Chapter 81
December 28th, 1834 {p.182}
[Page Head: STATE OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS.]
My brother Henry came from Paris a day or two ago to take the place of _precis_ writer in the Foreign Office. Just before he started old Pozzo gave him a whole string of messages to the Duke of Wellington, adding that he would give the world for an hour's conversation with him. These communications were evidently made upon a supposition that their opinions were generally congenial.
He said that the affairs of Belgium required particular attention; that the Belgians were grown insolent, and meant, by deferring a final settlement, to avoid paying their portion of the debt and to keep the disputed Duchies, and that _unfortunately_ the conduct of the King of Holland had not been such as to ent.i.tle him to a.s.sistance; that in Germany the spirit was good and tranquillity prevailed; in Spain nothing could be worse, and he told the Duke to be on his guard against what Alava should say to him, 'qui n'avait pas le sens commun, mais qui etait devoue au Duc,' and that he might _endoctriner_ him a little. Henry took a memorandum of this and gave it to the Duke; but however disposed he may be to enter into Pozzo's views, he will probably soon be obliged to take a tone very unpleasant to Russia, for I find that the affairs of Turkey are in such a state that they are to be brought under the immediate consideration of the Cabinet. The great object of the late Government was (and that of this Government must be the same) to get the Porte out of the clutches of Russia. The Sultan is a mere slave of the Emperor, but throughout his dominions, and the Princ.i.p.alities likewise, a bitter feeling of hatred against Russia prevails. Our policy has been to induce the Sultan to throw off the yoke--by promises of a.s.sistance on one hand, and menaces on the other of supporting Mehemet Ali against him. Hitherto, however, the Sultan has never been induced to bestir himself. It is evident that if this matter is taken up seriously, and with a resolution to curb the power of Russia in the East, the greatest diplomatic judgment and firmness will be requisite in our Amba.s.sador at St. Petersburg; and how under these circ.u.mstances the Duke can send Londonderry, and how Peel can have consented to his nomination, I am at a loss to conceive. It appears just worse than what Palmerston did, which was to send n.o.body at all. In all this complication of interests in the East, France is ready to act with us if we will let her, and Austria lies like a great log, favouring Russia and opposing her inert ma.s.s to anything like _mouvement_, no matter with what object or in what quarter.
1835.
January 1st, 1835 {p.183}
Parliament dissolved at last, and all speculation about the elections will soon be settled in certainty. It is remarkable what confidence is expressed by both sides. Three Tories stand for the City; but Ward told me they rather expected to run their opponents hard than to come in, but that such an exhibition of strength would be important, as it will. The Duke of Wellington is so well aware of the obstacle that he is to Stanley's joining the Government that he wanted not to belong to it originally, and he is now meditating his retreat, in order to open the way for Stanley. It cannot be denied that he has acted very n.o.bly throughout this business, and upon nothing but a sense of duty, without regard for himself. Some doubts have occurred to me of the vast utility of Stanley, and his being so entirely without a party proves that he is not held in very high estimation, and though I should be glad to see a better set of names in the various offices (which are for the most part miserably filled) I should not altogether like to see the Duke of Wellington retire out of deference to such men as the four who would succeed him, and those who would have to retire with him. I heard a ridiculous anecdote of the King the other day. He wrote to the Duke about something--no matter what, but I believe some appointment--and added _a propos de bottes_, 'His Majesty begs to call the attention of the Duke to the _theoretical_ state of Persia.' The Duke replied that he was aware of the importance of Persia, but submitted that it was a matter which did not _press_ for the moment.
[Page Head: STATE OF THE CONSt.i.tUENCIES.]
Yesterday I dined with Robarts, and after dinner he gave me an account of the state of his borough (Maidstone), and as it is a tolerably fair sample probably of the real condition of the generality of boroughs, and of the principles and disposition of their const.i.tuencies, I will put it down. There are 1,200 voters; the Dissenters are very numerous and of every imaginable sect and persuasion. He has been member seventeen years; the place very corrupt. Formerly (before the Reform Bill), when the const.i.tuency was less numerous, the matter was easily and simply conducted; the price of votes was as regularly fixed as the price of bread--so much for a single vote and so much for a plumper, and this he had to pay.
