction of Se
bastopol. They had a skirmish or two with a reconnoitring
force of Russian cavalry and Cossacks; but they had no bus
iness of genuine Avar until they reached the nearer bank of
the Alraa. The Russians, in great strength, had taken up a
splendid position on the heights that fringed the other side of
the river. The allied forces reached the Alraa about noon on
September 20th. They found that they had to cross the river
in the face of the Russian batteries armed with heavy guns
on the highest point ofthe hills or bluffs, of scattered artil
lery, and of dense raasses of infantry which covered the hills.
The Russians Avere under the coraraand of Prince Mentschi
koff. It is certain that Prince Mentschikoff believed his po
sition unassailable, and was convinced that his eneraies were
delivered into his hands when he saw the allies approach and
atterapt to effect the crossing ofthe river. He had allowed
thera, of deliberate purpose, to approach thus far. He raight
have attacked thera on their landing, or on their two days'
march toward the river. But he did not choose to do any
thing ofthe kind. He had carefully sought out a strong and
Avhat he considered an irapregnable position. He had found
it, as he believed, on the south bank ofthe Alraa; and there
he was siraply biding his time. His idea Avas that he could
hold his ground for sorae days against the allies Avilh ease ;
that he would keep them there, play with thera, until the
great re-enforceraents he was expecting could corae to hini;
and then he would suddenly take the offensive and crush the
eneray. He proposed to raake ofthe Alraa and ils banks the
grave of the invaders. But Avith characteristic arrogance
and lack of care he had neglected sorae of the very precau
tions which were essentially necessary to secure any posi
tion, however strong. He had not taken the pains to make
himself certain that every easy access to his position Avas
closed against the attack of the enemy. The attack Avas
made Avith desperate courage on the part of the allies, but
without any great skill of leadership or tenacity of discipline.
It was rather a pell-mell sort of fight, in which the headlong
21*

490 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES'.
courage and the iiidorailable obstinacy ofthe English and
French troops carried all before thera at last. A study of
the battle is of little profit to the ordinary reader. It was
an heroic scrarable. There Avas little coherence of action
between the allied forces. But there was happily an alraost
total absence of generalship on the part of the Russians.
The soldiers of the Czar fought stoutly and stubbornly, as
they have ahvays done ; but they could hot stand up against
the blended veheraence and obstinacy ofthe English -and
.French. The river was crossed, the opposite heights were
raounled. Prince Mentschikoff's great redoubt Avas carried,
the Russians were driven from the field, the allies occupied
|their ground ; the victory Avas to the Western PoAvers. In
deed, it would not be unfair to say that the victory was to
the English : OAving to Avhatever cause, the French did not
take that share in the heat ofthe battle which their strength
and their mililary genius might have led men to expect. ¦ St.
Arnaud, their commander-in-chief, was in wretched health,
on the point of death, in fact ; he Avas in no condition to
guide the battle; a brilliant enterprise of General Bosquet
was ill-supported, and had nearly proved a failure ; and Prince
Napoleon's division got hopelessly jammed up and confused.
Perhaps it Avould be fairer to say that in the confusion and
scramble of the Avhole affair Ave were raore lucky than the
French. • If a nuraber of raen are rushing headlong and in
the dark toward some distant point, one raay run against an
unthought-of obstacle and fall down, and so lose his chance,
Avhile his corarade happens to raeet Avith no such sturablirig-
block, and goes right on. Perhaps this illustration raay not
unfairly distribute the parts t.aken in the battle. It would
be superfluous to say that the French fought splendidly
AA'here they had any real chance of fighting. But the luck
ofthe day Avas not Avith thera. On all sides the battle was
fought Avithout generalship. On all sides the bravery ofthe
officers and men Avas Avorthy of any general. Our men Avere
the luckiest. They saw the heights; they saw the enemy
there ; they made for him ; they got at him ; they Avoiild not
go back; and so he had to give Avay. That Avas the history
ofthe day. The big scrarable Avas all over in a few hours.
The first field Avas fought, and Ave had avoii.
' The Russians ought to have been pursued. They them-

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 491
selves fully expected a pursuit. They retreated in some
thing like utter confusion, eager to put the Katcha river,.
which runs south of tho Alma and with a somewhat sirai
lar course, betAveen thera and the iraagiiiary pursuers. Had
they been followed to the Katcha they might have been all
raade prisoners or destroyed. But there was no pursuit.
Lord Raglan Avas eager to folloAV up the victory; but the
French had as yet hardly any cavalry, and Marshal St. Ar
naud Avould not agree to any further enterprise that day.
Lord Raglan believed that he ought not to persist ; and
nothing Avas done. The Russians Avere unable at first lo be
lieve in their good fortune. It seemed to them- for a long
tirae impossible that any commanders in the Avorld could
have failed, under conditions so tempting, lo foUoAv a flying
and disordered enemy.
Except for the bravery of those who fought, the battle
was not rauch to boast of. The allies together Considerably
outnurabered the Russians, although, from the causes Ave
have mentioned, the Englishmen Avere left throughout the
greater part of the day to enoounfer an enemy numerically
superior, posted on difficult and comraanding heights. But
it Avas the first great battle Avhich for nearly forty years our
soldiers had fought Avitli a civilized enemy. The railitary
authorities and the country were Avell disposed to ra.ake the
most ofil. At this distance of time it is almost touching to
read some ofthe heroic contemporaneous descriptions ofthe
great scrarable of the Alraa. It raight almost seem as if,
in the imaginings of the enthusiastic historians, Englishraen
had never mounted heights and defeated superior numbers
before. The sublime triuraphs against every adverse condi
tion which had been Avon by the genius of a Marlborough or
a Wellington could not have been celebrated ih language
of raore exalted dithyrambic porap. The gallant medley on
the banks ofthe Alma and the fruitless interval of inaction
that followed it Avere told of as if men Avere speaking of
sorae battle of the gods.
Very soon, hoAvever, a different note came to be sounded.
The carapaign had been opened under conditions differing
from those of most campaigns that Avent before it Science
had added many new discoveries to the art of war. Litera
ture had added one reraarkable contribution of her OAvn to

492 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
the conditions amidst Avhich carapaigns were to be carried
on. She had added the " special correspondent." The old-
' fashioned historiographer of wars travelled to please sover
eigns, and minister to the self-conceit of conquerors. The
modern special correspondent had a very different purpose.
He watched the movements of armies and criticised the pol
icy of generals in the interest of some journal, which for its
part was concerned only for the information of the public.
No favor that courts or monarchs could bestow was worthy
a moraent's consideration in the mind even ofthe most self
ish proprietor of a ncAvspaper Avhen compared with the re
ward which the public could give to him and to his paper
for quick and accurate news and trustworthy comment.
The business of the special correspondent has grown so
much since the Criraean War that Ave are noAV inclined to
look back upon the Avar correspondents of those days alraost
as raen then did upon the old-fashioned historiographer.
The Avar correspondent now scrawls his despatches as he sits
in his saddle under the fire of the enemy ; he scrawls thera
Avilh a pencU, noting and describing each incident of the
fight, so far as he can see it, as coolly as if he Avere describ
ing a revicAV of volunteers in Hyde Park; and he contrives
to send off his narrative by telegraph before the victor in
the fight has begun to pursue, or has settled down to hold
the ground he Avon ; and the Avar correspondent's story is
expected to be as brilliant and picturesque in style as it
ought to be exact and faithful in ils stateraents. In the
days ofthe Criraea things had not advanced quite so far as
that ; the war was well on before the subraarine telegraph
belAveen Varna and the Criraea alloAved of daily reports ;
but the feats of the war correspondent then filled men's
minds with Avonder. When the expedition Avas leaving
England it was accorapanied by a special correspondent
frora each of the great daily papers of London. The Times
sent out a representative Avhose name alraost iraraediately
becarae celebrated — Mr. William Howard HusseW, the pr eux
chevalier of war correspondents in that day, as Mr. Archi
bald Forbes of the Daily News is in this. Mr. Russell ren
dered some service to the English array and to his country,
howcA^er, Avhich no brilliancy of literary style would alone
have enabled hira to do. It Avas to his great credit as a

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 493
man of judgment and observation that, being a civilian Avho
had never before seen one puff of war-smoke, he Avas able to
distinguish between the confusion inseparable from all act
ual levying of Avar and the confusion that coraes of distinct
ly bad adrainistration. To the unaccustomed eye of an or
dinary civilian the Avhole progress of a carapaign, the devel
opment of a battle, the arrangeraents of the coramissariat,
appear, at any moraent of actual pressure, to be nothing but
a raass of confusion. He is accustoraed in civil life to find
everything in its proper place, and every eraergency well
provided for. When he is suddenly plunged into the raidst
of a carapaign he is apt to think that everything raust be
going wrong ; or else he assumes contentedly that the Avhole
is in the hands of persons who know better than he, and
that it would be absurd on his part to attempt to criticise
the arrangements of the men whose business it is to under
stand them. Mr. Russell soon saw that there Avas confu
sion ; and he had the soundness of judgraent to know that
the confusion was that of a breaking-down systera. There
fore, while the fervor of delight in the courage and success
of our array Avas still fresh in the rainds of the public at
horae, while every music-hall was ringing Avith the cheap re
wards of valor in the shape of popular glorifications of onr
comraanders and our soldiers, the readers of the Times be^
gan to learn that things were faring badly indeed Avith the
conquering array of the Alraa. The ranks Avere thinned by
the ravages of cholera. The men were pursued by cholera
to the very battle-field. Lord Raglan hiraself said. No sys
tem can charra away all the effects of climate ; but it ap
peared only too soon that the arrangements made to encoun
ter the indirect and inevitable dangers of a campaign were
miserably inefficient The hospitals were in a wretchedly
disorganized condition. Stores of medicines and strength
ening food were decaying in places where no one wanted
them or could well get at thera, while raen were dying in
hundreds araong our tents in the Crimea for lack of thera.
The systera of clothing, of transport, of feeding, of nursing —
everything had broken doAvn. Ample provisions had been
got together and paid for; and when they came to be need
ed no one kncAv where to get at them. The special corre
spondent of the Times and other correspondents continued

494 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
to din these things into the ears of the public at home.
Exultation began to give Avay to a feeling of dismay. The
patriotic anger against the Russians Avas changed for a
mood of deep indignation against our own authorities and
our oAvn war administration. It soon becarae apparent to
every one that' the whole carapaign had been planned on
the assuraption that it Avas to be like the career of the hero
Avhom Byron laments, " brief, brave, and glorious." Our
military authorities here at home — Ave do not speak of the
comraanders in the field — had raade up their rainds that Se
bastopol Avas to fall, like anolher Jericho, at the sound of
the war-trurapets' blast.
Our comraanders in the field Avere, on the contrary, rather
disposed lo overrate than to underrate the strength of the
Russians. It Avas, therefore, soraeAvhat like the condition
of things described in Macaulay's ballad ; those behind cried
forward, thoSe in front called back. It is very likely that
if a sudden dash bad been made at Sebastopol by land and
sea, it might have been taken almost at the very opening
of the war. But the delay gave the Russians full Avarning,
|ind they did not neglect it. On the third day after the
battle of the Alma the Russians sank seven vessels of their
|31ack Sea fleet at the entrance of the harbor of Sebastopol.
This was done full in the sight of the allied fleets, who at
/first, misunderstanding the movements going on among the
eneray, thought the Russian squadron Avere about to come
out from their shelter and try conclusions Avith the Western
ships. But the real purpose of the Russians became soon
apparent. Under the eyes of the allies the seven vessels
slowly settled doAvn and sank in the Avater, until at last only
the tops of their masts Avere to be seen ; and the entrance
of the harbor Avas barred as by sunken rocks against any
approach of an enemy's ship. There was an end to every
dream of a sudden capture of Sebastopol.
The allied armies moved again frora their positions on the
Alma ; but they did not direct their raarch to the north side
of Sebastopol. They made for Balaklava, which lies south
of the city, on the other side of a promontory, and Avhich has
a port that might enable them to secure a constant means
of comraunication betAveen the armies and the fleets. To
reach Balaklava the allied forces had to undertake a long

THE INVASION OF THE CRIMEA. 495
and fatiguing flank march, passing Sebastopol on their right.
They accomplished the march in safety, and occupied the
heights above Balaklava, while the fleets appeared at the
same time in the harbor. Sebastopol Avas but a few railes
off, and preparations were at once made for an attack on it
by land and sea. On October 17th the attack began. It
was practically a failure. Nothing better, indeed, could
well have been expected. The fleet could not get near
enough to the sea-forts of Sebastopol to make their broad
sides of any real effect, beeause of the shallow Avaler and
the sunken ships; and although the attack from the land
Avas vigorous and Avas fiercely kept np, yet it could not carry
its object It became clear that Sebastopol Avas not to be
taken by any coup de main, and the allies had not men
enough to invest it. They Avere, therefore, to some extent
themselves in the condition of a besieged force, for the Rus
sians had a large army outside Sebastopol ready to make
every sacrifice for the purpose of preventing the English
and French from getting even a chance of undisturbed
operations against it.
The Russians attacked the alUes fiercely on October 25lh, ;
in the hope of obtaining possession of Balaklava. The at
tempt was bold and briUiant, but itwas splendidly repulsed.
Never did a day of battle do more credit to English courage,
or less, perhaps, to English generalship. The cavalry par
ticularly distinguished theraselves. It was in great meas
ure, on our side, a cavalry action. It Avill be memorable in
all English history as the battle in Avhich occurred the fa
mous charge of the Light Brigade. OAving to some fatal
misconception of the meaning of an order from the com-
mander-in-chie:^ the Light Brigade, 607 men in all, charged
what has been rightly described as " the Russian army in
position." The brigade Avas coraposed of 118 men of the
4th Light Dragoons; 104 ofthe 8th Hussars; 110 ofthe
llth LIussars; 130 ofthe 13th Light Dragoons; and 145 of
the 17th Lancers. Of the 607 raen 198 carae back. Long,
painful, and hopeless were the disputes about this fat.al or
der. The controversy can never be Avholly settled. The of
ficer Avho bore the order Avas one ofthe first Avho fell in the
outset. All Europe, all the world, rang with Avonder and
admiration of the futile and splendid charge. The poet-

496 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
laureate sang of it in spirited verses. Perhaps its best
epitaph was contained in the celebrated comment ascribed
to the French General Bosquet, and which has since becorae
proverbial, and been quoted until men are well-nigh tired
of it — "It was magnificent, but it was not war."
Next day the enemy made anolher vigorous attack, on a
much larger scale, moving out of Sebastopol itself, and were
again repulsed. The allies were able to prevent the troops
Avho made the sortie from co-operating with the Russian
army outside Avho had attacked at Balaklava. The latter
were endeavoring to intrench themselves at the little villao-e
of Inkerraan, lying on the north of Sebastopol ; but the stout
resistance they raet with from the allies frustrated their
plans. On Noveraber 5lh the Russians made another grand
I attack on the allies, chiefly on the British, and were once
more splendidly repulsed. The plateau of Inkerraan Avas the
principal scene of the struggle. It was occupied by the
Guards and a feAv British regiraents, on whom fell, until
General Bosquet with his French was able to come to their
assistance, the task of resisting a Russian army. This was
the severest and the fiercest engagement of the campaign.
The loss to the English Avas 2612, of whora 145 were officers.
The French lost about 1700. The Russians Avere believed
to have lost 12,000 raen ; but at no tirae could any clear ac
count be obtained of the Russian losses. It was believed
that they brought a force of 50,000 raen to the attack.
Inkerraan was described at the tirae as the soldiers' battle.
Strategy, it Avas said everywhere, there Avas none. The at
tack Avas made under cover of a dark and drizzling mist.
The battle Avas fought for aAvhile alraost absolutely in the
dark. There was hardly any attempt to 4Ji'ect the allies
by any principles of scientific Avarfare. The soldiers fought
stubbornly a series of hand-to-hand fights, and we are enti
tled to say that the better men Avon in the end. We fully
admit that it was a soldiers' battle All the comraent we
have to raake upon the epithet is, that we do not exactly
know which of the engagements fought in the Crimea Avas
anything but a soldiers' battle. Of course, Avith the soldiers
we take the officers. A battle in the Crimea with which
generalship had anything particular to do has certainly not
come under the notice of this writer. Mr. Kinglake tells

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 497
that at Alraa Marshal St. Arnaud, the French commander-
in-chief, addressing General Canrobert and Prince Napoleon,
said : " With such men as you I have no orders to give ; I
have but to point to the enemy." This seeras to have been
the general principle on which the comraanders conducted
the carapaign. There Avere the enemy's forces — let the men
go at them any Avay they could. Nor under the circum
stances could anything much better have been done. When
orders Avere given, it appeared more than once as if things
Avould have gone better Avithout thera. The soldier avoii
his battle ahvays. No general could prevent him frora
doing that.
Meanwhile, what Avere people saying in England ? They
Avere indignantly declaring that the whole carapaign was a
rauddle It was evident now that Sebastopol was not go
ing to fall all at once ; it Avas evident, too, that the prepara
tions had been made on the assuraption that it raust fall at
ouce. To make the disappointraent raore bitter at horae, the
public had been dec'eived for a few days by a false report of
the taking of Sebastopol ; and the disappointraent naturally
increased the irapatience and dissatisfaction of Englishraen.
The fleet that had been sent out to the Baltic carae back]'
without having accoraplished anything iu particular; audi
although there really was nothing in particular that it could '
have accomplished under the circumstances, yet many people
were as angry as if it had culpably allowed the eneray to es
cape it on the open seas. The sailing of the Baltic fleet had,
indeed, been preceded by ceremonials especially calculated
to make any enterprise ridiculous whicli failed to achieve
some startling success. It was put under the coraraand
of Sir Charles Napier, a brave old salt of the fast-fading
school of Smollett's Commodore Trunnion, rough, dashing,
bull-headed, likely enough to succeed Avhere sheer force and
courage could Avin victories, but wanting in all the intellect
ual qualities of a coraraander, and endoAved with a violent
tongue and an almost unmatched indiscretion. Sir Charles
Napier was a member of a family faraed for its warriors;
but he had not anything like the capacity of his cousin, the
other Charles Napier, the conqueror of Scinde, or the intel
lect of Sir William Napier, the historian of the Peninsular
War. He had won some signal and surprising successes in

