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YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

Bought with the income
of the
ANN S. FARNAM FUND

THE EARL OF CLARENDON

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF
GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK
FOURTH EARL OF CLARENDON
K.G., G.C.B.
BY
THE RIGHT HON. SIR HERBERT MAXWELL
BART., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME I

' He has done nobly, and cannot go without any man's voice.
. How youngly he began to serve his country, how long
continued, and what stock he springs oV—Coriolanus, ii. 3.

WITH PORTRAITS

LONDON
EDWARD ARNOLD
1913
[All rights reserved]

By ^4-. 1 / ^ P

1

PREFACE
Diligent hands have dealt pretty thoroughly with the
annals of the nineteenth century, and the reading public
are in possession of memoirs of nearly all the outstanding
figures in that age. The question has often been asked
why none has been undertaken of the fourth Earl of
Clarendon, to whom was entrusted the conduct of foreign
affairs at very critical periods in the vicissitudes of Empire.
To that question I am unable to supply an answer ; and,
while feehng that it is most meet that there should no
longer be this blank in the written memorials of Victorian
statesmen, it has not been without misgiving that I have
accepted the invitation to fill it. I was confronted by the
limit which Dr. Johnson sought to impose upon biographers
(which, however, he himself overstepped as author of The
Lives of the Poets). ' Nobody,' he told BosweU, ' can write
the life of a man but those who have eat {sic\ and drunk and
lived in social intercourse with him.'
Two circumstances have greatly tended to mitigate the
difficulties to be encountered by one who, like myseK, had
not the privilege of acquaintance with Lord Clarendon :
first, the generous confidence reposed in me by the present
Lord Clarendon in placing the whole of his father's corre
spondence at my disposal ; and second, the abundance
of that correspondence and the frank revelation of character
which it contains. Let me take this opportunity, also, for
expressing my gratitude to the representatives of many
of the late Lord Clarendon's correspondents for permission
granted me to quote from their letters.

vi THB EARL OF CLARENDON
It has long been known that Lord Clarendon wielded
an exceptionaUy fluent pen. Several of his contemporaries
expressed their wish that the public should be admitted to
the perusal of parts thereof. The late Sir Arthur Helps,
for instance, wrote in Macmillan's Magazine :
Lord Clarendon was a man who indulged, notwithstanding
his public labours, in an immense private correspondence.
There were some persons to whom, I believe, he wrote daily ;
and perhaps in after years we shall be favoured — those of us
who live to see it — with a correspondence which wiU enlighten
us as to many of the principal topics of our own period.
Much ink has flowed since these lines were written, nor
can I hold out to the reader prospect of much enlighten
ment upon public affairs during the first moiety of Queen
Victoria's reign. The ground has been wrought too
sedulously by other labourers to yield much fresh ore, the
evidence has been scanned too critically to leave much
chance of reversal of judgment. I have apphed myself,
therefore, to study the environment, motives and manner
of the man as revealed in his private written intercourse,
rather than to re-open old controversy or to retrace the
current of events through the labyrinth of official de
spatches, which are open to any one who has purpose,
patience and time to apply to them. Such despatches, of
course, have not been neglected ; but, in quotation, I have
given the preference to private correspondence.
These letters of Lord Clarendon, his family, his friends
and his Cabinet colleagues, cover the first seventy years of
the nineteenth century, a period, probably, of more rapid
social, political and economic change than any similar
space of time in the previous history of mankind. Cor
respondence, whether private or official, was conducted
without those mechanical devices whereby writers may
now ease their labours. I feel that the effort, often

PREFACE vii
prolonged and severe, of deciphering such perplexing hand
writing as that of the first Lord Brougham, the third
Marquess of Lansdowne and the first Earl Cowley, does not
go without reward. One seems to get closer to the writer,
to understand his nature, motives and circumstances in
fuller measure, than can be done through the cold medium
of a type-written page.
Queen EUzabeth is reported, probably untruthfully, to
have enjoined Federigo Zuccaro to leave out the wrinkles
in painting her portrait. I have received no such in
struction ; nor have I proceeded upon that plan in treating
of Lord Clarendon, feehng well assured that he would have
been of the mind of Ohver CromweU (from whom he could
trace descent through his mother) when he bade Lely —
' Paint me as I am ! If you leave out the scars and wrinkles
I wiU not pay you a shilhng.'
Who, indeed, would choose for his subject a faultless
character, were such to be found among men ? Staunton,
the great chess-player, declared that every game of chess
must end in a draw if neither player committed any
mistake. So with human nature — virtue without flaw
or failure is as void of interest as a landscape without
shadows. If some interest may be found in these memoirs in respect
to the Ught thrown through them upon the passing of the
Whigs — ^the whelming of them in what Mr. Gladstone
exultantly hailed as ' an agitated and expectant age ' — of
more melancholy caste are the reflections stirred by the
betrayal and disarmament of the Conservatives (the Tories
had passed into the land where all things are forgotten)
for aU coming time by the process which DisraeM described
euphemisticaUy as ' education.' The Whig party died with
dignity ; but it is to the plastic docihty with which the
Conservatives were led to abandon cardinal principles in

viii THE EARL OF CLARENDON
1867 that their present coloiu-less, nerveless condition may
be ascribed. There are still among them a few who hold
that, although it must need be that, hke offences, democratic
reform should come, the Conservative party is false to its
profession in promoting it.
As a Conservative of a somewhat antique caste, I have
had a dehcate duty to discharge in tracing the career of a
Whig statesman ; yet, although I doubt not that the sway
of prepossession may be recognised here and there, I trust
it has nowhere been degraded into prejudice or party bias.
HERBERT MAXWELL.
MONEEITH, 1913.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I

CHAPTER I. PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE
PAGE
George William Frederick Villiers born 12th January 1800 7

CHAPTER II. BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
Matriculated at St. John's College, Cambridge 29th June 1816 10
Appointed attach^ at St. Petersburg . 1820 28
I
CHAPTER III. COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS
Recalled, and appointed Commissioner of
Customs . . . .
Death of his father
Sent on special employment to Dublin .
His sister marries Thomas Henry Lister
Villiers sent to Paris to negotiate commercial
treaty . . 1831 62
CHAPTER IV. MINISTER AT MADRID
Death of his brother Hyde ....
Appointed Minister to the Court of Spain
Death of Ferdinand vil., followed by Carlist
rising .......
Signing of the Quadruple Treaty .
Charles Villiers elected member for Wolver-

1823

47

21st March 1827

56

1827

59

6th November 1830

61

3rd December 1832

66

Jixly 1833

67

September 1833

70

22nd April 1834

71

10th January 1835

84

1835

89

Formation of British Spanish Legion authorised
George Villiers negotiates treaty with Spain
on the slave trade : signed . . 28th June 1837 93
CHAPTER V. THE CARLISTS
Receives the Grand Cross of the Bath . . 19th October 1837 139
VOL. I b

X THE EARL OP CLARENDON
CHAPTER VI. WAR, DIPLOMACY AND COURTSHIP
PAOS
Succeeds as fourth Earl of Clarendon . . 22nd Deoember 1838 154
Close of the Carlist civil war . . • September 1839 158
Lord Clarendon returns to England . March 1839 163

CHAPTER VII. THE CABINET

Declines Governor-Generalship of Canada
Marries Lady Katharine Barham .
Declines Mastership of the Mint .
Accepts office aa Lord Privy Seal .
Declines Postmaster-Generalship .
Marriage of Queen Victoria ....
Difference with Lord Palmerston on Eastern
Policy 
Lords Clarendon and Holland minute their
dissent from decision of Cabinet on
Eastern affairs ... . .

March 1839 169
4th June 1839 168
August 1839 170
10th October 1839 176
22nd November 1839 175
10th February 1840 180
March 1840 184

8th July 1840 196

CHAPTER VIII. THE EASTERN QUESTION
Remains of Napoleon brought from St. Helena
to Paris . ...
Death of Lord Holland ....
Lord Clarendon accepts Chancellorship of the
Duchy of Lancaster ad interim
Strained relations with France
Fall of the Melbourne Ministry
Peel's Free Trade Budget

December 1840 *

202

22nd October 1840

213

27th October 1840

214

1840-41

215

27th August 1841

220

1842

225

CHAPTER IX. IN OPPOSITION
Lord Clarendon declines to join the Anti-Corn
Law League
Death of his brother-in-law, Mr. Lister .
Lady Theresa Lister marries George Cornewall
Lewis .......
The Spanish Marriages embroglio . .^^ r-
The potato disease 
Sir Robert Peel resigns the government
And resumes it . .
Fall of Peel's Ministry ....

21st December 1842

238

10th June 1842

245

26th October 1844

246

184344

253

August 1845

258

6th Deoember 1845

259

20th Deoember 1845

261

26th June 1846

263

CONTENTS

XI

CHAPTER X. THE LAST WHIG CABINET
Lord John Russell forms a Cabinet
Lord Clarendon becomes President of the
Board of Trade 
Is appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
Famine in Ireland 
Beginning of the third French Revolution
Smith O'Brien's rebellion ....
Lord Clarendon created a Knight ot the
Garter 
Party fight at DoUy's Brae ....
Removal of Lord Roden from Commission of
the Peace

PAOS

July 1846

264

July 1846

267

May 1847

276

1846-47

279

22nd February 1848

288

29th July 1848

290

23rd March 1849

325

12th July 1849

294

October 1849

295

CHAPTER XI. IRELAND
Encumbered Estates (Ireland) Act . . . 1849 299
Queen Victoria and Prinoe Albert visit Ireland August 1849 301
Death of Sir Robert Peel .... 2ud July 1850 312
The Ecclesiastical Titles (Roman Catholic)
question . . . 1850-51 323
Lord John Russell resigns the govemment . 20th February 1851 324
And resumes it . . 3rd March 1851 324
Louis Napoleon's covp d'itat . . 328

CHAPTER XII. THE FOREIGN OFFICE
Dismissal of Lord Palmerston
Lord Clarendon declines the Foreign Office
Fall of the Russell Ministry .
Lord Derby's first administration
Death of the Duke of Wellington
Fall of the Derby Ministry .
Lord Aberdeen's Coalition Ministry
Lord Clarendon appointed Foreign Secretary . 21st February 1853

December 1851

334

22nd Deoember 1851

335

21st February 1852

344

22nd February 1852

344

14th September 1852

345

nth Deoember 1852

351

December 1852

352

21st February 1853

363

LIST OF PLATES IN VOL. I
GEORGE VILLIERS (AFTERWARDS FOURTH EARL OF
CLARENDON), AGED ABOUT 26 . . . Frontispiece
GEORGE VILLIERS (AFTERWARDS FOURTH EARL OF
CLARENDON), AGED 21 .... facing p. 58
MRS. LISTER (THERESA VILLIERS) IN 1837 . „ 134
After a painting ly Edmn Landseer.

THE EAEL OF CLARENDON
CHAPTER I
PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE
' Tantane vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri 1 '
A GENERATION trained to recognise the ashes of its remote
ancestry in the globigerina ooze of the Atlantic, and not
blushing to recognise the anthropoid apes among its poor
relations, may incline to set little store by lineage that
can be traced back merely for a few centuries. Yet has
modern research disclosed nothing to refute, but much to
confirm the doctrine set forth by Horace in a well-worn
stanza— ' The brave and good are copies of tiieir kind ;
In steers laborious and in generous steeds
We trace their sires ; nor can the bird of Jove
Intrepid, fierce — beget th' unwarlike dove.i
It accords well with this doctrine that one who was sixth
in direct male descent from Sir Edward ViUiers (1585-1626),
diplomatist and statesman, and through his grandmother
seventh in descent from Edward Hyde, Earl of Clarendon
(1609-74), statesman and historian, should develop a strong
natural bent towards diplomacy and civil government, and,
being well tried in both, should not be found wanting in
either. The earldom of Clarendon, conferred by Charles n. at his
coronation in 1661 upon his chancellor Edward Hyde, his
torian of the Civil War, devolved at the death of the third
earl in 1723 upon Henry, grandson of the first earl. This
Henry was the son of Lawrence, younger son of the first
earl, who had likewise been ennobled by Charles n. ; thus
when Lawrence died in 1711, Henry succeeded to the titles
' Horace, Odea, iv. 4, Francis's translation.
VOL. I A

2 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. i.
of Earl of Rochester (1682), Viscount Hyde of Kenilworth
(1681), and Baron of Wootton Basset (1681), and on the
death of his cousin aforesaid, he became also fourth Earl
of Clarendon, Viscount Combury (1661), and Baron Hyde
of Hindon (1660). He married Jane Leveson Gower, sister
of the first Lord Gower of Stittenham, by whom he had a
son Henry, Viscount Cornbury, who was killed in Paris by
a fall from his horse six months before his father's death
in 1753. Lord Cornbury had married Lady Frances Lee,
daughter of the second Earl of Lichfield ; but he left no issue ;
consequently aU the honours were extinguished by the death
of his father, the fourth earl, on 10th December 1753. Lord
Clarendon seems to have handed over aU the papers of the
first earl to his only son. Lord Combury, who bequeathed
these to the Bodleian Library, and the bulk of his property
to his niece. Lady Charlotte Capel, afterwards ViUiers.
Cornbury's eldest surviving sister, Lady Jane Hyde,
married WilUam, third Earl of Essex, in 1718, and bore him
four daughters, of whom the two elder died in childhood,
and the third, Lady Charlotte Capel, was married in 1752
to the Hon. Thomas ViUiers, second son of WiUiam, second
Earl of Jersey, by his wife Judith, daughter and heir of
Frederick Heme of London.
ViUiers, having entered the diplomatic service, was sent
in October 1737, being then eight-and-twenty, as envoy-
extraordinary to the court of Augustus in., King of Poland,
and in 1740 he was advanced to the post of minister-pleni
potentiary to the said Augustus as Elector of Saxony.
When Frederick the Great drove Augustus out of Saxony
to seek safety in Poland, ViUiers foUowed him, and spent
laborious weeks negotiating for peace with Frederick's
minister, Podewils.^ At last, on Christmas Day 1746, these
critical 'pourparlers were brought to a close by the signing
of the Treaty of Dresden. ' In the eyes of ViUiers, I am
told,' says Carlyle, 'were seen sublimely pious tears.'^
Readers are free to speculate whether these tears were
1 The correspondence — 28th November to 18th Deoember 1745— ia
printed in (Euvrea de Fridiric, iii. 183-216.
' Carlyle's Frederick ihe Great, iv. 227.

CHAP. I.] PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE 3
caused by gratitude for peace secured, grief for the humilia
tion of Augustus, or, physically, by the keen cold of a
German midwinter.
However that may be decided, the conduct of these nego
tiations by Villiers earned him so much favour from Frederick
that in January foUowing he was appointed British minister
at Berlin. This post he retained for two years, when he
retired from diplomacy in February 1748, having been
elected member for Tamworth in the previous summer.
Pelham took him into his ministry as a Lord of the Ad
miralty. Then came his marriage as aforesaid, before
which his bride, having become lineal representative of the
Hyde earldom of Clarendon on the death of her mother in
1724, had discarded the name of Capel and was known as
Lady Jane Hyde. It was natural, therefore, that when
ViUiers was rewarded for his public service by a peerage in
1756, he should receive the title of Baron Hyde of Hindon,
with hmitation to his heirs male by Lady Charlotte, and,
in default of such heirs, to the heirs male of her ladyship's
body. Twenty years later, in 1776, Lord Hyde, being then
ChanceUor of the Duchy of Lancaster in Lord North's
administration, was advanced to be Earl of Clarendon by
a new creation.
In 1782 Frederick the Great, mindful of old friendship,
decorated Lord Clarendon with the order of the Black
Eagle of Prussia, with the further unusual privilege of in
corporating it in his shield of arms.
' Permettons a lui et a toute sa posterite pour toujours d'ajou-
ter a ses armoiries de famille I'Aigle Noir de Prusse pour per-
petuer h jamais dans sa famiUe et post6rit6 la memoire de la
satisfaction que nous avons eu de son ministere dans une affaire
aussi interessante pour nous et pour notre etat.' ^
For some unknown reason effect has not been given
to this grant by the EngUsh College of Heralds, the arms
assigned to the Earls of Clarendon of the present line being
the paternal coat of ViUiers without difference, viz. argent,
on a cross gules, five escaUops or. Equally unknown is
^ Diploma signed by Frederick.

4 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap i.
Horace Walpole's reason for disparaging Lord Clarendon's
merit as a pubhc servant. He ascribed King Frederick's
affection for him to that monarch's distaste for able men :
' He has, you know, been much gazetted, and had his
letters to the King of Prussia printed; but he is a very
silly feUow.' ^
Lord Clarendon died on 11th December 1786, leaving
three sons. The eldest, Thomas, succeeded him as second
earl, but does not seem to have taken any part in public
affairs. Creevey, however, writing on 18th August 1821,
has the following about him :
The Queen [CaroUne] appointed as executors of her will Bagot,^.
the minister of this country to America, and Lord Clarendon,
and she left them aU her papers sealed up. The other day
Lord Jersey received a letter from Lord Clarendon begging him
to come to him, which he did. He then told him that he was
going as executor to open his [Lord Jersey's] mother's papers.'
The seal was then taken off, and letters from the monarch to
his former sweetheart caught Jersey's eye in great abundance.
Lord Clarendon then proceeded to put them all in the fire,
saying he had merely wished Lord Jersey to be present at their
destruction, and as a witness that they had never been seen by
any one. Very genteel, this, on Lord Clarendon's part to the
Uving monarch and memory of his mistress, but damned provok
ing to think that such capital materials for the instruction and
improvement of men and womankind should be eternally lost.^
Earl Thomas was succeeded by his younger brother,
John Charles, who had passed through a much varied
parliamentary experience. Lord Camelford presented him
in 1784 to the pocket-borough of Old Sarum, which he
represented tiU 1790, being ComptroUer of the Household
in 1787-90. Next, he sat for Dartmouth from 1790 tiU 1802,
when the Marquess of Stafford secured him as member for
the Wick burghs. He continued member for this remote
constituency (which certainly he never can have visited) tiU
' Walpole's Letters (curd Cunningham), ii. 140.
" Rt. Hon. Sir Charles Bagot.
» Frances, wife ot George, fourth Earl of Jersey; Her relations with
the Prinoe of Wales (afterwards George iv.) are well known.
? Creevey Papers, ii. 25.

CHAP. I.] PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE 5
1805. He afterwards sat for Queenborough, a Kentish
fishing village with three or four hundred inhabitants,
which, Hke Old Sarum, retumed two members to parlia
ment, from 1807 to 1812, and again from 1820 till he
succeeded to the earldom in 1824. There is no evidence
that John ViUiers can be held, as the saying goes, to have
* made his mark ' in the House of Commons. In days
before parliamentary reporting had been brought to that
pitch of microscopic analysis of which modern legislators
are the subject, debate was mainly left in the hands of the
leaders on either side, and ViUiers was probably content to
register dumb and docile votes in accordance with party
instructions. Sir George Jackson, in his Diaries and
Correspondence, notices him only as ' a mere courtier,
famous for teUing interminable long stories ' ; but his good
looks are commemorated in the Bolliad, where ' ViUiers,
comely with the flaxen hair ' is compared to Homer's Nereus,
His fideUty to Pitt was rewarded by several comfortable
sinecures. His father, the first earl, being ChanceUor of
the Duchy of Lancaster, had already appointed him joint
king's counsel in the Duchy Court in 1782, and in 1786, a few
months before his father's death, he received the additional
office of Surveyor of the Duchy Woods south of the Trent,
This office he retained when he was made ComptroUer of the
Household and a Privy CounciUor in 1787, and in 1790 Pitt
gave him the rich sinecure of Warden and Chief Justice-in-
eyre of the royal forests, parks and warrens, north of the
Trent. In the same year he became a Commissioner of the
Board of Trade ; from 1789 to 1806 he was recorder and
under-steward of New Windsor, and in 1794 he received the
king's commission as colonel of the first regiment of Fencible
Cavalry, with army rank. Next he tried his hand at
diplomacy, serving as envoy at the Court of Portugal during
the early stage of the Peninsular War — 27th November 1808
to 10th January 1810. Undismayed by the deplorable
issue of the Coruna campaign in 1809, he strongly urged that
the Peninsula should not be abandoned to the French, and
shared Canning's beUef in Sir Arthur WeUesley as the man
for the command in Portugal.

6 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. i.
Bight Hon. J. G. Villiers, M.P., to Charles Bagot, M.P.^
Lisbon, ^th April 1809. — ^If we can but raise a sufficient army,
everything will succeed ; but the situation is critical beyond
imagination ; general statements of it, such as a dispatch admits
of, give no adequate idea or picttire, however true and well
founded. Worse than Corunna on the one hand, and the com
plete Uberation and disposal of the Peninsula on the other-
depend upon our having such an army from England as we may
have almost immediately, aided by Portuguese, whose numbers
and conduct depend only upon how many we can arm and how
far we can officer them with British officers. . . . It is my decided
opinion that WeUesley would almost double any reinforcement.
To enforce his views, ViUiers sent home his private
secretary. Colonel Bayley, to lay them before Castlereagh
and Canning. His choice of an emissary does not seem to
have been feUcitous.
Bight Hon. George Canning to the same.
20th May 1809. — ^Have you written to Villiers upon his pre
posterous conduct in sending this young gentleman over here as
a living despatch ? I am satisfied that if I were to lay this
communication before the King I should receive orders to recall
him instantly. How far you can venture to hint to the Great V.
this view of the subject, you can judge. But I begin to feel
my letter was not plain enough, for this letter of Col. B.'s exceeds
in impertinence anything I ever read.
ViUiers resigned his appointment in 1810. In January
1791 he had married Maria Eleanor, second daughter and
co-heir of Admiral the Hon. John Forbes (brother of the
fourth Earl of Granard) by his wiie Lady Mary Capel, fourth
daughter of WiUiam, third Earl of Essex. Succeeding his
brother as third Earl of Clarendon in 1824, he died on
22nd December 1838, leaving no issue, his only child. Lady
Mary Harriet, having died unmarried in 1835.
The Hon. George WiUiam ViUiers, third son of the first
Earl of Clarendon, was born on 23rd November 1759, and
married on 17th April 1798 Maria Theresa, only daughter
' Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

CHAP. I.] PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE 7
of John Parker, first Lord Boringdon. She bore to him the
following family :
1. George WiUiam Frederick, the subject of the present
memoir ; b. 12th January 1800, succeeded as fourth Earl
in 1838, d. 27th June 1870.
2. Thomas Hyde; b. 27th January 1801, entered the Colonial
Office in 1822, M.P. 1826-31, d. unmarried 3rd December
1832.
3. Charles Pelham ; b. January 1802, M.P. for Wolverhampton
1835-98, a Privy Councillor and President of the Poor
Law Board with a seat in the Cabinet, distinguished for
his advocacy of the repeal of the Corn Laws, d. un
married 16th January 1898.
4. Maria Theresa ; b. 8th March 1803, married first, on 6th
November 1830, Thomas Henry Lister, author and
dramatist. He died in 1842, and she married, secondly,
on 26th October 1844, Sir George ComewaU Lewis, M.P.,
who died 13th April 1863, being then Secretary of State
for War. In 1839 Queen Victoria conferred on Lady
Theresa and upon the younger sons of her father the rank
of an earl's children. She wrote some books of merit,
and d. at Oxford on 9th November 1865.
5. Edward Emest ; b. 23rd March 1806, married 1st August
1835 the Hon. EHzabeth Charlotte LiddeU, fifth daughter
of Thomas, iirst Lord Ravensworth. He d. 30th
October 1843, leaving by his wife (who d. 15th April
1890) one son and three daughters.
6. Henry Montagu ; b. 4th January 1813, took holy orders
and became Bishop of Carhsle in 1856, and of Durham
in 1860. He married Amelia Mary, eldest daughter of
WiUiam Hulton of Hulton Park, Lancashire, by whom
he had two sons and four daughters. He d. 9th August
1861.
7. Augustus Algernon ; b. 14th April 1817, and d. a Ueu-
tenant in the Royal Navy in July 1843.
Students of heredity might have argued from the lineage
of this family that one or more among the seven should
rise to distinction. It was a promising blend, for whereas
their paternal grandmother was direct in descent through
the male Une from the royaUst chancellor and historian of
the great rebeUion, their mother was seventh in descent

8 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. i.
through the female line from the leader of that rebeUion,
Oliver CromweU. ^ Moreover, although their father, the
Hon. George ViUiers, does not appear to have displayed any
commanding or endearing qualities, showing himself mainly,
in such of his correspondence as has been preserved, as
constantly suffering from bad health and grievously
harassed by pecuniary cares, yet his wiie, the Hon. Maria
Theresa Parker, was a woman of more than common ability,
with the gift of expressing herself at great length and
perfect lucidity in correspondence. One is accustomed to
look for the development of maternal, rather than paternal,
qualities in offspring ; and this expectation was confirmed
in this family. Of the seven children of Mrs. ViUiers, no less
than five have received recognition in the Dictionary of
National Biography, a proportion for which it would be
difficult to find a paraUel outside the royal family.
Of the early married Ufe of Mr. and Mrs. George ViUiers
the only record that seems to have been preserved is con
tained in Mrs. Villiers 's letters to her brother. Lord Boringdon,
for whom she had an extraordinary affection, fuUy re
ciprocated. Three days after her marriage she describes
to him Delrow, a house which her husband rented near
Watford, as standing ' in a smaU garden which wiU be de
lightful in a little time from the quantity of flowers it
contains. The fields beyond are extremely pretty, and one
very great advantage is its being perfectly retir'd and
looking as thoroughly in the country as if it was 200 miles
from the metropoUs.'
At Delrow Mr. ViUiers kept some race-horses and farmed
on a pretty large scale (in one of her letters Mrs. ViUiers
aUudes to his anxiety about his four hundred acres of hay).
He held an appointment at Court, where he had to take
his turn in waiting, besides being deputy-Paymaster of the
* Cromwell's fourth daughter, Frances, married secondly Sir John
RusseU of Chippenham: their daughter Elizabeth married Sir Thomas
Frankland of Thirkleby, Yorks ; their daughter Mary married Thomas
Worseley of Hovingham, whose daughter Frances married Thomas
Robinson, first Lord Grantham (d. 1770). The Hon. Theresa Robinson,
daughter of Lord and Lady Grantham, married the first Lord Boringdon
(d. 1784), and their daughter, the Hon. Maria Theresa Parker, married
the Hon. George Villiers.

chap. I.] PEDIGREE AND PARENTAGE 9
Marines, under the Board of Admiralty. Later he became
Registrar of Gibraltar, Clerk of the Council, Registrar of the
Duchy of Lancaster, and Ranger of Cranborne Chace, which
appointments he was holding at the time of his death in
1827. When in London, Mr. and Mrs. George Villiers lived in
Upper Grosvenor Street, whence, on 12th January 1800,
Mr. ViUiers dispatched a note to Lord Boringdon informing
him that his sister, ' after ten hours' very severe suffering,
had borne a very fine boy,' the subject of the following
memoir. In accordance with a fashion set in England under
the Hanoverian dynasty, a triplet of baptismal names was
bestowed upon the unconscious infant. To the name
George he had a hereditary claim ; it had already become as
popular under the aforesaid dynasty as that of William
was at one time under the Norman kings of England,^ and
he received in addition the names of WiUiam Frederick.
' In the year 1173 Sir William St. John and Sir WiUiam Fitzhamon
gave a dinner-party restricted to knights bearing the name of William.
The company numbered one hundred and twenty.

CHAPTER II
BOYHOOD AND YOUTH
' Get horizon lointain et azur^ de la vie qu'on appelle I'avenir.' Anon.
Although aU Mrs. George ViUiers's children grew to emulate
their mother in the profusion and Uveliness of their corre
spondence, little enough remains to be gleaned about their
years of childhood. It is recorded in Mrs. ViUiers's letters
that little George cut his first tooth on 22nd September
1800, but of his schooldays nothing is known save the bare
notice in his matriculation at St. John's CoUege, Cambridge,
in 1816 — ' educated at Christ's Hospital.' Born in the last
year of the eighteenth century, his earUest experience must
have been of a country and state of society very different
from those with which EngUsh children of the twentieth
century are famiUar. True, that in some districts hedges
and hedgerow timber stiU lend that distinction to English
landscape which has been the theme of many a singer— the
dream of many an exile.
' Green fields of England ! wheresoe'er
Across this watery waste we fare.
Your image in our hearts we bear,
Green fields of England, everywhere.'
But over a great part of the land how great has been the
change ! Leagues of tranquil landscape have been
swallowed up or irremediably defiled by industrial and
mineral development ; the balance of rural and urban
communities has been reversed, with such effect upon the
physique of our people and the stabiUty of our institutions
as cannot be contemplated without suggesting (and without
answering hopefuUy) the inquiry, Qtio tendimus ?
In social circumstance the contrast between 1800 and 1900
10

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 11
is even more startling, brought about mainly by accelerated
travel and communication. When George ViUiers the
younger was a boy, the standard of speed in travel was
exactly the same as it was under Imperial Rome, being
regulated by the powers of horses on good roads. And
Enghsh roads a hundred years ago were very far from good.
John Loudon MAdam had not yet laid upon them his
reforming hand ; so that the Holyhead mail, the fastest
coach out of London, lumbered along at the rate of no more
than six miles an hour, and a journey which the Irish express
now accompUshes in five hours and a half, occupied two
days and two nights in the year 1800. Moreover, travel
was not yet devoid of adventure. Delrow was only some
seventeen miles from Charing Cross ; but the foUowing note
from Mrs. ViUiers to Lord Boringdon betokens what need
there was for going armed,
Deleow, Srd August 1800. — My dearest Beothee, — I have
thought of nothing since I received your letter this morning but
your escape from the highwaymen. ... I am much vex'd it
should have happen'd on your retum from this place. Thank
you a thousand times for your caution, which I assure you will
have the desired effect. I am at no time very courageous and
shaU be much less so now, as I find two servants are not the
security I took them to be.
In these years the prolonged strain of war kept the price
of necessaries at an exorbitant pitch, and the labouring
classes were suffering severely in consequence. Farmers
were accused of holding back their corn to exact even higher
prices, and country gentlemen exerted themselves to provide
reUef for their workmen by breaking the corn ring. Mrs.
Villiers writes on the subject to Lord Boringdon at Saltram.
Deleow, I2th October 1800. — . . . By your letter I imagine that
the high price of provisions is the principal subject of conversation
in Devonshire, as well as in every other place, and as you seem
to have some idea of calling a meeting, I cannot help teUing you
what has been done here. ... I believe you let your mill, but
perhaps by entering into some agreement with the miUer, some
thing of the same sort might be done for your labourers and other
poor. Mr. Viffiers has taken a great deal of pains in inquiring

12 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
into the exact state of the distresses of the poor here, and found
that even aU his own labourers (who, of course, are very numerous
on the farm) who have very high wages compared with other
years, were so distress'd that many who have wives and large
famiUes live literally upon bread and water the whole week, being
seldom able to afford cheese, and never having meat but on a
Sunday, and that not always. Most of them were in debt to the
smaU shops, who impose upon the poor in a most shameful
manner. In short, every family is in a state of poverty and
misery they never were in before. Mr. Viffiers therefore has
ascertained, as nearly as he can, the number of quartern loaves
necessary per week for the use of everybody (including their
famihes) who works under him, and distributes that quantity of
flour to each every Saturday night at the rate of 10|d. the
quartern loaf instead of 15 or 16d., which is the common price
now. By this means they are enabled to lay out part of their
wages in the purchase of meat, which he also sells them at the
rate of 4|d. per pound instead of 7Jd., the lowest price asked here
for the worst pieces of mutton. He is also going to establish a
soup shop, to be managed by one of his farming men's wives,
where, upon paying a moderate sum, they may have a hot dinner
every day. He has also some thoughts of buying cheese in a
wholesale way in London, which may be done considerably
cheaper than at the Uttle shops here, and retaihng it to them at
the same price. This is a great article of their usual consumption,
and goes a great way.
All this, of course, must be done at a considerable loss, unless
the price of things is lowered ; but if every gentleman and every
farmer would do this, tradesmen mitst reduce their prices in
self-defence. . . . This would certainly answer a much better
purpose than obhging your tenants to bring aU their com immedi
ately to market, as it then very probably faUs into the hands of
speculators and corn factors, and the poor are left as destitute
as ever,
I cannot but think that the memory of this and many
subsequent years of extreme distress must have had much
to do with the strong Whig and Free Trade principles after
wards adopted by young George and aU his brothers. Their
father was a Tory and a supporter of Pitt ; but it was not
from him that their minds received a bent and their char
acters moulded. Ill health and pecuniary cares — one as

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 13
chronic as the other — rendered his authority uncertain and
intermittent ; it was from the clear-cut inteUigence and
kindly, but imperious, influence of their mother that they
received guidance and imbibed principles of right or wrong.
She had lived through those terrible years of stress and
scarcity — indefatigable, as her letters show, in schemes for
reUeving the distress ; it was from her, no doubt, that her
children learnt to dread any monopoly in the food supply
of the people.
The peace of Amiens in March 1802 brought but brief
respite ; early in 1803 Napoleon was hurrying on prepara
tion for the invasion of England, and counter-preparation
was made in every parish to resist him. Lord Salisbury
was colonel of the Herts Yeomanry, in which Mr. Villiers
commanded a troop. The danger was known to be
imminent, but nothing could be farther removed from
panic than the attitude of parliament and people. The
occasion was grave, indeed, but not so grave as to rob
Mrs. ViUiers's letters to her brother of their Ughtsome
humour. Blst July 1803. — . . . I think you vnU be amused to hear that
Lord Clarendon ^ is come into the troop as a private, and some
Rickmansworth friends of his come with him. To be sure Mr. V.
is not under much obKgation to them, as they come in just to
save themselves from the parish driUs, which might be a more
troublesome thing. I mean to go and see them exercise the first
time Lord C. appears, as a helmet and a, jacket made by the Duke
of Grafton's tailor must be worth seeing. So great is Lord C.'s
fear of any trouble or responsibihty that nothing can persuade
him to accept even the cometcy, which is vacant. . . . I reaUy
am dreadfuUy alarmed at our present dangerous situation, and
I agree with our valiant commander, Lord S[aUsbury], who
says the preparations on the Continent make one's blood run
cold. . . . They fired the guns yesterday for taking St. Lucia.^
I think it quite a shameful waste of powder to rejoice for such
nonsense, when we have so much more serious things at stake. . . .
llth August 1803.—. . . Harvest is getting on very fast, and I
' Thomas, second Earl.
" Largest of the Wmdward Islands, which, after French and English
had repeatedly wrested it from each other, was finally captured by the
English in 1803.

14 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
begin to hope that Bonaparte wiU let us finish it before he arrives ;
but I own I have a great dread of him.
HiLLFiELD Lodge, 2nd, October 1803.—. . . Between Ports
mouth and this place we have heard of nothing but invasion, and
my apprehensions on the subject are quite reviv'd. There must
be fine confusion at the War Office, I fancy, as Mr. V. received an
immense pacquet last night containing orders for his troop in case
of invasion ; but on opening them found they were intended for
another person in another county. . . . Sheridan says if the
French land our only chance wiU be to lock up aU our generals,
as we have none good for anything. Only think of the Duke of
Cumberland having the command on the Hampshire coast !
HiUfield Lodge, whence this last letter was written, was a
new house whither Mr. and Mrs. VilUers had migrated from
Delrow in 1802. It was close to Delrow, and either Mr.
ViUiers built it or Lord Clarendon had it built for him.
They hesitated a long time about the name. The site was
known as Sly's HiU, which they dismissed as ' shocking.'
They incUned to VilUersberg or ViUierschloss, but were
quizzed out of that by their friends. FinaUy they fixed on
the harmless, if unromantic, name of HiUfield ; but in
1804 they moved again into rooms provided for them in
Windsor Castle, Mrs. ViUiers being then in close relations
with the Court, and especiaUy attached to Princess Amelia.
Once again they changed their abode, King George having
assigned Cranborne Tower in Windsor Park as their country
residence, and apartments at Kew when the Court was in
London. After this arrangement had come to an end, they
lived for many years in Kent House, a large mansion in
Brompton now swept away, which they shared with the
Boringdons. The first definite information about young George Viffiers's
education is the entry of his matriculation at St. John's
College, Cambridge, where he was admitted a feUow com
moner on 29th June 1816, and described, as aforesaid, as
' educated at Christ's Hospital.' This does not imply that
he was a Blue-coat boy, for the custom of the hospital
aUowed the masters to take private pupils into the school.
Warren Hastings received education in that manner, and so,

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 15
no doubt, did Gteorge ViUiers.^ That he never was more
than a day scholar is interesting in view of his appointment
in later Ufe as chairman of the Public Schools Commission,
to which he was able to bring an open mind. His opinion
of the best means of education may be inferred from his
having sent his sons to Harrow.
At Cambridge he gave £10 to the Plate Fund in 1820,
and was admitted direct to the degree of M.A., without the
preUminary B.A., that being his privilege of ndbilis or
tanqvam ndbilis. It was during his time at Cambridge his
correspondence with his sister Theresa begins to be interest
ing — a correspondence which was to endure through Ufe,
reveaUng not only the intense affection that bound together
the hearts of the VTriters, but the confidence which each
reposed without reserve in the other's judgment. These
letters might fiU a large volume, for luckily Miss VilUers
disobeyed her brother's reiterated injunction to burn them
so soon as read. They refer to every matter that bore upon
the happiness, the prospects, the conduct of his sister — how
she should behave when she was brought out in London —
how she should weigh her own feelings and the merits of her
many suitors before deciding upon marriage — aU this advice
being enUvened by vivid description of current events and
punctuated by gifts of books, of Uttle pieces of personal
finery, jeweUery, etc. Many brothers and sisters have loved
each other as deeply as did George and Theresa Villiers ;
but very few are at the pains to express their feelings so
eloquently, forgetful, perhaps, of the legal adage — de non
apparentibus et de non existentibus eadem est ratio. Here is
his account of his first experience at the University :
Cambeidqe [1816]. — My deaeest dear Theeesa, — Oh ! dear-
a-me such changes ; up at 6 o'clock, no fire, snow upon the ground,
so cold — oh dear-a-me ! ! !
I am afraid you wiU think this a sorrowful beginning, but I
• It is thought probable that he also attended Thomas HUl's school at
Kensington, where his brothers Hyde and Charles were day scholars.
Thomas HUl (1763-1851) was the father of Sir Rowland HiU, founder of
the penny post, and was also a notable character in his own way. He
invented a system of short-hand, but was chronically in debt, and was
said to possess every sense except common sense. His Remains were
privately printed in 1859.

16 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
must now inform you that I scarcely ever looked forward to a
more comfortable, happy time in my life than that which I have
every prospect of passing at Cambridge. I only wanted you here
to make my debut more comfortable. I shaU now give you some
account of what is going on.
In the first place, I have three capital rooms, a dehcious bed,
lots of tables and common sitting-chairs ; but I have also one
divine great armchair en chef, with two more capital smaUer ones
as aides-de-camp to him. I get up about ^ past 6 a.m., in the
chapel by seven, go to the lecture at 8, and come back to breakfast
at nine. My ci-devant papa and present father ^ has been kind
enough to give me the great advantage of preparing for the
lectures, etc., by reading with a private tutor whose name is
Smith — a very good-natured, fiery-headed feUow. ... I think
you would laugh not a httle to see me in my gown and cap, to
which I now begin to get accustomed ; but at first the gown got
between my legs and threw me down. ... If you ever expect a
letter, Miss, you had better write to me 6 or 7 times a week.
Adieu, my Uttle dear.
The foUowing extracts from a very voluminous correspond
ence illustrate the usual course of Ufe at a university, but the
sequence is uncertain owing to the letters bearing only the
date of the week or month.
... I Uke my mare monstrously. I have now got 4 dogs and a
boy ; but of course don't say anything about that. . . .
... I dare say my brothers have aheady told you that I
made my dibut the other day in tandem-driving, when we went
to Newmarket, had a capital good dinner, and came back at night.
As soon as Houghton got about half drunk we set off. He in
sisted upon driving, though he let out he had never even driven
a buggy in his hfe. It was pitch dark and we had no lamps, and
I vowed he should not ; and as I had got the reins I persisted in
driving, the consequence of which was that we came along
beautifully in good time. Of course you wiU not mention a word
of this or of that. I am going to a great coursing meeting to
morrow. ... I am sorry for your amusement to say I have not
been once drunk or even the least intosticated.
George often mentions his distaste for logic and incapacity
1 As a boy he had spoken of 'papa,' but as a University man he adopts
the more stately style.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 17
for mathematics ; but he had a strong turn for languages,
and in after Ufe became a remarkable Unguist — no mean
advantage in a diplomatist.
... I am reaUy reading this term — have taken immensely to
German, and hope to have an ItaUan master soon. In fact the
learning of languages is the only thing I have any turn for. . . .
The Governor was very kind and amiable before I left Bath about
money matters. I told him everything I owed, and he gave me
money to pay something to everybody, with a promise of paying
all as soon as he possibly could. It was certainly much the best
way to teU him aU candidly. . . . Burn my letters always, unless
you are quite sure they 'U never be seen ; for if not, it destroys
one's confidence in writing.
1820. — I am very glad indeed that I have taken my degree,
as I am now perfectly independent and do precisely what I like —
no chapels, haUs or exeats. I need never wear my gown at night :
in fact I am a gentleman at large, and I 'm sure you '11 be glad
to hear that I am really reading now. I never read haK as hard
in my Ufe ; in fact I don't find the day long enough, and at every
lesson I can perceive the greatest improvement in my German.
. . . We had a dinner in my rooms last night, upon the occasion
of our taking our degrees and — got roaring drunk.
Mrs. George ViUiers, a thorough woman of the world,
having a quick temper, strong feelings, and command of a
pen which she aUowed to express whatever was uppermost
in her thoughts, cherished a passionate love for her two elder
sons, George and Hyde. While they were at Cambridge
she wrote to them almost daily and at profuse length, keep
ing them informed of the most triffing incidents at home,
and retaihng aU the talk of the town for- their edification.
Now a correspondence of such volume and frequency must
have taxed severely the resources of these young men
had means not been found to reUeve them of liabiUty for the
postage fee which at that time, and for twenty years later,
had to be paid by the recipient, amounting to eightpence
or tenpence on every letter from London to Cambridge.
Members of both Houses of ParUament, however, enjoyed
the privilege of franking, and the immense variety of auto
graphs on the covers of Mrs. ViUiers'sletters, ranging from
VOL. I B

18 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. h.
those of royal dukes down to obscure borough members,
testifies to the diUgence with which she sought for this favour.
Indeed she makes frequent reference to the devices whereby
she secured the services of her parUamentary acquaintance.
A few extracts, taken almost at random from these closely,
but clearly, written pages may serve to show the wealth
of confidence which united the mother to her absent sons.
Mrs. George Villiers to her sons George and Hyde.
13th April 1818. — ... I send you the .Eajamme?- newspaper which
I sent for in consequence of Mr. Elphinstone teffing me of a most
absurd thing of Canning's. Some unknown person has written
in some of the papers a violently abusive letter to Canning, and
he has had the folly to answer it, affixiug his name. There never
was anything so absurd except, in days of yore, Sir Wm. Draper
chaUenging the unknown author of Junius ! I really cannot con
ceive how Caiming could do anything so egregiously ridiculous —
The Elphie teUs me that Lady Frances Vane is reaUy entrapped
into marrying Lord Stewart. Did you ever hear anything so
horrible ? an old profligate old enough to be her grandfather.
Lord Ashbrooke told me a very fuimy thing about the Regent.
He used, you know, to strap and bandage himself to keep up his
lower stomach, and lately the doctors have told him this was very
dangerous, so he now goes in a state of abandon that is vastly
engaging. Somebody said he was now indeed a Regent ivithout
restrictions. ... I am quite deUghted that GreviUe ^ liked his
visit here. I am always predisposed to Uke any friend of yours,
but reaUy his own manner and countenance are exceedingly
prepossessing. . . .
I6th. — . . . Leach 2 tells me that he knows everything about the
concerns of Lady Antrim and her daughter, and that the whole
story about her being influenced is a fabrication — that the girl
is madly in love with Lord Stewart (which he acknowledges is
lamentable) — that she was quite determined to marry him before
her mother knew a word about it, and that Phelps had behaved
admirably ^— that the Michael Angelos (Mrs. M. A. T. is her
^ Probably Charles GreviUe of the Memoirs (a lifelong friend of George
Villiers) ; but perhaps his brother Henry.
» Sir John Leach (1700-1834), had just been made Vioe-Chancellor ; he
became Master of the Rolls in 1827.
' Lady Frances Vane, daughter of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest by his
wife Anne, Countess of Antrim in her own right, married Lord Stewart
(afterwards third Marquess of Londonderry) in 1819.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 19
aunt) 1 have nailed the marriage by their abuse of the girl
for it, and he don't suppose the Chancellor can have just
grounds to prevent it, tho' she is a ward in Chancery. Leach
tells me that it is said (of course not proved) that Hobhouse,
Lord Byron's friend, is the author of the anonymous letter
to Canning, and that he believed Canning thought himself so
sure of his man that he — Leach — thought he was more justified
in writing that letter than would appear at first sight. Still,
I can't help thinking it the most total abandonment of all
sense of digmty, and more hke a wild Irishman than an EngUsh
Cabinet minister.^ . . .
[No date, 1818.] — . . . Upon my word your letters to-day were
dehcious beyond anything that ever was dehcious before. I
reaUy beUeve (tho' it almost appears impossible) that our mutual
affection encreases every year and every month and every hour.
I do not suppose it is possible for any people to have a greater
desire to please each other than we aU have, and I feel now ten
times more confident (no ! that 's a Ue, for it can't be) than
ever that you wiU both work hard from the beginning, not to
leave the fagging to the last ; but mixing that hard work with
regular and sufficient exercise, without which iUness must be the
consequence. . . . Mix your study and your exercise in due
proportion, if only to please me, and I know you wiU both do
anything for that. . . . Now adieu, my dearest, dearest boys :
how shaU I get thro' this term without you ? It is like Uving
with one's Umbs tom off. . . .
5th May 1818. — . . . Now for an account of the BeUnda ball.
Your sister was exceedingly weU dressed — beautiful pink corsage
made after a French pattern of Lady Jersey's, gauze tail given
by Emily, a pretty trimming of mine at the bottom, and gauze
loop'd up with flowers. Nobody in the room better dress'd, and
she was admired to my heart's content. Then think of her luck,
getting various spontaneous partners — Charles Trefusis,* Henry
Disborough, a young Legge introduced by Disbrowe, Robt.

' Michael Angelo Taylor, M.P., lived in Whitehall, where his house was
a well-known rendezvous of the Whigs.
^ Much of the pamphlet is reprinted in Lady Anne Hamilton's scurrilous
Secret History of the Court of England, where the authorship is attributed
to Sir John Cam Hobhouse. In his reply to it, Canning, dating from
Gloucester House on 10th April, addresses the pamphleteer as 'a liar and
a slanderer, wanting only the courage to be an assassin.' (See Bagot's
George Canning and hia Friends, ii. 78-80.)
' Succeeded in 1832 as nineteenth Baron Clinton.

20 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
Gunning,! and young Trefusis again, and one quadriUe with
Charles. Was not that capital for her ? and she really danc'd
beautifuUy. . . . Old Betty PaUs ^ told me she was enchanted
with EUzabeth's marriage. She had been so miserable the last
two years, and so had he, and now they were so very happy it was
deUghtful. EUzabeth and Horace Seymour were sitting together
upstairs aU the evening.
. . . BeUnda' s baU was crowded beyond aU crowds — no never !
but your sister kept out of it very tolerably. The Dukes of
Wellington and [illegible] were there, as also the Dukes of
Cumberland and Gloucester. . . . The Duke of Cumberland told
me the Duke of Kent's marriage was declared ! What becomes
of aU his fine sentimentaUty to me about Mrs. St. Laurent.
\2th. — ... At fijTst the dancing did not prosper much. The Regent
came early, made a great circle, and nobody began for an age.
Royalties always spoil baUs. He gave me one of his tender
squeezes, and afterwards, finding himself next me, spoke to me
again and joked about renewing his acquaintance with the
Honble. Anne, who he had never seen since my father's days, but
the brute beast never took any notice of Therese, which made
me very irate indeed. He was talking and winking in his
blackguard way with Horace Seymour and Miss Palk, and after
wards settled himself for the evening between his two beau (or
rather belle) pots, Lady Hertford and Lady Hampden. After he
went, the dancing prosper' d much more. . . . Lady Grantham
in a Russian dress transcendently handsome ; Ld. Grantham
as Hamlet — very handsome. Lady Essex as Rubens's wife —
superb, and reaUy had done it weU. One set of quadriUe dresses
only — 2 Lady Molyneuxs,^ Lady G. Bingham,* and Miss Coup-
maher — Lord Molyneux,^ Lord Arthiu- HiU (the Hottentot Man) *
and 2 other men I did not know, as Croatians — very splendid.
Lord Yarmouth as Henry viii. in black — no never ! black
whiskers and mustaches ! Raikes ' as a black Hamlet in ditto.
When I first stumbled upon him I reaUy made one of Hyde's
ichis de rire so shamefuUy I was obUged to beg his pardon. . . .
1 Succeeded in 1823 as third baronet.
• Lady EUzabeth Palk, wife of Sir Laurence Palk, second baronet.
Her daughter Elizabeth married Sir Horace Seymour, M.P., 15th May
1818. ' Daughters of the second Earl of Sefton.
* Youngest daughter of second Earl of Lucan.
' Succeeded as third Earl of Sefton in 1838.
• Second son of third Marquess of Downshire : succeeded his mother in
1836 as Lord Sandys.
' Thomas Raikes (1777-1848) the diarist, who waa also a great
dandy.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 21
Bradshaw in his Spanish Ahnaok's dress, Clanronald in the dress
of his clan. Lord Weymouth in a PoUsh dress, I think. Lady
L. Thynne ^ and Lady E. CampbeU ^ both looked very pretty.
. . . My first great object was to get myself acquainted with
Mr. Thyime . . . and at last I succeeded and had a very long
taUi with him. ... He assured me that, without the least
flattery, there were no two yoimg men in Cambridge so popular,
and so deservedly so, as ye two. There 's for you ! . . . I intro
duced him to the Governor and Th6rdse ; but he don't dance
anything but kitchin dances. You should give him a lesson. . . .
Lord Clanwiffiam was a Swiss peasant, I beUeve ; many more
uniforms than fancy dresses. ... It reaUy was a beautiful baU,
and I only wish ye had been there to enjoy it. . . .
BrdNovember.— . . . The death of Sir Samuel RomiUy ^ is not only,
in my mind, one of the most melancholy instances of the frailty
of everything human, but one of the very greatest national
calamities that ever occurr'd. I never knew any man, in pubUc
or private Ufe, so universaUy esteem'd and respected — respected
in every sense of the word, for he kept everybody in check by
his uprightness — the ChanceUor, Vice-ChanceUor, and Court of
Chancery, the Regent and the ParUament. To think that two
such men as Whitbread and RomiUy should have destroy'd
themselves within three years is indeed dreadful ! I am per
fectly convinced that intensity and continuity of study such as
theirs, but particularly RomiUy's, can never be endured with
impunity ; it wears the inteUect threadbare, and then at the first
great shock it snaps, and is gone. Of aU men in their senses,
RomiUy was least Ukely to commit suicide. Eight children !
Gracious Heaven ! it is enough to deprive them of reason too. , . .
Fancy seeing them the end of July, both him and Lady RomiUy
in health and happiness at Lady Jersey's assembly after the
election was over.
Knightseeidge, Wth November 1818. — My ever dearest,
DBAE Boys, — The sound of those examinations nearly give me
a. frisson, only I feel very confident of your success, if you will but
feel confident yourselves, and also that the examination is the
immediate forerunner of oite week — our week of weeks ! . . .
The Queen made no wiU : so her property wiU be divided among
' Second daughter of second Marquess of Bath, married the Earl of
Harewood in 1823.
' Her elder sister, who had married the Hon. John Campbell (after
wards first Earl Cawdor) in 1816.
' Sir S. RomiUy, Whig statesman and jurisconsult, committed suicide
2nd November 1818.

22 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. h.
the eleven Hopefuls.^ She quite sunk from the moment they told
her of her danger ; they think she died much sooner in conse
quence. How very horrible to have such fear of death, at such an
age ! . . . The shopkeepers say that nobody buys anything ;
everybody had either provided new some months ago, or wear the
old they had for Princess C.^ I am so glad your coats can be
dyed. . . . The newspapers teU us she was a most exemplary,
worthy gentlewoman, but slyly intimate she was very unpopular
and had a cruel and unjust prejudice against her daughter-in-
law, tho' it aU proceeded from her love of vartue. WeU, poor
woman, she is gone. She wiU be no loss. She has been our
bitter enemy ; but I should Uke to feel as sure that aU my sins
would be forgiven me, as that I forgive her. . . .
29th January 1819. — ... I found here a letter from the Duke of
Cumberland from StreUtz reproaching me for not writing him
word aU I hear about the Queen's wiU and aU Windsor changes.
I am afraid H.R.H. may wait a good while before I send any of
my courtly opinions aU over Germany, with the chances of the
variety of hands they may faU into.
2ndMarch. — . . . I am reaUy very sorry there is such a gaming tum
at Cambridge, not because I am afraid for you, but because it is
such sure ruin to so many fooUsh young men. Uniacke is a neat
youth ! Can anything be so deplorable as RomiUy playing — the
only protector to such a large family.* Do any of your allies
take to playing at all ? I hope GreviUe * has no tum that
way. . . . The Govemor and Charles went to sleep in the evening,
and after I had done looking at Truster's Vademecum, which
informed me that Abraham in such a year entertained three
angels, and that Adam and Eve were created on Friday October
28th in the year 1, 1 read some more of the Quarterly — the review
of a book supposed to be written by that rhodomontador. Major
Sir Robert Wilson,^ on the miUtary and pohtical power of Russia.
I am only sorry that I don't see it yet review'd in the Edinburgh,
which would be diametricaUy opposite. . . .
Knightsbridge, 5th March 1819.— I really never was in a much
' Queen Charlotte died 17th November 1818.
2 The Princess Royal, whose husband, the King of Wiirtemberg, died
30th October 1816.
' Sir S. RomiUy left six sons and a daughter. The eldest son, William,
died unmarried in 1865 : the second son John became Master of the Rolls
in 1851, and was created Baron RomiUy in 1866.
* Charles GreviUe of the Memoirs.
' ' Jaffa ' Wilson, well known as the champion of Queen Caroline.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 23
worse temper, my ever dearest boys, than I was at being pre
vented from going on with my narrative which I had so com
fortably begun this morning ; but it could not be helped. I
thought I had abundance of time in hand, so had your sister to
read ; then came old Knyvett, who sat I don't know how long,
abused Logier ^ just as we had got the Govemor to consent to
Th6r^se's going ; then he very kindly gave them concert tickets
for some concert to-morrow, to which however I hope / shall
not go. Then came Lady IsabeUa Blackford, and I beUeve she
staid here two hours ; then came Jaques, and then came home
Charles, who told me I must get ready directly to take him to the
Blue Boar at Holbom. . . . WeU, now I wiU go on with my
narrative. I went to the Old Music with the Govemor and
G. MetoaUe — ^no, n&ver was I so bored in aU my Ufe ; not that the
music would have disturbed me much if I might have talked ;
but if one speaks a word (unless one says bravo ! bravissimo !) the
old fogrums tum round and caU you to account with their eyes.
WeU, between the acts I got a bit of talk with young Hibbert,
with whom I have always a great ffirtation, he seems so fond of
you. He told me that beast Hooker, who was more busy there
than ever, was at his first starting tutor to Lord Francis
Conyngham ; that he was the most servile hanger-on of all great
men and great men's relations ; that he then assumed a great
enthusiasm about music, and made the Duke of Devonshire
beUeve he was an amazing adept at old music, and so got quite
round him.
I got through the bore of the 2nd act, then set G. Metcalfe
home, and then the Govemor set me down at Abnack's, where I
had ordered my pupil to be in readiness to receive me, and so she
was, and I favor' d her with my company aU the evening, for there
was no one else I reaUy wish'd to speak to. It was cold, dull,
thin and stupid— people there that could not get tickets after
Easter, such as John Drummond, his wife and sister, Mr. Bishop
Bathurst and daughters, and that sort of thing. Of the old
stock — 2 Leimoxes, 2 Pagets, 2 Gordons, Miss CampbeU and her
sister Lady Gumming Gordon,^ Lady JuUa Gore, Miss Nugent,
the Uttle family of the Montagues, Lady G. Bathurst, 2 new
daughters of Lord Damley's, 2 Lady HiUs, 2 FitzClarences
chaperoned by their brother, your friend with whom I had a
good deal of talk. He inquired much after you both, and taUjed
a great deal of the Wyndhams— aU in praise, of course, and much
1 A music master. ^ Daughter of John CampbeU of May.

24 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
about his own accident, of which he talked in the most amiable,
good-humored, patient way I ever heard, quite exemplary reaUy.
He looks as fat as ever, I think. We were, I beUeve, the last
carriage, and were at home at two. I was heartily glad to get
home^ Dicky BaU was there, and I saw him dance with one of
the Lennoxs, so I suppose that pursuit is not quite hopeless
yet.i He look'd as pretty as ever, and his mustaches are in
good preservation. By the by, who do you think I saw at the
Old Music but Mr. and Lady EUzabeth CampbeU and Lord
Weymouth ? Was it not odd ? There was not one patroness
at Almack's. Lord Castlereagh was there, though his windows
had aU been broke by the mob. Mim was there, as beauteous
as ever.
When I was going with Charles to-day I saw young Whitbread
driving his gig, so I fear he is bujdng horses here, and won't get
Stuart's letter. What a sad, sickly-looking brute he is ! . . .
Lady IsabeUa made me a very pleasant visit ; she seemed quite
glad to be with us again. I tried to persuade her to enter into
society a Uttle, and preached to her a great deal. I don't know if
she vdU mind me, but I 'm sure I 'm right. The Hon. [illegible]
told me to-day that the Dow. Duchess of Leeds had announced
to Lady Emily Pelham Lady Catherine Osborne's marriage with
a Capt. MelviUe of the Lancers.^ Who or what he is I know not,
but it is a Brighton, and not a very good sounding, marriage.
Only conceive that beast Long Tilney WeUesley being quite a
Burdettite.* He is sure to try how great a fool he can make of
himseff. Did I teU you that Sir Geo. and Lady Warrender ^ were
reaUy parted, and she gone to French land with only a maid
servant ? What a fool to play her cards so iU as that ! ... By
the way, your friend Fox was dancing away prodigiously with the
FitzClarence girls. They say Lady B [illegible] is in a terrible
taking about her lord's death. They were parted, but she never
dreamt of his dying, and had always meant to be reconciled some
time or other. He was only 44, and died in four days of a fever.
She is left deplorably, I hear, in point of money matters, and her
son is such a horrible scamp there is no depending upon him.
Nobody gives that youth a good word. . . . Now God bless you,
— Your ever, ever tenderly affectionate old Mother.
• It did not lead to any definite result.
" She married John Whyte MelvUle of Bennoohy and Strathkinnes in
1819, and became mother of the novelist, dying in 1878.
' Viscount WeUesley, succeeded as fourth Earl of Momington in 1845.
* She was the youngest daughter of the third Viscount Falmouth, and
died in 1871.

1800 23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 25
I3th. — . . . Having just brealdasted, I wiU sit down and give
you an account of our last night's froUc. In the first place Mile.
votre soeur was exceedingly weU drest — the dress she had for
BeUnda's baU last year and had never worn but then. We wont
early, because I thought, as she knew hardly anybody, she would
be more Ukely to get partners early than late, and it answered
very weU, for she sat with the Levret, and Lady Eimismore pre
sented two or three dancing things to her, and they aU ask'd her
to dance. First, that sweet youth Mr. Grono (I beUeve that 's the
way of speUing it, and not Oros-nom as he would fain suppose).^
Is he not a Uttle beast ! do teU me something about him. I
can't abide Ms looks, and — entre nous — I did not Uke him the better
for seeing him decidedly ^pris with poor Tweezy,^ for he hardly
left her the whole evening. Then she danced with Lord Clarina,^
a gawky young Paddy who, they say, is at Christ Church. Then
she waltz'd with a Mr. CampbeU (parentage unknown), then a
quadriUe with Finch, and then that Uttle Grono ask'd her to
dance again, which she did. The next she rested, and then there
was going to be one more (past 2 o'clock) and the Uttle beast was
going to ask her again, which determined me to come away,
which I did, and she was quite of my opinion. Don't you think
I was right ? To be sure my vanity was a bit up last night, for
you have no idea how she was admired. . . . Lord Winchilsea got
up to teU the Govemor the moment he came into the room how
he and Miss Finch had been sitting to admire her dancing ; it
was the most beautiful tffing he ever saw. . . . I 'U teU you who
was there, and dancing comme quatre, which was Lord Weymouth,
and dancing (teU Lord Jacky*) with Lady CaroUne ChurchiU,
who is sadly gone off and growing into housekeeper shape Uke
Mama. . . .* The DimaUeys were there, and she did admire
Tweezy so. In short, en fait de plaisir, I am sure there is no fun
equal to going out with one's daughter that is Uked and admired.
. . . Mr. Lathom told me a horrid thing that happened to Arthur
Upton.* He was putting on his boots, had no boot-hook at hand,
took a shut razor to puU it on with, forced the cutting part thro'
the back, which cut off two fingers, and so badly, that amputa
tion of the hand is necessary to save his Ufe. ... I forgot to teU
^ Probably Captain R. H. Gronow (1794-1865), a Regency dandy, and
author of four volumes of reminiscences.
' Her daughter Theresa.
3 Thbd baron, b. 1798, d. 1872.
* Lord John Thynne.
' Lady CaroUne married Mr. David Pennant in 1822 and died in 1824.
' General Upton, third son of first Lord Templetown.

26 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
you how much the Govemor has taUs'd of your going out to read.
I wiU teU you the whole secret of it, if you won't betray me. The
Govemor don't acknowledge it to me, but I see it aU. He wants
to eat his cake and have it too. He would be very glad for you
to take an honor, but can't bear to lose your society — that 's the
truth — and so he puts it in this way, that it would be much more
expense than he could afford. Then he has twice seen the bad
effects of very hard reading with you, and that all the honors of
the University would not compensate to him for your being iU at
Keswick. ... I find he won't name it to John or Lord C.^ for
fear they should offer to pay the expense, and he can't bear your
going. . . . There 's the carriage !
Knightseeidge, 23rd March. — ^My evee dearest Boys,—
Before the post comes in I will begin my letter, for I always feel
fidgetty tiU I secure that. . . . After I finished my letters yester
day I took your sister to Logier's (N.B. you wiU be lucky when
you come if you get a word edgeways to be heard amidst the
Musicomania that now prevails in this house). Seriously, I do
think Logier's invention is perfectly invaluable. Your sister has
only had six lessons — value twelve shillings — and she thinks
herseU she has learnt more of the science of thorough bass, &o.,
than she would probably have done in six months with a master
twice a week at ^ guinea a lesson. . . .
I came home and exerted my lungs in reading ' Marriage ' to
the company, and then dress'd and made the Govemor go with
me to Sarum's, which reaUy for once I Uked very much ; I saw
so many people I knew and Uked, most particidarly GreviUe and
Thynne. For the former I somehow feel quite an affection,
chiefly because I know he is so fond of you, and partly because he
seems so fond of me. He was not at the Opera on Saturday.
Young Fox was there,^ who ask'd a great deal about you. I hear
that sweet woman, his mother, treats him Uke a dog, and quite
worries him out of his Ufe. Then I saw Master Whyte MelviUe,
the bridegroom elect. Pray find out something about him at
Cambridge, for he left Trinity not two years ago. He is a good-
humor'd Ukeness, I think, of young Lord Uxbridge.^ Lord
Graves * was there ; General Ramsay (my love), the de Bourkes,
the DunaUeys, and a long etcetera of fashionables. Lord Bath
' Her husband's two brothers.
^ Charles Richard Fox (1796-1873), son of Lady Holland by the third
Lord Holland, whom she afterwards married.
' Afterwards second Marquess of Anglesey.
* Second baron, married youngest daughter of first Earl of Uxbridge.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 27
and Lady Louisa — and fancy Lord Bath articulating at least
5 sentences to me ! Then the present Lord Camden ^ ask'd a
great deal about you and j^our degree, &o. &c. Young Disbrowe
was there ; he looks so melancholy I quite love him for it. Then
Miss Johnes was there, and from her I heard that General Cuyler's
place is reaUy to be let,- so there 's an end of all that happy
estabUshment. The brothers and sisters are to Uve together ;
none come to town this year, but aU go to the Johnes's in
Shropshire in June. Old Ross was there, who told the Governor
that when he pass'd the evening with poor old Cuyler the night
of the Hitchin ball he had talked to him a great deal about his
own affairs and his children, and said he thought himself the
happiest man in the world, his children were so much all that he
could wish. To be sure, the happiness of this world is rather
uncertain ! . . . I hope the hydrostatics will not really make
your poor old noddle swim again, my dearest love. To-morrow
se'ennight — that soimds pretty to be sure ! Oh dear, how very
fine ! . . . The Govemor is going to ride to the Grove to-day,
and returns to-morrow. Tweezy and I go to Lady Ashbrooke's
this evening, and perhaps if Lady DunaUey will go, I may go on
to Mme. de Bourke's. I introduced GreviUe to Lady DunaUey
because she is such a very Uvely, pleasant person.' I feel quite
sorry you did not get on with her more, dear G. . . . Lord
Jacky talks of nothing but his travelling into Italy, and, as George
won't go with him, he thinks he shaU go with Wodehouse !
Much good they wiU do, to be sure, and much advantage they will
see things with ! — Your ever and ever affectionate, MOTHEE.
Wednesday se'ennight ! ! ! Almack's ! mum ! French play !
hum!* 24th. — . . . GreviUe ^ sat with me above haff an hour and was
very pleasant ; but I think he is irrevocably idle, wffich I am quite
sorry for, because instead of being a man eminent in any way in
which he might chuse to distinguish himself (which I am sure he
has the abihties for), he wiU be a triffing, insignificant person. . . .
Lord Wincffilsea and Finch came to ask the Governor and me
and Tweezy to dinner on Wednesday next the 31st. I accepted,
1 Second earl and first marquess.
' General tiir Cornelius Cuyler.
' She was a daughter of Dominick Trant of Dunkettle, and died a few
months later, 15th October 1819.
* Amusement for her sons, who ^vere coming home for the Easter
vacation. ' Charles GreviUe of the Memoira.

28 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
without considering the day— first that you come home, and
then the Old Music. However, upon reflection Lord W. is such
a prime favorite that I thought the Governor would for once give
up the Old Music for him ; and then I set my wits to work for
you to be ask'd, and how d' ye think I did it. I ask'd apropos de
bottes : ' Pray, Mr. Finch, do you belong to Ahnack's ? '— ' Yes,
I do ; but I shan't go to-night.' — ' Oh, I only want to know how
it is about the sets, whether this is first or last, because my sons
wiU want a subscription next week.' — ' When do they come ? ' —
' Next week,' repUed I (N.B. tact not to say Wednesday !) ; upon
which Lord W. immediately jump'd up and said — ' Do you tlfink
they wiU be here on Wednesday ? ' — ' Yes,' repUed I, coolly, ' I
beheve they come Monday or Tuesday.' — ' Oh, do pray ask them
to come. I shaU be so happy if they wiU come. I quite long to
see them.' — ' Oh, I 'm sure they wiU be deUghted to come,' repUed
I, as if I had never thought of it before. Was not that done en
maitre ?
26th. — ... I have no provision of franks for to-day, so I shall
send this once more to Horace Sejmiour. ... I shaU send to Lord
John ^ for franks for to-morrow, as he told me nothing pleased
Lord Weymouth so much as franking, so I 'm sure I may indulge
him.2 . . .
Young George ViUiers had entered his twenty-first year
when an opening presented itseU for his admission into the
diplomatic service. Lord Castlereagh having offered in
April 1820 to attach him to the embassy of Sir Charles
Bagot, Minister at St. Petersburg. It seemed at first as
if this proposal would have to be decUned, for George's
father v;Tote to Bagot saying that he would not be able to
meet the necessary expense if the nomination were accepted.
' If such is the case,' he concludes, ' however great my dis
appointment may be, I must meet the state of things as
they exist.'
It is not clear how this difficulty was got over ; probably
George's bachelor uncle. Earl Thomas, came to the rescue,
for George was fairly launched in diplomacy, and in the
foUowing year received the foUowing kindly letter from the
said uncle in reply to one he had written from St. Petersburg :
1 Lord John Thynne (1798-1881), afterwards rector of BlaokweU,
Somerset, and canon and sub-dean of Westminster.
' Peers and members of the House of Commons had the privilege of
franking, not only their own letters, but also those of other people.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 29
The Geove, 12th February 1821. — . . . Nothing can be more
gratefifl to one's feeUngs than your detail of those Uttle circum
stances and pictures of the place to which you were writing. They
show how much you were with me when you were writing ; and
it is the remembrance and notice sometimes of little things
wffich bring hearts the nearest together.
I am glad to hear you say that you look with satisfaction to
the utiUty of your present situation. I am sure you wiU tum it
to the best advantage ; and I have no fears that the charm of
foreign manners and customs, nor the wisdom of foreign govern
ments, wiU wean you from a partiaUty to your ovm country. If I
did entertain such fears, I should wish you as ignorant of diplom
acy, purcliased ai such a price, as many a Secretary of State has
been who has unfortunately fiUed that office : more ignorant than
that, I beUeve, is not necessary for my sentence.
I was very sorry to hear lately a bad account of Sir Charles
Bagot's health. How very fortunate you are in your connexion
with such a man ! Perhaps, from what I have heard, he would
use very nearly the same words in speaking of you.
I can teU you nothing out of my Tub of worldly events, wffich
are not much better described to you from home. As to the
Queen ^ (and few letters, I suppose, are without some remarks
upon her subject) nor wisdom, nor foUy, nor sometffing worse,
have yet settled the point whether cretd an carbone notanda. I
think John BuU rather less fond [of her] than he was. . . . Do
not take from a pleasant hour or from one of business any minutes
for me ; but if an idle one should ever occur, give me a Uttle of
that, and let me have the pleasure of hearing sometffing from
yourseff, however Uttle, however unimportant it may seem to
yourseU to be.
And now, my dear amiable George, adieu ! My love and every
good wish attend you. C.
As in aU periods of absence from home, so from St Peters
burg VilUers kept in fuU and frequent correspondence
with those at home. To his mother he wrote by every
maU, letters intended for circulation in the family. These
have disappeared ; but his sister Theresa was, as ever,
the repository of his innermost confidences. To his
brother Edward, aged sixteen, he addressed the foUow-
1 Queen Caroline, for whose divorce proceedmgs had been taken in the
House of Lords.

30 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
ing sage counsel from the commanding eminence of two-
and-twenty :
St Peteesbiieg, 23rd March 1822.— I am reaUy ashamed to
take up my pen to write to you, my dear Edward, I ought to have
done it so long ago. Your birthday, tho', has roused me to a
sense of shame, and I must now try and reparer mes torts towards
you. And first, by wishing you many, many happy returns of
this day, and assuring you of my very sincere hope that you may
enjoy aU the happiness in this transitory Ufe that can befal any
individual. And reaUy, my dear Edward, when one considers
how much your happiness depends upon yourseU, there is every
reason to hope you may enjoy your fuU portion. I am con
vinced we have each of us had an evil year or two m our Uves,
when we have each in our tum been idle, obstinate ajid provoking.
You have had yours as weU as the rest, but it 's now gone by, and
I am sure you 'U be rejoiced to hear how very fuUy my B.^ bears
witness to it. Wffile you were at Bath, I received no letter from
her but what contained praises of you and of your manly and
amiable conduct. What sigmfies if Charles treats you Uke a
boy ? The shewing that you mind it only encourages the
repetition. You should be above aU that, my dear feUow. I
can quite conceive to anybody that has seen anything of the
world or that knows what 's what, the returning to the Charter
house must have been most irksome ; but I can't teU you how I
tffink you show your sense, not oifly by returning there, but by
profiting by it.
You must know just as weU as I can teU you what devihsh
bad prospects we have dans ce bas monde, both from the number
and poverty of us, the difficulty of getting on in any profession
nowadays, and the very slender means — to say notffing about
incUnation our relations have of assisting us.- Therefore, my
dear E., if you don't wish to starve, make up your mind to what
ever profession you tffink you are most Ukely to succeed in, and
begin upon it cmur et dme. Don't wait tiU experience makes you
repent not having done it. I tffink you have always been far
above your years, and I am sure that you wiU see the absolute
necessity of not losing your time, as well as the ground you have
1 His mother, whom her children used among themselves to call 'the
Queen Bee.'
* Edward's uncle, John, afterwards third Earl of Clarendon, defrayed
the cost of his education at Charterhouse and Cambridge, and gave him
a home at the Grove.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 31
aheady gained, between your leaving school and going to coUege
or entering upon some profession, wffich it is become quite a
fasffion, reaUy, to do. From 14 to 17 ought to be the most useful,
and are generally the most wasted, in a young man's life ; which
may perhaps be natiu-al at a period when he is too old for school,
too young for coUege, and when his own good sense doesn't yet
point out tffis sad mistake to him ; but they are years not to be
recaUed. It is certaiifly putting myseU in rather a new Ught, coming
Uncle John over you ; but I assure you I would not have done
it if I didn't know you would feel obUged to me for it hereafter,
and that you are not so boyish as to quiz advice because it comes
from one but Uttle older than yourseU. Moreover, if ycm have
any [advice] to give me m retium, I shaU most gladly receive it.
The Govemor, I hear, has a plan for your going abroad to some
French town. I tffink tffis an exceedingly bad plan. It will be
great expense (and no tick !) to ffim ; it wiU not be quaUfying you
either for Church, Law, State or CoUege ; your regular studies for
any of these wiU be interrupted, and what will you have to com
pensate for tffis ? A Uttle French, wffich the probable number of
resident EngUsh (in almost every town of France) wiU very much
impede. I reaUy can't see that it wiU answer to you in any way.
Do write to me, my dear E., and teU me your prospects, or
rather your projects, if any advice of mine can ever be useful or
agreeable to you, I need not say how gladly you shall have it. I
am deUghted at yotir influence at the Grove.^ and that any one of
the family has made any sort of footmg there. For goodness'
sake don't lose sight of that, and as ffis generosity is certainly not
scattered among us, I hope it wiU at aU events be centred in you.
Don't let ffim marry EUza, that 's aU, and don't spare ffim, for
it 's only spent on such beggars as Leach and Stevenson. What 's
Lord Essex about now, and what says report about his daughter,
Arthur Capel ? [sic] ^
As for me, I continue to Uke my sojourn here well enough, tho'
I confess I shaU not be sorry to see England again. I read a good
deal, and I hope I am reaUy makmg progress. Hyde seems
become an immense orator and Charles an immense mathe
matician. I wish it was aU immensely profitable as weU as
creditable. Do you know young Cayley at the Charterhouse ?
* The residence of his uncle Thomas, second Earl of Clarendon.
^ The fifth Earl of Essex succeeded in 1799 and died without issue in
1839. This seems to be an ironical allusion to his nephew Arthur Capel,
who succeeded as sixth Earl.

32 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
What sort of feUow is he ? I know his father very weU here.
Now good-bye, my dear Edward, and beUeve me, your most
truly affectionate brother, G. V.
Numerous friends kept him apprised of doings in London ;
but it must be owned that the gossip was not uniformly
of an edifying character.

Henry GreviUe to George Villiers.
3rd October 1821. — . . . Lady GlengaU is more Uke a gnat than
ever : she worries one to death to do sometffing — to belong to
some damned party of pleasure that is certain of wearing one to
death. ... I have been interrupted by a procession of the St.
Pancras parish, consisting of 74 carriages-and-four fiUed with the
most charming people you ever saw. I never saw such b  s, or
such ammals by way of gentlemen, aU wearing the Queen's picture
round their necks. They or the Queen must have plenty of
money to pay for the ribbands with wffich they are aU decorated —
wffite, an emblem of her virgin purity ! Her Majesty says she
never committed adultery but once, and that was with the
husband of Mrs. Fitzherbert. Tffis is severe enough, but cleverly
thought of at tffis crisis. . . . Lady Harrowby^ has been at
Sandon ; . . she is such a dear creature. As to Mary,^ she is
just Uke what Mrs. T. C. says of her — a httle bird that has got
some dirt into its mouth and spits it out. She has de V esprit for
aU that, though not the knack of commumcating it agreeably.
I have dined at Knightsbridge lately several times. I am
extremely fond of your mother, she is so warm in her manner and
goodnatured to one. . . . Miss Lloyd and the Crewes and
GreviUes (with the exception of your humble servant) have aU
quarreUed and don't speak, owing to the Crewe cffildren. She,
however, has carried her point and takes care of them. The
Bathursts are at Brighton, and Worcesters and Foxs. Worcester ^
has had an execution in his house, wffich Raikes settled. He
[Worcester] is such a goodnatured feUow it is impossible not to
like him. Charles * is at Newmarket, having been in Yorksffire.
He won £400 at Doncaster, so that if fortune smiles at Newmarket
he wiU do very well. . . . What a sad tffing it is that nobody
^ Wife of the first Earl of Harrowby, and daughter of Granville, Earl
of Stafford.
' Lady Mary Ryder, married the Rt. Hon. W. Saurin in 1828.
' Afterwards seventh Duke of Beaufort. * Charles GreviUe.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 33
comes to woo chez the Bathursts. I think poor dear Emily is
quite a hopeless case.^ What a pity it is that Hyde does not
try to get on with them. . . . He thinks they don't Uke him, and
indeed I don't see how they can be very fond of him when he
takes no pains to please them. ... I am very glad that you have
got somebody that is amiable and goodnatured to belong to at
St. Petersburgh. You appear to be particularly lucky in your
society. What sort of women do you find there ? Are they
decent ? George Villiers to his sister.
St. Peteesbtjeg, Wi March 1822. — Though I have par dessus
les oreilles to do to-day, my ever dearest Therese, I should think
that my affairs for the whole year would go badly if I was to put
off even tffi to-morrow writing to you. Not that I tffink it
necessary to go through the forms of wisffing you many happy
returns and hopmg you may Uve to enjoy many, or that when
two people love each other as you and I do that it is necessary to
repeat the assurance of it ; but somehow or other my love and
veneration for tffis day has been graduaUy increasing for the last
15 or 16 years, and though I have notffing new to say upon it, or
any new way of expressing how very dearly I love you, my dearest,
yet I cannot help feeUng each succeeding time how much it is the
day of days — the day of the year. Ye Gods ! what fools people
are who say that absence diminishes affection. I feel that
absence not oifly teaches one more thoroughly to appreciate the
person one loves, but one recaUs to mind and enjoys 10,000 Uttle
things that pass unobserved in daily mtercourse ; and there is no
day that some trait or action of yours doesn't present you as
perfectly to my mind's eye as ff I had seen you yesterday. Each
day I feel the besoin and pleasure of this more. Sometimes I
think it wrong to love anytffing human so very much ; yet how
is it possible not to adore such virtues as yours, my dearest T.,
and not to rejoice at them for you, as weU as feel proud of them
oneseff ? I should not say tffis to you if I thought you would take
it for flattery, or that I myseU was prejudiced ; but is there such
a daughter or sister or friend ? is there a better heart or a more
thoroughly kind, amiable bemg existing ? and when I feel
certain there is not, can there be any harm in adoring you as I
do, and m thanking God that he has given us aU such a blessing.
... I could go on for hours talkmg in tffis sort of way, and yet
1 Lady Emily Bathurst married Sir F. Cavendish Ponsonby in 1825.
VOL. I C

34 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
could only teU you what you knew before— how dearly I love you,
and how entirely you are the blessing and comfort and happmess
of us aU.
To descend now from great tffings to smaU. I am most
heartily glad of tffis going out with Lady M.^ for many reasons.
In the first place, I Uke the kindness, and I love them tenfold for
it. Then I enjoy your dining out ; there is no such good and
agreeable way of getting on m the world and makmg friends as
that. You go mto more petites societis of clever people. ... I
confess to you that if I thought there was any man m the world
worthy of you, I should much Uke to see you married tffis
year. ... I tffink you are now of an age when it would make
you very happy yourseff ; m fact, I can fancy no one more so
than you with a man reaUy worthy of you (whose existence, by
the by, I much doubt). Your ideas and mme upon tffis subject
are so very much aUke (even to a fault, perhaps, for I tffink we
both of us have imagmed a much more perfect bemg for you than
wiU, I am afraid, be found) that there is Uttle use in my saying
anytffing about it, except that God forbid you should ever
marry a man whom you don't feel quite sure about liking, and
upon whom you can't with perfect safety place your affections.
God forbid you should have the shadow of a doubt about the man
you marry ! • I know that my happiness tffis summer depends
upon your continumg the same unreserved confidence to me, and
teffing me not only aU you do, but aU you tffink. No detail can
ever be too mmute.
St. Peteesbueg, 24^^ October 1822. — . . . Dieu soil louif lam
not very subject to blue devils and blue vapours, otherwise I might
at times reaUy indulge them here ; for tho' my ffie is very pleasant
as times go, tho' I am in an agreeable house and (tho' I say it)
tho' I am excessively bien vu m society here — yet somehow or
other my prospects of advancement are so very smaU that I
cannot but look upon these best years of my Ufe as wasted, inas
much as they lead to notffing — away from aU I love and Uke,
unable to make or improve acquaintances that may be useful to
one hereafter, and with those who are able reaUy to serve one
it 's always out of sight out of mind. And aU for what ? £200 a
year, unless Lord M[orley] can get L. L. to do sometffing for me.
... I intend improving myseff enormously in German and ItaUan.
. . . Are you much in debt now ? I am. I can't come it at aU here
on £400 a year. . . .
1 Miss ViUiers was taken out in Lgndgn by her aunt. Lady Morley.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 35
The health of Mr. VilUers had proved a constant source of
anxiety to his wife during their early married Ufe ; advanc
ing years brought him no relief ; pecuniary anxiety and the
difficulty of providing for a rising family made him very
irritable, and the title of ' the Governor,' by which his wife
and cffildren always referred to him in their intimate corre
spondence, suggests that he had won more awe than affection
from them. Mrs. ViUiers never aUowed domestic worries
to weigh down her spirit. Her boy Hyde took smallpox,
whereupon she verites to G«orge as foUows :
45 Beompton Row, 2Mh February 1823. — ... On Tuesday Dr.
AmsUe advised vaccination for aU the others. The Govemor was
out, and Lady Morley very goodnaturedly took Therese to Cope-
land, who engaged to do it for her and all the others the next day,
and thought it indispensable. Tffis produced such a storm with
the Govemor — no never ! To be sure, entre nous, that does grow
worse every day, and the superfluous quantity of unhappiness
it creates to himseU and others is dreadful ! I take now to being
savage in retum as the only plan. . . .
It must not be imagined that Mrs. Viffiers's letters were
often in tffis somewhat desponding strain. Quite the con
trary ; she kept her absent son informed of aU that was
Ukely to amuse and interest him. One receives the im
pression of a warm-hearted woman of high courage and
active inteUect.
2nd January 1823. — . . . Tiemey ^ read me a fuimy letter from
somebody, but he would not teU me who, respecting Canffing —
very much h la washerwoman, aU mangling and ironing, saying
how he pleased his sovereign, made friends of everybody, had no
enenues, had estabUshed the peace of Europe, had knocked the
Holy Affiance on the head, had saved Spain, was going to protect
the Greeks agamst both Turks and Russians, and had now notffing
left to do but to save England, to wffich he had not yet turned his
mind. . . .
The Geove, &th January 1823. — . . . One whole f ortmght have I
now been without a letter from my own beloved, and that does not
at aU sffit the irritabiUty of my nerves, particularly as I have
^ George Tierney (1761-1830), Treasurer of the Navy in Addington's
Ministry, refused to serve under Pitt in 1804, led the Whig opposition
1817-21, and took office in Canning's coalition 1827.

36 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ii.
nobody but the firm of Hume,* Creevey ^ and Co. to maledict
upon. . . . Here we are stiU, dearest George, and I tffink in
nearly as bad a way as to house and home as when I wrote last.
The Earl,^ as I beUeve I told you, proposed our staying here tiU
the beginning of the week, and we reckoned that by to-morrow
we should have got comfortably into our Rumford chateau. . . .
WeU, last mght arrives Sir Peter BusweU express from Hyde,
saying that the house-agent is a gay deceiver, that the house was
destitute of aU necessary implements and utensils for kitchen,
breakfast, dinner, etc., and servants' blankets, and he would not
conclude the agreement in consequence : in short, I much fear it 's
a bad concem ; but the viciffity to Kent House, the cheapness —
5| gumeas a week — and, above aU, our not having any other
hole wherem to put our heads, determined us to beg Hyde to do
the best he could, to try to get the house agent to do some tffings
and we would do others, etc. etc., and so to have it ready for us
on Wednesday, when we must tum out from here, because the
Earl is going to old Pantaloon Bridgewater's,* and we must not
stay here because Stevenson — that old pompous fool Stevenson
— goes too !
To be sure, a duUer fortmght I never passed. It is d'une
tristesse a toute ipreuve. I don't care about society one straw
when I am at home, because I either sit down to have a good hour
with George, or tuck myseff and my books into the fire, or have
my talk with Turegg, etc. etc. ; but here one must be always
upon one's pins, making conversation, frightened out of my Ufe
at every word the Governor utters, lest it should be sometffing
he had better not say ; and reaUy, wonderful as it may sound, he
always does suggest the tffing one wishes he would not. Then
that nasty, vulgar, impudent, impertinent toad EUza, who is
always there in an eveffing and who makes me sick to look at. . . .
That old beast Essex * has decidedly some twist about us, but
what the dewce he means by it heaven knows. He has never
retumed our visit or asked us to ffis house.' Now as one knows
that aU ffis actions go by the rule and measure of some quarrel
or affront, real or imaginary, one is qmte sure he has some stupid
huff in ffis own mind, and I tffink it so particularly impertinent
' Joseph Hume, M.P. ' Thomas Creevey, M.P.
3 The writer's uncle, first Earl of Clarendon.
* General John Egerton, seventh Earl of Bridgewater, died 21st Oct.
1823. ' WUUam Anne, fourth Earl of Essex, whose sister. Lady Charlotte, had
married the first Earl of Clarendon.
» Cassiobury Park is closely adjacent to the Grove.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 37
considering my civiUty to ffis daughters. . . . I owe him a greater
grudge just now, I own, because a few days at Cassiobury would
have been so convement just now, and agreeable also from the
Tiemeys being there. . . . [Here follow several pages, partly in cipher,
of miscellaneous gossip.] The principal news of the day, I
suppose, is the elopement of that wonderfuUy travelled ffigh-
churchman (so recently deemed a fit — and the only fit — repre
sentative of the extreme ffigh church of Cambridge) Bankes ^
with Lady Buckmghamsffire. She is young, rather particular-
lookmg in dress and face, tho' prettyish, and had a strong case of
ffirtation with ffim aU Isist year. I can't recoUect who she was,
but I know I have heard that her family traced their descent in a
strait Une from Bang AUred, and I beUeve aU eat oatcakes m
honour of ffim. ... I have just been so interrupted by visits I
must curtail my letter. First, Tierney, but he told me no news,
offiy that I was wrong about Lady Buckinghamsffire. She was
a natural daughter of Sir Arthur Pigot's.^ He (Lord B.) was
origmaUy a clerk m one of the pubUc offices, but on coming
to the title retired from pubhc Ufe. He perceived improper
intimacy between Bankes and Miladi, brings an action against
ffim, and employs Scarlett (his Cambridge opponent) ^ against
ffim ! . . . Everybody is furious at Mr. Coke * and Mr. Wode-
house's resolutions in Norfolk bemg aU quashed by Mr. Cobbett.
It is just serving Coke right : he Ut the fire, and is now angry and
surprised at fresh coals being heaped on. Cobbett goes for the
confiscation of aU Church property to pay the National Debt. . . .
Beompton Row, 12th January 1823. — Is it not a day of days —
the day of the century — my own best beloved ! the day that has
given me a blessing wffich I would not exchange, whatever might
be our distress, for aU other worldly advantages, riches, or treasures
that could be offered to me. ... I remember that, having lost
my ffist cffild, I made a very sapient resolution not to grow very
fond of you. I think my virtue held out for nearly 24 hours, and
Heaven knows there has been very Uttle of that sort in me sffice.
. . . There is a certam Colonel Stewart, son of the famous Dugald
1 WUUam John Bankes, M.P. for Cambridge University, which seat he
lost to Lord Palmerston in 1826. Samuel Rogers esteemed him equal to
Sydney Smith in conversational vigour. He died in 1855.
' She married secondly Mr. David Wilson in 1854, thirty-five years
after her first marriage.
3 James Scarlett (1769-1844), Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, 1834,
created Baron Abinger 1835.
^ W. Coke of Holkham, M.P., created Earl of Leicester in 1837, died in
1842.

38 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
Stewart of Edmburgh, who they say is very clever. He was
selected to measure the Nepaul mountams. . . . He seems to be
a man that knows an amazmg deal about the pre- Adamite world,
but I fancy ffis knowledge is scarce as to what has happened since
the flood. The consequence is that he has wanted to marry
Miss Meffish . . . and he sets about ffis persecution in the most
ungentlemanUke maimer — watching and waylaymg her so that
she caimot go and take a walk but at the risk of ffis waUdng with
her, and comes and sticks himseff in her opera box, etc. etc., she
snubbing him most brutaUy. The other mght she was obliged to
get Edward ^ to protect her from him.^
... I wish with aU my heart Charles was to take orders. I
cannot help thinking it would do ffim so much good.' . . . Lady
GranviUe Somerset is, you know, a Smith (Carrington), and is, I
fancy, very odd, saying whatever comes uppermost. AU ffis
family Uke her so much, and they expect a Uttle Gobbo soon.*
Beompton Row, 31st January 1823. — ... If you don't find my
ideas very weU coUected to-day you must not wonder, for I have been
justly pumshed for an mtended trick and have had smcA a fright,
wffich has ended in notffing, but has haff ffiUed me for the time.
I beUeve I told you of a horrid Col. Stewart who has been plaguing
the Meffish to death, and we at last persuaded her to write ffim a
letter to desire he would no longer consider ffimseff of her acquamt-
ance ; and we thought as Hyde ^ had twice aided and abetted
in gettmg ffim out of the Meffish opera box, it woffid be very good
fun to write Hyde a challenge from Col. Stewart. I wrote the
letter : Miss Smith copied it, and it was brought m due form.
He bit completely, and we of course meant to watch ffim that he
should not go out. Conceive our horror at findmg he had sUpped
out of the house without our knowing it ! No, never can I forget
the horror ! for I dreaded ffis gomg to tffis madman, and a duel
in reaUty being produced. However, Montagu * found ffim at
Kent House, and aU was weU ; but our excessive fright and the
' Mrs. ViUiers's fourth son.
' Colonel Stewart was not responsible for his actions, having had sun
stroke in India which affected his intellect. After his father's death in
1828 he began writing his life, but suddenly burnt all the papers,
journals, etc., which he had coUected for the purpose.
' Had Charles ViUiers fulfilled his mother's wish in the choice of a
profession. Free Trade would have been deprived of one of its most
effective champions.
* 'Little Gobbo ' became Granville Somerset, Q.C., who died in 1881.
' The writer's second son, d. in 1832.
" Afterwards Bishop of Durham. At this time he was only ten years
old.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 39
Governor's excessive rage has entirely bouleversd every idea I
ever had. . . . The girl Georgiana Lennox ^ is making an
immense set at Henry Fox,^ but the Madagascar Princess '
wiU never aUow that to tirer d, cons&quence. ... I hear Lord
Ilchester is going to marry Miss Wyim, niece to Lady Grantham,
and sister to your Cambridge acquamtance ; and Lord Prudhoe,
the D. of Northumberland's brother, is going to marry the eldest
girl LiddeU.* How matrimony runs in some famiUes ! . . . Old
Lady Georgiana Morpeth ^ has produced another daughter, being
the 12th cffild ! There ought to be acts of ParUament to prevent
people havmg more cffildren after they become grandmothers. . . .
Beompton Row, IthFebruary 1823. — . . . On Tuesday I went to
the House of Lords to hear ffis lordship ^ move the address. No
two fools were ever more nervous than Lady M[orley] and me :
however, he tiri'd himseff d'affaire unkimmon weU. He spoke
for fuU 50 mmutes, and yet of aU the tffings I ever saw / should
have thought it the most nervous, for Canmng, Charles Effis,
Ward, Morpeth, etc. etc., were aU by the throne to hear him. Lord
Granville just beffind ffim, Lord Liverpool by the side of ffim. I
thought he did beautffuUy ; but, as I had never heard any
sensationcd speakmg, I was anxious to judge by comparison, and I
was pecuUarly fortunate, for Lord Lansdowne and Lord Liverpool
both spoke, who are both censes to be capital speakers, and then
I was qmte quite satisfied that ffis lordsffip had done very weU
mdeed. The seconder was poor Lord Mayo : why on earth they
got such a stick Heaven knows ; but, after having boggled out a
few words wffich nobody heard, he cooUy took ffis speech out of
ffis pocket and went up to the candle on the table, and tried to
read it, wffich he could barely do. It reaUy was lamentable.
Then that very queer man Lord Stanhope spoke and thumped
the table prodigiously ; but, as we were behmd Tommy Tyrwffitt's
curtam,' and ffis back was to us, we heard very indistinctly. . . .
Lord EUenboro' (who, you know, is a fine recruit to the Opposition
because Canning fills Lord Londonderry's place) got up, havmg
evidently prepared a speech of which he was proud, and deter-
^ Lady Georgiana Lennox, daughter of the fourth Duke of Richmond,
married in the foUowing year to William, twentieth Baron de Ros.
' Afterwards fourth Lord Holland: married in 1833 Lady Mary
Augusta, daughter of the eighth Earl of Coventry.
' Lady HoUand. * Neither of these marriages took place.
^ Wife of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, and daughter of the fifth Duke of
Devonshire. * Mrs. ViUiers's brother, who had been promoted to an earldom in 1815.
' Sir Thomas Tyrwhitt, Black Rod.

40 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. n.
mined to fire it off at aU rates, and so he got up and harangued
just as if Lord Lansdowne had not gone over aU the same ground
before, and had not been fuUy answered by Lord Liverpool.
Beompton Row, 21sf-Fe&rMar2/ 1823.— . . . lamsendmgyouthe
last number of the Quarterly Review, as it contams the article wffich
entirely and completely knocks up O'Meara and ffis book.^ It is
so very satisfactory I am qmte deUghted with it, for no assertions,
however well attested or backed up by whatever credible witnesses
could have been found, could have been one quarter so good as
the man bemg condemned de fond au comble by ffis own letters.
I don't quite Uke the article throughout ; there is too much
personaUty towards Buonaparte ; for, as there always must be
many, many people devoted to and enthusiastic about ffim, that
sort of scurriUty only gives a handle to those who wiU be very
loth to admit the contradiction of O'Meara's assertions, and
therefore I am sorry for it. I tffink tffis is a thing of the greatest
importance, for had not tffis mcontrovertible evidence appeared,
we should have been recorded in ffistory with an indeUble stain
on our conduct ; whereas now, whatever existing persons may tffink^
history wiU judge correctly. Offiy imagine tffis rascal O'Meara
having just married an old Lady Leigh of 70. She is a Wffitfield
Methodist, and he got wind of tffis, found out her chapel, took a
sittmg next to her about 10 months ago, appeared immensely
devout and impressed. She was charmed with such devotion in a
rather young man.^ Each Sunday he was more devout for some
weeks, and at last one Sunday he just offered her ffis arm as she
was descending from the pew. Tffis produced an acquaintance,
and he handed her to her carriage ; the next Sunday it ramed
and she gave ffim a Uf t ; and so it went on peu a peu tiU her son,
hearing how Ukely she was to make a fool of herseff, got her
down into the country and kept her there for some months. But
all-powerful love conquered. O'Meara foUowed, and she was
idiotic enough to marry ffim the other day. She has £6000 a year,
and she has settled a large jomture upon ffim. . . . Tffink of
tffis woman, who married in former days a Mr. Donerail, or some
^ Dr. Barry O'Meara was aUowed by the Admiralty to accompany
Napoleon to St. Helena, at Napoleon's request. Sir Hudson Lowe had
occasion to reprimand him for certain irregularities, and O'Meara was
dismissed from his post in 1818. He avenged himself by publishing
pamphlets defamatory of Lowe. In 1822 he published his book Napoleon
in Exile, in which these calumnies were repeated with concentrated force.
Opinion in England was hotly divided as to the merits of the case. The
article in the Quarterly was by J. W. Croker.
' O'Meara was then thirty-six.

1800-23] BOYHOOD AND YOUTH 41
such name, who was hung a hundred years ago for murdering
her brother, Sir Theodosius Boughton.^ After he was hung she
took her mother's maiden name, and made her Donerail son do
the same, to obUterate the hanging job. When the poor young
man grew up and learnt who ffis father was, he shot himseff from
despair. She then married a Sir Egerton Leigh and had children,
has been long a widow, and now, m her utter childhood I suppose,
marries tffis brute O'Meara, and the best chance she has is his
getting ffimseff hung too.
The extracts given above have been taken almost at
random from a correspondence whereof they can only
convey a faint idea of its volume and profusion. Twice,
sometimes thrice, a week Mrs. VUliers used to write to her
absent son. He seems to have kept aU her letters, which,
if prmted at length, would form a very fuU diary of doings
in London and at the Court of George iv.

1 She married Captain John Conellan in 1777, who, while a guest of
Sir Theodosius at Lawford HaU, Warwickshire, poisoned him with a
decoction of laurel leaves in August 1780.

CHAPTER III
COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS
DuEiNG George's absence in Russia, his sister Maria
Theresa, endeared to her brothers in the name Therese, had
left the schoolroom and become a very beautiful young
woman. Her aunt. Lady Morley, took her out in London,
and writes thus about her to George :
Kent House, 29th April. — Mon tees chee Cousin, — Your
letters are always agreeable. ... As for all your kind remarks
upon the Uttle civiUties I have at different times had it in my
power to shew ma tres chere niece votre tres chere scBur, you reaUy
might spare yourseff for the future aU gratitude upon that pomt.
It has, I trust, been a reciprocal pleasure to us both. Her society
was by no means disagreeable to me when we were at home, and
in the grand monde it is always an advantage to an elderly lady
to take a showy-looMng girl about with her as a sort of decoy
duck. But to be serious a moment. Never can I say haff
enough of the admiration and affection I feel for that dear girl.
It is a sort of perfect nature wffich one can offiy stumble on in
one's progress thro' tffis a bas monde. I daresay in the next
such creatures grow upon hedges. She is supposed never in
her Ufe to have been in such beauty as tffis year ; her figure is
so improved. And then I tffink I have been of some service.
As soon as she came up from her summer's run, I had her mane
puUed, her heels singed ; the next thing was a bran new saddle
and martingale from a noted French artist, that skrewed her in
and set her upon her haunches imkimmon. Then there was to
instil tidyness, and I must do her the justice to say she got on
rapidly. I do reaUy beUeve now she likes better to be clean than
dirty. . . . The more I see of that young spark who caused so
much torment last year, the more enchanted I am that she is out
of ffis clutches. He is imfeeUng, unprincipled and vain, and
altogether unworthy of any one offiy haff as good as she is. . . .
As for teffing you news . . . the London world wags much as

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 43
usual . . . the time passes briskly enough in spite of agricultural
distress and ruination on aU sides. . . . Chateaubriand is our
last foreign Uon. He is composed of equal parts of Dick Bagot ^
and of Matthew Montagu weU shaken up together, and fiffished
up with a sUce from Lord Sefton's hump. . . ^
Sir Henry Taylor^ in his autobiography has described
Theresa Viffiers as she was in those years ; and albeit he
cannot be accepted as an impartial critic, for he confesses
that he was deeply in love with her, and that she refused to
marry him, there is no doubt that she was then, and con
tinued through life to be, a very charming and accomplished
lady. Of aU her brothers, George was her favourite ; their
mutual confidence was as free from Umit as their affection
was from cloud ; and as there vdU be frequent mention of her
in these pages, Taylor's description may serve as her intro
duction to the reader, who may be tempted to smile at
its resemblance to a dry botaffist's dissection of a deUcate
flower. Miss Viffiers was eminently pretty — as pretty, I think, as any
one coffid be without being beautfful ; and she was as qffiok and
inteffigent as any one could be without being signaUy inteUectual.
She had been brought up m a class of society, the Hite of wffich
wiU naturaUy, from constant practice, be more adroit, vivacious
and versatile in their talk than others — more prompt and nimble
in their wit, and more gracefffi and perfect in the performance
of many Uttle feats of agiUty in conversation wffich come easily
to those who have been used to consider language rather as a
toy than as an mstrument. She had aU these advantages, and
she aimed at notffing in conversation wffich she could not accom-
pUsh with ease and grace ; so that one felt as ff she might have
been more briffiant than she was had she been disposed to try.
She had sense, and strength and clearness of purpose upon aU
occasions, and a harmony and uffity of the whole being, inward
and outward, which, being so perfect, was m itseff a charm. But
what perhaps most charmed me in my gravity was a fresh Ught-
heartedness, new to my experience, as weU as contrasted with
1 Sixth son of first Lord Bagot : consecrated Bishop of Oxford in 1829 ;
d. 1864.
2 The second Earl of Sefton was a hunchback.
' Taylor is best remembered as the author of Philip van Artevelde. He
died in 1886.