After the Reform Bill he resolved to pay no more money, as corruption was to cease. The consequence was that during his canva.s.s none of the people who had formerly voted for him would promise him their votes. They all sulked and hesitated, and, in short, waited to see what would be offered them. I asked him what were the new const.i.tuencies. 'If possible worse than the old.' The people are generally alive to public affairs--look into the votes and speeches of members, give their opinions--but are universally corrupt. They have a sour feeling against what are nicknamed abuses, rail against _sinnicures_, as they call them, and descant upon the enormity of such things while they are forced to work all day long and their families have not enough to eat. But the one prevailing object among the whole community is to make money of their votes, and though he says there are some exceptions, they are very few indeed. Robarts too is a Reformer, and supports all Whig and reforming Governments; but he does so (like many others) from fear. What he most dreads is collision, and most desires is quiet, and he thinks non-resistance the best way. There is no reason to believe that other const.i.tuencies materially differ from this; what therefore is the result? Power has been transferred to a low cla.s.s of persons; so low as to be dissatisfied and malignant, high enough to be half-instructed; so poor that money is an object to them, and without any principle which should deter them from getting it in any way they can: they may, on the whole, be considered as disaffected towards existing inst.i.tutions, for when they contrast their own life of labour and privation with the wealth and splendour which they see around them, there is little difficulty in persuading them that they are grievously wronged, and that the wrong is in the nature of the inst.i.tutions themselves. These general considerations make them therefore lean towards those who promise better things, and strive to introduce changes; but as their immediate wants are always uppermost, their votes are generally at the disposal of the highest bidder, whatever his politics may be.
January 3rd, 1835 {p.185}
They can find n.o.body to go to India. Lord Ellenborough (by Peel's desire) wrote to the Duke and asked his advice, at the same time suggesting Sir James Graham. The Duke replied that he thought it better not to have anything to do with that party at present; that the best man he knew would be Lord Heytesbury, if he would go, or such a man as Lord Fitzroy Somerset, whom he mentioned, not because he had been long known to him, and had served under himself, but because he was a very able man, and the best man of business he was acquainted with. Kemp refused it; Ellenborough said that the more he looked into Indian affairs, the more clearly he saw the urgency of sending a Governor-General. Whether by this he means to imply that Lord William Bentinck has done ill, I know not; but he is always said to have done admirably well. In a letter which the Duke wrote to the King, not long ago, he told him that it was desirable to make as few changes in the foreign policy of the Government as possible. Notwithstanding the confidence of his underlings, and of the crowd of fools and females who follow the camp, it is clear that the Duke and Peel are both sensible of the danger of their situation.
January 4th, 1835 {p.186}
There is every prospect of a miserable defeat of the Conservatives in the City, which will be doubly disastrous, first as to the election, which is an important one, and secondly because it will go far to neutralise the effect of the famous address they got up.
This is owing to mismanagement. The Committee has been bad and negligent; then they did a very foolish thing in ousting Pattison from Harwich to make room for Bonham; if they had left Pattison alone (which Harris had, I believe, pledged himself should be done), Lyall would have come in for the City, and perhaps Ward too; but when the electioneering affairs are left to William Peel, Ross, and Granville Somerset, no wonder there is not much dexterity and finesse displayed. I have published a pamphlet to help them; but as I never put my name to my pamphlets, of course n.o.body reads them.
January 5th, 1835 {p.186}
[Page Head: ST. AULAIRE AND PRINCESS METTERNICH.]
Sebastiani is coming here as Amba.s.sador--that
It was expected that St. Aulaire or Latour-Maubourg would have come here. It is of Madame de St. Aulaire that Talleyrand said, 'Elle cherche l'esprit que son mari trouve.' (This anecdote I suspect not to be true, or not true of Madame de St. Aulaire, who is a very intelligent, agreeable woman, more lively and with more _finesse d'esprit_ than her husband.)
St. Aulaire is Amba.s.sador at Vienna, and, however clever, he either wants presence of mind or is touchy, as the following anecdote shows. Madame de Metternich is a fine handsome woman, ill brought up, impertinent, _insouciante_, and _a.s.sez bourrue_--_au reste_, quick and amusing. She went to a ball at St. Aulaire's with a fine coronet of diamonds on, and when he came to receive her he said, 'Mon dieu, madame, quelle belle couronne vous avez sur la tete!' 'Au moins,' said she, 'ce n'est par une couronne que j'ai volee.'