498 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the Portuguese civil war and in Syria; all under conditions
wholly different, and with an enemy Avholly different frora
those he would have to encounter in the Baltic. But the
voice of adrairing friends Avas turaultuously raised to pre
dict splendid things for him before his fleet had left its
port, and he himself quite forgot, in his rough self-confi
dence, the difference between boasting Avhen one is taking
off his arraor and boasting Avhen one is only putting it on.
His friends entertained him at a farewell dinner at the Re
form Club. Lord Palmerston was present, and Sir James
Graham, the First Lord of the Admiralty, and a great deal
of exuberant nonsense Avas talked. Lord Palraerston, car
ried away by his natural bonhomie and his high aniraal
spirits, shoAvered the raost extravagant praises upon the
gallant adrairal, interraixed with jokes which set the com
pany laughing consuraedly, but which read by the outer
public next day seeraed unbecoraing preludes to an expedi
tion that was to be part of a great war and of terrible rsa-
tional sacriflces. The one only thing that could have ex
cused the Avhole perforraance Avould have been sorae over
whelming success on the part of him Avho was its hero.
But it is not probable that a Dundonald or even a Nelson
could have done much in the Baltic just then ; and Napier
Avas not a Dundonald or a Nelson. The Baltic fleet came
home safely after awhile, its commander having brought
Avith him nothing but a grievance Avhich lasted hira all
the reraainder of his life. The public Avere amazed, scorn
ful, Avrathful ; they began to think that they were destined
to see nothing but failure .as the fruit of the campaign.
In truth, they Avere extravagantly irapatient. Perhaps they
Avere not to be blamed. Their leaders, who ought to have
knoAvn better, had been filling them with the idea that they
had nothing to do but to sweep the eneray frora sea and
land. The temper of a people thus stimulated and thus disap
pointed is almost always indiscriminating and unreasonable
in its censure. The first idea is to find a victim. The- vic
tim on Avhom the anger of a large portion of the public
turned in this instance was the Prince Consort. The raost
absurd ideas, the raost cruel and baseless calumnies, were in
circulation about him. He Avas accused of having, out of

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 499
some inscrutable motive, made use of all his secret influence
to prevent the success of the campaign. He Avas charged
Avith being in a conspiracy Avilh Prussia, Avith Russia, with
no one knew exactly Avhom, to Aveaken the strength of Eng
land, and secure a triuraph for her enemies. Stories Avere
actually told at one tirae ofhis having been arrested for high-
treason. He had, in one of his speeches about this tirae,
said that constitutional governraent Avas under a heavy trial,
and could only pass triuraphantly through it if the country
Avould grant its confidence to her Majesty's Governraent.
Iu this observaiion, as the Avhole context of the speech show
ed, the Prince Avas only explaining that the Queen's Govern
ment were placed at a disadvantage in the carrying on of a
Avar, as compared with a Governraent like that of the Em
peror ofthe French, Avho could act of his own arbitrary avUI,
without check, delay, or control on the part of any Parlia
mentary body. But the speech Avas instantly fastened on
as illustrating the Prince's settled and unconquerable dislike
of all constitutional and popular principles of government.
Those who opposed the Prince had not, indeed, been Availing
for his speech at the Trinity House' dinner to denounce and
condemn him; but the sentence in that speech to which ref
erence has been raade opened upon hiin a new torrent of
hostile criticism. The charges whicli sprang of this heated
and unjust teraper on the part of the public did not, indeed,
long prevail against the Prince Consort. When once the
subject carae to be taken up in Parliaraent, it was shown al
most in a moment that there was not the slightest ground
or excuse for any of the absurd surmises and cruel suspicions
Avhich had been creating so rauch agitation. The agitation
collapsed in a moment. But while it lasted it was both
vehement and intense, and gave much pain to the Prince,
and far more pain still to the Queen his Avife.
We have seen more lately, and on a larger scale, soraething
like the phenomenon of that tirae. During the Avar between
France and Germany the people of Paris Avent nearly wild
with the idea that they had been betrayed, and were clamor
ous for victims to punish anyAvhere or anyhow. To raany
calm Englishraen this seenied raonstrously unreasonable and
unworthy; and the French people received from English
writers many grave rebukes and wise exhortations. But

500 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
the temper of the English public at one period of the Cri
mean War was becoming very like that which set Paris
wild during the disastrous struggle with Germany. The
passions of peoples are, it is to be feared, very much alike
in their impulses and even in their manifestations; and if
England during the Crimean War never came to the wild
condition into which Paris fell during the later struggle, it
is perhaps rather because, on the Avhole, things went well
Avith England, than in consequence of any very great supe
riority of Englishmen in judgment and self-restraint over
the excitable people of France. Certainly those who re
meraber what we raay call the dark days of the Crimean
carapaign, Avhen disappointment following on extravagant
confidence had incited popular passion to call for some vic
tira, will find themselves sIoav to set a lirait to the lengths
that passion might have reached ifthe Russians had actual
ly been successful even in one or two battles.
The Avinter was gloomy at home as well as abroad. The
news constantly arriving from the Crimea told only of devas
tation caused by foes far more formidable than the Russians
— sickness, bad weather, bad management. The Black Sea
was SAvept and scourged by terrible storms. The destruc
tion of transport-ships laden with Avinter stores for our men
Avas of incalculable injury to the army. Clothing, blanket
ing, provisions, hospital necessaries of all kinds, Avere de
stroyed in vast quantities. The loss of life among the crews
of the vessels was imraense. A storra Avas nearly as disas
trous in this way as a battle. On shore the sufferings ofthe
array were unspeakable. The tents were torn frora their pegs
and blown away. The officers and raen Avere exposed to
the bitter cold and the fierce stormy blasts. Our soldiers h.ad
for the most part little experience or even idea of such cold
as they had to encounter this gloomy Avinter. The inten
sity of the cold was so great that no one might dare to
toucli any metal substance in the open air with his bare
hand under penalty of leaving the skin behind him. The
hospitals for the sick and wounded at Scutari Avere "in a
Avretchedly disorganized condition. They were, for the
most part, in an absolutely chaotic condition as regards
arrangement and supply. In some instances medical stores
were left to decay at Varna, or Avere found lying useless in

THE INVASION OP THE CRIMEA. 501
the holds of vessels in Balaklava Bay, which were needed
for the wounded at Scutari. The medical officers were able
and zealous men ; the stores Avere provided and paid for, so
far as our Governraent was concerned ; but the stores were
not brought to the medical raen. These had their hands
all but idle, their eyes and souls tortured by the sight of
sufterings Avhich they were unable to relieve for Avant of
the commonest appliances of the hospital The most ex
traordinary instances of blunder and confusion were con
stantly coming to light. Great consignments of boots ar
rived, and were found to be all for the left foot. Mules for
the conveyance of stores Avere contracted for and delivered,
but delivered so that they came into the hands of the Rus
sians, and not of us. Shameful frauds were perpetrated in
the instance of some of the contracts for preserved meat.
" One man's preserved meat," exclaimed Punch, with bitter
humor, "is another man's poison." The evils ofthe hos
pital disorganization Avere happily raade a raeans of bring
ing about a new systera of attending to the sick and wound
ed in Avar, Avhich has already created something like a revo
lution in the manner of treating the victims of battle. Mr.
Sidney Herbert, horrified at the Avay in Avhich things Avere
managed in Scutari and the Criraea, applied to a distin
guished woman, who had long taken a deep interest in hos
pital reform, to superintend personally the nursing of the
soldiers. Miss Florence Nightingale was the daughter of a
wealthy English country gentleman. She had chosen uot to
pass her life in fashionable or aesthetic inactivity, and had
from a very early period turned her attention to sanatory
questions. She had studied nursing as a science and a sys
tem ; and had made herself acquainted Avith the working
of various Continental institutions ; and about the tirae
when the Avar broke out she Avas actually engaged in reor
ganizing the Sick Governesses' Institution in Harley Street,
London. To her Mr. Sidney Herbert turned. He offered
her, if she Avould accept the task he proposed, plenary au
thority over all the nurses, and an unlimited poAver of draAv
ing on the Government for whatever she might .think neces
sary to the success of the undertaking. Miss Nightingale
accepted the task, and went out to Scutari, accompanied by
some women of rank like her own, and a trained staff of

502 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
nurses. They speedily reduced chaos into order; and from
the time of their landing in Scutari there was at least one
department of the business of war which Avas noA^er again a
subject of complaint. The spirit of the chivalric days had
been restored under better auspices for its abiding influence.
Ladies of rank once more devoted themselves to the service
of the wounded, and the end was come of the Mrs. Gamp
and Mrs. Prig type of nurse. Sidney Herbert, in his letter
to Miss Nightingale, had said that her example, if she accept
ed the task he had proposed, Avould "multiply the good lo
all time." These Avords proved to have no exaggeration
I in thera. We have never seen a Avar since in which woraen
of education and of genuine devotion have not given them
selves up to the task of caring for the Avounded. The Geneva
Convention and the bearing of the Red Cross are among
the results of Florence Nightingale's Avork in the Criraea.
But the siege of Sebastopol Avas raean Avhile dragging heav-'
ily along ; and soraetiraes it was not quite certain which
ought to be called the besieged — the Russians in the city or
the allies encamped in sight of it. During some mouths the
allied armies did little or nothing. The comraissariat sys
tera and the land transport systera had broken down. The
armies Avere miserably weakened by sickness. Cholera Avas
ever and anon raging anew among our men. Horses and
mules were dying of cold and starvation. The roads were
ouly deep irregular ruts filled with mud ; the camp Avas a
marsh; the tents stood often in pools of water; the men had
soraetiraes no beds bnt straw dripping Avith Avet, and hardly
any bed coverings. Our unfortunate Turkish allies were in
a far more wretched plight than even Ave ourselves. The
authorities, who ought to have looked after them, were im
pervious to the crilicisras of special correspondents, and un-
assaUable by Parliaraentary votes of censure. A condemna
tion of the latter kind w.as hanging over our Government.
Lord John Russell became impressed with the conviction
that the Duke of NoAvcastle Avas not strong enough for the
post of War Minister, and he Avrote to Lord Aberdeen urg
ing that the War Department should be given to Lord Paliii-
erston. Lord Aberdeen replied that although another per
son might have been a better choice when the appointments
Avere made in the first instance, yet in the absence of any

THE INVASION OP TIIE CRIMEA. 503
proved defect or alleged incapacity there was no sufficient
ground for making a kind of speculative change. Parlia
raent Avas called together belbre Christraas; and after the
Christmas recess Mr. Roebuck gave notice that he Avould
move for a select coramittee to inquire into the condition of
the array before Sebastopol, and into the conduct of those
departments of the Government Avhose duty it had been to
minister to the wants of the army. Lord John Russell did
not believe for hiraself that the motion could be conscien- 1
tiously resisted ; but as it necessarily involved a censure ',
upon sorae of his colleagues, he did not think he ought to !
remain longer in tho ministry, and he therefore resigned his |
office. The sudden resignation of the leader of the House
of Commons Avas a death-bloAV to any plans of resistance
by Avhich the Government might otherwise have thought of
encountering Mr. Roebuck's motion. Lord Palraerston, al
though Lord John Russell's course was a marked tribute to
his OAvn capacity, had remonstrated Avarraly Avilli Russell by
letter as to his deterraination to resign. "You Avill have
the appearance," he said, " of having reraained in office aid
ing in carrying on a systera of which you disajiprove until
driven out by Roebuck's announced nolice; and the Gov
ernraent will have the appearance of self-condemnation by
flying from a discussion Avhich they dare not face ; while, as
regards the country, the action of the executive will be par
alyzed for a tirae in a critical raoraent of a great Avar, with
an irapending negotiation, and Ave shall exhibit to the Avorld
a raelancholy spectacle of disorganization among our politi
cal raen at horae sirailar to that which has prevailed araong
our railitary raen abroad." The remonstrance, hoAvever,
carae too late, even if it could have had any effect at any
time. Mr. Roebuck's motion came on, and was resisted with
vigor by Lord Palmerston and Mr. Gladstone. Lord Palm
erston insisted that the responsibility ought to fall not on
the Duke of Newcastle but on the whole cabinet ; and with
a generosity which his keenest opponents raight have ad
mitted to be characteristic of hira, he accepted the task of
defending an Administration whose chief blame Avas in the
eyes of raost persons that they had not given the control of
the war into his hands. Mr. Gladstone declared that the in
quiry sought for by the resolulion could lead to nothing but

504 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
"confusion and disturbance, increased disasters, shame at
home and weakness abroad ; it Avould convey no consolation
to those whom you seek to aid, but it would carry malig
nant joy to the hearts of the enemies of England." The
House of Coraraons Avas not to be moved by any such argu
ment or appeal. The one pervading idea Avas that England
had been endangered and shamed by the breakdoAvn of her
I army organization. When the division took place, 305 mem
bers voted for Mr. Roebuck's motion, and only 148 against.
'The majority against ministers was therefore 157. Every
' one knows Avhat a scene usually takes place when a minis
try is defeated in the House of Coraraons — cheering again
and again renewed, counter-cheers of defiance, Avild exulta
tion, vehement indignation, a Avhole Avhirlpool of various
emotions seething in that little hall in St. Stephen's. But
this time there was no such outburst. The House could
hardly realize the fact that the rainistry of all the talents
had been thus completely and ignorainiously defeated. A
dead silence foUoAved the announceraent of the numbers.
Then there was a half-breathless raurraur of araazement and
incredulity. The Speaker repealed the nurabers, and doubt
Avas over. It was slUl uncertain how the House would ex
press its feelings. Suddenly some one laughed. The sound
gave a direction and a relief to perplexed, pent-up eraotion.
Shouts of laughter followed. Not merely the pledged oppo
nents of the Government laughed ; many of those Avho had
A-oted Avith ministers found theraselves laughing too. It
seeraed so absurd, so incongruous, this Avay of disposing of
the great Coalition Governraent. Many must have thought
ofthe night of fierce debate, little more than two years be
fore, when Mr. Disraeli, then on the verge of his fall from
power, and realizing fully the strength of the combination
against him, consoled his party and hiraself for the irarai
nent fatality awaiting thera by the defiant Avords, "I knoAV
that I have to face a Coalition ; the combination may be suc
cessful. A corabination has before this been successful ; but
coalitions, though they may be successful, have always found
that their triumphs have been brief This I know, that Eng
land does not love coalitions." Only two years had passed and
the great Coalition had fallen, overwhelmed with reproach and
popular indignation, and amidst sudden shouts of laughter.-

THE CLOSE OP THE WAR. 505

CHAPTER XXVIIL
THE CLOSE OF THE WAE.
On February 15th, 1855, Lord Palmerston Avrote to his
brother: "A month ago, if any man had asked me to say
Avhat was one of the most iraprobable events, I should have
said my being Prime-minister. Aberdeen was there ; Derby
Avas head of one great party, John Russell of the other, aud
yet in about ten days' time they all gave way like straws
before the Avind ; and so here am I, Avriting to you from
Downing Street, as First Lord of the Treasury."
No doubt Lord Palmerston was sincere in the expression
of surprise which we have quoted; but there were not many
other men in the country who felt in the least astonished at
the turn of events by whicli he had become Prime-minister.
Indeed, it had long becorae apparent to alraost every one
that his assuming that place was only a question of tirae.
The country was in that raood that it Avould absolutely have
soraebody at the head of affairs who knew his oavu raind and
saw his way clearly before hira. When the Coalition Min
istry broke down. Lord Derby was invited by the Queen to
form a Government. He tried, and failed. He did all in his
power to accomplish the task with Avhich the Queen had in
trusted him. He invited Lord Palmerston to join hira, and
it was intimated that if Palraerston consented Mr. Disraeli
would waive all claira to the leadership of the House of
Commons, in order that Palraerston should have that place.
Lord Derbyalso offered, through Lord Palraerston, places in
his Adrainistration to Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Sidney Herbert.
Palraerston did not see his way to join a Derby Administra
tion, and without hini Lord Derby could not go on. The
Queen then sent for Lord John Russell ; but Russell's late
and precipitate retreat frora his office had discredited him
with most of his former colleagues, and he found that he
could not get a Government together. Lord Palraerston
Avas then, to use his own phrase, I'inemiable. There was not
L— 22

506 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
much change in the personnel of the ministry. Lord Aber
deen was gone, and Lord Palmerston took his place ; and
f Lord Panmure, who had formerly, as Fox Maule, administer
ed the affairs ofthe army, succeeded the Duke of Newcastle.
Lord Panmure, hoAvever, combined in his OAvn person the
functions, up to that tirae absurdly separated, of Secretary
at War and Secretary for War. The Secretary at War un
der the old system Avas not one of the principal Secretaries
of State. He was merely the officer by whom the regular
communication Avas kept up betAveen the War-office and the
rainistry, and has been described as the civil officer of the
array. The Secretary for War was commonly intrusted with
the colonial department as well. The Iavo War-offices Avere
now made into one. It was hoped that by this change great
benefit would come to our whole array systera. Lord Palm
erston acted energetically, too, in sending out a sanitary
coraraission to the Crimea, and a coramission to superintend
the comraissariat, a department that, almost more than any
other, had broken doAvn. Nothing could be more strenuous
than the terras in which Lord Palmerston recomraended the
sanitary coramission to Lord Raglan. He requested that
Lord Raglan Avould give the commissioners every assist
ance in his power. " They Avill, of course, be opposed and
thwarted by the medical officers, by the men who have
charge of the port arrangements, and by those Avho have the
cleaning of the camp. Their mission will be ridiculed, and
their recoraraendatlons and directions set aside, unless en
forced by the pereraptory exercise of your authority. But
that authority I must request you to exert in the most per
emptory manner for the iraraediate and exact carrying into
execution whatever changes of arrangeraent they raay rec
ommend ; for these are matters on which depend the health
and lives of many hundreds of men, I m.ay, indeed, say of
. thousands." Lord Palraerston Avas strongly pressed by some
of the more strenuous Reforraers of the House. Mr. Layard,
who had acquired some celebrity before in a very different
field — as a discoverer, that is to say, in the ruins of Nineveh
and Babylon — was energetic and incessant in his attacks on
the administration of the war, and was not disposed even
now to give the noAV Government a moraent's rest. Mr. Lay
ard Avas a raan of a certain rough ability, iramense self-suf-

