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BiCPEROR OF RUSSIA.

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THE

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/ WEERi: LORD PAZMEBSTOIT DIED, 0CT.RJ.8,1865.J

JUS G AND PUBLISHING COMPANY. LIMITED

THE

LIFE AND TIMES

VISCOUNT PALMEESTON:

EMBRACING

THE DIPLOMATIC AND DOMESTIC HISTORY OF THE BRITISH EMPIRE
DURING THE LAST HALF CENTURY.

By J. EWING RITCHIE,
AUTHOR OF "MODERN STATESMEN," ETC.

ILLUSTRATED WITH BEAUTIFUL
STEEL ENGRAVINGS, FEOM PHOTOGRAPHS, PAINTINGS,
ETC., ETC.

VOL. II.

THE LONDON PRINTING AND PUBLISHING COMPANY, LIMITED,
LONDON AND NEW YORK.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

VOL. II.

CHAPTER PAGE
I. Palmerston Jubilant ........... 1
II. The Cape and Foreign Adventure  1*
III. The Annus Mirabilis  31
IV. Palmerston in the Shade .......... 46
V. The Aberdeen Ministry  66
VI. The Crimean "War  81
VII. Fall of the Aberdeen Ministry — Palmerston Premier ..... 121
VIII. England at Peace .....''  143
IX. The Chinese War  165
X. The Indian Mutiny  177
XI. How the Palmerston Ministry fell  217
XII. The Conservatives in Office . '  229
XIII. Italy and the Italian War  255
XIV. Palmerston again Premier  286
*
XV. Progressive Legislation and the French Treaty of Commerce . . . 309
XVI. Population, Education, and the State of the Country ..... 324
XVII. The Trent and the National Defences  346
XVIII. The American "War and Lancashire Distress ...... 365
XIX. Public Festivities and the Royal Family  397
XX. Chiefly Ecclesiastical ........... 415
XXI. A few of House of Commons' Notes  427
XXII. Foreign Affairs and the Colonies  » 450
XXIII. DeMortuis  '479
XXIV. More about Ireland  501
XXV. Lord Palmerston on the Platform  510
XXVI. Accidents and Offences  528
XXVII. Industrial and Philanthropic  554
XXVIII. Commerce and Trade  587
XXIX. Society — Literature, Science, and Art  598
XXX Geographical Exploration  627
XXXI. The last of Lord Palmerston as Premier  ": 644
XXXII. India under Sir C. "Wood  664
XXXIII. De Omnibus Rebus  678
XXXIV. The Eastern Question  695
XXXV. Anecdotes of Lord Palmerston  712
XXXVI. Original Correspondence  725*
XXXVII. Lord Palmerston's Speeches and Policy  730
XXXVIII. Was Lord Palmerston a Traitor ?  783
XXXIX. Death and Funeral of Lord Palmerston  ".797
XL. In Memoriam  807
XLI. Conclusion  ... 817

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VOL. II.

ALEXANDER II., EMPEROR OF RUSSIA {Frontispiece).
BROCKETT HALL {Vignette). TO FACE PAGE
THE RIGHT HON. W. EWART GLADSTONE ... 12
THE MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE  ... 74
THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS  ... 106
SIR GEORGE CORNEWALL LEWIS  ... 128
HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE . 156
THE EMPRESS OF THE FRENCH 163
THE DUKE OF MALAKOFF ... 225
EARL OF DERBY  229
SIR JOHN PAKINGTON  231
LORD STANLEY  232
COUNT CAVOUR  255
KING VICTOR EMMANUEL ... 257
GENERAL GARIBALDI  284
LORD CAMPBELL  292
THE EARL OF CARLISLE ... 297
LORD LYONS  349
EDWARD BAINES  435
RICHARD COBDEN  495
THE DUKE OF ARGYLE  624
MR. WILSON  66*
LORD ABERDEEN  76i

LIFE AND TIMES

VISCOTJNT PALMERSTON.

CHAPTEE I.

PALMERSTON JCBILANT.

The troubled years, the history of which we have just condensed, were, in many
quarters, supposed to have been mainly caused by the intrigues of the. English
Foreign Minister, who, considered almost a Tory at home, was regarded as a revo
lutionary firebrand abroad.
Certainly his lordship loved to carry matters with a high hand.
For instance, there was that little affair in Greece. The government of King
Otho, trusting in the protection of the Emperor Nicholas, had presumed to treat
with the most contemptuous indifference the remonstrances of the British ambas
sador. His Hellenic majesty had never forgotten the advice which England gave
him when he thought of freeing himself from his professional engagements. The
plain representations which both Lord Aberdeen and Lord Palmerston had made to
him, rankled in his heart ; and under the skilful diplomatic surgery of Russia, fes
tered into a positive hatred of England, and everything English. The system of
brigandage (the curse of the Turkish rule) continued even under the reign of King
Otho. The most barbarous tortures were inflicted'; the laws violated ; the judges
corrupted ; and outrages of every kind committed, with the connivance, sanction,
and encouragement of the Court of Athens. Though the Greek subjects of King
Otho were treated with great cruelty, and though the condition of his little
kingdom was most disgraceful, the Ionians and Maltese, and all who had any right
to be considered subjects of the British crown, were peculiarly the marks for insult
and oppression. They were whipped, and tortured with thumb-screws ; they were
robbed and pillaged : the unarmed boat's crew of a British ship of war was beaten
by the Greek soldiers, and taken into custody. Mr. Finlay, a gentleman of
Scottish origin, could get no payment for some land of which the king had taken
possession to build a palace upon, and lay out a garden. M. Pacifico, a Portu
guese Jew, had his house broken into, and his furniture destroyed by a mob, in
open day, and within a short distance of the guard-house. For all these multi
plied and manifold injuries redress was demanded : for none of them could any
reparation, or even any apology, be obtained. Yet all these men were British
subjects; and all of them, however humble in their condition, had, therefore, claims
which a British minister was justified, nay, imperatively required, to urge. Em
phatically, to support the just claims of his countrymen is the duty of a Foreign
Minister. So does he best secure and maintain the honour of his flag.
On the 29th of December, 1849, the English minister at Athens informed the
Greek government that it would act unwisely, if, counting on the forbearance of
England, it neglected to satisfy the demands which had been made. The threat
was no unmeaning one, as King Otho and his little Court soon learnt, to their
VOL. II. B 1

GREECE.]

LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1849-

surprise and dismay. The English squadron appeared off the coast. Twenty-four
hours were specified as the time in which, if no negotiations were entered into lor
the purpose of settling the claims, a formal demand would be made. No satis
factory answer was given. ' A formal demand was made by Mr. Wyse, and other
twenty-four hours were allotted as the period of compliance. The Greek minister,
strono- in the support of France and Russia, refused to yield, and appealed to those
two guaranteeing .powers of the new kingdom. King Otho's government was
informed that none of their vessels would be allowed to leave the Piraeus. The
steamer Otho ventured out, and was soon in the power of the English admiral.
" Reprisals" were now made against the humble navy of Greece. There was, of
course, no resisting the huge line-of-battle ships which now appeared upon the
scene. King Otho and his ministers protested against such violence, and confessed
their weakness. An embargo was next laid upon the mercantile marine — so stern
and unyielding was now the English minister, and so bold his defiance of Russia.
The French government having, offered its good offices, they were accepted by
Lord Palmerston, though he carefully guarded himself from surrendering, in any
degree, the principle of his claims. Baron Gros went to Athens for the purpose
of amicably arranging the business ; but M. Pacifico's demands were a sad stum
bling-block in the way of a satisfactory settlement.
On the 1,8th of April, 1850, a convention was signed in London, between
Lord Palmerston and M. Drouyn de PHuys, by whieh the differences were arranged
upon much easier terms for the Greek government, than those demanded at
Athens by Mr. Wyse. Baron le Gros, the French ambassador at the Greek
capital, was duly' advised of the terms of this convention; but Mr. Wyse was left
in ignorance of them, and, of course, acted up to his previous instructions, which
enjoined him, if the terms demanded were not complied with, to order the British
squadron to appear before Athens, and enforce them. The Greek government,
assenting to the terms ofthe London convention,, refused' to yield to those
demanded by Mr. Wyse. The British squadron accordingly anchored off the Piraeus ;
and coercive measures were only avoided by the submission of the Greeks. When
information of these events reached Paris, the government was highly indignant at
what appeared to be a violation of the agreement entered into with M. Drouyn de
l'Huys. On the 16th of May, General Lahitte announced that the French ambas
sador was recalled from- London, M. Mareschalchi being accredited as charge
d'affaires ; and, for a short time, a rupture with England appeared imminent.
However, Lord Palmerston gave explanations as to the cause of the delay in for
warding the convention of April 18th to Mr. Wyse; and as instructions were
immediately sent to that minister to carry out its stipulations, the diplomatic
intercourse with England was resumed, and the relations betAveen the two countries
assumed their usual character.
In the opinion of the opposition, the time had now come for the downfall of
Lord Palmerston.
In February, Count Nesselrode had favoured the British government with
a despatch, really intended, by the Emperor Nicholas, to produce in the minds
of Lord Palmerston's political opponents that indignation which they so keenly
expressed. It was not so much Greece as Turkey that he was thinking of; and
he therefore placed as the head and front of Lord Palmerston's offending the
entrance of our ships into the outer portion of the Dardanelles, and concluded
with a threatening sentence about England abusing the advantages of her posi
tion ; pursuing an isolated policy ; and freeing herself from her engagements to
the other cabinets. All these strong reproaches might justly be 'thrown back
upon their author, and the great military governments of Europe. The three
allied powers, and not England, had abused the advantages of their position
and had set themselves free from their engagements to her. It was not England
that was to blame. It was because the holy alliance systematically propagated
despotisms that England was compelled to support a more generous system. The

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord palmerston attacked.
same people who now blamed Lord Palmerston, in 1822 blamed Mr. Canning, and
for similar reasons.
The Conservatives might well be anxious to get rid of a Foreign Minister
ready to aid the cause of constitutional government on the continent. The
Emperor Nicholas was also of a similar opinion.
In the Lords the victory was easily won. All Palmerston's political adver
saries combined against him ; and the House of Lords passed resolutions by which
his policy in general, and his conduct to Greece in particular,* was emphatically
censured. The only defender of Lord Palmerston was the Marquis of Lansdowne,
who commenced his remarks by saying — " That in the House of Commons, where
his noble friend had a seat, none of his opponents durst trust themselves with
bringing forward such a motion." Earl Grey, who was, usually forward enough
to speak on the policy of the government, was silent on this occasion ; and it was
generally understood, from personal disapprobation of the policy of his colleague.
On the other band, the whole force of the opposition, Protectionites and Peelites,
voted in favour of the censure; and the government, in consequence, was put
in a minority. In curious coincidence, however, with what Lord Lansdowne had
said, none of the protectionists ventured to follow up their victory by proposing
a similar motion in the House of Commons ; and it was left for an admirer of
Lord Palmerston's foreign policy to introduce the question. He asked Lord John
Russell, the leader of the House, what the government intended to do in con
sequence of the adverse vote of the Peers ? Lord John Russell replied, " That
they meant to do nothing. That the vote of the House of Lords would have no
effect upon them, one way or another :" and then, bursting out into a tribute to
his colleague, which was eloquent in its manly tone of admiration, he reminded
the House of the position in which his honourable and noble friend stood ; that
he was not the minister of Austria or of Russia ; but that he was the minister
of England. When the hearty cheers that spontaneously greeted this declara
tion had subsided, Mr. Roebuck said — " That he was nbt quite satisfied with the
constitutional ground of the doctrine which the noble lord had laid down ; and
that therefore he would give the House of Commons an opportunity of declaring
whether they agreed with, or dissented from, the views of the Lords ; for he
would move a vote of approbation of the noble lord's policy." As M.P. for
Sheffield, Mr. Roebuck was a man of mark : he was not a party follower. In
many respects he was an Ishmaelite ; and his hand, or rather his tongue, was
against every one. The course which he took was, therefore, the more valuable ;
and, as regards Lord Palmerston, the more complimentary.
In many quarters it was thought a majority of thirty-seven against the
government was fatal to its existence. " On referring to history," said Lord
Russell, " it would be found that, 140 years ago, the House of Lords passed a
resolution, which they embodied in an address, declaring that it would not consist
with the honour and safety of the country to make any peace with France that.
would leave Spain and the Indies in possession of any branch of the House of
Bourbon." The executive government, notwithstanding that address., proceeded
to negotiate a treaty. In 1833, another instance occurred. When an address,
moved by the Duke of Wellington, had been carried against the government,
Earl Grey continued to act on the policy previously adopted; from which, in
the House of Commons, Lord Palmerston had declared he would not swerve.
Ministers, Lord John Russell intimated, were not disposed to give the reins
of power out of their hands in consequence of the course adopted by the Lords.
Yet the attack, led on by Lord Stanley in the upper House, was of the most
vehement description. He condemned, in toto, the conduct of Lord Palmerston.
On a claim made, of £20 each, for two Ionians, the speaker commented with much
severity. He said—" If the British flag is insulted, the Secretary of State does not
think it necessary to ask for an apology. If a boat's crew is plundered, a sum of
money is demanded. All we want is the money. Is a boat-hook lost . Put it

LOUD STANLEY'S SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF  ^1850.
down in the bill. It is really difficult to speak seriously on such a question. It
would be too absurd, too ridiculous, too foolish to make it the subject of recital in
vour lordships' House, were it not for the momentous fact, that it is upon such
fooleries the peace of Europe is made to depend. The noble lord reminds me of a
story where a man is thrown out of the window of an inn, and the assailant, when
charged with the offence, exclaims, 'Put it down in the bill.' Whatever is done,
put it down in the bill. Here is £20 for this, and £10 for that; and when we
present our bill to King Otho at last, his treasury not being in an overflowing
condition, we will show him what it is to insult Great Britain. Now, I ask your
lordships, I put it to any rational man, whether this is a case upon which we are
justified in going to war ; in which we are warranted in employing a more powerful
fleet than that which won the battle of the Nile, to threaten a friendly sovereign,
and demand a certain compensation, just or unjust ?" He criticised several de
mands ; but the case on which his lordship dwelt most, was that of an individual,
known as Don Pacifico, which he described to present such "an astounding
combination of mendacity and audacity, of all that was ridiculous and disgusting,"
that he was ashamed to bring it before their lordships. The circumstances under
which that person made his claim were these — "The Athenian mob take great
delight, on Easter Sunday, in burning a representation of Judas Iscariot ; but on
Easter Sunday, 1847, in consequence of the presence in Athens of the Baron
C. M. de Rothschild, the government, out of compliment to that gentleman, took
measures to prevent the assemblage of the people. It is clear, then, his lordship
inferred, that the loss M. Pacifico has sustained, is traceable to the presence of
Baron de Rothschild in Athens. If the baron had not been in Athens, the figure
of Judas would have been burnt ; and, possibly, M. Pacifico's house would not have
been plundered. An opinion, however, arose that M. Pacifico had obtained the dis
continuation of this annual celebration, and a mob assembled, and most indefensibly
made an attack upon M. Pacifico's house, and destroyed what furniture there was
in it ; and, indeed, according to his statement, everything else. The rapidity with
which the mob effected this destruction appears to have been wonderful ; but, no
doubt, they did great injury to the house, and caused considerable alarm to
M. Pacifico and his family." His lordship continued — "As I do not wish to
exaggerate or over-state anything, I will say, that, looking at those papers, it
does not appear that there was any great activity manifested by the Greek police,
either in putting a stop to the riot itself, or endeavouring to identify the rioters.
It seems, indeed, that the police were deterred from taking such steps in conse
quence of persons who had high connections in the state being concerned in these
outrages — a circumstance which entitles M. Pacifico to compensation. But when
we come to the gentleman's bill of costs, it is really one which passes credibility.
Mr. Wyse states that M. Pacifico's circumstances were insufficient to afford him
the power to redeem some plate lodged with the Bank of Athens as security for
£30 advanced to him for the purpose of lending out small weekly loans to poor
people at exorbitant interest ; and yet he claims more than £31,000 for his losses
nearly £5,000 of which is demanded for furniture destroyed. But, my lords, either
M. Pacifico must be a man of extraordinary powers of memory, or else amidst
the universal destruction declared, the plunderers must have been obliging enough
to leave behind them a precise inventory of every item of furniture, and the value
of each. No upholsterer's catalogue can be more complete, enumerating in the
minutest detail, every article in the house, from the sofas and chairs in the
drawing-room, to the stew-pans, the jelly-moulds, the skimming-ladles in the
kitchen. Every article, too, in its proper place; in such a box so manv
coats, and other articles of M. Pacifico ; in such a cupboard, so many gowns
of Mrs. Pacifico ; so many silk stockings of Miss Pacifico • with all the
minutias of male and female apparel. Why, the house of this' petty usurer is
furnished — is represented to have been furnished — as if he had been another
Aladdin, with full command of the genii of the ring and the lamp. Fo-

A.D. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [he. roebuck's speech.
one couch, the enormous sum of £170 is charged; and, for a lit conjugal, £150.';
In conclusion, expressing great regard for the noble lord at the head of the foreign
department, he felt bound to speak of him on this occasion as a minister, not as
a man-, and thus feeling, he continued — " I must, in this case, express my deep
regret at the conduct which, as a minister, he has felt it his duty to pursue ; and
call upon your lordships to recollect that this is no case in which personal feeling-
ought to be indulged. I must call upon you to remember that you are here in the
discharge of a great public duty ; that you are here acting in a judicial capacity ;
that you are here acting, possibly, as the means of reconciling differences between
contending nations: at all events, that your judgment to-day may go forth to
the world, and vindicate you from the stigma and opprobrium which, as I think,
must attach to that great and mighty power which prostitutes its undoubted
superiority by enforcing unjust or exorbitant demands upon a feeble and defence
less ally. My lords, I beg to move your lordships to resolve, that while the House
fully recognises the right and duty of the government to secure to her majesty's
subjects residing in foreign states the full protection of the laws of those states, it
regrets to find, by the correspondence recently laid upon the table by her majesty's
command, that various claims against the Greek government, doubtful in point of
justice, or exaggerated in amount, have been enforced by coercive measures,
directed against the commerce and peace of Greece, and calculated to endanger the
continuance of our friendly relations with other powers."
Mr. Roebuck, after such a powerful censure had been endorsed by the Lords,
might well think that an appeal should be made to the Commons ; and that if that
appeal were not successful, then the path which ministers ought to take would be
clear. With this feeling he gave notice to the House that he would move, " That
the principles which have hitherto regulated the foreign policy of her majesty's
government are such as were required to preserve untarnished the honour and
dignity of the country, and, in times of unexampled difficulty, the best calculated
to maintain peace between England and the various nations of the world."
The whole nation was excited at finding ministers thus put upon their trial.
The debate lasted four nights, and excited unexampled interest. It commenced
on the 24th of June.
Mr. Roebuck:, after alluding to tbe condemnation of the administration by the
House of Lords on their foreign policy, said — " It became the duty of the House
of Commons to declare their opinion in similar unmistakable language. He
believed that, as regards individual wrongs and rights, with reference to foreign
nations, the object of the noble lord had been to extend the protection and the
shield of England to her wandering sons, who were carried by commerce or other
wise to the various regions of the world. With regard to the interests of this
country," he proceeded, " I believe his policy has been to maintain the peace of
the world — not by truckling to despotism, but by teaching all foreign communities
with whom we have any relations, that in so far as she is permitted to do so by
the rules regulating internal communication, she will maintain peace by warning-
foreign governments to make ready and proper concessions to the increasing enlight
enment of the people. In 1789, broke out that grand result of the increasing-
enlightenment of Europe — the first French revolution. The whole result depended
upon England. What were called the legitimate governments of Europe banded
together : and, unfortunately, England supported them. The consequence was a
contest the most terrible that the annals of mankind record. In that fearful
lesson we read a rule for our guidance in future. The Duke of Wellington was
at the head of the English councils when that mighty conflict of the people
of France resulted in again dispossessing the Bourbon family of the throne. The
Duke of Wellington commenced a new foreign policy on tho occasion, and at
once acknowledged the government which tho new revolution in France had
established." After praising Lord Palmerston's policy with regard to Belgium,
Mr. Roebuck continued — " On a sudden this House is surprised by a resolution

roebuck's speech.] LIFE AND TIMES OF  JAJ. 1850-
of the other House, embracing an alliance with France, Russia, and the Protep"
tionist party in this country, formed to overwhelm the noble lord. To find in
Greece a monarch coming from Bavaria— a man educated at a small (jrerman
Court and with all the feelings that such an education must create— and acting,
in everything, under the instruction of Austria and Russia, I must confess that,
with such a council and such diplomacy, I feel somewhat degraded when I hear
the name of England being mixed up in any of these discussions. We have seen
evinced at Athens a constant sympathy with Russian diplomacy, which still looks
forward to the. possession of Constantinople as her portion of the spoil of the
world, contemplated by Napoleon. Austria is Russia's implement and slave ; and
woe and shame to France for suddenly forgetting the great guiding principles.
of her conduct; and, truckling with the Russian despot, she has joined in this-
attempt to insult the greatness of -England. Well, at this time what has occurred ?
The people of England are suddenly informed, through their Foreign Minister,
that the fleet of Admiral Parker has been ordered to the Piraeus. At once English
men erect their ears. They do not like the idea of it ; and that power which
is always ready to oppose anything like liberal government, which can give a
majority against freedom, suddenly interferes. They do not like prodigally to
use their power. I have heard many threats, and often, of the ministry being
left in a minority in the House of Lords ; but there was one very curious thing
which I learned just before these occurrences took place; and I would ask this
House seriously to bear it in mind. The people of Hungary had risen against
the despotism of Austria, but had succumbed to the united power of Austria and
Russia. The patriots escaped, and were afforded shelter by Turkey. With
bloodhound pertinacity they were instantly demanded by the two despots. . The
noble lord worthily represented England on that occasion, and said, ' It shall not
be.' Our fleet told those two despotic powers that such a violation of the rights of
nations should not take place. England stopped those wretches. It was shortly
after that circumstance that Count Nesselrode, writing to M. Brunow, said — 'It
is painful that this should have occurred just as Admiral Parker has been to the
Dardanelles on his very disagreeable mission.' Now the charge brought against
the noble lord is, that his demands are unreasonable ; the amount claimed insig
nificant or exaggerated; and the time for making the demand inopportune or
improper. There is first to be considered the question as regards the demands
made on the Grecian nation. The next question is, how the French people have
acted in the business ? I will begin with France. We are told that this sort of
proceeding was altogether unknown until originated by the noble lord, the
Foreign Secretary, in the case of Greece. The cases in which the noble lord
interfered were five or six. Now, I believe it is well known that, in 1831, a French
fleet appeared in the Tagus to insist on reparation for injuries done to French
subjects during the reign of Don Miguel. The mediation of England was offered,.
and refused by France. They demanded that a Frenchman, subjected to a severe
imprisonment for a serious offence, should be liberated, and the sentence pro
nounced against him annulled by a special act, and that the judge should be
dismissed. That was in times when we heard of 'our dear Aberdeen.' They
further demanded that several French subjects should be indemnified; that a rule
against arrest without a judicial decree should be observed ; that the chief of the
police should be dismissed ; and that all sentences on French subjects for political
offences should be abrogated. It is urged, in France, that this affair of Greece was
a petty affair. I think I can find one as petty. In 1842, the French government
felt that injuries had been done to some French subjects at the small and
insignificant port of San Salvador, amounting, in the whole, to one thousand
dollars. A French ship went in immediately, and the captain said  ' If you do
not pay I will at once bombard the town.' The people refused : the French
consul retired, got on board the French ship, and immediately raised the demand
to two thousand dollars, and the poor people were obliged to pay the money."'

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord palmerston's defence.
Mr. Roebuck quoted various cases to show that, in the judgment of other
enlightened nations, a course similar to that which had been used by the British
government on the present occasion, was justifiable. He spoke disparagingly
of the conduct of France on this occasion, and treated lightly the idea of war
being likely to arise from it. Finally, he expressed anxiety that there Would be no
cavil on the question at issue — no half approval. There must be so broad, so
¦clear, so strong, and so positive an approval, that there could be no doubt ministers
had maintained, and would continue to maintain, the dignity of the country in thw
face of the world. 
On the second night of the debate Lord Palmerston spoke in his own defence. /
The interest created by the debate was intense, and the House was crowded in every (
part. Referring to the resolution passed by the Lords, he said it involved the future
¦as well as the past. The country was pledged by the resolution; and, so far as
foreign nations were concerned, the future rule of government was to be, that
in all cases, and under all circumstances, British subjects were to have that
protection only which the law and the tribunals of the land in which they might
happen to be would give them. That proposition he denied; and he declared it
was a doctrine upon which no British minister had ever yet acted, and on which
the people of England would never suffer a British minister to act. His lordship
continued — " If our subjects abroad have complaints against individuals, or against
the government of a foreign country, if the courts of law can afford them redress,
then, no doubt, to those courts of justice the British subjects ought, in the first
instance, to apply ; and it is only on a denial of justice, or upon decisions mani
festly unjust, that the British government should be called upon to interfere. But
there may be cases in which no confidence can be placed in the tribunals. I 
will take a transaction that occurred not long ago as an instance. An inn-keeper
of Catania was brought before a court-martial, accused of having concealed arms
in his possession, contrary to a recent decree, declaring that a person found guilty
should be shot. Some police officers deelared that they found, in an open bin in
an open stable in his yard, a knife, which they denounced as a concealed weapon.
Witnesses having been examined, the counsel for the prosecution stated;, that
he gave up the case, as it was evident that there was no proof that the knife
belonged to the man, or that he was aware that it was in the place where it
was found. The counsel for the defendant said, that such being the opinion of
the prosecution, it was unnecessary for him to go into the defence^ and he left
his client in the hands of the court. The court, nevertheless, pronounced the man
guilty, and the next morning he was shot. Now what would the English people
have said if this had been done to a British subject? Yet everything was the
result of a law, and the man was found guilty of an offence by the tribunal of his
country. Owin°- to the absence of constitutional institutions, the whole system
of the government of Greece is full of every kind of abuse. Justice could not
be expected where the judges of the tribunal were at the mercy of the advisers
of the crown. And with regard to the police, I have here depositions of persons
who have been subjected to the most abominable tortures which human ingenuity
¦could devise — tortures inflicted on both sexes, most revolting and disgusting ; and
that the parties guilty of such practices, instead of being punished, are held
in great favour in quarters where they ought to have received nothing but marks
of indignation. Well, this being the state of things in Greece, we have to do our
best to afford protection to the Maltese, Ionians, and a certain number of British
subjects, whom we have bound ourselves to aid. The Greek police, however, made
no distinction between their treatment of the Maltese and the Ionians, and that of
their own subjects, whom tlfey were permitted to torture as I have described ; and
I saw the necessity of putting a stop to the extension of those abuses to British
subjects by -demanding compensation, scarcely more than nominal in some cases;
the granting of which would be an acknowledgment that such things should not
be done towards us in future."

case of don pacifico.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [AJ>.

1850.

With regard to the case of Pacifico, against whose character many accusations
had been brought, his lordship continued :— .
" If the man were guilty, punish him if you will ; but do not pursue him as a
pariah through life. His case was this. In the middle of the town of Athens, in
house which, I must be allowed to say, is not a wretched hovel, but which, in the
early days of King Otho, was, I am told, the residence of Count Armansperg, the
chief of the regency — a house as good as the generality of those which existed in
Athens before the sovereign ascended the throne— M. Pacifico, living in this house,
within forty yards .of the great street, within a few minutes' walk of a guard-house
where soldiers were stationed, was attacked by a mob. Fearing injury when the
mob began to assemble, he sent an intimation to the British minister, who imme
diately informed the authorities. Application was made to the Greek government
for protection. No protection was afforded. The mob, in which were soldiers
and gens d'armes, who, even if officers were not with them, ought, from a sense of
duty, to have interfered, and to have prevented plunder — that mob, headed by the
sons of the minister of war — not children eight or ten years old, but older — that
mob, for nearly two hours, employed themselves in gutting the house of an
unoffending man, carrying away or destroying every single thing the house con
tained, and left it a perfect wreck. Is not that a case in which a man is entitled
to redress from somebody ? I venture to think it is. I think that there is no
civilised country where a man, subjected to such grievous wrong — not to speak of
insults and injuries to the members of his family — would not justly expect redress
from some quarter or other. Where was he to apply for redress at Athens?
The Greek government neglected its duty, and did not pursue judicial inquiries, or
institute legal prosecutions, as it might have done, for the purpose of finding out,
and punishing some of the culprits. The sons of the minister of war were pointed
out to the government as actors in the outrage. The Greek government were told
to search a particular house, and that some part of M. Pacifico's jewels would be
found there. They declined to prosecute the minister's sons, or to search the
house. But, it is said, M. Pacifico should have applied to a court of law for
redress. What was he to do ? Was he to prosecute a mob of 500 persons ? Was
he to prosecute them criminally, or in order to make them pay the value of his
losses ? Where was he to find his witnesses ? Why, he and his family were hiding
or flying during the pillage, to avoid the personal outrages with which they were
threatened. He states that his own life was saved by the help of an English
friend. It was impossible, if he could have identified the leaders, to have pro
secuted them with success. But what satisfaction would it have been to M.
Pacifico to have succeeded in a criminal prosecution against the ringleaders of
that assault ? Would that have restored to him his property ? He wanted
redress, not revenge. A criminal prosecution was out of the question, to say
nothing of the chances, if not the certainty, of failure in a country where the
tribunals are at the mercy of the advisers of the crown ; the judges being liable
to be removed, and being often actually removed, upon grounds of private interest
and personal feeling. Was he to prosecute for damages ? His action would have
been laid against individuals, and not, as in this country, against the hundred.
Suppose that he had been enabled to prove that one particular man had carried
off one particular thing, or destroyed one particular article of furniture, what
redress could he anticipate from a law-suit which, as his legal advisers told him
it would be vain for him to undertake ? M. Pacifico truly said  ' If the man
I prosecute is rich, he is sure to be acquitted ; if he is poor, he has nothing out
of which to afford me compensation if he is condemned.' The Greek government
having neglected to give the protection they were bound to extend, and having
abstained from taking the means to afford redress, there was a case in which
we were justified in calling on the Greek government for compensation for the
losses, whatever they might be, which M. Pacifico had suffered. I think that
claim was founded in justice. The amount we did not pretend to fix. If the
8

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord palmerston's defence.
Greek government had admitted the principle of the claim, and had objected
to the account sent in by M. Pacifico — if they had said, ' This is too much, and we
think a less sum sufficient,' that would have been a question open to discussion,
and which our ministers, Sir E. Lyons at first, or Mr. Wyse afterwards, would
have been ready to have gone into, and, no doubt, some satisfactory arrangement
might then have been effected with the Greek government. But the Greek
government denied altogether the principle of the claim. Therefore, when Mr.
Wyse came to make the claim, he could not but demand that the claim should
be settled, or placed in a way of settlement, and that within a definite period,
as he fixed it, of twenty-four hours. Whether M. Pacifico's statement of his
claim was exaggerated or not, the demand was not for any particular amount
of money. The demand was, that the claim should be settled. An investigation
might have been instituted, which those who acted for us were prepared to enter
into, fairly, dispassionately, and justly." His lordship further stated, " that M.
Pacifico had only met with a positive refusal of his claim, or with pertinacious
silence; and at length it came to this, that the demand must be abandoned
altogether or enforced. Oh, it was said, what an iniquitous proceeding to employ
"so large a force against so small a power. But did the smallness of a country
justify the magnitude of its evil doings ? Was it to be held, that if your subjects
suffered violence, outrage, plunder, in a country which was small and weak, that
compensation must not be claimed ? The sufferers would answer, that the
weakness of the offending power made it so much more easy to obtain redress.
No, it was said, generosity was to be the rule ; we were to be generous to those
who have behaved ungenerously to our countrymen ; and we were to say to the
sufferers — ' We cannot give you redress, because we have such ample means of
enforcing it.'" His lordship then fully explained the course which had been
pursued ; the policy he had uniformly acted upon ; and the differences with France,
which had, however, been brought to a satisfactory conclusion. He vindicated
the government on all the points which had been assailed ; and especially the
sending of a squadron, under Sir William Parker, to the Dardanelles, that the
Turkish government might not be coerced, and forced to give up the Hungarians,
who had sought a refuge in the dominions of the Porte. That, he insisted,
held out no threat to any power : it could only be a symbol, and a source of support
to the sultan.
The eloquent conclusion of the noble viscount's five hours' speech was as
follows : —
" The government of a great country like this is undoubtedly an object
for fair and legitimate ambition among men of all shades of opinion. It is a
noble thing to be allowed to guide the policy and the destinies of such a country ;
and if ever it were an object of honourable ambition, it must be more than
ever so at the moment at which I am speaking. Whilst we have seen, as has
been stated, Europe rocking from side to side, thrones shattered, institutions
overthrown and destroyed— when almost every country of Europe has been a scene
of conflict, which has deluged the land with blood, from the Atlantic to the Black
Sea, from the Baltic to the Mediterranean— this country has presented a spectacle
honourable to the people of England, and worthy of the admiration of the world.
We have shown that liberty is compatible with order; we have shown that
individual freedom is reconcilable with obedience to law; we have shown the
example of a nation in which every class of society accepts with cheerfulness
the lot which Providence has assigned it; whilst, at the same time, every in
dividual is constantly striving to raise himself in the social scale, not by violence
and illegality, but by persevering good conduct, and unremitting application ot
those moral and intellectual faculties with which his Creator has endowed him.
I say, to govern such a people as this, is indeed an object worthy of the ambition
of the noblest man who lives in the land ; and therefore I find no fault with those
who may have endeavoured to place themselves in so distinguished a .position.
vol. n. c 9

SIR R. PEEL'S LAST SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1S50.
We have not done anything in our foreign policy to forfeit the confidence of
the country. I contend that, whether in this matter or in that we may have
acted up to the opinions of one person or another — and we know by experience
that we do not find any number of persons entirely agreeing on any matter —
making allowances for those differences of opinion which might fairly be expected
amongst those which generally concur, yet I maintain that the principles which
can be traced throughout foreign nations as the rule and directing course of our
proceedings — I say that those principles are such as deserve the approbation of
the country. I fearlessly challenge the verdict which the House may give on
the question now before it — whether the principles which have governed the foreign
policy of the government, whose duty it was to afford protection to our subjects
abroad, which we have considered the guide of our conduct, are proper and fitting ;
and whether, as in the days of the Roman, who held himself to be free from
indignity when he called out ' Civis Romanus Sum,' an Englishman shall be
considered protected by the vigilant eye and strong arm of his government,
against injustice and wrong ?"
L~ The debate was brought to a close on the 28th of June. On that night Sir
R. Peel delivered a most able and argumentative speech : it was the last time his
voice was heard in that House. Differing from Lord Palmerston, he frankly
confessed, " We are all proud of him." In this his last speech, Sir Robert, as
usual, uttered language well worthy of remembrance. We transcribe a few of
its sentences. " The honourable and learned gentleman, Mr. Roebuck, says there
shall be no mistake as to the purport and import of my vote ; that it is not
a resolution simply of approval of the policy of the noble lord, but a resolution
the meaning and intention of which is this — we are to tell the people of all foreign
countries with whom we have any relations, that our power, so far as it is
physically concerned, is not to be employed to coerce their rulers ; but, in so
far as the moral influence of this country and this government is concerned,
the world shall know we are friendly wheresoever we find a large endeavour on
the part of any body of men to vindicate to themselves the right of self-govern
ment. * * * * I am asked what is the antagonistic principle ? I have been
challenged again and again to declare it. I will declare it. The principle for
which I contend is the principle for which every statesman has contended for
the last fifty years — namely, non-interference with the domestic affairs of other
countries, without some clear and undeniable necessity arising from circumstances
affecting the interests of your own country. That is the antagonistic principle
for which I contend. I affirm, that the principle for which you contend is the
principle contended against by Mr. Fox, when it was employed in favour of
arbitrary government, which was resisted by Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning
at the congress of Verona ; the principle which was asserted by the Convention
of France on the 19th of November, 1792, and was abandoned by that same
Convention on the 13th of April, 1793, because France found it utterly impossible
to adhere to it consistently with the maintenance of peace. * * * * It is
my firm belief that you will not advance the cause of constitutional government
by attempting to dictate to other nations. If you do, your intentions will be
mistaken ; you will rouse feelings upon which you do not calculate ; you will
invite opposition to government : and beware that the time does not arrive when
frightened by your own interference, you withdraw your countenance from tho-e
whom you have excited, and leave upon their minds the bitter recollection tint
you have betrayed them. If you succeed, I doubt whether the institutions that
take root under your patronage will be lasting. Constitutional liberty will b»
best worked out by those who aspire to freedom by their own efforts -you will
only overload it by your help, by your principle of interference." '
Many were the brilliant speeches delivered during the course of the debate •
and the triumph for the ministry, in spite of the combination of Peelites protec
tionists, and the Manchester party, was of the most emphatic character. Mr

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [palmerston triumphant.
Roebuck's motion was carried by a majority of forty^six ; the numbers being —
ayes, 310 ; noes, 264. There can be no doubt that the main contributor to this
triumph was the noble lord himself. His speech exhausted the question. During
the whole time, the attention of a crowded House was maintained unflaggingly :
the historical details of his policy, which, in other hands, would have been a
dry narrative of facts, served with him as the vehicle, at times, of lofty sentiment,
of genuine patriotism, of brilliant repartee, and of broad and irresistible humour.
It was universally admitted to be one of the greatest triumphs of parliamentary
eloquence that age had listened to. An M.P. walking home that night, said
to another M.P., " I have heard Cannings and Plunkett, and Brougham in their
best days, and I never heard anything to beat that speech." Undoubtedly his
lordship surpassed himself, and exceeded all expectation. Out-of-doors the
enthusiasm in favour of Lord Palmerston was as great as within the walls of
St. Stephen's; and with a peculiar and delicate courtesy, within four days of
the address which he delivered, a portrait of himself, painted by an eminent
artist, at a cost of 400 guineas, was presented to Lady Palmerston by a deputa
tion, consisting of members of the House of Commons, who represented many
more of his legislative admirers.
On the Greek question public opinion is yet divided. The weakness of Greece
has pleaded strongly in her favour with some politicians, who thought, and justly
thought, that the necessity for undertaking offensive measures against such a
humble state ought to have been obvious to all mankind ; that every effort should
have been made to effect a pacific settlement ; and that full warning should have
been given, not to Greece alone, but to France and Russia, as protecting powers,
before the strong arm of England had been raised, even in a just cause, against
such a puny member of the commonwealth of nations. There was no glory to be
gained in coercing Greece.
Unquestionably, British subjects, when residing in foreign lands, are entitled
to protection; and if that protection cannot be afforded them by the legal
tribunals of the country, they have a right to look for it at the hands of their
own government. But before their claims are endorsed by the Foreign Secretary,
he ought to be sure that they are not exaggerated, and that they are, in every
respect, honest. If an Englishman makes a fool of himself abroad, he must take-
the consequences of his folly. It is not enough that the offending power should
disprove the accusations of an alien : it is the duty of the injured person to prove,
to the satisfaction of his government, before calling upon it for assistance, that
his demands are strictly just. If this reasoning be sound, it is impossible to
approve, in every respect, of the manner in which M. Pacifico's claims were
adopted and enforced. In this demonstration against Greece, there were certainly,
especially as regards French mediation, many errors committed ; but it is not
clear that Lord Palmerston was to blame. Accidents will occur in the best re
gulated* families; the best schemes are liable to miscarriage ; the best diplomatic
agents sometimes err; and. Lord Palmerston never was the man to extricate
himself from a false position by accusing his subordinates.
The doctrine of Roman citizenship is more plausible than sound. Undoubtedly,
at the time, it made Lord Palmerston intensely popular. John Bull, even now —
when an adventurer, and the son Of an adventurer, with an audacity almost
sublime, has climbed up the steep ascent of empire, and with his armed legions
bids all Europe tremble-Maatters himself that England sustains the same relation
to the modern, that Rome sustained to the ancient World. Under the broad
sun of heaven he sees no more exalted personage than himself : he insists upon
his rights in the remotest corners of the globe. In the presence ofthe pope, whom
he considers as little better than one of the wicked ; under the shadow of the
gigantic despot, who holds France in his mailed hand ; before Austrian kaiser,
Russian czar, Yankee backwoodsman, or astonished citizen of Timbuctoo, ^ he
exclaims, " Civis Romanus Sum /" In his own Opinion, it is his proud prerogative,
c2 11

ME. GLADSTONE'S CRITICISM.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1850.

wherever he wanders, to break all laws ; to violate all customs ; to pour contempt-
on all prejudices ; and to run all risks. Now Lord Palmerston was supposed to
aid and abet all this ; and in 1850 this idea culminated in a triumph, which must
have satisfied even his ambition. Englishmen were astonished and enraptured.
All swore by Lord Palmerston. Even the professors of the refined science of
gastronomy — the disciples of Ude— Careme Soyer — caught . the enthusiasm, and a
Palmerston sauce became en vogue. In the four quarters of the globe his name
was a terror, and a tower of strength. Vienna illuminated when Lord Palmerston
left office. In the troubled years of 1848-9, a German popular couplet intimated,
that if the devil had a son, that fortunate individual was England's Foreign
Secretary. " Suda Palmerston Seechas" (hither Palmerston forthwith), was, we
were told, during the Crimean war, the cry with which the Cossack of the Ukraine
stilled his steed when restive, or urged it on when weary. Nay, more ; at dinners
at< Damascus, Mr. Disraeli makes an Eastern emir exclaim — " I cannot endure
this eternal chatter about Palmerston : is there no other statesman in the world
besides Palmerston ?" Actually when the Harper Ferry affair broke out on the
other side of the Atlantic, we read in an American paper, that the act of Brown
and his followers was owing to Palmerston. alone. The' public were pleased. The
conclusion naturally was — if the Foreign Secretary was thus great and potent, how
.great and potent must be the country of which he was the minister.
The ablest opponent of Lord Palmerston was Mr. Gladstone, who repudiated,
in the debate, the Civis Romanus Sum doctrine,- which, after all, was never
advanced by Lord Palmerston in the mischievous sense his opponents affirmed.
In another matter Mr. Gladstone did his lordship injustice ; and that was in
.-the distinction he drew between the intervention of Mr. Canning and his lordship.
Mr. Gladstone affirmed,' that the. earlier statesman had "been successful in his
interference in Portugal and South America ; while the Foreign Secretary, of the
Whigs had been, 'in almost every instance, unsuccessful and inexcusable in his
meddling with the affairs of , other countries. Mr. - Gladstone even selected -for
panegyric, Mr. Canning's extraordinary sentence about calling the; New World
into existence to redress the balance of the Old ; and considered such intervention
as a perfect model of wisdom and success. But, in factj Mr.- Canning's' South.
American republics were decided failures ; and the British troops, had scarcely been
withdrawn from Portugal, when the constitution which he virtually, though not>
directly, attempted to save was subverted. It seems, then, almost impossible to:
believe that, if Mr. Canning's intervention in Portugal and South America was
quite right, Lord Palmerston's intervention in Portugal and Belgium was quite
^rong.- .The latter was blamed for perilling our relations with the great
monarchical powers by his constitutional propagandism. Mr. Gladstone argued,
with much force and eloquence, that if England set about diffusing her political
opinions and institutions, other states would take the same course ; -that the name
of each government would be the symbol of a party, and. a system would ensue
destructive to the peace and happiness of the world. Well, actually this was the.
"case. What was the holy alliance but a scheme of propagandism of the most
universal character ? Lord Palmerston only did what others had done before him.
His "offence was, that he had, wherever practicable, lent the aid and the arm
of England to constitutional, in preference to despotic governments. If his lordship
was a sinner in this respect, it was a sin which surely an Englishman should
be ready to forgive. In the upper House, where Liberal principles are always
viewed with dislike, we cannot wonder that his lordship's policy had been em
phatically condemned : but we should have been surprised if that verdict had
been ratified by the Commons and the public at large.
Perhaps the best vindication of the Palmerston policy may be found in the
following fact : — After the great issue had been decided, and the session of 1850
closed, Mr. Gladstone went in the autumn to Italy, and found himself at last
in Naples. He was travelling with no political object. Private reasons alone had
12

¥. E. GLIDSIOI

THE LONDON ERIHTTN& AND FOBLISTUWG- COMPANY- LIMITED

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the prisons of Naples.

taken him to the continent. He was a highly distinguished member of a party
which was considered opposed to all revolutionary disturbances, and strongly
prepossessed in favour of established governments. He had censured Lord Pal
merston for his measures in Italy ; and had expressed himself powerfully against
the contemplated separation of Sicily from Naples. He might be regarded as
a friend of King Ferdinand, and disposed to view, with a favourable eye, the
exertions which this sovereign and his ministers had made to preserve the rights
of the Neapolitan monarchy. But Mr. Gladstone beheld scenes that struck him
with horror ; he saw in action such a brutal tyranny, without aim or purpose,
except for simply increasing human misery, that, shocked by all he had witnessed,
Conservative and Englishman as he was, he felt it to be his sacred duty to attempt
to stop the further committal of such crimes. He visited the persecuted patriots
in their dungeons. With his own hands he grasped their chains, and endeavoured
to administer consolation to those whose heads were bowed down in despair. On
his return to England he communicated the results of his humane investigation
to Lord Aberdeen, in the hope that that nobleman's great influence might induce
the King of Naples to unlock the fetters he had fastened on his victims. Months,
however, passed away, and no relaxation of this miserable persecution was ex
perienced. Mr. Gladstone then reluctantly sent his letters to the press, and
solemnly impeached, before the great bar of public opinion, the official miscreants
who, violating every divine and human law, revelled in the wretchedness they
inflicted on their fellow-creatures. These letters created a great sensation through
out Europe and the civilised world. The Neapolitan ministers found themselves
arraigned as criminals. They were obliged at last to reply to these grave accusa
tions ; and there were Englishmen not ashamed to countenance their feeble re
joinder, and make a show of holding the balance even between the accuser and
the accused, as though Mr. Gladstone's simple testimony was not of more weight
than the rambling assertions of any kind apologist for such atrocities. The letters
of Mr. Gladstone not merely vindicated his own character, but they were a noble
testimony to the excellence of the policy pursued by our British minister. In
no person did Mr. Gladstone's denunciation of Neapolitan tyranny find more
hearty sympathy than in Lord Palmerston ; nor did he, in his high official position,
merely praise the letters in the House of Commons, and excite the cheers of his
countrymen. He sent copies of the work to the different embassies abroad ; and
charged the ambassadors to bring them to the knowledge of the governments
to which they were accredited, that the world might see what a hideous tyranny
was that of King Ferdinand. Mr. Gladstone's pamphlets produced political con
sequences. His appeal to the common sentiments of mankind against a barbarous
system of injustice and oppression had united politicians who admired Lord
Palmerston and the friends of Lord Aberdeen. It began to be asked whether
the principles of these statesmen were quite irreconcilable ; or whether they could
not unite in one powerful government for the honour and welfare of England ? 
And thus, for the present, Lord Palmerston has become the most popular man
in all England. Of his John Bullism the nation was proud. " It is a grand country
this," exclaims the enthusiastic but grumbling Briton, while he abuses its laws,
its character, and its institutions ; and nothing pleased people better than to hear
his lordship repeating this cry for the edification of foreign Courts. England,
with her press and parUament, was the model which he held up to the admiration
of France, Spain, Portugal, Austria, Russia, Turkey, Japan ; to say nothing of
countless smaller principalities and powers. No matter the differences of religion,
climate, custom, race, his lordship had a panacea applicable to all. That he did
not precipitate the nation into war, argued not so much his discretion as his
luck : but the people who did not see the danger, admired the pluck ; and pluck
rules the world. Witness Louis Napoleon, Count Bismarck, and Professor
Holloway. Thus the national enthusiasm placed Palmerston on the very topmost
pinnacle: he was the mainstay of the cabinet. As long as he was Foreign

the cape.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.
Minister they were safe in their seats. Abroad, the cry was, " Palmerston and
constitutional government !" At home, " Palmerston and the vindication of the
national honour !" Surely, if any man had reason to be satisfied with his lot,
and to be certain of his continuance in office, it was England's Foreign Secretary
at the end of 1850.
It had been the reproach of Englishmen that they took little or no interest in
foreign affairs. That reproach had been uttered even by Lord Palmerston himself.
When a deputation from the inhabitants of Finsbury waited on him with an
address of thanks for his zealous services in the cause of humanity, in having aided
to procure the liberation of Kossuth — in acknowledging the compliment, his
lordship remarked, that the people of England generally viewed the subject of
continental liberty with indifference; and he invited them to back him in his
future efforts on its behalf. His lordship knew that, to be forcible and successful,
he must have public opinion on his side. He felt, with that in his favour,
he could do much for liberty ; that without it, his fiercest reproach, or most in
dignant denunciation, would be a voice, and nothing more.
And thus feared abroad, and admired at home, no one ever dreams of the fall
from place and power of England's Foreign Secretary.
Just now all England is enthusiastic on foreign affairs. Kossuth had recently
landed on our shores. His reception by the corporation and people of Southampton
was such as had never been accorded to a Foreign Secretary before. The ancient
city of Winchester was not backward in its welcome to the illustrious stranger ;
and London even was moved as but rarely is the case. The court of aldermen
and common council adopted an address, which Kossuth was invited to receive
in the Guildhall. His progress thither, on the day appointed, from his temporary
residence in Pimlico, was a scene of extraordinary enthusiasm. From Piccadilly
to Cheapside business was suspended for several hours ; the people of nearly all
ranks blocking up the thoroughfares in their eagerness to behold and honour the
man who had but narrowly escaped the death of a rebel. Twice the hero of
the hour was compelled to stop, and address a few words to his enthusiastic
admirers. In Manchester and Birmingham, the only towns which the state of
his health enabled him to visit, his reception was equally gratifying and en
thusiastic. The Manchester Free-Trade Hall was crowded to its utmost capacity
to hear him ; and 90,000 applications for tickets were made in vain. At Birming
ham it was estimated that half a million of persons assembled to greet him on his
arrival in that town. At the banquet which followed, he delivered one of his most
remarkable speeches in this country.
Our reproach had been wiped away. All England was interested in foreign
affairs.

CHAPTER II.
THE CAPE AND JfOKEIGN" ADVENTURE.
IN 1851, the following letter appeared in the Times, from the pen of Sir William
Napier to'Mr. Samuel Gurney, chairman of the Peace and Aborigines Society : 
" Respectable Friend, — The Times has made thee assert, at a meeting of the
above society, as follows : —
"'That, since 1837, there has been at the Cape a constant reference to the
sword. " ' That it was a bad principle to have all governors sent to the Cape military
men. That where military men were employed, they would only have recourse
14

a.d. 1817.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON* [English settlements.
to the sword. That men of commerce, men of Christian principles, should be
employed instead of military men. That Lord Glenelg's policy was a Christian
one, and the only sure and just one.'
" Now Friend, Justice, which is the favourite child of Christianity, should
have deterred thee from this vilification of all the Cape governors. There was one
of them, at least, who acted according to thy own views of what is deemed fitting
to be done. Sir George Napier succeeded a governor who had just terminated
a war, and was succeeded by a governor who instantly commenced a war ; but
his government of nearly seven years was one of peace with the Kaffirs, and it
began in that very year of 1837, which thou hast fixed as the epoch for a constant
reference to the sword. Moreover, it was a government conducted on Lord
Glenelg's Christian policy, whieh, be it said, did not fail in Sir G. Napier's hands,
though Lord John Russell has thought fit to assume the contrary in the House of
Commons. How is it that these things were unknown to thee, Friend ?
" Sir G. Napier had no recourse to the sword, because he deeply felt the awful
responsibility of an appeal to arms without absolute necessity ; and because he
judged that one month of hostilities would be more costly and more hurtful to the
colonists than ten years of Kaffir depredations. Yet he did not supinely neglect
those depredations ; he always sought, and generally obtained redress, but peaceably ;
and often he found the savage more reasonable and just than the civilised man.
And whilst he thus staved off war, he was active in peaceable legislation.
'" He enforced the abolition of slavery without commotion.
" He reduced the paper-money debt from £200,000 to less than £100,000 ;
and, coincidently, he abolished all taxes relying for revenues on import duties only.
" He gave municipal government to all the towns and villages ; and he
earnestly urged the home government to give a representative to the colony.
" He found the public schools languishing, with only a few hundred scholars :
he revived them, nourished them, reformed them ; and left them flourishing, with
upwards of 12,000 attending pupils.*
" Here, then, Friend Gurney, we have, instead of a constant recourse to the
sword, peace, education, reduction of debt and taxes, self-government by munici
palities, and an effort to obtain general representation : and if thou wouldst know
what he was thought of personally, I answer, that the coloured people looked on
him as their friend and protector; that the Kaffirs respected his authority; that
men of all political opinions gave him a farewell dinner; and his most active-
opponent there bore testimony to the integrity, the purity of his government, its
freedom from all jobs and favouritism ; and when he embarked, the humbler
classes attended him in crowds to the shore, and even in boats to the ship, with all
demonstrations of attachment.
" In behalf of an absent brother, then, I say that these things, Friend Gurney,
thou shouldest have known before thy sweeping assertion — that, from 1836, constant
recourse was had to the sword, and that all military governors would appeal to
this weapon. " And now, Friend, one word as to thy comparison of military and com
mercial persons.
" What manner of men be they who have supplied the Kaffirs with the fire
arms and ammunition to maintain their savage and deplorable wars ?
" Assuredly they were not military."
The Kaffir war here referred to has never been fairly put before the British
public. As much injustice has been done to the colonists, we will here briefly
tell its story.
In 1817, the Kafirs and a few Dutch and English colonists held conjoint
possession of Eastern Africa, nearly as far west as Algoa Bay. The European
residents were, however, regarded as the nominal lords of the soil to the Great
Fish River, and had about thirty military posts established in that country, which
is now known as the districts of Albany and Uitenhage. Along this district
15

ceded territory.] . LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1847.

frequent Kaffir inroads took place, the Kaffirs being always the aggressors : the
farmers, in their turn, uniting to visit the haunt of the Kaffir robber, and compel
him, by force of arms, to disgorge his plunder.
In 1819, the Kaffirs became so bold as to venture upon war against the
colony; in which, after an attempt to carry Graham's Town (then the head-
quarter's of the military), they were discomfited, and compelled to retire to the
east side of the Great Fish River, along the right bank of which a strong chain
of forts was, at the time, maintained.
The same year the British parliament voted £50,000, and sent out 4,000
emigrants, to occupy the country from which the Kaffirs had just been expelled.
These emigrants formed the Albany and Uitenhage original settlers ; and being
men of stern mould and indefatigable temperament, soon began to plant the seeds
of a flourishing settlement. At this time, Graham's Town contained twenty-two
houses, and 150 inhabitants. Fourteen years of peace and prosperity ensued;
when, in 1834, the second Kaffir war burst like a thunder-cloud over the peaceful
and prosperous community. The assegai and the torch did their deadly work
most effectually. The British territory was completely overrun and despoiled ;
numbers of lives lost; and £300,000 worth of the settlers' property wasted or
driven off. This war had been originated by the Kaffirs ; and the result was, their
expulsion to the eastward of the Keiskamma river. This result was only what
they must have expected. Two powers go to war ; one is beaten ; the conqueror
dictates his terms, which, in this case, were the forfeiture of a considerable and
valuable tract of country.
A new governor, Sir Andreas Stockenstrom, now appeared upon the scene ;
and a new policy, one of concession, was adopted. That portion of the country
which the Kaffirs had lost in the war — that lying between the Great Fish and
the Keiskamma rivers, which now took the name of the Ceded Territory — was
given up to them. This concession proved a most complete failure. All along
the frontier line, wherever it happened to be, there was a constant state of warfare :
but this new conciliatory policy augmented the daring of the enemy a hundredfold,
and robberies of cattle and other stock were multiplied to a ruinous extent. A
strong military force managed to keep things quiet till 1846, when a third war
deluged the country with rapine and with blood. Sir Harry Smith was sent out
to close the struggle at all hazards, and to stop the heavy military expenditure
. which the war had occasioned. He found it terminated on his arrival ; but
he released those chiefs who ever afterwards were a thorn in his side. The Kaffirs
lost much in this war. The ceded territory had again become colonial ; and was
now portioned out in the districts of Victoria, Fort Peddie, part of Beaufort, and
Albert. The colonists might well expect some compensation for the war. Their
loss in crops and stocks alone was estimated at about £500,000. In addition to
the forfeiture of the ceded territory, another penalty was exacted from the Kaffir
people, by the nominal annexation of a large and valuable tract of country to
the British crown — a tract of about 4,000 square miles in extent, extremely
beautiful and fertile, watered by numerous streams, possessing forests of valuable
timber, and accessible by means of an excellent seaport. This accession was
entitled British Kaffraria. It was subdivided into the counties of Lincoln,
Bedford, _ Cambridge, Middlesex, Sussex, Yorkshire, and Northumberland ; the
whole being apportioned to the respective chiefs and followers who came forward
and declared themselves willing to bear true allegiance to the British crown.
It may be needful to repeat, that this last accession of territory — British
Kaffraria — was not wrested from the Kaffirs in toto ; but they were suffered to
retain certain divisions, apportioned out to each tribe by government proclamation,
under their own laws, modified, in some degree, by British rule. A system of
forts was established, garrisoned by British troops ; towns and villages were laid
out by British settlers ; stations were established by British traders : in short a
conjoint occupancy of the district was the system adopted. Here an Englishman,

A.D. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON* [sandilli.
there a Kaffir ; here a kraal^ there a fort ; here the residence of*a chief, there
the dwelling of a missionary, and the store of a trader. The natives who occupied
this district, in common with the British, were known as Gaikas and H'lambies,
with the Tambookies in the north. A policy was adopted, in case of theft, to
make the first chiefs kraal to which the spoor or trail was followed, afford
restitution, and pay the fine, leaving him to seek redress from the actual offender.
This system worked most admirably. Depredations diminished, and, comparatively
speaking, ceased. The power of the chiefs over their people was gradually being
weakened by the government dealing out equity and justice to every man alike,
and by preventing the chiefs eating up and despoiling their serfs. British com
missioners adjudged all wrongs ; and the Kaffirs were practically taught that the
laws of civilised men were much more just than the capricious wills of their
hereditary rulers. All Kaffirland was fast becoming Christianised and civilised.
Means were taken to improve and instruct the people. Some possessed waggons,
oxen, and other property ; seeds, and implements of husbandry, were placed at
their disposal. Stations, schools, and churches, were rising up throughout the
land ; and all seemed bright and fair. The admirable and just policy of Sir Harry
Smith was most vigorously carried out by Colonel Mackinnon and the sub-com
missioners. It was a system in which civil privileges and military enforcements
worked harmoniously. Two divisions of native police, of 200 men each, performed
all the duties of the civil power. The Kaffirs, seeing that the plunder of a colony
was a loss rather than a gain to themselves, began to devote their time to a more
careful cultivation of their lands; and having amassed a little property, soon
began to appreciate those laws which protected the honest, and punished the rogue.
But the chiefs were jealous of all these fine proceedings. Their power was in
jeopardy, and they knew it. They could no longer, on a flimsy pretence, pounce
upon one of their serfs, and rob him of his cattle, to enrich their kraals. War-
dances, witchcraft, and other mummeries were strictly forbidden. Had the system
of Sir H. Smith been continued a few years longer, undoubtedly the happiest
results would have ensued.
To all appearance, the greatest contentment prevailed throughout British
Kaffraria ; and yet, amidst this outward calm, there was a secret conspiracy at
work. The notorious Sandilli was instigating his chieftains and fo'. ;owers to unite
in driving the colonists out of the country. He sent the following message in
June, 1850: — "Arise, clans ofthe Kaffir nation! the white man has wearied us :
they are depriving us of our rights, which we inherit from our forefathers ; we are
deprived of our chieftainship, and the white man is the chief to whom we are
obliged to submit. Sandilli will die fighting for the rights of his . forefathers."
Pato, to whom this message was sent, replied — " I was instigated to join you in
the last war, but it shall be the last ; it shall never more be said that Pato has
joined in a war against the colony." Some of the other chiefs were willing to
join with Sandilli ; but contended that the time had not come. The Kaffirs who
were in the colonial service were told to keep their eyes open. A monstrous birth —
a child with two heads — was said to have taken place in Kaffirland, or Tambookie-
land, about two months after this. The infant was represented to have spoken
immediately after birth, and to have predicted the overthrow of the English ; and
then died. Towards the end of September, another witch-doctor, or prophet,
sprang up, whom Sandilli speedily made subservient to his purpose by working
upon the superstitious feelings of the natives. The name of this impostor was Um-
lanjeni, a young Kaffir of the Gaika tribe. He made himself notorious by stand
ing up to the chin in a pond of water for several hours without food. He next
ordered a general purification of all the Kaffir warriors, which took place upon the
top of a mountain. This madman soon began to exercise an extraordinary influence
over the minds of the people. He was visited by the chiefs of the Kaffir tribes
first, and afterwards by those of the H'lambies ; and, finally, by the Tambookies.
At this time there were hundreds of Kaffirs — men, women, and children — at service
17

THE KAFFIRS troublesome.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.

in the colonv^or living in sufferance upon the farmers' lands. Secret and mysteri
ous messages from their respective chiefs caused servants to desert their masters..
A toil-worn messenger would arrive at a location of native huts during the night,
and before dawn on the following morning they had all disappeared, together
with their movable effects ; whilst the courier passed on to warn others of his
countrymen, or gave over the " word" to a comrade, by which means it was passed
from hut to hut, and farm to farm, in a manner, as has been remarked, strikingly
resembling Roderick Dhu's assembling his clansmen, in Scott's tale of the Lady
of the Lake, " Fast as the fatal symbol flies,
In arms the huts and hamlets rise ;
From winding glen, from upland brown,
They poured each hardy tenant down ;
Nor slack'd the messenger his paee :
He showed the sign, he named the place ;
And pressing forward like the wind,
Left clamour and surprise behind.
The fisherman forsook the strand,
The swarthy smith took dirk and brand;
With changed cheer, the mower blithe,
Left in the half-cut swathe the scj'the.
The herds, without a keeper, strayed ;
The plough was iu mid-furrow staid ;
The hunter left the stag at bay ;
The falconer tossed his hawk away ;
Prompt at the signal of alarms,
Each son of Alpine rushed to arm3 ;
So swept the tumult and affray,
Along the margin of Achray."
Many of these servants possessed cattle, which they abandoned; others had
Avages due : but they cared not to stop for money. The Gaikas were called first,
then the H'lambies, and, lastly, the Tambookies, being the order in which their
respective chiefs had presented themselves before the prophet. To such an extent
was this desertion of servants carried, that the farmers and their families had not
only their household work to do, but the herding, in many instances, of extensive
flocks had to be performed by children, in a bushy and intricate country, infested by
beasts of prey. When the deserting servants reached Kaffirland, they were received
by the prophet in common with the other tribes. At these meetings the im
postor spoke of his immense power, his ability to drive all the English- out of the
country, to discomfort the military, and to turn the fire of artillery into water. He
would not receive any offering from his devotees ; but said that he was sent as a
deliverer, and did not want to enrich himself at the expense of his people. This
assembly of the servants in Kaffirland was regarded as extremely ominous by those
who were well acquainted with the native character ; and many openly expressed.
their opinion that mischief was brewing.
Mr. George Cyrus, superintendent of natives in Graham's Town, an indefati
gable and vigilant officer, obtained so much information through his office, as led
him. to believe that the Kaffirs were meditating a movement against the colony;
and, on the 15th of August, he laid his views before the civil commissioner for
Albany (the leading frontier district \ who forwarded the communication to Sir
Harry Smith, in Cape Town ; but, at that time, everything in Kaffraria wore so
peaceful an aspect, that Mr. Cyrus was looked upon as a groundless alarmist.
During September, the notes of war and peace were alternately in the
ascendant. More thefts than usual were committed; but this was ascribed to the
fact of an universal and trying drought oppressing Kaffirland, by which the Kaffirs
were reduced to great straits — almost to starvation, as the cattle afforded no milk
and the corn was not then available. Towards the middle of October however the
plot began to thicken. Some of the Kaffir servants had returned to tell their
masters to flee as fast and far as they could ; that war was inevitable A few of
18

ajd. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [alarm of the colonists.
the frontier stoekmasters attended to the admonition, and moved off their cattle
and sheep towards Algoa Bay, and the western part of the division of Uitenhage.
Confidential messengers were sent into Kaffirland, by traders and others, to ascer
tain the exact position of affairs. These men returned, and the general, tone of
their advioes was, that war was probable, but not yet. Great differences now pre
vailed upon the subject ; some being confident of war; others assured of peace. The
British commissioners among the Kaffir tribes scouted the idea of war; and
entrenching themselves in a conviction that the number of their spies, countless
sources of intelligence, and means of personal observation, precluded the possibi
lity of a movement taking place in Kaffirland without immediate notice being-
given of it, reposed in fanciful security, and endeavoured further to allay the alarm
of others, who had less chance of watching the state of affairs so narrowly. No
blame is attached to those officers, who discharged their duties faithfully and
nobly. They believed that all was working harmoniously ; but in that belief they
were imposed upon, and deceived.
The frontier inhabitants, however, were not thus blinded. One of them wrote,.
October, 1850, as follows : — " Last year Sandilli made a tour through the country,
and laid before the several chiefs the position they stood in, not only with the
prospect of losing their country, but, by degrees, also their power as chiefs. Since
which, communications have continually been passing between the several chiefs,
on the same subject. After the removal of the people from Blackwater, Macomo
made a personal visit to Pato, Umhala, Kreli, Malpas, and Umtuara (the Tam-
bookie chief), showing to each chief the necessity of combined attack, for the
purpose of regaining their country. With this reasoning he prevailed upon them
to assemble, either personally or by representative, to consult the great prophet
Umlanjeni, and abide his decision. The result was, that Sandilli sent all the
minor chiefs of his clan : there were also present Pato's son ; Umhala, by
deputy; Kreli, by ditto ; Malpas, by Koos, his brother; Umtuara's sons, and also-
one of Jan Hermanus's sons. The most serious aspect of the matter is, that the
Gona Kaffirs are likely to join against us in this great struggle. The question to
the prophet, by all the great chiefs, was, what they were to do under present
circumstances ? The English had their land, and were treating them like dogs ;
drying up the country with the sun ; and, if left alone, would starve them all to
death. The prophet replied, he had talked about the matter with the spirit
(Umthlogo), before they came, and would tell them. in the morning what the spirit
said. Accordingly, in the morning, he pronounced that war was in the land, aud
requested them to assemble in two parties ; those with guns on one side, those
with assegais on the other. The gun party represented the English ; those with
assegais, the English. He placed them opposite, and requested the gun party to
fire, and the others to lie flat on their faces ; then arise, run suddenly upon their
foes, and seize them with their hands— which was done. He told them that was
the way in which they were to fight the English. He then invested Macomo and
Umhala as the two great commanders. No other chief was to give orders but those
two. He was then asked what they were to eat ? He produced two sheepskins,.
and one goatskin, saying he would provide those animals for them during the war.
The signal for the outbreak was to be an attempt on our part to seize him, which
he predicted would be when the present moon became bright. They were then to
make a general rush into the colony, occupy Bushman's River, and Sunday
River, Poorts, and a portion of the Kroome and Fish River: Kreli to move down,,
and occupy British Kaffraria. After the- meeting, messengers were sent to all in
Kaffirland, and to all the Kaffirs in the colony, recalling them, their wives, and
children ; with an injunction that they were not to steal, or they would break the
spell, and also to preserve the utmost secrecy."
By this time, it was felt that the affairs of the frontier had become critical.
Numerous representations determined the governor to visit the unsettled locality
in person. Accordingly, he sailed from Simon's Bay, with a portion of his staff',.
19

war begun.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.

on the 17th of October, in the steamer Hermes. A wide-spread alarm had, by
this time, seized the colonists, and a meeting was held in Graham's Town, to
present the governor with an address on the subject. In his reply, he deeply
regretted to learn that so many farmers had left their homes. He added — " With
respect to the supposition that the Kaffir chiefs have actually plotted to attack the
colony, I have, as yet, been unable to trace any direct evidence that such has been
the case. The present excitement is marked by a very peculiar feature. While
the colonists expect an inroad from the Kaffirs, the latter are under the same appre
hension with regard to the colonists.
" You are right, gentlemen, in considering that the Kaffir chiefs ought not to
be permitted to exercise authority ; the fact that they have been deprived of this
power is the very cause of the present excitement. All that I have hitherto been
able to discover is the existence of a restlessness on their part, while confidence in
the British rule prevails among the people. The power of the chiefs is nominal ;
and if they have endeavoured to test it, the result is most favourable to ourselves."
In his postscript, Sir Harry Smith added — " I am happy to acquaint you, gentle
men, that reports this day, throughout British Kaffraria, are most satisfactory ;
and I am in great hopes of being able to arrest some of the Kaffirs who, within the
colony, have spread alarming reports."
After Sir Harry Smith had been a few days in Kaffirland, he issued a govern
ment notice, advising the farmers who had fled, to return to their homes, assuring
them that no danger was to be anticipated ; and pledging himself for their protec
tion. The suddenness of his excellency's movements had evidently a startling-
effect upon the Kaffirs, who were apprehensive of punishment. They all came to
quiet him except Sandilli, who was deposed in consequence. The commissioner of
the Gaikas assembled that tribe at Fort Cox, on the 2nd of November, to explain
to them the reason for, and nature of, their chiefs deposition. The " Pokati," or
chief men, stated that Sandilli owed everything to Smith (meaning the governor) ;
and that his offence was one of which he must take the consequences. About 350
Kaffirs were present at this meeting ; and the official account stated, that " the
feeling manifested was extremely good, and that matters were in a most satisfac
tory state." Yet, all the while, it was clear to many that no dependence could
be placed upon the pacific professions of a people who, a few days before, had
been holding monster meetings of warriors, armed with guns and assegais. Colonial
opinion was much divided : the governor believed in peace ; but many believed in
the certainty of war.
On the 7th of December, 1850, a local newspaper thus wrote : — " The time has
arrived when the people of this frontier should be told that the danger of war is
imminent, if not inevitable." An affray had taken place near Fort Cox, respect
ing the levy of a fine for a theft of cattle. The Kaffirs had refused to make
restitution : and this was looked upon as a sure sign of war. Half the fine was
ultimately offered, but refused ; and was never paid, as more weighty matters now
began to engage the attention of both parties. When the Kaffirs eat meat it is a
sure sign that they intend war; and, at this time, the prophet Umlanjeni, whose
command they obeyed, now ordered them to slay and eat. Feasting became
the order of the day ; frantic dances formed the interlude ; and a species of intoxi
cation was brought about, which prepared the Kaffir youth for any act of devilry.
All Kaffirland was in a state of ferment ; and the governor-general, who had only
returned to Cape Town, was recalled to the frontier. On the 10th of December
a proclamation was published, calling on the inhabitants to arm. Not much
apprehension was felt as to the safety of the towns ; but the isolated farmers began
to flee in all directions.
On the day before Christmas the Kaffir war commenced. The commander-in-
chief had received certain information that Sandilli had taken up a strong position
in the Keiskamma Hoek, to which point it was determined to detach a strong
patrol of 600 men, under the command of Commissioner Colonel Mackinnon
20

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the enemy's successes.
This officer moved for'ward accordingly up the bushy valley of the Keiskamma,
when suddenly, in a woody neck, he found himself entrapped and attacked. The
affair was the signal of war for Kaffirland, and, unfortunately, resulted in the defeat
of our troops. There is too much reason to believe that the Kaffir police led the
patrol into this ambuscade : they formed the advanced party, and were suffered to
pass unmolested ; but as soon as the infantry moved up, a murderous fire of small
arms was opened upon them. The police rewarded this leniency, on the part of
their fellow-countrymen, by subsequently deserting from the British ranks, and
going over to the enemy, taking with them their arms and ammunition. Another
feature in the Keiskamma affair was likewise regarded with great suspicion : the
privates of the Cape-mounted Rifles escaped unhurt; and these being chiefly
Hottentots, it was considered, at the time, that this was also an allurement, on
the part of the Gaikas, to win this race of people over to their cause. Subse
quent events proved the correctness- of this idea, and the craftiness with which the
enemy had laid his plans.
About the same time, three men of the 45th regiment, having been sent
on escort duty from Fort White, were murdered by Kaffirs. Twelve of their
comrades, who were sent out to seek them, were also murdered in a similar
manner. On Christmas-day martial law was proclaimed throughout the frontier dis
tricts ; and on that day many of the military villages were pillaged and burnt, and
several of their male inhabitants cruelly butchered.
It appeared now evident to all that the enemy was determined on war to the
knife. This was made clear. A force under Colonel Somerset left Fort Hare, on
the 29th, to escort a few provisions to the commander-in-chief, shut up in Fort
Cox. The royal force had to retreat with a loss of twenty-two killed, and nearly
as many wounded.
The commander-in-chief managed, though with difficulty, to reach his head
quarters in King William's Town ; but he saw the actual danger of the colony,
and determined to hold, with the grasp of death, his military positions. Irritated
at the treachery of the savages, he issued a proclamation, calling upon all. It
proceeded — " His excellency does most ardently hope that the colonists will rise
en masse to aid her majesty's troops, and the reinforcement of men and guns,
which will shortly arrive at East London, to destroy and exterminate these most
barbarous and treacherous savages, who, for the moment, are formidable. Every
post in British Kaffraria is necessarily maintained. The abandonment of one
of them would have been the signal to every H'lambie chief. They are well
provisioned for six weeks, and form a nucleus for an invading army of patriots.
The Gaikas must be driven out of the Anatolas, and expelled for ever. However
great the inroad into the colony may have been, it is consoling to his excellency to
know that the maintenance of these posts, which, indeed, could not have been
abandoned, occupies the attention of thousands of Kaffirs, who, otherwise, would
have gone into the colony. The line of the Buffalo, must be maintained coute qui
coute. It involves the safety even of her majesty's troops, which is paramount."
One of the first measures adopted at this exigency was to confer upon Colonel
Somerset the temporary rank of major-general — a distinction which he had well
earned by his able, zealous, and arduous services on the frontier, where he had
served for the long period of thirty years. Another important step was to com
municate with the government of Natal, and to request that a force of some 3,000
Zulu warriors might be moved towards the borders of the Tambookie and Galeka
countries, so as to threaten those tribes in the rear. A third measure was the
enrolment of the Hottentots upon very liberal terms.
The enemy at this time were the Gaikas, to the number of 5,000, under
Sandilli, Macomo, and minor chiefs. To these must be added some of H'lambies.
The Tambookies, about 7,000 strong, under Mapassa and Nyila, were engaged.
Umzeki, a chieftain at the head of 2,000, also had allied himself to them. The
21

progress of the war.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851.

accoutrement of all these warriors was of the simplest description : a sheepskin
kaross formed their uniform ; a musket and powder-horn, or a bundle of assegais,
as the case might be, formed their arms. Those of them having muskets were well
trained to the use of them ; others had assegais, which, by practice, they could
hurl with deadly precision at thirty yards. Thus lightly equipped they possessed
numerous advantages for the species of bush-fighting which characterises Kaffir
warfare, and had, in this respect, a great advantage over the regular troops.
Another thing in their favour was the rapidity of Kaffir movements, and the
stealth by which they can insinuate themselves into a district. " To-day," as it is
remarked in a very useful work, to which we are indebted for the contents
of this chapter (A Narrative of the Kaffir War of 1850-'51 ; by R. Godlinton and
Edward Irving), " not a Kaffir is to be seen or smelled out within eighty miles.
To-morrow the country is overrun with them. The Word is given to go forth and
despoil ; the numerous signal-fires speedily show how implicitly the command has
been obeyed."
The enemy now numbered 14,000 warriors ; but this combination was further
increased. The Hottentots of the Kat River, a settlement of the London Missionary
Society, became affected, and many of them joined the rebel band of Hermanus, and
stood prominently forward as instruments in the devastation and ravages, which
followed in the Wenterberg district. Emissaries were sent by these Hottentots
to their friends throughout the frontier, urging them to unite with the Kaffirs
in exterminating the white man. Kreli, the paramount chief of Kaffirland, was,
at this period, keenly watched and much suspected. He had 10,000 warriors,
of whom the colonists stood in awe. It was also well known that a single reverse
of the troops would be the signal for all the remaining tribes of the H'lambies,
still numbering 5,000 men, to precipitate themselves into Lower Albany— a rich
and flourishing district, abounding with corn and cattle.
Meanwhile matters were not progressing very favourably with the rebels.
Hermanus attacked Fort Beaufort, and lost his life in the attempt. Other
disasters followed. Numbers of Kaffirs having been slain in the engagement at
Fort White and the Chumie, the prophet Umlanjeni was asked, " Why he had
not been able to turn the Englishmen's bullets into water, as he had stated
himself to be able to do ?" The wily impostor replied, " That the Kaffirs had
commenced the war, whereas his instructions were that they were to await the
commencement of hostilities by the English." But with a view of remedying
the error, and of rendering his native warriors invulnerable, he directed two
colonists' heads, slain at the Blinkwater, to be roasted on a fire of mimosa bark;
These being burnt to cinder with the ashes, he sprinkled his Kaffir dupes, bidding
them go forth and conquer. And it might be fancied the dust thus scattered
by the prophet contained the seeds of evil, as, in one missionary or other settlement
after another, the Hottentots rose up against the government, to which they owed
their all. An effort was made by the Kat River missionaries to save the Hottentots
from revolt; but, unfortunately,, it was too late. The Rubicon had been passed,
and the seeds of disaffection to the local government, and dislike to the English
settlers, had been too deeply and successfully sown to be easily eradicated. Efforts
to reclaim them were unavailing. Before the attack by Hermanus on Fort
Beaufort, the natives of the Kat River settlement had been joined by numbers of
their countrymen, who had deserted and robbed their masters.
The Hottentots had formed the most ambitious schemes. The younger Read—
a missionary of Hottentot lineage, on the maternal side, and born and brought up
among the Hottentots of Kat River— attended a meeting of the rebels at the
Blinkwater, and reported, that in what was said, "there was the e=s-nce of
agrarian equality, of French socialism, liberty, equality, fraternity, radical destruc-
tiveness and levelling, and the uprooting of existing social arrangements. Politi
cally, some were for independent government in this country, and which was only
to be inhabited by Hottentots, Boers, and Gaika Kaffirs, on this side of the Kei
22

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the country devastated.
and Great rivers, to the sea, east and west. Hottentot-land was to extend from
Gaikas Peak, round by Shiloh, the Kei, Bavian's River, across the Zuurbergen to
the Sunday River; bounded on the east by the Indian Ocean, and thence across
the country to Chumie hills. They stated, that they were ready to fight under his
excellency, if only the Saxon (as the Irish would say), the settler or gwee (scum of
the sea ; for so they styled the English), could be got to leave the land. To
attempt to recover, or put into shape, all the complaints that were made against
the English, would be supererogatory and endless. Some there were who spoke of
the election of a chief as first magistrate. Others thought it would be a treason
able act, and would have nothing to do with such a measure. Some young
aspirants, and other friends, spoke of secretaryships ; others of judgeships, and all the
other paraphernalia of rank and office. Fancy seemed fairly on the wing, and,
mounted on Pegasus, was soaring above the present political and social order of
things. With some, the founding of a Hottentot monarchy or republic, seemed as
easy a thing as it was for the winged horse, by the striking of his hoof, to raise a
fountain in the wilderness: to re-mould and re-classify society; to re-build
destroyed cities, and drive the English into the sea, as facile a thing as for
Amphion to move stones, and raise the walls of Thebes by the melody of song."
In one respect, the calculation of the leaders of the rebels was not misplaced.
They trusted to the sympathies of the natives. If they were told that levies were
arming from every part of the colony, to subdue the Kaffirs, and suppress rebellion,
they would only reply — " Let them come; they will soon understand the rights of
our case." Whatever amount of loyalty there might be in the settlement, it was
soon clear it was insufficient to stem, or in any way to counteract, the tide of
rebellion. The horrors of colonial warfare cannot be sufficiently dwelt on. The land is
peaceful ; smiling homesteads are filled with plenty ; flocks and herds increase ;
and of a sudden, comes the foe, and all is desolation, and ruin, and death. During
the progress of the events which we have narrated, the Kaffirs, in conjunction with
the rebel Hottentots, were most active in their attacks upon other parts of the
colonial border, which was crossed, and the colony penetrated as far as the Addo
bush. The whole line of country between Graham's Town and the Orange River,
comprising the richest part of the eastern province, embracing an extent of not
less than 250 miles in length, dotted with farm-houses, and teeming, a few weeks
before, with flocks of fine-woolled sheep, troops of horses, and herds of cattle, was
described as desolate ; nearly every homestead being abandoned, and every flock
and herd either swept off by the enemy, or driven by the owner, with immense loss,
to such a distance as might appear to afford him hope of immunity from the
spoliation and murder then so rife on that unfortunate frontier.
A correspondent, writing from Lyndoch, states — " As far as we could discern
with the naked eye, the valleys and low parts in the direction of Fort Beaufort,
seemed enveloped in smoke. The volumes of smoke issuing from the locality of
Mr. Abraham Botha's residence, led us reluctantly to suppose that his homestead,
and other dwelling-houses in that vicinity, had been submitted to the firebrand of
the irreclaimable savages who had been passing to-and-fro in those parts. * I have
lately heard that Botha's place, with the exception of one dwelling-house, has
been totally destroyed, and a large portion of the Mancanzana post burned down.
"At the village of Somerset, the Dutch church is fortified, and a parapet
constructed along the roof, behind which the defenders may take their stand, and
fire upon any assailant. The sacred edifice is likewise converted into a guard
house. What would the people of our native land say if they were compelled to
convert their beautiful village churches into castles of defence, and if every one of
the parishioners was compelled to mount guard' every third night, in fearful and
hourly anticipation of a hostile attack taking place."
Accounts from the village and district of Cradock ran thus :— " All hands here
have enough to do ; high and low, rich and poor, have to turn out day after day.
23

DAY OF HUMILIATION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1851.
The most urgent calls for help, for men and ammunition, come in, this being the
only point from which they can get either. Yesterday we had two expresses from
Bavian's River, imploring help. The , Hottentots, in great numbers, have
assembled in those parts, and, with the Kaffirs, are devastating the country.
The whole of the country of Upper Bushman's River, Mancanzana, Kaga, and
Koonap, is laid waste, and plundered. The frontier line is now, in this direction,
within thirty miles of Cradock. Numbers have already fled^ and the whole of the
district is dotted over with houseless farmers, wanderiug to-and-fro.
" Never have, in any former inroad of the Kaffirs, the horrors of warfare been
so universal as at present. The district of Cradock used always to be resorted to
by the farmers, who fled hither from the lower districts for protection ; and the
capital, which bears the same name, had, ever since its founding by Sir John
Cradock, in 1811, been regarded as a position of the most complete repose and
security. In this instance, however, we are an outpost. This is chiefly owing to
the circumstance of the Tambookies having so committed themselves to the war
party ; and, further, by the rebellion of the Kat River and Blinkwater Hottentots,
by which means alone a tract of country, seventy-two miles long, and sixty-one
broad, is desolated, which, in previous wars, had formed the pasture-ground of
refuge flocks."
Colesberg, also far removed from the seat of any previous war, was at this
time convulsed by the most serious alarms. The inhabitants patrolled the town
from the hour the constables' duty ceased till daylight. It was divided into
three provisional wards, and the time of duty apportioned into three watches.
The powder-magazine was particularly guarded, as large supplies are generally kept
there. It being the last north frontier town that the traders and sportsmen pass
through en route to elephant shooting, and other pursuits in the far interior,
supplies of ammunition are generally well laid in, and carefully replenished; and
thus the frontier was overrun, and alarm and desolation reigned everywhere. At
the most, there were not 3,000 British soldiers in the colony ; and, with Hottentots
and Fingoes, Sir H. Smith had never more than 12,000 men at his disposal.
Notwithstanding the direful sufferings that the Kaffirs, as a nation, had
inflicted upon the colony from time to time, the leniency of a civilised state was
fully extended to them. On the outbreak of the war, the farmers had become
suspicious of their servants; and many plots and conspiracies having been
detected, great numbers of Kaffir domestics were placed in the district gaols ; but
as no overt acts had been directly laid to their charge, the governor ordered the
liberation of all belonging to the friendly tribes, after an imprisonment of about
two months. On the day of release, they were each supplied with three days'
rations, to enable them to reach their own tribes. On the 27th of February,
fifty-two women and fifty-two children were thus set free ; and two days later,
forty men and boys were liberated from Graham's Town. Certain prisoners of
war, however, of the hostile tribes were still detained in custody. No act of
state oppression nor individual cruelty was thus permitted towards any of the
Kaffir nation who fell into the hands of the colonists. Every one was ready to
meet the foe in the field, but unwilling to take any undue advantage out of it.
Yet the whole land was at this time utterly prostrate, and men seemed solemnly
called upon to consider attentively the terror of their position, and not only to
avoid what might evoke a continuance of their sufferings, but to humble them
selves before the fearful scourge which had appeared. In unison with this feeling,
a day of general humiliation was proclaimed by government, and was reverentially
observed by every Christian church throughout the colony. The places of worship
were thronged; and the whole population joined in fervent prayer that the visita
tion might be removed from the land by the special interposition of Providence
— it being felt that, under the peculiar circumstances of the case, vain was the
help of man.
The rebellion of the Kat River Hottentots was now complete ; and the settle-
24

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [sir h. smith recalled.
ment having been vacated by the European residents, and by the resident magis
trates, became the focus of the revolutionary acts of the frontier Hottentots.
Their crimes had here been bred and nurtured ; and here, it appears, were to be
still further propagated, and to reach their climax. Here it seemed determined to
plant that imaginary Hottentot republic, which was to overthrow British rule.
To effect this, accessions of strength had been sought for from every source. The
whole of the north-east border had sent its aid; and the inner localities of
Oliphant's Hook, in Uitenhage, and Theopolis, in Albany, were tampered with,
and fully won over to the mad cause of their race ; but the two latter were, through
the vigilance of the local authorities, incapacitated from rendering any assistance.
Uithaalder, the rebel leader, was now at Fort Armstrong, surrounded by several
hundreds of his followers, subsisting upon the plunder of the colonial farmers.
The fort, being a place of considerable strength, seemed to have been chosen as
the head-quarters of this rebel commandant, who appeared ever active in proposing
plans of robbery and incendiarism, for execution within the colony. This
notoriously bad character enforced the most implicit obedience to his commands,
and issued his orders " with the air of a general." Licentiousness was, however,
unchecked ; and the Hottentot population appeared to have become utterly negli
gent of that moral law, for whose observance they had been so often applauded in
the reports of the London Missionary Society. The whole of the parent com
munity of the Kat River settlement, and every bud and branch thereof, seemed to
be seeking, with headlong haste, to rush back again to that barbarism from which
many years of patient teaching had, in some degree at least, reclaimed them. The
progress of demoralisation, however, seemed to be much more rapid than that of
improvement. Half a century had been spent, though not judiciously, to attain
the latter, whilst a few weeks had well-nigh perfected the former. Revelling in
their newly-revived heathenism, and glutted with the spoils they had won from
the plundered colonists, the Hottentots refused all offers of peace and pardon. At
length their conduct became unbearable. They were attacked and defeated by a
miscellaneous force under Major-General Somerset. The success of the operation
was speedy and complete.
Matters being thus unsatisfactory, Sir Harry Smith was superseded, though
not before he had received, July 29th, 1851, an address from the despoiled
burghers respecting their inability to protect their property. The memorial stated,
that within the preceding six weeks, the enemy had swept off, from the district of
Somerset alone, 20,000 sheep, 3,000 head of cattle, and 200 horses. Sir Harry,
in his answer, reproved them for their past conduct ; but sympathising with their
present distress, expressed a hope, when reinforcements arrived, which were then
daily expected, that " it would be in his power to make a more extended disposal
of the force under his command."
Skirmishes were of frequent occurrence, in which the superiority of British
discipline was constantly manifested ; but the advantages resulting from them were
not very great. On the 31st of July, the draft of a constitution for the colony,
transmitted by Earl Grey, reached the Cape. It was read with great joy by the
colonists; and a petition, expressive of their gratitude, was voted at a public
meeting in Cape Town, praying that it might be put in force without delay, and
that no alterations suggested by the legislative council of the settlement might
be attended to, as that body did not possess the confidence of the colonists.
General Cathcart having arrived, no time was lost in acting with vigour and
comprehension against the enemy. One of his first official acts was to issue a notice,
declaring his determination to expel the refractory Gaika Kaffir tribes for ever
from the country between the Keiskamma and the Kei ; at the same time, promis
ing protection to those who remained friendly, and submitted to his authority.
The whole of the troops, and other forces, were disposed in strong bodies across the
entire country, for the purpose, by combined operations, of carrying this sentence
into execution. A general order was also issued to the troops, directing that, in
VOL. ir. D 25

peace restored.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1853.

future, all cattle taken by them from the enemy, should be at once destroyed,
reserving only what might be required for immediate supplies, in order to avoid
the harassing and dangerous duty of guarding and driving the captured herds,
and, at the same time, to convince the Kaffirs that the object of the war was not
the acquisition of booty. Measures were promptly adopted to cut off their supply
of ammunition ; and it was soon perceived that this began to be severely felt by
the marauders ; but still no disposition to submit was manifested. Their ravages
were continued, and stragglers were frequently surprised and murdered. They
maintained themselves in a stronghold known as the Waterkloof, but were thence
expelled by General Cathcart on the 15th of September. To effect this, he led
against them a force of 3,000, with four guns. Two redoubts were thrown up on
the 13th, and the troops were so posted as to command every accessible outlet
from the intended scene of operations. Some 250 women and children were
captured, who were found in a state of great emaciation. A number of huts were
fired. The Kloof was traversed in all directions, and completely cleared of its
late occupants. The chief, Sandilli, and his associates, escaped ; and though sub
mission was still deferred, it was now confidently expected the war would soon
reach its- termination. To the government at home the questions thence arising
were painfully embarrassing. From the peculiar character of the country, it had
been found most difficult to conquer, or effectually repulse, a race of desperate
barbarians. The civilised inhabitants of the settlement were accused of being-
unwilling to defend themselves. They yielded reluctant obedience to the parent
state, while they looked to it for support. Adequate military aid it was not easy
to supply, but at an exorbitant cost ; while to abandon South Africa to premature
independence, would have been to assign it to endless wars, in which Europeans,
Africans, Hottentots, Kaffirs, Dutchmen, and Englishmen would have fought with
each other. Had England adopted such a course, it would have been the first step
in her decline and fall.
Sandilli, at length, was driven into submission. In the month of February,
1853, he sent two messengers to Colonel Maclean, the British commissioner,
begging a cessation of hostilities, and desiring to know what district would be
assigned to him and his tribe. General Cathcart then sent Mr. Brownlee to meet
Sandilli, and the subordinate chiefs, at a spot of ground within the territories of a
chief who had remained at peace with us during the whole of the war. The inter
view took place on the 27th of February; and, on the 2nd of March, an official
proclamation was issued by General Cathcart, stating that, as her majesty's autho
rity had been sufficiently vindicated, he extended the royal mercy and pardon to
the chief Sandilli, and the Gaika people. It then defined the country in which
the Kaffirs were to live; bound Sandilli to deliver up a hundred guns, in addition
to those stolen by the Kaffir police; and to become responsible for the good
conduct of the Gaika people. It commanded that each minor chief lately in
rebellion should deliver up his arms, in token of submission, and bind himself
to obey her majestys commands; failing in which he was to be dealt with as an
outlaw. Sandilli, on being made acquainted with these terms, complained that the
territory assigned to his tribe by the governor was not sufficiently large; and he
desired General Cathcart to send a petition on their behalf to the Queen of
England, that their lands might be restored to them, or they "would be obliged to
go to war with each other for grass." The conditions were, however, accepted by
the Kaffir chiefs generally and confirmed in an interview which General Cathcart
had with them, on the 9th of March, at a place called the Yellow Woods, seven
miles from King William's Town. Peace was now restored, and the Gaika tribe
was compelled to retire 200 miles to the north of its former frontier ; and the Kei
noib n^gLTerl T th(;imfSpUted boundaries of British Kaffraria to the
north and east. Since then^ the lesson read has not been forgotten, and there has
been peace between the Kaffirs and the colonists, who desire only to be let alone.