44 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
my own conditions of existence. ... Of casual and superficial
susceptibiUties she knew nothing ; and when the deeps were
broken up, wffich could happen to her as to others, it seemed as
if she could suffer only in paroxysms, and that in these she must
either conquer or die. Her way was to conquer ; but once she
did nearly die ; her strong nerves gave way, and for some months
she was unable to speak inteffigibly or to walk. These physical
consequences being removed, however, and her health restored,
she resumed her constitutional sprightUness ; the past was past,
and not a trace of a trouble remained.^
Taylor's intimacy with Hyde, the second of the ViUiers
brothers, began with their simultaneously entering the
Colonial Office as clerks in 1824. It brought him continu
ally to Kent House, and Miss Theresa is not the offiy one of
its inmates of whom he has given the outUnes. In Mrs.
VilUers he saw
' a woman of a strong and ardent nature, but also a woman of the
world ; George was gay, gracefffi, brilUant and pre-eminently
popular ; Charles, with still more wit than George (who, however
had not a Uttle), was sarcastic and unpopular, but amongst
friends very agreeable ; Hyde's face was that of a fair and
distinguished-looking child grown to the stature of manhood
. . . cahn, seff-govemed, ambitious ; . . . Edward, whose dear
friendship was the treasure and charm of my middle age . . .
was unUke Hyde, who resolutely went ffis way in ffie with a cahn
and equable energy, stiU more unUke those of ffis family, whose
gaiety and wit were everywhere seen in society and everjnvhere
admired. ... If his constitutional melancholy could not be
quite dissipated, it gave an additional charm to the brightness
that broke through it ; and never in any man have I known, and
rarely in any woman, has nature accompUshed a harmony so
perfect between the countenance and the mind.
' There was a brightening paleness in his face
Such as Diana, rising o'er the rocks.
Showered on the lonely Latonian : on his brow
Sorrow there was, but sorrow not severe.'
In 1823 young George ViUiers's prospect underwent a
change. Both his uncles. Earl Thomas and the Honourable
John, were old men, and although Mrs. VilUers seems to
* Sir Henry Taylor's Autobiography, i. 84, 85.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 45
have misunderstood their motives, it is evident that they
wished to do a kindness to their nephew.
George Canning was always friendly to the Villierses, and,
being Foreign Secretary at the time, wrote to Sir Charles
Bagot on 3rd January :
Mr. Viffiers's friends are very anxious for his retum to England
on leave of absence — Lord Clarendon particularly. There is no
hurry. If he is here by Easter it will be time enough. Send him,
therefore, when it sffits you, with your first dispatches, and keep
the messenger in store.
George's father, having been lucky enough to retain under
the new king the favour and emoluments he had enjoyed
under the late one, also writes to Bagot about this time.
. . . His Majesty has of late so far graciously interested himseff in
George's favour as to vsTite twice to Lord Liverpool recommend
ing that he might be employed in some pubUc office or become a
member of a pubUc board. The second time was in consequence
of ffis perusffig an extract from the very deUghtful and unsoUcited
letter wffich I received from you six months after your acquaint
ance with my son. It seemed to have pleased, and to have made
so strong an impression that I am assured ' H.M. wrote in the
most affectionate and pressing manner,' and I am further told
that Lord Liverpool, in an immediate reply, promised that he
would not fail ' to pay due attention to H.M.'s commands.'
He goes on to beg that George might be sent home with
dispatches — that is — at the public expense, ' for such is the
real state of my own circumstances that I could not defray
so heavy a charge by my own means.'
Mrs. George Villiers to her son George.
Beompton Row, 1th February 1823. — ^My evee deaeest,
DEAEEST George, — I must now acknowledge your dearest,
dearest letter of January 7th. ... I am so sorry Sir Charles
[Bagot] has not more books. I do not know why, but I fancied
he had quite a good Ubrary, and was Ukely to have loads of
French mimmres. Notffing can be more amiable {ergo, Uke your
seff) than aU you say about one of your brothers having any
place that coffid be procured, instead of you ; but of course that
must aU depend upon circumstances. I never reckon upon any-

46 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
tffing, but if (I know it is offiy a Spanish castle) tffis commissioner-
sffip could be obtained, wffich is at least £1200 a year, it would be
very desirable for you to have it, as it would enable you to be
deputy-father to your family, and help your brothers into pro
fessions, and comply with Lord C[larendon]'s wish to have you at
home. B.b.^ told the Govemor that tffis was the sort of thing
he ought to have tried for himseff ; but the Govemor said, wffich
I fuUy agreed in, that the difference of ffie between 63 and 23
was alone sufficient to make you the more eUgible person, and that
he weU knew you woffid do as much for the family as he would.
Then it is such a good tffing to get hold of ; for, supposing at any
time you could be made Under-Secretary at the Foreign Office,
you have sometffing to give up, and a bird in hand is always a
good tffing.
If notffing but a smaU tffing can be obtained in some public
office, I agree with you ffi wisffing it to be for your brothers. . . .
If I could anyhow get anytffing better for Hyde, I should not
despair of gettmg Edward into Hyde's shoes ; but I get dreadfuUy
tired of nothing being done. . . .
In another letter about this time Mrs. Viffiers shows
that she scarcely gave the credit due to Greorge's uncles for
their exertions on ffis behalf.
BB,OMPTO^Row,25th February 1823. — . . . I had brother John ^
for an immense time, and proportionate bore. He asked me ff you
was coming )iome, and as I had never said anytffing about it,
and of course knew he would object, I was obUged to mind my
P's and Q's how to answer ; so I said I hoped so — I trust he wiU
come home tffis year, tho' I have no idea when. He said, with
ffis patroffising smile — ' I suppose you tffink you should Uke to
see him.' — ' Oh yes,' I repUed, ' I am quite sure I should Uke to
see him ; but I am quite sure also that, unless I thought it for
ffis mterest to come home, I would not let my wishes influence me
the least in the world.' We then talked it over a Uttle, and he
asked ff it was for anytffing good that you came. I said I hoped
so, or at least that no good was Ukely to arise uffiess you ffid come
home ; that you was now as weU quaUfied for promotion in your
profession as if you had been ten years, and that Sir C. [Bagot]
had ffimseff advised you to be looking about, etc. etc. And then
afterwards I told ffim that Canffing had been very kind m asking
1 George's uncle, John ViUiers, afterwards third Earl of Clarendon.
'' The Hon. John ViUiers, succeeded as third Earl of Clarendon in 1824.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 47
Sir Charles to faciUtate your return, but that as anything Uke a
favour ought never to be mentioned in these days, I wished him
not to do so (these are the words he generaUy gives me, so I was
determined to have the start). However, I succeeded in fairly
talffing ffim down, and by means of saying that it was Sir C.'s
advice, Cannffig's facilitating and only on leave of absence, he
had not a word to say, and now I think nothing can be made of
tffis to old Clarendon. 1
The way in which John heard it was by a letter from Lord
Dunglas,^ whose mother left me Lord D.'s letter, wffich is reaUy a
most amiable one, and I love him more than ever. I must copy
an extract from it. . . . ' I have not words to express to you the
kindness of your nephew to me ; I shaU never be able to repay it.
So kmd-hearted and considerate, he reaUy seemed to feel as if it
were a loss he had ffimseff sustaffied. I am offiy sorry that I am
going to lose so deUghtful a compaffion. I never saw a more
thorougffiy honorable-mmded gentlemanlike person. I am sure I
have every reason to love the name of ViUiers.' Is it not gentil ?
I do love ffim so for appreciating my George ! . . .
So George was brought home and given a seat on the Board
of Customs, a service wffich has diverted so many men from
loftier aims by offering them the certainty of a competence
for Ufe.* To the degree in which he had won the confidence
and esteem of his cffief during his three years service at St.
Petersburg the foUowing extracts from Bagot's letters of
a later date bear testimony. There was a difference of
twenty years between the ages of the correspondents.
Sir Charles Bagot to George Villiers.
BRVSS'EhS,31stMayl825.— . . . I am exceedingly pleased with my
cook. He turns out a most admirable artist, and his taste, design
and colouring are exceUent. ... I ought also to teU you that I have
discovered turtle, at the ironmonger's of aU places! It is pre
served ; but it comes straight from the W. Inffies and is just as
1 Thomas, second Earl of Clarendon.
2 Succeeded as eleventh Earl of Home in 1841.
" Readers vpill not have forgotten how nearly Colonel Arthur Wesley
or WeUesley resigned the army in disgust after the Netherlands campaign
of 1795 ; and how, acting under his brother. Lord Mornington's, advice, he
actually applied for a commissionership of Customs. The history of
Europe might have taken a very different course had his application been
granted.

48 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
good as the fresh. I mention these Uttle trifles in order to ensure
your coming to Brussels. . . . Yesterday I dined with ffis
Lowland Majesty to meet the Duke of a place caUed Cambridge
somewhere in the EngUsh fens, where they teach arithmetic.
Tffis Duke, with ffis Duchess and DukeUngs, set out for England
this morffing. Him I had not seen for 14 or 15 years : her I
never saw before. He is just the same good-humoured rattle
that he always was, and she, I think, is a very personable body
for a Princess.^. . . I was told that Mother Lieven was to pass tffio'
here last week, but I have neither seen nor smelt her. ... I have
seen (but offiy once, for she dreads coqueluche^) Madame Zourieff,
Madame NaUskin's daughter. Faith ! she is very pretty, and
with such manners and so much a woman of fasffion, that among
these dumpty ffideous Flanders Gorgons she is qualis inter viburna
cupressus. . . .
Beussels, 23rd September 1825. — Viffiers, my dear boy, I have
' used you beastly,' as Mother Quickly says. I received both
your letters — that from Paris ages ago, and that from England
a week ago — and I ought to have answered them, I know I
ought, but latterly I have had most royal excuses. For the last
8 days I have never spoken or eaten with less than Kings or Kings'
sons. They have very nearly kiUed me. I have a great mind
to marry my Mtchenmaid and retire, hke Sir Tizzlemy. King of
Prussia, King and Queen of HoUand, Duke and Dss. of Clarence,
Duke of Cumberland, Prince Wiffiam, Prince Charles, Prince
Albert, Prince Frederic of Prussia, Prince of Orange, and Prince
Frederic and Princesses, Prince Loffis of Hesse-Homburg, Prince
HeUcat and Prince SpUtwig — these have been my playfeUows
for more than a week, and I have played tiU I am nearly
dead. Now I must begin packmg up for Hague, and making
arrangements for the movement of my vast army ; then I
must travel somewhere to get out of the way of my own
tffings and people, and then I must pass two or three
scrambUng weeks before I can settle down, Uke a stork, into
my Dutch nest. So it goes on, and so it wiU go on until I ossify
and St.-Helensify.
. . . Mother Lieven arrived here yesterday, and was to have
gone on to England to-day ; but she is ordered to ffine at the
Prince of Orange's,^ so waits tiU to-morrow. I do not intend to
1 Princess Augusta, daughter of the Landgrave Frederick of Hesse-
Cassel. ^ Bagot's children had the whooping-cough.
" William Frederick, formerly Prince of Orange, abdicated 1840,died 1843.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 49
oaU in upon her, uffiess she makes some dimarche towards this
house, that I may teach her manners.
The Hague, 2nd June 1826. — . . . We have glorious weather,
and are ffi the virgiffity and honeymoon of green peas and red
muUets ; but our canals stink Uke Madame Lieven, in spite of all
our narcissuses and jonqffils. The Kmg, much to his discontent,
is stiU here, bemg grievously affUcted in his right buttock, which is
suppuratffig a kind of Dutch sauce. . . . You must not tell Falck *
that I speak so Ughtly
' Of all those evils and distresses
That incommode ffis master's f esses.'
... I charge you not to read Woodstock : so deplorable a book
never came across me before.
It is qffite true that my lady gets up at 9 o'clock, goes to bed
at 12, takes walks, scolds the maids, looks after household affairs,
does up the accounts (wrong), etc. etc. The consequence of all
tffis is that she teUs everybody she was offiy 26 last February,
and goes mto the d — st passion if they don't beUeve it — quite
Uke Lord Peter ffi the Tale of a Tub.^ . . .
The Hague, 9th August 1826. — Mentiris impudentissime ! I
have written to you as Eloisa never wrote to Abelard. Not a
post has left tffis place without carrying six, or I may say eight
sheets of paper addressed to you, and teffing you exactly what
was passing at Vienna and Paris and Constantffiople, besides a
great deal of very piquant private news. D — n your tffiee
stories ; I read them when I was a boy in SmoUett's continuation
of Hume under the head of Queen Anne.
WeU, I have been as civil to Mr. Lushington as three petits
diners de famille could make me, and tffis momffig he is gone to
Amsterdam. He seems clever, but he abounds in smaU Uterature,
curled wffiskers, poUtical seconomy, and some other modern vices
of which time wiU no doubt correct ffim.
What I tffink of Miss my daughter * I wiU teU you. Her
beauty, selon mot, is rather that of countenance than of feature.
Her complexion and the real beauty of her mouth wiU always
put her ffi the rank and category of pretty persons ; but
her great attraits wiU always be her expression and play of
^ Dutch Ambassador at St. James's.
' Sir Charles Bagot married Lady Charlotte Wellesley-Pole, daughter-i
of the fourth Earl of Momington, in 1806.
' Emily, married to George William, tenth Earl of Winchilsea, in 1837.
VOL. I D

30 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
countenance, and her gentle, distingui, un-missical manner.
She and Lord and Lady Maryborough left us the day before
yesterday for England. ... It broke my heart to separate
again from Emily, but it would have been too seffish to keep
her here, with the certaffity of Dutch fogs and the chance of
Dutch husbands.
Yesterday I received an account from St. Petersburgh of
Messieurs les pendus sur les glacis de la Forteresse. Kakovsky,
Mouravieff, Bestekeresffky, Ryleieff, aU took the morffing air.
The rest (some 120) were classified — 15 condemned to death,
but the sentence commuted to perpetual mines ; the remamder
sent to Siberia for different periods or made common soldiers of,
aU having been previously degraded. Troubetskoy was sent to
the mines for Ufe ; Serge Volkousky for 15 years. As soon as
the gentlemen were hung, there was a grand Te Deum in the
Place d'Isaac, wffich was then purffied by Arcffimandrites and
holy water. Immediately after the ceremony the happy couple
(Nic and f row) ^ set off in a chaise and four for Moscow. . . . Tffis
letter wiU not go tiU Tuesday, but I write it now because I shaU
have no time to-morrow, seeing that I shaU be employed in
shooting fiappers at Osborne's (Gogmagog's ^ son) near Haarlem.
Exit old Winchilsea : Who gets Burleigh ? Who gets the
Garter ? Is it Jane Earl of Harrowby, or will they give it to
Devon ? . . . Friday, 10th, I came back last night from Osborne's.
I smote tffiee savage canards, a sffipe and a dove.
Beussels, 6th February 1827. — It is very true, my dear Viffiers,
that you are as near perfection as any man I ever saw — in
Kffightsbridge, and if you are sometffing less active than Miss
Seward in writffig letters to your friends, surely some aUowance
ought to be made for a retired life, gouty imgers, and a slowish
understanding. . . . Considerffig aU the physical and moral
disquahfications under which you labor, I tffink your answer to
my letter of 1826 remarkably quick, and was both legible and
(in parts) quite inteffigible. . . . We have some of the best
company here that you can imagine. Harriet Wilson's husband,
and they say Harriet herseff,^ and Thomas Cotes, and Mr.
Gawler (now BeUenden Ker) who ran away 2000 years ago with
1 The Emperor Nicholas i. succeeded Alexander r. on 1st December
1825, when the conspiracy of Postal and the Dekabrists broke out, and
was suppressed with great severity.
^ Duke of Leeds.
^ Harriette Wilson, a well-known demirep (1789-1846), who published
her own memoirs in 1825. She married one M. Roohefort in 1826.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 51
Lady Valentia, and Mi\ Erskine, Lord Buchan's nephew, who has
swmdled the whole town, gentle and simple. . . . What you
teU me of home poUtics does not surprise me. I have long seen
black clouds gathering in Downing Street. ... It seems to me
pretty clear that the D. of W[effington] is lenffing himseU very
wiffingly to an attempt to place him in the shoes of the D. of
Y[ork], not only as Commander-in-chief, but as head of an ffitra-
and anti-CathoUc party, who mean to tum out ComeUus
Agrippa's man (do you read Cobbett ?) if they can, and get hold
of the government. ... I am told that the Poodle has declared
ffis marriage and coffiesses that he is tied.^ . . .
The foUowing letter refers to the secession of the Duke of
WeUington and five others from the Cabinet in consequence
of the Duke's feud with Canmng.
Beussels, 24fA April 1827. — . . . You have certainly told me
a great deal that I had not heard from other quarters. Quel
evenement altogether ! To tffis moment I have not recovered
my amazement at what has passed. That six men (for I wiU not
speak of Peel, whose course has been aUke inteffigible, reasonable
and straightforward), but, I say, that six men should have been
John Donkies enough, because they wished, from sheer temper,
to plague another man, to put at the absolute disposal of
that other man aU their places when he neither expected nor
desired it — when they knew that there was no sort of intention
of crammffig the CathoUc question down their tffioats — when
they knew that they might, if they would, have swaUowed ffis
ascendancy — have made a government upon the same footing
as the last — that they should do all tffis with the evident certainty
of offendmg the King by their desertion of ffim — of ffisgusting
the people by that very desertion — and of placing the man they
wanted to destroy in the situation of being the protector of the
Crown and the People, does appear to me to be the greatest
triumph of housemaidy spite over common sense that the world
ever heard of. That Dukes of Montrose and Lords Westmor
land et id genus omne should have made such a mistake, is just
within the hunts of strained comprehension ; but that the Duke
of Weffington, qui mores hominum multorum vidit et urbes, should
plump into such a bog surpasses aU imagination, and I verily
beUeve the whole set to have been moonstruck. Quoiqu'il en
soit, they have cut their own tffioats from ear to ear. They have
'¦ George Byng, M.P. (1764-1847): married Harriet, daughter of Sir
William Montgomery.

52 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
given to Canffing the most splendid triumph that man ever
obtained since Pitt in '83 (the offiy paraUel in ffistory), and they
have done the King more good than ' could ten thousand soldiers
armed in proof.' My own opiffion is that, long ere tffis. Messieurs
the Seceders have discovered these truths ; and moreover, that
the new macffine vsiU march weU.
The tffing that seems most wantffig may be strength in the
House of Lords ; but the great posts have been so UberaUy
assigned that I tffink that there wiU be no very great difficulty
upon these points, even if (what I take to be totaUy impossible)
the Lowthers and Rutlands and Newcastles, and lumbering Peers
of that kidney, should go into direct opposition to the King's
Government. But no, no ! they wiU never get beyond the cross
benches, and before October, when it is too late, they wiU come
wffimpering back. Je les connois. . . . Yesterday was the King's
birthday,^ and I had the misery of giving a great birthday
dinner ; but it was only to foreign miffisters and miffisters of
State, and we did not exceed 26 people ; so it was less horrible
than my Russian dinners of 100 covers to the jovial Sons of
Hemp and TaUow. To-day I am goffig to dine with the Prince,
and therefore with the Princess, of Chimay — the famous Madame
Taffien of the French Revolution. The Prince of Orange has
been saucy, and I have been forced to arranger le petit bonhomme.
These extracts from Bagot's letters have carried us beyond
our dates. Harking back to the year 1823, when (jleorge
ViUiers was appointed a Commissioner of Customs, it is
possible to glean some knowledge of his proceedings from
such letters as have been preserved. The scene of his
labours was the new Custom House in Thames Street which
was opened in 1817, no fewer than three of its predecessors
having been burnt down — ^the first in the Great Fire of
London in 1666, the second in 1718, and the tffird in 1814.
Nothing is more rare in George ViUiers's correspondence
than any reference to religion. He entertained throughout
his Ufe such a horror of intolerance, and so sincere an aversion
for ecclesiastical controversy, that he seems to have avoided
anjrthing that might lead him into that maze. But from
his sister Theresa he withheld none of his inmost thoughts.
After she had been ' out ' for a couple of seasons, and after a
1 The King of the Netherlands.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 53
love affair which promised happily at first had miscarried,
she felt some qualms about the frivolity of London Ufe, and
imparted her misgivings to her brother.

George Villiers to his sister.
Castle Hill, N member 1823. — . . . You may perhaps tffink that
I talk and act Ughtly upon serious subjects ; but I can safely say
that few people have thought more seriously than I have upon
the subject of reUgion ; few people have a deeper sense of its
utiUty and importance, and few people, I am sure, derive more
daily and real conffort from it than I do. But the more I con
sider it, the more I am convmced that it is not God's intention
that we should etemaUy have before our eyes another world and
notffing else. I mean by that, that we are not to act accorffing
to the letter, but the spirit, of His word — that future reward
shoffid be the general stimulus in tffis world — that the fear of
God and love of His commandments should iiffiuence and actuate
aU our doffigs, and that the exercise of our reUgion should be
constant and sincere — I hold to be absolutely indispensable for
every Cffiistian ; but that we shoffid constantly be urging and
goadmg our thoughts . . . never for a moment to lose sight of
God and of another world, I do maffitain is foUowing the letter,
and not the spirit, of His word. We are sent here with great and
important duties to perform, and, Uke the unworthy servant, we
shaU not be held gffiltless for their non-performance because
we have endeavoured always to fix our thoughts on God and
notffing else. ... I have for some time past thought that your
opiffions were getting a Uttle more gloomy than would be for your
comfort ; so, as you and I can have no other object than the
happmess and improvement of each other on tffis most important
subject, I tffink the ffiscussion of our mutual opiffions never can
do harm. ... I can't teU you how I long and pine to see you
agam. There 's no day on wffich I don't meet with a \ hour or
an hour that I feel I should so much have Uked to pass in a coze
with my dearest sister. ... I sometimes feel so sorry you are
my sister. I wish to heaven you were my cousin, for I tffink we
should sffit each other so weU as man and wife !
This is almost the offiy letter I have found in which George
touches otherwise than sUghtly, though never sUghtingly,
upon spiritual matters. In secular affairs he was fulffiUng to

54 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
a degree remarkable in so young a man, the office of ' deputy-
father ' to which his mother had invited him.
As the mother of a large family, Mrs. ViUiers could not be
exempt from trouble and disappointment. Among six
sons, reared in the ffigffiy flavoured atmosphere of the
Regency, there was sure to be one or more whose conduct
would cause anxiety and pain. George himself was no
ascetic, nor was he proof against the aUurements wffich the
frankly lax manners of the time ensured to a young man of
attractive personality. But he never failed in tenderness
and consideration for his mother ; it was to him and his
sister Theresa that she turned in every difficulty, and never
turned in vain. Mrs. ViUiers had been in such very bad
health for some years when she wrote the foUowing letter,
that it seemed unlikely that she would survive her husband,
although, as it turned out, she did so for twenty-nine
years. 10th July 1825. — My nerves are now grown so weak, my own
dearest George, that I never can trust myseff to speak on any
subject wffich interests me, and as I should be sorry to make the
subject of this letter (which is not otherwise distressing) ffi any
way paiffiffi to you, I prefer tffis mode of saying my say. A
person does not ffie the sooner for making a wiU, but they Uve
happier after it is done. And I shall be more comfortable after
I have expressed my wishes to you, which I do in the fuUest and
most impUcit confidence that they will, with you, be as sacred and
binding as if correctly and legaUy drawn up.
Your sister may never marry, or at any rate may not marry in
my Ufetime, and of course she is the great and natural object of
my soUcitude. Therefore in turning and re-tuming the subject
in my mind, it has occurred to me to mention to you that I have
reason to beUeve that my aunt means to leave £6000 ffivided
between me and my children — £3000 being (if I reeoUect right)
my share. Now as I may die before my aunt, tffis sum would
(I suppose) go to the Govemor,^ or if he was no longer aUve, to
you ; and as I hope and beUeve you are never likely to want it, I
should very much wish it to go to your sister if she is immarried.
If she marries a man rich enough for tffis smaU sum not to be an
object, I should much wish it entrusted to you for the two youngest
' The writer's husband.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 55
boys, Montagu! and Algy,^ as they may be very destitute of
means for completing their education ; whereas I reckon that all
the others can now make their own way with the assistance of the
£400 from Lord C[larendon], which I should always wish to be
appropriated, as long as it is continued, to the purpose of educa
tion, and to be transferred from one to the other as soon as the
elder is provided for by his profession.
I am not sure of what the circumstances are imder wffich that
annffity ceases and £5000 to be paid ; ' but if it appears that that
sum is to be raised and paid from the Grove estate, or any other
of the Clarendon property, supposing you or your father to be in
possession of that property, I should wish to forego the claim and
leave it to you, offiy requesting you, as long as your sister is un
married (after the death of your father and myseff), to pay her an
annffity of £200 ; and ff she marries so as not to want it, I should
then wish that £200 per annum to be employed by you in aid of
the education, or startmg ffi profession, of Montagu and Algy ;
and when they were in a conffition to maintain themselves
by their profession, I shoffid wish the whole to revert to you.
Tffis may be aU nonsense, but I have an idea that at the Gover
nor's death the £5000 was to be paid to me instead of the
annffity. The greatest comfort I have ffi the world, my beloved George,
is f eeUng that your sister and younger brothers wiU be under your
protection. I most fervently hope and pray that you may some
day have a son who wiU behave to you as you have done to us —
you, who ffi sickness, sorrow, prosperity or adversity are always
the same ffind friend, the same tender and affectionate son. I
caimot help giving myseff the pleasure of expressing this, not
merely for my own satisfaction, but because I know it wiU ever
be a pleasure to you to reflect on the comfort wffich you have
afforded me ffi tffis Ungering iUness, and on how thoroughly I
appreciate and value every one of your numerous and unre-
mittffig, sootffing attentions to me. TiU you have a son Uke
yom'seU, you cannot fuUy enter into the comfort wffich you give
us, or tiU (wffich Heaven forbid you should have) you meet with
unffind and ungrateful cffildren can you know the poignant misery
that is infficted on me by others. On this sad subject I wiU only
say a very few words. . . .
1 Afterwards Bishop of Durham, died in 1861.
2 Lieutenant R.N., died in 1843.
= As provided in the marriage settlement of the Hon. G. Villiers as a
younger son of the first Earl of Clarendon.

56 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
The ' few wotds ' cover many pages of letter paper, and
refer to some youthful indiscretions and thoughtless un-
kindness of two of the vtrriter's younger sons.
Heaven bless and protect you, my beloved George. No words
can give a just idea of the intensity of my affection for you,
wffich I feel can never cease wffile I Uve.
The charge thus laid upon George ViUiers was carried out
in letter and spirit to the end of his days. He became the
true head of the family, none of whom ever turned to ffim
in vain, whether for counsel or cash. After succeeding to
the earldom, his private income was scant enough for what
is expected of one in that position, but he always managed
to lend a helping hand at the just moment.^
Meanwhile, broken in health and distracted by debts,
George Viffiers the elder was drawing near his end. Despite
the many more or less lucrative offices wffich he held, ffis
financial circumstances had reached a crisis.
Early in 1827 he wrote to his eldest son complaimng of
his ' wretched state of body and mind. I can get no sleep
mght or day from the reflections on my present state, after
a struggle of 16 years to support my family in the best
manner I coffid conceive, from the untoward circumstances
into which I have been thrown.' He had laid out a lot of
money in taking a farm close to London — 138 acres for which
he paid £370 rent — and ' last spring,' says he, ' by the violent
and long drought I indisputably lost fuU £400 on crops
burnt up.' He ends by declaring that the estabUshment
in Kent House must be broken up, and appeals to George
to arrange for their existence elsewhere on a humbler scale.
A few weeks later he qffitted the scene of his troubles for
ever, dying on 21st March 1827, and leaving his eldest son to
unravel the tangled skein of his affairs.
Shortly after his father's death, George, who was now
actual, as he had long been virtual, head of the family in
Kent House, had to undertake an exceedingly deUcate duty.
* He made his brother Charles a voluntary aUowance of £300 a year,
and continued throughout his life to do so, even after Charles had been
granted a pension of £2000 a year in 1866. Lord Clarendon provided in
his will for his successor continuing this allowance, which was done
accordingly till Charles's death in 1898.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 57
Among the many admirers of his sister Theresa, the most
ardent seems to have been a certain wealthy young peer
who pressed ffis suit rmsucoessfuUy, but, being deeply in
love, did not abandon hope, and, Imowing Hyde ViUiers's
ambition to enter parUament, offered to secure his election
for the borough of Hedon in Yorkshire, defraying all the
expenses. Hyde at first suspected that this was an
attempt on ffis lordsffip's part to ingratiate himself with
Miss Viffiers and her family ; but on receiving his assur
ance that he had given up his suit, he accepted the offer,
was elected, held the seat against a petition, and retained
it tiU 1830.
His lordsffip, however, continued to pay his addresses to
Miss Viffiers, and wffispers, equaUy tmkind and unjust,
began to go about regarding the nature of the bargain
between ffim and Hyde. Greorge, and doubtless Hyde also,
felt that such injurious rumours must be stopped at almost
any cost, which led to George writing as foUows.
My deae P  , — Altho' I have been deeply interested in all
that has passed lately between yourseff and Hyde, yet, as it
was not ffi my power to interfere in ffis election, and I was out of
tovsm when the consequences of it took place, I have ffitherto
forborne to take any part ffi these paiffiul ffiscussions. My
deUberate opiffion that there is but one mode of restoring Hyde
to the place he held twelve months ago in pubUc opiffion is my
reason for now departing from the Une of conduct I have ffitherto
adopted. It is unnecessary for me to trouble you with the judgment I
have formed of aU that has passed of late, tho' I cannot help
expressmg my opiffion that the commonest friendsffip for my
sister or regard for her future should have put a stop in the very
beginffing to ffiscussions in wffich her name has been so frequently
and inconsiderately brought forward.
There appears to be no doubt that Hyde considered your
original offer of brmging ffim into parUament as a means resorted
to by you for furtherffig your views with my sister. He there
fore decUned it, and continued to do so, tiU you gave him fuUy to
understand that you were convinced you had no chance with
her, wffich was also confirmed by herseff and my mother. Hyde
further understood that you never intended to renew your sffit.

58 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ni.
in confirmation of wffich you said you should go abroad for two
years. Upon these grounds, and the assurance that private
friendsffip and poUtical reasons had alone prompted your offer,
it was accepted.
Owing to some misunderstandings (the particulars of which it
it not my purpose now to inquire), it seems you did not consider
your sffit hopeless, or that your continumg your addresses as
before was not an iffiraction of what you had agreed to. Hyde
therefore finds ffimseff in the paiffiul situation of laboring under
an obUgation contracted thro' misapprehension, and the stiU
more paiffiul one of not being immediately able to reUeve himseU
from it. Had you retumed him for a borough of your own, ffis
course would have been simple ; but imder the present circum
stances of your having lent ffim money to come into parUament,
if he were to vacate his seat he would be reheved from no part of
the obUgation.
Uffiortunately we are not in a situation at tffis moment to
repay any part of the money ; but, in the common course of
nature, the time is not ffistant when I shaU be able to reUeve ffim
from an obUgation wffich we both feel he cannot accept with
honor ; and I can only assure you that, was it in my power, tho'
at any sacrifice, not an instant should be lost in the repayment.
I hope therefore you wiU have no objection to comply with
the foUowing proposition. You must be aware that many of
the election expenses remaffi unpaid, and that the petition will
be no inconsiderable adffition to them. I woffid beg therefore to
suggest that by a bond or letter of credit on [illegible], or any other
means you tffink preferable, you wiU secure Hyde from a re
currence of those ffistressing ffifficulties wffich have been as
detrimental to ffis creffit as the reports circulated against ffim
have been to ffis honor. I wiU then beg you to consider tffis letter
as a ffistinct and general pledge for repayment of aU Hyde's
election expenses ; and, as soon as their amount can be ascer
tained, I wiU give you a specific pledge for repayment. You
must be as weU aware as I am that it wiU not be in my power
to specify the time of repayment ; but, as it is only since the
expenditure of the money that we have felt ourselves bound to
consider it a debt, I hope you wiU feel that everytffing in
our power has been done to reUeve Hyde from an obUgation,
the contracting of wffich I fear he wiU long have cause to
regret. The routine of daily attendance in Thames Street was

-z^ J^- ^^r- &^,£i,i/.^J^% ^

/ ^f^'Y^^-UAO'l^ .J^- '". Gz^i'C.^f- '^/aA.s^7^&ony/'

LONXiOK- EDWAItD J^FCSOT^Ti

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 59
broken occasionally for the Commissioner of Customs by
official visits to Wales, tho Isle of Man, and tho north of
England ; but a more complete change came in 1827, when
George Villiers was sent to Dublin to assist in arranging the
fusion of the EngUsh and Irish Boards of Excise. Then,
and for long after, he kept his mother supplied with a con
secutive chronicle of his mode of life. These letters, how
ever, to which he constantly refers the other members of
his family for information, have not come to light ; and
there are few others to supply their place.
It was at a critical juncture in Irish affairs that ViUiers
began his acquaintance vnth them. Canffing had just
formed his first and offiy ministry — Canmng, whom the
Duke of Weffington, with the utmost difficffity, had per
suaded George rv. to admit to the Foreign Office as ' the
last calamity ' — Canning, against whose policy on Roman
CathoUc disabiUties the King had charged WeUington to
defend him.i But in five years the fickle King had veered to
the wit and charm of ffis Foreign Secretary, and the course
was understood to be clear for a Catholic Relief Bill.
WeUington had always shared the views of Pitt, Castlereagh,
and Caiming upon this question, but had sunk his private
conviction only out of deference to the Crown. In 1825,
after George iv. had been induced to grant certain con
cessions to ffis Roman Catholic subjects in Hanover, the
Duke submitted to the King a detailed scheme for the
emancipation of Irish CathoUcs and provision of concurrent
endowment. King George had tffiovni the paper aside, yet
was now preparing his assent to the poUcy described in it.
No wonder the Duke felt sore ; the wonder — the pity — was
that he showed it by resigffing the non-political office of
Commander-in-chief ; resummg it, however, at the King's
request seven days after Carming's death on 8th August
1827. Then foUowed the five colourless months of ' Goody
Goderich's ' admimstration, enough to prove that Canning's
team coffid not be held together by any hand but his own ;
and in January it made way for a fresh miffistry under the
^ ' My reliance is on you, my friend ; be watchful ! ' (George iv. to the
Duke of Wellington, 13th September 1822).

60 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
Iron Duke, the King stipulating that the CathoUc claims
shoffid continue to be treated as an open question in the
Cabinet. Nevertheless, Catholic emancipation was in the air.
Weffington, with a soldier's faith in strong battalions, said
to Croker — ' Those who are for forming an exclusive miffistry
expect that I am to go into the House of Commons with
half a party, to fight a party and a half.' ^ In the new Cabinet
of fourteen there were five or six undoubted Canffingites.
Most significant of aU, Lord Eldon was not offered the
Woolsack, and the Carmingite Lord Anglesey replaced the
High Tory Lord WeUesley as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
George Villiers to his sister.
Dublin, 8th January 1828. — . . . My time is drawing to a close
here, and I am sorry for it — very sorry for it. I have met a vast
deal of kindness — made sojne friends I tffink I can depend upon —
not many enemies, I beUeve — gained some reputation, and have
Uved in splenffid luxury — not a bad way of spenffing a couple of
years. StiU, I am far from satisfied ; ^ but I won't go into all
that now. ... I should Uke weU enough to marry, if I found
anybody fitting in aU respects ; but there is so much shut up in
that ' ff,' that I scarcely tffink it worth givffig myseff trouble
about. Mrs. George Viffiers and her daughter spent the winter of
1828-9 — part of it, at least — traveUing on the Continent.
A few letters have survived out of many which no doubt
they wrote home.
Mrs. George Villiers to her son George.
Naples, 21st February 1829. — . . . The weather has been dehcious
the last few days, and I dare say a month hence Naples, or rather
the environs of Naples, wiU be very Uke Paraffise ; but in the town
the smeUs are very anti-perfume indeed, and make the driving
about very ffisagreeable. There has been a splendid 10 days
chasse of the King's at some ffistance from hence. Just to give
you a sort of idea of the thing, I must teU you that they kiUed
upwards of 1200 faUow deer and near 300 wild boars, many of
1 Croker Papers, i. 404,

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 61
wffich were ffiUed by the Queen and Prfficosses ! wffich is a
beautfful specimen of female deUcacy in the fair sex. The
Stratford Canffings are here. He is improved, I think, in looks
and manners. I don't think much of her looks. They say he
is terribly unpopular at Constantinople and had better not return
there. Returffing to London in 1829, G«orge VilUers resumed
duty in Thames Street without much hope of advancement
to more attractive work. The Tories were still in power ;
Viffiers and his brothers had avowed themselves genuine
Wffigs, and in pre-Ref orm days aU promotion went by favour,
as it is commoffiy reported that kissing still does. But
the Wffigs came into office with Lord Grey in 1830, when it
became clear that ViUiers's able handling of matters in
DubUn had not been overlooked, and he was immediately
chosen for some fiscal negotiations in Paris,
However, before tffis new appointment coffid be made
the fanaUy circle at Kent House had been profoundly stirred
by an event wffich George had long wished for, namely, the
marriage of ffis beloved sister Theresa. She had not reached
the age of seven-and-twenty without receiving many pro
posals of marriage ; but, after a first engagement had
gone wrong, she proved difficffit to satisfy, waiting for one
with whom she coffid feel on equal inteUectual terms. Per
haps it was a common Uterary taste that first attracted her
in Thomas Henry Lister, the son of a Staffordshire squire,
who had won some reputation as a noveUst and dramatist,
and to whom she was married on 6th November 1830.
George Villiers to his sister.
18th November 1830.— . . . AU you teU me of your happiness, my
dearest girl, is reaUy myrrh, aloes and cassia to my heart. It is
not only its mtensity but its durabiUty that forms its great deUght
to me. It is not the gaudy, ghttering sunsffine of a morffing at
tffis time of year, wffich creates more fear than hope for the post
meridian prospect, but a bright, settled, clouffiess blue sky wffich
should warrant a bet of 100 to 1 upon a glorious sunset. ... I
shoffid indeed Uke to be married myseff — not for the purpose of
procuring for myseff your present set of feeUngs ; that would

62 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. in.
be as rifficulous for me as if I asked for a bit of the moon ; but
for the purpose of being settled and ffi the hope of a reaUy useful
occupation of my time.
Mr. and Mrs. Lister took up their abode in that moiety
of Kent House which was occupied by the bride's mother,
the other moiety being stiU retained by Lord and Lady
Morley. Such an arrangement might have been deemed
a hazardous experiment, for Mrs. George ViUiers was a
woman of strong will and quick impffise, not precisely the
qualities in a mother-in-law which conduce most surely to
harmony. Nothing, however, coffid have proved a happier
arrangement ; whereof convincing proof may be found in the
fact that, after Lister died and his widow married a second
husband, she continued to make Kent House their London
residence. Exactly a year later than the letter last quoted, George
was writing to his sister in high spirits about some special
work for which he had been chosen by Lord Althorp, the
new Whig Chancellor of the Exchequer.
18th November 1831. — I have but a moment, for I am gomg to
Paris ffirectly (how that made you jump !). Althorp sent for me
to say that the French are inohned to adopt a more Uberal poUcy
towards tffis country, and to remove some of the ffisgraceful
clogs wffich at present thwart our commercial intercourse. They
wish, therefore, that two commissioners should be sent from here
to Paris to meet two on the part of France . . . their report to
be the basis of a more enlarged and Uberal system. He said he
had fixed on me for tffis, and wished me to go ffirectly. ... I
suppose, therefore, I must be off on Monday or Tuesday.
Viffiers was appointed joint commissioner with Dr. John
Bowring ^ to inquire into the commercial relations between
Great Britain and France, with a view to modifying the
customs duties of both countries and to arrange for the
establishment of a daily post.
' Afterwards Sir John Bowring (1792-1872), traveller, linguist, and
author of many works. A man of restless energy, he had been appointed
by Herries in 1828 a commissioner for reforming the system of public
accounts ; but the appointment was cancelled at the request of the Duke
of WeUington, who considered Bowring a dangerous Radical.

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 63
I have consulted with Palmerston, wrote Lord Althorp on
25th November, and we agree that it is not desirable that you
should have any formal appointment as commissioner to Paris,
or any written instructions. You wiU not, therefore, have to
maintain any official correspondence with tffis country, but will
naturaUy put yourseff on a footing of confidential communication
with Lord GranviUe, ^ and let us know how you are going on by
private letters either to Palmerston, Auckland, Thompson or
myseff. With respect to money matters, the Treasury will pay
aU your expenses. Tffis, I think, is aU it is necessary for me to
say, and it now offiy remains that you should set off for Paris as
soon as you possibly can.
George Villiers to his sister.
Paeis, 8th December 1831. — I must write you a bit of a note,
my dearest Therese, tho' I am qmte in the state of surprise that
a clock has always put Hyde in for the last 20 years, of having
no idea, upon my soul, that it was so late. It has been qffite
deUghtfffi to me to see how you Uve ffi people's memories here, and
I don't tffink you wffi ffisUke to hear it. In the ffist place, Lady
Granville asked mstantly after you ffi detail, and said — ' Ka-aln't
we have her here ? ' and the girls just the same. I saw Mme.
Graham two days after my arrival, and she asked after you. . . .
Princesse Bagration came in, and Mrs. G. said — ' C'est le frere de
Miss V. que nous avons tous tant admiree ioi,' upon which the
Bagration shut her eyes and said softly — ' Ah ! la deUcieuse
creature : comme je m'en ressouviens bien ! ' Then there is a
Monsieur de TreviUe who is my coUeague in the Commission, and
who is always interrupting our commercial coUoqffies by lugging
you in — sometimes by the eyes — sometimes the countenance —
sometimes V esprit ; but he is a very exceUent man, and you
evidently form the cffief commoffity in his tariff.
Then Mornay ^ gave us a ffinner the other day, at which there
dmed a most uncommoffiy good-looking gentleman-Uke young
Frenchman — a M. Affred de Voisin — who instantly asked after
you. He said he had met you at Chamounix and had made a
Uttle expeffition or two viith you ; that he and ffis companion — a
Uttle Prince GaUtzffi — had faUen head over ears in love with you,
and had nearly fought about wffich had foimd most favour ffi your
1 The first Earl, British Minister at tho Tuileries.
' Probably Charles, Due de Morny (1811-1865), natural son of Queen
Hortense of Holland and the Comte de Flahault.

64 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. m.
eyes. Tffis set Mornay off Uke a house affie, and he described aU
that he had gone through for you in the most vivid fashion
imaginable. En as tu assez ? Is your vaffity sufficiently fed ?
for there reaUy are several more recoUections and suggestions.
3rd February 1832. — . . . The courier due here last ffight is not
yet arrived. ... It is supposed he is detained in London to bring
over the miffionth protocol and some cunffingly devised reason for
not ratffying the treaty on the very last day to wffich it could be
postponed. It woffid be ffifficult to exaggerate the eagerness here
for news — and good news — ^from England. People ask one for
the latest inteffigence, then go and take a turn upon the
boulevards, and look qffite blank when one assures them there
have been no arrivals sffice their last question. In an eveffing
I am never asked less than 20 times, ' Eh bien, le biU — com
ment va-t-il ? ' — ' La reforme — passera-t-eUe ? ' wffile others
reproacffiuUy shrug their shoulders — ' Ces nouveaux paires — ou
sont-ils ? ils se font johment attendre, ces messieurs,' etc. etc.
The mission was entirely successful, the result being
embodied in two reports to parliament, and henceforward
VilUers was marked out for constant employment in the
pubUc service. As an indication of his opiffions on home
politics, which were then violently agitated over the question
of Reform, the foUowing letter to his sister may serve to
some extent.
6 Cleveland Court, 22vd October 1831. — . . . AU your remarks
upon pubUc men and tffings in your letters to my mother and
myseff have been very interesting, because they were unbiased
by the opiffion of others, and in exchanging ideas one never knows
how much or Uttle one adopts of other people's. Your remarks,
selon moi, have been singularly correct and just. I entirely
agree with you upon the gross indecency of a ffist minister m-
viting pubUo wrath upon a whole class of men exercising their
lawful functions accorffing to their abihties and conscience, and
I do beUeve that every interest, both of the Bishops and the
Church, would have been so essentiaUy promoted by their sup
porting the BiU that their vote is entitled to aU praise for honesty,
however much exception we may take to its wisdom. Do you
know the passage in scripture wffich Grey began and left to the
Bishops to fiffish ? It is some prophet (not Isaiah) sent to I
forget whom, to teU him to put his house in order— -/or thou shall

1823-32] COMMISSIONER OF CUSTOMS 65
die, thou shalt not live,^ a case of home-thrust, I think ; and
accorffingly every pubUc meeting is at the Bishops, and the people
are now qffite famiUar with the question of their expulsion from
the House of Lords, and have no doubt of the great irreligion of
their conduct upon the biU.
Lyndhurst being without one shred of pubhc or private
principle, your question is very natural as to why he pursued
the uncompromising course he did. It was, of course, his own
interest, and I have no doubt whatever he took a correct view of
it. He has been anti-reform aU his ffie : so have many of the
govemment, you wiU say ; but their justification is the necessity
of not separatmg from the party they have adopted — that weak
ness ffi the govemment would now be ruin to the State, and that
kmd of plausibilia that retainers of power with a bad case use
very unsuccessfuUy as dust to other people's eyes. But I'ami
Lyndhurst has no case of tffis kind ; if he had turned reformer
he woffid have violated a principle in order to adopt a party, and
not in consequence of having done so. His old friends would have
broken with ffim and spurned ffim forever — his new friends
havmg escaped ffis opposition, could hope no more good from
ffim : he would be an article too damaged to bring anytffing but
ffiscreffit upon them.^ . . . Harrowby's was the most effective,
as weU as the best, speech, because he was the least Uable to
suspicion of siffister motive. His age, ffis poUtical knowledge,
ffis high character, ffis having twice refused the premiership, and
ffis notorious bad health, ffid away with aU taint of ambition or
seff -mterest and left ffim a pecuUarly unshackled arbiter upon an
important constitutional measure.
1 It waa Isaiah, who was sent so to warn Hezekiah : 2 Kings xx. i.
* This is an unfair judgment upon Lyndhurst, who was undoubtedly
sincere in opposing the Reform BUI.

VOL. I

CHAPTER IV
MINISTER AT MADRID
Geoege Villiees was back at his desk in Thames Street
before a sore trial befel ffim in the death of his favourite
brother Hyde. They had been coUege companions at
Cambridge, and George had always felt and shown a keen
interest in aU that concerned one whom many people
considered the most promising member of the family.
Younger by one year than George, Hyde had ceased in
1825 to live at Kent House in order to lodge with his friend
Henry Taylor in Suffolk Street. Entering ParUament
in 1826, he soon became marked out as a rising man, though
his tendency to RadicaUsm caused George no Uttle dis-
qffiet. Taylor describes ffim as possessing ' indefatigable
industry and a clear understanding, set off by pleasing
address and considerable power of speaking,' and he seemed
on a fair course towards high office. But in 1832 an abscess
formed in ffis head, and after three months of intense
suffering he died at Carclew on Srd December, being at
the time parliamentary candidate for Falmouth. ' There
is a great chasm,' wrote George ViUiers to his sister on
Christmas Day, ' in our happy family edifice. That in
which we have found so much enjoyment — such just pride
¦ — cannot again be the same ; but it may perhaps bind
closer to each other those who are stiU left.'
His successfffi negotiation of the commercial treaty
with France brought George ViUiers to a turffing-'point in
Ufe. The general election of 1832 had landed his poUtical
friends in what promised to be a long lease of power. Lord
Palmerston was Foreign Secretary, and, recogffising in
VilUers a young man of no common abiUty, quick-witted,

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 67
tactfffi, of engaging manner, and withal a fluent Unguist,
thought pity that such gifts should be permanently buried
in Thames Street. Moreover, Villiers had been entered
to diplomacy, so here were all the materials of an effec
tive minister. The embassy at Madrid was vacant,
owing to the recall of Henry Addington,^ who had acted
as pleffipotentiary there since 1829. Spain was about
to be racked with the ferocious war between Cffiistinos
and CarUsts ; Palmerston had made up his mind to take
a strong Une in the quarrel, and he saw in Villiers the
very man to carry out his policy. He offered him the
appointment of envoy-extraordinary and miffister-pleffi-
potentiary at the Court of Queen Cffiistina. Probably
few men have decUned office so often as ViUiers did in
later years ; few can have felt and shovni greater reluct
ance to exchange the deUghts of home for the strain of
pubUc Ufe. Whether he hesitated on this occasion we
have no means of knowing. Probably he did not. He
was a bachelor in the very prime of life ; diplomacy had
been the profession of ffis choice ; here was a fair oppor-
tuffity of re-entering it, and he seized it. Often as he had
to differ m later Ufe with Palmerston upon questions of
pubUc policy, he never ceased to feel a deep sense of obUga
tion to ffim for ffis friendly act in giving him a fresh start,
and he set to work at once to acquire the same fluency in
Spaffish as he already possessed in French and German.
When Viffiers entered upon his duties as Miffister at the
Court of Spain, Ferdinand vn., the wortffiess Bourbon who
had been restored to the throne by British arms in 1814,
was on his deathbed. A brief recapitffiation of the
circumstances of this dynasty in Spain is necessary to
imderstanding the situation as ViUiers found it, and the
causes that had brought it about.
In 1713 PffiUp V. altered by Pragmatic Sanction the
ancient law of succession to the Crown, under which females
in direct Une were preferred to collateral males. Under
the new law collateral males were given precedence over
^ Nephew of Lord Sidmouth who had been Prime Minister, 1801-4. Henry
Addington was Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 1842-54.

68 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
direct female heirs. PhiUp's Pragmatic was repealed by
Charles rv. in 1789, and the old law of succession was
restored ; but the repeal was not made public. In 1829
Ferdinand vii. was still cffildless, though he had been
married three times. His first marriage, in 1802, was
unexceptionable — ^to his cousin Maria Antoinetta, daughter
of Ferdinand rv. of Naples. She died in 1806, and Ferdinand
waited ten years, until he had been restored to the throne
after the expulsion of the French from the Peninsffia, before
contracting a second marriage, this time an incestuous
one, with his own sister's daughter, IsabeUa, whose father
was John vi. of Portugal. When this queen died in child
birth in 1818, he chose a third wife in the person of Princess
Maria of Saxony, against which affiance nothing could be
objected on the ground of consanguiffity. But when
Queen Maria died in 1829 his Most Catholic Majesty led a
fourth consort to the altar, and received the blessing of the
Church upon his umon with Maria Christina, daughter of
Francis, King of the Two Sicilies, by a sister of Ferdinand
himself. And as if the imquity of thus for the second time
marrying one of his own meces did not suffice, this bride
was also the ffiece of his first wife.
Although the Church thus conffived with King Ferdinand
in this revolting outrage upon natural morality, it was from
an unhappy nation that retribution was to be exacted for
the crime. In March 1830 Ferdinand suddenly caused
Charles rv.'s Pragmatic of 1789 to be published, thereby
re-establishing the former law of female succession.
Nobody paid much attention to it at the time— Ferdinand
had no issue, male or female, and Don Carlos had long been
recogmsed as his heir. But when Queen Christina gave
birth to a daughter the situation immediately became
intense, for, under the old law, restored by the repeal of
PhiUp's Pragmatic, that daughter was heir to the throne.
Don Carlos, backed by the whole clerical influence, brought
such pressure to bear upon King Ferdinand that he, be
lieving himself to be dying in 1832, revoked the Pragmatic
of 1789 which he had published in 1830, thereby acknow
ledging Don Carlos as heir-presumptive. But Ferdinand

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 69
did not die when he ought. He recovered, and lived long
enough to ensure the misery of his people for years to come.
It is hardly credible, but it is not the less true, that he re
versed the succession once again by re-issuing the Pragmatic
of 1789 ^^'hich made the Uttle Donna Isabella his heir-
apparent. No more powerfffi argument against autocracy
can be found in history than was furffished by this act of
Ferdinand's. Any ordinary household or place of business
subjected to such wanton caprice must be doomed to hope
less confusion and come to a speedy end. A great kingdom
so handled differs from humbler concerns offiy in this, that
there is no end to the confusion into which it is plunged — •
no end, at least, except such as can be wrought by fire and
sword. The situation in Spain was compUcated at this time by
the state of affairs in Portugal. Dom Pedro, Emperor of
Brazil, had abdicated the throne of Portugal in favour of
his daughter Donna Maria ; but as she was offiy seven years
old, he had appointed his brother Dom Miguel as Regent,
coupled with the obligation to marry the child Queen Maria,
his ffiece. Dom Miguel took up the Regency in 1828,
tore up the constitution which he had sworn to observe,
and had himself proclaimed king. Meanwhile, Dom Pedro,
dethroned by the revolution in Brazil, had arrived as a
fugitive in England, together with his daughter Queen
Maria. Encom-aged by Lord Grey's cabinet and materially
aided by the French government, he coUected a fleet and
captured Oporto from the Miguelites. That city he managed
to hold, but he had not sufficient force to reconquer Lisbon
and the rest of his daughter's dominions. Louis PhiUppe
tried hard to persuade the British govemment to join in
an expedition to drive Dom Miguel out of Portugal ; but
Palmerston did not fancy the idea of French influence being
estabUshed in the Peffinsula ; he woffid try whether King
Ferdinand could not be induced to bear a hand in securing
Donna Maria in her succession, seeing that her case might
be regarded as on aU fours with that of his own daughter
Donna IsabeUa. Sir Stratford Canning ^ was sent out to
1 Better known in later years as Lord Stratford de Redoliffe.

70 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
try and effect this, but, after four months spent in negotia
tion and intrigue at Madrid, he retumed vnthout having
obtained the sUghtest success.
More effective were the operations of Dom Pedro's fleet
under command of the British Admiral Charles Napier.
On 5th Jffiy 1833 he attacked Dom Miguel's fleet off Cape
St. Vincent and destroyed it, after which Dom Pedro's
General Terceira obtained possession of Madrid. The British
govemment then undertook to maintain the young Queen
Maria against any attempt to disturb her on the part of
King Ferdinand.
Such were the conditions prevailing when George ViUiers
was accredited to the Court of Spain ; but they were com
pletely altered by the death of King Ferdinand on 29th Sep
tember 1833, the very day after Viffiers's arrival in Madrid.
Queen Christina immediately assumed the Regency in the
name of her infant daughter IsabeUa, whom the British and
French governments did not hesitate to acknowledge as
Queen of Spain. But eight days after the death of King
Ferdinand, his brother Don Carlos, having raised his
standard at Vittoria, was proclaimed king, and the whole
Basque popffiation took up arms in his cause.
To meet this change in circumstances fresh instructions
were sent out to ViUiers. Being directed to resume the
negotiations broken off by Stratford Canmng, he found
that most of the difficffities which had thwarted that
Minister's efforts had disappeared vtdth the person of King
Ferdinand. Dom Miguel's presence in Portugal rendered
the rising of Don Carlos far too formidable for the Spaffish
Mimster, Cea Bermudez, to regard it with indifference. But
Cea Bermudez, though opposed to Don Carlos, was at
heart an Absolutist — a Moderado, as the reactionary party
was termed. The Spaffish Progresistas drove him from
office, and placed in power Martinez de la Rosa, who sum
moned together the Cortes which Ferdinand had dissolved.
Cea had looked for support to the autocratic Northern
Powers ; Martinez, on the other hand, had cffitivated
relations with France.
It may weU be asked what concern or interest the British

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 71
government had in the tortuous affairs of the Peninsula.
The House of Lords had censured Palmerston for having
sent Stratford Caiming to Madrid ; nevertheless among the
instructions given to ViUiers was one ' to second any inclina
tion on the part of Spain to take joint action -with. Great
Britain in settling the cUsorders of Portugal.' The fact is
that Palmerston, always prone to commit his coUeagues to
a Une in foreign poUcy which he aUowed them no opportumty
to consider in advance, had conceived the project of so
encouraging the Progresistas or Liberals in Spain as to
detach that country from the group of autocratic Powers,
and of forming a western confederacy of Constitutional
States consisting of Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain
and Portugal. A shadowy hope as concerned Spain so long
as Ferdinand remained on the throne ; but now that he was
off the scene and Cea Bermudez en retraite, there seemed
a better chance of effecting something. Palmerston re
sponded warrffiy to overtures from Martinez. Without
taking the cabinet into his confidence, he undertook that
Great Britain shoffid lend active support to the Constitu-
tionaUsts in Spain and Portugal and so rid the Peffinsula
of both Don Carlos and Dom Pedro. Martinez, however,
had been negotiating also vidth the French government,
and TaUeyrand, Loffis PffiUppe's Miffister at St. James's,
tffieatened to make trouble if France were excluded from
the arrangement. Then Palmerston played what he caUed
his ' great stroke,' by inviting the co-operation of France.
On 21st AprU 1834 he laid before his colleagues a draft
which took away their breath ; but, as he wrote in glee to
his brother, ' I carried it through the cabinet by a coup de
main.' Next day what became known as the Quadruple
Affiance was formed by the sigffing of a treaty binding
Great Britain, France, Spain and Portugal to maintain
Queen Christina and Queen Maria on the thrones of Spain
and Portugal respectively.
With grave matters such as these agitating the political
atmosphere, it partakes of bathos to find that among the
earUest caUs upon the attention of the British Mimster at
Madrid was the subject of the foUowing correspondence.

72 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
Mr. J. Backhouse to George Villiers.
FoEEiGN Office, 5th November 1833.—. . . The Duchess of
Kent is desirous of obtaining for the Princess Victoria the
autograph of the Queen Regent of Spain. It is wanted for a
collection of autographs, and H.R.H. has no objection to its
being known that it is for the Princess that it is desired. WiU
you be so good as to endeavour to procure it for H.R.H. ? . . .
George Villiers to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent.
Madeid, 2nd December 1833. — . . . It having been com-
mufficated to me that it was your Royal Highness's desire to
obtain for the Princess Victoria an autograph of the Queen
Regent of Spain, I lost no time in making thro' the proper
channel the necessary apphcation to Her Majesty. Her Majesty
was much flattered by your Royal Highness's request, and
considered that she could in no way comply with it in a manner
more satisfactory to herself than by avaiUng herseU of the
opportunity to offer to the Princess Victoria, in the name of her
daughter the Queen of Spain, the royal order of Maria Lffisa,
in token of that corffiahty and friendsffip wffich it is Her Majesty's
anxious hope may never cease to mark the future relations
between the Princess Victoria and the Queen of Spain. The
badge which accompaffies the order is that wffich has been
worn by the successive Queens of Spain from whom it has
descended to her present Majesty. . . .
Sir John Conroy to George Villiers.
Kensington Palace, 23rc^ December 1833. — . . . I am com
manded by the Duchess of Kent to address you in tffis manner,
with a view to your speaking to M. de Zea to arrange that the
Queen Regent of Spain's flattering mark of good feeUng may
be suspended for the present, as it would create embarrassment
to the Duchess of Kent ; for, in the Princess Victoria's deUcate
position, as well as her own, the Duchess is very anxious to
avoid anytffing that would look Uke marffing it more than is
necessary. Such compUments are not usual ; without per
mission they could not be used ; and, if refused, would be a
source of vexation to the Duchess, as calculated to offend the
Queen Regent. . . .

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 73
16th January 1834. — . . . The Duchess of Kent commands
me to acquaint you that, since I had the honor of Her Royal
Highness's desire to address you. Her Royal Highness is made
very happy to fmd that there will be no difficulty in relation
to the Queen Regent of Spain's most gracious intention of
coifferring on Her Roj'al Highness the Princess Victoria the
order of Maria Lffisa, the receipt of wffich the Duchess of Kent
now acknowledges with the most gratified feeUngs in the letter
I forward to you herevidth for the Queen Regent.
Of Viffiers's private correspondence dming the agitated
year 1834, none of ffis letters have come to light except a
few to ffis sister, Mrs. Lister.
Madeid, 8th July 1834. — . . . I have lately been working to
make Martinez de la Rosa feel that he cannot assemble 200 or
300 men without caffing into activity a certain amount of
faction. . . . He is the most ffifficffit man I have ever yet had
to deal with ; he has many estimable quaUties ; he is a just,
benevolent and honorable man, but certainly possesses vaffity
and Uttleness in ffis composition enough to spoil ten good men.
He is determined to be what Providence has denied to any one
— exceUent in aU tffings ; accorffingly as a poet, a statesman,
a dramatist, a Lovelace, a financier, an orator, an ffistorian
— he assumes for ffimseff the ffist places and can endure
no competition. Accorffingly, with that unerring sign of a
Uttle rffind, he seeks to surround ffimseff with men miserably
iffierior to ffimseff, who feed ffis vaffity. . . . Most tffings are
consequently left undone, and those that are not are, for the
most part, iU done. . . . Therefore I never appear even to
advise. ... I merely tffiow out my ideas . . . and you would
laugh, as I have done over and over again, if I told you how
often he has given me, tffiee or four weeks later, my ideas as ffis
own, adding que c'eiait une idee qui lui a passe par la tHe. . . .
So you want me to lead the ffie of a hermit, do you ? in a place
where I have no family, no friends, and wffich is as barren of
amusement as the desert of Arabia. I can't quite promise you
to do that, or entirely to break a certain tendency I have always
had to pass a portion, however smaU, of my four-and-twenty
hours in female society. There is no lack here of black eyes
and pretty feet. ... It is impossible not to observe aU these
matters ; but I do so en philosophe ; and suffice it for you,
my dear Uttle married ffiscipUnarian, to know that I have not.

74 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
and wiU not have, any kind of entanglement or bother what
ever. . . . Affieu, my dearest dear Therese. I have a lovely
mantiUa ready to send you by the ffist safe opportuffity. Por
el amor de Dios, have a wife ready for me when I return. Je
ne ferai pas le difficile now about much money, provided she
is a delectable personage.
Like all good women, Mrs. Lister could not look upon
perpetual bachelorhood as anything short of a calamity,
to be averted from one she loved as she did her brother
George. From the day he left England, thereby forfeiting
the chances of finding a mce EngUsh wife for himseff, she
had kept a watchful and discriminating eye upon aU the
young women she met. Though the project uffiolded in
the foUowing letters came to naught, they iUustrate the
charming frankness with which Mrs. Lister discussed
matrimoffial schemes with her brother, and the confidence
with which he entrusted ffis future happiness to her gffidance.
The subject of this letter was Miss Maria Kiimaird, ward
and adopted daughter of Richard Sharp, commoffiy known
as ' Conversation Sharp,' a weU-known literary and com
mercial character, the bulk of whose considerable fortune
Miss Kinnaird inherited at his death in March 1835. In
that year she married Thomas Drummond, Under-Secretary
in the Irish Office.
Kent House, 19th May 1835. — My deaeest Geoege,— It is
quite impossible that I should let tffis post go without a few
Unes from me, because out of the fuffiess of the heart the pen
will write, and my heart and mind are so brimful of your matri
moffial prospects at tffis moment . . . that I must give vent.
I do not know whether she may not have some attachment
in the corner of which we know notffing, but which may steel
her heart against all future advances ; but I do not fancy it
is so, and of that we have the means (thro' Adelaide) of know
ing. She is not only very good looking at ffist, but I tffink
she has a countenance that grows upon one as she talks. She
looks very inteffigent, has a frank, open expression and a laving
eye. She is very pleasing in manners, qffite seff-possessed
enough to be able to sustain easily a conversation with strangers,
and yet enough of modesty to bring the colour into her face and

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 75
to betray a Uttle shyness at being obUged to take her own part.
Lady M[orley] came down j^esterday when she was here, and
was so pleased with her and admired her looks so much. She
is left sole executrix to old Sharp's property and has business
without end to do. She told Adelaide that for the last year
or two Mr. Sharp had so instructed her on matters of business,
and made her read so much on law, property, etc., that she
thought she had almost quaUfied for the bar. Now this habit
of being obUged to think and act is the very thing that, ffine
times out of ten, is so utterly wanting in a woman's education,
and makes them so unfit to take the management of a house
and to be rational compaffions. If she had not a farthing in
the world I should say that, of aU the girls now going, I had
seen none more Ukely to hit your fancy and to suit you, than
Miss K. I say tffis, you know, on very sUght acquaintance
as yet ; but then I cannot help being influenced by looks and
maimer — the more so when the impression derived from these
outward and visible signs is coiffirmed by the report of those
who have known her long and intimately.
Gteneral Alava was here yesterday and we talked of your
commg home on short leave. He said that when the [illegible]
busmess was settled he thought you might perfectly ; and as to
stopping tiU that Northem Province war is over — you may
just as weU make up your mind to stay tiU your Ufe is ended
and tffi your mummy has mouldered away, supposing you to
be preserved after the best and most approved fashion of the
Egyptians. There has been war in Spain since the beginffing
of aU tffings and it wiU last when all others have passed away.
Your waiting for that wffich alone in tffis world is eternal, is
qffite absurd. Now what I should Uke is that, the instant this
[illegible] affair is settled, you should receive a mark of approba
tion and come home to receive it. You might teU Pahn. that
your own private concerns would make it very conveffient
to come over for 6 weeks, and then it might soon be managed,
if you do but take to each other, as I feel sure you would. It
reaUy tantaUses me beyond my power of description to see a
person whose mind, manners and person would suit your taste,
with a purse at her command of sufficient ffimensions to fuffil
your wishes — to feel sure that that which you have long wished
may be witffin your reach — that you may be the person in the
world she would hke, and that, for want of meeting that, she
may be snapped up by somebody else. I really sometimes long

76 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
to send her a note to beg she wiU not engage herseff tiU you
come home ! just to wait tiU she sees what a very superior
article there is in the world to any she has yet seen.
Now, my dearest, you pique yourseff on always arranging
to do whatever you please, so do rack your braffis by day and
ffight to come over and see after tffis my treasure. In the
meantime I shall cultivate her to the best of my power. ... I
really shaU be iU or go mad if we find that her heart and hand
are now quite free and that she is snapped up by some unworthy
man — for every man must be unworthy compared with our dear
George. You wiU think that tffis is one of the maffias to which
laffies in my conffition are subject, and so perhaps it is ; but
if something is not done to satisfy it, it may be very bad for
me. . . .
I can viTite no more now. We shaU have such duets, for her
voice is soprano and mine contralto, and I have just been learn
ing such a pretty duet to sing with another woman. ... If
she feels that in sweetest harmony we could dwell, it would
make her long to be in the family. — Affieu, dearest George,
Ever your most affectionate sister, M. V. Listee.

George Villiers to Mrs. Lister.
Madeid, 1th January 1834. — ... I Uke your account of
ma future, though I have a crumb of suspicion that she is rather
tffin and not very pretty ; but your account does not preclude
her from the enjoyment of an inteffigent countenance ; wffich,
if it is accompanied by a pleasing expression, is more important,
because more permanent, than beauty. But how, with a mother
unknown and therefore probably poor, can she be an heiress ?
I have always heard of old Sharpe's conversation, but never of
his wealth. ... I have such a high opiffion of your judgment
in general and your knowledge of what ought, and therefore
what would, suit me for a wife, that I should be content to marry
any woman, without seeing her, who had your unquaUfied
approval. ... In short, I give you carte blanche to arrange
it for me a la fran^aise, and I consider that the ne plus ultra
of confidence. I must add, however, that my views have,
within the last year, undergone some moffification. I now care
more about the woman and less about the money than I ffid
before. I have been a grand seigneur, mime un tres grand
seigneur, for a twelvemonth, and my increase of happiness

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 77
thereat is very smaU ; while at the same time I have been con
stantly feeUng how great it would be if I were in the possession
of a wffe such as my imagination should picture. . . .
Madeid, 1th March 1835. — ... On Tuesday, the last day
of the Camaval, there were certaiffiy not less than 35,000 people
at a masked baU in the Plaza de Toros, which was completely
fuU — the boxes and gaUeries, as weU as the arena where the
buU-fights take place. It was a pretty scene, as it always is,
to see many thousands of people together in good humor and
determined to amuse themselves ; but the picturesqueness of
such a reunion is greatly spoUed by the absence of national
costume, wffich is beginffing generaUy to disappear, and, as
usual, more so in the capital than elsewhere. Notffing can be
more graceful than the dress of a Spaffish woman — the maimer
in wffich she puts on and wears the mantiUa — the variety of
colors she manages to combine, which, be they what they may,
harmoffise with the black mantiUa — her short petticoats, wffich
show off the almost universaUy well-turned ankle and Uttle foot ;
for that is the pride of the sex here. An ugly face may be over
looked — an ugly foot never ! A Spaffish woman wiU starve
herseff, or resort to any of those means by wffich damsels prevent
themselves from starving, sooner than not have a pair of black
silk stocffings a jour and black silk shoes to walk out in on a
feast day. Tffis pride in their feet and desire to ffisplay them
make aU Spaffish women walk weU — not pit-a-pat and in a hurry
as French women do, but uprightly, slowly and with their
toes out, wffich gives them an air of great ffigffity. And the
fan, wffich is an appendage of absolute necessity, as the mantiUa
does not shade the face from the sun, gives them an oppor
tuffity of moving their boffies in an endless variety of graceful
forms. A foreigner has no idea, tiU he comes to Spain, of the
dexterity of wffich the management of the fan is capable.
Divested of aU tffis, and attempting to dress herseU a lafran-
^ise as she hopes, a Spaffish woman, uffiess possessing extra-
orffinary beauty of face, becomes the most dowdy and uffiair
of her sex : her grace seems to vanish and she looks Uke an
EngUsh country chambermaid. With the men it is just the
same. They are, in general, a tall and well-Umbed race, often
with handsome countenances. You can conceive notffing more
gaiUard, jaunty and businessUke than an Andalusian in ffis
brown jacket, embroidered aU over with a sort of blue plush
with silver tags, opeffing at the wrists with a row of filagree

78 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
buttons, wffich also plentifuUy adorn a smaU open waistcoat.
His sffirt coUar is turned down, and a red or yeUow silk hand-
kercffief tied in a sailor's knot round his neck. His breeches are
embroidered down the sides Uke ffis jacket, with long gaiters
of a Ught brown leather worked in a variety of patterns, with
shoes of the same material. His hat, fastened with a leather
strap under ffis cffin, is of black velvet, except the bottom part
wffich is beaver. Tffis, with a cigar in ffis mouth and a cloak
tffiown over ffis shoulders as a Spaffiard only knows how to do
it, makes the most complete picture of a man I know of in any
country. When one sees tffis figure upon a horse with its long
mane plaited and tail tied up with gay ribbons and a scarlet
tassel upon its forehead, with ffis gun slung across ffis shoulders
or fastened to ffis sadffie, or when you see ffim sitting at ffis door
with his guitar and singing as the natural relaxation from ffis
labors, the warrior and the troubadour cease to be a legendary
combination. . . . Isn't it, then, a pity to see such men genteel-
ising themselves, as they think, by thrusting themselves into
iU-made black coats and round hats, and even thinking that a
cloak is becoming vulgar because it is national ? . . .
8th. — The courier ffid not go yesterday, so I open tffis to say
a word of congratffiation to you — to myseff — to us all — upon
this day, my dearest Theresa. You have exclusively occupied
my thoughts the whole morffing, and I don't know when I
have passed a more agreeable time than in caffing to mind aU
that is associated with the 8th March, on wffich day, truly,
Mrs. George did the very best act of her hfe. Thinking of you
since I ffist knew you, is unmixed pleasure indeed. God
bless you !
Among ViUiers's letters from home at this time, some
of the longest came from the Hon. Emily Eden, an intimate
friend from childhood and one of the most accomplished
women in London. An immense mass of her letters remain
among the papers at the Grove, redolent of the Whig
atmosphere wherein the writer Uved and moved and almost
exclusively had her being. ^
1 She was the seventh daughter of the first Lord Auckland, and, having
been born in 1797, was three years older than George VUliers. In later
years she wrote some books which met with much popularity, among them
being two novels. The Semi-detached Howe (1859) and The Semi-attached
Couple (1860). She lived at Eden House, Kensington Gore, which became
a regular rendezvous of the Whig leaders on Sunday afternoon.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 79
Hon. Emily Eden to George Villiers.
Geebnwich Paek, 21st October 1833. — A large sheet of paper
and a vigorous determination to write your ExceUency along
letter ! I am so tired of tffinffing that — ' I reaUy will write to
Mr. Viffiers to-day.' Perhaps if I write to-ffight, the thought
wiU not recur to-morrow morning at its usual hour, and George ^
wiU not say — ' Have not you written to G. Viffiers yet ? ' Such
a stupid question if I have no good answer ready ; but wffile
we were enjoying ourselves to our heart's content traveffing
about Germany, I gave the last zest — the fiffisffing touch — to
my happmess by abstaiffing from writing to any human being ;
so when we came back I had to write to my 24 sisters and to
about 16 mffividuals who were aU rather huffy and hurt. Now
that they are aU written smooth again, I may neglect them a
httle, I opffie.
Our joumey was so successfffi — pleasanter even than I
expected, wffich is saymg a great deal. We saw more, and
hardsffipped less, and we had lovely weather and not an acci
dent — not even a loose lynch pin. . . . George thought he had
left ffis gold pencil case at Brussels, but he ffiscovered it in the
wrong pocket at Antwerp, and that was our best attempt at a
misfortune. . . . What a frightful country HoUand is. I am
proud of my skiU in ffiscovering that King Wiffiam is not so
sulky at bemg deprived of Belgium as at having been left with
HoUand.^ It is such a great slop, he does not know how to
mop it up without help. Indeed I have suggested that to our
miffisters, thinking they might begin a negociation on fresh
ground — or rather fresh water. . . . Altogether, I tffink Belgium
such a neat Uttle kingdom and Leopold a very lucky man. We
ffined with ffim : he has mounted ffis court to a pitch of f ormaUty
and magffificence that woffid deceive an unsuspicious stranger
into the idea of ffis being a legitimate monarch. We could not
have passed a duller eveffing, or sat in a more formal circle ff
he had been Leopold xiv. However, it was worth seeing and
not reaUy tiresome, as aU such things are amusing once. I sat
at ffinner between the Miffister of War (name unImown)and
Vilaine Quatorze. That fourteenth viUain cannot understand
why the Queen is so in love with the King : the fact is evident
1 Her brother. Lord Auckland.
* By the Treaty of Paris in 1814 Catholic Belgium was united to Pro
testant HoUand ; but fusion proved impossible, and in 1830 the Powers
consented to their separation and the formation of two monarchies.

80 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
to the duUest bystander. I caimot see why she should not
be. Leopold is just as good-looffing as ever, and seems to
have a very pretty maimer towards her, and she seemed to
do her part very weU in a shy, gentle way. Except at Antwerp,
where there is a Dutch party, and at Liege where there is a
French party, they say Leopold is very much Uked.
Oh Mr. Viffiers ! Bowrffig — your own dear Bowring : to
think of my not having mentioned him sooner.^ I make a point
of Uking aU George's friends, so I say nothing ; but I tffink you
wiU allow that the ffist beginffing — le premier abord — the ruffi-
ments of an acquaintance with Bowring — are hard to get over.
He began by ffinging ffimseff at fuU length upon the sofa, saying
— ' Well ! what have you been doffig in the sketcffing Une ? '
I was actuaUy awed by his audacity into giving ffim my book.
' Ah — very good — very good. WeU now, tffis is the resffit of
traveffing. I Uke a result. Always look for the result ! ' I
reaUy beUeve that I must be a fierce aristocrate by nature ; how
ever, I behaved no worse to Bowring than by contrafficting
every assrtion he made — on subjects of wffich I knew notffing.
I actuaUy argued myseff black in the face about Spaffish pro
verbs, Dutch fisheries and Belgian tariffs, knowing notffing
about the language or the fish or the trade. I do not tffink
our acquaintance was long enough for him to detect my ignor
ance, because he argued to the last just as ff I were a reasonable
creature, and, thank Heaven, after two days' wrangUng I had
the last word. He most politely saw us on board our steamboat
at Antwerp, and ffid everytffing to make us comfortable, and,
just as he left the deck, I contradicted ffim flat on a point of
geography. You know what my geography is — worse than
notffing— so that he must have been right, wffich made it the
more necessary to take the contrary opiffion. However, I must
say that, barring ffis detestable maimer (you and George must
give that up), there is a great deal to Uke in him. He is so in
teffigent and quick ; and then, with such a fund of vaffity that it
must be mortified ten times a day, he never lets the mortification
faU on ffis temper, but is always good-humoured and obUging.
. . . They say the ffist day he ffined with Leopold he tripped
Ughtly across the circle of ladies up to the Queen, and, hanging
negUgently over her chair, asked her how she Uked the thought
of ' leaving her Uttle boy ' ! . . . Joseph Hume was asked
1 Dr. John Bowring, feUow-commissioner with Villiers in negotiating the
French commercial treaty in 1831-2 ; received knighthood in 1854, d. 1872.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 81
twice to ffimier and Leopold talked to him for an hour, and he
left Brussels a coiffirmed courtier, with all ffis doubts about
that £50,000 a year entirely removed. . . . Oh, and Powlett,
by the way ! I forget aU the most interesting facts. He seems
to be making a sad fool of ffimseff. Sir R. Adair ^ asked me
who it coffid be that Lady  was traveffing with. He had
had an odd, mysterious note from ffim begging ffim not to let
it be known she was in Brussels, as there were persons in her
party who ought to wait on the King, but ffid not wish to be
known. ' And then,' said Sir R., ' I heard that tffis person
caUed ffimseff Lord Melboui'ne, and I was qffite vexed Lord M.
should sUght the kffig ffi that way, and was very much reheved
when I found Lord M. was in England. Now who could tffis
be ? was it an official person ? ' I can't guess ; can you ?
We heard the same fooUsh story at Frankfort, and they say the
newspapers are fffil of it, and that it was placarded in the streets.
. . . We go to-morrow to pass a few days with the E. Staffieys
at Putney. I went to town yesterday to see Lady Fordwich ^
on her way from Panshanger to Italy. She seemed very happy
and pleased with her new family and Fordwich looked in great
spirits. Lady de Grey talked a smaU quantity of nonsense,
and knows aU the ffi-natured tffings that have been said about
Ann's [Lady Fordwich's] marriage. She gave me an account
of her argument with Lady Jersey (who has ffistinguished her
seff in the iU-natured hne) wffich made my hair stand on end for
both parties ! She caUs Lord F. ' Ford,' but I was happy to
see that ffis dawdUng, gentlemanUke maimer awed her when
he was in the room. ... I suppose you know that we aU think
of notffing but Spain, and I hear Lord Grey says your despatches
are exceUent.
Geosvenoe St., 1th January 1834. — . . . George and I
have been for a fortffight at Bowood. The house was fffil of
people and we enjoyed ourselves amazingly. It is always
rather superior society in point of talk : there is less said about
people, and more about books, than in most country houses ;
and there were besides Barrmgtons, Nortons, Kennedys, Lord
John RusseU, etc. etc., a fioating capital of poets and traveUers
who furffished us with a Uttle iffiormation. There was a Mr.
1 Sh: Robert Adair (1763-1855), British Minister at Brussels. He
was an intimate friend of Charles James Fox, and Canning quizzed him
in the Anti-jacobin as ' Bawba-dara-adul-phoolah. '
^ Ann Florence, Baroness Lucas, married in 1833 to Lord Fordwich,
afterwards sixth Earl Cowper.
VOL. I F

82 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
Burnes who has been from Deffii tffiough the Cabul and
Bukhara to Ispahan by routes wffich no European has foUowed
before, and he gave us ffis ffistory, backed up by a map, in such
a Uvely maimer that I swaUowed a smaU quantity of instruction
without much nausea.^ . . . What a woman Mrs. Norton is !
as beautiful I tffink as it is possible to be ; ^ much more so, even,
than I thought her in London — but tiresome society, never
natural for one moment, and affecting to be so much more
wicked than there is the sUghtest caU for. Your brother Edward
ffined here yesterday — very agreeable, as he always is. We
had the Stanleys here, whom he had not met before, and he
seemed to be much amused with E. Staffiey's boyish spirits.^
Mr. Tierney,* acid and acute, and the Right Honourable, ex
tremely melancholy and gentlemanUke, wishing to be out of
office (or I imagine in a higher situation) and dweffing with
great pathos on the sacrifice he made for his country's good.
I suppose you may have heard of the action Mr. Dicas brought
against the Chancellor for false imprisonment, and tho' Dicas
was non-sffited, the ChanceUor had to pay £22 costs. It is a
subject to which he cannot bear the sUghtest aUusion. Mr.
Staffiey was composing yesterday a mock heroic speech com-
parffig the ChanceUor's submittmg to pay costs to aU that was
great in ancient or modem ffistory. . . . Poor Mr. Lamb's
death^ is melancholy in many respects, and the opeffing it affords
to Lord Howick is one of the ffistressing consequences wffich
seem to weigh heavily on the minds of most members of the
govemment. It is hardly to be beUeved that the Bear* was
sent by Lord Grey to Lord Melbourne to ask for the place the
ffight before George Lamb ffied. Nobody has seen Lord Mel
bourne since ffis brother's death, and therefore nobody knows
what arrangement has been made. Mr. Stanley said he reaUy
had not the least idea what Lord G. and Lord M. had arranged,
but everybody supposes it is settled in Lord Howick's favour,
1 Sir Alexander Burnes, who, with Sir WUliam Macuaghten, Lieutenant
Broadfoot and Burness's younger brother were massacred at Cabul in 1841.
' Daughter of Thomas Sheridan.
8 Afterwards fourteenth Earl of Derby. He was at this time Secretary
of State for the Colonies in Lord Grey's Government.
« Probably a son of George Tierney, leader of the Whig Opposition,
who died in 1830.
' Younger brother of Lord Melbourne and Under Home-Secretary,
Lord Melbourne being at the head of that department.
« Edward EUice the elder (1781-1863), the Mentor of many Whig
Ministries. He was called ' the Bear ' in allusion to his connection with
the Hudson Bay Company.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 83
unless Lord M. makes some violent struggle to avoid it, after
to-morrow, when the fimeral takes place. . . . He has such an
aversion to Lord Howick that it would not surprise me to find
he had made a stand against ffim, as it must be very ffifficult to
go on with a parUamentary Under-Secretary whom one ffisUkes.
Mr. Bamham has left Lady C. Grimston and gone down to
Kendal to succeed James Brougham, so that the British
countess may have the pleasm-e on ffis return of marrying her
daughter to a member of parliament.^ ' Catty is so in love
with ffim,' she says, ' and I am sure j'ou would not wonder if
you saw the ffiamonds.'
I wish you would let me spend about £5 a year in such idle
books as I tffink would suit you. There is a novel of Capt.
Marryat's — Peter Simple — that would amuse you very much
in the George Godfrey Une, and Hood's Comic Annual for 1834
is almost better than any of the others. I am sure you must
want some of that sort of ffiversion amazingly, after you have
done a revolution or two for your moming's work. . . . Mrs.
Fox Lane^ rides about in a Ught-blue riffing-habit something
Uke Miss Jenny Wronghead's, and always accompaffied by her
father. — ' Bless me ! ' said Lord Alvanley yesterday, ' so that 's
her father. I thought it was a man hired by the month with
the horse, and was saying to myseff how lucky she was to fmd
such a respectable-looking person.' The Edward Thynnes are
going to be separated, wffich wiU be much to her advantage,
poor tffing. He has spent every sixpence, and treats her very
iU besides. ... I fuUy expect that the decisive cavalry charge
to decide the Spaffish succession wiU be made by Don Carlos's
troops, mounted on the horses wffich the Poodle [Byng] has
sent you by the wrong road.
The next letter comes from Miss Emily's brother. Lord
Auckland, who had been appointed First Lord of the
Admiralty when Sir James Graham foUowed his chief.
Lord Grey, in resigffing office.
Geosvenoe St., 10th June 1834. — ... I am packing up
at the Board of Trade, and have harffiy yet recovered my sur-
1 Lady Catherine Grimstone, eldest daughter of James, first Earl of
Verulam. She married, on 14th January 1834, J. F. Barham of Stock-
bridge, M.P. He died in 1838, and she was married in 1839 to Lord
Clarendon. " Wife of George Lane Fox of Bramham, and daughter of E. P,
Buckley of Minestead, Hants.

84 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
prise that the course of late events should have so sent me up
the ladder. I am not quite happy with it, for I have no tum
for great elevation and am not very confident of myseff. How
ever, there I am, and, having uttered a reasonable number of
nolos, we are breaking up poor Greenwich ^ and Grosvenor Street
and preparing to settle at the Admiralty. I have a retirement
assured to me, and only wish that the crotchets of men were not
so much stronger than their reasons, and that the old firm had
gone on ; but as tffis is not the case, we have only to make the
best of our new firm ; and the longer we can keep off that col-
Usion of Houses and extreme principles, which so many are
driving at, and can continue to march on the road of rational
reform, the better it wiU be for all. I am reaUy sorry for the
loss of Stanley ^ ; the more so as the time is not very far off
when he is in danger of becoming high churchman and high
Tory. . . .
I have given Mr. Renny a letter of introduction to you and
you wiU do with ffim what you please. I do not much hke the
class of men who build up recommendation upon recommenda
tion from a variety of parties, until they get an appearance of
being of consequence, and least of all is it fair to our ministers
abroad to have such agents too much accreffited to them.
Nevertheless, this man has been weU spoken of to us, and I
have given ffim a letter, though letting ffim know my opiffion
of such missions. . . . All tffis gallopante calamo.
Many of the present generation must have been famiUar
with the appearance of the Right Hon. Charles ViUiers, who
remained father of the House of Commons in extreme old
age,^ but that bent and tottering figure retained little
resemblance to the fiery young Radical who, in 1834, fought
his way into Parliament and took his place in the advanced
guard of Free Traders. Here is a report upon his election
under his own hand :
1 He had been a Commissioner of Greenwich Hospital since 1829.
* Edward Stanley, about to become Lord Stanley through his grand
father's death, 21st October 1834, had seceded from the Government
when Lord John Russell proposed to alienate part of the revenues of the
Irish Church and devote it to secular objects.
' His last appearance in the House of Commons was when he was
sworn a member after the General Election of 1895. Sixteen times had
he been so sworn as Member for Wolverhampton. He died on 16th
January 1898 at the age of ninety-six, having been a member of parlia
ment for sixty-four years.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 85

Charles Villiers, M.P., to his brother George.
20th January 1835. — ... I leave you to judge what sort
of a Cffiistmas I passed in canvassing the freebom of Wolver
hampton — population 60,000, unknown before to any of them
myseff. However, as my ffifficulties were great, so is my victory
glorious. The respectable people rather took a fancy to me,
and I had the extreme good fortune to have opposed to me one
of the greatest ruffians and blackguards that ever existed a
[illegible] named Nicholson, and he ffid me the good turn of
charging me with everjrtffing in the world ; wffich, of course,
not being able to prove, I became a sort of victim. ... I ended
at the head of the poU. It is one of the new boroughs and,
as yet, uncorrupted. I announced to them when I first went
there that I shoffid be very happy to be returned, but that they
must be prepared for my not spenffing one 6d. more than legal
expenses,; consequently I ffid not give a glass of brandy and
water to a human beffig, would not retain any agent, or treat,
or aUow any ribbons, flags or music. My expenses have there
fore been Umited to the poffing booths, a few cars used for my
own canvassing and diffing out, my Uving and Montagu's at
the inn, and a dinner wffich I fooUsffiy gave tffiee ffights ago to
my own committee. I had hoped it woffid aU have been under
£200 ; I find everythmg wiU now be cleared for £250, and I am
the M.P. for Wolverhampton. I tffink you wiU say tffis is doing
pretty weU. The offiy drawback to it is that, now that I am in,
I don't care a damn about it and I am afraid my health wiU not
stand it. Tffis contest has been too much for me and my health
does not improve. The people here are by no means Raffical,
and I shoffid ffisplease them ff I voted through thick and tffin
against the present men. ... If any factious opposition is
offered to the govemment, I am sure the Reformers wiU put
themselves in the wrong with the country and be weaker through
out the session. There is a general feeUng, I think, that pubUc
character wiU be done for if the Tories turn Reformers ; but I
don't tffink it stands very high now, and that sort of thing is
always said. . . . Montagu ^ has been with me aU the time.
He is a d — d good speaker, and the women were so gone upon
ffim that he was qffite a host for me. . . .
'¦ His younger brother, afterwards Bishop of Durham.

86 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
The foUowing letter is from Nassau Semor,i ^^j^g economist,
describing the social revolution effected by the new Poor
Law whereof he was the principal author, for he wrote the
report of the Royal Commission upon which the Act was
framed. The forecast about the unification of the German
Empire is not without interest.
Lincoln's Inn, 1st December 1835. — . . . You hear, I have
no doubt, all EngUsh news in the best maimer. As far as I can
perceive, each party is equaUy afraid of the other. One side
fears the King, the Queen, O'Connell, Sir R. Peel, the Rafficals
and the Moderates ; the other side fears the ten-pounders, the
tail, the Scotch and the Irish. The Wffigs teU me that Lord
Melbourne is tottering, that property has been frightened, and
that some fine morffing he wiU read, as Lord Lansdowne ffid
last year, ffis ffismissal in the papers.
The Tories say that the experiment of a Tory ministry has
been tried and has failed ; that Peel is a coward ; that the Duke
is ffisgusted with ffis High Church friends, and that they have
no hopes for years to come.
On the whole, I am incUned to take the latter view of the case,
and to beUeve that a Tory ministry wiU not be practicable for
a very considerable time : certaiffiy not until the Irish Church
question has been settled, and the Tories do not seem anxious
to promote that settlement. In the meantime our domestic
revolution is going on in the most peaceful and prosperous way
possible. The Poor Law Act is covering England and Wales
with a network of smaU aristocracies, in which the guarffians
elected by ovsmers and rate-payers are succeeffing to the power
and influence of the magistrates. By this time all Kent has
been spUt into 21 poor law unions, Sussex into certain others ;
in short, the old parochial authorities have been superseded in
haff the county aheady, and will be superseded in the rest before
the end of next year. Fifteen assistant-commissioners, with
£1000 a year apiece to invigorate their exertion, are in constant
motion to effect these operations and ten more are to be added
to them. At the same time aU the old corporations are over
turned, and new ones are to be elected during the course of next
year. AU sorts of local ambitions are everywhere at work ;
never, in short, was any country more thorougffiy dug up,
' Nassau WiUiam Senior (1790-1864) was the eldest son of the vicar of
Durnford, Wilts.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 87
trenched and manured than ours wiU have been during the last
and the ensffing year. I trust that the crops wiU be in propor
tion to the tiUage. I mention aU this because you will not find
it in the papers.
I passed last autumn in the south of Germany with a member
of the Diet — Sieveking — who took advantage of a suspension of
its sittings to travel vsith us. We talked German poUtics among
the Heidelberg ffills for a fortmght. His general expectation
was that, as soon as Prussia ceased to be weU govemed, the
people woffid reqffire a constitution ; and that as soon as she
had a constitution she would swaUow up the smaller states —
aU those who have joined her commercial league, and perhaps
also Saxony, Wurtemberg and Bavaria ; in fact ffivide Germany
with Austria. In the meantime, aU that country is in great
prosperity : such a contrast with France in the roads, people,
inns and viUages. . . .
AU went weU at first with the Quadruple Alliance. The
Spaffish General Rodil, co-operating vnth the forces of
Queen Maria in Tras-os-montes, completely defeated Dom
Miguel on 16th May at Asserceira. Dom Miguel wisely
resigned his pretensions in consideration of a pension of
£1500 a year, and retired to Italy. Don Carlos also seemed
to tffink ffis cause was lost, for he applied for and obtained
a passage to England in H.M.S. Donegal. Landing at
Portsmouth on 18th June, he was received with royal
honours, for, after all, was he not brother of the late legitimate
King of Spain ?
Nothing, wrote Palmerston to his brother, ever ffid so weU
as the Quadruple Treaty ; it has ended a war wffich might
otherwise have lasted months. Miguel, when he surrendered,
had with ffim from 12,000 to 16,000 men, with 45 pieces of
artiUery and 1200 cavahy. . . . But the moral effect of the
treaty cowed them aU — general, officers and men, and that
army succumbed without ffiing a shot. Carlos is come to London
and wiU remain here.
Palmerston was reckomng without his guest. Don Carlos
had left behind him a most capable lieutenant in the person
of Zumffiacarregffi, a master of guerilla, who had every
thing in readiness for a fresh rising. Within a fortnight of

88 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
landing in England, Don Carlos gave his entertainers the
sUp ; crossed over to France, passed boldly through Paris,
where he attended a performance at a theatre, raised his
standard at Navarre on 10th Jffiy and resumed the offensive.
The war now took on a character of medieval savagery.
Queen Cffiistina 's General Mina proclaimed that any person
found out of doors after nightfaU shoffid be hanged ;
Zumffiacarregffi retaliated by shooting his prisoners. The
Quadruple AUies were caUed upon to fffiffl the terms of
Palmerston's treaty — Great Britain to furnish arms, stores
and ships to the Christinos, France undertaking to prevent
muffitions and supplies reaching the CarUsts across her
frontier, while Portugal would put in the field what troops
she coffid spare from her own necessities.
When King WilUam dismissed his Ministers in November
1834, the Duke of Weffington took over the Foreign Office
from Lord Palmerston and sent Lord EUot and Colonel Wylde
to negotiate between the hostile commanders for obser
vance of the usages of war among civiUsed nations. They
succeeded so far as in obtaiffing the signatures of Valdez,
the Christino Commander-in-Cffief, and Zumalacarregffi to
agreement pledging them to respect the Uves of prisoners,
and to cease putting people to death for poUtical reasons.
He would have been sangffine, indeed, who coffid entertain
any faith that these pledges woffid be observed. Moreover,
the agreement was denounced by the Christinos as putting
rebels and royalists on an equal footing. It was clear that
Great Britain and France, as signatories to the treaty, must
do something more than merely keep the ring for the
combatants. Queen Christina's mimster, Martinez, de
manded intervention from both Powers. The French
Government flatly decUned intervention — not without
some reason, for it was offiy twenty years since the French
armies had been driven out of Spain, and the Spanish
people had not forgotten the circumstance. Moreover,
Palmerston was back at the Foreign Office in the spring
of 1835 ; the last thing he desired was to see the French
back in Madrid, and he instructed ViUiers to inform Martinez
that he must not look for foreign intervention until all the

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 89
resources of Queen Christina's Government had been brought
into action.^ At the same time the Governments of Great
Britain and France adopted a middle course, whereof the
resffits were deplorable enough to warn one against implicit
faith in the facile formffia medio tutissimus — a course to
wffich Palmerston, of aU men, was by nature least prone.
Officers and men of both countries were to be encouraged to
enter the service of Queen Christina. Palmerston obtained
an Order in Council authorising the formation of a Spanish
Legion, consisting of British volunteers to the number of
10,000, who were to take the fleld in Spain under their
own officers. Owing to the provisions of one of Sidmouth's
Six Acts,^ this new force could not be trained in England ;
so recrffits, who were readily forthcoming, were shipped off
to the Pemnsffia on effiistment. The Legion was placed
under command of Colonel de Lacy Evans, an extreme
Radical, who had defeated the Whig Cam Hobhouse in an
election for Westminster.
Like most haff measures this proved an egregious failure,
fuUy justifying the Duke of Weffington's strong disapproval,
for he knew by bitter experience how Uttle reliance was
to be placed on the fffifflment of obligations by Spanish
authorities. Evans was a gaUant and experienced soldier,
having been employed continuously on the staff in the
Pemnsffiar, American and Waterloo campaigns from 1812
to 1815, and he did what coffid be done with the means at
his disposal. But many of his men were utterly unfit for
service ; out of 9600 in his command, 2300 never took the
field ; and although Villiers was unceasing in his endeavour
to rouse the Spaffish authorities to their duty, the Legion
suffered grievously from neglect in furnishing it with
transport and supplies. Yet Evans rendered the Christinos
great service. His men fought splendidly, with aU the
more desperate courage because they knew that the CarUsts
1 F.O., Spain 439. 22nd May 1835.
2 Commonly known as Castlereagh's ; but if any minister was more
responsible than another for these measures it was Lord Sidmouth, who,
as Home Secretary, prepared and introduced them in the House of Lords.
Castlereagh took charge of them in the Commons as leader of the
House.

90 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
massacred aU prisoners.^ Among other exploits he caused
the CarUsts to raise the siege of San Sebastian in May 1836,
losing 97 officers and 500 men out of his force of 6000. He
was badly defeated at Hernam on 16th March 1837; but,
having formed a junction with the RoyaUst army under
Espartero, he reoccupied Hernani on 14th May. Sup
ported by blue-jackets and marines under Lord John Hay,
he stormed Irun on the 17th and received the capitffia-
tion of Fuentarabia on the 18th. This brought the period
of two years, for which the Legion had been enUsted, to
a close. The troops were disbanded ; a few officers and
men chose to re-enUst in the Spaffish service ; but Evans,
having had more than enough of a wretched war, brought
away the rest of them to England, ' where they arrived in
the most miserable condition that can be conceived.' ^
This outline of the fortunes of the Legion, necessary to
an understanding of the pecuUar circumstances wherein
ViUiers found himself as Minister in the metropolis of a
country racked viath an exceedingly ferocious civil war,
has carried us far beyond a point to which we must now
return. In 1835 the views of Great Britain and France
on the Spanish question began to diverge. Palmerston's
sympathies were aU with the Progresistas or Constitu-
tionaUsts, those of Loffis PffiUppe with the Moderados or
Conservatives, which two parties were so eveffiy balanced
in the Cortes as to bring about incessant ministerial crises.
Martinez de la Rosa, though staunch in opposition to Don
Carlos, was also very unwilling to allow the growth of demo
cratic ideas, and in this he had the support of the Queen
Regent. Martinez was turned out of office in June, to be
succeeded by the Moderado Count Toreno, who in turn
had to yield to a defeat by the Progresistas. In this con
dition of affairs all parties turned to Villiers for advice.
He was consulted alike by the Queen Regent, Toreno and
' Don Carlos issued a proclamation that the convention signed with
Valdez at Lord Eliot's instance did not apply to foreigners, and that
all Englishmen taken under arms would be shot. In two years' campaign
Evans lost only forty-seven men taken prisoners. These were all shot
in cold blood, while the lives of eleven hundred CarUsts taken by the
Legion were spared, of course.
' Annual Register, 1837, p. 308.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 91
by Mendiz^bal, leader of the Progresistas. He told the
Queen Regent that he had no authority to interfere in the
name of the British Government, but when she pressed for
his advice as ' an EngUsh gentleman in whom she had
entire confidence,' he told her frankly that he thought
she must make up her mind to a Progresista ministry.^
She foUowed this advice, though with reluctance, by sending
for Mendizabal. Immediately the Moderados appealed to
France, representing that they had been the victims of an
English intrigue.
The French Cabinet was divided upon the Spanish
question. It contained two inveterate rivals — Gffizot,
who hated the Quadruple Affiance, as he hated everything
in wffich Palmerston had a chief hand, and Thiers, who
was eager for active intervention in Spain on behalf of the
constitutional party. After the defeat of the Moderados
in September and the accession of Mendizabal to power,
relations between Great Britain and France underwent a
severe chiU. Loffis PhiUppe and Guizot had come to the
conclusion that England had destroyed herself by the
Reform Act, and was no longer desirable as an ally, in
wffich belief they were confirmed by TaUeyrand, who,
returffing from London in 1834, had reported that Great
Britain was far on the road to revolution, and recom
mended Loffis Philippe to cffitivate relations with auto
cratic Austria instead. Consequently, without formaUy
withdrawing from the Quadruple Alliance, the policy of
the French Government veered strongly in favour of the
CarUsts ; aU frontier restrictions were withdrawn, and
long trains of supplies and muffitions streamed across
the Pyrenees to the CarUst quarters.
The relations between the British and French Govern
ments were further strained in 1835 by another circum
stance. The Spaffish treasury was exhausted and Spaffish
credit would not serve Mendizabal to raise a foreign loan.
Accordingly he proposed to ViUiers that if England woffid
advance £1,500,000, the exorbitant duties upon British
imports woffid be reduced to a reasonable scale. Villiers,
1 F.O., Spain 444. 15th September 1835.