THE CLOSE OP THE WAR. 507
ficiency, and indomitable egotism. He was not in any sense
an eloquent speaker; he Avas singularly wanting in all the
graces of style and manner. But he Avas fluent, he was vo
ciferous, he never seemed to have a moraent's doubt on any
conceivable question, he never adraitted that there could
by any possibility be two sides to any matter of discussion.
He did really know a great deal about the East at a time
Avhen the habit of travelling in the East Avas comparatively
rare. He stamped doAvn all doubt or difference of view witli
the overbearing dogmatism of Sir Walter Scott's Touchwood,
or of the proverbial man Avho has been there and ought to
know; and he was in raany respects admirably fitted to be
the spokesman of all those, and they Avere not a few, Avho
saAV that things had been going wrong without exactly see
ing Avhy, and were eager thj^t something should be done,
although they did not clearly know Avhat. Lord Palraer
ston strove to induce the Liouse not to press for the
appointraent of the comraittee recoraraended in Mr. Roe
buck's motion. The Government, he said, Avould make the
needful inquiries theraselves. He reminded the House of
Richard II.'s offer to lead the men of the fallen Tyler's
insurrection himself; and in the sarae spirit he offered, on
the part of the Government, to take the lead in every nec
essary investigation. Mr. Roebuck, however, would not
give way; and Lord Palmerston yielded to a demand which
had, undoubtedly, the support of a vast force of public opin
ion. The constant argument of Mr. Layard had some sense
in it : the Government uoav in office was very rauch like the
Governraent in Avhich the House had declared so lately that
it had no confidence. It could hardly, therefore, be expect
ed that the Liouse should accept its existence as guarantee
enough that everything should be done which its predeces
sor had faded to do. Lord Palmerston gave way, but his
unavoidable concession brought on a new ministerial crisis.
Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Sidney Herbert
declined to hold office any longer. They had opposed the
motion for an inquiry most gravely and strenuously, and
they would not lend any countenance to it by remaining in
office. Sir Charles "Wood succeeded Sir James Graham as
First Lord ofthe Admiral ty; Lord John Russell took the
place of Secretary of the. Colonies, vacated by Sidney Her-

508 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
bert ; and Sir George Cornewall LoAvis followed Mr. Glad
stone as Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Meanwhile new negotiations for peace, set on foot under
the influence of Austria, had been begun at Vienna, and Lord
John Russell had been sent there to represent the interests
of England. The Conference opened at Vienna under cir
cumstances that might have seemed especially favorable to
peace. We had got a new ally, a State not, indeed, com
manding any great railitary strength, but full of energy and
ambition, and representing more than any other, perhaps, the
tendencies of liberalism and the operation of the compara
tively noAv principle ofthe rights of nationalities. This was
the little kingdom of Sardinia, whose government was then
under the control of one ofthe master-spirits of modern poli
tics; a man Avho belonged to the class ofthe Richelieus and
the Orange Williams— the illustrious Count Cavour. Sar
dinia, it raay be frankly said, did not come into the alliance
because of any particular syrapathies that she had with one
side or the other of the quarrel between Russia and the
Western Powers. She Avent into the war in order that she
might have a locus standi in the councils of Europe from
which to set forlh her grievances against Austria. In the
marvellous history of the uprise of the kingdora of Italy
there is a good deal over which, to use the words of Carlyle,
moralities not a few raust shriek aloud. It would not be
easy to defend on high moral principles the policy Avhich
struck into a war without any particular care for either side
ofthe controversy, but only to serve an ulterior and persori-
.al, that is to say, national purpose. But, regarding the poli
cy merely by the light of its results, it must be owned that
it Avas singularly successful, and entirely justified the expec
tations of Cavour. The Crimean War laid the foundations
of the kingdom of Italy.
That was one fact calculated to inspire hopes of a peace.
The greater the number and strength ofthe allies, the great
er," obviously, the pressure upon Russia and the probability
of her listening lo reason. But there was another event of
a very different nature, the effect of which seemed at first
likely to be all in favor of peace. This Avas the death ofthe
man whora the uniled public opinion of Europe regarded as
the author of the Avar. On March 2d, 1855, the Emperor

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 509
Nicholas of Russia died of pulraonary apoplexy, after an at
tack of influenza. In other days it Avould have been said he
had died of a broken heart. Perhaps the description would
have been more strictly true than the terras ofthe medical
report. It was doubtless the efl'ect of utter disappointraent,
of the wreck and ruin of hopes to Avhich a life's ambition had
been directed and a life's energy dedicated, which left that
frame of adamant open to the sudden dart of sickness. One
of the most remarkable illustrations of an artist's genius de
voted to a political subject was the cartoon which appeared
in Punch, and Avhich was called " General F6vrier turned
Traitor." The Emperor Nicholas had boasted that Russia
had tAVO generals on whom she could always rely. General
Janvier and General Fevrier; and uoav the English artist
represented General February, a skeleton in Russian uni
forra, turiiing traitor, and laying his bony ice-cold hand on
the heart of the Sovereign and betraying him to the tomb.
But, indeed, it was not General February alone who doomed
Nicholas to death. The Czar died of broken hopes ; of the
recklessness that comes from defeat and despair. He took
no precautions against cold and exposure; he treated Avilh
a magnaniraous disdain the remonstrances ofhis physicians
and his friends. As of Max Piccoloraini in Schiller's noble
play, so of hira : raen whispered that he wished to die. The
Alraa Avas to him Avliat Austerlitz was lo Pitt. From the
moraent Avhen the news of that defeat was announced to hira
he no longer seeraed to have hope of the campaign. He
took the story ofthe defeat very much as Lord North took
the surrender of CoruAvaUis — as if a bullet had struck him.
Thenceforth he Avas like one whom the old Scotch phrase
Avould describe as fey — one Avho moved, spoke, and lived
under the shadoAV of coming death until the death carae.
The news of the sudden death of the Emperor created a
profound sensation in England. Mr. Bright, at Manchester,
shortly after rebuked Avliat he considered an ignoble levity
in the manner of commenting on the event among some
of the English journals; but it is right to say that, on the
whole, nothing, could have been more decorous and dignified
than the manner iu which the English public generally re
ceived the news that the country's great enemy was no more.
At first there was, as Ave have said, a coraraon impression that

510 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
Nicholas's son and successor, Alexander IL, would be more
anxious to make peace than his father had been. But this
hope was soon gone. The new Czar could not venture to
show himself to his people in a less patriotic light than his
predecessor. The prospects of the allies were at the time
remarkably gloomy. There must have seeraed to the new
Russian Eraperor considerable ground for the hope that dis
ease, and cold, and bad raanageraent would do more harm to
the army of England, at least, than any Russian general could
do. The Conference at Vienna proved a failure, and eveniu
sorae respects a fiasco. Lord John Russell, sent to Vienna
as our representative, was instructed that the object he must
hold in view was the admission of Turkey into the great
faraily of European States. For this end there were four
principal points to be considered — the condition of the Dan
ubian Principalities, the free navigation of the Danube, the
liraitation of Russian supremacy in the Black Sea, and the
independence of the Porte. It was on the attempt to limit
Russian supreraacy in the Black Sea that the negotiations
became a failure. Russia would not consent tn any proposal
which could really have the desired effect. She would agree
to an arrangement betAveen Turkey and herself, but this Avas
exactly what the Western Powers were deterrained not to
allow. She declined to have the strength of her navy re
stricted; and proposed as a counter- resolution that the
Straits should be opened to the war flags of all nations, so
that if Russia were strong as a naval Power in the Black
Sea, other Powers raight be just as strong if they thought fit.
Lord Palraerston, in a letter to Lord John Russell, dryly
characterized this proposition, involving as it would the
maintenance by England and France of permanent fleets in
the Black Sea to counterbalance the fleet of Russia, as a
" mauvaise plaisanterie." Lord Palraerston, indeed, believed
no more in the sincerity of Austria throughout all these
transactions than he did in that of Russia. The Conference
proved a total failure, and in its failure it involved a good
deal ofthe reputation of Lord John Russell. Like the French
representative, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, Lord John Russell had
been taken by the proposals of Austria, and had supported
them in the first instance; but when the Government at
horae would not have thera, he was still induced to reraain a

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 511
member of the Cabinet, and even to condemn in the House
of Commons the recoinmendations he had supported at Vi
enna. Lie Avas charged by Mr. Disraeli Avith having en
couraged the Russian pretensions by declaring at a critical
point of the negotiations that he Avas disposed to favor Avhat
ever arrangement would best preserve the honor of Russia.
"What has the representative of England," Mr. Disraeli in
dignantly asked, " to do with the honor of Russia ?" Lord
John, had indeed, a fair reply. He could say Avith justice
and good-sense that no settlement was likely to be lasting
Avhich simply forced conditions upon a great Power like Rus
sia without taking any account of what is considered araong
nations to be her honor. But he was not able to give any
satisfactory explanation of his having approved the condi
tions in Vienna which he afterward conderaned in West-
rainster. He explained in Parliaraent that he did, in the first
instance, regard the Austrian propositions as containing the
possible basis of a satisfactory and lasting peace ; but that,
as the Government would not hear of them, he had rejected
them against his oavu judgment ; and that he had afterward
been converted to the opinion ofhis colleagues and believed
them inadmissible in principle. This was a sort of explana
tion more likely to alarm than to reassure the public. What
manner of danger, it was asked on all sides, raay we not be
placed in when our representatives do not know their OAvn
rainds as to proper terms of peace ; Avhen they have no opin
ion of their oavu upon the subject, but are loud in approval
of certain conditions one day Avhich they are equally loud
in condemning the next ? There Avas a general impression
throughout England th.at some of our statesmen in office
had never been sincerely in favor of the war from the first;
that even still they were cold, doubtful, and half-hearted
about it, and that the honor of the country was not safe in
such hands. The popular instinct, Avhether it was right as
to facts or not, Avas perfeclly sound as to inferences. We
may honor, in many instances we must honor, the consci
entious scruples of a public man who distrusts the objects
and has no faith in the results of sorae Avar in which his peo
ple are engaged. But such a man has no business in the
Governraent Avhich has the conduct of the Avar. The men
¦who are to carry on a war raust have no doubt of its right-

512 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
fulness of purpose, and must not be eager to conclude it on
any terms. In the very interests of peace itself they must
be resolute to carry on the Avar until it has reached the end
they sought for.
Lord John Russell's remaining in office after these dis
closures Avas practically impossible. Sir E. B. Lytton gave
nolice of a direct vole of censure on " the minister charged
with the negotiations at Vienna." But Russell anticipated
the certain effect of a vote in the Liouse of Commons by
resigning his office. This step, at least, extricated his col
leagues from any share in the censure, although the recrim
inations that passed on the occasion in Parliament were
raany and bitter. The vote of censure was, however, with
drawn. Sir WiUiam Molesworth, one of the most distin
guished of the school who Avere since called Philosophical
Radicals, succeeded hira as Colonial Secretary; and the
ministry carried one or two triuraphant voles against Mr.
Disraeli, Mr. Roebuck, and other opponents, or at least un
friendly critics. Meanwhile the Emperor of the French and
his wife had paid a visit lo London, and had been received
with considerable enthusiasm. The Queen seems to have
been very favorably impressed by the Emperor. She sin
cerely admired him, and believed in his desire to maintain
peace as far as possible, and to do his best for the promotion
of liberal principles and sound econoraic doctrines through
out Europe. The beauty and grace of the Empress like
wise greatly won over Queen Victoria. The Prince Consort
seeras to have been less impressed. He was, indeed, a be
liever in the sincerity aud good disposition of the Eraperor,
but he found hira strangely ignorant on most subjects, even
the modern political history of England and France. Dur
ing the visit ofthe Royal family of England to Fr.ance, and
now while the Eraperor and Empress were in London, the
same irapression appears to have been left on the mind of
the Prince Consort. He also seeras to have noticed a cer
tain barrack- roora flavor about the Emperor's entourage
which Avas not agreeable to his OAvn ideas of dignity and re
finement. The Prince Consort appears lo have judged the
Emperor alraost exactly as Ave know noAV that Prince Bis
marck did then, and as impartial opinion has judged him
everywhere in Europe since that time.

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 513
The operations in the Crimea were reneAved Avith sorae
vigor. The English army lost much by the death of its
brave and manly commander-in-chief. Lord Raglan. He
was succeeded by General Simpson, who had recently been
sent out to the Crimea as chief of the staff, and whose ad
rainistration during the short time that he held the cora
mand Avas at least well qualified to keep Lord Raglan's
raeraory green, and to prevent the regret for his death from
losing any of its keenness. The French army had lost its
first coraraander long before — the versatile, reckless, brill
iant soldier of fortune, St. Arnaud, whose broken health had
from the opening of the campaign prevented him from dis
playing any of the qualities which his earlier career gave
men reason to look for under his command. After St Ar
naud's death the comraand was transferred for awhile lo
General Canrobert, Avho, finding himself hardly equal to the
task, resigned it in favor of General Pelissier. The Sardin
ian contingent had arrived, and had given admirable proof
of its courage and discipline. On August 16th, 1855, the
Russians, under General Liprandi, made a desperate effort
to raise the siege of Sebastopol by an attack on the allied
forces. The attack was skilfully planned during the night,
and was made in great strength. The French divisions had
to bear the principal weight of the attack ; but the Sardin
ian contingent also had a prominent place in the resistance,
and bore themselves with splendid bravery and success.
The attempt ofthe Russians was corapletely foiled ; and all
Northern Italy was thrown into wild delight by the ucavs
that the flag of Piedmont had been carried to victory over
the troops of one great European Power, and side by side
Avilli those of Iavo others. The unanimous voice ofthe coun
try noAV approved and acclaimed the policy of Cavour,
Avhich had been sanctioned only by a very narroAv majority,
had been denounced from all sides as reckless and senseless,
and had been carried out in the face of the most tremen
dous difficulties. It was the first great illustration of Ca
vour's habitual policy of blended audacity and cool, far-see
ing judgment. It is a curious .fact that the suggestion to
send Sardinian troops to the Crimea did not originate in
Cavour's oavu busy brain. The first thought of it carae up
in the mind of a woraan, Cavour's niece. The great states-
22*

514 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
man Avas struck with the idea from the moment Avhen she
suggested it. He thought over it deeply, resolved to adopt
it, and carried it to triuraphant success.
The repulse of the Tchernaya Avas a heavy, indeed a fatal,
stroke for the Russians. The siege had been progressing
for sorae time with considerable activity. The French had
drawn their lines nearer and nearer to the besieged city.
The Russians, hoAvever, had also been throwing up fresh
Avorks, which brought them nearer to the lines of the allies,
and sometiraes raade the latter seera as if they Avere the be
sieged rather than the besiegers. The Malakoff tower and
the Maraelon battery in front of it becarae the scenes and
the objects of constant struggle. The Russians raade des
perate night sorties again and again, and were always re
pulsed. On June 7th the English assaulted the quarries in
front of the Redan, and the French attacked the Maraelon.
The attack on both sides was successful ; but it was follow
ed on the 18th of the sa,rae raonth by a desperate and whol
ly unsuccessful attack on the Redan and Malakoff batteries.
There Avas sorae misapprehension on the side of the French
coraraander, Avhich led to a lack of precision and unity in
the carrying out of the enterprise, and it becarae, therefore,
a failure on the part of both the allies. A pompous and ex
ulting address was issued by Prince Gortschakoff, in Avhich
he inforraed the Russian army that the eneray had been
beaten, driven back with enormous loss; and announced
that the hour was approaching " Avhen the pride of the ene
my Avill be lowered, their armies swept from our soil like
chaff blown away by the Avind."
j On September 5th the allies made an attack alraost simul
taneously upon the Malakoff and the Redan. It was agreed
that as soon as the French had got possession ofthe Mala
koff the English should attack the Redan, the hoisting of
the French flag on the forraer fort to be the signal for our
men to move. The French were brilliantly successful in
their part of the attack, and in a quarter of an hour from
the beginning of the attempt the flag of the erapire was
floating on the parapets. The English then at once ad
vanced upon the Redan ; but it was a very different task
from that Avhich the French had had to undertake. The
French were near the Malakoff; the English Avere very far

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 515
aAVay frora the Redan. The distance our soldiers had to
traverse left thera almost helplessly exposed lo the Russian
fire. They stormed the parapets of the Redan despite all
the difficulties of their attack; but they Avere not able to
hold the place. The attacking parly Avere far too small in
nurabers; re-enforceraents did not come in tirae; the English
held their oavu for an hour against odds that raight have
seeraed overAvhelming; bnt it Avas simply irapossible for
them to establish themselves in the Redan, and the remnant
of them that could Avithdraw had to retreat to the trenches.
It was only the old story of the Avar. Superb courage and
skill of officers and raen ; outrageously bad generalship.
The attack might have been renoAved that day, but the Eng
lish comraander-in-chief. General Simpson, declared with
naivete that the trenches were too crowded for him to do
anything. Thus the attack failed because there Avere too
few raen, and could not be renewed because there Avere too
many. The cautious coraraander resolved to raake another
atterapt the next raorning. But before the raorroAV came
there was nothing to attack. The Russians withdrew dur
ing the night from the south side of Sebastopol. A bridge
of boats had been constructed across the bay to connect the
north and the south sides of the city, and across this bridge
Prince Gortschakoff quietly AvithdreAv his troops. The boni-
bardraent kept up by the allies had been so terrible and so
close for several days, and their long-range guns were so en
tirely superior to anything possessed by or, indeed, known
to the Russians, that the defences ofthe south side were be
ing irreparably destroyed. The Russian general felt that it
Avould be irapossible for hira to hold the city much longer,
and that to reraain there was only useless Avasle of life.
But, as he said in his oavu despatch, "it is not Sebastopol
Avhich Ave have left to thera, but the b.urning ruins of the
town, Avhich we ourselves set fire to, having raaintalned the
honor of the defence in such a raanner that our great-grand
children raay recall with pride the remerabrance of it and
send it on to all posterity." It Avas sorae time before the al
lies could venture to enter the abandoned city. The arsenals
and powder-magazines were exploding, the flames were burst
ing out of every public building and every private house.
The Russians had made of Sebastopol another Moscow.