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [piracies.
The peaee party, the missionaries, the humanitarians, were up in arms. Some
asserted that the result of a parliamentary inquiry would make the Christian
people of this country shudder when they saw how British honour had been
polluted, and the laurels of the hero of Aliwal trailed in shame. There seems to
have been no ground for this latter invective. But, at any rate, it was felt that a
stop must be put to the Kaffir war ; that no honour could be got from it. Men
asked — if we conquer savages, as we termed them, and as they were, where was the
glory ? It was evident that we could not conquer them ; that, in their mountain
fastnesses they were a match for us. It was felt that peace and fair dealing
alone could conquer them — that they could be won by kindly and generous
treatment. It was felt that if we would preserve our colonies, it is not by issuing
bombastic proclamations, or insolent demands ; not by violating or setting aside
treaties, and trampling on the bent heads of chiefs ; not by seizing coveted land, or
extending our military force. It was felt it was better, if possible, to civilise,
rather than subdue the proud, and ignorant, and independent Kaffir. The mission
aries had been deceived ; the Kaffir converts failed in the hour of trial ; but that
was no reason that such should ever be the case.
In Jamaica, there had been a terrible attack of cholera, in consequence,
chiefly, of the bad habits of the blacks.
About the same time, an impetus was given to colonisation by the discovery
of gold-fields, of the most extensive character, in California and Australia.
Some indignation was excited at this time by news of outrages on British
subjects. On the 27th of January, 1852, the English barque Victory, belonging
to Messrs. Wilson and Cook, of Singapore, arrived there, in charge of the
chief officer, Mr. Vagg, with intelligence that the master and some of the crew
had been foully murdered by the Chinese passengers on board; and that, for
several weeks, they were complete masters of the vessel. It appears the Victory
left Cum Sing Moon with 350 Chinese, the very refuse of the streets of Canton and
Hong-Kong. Four days after sailing the captain was seized and murdered by a
party of Chinese ; tbe second mate, in the endeavour to rescue his master, also
lost his life. The crew were chiefly in the forecastle, and were hemmed in by the
Chinese. Tbe chief mate was commanded to sail the vessel for the nearest land,
when the greater portion of the Chinese left, taking with them as much plunder as
tbey could carry away. Many fights took place among the mutineers themselves,
and several lives were lost, including the ringleader, a desperate character. The
crew navigated the ship along the coast of Cambodia, where the remainder of the
Chinese were landed. The Victory was the fourth vessel, bound to South America,
which had been cut off by Chinese coolies proceeding as passengers.
Another more atrocious case occurred shortly after. The English barque,
Herald, Captain Lawson, left Shanghae on the 26th of August, with a valuable
cargo of silk, teas, &c, for Leith, with a crew consisting of European, Portuguese,
and Manilla men. The Herald passed through the Straits of Sunda on the 22nd
of October ; and, three or four days afterwards, a mutiny broke out. During the
chief mate's watch at night, he was seized, murdered, and thrown overboard ; the
second mate and carpenter shared the same fate. The captain, with his wife, was
asleep below : one of tbe crew went down with a hatchet, and despatched him ; and
Mrs. Lawson, after giving up every little article of value to induce the villains _ to
spare her life, was most brutally outraged; and, under tthe treatment to which
she was subjected, became deranged. The gunner took command of the vessel,
which was then about a hundred miles from the coast. At daylight, an awful
scene was displayed ; but the thirst for blood was not allayed. In a few days after
the ship was scuttled, and Mrs. Lawson was among the drowned. The mutineers
reached the coast of Bantam, with the plunder taken from the vessel. Suspicions
were aroused at the account they gave of themselves, and in consequence of tne
amount of luggage in their possession. The Dutch resident sent them to Batavia,
whence, in close custody, they were passed on to Singapore, and lodged m gaol.
D2 ' ' ' 2-7

MR. BOYD'S MURDER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.
The story of Mr. Boyd, also, at this time created considerable excitement and
sympathy. The unfortunate gentleman, a member of the Stock Exchange, was
making a tour, in his own yacht, from California to Sydney, and had visited the
Solomon Islands, in the South Pacific. The natives came in their canoes to trade
with the people on board the yacht. One morning in October, Mr. Boyd, having
risen early, went on shore to shoot game, taking with him one native of Ocean
Island. The boat was seen to enter a small creek, and was then lost to view from
the ship. Mr. Boyd fired one shot soon after. A little while after, another shot
was fired, but it aroused no suspicion. During the morning, several natives were
very persevering in their attempts to get on board the ship, or to induce the
sailors to go on shore: but, happily, without success. Breakfast haviDg been
ready for some time, the gong was sounded for Mr. Boyd, but no answer was
returned. At this moment, a native, having stolen a handkerchief, and pulling off
some distance, held it up for the crew to go and get it. They sent Godong, a
native of Byron Island, to swim for it ; but as he approached the canoe pulled off,
and he was recalled. Two natives followed him, and attacked, with a club, a
fellow-islander. The alarm was now raised ; but the crew were quite unprepared.
The deck-guns were neither loaded nor run out ; their small arms were below.; but
in five minutes they were all armed, the four white men with muskets, and the
crew with boarding-pikes and cutlasses. At this time, upwards of 200 natives were
around the ship. Three canoes came up from the starboard quarter, from one of
which the first spear was thrown. A gun was fired over their heads ; but this
seemed to give them confidence ; for, uttering fearful yells, and blowing, on war-
conches, they pulled up to the ship, with the intention of boarding. The canoes
were driven from aft, but they tried to board forward. So determined were they,
that some of them climbed up the martingale back-ropes, and were coming in the
face of the boarding-pikes and cutlasses, when they were shot down. The pirates,
at length, began to retreat, and one or two shots more decided the battle. The
victors did not cease firing until the neighbouring village was deserted : they then
manned the boat to seek for Mr. Boyd. They went to the village, where a number
of natives, concealed in the bush, set up hideous noises. The sailors, going to the
beach, found a belt belonging to Mr. Boyd. They searched in vain for the bodies
of Mr. Boyd and his attendant, but discovered the wadding of Mr. Boyd's gun ;
from the situation of which, it seemed that he was attacked as soon as the boat
got out of sight of the ship, and was killed after a struggle in the water, as was
also his companion. The next morning the whites manned tbe boat, and went
round to the village,to the east of their anchorage. As they approached the shore,
about a hundred natives were seen on a hill to the right. The sailors moved up to
the village; and, posting a watch on the natives, searched the houses, and then set
them on fire They also laid waste their plantations, and destroyed a couple of
canoes. A strict search was made for the remains of Mr. Boyd, but in vain His
crew contented themselves with revenging his memory; it was all that it was
m their power to do.
Nearer home, also, a foul indignity had been committed on a British subject.
Mr. Erskine Mather reported, that being in Florence on a certain day a detach-
preceded by its band. He and his brother were walking in the crowd- that he
accompanied the soldiers, and was between the band and the trooTs when an
obstruction was caused in a narrow t of the street h ^J^ ™£
quenceof which Mr. Mather came accidentally in the way of the c^mmand^ of
the detachment Lieutenant Forsthubers; and he admitted that he m'ght, oossTblv
have touched the officer, who then gave him a blow with the fl7of Ms sabre
Upon that, he turned round to expostulate, when he received Z 1 (! T
from another officer's fist; and, while staggerin J in conseauerl £ ^ IT
Lieutenant Forsthubers with his sabre, anfwoufdea so Srelv ?hat bTl 'f ^
danger.^ Mr. Mather was carried to the hospitalT^ §££ £&££

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. Mather's case.
some time, he remained in a very precarious state. Reparation being demanded
from the Grand Duke of Tuscany by the British government, the duke replied
that he ought not to be considered responsible for the outrage, as it had been com
mitted by an Austrian officer. This assurance was, of course, not satisfactory to
the English minister, who held that, as the duke called himself an independent
sovereign, he was responsible for wrong done to a British subject in his dominions.
In many quarters, a suspicion was entertained that the attack on this gentleman
was sanctioned by the Austrian authorities, in a spirit of retaliation for the attack
made on General Haynau when he visited England.
A long and acrimonious correspondence took place on the subject of compen
sation. It was, at length, announced that the Tuscan government consented to
atone "for the outrage by the payment of 1,000 francesconi (about £220). The
father of Mr. Mather disdainfully refused to accept such a sum. He was of
opinion that it was quite inadequate in a case where the British nation had been
insulted by an outrage like that of which his son had had to complain. He had
declined to make the affair a personal question ; but Lord Malmesbury, having
thought it a case in which personal reparation should be made, and asked Mr.
Mather's opinion on the point, the latter, taking into consideration the injury
done to his son's health ; the uncertainty of the future ; remembering that the
party who did the mischief was the officer of a government which had been impli
cated by his act ; and the probability that an appeal to an impartial court would
have procured a large amount of reparation in such a case, named £5,000, as
"what appeared to him just and proper, and not over-valuing the injury, and its
probable consequences, to his son." From the first, it was said Mr. Mather did
not wish to make it an affair of personal consideration. The sum he named was
regarded by ministers as enormous. Eventually, the Tuscan government paid an
insignificant sum of money; compelled their officer to make an apology to the
aggrieved party; restored to life and liberty two young Englishmen, who had
been guilty of a political crime in Tuscany, and were, accordingly, sentenced to
death. In parliament, there was some fierce condemnation of the conduct of govern
ment in this particular case. "Look," said Lord John Russell, "at the wrong
done to Mr. Mather. He stood in the position of a man saying — ' My son has
suffered a serious injury. I put my case in the hands of my country. I submit
my case to my government, to do what they think fit.' And then the Secretary of
State, Lord Malmesbury, has no better means of obtaining the redress that is
expected, than asking him how much he thinks his son's wound is worth in money,
which the noble lord says is tangible; and then, having procured the estimate, he
sends it out to Florence, to be published about there,* that Mr. Mather is a man
who has made an exorbitant demand." Thus Lord Russell contended that the
character of Mr. Mather had been injured by the very minister who ought to have
undertaken his defence, and Obtained redress for him.
Lord Palmerston said he had read the papers relating to Mr. Mather with
anything but satisfaction. " I must own," said he, " it seems to me that it was
not a comedy, but a tragedy of All in the Wrong. I must say, that I find much
to criticise in the conduct of almost all the parties concerned, except Mr. Mather
and his son. I think the late government took a wrong view of the case. I think,
also, the present government took a wrong view of it ; and, I am sorry to say, that
our charge d'affaires at Florence took a wrong view of it too. What is the
course which, in the case of a personal outrage upon a British subject abroad —
what is the course which I think the British government ought to have pursued ?
Why, it is the first duty of the government to ascertain clearly the fads of the
case — to ascertain clearly the character of the injury which the British subject has
sustained, and how far he was in the wrong ; or, if not in the wrong, how far those
by whom the injury was committed were unjustifiable aggressors. Upon these
points it has always been the practice of the Secretary of State to consult the

palmerston's opinion.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.

Queen's Advocate ; to lay the facts of the case before him, and to ask him what,
according to his view, and his knowledge of the habits of courts of justice in otlier
countries, might be a fit sum to demand for pecuniary compensation ; and how far,
according to international law, the government would be justified in asking for
the punishment of the wrongdoer ? That does not appear to have been done by
either government in this case. But the first question which arises is, what was
the injury inflicted ? or, was there any injury inflieted? I think, no man -who has
read these papers, can hesitate one moment in acknowledging that a grievous
injury was committed; that a British subject was exposed to a most violent, a
most cowardly outrage, for which no adequate — in fact, no provocation whatever
was given. A British subject was accompanying a band of music in the streets of
Florence ; he was struek, first with a sword by one officer, then with the fist by
another, and then, in a cowardly manner, cut down by the sword of the offieer who
first insulted him. Now, what is the feeling of different countries with regard to
an attack by an armed, against an unarmed man ? Why, sir, we all know the old
anecdote of the English butcher, who, while employed in his avocation, was struck
by a man with whom be had words, and whom he reproached with the good old
English sentiment — ' Why, what a mean, cowardly fellow you must be to strike a
man who has a knife in his hand, and who cannot return the blow.' That, is the
English feeling. What is the French feeling ? Why, sir, many of us know that
there was a distinguished officer in the British service (in the cavalry, Colonel
Harvey), who had lost an arm, but who served in the Peninsular war, mutilated as
he was. In one action in which he was engaged, he got into the melee, and a
French officer rode up to him with sabre uplifted, and was going to cut him down.
But the Frenchman saw that his opponent had only one arm ; and, seeing that, he
dropped his sabre-point, and passed on to seek an adversary with whom he could
do battle on equal terms. That is the French feeling. Then I shall be told that
this case is a proof of the Austrian feeling in such matters. I don't believe it is.
My conviction is, that the cowardly conduct of the lieutenant who cut down,
without provocation, an unarmed British subject, has met with as much disap
proval and disavowal on the part of his comrades in Tuscany, as they, in their
service, dare show by their conduct towards their officers, I am persuaded, that if
Marshal Radetzky had known the true facts of the case at the time when he said
the officer was fully justified in what he did, I am fully convinced that such a
brave man would have sympathised with Prince Schwartzenberg, who, when appealed
to by the Earl of Westmoreland, that nobleman saying to him, ' We are both
soldiers; and we, I am sure, never raised our sword against an unarmed man,'
replied. No; such a thing could never have happened to either of us.' I am
persuaded that if Marshal Radetzky had known the truth, he would never have
written the despatch which appears among the papers on the table."
™™ w ^ ^°rd Palmerston Pithily put the case thus:-" We demanded
BfcXtW & X mrtVmm^Q TuSCan government, as a compensation for
™Sv ™ ™ J Saif' 76 WlU giTC y0U a sum' but we P™ it *> an act of
generosity on our part, denying our responsibility, and denying- that in anv
f S^f ethee^id ^ t1"^ t0 f^ 8-°°d th€ ^ d0- to^ IrSsh'subje"?
«^£t^lT^ T1?* satisfledwiththe amount which the Tuscan
toTay-^ ^We^ke the rnZf ^ ™7 °f ^^ with the case ™uld ha™ been
hapnens Jain we will^n™7 j*0™865 End' remember, if ever the same thing
andwe do! Wa mn Z^lT t0 glVG ^ What We think amPle compensation;
Se^r1^^
pursued ^orS^^
pxmcipl^on which the demaldfor repa^ Z.m^^TX^fsSi

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON: [the papal bull.
is responsible for every outrage committed within its territory. What ministers
had done was to require that the Tuscan government should acknowledge the prin
ciple of their absolute responsibility : and thus the matter dropped.
In Ireland, of course, there were troubles. No matter who are in office,
Ireland is always in a state of discontent, and ready for revolt. Numerous assassi
nations took place. In every case, the difficulty of bringing offenders to justice,
whose guilt was of the blackest die (more especially if it were in any way connected
with politics), was great in the extreme. It was even supposed that, in the upper
classes of society, terror restrained many from furthering the ends of justice.
When a special commission was issued, to bring to trial Francis and Owen Kelly,
for the murder of Mr. Thomas Bateson, in Monaghan, the evidence most clearly
brought the crime home to Francis, who was first tried: but the jury wanted
cam-age to convict ; and, after sitting for thirty-six hours, were discharged. The
next day he was again put upon his trial,- with a similar result. Even while the
commission was sitting, a fresh notice of assassination was served on a bailiff; and
the parties implicated were discovered and punished : but we are told that
generally speaking, the alarm of the jurors was such, that the crown officers did
not think it prudent to put any more prisoners on their trial. Clearly, Ireland
was in a bad way. How to rule her was a secret not yet mastered by Saxon
statesmen.

CHAPTER III.
THE ANNUS MIKABILIS.

In 1851, England leaxnt two lessons. The marvellous exhibition of the industry
of all nations, was an argument utterly impossible to withstand in favour of peace
and free trade among all the nations of the earth ; and the failure of the Ecclesias
tical Titles Bill revealed the utter impotence of parliament in religious matters.
Let us take the latter case first.
The pope had heard much of the extension of Roman Catholicism in England.
There had been many conversions; and the Puseyites were preparing the ground for
many more. It seemed to him that the time had now come to win over England
to the true faith. Accordingly, Cardinal Wiseman was despatched hither ; and, at
the same time, was published a bull, dividing England into sees: in short, doing
here what all our missionaries are constantly doing abroad.
The celebrated bull, of which so much has been said, was given at St. Peter's
in Rome, under the seal of the fisherman, the 24th of September. It begins with
asserting the deep desire ever felt by the Roman pontiffs for the conversion of the
world, and especially for the noble kingdom of England ; as instances of which,
are mentioned the efforts of St. Augustine, and the steps taken by the papal see in
consequence of the great schism of the sixteenth century. The cause of apostolic
vicars having been appointed to watch over the interests of Catholicism in England
by Popes Gregory XV., Urban VIII., Innocent -XL, Benedict XIV., and, finally,
Gregory XVI., is stated to have been that determined hostility to papal institutions
which would not allow of the presence of bishops : but now the times are altered.
Pius, the reigning pontiff, considering the present state of Catholicism in England,
and the enormous number of persons daily converted, judges the former hindrances
to have been removed, and considers the present moment most propitious for the
re-establishment of the ancient form of ecclesiastical discipline in England, the
church there enjoying free exercise, as in other countries, and no longer requiring
the extraordinary mission of apostolic vicars. The earnest desire and petition
O JI

LORD J. RUSSELL'S LETTER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1850.
of the English apostolic vicars themselves, with many noble and estimable church
and laymen, are adduced as an additional motive for the hastening of this measure,
which his holiness resolves upon, after having implored the aid of God, the inter
cession of the blessed virgin and the saints, and the advice of his venerable brethren
the cardinals of the sacred propaganda congregation. Then follows the list of the
new dioceses. London and its district are to be divided into two — the arch
bishopric of Westminster, whose occupant will be Catholic Primate of England, and
the bishopric of Southwark; the spiritual jurisdiction of the former extending
north of the Thames to Middlesex, Essex, and Hertfordshire ; whilst that of the
latter reaches the southern counties of Berks, South Hants, Surrey, Sussex, Kent,
and the Channel Islands. In the provinces, there will be one bishopric in the
northern, and one in the York district, the see of the latter being fixed at Beverley.
In the Lancashire district there will be two bishops residing — one at Liverpool, and
the other at Salford. North Wales will form one bishopric, and South Wales
another. In the western district, the Bishop of Clifton will preside over Glouces
tershire, Somersetshire, and Wiltshire ; whilst he of Plymouth will extend his sway
over Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and Cornwall. The sees of Nottingham and Bir
mingham will flourish in the central district, Oxford coming under the jurisdiction
of the latter. Finally, in the eastern district, the Bishop of Northampton will
foster the growing spread of the church. " Thus," in the words of the bull, "there
will be one sole ecclesiastical province in the flourishing kingdom of England,
formed by a metropolitan archbishop as chief, and twelve bishops as his suffragans,
by whose endeavours and pastoral care we trust that God will abundantly amplify
the Catholic church." The document then proceeds to order the new archbishop
and bishops to transmit, from time to time, to the propaganda congregation, an
account of their spiritual labours and progress; encouraging them with the
assurance that they will enjoy, in England, the same rights and faculties as in other
Catholic countries— viz., those laid down by the sacred canons and apostolic consti
tutions; and that they will be bound by the same obligations to the church as
other bishops and archbishops. Concerning which point, his holiness, by the
fulness of his apostolic authority, expressly does away with, and abrogates, in the
next sentence all peculiar customs, whether induced by ancient tradition of English
churches, or by the state of the country; since, "Mutata nunc temporum causa,"
they are now unnecessary and unlawful. Respecting those things which are of
doubtful jurisdiction, the archbishop and his bishops are to decide. The pope
repeatedly promises to watch over the progress of the whole establishment, and
assures the new prelates that they will be no losers by their advancement in a
pecuniary point of view, once he shall warmly exhort his beloved children in
England to increase the liberality of their contributions, so that the splendour of
the temples, the support of the clergy and the poor, as well as other ecclesiastical
purposes, may be amply provided for. The bull concludes with invoking the aid of
the Almighty through the intercession of the most holy Mother of God! the
ssy^c^s the rest of the heave' ly patrons of EngWd>
a -SmT^^^ ?d such
beyond description; even dissenters, who ought toTave known b^ T ?"'?
common and discreditable panic. The angfy feelinJ created %^,m^
lished from time to time, caused public meE to L 2 i7 %***** pub"
at which the most furious denunciations ^S^^a^fpaSf ^T^l
^^ailh^e^
^iflett: ^ « ^ ^^
follow^- ^ ElSh°P °f Durham P-d-ed an immense effect It wast
"My dear Lord,-I agree with you in considering the late aggression of the

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [ecclesiastical titles bill.
pope upon our Protestantism as insolent and insidious ; and I therefore feel as
indignant as you can upon the subject. I not only promoted, to the utmost of my
power, the claims of Roman Catholics to all civil rights, but I thought it right, and
even desirable, that the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Catholics should be the
means of giving instruction to the numerous Irish immigrants in London and else
where, who, without such help, would have been left in heathen ignorance. This
might have been done, however, without any such innovation as we have now seen.
It is impossible to confound the recent measures of the pope with the division of
Scotland into dioceses, or the arrangement of districts in England by the Wesleyan
conference. There is an assumption of power in all the documents which have
come from Rome ; a pretension to supremacy over the realm of England, and a
claim to sole and undivided sway, which is inconsistent with the queen's supremacy,
with the rights of our bishops and clergy, and with the spiritual independence of
the nation. I confess, however, that my alarm is not equal to my indignation.
Even if it shall appear that the ministers and servants of the pope in this country
have not transgressed the law, I feel that we are strong enough to repress any
outward attacks. The liberty of Protestantism has been allowed too long in
England to allow of any successful attempt to impose a foreign yoke upon our
minds and consciences. No foreign prince or potentate will be permitted to fasten
his fetters upon a nation which has so long and so nobly vindicated its right to
freedom of opinion — civil, political, and religious. Upon this subject I will only
say, then, that the present state of the law shall be carefully examined, and the pro
priety of adopting any proceedings with reference to the recent assumptions of
power deliberately considered. There is a danger, however, which alarms me much
more than any aggression of a foreign sovereign. Clergymen of our own church,
who have subscribed the thirty-nine articles, and acknowledge'd, in implicit terms,
the queen's supremacy, have been the most forward in leading their flocks, step by
step, to the very verge of the precipice. The honour paid to saints — the claim of
infallibility for the church — the superstitious use of the sign of the cross — the
muttering of the liturgy so as to disguise the language in which it is written — the
recommendation of auricular confession — and the administration of penance and
absolution; — all these things are pointed out> by clergymen of the church of
England, as worthy of adoption, and are now openly reprehended by the Bishop of
London in his charge to the clergy of his diocese. What, then, is the danger to be
apprehended from a foreign prince, of no great power, compared to the danger,
within the gates, from the unworthy sons of the church of England herself? I
have little hope that the propounders and framers of these innovations will desist
from their invidious course : but I rely with confidence on the people of England ;
and I will not bate a jot of heart or life so long as the glorious principles and the
immortal martyrs of the Reformation shall be held in reverence by the great mass
of a nation, which looks with contempt on the mummeries of superstition, and with
scorn at the laborious endeavours which are now making to confine the intellect and
enslave the soul. — I remain, with great respect, &c.
"Downing Street, Nov. 4th. " J. Russell."
Lord John Russell, as soon as parliament met, proposed his Ecclesiastical
Titles Bill ; or, rather, a bill to prevent the assumption of certain ecclesiastical
titles in respect of places in the United Kingdom. It consisted of four sections,
re-enacting that clause in the Catholic Relief Act which forbids the assumption of
ecclesiastical titles identical with those of the established churches of England and
Ireland (a provision which had not been violated), and extending the prohibition
to titles derived from any other place in the United Kingdom ; enforcing the pro
hibition by a penalty of £100 ; and declaring forfeit to the crown, property left
in trust to persons using these forbidden distinctions. The first reading was
carried, after four nights' debating, by a majority of 332 (395 for; 63
against); but of this immense majority, there was scarcely one who did not
object to the measure, as paltry and inefficient. In the course of the debate,
33

LORD PALMERSTON'S SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1851.

Viscount Palmerston confessed, that since he had had a seat in that House, he
had never listened to discussions with greater pain than to that upon which the
House was now engaged. He had hoped that those angry discussions and con
troversies concerning doctrinal points, and of Catholics and dissenters, would never
again be heard within the walls of parliament; for he declared that the principles
that had been established were not the principles of toleration merely, but the
greater principle of religious freedom, which was so perfectly identified with the
institutions of the country, that he had hoped no more of such discussions would
be heard within these walls. But whose fault was it ? It was not ours ; but we
had been forced upon it by an act of aggression from a foreign authority, an
aggression of a political character; and in that respect only would he address
himself to the question — an aggression upon the independent sovereign of this
country,- which he thought it was their bounden duty to repel. (Hear, hear.)
People said it was partly the fault of members of the government that certain
indulgences had been shown to the Catholic episcopacy of Ireland ; that courtesies
had been shown to the clergy and priesthood of Ireland ; that opinions had been
expressed in debates in parliament ; that silence was observed by a noble friend of
his three years ago at Rome, when a supposed paper was said to have been shown
him which regarded England: and from these things, it was said, they had no right
to be surprised at what the pope had done, because he had a right to expect that
they would meet it with indifference. He denied that any of these grounds were
.sufficient to justify the measures which had been adopted. Either the pope
thought the measures he proposed would not be agreeable, or not disagreeable, to
the government and the people of this country, or he did not care whether they
were agreeable to the government and the people of England. If he attached any
value to the effect of his measures in this country, why did he not, in the three
years that had elapsed between the period of the alleged conversation with his
noble friend at Rome, take steps to ascertain that ? Where was Dr. Wiseman ?
Was he not in England ? Had he not an opportunity of having personal inter
course with his noble friend at the head of the government, and ascertaining
whether the measure which the pope contemplated would, or would not, give
offence to the government and the people of this country ? And therefore,, he
contended, that as that course of proceeding was studiously avoided, it was
impossible for the papal authorities, or for those who advocated their cause, to
shelter themselves under the pretext that things had taken place which justified
the papal government in supposing that the steps taken would not be offensive to
the people of England. Well, then, this being an aggression of a foreign authority,
what was the authority by which that aggression was made ? It was an authority
of an ecclesiastical nature, which had a double action upon the minds of men.
(Hear.) The characteristic of the Catholic church was— not as contradistinguished
to, but in accordance with, the character of all other churches— a perpetual attempt
to encroach upon the temporal power, and to mix itself up with temporal govern
ment. He did not acquit other churches of the same thing. Churches were
corporate bodies, and corporate bodies were naturally progressive.. But there was
this difference between the Roman Catholic church and the British church— that
the British church began and ended in the realm of England, while the church of
Rome endeavoured to spread its authority in a circle, ever-widening, all over the
Christian world. Well, then, what was the action, the temporal 'and political
action, of that church ? Look to those countries in which the Catholic church
was predominant. Look to Portugal, to Spain, to Italy— look, he was concerned
to say, also to Austria— and they would find, that wherever the Catholic church
was allowed to seize hold of temporal authority, its influence was painfully exerted
in suppressing the political power and privileges of the people. His lordship then
referred to the recent agitation on the subject, describing it as a great movement
of the Protestant people of England. With respect to the suggestions of the last
speaker, he (Lord Palmerston) thought it would have been unbecoming in this

A.D. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the bill carried.
country to meet an act of unprovoked aggression by sending an envoy to sue for
conditions at Rome. He thought the dignified and proper course for the country
to take was to legislate for themselves. He denied that the bill was a penal act — -
it was merely a complement of the act of 1829. It would be no restriction on the
Catholic hierarchy, which would interfere with their sacred duties; and whilst
it would not be inoperative, it would be adequate to the circumstances of the
case. The fates were against the bill, however. Before its second reading Lord John
Russell had resigned, and been again installed in office ; and three out of the four
clauses of the bill had disappeared. It was not till the middle of May that the
bill got into committee, where it was resisted, word by word ; and no less than
thirty-five divisions were taken. Finally, the third reading was carried by acci
dent, and by a large majority, from which, however, the names of Gladstone and
some of the best men in the House were absent.
Nor were the Catholics inactive ; nor did they labour in vain. Almost imme
diately after the publication of Lord John Russell's letter, Dr. Wiseman published
his promised appeal to " the manly sense and honest heart of a generous people."
The document is one of great length.
The cardinal commenced with a review of the history of the Catholic church
in England during the last hundred years, under the government of vicars
apostolic — that is, as bishops with foreign titles, having jurisdiction as the dele
gates of the pope.
The only constitution possessed by the English Catholics, up to the year 1847,
was one issued as far back as 1743, by Pope Benedict XIV., which had grown
obsolete by lapse of time, and change of circumstance. At the _ latter time, for
instance, the penal laws had been repealed ; English colleges "for the home educa
tion of the priesthood were sanctioned ; religious houses founded, and churches or
chapels much increased. In fact —
" The Catholic church in England had so much expanded and consolidated
itself since the Emancipation Act, and its parts had so matured their mutual
relations, that it could not be carried on without a full and explicit code." A
remedy was therefore prayed for ; and it was suggested that it could only be in one
of the two following forms : —
" Either the holy see must issue another and full constitution, which would
supply all wants; but whieh would be necessarily complicated and voluminous,
and, as a special provision, would necessarily be temporary :
" Or, the real and complete code of the church must be at once extended to
the Catholic church in England, so far as compatible with its social position : and
this provision would be final.
" But, in order to adopt this second and more natural expedient, one condition
was necessary, and that was— the Catfiolics must have a hierarchy. The canon
law is inapplicable under vicars apostolic ; and, besides, many points would have
to be synodically adjusted; and without a metropolitan and suffragans, a provincial
synod-was out of the question.
" Such was the main and solid ground on which the hierarchy was humbly
solicited by Catholics from the holy see. It was one that referred to their own
internal organisation exclusively. Thoughts of aggression never entered the heads
of the petitioners or of the petitioned ; nor were the bishops moved by stupid
ideas of rivalry with the established church in what forms its weakness, nor any
absurd defiance of national prejudices. They knew that they violated no law in
asking for what was needful for their religious existence, and they acted on an
acknowledged right of liberty of conscience."
Other motives of a secondary nature existed; but this was the chief, and the
holy see kindly listened to the petition. The inferences drawn from this
historical review are two : first, that the act is not sudden, wanton, or aggressive
m its character; and secondly, that the blame, if any, rests not with his holiness— 35

CARDINAL WISEMAN'S APPEAL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1851.

" the best, and here the most calumniated, of men" — but with Dr. Wiseman and
his colleagues. The cardinal thus described the unparalleled agitation which the constitution
of a Catholic hierarchy in this island has raised : —
" Its violence has been that of a whirlwind, during which it would have been
almost folly to claim a hearing. After the news reached England of the measure
being completed, a pause of a few days ensued, as if the elements were brewing for
the storm. Then it burst out with absolute fury ; every newspaper (with a few
honourable exceptions) seemed to vie with its neighbour, of the most opposite
politics and principles, in the acrimony, virulence, and perseverance of its attacks.
Liberal and Conservative, Anglican or dissenting, grave or light, as their usual
tone and character might previously have been, the energies of all seemed concen
trated upon one single point — that of crushing, if possible, or denouncing, at least
to public execration, the new form of ecclesiastical government, which Catholics
regarded as a blessing and an honour. For this purpose, nothing was refused,
however unfounded, however personal, even by papers whose ordinary tone is
courteous, or at least well-bred. Anecdotes without a particle of truth, or, what is
worse, with some particles of distorted truth in them, have been copied from one
into another, and most widely circulated. Sarcasm, ridicule, satire of the broadest
character, theological and legal reasonings of the most refined nature, bold and
reckless declamation, earnest and artful argument — nothing seemed to come amiss ;
and every invocable agency, from the Attorney-general to Guy Fawkes, from
praemunire to a hustling, was summoned forth to aid the cry, and administer to
the vengeance of those who raised it."
An excitement, somewhat similar, was caused, some years ago, by the increased
grant to Maynooth ; but the tide of popular feeling was then nobly stemmed by a
great statesman. In striking contrast with the conduct of Sir R. Peel, the then
head of her majesty's government astonished Europe by a letter, which left
but little hope that any appeal to the high authority which rules over the empire
would be received with favour. A still graver power in the state, too, has allowed
itself to be swayed from its impartiality. The Lord High Chancellor of England
has delivered " his award against us from behind the tables of a Mansion-house
banquet." The avenues to public justice thus closed up, and the press, too, having raised
its " death- whoop," the cardinal's trust is in the " love of honourable dealing and
fair play, which, in joke or in earnest, is equally the instinct of an Englishman."
After this point the appeal is divided into sections, the first of which treats
of royal supremacy. By the "supremacy" of the sovereign is meant the head
ship of church in ecclesiastical and spiritual matters, as well as in civil and
temporal. This the Roman Catholic has always denied. Down to 1829 his denial
subjected him to disabilities ; but the Emancipation Act freed him from all obliga
tion of acknowledging the " royal ecclesiastical supremacy," the belief in which
was purposely excluded from the oath of allegiance framed for him.
" A Catholic, therefore, before 1829, in the eye of the law, was a person who did
not admit the royal supremacy, and, therefore, was excluded from full enjoyment
of civil privileges. A Catholic after 1829, and therefore in 1850, is a person who
still continues not to admit the royal supremacy, and nevertheless is admitted to full
enjoyment of those privileges."
In denying the royal supremacy, the Catholic is in the same category as the
Scotch kirt and the English dissenters, who equally fail to recognise in the bishops
appointed by the queen any authority to teach or rule them. "
"When, therefore, the sovereign appoints a new bishop to a see, the Catholic,
and I suppose the dissenter, divides the act between two distinct powers As
sovereign, and as a dispenser of dignities, the king or queen bestows on the person
elected dignity rank, and wealth. He is made a lord of parliament; receives a
designation and title; becomes seised of certain properties which entitle him to
3o

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [religious toleration.
fines, rents, and fees. To all this they assent. They may protest ; but they do not
refuse the honours due to one whom the king is pleased to honour. The title is
accorded, be it ' his lordship' or ' his grace ;' his peerage is admitted, with all its
consequent distinctions, and his fines and fees are paid as to any other landlord.
" But further, in virtue of the spiritual supremacy, the same sovereign confers
on that person spiritual and ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and this, in fact, is acknow
ledged only by those who are members of the church of England. Thus, if, in
virtue of this commission, the bishop publicly teaches or denies, as the case may be,
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, a Catholic no more heeds his teaching than
he does that of a dissenting minister. If he comes into a town, and invites all to
come and be confirmed by him on a given day, no Catholic takes more notice of the
call than he does of the parish beadle's notices, among which it is fastened on the
church door. If he appoints a triennial visitation for correction of abuses and
hearing of complaints, no Catholic troubles himself about his coming. And what
the Catholic does in regard to these functions of an Anglican bishop, the Indepen
dent does just as much.
" It follows that a marked distinction exists between the authority possessed
by a bishop and that of any other functionary named by the queen's excellent
majesty. If she appoint an admiral, or commander-in-chief, or governor of a
colony, or judge, every one is bound to obey that person in all that belongs
specifically to his office, and any one would be punishable if he refused. But in
regard to a bishop it is exactly the contrary. Precisely in those very matters
which appertain to his office we are not bound to obey him. No one is obliged to
seek doctrine from his teaching, sanctification from his ministration, or grace from
his blessing. This anomalous difference arises from the circumstance that the
commission given to civil and military officers flows from the temporal sovereignty,
which none may impugn ; while that to the ecclesiastical functionaries proceeds from
the spiritual jurisdiction, which may be, and is, lawfully denied.
"When a dissenter denies the royal supremacy (always meaning by this term
the spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction attributed to the crown), he substitutes,
perhaps, for it some other authority in some synod or conference, or he admits of
none other to take its place; but when the Catholic denies it, it is because he
believes another and a true ecclesiastical and spiritual supremacy to reside in the
pope, or bishop of Rome, over the entire Catholic church. With him the two
acts resolve themselves into one — denial of the royal supremacy, and assertion of
the papal supremacy. And as it is perfectly lawful for him to deny the one, so it
is equally lawful for him to assert the other."
In support of this position Dr. Wiseman quotes a judgment delivered by Lord
Chancellor Lyndhurst, in the House of Lords, May 11th, 1846.
The second section considers — " What was the extent of religious toleration
granted to Catholics ? Have they a right to possess bishops or a hierarchy ?"
Catholic emancipation was deemed an act of justice, conferring full religious
liberty. But the full exercise of the Catholic religion could not be enjoyed without
holy orders, and holy orders require bishops to administer them. Hence the
Catholic church is necessarily episcopal. This government by bishops may be of
two kinds — the ordinary form of a local hierarchy, and the temporary expedient of
vicars. The former is the only "full and perfect" form; and a toleration that
disallows this is really a " denial of liberty of conscience." The Emancipation
Act contained no such restriction. Nay, more — it foresaw and provided for the
substitution, some day, of regular bishops for vicars. First, the declaration of Lord
Lyndhurst shows this to have been the spirit of the legislation ; and, secondly, the
actual restrictions imposed by the Relief Act, implied that, on this point, there was
liberty: —
"There is an axiom in law, ' Exclusio unius est admissio alterius;' that is,
if you specifically exclude or deny the use of one particular thing, you thereby
admit the lawful use of that which is not denied. To take the instance above
37

the prerogative of the crown.] LIFE AND TIMES 6f [a.d. 1851.
given; if I had said, in my agreement with the householder, that he might not, in
building, make any use of sandstone, this would have implied that be might employ
o-ranite or limestone, or any other stone but the one excluded. Now, if the law of
emancipation did make one exclusion and prohibition respecting the titles of
Catholic bishops, it thereby permitted, as perfectly within law, whatever in' that
respect, came not under that exception. The Act of Emancipation forbids any one
from assuming or using the style or title of any bishopric or archbishopric of the
established church in England or Ireland. From this it follows that they are
allowed to assume any other titles."
The third section inquires — " How could Catholics obtain their hierarchy ?"
And contends that if the Catholics were ever to have a hierarchy, it could only be
through the pope, and the pope could only legislate by a bull.
" Lord John Russell, in his speech in the House of Commons, August 6th, 1846,
thus sensibly speaks on the subject : — ' There is another offence, of introducing a
bull of the pope into the country. The question is, whether it is desirable to keep
up that or any other penalty for such an offence. It does not appear to me that
we can possibly attempt to prevent the introduction of the pope's bulls into this
country. There are certain bulls of the pope which are absolutely necessary for
the appointment of bishops and pastors belonging to the Roman Catholic church-
It would be quite impossible to prevent the introduction of such bulls.' "
Next comes the question —
IV. " Does the appointment of the Catholic hierarchy trench on the preroga
tive of the crown ?"
This is described as a " delicate question," the more so from the address signed
by the English bar, which says that —
" A foreign potentate has interfered with her majesty's undoubted prerogative,.
and has assumed the right of nominating archbishops and bishops in these realms,
and of conferring on them territorial rank and jurisdiction."
There is gravity in such a statement coming from men " learned in the law.'"
But, the cardinal argues, to speak so is " to recognise an efficient act of power" on
the part of the pope. To those who do not acknowledge his authority, his
" ecclesiastical acts are mere nullities." " It is (to them) as though the pope had
not spoken, and had not issued any document."
"It will be said that no limitation of jurisdiction is made in the papal
document — no restriction of its exercise to Catholics ; and hence Lord John Russell
and others conclude that there is, in this brief, ' a pretension to supremacy over
the realm of England, and a claim to sole and undivided sway.' " Every official
document has its proper forms; and had those who blame the tenor of this,
taken any pains to examine those of papal documents, they would have found
nothing new or unusual in this. Whether the pope appoints a person vicar
apostolic or bishop in ordinary, in either case he assigns him a territorial
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and gives him no personal limitations. This is the
practice of every church which believes in its own truth and in its duty of
conversion. What has been done in this brief has been done in every one ever
issued, whether to create a hierarchy or to appoint a bishop,
V. " Has the mode of establishing the hierarchy been ' isolent and insidious ?' "
The argument under this section consists of a reference to ministerial acts, by
which Catholic bishops have been recognised in the British colonies, as affording
no reason to anticipate that the erection of an English episcopate would occasion
offence ; to the conduct of the English government in erecting bishopries abroad,
as at Jerusalem; and to "the positive declarations and public appearances" of the
present and former administrations.
Under the last head the speeches of Lord John Russell are specially alluded
to. In the debate on the Catholic Relief Bill, July 9th, 1845, Lord John Russell,
then in opposition, spoke to the following effect : —
"He, for one, was prepared to go into committee on those clauses of the
38

a.d. 1-851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [diocese of Westminster.
act of 1829. He did not say that he was at once prepared to repeal all those
clauses, but he was willing to go into committee to deliberate on the subject. He
believed that they might repeal those disallowing clauses, which prevented a
Roman Catholic bishop assuming a title held by a bishop of the established
church. He could not conceive any good ground for the continuance of this
restriction." It must be observed that there is nothing in the context which
limits those sensible and liberal words to Ireland. They apply to the repeal of
the whole clause, which, as we have seen, extends equally to both countries.
" What his lordship had said in 1845, he deliberately, and even more strongly,
confirmed the following year. In the debate on the first reading of the Roman
Catholic Relief Bill, February 5th, 1845, he referred to his speech, just quoted, of
the preceding session, in the following terms : —
" ' Allusion having been made to him (by Sir R. Inglis), he wished to say a
few words as to his former declaration, ' that he was not ready at once to repeal
these laws without consideration.' Last session he had voted for the committee,
but had reserved to himself the right of weighing the details. It appeared to him
that there was one part of the question that had not been sufficiently attended to :
the measure of government, as far as it was stated last year, did not effect that
relief to the Roman Catholics from a law by which they were punished, both for
assuming episcopal titles in Ireland, and for belonging to certain religious orders.
That part of the subject required interference by the legislature. As to preventing
persons assuming particular titles, nothing could be more absurd and puerile than
to keep up such a distinction. He had also the strongest objection to the law
which made Jesuits in certain cases subject to transportation ; the enactment was as
intolerant as it was inefficacious, and it was necessary that the law should be put
_on an intelligible and rational footing.' "
Dr. Wiseman re-asserted that a copy of the papal brief was shown to Lord
Minto in Italy : —
" The circumstances may have escaped his memory, or he may not at the
time have attended to it, having more important matters in his mind ; but as to
the fact that his attention was called to it, and he made no reply, I can have
no doubt." The sixth and concluding section treats of the title of Westminster.
According to the discipline of the Catholic church, sees must take their titles
from cities or towns, not districts. In re-establishing a Catholic hierarchy, it was
natural that the metropolitan should take his title from the metropolis. But
London was a title inhibited by law. Southwark was to form a separate see. To
have borrowed a title from Islington or Finsbury would have invited ridicule.
Besides, they were not towns. Hence the selection of " Westminster."
" But I am glad, also, for another reason. The chapter of Westminster has
been the first to protest against the new archiepiscopal title, as though some prac
tical attempt at jurisdiction within the abbey was intended. Then let me give
them assurance on that point, and let us come to a fair decision and a good
understanding. "The diocese, indeed, of Westminster embraces a large district; but West
minster proper consists of two very different parts. One comprises the stately
abbey, with its adjacent palaces, and its royal parks. To this portion the duties
and occupation of the dean and chapter are mainly confined ; and they shall range
there undisturbed. To the venerable old church I may repair, as I have been wont
to do. But perhaps the dean and chapter are not aware that, were I disposed to
claim more than the right to tread the Catholic pavement of that noble building,
and breathe its air of ancient consecration, another might step in with a prior
claim. For successive generations there has existed ever, in tbe Benedictine order,
an abbot of Westminster, the representative, in religious dignity, of those who
erected, and beautified, and governed that church and cloister. Have they ever been
disturbed by this ' titular ?' Have they ever heard of any claim or protest, on his
39

the great exhibition.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851.
part, touching their temporalities ? Then let them fear no greater aggression now.
Like him, I may visit, as I have said, the old abbey, and say my prayer by the
shrine of good St. Edward, and meditate on the olden times, when the church filled
without a coronation, and multitudes hourly worshipped without a service.
" But in their temporal rights, or their quiet possession of any dignity or title,
they will not suffer. Whenever I go in I will pay my entrance-fee, like other liege
subjects, and resign myself meekly to the guidance of the beadle, and listen without
rebuke when he points out to my admiration detestable monuments, or shows me a
hole in the wall for a confessional.
"Yet this splendid monument, its treasures of art, and its fitting endowments,
form not the part of Westminster which will concern me. For there is another
part which stands in frightful contrast, though in immediate contact, with this
magnificence. In ancient times, the existence of an abbey on any spot, with a
large staff of clergy and ample revenues, would have sufficed to create around it a
little paradise of comfort, cheerfulness, and ease. This, however, is not now the
case. Close under the abbey of Westminster, there lie concealed labyrinths of
lanes and courts, and alleys and slums, nests of ignorance, vice, depravity, and
crime, as well as of squalor, wretchedness, and disease ; whose atmosphere is typhus,
whose ventilation is cholera ; in which swarms a huge and almost countless popula
tion, in great measure, nominally, at least, Catholics ; haunts of filth which no
sewerage committee can reach — dark corners which no lighting board can brighten.
This is the part of Westminster which alone I covet, and which I shall be glad to
claim and to visit as a blessed pasture in which sheep of holy church are to be
tended, in which a bishop's godly work has to be done, of consoling, converting,
and preserving. And if, as I humoly trust in God, it shall be seen that this special
culture, arising from the establishment of our hierarchy, bears fruits of order,
peacefulness, decency, religion, and virtue, it may be that the holy see shall not be
thought to haye acted unwisely when it bound up the very soul and salvation of a
chief pastor with those of a city where the name indeed is glorious, but the purlieus
infamous ; in which the very grandeur of its public edifices is as a shadow to screen
from the public eye sin and misery the most appalling. If the wealth of the abbey
be stagnant and not diffusive, if it in no way rescue the neighbouring population
from the depths in which it is sunk, let there be no jealousy of any one who, by
whatever name, is ready to make the latter his care without interfering- with the
former. °
Some caustic remarks upon the Anglican clergy, and thanks to the "noble-
hearted people who haye refused to join in the "no-popery" cry, and to the
"docile and obedient children of the Catholic faith," who have been meek amidst
reviling, closed the lengthy document.
We proceed now to speak of the memorable Exhibition-an Exhibition which,
according to Colonel Sibthorpe, was to overrun London with foreigners, and fill
the land with plagues. ° '
fremiti?7 ^mVI™ al\kn™> was e*«ted by Messrs. Fox and Henderson,
Sevonsbil gTt ^f *"£ Sir J°SePb' Pasfcon' S^dener to the Duke of
Wth t" 1 Si f aSf°Pfrd °* ^ay 1st, and closed October 15th. Its extreme
sideS 936 felt ll l5 A" ^ 43 With an additi°^l projection on the north
hith -on eitl Zt 7f H ^ °entral P°rti0n Was I20 feefc wide> fev 64 feet
high, on either side of this was another portion, 72 feet wide bv 44 hio-h ¦ nnd
Wat 7^mst:refePe0trt ^Ti? *** ^ ^ ^ ***& ^entt' ™
Cathedml The enti,A ^ *9 ^ ^ S6Ven times as mu<* ™ St. Paul's
Cathedral Ihe entire ground-area was divided off into a central nave four side
aisles, and severa exhibitors' courts and avenues. There were three entrances
with eight pay-places to each, and eighteen doors for exit There were S
SSnra^?Sr o 11"6 bUlldT' f °*m ar°U*d the "Lept6; td
there were fboufs^OO^ thfl 1^ by *? .d°Uble leases. Of iron columns
there were about 3,300 in the building; and there were 1,074 base-pieces beneath

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the great exhibition.
the columns, on which the whole structure rested. The girders were nearly 3,500 ;
and, altogether, there were about 4,000 tons of iron built into the structure.
Besides the seventeen acres of glass for the roof, there were about 15,000 vertical
glazed sashes. The ground-floor and the galleries contained 1,000,000 square feet
of flooring. There were 200 miles of sash-bars, and twenty miles of Paxton
gutters. The total wood-work in the structure was estimated at 600,000 cubic
feet. In the building, 2,182 persons were employed; but in this list are not
included the workmen employed by Fox and Henderson, nor the persons connected
with the catalogue department, nor the extra police employed outside the building.
About eighty persons were in the building all night — viz., fifty policemen, twenty-
four sappers and miners, and six firemen : the latter had the command of an
abundant supply of fire-engines, hydrants, and buckets. The sweepers were
employed six hours in the morning, sweeping the building before the visitors
arrived. There was no end of committees, beginning with the twenty-five royal
commissioners, with Prince Albert at their head. There was an executive com
mittee, a finance committee, a building committee, a medal committee, a committee
to communicate with the local committees ; and then there were committees of
sections, to determine on regulations for the classification and admission of speci
mens. These seventy-three committee-men comprised nearly all the royal com
missioners, and a fine array of the most talented men in the country.
It appears that there were about 15,000 exhibitors; and how to reduce the
goods exhibited into something like order was an Herculean task. Dr. Lyon Play-
fair's classification of the objects admitted, was, perhaps, the most elaborate
analysis of industrial and productive art that has yet been made. There was not
the formality of classes, orders, genera, species, &c, as in natural history ; but there
was a somewhat analogous subordination adopted. There were, in the first place,
four great sections, devoted to Raw Materials, Machinery, Manufactures, and the
Fine Arts. The first of these was subdivided into four; the second into six; and
the third into nineteen ; so that the whole made twenty-nine classes. These classes
were then subdivided into (on an average) about eight portions each ; there being
251 portions, each designated in its own class by a letter of the alphabet. Each
portion, or letter, was next subdivided into smaller, sections, designated by
numerals ; and these smaller portions were, lastly, subdivided into species, minute
enough to need no further classification. For instance, Section 3 comprised Manu
factures ; one class of this was devoted to manufactures in animal and vegetable
substances; the letter A of this class was manufactures in caoutchouc. No. 1
under this letter was impermeable articles (as distinguished from elastic) ; and
particular species under this humeral are boots, beds, life-buoys, air-cushions, &c.
In the final analysis, there were not much less than 2,000 headings, under which
products were classified in this remarkable list. The jury council, in their report
to the royal commissioners, said that the duties of the jurors had involved the con
sideration and judgment of at least a million articles.
Nor must we overlook the difficulties connected with the preparation of the
Official Catalogue. The contractors were dependent, not simply on one, or a
dozen, or a hundred persons, but on 15,000, or more, all of whom had to supply
the materials with which the catalogue was to be constructed. So overwhelming
were the obstructions to be surmounted by the compilers and printers, that at ten
o'clock at night, on the 30th of April, within fourteen hours of the opening of this
splendid pageant, not a single complete copy was printed.
The Exhibition was open twenty-three weeks, and fragments of two other
weeks. The total visitors were 6,007,944. Mean daily average, 43,536, Besides
the above, there were the six exceptional days, if we may so term the opening-
day, the two days at £1, the two exhibitors' days, and the closing day : these gave
an aggregate of about 160,000 visitors.. The total was thus, in round numbers,
6,170,000, or about 43,000 per day, for 144 days.
VOL. ii. E 41

ITS statistics.]

LIFE AND TIMES OF

[A.D. 1851.

The different days of the week had some peculiar characteristics. Monday
was, as it always is, the great day for London shopkeepers and operatives of the
humbler class : on no other day did visitors of this rank congregate so largely at
the Crystal Palace.
Tuesday was the great day for country visitors. The Monday's excursion-
trains brought them up by thousands ; and after a good night's rest, they were ready
for the Hyde Park campaign on the morrow.
Wednesday was the quietest and least numerically strong of the shilling days :
the high pressure of Monday and Tuesday seems to have led to a kind of exhaus
tion on the following day. This was the most satisfactory of the shilling days to
those who wished to proceed systematically with their visits.
Thursday being the last shilling day of the week, numbered higher than
Wednesday ; while the visitors were generally of a somewhat higher grade than
those of Monday and Tuesday.
Friday was the favourite day for those who wished to see everything, and
to see it well, and who also thought half-a-crown well bestowed on a visit. It
was the special day for season-ticket holders, of the scientific, or professional, or
business turn of mind.
Saturday was the day for satin visites and trailing dresses, and Erard's
piano, and eau de Cologne, and aqua d'oro, .and Bath chairs. These Bath chairs
were not the least among the curiosities of the Exhibition; never before did
invalids have such a privilege of being wheeled along aisles and naves, and galleries
thronged with the beautiful and the wonderful, with comfort to themselves, and
with scarcely a shade of discomfort to others. Those who were present on the
4th of October, the last Bath chair day, will well remember what a formidable
array of these vehicles made their appearance.
Never before, in any age or country, was such a sight presented as that at two
o'clock on October 7th, when 93,000 persons were estimated to have been under
one roof at one time ; not merely in an open area, like a Roman amphitheatre,
but in a windowed, and floored, and roofed building. The greatest number who
entered the doors in any one hour, was between eleven and twelve o'clock on the
6th of October, when 28,853 persons were admitted.
The total receipts, from all sources, made up half a million sterling, as*

follows :-

Subscriptions Season tickets
Single admissions . . .
Refreshment contract
Catalogue contract
Royalty on medals
Washing, retiring, and umbrella rooms

£67,000 68,000
337,000 5,500 3,200 900
3,700

. °?ttelast shilling Monday, the silver coin received at the doors required
two cabs to convey it to the bank : -it weighed nearly 15 cwt
There were 166 council medals, 2,876 prize medals, and 2,042 honourable
mentions ; making a total of 5,084 honorary distinctions of all kinds. Kwe take
de'emetworthv "of ^pstltmatedf^ber °f 15j000, about one-third were £
"^
Eou^ British0 Sd 1 632 forei^StWt0 ^ ^^ ^V^™£^1%
foreig-n! g ; honourable mentions, 716 British, and 1,326
In relation to different classes of exhibited articles there were a few striking
andmstructive facts. In machinery, in manufactures, in meta? and £ glai ant

A.D. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the great exhibition.
porcelain manufactures, the British exhibitors gained more prizes than all the
foreigners combined. In textile fabrics, in fine arts, and in miscellaneous manu
factures, the foreign exhibitors took off the honours in the ratio of about three-
fifths to two-fifths British. But in the section of raw materials for food and
manufactures, the foreign exhibitors gained nearly four times as many prizes as
the British. It would appear from that that Britain is a manufacturing, and
not a producing country. Be this as it may, the fact here stated is worth
remembering. The great honours of the council medals were very unequally distributed in
respect to the class of exhibited articles; for out of the whole number of 166, no
less than eighty-eight (more than one-half) were awarded for machinery alone.
This is a significant fact, showing that the juries, or rather the council of chair
men, were not deterred, by the gorgeous display around them, from doing justice
to the great working agencies by which wealth is produced.
The post-office arrangements were excellent. There was a regular post
establishment within the building, in connection with all the separate departments,
British and foreign. The daily despatch of letters averaged 500, and the daily
receipt, 300.
The losing of personal property in the Exhibition, the finding of the lost
articles by the police, and the plan for restoring them to their proper owners, form
a curious chapter in the history of the Crystal Palace.
The total number of articles thus suddenly deprived of owners was enormous.
In the two months from May 1st to June 30th, they amounted to upwards of
1,000. Pocket-handkerchiefs took the lead, to the number of 271; parasols were
118; bracelets, brooches, and shawl-pins together, made up 255 ; Veils and falls,
and neek-ties, and bonnet-shades, figured at 94; ladies' cuffs, and gloves, and
goloshes numbered together 39 ; shawls and victorines were 30. The minor
articles, or articles in smaller number, were most miscellaneous, and combined
every imaginable thing which could reasonably be taken to an exhibition —
umbrellas, shirt-studs, catalogues, books, bunches of keys, lockets, camp-stools,
slippers, great-coats, card-cases, chains, knives, pin-cushions, walking-sticks,
spectacles, eye-glasses, opera-glasses, pencil-cases, rings, fans, watches, toothpicks,
thimbles, reticules, baskets, boxes, scent-bottles, &c. Purses were not wanting to
fill up the inventory, containing sums varying from £0 Os. Od., to £5 4s. 9d. ;
while the sum of £2 10s. OJcf. was picked up in loose coins. One of the articles
secured by the police, and made to figure in their report, must ever take rank
among the marvels of the Great Exhibition — it was one petticoat ! Pope says of
flies in amber — " The things themselves are neither rich nor rare ;
The wonder's, how the devil they got there."
And so We may say of this particular garment, under the circumstances. A
second and a third list of the same kind was made public. The final list of totals,
brought down to October 24th, figured at 5,167 ; of which 3,318 were still waiting
for claimants — materials here for supplying a tolerably good store. It is said, no
less than 1,849 lost articles were recovered by application to the police, whose
admirable conduct in and around the building was above all praise. Nor were
lifeless things the only ones that went astray. Many a luckless child got separated
from its parents in the vast building; but the police-station at Prince's Gate
became an asylum for the little wanderers, the whole of whom were ultimately
restored to their proper quarters.
In this Exhibition, the mere supply of refreshments assumed a character of
immense magnitude — a magnitude that ceases to astonish us now, but which was
thought very astonishing then. Not only was the sum of £5,500 given for per
mission to sell refreshments within the building, but the contractors candidly
acknowledged that they made large profits by the venture. The central refresh-
. E2 43

rrs statistics.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851.

ment court was farmed' by, or leased by, one firm ; the eastern and western courts
by another. In round numbers, their sales were as follows : —
Bread ... ... ••• ••• •¦• ••• 52,000 quarterns.
Small loaves, rolls, and biscuits  120,000
Plain buns  870,000
Bath buns  930,000
Banbury and other cakes  220,000
Cake, sold per pound  50,000 lbs.
Meat patties and rolls  80,000
Ham  70,000 lbs.
Beef, tongue, &c  260,000 „
Rough ice  800,000 „
Salt  80,000 „
Milk and cream  '  65,000 quarts.
Tea, coffee, and chocolate  21,000 lbs.
Lemonade, soda-water, ginger-beer .. . ... 1,090,000 bottles.
These enormous quantities were not consumed wholly by the visitors ; there
was'an exhibitors' dining-room, where sometimes 2,000 cold dinners were disposed
of in a day.
The amount of money taken for these eatables and drinkables is an item of
statistics on which no information was afforded ; and a guess would be of little
value, except from one who is professionally cognizant how many sixpenny cups of
coffee may be made from a pound of the berry, or how many sandwiches may be
carved out of a pound of ham. One little fact, however, may give the reader an
idea of the large sums taken in the refreshment department. It appears that buns,
with ginger-beer, and similar bottled liquids, brought a round sum of £30,000. If
the reader reckons other articles in a similar proportion, he can easily understand
how the contractors lost little by their payment of £5,500 for the privilege of
serving refreshments.
All were fascinated with the Exhibition of 1851. There never was such an
exhibition, and there never can be such another : that of 1862 was nothing like
it. It differed as much from that of 1851 as moonlight from sunlight, or as water
from wine. Banquets were the order of the day. The foreign commissioners
dined at Richmond, Lord Ashburton in the chair. A grand entertainment was
held at the Guildhall in celebration of it. Queen Victoria and Prince Albert
honoured the city of London with their presence on the occasion. The line of her
majesty's approach, from the palace to the Guildhall, was brilliantly illuminated.
All things pointed to peace and friendship. The orators of the human race met,
and declared that the millennium was about to come. France and England were
connected by the telegraphic cable. A peace congress sat at Exeter Hall. Females
made their appearance in the Bloomer costume. A grand banquet was given at
Bangor, in honour of Mr. R. Stephenson, M.P., the eminent engineer, on the
completion of the Britannia Tubular Bridge; and, as if to show that the New
World was getting ready to compete with the Old, at the Cowes regatta, in the
match round the Isle of Wight, for a cup worth £100, open to all nations, an
American yacht, the America, schooner-built, of 173 tons, started last, and came
m first, by nearly eight miles. So philanthropic, indeed, had the country become,
that, in the House of Commons, Mr. Cobden's motion for disarmament between
France and England received the sanction of the government. Lord Palmerston
confessed himself ready to subscribe to Mr. Cobden's views on this subject, but
objected to the motion, because it aimed at divesting this country of her means of
defence, without waiting till other countries had placed themselves in a similar
position. And thus, amidst universal approval, the motion was withdrawn.
Nevertheless, all England was jubilant and holiday-making, this wonderful year of
1851. What the people felt and thought is, however, best told in Thackeray's

A.D. 1851.]

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the great exhibition.

" May-day Ode," which appeared on the opening of the Exhibition, and in which it
was felt that, like the poet, he had set to music the spirit of the age. We reprint
it, as a fitting close to this chapter.

MAY-DAY ODE.

' ' But yesterday a naked sod,
The dandies sneered from Rotten-row,
And cantered o'er it to and fro ;
And see, 'tis done !
As though 'twere by a wizard's rod,
A blazing arch of lucid glass
Leaps like a fountain from the grass
To meet the sun !
" A quiet green but few days since,
With cattle browsing in the shade,
And lo ! long lines of bright arcade
In order raised ;
A palace as for fairy prince,
A rare pavilion, such as man
Saw never, since mankind began,
And built and glazed.
" A peaceful place it was but now,
And lo ! within its shining streets
A multitude of nations meets :
A countless throng,
I see beneath the crystal bow,
And Gaul and German, Russ and Turk,
Each with his native handiwork
And busy tongue.
" I felt a thrill of love and awe
To mark the different garb of each,
The changing tongue, the various speech
Together blent.
A thrill, methinks, like His who saw
' All people dwelling upon earth,
Praising our God with solemn mirth,
And one consent.'
" High sovereign in your royal state !
Captains, and chiefs, and councillors,
Before the lofty palace doors
Are open set,
Hush ! ere you pass the shining gate ;
Hush ! ere the heaving curtain draws,
And let the royal pageant pause
A moment yet.
" People and prince a silence beep !
Bow coronet and kingly crown,
Helmet and plume bow lowly down :
The while the priest
Before the splendid portal step,
While still the wondrous banquet stays,
Prom Heaven supreme a blessing prays
Upon the feast !
" Then onwards let the triumph march ;
Then let the loud artillery roll,
And trumpets ring and joy-bells toll,
And pass the gate.
Pass underneath the shining arch,
'Neath which the leafy elms are green 
Ascend unto your throne, O Queen,
And take your State !

" Behold her in her royal place ;
A gentle lady — and the hand
That sways the sceptre of this land,
How frail and weak !
Soft is the voice, and fair the face ;
She breathes 'Amen,' to prayer and hymn :
No wonder that her eyes are dim,
And pale her cheek.
" This moment round her empire's shores
The winds of Austral winter sweep,
And thousands lie in midnight sleep
At rest to day.
O ! awful is that crown of yours,
Queen of innumerable realms,
Sitting beneath the budding elms
Of English May !
" A wondrous sceptre 'tis to bear;
Strange mystery of God which set
Upon her brow yon coronet —
The foremost crown
Of all the world on one so fair !
That chose her to it from her birth,
And bade the sons of all the earth
To her bow down.
" The representative of man
Here from the far Antipodes,
And from the subject Indian seas
In congress meet ;
From Afric and from Hindostan,
From western continent and isle,
The envoys of her empire pile
Gifts at her feet.
" Our brethren cross the Atlantic tides,
Loading the gallant decks which once
Roared a defiance to our guns,
With peaceful store ;
Symbol of peace, their vessel rides !
O'er English waves float star and stripe,
And firm their friendly anchors gripe
The father shore !
" From Rhine and Danube, Rhone and Seine,
As rivers from their sources gush,
The swelling floods of nations rush,
And seaward pour :
From coast to coast, in friendly chain,
With countless ships we bridge the straits,
And angry ocean separates Europe no more.
" From Mississippi and from Nile— ¦
From Baltic, Ganges, Bosphorus,
In England's ark, assembled thus
Are friend and guest.
Look down the mighty sunlit aisle,
And see the sumptuous banquet set,
The brotherhood of nations met
Around the feast 1
45

lord palmerston resigns.] LIFE AND TIMES OF

[a.d. 1851.

" Along the dazzling colonnade,
Far as the straining eye can gaze,
Gleam cross and fountain, bell and vase,
In vistas bright.
And statues fair of nymph and maid,
And steeds, and pards, and Amazons,
Writhing and grappling in the bronze,
In endless fight.
" To deck the glorious roof and dome,.
To make the Queen a canopy,
The peaceful hosts of industry
Their standards bear.
Yon are the works of Brahmin loom ;
On such a web of Persian thread
The desert Arab bows his head,
And cries his prayer.
" Look yonder where the engines toil ;
These England's arms of conquest are,
The trophies of her bloodless war :
Brave weapons these.

Victorious over wave and soil,
With these she sails, she weaves, she tills
Pierces- the everlasting hills,
And spans the sea».
" The engine roars upon its race,
The shuttle whirs along the woof,
The people hum from floor to roof
With Babel tongue.
The fountain in the basin plays,
The chanting organ echoes clear,
An awful chorus 'tis to hear,
A wondrous song !
" Swell organ, swell your trumpet blast,
March, Queen and royal pageant, march
By splendid aisle and springing arch
Of this fair hall :
And see ! above the fabric vast,
God's boundless Heaven is bending blue,
God's peaceful Sun is beaming through,'
And shining overall."

CHAPTER IV.

PALMERSTON IN THE SHADE.
In 1851, as we have seen, Lord Palmerston appeared to be at the height of his
popularity and powers : nevertheless, to the astonishment of England and Europe,
at the end of the year it was -announced that Lord Palmerston was no longer in
office. The journals -friendly to his lordship declared that his resignation had
been rendered necessary by the extraordinary conduct of the Prime Minister It
was said his lordship had assumed an important portion of the duties ofthe
nWt™!T ^h0UVUlregard, t°1tlie n°ble secretary wh0 W^ed over that
department It was further said-although the fact had only recently been dis-
ZZtrZ S P£lme^n-that ford John Russell had bee/long intriguing to
on the™,-tTT /% ^ t,he 0tber hand' Vari0us statesmanlike proceedings,
shouMno Wp 1 Palmerston were alleged to have made it desirable that he
were IxLX^lLTr * T^ J* the gov™ent. Authentic explanations
narliament wbf ft '' ^ th<;natlon vaited '**<* impatience for the opening of
oninion ofSlTe ™i, St Wd .lmPortailt disclosures would be made-the
in a letter -to t Zft T^I C01If ^ ™th that of Lady Palmerston, who,
'^J^Sa^^7^ 1852' SeiziQg the first opportunity, Lord John
m^f^rfpalrSrin T "T™ clrcumstan<*s connected with the retire-
that in Wust 18^0 ^lUt Pf™g tLiS task' he thouSht ifc right to state
how'hTs duTas F rein to^^T*^ * ^ *****£ ******
¦r^n^^ umA iuleigu secretary, nad been understood by her maiestv Tt wa<s a<?
she i, gW,g theS Zmt "„ sL^SlffhST " •°"J ta™ ""M3 °B '° ">""
visited by her constitutional rfght of SS that ™iS n ""' "5? -"""y ? ^

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [parliamentary explanation.
important decisions are taken based upon that intercourse ; to receive the foreign
despatches in good time ; and to have the drafts for her approval sent to her in
sufficient time to make herself acquainted with their contents before they must be
sent off. The queen thinks it best that Lord John Russell should show this letter
to Lord Palmerston." To this communication Lord John Russell replied — " I
sent that accordingly, and received a letter from my noble friend (Lord Palmerston)
to the following effect : — " I have taken a copy of this memorandum of the queen's,
and will not fail to attend to the directions which it contains."
Lord John Russell, who was listened to with profound attention, then added —
" Now, sir, I will state what is the duty of the Prime Minister ; and I will not
state it in my own words, but in the words which were used by the late Sir R. Peel,
in giving evidence before the committee of this House with respect to foreign
salaries. His words were — ' Take the case of the Prime Minister. You must
presume that he reads every important despatch from every foreign Court. He
cannot consult with the Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and exercise the influence
which he ought to have, unless he be master of everything of real importance
passing in that department.' I conceive Sir R. Peel there: lays down the duty of
a Prime Minister, and makes him responsible for the business, of the country. I
may say, likewise, that I was informed, both by her majesty and Sir Robert Peel,
that Sir Robert had advised her to consult me whenever a question should arise
with respect to foreign affairs. Such, then, being the state of the relationship
which I held towards the crown on one hand, and to my noble friend on the other,
I must say I have found the situation one of great difficulty."
His lordship then proceeded to complain of Lord Palmerston's conduct on
various occasions ; and, in particular, alluded to the reception which Lord
Palmerston had given to the addresses presented to him by the borough of Finsbury
and the parish of Islington.. He said that there had been a cabinet meeting on
the 3rd of November, at which it was agreed that the state- of Europe was very
critical, and that it behoved England to preserve the strictest neutrality. Yet, a
short time afterwards, Lord Palmerston received deputations with addresses, in
which the most disrespectful language was applied to the sovereigns of foreign
nations. Though in this matter Lord Palmerston had not exercised due caution,
he (Lord J. Russell) had beeja willing to consider it an inadvertence, and to take
his share of the responsibility. But, after that occurrence, he had certainly
expected even increased frankness from Lord Palmerston, and that he certainly
would not make any communication to foreign governments without giving him
(Lord John Russell) the opportunity of expressing his sentiments thereon. His
next act, however, was the crowning one. A cabinet council had been held on the
3rd of December, in reference to the crisis in Paris, when it was agreed that Lord
Normanby had only to abstain from all interference ; and Lord Palmerston sent
off a despatch correctly expressing the opinions of the governments The instruc
tion was conveyed in this letter : — "Foreign Office, December 6th, 1851.
" My Lord, — I have received, and laid before the queen, your excellency's
despatch — No. 365, of the 3rd instant — requesting to be furnished with instruc
tions for your guidance in the present state of affairs in France. I am commanded
by her majesty to instruct your excellency to make no change in your relations with
the French government.. It is her majesty's desire that nothing should be done by
her ambassador at Paris which could wear the appearance, of an interference of any
kind in the internal affairs of France. — I am,. &c, Palmerston."
A few days afterwards, Lord Normanby wrote: to Lord Palmerston, to say that
he had communicated his despatch to the French foreign minister, who had
informed him, that same day,, that Lord Palmerston had signified to Count
Walewski. his entire approbation of the caup-d'etat, and had said that there was
47

LORD J. RUSSELL'S SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF  [a.d. 1852-
no other course open to Louis Napoleon. He (Lord John) thought that this might
be explained, and wrote to Lord Palmerston for the explanation of what, if truly
stated, amounted to moral interference in the affairs of France. For several days
Lord Palmerston sent no reply, although, on the 13th, a messenger came to
Woburn from the queen, with a desire that the affair might be explained. Lord
Palmerston, apprised of this, neglected to answer. On the 16th, Lord John
Russell wrote to him that his silence was disrespectful to the queen. On the same
day, Lord Palmerston wrote, of his own authority, to Lord Normanby (in answer
to a despatch from him), and denied that he had said anything to Count
Walewski inconsistent with the government instructions to Lord Normanby ; but
added, that his private opinion was, that it was for the interests of France and
Europe that the president should succeed in the struggle. Now, he thought his
noble friend had in this communication avoided the real question. The Foreign
Secretary chose to put himself in the place of the crown, and to pass_ by and
neglect the crown, although, as he said, a Secretary of State had no constitutional
authority whatever. Another question arose, which was one of great delicacy.
The act of the French president not only dissolved the assembly, but abolished
the constitution, and fettered the press. This might be desirable or not ; but it
was a matter for the French people alone. It was not for an English minister to
place the broad seal of England upon such acts. We have been showing sympathy
to various nations for many years in their attempts to obtain constitutions. How
could we take that course after expressing approbation of what had been done in
France ? Under all circumstances, he had come to the decision that he could not
continue to act with Lord Palmerston. Tbe latter had, at last, addressed to him a
long letter, giving his reasons for advocating the cause of the president ; but these
reasons did not seem, to Lord John, to touch the question. He had, therefore, on
the 20th, written to her majesty, advising that Lord Palmerston be requested to
resign, or he (Lord John Russell) must retire. He consulted none of his colleagues
in that, step, feeling that the responsibility ought to remain with himself alone ;
but, at a cabinet council on the 22nd, they decided that he could have taken no
other course.
Lord John subsequently took great pains to make the House understand, that
while he objected to the circumstances under which Lord Palmerston had commu
nicated his approbation of the conduct of the French president, he was. far from
entertaining any opinion unfavourable to him, or hostile to France. His lordship
said, though it was not for the government of this country to act as Austria and
Russia had done in regard to the president, still he had no hesitation in saying,
that, no doubt, he had acted from the best sources of information ; and that he had
done what, from his knowledge of the question, he had thought best for France.
He was here interrupted by a murmur, upon which his lordship repeated his
sentence. He said — " Let me state that over again : that while I do not concur in
the approbation of my noble friend, I have no reason to doubt (and everything I
have heard confirms that opinion) that, in the judgment of the president, the
putting an end to the constitution, the anticipating the election of 1852, and the
.abolition of the parliamentary constitution, were all tending to the happiness, and
essential to the welfare, of France." His lordship continued— " But I have
certainly to state further— because I confess I have seen, with very great regret, the
language which has been used by a portion of the press with respect to the
president of France— I remember something as a boy, and I have read more, of
that which occurred during the peace of Amiens to render that peace of short
duration, and to involve these two great countries in the most bloody hostilities
that ever mangled the face of Europe. I believe that temperate discussion and
negotiation between the two countries might have prevented the calamity of war;
but that the language of the press, at that time, was such that it embittered all
negotiation, and prevented the continuance of peace. Sir, I should deeply regret
were the press of this country, at the present time, to take a similar course. We
48

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [palmerston explains.

have one advantage over that time. The first consul, great as were his abilities,
was totally ignorant of the manners and constitution of this country. The present
president of France has this advantage over his uncle — that he is perfectly aware
of how much liberty we enjoy, how much license of discussion prevails ; and that
the most unmeasured invective of the press does not imply any feeling of hostility,
either on the part of the government or on the part of the nation. I am convinced
of this, that there never was a time in which it was more essential that the two
countries should preserve the relations of peace and amity. I am convinced that
there never was a time when the peace of Europe would contribute more to the
cause of civilisation and happiness. I am convinced, likewise, from every source
of information I have had, that the ruler of France (the present president of
France) is desirous of keeping on those terms of amity ; and it shall not be any
fault of ours — it shall not be any fault of the government of this country — if these
terms of peace and amity are not continued."
His lordship added, it was not for the minister of England rashly to pro
nounce on changes in other countries. " But," said his lordship, " while we do not
interfere with their domestic concerns — while we abstain from any intemperate
judgment on their internal affairs, yet there is one result which comes home to us,
and imposes on us a duty from which we cannot flinch. All these various govern
ments of foreign states, as each gets uppermost, send their enemies and opponents
out of the country; and the consequence is, we have many seeking refuge in
England. In giving them hospitality, we are but pursuing the ancient and known
policy of this country ; we are but doing that which was celebrated two centuries
ago, when Waller said —
" ' Whether this portion of the world be rent
By the rude ocean from the continent,
Or thus created, it was sure designed
To be the sacred, refuge of mankind.'
"I trust that we shall never see this toast falsified: that whilst we disapprove
of any attempts made, in this country, to change the established governments of
other countries, so long as exiles from them conduct themselves peaceably, we shall
consider it the honour and distinction of this country to receive, indiscriminately,
all those who are the victims of misfortune."
This lengthy detail of the circumstances which led to Lord Palmerston's
resignation, and of the Premier's foreign policy, appears to have satisfied the
House. Lord Palmerston's attempt at explanation or reply was very short. He
vindicated his late proceedings and general character: claiming to be, while he
remained in power, what Lord John Russell had formerly named him — not the
minister of Austria, or Russia, or Prussia ; but the minister of England. With
respect to the addresses from Finsbury and Islington, his lordship said he had
deemed it right to receive the deputation. He had scarcely thought his answer
would have been made a matter of public importance ; but there was nothing in
that answer which he had not said in that House ; and though he had regretted
expressions in the addresses in question, he did not think that there was anything
in that affair to impair our foreign relations. Adverting to the incidents of the
coup-d'itat, he said that he had, in conversation with the French ambassador,
uttered precisely the sentiments which appeared in the despatch Lord John Russell
had read. But when Lord Normanby applied for instructions, there could be, of
course, but one answer consistent with our national policy. Lord Normanby
thought it necessary to communicate this to the French minister. The latter said,
that, two days before, he received a communication, which he described, however,
in highly-coloured words. Lord John Russell had written for explanations ; and
he (Lord Palmerston) being much pressed by business, delayed his reply until he
could find time to write it. He then did write, and said that his opinion was, that
the antagonism which had arisen between the president and the assembly had
49

the coup-d'etat in paris.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851.
made it impossible both could exist together. He had replied to Lord John
Russell's letter, that there was a distinction between official despatches and non-
official communications ; that he had said nothing to Count Walewski which
could fetter the government ; and that, if a foreign secretary were forbidden to
talk freely to a foreign ambassador, there would be an end to all that easy diplo
matic communication which tended most of all to preserve the peace of nations.
Upon this, Lord John signified that he (Lord Palmerston) ought to resign. He
conceived his own doctrine right, and Lord John Russell's to be wrong. But he
added, that his opinion was expressed on the 3rd of December : and, the same
evening, under the same roof, Lord John Russell expressed his opinion to tbe same
individual. Judging by what had fallen from Lord John Russell that night*
it was probable that his opinion was the same as Lord Palmerston's ; and, on the
following Friday, each of the other ministers seem to have expressed an opinion
upon the very subject which Lord Palmerston was told he must not express an
opinion upon. So every minister, except the only one who had studied foreign
questions, was to be free to pronounce upon them.
And thus Palmerston lost office ; and all the while he was growing in
popularity and power. We must now stop to tell the story of the coup-d'itatf
his recognition of which was such an offence.
"Every thinking person in Paris," writes Captain Gronow, "towards the
close of the year 1851, anticipated, with considerable apprehension,, that, early in
the ensuing spring, a great change must take place in the government of the
country. The constitution which had been proclaimed, with apparent enthusiasm,
in the year 1848, appeared likely to produce anarchy and confusion ; for a new-
president and an assembly had to be elected : and, whatever claims the individual
who had once acted as head of the state, might have upon the country, he was,
according to the constitution, ineligible again to fill that high position. There was
every reason to fear that the red republicans would make a desperate effort to gain
nower, even should the streets of Paris be again deluged with blood; indeed, the
language of some of their adherents boldly proclaimed that liberty could only be
secured by means of the guillotine. In effect, a struggle for power had commenced
between the prince-president and the representatives of the people. The assembly
bad refused to grant to the chief of the state the funds necessary to defray the
expenses attendant upon his position. It manifested distrust of his ministers, and
jealousy of his popularity with the army, of which Changamier had the command ;
and so mean were the devices resorted to to annoy Louis Napoleon, that he was
compelled to wear, at reviews, the uniform of a general of the national guard. A
Z^?? * wa? beinS organised against his re-election; and there is no
™ JS, tPf l t^1^ WES menaCed b? his 0PPonents; and that, had the
Tllttf Th I /laC6' ^^ W0UW have terminated in the fortress of
X£n ™; J Cand}dature °f the ^ce ^ Joinville for the presidency of 1852,
Sfl fl !7 PT, V* F^C!'1eV'n am°^ the Liberal P^ty, and seemed
WuateS C^TrTk dlSqUleted the Bonapartists; and the evident and insolent
thegtime for arH™ rrga'Me/ aTred L°UiS NaP°leon to the conviction that
the time for action had arrived. It was the general opinion that a crisis was
hXslrtrheStf onlythe rsfent had the ^^ctrig:7/z
nimseii at the head of the movement, and act decisively
by th7inL?ferelTof f^f^f7 \°Y to j*6 ^ already deeP^ ^gusted'
Sneered advent o* a hoM lif It £°dy' Td prePared to ^ with delight the-
expected advent oi a bold leader. At the end of November, the nrincinal militarv
authorities met at the house of General Magnan, and unanimouSyPieSo^vetto
co-operate m any measures necessary to secure tbJ tranquillity of Paris and the
establishment of a firm and resolute government The whnll „ , A • ' 1 ¦ t
in the vicinity of the metropolis, waS 1^ *J%Z^%'£%^£
although its precise nature was not understood vpt +hQ™ ™ \T7 • ,•' .