92 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
of course, was not authorised to conclude any such bargain ;
nevertheless, as the case was pressing and as he had re
ceived special instructions to endeavour to get the Spaffish
Government to modify their tariff in favour of Great Britain,
he did have a convention drafted, signed by Mendizabal
and himself, and forwarded it to Palmerston, stating that
the only persons to whom the transaction was known were
Queen Christina, Mendizabal, himseff and his private
secretary, Henry Southern.^ Palmerston, while expressing
approval of ViUiers having signed the treaty without in
structions, informed him that he coffid not advise the King
to ratify it.
His Majesty's Govemment does not consider that it would
be consistent with the spirit of the affiance that two out of four
should make separately, and without previous commuffication
with others, an engagement. . . . Great Britain would expose
herseff to the charge of having severed herseff from her affies
in order to grasp at an object conducive to her own particffiar
interests.^ Nothing coffid be more honourable towards an aUy
than this treatment of the Spanish Minister's proposal ;
but imluckily, despite the precautions taken to keep the
negotiations secret, the French Foreign Miffister, the Due
de BrogUe, received information about it from two different
quarters. It is hardly possible that any other than Queen
Christina herself can have betrayed the confidence. The
French Miffister, M. de Rayneval, obtained the information
' under the seal of the most profound secrecy,' and there
can be little doubt that the Queen Regent, at heart a
Moderado, took this means of bringing the Progresista
Mendizabal into disgrace. So there was an end of l' entente
cordiale which Palmerston had plumed himself on having
established — an end, not less decisive because no formal
rupture had taken place. Just about this time M. Thiers
became President of the French Council, an event most
distasteful to ViUiers at the time, although a few months
1 F.O., Spam 445. 28th November 1835.
2 Ibid. 439. 21st Deoember 1835.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 93
later he seems to have changed his views upon Thiers's
attitude towards England and the Quadruple Treaty.

George ViUiers io his brother Edward.
6th March 1836. — . . . Thiers's^ elevation disgusts my in
most soul : rather annoys it too, as he is an enemy of mine,
fancying that I have exerted an undue influence here to the
exclusion of France, and I may perhaps find him hostile in
any tffing he may tffink the EngUsh govemment wants at my
instigation upon Spaffish affairs. That 's my only reason for
being annoyed ; otherwise I am proud of ffis ffisapprobation.
You ask me if I tffink la jeune France wiU bear the yoke of
L[offis] P[ffiUppe]. I answer — yes : not wiffingly, of course,
but they wiU be forced to do so by the National [illegible] i.e.
the middUng classes, who care for notffing but making money,
and for that they are determined to have unffisturbed tranqffiffity
without a care for the price at wffich they purchase it.
Not the least difficffit part of the task devolving upon
Viffiers as ambassador to the Spaffish Court was the negotia
tion of a treaty with regard to the slave trade, the views of
the British Government and people upon that profitable
branch of commerce being whoUy incomprehensible by
Spaffish statesmen. He accompUshed it successfffily, how
ever, and the treaty was signed on 28th June 1837. Edward
VUUers having undertaken to write an article on the subject
in the Edinburgh Beview, George gave him materials for the
same.^ Madeid, 6ih March 1836. — . . . With respect to slave trade
materials — I begged Southern ^ to put down a few facts relative
to the negotiation here, and you wiU find them in enclosure
No. 1. I next send you (No. 2) a copy of a ffispatch from me
to the Duke of Weffington stating the steps I had taken after
having received the draft of a treaty to be proposed to the
Spaffish govemment, as it wiU let you into the difficulties I had
1 Thiers had become Chief Minister in January.
" Edward ViUiers's article appeared in July 1836.
^ Henry Southern (1799-1853) sent out as ViUiers's private secretary
and afterwards became secretary to the Legation. He founded the
Retrospective Review in 1820, and in 1824 became joint editor of the
Westminster Review with John Bowring. In later life he was appointed
Minister to the Argentine Republic and afterwards to the Court of Brazil.

94 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. iv.
to contend with. No. 3 is the note I wrote to M[artinez] de la
R[osa] wffich cUnched the business and without wffich nothing
would ever have been done. The gentle insinuation that he had
broken his word of honor he could not stand, and from that
moment he began reaUy to intend maffing the treaty. No. 4
is the ffispatch to the Duke of Weffington enclosing my note
to Martinez.
I need harffiy mention that the fact of my having furffished
copies of my ffispatches must be a profound secret. I have done so
as I know no better way of letting you know exactly my position
here and how much had to depend upon personal negociation ;
for it caimot be sufficiently borne in mind that aU those Spaffiards
who are not absolutely inffifferent to the aboUtion of the slave
trade, are positively averse to it. We tffink that an appeal to
humaffity must be conclusive. The word is not understood by a
Spaffiard. Upon this you may have a Uttle episode upon the
bloody, ferocious character of the civil war, and you may unhesi
tatingly declare that from no quarter, whether CarUst or Liberal,
man, woman or child, is an expression of regret ever heard for
the blood wffich is flowing — Spaffish blood spilt by Spaffish
hands — and aU the inhuman crimes wffich are committed on
both sides. Appeal then to the humaffity of such a nation in
favour of a race wffich they look upon as mere beasts of the
field ! Talk of our ffisinterested eagerness upon the subject to
people who never do anytffing without a sorffid or a selfish
motive, who deUght in over-reacffing each other and always
expect that a foreigner is trying to over-reach them !
Then Cuba is the pride and hope and joy of Spain. It is
cherished as the only fraction left of the world wffich once owned
Spain as mistress. Cuba is the place whence revenue comes
and wffither every bankrupt Spaffiard goes in order to rob
ad libitum ; and the idea of moving tffis country to take any
step objected to by the whole Cuban commuffity (that is, bona
fide taking such a step or otherwise than with words) appeared
la mer a boire, and the great acffievement is that the real execu
tion of the treaty is now put into the hands of the British govern
ment and the British cruisers by means of the eqffipment articles.
Tffis is the part that you should develop weU, for it is the ffis-
tinction between the old and inefficient treaty, and the present
one, and the measure wffich makes success as certain as can be
expected in a contest against human ingenffity and sorffid
interests.

1832-7] MINISTER AT MADRID 95
No. 5 is perhaps scarcely worth senffing, but you may possibly
glean a ffint from it. When I read Anti-Metlernich I deter
mined upon answering it, and on the same day, having to wait
an hour in Menffizabal's office tiU he returned from the Queen,
I amused myseff by putting down a few heads for an answer
and a few facts which my memory suppUed at the moment.
With respect to papers you should refer to, you must read my
note to Zea Bermudez dated 31st December 1833, wffich is in
the class B of Slave Papers presented to ParUament for the year
1834. Tffis wiU give you a pretty complete ffistory, and as it
is probably very Uttle known, you can take from it safely aU
you may require. AU the Slave Papers annually presented to
ParUament wiU afford you iffiormation of the state of the trade
and the efforts of the British government for its suppression.
Then I shoffid refer you to the article in the Times wffich you
may remember C. GreviUe got inserted after the ratification of
the treaty, and the answer to Anti-Metternich wiU Ukewise supply
you with matter. ... I should Uke to give you a tremendous
dressffig for havmg Ustened to that seff-sufficient coxcomb
and donkey Hammond ^ about Cordoba, instead of putting
some Uttle faith in me ; just as you thought a year ago, when
the quack Dr. Bow-wow ^ swore that democracy was the only
way of combattffig CarUsm, that I was a mere Tory for caffing
ffis talk nonsense. However, my boy, you shaU have it next
time, with proofs that Cordoba committed no deUberate act of
treachery, or treachery at aU, in leaving Evans, nor was the
Legion ever the least exposed in reaUty to being cut off to a man.
The CarUsts had aU retired, and Evans was in no more danger
than I am now ; but it constantly happens that raw troops
and bad generals fancy themselves deserted and in the jaws of
death. 1 Edmund Hammond (1802-90), clerk in the Foreign Office, became
Permanent Under-Secretary of State in 1854, when Villiers formed a very
different opinion of his quality. He was created Lord Hammond in
1874. 2 John Bowring.

CHAPTER V
THE CARLISTS
' Guerra cominciata, inferno scatenato.'
Italian Proverb.
The observance of birthdays varies according to the
temperament, idiosyncrasy and habits of different famiUes.
In some households they pass almost or quite unnoticed
after childhood ; in others, they afford an occasion not to
be missed of loving commemoration. Such was the in
variable practice of the Villiers family, and George ViUiers
was never allowed to forget that he had been born on
12th January. George Villiers to Mrs. Lister.
Madeid, January 30th, 1836. — ... I wiU not let the courier
depart without one word at least of thanks for the expression
of aU the kind feeUngs to wffich that 12th inst. gave rise. They
gave me great pleasure, because one can never hear too often
that one is loved by those one loves, and the assurance of your
affection, who are so very dear to me, is always a renewal of
happiness wffich improves and increases, instead of being
weakened by age. . . .
Home letters must indeed have been a precious refresh
ment to George Villiers in these days, for the condition of
affairs in Spain had sunk to the lowest depth of horror.
Savage reprisals had been resumed on both sides and the
war had assumed the character of a gigantic vendetta. Two
examples may suffice as typical of scenes in all the provinces.
In January 1836 the RoyaUst General Mina laid siege to a
fortress near Barcelona, where a considerable Carlist force
was guarding a number of prisoners. To get rid of these,
the CarUsts flung them from the ramparts, firing at them
as they feU. Many of these prisoners being citizens of
S6

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 97
Barcelona, when the news reached that city the populace
rose, forced the citadel, dragged out upwards uf one hundred
CarUst prisoners and butchered them in the streets. Even
the sick and wounded in the hospital were not spared.
Mina was Captain-general of Catalonia and had opposed
to him Cabrera, the ablest of the Carlist leaders in the
south. Cabrera's mother, nearly seventy years of age, was
seized at Tortosa and shot by Mina's orders. Cabrera
retaliated by shooting the wives of four Royalist officers.
The dilatory action and futile strategy of the Spaffish
generals, and the frequent reverses they sustained in the
field, produced bitter dissension among the Christinos.
Mendizabal, Viffiers's one stay and hope, was driven from
office, after fighting a duel with Isturitz, leader of the
Moderados, who replaced ffim as head of the government.
This caused a general revolt of Progresistas ; the con
stitution of 1812 was proclaimed at Malaga, Saragossa,
Cadiz, and many other towns ; several regiments mutiffied,
and a large number of soldiers, many of them drunk, forced
their way into the palace of Hdefonso, demanding audience
of the Queen Regent. Queen Christina admitted a deputa
tion of twelve, who argued with her for five hours ; until
at last, yielding to their violence, she consented to accept
the constitution of 1812 ' until the nation, represented by
the Cortes, shaU have maffifested its wiU or adopted another
constitution.' Meanwhile there was civil war within civil war, royalist
regiments fighting the National Guard which joined the
revolutionaries. General Quesada acted with admirable
promptitude, disarming the National Guard at Madrid and
queffing the revolt there with his regffiar troops, but he
paid for it with his Ufe ; for when the new constitution was
proclaimed, he was dismissed from his command and
murdered by the mob at Hortaleze.
AU tffis, and much more, may be found in greater detail
in Viffiers's despatches of the period ; but official despatches
become pubUc property ; it is from the intimate correspond
ence of public men that one obtains the truest insight into
character. VOL, I G

98 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
George Villiers to Mrs. Lister.
Madeid, 6th February 1836. — ... I have often asked
myseff, without always getting a satisfactory answer, why I
Uke being here, separated from everytffing which my disposition,
as weU as habits, had rendered necessary to the enjoyment of
Ufe. I Uve in the midst of vice and intrigue : I have not, during
two years, met with an honest man, tho' the most fulsome seff-
praise and sickeffing pretensions to virtue are what one is obUged
to bolt Vidthout a wry face, every time one talks to a Spaniard.
There is no learning, no instruction, no taste, no conversation
and no objects, except to ascertain what party, be it of Princes
or Miffisters, is hkely to prevail, for the purpose of being found
on that side in good time. A country in wffich the botmty of
Heaven is perhaps more visible than in any other [is] inutiUsed
and ffisfigured by the hands of men. I might extend tffis cata
logue of evils indefimtely ; but stiU it would make no ffifference
in the satisfaction I experience in being here, or my imwiffing-
ness to accept any other ffiplomatic post so long as I could
retain tffis. ... I feel so entirely embarked in the cause, the
question, the country. I know, tho' I can't get the old women
of Dovming Street to see it as I do, that upon the issue of tffis
war much of the poUcy of Europe must tum. Every day that
the horizon in the East is darkeffing, does Spain become more
vitaUy important to us. Then I cannot beUeve that a country
with more undeveloped resources than any other in Europe is
doomed for ever to beggary and degradation. My position is
one wffich should help to bring about glorious changes, and that 's
what makes me hope. I have met with notffing but ffisappoint-
ment, it is true : the meffiocrity of those at home — their inca
pacity or unwilUngness to look a difficulty in the face or deal
greatly with a great question — the feebleness and blunders of
those here — the perfidy and apathy of their agents — the absence
of aU those quaUties wffich make a man superior to an ape —
are certaiffiy enough to have destroyed every germ of hope ;
and yet I am more eager, and heart and soffi bound up with
the undertaking, than ever. The very ffifficulties attach me
ffimer to it, and I can hardly imagine the conjuncture of cir
cumstances wffich would extinguish my behef in ultimate
success. There is another consideration, too, wffich greatly adds to my
satisfaction at being here. Spain is a school for learffing ffiplo-

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 99
macy founded upon the study of man — quite uffique. I am
convinced that I have improved more in my profession during
two years here than I should in 20 as Ambassador at Paris.
The theatre is small, but there is enacted, in aU possible variety,
every passion which can move the human mind. I have a
front place, and can not offiy watch every movement of the
actor, but I can go beffind the scenes and see the man off the
stage. . . . What practical lessons are to be learned here of
the importance of energy and decision — how thoro'ly versed
I feel in aU the evils wffich an absence of moral principle can
entail upon a nation, and the endless forms of misery wffich
proceed from misgovemment ! Loathsome stuffies, I admit ;
but to be a good surgeon, one must ffissect many boffies. . . .
I have done what I know wiU be most agreeable to you, which
is to ffiscuss myseff ; and that 's what you have to do of your
seU to me in retum. . . . You know, my dearest Therese, that
there is no way by wffich you can more effectuaUy contribute
to my happiness than by teffing me of your own. Tffis you
can never do too often or at sufficient length. If I ffid not
love Lister for ffis own sake, I shoffid do so viith my whole heart
and soffi as the source of your happiness. If you had married
a man who ever cost you a tear, I must have kiUed ffim, and
I have Uved long enough in Spain to look upon such a necessity
without flfficffing. . . .
8th March 1836. — . . . How often have I thought witffin
the last twelve months that the time was close at hand when I
might with propriety ask for leave ; and there it keeps on —
just ahead, Uke a vriU-o'-the-wisp. . . . The separation from
those one loves is the worst part of ffiplomacy. . . . Circum
stances have strangely combined to tie me down to tffis place.
The poUcy wffich our worthy rulers think they are pursuing,
because they know they ought to do so — viz. to make Spain
an integral part of a westem coffiederation of constitutional
governments in opposition to the Barbarous Powers (as Bowring
caUs them) — enables them to take a more active part in affairs
here than they have for years past had an opportuffity of doing.
Ye Gods ! what a position we might have had here, and what a
tower of strength might we have made here, had we acted with
vigor ! . . . Much as I want to see you aU, I should hesitate to
come away at tffis moment, just when we have got into the
rapids and are being carried on to the faU. England or France
might stiU tffiow us out a rope and haul us ashore easUy ; but

100 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
the ffiggers won't, and over we shaU go — the Queen's tffione
and cause. Quadruple Treaty and Western Coffiederation and
aU. 18th June 1836.— ... If tffis war was once over and I
could make a treaty of commerce (that's my grand object)
I should exceeffingly Uke to repose in some other Court. I
wish I had been at Vienna instead of Frederick Lamb in London
ever since the late Emperor's death.^ I have a great idea that
a briffiant moment has been lost there of gathering to us Austria
and detaching her from Russia. . . .
It has been mentioned above that the letters of George
Viffiers to his mother have not been preserved. More 's the
pity : for Charles GreviUe, having read some of them, noted
their exceUence. ' George ViUiers's correspondence wiU
some day or other make one of the most valuable and en-
tertaimng pubUcations that ever appeared, though I shall
not Uve to see it. He writes incomparably weU, with a
mixture of vivacity and energy pecffiiarly his ovra.' ^
However, from the autumn of 1835 onwards Gteorge wrote
pretty frequently to his brother Edward, for whom he
always showed speciaUy tender soUcitude because of his
wretched health. Edward married in August of that year
Elizabeth Charlotte, fifth daughter of the first Lord
Ravensworth. George Villiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, 14:th October 1835. — ... As my mother is always
a careful circulator of family epistles I conclude you have seen
my ffifferent MSS. from here (written usuaUy in a great hurry,
because preparing letters beforehand or except when under
high courier pressure is not in me, and I cannot attempt it),
and you wiU have got from them an idea of the turmoil in wffich
I have lately Uved. It has been an anxious, but a very exciting
state of tffings, and the position in which, from a variety of
circumstances, I found myseff placed, entailed upon me an
amount of intervention and responsibihty which were far from
1 The Hon. Frederick Lamb (1782-1853), brother of Lord Melbourne ;
ambassador at Vienna 1831-41, created Baron Beauvale in 1839, succeeded
as third Viscount Melbourne in 1848.
? Oreville Memoirs, iii. 365 (September 1836).

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 101
being ffisagreeable. ^Vhether my proceedings have given
satisfaction at the Foreign Office I have not the remotest idea,
as you, who know the practice of that Temple of Procrastination,
wiU reaffily beUeve. It is many weeks since I have received
an acknowledgment even of my despatches, or a line either pubUc
or private. I can't say that I fash myseff about it, for I neither
ask nor wish for instructions and am qffite contented to be left
a free agent. Such being the case, it is very amusing to read
the French newspapers, wffich, having no debates wherewith
to fiU their columns, have for the last three weeks been comment
ing upon the poUcy of the EngUsh government in Spain — as
if it had any, and upon my instructions, as if they were lying
before the effitors. AU agree, however, that there has been a
grand struggle between French and EngUsh ffiplomacy, and,
as I have sorti le vaingueur, the orffinary civiUties of Ufe are
not entirely suspended between Rayneval ^ and me. He ffined
with me twice last week ; we have never been upon other terms
than those of perfect corffiahty.
George Viffiers had adopted Whig principles from con
viction ; but he was as far as possible from doctrinaire
in ffis views upon the appUcation of Liberal principles.
Palmerston, though instinctively conservative, incUned
to press Liberal constitutions upon nations which were
not ready for them, in order that democratic England
should not stand soUtary among the autocracies of Europe.
Viffiers, on the spot, reaUsed how hopeless it was to per
suade the Spaffish people of the merits of seff -government.
Madeid, 13th December 1835. — . . . Thanks for Hook's
novel, wffich I aheady see is amusing.^ . . . The iUustrated
works I wiU not have at present, as I have ruined myseff in
pictures. Glorious ones I have got tho', and am become an
enthusiastic amateur — I might almost add connoisseur.
Your hvery question I answered the same day as I got it.
I give a red waistcoat with the dark claret-colored coat ; a Ught
buff (straw coloured) does not go iU with it. . . . Tffis, I beUeve,
answers aU your questions, and has nearly exhausted my time,
wffich somehow or other sUps away here worse than in any place
I ever knew. I get up late, and from 1 1 to J past 2 or 3 my whole
' French ambassador at Madrid.
' Gilbert Ourney and Jaclc Brag were both published about this time.

102 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
time is spent in seeing people. I then go out, ffine at 5, after
wards to the wretched theatre, wffich I hate, but am abonne in
a box with some people I Uke. In the eveffing I sometimes
make a visit or two or go to Rayneval' s, and about tffiee times
a week at least go to Menffizabal at | past 11. It frequently
happens to me to stay there tiU 2 in the morffing. My letter to
my mother wiU explain to you what I am about aU that time.
So you see I have merely odds and ends of time for reaffing, etc.,
after the current business and the extra business are done.
You would hardly beUeve what that amounts to, or the reams
of viritten paper wffich have issued from tffis mission during
the two years I have been here. Tffings are runffing the course
they must run in tffis country. I don't despair, but I don't
hope. I may caU mine a state of doubt. Spain may ffitimately
be a Phoeffix and rise from her ashes, but I doubt tffis burning
being the last one. Some further process wiU be necessary
before the rudiments of the science of goveming wiU be under
stood, and before society can be fixed upon that permanent
basis wffich shaU secure its improvement and weU-being. AU
that is passing here looks weU to those out of the country, per
haps to the superficial observer witffin it ; but all is hoUow and
rotten. It is the tinsel dress and forced snffies of a strolling
player wffich the spectator is now applauffing ; were he to go
beffind the curtain he would see all that is wretched, vicious
and hopeless. . . . The great mass of the people is honest;
but it is Carhst ; it hates what is caUed Liberal govemment —
Liberal institutions — Liberal men — ^because by experience it
knows that worse usage comes from that state of tffings than
from a single despot. But where you and other foreigners make
the principal mistake is in thinking the Spaffish people are
enslaved or tyranffised over. There is not in Europe a people
so free : the municipal institutions in Spam are republican ;
in no country does there exist such real equaUty. The people
govern themselves by a few ancient customs, care Uttle for laws
or royal decrees, and do pretty much what they hke. There is
no ffistinction of classes, and everytffing is open to everybody.
AU they want is to be robbed less by the Intendente and not so
much teased by the Alcalde ; that done, they woffid be per
fectly happy.
It is a mistake to suppose that the regffiar clergy is uffiversaUy
obnoxious. It is true in the large towns, but not in the country.
The monks are the resident proprietors, the country gentlemen

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 103
of Spain. They feed, employ and comfort the people ; they
are, moreover, the aristocracy of the poor. Every man, however
humble and wretched his station, may thank himseff that,
without patronage, he can put his son in a convent and that
son may rise to be Pope. Great care, therefore, should be
taken in the removal of an order wffich, tho' most obnoxious
as a whole, has great root in the country.
I have now offiy been talking of plebs : aU the rest — gente
de frac (people with coats) — are corrupt, seffish, ignorant, brut
aUy and despoticaUy tyranffical when in power, servile and
mtrigumg tffi they get there. There is no probity or patriotism
or pubhc spirit — no confidence between man and man — no
object but money — no means wffich are not justifiable to obtain
it. Knowffig tffis as I do, and as anybody may do who takes
the trouble of enquirffig, you may judge how sickeffing aU their
impudent boasts of courage and patriotism are, and how Uttle
real hope I have that the time is even near at hand when they
wffi reaUy be a tithe of what they pretend they are. ... I
have certaiffiy had a great part ffi the late events, but as I have
no wish to let my Ught sffine before men, it has aU been done
with as much discretion and occultation as possible ; but it has
become more or less known, and the moderate and Carhst parties
pour upon me the vials of their vwath ffi a most amusing manner.
Among many other Uberal and gentlemanUke interpretations of
my conduct, the other ffight it was stated and agreed to nem.
con. ffi a large company of male and female grandees that I had
been the means of revolutioffising Andalusia, and keepffig Las
Navas and ffis banffitti tffieatenmg the capital, ffi order to
avail myseff of the state of coffiusion to mtroduce EngUsh
cottons on my own account !
It woffid be very ffifficult, without writing a pampffiet, to
give you a clear idea (supposing my own to be so) of the state
of tffis country, but you may be sure that I have not understated
either the desire or the fitness of the people for Uberal institu
tions. The mass of the nation is CarUst and adfficted to an
absolute Mng. The rising generation, wffich might be caUed
Oallice Young Spain, is for improvement, for greater security
of property, and a more active development of the resources of
the country ; but they would prefer its coming from the hand
of a vigorous and enUghtened miffister than from a constitutional
form of govemment, because they know the country is not fit
for it, and wiU sooner or later shake off the yoke of the class

104 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
styled Liberals, who under that form of govemment would take
the lead in affairs. Tffis class includes aU those who figured in
the last constitutional epoch, and who are held by aU the rest
of Spain in an aversion wffich it would be almost impossible
to describe. These men, incluffing about 2000 retumed emi
grants, have made aU the late revolutionary movements, first
by means of secret societies, and at last by aid of the National
Guard wffich, owing to the miserable indecision attenffing
every act of Martinez's govemment, became at last notffing
but armed proletaires, always ready for a scramble, wiffing to
obey the Juntas or the Inquisition if they promised them
plunder, and adopting the cry of Uberty because it enabled
them to exercise the most unbridled tyranny. The govemment
of Martinez and then of Toreno during a year and a haff com
mitted notffing but errors, satisfymg no reasonable expectation
of improvement, but, above aU, taffing no efficient means for
putting down the CarUsts or an end to the civil war. Tffis
produced alarm and consequently ffiscontent (by no means the
same as a desire for Uberal institutions) ; the troops were aU
withdrawn from the provinces, and the scramblemongers took
advantage of the ffiscontent to erect themselves into juntas
in one or two places. The example was soon foUowed, and
people of no influence and deserving of no respect, aided by the
National Guard, usurped the supreme power and gave the law
to the respectable part of the commuffity. Their ffist object
was always to seize every valuable they could lay hands on,
and to stop and appropriate to themselves aU the State con
tributions ; wffile the National Guard made liberal representa
tions agamst everybody in place as being adverse to the progress
of Uberty, and upon these being turned out, the same made
representations in their own favor to fiU the vacancies.
In the province of Valencia, for instance, the National Guard
and the rabble they armed scoured the country, imposing fines
from 500 to 4000 dollars upon people under any pretext, beating
and kiffing those who ffid not pay, violating the women and
committing every kind of atrocity. Tffis produced a CarUst
reaction, and whenever the CarUsts appeared ffi any force the
patriots ran away ; but if hard pressed they went over to them ;
and in tffis maimer the CarUsts were suppUed with 700 new
EngUsh muskets during the reign of the Junta at Valencia. The
Junta of Barcelona was the one earUest estabUshed ; accord
ingly it bore frffit first by trebUng the CarUsts, and Cataloffia

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 105
is now in the greatest danger. The Junta declared that they
should have 50,000 men in the field, and they could not get
together more than 1500. At Malaga and Caffiz the patriot
regiments which were ordered to be in the field by a certain
day, remained on paper, and the Juntas of those two places in
order to make a show released 1000 galley slaves, an act I should
think unparaUeled in the ffistory of revolutions, as you may
beUeve not one of those is to be found now, except upon the
ffigffioads robbing passengers or in bands storming villages.
You cannot caU tffis a revolution or the expression of a
national desire for Uberal institutions, while every person of
property or the least inteffigence is upon ffis knees to the
govemment to protect them agamst the Caffres, as they are
caUed. Menffizabal's promises of better tffings and, above aU,
ffis determination to apply ffis energies against the CarUsts,
have created a spirit of resistance, and the Juntas have been
forced mto ffissolving themselves. . . . The more I see of tffis
country, the more certain I feel it is unfit for Uberal institutions,
and that, even ff there existed a desire for them, it would be
necessary for their eventual success not to yield to that desire
for a time, or until the nation's education had to a certain degree
been made. . . . Give trial by jury, Uberty of the press, or any
other desideranda of rational beings to such a commuffity as
tffis, and you offiy descend into a lower pit of heU. Of aU the
men I have met with or heard of during a residence of two years,
attentively observmg aU that passed around me, I have offiy
found three — Alava,^ Cordoba and Menffizabal — in whose moral
or physical courage, honor, disinterestedness, wisdom, justice
or common honesty I could place impUcit reUance. Those
tffiee men uffite aU these quaUties : the rest would, I know,
be found wanting in most of them. . . .
Madeid, 13th February 1836. — You are the best of boys, my
dear Edward, for writing to me so regularly and so interest
ingly, and I wiU not deny that Aston's account to you of my
F.O. and French reputation is very satisfactory to me, because
I feel (whether people are right or wrong in their opiffion is
another question) that it is earned off my own bat ; for nobody
^ Don Miguel Ricardo d'Alava (1771-1843) served as one of WeUington's
aides-de-camp during the war, and received his entire confidence. When
Ferdinand vn. was restored in 1814 he rewarded Alava by putting him
in prison as a liberale, but released him at Wellington's instance. He
was Spanish Ambassador at St. James's in 1834 and at the Tuileries in
1835.

106 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
can say that I have ever received an instruction or a single
crumb of support. By the holy poker ! ff my powers had been
equal to my wiU, and ff I had had the means of giving effect
to my views — views wffich have always been fairly laid before
my masters, always approved, and never acted on — you would
have seen whether I would not have governed this country;
whether tffis canffibal war, these 2^ years of lese-humaniti,
should have been permitted, and whether Spain and England
should not have been a source of strength and wealth to each
other. Mighty presumptuous this sounds ; but ff you were ffi
my place, you woffid at once see that it was nothing — neither
difficult nor reqffiring much abihty or courage. Where two
rival parties are so nearly balanced as they are here, a mere
trifie of assistance woffid tum the scale. England doing it
might make the conffitions she pleased, and they would have
been cheerfuUy acceded to, for her interests are in seeing Spain
powerful as an aUy and prosperous as a customer.
In order to govern tffis country, the civil war bemg put down,
common sense and an absence of passion are offiy reqffired, and
the tffieat of withdrawing EngUsh countenance would have given
an Enghsh Miffister the preponderance necessary for estabUsh-
ing tffings in the way they shoffid go. Diis aliter visum, and
it can't be helped ; but if aU the rest of our foreign poUcy is
managed Uke the Spaffish branch, why — ^it must be a great satis
faction to our eneraies !
If, as you say, the government do not bitch matters, their
position does indeed seem good — i.e. they are strong in the
weakness of their opponents, for, with a hostile Court and House
of Lords, their tenure ought to be frail. I have a kind of pre
sentiment that leader Johnny wiU do ffis friends a power of
miscffief tffis session. . . .
Charles ViUiers's estimate of the position of Melbourne's
govemment was not so sangffine as Edward's seems to
have been ; but Charles was an impatient Radical.

Charles ViUiers to his brother George.
11 Wilton St., Thursday [1836.] — . . . You ask me what
I expect respecting the present miffistry. Why at ffist, I shoffid
say, some d — d stupid blunder owing to their seff-sufficienoy
and ignorance of what should be known to them, but wiU sffiver

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 107
them all to atoms (wffich would only require simple ffissolution
of body, for indeed they are not giants). StiU I should not be
surprised if circumstances beyond their own control might be
the means of their contmuance in office. There is no real ffis-
position in what are caUed the Rafficals to separate from them ;
but there is a great aversion on the part of the Rafficals to be
caUed a set of time-serving, truckUng knaves for abstaiffing from
advancing any of those measures of reform for wffich they
were returned, in order to support a miffistry who, with less
UberaUty than their Tory predecessors, exclude every man from
any share in the government who represents a constituency in
advance of their cUque ffi poUtical opiffion. What woffid the '
Wffigs have done without the Dissenters ? And how could the
Dissenters be worse without the Wffigs ? The Wffigs obtained
and retamed power by reforming the House of Commons. They
are told that ff they effirancffise populous and manufacturing
ffistricts they wiU be compeUed to give those voters the protec
tion of the baUot. They say when the time comes they will
consider it. The time is arrived : there is not a large and inde
pendent boro' that cares much for any other question. They
not offiy refuse it, but say we are so hostile to it that we won't
do what the Tories ffid about the CathoUc question, and leave
it open, and no man shaU have an office who presumes to tffink
for himseff on that point. Tffis was rather ffigh ground to be
taken ffi the days of [illegible] men and by such men as Lord
North, Mr. Pitt, or even Liverpool and Castlereagh ; but surely
such capers by such performers as Sprffig Rice, J. RusseU and
Cam Hobhouse remind one mightily of the frog in .(i^sop, and it
is by continffing tffis strain of their [illegible] beffies beyond the
intention of nature that they wiU risk the fatal rupture. Should
Providence not have intended to destroy them soon, they wiU
probably be endowed with reason in time, and they wiU be
supported in the House with sufficient numbers to carry on the
govemment. I have some reason for knowing that there would
be considerable ffifficffity in forming a Tory govemment. Better
men than the last they would attempt to combine, but offiy
by the exclusion of others, who would not view that exclusion
as necessary. Displeased and ffisappointed men soon join the
ranks of opposition. Peel wiU not undertake a forlorn hope
agaffi, and I question if Weffington woffid reUsh the part of
second fiddle again. Ireland woffid not present any obstacle
to forming a Tory govemment as people say, and that wiU be

108 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
seen before the end of the session. Mulgrave has done much
to make it too hot for a successor of ffifferent views ; ^ but stiU
O'ConneU wiU not keep ffis men together. ... If there comes
a dissolution, a great many timid, haff-and-haff, glory-of-the-
British-constitution, rally-round-the-tffione people would get
retumed ; but there would also be a larger number than usual
of independent, general-happiness, things-to-be-measured-by-
their-utiUty people retumed. What would never appear again
would be the good old Whig. That cannot exist again, and its
component parts wiU take different ffirections— some to make a
Tory, some a Raffical. But what you may be very sure is that,
come what wiU, the direction tffings are taffing is onward and
not backward ; and ff a Tory govemment was to come in
to-morrow, it would greatly advance Liberal opiffion, for they
would be obUged to estabUsh landmarks upon the ground of
their predecessors, wffich no future men could get behind. . . .
George Villiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, llth July 1836. — . . . I have long been convinced
that, for real, soUd enjoyment, there is notffing tffis earth can
afford comparable to the affection which two brothers can feel
towards each other. . . .
. . . You do quite right, my dear boy, to teU me aU that is
said about Cordoba, the Legion, etc. If one does not know how
one is attacked, one caimot be aware of how to defend oneseff.
... Of this you may rest assured, that since that cursed Legion
set foot in Spain, it has never ceased to be a daily thorn in my
side, that I have been daily occupied in its behaff, and that
nothing has been done for it — not a want suppUed or a complaint
attended to — but thro' my intervention and remonstrance with
the govemment. It is perfectly true that I would not make
myseff a partisan in certain calumffious accusations, and that
I woffid not insist upon the payment of certain accounts wffich
I knew were impudent attempts at robbery ; but everytffing
that I ought to do, and that it was possible to do, I have done,
and can prove it. . . . If you could but know the flagitious job
that that Legion has been, and the number of scoundrels and
ignorami that are among its officers, you would not wonder at
the annoyance which awaits every one who has to do with it.
Cordoba may be — I dare say is — jealous of the Legion ; he
* Lord Mulgrave was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 109
would be more or less than a Spaffiard if he was not, for the
ffist principle of a Spaffiard's nature is hatred and jealousy
of foreigners ; but I declare to you I don't know any proofs of
it. The only thing approacffing to one is his not reiffiorcing
Evans sufficiently at tffis moment. When Evans went to the
coast, all he asked was to have 10,000 men. I have arranged
that he should have 11,000. I know that is not enough for
active operations ; but Cordoba and the govemment both
swear that more caimot be spared at tffis moment, because an
army has had to be formed in Aragon and Valentia where the
factions are now swarming.
However, I cannot write more upon tffis subject at present,
for whether it is from the general effects of heat, or whether I
have had a coup de soleil, I know not ; but I never was in such
a state of physical distress in my Ufe before. It seems to me
that I have a tight band of iron roimd my head : I can scarcely
drag my legs along, and it is with ffifficulty I keep myseff
awake. . . .
It was indeed a marvel that Viffiers kept his health as well
as he did ; for, if he had any faith in the adage ' Morgen-
stunde hat Gold im Munde,' he never translated it into
practice. Throughout Ufe he turned night into day, and day,
or the best part of it, into ffight, seldom leaving his dressing-
room tiU near midday, and atoffing for that by working
tiU four and flve o'clock in the morning. And while he
worked, he smoked incessantly. At Madrid he acquired
a taste for cigarettes, which at that time were almost
unknown in England. The tradition stiU Ungers in Downing
Street how, when Foreign Miffister, he used to sit down to
a batch of papers with a bundle of cigarettes beside him,
which was usuaUy flmshed before the papers. For a
simpler, more wholesome mode of Ufe he was not without
occasional longing. Thus in 1840 he wrote to Dr. Ferguson :
' I think the stuff you sent me is doing me good. If I was
a gamekeeper and could walk over a large manor every day
for the next three months, I dare say I should be perfectly
weU.' For a country Ufe, however, he had little inclina
tion, though he greatly enjoyed traveUing in fine scenery.
Perhaps, had he been closely cross-questioned, he might
have given a reply somewhat on the lines of Sir Michael le

110 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
Fleming's, who, when BosweU caUed upon him to admire
the fresh fragrance of a May morning, said — ' this may be
all very weU, but for my part I prefer the smell of a flambeau
at the playhouse.'
M. Thiers had not been long in office before Viffiers con
ceived a better opinion of his policy towards the Quadruple
Treaty than he had entertained at first. There had been
much misunderstanding. Villiers, as has been shown,
earnestly desired vigorous intervention as the sure and
offiy means of restoring order in Spain. Whether that
intervention shoffid be joint or several he did not care ;
offiy he vdshed it to be prompt and effective. Thiers sus
pected him of using his influence to exclude France from
any part in the settlement of Spaffish affairs ; but the two
men soon got to understand each other better. Metternich
offended Tffiers by refusing to recommend his Emperor
to accept the proposal of the Due d' Orleans for the hand
of an Austrian archduchess, and this caused Thiers to
press Loffis PffiUppe to interfere vigorously in Queen
Christina's cause. George Villiers to M. Thiers.
Madeid, le 22 juillet 1836. — Mon chee Monsieue Thiers, —
Je ne laisserai pas partir un second courrier sans vous remercier
du tres aimable biUet que le general Alava m'a commuffiqu6.
Je ne sais queUe lettre de moi il vous a montree, mais je sais que
je n'ai jamais ecrit ffi rien fait, depffis que je sffis en Espagne,
que je ne porterais pas volontiers k la cormaissance du gouveme-
ment frangais. Je regrette a present de n'avoir pas 6crit ffirecte-
ment a vous-meme ; I'idee m'en est venue, mais d'abord je ne
voulais pas empieter sur votre temps occup6 d'une maffiere bien
plus importante ; et j'6tais, je I'avoue, un peu pique que vous
ayez pu me croire un si mauvais anglais que de vouloir agir
dans un sens contraire k I'affiance fran9aise, laqueUe depffis
la revolution de jffiUet a 6t6 pour moi un culte comme la plus
heureuse combinaison de pouvoir et d'interets que I'ffistoire
ancienne ou modeme ait jamais presentee pour le bien du genre
humain. Si j'ai eu un regret c'est qu'on n'ait pas tire tout le parti
d'un pareil 6tat de choses dont il etoit capable au moins en

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 111
ce qffi regarde I'Espagne, oil pour la premiere fois la France et
I'Angleterre se sent rencontr^es sur leur ancien champ de bataiUe,
sans rivaUtd, ayant un int^ret commun, et cet int6r6t en tout
coffiorme k celffi de I'Espagne ; ayant aussi, qu'il me soit permis
d'ajouter (car de causes apparemment triviales proviennent
quelquefois des consequences importantes), leurs representans
uffis autant par I'identit^ de leurs opiffions comme par les Uens
de confiance et d'amitie reciproques. II est impossible done de
douter que I'aveffir de I'Espagne 6tait entre les mains de ses
affies ; mais comment s'est-on ser\a de cet important pouvoir ?
Presque trois ans se sont ecoules depffis que la France et I'Angle
terre par leur reconnaissance de la reffie ont ffispose de la question
du droit au trone, et il y a plus de deux ans qu'eUes se sont
engagees a des mesures dont le but etait de chasser le pr^tendant
et d'6tabUr la tranqffiffite en Espagne. Depffis ce temps la
guerre s'est progressivement etendue, et le trone de la reine
est plus chancelant qu'en 1834. Les moyens, done, n'ont pas
ete coffiormes au but, et non seffiement tout le parti possible
n'a pas 6te tire de I'affiance quant a ce pays, mais I'affiance
meme en souffre, car eUe n'a pas le pouvoir reel que Iffi donneroit
la force morale de I'idee que ce que la Prance et I'Angleterre
veffient est une necessite absolue, et tous ceux qffi craignent
cette affiance et qffi desirent I'interrompre ont le droit de
la regarder comme peu stable devant des ancieimes rivaUtes
ou une colUsion supposee d'interets.
Je n'ai pas la presomption de vouloir revoquer en doute la
sagesse du gouvt. fran9ois en refusant I'intervention quand
I'Espagne, il y a un an, la demandait a genoux. II suffit qu'on
Fait refusee pour prouver qu'en I'accordant il y auroit eu de
graves inconveffiens ; mais je la desirois ardemment, parce que
d'abord on y auroit vu une preuve de la parfaite confiance qui
existe en Angleterre vis-a-vis de la France, et 2° parce que j'etois
aussi certaffi qu'on pent I'etre d'un evenement non avance
qu'eUe auroit effectivement et d'un coup rempU le but d6sir6 ;
car I'Espagne d'aujourd'hffi n'est pas I'Espagne de 1808 ou de
1823, et la France aurait pu interveffir, il y a un an quand eUe
fut sofficitee par I'Espagne, ou il y a quatre mois quand eUe fut
ffivitte par I'Angleterre, avec le plus complet succes et k peu de
frais. La co-operation avec les parties au traite quadruple sauvait
I'honneur national de I'Espagne. Les CarUstes desiraient voir
I'entree des troupes etrangeres auxqueUes ils pourraient mettre

112 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
bas les armes sans bassesse (ce qu'ils ne pourront ffi ne voudront
jamais faire k leurs compatriotes), et le gouvemement de la reine
aurait eu la force necessaire pour reprimer le parti revolution-
naire — meprisable en fait de nombres et sans echo dans le pays,
mais que les circonstances d'une guerre civile ne manquent pas
d'augmenter et de rendre formidable. Et pffis, comme le
chemin a ete facile et ouvert pour veffir k I'appui de la reine !
EUe a d'abord en sa favour tous les avantages que donnent la
possession, et eUe est appuyee par une partie de I'EgUse, par la
totaUte de la Noblesse, des propri^taires, du commerce, tout ce
qui est 61eve, eclaire, et riche — par toutes classes enfin qm,
quoique desirant secouer le joug sous lequel eUes ont si long-
tems gemi, sont par leurs interets et leurs opiffions les plus
opposees a I'anarcffie.
Du cote de D. Carlos se trouvent ranges les moines et le
rebut de I'EgUse, les employes sous le regime absolutiste, et
tous ceux qui, desirant vivre par les abus, sont eimemis jures
de toute reforme a ceux-ci, la partie la plus brutale de la societe.
La meiUeure ne veut et ne doit pas succomber et c'est ainsi que
la cause de D. Carlos est veritablement ceUe de la revolution — .
Chaque pas en avant que fait cette cause, plus la guerre civile
s'etend et plus la revolution fait de progres.
Le gouvt. de la Reine est un systeme de juste miUeu, luttant
non pas pour 1' existence, mais pour obteffir la force necessaire,
et le grand desiderandum est qu'il puisse utiUser cette vaste
force d'inertie qffi existe dans ce pays, et qu'il serait alors
facile de reveiUer (car c'est surtout en Espagne qu'on aime a
veffir a I'appffi du plus fort) et ainsi de teffir la balance entre
les deux partis qui se ffisputent a present la victoire. Dans ce
combat la cause de la reine pourra faire naffirage, mais ffi I'un
ffi I'autre des combattans ne remportera la victoire. TeUement
je sffis convaincu, enfin, que la cause de Don Carlos est ceUe de
la revolution, que je ne demanderai pas mieux que de prouver
devant le tribunal des Puissances du nord que, pour etre conse-
quentes avec leurs propres principes, ces Puissances devraient
appuyer la reine. Son trone une fois fermement consoUd6, on
pourrait laisser le systeme du gouvemement en toute securitd
a ses adherens — Ils sont Espagnols I et il y auroit plus k craindre
une trop forte dose de despotisme que de hberte.
Pour amener un pareil etat de choses les plus beaux momens
sont d6jk passes et il est tard, mais pas encore trop tard. La
cause originale de la guerre a ete completement perdue de vue ;

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 113
c'est k present une de partis et d' opiffions — les uns ffi les autres
ne cederont jamais, et k moins qu'un troisieme parti n'inter-
vienne la lutte sera etemeUe.
Une pareiUe intervention en faveur de la Reine serait re9ue
avec reconnaissance par la totaUt6 de ses adherens, et les Carhstes
ne la regarderoient pas de si mauvais ceil, car ils y verroient la
protection pour eux-memes, et le pays entier — soit Cristino, soit
Carhste, soit apatffique (cette classe si nombreuse) — est degoiite,
epffis6, et ne desirant que le repos b^ffira la main qui la
garantira. . . .
Au moment actuel, si Tarm^e fran9aise qffi est a present
au dela des Pyrenees marchait pendant trois ou quatre jours
vers le miffi, je ne vols aucune raison de douter que latempete
qffi agite mamtenant ce maffieureux pays, se calmerait comme
par enchantement.
Si vous me Usez jusqu'ici, je crains que vous vous serez dej^
repenti de votre mvitation que je vous ecrive, et je sens queje
vous sois egalement excuse pour la longueur de cette lettre comme
pour la francffise avec laqueUe je me sffis exprime; mais en
traitant de I'Espagne il est ffifficile d'ecrire peu, et en vous
cachant mes veritables opiffions j'aurais manque aux sentimens
bienveiUans que vous m'avez temoignes. . . . Le 25 Juillet.
Cette lettre fut ecrite il y a trois jours quand je croyais que
le courrier de I'ambassade aUait partir. Depffis ce temps les
evenements desastreux se sont sffivis rapidement, et je sffis
plus que jamais convaincu de la necessite d'une influence
etrangere, s'il est a desirer que I'anarcffie ne s'etabUsse pas per-
manentement dans la Peninsule.
Les evenements desastreux referred to in ViUiers's postscript
were the mutiny of the royal troops at La Granja, where
they forced the Queen Regent to accept Calatrava the
Progresista as minister, and to subscribe to the Constitu
tion of 1812. Then foUowed sanguinary riots in Madrid,
where the Captain-General Quesada was murdered, as
described by Viffiers to his brother Edward.
George ViUiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, 31st August 1836. — My deae Edwaed, — I have
been wanting and going to write to you for some time past,
but I tffink a reference to my family letters will shew the cause
VOL. I H

114 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
of my silence. These hasty scrawls have given but an imperfect
idea either of events in general or of my own position during
the fortffight of crisis. The former have been the most paiffiul
and important that have occurred since my arrival in tffis
country : the latter has been perhaps the most ffisagreeable
of my ffie. The few days of imprisonment at La Granja (San
Hdefonso) were enough to slay an angel with mere impotent
rage. To see the Queen gardee a vue, insulted in every manner,
ffictated to in her most important functions of govemment
by 1000 common solffiers ffist excited by money and wine and
then, frightened at their own acts, impeUed to every caprice
wffich a sense of their own temporary power and that of seff-
preservation could ffictate, was altogether the most revolting
spectacle I ever assisted at. Its paiffiuffiess was increased by
the doubt which attended the Queen's fate, and indeed the fate
of us aU, for the soldiers were ready for anything. The non
commissioned officers who made the revolt lost their prestige
with the men four-and-twenty hours afterwards, and the con
sequence was that responsibihty rested nowhere, and the group
of soldiers wffich happened to be the most numerous decided
upon what they shoffid do, which was orffinarily in ffirect oppo
sition to what had been settled haff an hour before. Notffing
woffid persuade these feUows that they were not being deceived,
and they were ripe for aU the wanton acts wffich fear, ferocity
and indecision could generate. If the Queen on the ffist mght
of the mutiny had not sworn to the Constitution, she and her
cffildren woffid have been massacred beyond a doubt. If the
garrison and govemment at Madrid had either held out and
refused to proclaim the Constitution, or had sent a force down
to attack the mutineers, the Queen and the Court and every
person of note, incluffing of course the Dips, were aU to have
been carried off, when the plan would have been to have marched
in the ffirection of a large CarUst force wffich was then not more
than 90 leagues ffistant, and the mutineers would then have
passed over tb the CarUsts, making themselves welcome with
a free gift of the Queen, the Diplomatic Corps and the whole
of their officers, without any human power being able to prevent
it. I think you wiU aUow that would have been as pretty a
kettle of fish as ever was prepared for the curious in revolutions
and civil wars.
In Spain there is always a great jealousy of foreigners, but at
the same time a sort of instinctive respect for the representatives

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 115
of foreign Powers ; but our friends of San Hdefonso were affi-
mated by no such feeUng ; they stopped my courier and insulted
Wiffiam Harvey and Southern whom I sent to remonstrate,
and on the foUowing daj' only retumed me a portion of my
letters -svith the covers torn off, having cut open my bag and
dealt the same with the correspondence of the French embassy.
They opened and read in the pubhc place aU the letters wffich
came by post, some of wffich committed the people to whom
they were addressed, who were immeffiately searched for in
order to be shot. One of them took refuge in my house, and
the solffiers were looking for ffim aU day, swearing they would
bum the house where he was found. Then the illness of poor
Rayneval, for whom I had a great regard, added horribly to the
paiffiuffiess of what was going on. From the day he was taken
iU I had no hope for ffim : if there was any, it depended upon
ffis being kept qffiet, sleepmg and perspiring witffin the ffist
four-and-twenty hours. On that ffight the whole affair took
place opposite ffis windows, and during seven hours a more
iffiemal scene of ffisorder never was beheld. During much
of it the solffiers were ffiing their muskets, ffist, to frighten the
Queen into compUance, and then by way of rejoicing that they
had attained their object. Two baUs entered Rayneval's room,
and instead of the qffiet wffich might have saved ffim, he became
deffiious from tffinking that the whole was ffirected against
ffimseff. He was afterwards haunted by the idea that the
Queen woffid immeffiately retum to Madrid, and that he should
then be left beffind in that lone mountain residence exposed
to be taken by the CarUsts (a most weU-grounded fear), and
during tffiee days we were unable to send a letter to ffis wife
at Madrid, who was ignorant of his dangerous state until she
learnt of ffis death.
Then, when we retumed here, matters seemed but Uttle
mended. The solffiers of San Hdefonso ^ had indulged too much
in the deUghts of inffiscipUne to tffink of abandoffing them so
soon, and everytffing which a spirit of lawless riot could do,
they ffid. It was not to be expected that the rest of the garri
son shoffid remain uncontaminated spectators of the money,
iffieness and debauchery wffich mutiny procured for their com
rades, and the whole of the troops were graduaUy sUdmg into
the same state, and we knew that the barrios bajos, wffich for
ferocity and love of plunder need not fear competition with
1 The slum quarter of the town.

116 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
any canaiUe in Europe, were offiy waiting tiU the coffiusion
got a Uttle worse coffiounded to faU upon the town and sack it.
From tffis agrdment we have been saved solely by the courage
and tact of the Captain-General,^ who has managed to make
the whole of the worst battaUons march against the CarUsts ;
and out of evil has come some good, for the National Guards,
hitherto the symbols of ffisorder, have been so thorougffiy
frightened at seeing real ffisorder face to face and knocking at
their doors that they have become the most sober and reasonable
of men, and I am convinced that, for a time at least, there is
no force to wffich the tranqffiffity of the capital could be so
safely intrusted as to them.
I assisted uffintentionaUy at the battle between two regi
ments the day after I retumed here. I had caUed at the French
Embassy, which is close to the barracks, and was just going
away when I was advised to stay, as there was a great row
about to begin. I said that I woffid pass through the garden
which leads in the ffirection of my house ; but when I got into
it such a tremendous ffie of musketry began on aU sides that
I retreated into the house, from which during tffiee hours there
was no possibiUty of stirring. The populace fetched some
artiUery and fairly battered in the barrack, the guns being
planted hteraUy at the door of the Embassy. The greatest
danger, however, was that the solffiers insisted upon being let
into the house, because it commanded the barrack. If they
had obtained that, the populace would have come in too, and
the property, if not the hves of the inmates, would have fared
but iU. The greatest mortaUty was within the barrack, the
besieged having quarreUed among themselves, and set to fight
ing as if to offer a picture in miffiature of what is going on tffio' -
out the country among the Queen's party, which, neglecting
the common enemy, thinks only of cutting each other's tffioats.
As for the party or for the general poUtics of tffis miserable
bear-garden, I have not time to-day for writing about them.
You know what my opiffion has been almost from the first
about Spaffish Liberals, and I think you will admit that I have
not been very far out in my estimate of their ignorance, their
passions and their incapacity for anything but miscffief. . . .
[Gcetera desunt.]
The mutiny at La Granja and the accession of Calatrava
1 Quesada, shortly afterwards murdered at Horteleza.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 117
to office were more than the Bourbon stomach of Louis
PhiUppe could stand. He would not raise a finger to
assist what he caUed the Jacobins of Madrid against the
CarUsts, and he laid his veto upon Thiers's preparations for
armed intervention. Thiers thereupon resigned, and was
succeeded by Count M0I6, which practically meant the
secession of France from the Quadruple Treaty.
M. Thiers to George Villiers.
Paeis, 7 septembre 1836. — Mon chee Monsieue Villiees,
— Je reponds bien tard, et quand je n'ai plus rien qffi vaiUe k
vous dire, a 1' aimable lettre que vous m'avez 6crite il y a un mois.
Vous savez que j'ai donne ma d6nussion, et que j'ai ete remplac6
par M. Mole. Je I'ai doim6e pour avoir persist6 dans les opiffions
coffiormes aux votres sur les affaires d'Espagne. Je deplore
I'erreur de notre gouvemement sur ces affaires, aujourd'hui les
plus graves du monde. Je sffis convamcu que, I'armee demiere,
en portant un coup au CarUsme on aurait empeche I'anarcffie
de [illegible]. Je sffis certaffi que cette annee meme on le pouvait
encore. Maintenant, la meme situation va se reproduire, et
peut-etre la meme faute. Les chefs du derffier mouvement
sont — quelques-uns du moms — gens d'assez d' esprit pour savoir
que I'ordre est la premiere condition de salut pour un gouveme
ment, surtout pour un gouvemement revolutionnaire. lis
savent aussi que leur constitution de 1812 est impraticable ;
teUe, du moins, qu'eUe est sortie du tems ou eUe fut cre6e. lis
savent que la reine Christine est la princesse reconnue par la
quadruple affiance, et c'est mettre le traite en peril que d'en
choisir une autre. lis savent tout cela ; ils veulent se coridffire
en consequence ; mais pour prevaloir sur les hommes violens
et effirenes il leur faut de la force morale des succes centre le
CarUsme. C'est la situation de M. Toreno, [illegible], etc.,
descendue plus bas. Je crains la meme marche et des conse
quences progressivement plus aff reuses. Dieu veuille en
preserver I'Espagne, la France, I'Angleterre — 1' Occident en
un mot — qui est notre portion d'uffivers, ceUe oii nous devons
chercher a faire prevaloir une pohtique uniforme, k la fois Uberale
et moderee ! Je fais pour cela des voeux ardens ; je n'eleverai
la voix que pour cet objet, qffi est le plus important de tous a
mes yeux ; car du reste je ne suis pas homme a me jeter une
sotte opposition. Si I'ambition avait prevalu dans mon coeur.

118 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
j'aurais garde mon poste et sacrifi6 ma conviction a mes interets.
Je ne I'ai pas fait pendant que j'etais au pouvoir-— je ne le ferai
pas apr^s. Je ne parlerai centre le gouvemement que sur la
question d'Espagne ; je fais des vceux sinceres pour ce maffieu
reux pays. Dites a tous les hommes qui peu vent influer sur
ses destinees que ce qu'ils ont de mieux a faire c'est de s'arreter
— c'est de s'epargner de nouveaux exces — c'est de ne pas donner
a I'Europe de ffideux exemples, et que [illegible] de I'homme qui
a le plus fait et le plus voulu faire pour I'Espagne. Affieu :
mille amities, — A. Thiees.
It was now clear that no assistance could be expected
from France in suppressing the CarUst rebeUion. In vain
did Viffiers assure Lord Palmerston that the British govern
ment could put an end to carnage and anarchy by landing
a sufficient force in the Peffinsula. The Carlist chiefs woffid
not dare to stand before British bayonets, but woffid lay
down their arms at once. Such was ViUiers's firm belief,
and he was in a better position than any one else to form
an opiffion ; but his advice was not followed. The British
govemment continued the policy of half measures. Lord
John Hay's squadron still hovered off the coast, landing
bluejackets and marines whenever there was an opportuffity
of supporting the Christinos troops. More Palmerston woffid
not do without the co-operation of France, and that was
now not to be had.
Great and perplexing were the difficffities ViUiers had to
encounter at the hands of the Spaffish miffisters. The
people were sick of the war ; very few of the lower or
middle classes cared one peseta whether Queen Isabella or
Don Carlos should wear the crown of Spain. They feared
the CarUsts more than the Christinos because of the frightfffi
severity with which the CarUsts punished those who re
sisted them. Moreover, the incapacity and ill success of
the royalist generals were patent to all men, and took the
usual effect upon those who preferred to be on the winffing
side. Villiers trusted Mendizabal as the one capable man
in public affairs ; but he had to bring strong pressure to
bear, even upon Mendizabal, before any improvement
could be achieved in the Queen's cause.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 119
George Villiers to Sr. Mendizdbal (draft for translation).
Madeid, 28th October 1836. — My deae MendizAbal, — If, as
it is said, Gomez has entered Estremadura, defeating all the
plans of Roffil and eluffing the pursuit of Alain (into the nature
of either of wffich it is unnecessary to enter) it is clear that the
govemment must take some immeffiate steps to rescue itseff
from ffisgrace and the country from imminent danger ; for it
wiU no longer serve to say that the present miffistry has done
aU it can, that it has appointed generals who enjoyed reputa
tion and sent an ample force against the rebels, and that ac
corffingly there is nothing more to be done. A month ago
the pubhc was content to wait the resffits of the measures
adopted ; but these measures have aU failed, and if Miffisters
say there is notffing more to be done, the pubUc wiU justly
reply — ' then let others take their places and see ff they can
devise other measures.' If pubUc opiffion were not to be so
pronounced, and ff the Cortes ffid not proceed to act upon it,
the future of the country, wffich depends upon the war, must
become dangerously compromised, so long as generals who have
demonstrated their ovra. unfitness are continued in their com
mands. It is to avoid either of these alternatives that I am
anxious to see the govemment take the iffitiative in vigorous
measures, uffiess they intend to abrogate their power or aUow
it to be snatched from them and placed in irresponsible hands.
They have already aUowed themselves to be frightened from
their duty of proposing to the Cortes the reform of the con
stitution, for doffig wffich they might be supposed to possess
superior Isnowledge and more data than any chance member
of Cortes ; and a committee of the Cortes for conducting the
war has now been formed, wffich wiU probably usurp the
powers of govemment, and perhaps ere long convert itseff
into a Committee of PubUc Safety. The govemment wiU be
deeply responsible to the country and to the affies of Spain for
thus inffirectly aiffing the progress of revolution. The people
wish notffing but repose, and they would desire to see the
govemment take measures for securing it ; but, rather than
not have those measures, they would prefer that some other
body usurped the power that legitimately belongs to the govem
ment ; and thus the Cortes wiU have the support of the country
in arbitrary and illegal acts or in setting aside the executive
power.

120 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
In order to avoid tffis ffisastrous state of things, I would
suggest to you whether an immeffiate change might not be
made in the Miffistry of War and in many of the miUtary com
manders. If it is true that FUnter made a gallant defence at
Alameda with a few men against the whole rebel force, let ffim
take the command of Roffil's ffivision. Let Espinosa be ffis-
placed, and Miravel, who is brave and active and now in Anda
lusia, be appointed Captam- General ad interim. Let Parffinas,
who has twice saved Oviedo, be ordered with Peon's ffivision
to pursue [illegible], and let aU these men know that their
promotion and reward, or their ffisgrace, depends upon their
immeffiate success or failure. Let it be known that generals
and colonels are henceforth to be made in the field of battle,
and not looked for in the [illegible], and I beUeve such a new
spirit woffid be iffiused into the army that successfffi results
might reasonably be looked for. You and I have often agreed
that, in the presence of mihtary triumphs, money wiU soon
come in and poUtical excitement soon ffie away. To carry
tffis into effect you must be sure of a Miffister of War who wiU
enter into these views ; and if [illegible] or some general known
for ffis love of justice and ffisciphne could be found, I beUeve
such a system might succeed.
It is absurd to say there is notffing more to be done. Tffis
is not the language of statesmen or patriots, but of men who
are without resources or who are out of temper at the failure
of a ffist attempt. There is a great deal to be done ; and if the
present Miffistry do not attempt it, others wiU. I repeat, that
it is to save the govemment from disgrace, and the country
from new dangers, that no time should be lost in giving proofs
of the vigor in which the pubhc begin to consider the govem
ment is altogether deficient.
I have no objection to your commufficating tffis letter to Sr.
Cuadra, for he, Uke yourseff, vidU do justice to the motives by
which I am actuated in vmting it ; but, as I have mentioned
persons, I shaU be obUged if you wiU either destroy the letter
or return it to me.
Colonel George FUnter who is referred to in this letter
was an Irish soldier of fortune, serving since 1833 in Queen
IsabeUa 's army. He was captured by the CarUsts in 1836,
was spared the usual doom of prisoners by shot or gaUows,
offiy to suffer frightfffi hardships in prison, whence he

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 121
managed to make a daring escape. He was placed in
command of Toledo and performed briUiant service until
the collapse of the CarUst cause ; which notwithstanding,
he was so harshly treated by the Spanish government that
he committed sfficide in 1838.

Colonel George FUnter to George Villiers.
In the Mountains of Inyillo, 30th October 1836. — Dear
Sm, — I have lost everytffing but my honor. Commanded by
Roffil to defend the open town of Almaden [sic] agamst the force
of Gomez, notwithstandmg that I represented to ffim that it
was indefensible with 1000 urbanos, I defended it with despera
tion until the houses were aU burnt, my ammunition expended
and my points taken. But even then I refused to capitffiate,
but the officers deUvered me up, fearffig being put to death.
I am a prisoner, suffering aU the ignominy that you can imagine
— robbed, naked, insulted, dragged from place to place, beat
by the solffiers, tffieatened every moment vrith death, wffich
wiU be the case, for I am not able to walk, for even water is
deffied me. My greatest crime is the defence I made, and,
above aU, beffig an EngUshman. For God's sake, use your
powerfffi influence to have me either changed or to have me
sent to Madrid on my parole, not to serve until I am changed.
Otherwise I am lost, for aU the vengeance is ffirected against
me. As an EngUshman, I beg in the name of God that you
try and take me out of tffis horrid situation — worse than death
a thousand times. I am afraid that tffis viiU not reach you, or
I would give you an idea of my dreadfffi situation. May God
bless you and give you health to rescue from death and degrada
tion your most humble servant, Geoege D. Flintee. — My
heart is ready to break. The brave, who are respected by the
brave, are here treated in a manner I can't describe.
George ViUiers had his equaffimity disturbed about this
time by the Radical views of his brother Charles. As a
sound constitutional Whig, he feared the Radicals worse
than he disliked the Tories, so he wrote to his uncle Lord
Morley, as good an aristocratic Whig as himseff, to inquire
whether the state of England was reaUy as threateffing as
Charles had described it. He received a very reassuring
reply.

122 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
Lord Morley to his nephew George ViUiers.
Kent House, 24:th July 1836.— My deaeest Geoege,— As you
pass for being a young man who looks a httle beyond his nose,
and to whom the future state of his country and his own position
in it are matters of due contemplation, I cannot refrain from
taffing up my pen (an old family expression) to remove some of
the iUusions under wffich you appear to be labouring upon
three topicks ; and I undertake tffis task with the greater
pleasure as I hope that my commuffication may in some degree
reUeve your mind from the weight of some of those poUtical
alarms by wffich it now appears to be agitated. It is not for
me to presume who are the inffividuals from whom you receive
the mass of your iffiormation respecting things here ; but
from your letters I should consider that they came under that
description of pohticians usuaUy known by the designation of
ultra-radical, who tffink to give currency to their opiffions by
indffiging in the most siffister anticipations.
Know, then, from your uncle that there is not the sUghtest
ground for apprehension. The country is in an unexampled
state of prosperity, and, what is equaUy important, of tran
qffiffity and contentment. The talk about the reform of the
House of Lords is aU notffing at aU. The House of Lords is
supported by the great mass of the property and inteffigence of
the country, and was never in greater strength than at present.
There is not the sUghtest ground for maffing any cry against
it, except for two acts — one in 1834 for rejecting the Irish Tithes
BiU when it had no appropriation clause, and again tffis session
for not passing the Irish Mufficipal BiU, which, however, I
expect they wiU pass next year ; but it might be recoUected
that tffis was the ffist session in wffich it had come before them,
and that the minority against the biU in the House of Commons
was between 200 and 300. Be however aU tffis as it may, the
fact is that there is no ffisturbance, no agitation whatever, no
hostiUty in the rival parties in either House of Parhament, no
hostiUty in private society. The whole virulence wffich is felt
is exffibited by the newspaper writers. The Times, the Morning
Herald, the Morning Post brawl on one side, and the Chronicle,
Spectator and Examiner on the other, but without producing
the sUghtest effect. AU the wearisome and persevering exertion
of the Times, etc., to get up an anti-CathoUck and reUgious
feeUng in the country has utterly and signaUy failed ; indeed

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 123
(whether from its violence or othervrise I pretend not to de
termine) there is nothing better ascertained than the entire
impotence of the Press at this time in England. Tffis was
irresistibly shown on the Poor Law Bill, when an extraorffinary
combination of hostiUty on the part of every journal (with two
exceptions — Chronicle and Observer), both metropolitan and
provincial, proved perfectly and completely inoperative. Under
these circumstances, I can't do otherwise than expect you to
cahn your rffind, and not to suffer it by exaggerated and pre-
jufficed representations to be diverted from those great and
ffifficffit affairs, with which, almost unaided, you are charged
let bas. Cum tot sustineas et tanta negotia solus, you ought not
to be plagued by wily writers, and especiaUy those whose
enthusiasm may be heightened by recent conversion. GranviUe ^
is here and very weU. We talk much about you — I need
not say what is ffis language of panegyric. . . . — Yours most
affectionately, M.
George, having viTitten friendly remonstrance to Charles
about the Une he was taking, received a voluminous reply,
setting forth the Radical creed of the day.
llth November 1836. — My deae Geoege, — I found your
letter on my retum on the 5th and have to thank you for afford
ing me so much of that time wffich has been lately, and I trust
stiff continues to be, so much devoted to the exceUent cause
that you are espousing. You are indeed in an interesting
position, and right lucky, I tffink, to enjoy the means of doing
so much good. You seem, indeed, to have availed yourseff
of your opportuffity and to be doing creffit to yourseff and to
this country ; and as long as you show by your public conduct
that you reaUy desire to advance the cause of good govemment,
and that you are above taking the narrow, selfish and bigotted
view of what good govemment consists in, usually adopted by
persons of station and fortune in this country, I care Uttle for
the somewhat vehement denunciations of Uberals and Uberal
opiffions wffich fmd their way into some of your private com-
muffications. I would observe that it is more pffilosophical
to take a calmer view of things in poUtics, when everybody
imputes the same motives to his opponent. Dishonesty and
1 The first Earl Granville (1773-1846) was Ambassador at the Tuileries
at this time.

124 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
incapacity are the old charges brought by every partisan that
I can remember to have heard of against those opposed to ffim,
yet it seems you suppose that they only belong to the party to
which you are pleased to say I belong ; and that consequently,
from tffis penetration of their real character, you have resolved
never to belong.
The ffistory of my poUtics is shortly tffis. I am not the
least ambitious of sharing either the honours or emoluments
of any govemment, and therefore I never speculate at aU as to
which party I wiU or wiU not belong ; but as long as I am in
ParUament, knowing the inconveffience of some fixed rule for
the guidance of one's conduct, I just consider in any case what,
according to the best of my judgment, wiU conduce the most
to the advantage of the commuffity at large, without reference
to particffiar interest or the consequences to tffis or that class
or privileged body ; knowing weU however that notffing can
conduce less to the interests of the commuffity than anytffing
that at least shakes the great principles on which our social and
poUtical existence depends.
The ffist of these, then, I regard as security to ffie and
property ; and not security in the narrow, aristocratic sense
of the word, which offiy contemplates keeping the masses down
and quiet, and suffering a comparative few to enjoy their power
and leisure without check and without reproach ; but that
security which affords to every man the greatest possible pro
tection in the free exercise of his industry and his inteUect, and
in the enjoyment of ffis property.
Now let me say that, haff-educated and prejufficed as persons
in our rank of ffie generaUy are, it takes a long time before we
can give an important consideration to what are caUed popular
questions, or before we can shake off that deep-rooted notion
in the mind of every young aristocrat of tffis country that there
are only two evils in pohtics to be averted : one is what is caUed
the encroachments of the people, and the other the rising and
violence of the people. The fact is we are often denouncing
things as leaffing to scramble and coffiusion, simply because
we observe their tendency to Umit power where we have seen it
enjoyed uncontrolled, and ultimately to ffisturbance if conces
sion is not made. Whereas if we could regard these things
with reference to general, and not partial, good, the irrationaUty
and ffishonesty would by no means be so apparent.
But what keeps the aristocracy here in a constant fret is

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 125
that, while they have been trained to the expectation of poUtical
power, independently of any quaUfication of merit or fitness
for its exercise, the circumstances of the country have so entirely
changed with the progress of civiUsation, a constitution on such
a system has become impossible, and they feel that they are
aheady in tffis respect less fortunate than their ancestors, and
that their prospects are becoming less and less bright. Their
minds contracted and corrupted by education and their mode
of Ufe, they can't understand or fathom the real causes of their
position, and, Uke rats in a cage, they keep writhing, biting
and screaming, and fixing upon everything and everybody
in the world the cause of their ffisaster.
Some of the Conservatives, however, are only rogues, and
have wit equal to the ffiscemment of the senseless rant of their
associates. Amongst them I would name Goffibum.^ He,
Uke a wise man, sees that tffings can never last as they are, if
aU the improvements wffich are now aggranffising tffis noble
country are to go on, and he boldly takes the bull by the horns
(or at least one of them) ; he has watched the increase of hber-
aUsm with raihoads ; he sees revolution in every faciUty given
to the intercourse of different parts of the country, and he
calls upon the concentrated fatffity of tffis country, namely,
the landed gentry, and those whom he pleasantly dubs the
watch-dogs of the Church and Crown, to stand forward as one
man (query — one damn fool !) and vigorously resist these inno
vations on their territory and invasion of their sweetest rights.
Whether Horace Twiss ^ has taken up the steam department
and Charles Ross the press, I have not heard ; but there it is
that they have at last caught the right pig by the ear, and they
do see that aU that makes the country great and rich is fatal
to them, and that ff wealth and knowledge are to be ffiffused
at the rate that is now doing, what are to become of aU the hum
bug and corruption wffich has given them a place in the world
and wffich is essential to their glory ? To be sure one ought
to be very earefffi how one laughs at the Chinese or Otaheitans
or any other rifficulous people, when one has such rampant
iffiots under our nose as are stiU exercising a great influence in
this country.
I have just retumed from a tour in Scotland and the principal
1 The Right Hon. Henry Goulburn (1784-1856) : Caiancellor of the
Exchequer, 1828-30 and 1841-6.
^ Twiss sat for Wootton Bassett as the nominee of the Earls of Clarendon
from 1820 to 1830.

126 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
manffiacturing ffistricts in Staffordsffire and Lancasffire, and,
after hearing admitted by all men and masters that the pro
sperity of trade and manffiaoture tffioughout the ffingdom,
proceeffing now from sound and healthy sources, is unparaUeled
in the ffistory of the country, and when one sees the incalculable
amount of capital employed and wealth accumulating in every
ffirection, to come back to London and to look at the Tory
newspapers, and to see there a handfffi of noisy and unprincipled
brawlers predicting the end of aU tffings from the advancement
of Uberal poUtics and the shocking march of rafficaUsm, and
that the future existence of tffis country depends upon ousting
Lord Melbourne from the Treasury and O'ConneU from Brooks's
— why, ff one ffidn't know that it aU arose from a ffirty conffict
between two sets of scramble-mongers, one to grasp and the
other to keep the victuals of office, one shoffid offiy laugh
heartily and not waste language in expressing contempt. Thank
God ! there never was a time when there was such inffifference
to tffis squabble, wffich has now been going on in tffis country
for a century and a haff ; there never was a time when the
great mass of the commuffity coffid be less imposed upon by
any body or any party. The common interest is far better
understood, and the wisest mode of advancing it is also less
ffifficffit and more clearly seen than it ever was before, and I
verily beheve that neither despot, oUgarch or demagogue wiU
ever exclusively acquire exclusive influence in tffis country
again. The great test of the sound, steady character of the EngUsh
was appUed by Lord Grey's govemment when the Whigs, to
destroy their old opponents, carried a measure in a manner that,
in any other country, would have irrevocably shaken to its
base every institution by wffich an old commuffity was held
together. As it has turned out, it has not been too much for
the people, and it gives one confidence in proceeffing &mly and
fffily to reform such particular institutions as have been too
long ffisfigured by shameful abuse and injustice. Amongst
these I name ffist the Church and the Law, and to the purifica
tion of both I hope the next parhament wffi vigorously apply
itseff. I should hope that such questions would engage more
of its attention than the question affecting the particular con
stitution of the House of Peers. Were I a peer, I should feel
ffifferently, for I should be aUve to the humiUating and unsatis
factory position the peers now hold in the country. From

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 127
their constitution nobody feels that they ought to be entrusted
with the powers they have ; but, fearing the ffisturbance which
a change might occasion by their resistance, most people are
Unwiffing to make the attempt to effect it ; and, while some
abuse them and call for reform by bringing them in closer rela
tion to the rest of the commuffity, others defend their existence
as they are, trusting to their yielffing to fear upon every occa
sion when their judgment is opposed. In short, I should feel
that by reform they might become one of the most influential
boffies mstead of one of the most mistrusted and ffisUked in
the country. I have seen enough of the House of Commons
to see the necessity of a second chamber, and, as the House
of Lords now exists, we are in the situation of having offiy one,
wffich acquires a confidence (from its hostiUty to other more
objectionable houses) wffich it does not deserve. I am almost
mcUned to tffink that delegation by the present peers of a portion
of their own body would be preferable to the present constitu
tion. It woffid be more ffi uffison with the general sense in the
country of what is right, wffich, after aU, is a great tffing ; but
at present you may be sure that the Lords Forester and Chester
field et hoc genus omne are regarded now just as Gatton and
Sarum were a few years ago before their destruction.^ If you
woffid save the old trunk, you may depend upon it you ought
somehow or other to lop off the excrescences and reconcile
it in some way to the present state of iffiormation and
inteffigence of the coimtry. No institution can stand being
beffind that.
I cannot of course expect you to assent to my views in aU
these matters ; but I shaU not impute either roguery or f oUy to
you for not doing so, for that would be bad manners and worse
logic. You are doubtless qffite satisfied with your opiffions and
I am so with mine. ... I send you a d — d long prose, the
result of your warning.
FeeUng anxious that people in England shoffid under
stand the real questions at issue in Spain, the condition
of that distracted country and the surest means of restoring
tranqffiffity there, George ViUiers did not consider that
there was any breach of diplomatic etiquette involved in
' Gatton, in Surrey, vidth from seven to twelve burgesses, returned
two members to the unreformed parliament. Old Sarum, completely
uninhabited, also returned two.

128 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
the pubUcation of an anonymous pampffiet by ffimseff.
His brother Charles refers to it as foUows : —
Tuesday [1836]. — . . . You wiU before tffis have read the
debate that took place on Spaffish affairs, brought on by that
Uttle sffiiveUed old woman Mahon.^ I had prepared myseff
from the brief of your pamphlet to oratioffise at some length
on the matter, and seven ffistinct times ffid I rise for that pur
pose, but never tiU haff -past one, when everybody was exhausted,
woffid the chairman aUow me to speak. I then had not five
minutes. The extravagance of Grove Price was the offiy tffing
that seemed to interest the House ; ffis frantic gestures and ffis
obvious insincerity, after ffist convffising the House with
laughter, appeared to alarm and shock everybody who witnessed
it. At one moment he remained with ffis eyes fixed and turned
to heaven for nearly four minutes, and it was thought he would
not come to time. It is said that he has been once in confine
ment. . . . Had he been a sane man ffis speech woffid be a
ffisgrace to the House, and if ffis speech is noticed in Spain,
you shoffid make it known that he is considered by everybody
here to be out of his mind.
The pampffiet was generaUy thought to be yours before the
debate was over ; O'ConneU told me that after James Graham's
allusion he had read it and thought it very able, and he quoted
it ffimseff. ... I sent the pamphlet to Fonblanque ^ as soon
as I learnt from Edward that I might do so, and spoke to ffim
on the subject. . . . He has since spoken to me about it, and
he says there are some passages in it qffite masterly. I wish
you would tffink of aU tffis question in the view of what you
could do ff you were in England, and seek to justify your past
interference, as weU as the more effective interference in future,
on some other ground than that of a direct commercial advan
tage, and also to show that it is an exception and does not faU
vidthin the general objection to meddUng with other people's
affairs. ... I ffid not see what was put in the papers for
Palmerston's speech on the Spaffish debate ; but his defence
was languid, I thought, and not near sharp enough upon those
miserable whipper-snappers who are always barffing at the
Quadruple treaty, wffich they dare not, as they hope for peff,
recommend should be violated. . . .
1 Lord Mahon, historian, succeeded as fifth Earl Stanhope in 1855,
and died in 1875.
2 Radical journalist, editor and proprietor of the Examiner.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 129
George ViUiers to Mrs. Lister.
Madrid, l^h September 1836. — ... I won't launch into
Spaffish affairs to-day, for I have not tin^e, and it is better to
put my say mto the general despatch, but I am horridly ffis
gusted and tired and without hope here. If you get me
appointed to an embassy, perhaps I woffid take it, though to
leave Spaffi at tffis moment woffid not be creffitable. The
EngUsh govemment tffio'out has been sincere, but weak ;
and, Uke aU weak persons or boffies, fffil of hopes instead of
deeds, tiU tffings have been aUowed to come to a pass where
they are beyond hope, and the deeds that would have been
effectual and practicable a year ago would now be useless, and
should not be attempted. The French govemment has always
acted with bad faith, and now tffis Mole Miffistry will be the
coup de grace. We shaU not back out of the Uttle we have done,
but shaU probably get up a wrangle with L[ouis] P[ffiUppe]
about his violation of the Quadruple Treaty, in wffich he wffi be
backed by the offiy people he reaUy cares for — the Holy Affies :
tffis country wiU be ffivided between chaos and Carlos : we shaU
have haff broken with France, and of course, be left alone, as
weU as degraded, ffi order to do the best we can against the
hourly mcreasmg affronts of Russians, Prussians, etc. etc. . . .
My offiy melancholy satisfaction is that I have copies of my
preffictions last year of aU that woffid happen ff tffings were
aUowed to go on in their tram, and step by step these preffictions
have been, and are, in course of fulffiment. Do notffing or do
well, was my constant clamor — do sometffing and do iU, has been
the reply.
To foUow in detail the course of events in Spain during
the year 1837 woffid sweU these volumes out of aU pro
portion to their purpose. The general state of matters
may be gathered from George Viffiers's private letter-bag
at this time.

George Villiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, 1th January 1837. — ... In answer to your query
whether I ever got a formal answer to the despatches upon the
state of Spain, I ffid get one saymg that the subject of these
despatches had been caUed to the attention of H.M.'s govem-
VOL. I I

130 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
ment, and the result was that the appUcation of Spam coffid
not be compUed with for 3 or 4 reasons, each more shortsighted
and frivolous than the other : among others, that H.M.'s govem
ment coffidn't beUeve it was necessary — ^that it would deprive
the Queen's cause of its nationaUty, etc. Just as ff the govem
ment and partisans of the Queen were not the best judges of
that when, after nearly two years of struggle, they found that
they could not fiffish the war off their own bat. It was a fatal
error on our part and wiU always deserve to be reprobated,
even tho' tffings tum out ever so weU here ; for, if they do,
it is by mere chance ; and chance is a prop that I mightily
object to lean upon, although it be the Dowffing Street battle-
horse. Shuttmg one's eyes to what may be ffisagreeable and
wishing for better tffings, is not the way (ffi the absence of
Fortunatus's cap) to manage human affairs ; but that has been
the system adopted towards those of Spain. A desire reaUy
appeared to exist how worst to adapt means to ends. ... If
I wanted to form a man to be Secretary for Foreign Affairs, I
shoffid Uke ffim to be placed in exactly the circumstances that
I have been in for tffiee years, in order that he might leam
the importance of not takffig resolutions without being prepared
for their consequences, and aU that wffich haff measures and want
of decision never fail to produce. StiU, I shoffid be sorry if tffis
govemment were to go out, for the Tories woffid certaiffiy be
most lukewarm Queeffites, and their retum to office would be
sufficient, although they ffid not violate the treaty or do any
act in favor of the Pretender, to stimulate the hopes of the
CarUsts and to prolong the war. The longer that lasts, the more
European wiU the Spaffish question become, and the more the
chance must be that everybody wiU be set by the ears. . . .
I need hardly teU you that I take in good part and without
any apology your pffiUppic about my own affairs, for I have
very often said to myseff the same tffings. I can harffiy account
for the invincible repugnance wffich I have for lookmg after
what does or ought to belong to me. I put it off always, and
yet ff I had the management of anybody else's affairs I am sure
that they would be scrupulously admimstered. The fact is that
when I have a strong sense of duty about anytffing, I seldom
fail ; but about what concerns myseff, and upon matters where
I alone can suffer, the sense of duty, wffich is the inffispensable
stimulus to my indolence, fails to act and things go to the devil.
However, I tffink you wiU admit that the ffismissal of my cook

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 131
is an omen of retrenchment and reform in every department.
Madrid is as expensive as London, and my salary would do
weU enough here ff I had it aU ; but £1200 a year goes in interest.
If I had not to pay that, I should not now owe a farthing ; but
that cursed Wootton Bassett will be a miU-stone round my neck
as long as I Uve.
Pray observe weU whether tffis packet has been opened. I
have a reason for asking, wffich I wiU teU you another time. . . .

Charles Villiers, M.P., to his brother George.
11 Wilton Steeet, 20th April 1837. — . . . The Raffical party
in the House are not for sffiinking from obUgations wffich have
been mcurred in the regular manner and which binds the country
in honor ; but what with the faitffiessness of France, the worth-
lessness of pubhc men ffi Spam, and the failure of the British
force ffi the service of the Queen, our mterierence is viewed as
a failure, and its object to be more remote at present than it
has been before. Under these circumstances it is most desir
able that some step shoffid be taken to place our relations with
that country on a more creffitable and advantageous footffig, and
that shoffid engage the attention of everybody who is answerable
for our foreign poUcy. It is qffite clear that assisting Spain
in affiance with France when France is assisting her enemy,i
is a very ffifferent thffig, and that if we had contemplated the
latter position we shoffid at once have seen that the co-opera
tion wffich we undertook to afford was worse than futile.
France has acted with good faith, or she has not. If she has
not, and we have been deceived, why are we to continue to
waste our treasure and our creffit in a course that we should
never have contemplated had we expected the treachery of one
party to the joint undertaking ? Sometffing decided must be
done — ^that I teU you, or else we shaU have the House of Commons
refusing to support the Miffistry on the ground of its foreign
poUcy. My own opiffion is that we should encourage France
to take a more active part, and somehow get the insurrection
put down and the constitution settled ; and then, ff they cannot
govern themselves hke a civiUsed people, why — ^we much regret
it, but cannot help it. Tffis can offiy be done by getting out
the doctrinaires, and tffis should be done by every means in
our power. As tffings are now, I fear that the House and the
1 The Carlists.

132 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
country would not suffer our senffing an adequate force for
the purpose. . . . The idea uppermost in any man's nund who
tffinks upon tffis subject, ought to be that we are in a scrape,
and that we must not lose any opportunity of getting out of it
with honor and creffit. Much now depends, of course, on the
skiU of our ffiplomacy at Paris. How far we can depend upon
the reqffisite energy and adroitness in the hands in which it is
now placed I am unable to say, but if it is not equal to the
occasion, the sooner it is known the better. I am afraid that if
the present miffistry go out, it wiU be the worst tffing that can
happen to Spain. From the tone assumed in the debate the
other ffight, I should be afraid the Tories would break the
treaty and place Carlos on the throne. They are almost com
mitted to the former. The Duke of Weffington's speech was
poor, rambUng stuff. He is breaffing up very fast. His speech
was deUvered just Uke an old solffier teffing a long story about
a battle he had once fought. The existence of the miffistry
wiU tum upon the skiU which Lord John shows in extricating
ffimseff from the pledge he has given to go out if those reckless
iffiots throw out the Mufficipal BiU.^

George Villiers to Mrs. Lister.
Madeid, 29th July 1837. — ... I complain sometimes of my
ffie here, because it is complainable of, and because an EngUsh
man, if he is worth a straw, always has ffis grievance ; but I can
hardly make up my mind as to the effect that leaving Spain
would produce in me — whether I should be frohcsome, Uke an
old post-horse turned out to grass, or whether I should be Uke
that retired citizen who, unable to bear the loss of ffis habitual
excitement, took a lodging opposite ffis old shop. I rather
incUne to think that I, too, should take a house at Bayonne if I
was recaUed from here. I am sure that, if my family were not in
England, London would appear insipid to me after tffis viUage.
After aU — here I am somebody, and ffi London nobody can be
anybody ; so that I pffilosopffise myseff into bearing aU here,
except seeffig tffings go iU when I know they ought and might
be flourisffing. . . .
Madeid, 16th September 1837. — ... I won't let the courier
1 The Irish Municipal BUI was thrown out by the Lords on the motion
of the Duke of WeUington ; but the death of WiUiam rv. on 20th June
brought about a dissolution of ParUament instead of a ministerial crisis.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 133
go without a Une from me, though without entering into details,
as in due season you will receive the farffily despatch — that is,
if it ever arrives, of wffich I have not much expectation, as we
are completely blockaded and no road is now passable. . . .
On the llth and 12th inst. Don Carlos, with aU the ffifferent
factions, amounting to about 18,000 men, arrived at four leagues
ffistant from Madrid, and their avant-postes at haff a league
from the town. Their mtention of takffig possession of us was
tffis time serious, for . . . Don Carlos had ffisposed everytffing
for a triumphal entry mto the capital on the 13th, and had even
issued orders for holffing a general levee on that day. Espartero,
however, arrived to the rescue on the 13th. . . . Even if tffis
aid had not arrived he woffid have found matters in a ffifferent
state to what he expected, for the National Guards seemed to
be resolutely determined to defend themselves to the last ex
tremity. They are about 12,000 strong, and upwards of 2000
of the inhabitants besides appUed to the government for arms,
and durffig the eight-and-forty hours that the attack was ex
pected, not a seffitious cry was heard, nor was the pubhc tran
qffiffity for a moment ffisturbed ; so that I am almost sorry the
CarUsts ffid not advance, for Espartero nught then have faUen
upon them under very favorable circumstances.
Sffice the 13th they have been hovering about Madrid at a
ffistance of 4 or 5 leagues, and, increffible though it would appear
in any other country than Spain, the government have had
absolutely no correct iffiormation whatever as to their move
ments, nor does Espartero know in wffich ffirection to move in
order to look for them ! Did you ever hear of such people as
these ? ... On the 12th the whole of Cabrera's faction occupied
the heights opposite to Madrid ; with a glass I was able to see
aU they were about. If you had been with me you would have
made a lovely drawing, for the said canaille was very picturesque.
They were in every variety of attitude, of costume, of colors,
and looked Uke ItaUan banffitti, of wffich one has seen so many
pictures, reposing or waiting for traveUers, but extended over
a great space of ground and mffitipUed to the number of 3000.
. . . God knows what wiU be the end of aU tffis : the crisis
never was more critical, and everytffing looks Uke a final break
up. . . . Desperate as the prospect looks, however, I feel so
confident of the tffing beffig stiU saveable that, ff I were asked to
what post in Europe I should most Uke to be appointed tffis
very day, I would say Miffister of War in Spain ; which sounds

134 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
presumptuous, but I know these people so weU that / feel I have
it in me to save them.
Mrs. Lister having sent Sir George an engraving of her
portrait by Edvidn Landseer, he expresses deUght with it
as a likeness, except that there is something not qffite
satisfactory about the mouth. 'Considering that the
mantiUa was put on in England, it is not altogether bad ;
but it should have been gathered up more towards the
throat and not aUowed to go sprawling so much over the
chest and shoulders.'

Charles Villiers, M.P., to his brother George.
11 Wilton St., 22nd August 1837. — ... I wrote to you
before I left town and gave you ffi that letter a more copious
detail of my election than you coffid have time to read. I
certaiffiy was lucky ffi havmg a constituency who coffid appreci
ate the very unscrupffious and mcompetent blackguards who
were opposed to me. ... I was very desirous during the can
vass to succeed, and I made great exertion, the effects of wffich
I. am feeUng now, being not a Uttle shaken by it. I certaiffiy
incurred expenses wffich I shaU also feel for some time, and
wffich I now find in some degree unnecessary ; but, findmg the
MiffisteriaUsts — that is, Sutherland and Lichfield — going against
me, I took fright and was determmed not to be beat, if pos
sible. The principal expense I incurred for tffis purpose was in
retaiffing agents. I had tffiee at 5 gumeas a day, wffich is no
bargaffi ! Also the entertainment of a large party of can
vassers at dinner each day at an inn is very pleasant at the
time ; but, Uke other pleasures, not without the aUoy of a d — d
expense. However, I shaU recover myseff, I dare say, in a year.
I have had great satisfaction in beating aU the fools and rogues
who were opposed to me, and defeated some miserable scoun
drels who, professing to be Liberal, were mtrigumg against
me ; so I don't complain. The Tories came by dozens to me
at the races, assuring me that they would never oppose me
again ; so, ff I manage weU, I suppose I shaU have the seat for
Ufe.^ ... I am surprised to hear that Miffisters tffink them
selves so firm m their seats after the drubbmg they have had
in the elections. There never were men, to be sure, whose
' He did so, until his death in 1898.

l,ONX)ON EDWARD A"RWOLD

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 135
names carried less weight in the country than theirs, and the
want of it was felt by every oanffidate. People seemed to
tffink Lord Melbourne was the best of the bunch, and there
are people who associate Johnny's name with the Reform Bill ;
but the people at large have not the same feeUng towards them
wffich we see at times inspired either by great talents, great
deeds, or good character. The use of the Queen's name ^ in their
favor was, as I tffink it ought to be, smiled at by everybody
who heard it ; for the fact of Parhament naming the Miffisters
of the Crown is a matter so notorious ffi England that to argue
upon the fiction of the actual nomination is justly rifficffied.
As everybody belongffig to a Court is necessarily false, and as
few have access there now but those who are interested in deny
ing the truth ff it is otherwise than they wish, it is impossible
to know what are the real sentiments of tffis Uttle Queen ; but
what is most probable is that she hkes popffiarity, and, from
what one hears, havmg good sense, besides that she sees the
best prospect of havmg what she Ukes at an easy rate by re
taiffing what is caUed a popffiar Miffistry. I dare say she woffid
avoid, ff possible, the huUabaloo there would be in the country
ff the Tories were to come in again. ... I am (for the redemp
tion of my sffis, I hope) obUged to go back to Wolverhampton
to act as steward at the races, which exactly suits me ! ! I Tffiee
days of great general orffinaries and dances in the eveffing —
if that is not paying dear for one's country I wonder what the
devU is ! I accepted it to get votes ; but, having got them at
no great bargaffi, tffis supplemental expense and bore is horrid.
Wilton St., 19th September 1837. — ^I am tied by the leg in
tffis d— d iffiemal, pestiferous town, and nobody else in the
same prefficament. Oh yes ! there is one other person, wffich
is old Essex, who seems to stick to Ufe as gaUantly as ffis
cousin.^ . . . There wiU be a sharp fight, I dare say, when Par
Uament meets. . . . There are many who tffink that, for a
Liberal ministry to stand, there must be a fresh combination of
men. John RusseU and Melbourne are names wffich the people
rather Uke ; but I question if there is another that anybody
woffid move a step to retain. They are [illegible] by the influ
ence of the Court. I dare say what is said of the Queen is true
— that she prefers these men, 1st because she knows no others ;
' Queen Victoria's.
John, third Earl of Clarendon, who, like Lord Essex, was in his eighty-
first year.

136 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
2nd because those of her relations who now gffide her are with
them. There are aU sorts of stories afloat of her cleverness,
goodness, etc. ; but how can she reaUy know anytffing ? We
aU know what it costs us in experience to form any judgment
about men and tffings : how can a girl of 18, without a miracle,
be but very ignorant of aU pubUc matters ? . . . I am very
much obUged to you for what you say in re my re-election. My
health is the d — d tffing, wffich certaiffiy does not improve ;
and the work, with my office,^ is beyond my strength. . . .
Charles VilUers, a perfervid politician, had a vein of
hardness in his nature which made him the offiy ' difficffit '
member of a singffiarly harmoffious family. Correspond
ence with his elder brother breaks off in the autumn of
1837, because he had raised some question about money
matters with keener regard for his own interest than for
the feeUngs of others. Mrs. Lister to George Villiers.
C. is one of those whom one must love in spite of his faults
and not on accoimt of ffis virtues. He has many merits and
great cleverness, and mixed up with merits and talent is a singular
wrong-headedness and puzzle-headedness. He has vexed us aU
and angered us rather, but he is not much lowered in my estima
tion by what has passed, for I cannot honestly say that I
should have expected much better of ffim, and it does not efface
from my mind the sense of much Mndness and many hours of
pleasure and mirth wffich he has contributed to the family
circle. I would not choose such a man for my husband or my
friend ; but, as there is no selection in one's own family, I feel
one has the right there to love without approving, and as soon
as ffis temper wiU permit ffim to return amongst us aU again,
there wiU be, and is indeed now, no feeUng in my mind that shoffid
prevent our being exactly on the same footing as heretofore.
. . . Charles's best feeUngs are caUed forth by ffis family inter
course. I fear its having a bad effect upon ffim to Uve long
without those softeffing influences. He is beyond my powers
of description or comprehenffing, for with aU ffis unmeasured
and abusive language, and ffis want of ffitegrity and straight
forwardness in money matters, I do not beUeve he is devoid of
• Examiner of witnesses in the Court of Chancery.

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 137
affection, nor is he miserly or extravagant. He seems to Uke
the by-way better than the ffighway, and he would rather do
an honest tffing in a ffishonest maimer than not. Of one tffing
I am sure, there is no menffing ffim. . . .
Edward Viffiers, having been offered the governorship of
Cape Colony, wrote and asked advice of ffis brother George.

George Villiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, 1st July 1837. — ... I have weighed and turned
the matter ffi aU its ffifferent aspects with teffiold more interest
than I shoffid for myseff. The resffit is, I assure you, favorable
to your acceptmg the offer ; and I assure you Ukewise that I
had ffi the consideration of the matter to set aside more than
one selfish feehng, for the idea of your leaving England for
5 or 6 years, thus makmg 10 or 11 that we shaU have been
separated, and that I am debarred from knowing and loving
EUzabeth de plus pres, is one that is most, most painfffi to me.
But these are some of the ills that flesh is heir to, and they
must not be aUowed an undue weight when one is deciding
upon the prospect of one's ffie, and upon questions wffich are
of ffigher importance ffi the general sum of one's happmess.
Health was my first consideration. London evidently does
not agree with you or E., and yet there, under present circum
stances, you are doomed to Uve. The climate of the Cape,
I have always heard, is perfection. . . .
Next, your prospects ffi England : they have long been
matter of concem to me. No man's are worth a straw there
who cannot at the Bar or ffi parUament carry fortune by storm,
and hold her when he has got her (uffiess, indeed, he gets such
a wffidfaU as I ffid). You might possibly get some board —
Customs, Excise or Post Office — ^but beUeve me, you woffid
bitterly repent it. BeUeve one who has gone daily, la mort dans
I'dme, to his drudgery without a hope of advancement or even
of occupation for ffis mteUect, durmg the best hours of ffis day
and the best years of ffis ffie. You might desire such an
appomtment for the sake of the emolument, but you woffid
repent it, beUeve me. Besides wffich, they are places eagerly
sought after, and are offiy given for sometffing ffi retum, not
withstandmg reform ffi parUament and goverffing by pubUc
opiffion. You must not therefore reckon upon bettering your

138 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
fortunes in England, because one ought not to reckon upon
chances. . . . There was a time when I thought of a coloffial
appointment for myseff, among the various modes that occurred
to me of getting out of the Custom House, and I never was able
to make up my mind but to four — Gov.-General of Inffia (of
course I never dreamt of that seriously), Jamaica at the time
the Emancipation Act was coming into operation, Canada on
account of its troubles, and the Cape on account of its position,
its cUmate, the importance it ought to be to us, and various
notions of better govemment that I derived from Henry Effis,*
who had Uved there long and who was a brother Commissioner of
Customs at the time. ... I have a conviction that your govem
ment would form a new era in that colony, and that no better
opportuffity could offer itseff for showing aU that I know you
are worth, and wffich at present seems destined not to be caUed
forth in the service of the pubUc. ... I do not take upon my
seff the responsibihty to decide for you, but I confine myseff,
accorffing to your desire, to giving my opinion, and I need not
repeat how anxiously I have reflected on the subject.
I have offiy one tffing more to say, and about that few words
and no professions are necessary. We know each other weU
enough to make them anything but loss of time. I should Uke
you to consult any lawyer and have a document drawn up by
wffich I bffid myseff, in the event of becoming Lord Clarendon,
to pay to you annuaUy the amount you now receive from your
office, ff upon retum from the Cape you are not reinstated in
that office, or have no other of wffich the emolument is equal
to it. . . . If by any improbable chance Clarendon should ffie
during your absence, my ffist care wiU be to charge the estate
with the conffitions of the said document, in the event of any
thing happeffing to myseff.
Some impatience had been expressed by Viffiers's friends
in England that no recogmtion had been made of the
abiUty with which he had admimstered the affairs of the
legation in circumstances of extraordinary difficffity, and
especiaUy of the success with which he had negotiated the
Slave Trade Treaty. ' Les choses,' said MoU^re's Cathos,
' ne valent que ce qu'on les fait valoir,' and to honorific
titles ViUiers remained absolutely indifferent aU his Ufe ;
but he afterwards confessed to his brother Edward that if
1 Rt. Hon. Sir Henry Ellis, diplomatist (1777-1855).