Instead of turning it into a joke, he made a serious affair of it, and went the next day to Metternich with a formal complaint; but Metternich said, 'Mais mon cher, que voulez-vous? Vous voyez que j'ai epouse une femme sans education; je ne puis pas l'empecher de dire de pareilles sottises, mais vous sentez bien que ce serait fort inconvenant pour moi de m'en meler. Allons! il n'y faut plus penser,' and so turned it off, and turned him out, by insisting on making a joke of the affair, as St. Aulaire had better have done at first.
January 7th, 1835 {p.187}
Just as might have been expected, the Conservative candidates in the City are defeated by an enormous majority. Pattison, the Governor of the Bank, the Liberal candidate who came in second on the poll, having been proposed by Jones Loyd,[2] the richest banker in the City, and perhaps the richest man in Europe.[3]
Such outward demonstrations as these unquestionably afford a very plausible answer to the opposite cry, and the victory on the Radical side is great and important. Ward told me they should at least run them hard, so that the disappointment must be grievous; still it is a.s.serted that the greatest part of the wealth of the City will be found in the columns of the address--but then the votes are in the other scale. The elections, as far as they have gone, are rather against the Government, but not showing any material difference in numbers--sufficient, however, to prove that, in point of fact, Peel's declarations have produced little or no effect, and that the various considerations that have been urged on the country and the appeals to its reason have been all alike thrown away.
[2] [Mr. Jones Loyd, afterwards created Lord Overstone.]
[3] [The four City members were: Matthew Wood, James Pattison, William Crawford, and George Grote.]
I saw a letter which Barnes wrote to Henry de Ros yesterday, in which he speaks with horror and alarm of the prevailing spirit.
He says the people are deaf with pa.s.sion, and in the abrupt dissolution of the late Government and the bad composition of this they _will_ see a conspiracy against their liberties, and mad and preposterous as the idea is, there is no eradicating it from their brains. I am afraid this is too true, and though no alarmist generally, and rather sluggish of fear, I do begin to tremble; and while I cast my eyes about in all directions to see what resource is in store for us, I can find none that is anything like satisfactory; the violence of party-spirit seems to blind everybody concerned in politics to all contingent possibilities, and every feeling of decency and propriety is forgotten.
Last night I was at Lady Holland's; there were Lord and Lady Holland, Mulgrave, Seaford, Allen and Burdett. I asked them if they had read Whittle Harvey's speech at Southwark, which was a tissue of the grossest and most outrageous abuse and ridicule of the King and Queen. They said 'No,' so I read to them some of the most offensive pa.s.sages. Not the slightest disgust did they express. Holland merely said to one allegation, '_That_ is not true,' and Mulgrave laughed, and said, 'Whittle is an _eccentric_ politician.'
January 8th, 1835
[Page Head: VIOLENCE OF PARTY SPIRIT.]
On the whole the returns yesterday presented a gain to Government of about 10 votes, many elections turning out contrary to expectation both ways, and some very severe contests. The City was a great defeat: the lowest Whig beat the highest Tory by above 1,400. It is remarkable that many who signed the address to the King voted for the Radical candidates.