A.D. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the conspiracy.
consequences. Relying on the support that he was thus to, receive, the prince-
president announced to some of his faithful followers that the time had at length
arrived when it was necessary, for the welfare of the country and his own preserva
tion, that he should grasp the sovereign power. Upon those friends Louis
Napoleon knew he could rely. He has always had attached adherents, who have
devoutly followed his fortunes on desperate occasions, and have never failed him in
adversity. Such fidelity and devotion, while it reflects honour on them, also indi
cates rare qualities in the prince, who exercises so powerful an influence over his
adherents. His winning, unaffected manners; his calm self-possession; the
deliberation and coolness of his judgment ; and ^is firm conviction of his ultimate
success, which have borne Louis Napoleon through difficulties apparently insur
mountable, have never failed to impress all who have been admitted to his intimacy.
He has also obtained the well-merited reputation of never having alienated or
forgotten a friend,"
The friend who was of most service on this occasion was M. de Morny. He
entered into the plan proposed with a full conviction that he was acting the part of
a good citizen and an attached friend, and zealously devoted himself to the cause
of the prince ; indeed, much of its success must be attributed to his admirable
arrangements. Throughout he exhibited a calm and indomitable spirit. He was
at the Opera Comique on the very night when the storm, was to burst forth ; but
nothing in his appearance or manner indicated that he was harbouring any ulterior
designs. It is said, being seated near a lady of high rank, she asked him if the
rumour in circulation was true, that it was intended to sweep out the legislative
assembly. His prompt reply was — " I trust I shall be near the handle of the broom
that is to produce this effect." His tact,, his temper, and his moderation may be
judged of by the telegraphic despatches which passed, during the tumult of the
day, between himself and the Minister of Police. The celebrated Dr. Verron occupied
himself for some time in copying these messages as they were transmitted ; and the
experienced editor of the Constitutionnel has enabled the public to judge how
rapidly M. de Morny entered into the ideas of the Minister of Police, and how
cautiously, yet how vigorously, he answered the hurried and somewhat imprudent
communications that he received. Nor must we omit here General (then Major)
Fleury,, a gallant officer, who had greatly di3tinguished himself in Africa, upon
whose remarkable abilities the prince had the strongest reliance. Then there was
M. de Maupas, who had, in the exercise of his authority as prefet at Bordeaux,
shown qualifications which entitled him to be entrusted with the important office
of Minister of Police. Two distinguished men, of high rank in the army, repre
sented the military element. General (afterwards. Marshal) St. Arnaud accepted
the onerous position ; and General (now Marshal) Magnan was appointed to the
command of the army at Paris. Such were the conspirators. Now for the
conspiracy. • "On the evening of the 1st of December, a gay and fashionable assembly was
held at the palace of the Elysee. The prince, was present, and was affable as
usual. At eleven o'clock the party broke up, and the visitors departed. Then
the prince, with his faithful friend and secretary, M. Mocquard, the Count
de Morny, M. de Maupas, and General St. Arnaud„ entered the private cabinet of
the president, to arrange definitely the course of proceeding on the morrow. It
was at this meeting that the final orders were issued to the various functionaries, by
whom the plan of operations was to be carried into effect. Everything had been
well and maturely considered; even the minor details had been admirably arranged.
To obtain possession of the government press; to arrest some whose evident
opposition was most to be dreaded;, to prevent the meeting of the legislative
body; to distribute the different regiments in commanding positions ; to name a
new mimstry-^these were objects of vital importance;, and each felt that tbe
failure of one might endanger the success- of the rest. Each member of the council
felt that on his efficiency rested the lives and. fortunes of his associates, and the
51

the areests.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851.

complete, success of the movement; and each did his best accordingly." Then, as
usual, Louis Napoleon was well served. _ __ . •
" Louis Napoleon's first step was to sign the dismissal of the existing ministry ; •
the appointment of the new ministers to their respective offices ; and to prepare
those energetic proclamations which were read by the astonished Parisians next
morning. An active and intelligent officer (Colonel Beville) had been selected to
carry to the printing-office the decrees that were to be disseminated. These con
sisted of appeals to the people ; orders to the army ; and the proclamation of the
prifet of police. He took them to the national printing-office, where he found
that a hundred of the garde municypale had, with prudent foresight, been installed,
with orders to obey his commands. The director, of course, complied with the
injunctions of the prefet of police ; and the printers were kept at work during
the night, under strict surveillance ; and, in the morning, Paris was placarded with
the president's decrees. As soon as M. de Beville had left the room, M. de Morny,
M. Maupas, and General St. Arnaud, separated to their several posts, prepared to
act simultaneously ; and, with the energy and boldness essential to success, the
prince retired to rest, and gave orders that he should be called at five o'clock.
He betrayed not the slightest emotion ; and nothing transpired that could give the
household the most remote intimation of what was about to occur." Indeed,
says Captain Gronow, " it is a well-known fact, that the domestics were as much
surprised the following morning, at learning that a revolution had taken place in
Paris, as any other inhabitants of the city ; for some of them actually sallied out
to inquire of the servants of the English embassy, whether there was any truth in
the reports that had reached them from without." We are aware Mr. Kinglake
has given quite a different account of what occurred on the eve of the coup-d'etat ;
but his eloquent page is too often marred by a personal prejudice, which should
find no place in history.
In the difficult matter of the arrests, the conspirators found unexpected
success. The Minister of Police, M. de Maupas, instantly summoned all the
commissioners of the different arrondissements into his cabinet, and signed orders
for the arrest of the leading members of the legislative assembly, which were to be
carried into effect before the break of day. Strange to say, there was not a word
of inquiry, not a sign of hesitation. These functionaries recognised at once the
authority under which they were called upon to act, and performed their duties
with marvellous promptitude, and with unavailing efficiency. The prisons of
Paris received the men who, the day before, were the legislators and governors
of France. It is said that General Changarnier was very nearly being made acquainted
with_ impending events. A young officer, whose regiment was stationed at Cour-
bevoie, had come to Paris for the night. He was awoke by his servant, who told
him that his presence was required immediately, as his regiment had been suddenly
called out. The officer, surprised at the intelligence, and thinking that he ought
to acquaint General Changarnier .with the unusual order, went to the general's
hotel ; but finding that the porter was slow in opening the door, he abandoned
his intention, and went to his quarters, whence he was obliged to accompany his
regiment on the following day, to overthrow the authority of General Changarnier
and his friends. It seems little delicacy was shown in arresting the most dis
tinguished men of the day. M. de Morny, after playing at "whist" at the
Jockey Club, with Colonel Feray and Count Daru, went to the hotel ofthe Minister
of _ the Interior at five in the morning, and found the actual possessor of the office
enjoying a peaceful slumber, from which he was speedily awakened to find himself
superseded. The Chamber of Deputies was dissolved. Some of the members in
yam attempted to assemble and form a house; but they were removed, and
imprisoned for the day in the barracks on the Quai d'Orsay ; while others were
distributed among the neighbouring forts. Never was more energy displayed
than on this occasion, and, apparently, under the sanction of law; for the
52

A.D. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the cotjp-d'etat.
ministers had their instructions direct from the president of the republic, who,
as the executive power, was invested with the authority of arrest and imprison
ment. All the different employ is of government, therefore, whether civil or
military, carried out the commands they received without a moment's hesitation,
coming, as they did, from the quarter which they were accustomed to regard as
being responsible for what they did. In short, everything worked well ; and the
government was soon completely in the hands of those who had so adroitly
planned, and boldly carried out, the coup-d'etat. The only fear now was of the
red republicans, whom, it was known, would be aroused, and be prepared to
carry out their aims, no matter at what reckless expenditure of human life.
" Upon the 2nd of December," Captain Gronow writes, " totally unconscious
of what was going forward, I left my house, and was somewhat surprised to witness
great agitation among the people in the streets, who, for the most part, seemed
anxious to return to their homes. I saw various groups reading placards of a
large size, upon the walls of every street, that had evidently been posted up by
order of government, as they were printed on white paper : for, since the
revolution of 1848, all private announcements have, by order of the police, been
printed upon coloured paper. Knowing that, at the mayoralty of my arrondisse
ment, every authentic document would appear on the facade, I hastened thither.
Besides, I was anxious to know what was said by the street politicians, who are in
the habit of daily visiting the public office, outside which the Moniteur is daily
affixed. I found two proclamations attracting the eager attention of the readers ;
one was a plebiscite, countersigned ' De Morny,' decreeing that votes should be
taken at the different mayoralties, for or against the maintenance of the power of
Louis Napoleon : the other emanated from the prifet du police, demanding the
maintenance of order, and recommending people to remain at home. Little was
said by the readers; but in the group I espied a well-known figaro of the
neighbourhood, who, whilst shaving his customers, usually launched out into
politics. He was a staunch Bonapartist ; for his father, a soldier, had been raised
to the rank of sergeant, in consequence of a brave but ineffectual attempt to rescue
Prince Poniatowski from a watery grave, at the battle of Leipsic. I determined
to submit my chin to the operation of this worthy during the afternoon, feeling
sure that I should hear information from him as to what was the general feeling of
his customers. In the meantime I strolled into the Faubourg St. Honore, where
a squadron of the 12th regiment of dragoons was stationed before the British
embassy ; another being drawn up in front of the palace of the Elysee ; whilst
there was a third doing duty at the garden gate. A few individuals stood gazing
on the unusual military display; but not a word was uttered, and they soon
passed on. Now and then a carriage drove up to the gate, and, after a scrutiny
from the porter, was admitted or rolled away. So far as I could learn, no
demonstration of any kind was made that day at the fashionable end of the
town ; but it was said that the republicans were to have, at ten at night, meetings,
to take into consideration the incidents of the day; and that, in the Faubourg St.
Antoine, the Barriere du Trone, and the Faubourg du Temple, cries had been
heard of ' Vive la Ripublique Sociale !' and ' A bas le Pritendant !'
" After reconnoitring the principal streets, and seeing nothing remarkable
beyond the anxiety and curiosity written upon the faces of most persons, and
witnessing what is not unusual in the streets of Paris — the marching of several
regiments, evidently in high glee — I adjourned to the barber's, and seated myself in
his chair. He was in a state of great excitement, and expatiating on the many
virtues of Prince Louis Napoleon ; with which he 'had become acquainted from
having, on two occasions, dressed the hair of the chambermaid, whose duty it was
to lay the fire over-night in the cabinet of the president, which he himself
generally lighted at an early hour in the morning. The excellent soubrette could
never speak in sufficiently high terms of the gentleness and amiable temper of her
master ; and the worthy barber had caught the infection, deriving his information 53

feeling in paris.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.LVL85L

from her as to the prince's domestic virtues ; and, inheriting his father s admiration
of th'e great Napoleon, he launched out in no measured terms against all who
opposed the re-election of the president, though his animosity to the republicans
was somewhat restrained by the presence of two doubtful-looking statesmen in.
blouses, who now and then interrupted him by expressing their faith in General
Changarnier. My eloquent friend soon resumed his discourse, anathematising
M. Thiers, as having obliged King Louis Philippe to resign, that he himself might
become prime minister to the Duchess of Orleans ; and hurling strong language
against M. Emile Girardin, for abetting Prince Louis Napoleon, the cousin of Prince
Louis, in his views of succeeding to the presidentship. He had heard some cries in
the streets of 'Vive le Empereur!' from the military, and they had quite
delighted him. Some of the surrounding persons, waiting to have their beards
trimmed, differed from the knight of the brush : doubts were expressed of the
talents of the prince-president; and there was evidently a republican tendency
springing up. But the announcement that the prince, attended by a numerous
staff, was passing by, put a stop to the conversation ; away every one rushed to see
the passing show; and, upon their return, there was a universal opinion expressed
that the prince-president looked like a noble soldier, and every inch a king. His
gallant bearing had evidently produced a strong impression upon the spectators,
the majority of whom, from that moment, were evidently in favour of the change
that had taken place."
Indeed, all this time, in contradiction to the story told by those Who ought to
have known better, the prince was easy of access. Those who were received at the
Elysee found him calm, collected, and urbane as usual ; and as notes and messages
were placed in his hands, he received them with coolness, and quietly read their
contents ; but never, by his countenance, his gestures, or his words, would the effect
or import of these communications be inferred. He addressed all with his
customary affability and kindness, and conversed upon various topics." Upon these
eventful days the prince maintained his usual equanimity, and was not more grave
and silent than usual, nor for an instant did he flinch from possible danger. To
M. de Persigny had been entrusted the task of effecting an honourable retreat in
case of an adverse turn of circumstances. His duty it would have been, had the
day gone against the conspirators, to have collected the household, and to have
conducted the prince, with all the troops that were faithful, to the palace of the
Tuileries, where the active leaders were determined to make a last stand, and suc
ceed or perish in the attempt. This was the only alternative proposed. No pre
parations had been made for flight; no horses and carriages kept ready; no money
had been sent to foreign countries ; and nothing had been packed up to carry
off at a moment's notice.
In the streets of Paris, the prince-president, attended by a numerous staff,
accompanied by ex-King Jerome and by Count Flahault, was remarkably well
received. Shouts of ' Vive le Prince!' were heard from every regiment as he
cantered along the Champs Elysees. He returned at an early hour to the Elysee,
where M. de Persigny received him with the intelligence that all steps hitherto
taken were successful, and that the military were fully prepared to obey the Orders
of their superiors. Indeed, so obedient were the sentries to the commands which
had been given, that when the . president, preparing to leave the garden of the
palace, presented himself at the gate, the advanced guard of the 12th regiment,
then on duty, would not allow him to pass without giving the countersign. The
orderly officers, and the aides-de-camp, gave proof of their courage, zeal, and
devotion. At one moment false reports were rife that some of the regiments
exhibited an unwillingness to act. General Rollin was summoned, to express his
opinion, and explain the state of affairs. He found the prince firm and resolved,
and quite ready to take upon himself any personal responsibility for any steps that
might be necessary.
Paris, of course, while these things were being done, was in a state of great

A.D. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the coup-d'etat.
alarm and anxiety. The arrest of so many distinguished political personages
filled every one with apprehension. In the cafis a profound silence was observed ;
all communications of man to man seemed suddenly to have ceased, and anxiety was
depicted on every countenance. The salons of the gay world were necessarily
closed, as few dared to venture forth in the evening, no one knowing the extent of
danger that might be incurred. Were there to be Roman proscriptions ? Was
the guillotine to be erected once more in the Place de la Concorde ? Lists of the
prisoners (which, of course, abounded with errors) were eagerly circulated, and
surmises were made as to their probable fate. These alarms were perfectly
natural, for the real disposition of the prince was, of course, unknown : yet his
conduct was of the most conciliatory kind. Indeed, as soon as quietness was
re-established, and the influence of the members of the assembly could no longer be
of annoyance, every one was liberated, and not a person was in any way interfered
with who was willing to submit to the new state of things. Some who menaced
the newly-established government were necessarily exiled for a short period, to
prevent their entering upon schemes which could only be injurious to society and
themselves. But, as soon as possible, a complete amnesty was offered ; and those
who announced their intention to remain quiet, were at once allowed to return to
their homes. Those who were taken with arms in their hands, and . had pro-
-claimed the republic, were handed over for trial to the established tribunals ; and
only those were removed from the country whose characters as disturbers of
society had been previously acknowledged. The times demanded sharp measures
and prompt action. Democracy, socialism, red republicanism, were to be
¦combated ; and success attended the grand attempt. Property and intelligence
have been rendered secure; the boldness and energy of one man have crushed
dangers to society which were seen to be fast approaching, and which, if not
arrested, would have produced anarchy and confusion, and destroyed the peace and
prosperity of the nation.
For the legislative assembly little regret was felt. It had never gained or
-deserved the confidence of the people. Its aim appeared to be to return to the
legislation of MM. Mole, Guizot, and Thiers ; and its ingratitude to Lamartine
was patent to all the world. There were cabals against General Cavaignac;
Armand Marrast was unable to control the debates; and the assembly was too
often the scene of virulent dispute and indecent insolence. When Victor Hugo
attempted to speak he was invariably greeted with bursts of laughter : the taunts
and marks of ridicule lashed the orator into a fury ; and the more furious his
speech and gestures, the more furious the laughter. There had been so many
changes in the ministry, that people hardly knew who filled the respective offices.
Leon Faucher was almost the only one who enjoyed public confidence; and even he
Was regarded by a large party with suspicion, for they beheld in him only a
warming-pan for the advent to office of M. Thiers, who was supposed to be ready
to take advantage of any change, and offer himself as candidate for the presidency
of the republic. Rumours were widely circulated that a coup-d'etat was preparing
•on the part of the assembly ; and many of its acts seemed to support such an idea.
The protests and appeals to the country, made by some few members on the
morning of the 2nd of December, were received with apathy, and elicited no
exhibition of feeling on their behalf; for when, at the mairie, arrests took place,
no rescue was dreamt of — the spectators gazed on quietly, and were perfectly
indifferent to the consequences.
However, there was an armed resistance. Slight barricades were formed in
some ofthe streets; but the people took little interest in these manifestations on
the first day. On the 3rd of December greater resistance was offered. Evidently
M. de Maupas received exaggerated reports from his employis, which he somewhat
hastily communicated to the Minister of the Interior ; and these, unfortunately, led
to the decisive and energetic course taken on the 4th of December. M. de Maupas,
unaccustomed to the amplifications of the police agents, was alarmed by false
55

massacre in the streets.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1851,

reports. He actually communicated a telegram, announcing that the Prince de
Joinville had disembarked at Cherbourg ; and that other princes of the House of
Orleans had arrived at different parts of France. He also believed that the same
opponents were in the field as those who had fought against Cavaignac, and that
they were fighting at the barricades with determination ; that Ledru Roilin, and
a whole army ofred republicans, had reached Paris from Rouen: in short, upon
reading carefully the telegraphic despatches, the only conclusion that can be
arrived at is, that the fears of M. de Maupas, and not the orders issued from the
Elysee, were the principal cause of the fatal 4th of December. Even at the end of
the fatal day, when everybody was regretting what had occurred, the frightened
Minister of Police begs that the troops should guard him ; that they should not be
allowed to enter their barracks ; and at half-past five on that 4th of December, he
announces new barricades, and states that fresh insurgents are coming up by
the railroad. It is impossible to read the bulletins which passed on this occasion,
without arriving at the conclusion that M. de Morny, in obedience to the wishes
of the prince-president, acted with forbearance and lenity ; that had he listened
to the fears of the Minister of Police, the occurrences would have been of a much
more fearful character. Even when this zealous chief of an active department
pointed out to M. de Morny where Victor Hugo was concealed, and wished to
make an examination of the house, the answer was, "Ne faites rien." Captain
Gronow admits that the 4th of December was a melancholy day for France ; but
he argues that it is neither just nor honest to attribute the lamentable events
which then occurred to cold-heartedness on the part of Louis Napoleon. He
says — " No man more deeply deplored them ; and, where the opportunity offered,
he gave what indemnity he could to the families of those who suffered. There are
young persons who lost their parents on that day, who have been educated at his
expense, the cost being defrayed out of his private purse ; and. I know, myself, one
instance in which the children have had a regular quarterly stipend paid to them
from their infancy, and which is continued to this day."
Well might Louis Napoleon regret the terrible events of the day. An
English officer, from a window of the Boulevard Montmatre, was a personal
witness of the scene that took place in the street beneath him, where many persons
fell victims to the fire of the soldiery. He declares, that the infantry, quartered
in subdivisions, suddenly fired, not only upon the men, women, and children upon
the footpath, but at the windows above them, and with sad results: volley
succeeded to volley ; and it was evident that a panic had taken possession of the
minds of the soldiery. Their officers had given no commands; for they were
quietly smoking their cigars when the firing began.
In extenuation of this atrocity, it is said that the windows of the houses had,
on former occasions, been filled by insurgents, who fired upon the troops, when the
soldiers suffered so severely as to be under the necessity of watching for concealed
foes ; and had been obliged to rush into a house, with the hope of dragging forth
their enemies. In 1848, in the Rue Castiglione, two soldiers were killed by shots
from the third storey of a house, whilst a lady was quietly standing on the balcony
above. The soldiery, too, remembered that, in the days of Louis Philippe, from a
window of a house upon one of the boulevards, a deadly volley was discharged, by
which many military were killed; among them Marshal Mortier, as brave a soldier
as ever drew a sword for his country. It is confessed that a great deal of
irritation existed among the military, from the recollection of what had occurred
during the revolution in 1848, when they were most shamefully treated. They
recollected the carnage, and the burning alive of the brave men in the guard-house
before the Palais Royal. They bore in mind the treachery which some of their
comrades experienced in the Champs Elysees; and there existed amongst them a
strong feeling against the Parisians in general ; and thus they hastened to
baptize, m blood and shame, the second empire. Truly the excuse is a very
sorry one. 56

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [capt. gronow's statement.
Captain Gronow shall tell us what he saw. " I happened," he writes, " on
that day to pay a visit, in company with my friend Mr. Paget, of the' British
embassy, to my banker, in the Rue Basse du Rampart. M. Charles Lafitte then
gave us to understand that orders had been given to the military to act with great
moderation; but if tiiere existed the slightest disposition to riot, they were to
take the bull by the horns, and to destroy all barricades with cannon. During
our short interview the bugles were heard close at hand ; the windows were opened,
and we took up a position on the balcony, whence we saw marching, in good
military order, and at double-quick time, the chasseurs of Vincennes. M. Lafitte,
without anticipating what was about to occur, said good-naturedly, ' If you wish to
see the fun you had better follow the troops; for I am confident, from the
information I have this moment received, that they are bent on mischief.'
" Mr. Paget and I then bent our steps towards the Rue Richelieu, where the
rattling of musketry was distinctly heard. My friend left for the British embassy ;
saying that, as a diplomatist, his place was in the Faubourg St. Honore, and not
upon the boulevards. Immediately afterwards, a brigade of Lancers, commanded
by Colonels Feray and Rochefort, arrived opposite the spot where I had placed
myself, at the angle of the Rue Grange Bataliere and the boulevards. A consider
able crowd had there collected ; and such was their hostile attitude, and so loud
their . vociferations, that I was convinced the Lancers would not long remain
inactive, especially if the slightest insult were offered them. From among these
persons thus collected came a pistol-ball with a loud detonation, and a soldier was
wounded. Colonel Rochefort immediately charged at the head of his regiment.
The consequence was, that several of the crowd were severely wounded, and a bad
feeling sprang up amongst the soldiery. I thought.it prudent to quit this scene,
and return to my home, which I did with considerable difficulty.
" Certainly all that occurred was of a nature to excite uneasiness and alarm j
but that it was seen with frenzied horror by thousands of French men and women,
is an absurd exaggeration. The upper classes of Paris were, no doubt, exceedingly
angry and irritated, because, during every imeute in the metropolis, the boule
vards on the Madeleine side of the Rue Richelieu always continued to be the
resort of the flaneur, and had escaped the slaughter consequent on the erection of
barricades ; and they went there attracted by the pomp and circumstance of war,
and thought themselves safe; for they looked upon the soldiers as their national
defenders against insurgents, and they were maddened at the idea of the slaughter
of unarmed slaughterers, who had gone out, as it were, under the shield of the
military to see what was going forward."
It is to be believed that things were not so bad as exaggerated by popular
rumour; but in all conscience they were bad enough. The occurrences of that
day undoubtedly struck a terror into the hearts of the people of Paris, which, as
Captain Gronow admits, will never be obliterated ; and they certainly have tended
to affect the popularity of the Emperor Napoleon in the capital, more especially as
his political adversaries have never failed to throw upon him the responsibility of
events over which he had no control. There was no wanton massacre of the
people, as has been asserted; there were sad mistakes ; and people ran into danger,
notwithstanding the warnings that were distributed everywhere; for placards were
upon the walls in every direction, entreating every one to stay at home. There
were insurgents; there were barricades ; there was firing upon the soldiers ; there
was, therefore, a necessity for martial law to be enforced : but the emperor is not
justly chargeable with the wild excesses of the soldiery.
" The Parisians," continues Captain Gronow, " even at the height of their
excitement, did not hold the prince-president responsible for these deplorable
consequences; neither had he the least apprehension of being the object of vindic
tive feelings. So far from entertaining any personal fear, his calm self-possession
was never more prominent than during these eventful days. I will only mention
one corroborative circumstance in proof of this.
vol. ir. f 57

the militia scheme.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.

"On the fourth night after the coup-d'itat, my daughter and myself were
present at a ball, given by the Duchess of Hamilton in honour of the prince-
president, at the Hotel Bristol, Place Vendome. At ten o'clock precisely the
president entered the ball-room, accompanied only by Count Bacciochi, when a
quadrille was formed. The prince appeared perfectly cool and collected. He
conversed with a great many persons ; but more particularly with Lord Cowley,
who had only arrived in Paris that morning to fill his post of British ambassador.
The instant the clock struck twelve, Count Bacciochi said, in a low whisper, that
the prince's carriage was ready, whereupon the Duk© of Hamilton, taking two wax
candles, conducted his imperial guest down-stairs, and handed him into his plain
brougham. On the return of the duke to the ball-room, he observed to several
friends who had collected around him, 'How extraordinary; there were neither
military nor police in the court-yard of the hotel to protect the president in case
of danger.' In fact, the prince returned at midnight, without an escort, to the
Elysee, in a one-horse brougham." So much for the coup-d'itat, the speedy
recognition of which was so hurtful to the feelings of Lord John Russell.
It was not long before Lord Palmerston had his revenge. As usual, Lorn
John Russell was not strong enough for his place. A Reform Bill was introduced
by the Premier. It was, and is, his infallible receipt for securing or reviving
popularity. The outline of the scheme was a reduction of the borough franchise
to £5 rateable value ; and in the counties, a £20 franchise. Lord John further
thought it right to reduce the qualifications derived from copyholds and long
leases, from £10 to £5 ; and to give the county franchise to persons paying 40s. a
year to the assessed taxes. In the case of boroughs having fewer than 500 voters,
it was proposed to add to them the inhabitants of neighbouring places. With
respect to the qualification of members, Lord John introduced a clause repealing
all the acts of Anne, by which qualifications were required. The oaths taken at
the table of the House, it appeared to him, were such as could not consistently be
retained. The bill proposed to alter them, and to omit in one of them the words,
" on the true faith of a Christian." The bill, moreover, provided, that upon the
changing of offices held under the crown, vacation of seat and re-election should
not be required. As regards Ireland and Scotland, some slight alterations were
proposed. Having stated the outline of his plan, his lordship said that he trusted,
when the enlarged franchise was given, that the next step the House would see the
government of the country taking, would be to deal with the great question of the
education of the people. He was convinced that, after a measure of this kind was
carried, it would be the duty of the House to consider the means of adopting a
really national system of education ; and, in doing so, he was sure they would be
conferring upon the country and the people one of the greatest, blessings that
could possibly be conceived. The measure was favourably received by the House ;
but, alas ! before it came to a second reading, Lord Palmerston had triumphed, and
the Russell administration was no more.
It came to pass thus— A call had been made on the government to strengthen
the defences of the country; and, on the 16th of February, Lord John Russell
unfolded the ministerial scheme upon the subject. Its leading features were as
follows :— In 1808 and 1812, the local militia were balloted for in the same manner
as the regular militia, by a long and expensive process; and, when chosen, were
assembled and trained for twenty-eight days in the year. They were balloted
a a11 Persons ^ween eighteen and thirty years of age; and they were com
manded by persons appointed by the lord-lieutenant, having certain qualifications
in respect to property. With regard to the officers, his lordship proposed that
two-thirds should be appointed by the lord-lieutenant; and one field-officer, and
one-third of the captains, by the crown, so that the regiments might have the
benefit of the experience of half-pay officers available for this service, and who
must be of great use m assisting the officers appointed by the lord-lieutenant.
Ihe age at which persons were to be balloted for, was from twenty to twenty-three

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.. [palmebston's amendment..
at first ; and,, in subsequent years, they were to be- only of the age of twenty-one.
Thus his lordship anticipated at once a force of 80,000; and, subsequently, of
30,000. It was further proposed that any man from, twenty to thirty years of age-
might volunteer to serve in the local militia, and that so far as these volunteers
supply the requisite number, the balloting, should not take place. It was likewise
proposed^ that the volunteers- thus placed in the local militia should serve one
year less than th© balloted men. It was proposed that the latter should serve for
four years, but that they might, by order in council, be required to serve six
months, longer ;- and in case of parliament, by an address to the crown, requiring
their services still further, another period of six months might be added — making
twelve months altogether — in times of danger. Mr. Cobden,, of course, strongly
protested against the measure.
Lord Palmerston felt satisfaction at finding ministers, were disposed to
improve the defences of the country ; but that satisfaction did not arise from a
belief that there was greater danger of war than there had been at any former
period. So far back as 1846, he had pressed upon the cabinet a proposal for im
proving the defences of the country. It was easy to object to meddling in quarrels
abaread ; but we had engagements of long standing, and political interests beyond
the limit of our own shores. France was talked of as our only enemy ; but France
was not the only nation with a powerful fleet and army. Our insular position, the
cause of so much of our strength, was also the cause of so much of our weakness.
No one could say upon what part, of our coast invasion might come. He believed
that the navy was now more efficient than ever, and that we had a most valuable
collection of stores ;. but was that a reason for allowing an enemy ta burn these
stores, and cripple the navy ? An invasion was rendered less probable; in propor
tion as we were prepared to meet it. He thought Lord John Russell's plan com
plicated, and considered the regular militia system would have been preferable.
He suggested to government the leaving out the word " loeaL" and to bring in a
bill for amending the Militia Acts, whieh, doubtless, required amendment.
The resolution was carried, and referred to a committee. Their report was
brought up on the 20th, when Lord Palmerston moved an amendment, of which he
had given notice. He considered the improvements in steam navigation rendered
it necessary for the country to be more prepared for the sudden breaking out of
war than formerly. Such an emergency ought to be provided for in time of peace.
The. local militia proposed,, would not, in his judgment, be sufficient. Such a
force could not be rendered available in a, moment ; and if they adopted the plan
of the government,, it might happen that they would have to lock the stable door
after the steed was stolen- The. militia force ought to be movable, and liable to be
sent to any part of the country — even to Scotland and Ireland — to resist invasion.
But, said the noble lord at the head of the government, our militia, though local
in name, will not be local in character. If that were soy why call it local at all ?
Rust,, in addition to the local militia of 200,000 men, provision was to be made for
augmenting the regular army ; and, in case of war, the country would be exposed
to the difficulty of balloting for some 80,000 or 90i,000 men, to form an effective
militia force to assist the army. Now it would be better,, in his opinion, to have
a general militia established in time of peace, which should be rendered so
effectual in order and discipline,, that it could be available almost at a moment's
notice^. A local militia was nothing less; than a regular militia ; and if the House
wished to protect the country against invasion, they should establish a militia force
which should be liable to be called out at any moment, and to serve in any part of
the kingdom where their assistance might be required. All the arguments he had
ever heard urged against a regular militia, were tantamount to saying that English
men were cheats,, Scotchmen cowards*, and Irishmen traitors. He had, however,
not such a low estimate of the character of his countrymen. They would trust no
one to defend the land but themselves; and he therefore hoped the House would
have- no hesitation in adopting his. motion — namely, to insert after the word
F 2 59

LORD DERBY PREMIER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.
"amend," the words "and consolidate;" and to omit the word "local" before the
word " militia." On a division, there appeared for the amendment, 136; against
it, 125. Such a defeat Lord John Russell considered fatal to his administration.
Immediately after the announcement of the numbers, his lordship said he con
sidered the vote of the House tantamount to a refusal, on its part, to the govern
ment to bring in the bill. He could not be responsible for any measure upon
this subject which would contain clauses and provisions other than those which he
should have introduced. He therefore relieved himself from every responsibility
with respect to this resolution. Any other person might undertake to bring in a
bill upon the subject, but he would not. Lord Palmerston expressed surprise that
the noble lord should shrink from the discharge of his public duty, particularly as
he had undertaken to bring in a bill upon this matter, after due and long delibera
tion. It was unworthy of a minister in the noble lord's position to abandon a
measure of this sort because the House of Commons had expressed an opinion
that its principle ought to be of an extended character. Lord John Russell
insisted that he was perfectly justified in the course he had undertaken. The
House had expressed a want of confidence in the government measure, and he had,
therefore, no alternative but to give it up. He should then move that Mr. Bernal
and Lord Palmerston do bring in the bill.
This was an announcement that created great excitement. All this occurred
on a Friday. On the following Monday, the Marquis of Lansdowne, in the House
of Lords, and Lord John Russell in the Commons, declared that ministers had
resigned, and that the Earl of Derby had been sent for. His lordship was not long
in the execution of his task ; and it was soon known that the following appoint
ments had been made :— First Lord of the Treasury, and Prime Minister, the Earl
of Derby; Chancellor of the Exchequer, and leader of the House of Commons,
Mr. Disraeli; Lord Chancellor, Sir Edward Sugden; Lord President, the Earl of
Lonsdale ; Lord Privy Seal, with a seat in the cabinet, the Marquis of Salisbury:
Secretaries of State— Home, Mr. Walpole; Foreign, the Earl of Malmesbury,
Colonial, Sir John Pakington : First Lord of the Admiralty, Duke of Northum
berland; Lords of the Admiralty— Rear-Admiral H. Parker, Rear- Admiral P.
Hornby, Commodore Sir T. Herbert, Captain Milne : President of the Board of
Control, Mr. Herries; Secretary of the Board of Control, Mr. Cummin Bruce;
President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Henley ; Postmaster-general, the Earl of
Hardwicke ; Secretary at War, Mr. Beresford ; Vice-President of the Board of
Trade, Lord Colchester ; Woods and Forests, Lord John Manners; Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster Mr. Christopher; Commander-in-Chief, the Duke of Wel-
HnV M^ter-general of the Ordnance, Lord Hardinge; Attorney-general, Sir
5 Si ^6S1|er'; Solicitor-general, Sir Fitzroy Kelly; Lord-Lieutenant
CbaSo ' f ? ^arl of Eglintoun; Secretary for Ireland, Lord Naas; Lord
SS 0tJ, reland' Cblef, J^tice Blackburne; Attorney-general for Ireland,
MkrJ^ C^^T?** Y™*' Mr> Whit^e; Lords ofthe Treasury-
sTcXr^ S £ ? ' £ HeorJ ^ennox' Mr" Batesoil> Mr- Jol"i Neald; Under-
Lord Depart T t'^^^ J°m@' ForeiSn> Lord Stanley; Colonial,
Stafford eSairt.:. Judge-Ad7ocate, Mr. Bankes; Secretary to the Adm ralty, Mr
Krf the P^T^VV^ Poor"Law Board, Sir John Trollope;
Eoarft £™ R f B°Trd'.^ EmerSOn Tennent; Secretary of the India
cabinet11 V'J^J^S?}** ^^ *° the House the V&V ¦<* the new
vexed ouestiongornrotP,HJn^S l0rdshlp S statement was satisfactory: on,the
Ivery Quarter theC't^' f* announceme*t xnade was quite the reverse. In
every quarter, the opponents of the new government industriously proclaimed

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the new ministry.
that the Earl of Derby was pledged to fight the battle of protection ; but his
strongest supporters, gravely as they might object to the free importation of
foreign corn, had no wish, at that moment, to reopen the question. They pru
dently declined to enter upon a struggle in which they had no chance of success.
The ministry had enormous difficulties to contend with from the first.
Before them was a united opposition, panting for their overthrow. On the 1 1th
of March, a meeting was held at Lord John Russell's house, Chesham Place, which
was largely attended by those who professed Liberal principles. Here his lordship
reviewed the state of parties, and animadverted with severity on the policy of the
Derby administration. It appeared to him that they wished to -gain favour with
the nation for promoting law and other reforms, which they had not heretofore
countenanced; and then, by dissolving parliament, they hoped to impose on the
country their real policy. His lordship recommended the Liberals to oppose this ;
and, for the present, to stand firm on the free-trade question. His lordship men
tioned, that he had consulted Sir James Graham and Mr. Cobden, and they
thought it would be desirable that the Chancellor of the Exchequer should be
called on, early in the ensuing week, to explain the principle on which he was
disposed to act ; and this, it was probable, would lead to a free-trade debate. Lord
John Russell intimated, that, for the present, it would be well to postpone the
Reform Bill ; and expressed his belief that a Liberal government might speedily
be constructed on broad constitutional principles. The views of his lordship were
generally acquiesced in ; and it was determined that all the strength of the party
should be directed against the opponents of free trade.
Accordingly questions were asked in the Lords by Lord Beaumont, and in the
House of Commons by Mr. Villiers. In his speech, the latter gentleman said, the
government ought to be prepared to inform the country in what manner they pro
posed to carry out the policy with which they were identified. Mr. Villiers having
read a portion of a speech delivered by Lord Derby the previous year, in which the
latter used, in reference to the free-trade party, the words " Up guards, and at
them," demanded in what way the onslaught thus promised to the protectionists
was to be made. He did not believe that the nation would part with the
invaluable principles it had acquired within the last few years; but, at all events,
it should not do so without warning. Upon these grounds, he called upon the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to come forward, and make a manly and candid
declaration of the intentions of government as regarded a future protection policy.
Mr. Disraeli said, what he asked, was not fair play for the government, but fair
play for the country. As inquiry had been made respecting the principles of the
government, he begged to ask upon what principles the opposition was carried on.
Information on this point was desirable, as Lord John Russell, within a fortnight,
having declared that a dissolution was inexpedient, and advised the queen to send
for Lord Derby, had formed a new opposition, with the view of forcing Lord Derby
to do what he (Lord John Russell) had declared to be inexpedient. He proceeded
to say that the government believed that injustice had been done the agricultural
interest, which they would seek to remedy; but they were not pledged to any
particular measure. He would not, for the sake of avoiding any blustering in the
country, state that he would advocate a five-shilling duty, nor would he promise to
impose any fixed duty at all. What he intended to do, was to redress the just
grievances of the agricultural interests. To this speech, Lord John Russell repUed,
that he thought he had clearly stated the reasons which induced him to resign.
But he would re-state them. Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli had asserted that they
took office only that her majesty might not be without a government. The fact
was, that, for years, that party had been unscrupulously endeavouring to overturn
the late government. They had a notice of motion on the books, which, if
carried, would amount to a vote of want of confidence ; and yet they pretended
that they had been called to office for no other reason than because they were the
recognised opposition. He had actually felt that, under the recent system adopted
61

ALDERMAN SALOMANS.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.
by them, he should be worried out, if he were not driven out, of office. Their
false pretence, moreover, was quite unnecessary ; for, as a party, they were fully
entitled to claim the position they occupied ; and Mr. Disraeli's talents gave him a
right to the leadership he had attained. But if he (Lord John Russell) had felt it
improper for him to hold office with an uncertain majority, he considered it most
unconstitutional for the present government to hold it with a decided minority.
The opposition renewed their attacks, and were especially angry that government
did not immediately dissolve. Mr. Bernal Osborne blamed the late minister for
surrendering the reins of government ; and, still more, for advising her majesty to
send for the Earl of Derby. To him, it appeared, that ministers were going to
bamboozle the public with, the -game of thimble-rigging, at which Lord Derby
would preside at the table with his pea ; whilst the country gentleman, his smock-
frock friend, stood by as his adviser. The noble earl wanted to ride a waiting- race ;
but he hoped the country would make ministers show their mettle at once. Mr.
Cobden thought the country might as well be governed by a dictatorship, as to have
a minority of that House overrule a majority; and he called on that majority to
give such a vote as would compel a prompt and decisive appeal to the country.
The supporters of ministers denied the right of the opposition to dictate a period
at which a dissolution should take place. Again Lord John Russell declared
ministers were acting injudiciously and unconstitutionally. All he wanted was,
that the government should propose some decisive policy, mpon which the sense of
the country might be taken at a general election. It was his impression that the
country would not again tolerate a corn-law ; that the people would never consent
to any plan for taxing the poor man's food; nor would they long tolerate a tax
upon tea or soap ; for the time was approaching when ministers would be called
upon to extend the -system of direct taxation.
Meanwhile ministers pursued the even tenor of their way. The time had
come to legislate on Indian affairs, and Mr. Herries moved for a select committee
on the subject. The changes in 1833, in abating the exclusive rights and privi
leges of the East India Company, had produced very satisfactory results, slot
merely as regards the revenue, but in contributing to the well-being of the people.
In the Court of Exchequer, the case of Mn Alderman Salomans was disposed
of. The alderman was a Jew. He had been returned to parliament for Greenwich ;
but he was prevented taking his seat by an oath which required him to -swear on the
true faith of a Christian. The proceedings took the shape of an action, to recover
penalties alleged to be forfeited by the defendant, by reason of his having voted
m the House of Commons without having taken the oath of abjuration. Judg
ment was for the plaintiff. It appeared that the defendant, by trying the question,
had rendered himself liable to very serious consequences. A member voting with
out having previously taken the oath required, besides incurring a fine of £500 for
every vote so given, was disqualified from maintaining an action at common law,
ora suit m equity Any property belonging to him, in the possession of another,
might be withheld from him; and any property in his own possession might be
taken from him with impunity. No court of law— no influence of governmenf>-
nothmg but the intervention of parliament, could give him redress. Moreover, a
person in his position could not act as guardian to an infant, however important it
Z\fJ!\m E mA f PhJ8i<»l P<>in* of view, that the infant should enjoy his
care, attention, and protection. He eould not receive a legacy from any deceased
friend or from any other person; he could not receive 1 deed of Jft of any
oZn ^nitr15 ** ?"*? ^ ^er the executor or administrator of any
person, and he was rendered incapable of holding any office or e-ivinP- a vote at
K eCto°tbeJBdthe ^T6/ L°rd5 L°rd 1^^ caC^S^td^^?t£
House to these disqualifications. He complained of them as excessivelv severe
and -obtained leave to bring in a bill for their repeal excessively severe,
wAtpffitl ^h nati0D?! defTC6S Came ^ fOT consideration. Mr.
Walpole,™ the 29th of March, moved for a bill to amend and consolidate the laws

a.d. 1852.] VrSCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the French empire.

respecting tbe militia. The plan of the government was, to raise 40,000 men in
the first year, and 30,000 in the second. Bounties were to be offered of three or
four pounds. There was to be twenty- one days' training, which the crown might
reduce to three days, or extend to seven weeks. The expense was estimated at
£240,000 ; but, in the first year, equipment and clothing would make it £400,000.
The measure was opposed by Lord John Russell, and defended by Lord Palmerston,
who considered that the defences of the country ought to be strengthened. That
was rendered necessary by the altered circumstances of the times. He supported
the billy considering that 80,000 men, partially trained and equipped, that could be
called out in ten days, would be a more valuable addition to the military power of
the country, thanan addition of 8,000 men to the army. After two nights' debate,
the second reading was carried by 315 to 165. Still the opposition was fierce and
determined. It was not till June the 7th that it passed the Commons. In the
Lords it was supported by the Duke of Wellington, who spoke on it almost for the
last time in public.
The new Chancellor of the Exchequer was also successful with his budget;
in reality it was that of the late government. There had not been time for
Mr. Disraeli to make official inquiries, which were necessary in order to enable him
to praduoe -a financial scheme of his own ; and he was therefore compelled, for
the present, not to deviate widely from the tracks marked out by his predecessor.
Mr. Disraeli stated, that the total estimate for the year would be £51,163,979.
He added, that the ministry deemed it right to denounce, as most pernicious to all
classes of the country, a systematic reduction of indirect taxation, while, at the
same time, the House levied the direct taxation upon a very limited class. The
government would not have shrunk from undertaking the laborious duty of
examining the whole financial system accordingly ; but he asked the House whether
it was possible for them now to undertake a duty which demanded so much labour,
and research, and time, which he was sure no member of the government had yet
been able to command? It would have been more agreeable to him to have
relieved the industry of the country, and to have adjusted the taxation fairly, upon
right and equitable principles ; but that was not now in his power. He trusted
that the House would give him every facility for carrying into a law a measure
for continuing, for the limited period of one year, the present property and
income-tax. A new dispute occurred this year with the United States. The North
American colonies of England complained that their fishing-grounds were in
juriously .trespassed upon by American citizens. Sir John Pakington, the English
Colonial Secretary, replied to the parties aggrieved, that ministers were desirous of
removing all grounds of complaint on the part of colonists, in consequence of the
encroachments of the fishing-vessels of the United States upon waters from which
they had been excluded by the convention of IS 18 ; and, he added, it was intended,
as soon as possible, to despatch a small naval force of steamers, or other vessels, to
enforce the observance of that convention. In America, stimulated by the Irish
party, and by the eloquence of Daniel Webster, a very angry feeling was aroused
and sustained. Just at this time, also, Thomas Meagher, who had forfeited his
word of honour and escaped from exile, arrived at New York, where he was received
Avith great honours, as the intrepid champion of freedom- Addresses and dinners
were heaped upon him, as if he had been an illustrious sufferer, and a personage of
some importance. His entertainers, however, were not the true American people,
but, for the most part, the citizens imported from Ireland. He acknowledged
their kindness by copious abuse of England and the she-tyrant, as he called Queen
Victoria, to whose clemency he owed his life.
In France there were great changes. The hero of the coup-d'itat was
preparing his way for the restoration of the empire. With this view, he lost no
time in preparing a new constitution. A senate and, a legislative body were
appointed : the number of the former was not to exceed 150 ; and the first year it
63

death of Wellington.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.

was limited to eighty. The senators were appointed for life ; their functions were
gratuitous. They were to be cardinals, admirals, and marshals, and citizens whom
the president, might think it proper to raise to the dignity of senators. The
president might reward a senator with a dotation not exceeding 30,000 francs per
annum. The legislative body, taking population- for its basis, was to comprehend
one deputy for every 35,000 electors : they were to have no salaries ; and we're to
retain the distinction during six years. The government of France was, by this
instrument, placed in the hands of Louis Napoleon, who, by his legislative talent,
by his marriage with the beautiful empress, and by the birth of his son, has done
much to secure and perpetuate imperial power.
In the autumn of this year, England was saddened by learning that her
illustrious hero was no more : on the 14th of September his death was announced.
Notwithstanding his great age, the state of his health, up to the morning of his
decease, had not been such as to give warning of the result ; and none of those
around him entertained any apprehension of the change that was fast approaching.
On the previous day, the duke rose, to all appearance, in his usual good health ;
and, after dining heartily, he retired to rest, apparently quite well. The next
morning his grace felt unwell, and the medical man was sent for, who found him
suffering, apparently, from indigestion. The fatal attack commenced soon after, and
by three in the afternoon he was dead. His grace had reached the advanced age of
eighty-three, having been born in 1769 — the same year which witnessed the birth
of William Pitt and Napoleon Bonaparte.
Parliament met in November ; and the first thing done was to express, in fitting
phrases, the sense the nation entertained of its loss. The Marquis of Lansdowne,
in the House of Lords, on the occasion of the address on the queen's speech being
voted, was the first to refer to the mournful theme. He said — " I stand in some
what of a peculiar situation before your lordships, addressing you on this subject,
because it may not be known to the greater number of your lordships — indeed,
there are not now many alive to recollect it — that the individual who has now the
honour to address you, some forty-seven years ago, in his place in the other House
of parliament, when young in his parliamentary life, was permitted and authorised,
by his colleagues of that time, to call on that other House to do justice to the
memory, and to provide for the family, of one of the greatest heroes that ever lived,
and with whom alone (in the military annals of the country), the noble duke, now
no more, could be compared. It was, my lords, in the year 1807, at a time of
great difficulty, and a great crisis in the military affairs of the country, that the
nation was compelled, by a stroke of fate, to lose the services of the greatest
admiral that ever distinguished England, and who then fell in the arms of
victory : — " ' Fallen from his high estate,
And weltering in his blood.'
" There was but one unanimous feeling on the subject. But when I addressed
the House of Commons on it, I was but imperfectly aware— those whom I addressed ¦
were, also, but imperfectly aware— that, at the very moment when that great.
man had raised the navy to the highest pinnacle of perfection and glory, there was
rising in the far east another man, destined to perform the same great service by the
army of this country, and raise it, by efforts continually directed- to that end, by
the most unremitting study the most untiring efforts, and the greatest practical
skill, to a position m which it afterwards asserted the dignity of this country
throughout the world; and -established that high character which, thank God, the
British army, under his powerful administration, as well as under his military
career, has never forfeited. Such were the characters of two illustrious menV'
differing from each other, undoubtedly, as men do often in particular points of thei*v
character, but resembling each other in all that was great and excellent, directing'
their attention to one great object— not indifferent either of them, undoubtedly (as

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [funeral of Wellington.

who is indifferent?) to the praise of others, but never allowing that praise to
divert them one moment from the service of their country; but making the
honour of the crown, and the safety of the people, the sole objects of that un
conquerable energy which, regulated them in all the paths of duty. My lords, I
feel proud — any man may feel proud — of having lived with such contemporaries."
Other speakers followed in a similar strain. In the House of Commons the same
feeling was also manifested.
In a few days the subject was resumed ; when, in answer to the message from
the queen, both Houses voted a public funeral to the hero of Waterloo. Mr.
Disraeli, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, had to propose the vote in the Commons ;
and, in his studied panegyric, there were some palpable and perfectly unaccountable
plagiarisms, from an oration pronounced by M. Thiers, or Marshal St. Cyr, in 1848.
In conclusion, Mr. Disraeli said — " Sir, when we take into account the prolonged
and illustrious life of the Duke of Wellington, we are surprised how small a section
of it is occupied by that military career which fills so large a space in history.
Only eight years elapsed from Vimiera to Waterloo : and from the date of his first
commission to the last cannon-shot which he heard on the field of battle, scarce
twenty years can be counted. After all his military triumphs, the greatest and
most successful of warriors — if not in the prime, at least in the perfection of
manhood — commenced a civil career, scarcely less successful, scarcely less splendid,
than that military one which will live for ever in the memory of men. He was
thrice the ambassador of his sovereign at those great military congresses thafe
settled the affairs of Europe; twice was he Secretary of State; twice was he
Commander-in-Chief of the forces ; once he was Prime Minister of England ; and,
to the last hour of his life, he may be said to have laboured for his country. It
was only a few months before we lost him, that he favoured with his counsel and
assistance the present advisers of the crown, respecting that war in the East, of
which no one could be so competent a judge ; and he drew up his views on that
subject in a state paper, characterised by all his sagacity and experience : and,
indeed, when he died, he died still the active chieftain of that famous army, to
which he has left the tradition of his glory."
The body of the dead hero was brought to London, and laid in state in
Chelsea Hospital, where the crowd was so great, in consequence, that many lives
were lost. On the 18th of November, with fitting pomp, he was interred in St.
Paul's Cathedral. In his ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington, Tennyson,
our poet-laureate, said —
" Bury the great duke
With an empire's lamentation.
Let us bury the great duke
To the noise of the mourning of a mighty nation.
Mourning when their leaders fall,
Warriors carry the warrior's pall,
And sorrow darkens hamlet and hall."
Thus was it, in all England, in the sad and dull November of 1852. Most truly
might — " The mournful, martial music blow ;
The last great Englishman is low."
But we must hasten on to chronicle the fall of the Derby-Disraeli administra
tion. They had been more successful than was at first anticipated. They had
survived the free-trade debate, inaugurated by Mr. Villiers ; and had preserved
peace with France by the recognition of the empire which Louis Napoleon had
restored : but the rock a-head was their financial scheme ; and on that rock they
were wrecked.
On the 3rd of December, Mr. Disraeli unfolded his expected theme, which was
to conciliate and reconcile alike the free-traders and the friends of protection to
native industry. It took him five hours to explain and enforce his scheme. His
65

ministers resign.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.
proposals were — to relieve the shipping interest, to promote the production of
colonial sugar, and agricultural interests at home. The duties on malt and hops
were to be materially reduced. As, by the proffered remission of duties, there would
be a loss to the revenue of between three and four million pounds, and as the
property and income-tax, yielding more than five millions of pounds, was about to
expire, Mr. Disraeli proposed to extend it to Ireland. Ministers were also prepared
to make a distinction between permanent and precarious incomes. On all industrial
incomes, they recommended that the point of exemption should be limited to £100
a year ; and on incomes arising from property, to £50. Again — that the rates on
schedules A and C should be, as before, Id. in the pound; on B, D, and E, 3±d.
They took the estimate on the profits of farmers, not at one-half the rent, as
heretofore, but at one-third ; and the consequence would be, that, with the reduction
of the duty, the farmers would pay £156,000, exactly one-half of what they paid
under the existing rate. The total amount, including the modest sum of £60,000
for Ireland, he (calculated at £5,421,000. The right honourable gentleman next
referred to the naval estimates, which it was proposed to increase, though without
any reference to the question of peace or war. He then touched on the subject of
administrative reform — a direction in which he conceived that considerable retrench
ment was practicable, without in the least impairing the efficiency of the public
service. The government hoped to effect some valuable results in that quarter.
They also contemplated bringing the entire revenue of the country under the
^control of parliament, and terminating the exchequer law commission. He
advocated the impost of a house- tax, and suggested that its basis be extended to
houses rated at not less than £10 a year. It was soon evident that, with such a
merciless critic as Mr. Gladstone, the budget had no chance. It was debated four
nights. The division was— ayes, 286 ; noes, 305 : thus giving a majority, againstthe
government, of 19. The result was, that, on the next evening, ministers announced
that they had resigned; that the Earl of Aberdeen had been sent for, to form a
government; and that the Derby-Disraeli administration had ceased to exist.

CHAPTER V.
THE ABERDEEN MIM-ISTE-jr.

ON the 27th of December Lord Aberdeen met parliament, and delivered a pro
gramme more liberal than had been expected from his antecedents. As the head
of the Peelites, he had succeeded in forming a coalition ministry, which appeared
riX Ph6 el^entl ?* durability and strength. His colleagues were-Mr.
Sf 7ri T / -he ^chequer; Lord Palmerston, Home Secretary,; the
T,™ ofrCarend°n> Forengn Secretary; Colonial, the Duke of Newcastle; Sir
Council tt^' fr1 A°rd, °fTthe, 4dmira%; Earl Granville, President of the
wZ r r wn"/p ??e'+Lc?lPri^Seal; Mr" ^dney Herbert, Secretary at
SlicWol^wMi °1 thi& ?°ard 0f Contro1; First Commissioner of
TW?1 tSm • ^worth; leader of the House of Commons, Lord John
£ abler admlXri™ ^fT* ^ *"* & S6at in the cabi^ ***«* office.
time paSt. admimstratl0H *ertainly bad ^t been seen in England for some
Let us glance at some of the leading characters. Of Lord Aberdeen we have
already spoken. He was a man to whose wisdom justice was farelyXnl as he
was slow of speech, and with difficulty aroused if, if, -J i rarely done, as ne
Aberdeen's haLd of war was so honestly ^Tptuslf *J£& Z^Jffi
same time, so excessive and self-defeating, that, n/one poin! Tof Sw,it\adtS

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. Gladstone.
character of a virtue ; and, in another, it was more like a disease. His feelings, no
less than his opinions, turned him against all war ; but against a war with Russia
he was biassed by the impressions of his early life, by the relations of mutual
esteem whieh had long subsisted between the Emperor Nicholas and himself, and,
perhaps, by a dim foresight of the perils which might be brought upon Europe by
a forcible breaking-up of the ties established by the congress of Vienna, and riveted
by the peace of Paris. In an early stage of the dispute, he resolved that he would
not remain at the head of government unless he could maintain peace ; and he
anxiously sought to choose a moment for making his stand against the further
progress towards war. Far from wishing to prolong his power, he was always
labouring to make out when, and on what ground, he could lay down the burden
which oppressed him. Every day he passed his sure hour and a-half in the Foreign
Office, and came away more and more anxious, perhaps, but without growing more
elear-fiighted. If he eould ever have found the point where the road to peace
diverged from the road to war, he would instantly have declared for peace ; and,
failing to carry the government with him, would have "joyfully resigned office, and,
for his deliverance, would have offered up thanksgiving to Heaven. But his
intellect, though not without high quality in it, was deficient in clearness and
force. In troubled times it did not yield him light enough to walk by ; and it had
not the propelling power which was needed for pushing him into opportune action.
In polities, though not in matters of faith, he wanted the sacred impulse, which his
kirk is aceustomed to call the word of quickening."
The Chancellor of the Exchequer, as we have already said, is Sir Robert Peel's
most distinguished disciple, William Ewart Gladstone. Born in 1809, at Liver
pool, where his father was a wealthy merchant, he was educated at Eton, and
at Christ-church "College, Oxford. After the completion of his academical studies,
he passed a short time in continental travel. He entered parliament in 1832, as
the representative of Newark, then under the patronage of the anti-reform Duke of
Newcastle. His mercantile origin, college successes, and remarkable business
habits, are said to have recalled to old members of the House the early career of Sir
Robert Peel : and Sir Robert himself was not slow to discover and appreciate the
value of this new and important recruit to the Conservative ranks; for, on his
accession to the premiership, after the dissolution of parliament in 1835, he
appointed him, successively, a Lord of the Treasury, and then Under-Secretary for
the Colonies. Mr. Gladstone returned, in the spring of that year, with his party to
the opposition benches until September, 1841, when he was appointed Vice-
President of the Board of Trade, and a Privy Councillor ; and on him it devolved to
explain and defend, in the House of Commons, the commercial policy of his
government, of whieh he was already a chief stay. Of popular and conciliatory
manners; a ready and self-possessed debater; gifted with a marvellous flow of
language and well versed in commercial affairs, he rendered himself .particularly
Sn2£n fTS: 6+m6n- ,In 5ay' 1843' Mr" Gladstone oecameChead of
ekkws; £ ws s^r^ " Jd -
believe that „S de him but Z tic, when™ ZT?Z- "?¦?. EnS:land • tat ™
h„e .tftaed him the respeKcfilel U^I rf Sl^-*W'tM "d fan<*"°UI
nrstL its favour, thik ^Titti fSi eufo^T00*/;?"- H" *
opposed, and the, sported. „ Sl^/^rSSt^UsS 67

THE DUKE OF NEWCASTLE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.

his Remarks on Recent Commercial Legislation, exhibiting, in detail, the beneficial
working of the tariff of 1842. But this adhesion to free-trade principles led to
his losing his seat for Newark, and to his being out of parliament in 1846. At the
general election of 1847, however, Mr. Gladstone was fully compensated for this
temporary exclusion from the House of Commons, by becoming one of the
representatives of the University of Oxford. How entirely he appreciated the
honour, may be judged from the dedication to his alma mater of his great work on
Homer, in the following terms : — " Inscribed to the University of Oxford — tried, and
not found wanting through the vicissitudes of a thousand years — in the belief that
she is providentially designed to be a fountain of blessings, spiritual, social, and
intellectual, to this and other countries, to the present and future times ; and in
the hope that the temper of these pages may be found not alien from her own."
In the parliament, in which he now appeared in the first ranks, he managed to
displease, alternately, both sections of his supporters : the Liberals, by his opposition
speech on university reform, and his speech on Mr. Disraeli's motion for the relief
of the agricultural interests ; and the Conservatives, by declining to take office with
Lord Derby in 1851, and his exposure of the details of Mr. Disraeli's budget in
1852. He was also strenuously, but unsuccessfully, opposed in the representation
of Oxford University. But until a later time than that to which we refer, his
talents and his character always gained for him an immense majority. His
pamphlet on the Neapolitan dungeons, of which we have already written, created
for him great popularity ; and when the coalition cabinet was formed, all felt that,
as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he was the right man in the right place.
Let us here give Mr. Kinglake's portrait. He says — " But there was another
member of the cabinet who was supposed to hold war in deep abhorrence. Mr.
Gladstone was Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and since he was, by virtue of his
office, the appointed guardian of the public purse, those pure and lofty principles
which made him cling to peace, were reinforced by an official sense of the harm
which war inflicts by its costliness. Now it happened that, if he was famous for
the splendour of his eloquence, for his unaffected piety, and his blameless life,
he was celebrated, far and wide, for a more than common liveliness of conscience.
He had once imagined it to be his duty to quit a government, and to burst through
strong ties of friendship and gratitude, by reason of a thin shade of difference on
the subject of white or brown sugar. It was believed, that if he was to commit
even a little sin, or to imagine an evil thought, he would instantly arraign himself
before the dread tribunal which awaited him in his own bosom ; and that his
intellect being subtle and microscopic, and delighting in casuistry and exaggeration,
he would be likely to give his soul a very harsh trial, and to treat himself as a
great criminal for faults too minute to be visible to the naked eyes of laymen. His
friends lived in dread of his virtues, aa tending to make him whimsical and
unstable; and the practical politicians, conceiving that he was not to be depended
upon for party purposes, and was bent upon none but lofty objects, used to call
him, behind his back, a good man — a good man in the worst sense of that term.
In 1853, it seemed only too probable that he might quit office upon an infinitely
slight suspicion of the warlike tendency of the government. But what appeared
certain was, that if, upon the vital question of peace or war, the government
should depart, by even a hair's breadth, from the right path, the Chancellor of the
Exchequer would instantly refuse to be a partaker of their faults. He— and he
before all other men— stood charged to give the alarm of danger ; and there seemed
to be no particle of ground for fearing that, like the Prime Minister, he would
drift. The honour, watchfulness, and alacrity of his conscience, and his power of
detecting small germs of evil, led the world to think it impossible that he could be
moving for months in a wrong course without knowing it."
Of Sir James Graham we have previously written. Lord John Russell, also,
we have already described.
The Duke of Newcastle— an unfortunate man throus-h life — was not one of the
68

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the duke of Newcastle.
least able of the coalition ministry. As Lord Lincoln, he had entered parliament
as member for South Nottinghamshire, in the very year that he attained his
majority : and when Sir Robert Peel hastened from Rome to form a short-lived
administration, he appointed the young M.P. one of the Lords of the Treasury.
When, a few years after, under happier auspices, Sir Robert returned to power, the
Earl of Lincoln was appointed First Commissioner of Woods and Forests ; and, as
no complaints were ever made of him in that capacity, we may safely conclude
that his duties were discharged with unobtrusive but efficient regularity. In the
financial policy of his leader he warmly concurred; and the consequence was, that
when, upon the reconstruction of the cabinet, he was appointed Chief Secretary for
Ireland, and had to appeal to the electors who had already four times chosen him
as their parliamentary representative, the South Notts Protection Society requested
him to resign ; and even his father took the field against him. Lord Lincoln,
however, prepared for the contest, and issued an explanatory address as follows : —
" I cannot, within the limits of an address, enter into the details of so large
and comprehensive a scheme of commercial policy as that lately laid before the
House of Commons. This much, however, I am bound, in candour, when addressing
an agricultural constituency, to say — that on the question of the corn-laws my
opinions are changed. In 1841, honestly, and not from any party motive, I advo
cated measures for what is now called 'protection of native industry.' Mature
reflection; constant and anxious consideration of the subject; attention, year after
year, to the arguments brought forward in the House on one side and the other ;
above all, the experience of the last four years, have convinced me, not that the
corn-laws alone should be abolished, but that our whole commercial system should
be subjected to a great, a bold, and a comprehensive revision.
" This change of opinion has not come upon me suddenly. Three years ago
my confidence in the principles of protection was greatly shaken : last year I felt
that they had become indefensible. Still, looking to the mischief of any violent
shock to party attachment (not for the sake of the leaders of party, but for the sake
of public confidence), and conscious of the peculiar circumstances under which the
present parliament was elected, I felt anxious that, if possible, this great but
inevitable change should be postponed till after the next dissolution of parliament.
This, however, I had finally resolved — that I would never again appear before you
on the hustings without an express stipulation that I should be free to vote for a
repeal of the corn-laws.
" But in the autumn of last year, it pleased Providence to visit our country,
and more especially the sister island, with an infliction which some have ventured
to doubt — nay, even to deride ; but the alarming extent of which, I greatly fear,
has yet to be unfolded. Thus the desires of politicians have been frustrated — the
calculations of statesmen have been thwarted. What would have been praise
worthy caution and deference to existing circumstances in times of abundance and
prosperity, would now be culpable neglect, or a slavish submission to the fear of
reproach and personal odium.
" The government has been compelled, by an imperative sense of duty, to
bring forward,' at once, a final settlement of these questions ; for none but a final
settlement — no half-measures, no temporary expedients — could ever again be
entertained ; and I am prepared to adopt my full share of the responsibility which
must attach to the members of a government which has endeavoured to reconcile,
in a great and comprehensive scheme, the various but not conflicting interests of
the country." His lordship's appeal was in vain. He was defeated by a large majority, and
took refuge in the Falkirk burghs. During the time that his lordship remained
in the House of Commons, he voted with the Peel party on all important occasions ;
and in January, 1851, by the death of his father, he succeeded to the dukedom of
Newcastle, and took his seat in the House of Lords. He followed Lord Aberdeen
in his opposition to the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill. 69

sir w. molesworth.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.

Another duke — his grace of Argyle — is also a colleague in the Aberdeen
cabinet. Born in 1823, he early evinced capacity for public life. At the age of
nineteen, he published a pamphlet in favour of the claims put forward by the
church of Scotland on the question of the veto. He took his seat in the House of
Lords on his father's death, in 1847 ; and in May of the following year delivered
his first speech, on the motion for the second reading of the bill for admitting
Jews to parliament. His speech, we are told, made a great impression on the
House, presenting, as it did, a defence of the measure on religious rather than
political grounds. He commenced by disclaiming all sympathy with eertain
theories that had been put forth — by none more effectually than by Mr. Macaulay
— that Christianity had nothing to do with making the laws of a country. He
showed, in a strain of clear argument, enforced by an easy-flowing and natural
eloquence, that Christianity lay at the root of all that was just, and right, and true ;
and that the nation which systematically excluded Christianity from its laws must
end in speedy ruin. At the . same time he could not agree with the opponents of
the measure, that Christianity consisted in a mere .set of forms and symbols, com
pliance with which should secure, and refusal exclude, admission to the legislature.
On the contrary, he maintained that Christianity would be best manifested by
abolishing all invidious distinctions which excluded any citizens from obtaining the
offices and distinctions of the state, and by maintaining the right of the con
stituencies of the empire to their free choice of whatever representative they pleased
to select. The speech was received with great favour by the House, and tbe duke
was at once hailed as one of its most promising ornaments. As a free-trader the
duke was earnest and consistent. His scientific acquirements, also, must not be
omitted. He has devoted a large share of his time to the study of practical
geology, and with considerable success. On the creation of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science, meeting at Edinburgh, he read a paper on the
subject, which excited great attention ; and it is understood that he has himself
made discoveries of some valuable minerals on his extensive but rocky domains.
His literary taste is also highly spoken of; and in the characteristics which so
honourably distinguish the men of rank of the present day — that of giving lectures
to the working classes — he has not been backward. The Tories sneered at the
duke on account of his youth, his diminutive stature, his red hair; but he was a
gain to the ministry nevertheless.
In the accession of Sir William Molesworth to office, the public saw a pledge,
on the part of the Earl of Aberdeen, to the friends of progressive reform. As an
advanced reformer, and London Quarterly reviewer, the character of Sir William
for talent and sincerity stood high. Entering parliament at the first election after
the passing of the Reform Act, it. was not long before he distinguished himself as
one of the little band of " philosophical Radicals," composed of the late James
Mill, Mr. Grote, Mr. Roebuck, Mr. Charles BuUer, Mr.. Leader, and others,, with
whose names the public were more or less familiar. Among the more important
measures advocated by these gentlemen, were— vote by ballot, triennial parliaments,
abolition of the property qualification for members of parliament, a further exten
sion of the electoral franchise, reform of the House of Lords, free trade, retrench
ment, separation of church and state, municipal corporation reform, repeal of the
'taxes on knowledge, and a sweeping reform in the administration of the colonies.
The opinions of the philosophical Radicals on all these questions had an able
exponent in the London Review, a newly-established quarterly ; the first number
of which appeared in May, 1835, under the editorship in chief of Sir William,
who was also the principal proprietor. A year afterwards, the Westminster came
into possession of the same proprietary by purchase. From that time the two
reviews were merged into one— the London and Westminster Review ; and, under
that title, were published for several years, until,, upon the secession of the right
honourable baronet, the old title of Westminster was resumed. The contributions
of Sir William to this department of periodical literature were numerous and
70

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr., Sidney Herbert.

characterised by great vigour of thought, breadth of liberality, and clear and for
cible expression. Having alarmed, by has Radical opinions, his Cornish con
stituency, he successively represented Leeds and Southwark. At the general
election in 1841, Sir William Molesworth retired from parliament and from
public life for a short interval, a portion of which he occupied in continental travels,
and in ushering into the world a new edition of the works of Hobbes, the philo
sopher of Malmesbury. Sir William was opposed to what is known as the
Palmerston policy. Gifted with inexhaustible patience, indomitable application,
great keenness of perception, and a prodigious memory, the right honourable
baronet occupied a high position in the House of Commons ; and his comparatively
early death was mourned by all true Liberals, all over the land.
Mr. Sidney Herbert (afterwards known as Lord Herbert, and universally
lamented when he fell a victim to his zeal in the discharge of public and official
duty) was one of the most promising, and certainly, as regards appearance, one of
the most prepossessing-looking men in the new ministry. Mr. Herbert sat in the
House of Commons as member for the county of Wilts, from the year 1832,
beginning public life as a Conservative, and a follower of Sir Robert Peel, to whom
he faithfully and steadily adhered until his death. Afterwards he acted with those
members of the House of Commons known as the Peelite section. As a debater,
the right honourable gentleman rose far above the ordinary level of the orators of
the senate. His style of speaking was smooth and correct, always pleasing, and set
off with the polished manners and address of a well-educated English gentleman.
His speeches were smart and clever, and were very successful in the presentation
of recognised truths in the most acceptable point of view. But his forte was in
his administrative capacity, which was considerable, and j ustified his selection for
office by Sir Robert Peel and Lord Aberdeen. Outside parliament, Mr. Sidney
Herbert distinguished himself by his efforts in favour of educating the poor in
the principles of the established church. He also laboured most assiduously to
extend the sphere of operations,, and to increase the usefulness, of that church in
our colonial possessions. He was honourably known to the public, in connection
with his amiable lady (daughter of Major-General A'Court), by liberal benefactions
to charitable objects, and the active part he took in alleviating the distressed
condition of the needlewomen and servant classes of the metropolis, and promoting
their emigration to Australia. He was an accomplished scholar, a man of refined
taste, and a munificent patron of the arts : and near his princely seat, at Wilton,
Salisbury, was erected, in 1843, at his sole expense, a beautiful Romanesque or
Lombardie church, the finest specimen of that style of architecture in England.
Well did he deserve tbe peerage to which he was raised in 1860.
The most important post in this new ministry — the post with which the name
of Palmerston had hitherto been connected — that of Secretary of Foreign Affairs,
was held by the Earl of Clarendon.. As the Hon. Mr. Villiers, he was accredited
Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Madrid, by
Earl Grey, in 1833. His residence in Spain, in a diplomatic capacity, continued
during the greater part of the sanguinary warfare which raged in that unfortunate
country, between the constitutional, or queen's party (known by the term Christ-
tinas), and the adherents ofthe pretender, Don Carlos. His position there was one
of extreme difficulty and delicacy, and required the display ©f tact and ability of no
ordinary character. He had to maintain relations on a friendly footing with a
Court the subject of divided councils and constantly fluctuating opinions. All the
wisdom, energy, and self-reliance which the English minister possessed, was called
into vigorous exercise as the representative of the only one of the contracting
powers which seemed disposed to fulfil the conditions of the quadruple treaty : for
France, jealous of English infiuence in the Peninsula, contributed only promises;
and Portugal, crippled in its resources, and just emerging from civil war, could
furnish but little effective aid. Whilst at Madrid, he successfully negotiated a
treaty with Spain for the more effectual abolition of the slave-trade in the British

LORD CLARENDON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.

colonies — a measure to which the government of Spain had, until then, steadily
refused to listen. The services of Mr. Villiers were approved by government. He
was made a G.C.B. ; and, in a debate upon our foreign policy in 1837, Lord
Palmerston thus bore testimony to his merits : —
"This," said he, "brings me to Spain; and how do we stand there? Our
relations with Spain are greatly improved. I am asked whether we have gained
any influence there ? I answer, yes ; and, as a proof of it, I point to the treaty
which we have concluded with that power for the suppression of the slave-trade —
an act of humanity and justice which ought to have been accomplished long since,
but which no power of diplomacy on the part of England had been able to extract
from the former government of Spain. And whereas, in the time of Ferdinand,
the influence of Russia was paramount at Madrid, Great Britain is now regarded in
Spain with those sentiments of friendship and esteem which are due to our good
faith, and to our strict adherence to treaties and engagements. I am bound to say,
that the respect which Spain has for this country, is very much owing to the able
and judicious conduct of the representative of the British government at Madrid.
The high character which that minister has personally established, and .the good
faith which the British government has deserved in its dealings, have indeed
rendered the character of an Englishman a passport through Spain."
At the commencement of the year 1839, on the death of his uncle, Mr.
Villiers quitted Madrid, and returned to England ; and took his seat in the House
of Lords as Earl Clarendon. On the 27th of July following, the Marquis of
Londonderry rose in his place in parliament, and put some questions with regard
to certain papers laid upon the table, relating to the affairs of Spain, and the
communications which had been interchanged between her majesty's ministers and
the three northern powers, for the purpose of procuring a mitigation of the
atrocious manner in which the civil war in that country had been carried on, and
even the eventual termination of hostilities. These overtures, it seems, had
issued in no practical result ; and the noble marquis, who indulged in some severe
strictures in the course of his speech, desired to know the reason of their failure.
The strictures of the noble marquis elicited a speech from the Earl of Claren
don, which at once established him as one of the most accomplished debaters in
the House. On another occasion, his lordship made such a speech, that as soon
as it reached Spain, a gold medal was struck in his honour, for this additional
service to the cause of constitutional freedom in that country. A meeting was
also held at the house of General Quiroga, at which the oration was ordered to be
translated into the Spanish language, and put into the most extensive circulation ;
and, subsequently, it was determined to present the noble earl with a valuable
work of art.
, It-,}839, the Earl of Clarendo11 accepted the office of Lord Privy Seal in
the Melbourne cabinet; and, in 1840, was made Chancellor of the Duchy of Lan
caster. He continued to be a cabinet minister until the retirement of the Whigs,
and the advent of Sir Robert Peel, in 1841. .Having, at all times, been favour
able to the principles of free trade, the noble earl gave the commercial policy of
tne new government a cordial and hearty support : and when, in 1845, that
crowning act of legislation— the repeal of the corn-laws— took place, he accompanied
his vote for the measure with a speech of great ability and power. On the
return of the Liberals to parliament in 1847, with Lord John Russell at their
head, the Earl of Clarendon was entrusted with the government of Ireland, as
Lord-Lieutenant; and entered upon his viceroyalty under not the most encouraging
ausmces. Famine pestilence and sedition stalked through the land. The situation
of Ireland was critical, and demanded incessant watchfulness, unrelaxing firmness,
and great prudence on the part of the executive government; and in none of
these respects was the earl found wanting. How firm and impartial he was,
is evidenced by his dismissal of the Earl of Roden from the commission of
the peace, for his Orange partisanship. Lord Derby raised a debate on the

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord granville.

subject in the Lords; but the general feeling was, that the conduct of Earl
Clarendon was wise and judicious, and that he deserved the vacant ribbon of the
Garter, which, about that time, was conferred on him : and, as Secretary of Foreign
Affairs, under Lord Aberdeen, his conduct was equally satisfactory. " Short as has
yet been his term of office," writes a friendly critic, in 1853, "we have had the
satisfaction of seeing him engaged in amicable intercession with foreign poten
tates, on behalf of oppressed peoples. The recent iniquitous sequestrations of the
property of Sardinian citizens by the Austrian authorities in Lombardy, have, at
the request of the Sardinian government, drawn forth strong representations from
the noble earl to the cabinet of Vienna upon the Subject. He also followed up
the remonstrance of his predecessors to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, in favour of
the Madiais, condemned to suffer a long term of imprisonment for conscience'
sake ; but now at length, through the intervention of the English government,
happily set free."
Earl Granville commenced public life in 1837, when he was returned as
member of parliament for Morpeth. His lordship did not distinguish himself in
the House of Commons ; and, in fact, a seat there did not seem to be much to his
taste, as he resigned it in 1840, to proceed as an attache to the Russian embassy.
At the general election, however, for 1841, he was returned for the borough of
Stafford, and, on one or two occasions, addressed the House, but with little
effect. In 1846, his father died, and he was called to the upper House. When
the Whig ministry was formed, in 1846, Lord Granville received an appointment,
though one that was rather suited to his rank than to the talents that he has
since displayed. He was attached to her majesty's household, as Master of the
Buckhounds. In 1848, he became Vice-President of the Board of Trade.
Several sarcasms were directed against this appointment; and the opposition
journals made themselves merry at the facility with which a Master of the Buck-
hounds could be manufactured into an officer requiring extensive acquaintance
with the trade and commerce of the country. During his tenure of office the
Great Exhibition was held in Hyde Park ; and, in contributing to its success, his
lordship stands second, and but second, to the late Prince Albert. When the
great event was over, and when it was determined by the Parisian authorities, in
the autumn of 1851, to invite the municipal authorities of London, and the com
missioners of the Exhibition, to a series of festivities, in return for the hospitality
which had been shown to their countrymen in England, Earl Granville was
very properly recognised as the head of the commissioners ; and returned thanks
at the grand banquet given at the Hotel de Ville, in the name of his colleagues,
for the honour done to them, in a French speech, which excited the admiration of
the Parisians themselves, from the classical points of its idiom and its accent.
It was admitted — and the admission may be taken as high praise from such fas
tidious critics — that his lordship might well have passed for a native critic, reared
in the first circles of Parisian society. When, in the winter of 1851, Lord Pal
merston resigned, Earl Granville was selected by Lord John Russell to fill the
vacant post of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs ; and it speaks well for his
lordship, that his appointment to this responsible position at a period of extra
ordinary difficulty in our relations with several foreign countries, was received by the
people, not only without disappointment, but with positive respect and appro
bation. His term of office was, in this position, too short to allow him to fix the
impress of his policy upon our foreign relations ; for the ministry of which he
formed a part, left Downing Street in tbe spring of the following year. If his
lordship makes no pretensions to be called an orator, he is conspicuous for his ad
ministrative abilities, his sound sense, and his readiness of resource.
Sir Charles Wood (now Lord Halifax) formed an indispensable member of every
Liberal administration, much to the surprise of strangers, who listened to his
jerking and unimpressive style of speaking in parliament. The mystery was solved
when it was understood that, in 1829, he married Mary, the ninth child of the late,
vol. ii. g 73

MARQUIS OF LANSDOWNE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.

and sister of the present, Earl Grey. His first introduction to official life was m
1830 when his father-in-law, in accepting the office of Prime Minister, appointed
him 'his private secretary. In 1832, he became one of the Secretaries of the
Treasury • then he became Secretary to the Admiralty ; and as, m this position, he
showed some degree of administrative skill, no little surprise was felt when, in
1839 Sir Charles, following the lead of his brother-in-law, Lord Howick, resigned
his appointment, and left the Whig ministry. In - 1846, we find Sir -Charles
Chancellor of the Exchequer. In this capacity he did not shine ; but it must be
remembered that he had many difficulties to contend with ; and that, as the
finance minister of a party not very strong, he was fettered in every way. In his
capacity of Chancellor" of the Exchequer, Sir Charles had to eat no small amount
of humble pie; his budgets being altered and omitted— often in spite of his
vehement opposition— just as it suited the House of Commons? majority : and thus
Sir Charles held on till 1852, when he retired with his party. The borough of
Great Grimsby, in the year 1826, first introduced the honourable member to a
seat in parliament. In 1831, he was returned for Wareham. The following year
he was returned, at the head ofthe poll, for Halifax, which borough he represented
till he became a peer. An admirer writes — " Sir Charles Wood is always listened
to with great attention in the House. This does not arise from any graces^ of
oratory,, in which respect nature has been rather niggardly to him. His - elocution
is not graceful ; his method is not clear ; his voice .is hot good. _ He evidently com
prehends a subject in his own mind better than he can explain it to others; and
hence arises a repetition and redundance of remarks that obsctfre the subject thev
are meant to illustrate. But those who will ¦ take the trouble to hear,; with these
defects, are often repaid by the breadth and comprehensiveness of his views, the
perfect mastery of the subject which he has evidently attained, and a felicitous
knack he has of illustrating his subject by an analogy which at once strikes by its
justness, and amuses by its homeliness. In this respect, though in few- others, he
resembles Mr. Oobdem He has neither his fluency of speech, his- short, nervous,
idiomatic phrase, nor that marvellous grasp, of his subject which the anti-eorn-
law leader possesses ; but, like him, he delights in finding illustrations and
analogies on subjects that are drawn from common life, and which, therefore,: come
home to the feelings of every one of his audience." • ':> -
The ministry must have been strong in administrative and oratorical talent. We
have not indicated all its strength. To it the Marquis of Lansdowne (the Nestar of
the Whigs) lent the sanction of his great talents, his high character, his illustrious
name. Born in 1780, he had seen much of political life and political men. From
Westminster, where his contemporaries were the Earl of Mansfield, Lord Ash-
burton, and others, the young nobleman proceeded to Edinburgh; thence to
Cambridge; and set out with Dumont as a companion for the tour of the continent.
But the peace of Amiens was soon broken, and he had to return home, and take
his seat for the family borough of Calne, in 1801. Lord Henry Petty (for such Was
his title) then sided with the opposition, and gained great applause by his speech
in favour of the prosecution of Lord Melville. Under Mr. Fox he became
. Chancellor ofthe Exchequer, and was returned as M.P. for Cambridge University,
in 1806, by a considerable majority over Lords Althorpe and Palmerston— the
latter being at the bottom of the poll. The consistent advocacy of the Catholic
claims cost Lord Henry Petty, not merely his office, but his seat— the university
replacing him by Sir Vicary Gibbs, who only obtained the honour by a majority of
two over Lord Palmerston, who was again a candidate. Lord Petty, however, was
provided, by the Duke of Bedford, with a seat for a small borough in Cornwall,
which he continued to represent till his elevation to the House of Peers ; which
event took place in 1809. His lordship continued in opposition until 1827, when
he joined the administration of Mr. Canning, as Home Secretary. Under the Duke
of Wellington, the Liverpool cabinet returned to office, and Lord Lansdowne
became the leader of the opposition in the House of Lords. He was Lord
74

7:A*z

Marqujis ©f •Lansdowne

OB. 1863

.(Truro .stro pitbij.3h- jut. COMt?flRYr_i,ijn.TEi>

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord ceanworth.
President of the Council in the Whig ministry, from November, 1830, to
November, 1834; from April, 1835, to September, 1841; and again in July, 1846:
and, in this capacity, his labours on behalf of national education were unwearied.
In 1852, his lordship took a dignified farewell Of official life, in language which
produced a great impression on all who heard it. As a consistent public man, Lord
Lansdowne occupied the highest place. He began life a Liberal, when liberalism
was unpopular : and he remained such to the day of his death. But his lOf dship
was something more. Thrown, in early life, amongst men of eminence in litera
ture, science, and art, he imbibed a love of letters, and a respect for genius, which
made it his happiness and pride to gather round him those who possessed the
power of ministering to his intellectual disposition ; and there were few amongst
contemporary artists who did not receive from him assistance and encouragement.
His lordship, though rather below than above the middle height, had a dignified
bearing and pleasant countenance. To the last he Wore the blue coat and buff
waistcoat — the Whig colours — familiarised to the public by the cover of the
Edinburgh Review. When his lordship addressed the House, his tones, if not
sweet, were persuasive, and his voice, if not clear, impressive. In his diction he
displayed an accurate, finished education ; and though he was scarcely ever eloquent,
he affected the understanding of his audience. He died ripe in years and
honour. Of Lord Cranworth, the Lord Chancellor, little can be said, gave that, in his
career, he furnished another instance that the highest prizes in the profession may
be won without either very profound learning or brilliant abilities. Born in 1790,
he received his education at the grammar-school of Bury St. Edmund's, of which
town he was afterwards Recorder. Mr. Rolfe (for such was his name) went to
Cambridge, and took his degree in 1812 ; his name appearing sixteenth in the list
of wranglers for that year. In 1816, he Was called to the bar by the Honourable
Society of Lincoln's Inn. In May, 1835, he came into office as Solicitor-general.
In 1839, he was made one of the barohs of the Exchequer, and then succeeded Sir
James Wigram as Vice-Chancellor. Then he became one of the lords justices of
the Court of Appeal ; and, on the resignation of Lord St. Leonard, he received the
great seal. As his lordship was never distinguished as a debater, and as, since he
became a member of the upper House, he seldom spoke on any subjects but those
affecting the amendment of the law, it is clear he was little gain to the Aberdeen
administration. The same remark dOes not apply to the veteran Home Secretary. Perhaps
no higher tribute was ever paid to Lord Palmerston's talents, than in the circum
stance that he, a man without a party — without a follower it may be said —
should yet be invited by his old antagonist and rival, and by the statesman who
had so lately affronted him by driving him from the cabinet, to resume his
seat at her majesty's council board, in the capacity of one. of the leading min
isters of the crown. As he was excluded from his old post, he finally chose the
Home Office, where his sanitary measures, and his suppression of the smoke
nuisance, and his putting down the betting nuisance, showed that no public
duty came amiss to him ; and that, in the language of Scripture, " whatever his
hand found to do, that he did with all his might." After a short time he resigned ;
but, in the course of a few days, again resumed office. In explaining this step,
his lordship said that it had something to do with home politics. Mr. tCinglake
tells us it was no such thing. It was in consequence of a hitch between France
and England, respecting Turkey and Russia.
Here we stop to give Mr. Kinglake's character of Lord Palmerston, as the
minister who went his own way. "He was supposed to be under a kind of
ostracism. He had not been banished from England, nor even from the cabinet ;
but, holding office under a Prime Minister whose views upon foreign policy were
much opposed to his own, and relegated to duties connected with the peaceful
administration of justice — it seemed, to the eye of the common observer, that
G2 75

LOED PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.
for the time he was annulled : and the humorous stories which floated about
Whitehall, went to show that the deposed lord of foreign affairs had consented
to forget his former greatness, and to accept his Home Office duties in a spirit of
half-cynical, half-joyous disdain, but without the least discontent. And, in truth,
he had no ground for ill-humour. In politics he was without vanity. What he
cared for was power, and power he had. Indeed, circumstanced as he then was,
he must have known that one of the main conditions of his strength was, the
general belief that he had none. The light of the past makes it easy to see,
that the expedient of trying to tether him down in the Home Office, would
alleviate his responsibility, and increase his real power. To those who know
anything of Lord Palmerston's intellectual power — of his boldness — of his best
concentrated energy — his instinct for understanding the collective mind of a body of
men, and of a whole nation — and, above all, his firm robust will ; nay, even to
those who only know of his daring achievements — achievements half peaceful, half
warlike, half righteous, half violent, in many lands and on many a sea — the notion
of causing him to be subordinated to Lord Aberdeen in foreign affairs, seems
hardly more sound than a scheme providing that the greater shall be contained in
the less. Statesmen on the continent would easily understand this, for they had
lived much under the weight of his strenuous nature ; but, at that time, he had
not been called upon to apply his energies to the domestic affairs of England.
Besides, he had been more seen in his own country than abroad ; and for that very
reason he was less known, because there was much upon the outside which tended
to mask his real nature. His partly Celtic blood, and perhaps, too, in early life,
his boyish consciousness of power, had given him a certain elation of manner and
bearing, which kept him for a long time out of the good graces of the more fas
tidious part of the English world. The defect was toned down by age, for it lay
upon the surface only ; and, in his inner nature, there was nothing neither vulgar
nor unduly pretending. Still the defect made people slow— made them take forty
years— to recognise the full measure of his intellectual strength. Moreover, the
English had so imperfect a knowledge of the stress which he had long been putting
upon foreign governments, that the more outward signs which he gave to his
countrymen at home— his frank speech, his off-hand manner, his ready banter,
his kind, joyous, beaming eyes— were enough to prevent them from accustoming
themselves to look upon him as a man of stern purpose.
" ^ was not a man who would come to a subject with which he was dealing
tor the first time, with any great store of preconceived opinions ; but he wrote so
strenuously— he always, they say, wrote standing— and was apt to be so much struck
with the cogency of his own arguments, that by the mere process of framing des
patches, he wrought himse f into strong convictions, or rather, perhaps, into Long
n IT I T g t0ih°Se Tth Such a lastinS te*acit7> *at if he had been a
S 2 Z 3? pei'Ta§% the world wouldhave accused him of pedantry. Like most
fvS X? v°V\eir ^°,UghtS With their Pen> he was very accurate. Of
S Stw v \h™tled Favely> he had a tight iron grasp. Without
wThV^t ™J / '^ haS ,already been said' ™ Pwerfal; *** ^ swung
of his 4a at the F„eigu Offiee! Sri pSeSS tSh^K tel tohfw
strenuous in the pursuit of the obiects which mio-V>+ Lo ^l^r ^ ? Y
time, without sulering himself J be etoarra^efby ^menTalf aToS
hensive^iew of our foreign policy ; and although it wal, no dou^hStncentXe

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [close of the session.
habit of mind, and his stirring temperament which brought him into this course
of action, he was much supported in it by the people at home ; for when no enter
prise is on foot, the bulk of the English are prone to be careless of the friend
ship of foreign states, and are often much pleased when they are told that, by
reason of the activity of their Foreign Secretary, they are without an ally in
Europe." Mr. Kinglake then shows that Louis Napoleon and his lordship, in
his utter isolation, were natural allies. So when the czar began to encroach upon
the sultan, there was nothing that could so completely- meet Lord Palmerston's
wish as an alliance between the two western powers, which should toss France
headlong into the English policy of upholding the Ottoman empire. His lordship
was thus the most prominent member of Lord Aberdeen's cabinet, as early, writes
Mr. Kinglake, as the spring of 1 853. He adds —
" Lord Palmerston's plan of masking the warlike tendency of the government,
was an application to politics of an ingenious contrivance, which the Parisians
used to employ in some of their street engagements with the soldiery : the con
trivance was called a live barricade. A body of the insurgents would seize the
mayor of the arrondissement, and a priest (if they could get one), and also one
or two respectable bankers devoted to the cause of peace and order. These
prisoners, each forced to walk arm-in-arm between able-bodied combatants, were
marched in front of a body of insurgents, which boldly advanced towards a spot
where a battalion of infantry might be drawn up in close column of companies ;
but when they got to hailing distance, one of the insurgents, gifted with a loud
voice, would shout out to the troops — ' Soldiers ! respect the cause of order ! Don't
fire on Mr. Mayor ! Respect property. Don't level your country's muskets at one
who is a man and a brother, and also a respectable banker ! Soldiers ! for the love
of God don't imbrue your hands in the blood of this holy priest 1' Confused by
this appeal, and shrinking, as was natural, from the duty' of killing peaceful
citizens, the battalion would hesitate ; and, meantime, the column of the insurgents,
covered always by its live barricade, would rapidly advance and crowd in upon the
battalion, and break its structure, and ruin it. It was thus that Lord Palmerston
had the skill to protrude Lord Aberdeen and Mr. Gladstone, and keep them
standing forward in the van of a ministry which was bringing the country into
war. No one could assail Lord Palmerston's policy without striking at him
through men whose conscientious attachment to the cause of peace was beyond
cavil." It thus seems Lord Palmerston was Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary
at once. The first session of the new cabinet closed peacefully. It had been, a laborious
one, and was not prorogued till August 29th. Lord John Russell had attempted,
unsuccessfully, the relief of the Jews. A tendency towards war and warlike
demonstrations was apparent. The government had carried the Naval Coast
Volunteers Bill— an important measure for the establishment of a naval militia,
based upon the principle of voluntary enlistment. In the month of June, a
military encampment was formed at Chobham, in Surrey, for the purpose of
exercising the troops in military evolutions,- and inuring them to the hardships
of actual service. On the 11th of August, there was a grand naval review of the
fleet at Spithead by her majesty. The spectacle was a grand one ; the squadron
assembled consisting of twenty-five ships of war— six of the line, propelled by
steam; three sailing ships of the line; and sixteen steam-frigates and sloops.
This force carried 1,076 guns ; nearly 10,000 men ; and was moved by a steam
power nominally of 9,680 horses, but really of double that amount. During
the progress of the year, the attention of parliament was frequently drawn to
matters connected with the East, and the demands of the Russian emperor on
the government of Turkey. The czar thought the pear was ripe. He had
proposed to his dear friend, the Earl of Aberdeen, tbat he should take Turkey,
and England Egypt : and now his friend, was Premier. Thus everything had a
peaceful appearance. The royal speech congratulated the members of both Houses
77

the toey opposition.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.
upon their labours; and referred to the buoyant state of the revenue, and the
steady progress of our foreign trade, as proofs of the wisdom of the commercial
policy then firmly established. It observed, that her majesty viewed, with deep
interest and concern, the serious misunderstanding which had recently arisen
between Russia and the Ottoman empire; that the Emperor of the French had
united with her majesty in earnest endeavours to reconcile differences, the con
tinuation, of which might involve Europe in war ; and expressed a hope that an
honourable arrangement would be. speedily accomplished. The speech also ex
pressed the satisfaction of her majesty at the termination of the war on the
frontiers of the settlement of the Cape of Good Hope, and the successful issue
of the war in Burmah,; and also her thankfulness for the tranquillity whieh
prevailed throughout her dominions, together with that peaceful industry and
obedience to the laws which ensure the welfare of all classes of her subjects. All
promised well for the future. Mr. Gladstone "had carried his. budget. Sir C.
Wood had reformed the Indian government. The political barometer, to all
appearance, pointed fair. For once England's wisest and greatest men had agreed
to forget all past differences, and do their best for the nation. Messrs. Cobden
and Bright were eloquent on behalf of peace ; no war-spirit had been aroused.
England was to be envied. Happy was the people that was in such a case.
Yet party feeling ran high. The Conservatives had just been long enough
in office to taste its sweets, and they longed to return to it again. In the columns
of the Press, supposed to be under the especial patronage of Mr-. Disraeli, they
pursued the coalition ministry in every possible way. They reminded Lord John
Russell that he had termed his Premier " an antiquated piece of imbecility." All
the discordant utterances of the various members of the cabinet were disinterred,
and proclaimed to the world. In his review of the session, the Premier can find
only one consolation — " One triumph, at Ieas% will mark our year,
The chivalrous Pam has sworn to clear
The blacks of the London atmosphere,
And the thajiks of the Cockneys ear,n, ;
But the burners find it far from, a joke.,.
To be driven to fuel that makes no smoke.
It may be, they say, the law of Coke ;
But it ijj not the justice of Burn."
Again, on May 15th, we find the following—" Turning the Tables :"—
"There is no body .of her majesty's subjects more delighted with the new
. pastime of turning the tables than the ministers. They made their first ex
periment on an old table in Downing Street; but it was not large enough to
supply places for all; and Lord John Russell and Lord Lansdowne sat out, eyeing
their more youthful rivals, like two venerable and benignant grandames watching
the young people. Lord, Palmerston was particularly effective :¦ he said there was
no novelty m the trick to him, as he had been doing it all his life, and never
turnf d the tables better than he did on Lord John Russell, in February last year.
SirWiliam Molesworth was not very fortunate at first, and it was thought that
fhe table was radically fixed; but after deep meditation, and the due exercise
of a very grave, volition, the Radical difficulties, quite disappeared. The mesmeric
quality of Mr. Gladstone was quite remarkable. Under his influence, the table
heaved, groaned, shrieked, and, after much agitation, finally ' split! No electric
power was observable m the Duke of Newcastle.. Lord Aberdeen went to sleep
during the process, and was roused by a squabble occasioned by Sir James Graham
being^ discovered surreptitiously raising the table with his toe, while innocently
looking -at the ceiling. This, Lord Pa merston said, was not fair, and he had
the right honourable baronet turned out." *
In another way the « Cabinet Card Party" was not bad. Aberdeen Palmerston
Russell, and Clarendon, are supposed to be playing cards. ^Deraee]J> W»erstan,
78

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [opposition wit.

"Lord Aberdeen. — Shuffle, Clarendon.
"Lord Clarendon. — You are always making me shuffle. (Cards dealt.) Its
Palmerston's lead.
"Lord Palmerston (aside). — I wish it was.. (Plays.) There, my lords,
like the princess in the story, I am perpetually dropping diamonds. (Slily.) By
the way, Aberdeen, they are very fond of diamonds in Russia, if you happen to
know such a place.
"Lord Aberdjeen (sulkily). — The muckle de'il tak Roosha and all' her
concerns. (Plays.)
"Lord John Russell. — Don't, dont! That's^ a very wicked way of talking.
(Plays.) I've followed your lead, Lord Palmerston. (Lord Clarendon plays.)
"Lord Palmerston. — And worn, the trick. Its a- way people have who do as
I bid them. If somebody I know had trumped MentschikofPs ultimatum with
Dua-dias's broadside, we four should not be sitting in a back office, the first week in
September, instead of shooting partridges. However, we- won't talk of that, or the
Premier will get revoking, to the great damage of Clarendon's peace of mind.
"¦Lord Aberdeen. — I wish ye'd jnst play. Dinna talk so, man.
a Lord Palmerston. — While: I am talking I am playing, as has been found
oat o»ee or twice, in the House and elsewhere, my dear Aberdeen. Nobody wastes
fewer words than her majesty's present Home Secretary. But holding your tongue
is not always, the best proof of wisdom-
"Lord Clarendon. — Very good prima- facie evidence of it,, though, if you
have nothing to. say.
"Lord Palmeeston. — Experto crede. I say, Aberdeen, I have a presenti
ment that despatches of a peculiarly disagreeable- character are on their way. Its
your play.
"Lord Abeedeen. — They canna weel be more disagreeable than your interlo
cutions, my Lord Palmerston.
" Lord PalmerstOjS. — Don't punt yourself out. There, you see, you've lost the
trick with the best card in your hand — a manifest judgment upon you for your- ill
temper. You never see me put out.
" Lord Aberdeen ((spitefully).. — Not since. Christmas twelvemonth*
"Lord Palmerston (laughing). — Very good — very good indeed. Who- says
the old gentleman's, memory is failing ? Christmas had a February after it too —
hadn't it, Russell ?
"•Lord John Russell. — Never mind. You played the- deuce?
"Lord Palmerston..— I did, though I ought not to say .so. That's lost.
John, you are a very steady player, and stick to the rules ;¦ but you have no dash in
youL I have. some, notion that you think you play constitutionally, and as Lord
Snaners would have done in a similar emergency; but your long whist ideas won't do."
Lord Palmerston then suggests that Clarendon should be sent on a special
mfesion to St. Petersburg. The writerj who is of Mr. Kinglake's-. opinion relative
to Loid Palmerston, continues — ¦
" Lord Aberdeen {grimly). — Are ye clean daft ? Havn't ye a club ? And
air ye sic an eediot as not to see. what he means ? Wha's to do your work while
ye are gaun ? Is the linen of the Foreign Office to be given to the hizzies of the
Home Office to wash, ye born natural ?'
" Lord Palmerston (carelessly).— Oh, as to that, any little matter that the
clerks, did not see their way in, I would put right with the greatest pleasure. Don't
study my interest.
"Lord Aberdeen— Deed I shan't. We understand. But the climate of
Roosha wadna agree with Clarendon— he's na that strong.
" Lord Palmerston.— Weli, I don't know.' He was sent to pester the Spaniards,
being of the Boring Don family ¦„ and, you know —
" ' With the addition of a; slight, pelisse,
Madrid's aaidi Moscow's cliinjes are of a piece.'

the "press" newspaper.] LIFE AND TIMES OF  [a.d. 1852.
" Lord John Russell.— There is this objection to parting with Clarendon. I
should be expected to go back to the Foreign Office; and this I am not anxious
to do I speak French very well, and with a very pure accent; but I cannot
understand what is said in reply, which rather impedes discussion.
" Lord Palmerston.— My dear Russell, it would be impossible to spare you
from the work which you discharge so admirably. Ah ! you took that trick from
them very cleverly-very neat finesse indeed. No; but I think an arrangement
might be made. If Aberdeen does not go out at once, he must go before parlia
ment meets, of course.
" Lord Aberdeen. — I just see na of course m the matter.
"Lord Palmerston.— Yes, my dear fellow, you must go. _
" Lord John Russell.— Why, yes, he must go— that's certain.
" Lord Clarendon.— Certainly, he must go— no help for it. ,,,.,,.
" Lord Palmerston.— Well, then, supposing (I merely put it hypothetically)
that Aberdeen goes to— to— to bed we'll say, and Clarendon to Russia. I
should be very happy to hand my work over to anybody— George Grey, if he is
well enough ; or your brother, Clarendon— what would he say to it ; or Bright if
you like. Well, then, give Benjamin Hall his peerage (Lord Badger isn't it?)
and let him be Clarendon's nominal successor— he's quite competent to fold and
endorse letters.
" Lord John Russell. — And the real work to be done by  ?
" Lord Palmeeston.— Myself, of course, as a— a Premier (Russell, I'm leading
up to the queen). For to that it must come, unless you are determined to smash
the coalition. "Loed Aberdeen (dashes down cards, having just assured himself that if
he goes on he loses the rub).— But I'll hear of na sic a thing ; and I'll see the hale
meenistry at the de'il before I'll consent.
" Lord Palmeeston. — Very well, my dear fellow — very well. It isn't worth
being in a rage about. If we don't settle it, the country will settle it for us ; and I,
for one, can quite afford to wait. Take up your cards. I thought you never
showed your hand if you could help it.
"Lord Abeedeen (petulantly). — No; I'll not play. I dinna like to be
fashed with impaitinencies (leaves the table).
" Lord, Palmeeston. — Just as you like. Russell and Clarendon, let's go the
odd man. "Lord John Russell. — Thank you. I'm the odd man of the cabinet
already* Let's play fright. (He takes up the cards, when a knock is heard.
Messenger enters with despatches from Russia, and the fright becomes earnest)."
In this clever brochure there is no detraction of Palmerston's talent or
influence. It is clear that, if he were not aiming at the premiership, the time
was coming when it would be open to him, and to him alone, to take it. Lookers-
on could see this. Against Lord Aberdeen the utmost abuse was directed. His
epitaph, as published in the Press, was taken from Hood's Bridge of Sighs : —
" Speak of him tenderly,
Gently and humanly ;
All that remains of him
Now is pure womanly."
Honours having been conferred, in Scotland, on Lord John Russell and Lord
Palmerston, the Press alludes to it thus : —
" Of Glasgow and of Perth made free,
Have Palmerston and Russell been :
Then Scotland hither turn an e'e,
And let the work completed be —
Make us all free of Aberdeen 1"
80

a.d. 1853.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the Crimean war.
Compliments to Palmerston show his popularity with all parties. Thus the
Garter is sent to the Earl of Carlisle. Lord Aberdeen writes —
" We were all very sorry ; but fate and position,
Forbade listing you in our late coalition ;
But the broth's boiling over : the next that we brew,
May demand the kind care of our new Cordon bleu.
" John Russell's quite pleased, though he looks rather grim,
To give up a garter we'd thought of for him ;
But he's booked for the next that a knight may abandon,
If after next year he's a leg left to stand on.
" Lord Palmerston says (and its truly provoking,
That worldling will always keep jeering and joking),
There'll be nothing in future the garters to fill ;
For he's smashed all the legs by his Betting-house Bill.
" But Gladstone retorts, and I must say completely,
(You know, when he's playful he smiles very sweetly),
That though of some candidates thus were bereft,
The garter is meant for the legs that are left."
But enough of this. The historian may not disregard the trifles which show
in what way popular feeling tends. The coalition ministry, apparently so strong,
was, in reality, weak. There was little cordiality between them. Its members
differed entirely among themselves. Some were for the ballot; others against it:
some for reform ; others not so. , It was the same on all questions. Lord Aberdeen
was understood to have quite made up his mind to the departure of the Turk from
Europe. Lord Palmerston, on the contrary, always had faith in the future of the
Turkish empire. People were puzzled, and annoyed, and disgusted by the spectacle
of a ministry thus devoid of common opinions and principles ; and Mr. Disraeli
was quite justified in declaring that England did not love coalitions. There was
much dissatisfaction at finding that the country was governed neither by the
Conservative nor Liberal party, and solely from personal and petty causes. The
Chancellor of the Exchequer professed, at that time, Conservative opinions ; yet
from a personal feeling, he refused to act with the leader of the Conservative .party
in the House of Commons. So, again, the morbid vanity of Woburn Abbey had
to be consulted ; and Lord Aberdeen, the dupe of an intrigue to turn out Lord
Palmerston, was to be the bond of junction between statesmen whose personal
interests and ambitions clashed. It was impossible such a state of things could
long continue. Meanwhile, a perplexed sovereign and an amazed people drifted
into war, in spite of Lord Aberdeen and the apostles of perpetual peace.