516 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN" TIMES.
With the close of that long siege, which had lasted nearly
a year, the war raay be said lo have ended. The brilliant
episode of Kars, its splendid deferice and ils final surrender,
was brought to ils conclusion, indeed, after the fall of Se
bastopol ; but, although it naturally attracted peculiar atten
tion in this country, it could have no eflect on the actual
fortunes of such a Avar. Kars was defended by Colonel
Fenwick Williaras, an English officer, Avho had been sent,
all too late, to reorganize the Turkish forces in Arraenia after
they had suffered a terrible defeat at the hands ofthe Rus
sians. Never, probably, had a raan a more difficult task
than that Avhich fell lo the lot of Williams. He had to con
tend against official stupidity, corruption, delay; he could
get nolhing done without having first to reraove whole moun
tains of obstruction, and to quicken into life and movement
an apathy which seemed like that of a paralyzed system.
He concentrated his efforts at last upon the defence of Kars,
and he held the place against overwhelming Russian forces,
and against an enemy far more appalling, starvation itself!
With his little garrison he repelled a tremendous attack of
the Russian army under General Mouravieff, in a battle that
lasted nearly seven hours, and as the result of Avhieh the
Russians left on the field more than five thousand dead. He
had to surrender at last to famine ; but the very articles
of surrender to Avliich the conqueror consented became the
trophy of Williams and his men. The garrison Avere allow
ed to leave the place with all the honors of Avar ; and, " as a
testimony to the valorous resistance made by the garrison
of Kars, the officers of all ranks are to keep their swords."
Williaras and his English companions — Colonel Lake, Major
Teesdale, Major Thompson, and Dr. SandAvith — had done as
much for the honor of their country at the close ofthe war
as Butler and Nasruyth had done at its opening. The cur
tain of that great drama rose and fell upon a splendid scene
of English heroism.
The war was virtually over. Austria had been exerting
herself throughout its progress in the interests, of peace, and
after the fall of Sebastopol she made a new effort Avith greater
success. Two ofthe belligerents were, indeed, uoav anxious
to be out of the struggle alraost on any terms. These were
France and Russia. The new Emperor of Russia was not

THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. 517
a man personally inclined for war; nor had he his father's
overbearing and indomitable temper. He could not but see
that his father had greatly overrated the military strength
and resources ofhis country. He had accepted the Avar only
as a heritage of necessary evil, Avith little hope of any good
to come of it to Russia; and he Avelcomed any chance of
ending it on fair terms. France, or at least her Emperor,
Avas all but determined to get back again into peace. If
England had held out, it is highly probable that she would
have had to do so alone. For this, indeed. Lord Palmerston
was fully prepared as a last resource, sooner than subrait to
terms Avhich he considered unsatisfactory. He said so, and
he raeant it. " I can fancy," Lord Palraerston Avrote to Lord
Clarendon in his bright, good-huraored way, " hoAV I should
be hooted in the House of Coraraons if I Avere to get up and
say that Ave had agreed to an imperfect and unsatisfactory
arrangeraent. ... I had better beforehand take the Chiltern
Hundreds." Lord Palraerston, however, had no occasion to
take the Chiltern Hundreds; the Congress of Paris opened
on February 26th, 1856, and on March 30th the treaty of
peace Avas signed by the plenipotentiaries of the Great Poav-
ers. Prussia had been admitted to the Congress, Avhich
therefore represented England, France, Austria, Prussia, Tur
key, and Sardinia.
The treaty began by declaring that Kars Avas to be re
stored to the Sultan, and that Sebastopol .and all olher
places taken by the allies Avere to be given back to Russia.
The Sublime Porte was admitted to participate in all the
advantages of the public law and system of Europe The
other Powers engaged to respect the independence and ter
ritorial integrity of Turkey. They guaranteed in cornraon
the strict observance of that engageraent, and announced
that they would in consequence consider any act tending
to a violation of it as a question of general interest. The
Sultan issued a finnan for ameliorating the condition ofhis
Christian subjects, and communicated to the other PoAvers
the purposes of the firman " emanating spontaneously from
his sovereign will." No right of interference, it was dis
tinctly specified, was given to the ' other Powers by lliis
concession on the Sultan's part. The article of the treaty
which referred to the Black Sea is of especial importance'.

518 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
"The Black Sea is neutralized; ils waters and its ports,
thrown open to the mercantile marine of every nation, are
forraally and in perpetuity interdicted to the flag of war,
either of the Powers possessing, its coasts or of any other
Power, with the exceptions mentioned in articles fourteen
and nineteen." The exceptions only reserved the right of
each of the Powers to have the sarae number of small arraed
vessels in the Black Sea to act as a sort of maritime police
and to protect the coasts. The Sultan and the Eraperor en
gaged to establish and maintain no military or maritime
arsenals in that sea. The navigation of the Danube Avas
tliroAvn open. In exchange for the tOAvns restored to him,
and in order raore fully to secure the navigation of the
Danube, the Emperor consented to a certain rectification
of his frontier in Bessarabia, the territory ceded by Russia
to be annexed to Moldavia under the suzerainty of the
Porle. Moldavia and Wallachia, continuing under the su
zerainty of the Sultan, Avere to enjoy all the privileges and
iratnunities they already possessed under the guarantee of
the contracting Powers, but Avith no separate right of inter
vention in their afiairs. The existing position of Servia was
assured. A convention respecting the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus was made by all the Powers. By this conven
tion the Sultan maintained the ancient rule prohibiting
ships of Avar of foreign Powers from entering the Straits
so long as the Porte is at peace. During time of peace the
Sultan engaged to adrait no foreign ships of war into the
Bosphorus or the Dardanelles. The Sultan reserved to hira
self the right, as in former times, of delivering firmans of
passage for light vessels under the flag of war eraployed in
the service of foreign Powers ; that is to say, of their diplo
matic missions. A separate convention as to the Black Sea
belAveen Russia and Turkey agreed that the contracting
parties should have in that sea six light steam -vessels of
not more than 800 tons, and four steam or sailing vessels
of not raore than 200 tons each.
Thus the controversies about the Christian provinces, the
Straits, and the Black Sea Avere believed to be settled. The
great central business of the Congress, however, Avas to as
sure the independence and the territorial integrity of Turkey,
now adraitted to a place in the faraily of European Slates.

THE CLOSE OP THE WAR. 519
As it did not seera clear to those most particularly con
cerned in bringing about this result that the arrangements
adopted in full congress had been sufficient to guarantee
Turkey from the enemy they most feared, there Avas a tri
partite treaty afterward agreed to betAveen England, Fr.ance,
and Austria. This document bears date in Paris, April 15tli,
1856; by it the contracting parties guaranteed jointly and
severally the independence and integrity of the Ottoman
empire, and declared that any infraction ofthe general treaty
of March 30th would be considered by them as casus belli.
It is probable that not one of the three contracting parties
was quite sincere in the making of this treaty. It appears
to have been done, at the instigation of Austria, much less
for the sake of Turkey than in order that she might have
some understanding of a special kind with some ofthe Great
Powers, and thus avoid the semblance of isolation Avhich she
now especially dreaded, having Russia to fear on the one
side, and seeing Italy already raising ils head on the olher.
England did not particularly care about the tripartite treaty,
Avhich Avas pressed upon her, and Avhich she accepted trust
ing that she might never have to act upon it; and France
accepted it Avithout any liking for it, probably Avithout the
least intention of ever acting on it.
The Congress Avas also the means of bringing about a
treaty between England and France and Sweden. By this
engagement SAveden undertook not to cede to Russia any
part of her present territories or any rights of fishery; and
the two other Powers agreed to maintain SAveden by force
against aggression.
The Congress of Paris Avas remarkable, too, for the fact
that the plenipotentiaries before separating came to an agree
ment on the subject of the right of search, and the rules gen
erally of maritime Avar. They agreed to the four following
declarations : " First, privateering is and remains abolished.
Second, the neutral flag covers enemies' goods, Avith the ex
ception of contraband of war. Third, neutral goods, with
the exception of contraband of war, are not liable to capture
under an enemy's flag. Fourth, blockades, in order to be
binding, must be effective ; that is to say, maintained by a
force sufficient really to prevent access to the eneray's coast."
At the opening of the war Great Britain had already virtu-

520 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
ally given up the claims she once made against neutrals, and
Avhich were indeed untenable in the face of modern civiliza
tion. She gladly agreed, therefore, to ratify, so far as her
declaration Avent, the doctrines Avhich Avould abolish forever
the principle upon which those and kindred clairas once
rested. It Avas agreed, however, that the rules adopted at
the Congress of Paris should only be binding on those Stales
that had acceded or should accede to them. The Govern
ment of the United States had previously invited the great
European PoAvers, by a circular, to assent to the broad doc
trine that free ships make free goods. At the instance of
England, it Avas answered that the adoption of that doctrine
must be conditional on America's renouncing the right of
privateering. To this the LTnited States raised some diffi
culty, and the declarations of the Congress were, therefore,
made without America's assenting to thera.
With many other questions, too, the Congress of Paris oc
cupied itself At the instigation of Count Cavour the con
dition of Italy was brought under its notice; and there cau
be no doubt that out of the Congress, and the part that Sar
dinia assumed as representative of Italian nationality, came
the great succession of events Avhich ended in the establish
ment of a King of Italy in the palace ofthe Quirinal The
adjustment of the condition of the Danubian Principalities,
too, engaged much attention and discussion, and a highly in
genious arrangement Avas devised for the purpose of keeping
those provinces, from actual union, so that they raight be co
herent enough to act as a rampart against Russia, Avithout
being so coherent as to cause Austria any iilarra for her own
soraewhat disjointed, not to say distracted, political system.
All these artificial and coraplex arrangeraents presently fell
to pieces, and the Principalities became in course of no very
long tirae an independent State under an hereditary prince.
But for the hour itwas hoped that the independence of Tur
key and the restriction of Russia, the security of the Chris
tian provinces, the neutrality of the Black Sea, and the clos
ing of the Straits against war vessels, had been bought by
the w.ar.
England lost some twenty-four thousand raen in the Avar;
of whora hardly a sixth fell in battle or died of wounds.
Cholera and other diseases gave grira account of the rest.

THE CLOSE OP THE WAR. 521
Forty-one raillions of money were added by the campaign
to the national debt. Not much, it will be seen, was there
in the Avay of mere military glory to show for the cost. Our
fleets had hardly any chance of making their poAver felt.
The ships of the allies took Bomarsund in the Baltic, and
Kinburn in the Black Sea, and borabarded several places ;
but the Avar was not one that gave a chance to a Nelson,
even if a Nelson had been at hand. Among the accidental
and unpleasant consequences of the campaign it is worth
mentioning the quarrel in Avhich England becarae involved
with the United States because of our Foreign Enlistraent
Act. At the close of December, 1854, Parliament hurriedly
passed an Act authorizing the formation of a Foreign Legion
for service in the war, and sorae Swiss and Gerraans were
recruited Avho never proved of the sUghtest service. Prus
sia and Araerica both coraplained that the zeal of our re
cruiting functionaries outran the liraits of discretion and of
law. One of our consuls was actually put on trial at Co
logne ; and Araerica raade a serious complaint of the enlist
ment of her citizens. England apologized ; but the Uniled
States were out of temper, and insisted on sending our min
ister, Mr. Crampton, away frora Washington, and sorae little
time passed before the friendly relations of the tAvo Slates
Avere completely restored.
So the Criraean War ended. It was one of the unlucky
accidents of the hour that the curtain fell in the Criraea
upon Avhat may be considered a check to the arms of Eng
land. There Avere not a few in this country who would
gladly have seen the peace negotiations fail, in order that
England might thereby have an opportunity of reasserting
her raiUtary supreraacy in the eyes of Europe. Never dur
ing the carapaign, nor for a long tirae before it, had England
been in so excellent a condition for war as she was when the
warlike operations suddenly carae to an end. The carapaign
had, indeed, only been a training-lirae for us after the un
nerving relaxation of a long peace. We had learned sorae
severe lessons frora it ; and not unnaturally there were im
patient spirits who chafed at the idea of England's having
uo opportunity of putting these lessons to account. It Avas
but a mere chance that prevented us from accomplishing
the capture of the Redan, despite the very serious disadvan-

522 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
tages with which we were hampered in our enterprise, as
corapared with our allies and their siraultaneous operation.
With just a little better generalship the Redan would have
been taken ; as it was, even with the generalship that we
had, the next attempt Avould not have been likely to fail.
But the Russians abandoned Sebastopol, and our principal
ally w.as even more anxious for peace than the eneray; and
Ave had no choice but to accept the situation. The war had
never been popular in France. It had never had even that
amount of popularity which the French people accorded to
their Emperor's laler enterprise, the campaign against Aus
tria. Louis Napoleon had had all he Avanled. He had
been received into the society of European sovereigns, and
he had made Avhat the French public were taught to consid
er a brilliant campaign. It is surprising to any one who
looks calraly back uoav on the history of the Crimean War
to find what an extravagant amount of credit the French
array obtained by its share in the operations. Even in this
country it was at the tirae an alraost universal opinion that
the French succeeded in everything they tried ; that their
systera Avas perfect ; that their tactics were beyond iraprove-
ment ; that they were a contrast to us in every respect.
Much of this absurd delusion was no doubt the result of a
condition of things among us Avhich no reasonable English
man would exchange for all the iraaginary triuraphs that a
court historiographer ever celebrated. It was due to the
fact that our systera was open to the criticisra of every pen
that chose to assail it. Not a spot in our railitary organi
zation escaped detection and exposure. Every detail Avas
keenly criticised ; every weakness was laid open to public
observation. We invited all the Avorld to see where avo
were failing, and what were the causes of our failure. Our
journals did the Avork for the railitary system of England
that Matthew Arnold says Goethe did for the political and
social systems of Europe — struck ils finger upon the weak
places, "and said thou ailest here and there." While the
official and officious journals of the French erapire Avere
sounding paeans to the honor of the Emperor and his suc
cesses, to his generals, his officers, his commissariat, his trans
port service, his soldiers, his camp, pioneers, and all, our lead
ing papers of all shades of politics were only occupied in

THE CLOSE OP THE WAR. 523
pointing out defects, and blaming those Avho did not instant
ly remedy them. Unpatriotic conduct, it may be said. Ay,
truly, if the conduct of the doctor be unfriendly Avhen he
tells that Ave have the symptoms of failing health, and warns
us to take some measures for rest and renovation. Some of
the criticisms ofthe English press were undoubtedly inaccu
rate and raslj. But their general effect was bracing, health
ful, successful Their immediate result was that which has
already been indicated — to leave the English array at the
close ofthe carapaign far better able to undertake prolonged
and serious operations of war than it had been at any time
during the campaign's continuance. For the effect of the
French system on the French army Ave should have to come
doAvn a little later in history, and study the workings of Ira-
perialism as they displayed theraselves in the confidence, the
surprises, and the collapse of 1870.
Slill, there was a feeling of disappointraent in this country
at the close of the war. This Avas partly due to dissatisfac
tion with the manner in which Ave had carried on the cam
paign, and partly to distrust of its political results. Our
soldiers had done splendidly; but our generals and our sys
tem had done poorly indeed. Only one first-class reputation
of a military order had come out of the war, and that Avas
by the coraraon consent of the world aAvarded to a Russian
-^to General Todleben, the defender of Sebastopol. No
new name Avas made on our side or on that of the French ;
and some promising or traditional reputations Avere shatter
ed. The political results of the war Avere to many rainds
equally unsatisfying. We had gone into the enterprise for
two things — to restrain the aggressive and aggrandizing
spirit of Russia, and to secure the integrity and indepen
dence of Turkey as a Power capable of upholding herself Avith
credit araong the States of Europe. Events which happen
ed raore than twenty years later will have to be studied be
fore any one can form a satisfactory opinion as to the degree
of success which attended each of these objects. For the
present, it is enough to say that there Avas not among
thoughtful rainds at the tirae a very strong conviction of
success either way. Lord Aberdeen had been modest in his
estimate of what the war would do. He had never had any
heart in it, and he was not disposed to exaggerate its be-

524 . A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
neficent possibilities. He estimated that it might perhaps
secure peace in the East of Europe for some twenty -five
years. His raodest expectation Avas prophetic. Indeed, it a
little overshot the mark. Twenty-two years after the close
of the Criraean carapaign Russia and Turkey were at war
again.