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 139
some recogmtion of this sort had not been forthcoming,
he woffid have felt that he had failed to earn the approval
of ffis employers, which woffid be a grievous thing to bear.
When Edward expressed his indignation at the apparent
neglect of his brother, George repUed as foUows.
25th February 1837. — ... I should Uke to have an inde
pendent income — that 's the offiy wish I have, and even that
does not ffisturb my sleep. WeU, that the govemment caimot
secure to me, and as for aU the rest — ^it is but leather and prun-
eUa. To be made a Duke with the Garter would not add an
infimtesimum to my happiness, and I don't care two straws
whether the govemment bestow any reward upon me or not.
My appointment here was one honourable to myseff, and the
taking me from the Custom House did make me happy. My
career in tffis country has been satisfactory. I know I have
fulfilled my duties ffi a way not usual with foreign miffisters,
and that fact is pubUcly known and acknowledged ; that is
my reward, and it would not be increased by the Bath.
Formal recogmtion came at last in the form of the Grand
Cross of the Bath, 19th October 1837. The demise of
Wffiiam IV. involved the dissolution of ParUament. ViUiers
had now been nearly four years absent from England, and
longed for release from a pecffiiarly harassing post. The
Legion, frffitfffi source of worry ever since its formation,*
was now disbanded, and as Count OfaUa had become head
of a Moderado cabinet, Viffiers saw little prospect of exert
ing any further influence for good on the internal affairs of
Spain. The elections left parties in parliament much as
they were before the dissolution. Lord Melbourne reckomng
a majority of about thirty votes in the House of Commons ;
but, to quote the view expressed in the Annual Begister
for 1837 — ' Of power, in a poUtical sense, Miffisters had
none ; they coffid carry no measure of any kind but by
sufferance of Sir Robert Peel.' In the precarious position
of the government, Viffiers saw a chance of freedom ; for
* After the defeat of the Legion at Hernani on 1 6th March, ViUiers
wrote to Edward : ' I wiU say nothing about the Evans disaster. . . . You
know my opinion of that worthy, and of the canaille he commands. I
have always been prepared for a catastrophe, but the blockhead may
thank himself for half that will be said in England about it.'

140 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. v.
the sense of obUgation to Palmerston which had kept him
at his post hitherto woffid not be due to a Tory Foreign
Mimster. George Villiers to his brother Edward.
Madeid, Uh NoverrAer 1837. — ... I have been so swamped
with business these last two days, and the immense number of
people wffich my Bath has compeUed me to see, that twelve
despatches and an inorffinately long letter to Palmerston have
left me very Uttle time, and no vigor, for writing. Ten thousand,
thousand thanks to you, my dear boy, for your ffind congratula
tions. I know how hearty they are. ... I assure you that
my ffist thought upon knowing that I was to get into the Bath
was for the satisfaction it would be to aU of you much more
than to myseff. In justice to Palm. I must say that it appears
that the civil Baths are Umited, and he may therefore have
had a ffifficffity in giving it before. . . . With respect to my
leave, I wiU refer you to my letter to my mother. You wiU
there see aU the motives wffich weigh with me not to make use
of it just now ; but I do feel supremely happy in possessing it,
for I now for the first time beUeve seriously that I shaU see you
all again, and get out for a wffile of this atmosphere wffich
reeks with war and blood and angry passions. I have not
ventured to fix in my own mind the precise time when I shaU
verify the happy plan, but be assured that the ffist — ^the very
ffist — moment I tffink I may do so consistently with my duty
(wffich for a week more or less I wiU not sacrifice), I start.
I have had a letter from Sir Wm. Woods, Clarencieux King
at Arms as he caUs ffimseff, enclosing to me the u^ual letter to
the Earl Marshal for permission to wear supporters to my
armorial bearings, and desiring to know what beasts I wiU
chuse for that office. I look upon tffis merely as a fee trap,
and I suppose I must walk into it, tho' I am in no hurry for
supporters or to pay more than I can help for my ffigffity ; but
if it is to be done, I should Uke it weU done, and I wiU therefore
beg of you to caU upon the said King, who Uves in Craig's Court,
and coUogue with ffim upon the subject. I beUeve Clarendon's
supporters are two black eagles, wffich would go very weU with
the Prussian eagle, and I wiU therefore chuse them. I shoffid
Uke a drawing sent to me of these supporters, with the arms,
as usual, upon the Prussian eagle. It wiU reqffire some taste
and not be very easy to group the birds ; but if weU done it

1832-7] THE CARLISTS 141
wiU be very handsome. Lord Cowper's arms are of the same
kind, and might serve for a model. . . .
3rd December 1837. — . . . The newspapers I take in are the
Chronicle and Times ; Hervey takes the Globe and Standard,
and Otway (just as one would expect from a jackass hke him)
the Morning Post, Age and Satyrist. ... To judge of matters
at home from a ffistance and hastily (for I have offiy had time
to skim the papers), it seems that the days of the Whig govem
ment are numbered, for it can neither go on with or without the
Rafficals. I shaU be sorry for their faU, because I hate and
ffistrust the Tories ; but I coffiess that the manner in wffich the
event wiU then set me free wiU be a source of great, if not com
plete, consolation to me.
The Spaffish govemment at this time was, not unnatur-
aUy, in great straits for money. To raise a loan in the
ordinary way was impossible, imless at exorbitant interest.
In these circumstances it is curious to find Spring Rice, the
ChanceUor of the British Exchequer, forwarding to ViUiers
a singffiar proposal for advancing money to the Spaffish
govemment on the security of certain works of art. He
had been assured by one Buchanan of Berners Street
(apparently a picture-dealer) that a loan might easily be
negotiated through any house in the City, without the
govemment appearing directly in the transaction, on the
security of four paintings by Rafael^ — ^the Spasimo di Sicilio
or Madonna del spasimo, the Madonna del pesce, and two
others. It is curious, wrote Spring Rice, that the plan suggested
by Mr. Buchanan is on the principle wffich, in the French War,
was adopted by the Tuscan govemment, who made an offer
of the whole GaUeria Reale and Pitti collection to Mr. Pitt (I
wonder the name ffid not catch ffim) for a loan of 200 miffions,
redeemable with 5 per cent, interest in 5 years. I tffink we
might venture on a loan of £40,000 secured by the deposit of
the four Raffaeles.
Whether or not this project was ever carried out, the
pictures named are stiU at Madrid.

CHAPTER VI
WAR, DIPLOMAOY, AND COURTSHIP
'Giebt es Krieg, so macht der Teufel die HoUe weiter.'
German Proverb.
The year 1838 brought no mitigation to the ferocity of
strife convffising the unhappy realm of Spain. Indeed
the system of reprisals became more universal, and the
savagery with which they were carried out taxes one's beUef
in human nature. In the foUowing letter Sir George
Viffiers refers to one out of a score of similar crimes wffich
were rendering the name of Spaffiard a byword of reproach
among the nations. It is addressed to Colonel Wylde,
the British officer attached to the Queen of Spain's army.
Madeid, 9th November 1838. — Sie, — It is with deep regret
that I observe that the same sangffinary system of warfare
wffich at one time prevailed in the Northem Provmces, but was
happily put an end to by the Ehot treaty, is now carried on in
that part of Spain where the Carhst forces are commanded by
Cabrera, and that the acts of barbarity for wffich that cffief
has always been ffistingffished have arrived to a pitch so in
tolerable that the Queen's general has at length been compeUed
to adopt measures in reprisal.
The wounded solffiers of iffiantry belonging to Pardenas who
feU into the hands of Cabrera were aU shot on the foUowing day.
Those belonging to the cavahy were, by Cabrera's orders, formed
into a circle, when they were charged and lanced to death by ffis
cavahy. Not content with tffis inhuman violation of the usages
of war, it appears that, ten days afterwards, he caused to be
shot in cold blood 94 non-commissioned officers belonging to
the same ffivision. It would have been idle to expect that
such atrocities should not excite inffignation nor provoke a
determined spirit of revenge among the partisans of the Queen
in Aragon and Valencia, as weU as the comrades of the murdered
men. Accorffingly, events wffich cannot be too much deplored
142

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 143
have taken place at Valencia, AUcante and Murcia, notwith-
stanffing the laudable efforts of the Queen's authorities to
prevent them ; wffile the govemment, in order to moderate
the irresistible force of pubhc feeUng, has seen itseff compeUed
to estabUsh juntas of reprisals, wffich wiU at least proceed
accorffing to the forms of justice, and may, it is to be hoped,
put an end to popffiar excesses. General Van Haler, in order
to maintain the ffisciphne of ffis army, has found it absolutely
necessary to order that, for every inffividual in the service of
Her CathoUc Majesty put to death by Cabrera, one of correspond
ing rank among the Carhst prisoners shaU be shot.
Such is the present state of tffings, and it is one that can offiy
be looked upon with unmingled feeUngs of horror. Nor is it
Ukely to stop here, for on both sides it wiU produce increased
exasperation, and an exterminatmg system of warfare will
before long be acted upon tffioughout Aragon and Valencia.
The govemment of the Queen, I repeat, deplores it ; but,
the course of leffity wffich it has ffitherto pursued being attributed
to fear by the CarUsts, they are emboldened to proceed in their
system ; and ff the sangffinary acts of Cabrera were now, as
heretofore, to pass without notice or retaUation, every city in
the above-mentioned provinces woffid break out into open re-
beffion, and the Queen's troops could no longer be led into action
where the combatants shoffid fight upon such unequal terms.
Under these circumstances I consider it to be my duty as the
representative of the British govemment, whose exertions have
not been more ffirected to the support of the Queen's cause than
to the mitigation of the horrors of civil war, to leave no means
imtried for putting a stop to the system wffich is now estabUshed
in Aragon and Valencia. I have to request that you wiU com-
mufficate tffis despatch to Count Luchana, and suggest to his
ExceUency how signal a service he might render to the cause
of Her CathoUc Majesty, to that of humaffity, and to the name
of Spaffiards ffi foreign countries, if, by an urgent representa
tion to the commander of the CarUst forces in the North respect
ing the conduct of Cabrera and the dreadful consequences of
which it has been productive, he could procure that that cffief
should be peremptorily ordered by Don Carlos to observe those
usages of war wffich are practised among civiUsed nations.
The disorder referred to as having taken place in
Valencia was of the nature of a reprisal upon Cabrera's

144 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
brutaUty. The Christinos rose, broke into the city gaol,
murdered the commandant, Mendez Vigo, when he loyaUy
attempted to protect ffis Carlist prisoners ; and these, to
the number of fifty-mne, were dragged out and cut to
pieces. No wonder ViUiers sighed for relief, sick of com
batants that coffid inffict such misery upon each other, and
of a cause that was so ineffectively supported as Queen
IsabeUa's. George Villiers to his brother Edward.
1th January 1838. — . . . Tffis is reaUy an iffiemal Ufe, and
it is one of unaUoyed ffifficulties and vexation, for notffing can
make these people wise or cowards brave or the ignorant learned
in a moment. Time may perhaps do sometffing, but the quaUties
indispensable for getting these wretches out of their abyss (and
inffispensable without a moment's loss of time) are aU wantmg,
and I am heartily sick of them, aU the more because I see in
the present state of tffings germs of prolonged stay for me. A
new matter has opened up, too, wffich I cannot mention by a
French courier, but wffich I wiU teU you next Saturday. . . .
The commercial treaty with Spain which Viffiers was
conducting to a satisfactory settlement had confirmed
Loffis PhiUppe and his minister Mole in their determina
tion not to assist the Spanish Queen's cause uffiess France
coffid thereby score some advantage for herseff. Hence
the first indication of an intrigue to obtain the hand of the
young Queen IsabeUa for a French prince, a design whereof
so much was to be heard afterwards in the affair of the
' Spaffish marriages.'
13th January. — . . . The amount of business that has
crowded upon me to-day (or rather yesterday, for it is 5 a.m.
on the 14th) is intolerable. Sixteen despatches have I vmtten,
of which more than half are very long.
The new matter that has arisen here, to which I aUuded last
time as Ukely to detam me, is a supposed intention of L[oms]
P[ffiUppe] to marry one of ffis sons to the Uttle Queen, and to
estabUsh a la Louis XIV. a permanent French infiuence here.
I can't say I much beheve in such an intention myseff, but
Palm, says he is qffite sure of it, and charges me to watch and

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 145
defeat it, wffich you may suppose I wiU do cceur et dme. ... I
am curious to know whether or not we have a right to the
Prussian eagle. ^ Make Clarendon give you what iffiormation
he can. . . . Palmerston says the govemment are not uneasy
about Canada ; but I don't pay much attention to what he
says, for he always reckons that that is wffich he wishes. . . .
3rd March. — . . . I am perfectly fascinated (I can use
no other word, for I am glued to the book) by the Duke of
Weffington's ffispatches. I am in a position to enjoy and
appreciate them even more than the pubhc in England, but
I can weU understand the sensation they have caused. . . .
IdenticaUy the same people are the Spaffiards of 1838 with those
of 1808, and for every case of wortffiessness and bad faith that
the D. of W. cites I coffid produce a corresponffing one — or
twenty if necessary. . . .
Sir George's anonymous pampffiet had attracted a good
deal of attention in England and was recognised as
authoritative. On 24th March he wrote to his brother
Edward : ' If people in general were to take the same
view of the pampffiet that Shell ^ and Taylor ^ do, I cannot
for my part see any harm in aUowing a small filtration of
the author's name, tho' perhaps it might be better not to
come from any of the famUy. C. GreviUe, however, and
one or two others might state they knew it was mine.'
Sir George's uncle, John Earl of Clarendon, was in his
eighty-first year, and news came that he was failing. Sir
G«orge, heir-presumptive to the title and estates, treated
it nonchalantly enough.
llth February 1838. — . . . As for Clarendon, of course I have
not a serious thought that he wiU be removed, or that when
the cause of ffis iUness — ^the cold weather — passes away that
he wiU not be as spry and Uvely again as ever. However, in
^ That is, in the ViUiers arms. The right to add it to his armorial
bearings was certainly conveyed to the first Earl of Clarendon by Frederick
the Great's patent in 1782, and it was borne by the first three earls ; but
when Sir George succeeded as fourth earl, he retained the arms assigned
to him with his knighthood, and the Prussian eagle was suffered to fall
into disuse.
2 Richard Lalor Shell (1791-1851), dramatist, barrister, and politician,
one of D. O'ConneU's principal supporters. At this time he was Vice-
president of the Board of Trade.
' Henry (afterwards Sir Henry) Taylor (1800-86), author of Philip van
Artevelde, was at this time a clerk in the Colonial Office.
VOL. I K

146 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
case of an accident it is right to take some precautions in order
that no undue advantage may be taken of my absence. My
mother says that, ff he were to ffie she should come up to town
and do whatever is necessary in conjunction with you. Tffis
I approve of, but without any offence to her and none to Charles
(for I mean none), I hope that you vriU be my representative
and decide upon everytffing that adnuts of doubt. I shaU
feel sure then that everytffing wiU be done with more care and
attention than ff I were present, for you vriU do by me as I
shoffid by you, and be more eager for my interests than your
own. However, I repeat that these are offiy precautionary
observations, as I have no idea that C. wffi part with ffis exist
ence so easily. Whenever he does die, I shaU not be sur
prised if that legion of fat servants was aU at once to become
active and set to plundering the silver forks and spoons. . . .
There wiU of course be neither inventories nor Usts of anytffing,
and I expect C. wiU leave ffisorder and debt to a frightfffi amount.
I wffi just add that, should he ffie before I leave Madrid, I wish
you would write me a strong letter upon the necessity of my
coming home either to fuffil the office of executor or take care
of my own interests : in short, whatever you tffink best m order
to enable me to found upon it a letter to Palm, announcing
myseff as homeward bound ; for I know from one or two sources
that he objects to my leaving Madrid tiff I can get a settle
ment of the numerous claims against the Spaffish govemment,
because the creffitors bother ffis ffie out. ... It is therefore
natural he shoffid wish me to stay, and so I would if I were
Ukely to succeed in what he wishes ; but if I staid here 20 years
it would not put money mto the Spaffish Treasury, and it is
the want of it wffich prevents the settlement of the claims.
Strong objection was raised in ParUament to Colonel
de Lacy Evans having been created a miUtary K.O.B., a
digmty for wffich, at that time, no officer under the rank
of major-general or rear-admiral was eUgible. It was
urged in the House of Commons that there was no precedent
for so rewarding an unsuccessfffi commander, and that
the insubordination of the corps had been scandalous,
and had been repressed by inhumane puffishment.
Palmerston, however, defended the course taken on the
ground that Evans had done aU that was possible with
the materials at his disposal. Edward Viffiers, having

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 147
written to ask Sir Greorge's opiffion, received a reply by no
means flattering to the member for Westminster.
Madeid, 21st April 1838. — . . . As for Evans, he absolutely
constraffis me to vomit, and so he would you if you knew him
as weU as I do for a conceited, incapable coxcomb, with no
real merit beyond personal bravery. A man of magffificent
promise and mean performance, equaUy unable to bear good
and adverse fortune, weak of purpose, greedy of flattery, and,
Uke aU those who have no knowledge of men, led by the people
most unfit to gffide. Here, he fancied ffimseff Napoleon : in
England he compares ffimseff to the Duke of Weffington, and
neither ffi Spam nor ffi England was he, or is he, anytffing but
M.P. for Westminster. His seat in parUament was his idol,
and ffis coming here — staymg, fightmg and goffig — aU had
reference to what he thought woffid be ffis constituents' opiffions.
Pahn. chose to have ffim appointed, and therefore does right to
stand by ffim ; but he ought not to have given ffim the Bath.
Some reward I shoffid have given ffim, for he is to a certain
degree a victim of party, but it should not have been one at
wffich the army has a just right to be offended. Then as to
the Legion — ^ff you ffid but know how they have ffisgraced
and degraded the name of England in tffis country you would
feel about them as I do. . . .
Poor Taylor, I am sincerely sorry for ffis ffisappointment,
for I know how bitter it must be to a man of ffis sensibiUty and
to a mind wffich, fficapable of falseness itseff, is ffisincUned to
beUeve its existence in others.* I should have been greatly
surprised ff S. Rice had upon a pinch of tffis ffind developed
ffimseff in any other way than that wffich you describe. I
never doubted that ffis heart was truly represented in ffis face,
et c'est tout dire, for a meaner and more paltry, sneaking
physiognomy never was looked upon. The son I never heard
of, but if begotten by S. Rice (and nobody, I should tffink,
coffid have interfered with such a bit of goods as ffis mother !)
he is probably heir to aU the low Irish virtues of ffis progeffitor.
In favor of whom ffid the girl do Taylor the good service of
jUtmg ffim ?
^ Henry Taylor who, as mentioned above, had faUed to persuade
Th6rfese ViUiers to marry him, became engaged in 1836 to Theodosia,
daughter of Mr. Spring-Rice, ChanceUor of the Exchequer (afterwards
Lord Monteagle). The match was broken off in 1838 on the ground of
Taylor's unorthodoxy, but was renewed, and the marriage took place in
1839,

148 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
In his next letter to Edward, Sir George refers to a
question which had been on ffis mind for some time. He
was no anchorite, and his life as a bachelor in the Spanish
metropolis had not been without its alleviations, and in
no sense coffid be described as lonely.
Tep-Treo Kal Ha^Crj rov i<j>rjfi6piov /Stoi/ eXKmv.
But distractions of that kind lose their charm for a man
advancing into middle Ufe, and Sir George by no means
neglected the many admomtions he received from home
reminding ffim that it was high time for him to take a
wife. Sir George Villiers to his brother Edward
Madeid, 19th May 1838. — . . . I don't know when I have
been so out of spirits as I am just now, and I am generaUy
unweU into the bargain, wffich does not make me look at tffings
more brightly. I have a great deal of gout flying about, and
have some joint or other ffisabled for an hour or two at a time
every day ; but my head is so addled that I am more annoyed
by that than anytffing else. ... A joumey at tffis moment
would be the making of me, but God knows when I shaU set
out. I am very sure you wiU tffink me right in staying ; in
deed there woffid always have been a certain degree of wrong
in my going at tffis moment ; but after aU that P[almerston]
says, both pubUcly in ffis ffispatch and privately in his letter, I
could not leave Madrid without a manffest derehction of duty
and risk of quarrel with the govemment. After having done
so much and labored so long, tffis woffid have been very Uttle
worth wffile ; but the worst of it aU is that I don't expect any
good from tffis personal sacrifice. I have a presentiment that
the parts of the scheme over wffich I have no control wiU be
managed a VEspagnole, i.e. utterly ruined. In that case I shaU
soon be able to get away ; but if I am compeUed to stay for a
long time, I tffink it wiU be to good purpose, and it wiU be a
proffigious and personal triumph to me ; so that I hope I have
a hedge in either case. But in tffis cussed country it 's mere
idleness to speculate upon events. ... I Uke very much your
description of Lord Sffiewsbury's daughter ; pray teU me more
of her, tho' I can't woo at a ffistance. My aspirations after
fortune are no longer what they were, and your example is much

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 149
more what I propose, ff possible, to foUow, tho' I have Uttle
hopes of its bemg with equal success. I am not qffite my own
master upon tffis uffiuckily, at least as long as Clarendon lives
and has not another wffe and son as old Essex * ; for how am I
to marry with my father's debts, poor Hyde's, my own, and
£700 a year for Schedffie A (Wootton Bassett) weigffing upon
me ? There 's the rub ! but I wiU remain what I abhor — single
— aU my ffie rather than marry for money exclusively. My
unmarried state and my advanced period of life ^ give me many
an uncomfortable hour, I assure you, and make me doubly
anxious to go to England just at tffis time ; for now, ff I arrive
ffi August or September, everybody wffi be gone. Lord
Shrewsbury may not want a Cathohc for a son-in-law, but
doesn't he always insist upon havmg a German prince of some
blood royal ? ^ Who is the Charlotte you say is Uving with
De Ros ? . . .
Early m 1836 that remarkable enthusiast George Borrow
had arrived in Madrid as agent for the British and Foreign
Bible Society. It may be imagined that Spain, of all
countries, was the least Ukely to extend a welcome to one
whose mission was to disseminate translations of the New
Testament. Mendizabal, a Christiaffised Jew and Pro
gresista, was at the head of the government, with whom
ViUiers obtained an interview for Borrow. Mendizabal
flatly refused to give leave for the New Testament to be
printed in Spaffish at Madrid. It was an improper book,
he said. Might Borrow caU next day and submit the
manuscript in order to convince the Miffister of the blame
less character of the book ? ' Certaiffiy not,' repUed
Mendizabal ; ' you might convince me, which is the last
tffing that I wish to happen ! '
Viffiers himseff, foreseeing trouble, had been the re
verse of encouraging at fij:st ; but, yielding to Borrow's
extraordinary powers of persuasion, he obtained from
Isturitz, Mendizabal's successor in office, permission for
' The fifth Earl of Essex married a second wife in 1838. He was then
eighty-one, and died, without issue, the following year.
" He was just eight-and-thirty.
' Of the two daughters of John, sixteenth Earl of Shrewsbury, the
younger had married the Prince Borghese in 1835 ; the elder, whom
Edward VUliers had commended to his brother as a suitable wife, was
married in 1839 to Prince Doria PamphUj-Landi.

150 THE EA.RL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
Borrow to print and seU the Spamsh translation of the
New Testament. At the same time he warned Borrow
to use discretion in order to avoid offending the feeUngs
of the people. Now discretion was a virtue whereof Borrow
was totaUy devoid. He placarded the streets with three
thousand flaming advertisements of the book, wffich had
the natural effect of rousing the ecclesiastical authorities
to action. Isturitz's short miffistry feU and was succeeded
by one under Count OfaUa, a stem Moderado, with whom
VilUers had Uttle or no influence in domestic affairs. The
sale of the Testament was proffibited, and Borrow, being
suspected, rightly or vsrrongly, of continffing to dispose of
copies secretly, was summarily arrested and imprisoned
on 1st May 1838.
This brought the British Mimster into a very difficffit
situation. He demanded of Count OfaUa the immediate
release of Borrow as a British subject against whom no
offence had been proved. He had been arbitrarily arrested
by the Civil Governor, and imprisoned without being first
taken before the Captain-General of Madrid, as the law
reqffired in the case of a foreigner. OfaUa directed that
Borrow shoffid be released on parole. Borrow refused to
leave the prison until he received promise of reparation.
In this he was supported by Viffiers, who, failing to obtain
satisfaction from Count OfaUa, vwote to Lord Palmerston,
' I consider that great want of respect has been shown to
me, as Her Majesty's Mimster, and that an unjustifiable
outrage has been committed upon a British subject.' ^ In
another dispatch to Palmerston of the same date he wrote :
Tffis ffisagreeable business is rendered yet more so by the
impossibihty of defenffing with success aU Mr. Borrow's pro-
ceeffings. . . . His imprudent zeal in announcing pubUcly
that the Bible Society had a depot of bibles in Madrid, and
that he was the agent for their sale, irritated the ecclesiastical
authorities, whose attention has of late been caUed to the pro-
ceeffings of a Mr. Graydon — another agent of the Bible Society
— who has created great excitement at Malaga, and I beUeve
in other places, by pubUsffing in the newspapers that the
1 Despatch of 5th May 1838.

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 151
CathoUc reUgion was not the reUgion of God, and that he had
been sent from England to convert Spaffiards to Protestantism.
. . . The Methoffist Society of England is Ukewise endeavouring
to estabUsh a school at Caffiz, and by that means to make
conversions. Under aU these circumstances it is not, perhaps,
surprising that the Archbishop of Toledo and the heads of the
Church shoffid be alarmed that an attempt at Protestant pro-
paganffism is about to be made, or that the government should
wish to avert the evils of reUgious scffism ffi adffition to all
those wffich aheady weigh upon tffis country ; and to these
different causes it must, in some degree, be attributed that
Mr. Borrow has been an object of suspicion and treated with
extreme rigor. StiU they do not justffy the course pursued by
the Civil Govemor towards ffim, or by the govemment towards
myseff, and I trust your lordsffip wiU consider that in the steps
I have taken upon the matter, I have done no more than
what the national honor and the security of EngUshmen in
tffis country render obhgatory upon me.
Count OfaUa's position was not an easy one. As a
Moderado he coffid not dispense with the support of the
Church, nor coffid it be denied that Borrow had trans
gressed both the civU and ecclesiastical laws of Spain.
Borrow's arrest had been irregffiar, but it was not un
reasonable. On the other hand, here was the British
Miffister demanding satisfaction, and the Royalist cause
in Spain coffid not afford to offend the British Govemment.
The difficffity was eventuaUy settled by Viffiers appeal
ing to the Queen Regent, informing her that matters
' might end in a maimer most injurious to the continu
ance of friendly relations between the two countries.' ^
Her Majesty desired her Miffister to comply with the
British Mimster's demand, which he did on llth May, and
Borrow was set free next day, characteristicaUy decUffing
to accept the pecuffiary compensation which he had formerly
claimed and wffich was now offered to him.
In tffis affair Sir George Viffiers aUowed himseff to be
drawn into a difficffity through kindUness to an amusing,
but headstrong, feUow-countryman. There was nothing
in ffis own incUnation or habits that woffid have prompted
' Despatch to Lord Palmerston, 12th May 1838.

152 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
him to encourage, much less to abet, any tampering with
the reUgious beUef of a Roman CathoUc people. It had
been better if he had adhered to his first intention and
dissuaded Borrow from ffis enterprise instead of promoting
it. But when Borrow's privilege as a British subject had
been infringed, he coffid take no other course but insist
upon redress, and Palmerston was not the man to find
faffit with any Mimster for maintaimng the honour of the
flag. A few extracts from letters to Edward ViUiers keep one
in touch with subsequent events in Madrid.
2nd June 1838. — . . . Madrid agrees with me wonderfuUy
well, and it is an exceUent place when one is weU ; but after
having been iU it is very ffifficffit here to get right again. I
harffiy know why, but it is a general remark. Change of air
for a week would restore me completely ; but ff one goes out
side the waUs almost, one stands such a chance of bemg caught
by the roving bands of CarUsts or robbers that it is impradent
to venture. ... I wish I coffid have left Madrid now, for I
shoffid have done so with colors flymg as far as regards the
CarUst cause, and in tffis perverse coimtry I am always afraid
of some uffioreseen ffisaster, and never can reckon upon what
is good. However, the Lord's (Palm.'s) wiU be done !
Wth. — ... I thought that notffing coffid have impeded my
setting out towards the end of May, for I expected the negocia
tion woffid have been a qffick tffing, and that the month I gave
it woffid have brought matters to such maturity that I might
safely leave them under such gffidance as I coffid give from
London. Circumstances, however, too long for narratmg,
added to the impossibffity of anything ever going qffickly m
Spaffi, prevented the affair takffig the tum I expected, and
at that moment came Palm.'s ffijimction to conduct the negocia
tion myseff.
3rd November. — . . . I have not enclosed my fanffiy letter
to you, but send for it to Kffightsbridge ff you care for tidmgs
of Pandemoffium. Tffis place gets more deviUsh every day,
and I more ffisgusted with it. . . . There has been a row here
to-ffight and a deal of ffiing in the streets ; but a certaffi number
of rogues havmg kffied a certain number of fools, order has
been re-estabUshed, I beUeve, and so has martial law, wffich
may keep people qffiet or may make them furious, just as the

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 153
National Guard happens to view the matter. ... I am dead
knocked up. . . .
Towards the end of the year his mind and pen revert to
matrimoffial schemes.
25th November. — . . . Never mind what people say at Paris
about Caramaffia. Be assured that I have the most ardent
desire to be married, but that I woffid sooner remain single
aU my ffie than be married to her. I am deUghted to hear the
tone H. B. takes about me. I have heard notffing of or from
her smce a letter I wrote her last sprffig, wffich I intended
should be a finisher, and wffich was so. . . .
Suddeffiy there appears in the correspondence the name
of a lady who wiU figure to an important degree in the
remainder of tffis narrative. Lady Katharine Barham
(referred to as ' Katty ' in the foUowing letter) was the
eldest daughter of the first Earl of Verffiam and widow of
John Foster Barham, M.P., of Stockbridge, Hants, who
died on- 22nd May 1838. This lady's mother seems to
have heard and repeated gossip about VilUers's popffiarity
with the ladies of Madrid.
29th December 1838. — . . . AU you teU me in adffition to
the volumes of iffiormation I have from my mother and Therese
about Katty has increased a miffioffiold my eagerness to make
her mme, and I now venture to hope that things have advanced
too far for them to recede. But can anyone be expected to bear
patiently the vffiainous gossip of Lady Verffiam ? It has put
me in a state of irritation that I cannot control. ... I hope it
may do no harm, but it is the only way to render the tffing
ffifficffit, for I dread a parcel of gossipffig women, or men who
may want to marry Katty, poisoffing her mind or weakeffing
her kffiffiy feeUngs towards me. It was offiy since ffinner that
the courier arrived, and I have harffiy had time to consider
what is best to be done ; but I tffink that the crisis ought
to be hastened, and that the conduct of Lady V. has almost
made it obUgatory upon Katty to permit me to declare
myseff^— don't you ? The immense time that letters take
coming and goffig is another ffifficffity, and I do dread some
devilment occurring to prevent that wffich, the more I tffink
of it, the more I am convinced will be a source of lasting
happiness to us aU.

154 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
When writing thus. Sir George VUUers was not aware
that he had already been fourth Earl of Clarendon for a
week, ffis uncle. Earl John, having died on 22nd December.
On receiving the news, his first thought was for his invaUd
brother Edward and how he coffid help him.
Madeid, 5th January 1839. — . . . When you are better and
the weather less inclement, you wiU perhaps go to Leamington,
and then you must do me a favour, and it would be a great one,
by enabhng me to feel that the very ffist use I had made of
accession of fortune had been to contribute to your comfort.
I want you to consider that you are Uving with me at Keffil-
worth, offiy, as the castle is in rffins and I am in Spain, we can't
Uve there together ; wiU you .*. take a house for me at Leaming
ton ? I write to-day to BidweU to pay to your order £100, wffich
I hope wffi make tffis necessary expeffition faU Ught upon you ;
and ff it is the means of contributing to your health and EUza
beth's, I leave you to judge what my happiness wffi be ffi having
assisted it even inffirectly. . . .
12th. — . . . I shoffid indeed have been vexed, my dear boy,
if you had deprived me of the pleasure of contributing to your
Leammgton joumey. I said £100 merely just to name a sum,
but what would make me feel most conffortable upon the subject
woffid be for you to keep an account of aU that you may spend
upon your residence there above that sum, and receive it from
BidweU when you retum. I shoffid Uke to know that you had
not been put to Jd. expense in tffis compulsory chasse after
health. Just do tffis to please me, and don't let us talk any
more about it. ... I hope that the Ld. Lieutenancy of Ireland
wiU not be offered to me, for I shaU refuse it. I know that
the Irish woffid not object to havmg me, but the contrary;
but I know better than to go and jump naked mto a hornet's
nest. There is notffing to be got there but annoyance, beUeve
me, and going from the Spaffiards to the Irish woffid be jumping
out of the frymg pan into the ffie. Under present circumstances
it woffid be impossible to quarrel with O'ConneU, but I could
not — would not — suffer myseff to be trampled upon by ffim. . . .
I wish I had time to write fuUy, but I am UteraUy suffocated
with aU I have to do and am qffite knocked up. I didn't go to
bed tffi 5 tffis morffing, owmg to the quires of ffispatches I had
to write, and then passed the ffight in coughing and cramps in
my legs, so you may suppose I am a poor deyil to-day.

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 155
Lord Clarendon's proposal to Lady Katharine Barham
was made by deputy, through his sister Mrs. Lister, who
seems to have expressed some indignation because he
showed so Uttle lover-like impatience.

Lord Clarendon to his brother Edward
Madeid, 26th January 1839. ... I am reaUy qffite surprised
that to you it shoffid be necessary to explain the Une I adopted
in my letter to Th^rdse ffi speaking of Katty, wffich appears
to have created so much family ffisapprobation. I should hke
to know how I was to have been in love with Katty. The
thought of maffing her my wife was suggested to me six or seven
months ago, not by my own feehngs, but by my family anxious
for my weffare ; and, knowing that a person hke Katty would
ensure my happffiess, I viewed the matter qffite ffi the same Ught
and determmed to use every effort to bring it about ; but that
had notffing to do with being in love. I saw Katty seven or
eight times ffi England, and notffing passed between us that
might not have occurred to two persons the most inffifferent to
each other. Since I retumed here I have had two or tffiee
letters from her wffich might have been pubUshed at Charing
Cross without anyone suspecting that there lurked in them any
other feeUng than what a common acquaintance might enter-
taffi. My mother tells me that she has had some most interest
ing conversations with her, but that she caimot give me any
details and offiy bids me feel qffite satisfied. With tffis, and
offiy tffis, my family expect I was to be over head and ears in
love. Why, I must have had the imagination and iffieness of
an ItaUan boy of ffiteen to have been so upon such slender
provocation ; instead of wffich I am of a mature age, im-
excitable temperament and incessantly occupied with business
in an important and responsible situation. Accorffingly, I
was not in love (nor have I ever been so yet in my Ufe), and, not
thinking it necessary to ffissemble when writing to Therese,
I told her exactly what was the state of my feeUngs, as to which
I was and continue to be perfectly satisfied, for I feel contented
and happy ffi the thought of having Katty for a wife. I beUeve
she is the person of aU others who is best sffited to me, and
whom I in my tum shaU sffit. I have no doubt either that,
long before I marry her (ff please God I do so) my feeUngs wiU
be of a much warmer character, and that I shaU end by being

156 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
as much in love with her as it is ffi my nature to be, and as
devoted to her as a man can be to a woman ; but until tffis
state of feeUngs arrives, it does not exist, and, not existing, I
don't pretend that it does.
However, my proposal is made, and I can offiy hope that
my mother has not been too sangffine. I am stiU in that
paiffiul state of doubt that we must be in when one offiy knows
such matters second-hand. . . . You have given me real
pleasure by saymg you tffink Katty wiU not Usten to calumffies ;
and how right you were in putting her on her guard against
Lady H — R — , who, Uke aU the rest of those pseudo-devotees
of that rehgion the basis and doctrines of wffich are charity,
assume that the person or tffing about wffich they are ignorant
or doubtful must be bad. Lady H. R. knows no more about
me than she ffid about you when she slandered you to EUzabeth ;
but she may perhaps have an idea, in wffich she woffid be qffite
right, that I would not make use of reUgion for my own interests
or convert the Bible ffito a poU-book as Sandon did, or go hunt
ing in fine carriages after crack preachers ; and as in these out
ward shows consist probably her Umited notions of reUgion,
she may tffink herseff justified in proclaiming me as an infidel
and ffissenter (such as I glaffiy acknowledge myseff to be) from
such spurious principles. . . .
Madeid, 9th February 1839. — . . . A thousand thanks, my
dear old boy, for aU your kind congratulations upon the good
fortime that has befaUen me, before wffich everjiihing else
sinks, ffisappears, vaffishes. The more I refiect upon it (and
I do so pretty constantly, as you may beUeve), the more happy
I feel and the more thorougffiy convinced I feel that it is the
wisest act of my ffie and the greatest luck that ever befeU me.
I offiy wish to heaven I was once back in England, tho' I was
sure you woffid approve of my motives for staying on here as
long as there is a chance of doing good. I can't say I tffink
the chance improves ; but stiU there are hopes, and to make
any change in the commercial system of such a country as
Spain woffid be an acffievement to be proud of.
I assure you my grand object wiU be to Uve qffietly within
my income and to get rid of my incumbrances as qffickly as
I can. Upon tffis chapter I am determined to tum over a
new leaf.
The last important business transacted by Lord
Clarendon before he left Madrid for good was the con-

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 157
elusion, after long negotiation, of a commercial treaty
between Great Britain and Spain.
23rd February 1839. — . . . I have ups and down in my hopes
upon commercial affairs, the latter prevaiUng, I am sorry to
say, and I daresay it wiU end ffi my commg away re infectd.
The suspension of the Cortes augments the ffifficffity, for it
requires no common courage ffi a Miffister to do an unpopular
act, such as hberaUsing the commercial system, when it woffid
be at the same time an imconstitutional one, for the assent of
the Cortes is absolutely reqffired upon aU matters connected
with the revenue. . . .

To Lady Theresa Lister
Madeid, 22nd February 1839. — My deaeest Th^ieese, — I
conclude you woffid tffink it queerish ff I let another courier
go without a ' short and often ' from me, so here goes, though
do you know that I am beginrdng to feel iffie about letters, and
as ff they ffidn't sigffify, wffich is the shadow that that great
event — my departure — casts before it. ... I don't ffisUke
tffis feeUng by any means : it 's a kind of stopgap in my im
patience to get away, and I do long with an intensity of longing
to be fairly out of Madrid.
You say you wonder what I shaU Uke to do when I get home
— ^whether to bffild and be a country gentleman, and to travel
and see the world, etc. etc. I say ffitto to you. I wonder
also, for at present I haven't a notion. What I should Uke
best woffid be for Katty to have some very pronounced wish
or plan that she had set her heart upon, in order that I might
carry it ffito effect. In defaffit of that, I shaU probably do
notffing — ^m the way of plans, I mean — ^for I can't say I feel
much fficlmed to bffild. I mean to save, not spend money,
and my offiy fear is of becommg stmgy and shabby. We can
aU of us rub ffi pretty weU at the Grove, until I clear off some of
the debt, and then we shaU see. My deUght and happiness
wffi be a ffie completely domestic : aU the rest is leather and
pruneUa. I shaU Uke whatever is comfort, and shaU sedffiously
eschew aU that is splash and parade. I am easUy amused,
but have no particffiar amusement ; idleness, however, I have
now ffi more abhorrence than even some years ago. I feel
that the mterest of business and the excitement of responsibihty

158 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
are inffispensable to me, and I beUeve I am never much happier
than when I have more to tffink of and to do than I can manage
in a given period. I cannot, at the same time (much as I have
questioned myseff), determine what kind of pubhc employment
I should Uke. To be a miffister in these times is very Uke bemg
a cock on Shrove Tuesday — a wretched affimal stuck up for
everybody to have a shy at. One can gather but Uttle glory
and much mud, and I don't see much chance of tffings getting
better. Foreign affairs are what I should hke : they are what I
have most knowledge of and most aptitude for ; but I woffid
never take that or any other office until I knew whether I was
Ukely to be able to speak ; and my doubts upon that are so
great that they form a drawback to aU my plans and hopes. If
I had had any practice early in hfe, I verily beUeve I shoffid
have been a decent speaker, but few men succeed in becoming
so when they begin late in Ufe. . . . Upon the whole, therefore,
I feel dans le plus beau des voyages possibles about my futurity,
and shaU be incUned to let my boat fioat down the stream, and
wait to see where the current takes me ; without caring much
either, as I can always let my anchor drop in that haven of
happiness which I know I shall have in my marriage with
Katty, . . .
Clarendon had the satisfaction before returffing to
England of seeing the Royalist cause decisively successfffi
against the CarUsts and the war virtuaUy brought to a close.
Tffis resffit came about more through dissension among
the CarUst chiefs and the revolt of the Navarrese battaUons
under Maroto than through the prowess of the Queen's
generals, although these had about 225,000 men and 138
guns in the field against 63,000 CarUsts vnth 80 guns. Lord
Clarendon was in constant commuffication with Colonel
Wylde and Lord John Hay, by whose efforts a convention
between the parties was arranged at Bergara on 31st
August for the pacification of Biscay, Guipuscoa and
Alava, The greater part of the CarUst forces then laid
down their arms, and on 14th September Don Carlos fled
to France, where the government assigned him the city
of Bourges as a temporary residence.
Howbeit, before Spaffish affairs had taken this satis
factory tum, and before the conclusion of the commercial

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 159
treaty set Clarendon free to retum to England, he received
from Lords Melbourne and Palmerston commuffications
wffich brought to an immediate issue his incUnation for
driftmg down stream, indifferent as to where the current
might carry ffim.
Downing Steebt, 16th February 1839. — My deae Claren
don, — To a man who has just succeeded to a title, who has
been five years contmuaUy out of England and who is on the
eve of beffig married, the proposal wffich I am about to make
to you I am aware wffi not appear at ffist sight of a very winning
or attractive character. But there are some smaU considera
tions on the other side, such as the prospect of rendering great
pubUc service and of estabUsffing a ffigh pubUc character —
motives I know of great weight with you — wffich may perhaps
fficUne you upon reflection to Usten to it with more patience
and satisfaction. You see the situation wffich the govemment
of the country are ffi with respect to Canada. It is evidently
the right poUcy not to let time and opportuffity escape us, but
to strike wffile the iron is hot, and to make use of the recent
rebeffion and the present circumstances of the Provmces ffi order
to establish ffi them a form and system of government wffich
may have a chance of being stable, effective and permanent.
We must bring mto ParUament a measure upon the subject
wffich wffi probably be based, at least ffi some degree, upon the
Report wffich has been made by Lord Durham. We must
have a new CivU Govemor to carry our measure ffito execution,
and for tffis purpose we require a man of great energy, activity
and zeal, of much general poUtical knowledge, who has given
ffis attention to the general principles of poUtics and to coloffial
affairs ffi particular — such a man, ffi short, as I beUeve, and
mdeed know, you to be. Tffis is my motive, therefore, ffi
applying to you upon the subject and ffi asking you whether
you are willing to undertake it. . . .
I can assure you that I have thought over this matter long
and anxiously, and I have always come to the conclusion that
witffin the range of my own knowledge there was no man so
weU fitted for the post as yourseff, and no one whose appomt
ment woffid afford a better hope of success ffi a matter wffich
is certaiffiy difficffit, but not desperate, and ffi undertaking
wffich great service may be rendered and great honour atcffieved,
... I can add with perfect sfficerity that ffi what I have said

160 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vt.
I speak, not offiy my own sentiments, but the real and decided
opiffion of aU my coUeagues.
I shaU, of course, be anxious to receive your reply, as if it
shoffid be in the affirmative it wiU give me very ffigh gratifica
tion and reUeve me from very considerable ffifficulty. — BeUeve
me, my dear Clarendon, yours ever faitffiuUy, Melbouene.
Palmerston vtrote at less length but qffite as urgently.
Staiihope Steeet, llth February 1839. — I hope you wiU
give the most favorable ear to the contents of the accompanying
letter from Melbourne. I shaU be very sorry to lose your assist
ance ffi Spam, but we have a stffi greater mterest in our own
possessions than ffi those of our aUy IsabeUa, and in Canada
there is a great work to be accompUshed wffich requires an able
and jufficious workman to execute it. We aU tffink that you
woffid do the tffing better than any other person, and therefore
we are very anxious that you shoffid accept the duty. The
task is ffifficffit, but the creffit to be obtaffied by success wiU
be great ; and as I do not think you wffi pubUsh ffiegal orffinances,
issue proclamations attackmg the Mother Country, or come away
without leave, it is ffigffiy probable that you wiU succeed.
Clarendon's sense of obUgation to the leaders of his
adopted party, especiaUy ffis personal feeUngs of gratitude
to Lord Palmerston for having released him from the
Customs, rendered it very difficffit for ffim to refuse an offer
conveyed in such handsome and friendly terms. He coffid
not but feel gratified by such a cordial recogmtion of ffis
past services and such a fffil expression of confidence in his
fitness for ffigh office ; but the prospect of being separated
again from those he loved with no ordinary intensity fiUed
ffim with dismay. He woffid, at aU events, return home
and take counsel with those dear ones before deUberately
submitting to a further indefiffite term of exile.
It was a most critical time in the evolution of Canada.
Lord Durham had resigned the High Commissionership in
the previous autumn, angrily resenting the suspension by
the govemment of ffis arbitrary ordinance of 28th June
1838. His resignation had been anticipated by his summary
dismissal from office in consequence of the proclamation

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 161
he issued, complaimng of his treatment. This indiscretion
was to be atoned for by the masterly report which he
presented on 31st January 1839, recommending the legisla
tive uffion of the two Canadas and providing for the settle
ment of the speciflc grievances disturbing the peace of
the upper and lower colomes. But, as Lord Melbourne
explained in his letter to Clarendon, the legislation for
carrying out the scheme embodied in that report had not
yet been drafted when the offer of the Governor-General-
sffip was made to ffim, and the office possessed few of the
poUtical and social attractions which at the present day
cause it to be regarded as more desirable than the Vice-
royalty of India. Lord Clarendon to his brother Edward.
Madeid, 21th February 1839.—. . . You vriU see my letter
to my mother and the copies of those I send her ; there is no
use, therefore, in writffig over again aU they contain respecting
tffis untoward offer of Canada — for untoward I caU an offer
wffich it is equaUy ffifficffit to accept or refuse. AU my
tendencies are towards the latter, if I can ffiscover a creffitable
way of doing it. In the meanwffile I tffink I have taken the
prudent course of leaving the question of my decision entirely
open, and I want you to give me your opiffion in the fuUest
manner. Lord Clarendon to Lord Melbourne.
Madeid, 21th February 1839. — ^My deae Melbouene, — I
yesterday received your letter of the 16th, and I thank you
smcerely for the kind and flattering expressions towards myseff
that it contains.
I wiU not enter into the question of my fitness for the arduous
post you are desirous of committing to my charge, for the con
clusion at wffich I should arrive upon it would probably be
ffifferent from yours, and as the responsibihty you incur in
making such an appointment is great, so I presume you have
maturely reflected upon its propriety. I am therefore incUned
to'defer to your judgment rather than my own.
I yield to no man in desire to render service to my country ;
but as I have no puerile ambition to fiU ffigh situations and
VOL. I L

162 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap, vl
am determined never to accept any office without having at
least some reasonable prospect of creffitably fulfiffing the duties
wffich attach to it, I tffink you woffid consider I acted with
a levity wffich was of bad promise ff I at once accepted
the Govemorsffip of Canada in ignorance of the real conffition
and prospects of the country, of the measures intended by the
govemment, and of the chance there would exist of carrying
these measures to a successful issue.
Upon none of these questions am I in a position to form an
opiffion, nor, consequently, to give you a decided answer.
Were I to send an affirmative one at tffis moment, I might upon
arriving in England find myseff compeUed to retract ; wffich,
for the sake of the govemment and my own, I should be anxious
to avoid.
Thus far, my views are of a pubUc nature ; but as regards
my private position, I am sure you wiU admit that I cannot
with propriety, when upon the eve of being married, enter into
an engagement to go abroad upon such a mission without the
previous consent of Lady Katharffie Barham. After much
refiection, then, it has appeared to me the properest course to
accelerate my departure from Madrid and to give you in person
an answer founded upon the data I require, but wffich I do not
possess here. I intended to have gone home ffi the beginffing
of April ; but now I shaU be far on my road before you receive
tffis letter. . . . Let me request you not to consider tffis m
any way binffing upon you. If in the course of the next tffiee
weeks you find any inffividual fitter than myseff for the post, I
hope you vriU unhesitatffigly make the appointment without
reference to the offer I have received from you. Havmg Uved
5i years abroad, havmg now a career in parhament open to me,
being about to marry and to put some order in my private
affairs (which have aheady suffered by my absence), I caimot
but consider that leaving England again for an indefiffite period,
even under circumstances far more favorable than those in
question, is a great personal sacrifice. — BeUeve me, my dear
Melbourne, most faitffiuUy yours, Claeendon.
In the same bag Clarendon sent a letter to Palmerston.
I yesterday received your letter of the 17th and I now re-
dispatch the messenger with my Canaffian answer to you and
Melbourne. It is but the ffist instalment of an answer. . . .
It was impossible for me, as an honest man, to have given any

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 163
other ; for altho' it is certain that I shall never publish illegal
ordmances nor blackguard the Mother Country, the Govemment
and the ParUament, nor send my reports to the newspapers
mstead of to the Coloffial Office, yet tffis is not sufficient to form
a decision upon, nor does it alone offer those reasonable proba-
biUties of success, vidthout wffich I am determined never to
accept any office, great or smaU. What leisure I have had here
has been devoted to stuffies wffich interested me more than
coloffial reaffing, and I am accorffingly very ignorant of what
has been done and what is intended in Canada, beyond what
is to be found in the newspapers ; and there everything is so
garbled for party purposes that I am rather perplexed than
enUghtened with regard to the real state of affairs ; but my
general impression is that the government of Canada is a pro
blem about as easily solved as that of Ireland, and that the
evil there is so deep-rooted and the elements of coffiusion so far
beyond control, that whatever measures are taken wiU only be
paffiative, — retarffing, but not averting, some final catastrophe.
These impressions may be erroneous, but, such as they are,
they exist in my mind, and acting under them I should have
conceived myseff bound, in the event of having to form an
immediate decision, to give a negative answer to Melbourne's
offer ; for the man who accepts a post of ffigh responsibihty
with the presentiment of failure hanging round ffis neck must
be a fool as regards ffimseff, and not far removed from a rogue
with respect to ffis employers. Having no ambition to place
myseff in either of these categories, I have thought it best to
decide upon immeffiately returffing to England, and to coUect
the data for coming to an opiffion. . . . There is hkewise
another reason why I cannot at tffis moment give a defiffitive
answer. I am about to be married, as you know, and altho'
Lady Katharffie wiU doubtless promise to take me for better,
for worse, yet I don't consider that gives me a right to expatriate
her indefiffitely without her previous consent. The soonest we
can be married is the midffie of June, and, as that is about the
time that Melbourne iffiorms me the new Govemor of Canada
ought to take his departure, I must inqffire whether my Senora
woffid hke to pass her honeymoon on the Atlantic.
Charles GreviUe, who throughout his Ufe remained Clar
endon's intimate and trusted friend, strongly dissuaded
him from accepting the Canadian appointment.

164 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
London, 12th March 1839.— My deae Geoege,— The report
wffich I heard long ago that the messenger who went off to you,
' fiery hot with speed,' took the offer of Canada, and you are
coming home to answer in person. I am rejoiced to think we
shall have you here again so soon ; but the interest I take in
your decision induces me to write to you my thoughts upon it,
and I wish them to meet you at Paris, that you may ponder
thereon. I imagine that you have no particular incUnation for the
task that would be thus imposed upon you, and I own I hope
you wiU decUne it. I say notffing of the agrement or desagrement
of the thing, because I am persuaded that you would be ffis
posed to make great sacrifices for a real and strong case of
pubUck benefit ; but I tffink tffis would be a sacrifice infiffitely
greater than you can reasonably be caUed upon to make, and
the pubUck benefit to flow therefrom is not great enough to
make it imperative on you to do so. Your natural position is
now in the House of Lords. You have never yet been in parUa
ment, and you know how great the loss is to a man who aspires
to ffistinction in pubhck ffie to have missed the early years of
parUamentary traiffing, which is so essential to success ; and
although you are still young enough to make up for lost time,
you have no time to spare. Five or six years more are what
you cannot afford to tffiow away for any object however urgent
or plausible.
I tffink you could not go to Canada for a short time m justice
to the govemment, or for a long time in justice to yourseU and
your family ; nor do I see that much honor is to be reaped or
satisfaction to be found in that field ; for it seems to me that no
measure that the wit of man can devise woffid promise a satis
factory and beneficial resffit in that colony. There are a
thousand reasons (besides those wffich are personal to yourseU)
why it is desirable for a man in your pecuUar position, with a
celebrity and, at the same time, a character for moderation,
unpledged and imfettered, to remaffi in tffis country, where one
of the great evils of the times is that there are hardly any such
men, when many are wanted. I always look forward to the
breakmg up of tffis govemment, and to the necessity of one
being formed from wffich extreme opiffions wiU be excluded,
and in wffich it would be invaluable to have fresh men mtro-
duced. I tffink you could not accept the govemorsffip of
Canada without fixing your destffiy and making up your mind

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 165
henceforward to serve the country abroad rather than at home ;
wffich, if you were not in parhament, might be a wise determina
tion ; but, as you are, and in the present state of pubUck affairs,
I think particularly inexpeffient. . . .
It reaUy looks now as if Don Carlos was on the go, and it will
be vexatious ff you leave Spain just on the eve of the triumph
of the cause you have so long and perseveringly upheld with
such toil and anxiety. I don't think that anybody is yet aware
of the cause of your return so suddeffiy, and of course I shaU
say nothmg to any one ; but these secrets always get out tffiough
some cffink or other.
Sir Robert Peel had no difficffity in forming a miffistry
after Lord Melbourne resigned, the quondam Whigs Staffiey
and Graham accepting office as Secretaries of State ; but
ffis bark foundered before she left her moorings : the
Bedchamber Question bringing the Prime Miffister into
conffict with the Queen who, being a Whig by incUnation
and early traiffing and greatly upset by the loss of her
Mentor Melbourne, woffid not yield a jot of what she deemed
her prerogative to a Tory government ; so Melbourne
resumed the conduct of affairs. Charles ViUiers, having
repaired relations vrith his family, who decUned to quarrel
with ffim, sends ffis brother an amusing sketch of the
situation. J.'s Hotel, 25^^ May 1839. — ... I had a long talk last night
with Baroness litzen, who told me that in her opiffion the
crisis had been very useful, as Peel and the Duke evidently
had not the sUghtest notion of what stuff the Queen was made ;
that they thought to impose upon her every conffition they
Uked and to convert her into an instrument for themselves ;
but that they now have far ffifferent notions, and whenever they
do come to power they vriU remember that the Crown branch
of the legislature must be treated with consideration. She said
that the Queen's description of Peel's face was perfect when he
had recounted ffis ffifficulties and demanded the demonstration
of confidence, and that she then said—' Then, Sir Robert, I
am to understand that you look to the laffies for support in the
House of Commons.' Peel, qffite taken aback, said that the
country would require a proof that he enjoyed the entire con
fidence of H.M., and the Queen rephed—' To suppose that I

166 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vi.
would aUow my laffies any intervention in poUtical affairs is
to suppose that I should intrigue against my govemment.
That is an insult to me, and I don't beUeve the country can
reqffire that,' etc. etc., aU in the same style, but showing con
siderable readiness and spirit.
I hear that the penny post is to be conceded. That wiU please
people, but it wffi satisfy no poUtical exigeance. Upon the
whole, however, I shoffid say that the Rafficals are less rabid
than they were.
By a private telegrapffic ffispatch yesterday it is known that
the Turffish troops have entered Syria and that hostiUties have
commenced with the Pacha of Egypt.^ H this is true, and I
beUeve there is no doubt of it, it is bad news ; for the Pacha
wiU probably Uck the Sffitan, and then, when he approaches
Constantinople, the Emperor of Russia wffi consider he has a
casus foederis and intervene accorffingly. Russian intrigue is,
I daresay, as usual at the bottom of it. . . .
Those who have given attention to the private corre
spondence of tffis period must be familiar vnth the ex
pressions of horror and passionate remonstrance directed
against the various schemes of railway construction wffich
were being promoted. Lord Clarendon, as owner of
Kemlworth Castle, received through Sir Robert Porter,
painter and traveUer, the foUowing fervent petition from
Jane Porter, whose romances Thaddeus of Warsaw
and The Scottish Chiefs had won a considerable measure of
popffiarity. I have received, wrote Sir Robert from the West Indies, a
letter from my sister who begs me to make a petition to you,
wffich I now do in the fiffi extract from her epistle. ' I wffi not
aUow tffis to go without expressing to your friend Lord Clarendon
tffiough you, your antiquarian sister's horror at the rumoured
projection of a rail road tffio' tffis most interesting domain of
Keffilworth ! ! ! I pray you beseech ffim, by the shades of aU
the venerable and noble and cffivahous and beauteous memories
thereunto belonging, that he wiU not aUow it to be so desecrated.
Our Henrys — our Edwards, with their royal trains, their princely
huntings and their kffightly jousts — our queenly EUzabeth with
her court of heroes, gaUant and poetical — her maidens, fair as
• Mehemet Ali.

1838-9] WAR, DIPLOMACY, AND COURTSHIP 167
her virgin seff ; and Shakespear in the van and our own Walter
Scott in the rear — all, aU caU out against the dire and vricked
devastation ! So I do implore that if my spinster, feeble voice
may not be heard in so august and clamorous conclave, that
the classic and tasteful and truly patriotic Lord of Clarendon
and of Kenilworth wiU hearken unto the petition of so many
ages, and say No ! ! ! to the vile, sorffid, leveffing and obUvion-
makmg mtentions of these wretched gnomes of the earth and
their strange volcaffic apparatus.'
StiU more significant of the prejudice prevailing among
educated people against railways are the foUovnng entries
in Lady Clarendon's journal :
Srd December 1840. — The jury have done their duty upon
the matter of the accident on the Birmingham railroad which
caused us such a fright the other day. They brought in a
verdict of wiffffi murder against one driver, felo do se against the
other, and a deodand of £2000 upon the engine. Lord North-
wick claims the deodand in virtue of a grant by Stephen ! . . .
5th December. — The Birmmgham Railway Company will
escape the deodand of £2000, in consequence of the jury having
brought in a verdict of wifful murder and felo-de-se upon the
drivers ; for a deodand is penalty for an accident producing
death.

CHAPTER VII
THE CABINET
HavToiriv /JtoToio Ta/.iots rpi/3ov- tiv dyopy fi(v
K.v8ea Kal jrivvTal Trpiq^us- ev Se S6/iots
"Afiirav/j/- iv 8' dypots <f)V<rios )(a/3tS' ev Se OaXdaa-g
KepSos- ivl ^etvjj9, i^v [lev fXO^ ''"'i '^^^os-'^
Sir Thomas More is credited with having warned his son
John that marriage was a matter of such chance as a
blindfold man might have in putting ffis hand into a sack
fiUed Vidth eels and serpents in the proportion of ffine
serpents to every eel. Lord Clarendon may be deemed
to have made his venture blindfold, inasmuch as he ffid
so at a distance of seven or eight hundred miles from the
lady of ffis choice, with whom he had but very sUght previous
acquaintance ; but in doing so he was gffided by a pair of
very discermng eyes — ^those of ffis beautifffi and fine-witted
sister. Lady Theresa Lister. He was married to Lady
Katharine Barham on 4th June 1839. Mariage de con-
venance though it was, prefaced by no feverish vicissitude
of courtship such as might fffiffi the romantic ideal of the
poets, yet it proved to be the foundation of aU Clarendon's
future happiness, for it was the uffion of two personaUties,
each the perfect complement of the other.
After Melbourne had resumed office. Clarendon had to
defend his Spaffish policy against a vigorous attack by
the ffitra-Tory Lord Londonderry. According to Charles
GreviUe, the defence was very effective.
' Carve your way along the whole path of life ; in public affairs is [the
opportunity for] honours and prudent action ; at home there is repose ;
in the country is the grace of nature and in the sea advantage. In foreign
lands, if you have it in you, there is fame [to be won].
168

1839-40] THE CABINET 169
25th July. — Lord Clarendon made his first appearance in the
House of Lords the ffight before last in reply to Lord London
derry on Spaffish affairs, with great success and excellent effect,
and has completely landed himseff as a parUamentary speaker ;
in wffich, as he is certain to improve with time and practice, he
wiU eventually acqffire considerable eminence, and notffing
can prevent him arriving at the ffighest posts. He is aheady
marked out by the pubUc voice for the Foreign Office, for wffich
he is pecuUarly weU fitted, and there is no reason why he should
not look forward to bemg Prime IVUffister in some future combina
tion of parties, a post wffich he woffid fffi better than any of the
statesmen who now play the principal parts in the poUtical
drama.^ The speech gave so much satisfaction to Spamsh Pro
gresistas that Queen Cffiistina's government caused it
to be translated and circffiated through the provinces.
Moreover, though the national revenue was far from
flourisffing, they struck a gold medal in Lord Clarendon's
honour. Upper and Lower Canada had been uffited, in accord
ance with Lord Durham's scheme, in a single great colony,
and Clarendon, had he so chosen, might have been its first
Governor-General ; but he decUned the honour for reasons
which may be divined, but have not been left on record.
As for pubUc Ufe at home, he was by no means anxious to
embark in a ship that was making such bad weather of it
as Melbourne's. Sharing the general impression that the
end of the admiffistration was not far off, he prepared to
take his bride for a tour in Italy. Lord Melbourne, hear
ing of tffis, wrote at once : —
South Steeet, llth August 1839. — My deae Claeendon, — I
hope that you are not tffinking of going away before our parUa
mentary affairs are ended, and I hope you wiU not think of it
then. I have not hked to appeal to you before it was finaUy
determined what I shaU say, and the same reason prevents me
from beffig more exphcit now or for doing more than expressing
my hope that you wiU not hurry away. — Yours faitffiuUy,
Melbouene.
1 Greville Memoirs, 2nd part, i. 228.

170 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
Melbourne then offered Clarendon the Mastership of the
Mint, a lucrative post, but without a seat in the Cabinet,
though it was understood to be but a stepping-stone to
that much-coveted digmty. The offer was declined, for
Clarendon, having tasted the sweets of Uberty, felt no in
cUnation to exchange them for what the inexperienced term
the sweets of office. Before starting for the Continent, he
received the approval of his devoted friend Charles GreviUe.
Dyeham Paek, 21si! August 1839. — I enclose a letter from
Taylor ; pray burn it, and don't let it appear that you know
from him what he commufficates. Tffis wiU make it aU plain
saiUng for Melbourne as regards a place for you ; but I stiU
cUng to the hope, as Rice is to be made a peer and as there wiU
be several vacancies to be fiUed up, that more extensive changes
may be in contemplation than we were aware of.
I was very glad to find by your letter that there was so much
agreement on your part with aU I said in my letter yesterday.
It seems to me that we take the same view of the pros and cons,
and are equaUy puzzled about striking the balance. I agree
with you that it is a deUcate matter how to give them the real
reason for not joiffing them ; but dehcacy must not stand in
the way upon such an occasion. The great point to urge is
that the leaders in both Houses of Parhament stated that they
were not strong enough to carry on the govemment, and Mel
bourne further effiorced the point by saying that the greatest
calamity wffich coffid befal a country was having a government
not strong enough to carry measures wffich they deemed ex-
peffient for it. And yet they remain in ! and the reason given
for it is that ' as men of feeUng they coffid not act otherwise.' I
say notffing against tffis reason ; they very Ukely coffid not
act othervrise ; but the reason . . . does in no way touch you,
nor compel you ' to strap yourseff on,' as you say, to their
worn-out reputation, or to assist in infficting ',the greatest
calamity ' on the country. Another point that I shoffid be
anxious about is that they should properly feel that you are
not so insensible to the advantages of your position as to be had
for the mere asffing. They hve in such a fool's paraffise that
they may reaUy imagine it to be the summum bonum of any
man's desires to belong to them ; and I should say that there
had certaiffiy been some inffication of tffis feeUng as regards
you ; for tho' there has been empressement about stopping you

1839-40] THE CABINET 171
from going abroad, yet there has been also a perfect confidence
that you umuld stop whenever you were asked to do so.
Upon the whole, my great hope is that you wiU be able to
suggest some change or moffification in the govemment and
its system wffich may make it more satisfactory to you and
enable you to join it. For tho' I cannot bring myseff to wish
that you should belong to them as they are, yet I am fully aUve
to the expeffiency — I would rather say the duty — wffich pubhc
principle imposes on you of doing aU in your power to keep out
a govemment wffich shaU represent either principles of Toryism
or of Rafficahsm wffich you think dangerous to the country. I
certaiffiy do think tffis the most important moment of your public
life, and I wish with aU my heart that my abiUty to give you
sound and jufficious advice was at aU commensurate with my
anxious desire to do so.
Melbourne was unmUing to forgo the advantage which
Clarendon's reputation and experience woffid bring to
ffis admiffistration, for that, indeed, stood in dire need of
stiffemng. WiNDSOE Castle, llth September 1839. — ^My deae Claeen
don, — I hope and trust that the offer wffich I made to you before
you left London made no other impression on your mind but
the true and just one of the anxious desire entertained both by
myseff and aU my coUeagues to have your support and assist
ance in the govemment. Tffis object, I can assure you, I have
been desirous of seizing the ffist opportuffity of attaiffing, and
as the arrangements wffich have been made leave an opeffing, I
take advantage of the earUest occasion of making you another
offer, wffich, altho' perhaps not exactly what you woffid desire,
yet upon one essential point wiU be more agreeable to your
feeUngs and congeffial vsdth yom: views than the last.
It is that you should take the Privy Seal, wffich carries with
it a seat in the Cabinet necessarily and of comrse. You are so
weU aware of the principles of the Adrffiffistration, as weU as
of its prospects, that it is needless for me to effiarge upon either
of them. With respect to men, you are acquainted vrith the
appointments wffich have aheady been made, and I have only
to add by the same post by wffich I write to you, I write to
Macaulay to offer ffim the office of Secretary at War, vacant by
the resignation of Howick. If tffis arrangement shoffid be
agreeable to you, it need not be carried into effect until near

172 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
the commencement of the session of parUament. Duncaimon
wiU continue to hold the seal until your retum, and it would
therefore not of necessity interfere with any of your plans of
traveffing. You woffid naturaUy retum by the opeffing of
parUament, and you need not retum until then. At the same
time we should, of course, be glad of your prudence and help as
soon after we assemble for the consideration of pubhc business
as possible. — BeUeve me, my dear Clarendon, yours faitffiuUy,
Melbourne.
Clarendon might have replied by quoting a sffigle line
from Ausonius —
' Cur me posse negem posse quod ille putat 1 '
but he did so as foUows in fuUer detaU :
Milan, 10th October 1839. — My deae Melbouene, — ^I have
tffis moment received your letter of the 17th ffito. . . . My own
personal feeUngs about taffing office at present are precisely.
the same as when we talked upon the subject before I left London.
Never having been in parUament tiU tffis year, I wished to
ascertain more satisfactorily than I had yet had an opportumty
of doing whether I was capable of succeeffing as a speaker, and,
shoffid that have been the case, I had determined in my own
mind that whenever I ffid accept any office it should not be a
sinecure, because, in adffition to objecting to such offices on
principle, I think ff I have any aptitude for anytffing it is for
active business. I hkewise thought that, ff I coffid be of use
to the govemment, it would be as an independent member of
parhament desirous of promoting Liberal measures in their
most extended sense, but imfettered by office and not pledged
to any party.
These are my opiffions stiff, and I have troubled you with a
repetition of them that you may know I was sincere in what I
told you at the time you made me an offer wffich, upon other
grounds, I felt myseff precluded from accepting. If my decision
on the present occasion is ffifferent, it is solely because I tffink
you and your coUeagues must see better reason than I do for
expecting that I shaU be of use to the govemment by becom
ing a member of it under existing circumstances. I am the more
induced to tffink so because the proposal you have now the
goodness to make to me involves an adffition to the Cabinet,
wffich you before told me was inexpeffient. I shaU accorffingly
give up my own opiffions, for I don't tffink I should be justified

1839-40] THE CABINET 173
in refusing to put my shoulder to the wheel when I am told that
such assistance as I can give is required. In accepting the Privy
Seal I shaU only regret that it carries with it no active duties
to be performed. I shaU glaffiy avail myseff of your intima
tion that the arrangement need not interfere with our pro
jected joumey to Rome and Naples, and I shaU therefore not
go back to England tiU the beginning of January, uffiess you
absolutely desire that I should hasten my retum.
I wffi not conclude without saying how much fiattered and
obUged I am by the several proofs of your good opiffion that I
have received witffin the last few months, and assuring you of
the satisfaction I shaU have in acting with you and with your
coUeagues, for whom inffividuaUy and coUectively I feel great
esteem, and with many of whom I have long had the pleasure of
beffig on terms of ffitimacy. — BeUeve me, my dear Melbourne,
yrs very faitffiuUy, Claeendon.
Charles Greville to Lord Clarendon.
EusTON, 21th October 1839. — Edward sent me word just
before I left that you had accepted the Privy Seal. I cannot
help writing you word that I tffink you have done perfectly
right, and that mdeed you had hardly an alternative. When
ffist I heard it was offered to you, I thought that you were
qffite at Uberty to accept or refuse it, as you might be incUned,
and that nobody coffid complain (after what you had said
to Melbourne) wffichever alternative you embraced ; but on
further consideration and some correspondence with Edward,
I was qffite convmced that the govemment would have a right
to feel hurt and ffisappomted if you refused tffis offer, and that
it would be very ffifficffit for you to give any good and vaUd
reason for so doing. I am glad, therefore, that you have taken
it, though I feel that, if I had been in your situation, I should
have felt just as you do — sorry that it was offered and, in a
manner, forced upon you. At the same time, I am not quite
sure whether tffis regret is altogether reasonable, and whether
it is not reaUy a very good thing for you inffividuaUy, as weU as
for the govemment and the country. It places you at once
in a position in wffich you may act a very conspicuous part, for
I consider it a matter of course that the department of Foreign
Affairs wiU be committed to you in the House of Lords ; and as
they are never ffiscussed except in the House of Lords, you wiU
be much more the pubUck organ of govemment than the Foreign

174 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
Jffiffister ffimseff, and, let what wiU happen to the govemment, you
assume the ffighest station among the pubUck men of the day.
Then I tffink your accession to the government may be very
instrumental to the prevalence of moderate, and at the same
time of firm, counsels ; for I know that if there is one object to
wffich you vrill direct your energies more than to another, it
will be to make the government of which you are a member
assume an independent and consistent attitude, to act upon some
clear and understood principles, and to throw aside that waver
ing, truckUng appearance to wffich they owe the unpopularity,
and almost contempt, into wffich they have latterly been sink
ing. It is impossible, too, not to rejoice at your taffing office
when one sees the manner in which your appointment is received
by foe as weU as by friend. You may not have seen the Morning
Post, the article in which reaUy surprised me, so compUmentary
was it, and you are now enjoying (not, of course, to last for ever)
a reputation to wffich aU parties aUke bear favourable testi
mony. ... If the Times coffid, as you suggest, be made instru
mental to softeffing the asperity of party contest, I shoffid be
too happy to lend my smaU aid to such an end. . . . We have
been in a state of complete stagnation of events pubhck and
private, except for the moment when we were roused up by
Brougham's hoax of his own death ; for I fancy there is not
a shadow of doubt that it was his own.^ He vsiU not hear the
last of it for some time. If his object was curiosity to see what
would be said of ffim, he may fmd some gratification in the
panegyricks and regrets of the press, though I know not if the
gaU and wormwood of an article in the Times may not poison
the sugared and homed draughts of the other papers. It seems
to me a very miserable and unworthy jest, and was, in fact,
notffing but a deUberate, circumstantial Ue.
Lord Melbourne to Lord Clarendon.
WiNDSOE Castle, 3rd November 1839. — ^It was with the
greatest satisfaction that I received your letter of the 10th ffito.
from IVIilan, and that satisfaction I have found most corffiaUy
shared by all our coUeagues and by those to whom I have
commufficated your acceptance of office.
' It was reported that Brougham had lost his life in a carriage accident
at Brougham Hall. It was true that there was an accident, he and two
friends being thrown out, but escaping without injury. Nearly all the
newspapers published obituary notices of him on 22nd October, some
of them the reverse of eulogistic.

1839-40] THE CABINET 175
I perfectly understood your feeUngs and opiffions with re
spect to office, and in a great measure concurred ffi them,
except that I do not think that the Privy Seal can be rightly
considered as a sinecure place Uable to the general objections to
sinecures, ffi wffich I entirely agree. It is a sinecure vidth respect
to its own particular duties ; but it is not a sinecure with respect
to the general business of the govemment, and it must be qffite
evident to you that it is absolutely necessary that there should
be in an admiffistration some persons who have leisure to give
general assistance and also to undertake very particular extra
work wffich may reqffire to be done. I shaU admit that such
places are more proper for those who are, to a certain degree,
withdrawmg and retiring from parUamentary ffie than for those
who are just entering it, and therefore I should have been
glad, ff I coffid, to have found for you a situation of more active
duty and busmess. With reference to tffis, I should be glad
to know whether, ff any event should vacate the Post Office,
you woffid Uke to undertake tffis task, wffich is not a Ught or
easy one, and upon wffich the pubhc attention is very much
fixed at present.
We shaU meet in town about the 18th inst., remaffi I suppose
about a fortffight, and then adjourn for the Christmas hoUdays.
I am not desirous of hasteffing your retum, tho' I should be most
happy to see you here ; but I hope you wiU not be later than
the time you mention — the beginffing of January — as we shaU
probably meet parUament earUer than we usuaUy have done —
say about the 15th or 16th of January. . . .
Lord Clarendon to Lord Melbourne.
Rome, 22nd November 1839. — ^I received your ffind and
frienffiy letter at Naples. It decided my immeffiate departure
for England, and I shaU lose no time on the way, except that
wffich the state of the weather and the roads may render
unavoidable. With reference to your question about the Post Office, I
shoffid say that, under orffinary circumstances, it would not
be agreeable to me, considering that the office is one of mere
routffie without any particffiar interest, but demanffing a great
deal of time. Under the extraordmary circumstances, however,
occasioned by the measure of last session ^ its character wiU,
^ The institution of the Penny Post.

176 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vii.
for a time at least, be altered ; but as the machinery for carry
ing that measure into effect must, of course, be decided upon
before now, and the Postmaster-General wiU, to a certain extent,
be held responsible for its working by the pubhc, whose attention
you justly say is much fixed upon the subject, I feel that,
wffile I am in ignorance of what the macffinery is, I cannot
conscientiously undertake the charge of it, nor, consequently,
give you a decided answer at tffis moment. Neither, perhaps,
is it necessary I shoffid do so, as you offiy put a hypothetical
question to me, and do not seem to contemplate any immeffiate
change in the department. I wiU therefore offiy say generaUy
that, having joined your admiffistration, I shaU do my utmost
to render you service in any way I can ; but as regards the Post
Office, I tffink it may be matter for consideration whether there
woffid not be sometffing anomalous and possibly inexpeffient
in having a Cabinet ]\Iiffister at the head of a department wffich,
as appertaiffing to revenue, must always be suborffinate to the
Treasury.! Melbourne's brother-in-law. Lord Duncannon, at this
time held the offices of Lord Privy Seal and First Com
missioner of Land Revenue, or, as we now call it, of Woods
and Forests. He vacated the first of these to make way
for Lord Clarendon, in deference to whose objection to
taking the Post Office that department was left in the hands
of Lord Lichfield, who was not in the Cabinet. Other
changes were made in the miffistry : Lord John Russell
exchanging the Home Office with Lord Normanby for the
Coloffial Office ; Francis Baring ^ succeeding Spring-Rice ^
as ChanceUor of the Exchequer, and Thomas Babington
Macaffiay taking the War Office in place of Lord Howick,
who resigned because the rearrangement of offices was
not to his fancy. With Howick went his brother-in-law
Charles Wood, Secretary to the Admiralty.*
* ' Lord Clarendon has accepted the Privy Seal, not very wUlingly,
but feeling that he could not with decency refuse it. They consider his
accession to the government a matter of great importance, and the Tories
own it to be so, such a reputation has he acquired by the briUiant manner
in which he conducted the mission in Spain, and by his popular and
engaging qualities ' (Oreville Memoirs, 2nd part, i. 243).
2 Created Lord Northbrook in 1866.
3 Created Lord Monteagle in 1839.
* Created Viscount Halifax in 1866,

1839-40] THE CABINET 177
Clarendon was sworn of the Privy Council, of course,
not until his return from the Continent ; absent, there
fore, from the Council of 23rd November, attended by
eighty-three Privy CounciUors, when Queen Victoria
announced her intention of marrying Prince Albert of Saxe-
Coburg and Gotha. In connection with this marriage
Lord Broughton has recorded in ffis Becollections how
Clarendon's Ungffistic gift came in usefuUy to the help of
ffis coUeagues.
9th January 1840. — We had some ffiscussion [in the Cabinet]
as to the form in wffich the Royal marriage should be announced,
and considered whether Prince Albert was competent to make
a treaty of marriage. Palmerston showed the paper wffich
Baron Stockmar had given ffim, and asked ff any one of us coffid
read German ffi a written hand. Lord Clarendon took the
paper, and qffietly reaffing it ffimseff, explained the purport of
it, and told us it was signed by Prince Albert ffimseff, and not
ffis father.!
In the early days of her married Ufe, Lady Clarendon
did what most people have done at one time or another —
she began to keep a journal, she also did what very few
people succeed in doing, for she persevered with it for
thirty years, making it far more than a mere jotting of
the daily round. It is a very remarkable document con-
taiffing consecutive and original observation of men and
measures by a woman of clear inteffigence moving among
makers of ffistory. Having been accorded the privilege of
perusing it, I have gained several glimpses du dessous des
cartes, and have been permitted to quote from it on
occasions. 21th January 1840. — . . . We ffined at the Palace. . . .
George took the Queen in. I ffid not know before that Lord
Privy Seal ranked so ffigh. . . . The Queen talked a great deal
to Lord Melbourne. In the course of the eveffing the news
came in of the ffivision in the House of Commons about Prmce
Albert's aUowance, tffiowing out £50,000 a year and substitut
ing £30,000. There had been a previous amendment by Mi.
Hume, for making it £20,000 a year, but that was negatived by
' Recollections of a Long Life, vol. v.
VOL. I M

178 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap, vii.
a large majority. The £30,000 was moved by Col. Sibthorpe
and carried by a majority of 104. . . . The Queen took the
news very well, though she certainly was much annoyed at the
large majority. . . . When she heard Sir Robert Peel had
spoken against the £50,000 she said to George — 'And Sir
Robert Peel spoke against it ! It is too bad ; I shaU never
forgive him.' The colour rose in her face when she said
this. . . .
30th. — We ffined at Lansdowne House. . . . There was a
beautiful Uttle statue of a child in one of the rooms by a scffiptor
caUed Roach or some such name.^ I heard his history. He
was footman to the late Queen of Prussia when quite a lad, and
she used always to find him drawing or making httle clay' models
in the waiting room. Fluffing out his talent, she had him pro
perly taught, and one of ffis first works was a statue of her lying
dead, which is now at BerUn.
The question of the amount of annuity to be granted
to the Queen's Consort was not the offiy one of delicacy
and difficulty to be carried through parliament by the
Government. When the biU for naturalising Prince Albert
as a British subject was before the House of Lords, the Duke
of Wellington objected that it did far more than that,
inasmuch as it granted him precedence immediately after
the Queen herself. The debate was adjourned accordingly
on the duke's motion. This action was deeply resented
by the young Queen, who wrote thus to Prince Albert.
The Tories are reaUy very astoffishing ; as they cannot and
dare not attack us in ParUament, they do everything they can
to be personaUy rude to me. . . . The Whigs are the offiy
safe and loyal people, and the Rafficals wiU also rally round
their Queen to protect her from the Tories ; but it is a curious
sight to see those who, as Tories, used to pique themselves upon
their excessive loyalty, doing everything they can to degrade
their young Sovereign in the eyes of the people.^
Clarendon was deputed to try and induce the Duke of
WeUington to withdraw his objection. The resffit of his
mission is recorded in Lady Clarendon's journal.
' The name was Rauch, and the statue is now at Bowood.
' Queen Victoria's Letters, 21st January 1810.

1839-40] THE CABINET 179
1st February 1840. — There was a Cabinet, and George spoke
seriously to Lord Melbourne about the precedence question
and offered to go to the Duke of Weffington and try to ascertain
ffis feeUngs and intentions upon the subject. Lord Melbourne
accepted the offer, and George wrote to the Duke and left the
note ffimseff. . . . He received a very civU answer from ffim
sajdng he woffid wait at home tffi he came ; so George walked
off there immeffiately and had an mterview of near an hour
with the Duke. He represented to ffim that there was no real
precedent for the present case, and that now was the time to
make one — how natural and proper it was for the Queen to
wish her husband to rank next to herseff, etc. etc. The Duke
adnutted aU tffis, but said the precedence of the royal fanffiy
of England was settled by Act of Parhament, and that altering
it ffi tffis instance woffid be committmg an ffi justice to them
that he coffid not approve of, and that the precedence of Prince
Albert shoffid be settled accordffig to the precedent of Prince
George of Denmark. He said he had had to do with many
Sovereigns and always found he coffid bring them to reason.
George asked him whether he had ever had to do with a young
Lady Queen ffi love ! The resffit of this mterview was that the
Duke ffid not change his mtentions and it became evident to
Greorge that they mean to put Prince Albert below aU the
members of the royal fanffiy.
George came back to dffie alone with me, and, after dinner,
he wrote to Lord Melbourne to teU ffim the resffit of ffis mter
view and to say that, ff he ffid not meet him at Lady Palmerston's
that evening, he woffid go to ffis house to see ffim and give ffim
further particulars. George went to Lady Palmerston's and,
not finding Lord Melbourne there, proceeded to ffis house ffi
South Street, where he found Lord Melbourne was gone to
bed, but had left orders for George to be shewn up to ffis bed
room when he came. G!eorge found him ia bed— everytffing
in the room ffi a great htter, the bed dirty, and books, pampffiets,
papers, boots and shoes aU tumbling ffiffiscrimmately about.
. . . George placed the matter before ffim ffi the strongest
Ught ; shewed him of what consequence it was that the Queen
and Prince Albert shoffid not appear to have received any m-
justice, and that the Duke of W. and the Lords shoffid have
prevented it ; shewed him what a cry might be set up in the
country tffiough the influence of the Tory press ; remmded ffim
how smaU a matter Lady Flora Hastffigs' story seemed at ffist,

180 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
but what a large tree it had become to overshadow the land.^
Lord Melboume was strack with tffis, but said he had thought
he had to do with ffisoreet people in the Hastmgs business, but
that Lord Hastings had not been so. George said he could
not trust much now to the ffiscretion of the House of Peers
and the Tory Press. He also impressed on ffis mind that the
Queen had not now to choose what precedence should be given
to Prince Albert, but she had to choose between voluntarily
yielffing (as she perhaps in part would do) or having a pre
cedence she thought too low forced dovsTi her tffioat ; for there
was undoubteffiy an immense majority in the House of Lords
that would follow whatever course the Duke of Weffington
adopted. . . .
Sunday, 2nd February. — George stopt at Lord Melbourne's
on his way back from the Grove. Lord Melboume had not
been able to persuade the Queen to yield about precedence.
He suggested George going again to the Duke of Weffington,
wffich G. dechned doing ; as he had no concession to com-
mufficate, he could not go again to pump the Duke as to whether
he had changed ffis opiffion or not. It was therefore settled
between them that Lord M. should write to the Duke request
ing him to state exactly what it was he meant to do. . . .
George had told me before that Lord Melbourne's way at present
of commufficating with the Duke of Weffington was through
Lady Burghersh. He told me to-day on his retum from Lord
Melbourne's that he had found out that formerly the Duke
and Lord Melboume used to commufficate ffirectly with each
other, and that when the King of the Belgians came, the Duke
of Weffington used to be asked to meet ffim at Windsor Castle,
and that the King of the Belgians used to brffig a formal message
from the Duke to Lord Melboume, so far frienffiy that com-
1 Lady Flora Hastings [1806-39] was the daughter of the first Marquess
of Hastings and lady of the bedchamber to H.R.H. the Duchess of Kent.
In January 1839 she had to consult Sir James Clark about her health,
and a wicked and groundless rumour was circulated that she waa enceinte
by a private marriage. Two other of the Duchess's ladies having made
the accusation, the matter was laid before Lord Melbourne, who, after
consulting Clark, declined to take up the matter. But the slander was
pressed so assiduously that Lady Flora had to submit to a medical examina
tion, which entirely exonerated her from suspicion. This judgment was
confirmed by a post mortem examination, for the victim of this cruel
persecution took it so much to heart that she died a few months later,
5th July 1839. ' It is inconceivable,' wrote Charles GreviUe, ' how
Melbourne can have permitted this disgraceful and mischievous scandal,
which cannot faU to lower the character of the Court in the eyes of the
world.' {Memoirs, 2nd Series i. 172).

1839-40] THE CABINET 181
mumcation used to go on between them ; but that the last time
the King of the Belgians was in England, the Duke did not send
that friendly message tffio' the King to Lord Melboume, as
the Duke was particularly angry (one tffing he ffisUked particu
larly was Mx. Poulett Thomson goffig to Canada), the con
sequence of wffich was that the direct commuffications between
the Duke and Lord Melboume ceased, and the letter to be written
to-day wiU be the first renewal.
Monday, 3rd February. — An early cabinet. Lord Melboume
had received an answer from the Duke of Weffington saying
he woffid send ffim two prepared amendments — one ffi case of
Prince Albert's beffig made a peer, the other in case he was
not. These two amendments ffid not come tiU just before the
cabffiet, and it was clear from them that Prince A. was to be
put below every member of the royal family. Lord Melboume
wrote from the cabinet to the Queen teffing her that, in con
sequence of tffis commuffication from the Duke of Weffington,
the cabffiet had come to the decision to leave out the Precedence
Clause entirely from the NationaUsation BUI. ... I ffined in
Grosvenor Square. George came afterwards and told us what
had passed ffi the House of Lords. He was, of course, very
ffisoreet about aU the commuffications he had had with the
D. of Weffington, and it was funny to hear Mama teffing ffim
what the Duke meant to do ! George went home before I ffid,
and the tffing beffig much ffiscussed, I had some ffifficffity in
being ffisoreet, but succeeded. Papa,^ by Mama's persuasion,
determined not to vote, as he had received many personal
kmdnesses from the Queen, so he went to the play with Jane
and my brothers.
Wednesday, 5th February.— . . . George ffined at a cabinet
dinner at Lord Palmerston's. He came home early and gave
me an account of the eveffing by my bedside. The cabinet
dinner had been very duU : the questions ffiscussed were the
Veto of the Scotch Kirk and the boundaries of Canada. He
described very amusingly the ways in wffich ffifferent members
of the cabinet feU asleep — Lord Palmerston in a deep meffitation
upon the Scotch Kirk — Lord Lansdowne in a graceful attitude —
Macaffiay severely. . . . Lord Melboume told George the
Queen had been very angry with ffim ; and upon George asMng
ffim why, he said that the Queen was talffing to ffim about
1 James, first Earl of Verulam (d. 1845), in whose house they were
dining.

182 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
Prince Albert and remarffing that one tffing that pleased her
very much was that he never paid any attention to any other
woman. Lord Melbourne inadvertently (as he called it) answered,
' No ; that sort of thing is apt to come later ' ; an odd remark
to make to any woman on the eve of marriage — let alone the
Queen. She said, ' I shan't soon forgive you that ! ' Lord
Melboume rubbed ffis hands when he told the anecdote and
chuckled over it amazingly.
Saturday, 29th February. — Tffis day adffitional in February,
thanks to Leap Year. We had a ffinner consisting of Lord
and Lady Howick, IMr. and IVCrs. Wiffiam RusseU, Mr. and IVfrs.
Stanley, Lord Normanby, Mx. Lister, JMrs. Viffiers, Mx. Tommy
Moore,^ Lord John RusseU, Lord Duncannon and Charles
GreviUe. The latter and Lord John RusseU wffispered nearly
aU ffinner time, and afterwards when the laffies had left the
ffiffing-room. The estrangement which arose in 1835 between the
governments of Great Britain and France, principal parties
in the Quadruple AUiance, had been confirmed by the
course of events in the Levant, in regard to which the
policy of the two Powers sharply diverged. Loffis PhiUppe,
taking alarm at the formidable character of revolutionary
designs in ffis own capital, accentuated by more than one
attempt upon his life,^ sickened of liberal government, and
aUgned himseff with the autocratic Powers of the North.
England being thus isolated and a coffision with Russia
seeming almost inevitable in 1837, Palmerston abandoned
the traditional poUcy of the Whigs and adopted that of
maintaimng the integrity of the Turkish Empire. That
integrity was seriously threatened at the time. Mehemet
AU, who was born in 1769 (the same year as WeUington
and Napoleon), started in Ufe as tobacco dealer in a small
way in the insigmficant Albanian seaport of CavaUa. In
1802 he was placed in command of a contingent of tffiee
hundred men to join the Egyptian forces of the Sultan in
1 The Irish poet.
^ Of these the most nearly successful took place on 28th July 1835,
when a Corsioan named Fieschi exploded an infernal machine in the
Boulevard du Temple, as the king was returning from a review. The
King was unhurt, but Marshal Mortier, General de Verigny, and twelve
others were killed on the spot, and about thirty others wounded.

1839-40] THE CABINET 183
fighting the French. He distingmshed himseff so signaUy
as to rise in 1805 to the PashaUk and remained Governor
of Egypt for forty years. He continued fairly loyal to the
Porte tiU 1831, when he put in force the intention he had
long cherished of estabUshing independent rffie in Egypt,
captured Acre, and, after defeating the Sffitan's troops in
many engagements, obtained the cession of the whole of
Syria by the treaty of 1833.
In the foUowing years French influence became dominant
in Egypt ; the Egyptian army was trained by French officers,
and in 1839 Marechal Soffit, the French premier, persuaded
the other four Powers to address a simffitaneous demand
to the Porte that Mehemet Ali shoffid receive Egjrpt as a
hereditary pashaUk on condition of ffis restoring Syria to
the Sffitan.
The demand was presented too late. Matters had gone
too far. The Turkish army had crossed the Euphrates in
April ; the notes of the Powers were not presented till
June ; on 24th June Ibrahim Pasha, Mehemet AU's son,
completely defeated and scattered the Sffitan's forces, and
on 29th Sffitan Mahmoud died. Mehemet AU was now
virtual master of the Levant, and might order an advance
upon Constantinople at any moment ; but he had stiU to
deal with the flve Powers who had guaranteed the integrity
of the Ottoman Empire. Palmerston drafted orders to
Admiral Stopford to proceed to Alexandria and to demand
from Mehemet AU the restitution of the Turkish fleet which
he had seized ; but these orders had to go before Marechal
Soffit so that the French fleet might co-operate with
Stopford's. To Palmerston's disgust. Soffit decUned to
interfere ; the draft orders were returned to London.
England and France were henceforth, so to speak, in
opposite camps ; England acting in the Porte's interest,
France in that of Mehemet. This change in the situation
was viewed with approval by Russian diplomatists, and
Baron de Brunnow was sent to London to arrange con
certed action with Palmerston. Russia was to move a
fleet to the Dardanelles and an army to the Asiatic shore
of the Bosphorus in order to protect Constantinople from

184 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap, vn.
Ibrahim's advance. When this proposal was submitted
to Soffit he declared that if the Russian fleet entered the
Bosphorus, a French fleet shoffid go there also, not with
the object of coercing Mehemet AU. Palmerston, having
received assurances from Austria, now prepared to go for
ward without the co-operation of France, and a joint
British, Turkish and Austrian fleet was set to blockade the
coast of Syria.
Such was the situation at the beginning of 1840 when
Clarendon joined the Miffistry. He was fiUed vrith mis
giving about the effects of Palmerston's poUcy, which
seemed likely to convert France from a lukewarm aUy
into an active enemy.

From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
Thursday, 5th March. — . . . George told me he considered the
Eastern question in a very ffisastrous state, and that if ffis
coUeagues persisted in bringing on ffifferences with France, he
thought he should resign. . . . Charles Grevffie seemed pleased
with my teffing ffim that ffis pampffiet had entirely settled the
precedence question. He told me Prince Albert's precedence
would be in the Gazette to-morrow, settled as ffis pampffiet
suggested ; that he would be next the Queen's person, before
every one else, on aU occasions, except where by Act of ParUa
ment he was excluded from that place ; wffich occasions are,
I beheve, offiy in Parhament and the Privy Council. This
precedence is given ffim by the Queen's prerogative and patent.
Saturday, 1th March. — . . . George has had some conversa
tion lately with Mx. E. Effice (the Bear) ^ about the Eastern
question. . . . He told George that there was an article in the
Morning Post from the Post's Paris correspondent talkmg of
Mx. ElUce's and Lord Clarendon's ' Uttle intrigue ' to ffisplace
1 Right Hon. Edward Ellice M.P. (1781-1863), commonly known as
' Bear ' Ellice, from his connection with the North American fur trade.
He was the first person engaged in commerce to enter the Cabinet, as he
did in 1833 ; but he consistently declined to hold office after 1834, be
coming the confidential adviser of the Liberal party (advice not always
accepted at the author's value), le grand faiseur, in constant private com
munication with Guizot, Thiers, and other French statesmen. He married
in 1809 Lady Hannah Bettesworth, widow of Captain Bettesworth, R.N.,
and youngest sister of the second Earl Grey. She died in 1832, and in
1843 EUice married the widow of the first Earl of Leicester.

1839-40] THE CABINET 185
Lord Palmerston. Now as IVIr. Effice and Lord Clarendon have
no intrigue whatever, and have offiy communicated together
on the subject of the Eastern question in consequence of its
havuig been accidentaUy ffiscussed between them at Lord
HoUand's house, wffich induced a Uttle further conversation
by letter, just as any other private inffividuals might ffiscuss
any subject that mterested them, the report in a paper of an
mtrigue to ffisplace Lord Palmerston woffid, in itseff, not be a
tffing worth caring about ; but attendant circumstances make
it a Uttle ffisagreeable. To Lord Palmerston ffimseff and to
many other of the Miffisters, George has opeffiy expressed
disapproval of Lord Palmerston's poUcy ffi tffis Eastern question.
The pubhc, meanwffile, has for a length of time pomted out
George as the man for managmg Foreign Affairs. George has a
great personal friendship for Lord Palmerston, and has found
ffim kmd and frienffiy ffi their pubhc and private transactions.
The report is therefore disagreeable, but it can't be helped.
George must, of course, speak ffi the Cabffiet as he thinks best
for ffis country, mdependent of personal friendsffips.
Several members of the Cabmet secretly shared
Clarendon's misgiving about Palmerston's Eastern poUcy,
but the offiy one who had the courage to express dissent,
and to advocate the recogmtion of Mehemet AU, was Lord
HoUand.i Lord Palmerston to Lord Clarendon.
13th March 1840. — My deae Claeendon, — As you and Lord
HoUand have a weakness ffi favor of that aged afrancesado ^
freebooter, Mehemet AU, I send you my remarks upon a letter
written ffi ffis favour by some yotmg gentleman whose name
Lord HoUand woffid not teU me but whose letter he sent me
proposmg to circffiate it for the purpose of enUghteffing the
Cabmet upon the great ffiterests of Europe, — Yours smcerely,
Paljieeston.
1 Third baron (1773-1840), ChanceUor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
When he died, these Unes were found on his dressing table :
Nephew of Fox and friend of Grey,
Enough my meed of fame
If those who deigned to observe me say
I injured neither name.
' Frenchified.

186 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
The letter enclosed has not been preserved; but the
covermg note gave Clarendon an opportuffity of deaUng
frankly with the irritating canard about his plot against
Palmerston. No man that ever stepped was less disposed
than Clarendon to intrigue for ffis own advantage ; he had
entered the Cabinet with reluctance, and, once in, he proved
the most loyal of colleagues.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, lUh March 1840. — My deae
Palmeeston, — I am particularly obUged to you for having sent
me the traveUer's letter and your observation upon it, for reasons,
however, that I daresay will not occur to you. Altho' my
views may possibly be erroneous, I have a very strong feeUng
upon tffis Eastern question ; but I had determined to take no
further part upon the subject, either in or out of the Cabinet,
because, to my surprise, I saw in the Morning Post some time
ago that my name was coupled with that of Effice as bemg
engaged in some intrigue against you ; and although I know
myseff to be as incapable of an intrigue as of picking a pocket,
yet others might not, and I was extremely annoyed at the
slander. I ffid not do you the injustice to tffink you woffid
beUeve I was meffitating such fooUshness, or that I could be
umffindful of the special obhgation I am under to you, and for
wffich I assure you I shaU always be grateful ; but, by sending
me yesterday your correspondence with Lord HoUand, you have
given me an opportunity of saying sometffing upon the Eastern
question and of writing you tffis note, both of wffich are a
satisfaction to me. — Yours sincerely, Claeendon.
Accompanying this note was a memorandum clearly
setting forth the writer's conception of the principles
whereon the relations of Great Britain vidth foreign Powers
shoffid be framed, especiaUy in regard to the Eastern
question. It is a lengthy document and applies to a bygone
phase of the Eastern question ; yet it deserves earefffi
perusal, for it was wntten at a turning point in the annals
of the Whig party, when, for good or for ill, Palmerston
persuaded them to the poUcy of maintaining the integrity
of the Turldsh Empire.
... I must in the ffist place ffisovm the weakness you impute
to me for ' that aged afrancesado freebooter, Mehemet AU.' I
can have no preffilection for the Pacha over the Sultan ; on the

1839-40] THE CABINET 187
contrary, my tendencies are naturally in favor of the Sovereign
and against the Vassal ; but I look upon Mehemet Ali as re
presenting great power, which, however much its existence
may be lamented, can neither be domed or despised. Con
sequently, I think he commands consideration and that the
treatment he receives from us should have reference io his
position and our means of infiuencing ffim.
With respect to ffis being an afrancesado, I beUeve he is so
contrary to ffis incUnations, because ffis interests would mani
festly lead ffim to seek an affiance with us rather than vsdth any
other Power. Our maritime superiority, our Indian vicinage,
and the annuaUy increasing commercial relation of Egypt vrith
England, must make our friendsffip more valuable to ffim than
that of France, from whom he must fear encroachment. But
a man ffi the position of Mehemet AU must seek support where
he can find it, and ff he meets repulse from us, we cannot wonder
ff he tffiows ffimseff ffito the open arms of France.
The accusation against ffim, however, is of comparatively
recent date, for the fans ei origo of our antipathy to him was the
idea that he was a devoted instrument of Russian ambition —
an idea wffich probably never had any foundation, as Mehemet
AU is too acute not to know that the offiy Power wffich the
Ottoman Empire, however rffied or however ffivided it may be,
has to fear is Russia.
Then as regards Mehemet AU beffig a freebooter — ^I beUeve
he has merely exffibited the same propensities wffich power
never fails to engender ffi us aU. He waxed strong and became
aggressive ; reaUy, when we tffink of the partition of Poland,
of Austria in Italy, of Russia wherever she can extend her
territory, of France in Africa, and of ourselves passim — north,
south, east and west, Gibraltar, Malta, the loffian islands, the
Cape, and our 100 miffion of Inffian subjects — I caimot but
tffink that giving ugly names to those who, being strong, have
oppressed the weak, and who, being able to extend their
domiffions, have done so, is not very unhke Peachum and Lockit,
and the less said about it the better.
We must not judge either Sultans or Pachas by our European
standard of sovereignty and aUegiance ; we must not ffisregard
Eastern ffistory and practice, which teach us, that it is the
custom for Sultans and Pachas to be at war with each other —
that immeffiately a Pacha becomes strong, the Sultan en
deavours by force or by intrigue to crush ffim, and that he

188 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
resists upon grounds of seff -preservation. He has to choose
between defying his sovereign and losing ffis head. It is not
wonderful, therefore, that Eastern history should abound with
instances of the former alternative being taken. ^ How many
attempts has the Porte not made to destroy Mehemet AU ?
How often has he [Mehemet] not been compelled in seff defence
to employ the means which he had created; and can we, in
common justice, tffiow upon ffim aU the obloquy which in civil
ised countries, with regular governments, attaches to rebeUion ?
All this, however, is beside the question. I offiy wish to
affirm that I have no fancies about foreign nations or individuals,
and that, in any opinion I may form upon our relations with other
countries, I look only to what may be most for the honor and
advantage of England, and to what offers the fairest prospect
of extenffing her commercial relations and the sphere of her
influence and power.
We wish to maintain the ' integrity ' of Turkey, but the word
is somewhat vague and the interpretation to be given to it not
very easy. When we consider that at no period of this century
can Turkey be said to have had unffisturbed possession of Syria,
that a large portion of it was held in defiance of the Sultan by
the Pacha of Acre who, dying in 1804, named one of ffis Mame
lukes as ffis successor, and that he was recogffised by the Porte,
wffile the Druses, the Maroffites, and other tribes kept the re
mainder of Syria in perpetual insurrection ; when we consider
that the Morea and the islands of the Archipelago are lost to
Turkey, that the Powers of Europe have made an independent
ffingdom of Greece, that Bessarabia and the province of the
Euxine have become Russian, that Servia has an independent
Prince, that Wallachia and Moldavia are under the protectorate
of Russia, that Bosffia and Albania are in a state of de facto in
dependence, that Arabia was lost to the Wahabees, that Egypt
has for more than tffirty years been despoticaUy govemed by
Mehemet AU, that the PachaUk of Arabia has been given to his
son, and that the Powers of Europe are prepared solemffiy to
invest ffis family with the PachaUk of Egypt, I must consider
the term ' integrity ' vague and, as the groundwork of a system,
not easy to be interpreted.
The word, however, accorffing to its present appUcation
^ Lord Clarendon need not have gone far east, and not further back
than three centuries in time, to find simUar conditions prevaUing in
European States.