CHAPTER VI.
THE CRIMEAN WAR.
We enter on a dark chapter in English history. In 1853, the nation went to war
with Russia.
The causes of that war were long in preparation. Up to the time of Peter
the Great, the policy and ambition of Russia 'had been oriental; but from that
period she became mixed up in the affairs of Europe. Peter gave her the dominion
of the Baltic, and Catherine II. secured her supremacy in the Black Sea. Never
losing sight of the suffering Christians in the East, she pushed her way till the
partition of Poland established her influence in Europe. By her efforts against
Napoleon, she still further increased her power ; and, at the time of which we write,
81

causes of the war.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1853.

she had afresh renewed it by the way in which she had trampled out the in
surrection in Hungary, and saved Austria in her hour of danger. All over Europe
Russia was viewed with mistrust, hatred, and fear.
Turkey seemed the natural prey of Russia. To gain possession of Constanti
nople was supposed to be, the hereditary policy of her czars. Russia had also
another motive for interfering.. Scattered throughout the Turkish empire were
some fourteen or fifteen millions, of Christians, mostly in connection with the
Greek church ; and of these the czar was the protector and the head. " Each victory
over the Turks, each advantage, claimed by her," says Todleben, " became an
additional motive for Russia to insert in the treaties of peace some clause, intended
either to improve the condition of the Christians in Turkey, or to stipulate for the
creation of new rights in their favour." By such means Russia became the natural
protectress of the Christians, under the rule of the Sublime. Porte. It will be seen
at once that no such claim could be admitted without putting an end to the
integrity of Turkey.
Europe was, however, peaceful. As usual, France was the first to interrupt
the calm of the world.
" The ambassador of France," said our Foreign Secretary, Lord Clarendon,
" was the first; to disturb the status quo in which the matter rested. Not that the
disputes of the Greek and Latin churches were not very active, but that, without
some political action on the part of France, these quarrels would never have
troubled the relations of friendly powers. If report is to be believed, the French
ambassador was the first to speak of having recourse to force, and to threaten
the intervention of a French fleet to enforce the demands of his country. We
should deeply regret any dispute that might lead to conflict between two of the
great powers of Europe ; but when we reflect that the quarrel is for exclusive
privileges on a spot near which the heavenly host proclaimed peace on earth,
and good-will towards men — ^when we see rival churches contending for mastery
in the very place where Christ died for mankind — the thought of such a spectacle
is melancholy indeed."
The actual subject of dispute was a very simple one. " Stated in bare terms,"
says Mr. Kinglake, " the question was, whether, for the purpose of passing through
the building into their grotto, the Latin monks should have the key of the chief
door of the church of Bethlehem, and whether they should be at liberty to place,
in. the sanctuary of the Nativity, a silver star adorned with the arms of France?
The Latins also claimed, once a year, the privilege of worshipping at the shrine
of the Blessed Mary, in the church of Gethsemane; and they went- to assert their
right to have a cupboard and a lamp, in the tomb of the Virgin : but in this
last pretension they were not well supported by France ; and, virtually, it was their
claim to have a key of the great door of the church of Bethlehem, instead of being
put off with a key of the lesser door; which long remained insoluble, and had to be
decided by the advance of armies, and the threatening movements of fleets."
France gained the day, and the Czar Nicholas determined to be even with her.
Hence the celebrated mission of Mentschikoff to Constantinople
_ " The Emperor Nicholas," writes Mr. Kinglake, "held an absolute sway over
his empire ; and his power was not moderated by the salutary resistance of min
isters who had strength enough to decline to take part in acts which they disap
proved. The" old restraints, which used sometimes to fetter the power' of the
Russian monarchs had fallen away, and nothing had yet come in their stead.
Holding the boundless authority of an oriental potentate, the czar was armed,
besides, With all the power which is supplied by high organisation, and the clever
appliances of modern times. What he- chose to do, he actually did. He might he
sitting alone, and' reading a despatch ; and if it happened that its. contents made
him angry, he, could touch a. bell, and kindle, a war without hearing counsel from
any hying man In the. room where he laboured, he- could hear, over-head, the
clicking ot machinery ;. aai fet liked the sound of restless- magnets, for they were

a.d. 1853.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the emperor Nicholas.

giving instant effeet to his will in regions far away. He was of a stern unre
lenting nature. He displayed, when he came to be tried, a sameness of ideas and
language, and a want of resource, which indicated poverty of intellect ; but this
dearth' within was masked by the brilliancy of the qualities which adorned the
surface ; and he was so capable of business, and had such a vast activity, that he
was able to arrogate to himself an immense share of the governance of his
subjects. Indeed, by striving to extend his management beyond the proper
compass of a single mind, he disturbed the march of business, and so far super
seded the responsibility of his servants, that he ended by lessening, to a perilous
extent, the number of gifted men who, in former times, had taken part in the
counsels of state. He had been merciless towards the Polish nation ; but, whilst.
this sternness made him an object of hatred to millions of discomfited wen, and to
other millions of men who felt for them in their sorrows, it tended, perhaps, to
increase, at the time, his ascendance by making him an object of dread ; and it
trebled the delight of being with him in his gentle mood. When he was friendly,
or chose to seem so, there was a glow and frankness in his manner which had
an irresistible charm. He had discarded, in some measure, his predecessor's
system of governing Russia through the aid of foreigners ; and took a pride in
his own people, and understood their worth. In the great emoire of the north,
religion is closely blended with the national, sentiments ; and, in this composite
shape, it had a strong hold upon the czar. It did not much govern him in his
daily life ; and his way of joining in the service of the church, seemed to disclose
something like impatience and disdain ; but no one doubted that faith was deeply
rooted in his mind. He had the air of a man raised above the level of common
worshippers, who imagined that he was appointed to serve the cause of his church
by great imperial achievements, and not by humble feats, of morality and devotion..
It will be seen but too plainly that the Emperor Nicholas could be guilty of
saying one thing and doing another ; and it may be supposed, therefore, that at
once, and in plain terms, he ought to be charged with duplicity ; yet there are
circumstances which make one falter in coming to. such a conclusion. He had
reigned, and had personally governed, for some s^yen-and-twenty years ; and
although, during that period, he. had done much to raise bitter hatred, the most
sagacious statesman in Europe placed faith in hjs personal honour. It is certain
that he had the love of truth. When he sought to speak of what was fair and
honourable, he travelled into, our language for the word which, spoke his meaning,
and claimed to have the same standard of uprightness as an English gentleman.
It was known, also, that his ideal of grandeur was the character of the Duke of
Wellington, No man could have made that choice without, having truth in him.
" It would seem, however, that beneath the virtues which, for more than a
quarter of a century, had enabled the czar to stand before Europe as a man of
honour and truth, there lurked a set of opposite, qualities ; and that, when he
reached- a period of life, which had often been found a trying one to men of the
Romanoff family, a deterioration began to take, place, which shook the ascendant
of his better nature. . After the beginning of 1853, there were strange alterations
in his conduct. At one time he seemed to be so frank and straightforward, that the
most wary statesman COuld not, and would not, believe him to. be intending deceit.
Then, and even within a few hours, he would steal off, and be. false. But the vice
which he disclosed in those weak intervals, was not the profound deceit of state
craft, but rather the odd, purposeless cunning of a gipsy or a savage, who shows,
by some sudden and harmless sign of his wild blood, that even after years of con
formity to. European ways, he has not been completely reclaimed." As. a military
man, he was not only without the qualities for wielding an army in the field, but
was mistaken, also, as to the way in which the best soldiers are made. Under his
sway, Russia was so oppressively drilled, that much of the fire and spirit of enter
prise which are needed for war, was crushed out by military training. No man
could tojJ,, however, with more zeal than he did in that branch of industry which

LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1853.

seeks to give uniformity and mechanic action to bodies of men. He was, an
unwearied inspector of troops. He kept, close at hand, a great number of small
wooden images, clothed in various uniforms ; and one of the rooms in his favourite
palace was filled with these military dolls. As a diplomatist, Nicholas was no
match for his ancient foe, Sir Stratford Canning.
Captain Gronow tells a characteristic anecdote ofthe czar on the occasion of his
last visit to England. He returned home vid the Hague, for the purpose of seeing
his relative, the King of Holland. During the few days he remained there,
a levee was held by the king, in order that his imperial majesty might have an
opportunity of seeing the flower of the Dutch aristocracy. Among those present,
the emperor singled out a remarkably tall but well-built man, whose right arm had
been amputated, owing to a wound received in a duel. The emperor, little
imagining how the limb had been lost, approached the baron, and inquired in what
battle he had had the misfortune of losing his arm. " I lost it in a duel, your
majesty," was the reply. The emperor, without a word, turned upon his heel, and
said afterwards, to one of his friends, " It is a pity so fine a fellow should have been
sacrificed : he had better have been killed in battle." In England the czar won
golden opinions among our aristocracy, who little dreamt that he came here to
tempt our government into a path that would have led to shame ; or that, baffled
and maddened, and defeated by western Europe, he was so soon to die of a
broken heart.
Such was the Czar Nicholas. His ambassador rightly represented his passions
and his prejudices, but was in no way gifted to advise and control. In an evil
hour, instead of Count Orloff, Prince Mentschikoff was sent to Constantinople.
" Mentschikoff," writes Mr. Kinglake, " was a prince of the sort which Court
almanacs describe as serene. He was a general, a high admiral, the governor of
a great province ; and, in short, so far as concerns official and titular rank, was one
of the chief of the czar's subjects. But Russia has not disclosed the grounds on
which it was thought fit to entrust to him, first the peace, and then the military
renown of his country ; for when Russians are asked about the qualities of mind
which caused a man to be chosen for a momentous embassy, and for the command of
an army defending his country from invasion, they only say that the prince was
famous for the strange and quaint sallies of his wit. However, he was of the school
of those who desired to govern the affairs of the state upon principles violently
Russian, and without the aid and counsel of foreigners. It was understood that he
held the Turks in _ contempt ; and it was said, also, that he entertained a strong
dislike to the English. He had not been schooled in diplomacy ; but he was to be
entrusted with the power of using a threatening tone, and was to be supported by
a fleet held in readiness, and by bodies of troops impending on the Turkish frontier.
The Emperor Nicholas seems to have thought that harsh words, and a display of
force, might be made to supply want of skill."
The policy of the czar might have prevailed. The sultan might have given
way, had it not been for Sir Stratford Canning, the English ambassador at
Constantinople. Viscount Stratford de Redcliffe— better known in Europe as Sir Stratford
Canning, and, under that name, identified with British policy in Turkey— is the son
of Stratford Canning, a merchant, who was uncle to George Canning, the statesman ;
was educated at Eton; and, in 1807, obtained an appointment as precis writer
m the Foreign Office. In 1808, he accompanied Mr. Adair on a special mission
to Constantinople; and was, next year, made Secretary of Embassy, upon Mr.
Adair s appointment as permanent minister. In 1813, he returned to England
to complete his studies; and, in 1814, was advanced by the government to the
rank of Minister Plenipotentiary; sent to Bale; and assisted in framing the treaty
which united the Swiss cantons in the Helvetic confederation. He was then
variously employed ; and, in 1814, settled down as ambassador at Constantinople,
where he steadily laboured to exalt British influence, to weaken that of Russia,
84

A.D. 1853.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [passage of the pruth.
and to maintain the integrity of the Turkish empire. His lordship is the hero
of Mr. Kinglake, who writes of him — " This kinsman of Mr. Canning the minister,
had been bred from early life to the career of diplomacy ; and whilst he was so
young that he could still, perhaps, think in smooth Eton Alcaics more easily than
in the diction of high contracting parties, it was given him to negotiate a treaty,
which helped to bring ruin upon the enemy of his country. How to negotiate
with a perfected skill never degenerating into craft — how to form such a scheme
of policy that his country might be brought to adopt it without swerving ; and
how to pursue this always: — promoting it steadily abroad, and gradually forcing the
home government to go all lengths in its support — this he knew : and he was,
moreover, so gifted by nature, that whether men studied his despatches, or whether
they listened to his spoken words, or whether they were only bystanders, caught
and fascinated by the grace of his presence, they could scarcely help thinking, that
if the English nation was to be maintained in peace, or drawn into war by the will
of a single mortal, there was no man who looked so worthy to fix its destiny as
Sir Stratford Canning. He had faults which made him an imperfect Christian ;
for his temper was fierce, and his assertion of self was so closely involved in
his conflicts, that he followed up his opinions with his feelings, and the whole
strength of his imperious nature. But his fierce temper being always under
control when purposes of state so required, was far from being an infirmity,
and was rather a weapon of exceeding sharpness ; for it was so wielded by him
as to have more tendency to cause dread and surrender than generate resistance.
Then, too, every judgment which he pronounced was unfolded in words so complete
as to exclude the idea that it could even be varied, and to convey, therefore, the
idea of duration. As though yielding to fate itself, the Turkish mind used to
bend and fall down before him." Such was the great Eltchi, between whom and
the czar there had been a personal rivalry of many years.
Thus stood the question. England, France, Austria, and Prussia were all
agreed to resist the claims of Russia. It was because of France — because Louis
Napoleon wanted to do something to make himself popular — that we drifted into
war. Such is Mr. Kinglake's theory. There would have been no war, he maintains,
had we not separated from Austria and Prussia, and allowed France to lead us as
she wished. War was inevitable, we imagine, on account of the reaction which
took place at this time in the country against the extreme teaching of the peace-
at-any-price party. The czar believed the influence of Messrs. Cobden and Bright
to be greater than it really was : he knew that Lord Aberdeen had the most intense
hatred of war ; that Mr. Gladstone, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was of a
similar opinion. He felt that Austria was bound to him by ties of gratitude ;
that the King of Prussia was under his thumb ; that England and France could
never agree to pursue the same foreign policy. Herein he blundered, and war was
the result. Todleben confesses as much.
It is idle here to give the details of the diplomatic struggle which ensued
prior to the declaration of war. When the Porte confirmed the rights of the
Latin Christians to that celebrated key, much to the prejudice (writes Todleben) of
the Greek Christians, Russia was forced to take active measures to vindicate her
position. The Porte, under the influence of Lord Stratford de Redcliffe, trifled
and delayed with the firman demanded by the Emperor Nicholas ; and finally in
troduced modifications in it, to the prejudice of the Eastern church. The czar
then %aimed at a treaty which was to secure the protectorate of all the Christians
in Turkey to him ; and the Divan would not hear of it. Instigated, Todleben says,
mainly by the ambassador of England, Prince Mentschikoff left the city of Con
stantine. The diplomatists were delighted. They saw their way to force Russia
to acts which would compromise her in the eyes of Europe ; and she very soon
gave them the pretext which they wanted. The occupation of the principalities fol
lowed the refusal of the Porte to accept the czar's ultimatum ; but the allied fleets
arrived at Tenedos three weeks before the passage of the Pruth, and encouraged 85

sinope.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1853.
Turkey to reject the proposal. Although England and France might have de
clared war as soon as Prince Gortschakoff, at the head of his 70,000, took hold of
" gage materiel," they sought to gain time by diplomacy ; and, under the plausible
pretext of a desire for peace, they opened the conference at Vienna ; the result of
which was, the Austrian note of the 1st of August — approved by the western
powers, and admitted by Russia, with the proviso that the Porte should accept
the note without modifications. But not only did Turkey reject the note as it
stood, but demanded modifications which Russia could never entertain. Then it
was that the secret desire of the western powers for a European war was made
visible to all—a statement not quite true as regards England, Which clearly, in
the happy phrase of Lord Clarendon, drifted into war. Austria and Prussia might,
indeed, still have preserved peace by energetic measures ; but, drawn along fatally
in the current of public opinion, they kept aloof, and Austria at last passed the
bounds of neutrality, and had recourse to menaces. The French emperor had
made up his mind to war. The British enlightened public were of the same
opinion. To war with Russia was to war With despotism. War with Russia, argued
the democracy of the Tower Hamlets and Marylebone, would bring freedom in its
train. Alas ! it did nothing i all it did was to destroy England's prestige on the
continent, where she had hitherto held the first rank.
War was declared by Turkey on the 3rd of October ; but the western powers
still hung back. The slaughter of Sinope hurried them into action : the attack was
no sudden surprise ; and it seems strange— very strange— that Lord Stratford and
the Divan did not provide against it. It was a terrible affair. On the 30th of
November, the Russian fleet attacked the Turkish fleet as it lay in the harbour of
Sinope in the Black Sea. Admiral Nachimoff, with six sail of the line, bote down
upon the Turkish squadron, consisting of seven frigates, a sloop, a steamer, and
some transports. The Turks were the first to fire, and to bring Upon their little
squadron the broadsides of six sail of the line ; and although they fought without
hope, they were firm and unflinching to the last. Either they refused to strike
their colours, or else, if their colours went down, the Russian admiral was blind
*2 x, Xm S¥?a1' and continued to slaughter them. Except the steamer, every one
°A. ™T £U , Ve^elf was destr°yed. It was believed, by men in authority, that
4,000 Turks were killed; that less than 4,000 survived; and that all those were
wounded. The feeble batteries of the place suffered under the enemy's fire, and the
town was much shattered. "This onslaught upon Sinope, and upon vessels lying
L£°f ' .? f^^V'^f3 an attack uP°n Turkish territory, and was
to rfZ T ^ f the,.Frelieh and EngUsh ambassadors bad been authorised
Th»TL A.^ T ^r aCtl°n ^ fleetS 0f the weston P™ers- Moreover, this
^.httt^ %ma'al dT '' and a11 this while the fleets of the western
the d ^ter Thi7b g Stlllf1,the Eosphorus, within easy reach of the scene of
the disaster The honour of France was wounded. England was touched to the
quick. But the czar enjoyed the delicious sensation of I sweet revenue > and by
judicious ministerial manipulation, the rage of the public in France ^fd England
lence 21^1^^^'^"^^ the am^— dors, whose ciupabtnegn-
gence had permitted the massacre at Sinope to take place. So ansry were people
wee fe^ Z who d^bf STS* ^ ^^ & France anS^n Jandf E
£ Russia^ Itf that * u6 r/^^ °f Sin°Pe was a treacherous deed.
St PeterstarTtonTZ ^If *?"? Paris and London 5 a*<* the cabinet of
bt, L-eteisburg took measures, m the winter of 1853, and the sprino- of 1854 to
sucTsTes'o^rTurK/^O18* ^°T °f th& »«* X^fhS tll\u
and Turkey had Ihown I t* °mer/aslla' °n «"> Danube, had been continuous;
prepared I In Asia the ttT ^ phyS1CaJ C°UraSe for which E™P* *as not
cMe^tising ^i^]^^ J^e^?^ Sm™ a^»st ^ Turks,
and dissension among themS.7 ^ commanders> ^ ^om jealousy
IngSt. Petersburg the most intense activity prevailed. Numerous couriers

A.D. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the BALTIC fleet.

 *- 
were leaving daily for every part of the empire* to hasten on the armaments ; and
agents were sent everywhere to waken up the ferocity and fanaticism of the
orthodox population, and to arouse, from the very depths of Asia, the Mongols and
Tartars to join in this great warfare against the powers of Europe. This fanatic
feeling extended throughout the whole of the Russian empire against the Turks and
their allies— a feeling which the Russian government did its best to excite and
influence. It is said that the Russian clergy offered 60,000,000 silver roubles to
the emperor; the government of Konar, 1,500,000; of Moscow, 3,000,000; and
the average amount of seventy-two governments was estimated at 2,000,000 roubles
each. The emperor was described as ljving in a state of great excitement, regarding
himself as the chosen instrument, in the hand of God, of driving the Moslems out
of Europe, and only regretting that he should have allowed so many years to pass
without fulfilling his destiny. The population of St. Petersburg had been worked up
to the highest pitch of zeal — cheering the emperor, whenever he appeared in
public, with the wildest enthusiasm, and denouncing as traitors all those who dared
to speak of peace. The only man who was supposed to advocate a peaceful Course
was Count Nesselrode ; and he, consequently, lost his influencfe with his imperial
master. On the 18th of February, the British ambassador, Sir H. Seymour, left St.
Petersburg; and, on the 21st, the French ambassador did the same.
In England the war mania was at its height. Large meetings were held in
the provincial towns and cities of the kingdom, to Urge on ministers to hostilities
with the czar ; and talented orators went through the land, decrying the supineness
of government, and even*imputing treason to them. Already a French and English
squadron had anchored in Besica Bay.
On Saturday, the 11th of March, 1854, after a grand banquet at the Reform
Club, at which Lord Palmerston presided with his accustomed bonhommie, the
Baltic fleet departed from Spithead on its warlike mission, amidst the cheers of
thousands of spectators, and in the presence of the queen and royal family. Sir
Charles Napier, the hero of Acre, was appointed commander-in-chief of this
formidable naval force— consisting of forty-four ships, manned by 22,000 men ;
mounting about 2,000 guns; and propelled by a steam power of more than 15,000
horses. The French contingent of the fleet, in the Black Sea, was composed of a
greater number of first-class ships than the British; whilst their contingent in the
Baltic fell short of ours.
On the 12th of March, a treaty of alliance was concluded between France,
England, and the Porte, consisting of five articles. By the first, France and
England engage to support Turkey by force of arms, until the conclusion of a
peace which shall secure the integrity and independence of the sultan's rights- and
dominions. By the second, the Porte engages not to conclude peace without the
consent of the allies. The latter promise to evacuate, after the termination of the
war, and at the request of the Porte, all those parts of the empire which they may
una it necessary to occupy during the continuance of hostilities. This treaty
remainedopen for the acceptance of the other great powers in Europe; and it
TqX before fh6effeCtS °f ^ *"** ***** ***"**"* °f '^ '00mPtote
Turklvof ^OMnnnl' tW° "Tl^ coy^n^one relatinS to a loa* made to
tavZ lb ?'? ' 000/™> by England and France, who not only undertook to
sTou d : bf™ rtr^°f ^ a?lliary tr°°PS' but agreed that a11 othGr Expenses
in fevW; Pf It 11 ? reSp6f Ve g°veraments. The second related to the reform
S tJZ • °n"stli"Ls' Which was of such a radical character, that the Sheik-
wer,frJTgn ^ °^' as hecou'ld n°t possibly sanction measures which
The nM T tT116 *he^le fabric of Islamism. Nor was he the only opponent ;
ri£ t^tS"? PxarJtyT,th,mWng {t Prefe*able to grant the demands of the Musco
vite. ±!ut Redschid PashaTmew better.
An Anglo-French ultimatum was forwarded to St." Petersburg : but the reply of
87

ODESSA BOMBARDED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1854.
 ¦  w 
Count Nesselrode was — "No answer would be given by the imperial Court." The
allies could scarcely haye expected one. *
On March the 27th, a royal message was brought down to both houses of
parliament; in which her majesty declared, that she relied with confidence on the
exertions of her brave and loyal subjects to support her in her determination to
employ the power and resources of the nation for protecting the dominions of the
sultan against the encroachments of Russia. After a long recapitulation of the
wrongs which Turkey had received at the hands of Russia, and a reference to the
tedious correspondence, and fruitless efforts of negotiation to avert those hostilities,
the message stated — "It is but too obvious that the Emperor of Russia has entered
upon a course of policy which, if unchecked, must lead to the destruction of the
Ottoman empire ;" and concluded as follows: — "In this conjuncture, her majesty
feels called upon, by regard for her ally, the integrity and independence of whose
empire have been recognised as essential to the peace of Europe — by the sympathies
of her people with right against wrong — by desiring to avert from her dominions
most injurious consequences, and to save Europe from the preponderance of a
power which has violated the faith of treaties, and defies the opinion of the
civilised world — to take up arms, in conjunction with the Emperor of the French, in
defence of the sultan."
This proclamation was soon followed up. In a few days, jubilant and joyous,
as if for a holiday parade or a Hyde Park review, British troops were on their way
to the East. They consisted of five divisions of infantry, of six battalions each ;
and one of cavalry. The artillery mounted fifty-six field guns ; and the whole
force may be reckoned, in round numbers, at 30,000. The French forces also
started at the same time. Their first landing-place was Gallipoli, a little penin
sula to the west of the Dardanelles. Thence they moved further up the country.
In April, 10,000 British troops were encamped at Scutari, on the Asiatic side of
the Bosphorus ; and 20,000 French were on the opposite side. Lord Raglan, the
British commander-in-chief, arrived at Constantinople on the 29th of April : on
the 10th of May, the Duke of Cambridge and Marshal St. Arnaud. Subsequently
the allies moved to Varna, where not less than 40,000 were assembled, including
Egyptians and Turks.
The allied fleets, by this time in the Black Sea, now prepared to commence
operations against the enemy by an attack on the port and town of Odessa, thus
originated. On the 6th of April, the Furious steam-frigate went to Odessa, to
take on board the consuls, and such of the English as might desire to leave that
town upon the approach of hostilities with Russia. A few moments after she had
left the quay, and whilst her boat still hoisted the flag of truce, she was fired upon
from the batteries. This breach of military custom amongst civilised nations was
speedily avenged. At 4 p.m. on the 21st, the French and English admirals sent
in a flag of truce to demand the surrender of the Russian, French, and English
ships lying in the quarantine harbour ; to which no answer was returned. The
following morning, twelve steam-vessels of the combined squadron commenced the
bombardment of the military port ; and, in a few hours, destroyed the fortifi
cations and the magazines of the Russians. The magazine in which the naval and
the military stores were deposited exploded. Twelve vessels of war were sunk, and
thirteen Russian transports, with their stores, were captured. The loss of the
allies amounted only to five killed and twelve wounded. A little while after, the
people of Odessa had their revenge, when H.M.S. the Tiger grounded, and* was
forced to surrender to the Russians. The Tiger was of 1,274 tons burthen, mounted
six guns, and carried a crew of 226. As the ship could not be removed, she was
set fire to and sunk. Some of her guns were taken, as trophies, to Odessa.
i j-TviSi6 Baltlc' the &** under Sir c- Napier found Cronstadt inaccessible ; and
he did little more than seal up the Russian fleet.
• Th-6JUrks. and Eussians were bus7 m the siege ana* defence of Silistria. The
siege oUhe fortress was undertaken by Prince Paskiewitsch in person. The spirits

A.D. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [siege of silistria.
of the besieged began to droop ; no help seemed at hand. The Turkish troops in
Bulgaria remained quiescent. Had they made any movement the siege would
probably have been raised. During this time there was a great Anglo-French
force at Varna, not more than seventy miles distant ; and at Shumla, still nearer,
there was Omer Pasha, with his 70,000 Turks : still nothing was done to relieve the
fortress; when two young British officers — Butler and Nasmyth — arrived at
Silistria, on their way from India. They undertook the defence ; raised the spirits of
the besieged ; sorties were made successfully ; the assaults of the Russians were repeat
edly driven back, and their killed and wounded were very numerous. The Turks lost
their commander ; but, on the 4th of June, Omer Pasha put 30,000 men in motion, _
and ordered them to advance to the relief of Silistria, which they entered the next
day, partly breaking through the Russian lines. In vain Russia hurled her forces
on the besieged. On the last assault, General Schilders, who, twenty-five years
before, had established his reputation by taking this fortress, was hit by a cannon-
ball, which carried off his thighs. General Luders had his jaw struck away.
Count Orloff was dangerously wounded; as was Prince Gortschakoff. Prince
Paskiewitsch was more fortunate; his wound was but small. The loss of the
Russians was estimated at 30,000; and their retreating army was thoroughly
demoraUsed. During the operations of the siege the brave Captain Butler died
from exhaustion, occasioned by excessive fatigue : he was only twenty-eight, and
was honourably interred by the Turks. The brave ensign, Nasmyth, lived to return
to England, and he received from his sovereign the promotion to which he had an
undoubted right. Todleben gives a very different version of the matter. Twice
only, according to him, did the besieged attempt to attack the Russian trenches.
On the night of the 20th of May they made a sortie, in which they were repulsed ;
and, in the ardour of the pursuit, two battalions which followed them into the
Arabi Tabia, being left without support, were driven out, with a loss of 700 men.
On the 3rd of June a second sortie was repulsed, with slaughter. On the night of
the 20th of June, when the Russian troops were drawn up for the assault against
the ruined parapets, a courier suddenly arrived with the order to raise the
siege, and retire across the Danube. Their loss during the siege was only 2,500, of
whom 700 fell in the sortie; so that the boasted defence only cost the Russians
fifty men a day. It is hard to write history when there are such startling
discrepancies; but we can scarcely believe that the Russian army would have retired
so precipitately from Silistria, if they had been quite sure of inflicting on their
hated enemies an additional disgrace. Moreover, Todleben tells us— actuated by a
desire for peace, and for a limited circle of military operations, as well as to save
central Europe the horrors of war, the czar, yielding to Austria and Prussia, ordered
his troops to recross the Pruth on the 15th of September; and Prussia
ceased to take any part in the conference at Vienna. The moment Austria
occupied the principalities, the allies were left free to undertake an expedition
against the Crimea; which, according to Todleben, would have been otherwise
impossible.
un. ?teanwihilf' the Anglo-French forces were ingloriously dying of cholera.
What was to be done ? On the 26th of August, a council of war was held at
Varna by all the French and English generals, who decided upon the expedition to
the Crimea. Marshal St. Arnaud issued an order of the day, in which he stated
tSJa «T6. -, C°m! £°r %hting and conquering. The spirits of the army
revived; Sebastopol was to be taken. J
™™Th\eXpediti0n *,° the Crimea bein£ dec*ded on> tne sniP3 destined for that
Se f%™ t0 rendezvous in the little bay of Baltjik, where the sea was literally
covered, for the space of six miles, with the splendid shipping of the allies. Here
^ S J'^ -a .°f thQ> line~te11 En£?lisb> sixteen French, and eleven Turkish ;•
with about 100 frigates and vessels of war ; and nearly 200 of the finest steam and
sailing transports m- the world, lying at anchor in one immense semicircle, nine
or ten deep. Each division of the army carried lights, corresponding to the number
n. H 89

THE CRIMEA INVADED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1854.
of their division ; and at night, when the ships were lighted up, the .effect was
described as extraordinary and most interesting : 60,000 troops were safely em
barked by the 4th of September ; and, on the 9th, the expedition anchored off the
Isle of Serpents, at the mouth of the Danube. A council of war was held as to
the best place for landing troops. The Caradoc was sent on an exploring ex
pedition. Eupatoria, about forty miles from Sebastopol, was selected ; and there, or
in its neighbourhood, the allies landed.
We now turn to Todleben. He tells us that, early in the quarrel, the czar
sent the chief of the artillery staff, and another officer, to arm the batteries of
Sebastopol; and that, in the autumn of 1853, in spite of his pacific assurances, the
coast batteries were mounted with 333 guns; red-hot shot furnaces were con
structed ; men were trained by constant firing ; and experiments were made to de
termine the best ranges, and most destructive charges and projectiles, under the
direction of Prince Mentschikoff. In the beginning of 1854, the exertions of the
authorities were redoubled. Fifty-nine guns were mounted on new. works. The
Black Sea fleet, now concentrated in Sebastopol harbour, was disposed there in
March, 1854, so as to combine its fire with that of the batteries. Although
Mentschikoff was convinced, particularly as the year wore on, that no descent
would be made on the Crimea, he provided, as far as possible, to meet such a danger.
Fire-ships were prepared ; telegraphs and coast patrols were established ; and as
early as May, 1854, the Wasp battery, and the Telegraph battery, and a mortar
battery were constructed, and armed with eighteen pieces. During the winter and
spring, indeed, he caused additions to be made to the land defences : but he was
persuaded that it was only necessary to throw up such works as would stop a small
corps, landed for a coup de maim,, from marching into the city ; and he did not
think, nor did those around him think, that the allies would be imprudent enough
to land an army in a country so destitute of resources, that even water fit for
drinking was very scanty. In the middle of April, Todleben was sent to Sebas
topol, little dreaming of the glory he was to win by its defence. Under his in
spiration the aspect of the place speedily changed : 145 guns were mounted along
a line' exceeding four miles in length, leaving many open spaces ; and sixty guns
were mounted on the north side. Prince Mentschikoff had available, for the
defence, 39,000 men, eighty-eight guns of the land forces, and 18,000 sailors ;
but there were also about 12,000 men stationed, under General Khomontoff, in other
parts of the Crimea. Todleben makes out that the town was in a poor state for
defence ; and that it was deficient in materials as well as in men. He says there
were only 172 guns, all under twenty-four-pounders, in the forts, although 1,944
old pieces had been deposited, from time to time, by men-of-war in the arsenal; of
which 931 might, m case of need, be rendered available for the works. It is clear,
however, Sebastopol was intended to strike a blow, not to receive one; and for
such a purpose it was well adapted and prepared. Prince Mentschikoff, in placing
the harbour, arsenal and city, beyond the reach of a raid, had done, as he thought,
all that was required; when, on the morning of the 12th of September, about ten
oclock,_he was summoned from his breakfast, to hear that two men-of-war were
visible m the horizon, m advance of a dense cloud of black smoke which rose over
T™lfa' ™+Tme *° news. that twenty vessels of war bad doubled Cape
Loukone The telegraph threw its arms up in despair, when, later in the day, it
announced that the enemy's flotilla swarmed by hundreds; and, at last, a panting
wTs S,S fV1*1 ^V^3 ^ the number of bostile vessels was o great, it
s^t£Hd2r^ prince was suddeniy caiied ^ to °ppose a
to artecVXjS ma?6r ™l eqU£dJy fePtical- He was certain the allies meant
concentrate^^ H ^ ™ ^cholaieff, and would not diminish the force
hisemoti™ v! V aAd WheU-he heardof their threatening Sebastopol,
when the deZf T7 gf • ^^ness relates, that the emperor was at table
when the despatch containing the unwelcome news was handed to him. He gave

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [battle of the alma.
a slight start when he read the contents ; his brow flushed ; he crumpled up the
paper in his hand, and, rising suddenly, stalked out of the room to the empress's
boudoir, in which there was, at the time, one of the ladies in waiting standing by
a window. " My God !" he exclaimed, with great emotion, " it is true : the French
and English have landed in the Crimea !" Then the empress, by a gesture, dis
missed the lady, and was left alone with his majesty of all the Russias. The czar
was indeed perplexed by this unexpected blow. How much more puzzled was his
lieutenant ! For the first time the potency of steam was demonstrated in the most
unpleasant manner ; the enemy, indeed, were off Eupatoria : but if the prince
hastened thither with his army, the fleet might at once sail for some point near
Sebastopol, disembark troops, carry the unfinished land-defences, and decide the
fate of the city before he could get back from Eupatoria. Mentschikoff, as we
know, decided on taking a defensive position on the Alma. The delay of the allies
in landing was of great advantage to him : it enabled him to collect reinforcements,
and double his army.
The invading armada came to an anchor off Old Fort on September 14th.
Immediate preparations were made for landing. The French were the first on
shore: but the English speedily followed. The landing was a scene of extra
ordinary bustle and excitement. In a day the scene was changed. The weather
was bad ; and the British troops, without tents or covering, were in a deplorable
condition. On the morning of September 19th, the march began. They took
their time : they were from nine till two traversing the ten miles between Old
Fort and the Boulganack. Lord Cardigan then pushed forward a reconnaissance
of cavalry, and drove in the Russian outposts. Mentschikoff, in order to support
them, and feel the force of the enemy, despatched a brigade of hussars, supported
by two regiments of infantry, and two light batteries. Lord Raglan having
perceived this, sent up the light division, the second division, two additional
regiments of horse, and a field battery to sustain his troops. Soon after, the allies
began to retire, and the Russians did the same.
The allies bivouacked nearly on the line of the Alma ; and Todleben tells
us how the Russian army watched our fire through the night, and saw the sea
illuminated by the lights on board our ships. Before dawn next morning, a single
gun was heard from the French flag-ship. Then they heard the diane beat along
the French Unes ; then the reveillie sounded along the English front : finally, the
Russian troops were roused for the work of the day by the hymn to Heaven—
" Qu'il est Glorisux." The troops sank on their knees, while the priests traversed
their ranks with the cross and the holy water. Thus fortified they prepared to
meet the coming foe. The Russians were drawn up in a position which was very
favourable for defence in some respects, while in others it was very disadvantageous.
One of the principal drawbacks was its great length— more than five miles;
another was, that the left flank could not touch the sea, in consequence of the fire
of the fleet. The Russians numbered, according to Todleben, 33,600 men, with
ninety-six guns.
Early on the morning of the 20th, the allies commenced the battle of the
. Alma; but it was nearly one o'clock before General Bosquet could lead his columns
along the shore to attack an enemy superior in numbers, posted on lofty heights
bristling with cannon, up which the. guns of the allies had to be dragged. A
regiment of Zouaves was the first to push through the brushwood ; and, having
gained the opposite side of the river, they ran swarming like ants up the steep and
rugged cliffs. Having reached the plateau, they fell into line, when the Russians
opened upon them a deadly fire of musketry and artillery. General Bosquet, with
the remainder of his division, hastened to their support. By extraordinary ex
ertions, and numerous relays of horses, the artillery was drawn up the precipitous
heights, when they were rapidly brought to act against the enemy. The main
body of the French army having gained the plateau, encountered the Russians in
great force. All this while Canrobert was leading his division to the left, and
H 2 91

the wounded.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.
Prince Napoleon was conducting his to the right of the village of Bourliouk. The
English arrived later on the field. They marched in contiguous double column,
with a front of two divisions ; General Evans's division on the right ; while the
light division, under General Brown, took the left. These divisions were re
spectively supported by General England's division, assisted by the Guards and
Highlanders, under the command of the Duke of Cambridge. The light division
was the first to attack ; and more than once the men had to lie down, to take
shelter for a moment from the heavy -fire of the Russian batteries. The advance of
the British is described to have been resistless as the swell of the ocean, against a
wall of fire and solid masses of infantry— to struggle on at one time, overwhelmed
by crushing volleys of grape and musketry ; at another, disorganised by round
shot, winning the ground from death at every pace, to form tranquilly and readily
when momentarily thrown into disorder; and, at last, to nail victory to our
colours by the never-failing British bayonet. This was accomplished. On the
other hand, the French had to scale the sides of deep ravines, and to clamber up
rocky steeps, defended by swarms of sharpshooters. They had to gain a most
difficult position with quickness and alacrity : delay would have been fatal ; for
without the French on the heights on our right, we must have been driven across
the Alma ; and they would have been swept into the valley had the British failed
in carrying the batteries. Their energetic movement, their flame-like, rapid speed
from crag to crag, their ceaseless fusilade of the deadly rifle, were all astonishing,
and paralysed the enemy completely. The Russians at length fled, after an engage
ment of nearly four hours ; but they carried off all their guns, save one or two.
Their loss is stated by Todleben to have been little — 5,799. The loss of the allies
amounted to— British, 362 killed, 1,640 wounded; French, 257 killed, 12,000
wounded : the Turks lost 230 men.
Lord Raglan gave his orders with consummate coolness and judgment.
Marshal St. Arnaud, in his despatch to the emperor, said — " The bravery of Lord
Raglan rivals that of antiquity ; amidst an incessant shower of balls and bullets his
coolness never forsook him." Of the French commander, Lord Raglan wrote — " I
will not attempt to describe the movements of the French army ; this will be done
by an abler hand : but it is due to them to say, their operations were eminently
successful ; and that, under the guidance of their distinguished marshal, St. Arnaud,
they manifested the utmost gallantry, the utmost ardour for the attack, and the
high military qualities for which they are so famed." Todleben's account of the
battle agrees with that of the French ; and, we may add, it is a very different one
to Mr. Kinglake's. Todleben, also, omits the advance of our Guards ; and differs
from the author of Eothen as to the value of Sir Colin Campbell's demonstration on
the left. Still it is clear that we killed more than the French ; and, therefore, our
troops must have had their fair share of the work.
In accounting for the defeat of the Russians, Todleben assigns a high place to
the superior armament of the allies ; but he also asserts that the Russians were
inferior in manoeuvring. Mr. W. Russell has put the case in a few words :— "In
fact,'^ says he, "an ill-armed Russian force, placed in a position which was not forti
fied, ill-commanded and manoeuvred, was attacked by an enemy superior in numbers .
and equipments ; and was, as the Americans say, ' pretty badly beaten.' "
Then commenced those blunders which created such profound sorrow at home,
and such vivid sensations abroad. Why was there no pursuit of the enemy after
such a victory? No reason appears to have been given for not pursuing the
fugitive and demoralised Russians, and capturing the whole of them. Lord
Raglan's excuse was, that he could not leave his wounded. Certainly they were
beautifully cared for! There were few surgeons, and no proper conveyances; and
yet they had all to be taken on board, and carried down to Scutari, 400 miles
distant. The want of medical aid to the wounded soldiers on the ships was
distressingly exemplified in the case of the Vulcan, where there were 300 wounded,
and 170 cholera patients, attended only by four surgeons. On board the Colombo

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [panic of the Russians.

matters were still worse : she carried, ih all, 450 wounded soldiers and officers, and
104 Russian prisoners. To supply the wants of this mass of misery there were only
four medical men. The ship was so covered with prostrate forms as to be unmanage
able. The animal matter accumulated caused such a stench that the officers and
men were nearly overcome : the captain fell ill, and thirty men died. At Scutari
there were no dressers, no nurses or lint, nor any preparations made for the
commonest surgical operations. When these things came to be understood there
was no Uttle wrath at home. The French were much better tended, though their
chief was on his death-bed ; he having done his part on the Alma while himself
stricken with mortal disease.
Meanwhile, in Sebastopol an intense panic raged. Prince Mentschikoff pre
pared to guard it, and Todleben was indefatigable. Part of the fleet was sunk in
the harbour, and thus the channel was blocked up. The crews were formed into
soldiers for the time. Scarcely had these measures been completed, than the allies
made their appearance in the Belbeck, and their bivouac fires were visible from the
north fort on the night of the 24th of September. Every moment the garrison
expected to see their feeble intrenchments carried. Their situation was the most
critical, as Prince Mentschikoff had that very night left Sebastopol, and led his army
by Mackenzie's farm to Baktchiserai. The prince confided the command of the
troops in the city to Lieutenant-General de Moller ; of the north side, and of the
fort, to Korniloff; of the sailors, and the south side, to Nakhimoff. He left as
garrison, altogether, 16,569 men. The allied army (60,000) was little more than
three miles from the city. Working night and day in the interval between the
14th and 25th of September, the Russians, under Todleben's directions, could only
run up some field-works. The walls actually tumbled down in the attempt to
repair them ; and all along a front, of a mile in extent, there were only twenty guns
to oppose to the enemy. Korniloff could muster only 11,350 men — nearly all
sailors — for the defence. In fact, his case was desperate : the fort, commanded
from the surrounding heights, was crumbling to pieces ; a breach was actually
formed in the parapets by the wall giving way under the sacks of earth, hastily
placed on them to cover the artillerymen as the enemy came in sight ; the parapets
were not high enough to protect the heads of the garrison. A body of sailors,
armed with flint-muskets, boarding pistols, and the like, placed behind a wretched
work, and exposed to the bombardment of an enormous fleet, were to be pitted
against 60,000 men flushed with victory. In the event of defeat, retreat would
have been impossible; the Russian fleet could not aid them by its fire till it had
got away. No doubt, the establishment of batteries to intercept the com
munications with the north side, would have been difficult under the guns of the
Russian fleet ; but it would have been possible, as is proved by the fact, that the
allies raised batteries on the south side, which forced the Russian ships to with
draw. It may be objected, also, that it would have been very difficult for the
alUes to have landed their artillery, and that the communication with the fleet
would have been interrupted, as there was no port. That would have been a grave
matter if the troops were obliged to prolong their attack of the north fort : but
considering its power of resistance, and the strength of the fleet, the allies would
have had complete success in a very little time.
That the attack could not have detained the allies long, Todleben demonstrates
by a rigid analysis of the ground, and of the means of defence possessed by the
garrison. On the right of the work, the allies would have been exposed, he states,
to the fire of seven guns at long range, from which they would very soon get into
cover. In a movement direct on the front, they would have been under the fire of
six guns. On the left, they would have to encounter the effect of seven guns, which
ought to have been very soon demolished by the fleet. The success of an assault,
if preceded by a bombardment of the works and of the uncovered garrison — both of
which were commanded by the guns of the fleet — must have been certain and in
evitable. If such was the state of affairs after so many days of vigorous pre-
93

THE FLANK MARCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1854,

paration, which the delay of the allies permitted the Russians to make, it may be
easily conceived what must have occurred if the enemy had marched on the place
immediately after the battle, when one-half even of these miserable defences were
not in existence.
It was not without astonishment, then, that the garrison, on the morning of
the 26th of September, heard the allies were actually marching round the south
side of the city. There was some disquietude caused by the movement, in con
sequence of its cutting off the communication between the garrison and the army ;
but the sensation of relief from immediate danger was far greater, although the
south side was exceedingly weak, and was garrisoned only by 5,000 men.
This celebrated flank movement is shown by Todleben to have been a terrible
mistake. The allies found it very difficult, on account of the almost impenetrable
jungle through which they had to pass. They succeeded in seizing some ofthe bag
gage of the army, and the carriage of Prince Mentschikoff ; but where they were, they
could have mastered Sebastopol, and saved a winter of appalling misery. Todleben
examines the reasons for this march. He contends,, that the argument in its
favour, founded on the absence of a port on the north side, was no solid basis.
Unless the allies, he says, having originally resolved to land on the north side,
found put, when they had done so, that an attack de force was impossible, and
that it would be necessary to undertake a siege of the north side^ they could not
have needed a port. Did they not know, he asks, beforehand that the north shore
had no port? and did they not, nevertheless, effect a descent on the north side?
The inference is clear, that] the allies intended to operate against that side of the
grand bay of Sebastopol : they had no reason whatever to think the north side
impregnable. Their fleet looked into the place. If they, had made a few record
naissances, they would, no doubt, have been satisfied of the possibility of taking the
works. It has been argued, by the advocates for the flank, march, that the alUes
might have taken the north side, and yet have failed to destroy the Russian ships
and arsenals. Todleben is of a different opinion : he asserts that the fleets and
arsenals could have been really destroyed from the north side. Weighing all the
facts ofthe case, he arrives at the conclusion that there was a change in the councils
of the allies, and an uncertainty, which he ascribes to St. Arnaud's illness, and also
to the impression produced by the sinking of the ships in the harbour ; but, so far
as the authority of the Russian engineer avails, the question is decided as to
the certainty with which the north side would have fallen into the hands of the
allies, and to the ease with which they could have destroyed the ships and arsenals
of the south side afterwards. When General Mansfield was at Warsaw, he held
some interesting conversation with Prince Gortschakoff, concerning the events in
the early part of the war in the Crimea, which he reported to the authorities or to
his friends at home. In the Military Opinions of the veteran engineer and soldier,
bir John Burgoyne, some comments are made on these remarks of the Russian
general, respecting the very question at issue. Prince Gortschakoff maintained,
there was nothing to stop the allies marching into the town." Sir John argues
that the north side was very strong: Todleben asserts it was very weak. The
nT'Z^f hl ^ °S °f the ^°rks Was' no doubt> *» to7the remote-
flee? Z SI Ctl0n\°f. tbe recorincmsances of the place. The officers of the
tiiat the ™rST g \ °Vhfe d1enC6S- Sir Jobn evide»tly did not know
thi anf above IT Z^l ' *" ^ *° sUght ; that *»"« was a breach in
aS'and left til ^'' + he covering army to which he alludes, had marched
^Sanded in anvgwIvSOn J° ^/^ Again' Sil" John states> the fort was not
trSminatiLTomfnV T ^V^ £Uthority °f MaJor Grabam to show it was
^vS^^Jrt^^^ dk !en? Wh° kQeW the ground at least as ^11,
Sri^Toiilfao^Pn^l^ ^ m S6Tal Pkees' t0 its une°vered position; while
ne insists on its openness to a cannonade over and over again
Well, the allies are in Balaklava, where thev hnvp I , i,o,i,~ j
tnunication with the fleet. The men SSTi barbour and are m com-
94: J-ne men are ay^S of cholera; but they are dragging

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [indecision of the allies.

the guns up the heights, and doing their duty bravely. But the south side of
Sebastopol seemed to them equally as unattractive as the north. Todleben says —
" Here, again, they were completely mistaken. The total number of guns available .
for the defence on the south side was 145 pieces, which were spread over a space of
nearly five miles. To these were added twenty-seven guns, in different places, after
the news of the loss of the Alma. The only part of the whole line capable of
resisting an assault was at the 6th and 7th bastions. Field-works of the feeblest
profile, the open spaces and unfinished works armed with light guns, were all that
could be said to defend a city garrisoned by only 16,000 men, and thirty-two field
guns. Neither the exultation of the troops, nor their resolution to fight to the last
extremity, could have saved Sebastopol if the enemy had attacked it immediately
after the passage of the Tchernaya." Todleben, availing himself of the delay which
took place on the part of the alUes, proceeded to fortify the place. The principle
on which he acted was, to occupy the least extended position, and the nearest to
the city which would satisfy the necessary conditions ; to arm the principal points
of the Une so selected with the most formidable artillery which could be procured
from the fleet ; to connect these points with trenches for musketry ; and to enable
the separate batteries to concentrate a powerful fire on the front and flanks, to
sweep the sinuosities of the ground as much as possible. One obstacle to the
choice of the best line was presented by the works already constructed, to the line
of which he was obliged to conform, as there was no time to rectify the errors on
trace Which they presented. - The besieged had only time to throw up the soft
earth, as they could not excavate the rock ; and the guns were put in position
before the batteries were ready to receive them. Then women and children
laboured at the defences. Even the convicts and felons took their share". It was
rarely they could dig as deep as two feet and a-half without coming on the stony
subsoih No wonder, with a place thus poorly defended, there was a panic on the
part of the civil population, when they saw, towards the end of September, the
allies on the heights above them. " Our own Correspondent" describes the scene in
Sebastopol as a busy one. Steamers and boats of every description were seen
moving to-and-fro in the harbour : long lines of carts and carriages were visible ;
ladies moving on horseback were observed along the road leading to the interior ;
and property of every kind was being removed from the town. They had no idea
that the allies were going to give them time to defend the place in a way which
was to cover Todleben — the soul of the defence — with universal renown.
On the 30th of September, to the inexpressible joy of the garrison, Prince
Mentschikoff appeared with his army on the north side ; and, next day, the troops
for the defence received reinforcements of 5,000 men, field guns, and Cossacks.
Column after column streamed into the Crimea ; and each day the garrison was
strengthened by accessions from the army, till, on the 5th of October, there were
32,000 men ready to receive the assault of the allies. Todleben thinks that, if then
they had assaulted the place, they could scarcely have failed to have been
successful. He appUes himself to show, that the chances were, the allies would
certainly have got possession of some part or other of the lines, as the Russians
were so placed that they could not concentrate more than 2,500 to oppose the
storming columns ; and the occupation of any one, he shows, would have been fatal
to the besieged. The allies, too, could have distracted the garrison by false
attacks, and burst in on the real point of assault. They could have made their
advance just at daybreak, before the artillery could have made theirs, and disr
organised their columns. Again and again, writes Mr. Russell, the Russian engineer
insists that success was quite certain. The indecision of the allies gave the
Russians heart — they began to breathe more freely. The dark hour was past.
The enemy, indeed, was at hand ; but so dubious, slow, and uncertain were his
movements, that, when the first signs of his purpose were made manifest, in the
shape of certain lines which grew up by night in the clay soil, those trenches, which
were to grow into batteries, were at first supposed by the Russians to be defensive
Jo

bombardment of 17th October.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.

works, covering the front of the allied armies. Their generals " poked about" in
front 'of the place. Mr. Kinglake tells us, Lord Raglan disliked to disturb his
mind by plans. St. Arnaud was dead. Canrobert, his successor, was not a man
who liked to be troubled by anything in particular, except fighting. The
result of the remote examination of the Russian works which the allied generals
made, was the begetting of an idea that it would be imprudent to make an assault
till the works had been bombarded. Todleben evidently thinks that, if the
reconnaissances had been closely pushed, and properly made, they would have
arrived at a very different conclusion. The garrison, wasted and worn, and anxious,
waited hour after hour for the supreme moment, scarcely daring to hope for more
than a creditable defence. With joy inexpressible, they saw, one fine morning, long
lines of earth, which unmistakably revealed the purpose of the allies. They
were going to besiege Sebastopol. Here was, indeed, a hope of safety ; nay, more,
a guarantee of success. The Russians immediately resolved to overwhelm their
force by the weight of metal ; and whilst the allies, working with evident slowness,
laboured to throw up their batteries, the Russians, confident that, if they could
only resist the first attack, they must receive powerful reinforcements, exerted
themselves to the utmost. On the 2nd of October, the guns in position had been
increased to no less than 341, of which 246 were heavy pieces lately mounted. As
the French and English worked at their trenches, and opened their batteries, the
besieged acted accordingly. It was clear to them that the allies had decided on
making no direct attack on Sebastopol; but preferred resorting to the slower
process of constructing batteries, in order, first of all, to silence or weaken our
artillery. Mr. Russell observes — " The calculations of the French and English engineers
must have been made in ignorance of every fact connected with Sebastopol. They
set to work as if they thought the Russians must remain idle. One of the reasons
for not attacking the place was, that there was a large covering army. Was it not
certain, a portion of that army, having free access to the town, would be avail
able to work at the fortifications, and garrison the place? Large men-of-war
had been sunk ; others had been moored in harbour. Would not their guns be made
available, and become more formidable, in the earthworks which rose much faster
than our own, than they were on board the ships ? Was not the attack of the
allies directed against Sebastopol because it was, among other things, a vast
arsenal ? With guns, powder, ammunition, and the soldiers, sailors, labourers at
hand, what earthly reason was there for supposing the Russians would not maintain,
in a siege, the relative superiority in all those particulars which prevented our
assaulting them till we had tried a bombardment ? The allies had a siege-train
manifestly little heavier than the main-deck guns of three or four of the line-of-
battle ships. But the engineers prevailed, and they challenged the Russians to
meet them in the trenches."
Of course the allies, especially the English, inflicted terrible damage at the
great bombardment of the 17th of October. As the revetments and parapets
crumbled, the Russians fancied they saw, through the thick smoke, the enemy
advancing to the assault. Suddenly, at half-past nine in the morning, one
of the French magazines blew up. In half-an-hour afterwards another exploded
in the Irench lines. Gradually the French fire became weaker, and at half-
past ten it ceased all along the line. Todleben admits that our artillery speedily
established a relative superiority. The Redan and the Malakoff suffered above
all. In the latter Korniloff received his mortal wound. By the explosion of a
magazine, caused by our fire, the whole of the salients of the Redan were thrown
into the ditch, with more than a hundred men. Only two guns remained intact,
out of the twenty-two with which the work was armed; and there were only
five artillerymen left, who fired these guns at rare intervals. The fire of the
allied fleet that day produced but little effect, although they had 1,244 guns in
broadside against the 152 with which the Russian works were armed. It was
"q

A.D. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [balaklava.
from that fleet, however, arose the cry, " For God's sake, keep out the shells !"
And, in fact, the men inside stone and earth had the best of the men inside the
wood, and the former lost only an eighth of the number killed and wounded in
the allied fleet. The Russians lost 1,112 men that day, of whom more than one-
half were put hors de combat in the section in front of the English. The latter
lost only 144 : the French, 204. The general conclusion at which Todleben arrives
is, that the object of the aUied bombardment having been to dismount the Russian
artillery, and to prepare the way for an assault, it was only the English batteries
which obtained a complete success in annihilating the enemy's works and guns ;
but that such a partial success altogether answered the end in view ; and that, after
the allies had obtained it, they ought to have assaulted under cover of the smoke,
and have advanced before the Russians could have come out of cover to resist
them. The ditch was filled, the parapet beaten down ; and the Russians could only
have collected 8,000 men to resist our taking the Karabelnaia. As they did not profit
by this favourable occasion to make the assault, it is evident that all their hopes
and preparations for speedy victory were doomed to have no result. The allies
discovered that the measures they had taken were not sufficient to overcome the
strength of a defence which developed itself with so much perseverance and
energy. Next day the English opened a tremendous cannonade ; but the French
were silent. The former did not obtain so decisive a result as on the first day.
The besiegers had a sad time of it. In eight weeks, of the British troops
alone, no less than 9,000 men were placed hors de combat from cold and disease.
The alUed troops began to get tired of this continual pounding. The Russians
had, or seemed to have, plenty of labourers to repair by night the damage done by
day. The British were worn out with fatigue ; their daily toil exhausted them.
The most heroic bravery was displayed by some of the British officers, naval and
military : among others was Captain Peel, of the former service, who, when the
union-jack in the sailor's battery was shot away, seized the broken staff, and,
leaping up on the earthworks, waved the old bit of bunting again and again,
amidst a storm of shot which fortunately left him unhurt.
The Russians had now considerably augmented their forces by an army of
50,000, commanded by General Liprandi; and, on the 25th, they attacked the
British in the rear of their camp, threatening to cut off their communication with
Balaklava. The position occupied by the British was supposed to be impregnable.
Their lines were formed by mountain slopes in the rear, along which the French
had made very formidable intrenchments. On the top of each of these hills the
Turks had thrown up earthen redoubts, defended by 250 men, armed with two or
three guns. These Turks the Russians attacked early in the morning, and soon
put to flight. The Cossacks were too quick for them, and sword and lance were
busily plied among the retreating herd. The yells of the pursuers and the pursued
were plainly heard by the various divisions ofthe British army, thus suddenly and
unexpectedly roused to arms. Orders had been despatched to Sir G. Cathcart and
the Duke of Cambridge to put their respective divisions in motion, and the in
telligence was likewise furnished to Canrobert. Sir Colin Campbell, who was in
command at Balaklava, had drawn up his 93rd Highlanders a little in front-
of the road. At the first news of the advance of the enemy, the marines on
the heights were under arms. Lord Lucan's little camp was the scene of great
excitement ; the men had not had time to water their horses : they had not
+ +I6V £ fast from the evening of the day before, and had barely saddled
at the first blast of the trumpet, when they were drawn up on the slopes behind
the redoubts in front of the camp, to operate on the enemy's squadrons. The
lurks betook themselves towards the Highlanders ; and at them, after a pause,
the Russians furiously charged. The Highlanders treated them to a deadly fire,
which compelled them to retire. A fresh attack was ordered. Brigadier Scarlett
rode along in front of his massive squadrons. " The Russians," writes the Times'
correspondent, « advanced down the hill at a slow canter, which they changed
97

the light brigade.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.

to a trot, and at last nearly halted. Their first line was at least double that
of the British, and three times as deep ; behind them was a similar line, equally
long and compact. At the trumpet-charge, the Greys and EnniekiUens went
right at the centre of the Russian cavalry; the spaee between them was only
a few hundred yards, scarcely enough to let the horses gather way ; nor had the
men sufficient space for the full play of their sword-arms. The Russian line
brought forward each wing as our cavalry advanced, and threatened to annihilate
them' as they passed. The Greys rushed on with a cheer, which thrilled to every
heart ; the wild shout of the Enniskillens rose through the air at the same moment ;
and, as lightning flashes through a crowd, they both dashed through the dark
masses of the Russians. The shock was but for a moment ; there was a clash of
steel, and a light play of sword-blades in the air, and then the brave fellows
disappeared, in the midst of the shaken, and shivering, and quivering Russian
columns : in another moment they were seen emerging and dashing on with
diminished numbers, and in broken order, against the second line, advanced against
them, as fast as it could, to relieve the force in charge. It was a terrible moment ;
with unabated fire these noble fellows dashed at the enemy : it was a fight of
heroes. The first line of Russians which had been smashed utterly at their charge,
had fled off at one flank, and, towards the centre, were coming up, to swallow this
handful of brave men, who, by their sheer courage and steel, were winning their
•desperate way right through the enemy's squadrons ; and soon the grey horses and
red coats appeared right at the rear of the second mass, whose irresistible force
was like a bolt from above. The 1st Royal and the 4th and 5th Dragoon Guards
rushed at the remnant of the first line of the enemy, and went through it as if
it had been made of pasteboard ; and, dashing on the second body of Russians
as they were still disordered by the terrible assault of the Greys and their com
panions, put them to utter rout. The Russian horse, five minutes after, were
flying with all speed before a force certainly not half its strength. The cavalry
•did not long pursue the enemy ; their loss was slight — only thirty-five killed and
wounded. Nobly did our soldiers do their duty. French and English officers, who
witnessed their operations from the heights, might well be clamorous in their praise."
Then came an episode never to be forgotten. After the Russians retired, they
took up a position covered by thirty guns. It is reported that Lord Raglan sent off
Captain Nolan, of the 8th Hussars, with a written order to storm the guns "if the
thing were practicable ;" and that, when Lord Lucan read the order, he asked Captain
Nolan, " Where are we to advance to ?" To which he replied — " There are the
enemy, and there are the guns before you; it is your duty to take them." Lord
Lucan then, with reluctance, gave orders to Lord Cardigan to advance upon the
guns, conceiving that his orders compelled him to do so. The noble earl, though
he did not shrink, saw, also, the fearful odds against them.
" The light cavalry brigade," writes Mr. Russell, " consisting of only 607
sabres, led by Lord Cardigan, at ten minutes past eleven, glittering in the morning
sun, and in the pride and splendour of war, advanced in two lines, increasing their
pace as they closed towards the enemy. Thirty iron guns of the enemy belched
forth among them a flood of smoke and flame, accompanied with deadly balls,
which was marked by instant gaps in the ranks of the devoted heroes, scattering
the ground with dead men and horses; steeds flying, wounded or riderless, across
the plain. The first line, broken, was joined by the second : thoy never halted
or checked their speed an instant. Their diminished ranks thinned by the
Russians with their thirty guns laid with the most deadly accuracy, with a halo
of flashing steel above their heads, and with a cheer which was mingled with many
a noble fellows death-cry, they flew into the smoke of the batteries; but ere they
were lost from view the plain was strewn with their dead bodies, and with the
carcasses of horses-being exposed to an oblique fire from the batteries on the hills
on both sides, as well as a direct fire of musketry. Through the smoke were seen
their sabres flashing as they rode up to the guns, and dashed between them, cutting

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the Russians in spirits.
down the gunners as they stood. After breaking through a column of Russian
infantry, and scattering them like chaff, they were seen returning, exposed to the
flank fire of the battery, which swept them down, scattered and broken as they
were ; and, on their retreat, a numerous mass of Lancers was hurled on their flank.
Colonel Skerrett, of the 8th Hussars, saw the danger, and rode his few men straight
at them, cutting through with frightful loss. Other regiments turned and engaged
in this desperate encounter. The brave troopers were seen breaking their way
through the columns which enveloped them, when there took place an act of
atrocity without parallel in the modern warfare of civilised nations. The Russian
gunners, when the storm of cavalry passed, returned to their guns. They saw their
own cavalry mingled with the British troopers, who had just ridden over them;
and, to the eternal disgrace ofthe Russian name, the miscreants poured a murderous
voUey of grape and canister on the mass of struggling men and horses, mingling
friend and foe in one common ruin. It was as much as our heavy cavalry could
do to cover the retreat of this band of heroes." In this magnificent but useless
exploit, the light cavalry lost ten officers; 147 men, killed or missing; 110 men
wounded; with 335 horses. The heavy brigade lost, during the day, nine men
killed, and ten officers ; eighty-seven men wounded, and forty-six horses. There
was glory in the deed, but the price paid was high. On his return to England,
the EatI of. Cardigan was feted as a hero; and Tennyson found, in the daring
charge, a fit theme for his melodious pen. Ages will pass away since it will be
forgot how — " Cannon to right of them,
Oannou to left of them,
Cannon in front of them,
Volley'd and thunder'd :
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode, and well ;
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of Hell,
Rode the six hundred.
" Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air,
Sab'ring the gunners there,
Charging an army, while
All the world wondered.
Plunged in the battery smoke,
Bight through the line they broke ;
Cossack- and Russian
Eeel'd from the sabre-stroke,
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back : but not —
Not the six hundred."
In the poet's last verse all will agree —
" When can their glory fade ?
O ! the wild charge they made !
All the world wonder'd.
Honour the charge they made ;
Honour the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred !"
The result of the action, altogether, was in favour of the Russians. Todleben
asserts, and Mr. Russell confirms the assertion, that if General Liprandi had
received some support that day, Balaklava would have fallen into their hands. The
news of the success obtained by the Russian troops — the taking of the Turkish
redoubts — the annihilation of the large mass of the English cavalry, and the
occupation of an advanced position — produced a most, favourable impression on
the garrison of Sebastopol, which had not had a single day of repose ; had, indeed,
been harassed by increasing labour ever since the landing of the allies, and had
99

inkermann.1 LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1854.

been kept in a ceaseless state of suspense by the expectation of an assault.
Todleben continues— " The catastrophe of- the Alma was forgotten; unlimited con
fidence was again placed in the superiority of Russian arms; and the moral tone of
the garrison being completely restored, it returned to the display of the greatest
energy. The principal object of the defence was, henceforth, not to allow the
artillery of the besiegers to achieve an advantage over ours. Most special attention
was therefore directed to meet the fire of the new batteries which the French
evidently had the intention of establishing." In order to distract the attention of
the enemy, a sortie was ordered against the British. According to Todleben, the
attacking force was but small, and retired with the loss of twenty-five officers, and
245 men, killed and wounded. Sir de Lacy Evans estimated their loss at 600 ; and
he had some reason, for he took eighty prisoners, and had about 130 of their dead
left in or near his position. Some writers calculated the attacking force at 12,000 :
clearly this is an immense exaggeration.
The Russians, who had been reinforced, finding that the troops of the allies
were being reinforced much more speedily than themselves, in consequence of the
facility of transport by sea, made up their minds for another grand struggle, now
known to history as the battle of Inkermann, fought on the 5th of November. At
this time, the effective force in and around Sebastopol, under Mentschikoff, amounted
to 100,000 men, without counting the crews of ships. To oppose this force, the
French mustered 41,700 men; the English, 24,530; the Turks, 4,700. These
forces were divided into a besieging and a covering army. Of the former the
English had taken up their ground on the space from the abrupt crests of the
Mount Saponine, looking down the Tchernaya, opposite Inkermann, to the Sarand-
ziaki ravine, at about two-and-a-third miles from Sebastopol ; and the French
extended from the English left as far as the road from Sebastopol to Kamiche, at
a distance of from one mile and a third to one mile and three-quarters from the
city. The head-quarters of the English army were near the ascent of the
Chersonese plateau, on the road from Balaklava to Kamiesch. The French head
quarters were a little further behind the right flank of the French corps. In every
way the ground which the besiegers occupied was very difficult of access. An
attack on the plateau from either side of Balaklava, or from the Tchernaya, could
have no hope of success, on account of the difficulties of access, and of the strong
fortifications. The narrow space between Careening ravine and the Quarries
ravine, although offering the only point of attack, was nearly inaccessible. There
were encamped the English second division, covered in part by three works of very
weak profile : one, the Sand-bag battery, unarmed on the right flank ; another on
the right of the road ; the third behind the first. Across the road was cut a trench.
Prince Mentschikoff decided to attack at that point. Although the nature of the
ground rendered the position strong, the number of troops defending it was small.
The night was dark when the Russian troops quitted their bivouacs. " The
English," says Todleben, " without the least suspicion of the danger to which they
were exposed, were sleeping peaceably in their camps. Their outposts, soaked in
rain, shivered at the cold blast of an icy wind, and, half stupid with fatigue and
inanition, did not lend much attention to what passed in our camp. At six,
General Soimonoff's detachments had mounted on the plateau, and began to form
in the order of battle. Having done so, General Soimonoff began to advance,
parallel with Careening .ravine. A thick fog, and the grey colour of our soldiers'
great-coats, concealed their line from the view of the enemy's outposts, and
permitted them to advance, without being remarked, almost up to them. A picket
of the light division of General Brown was almost immediately surrounded and
taken. Then commenced a musketry fire, which was the signal for a general alerte
in the enemy's camp. At the dawn of day, General Codrington had left the camp
to visit his outposts. After having made his rounds he was preparing to return,
when he heard suddenly some musket-shots in the' direction of the heights of the
ravine, and immediately afterwards some sentries ran in with the news of the
100

A.D. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [battle of inkermann.
Russian attack. Codrington returned immediately to camp, and communicated
the intelligence to General Brown, who put his division under arms, and directed it
towards the upper part of Careening ravine. Scarcely had the first volley rang
through the camp, ere the alarm spread to the second division. General Penne-
father, who commanded it in the absence of Sir de Lacy Evans (caused by illness),
immediately advanced his troops on the position, placing them, with twelve guns,
on the ground between the Sand-bag battery and the ravine Michrivkoff. Adams'
brigade occupied the right, and Pennefather's brigade the left. Almost at the
same time the troops of the light division reached the upper part of the ravine.
Codrington's brigade, with six guns, occupied the western ridge of the ravine, and
rested its left on the right Lancaster battery; while Butler's brigade, with six
guns, having turned the end of the ravine, placed itself in the rear of Pennefather's
brigade. Without loss of time, the brigade of Guards, the fourth division, and the
brigade John Campbell, were also led to the scene of action. The brigades Airey
and Torrens, and the Rifles, remained in the trenches. The troops of the right
column, under Soimonoff, supported by their batteries, attacked Sir de Lacy Evans'
division briskly, and drove back the English skirmishers. The assault was conducted
under great difficulty, as much owing to the peculiar nature of the ground, as to
the losses which our troops suffered from the exceUent arms of the EngUsh." But
we must hasten on, as Todleben's account is too minute for a history such as ours.
Lord Raglan was informed that the enemy were advancing in force ; and soon after
seven o'clock he rode towards the scene of action, followed by his staff and several of
his aides-de-camp. As they approached, the volume of smoke, the steady unceasing
thunder of guns, rifles, and muskets, told that the engagement was at its height.
The shells of the Russians were thrown, with great precision, so thickly among the
troops, that the noise resembled continuous discharges of cannon, and the massive
fragments inflicted death on every one within range. Masses of men maintained
the most desperate encounters with the bayonet alone ; and the Russian infantry
charged the British with incredible fury and determination. There was terrible
havoc made among the British troops. Their generals knew not what to do — they
could not tell where the enemy was. In darkness, gloom, and rain, they had to
lead the British lines through thick, scrubby, and thorny brakes, which broke their
ranks. Sir George Cathcart, on rallying together his disordered men, fell mortally
wounded. Colonel Seymour, who had accompanied .him, was bayoneted whilst
standing near the dead body of his chief. In this struggle, where the Russians
fought with the greatest ferocity, they bayoneted the soldier as he fell. The
Russians lost their General Soimonoff, and the English riflemen did them immense
damage. " After recovering," writes Todleben, " the rude blows which the Russians
had given them, the EngUsh troops advanced again. Thirty 9-pounders on the
crest of the heights, which formed the English front, opened fire against our
artillery; thirty-eight of our guns on Cossack Hill replied to them. The hand-to-
hand engagement had ceased, to give place to a lively cannonade. Our artillery
separated from that of the English by two ravines, could not, having regard to the
ground answer the English batteries otherwise than by a direct fire of shot and
shell, at a distance of from 920 to 1,000 yards. Notwithstanding the range, which
was particularly great for light artillery, our guns caused considerable damage to
the English artillery. But these injuries very imperfectly compensated the
enormous losses which the enemy's riflemen inflicted on the Russian artillery. A
perfect cloud of riflemen,- hid in thick brushwood, opened a very violent and
accurate fire against our artillery, at the distance of 800 paces. Some of our guns
5'irom tlme, to. t™e> grape upon them; but the discharge only checked the
hre ot the enemy s riflemen for a moment ; for, after their momentary fright, they
filTfH ^° de,CTte T ranks more equally. At the same time, the
K -fl"? 7n 6d ^raPnel on ™r artillery and infantry ; but it was more the
fire of rifled small arms than that of the artillery of the enemy which reached our
aitiilerymen, of whom the greater part were killed or wounded." By eight the
101

THE FRENCH TO THE RESCUE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.

head of the Russian columns had retired. Of all the battalions which were to have
attacked the English position by that time, twenty had already quitted the field.
The Russians, repulsed after suffering frightful loss, were, as Todleben confesses,
harassed with fatigue: still the combat raged fiercely. The Russian General
Dannenberg had two horses shot under him. Projectiles of all kinds reached even
to the ravine of St. George, where were the Grand Dukes Nicholas and Michael, at
the side of Prince Mentschikoff.
Against " the intrepid Coldstreams," as Todleben terms them, " was one of
the bravest of the Russian regiments (the Okhotsk) hurled." A bloody and
obstinate combat ensued round the battery. Although still unfinished, the Cold-
streams defended it with as much tenacity as courage. The soldiers of Okhotsk
scaled the parapets again and again, and even reached the interior of the work ;
but they were repulsed every time, and could not establish themselves soUdly.
The combat at this point soon assumed the character of a hand-to-hand engage
ment. In the midst of the sanguinary melee, these intrepid soldiers carried on, one
against the other, a terrible, merciless struggle. Whatever came to hand, whatever
could injure an enemy, seemed fit for the combat. The soldiers exchanged shots
with muzzles touching ; struck each other with the butts ; fought bayonet to
bayonet ; and even threw stones and fragments of arms against each other. At .
last, after unheard-of efforts to conquer such an energetic resistance, the soldiers
of Okhotsk succeeded in expelling the Coldstreams from the battery, and seizing
it. Nine guns were the reward of this brilliant feat of arms-; three were imme
diately taken down the ravine, and the others were spiked. Of 600 Coldstreams
who defended the battery, 200 were hors die combat. But the brilUant victory was
dearly gained : the Okhotsk regiment lost its commander ; the greater part of its
officers ; a very great number of soldiers ; and was, finally, compelled to retire before
the English reinforcements, consisting of the Guards and others.
Todleben continues — " The English remained a long time before they resolved
to demand help from the French. Long they fought obstinately against the
Russians ; but finally they had no more strength. Having exhausted his soldiers,
and engaged all his reserves in the battle, Lord Raglan was obliged to resign
himself to pray General Bosquet to come to his help. Bosquet replied immediately
by sending, without delay, two battalions and a-half, and twelve guns. Soon after,
to support these troops, two battalions and four squadrons were directed to the
same point; and, finally, Canrobert, himself sent three battalions under General
de Monet. At the same time, Prince Napoleon was informed that it might be
necessary to ask him for reinforcements. At the first onset the French fled; but
they re-formed. Meanwhile," continues Todleben, " the fire of the French batteries
made terrible ravages among the Russian columns ; but the ardour of our soldiers
attained its highest degree of exaltation. Exalted by their success, the regiments
of the eleventh division pushed back before them the French battalions. One
effort, and the issue of that combat would have been decided in favour of the
Russians ; but, unhappily, the fatigue of our soldiers had arrived at its height. It
was a decisive moment for the two armies." Fortunately for the allies more
French reinforcements arrived. "In the steps of General Bosquet, rushed the
- Zouaves, the Chasseurs Endegenes, and the Chasseurs d'Afrique, followed closely
by three battalions and a field battery, commanded by General d'Autemarre."
The battle was lost ; and nothing was left for the Russians but a retrograde move
ment, conducted with great order and extraordinary bravery. The: English
having recovered, and being supplied with cartridges, again came into action:
_ General Dannenberg seeing the approach of fresh troops to the allies, and
having lost all hope of holding the position, took measures for retreat. Todleben
writes-" Bosquet, seeing the dangerous condition of our retreating troops, began
to press on our rear-guards still more hotly. At half-past two the last four
batteries had left the position; and about three o'clock Bosquet placed a battery
on a height situated opposite the head of the Valoura ravine, in order to act

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [Russians retreat.
against our troops, which were at that time crossing the long Inkermann bridge-
and causeway : but the steamers Wladi/mir and Chersonese, anchored in the roads
opposite the mouth of the Souskilnaia ravine, opened such a rapid and well-armed
fire on the French, that they were immediately obliged to retreat." The Russians
fell back in two different directions. Those from Inkermann made for the bridge
over the Tchernaya ; and those from Sebastopol returned by the mouth of Careening
ravine. The artillery slowly crawled down the Sappers' Road, and were very
near being captured by the sharpshooters of the allies. Todleben blames Prince
Gortschakoff, down in the valley of Balaklava, for not having rendered more
assistance in drawing off the French, upon whom he made a feigned attack.
It is impossible to give a clear idea of Inkermann. We seek in vain for order
where all was confusion. Mr. Russell says many incidents of that tremendous day's
fighting will never be known clearly for long years to come. Todleben affirms,
that out of 34,835 men who took part in the action, six generals, 256 officers, and
10,467 soldiers were killed or wounded. Lord Raglan estimated the forces of the
Russians, and their loss, at a much higher number. The loss of the allies was
eleven generals, 260 officers, and 4,109 rank and file; of which 147 officers, and
2,465, were English. The discrepancy in the losses Todleben ascribes to the con
ditions of attack, and to the difference of armament. In his elaborate way,
Todleben sets to work to show, first, that the ground prevented the Russians
acting in masses together ; secondly, that the superiority of armament, on the side
of the English, prevented any approach to a charge, and caused enormous losses at
a distance ; thirdly, that the English infantry wa3 helped always at the proper time
by the artillery, and that the Russians were not.
The great battle of Inkermann was sustained by 5,000 English troops alone
until the French troops came up ; and the whole number of the British engaged
in it did not exceed 8,000, and that of the French 6,000 men. On the part of the
British it was a confused and desperate struggle — a battle won by the men alone.
Colonels of regiments led on small parties, and fought like subalterns ; captains
like privates : all depended upon personal valour. Every man was his own general :
the tide of battle ebbed and flowed in broken tumultuous billows ; the combat of
infantry was a proof of skill, strength, and courage. Never, perhaps, had the ar
tillery fire been concentrated, for so long a time, on so confined a space : this whole
part of the battle-field was not more than three-quarters of a mile;: There were
nine hours of close fighting. The slaughter of the enemy had been so immense,
that there was no exultation on the part of the victors ; but a gloom hung, over
them as they surveyed the Russian corpses, strewing the ground like autumn leaves.
The field was literally covered with the dead and wounded ; the path was slippery
with blood. It was hard work to bury them all, and to tend the wounded. Large
trenches were dug in the ground for the former : the Russians lay apart ; the
Freneh and English were placed side by side. The wounded were carefully tended ;
and all night long, by the light of the moon, there was searching for the living
amongst the dead. The Russian army was primed with raki) whereas most of the
British went into battle without their breakfasts. On the 6th of November, Lord
Raglan attended the funerals of Sir G. Cathcart, Brigadier Goldie, and General
Strangways. The remains of these brave men, with eleven other officers, were
buried on Cathcart Hill. At the same time, fourteen officers of the Guards
were buried together near the windmill. The work of burying the dead, and
carrying the wounded to Balaklava, occupied the whole of that day.
Well, the allies beat off the Russians : nevertheless, the battle produced a pro-?
found effect upon them. At first, indeed, they even thought of raising the siege.
They changed their tactics, and acted on the defence. The plan of the allies had
been, originally, to deliver the assault after a short cannonade. When the English
annihilated the Great Redan, they had a chance : losing that, they chose for the
principal point of attack, bastion No. 4, or Flagstaff bastion. Towards this the
French pushed their way with remarkable activity, considering the nature of the
103

STORM AT BALAKLAVA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1854.

soil ; but after Inkermann, the assault against bastion No. 4 was put off. It is a
fact, that after the 5th of November, the besiegers continued the violence of their
artillery fire for only a few days; and, from the day in question, the gradual
decrease of the bombardment could be remarked. The approach of the French to
bastion No. 4, did not advance a step after they had opened their third parallel.
On. the contrary, they took measures to secure the two flanks of their attack, while
the English set to work actively to fortify their position on the heights of Careening
Bay. On their side, the Russians, profiting by the increasing weakness of the
besiegers' fire, were enabled to undertake vast works, to give the greatest liberty of
action to the line of defence.
But the allies had other enemies besides the Russians. In the middle of
October, the most alarming accounts began to be received, from Balaklava, of the
sufferings of the British troops in camp, not from disease only, but from the want
of the necessaries of life — clothing, food, fuel, &c. The public journals teemed
with reports both horrible and heartrending, contained in letters from private in
dividuals on the spot. These accounts created the greatest alarm and anger in
England. The " Patriotic Fund" was called into existence by royal commission.
Her majesty headed the list of subscribers with £1,000 ; the Prince Consort sub
scribed £500. The most munificent contributions poured in. Amongst others, we
may notice the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, £2,000 ; the Cor
poration of London, £2,000 ; East Ihdia Company, £1,000 ; Goldsmiths' Company,
£1,000; Grocers' Company, £1,000. On the 2nd of November, a large meeting of
the merchants and bankers of the city of London was held in the Egyptian
Hall, Mansion-house; when, after many long and patriotic speeches, the sum of
£16,000 was subscribed in the hall. Public meetings were held in all the principal
cities and large towns of the kingdom ; and, in the course of three months, the
subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund amounted to half a million. Nor was this all.
Sir Robert Peel addressed a letter to the editor of the Times, recommending that
every exertion should be made to relieve the soldiers' sufferings, and to supply them
with such comforts as did not come within military regulations ; enclosing a cheque
for £400, as part of a special fund for that purpose. This was rapidly followed
by other sympathisers ; and, in less than a fortnight, the sum of £10,000 was -sent
on to the Times' office, to be thus appropriated. It was then proposed that a com
missioner should be sent out to Scutari, to administer necessaries and comforts to
the sick and wounded in the hospital at that place ; and the Times despatched
one of their staff for the purpose, at their own expense. Such was the want
of the commonest hospital appliances, and so great were the benefits accomplished
by the Times' commissioner, that he was entrusted with £5,000 more. At this time,
Miss Florence Nightingale, the youngest daughter of William Shore Nightingale,
Esq., of Embley Park, Hants, volunteered to leave her home of luxury and ease, to
tend the sick and dying at Scutari. The French had already sent out 500 Sisters
of Mercy. Affairs in the Crimea grew worse. On the 14th of November, occurred a
storm such as the oldest inhabitant had never known. The tempest commenced
at Balaklava about seven in the morning ; and, in two hours, eleven transports had
been wrecked, and six dismasted, and rendered unfit for service. The new, magni
ficent steamship Prince, which had arrived only a few days before with the 46th
regiment, and a cargo valued at £500,000, was lost. Of her crew of 150, only six
were saved. In the camp the tempest was scarcely less fearful. Men and officers
are described as walking about drenched to the skin; the tents blown down;
the French hospitals broken by the gale, leaving the wounded exposed to the
sleet and rain. So strong was the blast, that the monastery of St. George was
shaken to its foundation, and much damaged ; some of its iron gates flung down,
and pieces of stone wall and iron roofing carried away like strips of paper, the
distance of a mile. At Eupatoria they suffered more from the storm. In port lay
stranded the remains of five merchant vessels ; and many others were similarly

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [sufferings of the army..

wrecked. The enemy took advantage of the gale by advancing on Eupatoria with
about 6,000 cavalry and twelve field-pieces. They were, however, received with
such a heavy fire that they retreated, with some few killed and wounded. To show
how severe was the storm, we may mention that even the Russian fleet, sheltered
as it was in Sebastopol, suffered severely from it. Todleben says—" By order of
the commander-in-chief, we took the necessary measures to save, as far as possible,
the crews thrown on the coasts." In another chapter he describes what these
measures were. It does not appear that they were of a very humane or effective
character. After the 14th, the difficulties of the allies were much increased. The
weather became wretched : frost set in, and rain alternated with snow. The clay
became soft, and turned into deep mud. The besieged suffered from the weather;
but they were cheered by the accounts brought in by the deserters, who stated
that the morale of the besiegers was singularly affected; that they were harassed
by fatigue, and suffered from cold ; that the hospitals were filled with sick ; and
that the deplorable state of the rpads rendered it exceedingly difficult to supply the
batteries. Terrible, indeed, was the state ,of our poor fellows — rotting away from
administrative imbeciUty and neglect. Cholera and famine did their deadly work,
and^- " Men looked to heaven with that frenzied air,
Which seemed to.as,k if a God were there."
A new phase in the operations was created by the employment of what
Todleben calls " ambuscades" — or, as we call them, " rifle-pits" — which the Russians
established in the first instance, .to enfilade the French approaches towards the
Bastion Flagstaff, at the beginning of November. Finding them very efficacious,
the Russians extended them gradually in front of the Greenhill batteries, and
away to the left, till they were opposite Gordon's batteries, in front of the
Malakoff, and Careening ravine. These rifle-pits gave rise to a series of fights
outside the works, in which the besiegers and besieged had various fortunes.
According to Todleben, the Russians generally had the best of these night encoun
ters and sorties. He repeatedly remarks on the want of vigilance and care of the
EngUsh ; and contrasts us unfavourably with the French. He says — " The enemy
opposed the construction of the rifle-pit and lodgment but feebly, while the besieged
alarmed them by frequent night attacks. These attacks were most frequently
directed against the English, who performed trench duty very negligently. Almost
every night our Tirailleurs, in small numbers — sometimes one man alone — making
the attempt, left the rifle-pit ; advanced boldly towards "the British trenches ; fired
on the working batteries, with the muzzle almost touching, and threw them back
into disorder."
But we must hasten on. As the winter advanced, the English and Turks,
deprived of their warm clothing, suffered frightfully. The situation of the French
was less painful ; but they were by no means supplied with all the necessaries.
Towards the end of October the French army was provided with warm clothing.
The English did not receive theirs till November ; but the coats were not sent in
sufficient quantity, and did not answer the purpose. There was no harmony between
the different branches. The commanders of the troops took no care of the food or
well-being of their soldiers. Moreover, the English soldier is not in a position to
help himself. Todleben remarks — "The ranks of the English a-rmy are filled,
almost exclusively,-' by men unacquainted with any sort of trade, and who have no
other means of subsistence than entering the service. Such a soldier is quite unfit
to get on in the more difficult moments of campaigning ; and so it was that the
greater part of the misery the British soldiers had to endure, arose from the fact,
that the army, as a whole, was incapable, without receiving help from abroad, of
overcoming obstacles arising from the circumstances in which it was placed.
Rains destroyed the roads, and no one thought of repairing them. Transport and
saddle-horses perished of cold in multitudes, and their dead bodies were left to rot,
* VOL. II. i 105

DEATH OF THE CZAR.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1855.
till the fetid atmosphere forced the authorities to order- their removal. In March,
1855, the railway was finished by the English ; for which, not only the materials,
but even workmen and engineers were sent out from England, which proves how
unfit the English army is, of itself, to overcome the difficulties which are so often
encountered in a soldier's life. A deplorable confusion prevailed at Balaklava.
Ships discharged their cargo wherever they found it convenient. No one knew
what had arrived, or was coming. Sometimes the soldiers were in need of the very
articles which had been landed in the harbour. The same discreditable manage
ment was visible in the treatment of the sick and the wounded ; and there was as
much disorder there as in the administration of the army itself. As the numbers
of the English diminished, those of the French increased; and, at last, the latter
Occupied, successively, the positions which at first had been reserved exclusively for
the English along the Tchernaya, and opposite the Karabelnaia. As to the Turks,
the. allies despised them, and the English used them as beasts of burden. In short,
they lost 300 men a day, till they almost perished out, and the remains of their
army were sent away." The siege progressed but slowly under these disadvantageous
circumstances. All through January, the' Russians directed frequent sorties, some
times two or three in the night— in the vast majority of instances against the
French trenches. Towards the close' of the month, the Grand Dukes Nicholas and
Michael arrived on the north side. But no remarkable event followed till February
the 3rd, when, at nine o'clock in the evening, Todleben fired his countermine, and
blew up the Freneh, who were advancing their gallery towards the capital of the
Flagstaff bastion, in the most perfect ignorance of the Russian operations; From
that date began the conflict of mines, countermines, globes of compression, and all
the machinery, of - subterranean war and' strategy, which lasted throughout the siege,
and has left indelible traces before Sebastopol, in* the very rocks themselves. On
the 1 7th of February the Russians attacked Eupatoria. The attempt was vigorously
resisted, and was altogether unsuccessful. The -garrison of Turks and French,
assisted by the fire: of one French and two English steamers, and by the Tartars,
repulsed the enemy, with a' loss of 769 men killed and wounded, and 365 horses.
The czar was intensely mortified by the failure of the attack; but Todleben says
it produced advantageous results, as the; allies were always obUged to be on the
alert against attack, and to keep a considerable garrison there in a vast intrenched
camp. As spring came on, all parties were reinforced. France, by means of the
conscription, had no difficulty in the matter. In England it was not so easy a
work. The militia were called out to replace the troops, so as to furnish volunteers ;
but, eventually, the English government was obliged to seek for men in Switzerland
and Germany; though, in both places, with but limited success. The alUes'were
also joined by a new state. At the commencement of the year, the Piedmontese, or
Sardinian government, signed the protocol of April, 1854 ; and Victor Emmanuel
gave in his adhesion to the western powers, and despatched 15,000 men, under
General Marmora, to the seat of war.
On the 2nd of March, news came that the czar— the man whose unruly am
bition had plunged Europe into war — was dead. At first a suspicion arose that
the Emperor Nicholas had met with the fate that had overtaken so many of his
predecessors : the surmise was natural, but it proved to be unfounded. Though his
death was unexpected, he had been more than usually unwell for twelve days. It
was said that the illness which caused, or rather preceded his death, was brought
on by a cold. Notwithstanding the severity of the weather, the emperor, all the
while, insisted on attending to his usual avocation. His anxiety for the success of
the war into which he had rushed, induced him to inspect everything himself,
down to the minutest details. He visited the soldiers in their barracks ; he
attended long and frequent reviews, forgetful of the precautions which his age re
quired in such a climate, and in such a season. To all the observations made to
him by his children and his most devoted servants, he replied that he had something

MJIGieiOJLAg I.
EMPEROR OF RUSSIA
OB: 1866 .

?RLWniTG AWD PtrBUSHTJTG COW-PANY „ I.IMTTF.E .

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [general pelissier.

else to do besides taking care of his health. He had, besides, treated himself
according to his own ideas ; and had insisted on his physicians putting him on a
regimen which would prevent his getting corpulent — a condition of which he had
considerable dread. It was evident to all, that disappointment and vexation
with regard to the Crimean war, accelerated the ravages of disease. There is no
doubt but that he felt the state of affairs there bitterly. He expired on the
morning of the 2nd of March ; and bis death was attributed to pulmonic apoplexy,
or congestion of the lungs. He was born on the 6th of July, 1796. He succeeded
his brother Alexander, as emperor, on the 1st of December, 1825: he was there
fore in tbe fifty-ninth year of his age ; and had filled the imperial throne of the
czars for nearly thirty years.
At first it was presumed that a speedy peace would be the result of the czar's
death ; and, both in London and Paris, the funds rose considerably. Such hopes
were destined to a speedy disappointment. On the day of his father's death,
the Emperor Alexander soon made known to his people the course he intended,
to pursue. On that very day he issued a warlike manifesto, in which he promised
to address himself to accomplish the views of his predecessors, Peter, Catherine,
Alexander, and of his father.
Dull and dreary is the war chronicle now ; and we hasten over it. At Vienna,
a congress was held to bring about peace. At this congress, all the great powers
of Europe, with the exception of Prussia, were represented. It was clear from the
result, however, that the time had not yet come to talk of peace.
As the spring advanced, the accounts from the Crimea, of the state of our
troops, became more satisfactory. The spirits and the health of the army revived ;
and, at length, preparations were made for the renewal of the bombardment of
Sebastopol. At daybreak on the morning of the 9th of April, a fire from the
French and English batteries was opened, such as the annals of the world never
recorded. The enemy was taken by surprise ; and for some minutes not a Russian
gun repUed to the tremendous salvo with which they had been greeted. They
soon, however, recovered themselves, though it was an hour before they got their
batteries into full play. All day long, through the mist and rain, that bombardment
continued ; nor did night put a stop to it, for a shot was fired every ten minutes,
To the intense mortification of aU, it was soon apparent that this bombardment
was a failure, though it was continued for twelve days. Ton after ton of shot was
hurled against the fortress ; an occasional, but indecisive, superiority of fire was
obtained ; the parapets of the Redan and Round Tower were jagged and pitted
with holes several feet deep : but the real strength of the place remained un
impaired ; and that which was injured by day, the Russians, as usual, repaired
by night. On the 18th of May, the French had a new commander-in-chief. Canroberjb
resigned, nominally on account of ill-health ; and General Pelissier, an older and
sterner man, nursed in African warfare, took the vacated post.
At this time, also, the French and English fleets paid a visit to the Straits of
Kertcb, and penetrated into the Sea of Azoff. Kertch and Yenikale, Taganrog, and
other places were captured, and considerable damage was done to the enemy.
The new French commander was determined to do something to signalise his
assumption of the command. The Mamelpn Tower, with the works fronting and
flanking that elevated position, was regarded by many engineers and military
judges, as the true key of the entire fortress of Sebastopol. Accordingly, tbe
French commander resolved that the Mamelon should be taken, and chiefly by his
own men. On the 6th of June, therefore, a fierce cannonade was opened from
the French and English lines, and continued for about three hours. The next
morning it was renewed, principally by the English, with great spirit : the attack
commenced in the afternoon. The English were to take the Quarries, in front of the
Redan, while our allies secured the Mamelon ; and both succeeded, though the
English had to maintain a murderous fight during the whole night through,
1 2 " 107

DEATH OF LORD RAGLAN.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.