CLIAPTER XXIX.
THE LITEEATUEE OF THE EEIGN. FIEST SUEVET.
The close ofthe Crimean War is a great landmark in the
reign of Queen Victoria. This, therefore, is a convenient
opportunity to cast a glance back upon the literary achieve
ments of a period so markedly divided in political interest
from any that went before it The reign of Queen Victoria
is the first in which the constitutional and Parliamentary
system of government came fairly and corapletely into rec
ognition. It is also the reign which had the good fortune
to witness the great raodern development in all that relates
to practical invention, and more especially in the application
of science to the work of making comraunication rapid be
tween men. On land and ocean, in air and under the sea,
the history of rapid travel and rapid interchange of message
coincides with that of the present reign. Such a reign
ought to have a distinctive literature. So, in truth, it has.
Of course it is somewhat bold to predict long and distinct
renoAvn for contemporaries or contemporary schools. But
it may, perhaps, be assumed without any undue araount of
speculative veuturesonieness that the age of Queen Victoria
will stand out in history as the period of a literature as dis
tinct frora others as the age of Elizabeth or Anne ; although
not, perhaps, equal in greatness to the latter, and far indeed
below the former. At the opening of Queen Victoria's reign
a great race of literary men had come to a close. It is cu
rious to note how sharply and corapletely the literature of
Victoria separates itself from that of the era whose heroes
were Scott, Byron, and Wordsworth. Before Queen Vic
toria came to the throne, Scott, Byron, Coleridge, and Keats
were dead. Wordsworth lived, indeed, for many years after;
so did Southey and Moore ;, and Savage Landor died much

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 525
later still. But Wordsworth, Southey, Moore, and Landor
had completed their literary work before Victoria carae to
the throne. Not one of them added a cubit or an inch to
his intellectual stature from that time ; some of thera even
did work which distinctly proved that their day was done.
A new and fresh breath was soon after breathed into litera
ture. Nothing, perhaps, is more, reraarkable about the bet
ter literature of the age of Queen Victoria than its complete
severance from the leadership of that Avhich had gone before
it, and ils evidence of a fresh and genuine inspiration. It is
a somewhat curious fact, too, very convenient for the pur
poses of this history, that the literature of Queen Victoria's
time thus far divides itself clearly enough into Iavo parts.
The poets, novelists, and historians who were making their
fame with the beginning ofthe reign had done all their best
work and made their mark before these later years, and were
followed by a new and different school, drawing inspiration
from Avholly different sources, and challenging comparison
as antagonists rather than disciples.
We speak now only of literature. In science the raost re
raarkable developraents were reserved for the later years of
the reign. We use the words " remarkable developraents "
in the historical rather than in the scientific sense. It
Avould be hardly possible' to overrate the benefits conferred
upon science 'and the world by sorae of the scientific men
Avho made the best part of their farae in the earlier years of
the reign. Some great names at once start to the memory.
We think of Brewster, the experimental philosopher, who
combined in so extraordinary a degree the strictest severi
ty of scientific arguraent and forra with a freedora of fancy
and iraaginalion Avhich lent picturesqueness to all his illus
trations, and invested his later writings especially with an in
definable charm. We think of Michael Faraday, the chem
ist and electrician, Avho knew so well how to reconcile the
boldest researches into the heights and deeps of science with
the sincerest spirit of faith and devotion ; the raeraory of
whose delightful improvisations on the science he loved to
expound must remain forever with all who had the privilege
of hearing the unrivalled lecturer deliver his annual dis
courses at the Royal Institution. It is not likely that the
name of Sir John Herschel, a gifted meraber of a gifted fain-

526 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ily, would be forgotten by any one taking even the hastiest
glance at the science of our tirae — a faraily of whom it raay
truly be said, as the Gerraan prose-poet says of his dreara-
ing hero, that their eyes were among the stars and their
souls in the blue ether. Richard Owen's is, in another field
of knowledge, a great renown. Owen has been called the
Cuvier of England and the Newton of natural history, and
there cannot be any doubt that his researches and discov
eries as an anatomist and palaeontologist have marked a dis
tinct era in the development of the study to which he de
voted himself Hugh Miller, the author of " The Old Red
Sandstone" and "The Testimony ofthe Rooks," the devotee
and unfortunately the martyr of scientific inquiry, brought
a fresh and brilliant literary ability, almost as untutored
and spontaneous as that of his immortal countryman, Rob
ert Burns, to bear on the exposition of the studies to Avhich
he literally sacrificed his life. If, therefore, we say that the
later period of Queen Victoria's reign is raore reraarkable in
science than the forraer, it is not because Ave would assert
that the men of this later day contributed in richer raeasure
to the developraent of huraan knowledge, and especially of
practical science, than those of the earlier time ; but it Avas
in the later period that the scientific controversies sprang
up, and the school arose which will be, in the historian's
sense, most closely associated with the epocTi. * The value
ofthe labors of men like Owen and Faraday and Brewster
is often to be appreciated thoroughly by scientific students
alone. What they have done is to be recorded in the his
tory of science rather than in the general and popular his
tory of a day. But the school of scientific thought which
Darwin founded, and in which Huxley and Tyndall taught,
is the subject of a controversy which may be set down as
meraorable in the history of the world. All science and all
common life accepted Avith gratitude and without contest
the contributions raade to our knowledge by Faraday and
Brewster; but the theories of Darwin divided the scientific
world, the religious Avorld, and indeed all society, into two
hostile caraps, and so becarae an event in history which the
historian can no more pass over than, in telling of the groAVth
of the United States, he could omit any raention of the
great Civil War. Even in dealing with the growth of sci-

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 527
ence, it is on the story of battles that the attention of the
outer Avorld must, to the end of time, be turned with the
keenest interest. This is, one raight alraost think, a scien
tific laAV in itself, Avitli Avhich it would be Avasle of tirae to
quarrel. The earlier part of the reign Avas richer in literary genius
than the later has thus far been. Of course the dividing line
Avhich Ave draAV is loosely drawn, and may soraetimes appear
to be capricious. Some of those Avho won their fame in the
earlier part continued active workers, in certain instances
steadily adding to their celebrity, through the succeeding
years. The figure of Thomas Carlyle is familiar still to all
Avho live in the neighborhood of Chelsea. It was late in the
reign of Victoria that Stuart Mill carae out for the first tirae
on a public platforra in London, after a life divided betAveen
official Avork and the most various reading and study; a life
divided, too, between the seclusion of Blackheath and the
more poetic seclusion of Avignon, araong the nightingales
Avhose song was afterward so sweet to his dying ears. He
came, strange and shy, into a world Avhich knew hira only in
his books, and to which the gentle and grave deraeanor of
the shrinking and AVorn recluse seemed out of keeping Avith
the fearless brain and heart Avhich his career as a thinker
proved him to have. The reign had run for forty years when
Harriet Martineau Avas taken from that beautiful and ro
mantic home in the bosom of the Lake country to which her
celebrity had drawn so raany famous visitors for so long a
time. The renown of Dickens began with the reign, and his
dealh was sadly premature when he died in his quaint and
charming home at Gad's Hill, in the country of Falstaff and
Prince Hal, sorae thirty-three years after. Mrs. Browning
passed aAvay very preraaturely ; but it raight well be con
tended that the fame, or at least the popularity, of Robert
Browning belongs to this later part ofthe reign, even though
his greatest work belongs to the earlier. The author of the
most brilliant and vivid book of travel knoAvn in our modern
English, " Eothen," raade a sudden reflown in the earlier part
of the reign, and achieved a new and a different sort of re
pute as the historian of the Criraean War during the later
part. Still, if Ave take the close of the Crimean War as an
event dividing the reign thus far into two parts, we shall

528 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
find that there does seem a tolerably clear division between
the literature of the two periods. We have, therefore, put
in this first part of our history the men and women who had
distinctly made their mark in these former years, and who
would have been famous if from that time out they had done
nothing more It is with this division borne in mind that
Ave describe the reign as more remarkable in the literature
of the earlier and in the science of these later years. It is
not rash to say that, although poets, historians, and novel
ists of celebrity carae afterward, and may come yet, the lit
erature of our time gave its raeasure, as the French phrase
is, in that earlier period.
Alike in ils earlier passages and in its laler the reign is
rich in historical labors. The names of Grote, Macaulay,
and Carlyle occur at once to the raind Avhen we survey the
former period. Mr. Grole's history of Greece is, indeed, a
monumental piece of work. It has all that patience and ex
haustive care which principally mark the German historians,
and it has an earnestness Avhich is not to be found generally
in the representatives of what Carlyle has called the Dryas
dust school. Grote threw hiraself corapletely into the life
and the politics of Athens. It was said of hira with some
truth that he entered so thoroughly into all the political
life of Greece as to becorae now and then the partisan of
this or that public raan. His own practical acquaintance
with politics was undoubtedly of great service to hira. We
have all grown somewhat tired of hearing the words of
Gibbon quoted in which he tells us that " the discipline and
evolutions of a modern battalion gave me a clearer notion
of the phalanx and the legion ; and the captain of the Hamp
shire Grenadiers (the reader may smile) has not been use
less to the historian of the Roman Empire." Assuredly the
practical knowledge of politics which Grote acquired during
the nine or ten years of his Parliamentary career was of
much service to the historian of Greece. It has been said,
indeed, of him that he never could quite keep from regard
ing the struggles of parties in Athens as exactly illustrating
the principles disputed between the Liberals and the Tories
in England. It does not seem to us, however, that his polit
ical career affected his historical studies in any way but by
throwing greater vitality and nervousness into his descrip-

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 529
tions of Athenian controversies. The difference between a
man who has mingled anyAvhere in the active life of politics,
and one who only knows that life from books and the talk
of others, is specially likely to shoAv itself in such a study as
Grote's history. His political training enabled Grote to see
in the statesmen and soldiers of the Greek peoples raen,
and not trees, walking. It taught him how to make the dry
bones live. Mr. Grote began life as what would have been
called in later years a Philosophical Radical. He was a
close friend of Stuart Mill, although he did not always agree
with Mill ill his opinions. During his Parliamentary career
he devoted hiraself, for the most part, to the advocacy of the
systera of vote by ballot. He brought forward a motion on
the subject every session, as Mr. Charles Villiers did at one
time for the repeal of the Corn-laws. He only gave up the
House of Commons in order that he might be free to com
plete his great history. He did not retain all his radical
opinions to the end ofhis life so thoroughly as Mill did, but
OAvned with a certain regret that in many AVays his views
had undergone modification, and that he grew less and less
ardent for political change, less hopeful, we raay suppose, of
the amount of good to be done for human happiness and
virtue by the spread and movement of what are now called
advanced opinions. It must be owned that it takes a very
vigorous and elastic raind to enable a man to resist the
growth of that natural and pkysical tendency toward con
servatism or reaction which comes with advancing years.
It is as Avell for society, on the Avhole, that this should be so,
and that the elders, as a rule, should form themselves into a
guard to challenge very pertinaciously all the eager claims
and demands for change raade by hopeful and restless youth.
No one would more readily have admitted the advantage
that raay corae from this coraraon law of life than Grote's
friend. Mill ; although Mill remained to the close of his ca
reer as full of hope in the raovement of liberal opinions as
he had been in his boyhood ; slill, to quote from some noble
words of Schiller, " reverencing as a man the drearas of his
youth." In his laler years Grote withdrew from all connec
tion Avith active political controversy, and was, indeed, curi
ously ignorant of the very bearings of some of the greates'i.
questions around the settlement of Avhich the passions and
L— 23

530 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
interests of another hemisphere were brought into fierce and
vast dispute.
We have already had occasion more than once to speak
of Macaulay, the great Parliamentary debater and states
man. It is the less necessary to say much of hira as a
historian ; for Macaulay will be reraerabered rather as a
man who could do many things brilliantly than as the au
thor of a history. Yet Macaulay's "History of England,"
Avhatever ils defects, is surely entitled to rank as a great
work. We do not know Avhether grave scholars will regard
it as to the honor ofthe book or the reverse, that it was by
far the most popular historical essay ever produced by an
Englishman. The successive volumes of Macaulay's "His
tory of England " were run after as the Waverley Novels
might have been at the zenith of their author's fame. Liv
ing England t.alked for the time of nothing but Macaulay's
"England." Certainly history had never before in our
country been treated in a style so Avell calculated to ren
der it at o'nce 'popular, fascinating, and fashionable. Every
chapter glittered with vivid and highly colored description.
On almost every page was found some sentence of glowing
eloquence or gleaming antithesis, which at once lent itself
to citation and repetition. Not one word of it could have
failed to convey its meaning. The Avhole stood out in an
atraosphere clear, bright, and incapable of misty illusion as
that of a Swiss lake in sumraer. No shade or faint haze
of a doubt appeared anyAvhere The admirer of Macaulay
had all the comfort in his studies that a votary of the Ro
man Catholic Church may have. He had an infallible guide.
He had no need to vex hiraself with doubt, speculation, or
even conjecture. This absolute certainty about everything
was, beyond question, one great source of Macaulay's popu
larity. That resolute conviction which readers of a raore
intellectual class are especially inclined to distrust has the
same charra for the ordinary reader that it has for children,
who never care to hear any story if they suppose the nar
rator does not know all about it in such a way as to render
question or contradiction irapossible. But although this
Avas one ofthe causes of Macaulay's popularity, it Avas not
the most substantial cause. The brilliancy of his style, the
variety and aptness of his illuslrationSj and the animated

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 531
manner in Avhich he contrived to set his ideas of men, places,
and events before the reader — these Avere among the sources
of success to Avhich his admirers must look with the greatest
satisfaction. It is of late somcM'hat the fashion to disparage
Macaulay. He Avas a popular idol so long that in the natu
ral course of things it has come to him to have his title to
Avorship, or even to faith, very generally questioned. To
be unreasonably adraired by one generation is to incur the
certainty of being unreasonably disparaged by the next. The
tendency of late is to assurae that because Macaulay Avas
brilliant he raust necessarily be superficial. But Macaulay
was not superficial. He was dograatic; he Avas full of prej
udice ; he was in all respects a better advocate than judge;
he was wanting in the calm, irapartial balancing faculty
Avhich a historian ofthe highest class ought to have; but
he was not superficial. No raan could raake out a better
and stronger case for any side of a controversy which he
Avas led to espouse. He was not good at draAviug or explain
ing complex characters. He loved, indeed, to picture con
tradictory and paradoxical characters. Nolhing delighted
him more than to throw off an animated description of some
great person, who having been shown in the first instance
to possess one set of qualities in extreme prominence, was
then shown to have a set of exactly antagonistic qualities in
quite equal prominence. This was not describing a complex
character. It Avas merely embodying a paradox. It was to
" solder close," as Tiraon of Athens says, " impossibilities and
make them kiss." There Avas something too much of trick
about this, although it was often done with so much power
as to bewilder the better judgraent of the calraest reader.
But Avhere Macaulay happened to be right in his view of a
man or an event, he made his convictions clear with an im-
pressiveness and a brilliancy such as no raodern writer has
surpassed. The world OAves hira something for having pro
tested by precept and example against the absurd notion
that the " dignity of history " required of historians to be
grave, pompous, and dull. He was not a Gibbon, but he
wrote with all Gibbon's delight in the picturesqueness of a
subject, and Gibbon's resolve to fascinate as well as to in
struct his readers. Macaulay's history tries too rauch to be
a historical portrait gallery. The dangers of such a style

532 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
do not need to be pointed out. They are amply illustrated
in Macaulay's sparkling pages. But it is something to know
that their splendid qualities are far more conspicuous still
than their defects. Perhaps very recent readers of history,
too, may feel disposed to be grateful to Macaulay for having
written without any profound philosophical theory to ex
pound. He told history like a story. He warmed up as he
went along, and grew enamored, as a roraancisl does, of this
character and angry with that other. No doubt he fre
quently thus did harm to the trustworthiness of his narra
tive where it had to deal with disputed questions, although
he probably enhanced the charms ofhis animated style. But
he di'd not set out Avith a mission to expound some theory
as to a race or a tendency, and therefore pledged beforehand
to bend all facts of the physical, the political, and the raoral
world to the duty of bearing witness for hira, and proclaira-
ing the truth of his raessage to raankind.
Macaulay Avas not exactly Avhat the Gerraans would call
a many - sided man. Lie never was anything but the one
Macaulay in all he did or attempted. But he did a great
many things well Nothing that he ever attempted was
done badly. He Avas as successful in the composition of a
pretty valentine for a little girl as he Avas in his history, his
essays, his "Lays of Ancient Rorae," and his Parliaraentary
speeches. In everything he atterapted he went very near to
that success which true genius achieves. In everything he
just fell short of that achieveraent. But he so nearly at
tained it that the reader who takes up one of Macaulay's
books or speeches for the first tirae is alraost sure to believe,
under the influence ofthe instant irapression, that the genu-
\ie inspiration is there. Macaulay is understood to have for
a long time thought of writing a romance. If he had done
so, we may feel sure that many intelligent readers would
have believed, on the first perusal of it, that it was almost
on a level with Scott, and only as the first impression gradu
ally faded, and they carae to read it over again, have found
out that Macaulay was not a Scott in fiction any more than
he was a Burke in eloquence or a Gibbon in history. He
filled for a long time a larger space in the public raind than
any other literary man in England, and his style greatly af
fected literary men. But his influence did not pierce deeply

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 533
down into public feeling and thought as that of one or two
other men ofthe same period undoubtedly did, and does still.
He did not impress the very soul of English feeling as Mr.
Carlyle, for example, has done.
No influence suffused the age frora first to last raore strong
ly than that of Thoraas Carlyle. England's very way of
thinking Avas at one tirae profoundly affected by Carlyle.
He introduced the English people to the great Gerraan au
thors, very rauch as Lessing had introduced the Gerraans to
Shakspeare and the old English ballads. Carlyle wrote in
a style which Avas so little like that ordinarily accepted as
English, that the best thing to be said for it was that it was
not exactly Gerraan. At one tirae it appeared to be so cora
pletely moulded on that of Jean Paul Richter, that not a few
persons doubted wheiher the new-comer really had any ideas
of his own. But Carlyle soon proved that he could think
for himself; and he very often proved it by thinking Avrong.
There was in hira, a sirong, deep vein of the poetic. Long
after he had evidently settled down to be a Avriter of prose
and nothing else, it still seeraed to raany that his true sphere
was poetry. The grim seriousness which he had taken from
his Scottish birth and belongings was made hardly less grim
by the irony Avhich continually gleamed or scowled through
it. Truth and force were the deities of Carlyle's especial
worship. " The eternal verities " sat on the top of his Olyhi-
pus. To act out the truth in life, and make others act it out,
Avould require some force more strong, ubiquitous, and pene
trating than Ave can well obtain from the sIoav deliberations
of an ordinary Parliaraent, with ils debates and divisions and
everlasting formulas. Therefore, to enforce his eternal veri
ties, Carlyle always preached up and yearned for the strong
man, the poem in action, Avhom the world in our day had not
found, and perhaps could not appreciate. If this man were
found, it would be his duty and his privilege to drill us all as
in some vast carap, and compel us to do the right thing to his
dictation. It cannot be dou'bted that this preaching ofthe di
vine right offeree had a serious and soraetiraes a very detri
mental effect upon the public opinion of England. It degener
ated often into affectation, alike Avith the teacher and the dis
ciples. Bnt the influence of Carlyle in preaching earnestness
and truth, in art and letters and everything else, had a healthy