1839-40] THE CABINET 189
means sUcing off Egypt from the Porte, and annexing Syria and
Arabia to the Porte, and by that form of ' integrity ' the ' inde
pendence ' of Turkey is to be secured. In other words, Turkey
wiU then be able to resist Russia, for that is after all the real
question — the offiy one that reaUy interests or affects us. Call
it by what name we may, or Austria may— integrity, independ
ence, raising up or consoUdating the Ottoman Empire — fear of
Russia and desire to keep her out of Constantinople is at the
bottom of aU, and most properly so. WiU Turkey, then, under
the contemplated arrangement be more able to resist Russia
than she is now ? It is my humble opiffion that she wiU not,
and that it is a faUacy to consider accession of territory synony
mous with accession of strength. I believe it would be injurious
to the interests of Turkey to transfer to her remote and turbulent
provmces wffich she cannot hold. For the last forty years the
state of Syria has been a permanent cause of misfortune to the
Porte and has engaged her in perpetual wars, with twelve
miffions of revenue and a ffisponable army of 120,000 men ; and
when the popffiation of Turkey was upwards of 15,000,000 she
could not hold peaceable possession of Syria and Arabia. How
could she do so now, when her revenue is not four miffions —
when she has no army at aU — when her population is reduced
by one haff ? What chance of authority would the Porte have
now in those countries, and how could she be fitter to resist the
encroachments of Russia when she had weakened herseff by
ffisseminatffig the Uttle force she has in endeavours to establish
her domiffion and to quell the insurrection that would every
where break out upon the Provinces being restored to her
nominal rule ?
Admitting, however, to its fuUest extent the desireableness
of such transfer, can we procure its accompUshment ? Have
we any avaUable means for the purpose ? England can't give
a man nor a sffiffing towards it, nor will Austria, and neither
Power wiU permit Russia (even ff Russia were prepared to
embark in such an undertaffing) to do it single-handed. France
will not offiy not join in any measure of coercion, but would
probably at once take part with Mehemet AU if they were
attempted. To attack Alexandria is impossible : to destroy
the Pacha's fieet in the port would be to destroy the Sultan's
at the same time, together with a large amount of European
sffipping and property : to blockade the coast woffid be of
doubtful efficacy for its object and would be most injurious to

190 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
our trade and produce, causing great outcry at home. It would
be somewhat ffistastefffi to Americans and other neutral Powers,
and we should run great risk of coffision with France, for French
adventurers woffid soon swarm to the assistance of Mehemet
AU, reckoffing on the protection of their fiag and the profit to
be made ; and the ffist chastisement infficted upon them would
raise a war whoop from one end of France to the other.
If France were acting corffiaUy with us and Mehemet AU
were without the encouragement wffich her advice, promises,
and general moral support give ffim, I have no doubt he woffid
subiffit now, altho' without any mtention of remaiffing qffiet
hereafter ; but France is not, and wffi not be, with us ; we
must take tffings as they are and be prepared to sacrffice a
portion of what we are aiming at in order to secure for England
her ffist and most inffispensable necessity — peace. The Whig
govemment has now for ten years mamtamed the peace of the
world, contrary to aU preffictions and ffi defiance of circum
stances the most calculated to brffig about war. It would
indeed be lamentable if, for objects with wffich in reaUty we
have Uttle to do, the curse of war were erttailed upon us at a
moment when we are so iU able to bear it that it woffid almost
amount to national rffin. H suspicion offiy of such a danger be
excited here, pubUc opiffion would soon find the means of paralys
ing the course of govemment.
Looking exclusively ffi our own interests, I cannot but tffink
they Ue more ffi the direction of Egypt than of Turkey. The
overland commuffication with Inffia is daUy beconung more
important ; it can hardly yet be said to be estabUshed, because
as yet it is not coimected with steam navigation, as it ought
to be and wffi be ; stiU, what benefits we aheady derive from
it ! and how many more may be expected when tffis discovery
becomes fuUy developed ! However, by the poUcy we are now
pursffing, we shaU drive Mehemet AU to declare ffis independ
ence, which France wiU so surely recogffise as we shaU not, and
then we shaU have France thwarting us in Egypt with aU her
jealousy and aU her resources. The hostiUty wffich tffis wiU
create on our part towards Mehemet Ah wiU offiy make France
the more necessary to ffim, and rivet ffim more securely in her
grasp. As regards the progress of civiUsation, too, and the develop
ment of the commercial and agricffitural resources of the East,
I think we have much more to expect from the Pacha than from

1839-40] THE CABINET 191
the Sffitan. It is true ffis government has been bad, that he
has pursued a most iU-advised system of monopoly, which,
together with the conscription, have kept the people in extreme
poverty ; stiU; Egypt has made great strides towards improve
ment under ffis reign ; the productive powers of the country
have been stimulated in a maimer miknown in modem times.
To ffim it is owing that Egypt is a cotton-growing and corn-
exporting country ; he has estabUshed and extended com
mercial relations with all the world ; he is the only Mussulman
who has really shovm a desire to turn to account the knowledge,
education and superiority of Cffiistians, and ff he has been able
to effect vast improvements during a long period of war, when
ffis energies and resources were mainly devoted to the creation
of the army and navy he now possesses, how much more might
not be expected of ffim on the restoration of tranqffiffity, when
ffis solffiers agaffi became laborers and he has adopted the more
enUghtened system of govemment and commerce wffich he is
prepared for, as he now acknowledges and repents the errors
he formerly committed.
What Mehemet AU has done has been the work of a few years ;
wffile the Turks have for nearly four centuries occupied an
enormous empire, stretching from 34° to 48° north and upon
the same parallels of latitude as France, Spain and aU the best
portions of the Uffited States. The soil of many parts of Turkey
is the finest ffi the world ; mines of silver, copper and iron stiU
exist ; cotton, tobacco and silk might be made the staple exports
of the country ; the wines are exceUent ; every species of tree
fiourishes ffi Turkey, and the affimal productions are not less
valuable than those of vegetable ffie. Yet tffis favored region
has retrograded, wffilst surrounded by abundance ; its wealth
and industry have been anffiffilated ; manffiactures are un
known ; commerce is despised ; ignorance, barbarism and
poverty prevail. Can we then expect that these evils, 400 years
old, and the vices that a brutaUsing govemment have almost
made inherent in Turffish nature, should be eradicated by a
H. Sheriff, the duration of which even Lord Ponsonby,^ admits
to depend upon Rescffid Pacha's frail tenure of office ? Should
we not rather tum to where some vitaUty has been exffibited
and where ameUoration, though slow, has stiU been constantly
progressing ? If it is to the advance of civiUsation and to
admiffistrative improvements, with aU their consequences,
1 Ambassador at Constantinople, 1832-37.

192 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
that we look for the means of checking Russia, Mehemet AU
(havmg tranqffiffity in ffis favor) wiU surely present a more
imposing barrier than wffi be produced by the H. Sheriff, wffich
for many years wiU be a dead letter, if it ever is anytffing else.
I wiU not add to the length of tffis letter by adverting to
various other considerations, connected with the important
question of the East, wffich present themselves to my roind ;
but, having said so much, I wiU venture a step further and
expose myseff to ' the TraveUer's ' fate in your hands by stating
what I tffink might be done, or at least attempted.
I woffid come to an understanffing with Mehemet AU. I
woffid treat ffim as a reasonable and an easily-to-be fiattered
man. I woffid negociate for the Porte the best terms I coffid ;
I would endeavour to obtaffi Adana and such portions of Syria
as are Turkish, of wffich the Sffitan might fairly hope to keep
possession (say as far as Aleppo, for south of Aleppo, I beUeve,
the Turkish language is not even spoken). Arabia he [Mehemet]
would give up and Canffia Ukewise ; but the former it woffid be
unadvisable ffi my opiffion for the Porte to accept. I woffid
then coffier upon Mehemet the hereffitary PachaUk of the
remainder. Next, I would make ffim party to a treaty by wffich
the whole shoffid be formaUy arranged. The Powers of Europe
of course woffid not make a treaty with ffim,^ but he might
make one with the Sffitan to be guaranteed by them. He
should further stipffiate the amount of tribute he is to pay ;
he shoffid engage never on any pretext (uffiess caUed upon by
the Sffitan to do so) to pass the frontier of ffis PachaUk, nor
under any plea whatever to attempt maffing ffimseff mdependent
of the Porte, and that, faiUng in any of these, he would subject
ffimseff to the coUective ffispleasure of the Powers guaranteemg
the treaty to the Sultan.
I do not tffink Mehemet AU coffid refuse tffis, because, by so
doing, he would give the Ue to aU the professions he is now
maffing ; besides, it woffid be ffis interest to conclude such a
bargain. France could not weU decUne to be a party to it, and
we should thereby secure her never recogffising the independence
of the Pacha ; and so long as he abided by the agreement and
kept witffin ffis own territories, Russia coffid have no pretence
for interfering. No treaty of UrJdar Skelessi woffid be necessary :
"• Marginal note by Lord Palmerston. ' Why not ? you made treaties
with Saxony, Hamburgh and other German States forming part of the
German Empire, and did not negociate with them through the Emperor
or the Diet of whom, in some senses, they were subjects.'

1839-40] THE CABINET 193
no casus foederis woffid arise ; but ff Mehemet AU ffid violate ffis
engagements and ffitervention became necessary, it would be by
aU the Powers combmed and not by Russia alone.
I fear you wffi think tffis letter teffious : I hope you wiU not
tffink me presumptuous for writing it.
The personal character wffich had been imparted to
tffis disagreement with a coUeague by iU-natured gossip
m the newspapers caused sincere distress to Clarendon,
who worried ffimseff mto what was pronounced to be a
severe attack of influenza. Lady Clarendon notes that
on 20th Slarch he lost eight ounces of blood by cupping
and passed a restless, painfffi ffight.
Palmerston paid no immediate regard to Clarendon's
remonstrance, although that was to take effect before very
long. Austria expressed her readmess to join Great Britam
ffi coercmg Mehemet AU, whatever Une might be taken by
France m consequence. Thomas Waghom, cffief orgamser
of the overland route to India by way of the Red Sea,
came to England to urge upon the govemment that re-
cogffition of Mehemet AU was of the utmost importance
to British commerce m the East. He told Palmerston
that he had received the assurance of five members of the
cabmet that they disapproved of ffis Eastern poUcy ;
whereupon Palmerston with considerable heat addressed
his coUeagues at a council held on 23rd May, and told
them that ff they were dissatisfied with ffis conduct
of foreign affairs he was qffite ready to hand them over
to any one who shoffid better represent their general
views. When Palmerston ceased speaking there was an ominous
pause, Melboume makmg no sign, and it was left to
Clarendon to take the iffitiative. He said that when
Waghom requested an mterview, he knew of no reason
why he shoffid depart from ffis usual practice of granting
one. Waghom certaiffiy had represented very strongly
the mjury Lord Palmerston's poUcy was Ukely to inffict
upon British mterests in the East, but he — Clarendon —
distinctly refused to express to ffis visitor any opiffion on
the subject. That was the whole substance of what passed
VOL. I N

194 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vii.
between ffim and Waghom. As to ffis disapproval of
Palmerston's poUcy, it had been opeffiy expressed in the
cabinet ; but he woffid never be so base as to traduce a
coUeague behind his back ; therefore for the last two
months he had avoided mentioffing the subject of Egypt
to Gffizot, Niemen and Brunnow. ' When and if the
poUcy reached a point,' he said, ' wffich makes it impossible
for me to assent, I shall know what Une to take.'
Clarendon was foUowed by four other miffisters' —
Macaffiay, Lansdovrae, Hobhouse and Labouchere — each
of whom explained what had passed between him and
Waghom, and the meeting broke up after Lord HoUand
had stated ffis disapproval of Palmerston's poUcy. Tffis
left matters in an exceedingly uncomfortable condition,
ending in Palmerston tendering ffis resignation. Melboume
forwarded the letter to Clarendon as the cffief opponent
in the cabinet of Palmerston's policy, remarking that he
considered the resignation premature, seeing that the cabinet
had not come to any positive decision.

Lord Clarendon to Lord Melbourne.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 6th July 1840. — Palmerston's letters
grieve me exceeffingly, as there is no doubt that ffis resignation
would break up the govemment. The loss of ffis talents and
efficiency would be irreparable, for there is no man fit to take
ffis place that I, at least, know of. StiU, however, I can harffiy
be surprised at ffis determination, for he must feel that ffiscussion
in the Cabinet wiU add to the embarrassment of that poUcy in
the East wffich he has so much at heart. What the amount of
that ffisuffion may be I cannot pretend to say, for the question
put to us on Saturday was so vague, and the iffiormation upon
wffich a judgment could be formed has always been so stuffiously
withheld, that it was ffifficffit to ascertain the opiffions of the
majority ; but they seemed favorable to P.'s views, and in that
case it is surely qffite unnecessary for ffim to resign, as weU as
very unjust that the majority should be deprived of the coUeague
who is alone capable of carrying into effect the poUoy they
approve. I need harffiy say that I wiU be no obstacle to this ; for if my

1839-40] THE CABINET 195
resignation makes P. remain, it wiU perhaps be the greatest
service I am capable of rendering to the government, and indeed
it woffid be a satisfaction to myseff ; for, having an admiration
for Palmerston's abihties, and feeUng under great personal
obUgation to him, it has been most paiffiul to me to ffiffer with
ffim in opiffion.
I wiU not now ffiscuss ffis Eastern poUcy, for I am as much
in the dark as ever respecting the means by wffich he proposes
to carry it into effect ; but it seems to me calcffiated to brouiller
us with France, wffich is the greatest misfortune that can happen
to tffis country — that we cannot depend on Austria for assist
ance — that Mehemet AU cannot be coerced uffiess Russian
troops enter upon Turkish territory, and that, if the professed
objects of the poUcy be attaffied, we shaU merely be givffig to
the Sffitan provmces wffich he wiU not be able to hold, but in
order to retam possession of wffich he wffi be constantly having
recourse to Russian assistance.
I am convmced that tffis is not necessary — that other arrange
ments are practicable by wffich the Sffitan nught be benefited,
and the honor of those Powers who signed the CoUective Note
might be saved ; but Palm, thinks otherwise, and, however
much I regret it, I cannot blame ffim for acting on ffis opiffion.
Melboume repUed next day.
South Street, 1th July. — Thanks for your letters. I tffink,
however, ff Palmerston's statement was vague and the iffiorma
tion upon wffich it was founded deficient, you woffid have
done better to ask to have the imperfection of both suppUed.
We must have no resignations. We cannot stand them, and,
what is more, the country cannot stand them. They would
materiaUy injure its policy, either way. Supposing that you
and HoUand resigned, and the rest of the Cabinet pursued
Palmerston's course, what hope woffid there be of its success,
and of its beffig supported ? Woffid not any opposition to it
be much increased, ff it were not created, by such a [illegible].
Either poUcy would do, ff firmly and summarily adopted ; other
wise — ^neither.
The Cabinet met again on 8th July and drew up the
foUowing minute, which, with the dissenting note of the
Lords Clarendon and Holland, was submitted to the
Queen.

196 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap, vn.
Foreign Office, 8th July 1840.—
Present : —
Viscount Melboume Viscount Duncannon
Lord Cottenham Lord HoUand
The Marquess of Lansdowne Viscount Morpeth
The Earl of Clarendon Sir John Hobhouse
The Earl of Iffinto Mx. Baring
Lord John RusseU Mx Labouchere
Viscount Palmerston Mx. Macaulay.
Your Majesty's confidential servants most humbly submit to
your Majesty that, after a negotiation of several months, the
governments of Great Britain, Austria, Prussia and Russia
have been unable to prevail upon the govemment of France to
uffite with the Four Powers above mentioned and with the
Porte, in carrying into effect such an arrangement of the ffiffer
ences between the Sultan and Mehemet AU as, in the opiffion
of these governments, woffid be consistent with the principle
upon wffich the CoUective Note of 27th Jffiy 1839 was founded,
or with the spirit of the negotiations wffich have since taken
place ; and, under these circumstances, your Majesty's con
fidential servants, with the exception of the Earl of Clarendon
and Lord HoUand, are humbly of opiffion that it is expeffient
that Viscount Palmerston shoffid prepare for consideration a
draft of a convention between the Four Powers and the Porte,
founded upon the principle of the CoUective Note, and in accord
ance with the spirit of the subsequent negotiations.
Minute of Dissent by the Lords Clarendon and Holland.
The Earl of Clarendon and Lord HoUand, in fulfilment of
those duties wffich your Majesty's gracious appointment imposes
upon every confidential servant of your Crown, feel themselves
paiffiuUy compeUed to aclinowledge that they cannot concur in
the Minute submitted tffis day to the consideration of your
Majesty. Your Majesty is therein advised to accede to a treaty wffich
has for its object the expffision of Mehemet AU from Syria and
Canffia, and of ffis son from the PachaUck of Arabia coffierred
upon ffim by the late Sultan. Such interference seems to Lord
Clarendon and Lord HoUand to be questionable in poUcy, and
neither necessary to the honor of your Majesty's Crown in
satisfaction of the obUgations contracted in the CoUective Note

1839-40] THE CABINET 197
of July 1839, nor directly or obviously advantageous to your
Majesty's subjects.
The means by wffich it is proposed that these objects, in the
event of resistance, should be attained, seem to them insufficient
and yet onerous, and, above aU, hazardous in the extreme.
Your Majesty, ffi no remote or improbable contingency, may
be reqffired, ffi virtue of the stipulations of such a treaty, to wage
war on the coasts, and to sanction the introduction of other
foreign and European troops into the Asiatic provinces of
Turkey. Such operations, in themselves humiUating to the Mussulman
Powers, and ominous of the ffismemberment of the Sultan's
dominions, even ff they should be eminently successful, cannot
in the actual state of those ffistricts be expected to enlarge the
resources or to consoUdate the strength of the Ottoman Empire.
They must, in the ffist instance, interrupt the commerce of your
Majesty's subjects with countries now occupied by Mehemet
AU or ffis son ; they must also mtercept or suspend the con
veffient intercourse recently estabhshed through Egypt with
your Majesty's Eastern possessions. These sacrifices would,
in the apprehension of Lord Clarendon and Lord HoUand, be
of no fficonsiderable importance ; but the more remote and
indirect, though it is feared not less undeffiable tendency of the
treaty, and of the measures of coercion arising therefrom,
threatens consequences far more extensive and ffisastrous.
They may lead to a ffisturbance of that system of poUcy and
affiances ffi Europe wffich, under the happy auspices of your
Majesty and your predecessor, has succeeded in preserving the
peace of the world, and has redounded to the glory of your
Majesty's Crown by increasing the prosperity of your people,
and enabUng their enterprise and industry to extend the inter
course and improve the conffition of mankind in every quarter
of the globe. Apprehensive of consequences so alarming shoffid
any coercion be resorted to for effecting the purposes of the
treaty. Lord Clarendon and Lord Holland could not but refrain
from becoming the advisers of such a step, and although earnestly
soUcitous to prevent aU appearance, as weU as reaUty, of ffiffer
ence in your Majesty's Councils, they yet feel it incumbent
upon them to explain without reserve, but they trust without
impropriety, the fact and grounds of their withholffing their
assent to the advice tffis day submitted to the consideration of
your Majesty.

198 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. vn.
On 15th Jffiy the representatives of the Four Powers met
in London and, with the assent of the Turkish Mimster,
signed a convention arranging terms to be proposed as an
ffitimatum to Mehemet AU. These terms went some way
in the direction indicated by Clarendon in his memorandum
of 14th March. Mehemet was to receive the pashaUk of
Acre for hfe and the hereditary sovereignty of Egypt ;
which offer, if not accepted vidthin ten days, would be
withdrawn, and the Powers woffid proceed to expel him from
Egypt. These proceedings caused intense irritation in the French
govemment. After a cabinet on 1st August, Palmerston
took Clarendon aside and asked him, as a particffiar friend
of M. Tffiers, whether he woffid write to him and endeavour
to smooth matters. Clarendon repUed that he had often
thought of doing so, but had refrained because he coffid
not pretend to approve of the course taken by the govern
ment of which he ffimseff was a member. However, at
Palmerston's instance, he did draft a letter, and submitted
it to Palmerston on 3rd August, who returned it, saying
that Thiers having just pubUshed the Ordonnances increas
ing the French army and navy, wffich was a positive threat,
such a letter might have the appearance of fear, and ' woffid
not do.'
On the Continent Palmerston was coming to be looked
upon as Venfant terrible in the European household. King
Leopold wrote to Queen Victoria from Saint-Cloud ex
pressing much anxiety as to the resffit of excluding France,
not offiy from the convention, but from aU knowledge
thereof ; for Palmerston had not revealed the project to
Gffizot, who was then French Ambassador at St. James's.
¦'I cannot disgffise from you,' wrote King Leopold, 'that
the consequences may be very serious, and the more so as
the Tffiers Miffistry is supported by the Movement party,
and as reckless of consequences as your own Mimster for
Foreign Affairs — even much more so, as Thiers himself
woffid not be sorry to see everything existing upset.'
Palmerston now took the course best calcffiated to
inflame French susceptibility. Not offiy did he lay a veto

1839-40] THE CABINET 199
upon Clarendon's conciUatory letter to Tffiers, but he in
structed Lord GranviUe, British Mimster at the Tffileries,
to ask for an explanation of the miUtary and naval prepara
tions in France. Clarendon was dismayed by a step which
seemed to ffim fatal to the prospects of peace, and addressed
an earnest remonstrance to Lord Melbourne.
ith August. — The despatch I suppose is gone, and caimot
therefore now be altered ; but as Lord GranviUe is not instructed
to commufficate it to the French govemment, the apprehensions
expressed by Lord Morpeth and others, in wffich I entirely
concur, as to the bad consequences it might produce, vidU pro
bably not be reaUsed. But ff we mean to maffitain peace, I
hope that language tenffing to irritate the French may be
stuffiously avoided. They conceive that they have been iU-
treated, and are consequently offended. The majority of the
Cabffiet think that they have no cause, and that time and
reflection wiU prove it. Surely we should not interrupt the
process, stiU less add real to supposed affront. The French
may be conceited and unreasonable ; but we have known that
long ago, and so far from its beffig a cause of quarrel, we shoffid
always, ffi deaUng with them as friends, take into consideration
and make aUowance for their defects.
The outlook was indeed so black that miffisters were
summoned to Melbourne's house on 9th August to arrange
for the necessary measures in the event of France declaring
war. Meanwhile the ten days of grace had expired without
Mehemet AU accepting the terms offered him by the Powers.
He woffid not consent to abandon his claim to the whole of
Syria — a claim in wffich he had the support of France. Pro
bably the quondam tobacco merchant cherished the further
ambition of ffitimately ruUng the Ottoman Empire from
Constantinople. Sffitan Abdffi Medjid, a youth of seven
teen, having decreed Mehemet's deposition, the combined
British, Austrian and Turkish fleet bombarded Beyrout on
10th September : Saida was stormed a few days later, and
on Srd November Acre was battered into a heap of rffins.
It must be admitted that Palmerston's vigorous poUcy
was thorougffiy popffiar among ffis countrymen, although
the good understanding with France was at an end, and

200 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vn.
Great Britain found herseff making common cause with the
Continental autocracies, which was a startUng departure
from the traditions of Whig diplomacy. It was a long
time before Palmerston qffite forgave Clarendon for the
line he had taken in the cabinet. ' I caUed on Palmerston,'
noted Lord Broughton in his journal on 26th November,
' and congratulated him. He was in high spirits, but
complained of the treatment he had received, particffiarly
from Clarendon, to whom he attributed the disclosures
that had been made of, what had passed in the Cabinet.'
They remained personal friends ; but from time to time
Palmerston yielded to feelings of jealousy and suspicion
in regard to the man whom the public looked upon as his
rival in foreign policy.

Lord Leveson to his father Earl Granville.
llth December 1840.— . . . The Palmerstons are angry with
Clarendon and talk too much at ffim. He, on ffis side, says
that he has never said anytffing to any one against Palmerston,
and that if tffis talk goes on he shaU retire. If he retires. Lord
John says that he wiU go too, not because he has ffisagreed with
Palmerston, but because he tffinks Clarendon and Lord HoUand
have been iU used : in short, it is a great mess altogether. . . .
Lady Palmerston said she was convinced that Clarendon had
getting into the Foreign Office for ffimseff for an object, and that
he was an intriguer.
Lord Leveson assured Lady Palmerston that she was
doing Clarendon injustice, but she answered that he was ' a
good-hearted young man,' and ' incapable of reaUsing the
depth of the cuiming of his friend George ViUiers ' ! The
time was to come when even Lady Palmerston woffid be
convinced of the injustice of her imputation by Clarendon
decUmng the offer of the very post wffich he was supposed
to covet. Throughout his life it was Lord Clarendon's
good fortune to win the favour and esteem of men and
women who made his acquaintance. Their testimony is
wellmgh invariable as to his grace and charm of manner,
and the brightness of his nature. Few, very few, are the

1839-40] THE CABINET 201
exceptions, and they occur at tffis time, when the public
had set up Clarendon, utterly against ffis wiU, as a rival to
Palmerston. Thus we find Sara Lady Lyttelton writing
from Windsor on 20th October 1840 — ' The Clarendons
stay tiU to-morrow. Lord Clarendon seems a very clever
man, but ffis manner is consummately disagreeable to me
— so very bitingly sarcastic and sharp. His wife is far
different — a mce, simple, good soul ; sensible, too, and
very amiable altogether.' In a later letter in that autumn
Lady Sara is scarcely less uncompUmentary. ' Lord Claren
don is the most briffiant conversationalist, I think, of aU
that one meets nowadays ; but he is faffity in manner,
and seems a mere man of the world, Uke most of the rest of
men.' ^

' Lady WiUiam Russell told Mr. Locker-Lampson that the three
persons who reminded her most of what she admired in the talkers of
an older generation were Speaker Denison, Lord Clarendon, and Lord
GranvUle.

CHAPTER VIII
THE EASTERN QUESTION
' Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till Earth and Sky stand presently at God's great Judgment Seat ;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, though they come from the
ends of the earth ! ' R. Kipling.
M. Thiers had returned to office in March 1840 as President
of the Council and Miffister for Foreign Affairs. He was
bitterly hostile to England at this time, and desired notffing
better than open rupture with her ; but whereas he knew
that Lord Clarendon's views on the Eastern question and
the recogmtion of Mehemet Ali were identical with ffis own,
he remained on a perfectly friendly personal footing with
him. Nevertheless it was suspected at the time that he
wrote the foUowing letter expecting a refusal to the request
contained therein, whereby popffiar feeling in France shoffid
be embittered against la perfide Albion. If that were the
case, he was doomed to disappointment, for not the sUghtest
objection was raised to the remains of Napoleon being
brought from St. Helena to Paris.
Paeis, ce 5 mai 1840. — Mon chee Clarendon, — ^Nous nous
Prions promis de nous 6crire, avant mon entree au mimstere ;
nous ne I'avons pas fait. Je n'en ai pas eu le tems ; j'ai craint,
d'aiUeurs, de deplaire k Lord Palmerston en ecrivant k un autre
miffistre sur des affaires qffi le regardent specialement. Et
quant k Iffi, je ne sffis pas assez Ue avec Iffi pour me permettre
d'entrer en correspondance. Mais voici une affaire qffi est d'une
nature particuUere, qffi ne touche ffi k vos interets ffi aux notres,
qffi est purement une affaire de sentiment entre la France et
I'Angleterre, et pour laqueUe je n'hesite pas a m'adresser k vous.
D'aiUeurs, je vous autorise de commuffiquer ma lettre k Lord
Palmerston.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 203
Voici dont il s'agit. Le Roi m'a autoris6 k demander au cabinet
anglais la restitution des restes mortels de Napoleon, pour les
placer aux InvaUdes k Paris. M. Gffizot doit vous en faire la
demande. Cette demande se fera dans le silence du cabinet ;
cependant, eUe sera peut-etre connue; I'opffiion fran9aise est
tres excit6e sur le sujet, et pour moi, en particuUer, je m'en fais
un article de foi national. Je ne pffis pas croire un instant que
vous h^siteriez k nous rendre les cendres de I'homme qffi nous
inspire les sentimens les plus vffs que la France ait jamais eprouv6,
et qffi, pour vous, est aujourd'hffi un sujet d' admiration. Garder
un cadavre prisonffier n'est pas ffigne de vous — ^n'est pas possible
de la part d'un gouvemement tel que le votre. La restitution de
cette d^poffiUe est le derffier acte d'oubU pour les 50 ans 6coules ;
c'est le sceau mis a notre reconciUation — k notre affiance ffitime.
Le refus, que nous ne pubUerions pas, mais qffi fiffirait par
etre connu, r6veffierait les plus vivos, les plus maffieiu'cuses,
impressions. Vous me direz, peut-etre, que nous n'aurions pas
dli vous le demander. Je vous repondrai, sans entrer dans
aucun detail, que cela serait impossible. D'aiUeurs, vous devez
m'aider dans les efforts que je fais pour rendre popffiaire en
France I'affiance avec I'Angleterre ; je la crois utile et glorieuse
aux deux pays. Mais pour la persuader k I'opiffion de la France,
un peu refroiffie, j'ai besoin de secours, et si vous nous donnez
ce que je sffis siir d' obteffir de vous, parce que le contraire repugne
a la grandeur du caractere anglais, I'effet pour I'affiance sera
immense. Quant a moi, j'eprouverai une veritable reconnaissance.
Adressez mes compUmens k Lord Palmerston, et recevez
I'assurance de ma vive amiti^. A. Thiees.
Clarendon at once laid Thiers's request before the Prime
Miffister, recommending that it shoffid be granted.
Melboume repUed — ' I qffite agree with you. It woffid
be weU to inform the Duke [of WeUington], and I do not
see that it coffid be better done than through you. Indeed
it woffid be better so, than if I were to write him a letter
upon the subject ; so do it as soon as possible, in order
that he may hear it first in this manner. Tffiers says that
he is not sufficiently lie with Palmerston to be justified
in writing to ffim ; but I think it woffid be weU if he were
encouraged to do so.'

204 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vni.
Lady Clarendon writes in her joumal that when her
husband went to inform the Duke of WeUington of the
French government's request, the Duke said that some
day or other the French woffid be sure to make it a matter
of triumph over England, but that, personaUy, 'he did
not care one twopenny damn about that ' !
It was a delicate matter for Clarendon, considering the
unpleasant rumours about his rivalry with Palmerston, to
conduct this matter to a conclusion, for the correspondence
ought properly to have gone through the Foreign Office.
But nothing woffid persuade Thiers in his then mood to ask
any favour of Palmerston, so the affair was left to the Lord
Privy Seal's management. Lord Clarendon to M. Thiers.
LoNDEES, ce 12 mai 1840. — Mon chee Thiees, — Je vous
remercie infiffiment de votre lettre qui a ete fort utile dans le but
que vous vous etes propos6. Vous S9avez d6jk que ce but a 6te
accomph, et, comme ' bis dat qffi cito dat,' on n'a pas hesit6 un
instant k faire ce que vous demanffiez, et je me plais k croire que
tout se passera de la maffiere qffi vous sera le plus utile etagreable.
II y a bien longtemps que je me sffis attendu k cette demande
de la France, et je me sffis souvent etonn6 qu'eUe n'ait pas 6te
plutot faite ; mais je me rejoffis qu'eUe ait 6t6 reservee pour
vous, d'abord parce que I'accompUssement de ce voeu national
va augmenter la popularite dont vous joffissez k si juste titre,
et aussi parce que je ne doute pas que vous le tournerez k profit
de I'affiance des deux pays. Aussi longtemps que les cendres
de Napoleon ne reposoient pas en France, il devoit exister chez
vous une cause, ou plutot un sentiment, d'irritation centre
I'Angleterre. La restitution, done, de ces d^pouiUes morteUes
doit avoir, je [illegible] du fond de mon ame, un but poUtique en
mettant le sceau de I'oubU sur le pass6, et en consoUdant I'affiance
de deux pays dont les circonstances sont analogues, dont les
interets sont identiques, et qffi doivent servir de garant de la
paix et de la civiUsation du monde. C'est vrai que cette affiance
s'est un peu refroidie : je le sais, je le deplore, mais je n'en com-
prends pas la cause. Je ne pense pas que c'est notre faute ; je
ne ffirai pas non plus que c'est la votre ; mais je crois que la
presse dans nos pays respectif s, qffi est bien plus pffissante pour
faire le mai que le bien, s'est occup6e k exciter les esprits et a

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 205
trouv6 plus d'6cho chez vous que chez nous. Pour ma part je
sffis certain que le veritable sentiment du peuple anglais envers
la France s'est maffifest6 dans toute la sinc6rit6 lors dc I'am
bassade du Marechal Soffit au commencement de la regno.
Ce sentiment n'est, peut-etre, pas aussi vff dans le moment
actuel, mais ff existe toujours ; et on pent compter dessus, s'il
y a correspondance de votre c6t6. Pour I'assurer, il me semble
que la demande que vous nous avez faite vient merveiUeusement
k propos, et dans des mains aussi habiles que les votres notre
reponse sera toum^e k profit. Votre lettre a fait grand plaisir
k Palmerston ; des commuffications semblables font toujours du
bien. C'est la vraie maffiere de s' entendre, et comme nous
sommes tres bien Ues ensemble, c'6tait egal que la lettre f(it
adress6e k moi ou Ji Iffi.
Je me feUcite, mon cher Tffiers, du resultat de I'affaire si
importante pour vous que vous avez confine k mes soins et k mon
zele pour I'affiance fran9aise, et je vous prie de croire a mon bien
sincere attachement. Claeendon.
Lord GranviUe, British Mimster at the Tffileries, described
the translation of the great Napoleon's ashes more re-
spectfuUy than, as readers may or may not remember, did
Thackeray.^ Lord Granville ^ to Lord Clarendon.
Paeis, 1st January 1841. — ... I am much mistaken if I have
not written to you more than once since the grand jour, as the
Parisians caU the day on which Napoleon's remains were de
posited in the InvaUdes. I saw the procession from Seaford's
apartments in the Champs Elys^es. The whole space for a
considerable ffistance between the Arc d'Etoile and the Place
de la Concorde was fiUed with a stream of people, who, as they
passed on, made a loud but inffistmct cry of Vive I'Empereur !
A few hundred of la jeune France, four or five abreast, passed
under our windows clamouring — a bas les ministres I a bas les
Anglois ! The weather was intensely cold, and the crowd were
' The Second Funeral of Na/poleon. Thackeray states that Guizot,
French Ambassador at St. James's, ' waited upon Lord Palmerston with
a request that the body of the Emperor Napoleon should be given up to
the French nation.' That, no doubt, would have been the ordinary and
correct procedure ; but, as shown by the correspondence here quoted, it
was not foUowed on this occasion.
2 First Earl, died in 1846.

206 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
glad to ffisperse and retire to their ffiesides. The National
Guard, Duchatel assures me, showed a feeUng by no means un
favourable to the govemment. The King assures me that the
war fever is fast subsiffing. He made a pacific speech to the
Mufficipal Councils that day, wffich he said was very weU re
ceived. I beUeve that the ffigher ranks, being more sensible of
the humiUation wffich has been infficted on France, are more
bitter in their hostiUty to England than the masses. What
tffink you ! on Wednesday last at the French Academy, the
auffience being composed of peers, of deputies, of artists, of pro
fessors, of hommes de lettres, of fasffionables male and female, an
uffiversal thundering shout of applause was given to a pffiase of
Dupin's speech in wffich, with an energetic gesture, he said,
Charles VII. avait chasse les Anglois.
Mettemich abounds in compUments to Gffizot, and is satisfied
with ffis refusal to reduce at present the mffitary force of France.
Despatches arrive from St. Petersburgh couched in such terms
of corffiahty and conciUation towards France as to give hopes
that the Emperor Nicholas meditates a close affiance with
French usurpation ; but I am afraid Mouffier has brought no
correspondmg commuffications from London. I hope, however,
that the language wffich Bourquenez is mstructed to hold upon
the Eastern question may lead to an improvement in the rela
tions between the two governments. The French consider the
Turco-Egyptian question as settled, or nearly so, and have no
wish to medffie in it ; but they would hke to talk about Christians
in Syria, of whom they are considered the protectors ; and they
would Uke to talk also about. the best means of preventing any
exclusive or predorainant influence prevaiUng at Constantinople.
ShaU we aUow them ? The Note from St. Petersburgh is almost
an invitation to them to take part in that coffierence of the
European Powers from which they withdrew on account of the
Treaty of Jffiy.
I am writing in a hmry, and must tffink before I answer your
question what would be the best way of treatffig the Eastern
question with reference to France in the Queen's speech. It
is an opportuffity, wffich I hope wiU not be lost, of heaUng to a
certain degree the wound wffich has been infficted by the Treaty
of July and our successes in the Levant.
While European statesmen were dictating elaborate
despatches and the nations were agitated by rumours of

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 207
war, Lady Clarendon was qffietly recording in her joumal
the social and domestic side of her new Ufe.
Monday, 30th March 1840. — . . . We ffined at Buckingham
Palace. . . . Lord MeUioume took me ffi to dinner. ... He
seemed to me dismcUned to converse and inclined to talk to
himseff, and once I saw ffim smiUng and laughing to ffimseff,
uncommoffiy as ff he had some very amusmg thought. . . . He
once turned suddeffiy to me and said — ' Do you love your
neighbour as yourseff ? ' I understood immeffiately that he
meant my literal neighbour, and said I coffid not say I hked
him as much as myseff. ... It was so Uke Lord Melboume
turffing round with that sort of abrupt question. The Queen
snuled at him during dinner and drank wme with ffim. I do
not think she drank wme with any one else.
Sunday, 5th April. — We dmed with the Palmerstons. . . .
Sir John Hobhouse ^ sat next me at dinner. I ffid not find
out his name for some time, and wondered who my agreeable
neighbour was. Having discussed and found out the names of
several persons at table, I had the impudence to ask the name
of my neighbour (himself), and then I found out it was the very
man I wished to see. He asked me my opiffion about the degree
of obligation upon a man keeping to ffis pairing when ffis pair
is caUed up to the House of Lords . . . that there was a case
ffi pomt. Lord Cole having just lost his father, being paired with
Mr. Bannerman, and that he beUeved Mr. B. meant to consider
it as bmding. Sir John said that, having agreed not to vote
up to a particular time, the change ffi the situation of one of
them he thought shoffid make no difference, but that there were
great differences of opiffion. ... I was sorry to dme at such a
large dinner on a Sunday, and also that people came ffi the
evening afterwards, so as qffite to make a soiree. . . .
Monday, 13th April. — . . . Lord Melbourne's habit of speak
mg to himseff aloud is much mcreased lately. When George
remarked to him the other day how many of the rising genera-
' President of the Board of Control (India) : author of Recollections of
a Long Life : created Lord Broughton in I85I : died in 1869.
He has a ' reeoUection ' of this dinner corresponding with Lady
Clarendon's. ' oth April [1840]. — ^I dined at Lord Palmerston's and sat
next to Lady darendon, who, after we had talked some time, asked me
who I was, and, when I told her, added very civiUy that she had requested
to be introduced to me at Mr. Stanley's, but I had then left the room.
This Uttle compliment gave me the courage to try and please her, and I
lost some of that mauvaise honte which generaUy depresses me in society.'

208 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vin.
tion in the H. of Lords were Conservative, he said to himseff
aloud (as nearly as I can remember the words), ' Very bad, very
bad : how heartily sick I am of it aU ! '
Thursday, 22nd May. — . . . Lord ErroU told me to-day that
during the last tffiee months the Queen had altogether tffiough
out the Palace ffined 24,600 persons ; that each day the number
of persons at each table was taken dovm and the total had been
that. Her poulterer's biU is about £5000 yearly.
Tuesday, 2nd June. — ... It is very provoking that oppor-
tuffities never occur for George to speak except upon Spaffish
affairs, and it woffid be a great tffing for ffim to have ffis powers
in that hne known. He is provoked to-day, and says it is the
natural consequence of ffis position ffi the Cabinet ; he is at the
head of no working department ; no subject comes as of course
for him to speak upon ; he has no sources of iffiormation different
from Lord Melboume, who, of course, speaking ffist, treads aU
the ground George could take in defenffing the measures of the
govemment, and what makes it doubly provoking is that he
does not do it weU.
Thursday, Uh June. — . . . The ffist anffiversary of my
marriage with my own dear George, and, God be praised for
it ! I have reason to caU it the happiest event of my Ufe.
George is to me the ffindest and most deUghtfffi of husbands,
and makes my Ufe a continued series of enjojonents and peace
ful domestic pleasures. He was my beau idial, and my imagina
tion led me into no scrape, for my hopes of happiness have
been reaUsed indeed.
Monday, 1th September. — Macaulay has been amusing ffimseff
at Paris sffice parUament has been prorogued. ... He has
spoken most fooUshly about war, saying if the French wished
for war — let them come on ! we were ready to receive them,
etc. etc., which, from our Secretary at War, was not a jufficious
speech. . . .
15th. — . . . How curious it is to know the secret history of
tffings. For instance— who would think that Charles GreviUe
materiaUy influenced the tone of the Times newspaper upon the
Eastem question ; yet so it is. C. GreviUe is weU acquainted
with the effitor Bames, who seems originaUy to have been in
cUned to ffiffer from Lord Palmerston about Eastem poUcy;
but Lord Aberdeen in an interview of (I tffink) two hours per
suaded him to be passive at least. Accorffingly, for some time
the Times seemed to take no hne at aU upon the subject, tiU

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 209
suddeffiy a series of the most able and formidable articles
appeared ffi that paper, attacking Palmerston's poUcy and show
ing its dangers and foffies. These articles were written by a
Mr. Reeve, an exceeffingly clever young man, with whom Charles
GreviUe became acquaffited, and, hearffig ffis opinion upon
Eastem matters, advised ffim to ffisert something in the pubhc
prffits to serve the cause he advocated, and offered to introduce
ffim to Bames. These able articles were the resffit. Barnes,
almost malgri lui, was dazzled by their briffiancy, and, during
the time Mr. Reeve remamed ffi England, the Times was fffil
of contraffictions — Reeve's articles strongly reprobating Lord
Palmerston's poUcy and the correspondent of the paper taking
a ffifferent hne. . . . Of aU people ffi the world, who shoffid be
the Times correspondent at Constantffiople but Lord Alvaffiey ! '¦
Sunday, 20th. — . . . Lord Palmerston seems more obstmate
than ever. He has tried hard at various times to convince
George that ffis hne is the right one ; but George is not to be
convmced and has told ffim so.
25th. — . . . The Duke of Bedford, bemg alarmed about war
and viewffig the Eastem Question in the way George does, has
excited Lord John to take a decided step. It is Lord John's
mtention to insist upon Mehemet Ah's concessions beffig taken
advantage of as a new feature to ffivite France to join the four
Powers who signed the convention of 15th Jffiy. In the event
of Lord Palmerston bemg stffi obstffiately determined to per
severe ffi ffis hostffity towards France, Lord John is prepared
to take the management of Foreign Affairs ffito ffis own hands ;
but that war must be prevented at aU events. Charles GreviUe
said that Lord Melbourne's conduct ffi the ffilemma in wffich
he is placed is weak and undecided to a great degree — horribly
alarmed at the state of tffings and hopmg that sometffing woffid
arise to assist ffim out of the scrape. . . . Lord HoUand had
received a letter from Lord John RusseU expressing, even more
strongly than in ffis letter to George, the change wffich ffis opiffions
have undergone upon the Eastem Question. George said he
wondered by what means he had come round to their views :
Lord HoUand answered, ' When a man comes to my house I
don't ask ffim by what road he came, but I say — how d' ye do :
I hope you 're weU.'
Saturday, 26th. — George had an hour's talk with Lord John
RusseU, . . . reminded ffim that he and Ld. HoUand had warned the
' Lt.-Col. Wm. Arden, second Baron Alvanley (1789-1849).
VOL. I 0

210 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vni.
other members of the Cabinet aU along of the scrape they were
getting into, and protested against the convention of 15th July.
The other Miffisters, includmg Lord John, supported Palmerston's
views. When George and Ld. HoUand lodged that protest it
was because they were so strongly urged not to break up the
Miffistry by resigffing ; but they must not be expected to re
main in office if the poUcy they ffisapprove of is persisted in,
and war with France the consequence. Lord John answered
that George and he were now in the same boat.
Monday, 28th. — Lord John had written a letter upon the state
of affairs to Lord Melboume wffich had not been intended for
the Queen's eye ; but wffich Lord Melboume had shown to
the Queen. It seems that it contained a passage stating that,
under some circumstances, the Queen could not send for Sir
Robert Peel. It is the habit of the Queen and Lord Melbourne
to correspond from one room to the other at Windsor, and when
Lord Melboume sent tffis letter of Lord John's to the Queen, he
wrote her word that some parts of the letter were absurd. The
Queen retumed for answer — ' One part of Lord John's letter is
not absurd ; the Queen can never send for Sir Robert Peel.'
Lord John RusseU had now come completely round to
Clarendon's view of the Eastern Question, and explained
his position clearly at a cabinet on 28th September.
Melbourne listened and made no comment ; Palmerston
also ; but Clarendon received afresh the impression that
Palmerston suspected him of intriguing to supplant him,
a suspicion which, albeit utterly groundless, was to be
revived at intervals for many years to come. Clarendon
dined with the Palmerstons that night, and took the oppor
tuffity of teUing Lady Palmerston that, often and opeffiy
as he had been obUged to dissent from Palmerston's foreign
policy, he never coffid forget that Palmerston was ' perhaps
the only man in the world to whom he felt he was under
personal obligation,' and that if he was compeUed to leave
him on pubUc grounds, he never could change his feeUngs
of private friendship towards him.
The cabinet next met on 1st October, when Palmerston
went some way to meet the objection of his coUeagues.
He said that his own views on the situation had undergone
no change, but that he had determined to try and give

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 211
effect to the conciUatory policy now advocated by the
majority of the cabinet. H Baron Brunnow (the Russian
Ambassador) would not agree to advances being made
to France until he had received instructions from St.
Petersburg, there woffid be another meeting of the cabinet
next day. Clarendon went off to the Grove, whence he
was to be summoned by messenger if necessary. Brunnow
woffid not agree : the cabinet was summoned : the
messenger arrived at the Grove : Clarendon jumped on
a hack, gaUoped off to Watford, arriving just in time to
see the train leaving the station. The subsequent situa
tion is grapfficaUy described in Lady Clarendon's joumal :
5th October 1840.— The great game wffich Lord John RusseU
was to play has ended in smoke ! He is completely at ffis wit's
end as to how to act with respect to Lord Palmerston — says he
has lost aU confidence ffi ffim, and yet is unprepared to oppose
ffim and ffis poUcy with sufficient energy to be of any use. He
seems now to look to the Syrian insurrection as the offiy way
out of the scrape, and actuaUy proposed to Palmerston the
advisabffity of bombardmg Saffit-Jean-d'Acre as Beyrout has
been bombarded. Lord and Lady Palmerston's anger against
Lord John is unbounded. They say that it is a great shame that
the poUcy of England shoffid be ffisturbed because the two
greatest fools had influence over the weakest man in it — the
two fools beffig the Duke of Bedford and Lord Spencer, and the
weak man Lord J. RusseU. Lord HoUand told George that he
suspected Lord Palmerston had more connection with the Tories
than was qffite supposed ; ffis confidence about the support ffis
poUcy woffid receive ffi the House of Commons is suspicious.
George told Lord John that Miffisters were now arrived at that
pomt when they deserved to have their heads cut off for plung
ing the country ffito a war for such un-Enghsh motives, but that
ffis position and Lord HoUand's were very ffifferent from that
of the rest of the cabmet. Tffis Lord John seemed harffiy to
aUow, saying that, ff the rest were deservmg of death, George
and Lord H. were deserving of imprisonment.
It is evident that Lord John does not know what to do, and
that Lord Palmerston has completely ffis own way and wffi
carry tffiough ffis own poUcy ffi despite of ffis coUeagues. . . .
As George says, ffisapprovmg as he does of Lord Palmerston's
poUcy, there is sometffing grand ffi the way he braves everytffing

212 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
in spite of aU opposition from ffis coUeagues — ^in spite of the
Queen's fears — ^in spite of events at home and abroad — he goes
steaffily on, undertaffing the awful responsibiUty wffich must
faU upon ffim from the course he pursues, with a courage and
calmness wffich would be admirable indeed ff they ffid not pro
ceed from a crotchet. . . . Prince Loffis Napoleon is condemned
to imprisonment for ffie for ffis insane attempt at Boulogne.
Thursday, 8th. — George went to London and found Lord John
preparing for another flare up. He had written a letter to Lord
Melboume insisting upon some conciUatory Une being taken
vidth regard to France, and showing the ffiscreffitable footing
on wffich the rest of the cabinet stood in consequence of Lord
Palmerston's conduct and pohcy, and desiring that a cabinet
might be caUed for next Saturday. To tffis Lord Melboume
answered that it was too late to do anytffing. Lord John said
that was always Lord Melbourne's way ; that he always asked
ffim to wait, wait, wait, and, when he ffid wait, said it was then
too late. . . . Lord GranviUe is very angry at the position in
wffich he is placed at Paris — left without instructions — com
pletely ffi the dark, just at the time when ffis situation there is
so extremely difficffit and dehcate. He even talked of resign
ing, but was persuaded by Lytton Bulwer not to do so, but to
write a fiffi and strong letter to Palmerston ; wffich advice he
has foUowed. . . . Gffizot ^ is as moderate as possible, and says
that the French Govemment wffi be satisfied with the smaUest
advance towards conciUation, such as granting Mehemet Ah
some smaU adffitional pachahk or Canffia. ' Surely,' said
Gffizot, ' the frienffiy relations with France are worth that.' . . .
Friday, 9th. — Lord John told George, in the event of the
govemment being broken up to-morrow by the resffit of ffis
cussion ffi the cabinet, he should not advise the Queen to send
for Sir Robert Peel, that Lord Melboume woffid advise her to
do so, but that the Queen's antipathy to Sir Robert woffid
incUne her to ffis (Lord John's) way of tffinffing. Lord John
ffimseff advises as Premier either Lord Grey, Lord Spencer, or
Lord Lansdowne.
The Govemment survived the Saturday cabinet, a very
pacific note having been received from Tffiers, but
Palmerston still seemed bent upon humbUng France.
1 French Ambassador at St. James's ; leader of the pacific party in
France.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 213
The two parties in the cabinet took to showing each
other up in the Press. Palmerston's organ was the Morn
ing Chronicle, whereof the proprietor, John Easthope,^
attended daily at the Foreign Office for instructions, often
receivmg and pubUsffing articles wffich were believed to
be written by Palmerston himseff,^ while Lord John sup
pUed the Globe vidth a counterblast. This unnatural
state of tffings coffid not endure ; but the end, though
not far off, did not come until Clarendon had lost his chief
aUy in the Cabinet in the death of Lord Holland on 22nd
October.^ Lord Clarendon's mother, Mrs. George Viffiers,
a strong Churchwoman, judging HoUand from the stand
point of orthodoxy, took a different view of ffis quaUty.
I had no personal regard for ffim — she wrote to her son — no
respect for ffis character, tho' the greatest for ffis abffities. . . .
Latterly ffis great affection for you had warmed my heart towards
ffim, and ffis opiffions on the most important poUtical points
agreeffig with yours and giving the weight of years to the greater
vigour of your mmd, had made ffim an important personage in
my eyes, such as he had never been before.
I feel so very much for what you wiU feel : I feel the loss to
the Cabinet at such a moment : last, tho' not least, there is
notffing so shockmg to one's feeUngs as the sudden death of a
person who has so avoweffiy Uved without God in the world.
It is not for us to judge the fate of another ; but the more en
Ughtened a man is, the more paiffiffi it is to think that he should
show no regard to any reUgious feeUng or principle nor encourage
others to do so.
Set against that Sydney Smith's view of HoUand's
character, than wffich no man need wish to earn nobler
effiogy. ' There never existed in any human being a better
heart or one more purified from aU bad passions, more
1 He was rewarded for his services by a baronetcy in 1841.
' Lord Palmerston afterwards denied this in the House of Commons.
' ' DowKSAM, 2'ith October. — . . . I have a letter from Clarendon this
morning from Windsor, overwhelmed with the news of Lord HoUand's
death, which he had just received. " To myself " [wrote Clarendon], " I
feel that the loss is irreparable. He was the only one in the Cabinet with
whom I had any real sympathy, and upon the great question now in
dispute I feel almost powerless, for, with the anUity of Melboume, the
vaciUation of John [RusseU] and the indifference of all the rest, Palmerston
is now more completely master of the ground than ever " ' [Oreville
Memoira, 2nd series, i. 342).

214 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vni.
abounding in charity and compassion, seeming to be so
created as a refuge for the helpless and oppressed.'
The dilemma in the Cabinet was solved by the resignation
of the fia-e-eating Tffiers, and the recaU from London of the
pacific Gffizot to take over the French Foreign Office under
Soult. Lord Melbourne to Lord Clarendon.
WrNDSOE Castle, 26th October 1840. — My deae Clarendon, —
I retum you your letters. Matters are ffi fuU gaUop ffi France.
It is useless to write an3diffing until we see the upshot of the
present stir. It looks as ff the Kmg woffid be compeUed to
take back Tffiers with aU ffis measures — a bad resffit ; but stiU,
better than a worse.
The enclosed letters show you that the Duchy of Lancaster
cannot be left vacant. It is also certain that an appointment
cannot be made at present. The office, salary, fees and emolu
ments must be considered and rearranged. Woffid you have
any objection to doffig me the favour of holffing the seals pro
tempore 1 It wiU take some time to settle the office upon its
new footing. Retum me the letters.
Lord Clarendon to Lord Melbourne.
The Geove, 21th October. — My deae Melbouene, — ^In compU
ance with your wishes I shaU be quite ready to hold the seals of
the Duchy of Lancaster and to lend any assistance ffi my power
towards reformffig the office, wffich it may perhaps be expeffient
to do before appointing a ChanceUor. ... I harffiy tffink it
probable that the King wiU take back Tffiers, for the coup
d'itat of parting with ffim must have been maturely weighed,
and Loffis PffiUppe woffid not expose ffimseff to the chances
of defeat upon a subject so personal to ffimseff as ffis own speech
and the pledging of France as to her future poUcy, without
having ffist sounded the Chambers and havmg reason to tffink
that he shaU be supported in ffis efforts to moderate the warUke
spirit of the people.
We have now, perhaps, another opportuffity of averting
the evils of war. Gffizot wiU probably form part of the new
admiffistration accorffing to the King's wishes ; but he has
declared he wiU not consent to do so unless he is able to main
tain peace and re-estabUsh the EngUsh affiance. As you know

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 215
the frienffiy ffispositions with wffich he left England, and as no
Ministry ffi France can be composed more favorable to us than
one of wffich Guizot has the direction, I hope you wiU consider
that he shoffid be assisted ffi the objects he has at heart. We
are now quasi successfffi ffi Syria, and can therefore afford some
show of generosity. The Miffister who is to a certam extent
responsible for the state of pubhc feehng m France (and who,
moreover, with ffis press was personaUy hostUe to Palmerston)
is now out of power — out, too, because he was determmed
upon foUowmg the system wffich we deprecate. Surely, then,
we may upon that ground, and with good grace, come forward
to assist the altered poUcy wffich the new minister woffid desire
to adopt. He must forthwith be able to declare that an arrange
ment is made, or about to be agreed upon, or there wffi be war
or revolution ffi France, and either of these wffi bring upon us
misfortunes wffich I declare to Grod I shrink from even con
templating. Some dynasty and some govemment there must
be ffi France, and none wffi sffit us so weU as Loffis PffiUppe's
and the government of Guizot. The fate of both may be said,
without exaggeration, to be ffi our hands ; but ff we persist ffi
waiting for events and doffig notffing to forestaU or to gffide
them, the worst consequences wffi ensue, for wffich we shaU be
held deeply responsible to the country.
The balance stffi trembled between peace and war.
Tffiers's passionate speech m the Chamber on leaving
office, when he declared that he had determmed upon war
with England rather than submit to the terms of the Jffiy
convention, had stirred a fiery feeUng among many of ffis
countrymen. The King was resolved to mamtain peace
if his people woffid aUow him to do so ; Gffizot was
resolute m the same poUcy and gave corresponding in
structions to Bourquenez, who succeeded ffim as Minister
in London ; but Palmerston stiff insisted upon a reduction
of armaments.

Lord Granville to Lord Clarendon.
ah January 1841. — I was ffi hopes that Bourquenez's visit
to Broadlands and the instructions he had received lately from
Guizot might have operated some change for the better ffi the

216 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vni.
relations between the two governments ; but your letter, with
the account you give of the long letter you had just received
from Palmerston, has damped my hopes. Tffis miffistry and
the Kmg are as pacific as possible. Soffit and Gffizot can
exist offiy as the miffisters of a pacific poUcy, and the Kmg wiU
not be agaffi mduced to try the game of talking big. He has
succeeded in ffis object of having at ffis command an effective
army to controffi his turbffient subjects, and ff we do not so
humiUate France by our language and conduct as to give the
war party an advantage against the friends of peace, you may
rest assured that Louis PffiUppe wiU Umit the action of the
army to the preservation of internal tranqffiffity.
You wiU read a despatch wffich I wrote tffis day to Palmerston
reporting a short conversation I had tffis morffing with Gffizot
on the amount of the naval force of France. I spoke to ffim,
as I told ffim, unofficiaUy and uffinstructed by Palmerston,
either in the shape of despatch or private letter. His answer
was as I anticipated — the same as he made to Apponyi and Amim
who made an official representation upon the paix armie. He
said that France caimot reduce its defensive force wffilst she is
not consulted by the other great Powers affied to each other.
He must hold tffis language, because he would not propose a
reduction of the estabUshment to the Chambers but at the
risk, indeed with the certaffity, of ffis proposition bemg
defeated and the miffistry overtffiown. You are aware that
the language of Austria, Prussia and even of Russia has been
most conciUatory towards France, though the two former
have remonstrated against the numbers of the French army;
but Metterffich seems not to be ffissatisfied with the refusal
of the French govemment to ffimiffish at the present moment
its amount, and is wiffing to yield much for the purpose
of strengthenffig Gffizot and keeping out the n&faste ministire
of Tffiers.
In the Russian despatch to Pahlen, of wffich the newspapers
have lately been so fuU, Nessehode writes in the most flattering
terms of the sagesse of L. Pffihppe. WiU it be possible to
squeeze into the Queen's Speech a pffiase sootffing to France ?
It woffid certaiffiy do great good here, and I shoffid think con-
ciUate some of the Liberals who generaUy support govemment,
but who have not much Uked our risking a quarrel with France
for the sake of reimposing the authority of the Sultan over
Syria,

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 217
8th. — ... I Uke of all tffings your programme of the foreign
part of the Queen's Speech and of the miffisterial language in
the debate on the Address. It wiU do immense good here, and
make up for my not having had a civil word to say to the French
govemment at the time that my three coUeagues of the Affiance
have been proffigal of the praises of the Guizot miffistry which
they are instructed to express on the part of their governments,
and of their wish that France shoffid again take her place in
the European coffierences.
15th. — It is clear from Melbourne's letter to you that the
Queen's Speech wffi not contaffi a single word at aU sootffing
to the French govemment. I regret it, because I am sure, from
the manner ffi wffich Gffizot received a commuffication I made
to ffim of Palmerston's approbation of the conduct of an EngUsh
officer who had rendered some service to a French sffip on the
west coast of Africa, that he woffid be satisfied with even a
sUght ffiffication of good wiU towards France. . . . The Speech
and the debate on the Address are looked forward to here with
intense anxiety, and I hope, though Melboume is adverse to
any sentence beffig inserted ffi the Queen's Speech expressive
of regret at France having separated herseff from the other
Powers, that he wffi not be dismcUned to say a few words to
that effect ffi the debate ffi the H. of Lords.
Clarendon's suggestion for a conciUatory reference to
France in the Speech was not adopted. Lord Palmerston
explaiffing in the debate on the Address that ' it woffid
have been unusual ... to have expressed regret at the
interruption of a good understanding wffich had not been
marked by any diplomatic event.' Had either country
withdrawn its Miffister, that woffid have been a pubUc act
whereof the Sovereign might have taken notice ; but to
refer to the mere existence of irritation woffid have been
qffite contrary, he said, to the practice hitherto foUowed.
To some, at least, of those who sat beside and behind the
Foreign Secretary, the question occurred whether the
situation was not one to justify a departure from routine
practice. Howbeit, the Speech from the Throne is Uke the
laws of Modes and Persians and the constitution of the
Uffited States — ^its terms can neither be altered nor added
to after it has been delivered.

218 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
Lord Granville to Lord Clarendon.
Paeis, 1st February 1841. — . . . Tffis day, quite unofficially,
I talked over with Gffizot the question of the naval force of the
two countries and the necessity imposed upon our govemment
of proposing an augmentation of our navy, if no reduction were
intended in the number of their ships. Gffizot acknowledged
fuUy that necessity, owing to the feehng that prevaUed in
parUament and in the country in regard to our mamtaiffing a
superiority of naval force ; but he said similar parUamentary
necessity precluded the French govemment from proposing
any reduction in their number of sffips, until some overt act
had taken place, showing the re-estabUshment of former rela
tions between the two governments. I beUeve what he says to
be true. In aU the ffiscussions in the bureaux about fortifica
tions, naval arsenals, etc., the opiffions have been very strong
in favor of strengthening themselves at sea. . . .
I have shown your letter to Gffizot, and most imfeigneffiy
pleased was he with its contents. He has requested me to convey
to you how much he feels obUged to you for the ffind sentiments
you express respecting ffim, and how much pleased he is, wisffing
most sincerely for the most corffia] understandffig between the
two governments and the very general expression of good wiU
towards France in the debates on the address. I have no doubt
that, if he remains raimster, and that on our side there be the
wish to be upon a corffial footing with France, that wish wiU be
fuUy reaUsed. His way of taUdng upon business is clear and
satisfactory ; it is precise, and very ffifferent from the volatile
language of ffis predecessor,^ who has Uttle chance for some
time to come of returffing to power. Passy, Dupffis (who as an
orator has much ffistingffished ffimseff of late, but who seems
to have no notion of general foreign poUtics) and Mole are upon
the stand, and wiU be beckoned to by the King before he recals
Tffiers. Certain matters were in dispute at this time between the
governments of Great Britain and the United States, notably
the arrest of one Alexander M'Leod, a British subject,
and the imfriendly expression of the President, Gteneral
Harrison, caused considerable anxiety to the Queen's
Miffisters. On 23rd February Lord John RusseU sounded
1 Thiers.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 219
Clarendon upon his wiffingness to undertake a mission to
Washington to try and restore a better state of feeling.
At that time the Uffited States were not represented by
an ambassador at any Court, and Clarendon declined to
go out except as an ambassador. President Harrison
died suddeffiy on 4th April, and was succeeded in office
by the Vice-President, Mr. Tyler, with whom the quarrel
was patched up.
In February Lady Clarendon's allegiance to the Whigs
was put to its first test through a by-election at St. Albans,
a borough where the Tory influence of her own family had
long been supreme. The candidates were the Tory Mr.
CabeU and the Wffig Lord Listowel.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
Tuesday, 9th February. — St. Albans election is over, Mr.
CabeU bemg beat by Lord Listowel, though 100 majority of
pronuses were given to Mr. CabeU a few days ago ; but the
next day bribffig began vsdth a vengeance and was done in the
most open way. People were desired to go to Mr. Muskett's
bank, where almost anytffing would be given them for their
votes. ... A man of the name of Robert Adams pubUckly
handed over to the Mayor on the hustings the bribe he had
received to vote for Lord Listowel, took the bribery oath wffich
was admimstered to aU, and poUed for Mr. CabeU amidst loud
cheers. Another man handed the money he was bribed with
to the authorities, but had not the nerve to do it pubUckly.
Immense sums are supposed to have been spent by the Wffig
side, . . . but I wiU not trust myseff to write particulars, because I
have aUowed my temper to get bitterly the better of me, for
wffich I am heartily ashamed, though I cannot change my
opiffion as to the transactions. The selfish part of my feeUngs
is that I cannot bear my father's ^ interest to be beat any
where, but especiaUy so near ffis place,^ where for hundreds of
years ffis fanffiy have resided ; where through a long ffie he
has exercised the legitimate influence which high character,
constant ffindness, benevolence and charity had a right (and
such a right that I should tffink the veriest Raffical could not
find fault with) to command ; where ffimseff and ffis family,
' The Earl of Verulam. ^ Gorhambury is close to St. Albans.

220 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vni.
aye, and ffis poUtical principles were beloved ; but where a
stranger goes down and, by the force of gold, the poor were
tempted beyond their powers of resistance. ... So much for
the seffish part of my feeUngs, and now for another part. ... I
am deeply ffisgusted to find that the party wffich professes
abhorrence for bribery and corruption — ^that stands up for
purity of election and the free expression of the opiffions of the
people — should prove, when tempted, as corrupt (I wiU for
bear from saymg more so) as those it reprobates. I had a Uttle
sort of lurking idea that Wffigs were purer, and one of the tffings
that reconciled me to George's being a Wffig was a dawmng
respect for some of their principles ; but I own tffis election has
driven me back towards Toryism. . . .
28th. — . . . The Tory canffidate Walters has defeated Larpent
the Wffig canffidate at Nottmgham by joiffing with the Chartists
and making a cry about the Poor Laws. It is said £12,000 was
sent to secure ffis election.
The Melboume miffistry was tottering to its faU. Mr.
Baring's budget revealed a deficiency of two miffions and
a haff on a total estimate of fifty milUons. Palmerston
urged Melboume to advise the Queen to dissolve ParUa
ment ; Clarendon was for the alternative of resigffing ;
but Melbourne was strengthened in ffis usual disposition
to let things take their course by the Queen's dread of
having to send for a Tory. ' Clarendon,' wrote Charles
GreviUe, ' who is against a dissolution, set before Melbourne
the other day aU the reasons for such a measure, in order
to elicit his opiffion and see if those reasons shook his
previous convictions ; but Melboume said that he coffid
not find anjiihing in them to make ffim change ffis mind.' ^
Even when, on 18th May, Miffisters were left in a minority
of thirty-six on Lord Sandon's motion against the reduction
of the duty on foreign sugar, they did not resign ; but
waited until 4th June, when Sir Robert Peel carried a vote
of want of confidence in them by a majority of one, which
forced Melbourne to a decision, and he chose the alternative
of dissolution, which Lord John announced in the House
of Commons on 7th June. He had paved the way for a
1 The GreviUe Memoira, 2nd part, ii. 2.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 221
retm'n of the Wffigs to power by giving notice of a resolu
tion to substitute a fixed duty of 8s. a quarter on wheat
instead of the sUding scale which had been in force since
1828. Hitherto Lord John and the Whig party had re
pudiated the principles of the Anti-Corn Law League as
strenuously as did the Tories. Melbourne offiy yielded assent
to tffis change of front ' doubtingly and despondingly ' ;
and the resffit justified ffis reluctance, for ' the cheap loaf '
failed on this occasion as a party cry. Miffisters, having
counted a majority of twenty-five to thirty in the old
ParUament, were left in a minority of ffinety-one on their
first trial of strength in the new one. They then resigned,
and the Queen sent for Sir Robert Peel on 28th August.
Had the Wffigs retained office, it is possible that Clarendon
might have been caUed upon to undertake duties in another
continent. From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
3rd July 1841. — . . . Lord Auckland has written to Sir John
Hobhouse expressmg ffis wish to have George as ffis successor as
Governor-General of Inffia. If these Mmisters stay in (which
they wffi not do) I tffink it most Ukely the Govemor-General-
sffip wiU be offered, perhaps pressed, upon George, but I do not
think he woffid accept the offer. . . .
21st. — ^We went to Wmdsor. ... I sat by Prince Albert
at ffinner to-day, but coffid not get on with ffim. He was
civil and good-natured, but ffid not converse. I beUeve he
does with men, but he appears never to do so vsdth women,
except Royalties. He seemed to get on very weU with the
Queen of the Belgians, who sat the other side of ffim. . . . George
sat by the Queen and had a great deal of conversation with her
about the Wffig prospects. In speaffing to ffim, she seemed
to identffy herseff completely with the Liberal party — talked
of ' us ' and ' we.' . . . George asked her whether she had seen
in the Times an article about herseff and Sir Robert Peel. She
said she had not, for she offiy read the papers on our own side ;
the others made her positively iU. . . . Her ffisUke to Peel
contmues ; she says it is impossible to trust ffim, and she tffinks
Brougham false.
Clarendon corresponded constantly at tffis time vsdth
Lord GranviUe, who continued ambassador at the Tffileries

222 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
tiU the faU of the Melbourne mimstry. In his letters and
those to Lady GranviUe is contained a good deal of current
gossip, wffich the old diplomat was pretty sure to reUsh,
having been a prince of gamblers in his day, and being stiff
known in Paris as le Wellington des joueurs.^

Lord Clarendon to Lord Granville.
Goehambuey, 18th November 1841. — . . . The meeting of
ParUament is fixed, I understand, for the 25th January, and
then Peel, having had aU the time he asked for, must show what
use he has made of it. Commercial reform is what everybody
wants, and the Tories pretend it wiU be given with generosity
tempered offiy by wisdom. The offiy preparation for tffis that
the pubhc yet knows of is the appointment of a commission of
enqffiry, and, as GranviUe Somerset is the chairman, I shaU
expect the reduction of a couple of tide-waiters as the sum
total of the reform we are to have. None, however, wiU be
acceptable, nor indeed practicable, wffich leaves the Com Laws
untouched, and upon that subject I don't beheve Peel has pro
duced any change (even if he has attempted it) in the majority
of ffis supporters. They are aU incUned to suspect ffim, and
they therefore take every opportuffity of renewing their own
pledges and of increasing ffis embarrassment. ... I have no
doubt that if he dealt with them courageously and made ffis
remaiffing in office dependent upon ffis bringing in the measures
wffich he must know are necessary and wiU eventuaUy be carried,
they would eat ffirt cheerfuUy and in abundance. I can't say
I have any apprehension about the ffitimate success of such
measures, because the principles they involve are true and
must prevail, tho' hke everytffing good ever done in tffis country
it is a work of time, and the time is deterrffined by the amount
of power possessed by the prejuffices and seff-interest opposed
to the change. It is Uke ffigging a weU in wffich one may go
boring on for months accorffing to the strata to be gone tffiough,
but one is quite sure to get water at last.
What alarms me, however, is the progress of our manffiactur
ing dechne, or rather the continued rise of our manufacturmg
rivals, for tffis depends upon circumstances that neither Wffig
nor Tory govemment can control. If once we are beaten in
* It was said that he once lost £23,000 at a sitting at Crockford's.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 223
our race of competition for the markets of the world, I don't
understand how our system of tffings, which is the most artificial
the world ever saw, can be maintained. . . . The Prince of
Wales is pronounced by competent judges to be a much finer
cffild than ffis sister, and qffite to fuffil the best wishes of the
nation. . . . Lord Clarendon to Lady Granville.
Goehambuey, 31st December 1841. — My deae Lady G., — I
am Uving in the provinces surrounded by Tories who look upon
us as the blackest of sheep, and I have consequently not an idea
or a scrap of ffiteffigence worth commufficating, but I cannot let
the year qffite pass away without the good old custom of wish
ing you a happy new one. . . . Among the Tories there seems
as much confidence ffi their tenure of office as if they had signed
a 21 years lease with the country. Among the Wffigs there is
a kind of apathetic acqffiescence in tffis, wffich looks as ff aU
energy and intention were extinct, always except Palm., whose
wishes, as usual, are fathers to ffis thoughts, and he accorffingly
beUeves that he shaU rout the Tories foot and horse, and be re-
estabUshed at the F. 0. before 6 months are over. Among the
Rafficals there is neither much uffion nor wisdom. They concoct
schemes wffich wffi have Uttle support, and rely upon quarrels
in the enemy's camp wffich never existed. Altogether, we cut
a sorry figure just now ; but we are at our worst and the Tories
are at their best, and the fortune of war may bring us nearer
to equahty. . . .
The misdemeanours of Esterhazy pere continue to be
obUgingly commufficated by Lady Jersey to the pubhc, and
ff some good-natured friend teUs ffim one-twentieth part of
what she has said of ffim, they wiU probably not speak at the
marriage of their cffildren.^ He appears to have behaved
as iU and offensively as possible, and harffiy yet to have given
up hopes of breakmg off a connexion by which he and his family
vsdU doubtless lose caste at Vienna. ... He holds no com
muffication with the Jerseys and won't let Sarah have any
jewels of the fanffiy. In short, he wants to drive them aU into
breaking it off ; but Lady J.'s offiy notice of ffis manoeuvres is
ffivitmg aU London to inspect the more than royal trousseau of
1 Lady Sarah VUliers was engaged to Prince Nicholas, eldest son of
the diplomatist Prince Paul Antony Esterhazy. The marriage took
place in February 1842.

224 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
her daughter. . . . Old Westmorland's vsdU is most iffiqffitous.
He has left everytffing to Lady Ga.^ and away from Burghersh
— aU the family plate and fumiture of Apethorpe go to her, as
weU as the landed property not entailed. . . .
19th January 1842. — . . . The Duke of Beaufort is foaming
with rage again, and his amiable consort tffieatens that he shaU
tum Wffig, because he has not old Westmorland's Garter wffich
the Duke of Buckingham wants. To settle the point. Peel is
waiting for the Duke of Cleveland's, who keeps promising to
ffie, but doesn't.
Old Esterhazy is not yet arrived, altho' they beUeve he has
left Vienna. If so, it is the King of Prussia's coming here, and
not ffis son's marriage that brings ffim, for he has continued the
same system of silence and delay, and, among other insults, has
sent over the amended contract of marriage unsigned. Lady
Jersey has kept fixing the day for the marriage and ffivitmg aU
London to the marriage feast, just as people ring the beU and
order ffinner to make the guests who are late arrive. Nicholas,
I understand, behaves with great propriety, and poor Sarah is
so enthusiasticaUy in love with ffim that, miserable as her
prospects must be with ffim, one can offiy desire now that the
marriage shoffid take place. . . . Morley ^ is gomg to be married
to Mrs. Coryton, who is ffis second cousin and a widow. A more
deUghtfffi, amiable person does not exist, and he has made a
most jufficious choice. Lady Morley is qffite beside herseU
with joy ; it is just the marriage for ffim that makes her per
fectly happy, wffich I know you wiU be glad to hear. . . . The
De Greys are not makmg much way ffi Ireland.* He has faUen
into aU the Orange traps that were set for ffim, and is said to
grudge the expense of ffis hospitaUties (a capital crime in a
Lord Lieut.). Her honesty gets the better of her discretion, and
she cannot conceal how insufferably she is bored.
1th February. — . . . Esterhazy pere has not made ffis appear
ance, but tffiee days ago, to the joy and surprise of Lady Jersey,
arrived a letter from ffim in qffite an altered tone, senffing aU
the procurations and contracts necessary, together with the
most splenffid presents of jeweUery, surpassffig, I hear, both in
beauty and value anytffing possessed by the Queen or any
one else in England. The marriage, accorffingly, takes place
to-morrow. 1 Lady Georgiana Fane, Lord Westmorland's youngest daughter.
2 Edmund, second Earl of Morley, Lord Clarendon's cousin.
' Lord de Grey had been appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 225
Peel's budget of 1842 turned out sensational. Having
inherited from the Wffigs an accumffiated deficit of nearly
ten miffions, he staggered ffis party by a proposal to reduce
the duty upon corn and the duties upon seven hundred and
ffity out of twelve hundred dutiable class of import. The
Duke of Buclcingham resigned the Privy Seal at once.
Clarendon's opiffion of the situation was confided to Lady
GranviUe, who was at Nice.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 22nd February 1842. — . . . Between
the iUness of Lister,^ who is now, thank God, out of immeffiate
danger, and that of Lady C, who is stiU saffiy suffering, I hardly
know when or what I last wrote to you ; but I beUeve I ffid
write to Lord G. since Peel's mountain produced its mouse.
The said mouse has contented no party. The free-traders are,
of course, ffiffignant, and the lanffiords are not much less so. . . .
However, these latter are too wise to quarrel outright with their
own bread and butter ; and, as they know they can't do without
Peel and must be entirely ffi ffis hands, they affect to say that
the measure is as good a one as coffid be expected, and that the
Cabmet has gained ffi strength by losmg such ' a vffigar, im
practicable ffitra' as the Duke of Buckmgham. These are
reaUy the terms ffi wffich they speak of their ci-devant Magnus
ApoUo ; wffich is no bad homage to pubhc opiffion, nor bad
proof of the progress wffich truth is making among men who,
offiy two years ago, scouted the notion of enquiry even into the
operation of the Com Laws as a lawless invasion of their rights.
. . . Aberdeen is the Minister who has found most favour in
ffis Sovereign's eyes. . . .
Lord Clarendon, much to his deUght, having been set free
from the cares of office, we may tum to ffis correspondence
and Lady Clarendon's for information of how the world in
general, and London society in particffiar, went on their
ways. From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
Sunday, 30th January 1842. — We ffined at the Duke of
Sussex's, one of those great Sunday dinners wffich I hate and
ffisapprove. Met there Lord and Lady Palmerston, IVDle.
' Husband of Lord Clarendon's sister, Lady Theresa. He died on.
6th June foUowing.
VOL. I P

226 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
d'Est6, Duke of Sutherland, M. de Saint-Affiaire,i ]v[. and Mme.
Van de Weyer, Lady EUzabeth Gore, the Duke of Cambridge
and Prince George, Sir Archibald Macdonald, Lord and Lady
Cottenham, M. de Kilmansegge, etc. etc. The Duke of Sussex
(between whom and M. de Saint-Aulaire I sat) told me that it
was remarkable that the Queen had objected to the font at
wffich George ni. and his cffildren had been christened as not
being handsome, and had selected another, which happens
(tho' she does not know it) to be the one at wffich Charles i. was
baptised ; and the Prince of Wales was cffiistened exactly over
the spot where the body of Charles i. Ues.
Mr. Auhin to Lord Clarendon.
Rome, Oth March 1841. — . . . Poodle Byng is here ooUeoting
pictures. He has made no bad bargains yet, nor is Ukely to do
so as long as he foUows his present system. He makes it a rule
not to give more than tffiee paiffi (ffiteen pence sterUng money)
for any picture, and he is not without the hope of picking up
some Raphael one day or another.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
Wednesday, Oth March. — Yesterday in the House of Commons
Lord Francis Egerton brought in a bill for enabUng widowers to
marry their late wives' sisters. I note tffis, because George
was much pressed to bring forward the same subject last year
in the House of Lords, but found some of the leading bishops
against it, so he ffid not. . . .
Lord Clarendon to Lady Granville.
London, 15th March 1842. — . . . Dans le monde fashionable
there is very Uttle stirring, at least that I know of. The Samt-
Aulaires are very much Uked. Lord Aberdeen is angry both
with ffim and Guizot for having compromised him by pubUsh-
ing his spontaneous declaration about Algiers. He has been
let off easy in ParUament about it, for there is a laudable ffis-
position in both houses to do notffing that shaU increase the
stupid, senseless animosity against us in France. I wish that
' M. de Saint-Aulaire had succeeded Quizot as French Ambassador
at St. James's.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 227
example was more foUowed in the chambers and in the press ;
but every sort of atrocity is debited against England, and no
miffister nor any person having the sUghtest authority ever says
a word to check it or to give a better direction to I'opinion
publique igarie.
Old Esterhazy has, I hear, resigned the embassy. The
young ones are soon to return to Vienna, where but a sorry
reception awaits poor Sarah Viffiers. Society intends to visit
Nicholas's uffiversal unpopffiarity upon ffis misalliance, and she
wiU have to depend upon old Prmcess Esterhazy, who, out of
opposition to her husband, may perhaps be kind to her. But
it is one of the most melancholy avenirs that ever a girl was
consigned to by a vain, fooUsh mother. There was a grand
ffispute about Sarah's precedence the other day between Lady
Jersey and Lord Londonderry. The former thanked Heaven
that, at aU events, Sarah woffid go out before all EngUsh
duchesses. Lord L. announced ffis intention of being d  d
ff she went out before any marcffioness, whereat a great wrangle
ensued, wffich was put an end to by Lord L. saying that if
Lady J. were a man he shoffid know how to deal with her, but
as she was a woman he offiy treated her with the contempt she
deserved. Lord Hertford's wiU, Uke ffis Ufe and Uke ffis death, has ffis
gusted everybody. Amongst other bequests, I hear he has
left £80,000 to Lady Strachan's maid, and ffis Coventry property
to a Mrs. Frere, who formerly Uved with ffim.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 22nd April. — . . . Peel drags ffis
reluctant majority tffio' the mud after ffim ; but they look
as compact ffi the ffivisions as if they Uked ffis measures. In
their hearts, they consider they have been completely deceived,
and they are not the less furious that, having made the rod for
their own backs, they caimot now help themselves. They
feel that they are at ffis mercy; but hatred of the Liberal
party is their bond of uffion, and fear of the Wffigs returffing to
office stifles, for the present at least, aU thoughts of mutiny.
IVliss Stuart 1 is to marry Lord Waterford . . . wffich must
be a doubtfffi experiment, I should tffink ; but as she says her
object always was to marry a man that everybody else disUked
and ran down, she has every prospect of being happy.
The other day at church, when the clergyman said, ' Let us
' The Hon. Louisa Stuart, second daughter of Lord Stuart de
Rothesay.

228 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
pray,' the Duke of Cambridge,^ ffi a loud voice, and to the sur
prise of the congregation, responded, ' Oh, by aU means ! '
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 25th May 1842.— . . . The Tories aU
pretend that the Queen is devoted to them and deUghted with
the change. I beUeve her opiffions to be just the same as ever ;
but she is not sorry to be reheved of the daily anxiety she endured
last year, and she now tffinks notffing about poUtics. Brougham
is ready — le cos ichkmt — to do any amount of mjury to ffis old
friends, and, waitffig for that, he misses no opportuffity of render
ing service to the Tories. He and Lyndhurst have a complete
understanding together. I understand that Lord Ashburton
reports weU of ffis negociations as far as they have gone ; but as
the elements he has to deal with consist of petffiance, conceit,
recklessness and ffishonesty, it woffid be ffifficffit for ffim or any
one else to say how he wiU end.^ I never wished success to any
undertaking more than to his, not offiy because a war with the
Uffited States woffid be the greatest misfortune that coffid befal
us at present, but because the avoidance of it wiU be the best
means of keepffig on terms with France. A great deal of the
senseless nonsense uttered daily against us there is based upon
the notion of our bemg about to quarrel with America, and
that, when we have our hands fffil, they may faU upon our
rear. . . .
I was last ffight at the Duchess of Sutherland's greatly im
proved effition of the Queen's fancy baU. No other subject
in Europe coffid give such a fete in such a house, and very
few Sovereigns either. It was a most royal entertamment.
Your ffiece. Lady EUzabeth Leveson,' is by far the most de
Ughtful person of her age (I had almost said of any age) I ever
met with. I coffid write on for haff an hour ff I said aU I think
of her. . . .
The Geove, 1st September 1842.^ . . . Your residence at
Herrensheim must be a deUghtfffi entre-acte between the baths.
. . , Could you but have dreamt of the possibiUty of such a
summer as we have had you might with perfect safety have come
back to tffis country. Never in my time, nor, I believe, in that
' Adolphus, first Duke, seventh son of George m., died iu 1850.
2 Alexander Baring, first Lord Ashburton (1774-1848), had been sent
as Commissioner to adjust the boundaries dispute with the United States,
and did so by what ia known as the Ashburton treaty, settled at
Washington in 1842.
' Eldest daughter of the second Duke of Sutherland ; married, in
1844, George, eighth Duke of Argyll.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 229
of the often-quoted gent., ' the oldest inhabitant,' has such
continuous and deUghtful heat been known. It has been a
great tffing for the country, and, what is of less importance, a
godsend for the govemment, which could not have stood a
bad harvest and ffigh prices in adffition to the Income Tax and
an insurrection of the worffing classes. . . . Lord Ashburton
has signed ffis treaty, whether upon terms entirely honorable
and satisfactory to tffis country remains to be seen ; but all
prospects of war in that quarter appear, fortunately, to have
subsided. Tffis, together with the re-ratting of Thiers to the
Conservative party, gives a general pacific aspect to affairs such
as they have not had for the last two years.
I have seen Auckland and his sisters.* I think they look
aU the fresher and younger for Inffia. Auckland says there
never was a more gratffitous and unnecessary calamity than
that at Cabul — the want of foresight ffist, and the want of
decision and courage afterwards, appear to have been quite
un-EngUsh. I shoffid tffink Lord EUenborough was mad ;
the antics he is playffig are enough, not offiy to make angels
weep, but to make aU the Company's servants retire from
office. London, 13th June 1843. — . . . The answer to the conun
drum — Why are the Tories Uke waffiuts ? Because they are
troublesome to peel — is reaUy a truth. Then there comes a
wetter spring and worse prospects of harvest than the oldest
inhabitant can remember ; so that, upon the whole, I don't
tffink there is a pair of shoes in aU England that one should less
desire to stand in than Sir Robert Peel's. . . .
You wiU probably have heard that Shelbume's ^ marriage
with Emily de Flahaffit is settled, to the infiffite deUght of the
Lansdownes, who were much exercised by ffis wild mode of hfe
and ffis bienffial demands for £30,000. Melboume is retumed
to town very weU and ffi good spirits. With common care
and prudence he might entirely recover ; but he eschews both
in a manner that is very provoking. ... I rejoice for Dr.
Evanson's sake that he has such good and sufficient reasons for
not putting ffimseff under the HoUand yoke. Moreover, if he had
been wiffing to do so. Lady HoUand would no longer have been
wiffing to receive him ; for ffirectly after she desired me to write
^ Lord Auckland had just finished his term as Governor-General of
India. " Succeeded as fourth Marquess of Lansdowne in 1863 and died in 1866.

230 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. vm.
to you respecting Dr. E., she engaged a certain Dr. Dick, whom
she has since twice ffismissed — once for moving a chair and
secondly for miscarving a leg of lamb. He was restored under
proffibition of ever again meddUng vsdth furniture or meat, and
is now promoted to the honors of the afternoon drive in com
pany with Mrs. Sheepwash the Grotteuse. He seems a mouse
of a man, looks frightened out of ffis senses, but is said to be
clever. I am sure he is to be pitied, for it must be poverty and
not ffis wiU that makes ffim endure the enffiess variety of refined
humiUation that ffis rffistress is so skiffffi in infficting. . . .
The widow of Clarendon's old friend Lord HoUand was
indeed a strange medley of qualities. Warmly attached
to those whom she admitted to friendship, a bitter enemy
to those who offended her, kind to her servants, but
tyrannical towards educated persons dependent upon her
bounty and heartless towards her ovsoi children, to whom
at her death in 1845, she left hardly any of her fortune.
Clarendon, seeing that Lady HoUand was contemplating
the dispersal of the treasures of AmpthiU and HoUand
House, sent a warning note to her son, the fourth Lord
HoUand, who replied as follows :
Floeence, 20th April 1842. — How very kind of you, dear
Clarendon, to send me early iffiormation about my lady mother's
proceeffings. As to the pictures she is about to seU, if they are
really bona fide from AmptffiU, there are only a very few I should
care to possess, and even those I should not Uke to bid for on
contract with Christie tiU I know whether my brother Charles *
intends to bid for them. ... I have considerable reason to
suspect that my mother has mixed up with others some from
HoUand House. . . . There are one or two pictures there I
fear she wiU seU, as they would fetch a ffigh price, and I woffid
make almost any sacrifice to save them. I caimot help fearing
that it is most Ukely some of these pictures she wiU now ffispose
of, as she has begun the work of despoiUng the old house.
In the meanwffile she writes me most tender, sugary letters
almost every post. If posterity judges of her offiy by these
she wiU pass for a second Madame de Sevign6 in maternal tender
ness ! It is rather amusing, but it was from the extreme mterest
and affection so stuffiously repeated in her letters that I began
' His elder brother, but not born in wedlock.

1840-3] THE EASTERN QUESTION 231
to suspect that she was employed in some business of the sort,
for these effusions are always sure precursors of some mischief,
and the same post that brought your letter conveyed one so
much more affectionate than usual that, before I had opened
yours, I felt certain there was sometffing going on.
The sUver I could not afford to buy, especiaUy as I reserve
my energies for other more precious tffings, which I feel, too,
wiU soon be ffi the market. Alas for the Ubrary ! I have been
told she has aheady offered it ; but I cannot vouch for the
truth of tffis. . . .
I shoffid hke much to hear your views of our poUtical horizon.
It grieves me much to observe the strong, increasing hatred the
French feel towards us. That fatal treaty of July laid seeds, I
fear, of many future convulsions wffich our momentary success
at Acre wffi but poorly compensate for. — Yours very sincerely
and gratefuUy, Holland.

CHAPTER IX
IN OPPOSITION
' The good or ill success of battles and embassies extends
itself to a very smaU part of domestick Ufe : we aU have
good and evil, which we feel more sensibly than our petty part
of pubUck miscarriage or prosperity.' De. Johnson.
Before resuming the course of parliamentary poUtics under
Peel's admiffistration, some letters from Emily Eden claim
retrospective attention, interesting as the outflow of a Uvely
and observant inteUigence, and speciaUy so as having been
written from headquarters at a time when British rffie
in India was more gravely shaken than it has ever been
since, except during the great Mutiny of 1857. Lord
Auckland's term of authority was about to come to a close ;
Clarendon had been sounded as to his wiffingness to replace
him ; it may be that, had he been able to foresee what was
to be the province assigned to him when the Whigs re
tumed to power, he woffid have felt some regret about his
decision to decUne the great Indian consulship ; but of this
there is no evidence among ffis papers.
The Hon. Emily Eden to Lord Clarendon.
Calcutta, llth April 1841. — ... I wish you woffid go
on writing. You can always find heaps of tffings to say that
woffid interest me. I must have known the grandfathers and
grandmothers of most of the reigffing London people, and
should Uke to hear about their descendants ; and then in retum
I can teU you the latest scandal from the Punjab, and what
the Loodeeannah satirists insinuates against a great many of
[illegibleya widows ; and then, as you say, we have many an
amusing reeoUection in common of Grosvenor Street and
Greenwich. ' We have heard the cffimes at midffight. Master
232

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 233
ShaUow.' I wonder whether you reooUeot a particular
eveffing at Green\vich, when you and Francis Baring ^ and
Pow ^ and G. Tierney ^ ffined with us. Whitebait, of course
(there are no eatable fish in Inffia), and after ffinner, when
the park was locked up, we let ourselves into it through
the Uttle garden gate, and had coffee. G. Tierney tied a
handkercffief over ffis head and put on a shawl and gave
us imitations of Mrs. Siddons. I caimot see why you should
remember that evenmg, except that, as the Vicar of Wake
field says, ff we had not more jokes than usual, we certainly
had more laugh. I found an old note of yours here one day
in a book that we brought with us ; it began ' chere Presidente,'
and there were some levities about Pow and about Stephen
Loch, and some aUusion to yourseff and George * being
starved to death because we would eat too fast. And now
you are Lord Privy Seal, walkmg statehly ffito ffinner before
everybody, and eating as slow as you hke : Pow is Lord Syden
ham and Kmg of Canada, and George is so constantly occupied
ffi takffig and defenffing Mngdoms, putting down Central Asia
and pokmg up Cffina, that he has no time to eat at aU, and aUows
ffimseff and secretaries seven mmutes for breakfast and six for
limcheon ; at wffich, after five years practice, they grumble
rather more than they ffid at ffist. ... If you see the sUghtest
leanmg to any plan that woffid keep us out here another hour,
I charge you to oppose it strongly. Not that I should hke you
to think Inffia a bad place just for six years, because you are
my next Gov.-Geffi. I have set my heart upon it, and so has
Lord Auckland, ever since we came ; in fact I brought you up
from a boy with that view. . . .
Calcutta, 8th August. — -You may imagine the state of agita
tion we are in for the Jffiy post, wffich may bring in the resffit
of a few elections. . . . My own behef is that the Wffigs wiU
gain notffing, and might as weU have gone out at once, wffich
woffid have been more ffigffified and, I tffink, a greater puzzle to
the enemy. . . . By some pecuhar perversity of the monsoon,
our letters cannot go at the usual time. ... I never understand
how it is, but the monsoon never seems to affect the letters that
1 Created Baron Northbrook in January 1866 and died in September
of the same year.
2 C. E. Poulett-Thomson, appointed Governor-General of Canada after
Clarendon had decUned it : created Lord Sydenham 19th August 1841,
and was killed by a faU from his horse on 4th September of the same year.
^ Son of George Tierney, Whig statesman.
* The writer's brother, Lord Auckland.

234 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
come ; offiy those that go, wffich looks capricious and spiteful.
I always hated the word ' monsoon ' in cffildish days, when the
wretched attempt was made to teach me geography. I don't
tffink I knew the least what it meant : it might have been a
particular sea, or a sheU, or an immense cloud of dust in a desert,
or a ffigh priest, or Sanskrit for an echpse ; in short, anything
but what it is — a constant obstacle to letters going when they
ought. . . . When you are here (and somehow I always see you
as Gov.-Geffi. of Inffia), you wiU find out the guilt of the mon
soon, and that everytffing you particularly wish to do, from
taking Pekin to transplanting an aloe, ' cannot be done wffile
tffis monsoon lasts.'
Is it a perfect delusion of ours about the possibiUty of your
coming out ? if by any miracle the Wffigs were to subside
into a Govt, again. Probably you woffid prefer being A 15 in
the pohce force, or a stone-breaker in regffiar employ, as there
is no doubt that, with a cool chmate, those situations have
superior advantages. But stiU, everybody caimot be best
off, there must be stokers in steamboats, and Inffia must be
govemed ; so we always insist upon it you are coming, and
have taught society in general so to expect. I fancy the peerages
in Calcutta now open naturaUy at EngUsh Earls — Clarendon—
and many are the Uttle surreptitious ffints about you and Lady C,
wffich I have answered, of course, without any attention to truth
or consistency ; just to give them the pleasure of a surprise.
Even the natives probably must have settled from the papers
that the new Lord Saffib is ' Donclaren ' (they always tum long
names inside out). The GwaUor Rajah may not feel sure;
the young Nawab of Moorshedabad may be pert about it ; the
eldest Mysore prince in the seclusion of his zenana may sffiug
up ffis shoulders at the ffiteenth Mrs. Tippoo and say he has ffis
doubts ; but I imagine that the general impression of the forty
miffions is that you are coming. . . .
Baeeackpoee, 19th September 1841. — I am dead — murdered —
anffihilated by that horrid August mail which came in yester
day. ... I do not know what to say ; it is such an awful
smash. A smaU majority woffid have been aU very weU, rather
conveffient than otherwise ; but 84 ! Those horrid Tories are
in for ever. I am so glad I was not in London. I could not
have stood their triumph. ... I grudge the loss of Howick's
election as far as Theresa is vexed by it ; but he qffite deserves
it. And then Lord Morpeth ! I think that is the worst sign

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 235
of an ungrateful comitry I have knovra yet. In short, one
thing is worse than another, and that flashy marriage of Lord
VilUers is a provocation,^ merely because Lady Jersey must be
so deUghted and overpowering. If you recoUect, I always ffis
Uked her even ffi her Whig days, and much worse since, and in
a poUtical crisis she was always adffitionaUy provoking ; and
now, with her son marrying Sir Robert's daughter, she must
be doubly Jerseyish. In fact, what with the hot weather and
the idea of her I can harffiy write. Do you remember Mrs.
Bennet ffi Pride and Prejudice ? I could go on maimdering
Uke her about Lady Jersey. She is a very artful woman — all
for what she can get. I am sorry to say it, but so it is. It
makes me very nervous and poorly to be so thwarted ; but,
however, our goffig home is the greatest of confforts, and I am
very glad to think that next September wiU be as hot as this,
and that a Tory wiU profit by it. . . .
Yesterday, to add to the misery of the elections and the heat,
one of the judges took it into ffis head to give a ffinner. We
had not ffined out for a year — or rather for two, for I beUeve
yesterday's ffinner lasted a whole year. It was a paiffiul pro
cess. Native cooks are not particular about the interval they
ffiterpose between first and second courses. We were aU be
wildered yesterday, the dooUes dropped in so slowly to know
whereabouts in dinner we were. Then the ice was to come
from Calcutta (tffis is Barrackpore, 16 miles from the icehouse),
and I beUeve the servants ran there to fetch it when it was
wanted. I had once thoughts of pretenffing to faint ; but un
luckily an astucious yoimg Hussar officer, dressed up in aU
that stiff braided apparatus so adapted to tffis cUmate, thought
of it first, and had ffimseff carried out between the courses. It
was not fair ; but I thought of Sir PffiUp Sydney, and let ffim
have the advantage of the ffist faint, in consideration of aU
that gold braidmg. . . .
I do so Uke our dear Uttle Queen for starting off forthwith
on that tour of Wffig visits : so Uke her.^ . . .
Calcutta, 21s^ October. — . . . That majority of 90 is dread
fffi ! the whole tffing unpleasant in the last degree, and I have a
1 Lord ViUiers married Sir Robert Peel's eldest daughter in 1841 ;
succeeded as sixth Earl of Jersey on Srd October 1859, and died on 24th
of the same month.
^ The visits were to Dr. Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York, at
Nuneham, to the Duke of Bedford at Woburn Abbey, to Lord Cov^er at
Panshanger, to Lord Melbourne at Brocket, to Lord Salisbury at Hatfield
and to the Duke of Devonshire at Chiswick.