The French had the harder task, but they performed it admirably. Unable to
restrain their enthusiasm after entering the Mamelon, they actually rushed on to
the famous Malakoff itself, and eventually succeeded in entering the tower, and
spiking seven guns ; but they were compelled to retire with heavy loss. It was
a pity that the allies did not at once follow up this , success. As usual,' they
waited, and gave the enemy time for preparation. On the 18th, it was resolved
that the French were to take the Malakoff; and the English, as soon as the former
had succeeded, to capture the Redan. The French attacking force consisted of
25,000 men ; the English, 8,000, under the veteran Sir G. Brown. The Russians
were fully prepared for the alUes. The French, unable to control their ardour,
made a premature attack. Lord Raglan, seeing their dangerous position, launched
his men upon the Redan, who met with a most awful fire, such as Lord Raglan
says he never witnessed in his life. In fifteen minutes they were repulsed. The
French fared little better : their loss, on this fatal day, amounted to 8,684 killed,
wounded, or missing. During the attack the allied fleets played their part, and
poured a heavy fire into the town, though not without loss to themselves. It was
on this occasion that Captain Lyons, the hero of the Sea of Azoff, received his
death-wound. Scarcely was the repulse of the allies known in England, when it was followed
by the information that Lord Raglan was no more. After a few days' illness, he
sunk under an attack of dysentery, and expired on the evening of the 26th of
June, in his sixty-seventh year. Mental anxiety undoubtedly contributed, to no
small extent, to produce this unexpected catastrophe. His lordship was the eighth
son of the fifth Duke of Beaufort ; and, as Lord Fitzroy Somerset, entered the
army at the age of sixteen, as a cornet in the 4th Dragoons. In 1807, he
accompanied the late Duke of Wellington to Denmark. He afterwards went with
the illustrious hero to the Peninsula, as military secretary and aide-de-camp.
Lord Somerset obtained distinction at Fuentes d'Onor ; at the storming of Badajoz ;
at the battles of Vittoria, Orthes, Nivelles, and Toulouse. On his return to
England, he was rewarded for his services with a cross and five clasps. He after
wards served with the duke at Quatre Bras and Waterloo ; and at the latter place
lost his arm. After the termination of the war, he was made secretary to the
embassy to the Court of France ; and was secretary to the Master-general of the
Ordnance from 1819 to 1827. He was made colonel of the 53rd Foot in 1830;
and promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general in 1838. In 1847, he was made
a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath ; and on the death of the Duke of
Wellington, he was raised to the peerage by the title of Lord Raglan, made a
Privy Councillor, and appointed Master-general of the Ordnance. Lord Raglan's
personal bravery was indisputable. As to his qualities as a leader of armies, they
do not appear to have been of the highest order ; and it is said PeUssier complained
more than once of his slowness. He was not a military genius. He possessed
considerable professional experience, great application, and remarkable powers of
endurance ; but he lacked the energy, vehemence, and decision of character which
are essential to the constitution of a renowned general. For the miserable state
of our army in the Crimea he was partly responsible. Clearly he was not the man
for his place ; but he was sent, little dreaming that there would be anything like
serious war. His successor was Lieutenant-General Simpson, hitherto chief of the
staff, who bore the reputation of having been a very efficient and popular colonel
when m command of the 29th Foot ; but who, for some years, until the Crimean
war broke out, had filled no higher office than that of the commander of the
Portsmouth garrison. He had the merit of being considered, as regards military
talent, quite equal to any other candidate for the exalted office.
* , InT,Au8'ust' the monotony of camp life was relieved by an attack, on the part
of the Russians, on the alUed army occupying the Tchernaya line. The latter were
well prepared, as a deserter had brought a rumour of some such an event to the
parties m danger. During the night of the 16th, the Russians silently quitted
108

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the malakoff captured.
their intrenched camp, under cover of a thick fog ; and, by five in the morning,
arrived before the advanced posts of the French and Sardinian armies. The
Russians were supposed to be 50,000 strong, with 6,000 cavalry, and 160 guns.
The first column having crossed the river, advanced with an Ham, seldom seen
in the dogged troops of that nation, till they found themselves in the midst of
a storm of round shot, grape, and shell, which mowed them down in the most
frightful manner. Despite of this, they pushed up the side of the hill till they
were taken in flank by the Sardinian batteries, and then they reeled, and fled for
shelter to some old willows on the banks of the stream. Here they met and joined
the second column, which climbed the hill, and came out on level ground. There
they were met by the French, who, after a deadly fire of artillery, charged them
with the bayonet, and sent them headlong down the hill, taking many prisoners.
A third attack was made, but equally in vain. The losses of the Russians were
between four and five thousand in killed and wounded. About 400 prisoners were
taken by the French. Their loss was estimated at 180 killed, and 810 wounded;
that of the Sardinians, 300 in killed and wounded. A Russian general officer, who
had been woufided, was carried to the French ambulances. He was much depressed,
and said — " This is a sad day of disgrace for Russia, not to have set free the
passage of the Tchernaya, defended by one French division."
This blow was soon followed up by another. In consequence of the defeat
of the Russian army of relief at the Tchernaya, the engineers and artillery officers
of the allied armies laid a report before the generals, recommending that a terrible
bombardment should be commenced on the 5th of September, and continued for
three days ; after which an assault on the Malakoff and Great Redan should take
place. The French were already within twenty-five yards of the former: un
happily, the EngUsh, on account of their limited numbers, and the difficulties of
the ground, were still 200 yards from the latter. However, the bombardment
was arranged ; and as soon as the Malakoff was in possession of the French, the
EngUsh were to deUver their assault.
September the 5th was a bright morning, and auspicious for the allies, who
commenced bombarding— happily for the last time— night and day: the shot and
shell flew towards the crumbUng defences of the iU-fated town. On the 12th, the
French rushed on to the Malakoff like waves of the sea, and with shouts of
" Vive VEmpereur !" The Russians on the parapets were killed as they stood ; and
then commenced such a fire of musketry as never echoed round the ravines of
Sebastopol before. In half-an-hour the tricolour floated proudly over the Malakoff ¦
though, till half-past seven, the French had to meet and drive back the enemy who
fought with the fury of despair.
It was now the turn of the English. Immediately the signal was given our
men bounded from their trenches, and were instantly met with a volley of grape
from the Russian guns, whieh struck down nearly one-third of them. The second
body of stormers foUowed rapidly on the heels of the first; and, as they approached
n^fVM ?***% fl fir 0f the enemy became less fatal- Tbe abattiswas
crossed without much difficulty, for it was torn into pieces by our shot. The ditch,
fifteen feet deep, was the next obstacle. Many of the ladders were left, on the way
found tot toT t7 ^ d°Wn whfl? CarryiDS them' and the others ™
W^^^ht^T °Ulmen .g0t int° tueEedan or not is uncertain.
soon vZrStlt «, 1' ¦* -S ^^ that' aS the alarm was sPread> the Russians
soon poured into the work m immense numbers, and opened a terrible fire on our
tiTe to d^so CT1^ t0 *&? the RuSsian ^ 0r' ^s,hSZ Sd
u™aualandbi;odvLSDgfSh general neglected to send reinforcements, and an
unequal and bloody contest was maintained for nearly an hour. A scene of strand
confusion followed. " In vain " writes Mr T?„0<!Jli « +tl «? "t ¦ grange
bv examr.1* nnrl Ha,;.„ j • i Awntes Mr- Russell, the officers, by voice and acts,
1T£ darmg tried to urge the soldiers on. They had an impression
^^SS^^rf* and X* if they advanced' thgy ™uld te b1™"
but many of them acted as became the men of Alma and Inkermann, and, rushing
109

THE RUSSIANS RETIRE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1855.

to the front, were swept down by the enemy's fire. The officers fell on all sides,
singled out by the enemy for their courage. 'The men of the different regiments
became mingled together in inextricable confusion. The 19th men did not care for
the officers of the 88th ; nor did the soldiers of the 23rd heed the command of an
officer who did not belong to their own regiment. The officers could not find their
men — the men had lost sight of their own officers. All the brigadiers, save Colonel
Windham, were wounded or unfit for duty. That gallant officer did all that man
could do to form his men, and lead them against the enemy; but in vain." Every
moment, also, our men were diminishing in numbers ; while the Russians came up
in masses from the town, and rushed down from the Malakoff, which had now been
occupied by the French. General Windham sent several officers to General
Codrington, begging for support. At last he went himself. Crossing the parapet
and ditch through a storm of bullets, he succeeded in getting to the fifth parallel
in safety. Sir Edward Codrington told him to take the Royals, who were then in
the parallel. He did so, with the assurance that, if the men kept their formation,
the Redan would still be taken.
Alas ! the Redan was not captured by the English that day. The Russians
not only swept down our confused regiments with grape, but charged them with
the bayonet. A short, desperate, but bloody struggle ensued. Our men — many of
them raw recruits, who never should have been sent on such an errand — fought under
every disadvantage, and were finally overpowered. The solid weight of the
advancing mass, swelled each moment from the rear by company after company,
and battalion after battalion, at length swept the English before them, and hurled
them into the ditch, where the dead, the wounded, and the unhurt were all lying in
one promiscuous heap. The Russians at first came out of the embrasures, and fired
and hurled stones at the struggling soldiers in the ditch ; but they were soon
driven back by the fire of our batteries and riflemen, under cover of which numbers
of our men returned to the trenches. Then there came out the melancholy truth that
the English attack had failed. The struggle had lasted about an hour and three-
quarters ; but the slaughter was as great as the battle of Inkermann. The loss of
the English in this disastrous affair, was twenty-nine officers, thirty-six sergeants,
six drummers, 314 rank and file, killed; 124 officers, 142 sergeants, twelve
drummers, 1,608 rank and file, wounded ; one officer, twelve sergeants, 168 rank
and file, missing. Total — killed, 385 ; wounded, 1,886 ; missing, 176— 2,447. The
French loss was, in all, 7,551. It is true they carried the Malakoff, the key
of the position; but they failed in their attempt on Careening Bay and the
Central bastion.
General Simpson made an arrangement for a second assault the next mornifig-1-
to be undertaken by the Highlanders, under Sir Colin Campbell ; supported by the
third division, under General Eyre. The attack was destined never to take place ; for
the Russian general, well knowing that the Malakoff was the key of the south side
of Sebastopol, and that the rest must inevitably fall, put into practice an intention
he had for some time conceived; and abandoned to the enemy the famous fortress
he had so long defended with such consummate skill and persevering energy;
• About eight o'clock on Saturday evening, the Russians, under cover ofthe
darkness, began to withdraw quietly from the town. To divert attention from the
retreat of his troops, General Gortschakoff ordered a fire of musketry to be kept
up from his advanced posts. About eleven, many explosions took place, though
it was not known then that the enemy were blowing up their magazines. Shortly
after midnight the men in our trenches observed that there was an unusual silence
¦?}m \ * ,Rfed1an; At length' some of the soldiers crePt UP to it, and they found
it deserted by all but the wounded. About two o'clock, fires broke out in various
parts of the city, and the flames soon spread to all the principal building. Then
came terrific explosions, which shook the allied camps, and enveloped the doomed
city m a burning pall, merging into dense and dark clouds of smoke. At half-past
five in the morning, two of the southern forts were hurled into the air, accom-

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [losses of men.
panied by the upward rush of a multitude of shells, which exploded in all directions.
The lurid glare revealed the fact that the baffled Russians were passing, in dense
masses, over the bridge of boats which spanned the narrow arm of the sea dividing
the south from the north side of Sebastopol. Nor could the allies attack them.
The Russian general had acted with a wisdom and foresight worthy of the terrible
resistance he had made. He had secured his retreat by placing a burning town
between himself and his foes, from which immense magazines of gunpowder and
shells constantly shot roaring into the air, and threatened destruction to any one
who entered it. The allied armies might well pause ere they ventured on a pursuit
under such circumstances. Prince Gortschakoff gave, as his reason for the
evacuation of the fortress — as he might very properly do — the infernal fire of
the allies. Before seven on the morning of the 9th, the Russian battalions had passed
over to the north side. Explosions still rent the air, and added to the awful
grandeur ofthe scene. The Russian men-of-war in the harbour were all abandoned
and sunk. In the allied armies there was joy and rejoicing at the sight of Sebas
topol a blackened heap of ruins. The French and English generals hastened to
congratulate their troops upon the vast triumphs that had been obtained ; and, in
the language of a poet who is nameless —
" Now the allied banners float
Above each dreaded moat.
And Victory's trumpet-note
Rings past the Mamelon.
Four nations' flags now sweep
The Malakoff's high steep ;
And mirror'd in the deep,
Beneath which lie his ships,
Buried in a deep eclipse,
With all his glory gone."
The town, when entered by the besiegers, was in an awful state ; and the scene
in the Russian hospital, where some hundreds of the czar's wounded soldiers were
left to die, beggars description. Still the Russian spirit was unbroken. It was
evident that the despot of the north would not give way unless the very existence
of his empire was in jeopardy. Two days after the fall of Sebastopol, a brief
armistice was granted to the Russians, to enable them to remove their wounded to
the north side of the harbour. During this melancholy work, an English officer,
addressing a Russian one, said — " Well, now I hope we may look forward to a
cessation of hostilities between us." The Muscovite pointed gloomily to the
burning city, and replied— " With that before us, peace is further off than ever."
Such, it is believed, was the general spirit of his countrymen. The time for peace
had not yet arrived.
Thus ended this memorable siege, the glory of which rests rather with the
defence. " The Russians," says the French engineer, General Neil, " had more
than 800 guns mounted, and a garrison the force and composition of which they
could vary at leisure. After the immense quantity of projectiles they expended
upon us, it is surprising to see that they were still abundantly provisioned ; and I
have reason to believe that they have left more than 1,500 guns in the place. The
besieging army had about 700 guns in battery during the various attacks, and
upwards of 1,600,000 shots were fired. Our approaches, which were in many cases
?*! thro"Sh^he nrock foy means of gunpowder, had an extent of eighty kilometres
ffiSS68 ^Shl We emPlQyed SO*000 gabions, 60,000 fascines, and nearly
1,000,000 sand-bags."
*i. ^f ithei Eussian loss there bave been many estimates. According to Todleben,
the whole loss of the garrison of Sebastopol, from fire and combat during the
siege, was 89,142. In that total, the losses at Alma, Balaklava, Inkermann, and
other places, are not included.
In Paris and London, the intelligence of the fall of Sebastopol excited the
111

peace rumours.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.
utmost enthusiasm. The Queen of England sent an address of congratulation to
her army. The French emperor did the same. Pelissier was made a marshal — an
event the English government burlesqued by making a field-marshal of General
Simpson, for his skilful conduct of the affair of the Redan, possibly. There were
those who said that the English government did not wish to hurt Russia. If so,
General Simpson must have been, even more than Lord Raglan, a general to
their mind.
The warlike stores found in Sebastopol were immense. They were divided into
three parts ; of which France took two, and England one. Instead of retreating from
the Crimea, the Russians commenced throwing up earthworks, and strengthening
the north side, with that rapidity and industry of which they had already given so
many remarkable examples.
The allies employed themselves in many ways. By land, the French and
Turks threatened Perekop. The gun-boats made various expeditions, more or less
successful, on their own account. The allied fleets sailed from Sebastopol on the
7th of October, and, in great strength, appeared before Odessa. The city was,
however, again spared ; and the fleet sailed to Kinburn, which surrendered after an
obstinate defence. The land forces attached to the expedition then started on a
march inland, towards Cherson ; and a flotilla proceeded to the mouth of the river
Bug. Another made for the mouth of the river Dnieper. At Nicholaieff, the
great Russian dockyard, the Russian emperor had remained during the bombardment
of Kinburn. The allied squadron, after the death of the French admiral, Bruat,
returned to Balaklava and Kamiesch, leaving a few vessels behind, to preserve
the ascendency gained on the Sea of Azoff. They not only did this, but, in many
ways, extended the ravages already committed there.
General Simpson left the Crimea, on his return to England, on November 12th,
and General Codrington reigned in his stead. He had been popular till the affair
ofthe Redan. "History," says Mr. Tyrrell, the author of a valuable work on the
Russian war,* " will unequivocally declare, that no officer should have undertaken
such a terrible exploit as that of the assault of the Redan, with so insufficient
a force as that Sir William Codrington sent against it. His conduct, on that
occasion, was as if a fireman should attempt to extinguish a fierce and wide-
spreading conflagration with a garden syringe."
On the 15th of November an appalling incident occurred. A park of French
artillery exploded, killing sixty-five French, and wounding 170 : of the English,
one officer and twenty non-commissioned officers were killed; four officers and
112 non-commissioned officers and men wounded. Otherwise, the men were well
off, and happy, and revelling in a comparative luxury, of which they had no idea
the November preceding. M. Soyer, with his improved cookery, also did much
service in the camp. When Christmas came it was observed in true old English
Towards the end of the year, rumours of coming peace began to circulate
throughout Europe On the 28th of December, the Austrian government
despatched Count Valentine Esterhazy to St. Petersburg, with certain propositions
for the acceptance of Russia. These propositions had been first presented to the
English and J rench Courts, and received their approval. They were—
, t. "!' ThZ DlLanuhiaV' Principalities.- Complete abolition of the Russian pro
tectorate 2. As regards the Danube, its freedom, and that of the mouth of the
river, shall be efficaciously assured by the institutions of European international law.
Each of the contracting parties to have the right to station one or two light vessels
at the mouth of the river in order to ensure the observance of the regulations
relative to the freedom of the Danube. 3. Neutralisation of the Black Sea.-
This sea shall be opened to merchant vessels ; closed to ships of war. Consequently,
naval arsenals will be neither created nor desired. The protection of the com
mercial and maritime interests of all nations shall be assured in the respective
^^ * Published by the London Printing and Publishing Company.

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [paris conference.

ports in the Black Sea, by the establishment of institutions conformed to inter
national law and ancient usages in this matter. The two powers bordered by the
coast mutually engage to keep up only the number of light vessels, of a stipulated
strength, necessary for the* coasting service. 4. Christian subjects of the Porte. —
The immunities of the Rayah subjects of the Porte will be established without
injury to the independence or the dignity of the sultan's crown. As deliberations
are taking place between Austria, France, Great Britain, and the Sublime Porte,
in order to assure the Christian subjects of the sultan their religious and political
rights, Russia shall be invited, on the conclusion of peace, to associate herself with
them. 5. The belligerent powers reserve the right which belongs to them, to
produce, in the interest of Europe, some special conditions besides the four
guarantees." Russia made counter-proposals; and then, to the astonishment of
all, notified to Count Esterhazy (January 16th) the unconditional acceptance, by
the Russian government, of the Austrian proposals, which were to serve as pre-
Uminaries of peace. The suddenness of this acceptance took all men by surprise.
In England the news was scarcely welcome. War, we believed, would restore
our prestige ; and we were, therefore, all for war. Our preparations for the next
campaign were enormous ; and we fancied, after the sad blunders of the past,
there was a bright future of glory, and victory, and success before us. With our
illustrious allies the case was different. France was jubilant. She had gained
reputation all the world over by the war ; but her resources had been drawn upou
so heavily, that all felt it, and were almost ready to complain. The Emperor
Napoleon was. also satisfied with the result of the war, and anxious for the return
of peace. Not only had Russia been humbled, but Napoleon had given the army
and the French public something to think of and do ; and many restless spirits,
who might have made him very uneaisy at home, had thus been got rid of. It was
believed, in many quarters, that the war had been undertaken by him for dynastic
purposes, and was to be concluded for the benefit of the same dynasty; and
certainly, in the conduct and conclusion of the war, there was a great deal to
support this view. The German states and Austria were delighted, as they feared
France and England, and had no wish to see them carrying on a war which might
become a crusade for freedom in Europe. So peace was the order of the day ;
and, as Prince Napoleon exclaimed, "Then Poland and Italy are sacrificed."
Sardinia was less satisfied than England.
The acceptance of the peace proposals by Russia, was attributed largely to
the pacific temper and resolution, on that point, of the emperor himself. It is said,
that when the acceptance of the Austrian proposals was declared, that Alexander
called none of the chief men of the empire to the council ; that he sent for no one
except Count de Nesselrode, M. de Seniavine, and M. de Jouton (and for them only),
to hear_his irrevocable decision, and to order them to transmit it to Vienna, and
count Esterhazy. There was no advice, and no discussion: the sovereign gave
the order; the great dignitaries ofhis empire obeyed; and that was all they had to
ao. ihe members of the imperial family knew nothing of the affair before the
persons just mentioned. One alone, the Empress Maria, was acquainted with the
S„f \er ^band si,nce tt was g^atly through her influence that it was
i« ™,£nti ad<™ t° her treaties, it was added, that Prince Gortschakoff
tTJ^Si^Sen<^!lg1deSpatches of the most alarming character, which invariably
S wt such phrases as this-" I foresee the most serious complications for
^onoS ffc^ i \T' * entreat y°ur maJesty to adhere to the conditions
ErfM,'™ t! lEur°Pe declares against Russia." The emperor engaged
^? ira^oXffle? the views of the acceptance of ihe peace pro-
™ J^£f K °f FST17? tbe peace conferences opened at Paris. France was
Zon £ L J Wakwdri, Minister of Foreign Affairs to the Emperor, and
vtlZ 5 TTJ'hlS In?y ^ordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at
Vienna. England, by the Earl of Clarendon and Lord Cowley. Austria, by Count
113

WALEWSKI ON BELGIUM.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1856.
Jfc  _  . —
Buol-Schauen stein, Minister of Foreign Affairs ; and Baron de Hubner, the Austrian
Envby Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris. Russia, by Count
Orloff, Member of the Council of the Empire, and Aide-de-Camp General of the
Emperor of Russia ; and Baron de Brunow, his Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to the Germanic Confederation. For Sardinia, there appeared
Count Cavour and the Marquis de Villa Marina ; while Turkey was represented by
Aali Pasha, Grand Vizier of his Majesty the Sultan ; and Mehemet Djemil Bey, the
Turkish ambassador at Paris. Prussia was afterwards admitted to sign, not to
discuss, the terms of peace. The first thing agreed to was an armistice, to last
till March 31st. No difficulties were in the way; and the czar signed the treaty
March 19th.
The peace congress held its last meeting on the 16th of April. The protocols
of the conference were eventually published, and filled a parliamentary paper of
112 pages. They were twenty-four in number. The terms in which they are
drawn up, are, as may be supposed, dry and formal ; and relate almost exclu
sively to the details of the treaty of peace. One, reporting a speech of Count
Walewski's, attracted much attention, and threatened to have some bad results.
The subject was the condition of Europe, with respect to the states of Greece and
Italy. That, however, which excited most remark, was an attack on the Belgian
press, in which proceedings of an arbitrary character were recommended to the
Belgian government, and something very like a threat held out unless they were
adopted. In this paper the count remarks —
" He considers it superfluous to state, that there are, every day, printed in
Belgium, publications the most insulting, the most hostile against France and
her government ; that revolts and assassination are openly advocated in them.
He remarks that, quite recently, Belgian newspapers have ventured to extol the
society called 'La Marianne,' the tendencies and objects of which are known;
that all these publications are so many implements of war, directed against the
repose and tranquillity of France, by the enemies of social order, who, relying on
the impunity which they find under the shelter of Belgian legislation, retain the
hope of eventually realising their culpable designs. Count Walewski declares, that
the intention and sole desire of the government of the empire, is to maintain the
best relations with Belgium. He readily adds that France has reason to be satisfied
with the Belgian government, and with its efforts to mitigate a state of things
which it is unable to alter ; its legislation not allowing it either to restrain the
excesses of the press, or to take the initiative in a reform which has become
absolutely indispensable. We should regret to be obliged ourselves to make Belgium
comprehend the strict necessity for modifying a legislature which does not allow
its government to fulfil the first of international duties— that of not assailing, or
allowing to be assailed, the internal tranquillity of the neighbouring states. Re
presentations addressed by the stronger to the less strong, have too much the
appearance of menace ; and that is what we desire to avoid. But if the repre
sentatives of the great powers of Europe, viewing in the same light with ourselves
this necessity, should find it useful to express their opinion in this respect, it is
more than probable that the Belgian government, relying upon all reasonable
persons m Belgium, would be able to put an end to.a state of things which cannot
fail sooner or later, to give rise to difficulties, and every real danger, which it is
the interest of Belgium to avert beforehand."
nl™A\°tber Pr°P0Sal °^he ^°,Unt'S relat6d t0 a subject on which England has
always been very susceptible. The paper continues—
f™ " vT* Walewski XTTSeS t0 the C0I1§"ress t0 conclude its work by a declara-
wouid To™TvPdTttU ^Yemal*able a^ance in international lawf and which
would be recewed by the whole world with a sentiment of lively gratitude, ™«
^T.^^^l^T^^ liberty of conscience^ fhe cong

The of

Vienna 0u;n^ c xu i 1 T ^^ , ""ovbj' ui conscience ; tne congress 01
S womd t Clf thte,sla7;tfde'aDd the freedom of the navigation of rivers.
It would-be truly worthy of the congress of Paris to lay down the basis of an

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [peace rejoicings, .
uniform maritime law, in time of warj as regards neutrals. The four following
principles would completely effect that object. 1. The abolition of privateering.
2. The neutral flag covers enemy's goods, except contraband of war. 3. Neutral
goods, except contraband of war, are not liable to capture, even under enemy's flags.
4. Blockades are not binding except in so far as they are effective. This would,
indeed, be a glorious result, to which hone of us could be indifferent."
On Sunday, April the 27th, the congress assembled, to exchange the ratifica
tions of the treaty, and thus peace was formally restored to Europe. On the
following day, Lord Palmerston, by command of her majesty, laid upon the table of
the House of Commons the papers of the conferences recently held at Paris, and
copies of the treaty of peace. Then, amidst loud cheers, he announced his intention
of moving that it should be taken into consideration that day week.
On the 2nd of May, information of the conclusion of peace arrived in the
Crimea. It was announced to the allied armies by salutes of 101 guns, fired from
each of the three camps. Many of the ships were dressed with flags, and presented
a festive appearance. The Russians heard the roar of the guns of the allies, but
they maintained a sullen silence. In the English camp the news was received with
less emotion than might be supposed. Many of the officers and men longed to
return home ; but there were others who regretted peace, as the British army was in
such a splendid condition, and capable of winning much renown.
Extensive preparations were now made for the evacuation of the Crimea, and
a considerable stream of stores was poured into the several ports of embarkation..
War, and the feelings created by war, had passed away ; and the Russians and their
recent enemies met together in a very friendly manner. On the 9th, the following
notice was issued to the troops :— " The English army is no longer restrained from
passing the Tchernaya. All officers are to be present in camp at night; and alL
non-commissioned officers and men to be present at the usual roll-calls, unless they
are m possession of written passes from their own commanding officers." This
welcome intelligence added greatly to the growing intimacy between our troops and
the Russians. After this the latter formed part of the population whieh daily
frequented the camps and the bazaars; and not only the Russian camp, but the
towns of Baktchiserai and Simpheropol were visited by many of our officers in
spite of a friendly warning from the Russians that typhus fever was raging in these
places. The Russian officers came frequently to Kadikoi, Little Kamiesch, and the
several bazaars and canteens, for supplies, which they obtained for about half the
price such articles fetched in their own camp.
In England, as if to show what we could have done, on the1 23rd of Aoril
there was a grand naval review at Portsmouth, at which the queen was pre
sent, and many eminent foreigners. The fleet consisted of 240 steam-vessels
more Zn^on S' fl0\tmg ^T8' a*d mortar v6ssels- 0f tbese, three had
more than 100 guns each, and six had ninety-one. The rest carried from two-
guns each to eighty. Altogether they mounted no less than 3^02 guns and
possessed 30,671 horse-power. This enormous fleet, covering a 'space8 of nearly
Sth Z -M^ ^ % a* anCh°r' T,maimed h? *°t less tban 30,^00 men On
cnaracte? StZl^T TTX^^ * conse1^ce of the peace, of a thankful
™T»7l- i ? ? ¦ m°nth theTe was a Peace celebration at the Crystal Palace •
and a national celebration on the 29th, on a large scale. In London the dav was
™hTS? ii e2d?lbltlons of fireworks took place, which exceeded in magnitude
^^^ffiS^^ ^ in tMs -^ry. All the retirees of
wlS^r^^^SE.^? °P-a^ ^designing and producing
a second in tie Seen Park athrd orf V ^ u°n ^~°r in H?de ^ark;
Park This wa^W f™ +k ¦ Primrose Hill; and a fourth at Victoria
rS^^^^^x6^^^ of LondT af \prevent
Edinburgh Glasgow Dnhlt T •' Nor *£? ^e rejoicings confined to London.
umouign, Glasgow, Dubhn, Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield, and many other
115

THE ALLIES LEAVE THE CRIMEA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1856.

towns and cities shared in the general joy. Yet it was felt by many of the English
public, who believed, somehow or other, the Crimean war would end in a gain to
liberty, that peace was incomplete without the freedom of the nationalities.
Many quoted Mrs. Browning, and said, with her —
" It is no peace,
Annihilated Poland, stifled Rome,
Dazed Naples ; Hungary, fainting 'neath the thong,
And Austria wearing a smooth olive-leaf
On her brutal forehead, while her hoofs outpress
The life from Italy."
Yet such had no right to complain. They had no ground for their sanguine
and illusory expectations. As Mr. Cobden, who consistently opposed the war,
said, " we made an agreement with a despot, to go to war with a despot, on behalf
of another despot." Certainly the friends of freedom and oppressed nationalities
had little cause to grumble.
A few closing words about the Crimea. The impression left on the minds of
those officers who made expeditions to Simpheropol and other places in the
interior, was, that the resources of Russia in men were reduced to a very low state
indeed, in consequence of the war, and that she would have been unable to main
tain an army in the Crimea, if the allies had made an aggressive movement with all
their forces. From Theodosia to Eupatoria the country was deserted ; the fields
uncultivated ; and the mere necessaries of life fetched almost famine prices. At
some places the English tourists were unable to procure barley or corn for their
horses for any consideration. At others, a mouthful of hay for a horse cost half a
rouble ; an egg, fivepence ; and a fowl a small fortune.
The final evacuation of the Crimea, and its restoration to the Russians, was at
hand. In the middle of July, Sebastopol, now a complete ruin — for the allies
completed what the Russians had begun — was handed over to the latter. Already
the Guards had returned from the seat of war, and had been reviewed by her
majesty at Aldershott. Banquets were given to the officers and generals in all
parts of the kingdom. Nor were the men forgotten. A public banquet was
given to the men in the Royal Surrey Gardens, on Monday, the 25th of August.
Sergeant-Major Edwards, the senior sergeant of the Guards, occupied the chair. A
similar banquet was given at Portsmouth, to about 2,300 soldiers, sailors, and
marines. Of course our brave allies were not forgotten. The queen sent medals,
and- thanks, and orders in abundance. Indeed, the gratitude of parliament, and
queen, and people was somewhat over-done. England had been disgraced in the
eyes of all Europe. Todleben frankly states " the inability of our army to struggle
against the difficulties created by a rotten civil organisation at home, and an
imbecile military administration abroad." Our soldiers had suffered unheard-of
calamities. They had been left to perish by famine, cold, pestilence, and war;
and yet their leaders— the men who should have taken care of them, but
did not— the men who kept all these things veiled, so that the government of this
country actually knew nothing of the matter till the public press revealed the true
and shocking state of affairs, were feted, and decorated, and promoted, as if they
had covered the country with immortal renown.
But we may not leave this part of the subject without referring to the Baltic
campaign, and the siege of Kars.
Sir Charles Napier was superseded in his command of the Baltic fleet, and
Admiral Dundas sent in his place. Sir Charles talked well, and promised much.
He had under his command the finest ships that ever left the shores of this or any
other country. He had, besides, unlimited power, and the confidence of the public
at large. At the great dinner given to him (to which we have already referred),
he is said to have declared that he would take Cronstadt in a month, or go to a
place not to be mentioned to ears polite. He bragged and strutted in the
116

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the Baltic fleet.
most absurd and astounding manner. He vowed that if he did not find war
declared by the time he got there, he would declare it himself. Soon after he left
Spithead, he telegraphed to his crews to " sharpen their cutlasses ;" and, as an
earnest of what he meant to do, he signalled for large quantities of chloroform, in
anticipation of the frightful operations his valour would render necessary : and he
ended by capturing Bomarsund, and declaring that the granite walls of Cronstadt,
Sweaborg, and Helsingfors were impregnable. He got into parliament, and came
before the public as an ill-used man. In reality he was nothing of the kind. Mr.
Russell mentions a curious fact in connection with the Grand Duke Constantine and
the defences of Cronstadt, which we relate in his own words. " Sir Charles Napier,
in the account of his extraordinary experiences of Cronstadt, forgot one important
fact. He talked much of the difficulties, and insinuated the impossibilities, of an
attack on the place ; and mentioned, especially, the impediments created by the
genius of Todleben, in the passage at the north of the forts. But Sir Charles did
not tell his countrymen what the grand duke is at no pains to conceal — that
the passage was quite practicable when the allied fleet first came off Cronstadt ;
and that the impediments to the passage of large ships were not formed till the
winter of the second year of the war.-' The Russians were perfectly aware that
the northern side could be forced, and that it was quite possible for a determined
enemy to run past the forts, most of which are constructed on arcs of spheres,
have their maximum of fire directed in front, and have only part of their guns
available for an enemy passing their right flank. They had even such a casualty
in view ; and the most desperate measures were spoken of in case the fleets forced
St. Petersburg, and the city was at their mercy. The opportunity was lost, and
the grand duke and Todleben took care it should never occur again. The moment
the allies retired before the grip of winter, thousands of men were set to work,
who sunk stones all along the northern channel, or heaped piles of hundreds of
tons of blocks of granite on the ice, which went through to the bottom as it melted,
and formed a Une of artificial rocks across the passage. On some of those rocks
batteries were erected, guns were placed to cover the approach, and the place was
indeed rendered unassailable by large vessels. Why did not Sir Charles tell us
when this was done ? Surely nothing of the kind took place until after his abor
tive demonstration in the summer of 1854."
Such charges prepared the people for disappointment. Sweaborg was bom
barded, and laid in ashes; other injury was done to the coasts of Russia; many
boarding vessels were taken, and much injury was inflicted on her people ; but
Cronstadt remained impregnable; and the fleet returned home with no laurels
worth mentioning— safe and sound it is true, but not in the state, or with the glory,
England expected when it sailed away a year before. The vessels passed their
time, while preserving the blockade, in firing at targets, or occasionally de
stroying a Russian telegraph-station. Sometimes a number of gun-boats would
come out of their harbour in Cronstadt ; but they took care not to venture
beyond the protection of their batteries ; and, on the advance of our boats,
always put their helms, and returned to port with a judicious and amusing
alacrity More mischief might have been done; but, to the deep disgrace of the
Admiralty, there was no reserve of mortars. The Times observed truly—" The
fleet took out just a score of 13-inch mortars, neither more nor less ; capable of
tang, on the average, about 230 rounds a-piece. As the 13-inch mortar costs,
delivered, about £125, it appears that the great Baltic fleet, the mere mainte
nance ol which, for the time it has been in the Baltic, has not costless than £30,000
a day nas been brought to a standstill, reduced to utter impotence, and rendered
a laughing-stock to the enemy, just for want of £2,500— about as much as a man of
taste gives for three early Sevres vases." All this was terrible bad management. It
is known how long a mortar is serviceable almost to a few rounds of firing. Yet,
in this case, our mortars were disabled in the bombardment of a single fortress;
and our operations were brought to a standstill because there were no other
117

THE SIEGE OF KARS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1855.

mortars to take their places. If the war had always been conducted in this
manner, it might have lasted till the original cause of it was forgotten. It can
scarcely be believed, yet such is the fact — while Admiral Dundas was sending home
all his mortar-vessels, the Admiralty were loading tbe Sanspcureil with mortars
at Woolwich, and giving her orders to proceed with them to the Baltic. On
learning that the mortar-boats were actually on their way home, the Admiralty
had to send out a second steamer to stop them, and collect them somewhere in the
Baltic, to receive their new mortars, in the faint hope that something might be
done before the winter set in. It was, however, too late.
In another quarter of the world, the British name was more associated with
glorious renown. Of the Circassian war, and the heroic Schamyl — of the contest
carried on by the Turks with Russia, it is not within our province to speak. But, as
Englishmen, we stop to chronicle the defence of Kars, conducted by Englishmen, of
whom England had every reason to be proud. " The position of the army of Kars,"
writes Dr. Sandwith, " was an innovation on all military science. The artillery
was nearest to the enemy ; the infantry close to the city ; and the cavalry far away
on the road to Erzeroum." There was no organisation, properly speaking, though
General Guyon, of Hungarian fame, was chef-d'itat-major ; and General Kmety,
also another Hungarian refugee, had the command of the outposts. The army was
never drilled; and its unsatisfactory state led to the appointment of Colonel
Williams as British commissioner. Even then the colonel was regarded as a
highly distinguished officer, and an able scientific engineer and diplomatist.
Attended by Major Teesdale and Dr. Sandwith, he reached Kars in September,
1854. Kars had a fortress, partly in ruins, but which, in time past, was considered
one of the most formidable in Asia. The troops inside were in rags, and their pay
was from fifteen to eighteen months in arrear. All the effective men it could
muster, ^mounted to only 14,000.
Spring passed away, and summer came. The Russians- had a new com
mander, General Mouravieff ; and it was evident warlike operations would be com
menced. Meanwhile, the besieged were employed, under General Lake, in throwing
up fortifications around Kars, which gradually assumed the appearance of a fortified
camp. Attack and defence were the order of the day. On one occasion, 800
Russians were slain by 400 Turks, defending a redoubt. The battle lasted seven
hours ; and the enemy finally retreated, with the loss of 2,500 killed, and nearly
double that number wounded. As the Turkish cavalry had perished, and the Rus
sians dared not meet the foe in the open field, it was resolved to reduce the garrison
by blockade. A detail of the horrors suffered by the wretched soldiers and in
habitants of Kars, from this period until when, exhausted by starvation, they
surrendered to an enemy whom they had so gloriously beaten, is appalling and
hideous. The tortures of disease were added to the pangs of hunger. A terrible
change came over the men: they were visibly emaciated; they tottered in
their walk ; their faces were gloomy and haggard, and their eyes bloodshot and
wolfish. Grass was torn up in every open space where it could be found, and
the roots greedily devoured. Cats were sold for one hundred piastres each, for
tiie sake of food. A daring peasant who contrived to bring a load of onions
into the town, found an immediate sale for them, at the rate of 12s. for two
pounds and a-half: emaciated horses were killed, and greedily devoured. Outside
the city swarms of vultures were to be seen preying on the mangled corpses, which
the hungry dogs had scratched out of their shallow graves. All this was borne in
the hope that the Russians might be compelled to retire, or that the garrison might
be relieved by Selim Pasha, who had landed with a considerable army ; or by Omer
Pasha, whom they supposed to be advancing to their assistance. The endurance of
these unhappy men was touching, and almost sublime. Dr. Sandwith says—
"With hollow cheeks, tottering gait, and that peculiar feebleness of voice so cha
racteristic of famine, they yet clung to their duties. I have again and again seen

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [debate on kars.

them watching the batteries at midnight, some standing and leaning on their arms,
but most coiled up under the breastwork, during cold as intense as an Arctic
winter ; scarce able to respond to or challenge the visiting officer ; and in answer
to a word of encouragement, the loyal words were ever on their lips — ' Padishah
sagh Ossoon !' (' Long life to the Sultan !'). It would seem that the extremity of
human suffering called forth latent sparks of a loyalty and devotion not observed
in seasons of prosperity."
At length General Williams had to renounce all hope. It was evident there
was no quarter from which help was to come to these unfortunate men. On the
25th of November, Major Teesdale proceeded, under a flag of truce, to the Russian
camp. Before doing so, the Hungarian officers, Kmety and Kollman, were in
formed of what was to be done. They accordingly made their escape through the
enemy's lines, and proceeded to Erzeroum, which they were fortunate to reach in
safety. General Kmety 's case was a desperate one : he had been formally sentenced
to death by the Austrian government, and had no mercy to expect at the hands of
Russia. Rather than endure this fate, he declared he would blow his brains out.
General Kollman, an officer who had held high rank in the Hungarian revolutionary
army, was in the same predicament.
Williams, with his aide-de-camp, was received with great courtesy by the Russian
general, Mouravieff. The English hero consented to surrender under certain con
ditions ; adding, if they were not complied with, " every gun shall be burst, every
standard burnt, and you may do your will upon a famished crowd." The Russian
general behaved with a generosity which did him real honour. He answered — " I
have no wish to wreak an unworthy vengeance on a long-suffering and gallant
army, which has covered itself with glory, and only yields to famine." Then,
pointing to a lump of bread and a handful of roots, he said — " Look here ! What
splendid troops must these be who can stand to their arms, in this severe climate,
on such food as this ! General Williams, you have made yourself a name in history ;
and posterity will stand amazed at the endurance, the courage, and the discipline
which this siege has called forth in the remains of an army. Let us arrange a
capitulation that will satisfy the demands of war without outraging humanity."
Subsequently, the whole garrison, including nine pashas, surrendered as prisoners of
war; and thus ended the siege of Kars, the defence of which was one of the
brightest and noblest incidents of the war. General Williams, on being restored to
Uberty, and returning to England, was rewarded with a baronetcy ; a pension of
£1,000 a year for life; the rank of K.C.B.; the Turkish order of Medjidee; the
honorary degree of D.C.L. by the University of Oxford ; and the freedom of the
city of London. He was, moreover, elected member of parliament for Calne, and
appointed commandant at Woolwich. Subsequently he was sent out as governor
of Nova Scotia, of which country he is a native. From 1840, when he obtained the
rank of captain, to 1852, he was principally occupied with the settlement of peace
and boundary questions between Turkey and Persia.
In 1856, a fierce debaite was raised by Mr. Whiteside in the House of
Commons. It lasted four nights, and was ably illustrated by the best oratory of
the chiefs of parties in the House. In his reply, Lord Palmerston criticised the
plans lor the relief of Kars, proposed by the Turkish and English governments.
ine ministry disapproved of the former plan, and stated their reasons for that
disapproval But," added his lordship, "when we were told, in reply, that those
reasons had been considered by the council of war in Constantinople, and the
J™?™™ gwrTf t a$usced t0 tbeir opinion, it was not for us to maintain the
1™S, a -fv U°}hms more t0 say- Sebastopol was the great object of the
ItKS i v rf1.sted us eleven montbs- If Sebastopol were taken, we
Z^St i' 'X ar\lf V^ fallen'> but' if we failed to take Sebastopol the
m nnf7^ w *"^ ^P* °bJect of th« campaign entirely lost. I think nf
^lrL?Z bVlew« ™n maintain, that the governments of England and
of France were not right m upholding the decision of their generals-that no
119

MR. KINGLAKE'S HISTORY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.

portion of the troops should be taken from Sebastopol until it had actually fallen
before the attack of the allies." He concluded by saying— " Those who take the
trouble to look at the conditions of peace, will find that we have foreseen all these
matters with respect to which provision could be included in a treaty ; and that
we have provided against any further danger to the Turkish empire, whose, protec
tion was the object of the war. Yet, at the very moment when, as I contend, the
government have proved their energy in the prosecution of the war, and their
foresight in the stipulations of peace— when the country is satisfied with the results
of the war, and the peace that has been concluded— the honourable and learned
gentleman' steps in with a vote of censure— a vote, I undertake to say, not more at
variance with the general feeling of the country, than, as the division to-night
will show, it is at variance with the opinion of the House of Commons." After an
amendment by Mr. Ker Seymer had been disposed of, the House divided on the
original motion, when there appeared— ayes, 176 ; noes, 303. The majority was far
greater than was anticipated. The House felt, and the public also, that the
surrender of Kars to a beaten enemy was disgraceful ; that Lord Stratford had
acted with more than his wonted superciliousness ; that ministers were negligent ;
but that the chief blame lay at the door of the timid, the vacillating, the corrupt
pashas dominant at the Porte.
The history of the Crimean war is yet to be written. Neither French, nor
English, nor Russian historian has yet achieved the task. According to Mr.
Kinglake, the allies were sent into the Crimea solely in consequence of a despatch
written by the Duke of Newcastle, and read to, and approved of, by his colleagues
while suffering from the stupefying influences of a good dinner. The distinguished
author observes —
" The Duke of Newcastle took the despatch to Richmond, for there was to be
a meeting of the members of the cabinet at Pembroke Lodge ; and he intended to
make this the occasion for submitting the proposed instructions to the judgment
of his colleagues. It was evening — a summer evening — and all the members
of the cabinet were present, when the duke took out the draft of his proposed
despatch, and began to read it. Then there occurred an incident, very trifling in
itself, but yet so momentous in its consequences, that if it had happened in old
times, it would have been attributed to the direct intervention of the gods. In
these days, perhaps, the physiologist will speak of the condition into which the
brain is brought when it rests after anxious labours ; and the analytical chemist
may regret that he had not an opportunity of testing the food of which the min
isters had partaken, with the view to detect the presence of some narcotic poison :
but no well-informed person will look upon the accident as characteristic of the
men whom it befell : for the very faults, no less than the high qualities of the
statesmen composing Lord Aberdeen's cabinet, were of such a kind as to secure
them against the imputation of being careless and torpid. However, it is very
certain, tbat before the reading of the paper had long continued, all the members
of the cabinet, except a small minority, were overcome by sleep. For a moment
the noise of a tumbling chair overturned the repose of government ; but presently
the Duke of Newcastle resumed the reading of bis draft ; and then, again, the
"fated sleep descended upon the eyelids of ministers. Later in the evening, and in
another room, the Duke of Newcastle made another, and a last, effort to win
attention to the contents of the draft ; but again a blissful rest (not, this time,
actual sleep) interposed between ministers and cares of state ; and all, even those
who, from the first, had remained awake, were m a quiet, assenting frame of mind.
Upon the whole, the despatch, though it bristled with sentences tending to provoke
objection, received from the cabinet the kind of approval which is often awarded
to an unobjectionable sermon. Not a letter of it was altered."
In the same spirit, Mr. Kinglake implies, that at the battle of the Alma,
what struck terror into the Russian forces, and forced them to retreat, was the appa
rition, on a knoll in the midst of their position, of "a gay-looking group of horse-
120

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [ministry unpopular.
men, whose hats and white plumes showed that they were staff officers. What
made the apparition more fatal was, that it was deep in the very heart of the Rus
sian lines, and even somewhat near to the ground where Prince Mentschikoff had
posted his reserves." The riders whose sudden appearance thus terrified the
enemy, were nothing less than Lord Raglan and eighteen or twenty Englishmen.
Todleben quite forgets to refer to this formidable incident as regards the fortunes
of the day. '
The French historian, Baron de Bazancourt, is equally romantic. He gives
an animated account of an exciting contest which took place between the French
and the Russians, near the telegraph. . Now, as the Russians make no mention of
this, and as, during the whole day, the French lost only three officers and sixty-
six men, and as their total wounded amounted only to 600, we are inclined to
agree with Mr. Kinglake, that, in the smoke, the French kept on firing at an
imaginary enemy.
••- But space will not permit us to extend our criticisms. In this rapid
sketch we have been compelled to omit much. We have not told how the
Quakers went to St. Petersburg to see the czar, to ask him to be a man of peace,
and came back charmed ; how we sent a squadron into the White Sea, to damage
the . Russians, there; how the French and English attacked Petropaulovski, a
Russian station in the extreme north of Asiatic Russia, and were beaten off ; and
how the English admiral shot himself through the heart. We have but glanced
at the main incidents in this great story. We have only to add, that all this while
the international courtesies between France and England were of the most cordial
character. The French emperor. came to see the queen; the queen returned the
visit. Medals — French, English, Sardinian — were given away wholesale; and when
aU was over, everybody, whether they deserved it or not, was covered with praise.
After all, we had something to be thankful for: the entente cordiale was
strengthened, and Russian ambition had received a check.

CHAPTER VII.
PAIL OP THE ABERDEEN MINISTRY J PALMEESTON" PREMIER.
The Crimean war soon shattered the administration, to which it owed its birth
No sooner had the alUes fairly entered on it, than people began to- find fault— and
not without reason— with the manner in which it was being conducted. There were
besides, unpleasantnesses at home. People could not understand why, in December'
1 853, Lord Palmerston bad temporarily retired from the administration. Rumours'
subsequently proved to be utterly unfounded, tended to create much unpopularity
for Prince Albert. Some of the Liberal journals, in the bitterness of their anger
went so far as to say that the prince obtruded his presence upon meetings of the
queen with her ministers ; that he interfered with their counsel to their sovereign •
that possessing the power of free communication with foreign Courts, he con
stituted an unlicensed channel for information between the confidential council
ofthe queen and the cabinets of foreign potentates-potentates, perhaps, the
enemies of England. Actually, m some quarters it was reported, and believed, that
the prince was a traitor to his queen; that he had been impeached for high
treason, and committed to the Tower. 8
cf ISIH?e S^SSi? °fT 1854' tt became evident tbere was a want of unity and
strength in the cabinet. Lord John Russell was compelled to withdraw the Reform
Rill which he had introduced, rather than run the risk of an anticipated defeat.
His lordship became Lord President of the Council, in the place 67 Lord Gran-
vol. ii. k 121

the "times" and the public] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.
ville, who succeeded Mr. Strutt as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. The
discharge of the duties of War Minister having been found incompatible with
those of the Secretaryship of the Colonies, with which they had been hitherto com
bined, a fourth Secretaryship of State — that for war — was created, and conferred
upon the Duke of Newcastle. The Colonial Secretaryship thus vacated was filled
up by Sir George Grey.
As the winter drew near, and as news of official mismanagement reached us from
the seat of war, the nation became angry and indignant ; and justly so. They did
not put faith in the apology of inexperience, made when any calamity overtook
our men. It was felt tbat experience had not been wanting. It was argued that
we are always at war in one or other of our colonies ; that in India, at least, we
had a fine training-ground for heads of departments ; that there, there existed, in full
force, all the difficulties and drawbacks — the shortness of supplies, and the obstruc
tions inseparable from war on a hostile land. It was believed, that if there had
been proper search, there would have been found no lack of men, with ample
Indian experience, to direct our inexperienced commissaries and clerks; to
manage our ambulance corps ; and to see that our army never made a move with
out having at hand the means of subsistence and of transport. When cholera and
famine came — when our wounded perished painfully in the hospitals, where they
should have been carefully nursed, and speedily cured — when unskilful officers
recklessly sacrificed, in battle or in attack, the soldiers over whose welfare a
nation was longing to keep guard — no wonder that the storm came, and that, before
it fell, a minister was never credited even for the little worth he possessed. In old
times, men of high rank have been shot, or hung, or beheaded, and their memories
handed down to eternal infamy, for deeds much less mischievous than were the
blunders, and the oversights, and the mistakes of the Crimean war.
Parliament assembled unusually early after the recess. On the 12th of De-
cember the queen's speech was delivered. Senators were told that they were
thus unwontedly summoned in order to take such measures as would enable her
majesty to prosecute the great war in which they were engaged with the utmost
vigour and effect. The first thing done was to carry a vote of thanks to the brave
and suffering soldiers of the Crimea. The next was, to carry a Foreign Enlistment
Bill, though not without considerable opposition. Mr. Bright's speech on the
third reading of the bill was considered one of his best. He dwelt upon the de- '
graded state of Turkey ; and declared that, in supporting the Ottoman empire
against Russia, we were fighting for a worthless ally and a hopeless cause. He
denied the necessity of attacking Russia; denounced the war as based upon
visionary and fantastic views ; and described the government as " an incompetent
ministry." The government also carried a Militia Bill, to enable her majesty to
accept offers, made by whole regiments or portions of regiments of militia, for service
out of the United Kingdom. It was brought in by Lord Palmerston. Government
had been accused of entering on the war without a reserve. To that he answered, the
reserve was the British nation. The object the government had in view by the bill
was, not to send the militia regiments to the Crimea, but to send them to do garrison
duty at Malta, Gibraltar, and Corfu, and therefore to set free the regiments
tiiere. Circumstances might also occur to induce her majesty to send them to the
North American colonies ; but such an arrangement was not then contemplated.
The militia regiments had made such progress, that they would be as efficient in
garrison as any regiment ofthe line. He desired that it should be distinctly under
stood, that no officer or man could possibly be sent out of the country without his
own distinct and voluntary offer of service. On the 22nd, the House adjourned.
On the day following the adjournment, the Times began to startle and arouse
the public, and thus to pave the way for the fall of the cabinet. It called upon
Englishmen to rouse themselves from a sense of false security, and act in a way to
relieve the state of the troops, and to improve the prospect of war. " What
remains," it asked, " of more than 50,000 men— the best blood of this country—
122 J

A.D.1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord J. russell resigns.
which now represents, 3,000 miles from home, the glory, the influence, the courage,
and the ability of our race ? The England of history is now in the Crimea. We
have defied the largest army in the world; and if we have not backed our challenge
with quite sufficient strength or promptitude, we have, at last, made an ettorc
beyond all former example. At this moment it would be rash to conjecture the
fate of those hardy survivors of the 50,000. Do they still maintain the unequal
fight— chilled, drenched, famished, utterly neglected? Has a slight aggravation
of their many ills, a drop of the thermometer some degrees below zero, or a tew
more inches of rain, extinguished them altogether, or left scarce enough for a sate
retreat? * * * There is no use disguising this matter. We are not speaking
from our own correspondence only. We say, on the evidence of every letter that
has been received in this country, and we echo the opinion of almost every soldier or
well-informed gentleman, when we say that the noblest army ever sent from these
shores has been sacrificed to the grossest mismanagement. Incompetency, lethargy,
aristocratic hauteur, official indifference, favour, routine, perverseness, and stupidity
reign, revel, and riot in the camp before Sebastopol, in the harbour of Balaklava,
in the hospitals of Scutari ; and how much nearer home, we do not venture to
say." As the Times forms public opinion— or did then— it was an augury that the
people would soon call ministers to account.
ParUament met again, gloomy and despondent, on the 26th of January. In
both Houses several notices of motions respecting the conduct of the war were
given. Of these, the more important were — one by Lord Ellenborough, in the
House of Lords ; and another by Mr. Roebuck, in the House of Commons. On
the very day on which these.notices were to be discussed, the country was surprised
by the formal announcement of Lord John Russell's resignation. This step, as we
may suppose, subjected his lordship to the severest criticism. His conduct was
considered a mean and cowardly desertion of his colleagues. It was generally felt
that his behaviour would have been more honourable if he had taken his chance of
falUng with them, rather than desert them on the very eve of a great parliamentary
discussion on their past conduct and policy. His lordship's explanation was, that
during the recess, it had struck him there might be a better administration of the
war department ; and he proceeded to read a long correspondence on the subject
between himself and Lord Aberdeen. He suggested, as early as the 17th of
November, that before parUament met, the seals of that department should be
placed in the hands of Lord Palmerston : assigning his reasons confidentially to
Lord Aberdeen, without throwing any blame upon the Duke of Newcastle. Lord
Aberdeen did not concur in this proposal; and his (Lord John's) only doubt was,
whether he should not then have relinquished office; but he had adopted the
advice of Lord Palmerston, and determined to continue his connection with the
government, having communicated to Lord Aberdeen his views as to the changes in
the war department, which he deemed indispensable to remedy its imperfections.
In dealing with the motion of Mr. Roebuck, he was, however, bound to reflect,
whether he could fairly and honestly say — " It is true, evils do exist ; but such
arrangements have been made that all deficiencies and abuses will be immediately
remedied." And he could not honestly, or without betraying the confidence
reposed in him, make that statement. He considered, therefore, that as he was
unable to give the only answer that would stop inquiry, it was his duty not to
remain a member of the government.
No sooner had his lordship concluded his explanation than Mr. Roebuck
brought forward his motion. Feeble, and suffering from ill-health, he was unable
to proceed with his address : but there was no need that he should. He had said
enough when he had asked what had become of the 40,000 men who have dis
appeared from the ranks of the army? The debate, thus initiated, was a lengthy
one. Mr. Stafford, who had been to the Crimea, testified to the misery which he
saw everywhere around him. Sir Bulwer Lytton, Mr. Disraeli, and others, were all
eager in their accusation of government, which was defended by Mr. Herbert,
K 2 123

the duke of Newcastle.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.
Mr. Gladstone, and Lord Palmerston. The latter said, that on one point he fully
concurred with Mr. Disraeli, that the responsibility did not fall upon the Duke of
Newcastle alone, but upon the whole cabinet. Ministers were resolved, on that
ground, to abide by the decision of the House. Much had been said about a
coalition; but, in the existing state of parties, no government could be formed
strong enough to carry on its affairs, that was not formed upon the principle of
coalition. He would not deny that there had been something calamitous in the
condition of our army ; but he traced it to the inexperience derived from a long
peace, and the state of the military departments. The course pursued with respect
to the appointment of a committee would be dangerous and inconvenient in its
results abroad. He trusted that the discussion would be confined to the overthrow
of the existing government ; and that, when the House had determined what set
of men should be entrusted with public affairs, they would give their support to
that government, and not . show to Europe that a nation could only meet a great
crisis when it was deprived of representative institutions.
After some words by Messrs. Muntz and Horsman, Mr. T. Duncombe asked
the proposer of , the motion if he was in earnest, and really intended to nominate
the . committee in the event of his motion being carried. Mr. Roebuck said he
certainly intended to carry out the inquiry, and had heard nothing in the debate
which had led him to change his mind. The ministers had failed : they had
acted Under one continued paralysis. They could not do worse. The resolution, if
adopted, would not carry into a single department greater incapacity and inapti
tude than had already been exhibited. Their confidence, then, was in that House ;
and would that House abdicate its functions ? Inquiry was requisite then, if ever.
Inquire then, and. save the army which was in jeopardy. Mr. Roebuck, in conse
quence of his feeble state, spoke with great difficulty, and was once compelled to
stop in his brief reply. The House then divided, and the result was — for the
commission of inquiry, 305 ; against it, 148 : thus giving, against the ministry, the
enormous majority of 157 — an announcement received by the House with astonish
ment. Never, in so short a space of time, had a cabinet, apparently so strong,
succeeded so effectually in drawing down upon itself the censure of parliament and
people alike.
Before leaving this part of our subject, it may be well to state that, in time,
the public came to see, that on the shoulders of the Duke of Newcastle especially, in
consequence of the attack made upon him by Lord John Russell, there had fallen
more than a fair share of the blame. Mr. Kinglake says — " The Duke of Newcastle
was a man of a sanguine, eager nature, very prone to action. He had a good clear
intellect, with more of strength than keenness; unwearied industry, and an
astonishing facility of writing. In the assumption of responsibility he was bold
and generous, even to rashness. Indeed, he was so eager to see his views carried
into effect, and so willing to take all the risk upon his own head, that there was
danger, of his withdrawing from other men their wholesome share of discretion.
He threw his whole heart into the projects of invasion; and if the Prime Minister
and Mr. Gladstone were driven forward by the feeling of the country, in spite of
their opinions and scruples, it was not so with the Duke of Newcastle. The
character of his mind was such as to make him essentially one with the public.
Far from being propelled by others against his will, he himself was one of the
very foremost members of the warlike throng which was pressing upon the cabinet,
and craving for adventure and glory. He easily received new impressions, and,
nevertheless, a quick good sense, which generally enabled him to distinguish what
was useful from what was worthless. He seemed to understand the great truth
that, without being military, the English are a warlike people. He also knew, that
when England undertakes war against a great European power, she must engage
the energies of the people at large, and must not presume to rely altogether upon
the merely professional exertions of her small peace establishments. It was not
from his faults, but in spite of his endeavours, that, for several months, people
124 ,V V

a.d. 1855.J , VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord panmure.

lingered in the notion that our military system was an apparatus sufficing for war.
But the duke had not an authority proportioned to the merits which a reader of
his despatches and letters would be inclined to attribute to him. Perhaps the very
zeal with which he seized and adapted his ideas of the outer pubUc, was one of the
causes which tended to lessen his weight ; for he who comes into council with
common and popular views, however likely it may be that he will get them
assented to, can scarcely hope to kindle men's minds with the fire that springs
from a man's own thought, and from his own strong will. Moreover, it was by a
kind of chance, rather than of intentional selection, that the Duke of Newcastle had
been entrusted with the momentous business of the war ; and, seemingly, it was
only from this circumstance that the propriety of his continuing to hold the office
was afterwards brought into question by one of his principal colleagues. They did
not perversely thwart him in the business of the war; but, on the other hand, they
did not at all fasten themselves to his measures like men who -would stand or fall
with him. The Duke of Newcastle had not the gift of knowing how to surround
himself with able assistants ; and it was his misfortune to be without that precious
aid which a minister commonly finds in the permanent staff of his office. At the
outbreak of hostilities, the little body of distinct public offices, on which the military
administration depended, was in a. condition unfit to meet the exigencies of war.
The first army surgeon who applied for certain of the medical stores, required on
foreign service, was met with no less than five official theories as to the functionary
upon whom the demand should be made ; and when, in the month of June,- the
scattered departments connected with the land service were gathered at last into
one, the office thus newly formed was, after all, so ill instituted as to be wanting
in some of the simplest appUances required for the transaction of business." Thus
much for a man who was made the scapegoat, and abused far beyond his deserts."
Ministers having resigned, it was no easy thing, in a time of such difficulty,
to find successors. The queen sent for Lord John Russell: he accepted her
commands to form an administration ; but he found insurmountable obstacles in the
way. Lord Derby had previously declined the attempt altogether. The country
was in a dilemma. At such a time, to be without a government was a serious
matter. The queen consulted again the Marquis of Lansdowne (it seems she acted
under his advice all the way through) ; and his answer was — send for Lord Palmer
ston. His lordship was sent for, and accepted office. A ministry was formed out
of the materials of the old, with this exception — his lordship had lost the services of
the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord John Russell, and the Duke of Newcastle ; and gained,
as Minister at War, Lord Panmure.
Lord Panmure came of that northern race known, all the world over, according
to Mr. Kinglake, for the light crisp hair, and the clear grey eye, known especially
in the men of the south, for their full understanding of the art of taking care of
themselves and their relations. In his lordship's case this natural tendency was
remarkably, illustrated. One day, in the crisis of the war, the commander of her
majesty's forces in the Crimea, was alarmed by the receipt of a telegram from the
War Office, requesting him to " take care of Dowb." Who or what was Dowb ? Did
it denote some Crimean fort, or a living specimen of flesh and blood ? The question
was. deeply, anxiously discussed. Back to the War Office telegraphed the be
wildered Simpson; when the answer came, that Dowb was a contraction for
Dowbiggin, a relative of my Lord Panmure. The career of this nobleman (now the
Earl of . Dalhousie) had not been an unsuccessful one. He was born in 1801, at
Brechin Castle, Scotland ; educated at the Charter-house ; and, as Mr. Fox Maule,
entered the army as an ensign in the 79th Highlanders ; served for several years on
the staff of his uncle, and retired with the rank of captain. He commenced his
political career in Forfarshire, in 1835, when he contested the county in the Whig
interest, and was returned by a triumphant majority. On the formation of the
Melbourne administration, he became Under-Secretary for the Home Department;
and, although ejected from the representation of Perthshire in 1837, he retained
125

palmerston premier.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.

his office and was, in 1838, restored to the House of Commons as member for the
Elgin boroughs. Elected a second time, in 1841, as member for Perth, he figured
for a brief period as Vice-President of the Board of Trade ; and, on the restoration
of the Whigs to power in 1846, became a cabinet minister and Secretary at War.
In that post he continued till 1852, when the expiration of the East India
Company's charter rendering it necessary to have a minister of influence to direct
the affairs of India, he was promoted to the Presidency of the Board of Control.
The dissolution, however, of the Russell cabinet prevented Mr. Fox Maule trying
his powers as an Indian reformer; and, having succeeded his father in the peerage,
soon after took his place in the House of Lords. He had the wisdom not to take
office in thecoaUtion cabinet; but accepted, under Lord Palmerston, the difficult
post of Secretary at War. The Premier paid his colleague a higk compliment
when he spoke of him as a perfect master of all the principles which regulate an
army, and of all the details. Another appointment, made at this time, created no
little remark. Lord John Russell was to serve under Lord Palmerston, as British
plenipotentiary in the peace conference about to open at Vienna.
To a crowded and attentive audience, on February 16th, Lord Palmerston rose
to make his first statement as head of the government of the country. It was a
proud moment for him. He had attained the object of his ambition; he had won
the prize in the political arena. He was now openly acknowledged to the world
as the first statesman of his day. Apparently, his elevation made no difference to
him. He was still the Palmerston of old— flippant, unpretending, avoiding all
rhetorical flourishes ; in seeming all things tp all men ; in reality, unbending and
subtle as ever. Having referred to the circumstances connected with the downfall
of the Aberdeen administration, his lordship continued — " The present government
was then formed ; and I trust it contains sufficient administrative1 ability, sufficient
political sagacity, sufficient liberal principle, and sufficient patriotism and deter
mination, to omit no effort to fulfil the duties the members have undertaken, and
to justify me in appealing to the House and to the country for such support as men
may be considered entitled to receive, who, in a period of great difficulty and emer
gency, have undertaken the responsibility of carrying on the government.
" With regard to Mr. Roebuck's motion," said his lordship, " I will not attempt
to conceal that I feel the same objection to the appointment of a committee, of
which he has given notice, as I did when the subject was first under discussion. My
opinion is, that such a committee would, in its action, not be in accordance with
the true and just principles of the constitution ; and that it would not be, for the
effectual accomplishment of its purpose, a sufficient instrument. He trusted that
the House would at least assent to suspend its decision. The reason he would ask
it so to do, would be his belief that the government would of itself do all that was
possible to be done. As an English king rode up to an insurrection, and offered
to be its leader, so the government offered the House of Commons to be its com
mittee. The object of those who voted for the committee, was to compel the
government to such administrative improvements as would restore vigour to the
service. The House was aware," continued his lordship, " that he had not felt it to
«be his duty to recommend her majesty to appoint a Secretary at War ; and his opinion
was, that in regard to the ordnance, great improvements might be effected, and
that the discipline of the artillery and the engineers might be transferred to the
Commander-in-Chief. The transport service would be under the superintendence
of a Board, to be established for that purpose. Fresh alarm, and well-founded com
plaints, had prevailed as to the condition of the sick and wounded in the hospitals ;
and the government were going to send out a commission of civilians, accustomed
to deal with sanitary questions, with ample power to examine into the state of hos
pitals, camps, and ships. Lord Raglan had also been authorised to send to Con
stantinople for a corps of labourers, whose duty it would be to cleanse the camp.
Many complaints had been made — he believed not without foundation — of the want
of system in the commissariat department, as regarded the supply and issue of the
126

A.D. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [ministerial programme.
^  .  —  i ~
necessaries for the army; and a commission was going to be sent out, at the head
of which was Sir J. M'Neil, to examine the defects of the commissariat depart
ment, and with full power to put it right. Major-General Simpson was likewise
proceeding to the Crimea, as chief of the staff, to take the control of the quarter
master-general's and adjutant-general's departments, with power to recommend to
Lord Raglan any change of persons. A new hospital was to be established at
Smyrna, entirely under the management of civilians ; and the Secretary of War
was going completely to remodel the medical department at home. He would also
introduce into the other House, a bill to enable her majesty to enlist for soldiers
under the present limit, and for a shorter time. The commissariat abroad, he had
omitted to state, had been charged, not merely with the supply and issue of pro
visions, and other necessaries, but also with the means of transporting them. This
had been a source of great difficulty. And there would be a separate department of
land transport, akin to the ancient waggon-train. He trusted that the House
would be disposed to see the effects which these improved arrangements would
make. In addition to them, no efforts would be spared to reinforce our army.
Certain conditions as to negotiations for peace had been opened at Vienna. The
government had proposed that Lord John Russell should conduct them on the part
of this counti-y ; and he had consented. If," said Lord Palmerston, in conclusion,
" we succeed mobtaining peace on terms which afford security, for the future, against
those disturbances of the peace of Europe which have led to the war, we shall feel
that our first desire in undertaking the government at this moment, has been
accomplished in a manner as satisfactory to the country as ourselves. But if, on
the other hand, we fail, then the country will feel that we have no alternative but
to go on with the war ; and I am convinced that the country will, with greater
zeal than ever, give its support to a government which, having made every possible
attempt to obtain peace, and having failed in doing so, has been compelled to
carry on the war for the purpose of obtaining those results which the sense and
the judgment of this country have approved. We shall then throw ourselves upon
the generous support of parliament and the country ; and that generous support, I
am confident, we shall not ask in vain. I feel sure that, in such a state of things,
all minor differences, all mere party shades of distinction will vanish ; and that men
of all sides will feel that they might support the government of this country, and
show the world the noble and glorious spectacle, that a free people and a con
stitutional government can exhibit a life, a spirit, and an energy, a power of
endurance and a vigour of action, that would be vainly sought for under a despotic
rule and arbitrary sway."
This programme of action found little favour either with the House or the
country at large. It was clear the Premier was more anxious to patch up the
wounds and imperfections which the late disasters had revealed in our execrable
military system, than to cure and eradicate them. Mr. Layard, fresh from the
Crimea, sharply criticised Lord Palmerston's propositions. "The country," he
exclaimed, "is sick of these commissions. The country wants a man. Don't let
me be told that you cannot get a man : that is an insult to the common sense of
the country. If your man, however, must be seventy years old, a member of
Brooks', and one who has always voted with the government, I grant that you may
not find one of that class and stamp fitted for the duties which are required
of him." H
Lord Palmerston had succeeded in forming a cabinet, but not a very united
one. By the 22nd of February, Mr. Gladstone, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney
Herbert had resigned their respective offices. Their motive for abandoning the
ministry was said to be, by themselves, in their places in parliament, the stroug
objection they had to the proposed inquiry, by a select committee of the House of
Commons, into the state of the army, and"the causes of the disasters in the Crimea.
A year or two later, on occasion of being reproached by a political opponent with
havmg deserted the ministry in an hour of peril, Mr. Gladstone replied—" I never
127

sir cornewall lewis.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.
left the government of my own free-will. I left. the government of 1855 because
I was obliged to leave it— because Lord Palmerston had changed his mind on a
matter of important pubUc policy. In January, 1855,: there was a proposal for a
committee to inquire into the state of the army before Sebastopol. The govern
ment, of which Lord Palmerston was a member, believed that the committee
could not lead to any satisfactory result. Lord Palmerston was so strongly of
that opinion, that we all resigned. our offices in January, 1855, rather than consent
to that committee. Three weeks after, the subject of the committee was resumed.
I continued, of the same opinion. Lord Palmerston changed his, and\ consented
to the committee ; and,, as I continued Unchanged, .he would not permit
me to remain, and I was compelled to quit . office. I defy any man to contradict
what I now state. I do not. like to trouble, the meeting thus; but,- as you have
chosen to open the subject, I must continue it a few moments longer. The
Sebastopol committee was appointed: the Sebastopol committee reported a most
severe censure upon the whole of. the government, of Lord Aberdeen, to which
Lord Palmerston and I belonged. The report of the committee was presented to
the House of Commons. Mr- Roebuck proposed a resolution on it. ¦ There was a
division inthe House. Lord Palmerston voted to give the go-by to; that committee
by, ' in parliamentary language, moving the previous question. I voted '. for a
consideration .of the report, for I wanted to have the judgment of parliament upon
the question. Lord Palmerston stopped the judgment of parliament at that • time's
but he afterwards sent a commission to the Crimea. The. commission • cam£
home, and made a report : that report received .the approval of the country;
but I need not tell you, for you, all know, how the commissioners, Sir John M'Neil
and. Colonel Tulloch, were treated by Lord . Palmerston." Lord Palmerston soon
filled up the vacant offices. The Chancellorship, of the;. Exchequer was offered to
Mr. pardwell, who not only refused it, but resigned, that he might side with his
fellow Peelites. The office was subsequently accepted by Sir. George' Cornewall
Lewis, a man of rare industry and vast accomplishments, and who fell a victim to
his laborious zeal. -, ......... <¦.¦•.:
Sir George Cornewall Lewis, horn in 1 806, was educated at Eton, and at Christ^:-
churchy Oxford, where, in 1828, he was first class in classics, and -second in
mathematics. Haying been called tothe bar.in 1831, he was appointed to serve ••
on the commission of inquiry. into the relief of the poor, and into the • state'of • the '
church in Ireland, in 1835.; and :on;the commission of inquiry into 'the affairs of
Malta, m 1836. In 1839, he became, a poor-law commissioner. In 1847, he
entered parliament as M.P. for Hertfordshire, and was, first, Secretary to the Board
of. Control; subsequently, Under-Secretary for ; the rHome : Department ; and' then
one of the secretaries to -the . Treasury. He was an unsuccessful candidate for '
Hertfordshire -at the. general, election in 1852: and at Peterborough . soon after^
wards; but, upon the death, of his. father, in 1855,-, he succeeded him in. the.'
representation pf tbe Radnor boroughs. As a literary man, -his- reputation stood*
deservedly high. At one tim.e. he was the -editor of the Edinburgh Review. His
works are many, and on subjects chiefly,historical..or political;, such as-AThe
Romance Language; The Use and Abuse of Political' Terms '; Local -Disturb
ances and the Irish Church. Question'; . On the. Government of Dependencies';.
On the Influence of Authority in Matters of Opinion; On Methods of Observa
tion and Reasoning in Politics ; On the Credibility of Early Roman History,
&c. As a debater, originally Sir Cornewall Lewis had not much weight in the
House. His style of speaking was heavy, and destitute of life ; but he had verv
much improved by practice; and his loss was felt and lamented by men of all
parties m the state. J
One appointment, at this time, created considerable astonishment. Lord
John Russell joined the ministry as Colonial Secretary, he being already pleni
potentiary to the congress of Vienna. It was urged, in objection, that either of
these positions was sufficient to engross the complete attention of one man: but
if 9

sm George yy* 4'ismmjy imwi<

O.B. 1363.

rac r..:i'jci' pniNrnia-^:FimT,TGKr'i.'-.> "'wt'K >

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [parliamentary debates.
,  - — *#•¦-  : _ ,
Lord Palmerston said, that Sir George Grey, who had hitherto held the Colonial
Office, should look to it during Lord John's absence. Sir George assumed the post
of Home Secretary, abandoned by Mr. Sidney Herbert ; Mr. Vernon Smith accepted
the office of President of the Board of Control, vacated by Sir Charles Wood, who
took the post of First Lord of the Admiralty. _ .
On the evening when the retiring ministers gave their reasons for leaving the
administration, the committee for a public inquiry into the state of affairs m the
Crimea was appointed. The list of names first proposed by Mr. Roebuck .to con
stitute that committee was abandoned; and Mr. Roebuck, in conjunction with
Lord Palmerston, prepared one better entitled to the confidence of the House.
Mr. Roebuck subsequently proposed that the inquiry into the state of the army
should be a secret one. • He urged, that if it was not conducted in secret,
it would not be both searching and safe, when our alliance with France was con
sidered. Considerable discussion ensued; and as the opinion of the House was
mainly in favour of an open inquiry, Mr. Roebuck withdrew his motion with
regard to secrecy. The committee appointed consisted of— Mr. Roebuck, Chairman ;
Mr. J. Ball, Mr. Branston, Mr. Drummond, Mr. Ellice, Mr. Layard, Colonel
Lindsay, Sir J. Pakington, General Peel, Lord Seymour, and Sir J. Hanmer. The
committee met for the first time on the 5th of March. Its proceedings extended
to the 15th of May; and, on the 18th of June, Mr. Roebuck presented the report,
drawn up by it, to the House of Commons.
Meanwhile, the war, and everything connected with it, was fiercely debated in
the House of Commons, rather, it is to be feared, with a view to upsetting the
ministry, than with regard to public interests. The principal debate, • however,
commenced in May. Mr. . Disraeli called upon the House to express its dis- *
satisfaction with the ambiguous language and uncertain conduct of the government.
To this notice Sir Francis Baring added an amendment — " That this House
having seen, with regret, that the conferences of Vienna have not led to a ter
mination of hostilities, feels it to be a duty to declare, that- it will continue to give
every support to her majesty in the prosecution of the war, until her majesty shall,
in conjunction with her allies, obtain for this country a safe and honourable peace."
Lord Palmerston closed the debate in an animated speech. He appealed to the
common patriotic feeling of members, in support of the crown and government, to
carry through a struggle necessary for the honour and interest of the country.
He asserted that the peace-at-any-price party were the only members who had intro
duced bitterness and passion into an important and gravely-conducted debate. He
said, that Sir F. Baring having framed, upon the basis of Mr. Disraeli's resolution,
almost exactly such a one as government would have taken the initiative in pro
posing, he foresaw that a large majority would rally to vote for that resolution, as
a means of enabling the government to give effect to the wishes of the nation and
the parliament in carrying out the object of the war. That object was to prevent
the partition of Turkey by a gigantic power, which would stride like a Colossus
from the Baltic to the Mediterranean : and, in so doing, not only protect the
sultan, but that very trade of Manchester, and our manufacturing districts, which
Russia prohibited,' and Turkey enlarged. " I trust," said his lordship in conclusion,
" that party feeling will, for one night, be set aside ; that we shall, at least for one
night, and for one occasion, be unanimous in our assurances to the crown that we
are determined, as the true . representatives of the people of. this great country, to
give to her majesty the best support we can in the prosecution of the war, to the
attainment of a safe and honourable peace." After an amendment by Mr. Lowe
had been put, and negatived without a division, Sir F. Baring's motion was carried
without further opposition. . ,
Out-of-doors there was less of unanimity. Even when — as at this time was the
case — the queen ordered her faithful people to humble themselves before God, on
account of the disasters in the Crimea, and the church. decreed, accordingly, appro
priate services, there were those — by no means a minority — who considered, perhaps
129

ADMINISTRATIVE REFORM.] LIFE ANDj^MES OF  [a.d. 1855.
profanely, that the fasting and humbling should have been confined to the higher
officers of state ; and that the whole thing was a political juggle, to divert the
attention of the public. It was a grand achievement in those who had sent our
army to die — and for whose death they were responsible— to get the public to
believe that it was God's anger, rather than their neglect, which had swept away to
Hades so many thousands of our best and bravest sons, and had filled the land with
mourning, and lamentation, and woe. Nor even did the miserable trick succeed.
Of course the churches were opened ; and many — mostly inferior — discourses were
delivered ; and much was said in the pulpit, that, to the sober ear of reason,
sounded as something very like blasphemy. But still, so immense was the dis
satisfaction of the nation at the conduct of the war, and the state of the public
departments, that an agitation arose, the rallying-cry of which was, " Administrative
Reform." An association was formed by certain members of the middle classes,
chiefly merchants and traders of the metropolis, for the purpose of promoting a
thorough reform in the various departments of the state. Its first meeting was
held on the 5th of May, at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate Street, and attended
by as many as 1,500 persons. At that time, limited liability companies had not
made merchants, and tradesmen, and manufacturers perceive that they were just as
liable to be imposed on as any other class of men. Nevertheless, the association never
made much way, though Mr. Samuel Morley, a great man in city and dissenting
circles, took the chair.
On the 15th of June, Mr. Layard brought forward some resolutions on the
subject in the House of Commons; and, in a speech extending over three hours,
took up, one by one, the great heads of the subject. He spoke of the government
as a close monopoly of a few families ; of the army, where promotion went by
purchase and favouritism, instead of by merit. He severely criticised the diplomatic
and civil services— recommending a competitive examination for admission. He
then moved, " That this House views, with deep and increasing concern, the state of
the nation ; and is of opinion, that the manner in which merit and efficiency in
public appointments have been sacrificed to party and family influences, and a
blind adherence to routine, has given rise to great misfortunes, and threatens to
bring discredit upon the national character, and to involve the country in grave
disasters." In the debate which followed, Mr. Gladstone characterised the re
solution as vague, pledging the House to nothing, and offering no useful object to
the people. Sir Bulwer Lytton moved, as an amendment — " That the House re
commends to the earliest attention of her majesty's ministers, the necessity of a
careful revision of our various official establishments, with a view to simplify and
facilitate the transaction of public business ; and by instituting judicious tests of
merit, as well as by removing obstructions to its fair promotion and legitimate
rewards, to secure to the service of the state the largest available proportion of the
energy and intelligence for which the people of this country are distinguished."
Sir G. Cornewall Lewis, on behalf of the government, disclaimed a blind adherence
to routine, though not to system, without which no service or law could go on.
If, he said, Mr. Layard's resolution were carried, ministers would regard it as a vote
cf want of confidence, and retire ; but that, construing Sir E. B. Lytton's amend
ment by the simple meaning of its words, he should have no difficulty in
accepting it. The tone of the House was adverse to Mr. Layard's motion. At the
adjourned debate, Mr. Disraeli said that administrative reform was imperatively
required ; but that he could not agree with Mr. Layard, that our late disasters
were attributable to routine, but rather to an incapable government, unconnected
by the mutual sympathy and private regard necessary to the success of the cabinet.
He fully coincided with the amendment of Sir E. B. Lytton, which expressed the
pohcy Lord Derby's party were prepared to recommend. Lord Palmerston referred
to a recent speech of Mr. Layard, at a public meeting in Drury Lane Theatre,
where he had been charged with jesting at the sufferings of the people— a charge
he denied indignantly. He defended the composition of the government; no

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. roebuck's committee.
member of which, he said, was related to him by any family ties. He promised
the earnest attention of his government to administrative reform ; saying, that it
could have no possible inducement to follow any other course ; detailed what had
already been done, and dilated on the inquiry, time, and consideration necessary
before all could be done that was required. He accepted the resolution of Sir E. B.
Lytton, as a pledge that the government would direct its most serious attention to a
continued revision of the civil offices of the state. After a brief reply from
Mr. Layard, his resolutions were rejected by 359 to 46. Subsequently, Sir E. B.
Lytton's resolution was adopted without any discussion. Lord Palmerston always
stood out till the last ; and then, like a wise man, gave way.
On the 18th of June, Mr. Roebuck presented the report of the committee on
Crimean affairs (of which he was chairman) to the House of Commons, and it was
read to the members by Sir Denis Le Marchant. The report was a lengthy one ;
and after referring to the complicated nature of the inquiry, laid down the opinions
the committee had arrived at — first, as to the condition of the army before
Sebastopol; and, secondly, on the conduct of the departments, both at home and
abroad, whose duty it was to minister to the wants of the army. Granting that
much suffering was necessarily unavoidable, the committee expressed their opinion
that it was mainly attributable to dilatory and insufficient arrangements for the
supply of the army with necessaries indispensable to its healthy and effective
condition. The imperativeness, or otherwise, of the fatal amount of over-work to
which the troops were subjected, the committee regarded as a matter beyond the
limit of their inquiry.
The second division of the subject was treated at greater length, and under
no less than seventeen headings. The first of these related to the conduct of the
government at home, upon which the responsibility of the expedition to the Crimea
rested. It pointed out, that the government gave orders for the expedition without
having obtained the requisite information concerning the harbours, roads, and
water-supply of the Crimea ; or, what was most important, a statement of the force
by which it was defended. They also regretted the delay in the formation of an army
of reserve. The report gave the Duke of Newcastle credit for the best intentions,
and even put forward some apologies for the difficulties of his position ; but it left
the reader to infer that he was unequal to the duties of his office. It was also
intimated that Mr. Sidney Herbert's influence was not equal to his activity.
The ordnance department was described as working improperly, on account of
the absence of Lord Raglan, the master-general, whose duties were imperfectly
performed by a substitute. The supply of inferior tools, the report' ascribes to
carelessness or dishonesty on the part of the persons responsible for it. The
committee were unable to decide whether the sufferings occasioned to the soldiers
by the deficiency inthe transport departments, were due to the "office of the Com
mander-in-Chief, or of the Secretary at War, or of the Secretary of State for War."
In the same way, no one seems to have been responsible for the management of
the transport service in the Black Sea. Sir James Graham declared that Admiral
Dundas was : the admiral declared that the parties to blame were Lord Raglan
Rear-Admiral Boxer, and Captain Christie.
The report observed of the commissariat, that the soldiers were badly supplied
with food, and that the explanation given was unsatisfactory. The circumstance of
giving green coffee to the men was dwelt on. " The more immediate comfort of
the men was overlooked, while ingenious arguments on the volatile aroma of the
berry, and of the Turkish mode of packing coffee, were passing backward and
forward." The horses were as badly treated as their masters. After the hurricane,
the supply of forage ceased. There was great blame somewhere ; but the committee
could not say where.
With respect to the medical department at home, Dr. Smith, the director-
general, said that he was under the immediate authority of five different superiors—
the Commander-in-Chief, the Secretary of State for War, the Secretary at War, the
131

the report.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1S55.
Master-general of the Ordnance, and the Board of Ordnance ; under which circum
stances, it excites no surprise to find that he did not understand, or properly
discharge, the duties attached to his office. In this department, as in many others,
inexperience proved an obstacle to its efficiency. in war. Dr. Smith was animated
by a desire to discharge his duty ; but, in many points, he suggested and remon
strated in vain. The report observes — " The strict economy enforced during a long
period of peace, by means of a rigid system of audit and account, may, doubtless,
at the first outbreak of war, have still fettered Dr. Smith, as well as other public
servants, who dreaded to incur responsibility for any expenditure, however urgent,
which was not guarded by all the forms and documents usually required. An
excess of caution in the first instance, led, probably, to some evils which a lavish
outlay could not afterwards repair." The committee referred mournfully to the
medical department in the East ; and declared it to be so wretched and painful a
subject, that they gladly avoided repeating its harrowing details. They observed —
"The. medical men, it is said, were indefatigable in their attention; but so great
was the want of the commonest necessaries, even of bedding, as well as of
medicines and medical comforts, that they sorrowfully admitted their services to be
of little avail."
Of the hospitals at Scutari the committee report in terms of sorrow and
surprise. Of these hospitals Major Sillery was military commandant ; while Dr.
Menzies, with Dr. M'Gregor under his orders, were medical superintendents.
Major Sillery was totally incompetent to the discharge of his official duties, and
ridiculously timid of incurring any responsibility. Dr. Menzies seems to have been
impressed with old-fashioned notions of routine; and to have been, moreover,
somewhat deficient in natural kindness to the host of sufferers under his charge.
The committee censured him for not correctly reporting the circumstances of the
hospital, and stating that he wanted nothing in the shape of stores or medical
comforts, at the time when his patients were destitute of the commonest necessaries.
They modified this censure by adding — "In justice to Dr. Menzies, it must be
admitted that he was engaged in incessant and onerous duties. He was consulted
in all difficult surgical cases ; he performed the most serious operations himself.
His time was occupied in invaliding men, holding Boards, making . monthly, and
quarterly returns, daily reports and weekly reports — reports to Dr. Smith, who
could not interfere ; reports to the Duke of Newcastle, who was never informed of
the real state of things. Amid all these labours he had no time left for that which
would have been his principal duty — the proper superintendence of these hospitals.
Dr. Menzies states, that he was overwhelmed by the work of three deputy in
spectors, when he gave up his charge— his health being then broken down. This
statement is confirmed by Dr. Dumbreck, who, having heard Dr. Menzies' evidence,
says — ' The clashing of responsibility and confusion that existed in the administra
tion of the hospitals, was not creditable to our system. We seemed to have fallen
into a state of inaction ; we had no purveyors, no orderlies, no hospital corps. Dr.
Menzies I believe to have been clearly over-worked, and put in a position that no
man was able to cope with.' "
As regards this point, the committee state themselves to be totally at a loss
to understand the report of Dr. Hall, which they consider to have misled both
Lord Raglan and the government at home ; and to have occasioned much delay in
measures, taken afterwards, for the remedy of evils which might have been arrested
earlier in their progress. The committee referred to the selection of an improper
person as purveyor, and to the retaining him in office after he had been pro
nounced unfit to discharge its duties. They severely condemned the state, of the
apothecary department at Scutari, of which no account whatever seems to have
been kept : at any rate, no entry was made in the books by the officer in charge of
that department, from the 24th of September to the 28th of November. "Your
committee," continues the report, "are not aware under what instructions he was
acting ; but the late Secretary at War admits that such conduct was a gross derelic-

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord j. russell again.