534 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
and very reraarkable effect entirely outside the regions of
the moralist, who in this country at least has ahvays taught
the same lesson. It is not probable that individual men
were made much more truthful in England by Carlyle's glo-
riflcation of the eternal verities than they Avould have been
Avithout it. But his influence on letters and art was pecul
iar, and Avas not evanescent. Carlyle is distinctly the found
er of a school of history and a school of art. In the raean
while we may regard him simply as a great aiithor, and treat
his books as literary studies, and not as gospels. Thus re
garded, we shall find that he writes in a style which every
sober critic would feel bound to conderan, but Avhich nev
ertheless the soberest critic is forced continually, despite of
hiraself and his rules, to admire. For out of the strange jar
gon Avhich he seems to have deliberately adopted, Carlyle
has undoubtedly constructed a wonderfully expressive me
dium in which to speak his words of remonstrance and ad
monition. It is a mannerisra, but a mannerisra into ivhich
a great deal of the individuality of the raan seems to have
entered. It is not wholly affectation or superficiality. Car
lyle's OAvn soul seeras to speak out in it raore freely and
strenuously than it Avould in the ordinary English of socie
ty and literature. No tongue, says Richter, is eloquent save
in its own language; and this strange language Avhich he
has made for himself does really appear to be the native
tongue of Carlyle's powerful and melancholy eloquence.
Carlyle is endowed Avilh a marvellous power of depicting
stormy scenes and rugged, daring natures. At times strange,
Avild, piercing notes of the pathetic are heard through his
strenuous and fierce bursts of eloquence, like the Avail of a
clarion thrilling belAveen the blasts of a storm. His history
ofthe French Revolution is history read by lightning. Of
this remarkable book .Tohn Stuart Mill supplied the prinoi-
pal material; for Mill at one time thought of writing a his
tory ofthe Revolution himself, but, givingup the idea, placed
the materials he had collected at the service of Carlyle. Car
lyle used the materials in his own Avay. He is indebted to
no one for his method of making up his history. With all
its defects, the book is one of the very finest our age has
produced. Its characters stand out like portraits by Rem
brandt. Its crowds live and raove. The picture of Mira-

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 535
beau is Avorthy of the hand of the great Gerraan poet who
gave us Wallenstein. But Carlyle's style has introduced
into this country a thoroughly false method of Avriting his
tory. It is a method Avhich has little regard for the "dry
light " which Bacon approved. It works under the varying
glare of colored lights. Its purpose is to express scorn of
one set of ideas and men, and admiration of another. Given
the man we admire, then all his doings and Avays raust be
adrairable; and the historian proceeds to work this princi
ple out. Carlyle's Mirabeau is as truly a creature of ro
mance .as the Monte Christo of Dumas. This way of go
ing to work became even raore apparent, as the mannerisras
became more incessant, in Carlyle's later writings — in the
" Frederick the Great," for example. The reader dares not
trust such history. It is of little value as an instructor in
the lessons of the times and events it deals with. It only
tells us what Carlyle thought of the tiraes and the events,
and the raen Avho were the chief actors in thera. Nor does
Carlyle bequeath many new ideas to the world which he
stirred by his stormy eloquence. That falsehood cannot pre-
A'ail over truth in the end, nor simulacra do the work of re
alities, is not, after all, a lesson Avhich earth can be said to
have Availed for up lo the nineteenth century and the com
ing of Carlyle ; and yet it would be hard to point to any
other philosophical outcome of Mr. Carlyle's teaching. His
A'alue is in his eloquence, his poAver, his passion, and pathos;
his stirring and life-like pictures of human characler, Avhether
faithful to the historical originals or not; and the vein of
poetry Avhich runs through all his best writings, and some
tiraes raakes even the least sympathetic reader believe that
he has to do with a genuine poet.
In strongest contrast to the influence of Carlyle may be
set the influence of Mill. Except where the professed teach
ers of religious creeds are concerned, there can be found no
other man in the reign of Victoria who had anything like the
influence over English thought that Mill and Carlyle pos
sessed. Mill was a devoted believer in the possibilities of
human nature and of libertj'-. If Rousseau Avas the apostle
of affiiction,Mill was surely the apostle of freedom. He be
lieved that human society might be brought to soraething
not far reraoved from perfection by the influence of educa-

536 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
tion and of freedom acting on the best impulses and disci
plining the emotions of raen and women. Mill Avas a strange
blending of political economist and sentimentalist. It was
not altogether in huraorous exaggeration that somebody said
he Avas Adam Smith and Petrarch in one. The curious se
clusion in which he Avas brought up by his father, the won
derful discipline of study to which in his very infancy he
was subjected, would have made soraething strange and
striking out of a coraraonplace nature ; and Mill was in any
case a raan of genius. There was an antique siraplicity and
purity about his life which reraoved him altogether from the
ways of ordinary society. But the defect of his teaching as
an ethical guide was that he raade too little allowance for
the influence of ordinary society. He always seemed to act
on the principle that with true education and noble example
the raost commonplace men could be persuaded to act like
heroes, and to act like heroes ahvays. The great service,
which he rendered to the world in his " Political Econoray "
and his "System of Logic" is of course independent ofhis
controverted theories and teachings. These works wonld,
if they were all he had written, place him in the very front
rank of English thinkers and instructors. But these only
represent half of his influence on the public opinion of his
tirae. His faith in the principle of huraan liberty led hira to
originate the movement for Avhat is called the emancipation
of women. Opinions avIU doubtless long differ as to the ad
vantages of the raovement, but there can be no possible dif
ference of judgment as to the power and fascination of MUl's
advocacy and the influence he exercised. He did not suc
ceed, in his admirable essay " On Liberty," in establishing
the rule or principle by which men may decide between the
right of free expression of opinion and the right of auihority
to ordain silence. Probably no precise boundary line can
ever be drawn ; and in this, as in so much else, law-makers
and peoples must be content Avith a coraproraise. But Mill's
is at least a noble plea for the fullest possible liberty of ut
terance ; and he has probably carried the arguraent as far as
it ever can be carried. There never was a more lucid and
candid reasoner. The most difficult and abstruse questions
became clear by the light of his luminous exposition. Sorae
thing, too, of human interest and sympathy became infused

LITERATURE QF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 537
into the most seemingly arid discussions of political econ
omy by the virtue of his emotional and half poetic nature.
It Avas well said of him that he reconciled political economy
Avilh human feeling. His style Avas clear as light. Mill, said
one of his critics, lives in light. Sometimes his language
rose to a noble and dignified eloquence ; here and there are
passages of a grave, keen irony. Into the questions of relig
ious belief Aviiich arise in connection Avilh his works it is no
part of our business to enter ; but it may be remarked that
his latest Avrilings seem to show that his views Avere under
going much modification in his closing years. His oppo
nents would have alloAved as readily as his supporters that
no raan could haA'e been more sincerely inspired with a de
sire to arrive at the truth ; and that none could be raore res
olute to follow the course which his conscience told hira to
be right. He carried this resolute principle into his warm
est controversies, and it Avas often reraarked that he usually
began by stating the case of the adversary better than the
adversary could have done it for hiraself. Applying to his
own character the same truthful method of inquiry which he
applied to others. Mill has given a very accurate description
of one, at least, of the qualities by which he was able to ac
complish so much. He tells us in his Autobiography that
he had from an early period considered that the most useful
part he could take in the domain of thought was that of an
interpreter of original thinkers, and mediator between them
and the public. " I had always a humble opinion of my own
powers as an original thinker, except in abstract science
(logic, metaphysics, and the theoretic principles of political
economy and politics), but thought myself much superior to
raost of ray conteraporaries in willingness and ability to learn
from everybody ; as I found hardly any one who made such
a point of exaraining what was said in defence of all opin
ions, however new or however old, in the conviction that
even if they were errors there might be a substratum of truth
underneath them, and that in any case the discovery of what
it was that made them plausible would be a benefit to
truth." This was not assuredly Mill's greatest merit, but it
was, perhaps, his most peculiar quality. He was an original
thinker, despite his own sincere disclaimer; but he founded
no new system. He could be trusted to examine and ex-
23*

538 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
pound any system with the most perfect fairness and can
dor; and, even where it was least in harmony Avith his own
ideas, to do the fullest justice to every one of its clairas.
Harriet Martineau's career as a AVOman of letters and a
teacher began, indeed, before the reign of Queen Victoria, but
it was carried on almost Avithout interruption during neariy
forty years of the reign. She was political economist, novel
ist, historian, biographer, and journalist ; and in no path did
she fail to make her mark. Few woraen could have turned
to the occupations of a political writer under greater phys
ical disadvantages; and no raan in this line of life, however
well furnished by nature with physical and intellectual qual
ifications for success, could have done better Avork. She
wrote sorae exquisite little stories, and one or two novels of
more ambitious character. It is praise enough to give them
when we say that, although fiction certainly was not work
for which she Avas most especially qualified, yet Avliat she
did seems to be destined to live and hold a place in our lit
erature She was, so far as Ave know, the only Englishwom
an Avho ever achieved distinct and great success as a writer
of leading articles for a daily newspaper. Her strong preju
dices and dislikes prevent her from being always regarded
as a trnslAvorthy historian. Lier "History of the Thirty
Years' Peace" — for it may be regarded as wholly hers, al
though Charles Knight began it — is a work full of vigorous
thought and clear description, Avith here and there passages
of genuine eloquence. But it is marred in its effect as a
trustworthy narrative by the manner in which the authoress
yields here and there to inveterate and wholesale disUkes;
and sometimes, though not so often or so markedly, to an
overAvi'Ought hero-worship. Miss Martineau had, to a great
extent, an essentially masculine mind. She was often re
proached Avith being unferainine; and assuredly she would
have been surprised to hear that there was anything woman
ish in her way of criticising public events and raen. Yet in
reading her "History" one is soraetiraes araused to find that
that partisanship which is commonly set down as a specially
feminine quality affects her estimate of a statesraan. Hers
is not by any means the Carlylean way of starling with a
theory and finding all virtue and glory in the raan who
seems to embody it, and all b.aseness and stupidity in his

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 539
opponents. But Avhen she takes a dislike to a particular
individual, she seeras to assurae that where he was wrong
he must have been wrong of set malign purpose, and that
Avhere he chanced to be in the right it was in mistake, and
in despite ofhis oavu greater inclination to be iu the wrong.
It is fortunate that these dislikes are not many, and also
that they soon show themselves, and therefore cease to be
seriously misleading. In all olher respects the book Avell
deserves careful study. The life of the Avoman is a study
still raore deeply interesting. Others of her sex there Avere
of greater genius, even in her OAvn tirae; but no English-
Avoraan ever foUoAved Avith such perseverance and success a
career of literary and political labor.
"The blue-peler has long been flying at ray foreraast, and,
noAV that I ara in ray ninety-second year, I raust soon expect
the signal for sailing." In this quaint and cheery Avay Mary
Somerville, many years after the period at Avhich we have
now arrived in this Avork, described her condition and her
quiet Availing for death. No one surely could have better
earned the right to die by the labors of a long life devoted
to the education and the improveraent of her kind. Mary
Somerville has probably no rival araong woraen as a scientif
ic scholar. Lier summary of Laplace's "M^canique Celeste,"
her treatise on the "Connection ofthe Physical Sciences,"
and her " Physical Geography," would suffice to place any
student, man or Avonian, in the foreraost rank of scientific ex
pounders. The "Physical Geography" is the only one of
Mrs. Soraerville's remarkable works which was published in
the reign of Queen Victoria ; but the publication of tlie oth
er tAVO preceded the opening of the reign by so short a time,
and her career and her fame so entirely belong to the Vic
torian period, that, even if the " Physical Geography " had
never been published, she must be included in'this history.
"I Avas intensely ambilidtis," Mrs. Soraerville says of herself
in her earlier days, "to excel in soraething, for I felt in ray
OAvn breast that AVoraen Avere capable of taking a higher
place in creation than that assigned to thera in ray early
days,,Avhich Avas very low." It is not exaggeration to say
that Mrs. Soraerville di^tinclly raised the Avorld's estiraate
of Avoraan's capacity for the severest and the loftiest scien
tific pursuits. She possessed the raost extraordinary power

540 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
of concentration, araounting to an entire absorption in the
subject Avhich she happened to be studying, to the exclusion
of all disturbing sights and sound.s. She had in a suprerae
degree that whicli Carlyle calls the first quality of genius,
an imraense capacity for taking trouble. She had also, hap
pily for herself, an imraense capacity for finding enjoyraent
in almost everything: iu new places, people, and thoughts;
in the old familiar scenes and friends and associations. Hers
Avas a noble, calra, fully-rounded life. She worked as stead
fastly aud as eagerly in her scientific studies as Harriet Mar
tineau did with her economics and her politics ; but she had
a more cheery, less sensitive, less eager and impatient nature
than Harriet Martineau. She was able to pursue her most
intricate calculations after she had passed her ninetieth year;
and one of her chief regrets in dying was that she should
not " live to see the distance of the earth frora the sun de
termined bythe transit of Venus, and the source ofthe most
renowned of rivers, the discovery of Avliich Avill immortalize
the name of Dr. Livingstone."
The paths of the two poets who first sprang into fame in
the present reign are strangely remote frora each other.
Mr. Tennyson and Mr. Browning are as unlike in style aud
choice of subject, and indeed in the whole spirit of their
poetry, as Wordsworth and Byron. Mr. Tennyson deals
with incident and picturesque forra, and graceful legend,
and with so much of doubt and thought and yearning mel
ancholy as would belong to a refined and cultured intellect
under no greater stress or strain than the ordinary chances
of life araong educated Englishraen might be expected lo
impose. He has revived with great success the old Arthu
rian legends, and made them a part ofthe living literature of
England. But the knights and ladies whom he paints are
refined, graceful, noble, without roughness, Avithout wild or,
at all eveuts, coraplex and distracting passions. It raay per
haps be said that Tennyson has taken for his province all
the beauty, all the nobleness, all .the feeling that lie near to
or on the surface of life and of nature. His object might
seem to be that which Lessing declared the true object of
all art, "to delight;" but it is to delight in a somewhat nar-
roAver sense than was the meaning of Lessing. Beauty, rael
ancholy, and repose are the eleraents of Tennyson's poetry.

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 541
There is no storm, no conflict, no complication. Mr. BroAvn-
ing, on the other hand, delights in perplexed problems of
character and life — in studying the effects of strange con
trasting forces of passion coming into play under peculiar
and distracting conditions. All that lies beneath the sur
face ; all that is out of the coraraon track of eraotion ; all
that is possible, that is poetically conceivable, but that the
outer air and the daily walks of life never see, this is what
specially attracts Mr. Browning. In Tennyson a knight of
King Arthur's mythical court has the emotions of a pol
ished English gentleman of our day, and nothing more. Mr.
Browning Avould prefer, in treating of a polished English
gentleman of our day, to exhibit him under some conditions
which should draw out in him all the strange elementary
passions and complications of emotion that lie far down in
deeps below the surface of the best ordered civilization.
The tendency of the one poet is naturally to fall now and
then into the sweetly insipid; ofthe other, to Avander aAvay
into the tangled regions of the grotesque. It is, perhaps,
only natural that under such conditions the one poet should
be profoundly concerned for beauty of form, and the latter
almost absolutely indifferent to it. No poet has more fin
ished beauty of style and exquisite charm of melody than
Tennyson. None certainly can be more often Avanling in
grace of forra and delight of soft sound than Mr. Browning.
There are raany passages and even many poems of BroAvn-
ing which show that the poet could be melodious if he
would ; but he seems sometimes as if he took a positive de
light in perplexing the reader's ear with harsh, untuneful
sounds. Mr. Browning comraonly allows the study of the
purely psychological to absorb too rauch of his moods and
ofhis genius. It has a fascination for hira which he is seem
ingly unable to resist. He makes of his poems too often
raere searchings into strange deeps of huraan character and
human error. He seldom abandons himself altogether to
the inspiration ofthe poet; he hardly ever deserves the defi
nition of the minstrel given in Goethe's ballad who " sings
but as the song-bird sings." Moreover, Mr. Browning has
an almost morbid taste for the grotesque ; he is not unfre
quently a sort of poetic Callot. It has to be added that Mr.
Browning is seldom easy to understand, and that there are

542 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
times Avhen he is only to be understood at the expense of as
rauch thought and study as one might give to a controvert
ed passage in an ancient author. This is a defect of art, and
a very serious defect. The more devoted of Mr. Browning's
admirers will tell us, no doubt, that the poet is not bound lo
supply us with brains as well as poetry, and that if we can
not understand what he says it is the fault siraply of our
stupidity. But an ordinary man who finds that lie can un
derstand Shakspeare and Milton, Dryden and Wordsworth,
Byron and Keats Avithout any trouble, raay surely be ex
cused if he does not set doAvn his difficulty about sorae of
BroAvning's poems wholly to the account ofhis own dulness.
It may well be doubted Avhether there is any idea so subtle
that ifthe poet can actually realize it in his oavu mind clear
ly for himself, the English language will uot be found capa
ble of expressing it Avith sufficient clearness. The language
has been raade to do this for the raost refined reasonings of
philosophical schools, for transcendenlalists and utilitarians,
for psychologists and metaphysicians. No intelligent per
son feels any difficulty in understanding what Mill, or Her
bert Spencer, or Huxley means; and it can hardly be said
that the ideas Mr. Browning desires to convey to his readers
are more difficult of exposition than some of those which
the authors Ave name have contrived to set out with a while
light of clearness all round thera. The plain truth is that
Mr. BroAvning is a great poet, in spite of some of the worst
defects that ever slood between a poet and popularity. He
is a great poet by virtue of his commanding genius, his fear
less imagination, his penetrating pathos. He strikes an iron
harp-string. In certain of his moods his poetry is like that
ofthe terrible lyre in the Aveird old Scottish ballad, the lyre
that Avas made of the murdered maiden's breastbone, and
which told its fearful story in tones "that Avould melt a
heart of stone." In strength and depth of passion and
})alhos, in Avild humor, in emotion of every kind, Mr. Brown
ing is much superior lo Mr. Tennj'son. The poet-laureate
is the completer man. Mr. Tennyson is, beyond doubt, the
most complete of the poets of Queen Victoria's time. No
one else has the sarae combination of melody, beauty of
description, culture, and intellectual pOAver. He has sweet
ness and strength in exquisite combination. If a just balance