At dinner yesterday at Lord Chesterfield's I met the Chancellor, whom I have not seen for some time. After dinner we talked about the state of affairs. 'Well,' he said, 'will it do? what do you think?' I said, 'I don't know what to think, but on the whole I am disposed to think it will _not_ do. I don't see how you are to get on.' 'What do you think of Peel?' said he; 'is he a fit man for the purpose?' 'He is a very able man, and prudent.' 'Aye, but is he enough of a man of the world? does he know enough of what is going on in the world?' To which I said, 'You have just hit upon the point that I have been lamenting. He has not lived in the world, and he has not about him those who do, and who can give him that particular sort of information and advice of which he stands in need; and I think he has, in great measure owing to this, committed a great blunder in forming such a Government as he has done; he has not been able to throw off the old prejudices of keeping to his party, and thought it necessary to depend upon them, when he ought to have seen that the case was one out of ordinary rules, that the support of the Tories alone could not maintain him, and that, if they would not give it him for their own interest, and in furtherance of their own principles, without insisting upon being in office, though he might not be able to get on without it, he would still less be able to get on with their support alone. In his place I should have told them I could not take them in, that if they would confide in me, and let me help the country out of its difficulties in my own way, I would do the best I could for it and for them.' Lyndhurst said that 'he was not much consulted;' that if he had had the formation of the Government he should have gone to work very differently; that he would have had a small Cabinet, eight or ten at most, composed of new men, leaving out Aberdeen, Goulburn, Herries, and the rest of that description, employing them if possible abroad, or if not, telling them that it was necessary to lay them on the shelf for a time, and that he would do what he could for them at a future period; that Ellenborough had told Peel he had much better not take him into the Government; that he was aware he was not popular, and though he might be of some use with regard to details of business, his support out of office would (he thought), on the whole, be more serviceable than his being in the Cabinet. Peel said that his willingness to sacrifice himself only made it more inc.u.mbent on him not to permit him to do so, and insisted upon having him. Lyndhurst said he had hoped that Sandon would have been taken, and he had suggested Lord Carnarvon, to which Peel replied that he was still so young that he thought he might be pa.s.sed over for the present I said, 'Why it is the present for which it is necessary to provide, and it is _now_ that he might have been made available.' (Carnarvon would not join on account of ill-health.) We then talked over what sort of a Cabinet might have been got together, of new names, moderate men, few in number. He admitted that a great mistake had been committed, and that, as it was irreparable, so it would very probably be fatal. He praised the Duke of Wellington. I said I would not have taken him in, or have got him to go to Ireland, for he was ready to do anything to advance the cause. He liked this idea very much. I reminded him that the first day we had talked over the matter he had admitted that it would never do to bolster up the old concern again, and that Hardinge had told me the Tories were all ready to make any sacrifices or postpone their claims, so that such a course as we suggested need not have been difficult. I told him of Barnes's letter, and of his fears, and what he said of the effect produced by the composition of the Government. He said the 'Times' had behaved admirably to them, and the Government were under great obligations to me for what I had done in that matter. I told him I was glad to hear they were on such good terms, as having been instrumental to the connection, which I had no doubt had entailed an immediate loss on the proprietors of the paper.
He asked me if I thought the Opposition meant to refuse the Supplies. I said I had no doubt they did. 'Then we must go.' But he still expects they will have 300 votes in the House of Commons, and with that he calculates that they may struggle on with one-half of the House of Commons, the House of Lords, the King, and a large proportion of the wealth and respectability of the country. It would be difficult, but he thought they might get on; but that the fact was, there was _no going on_ after the transfer of power to another cla.s.s, which the Reform Bill had effected. I said there was no doubt of that, and that the Reform Bill had produced virtually a complete revolution in this country. 'Aye,' said he, 'much more than that of '88.'
January 9th, 1835 {p.191}
[Page Head: THE MOVEMENT AT HOLLAND HOUSE.]
Dined at Holland House; they are satisfied with the elections.
Mulgrave said that, out of the present return, they had to add thirty to their list and to deduct thirteen of their original calculations, giving them seventeen more than they expected. There is a small gain to the Tories, but nothing like enough. It cannot do; all the moderate Whigs (for it is not a question of Tories) are beaten in the metropolitan districts. Spankie's admirable addresses have ensured his defeat. Duncombe, immediately after an exposure of the most disgraceful kind, will be returned by a majority doubling that of any of the other candidates; and it is not a little remarkable that Duncombe is supported by all the Dissenters, even the Quakers, with whom austerity of morals and a decent behaviour are supposed to have weight--but the rabid spirit of disaffection to government and rule bears down every other consideration, and these 'enlightened electors' (as their flatterers always call them) are frantic with pa.s.sion against everything belonging to what they call 'the aristocracy' of the country. But who can wonder at these people, when we see the great Whig Lords smiling complacently at their brutal violence and senseless rage? At Holland House they talk in the same strain; not that they utter any indecent language, but they are pa.s.sionate for the success of the movement. One single object have they--to eject Peel and the Tory Government; they own they don't know what is to follow; they do not deny that the movement must be accelerated, but they don't care; they say the Duke is responsible, for he ought not to have accepted the King's commission, and then Melbourne must have been sent for again the next day. Now _they_ must take the consequences--that is, the King and the Tories. They said last night that by the old Government the movement might have been checked; by any that can be formed on the downfall of the new it cannot--or at least that it must go farther than it would have done. I asked, 'Then is there anything you think worse than advancing the movement?' 'Yes,' cried out Lord Holland, 'making the movement stand still.' 'And do you mean that you believe there is any danger of that, and that the movement (the progress of improvement) ever can stand still?' 'Yes, I do believe it,' &c....