tion of duty. It is, moreover, manifest that the government had been deceived
with regard to these hospital stores, since Mr. S. Herbert had stated, in the House
of Commons, there had been all manner of forms to be gone through before these
stores could be issued. With plenty of materials, the forms were so cumbrous that
they could never be produced with the rapidity necessary for the purposes of a
military hospital. It is now proved, that if there were cumbrous' forms incon
veniencing the service of the hospital, and aggravating the sufferings of the
patients, there were, at least, no forms to protect the public purse against
negUgence or peculation. The distress in these hospitals would have been more
severe, and the suffering more acute, if private charity had not stepped in to
redress the evils of official mismanagement. Assistance, which had been discouraged
as superfluous, was eventually found to be essential for the lives of the patients.
When the quantities of hospital stores which were sent from England are contrasted
with the scarcity, or rather the absolute dearth of them at Scutari, and when the
state of the purveyor's accounts is remembered, it is impossible not to harbour a
suspicion that some dishonesty has been practised with regard to these stores."
In conclusion, the committee remarked, " that the first real improvements in the
hospital at Scutari are to be attributed to private suggestions, private exertions,
and private benevolence. A fund, raised by public subscriptions, was administered
by the proprietors of the Times, through Mr. Macdonald, an intelligent and
zealous agent. At the suggestion of the Secretary at War, Miss Nightingale, with
admirable devotion, organised a band of nurses, and undertook the care of the sick
and wounded. The Hon. Jocelyn Percy, the. Rev. Sidney Godolphin Osborne, and
Mr. Augustus Stafford, after a personal inspection of the hospitals, furnished
valuable reports and suggestions to the government. By these means much suffer
ing was aUeviated ; the spirits of the men were raised, and many lives were saved.
Your committee have now adverted to the chief points contained in the replies to
above twenty-one thousand questions ; and, in noticing these various subjects,
they have divided them under distinct heads, in order ¦ fairly to apportion the
responsibiUty. Your committee report .that the sufferings of the army mainly
resulted from the circumstances under which the expedition to the Crimea
was undertaken and executed. The administration which ordered that expedition
had no adequate information as to the amount of the forces in the Crimea. They
were not acquamted with the strength of the fortresses to be attacked, or with the
resources ofthe country to be invaded. They hoped and expected the expedition to
be immediately successful; and, as they did not foresee tbe probability of a pro
tracted struggle, they made no provision for a winter campaign. The patience and
fortitude of this army demand the admiration and gratitude of the nation, on whose
behalf they have fought, bled, and suffered. Their heroic valour, and equally
heroic patience under sufferings and privations, have given them claims upon the
country, which will, doubtless, be gratefully acknowledged. Your committee will
now close their report with a hope that every British army may, in future, display
the valour which this noble army has displayed, and that none hereafter may be
exposed to such sufferings as are recorded in these pages."
^nrZ^?*^ retum t° parliament, where again Lord John Russell manages
to create difficulty and embarrassment. On his return from the Vienna conference
it was generally reported that he had there agreed to the Austrian proposalTfor
peace ; and, consequently, that there existed in a cabinet wholly responsible for
M ZuvnT LhTwf *T* ™P«tanoe, who thought it neither just nor necessary.
office on fmdwS % * w ^ *? haVe shared in the same vie™> resig*ed bis
JohnRustell li^b i* had not the concurrence of government. Not so Lord
mlSstrv who w^f6 ? J"? heart' he had War on his HPS^ and acte* with a
vW7 In mrW^S ^fr8 th™lves to carry on the war with the utmost
vigour. _ In parliament, m the attempt to catechise him, his lordship eave
uncertain and+ evasive repUes. At length, Count Buol, in a circular addressed
to the diplomatic agents of Austria, observed, in reference' to the peaceable v[ew of
133

he resigns.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1855.
the cabinet, that " the ministers of France and England, in a confidential interview,
showed themselves decidedly inclined towards our proposal." Under these circum
stances, Mr. Milner Gibson, July 6th, requested Lord John Russell to explain his
conduct ; and how it was, if the facts were as reported, he retained his place in a
government pledged to cripple Russia when those proposals were rejected. His
lordship stated that he concurred in the Austrian proposals, which, he thought,
would give a very fair prospect of the duration of peace. He told Count Buol that
his instructions from London led him to believe that the Austrian proposals would
not be accepted ; but that his own opinion was, that they ought to be, and might
be, accepted : and he promised that he would do his best to put them in such a
light that the Austrian government might hope for their adoption. On his return
from Vienna these proposals were deliberately considered by the cabinet, which
came to the conclusion that the peace proposed would not be a safe one, and that
they could not recommend its adoption. Mr. Gibson asked why he could continue
in the government whieh rejected his counsel ? But, as a plenipotentiary, it was
for him to submit to the decision of his government. As a member of the cabinet,
it was his duty to consider the circumstances of the time — the failure of himself
and Lord Derby to form a government that promised stability — the attacks to which
Lord Palmerston himself was exposed for no other reason than that he held a place
of authority. Now though, out of office, he might have given every support to his
noble friend, he felt that his resignation would have decreased the stability of the
administration, and have been considered the symptom and precursor of other ,
changes. Within the cabinet it was the duty of the minority to yield to the
majority, and to leave it to the House of Commons to decide whether or not they
were to be entrusted with the conduct of affairs. This speech of his lordship's made
matters worse. Mr. Cobden, in a powerful harangue, declared, that by such a
surrender of his judgment, Lord John Russell struck at the confidence of public
men. Mr. Roebuck considered Lord John's conduct to be inconsistent with the
perfect honesty of a public man. Mr. Disraeli was equally severe ; and Lord
Palmerston defended his colleague in vain.
Nor was the matter allowed to stop here. On the 10th of July, Sir E. B.
Lytton gave notice of the following vote of censure — " That the conduct of the
minister in the recent negotiations at Vienna, and his continuance in office as a
responsible adviser of the crown, have, in the opinion of this House, shaken the
confidence which the country should place in those to whom the administration of
public affairs is entrusted." On the 12th, Lord John stated that it was certainly
true that, when he returned from Vienna, he was of opinion that the propositions of
Count Buol might secure an honourable peace. But it did not follow that he
thought that the same propositions would be equally efficacious now. On the
contrary, he was of opinion that this country had no choice but vigorously to
prosecute the war. As this explanation did not much mend matters, and as it
seemed certain that his expulsion from office by a parliamentary censure was inevit
able^ on the 16th his lordship announced his retirement from the ministry. Sir
William Molesworth became the new Colonial Secretary.
On the 17th of July, Mr. Roebuck introduced his motion for the severe censure,
. by the House, of the late ministry. He did this as the sequel to the report on the
Sebastopol committee. He called upon the House to vindicate the committee by
declaring the whole of the late cabinet guilty, and to blame those who so carelessly
discharged their duties. It was evident to all, that Mr. Roebuck, in his motion,
aimed at too much— that the House would never sanction it. Many urged that the
punishment he was anxious to inflict was too retrospective, and was almost
vindictive in its character. The debate lasted two nights. General Peel moved
the previous question, and contended that the House had not the means of judging
of the expedition to the Crimea. On the second night of the debate, additional
interest was imparted to it by the presentation of petitions from Birmingham and
Bradford by Mr. Roebuck, and from Totnes by Mr/ Otway, praying that ministers

a.d. 1855.] • VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [Turkish loan.

might be impeached. The late government was defended by the Attorney-general,
Lord John Russell, Mr. Sidney Herbert, Sir George Grey, and Lord Paknerston
(that is, it was defended by itself). It was censured by Mr. Gaskell, Mr. Whiteside,
Mr. Bright, Mr. Disraeli, and others. In his off-hand, free, and easy manner, .Lord
Palmerston maintained that no errors had been committed, and that no war was
ever conducted with such judgment and vigour. In his reply, Mr. Roebuck, after
vindicating himself from the charge of malice, observed— " An inquiry has been.
instituted by this House into a matter which deeply affected the happiness and
welfare of my countrymen. A committee brought these matters to a conclusion.
I came to this House to ask them if they coincided in that conclusion ; and the
right honourable gentleman, the member for Wiltshire (Mr. Sidney Herbert), says,
most candidly, that I did no more than my duty. I now appeal to the House, and
ask them to watch over the great interests of England. I ask them to watch
over the army of England. In doing so I have done my duty : it is now for the
House to decide whether they will do theirs." The House then divided, when
there were for the amendment, 289; against, 182. Mr. Roebuck's motion was
consequently lost; and men who were guilty of a negligence and carelessness
which had produced the most disastrous results, escaped the condemnation they
' richly deserved.
Not, however, with this debate did all the difficulties of the session pass away.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer's budget had been agreed to ; a loan to Sardinia
was granted ; but a difficulty arose on one to Turkey, and ministers had but a
small majority. It appears, a convention had been signed in London by the
ministers of Turkey, England, and France, by which England and France were to
guarantee a loan of £5,000,000, to be raised by the Turkish government. The
loan was to be effected in London, and was to bear interest at 4 per cent. The
French Chamber had approved of the treaty ; and, on the 20th of July, Lord
Palmerston moved, in the House of Commons, a resolution authorising the queen to
guarantee the interest on the loan.
In doing so, his lordship observed, that it was no reproach to the Turkish
empire that the ordinary resources were unequal to the emergencies of a great and
important struggle, because that happened to all countries engaged in war. "It
happens here," he observed ; " it happens in France ; and, from information which
we have received, we believe that, in Russia, the difference between ordinary
revenue and war expenditure is greater even than in England, France, or Turkey.
We are informed, that whereas the ordinary revenue of Russia is about £30,000,000
sterUng, her expenses in this war equal, if they do not exceed, double that amount.
The ordinary revenues of Turkey amount to about £10,000,000 sterling. Last
year they were obliged to increase their available means, and a loan was negotiated,
nominally of £5,000,000, but of which only between two and three were actually
raised. That has not been found sufficient for the purposes of the Turkish govern
ment ; and it was put to France and England that, unless additional means were
found to defray the current expenses of the naval and military services of Turkey,
they would come to a stand, and it would be impossible for Turkey, out of her
ordinary resources, to find the means of defraying the necessary and unavoidable
expenses connected with her military and naval operations. The matter was long
and seriously considered by the governments of England and France. We felt that,
while we were making great exertions in support of Turkey by armies and fleets, if
we allowed the very body which we- wished to support to fall to pieces, we should
be defeating the object we had in view, and rendering fruitless those great efforts
for her support; that unless the Turkish government were supplied with the means
of paying and maintaining their own army, it would be in vain for England and
* ranee to assist m defending that territory." Lord Palmerston added, that there
was every reasonable expectation that Turkey would make good its engagements,
without throwing any real burden upon the finances of its two allies. The security
to be given was, in the first place, the available surplus of the tribute of Egypt,
135

Indian finances.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.
which amounted to about £65,000 a year ; and, in the second, the entire revenue of
the Turkish empire.
This proposition was met by a powerful opposition. Mr. Ricardo led the way.
Mr. Gladstone said — "Such. a proposal, at the commencement of the war, was
calculated to produce a deep feeling of suspicion, mistrust, alarm, and aversion."
Mr. Disraeli considered, that if England guaranteed the loan, she would have to
meet it. Mr. Cobden avowed that they had no more chance of getting the money
back than if they threw it into the sewer ; and urged, that if they were going
to advance the money at all, to take the simple course of making Turkey a present
of it. Messrs. Cardwell and Walpole both argued against the loan. The Chan
cellor of the Exchequer represented, that if the resolution were rejected, the queen
would have to communicate to the Emperor of the French, that it was not in her
power to fulfil the convention into which she had entered. The difficulty started
Lord Palmerston into seriousness ; and he made an earnest appeal to the House to
pass a measure, the rejection of which, he conceived, would affect the honour of
England, endanger the alliance with France, and the safety of Turkey. Upon the
House dividing, the numbers were — for the resolution, 135 ; against, 132 : leaving
the slender majority of three in its favour. Under the circumstances, perhaps,
the House had no alternative. Government had a severe lesson read them ; but it
was as well that they were not defeated. Had the resolution been rejected, the
Emperor of the French must have been irritated ; Turkey would have felt herself
hardly used ; and the co-operation of England and France would have been rendered
difficult. Nor did tbe subject drop here. On the following Monday it was renewed.
Mr. Ricardo said he was satisfied that the government of France would willingly
have reconsidered the subject. He also protested against the doctrine laid down by
Lord Palmerston and the Chancellor of the Exchequer — that the appeal to the
House of Commons for its sanction to such a measure was a mere matter of form.
On other matters it is scarcely necessary to say much. The war, and what
concerned it, chiefly occupied the attention of parliament and people. The Indian
budget was brought forward in the House of Commons on the 7th of August, by
the President of the Board of Control. It appeared that the expenditure had
exceeded the income by upwards of £3,000,000 : the excess was partly due to ex
penditure in public works. He went through the various items of revenue — the
land-tax, the opium trade, and the salt duty — in all of which, he thought, an increase
might be obtained; but he depended mainly on the development of Indian
resources by the opening, of railroads, and other means of communication. As for
the expenditure, the army could not be reduced; judicial expenses were increased;
and he could not anticipate much from the reduction of interest. " If, however,"
continued the honourable gentleman (so little conscious was he of the coming storm),
" the financial prospects of the country were not pleasant, its political prospects were
quite brilliant. A. treaty had just been concluded with Cabul; satisfactory
assurances were received from Nepaul ; though Persia was neutral, nothing was to
be apprehended from her ; and improvements were springing up in all directions."
He was obliged to allude to the proofs of torture in the collection of revenue,
produced by a document just laid upon the table ; the only palliation being that
it was done entirely by the natives, though that did not altogether acquit the
European superintendent of connivance. A discussion followed, relating almost
entirely to the question of torture, as an element in the collection of the Indian
revenue ; and the report was then agreed to.
. In the House of Commons a bill had been introduced, which led to rioting in
Hyde Park, of a rather extensive character. It was one for the suppression of
all Sunday traffic, and had been proposed by Lord Robert Grosvenor. Its strin
gent nature caused it to be regarded as tyrannical and oppressive. The small
tradesman was to be fined, while the wants of the wealthy would still be attended
to by trains of servants, who drove them to church, cooked their dinners, and per
formed all the duties which fell to their charge on the other days of the week. The
136

A.D. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [hyde park riots.
public-house was to be closed to the poor man, .while the rich man.had. only to send
to his cellar for all that he required, or might indulge his taste for "eating and drinking
at his club. This bill excited, as we may justly suppose, much irritation. out-of-
doors. . For some days the metropolis was .placarded with posters, apjje.aling' to the
people, the next Sunday, to go to church with Lord Grosvenor, and then to'.see his
friends in Hyde Park. ". The .'appeal .was cordially_responded:.to.--.. On Sunday, the
24th of June; many; thousands of people .assembled in; HyderPark,ito see how. the
aristocracy;kept„the sabbath.'-. Every. carriage seen in the park, or in the adjacent
streets,- especially, if it .chanced to be a bishop's, was followed with yells, and that
peculiar. species of oratory known, in cockney circles, by the slang term of "chaff."
When the carriages began to appear for the afternoon drive along the Serpentine,
the occupants were saluted with hisses and yells, and cries of "Go to church." The
disturbance lasted until dark ; and many of the carriage-horses took fright at the
shouts of the people, and, by their restiveness, placed their owners in considerable
danger. During the following week placards were numerously issued, calling on
the people to make a national demonstration against a despotic attempt to coerce
them into the better observance of the sabbath. The appeal was responded to, in
spite of a notice issued by the commissioners of police, stating that no such de
monstration would be allowed to take place : the people collected from all parts of
the metropolis. , One .journal estimated _ the .numbers assembled at 150,000
persons; while another stated the crowd to be a mile long, extending from Apsley
House to Kensington. Gardens. . _ i . ' . -.: ., ;
If it had not been for. the police, this second. demonstration .would have
passed off quietly. In the crowd there were many.. orators— or '.men who con
sidered themselves to be such. . Naturally; they seized the' occasion.. for treating. the
public to a specimen of their, powers. 'Quite, as naturally^ the". public., gathered
in groups around these men, to laugh- or applaud, to approve or . not^'as :.the case
might be. , Violent attempts were made by the police_to .disperse^ thfese;grpu.ps';. and
many collisions took: place, in which. the police >sed their ;sta!ves,j,wi|h; fhe .most
culpable freedom. When the carriage company assembled? for thVafternoo.n drive,
they were not. only assailed by yellsVand>h8uts*of.\^Gp'to church,". but the mob,
irritated by. the conduct of the police, began peltingjwith' clods. of. earth,' stones, or
anything.they. could lay. their hands "on. ; The .police,- inrtheir„effoxts;to^a:piure'the
more prominent orators, charged ; the people, furiously, .'and ^struck -with "'their/staves
with equal-, impartiality, and c equal injustice. - Men;, women, and. children were
equally obnoxious to the guardians of the peace. So formidable did the disturbance
become, that, towards evening, large reinforcements of police were brought from
distant quarters. Their services were not needed, as the people began to disperse
about eight o'clock. Lord Robert Grosvenor had not. been forgotten: -his: house
was surrounded by a mob during the whole day; but, fortunately! for' his s ¦lordship
he. did not make his appearance. Nor were the clubhouses} forgotten."* Actually!
more than one hundred persons, many of whom; were. severely hurt: we're captured
by the police;- ; .. , ¦ .„ '¦-._. ., . ., .
During the next week. many, complaints .of the :sa-vage:.coM.uct:of '/the^ police
appeared in the daily papers, and much . indignation was excited, on this account.
Lord Grosvenor alarmed for his personal;safety,'onthe 2nd. of i July, withdrew his
feeble and foolish bill At the same. time, urgent appeals were.made,' by, the Times
and other papers, to the people" to' stay, awajvasithe objecfof tthe demonstration had
now been gaaned.-. These appeals were largely responded to .'by.tb'e better class of
those who* had -attended m the. park; but? oh the 8th.. of "July, a mob of roughs
assembled and. gave way.to the most. violent and disgraceful proceedings. On
account of the .outcry raised against the conduct of the police on the previous
bunday, .on .the present Occasion the -.police kept out of sight altogether,
and the mob were permitted to act as . they, pleased. For a while th%y amused
themselves in forming bodies,.which rushed from one end of the park to the other,
ana m hunting any footman or remaikable.person who was rash enough to venture
aol. n. L 137

SWEDEN JOINS THE ALLIES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1855.

among them. About five the bulk left the park, and gathered at the top of
Grosvenor Place, where they insulted every person who rode or drove by. A part
of the mob consisting chiefly of young blackguards, then detached themselves from
the main body, and proceeded down Grosvenor Place, and through Belgrave Square,
Eaton Square, and other places, smashing the windows in their progress, and ripe
and ready for any mischief that might offer. Fortunately, the arrival of some
police dispersed these rioters. By the next Sunday the excitement had nearly
died away — not more than 10,000 being present. But it was some time before
the park resumed its usual Sunday character ; and it was long before the working-
people forgot the bad feeling created by Lord Robert Grosvenor's obnoxious bill.
Of all legislation, that on Sunday trading is the most difficult to preserve from an
appearance of one-sidedness and harshness. The poor man is unlike the'rich man ;
nor does the rich man keep the sabbath very strictly : why, then, should he force the
poor man to do that which he does not do himself ? When will mischievous and
well-meaning ladies, and noblemen, and clergy, understand that the sabbath was
made for man, not man for the sabbath ?
The conduct of the police, on the 1st of July, had been so violent, and public
opinion was expressed so broadly concerning it, that an inquiry on the subject was
considered necessary. A commission was, therefore, entrusted to the Recorders of
London, Manchester, and Liverpool. The inquiry was conducted with some form —
a solicitor being appointed to represent the public. It appeared, unquestionably,
from the evidence of many witnesses, that instances had occurred in which mem
bers of the police had lost their temper, and used much unnecessary violence. The
commissioners found that Superintendent Hughes had, without sufficient grounds,
ordered his men to use their staves, and had failed to control many excesses of the
men under his command. It was also established, that, owing to the large number
of persons who had been taken into custody, and placed in the cells of the Vine
Street station, they had been there so closely packed as to have suffered, in a
degree, much of the horrors endured by the unhappy victims of the Black Hole
of Calcutta. On the 14th of August, parliament was prorogued by commission. Her majesty
was made to refer to the Sardinian alliance as follows : — " The accession of the King
of Sardinia to the treaty between her majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the
sultan, has given additional importance and strength to such alliance ; and the
efficient force which his Sardinian majesty has sent to the seat of war, to co-operate
with the allied armies, will not fail to maintain the high reputation by which the
army of Sardinia has ever been distinguished." The speech having alluded to
several of the leading measures of the session, referred to the failure of the recent
conferences at Vienna, and then observed—" Those endeavours having failed, no
other course is left to her majesty but to prosecute the war with all possible vigour.
Her majesty, relying upon the support of parliament— upon the manly spirit and
patriotisin of her people— upon the never-failing courage of her army and navy,
whose patience while suffering, and whose power of endurance, her majesty has
witnessed with admiration— upon the steadfast fidelity of her allies ; and, above all,
upon the justice of her cause— puts her trust in the Almighty disposer of events
/or such an issue of the great contest in which she is engaged, as may secure to
Europe the blessings of a firm and lasting peace."
Later in the year, King Oscar, of Sweden and Norway, entered into a defensive
treaty with the allied powers, with the object of building up a barrier in the north,
against the encroachments of Russia. It was signed at Stockholm, on the 21st of
November. The treaty was a generous one on the part of the allies. Recognising
the dangers to which Sweden would be exposed if she entered into an offensive
league against so powerful a neighbour as Russia, they bound themselves to assist
her, if necessary, but required no active assistance from her in the war. King
Oscar by this treaty, bound himself not to cede to, or exchange with, Russia, nor to
permit her to occupy, any part of the territories belonging to the crowns of Sweden
loo

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [peace at last.
and Norway. He engaged, further, not to cede to Russia any right of pasturage
or fishery, or of any other nature whatsoever, either on the said territories or on
the coast of Sweden and Norway, and to resist any pretension that may be put
forward by Russia with a view to establish the existence of the rights aforesaid.
About the same time, Victor Emmanuel, King of Sardinia, arrived in this country,
where he was received with great enthusiasm.
In the spring of 1856, peace with Russia was finally declared. The treaty
consisted of twenty-four articles. Its leading provisions were as follow: — All
territories conquered or occupied, on either side during the war, were to be
evacuated, and all prisoners of war were to be immediately given up. Turkey was
to be admitted to participate in the advantages of the public law and system of
Europe. All the parties to the treaty engaged to respect the independence and "
territorial integrity of the Turkish empire, and to consider any act tending to its
violation as a question of general interest. The Black Sea was declared neutral,
and open to the mercantile marine of every nation, but closed in perpetuity to
all vessels of war. This arrangement rendering the maintenance or establishment,
upon its coast, of military maritime arsenals alike unnecessary and purposeless,
the Emperor of Russia and the Sultan of Turkey engage not to establish or
maintain, upon that coast, any military maritime arsenal. A. commission^ in which
Great Britain,. Austria, France, Prussia, Russia, Sardinia, and Turkey were each
to be represented by one delegate, was formed, for the purpose of removing all
obstacles to the navigation of the Danube. The Emperor of Russia, in exchange
for the territories occupied by the allies, consented to the rectification of his
frontier in Bessarabia. The territory thus ceded by Russia was to be annexed to
the principality of Moldavia, under the sovereignty of the Sublime Porte. Wal-
lachia and Moldavia were to enjoy the privileges of which they were in possession,
and no exclusive protection was to be exercised over them by any of the contracting
powers. Turkey engaged to preserve to the principalities an independent and
national existence, as well as full liberty of worship, legislation, commerce, and
navigation. The same arrangement was to apply to the principality of Servia. A
mixed commission was to be appointed to verify, and, if necessary, rectify, the
boundaries of the mutual possessions of Russia and Turkey in Asia. By a con
vention, annexed to the treaty, it was declared that the Aland Islands should not
be fortified, and that no naval or military establishment' should be maintained or
credited there. Another convention, annexed to the treaty, adopted Count
Walewski s reforms in maritime law (which we have already printed) in order to
avoid the disputes which had hitherto arisen from the unsettled state of inter
national law upon that subject. These arrangements were not to be binding except
between those powers which acceded to them ; and, on being laid before the American
government, they did not meet with unqualified acceptance by that power
In this treaty a clause was inserted, which, it was hoped, would bear golden
fruit. It contained an arbitration clause. When the peace was talked of a de
putation waited upon Lord Palmerston upon the subject; but he raised all sorts of
objections, and.held out no hope. The peace people went to Paris; visited Lord
Clarendon, who said, « I will do what I can to bring the matter before the congress "
He did so ; was supported by the French and Prussian plenipotentiaries ; and when
the treaty was promulgated, it was found to contain this clause—
ihe plenipotentiaries do not hesitate to express, in the names of their
SS toTheVoorffi PPeaim! -° aimS' haVe recourse' as far as circumstances will
allow, to the good offices of a friendly power. The plenipotentiaries hope that the
In the vejyta which had taghed at hi, propo5al only , short ™0/^-
139 .

THE PEACE PARTY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1856.

Mr. Gladstone spoke eloquently of this protocol, as 'a powerful engine on behalf
of civilisation and humanity ;' and said ' it asserted the supremacy of reason, of
justice, humanity, and religion.' Even Lord Derby accorded ' endless honour' to
the diplomatists for adopting it ; and Lord Malmesbury talked of its ' importance
to civilisation, and to the security of the peace of Europe,' because ' it recognises
and establishes the immortal truth, that time, by giving place for reason to operate,
is as much a preventive as a healer of hostilities.' " Alas ! it does not seem that
the arbitration clause has made much difference. Nor is it easy to" see how it
should. When people have made up .their minds — or their rulers for them— to go
to war, arbitration clauses have but little effect. Mr. Cobden's panegyrist exclaims
— "This was by no means the smallest of Cobden's triumphs. If Mr. "Cobden
had not done more than this, he would have effected but little in his day." We
quite agree with Mr. Kinglake in his estimate of the doings of Mr. Cobden and
the Peace Society anterior to the Russian war. They had certainly weakened
themselves with the public : at the same time, .they had led the czar into the
mistake of taking their voice as that of the . public. The passage is worth ex
tracting. " Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright were members of the House of Commons.
Both had the gifts of a manly, strenuous eloquence ; and their diction being
founded upon EngUsh lore rather than upon shreds of weak Latin, went straight
to the mind of their hearers. Of these men, the one could persuade, the other
could attack ; and, indeed, Mr. Bright's oratory was singularly well qualified for
preventing an erroneous acquiescence in the policy of the day : for, besides that he
was honest and fearless — besides that, with a ringing voice, he had all the clearness
and force which resulted from his great natural gifts, as well as from his one-sided
method of thinking, he had the advantage of generally being able to speak in a
state of sincere anger. In former years, whilst their minds were disciplined by the
almost, mathematical exactness of the reasonings on which they relied, and when
they were acting in concert with the shrewd traders of the north, who had a very
plain object in view, these two orators had shown with what a strength, with what
a masterly skill, with what patience, with what a high courage, they could carry a
great scientific truth through the storms of politics. They had shown that, they
could arouse and govern the assenting thousands, who listened to them with delight ;
that they could bend the House of Commons ; that they could press their creed upon
a Prime Minister, and put upon his mind so hard a stress, that, after a while, he
felt it to be a torture and a violence to his reason . to have to make stand against
them. Nay, more — each of these two gifted men had proved that he could go
bravely into the midst of angry opponents; could show them their fallacies one by
one ; destroy their favourite theories before their very faces, and triumphantly argue
them down. Now these two men were honestly devoted to the cause of peace.
They honestly believed that the impending war with Russia was a needless war ;
there was no stain upon their names. How came it that they sank, and were able
to make no good stand for the cause they loved so well ?
" The answer is simple.
" Upon the question of peace or war — the very question upon which, more than
any other, a man might well desire to make his counsels tell— these two gifted
men had forfeited their hold upon the ear of the country; they had forfeited it by
their former want of moderation. It was not by any intemperate words upon the
question of this war with Russia that they had shut themselves out from the
councils of the nation ; but, in former years, they had adopted, and put forward in
their strenuous way, some of the more extravagant doctrines ofthe Peace Society.
In times when no war was in question, they had run down the practice of war in
terms so broad and indiscriminate, that they were understood to commit themselves
to adisapproval of all wars not strictly defensive; and to decline to treat as de
fensive, those wars which, although not waged against an actual invader of the queen's
(.omimons, might still be undertaken by England in the performance of a European
early, or for the purpose of checking the undue ascendancy of another power."

a.d. .1856.] VISCOUNT . PALMERSTON. [the peace defended.
In' the debate which was raised on the peace, Lord Palmerston said— " I
venture to think, that not only in the treaty, but in the course pursued at , 1 aris, the
proceedings of government were such as to deserve the approbation of this House
and nation. No doubt, there are many in this country who would have been
better pleased if no acceptable offers had been made to us, and if the war had gone
on ; for they anticipated, in that event, greater success would have attended our
arms, and a more brilliant meed of glory. Such a feeling was not unnatural.
Those who saw the magnificent fleet that was reviewed at Spithead, who knew in
what an admirable condition our army in the Crimea now is, and _ who are
aware' that our commerce is unimpaired, and that our resources are undiminished
by the recent conflict, cling to the thought, that if the war had been prolonged for
another campaign, still greater, advantages than those already attained might have
been secured. It is probable that such would have been the case; and, certainly, if
no conditions likely to effect the object of the war had been offered us, no peace
would as yet have been made, and we should at least have had one campaign
more. But a grave responsibility devolved upon us; and when we were offered
terms of peace that seemed well calculated to achieve the purposes for which we
had drawn the sword, we felt that it would ill consist with our duty and the
dignity of the nation to reject them. A just and necessary war I regard as a duty ;
but when a war ceases to be just and necessary, I hold it to be a crime."
His lordship thus concluded—" Many people . think that no reliance is to be
placed on Russia, but that she will continue .' her long-cherished habits of aggres
sion. I do not concur in that opinion. My belief is, that the present Emperor
of Russia is a man of kind and benevolent feelings ; not inspired by ambitfon of
conquests, or, at least, that the conquests at which he aims are conquests over
ignorance, undeveloped natural resources, and all -those difficulties which prevent
the progressive improvement of a nation. .; My hope is that he will turn the great
power he possesses to the promotion of the internal prosperity of his empire.
That is a task with which, the noblest man might be contented, and which the
greatest and ablest man, however long he lived, could- not accomplish. It is said
that if the resources' of Russia are developed, she ' will only become more able to
continue acts of aggression. I think that is a mistake. In proportion as nations
become prosperous, in the same proportion they value the wealth and comforts
which their exertions have procured for them; become wedded to the arts and
pursuits of peace; and are weaned from the occupations and objects of war. If,
therefore,, the Emperor of Russia should devote his energies to the development of
the natural resources of those vast plains which are now arid and barren, and to
the connection of different parts of his empire by the modern improvements of
railways, he will increase the probabilities of peace. But, on the other hand, if
those expectations should be deceived ;' if a period of repose should only be used
for the purpose of organising the means of fresh aggressions, then the alliances to
which I bave pointed — the common union which has been established between the
powers' of Europe— would prove an insurmountable barrier to any attempt whieh might
be made to violate the peace of the world. Therefore, in looking east, and looking
west— looking north, and looking south— looking from the centre of Europe to the
extreme confines of Asia, I see nothing but sources of hope in every direction. I
trust that this war will have settled the divisions in every part of Europe; that the
nations of Europe will turn their attention to the cultivation of the arts of peace ;
and that those jealousies and rivalries which formerly divided nation from nation,
and turned into animosity those feelings of self-respect and self-pride, will be
extinguished. I say, that, looking ih all directions, I see nothing but sources of
consolation and hope; and I trust the time is far' distant when it will be the lot of
any minister of England again to call upon this noble nation for support in any
war. ; If such an occasion should arise, I am convinced, however distant it maybe —
however the nation may, in the interval, have devoted itself to the arts and pursuits
of peace— the same warlike and manly spirit which was brought out by the late crisis,
VA

sir j. m'neil and col. TULLOCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF . [a.d. 1856

will still be living in the breast of England. I trust that period may be long
deferred and that the youngest man who sits in this House may not live to see
the time when it will be necessary for the responsible servants of the crown to
call upon the people of this country to support their' sovereign in the prosecution
of any war."
The reader who has heard of the sufferings of the Crimean army, naturally
asks— Who was hung ? Who was imprisoned ? Who was compelled to disgorge
bis ill-gotten gains, or to renounce honours and rank to which he had no legiti
mate claims ? The answer is — No one. Ministers, still credulous as to the truth
Of the charges made by the committee of which Mr. Roebuck was chairman, sent
out to the Crimea Sir John M'Neil and Colonel Tulloch, as royal commissioners,.
to inquire into the state of the war. They arrived in Constantinople in March,
1855. After examining the officers attached to the hospitals at Scutari, where they
learned that the sick soldiers were chiefly suffering from diseases brought on by
improper and insufficient diet, they proceeded to Balaklava, and commenced a
laborious examination of the officers on whom the welfare of the army depended.
The report, accompanied by corroborative evidence, was dated June 10th, 1855 :
but it was kept from the public until February, 1856. It was a sad confirmation
of all that had been said as to the disgraceful state of affairs in the Crimea. We
make one extract : —
" The sufferings of the army in the course of the winter, and especially during
the months of December and January, must have been intense. We have not noted
all the particulars related to us, many of which were unconnected with our inquiry;
but we may state, that it has only been by slow degrees, and after the frequent
repetition of similar details, as one witness after another revealed the facts that
had come .under his own observation, that we have been able to form any adequate
idea of the misery and distress undergone by the troops, or fully to appreciate the
unparalleled courage and constancy with which they have endured their sufferings.
Great Britain had often reason to be proud of her army ; but it is doubtful whether
the whole range of military history furnishes an example of an army exhibiting,
throughout a long campaign, qualities as high as have distinguished the forces
under Lord Raglan's command. The strength of the men gave way under exces
sive labour, watching, exposure, and privation ; but they never murmured ; their
spirit never failed ; and the enemy, though far outnumbering them, never detected
in those whom he encountered any signs of weakness. Their numbers were
reduced, by diseases and by casualties, to a handful of men, compared with the
great extent ofthe lines which they constructed and defended. Yet the army never
abated its confidence in itself, and never descended from its acknowledged military
pre-eminence. Both men and officers, when so reduced that they were hardly fit
for the lighter duties of the camp, scorned to be excused the severe and perilous
work of the trenches, lest they should throw an undue amount of duty upon their
comrades. Yet they maintained every foot of ground against the enemy, and with
numbers so small that, perhaps, no other troops would have made the attempt.
* * The deaths, including those at Scutari and elsewhere, appear to amount
to about 35 per cent, (one-third) of the average strength of the army present in
the Crimea, from the 1st of October, 1854, to the 30th of April, 1855; and it
seems to be clearly established that this excessive mortality is not to be attributed
to anything particularly unfavourable in the climate, but to over-work, exposure
to wet and cold, improper food, insufficient clothing during part of the winter, and
insufficient shelter from inclement weather." In spite of the damning facts con
tained in the report, the commissioners avoided casting blame on any one. The
Earls Lucan and Cardigan ; the Commissary-general, Mr. Filder ; Quartermaster-
general Airey; and Assistant Quartermaster-general, Colonel Gordon, were
implicated, but not directly accused. The officials were indignant. Earls Lucan
aud Cardigan could not contain their rage. Actually, another Board was constituted
to whitewash them. Accordingly, a Board of general officers was appointed to

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [life peerages.
inquire into the truth of the statements contained in the report. The warrant was
dated the 25th of February ; but the opening of the commission was delayed for
some time. It was presumed that Lord Hardinge, then Commander-in-Chief, would
willingly have had the matter forgotten ; but it had excited too much attention to
be settled, or rather unsettled, in that way.
The Times sarcastically observed — " There is great difficulty in converting such
an assemblage of ancients as the Chelsea commissioners. They are, for the most
part, men on the wrong side of seventy ; and the east wind- is very keen. The
nipping and unkind blast has, for the last few days, searched out all the weak points
in the scattered frames of the veterans who have been told-off for duty at Chelsea."
At length, in April, they met in the hall of Chelsea Hospital. The commissioners
were — General Sir Alexander Woodford, General Earl Beauchamp, General Sir
George Berkeley, Lieutenant-General Sir John Bell, Lieutenant-General S. W.
Rowan, Major-General Peel, and Major-General Knollys. The Board met seven-
and-twenty times ; and their proceedings excited great interest, many of the spec
tators being ladies. The Board did what was wished. It impugned the report of
Colonel Tulloch and Sir John M'Neil, who had too honestly and too faithfully dis
charged their duty. Society was satisfied. Lord Lucan had used every exertion to
meet the difficulties with which he had to contend. Lord Cardigan was not to
blame for the frightful mortality among the horses committed to his care. In like
manner, Sir Richard Airey was discovered to have done the best he could. Colonel
Gordon was not only acquitted, but commended ; and Mr. Filder was considered
to have exercised all possible activity. No one was to blame besides the poor Duke
of Newcastle, who had long gone into the wilderness, bearing the sins of others on
his shoulders. In the Crimea^ noble lords had done their duty ! — done their duty,
though England's best and bravest had rotted away in that inhospitable Crimea
like sheep ! A nation's anger had been aroused ; a strong administration had been
shattered in consequence. Men of skill and capacity had been sent out to investi
gate affairs, and they confirmed, and more than confirmed, all that rumour had
said ; and now, to please a couple of noble lords, the government upset the verdict
of their own commissioners, and stultified themselves, by finding that no one was
to blame. And thus, after the tragedy, the British public were treated to the farce.

CHAPTER VIII.
ENGLAND AT PEACE.

The Crimean war interfered with parliamentary legislation; but progress, never
theless, was making in Great Britain all the while.
_ In 1856, the Earl of Derby, on the opening of parliament, referred to -the
circumstance that her majesty had recently conferred a life peerage upon Sir J
Parke, one of the barons of the Exchequer. The question was -raised «s to
whether that was constitutional or not. It was referred to the committee for
privileges. The committee decided that the new peer could not vote and sit in
parliament; and, after some discussion, the report was received. The struggle was
thus practically terminated, for no further effort was made, on the part of Lord
Wensleydale, to claim his seat, and an hereditary peerage was shortly afterwards
conferred upon him in the usual way.
. ,?ut oiJhis con,test between the crown and the Lords there arose another
question. The appellate jurisdiction wielded by the upper House was in a very
unsatisfactory state. It was with a view to strengthen it that ministers had
endeavoured to make Sir J. Parke, under the title of Lord Wensleydale, a life peer;
143

education.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.

and it was expedient that something should- be done, in order to make provision
for the more efficient discharge of the duties. of the House .of Lords as a court of
appeal. On the motion of Lord Derby a committee wa's .appointed, which subse
quently made a report to the House. In it they proposed,'' that two new offices, ,to
be held by law lords, should be created, and sit with ;, the Lord Chancellor on
appeals. In reference to the point at issue between the House and the crown, the
report observed — " The attention of the committee has been drawn to the difficulty
which may, in some cases, be felt hereafter, of appointing the most fit persons to
judicial offices connected with the House of Lords, if it cannot be done without
conferring on them hereditary peerages. And it appears to the committee advisa
ble, that any person appointed to such an office, should be enabled, by authority of
parliament, 'to sit and vote in the House, and enjoy all the rights and privileges
of a peer in parliament, under a patent conferring a peerage for .him only, if the
crown may have granted, or shall grant, the same.to such persons in preference to
an hereditary. peerage; provided always that not more than four person's shall. have
seats in the.House of Lords at one; time as peers for life." - A' bill, brought forward
on this.recpmmendation, was carried through the Lords. In explaining it," the Lord
Chancfeilor;"said^ it was proposed by this bill that the crown should call to the House
of Lords,; as peers for life, two judges who had sat on the bench five years, to assist
the chancellor in hearing appeals. They were to be called Deputy Speakers, and to
have salaries equal to those of the judges of the courts of common law. The bill
also enabled sittings in appeal to be held during a prorogation. In the Commons
the bill occasioned a long debate. Baron Wensleydale petitioned against, it; and,
after a fierce debate, it was read a second time. On the 10th of July, Mr. Currie
moved that it" should be referred to a select committee. Lord Palmerston, •, in
defence of it, ¦ said"; that he, should be sorry to, see the appellate jurisdiction
transferred from the;House of Lords ; and he considered the bill was the best means
of reinforcing it. With respect to life peerages, he thought that the House of Lords
had acted erroneously in excluding Lord Wensleydale ; and he denied that the bill was
the result , of a compromise huddled up in a committee, for the convenience of
parties. It was merely a compromise arising from the conflict of opinions. His
lordship added — " A great deal has been said as to the effect of the bill upon the
prerogative of the crown. It is manifest, I think, to everybody who reads it, that
it acknowledges the prerogative, and limits it : that, on one side, those who -object
to life peerages have acknowledged the prerogative of the crown to create them ;
and, on the other, those who maintain the prerogative have consented to a
limitation, for the purpose of establishing the appellate jurisdiction of the Houso
of Lords on a satisfactory basis." In spite of his lordship's speech, the amendment
was carried by a majority of 155 to 133, and the bill was lost.
The education of the people was prominently brought before parliament this
year. In March, Lord John Russell proposed the following resolutions to the
House : — " 1. That, in the opinion of this House, it is expedient to extend, revise, and
consolidate the minutes of the committee of privy council on education. 2. That
it is expedient to add to the present inspectors of church schools eighty sub-
inspectors^ and to divide England and Wales into eighty divisions, for the purposes
of education. 3. That it is expedient to appoint sub-inspectors of British,
Wesleyan, and other Protestant schools not connected with the church, and also of
Roman Catholic schools, according to the present proportion of inspectors of such
schools to the inspectors of church schools. 4. That, on the report of the
inspectors and sub-inspectors, the committee of privy council shall have power to
form in each division school districts, consisting- of single or united parishes, or
parts of parishes. 5. That the sub-inspectors of schools of each division should be
instructed to report on the available means for the education of the poor in each
district. 6. That, for the purpose of extending such means, it is expedient that
the powers at present possessed by the commissioners of charitable trusts be
enlarged, and that the funds, now useless or injurious to the public, be applied to

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [county police.

the education of the middle or poorer classes -of the community. - 7. That 'it is
expedient tbat, in school districts where the means of education arising from endow
ment, subscription, grants, and school pence, shall' be found deficient; arid shall be
declared to be so. by the committee of privy council on education,1 the' ratepayers
should have, the power of taxing themselves for the erection and maintenance 'of a
school or schools. 8. That, after the v 1st of January, 1858, when, any school
districts shall have been declared to be deficient in adequate means for. the educa
tion of the poor, the quarter sessions of the peace for the county, city, or borough,
should have power to impose a school-rate. 9. That where a school-rate is imposed,
a school committee, elected by the rate-payers, should appoint the schoolmasters
and schoolmistresses, and mak© regulations for the management of the schools.
10. That in every school supported in whole or in part by votes, a portion of the
Holy Scriptures should be read daily; and such other provision should be made for
religious instruction as the school committee may think fit ; but that no child
should be compelled to receive any religious instruction, or attend any religious
worship, to which his or her parents or guardians shall, on conscientious grounds,
object. 11. That employers of children and young persons between nine and
fifteen years of age, should be required to furnish, certificates, half-yearly, of the
attendance of such children and young persons at school, and to pay for ' such
instruction. 12. That it is expedient that every encouragement should be given,
by prizes, by diminution of school fees, by libraries, by evening, schools, and other.
methods, to the instruction of young persons between : twelve arid.; fifteen. years: of
age." After a sUght discussion the debate was adjourned. - It was renewed: again
a few days after, when the opposition was led Off by Mr. Henley, on the plea that
the whole scheme had a tendency to secularise education. The debate was again
adjourned, when Lord John Russell explained and defended the whole scheme ; and
stated, in conclusion, that he did not ask the committee to go beyond the first
five resolutions. Eventually, the scheme was suffered to drop : it found support
with neither party in the House.
What was practically done in the way of education in this session of parlia
ment was, to vote £451,000 for the educational estimates— a sum exceeding that of
the previous year by £54,292.
In the course of the session, a bill was introduced for the reform of the
yonioerS1if0f Ga^.ndS^ founded upon the report of a commission appointed in
,1 • 1 condltl°i1 of tbe university was regarded as unsatisfactory, and its
results inadequate to its means, in consequence of its constitution not beino- eaual
to the requirements of the times. Accordingly a few improvements were intro-
duced in this respect.
Another educational step, in an opposite direction, was that of Mr. Spooner
a man universally respected in the House; but a very bigoted and prejudiced
bvhtTtTl ^It T^™1 g^nt to Maynooth had always been opposed
££^ -w i ?TeVer' hlS annual debate was al*ays looked forward to by
unkind MaST rf Pr°testa£ts ^Catholics, as a famous opportunity for saying
SirP of one mother. , This time Mr. Spooner partly succeeded Hi
defeated the government twice-first, in obtaining a vote in favour of the House of
p^nTsfon^
read a second time that, day six LlV '' h™?g moved thafc tbe bill b!
by a small majority. J Uths' *e Sovemment were a third time defeated
goJ^ZZmJZ^lt Ce^SatTi and the suPP°rte- <* ^cal self-
Police Bill. Sir GeorTG- rev In S * ^ hj the PassinS of the GomtJ
the expediency of establishWa n^'f °f °f I853,' aPPointed to inquire as to
Scotland. That SS^^S"^ Syste? of P°li(le in England, Wales, and
Constabulary Act had very ^ben^fidal ^ if^f' A B]Ted that the Cou»ty
veiy beneficial results where it had been adopted ; that the
145

foreign enlistment.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.
system of parish and superintending constables was totally inadequate for its
"objects; that the non-adoption of the County Constabulary Act in one part,
impeded the operation ofthe police in another part; and that the efficiency of the
police was impaired by a want of co-operation between the forces in counties and
boroughs. The expense was greater; but then, against that, was to be -set down
the saving of property otherwise lost, the convenience of the poor, and the preven
tion of much disorder.
Financially, the House had an unusual amount of business to discharge. On
the 23rd of February, it went into committee to assent to resolutions authorising
a loan of £5,000,000, and the funding of £3,000,000 of exchequer bills. This was
required on account of the war expenditure. Mr. Gladstone cautioned "Sir
G. Lewis against supposing that the amount stated by him represented either the
real cost of the war, or the real amount of debt incurred. The chancellor con
sidered the cost of the war £43,564,374. He thought it would be much more
than that. The debt created was probably £36,000,000; and there were many
items of charge yet to come in.
The budget was, of course, a heavy one. War is an expensive luxury — at any
rate when made by Englishmen. The expenditure was stated by the chancellor at
£88,428,335 ; the revenue derived from taxes, £65,709,491 : thus giving an excess-
of expenditure amounting to £22,723,854. To this excess, £1,000,000 must be
added for the loan to Sardinia, and £213,000 for the redemption of hereditary
pensions. With regard to the coming year, the Chancellor of the Exchequer pro
posed to continue the existing high rate of the income-tax for two years, and the
increased taxation on tea, sugar, and coffee for one. He anticipated a deficiency of
£6,873,000. That sum he proposed to borrow. The budget passed with but little
opposition. On another matter there was a regular party fight. It appears that, during
the Crimean war, we had opened a depot for the enlistment of soldiers in America.
This had been felt so great a grievance by the government of that country, that
friendly relations between it and ourselves were endangered. On the 30th of June,
Mr. G. N. Moore brought the subject before the House of Commons by moving
the following resolution : — " That the conduct of her majesty's government on the
differences that have arisen between them and the government of the United
States on the question of enlistment, has not entitled them to the approbation of
this House." This was, in reality, a vote of censure. Mr. Moore, in support of his
motion, undertook to prove that the neutrality law of the United States had
been grossly and deliberately violated by persons acting with the approbation of
her majesty's government, which had contemplated and sanctioned the violation
of the law. The American government had dismissed our ambassador, Mr.
Crampton ; and, for this disgrace, her majesty's government found relief by writing
letters, to say " they were gratified that their assertions that they did not intend
to violate the neutrality laws, or the sovereignty of the United States, had been
unreservedly accepted by the president;" which was not the fact. The issue of the
whole affair was very simple. Lord Clarendon had been engaged in a petty
intrigue : he had been found out ; and had brought discredit, not only on his own
- character, but on the people and the crown of this country. In reply, the
Attorney-general denied that the British government had infringed either inter
national law or the municipal law of the United States. The persons intended to
be enlisted, he observed, were not American citizens in the proper sense of the
term, but British subjects who had emigrated to America, and political refugees-
froni Europe ; and if these men desired to leave the United States (provided the
municipal law of the United States was not violated), they could be received into
our service without any infraction of international law. But it was said men
were enlisted on American soil, which was contrary to the law of the United
States. This, however, never was intended by the British government ; and, he
asserted, was, in fact, never done. The United States' government did not deny
146 b

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [clayton-bulwer treaty.

that there was nothing in their municipal law to prevent ^even American subjects,
and, a fortion, persons who were only quasi- American subjects, from enlisting in a
foreign service beyond the boundaries of the states ; and he denied, on the authority
of Mr. Crampton and the consuls, that any such illegal enlistment had taken
place with the sanction of the British authorities. The allegations that the
sovereign rights -of the United States had been violated by enlisting subjects of the
United States at all, he disputed ; contending that the British government were
justified in accepting the services of the persons in question beyond the boundaries
of the United States. Sir F. Thesiger contended that the American government
had been aggrieved by us, and that we must submit to an insult and indignity,
the result of our own acts. Sir G. Grey said, that although every precaution had
been taken by Mr. Crampton to prevent any violation of the municipal law of the
United States, it did appear that persons engaged in that transaction, professing
to act with an authority they had never received, had proceeded in a manner
calculated to compromise our friendly relations with the United States. The
British government, therefore, put an end to the scheme ; and offered an ample^
though conditional, apology to the government of the United States for these
unauthorised acts. They expressed their regret if the law had been infringed ; and
stated that any such infringement was entirely contrary to their wishes and positive
instructions. The government, throughout, had been animated by the best in
tentions; and they had done nothing by any hasty, harsh, or even unguarded
expression, to place themselves in the wrong in case the affair should not bo
brought to a peaceful and satisfactory result. In.the adjourned debate, Mr. Gibson
severely condemned the policy of the British government, which, was defended
satisfactorily by Lord Palmerston ; and Mr. Moore's resolution was lost by 274 to 80.
Another American difficulty followed — this time respecting South America..
On the 19th of April, 1850, a treaty was concluded between Great Britain
and the United States, relative to the projected establishment of a ship canal
between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, by way of the river San Juan de
Nicaragua. This was known as the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, because it was negotiated
by Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer on the part of England, and Mr. Clayton on behalf of
the United States. By the. first article of this treaty, the governments of Great
Britain and the United States declared that neither the one nor the other would
ever erect or maintain for itself any exclusive control over the ship canal ; and
agreed, that neither would ever erect or maintain any fortifications commanding
the same, or in the vicinity thereof, or occupy, or fortify, or colonise, or assume or
exercise any dominion over Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mosquito coast, or any part bf
Central America : nor would either make use of any protection which either
afforded, or might afford, or any alliance which either had, or might have, to do
or with any other state or people, for the purpose of erecting or maintaining any
sum fortifications, or of occupying, fortifying, or colonising Nicaragua, Costa
Kica, the Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America, or of assuming or ex
ercising any dominion over the same. In the following May, Lord Palmerston
wrote to Mr. H. Bulwer, and informed him, that although the British government
were bound m honour to protect the Mosquitos, they thought that protection
might be afforded, as effectually as formerly, without any direct internal in-
XiT^^1681^ ^h agent' He Prosed that treaties should be con-
Snf! \he s+tate* °J Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica (which border on
rtah? S t i ntory\Jor the PurP°se °f defending the boundaries between those
t t "fP S 1yrd,M°SqUlt0; SayinS' that if sueh boundaries were once fixed
iLZtl y.°f PF0*60^11 would tben be usefully performed; and he
£S^£rC°TaSrAi\e ^i^ Stat6S' g°vei™t » making such an
S™ \ He added> that as the part of Grey Town, in the Mosquito ter-
SitT'f,^ °l the pr°p0Sed ^'-oceanic communication, it
^rnment7 S \l Ud ^ T^' the C°ntro1 of some official and organised
government. For this purpose, he proposed that the treaty to be concluded
14-7

the bay islands.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.
between the Mosquitos and Costa Rica, should so fix the boundary between those
states as to include Grey Town within the limits of Costa Rica ; some suitable
compensation being made to the Mosquitos for this concession oh their part.
Grey Town was claimed ibotlr. by Nicaragua and Costa Rica; but the British
government considered it as "part of the Mosquito territory, and, consequently,
entitled to their protection. The' United States' government, however, insisted that
Grey Town should belong to Nicaragua. The Nicaraguans had seized it in 1843 or
1844 ; but it had been forcibly taken from them by the British in 1848 ; and, since
that time, had been held by the Mosquitos, under the protection of this country.
This was one point of dispute in what was called the Central American question.
The United States' government contended that, by the Clayton-Bulwer treaty,
Great Britain was precluded from giving any practical effect to her protectorate of
the Mosquitos, inasmuch as she had bound herself neither to occupy, fortify, '
colonise, nor assume nor exercise any dominion over the Mosquito coast, or any
part of Central America. To this the British government answered, that, up to
March, 1849, one year after the capture of Grey Town by the British forces, the
United States' government made no allusion to that act. That in November, 1849,
Mr. Lawrence, who had just then arrived in England as the representative of the
United States' government, addressed a note to Lord Palmerston, not asking any
question as to the British protection of Mosquito, but requesting to know whether
the British . government would join with the United States in guaranteeing the
neutrality of a ship canal, railway, or other communication between the two
oceans, to be opened to the world, and 'common to all nations? and whether the
British government - intended to occupy or colonise Nicaragua, Costa Rica, the
Mosquito coast, or any part of Central America ? To this Lord Palmerston replied,
that her majesty's government had no intention of occupying or colonising any of
the places so named ; and that it would feel great pleasure iri co-operating with the
government ofthe United States, for the. purpose of assisting the operations of a
company which might be formed,' with a view to establish a general communication,
by canal or railroad, across the isthmus.
The question of the Bay Islands gave rise to another American difficulty. In
1852, the colonial authorities at Belize issued a proclamation in the name of the
British government, stating that the queen bad been pleased to constitute the
islands of Ruatan, Bonaca, Utilla, Barbarat, Helene, and Morat, to be a colony,
under the title of the " Colony of the Bay Islands." These islands lay about thirty
miles off the coast of Honduras ; and, in virtue of our settlement at Belize, we had,
at various times, asserted a claim to them, especially Ruatan ; and a considerable
number of settlers had taken up their abode there, under the protection of the
British authorities. The formal constitution, however, of the Bay Islands into a
British colony gave great offence to the United States, the government of which
declared it to be a violation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty. In a statement addressed
by Mr. Buchanan, the American minister at our Court, to Lord Clarendon, Ruatan
was described as an island of great value and importance.' " Such "is its com
manding geographical position, that Great Britain, in possession of it; could
completely arrest the trade of the United States in its passage to and from the
isthmus." r &
Lord Clarendon replied, that it never was in the contemplation of the British
government nor that of the government of the United States, that the treaty bf
1850 should interfere in any way with her majesty's settlement of Belize, or its
dependencies; and that it was not necessary that this should have been particularly
stated, as. it was generally considered that the term Ceritral America' could only
appropriately apply to those states at one time united under the' name of the
Centra American Republic, and now existing as free separate republics. But in
order that there should be no possible misconception, at any future period, relative
to this point, the two negotiators, at the time of ratifying the treaty, exchanged
declarations, to the effect, that neither of the governments they represented had

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. Litaly.

meant, in such treaty, to comprehend the settlement and dependencies in question.
Lord Clarendon then intimated the willingness of the British government to
arrange its differences with the government of the United States on fair terms.
Subsequently, he offered, on the part of the British government, to submit the
question of the right of interpretation of the Clayton-Bulwer treaty to the arbitra
tion of a third power. This proposal the American government declined. Happily,
in August of this year, the matter was amica'bly arranged by a convention between
the two governments and the republic of Honduras. By this convention, the
sovereignty of the disputed territory was acknowledged to be vested in Honduras.
That power, however, engaged not to disturb any British subjects in the enjoyment
of their' property in the Bay Islands. The Mosquito territory was also conceded,
conditionally, on the payment of an equivalent to the government of the republic of
Honduras: the rights of all British residents were, however, to be respected; and
thus that diplomatic storm in a teapot passed away.
The state of Italy created a great deal of uneasy -feeling in this country. It
was felt that the peace had done nothing for her. - In the House of Lords, Lord
Lyndhurst had raised a discussion on; this subject, which had been met by Earl
Clarendon with official reserve. He did not believe that, until the joint pressure of
France and England could be brought- to bear in all its force, the result desired for
the amelioration of Italy could be obtained. Her majesty's government had the
subject as much at heart as the parliament or the people of this country had. In
the House of Commons the question was raised by Lord John Russell. The debate
was chiefly remarkable for an able speech by Mr. Disraeli. He said, after
condemning the introduction of the subject into the Paris -conferences, there were
two modes of dealing with it. We could, in concert with France, go to war with
Austria ; and, after one of those long wars like the Punic war, we could emancipate
the people of Italy. . If that was the policy of the government, they were bound
frankly to declare it, to appeal to parliament, and to take the verdict of the country
upon it. The second practical mode was by diplomatic communications — first
friendly advice, and then admonitions — to the ruling powers; and, without fleets
or armies, set Italy in flames. Lord Clarendon said — " The state of Naples was
'exceptional;' but what was there in the state of Naples more exceptional than
there was in the state of Austria or Russia, except that those were strong powers,
and Naples was a weak one?. Well, if we admonished Naples, and sent a fleet'
then, the Neapolitans would know; that, if they rose, Austria! would not intervene!
But.it was not only a contest between worn-out dynasties and an intelligent class
that was going on in Italy. The secret societies did not care for' constitutional
governments. We know something more of these secret societies than we did.
Since 1848, we. have had means. of obtaining a knowledge of their numbers
organisation, principles, and objects; and without some consideration of these it
would be absolutelyfmpossible for us to form a conception of what would be the
consequence of our interference in the affairs of Italy. ' It is useless to deny
because it is impossible to conceal, that a great part of Europe, the whole of Italy
and France, and a great part of Germany— to say nothing of other countries— are
covered with a network of these secret societies, just as the superficies of the earth
is now covered with railroads. And what are their objects ? They do not attempt
to conceal them. They do not want constitutional government ; . they do not want
ameliorated .institutions; they do not want provincial councils, nor the recording of
votes. They want to change the tenure of land ; to drive out the present owners of
i;rmV° P +1?-n wv !°, ecclesiastical establishments. Some of them may go
SrW t?.y°U ^V^Vwith their complete organisation, when Austria cannot
bv t/ril TPy 6 klDg/T °f NaPles' when the kinS is lectured on his throne
by the western, powers and when the feelings -of the people are aroused these
hoTdfnToTt htTfl l83 t0M tbat a B?itisb --^has boa ed lhat, by
holding out his hand he could raise a revolution in Italy to-morrow. I believe it
is not impossible; with the means at his disposal, he might. What would hlppenS
149

retirement of bishops.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.

You would have a republic formed on extensive principles ; and there may be many
intelligent and well-meaning persons who would say — and what then ? Nothing
can be worse than the present state of Italy. But the question of Italian politics is
not of that simple character. Rome is not far distant from Naples. The passage
from Naples to the states of the church is not difficult. You may have triumvirs
again established in Rome ; the pope may again be foreed to flee (my honourable
friend behind me, Mr. Spooner, may say, 'So much the better'); and not a cardinal
be left in Rome. What will be the consequences of that ? The two great Catholic
powers in Europe, France and Austria, will pour their legions over the whole
peninsula. You will have to withdraw the British fleet; your admonitions will be
thrown into the mud ; and your efforts to free Italy from the occupation of foreign
troops, will terminate by rendering the thraldom a thousand times more severe, and
augmenting the miseries of the unfortunate people whose passions you have fired,
and whose feelings this night you have begun to arouse. These secret societies
were in a higher state of organisation in France than in any other state in Europe.
If Italy was in flames, would it have no effect on the French societies? The
ruler of France was a man of rare sagacity; he had been schooled in adversity; a
triumphant army was devoted to him. But we all remember another great prince,
whose sagacity was proverbial — who had been schooled in adversity — who was
seconded by an army which he and his princes had formed — yet he fell, solely and
entirely by the action of the secret societies. He had touched upon these points
because this was no holiday question. He could sympathise as keenly as any one
with Italy. He hoped the time would come when, in that country, there would be
neither secret societies nor despots : but these were questions for the closet, and
not for a practical and popular assembly. As to Sardinia, there was no danger to
the king so long as he, within his dominions, pursued the policy he believed to be
for the advantage of his subjects. If they were not prepared to interfere in Italy
with fleets and armies, they should abstain from stirring up the passions of the
people." However, the motion of Lord John RusSell, " for copies, or extracts, of
any recent communications which may have taken place between her majesty's
government and the Two Sicilies," was agreed to without a division.
In ecclesiastical affairs, some little excitement was occasioned by a circum
stance which was considered rather discreditable to the parties concerned. In the
month of June, the Bishop of London wrote to Lord Palmerston, communicating
his desire, on account of continued illness, "if allowed by law," to resion his
bishopric, on a clear annuity of £6,000 being secured to him through lifef The
Bishop of Durham, who was nearly blind, and incapable, from infirmity, of dis
charging the duties of his see, made a similar application, on condition of receiving
an annual allowance of £4,500. At these doings, on the part of holy men, the
profane scoffed. However, the ministry were less squeamish, and the Lord
Chancellor brought forward a bill in the upper House, for permitting' the retire
ment, upon pensions, of the Bishops of London and Durham. In spite of strong
objections it passed the Lords. On the 22nd of July, Lord Palmerston moved its
second reading in tne House of Commons, where, reluctantly, the bill was carried;
but where, also it met with great opposition from two parties. The churchmen,
*uoh as Sir W. Heatheote, Lord Robert Cecil, Mr. Napier, Mr. Gladstone, Sir
James Graham, and Mr. Henley, argued that the bill was partial and incomplete;
that it threw difficulties m the way of future and general legislation; and proposed
to apply a local remedy to an old evil. The resignation to which it was to give
effect was conditional; and they argued that the principle of conditional resigna
tion was not accepted by the church, which required that it should be absolute,
sponte, pure et simplicity ; whereas the bill was nothing but a resignation upon a
pecuniary condition, which was illegal. The transaction, sanctioned by the bill, was
of a simomacal character. It was a bargain between the minister and the bishops.
iS'f i? * f5 ?UeS1ti°n Whether the tenure of sPilitual P^s
should be for life, or for- such period only as parliament should provide ? It was an

*
a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [law consolidation.

act for which there had been no precedent since the Reformation. It was further
objected that the preamble of the bill did not contain a correct recital of the case.
tt stated that the bishops had expressed a desire to vacate their sees, on account of
their inability to discharge the duties of their offices. If that were true, it would
be a perfectly legitimate proceeding ; but the preamble suppressed the facts of the
contract— the pecuniary conditions upon which they proposed to retire. The
remedy suggested was, instead of the ministerial measure, a general one, similar to
that brought in by Sir Robert Peel, which applied to all cases. The second
section of opponents consisted of Mr. Thomas Duncombe and Mr. Roebuck. The
former urged that it would perpetuate a great scandal, and exhibit Christian
bishops availing themselves of an act of parUament to break the law. Two
prelates, who had become incompetent from age and disease, said, "If you buy us
off, we are willing to go." That was a corrupt contract. If, instead of bishops,
they had been rectors, they would have been told at once to relinquish their offices.
These two bishops had no right to dictate to parliament the terms on which they
would resign. If they had thrown themselves on the generosity of parliament, they
would have been generously dealt with. The bill was a scandal, and ought to be
branded by the House. So argued Mr. Duncombe. Anti-state churchmen said —
What a revelation is this of the mockery of a state church ! A bishop professes to
exist for the glory of God, and to promote his kingdom. Age renders him unable
to do this ; yet he will retain his office, incapable as he is, unless he is paid to give
it up. Nor were the defenders of this shameful measure able, to plead poverty as a
defence ; as, of all existing prelates, the two in question were admitted to be the
most wealthy.
In July, the Lord Chancellor drew the attention of the House of Peers to -the
subject of the consolidation of the law. The statutes of the realm, he said, were
15,000 in number, and were comprised in forty folio volumes of small type. It
had been determined to make a general classification of them, and consolidate them
under different heads— as criminal laws; laws relating to property; and laws
relating to mercantile matters. It was found, however, it would be useless unless
an improved mode of legislation were adopted in future ; and the commissioners
suggested the appointment of an officer, who should advise o'n the legal effect of
every bill, and on the state of the law affected by it. A great portion of the
statutes were not law, but matters of temporary enactment — regulations of the
army and navy, local regulations, and acts relating to finance. In the last year,
134 acts passed, and sixty-eight of them were temporary enactments. By classi
fying the bills into temporary ones, and such as laid down some general rule of
conduct, the additions to the statute-book would be diminished one-third. At the
beginning of next session, government intended to appoint an officer of the kind
indicated ; and he hoped that both Houses would acquiesce in the appointment of a
committee, through whom that officer might communicate with them. The
consolidation of the criminal law had been undertaken by Lord Wensleydale ; the
Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas ; Sir Fitzroy Kelly, and Mr. Greaves.
They had found, however, that they could not include, in the consolidation, offences
connected with the bankruptcy and custom lawa, and laws relating to religion.
With these exceptions,' all the laws relating to indictable offences had been consoli
dated into six statutes, under the head of — offences of high treason ; against public
justice; against the person; of larceny and theft; of malicious injury to property;
aud forgery. In two short bills they had embodied the laws relating to principal
and accessary, and all the acts relating to criminal proceedings. The commis
sioners thought that the law might be reduced from 15,000 to 300 acts ; and that,
instead of occupying forty, they would occupy four moderately-sized volumes.
The subject of torture in India was discussed, and strongly reprobated by the
Lords, jealous for the honour of English rule. The Earl of Albemarle — who pre
sented a petition from certain inhabitants of Madras, complaining of infliction
of torture by the officers of the government, and praying for protection — moved
151

india.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.
some resolutions, which, having been amended, were carried, as follows : — " That
by a report lately laid on the table, it is proved, to the entire conviction of the
House, that torture, or the infliction of pain for the purpose of confession or
extortion, has long been practised in India ; and that, though derived from former
governments, and steadily decreasing, both in severity and extent, under British
rule, it still Continues to be practised by the native officers of government in the
realisation of the public revenues, and the administration of criminal law, to a
greater or less extent, throughout all the provinces constituting the government
of Madras. That the aforesaid torture, although clandestine and illegal, has been
known. for many- years to exist, and has been repeatedly condemned and denounced
by the authorities at home, and in India, as shown in the public records. That
this House observes, nevertheless, with great regret and disapprobation, the very
inadequate punishments which have been frequently inflicted upon the perpetrators
of these atrocious crimes. That the House relies upon the zealous and continued
exertions of all : persons in authority, in this country and India, to extirpate a
practice disgraceful to the character of our government, and calculated to render
it odious to the people of England." It seems incredible, yet actually such was
the case — at this very time, the commissioners reported the existence of thirty-
four kinds of torture in use. under British sanction. Amongst these, were depriva
tion of food and water; hindering a man from sleeping; hanging a necklace. of
bones, or other offensive materials, round his neck (a punishment peculiarly
offensive to a Hindoo) ; compelling a man to sit on his heels, with brickbats or
sharp stones under his hams ; striking the heads of two defaulters against each
other ; tying two persons together, in a stooping position, by the hair of their
heads; tying a man, in a stooping position, to the wheel of a cart; tying a man,
by the hair of his head, to the tail of an ass, and parading him through the market;
forcing a man into a stooping posture with another man on his back ; binding
a man to one tree, and hoisting his leg by a rope attached to another ; suspending
a man by his heels to the bough of a tree ; suspending by the wrist, and scourging
him while in the air ; placing the victim on a nest of red ants ; pounding the
joints with mallets of soft wood ; flagellation with every kind of scourge, in every
part of the human body, and with such severity as occasionally to cause death ;
tying rags round the fingers, and setting fire to them ; burning various parts of
the body with a lighted cheroot, heated packing-needles, and searing-irons;
wrapping the body in cotton steeped in oil, and setting fire to it ; compression
of the sensitive organs of the body ; driving thorns under nails ; filling the nostrils,
eyes, and other parts of the body with Cayenne pepper.
Again Indian affairs came under discussion. Sir E. Perry called attention to
the increasing deficiency in the revenue of India. The deficit in the year ending
April, 1855, he said, exceeded £2,500,000 ; and he had no hesitation in saying,
that of the passing year would not be less than upwards of £2,000,000. He
showed that, over a large series of years, the revenues of India had greatly in
creased ; but that, latterly, there had been a deficiency of revenue, which had been
increasing from year to year. To what was this unsatisfactory state of things to
be attributed ? The President of the Board of Control had said that the deficiency
» was chiefly owing to the expenditure on public works : but he asserted that the
cause was to be found in the series of wars, and the annexation of territory, in
which the Indian government had been engaged. After a review of the adminis
tration of Lord Dalhousie, and dwelling particularly upon the recent annexation of
the kingdom of Oude, he contended that the doctrine of annexation was unsound
financially. On the higher grounds, also, of right and justice, the House, he
said, was called upon to interfere, and check the system of territorial aggrandise
ment in India, which must tarnish the British name, and weaken the foundations
of its rule.
After^events showed these words were wise ones. But the government saw
not their wisdom. Mr. Vernon Smith totally dissented from the doctrine that

A.D.

1856#-j VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [conservatism.

annexation of territory was to be considered with reference solely to pecuniary
St If a particular annexation got rid of a state of perpetual inquietude, it
was impossible to say what its value might not be. He questioned the accuracy
of Sir E. Perry's -figures; and stated that the expense of public works amounted
to nearly half the deficit of revenue. With regard to the annexation of Oude, he
believed that, when the papers were before the House, the public, so far from being
dissatisfied, would wonder that such a state of things should have been allowed to
exist so long by a power which was the paramount authority m India. In July,
the House went into committee on the East India Company's revenue accounts.
Of course there was a deficit, which was said to be caused by the expenditure
of money upon the public works. The largest portion of the Indian revenue was
derived from land. In the Madras presidency, it seemed desirable that there should
be a survey and fresh reassessments. Lord Harris was of opinion that a reduced
assessment would lead to an increase of the revenue. As regarded cotton, some
successful experiments had been made ; and the prejudices of the natives against
the saw-gin, for cleaning the cotton, were giving way. On the whole, he saw
nothing that should lead to despair of raising the revenue. But there was another
mode of producing a surplus— a reduction of expenditure. He could not concur
in the proposal to effect this by employing the native army more, and the queen's
troops less: he could not think it. possible to _ reduce the military expenditure.
But there was the civil service. Admitting that it ought to be highly paid, he
knew of no other service where a man of twenty could enter at £350, and rise
to £4,500. Nothing, however, would be done in the way of an immediate reduction
of civil salaries; but the government would keep the advantages of reduction
in view. The blind were leading the blind. On the eve of a bitter and bloody tragedy,
the official mind was mildly hopeful and cheerful. Mr. Smith referred to the
annexation of Oude as a step rendered necessary by the circumstances of the
country. As to the social condition of India, that was most promising. There
were 350 miles of railway in operation, and 4,000 miles of electric telegraph. The
police of India were in a defective state ; but Lord Canning had its amendment
under consideration. Everything possible would be done to eradicate the horrible
system of torture ; and any person inflicting it would be punished with the severest
penalties, and dismissal. He gave a flourishing account of the progress of education
in India, and described ¦ the interest the natives took in the subject. He observed,
it would be a proud day for England when, maintaining her rule over this distant
and populous, empire, she could yet say that, to the utmost of her power, she had
advanced the physical prosperity, and elevated the moral and intellectual character
of the people of India — objects wholly overlooked by their ancient dynasties.
When next we return to Indian affairs, we shall have to Usten to a sadder tale. .
The close of the session ended with a review of it by Mr. Disraeli, chiefly
remarkable for a definition of Conservative principles. " I hold," said the orator,
" that to be a Conservative principle which regards the parliamentary settlement of
1832 as a satisfactory settlement. . I hold that to be a Conservative principle
which, without any blind or bigoted adherence to the doctrine on all possible,
occasions, believes that tampering with the suffrage is a great evil to the state.
I believe I am right in maintaining that that is a Conservative principle which
holds that the due influence of property in the exercise of suffrage is salutary and
beneficial. I think it is a Conservative principle which holds that, in any re
presentative scheme, the influence of landed property ought to be sensibly felt. I
hold that to be a Conservative principle which maintains that the establishment of
the church should be respected, and that the church itself should not be the
stipendiary of the civil power. I hold that to be a Conservative principle which
would maintain the established church in Ireland, believing that it is perfectly re
concilable with respect for the rights and .privileges of all classes of her majesty's
subjects in that kingdom- I hold that to be a Conservative principle which would
vol. ii. M 153

. tipperary bank.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.
cherish and protect all hereditary influences, because they are the source of a power
at once beneficent and economical. I hold that to be a Conservative principle
which would respect venerable corporations, and uphold a free magistracy through
out the country." On foreign policy,, Mr. Disraeli declared his party to he
adverse to the dismemberment of tbe Russian and Austrian empires, and in favour
of the expansion of the United States. He argued, that the government,
with regard to subjects of internal interest, were pursuing a course in harmony
with Conservative principles. It would be better, however, that avowed Conser
vatives should carry out a Conservative policy. His consolation was, that if the
present system continued, it must exercise a deleterious influence on the Liberal
party. He called on the Conservatives to take heart, since the Liberal party could
not long exist, when its chief and selected men were in power, and continued
to hold office, not only without carrying Liberal principles into effect, but
without even frankly avowing them.
Some minor events may be chronicled here. In March, Covent Garden was
burnt down while a masked ball was being held. Some of the property was
insured ; but the building was not, as no office had been willing to grant a policy
since the fire in 1818.
In February, the political world was startled on learning that the body of
Mr. John Sadleir had been found lying dead on Hampstead Heath. A still greater
sensation was created when it was found that this patriotic Irish M.P. was a
swindler as well as a suicide : yet such actually was the case. Mr. Sadleir
was founder of the Tipperary Joint-Stock Bank, of which his brother, James
Sadleir, M.P., was the manager, and sole director. The latter had permitted
his brother John to overdraw more than £200,000; and this, with other
fraudulent mismanagement, caused the deficit of the bank to exceed £400,000.
The assets were stated to be £100,000; but they proved to be little more than
£30,000. A great amount of misery was caused by this infamous affair. Not
only were the depositors in the south of Ireland — chiefly small fanners and
tradesmen — defrauded of their whole savings, but the shareholders were stripped
of every farthing they possessed. The means taken to entrap the latter class were
infamous. Only a month before the crash, the Sadleirs had published a balance-
sheet and report, representing the concern as most flourishing. A dividend, at the
rate of 6 per cent., was declared ; and £3,000 was carried to the reserve fund, thus
making it £17,000. By means of this deception, a considerable number of
persons, most of them widows, spinsters, and half-pay officers, were induced to
become shareholders, and lost their all. Endless suits were brought by attorneys,
who had purchased debts due by the company, against these unhappy persons. Some
became insolvent ; others absconded with what cash they could raise. The manager,
Mr. James Sadleir, did the same. The direct cause of Mr. Sadleir's suicide, was
his inability to obtain from his solicitors a large sum of money for the Tip
perary Bank. It was also known he had committed forgery. The firm of Messrs.
Wilkinson, Gurney, and Stevens, had frequently advanced large sums to Mr. Sadleir ;
and latterly the balance had become so large that they required security* This
Mr. Sadleir had given about six weeks before his death. It purported to be a
deed given on the purchase of an estate in the Encumbered Estates Court. The
excited conduct of Mr. Sadleir, on his last application to his solicitors for
money, had created suspicion ; and, on inquiry, the deed was discovered to be a
forgery ; and others were subsequently discovered. The wretched man preferred
the suicide's grave to the felon's gaol ; hence his ignominious end. He had been
a great man amongst the Irish Liberals, and had held office.
Another banking revelation added to the uneasiness of the investing public.
The Royal British Bank had been started in London under happy auspices, to in
augurate the Scottish system of banking in this metropolis. For a time all went
on as well as its most sanguine friends could desire. At length rumours got afloat
that its affairs were in an unhealthy state ; and it was manifest that the shares
154

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lord hardinge.
were falling considerably in value. In consequence of this, the directors announced
their determination to reduce the dividend from 6 to 4 per cent., in order to make
more than ordinary provision for bad or doubtful debts. This, as might be an
ticipated, instead of making things better, had quite a contrary effect. Sales were
pressed ; a run on the deposits took place ; and on the 3rd of September the bank
closed. A general confusion immediately arose among the shareholders and de
positors.. The share capital was put at £300,000, of which half, it is said, was
paid up. The debts due to depositors consisted of £500,000 ; and the assets were
worthless, or nearly so. It came out that more than £100,000 had been advanced
upon a Welsh mine, worth not a third of the money; and that the directors,
manager, and auditor, had been helping themselves to the funds without scruple.
Mr. Gwynne, a retired director, was indebted £13,600; Mr. John M'Gregor, M.P.,
the founder of the bank, £7,000 ; Mr. Humphry Brown, upwards of £70,000 ; Mr.
Cameron, the manager, about £30,000. It was hoped that when the shareholders
had paid up the calls, there might be eight or ten shillings in the pound for the
creditors. This was bad enough ; but what did happen was worse. The lawyers got
hold of the debts, and sued the individual shareholders right and left. Sometimes
a hundred writs were issued for a single claim. To avoid this ruinous procedure
an attempt was made to wind up the company, under the Winding-up Act. This
proceeded to some extent ; an official manager was appointed, who got in a large
sum of money, and made a heavy call upon the shareholders. But another set of
creditors resolved to have the affairs of the company wound up under the Court of
Bankruptcy Act ; and a fiat was accordingly issued, and assignees appointed. This
step was resisted, on the ground that the Winding-up Act being in operation, the
power of the Bankruptcy Court was suspended. But it did not appear that there
was any express provision to that effect; and the official assignee proceeded to make
a call of £50 per share. Thus the unfortunate persons, having already paid one-
half of their undertaking, were actually called upon to pay £125 more. Many
were absolutely unable to meet this demand ; some went into the Gazette ; and
others went abroad. The two official gentlemen then commenced a fight between
themselves for the plunder. In short, such a scene of waste, litigation, and
misery ensued as can scarcely be described: The affairs of this unfortunate un
dertaking did not come to a conclusion until the following year, when, in con
sequence of the decision of the judge in bankruptcy upon the conduct of the
directors and officials, the government ordered some of them to be prosecuted.
England lost her Commander-in-Chief, Lord Hardinge, the successor of the
Duke of Wellington. " Few officers," says the Times, " have served so long, and with
so many opportunities for distinction ; and of Lord Hardinge it must be said, that in
the field he was always equal to the occasion. We do not claim for this gallant sol
dier the praise of military genius of the highest order. He was neither a Marlborough
nor a Napoleon, nor a Wellington ; but the work whieh he had to do he always
performed efficiently and well. From the lowest grade he rose to the very highest
rank by his own deserts. He was not connected by birth with any noble family,
nor with any influential clique in military circles, and yet he became Commander-
in-Chief. Slender, indeed, was the chance that Henry. Hardinge, the son of a
clergyman in the north of England, who entered the army, as an ensign, in the year
1798, should have obtained the dignities of Governor-general of British India, and
Commander-in-Chief. It may be said that the accidents of life were on his side ;
but they were no more so than in the case of a thousand others, who have passed
away, their names unknown. * * * * In October, 1852, four years after
the expiration of his Indian government, Lord Hardinge was raised to the highest
post within the ambition of a military man : he was appointed Commander-in-
Chief, to succeed the Duke of Wellington. This important post he held until a
recent period, and throughout the eventful epoch of the Russian war. Few men
have, actually seen war upon so great a scale, or been concerned in directing
operations of such magnitude at home. It was not Lord Hardinge's fault, nor can
« 2 155

THE DUKE OF CAMBRIDGE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.

it be imputed as blame to him, that he inherited the traditions and practices of a
glorious period in the military annals of Great Britain, which had served their
turn full well, but were no longer applicable to the exigencies of modern warfare.
# * # # ja the recent conflict with Russia, his office was one of selection rather
than of direct participation ; and in his selections he was not very fortunate. The
qualites which seem to have recommended Lord Hardinge to honour and fame were,
in the first place, unflinching courage in the most terrible trials, or in the most
unexpected horrors of war. He was distinguished, moreover, by a buoyancy of
spirit, by a cheerfulness, by a geniality which made him ever acceptable- to those
around him. Almost to the last, when weight of years and of lengthened
service was beginning, to tell upon him, he was a ready and' efficient man of
business." Some pleasing anecdotes have been preserved of him. Mr. Edwards, author of
Reminiscences of a Bengal Civilian, says Lord Hardinge told him, after the
battle of Ferozeshakur, as soon as darkness. had closed in, and the firing on both sides
had ceased, he went from regiment to regiment, lying down on the ground for a short
time with each, to feel their pulse, as he said. Finding the men all in good heart,
notwithstanding the terrible struggle in which they had been engaged, and the
heavy .losses they had sustained, Lord Hardinge made up his mind to retain, his
position, and recommence the action on the following morning, rejecting the many
suggestions made. to. him to march on Ferozepore. He did so, and the victory of
Sobraon was gained. Again, when .remonstrated with as to the crossing the
Sutlej into the Punjaub, his characteristic a,nswer was — "Depend, upon' it I am
right; for the safest and wisest course, when you have knocked the. wind out of your
enemy, is to go right at his heart at. once, before he has .time to recover." ; Another
of his sayings was, says Mr. Edwards — "Never wake me for good news, for good
news will keep; but come to me immediately, and wake me up; if you.have bad, as
immediate measures may be requisite." , It is in such sayings as these we see the
old soldier, determined to fight and win as long as life lasts". " ' ¦
Lord Hardinge's successor was the Duke of Cambridge, son of Adolphus
Frederick, the first duke;- a grandson of King George III., -and- first cousin of her
majesty Queen Victoria. His royal highness was born at Hanover, 1819, and
succeeded his father in 1850. He became colonel in the army (1837.) In 1845,
he was advanced to the rank of major-general ; in 1854, to that ' of lieutenant-
general, when he was appointed to .command the two. brigades of . Highlanders
and Guards, united to form the first division of the army sent' in aid of Turkey.
In 1856 he became a general. At' the battle of the Alma, his royal highness led
his troops into action in a manner to win the confidence ofhis men, and, .the
respect ,of the veteran officers with whom he served. At Inkermann he-; was again
actively, engaged, and had a horse shot under him. After this battle, he was
ordered: by. the medical authorities to retire from the camp (the dangers and
privations of which he had shared with his men),' in order to recruit his -health at
Pera. After a short stay in Turkey, he was directed to ""return to England,-:and
subsequently gave the result of his camp experience, in evidence before the: com-'
mittee of the .House of Commons, appointed to inquire' into" the' conduct of the
•«war. In the important office which he now fills he seems "to g*ve satisfaction to
the public at large.
Turning to the lower ranks of life, we find a very serious question as to com
binations against workmen. On the 1st of September, ten respectable-looking
young men surrendered to take their trial upon an indictment charging them with
misdemeanour, m having unlawfully conspired together to prevent and intimidate
certain workmen from entering into the employ of Messrs. Young, Magnay, and
Young, ship-builders. The prosecutors carried on business at Limehouse, and
emp oyedfrem 300 to 400 men; and three of the defendants were formerly in their
employ. All the defendants were members of the Shipwrights' Union-an asso
ciation formed to protect the interests of the trade. The customary hours of

Tom. a.fJiat.o;tfra

«

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the labour market.
labour were from 6 A.M. to 6 P.M., during which perioa the men were allowed half-
an-hour for breakfast, one hour for dinner, and twenty minutes in the morning,
and half-an-hour in the afternoon, for beer. The prosecutors found that such
frequent intervals of cessation from labour were a great hindrance to business.
They therefore thought that an alteration might be made in this arrangement.
They accordingly proposed that an hour should be allowed for breakfast ; that the
men should leave off work at half-past five, instead of six o'clock ; and that the
intervals for beer should be abolished. The Union, of which the defendants were
members, determined to resist this. Before the commencement of the alteration the
whole of the men struck. The prosecutors appealed to them, and offered to refer
the matter to arbitration ; but the Union would not consent to any arrangement.
The intimidation complained of arose in this way. The men hired a room at
a pubUc-house opposite the gate of the prosecutors' factory, from whence they
had an opportunity of seeing everything that took place in it. The prosecutors
endeavoured to obtain fresh hands in London ; but attempts to engage men in
Wales, at Gloucester, Southampton, Jersey, and other places, proved unsuccessful ;
as, in several cases where men had agreed to accept employment in the prosecutors'
establishment, some of the defendants interrupted them, and induced them to
break their engagements. At length Messrs. Young succeeded in obtaining a
number of men from Jersey and other places ; but their new hands were imme
diately subjected to a course of intimidation on the" part of the defendants, and
others connected with the Union : they were watched when they left the premises,
and followed and threatened. A crowd of idle and disorderly people assembled
every day ; great excitement was created ; and language was made use of calculated
to arouse the strongest feelings of prejudice against the prosecutors. The state of
things prevailed at times to such an extent as to put a complete stop to business,
and .render it necessary to apply for the assistance of the police. The proceedings
reached a climax on the 26th of July, when a complete riot took place, and many
of the men employed by the prosecutors were severely handled. Several of the
defendants took part in this violence, and did all in their power to obstruct the
workmen, and intimidate them from going on with their employment. One of the
prosecutors was himself assaulted ; and they ultimately found it necessary to com
mence legal proceedings for their own protection.
The question raised was, how far it was competent for trades' unions to inter
fere with the natural course of the labour-market, and dictate to employers, on the
one hand, the terms on which alone they are to be suffered to engage their work
men; or, on the other, by violence and intimidation, to prevent the labouring
classes from accepting employment on such conditions as they may think proper to
submit to. The law, on this point, was thus explained during the course of the
trial : — " It was quite competent for either masters or workmen to combine together
for their mutual protection, and for the advancement of their mutual interests. A
master is at liberty to say that he will not give employment except upon certain
terms; and workmen are equally at liberty to refuse their labour except upon
certain conditions. Neither party, however, has a right to go beyond this ; and the
law will not permit persons who choose to accept other terms to be obstructed, and
still less will it permit them to be intimidated."
The upshot of the whole was, that the evidence for the prosecution fully
estabUshed the lawless proceedings of the unionists ; and, on the advice of then-
counsel, the prisoners retracted their plea of not" guilty, and admitted their
defence. Under these circumstances Baron Bramwell was content to order them
. to put in recognizances to appear to receive judgment when called upon.
These struggles between labour and capital are much to be regretted. In
reality they are not enemies, but mutual allies. It is difficult to understand how
any intelligent Workman can fail to perceive this, as it is clear that what injures
the capitalist takes from him the power of employing labour. It is also clear that
it is the interest of both parties to exercise a mutual good-will and forbearance. 157

investments.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1856.
In another, and a better, ^direction the working classes were combining. They
were working for good results — to save their money ; to invest it carefully ; and to
reap the results- in increased independence and power. In a speech delivered
about this time, Mr. Sothern, M.P. for Wilts, stated that the total number of
friendly societies was not less than 33,232 ; and the aggregate of the members
which they included, amounted to 3,032,000. The financial revenue, of these
societies was £4,980,000 ; and the accumulated capital was no less than £1 1,360,000.
Here was combination of the right kind — one which has ever since been going on,
till we are astonished at the funds in the hands of the working classes. Then,
again, there was the freehold land movement, which deserves a place in any history
of the time ; as, politically, and morally, and socially, it did, and still does, an
immense amount of good.
Some time back, the Times asked scornfully, as Pilate of old did concerning
truth, what was a Freehold Land Society ? Viewed in a business light, it is simply
a society for the purchase of land. It involves two commercial principles well
understood— that purchasers should buy in the cheapest market, and that societies
can do what individuals cannot. Till the movement originated, the purchaser of a
small plot of ground had to pay, in lawyer's expenses connected with the purchase,
frequently as much as he paid for the plot itself. A society buys a large piece of
ground. They make roads through it ; they drain it ; they turn it into valuable
building-land : they thus raise its value ; and they divide it amongst their members,
not at the price at which each allotment is worth, but at the price which each
allotment has cost. Being also registered under the Friendly Societies' Act, the
conveyance costs the purchaser generally from 25s. to 30s. ; and thus a plot worth
£50 is often put into the fortunate allottee's hands for half that sum. Of course,
different societies have different rules ; but they all aim at the same end, and effect
that end in pretty nearly a similar manner. Thus a member generally, if he
subscribe for a share of £30, pays a shilling a-week, and a trifling sum a quarter
for expenses. With the money thus raised an estate is purchased. It is then cut
up into allotments, and balloted for. If the subscriber has paid up, he, of course,
takes the land, and there is an end of the matter. If he has not, the society
gives him his allotment, but saddled with a mortgage. In some societies the
members are served by rotation, and " first come" are " first served." The more
generally adopted plan, however, is division by ballot. There has been some
doubt as to the legality of the ballot : the Conservative Society has taken the
opinion of eminent counsel upon this matter, and their opinion is, that
the ballot is perfectly legal. The rotation societies offer no inducements to
new members to join them ; so division by baUot has come to be almost the
universal rule. In the National, for instance, there was a ballot daily for all sub
scribers of three months' standing. This has recently been altered. A ballot takes
place every day, to which all are eligible whose subscriptions are paid up. If you
join the National, you may go to the ballot immediately.
As the National is the largest of the existing Freehold Land Societies-
its receipts being enormous— we will briefly allude to its prospectus as a still
further illustration of what a Freehold Land Society is. The especial objects of
£his society are described as "to facilitate the acquisition of freehold land, and the
erection of houses thereon; to enable such of its members as are eligible to obtain
the county franchise, and to afford to all of them a secure and profitable invest
ment for money. In the National, all the expenses are defrayed out of a common
fund; consequently there are no extra charges; and the net profits, after payment
of interest on subscriptions in advance, and on completed shares, are annually
divided amongst the holders of uncompleted shares. In this way, last year the "
National divided £3,161 19s. 3d., and the directors credited each unadvanced share
with a profit at the rate of £10 16s. 8d. per cent, per annum. We only add, as a
still further explanation of the societies in general, that they are all conducted on
the most perfectly democratic principles. Vote by ballot and universal suffrage
158

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [freehold land societies.
are the rule with them. The members elect their own officers. In all the societies,
also, provision is made for casualties, such as sickness or death. In case of death,
the subscriber's widow or heirs take his place. If he be unable, from sickness or
poverty, to continue his subscription, he is not fined, but is allowed to wait for
better times. If he wishes his money back, he can have it returned, with a slight
reduction for the working expenses of the society. Juniors may be members.
Actually these societies so far practically admit woman's rights as to offer to the
ladies the same desirable investments they offer to the sterner sex. In short, the
freehold land movement appeals to all ranks and conditions of the community. It
may be said of a Freehold Land Society, what has often been said of the London
Tavern, that it is open to all— who can pay. Primarily the movement was
political, and was established for the purpose of giving the people of this country
the poUtical power which they at present lack. Originally, the forty-shilling
freehold was estabUshed to put down universal suffrage. As a part and parcel of
the British constitution, it has been religiously preserved to the present time,
and threatens to be an excellent substitute for what it was originaUy intended to
destroy. During the anti-corn-law agitation, Mr. Cobden had put the free-traders
up to the idea of purchasing forty-shilUng freeholds ; but it was reserved to Mr.
James Taylor, of Birmingham, to give to the idea of Mr. Cobden a universality
of which the latter never dreamed. Mr. Taylor had been a purchaser of land more
than once, and with the purchase he got an abstract, a legal document, which, when
he came to understand it, showed him that he had paid to the vendor much more
than it cost him. The idea then struck. him, that as the wholesale price of land
was much greater than the retail, if the working-men could be got to subscribe
together a large sum for the purchase of land, they could thus have, at a wholesale
price, a stake in the country and a vote ; and when the general election came, and
excitement was created, Mr. Taylor felt that the time for action had arrived. Ac
cordingly, when he went to tender his vote, he said to a friend who accompanied
him, " Here's a lot of fellows ; and all that they can do is to grin and yawn when I
go in to poll ; I have a strong notion that I can get them into the booth." This
friend said, "How?" The answer was, "Meet me to night in the Temperance
Hotel." That same evening Mr. Taylor and his friend drew up an advertisement,
stating, that " it is expedient that a Freehold Land Society be formed for the purpose
of obtaining freehold property at a most' reasonable cost to, and to get county
votes for, the working-men." Simultaneously with the advertisement in the local
paper appeared a leader from the editor, recognising the immense importance
of the movement thus commenced. Thus pledged to go on, Mr. Taylor threw
his heart and soul into the cause. Within a week a committee was formed, and
the support of the principal men in the town secured. December, 1849, is the
legal date of the freehold land movement, although the Birmingham society had
been in existence nearly two years previous. In that month the rules of the
society were certified, and the glorious idea of Mr. Taylor had a legal habitation
and a, name. At the end of the first year, the Birmingham society reported that
it had established six independent societies, in which more than 2,000 members
had subscribed for 3,000 shares; that in Birmingham alone the subscriptions
^™°™t.ed to £50° Per month, and that it had already given allotments to nearly
200 of its members. Before the termination of the second year, a great conference
was held in Birmingham, in order to organise a plan of general union and co
operation amongst the various societies. Delegates from all parts of the country
were present. In Birmingham, it appeared, £13,000 had been subscribed, and
lour estates purchased, 2,500 shares being taken up by 1,800 subscribers. Wolver
hampton, Leicester, Stourbridge, had all co-operated zealously in the movement.
JNor was the metropolis behind. The National had started with 750 members,
subscribing for 1,500 shares, and akeady had £1,900 paid up. In Marylebone,
»UU shares had been taken since the previous July. This conference was attended
by Messrs. Cobden, Bright, G. Thompson, Scholefield, Bass, and Sir Joshua
159

james taylor.] LIFE AND TIMES_OF  ^J>.D. 1856^
Walmsley The conference, of course, attracted the notice of the press. The
coldly critical Spectator termed it a " middle-class movement" Tait so far forgot
himself as to characterise it as " political swindling." The Times : said the working
classes were being deluded by it. For once the Standard agreed with the Tvmes,
and said ditto However, the conference did its work, and started the Freeholder,
which appeared on the 1st of January, 1850. A second conference was held at
Birmingham in November, 1850. The report, as usual, was encouraging. Eighty
societies, many of them with branches, were reported as existing. The number
of members was 30,000, subscribing for 40,000 shares. The amount of paid-up
contributions was £170,000. A third conference was held in London m November,
1851 The report then stated there were 100 societies, with .45,000 members,
subscribing for 65,000 shares : 150 estates had been purchased ; 12,000 allotments
made; £400,000 had actually been received; and £2,000,000 sterling was
being subscribed for. At the fourth conference, held in 1852, it appeared still
greater progress had been made: 130 societies, with 85,000 members, subscribing
for 120 000 shares, were in existence; 310 estates had been purchased; 19,500
allotments had been made; and £790,000 had been received. Estimating the
shares at the average of £30 per share, the total amount subscribed for was
£3,600,000. Such, then, is the movement at the present time. It has been
obscured by no cloud. Its progress has been unchecked. No disappointment has
retarded its onward way. Forward to victory has been its march. All classes and
sects have rallied round it. For churchmen there exists a Church of England
Society. The Conservatives have formed a large and flourishing society for the
manufacture of Conservative votes. The movement, sneered at, derided, misrepre
sented, declared unconstitutional, a swindle like a celebrated land scheme popular
with the Chartists, has now come to be admitted by all as the greatest fact of the
age : to aid it, grave, and reverend churchmen, statesmen of all shades of political
opinions, combine ; even coronetted lords now rejoice to lend it their sanction,
and the weight of their illustrious names. Truly the mustard-seed has branched
out into a giant oak. A little leaven has leavened the whole lump.
We must tell our readers something of the founder of this movement. James
Taylor, junior, of Birmingham, deserves a passing notice at our hands. He was
bom in that town in 1814, and is consequently now in his fifty-second year;
having achieved a popularity such as few men have enjoyed. His father, as a trades
man of the same town, acquired a limited competency by his honest industry ; and
there, we believe, his business is still carried on for the benefit of the younger
branches of his family. Like all other Birmingham boys James was put to work
at an early age, and became an apprentice in one of the fancy trades for which
Birmingham is so well known. There his industrious habits soon acquired for .him
the approbation of his master, who gave Taylor his indentures, in consequence
of his retiring from business before the latter was of age. About this time, Taylor,
earning good wages, and not having the fear of Malthus before his eyes, got
married, and lived happily till troubles came, and the demon of strong drink cast
its fatal spell upon Ms domestic hearth. After years of utter misery and degrada
tion, Taylor, in a happy hour for himself and society, signed the temperance
pledge, and became a new man ; and to the pledge, fortunately, he remained
faithful, in spite of ridicule and reproach from the boon companions with whom
he had thoughtlessly squandered so much of happiness, and health, and money, and
time. No temptation ever led him back. Nor was he satisfied with his own
reform alone. He was anxious that others should be rescued from degradation as
he had already been. For this purpose he identified himself with the temperance
cause, and was honorary secretary to the Birmingham Temperance Society, till he
became the apostle of the freehold land movement. Since then his life and labours
have become public. No man has worked harder than Mr. Taylor. Our readers
would be astonished if they knew the number of miles Mr. Taylor travelled, and
of pubUc meetings he attended, in the course ofthe year, connected with the move-
160.