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 543
of poetic powers Avere to be the crown of a poet, then un
doubtedly Mr. Tennyson must be proclaimed the greatest
English poet of our tirae. The reader's estimate of BroAvn-
ing and Tennyson Avill probably be decided by his predilec
tion for the higher effort or for the raore perfect art Brown
ing's is surely the higher aira in poetic art; but ofthe art
Avhich he essays Tennyson is by far the completer master.
Tennyson has, undoubtedly, thrown away much ofhis sweet
ness and his exquisite grace of forra on raere triflings and
pretty conceits ; and perhaps as a retribution those poeras
ofhis which are most familiar in the popular mouth are just
those whicli least do justice to his genuine strength and in
tellect. The cheap sentiment of " Lady Clara Vere de Vere,"
the yet cheaper pathos of" The May Queen," are in the minds
of thousands the choicest representation of the genius ofllie
poet who Avrote "In Meraoriara" and the "Morte d'Arthur."
Mr. Browning, on the other hand, has chosen to court the
approval of his time on terras of such disadvantage as an
orator niight Avho insisted in addressing an asserablage in
some tongue Avhich they but imperfectly understood. It is
the fault of Mi'. Browning himself if he has for his only au
dience and admirers men and Avoraen of culture, and misses
altogether that broad public audience to which most poets
have chosen to sing, and Avhich all true poets, one Avould
think, raust desire to reach Avith their song. It is, on the
other hand, assuredly Mr. Tennyson's fault if he has by his
too frequent condescension to the drawing-room, and even
the young ladies' school, made men and women of cult
ure forget for the moment his best things, and credit him
with no higher gift than that of singing "virginibus pueris-
que." One quality ought to be mentioned as common to
these tAVO poets Avho have so little else in common. They
are both absolutely faithful to nature and truth in their
pictures ofthe earth and its scenes and seasons. Alraost all
the great poets ofthe p.ast age, even including Wordsworth
himself, Avere iioav and then content to generalize nature ; to
take some things for granted ; to use their memory, or the
eyes of others, rather than their oavu eyes, Avhen they had to
describe changes on leaf, or sky, or Avater. It is the charac
teristic of Tennyson and BroAvning that they deal with nat
ure in a spirit ofthe most faithful loyalty. Not the branch

544 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
of a tree, nor the cry of a bird, nor the shifting colors on sea
or sky will be found described on their pages otherwise than
as the eye sees for itself at the season of which the poet tells.
In reading Tennyson's description of woodland and forest
scenes one might almost fancy that he can catch the exact
peculiarities of sound in the rustling and moaning of each
separate tree. In sorae of Mr. Browning's pictures of Italian
scenery every detail is so perfect that many a one journey
ing along an Italian road and watching the little mouse-
colored cattle as they drink at the stream, may for the mo
raent almost feel uncertain whether he is looking on a page
of living reality or recalling to raemory a page from the
author of "The Ring and the Book." The poets seem to
have returned to the fresh simplicity of a far-distant age of
poetry, when a man described exactly what he saw, and Avas
put to describing it because he saw it. In most of the in
termediate times a poet describes because sorae other poet
has described before, and has said that in nature there are
such and such beautiful things Avhich every true poet must
see, and is bound to acknowledge accordingly in his verse.
These two are the greatest of our poets in the earlier part
of the reign ; indeed, in the reign early or late so far. But
there are other poets also of whom Ave must take account.
Mrs. Browning has often been described as the greatest poet
ess of whom we know anything since Sappho. This descrip
tion, however, seems to carry with it a much higher degree
of praise than it really bears. It has to be reraerabered that
there is no great poetess of whora we knovv anything frora
the tirae of Sappho to that of Mrs. Browning. In England
we have hardly had any woman but Mrs. Browning alone
who really deserves to rank with poets. She takes a place
altogether different from that of any Mrs. Heraans, or such
singer of sweet, raild, and innocent note. Mrs. Browning
would rank highly araong poets without any allowance be
ing clairaed for her sex. But estimated in this way, which
assuredly she would have chosen for herself, she can h.ardly
be adraitted to stand with the foremost even of our modern
day. She is one of the most sympathetic of poets. She
speaks to the hearts of numbers of readers who think Ten
nyson all too sweet, smooth, and trivial, and RobertBrown-
ing harsh and rugged. She speaks especially to the erao-

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 545
tional in Avoman. In all moods when raen or women are
distracted by the bewildering conditions of life, when they
feel themselves alternately dazzled by its possibilities and
baffled by ils limitations, the poeras of Elizabeth Browning
ought to find syrapathelio ears. But the poems are not the
highest Avhich merely appeal to our own moods and echo our
own plaints ; and there Avas not much of creative genius in
Mrs. Browning. Her poems are often but a prolonged sob ;
a burst of alraost hysterical reraonstrance or entreaty. It
raust be owned, however, that the egotism of eraotion has
seldom found such exquisite forra of outpouring as in her
so-called "Sonnets frora the Portuguese ;" and that Avhat the
phraseology of a school would call the emotion of" altruism "
has rarely been given forlh in tones of such piercing pathos
as in "The Cry ofthe Children."
Mr. MatlheAV Arnold's reputation was raade before this
earlier period had closed. He is a maker of such exquisite
and thoughtful verse that it is hard sometiraes to question
his title to be considered a genuine poet. On the other hand,
it is likely that the very grace and culture and thoughtful-
ness ofhis style inspire in many the first doubt ofhis claim
to the name of poet. Where the art is evident and elabo
rate, we are all too apt to assume that it is all art and not
genius. Mr. Arnold is a sort of rainiature Goethe ; Ave do
not knoAV that his raost ardent adrairers could deraand a
higher praise for him, Avhile it is probable that the descrip
tion Avill suggest exactly the intellectual peculiarities which
lead so many to deny hira a place with the really inspired
singers ofhis day. Ofthe three raen AVhora Ave have naraed,
we should be inclined to say that Mr. Arnold made the very
most of his powers, and Mr. Browning the very least. Mr.
Arnold is a critic as well as a poet : there are many who rel
ish him more in the critic than in the poet. In literary crit
icism his judgment is refined, and his aims are always high
if his range be not very wide; in polities and theology he is
somewhat apt to be at once fastidious and fantastic.
The " Song of the Shirt " would give Thoraas Hood a tech
nical right, if he had none other, to be classed as a poet of
the reign of Queen Victoria. The " Song of the Shirt " was
published in Punch when the reign Avas well on ; and after
it appeared " The Bridge of Sighs ;" and no tAvo of Hood's

546 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
poems have done more to make him famous. He was a
genuine, though not a great poet, in whom huraor was most
properly to be defined as Thackeray has defined it — the
blending of love and Avit. The "Song of the Shirt" and the
" Bridge of Sighs " made Ihemselves a kind of raonuraental
place in English syrapathies. The "Plea ofthe Midsummer
Fairies " was written several years before. It alone would
have made for its author a reputation. The ballad of "Fair
Inez " is almost perfect in its Avay. The name of Sir Hen
ry Taylor must be included with the poets of this reign, al
though his best work Avas done before the reign began. In
his work, clear, strong intelligence prevails more than the
emotional and the sensuous. He raakes himself a poet by
virtue of intellect aud artistic judgment; for there really
do seem some examples of a poet being made and not born.
We can hardly bring Procter among the Victorian poets.
Macaulay's ringing verses are rather the splendid and suc
cessful tours de force of a clever raan, than the genuine lyr
ics of a poet. Arthur Clough Avas a raan of rare promise,
Avhose lamp was extinguished all too soon. Philip Jaraes
Bailey startled the world by his "Festus," and for a lime
made people believe that a great new poet was coming; but
the impression did not last, and Bailey proved to be little
more than the comet of a season. A spasmodic school which
sprang up after the success of "Festus," and which was led
by a brilliant young Scotchraan, Alexander Smith, passed
away in a spasm as it carae, and is now almost forgotten.
" Orion," an epic poem by Richard H. Home, raade a very
distinct mark upon the tirae. Home proved hiraself to be
a sort of Landor manqu'e — or perhaps a connecting link be
tAveen the style of Landor and that of Browning. The ear
lier part ofthe reign was rich in singers ; but the naraes and
careers of most of them Avould serve rather to show that the
poetic spirit was abroad, and that it sought expression in
all manner of forms, than that there Avere many poets to dis
pute the place with Tennyson and Browning. It is not nec
essary here to record a list of mere naraes. The air was fill
ed Avith the voices of minor singers. It Avas pleasant to lis
ten to their piping, and the general effect may well be cora
raended ; but it is not necessary that the naraes of all the
performers in an orchestra should be recorded for the sup-

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 547
posed gratification of a posterity Avhieh assuredly Avould
never stop to read the list.
Thirty- six years have passed away since Mr. Ruskin
leaped into the literary arena, Avith a spring as bold and
startling as that of Kean on the Kerable- haunted stage.
The little volurae, so raodest in its appearance and self-sufli-
cient in its lone, Avhicli the author defiantly flung down like
a gage of battle before the Avorld, was entitled, " Modern
Painters: their superiority in the art of Landscape-paint
ing to all the Ancient Masters; by a Graduate of Oxford."
It Avas a challenge to established beliefs and prejudices; and
the challenge Avas delivered in the tone of one Avho felt con
fident that he conld raake good his words against any and
all opponents. If there Avas one thing that more than an
other seemed to have been fixed and rooted in the English
mind, it was that Claude and one or two others of the old
masters possessed the secret of landscape-painting. When,
therefore, a bold young dogmatist involved in one coraraon
denunciation " Claude, Gaspar Poussin, Salvator Rosa, Ruys
dael, Paul Potter, Canaletto, and the A'arious Van-soraethings
and Koek-soraethings, raore especially aud malignantly those
who have libelled the sea," it was no wonder that affronted
authority raised its indignant voice and thundered at hira.
Affronted authority, however, gained little by its thunder.
The young Oxford Graduate possessed, along with genius
and profound conviction, an imperturbable and magnificent
self-conceit against which the surges of angry criticisra
dashed theraselves in vain. Mr. Ruskin sprang into literary
life simply as a vindicator of the farae and genius of Turner.
But as he Avent on with his task he found, or at least he
convinced himself, that the vindication of the great land
scape-painter Avas essentially a vindication of all true art.
Still further proceeding Avith his self-imposed task, he per
suaded himself that the cause of true art was identical with
the cause of truth, and that truth, from Ruskin's point of
vioAv, enclosed in the same rules and principles all the mor
als, all the science, industry, and daily business of life.
'Therefore, from an art-critic he became a moralist, a political
economist, a philosopher, a statesman, a preacher — anything,
everything that human intelligence can impel a man to be.
All that he has written since his first appeal to the public

548 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
has been inspired by this conviction — that an appreciation
of the truth in art reveals to him who has it the truth in
everything. This beUef has been the source of Mr. Ruskin's
greatest successes, and of his most complete and ludicrous
failures. It has made him the admiration of the world one
Aveek, and the object of its placid pity or broad laughter the
next. A being Avho could be Joan of Arc to-day and Vol
taire's Pucelle to-morrow, would hardly exhibit a stronger
psychical paradox than the eccentric genius of Mr. Ruskin
sometimes illustrates. But in order to do hira justice, and
not to regard him as a mere erratic utterer of eloquent con
tradictions, poured out on the irapulse of each raoraent's
new freak of fancy, we raust always bear in raind the funda
raental faith of the raan. Extravagant as this or that doc
trine may be, outrageous as to-day's contradiction of yester
day's assertion may sound, yet the Avhole career is consist
ent with its essential principles and beliefs. It raay be fair
ly questioned whether Mr. Ruskin has any great qualities
but his eloquence and his true, honest love of nature. As a
man to stand up before a society of Avhich one part was
fiishionably languid and the other part only too busy and
greedy, and preach to it of Nature's immortal beauty, and
of the true way to do her reverence, Ruskin has and had a
position of genuine dignity. This ought to be enough for
the Avork and for the praise of any man. But the restless
ness of Ruskin's temperament, combined with the extraordi
nary self-sufficiency which contributed so much to his suc
cess where he Avas master of a subject, sent him perpetually
intruding into fields where he was unfit to labor, and enter
prises Avhich he had no capacity to conduct. Seldom has a
man contradicted hiraself so often, so recklessly, and so com
placently as Mr. Ruskin. It is venturesome to call hira a
great critic even in art, for he seldom expresses any opin
ion one day without flatly contradicting it the next. He is
a great writer, as Rousseau was — fresh, eloquent, audacious,
Avriting out ofthe fulness ofthe present raood, and heedless
how far the impulse of to-day may contravene that of yes
terday. But as Rousseau Avas always faithful to his idea
of truth, so Ruskin is always faithful to Nature. When all
his errors, and paradoxes, and contradictions shall have been
utterly forgotten, this will remain to his praise. No man

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 549
since Wordsworth's brightest days did half so much to teach
his countrymen, and those Avho speak his language, how to
appreciate and honor that silent Nature " which never did
betray the heart that loved her."
In fiction as Avell as in poetry there are two great naraes
to be corapared or contrasted when we turn to the litera
ture of the earlier part of the reign. In the very year of
Queen Victoria's accession appeared the " PickAvick Papers,"
the work of the author who the year before had published
the "Sketches by Boz." The public soon recognized the
fact that a new and wonderfully original force had come
into literature The success of Charles Dickens is absolute
ly unequalled in the history of English fiction. At the sea
son of his highest isopularity Sir Walter Scott Avas not so
popular an author. But that happened to Dickens which
did not happen to Scott. When Dickens Avas at his zenith,
and when it raight have been thought that any manner of ri
valry Avith hira Avas impossible, a literary man who was no
longer young, who had been working Avith but moderate suc
cess for many years in light literature, suddenly took to writ
ing novels, and almost in a moment stepped up to a level
Avilh the author of " Pickwick." During the remainder of
their careers the two men stood as nearly as possible on the
same level. Dickens always reraained by far the more pop
ular of the two ; but, on the other hand, it may be safely
said that the opinion of the literary Avorld in general was
inclined to favor Thackeray. From the time of the publi
cation of "Vanity Fair" the two were ahvays put side by
side for coraparison or contrast. They have been some
tiraes likened to Fielding and SraoUett, but no coraparison
could be more misleading or less happy. Smollett stands on
a level distinctly and considerably below that of Fielding ;
but Dickens cannot be said to stand thus beneath Thack
eray. If the comparison Avere to hold at all, Thackeray
raust be compared to Fielding, for Fielding is not in the
least like Dickens ; but then it raust be allowed that Smol
lett wants many of the higher qualities of the author of
" David Copperfield." It is natural that men should com
pare Dickens and Thackeray; but the Iavo will be found
to be curiously unlike when once a certain superficial re
semblance ceases to irapress the mind. Their ways of treat-

550 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ing a subject were not only dissimilar but were absolutely
in contrast. They started, to begin with, under the influ
ence of a totally different philosophy of life, if that is to be
called a philosophy which was probably only the result of
peculiarity of teraperaraent in each case. Dickens set out
on the literary theory that in life everything is better than
it looks; Thackeray Avith the impression that it is worse.
In the one case there was somewhat too much of a raechan
ical interpretation of everything for the best in the best
possible world ; in the other the savor of cynicism Avas at
times a little annoying. As each writer went on, the pecu
liarity became more and more of a mannerism. But the
Avritings of Dickens were far more deeply influenced by his
peculiarities of feeling or philosophy than those of Thacke
ray. A large share of the admiration which is popularly
given to Dickens is, undoubtedly, a tribute to what people
consider his cheerful view of life. In that, too, he is espe
cially English. In this country the artistic theory of France
and other Continental nations, borrowed from the aBSthetic
principles of Greece, which accords the palm to the artistic
treatment rather than to the subject, or the purpose, or the
Avay of looking at things, has found hardly any broad and
general acceptation. The popularity of Dickens was, there
fore, in great measure due to the fact that he set forth Ufe
in cheerful lights and colors. He had, of course, gifts of far
higher artistic value; he could describe anything that he saw
Avitli a fidelity which Balzac could not have surpassed ; and,
like Balzac, he had a Avay of inspiring inanimate objects with
a mystery and raotive of their own, Avhich gave them often a
Aveird and fascinating individuality. But it must be owned
that if Dickens's peculiar "philosophy" were effaced frora his
Avorks, the fame of the author would remain a very different
thing frora what it is at the present raoment. On the other
hand, it would be possible to cut out of Thackeray all his
little cynical, raelancholy sentences, and reduce his novels to
bare descriptions of life and character, Avithout affecting, in
any sensible degree,his influence on the reader or his position
in literature. Thackeray had a marvellously keen apprecia
tion of human motive and character within certain limits.
If Dickens could draw an old quaint house or an odd family
interior as faithfully and yet as picturesquely as Balzac, so,