236 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
sort of Tory nausea come over me. . . . How good you are about
writing. I begin to tffink the bright spot in your character is
regularity of correspondence ; just as Sir R. Peel's hberaUty
mil be the bright spot in his. The Ust of Ministry is [illegible],
except that I caimot abide Ripon's having anything. He is
welcome to govern ffis wife, ff he can, but he shoffid not try
anytffing else.^ . . . Now to study the papers and to increase
that nausea. ... I have just had a note to say that one of our
own rffinoceroses has gone mad and got out on the Barrackpore
road, kffied an uffiortunate Sepoy and chased a colonel, and I
rather tffink that if it catches us in the dark it wiU be unpleasant.
On boaed the ' Soommoolia ' [?], 12*^ January 1842. — My
deae, Loed Claeendon, — That date does not mean that I am
on board the sffip that is to take us home. No such luck ! we
have no sffip to go in. That Tory miffistry you have all chosen
to subiffit to, very pohtely placed the Druid at our ffisposal,
and sent out orders to that effect ; wffich orders, with immense
luck, may possibly reach here when we are somewhere the other
side of the Cape. It is not clear to me that Lord Hadffington ^
has ever seen a map of the Cffina Sea. He has not made a
happy guess at the ffistance between Calcutta and Chusan ;
but accorffing to present appearances he wiU be long enough at
the Admiralty to leam. In the meantime we are taking refusals
of cabins in haff the merchant sffips in the river, expecting
them to keep their anchors at haff-cock, as Lord Hadffington
would say, tiff Lord E.'s arrival is semaphored.^ People seem
to think them just as comfortable to voyage home ffi as the
Queen's sffips ; but, as the average complement of cffildren that
each takes home is about tffirty, and as each inffividual child is
accustomed to domineer over four submissive natives, instead
of being weU shaken by an EngUsh nursery-maid, I have an
idea that the iffiantme noise wiU be fatigffing. Lord A.'s
secretary sent home ffis sick wife and five children last week,
and there were not above 24 cffildren altogether on board ;
but he says that from the time the sffip left Calcutta tiU she was
fairly out at sea, the majority had never ceased screaming for
a moment. Calcutta is in a state of great excitement about Lord EUen-
^ Lord Ripon (the ' Goody Goderich,' who succeeded Canning as Prime
Minister) had been appointed President of the Board of Trade.
^ First Lord of the Admiralty.
" Lord EUenborough had been appointed Governor-General in succession
to Lord Auckland.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 237
borough, who is certaiffiy much the best choice the Tories could
have made. The offiy danger, I should think, \viU be that he
wiU try to do too much at ffist, and this country is so uiffike
any other that it does not do to meddle with it rashly ; and if
he begins [illegible] about, cutting down what seem at first to
be luxuries — reqffiring Enghsh habits of business in hard-baked
Inffians and EngUsh activity in native clerks — he wiU find out
ffis mistake after he has set everybody against him. . . . There
is one violent Tory Member of Council — Mr. Prinsep — who is
ffi an ecstasy of deUght wffich I regularly misunderstand when
ever I have ffim next to me, and congratulate ffim on Lord E.'s
Uberahty of opiffions. Moreover, Mrs. Prinsep has paid several
pensive visits to her ffitimate friend, and regretted with many
sighs that for the future she shoffid see Uttle of ' Thoby ' (that
bemg her husband's Xtian name, and he being 35 years older
than herseff), ' for he hears that Lord E. has been desired to
take ffis advice on aU points, so Thoby wiU reaUy have the whole
govemment of Inffia on ffis shoffiders.' Can't you see Lord
E.'s manner with a man who announces pubUcly that the Gov.-
General is to do notffing without ffis consent !
As toucffing the date of tffis letter, it is the name of our pinnace,
and as during these Cabffi troubles George^ caimot go up to
Barrackpore, and as change of air is considered expeffient, I
have come on board for the day, and we float about the river
with the tide and get back to Calcutta for ffinner. . . .
21st January. — . . . You wiU probably have stiU worse
news from Bombay than goes from hence. Poor Macnaghten's
murder has been a great shock ; we knew ffim so weU, and it
has been such an atrocious act of treachery. But the whole
Cabffi story is most melancholy and, I must say, most hard
upon Lord Auckland, who coffid not have counted on such
conduct ffi EngUshmen. I asked ffim whether he had anytffing
he wished to have said to you ; but he says the whole story, so
far as is known, is so inexphcable he cannot in fairness give any
fixed opiffion. For two months these murmurs against Genl.
Elphinstone have been great, and it seems cruel to speak iU of
the dead and dymg — ^for so those at Cabffi may be considered ;
yet it is irksome to tffink that with the sUghtest energy aU this
woffid have been avoided. AU we know is that with an army of
5000 men thorougffiy provided with arms, money, etc., and an
unffiscipUned enemy that has never been supposed to amount
1 Lord Auckland.

238 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
to 10,000 without striking a blow, Macnaghten and Geffi.
Elpffinstone had consented to surrender, giving up arms, baggage,
treasure, etc., to abandon the Shah, to pay 4 lacs of rupees for an
escort down to JeUalabad ; and that after this had been agreed
to Mahomed Ukbar invited Macnaghten to a coffierence and,
after some ffigh words, shot ffim through the head and ffis
foUowers murdered Capt. Trevor. . . .
Major Pottinger writes the next day to the agent at PeshawUr
— says he is concludmg the treaty aheady begun and talks of
the cold and hunger that wiU attend the retreat, as they are not
to retam any tents or baggage, but never talks of avengmg
Macnaghten's death, and ends with ' the Geffi. desires to be
remembered ! ' . . . General Sale stiU speaks and acts most
confidently, but it is a paiffiffi time for us aU. . . .
Peel's concession to Free Trade proved enough to sow
dissension among ffis own foUowers and far too Uttle to
satisfy the Anti-Corn-Law agitators, who denounced him
as triffing with a great matter and caused him to be burnt
in effigy. The irrepressible Dr. Bowring wrote inviting Lord
Clarendon to become an active leader of the Anti-Corn-Law
League, whereby, he assured him, he woffid secure 'a magffifi
cent political position.' But Clarendon was far from being
such an advanced reformer as his brother Charles.
Lord Clarendon to Dr. Bowring.
The Geove, 21st December 1842. — My deae BowEma, —
Thanks for your letter. I am not particffiarly ambitious of
a ' magffificent poUtical position,' and I doubt my bemg able
to ascend to that eminence by the ladder you place at my ffis
posal. I caimot identify myseff with the League : first, because
I know I should thereby ffimiffish my power of usefuffiess in my
own principal sphere of action ; second, because I should have
no pretension to control the proceedings of the League, some of
wffich I ffisUke and shaU probably continue to ffisapprove.
I could not, as the League does, advocate a total repeal of
aU duty on com, for if the demand be made without the expecta
tion or the wish of obtaiffing it, but merely with the object of
securing some lesser measure of reform, I could be no party to
saying one tffing and meaffing another. If, on the other hand,
the total repeal of duty be reaUy and bona fide intended, I con
sider that the notion of the intaxibiUty of com for purposes of

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 239
revenue is a great faUacy. The League has certaiffiy done much
good. It has roused pubUo attention ; it has compelled ffis
cussion, it has ehcited most important facts ; but if the general
emancipation of commerce be its object (and that is the national
and reaUy vital question) the arguments principally used are,
ffi my opiffion, capable of much extension and improvement.
They have ffitherto been too confined and exclusive. At the
pubUc meetings and in the writings of the League, com, as else
where, has enjoyed too great a monopoly. AU evU is attributed
to the Com Laws — aU good is prefficted tffiough their aboUtion ;
but, as we know to our cost that the agricffiturists are a large
and powerful body, most infiuential in the makmg and unmaking
of laws, the purpose shoffid be to convince, and not to exasperate
them. I am sure that they would sooner be brought to reason
and to recogffise their own, as weU as the pubUc, interest if
the whole weight of argument, which is of general apphcation,
were not brought to bear exclusively upon them, but were
ffistributed with somewhat more freedom upon other producing
classes. I am sure that the agriculturists woffid be less hkely
to think (and to be irritated by the thought) that they are a
class marked out for destruction, and that they woffid be more
ready to admit the prmciples of Free Trade, if at every pubUc
meeting of manffiacturers they found those prmciples as ably
developed and as closely appUed to cotton goods, hardware, etc.,
in the production of wffich we are told that foreigners are as
able to compete with us successfully as in com.
I have now perhaps said enough to prove to you that my
opinions do not exactly quaffiy me for co-operation with the
League, altho', ff I know myseff at aU, I can truly assert that
the principles of Free Trade in aU their bearings and consequences
can have no more sfficere supporter than I am. I have an
entire conviction that the prosperity of our own country and the
weU-bemg and onward progress of mankind can rest upon no
foimdation more sound or enduring.
Information about the proceedings of the Clarendons
during the next tffiee years is very fragmentary, though
something may be gathered from such letters as have been
kept. Lord Clarendon to Lady Granville.
The Geove, llth January 1843. — ... I went over to
Brocket the other day and I assure you if I had not known

240 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
how iU Melboume had been, I should not have guessed from
ffis appearance that he had ailed anytffing. . . . He seems
qffite rajeuni and no longer verifies the iU-natured pun wffich
was made upon ffim in Paris some years ago — that formerly he
was the beau Lamb but had now become the lambeau. . . . The
Bear ^ is in London, teffing everybody how right he is and how
nobody else is. He is for a total repeal of the Com Laws —
against even a fixed duty — ^but he is in favor of increased pro
tection for the ribbons of Coventry and of some hideous job of
ffis own in Canada. . . . EUenborough' s antics have been a
godsend at tffis duU time of the year. The mixture in ffim of
Napoleon and Tom Thumb would be perfect if the latter ffid not
predominate too much. You have, of course, seen his proclama
tion about the Sandal gates, wffich I understand has caused the
govemment and the E. I. Company to share the pubUe con
viction that he is mad. His brain could no longer stand ffis
coxcombry ; but it is fearfffi to see a madman tossing about
and playing with such deUcate tffings as national honor and
national interests. . . .
Lord Clarendon to the Proprietor of a Newspaper.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 15th March 1843. — My deae Sie J., —
I cannot help expressffig a hope that the opportuffity may not
be lost of exffibiting in the Morning Chronicle the wretched and
contemptible figure wffich the govemment made last ffight
upon Lord Monteagle's motion. That motion was introduced
by a speech most remarkable for sound arguments deduced from
official returns and undoubted facts, demonstratmg the evils
of the Com Laws and their connexion with the ffistress wffich
prevails. Lord M. simply asked permission to prove his state
ments before a committee, or else to have them rebutted ff the
govemment had the means of contrafficting him. To tffis Lord
Whamchffe attempted no answer ; but he ffid attempt a speech
such as any orffinary old woman woffid have been ashamed of
making. He admitted the ffistress in its fuUest extent, but said
tffings were mending, without the smaUest reason for ffis opiffion.
. . . His conclusion was equivalent to ' Don't let us argue upon
the subject, but let us vote ! ' The Duke of Weffington was
silent : no other miffister said a syUable upon tffis most im
portant subject, and the whole govemment ignomiffiously ran
away from it. It was sffirked in argument and burked by an
1 Edward EUice, the elder, M.P.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 241
early vote ; for the Tory troops, having received the mot d'ordre,
raised such vocfferous cries of ' Question ' soon after 11 o'clock
that aU further ffiscussion became impossible.
Lord Ashburton' s speech I tffink wiU caU for your special
affimadversion. . . . There was no exploded fallacy, no stupid
prejuffice, no reference to selfish interests wffich tffis faitffiul
representative of ffis own breeches pocket ffid not hash up to
gether ffi language maiffiy characterised by spite against those
whom he supposed to be meddUng with ffis interests ; and
tffis feehng carried ffim so far as to talk of ' the bloated mass
of commercial prosperity,' wffich exists here. He ! Lord
Ashburton ! whose £40,000 a year was made by commerce —
whose connexions are aU m trade — who was President of the
Board of Trade and who knows upon what the prosperity of
the country depends. ... As for Lord Brougham, he played
ffis usual Jack Puddmg part ; but not daring, I suppose, to
ffivest himseff of the last rag of consistency and principle he had
to his back, and to stalk naked tffio' the world the rabid Tory
he is, he probably obtaffied permission from ffis employers to
vote against them for once, just as Peter Scffimmel, after selUng
ffimseff to the devil, might have borrowed ffis own shadow for
an eveffing. He began by saymg that he was for the total
and immeffiate aboUtion of the Com Laws, and that he shoffid
vote for Monteagle's motion, evidently with the intention of
excitmg the fears and justffyffig the resistance of the majority
of those he was addressmg. He then went into a furious tirade
agamst aU persons out of doors who assumed to be popffiar
leaders for their mgratitude to ffis right hon. friend Sir R. Peel
for the commercial improvements he effected last year. Having
done that, he poured forth a torrent of scurriUty agamst the
League for having said ffi the anti-bread-tax circular that he
had desired to bring on ffis ffistress motion last year. . . . His
language placed ffim on a level with the coarsest of those he
was abusffig, and the soreness he exffibited proved how weU
aimed were the attacks of wffich he complained. He ended
the evenmg appropriately enough by goffig away and not
votffig for the motion he affected to support.
I take the Uberty of iffiorming you of these circumstances,
as you were probably in the House of Commons and might
not otherwise be aware of them ; and I am the more induced
to do it because I saw with regret that the Morning Chronicle
aUowed the Bishops to escape without sufficient castigation for
vol. I Q

242 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
their baseness with respect to Lord EUenborough. Only four
were present upon Lord Monteagle's motion, of whom tffiee
voted with the govemment. When we remember the way
they flocked together to accuse Lord Melbourne of direct en
couragement to sociaUsm by aUowing Mr. Owen ^ to put ffis
— Lord M.'s — name on a card when he went to the levee (a
charge in wffich, ff I mistake not, the Duke of Weffington ffid
not tffink it beneath ffim to join) ; when we remember the
Bishop of Exeter's speeches, and subsequently ffis motion
respecting some SociaUst being a registrar of births and deaths
at Birmmgham, wffich he contended, as ffid the other bishops,
was an admission of sympathy on the part of the govemment
with those doctrines ; when we remember the speeches over
and over agaffi repeated by the Bishop of London against the
encouragement given to idolatry by the govemment by not at
once reversing and reforming the pohcy of aU preceffing ad-
miffistrations — ^when we remember aU tffis, and much more,
that might be cited, and reflect upon the course the bishops
pursued upon the [illegible] proclamations, we are inevitably
led to the conclusion that their charity, their reUgion and their
principles are maffifested offiy as their pockets ffirect. ... I
need hardly request you to consider tffis letter confidential.
To Lady Granville.
London, 23rd March 1843. — ... No great amount of
business has been got tffio' in parhament, but the proceedmgs
have not been without mterest. EUenborough, as a kmd of
bag fox, has been turned out upon two or three occasions and
afforded good sport. His vaffity, presumption and unfitness
to govern Inffia were very ably demonstrated by the Opposition,
and very feebly repUed to by the Government, who were com
peUed to admit some of ffis nusdeeds, but to defend them by
attributing to ffim acts and successes of which the merit be
longed to others. They, of course, had large majorities in both
Houses, but the pubUc here, as it wiU also in Inffia, consider
that the Governor-General has had a severe and deserved
rebuke. He got frightened at the rifficffie mstead of admira
tion wffich ffis proceedmgs were exciting, and I am sorry to
1 Robert Owen (1771-1858), philanthropist and socialist ^ ' one of those
intolerable bores who are the salt of the earth ... a man of one idea;
that idea, too, was only partially right, and was enforced less by argument
than by incessant and monotonous repetition.' (Leslie Stephen, in Diet.
Nat. Biog.)

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 243
say (as great fun was expected) that he has not made the fool
of ffimseff he promised to do at his rejoicings. Lady Sale was
not seated by his side on the tffione of glory and honor in the
centre of a star of wffich the raffii were regiments : the native
offiefs ffidn't do homage because they wouldn't come : the
300 elephants ffidn't go down on both knees because they
coffidn't be persuaded to go down even upon one ; so his pro
gramme, Uke most of his other proceeffings, ended in smoke,
and a baU consistmg of 400 officers and 25 laffies. . . .
Brougham's antics exceed aU that he ever cut before. He
is the Tory servant of aU-work in the H. of L., and certainly
he works hard for ffis employers. Lyndhurst uses, flatters and
laughs at ffim ffi a manner very diverting to bystanders, but
he is qffite reckless ffi ffis miscffief and ffis way of abusing his
old friends and abandoffing ffis old principles. He now makes
long tirades against the press, calls three times a day on Lady
Jersey, dmes with the Queen Dowager and is going to Belvoir
for the last week of hunting ! . . . I heard rather a good tffing
of his saymg the other day. His friend Charles Pffiffips (the
famous Irish barrister) was complaiffing that ffis wffiskers had
grown qffite grey, altho' ffis hair stiU remained brown. Brougham
assured ffim the phenomenon was qffite natural, because ffis
jaws had been at work for twenty years, wffile ffis bram had
been ffi perfect repose !
London, 6th May 1843. — . . . Since I last wrote, a Prince ^
has ffied and a Prmcess ^ has been bom, and the former pro
duced far greater sensation than any similar royal departure
has yet done. The Duke of Sussex was reaUy a model Prince ;
few poUticians have been more thorougffiy consistent under
circumstances more trying. His prmciples were genffine and
heartfelt, and every act in ffis hfe was in accordance with the
UberaUty he professed. His acquirements were considerable,
but they seemed to make ffim deUght in the society of those
who knew more than ffimseff. He was a kind patron of men
of science ; the country has not had to blush for ffis vices nor
to pay for ffis extravagance, and he is generaUy and deservedly
regretted. . . .
PoUtics, Uke the markets, are duU : very Uttle is doing, but
the country is nevertheless in a state of hjrper-agitation at certain
education clauses in a Factory BiU that has been introduced by
the govemment. The Dissenters view it as an outrageous
1 H.R.H. the Duke of Sussex. ' H.R.H. Princess Alice.

244 THE EARL OF CLAKENDON [chap. ix.
attack upon the rights of conscience, wffile the estabUshed
clergy declare it does not go far enough for them, as they profess
the right (how acquired or when coffierred — I beheve they are
as ignorant as I am) to the exclusive reUgious instruction of the
active commuffity. The whole question, stripped of its rhetorical
ornaments, is whether the Church catecffism shaU be taught
durmg or after school hours ffi schools for wffich the pubhc at
large, with aU its various sects and creeds, is caUed upon to
pay. Yet the question, wffich six pennyworth of sfficerity and
good faith might settle ffi five mmutes, calls forth meetings m
every part of the country . . . and tffieatens to nuUify aU
attempts at a national scheme of education.
The Aucklands having retumed from India, Emily
Eden resumed correspondence at short range.
Haelech, 31st August 1843. — . . . Our tour is amusmg
beyond aU expectation. ... I find that havmg seen Rio and
the Himalayas does not the least prevent me dehghtmg in
Wales. In short, aU bills are good and aU pretty scenery
pleasant, and it is the enjoyment that survives clearly when aU
others have worn ffim. I reaUy had tears ffi my eyes the other
day when I was readffig Sir Walter Scott's Unes ffi ffis iUness :
The quiet lake, the bahny sky.
The rock, the tower, the stream, the tree,
Are they stffi fair as once they were ?
Or is the dreary change in me ?
WoESLEY, 19th October 1843. — . . . Our retum from inns to
civiUsed ffie was managed by jufficious grades, beginning with
Mostyn HaU — the ffist grade of aU — ^perhaps I might say haff a
grade. They are just a step beyond the Drffids, whose course
of ffie once covered me with glory, it bemg the offiy question
that my mother asked about EngUsh ffistory that I ever answered
fluently, ' they hved ffi caves and hoUow trees, and fed on roots
and acorns.' The Mostyns have improved sUghtly on the
Drffids. From Mostyn HaU we went to Mr. Hurt's, R. Eden's ^
beau-pere. He is a sort of good old EngUsh gentleman aU of
the olden time, with very good shootmg and quantities of vemson
and heaps of daughters (that affects you) and everytffing very
conffortable ; but he objects to a silk bonnet for fear ffis tenantry
shoffid arrive at the knowledge of such an abommation, and a
satm gown woffid probably break ffis heart.
* The Hon. Robert Eden, afterwards third Lord Auckland.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 245
From Alderwasley we rushed maffiy ffito Chatsworth. To
be sure he has gone and done it ! Have vou been there since it
was fiffished ? The place, to my mind, is even more improved
than the house ; the gardens are so weU managed ; and after
aU that had been said of that great conservatory, the reaUty
was even more surprisffig than I had expected. The plants are
aU so good of their kind, and the plantain trees and palms are
almost finer to look at than they are in Inffia, where the leaves
are split and frayed by the wind. Here they are aU perfect.
We had a large party there, tho' it was by way of being nobody
but the fanffiy. Lady GranviUe is so pleasant, tho' her powers
of agreeableness now vary with the state of Lord GranviUe' s
health, and she is sometimes very low. He and Lord Melboume
have tried the two systems of extreme care and extreme im
prudence, and it is odd that the resffit is ffi favour of imprudence.
Lord M. is much less of an ffivahd than Lord G. at present. . . .
The statue gaUery and the collection of drawmgs of old masters,
etc. woffid drive Lady Clarendon demented with pleasure-
There is no end of sights of that kmd, and I must say I love
that sort of luxuries. It looks almost as ff Devon ^ had rather
more than his share of tffis world's goods, but I suppose there
is a compensation somewhere ; and, with 30 people diffing in
the housekeeper's room and 80 ffi the haU, there must be a
bother of house accounts and cheatffig, and quarrels between
butlers and housekeepers that may be taken as a sUght set-off.
But then agaffi ffis deafness helps ffim. It has long been clear
to me that he is offiy deaf to what he does not hke to hear ;
anything that amuses ffim he hears fast enough. . . . O'ConneU !
what a man ! He far surpasses aU your anticipation of ffis
cowarffice. His agoffies for fear anybody shoffid ever again
use that shockmg word ' Saxon,' or caU the govemment base,
or even speak m an excited manner, are too good. . . .
The Clarendons spent August and September 1844 on
the Continent, and at Wiesbaden received a piece of
family news wffich greatly deUghted them. Lady Theresa
Lister's husband died, as mentioned above, on 10th
June 1842, leaving her vsdth a son and two daughters,^
1 WiUiam, sixth Duke of Devonshire.
2 Thomas ViUiers Lister, appointed Under-Secretary of State for Foreign
Affairs in 1873; K.C.M.G. 1885; Maria Theresa (1835-63) married
[Sir] WiUiam Vernon Harcourt in 1859; and Alice Beatrice (1841-98)
married Sir Algernon Borthwiok (afterwards Lord Glenesk) in 1870.

246 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
Lady Theresa returned to Uve with her mother in
capacious Kent House.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
Wiesbaden, Saturday, 5th September 1844. — Got our wished
for letter from Mrs. George, wffich brought us the unexpected
inteffigence of George Lewis ^ having proposed to Theresa. To
George and me tffis was a great surprise ; it was not so to
Charles,^ who, it seems, had perceived the flirtation, and talked
to both EUzabeth^ and Theresa on the subject. . . . We had
not perceived the smaUest inffication of preference of that sort
in ffis manner towards her — so much for my boasted qffick-
sightedness in these matters ! I had seen them so often together
that I had got accustomed to it, without attaching the idea of
love to it. . . . How occupied we aU tffiee were with the news !
and how we discussed it, turffing and twistmg it in every shape ;
but we mean to give no advice — ^to leave it entirely to her own
feeUngs, without bias from us. Indeed ffi these matters one is
afraid of the responsibihty of advismg. His health is the one
drawback ; but for that we should venture to advise, for I do
think it would be so very desirable. Our anxiety is very, very
great, and we cannot hear again tiU we reach Muffich. . . .
Munich, 15th September, — Tffis eveffing arrived a letter from
Mrs. George announcing that Theresa had accepted George
Lewis. It was what we wished ! and now that dear girl seems
to have an avenir of happiness opeffing to her again. She can
have no doubt about her future husband sffiting us, sffiting
Mrs. George, and, above aU, she may feel confidence in his
kindness to her cffildren. . . . His superior inteUect, wffich we
appreciate now, we shaU probably rejoice in every day more
and more.
Lady Clarendon's joumal during this trip is fffil and
lively ; but a single extract may suffice as a record of a
route so well trodden as that which they chose.
Dresden, 1st October. — We received a note early in the mormng
from Mr. Forbes to say that the King and Queen of Saxony
invited us to ffinner at PiUffitz, their viUa near Dresden, to-day
at 2 o'clock. Though in general ffiffings-out don't much please
1 George CornewaU Lewis (1806-63), elder son of Sir T. F. Lewis, Bart.,
of Harpton Court, Radnorshire.
2 Charles ViUiers, M.P. ' Mrs. Edward Villiers.

1841-6] EST OPPOSITION 247
me, I own I am glad to go to PiUffitz. In the first place, it is
very civU of the King to ask us so directly ; and m the next it is,
for once in a way, very mterestmg to see the int&rieur of foreign
courts, or any court, provided the amusement don't come too
often. Geoi^e was to put on his star and ribbon, but no uffiform.
I was to go dressed as for a smart dinner ; and precious cold it
was to start, figged out with bare neck and arms, before one
o'clock for above an hour's drive on a decidedly frigid day.
PiUffitz is not particffiarly pretty, tho' not otherwise, nor is
anything very striking ffi the mterior ; but of course we saw
but Uttle of it imder the circumstances of our visit. . . . We
were received with the greatest civffity and ffindness ; the
dinner party consisted of the Kmg, an amiable-looking but not
distinguished-lookmg man ; the Queen, who was a Princess of
Bavaria (sister of the present Kmg, is plam and very taU. They
have no cffildren, wffich was at first regretted, but she now says
she is so fond of the cffildren of the King's brother, and looks
upon them as heirs, that ff she had a cffild she woffid Uke it to
be a Uttle girl) ; Princess John, wffe of the Kmg's brother and
mother of the heir (they have a large family ; she was lovely
when they first married, but faded now, tho' offiy 44. She is
going to have another cffild and looks very deUcate) ; Princess
AmeUa (sister of the King of Saxony. She is an authoress,
clever and very amiable — a Uttle, crooked, gentle-looking woman,
advanced ffi years) ; the Dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany
(another of the King's sisters on a visit to her brother, having
come to Germany for the accouchement of her daughter, who is
married to the second son of the Kmg of Bavaria and Ukely to
be mother of the heir. The Dowager Grand Duchess is a talka
tive, pleasant woman, who appears as ff she had been rather
good-looking) ; Princess Augusta of Saxony (cousffi of the Kffig,
a florid, merry, elderly lady, clever, rich and mdependent.
Napoleon, the Emperor Francis and Ferdmand vn. aU wished
to marry her m her youth, but she loved Saxony, woffid not
leave it or hear of marrymg any of them). Mr. Forbes, the
English Minister, also dmed, and the rest of the party was made
up of the Grand Mareschal, some Grands Maitres, the Grande
Maitresse, some ChambeUans and some Dames d'honneur,
whose names I have not compassed and shoffid certaiffiy forget
ff I had. The one who sat next me and who admired George,
saying he was un bd homme and that on Vaime sans le connaitre,
of course won my heart. I sat between tffis ffiscerffing gentle-

248 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
man and Prince John. The King, Queen and Princesses talked
to us a great deal during ffinner, before and after it. The King
took ffi the Grand Duchess, but otherwise the laffies aU walked
ffi en masse and the gentlemen afterwards, vsdthout pairing off.
The ffinner was handsome, and what I hked best was to observe
that the gaUeries commanding a view of the table had people
qffite of the common order in them. I was told that any one who
chose was freely admitted. It gave one the notion of the King's
confidence in the love of ffis people and consideration for their
gratification, wffich was very pleasing.
Our dinner did not last very long. Afterwards there was
coffee and a Uttle conversation, but aU standing up, till the King
and Queen and Princesses bowed to us and retired.

Hon. Emily Eden to Lord Clarendon.
Bowood, 28th October 1844. — . . . How glad I was to hear
that you and Lady C. had come back in such exceUent condition
— such creffits to Wiesbaden — such Uving puffs of German baths.
Lord Auckland particularly wishes to know how much change
you have brought back from the £50 note. I don't beUeve it
is a bit more expensive than traveffing about Devonsffire and
ComwaU, where raUways are unknown and anytffing less than
four horses unheard of. . . . And so you came back to a
weddffig ! You must have been pleased, as I know how much
you have always Uked Mr. Lewis, and Theresa seemed so
thorougffiy and freshly happy. Just teU me how the wedding
went off — whether anybody cried, and how much you fraternised
with old T. L.^ Between ourselves, I don't Uke ffis having the
run of the Grove. Don't be hasty in swearing eternal friendsffip
to him. It wiU be much more fiattering ff we let ffim mto our
set on further acquaintance. Moreover, Theresa does not chuse
me to tffink of Pecksffiff apropos of anybody or anytffing, and
it takes time to get rid of any bad habit of that kind.
I wish we coffid get up a wedffing or so here ! but I am con
fident that ff there ever is a Society for the Suppression of
Lovers, Lord Lansdowne wiU be President and Patron and
Comnoittee and Secretary aU ffimseff. Jem Howard is here ;
but merely as a guest — ^that is ffistinctly understood ; and Lady
1 Sir Thomas Frankland Lewis, Bart., M.P. [1780-1855], whomM'CuUagh
Torrens describes as ' a careful and accomplished man, but formal, verbose
and dull,' was the father of George CornewaU Lewis, the bridegroom.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 249
Shelbume told me that the subject had never been attended
to for many months, and that they were offiy too glad to hear
he was to come at aU. Such nonsense ! I Uke ffim very much,
and ff they woffid hke to danner tffio' the conservatory into the
chapel, and meet Gutffiie there, I should only be too happy to
serve as a witness, or bride's father, or clerk, and then go bolt
mto Lord Lansdowne's room and teU ffim what we had done.
How he woffid stare and laugh that puzzled laugh. He would
undoubteffiy be angry ; but it is really too bad to let tffings stay
as they are.^
Then Lady Kerry — but Mr. Charles Gore is gone ; but that I
caimot pretend to lament, tho' I tffink she wiU marry ffim at
last.2 The Shelbumes justify Mrs. Malaprop's advice, if it is
true that they began with a Uttle aversion ; for I never saw a
happier couple, and she has fitted herseff into Bowood very
neatly, and seems to suit aU parties. We have here Moore,
terribly gone by,^ HaUam,* Mr. LuttreU,^ some Magffiacs and
Lady HoUand ; and to-day are expecting Dawson-Damer,
Miss Elphinstone, Rogers,'' and one or two other men. Sir
J. Hobhouse was commg, but Lady HoUand wrote to him
suggestmg her intention to go back with him and pass a few
days at ffis house ; upon wffich he wrote to Lord Lansdowne
tffis morffing to excuse ffimseff, and begged it might be mentioned
in general terms that he had left the country. Barring the
inconveffience of her servants, I don't tffink she is ffisagreeable
in a country house. She has got her whiskey,'' and takes care
of herseff aU morffing ; she is very wiffing to talk, and make
talk, ffi the eveffing, and she plays her tffiee rubbers of wffist
Uke any other old lady — ^horribly baffiy, but with great interest.
It was so Uke her : George ^ scolded her for playing some wrong
card, and she said, ' Yes, I know you wanted trumps, but my
system at wffist is to ffistrust my partner. In fact, I hke to
thwart ffim because I hate the way in wffich he draws the good
cards out of my hands.' . . .
Lord Normanby, who had been Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland (1835-39), wrote to Clarendon on 17th December
^ They did not stay so long, for a few months later the Hon. James
Kenneth Howard married Lady Louisa Fitzmaurice.
2 She did so in following April. She was the widow of Lord Lans
downe's eldest son.
' Tom Moore, the poet. * Henry HaUam, historian.
^ Henry LuttreU, wit and society-bard, author of Lettera to Julia, etc.
« Samuel Rogers, poet. ' A kind of light carriage.
* Lord Auckland.

250 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
announcing ffis intention of moving an amendment to the
Address in the coming session upon the subject of Irish
affairs. The Speech, said he, wiU be intended to pledge parUament
to some strong declaration against Repeal, wffich, ff we [the
Wffigs] wish to preserve our influence in Ireland, we must
accompany by some pffiases much more decided than they wiU
put in as to ' perfect uffion being offiy founded on equal rights.'
/ go the whole length (and so, I was glad to find, does the Duke
of Bedford) of saying, whilst I would not repeal the Uffion, I
would open the whole terms of it to reconsideration.
To both of these propositions Clarendon vigorously
demurred, expressing his objections in a very long and
closely reasoned letter, from wffich the foUowing extracts
wiU bear perusal at this day. It will be remembered that
two years' employment in DubUn had admitted him to some
famUiarity with Irish conditions.
22nd December 1843. — There caimot be a doubt that, with
reference to your connexion with Ireland (upon wffich it must
be now every day more gratifying to you to look back) and your
absence last year, as weU as with reference to the obloquy
attempted to be cast on your govemment, and the wretched
failure of Lord de Grey's, you must be the person best quaUfied
and most caUed on to take a prominent part next session in the
unavoidable and inffispensable ffiscussion upon Irish affairs.
It is, however, a matter of great doubt whether you shoffid at
once begin by an amendment to the address. In taking tffis
or any other step, you wish, of course, to be govemed by the
consideration — ffist and foremost, that wffich is most for the
real advantage of Ireland ; and next, that wffich is best for the
Liberal party. ... In the House of Lords we may reckon upon
an infiffitesimal attendance of the daily dwindUng Liberal
party ; whereas the weU-ffiscipUned Tories are sure to be in
numbers. Not to ffivide on an amendment, or to be beaten by
3 or 2 or 1, would have a bad effect, and the session woffid throw
off with a triumph to the govemment on the question where
they are most vuffierable. However, upon this point it is for
you and others, who have more parUamentary experience than
I possess, to determine.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 251
With respect to Ireland, I coffiess I don't see any way clearly
tffio' the ffifficulties of deaUng with her, which are immensely
greater and more compUcated than even when you took her
in hand. I feel offiy the instmctive caution of a bhnd man
groping ffis way among rocks and precipices. Of tffis I am
sure, however, that, as the same weight wiU be given in Ireland
to every word that falls from you as if you were at the Home
Office ^ and prepared to act upon your opiffions, it will be neces
sary to speak imder a fuU sense of the responsibihty attacffing
to aU you say, and that generaUties Uable to misconstruction,
and expectations incapable of fulfilment, should be most care
fully avoided : ffi short, that notffing shoffid be urged upon
the govemment, nor even shadowed forth, however ffimly, by
you ffi the form of suggestion, that you would not be desirous
of carrying into effect ff on the foUowing day you were caUed
to the admiffistration of Irish affairs.
I know you wffi not object to my thus tffinking aloud to you,
because . . . nobody wishes more sincerely than I do to see
you dominer la situation, and because these thoughts occurred
on reaffing one or two passages in your own and Brady's ^
mteresting letters. He speaks of ' brnm fides in working the
muted institutions of the coimtry,' and you say that ' perfect
uffion can offiy be founded on equal rights.' Now, in theory
tffis is of course unobjectionable — as an argument it is un
answerable ; but the question you have to consider is what
woffid be the practical working of perfectly equal poUtical
rights — what woffid be their result some 5 or 10 or 20 years
hence ? If, from your knowledge of the Irish character, you
feel convinced that they woffid be productive of harmony in
Ireland and good wiU towards England, then there can be no
doubt about the propriety of urging them upon the govemment.
But if, as there is some reason to fear, these equal rights would
be converted into weapons of offence against England, and made
anciUary to the deep-rooted aversion to the EngUsh connexion,
and to that intense desire for separation wffich is the offiy
meaffing of repeal, then I tffink that no object of popularity in
Ireland nor of hostiUty to the govemment at home should
induce the Liberal party to push these apparently just claims
too far, especiaUy as it may be retorted upon us that it was
iiot our way of deahng with the agitation in 1831. . . .
1 Ireland was then administered from the Home Office.
2 Chief Justice of Ireland.

252 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
When I say tffis, of course I do not mean to exclude many
necessary reforms — ^mufficipal, magisterial, electoral, etc., but
I tffink to give perfectly equal rights where education,
influences and civiUsation are widely ffissinular may produce
very ffifferent results in Ireland to what those rights do in
England. . . .
You say also that, wffile you woffid not repeal the Uffion, you
would open the whole terms of it to reconsideration ; but I feel
certain that, if you made such a declaration, the time would
come (and soon, too) when you would regret it ; for an inch
given in that ffirection would be an invitation to demand the
ell. If you reconsider the Union, it must be for the Irish and
with the Irish, and they would render it subservient to separa
tion and aU the visionary benefits they have been taught to
beheve must flow from that act of national suicide. If they are
to have their way, or even a voice, in tffis process of reconsidera
tion, it would promote the dowffiaU of England, wffich I look
upon as synonymous with separation from Ireland. ... It
would be hazardous, in my opiffion, to make any admission that
would look as ff it were a question, or as ff any doubt existed
about it in EngUsh minds. ... To produce any great and useful
effect in or out of ParUament, in Ireland or in England, you
must carry with you that weight of pubUc opiffion, wffich has
its source in the midffie classes and the thinking majority of
the people of England ; tffis is not to be acqffired with respect
to Ireland but by some practical cure for the long-stanffing
malaffies of that country. . . . You have naturaUy far better
sources of iffiormation than I possess ; but, before an amend
ment is decided on, you must be sure that the case against the
govemment is extremely bad according to English feeling. Proofs
and facts are necessary when so dexterous a dodger as Peel is
to be assailed in person. . . . The ffismissal of the magistrates
wiU be brought forward again ; but upon that I always thought
that, altho' it was a useless, stupid, irritatffig proceeffing, there
was reaUy in the pohcy of it no very great ffifference from that
pursued by Fortescue. His decree of exclusion of repealers
from civil office or govemment patronage reduces the ffifference
to an almost imperceptible point. If he was right in doing
that, it is ffifficult to prove that Peel was wrong in suffering ffis
ChanceUor to supersede the magistrates who aided and abetted
repeal, and this woffid certaiffiy be considered a reply after the
fashion of party fighting.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 253
The time was not far distant when Clarendon himself
was to be taken severely to task for precisely similar in
terference vsdth the magistracy.
Peel's admimstration was runffing its course with reason
able smoothness. The remedial measure promoted by Lord
Ashley (better remembered under his later style as Earl
of Shaftesbury) prohibiting the employment of women and
cffildren in mines and colUeries, met vsdth little opposition
in either House, and the Factories Act of 1844 was far
more vigorously resisted by Lord Howick and other Liberals
and by John Bright and other Radicals, than by Con
servative capitalists. The tffird reading was passed by
a majority of 129 votes. In 1844 Charles Viffiers's annual
motion for the total abohtion of the Corn Duties was met
by Mr. Gladstone, as President of the Board of Trade,
moving a direct negative. ' If ParUament,' he said, ' con
sented to continue arguments on the subject, such a course
woffid be fatal to every interest in the country, therefore
fatal to pubUc credit. I claim stabiUty for the decision
of ParUament.' Viffiers received the support of offiy 124
votes for ffis motion, wffile 328 votes were cast against it
—majority 204. On that question the position of the
government seemed impregnable.
Beyond the seas affairs assumed a more threateffing
aspect ; war clouds were stooping low across the Straits of
Dover. Queen Isabella of Spain, whom it had been the
poUcy of the Whigs to estabUsh on the tffione, came of
legal age in 1843, and husbands had to be found for her
and her sister Maria Lffisa. Here was the opportuffity
for Loffis Philippe and his miffister Gffizot to estabUsh the
long-coveted ascendency in the Peffinsffia by marrying one
or both of these princesses to one or both of the French
King's sons— the Due d'Aumale and the Due de Mont-
pensier. It is somewhat difficffit in the present day to
discern how British interests coffid be compromised by
tffis affiance. England was on friendly terms with both
France and Spain; why shoffid such friendUness be
threatened by the prospect of a son of the House of Orleans
ascending the throne of Spain ? In the 'forties. Whig

254 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
and Tory were of one mind that such a thing coffid not be
aUowed. So great was the importance attached to hinder
ing the scheme that in August 1845 Queen Victoria, accom
paffied by her Secretary-of-State, Lord Aberdeen, met
Loffis Philippe and M. Guizot at Chateau d'Eu, and received
there solemn assurance that no French prince shoffid marry
Queen Isabella, nor yet the Infanta Maria Lffisa until
Queen Isabella should have found a husband elsewhere
and borne a child.
Henry Southern, who had gone out to Madrid with
George ViUiers (now Lord Clarendon) as private secretary
and was at this time secretary of Legation at Lisbon, gave
his quondam chief a curious account of the august conclave
at Chateau d'Eu. The letter covers no fewer than forty-
four closely written pages of note-paper, whence a few
extracts retain some interest even at this distance of time.
Lisbon, 3rd January 1844. — . . . Are you aware of what
passed at Eu ? I have aU the details from Olozaga, who studied
to arrive at the exact truth cuUed from the relations of Louis
PffiUppe, Guizot and Leopold, who aU gave ffim the most ample
details of the important conversation, and also from Lord
A[berdeen]'s confidential commuffications to Sancho.^
One morffing, out in the coimtry after a breakfast in tents,
when other sources of amusement had failed, Loffis PffiUppe,
Victoria, Gffizot and Lord A. found themselves seated by accident
round a small table alone. A pause, as if of wearmess, took
place, when L. P. opened the subject of the marriage of the
Queen of Spain. ' Here we are,' said he, ' without an object to
interest us for the moment, precisely the persons who ought to
settle the matter, and we can talk of it without formaUty and
without compromise. What passes here may conduce to an
exceUent understanffing, ffighly important to aU Europe, and
can do no harm ; for what is it, after aU, but conversation ?
I have been accused of seffish views with regard to this marriage.
Something of this is true. After I found that the object I had
at heart at one time was impracticable, namely, the marriage
of the Queen of Spaffi with the son of Don Carlos, as a father, as
sincerely interested ffi the happffiess of the Queen and ffi the
prosperity of Spain, I conceived the wish of marrying her to the
1 Lord Aberdeen was Foreign Secretary at the time.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 255
Due d'Aumale.i Qu aU accounts that marriage seemed to me
deshable, etc. etc. ; but the project, once so dear, I have aban
doned for ever— a sacrifice to the peace of Europe and the wishes
of my affies, etc. The Duke also has a large fortune, a brilhant
avenir, etc. . . . and I have resolved that his future shaU not be
involved in aU the risks attenffing the connexion.'
Upon tffis Lord Aberdeen spoke, saying with the greatest
apparent satisfaction he was rejoiced to hear tffis determination
from the hps of His Majesty ; that he beUeved, were it generaUy
Imown, that the most beneficial resffits would foUow, and he
begged that H. M. woffid make it known to aU Europe. Where
upon L. P. feU into a pretended passion, saying to Lord A., ' was
it not enough that he had said it ? Why was he to be doubted ?
Why were false motives to be attributed to ffim ? Had he not
avowed his former mtentions and with equal frankness ffis actual
feeUngs ? '
Lord A. assured H. M. that ffis observation arose from no feel
ing of doubt, but simply from the desire he entertained that
H. M.'s real feeUngs and wishes shoffid be known, and that no
mistake shoffid be made respecting them. Whereupon H. M.
became gracious agaffi, and resumed that as he was prepared
to make the sacrifice, sometffing ought to be conceded to ffim
in retum, and that was what he had meant by M. Pugeot's
mission. The husband of the Queen of Spain ought to be a
Bourbon. Lord A. either made no opposition, or assented, I
am not qffite clear wffich. I fficUne to the latter ; but Victoria
said, ' Why not a Prince of Germany or some ffifferent Une from
that of Bourbon ? ' She avowed that she had hoped the choice
might have faUen on Leopold Cobourg. L. P. took up the idea
jocosely, and put down poor Vic. rather indeUcately. Looking
at her with ffis ineffable smile, he said nothing could be more
natural than the Queen of England's idea : she offiy recom
mended what she had tried and approved herseff, and having
taken it herseff and found it do her good, what more fit than she
shoffid recommend it to her sister of Spain ! ' Seriously, how
ever,' he resumed, ' the Cobourgs are now mine ; the fortunes
of that fine branch of the house have occupied my attention.
Pierde le cuidado : a brilUant future awaits ffim ; let those who
love him confide in me and in France,' etc. etc.
Having thus confined the question to the Bourbons, he said,
' As we have notffing better to do, let us run over the Ust of
' His son.

256 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
canffidates. 1. Son of Don Carlos — impossible — the party of
Don Carlos in Spain has expired : why rescuscitate it ? 2. The
sons of Don Francisco : tffis would have been the most natural
and easiest solution of the question, but — ^but — the family have
affied themselves with the enemies of the house ; the drctpeau
of Don Francisco's party is the repubUcan democracy, etc.
3. Duke of Lucca : Austrian, weak, insigffifioant personaUy,
etc. 4. The young brother of Queen Cristina,^ here he made
his election and had a great deal to say in its favor, though of
very Uttle value. Lord A., however, deUghted to have escaped
from a son, was glad to accept a nephew, and it seemed agreed
on aU hands that tffis was the best solution of tffis most ffifficult
busmess. Then as to the choice between the Duke of Aguilar and Count
Grapaffi, L. P. seemed to be aware that neither one nor other
was a trump, and as there was a ffifficulty with regard to the
elder, he preferred the younger, though he had received the
tonsure and was bred up a Jesffit. ' But,' said he, ' the way
to make ffim popular ffi Spain wffi be to make him run away
from the college one night and give out that he swears he will have
nothing to do with the Jesuits I ' (L. P. aU over.)
AU tffis being satisfactorily settled, it became necessary that
the pffi should be made acceptable to the Spaffiards. For tffis
purpose Olozaga was deemed by L. P. to be the right man, and
L. P. and Cristina set to work upon ffim. . . .
The remaiffing stages of this abortive piece of diplomacy
Ue outside the Umits of the present narrative ; but before
laying aside the bundle of Southern's letters in this year,
the foUowing extract may be made, showing how transient
had been the improvement in the domestic affairs of Spain,
and how vain had been the hopes founded on the character
of young Queen IsabeUa. Zurbaffi was a Carlist leader.
2nd December 1844. — . . . You wiU have heard that the
second son of Zurbaffi — the cub he loved the dearest of aU —
has been shot, and Oribe, the Captain-General, deposed because
he ffid not shoot ffim without a reference to Madrid. The boy's
mother and a deputation of the principal people of the provmce
of [illegible] fiew to Madrid and tffiew themselves on their knees
at the foot of the staircase as the Uttle Queen and her mother
^ Queen Dowager of Spain.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 257
passed to the carriage. The great haU and corridor and court
were fuU of the Madrid people shouting for mercy. Pardon,
pardon ! rang through the whole palace ; but the Uttle daughter
of Ferdmand vn. — impavida — passed on with — ' Esto es cosa
de los miffistros.' The Queen-Mother, poor thing, wept — and
wept aloud. How accompUshed an actress ! because she really
feels the part. . . . The Progresistas are daily acquiring an
abhorrence of the httle Queen, and all seems to inffioate a reign
Uke that of her father. . . .
The ' Spaffish marriages ' imbrogUo was not solved until
Peel had ceased to be Mimster ; but before that had taken
place, the military and naval preparations in France,
coupled with the deplorable unpreparedness of British
armaments, had become the source of grave concern to
men of both parties. In 1845 Palmerston reproached the
government for aUowing the national defences to decay.
Peel repUed in terms of such complacent optimism that
the Duke of Weffington determined he shoffid know the
truth upon ' this great and important subject, compared
with wffich aU other interests in the country are mere
trifies,' and, not for the ffist time nor yet the last, addressed
to ffim a grave warning of the risks to which Great Britain
was being exposed ^ through what Sir Francis Doyle
deplored as ' the apathy and passive treason of suc
cessive admiffistrations in neglecting national defences.' ^
Clarendon fffily shared these apprehensions, although not
aware of the form or frequency of the Duke's remonstrance
to the head of the government. Dr. Robert Ferguson,
an old and intimate friend of the VilUers family, having
written to describe a dinner party at Apsley House, re-
ceived.the foUowing reply from Clarendon : —
Goehambuey, 9th September 1845. — . . . Many thanks for
your sketch to the Ufe of the ducal repast, which amused me
very much. I should have liked to hear ffis opiffions upon
French invasion, for that is the subject which goes between
me and my rest. Tffings are tenffing that way ; the press, which
is pubhc opiffion in Prance, is preparing for the quarrel with
England, wffich some Queen Pomare or King Short wiU involve
1 Peel Letters, iii. 205. ^ Reminiscences and Opinions, p. 326.
VOL. I R

258 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
us in ; wffilst L. PffiUppe, with aU ffis friendly professions and
ffis entente cordiale is exciting ffis countrymen to break the peace
by ffis cumffiative preparations for war. In the mean time we
absolutely play into their hands and provoke attack by our
incurie and defenceless condition. I am sure the D . of Weffington
must feel tffis ; and, as I qffite agree with you upon ffis remark
able foresight, I cannot conceive why he does not insist with ffis
coUeagues that some preparation, or at least a show of it, should
be made agamst a catastrophe wffich seems so probable. How
ever averse Peel might be to the expense, or rather the un
pleasant ffight or two it might give him ffi the H. of C, yet the
D. of W.'s word woffid be law upon such subjects ff he spoke
out, and I shoffid be sorry to share the responsibihty he now
incurs by not doffig so. . . .
Undoubtedly serious as was the situation arising out
of the petty squabble over the Spamsh marriages, it was
one not beyond the power of Peel's strong govemment
to grapple with ; but be statesmen as resolute and far-
sighted — ^the resources of civiUsed states as ample and
accessible — as they may, the fortune of parties and the
destiny of nations remain ffitimately dependent upon
physical agencies wffich no human sagacity can avert or
control. In August 1845 a field of potatoes was found to
be affected by a bUght ffitherto unknovsm. By the middle
of October the entire crop in France, HoUand, southern
England and Ireland was found to be destroyed by the
same fungus. Now in Ireland the potato had become the
staple food of the peasantry, as important to them as
wheat was to the EngUsh and as oatmeal once was to the
Scots. In Great Britain total loss of the potato crop
meant a heavy loss to many farmers, but in Ireland it was
the sure herald of famine.
' The one remedy,' wrote Peel to Goffiburn ^ on 18th October,
' wiU be the removal of impeffiments to the free import of those
articles of wffich human food consists. . . . The temporary
remission of aU duties on com is, ffi the present state of pubhc
feeUng, tantamount to the permanent and total remission of
those duties. Once remitted, they wiU never be re-estabUshed.' ^
1 ChanceUor of the Exchequer. 2 p^i Leifgrs, iu. 226.

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 259
When the cabinet met on 31st October Peel announced
that he considered it imperatively necessary to relax
the restrictions upon cereal imports in face of the im
pending scarcity in Ireland. Of his fourteen coUeagues,
four only received this announcement without dismay
and dissent. Weffington held that 'a good government
for the country was more important than Corn Laws
or any other consideration ' ; he hated tampering with
them, but woffid stand by his chief. So, vsdth conviction,
woffid Aberdeen, Graham, and Sidney Herbert. The rest
were mute or mutinous.^ Lord John RusseU saw that
ffis opportuffity had come. Hitherto, as the scion of a
great agricffitural house, he had vsdthstood the projects of
the Anti-Corn Law League at least as stiffly as Peel. On
22nd November he issued a letter to his constituents
announcing his thorough conversion to the principles of
the League and denouncing the reUef already afforded as
utterly inadequate. On 2nd December Lord Staffiey and
the Duke of Buccleuch resigned ; on the 6th Peel went
to Osborne to ask the Queen to reUeve him of office.
Clarendon, it wiU be remembered, had expressed himself
qffite as strongly as anybody against the total repeal of the
Com Duties.^ It is not known how far he approved of
Lord John's volte-face, or how far he was prepared to foUow
him imder stress of circumstance. One thing is certain,
namely, that he disapproved of any attempt by the Whigs
to form a mimstry at that time.
Having accepted Peel's resignation, the Queen sent for
Lord John, who, returffing from Osborne on 12th December,
asked the Lords Palmerston, Cottenham, and Clarendon,
and Mr. Macaffiay to meet at ffis house in Chesham Place.
Clarendon expressed a strong opiffion that Lord John
shoffid not undertake to form a government without pre
viously having a clear and exact understanding both as to
what Peel's projected measure was and what degree of
support a Liberal Mimstry woffid receive from Peel and
^ Mr. Gladstone had left the government in January through disagree
ment with the proposal to increase the grant to Maynooth CoUege from
£9000 to £39,000.
* See page 238 au/pra.

260 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
his party if one were formed to carry that measure. Macaffiay
agreed with Clarendon ; Palmerston was not very decided
one way or another ; Cottenham was eager that Russell
shoffid accept the undertaking at once.
Peel declined to communicate the details of his measure
to Lord John ; indeed, it is doubtfffi whether he had decided
upon its exact scope, so great had been the opposition in
his cabinet when he had first indicated the general nature
of his intentions. Through Sir James Graham, however.
Lord John received information that the scheme provided
for the immediate suspension of the Corn Laws for a time, and
for the resumption of the duties so soon as the immediate
distress had been reUeved, preparatory to their total repeal
at no distant period. Lord John held numerous subsequent
meetings with his friends, and on the 18th, after receiving a
letter from Peel promising general support to a measure of
repeal, but refusing to pledge himseff or his party as to
details. By a majority of votes, ten to five, the meeting
decided, to Clarendon's ' infimte and sincere grief,' that
Lord John shoffid accept office. RusseU voted vsdth the
majority ; Lansdowne, Bedford, Auckland and Clarendon
in the minority.
Next day, the 19th, they reassembled to arrange places
and proceedings. First, they spent three hours discussing
what the great bill was to be. When that was over —
' Now,' said Lord John, ' I must see some of you gentlemen
separately. I vsdll see Howick [Lord Grey] first.' Lord
John and Grey were closeted together for about forty
minutes ; then Grey reappeared, limped through the
room and left the house without speaking to any one.
Lord Auckland was summoned next ; then Clarendon and
Edward Ellice, who leamt that Lord Grey had positively
declined to join the government if Palmerston was to be
Foreign Secretary. Lord John asked them whether they
thought he coffid go on without Lord Grey ; they aU agreed
that he coffid not, for a reason which seems strange in the
twentieth century, namely, the extreme weakness of their
party in the House of Lords. RusseU had previously told
Palmerston frankly enough the objections entertained in

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 261
many quarters against his returning to the Foreign Office ;
at the same time he told him that he should make him
the offer of that office, sincerely hoping in his heart that
he woffid take the hint and be content to take something
else. Palmerston, however, was not disposed to go out of
ffis way to please Lord Grey or anybody else. He told Lord
John he woffid have the Foreign Office or nothing. Ellice —
le grand faiseur — was despatched after Lord Grey to try and
reconcile him to the inevitable, and the distribution of the
other offices went forward. Clarendon was to be President
of the Board of Trade, and Russell was to invite Cobden
to accept the Vice-Presidency. But EUice failed in his
mission. When RusseU told Palmerston that one of his
coUeagues had decUned office because he (Palmerston)
woffid have the Foreign Office, his answer was that, such
being the case, it became stiU more imperative for him to
take that place and no other.
And thus did tffis attempt at Cabinet-making fall through.
Lord John retumed to Windsor on the 20th to resign his
commission, and Peel very unwiUingly resumed the head
of affairs.
The upshot of the crisis gave Emily Eden the opportimity
of letting off a fierce blast of Whig steam against Sir Robert
Peel. Charles GreviUe has paid honest tribute to Peel's
conduct at tffis time,^ but he coffid not get Miss Eden to
view it in any but a party light.
Hon. Emily Eden to Lord Clarendon.
Enteecombe, Blackheath [1846]. — . . . What I particu
larly write for to-day is that I know Mr. C. GreviUe is to be with
you to-morrow, and though you never wiU own it, I just ask
you ff you ever saw so rabid a Tory — so outrageous a PeeUte,
or any man so bent on runffing down the Wffigs as he is ; the
latter ceremony being useless and supererogatory under present
circumstances. He came to see me on Thursday. I must say
at my own provocation, as I wanted some news to tell Lord
Auckland, and it turned out to my own provocation. His head
is turned with Sir Robert [Peel], who is not only the greatest
I Oreville Memoirs, 2nd series, ii. 324-5.

262 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. ix.
miffister of the day and the most powerful, but the most honest !
He is enchanted with aU those shabby dogs who have swaUowed
their opiffions whole, justffyffig them because the question was
on the new ground of standing by the Queen ; and besides —
' they are foUowing the Duke,' so they must be right (if anybody
can teU the provocation that rifficulous de-Ros-ish argument
is, they would kinffiy [not] bring it forward so often — or perhaps
they would say nothing else). He had no doubt Sir Robert
woffid bring forward a much stronger measure than he had at
ffist thought. He coffid carry anytffing, the confidence of the
country must be so unbounded in ffim (I reaUy could hardly
beUeve he was talMng of the same vaciUating, ffishonest, incon
stant man everybody has been abusing the last month) : the
Wffigs were done for for ever, and, to crown all, Qffilp had been
with him, and Mr. GreviUe had almost persuaded ffimseff that
he was in the right ; but he broke down when he tried to reduce
that assurance into facts. No ! I think, as I always ffid, that
he [GreviUe] is the worst enemy the Wffigs have, and I wish you
would not trust him so much. But ffis opiffion is so far valuable
that he generaUy turns out wrong ! I shoffid hke to write down
ffis predictions when he is in one of these tete-montee states.
He sees everytffing tffio' such a false halo. I beUeve Sir Robert
wiU try a much more moderate measure. And as for the Whigs,
some of them are very angry now, but a week of parUament
wiU bring them aU together again without the burden of Qffilp.
Mr. GreviUe talked ffimseff so hoarse that he was obUged to
drink a quantity of water. I was not the least thirsty, for he
never woffid let me put in a word ; tiU, as he was putting on ffis
greatcoat, I contrived to roar out — ' I stiU tffink Sir Robert very
ffishonest, and the men who have come back to ffim the shabbiest
and meanest of creatures.' But I don't tffink he heard me.
Please don't teU ffim I said aU this, because it was goodnatured
of ffim to come and teU me the news, but aggravating to the last
degree. Upon no period of recent British history, not even that
of the great Reform BiU, has more ink been spilt or more
ample information provided, than upon the events of 1846.
It is unnecessary, therefore, to dweU upon them in this
place. All Peel's former coUeagues, including the Duke
of Buccleuch, resumed office with him, except Lord Staffiey,
who remained obdurate, his place at the Coloffial Office

1841-6] IN OPPOSITION 263
being fiUed by Mr. Gladstone. Nevertheless a cleft had
been driven wide and deep through the Tory party, hence
forward to consist of two wings, sometimes acting in
common, oftener in hostiUty to each other — PeeUtes and
Protectiomsts. Peel had won the confidence of his
Sovereign,^ but sacrificed that of ffis party. The extent
of the defection was shown by the first critical division on
the corn duties, when only 112 Conservatives voted in the
majority of 337. Peel carried the third reading of his
Corn BiU on 15th May by 327 votes to 229 ; ffis old coUeague
Staffiey led the opposition to it in the Lords, where it was
saved by the action of the Duke of Weffington.
Meanwffile the distress in Ireland had become appaUing,
and was accompaffied by its usual concomitant of savage
crime. Recourse was had to one of those temporary re
pressive measures with wffich ParUament was so painfffily
famiUar until Lord SaUsbury found courage to pass a
permanent Peace Preservation Act in 1887. The Coercion
Act of 1846 opened for Protectionists the road to vengeance,
to Lord John RusseU the way to victory. On 26th June,
the very day whereon the Corn BiU received a third reading
in the House of Lords without a division, Miffisters were
defeated in the House of Commons by a majority of 73,
and Peel resigned at once.
^ See the Queen's letter to King Leopold, 23rd December 1845, et
paaaim.

CHAPTER X
THE LAST WHIG CABINET
' The Whigs of this time were men of intellectual refinement ;
they had a genuine regard for good government and a decent
faith in reform ; but when we chide the selfishness of machine
politicians hunting office in modern democracy, let us console
ourselves by recalling the rapacity of our oligarchies.'
Moeley's Gladstone, i. 446.
On Monday 29th June 1846 there was a notable gathering
of Whig magnates at Lord John Russell's house in Chesham
Place. The subject of discussion was the formation of a
new ministry, and whereas the people of the Uffited Kingdom
had, theoreticaUy, been goveming themselves for fourteen
years, the meeting might have been thought somewhat
too aristocratic for the matter in hand. It is true that
the House of Commons was represented by two individuals
— Lord John himself and Lord Palmerston— but the heredi
tary principle preponderated in the persons of my lords
Lansdowne, Clarendon, Cottenham and Minto. So far
were these high-born statesmen from admitting that self-
government by the people sigffified more than that the
people should provide suitable majorities for their govem
ment by properly qualified personages.
Moreover, the very first question to be decided at this meet
ing was whether another peer. Lord Grey to wit, shoffid be in
vited to join the Cabinet ; for his refusal to serve vsdth Palmer
ston as Foreign Secretary had been fatal to Lord John's
attempt to form a government in the foregoing December.
This delicate question having been settled in the affirmative.
Lord Grey ^ was offered and accepted the Coloffial Office,
expressing contrition for having made difficulties in the past.
1 Henry George, third Earl Grey (1802-94), who, as Lord Howick, had
sat in the House of Commons 1826-41, and held office in the ministries
of his father and of Lord Melbourne. He succeeded to the earldom at
his father's death in 1845.
264

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 265
Next it fell to be decided whether such PeeUtes as Lord
Dalhousie, Lord Lincoln,^ and Sidney Herbert should be
offered places, and lastly (for even Wliigs must move with tho
times) whether Cobden shoffid be admitted to the Cabinet.
The PeeUtes settled the first of these questions for them
selves, for the three men above-named declined to desert
Sir Robert Peel, though they gave assurance of cordial
support to the free -trade poUcy of the new government.
But the suggestion of Cobden as a colleague proved more
than these proud Whigs could stomach. Clarendon pressed
hard for it, but Mas alone in doing so. The utmost he coffid
obtain from the others was that decision should be post
poned. Though he ^vas far less advanced in ffis views than
ffis brother Charles, he recogffised the new force that had
been brought into being by the Reform Act, which he
foresaw woffid prove a very Frankenstein to its creators
uffiess an effort at fusion shoffid be made successfffily. He
went home and drafted the foUowing memorandum on the
subject for the consideration of his haughty colleagues : —
There is nothmg wffich more requires the true conservative
process of reform than the Wffig party. For years past its
vitaUty and vigor have been faffing ; the roots it formerly
struck into the country have withered ; it no longer derives
strength from pubhc sympathy. It is considered to be aristo
cratical in its opiffions, exclusive in its personnel, and guided
by past ffistorical remiffiscences rather than by present pubUc
opiffion. As a poUtical party it is thought to be nearly effete,
and, as the means of goverffing, a matter of ffistory rather than
of fact. Its reconstruction upon a far broader basis is now in
ffispensable, and though the present moment is one of singular
ffifficulty, yet on the other hand it does afford great means for
formmg a powerfffi admiffistration. With tact, decision and
promptness the scattered fragments of parties now fioating
about might be coUected together and uffited ; out of present
chaos might spring sometffing at least approacffing to that order
and harmony wffich aU reasonable men now desire.
A fusion, so far as practicable with some of the PeeUte party
and some of the extreme Free-traders, would be a symptom
that the Wffig party recogffised that their present position was
1 Succeeded es fifth Duke of Newcastle in 1851.

266 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
owmg to accident, and not to any general wish of the country
to see them in power. Tffis would at once excite the sympathy
and caU forth the support of those sections of the commuffity
best able to coffier strength upon a govemment under the present
pecuUar circumstances — in fact, to constitute a government
fairly representing the mdustrial mind and conservative progress
of the country. Nothing shoffid be done to offend or alarm the
aristocracy or the landed interest, but aU attempts to conciUate
them or to render them reUable supporters of Lord John RusseU' s
government wiU fail, unless a stand-stiU, if not a retrograde
poUcy be adopted, which must ffievitably estrange that class
of persons and opiffions upon wffich aU future governments
must depend. The country wiU not stand stiU : an impetus
has been given to men's minds that caimot be checked : wants
and hopes have been excited that must be satisfied ; commercial,
financial and social reforms have been commenced and must
be continued. The aristocracy — the party that has aheady
announced its intention to promote a backward agitation, and
hopes in two years to acqffire strength sufficient to govern the
country upon the principle of undoing aU that has been done
with much ffifficulty and sacrifice — cannot lend itseff to the
labors wffich a Liberal govemment has on hand. During the
last five months tffis party has shown itseff ignorant and regard
less of the wants and wishes of the country, and as we are bound
to beheve its views are incorrect and its preffictions of injury
are falsified by events, time wiU ffimiffish its power mstead of
giving it the strength it expects to gain, and it wiU consequently
become an element of weakness as weU as an unceasing drag
upon the govemment which looks to it for support. No volun
tary aid from the Protectioffists shoffid be rejected, but none
should be courted by any futile attempt at shaping the pohcy
of the govemment to meet their objects. They now profess to
be ffisinterested : they ask notffing for themselves : they pretend
a desire to repair the injustice of 1841 and a readmess to support
the only govemment now possible under existing circumstances.
They are not sincere : with ulterior views such as they entertain,
they cannot honestly or with reference to their ovsm interests
support the pohcy wffich it is the duty of Lord John RusseU to
pursue. They aheady have infficated their wishes : they have
expressed a hope that Mr. Cobden may not form part of the
govemment, for they know the irreparable miscffief wffich ffis
exclusion would do Lord J. R. in the towns and among the
classes where we must naturaUy look for support. They know

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 267
that tffis woffid produce lukewarmness and subsequent secession
on the part of many Liberals, wffich woffid leave the Protec
tioffists masters of the field, able to ffictate their own terms
to Lord J. R., who must either succumb to them, or, through
ffis own weakness, reffiiqffish the task he has undertaken. They
think they woffid then be the offiy inffispensable party, because
the only one possessffig strength enough to form an admiffistra
tion ; but ffi tffis they would be deceived, for aU tffis time Sir
R. Peel woffid not be idle or unobservant of the trap set for Lord
J. R. He has not broken up ffis party and embarked on a
middle-class pohcy without being prepared to carry it out to its
fuU resffits, altho' he may do so in ffis own pecuhar and furtive
way. H he perceives any retrograde or stand-stiU symptoms
ffi Lord J. R., he wiU outbid him a little as he has already been
much outbidden by Lord J. R. ; but that Uttle vsdU always be
sufficient to raUy round ffim the free-traders, manffiacturers and
midffie classes, who are aheady better ffisposed to ffim than to
Lord J. R., because they tffink ffim more squeezable and more
Ukely to carry out the system of ffirect taxation wffich they are
bent upon estabhshmg. The composition of the Cabinet is there
fore of the utmost importance as infficative of its pohcy. Should
the names of its members not satisfy pubhc expectation, and
shoffid its acts faU short of pubhc requirements, the ffissolution
of ParUament wiU create a new and independent PeeUte party,
wffich wffi be held to represent national progress and bid fair
to extingffish the Wffigs, as a party, for ever.
The effect of this lecture was that a middle course was
taken. Lord John wrote to Cobden explaiffing that he woffid
not invite ffim to join the Cabinet just then, understanding
that he was about to set out on continental travel ; but ex
pressing a hope (wffich may or may not have been sincere)
that when he retumed he might be induced to take office.^
Clarendon himseff took his place in what proved to be
the last Wffig govemment as President of the Board of
Trade, but ffis tenure of that office was destined to be brief,
and there remain in his correspondence few traces of his
experience therein.
1 Lord Palmerston offered Cobden the Presidency of the Board of Trade
in 1859, but he declined it, having been, as he said, ' for the last twelve
years the systematic and constant assailant of the principle on which
your foreign policy has been carried on.' The Tories accounted for his
refusal of office by saying that a dog can't bark with a bone in its mouth.

268 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
1st July 1846. — Lord Grey has thought better of it, and, altho'
Pam. took the F. O., Grey accepted the Coloffial Office, wffich
Clarendon was to have had if Grey remained obdurate. . . .
31st. — . . . Dined at Gloucester House. ... I sat at dinner
between the Duke of Devonshire and Prince George of Cambridge.
The former told me a funny anecdote about Rachel. . . . The
Comte d'Aumale was much epris with Rachel and sent her the
f oUovsdng note composed of three words — ' Quand ? o\ ?
combien ? ' to which she answered — ' Demain — chez moi — rien ! '
The Duke added — ' When you teU Clarendon the story, tell ffim
that Mrs. Lamb ^ told me.'
Miffisters had but a few weeks of the session and they
applied them to dealing vidth the sugar duties. Peel, in
his policy of reducing taxation upon all articles of food,
irrespective of their origin, had made an exception in the
case of sugar, giving the produce of British colomes, where
labour was free, a preferential tariff over that from Cuba
and Brazil, where the plantations were worked by slaves.
The duty on slave-grown sugar was practically prohibitive
— 63s. a hundredweight, that on colonial sugar 23s. 4d.
Lord John RusseU fixed the duty on all sugar alike at 21s.
per cwt. in 1847, to be progressively reduced to 15s. 6d. by
1851. It was difficffit to reconcile this rigid application
of free -trade principles with the position of Great Britain
as the leader in the crusade against the slave-trade ; and
so Lord Clarendon found when, after the biU had passed
the Commons vsdth a final majority of 130, he undertook its
conduct through the Lords, for he had ranged against
him opponents to the measure so far asunder in party
politics as Lord Stanley and Lord Brougham. However,
it was late in the season ; noble lords had gone off to the
country, and twenty-eight votes sufficed to carry the bill
against an opposition of ten.
The two chief sources of anxiety to Russell's Cabinet
were the angry feeUng against Great Britain which pre
vailed in France, and the increasing distress and disorder
in Ireland. Lord Grey had joined the government on
' Widow of the Hon. George Lamb, Melbourne's youngest brother.
Her maiden name was St. Jules.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 269
receiving Lord John's assurance that he would ' exercise
a control over the Foreign Office and secure the Cabinet
against any imprudence of Palmerston's.' ^ Grey must
either have been very anxious to be satisfied, or have
very imperfectly understood Palmerston's character, for
Palmerston took his own Une as independently as ever.
Before Peel's faU, while he was stiU leader of the Opposition,
he had gone over to Paris to make friends with King Louis
PhiUppe and ffis miffister Guizot. He did not succeed
very well, for ffis advent to office in June fanned the
smoffidering fire of iU-wiU to England which his Eastern
policy of 1840 had kindled, and destroyed the better
relations wffich had been estabUshed by the visit of Queen
Victoria and Lord Aberdeen to the French King. Louis
PffiUppe had pledged ffis kingly word at Chateau d'Eu
that the Due de Montpensier shoffid not marry the Infanta
of Spain until her elder sister, Queen IsabeUa, had married
and borne cffildren. Whether from sheer distrust and
disUke of Palmerston or from mere anxiety for a dynastic
uffion with Spain, Loffis PffiUppe and Gffizot broke their
promise, and arranged that Queen IsabeUa shoffid marry
her cousin the Duque de Cadiz, who was beUeved to be
incapable of becoming a father, and, on the same day, the
Iffianta Maria Lffisa shoffid wed the Due de Montpensier.
Palmerston was determined to prevent tffis gross breach
of faith. Without consffiting the Prime Miffister or his
other coUeagues, he told the French Ambassador, M. de
Saint-Affiaire, that he woffid vsdthdraw the British Ambas
sador from Paris. To the British Mimster at Madrid, Sir
Henry Bffiwer, he sent a Ust of eUgible husbands for Queen
Isabella, the first name on the list being that of Prince
Leopold of Coburg. Now Prince Leopold was Prince
Albert's cousin, and Loffis PhiUppe, not unnaturaUy, sus
pected Palmerston of a design to estabUsh British ascend
ency at Madrid to the exclusion of French. Palmerston
aggravated the angry feeUng by the tone of his despatches
to Lord Normanby in Paris, written without Lord John
RusseU's knowledge. The marriages took place on 10th
1 Greville Memoirs, 2nd series, iii. 188.

270 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
October 1846 ; all good understanding between the French
and English governments was at an end, and it was pro
bably offiy the internal upheaval ^in France shortly after
wards that prevented an open rupture.
Lord Brougham, ever since his exclusion from office in
1835, had made repeated attacks upon the Whigs. For
some occffit reason he entertained a high regard for Lord
Clarendon, to whom he frequently wrote long tirades against
the other Ministers. On tffis occasion he chose Palmerston
as the object of his censure, and as Palmerston from time
to time had fits of suspicion that Clarendon was intriguing
against him, the foUowing letter may serve to show how
Uttle foundation there was for that suspicion and how
thorougffiy loyal Clarendon was to ffis coUeague, even
when he coffid not approve of his policy : —
Ijord Clarendon to Lord Brougham.
The Geove, 13th November 1846. — My deae Beougham, — I
am much obhged to you for your letter, which I have not yet
had an opportuffity of shovsdng, but I shaU certainly do so, as
I am sure that Lord Lansdowne, J. RusseU and Palmerston wffi,
Uke myseff, appreciate the tone and spirit in wffich it is written.
I wiU answer it paragraphatim.
You do but justice to Palmerston's agrement as a coUeague and
remarkable abiUty as a miffister, wffich assures ffis being zealously
served, and is by no means uffimportant in the post he occupies.
I caimot, however, agree with you about ffis visit to Paris last
spring. In ffis place, I should have gone there two years sooner,
as the best means of contrafficting the Ues told of ffim. He had
been represented as a sort of ogre who devoured Uttle French
cffildren as soon as they were born, and declared war upon every
Frenchman he happened to meet. He was weU received, not
because he cried peccavi, but because the French recogffised
their error and made amends for it in a manner that ffid them
much creffit. How ffis visit was to embarrass Loffis PffiUppe
in the impenffing elections I am at a loss to imagme ; but as
there has been no such majority obtained since the revolution
of 1830 as the present one, either L. P. must have made a great
mistake in tffinking that Palmerston's presence would have any
influence upon them, or he must admit that Palmerston's coming
rendered him an important service.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 271
1. Now with respect to the volume, which 1 suppose is P.'s
ffispatch of 31st October wffich has made L. P. so angry. A
ffispatch — a book — or a speech may be too long if the matter is
bad, or if it coffid vsdth equal clearness be stated more briefly —
but to my humble judgment it seems that the matter of this
ffispatch is good — that it could not with advantage be abridged,
and that as it is not Jd longer than the ffispatch to which it is
an answer (I have compared them), I do not see that in that
there exists ground for ridicule or complaint. You ask for whose
eyes or satisfaction it was written ? Q. Victoria's — L. PffiUppe's
— people of France — people of England ? and I answer for none
of these ffi particffiar — it was written in reply to uffiounded
arguments, to facts misrepresented, and ffi order to place on
record the truth with respect to the whole proceeffings. I wiU,
however, take your queries in your own order-— 1st, Queen
ViCTOEiA — ^I know not what opiffion she may have expressed
upon the ffispatch, but the fact of its having been sent denotes
her approval. I do know, however, that neither she, nor her
late, nor her present govemment, ever ffid or said a single thing
to promote the marriage of a P. of Cobourg with the Q. of Spain,
and whoever states the contrary, says, either in ignorance or
maUce, what is untrue. I do know what her ffisappointment
has been at fluffing the friendsffip so ill reqffited wffich she gave
with so much ffigenuousness and sincerity. I do know that she
woffid have ffied sooner than depart one hair's breadth from any
promise she had made t^o the King of the French.
2. Louis Phuippe, the ffispatch assureffiy was not written
for the paltry purpose of makffig ffim angry. That it may have
had that effect is qffite possible, and I wiU even say quite natural ;
for there are certain thffigs wffich kmgs ffisUke, and can as iU
afford to have proved as their subjects ; but that is not our
faffit. ¦ You yourseff, in the course of your hfe, whether as counsel
or judge, must often have regretted beffig compeUed to place
mffividuals ffi a paiffiffi position ; but you ffid not on that account
flmch from the performance of solemn duties.
But, my dear Brougham, ff L. P. talked with a grave face,
as you say, about ffis sufferings on account of England in the
Pritchard affair, it can offiy have been to laugh the more heartily
ffi ffis sleeve ; and ff you received it with a grave face, I can
offiy suppose you were in that state of fascination into wffich
that august personage is always able to tffiow ffis Usteners.
The Pritchard affair, indeed ! denounced as it was (and de-

272 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
served to be) by the First Miffister of the Crown in the House
of Commons as a gross outrage, but of which outrage, thank
Heaven, not a tenth part of the grossness was known here, or
John Bull, with all ffis apathy, would not have borne to creep
out of it as he ffid.^ Ask the Duke of Weffington and Sir R. Peel
what they were preparffig to do upon it. Read Jamac's
dispatches for an account of pubhc feeUng in England, and
he purposely understated the facts. Remember Nessehode's
mission here to place at our ffisposal every ship and every man
of Russia, and the consequences wffich that would have entailed
in Europe ; and then tffink of L. P.'s talking of ffis sufferings on
account of the Pritchard affair, wffich he knows was so nobly
taken up in France solely for the purpose of hostiUzing his un
popular Miffister, who by the way, from that very unpopularity,
however good ffis intentions may have been, has done more
than any other man since the peace, to irritate the two countries
against each other. And then for L. P. to talk thus to you, who
of aU men are most able to teU him what we have suffered on
account not offiy of France but of ffimseff — you, who during
the 2 or 3 first years that you were in office, were constantly,
with your coUeagues caUed upon to repel attacks both in and
out of Parlt. upon the French affiance and accusations of being
leagued with the revolutionary government of our natural
enemies ! Where L. P. would be now, if we had been hostile,
or even neutral, in 1830 I know not, but I 'U engage he would
not have been on the throne of France. Would Belgium have
been an independent kingdom vsdthout our countenance ?
Would L. P.'s daughter have been Queen of it ? Woffid the
siege of Antwerp or the occupation of Ancona have been tolerated
by Europe but for us ? Would the engagements of the Quadruple
Affiance have been violated vsdth impuffity ? Could the offer
to the Northem Powers of abandoffing aU intimate relations
with England have been overlooked, ff we had not determined
a tout prix to maintain the French affiance ? Verily, it is for
us and not for L. P. to say, what have we got by it ? AU these
facts are better known to you than to me, and I do therefore
marvel at the King's holffing such language to you, and at your
apparent acqffiescence ffi it.
3. The Feench People. — You say their joy is immense.
' When the French occupied Tahiti in 1843, they arrested and expeUed
the British consul, George Pritchard, on the charge of stirring up disaffec
tion among the natives. The British government demanded and received
an apology and indemnity.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 273
surely not at the despatch or volume ? it had only arrived in
Paris 3 or 4 days before you wrote, it had not been published,
and they could not know the contents of it. But they are
deUghted because an advantage has been gained over us, and
because L. P. has behaved iU to us ; tho' they would have been
better pleased ff he had done so ten times more, and made us
ten times more angry. But as you then admit that we have been
defeated and iU-used, wiU you deny us the privilege of re
monstrating, or at least of stating our case ? After being
smitten on the one side, do you reqffire of our humiUty to turn
the national cheek for a second blow ?
But you say that the Montpensier marriage was not popular
tiU now, when it is the dehght of France. As tffis is ffirectly
and immeffiately attributable to us, why should the King be so
very angry ? Whatever is disagreeable and humiUating to us
wiU, I am sure for the reasons you assign, be very pleasing to
the people of France ; but I doubt their ecstasies at this marriage,
for it seems to me that they have taken a broad and natural
distinction between the question of national interests and that
of dynasty and dowry. Moreover, most of the pubUc men in
France condemn the Ugerete with which the Enghsh affiance has
been sacrificed.
4. People of England. — I entirely agree with you that
foreign pohcy, bible societies, com laws, slave trade and
education are matters offiy of occasional and secondary interest
to John BuU, and that taxes, trade and peace are what he reaUy
cares about — to ffimiffish the ffist, to increase the second and
to secure the tffird, are the objects of ffis unceasing soUcitude.
But what he loves is honesty and straightforwardness in every
transaction and the faitffiul performance of a promise. When
he is deceived, he hates it aU the more if he has been previously
cajoled. He cares httle about the marriage of the Due de
Montpensier, but he set the ffighest value on the French affiance,
and probably imagined that the feehng was reciprocated until
he found ffimseff not worth 8 miffions of francs in L. P.'s estima
tion. For £320,000 then (and you know that if the Iffianta
had been penffiless none of these events would have occurred),
John BuU has been set aside, and the mode in which the tffing
was done has offended ffim even more than the thing itseff.
He has no wish to pick a quarrel, but he is ffisgusted, and has
lost aU confidence — and tffis feeUng, rely upon it, pervades aU
classes and aU parties tffioughout the country. I never re-
vol. I s

274 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
member so much interest or so much unaffirffity upon any foreign
question. Six months ago L. P. enjoyed a degree of popularity
here, and there was a heartiness of good-wiU towards ffim, such
as no foreigner ever possessed, but a complete reaction has now
taken place, with respect both to his character and ffis pohcy.
5. And last, but by no means least, your [step-]daughter.
Lady MaUet, who, it appears, has had time, wffich you have not,
to read the book, wiU teU you that whenever you have 20 minutes
to spare for the purpose, you v^iU find them amply sufficient.
I always thought her one of the cleverest and most agreeable
women I ever knew, and you now give me an equaUy ffigh
opiffion of her clear-sightedness and judgment. If I was in doubt
upon any international question between the two countries, I
woffid far sooner be gffided by her than by L. P.
If Mole considers the note (wffich for rapiffity of ffitration
and ffiversity of effect must be a wonderfffi document) has taken
from ffis chance of overtffiowing Gffizot, I iffier that previously
to its arrival he meffitated the attempt and expected to succeed
in it. Upon what ground, however, ffid he expect to tum
against Gffizot ffis present majority of 100 ? Upon the Mont
pensier marriage and the misconduct to England ? I conclude
not, for they are the deUght of France; but if it was for some
other cause, I don't see what infiuence the note could have had.
You caimot seriously have been wanting Wakeley to set upon
Normanby for not going to St. Cloud. Woffid it have been
saffity to present a book in remonstrance against the marriage
one day, and on the next to present ffimseff in comphment to
its having taken place ? and as for aU Europe being iffiormed
thereby that we stood alone, was there any news in that ?
Have we not ffitherto been (pubhckly at least) acting single
handed ? Have not the Northern Powers stood aloof and
considered that they could not interfere because they had not
recogffised the Q. of Spain (as they woffid not have recogffised
L. P. ff they had dared and if our example had not compelled
them) and because they regarded the whole affair as a quarrel
between illegitimates ? If Normanby had gone to St. Cloud
there woffid have appeared on the foUowing day long official
articles in the Dibats and the Presse laugffing at ffim, and
deducing from ffis visit that we were now afraid, and had never
been in earnest— the course he adopted, viz. to maffifest a con
tinued ffisapprobation of the marriage together with aU due
respect for every member of the Royal family, was clearly the

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 275
right one, and the manner in which it was met proved that
L. P. thought so too.
One word more and I have done. Let me assure you (tho'
to you who know them so weU it can harffiy be necessary) that
no men can be more pacificaUy disposed towards the world in
general, or have a greater desire to be on good terms with
France in particular, than J. RusseU, L. Lansdowne and
Palmerston. The latter in the performance of his duty is,
beUeve me, without a feeUng of rancour, altho' a system has been
pursued towards ffim by the French government such as few
British mffiisters have ever been exposed to. No effort has been
left untried to ffissociate ffis coUeagues from ffim, and to ffis
creffit ffim with the Queen, the pubhc and ffis pohtical friends,
as weU as opponents. The mot d'ordre was : ' Shake the tree
and Palmerston wiU tumble down ! ' It has been whoUy
unsuccessfffi ; for men of aU parties are satisfied with ffis
conduct and revolted by such foreign interference in our
concerns. For my own part, as I need not teU you, I ardently hope
that the anucable relations between the two governments may
be speeffily re-estabUshed, and that they may be even on a ffimer
basis than before, as the sagacity of L. P. wiU point out to ffim
the Umits not to be exceeded in future in ffis deaUngs with tffis
most tolerant nation.
You are reported to be very anti-Enghsh : I don't beheve it,
and I rely upon your patriotism not being shaken by your
aversion to the govemment ; and for tffis reason, as weU as
your own private satisfaction, I am glad that you are in a
position of so much infiuence with the King, and that you tell
me he never showed you so much ffindness as at present. For
give me for infficting tffis volume upon you. I did not intend it
when I sat down to write. Ever yours truly, Claeendon.
Even more disquieting than the French imbroglio, be
cause nearer home, was the state of affairs in Ireland with
wffich the new Ministry had to deal. Lord Bessborough,
whom they appointed Lord-Lieutenant, declared that he
coffid not be responsible for the peace of the country uffiess
he were armed with more stringent powers than those of
the ordinary law. But how coffid Lord John RusseU caU
upon men who, in June, had turned out the Tories on the

276 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
question of a Coercion BiU, to vote in Jffiy for a similar
measure ? He did so caU upon them and the measure was
squeezed through a second reading ; but Lord John found
it expedient to drop it and to let matters in Ireland run
their course.
It was in contemplation — nay, it had been determined —
to abolish the office of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland ; but the
state of that country, where a rank growth of sedition and
crime had arisen from the deepemng distress, put it out
of the question to attempt constitutional and administrative
changes at such a time. So when Lord Bessborough, who
had been appointed Lord-Lieutenant so lately as 10th July
1846, died on 16th May 1847 a successor had to be found.

Lord Clarendon to George Cornewall Lewis.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, May 1847. — J. R. sent for me yester
day afternoon and proposed to me to go to Ireland ; but it was
done in his most cold, short, abrupt, inffifferent manner — much
as if he was ffisposing of a tide-waiter's place to an appUcant. I
made a string of objections and said I should take time to con
sider of it ; but I feel much embarrassed ; for, if I consent, it
would seem that I was accepting a smaU favor instead of making
a great sacrifice. . . .
Monday night. — If not inconveffient to you, I wish you would
try and see Graham to-morrow morffing and teU ffim that I
wished he should know as early as possible that I was going
to Ireland, that I had the greatest reluctance to accept the post
and a Uvely sense of aU the ffisappointment wffich famine, pestil
ence, anarchy and loss of character wiU entail upon me, but that
I had accepted to reUeve J. R. from a great embarrassment,
and that I had been encouraged to overcome my repugnance by
what you had told me of his [Graham's] opiffion of my being
poor Bessborough's successor. In short, let him understand
that it is a patriotic, uncompensated sacrifice, and I shoffid
rather hke him to teU Peel. You may also iffiorm ffim, but in
strict confidence, that the office will be aboUshed. He wiU under
stand easily why it caimot be done now, and the reasons why
it should on no account be mentioned, as a cry might be got up
in Ireland which would greatly increase the difficulty of carry-
mg it. . . .

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 277
Charles Greville, usuaUy most friendly in his interpreta
tion of Clarendon's motives, went strangely astray in
describing those which induced him to undertake the
Lord-Lieutenanoy. He says that he ' affected to repudiate
it and to dread and dislike it, and urged the Duke [of
Bedford] to go ffimseff. I say affected, because it soon be
came very clear to me, as it did to the Duke, that Clarendon
had no disinclination to go, and woffid, in fact, be excessively
mortified and disappointed if anybody went but himself.' ^
There is a good deal more to the same effect ; showing that
Greville, ' who heard some secrets and invented more,' did
not always put the right explanation upon what he saw
and heard. He was a gouty and cynical old bachelor,
whose view of men and tffings, though generaUy kindly,^
was apt to be warped temporarily by iU health. Clarendon,
whatever were ffis faffits, and it is no part of a biographer's
function to screen them, was incapable of affectation ; his
candour was often the source of discomfort to himseff and
others. He had joined the govemment against ffis own
incUnation in order to serve his friends ; there was notffing
to attract him, but much to repel him, in the alarming
condition of Ireland, and his intimate correspondence bears
ample testimony to the reluctance and misgiving with which
he undertook the charge of that distracted country. More
over, if anytffing were wanting to render that task distaste-
fffi to him, it was the fact that it had been determined to
aboUsh the Viceroyalty on the first suitable opportunity
and to replace it with a Secretaryship of State. To one
who wrote to congratffiate ffim on his appointment. Claren
don wrote in terms the reverse of sanguine.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 29th June 1847. — . . . Incessant
occupation has alone prevented my thanking you, as I ought
to have done long ago, for your kind expressions, and good
wishes for my success in the terrible task that has been imposed
upon me. I go to Ireland without maffing to myseff the smallest
iUusion as to the more than probabihty of failure that awaits
"¦ Greville Memoirs, 2nd Series, iu. 85.
* ' A friend of many, and always a friend when most wanted.' Sir
H. Taylor's Autobiogra/phy, i. 315.

278 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
me ; for even if I had ten times more abihty than I can pretend
to, I should think it almost impossible to do good where aU
the machinery reqffired for the purpose is absolutely wanting.
Moreover I fear that the ffistress next autumn and winter
wiU be greater than the last, and aggravated by the absence of
that stream of charity, both pubhc and private, which has
flowed so UberaUy tffis year into Ireland from this country ; so
that, with the revival of party spirit consequent upon a general
election as a preface to famine and the anarchy it wiU bring, a
man must indeed be sanguine who thought that the best devised
measures for the regeneration of Ireland were hkely to work
weU. I shaU, however, hope to do whatever perseverance, zeal
and honesty of purpose can effect. . . .
In assuming the Viceroyalty, Clarendon continued a
member of the Cabinet, retaining his key ; but, of course,
he coffid not attend the meetings, except when speciaUy
summoned for Irish business.
In taking up residence at the Viceregal Lodge, he kept
all Lord Bessborough's staff and household (vsdth one
exception), letting it be known that he did so out of esteem
and affection for his predecessor. The condition of the
country was as bad as he had anticipated. Dan O'Connell
was no more — ^he had died at Genoa on 15th May previous
— but the removal of a personality once so potent in Ireland
had not the slightest effect upon the conduct of his country
men, over whom he had long ceased to exercise any control.
' If,' wrote Lord Clarendon to a friend, ' If he had ceased
agitating when emancipation was carried, he woffid have
been as great a man in his way as Washington ; but he
continued it for purposes most mischievous as regards the
people and most selfish as regards himseff. His whole
object was money and power ; the latter in order to make
it subservient to the former.'
O'ConneU's power over the people was now divided be
tween Young Ireland — ^the Physical Force party — ^and the
Moral Persuasion party, whose mutual relations were thus
described with grim humour by the new Lord-Lieutenant.
The physical force men, whenever they meet for spouting,
have to be escorted home by two or tffiee hundred poUce, or

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 279
not one of them would escape alive from the moral persuasion
party, who miss no opportunity of getting up a ferocious row.
. . . Moral persuasion always waylays physical force and beats
it witffin an mch of its Ufe.
The Irish Poor Law of 1838 made no provision for out
door reUef, which woffid have had to be defrayed from the
rates ; so in the spring of 1847, out of a population of about
7,000,000, 734,000, or sometffing over 10 per cent, were em
ployed on relief works and paid by the State, involving an
extraordinary expenditure of eight miffions sterling, for
which Sir Charles Wood made provision in his first budget
by issffing a loan at 3^ per cent. Besides this, large sums
were sent abroad to buy corn for the starving people.
And what kind of response did they receive who were
straiffing every resource to relieve the distress ? Alas !
there has always been in Ireland a section of the people of
almost every county, except in the north — violent and
rutffiess in bUnd revenge upon individuals less unfortunate
than themselves, and able, through deadly terrorism,
to force the bffik of the popffiace to abet, or at least to
screen them. The record of Clare, Limerick and Tipperary
for 1847 is one of almost incredible cruelty and crime,
often committed in broad dayUght before terrified witnesses.
The clearest evidence failed to obtain a verdict of guilt
upon assassins ; coroners' juries, indeed, freely returned
verdicts of wiffffi murder, but offiy against the Prime
Mimster or the Lord-Lieutenant as persons responsible for
the sufferings of the peasantry !
Clarendon's intimacy vsdth Henry Reeve began about
this time and continued tffioughout his life. Reeve had
been on the staff of the Times since 1840, he was now
four-and-tffirty and, having been made responsible by
John Delane for the foreign policy of that journal, his
relations vsdth Clarendon soon became confidential.

Lord Clarendon to Henry Beeve.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 19th July 1847. — ... As yet I have
no cause of complaint : men are civil and tffings are smooth ;

280 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
but the rub vsdU come a month hence, when 3,000,000 persons
now receiving rations are tffiown upon the rates, wffich depend
upon the resources of the country, wffich are nil ! There wiU be
work for aU the Queen's horses and aU the Queen's men to coUect
the rates, wffich of course they won't do ; and then to keep the
peace, in wffich I have no doubt they wiU equaUy fail.
18th September. — ... I have ffitherto had a tolerably
prosperous time here. The rehef committees have given food :
the harvest has given work, and a glorious summer has checked
fever among the people and disease in the potatoes. But ces
beaux jours sont passes, or nearly so, for repuffiating ratepayers
are to take the place of unffiscriminating committees ; lanffiords
and farmers declare they can't employ labourers ; doctors
promise pestilence again ; and if the wet weather does not destroy
the potatoes, their price vsdU place them beyond the reach of the
poor, for not above one fourth of the usual amount were planted.
So I look forward to a troublous winter, the ffifficulties of which
will not be smoothed by England ; for even if John BuU were
wiffing to give, Charles Wood is unable.
The real ffifficulty, however, Ues with the people themselves.
They are always in the mud ; and when they have screamed
out to Hercffies, they have no doubt about having done every
thing necessary for extricating themselves. Their idleness and
helplessness can hardly be beheved. StiU I cannot bring myseff
to despair. I can aheady detect germs of progress, wffich, if
they can but be protected from their numerous assailants, may
ripen into sometffing good. A spirit of exertion and seff-reUance,
altogether new in Ireland, is manifesting itseff ; landlords are
beginffing to bestir themselves, and to understand why hunting,
drinking and mortgaging bring their estates to auction and
themselves to jail.
Reeve kept a journal (often no more than a mere skeleton)
and notes therein for October 1847, ' To DubUn on the 30th
on a visit to Lord Clarendon, who was Lord-Lieutenant.
Major Mahon murdered. Home on November 7th.' The
reference is to a crime of the prevalent type. Major Mahon
had incurred the displeasure of the agitators by trying
to collect something out of £30,000 arrears of rent. He
had received no rent at all for three years and, at his own
expense, had chartered two vessels to carry some of his
bankrupt tenants to America. He was shot by a couple

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 281
of masked assassins on the high road outside his own de
mesne in Roscommon, on his return from a meeting of the
Board of Guardians.
By this time Clarendon had formed a warm friendship
with his brother-in-law, George CornewaU Lewis, who
became his constant correspondent. Lewis resigned his
post as Poor Law Commissioner in 1847, in order to contest
Herefordshire as a Liberal. He won ffis election, and in
the following year was appointed one of the secretaries to
the Board of Control under Sir John Hobhouse.
Loid Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 20th September 1847. — ... I never
worked so hard unremittmgly as I have done for these last three
months. In Spain I ffid on courier days ; but here it is always
courier day. I beheve I have done my duty ; but I don't
know that I have done anytffing else, for it may be said of the
Irish as TaUeyrand said of Loffis PhiUppe — one may advise
ffim, but no man can serve him. . . . However, nil despe-
randum ! as I used to say in Spain ; which country has been to
me an admirable apprenticesffip for tffis one. I now shrug my
shoulders and say cosas de Irlanda just as I used to account for
every devilment there by cosas de Espana. . . .
19th December. — Most of the Irish members are to be managed
qffite as much by personal civffity as by the jobs they all want
to perpetrate. When they are in London they know nobody,
and are sulky with their social position ; but if they were occasion-
aUy treated as gentlemen they could not so often behave as
blackguards. . . .
Clarendon had not been many weeks in Ireland before he
became convinced of the hopelessness of maintaining even
a semblance of law and order without extraordinary powers.
Lord Clarendon to Lord John Bussell.
10th November 184:1. — . . . My great object and aU my
anxiety are to restore order by the law as it now stands ; but if
I find it msufficient — if the spirit of ffisaffection and insuborffina-
tion spreads and the present anarchical tendencies increase, I
must then ask for some extraorffinary powers. I am as much
averse to a Coercion Bill as you can be ; for I know that by the

282 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
time it is debated and mutilated in Parhament, and clamoured
and written against here, it loses aU moral force and is looked
upon as a tyranffical abuse of power. I shaU, therefore, never
propose a Coercion BiU to you. If tffings become intolerably
bad, I beUeve that ParUament would more wiffingly grant, and
I am sure that tffis country would more wiffingly submit to, a
suspension of the Habeas Corpus — to be acted on under the
strict responsibiUty of the Lord-Lieutenant or the govemment
— than any of the old or cumbrous macffinery of coercion to be
set at work by the local magistracy. . . .
But although disclaiming all intention of asking for
coercion. Lord Clarendon went on to define as requisite
certain additional powers which, had they been proposed
by a Tory Government, would assuredly have been de
nounced as coercive. He would have power to impose a
fine to be levied summarily upon the district in which
robbery, violence or murder was committed ; he woffid
prohibit the possession of arms by aU except householders,
who should be reqffired to take out a license for them,
such arms to be registered by the poUce, and he woffid
have ' penal clauses against going about at night in disgffise
or with blackened faces.' Two days later he forwarded
to the Prime Minister the drafts of three bills to effect what
he deemed necessary in addition to the suspension of Habeas
Corpus, repeating his assurance that he ' desired no Coercion
Bill. The objections to it are valid and numerous.' ^ Lord
John replied on the 15th :
. . . We see great difficulty in carrying your Arms BiU
into effect. . . . RecoUect that the Coercion Acts, or, as they
were called, Insurrection Acts, from the Uffion to 1830, and
Lord Grey's Coercion Act of 1833 and Sir R. Peel's Coercion
Act of 1846, were aU based on the number of murders wffich
took place during the existence of Arms Acts. In fact, I have
Uttle faith in this remedy, though no insuperable objection to it
per se. . . . The suspension of Habeas Corpus you show might
be made efficacious, provided the leaders preached against
each other as you suppose. But I am not ready to bring in any
restrictive law vsdthout at the same time restraiffing the powers
of the landlord. It is quite true that landlords in England would
' Walpole's Life of Lord John Russell, i. 404.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 283
not Uke to be shot Uke hares and partridges by miscreants
banded for murderous purposes ; but neither does any land
lord in England turn out ffity persons at once, and burn their
houses over their heads, giving them no provision for the future.
... I am wiffing to fiffish the contest, if it can be fiffished, by
leaving the law to its operation, by the gradual influences of civi
Usation, by mtroducing and fostering education. But if stringent
laws are reqffired, they must bear on both sides of the contest.
There is sometffing almost comical in the contrast between
the view taken by the Prime Miffister in Dowffing Street
and the man on the spot, who was charged with the duty of
protecting Ufe and property in Ireland. The reluctance
of RusseU and his coUeagues to act on the Lord-Lieutenant's
advice was and remains inteffigible enough, for he was ask
ing for the very powers, or nearly so, which they had refused
four months previously to Sir Robert Peel and had turned
ffim out of office for demanding. Clarendon, face to face
with the growing danger and the almost daily horrors,
coffid not but feel indignant when he was bidden to rely
on the ' gradual influences of civilisation ' and the softeffing
effect of a system of education which had not been intro
duced. He repUed to Lord John with some warmth :
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, llth November 1847. — My deae Loed John,
— On the 13th you wrote me word that Sir G. Grey and you were
of opiffion that I had better have an Arms Bill drawn accorffing
to the sketch I sent you. On the 15th you told me that the
more you and he consider it, the less justification do you find
for an Arms BiU ; and I wiU not ffisguise from you how much I
am surprised, and I may add ffisheartened, by tffis ; nor do I
understand how any govemment can tffink it expeffient to leave
300,000 arms in possession of some of the most ferocious people
on earth, at the commencement of a winter when there will be
great poverty and Uttle employment, when armed outrages are
increasing every day, when almost every post brings an account
of some fresh murder, and when the reign of terror is so complete
that aU those who are unable to fiy from the ffisturbed districts
must purchase their existence by the surrender of their rights.
. . . Two Sundays before Major Mahon was murdered, he was
denounced by name from the altar, called worse than a Cromwell ;
' and yet,' said the priest, ' this man lives ! ' From tffis very

284 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
priest, however, I have seen letters for the last ten years to Major
Mahon, blessmg ffim for his ffindness to the people and to ffim
seff ; but he (M.) last year ffiscovered some irregularities in the
management of the reUef fund by the priest, who then vowed
vengeance against him. . . .
18th. — ... I have received your letter, in which you tell
me that the Cabinet has approved of the Constabulary BiU,
has rejected the Arms Bill, and has not considered the suspension
of the Habeas Corpus Act. . . . The Arms BiU is rejected upon
two grounds, which prove two tffings : ffist, that the Cabinet
has little or no confidence in my reports or opiffions ; and
second, that the decision has been come to upon insufficient or
incorrect iffiormation. ... If I do not see any reasonable
ground for behoving that I can perform the duties of government
in maintaining the law and afforffing some protection to hfe and
property, I cannot, and I am sure you wiU not ask me to, remain
here when I feel my power of usefuffiess is gone. . . .
By dint of daily letters to the same effect. Clarendon
brought the Cabinet to face the dire necessity of the case.
Especially were they unwilling to contemplate his resigna
tion, weU knowing that it was not in their power to replace
him with any one of Uke abiUty and experience in popffiar
upheaval. So they thought better of it, and a paragraph
was put into the Queen's Speech asking ' the assistance of
Parliament in taking further precautions against the
perpetration of crime in certain counties and districts of
Ireland.' It gave the Lord-Lieutenant part of the powers
he had demanded, and he was frank in expressing his
satisfaction, though in writing to Lord John on 30th
November, he said, ' I am still afraid that your Bill will
not prove sufficient and that you may get some unpopularity
(offiy, however, from a party point of view) without effectu
ally checking outrage.'
When Sir George Grey brought in the Bill (' which
appeared to almost everybody insufficient for the object ' ^)
Sir Robert Peel magnaffimously refrained from retaUating
upon the men who had so recently refused his request for
similar powers. It was in Peel's power to do so with some
' Greville Memoirs, 2nd Series, iii. 104.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 285
effect, for the Whigs were stiU in a minority in the House of
Commons and the Radicals could not have been got to
support the BiU ; but he spoke warmly and rallied his
foUowers in support of Ministers.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 21st November 1847. — . . . The ' oldest
inhabitant ' cannot remember Tipperary, Clare and Limerick
in such a state of ffisorganisation as now. There never was so
open or so widely extended a conspiracy for shooting landlords
and agents, and my fear is that this vsdU spread (there are aheady
symptoms of it), and that the fiame wffich now rages in certain
ffistricts wiU become a general confiagration. Between 300,000
and 400,000 stand of arms are now in possession of the people ;
the sale of them increases every day ; every beggar walks
about with ffis blunderbuss, and labourers go to work (if work
it can be caUed) with as good double-barreUed guns as sportsmen
use. The orffinary powers of the law are not sufficient to deal
with tffis state of tffings, because every man is in favor of the
criminal : law and order have no friends. I have had great
work with the Cabmet upon tffis subject, but they have at last
yielded ; tho' if they had brought in permanent severe pohce
regffiations, as I proposed, I think it would have been better
than their measure, wffich, tho' perhaps more stringent, can
only be temporary.
2nd December. — . . . G. Grey ^ saffiy exceeded the Umits of
truth when he said he had my authority for stating that the Bill
woffid be effectual, etc. I would not have ventured upon such
a prophecy with respect to any biU, much less such a one as his,
wffich certaiffiy does not go far enough.
Lord Clarendon to Charles Greville.
Viceregal Lodge, December 1847. — ... I expect this
BiU wiU prove unsatisfactory to aU parties . . . nevertheless,
I hope it wffi answer, not so much by its ovsm provisions, as by
the evidence it wiU afford that ParUament and the Govemment
are in earnest. . . . Fancy what a figure the govemment would
have cut if they had opened parhament without any repressive
measure and announced that the orffinary law would prove
sufficient, and that to it tffings were left. They would have been
looked upon as httle better than accessories or instigators. At
' Home Secretary, who introduced the Coercion BiU.