A.D. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [investments.

ment: sometimes the exertion has been too great, and his health gave way for
a time. Those who have heard him once will never forget him. Those who have
not heard him (if such there be), have indeed a treat in store. With but few or no
adventitious, aids — without even " little Latin, and less Greek" — an unassuming,
plain working-man ; — in spite of all this, so fascinating is his unadorned eloquence,
that no one can listen to him without admiring his earnestness and moral worth —
without feeUng that England has no worthier son than the originator of the
freehold land movement — without feeling . that time alone can tell what he has
done for the political, and social, and moral emancipation of her toiling race. We
may also add here, that Mr. Taylor has been at times a contributor to the press, as
well as a platform orator ; that he has been twice married ; that he resides at
Temperance Cottage,»Birmingham, in the enjoyment of a domestic felicity which
we trust will attend him to a green old age. It may be said of Taylor what has
been said of many infinitely less useful men, that —
" He is a man, take him for all in all,
We ne'er shall look upon his like again.''
This feeling has become common wherever Mr. Taylor has been known. From
far and near have reached him testimonials of respect and esteem. At an early
stage of its existence, the Wolverhampton society acknowledged its sense of Mr.
Taylor's services by presenting him with a valuable gold watch ; and at the last
annual conference of the friends of the movement, held in December, 1852, it was
unanimously resolved, that " as it appeared that various sums of money have been,
from time to time, subscribed with a view of offering some suitable recognition
of the valuable and disinterested services of Mr. James Taylor, it is desirable that
a committee be appointed to suggest the most suitable testimonial to that gentle
man, and to take such steps as may seem to them most desirable in furtherance
of the object." In pursuance of this resolution, a committee was formed to' receive
subscriptions, of which Mr. Scholefield, M.P. for Birmingham, is treasurer. This
committee consisted of most of the gentlemen connected with the London societies.
Having thus considered the nature of Freehold Land Societies, we propose to
look at them in a pecuniary point of view. They form an admirable investment
for the working classes. This, of course, is the principal consideration. By their
merits as investments alone must Freehold Land Societies stand or fall. If they
pay, they will flourish ; if they do not, they cannot exist, whatever may be the
social, and moral, and poUtical arguments advanced in their favour. Now, let
us just see what means of investment were within the reach of the working-man.
There was the savings-bank— not always safe, as recent examples show, and offering
so small a rate of interest as to be but little inducement to the classes to whom it
appeals to save. Things are better now, as the government have opened savings-
banks of their own. Then there were the benefit societies, which held out such
fine promises, which thus have won a support to which they have no claim, and
have excited hopes which they can never realise. Of 2,000 of these societies, the
accounts of which were submitted to one gentleman in Liverpool a few years ago,
all were insolvent. Much of the money belonging to them is wasted in' drink,
in foolish show and mummery: but the societies are based upon wrong principles,
and can never become right. Two radical defects taint them all— the contribu
tions have been much too small in proportion to the proposed benefits ; and an
almost indiscriminate regard to diversities in age has caused persons, differing
as widely as from eighteen to thirty-five, forty, forty-five, and even fifty years of
age, to be admitted upon equal, or nearly equal, terms. One of the chief of these
friendly societies is that known as the Manchester Unity. In 1848 there was an
inquiry into the subject before the House of Lords, when it was stated by Mr.
Nelson, the eminent actuary, " that it would take three millions of money to
bring the Manchester Unity of Odd Fellows out of their present difficulties ; and
if they went on at their present rates of contribution, no less than ten millions
161

the French empress.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. T856.
would be required to fulfil all their engagements." So much for friendly societies,
which are, indeed, a delusion and a snare, and have always failed when the hour of
trial has come. What the savings-banks are we have already seen ; yet, actually,
till the freehold land movement originated, these were the only investments within
the reach of the working-man. A select committee of the House of Commons has
twice reported, " that the great change in the social position of multitudes, arising
from the growth of large towns and crowded districts, renders it more necessary
that corresponding changes in the law should take place, both to improve their
condition and contentment, and to give additional facilities to investments of the
capital which their industry and enterprise are constantly creating and augment
ing ;" and " that they doubt not ultimate benefit will ensue from any measures
which the legislature may be enabled to devise for simplifying the operation of the
law, and unfettering the energies of trade." But at that time nothing was done,
and the laws of partnership fettered the working-man who would usefully employ.
whatlittle capital he had. Clearly, then, the freehold land movement offered him
an eligible means of investment. Land cannot run away. So long as England
exists, it will always be worth its price. Nay, it will become more valuable every
year, for by no effort of human ingenuity can it be decreased.
At Birmingham, several of the allotments have realised premiums as hig^ as
£20 or £30. On the East Mousley estate of the Westminster society, allotments
costing £23 have been let at a chief rent of £3 and £3 10s. per annum. The Ross
society, in one of its annual reports, stated, that out of thirty allotments .made 'by.
the society during the past year, ten exchanged hands at premiums varying -from
£3 10s. to £5; and ten working-men each received £10 premium. At 'Ledbury,.
several allotments costing £25 each,, had realised premiums of £15 ' each. .On- the
Stoke Newington estate, belonging to the National, premiums of £30, and even
of £40, have been realised. At the Gospel Oak estate, belonging to the St.- Pancras
society, allotments which cost £20 each, have been let off on building leases of
50s. per annum each. Greater sums have been made. We have inspected returns
from 120 societies, and in every case the allotments have realised a handsome
premium ; and while writing this history, we have seen, in our neighbourhood '
a plot of ground sold for £250, which cost the owner, when he purchased it of the
society to which it belonged, £45. An attempt was made by Dr. Beggs to introduce
the movement into Scotland ; but we do not know whether it succeeded 'there or not.
^owthat the laws of partnership have been altered; now that limited' liability
companies have been permitted; now that the friendly societies have been revised and
reformed ; now that the co-operative system is better understood, the Freehold Land!
o£d\v?vnaief J °T °f ^^ favourable forms of investment, of which operatives
fnd l£S»W?T ™' and °f Whlch We See the fruits in the'r g"»ter intelligence
we areTn te tbir Jl1,^^7"PTr °f the W°rki^ claSses is much ^rger than.' '
Mr TeoL lif • -mkiDg- ^PP^8 from an elaborate return, prepared by
S^Tnn^-W1?1 Mr- BasS' M.P, that there are l6,W,0Q0
IS »r MtedKingd°mbetween twenty and sixty years of age,
folk,™- vZttf ^flnn^n^ t0 £418>300,000 per" -annum, distributed °as
This^ivT;^8^ ' £311'5100?00°; Sco«and, £42,700,000; Ireland, £64,100,000.
a\d lis irinTXd! J inC°me °f 22S> ^ ln En^M> 20S' 6d- * Gotland,
abouUh^time ^iVTf!^7-00^^ wIth our ™]e> th° chief events,
about ths time were the birth of the prince imperial, and the coronation of the czar!
of a royal farnill Til l^T f *"*• \m™ied> and> to the wonder of Europe, out
connected, more or less closely, witl the hc^^S^^t^^
tive of the ancient admirals of Castile), and others of ttoZ$£%£g^

Itcawn & Engraved. by D JJomrfl .

THE SMlPlEBSg STlJ©BMi:

a.d. 1856.] yiSCOUNT PALMEESTON. [coronation of the czar.
the descendants of the kings of Anjou. The death of the count left the countess a
widow, with two daughters, one of whom married the Duke of Alba and Berwick,
literally descended from Miss Churchill and James II. For Eugenie, the second,
a higher fate was in store. After. a residence in London, where, according to
Viscount Combermere, her beauty was noted in the circle of the upper ten
thousand, she, accompanied by her mother, paid a lengthened visit to Paris, and
was distinguished at the various entertainments given at the Tuileries, by the
dignity and elegance of her demeanour, and by her great personal beauty — of the
English rather than of the Spanish type. Her mental gifts were proportionably
attractive; for she is reported to be naturally spirituelle; and her education,
partly conducted in England, was superior to that generally bestowed on Spanish
ladies. Shortly after the opposition of the other northern powers had put an end
to the idea of the union between the Emperor Louis Napoleon and the Princess
Caroline Wasa, of Sweden, he apprised the council of ministers of his intended
marriage with the daughter of the Countess Montijos — a measure which excited
some displeasure among them, and even led to their temporary withdrawal from
office. The emperor, publicly, in a formal address read at the Tuileries to deputations
- from the senate, the legislative corps, and the council of state, declared the step he
was about to take in language which touched the heart of France. He proudly
stated that his marriage was not in accordance with the traditions of ancient
poUcy. " It is not forgotten, that for the last seventy years, foreign princesses
have ascended the steps of the throne only to behold their offspring dispersed and
proscribed by war or revolution. One woman only appeared to bring with
her good fortune, and to live longer than the others in the memory of the people :
and that woman, the good and "modest wife of General Bonaparte, was not the
issue of a royal family." Of his future empress he thus spoke : — " She who has
become the object of my preference is of high birth. French in heart, by educa
tion, and by the remembrance of the blood which her father shed for the cause of
the empire, she has, as a Spaniard, the advantage of not having in France any
family to whom she would wish to give honours and dignities. Gifted with every
mental quaUty, she will be the ornament of the throne, as, in the hour of danger,
she would become one of its most courageous supports. A pious Catholic, she will
address to Heaven the same prayers as myself for the happiness of France. Gracious
and good, she will exhibit, I firmly hope, in the same position, the virtues of the
Empress Josephine."
At noon on the 29th of January, the marriage was celebrated at Notre-Dame,
and the emperor and empress, after making their appearance to the multitude,
retired to the soUtude of St. Cloud. Everything was, of course, conducted on the
most gorgeous scale. On point d'Alenpon lace alone, 4,600 francs were expended.
No mark of honour was withheld from the imperial bride. The dotation asked for,
of 130,000 francs per annum, was freely accorded ; and the municipal council of Paris
voted 600,000 francs for the purchase of aparure of diamonds, as a present from the
city tothe empress. Instead of accepting it for herself, however, she declined the
rich gift ; alleging that the city was already overburdened, and praying that the
sum in question might be employed in the foundation of some charitable institute
for the poor and destitute. In accordance with this suggestion, the money was
devoted to an establishment for the maintenance and education of sixty young
girls, chosen from the working classes of Paris. In works of charity and piety, the
empress has ever since greatly distinguished herself.
In September, 1856, the coronation of the czar took place. It was celebrated
at Moscow with unparalleled magnificence ; indeed, it was reported to have cost
the government no less than £1,000,000 sterling. The Count de Morny repre
sented the French, and Lord Granville the English Courts. The coronation
festivities were prolonged for a whole month ; and Alexander, moreover, distin
guished the occasion by an act of grace, which bestowed many acceptable boons
163

WAR with Persia.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
upon his people. It conferred a commemorative medal upon such of his subjects,
either military or civil, as took part in the events of the late war. It released the
whole of Eussia from the burden of military conscription for four years. It
directed the minister of finance to obtain a new census of the population of the
empire, with the object of a more equitable assessment of the capitation- tax.
All arrears of taxes were remitted. All criminals whose conduct had been irre
proachable since their condemnation, were either pardoned, or received a con
siderable commutation of their punishment. Of political prisoners, many were
pardoned; while the lot of others was much alleviated. The Jewish -subjects of
the emperor, also, were relieved from the special burdens hitherto imposed upon
them. France and England addressed, at this time, a remonstrance to the King of
Naples on the sad state of his dominions, in consequence of his vindictive and
arbitrary government. The poor infatuated monarch rejected the warning voice ¦
and England "and France, to show their displeasure, recalled their legations from
Naples. This step was taken at the end of October, and a French squadron held
itself in readiness at Toulon; while a British squadron, at Malta, prepared to
appear off Naples, if the withdrawal of official protection threatened the least
danger to the subjects of either France or England, resident in the kingdom of the
Two Sicilies. At this step the Eussian government professed to be much annOyed.
We also managed to have a little war with Persia. Herat, as we have already
implied, is a- position of vast importance, and has always been so considered by
Indian authorities. The Persians were always desirous to possess it ; and, at length,
it surrendered to them in 1856, and the Governor-general of India immediately
declared war. Four British men-of-war appeared off Bushire — a town on the east
side of the Persian Gulf, and the great emporium of the Indian trade. After a
cannonade, under the command of Sir Henry Leeke, the town surrendered. How
severe was the defence is manifest when we state that not a single casualty to life
or limb, on our side, occurred. Our troops suffered, however, from the climate,
and were not sorry to receive Sir James Outram with reinforcements. In Feb
ruary, 1857, they attacked the Persian camp. In a day or two after they fought
the battle of Khooshab, where, with a loss of ten men killed, and sixty-two
wounded, they defeated the Persians, with a loss of 700 slain, 100 prisoners,
and a couple of guns. On the 19th of March, Sir James Outram sailed from
Bushire, and captured Mohammerah, at the mouth of the Euphrates. A tragical
event occurred in connection with this expedition. General Stalker, who remained
in command of the force left at Bushire, and Commodore Etheredge, of the navy,
terminated their existence, in consequence, it is said, of continued anxiety
in connection with the duties of their command, acting upon nervous systems
shattered by the heat of the climate.
Before this, however, a treaty of peace had been concluded at Paris, between
Persia and Great Britain. This document was dated March 15th, and consisted of
fifteen articles. The principal provisions were— the evacuation of the Persian
territory by the British troops; the withdrawal of the Persian military from
Herat, and every other part of Afghanistan, within three months of the date of
the ratification of the treaty; the relinquishment by the shah, of all claims to
sovereignty over Herat, and the countries of Afghanistan. In the event of any -
difference between the shah and his neighbours, recourse was first to be had to
British arbitration before there was an appeal to arms. Should there be any viola
tion of the Persian territory by the states referred to, the shah might undertake
military operations for the repression or punishment of the offenders; but the
forces were to retire within their own territory as soon as the object wa's accom
plished, and not permanently to occupy or annex to the Persian" dominions any
portion of the said states. The consuls, agents, subjects, and commerce of England
and Persia, were to be mutually received in each country, on the footing of the
most favoured nation. The British mission was to return to Teheran where it
164 '

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Chinese war.
was to be received by the Persian government with apologies and ceremonies. _ A
commission, on each side, was to be appointed to decide on the pecuniary claims
of British and other subjects ; and the amount of such claims as were pronounced
just, were to be paid within one year from the date of the award. The agreement
for the suppression of the slave-trade, which would have expired in August, 1852,
was to be continued for the further space of ten years from that date, and after
wards, until formally annulled.

CHAPTEE IX.
THE CHINESE WAT..
In 1857, the speech from the throne announced that we were at war with China.
How did it arise ?
In this way. By the supplementary treaty of 1843, it was provided that
criminals from China escaping to Hong-Kong, or to British ships of war,
and British criminals escaping into Chinese territory, should be given up to the
proper British or Chinese authorities. Furthermore, it was agreed, that " every
British schooner, cutter, or lorcha, shall have a sailing-letter, or register, in
Chinese and English, under the seal and signature of the chief superintendent of
trade, describing her appearance, burden, &c. Every "schooner, lorcha, and similar
vessel, shall report herself, as large vessels are required to do, at the Bocca Tigris ;
and when she carries cargo, she shall also report herself at Whampoa, and shall,
on reaching Canton, deliyer up her sailing-letter or register to the British consul,
who will obtain, permission from the hoppo for her to discharge her cargo." In
March, 1855, a colonial ordinance was passed by the local government at Hong-
Kong, which enacted that no ship or vessel whatsoever, owned by a British
subject, should be at liberty to trade in any of the harbours ofthe colony, unless, in
the case of an outward trading-ship or vessel, she be provided with a certificate
of registry ; and, in the case of a trading Chinese ship, similar compliance was
required. By this ordinance the colonial legislature took upon itself to grant
registers to vessels, provided they were owned by British subjects. But this was
not in conformity with English law; for that law required other conditions besides
that of British ownership (such, for instance, as that a certain number of the
crew should be British subjects), as preliminary to the right of obtaining a register.
Moreover, the ordinance had not been confirmed by any competent authority in
this country ; nor could it confer upon a Chinese vessel the rights and privileges of
a British ship.
" A lorcha, or vessel built after the Portuguese fashion, furnished with a colo
nial register, had, under the name of the Arrow, been for some time trading in
the Chinese waters, under the protection of the British flag. Her master was a
British subject, but the rest of her crew were Chinese. The register was renew
able annually, and had been renewed on the 27th of September, 1855. Her
licence, therefore, expired on the 27th of September in the following year ; and,
after that year, she ceased to have any privilege which the colonial register could
confer. The Chinese authorities at Canton had received information that one of
the crew on board the Arrow was a native pirate, who had been actively engaged
in a pirate -fleet which had come into collision with a Chinese vessel of war. Ac
cordingly, on the 8th of October, during the absence of the master of the Arrow,
it was boarded by a body of Chinese officers, and twelve of the crew seized,
pinioned, and carried off, notwithstanding that the British colours were flying over
the Arrow at the time. *>
165

AFFAIR OF THE "ARROW."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1856.
Mr. Parkes, the British consul at Canton, on hearing of this outrage to tho
national flag, demanded that the men who had been seized in the Arroiv should
be brought° to the consulate, that the charge against them might be there in
vestigated. This the Chinese officers refused, on the ground that, as they had
reported the matter to their own authorities, they must wait for orders from them.
The consul then wrote to the same effect to Commissioner Yeh, the governor of
Canton ; and at the same time sent an account of the' proceeding to Sir John
Bowring, the British plenipotentiary at Hong-Kong. In his "reply, he observed
that, though it appeared the Arrow had no right to hoist the British flag, in
consequence of the expiration of the licence, yet, as the Chinese had no knowledge
of this fact, it was clear they had violated the clause in the treaty, which re
quired that all Chinese wrongdoers in British ships should be claimed through British
authorities. He added — "You will inform the imperial commissioner that I
require an apology for what has taken place, and an assurance that the British
flag shall, in future, be respected; that forty-eight hours are allowed for this
communication ; which being passed, you are instructed to call on the naval
authorities to assist you in enforcing redress."
Commissioner Yeh, in reply to Mr. Parkes, stated that it had been ascertained
that the lorcha was not the property of a foreigner (i.e., British subject) ; that no
foreigner was seen on board ; nor was any flag hoisted at the time of the capture.
He stated that care should be taken with respect to the seizure of people belonging
to foreign lorchas ; but declined to make any reparation for the insult to the
British flag.
A wise diplomatist here would have waived somewhat of his pretensions,
in order to preserve peace. Sir John Bowring, however, determined to resort to
force, and applied to Sir Michael Seymour, the commander-in-chief of the British
fleet on the China station. A Chinese junk was seized, and brought down to-
Whampoa; but this retaliatory proceeding produced no effect on the Chinese.
Admiral Seymour, therefore, took a number of forts that defended the approaches
to Canton, and burnt several of the buildings. Amongst the former was Dutch
Folly, a fort mounting fifty guns, and situated on an island opposite Canton. The
defences of the city being then in the hands of the British, an attempt was made
to arrange matters amicably before further hostilities were resorted to. Com
missioner Yeh offered to surrender ten out of the twelve men who had been seized ;
but this was declined. He then sent the twelve; but demanded th.at two of them,
who were charged with being guilty of piracy, should be at once returned, to be
dealt with according to Chinese law. As Mr. Parkes, however, had, in his original
demand, required that the men should be sent back to the Arrow as publicly as
they had been taken, and no apology was tendered by Commissioner Yeh, he
refused to receive them, and the men were again taken away by the Chinese.
And now the quarrel was widened, and the last chance of a peaceful settlement
was thrown away.
Sir John Bowring directed Mr. Parkes to write to the Chinese high com
missioner, and to require for ail foreign representatives the same free access to the
authorities and city of Canton, as was enjoined by treaty at the four other ports,
*and denied at Canton alone. This claim was put forward in consequence of a
stipulation to that effect in the convention of 1842. Up to this time the claim
had been evaded; and the British government, anxious to avoid any cause for an
unfriendly feeling, had quietly acquiesced in this evasion, and enjoined upon the
authorities at Hong-Kong the greatest circumspection in attempting to secure its
fulfilment. Sir John Bowring took a different view of the subject, and thought
that a favourable opportunity offered for compelling the Chinese to yield the point.
As, to this demand, the Chinese made no reply, on tbe 27th of October Admiral
Seymour opened fire on some government buildings in Canton, and at the same
time shelled a body of Chinese troops, who had taken up their position on some
risingfground in the rear of the city.
166

a.d. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [cobden's speech.

Commissioner Yeh retaliated by offering a reward of thirty dollars for the
head of every Englishman. The latter went on firing. On the 29th, a breach
having been effected in the walls, a body of seamen and marines entered the city.
At sunset the attacking force was withdrawn, with a slight loss of life, and
re-embarked. The admiral next proposed to Commissioner Yeh a personal inter
view, in order to effect a pacific arrangement. This having been declined, on the
3rd of November the attack on Canton was renewed ; but our fire was confined, as
much as possible, to the destruction of government buildings and property. On
the 5th, our fleet destroyed a body of war-junks, and captured French Folly Fort,
beneath which the Chinese vessels had sought protection.
On the 13tb, the whole of the Bogue Forts were taken, with hardly a casualty
on the side of the assailants. The Chinese revenged themselves by setting fire to,
and almost entirely destroying, the foreign factories close to Canton. Admiral
Seymour had now placed himself in a defensive position, and waited for rein
forcements. Parliament met in February; and the Earl of Derby moved resolutions
regretting the occurrence of hostilities between her majesty's subjects and the
Chinese authorities at Canton ; regretting the course pursued with reference to
claiming the admission of British subjects into Canton, and declaring that no
hostile operations should bave taken place without the sanction of the home
government. Lord Derby had the advantage of being out of office. Had he been
in, he would have had to do as Lord Palmerston did, and upheld the honour of the
British flag ; for at this stage of the proceedings it was too late to retract. As it
was, he pleaded in vain in the Lords. After a debate, lasting two nights, there
was a majority of thirty-six in favour of government.
In the House of Commons it was different. On the 26th, Mr. Cobden moved —
" That this House has heard, with concern, of the conflicts which have occurred
between the British and Chinese authorities in the Canton river; and without
expressing an opinion, as to the extent to which the government of China may have
afforded this country cause of complaint respecting the non-fulfilment of the
treaty of 1842, this House considers that the papers which have been laid upon
the table fail to establish satisfactory grounds for the violent measures resorted to
at Canton, in the late affair of the Arrow ; and that a select committee be ap
pointed to inquire- into the state of our commercial relations with China." In
support of this motion, Mr. Cobden contended, that it was a violation of all in
ternational law for the English to attempt to assume a protection over Chinese
subjects, against the Chinese government. The lorcha was a Chinese vessel, belong
ing to a Chinese owner, and we had no right to let them possess a protection
under the British flag. But supposing that we did possess this right, it could
not create a cause of war in the case of the Arrow ; for the licence had expired
before the Chinese authorities, had boarded her for the purpose of seizing men,
who had violated, not only the laws of their country, but of humanity. He referred
to the manner in which smugglers availed themselves of the illegitimate use of the
British flag, for the purpose of obtaining protection against the Chinese authorities
during the day, while they carried on their illicit traffie by night, under their own
flag ; and, to the disgrace pf this country, the English authorities never attempted
to put a stop tg these disreputable proceedings. Without going too definitely
into what we had actually done, he said he contented himself with inquiring —
Would we have done what we had, had the government we dealt with been at
Washington, and the transaction had taken place at Charleston? He con
scientiously believed that there had been a preconceived design to pick a quarrel
with the Chinese, for which the whole world would cry, " Shame upon us." The
papers he looked upon as a garbled record of trumpery complaints against the
Chinese. He quoted extracts from travellers, testifying to the civility and in
offensive habits of the Chinese; and reminded his auditors of the haughty
demeanour and inflexible bearing towards the natives of other countries,%hich 167

palmerston replies.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
Englishmen carried abroad with them. As for the clause in the treaty enforcing
the admission of Englishmen into Canton, he expressed his opinion that it was
a chimera. It was not worth fighting for. If this part of the treaty could be
at once enforced, it would be of no use to us. He also specially blamed -the conduct
of Sir John Bowring, alleging that he had acted directly contrary to his in
structions. The debate lasted four nights. The Tories and the Peelites united
with the Eadicals in support of the motion. Among the speakers adverse to the
government, were Sir Bulwer Lytton, Messrs. Warren and Whiteside, Sir James
Graham, Lord John Eussell, Dr. Phillimore, Sir Frederick Thesiger, Sidney
Herbert, Eoundale Palmer, Mr. Henley, Mr. Gladstone, and Mr. Disraeli. In a
word, the whole character and oratorical power of the House, save what was
possessed by ministerialist office-holders, ranged themselves under Cobden's leader
ship. To such a phalanx, undauntedly, Lord Palmerston replied ; and proceeded
to defend the conduct of Sir J. Bowring, comparing him with Commissioner
Yeh, the governor of Hong-Kong, whom he described as one of the most
savage barbarians that ever disgraced a savage nation — a creature guilty of vices
that are a disgrace to human nature. Lord Palmerston characterised the speech of
Mr. Cobden as being pervaded by an anti-English feeling. It was an abnegation
of all those ties which bind men to their country. Everything that was English
was wrong : everything hostile to England was right. The British merchants were
described as a set of haughty, overbearing, selfish, irritable, grasping men, per
petually getting into local disturbances wherever they were stationed. He should
not go into the legal argument as to whether the vessel was English or not. This
fact did not lie at the base of the question. We had a treaty with the Chinese,
stipulating that British vessels should not be boarded without a previous applica
tion to the British consul. And the question was— What did the Chinese know, or
believe, as to the nationality of the Arrow ? Did they consider her a British
vessel ? He said they did ; and if they knowingly violated the treaty, it was im
material whether, according to the technicalities of the law, the register had
expired. It was the animus of the result— the wilful violation of the treaty— that
entitled us to demand reparation of the Chinese authorities for the wrong, and an
assurance for further security. He, however, thought that the vessel was entitled
to the British flag, and that the objections to the register were mere quibbles.
He insisted that, after the refusal of reparation— only one of many violations of
treaty-right by the Chinese— hostilities were amply justified; and that our pro
ceedings were marked by extreme forbearance, compared with those of the Ameri
cans when their flag was insulted. The outrage committed upon the lorcha, there
fore was only part of a deliberative system, on the part of the Chinese officials, to
wrest from us a right essential to commerce in those waters. The barbarities of
the local authorities of Canton, the beheading of 70,000 men in less than a year
by the commissioner, and the deformities of Chinese society, were strongly urged
by Lord Palmerston who complained that there had been, in the debate, ! disposi
tion to excuse or palliate these enormities. It had been said that reprisals should
have been resorted to; and so they were, but without effect. The execution of
ulterior operations rested with Admiral Seymour, who, if of opinion that they were
• excessive, would not have permitted them. We were not at war with China: by
the last account the quarrel was still only local. To the question, What the future
policy of the government would be?-he replied that this would depend, in a great
Sw^-Tb- ww°t BVe?tSA- Th6f firSt du<* would be to protect British
subjects m China What,_he asked, was the government expected to do ? To send
out a message to Commissioner^ eh that he was right, and that he might repeat
his outrages upon other British vessels? This would be withdrawing* from the
S, n\rvT?riIPr fe«10n ^a E mf,cileSS barbarian ¦> ifc would disgrace this
country m the eyes of the civilised world, and especially in the estimation of
Eastern nations. After attributing the motion to a coalition of the ene^esohhe
goveitoent, thus seeking to destroy it, Lord Palmerston contLec^' You woSd
JLDo

a.d. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [parliamentary dissolution.
think, sir, if you read the speeches of those advocates of every quibble, and who endea
vour to make excuses for the most atrocious crimes — who take part with every foreigner
against every EngUshman, and who almost repudiate their country — that these events
were a combination of unjustifiable circumstances. You have now to determine a
question of great importance, from which great and important issues may accrue. You
have not merely the interests of your country, nOt merely the property, of your coun
trymen to protect, but I will venture to say that you have the lives of your coun
trymen to defend ; and those who are averse to the laws which defend that property
and those lives, will pause before they give a vote which may be passing sentence
of death on many of their countrymen. I do trust that honourable members will
not allow themselves to be led astray by the eloquence of some gentlemen who
have taken part in the debate ; but, looking to the matter as bearing upon the
great interests of the country, I am satisfied that impartial men will prove that
the decision of this night will be such as to maintain the known dignity and great
ness of this empire." His lordship concluded amidst loud cheers ; but his antici
pations were not fulfilled. The numbers were — for the motion, 263 ; against it,
247. Ministers were beaten by a majority of sixteen.
Lord Palmerston could either dissolve or resign. He, very wisely, chose the
former alternative. Before the dissolution, certain matters, relative to the business
of the country, chiefly of a financial character, were attended to. On the 10th of
March, Mr. Shaw Lefevre, the Speaker, resigned his office, after having held it
nearly eighteen years. On the following day, Lord Palmerston moved that the
thanks of the House be given to the honourable gentleman, who had ever discharged
his important and onerous duties with ability, justness of judgment, and firmness
of purpose. The motion having been seconded by Mr. Disraeli, was carried with
acclamation. A motion that an address to the crown be carried, praying that a
special act of royal favour be conferred on Mr. Shaw Lefevre, was also unani
mously agreed to. An annuity of £4,000 per annum was subsequently voted, as a
retiring pension ; and he was called to the House of Lords, under the title- of
Viscount Eversley, of Hickfield. Nor were these honours undeserved. Nature and
art had alike combined to render Mr. Lefevre, in no common degree, qualified for
the Speaker's chair.
Parliament was dissolved on the 21st of March, the ceremony being performed
by commission. The royal speech was without interest, its object being merely to
express " her majesty's intention immediately to dissolve the present parliament,
in order to ascertain, in the most constitutional manner, the sense of her people
upon the present state of public affairs."
That sense was Lord Palmerston's sense. His triumph was signal and complete.
His lordship's unqualified approval of the conduct of our' authorities in
Canton increased his popularity to an immeasurable extent ; and a determination to
support him existed throughout the country. In his speech at Tiverton, when
presenting himself for re-election, he managed just to express the real feeling of
the nation. " The outbreak in China," he said, "was adopted as a question on
which to try the strength of parties. But what was that question ? Why, un
expectedly by the government at home, independently of any orders from them,
and not in consequence of any act of theirs, a collision arose between their officers,
civil and naval, and that insolent barbarian Yeh, who unites in his person all. the
obstinacy, perfidy, and cruelty ever collected in one single man. He began, after
long-continued neglect, and violation of treaty engagements, by an outrageous attack
upon the British flag. It was the duty of our officers upon the spot to resent it ; to
demand an apology for the past, and to guarantee us from similar outrages for the
future. They were unable to accomplish this, or obtain any concession from the
Chinese minister. We have heard a great deal of technical argument about
registers, colonial orders, and imperial laws ; but the question submitted to parlia
ment was broad and simple. Here was a vessel with the British flag flying, with
a British register, and commanded by a British subject, assaulted by a Chinese
vol. n. n 169

MAJORITY FOR PALMERSTON..] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.

force  ner crew taken away (with the exception of two men, whom the Chinese
authorities, at the request of the commander, left on board to take charge of her) ;
and the only pretence set up for this outrage was, not that any one of these twelve
men who formed the crew had committed any offence, but that one old man was
the father of a son who, in some other port of China, and not &t Canton, was
believed to be a pirate. Then there was a quibble- raised, and it was said that
when they boarded the vessel no British subject was found on her, but the master
of the lorcha was at breakfast in another ship, not fifty yards off. However, before
the Chinese left the Arrow, he speedily came on board; and it was specially at his
entreaty that two of the twelve men who formed the crew were left in the vessel.
It is, therefore, preposterous for the Chinese to say that they did not know it was
an English vessel. It had been lying ten or twelve "days in the river as a British
vessel ; and it was distinctly as such that it was boarded, and deprived of its crew.
This was a violation of our treaty; and what did our officials do in consequence?
They began by reprisals. They took a junk, and the Chinese commissioner snapped
his fingers at them, and said, ' You think you have got a government vessel, but
it is only a merchant vessel ; and I don't care a sixpence about it.' Our officials
then proceeded to disarm the forts, but allowing an interval between each succes
sive operation, to afford the commissioner an opportunity of doing that which, in
reason and justice, he should have done before. Notwithstanding all that has been
said about cruelty, I say that never were the rights of a nation enforced with more
forbearance, and absence from unnecessary violence, than they were by Sir Michael
Seymour, a man well known for his humanity and moderation, and one utterly
incapable of abusing the power with which he was entrusted. Again, we have
been told that officers abroad ought not to involve the country in war without
distinct orders from the government ; and that the government ought not to act
without appealing to parliament. But will any one teU me that officers at the
other extremity of the globe, when a violent outrage has-been committed on the
honour of their country, are to remain with their arms folded, till they can send
home for orders, and receive instructions ? Why, months would elapse between
insult and resentment ; and the purpose for which redress had been demanded would
have been forgotten in the apathy and want of exertion which would have ensued."
By such speeches Lord Palmerston carried the public with him. In many
places, indeed in the majority, the merits of the question were but little discussed.
All that was thought of, was to give to Palmerston more power ; and he bad
it. Never were such results obtained by a minister before. All his opponents, or
nearly so, were unseated— Cobden,- Bright, Milner Gibson, Layard, J. W. Fox,
Miall, and not a few of the Peelites of the second grade. Cobden had not again
sought the suffrages of his West Biding constituents. He had discovered, in the
course of his canvass, that he had no chance of success there. He then solicited the
suffrages of the citizens of Huddersfield ; but the voters there gave the preference
to a thorough-going ministerialist, and Cobden was, for the first time since he
entered parliament, without a seat. A beautiful incident occurred during this
stormy period of our recent history. While the general election was going on,
Bright who bad been compelled by ill-health to leave the country, was still so ill
as to be unable to conduct his own canvass at Manchester. Cobden and others
discharged that task for him. Shortly after the rejection of Cobden and Bright,
the rormer attended and addressed a meeting at Manchester. In the course of his
speech, he alluded to his friend's defeat, and dwelt upon the fact, that the
Manchester men had rejected the man of whom they had been so proud, at a time
when he was afflicted, and necessarily absent by reason of ill-health. He became
at once deeply affected; he could not go on; his eyes filled with tears, and, for a
time, he was reduced to absolute silence.
On the 30th of April, the new House of Commons met; and Mr. Evelyn
Demson was elected to -the Speaker's chair, in the place of Mr, Shaw Lefevre.
The House was occupied until the 7th of May with swearing-in new members; and

a.d. 1*857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord elgin in china.
on that day parliament was formally opened by commission. The royal speech
contained little of interest beyond the information that her majesty had sent Lord
Elgin as plenipotentiary to China, "fully instructed in all matters of differ
ence ;" and that he would be supported by an adequate naval and military force
in the event of such assistance being necessary.
We now return to China.
While Admiral Seymour was waiting for reinforcements, several attempts were
made to burn or blow up our vessels, and the greatest caution was found to be
necessary to prevent some such catastrophe. The mandarins, in various districts,
issued the most bloodthirsty edicts against the English, and offered large rewards
to those who succeeded in assassination and incendiarism at Hong-Kong. All
Chinese were ordered to quit the service of foreigners, and return to their homes.
The captain and crew of the English postal steamer, on her way from Canton to
Hong-Kong, were murdered by seventeen Chinese soldiers, who managed to get on
board the vessel in disguise. In Hong-Kong, a Chinese baker was charged with
attempting to poison the Europeans by mixing arsenic with his bread. The
Chinese at Savarrah, in Borneo, rose in insurrection, and murdered several Euro
peans; and Eajah Brooke only saved his life by swimming across a creek. But
they were speedily punished, as Sir James Brooke returned with one of the Bornean
company's steamers, and killed a thousand Chinese ; while as many more fled, or,
ultimately, died of starvation. The arrival of the Tribune and Amethyst enabled
Admiral Seymour to undertake offensive operations. The Chinese fleet, in Canton
river, was destroyed by the British gun-boats in two effective expeditions.
On the 29th of May, Admiral Seymour hoisted his flag on the Coromandel
steam-tender, and, accompanied by Admiral Keppel and a force of gun-boats, pro
ceeded up the Canton river, with the object of attacking the war-junks, which had,
for some time, been visible up the Fatshan Creek. A fort, with outworks, which
mounted sixteen guns, was taken; and, after a resistance, more or less severe,
between seventy and eighty heavily-armed junks— ^mounting, on an average, from
ten to fourteen guns, many of them 32-pounders, nearly all of European manu
facture — fell into our hands.
Lord Elgin, the British plenipotentiary, arrived at Hong-Kong on the 3rd of
July. In answer to an address by the British residents, he replied — " The power
ful fleet already assembled on these coasts, which will soon be supported by an
adequate military force, is a pledge of her majesty's determination to afford pro
tection to her faithful subjects, and to maintain the rights to which they
are by treaty entitled. It is essential to the permanence of political relations with
China, and to the security of trade, that the Court of , Pekin should be apprised,
that an arrogant refusal to treat with other powers on the terms prescribed by the
comity of nations, or the alleged wilfulness of a provincial authority, will not be
held to release it from the responsibility of faithfully adhering to engagements
contracted with independent and sovereign states. You refer, in language of
much force and justice, to the difficulties which beset the mission on which I am
entering. I am not insensible to those difficulties. But knowing, as I do, that
the government which I serve is pursuing no selfish object; that we mav count, on
the cordial sympathy and active co-operation -of other great and generous nations
interested with ourselves in the spread of commerce, and the extension of civilisa
tion; knowing, moreover, the valour and discipline of the forces, both military and
naval, which, under able and experienced commanders, are prepared, if need be to
support the honour of our country's flag— I see no reason to doubt that, by
prudence and patience, moderation and firmness, they may be overcome."
. T„hIs allusion to other powers reminds us that England invited the co-opera
tion of France, Eussia, and America, in order that it might not be considered tbat
she was carrying on a war of conquest.
+iFr^T S?nta sma11 force to co-oP^ate at Canton with that of England; arid,
on the 12th of December, Lord Elgin and Baron Gros sent in their demands to the
N2 m

CANTON TAKEN.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1858.

commissioners. They comprised the opening of Canton; compensation for the
damage done to the property of British merchants; and the surrender of the
island of Honan, as a material guarantee. Yeh sarcastically rejected the terms.
On the 16th of December, the ships and gun-boats of the allied forces went up the
river, and landed a body of men on the island of Honan. On the 25th, the allied
commissioners notified to Yeh that they would grant him forty-eight hours more to
deliberate. They extended that period to seventy-two hours ; still a sullen silence was
preserved ; and, as Yeh would not return an answer, the bombardment of Canton was
determined on. Early on the 28th, the gun-boats, ships, and batteries opened a
slow but heavy fire of shot and shell upon the walls and defences. About noon, a
body of troops, mainly English, but partly French, landed on the east side of the
city, and captured Lin's Fort. During the night, rockets were fired at the houses
near the walls, causing a fierce conflagration, and the destruction of many frail
tenements. The next day, the troops stormed, successively, the Five-storied
Pagoda, the Magazine Hill Fort, and Gough's Fort. The fighting continued
until dark; but, at the close of the second day's operations, the English and
French were in possession of the heights. This possession they had purchased
with the loss of 140 English killed and wounded, and thirty-four French.
Thinking, as Canton was now at their mercy, Yeh would make some sign of
submission, the allies waited before proceeding to further extremities. As he did
not do so, three columns of English, and one of French, entered the city on the
5th of January, 1858. One column proceeded to the house of Peh Kwei, the
governor of the city, and captured him at breakfast. A second column made for
the treasury, of which they took possession. They found in it fifty-two boxes of
royal silver, each heavier than a man could lift, and sixty-eight packets of ingots.
These were carried by coolies into the British lines. The French column caught
the Tartar general hidden in a closet, in a desolate house; while Commodore
Elliot, accompanied by Mr. Parkes, went in pursuit of Commissioner Yeh. On
finding the house, one man surrendered himself as Yeh ; but the attempted decep
tion failed, as he was not fat enough for his chief. Pushing on, the pursuers saw
a stout man attempting to scale a wall. Captain Key. rushed forward and seized
him by the' waist, while a sailor twisted the tail of the imperial commissioner
round his arm. Yeh trembled violently when he was captured, and, at first, denied
his identity. However, when he had been several times assured of his personal
safety, his old arrogance returned. Seating himself magnificently in his chair, he
said he would wait there to receive the men, Elgin and Gros. This insolent desire
was not complied with, and he was taken in a chair to head-quarters. After some
conversation, the allied admirals and generals directed Mr. Parkes to assure " his
excellency" that every care would be taken for his personal safety and convenience,
but that he would be removed on board ship. " I don't see any necessity for going
on board ship " replied Yeh ; " I can do everything that requires to be done just as
well here. But when he observed that the admirals were grave and immovable,
and that they were about to retire, he added—" Well, I will accept your invita
tion. In fact, I shall be very glad to have an opportunity of seeing one of your
ships. After many fruitless delays, he was seated in his 'chair, and, accompanied
by an escort of marines, carried down to the landing-place, and sent on board the
Inflexible. On the 9th of January, Peh Kwei and the Tartar general were rein
stated in the city, under the protection of the allied plenipotentiaries, in order to
preserve it from being sacked by the populace. British commissioners accompa
nied thern^ and Canton was placed under a British protectorate.. Lord Elgin
informed Peh Kwei that the allies intended to hold Canton until the questions in
dispute were settled He added, that any treachery would meet with signal
punishment; but when all questions were settled, Canton would be given up.
Commissioner Yeh was sent to Calcutta. s
• Matters progressed but slowly. The demand of the allied powers, that a
commissioner should be appointed to treat with the ambassadors, was forwarded

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [treaty of peace.
to the emperor at Pekin; but no answer was returned. The Peiho river was
then ascended, and the forts at the mouth of it captured. During these proceed
ings, the Eussian and American ministers abstained from taking any active part;
accompanying the allied forces in the character of neutrals. Their communications
had been courteously received by the Chinese authorities, and they were disposed
to think that the imperial commissioner, Tau, had proper power to treat. The
British and French ministers, however, declined opening negotiations until
credentials on both sides had been interchanged. This, Tau averred, was contrary
to custom ; and when he was shown the powers which Keying had interchanged
with Sir Hugh Pottinger in 1841, and which Lord Elgin had in his possession, he
declared that the British plenipotentiary had been imposed on, for the pretended
power was a forgery.
The day after the capture of the forts, the allied expedition, with the am
bassadors, proceeded up the river Peiho, as far as the town of Tien-tsin. There
the ambassadors landed, and took up their residence in an imperial yaman, or
palace, waiting the arrival of the Chinese commissioners to negotiate a treaty
of peace. At first the interview was not satisfactory. Time went on, and the
docility and submission of the natives changed into a sullen demeanour, and even
active hostility. . About the 12th of June, two naval officers, walking through the
city, were hooted and pelted, and one of them lost his hat. A body of marines
was sent to make prisoners of the parties implicated ; but they found the gates
barred, and a mob was collected inside, who could not be persuaded to open them.
About half-a-dozen officers and sailors were enabled to climb, through a half-
decayed house, into the embrasures, from whence they jumped, revolvers in hand,
on to the ground, giving a hearty shout. The chains and bars which secured the
gates were immediately broken ; the marines entered^ and captured some house
holders, who were known to be present at the outrage offered to the officers. This
led to- the restoration of the hat ; and there were no more insults offered to the
British while they 'remained at Tien-tsin.
At length the negotiations came to a favourable conclusion. Notwithstanding
the unwillingness of the Chinese government to submit, all difficulties were over
come ; and the terms which Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were instructed to insist
upon, were at last yielded with a good grace.
The four treaties concluded at Tien-tsin were signed in the following order : 
the American, the Eussian, the English, and the French. The demands of the
United States were the least extensive, extending little beyond increased means of
commercial intercourse; and Mr. Eeed, the American ambassador, appears to have
been content : indeed, it is said that he thwarted, rather than advanced, Lord Elgin's
views. Count Putiatine, the Eussian ambassador, acted a more friendly part ; for
when he had concluded his own treaty, he did not desert the interests of England
and France. The terms the count obtained were of great importance to Eussia, as
China conceded not only greater facilities for trade, but also yielded up an extensive
tract of country at the mouth of the Amour. The terms of the French and English
treaties were nearly alike, except that the former contained no stipulations for an in
demnity. The conditions were considered favourable. China was thrown open; Britons
were no longer to be called barbarians ; commerce was to be encouraged ; and we were
to receive £1,200,000 for losses sustained at Canton, and the expenses of the war.
No sooner was the treaty signed, however, than it became apparent that in
many quarters there was very little intention of keeping it. While in the north
the allied ambassadors and the commissioners of the emperor were concluding it,
+? new commissioner at Canton was issuing proclamations, urging the populace to
attack the foreigners. He even demanded the evacuation of the city, and affected
entire ignorance of the existence of the negotiations. Confusion and terror were
produced within Canton by this proceeding. The "braves" assassinated several
Europeans ; and, on the 21st of July, they advanced with the avowed intention of
expelling the alhes from the city. They were, of course, unsuccessful, and the English
173

tiie new tariff.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
and French retaliated with severity. In ¦ August, Sir John Bowring issued a
proclamation in the Chinese language, announcing the conclusion of the treaty,
which was distributed and placarded in the country. Two officers went in the
gun-boat Starling to distribute this proclamation at Namtom, opposite Hong-Kong.
The officers were driven back, and the boat was fired upon, though a flag of triice
was flying. As this insult could not be overlooked, a force of 700 men was landed
on the 11th, who drove out the Chinese "braves" from the fort which they
destroyed, and brought off two brass guns as trophies. No injury was done fo
the inhabitants, or their property. Shortly after, Hwang, the viceroy, issued a
notice that he had received despatches from the Court of Pekin, informing him
of the cessation of the treaty : but affairs continued for some time in an unsettled
and unsatisfactory state.
While waiting for the Chinese negotiators, who were- to discuss with him the
terms of the tariff, Lord Elgin resolved to proceed to Japan, to see what could he
done in the way of opening up that country, so closely sealed against foreign
intruders. Arrived at Nayaski, communications were opened with the Japanese
authorities. The English government had sent the Tycoon a yacht — a most inap
propriate present, as he never leaves his palace — and this had to be presented. For
this purpose, to the astonishment and terror of the Japanese, Lord Elgin sailed to
the capital, Yeddo, where he landed, and was treated with much courtesy, he having
an armed force with him, and it being known what the British had done in China.
Six commissioners were appointed to consult with his lordship as to a treaty. On
the 26th of August the treaty was signed, and was all that could be desired. His
lordship and his followers were delighted with everything they saw, and came back
very enthusiastic in favour of Japan and the Japanese.
Lord Elgin arrived at Shanghae, upon his return from Yeddo, on the 2nd
of September. The Chinese commissioners appointed to arrange the tariff with
his lordship, did not arrive from Pekin till the 3rd of October. About the middle
of the month, Mr. Oliphant and Mr. Wade, on the part of the British ambassador,
and two local officers on the part of the commissioners, were appointed to settle
preliminaries. The negotiations extended into November. On the 8th of that
month, the new tariff being finally arranged, was signed by Lord Elgin and the
commissioners. By this document the export duties on tea and silk remain as"
before ; the only reduction of any importance is on cotton manufactures. Opium
was legalised, and the import duty fixed at thirty taels per picul. The transit
duties to and from the interior, were fixed at one-half the amount levied at the
ports ; and this applies to all imports and exports, with the exception of opium,
which is not included in this arrangement, It was expected that a great increase
of trade would result from this treaty. Even before the signing of it, many of the
- foreign firms had established branches or agencies in temporary abodes on the
island of Honan, and were doing a fair trade. The Hon. Frederick Bruce was
appointed first ambassador to Pekin, under the provisions of the new treaty. Consuls
were also appointed for the Chinese ports which were to be opened under the treaty;
and a consul-general for Japan. Mr. Eutherford Alcock, who had long been her
majesty s consul at Canton, received the first nomination to this latter important post.
Immediately after the tariff regulations were adjusted, Lord Elgin determined
to make an expedition up the Yang-tse-Kiang, as far as Hankow-the limits fixed
by the treaty for the advance of merchant vessels— for the purpose of testing its
commercial capabilities and of ascertaining the temper of the people. He left
Shanghae on the 9th On the 20th, Nankin-then in possession of the rebels-
was lighted and the little Lee with Mr. Wade, the interpreter, was sent ahead, to
see whether the rebels would fire upon her. Lord Elgin was not desirous of coming
into collision with the rebels ; but it was not known how they felt disposed. The
little vessel was therefore, anxiously watched as she fearlessly passed one battery
after another. It was thought she had cleared them all, when a little white puff
of smoke was seen. The rebels had fired upon her; and the men on board the

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord elgin.
other four steamers were instantly piped to quarters. As soon as the first shot was
discharged from the shore, the commander of the Lee, in obedience to his instruc
tions, hoisted a flag of truce, of such large dimensions that the men in the batteries
could not fail to see it. This was fired upon eight times ; and the other steamers
coming up, fired upon the batteries. This was replied to ; and while daylight
lasted, a pretty smart cannonade was kept up on both sides. The next morning it
was resolved to inflict summary chastisement on the rebels for their temerity ; and
the ships having taken up their positions, bombarded the forts pretty well for an
hour, when they passed on. In ascending the river, the imperialist . army was dis
cerned crowning the hills in the rear of Nankin, their encampments forming a
complete and extended semicircle round the devoted city, which they had so long
and ineffectually besieged, but whieh active and enterprising commanders, seconded
by only- moderately brave troops, would have taken long before. The rebels had
also possession of Taeping, near which the rebels anchored for the night. At
length, on the 6th of December, Hankow, the terminus of their journey, appeared
in sight. The first view of the city was anything but pleasing. However, it
greatly improved upon acquaintance. Scarcely two years had elapsed since it was
sacked and destroyed by the, rebels, who did their work so effectually that the
British were informed that not a single house remained standing. In the short
space of time that had elapsed, however, the greater part of the ruins had given
place to the abodes of a persevering and industrious population. The streets were
handsomer and broader ; and the shops better stocked than those of any city as
yet open to Europeans ; and it was pervaded by an air of activity and bustle quite
refreshing after the torpor and apathy which had succeeded the rebel reign else
where. The river was fiUed with junks, and the streets of the town were crowded
with natives from almost every province in the empire. On the 10th, Lord Elgin,
accompanied by about thirty diplomatic and naval .officers, paid a visit to Kenan,
the governor-general of the provinces of Human and Hupeb, whose official resi
dence is at Woonang, a city occupying a noble site on the south shore of the river.
On the 11th, the visit was returned; and when the Chinese officials departed for
the shore, the squadron weighed anchor, and started on its return. They arrived
at Shanghae early in the new year.
On the 17th of January, a numerous body, representing the English and
Indian firms at Shanghae, waited, on Lord Elgin at the British embassy, by appoint
ment, to present a complimentary address on his lordship's successful career in the
north of China. The address was well written ; and, in his lordship's reply, there
was much to' be seriously weighed and carefully remembered. The treaties con-
eluded with China and Japan undoubtedly did impose weighty responsibilities.
" Uninvited," said bis lordship, " and by methods not always of the gentlest, we
have broken down the barriers by which those ancient nations sought to conceal
from the world without, the mysteries— perhaps, also, in the case of China at least,
the rags and rottenness — of their waning civilisation. Neither our own consciences
nor the judgments of mankind, will therefore • acquit us, if, when we are asked to
what use we have turned these opportunities, we can only say, that we have filled
our pockets from the ruins which we have found or made." There were two cri
tical phases which, in his progress as a negotiator with China, Lord Elgin said he
round, "in mid-channel, right ahead"— the trade in opium, and the Chinese
custom-house system. He had long, and sincerely, commiserated the false and cruel
position in which men of high standing and integrity, engaged in commerce with
China, were placed by the irregularities -which characterised the administration of
the one, and the anomalous condition under which the other was carried on ; and
he did not consider that the difficulties attending the removal of these evils, and
the risk of misconception to which those who undertook the task must necessarily
expose themselves, would justify him in abstaining from the attempt to grapple
with them. He had legalised the opium traffic by the tariff; but the modifica
tions introduced with reference to the drug, do not, in any way, fetter or restrict
175

career of lord elgin.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
the discretion of Great Britain with respect to the article. If the British people
and the British government see fit to do so, they may still make it penal for a
British subject to be engaged in the opium trade; and, by so doing, although
they will not, probably, in any material degree, lessen the consumption of opium
in China, they will, no doubt, do something more or less effectual towards prevent
ing British subjects from being the importers. His lordship said he had induced
the Chinese to bring the trade from the region of fiction into that of fact, and to
place within the pale of the law, and under its control, an article which was
openly sold, and taxed by them beyond that pale. He anticipated, however,
that it would make but little difference as regarded the trade itself. As to the
custom-house administration, he endeavoured — and, he hoped, not without success
 to impress on the imperial commissioners the importance of establishing such a
system as will be uniform in all tbe several open ports, equal in all its operations,
and controlled by persons of integrity and competent knowledge. Alluding to his
recent expedition up the Yang-tse-Kiang, his lordship said it had fully realised the
expectations which induced him to undertake it. He was enabled, during its
progress, to obtain much information respecting the political condition of the
country, which would, he trusted, be useful to her majesty's government ; and the
interests of commerce would be undoubtedly promoted by a knowledge of the navi
gation Of the rivers, acquired by the able officers of her majesty, by whom he was
accompanied. His lordship's speech gave great satisfaction. Those officers, as
well as his lordship, did everything in their power to render the expedition success
ful; and, in England, there was great rejoicing over the termination of a mission
which, it was felt, could not have been placed in better hands. It. was henceforth
hoped we should have no further difficulties with either Chinese or Japanese. It was
believed that an unlimited market was opened to our wares and Manchester manu
factures ; and London merchants voted Lord Elgin to be of ambassadors the chief.
In a few years after, his lordship died — died just as he had become the Gov
ernor-general of India. He was only fifty-two years of age, and had been' a
member of the House of Peers for upwards of twenty -two years. Lord Elgin may
be said to have first entered- upon public life in 1841, when he was returned to
parliament as member for Southampton ; but in a few months he succeeded to the
peerage on the death of his father, known as the collector of the celebrated " Elgin
Marbles." His rare abilities early gave him prominence and distinction in the
House of Lords; and on a vacancy occurring, in 1842, in the governorship of
Jamaica, his lordship was selected to fill that office. Here his administrative
ability was displayed with so much satisfaction, that, in 1846, he was nominated to
the still higher post of Governor-general of Canada. In the latter colony he
governed in difficult times, but with a wisdom and impartiality that rendered him
exceedingly popular ; and socially, politically, and commercially, his rule was of the
highest benefit to the people. In 1855 he returned to England, honoured and
esteemed by all parties. In March, 1857, the earl was sent as plenipotentiary
to China. On his way out to the East, he heard of the outbreak of the
Indian mutiny, and, by a happy act of sound judgment (which was invited, indeed,
by the viceroy), diverted to India" a large portion of the troops that were under
orders for China, and thus strengthened the hands of Lord Canning. While the
mutiny in India proceeded in its course, Lord Elgin was pushing on his own line
of policy in China, the results of whieh he beheld in the taking of Canton, and in
the signing of the treaty of Tien-tsin. Eeturning to England, he became Post
master-general under Lord Palmerston, in 1859, but was shortly afterwards a°ain
despatched to China, to insist on the reception of his brother, Sir Frederick Bruce,
at Pekin. He also went to Japan, and, under the terror created by our imposing
fleet, obtained from the Tycoon a treaty of commerce, which has been very imper
fectly carried out, and threatens to involve us in war with that exclusive people.
Scarcely had he returned to the shores of England, when he was selected to succeed
Earl Canning in that splendid but fatal prize for statesmen's competition, the vice-

A.D. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON.  LINDIA;

royalty of India. He took up the work where Lord Canning's hands had laid it
down, and he was just about to behold the first fruits of the harvest which had
been sown by his predecessor and Lord Dalhousie, when he was laid prostrate by
the stroke of the hand of death.

CHAPTEE X.
THE INDIAN MUTINY.

In 1857, the alarming intelligence reached England, that our Indian empire was
in peril— that the native army was in a state of mutiny — and that our countrymen
and countrywomen were being butchered in all directions.
For some time past the storm had been gathering ; but no one of the official
class had sense to perceive and interpret the signs of the times.
In the native army, ever since the disastrous occurrences in Afghanistan, in
1840-41, the feelings of loyalty and attachment that at one time existed had
ceased to operate. The charm of our invincibility and good fortune then received
a rude shock. It was apparent to our native subjects that we had been forced to
abandon our position beyond the Indus, in consequence of the successful resistance
of the Afghan nation, supported in their efforts to drive us out by the corps raised,
disciplined, and armed by us, from among the people of that country. From that
time forward, the idea had been gaining ground in the minds of many of our
subjects in India, especially among the Mahommedan portion of them, that a similar
course — a mutiny of the native regiments forming our army, backed by a rising
among the people — might prove as successful in Hindostan as it had in Cabul, in
expelling the British authority, and restoring native rule ; that is, the authority of
the Emperor of Delhi. " Although," writes Mr. Edwards, in his valuable Remi
niscences of a Bengal Civilian, " in our opinion, the position occupied, for the last
thirty years, by the emperor was of the most insignificant and contemptible
description, very different was the estimation in which he was held by Hindoos as
well as Mahommedans generally. In their eyes he was still the legitimate sove
reign of India, and, as such, was looked up to with feelings of reverence and loyal
attachment. Our generous, but, in my humble opinion, impolitic treatment of
the king, had directly tended to keep alive and foster those feelings of veneration.
We permitted him to occupy his palace in the ancient seat of empire, and there to
surround himself with the symbols of royalty, and to exercise powers, such as con
ferring honorary titles on our subjects, which, in native estimation, are indis-
solubly connected with sovereign authority. Although a pensioner, the king was
regarded, by all in India, as the fountain of rank and honour ; and the most insig
nificant marks of his favour were more highly esteemed than the most costly gifts
and highest titles which could be conferred by the head of the British government
on any of its subjects. Up to the rebellion, the state papers, such as sunnuds.
issued by subordinate native chieftains, always contained an acknowledgment of their
holding as vassals under the King of Delhi ; and the coin they issued bore a legend
to the same effect. Up to 1842, the governors-general who visited Delhi, were in
the habit of presenting, through their secretaries, a nuzzur of 101 gold mohurs
to the emperor, as a mark of fealty, and an acknowledgment of holding the
British territories in India subject to his authority." In the composition of the
army itself, also, there was much to create a feeling of mutiny : the Bengal army
believed that _the government was afraid of them. They entered that army, as
they confessed, from no feelings of patriotism, but to fill their bellies; and they
bitterly resented, therefore and regarded as a breach of faith, the stoppage of
177

discontent of the people..] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
higher rates of pay for service beyond the Sutlej, when the Punjaub became a
British province. The deprivation of the privilege of having their letters franked
since- the introduction of the half-ana postage, and of petitioning on unstamped
paper since the annexation of Oude, was also regarded by them as a great hard
ship and indignity. They attributed these changes to a grasping, avaricious spirit
on the part of the state, and they often termed it a low government of shop
keepers, whom they were ashamed to serve under. The sepoys were also under
the persuasion, that as our government extended its empire to Burmah and China,
they would, sooner or later, be required to serve beyond sea. They knew .that the
government felt that the only obstacle to their proceeding on general service was
the dread of the loss of caste; and they regarded the enlistment of the Sikhs into
the line regiments, and the new rules for recruiting, as the commencement of an
insidious attempt to break up' the regimental caste, and fit the corps for foreign
service. While our native army was in this state of discontent and restless suspi
cion, Oude was, to their astonishment and extreme dissatisfaction, annexed.
" There is not the slightest doubt," writes Mr. Edwards, " that this act was
regarded by the native army as one of rude and unjustifiable spoliation ; and I
believe that they would have resented at first had they not been under the convic
tion that the home authorities would annul the decision of the Governor-general,
and restore Oude to the king."
While the minds of the .sepoys were thus full of resentment against the
government, and suspicious of its good faith, the report was spread among them,
by the instigators of the rebellion, that the government intended to take away their
caste, and compel them forcibly to adopt Christianity ; and, for this purpose, had
cartridges prepared with pig's fat, to destroy the caste of the Mahommedans; and
with cow's fat, that of the Hindoos.
So much for the sepoys. As regards the people, they had also many and
serious grounds of complaint.
First, as respects the revenue system, introduced into the North- West Provinces
within the last thirty years. It has been generally supposed that this system was
one of unmixed good. Mr. Edwards writes— "My acquaintance with the system,
during the short time I was collector, has led me to form a different opinion as to
its adaptation to the people; and the light in which they regard the basis of the
system is, it must be borne in mind, a survey of all lands, held under the govern- ¦
ment, and a record of the government claim accruing therefrom, and of all rights
and interests connected therewith. But a record of this description, to be of any
value, _ must be accurate in all its details, completely trustworthy, and beyond
suspicion. If it falls short of this it becomes one of the most powerful engines of
evil and misgovernment which it is possible to devise. I fear that the revenue
records of the North-West Provinces, however correct they may originally have
been, have, from constant mutations in occupancy, and corruption of native official?,
become a mass of falsehood, inaccuracy, and confusion, and the source of much'of
that litigation which has made our civil courts the opprobrium of our rule."
Again, tbe assessments were far too heavy in- nearly every district, "and could not
have been imposed liad not the attachment of an agricultural people to their
•hereditary lands been so great, that they preferred agreeing to pay any amount of
revenue for them, rather than desert, or be ousted from them. The result was that
the gentry had disappeared, or were in very reduced circumstances; and the mass
of the agricultural body were in the most extreme and hopeless poverty. Long
before the rebellion, their state of increasing destitution had attracted my notice,
and so deeply impressed me, that I had always regarded some great convulsion of
society as extremely probable. But I never realised fully the extent of their
poverty and wretchedness until, when traversing the country as a fugitive, and
having to pass through thousands of villages, hearing of the plunder of those they
had attacked, I saw what the plunder consisted of, and for what the people evidently
thought it worth risking their lives to steal."
17S

a.d. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the mutiny begun.
Our civil courts were cumbrous, dilatory, and expensive. Our police, as a
body, Mr. Edwards describes, as " most corrupt, and a scourge to the people."
But there was another cause at work, besides the discontent existing in the
army and amongst the people.
The Calcutta rulers, seeing through the false medium surrounding them at
the presidency,- had been lulled into a state of dangerous security; and the result
was, that they denuded Bengal and the North-West Provinces, to an extent
unprecedented at any former period. In fifteen years our empire in India had
been gradually extending, but our European force had not been increased in pro
portion. The chief part of our forces had been collected into the Punjaub; and,
in 1857, the total European force available for the maintenance of tranquillity was not
above 5,000 of all arms, for Bengal and the North-West Provinces. The people,.
besides, had got the idea that we were used up, and that, in consequence of the
Crimean war, no more forces could be spared for India. Under such circumstances,,
that the mutiny should have occurred, and spread rapidly, can surprise no one.
The first actual rising of the native troops took place at Meerut, an important
military station, about thirty-two miles from Delhi. On the 9th of May, eighty-five
of the men had been arrested, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, for
refusing to receive the cartridges. The next evening, while many of the Europeans
were at. church, the men of the 11th and 20th native regiments assembled, in
armed and tumultuous bodies, upon the parade-ground. Several officers hurried
from their quarters to endeavour to pacify them. Colonel Finnis, of the 11th, one
of the first to arrive, was shot dead while exhorting the mutineers to return to
their duties as soldiers, and remain true to their colours. Other officers fell with.
their colonel, or in the terrible moments that ensued; for the troopers of the
3rd cavalry poured out of their quarters to join the insurgent infantry, and the
whole body rushed through the native lines of the encampments, slaying, burnino-,
and destroying. Every house was fired, and every English man, woman, or child,,
that fell in the way of the mutineers, was cruelly murdered. Happily, most of the
officers and their families succeeded in escaping to the English lines. The eighty-
five mutineers who had been confined were liberated, and all at once made their
way to Delhi, where they were received by the native garrison of that city with
open arms.
It fared with the English at Delhi as at Meerut. The infantry attacked and
murdered their officers; the artillery, before joining the mutineers, stipulated for
the safety of theirs, who were thus enabled to reach Meerut alive. The repre
sentative of the Great Mogul lent a favourable ear to the representatives of the
mutineers. Pillage and murder ravaged the streets, and no mercy whatever was
shown to the Europeans. Delicate ladies were stripped of their clothing, violated,.
turned naked into the streets, beaten with canes, pelted with filth, and abandoned
to the brutality of the blood-stained rabble, until death or madness deprived them
of, all consciousness of their unutterable misery. The demoniac fury of the excited
multitude knew no bounds; and, in a few hours after sunrise on Monday, the
11th of May, the interior of Delhi was an utter pandemonium. The arsenal and
magazines were saved from falling into the hands of the mutineers by the gallantry
of' Lieutenant Willoughby, of the artillery, who blew them both up— an act which
caused the death of about 1,500 of the town rabble and insurgents, who were
crushed beneath the ruins. The English lost Delhi ; and, for a time, the Mo°-ul
empire was restored.
The mutiny spread rapidly. There were demonstrations of it at Umballah,,
ferozepore, Lahore, Museerabad, and, in fact, at nearly every station throughout
the Bengal presidency. To such an extent was this the case, that one corps, which
had been publicly thanked by the Governor-general in person for its loyalty, was
obliged to be disarmed ; while another regiment of native infantry at Allahabad,
which had been loud in its attachment to the government, rose upon its officers
and murdered them. Fortunately, the disaffection was confined to the Bengal
179

cawnpore.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
army, and did not make its appearance in the troops of Madras or Bombay. Great
excitement also prevailed at Calcutta and its neighbourhood. A conspiracy
for a general rising on the part of the Mussulman population was discovered, and
a regular plan for the capture of the city found among the papers seized.
Delhi, the head-quarters of the rebellion, was one of the first places to be
attacked by the British troops. Great difficulties lay in the way of General Anson,
the commander-in-chief, destitute, as he was, of men upon whom he could rely.
In making preparations for the advance he was attacked by cholera,, which
terminated fatally. General Sir Harry Barnard was appointed to the command of
the army for Delhi ; and Sir Patrick Grant was appointed chief commander of the
forces in India. After a few skirmishes, General Barnard was compelled to wait
for reinforcements. Of all the fearful tragedies at this time, that of Cawnpore was the chief. The
town and military station of Cawnpore was situated on the Ganges, fifty-two miles
from Lucknow. On the 16th of May, news of the mutiny reached there. On the
5th of June, after a few preliminary symptoms, the outbreak took place. The
native cavalry deserted, and the infantry broke into open revolt, plundered, and
then abandoned their lines. The rebels then sent messengers to Nana Sahib, the
Eajah or Mahratta chieftain of Bithoor, announcing their determination to march
to Delhi, and their desire tbat he would place himself at their head. He acceded,
and shortly after joined them with 600 men and four guns. His first advice was
that they should slay all the English in Cawnpore. Nana Sahib then summoned
General Wheeler to surrender the intrenched position and town to the King of
Delhi : this being refused, the town was attacked, and captured on the 6th of June,
and Nana Sahib took up his quarters there. The intrenchments were, however,
kept by General Wheeler and the British troops, who held out bravely. On the
27th of June, General Wheeler, who had received a wound which ultimately proved
fatal, agreed to surrender the position he occupied, and abandon Cawnpore, with
the public treasure, guns, and magazines, on condition that the lives of all
Europeans and native converts at the station should be spared, and that they
should be at liberty to depart in boats, provided for their conveyance, down the
Ganges to Allahabad.
The party embarked in about seventeen or eighteen boats ; but no sooner had
they done so, than a fire of artillery and musketry was suddenly opened upon them.
Many were killed in the boats, and others shot while attempting to escape by
swimming. Most of the boats were brought back, and the swimmers compelled
to re-land. Having done so, the men were immediately shot, and the women and
children — many of whom were bleeding from wounds — were taken to a house
formerly belonging to the medical department of the European troops, where they
were left for three days without food, with the exception of a small quantity of
parched grain and some water.
In the meanwhile, Cawnpore rapidly filled with the rebel troops ; so that
about the 10th of June, Nana Sahib was at the head of more than 20,000 armed
men. He then issued a proclamation, stating that he had entirely conquered the
British, whose period of reign had been completed. Measures were, however,
• speedily taken for the relief of Cawnpore. On the 3rd of July, General Havelock
marched against it, and, after defeating the enemy in three battles, gained possession
of the town. Nana Sahib retired to Bithoor ; but on finding defeat inevitable, he
first caused the whole of the women, children, and other Europeans, to be put to
death, under circumstances of the most revolting barbarity. The court-yard of the
building in which "the women and children had been confined, appeared to have
been the principal scene of the slaughter. This place, on being entered by our
men, was covered with blood, and with the tattered remains of female apparel.
The latter seemed as if hacked from the persons of the living wearers ; while tresses
of human hair lay trampled among the blood that had yet scarcely congealed
upon the pavement. In all the apartments there were traces of brutal violence,
ISO

A.D.1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sir colin campbell.

and atrocious bloodshed. In a huge well at the rear of the building, naked and
mutilated, lay the bodies of 208 females and children, festering together. Upon
the walls and pillars of the room in which the massacre had taken place, were
the marks of bullets, and of cuts made by sword-strokes, not high up, as if men
had fought with men, but low down, and about the corners, where the poor
crouching victim had been cut down. Scraps of pencil-writing were seen upon
the walls, and scratchings upon the plaster, amongst which were the following
sentences : — " Think of us." " Avenge us." " Your wives and children are here in
misery, and at the disposal of savages." In one apartment was a row of women's
shoes and hoots, with amputated bleeding feet; and, on the opposite, side of
the room, a number of children's shoes, filled in a similar way.
After General Havelock had taken possession of the city and cantonments, he
caused all the rebel sepoys, and troopers captured during the recent engagements,
to be collectively tried by court-martial, and hanged. The men met the fate they
richly deserved with the most transcendent, stoicism. Nana Sahib unfortunately
escaped ; but his palace was very properly given to the flames.
In other quarters the progress of the British arms was not so rapid. Oude
was in a state of insurrection ; but the garrison at Lucknow held out in spite
of the death of the brave Sir Henry Lawrence. The British forces before Delhi
were too small to effect the capture of that city. The resources of the muti
neers far exceeded those of the assailants. The new commander also died of
cholera, and was succeeded in the command by General Wilson. At Agra the
rebels had been successful in an engagement, and in its fort were shut up, and
besieged, about 4,500 men, women, and children.
In Oude, so universal was the rebellion, that General Havelock, who had
advanced from Cawnpore with the view of relieving the garrison at Lucknow,
was compelled, after obtaining a victory over the enemy at Busserutgunge, to
retire again upon Cawnpore. . His force at this period was reduced to 900 men,
who were worn out by fatigue, sickness, and constant fighting,- and stood in need
of repose. To advance against Lucknow under such circumstances, was merely to
court annihilation.
Troops, however, originally destined for service in China, were now arriving
in quick succession in India; and, on the 14th of August, Sir Colin Campbell
arrived in Calcutta to assume the chief command of the armies in India ; the
veteran haying left England in July, at some twenty-four hours' notice, in obedience
to the wishes of his sovereign. - This circumstance. had the effect of reassuring the
civilians ; imparting new energy to the government ; and of giving confidence to
the queen's troops, who were highly gratified at having a favourite and highly-
distinguished officer of their own service placed at their head. In a proclamation,
which he issued on assuming office, he said— "In former years I have commanded
native troops in India, and by their side I have been present in many battles and
victories, m which they have nobly borne their part ; and it is to me a subject
of deep concern to learn that soldiers of whom I had been accustomed to think so
favourably should now be arrayed in open and defiant mutiny, against a govern
ment proverbial for the liberality and paternal consideration with which it has
ever treated its servants of every denomination."
At Delhi the time had come for action. By the 6th of September, the siege-
train, and all the reinforcements that were looked for, had arrived at the camp, and
General Wilson resolved that siege operations should be at once commenced. The
actual force of all arms before Delhi amounted to 8,748 men, of whom 2,977
were in hospital. This force included Lascars, newly-raised Sikh sappers and
artillerymen, and the recruits of the Punjaub corps. Of British troops there were
only — artillery, 580 ; cavalry, 443 ; infantry, 2,294. The insurgent forces within
and under the walls of Delhi, consisted of disciplined troops, 12,000 infantry, and
4,000 cavalry. In addition to these there were about 4,000 non-military combatants,
calculated to prove effectual as auxiliaries to the regular troops. 181

capture of delhi.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.

After a severe bombardment, the assault took place soon after daybreak on the
14th of September. Under a heavy storm of grape our men rushed on, and carried
all before them. In two quarters the assault was delivered, and everywhere
successfully. As the troops advanced into the city, they were subjected to a heavy
fire of grape and musketry from the houses and loopholed walls. So severe was
this that one column was repulsed, and compelled to retire into the camp. The
city was, however, held by the British, who eventually obtained quarters in covered
positions. But the struggle was a prolonged one ; and the dogged resistance and
ferocious . cunning by which our men were encountered at every step, and from
behind every wall of the narrow thoroughfares and hiding-places, through which
they had to make their way,' often compelled them to fight from house to house.
During the day many ofthe inhabitants ofthe city stole into the camp, and applied
for protection, of course disavowing any participation in the rebellion. Slowly,
and amidst fierce fighting, the English made their way. The 15th of September
was occupied with street-fighting. On the 16th, the magazine was stormed and
taken. On the 17th, all the mortars of the English force kept up a fire on the
palace, and in the part of the city still occupied by the enemy. On the 19th, the
latter abandoned their camp in the suburbs, and, after destroying their surplus
ammunition, took to flight. During the night, the king, his sons, and a large
portion of the troops within the palace, followed their example. On the morning
of the 20th, the British troops pushed on, and occupied the. Lahore gate, from
which an unopposed advance was made on the other bastions and gateways, until
the whole defences of the city were in their hands. During the day, the gates of
the palace were blown in : the troops then entered it ; and General Wilson
estabUshed his head-quarters there. On the night of tbe 21st, the general
proposed the health of Queen Victoria, in the beautiful white marble hall of the
palace, and the toast was drunk with enthusiastic cheers. Delhi, however, was not
recaptured without cost ; our loss on the day of the assault amounting to 1,145
killed and wounded.
The king and his sons were pursued and captured by Captain Hodson and his
cavalry. His majesty stipulated for his personal safety as the only condition on
which he would consent to return to Delhi alive.- As he was extremely old — said to
be nearly ninety, and, therefore, scarcely to be considered responsible, for what had
been done in his name — this was granted. He was confined in a small building in
the court-yard of his palace, together with his favourite wife, until their fate could
be decided by a military tribunal. Two of his sons, and one of his grandsons, were
afterwards captured ; and, on an attempt to rescue them, were shot by Captain
Hodson with his revolver. Their fate was a deserved one, as they had both
ordered and witnessed the massacre and exposure of women and children, in the
cruelties practised at Delhi on the outburst of the mutiny there. Two other sons
of the king were captured, and tried by a military commission, for .aiding in the
revolt and massacres. They were shot. Shortly after the capture of Delhi,
General Wilson was compelled to relinquish the command, and General Penny
succeeded. Delhi, after its capture, presented an appearance of mournful deso
lation. Its houses were in ruins ; valuable property lay about the streets; whilst
. but few inhabitants were to be seen. With its conquest, the prestige of the Indian
rebellion bad passed away. Unfortunately, the .war was prolonged for a consider
able period ; but the chief seat of rebel power was lost. So long as a descendant
of the Moguls could spread the banner of his race from the ramparts of his palace
at Delhi, rebellion had an aim and a cause.
The next, important step was the relief of the garrison of Lucknow. General
Havelock again pushed forward for that purpose. He was accompanied by General
Outram, who, in an order of the day, said that he, " in gratitude for, and admiration
of, the brilliant deeds of arms achieved by General Havelock and his gallant troops,
will cheerfully waive his rank on the occasion, and accompany the force to Lucknow
in his civil capacity of chief commissioner of Oude," tendering his military

a.d. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [lucknow relieved.
services to General Havelock as a volunteer. The advance upon Lucknow was a-
series of skirmishes, during "which the British killed many of the enemy, and
captured several guns. Their own loss was but trifling until they reached the city.
On the 22nd of September, the firing at Lucknow was heard by those who were
approaching to its assistance, and a royal salute was fired, to make the besieged
aware that help was at hand. On the 25tb, the latter had their eyes gladdened by
b-holdino- the approach of ths relieving force. On the 26th, the batteries of the
besiegersawere assaulted and taken; but the British loss was heavy, amounting to
about 450 lulled and wounded. Several officers perished ; and amongst them
Brigadier Neil, who, during a brief career, had made himself conspicuous as an
intelUgent, self-reliant soldier, ready of resource, and stout of heart.
Arrived thus far, the difficulties of the place were, unfortunately, by no means
vanquished. Havelock could only relieve the wants of the besieged by supplying
them with provisions— that is all: and he himself was in danger. General
Outram was in the citadel, while Havelock was outside, surrounded by an enemy
from 20,000 to 30,000 strong.
Sir CoUn -Campbell at length took the field in peTson, leaving Calcutta on
the 27th of October, with a body of 5,000 men, including his own Highland
brigade, and a heavy train of artillery. On the 11th of November he reached
Alumbagh, about three miles from Lucknow, where he was joined 'by further rein
forcements. He then proceeded, as far as possible, to turn the strong positions of
the enemy, and reach Lucknow by a circuitous route. For the next six days there
was a series of severe and bloody struggles with the enemy, who fought with great
courage and determination. On the 17th, communications were opened with
the imprisoned garrison and inhabitants ; and, on the evening of that day, the
three generals — Outram, Havelock, and Campbell — met at dusk, and congra
tulated each other. The .loss of the British had been very heavy ; many officers
fell, and Sir Colin himself was slightly wounded. On the 20th, the women,
children, sick and wounded, who had been shut up at Lucknow, were sent on to
Cawnpore. In order to accomplish this, the general was obliged to spread his force
into one outlying picket, every man remaining on duty, and being subject to
constant annoyance from the enemy's fire. Though the garrison was rescued, Sir
Colin was unable to take the town, on account of the immense numerical superi
ority of the rebels. He therefore commenced a retreat, which was so skilfully
effected, that the enemy contemplated an assault while the British general was
leading his men silently away. Sir Colin Campbell, in his despatch, observed —
" The movement of retreat was admirably executed, and was a perfect lesson in
such combinations. Each exterior line came gradually retiring through its sup
ports, till at length nothing remained but the last line of infantry and guns, with
which I myself was to pursue the enemy if he had dared to follow up the
pickets. The only line of retreat lay through a long and tortuous path ; and all
these"* precautions were absolutely necessary, in order to ensure the safety of the
force." The partial success at Lucknow was dimmed by the death of the brave General
Havelock. He fell a victim to anxiety, hardship, and the climate.
Major-General Havelock, whose name and fame will always be dear to hia
countrymen, was born at Bishop Wearmouth, in the year 1795. Educated at the
Charter-house, he entered the Middle Temple, and studied under Chitty, with a
view to practising at the bar. But all the while he longed to enter the army ; and
at length an opportunity for, doing so arrived. His elder, brother, who was in the
army, had gained distinction at Waterloo, where he was wounded. It appears that
he possessed sufficient influence to obtain for his brother a commission, whi»h
Henry gladly accepted. But peace came, and, for eight years, he was obliged to
endure a life of mere military routine, in various stations of the United Kingdom.
At length, in 1823, an opportunity offered for him to exchange into the 13th Light
Infantry — a regiment under orders for Indian service. The necessary steps were
183

general havelock.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
taken, and Henry Havelock landed at Calcutta towards the close of that year. He
served' in the first Burmese war. In 1827, he was appointed, by Lord Combermere,.
to the post of adjutant of the military depot at Chinsurah, on the breaking-up of
which he returned to his regiment. Shortly after this he visited Calcutta ; and
having passed the examination in languages at Fort William, was appointed
adjutant of his regiment by Lord William Bentinck. In 1838, Sir Henry was
appointed to a company.' He served through the Afghan campaign, and was
present at the storming of Ghuznee. Next we find him in the Punjaub ; then in
Cabul, under Sir. Eobert Sale, where, for his services, he obtained, his brevet
majority, and was made a Companion of the Bath. In*1843, Major Havelock was
with the troops at Gwalior, and at the battle of Maharajpore; shortly after which
he obtained the brevet rank of Ueutenant-colonel ; and, in 1845, he proceeded,
with Lord Hardinge and'Lord Gough, to the. Sutlej, and was actively engaged' at
the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, and Sobraon. On the conclusion of the Sikh
war, he was appointed deputy adjutant-general of the queen's troops at Bombay.
Thence he obtained sick-leave, and visited England; returning to India in 1851.
Lord Hardinge, who had watched Havelock's career with great interest, then made
him quartermaster, and afterwards adjutant-general of -the queen's forces in India.
When the Persian war broke out, in 1856, he was sent there, and led the troops at
Mohammerah. On his return, he was wrecked off Ceylon, in his passage to Cal
cutta. When the vessel .struck, between twelve and one in the morning, half a
gale of wind blowing, Colonel Havelock sprung upon deck, and seeing some con
fusion, said, in that sharp military tone that always commands attention — " Men !
be steady, and all may be saved ; but if we have confusion, all may be lost. Obey
your orders, and think of nothing else." They did so, and behaved in the most
exemplary manner. The lives of all on board were saved ; and, on the following
day, all were landed, together with the mails and specie. Immediately afterwards,
Colonel Havelock mustered the men on the shore, and said — " Now, my men, let us
return thanks to Almighty God, for the great mercy He has just vouchsafed to
us." They all knelt down, and he uttered a short prayer of thanksgiving. Another
anecdote, illustrating his character, may be given here. When he was travelling
in India, he always took with him a Bethel tent, in which he preached the gospel ;
and when Sunday came, he usually hoisted the Bethel flag, and invited all men to
come and hear the gospel : in fact, he even baptized some. He was reported for
this at head-quarters, for acting in a non-military and disorderly manner ; and the
commander-in-chief, Lord Gough, entertained the charge ; but with the true spirit
of a generous military man, he caused the state of Colonel Havelock's regiment to
be examined. The reports descriptive of the' moral state of various regiments
throughout the presidencies were obtained, and laid before him. These were
severally referred to for some time back, and he found that Colonel Havelock's
regiment stood at the head of the list : there was less drunkenness, less flogging,
less imprisonment in.it than any other. When that was done, the commander-
in-chief said—" Go and tell Colonel Havelock, with my compliments, to baptize the
whole army."
Upon the colonel's return to Calcutta, almost the first news that met him was
»the report of the mutinous outbreak at Meerut and Delhi. He was immediately
despatched to Allahabad, to command the movable column employed against
the rebel force under Nana Sahib. How he succeeded in his perilous task we have
already described. For his first exploit, in the early summer of 1857, he was
rewarded with a good-service pension of £100 a year. Subsequently he was
raised to the rank of general ; and other honours followed. By his sovereign, the
distinction of Knight Commander of the Bath was awarded. The Houses of Par
liament voted him a pension of £1,000 a year for two lives. He was made colonel
of the 3rd Buffs, and a baronet. But he had passed away ere inteUigence of
the fresh honours reached him. The honours which the father needed not, were
lavished on his family. His son was made a baronet, and promoted to a majority :

a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the mutiny checked.
Ms wife was ordained to " have, hold, and enjoy the same style, title, place, and
precedence to which she would have been entitled had her husband survived." His
bust was placed in the Guildhall of the city of London ; and for his surviving
daughters, a provision was made by the public at large. The Times correspondent
thus" described him— " A slight, spare man ; about five feet five inches in height ;
with an emaciated face, and an eagle eye. He belonged, emphatically, to the class
who have never to contend with disobedience or mutiny. As a general, he was
the best tactician we have had in India ; and as an officer, though stern, and some
times exacting, his antique heroism made him the idol of the men. He was,
perhaps, the bravest man in his own army, and never so chatty and agreeable as
when under fire."
Cawnpore had been left by Sir Colin Campbell under the command of General
Windham, the hero of the Eedan, who had with him about 3,000 men, besides
artillery. It is said that his orders from Sir Colin were on no account to risk an
engagement. However, on hearing that the Gwalior rebels were advancing on
Cawnpore, General Windham went out to attack them. After defeating a body- of
undisciplined rebels, he allowed himself to be taken by surprise. Still, one of the
British regiments charged a battery of the enemy's, and took it. The rebels
retired before them; and if these brave men had been supported, it is presumed
that victory would have attended their efforts. They were, however, left alone,
and the enemy closing on them, they were compelled to abandon the guns they
had obtained. Confusion soon prevailed — no decisive orders were issued, and the
British troops had to beat a hasty retreat into their intrenchments, leaving their
stores and camp equipage in the hands of the enemy. Our loss was heavy, and
several of our men, and even some of our officers, were captured. On the following
day the enemy attacked the intrenchments, commencing with a heavy cannonade.
General Windham attempted a sortie, in which, after some hard fighting, the
Eifles managed to capture two guns, but the British right was driven back with
much loss. On this occasion the sound of the firing reached the ears of Sir Colin
Campbell, who was returning from Lucknow to Cawnpore ; and, at the same time, a
messenger arrived with a critical account of the state of Windham's party. Had
the rebels at this time cut the bridge of boats, which afforded the only means of
communication with Oude, Sir Colin would have found.it a difficult matter to
cross the Ganges; but not expecting his return, and making sure of Wind
ham's force, they were, probably, anxious to avail themselves of the bridge, to
crush the forces under Sir Colin Campbell; and this negligence proved fatal to
them. With his artillery and cavalry Sir Colin marched thirty-eight miles in
fifteen hours; crossed the Ganges by the bridge on the night of the 28th- and
the next day fell upon the rebels, and drove them back. He then returned to
escort the ladies and the wounded across the river, which he did successfully
though threatened on the left hand by the Oude insurgents.
For the present no further military events of importance took place in India.
Ihe mutiny had received some check, but it was far from being crushed. The
whole province of Oude remained in the hands of the rebels. Notwithstanding the
detachments arriving from England, the cry was still for more troops. The work of
the British army in India at this time is thus stated by a writer at Calcutta :— " It
has to conquer Oude, defended by 60,000 soldiers, aided by the armed budmashes
or bravoes, numbering 200,000 more. It has to reconquer the north-west, now
overrun by armed ruffians, animated by the bitterest hate. It hap to garrison a
country as large as Austria, filled with armed men. It has to protect Bengal, a
country 10,000 square miles larger than Great Britain. It has to garrison Cal
cutta. It has to watch 20,000 disarmed, but unpunished sepoys: and all this
time it is losing numbers, at the rate of 150 per battle, or about 300 per week,
exclusive ot the losses caused by sickness and drinking."
Early in 1858, Sir Colin Campbell advanced upon Furruckabad, and took
possession of it after defeating the rebels. It is impossible here to give a complete
V ULi. JLI . y i pi.

the imaumbarra.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
history of the war, which was rather a succession of skirmishes than decided by
any great events. Distinct operations were carried on under Sir Colin Campbell,
Sir Hugh Eose, General Whitelock, and General Eoberts. Early in the year the
aged King of Delhi was placed upon his trial, and found guilty of participating in
the rebellion against the British authority in Delhi, and the inhuman massacre of
our countrymen and countrywomen which attended the result. Some time elapsed
before sentence was pronounced. It was banishment for Ufe ; and he was ulti
mately removed, with a few attendants, to Eangoon.
Sir Colin Campbell was making preparations for another advance on Lucknow,
after whioh he contemplated pouring down all the British forces upon Oude, in the
hope of thus crushing out the head of the rebellion. Many minor operations took
place, and the rebels experienced several reverses ; but Lucknow, where the begum,
one of the ex-king's wives, had a numerous army intrenched, was the theatre in
which the next important act was to be played. Sir Colin had returned to Cawn
pore, and, after collecting, his resources, advanced upon Lucknow, before which the
British force was concentrated. On the 6th of March, General Campbell had with
him more than 20,000 troops, and 160 guns.
On the 11th, the British were joined by the Maharajah, Jung Bahadoor, and
the Ghoorka force under his command. On his march on the 5th, a division
of the army under Captain Plowden, defeated the enemy, 4,000 strong, who
attempted to defend the passage of the Kindoo Nuddee. Soon after his arrival,
he took up a position between the British troops and the Alumbagh, from whence
his troops were sent in aid of the attacking force, as occasion required. On the
day of Jung Bahadoor's arrival, ' the begum's palace was stormed and taken by
the British troops, chiefly Highlanders, assisted by the Sikhs. The rebels were
unnerved at the prospect of a hand-to-hand encounter with our brawny soldiers.
Many fled at once, and were pursued, and shot down in the court-yard without
resistance: others fired their muskets or matchlocks once, made a random thrust
with tne bayonet, and ran also ; others, surprised in holes and corners, fought
with the ferocity of wild beasts. One officer of the 93rd killed, with his own hands,
eleven sepoys, whom he shot with his revolver or sabred in the court-yard. By
5 P.M. the palace was in the hands of the Highlanders and the Sikhs, who
were rioting amidst the ruins of mirrored and brilliant saloons. " Some of these,"
said a spectator, " were veritable chambers of horrors. I looked in at two such
rooms, where, through the dense smoke, I could see piles of bodies ; and I was
obliged to own that the horrors of the hospital at Sebastopol were far exceeded
by what I witnessed. Upwards of 300 dead were found in the courts of the palace;
and if I put the wounded carried off at 700, we may reckon that the capture of the
place cost the enemy 1,000 men at least." The works of the British were then
carried beyond the palace towards the Imaumbarra— a noble mosque, regarded
as one of the finest in India— and the batteries and mortars were brought to bear
on that position, and the buildings near it. A cannonade was kept up on it, and on
the Kaiserbagh, during the night of the 13th. On the 14th, the Imaumbarra was
stormed and taken ; the enemy, dismayed by the stern onslaught, and by the fierce
fire of our artillery, abandoned their position, and fled in disorder into the
Kaiserbagh, which is described as "a series of palaces, kiosks, mosques— all fanciful,
oriental architecture; some light and graceful, others merely fantastic and curious,
connected generally by long corridors, arched and open in the front, or by extensive
wings, which enclose the courts and gardens contained, within the outer walls."
So disheartened were the rebels, or so resolute was the attack, that the Kaiserbagh
was soon taken. Our troops were delighted with the gay dresses they found; and
it was with difficulty that they were induced to take off the crowns of lace, and
peacock s plumes, and birds of paradise feathers, which they stuck over their heads
and shoulders. In one room was found an immense amount of jewellery, and other
valuable property, which had belonged to the King of Oude. Two English ladies,
who had long been in captivity, were discovered, and restored to Uberty.
186