Such a miserable apology for their insane violence puts argument and reasoning out of the question; they are resolved to fight for power, 'to let slip the dogs of war,' ignorant whither they will go, and careless what shall be their prey.
January 10th, 1835 {p.192}
Nothing is more remarkable in these elections than the confidence of both parties in the result, and the difference of their statements as to actual numbers, Bonham, who is now, _faute de mieux_, the man-of-all-work of the Tories, told me last night that they had an actual majority on the returns of about twenty, whereas I went through the list, and after detecting some errors, made out that there is a majority of about thirty the other way.
The Whig language is still the same always, and everywhere--that they do not see what is to happen when this Government is out; that no daylight appears, but still that out it shall go. They own that they must (if they return to power) do a great deal more than they would otherwise have done, but that while they obey that necessity, they make it easy to their consciences, because it is the other party which has imposed it upon them.
[Page Head: CONTEST AT ROCHESTER.]
January 11th, 1835 {p.193}
The Government people still declare their satisfaction at the result of the elections, and make out that the numbers are tolerably even. The contests are curious from their closeness.
Charles Wellesley lost at Rochester by one, Lus.h.i.+ngton by four.
There is a great number of similar cases; in that of Rochester it is more remarkable from the accident by which the election was lost. There were two s.h.i.+ps in quarantine, one of which had one voter on board and the other two; they had both sailed the same day from the port they left, but one had been longer on the voyage. The s.h.i.+p with one voter had a right to be released on the 9th, the last day of the election, the other not till three days later. As the circ.u.mstances were the same. Sir J. Marshall, the Superintendent, suggested that both might be released together, but I did not dare relax the severity of the restriction.[4]
Rosslyn was rather for doing it, but I persuaded him it would be dangerous, as, if the election should turn upon it, we should never hear the last of it, especially the Duke, to whose charge it would be laid; and the election _actually turned on those two votes_. The best chance that I see is, that when the hour of struggle arrives there may be more moderate men than the Whig leaders are aware of--more who, without supporting, still less joining, the new Government, will abstain from taking a violent part against them. This is my only hope, for as to a majority, I have not the slightest expectation of any such thing, and am at a loss to conceive on what they count.
[4] [The administration of the Quarantine Regulations is vested in the Privy Council, and exercised by the Clerk of the Council]
January 12th, 1835 {p.193}
Up to the latest returns the Tories make out that they have a majority, or at least an equality; the Whigs, that they have a majority of about seventy. The latter calculation is nearer to the truth, and it only remains to be seen how many of their people will refuse to support extreme measures. Last night at Holland House Mulgrave was perfectly furious with Charles Fox for saying he would not oppose Manners Sutton being put in the chair. It has been a.s.serted all along by some of the opposite party that Peel's measures have been influenced (especially in the composition of his Government) by a desire to keep the Tories together, and prepare a strong Opposition. I suspect there is some truth in this, for I can account in no other way for the strange appointments he makes, and the undiluted Toryism of his Government. He goes on the old aristocratic principle of taking high birth and connection as subst.i.tutes for other qualifications, and he never seems to consider the former avowed sentiments of any man in weighing his fitness for office. He has just made Sydney Herbert Secretary to the Board of Control, an office of great labour and involving considerable business in the House of Commons.[5] He is about twenty-two or twenty three years old, unpractised in business, and never spoke but once in the House of Commons, when he made one of those pretty first speeches which prove little or nothing, and that was in opposition to the Dissenters. He may be very fit for this place, but it remains to be proved, and I am surprised he did not make him begin with a Lords.h.i.+p of the Treasury or some such thing, and put Gladstone, who is a very clever man, in that post. Praed is First Secretary to the Board of Control, and will do the business.