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 551
on the other hand, not Balzac himself could analyze and il
lustrate the weaknesses and foibles of certain types of char
acter with greater subtlety of judgraent and force of exposi
tion than Thackeray. Dickens had little or no knoAvledge
of human character, and evidently cared very little about
the study. LIis stories are fairy tales made credible by the
masterly realism with Avhich he described all the surround
ings and accessaries, the costumes and the ways of his men
and Avomen. While we are reading of a raan Avhose odd pe
culiarities strike us Avilh a sense of reality as if we had ob
served them for ourselves many a time, while we see him
surrounded by streets and houses which seem to us rather
raore real and a hundred times more interesting than those
through which Ave pass every day, Ave are not likely to ob
serve very quickly, or to take much heed of the fact when
Ave do observe it, that the man acts on various important
occasions of his life as only people in fairy stories ever do
act. Thackeray, on the other hand, cared little for descrip
tions of externals. He left his readers to construct for them
selves the greater part of the surroundings of his person
ages from his description of the characters of the personages
theraselves. He made us acquainted Avith the man or Avora
an in his chapters as if Ave had known him or her all our
life ; and knowing Pendennis or Becky Sharp, we had no
difficulty in constructing the surroundings of either for our
selves. Thus it Avill be seen that these tAvo eminent authors
had not only different ideas about life, but absolutely con
trasting principles of art. One worked from the externals
inward ; the other realized the unseen, and left the externals
to grow of themselves. Three great peculiarities, hoAvever,
they shared. Each lived and wrote of and for London.
Dickens created for art the London of the middle and poor
er classes ; Thackeray did the same for the London of the
upper class, and for those who strive to imitate their ways.
Neither ever even attempted to describe a man kept con
stantly above and beyond the atmosphere of raere egotisra
by sorae sustaining greatness or even intensity of purpose.
In Dickens, as in Thackeray, the emotions described are
those of conventional life merely. This is not lobe said in
disparagement of either artist It is rather a tribute to an
artist's knowledge of his OAvn capacity and sphere of work

552 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
that he only atterapts to draw what he thoroughly under
stands. But it is proper to reraark of Dickens and of Thack
eray, as of Balzac, that the life they described was, after all,
but the life of a coterie or a quarter, and that there existed
side by side with their field of work a whole world of emo
tion, aspiration, struggle, defeat, and triumph, of Avhich their
brightest pages do not give a single suggestion. This is
the raore curious to observe because of the third peculiarity
which Dickens and Thackeray had in common — a love for
the purely ideal and romantic in fiction. There are many
critics who hold that Dickens in "Barnaby Rudge" and the
" Tale of Tavo Cities," Thackeray in " Esniond," exhibited
powers which vindicated for their possessors a very rare in
fusion of that higher poetic spirit which raight have raade
of both soraething greater than the painters of the manners
of a day and a class. But to paint the manners of a day
and a class as Dickens and Thackeray have done is to de
serve fame and the gratitude of posterity. The age of Vic
toria raay claim in this respect an equality, at least, with
that of the reign Avhich produced Fielding and Smollett ;
for if there are sorae who would demand for Fielding a
higher place, on the Avhole, than can be given either to Dick
ens or lo Thackeray, there are not many, on the other hand,
Avho would uot say that either Dickens or Thackeray is dis
tinctly superior to Smollett. The age must claira a high
place in art whicii could in one department alone produce
two such competitors. Their effect upon their tirae was
soraething marvellous. People talked Dickens or thought
Thackeray. Passion, it will be seen, counted for little in the works of
Dickens and Thackeray. Dickens, indeed, could draw a con
ventionally or dramatically wicked man with much power
and impressiveness ; and Thackeray could suggest certain
forras of vice with wonderful delicacy and yet vividness.
But the passions which are coraraon to all human natures in
their elementary moods raade but little play in the novels
of either writer. Both were, in this respect, for all their
originality and genius in other Avays, highly and even ex
clusively conventional. There Avas .apparently a sort of
understanding in the mind of each — indeed Thackeray has
adraitted as rauch in his preface to "Pendennis" — that raen

LITERATURE OP THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 553
and Avoraen were not to be drawn as men and women are
knoAvn to be, but Avith certain reserves to suit conventional
etiquette. It is soraewhat curious that the one only novel
Avriter avIio during the period Ave are uoav considering came
into any real rivalry Avith them, Av.as one Avho depended on
passion altogether for her material and her success. The
novels of a young Avoman, Charlotte Bronte, corapelled all
English society into a recognition not alone of their own
sterling poAver and genius, but also of the fact that profound
and passionate emotion Avas slill the stuff out of Avhich great
fiction eould be constructed. " Exultations, agonies, and
love, and man's unconquerable mind," were taken by Char
lotte Bronte as the matter out of which her art Avas lo pro
duce its triumphs. The novels Avhich made her fame, "Jane
Eyre " and " Villette," are positively aflarae with passion
and pain. They have little variety. They make hardly any
pretence to accurate draAving of ordinary men and woraen
in ordinary life, or, at .all events, under ordinary conditions.
The authoress had little ofthe gift ofthe mere story-teller;
and her oavu peculiar poAvers Avere exerted sometiraes Avith
indifferent success. The farailiar on Avhoni she depended
for her inspiration Avould not always corae at call. She had
little genuine relish for beauty, except the beauty of a
Aveird melancholy and of decay. But Avhen she touched the
chord of elementary human emotion with her best skill,
then it Avas impossible for her audience not to feel that
they Avere under the spell of a power rare, indeed, in our
Avell-ordered days. Tho absolute sincerity of the author's
expression of feeling lent it great part of its strength and
charm. Nolhing Avas ever said by her because it seeraed lo
society the right sort of thing to say. She told a friend that
she felt sure that " Jane Eyre " would have an effect on read
ers in general because it had so great an effect on herself
It Avould be possible to argue that the great strength of the
books lay in their sincerity alone ; that Charlotte Bronte
Avas not so much a AVoraan of extraordinary genius as a Avora
an who looked her OAvn feehngs fairly in the face, and paint
ed them as she saw thera. But the capacity to do this would
surely be soraething which we could not better describe than
by the Avord genius. Charlotte Bronte Avas far from be
ing an artist of fulfilled poAver. She is rather to be regard-
L— 24

554 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
ed as one who gave evidence of extraordinary gifts, Avhioh
raight with time aud care, aud under happier artistic aus
pices, have been turned to such account as Avould have made
for her a farae with the very chiefs of her tribe. She died
at an age hardly raore mature than that at which Thackeray
Avon his first distinct literary success; much earlier than the
age at which some of our greatest novelists brought forth
their flrst completed novels. But she left a very, deep ira
pression on her tirae, and the time that has come and is com
ing after her. No other hand in the age of Queen Victoria
has dealt with human emotion so powerfully and so truthful
ly. Hers are not cheerful novels. A cold, gray, mournful
atmosphere hangs over them. One might imagine that the
shadow of an early death is forecast on them. They love to
linger among the glooras of nature, to haunt her darkling
Avintry tAvilights, to study her stormy sunsets, to link man's
destiny and his hopes, fears, and passions somehow with the
glare and gloom of storm and darkness, and to read the sym
bols of his fate, as the foredoomed and passion-Avasted An
tony did, in the cloud-masses that are " black vesper's pa
geants." The supernatural had a constant A'ague charm for
Charlotte Bronte, as the painful had. Man Avas to her a being
torn belAveeu passionate love and the raore ignoble irapulses
and ambitions and common-day occupations of life. Woraan
Avas a being of equal passion, still raore sternly and cruelly
dooraed to repression and renunciation. It Avas a strange
fact that in the midst of the splendid material successes
and the quietly triuraphant intellectual progress of this raost
prosperous and Avell-ordered age, when even in ils poetry
and its romance passion Avas systematically toned doAvn and
put in thrall to good taste and propriety, this young Avriter
should have suddenly corae out with her books all thrilling
with emotion, and all protesting in the strongest practical
manner against the theory that the loves and hates of men
and women had been tamed by the process of civilization.
Perhaps the very novelty of the apparition was, in great
raeasure, a part of ils success. Charlotte Bronte did not, in
deed, influence the general public, or even the literary pub
lic, to anything like the same extent that Thackeray and
Dickens did. She appeared and passed away alraost in a
moment. As Miss Martineau said of her, she stole like a

LITER.4.TURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 555
shadoAv into literature, and then became a shadow again.
But she struck very deeply into the heart of the tirae. If
her Avritings Avere only, as has been said of them, a cry of
pain, yet they Avero such a cry as, once heard, lingers and
echoes in the mind forever after. Godwin declared that he
Avonld Avrite in " Caleb Williaras" a book Avhich Avould leave
no raan who read it the sarae that he Avas before. Some
thing not unlike this raight be said of "Jane Eyre." No one
Avho read it Avas exactly the same that he had been before
he opened its Aveird and wonderful pages.
No raan could Avell have made raore ofhis gifts than Lord
Lytton. Before the coraing up of Dickens and Thackeray
he stood above all living English novelists. Perhaps this
is rather to the reproach of the English fiction of the d.ay
than to the renoAvn of Lord Lytton. But even after Dick
ens and Thackeray and Charlotte Bronte, and later and not
less poAverful and original writers had appeared in the sarae
field, he slill held a place of great mark in literature That
he Avas not a man of genius is, perhaps, conclusively proved
by the fact that he Avas able so readily to change his style
to suit the tastes of each day. He began by writing of fops
and roues of a tirae now almost forgotten; then he made
heroes of higliAvaymen and murderers; afterAvard he tried
the philosophic and mildly didactic style ; then he turned to
mysticism and spiritualisra ; laler still he Avrote ofthe French
Second Erapire. Whatever he tried to do he did Avell Be
sides his novels, he Avrote plays and poeras; and his plays
are among the very fcAV modern productions Avhich manage
to keep the stage. He played, too, and Avith much success,
at being a statesman and an orator. Not Demosthenes him
self had, such difficulties of articulation to contend against
in the beginning ; and Deraosthenes conquered his difficul
ties, Avhile sorae of those in the way of Lord Lytton proved
unconquerable. Yet Lord Lytton did soraehoAv contrive to
become a great speaker, and to seem occasionally like a
great orator in the House of Commons. He Avas at the very
least a superb phrase-maker; and he could turn to account
every scrap of knowledge in literature, art, or science Avhich'
he happened to possess. His success in the House of Com
mons Avas exactly like his success in romance and the draraa.
He throAV hiraself into corapetition Avith men of far higher

556 A HISTORY OP OUR OWN TIMES.
original gifts, and he made so good a show of contesting
Avith them that in the minds of many the victory Avas not
clearly with his antagonists. There Avas always, for exara
ple, a considerable class, even araong educated persons, Avho
maintained that Lytton Avas, in his way, quite the peer of
Thackeray and Dickens. LIis plays, or some of them, ob
tained a popularity only second to those of Shakspeare; and
although nobody cared to read them, yet people Avere al-
Avays found to go and look at them. When Lytton Avent
into the House of Commons for the second time he found
audiences Avliich Avere occasionally terajited lo regard hira
as the rival of Gladstone and Bright. Not a foAV persons
saw in all this only a sort of superb charlatanerie ; and in
deed it is certain that no raan ever made and kept a genu
ine success in so many different fields as those in AvhichLord
Lytton tried and seemed to succeed. But he had splendid
qualities; he had everything short of genius. He had in
domitable patience, inexhaustible power of self-culture, and
a capacity for assimilating the floating ideas of the hour
which supplied the place of originality. He borrowed from
the poet the knack of poetical expression, and from the dram
atist the trick of construction ; from the Byronic time ils
professed scorn for the false gods of the Avorld ; and from
the raore modern period of popular science and sham mys
ticism its extremes of materialism and magic ; and of these
and various other borroAviiigs he made up an article Avhich
no one else could have constructed out of the same materi
als. Lie Avas not a great author; but he Avas a great litera
ry man. Mr. Disraeli's novels belong in, sorae measure to
the school of"Pelliam" and " Godolphin." But it should
be said that Mr. Disraeli's "Vivian Grey" Avas published be
fore "Pelliam" made its appearance. In all. that belongs to
political life Mr. Disraeli's novels are far superior to those of
Lord Lytton. We have nothing in our literature to com
pare Avith some ofthe best of Mr. Disraeli's novels for light
political satire, and for easy, .accurate characterization of po
litical cliques and personages. But all else in Disraeli's nov-
-els is sham. The sentiment, the poetry, the philosophy — all
these are shara. They have not half the appearance of re
ality about them that Lytton has contrived to give to his
efforts ofthe same kind. In one at least of Disraeli's latest

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 557
novels the political sketches and satirizing becarae shara
.also. "Alton Locke" Avas published nearly thirty years ago.
Then Charles Kingsley becarae to most boys in Great Brit
ain Avho read books at all a sort of living embodiment of
chivalry, liberty, and a revolt against the established order
of class-oppression in so many spheres of our society. For
a long time he continued to be the chosen hero of young
men Avith the youthful spirit of revolt iu thera, Avith drearas
of Republics and ideas about the equality of raan. Laler on
he commanded other admiration for other qualities; for the
championship of slave systems, of oppression, and the iron
reign of mere force. But thougli Charles Kingsley ahvays
held a high place soraewhere in popular estimation, he is not
to be rated very highly as an author. He described gloAving
scenery admirably, and he rang the changes vigorously on
his Iavo or three ideas — the muscular Englishman, the glory
ofthe Elizabethan discoveries, and so on. He Avas a scholar,
and he Avrote verses which soraetiraes one is on the point of
mistaking for poetry, so much ofthe poet's feeling have they
in thera. He did a great many things very cleverly. Per
haps if he had done less he might have done better. Huraan
capacity is limited. It is not given to mortal to be a great
preacher, a great philosopher, a great scholar, a great poet, a
great historian, a great novelist, aud an indefatigable country
parson. Charles Kingsley never seeras lo have raade up his
mind for Avhich of these callings to go in especially ; and be
ing, Avith all his versatility, not at all many-sided, but strictly
one-sided and almost one-ideaed, the result Avas, that Avhile
touching success at many points he absolutely raaslered it
at none. Since his novel "Westward Ho !" he never add
ed anything substantial to his reputation. All this acknoAvl
edged, hoAvever, it raust still be owned that failing in this,
that, and the other atterapt, and never achieving any real and
enduring success, Charles Kingsley Avas an influence and a
man of mark in tho Victorian Age.
Perhaps a Avord ought to be said of the rattling romances
of Irish electioneering, love-making, and fighting, Avhich set
people reading "Charles O'Malley" and "JackHinlon," even
when "PickAvick" Avas still a novelty. Charles Lever had
Avonderful .animal spirits and a bro.ad, bright huraor. He Avas

558 A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES.
quite genuine in his way. He afterward changed his style
completely, and Avilh much success ; and Avill be found in
the later part of the period holding just the same relative
place as in the earlier, just behind the foremost men, but in
raanner so different that he might be a uoav Avriter who had
never read a line ofthe roistering adventures of Light DraT
goons which Avere popular when Charles Lever first gave
thera to the world. There was nothing great about Lever,
but the literature of the Victorian period Avould not be quite
all that we know it without him. There were many other
popular novelists during the period Ave have passed over,
sorae in their day more popular than either Thackeray or
Charlotte Bronte Many of us can remember, without being
too much ashamed of the fact, that there Avere early days
Avhen Mr. James and his cavaliers and his chivalric advent
ures gave nearly as much delight as Waller Scott could have
given to the youth of a preceding generation. But Walter
Scott is with us slill, young and old, and poor James is gone.
Ills once famous solitary horseman has ridden away into
actual solitude, and the shades of night have gathered over
his heroic form.
The founding of Punch drew together a host of clever
young Avriters, some of Avhom raade a really deep mark on
the literature of their time, and the corabined influence of
Avhora in this artistic and literary undertaking Avas, on the
whole, decidedly healthy. Thackeray Avas by far the great
est ofthe regular contributors to Punch in its earlier days.
But "The Song ofthe Shirt " appeared in its pages, and
sorae of the brightest of Douglas Jerrold's writings raade
their appearance there. Punch ivas a thoroughly Englisli
production. It had little or nothing in coraraon with the
comic periodicals of Paris. It ignored .absolutely aud of set
purpose the Avhole class of subjects Avhich make up three-
fourths of the stock in trade of a French satirist. The es
capades of husbands and the infidelities of Avives forra the
therae of by far the greater number of the humorous sketch
es with pen or pencil in Parisian comicalities. Punch kept
altogether aloof frora such unsavory subjects. It had an
advantage, of course, Avhich Avas habitually denied to the
French papers ; it had unliraited freedom of political satire
and caricature. Politics and the raore trivial troubles and

LITERATURE OF THE REIGN. FIRST SURVEY. 559
trials of social life gave subjects to Punch. The inequali
ties of class, aud the struggles of arabitious and vain persons
to get into circles higher than their oavu, or at least to imi
tate their manners — these supplied for Punch the place of
the class of topics on whicii French papers relied Avhen they
had to deal with the doraestic life of the nation. Punch
started by being soraewhat fiercely r.adical, but gradually
toned away into a sort of intelligent and respectable Con
servatism.' Ils artistic sketches were from first to last ad
mirable. Some men of true genius wrought for it with the
pencil as others did with the pen. Doyle, Leech, and Ten-
niel Avere men of Avhom any school of art might Avell be
proud. A reraarkable sobriety of style Avas apparent in all
their humors. Of later years caricature has had absolutely
no place in the illustrations to Punch. The satire is quiet,
delicate, and no doubt superficial. It is a satire of manners,
dress, and social Avays altogether. There is justice in the
criticism that of late, more especially, the pages of Punch
give no idea whatever ofthe eraotions ofthe English people.
There is no suggestion of grievance, of bitterness, of passion,
or pain. It is all raade up of the pleasures and annoyances
of the kind of life which is enclosed in a garden party. But
it raust be said that Punch has thus always succeeded in
raaintaining a good, open, convenient, neutral ground, Avhere
young raen and raaidens, girls and boys, elderly politicians
and staid raatrons, law, trade, science, all sects and creeds,
raay safely and pleasantly mingle. It is not so, to be sure,
that great satire is wrought. A Swift or a Juvenal is not
thus to be brought out. But a votary of the present Avould
have his answer simple and conclusive : We live in the age
of Punch; we do not live in the age of Juvenal or Swift.

END OP VOL. I.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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