286 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
aU events, I have the satisfaction of having saved them from
this very serious scrape, wffich reaUy would have caused an
immeffiate increase of murder here.
No one coffid be more desirous than myseff to avoid Coercion
BiUs, or mdeed to ask for any increased powers ; but when I
found that the orffinary law was insufficient to protect hfe and
property, I sent over the heads of two bills, both of wffich I
meant should be permanent — one for puffisffing ffistricts in
which crimes were committed — the other for registering arms,
etc., a sort of pohce regulation proper for any country, and
especiaUy required for Ireland. These bills were ignored by the
Cabinet. ... I then wrote both to Lord Lansdowne and John
Russell to say that, though I ffid not vsdsh to cause them any
embarrassment, and woffid get on here as weU as I could for as
long as I could, yet that notffing should induce me to remain for
an hour after I thought my power of usefulness was gone, as I
was sure it woffid be uffiess my hands were strengthened. Tffis
produced an immeffiate change, and the offiy question then was
what would be the best form of repression. A good deal of time
was lost on tffis, and Sir George Grey at length proposed as a
model one of the Six Acts. I ffid not Uke it very much, but I
had no wish obstinately to adhere to my own BiUs, wffich perhaps
might not have been stringent enough, as they were proposed
before things had got so bad and the spirit of combination was
so maffifest, and they were, moreover, intended to be permanent.
So, after amenffing the BiU a Uttle vsdth the law officers here, I
consented to it, and hope it wiU not be a failure when put in
operation. Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 3rd January 1848. — ... I have never
for one moment regretted your leaving the Poor Law Com
mission, for I was sure you would always have the same pack of
curs yelping at your heels. . . . You are now member for an
important county, to give the he to those who said that a Poor
Law Commissioner must be too unpopular to get into parhament.
The govemment marks its sense of your services and abihties
by giving you a parUamentary place ; wffich place turns out
to be nuffister for Inffian affairs ovsdng to Hobhouse' s absence ;
at wffich you wiU make the House rejoice, as it must Uke to see
things done in your effective, businessUke maimer instead of
in H.'s irritable, nervous, haff-drunken fasffion.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 287
I should qffite agree with you and Graham that the Hampden
busmess was a great mistake, if the hubbub it has created
coffid have been foreseen, ^ but I defy the wildest speculator
on the irrationaUty of ffis feUow- creatures to have been prepared
for the senseless mutiny that sprang up against a man whose
ffiviffity lectures had been crowded and applauded, in favor
of whose doctrine ffiteen Heads of CoUeges came forward to
declare, and whose original sin, as is weU known, was not heresy,
but toleration. Who could have supposed beforehand that
the Church woffid have been so unwise in its generation and so
relentless in its persecution ? And now, when the truth comes
out, we see that Sam. Oxon," who consented to the prosecution
of Hampden had never read the Bampton lectures ; and, when
he ffid, he found them aU right ! ... So far as the appointment
has turned hoUow friends into bitter enemies, it is to be regretted,
but I do not see that J. R. is justly blameable. . . .
I beUeve I must consent to enter into your category of old
women and [illegible] ; for, knowing as I do how much the in
vasion of England has for the last 3 or 4 years occupied the
French govemment, I tffink it downright insaffity to remain in
the ffivitingly defenceless conffition we now are. The papers
I have read of the D. of Weffington's — the conversations I have
had with Sir J. Burgoyne and others — leave me no doubt that
at any moment after the declaration of war our danger might
be immment and our raisfortunes irreparable. There is not a
detail nor a contingency connected with the invasion of England
that I have not seen and heard ffiscussed, and I coffiess they
have made the deepest impression on my mind. The whole ques
tion turns on steam. People when arguing upon the matter don't
ffivest their minds of the circumstances attenffing Napoleon's
projected invasion, wffich are aU altered now. Everytffing
can be calculated to the mmute and arranged with the ut
most precision, and would be prepared before a declaration
of war; 30,000 men might with the utmost ease and
secrecy (moving about as the immense army of France con
stantly is) be concentrated at Brest, Cherbourg, or Havre. War
' R. D. Hampden, Principal of St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, had been
appointed Bishop of Hereford. Lord Melbourne had appointed him
Regius Professor of Divinity in 1836, despite the opposition of the Board
of Heads, who condemned his Bampton lectures as unorthodox. His
appointment to the See of Hereford bitterly incensed the High Church
party. Thirteen bishops signed a protest against it, but fifteen Heads ol
Oxford colleges sent Hampden an address of approval.
2 Samuel Wilberforce (1805-1873), Bishop of Oxford.

288 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
steamers, of wffich the French have a vast number, might
leave their ports vsdth feigned destinations and sealed orders to
come to these ports at certain hours, embark the troops, rendez
vous at a certain hour of some ffight at a given point in the
channel, arrive at tffiee ffifferent ports — say Ramsgate, Deal
and Dover and ffisembark 10,000 men at each before daybreak,
for the men would have notffing to do but jump out of the
vessels on to the quays. ... A pretty helter-skelter there
would be on the road to London and in London itseff ! It 's
all very weU to talk of the bravery and the nationaUty of EngUsh
men ; but unorgaffised masses are useless, and worse than
useless, in the presence of discipUned troops, and there would,
in fact, be no opposition at all. . . . Could we get together and
arm any large number of steamboats ? Above all, could we
increase those two brigades of artiUery that we show foreigners
at Woolwich ? And supposing we ffid bring against the French
our 12,000 or 15,000 men (which is aU that could be scraped
together, and who have never acted together) and they were
beaten, what else have we to rely on ? If the French were to
land in Ireland, rely upon it they would meet with a friendly
reception from the people, who would obstruct the Queen's
forces in every way they could. In short, I won't go on multi
plying cases of danger ; but wiU only say that, in my opiffion,
if we don't take timely precautions we invite and shaU deserve
the fate that some of these days (Heaven knows how soon after
Louis PffiUppe's death) is in store for us.
On 22nd February 1848 the third French Revolution broke
out and Louis PhiUppe abdicated on the 24th. England
was the country against which he had long been contem
plating war, yet it was in England that, traveffing under the
homely name of Mr. WiUiam Smith, he sought and found
refuge. In that land of Uberty there was enough disqffiet
to cause the Government much anxiety about the effects of
a spark from the conflagration in Paris ; but Mr. Mayne,^
and his police prevailed to turn back Peargus O'Connor and
his 200,000 Chartists ^ from their march upon the House
1 Afterwards Sir Richard Mayne, K.C.B. ( 1796-1868), Chief Commissioner
of the Metropolitan Police from the institution of that force in 1829 tiU
his death in 1868.
2 That was the number with which O'Connor boasted he would march
to intimidate the House of Commons. In effect he mustered not more
than 20,000.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 289
of Commons. Tffis took place on 10th April, on which
day Smith O'Brien made ffis last speech in ParUament and
went off to Ii'eland to fffiffi his tffi'eat of founding there
a republic on the French model ; a project formidable
enough in the circumstances of the time, but destined soon
to founder with scant digmty. From the first it was evident
that O'Brien had neither the eloquence needfffi to rouse the
people nor the miUtary geffius of a Garibaldi to lead them
when roused. Nevertheless, though ffis fireworks were but
feeble sqffibs compared with O'ConneU's pyrotechnics, there
was far too much inflammable material Ijdng loose to allow
the Lord-Lieutenant any reprieve from anxious vigilance.
No Tipperary landlord, he wrote to Lord John on 30th March,
ever received more tffieateffing notices than I do, or more warn
ings as to when and how I am to be assassinated. I can't say
these ffisturb me at aU ; but, as DubUn is fffil of the greatest
ruffians on earth, I am obhged to observe a certain amount of
precaution, and I offiy go out in the carriage for a short walk in
the Park, wffich makes me nearly a state prisoner. ... I have
Uttle or no assistance from anybody, and the Ufe I lead is harffiy
endurable. Tffis desponding tone, so much out of tune with the
general tone of ffis correspondence, soon gave way to
brighter views of the situation.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 4th May 1848. — . . . The steam is going
down here wonderfuUy. The steering has been ffifficffit among
so many shoals, and I have been almost as much troubled by
the exuberance of loyalty as by the excesses of seffition. I had
offiy to hold up my finger to have re-emboffied aU the Orange
yeomanry and to have set them in march upon the south. My
object, of course, was to check, without offenffing them, and I
hope I have succeeded tolerably. ... It is clear that in any real
danger we have offiy the Protestants to rely on. The Con
federates are aU quarreffing among themselves, and Smith
O'Brien, with ffis patched face and broken ribs, cuts a sorry
figure. He has, however, signed a regular official counter pro
clamation to mine, vsdth wffich the streets are placarded to-day.
I 'U back mine against his.
VOL. I T

290 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
But the last had not been heard of Smith O'Brien.
Clarendon received information which caused ffim to de
mand the suspension of Habeas Corpus. The government,
advised by Sir George Grey, refused his request ; he re
peated it with an intimation that, if it were not granted,
he must resign the attempt to carry on the Queen's govern
ment in Ireland. Once more miffisters yielded to tffis
threat. Lord John announced to a startled House that
Ireland was on the brink of armed rebeffion, and a biU
suspending Habeas Corpus in Ireland for seven months
forthwith passed through aU its stages at once. This was
on 21st Jffiy ; not a day too soon. On the 29th Smith
O'Brien in person led a considerable force to attack a body
of fifty or sixty constabffiary who held the house of one
Widow M'Cormack in Tipperary. The rebels were poor
marksmen ; the poUce mercifffily held their fire, kiffing offiy
three of their assailants, though they might easily have
picked off their leader. Several others were wounded,
the rest took to their heels ; O'Brien was captured, tried,
and condemned to be hanged, drawn, and quartered as a
traitor, a puffishment commuted to penal servitude for
Ufe, and remitted altogether in 1856. So ended the carica
ture rebeUion of 1848, ineffaceably associated vsdth Widow
M'Cormack's complaint about the rffin wrought upon her
cabbages. Lord Clarendon to Charles Greville.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, August 1848. — ... I have been much
bothered by the vaciUation and timiffity of our rffiers on tffis
occasion as on the preceding ones, when I was compeUed to
insist on further power for the protection of Ufe and the main
tenance of law and order. It is not pleasant to have to poke a
Cabinet into a sense of duty, or to extract by tffieats, as if for a
personal favour, that wffich should be reaffily acceded to when
the pubhc necessity for it was proved and maffifest. However,
that has been my task. Against the clubs a law of some kind
was necessary. No one could doubt that ; and so I insisted,
making for the third time my remaiffing here conffi tional upon it.
So they succumbed, but not with a good grace.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 291
Throughout aU the intense anxiety of this summer (for
intense it was, despite the ludicrous collapse of the rising),
Clarendon continued eager for news about the fortunes
of his party in Parliament.

Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 2nd July 1848. — • ... I don't under
stand the Peehtes, for they seem iU ffisposed to the Protectioffists,
and Lmcoffi ^ and Co. are vsriting articles in the Chronicle that
wiU never be forgiven ; yet they are tffiovsdng off the man
who alone gives them importance in the country. I know
they are angry with Peel and complain of his seffish determina
tion neither to act as they vsdsh nor to advise them what they
should do ; but they are acting as if they meant to isolate them
selves. Their course is not one that can lead to fusion vsdth the
Wffigs, ff that is what they are aiming at. I wish that Peel
and Lord John were not the two repeffing boffies that they are,
and that they woffid corffiaUy coffier together on the common
weal. The present moment, when Peel and Graham stand alone,
woffid be very favorable for tffis, and I beUeve aU the country
cares about is to see Peel once more curator of the finances.
Even ff he ffid not take office, the pubhc would Uke to know
that he was in commuffication with the govemment. . . .
However, the laying aside of personal feeUngs for the pubUc
good may do for a work of imagination, but I am afraid it will
never be a romance of real Ufe ; and even if Peel were incUned,
he would find no response in J. R.
Lord John, however, proved more conciUatory than
Clarendon anticipated, and offered the Admiralty to Sir
James Graham, who declined it through fear of a difference
on pubhc and especiaUy foreign affairs. This put an end
for a time, though not a long time, to the prospects of fusion
between Whigs and PeeUtes.
In October of this year Clarendon came over to England
for a few days to take counsel vsdth the government about
the future course of his admiffistration. It was a gloomy
forecast that he laid before them ; the potatoes had failed
1 Lord Lincoln, succeeded in 1851 as fifth Duke of Newcastle.

292 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
as disastrously as in 1846, yet the people coffid not be
induced to cffitivate cereals instead. Clarendon told
Prince Albert of a case that had been brought to his notice
of a man who had sovsoi wheat which had come up weU.
When he saw his neighbour's potatoes thriving he ploughed
up the wheat and planted potatoes !
There is emigration going on, but of those people only whom
one would wish to keep — farmers with one or two hundred
pounds in their pocket. They cut the com on the Sunday,
sell it on Monday morffing, and are off in the evening to America,
having driven off and sold before aff their cattle, leaving the
waste fields beffind them and the lanffiords without rent. The
landlords are oppressed to a dreadful degree by poor-rates, wffich
must be levied to keep the popffiation aUve, but wffich they
cannot afford any longer to pay, in debt as they always have
been, exhausted by the pressure of the last two years, and left
entirely without rent.^
Lord Clarendon to Henry Beeve.
llth December 1848. — . . . We have awfffi work before us
tffis winter, and I am dreaffing that in at least twenty uffions
we shaU have deaths from starvation by wholesale. Delane
has written some admirable articles, and I tffink the influence of
the Times is greater here than ever. There are some landlords
doffig their duty admirably and working hke heroes. They are
somewhat riled at bemg coffiounded with the bad ones, whom,
however, they hate aU the more for that. In time I hope that
England wiU create sometffing Uke pubUc opiffion in Ireland.
lAth October 1849. — ... I am reaUy obUged for the two
articles in the Times, wffich are admirable and have had a
stunffing effect here, where it is as weU known as on the Continent
that the Times forms, or gffides, or refiects — ^no matter wffich —
the pubhc opiffion of England. It wiU (if anjdiffing can) put
a curb on the mouths of these furious Orangemen who, with
their principles and their parsons, are qffite as subversive of law
and order as the priests and Young Irelandism. . . .
Lord Clarendon had to share the past experience of Lord
Anglesey in the effect of treating CathoUc and Protestant
as equals before the law. He incurred the wrath of the
• Menwrandum by Prinoe Albert, Martin, ii. 136-7.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 293
Orange orgaffisation, whose leaders, weU knowing that
without their support British rule coffid not be maintained
in Ireland, claimed a right to preferential treatment, which
Clarendon firmly refused to concede.
The vigour which he displayed, and, which was far more
difficffit, the impartiaUty which he observed between parties
in Ireland, received recogmtion in the offiy manner that
coffid have given ffim satisfaction. It took the unusual,
if not unprecedented, form of a paragraph in the Queen's
Speech proroguing Parliament on 5th September. ' The
energy and decision shown by the Lord-Lieutenant of
Ireland deserve my warmest approbation.' Lady Claren
don told Henry Reeve that her husband ' regarded these
emphatic words as the most enviable distinction of his life.'

Loi'd Clarendon to Henry Beeve.
llth June 1849. — . . . When the session is near its close, I
tffink it would be very usefffi ff Delane, when writing on Ireland,
woffid recommend EngUsh M.P.'s and the EngUsh pubhc gener
aUy to visit tffis country and to see for themselves what they
hear and talk so much about. There vsdU probably not be much
traveffing on the Continent this year, and people might as weU
make a tour in Ireland as go to Scotland or Brighton. It would
tend to produce a better feeUng between the two countries, and
might lead to the investment of capital in land, which is the great
desideratum here.
I have said that it was more difficffit to maintain im
partiaUty than to display energy. The circumstances of
Ireland rendered it pecuUarly so ; for there the Protestant
Orangemen by the nature of their oath and profession
were loyal to the Crown and Uffion, wffile the great majority
of the Roman Catholic popffiation were hostile to both.
Clarendon's resolute purpose of impartiality led ffim to
perform a discipUnary act equaUy distastefffi to himself
and obnoxious to the powerfffily orgaffised Orange Society.
So loud was the outcry that he had to go to England to
defend ffis action from ffis place in ParUament.
The incident arose out of a conflict between Orangemen

294 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. x.
and Ribbonmen at Dolly's Brae in County Down on 12th
Jffiy 1849. An armed procession, 1500 strong, marched to
ToUymore Park, the seat of the Earl of Roden, Lord-Lieute
nant of the county and Grand Master of the Orangemen,
where they were given refreshment and listened to oratory,
both of a stimulating character, and went through miUtary
manoeuvres. On the return march they attacked, or were
attacked by, a large party of Ribbonmen, and defeated
them, kiUing four of their number and wounding thirty or
forty. It was not proved which party was the aggressor ;
probably, as it was in Ireland, both sides may be said to
have begun the fray.
Lord Clarendon appointed a Commissioner to inqffire
into the circumstances, and, having considered his report,
recommended the Lord Chancellor to remove Lord Roden
from the Commission of the Peace.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 10th October 1849.— . . . The Roden
affair has given me some anxiety, as both Lord John and Sir
G. Grey were opposed to doing what I was even more ffisincUned
than they to do. I had therefore to fight in favor of my duty
versus my incUnations. I knew, however, that ' some midffie
course ' woffid have offiy made the Orangemen insolent and the
Cathohcs furious, and have left the government without a case
when parhament met. To me it has been the most paiffiul act
of pubhc duty I ever performed, because Roden is a kind-hearted,
honorable man when not under the infiuence of Orange bigots,
and he is an old private friend to whom I am indebted for many
acts of kindness since I came here. My whole object, moreover,
has been to allay party feuds and sectarian animosities, and it is
Uttle short of a misfortune to have an act of severity imposed
on me, which wiU bring back into the ranks of fanaticism a
number of men who had become ashamed of their own un-
civiUsed practices. However, there was no help for it. ... I
fear we have a bad winter before us and that uffiversal pauperism
wiU again favor poUtical agitation. The gentry are beggared
beyond redemption : rates and encumbrances eat up the scraps
of rent that are coUected, and employment of labor in the south
and west has become an impossibffity. , . .

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 295
Lord Roden's friends took up his cause with much heat.
Lord Staffiey having given notice that he woffid bring the
matter up in the House of Lords,^ or, as he expressed it
to Lord Clanricarde, ' give the Government a gallop over
it,' the question arose whether Clarendon shoffid come over
from Ireland to meet the charge. He himseff was very un-
wiUing to do so, but he yielded reluctantly to the wishes
of Lord John and others in the Cabinet, and appeared in
ffis place on 18th February 1850. Staffiey's motion was
ostensibly one for papers relating to affairs in more than one
Irish county, but he dwelt especiaUy on the DoUy's Brae affair,
and complained that the Lord-Lieutenant had taken action
upon garbled statements and imperfect evidence. Lord
Clarendon hoped that his having come from Ireland to
defend an act of the Executive Government would not be
converted into a precedent. He gave in detail the arrange
ments he had personaUy approved for preventing a coffision
of parties, having had ample private information that such
a coffision was apprehended. He sent both soldiers and
poUce to act under the stipendiary magistrates, one of
whom, Mr. Fitzmaurice, had begged Lord Roden to direct
the Orange procession to return by another route, so as to
avoid DoUy's Brae where the Ribbonmen were assembled.
As Lord Roden had declined to interfere, or at least had
abstained from doing so. Lord Clarendon coffid not but
hold him in some measure responsible for what foUowed,
and he marked his displeasure in the offiy manner open to
him officiaUy.
I must say, my lords, that to me it was a most paiffiffi act to
execute. I had long been honoured with the friendsffip of the
noble earl. From the moment that I had gone to Ireland until
then, I had received from ffim assistance of the most useful
character. I felt the most sincere respect for him. I knew
how much ffis ffismissal would be resented by ffis numerous
friends and the unpopffiarity I shoffid earn for myseff . . .
tffioughout the north of Ireland. I felt and foresaw aU that ;
but stiU there was one feehng superior even to that — a feehng of
' He had been raised to the peerage during his father, the thirteenth
Earl's Ufe, in 1844.

296 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
duty. . . . Ever since the govemment of Ireland was confided
to my care, my great object has been to render the law a reaUty ;
to inspire aU classes with confidence in the impartial adrffiffistra
tion of justice ; to convince them that, before the law, aU men
are equal, and that, whether high or low, rich or poor, the same
justice should be meted out to aU. And I should have felt
ashamed of myseff and unworthy of the confidence of my
Sovereign if I had decided in a manner different with respect
to the noble earl from that in wffich I shoffid have decided in
the case of any other man, or if I had aUowed for one moment
personal consideration to interfere with what I beUeved the
justice of the case reqffired.^
Lord Roden made a temperate reply, and Staffiey's
motion was agreed to without a division.
Young Prince Edward of Cambridge, ^ who was serving
with the army in Ireland at this time wrote about this
affair to his father : ' Lord Clarendon's reply seems to me
to be gentlemaffiike, and he makes out a better case for
himseff than I expected ffim to have done. At the same
time I cannot help thinking that the dismissal of Lord
Roden was a great error in judgment on his part, as being
a man umversally esteemed and respected, and as being
at the head of a great, influential and most loyal party.'
Prince Edward's view of the case was probably the just
one. Evidence was given before the Lord-Lieutenant's
' ' He made a very good case, his points told remarkably well, and, on
the whole, he acquitted himself successfully, and to the satisfaction of his
friends ; but, coming after Stanley's practised and brUUant declamation,
his style appeared tame and feeble. It was easy to see that he was no
debater, and that his parliamentary inexperience diminished his force and
efficacy. For a little while I was in great alarm for him, and thought
he was going to break down ; but he recovered, and got through his speech
very well. If he had had more artistic power, he would have made his
exceUent materials much more effective than they were. In such hands
as Stanley's they would have been crushing ; they would have been very
powerful if Lord Lansdowne had had them ; but, as it was, it was well
enough' (Greville Memoirs, 2nd Series, iii. 313). When Lord St. Ger-
mains succeeded Lord Clarendon as Lord-Lieutenant he recommended
the Lord Chancellor to replace Lord Roden in the Commission of the
Peace. Lord Roden then wrote at much length justifying his action in
the Dolly's Brae affair, whereupon Lord St. Germains told him that he
took so different a view of the circumstances, and was so unable to con
sent to the conditions upon which Lord Roden was willing to resume his
duties as a magistrate, that he had cancelled his recommendation to the
Lord Chancellor.
' Succeeded his father as Duke of Cambridge in 1850, died in 1904.

1846-50] THE LAST WHIG CABINET 297
Commissioner that even had Lord Roden instructed the
leaders of the procession to return by the longer and more
circffitous route, they would have been more exposed to
attack than in keeping the shorter road. Unhappily,
though the Ribbonmen may have been the aggressors,
the Orangemen greatly outnumbered them and wreaked
fierce retribution on them. The affair was too serious not
to caU for some puffitive action, and Lord Clarendon, act
ing from the highest motives, unfortunately focussed it
upon the official head of the Orange Society and two brothers
named Beers, who, being magistrates, were the actual
leaders of the procession. As an act of state it was in
effective, faiUng to conciUate the disaffected and exasperat
ing the loyalists. Lord Clarendon to Henry Beeve.
DuBLra Castle, 28fh January 1850.— . . . The Orangemen
have faUed ffi a somewhat characteristic manoeuvre of that
party. There is no effort they have not made — by letters, by
personal canvas, tffieats and entreaties, to prevent people coming
to the levee and drawing-room ; forgetting, in the loyalty wffich
they pretend to monopoUse, that the attendance on such
occasions is not upon the inffividual Lord-Lieutenant, but the
representative of the Sovereign. Everytffing here resolves
itseff mto mean, vinffictive personaUties. The cabal ffid not
succeed ; for although a few people were scared away, both
levee and drawing-room were very fuU ; and, ff they had not
been, my ffight's rest woffid have been equaUy good.
PoUtics in Ireland cannot be dissociated from matters
ecclesiastical, and already in 1849 there were those who
considered that the offiy way to peace was to efface the last
trace of Protestant ascendency by disestablishing the
Church and applying its revenues to secffiar ends. It
was Clarendon's destiny to be a party to this course as a
member of Gladstone's Cabinet in 1869 ; but at this time
he was as staunch a champion of the Church's rights as
Bishop Magee proved himseff twenty years later. So
shrewdly do time and circumstance undermine the firmest
convictions.

298 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. x.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 10th October 1849.— . . . You seem to
tffink, as does Graham, that a remodelUng of the Church is a
sine qua non to the settlement of Irish grievances ; but although
I wiU go with you any length as to its anomaly and the absurdity
of creating such an estabhshment if things were to be done over
again ; yet I cannot agree that it is a grievance of a real character
or that its abatement would remove or mitigate a single positive
evil under which the country is laboring. But you might make
the task of governing Ireland incomparably more ffifficffit by
caffing into activity a host of opponents whose habits, prejuffices,
associations and interests would make them rally round the
standard, not offiy of their faith, but of their poUtics, about
wffich they care much more. Since the rent charge was fixed,
no effectual cry against the Church has been raised. O'ConneU
and Mr. Hale both tried it and failed ; and tho' annual motions
are made in ParUament and the noses of the Cabinet are rubbed
in their ovsm inffiscreet speeches, it is not tanti to throw Ireland
into adffitional ferment in order to get rid of this ffisagreeable
operation. If the revenues of the Church were Uke the ConsoUdated
Fund and you could take a sUce off and throw it to any hungry
appUcants — weU and good ; the estabUshment might be brought
into better proportion between its wealth and its duties ; but
remember how smaU a part of that revenue belongs to the
govemment and how large a part is private property, and, Uke
any other, is made matter of settlement and specffiation. How
can you deal with that and duly respect the rights of
property ? . . .

CHAPTER XI
IRELAND
And thou, fair Erin, plaintive in thy lay,
Who steep'st thy Umbs afront the falling day ;
Nymph, on whose lap the odour-dropping spring
Delights to lavish all his sweetest wing ;
Play'd on by priests, a sweet, ill-fingered lute.
An ill-train'd tree, but vig'rous at the root ;
Cease to complain ; imagined wrongs dismiss.
And greet thy sister with a holy kiss. All the Talents (1807).
If I have succeeded in giving the reader a true impression
of Lord Clarendon's character, he wiU not imagine that his
admiffistration was directed offiy to repressing sedition and
disorder. That he considered offiy as the needfffi preface
to remedial measures, and, land being practicaUy the offiy
source of support and employment in Ireland, it was to
land-owmng and land tenure that he first applied himself
to better. It so happened that Sir Robert Peel, having
given much thought to the problem, had been led to the
same conclusion as Clarendon about the means to the
desired end. Peel wrote to Mr. John Wynne on 4th April
1849 : ' Ever since I was a member of the Devon Commis
sion my mind has been impressed with the idea that it was
indispensable for the improvement of Ireland that the vast
tracts of land in the possession of persons, unable from the
encumbered state of their properties to improve the position
of the occupiers, shoffid change hands.'
This was written after the passing of the Encumbered
Estates (Ireland) Act in 1848, a measure drafted by Lord
Clarendon's direction and carried through ParUament at
his urgent desire. It enabled the owners of entailed and

300 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
other lands to seU them through the Court of Chancery,
with a parUamentary title to the purchaser. In the foUow
ing year, by an amending act. Commissioners were ap
pointed in lieu of the Court of Chancery. In preparing
these measures Clarendon took frequent counsel vsdth Peel,
who, on 2nd April 1849, sent him a long memorandum of
the chief subjects for remedial legislation.^ ' The land
lords,' wrote Clarendon to Peel, ' are the real obstacle to
improvement, and their condition generaUy is deplorable.
As a body, they are insolvent. Many of them lack the ffist
necessaries of life, and though stiU exercising the rights of
property, they can perform none of its duties. Our best
hope, therefore, is in the Encumbered Estates Act. I am
weU pleased with the Commissioners, who feel the import
ance of their labours, and look forward to immortaUsing
themselves by leading the way to reform in England as
well as here.' ^
Tffis Act was the chief legislative resffit of Clarendon's
Viceroyalty. Much was expected of it ; but in effect it
feU far short of the designer's intention. It enabled,
indeed, many embarrassed landovsTiers to rid themselves
of a form of property to which they were utterly unable
to do justice ; but the sales brought over from England a
host of speculative investors, attracted by the security of a
parliamentary title ; prices were raised by competition
to such a pitch that it became the offiy care of successfffi
bidders to exact the highest rents that coffid be wrung
from the tenantry. The last condition of such estates was
worse than the first.
On the whole matters had begun to mend in most parts
of the island, but exceeding distress stiU prevailed in the
south-west. Colonel Clarke to Lord Lansdowne.
13th May 1849.— . . . The state of tffis part of the country
is fearful and cannot be imagined : indeed I can scarcely beUeve
the scenes actuaUy passing before my eyes. During my short
absence in London there was an increase of upwards of 3000 on
the outdoor Usts in KiUamey alone ; and on Wednesday last,
» Peel Letters, iii. 513-16. * Ibid., 617.

1847-51] IRELAND 301
when proceeffing to a distant part of the Kenmare Union to
investigate the circumstances attenffing two cases said to be
deaths from starvation, I found the road crowded for miles
with people flocldng to the KiUamey worldiouse for reUef. It
was Uke people fiocking to a fair ; but, instead of hilarity and
joy, aU was misery and desolation. One poor man had sunk
and ffied by the roadside ; the wife and cffildren were around
the dead body, but excess of misery appeared to have deprived
them of the power of weeping, for they shed no tears ; wffile
those hurryffig to the goal of their hopes, the Uffion Workhouse,
passed the wretched group unheeffing.
The one bright spot in Irish pubhc affairs at this period
was the reception given by the popffiace to Queen Victoria
and Prince Albert. The Queen had been twelve years
on the tffione without visiting that part of her dominions ;
Lord Bessborough had earnestly urged upon the govern
ment of ffis day that it was very desirable that the people
of Ireland shoffid be given an opportuffity of seeing their
Sovereign, but the potato famine and its concomitants
had interfered vsdth the project, wffich was now carried out
most propitiously. The Queen and the Prince were the
guests of Lord and Lady Clarendon at the Viceregal Lodge,
whereof the capacity was tested to the utmost to accom
modate their sffite, as may be understood by those who
are acquainted with the premises.
Lord Clarendon to Sir C. Wood {Chancellor of the Exchequer).
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 21th June 1849. — . . . The furffiture of
tffis house is not handsome, but it is clean and good, and I am
sure the Queen and Prince wiU be as comfortable as if the Board
of Works was aUowed to run up an enormous biU for things of
state. . . . Our cffildren wiU be sent away, but Lady Clarendon
and I shaU probably remain in some comer or other ; for I should
not think matters were properly superintended ff I was hving
in another house. . . . Dinners of twenty converts wiU be rather
too smaU, but I engage that aU that shaU be properly done.
And then as to the expense — I shan't give myseff the airs of a
miffionaire or pretend that I am not a poorer man for being
Lord-Lieutenant, but I don't mean to bring you in a biff for
entertaiffing the Queen here. The refreshments for the drawing-
room are not strictly in my department, and the ChanceUor of

302 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
the Exchequer may therefore take cognisance of them ; but as
I am to have the charge of proviffing them, they won't ruin you.
28th July 1849. — ... I am always most anxious to avoid
putting the pubhc to any expence in wffich I am personaUy
concerned, and it may be partly owing to tffis and my refusing
to allow new tffings to be provided here that the furffiture, etc.,
of this house is in a conffition that I should not have tolerated
in my own. When the Queen's advent was certain, however, I
went over the house with Mr. Owen of the Board of Works, and
found the carpets and cffintzes in such a ffisgusting state from
dirt and old age that they were quite unfit for decent people,
let alone a royal family reqffiring seventeen tits de maitre, and
bringing with them nineteen servants ! I ordered everytffing
exactly as if for myseff — taking even more care than I should
for myseff that the old concerns were made to suit for iffierior
apartments, etc., and only aUowed tffiee rooms to be new-papered
where our cffildren had been with the whooping-cough.
Extra expenses of the Queen's visit : —
Dubhn charities  £1000
Lord Clarendon for extra expenses at Viceregal
Lodge 
Ditto for Levee and drawing-room
Carriages and Horses to DubUn .
Prince of Wales : fees as Earl of DubUn
Lord Chamberlain's Department

Lord Clarendon to Sir George Grey (Home Secretary).
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 14tth August 1849. — . . . The enthusiasm
here has not abated, and there is not an inffividual in DubUn
that does not take as a personal comphment to ffimseff the
Queen's having gone upon the paddle-box and ordered the royal
standard to be lowered three times. Even the ex-Clubbists,
who tffieatened broken heads and windows before the Queen
came, are now among the most loyal of her subjects.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 15th. — A thousand thanks for your hearty
congratulations and the very gentil things you say of us. We
have certainly come out of the mess with fiying colors, and
when one considers the many things that might have gone
wrong in bringing the Sovereign and tffis strange people into
commuffication for the first time, it is marveUous that during

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1847-51] IRELAND 303
8 days not a single event should have occurred differently from
what I wished.
I find that a vast many kind friends, both here and in England,
had been denouncing the ' premature and hazardous experi
ment,' and declaring that I alone was responsible for whatever
miscffief happened ; and so far they were right, as it is not more
than 3 months since Lord John wrote me word he could not take
upon ffimseff the responsibility of advising the Queen to come
here. I never doubted that the reception would be excellent ;
but I ffid not expect the enthusiasm would have gone to the
pitch it ffid, or that the thermometer of loyalty would have
kept continuaUy rising to the hour of her departure. Their
behaviour 1 throughout was the beau ideal of what was right
under the circs., and their tact and kindness to us are never
to be forgotten. My position of host, subject and Viceroy
was rather anomalous ; but the Queen bore it weU in mind,
and she helped me in my role, and, so far from impairing, she
added rather to the prestige of my office.
My mother, as I need not say, has been in the ffighest state
of excitement and dehght,^ and is not one bit the worse for it.
At no period of her Ufe do I remember her so fit for froUc or more
inffifferent to fatigue. She is a marveUous old lady, and so
everybody thinks her. The Queen was very civil to her at
Carton, and I never saw anything better than her manner — so
very grande dame and distinguie — and she looked so well and
was so weU got up.
llth. — . . . The presence of the Sovereign cannot, of course,
produce social reformation, nor at once remove evils that are
the growth of ages ; but it wiU produce more real good here than
in any other part of her Majesty's dondffions. . . . The Queen's
visit, moreover, wiU be associated with a tum in the tide of
their affairs after four years' suffering, vsdth an unprecedented
infiux of strangers and expenffiture of money, and as they will
contrast tffis year with the last, their conclusions must be
unfavorable to poUtical agitation.
The Queen to Lord Clarendon.
Balmoral, 18th August 1849. — Though the Lord-Lieutenant
has received a formal and ofiicial letter expressive of the high
gratification the Queen has derived by her visit to Ireland, she
is anxious to write herseff to him, to repeat in the Prince's and
1 I.e. the Queen's and Prince Albert's.
s Mrs. George ViUiers was paying a visit to her son at the time.

304 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
her own name how deUghted we have been by our short stay in
Ireland, and by the very affectionate and enthusiastic manner
in wffich we have everywhere been received by the Irish. The
reeoUection of tffis visit vsdU be ever most agreeable, and wiU
ever be associated with the remembrance of the Lord-Lieutenant's
and Lady Clarendon's attention and kindness to us tffioughout
the time that we spent at Phoeffix Park and at DubUn.
The Queen wishes also to add her ffigh sense of the manner
in wffich the Lord-Lieutenant discharges the duties of the very
important office wffich he holds. Our passage from Beffast
to Scotland, though very short, was extremely stormy and
disagreeable. The Queen sends the prints which she promised to Lady
Clarendon, and now concludes with the Prince's kind remem
brance to ffimseff and Lady Clarendon.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 21th August 1849. — . . . The Queen's
visit has been a great fact. When one considers how many
tffings might have gone wrong in bringing her and tffis exciteable
nation ffito contact for the ffist time, it is pleasant to refiect
that aU went as ff by clockwork and as one could most desire.
. . . Moreover, as six weeks before J. RusseU had iffiormed
me he coffid not advise the Queen to come, I had no reason to
be ffissatisfied with havmg recommended, I might almost say
insisted upon, the hazardous experiment, as I understand it was
caUed by the/roMtfewra ffi England and here. . . . Other prophets
have now sprung up and preffict aU manner of permanent good
from the temporary presence of our gracious Mistress ; but I
can't go their lengths . . . tho' the people are so deUghted at
finffing they are loyal, and so proud of the good opiffion of the
Queen . . . that they feel they have a character to lose, and
tffis may be a guarantee for future good behaviour.
Woffid that the guarantee were strengthened by the Suspension
Act lasting for a couple of years longer, in order to protect the
people against themselves and those by whom they have so long
been deceived.
In 1850, Irish affaks, social and poUtical, having subsided
into a condition bearing some of the traits of tranqffiffity.
Lord John RusseU determined to proceed with the aboUtion
of the Lord-Lieutenancy and the substitution of a Secretary
ship of State.

1847-51] IRELAND 305
From Lady Clarendon's Joumal.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, Ist January 1850. — I hear there is talk
of new measures for reform being necessary ; but I do not
beUeve there is any great pressure of pubUc opiffion ffi favor of
more reform ffi parliament. There may be a cry among the
Rafficals, but I do not think they ought to be considered or
trusted as the voice of the nation ; and because more than was
desirable was forced upon the country by the other Reform
Bffi makes it aU the more necessary not to go ahead any more
towards democracy. ... I hear there is very Uttle game at the
Grove this year ; but I suspect game wffi ffie away aU over
England. The Duke of Bedford now caU? it a feudal luxury
unsuited to the.se times, and mdeed the stories one hears of the
devastation and loss occasioned by it make one feel that it must
be so.^
2nd. — . . .Last night the wonderfffi event happened of our
dining tete-Or-tete, and we had the dear cfficks with us during
dinner for a treat. . . . Lord J. RusseU says ffi ffis letter to-day
that he thinks the term for the Viceroyalty ought to be
the end of the financial year — ^that is, 5th April 1851. I have
implored George to plead the sacrifice he has aheady made — his
own smaU private property — and to urge its being done away
with just before, instead of just after, the DubUn season ; for, as
it is, he wffi have no mooming Lord-Iieut. to buy his tffings as he
ffid Lord Bessborough's. . . .
13th. — George has remonstrated against the Viceroyalty
ending ffi April 1851, as Lord John had proposed, on the
ground of its being such an fficrease of expense to him to have
aU the Castle season. Lord John fuUy acqffiesces ffi this, and
says he is qffite as weU pleased it shoffid end on 1st January 1851,
but he fancied George would like a leave-taking — ^rather an odd
idea for George !
Oth March. — ^Lord .lohn's ideas about doing away with the
Lord-Lieutenancy seem, by the letter he has written to George,
to be very uffiormed. He .suggests that when the Queen comes
about every other year to stay some time ffi Dubhn she shoffid
inhabit the Castle. I hope George has upset these ideas by
letting him know how disagreeable the Castle woffid be for her,
^ Sixt5--three years have passed since these Une-s were penned, and there
is now more winged game than ever in England; but the agitation
against game-preserving has greatly subsided since Sir W. Harcourt
carried his equitable Ground Game Act in 1880.
VOL. I U

306 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
and that she had taken a particular fancy to the Viceregal
Lodge, wffich Lord John suggested shoffid be made the residence
of the Commander of the Forces. ... I reaUy don't know what
Lord John means by letting Hume proceed with ffis motion for
doing away vsdth the Lord-Lieutenancy, uffiess he wishes for an
opportuffity of announcing it. . . . George gave me the draft
of the proposed biU, vsdth the official changes for the aboUtion
of the Lord-Lieutenancy. It vests the poUtical powers of the
Lord-Lieut, in a Secretary of State— no Secretary or officer of
any ffind whatever to reside in Ireland, but aU business to be
referred to the office of the Secretary of State in London. The
reason for having no resident Secretary here is that he would
become a sort of nucleus for jobbing and intrigues— a sort of
minor Lord-Lieut, without the responsibiUty. . . .
12th March.— A letter from the Duke of Bedford speaks of
the abohtion of the Lord-Lieutenancy, and adds — 'You wiU
not be asked to be Secretary of State for Ireland ; but you
will he asked to take another very important place. For that
you may be prepared.' Tffis is mysterious, disagreeable and
anxious— terribly hke some of the Duke's haU-and-haff con
fidences and commuffications. In the event of any miffisterial
change, it wiU be too cruel to put it to George's patriotism to
give up the 6 or 8 months qffiet here, wffich woffid bring round
our expenses, and yet not to have an incoming Lord-Lieutenant
to take over our tffings, would be positive rffin to us, and I fear
our fortune wiU be swaUowed up. However . . . there is no
use fidgetting. . . .
1st April. — . . . We have got the last namheioi the Quarterly
Beview. We were aware that there was a bad article from
Croker's pen. I have offiy ffipped into it and heard about it
as yet. People say it won't sigffify, but saying it don't signify
is offiy deceiving oneseff, because there are heaps of prejudiced
people who read and think offiy one way, and vsdU beUeve it
impUcitly. . . . But here is my hedge. The very Act of Parlia
ment which is necessary to bring about aboUtion wiU entail an
explanation in ParUament of the motives and history of the
change. It is so great a measure that it must be brought forward
vsdth aU the pomp and circumstance of a govemment announce
ment either by Lord John or Sir George Grey. Now it is per
fectly competent for them to state with all the weight of truth
and office that the change was contemplated years ago, that
it was positively settled with George when he came here, and

1847-51] IRELAND 307
that uffioreseen events m the shape of insurrection, etc., pre
vented the immeffiate fulfilment of the plan, and that now
there was no obvious reason why it shoffid not be put ffito
execution, and that it was to be carried out by the same able
man. . . . Now aU tffis woffid put Croker's miserable article
and the struggling throes of the ffisappomted and rabid Orange
men to the rout. . . .
Sth. — . . . Lord John writes George word that he thinks
of bringing ffi the bffi on the 29th of tffis month. . . .
13th. — . . . Lord John says ff there is much delay occasioned
by the Irish members and the Opposition ffi passing the Ld.
Lt. Abolition bffi, he wffi prolong the session tffi it is past. . . .
Lord John introduced ffis bUl on ISth May — a stUl-bom
measure. It was opposed on the first readmg by Grattan
and DisraeU, but the numbers on a division were offiy
70 to 295 — ^majority for the bffi 225. Notwithstanding tffis
propitious start, the govemment dropped the bifl, fffily
mtending, however, to proceed with it m another session.
27^ May. — . . . The Duke of Wellington, we hear, is very
strong against tiie aboUtion of the Vice-Royalty, qffite breaking
out about it. The Duke of Bedford tries to work him thro'
old Arbuthnot, who is always calm, rational and weU-judging,
£md whose influence over the D. of W. is mcKt usefffi. Bear Effice
is for the aboUtion, but against a fourth Secretary of State, and
writ^ that Sir J. Graham is of the same opiffion. There may,
therefore, stffi be ffifficffities about passing tiie AboUtion BUL
4^ June. — ^The eleventh anffiversary of tffis happy dav ! ^
How can I ever be thanfcfffi enough for eleven such years of
great and exquisite happffie^ ? There are few, ff anv, so
ffigffiy blessed as I am. I am offiy afraid I am not gratefffi
enough, for mdeed how can I be so ?
¦2Sih. — . . . Bear Effice has written to George to say that
M has given up his opposition to the fourth Secretary of
State to please George and Lord John! The conceit of tiie
tffing is too rifficffious — as ff he were one of the three branches
of the legislatuxe.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, MI*.
WiCEXOW, 1th June 1850. — ... I am rather surprised at
Graham's opposition to a fourth Secretary of State ; but aa he
^ The anniversary of her marriage.

308 THB EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
thought he managed Irish affairs by unceasing correspondence
with the Hussar ^ and the Head Clerk,^ who were ffis Lords-
Lieutenant, and whom he never aUowed to do or say anytffing
without previous consultation with ffim, he now tffinks probably
that the Home Office shoffid be the seat and centre of Irish
government.^ But he knew very Uttle of Ireland and made
great mistakes, as wiU any man who has not a large acqffired
stock of iffiormation or cannot devote ffis time and attention to
obtaiffing it. DeaUng vsdth Ireland as if it was England, merely
because it is desirable it should become so, or arguing by EngUsh
analogy about Ireland, leads to no good practical result.
Graham could not give a better proof of tffis than by ffis plan
of reheving the Home Secretary of aU the Irish criminal cases
and placing them under the poUtical ChanceUor. In the first
place, the exercise of mercy is a prerogative of the Crown, and
should be entrusted offiy to one of the highest advisers of the
Crown ; but it must be exercised constantly with reference, not
to the crime or the criminal alone, but to the poUtical state of
the country and to the various circumstances — past, present and
prospective — which constitute that state of tffings. Every
morning of my Ufe I deal vsdth from 10 to 20 convict cases, and
know pretty weU what creffit is to be given to the memorials,
the reasons why more or less weight should be attached to the
reports of certain judges, the state of the country wffich at the
time justified a severe sentence and may stiU require it to be
mamtained, or the altered circumstances wffich may justify
commutation. In short, these cases present themselves in every
variety of form, and what chance would the poUtical ChanceUor
have of deciffing them rightly ? The better EngUsh lavi^er he
is, the less hkely he would be to have acquired internal knowledge
of Ireland, and he might be fioundering on and making inquiries
about the criminal cases in order 7 times out of 10 to decide
erroneously, or at aU events on the recommendation of others
who possessed the knowledge he was deficient in.
I heard from the Bear that Graham said the time was un
fortunate for proposing the Secretary of State when another
' The first Marquess of Anglesey (1768-1854), who commanded the
cavalry in the Peninsular and Waterloo campaigns, and was Lord Lieu
tenant in 1828. ^ , ., . ,
« WilUam A'Court, first Lord Heytesbury (1779-1860), Lord-Lieutenant
1844-6. The nickname aUudes to his having been Secretary of the
Naples Legation in 1801 and to the Vienna Mission in 1807.
' The Irish Office was a department of the Home Office at this time,
and Sir James Graham was Home Secretary 1841-6.

1847-61] IRELAND 309
new office was about to be created ; but if the S. of S. is the best
mode of admiffistering the affairs of Ireland, I cannot see why
it shoffid be abandoned because, subsequent to the introduction
of the AboUtion BiU and consequent upon Lord Cottenham's
iUness, it is thought advisable to separate the jufficial and
poUtical functions of the Lord ChanceUor. . . . Graham asks—
who is to be the resident authority in Ireland with whom the
S. of S. is to correspond, and I answer — none. The S. of S. wiU
do as the Lord-Lieut, does now — have no particular adviser,
but commufficate with each particular department and obtain
ffis iffiormation in whatever maimer he thinks best. He will
deal with Ireland as the Home Secretary does vsdth England.
I don't know what the real position of the Lord Advocate
is, except that he is always ffi parhament,^ and that the Home
Secretary can commufficate with him personally for 7 months in
the year ; but ff he is the chief ffistributer of patronage and the
agent, as it were, of Scotland pres the govemment, then I say —
Heaven protect me from havmg such a man for Ireland ; for if
a resident authority were to exist here with whom the govem
ment was to correspond and was supposed to be guided by, he
would at once become the centre and focus of jobbery — he would
be a Uttle Lord-Lieutenant without the responsibihty. It would
be far better to leave tffings as they are ; for now the Ld.-Lieut.
is responsible : aU he does is pubUc, and the govemment must
either adopt ffis acts or ffismiss ffim. ... If Graham thinks
there ought to be a resident authority of tffis kind, or beUeves
that the govemment intends to proceed upon such a system,
he agaffi shows that he is ignorant how the affairs of Ireland
ought to be conducted. Pray milffiy insinuate aU tffis to ffim.
Sir James Graham had begun political Ufe as a Whig,
and was First Lord of the Admiralty under Lord Grey ;
but he resigned with Staffiey in 1834, joined Peel's govern
ment in 1841, became a leading PeeUte in 1846, giving a
general support to RusseU's admimstration, though he
decUned to join it in 1848. Occasionally he delivered
independent attacks upon Miffisters, especiaUy upon
Palmerston, whose foreign poUcy he distrusted.
Palmerston's ascendency in the House of Commons was
now at its height, and was never more fully proved than
in ffis defence of the course he had taken in the notorious
1 The Office of Secretary for Scotland was not created until 1886.

310 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
Don Paciflco affair. His action in sending a fleet of fifteen
sffips to the Piraeus in order to compel the Greek govern
ment to settle the claim for indenmity, brought Great
Britain perilously near war vsdth Russia and France —
joint guarantors vsdth Great Britain of the independence of
Greece. The French Ambassador, M. Drouyn de Lhuys,
was, in fact, recaUed from London, and an angry despatch
came from St Petersburg, asking whether England 'in
tended to disengage herseff from every obUgation, as weU
as from aU commumty of action, and to authorise aU the
Great Powers on every fitting opportumty to recogffise
towards the weak no other rffie but their own wiU — ^no
other right but their own physical strength.' Lord Staffiey
having carried a vote of censure upon the government
by a majority of tffirty-seven in the House of Lords, the
Radical Roebuck sought to balance it in the Commons
by a motion of confidence. The debate began on 21st June
and lasted four days. Graham poured vials of wrath upon
Palmerston ; but what made the occasion memorable was,
first. Lord Palmerston's civis Bomanus appeal, and secondly.
Sir Robert Peel's speech. He said that he woffid not have
supported a vote of censure, but neither could he support
the vote of confidence, because it impUed sanction of in
terference in the domestic affairs of other countries without
grave cause. ' For these reasons,' said he, ' I give my
dissent — ^my reluctant dissent — from the motion.' These
were the last words spoken by him in that House wherein,
since the death of Canmng, he had been the most com
manding figure. A few hours later he was thrown from
ffis horse in Constitution HiU, receiving injuries under which
he Ungered for tffi-ee days in dreadfffi pain, and expired
on 2nd July at the age of sixty-two.^
1 On 3rd July Clarendon wrote as foUows to G. C. Lewis : ' Crampton
sent me word that Brodie's private opinion to him was that Peel would do
weU. I sincerely hope he may, for his loss would be a most serious one at
this moment, as his followers, although disposed to run not, were still
kept in check by him; and his infiuence in House and in the country,
although not what it used to be, was stiU deservedly great ; and, if only
for advice, he was a great card for the Crown and the country to faU back
upon in times of difficulty. I am glad that aU party feelings have merged
in the universal interest that his accident has mspu-ed. He wUl be much
gratified by it if he recovers.'

1847-51] IRELAND 311
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 28th June 1850. — Many thanks for your
admirable report of the two speeches. I daresay Graham's
is better to read than to have heard. One knows nothing of
the bitterness of maimer, and one attributes to imperfect
reportmg whatever appears incoherent. I agree with much
that he said, and think it wiU produce a damaging effect in the
country, but on the whole it struck me as a labored and un
successfffi oration. I was qffite inffignant at ffis descending to
such vsrretched nonsense as charging Palmerston with the down-
faU of Loffis PffiUppe and the evils that the French RepubUc
had entailed upon the world. I felt sure he woffid be trounced
for that, and P.'s answer on the point, both ffi conception and
execution, was the happiest part of ffis wonderfffi speech. I
never read one with greater satisfaction — ^ffis perfect mastery of
the subject — the order and lucid arrangement of ffis details —
the weU-sustamed mterest — the varied style of his oratory and
the good temper and good taste with wffich he hanffied such a
legion of bitter assailants, can never have been surpassed any
where, notwithstanffing the harassffig ordeal he has gone tffiough
and the load of ordmary business pressing upon ffim. To speak
for five hours vsdthout turffing a hair, or moisteffing ffis Ups, or
losmg ffis voice, or missffig any point that was usefffi, exhibits
really an amount of physical and mental power almost incredible
in a man of ffis age. It will place ffim on a pinnacle of popularity
at home, whatever it may do abroad, and completely settle the
question about wffich I never had a doubt, that no change at
the F. 0. is possible, and that Lord John must either go on with
ffim or go out vnith ffim.

From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
30th June. — . . . We received the news of the majority of
46 by the telegraph late last ffight. There is no denymg that it
is a reUef ; but somehow I cannot feel elated about it. It is
the triumph of a un'ong cause for the sake of avoiffing a great
evil, and I fear the enormous, almost despotic, power wffich it
places in the hands of such a man as Lord Palmerston, who
wields it for dangerous purposes. There is no longer a doubt
but that Lord John and aU the Cabinet are now tied hand and
foot to Lord P. and ffis poUcy, and George has too long foretold

312 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
into what dangers that pohcy would lead us for me to Uke the
prospect of the pohtical future. ... Sir G. Grey teUs George
that he almost despairs of passing the Lord-Lieutenancy AboUtion
BiU tffis session. . . . The Duke of Weffington's miUtary opiffion
is thought very serious. ... A few days more, I suppose, wiU
decide the fate of the Lord-Lieutenancy, and therefore ours to
a certain degree. . . . The intensity of the interest of George's
correspondence it would be ffifficult to describe ; but the heaps
of letters are awful ; he must pay a penalty for such an advantage
at such an exciting moment. I hope G. Levsds went to Lord John
before the meeting of the Commissioners ^ to teU ffim how
injurious it would be to Prince Albert ff the '51 bffilffing is put
up in Hyde Park. How we always do mess everytffing about
builffings ! . . . I beUeve George stiU tffinks the Abohtion BiU
wiU pass — that Lord John wiU not easily give it up. We were so
sorry to hear from G. Lewis and Charles [Viffiers] to-day of
Sir R. Peel's faU from his horse. I hope the injury, tho' severe,
at ffis age and with his size, may not tum out serious. With
the Une he now takes, his hfe is a precious one to the country,
and I have no doubt he influences the Queen for good. . . .
1st July. — ... I have been considering Lord Palmerston's
triumph. It is surely one of the greatest ever acffieved. He
has triumphed over a great mass of educated pubhc opiffion,
over that mighty potentate the Times, over two branches of the
Legislature, over the Queen and Prince and most of the Cabinet
he sits in, besides aU foreign nations ! . . .
2nd. — . . . We are persuaded that it is not for ffis own
seffish pleasure that Prince Albert wants to have that bffilffing
in Hyde Park ; it must be from some bad advice and the want
of good and true advice. Haff the people, and much more
than haff, are afraid of ffim, and the Queen and the few that
are not are Uke Lord John — ^ignorant of maffidnd or careless.
I feel sure that Lord John has not put it in its proper hght to
the Prince, and, if he ffid, I don't suppose his opiffions or wishes
would be much attended to just now in that quarter.
3rd. — . . . We now mean to go to England ffirectly, for
George has heard to-day from Lord John that he had given
up the Lord-Lieutenancy Abohtion BiU for tffis session and
meant to announce it to-morrow. . . . To-night's papers
announce poor Sir R. Peel's death. How very shocking it is,
and what a national calamity ! . . . George, who lately had
» Of the Exhibition.

1847-51] IRELAND 313
such frienffiy commuffications with him, feels as if he had lost
a valuable friend.
' I can tffink of nothing but Peel's death,' wrote Clarendon
to Lewis on 5th Jffiy, ' and its evil consequences to all
parties ; but to none more so than to the Government.
Next session it wiU be felt even more than now.'
In the autumn Lady Clarendon went to England, and
her husband wrote to her almost daily, as was his wont
when they were separated. He paid a visit to his brother-in-
law, Lord Caledon,^ and it is refresffing to read accounts of
sometffing better than gloom and distress in that part of
Ireland. Lord Clarendon to Lady Clarendon.
Caledon, Tyeone, 2nd September 1850. — ... I am quite
weU, and aU the better for a ride of four hours yesterday over
the property, the conffition and management of wffich are quite
m keepffig with everytffing I had seen here before. We have
gone 12 or 14 mUes along ffifferent roads and were never off the
estate ; ffi short, there are very few places in England that,
upon the whole, I shoffid rank above tffis. . . . Everjrtffing is
m the best possible taste ; the whole place, wffich is on a great
scale, is kept up as few EngUsh places are ; the ground is prettily
tossed about, the verdure luxuriant, a ffice river, the tovsTi Uke
one of those neat, weU-to-do Uttle towns one sees in Wiltsffire
where they have the Bath stone. ... I was deUghted with aU
I saw ; everytffing, both as respects kmd and management is
first rate, and there is an order and regularity about the whole
place that are not often met with ffi England, and stiU less so
m Ireland.
Sffice writffig the above, I have been aU over the mills, wffich
are splendid and upon an enormous scale. I am reaUy more
and more deUghted with what I see here. . . .
Before the end of the year Lord Clarendon had to
encounter trouble from two different quarters. Pope Pio
Nono, having been restored to the Vatican by the French
after two years' exile, turned his attention to England,
where the secession of Newman, Maiming, and other earnest
^ The Earl of Caledon had married Lady Jane Grimston, youngest
Bister of Lady Clarendon.

314 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
Churchmen caused him and his advisers to look upon the
Tractarian movement as the forerunner of a general return
of English Protestants to the papal fold. Since the Re
formation, Roman Catholic vicars-apostolic and prelates
had been appointed to Great Britain as in partibus in-
fidelium, a term which was applied indifferently to Hot
tentots, Mahommedans, Hindus, and every denomination
of Christian which did not acknowledge the vicegerency
of the Bishop of Rome. Pio Nono was assured that the
re-establishment of a regffiar hierarchy of bishops under
territorial titles would be well received in England ; accord
ingly he issued a brief to effect it. He grievously misin
terpreted the spirit of the nation. Englishmen could afford
to be indifferent to the Papal Court styUng them ' infidels ' ;
but when the Church of England was referred to in the
brief as ' the Anglican schism,' and the authority of Crovsoi
and Parliament was declared to be ' void and of no effect '
against the Pope's edicts, indifference flared up into honest
indignation. ' I cannot say that I regret the anti-Pope
feeUng that is now springing up in England,' wrote Clarendon
to Lewis on 29th October. ' It is high time to resist the
encroachments of Rome and to let His Holiness know that
we are still Protestants, and that the Reformation was not
an error of our forefathers for which the present generation
is desirous of atoning.'
But indignant resistance was one thing, and intemperate
abuse quite another, though uffiortunately it is usual among
Christian sects for the first to prove inseparable from the
last. It is as impossible to prove by demonstration the
dogmas of one Church as that of another, all dogma being
by nature undemonstrable ; wherefore, in theological con
troversy the disputants on both sides are prone to assume
the aggressive and to follow the advice given to counsel
with a weak case by abusing the other side. On this
occasion the Prime Minister was the first to lose control
over himseff. On 4th November he wrote an open letter
to the Bishop of Durham, denouncing ' the aggression of
the Pope upon our Protestantism as insolent and insidious,'
and declaring that Englishmen ' looked with contempt

1847-51] IRELAND 315
on the mummeries of superstition, and with scorn at tho
laborious endeavours which are now making to confine the
inteUect and enslave the soffi.'
Such an appeal to passion issued from a Protestant
pffipit might have been mischievous ; coming from Downing
Street, headquarters of an Empire containing millions of
Roman CathoUc subjects, it coffid offiy be described as
deplorable. In no part of the Queen's dominions did it
so seriously embarrass the executive as in Ireland ; the
floodgates of sectarian controversy were throvsm wide ;
Orangemen laid aside their grievance in the Roden affair,
and the passions of Roman CathoUcs which had been Iffiled
to a semblance of slumber were fanned into a fresh blaze.

Lord Clarendon to Henry Beeve.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 23rd October 1850. — ... I am sorry
C. GreviUe does not approve of resistmg Roman encroachments,
for upon aU matters of poUcy his judgment is most valuable ;
but lookmg to Ireland and to the pseudo-Protestantism wffich
prevails ffi England I am sure it is necessary to proclaim a
haute voix that we wiU not submit to the reimposition of the yoke
of Rome. . . . The most complete toleration must be expressed
over and over again usque ad nauseam, for the opposition should
be of a purely Uberal character, and the offiy standard to be
raised should be that of the Reformation. I would even make
aUowance for the Pope beffig led into error about the state of
England by the Puseyites ; and no wonder, when the forms of
R. C. worsffip are adopted ffi the churches of the aristocracy
(Bennett's of Belgravia, for instance), and the Bishop of London
takes part in such a procession as that for the opeffing of
S. Barnabas' church (you should get some details of that), and
the marriage ceremony is performed ffi a manner to which we
have been unaccustomed for the last 200 years.
The Same to Lady Caledon.
Viceregal Lodge, 26th November 1850. — . . . Lord John
has just hit the Protestant taste, but he forgot that ' mummeries
of superstition ' might not suit the taste of R. C.'s, and their
fury exceeds aU bounds. I fear we are going to have a regular

316 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
phase of sectarian bitterness, and that we shaU never see tffings
as peaceable agaffi as they were last week.

The Same to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
21th November 1850. — . . . The Protestant clergy here are,
as yet, tolerably qffiet about the Roman invasion, tffinkffig that
the zeal of England wants no stimffius ; but the R. C.'s are in
a state of suUen discontent, wffich is not unnatural, at seeffig the
EngUsh newspapers fiUed with abuse and rifficffie of their reUgion.
Lord John's letter was a godsend to them, and they wouldn't
for the world accept any explanation of ' mummeries.' It sffits
their book even better than Lyndhurst's ' aUens,' for the agitators
were sorely put to it for a lever with wffich to stir up hatred
against England.
Lord Clarendon had seen enough of pubUc affairs in
general and of Irish affairs in particffiar to convince ffim
of the enormous influence of the press for good or iU. It
may be seen in ffis correspondence how often and how
bitterly he complained of the immuffity enjoyed by British
newspaper editors from any check upon their treatment
of the most deUcate and critical points of poUey, whether
foreign or domestic. In ffis Irish admiffistration he felt
it to be a serious disadvantage that there was no joumal
whereby the loyaUst and Uffioffist case coffid be put fairly
before the Irish pubhc- — ^no means of counteracting the
diatribes of the Nation and other seditious prints. It
might come to be assumed that the arguments of Young
Ireland were unanswerable, for the offiy newspapers that
did not preach rebeffion were Tory in poUtics and therefore
opposed to the govemment. Accordingly the Viceroy took
counsel with the Chief Secretary Sir Wiffiam SomerviUe,^ and
with ffis private secretary, Corry ConeUan, in order to secure
a competent editor for an Uffioffist joumal, whom of course
it woffid be necessary to subsidise. In an evil moment
their choice feU upon a clever rascal named Birch, editor
and proprietor of a joumal caUed The World, who, unknown
to Clarendon, had already undergone six months' imprison-
• Created Lord Athlumney in 1863.

1847-51] IRELAND 317
ment for attempted blackmail. A bargain was struck,
the nature and resffits of wffich are described in the follow
ing letters from the Viceroy to the ChanceUor of the
Exchequer, Sir Charles Wood :
29th November 1850. — . . . Upon the whole I should say
that tffis country is in a more tranqffil, progressive and satis
factory state than we have ever known it, but for the reUgious
war m England and the unhappy expressions in Lord John's
letter. His ' mummeries ' beat Lord Lyndhurst's ' aUens ' aU
to sffivers and are a godsend to the ffisaffected, who had no cry
and no lever wherewith to stir up hatred against England and
the government. There is no use attempting explanation, for
they don't want one, and it is a mighty pretty quarrel as it is.
... I have never been so annoyed in my Ufe as lately by that
villam the effitor of the World. The origin of my relations with
him was that, after he had been placing ffis paper at my ffisposal
for months,^ I sent for ffim m an evil hour at the beginffing
of '48, when aU the felon newspapers were exciting rebeffion,
and agreed with ffim to write ffi defence of law and order,
but not in favour of the Government ; and I gave ffim fuU
Uberty to abuse me as much as he chose. He asked me for
money to pay agents ffi the country towns, who at that time
woffid circulate notffing but treason. I told him there were
no funds for such purposes, but I gave ffim £300 out of my
own pocket.
He wrote with great sffiU and abiUty : the paper fficreased
in circffiation, and, as it appeared to do some good, I thought
some secret service money might legitimately be employed in
assistmg ffim, as he was needy and pressffig. He had in the
course of two years £1100, and I gave ffim some more myseff ;
but last summer, when he went about to M.P.'s and to Lord
EUenboro' asking them to bring ffis case before ParUament, I
of course stopped aU further suppUes, and took no notice of his
daily letters. Two months ago, however, he sent me in a bill
of £4700 for suppressing the Irish rebeffion and other services
rendered to the Govemment, with a notice that he should
immeffiately bring an action against me for the amount and
subpoena Somervffie, ConneUan and everybody with whom he
had ever had any commuffication.
I put the case ffi Monahan's hands, and, as he said that counsel
1 That is, offering the services of his paper to the Government.

318 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
would have a right to extort from the witnesses whether the
money given had come from pubhc sources, together with aU
maimer of ffisagreeable and inconveffient iffiormation com
promising to the Govemment, he strongly advised me to buy
the feUow off, and I was actuaUy obUged to pay ffim £2000 !
Even then he would not give up some letters of ConneUan's,
tho' I beheve they are of no consequence. ... At ffist, I
had no reason to tffink him worse than any other effitor, and
I found ffim clever and usefffi; but so great a scoundrel as
he turned out to be I never had the misfortune to meet with.
... It is a pleasant scrape to have got ffito for the pubhc
service. 10th December. — ... Of course I should have defied the
rascal and let ffim bring ffis action if S[ecret] S[ervice] had not
been involved ; but as that fact might and would have been
brought out in court, I made the enormous sacrifice I ffid simply
to prevent it ; tho' for my own part I cannot see much objection
to employing a Uttle money in the defence of society when
attacked on aU sides.
As a counterblast to the Nation the World proved an
egregious failure, serving offiy as a hebdomadal butt for
its Uvely rival ; so after some months' trial Birch received
notice terminating the engagement. Then the trouble
began. There can be no doubt that in this business
Clarendon committed a double indiscretion : first, in apply
ing Secret Service money to subsidise a journalist, for
although there was good precedent for doing so. Lord
Derby ffimseff, when Chief Secretary in Lord Grey's govern
ment, having estabUshed the Dublin Times, and defrayed
the cost of maintaimng it from this source, yet nobody
with any experience of ' the Treasury mind ' will feel sur
prise at Sir Charles Wood having pronounced such ex
penditure to be irregffiar ; secondly, in trying to shut
Birch's mouth by submitting to blackmail.
The first error Clarendon set right immediately. 'I
should prefer any sacriflce,' he wrote to Sir Charles, ' even
to the suspicion that a farthing of public money had been
misapplied by me ' ; and he repaid out of his ovra iU-
garmshed pocket everything that Birch had received from

1847-51] IRELAND 319
the Secret Service Fund. The second error entailed even
more harassing consequences. On receiving £2000 from
the Viceroy, Birch signed an acknowledgment in fffil of all
claims against ffis ExceUency, and straightway directed his
batteries against the Cffief Secretary. Sir WiUiam Somer-
viUe, however, was wiser than his chief, flatly refusing to be
blackmailed, whereupon Birch entered an action against him
to recover expenses amounting to £7500, alleged to have
been incurred by ffim in the pubUc service. There was
tremendous excitement in DubUn, the Nationalist press
circffiating rumours of the damffing disclosures about to
be made exposing the corruption of English officials. The
trial occupied several days. In a court crowded to excess
Clarendon had to go into the witness box and admit that,
wffile he had paid Birch £1700 for services to be rendered
by the World, he had paid £2000 more to buy off an action
at law. Birch, however, broke down under cross-examina
tion ; the jury after very few minutes' deUberation returned
a verdict for the defendants, with nominal costs against
Birch. The Nation, ably and wittily conducted, made the
most of the affair to discredit viceregal rffie. Here is one
of its less offensive epigrams : —
'Lord C. has grown most awfuUy religious,'
Said Corry ConeUan vpith a rueful air ;
' At least his trepidation is prodigious
As to how in the next Woi'ld he'll fare.'
Founded upon these transactions, an article appeared in
the Dublin University Magazine, contributed, it was sur
mised, by Mr. Isaac Butt, Q.C., giving a gross perversion of
what took place at the trial and reflecting very injuriously
upon the Lord-Lieutenant's connection with the case.
Those who are most famiUar with the tactics of parUa
mentary parties wiU recogffise notffing unusual in the
attempt to damage a tottering government by bringing
one of its members into disgrace. Accordingly young
Lord Naas, member for county Kildare,^ founding upon the
magazine article, deemed it no wrong to move a vote of
^ Afterwards sixth Earl of Mayo, Viceroy of India, 1868-72, assassinated
iu the Andaman Islands, Sth February 1872.

320 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
censure upon the Lord-Lieutenant for his conduct in the
affair of the World newspaper ; but the motion was defeated
by a majority of ninety-two, many Conservatives voting
against it.
In the tffick of these worries Clarendon found reUef in
corresponding with his sister.
To Lady Theresa Lewis.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 29th December 1850. — I am very glad
you thought yourseff indebted to me for your Woburn visit, as
to that notion I owe your dehghtfffi letter. His Grace may
possibly have wished to do what was agreeable to me by mvitffig
you ; but aU the rest you got off your own bat, and I am sure
by ffis letters he feels the ' greateth rethpecth ' for you, and
thought your company a great catch, not offiy for ffimseff, but
for John. He moaned over your inabihty to stay longer, and
ffis appearance at your early breakfast was a compUment that
I never heard of ffis paying to anybody, for at that hour he is
always in a very old dressing gown, scribbUng the iUegible
letters that vsdU be the death of him. His motives are just what
you describe ; he loves to tffink ffimseff the centre to wffich
iffiormation tends and from wffich advice raffiates, and I have
no doubt that in the course of a twelvemonth he does a great
deal of good by smootffing down poUtical and social asperities ;
for qffite as many appeals are carried ffito ffis court as ffito C.
GreviUe' s, and he never intentionaUy made an ounce of miscffief
in ffis Ufe ; but tffis vaffity of good-nature and seff-importance
amount to maffia, and wiU MU ffim. No man at ffis age, with a
slender stock of health, can keep getting up tffiough the winter
at 4 or 5 in the morffing, Ughting ffis own ffie and writing tiU
10 or 11 upon an empty stomach.^
How strange it is, considering aU the connoisseurs and amateurs
who for the last 50 years have been ffltering tffiough Woburn,
that it should have been reserved for you to correct the mis-
baptism of the pictures and to let the Duke beffind ffis ovm
family curtain. You carried me completely with you in the
gaUery, etc., and I need harffiy say that I long since came to the
same opiffion as you about some of the Vandykes, includmg the
one over the cffimney in the diffing-room, wffich, however,
1 Francis, Duke of Bedford, lived ten years longer, dying in May 1861
at the ripe age of seventy-three.

1847-51] IRELAND 321
always took my fancy exceedingly, and I wish I knew who it
is of and by.
I have never seen the cottages, though, as you may suppose,
I know them ffitimately by frequent description ; but yours is
the first tenanted picture I have had of tffis wise benevolence
in the shape of bricks and mortar. AU you say upon the subject
is so true and so just towards the Duke that I actuaUy copied
it aU ffi a letter to him yesterday, saymg that I knew by ex
perience how valuable your judgment was upon aU subjects,
and as you had -wTitten so much in detail to give me pleasure, I
was determined to share it with ffim.
Uffiortunately for the ffistorian, the Duke of Bedford
ffid not content ffimseff vsdth writing letters ; he was equaUy
industrious in destroying those written to him by others.
There are many references to this pursffit in his correspon
dence with Clarendon between the years 1845 and 1861.
For instance, in the latter year he writes : ' What you say
of my heaps of interesting poUtical letters is very true. I
came so young into pubUc Ufe (Uving with Mr. Fox and the
men of ffis day), and have been so much and so long mixed
up with what has been passing, that my letters woffid
form an interesting coUection. I have lately been much
engaged in destroying them.' ^
Dublin Castle, 8th March 1851. — My dearest Theeesa, —
I can't let tffis day ^ pass without teffing you a bit of news that
you might otherwise be ignorant of, which is that you are the
best sister that ever brother was blessed with, and that each
year it seems to me I love you more and more. Indeed about
the latter fact I am quite positive, for notffing teaches value Uke
absence, and a pretty long lesson I have had of the hardship of
being deprived of such a dear, ffind, affectionate, wise friend
and counseUor — of such a sister, in short — and where 's the use
of such a blessing ff one may not daily have the enjoyment of
it ? ... I qffite loathe the Irish as the cause of keeping us
asunder for four years ; and Heaven offiy knows how much
longer they wiU do so, as I had a hne from Lord John to say,
' We have determined not to proceed with the Abohtion of the
Lord-Lieutenancy BiU tffis year.'
^ See Greville'a Memoira, Srd Series, i. 48. * Her birthday.
VOL. I X

322 THB EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
. . . God bless you, my own dearest Theresa; please to
contffiue always what you always have been, and I can form no
better wish for the happiness of the famUy in general and, in
particular, of your most affectionate brother, who longs — oh, how
he longs ! to be with you agaffi ; and if any one catches ffim in
harness again, either at home or abroad, say he is a Dutchman !
George Levsds having written for the Edinburgh Beview
an article on the abolition of the Lord-Lieutenancy, sent it
to Qarendon for criticism before pubUshing it, who replied
as follows : —
December 1850. — I have cut out some praise of myseff in re
the abohtion of the Lord-Lieutenancy: 1st, because it is not
due, the measure having been settled by Lord John with Lord
Bessborough, and 2nd because as long as I remain here it woffid
make me inconveffiently unpopffiar to be thought the author
of a scheme wffich the Dubhners look upon as their rffin. I am
aheady caUed the Desolator-General by the Freeman's Journal,
so Empson must take the last page as it is sent back to ffim.
Irish parties were uffited upon one subject if upon no other
— ^namely, opposition to Lord John's project of aboUshing
the Lord-Lieutenancy. Clarendon had strongly advocated
it, for he knew how very Umited was the choice of men to
fill that important post, ovsdng to few men being able to
face the expense. There was, therefore, always the danger
of a wealthy weakUng being appointed. But the strong
expression of opiffion in DubUn and the provinces brought
him to view the question in a somewhat different Ught.

From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
1th February 1851. — . . . George has thought it his duty to
iffiorm Lord John that, tho' the arguments in favour of the
Lord-Lieutenancy Abohtion BiU remain the same, the delay
in passing it and the great change of opiffion about it in Ire
land (where it is now very generaUy ffisUked) woffid increase
immensely his ffifficulty ffi passing it. George ffid not tffink it
right to conceal tffis, and that may account very much for the
rumours about ffis change of opiffion. He never thought it
otherwise than an experiment, and he does not aUow personal

1847-51] IRELAND 323
feeUngs to influence his judgment on pubhc matters. ... I
don't tffink the measure itseff would turn out the government,
unless it happened that the Opposition should pitch on it as
the measure for a party struggle for power, and I don't think
that very Ukely, as the great majority in favor of the principle
of aboUtion makes it a bad cock to fight. I suppose the D. of
Wellmgton wiU oppose it in the Lords, and I expect all the Irish
members of both Houses wiU oppose it noiv, \vith but few ex
ceptions. I think nearly aU the Miffisters consider it an un
necessary danger, and tffis, I imagine, is the whole risumi of
the situation. George wants personally to get away, but would
prefer it shoffid be by goffig out of office altogether, wffich is
what he is longmg for,i without wishing the govemment to go
out, except for ffis own release. . . . The Morning Herald and
Standard go on makmg aU sorts of fabulous stories about George's
resignation, ffis mtrigues to oust Lord John, etc. The more
virulent they are the better, for they wffi offiy cut their own
tffioats by it. . . . It is certaiffiy not uffiversaUy known how
complete the confidence and how constant the intercourse is
between Lord John and George. George wrote to Sir G. Grey
to consffit ffim as to whether any contraffiction should be given
to those articles ffi the M[orning] H[erald^ and Standard, and
Sir G. Grey commufficated with Lord John about it, and sent
George a short note from Lord John, advising not, and treatffig
the whole tffing with the contempt and ffiffifference wffich those
sort of slanders inspire at headquarters, where the confidence
is too complete for calumffies to signify. . . .
In February Lord John RusseU brought in his Ecclesi
astical Titles Bffi, intended to prevent Roman CathoUc
ecclesiastics assuming titles from places within the Uffited
Kingdom. The Crystal Palace was rising in Hyde Park,
the proclaimed symbol of peace and goodvdU among the
nations ; but in the British nation there had been stirred
aU the rancour of the sects — ^Protestant and Papist reviling
each other's Churches in terms that moved Queen Victoria
to express her indignation warmly to the Duchess of
^ Lord Clarendon's private means, never more than moderate, had been
heavily drawn upon to meet the expenses of his Viceroyalty. ' I have no
prospect,' he wrote to Lewis, ' but the Watford workhouse before me when
I leave this.^particularly as I have now to undergo another Dublin season
at £3000,per month ! '

324 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
Gloucester.^ So fierce was the feeUng in the constituencies
that offiy sixty-three members ventured to vote against
the BiU on its first reading. The majority for the govern
ment was 332.
But how trffiy DisraeU once said that the Ufe of any
govemment was never worth a month's purchase. Just
as Peel's admiffistration foundered on the morrow of ffis
victory over the Corn Laws, so was RusseU's overthrown
within a week of his triumph upon a motion of Locke
King's for lowering the county francffise. The govemment
resigned at once ; the Queen sent for Lord Staffiey, but
he woffid not touch it uffiess he had a House that woffid
reimpose the corn duties. He thought Lord John shoffid
try a coaUtion with the PeeUtes. Lord John tried that,
and failed ; Aberdeen and Graham woffid have no hand
in the Ecclesiastical Titles BiU.
Then Staffiey made an attempt to get a team together ;
but as Gladstone woffid not go into harness for him, Staffiey
stood aside. FinaUy the Queen desired Lord John to
resume office, wffich he did with aU ffis coUeagues, and
carried his Ecclesiastical Titles BiU, minus the penal causes,
which reduced it to a mere declaration that it was iUegal
for Roman Catholic prelates to take their titles from places
in the Uffited Kingdom.^
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
22nd February 1851. — Tffis has been an eventfffi 24 hours,
for I am now writing at 12 o'clock at ffight, and last ffight we
heard that the agitation here agamst the Ecclesiastical Titles
BiU was becoming more serious. There had been a great gather
ing of Roman Cathohc lawyers, and resolutions adopted showing
the state of feeUng. Then George told me that Staffiey was in
commuffication with the Irish members — had promised them
not to aboUsh the Viceroyalty etc. etc. Tffis looked ominous ;
then tffis mormng arrived the telegrapffic message of Lord John
announcing the postponement of the Budget tiU Monday, and
almost directly afterwards came letters from Lord John and
Sir G. Grey teffing George of the resignation of Miffisters ; tho'
' Queen Victoria's Letters, 12th December 1850.
2 The Act was repealed in 1871.

1847-51] IRELAND 325
as Lord Lansdowne was out of town, the pubhc announcement
was not to be made tiU Monday. . . .
25th February. — . . . The reports in London that George is
booked for the formation of a government are, of course, believed
here. The room rang with them last night. They fash George
very much, and he has written to Lord John on the subject,
which letter wiU at aU events, or ought to, convince him that
these rumours are no doing of George's. . . . The letters he
received yesterday were very ominous — Brougham's particularly,
who told ffim plaffily that he thought ffim (George) their offiy
hope. He added, ' When I teU you that Lyndhurst and Denman,
aU Wffigs and aU rational Conservatives say so, you wiU admit
that I have backers.'
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
DuBUN Castle, 21th February 1851. — I am so bothered by
people as weU as by infiuenza that I can only vsrite one hne,
but you may want an answer about the Garter fees. I can't
conceive what Normanby can mean, as no such arrangement
was ever made. Among the various objections urged by me
against takffig the Garter ^ was my inabihty to pay the fees ; but
that did not help me, and of course I paid them, with the ex
ception of some wffich I ffisputed with the Chamberlain's Office
and wffich I beUeve are stffi claimed. The idea of pleaffing
exemption on account of public service may enter fitly enough
into Normanby' s head ; it assureffiy never ffid into nune !
Dublin Castle, 1th March 1851. — ^Many thanks for your
letters. The ' as you were ' solution had become the only
practicable one, and I am glad of it for Fatherland's sake, as
a Staffiey ffiterregnum must have been a revolution. I am
astomshed how a man of Graham's great sagacity and stiU greater
cowarffice ^ can for a moment have thought such a passage in
our ffistory desirable. It woffid have been a war of classes and
mterests, and opiffions too, as the No-Popery element would have
entered largely ffito the election contests ; and though Staffiey
woffid have been driven from ffis post, he would not have left
matters as he found them, and the ffist care of the victors would
have been to pare the claws of the aristocracy, so as to render
^ Lord Clarendon had received the Order of the Garter (much against
his inclination) on 23rd March 1849, the Queen desiring him to retain the
insignia of the Bath (which should have been returned according to the
usual practice) as he had so well earned both distinctions.
' PoUtical, not personal cowardice, of course.

326 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
another such combat impossible by sweeping parUamentary
reform. I never suspected Graham of being sfficere in ffis
negociations with J. R., or of being intent upon anytffing but
maffing ffimseff a position, wffich was what he was so much in
want of. He has succeeded ; for, by overtrumping J. R., he has
become the man of the Rafficals and the hero of the Papists.
If he knew aU the glorious things the latter are expectffig of ffim,
he would aheady be frightened at the eminence he has attained ;
but I reaUy hope he wiU be cautious, for much depends on ffim
just now. If he chooses to lead an opposition against the
nominal remnant of the Papal BiU, the R. C.'s and Rads. wiU
foUow ffim, and the Tories out of vexation wiU probably join
them upon the ground that no BiU is better than such an one.
In that case the govemment wiU go out positively, and Staffiey
must then form one as best he can upon anti-Protestant
prmciples. I wish ffim joy of the task ! ... By a Une at the
end of G[eorge] G[rey]'s letter to-day I gather that the Ld.-Lieuty.
AboUtion is given up — whether for tffis year or for good I know
not. Not a syUable has been said to me about it.
Dublin Castle, 28th March 1851. — The majority is a great
fact to go to Europe with, certaiffiy, ^ for no one there (nor
indeed at home, beyond a certain raffius) looks at anythmg but
the numbers nor inquires about the nature of the measure nor
the tone of the debate. ... I qffite agree with you that Graham
is the man most damaged by the debate, and the pleasure
exhibited by the House at ffis ffissection by the Jew^ proves
that aversion for ffis character has checked the sUghtly renascent
confidence ffi ffis abihties. ReaUy, he deserves what he has got,
and the offiy course open for ffim now is to tum rank Raffical ;
tho' he woffid soon be drummed out of that corps for cowarffice.
I must copy for you what Lord John wrote to me about him
yesterday ; it is so true and weU expressed. Lord J. sent for
Graham two days ago and, among other tffings, pomted out to
him the danger of ffissolution upon a [illegible] question, and the
parhamentary reform it might lead to. ' I do not tffink he
ffiffered from me, ffis sense of danger beffig by nature as acute
as that of the stag or the hare ; but uffiortunately, hke some
other ffinds of the creation, he is fascmated by the danger he
fears, and runs or drops into ffis enemy's mouth.'
Nevertheless, and malgri tous les malgris, he is not a man to
1 A majority of 342 on the Ecclesiastical Titles BiU.
' Disraeli.

1847-51] IRELAND 327
be neglected, and I told Lord J. in answer that, if he could get
the harness on him and frighten him along the right road, he
might convert a false friend into a useful pubUc servant. . . .
Viceregal Lodge, 3lst October 1851. — . . . Lord John
teUs me that he mooted the Ld.-Lieuty. and Duke of Newcastle
questions at Windsor, and they were not at aU well taken. He
seemed rather to agree with the Royal reasons assigned, which
were rather compUmentary to me, and added that he should do
notffing more tiU the end of November, when the Cabinet meets
agaffi. So I have stiU a chance, tho' not much ; for Wood, who
managesLord J., is opposed to my emancipation. . . . I therefore
look to a general dibdcJe for reUef , rather than to any re-shuffling
of the cards.
You chalk out a briffiant role for me, but it demands much
more ambition and seff-confidence than I possess. Although it
may not be a fine tffing to own, yet I feel that, even if I succeeded
in aU you suggest as possible, it woffid not repay me for aU the
anxiety and trouble it woffid cost. I am glad, of course, not to
faU m anytffing I attempt ; but I much prefer not undergoffig
the risk. The cui bono feehng, and the question why I shoffid
torment myseff ffi order to deprive better men of what would
be a gratffication, are perpetuaUy presenting themselves, which
you wiU perhaps think seffish and unpatriotic, and I don't deny
it. Four years ffi Ireland, however, have convmced me that
servffig the pubhc is a jeu qui ne vaut pas la chandelle, and the
manner ffi wffich Lord John was treated tffis year by ffis party
has so utterly ffisgusted me with pohtical hfe that I have reaUy
no other vsdsh than to take my final leave of it.
Nevertheless, I acknowledge that every man is under obUga
tion to be of what use he can to ffis country ; and, as I sincerely
desire the success of Liberal principles and to serve Lord John
(for whom I have a great regard) to the best of my abffity, I
would not shrink, as long as ffis govemment lasts, from any duty
that coffid be imposed upon me, provided I felt myseff competent
for its performance. It was my misfortune, however, not to
have been in the House of Commons, or ever to have heard the
sound of my own voice tffi I was forty years old ; and I am so
conscious of the want of debatffig power (the httle I had acqffired
having become here qffite rusty and good for notffing by four
years' want of use) that I have horror of putting myself in a
position where I should constantly be apprehenffing failure.
I have no official vaffity, and, if I wished for Cabinet office.

328 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xi.
the Board of Control would be just as acceptable to me as a
Secretarysffip of State, and it is a much ffigher place than the
Board of Trade or the Lord-Lieuty. of Ireland ; but if I turned
out Hobhouse the pubhc would be justified in supposing I
thought myseff a better man than he, wffich I don't, and they
woffid expect great tffings from me, in wffich they woffid be
ffisappointed. ... I have infficted a long story upon you ;
but I wished frankly to state my reasons for decUffing the role
you so ffinffiy suggest. . . .
Oth November. — ... I agree vsdth your view of pubhc ffie,
but it leads me to a ffifferent conclusion to yours. It attracts
you ; it repels me. You woffid be satisfied with the ffitimate
appreciation of your conduct ; I feel that, having endured every
ffind of obloquy and moral torture, it is smaU satisfaction to be
iffiormed that you are not the scoundrel you were represented
to be.
10th. — Graham seems to have behaved honestly, and to be
pleased and surprised thereat. The secret of the offer to ffim
has been weU kept, wffich I am glad of : 1st, because he probably
ffid not wish to have it knovsm, as he has kept silence ; and
2nd, it wiU come witU much greater effect from Lord John
when he is reproached in parUament for not having strengthened
ffis govemment, or ffis reform measure is attacked by Graham.^
With my feeUngs about gettmg out of office, I can't wonder
at G.'s ffisUke to getting into it ; but then he is ambitious, and
must take some part ffi affairs. Perpetual isolation is loss of
iiffiuence ; and, havmg decUned the Wffigs, I don't see with
whom he can coalesce. The PeeUtes pure are a Uttle band of
conceited colonels without general-officers and no rank and ffie ;
and the Protectioffists, having no other cry than sauve qui pent
from their own principles, wffi soon be without creffit ffi the
country. . . . The office of Snarler, then, seems the offiy one
now open to Graham ; and in the event (improbable enough,
Heaven knows !) of tffings going smoothly next session, he wiU
repent not having taken the Board of Control. . . .
In the early days of December, the world was startled
by Loffis Napoleon's coup d'etat. Clarendon coffid not
withhold some admiration from the author of a plot so
boldly conceived and so rutffiessly carried into effect.
' Sir James Graham had been offered and declined the Presidency of
the Board of Control (India), feeling disinclined to accept office in order
to prop a moribund Ministry.

1847-51] IRELAND 329
I have no sympathy, he wrote to Lewis on Oth December, with
L. Napoleon, who has committed \\diolesale high treason and
trampled his own obUgations and the rights of others under foot
with an audacity that has no parallel in history ; but I can't
qmte agree with you that he is such a chitif creature. Tho man
who conceived this coup d'etat and made all the arrangements
for it with such secrecy and completeness — who pounced upon
aU ffis actual and probable enemies at once — who had the courage
to show ffimseff in the streets when he had no assurance that
ffis blow was finaUy struck or popular — and who, during and
after the carnage, appears not to have been troubled by the
ordmary feeUngs of humaffity — can be no common mortal. . . .
Next day he discussed the etffics of the matter at greater
length in a letter to Henry Reeve. Si peccas, was his
argument, pecca fortiter.
10th December. — ... It is rather a humiUatmg confession,
but the fact is I have not yet been able to make up my mind
as to what I should think, or rather wish, respectmg the French
events. As to the methods by wffich L. N. has estabhshed ffim
seff, there can be no ffifference of opiffion ; but I am not so clear
that a coup d'etat qudconque had not almost become necessary,
as the offiy way out of the deaffiock to wffich tffings had been
brought by the misconduct of the Assembly and the seffish,
reckless intrigue of parties. For some time past it has been
evident that a legal and constitutional solution of difficffities
was impossible — that the Gorffian knot woffid have to be cut,
and that violence of some kmd woffid be resorted to by one or
other of the contendffig parties ; and it seems best, therefore,
that the attempt shoffid be made by the one in wffich there was
the greatest concentration of force, in order that the contest
shoffid be as short as possible. . . . Some deputies have been
horribly maltreated (though Changarffier, Cavaignac and Tffiers
were aU ready for their own coup d'etat and for locking up L. N.
if they coffid) and many innocent persons have been massacred ;
but I doubt ff, beyond a narrow circle, that wiU excite much
horror or produce a lasting bad impression. . . .
llth. — ... I have not ffiffered with you in your estimate
of the President's acts ; but, his coup d'etat once made, I wished
ffim success, simply because failure woffid have brought with
it horrors of a worse ffind. I thought also that we shoffid not
measure ffis acts by an EngUsh standard, or ask ourselves how

330 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
we should have hked to see our parUament shut up, the press
aboUshed and everybody imprisoned at pleasure ; for we must
remember that the French are more or less accustomed to such
proceedmgs, and that L. N. put an end to a system that every
body knew was a fraud and coffid not last. ... I thought that
our press (and when I say the press I mean the Times, for notffing
else sigffifies abroad) went too far in denouncing that wffich
would soon be popffiar in France. ... I thought also that we
ought not uselessly to irritate L. N., or give ffim the pretext that
ffis uncle always seized upon for hostiUty — that pubhc opiffion
in England was insulting to ffim and injurious to the cause of
order in France.

Lord Clarendon to G. G. Lewis, M.P.
13th December. — . . . L. Napoleon seems Ukely to stand ffis
ground, and it is impossible not to wish it, however much we
may ffisUke what he has done ; for, ff he had failed, the SociaUst
horrors that have taken place in some departments woffid have
been perpetuated aU over France. But I qffite feel the same
alarm that you do at the network of mihtary despotism that is
now tffiown over Europe ; for England with her tranqffiffity,
hberty and prosperiljy may become a ffind of plague-spot that
the autocrats wiU think it their duty to vsdpe out. What wiU
become then of ' the sohdarity of peoples,' wffich lately excited
so much enthusiasm at Birmingham ? or Palmerston's ' strugghng
nationahties ' ? or Cobden's ' Stop, tyrants ' ? If danger does
come, we shaU be without a single aUy in Europe, and ffiscover,
when too late, how mischievous and ffisgracefffi our ffiplomacy
has been for the last four years under circs, wffich ought to have
made us more powerful than ever and other States much beholden
to us. . . . The Times is doing a vast deal of harm upon French
affairs ; but Reeve's virtuous inffignation is not to be controUed ;
so, in order that he may please Gffizot and the Grotesque and her
dear Alexis (as she caUs TocqueviUe) ^ a bad feeUng is to be
created between the two countries. . . .
19th. — I agree ffi every word you say about the French revolu
tion ; but, as tffings had come to a deaffiock and a coup d'Uat
was inevitably to be made by somebody, I wished L. Napoleon,
who took the iffitiative, to succeed, simply because ffis failure
* Alexis Comte de TocqueviUe (1805-59), Vice-President of the French
Chamber, 1849 ; a strong opponent of Louis Napoleon.

1847-51] IRELAND 331
would have entailed horrors exceeding those of 00 years ago, the
anarchy wffich has only partially shown itself iu the departments
would have prevailed over the whole of France, and either have
spread to the rest of Europe or been crushed l)_v foreign inter
vention. But it was out of no love to L. Napoleon nor respect
for ffis acts, and I should have wished as weU to the Assembly
or any Man or Body with sufficient force for the occasion. In
short, I put myseff in a Frenchman's place and wished for the
least evil at such a crisis, when affairs were not sufficiently clear
for judgffig of what Enghsh interests demanded. Even now,
I am not prepared to say that we should benefit by the triumph
of SociaUsm, tho' I agree with my mother in preferring that all
Frenchmen shoffid ffie by their own hands, rather than that a
boatload of them shoffid invade us !

To Lady Theresa Leivis.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 14th January 1852. — . . . You and
G. Lewis are ffisposed to be comphmentary to me and to tffink
I am ambitious, seff-confident, fffil of zeal for the pubhc service,
and capable of great and successful efforts ; whereas the fact
is that, whatever formerly may have existed of these quahties
no longer does so ; ffideed they have been smothered in tffis
country, where a residence of five years, nearly, has produced a
contempt for human nature ffi general, and pohtical Ufe in
particffiar, that I cannot get over. You can have no idea what
my depression of spirits and ffisgust for pubhc hfe amount to,
and what is there, I shoffid Uke to know, in the ffigher walks of
that Ufe to inspire one with ffifferent feehngs or a wish to move
upward ? Look at the position of J[ohn] R[usseU] — is that a
desirable one for a man who has no caU to jump naked into a
nest of hornets ? He may have faults, and certaiffiy has com
mitted errors, but who is perfect ? and who in the course of five
years wiU not have something to repent of ? He has, however,
great talents and great virtues ; he has long been at the head
of a great party, and he is, by common consent, the offiy man
fit to lead the H. of Commons ; yet there he is, accused of
numberless poUtical and moral offences, not a friend conung
forward in ffis defence — ^badgered, insffited, weak and stanffing
at bay before furious assailants, asffing for aid and meeting
with refusals, compeUed to carry on the govemment, relying on
notffing but impeffiments, and offiy suffering less in body and

332 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xi.
mind from such a state of tffings than any other would do because
he happens to be of the phlegmatic character which is one of
the charges against him, even from ffis own personal friends. I
envy, and don't possess his cooffiess, and if anxiety such as he
undergoes did not destroy my inteUect, it would soon take me
to the receptacle in Watford Church. As long as I am in harness
I shaU puff away to the best of my strength ; but as for under
taffing loads that are beyond me — pour cela, non !
Thanks for the prospective offer of Lord Lansdowne's place
and the leadersffip of the H. of Lords, and the endowment of
the experience and debating powers necessary for success in that
Une ; but ff you shoffid happen to know of a Hebrew professor-
sffip vacant, I shoffid greatly prefer it ! . . .

CHAPTER XII
THE FOREIGN OFFICE
. . . The conquest was obtained with ease ;
He pleased you by not studying to please.
Geoege, Loed Lyttelton.
Queen Victoeia's pubUshed letters bear ample witness to
the constant anxiety she endured through Lord Palmer
ston's ffigh-handed deaUngs in foreign affairs. Time after
time, from the moment he took the seals of the Foreign
Office in 1846, did she write to Lord John RusseU com
plaiffing of the manner in wffich Palmerston kept her in
the dark as to ffis proceedings and committed ffis coUeagues
in the Cabinet without their knowledge or consent ; time
after time had Lord John made the best excuses he coffid
devise for the unrffiy Mimster, weU knowing that to offend
ffim was to sign ffis own official death-warrant. But
Palmerston's action in expressing to Count Walewski
approval of Loffis Napoleon's coup d'etat brought about a
situation wffich admitted of no excuse. His conversation
with Walewski took place on the 3rd December, the day
after the coup d'etat. On the 6th the Cabinet sent in
structions to Lord Normanby, British Ambassador in
Paris, that he was to refrain from any interference with
the internal affairs of France and to observe perfect
neutraUty between poUtical parties. Palmerston had no
choice but to forward these instructions ; but by the
same messenger he sent a letter to Normanby, rebuking
ffim in terms almost insffiting for ffis want of sympathy
with Napoleon's proceedings. Normanby, when he
commufficated ffis official instructions to M. Turgot, the
French Foreign Miffister, was met by expressions of amaze
ment, for, said Turgot, Lord Palmerston had already
333

334 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
expressed to Count Walewski cordial approval of the
President's proceedings. Normanby in bewilderment wrote
to Lord John, and then it aU came out how Palmerston had
been treating his Sovereign and the Cabinet as ciphers and
taking his own independent line. RusseU felt that the
crisis so long imminent — so often averted — ^was upon him.
Palmerston must be dismissed, let come what might.
Lord John Bussell to Lord Clarendon.
20th December 1851. — A serious difference has arisen between
Palmerston and me. He had some conversation with Walewski ^
about the President's coup d'Uat, wffich he [Palmerston] said
he approved. A despatch was afterwards written by Palmerston
by the Queen's desire prescribing strict abstinence from inter
ference in the national affairs of France. Normanby ^ reported
that Turgot told ffim that WalewsM had reported to ffis govern
ment the approbation of the President's act by Palmerston, and
that two of his [Turgot' s] coUeagues mentioned it as the approba
tion of the Enghsh govemment. I asked for an explanation :
no reply. The Queen asked for an explanation tffiough me.
Next came a second despatch to Normanby declaring ffis
[Palmerston's] ovsm opiffion in favor of the President, sent off
to Paris without my knowledge. After tffis, an explanation
for the Queen, consisting of a defence of the act of Loffis Napoleon.
I told him that that was not the question — ^the question was
whether, without concert, he should have expressed any opiffion.
I said that these violations of prudence and decorum had become
so frequent that I thought he coffid not with any advantage to
the country hold any longer the seals of office. He declares
ffimseff ready to give them up. I have laid the correspondence
before the Queen. Supposing the Cabinet to be of opiffion that
we can go on, the question of a successor arises. I am inchned
to GranviUe, knowing your ffisincUnation to succeed Palmerston,
but every one wiU look to you as the man most capable of hold
ing the office. It is very possible the Cabinet may say that no
one but you is fit to succeed, and the country may echo that
opiffion. I wish you, therefore, to be prepared for what may
happen. Any further fights on tffis subject I shaU be glad to
receive, as I am much in want of them.
' French Ambassador at St. James's.
2 British Ambassador in Paris,

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 335

Lord Clarendon to Lord John Bussell.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 22nd December. — Your letter of tho 20th
reached me late last night, and I am more grieved than I can
express at this serious adffition to your natural ffifficulties. As
you ask for my opiffion, I shall, as I always do, give it without
reserve, tho' it may be worth Uttle, as there are various facts
and details of wffich I am ignorant.
I don't very much hke the case. Palmerston has acted with
great ffiffiscretion and impropriety, and it was natural you
shoffid think the time had come for separating yourself from a
coUeague who kept you ffi such constant hot water ; but he has
so often done the same sort of tffing before and shovsm a ffis-
position to act ffidependently of the Queen and of yourseff,
relymg upon your being compeUed to share ffis responsibiUty,
that the question arises whether tffis particular piece of mis
conduct shoffid not, hke the others, have been overlooked,
and whether the matter and the moment are weU selected for a
rapture. When the whole subject comes before the pubhc, may it not
be said that Palmerston, in approving (however unwarrant- ¦;
ably) of the President's act, merely forestaUed that wffich six '
weeks hence wiU be the almost uffiversal opiffion of France, and
that as after the first eight-and-forty hours the success of the*-
coup d'etat promised to be complete and the estabhshment of a
miUtary despotism certaffi, it was prudent to lose no time in
compUmentffig the Dictator, with whom it was important for
us to maintaffi the most friendly relations ?
WiU it not also appear that the Queen and govemment of
England ffisapproved of the act of Louis Napoleon, wffich was
from the first lauded to the sffies by the Continental Powers,
and that Palmerston's new-bom sympathy with them was to be
punished, tho' aU their grievances agamst ffim for the last four
years had been unnoticed ? May not this render our position
more isolated than it now is, and possibly give offence to France ?
On the other hand, I beheve foreign governments wiU rejoice
to be rid of Palmerston a tout prix, and will care Uttle about the
cause ; but it is necessary to bear in mmd what sort of case P.
wffi be able to make out for ffimseff and against the govemment ;
tho' it may be ffifficffit for ffim to persuade ffis Raffical friends
that ffis precipitate admiration of Loffis Napoleon's treason
against hberty was necessary or expeffient.

336 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
So much for the matter of the case : then as to the time.
WiU it not be thought that the endurance of P.'s misdeeds
ought stffi and at aU hazards to be persisted in, with reference
to the general state of Europe — to the meeting of parUament
being at hand — to the risk of breakmg up the govemment —
to the impossibihty of forming another, and to the Reform
BiU wffich has been promised by you, and wffich nobody but
you can undertake ? I mention these tffings as they occurred
to me on reading your letter, and I hke to be prepared for the
worst view that can be taken of a subject ; but I have not
sufficient data for formmg an opiffion, and, preceding points of
ffifference may give to this particular one a very ffifferent com
plexion. The danger of parting with P. and having ffim in
opposition and the difficulty of replacing ffim wiU, I tffink,
alarm aU your coUeagues, and I shaU not be surprised to hear
as the result of tffis day's Cabinet that the govemment is thought
too much weakened to go on.
But if such is not the case, then comes the question of suc
cessor. I am exceeffingly obUged to you for having thought
of my objections to occupy P.'s place, wffich are as strong as
ever. For some utterly uffiounded reason (as Heaven knows
I never coveted any office, and much less ffis) P. has always
been suspicious of me, and if I become Foreign Secretary notffing
woffid ever persuade ffim or ffis numerous friends, in and out of
parUament, that I had not had some hand in ffis ffisgrace, and
that they must avenge it by thwartmg me in every way that
his vast knowledge and ingenuity could devise. Tffis would be
a great ffisadvantage, and my objection rests, therefore, qffite
as much on pubhc as on personal grounds. I tffink GranviUe
woffid do the business very weU under your gffidance — certainly
better than Lord Canning, who was urged by Staffiey and Lord
Aberdeen to accept the F.O. in February last. He is popular
with the H. of Lords and the country ; and I tffink moreover
that the Queen and the Prince would prefer ffim to me. Your
expectation that the Cabinet and the pubUc might demand my
services, is, of course, very gratif ymg to me ; but you know how
I estimate my own abihties, and I fear that those who think
better of them than I do wiU be ffisappointed. I feel, too,
that an absence of four years and a haff from the Cabinet and
from England, durffig which I have only stuffied foreign affairs
in the newspapers, almost in itseff ffisquahfies me for the Foreign
Office at tffis critical moment. His dictis, I now leave my fate

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 337
in your hands. H I can be spared from a task to which I don't
feel equal, I shaU be very happy ; but ff it be otherwise ordained,
then I must rely upon your friendsffip clearly to explain to the
Cabinet, and ff possible to Palmerston, that you are aware of
my long-standing objections to the F.O. ; that I accept it with
reluctance, and that until last ffight I was totaUy ignorant of
any ffisagreement between yourself and Palmerston. You have
my hearty prayers that whatever you resolve may be for the
good of the country and your own honor and satisfaction.
Lord John Bussell to Lord Clarendon.
23rd December. — I wiU give you as fair an account as I can of
what has passed sffice I vsrrote.
The Cabmet, ffi the first place, approved of my conduct and
consented to go on as a govemment. In the second place, they
gave me their opiffion that altho' GranviUe was very fit for the
Foreign Office, your appomtment woffid give greater confidence
and satisfaction to the pubhc. I carried tffis opiffion to the
Queen, and told her at the same time of your letter to my
brother.! gj^g expressed great esteem for you, and great admira
tion of your very handsome conduct. The result, however, was
that it was plam to me that the anxieties consequent upon
Palmerston's conduct had greatly preyed upon her peace of
mind. There was an evident dread of the ffitrigues so clearly
pomted out by you as hkely to be set on foot by friends and
admirers of Palmerston. Seeing tffis ffisposition, and how much
it was shared by the Prffice, I proposed not to fiU up the office
tffi I heard from you in reply to what I shoffid vsrite to-day.
Seemg aU the ffifficffities, and gratefffi to you for the manner
in wffich you have always behaved to me, I teU you fairly that
what woffid give me most ease woffid be that you should waive
the of&ce for yourseff and acqffiesce in the appointment of Lord
GranviUe. From what you wrote to the Duke, I conclude tffis
course would be agreeable to you. .
I have had for five years a most harassing warfare — not in the .
Cabinet, but as umpire between Wmdsor and Broaffiands. )
I have just received your letter. It is as handsome as possible,
and reUeves me from aU ffifficffity. Your objections to taking
of&ce are, as you say, of a pubUc nature, and it is this guerre
sourde, or perhaps open war, of Palmerston's admirers wffich
the Queen, with just reason, dreads. I will not speak of the
1 The Duke of Bedford.
VOL. I y

338 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
causes of the rupture. Your remarks are very just ; but my
patience was drained to the last drop.
Now as to going on — what I should Uke would be Clarendon
to Paris — ^Newcastle to Ireland — ^Fox Maule ^ to the Board of
Controffi^— CardweU to the War Office. What do you say to
tffis ? I do not tffink we ought to go on without some attempt
to strengthen ourselves. Yrs. ever, J. Russell.
2 P.M. — I have seen GranvUle and offered ffim the office,
wffich he accepts.
Clarendon replied immediately :—
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 24th December. — I congratulate you
heartily upon the approval and support of your coUeagues, and
upon having got out of tffis serious ffifficffity in the best maimer
possible. I ffid not put them prominently forward, but I was
perfectly aware of the objections to myseff that existed in the
minds of the Queen and the Prffice ; and these alone, exclusive
of any other considerations, woffid have been of sufficient weight
to prevent my accepting the F.O. I am sure they wiU be pleased
with GranviUe and that you wiU find ffim both efficient and
amenable. He, I hope, wiU not be exposed to the vexatious
opposition from Palmerston that I should have looked for on
the part of a man who for so many years has entertained such
miserable and groundless suspicions of me. . . . AU I care
about is not being supposed to have acted an unworthy part in
dechffing to assist you at a moment of ffifficffity. ... I must
therefore rely on you to guard me from any misconception on
the charge that, under trying circumstances, I refused any assist
ance I could give to the pubhc and yourseff. . . .
Lord John Bussell to Lord Clarendon.
26th December. — Your letter sets me qffite at my ease, and,
Uke aU you have done, is most handsome to me. I beUeve your
putting yourseff in my hands and stating your objections was
the best course also for your own qffiet, for the Queen is deUghted
with your conduct, and would, in case I had forced the F.O.
upon you, have been uneasy and anxious as to personal ffisagree
ment with Palmerston. I foresaw your difficffity about Paris,
tho' in fact your being under Granvffie woffid have been some-
1 Succeeded as second Baron Panmure in 1852, and eleventh Earl of
Dalhousie in 1860.
' Corresponding to the present India Office.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 339
thmg Uke Canffing beffig under Charles Wynne. To be sure,
Paris is nearer than Calcutta. ... I wiU speak to the Queen
to-day about the D. of Newcastle, so as to reUeve you from the
Court ceremoffies. I hope it may not be said that you have
come away in ffisgust at not being Foreign Secretary ; but Ues
cannot be helped, and 4J years ffi Ireland are enough for any
man. ... As for being out of my difficffities, that is a long
way off ; but I feel I have done my duty, and perhaps saved
the country from the danger of standing alone. I thought it
idle and unfair to offer you the Foreign Office in a way that you
would refuse, and I coffid not say your acceptance was absolutely
necessary wffile ' GranviUe the Pohte ' was at hand. Yours
ever, J- Russell.
Immediately after the cabinet on 23rd December Lord
Lansdowne, foreseeing Clarendon's disUke of stepping into
Palmerston's shoes, had written and begged him not to
decUne hastUy the offer that was about to be made to
ffim. Afterwards, fearing that Clarendon shoffid suppose
he had referred to the offer RusseU had made of the French
Embassy, he wrote to explain as foUows :
Bowood, 26th December 1851. — I must write a few Unes of
explanation, in case what I wrote to you on Tuesday may appear
inconsistent with what has since passed. When I left the
cabffiet on that day at the same moment that J. RusseU and
others did, it was perfectly understood, and I am confirmed in
that reeoUection by others, that the seals were to be offered to
you on the foUowing day. Indeed the fitness of that step was
expressed by many strongly, and dissented from by none. It
was offiy on gomg to Windsor tffis morffing that I learned that
your refusal to accept them had been notified, not in answer
to such an offer, but by anticipation in a letter wffich I have not
seen, but wffich had been received in the meantime. Indeed,
in whatever language you may have expressed yourseff (and I
have no doubt it was considered to be conclusive), I stiff tffink
the offer shoffid have been formaUy made. The offiy reason I
have now, however, for saying another word on the subject is
that I may not appear to have written hastily or hghtly on a
subject to wffich I attached much importance. Yrs. sincerely,
Laitsdovstne.
Charles GreviUe, to whom Clarendon explained his
reasons for decUmng the Foreign Office, expressed great

340 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
indignation. ' His conduct has been to my mind very
pusiUaffimous and unworthy of him.' The injustice of
GreviUe's further remark — ' I can't help tffinking he wiU
be mortified at his advice being so immediately taken ' —
is shown in Lady Clarendon's journal.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
24th December.— We have just heard that Lord GranviUe
has been offered the Foreign Office and has accepted it. It
was so strongly the wish of the Queen that Lord John says it
wiU contribute to ffis own ease if George waives his claim ! The
Cabinet preferred George, and so, probably, would the pubhc ;
but the Times, tffiough Charles GreviUe, wiU support Lord
GranviUe. Tffis is a great reUef to George, who foresaw great
tracasseries and bothers from Pahn. and great personal annoy
ance. . . . Lord John suggests that George should go to Paris.
This George decUnes, but begs on the score of expense and
annoyance of the DubUn season and the iU-health which it entails
upon ffim that the offer to the Duke of Newcastle should be
made immediately. This Lord John ought to do, and I mean
to insist upon it. There is no reason, either pubhc or private,
that we should sacrifice ourselves and our children any more.
In the voluminous private correspondence of this time,
I can detect no trace of the mortification wffich GreviUe
foresaw that Clarendon woffid feel in being passed over.
Since leaving Madrid in 1839 he had taken almost as much
pains to avoid office as other men take to obtain it. No
man ever coveted less digito monstrari et dicere — Hie est.
He longed for reUef from the Lord-Lieutenancy and coveted
no other public employment. Perhaps, having now passed
the meridian of life, he shared Sir William Temple's opinion,
that a man shoffid qffit gaUantry at forty and the public
service at fifty. Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis, M.P.
ViCEEEGAL Lodge, 26th December 1851. — You wiU have
seen by the correspondence of wffich Katty has sent copies to
my mother, that Sir G[eorge] G[rey]'s reasons for my not being
Foreign Secretary are not quite correct. I stated to Lord John
the grounds, of a mixed personal and pubhc nature, upon wffich

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 341
I thought myseff objectionable and Granville preferable ; but,
havmg done that, which I thought a duty, caring nothing about
office and wishing only to be of use to Lord J., I placed myseff
in ffis hands as to what he thought best ; requesting only that,
in the event of my beffig selected, certain explanations should be
made to the Cabinet.
Lord J. received tffis letter on Tuesday, after ffis retum from
Windsor, and, even if it had not been written, you wiU have
seen by ffis to me that my acceptance of the office was totally
out of the question, the Queen's and Prince's objections to me
being so strong that Lord J. was compeUed to say ffis ease
would be promoted by my waiving any claim I might have
and acqffiescmg ffi GranviUe's appointment. My letter, it is
true, removed ffis ffifficulties, and he at once sent for G. ; but
it is unjust to say that I absolutely decUned to give my services
at a moment of ffifficffity. My refusal to come to Ireland was
far more positive and was persisted ffi for several days, until
a sense of pubUc duty (or rather of friendship for the Duke of
Bedford, who must have gone ff I had not) mduced me to yield.
Lord J. knew weU enough that I should have pursued a similar
course now.
The Queen and Prince are wrong in wisffing that courtiers,
rather than ministers, should conduct the affairs of the country ;
but they were qffite right ffi thinking I shoffid not be a sub
servient tool nor prepared to sacrifice my own opiffions to
theirs. They labor under the curious mistake that the F.O.
is their pecuhar department and that they have a right to
control, ff not to direct, the foreign pohcy of England. I make
some aUowance for their objections to me, as they have suffered
such deep humiUation from Palmerston that they now fear an
independent-minded man as a scalded dog does cold water.
Yet there is notffing that ever passed between us that ought
to have created a bad feehng. Once, when I was in the Cabinet,
I told them the truth about their wish to send troops to support
the imbecile Queen of Portugal in her despotism ; and on other
occasions, when I was not in the Cabinet, I gave them to under
stand that I was an unfit recipient of their grievances against
Lord John and Palmerston — in fact, that I coffid be no party
to a cabal. Of course tffis was aU done most respectfuUy, and
with ordmary men and women it would not have engendered
distrust ; but to Kffigs and Queens it probably appeared
mutmous.

342 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
I hope you wiU think I was right in dechffing Paris. Without
caring much for official ffigffity, I should not have Uked to
place myseff under GranviUe's orders. ... I might also, tho'
in a lesser degree, have been objectionable to H.M. there ; and,
finaUy, I shoffid have had a casus belli with Normanby, who, it
appears, has not even ffitimated ffis wish to resign. . . .
Ever since I came here Charles ^ has in vain tried to make
me think I was hated and abused and mtrigued against by every
member of the govemment ; but I never saw the sUghtest
symptom of it, and, tho' I don't rely on official affection, I must
say that I have always found them corffial and ready to meet
my views. . . .
2nd January 1852. — . . . Eviction from office must have
been a rude shock to Palmerston, and ff the Morning Post is
any ffidex to ffis feehngs, he seems to resent it bitterly and to
meffitate an onslaught upon Lord John, quite as much as a
defence of ffimseff. . . . Abroad, the govemment wiU. gain by
his loss ; but at home I expect they wiU feel it ; for Palmerston
is deserveffiy Uked ; ffis good nature, courtesy and hospitaUty
made ffim many friends, and he was able to tum away the wrath
of opponents as no other member of the govemment can do.
Had Clarendon been able to view ffimseff from outside,
he might have added to tffis sentence the words ' except
myself,' for aU who had to do vsdth him agreed that it was
precisely in the quaUties he attributes to Palmerston that
he himseff exceUed. Moreover he exercised them in
diplomacy, wffich Palmerston never coffid or woffid ; instead
of irritating foreign governments. Clarendon was able in
many instances to remedy or prevent misunderstanding
and friction.
Srd January. — ... I beUeve no one but ffimseff can have
the least idea of what Lord John has undergone for the last
five years with the Queen about Palmerston, nor how it has
embittered ffis relations with H.M., who has certainly, but m
vain, been appeaUng to ffim for protection against the man whose
deUght seemed to be to humiUate her and to msult her affies. I
really caimot blame him for wishing to get some ease for himseff
out of the rupture with P., or for tffinkffig that, ff GranviUe
were too courtly-minded, he should himseff be at hand to redress
• His younger brother.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 343
the balance and maintain an independent poUcy. ... I am
really sick of abuse and turmoil, and can feel nothing but satis
faction mth things as they have been settled.
10th February. — ... I can't help being sorry for anything
that mortifies Lord and Lady P[almerston], and I fear they
must have suffered a good deal. For his sake it is to be hoped
that he won't be aUured by any of the Protectionist baits thrown
out to ffim, for he would take up a sinking cause, and irrepar
ably damage ffis own character. . . .
Clarendon felt much anxiety as to the mischief that
might be done by the incessant denunciation of Louis
Napoleon by the Times, and wrote strongly to Henry
Reeve on the subject.
1st February 1852. — ... I have no doubt the Times has
had good and sufficient reasons for the course taken with re
spect to Loffis Napoleon. To denounce in the strongest terms
such acts as he comnutted, at first, was a duty on the part of the
EngUsh press. OccasionaUy to do the same at subsequent
periods of ffis two months' career was Ukewise perhaps necessary ;
but to go on battermg at ffim every day was more, I think,
than was required either by pubhc opiffion at home or by EngUsh
interests abroad. ... If we were invuffierable, and had an
army and navy and rock-defended shores, we might thunder
away to any extent ; but, in our present helpless state, it seems
to me that to persist in irritatffig France is a luxury for wffi'ch
we may pay dearly ; every newspaper at the same time over-
fiovring vsdth proofs of national paffic, and the most naif inffica-
tions of where we can be best attacked and how most easily
conquered. It does not appear whether Clarendon, when he wrote
as above, knew that the obnoxious articles were from
Reeve's own pen, but we have Reeve's ovsti acknowledg
ment that they were. Moreover Lord Granville was aware
of it, and vsrote a vigorous remonstrance to Reeve against
the tone of the articles in the Times of 14th, 15th, 16th and
17th January.! . . . < j hear that Louis Napoleon is irritated
and annoyed beyond measure by the language of the Times.
However deserved such castigation may be, it will be a
1 Life, i. 249.

344 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
serious responsibiUty to goad him on to acts of violence
which may be seriously inconveffient to us.'
Palmerston had not to wait long for his revenge upon
Lord John RusseU on 21st February. By a majority of
thirteen he carried an amendment against the government
on the Militia Bill, and RusseU at once resigned. ' I have
had my tit-for-tat vsdth John Russell,' vsrote Palmerston
in high glee to his brother, ' and I turned ffim out on Friday
last.' Lord Derby then formed a miffistry, avowedly
stop-gap, for he coffid not command a majority in either
House. Palmerston decUned the ChanceUorsffip of the
Exchequer because of Derby's intention to take the sense
of the country on the question of protection, and DisraeU
took that office, with the leadership in the Commons. By
this change of govemment Clarendon obtained welcome
release from the post which he had occupied in Ireland
during nearly five years of exceptional difficffity. It was
impossible for any man to win unammous approval in a
country so deeply seamed vsdth faction as Ireland. Croker
belaboured his admiffistration in the Quarterly Beview
(Ixxxvi. 228), and Lewis dealt with it from another point
of view in the Edinburgh (xciii. 208) ; but the offiy acts
which Clarendon had any difficffity in defending were the
removal of Lord Roden from the magistracy, as described
in a former chapter, and the awkward entanglement into
which, as explained above, he was led with the black
mailing journaUst Birch.^

From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
13th March 1852. — Lord John had a meeting tffis week in Ches
ham Place to settle the plans of the Opposition. Charles Viffiers is
to ask some questions about free trade on Monday, but to make
no motion involving a ffivision and to take a tone of moderation.
Lord Palmerston ffid not attend the meetffig. . . . George went
to-day to Lord Palmerston by appomtment, stayed with ffim,
I tffink, about two hours, and Lord P. not offiy gave ffim details,
but had the papers arranged to show ffim. George hopes that
> See pp. 316-319, aupra.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 345
he was able to soften him a Uttle about Lord John and the
Wffig party. Both Lord Palmerston to George and Lady P.
to me treated the Queen's minute as a boutade de femme, and
both seemed very sore at its having been produced by Lord
John in the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston says that
of course aU this wiU not alter ffis principles ; but that Lord
John has placed ffim in an independent position, which he does
not mtend to reUnqffish, and that tho' he may act vnth Lord
John again, he does not intend to act under him or acknowledge
ffim as ffis leader. He complained much of Lord John's sudden
way of actmg without consultation with ffis colleagues on matters
m wffich they had to share ffis responsibiUty. There is some
truth ffi aU tffis, but Lord P. is a curious man to find fault with
that. It is very pleasant for us that aU sides seem frienffiy with
George and that he has been fairly out of these worries. He
had ffis own Irish ones to contend Avith ; but now they are over,
and we find our position ffi England very pleasant. . . .
25th March. — We ffined at the Palace. The Queen had a long
conversation with George and talked a good deal about Lord
Palmerston — seemed to resent ffis discourtesy in not answermg
her letters, etc. George tried to smooth matters, as he always
does. The ' Who-who ? ' Miffistry ^ managed to carry on affairs
tiU Jffiy, when parUament was dissolved. The Duke of
Weffington made his last speech in support of the MiUtia
BiU wffich had been so fatal to the RusseU government,
and died on 14th September. The general election left
parties without much change, neither Liberals nor Con
servatives being able to reckon a working majority. The
new parUament met on 4th November : on llth December
DisraeU's budget was rejected by a majority of nineteen,
and Lord Derby immediately resigned.
Current events — ^the elections, the restoration of the
French Empire (2nd December 1852), Palmerston's inten
tions, the Cabinet crisis, etc. — aU are vivaciously discussed
by Clarendon's correspondents during this eventfffi autumn.
' So called from a little scene in the House of Lords. The Duke of
WeUington, who had become deplorably deaf, sitting beside Lord Derby,
asked about the composition of the new Cabinet. ' Who ? who ? ' he
said repeatedly in tones loud enough to be heard throughout the benches
as Derby shouted the unfamiliar names to him.

346 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis.
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 12th August 1852. — . . . Lord John
writes to me that Derby must not be aUowed to go on. Avail
ing myseff of that, I have described the utter helplessness of ffis
position ff D. resigned on the ffist ffight of the session, and I
recommended a cautious pohcy. J. R. is dymg for a fight and
for office. In ffis letter to the Duke of Bedford tffis morffing
he says that he shaU not hesitate on every occasion to vote
against the govemment, as no worse one coffid by possibffity
be formed, forgettmg that the question is — ^not how bad, but
how good, a govemment can be formed on the next occasion. . . .
Geosvenoe Ceescent, 1st September. — . . . The article in
the Morning Chronicle may not be the popular view of J. R.,
but it is what aU the PeeUtes, many of the Wffigs and the majority
of those who make and maintain a govemment tffink of ffim.
It is reaUy too bad that he should be led by ffis wife and her
father to set everytffing down to intrigue. He has been un
fairly and ungratefuUy treated, but he has great faffits of char
acter and has committed many blunders ; ff, when these are
perceived and to a certain extent resented, he is to content ffim
seff with tffinking there is a base intrigue against ffim when ffis
back is turned, he wiUuUy shuts ffis eyes to the truth and wffi
never improve, nor occupy the position that ffis talents and
services entitle ffim to hold. I send you ffis letter of yesterday
and an extract from my answer. ... I wish to inspire him with
more confidence in ffimseff and ffis position than he appears to
feel ; and, above aU, to prevent ffis knocking at every man's
door, as he has done lately ffi obeffience to Lady J.'s mandate
of always to be doing something, in total forgetfffiness of ffis
own digffity. Lord Howden ^ to Lord Clarendon.
13 Heebfoed Steeet, 1st October 1852. — My deae C, — ^Here
I am, hot from Paris, and I bring over a bit of news so curious,
and conveyed to me from such strangely good authority, that
I hasten to give it you — vaille que vaille. First of aU, it is said
that the decree of the Empire was read at Jerome's house on
Sunday, and the formffia approved by ffim. But the startUng
part of my commuffication is tffis — that the President intended
1 Soldier and diplomatist (1799-1873), at this time Equerry to H.R.H.
the Duchess of Kent.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 347
in the decree, and pubUckly, to entail his succession by adoption
and not by blood. And who do you think the adoptee was to
be ? Monseigneur le Comte de Chambord ! ! !
It certaiffiy is not unhke Loffis Napoleon — the idea of astonish
ing Europe by a Bonaparte legitimising the descendant of S.
Louis. But the story goes on to say that Jerome was so furious
at this, added to a majority of the Cabinet against it, that the
project was abandoned.
Miss EmUy Eden had by tffis time estabUshed her Whig
coterie at Eden Lodge, whence flowed frequent streams of
mingled gossip and counsel to her old friend. Her first
letter, however, lending itseff to quotation, came from a
villeggiatura in Battersea.
Batteesea, 1st October 1852. — . . . The Thames is in such
a fuss to-day, great waves, with an affectation of wffite foam,
and the steamers and barges so very much out of the horizontal
that I carefuUy abstaffi from looMng at them. I guess how the
passengers feel. And / tffink it is very cold ; but was ordered
mto the verandah by a doctor, so I suppose it is aU right.
I was in the same place on Tuesday, when, to my surprise,
the Duke of Devonsffire stepped out of the window. The tide
was up, the sun sffinmg, boats were swarming, and it took his
fancy immensely. He wanted to know if Miss Ridley would
change with ffim for Chatsworth or any of his places. He is
very pleasant when he means to be so ; always teUs me not
to tire myseff as he has coUected stories to teU me, and he teUs
them quamtly, always givffig me the notion of an old memoir
in Pickering's type. ... I had no idea how nearly Lismore
Castle had been destroyed. He was rather affronted because
I said how sure it was that an Irish castle should take ffie and
that there should be a barrel of gunpowder in the steward's
room ! He ffid not see that, but owned that no barrels of gun
powder were to be found in ffis EngUsh homes. My own behef
is that there are smaU kegs of the same article in aU the dressing-
rooms at Lismore ; but I ffid not press the point, as it ffid not
please. He gave me a shawl pin, for which you would give your
ears if you were, as you ought to be, cut off from your cigars.
It is an enameUed Uttle pipe of tobacco, so weU done that my
shawl smeUs smoaky. He thought ' Francis Bedford rather
teffious — ffis pocket was too fffil of letters.' He is in a most
eager anti-Derby mood. . . . Lord John's speech ? What do

348 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
you tffink of it ? I thought it perfect, tho' at ffist it felt hke
stepping on tffin ice and I was prepared for a plunge and a chiU,
but ended in a glow. It was so honest and maffiy, and if I ffid
not agree with every word of it (which I do), stiU I honor a
pubUc man who states so boldly and so ably ffis views and
convictions. And then there comes Mr. Heffiey ! ^ ffid you
ever ? I reaUy caimot fiffish the sentence, and evidently ffis
ovsm supporters could harffiy swaUow it. . . .
' Francis Bedford ' came as I was writing and made my letter
too late for the post. He nearly caught cold through seeing
me out, so I came in and he sat down by the fire and talked
much of Hatty. He has been in town tffis week to make ac
quaintance with her father and mother, who are just come from
Bermuda. I think it wiU end in his cutting off Tavistock with
£80,000 or £100,000 a year and settUng the bulk of ffis property
on Hatty, which is a little unjust. . . . That horrid baUoon went
over the house, very low, with two men hanging on to it ; at
least the servants said they were Uve men. It is too siUy — and
vsdcked. Thank you again and again, dear Lord Clarendon, for aU
your Mndness to me. I am sure if you knew what very bright
spots in a very shady hfe your visits are, you woffid feel actuaUy
complacent when you tffink how much trouble you took about
them. Eden Lodge, 18th October. — . . . The John RusseUs came
here yesterday, and he was, as he always is in that qffiet way,
pleasanter than most people and entirely unhke anybody else.
I hke ffim of all tffings ; but every now and then there oozed
out a few dogged words of hatred of the present government
(in wffich I could go aU lengths with ffim) and of a deternaination
to overthrow them as soon as possible (on which I pohtely
dechned making any comment, but it sounded alarming). I can
harffiy say what the words were, but the intention came out
constantly. TaUdng of these miffisters going on for want of
an organised party to take their place, Lord John said they had
gone on qffite long enough. Malmesbury was worse than
Packington, Packington worse than Walpole, and so on.
' Derby,' said he, ' to be sure, failed the ffist time he tried to
make a Cabinet ; but in one week he made up a govemment
out of untried men. I see no ffifficulty in maffing up one any-
1 Right Hon. Joseph Henley, M.P. (1793-1884), President of the Board
of Trade.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 349
day ; imless, indeed, a superflffity of tried men ^^¦ould be a diffi
culty. There are now thirty men in this country who liave
been cabinet miffisters.' ' And can you bring thirteen of them
together ? ' I asked. ' Certainly,' quoth ho, ' I see no ffifficulty
about it.' I ffid not pursue the subject, as Lady John was
present ; and though the Dial (Lady J.) spoke not, it made
shrewd signs and pointed fiffi upon the hom' of office. Francis
Bedford is clearly out of favor ; and, taffing their tone of con
fidence and the fact that Mintos, Melgunds [illegible] etc., are
aU m town, and that you are in the country, I am left vsdth a
paiffiffi impression that there is a smaU lucifer match looffing
out for the shghtest possible rough surface to rub against, and
I wish you coffid catch it and put it back in the allumette box !
I hope tffis is not treacherous of me ; but, after aU, I only
want Lord John not to do anytffing that woffid injure ffimseff,
and I do not know any one who has any infiuence over ffim — ^f or
good — ^but you. I wish I coffid remember more of the sUght
indications of miscffief wffich I observed ; but I know that
I kept saymg to myseff aU the time — ' Oh, you are after that,
are you ? You tffink you can do as you Uke, but I vsdU teU Lord
Clarendon of you, see ff I don't ! ' . . . The Mintos came late
to bid me good-bye, and I thought I had never seen tffiee people
less Ukely to meet agaffi ffi tffis world than Lord and Lady
Mmto and I. . . . Can that be true about the revival of Con
vocation ? not that I have a notion what Convocation is ; but
whatever the Bishops of Exeter and Oxford and Archdeacon
Demson wish for, must be rffin to our church. Yours affly.,
E. E.
From Charles Greville to Lord Clarendon.
Newmarket, Tuesday [October 1852]. — I am glad the J.
Russells and Reeves don't meet. I don't tffink it woffid have
done. Lady John was a friend of ffis ffist wife and hates ffim,
especiaUy as she knows or suspects ffim to be adverse to John
and to write against ffim. I am glad John's visit is postponed,
for I coffid not have managed to get to you on Friday, but I wiU
be with you on the 5th. ... I have done very weU here.
Brace's horse won the great stakes to-day (we are coffiederates)
and we won a lot of money on it. The weather is unhke any
tffing I ever saw here — a torrent of rain and cutting wffid —
pleasant to ride in for 6 hours on this heath ; but it does me
no harm. ... I don't beheve Pam. is trying to coalesce with

350 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
S[idney] H[erbert] and Co., or that they woffid with ffim. S. H.
is wedded to Newcastle, who equaUy hates Derby and J. RusseU
and dreams of a Newcastle admiffistration. The D. of Bedford
is expected here. He won't come to ffis own house, but gets
lodged at Portman's at the H. Park 3 nfiles off — a poor man
with whom he has no intimacy, and he borrows a pony of some
body in the town, not chusffig to bring ffis own horses ! ^
Bboadlands, 21st October 1852. — I have had a long conversa
tion with Palmerston and a good deal of desultory talk with
Lady P. and Lord Shaftesbury, and the result is a strong con
viction that it wiU end in P. joiffing Derby, provided the latter
wiU give ffim a decent opportuffity for so doing. She evidently
wishes it very much. ... He wiU not, however, jom alone,
whatever may happen, and I see that he wiU expect a good many
changes and exclusions and that he shoffid come ffi with some
adherents. . . . Lady P. intimated to me that Walpole had
expressed his reaffiness to make way for P. whenever ffis place
might be wanted. ... P. talks vsdth the greatest contempt
of Malmesbury, and seems fuUy aware of the great danger of
having our foreign relations in such incompetent hands ffi the
present state of Europe. Though he rehes much on Loffis
Napoleon's pacific professions, he seems a good deal alarmed
at the vast and matured preparations of France and at the
utterly defenceless position we are ffi, and he ovsms that the
new Emperor's pohcy may any day take another tum and that
ffis present intentions afford a very imperfect security for us
to rely upon. Sir Charles Napier, who is here, gave us an
appaffing account of our vuffierable and unprepared conffition,
wffich Palmerston acknowledged to be true, and wffich I ovsm
fills me with apprehension. It is reaUy frightful to tffink of
being in the hands of such a government as tffis in the present
circumstances of Europe, and if Derby stays in, I hope Pam. wiU
join ffim, for ffis energy and capacity wiU be better in the hour
of danger than aU the incapables who compose the present
Cabinet. Newmaeket, 24th October 1852. — ... I shoffid say from
Sidney Herbert's tone that there was no chance of his joiffing
Derby. He is wedded to Newcastle, between whom and Derby
there is mortal antipathy. I do not tffink it so certam that
' Francis, seventh Duke of Bedford (1788-1861), whose chronic personal
parsimony was strangely in contrast with his liberal generosity on occasions,
and was the source of constant merriment among his friends.

1851-3] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 351
Dizzy would yield the lead to Pam. and I don't suppose he would
join without it. . . . The state of the Liberal party appears all
but desperate ; notffing but some ffire necessity can silence ffis-
cordant opiffions and pretension and produce union.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
16th November 1852. — George says that d'Izzy [sic] made a
grand, stilted funeral oration upon the Duke of Weffington
last mght, in which there was neither heart nor reahty, and it
was plam that ffis sjTupatffies were all with the successful
adventurer Napoleon. He had the good taste [and tact too, at
this particffiar moment of danger from abroad) to talk of our
' scandalous affies ' ffi Spain, of France havuig been ' subjugated '
by the D. of Weffington, and of ffis having won the battle of
Waterloo with ' raw recrffits and ffiscomfited affies.' In order
to praise the Duke, he described at great length what a general
ought to be and what he has to do and to undergo ; and this
the Olobe prints tffis eveffing in paraUel colunms with Tffiers's
eulogy upon a second-rate French Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr.
It is a verbatim translation or, as the Globe caUs it, a vulgar and
impudent theft ! Yet d'Izzy is their offiy man and sole support
in the H. of Commons. . . .
17i^ November. — . . . The town talk to-day was d'Izzy's
theft from Tffiers. The Daily News pubhshed it to-day from
the Ghbe, but prefixed to it a passage from ffis father's works
on Uterary impostors !
The ' Who-who ? ' Cabinet having resigned, the question
presented itseff, who was to be caUed upon to form a fresh
govemment. Lord John RusseU was ready enough for
the attempt, but it was the PeeUtes who had brought about
the crisis, and it was far from Ukely that they would accept
ffim as a leader, for although they were at one with ffim on
the question of free trade, they had no manner of relish for
that reform of the franchise whereon his heart was set. Lord
Lansdowne declined on the score of age — ^threescore and
twelve, and afflicted with gout ; so at last the choice feU
on the PeeUte Lord Aberdeen, who was but sixty-eight.
Palmerston at first decUned aU overtures but, persuaded
at length by LansdovsTie, he consented to take the Home
Office. Lord John RusseU was designated for the Foreign

352 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
Office ; but Lady John declared that ffis health woffid not
stand the work. Besides, he had set ffis heart upon lead
ing the House of Commons without the cares of a depart
ment, so that his head and hands might be free for deaUng
Vidth reform. Lord Aberdeen to Lord Clarendon.
London, 20th December 1852. — My deae Claeendon, — I
have not been able to persuade Lord John to adhere to ffis m-
tention of taffing the Foreign Office ; but he is ready to take
the lead in the House of Commons, either without office or with
a nominal office such as the Duchy. . . . Under these circum
stances I trust you wiU consent to take it. I tffink the pubUck
voice points you out for the situation ; and, whatever may
happen in future, it wiU be of the most essential importance
that we shoffid commence vsdth your name at the head of tffis
department. — Beheve me, etc. etc., Abeedeen.
Clarendon, however, was by no means anxious for office
of any kind, and exerted ffimseff to overcome Lady John's
objections, with so much success that in the end Lord John
undertook the task.^ And thus the Coalition Cabinet was
formed. Clarendon gratefffily assenting to ffis own ex
clusion, Gladstone, Graham, Newcastle, Sidney Herbert
and the Prime Miffister contributing the PeeUte element,
balanced by the Wffigs RusseU, Cranworth, GranviUe,
ArgyU, Lansdowne and Wood.
From Hon. Emily Eden to Lord Clarendon.
Eden Lodge, [December 1852]. — ... I did want to see you
so much tffiough aU that crisis. I wonder when I shaU ever
see you again. Perhaps you wiU have haff an hour some day
between two raihoads. I want winffing up and regulating.
When my poUtical watch stopped, I thought Lord Aberdeen
a cold, yeUow Scotchman turned up with black and mahce.
Lord Derby could not say more agamst Sir James [Graham]
than I thought ; and as for Mr. Gladstone, I rather expected
1 ' It was to Lord Clarendon that the persuasion of Lady John was
finaUy due ; but Lord Aberdeen had to add his own promise to that of
Lord Clarendon, that the latter would take the Foreign Office whenever
she thought Lord John ought to be relieved of it ' (Memorandum by Queen
Victoria, 25th December).

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 353
that, if he came into power, we might any of us be burnt at
Smithfield on ffis warrant and under the eyes of Cardffials
Phillpotts and WUberforce.^ . . . Then a Liberal government
without you, to begm with, and Carhsle and many others to end
with, seems to me an unffiterestmg absurffity. However, I
am persuadable ; offiy you must come and see me some day.
George Lewis, who had been Financial Secretary to the
Treasury in the RusseU Miffistry, had lost his election at
Peterborough to Mr. WhaUey (who was afterwards unseated
on petition), ' than whom,' wrote Clarendon before the
election, ' you coffid not have a worse man or a better
opponent.' Lewis remained out of ParUament until 1855,
when he succeeded ffis father in the baronetcy and in the
representation of the Radnor boroughs. Meanwffile, he
was invited to the editorial chair of the great Wffig quarterly,
whereof Wiffiam Empson, the editor, had just died. After
taking counsel with Clarendon, he decided to accept the
offer. Lord Clarendon to G. C. Lewis.
The Geove, 15th December 1852. — I said notffing to you about
the Edinburgh Review on Saturday, because I knew Theresa
thought the effitorsffip woffid not be advantageous to your pubhc
career ; but I had just been talking the whole matter over with
Reeve, who, I found, had confirmed Longman in ffis opiffion
that the Review would be saved if you coffid be persuaded to
undertake it. I have qffite come to the opiffion that it woffid
be a good tffing to accept the occupation. Reeve said the whole
character of the Review woffid be changed, that your name
would at once attract aU the hterary talent ffi the country, and
that you nught, ff you pleased, make yourseff the centre of a
Uterary society. For my own part I can see notffing infra dig.
m the occupation ; on the contrary, to aid the ffiffusion of usefffi
knowledge m aU its various branches seems to me honorable
and ffigffified, and now that you appear not to care about office
(ffi wffich feeUng I most heartily sympatffise, as you know),
and seeing that the effitorsffip woffid not interfere with your
bemg m parUament (wffich I woffid not on any accoimt have
you give up), I can see no reason against your accepting. . . .
1 The Bishops of Exeter and Oxford.
VOL. I Z

354 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
20th. — ... I have had a talk with Macaulay about the
Edinburgh Review, and he seemed qffite sincerely glad you had
taken it, anticipating great power and usefuffiess to you.

Lord Londonderry to Lord Clarendon.
Wynyaed Paek, 26th December 1852. — It gave me inexpress
ible pleasure, my dear Lord Clarendon, to receive your letter
of 24th yesterday, as it affords me the assurance that, although
our opiffions, views and prophecies may be wide as the poles
asunder on tffis granffissima Coahtion - Composition (wffich
either seems to have dropped from the sMes or been conjured in
the regions below), yet our friendsffip and private confidence,
formed under accidental circumstances and cemented on the
chffs over the blue seas of Garson Power, wiU not be impaired or
broken, though cabinet secrets may not be revealed by you nor
the cffief of our party betrayed by me.
j I wiU freely admit at the ffist moment of this EngUsh coup
d'Uat, I was so startled at hearing Lansdowne and Aberdeen
had fratemaUy embraced, that, giving that hcense to my pen
not always under prudent domiffion, I expressed myseff in no
measured terms as to the degoM that seized me, had I conceived
it possible for a combination, such as I now see before me, to
/have included my kind friend. But he is too canffid not to admit
that it is composed of aU colours, with a seemmg obhvion or
nuffification of aU former Unes of poUcy, principles and system.
. . . You pronounce we shaU have a panacea agamst the rising
democracy of the day : you aUedge the PeeUtes and Wffigs
have been long uffited in opposition — do you mean to assert
that Sir R. Peel would ever have acted in couples with Lord
John ? And yet Aberdeen, who hved only, as he swore, in the
spirit of the departed, has not only harnessed ffimseff to the car
of the Whig party, but at the head of only some 30 or 40 tail has
plunged into a wffirlpool of ffifficulties, doubts and incalculable
'^resffits. ... I am totaUy unable to form a conjecture what the
happy family-results wiU be from the ffiscordant materials. . . .
Coahtions have been ever of late years of two preponderatmg
parties ; but so utterly meretricious (forgive the word) and
apparently indehcate and inexphcable an affiance was never
before contemplated, much less seen. It is not in human nature
to lay aside personal incongruities, injuries and squabbles, so
as to embrace, forget and forgive, in a few months, as if

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 356
unblemished individuals on these heads came together ; or does
it foUow in the portrait you have given me, that a bit-by-bit
selection of every section, professing every shade of opinion,
can ever run smooth ? etc. etc.
Clarendon's loyalty to Lord John RusseU comes out
clearly in the following letter to Henry Reeve, through
whom, though chiefly concerned with the foreign corre
spondence of the Times, he was accustomed to convey
remonstrance or advice regarding the line taken by that
journal upon pubUc questions. An article very uffiriendly
to Lord John having appeared. Clarendon wrote to Reeve
complaimng of its mffairness : —
The Geove, 26th December 1852. — ... I was in London!
yesterday and found tffings by no means couleur-de-rose, for the
Liberals ffi general are so much ffispleased with the partition
of places that I fear many of them wiU not cross the House in
support of the govemment. The PeeUtes should have been
more seff-denymg and have remembered that the best generals .
are helpless vsdthout troops. The anti-miffisterial feeUng was
saffiy increased by the article in the Times yesterday, wffich
was as offensive to the Wffigs as possible and evidently intended
to bring Lord John ffito contempt. Now whatever ffis faihngs
and errors may have been, he has certaiffiy on tffis occasion
laid aside aU ffigffity and personal claims in order to faciUtate
the fusion that the country seemed to desire. A large section
of ffis foUowers are not so patrioticaUy minded as ffimseff, and
at the moment when they begin to accuse him of having thrown
them over, the Times comes to justify their resentment, and
even to treat ffim as unfit for the office wffich, solely to obUge
Lord Aberdeen, and agamst ffis ovsm wishes, he has accepted
temporarily. I have never seen ffim so mortified and annoyed,
because the friendship between Lord A. and Delane is, as he
said, weU known, and nobody wiU suppose that attacks on ffim
woffid find their way into the Times, uffiess they were agreeable
to Lord A.
I saw a great number of people yesterday, and I assure you
the general feeUng was that the PeeUtes aheady wanted to
kick down the Wffig ladder by wffich alone they have cUmbed
to power. My earnest wish is that there shoffid be no Wffigs
or PeeUtes in future, and that the Cabinet should be a real fusion

356 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
Lof principles ; but if the distinction is to be kept up by such
irritating stimulants as the Times can administer, jealousies wiU
prevent aU uffity of purpose and action, and the sooner the whole
thing comes to the end that Derby prefficts and is waiting for
the better.
Prom 1842 onwards. Lord Brougham wrote interminable
letters to Lord Clarendon, contaiffing bitter complaints
and sarcasm about his old coUeagues. The Christmastide
crisis of 1852 brought one in the same tune, but it is more
readable in parts (not to mention more easily decipherable)
than most of his epistles. It vsdU be seen that he assumed
that RusseU woffid be head of the new govemment vsdth
Palmerston at the Foreign Office.
Lord Brougham to Lord Clarendon.
Chateau Eleanoe Louise, 21st December 1852. — ... I
own I was comforted by your mention of Irish purchases, as I
conceived they woffid suffice to avert the catastrophe. Such
I regard it, uffiess parties are much better prepared than I can
beUeve them to take the govemment ; and certaiffiy ff an attempt
is made and fails, that wiU offiy give unnatural and whoUy un
deserved strength to the present people.
I daresay a httle seffish feeUng entered mto my mind ; for,
with aU its great and glarffig faffits, the Derby folks had for me
a great conveffience, namely, that I could take my rest, as they
were qffite weU watched and checked in the Commons and in the
country. But J. R. coming in (and in the way he is so hkely
to do and with some of ffis coadjutors) I shaU be compelled to
exert myseff, and the worthy Wffigs, I fear, are under a delusion
in supposing me dead. The recovery after suspended affima-
tion is said to be very paiffiul and I look forward to much annoy
ance ffi consequence. ... I daresay we shall see sacrffices as
formerly to the Irish tail and English newspapers. I tffink J. R.
has begun aheady. I don't mean to complain of ffis lecturing
(how absurd some of his stuff was !), because I don't tffink he
was wrong ffi getting a httle pohtical capital, and he had formerly,
and without any siffister intent, been one of us in that depart
ment.^ But I refer to ffis crying up Tommy Moore — an Irish
man and a Whig squib-monger — as above CampbeU, Bums and
^ Literature.

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 357
even Dryden, as a lyric poet ! ! and then uttering the in
creffible nonsense of defenffing his lascivious book because
Horace wrote indecentnesses ; forgetting that not a little of
Horace goes to excite the passions, and also that Horace wrote
at a time when even grave historians mentioned certain things
by name in their most grave passages. Now this sacrifice to
please the Irish betokens, I fear, what we may see on a larger
scale. Altogether I msh the country weU out of its present scrape,
and, above aU, that Palmerston in Germany may not make us
forget Malmesbmy ffi France. . . .
I give the foUowing letter (one of a dozen others about
this time) at length, because it explains the position and
motives of this extraordinary man, who combined intel
lectual gifts of a very ffigh order with a singffiar perversity
of judgment : —
Chateau Eleanoe Louise, 1st January 1853. — My deah
C. — ... I had heard from various quarters — as Lyndhurst,
Beauvale and others — that I was to be, or as some said, had
been, asked to joffi the new govt., and some (among others,
Lyndhurst) supposed I must be on my way home. Some
important Protectionists (ffisgusted, I beUeve, by Derby throwing
them over) vsrote to urge me strongly not to refuse (you shaU
see the letters), assumffig I was to be asked as a matter of course,
because they were pleased to say their ffisposition to support
Aberdeen's govemment woffid be much increased by their con
fidence ffi my beffig hostile to the Irish brigade and not favorable
to the extreme Rafficals. My answer to aU was that I knew
notffing of the matter, but should certaiffiy decUne if asked. I,
however, declared to the Protectioffist correspondents that I
was decideffiy for progress, and probably for more than the
Junction Govt, would give.
I must say that, though I beUeved the Wffigs, and possibly
some folks about the Court, were very Ukely to prevent my beffig
asked, I yet deemed it very probable I should be, because the
govt, was supposed to comprise aU shades of Liberals. Indeed,
with a singular iffieUcity, it had early been advertised as to
contaffi every name of the least importance ; just as in 1806
the fatal error was committed of caffing the govt. 'AU the
Talents.' But my behef was whoUy independent of that foolery,
and I had some reason to suppose J. R. might yield to ffis Wffig

358 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
prompters, the Wffigs havmg received from me many of the
greatest services (tffis to make them hate me), wffich they had
compeUed me to turn into great blows. Yet Aberdeen had never
received either kindness or ffiscourtesy. However, he has
probably been overruled. I had always been assured by Bedford
that J. R. ffid not partake of Melbourne's delusion in 1835. I
offiy haff beUeved tffis, and I now am incUned altogether to
ffisbeUeve it.
I must begin by affirming that no one can come to the con
sideration of this subject with a mind more unbiassed by any
interest than I do. My refusal was qffite a matter of course,
and the asffing me would have been a kindness wffich would
have bound me far more to the new govt, than any official con
nexion. The singhng me out as not being a Liberal of any
ffind leaves me at perfect hberty in aU possible respects. Of
course no personal consideration can or will justffy me in deviat
ing, however sUghtly, from the Une prescribed by my opiffions
and principles. Melboume said he was aware of tffis in 1835,
and he also knew that it was not so vsdth O'ConneU and Durham,
the ffist of whom had ffis jobs to do, the other ffis cause penffing
in the Lords, which was decided against ffim by me, and cost
ffim £30,000, tiU reversed by Cottenham, contrary to the opiffion
of ffis own counsel. On tffis subject Durham was harffiy sane,
and made a corrupt proposition to me on the subject and another
to Lyndhurst ; and he would have gone into open Raffical opposi
tion had M[elboume] not promised that no offer shoffid be made
to me. He (M.) knew after that and before I saw ffim that I
should refuse it. I had so declared to one of the Law Officers,
but he durst not break his promise, and he knew he coffid trust
me as he said. Accorffingly, I carried ffis Mufficipal Reform
single-handed tffiough the Lords, and supported ffim tiU Canada
and J. R.'s finaUty two years after drove me off, and the Bed
chamber intrigue fiffished our separation.
Just so now. The new govt, are secure against any attacks
from me for the same reason ; but tffis is not a generous course of
proceeffing : it is hardly even a just one. But now — what
possible risk could the new affies have run by doing to me what
was done last [illegible] to Lyndhurst ? You say they dreaded
a refusal. But whom could it injure to have offered and been
refused ? Surely they know I should have acted like a gentle
man. I should never have opened my Ups on the subject but
by their leave ; and, if I had, should have stated the only reason

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 359
to have been private and personal, and that I was as much
attached to the govt, as if I were one of themselves.
Then what shame was there in asking me ? You say — ' This
is in strict confidence,' as if it were something they had [illegible]
and were ashamed of. I beUeve, considering how the govt, is
composed, the only wonder wiU be to observe those who are
excluded. Again, Aberdeen must remember what passed in 1841 when
the Duke and Lyndhurst desired to [illegible] and to be allowed
to caU on me, but I preferred seeing them at Lyndhurst's on
accoimt of the prevaiUng espionage. They pressed me to take
the place of V. P. of the Council, to be endowed by biU with a
salary, and being also Deputy-Speaker of the Lords was the only
conffition annexed, for I was to be whoUy independent of party
ffi every respect. I refused from personal reasons, and chiefiy
because had I supported the govt, it woffid have appeared hke
a bargain. Peel had the shabbiness to deny the salary when
attacked by J. R., but I made Lyndhurst in the Lords adrffit it
to have been part of the proposition. I never had mentioned
tffis except to Denman, untU Lyndhurst in the Lords expressed,
the j'ear after, ffis regret that I had refused, and then J. R. took
ffie and made ffis attack. So that Aberdeen might safely
have trusted me now as the Duke and Lyndhurst ffid then.
But was the fear that giving me the opportuffity of refusing
increased in importance in case I ever should be against the
govt. ? H so, I conclude the story of an offer to St. Leonards
must be a fable, for he is as certaffi to be against the govt, as
Derby ffimseff.
Havmg mentioned ffim [St. Leonards],^ let me add that I see
the tone of the new govt, is (at least in their press) to puff him
extravagantly. Now I admit at once ffis great merits, but I
utterly deny the ground on wffich he is extoUed at the expense
of aU ffis predecessors. It is as false as any statement can
possibly be that he is the ffist chanceUor who, on leaving office,
left no judgments undeUvered. I beUeve Cottenham left none
in 1841 : I am sure I left not one single thing undecided in 1834.
I know Lyndhurst in 1830 left offiy two cases to be reheard by
me. Truro, no doubt, left some haff dozen. But St. L. was
offiy in office 6 months, for, of ffis 10, 4 were Easter and long
1 Edward Sugden, Lord St. Leonards (1781-1875), Irish ChanceUor,
1834-5, Lord Chancellor of England for a few months in 1852, a bitter
enemy of Brougham.

360 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
vacation. Besides, he had six journeymen — Lyndhurst,
Cottenham (in their ffist chanceUorships), and myseff had
offiy two.
Besides, I came ffito office with heavy arrears, wffich I cleared
in a year : St. L. came in with no arrear at aU. In fact the office
may now be made a sinecure ; but he, to ffis great creffit, ffid not
so make it. However, to exalt ffim by depressmg aU others is
as vile a pohcy as it is a siUy one.
^ As for the Wffigs, a man must be very revengefffi indeed not
to be satisfied with their present prostration. A very tiny
party ^ has entirely swaUowed up the great Wffig party| and I
see the language used by its organs is severe attack on one of
the wisest and best tffings they ever ffid — the govt, of 1806, and
indecent attack upon one of the [illegible] they ever ffid — the
coahtion of 1784, of wffich I perceive the [illegible] is that Fox
and North were hypocrites as weU as knaves (in so many words).
Tffis is an unconscionably long letter ; but I could not otherwise
explain my position and prove to you that tffis position was
not of my seeking. On the contrary, I had rather have been
bound by civiUty than free by the reverse. Yours sincerely, H. B.
There was an unvsritten understanding that Lord John
Russell should surrender the Foreign Office to Lord
Clarendon so soon as he had tested his power to combine
the arduous duties of that department with the leadership
of the House of Commons.
From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
6th January 1853. — ... It is very annoying that Lord
Aberdeen and Lord John ffid not act upon George's repeated
suggestion to offer Lord Brougham something. . . .
J" 8th. — George retumed from Windsor. He says that, so far
from the Queen having regretted the change of govemment,
she expressed herseff about the late Miffistry as one that coffid
not and ought not to last. . . . The Queen is aware how George
faciUtated the formation of tffis govemment and of ffis noble
ffisinterestedness. Lord John told George that he thought he
should give up the Foreign Office to ffim about the 15th February.
George {so Uke him) urged that Lord J. should try to go on,
> The PeeUtes.

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 361
and make a bona fide attempt at it — that it would have a
better appearance, to which Lord John merely repUed that he
thought not.
On Oth January Lord Aberdeen entertained the Foreign
Miffisters to dinner, and spoke of them to Clarendon, who
was of the party, as ' your future flock.'

Lord Clarendon to Lady Clarendon.
Geosvenoe Squaee, 10th January 1853. — . . . The ffinner
was pleasant enough — Lord John, Graham, Palmerston and
Gladstone, in adffition to about eight foreign ministers, most of
whom were particularly attentive to me. I had some talk with
Aberdeen upon what he calls ' these coffiounded Church matters,'
wffich ffisturb him much. He is right-minded about Convoca
tion, but does not see ffis way to getting rid of it ; for in truth
there are ffifficffities for a moderating govemment possessing
Uttle real power that neither of the contenffing parties experience.
The Low Church people want the Convocation to be instantly
prorogued on its reassembUng, and, ff it is, the High Church
men mean not to go untU they are removed by force. Any
govemment must vsdsh to prevent the scandals that may occur.
' Soapy ' '^ has asked to see Aberdeen, who is very nervous
about it. He told me how heartily the Queen is for the govem
ment and how much she ffisUkes Derby. I am sure Palmerston,
whom I sat next to, means the govemment to last, and he will
therefore run true. . . .
Hon. Emily Eden to Lord Clarendon.
Eden Lodge, January 1853. — . . . My relations are all such
rabid Tories that I hear the worst and happily do not beUeve
it. But yesterday Lady Mary Wood ^ caUed in the last stage
of Grey pee-waw-ishness — a rigid, despairing peevishness which,
in many people, would imply confirmed bad health with loss of
friends and fortune, but with her meant that aU the Greys had
not got places. As Sir C. Wood had, I thought she had much
better hold her tongue, and mdeed said so several times ; and
when she said if Lord John went on in that way he would lose aU
^ Samuel WUberforce, Bishop of Oxford.
2 Youngest daughter of the second Earl Grey ; married Sir Charles
Wood (created Viscount HaUfax in 1866), and died in 1884.

362 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [chap. xn.
his foUowers, I said I thought that then he might have a chance !
but that, as it was, ffis foUowers never supported ffim ffi pubUc
and ffid notffing but abuse him in private. But then she went
back to the Durham letter and ' mummery,' and the Mihtia Bill,
and tffings that are, or ought to be, in the ffist volume of Hume's
ffistory, and then came down to Lord Carhsle, and some Scotch
appointment — ' you can't tffink what an effect it has had on
Lord Rutherfurd ' (which is qffite true, for I never knew, and
doubt whether I ever shall tffink, of what affects Lord
Rutherfurd) ; and then to the dreadful chmax of ' the paragraph
in Saturday's Globe,' which had somehow prevented her and
Charles from walking home from church on Sunday. It stopped
them at every comer, so that now I don't know how they ever
got home. She began so often — ' But what I blame Lord John
for is,' that when she said they had taken a house close by ffim,
I tffink she blamed ffim for being in Chesham Place. I wish the
wives of poUtical men would hold their tongues, or elope. How
ever, the Duchess of ArgyU who foUowed her is always ffiscreet
and placid. . . . To-day the Duke of Bedford came. He reaUy
has given Hatty £10,000, and, what is more, gives her 5 per cent.
for the money. I reaUy tffink you might make another push
for that haff-crovm. It is very handsome of him, and the
ElUots are deUghted, as weU they may be, vsdth the marriage.
. . . That dear Emperor ! I cannot help admiring the cool manner
in which that man does exactly what he Ukes — the offiy man
who ever ffid — and what Montaigne would caU the soudaineti
de ses idles keeps up a continual interest in the play. If he
marries next Saturday, I suppose he wiU harffiy invade England
before the Saturday foUovsdng, wffich gives us time to pack
up. . . .

From Lady Clarendon's Journal.
18th January. — We saw George's robes, coUar, etc., of the Order
of the Garter for the first time. He certaiffiy don't make much
parade of his honors.^ . . .
20th. — George returned from Windsor. . . . He found that
the formal announcement in the Olobe about Lord John's only
having the Foreign Office ad interim was not hked there at aU,
though [they were] aU graciousness about George himseff. To
* He had been created a Knight of the Garter in 1849.

1851-5] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 363
be sure, it was an odd way of letting such a fact be known.
George found afterwards that it was George EUiot who wrote the
article, and ivas allowed by Lord John to insert it. . . It was
lucky that George passed through London ou lii.s way from
Windsor. He went to Lord John and found that he had written
an mjufficious letter to Lord Aberdeen, in answer to one Lord A.
had written to him on the subject of the publication in the
newspapers of the temporary arrangements about the Foreign
Office. George thought the letter a bad one and persuaded
Lord John not to send it. Lord Aberdeen coming in, Lord John
had the naivete to teU him that he had answered his letter ;
but that, having shown it to George he had thought it a bad
one, so he had not sent it. Lord Aberdeen said that it was a
good tffing to take counsel ; perhaps ffis own letter had been a
bad one, as he had not taken counsel ! . .
15th February. — George had some fun to-day. It is curious
that Lord Joffii had never tiU to-day said one word more . . .
about the day on wffich George was to enter upon his functions
as Foreign Secretary, though consffiting him very properly
upon various points of the business and acting just as if George
knew. ... So to-day, when their conversation was drawing to a
close, George said in a sort of fareweU manner that he was going
out of town on Saturday, but that he should be back again
shortly after Easter. He says it was comical to see Lord John's
surprise — ' But that 's the day ! ' he exclaimed. I suppose he
forgot that he had never told George the exact day, or iffiormed
him that next Saturday a council is to be held for the purpose
of instaUffig ffim as head of the Foreign Department. . . .
19th. — When George was talking to Lord Staffiey of Alderley
about Lord Palmerston's taking office. Lord S. expressed ffis
astoffishment at it, seeing how determined Lord P. seemed
against joinmg just before he consented to do so. He said that
the arrangement wffich was to place Lord Lansdovsme at the
head of the govemment was what Lord Palmerston desired ;
but, faiUng that. Lord Staffiey said that he would have been
qffite satisfied with George being Prime Miffister. . . . Wonders
wiU never cease ! When one remembers Lord Palmerston's
apparent jealousy of George, and now hears tffis, added to
Lord P.'s own admission to George that he had for years
thought ffim the fittest man to be Foreign Miffister, it makes
one marvel. . . .
21st. — . . . George went with Lord John RusseU to Bucking-

364 THE EARL OP CLARENDON [chap. xn.
ham Palace, where Lord John resigned, and George received,
the seals of the Foreign Office. . . .
The appointment was received with favour by men of
aU parties. Even Lord Londonderry, more Tory than the
Tories, sent ffis congratffiations : —
Seaham Haeboue, 1853. — . . . What a happy man you
are ! praised on aU sides, friends on aU sides, beloved by pre
decessors and successors. I hope you ffid not miss EgUnton's
eulogy on you. ... I am very curious to see how your sections
form. Are they to have anyone general-in-chief ? I suppose
pro tem. — a temporary rank — sometffing sootffing to aspiring
chiefs not ffisapproved of, yet not positively placed in the pleni
tude of authority. . . . You seem not Foreign Office alone, but
Prime Miffister to the Empress of eight miffions. I envy you
not the former, but I should not object — meme d, mon Age — to be
the secret confidant of Eugeffie.
From H. Reeve's Journal.
Tuesday, 8th March. — Lady Clarendon held her first reception
in the rooms of the Foreign Office, wffich have just been gilt and
carpeted by Lord Malmesbury. Sic vos non vobis ; but this
case is not so bad as Disraeh's, who paid for ffis upholstery and
then left it to the Gladstones.
An acceptable, though not indispensable, quaUfication
for a high official and poUtical leader is hospitality. In
this Lord Clarendon exceUed — he was an admirable host.
NaturaUy sociable, he was offiy foUowing his own inclina
tion in carrying TaUeyrand's maxim into effect — les bons
diners font la bonne diplomatic. Lady Clarendon set the seal
of perfection upon those dirmer parties and huge eveffing
receptions by which a minister is expected to keep his
party in good humour. In such gatherings it would be
impossible for host and hostess to converse with or even to
notice more than a fraction of their guests ; but every one
who has partaken of that form of hospitaUty must have
been sensible of something intangible pervading the atmo
sphere in certain houses : how in one house he receives the
impression — ' You are here because we had to invite you

1851-6] THE FOREIGN OFFICE 365
and your Uke,' and in another house — ' You are here
because we enjoy having you.' In the Clarendons' parties
the spirit of host and hostess set aU persons at their
ease. The feeUngs of the High Tories towards the CoaUtion
were naturally not of a cordial tenour. Lady Clarendon,
though heart and soffi loyal to her Whig husband, could
not forget that she had been reared in the Tory camp.
Her correspondents occasionaUy informed her of the way
the Protectioffist friends of her youth were bearing their
ecUpse : —
Badminton, 22nd March 1853. — You asked about the tone of
the family here. I find them sore and angry, tffinking their
own party prospects qffite destroyed, and wondering how the
old Wffigs and John can subiffit to act under Aberdeen. They
think us humbled, ff not ffisgraced, by the affiance, and by the
triumph, as they consider it, of the Peehtes. The truth of
aU tffis I take to be that aU their preffictions have been falsified
and their expectations ffisappomted by the strong and popular
government that has been formed. The Duchess asked me how
John coffid submit to it. They are evidently hoping that in time
we shaU come to a rupture with the Peehtes. The Duke is too
gentlemanlike to let out much, but the Duchess teUs me what
their feehngs are. . . .
Later in the same year, after the French aUiance had
acqffired a more specific character. Lord Londonderry writes
again in kindly terms, sending a present of Irish grouse ;
but warning Clarendon against putting any trust in a nation
against wffich the Pemnsffiar veteran's prejudice remained
as fierce as ever : —
8th September 1853.— ... I am more than ever convinced—
your present French pohcy — the entente cordiale — the combined
fieets— the intoxication of this country to France against the
European Allies- will see and me the day when they have bfinffiy
yielded to throw themselves into the arms of the only Power
that ever can be fataUy dangerous to the existence of England ;
and then we shaU in vain appeal for succour and aid to those
old, faitMffi, great and magnaffimous affies who have saved us
from a desolating war and given us forty years' peace. ^

366 THE EARL OF CLARENDON [ohap. xn.
A young barrister, not rising as yet, next appears on the
scene in the person of WiUiam Vernon Harcourt, to become in
after years, not offiy a personage in politics, but, through the
marriage tie, nearly connected vsdth Lord Clarendon's family.
As yet, however, he was unknown to them personaUy, and
wrote to Clarendon as a perfect stranger : —
10th October 1853. — . . . The impression that everything
wffich the Times may say on the Eastern Question is ffirectly
inspired by the govemment and represents their sentiments,
is due to the fact that it is made the exclusive vefficle for the
iffiormation commufficated to the pubhc by the govemment.
It is not unnaturaUy argued wffile tffis is the case that there
cannot be any material ffifference of view between the Cabinet
and the Times ; ffi fact, its exclusive iffiormation derived from
the govemment is notffing less than a letter of creffit to the pubhc
authorising it to speak on behaff of the govemment.
Mr. Harcourt went on to suggest the advantage which
the government woffid derive from imparting information
to those journals which were avowedly in support of Liberal
principles and measures.

END or VOL. I

Printed by T. and A. Constable, Printers to His Majesty
at the Edinburgh University Press

" SchSrLondon." +' '^"^ ^^ ^^^'^^ Street,
T, , , Bond Street, London, W.
1 elephone :
No. 1883 Mayfair. September, 1913.

Mr. Edward Arnold's
AUTUMN
ANNOUNCEMENTS, I913.

LORD LYONS.
a IRecorb of Britisb Diplomacy.
By the Right Hon. LORD NEWTON.
With Portraits. In Two Vohtmes, 30s. net.
The late Lord Lyons was not only the most prominent but the
most trusted English diplomatist of his day, and so great was the
confidence felt in his ability that he was paid the unique compliment
of being offered the post of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Lord Newton, who has now undertaken the task of preparing a
memoir of him, enjoys the advantage of having served under him for
five years at the Paris Embassy. The interest of this work lies,
however, less in the personality of the Ambassador than in the highly
important events in which he played so prominent a part.
Lord Lyons was the British representative at Washington during
the period of the Civil War ; subsequently he was Ambassador at
Constantinople for two years ; and finally he spent twenty years —
from 1867 to 1887 — as Ambassador at Paris. During the whole of
this eventffil period his advice was constantly sought by the Honie
Government upon every foreign question of importance,^ and his
correspondence throws fresh light upon obscure passages in diplomatic
history. In this book will be found hitherto unpublished information relating

LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

2 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
lo such matters as the critical relations between England and the
United States during the course of the Civil War ; the political
situation in France during the closing years of the Second Empire ;
the secret attempt made by the British Foreign Secretary to avert
the Franco- German War, and the explanation of its failure ; the
internal and external policy of France during the early years of the
Third Republic ; the War Scare of 1875; the Congress of Berlin;
the Egyptian Expedition ; Anglo-French political relations, and
many other matters of interest.
The method selected by the writer has been to reproduce all im-
portant correspondence verbatim, and it may be confidentiy asserted
that the student of foreign politics will find in this work a valuable
record of modern diplomatic history.

THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF
GEORGE WILLIAM FREDERICK,
FOURTH EARL OF CLARENDON.
By the Right Hon. Sir HERBERT MAXWELL, Bart.
In Two Volumes, With Portraits. Demy 8vo. 30s. net.
Born in the year 1800 and dying in 1870, Lord Clarendon lived
through a period of social, political, and economic change more rapid
probably than had been witnessed in any similar space of time in the
previous history of mankind. It was his lot, moreover, to wield con
siderable influence over the course of affairs, inasmuch as his public
service, extending over fifty years, caused him to be employed in a
succession of highly responsible, and even critical, situations. British
Minister at Madrid at the outbreak and during the course of the Carlist
Civil War from 1833 to 1839, he was admitted into Lord Melbourne's
Cabinet immediately upon returning to England in the latter year.
He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland throughout the memorable faminfe
years, 1847-1852. Relieved of that arduous post. Lord Clarendon
entered Lord Aberdeen's government in 1852 as Foreign Secretary,
which office he retained through the Crimean War, and became re
sponsible for the terms of the Treaty of Paris in 1856. On Lord
Palmerston's death in 1865, he returned to the Foreign Office, and
had to deal with the settlement of the " Alabama " claims.
The annals of the first half of Queen Victoria's reign having been
pretty thoroughly explored and dealt with by many competent
writers, the chief interest in these pages will be found in Lord
Clarendon's private correspondence, which has been well pre
served, and has been entrusted to Sir Herbert Maxwell for the

Mr. Edward A mold's A utuinn Announcements. 3
purpose of this memoir. Lord Clarendon was a fluent and diligent
correspondent ; Charles Greville and others among his contem
poraries frequently expressed a hope that his letters should some
day find their way into literature. Sir Arthur Helps, for instance,
wrote as follows in Macmillan's Magazine : " Lord Clarendon was a
man who indulged, notwithstanding his public labours, in an immense
private correspondence. There were some persons to whom, I
believe, he wrote daily, and perhaps in after years we shall be
favoured — those of us who live to see it — with a correspondence
which will enlighten us as to many of the principal topics of our own
period." It is upon this correspondence that Sir Herbert Maxwell
has chiefly relied in tracing the motives, principles, and conduct of
one of the last Whig statesmen. Among the letters dealt with,
and now published for the first time, are those from Lord Mel
boume, Lord Palmerston, Lord Aberdeen, Lord Derby, M. Thiers,
M. Guizot, the Emperor Louis Napoleon, etc., and many ladies.

WILLIAM AUGUSTUS, DUKE OF
CUMBERLAND, HIS EARLY LIFE
AND TIMES, 1721— 1748.
By the Hon. EVAN CHARTERIS,
Author of " Affairs of Scotland, 1744-1746."
With Plans and Illustrations. 12s. 6d. net. [In preparation.
Mr. Charteris has a good subject in "Butcher " Cumberland, not
only on account of the historical and romantic mterest of his back
ground, but also by reason of the Duke's baneful reputation.
In the present volume the author has carried the career of
the Duke of Cumberland down to the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle.
The period includes the Duke's campaigns in Flanders againsi
Marshal Saxe, the Battie of CuUoden, and the measures taken for
the suppression of the Jacobites in Scotland. Mr. Charteris has had
the exceptional advantage of studying the Cumberland Papers at
Windsor Castle, and it is largely by the aid of hitherto unpubUshed
•documents that he is now able to throw fresh light on a character
which has been the subject of so much malevolent criticism. At the
same time the volume deals with the social and political conditions
.among which Cumberland was called on to play so important a part
in the life of the nation. These have been treated by the author
with some ffilness of detail. Cumberiand, in spite of his foreign
¦origin, was remarkably typical of the characteristics of the eariier
•Georgian period, and an endeavour has been made in the present
volume to establish the link between the Duke and the politics, the
morals, the aims, and the pursuits of the age in which he lived.

4 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
MY ART AND MY FRIENDS.
The Reminiscences of Sir F. H. COWEN.
With Portrait. Demy 8vo. ids. 6d. net.
In the course of a long and distinguished musical career. Sir
Frederic Cowen has had opportunities of visiting many parts of the
world, of meeting all the most eminent artists of the last half-
century, and of amassing material for an extremely diverting volume
of personal recollections. As a child he enjoyed the privilege of being
embraced by the great Piccolomini ; as a young man he toured with
Trebelli, and became acquainted with the famous Rubinstein, with
Biilow, and with Joachim. In later life he numbered such well-known
musicians as Pachmann, Paderewski, Sir Arthur Sullivan, and the
de Reszkes, among his friends. Nor was the circle of his intimates
entirely confined to the world of music ; he was on terms of the
closest friendship with Corney Grain, with George Grossmith and
Arthur Cecil; he capped the puns of Henry J. Byron and Sir
Francis Burnand ; he laughed at the practical jokes of Toole, at
the caricatures which Phil May drew for him of his firiends. To
the public Sir Frederick Cowen is well known as the conductor of
Covent Garden Promenade and Philharmonic Concerts, as the
composer of such celebrated songs as " The Better Land " and " The
Promise of Life," of "The Corsair" and "The Butterfly's Ball."
In these pages he shows himself to be a keen but kindly student of
human nature, who can describe the various experiences of his past
life with a genial but humorous pen. The inexhaustible fund of
anecdote from which he draws tends still further to enliven an amusing
and lively volume.
A CIVIL SERVANT IN BURMA.
By Sir HERBERT THIRKELL WHITE, K.C.I.E.
With i6 Pages of Illustrations. Demy Svo. 12s. 6d. net.
Sir Herbert Thirkell White, who has but recently retired from the
post of Lieutenant-Governor of Burma, which he filled with ability
and distinction, has now written what he modestly calls a " plain
story " of more than thirty years of official life in India. In this
volume are narrated the experiences of an Indian Civilian who has
devoted the best part of his existence to the service of the Empire,
and is in a position to speak with assurance of the many complicated
problems with which the white man in India is continually faced.
Sir Herbert's acquaintance with Burma began in 1878 ; since then

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autitmn Announcements. 5
he has had every opportunity of judging the peculiar habits, customs,
and characteristics of the native Burmese, and has been able to
compile a valuable record of the impressions they have made upon
his mind. It was his fate to hold official positions of increasing im
portance during the Viceroyalties of Lord Ripon, Lord Dufferin, and
Lord Curzon ; he was privileged to serve such distinguished chiefs
as Sir Charles Bernard and Sir Charles Crosthwaite, and witnessed
that pacification of Burma which the last-named Chief Commissioner
has described so eloquently in his well-known book on the subject.
Sir Herbert writes clearly and with knowledge of every aspect of
Burmese life and character, and this volume of his recollections should
prove extremely popular among English readers who are interested
in the govemment of our Indian Empire and the daily routine of the
Indian Civil Servant.

THIRTY YEARS IN KASHMIR.
By ARTHUR NEVE, F.R.C.S.E.
With Illustrations and a Map. Demy 8vo. 12s. 6d. net.
The stupendous natural surroundings amidst which they dwell
have inspired sojourners in Kashmir and other Himalayan countries
to produce some of the finest books of travel to be found. Among
them will have to be included in future this book of Dr. Arthur Neve's,
so eff'ectively does the author reveal the wonders of the land of
towermg peaks and huge glaciers where he has made his home for
the last thirty years.
Going out to Kashmir in 1882 under the auspices of the Church
Missionary Society, Dr. Neve took over the charge of the Kashmir
Mission Hospital at Srinagur from Dr. Edmund Downes, who was
retiring, and has stayed there ever since. In his earlier chapters he
gives some account of the Punjab and Kashmir in the eighties, and
also of the work of the mission. He then gets to the principal motif
of the book — the exploring tours and mountaineering expeditions to
which he has devoted his spare time. Nanga Parbat, Nun Kun, and
many other Himalayan giants, are within hail of Srinagur, and before
he has finished with the book the reader will find he has acquired the
next best thing to a first-hand knowledge of this magnificent country.
Dr. Neve has also a great deal that is interesting to tell about the
people of various races and religions who inhabit the valleys, and
from whom his medical help gained him a warm welcome at all
times. A series of rare photographs gives a pictorial support to the letter
press.

6 Mr. Ediiiard Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
SPORT AND FOLK-LORE IN THE
HIMALAYA.
Bjr Captain H. L. HAUGHTON.
(sSth Sikhs.)
With Illustrations from the Author's Photographs. One Volume.
Demy 8vo. I2S. 6d. net.
Captain Haughton has written a book which should prove a
welcome addition to the library of ev6ry sportsman, as well as being
of supreme interest to the naturalist and the student of folk-lore. On
the subject bf sport the author writes with that thorough insight and
sympathy which are the fruits of many years' practical experience
with rod and rifle, in the jungle, on river-bank or mountain-side. In
his agreeable society the reader may stalk the markhor or the ibex,
lightly throw his " Sir Richard " across some Kashmiri trout-stream,
or lie in wait for the Himalayan black bear on its way to feed ;
and if the author's description of his many amusing and exciting
adventures and experiences is eminently readable, the value of his
work is still further enhanced by his intirhate knowledge of natural
history, and by the introduction of many of those old Indian legendary
tales that he has culled from the lips of native Shikaris round the
camp-fire at night. The book is illustrated throughout with a series
of remarkably interesting photographs taken by the author in the
course of his many sporting expeditions.
RECOLLECTIONS OF A PENINSULAR
VETERAN.
By the late Lieut.-Colonel JOSEPH ANDERSON, C.B., K.H.
With Photogravure Portrait. Demy 8vo. los. 66.. net.
The late Lieut-Colonel Joseph Anderson was born in 1790, and
from the age of fifteen, when he received a commission as Ensign in
the 78th Regiment, to withm a few years of his death iii 1877, his
career was almost continuously as adventurous as it was distinguished.
In 1806 he saw active service for the first time, when he took part in
the expedition to Calabria ; in the following year he served in the
Egyptian Campaign of that date ; and during the Peninsular War he
fought at the battles of Maida, Busaco, Fuentes d'Onoro, was
wounded at Talavera, and accompanied Wellington on the retreat to
the lines of Torres Vedras. A few years later Captain Anderson, how
a Captain in the York Chasseurs, was sent with his regiment to
Barbadoes, and was present at the capture of Guadeloupe in 1815.
He was appointed Colonel Commandant of the Penal Settlement
at Norfolk Island in 1834, where his humane endeavours to reform

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autttmn Announcements. 7
the prevaiUng penal system, and his efforts to quell mutinous convicts,
met with marked success. Nine years later Colonel Anderson went
to India to take part in the Mahratta Campaign, and at the Battle of
Punniar (where he commanded a Brigade) was severely wounded
when charging the enemy's guns. After retiring from the Service,
Colonel Anderson settled down in Australia, and it was at his home
near Melbourne that these memories were compiled, during the later
years of a strenuous and active life, for the edification of his family.
They are written in a simple, unafiected style, which renders them
peculiarly readable, and form a most instructive record of the
manners and customs, of the mode of warfare, and the mUitary and
social life of a past age, and a bygone generation.
MEMORIES OF A SOLDIER'S LIFE.
By Major-General Sir H. M. BENGOUGH, K.C.B.
With Portrait. Demy Svo. 8s. 6d. net.
Major-General Sir H. M. Bengough joined the army in 1855, and
retired in 1898, after more than forty years of distinguished service
in aU quarters of the Empire. His first experience of active warfare
dates from the Crimea ; later on he took the field in the Zulu War and
the Burma Expedition of 1885. In days of peace he held various
high commands in India, South Africa, and Jamaica, and finally
commanded a brigade of infantry at Aldershot. In this volume of
personal recoUections the author narrates the many varied incidents
and experiences of a long military career and vividly describes the
campaigns m wffich he took part. He also gives an interesting
account of his adventures in the realm of sport — pig-sticking, tiger-
shootmg, and pursuing other forms of game in India and elsewhere ;
subjects upon which a long experience enables him to write with
expert knowledge. It will be strange indeed if so interesting an
autobiographical volume from the pen of a deservedly popular
soldier and sportsman fails to appeal to a wide public.
ZACHARY STOYANOFF.
©ages from tbe Hutobiograpbs of a Bulgartan
insurgent.
Translated by M. POTTER.
One Volume. Demy Svo. ids. 6d. net.
In this volume Zachary StoyanofF gives us the narrative of his
personal experiences during the Bulgarian outbreaks of 1875 and
1876. Almost by accident he became an " apostle " of rebeUion, and
was sent out forthwith to range the country, stirring up the villagers

8 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcemenii.
and forming local committees. It is an amazing story. With
unsurpassable candour he portrays for us the leaders, their en
thusiasm, their incredible shortsightedness, and the pitiful inadequacy
of their preparations. The bubble burst, and after a miserable
attempt at flight, Stoyanoff was taken prisoner and sent to PhUippo-
polis for trial. There is no attempt at heroics. With the same
Boswellian simplicity he reveals his fears, his cringing, his mendacity,
and incidentally gives us a graphic picture, not wholly black, of the
conquering Turk. The narrative ends abruptly while he is still
in peril of his life. One is glad to know that, somehow, he escaped.
A very human document, and a remarkable contrast to the startling
exhibition of efficiency given to the world by the Bulgarians in
their latest struggle with the Turks.
SPLENDID FAILURES.
By HARRY GRAHAM,
Author of "A Group of Scottish Women," "The Mother of Parliaments," etc.
With Portraits. Demy Svo. ios.6d.net.
It is perhaps unlikely that any two individuals will agree as to the
proper definition of the term " A Splendid Failure " — a phrase of
which the origin would appear to be obscure. It may, however, be
roughly stated that the "Splendid Failures " of the past divide them
selves naturally into three classes : those whom their contemporaries
invested with a fictitious or exaggerated splendour which posterity
is quite unable to comprehend or appreciate ; those whom the modern
world regards with admiration — but who signally failed in im
pressing the men of their own generation ; and those who, gifted
with genius and inspired with lofty ideals, never justified the world's
high opinion of their talents or fulfilled the promise of their early
days. In this volume of biographical essays, the author of " A Group
of Scottish Women " and other popular works has dealt with a
selection of " splendid failures " of whose personal history the pubhc
knows but little, though well acquainted with their names. Wolfe
Tone, "the first of the Fenians"; Benjamin Haydon, the
"Cockney Raphael"; Toussaint L'Ouverture, the "Napoleon of
San Domingo " ; William Betty, the " Infant Roscius " ; and
" Champagne " Townshend, the politician of Pitt's day, may be
included under tffis category. The reader cannot fail to be in
terested in that account which the author gives of the ill-fated
Archduke Maximilian's attempt to found a Mexican monarchy ; in
his careful review of the work and character of Hartley Coleridgej
and in his biographical study of George Smythe, that friend of
Disraeli whom the statesman-novelist took as his model for the
hero of " Coningsby." This book, which shoffid appeal strongly
to all readers of literary essays, is illustrated with eight excellent
portraits.

Mr. Edward A mold's A utumn A nnouncements. <
THE CORINTHIAN YACHTSMAN'S
HANDBOOK.
By FRANCIS B. COOKE.
With 20 Folding Plates of Designs for Yachts, and numerous black
and white Illustrations. Demy Svo. los. 6d. net.

This new handbook covers the sport of yachting in all its branches.
The writer, who has had many years' experience of cruising and
racing in yachts and boats of all types, has treated the subject in a
thoroughly practical manner. The book is divided into six parts.
In Part I., which deals with the selection of a yacht, the various
types and rigs suitable for Corinthian yachting are discussed. The
designing and buildmg of new craft are also dealt with at some
length, and designs and descriptions of a number of up-to-date small
cruisers are given.
In Part II. some hints are given as to where to station the yacht.
All available headquarters within easy reach of London are
described, and the advantages and disadvantages of each pointed
out. Part III. is devoted to the equipment of yachts, and contains a
wealth of mformation as to the internal arrangement, rigging, and
fittings of smaU cruisers.
Part IV. treats of the maintenance of small cruising vessels, with
notes on the cost of upkeep, fitting out and laying up. Other
matters dealt with in this section are the preservation of sails and
gear, and insurance.
Part v., on seamanship, covers the handUng of fore-and-aft
vessels under all conditions of weather, and upon every point of
saUing. Part VI. covers the racing side of the sport in a comprehensive
manner. An exhaustive exposition of the International SaiUng Rules
is followed by hints on racing tactics. The appendix contains, inter
alia, an Ulustrated description of the British Buoyage System.
Mr. Cooke's well-known handbooks have come to be regarded by
yachtsmen as standard works, and a new and more ambitious work
from his pen can hardly fail to interest them.

10 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.

THE FALL OF PROTECTION.

By BERNARD HOLLAND, C.B.-,
Author of " Imperium et Libertas."
One Volume. Demy Svo. lis. 6d. net.
This volume is a political-historical study of the great change
which took place in British commercial and financial policy mainly
between the years 1840 and 1850. The writer examines the state
of things in these respects which existed before this revolution, and
describes the previous protective system, navigation system, and
colonial system. He then narrates the process by which those
systems were overthrown, devoting special attention to the character,
career, and changes in opinion of Sir Robert Peel, and to the attitude
and action of the Tory, Whig, and Radical parties, and of their leading
men, especially Mr. Disraeli, Lord John Russell, and Mr. Cobden.
He analyses with care the arguments used on all sides in these con
troversies, especially with regard to the Repeal of the Corn Laws,
and he shows the extent to which questions of imperial preference
and the relations between the United Kingdom and the Colonies
entered into the issues. One chapter is devoted to the Bank Act of
1844, and to the consideration of its causes and results. The author
concludes by tracing very briefly the chain of events which connect
the period in question with our own day, in respect of commercial
and fiscal policy, and expresses his own views as to existing tendencies
and future developments.
Mr. Bernard Holland is known as the author of the Life of the
Duke of Devonshire, and of " Imperium et Libertas." In a sense
the present volume is a continuation of the latter book, or rather is
an attempt to deal more expansively and in detail with certain
history and questions connected with the same theme, for the full
treatment of which there was insufficient space in that book. Mr.
Holland having acted for a number of years as Private Secretary to
two successive Secretaries of State for the Colonies, has been brought
into close touch in a practical way with colonial questions. This
book, it is hoped, will be of some service both to students of economic
history and to politicians in active life.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. ii
PAINTING IN THE FAR EAST.
By LAURENCE BINYON.
A New Edition, thoroughly Revised, with many new and additional
Illustrations. Crown \to. 21s. net.
Since the first edition of this book was pubUshed in 1907, much
has happened, and a quantity of new material has been brought
to light.
Interest in the subject has beenimmensely widened and strengthened.
The museums of Europe and America are vying with each other to
procure fine specimens of Chinese and Japanese art. The opening
this autumn of a new museum at Cologne, exclusively devoted to the
arts of Eastern Asia, is a symptom of the times. Collections, public
and private, both European and American, have been greatly
enriched ; and the exhibition in 1910 at Shepherd's Bush, of treasured
masterpieces lent from Japanese collections, has provided a standard
for the student.
Six years ago, again, scarcely any of the voluminous literature of
art existing in Cffinese and Japanese had been translated. On this
side, too, an added store of information has been made accessible,
though still in great part scattered in the pages of learned periodicals.
Above all, the marvellous discoveries made of recent years in China
and Chinese Turkestan have substituted a mass of authentic material
for gropmg conjectures in the study of the art of the early periods.
In preparing a new edition of this book and bringing it up to date,
Mr. Binyon has therefore been able to utUize a variety of new sources
of information. The estimates given of the art of some of the most
famous of the older masters have been reconsidered. The sections
dealing with the early art have been in great measure rewritten ;
and the book has been revised throughout. In the matter of illus
trations it has been possible to draw on a wider range and make a
fuller and more representative selection.
PAINTING IN EAST AND WEST.
By ROBERT DOUGLAS NORTON,
Author of " The Choice."
Crown Svo. 5s. net.
The art of painting, which in the days of Gothic church-building
contributed so much both to the education and the pleasure of the
community at large, has admittedly come to appeal to ever-narrowing
circles, until to-day it cannot be said to play any part in popular life
at all This book seeks to discover the causes of its decline m in
fluence A brief review of the chief contemporary movements in

12 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements.
paintmg gives point to a suggestion made by more than one
thoughtful critic that the chief need of Western painting is spirituality.
Since this is a quality which those competent to judge are at one in
attributing to Eastern art, the author, in a chapter on Far Eastern
Painting, sets forth the ideals underlying the great painting of China
and Japan, and contrasts these ideals with those which have inspired
painters and public in the West. This leads to an inquiry into the '
uses of imagination and suggestion m art, and to an attempt to find
a broad enough definition for " spirituality " not to exclude many
widely divergent achievements of Western painting. Finally, the
possibility of training the sense of beauty is discussed in the light of
successful instances.
Incidentally the book touches on many questions which, though
of interest to picture-lovers, often remain unasked ; such, for instance,
as what we look for in a picture; how far subject is important; why
it may happen that the interest of one picture, which pleases at first,
soon wanes, while that of another grows steadily stronger ; the value
of technique, of different media of expression, of mere resemblance,
etc. Without going into the technicalities of aesthetics, the author aims
at investigating certain first principles which are overlooked at times
by possessors of even the widest knowledge of individual schools.

SHAKESPEARE'S STORIES.
By CONSTANCE MAUD and MARY MAUD.
As You Like It — ^The Tempest — King Lear — Twelfth Night — The
Merchant of Venice — A Midsummer Night's Dream — Macbeth —
Hamlet — Romeo and Juliet.
With Illustrations from the famous Boydell prints. Crown Svo.
SS. net.
Miss Constance Maud is the author of " Wagner's Heroes " and
" Wagner's Heromes," two books on similar lines to these tales
which have had a great vogue among young people of all ages. In
the present volume she tells the charming stories of nine of the most
famous of Shakespeare's Tragedies and Comedies in prose of de
lightful and unstudied simplicity. On occasion the actual text has
been used for familiar passages and phrases. These great world-
tales, regarded merely as tales, with the elemental motives and
passions displayed in them, appeal strongly to the imagination, and
when narrated by a competent pen there cannot be finer or more
absorbing reading. In addition to this, he must be a dull reader in
whom they do not awaken a desire to make a closer acquaintance
with the plays themselves.
The book forms a companion volume to Sir A. T. Quiller-Couch's
well-known " Historical Tales firom Shakespeare."

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements. 13
THE MUSE IN MOTLEY.
By HARRY GRAHAM,
Author of " Ruthless Rhymes for Heartless Homes," etc., etc.
With 24 Illustrations by
Lewis Baumer.
Fcap. 4<o. 3s. 6d. net.
All lovers of humorous verse will welcome a fresh volume of lyrics
by the author of " Deportmental Ditties," " Canned Classics," and
other deservedly popular products of the Minor Muse. Readers of
Captain Graham's new collection of light verse will agree with the
Daily Chronicle in describing its author as " a godsend, a treasure
trove, a messenger from Olympus ; a man who really does see the
ludicrous side of life, a man who is a genuine humorist." Once
agam the author of these amusing poems attempts to " shoot Folly
as she flies," and genially satirizes the foibles of the age in a fashion
that will certainly add to his reputation as a humorist ; and his
work is rendered still more delightful by the drawings of Mr. Lewis
Baumer, the well-known Punch artist, with which it is lavishly
Ulustrated. " It is a great and good thing," as the Pall Mall Gazette
remarked with reference to another of Captain Graham's books,
" to have a man among us who is witty all the time and lets him
self go. We ought to be duly thankful. And we are ! "
HANNIBAL ONCE MORE.
By DOUGLAS W. FRESHFIELD, M.A.,
Vice-President of the Royai- Geographical Society ; Treasurer of the Hellenic
AND Roman Societies ; formerly President of the Alpine Club.
Svo. 5s. net.
In tffis Uttle volume Mr. Freshfield has put into final shape the
results of his study of the famous and still-debated question : " By
which Pass did Hannibal cross the Alps ?" The literature which
has grown up round this intricate subiect is surprisingly extensive,
and various solutions have been propounded and upheld, with re
markable warmth and tenacity, by a host of scholars, historians,
geographers, military men, and mountaineers. Mr. Freshfield has
a solution of his own, which, however, he puts forward in no
dogmatic spirit, but in such a fashion that his book is practically
a lucid review of the whole matter in each of its many aspects. To
an extensive acquaintance with ancient and modern geographical
literature he unites a wide and varied experience as an alpine climber
and a traveller, and a minute topographical knowledge of the regions
under discussion ; and these qualifications — in which many of his
predecessors in the same field of inquiry have been conspicuously
lacking — enable him to throw much new light on a perennially
fascinating problem.

14 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements
THE PASTORAL TEACHING OF
ST. PAUL.
By the Rev. Canon H. L. GOUDGE,
Principal of the Theological College, Ely ;
Author of "The Mind of St. Paul," etc.
Crown Svo. Cloth. 2s. 6d. net.
These lectures were delivered at the end of May, 1913, at the
Palace, Gloucester, to the clergy of the diocese, and are now
published in response to the request of those who heard them.
They do not constitute a detailed commentary on the Pastoral
Epistles, though a good deal of detailed exegesis necessarily finds a
place in them. The writer's aim has been to collect and arrange
St. Paul's teaching as to the work of the Christian pastor, and to
point out its applicability to modern conditions and modern ffiffi
culties. The writer has often found, through his experience in
conducting Retreats, that the Pastoral Teaching of St. Paul is of
the greatest value to the clergy to-day, but that this teaching is
often obscured by the unsystematic character of St. Paul's writing
and by the passing controversies with which he has to deal. In
these lectures the First Epistle to Timothy is used as the basis, but
continually illustrated by passages from the other Pastoral Epistles,
and from St. Paul's earlier writings. The first lecture deals with
the pastor's aim, the second with the pastor's character, the third
with the pastor's work, and the fourth with the adaptation of ffis
message to men and to women, to old and to young, to rich and to
poor. The ground already covered by the writer's earlier book,
" The Mind of St. Paul," has been carefully avoided, but it is hoped
that the one book may throw light upon the other. An index of
texts has been added for those who may wish to use this second book,
as far as that is possible, as a commentary.

Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements 15
NEW NOVELS
SOMETHING AFAR.
By MAXWELL GRAY,
.\UTH0R OF "The Silence of Dean Maitland," "The Great Refusal," etc.
Crown Svo. Cloth. 6s.
The scene of Maxwell Gray's new story is laid in London and in
Italy, where the gradual unfolding of an elaborate but absorbing
plot holds the reader's attention until the very last page of the
book. This is a tale of heroism, of self-sacrifice, of romance, full of
incident and adventure, illumined by those tender and imaginative
touches, that vivid portrayal of character, which the public has learnt
to expect from the author of " The Silence of Dean Maitland."
From these pages we may learn that there is " something afar from
the sphere of our sorrow," the highest aspiration of the lover, the
artist, the poet and the saint, which, beautiful beyond all that man's
heart can divine, is yet within the reach of every one of us.
THE GENTLE LOVER.
H Cornells of /iBi&ble Hge.
By FORREST REID,
Author of "The Bracknells," "Following Darkness," etc.
Crown Svo. 6.s.
This extremely interesting story, of which the title gives a most
apt description, is written in a lighter vein than the author's previous
work. It is a love story, and while the tale itself is enthralling,
it depends in great measure for its charm on the attractiveness of
the characters who figure in the drama and who are all very pleasant
company. The book is essentially human, the note is never forced,
yet the interest goes on increasing right up to the end. It is actual
life with its comedy and tragedy so closely intermingled that it is
not always easy to distinguish one from the other. The scene is laid
abroad, partly in Bruges, and partly in Italy, but the characters are,
with one or two exceptions, natives of that part of Ireland with
which the author is most familiar, and they lose none of their
individuality by being transplanted to those beautiful old-world
cities where we follow their varied fortunes. Mr. Reid's previous
novels have already secured for his work the warm appreciation of
some of the best judges of literary values, and the present novel
may be confidently stated to exhibit his undoubted power as a writer
of fiction in an advanced and progressive stage.

i6 Mr. Edward Arnold's Autumn Announcements
NEW SCIENTIFIC WORKS
INDUSTRIAL POISONING
Ifrom S'umes, (Bases, an& poisons of /iDanufacturtng
processes.
By Dr. J. RAMBOUSEK,
Professor of Factory Hygiene, and Chief State Health Officer, Prague
Translated and Edited by Dr. T. M. LEGGE,
H.M. Medical Inspector of Factories.
Fully Ilhistyated, Demy 8vo, i3s. 6d. net.
MALINGERING Uni) ifeigneD Sickness.
By Sir JOHN COLLIE, M.D., J.P.,
Medical Examiner, London County Council ; Chief Medical Officer, Metropolitan
Water Board; Consulting Medical Examiner to the Shipping Federation; Medical
Examiner to the Sun Insurance Office, Central Insurance Company, London, Liverpool^
and Globe Insurance Company, and other Accident Offices; late Home Office Med.
Ref. Workmen's Compensation Act.
Assisted by ARTHUR H. SPICER, M.B., B.S. (Lond.), D.P.H.
Illustrated. xii + 2,'SfO pp. Demy Svo. los. 6d. net.
In this work Sir John Collie, whose wide experience has emi
nently fitted him for the task, has given an interesting and lucid
description of the methods and peculiarities of the malingerer. He
describes fully and in detail the methods of examination for the
detection of malingering and the diseases usually simulated, and
discusses the attitude required by the medical attendant towards
unduly prolonged illness.
OLD AGE:
5ts Care an& treatment in ibealtb an& 2)i8ease.
By ROBERT SAUNDBY, M.D., F.R.C.P., LL.D., J.P.,
Member General Medical Council ; Ex-President British Medical Association ; Pro
fessor of Medicine, University of Birmingham; Physician to the Birmingham General
Hospital.
320 pp. js. 6d. net.
No English writer having recently dealt with this subject, it has
been felt that there is room for a book which should bring together
the various contributions made to it in modern times, including the
results of the author's extensive experience during forty years of
medical practice. The author discusses the principles of health, by
due attention to which healthy old age may be attained. The
diseases to wffich the aged are especially liable are fully described,
their causes are clearly indicated, and the author shows in a practical
way by what means they may be avoided and how they may be
appropriately treated. Special attention is given to such important
subjects as diet, exercise, etc. Suggestive dietary tables are given,
both for use in health and in particular diseases, while the chapters
devoted to methods of exercise most suitable in advanced age will
also prove of value.
LONDON : EDWARD ARNOLD, 41 & 43 MADDOX STREET, W.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 9002 03208 2811

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