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [settlement of oude.
By the 19th of March, the whole of Lucknow was in the hands of the British.
The number of guns captured amounted to 117. About 2,000 of the rebels wero
slain during the siege. They had previously fled in great numbers, and as many
as 50,000 made for Eobilcund and Bundlecund. Great exertions were made, as
soon as the plundering was over, to restore order. Protection was extended to the
townspeople, and the submission of the principal landowners was accepted.
Whilst we write, news reaches us from India of the satisfactory settlement
of the land question in Oude — a measure which has been described as the proudest
monument hereafter of Sir John Lawrence's viceroyalty. To understand it, we
must pause awhile, and return to the very beginning of things. When the Mogul
conquerors descended upon Delhi, and founded their dynasty in the North- West,
Oude was one of their acquisitions, and they made a viceregal appanage of it
under a Moslem nawab. But Oude was full, beforehand, of a strong and prOud
Brahmin and Eajpoot nobility, much like the Dane and Saxon ruling in England
when the Normans came. Hence the nawabs soon found themselves obliged to
make terms with the Hindoo barons, who thus remained upon their various fiefs,
"thanes and earls" in the land, paying tribute to the central government at
Lucknow, but occasionally rebelling when the screw was put on too tightly, or
the bajri crops happened to prove bad. As time went on, the Mohammedan vice-
court became the most sensual and abandoned in India, while the barons, or
" Talookdars," grew more turbulent and independent. Lucknow, under its last
king, was positively the Gomorrah of the East : its revenues were all spent on
fiddlers and courtesans; filthy vices occupied the palace; the lazy soldiera
plundered the townsmen in lieu of pay. Meanwhile, in the country districts,
the Talookdars waged war with each other, or with the royal troops ; but, in eithei-
case, harried the fields and villages of the unhappy cultivators, whose only chance
was to get the protection of some one of the robber chiefs, so as to be fleeced
by him alone. At the time of the annexation of Oude, these hereditary rascals
had each his stronghold in the heart of some cactus jungle. If no cactus and
thorn were growing conveniently, he tore up the crops, planted whole tracts with
„ it, and sallying thence he fed his " budmashes" with plunder — slaying, ravishing,
roasting aUve, and burning in oil the wretched peasantry. The Court neither
would nor could interfere ; we gave the destroyers unnumbered chances and warn
ings ; and, at the last, confiscating the province, in accordance with our public
obligations and treaties, we brought the detestable House of Lucknow to a condign
end. Something else also came — the mutiny ; which was undoubtedly incited and
abetted by the savage discontent of the native soldiery of Oude, whom the change
of masters had turned loose, and, by the disgust of tbe Hindoo Talookdars, at the
advent of law and order into the land.
The mutiny broke forth, raged, and was erushed out — one of the last rebels to
surrender being a grim, ugly, square-built chief of Oude, named Maun Singh, who
is now the ornament of the province, but whose neck had then the narrowest
possible escape from the halter. We, in our turn, found the Talookdars as stiff-
backed and strong as the Moslem had found them before us ; and to secure their
surrender, Lord Canning was fain to offer them very favourable terms. Their
jungle lands were, according to the viceroy's circular, to be assured to them by
" sunnud" or charter ; and the queen's proclamation spoke also the same indulgent
language. Thus — and herein is the gist of the whole business — when India waa
quiet again, and we began to think anew of what was to be done for unhappy
Oude, we found our efforts to elevate the peasantry checked, first, by the pledge
which had been given to the Talookdars ; and, secondly, by a class of sub-pro
prietors, midway between the two orders, who in many districts shared the title to
the land, being the relics of those original Eajpoot and Brahmin farmers who had
been mainly swallowed up by the few great chieftains. The righteous, constant,
and paramount desire of Sir John Lawrence was to give the peasants, if it were
possible, a secure occupancy of the soil, and thus to make our rule, what would
0 2 187

sir hugh rose.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
finally justify it, a blessing. Against him, writers at home, and officials in India,
urged the claims of the Talookdars — the sub-proprietors being, to say the truth, a
little driven out of sight in the discussion ; and for two years the question of
¦ oriental tenant-right has " raged," if that phrase can apply to the leisurely way in
which all policy must be pursued with the thermometer at 90 degrees. It was, in
fact, the eternal problem of all political economists transferred from print to
practice ; and such was the fierce ignorance of Tory views at home and in India,
that pets were made of the Talookdars, and people shuddered at the beneficent
viceroy, who "wanted to pull down the aristocrats, and establish a territorial
democracy." Even if inquiry had shown that a peasant proprietorship had once
existed, there would still have remained for fulfilment the hasty pledge made to
the Talookdars. But inquiry could not show it : all ancient rights were buried in
the ruin of a century of horrible anarchy ; the wretched people stood without claim
or plea; and the viceroy found himself foiled and misinterpreted. Sir Charles
Wingfield, the commissioner, negotiated with the Talookdars in vain, and a year ago
the Oude land question seemed hopeless.
But the Talookdars themselves felt that the good-will of Sir John Lawrence
and his advocates towards the Oude ryots could not for ever be void of effect; so
the negotiations were renewed, and they have now been terminated in a satisfactory
compromise. When we say that the Oude nobles, with Maun Singh at their head,
gladly agree to the terms of the settlement, not a word need be added as to its justice
towards them. Never yet in India — perhaps not very often elsewhere — did " those
who have" surrender more than they could possibly help. But the Talookdafs are
now confirmed in their estates and pre-annexation rights ; and as they are already
becoming the mildest-mannered country gentlemen, devoted to expositions of
industry and education, instead of throat-cutting, our formal concession makes
them friendly to us for good and all, until luxury and peace put an end to the race.
With respect to the sub-proprietors, the Talookdars agree to recognise as rights the
tenures that have hitherto been held only as " favours," while government accepts
part of the seignorial loss that may accrue. Thus, at a stroke, has been created a
substantial class of yeomen, or the nearest thing to it, which India can furnish.
If the great predial treaty stopped here, bitter would be the injustice to the ryots,
and heavy the disappointment to well-wishers of India, including, we are convinced,
the wise viceroy himself. But, by a third most important arrangement, a tenant-
right is conferred upon the peasants, so that no man can be evicted without re
ceiving due compensation for his improvements, though the landlord may compound
by transferring him, with a new and proportionally favourable lease, elsewhere.-'
So momentous an innovation renders the liberal policy of Sir John Lawrence, after
all, victorious. When the new guarantees shall be thoroughly understood, we
believe that Oude will possess a settlement that will redeem her millions of ryots,
and make the country smile again with the glorious fertility and prosperity which
the old " shlokes" recount with such delight. Each Talookdar is made our friend;
each Talook is rescued from the old entanglement of proprietary and ex-proprietary
rights ; above all, the humble peasant may at last grub up his jungle, or dig his
well or build his bund, or wall his tank, in the certainty that the work of his
hands will not be lost to him.
But we return to_ the mutiny. Five days after the rebels had been expelled
from Lucknow^ a considerable detachment of the British army, under the command
of Brigadier Walpole, marched for Eohilcund, in pursuit. This movement was
undertaken m the anticipation that tbe fugitives from Lucknow would concentrate
themselves at Bareilly. At the same time, successful operations against the rebels
took place in other districts. Jhansie, in Central India, where about 12,000 of the
insurgents had taken up a position, was invested by the force under Sir Hugh
Eose._ On the 1st of April, 25,000 rebels, with eighteen guns, endeavoured to raise
the siege, and were defeated, with the slaughter of 1,500 men. The town and
fortifications were captured on the 2nd; and, on the 5th, the garrison escaped from
188

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [death of sir w. peel.
the fortress during the night. Great numbers were cut to pieces in the flight ;
about 3,000 perished.
The capture of Lucknow was not, however, attended with such important
advantao'es as at first anticipated. The rebel force, though driven from the city,
was not destroyed, but remained in arms in various parts of the country. Nana
Sahib, the inspiring genius of the rebellion, and the director of the massacres at
Cawnpore, still remained at the head of a considerable force, and baffled the
attempts to capture him, notwithstanding that a reward of 50,000 rupees, which
had been set upon his head by the Governor-general, was increased to one lac,
accompanied by a promise of a free pardon to any one who might deliver him up.
Some slight reverses were also experienced by the British — one near Allahabad,
and the. other near Azimghur. Colonel Mileman, commanding at the latter post,
having defeated and dispersed a body of rebels at Atrowlia, on the morning of the
21st of March, found them assembUng again in such large numbers while his men
were preparing breakfast, that he was compelled to retire, first to his camp, and
then to Azimghur, leaving some of his tents and baggage, of which the rebels took
possession. The rebels who fled to Eohilcund and Bareilly, submitted to a new chieftain,
one Bahadore Khan,' who had risen to distinction from the ranks. This man
commenced building up a regular administration, collecting revenue, and striking
coins in his own name. A hot weather campaign was inevitable ; and Sir Colin
Campbell made his preparations accordingly. Leaving a body of 8,000 men, under
Sir H. Grant, at Lucknow, and placing small garrisons at Cawnpore, and other
points, the commander-in-chief proceeded with the remainder of his forces, not
exceeding 8,000 men, to Eohilcund, where he suffered, as he had done all along,
from want of men. Jung Bahadore, our ally, and the Nepaulese contingents, fell
back upon their own frontier, to protect it from the rebels ; and Sir Colin had, with
his handful of troops, to follow up the enemy in large masses, and to reduce vast
provinces. The strongholds of rebelUon were broken up by our generals, at Delhi,
Lucknow, and elsewhere; but, unfortunately, always with the same result. The
sepoys retired, after suffering a loss but trifling in comparison with their numbers.
Oude remained unconquered; and beyond the suburbs of Lucknow, the country
bristled with fortresses, the strongholds of powerful zemindars, many of them able
to command the services of thousands of armed peasantry. The insurrectionary
war now assumed a new phase, and one of a most embarrassing kind to the
historical narrator. A war, in the European sense of the word, no longer existed;
for there was no central point. Instead of one great campaign, there were several
little ones, all tending to delay the desired pacification. But this was slow work ;
indeed, in the opinion of many persons in India, it was considered that anarchy
must be looked upon as an established institution for many years to come.
Thus, Brigadier Walpole experienced a reverse in his advance on Eohilcund,
being repulsed in an attack on the fort of Ehodamow, in Poonah, on the 14th of
April, when Brigadier Adrian Hope was killed ; and the total loss in killed an£
wounded was near a hundred. On the 22nd, however, he defeated a large body of
the enemy at Seisa, where they lost 500 men. On the 28th, Sir Colin Campbell
joined Walpole, and a combined movement on the place was completely successful.
But the day before, the British had experienced a great loss in the death, from
small-pox, at Cawnpore, of Sir William Peel, who had so gallantly commanded the
naval brigade in India and the Crimea, and who was wounded in the last advance
on Lucknow. From Bareilly, Nana Sahib and Khan Bahadore escaped, to prolong
the struggle in other quarters. No sooner was Bareilly in our hands, than Sir
Colin Campbell learned that the 82nd was besieged in the gaol of Shahjehanpore, by
8,000 rebels. Brigadier Jones was instantly despatched to relieve them, a service
which he successfully accomplished. The Gwalior contingent, after being defeated
by Sir Colin Campbell earlier in the year, took up its quarters at Calpee. This
body of men, amounting to about 25,000, had all the organisation of a regular
18'J

successes of the English.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.

army, and was composed of the best native troops in India. For some time they
had remained inactive at Calpee, an excellent strategetical position, on the banks
of the Jumna, within fifty miles of Cawnpore. From this point they could, at any
time, menace the flank and rear of the British Une of operations. Sir Hugh Eose,
who had fought his way across the peninsula, came into the neighbourhood of
Calpee in the middle of May. The Gwalior men attacked him twice as he
advanced, and were eaeh time repulsed with loss. On the 23rd of May, he entered
Calpee, which the enemy made no effort to defend. They fled across the Jumna,
leaving large stores of guns and ammunition behind. A flying column, sent in
pursuit, inflicted great loss on the retreating rebels.
Eohilcund, by this time, was entirely in the power of Sir C. Campbell ; but
while our troops were beating the enemy wherever they could, fresh disturbances
were breaking out all over the country. Lucknow was again threatened by a force
from the north ; and the Southern Mahratta country was still threatened by the
insurrection of petty chiefs, who carried on a wearisome guerilla warfare. During
this period our troops suffered severely from the heat, and our losses from the
climate far exceeded those sustained in battle. Under such circumstances, the
campaign was terribly costly to European life. The rebels, accustomed to the
scorching heat, could outmarch our troops, and when driven from the position in
which they made a stand, were usually able to retire in tolerable order. Thus the
main body of the Gwalior contingent, after being driven from Calpee by Sir Hugh
Eose, were rallied by Tantia Topee, and, being reinforced by other bodies of rebels,
proceeded rapidly to Gwalior, where they arrived on the 1st of .June. The loyal
Maharajah Scindia marched out at the head of a small force to meet them, in con
sequence of the defection of his own troops. He, with difficulty, escaped to Agra ;
his palace was plundered, and his fort seized by the rebels. After the latter had
entered Gwalior, they proclaimed Nana Sahib as Maharajah, and assigned them
selves six months' pay. The treasury and a portion of the town were plundered by
them ; but their triumph was of short duration. Sir Hugh Eose marched upon
Gwalior, and, after a severe fight of four hours, captured it on the 20th of June.
The victory was a brilliant one ; but the foe escaped nevertheless. Twenty-seven
guns, numerous elephants, and a quantity of treasure rewarded the victors ; and
Scindia, on the very day of the battle, was restored to his palace in state.
Other successes followed; the cause of tbe rebels was evidently hopeless: but
the insurrection was prolonged nevertheless. The rebels appear to have fought
with the desperation of despair : but people desired a return to order and tran
quillity. Nowhere was the pressure from the war felt more heavily by the native
population than in Oude : but then there were many leaders of the revolt, besides
the begum, who still maintained herself at the head of 16,000 rebels. She was
defeated by Sir Hope Grant at Nawabgunge, on the 14th of June, with great loss.
Mr. Montgomery soon after arrived at Lucknow, with full powers from the
Governor-general to take what steps he deemed necessary to re-establish order,
and so judicious were his measures, that considerable progress had been made in
that direction towards the end of July. About the same time, Sir Hope Grant,
hearing that the rebels were in great force at Tyrabad, marched upon that city.
The enemy broke up, and dispersed as he approached; and he entered the place,
unopposed, on the 29th. In August they were found again collected atSultanpore,
on the Goomtee. Sir Hope Grant followed them; and, after skirmishing and
fighting from the. 25th till the 29th, they were driven from the town, and fled
to Sassenpore. By the occupation of Sultanpore, the communication between
the great body of rebels (which continued in the north of Oude), and the marauding
bands that infested the districts of Azimghur and Goruckpore, was cut off. The
military operations were continued in Oude, through the months of September and
October, under the direction of the commander-in-chief, now Lord Clyde. Before
commencing his campaign, his lordship issued a proclamation to the people, in
which protection was promised to all, "from the Talookdars to the poorest ryots,"

a.d. 1857. VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [warnings of the mutiny.

Who made no resistance; but wherever resistance was offered, the inhabitants
were told they must expect to bear the fate they had brought upon themselves.
All the movements in Oude were attended with success on the part of the British
forces. The same was the case in the other parts of the North-Western Provinces,
and in Central India, where parties of rebels were still found. Sir Edward Lugard,
Sir H. Eose, Brigadiers Whitelock, Eoberts, Wetherall, Eveleigh, Jones, Napier,
Penny, and other officers, were constantly engaged in pursuing and defeating the
rebels, who everywhere had a marvellous faculty of escaping their pursuers. The
fact is, that none of the British detachments had a force of light cavalry sufficient
to follow up their victories ; and the rebels, less encumbered with baggage, and
better acquainted with the country, had no difficulty in evading pursuit.
And now let us speak of the mutiny in general. As we have seen, it was a
terrible affair. It began and ended in blood and fearful crime ; but it might have
been worse. We might have fought a hopeless fight. vVho saved us? The
native princes. As respects them, writes Mr. Ludlow, " it were fit that we should
open our eyes to the fact, that their faithfulness has, on this occasion, saved India
for us. Notwithstanding our Lawrences, our Neils, our Nicholsons, our Wilsons — ¦
notwithstanding the chivalry of our Outrams, the pure heroism of our Havelocks
— notwithstanding the ever-to-be-remembered defences of Agra and Lucknow, or
of that billiard-room of Arrah, we could not have held our ground but for the
abstinence of almost all the native princes from aggression — the active co
operation of a few. Had the Nepaulese descended from their mountain fast
nesses upon Calcutta —had the Burmese poured in upon it through Chittagong — ¦
had Golab Singh, or the noble chiefs of Puttiala or Jheend, made appeal to the
patriotism of the Sikh Khalsa — had Scindia or Holkar placed themselves at the
head of their revolted contingents — had the chiefs of Eaj poo tana sprung to the van
of a Hindoo insurrection — had the Nizam proclaimed tothe Indian Mahommedans
the holy war — had any one of these events happened, I say — and who dare assert
what disasters might not have occurred ? — had several of them happened at once, as
tbey might very likely have done, and what English life in India could have escaped
destruction ? It is easy to accuse these men of selfish motives. I dare say such
may have mingled in their conduct. But I believe it would be neither wise nor
right to inquire too curiously into it. The generality of the fact is the best proof
that some higher, more humane motive than fear or cunning must have prompted
it. Such a conspiracy of prudence was surely never witnessed among them. A
prevalent good faith is the only rational solution of the mystery. Yet I believe
these men, one and all, have had" better cause of complaint against us."
Another thing very remarkable, is the utter insensibility to the real danger,
which seems to have completely prevented the ruling class from taking alarm, or
preparing for defence. Warnings were given them of all kinds. It was reported
to the authorities that the chowkeydars, or village policemen, were speeding from
Cawnpore, through the villages and towns of the peninsula, distributing on their
way chupatties, or small unleavened cakes. The cakes were passed on from one to
another with the most extraordinary rapidity. The English officials were bewil
dered, and did not know what to make of it ; yet, even then, it was argued by
some that the thing was something analogous to the fire-cross of our Highlanders
in earlier times. Early in January, an incendiary address, written in Hindostanee,
was placarded at Madras, calling upon all true believers to rise against the English
infidels, and drive them from India. In Oude a person had been arrested going
about with similar proclamations ; and, on the 6th of February, a lieutenant of a
native regiment, stationed at Barruckpore, disclosed to his colonel some proceed
ings, which afforded ample ground for believing tbat the sepoys contemplated an
outbreak, during which they intended to kill the European officers at the station;
and, after plundering it, to destroy the place, and retire towards Delhi. The com
munication was duly reported to the general commanding the district; but no
further notice was taken of it. In Oude discontent was apparent, and a conspiracy

WARNINGS DISREGARDED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A-D- t'857.
of a most formidable nature was discovered in the Bengal army in May ; yet the
confidence of the government on its own resources remained unabated.
It may be said, if the officers had done their duty, they would have been able
to detect the bad feeling among the men. In reality, the tie which ought always
to exist in our army was rudely loosened. The power to punish had been taken
out of the hands of the commanding officer, and transferred to head-quarters.
While this system destroyed the influence of the officers, it, at the same time,
materially diminished the interest they took in the men only nominally under
their control. The sepoys themselves were by it taught to look beyond their own
officers, and to hold their authority in contempt. A return of the number of peti
tions and appeals against the orders of their officers, presented by sepoys to head
quarters within the past ten years, will fully establish this fact, and show that the
due exercise of authority on the part of regimental officers, was almost an impos
sibility. High-spirited officers would prefer exercising no authority at all over
their men, to the liability of having their acts called in question, and their orders
often modified and reversed. The result was, that to maintain things quiet in a
regiment became a great object, and hence an undue leaning on leading men in
the regiment to maintain order and discipline in the corps. These men, of course,
employed their influence to introduce their friends and relatives into the regiment^
which, in course of time, became great families, recruited from the same districts and
the same classes, and thus closely bound together by ties of relationship and local in
terest. This system, while it has the advantage of maintaining order and unanimity
in a corps— a matter of vital importance to officers whose hands are tied — had thus
great danger of affording peculiar facilities for safely and secretly intriguing, and
for dangerous combination. Then, again, the practice, latterly so prevalent, of
withdrawing for staff employ all those officers who possessed interest, or were of
supposed superior abilities, engendered an unhappy feeling of degradation in the
minds of officers, as attaching to regimental duty, and thus still more weakened
the bonds of sympathy and attachment between them and their men. To these
causes, added to the mental closeness and secrecy natural to tbe people of India, is
to be attributed the ignorance, on the part of the officers, of the intrigues and con
spiracies existing in their regiments.
The government had been forewarned by some of the ablest men we ever had
in India. Sir Thomas Munro, years ago, testified to the danger of the native army
revolting. ,
In 1844, Sir Charles Napier wrote — "I see the system will not last fifty years.
The moment these brave and able natives know how to combine, they will rush on
us simultaneously, and the game is up." He planned, even then, how, " if forced
to fight for life and India," we could close en masse, " to retire on Calcutta or
Bombay, with all the Europeans, civil and military, and any faithful native troops.
This may seem a wild idea of danger; but it is not impossible, and we should
always be prepared; for if ever mischief comes in India, it will come like a
thunderbolt." Four years later his own opinion was pretty well made up, that our
power in India " was crumbling very fast." He could not agree with Lord Ellen
borough as to the revision of the Company's charter in that year being the last
revision of the charter during his life. "I think you will live to see a much
rougher revision than people imagine, or than we shall like in England. * * *
I do not expect to see this, but I think you will ; and grieved you will ¦ be to see
that empire lost, which you have done all that mortal power could to save."
In language equally emphatic, General Biggs had warned the government of
the effect of the policy which it seemed bent on pursuing. " If you do away," said
he, "with the right of adoption, with respect to the princes of India, the next
question will be, whether, in the case of estates which you yourselves have conferred
on officers for their services, or upon other individuals for their merits, they should
be allowed to adopt? * * * * If you are to do away with the rights of
iy j

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the east india company,
individuals to adopt, you wiU shake the faith of the people of India ; you will
influence that opinion which has hitherto maintained you in your power, and that
influence will thrill through your army. * * * * Your army is derived from
the peasantry of the country, who have rights ; and if these rights are infringed
upon, you will no longer have to depend upon the fidelity of that army. You have
a native army of 250,000 men to support your power, and it is on the fidelity of
that army your power rests. But you may rely on it, if you infringe the institu
tions of the people of India, that army will sympathise with them, for they are
part of the population ; and in every infringement you may make upon the rights
of individuals, you infringe upon the rights of men who are either themselves in the
army, or upon their sons, their fathers, and their relatives. Let the fidelity of your
army be shaken, and your power is gone."
Yet all the while they were mutinying at Meerut. Lord Canning persisted
in maintaining there was nothing in it ; and the commanding officer at Delhi took
no steps to prevent the rebels from Meerut rushing into the town, and actually
marched out native troops to meet them, who, of course, joined them at once.
If such things were done in India, there is an excuse for the official ignorance
of Mr. Vernon Smith, who, as President of the Board of Control, informed the
House of Commons on the 11th of June? in answer to questions asked by Mr. Eich
as to the state of the Bengal army, that, "As the question might have been
founded on the unfortunate occurrences which had recently taken place in India, it
might be desirable that he should state that those occurrences were in no way to be
attributed to the absence of officers from their regiments ;" and he expressed a
hope that the public would be under no alarm on that subject, as owing to tbe
promptitude and vigour which had been displayed by his friend Lord Canning, and
the excellent demonstrations which had been made upon the occasion of the
disbandment of the 19th regiment by General Hearsey, "the late disaffection
among the troops in India had been completely put an end to /"
The result of this mutiny was tbe suppression of the East India Company's
rule. The system of government under it was cumbrous, wasteful, inefficient, and
dishonest, as a piece of administrative machinery; and, as a form of rule, peculiarly
iU-adapted to fix the affections and loyalty of the native races of India.
Practically, it failed in every one of the requisites of good government. Mr.
Ludlow writes —
" It has failed to give security to persons or property throughout by far the
greater portion of India; sometimes by leaving the subject exposed to the open
violence of brigands ; always by placing him at the mercy of oppressive and fraudu
lent officials. " The judicial system is costly, dilatory, and inefficient.
" The revenue system, contrary to almost every sound principle of political
economy, seems devised, in its different branches, so as to promote the largest amount
of oppression, extortion, and immorality.
" As a matter of fact, the population are, in most parts of the country, sinking
aUke in physical condition and in moral character.
" Many of the above-mentioned evils are of British introduction ; others have
been aggravated under British rule.
"The good which has been done— due in almost every instance to the special
efforts of individuals, and generally thwarted at first — has been, for the most part,
extremely trifling or partial, and superficial.
" The most magnificent public works, such as the canals of the north, and its
once metalled road, became wholly insignificant when compared with the vast
number of works executed in native times — many, in some districts most, of which
remain yet in a state of decay, though the cess payable for their maintenance, or the
increased assessment, due in respect of the surplus value which they are supposed
to create, may still be exacted.
" A wholly new vice, drunkenness, has been introduced among the Hindoo
' ' 193

lord palmerston's bill.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.

population ; is largely spreading, and is fostered by the exigencies of the public
revenue. " In that part of India which lies most open to independent observation-
Bengal — sullen discontent is declared to characterise the rural population.
" In that part which has, by universal consent, engaged the largest share of
government favour, a military revolt has stalked, well-nigh unchecked, through the
land ; and, in many places at least, the village population have risen upon European
fugitives. " Such are the results of one century of the Company's rule in India." So writes
Mr. Ludlow ; and, as such seemed to be the general impression, the Company's
rule passed away.
Lord Palmerston had previously made an attempt to legislate on the subject.
On the 12th of February, 1858, his lordship moved for leave to bring in a bill for
transferring from the East India Company to the crown the government of her
majesty's dominions in the East Indies. He brought forward this measure, he said,
not out of any hostility to the Company on the ground of any delinquency on their
part, or as implying any blame or censure on that body, which had done many
good things for India, and whose administration had been attended with great.
advantages to the population under their rule. The Company's political authority,
he observed, had not been conferred ; it had grown up gradually and accidentally
from small beginnings — factories extending to districts, and districts being enlarged
into provinces. When, however, their commercial privileges were withdrawn, the
Company became but a phantom of what it was, and subsided into an agency of the
imperial government, without, however, responsibility to parliament, or any im
mediate connection with India. He pointed out the inconveniences of the double
government, by the Board of Control and a Court of Directors, elected by a body
consisting of holders of East India stock. He admitted that a system of check
was beneficial ; but check and counter-check might be so multiplied as to paralyse
action, and he thought that it was desirable that this cumbrous machinery should
be reduced in form to what it was in fact, and that complete authority should rest
where the public thought that complete responsibility should rest, instead of
nominally in an irresponsible body, ostensibly a company of merchants. The bill
would be confined to a change of the government at home, without any alteration
of the arrangements in India, the intention being to alter as little as possible,
consistently with the great object in view, the establishment of a responsible
government for India, as for other countries of the crown. He proposed that the
functions of the Court of Directors and the Court of Proprietors should cease, and
that there should be substituted a president and council for the affairs of India.
The president to be a member of the cabinet; and the councillors to be named by
the crown, eight in number, who should be appointed for eight years. It was
proposed that the decision of the president, who would be the organ of the.
government, should be final; but that, if the councillors dissented from his
opinion, they should have the right to record their opinion in minutes ; and on
matters concerning the Indian revenue, it was intended that the president should
have the concurrence of four councillors. He proposed that the council should
have the power of distributing the business among themselves ; that the president
should be placed upon the footing of a Secretary of State ; and that the councillors
should have salaries of £1,000 a year. It was proposed that, while all the powers,
now vested in the Court of Directors should be transferred to this council, all
appointments in India, now made by the local authorities, should continue to be so
made ; that the president should be authorised to appoint one secretary, capable of
sitting in that House; but it was not proposed that the councillors sho.uld be
capable of sitting in parliament. There was one matter of constitutional difficulty
which, he remarked, had always been the foundation of an objection to this
change— namely, the patronage. With regard, however, to the local appointments,
they would continue to be made in India. Members of the local council, Ukewise,
194

a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [end of the e. i. company.

would be made by the Governor-general. Arrangements had already been made by
which writerships were obtained by open competition, and this system would be
continued. Cadetships had hitherto been divided between the Court of Directors
and the President of the Board of Control, and it was proposed to leave them to
the president and council. The final appointment of both would depend upon
their efficiency in India. A certain portion of the cadetships would be reserved for
the sons of Indian officers. There would, therefore, be no additional patronage
thrown into the hands of the government which could provoke the slightest
constitutional jealousy. As the president and council would possess the powers of
the existing secret committee, it was proposed that, in any case where orders were
sent to India involving the commencement of hostilities, they should be com
municated to parliament within one month. The revenues of India would, of
course, be appUed solely to the purposes of Indian government ; and auditors would
be appointed to examine the expenditure of the revenue, and their audit would be
laid before. parUament. In conclusion, Lord Palmerston replied to anticipated
objections, expressing his opinion that the change he proposed, while it strengthened
the power of England in India, would, on the other hand, better enable the
government to discharge those duties towards the people of India which it was
intended this nation should perform. Mr. T. Baring moved, by way of amend
ment, " That it is not expedient to legislate upon the government of India." The
amendment was negatived by 218 to 173 ; and leave was given to Lord Palmerston
to bring in his biU, which, however, fell to the ground, in consequence of the noble
lord's resignation of office.
The act for the better government of India received the royal assent on the
2nd of August, and came into operation on the 1st of September, 1858. By its
provisions all the governing powers of the East India Company are transferred
to the crown, with all the Company's rights, territories, revenue, and liabilities.
The powers heretofore vested in the Court of Directors, Court of Proprietors, and
the Board of Control, are centred in a minister of the crown, called her majesty's
Secretary of State for India, to be assisted by a council of fifteen members, seven
of whom were, in the first instance, elected by the Court of Directors, and eight
nominated by the crown. These members to hold their offices for life, or during
their good behaviour ; they are not eligible to seats in parliament, and receive
a salary of £1,200 per annum, with a retiring pension, after ten years' service,
of £500. Vacancies amongst the nominated members are to be filled up by the
crown, and amongst those chosen by election ; the remaining members of the
council being the constituency. Lord Stanley was appointed the first Secretary
of State for India.
The Court of Directors met on the 7th of August, and proceeded to the
election of the seven members of the council, whose appointment was left in their
hands'. Their choice fell upon members of their own body, all well acquainted
with India— viz., Sir James Weir Hogg, Mr. Charles Mill, Captain Shepherd,
Mr. Eliot Macnaughten, Mr. Eoss Donelly Mangles, Captain Eastwick, and Mr.
Prinsep. The crown appointed Sir John Lawrence, Sir H. C. Montgomery, Sir
Frederick Currie, Major-General Sir E. Vivian, Colonel Sir P. Cantley, Lieut.-
Colonel Sir Henry C. Eawlinson, Mr. John Pollard Willoughby, and Mr. William
Arbuthnot. These members were divided into three committees : — 1. Home and
public works. 2. Political and military. 3. Eevenue, judicial and legislative
Sir George Clerk and Mr. Henry Baillie were appointed Secretaries of State for
India, and Mr. James Cosmo Melville, who had been Deputy Secretary to the
East India Company, Assistant Under-Secretary. Mr. John Stuart Mill, Secretary
to the Company, declined accepting any office, though pressed to do so by Lord
Stanley, on account of ill-health.
The East India proprietors held their last meeting, as governors of India and
lords of its territory, on the 30th of August. Their closing acts were to vote an
annuity of £2,000 per annum to Sir John Lawrence, for his great services in India ;
195

ldrd canning.! LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857,

and to pass votes of thanks to the chairman, vice-chairman, and members of the
Court of Directors, and their officers. The proprietors still exist as a company to
administer their property, known as East India stock ; and directors are elected as
usual, with the powers of the directors of a joint-stock company. The amount
of India stock is £12,000,000, and upwards of £300,000 pass through the directors'
hands every year for the payment of dividends. The body is still, therefore, an
important one in a business point of view. Its meetings continued to be held
at the India House, Leadenhall Street ; and Lord Stanley selected that house for
the offices of the new council, as being more convenient, in every respect, than the
offices of the Board of Control, in Canon Eow. Ultimately, however, the council
emigrated to the west; the India House was pulled down; its museum was
dispersed, and not a vestige of it now remains.
At a dinner of the Fishmongers' Company of London, at which Lord Stanley
was present, his lordship thus referred to the change which had been effected
in the government of India, and said — " I do not stand here for the purpose of
reviving, or even alluding to past controversies ; but this I may be permitted to-
say, that throughout those parliamentary discussions which ended in the transfer
of the Indian government from the Company to the executive of this country, that
change was uniformly represented by me, and by those colleagues with whom
I acted, as not involving any sentence of condemnation against the administration
of that great Company whose century of empire has come to an end. We looked
upon it, and I think rightly, as a change which was the natural and even necessary
result of the lapse of time, and the progress of events. I believe the change will
be productive of benefit to India. I hope it will lead to a larger introduction into-
that country of European energy, enterprise, and thought ; but I cannot conceal
from myself, I cannot conceal from you, that that change has greatly increased the
responsibilities of the government of this country, which has to guard against
a double danger. First, they have to protect India from all the fluctuation of
parliamentary politics ; and, secondly, they have to guard England from the more
remote, but not, perhaps, the less real, risk which may arise from the connection of
its executive with an executive that is purely despotic."
But we must not forget Lord Palmerston. As usual, we find him ready to
take up arms on behalf of the absent. In 1857, at a banquet at the Guildhall on
the inauguration of the mayoralty of Sir Eichard Carden, his lordship, after paying
a deserved tribute to the valour of the troops, and to the endurance of those who
had suffered in India, said — " While we do justice to the great bulk of our
countrymen in India, we must not forget that person who, by his exalted position,
stands at the head of our countrymen there. I mean the Governor-general. Lord
Canning has shown throughout, the greatest courage, the greatest ability, and the
greatest resources ; and from the cordiality which exists between him, as head of
the civil service, and Sir Colin Campbell as head of the military service, we may be
sure that everything which the combined experience of both can accomplish, will
be effected for the advantage of the country. The task of Lord Canning will ber
indeed, a difficult one. He will have to punish the guilty ; he will have to spare
the innocent ; and he will have to reward the deserving. To punish the guilty
^exceeds the power of any civilised man ; for the atrocities which have been com
mitted are such as to be imagined and perpetrated only by demons sallying forth
from the lowest depths of hell. But punishment must be inflicted, not only in
a spirit of vengeance, but in a spirit of security, in order that the example of
punished crime may deter from a repetition of the offence, and in order to ensure
the safety of our countrymen and countrywomen in India for the future. He will
have to spare the innocent ; and it is most gratifying to him, tbat while the guilty
may be counted by thousands, the innocent must be reckoned by millions. It is
most gratifying to us, and honourable to the people, that the great bulk of the
population have had no share in the enormities and crimes which have been com
mitted : they have experienced the blessings of British rule, and they have been
196

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [royal proclamation.
enabled to compare it with the tyranny exercised over them by their native chiefs.
They have, therefore, had no participation in the attempts which have been made
to overthrow our dominion. Most remarkable it is, that the inhabitants of that
part of oui empire which has been most recently annexed (I mean the Punjaub),
who have had the most recent experience of the tyranny of their native rulers,
have been most loyal on the present occasion, and most attached to their new and
benevolent masters. Lord Canning will also have to reward the deserving ; for
many are they, both high and low, who have not only abstained from taking part
in this mutiny, but who have most kindly and generously sheltered fugitives,
rescued others from the assaults of the mutineers, and have merited recompense at
the hands of the British government, I am convinced, that if Lord Canning
receives (as I am sure he will) that confidence on the part of her majesty's govern
ment, and of the people of this country — without which it is impossible for a man,
in his high position, to discharge the duties which have devolved upon him — it
will be found, when this dreadful tragedy is over, that he has properly discharged
his duty ; and that his conduct has been governed, not only by a sense of stern and
anflinching justice, but also by that discriminating generosity which is the peculiar
characteristic of the British people."
The next thing to be done was to let the Indians know of the change of
government. Accordingly, a proclamation was issued, setting forth the fact, and
announcing to the native princes of India, that all treaties and engagements made
with them, by or under the authority of the Honourable East India Company,
were accepted by the queen, and would be by her maintained. The proclamation
continued — "We desire no extension of our present territorial possessions; and
while we will permit no aggression on our dominions or our rights to be attempted
with impunity, we shall sanction no encroachments on those of others. We shall
respect the rights, hpnours? an(l dignities of. native princes as our own, and we
desire that they, as weU as our own subjects, should enjoy that prosperity and that
social advancement which can only be secured by internal peace and good govern
ment. We hold ourselves bound to the natives of our Indian territories by the
same obligations of duty which bind us to all our other subjects; and those obli
gations, by the blessing of Almighty God, we shall faithfully and conscientiously
fulfil. Firmly relying ourselves on the truth of Christianity, and acknowledging
with gratitude the solace of religion, we disclaim alike the right and the desire to
impose our convictions on any of our subjects. We declare it to be our royal will
and pleasure, that none be in anywise favoured ; none molested, or disquieted, by
reason of their religious faith or observances; but that all shall alike enjoy the
equal and impartial protection of the law; and we do strictly charge and require
all those who may be in authority under us, that they abstain from all interference
¦with the religious belief or worship of any of our subjects, on pain of our highest
displeasure. And it is our further will, that, as far as may be, our subjects, of
whatever race or creed, may be freely and impartially admitted to offices in our
service, the duties of which they may be qualified by their education, ability, and
integrity, duly to discharge. We know and respect the feelings of attachment
with which the natives of India regard the lands inherited by them from their
ancestors, and we desire to protect them in all rights connected therewith, subject
to the equitable demands of the state ; and we will that, generally, in framing
and administering the law, due regard be paid to the ancient rights, usages, and
customs of India."
The document next took up the subject of the rebellion; and her majesty
said, that having shown her power "by the. suppression of that rebellion in the
field," she was now desirous of evincing her "mercy by pardoning the offences of
those who had been misled, but who desired to return to the path of duty."

How received.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d.'1858.
lives only could be guaranteed to such as had " wilfully given asylum to mur
derers, knowing them to be such ;" those who had acted as " leaders or instigators
of rebellion," could only be placed in the same category ; but to " all others in
arms against the government, unconditional pardon, amnesty, and oblivion of all
offences" against the qiteen, her crown and dignity, were promised, if they made
their submission before the 1st of January, 1859. "And," said her majesty, in
conclusion, " when, by the blessing of Providence, internal tranquillity shall be
restored, it is our earnest desire to stimulate the peaceful industry of India, to
promote works of public utility and improvement, and to administer its govern
ment for the benefit of all our subjects resident therein. In their prosperity will
be our strength ; in their contentment our security ; and in their gratitude our
best reward. And may the God of all power grant to us, and to those in
authority under us, strength to carry out these our wishes for the good of our
people." This important document was received at Calcutta in October, and arrange
ments were made for publishing it throughout tbe presidencies and the North-
West Provinces, simultaneously, on the 1st of November. Great preparations
were made at Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay, and all the other principal towns in .
the British dominions, in order that the ceremony might be marked with that
solemnity and imposing pomp which ought to characterise an event of such im
portance. Throughout India, the 1st of November, 1858, seems to have been a
day of rejoicing, the event being commemorated in much the same way as we
celebrate festivals in England — by the ringing of bells — by processions, with
bands of music — by military spectacles — by public dinners and illuminations.
Everywhere the proclamation was hailed with tokens of approval, and was fol
lowed by addresses to the queen from the native inhabitants of ali the principal
places ; and the spirit with which it was received by that numerous class may be
judged of by the following extracts from the addresses signed by her "majesty's
native subjects residing in the town and island of Bombay." Having referred to
the importance of the change of government, the address thus proceeded : —
" Firmly persuaded, as we are, that the great principles of moderation, impar
tiality, and justice, characteristic of your majesty's government in all parts of the
British empire, will henceforth, as ever, be scrupulously recognised, we venture to
offer to your majesty our humble and hearty congratulations on the assumption of
your royal supremacy over this vast country ; and we beg leave, at the same time,
to express our cordial hope, that the important change of administration which has
been thus inaugurated, may have the effect of placing your majesty's rule in India
on a basis still more secure than that upon which it has rested for so many years.
With earnest prayers for the welfare of your majesty ; of the prince, your illus
trious consort ; and of your royal family ; as well as for the speedy restoration of
tranquillity in the disturbed provinces of British India, and for a long continuance
of peace and tranquillity in your majesty's dominions — we, with the profoundest
respect, subscribe ourselves your majesty's most devoted, humble, and dutiful
subjects." The native chiefs also expressed their pleasure at the change ; some of them
in addresses to the queen. Loyal effusions, copied from the Persian poets, were
* circulated among the Mahommedan population ; loyal prayers were put up in the
synagogues of the Jews; and the assumption of the raj, or government, by the
queen was hailed by the loyal in India with delight.
One of the first effects of the proclamation was the submission of the Eajah
Lall Madhoo Singh, who went into the British camp on the 10th of November ; and,
in the night, his troops evacuated the fort of Amethie, which had been held against
Lord Clyde. The fort of Simree, in Oude, had been taken by Brigadier Eveleigh
on the 9th ; and several other forts were surrendered shortly after — the Talookdars
sending in their submissions, and giving up their arms. In Eohilcund the pro
clamation also had the most salutary effect ; the people of all classes receiving it
198

A.B. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [English sympathy.

universally in the spirit which it was intended to evoke. This was its effect
generally amongst the people in the disturbed districts; but the begum, Nana
Sahib, Tantia Topee, Feroze Shah, and other rebel chiefs, knowing themselves to be
excluded from the amnesty, remained in arms, and many followers rallied round
them. Military operations, therefore, could not be discontinued. Yet, by the end
of November, Lord Clyde informed the Governor-general that, in Oude, "he
advanced in line (extending over a length of 200 miles), stretching from the con
fines of Eohilcund to Allahabad and Azimghur, and had suppressed everything like
rebellion, in a large sense of the word, beyond the Gogra, with the sole exception of
the Seetapore districts, which were about being settled by Brigadier Barker." By
the end of the year Oude was nearly free from rebels ; the people were quiet and
contented, and the revenue well paid.
The opening of 1859 found the authority of the queen acknowledged
throughout Oude and Central India. Tantia Topee had been chased, during the
months of November and December, from every position he took up. He had, it
was supposed, been joined by Prince Feroze Shah, who had made his escape from
Oude ; and both those chiefs suffered repeated defeats, losing elephants and guns on
every occasion. One of the most decisive affairs connected with Central India, took
place on the 29th of December, when the troops under Major-General Whitelock
stormed the heights of Pan warree, where a noted chief, the Eajah Eadho Govind, had
intrenched himself with a very numerous force. The rebels were totally defeated
and dispersed ; Eadho Govind, his brother, and upwards of 300 of his followers,
were killed ; and his elephants, guns, and state howdah captured. In this district
there still remained, for some time, bodies of men in arms ; but by the time the
cold weather of 1859 had passed away, the embers of dissatisfaction had been
trodden out. Tantia Topee was caught and hanged. The Nawab of Furrucka-
bad surrendered ; he was tried, sentenced to death, and ultimately banished. Many
estates of mutinous zemindars were confiscated, and the gallows ended the
miserable lives of some of the most culpable of the assassins.
Brilliant as had been the conduct of British officers and soldiers in previous
campaigns in India, they never displayed so much heroism as in this prolonged
contest with the mutineers. Marvellous instances of intrepidity are on record ;
and the patience with which long marches and exposure to the burning sun were
borne, is utterly beyond all precedent. Their valour and constancy had its
reward. Sir Colin Campbell, as we have already intimated, became Lord Clyde.
The honours of the Bath were freely distributed to the generals and field-officers
who had particularly distinguished themselves. The thanks of both Houses of
Parliament were voted to the troops; and appointments, of great value, were
conferred upon Sir James Outram, Sir John Lawrence, Sir Edward Lugard, and
others of the number who had been most conspicuous in daring operations. Not
a few of the bravest men received the Victoria Cross, in recognition of their
gallantry. Medals were struck to commemorate the defence and relief of Lucknow,
and the capture of Delhi ; and several regiments were allowed to bear the titles of
their victories upon their colours. To three or four of the European corps (the
64th, 78th, and 86th), departing for England, after the work had been completed,
the community of Bombay gave a magnificent banquet; and the 14th Light
Dragoons received a present of a library.
The sympathy of the nation also displayed itself on a grand scale. In August,
1857, the merchant princes of London held a meeting, presided over by the Lord
Mayor, for the purpose of collecting money for the relief of our suffering fellow-
countrymen and countrywomen in India, whom the mutiny had plunged into poverty
and distress. In an hour £10,000 were subscribed. The example was cheerfully
followed throughout the entire kingdom, and contributions poured into the bankers
in one uninterrupted stream of national liberality. Her majesty and the royal
family headed the list; and the nobility, and all other classes, united with each
other. In a short time the Indian relief fund had acquired colossal dimensions. 199

arrival of refugees.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.

By the first mail that left England after the mutiny, a sum of £200,000 was
remitted to Calcutta by the Lord Mayor, as the first instalment resulting from the
meeting held at the Mansion-house on the previous day. Within a fortnight the
Mansion-house Indian relief fund reached the sum of £35,836 13s. 83.; and
by the close of the year, the amount of subscriptions, from all sources in the
country, exceeded £350,000 sterling, and was still progressing. Among the
singular anomalies that were presented in the formation and course of this great
national act of liberality and benevolence, it is upon record, that the East India
Company, of all the corporations in the kingdom, was the only one that did not feel
itself called upon to contribute to the relief fund. The plea urged by the chairman
of the Court of Directors for refusal being — " That the greatest care should be
taken to prevent private liberality from being damped. There were many who would
refuse to subscribe if they could say that government would make good all losses.
It was impossible that government could reach all cases; and he could not
conceive a nobler opportunity than this for the exercise of individual charity."
In the House of Commons, on the 28th of August, Sir De Lacy Evans inquired,
" whether it would be consistent with the feelings of government to give orders
that the widows and children of the military and civil victims of the mutiny
in India, should be brought home, free of cost, by the returning steamers and
transports ?" — and was informed by the chairman of the Board of Directors, that the
authorities in India had been instructed to give the most ample assistance to all
who were destitute, including not only the civil and military services, but all
classes of the community — an announcement which was received with marked
satisfaction, both by the House and the country.
Nor did the benevolence of the public end here. As soon as, in 1857,
the Colombo arrived at Southampton with the first batch of women and
children saved from the mutiny, in accordance with the regulation of the relief
committee, the Lady Mayoress, accompanied by one of the under-sheriffs of London,
proceeded to the vessel to carry solace and comfort to the mourners. The Mayor
of Southampton, attended by the superintendents of the Peninsular and Oriental
Company, and by Dr. Symes, a resident in the town (who had fitted up apartments
in his house for the reception of any of the destitute sufferers who would avail
themselves of his hospitality), were early on board the Colombo. The Lady
Mayoress, on reaching the deck, being conducted to a cabin by the captain, the
object of her visit was communicated to the passengers with much delicacy and
feeling. A correspondent, describing the interesting scene at the moment, says —
" Many relatives and friends of the passengers, who had anxiously awaited their
arrival, also came on board, and their meeting was an affecting sight. They
embraced each other in seeming unconsciousness of the presence of strangers, and
paced the deck with their arms encircling each other's waists. A great number of
the passengers went ashore in one of the small steamers. A crowd of persons was
in the dock ; and here, also, affectionate greetings took place between long-absent
friends and relatives, which drew tears from many a bystander. There were about
sixty children on board the Indian mail-packet, a large portion of whom were
infants in arms, all hurried out of India, on account of the fearful atrocities com
mitted there. The scene on board the Colombo was very different from that which
¦ usually takes place on board homeward-bound Indian packets. The usual female
passengers on board these ships are ladies in the gayest spirits, and dressed in the
gorgeous silks and shawls of the East ; but many of the lady passengers of the
Colombo bore marks of great suffering and anxiety, and their dresses betokened
their losses, and the rapidity of their flight from the mutinous districts. Many of
these passengers escaped from Delhi, Lucknow, and other parts of Oude. Fortu
nately they started from these places at the commencement of the mutiny. The
language of their husbands was—' Get out of the country, with the children, as
soon as you can, and never mind us.' Many of them have never heard anything
of their husbands since. Some of the ladies escaped nearly naked ; lived in the
200

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [fasts proclaimed.

jungle for days, with their infant children starving, and rarely able to get a
handful of rice to satisfy the cravings of hunger. Few villagers were willing
to assist them ; and many of those who were willing were afraid to do so. Not the
least interesting refugee on board the Colombo was a little dog. It had escaped
from Delhi by faithfully following its mistress and her children ; and had nearly
paid a heavy penalty for its fidelity. Its back had been literally burnt by the sun,
and is not healed yet. Some of the passengers give a frightful picture of the state
of Calcutta, and the interior provinces of India." And by such means the excite
ment and sympathy of the British public, all over the land, was strengthened
and sustained. A few days after the Colombo had discharged her valuable burden, another
vessel arrived, bringing also 150 fugitives, who had fled from the inhospitable soil
of Hindostan. Many of these individuals were from Cawnpore, Allahabad, and
other places in the Upper Provinces ; and some had fled from Bombay, Madras,
. and Calcutta, through an undefined sense of impending evil. The scene presented
at the meeting of these passengers with their friends, was one of overwhelming
exeitement ; and many around were moved to tears by the unutterable anguish that
was presented to their gaze. About forty children, many of them orphans, came
by the Indus; and among the passengers was Lieutenant Chapman, nineteen
years of age, who was shot by the mutineers at Benares, when a bullet went
through his cheek, and carried away part of the roof of his mouth, so that his
speech was now scarcely intelligible. Captain Montague also came home wounded
in the same steamer. He belonged to the irregulars, and was in command of a
eompany of Sikhs with General Havelock's army, and fought on the march to
Cawnpore. He lost his two children from want and exposure while coming down
the Ganges from Allahabad. This officer well knew Nana Sahib, and was present
at a ball given by him at Cawnpore about a month before the mutiny broke out.
It was the most magnificent ball ever given at Cawnpore. All the English were
present, most of Whom were afterwards mercilessly slain by order of their quondam
host. Captain Montague and his wife left Cawnpore before it was captured by the
mutineers. Amongst other reports, the passengers said that almost the only man
who had escaped the massacre of Cawnpore had gone raving mad. This was an
officer named Brown, who, after he got away, suffered great hardships, and lay
hidden in a nullah, without food, during three days and three nights. It was also
stated by them that Miss Goldie, a very beautiful young lady, was taken by Nana
Sahib to his harem, and was believed to be living. Many English were still at
Calcutta when the steamer left that port, who had had narrow escapes from the
infuriated wretches who were devastating the English stations. These were ex
pected to follow by successive mail-packets. Some of the passengers reported that
a lady had arrived at Calcutta, previous to the departure of the steamer, who had
had both her ears cut off by the rebels. This was, perhaps, one of the least horri
ble in the series of outrages alleged to be systematically perpetrated by the Hindoo
and Mahommedan fanatics, in their wild attempts to gratify their hatred and
revenge — a hatred and revenge destined soon to reap what it had sown.
Fasts were proclaimed in England and Scotland; and Cardinal Wiseman
directed all good CathoUcs to join in a similar observance. The different religious
bodies in England, unconnected with the state church, also set apart the day indi
cated by the royal proclamation for solemn observance, and collections in aid of the
relief fund ; and a committee of the general assembly of the church of Scotland
sanctioned a gathering throughout their several presbyteries for the like purpose.
In every case, the appeal made to the sympathies and liberality of the people was
nobly responded to by the whole nation.
The religious public felt it was time for them to move. At a meeting of the
Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in India, held at Willis's rooms, the
Archbishop of Canterbury in the chair, it was resolved —
" 1. To double at least the number of the society's European missionaries ia
VOL. it p 201

the army discontented.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
India, and to promote, by every available means, the education, training, and
ordination of the more advanced native converts for the work of the Christian
ministry among their own countrymen.
" 2. To found new, and strengthen existing, missions in the presidential and
other principal cities of India, wherever there may appear to be the best opening,
with a view to bring the truths of Christianity before the minds of the upper as
well as of the lower classes in those great centres of population.
" 3. To press again upon the attention of the Indian government the urgent
necessity of a subdivision of the enormous dioceses of Calcutta and Madras ; and
especially to insist upon the desirableness of establishing a bishopric for the
Punjaub: another for the North-West Provinces; and a third for the province of
Tinneveliy." By 1859, the mutiny in India had been so far suppressed, that, ik .April, it
was ordered, by "her majesty in council, that his grace the Archbishop of Canter
bury do prepare a form of prayer and thanksgiving to Almighty God for the
constant and signal success obtained by the troops of her majesty, and by the
whole of the forces serving in India, whereby the late sanguinary mutiny and
rebellion, which hath broken out in that country, hath been effectually suppressed;
and the blessings of tranquillity, peace, and order are restored to her majesty's
subjects in the East; and it is ordered that such form of prayer and thanksgiving
be used in all churches and chapels in England and Wales, and in the town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed." A similar order was also made, extending to Scotland.
Yet, at this very moment, a question was raised which threatened materially to
disturb the promising aspect of Indian affairs. On Sunday, the 1st of May, the
very day on which the people of the United Kingdom were offering their tribute of
thanksgiving for the successful results of the war, a trooper of a cavalry regimenl,
stationed at Meerut, reported to his officer, that meetings of Bengal artillerymen
and troopers of the 2nd cavalry had been held, on the subject of their transference
to the crown without being re-enlisted and attested, and receiving free bounty-
money — a procedure which they looked upon as illegal and unjust — and that they
were deliberating upon the means to obtain a formal discharge from the service of
the Company, prior to entering upon any military obligation to the crown. The
importance of this communication rendered immediate steps necessary to ascertain
the fact of the objection, and the extent to which it had spread among the
Company's troops ; and information was conveyed to General Bradford, commanding
the district, who, the same day, held a council of war, at which it was decided to
seize the ringleaders of the movement. Subsequently, the general had the good
sense to adopt a milder course ; and, on the 2nd, the garrison was ordered out, each
regiment on its own parade-ground. The general, with Brigadier Horsford, then
inspected the Bengal horse artillery; after which the latter officer addressed the
men, expressed his regret at the information which had been forwarded to head
quarters, and called upon such of them as were content to remain in the service of
the queen to step forward. Although the appeal was answered by the prompt
advance of about two-thirds of the men present, it was deemed advisable to deprive
the corps of its small arms, and confine the men to quarters. The general then
proceeded to the parade-ground of the 2nd regiment of Bengal cavalry, where a
similar proceeding took place ; and it was here ascertained that a plan of resistance
to their regimental officers and superior commanders, had not only been organised
by the malcontents, but that, at one moment, they were on the point of breaking
into open hostilities against the government. Lord Clyde was telegraphed for, and
calmed down the excitement by promising the men inquiry into their grievances.
The men were right, and it was a pity that the authorities had made such a stupid
blunder at such a time. As the men had enlisted into the East India Company's
service, they were not bound to serve when that Company had ceased to exist. The
discontent which had exhibited itself at Meerut was not, however, confined to that
station. Allahabad, Berhampore, Lahore, and Gwalior, were equally disquieted;

a.d. 1S59.1 VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the talookdars.

and it was rumoured, and beUeved, that her majesty's 75th regiment, sympathising
with the grievances of their new comrades in the service, intimated that it would
not act against them. Ultimately, it appeared that the wise measures taken by
Lord Clyde allayed the discontent.
Opinions had been expressed in the course of the mutiny, and the measures
taken for its suppression, adverse to the government of Lord Canning. It was
alleged that he had been supine and timid ; unnecessarily curbing or suppressing
the press of India ; tardy in sending reinforcements to threatened points ; and,
subsequently, malignant and vindictive in his retributive proceedings. But the
ministry, and the officials about him, knew that all these charges were utterly
without foundation in fact, and owed their origin to the apprehensions of the
writers, and their ignorance of the character of the man they assailed. Lord
Canning was described, by one who knew him well, as a man possessed of remark
able analytic power ; of great ability of investigation ; of a habit of appreciating and
weighing evidence; as just and moderate, and calmly judicial. His opinions once
formed, were not easily, if ever, to be shaken ; and his mode of investigation was
elaborately careful, slow, and sure. The Secretary of State wisely resolved on
retaining Lord Canning in the post of Governor-general, convinced that he
possessed all the requisites for healing the wounds which rankled in India, and
placing affairs upon a firm and satisfactory basis.
Lord Canning's first act was to proceed up the country, and hold durbars and
levies among the native princes, chieftains, and zemindars, who had been loyal or
friendly at a time of general defection or indifference. In Oude he restored to the
landowners all their great privileges, and manifested the most perfect confidence
in their future loyalty. They, on their part, recognised his sense of justice ; and,
in a grateful spirit, announced to him that they had resolved to banish infanticide
among themselves. The Talookdars addressed Lord Canning in strains peculiarly
oriental. He accepted their address for what it was worth ; and, knowing that
some of them had been lukewarm, and others positively hostile towards the
government, he replied to them in very plain English. After enumerating the
happy changes whieh had been wrought in Oude within two years of the extinction
of mutiny, Lord Canning said —
" You have seen it proved before your eyes that there is no nation, no race
or multitude of you, which can hope to brave the power of the English government
with impunity.
"You have seen that those who resist or cross that government, it is sure and
swift to punish ; although, justice satisfied, it is eager to forgive and to forget."
The Talookdars accepted the monition with a good grace, and have not
forgotten the strength or the significance of the language addressed to them by
the representative of the sovereign of India.
At Agra, Lord Canning announced to the Maharajah of Gwalior, that he had
determined to augment his territory to the extent of £30,000 per annum, and gave
him permission to increase the strength of his army. The maharajah's arrears of
tribute were further remitted ; and, what was more agreeable to him than any other
recompense of his fidelity in the hour of danger, he was authorised to adopt a
successor in default of Uneal issue. Suitable rewards were likewise bestowed upon
the Eajah of Jeyporeand the Nawab of Tonk, who had been found faithful amongst
the faithless. On some of the princes the Most Exalted Order of the Star of
India was conferred. This order was expressly established for the purpose of
affording the princes, chiefs, and people of India a signal and public testimony of
the queen s regard— a commemoration of her assumption of the government of the
territories, and a means of enabling her to reward conspicuous merit and loyalty.
The order is as select as that of the Garter. It consists of only twenty-seven
recipients — the sovereign, the Prince of Wales (who is the grand master), and
twenty-five knights. The insignia of this rare distinction may be thus described :—
Ihe collar is of gold and enamel, composed of the lotus of India, palm branches,
p2 203

wastelands.] LIFE AND TIMES OF 1 A.D. 1860.
and the united red and white roses. In the centre of the enamel is the imperial
crown. The badge suspended to the collar is an onyx cameo of Queen Victoria's
effigy, set in an ornamental oval, containing the motto, " Heaven's light is our
guide." The badge is surmounted by a star, in diamonds. The mantle of the
order is of light-blue satin.
Among the princes and chiefs whose fidelity to their engagements the viceroy
had to recognise, was her highness the Secunder Begum of Bhopal. Attired in a
green kincaub tunic, and pantaloons embroidered with gold, and wearing a heavy
cloth of gold around her head and shoulders, gold brooches at her neck and waist,
and a pair of gloves upon her hands (in which respect she presented an exception to
the other three knights of the order), her highness accepted the honour conferred
upon her with becoming grace. Lord Canning accompanied the installation of the
begum with these words —
" Your highness is very welcome to this durbar. I have long desired to thank
you for tbe services which you have rendered to the queen's government.
" Your highness is the ruler of a state which is conspicuous in Indian history
for never having been in arms against the British power ; and lately, when that
state was beset and threatened by our enemies, you, a woman, guided its affairs
with a courage, an ability, and a success, that would have done honour to any
statesman or soldier. Besides the great service of repressing revolt around you,
and of securing the safety of all Englishmen (amongst whom was the agent of the
Governor-generalJ, you never failed to aid and expedite, to the utmost of your
power, all bodies of British troops that came within your reach."
Lord Canning concluded by granting the begum the sovereignty of the
district of Baireal, formerly a dependency of the state of Dhar, to which the latter
had forfeited all claim by its active participation in the rebellion.
Lord Canning had now a further opportunity of distinguishing himself, by
throwing open all the waste lands of India to cultivation by Europeans. The civil
war in America had deprived us of our usual cotton supplies. India appeared to
offer the largest field for the supply of the requisite article. A Cotton Supply
Association had been formed five years previously. Large sums were subscribed in
1861, in aid of its augmented duties, and a fair prospect appeared to be opening
for the remedy of the mischief resulting from the loss of the American supplies.
Lord Canning saw his opportunity. He at once proclaimed the waste lands of,
India available for purchase by Europeans, and placed the price of land in fee-
simple so low, that it was expected many men of capital and enterprise would resort
to the country for purposes of settlement, and improve and extend the cultivation
of the soil. Associations were formed in England to assist persons in purchasing
the lands on the advantageous terms offered to the public, and a considerable
amount of capital was at once embarked in an undertaking which promised to be
remunerative. But the Secretary of State for India did not see fit to approve of
the step taken by Lord Canning, and therefore put his veto on the regulations.
previously passed by the Governor-general. For reasons of state policy not fully
disclosed, Sir Charles Wood further refused to allow the collectors upon the
Madras establishments to remit any of the permanent revenue upon land in favour
of persons who might wish to devote that land to the improvement of native
t°^HL«ai. * *l essential for any Praetical purpose," wrote the Secretary of State for
India, that the possibility of growing the improved cotton to advantage should be
subjected to lands liable to the ordinary charges in India; and therefore any
remission of rent is not only objectionable on principle, but renders the trial quite
unsatisfactory. I therefore request that the instructions given on this subject may
be withdrawn. The grand object of the government appears to have been, of late
years to reduce the amount of the state debt of India, and to realise as much
immediate revenue as, combined with financial economy, would meet all the current
charges, and leave a surplus. To do this may have appeared incompatible with any
concessions having only a remote good in view; and hence some of the sluggishness

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sir c. trevelyan.
that has been apparent in the improvement of the growth of Indian cotton. Still
a great deal has been accomplished in tbe right direction : and in proportion as
railways increase in number, and the means of water-carriage in India are multiplied,
the commercial and agricultural resources of India will doubtless receive ample
development. In 1860, the cotton imported into England from India amounted to
340,000 cwt.; in 1861, to 342,000 cwt.; and, in 1862, to 1,247,875 cwt.
In many respects the future for India promises well. Before the close of the
year 1860, the capital authorised to be raised, under the government guarantee of a
certain per-centage, for the construction of railways, a steam flotilla, and the irriga
tion of the southern territories, amounted to £38,000,000 sterling, of which nearly
£32,000,000 were at once paid up. Nearly 5,000 miles of railway had in this manner
been opened. In all directions India will be connected by means of the iron road.
One circumstance which essentially contributed to the railway enterprise, was
the report of certain geological surveyors, who had commenced their investigation
eight years previously. No fewer than 11,000 specimens of various kinds of
minerals had been collected by them in that space of time ; and from these were
deduced unmistakable proofs of the existence of coal and other substances which
enter largely into the economy of civilised life.
The telegraph has advanced as rapidly, or rather more rapidly, than the
railways. India is, by means of it, only a few days' distance from London.
In 1860, the Wuzerees, a turbulent tribe, occupying a range of hills not
far from Tonk, murdered a British officer — Captain Mecham — and otherwise
molested her majesty's subjects. The surrender of the murderers was demanded ;
and, no heed being taken of the demand, a force was organised, under Brigadier
Chamberlain, an officer of gallantry and experience, to punish the crime, and obtain
possession of the offenders. The force got through the difficult passes ; frequently
encountered the enemy in great numbers ; and, after several battles, in which
numerous Wuzerees were killed, Brigadier Chamberlain burnt their dwellings
and their forts, and returned to the plains by the 16th of May, 1861. The troops
under Chamberlain penetrated into an unknown territory further than we had
ever done before; terrified the only great tribe which had never been chastised ;
and added to our prestige in the eyes of other clans which had long witnessed the
successful defiance, by their neighbours, of British power. More than this, the
veil which had covered the topography of the country was completely lifted by
Major Walker, who succeeded in mapping the whole territory most accurately and
fully. The last settlement captured was 7,000 feet above the sea.
The new mode of government promised well in other matters. Sir Charles
Wood evinced a disposition to discharge the duties of his office with special
reference to the welfare of the country, and to avail himself of the resources of
the ablest men who had already become distinguished in India. Vacancies
occurring in the governorships of Bombay and Madras, he conferred the former
appointment upon Sir George Clark, who bad proved himself a most efficient envoy
in the Punjaub, and afterwards as governor at the Cape of Good Hope ; and the
latter upon Sir Charles Trevelyan. Sir Charles was a young civilian during the
Indian administration of Lord William Bentinck, and had attracted much
attentionby the originality and the comprehensiveness of his political views.
Establishing a family connection with Lord Macaulay, the orator and historian,
he returned with him to England ; became an Under-Secretary of State ; and
manifested a large capacity in certain measures for the relief of the Irish during
one of the ever-recurring potato famines. As governor of Madras, he introduced
a variety of wholesome changes; simplified and economised the business of
government ; and gave an impetus to the course of education, and the propagation
ot the gospel. But he was not long in possession of the office. An indiscretion,
which neither the Governor-general nor the Secretary of State could overlook,
led to his recall. J 205

famine IN INDIA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 186 1.
,  ,  ..  _  ,  .  ^
To place the finances of India upon a footing that should enable th?
revenue to meet the expenditure, and leave a surplus, the Eight Hon. James
Wilson, whose familiarity with fiscal matters had raised him from the editorship
of the Economist to the position of Secretary to the Board of Control, was sent
out to India as a member of the supreme council, with special instructions to apply
himself to the financial question. Mr. Wilson, after a short stay, procured an
act to be passed, which imposed a tax on all persons receiving more than 200
rupees per annum, and taxes on licences ; and adopted other means of increasing
the resources of the government. The income-tax caused in India, as it has done
everywhere else, a great outcry. Sir Charles Trevelyan deemed it objectionable on
certain high grounds of state policy, and was so imprudent as to publish a
minute, containing his views and sentiments. The opinion of such a man was of
much weight ; but it was held to be calculated to encourage the community in the
hostility to the tax, which had already been openly manifested ; and, upon this
ground, Sir C. Wood recalled him ; and subsequently, that the country might not.
lose the benefit of talents which were valuable when tempered by discretion, ap
pointed him to the council of the viceroy.
Mr. Wilson dying suddenly, Mr. S. Laing, a member of parliament, much
distinguished as a political economist, was appointed his successor j but, after a few
months' stay, was compelled by ill-health to return to England.
One of the measures adopted by the government for the purpose of increasing
the revenue of Oude, was to throw open the cultivation of opium to the people at
large ; and Exeter Hall was dumb.
Another measure carried into effect was an Arms Suppression Bill. As long
as the natives had carried arms for mere show, the practice was not to be con
demned ; but where, as recently had been the case, these arms had been turned
against us, it was time to interfere. The Europeans felt this as a grievance; for, to
them, arms had been literally no more than a protection, and a very necessary one.
The government were alive to this ; and if it could have been so arranged that
the one class should be allowed to retain its weapons, while the other was disarmed,
without creating bitter feeling by the invidious distinction, the European' might
have been indulged. As it was, any partiality seemed out of the question, except
in the instances in which the European chose to enrol himself as a member of one
of the volunteer corps. On this condition alone the European was permitted to
retain his arms, when a decree went forth disarming all the rest of the population.
An Arms Bill had been found to answer in Ireland : why not in India ?
A terrible calamity, in 1861, offered the new government a favourable oppor
tunity of indicating its benevolence. The failure of the crops of 1860, owing to a
paucity of rain— an evil against which it seems impossible to guard in some°part*
of India— induced a deplorable famine early in the ensuing year, and the people
were reduced to the most horrible condition. The western part of India was the
chief scene of the fearful visitation. In February, 1861, the calamity had
reached so terrible a height, that the poor, incapable of walking, crawled from place
to place in search of a few grains: the dead and the dying lined the roads;
mothers disposed of their infant offspring by sale, without regard to the caste or
creed of the parties to whose mercy they were consigned. No fewer than 40,000,000
of human beings were, more or less, affected by this awful visitation ; and the cattle
died in vast numbers. Never were the demands of philanthropy more imperative.
The government were prompt to alleviate suffering by purchases of large quantities
of gram; and its importation from the islands in the Indian seas was accelerated.,
Private benevolence likewise manifested its wonted activity. Famine relief funds
were established in different parts of the country, and in England, and many lacs
of rupees were contributed The famine had spread through the Delhi, Meerut,
and Agra divisions ; and there was more or less suffering in the division north of
Cawnpore Eohilcund, beyond the Ganges, the protected Sikh states north of the
Dooab, and the countries west of the Jumna
206

A.D. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [army and navy.
Meanwhile, the work of reconstruction and reform went on apace. A High
Court of Judicature, consisting of one chief judge, and ten subordinates, was es
tabUshed at . Calcutta. A code of laws had long been in preparation, adapted to
all classes of her majesty's subjects in India; and soon an addition was made to
the number of councillors at each presidency, whose exclusive duty it was to
orepare new laws and regulations, as the Occasion for these might arise. A penal
code became law in 1862. In principle it recognised the equality of all men.
Every person was made liable to punishment, without distinction of nation, rank,
caste, or creed, for any crime committed within some part of British India.
Under the new code, perjury, that bane of Indian society, was severely punished.
The importance of protecting the natives in the exercise of their religion, and most
sacred usages, was not lost sight of. Hence, uttering words with the deliberate
intention of wounding the feelings of a man, or making any sound within his
hearing, or any gesture in his sight, or placing any object in his view, capable of
wounding his religious feelings, is punishable by imprisonment for one year, or fine,
or both. The great object of this law is to allow fair latitude to religious dis
cussion, and, at the same time, to prevent the professors of religion from offering,
under the pretext of such discussion, intentional insults to what is held sacred by
others. In Uke manner, any offence, by act, word, or gesture, calculated to insult
the modesty of a woman, or intrude upon her privacy, is punishable with a year's
imprisonment. In a country where many women consider themselves dishonoured
by an exposure to the gaze of strangers, there was need for legislation on this
subject. Tampering with weights and measures was not permitted to pass with
impunity ; and severe penalties were attached to the bribery of officials.
A more important matter (for, as the wise Lord Metcalfe wrote, *w our power
in India rests upon our miUtary superiority") was the remodelling the army. After
a great deal of discussion, and many endeavours to adjust conflicting claims, it was
resolved that the whole of the Bengal, and part of the Bombay and Madras armies
should be reconstructed : the regular regiments of native cavalry and infantry were
extinguished. Twenty new regiments of cavalry were formed, composed of the old
irregular corps, and the bodies of those so called which had remained faithful to
the English. There were four European officers only appointed to each corps — a
commander, a second in command, an adjutant, and a medical officer. This was a
much smaller number than the old regular regiments were allowed. A special staff
corps was formed. The same rule was carried out with infantry. Eleven regiments
were retained in their entirety, because they had continued true to their salt.
Thirty-three corps were created out of tbe local levies, the Sikh and Punjaub,
and other infantry. The Ghoorka regiments, consisting of the gallant and trust
worthy little hill-men upon the Nepaulese frontier, were augmented, and sixteen
regiments were constructed of Punjaubee irregulars, each possessing four officers
only. The whole of the troops were armed with smooth-bored muskets, while the
Europeans retained the rifle. The aggregate of this force was much inferior is
strength to the regular native infantry existing anterior to the rebellion. The
deficiency was, however, more than counterbalanced by the presence of a much
greater number of regiments of the firm, and to be depended on, British line than
had ever been employed in India before. Previous to the outbreak, the European
troops did not amount to 20,000 men of all arms. They were now augmented to
fifty-seven regiments of infantry, twelve of cavalry, sixteen brigades of artillery, and
a large body of engineers ; making a total of nearly 40,000 European soldiers,
judiciously planted in different parts of the empire, so that concentration at any
given point became easy, particularly as the railways were rendering distances of
comparatively little account.
The Indian navy, which, as the Bombay marine, had, in its time, rendered
good service in checking the pirates of the Persian, and protecting the commerce
of the Indian, seas, had latterly dwindled down to a collection of mail and other
steamers, and sailing vessels. It was now deemed advisable to suppress the Indian
.207

EELIGion.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
navy altogether ; or, at all events, to reduce it to such insignificant proportions
that it might no longer burden the revenue to an extent beyond its practical value.
The flotilla was, therefore, essentially reduced ; and the chief duties which* devolved
on a maritime force were transferred to the vessels and officers of her majesty's
regular navy. In the histories of British India, the services rendered by the Indian
navy all receive honourable mention ; and the names of WiUstead, Lloyd, Moresly,
Lynch, Eennie, and others, will find honourable record among the brave and
scientific men who belonged to the service.
The monopoly of the service was broken down. The British public had, for
some time previous to the mutiny, become impatient of those arrangements which
confined the government appointments to certain favoured classes; and as the
army, the navy, and the civil service of England had been, more or less, thrown
open to general competition, the Indian authorities were obliged to do the same.
Inasmuch, however, as the Indian civil service exacts of its members a great variety
of attainments ; seeing that they have to fulfil the duties of judges, revenue
collectors, political officers, and magistrates, and perform various other functions
amongst different classes speaking different languages, holding different religions
opinions, and under the influence of various prejudices, a very high standard of
qualification is demanded of all successful candidates. No one is permitted to
compete for a civil appointment who is under eighteen, or above twenty-two years
of age, and who cannot show that he is free from all physical disorders, and enjoys
a good moral character. He must be familiar with the English language, its
history, and its literature, including its laws and constitution. He must be no
stranger to the languages and literature of Greece, Eome, France, Italy, or Germany.
Certain attainments in mathematics, natural science, logic, mental and moral
philosophy, the Sanscrit and Arabic languages, are likewise considered desirable.
It is not necessary that the candidate should be master of all these subjects ; but
a certain acquaintance with them will be of advantage in placing him in a good
position among the candidates. At the end of a year, after passing a close
examination in more or less of these desiderata, the candidate is subjected to
a second ordeal, to pass which triumphantly, he must acquire one or more of the
vernacular languages of India, manifest an acquaintance with the history and
geography of the country, the general principles of jurisprudence, the elements
of Hindoo and Mahommedan law, and the outlines of political economy. If the
candidate should complete his twenty-fourth year without being able to reach the
standard of qualification, he forfeits all chance of obtaining an appointment.
Under such a competitive system, the highest abilities in the country are available
for the Indian service, and ought to ensure an able executive, if it does not produce
enlightened statesmen or sagacious legislators.
The examination for commissioners in the Indian branch of her majesty's
army, is upon the same footing as that established for the line, artillery, and
engineers. One beneficial result of the new government was the impulse given to education
m India, and thus to the spread of religion. " The books and traditions of a sect
may contain," wrote Lord Macaulay, "mingled with propositions strictly theological,
other propositions purporting to rest on the same authority which relates to physics.
If new discoveries should throw discredit on the physical propositions, the theo
logical propositions, unless they can be separated from the physical propositions,
will share in the discredit. In this way, undoubtedly, the progress of science may
indirectly serve the cause of religious truth. The Hindoo mythology, for example,
is bound up with a most absurd geography. Every young Brahmin, therefore, who
learns theology in our colleges, learns to smile at the Hindoo mythology." This
impression, no doubt, pervaded the minds ofthe new writers ; and, notwithstanding
that certain prelates and evangelical societies were strenuous in their endeavours
to have the gospel proclaimed in India, a more cautious policy obtained the
preference. Sir Charles Wood very properly prohibited missionaries from being
208

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [growth of civilisation.
employed in the educational department of the state. Even the clergymen of
the established church were kept out of the inspectorship of schools, for fear that
their zeal might outrun their discretion.
A blow, at the same time, was struck at caste. It had been discovered that
there was really no connection between its usages and the laws of reUgion, but
that the former were seized upon merely as pretexts for escaping some duty, or
refusing to obey a distasteful order. Under cover of the obligations of caste, the
Brahmin claimed immunity from the penalties of crime, and arrogantly held him
self aloof from his fellow-men. Through the ties of a common caste, certain classes
had associated together evil purposes, and obtained credit for religious sincerity ;
while, in reaUty, they were only combining for purposes of conspiracy. The law
now vindicates the interests of justice by disallowing all the pleas which have not
a positive warrant in the sacred books of the Mahommedan or the Hindoo. This
repudiation of the claims of caste seems to have had a wonderful effect in removing
obstacles to education. The Hindoos withdrew all restrictions upon the resort of
their children to the public schools and colleges; and the result was, that, in 1861,
at the matriculation and degree examination of the Calcutta University, there were
no less than 809 candidates, of whom 722 were Hindoos. The course of examination
was Umited to the English language, history, geography, and mathematics. There
were thirty-nine candidates for the degree of Bachelor of Arts, thirteen of whom
succeeded in obtaining it ; and, out of that number, the first who attained the
greatest number of marks was a Mahommedan ; the next eleven were Hindoos ; and
the last was an Englishman from Bishop's College. This remarkable competition —
and the same was observed in all the colleges in every part of India — established
the fact that the Hindoo possesses singular aptitude for the acquisition of know
ledge, and is eager to enter the government service. The government, of course,
does aU it can to cherish this zeal. It has become a rule that no one can enter the
employ of the state in any department, the salary of which employment exceeds
twenty-five rupees per annum, who does not pass an examination in all the rudiments
of EngUsh knowledge.
In many other ways the influence of the new order of things was apparent.
For instance, Madras was, for the first time, lighted with gas ; English salt was
imported in large quantities, to the exclusion of the wretched, costly stuff manu
factured under the East India Company's monopoly ; screw-press associations, for
packing cotton and wool, were established at Kurrachee ; judicial, revenue, and
police jurisdiction was given to certain jagheerdars, in their own jagheers ; news
papers and mechanics' institutes were started in every part of the country ; and
great numbers of the natives voluntarily embraced Christianity. Writing in
1862, the Times, in one of its able leaders, pointed out the wonderful change
which had come over India : — " The India of to-day is a totally different country
from the India of six months ago : the stiff fences which divided the official from
the non-official classes have been taken down ; the discouragement which pressed
upon the enterprise of Europeans has been removed ; the shackles which impeded
the action of all who would carry capital and labour into the uncleared jungles of
the peninsula, have been struck off: and the evil eye which palsied the energies of
independent iabour has been conjured away. All that capitalists and cultivators in
India have been reasonably asking, has been done, or is in the way of being granted.
All that was said to be impossible or ridiculous, is quietly being done. Property
in India, even in a few months, has sprung up like the grass, upon a spot from
which a huge stone has been rolled away. Under the influence of a new govern
ment, and a healthy administration, the vast deficits and the impending bankruptcy
have disappeared ; the financial condition of the country has become sound ; and
in a land where the common rate of interest was, a short time ago, 12 per
cent., the public 5\ per cent, stock of the government is bought, by native
buyers, at more than 8 per cent, premium. Meanwhile, the railways are
advancing ; the East Indian has opened another link, and gives promise to join the
209

dangers ahead.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
old and distant city of Benares with Calcutta before this year goes out : another
line advances from Calcutta to the Sonderbunds, where it will rout out the tigers,
and turn the salt jungly swamps into cotton-fields. If we may believe all these
appearances, India is starting upon a career of prosperity which has no visible
halting-place ; and we have the satisfaction of knowing, that it is to our British
rule, and to the sagacity of our British statesmen, who have been firm to overthrow
the ancient errors of her governors, that she owes her quick revival.
" Amid these causes for congratulation, it is a light thing that the half-mongrel
savages of the north-east of Bengal have been found plundering our new settlers ;
and that the troubles in Darjeeling are, to some extent, removed. This is but the
old story. Had Mr. Grant introduced the police, as he was directed to do more than
a year ago, their very presence would have prevented the risings in Assam,, and
would have calmed the excitement of the indigo districts. Tea-planters and
cotton-growers would have been prudent in drawing back from speculation in such
districts, if these interruptions were to be feared continually. But neither Mr.
Grant, nor the system of Mr. Grant, is any longer dominant in this great pro
vince of India. The hill-men and jungle wallahs will no longer receive tacit
encouragement to oppose themselves to the spread of improvements in the wastes
of Bengal ; and the action of a newly organised police will soon give security to
industry, both native and foreign. From predatory savages, these tribes will soon,,
under firm and equitable treatment, become useful labourers. Already the
Hindoo labourer has risen immensely in the scale of existence, and has come to
experience that life may be something better than a struggle against starvation.
' The only obstacle,' says our Calcutta correspondent, ' to the progress of planting,
is the want of labour ; and it should not be so difficult to induce the Kokees,
Cossyas, Abors, Nagas, and other Indo-Chinese tribes, to become peaceful and
wealthy labourers or agriculturists.' "
Yet we must not be over-confident. Prosperity and civilisation in India may,
in many ways, tend to shake our power. Previous to the mutiny, a feeling of nation
ality had sprung up — the indirect consequence of British rule. The results of long
years of internal tranquillity and good order, under a powerful government, were to
fuse into a whole the previously discordant elements of native society, and to bind
together, by a bond of common country and language, those whom we had been
in the habit of considering as effectually separated by race, religion, and caste.
The Indian Mahommedans became gradually Hindooised, and their ancient antipathy
disappeared ; and thus the safeguard, as we deemed it — and as, undoubtedly, it was
— to their union for attacking us was removed. " The day," writes Mr. Edwards,
"has, in my opinion, gone by when any mixture of races, castes, or creeds in our
native army, can afford any real or permanent safeguard against mutiny and
rebellion." We are regarded in India as conquerors ; and Mr. Edwards thinks, the
more the people become enlightened and civilised, the more earnest, in all pro
bability, will be their efforts to get rid of us. " As an illustration," he observes,
"of native feeling, I may state, that the night the tidings of the Cawnpore
massacre reached us, in our asylum at Kussoorah, in Oude, the Thakoors eagerly
discussed the conduct of the Nana— the 'Peshwah,' as they termed him— with
evident feelings of respect. The prevailing sentiment was, that he had been
• clearly right in attempting to. throw off the power of the British ; but that he had
erred in cruelly killing women and children. He ought, they said, to have
marched all the Europeans at Cawnpore, with all he could pick up on the way, to
Calcutta ; there put them on board their ships, and send them off, saying, 'We have
had quite enough of you, and we wish to see you no more. If any of your nation ever
come back again to Hindostan, we shall kill you all.'" We almost fear Mr.
Edwards is right, when he considers we are quite mistaken as to the effect of the
co-operation of the natives of India in measures for the general civilisation and
improvement of the country. He observes—" Those who expect such co-operation,
appear to me to keep out of view the wide and insurmountable barrier which

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord elgin.
interposes between Christianity and false religion. Natives professing such
opposite creeds can never amalgamate — never associate together — never co-operate,
in any cordial or permanent manner, for any objects whatever. Each is running
in its own separate gauge — the one broad, the other narrow ; and they can no more
amalgamate than light and darkness. What we have to bear in mind is this — that
our presence in India as a Christian and civilised power, must, from the nature of
the case, produce disturbance, dislike, and hatred among natives who, for ages,
have Uved in the darkness of heathenism ; and that physical and moral improve
ments are equally calculated, as the most direct efforts to evangelise the country,
to produce convulsion."
We hasten to bring our sketch of Indian affairs down to the present time.
The health of Lord Canning had been so much shattered by the anxieties and" toils
of his viceregal office, that he lived but a very few weeks after his arrival in
England, in 1862. He was succeeded, as we have already stated, by Lord Elgin,
who found the affairs of India in a comparatively satisfactory state.
For nearly a twelvemonth after his arrival in India, Lord Elgin remained at
Calcutta, making himself acquainted with the condition of affairs, and following
up, with wisdom and energy, the measures introduced by his predecessor, and the
legislative councils and law-makers. He then arranged for a journey to the north,
that he might see the princes and chiefs who had been addressed by Lord
Canning, and repeat the assurances of confidence whieh had been so cordially re
ceived at the durbars held by his lordship. It must be premised, that previous to
the mutiny, intercourse between tbe head of the government and the true aris
tocracy of India had been infrequent ; and while opportunity was thus afforded
for the fomenters of intrigue and treachery, the governors-general had deprived
themselves of the means of acquiring the friendship and support of a body of
chieftains, who were powerful for evil or good. •
Lord Elgin spent six days in Agra, in receiving the potentates of India at
private and public durbars ; the great durbar being attended by a larger number
of chiefs than ever before assembled for a similar purpose. Upon the latter
occasion he thus addressed his friendly visitors : —
"Peace — I hardly need remind you of the fact — now happily prevails through
out the whole extent of, this vast empire. Domestic treason has been crushed;
and foreign enemies have Deen taught to respect the power of the arms of
England. "The British government is desirous to take advantage of this favourable
opportunity, not to extend the bounds bf its dominions, but to develop the re
sources, and draw forth the natural wealth of India ; and thus to promote the well-
being and happiness both of rulers and the people.
"With this view, many measures of improvement and progress have already
been introduced ; and among them I may name, as most conspicuous, the railway
and electric telegraph — those great discoveries of this age, which have so largely
increased the power of the mightiest nations of the west.
"By diffusing education among your vassals and dependents, establishing
schools, promoting the construction of good roads, and suppressing, with the whole
weight of your influence and authority, barbarous usages and crimes — such as in
fanticide, suttee, thuggee, and dacoitee — you may, princes and chiefs, effectually
second these endeavours of the British government, and secure for yourselves and
your people a full share of the benefits which the measures to which I have
alluded are calculated to confer upon you. I have observed, with satisfaction, the
steps whieh many of you have already taken in this direction, and more especially
the enlightened policy which has induced some of you to remove transit and
other duties, which obstructed the free course of commerce through your states.
"As representing the paramount power in India, it is my duty to keep the
peace here. For this purpose, her majesty has placed at my disposal a large and
gallant army, which, if the necessity should arise, I will not hesitate to employ
211

the sikh rulers.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863

for the suppression of disorder, and the punishment of any who may be rash
enough to disturb the general tranquillity. But it is also my duty to extend the
'land of fellowship and encouragement to all who labour for the good of India ; and
to assure you, that the chiefs who make their own dependents contented and pros
perous, establish thereby the strongest claims on the favour and protection of the
British government.
" I bid you now, princes and chiefs, farewell for a time, with- the expression of
my earnest hope that, on your return to your homes, health and happiness may
attend you."
Lord Elgin then held a durbar at Umballah, near the foot of the Himalayan
range, where he called together the influential Sikh chiefs, whose martial qualities
it was his wish to recognise with all due honour, while seeking to impart a more
pacific direction to their energies. The capture of PekinT in which some of their
race had had a share, had impressed them with a deep sense of the importance and
the power of England. Lord Elgin addressed them accordingly.
" Colonel Durand, — I beg that you will express to the native gentlemen assem
bled here, my regret that I am unable to address them in their own language ; and
inform them, that I am charged by her majesty the queen, to convey to them the
assurance of her majesty's high appreciation of the loyalty and devotion to her
majesty's person and government, which has been exhibited, on various occasions,
by the Sikh rulers and people. Not many days ago, it was my pleasing duty ta
determine, that the medal granted to her majesty's troops who were engaged at
Delhi in 1857, should be conferred on the followers of the Sikh chiefs who took
part in the noble achievement of that period : and I can personally bear testimony
to the good services of the officers and men of the Sikh regiments, who, in I860,
co-operated with the British troops in placing the British flag on the walls of
Pekin, the capital of the vast empire of China.
" But in order to be truly great, it is necessary that nations should excel in
the arts of peace, as well as in those of war.
" Look to the history of the British nation for an example. Most assuredly
the British people are powerful in war ; but their might and renown are, in a great
measure, due to their proficiency in the works which make a time of peace
fruitful and glorious.
"By their skill in agriculture they have converted their country into a
garden ; by their genius as traders, they have attracted to it a large share of the
wealth of other lands.
" Let us now take advantage of this season of tranquillity to confer similar
benefits on the Punjaub.
" The waters which fall on your mountain heights, and unite at their base to
form mighty rivers, are a treasure, which, duly distributed, will fertilise your plains,
and largely augment their productive powers. With electric telegraphs to facilitate
communication, and railways and canals to render access to the seaports easy
and expeditious, we shall be able to convey the surplus produce of this great
country to others where it may be required, and to receive from them their riches
in return. _ " I rejoice to learn that some of the chiefs in this part of India are taking
an interest in these matters, which are of such vital importance to the welfare of
this country, and the prosperity of the people. It affords me, moreover, sincere
gratification to find, that under the able guidance of the lieutenant-governor, the
Sikh sirdars, in certain districts of the Punjaub, are giving proofs of their appre
ciation of the value of education, by making provision for the education of their
sons and daughters.
" Be assured that, in so doing, you are adopting a judicious policy. The
experience of all nations proves, that where rulers are well-informed and sagacious,
the people are contented, and willingly submissive to authority. Moreover, it
is generally found, that where mothers are enlightened, sons are valiant and wise.

"A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sir john Lawrence.
" I earnestly exhort you, therefore, to persevere in the course on which yon
have entered ; and I promise you, while you continue in it, the sympathy and
support of the British government."
When, in 1863, Lord Elgin departed from Calcutta for a tour, a meeting
was held in that city, which demonstrated that, under the new rule, matters
were progressing favourably : 8,000 of the principal inhabitants signed an address,
expressing their high sense of gratitude for the wise and beneficent policy
which had distinguished the administration of the last five years — "A policy,"
continued the address, " which has nobly sustained the authority and dignity of
her majesty's government in her Indian dominions ; strengthened, by new bonds
of attachment, the confidence and sympathy of tbe princes and chiefs of the
country ; and, above all, sought to govern the empire in consonance with justice,
and the interests of the teeming millions."
Peace was now universal in the British dominions ; but there were still some
marauding tribes in the distant north-west frontier, who required to be put down.
These tribes, composed entirely of Mussulmans, occupied fortresses on the western
bank of the Indus, whence they issued to plunder the industrious inhabitants and
travellers in their vicinity. To chastise these marauders, Lord Elgin despatched
an adequate force. Unfortunately, it passed through a district settled by the
Bonair tribes. They, imagining evil intentions on the part of the British
government, offered a strenuous opposition to the advance of our arms. There was
fierce fighting for a couple of days ; at the end of which time, the Bonairs, becoming
aware that we intended them no harm, joined the British detachments, and
assisted our troops in punishing the plundering tribes.
As we have already said, Lord Elgin died in India : he was succeeded by the
one man — Sir John Lawrence — whose extraordinary administrative abilities, and
magnificent services, had marked him, in the opinion of the public, as the future
ruler of India. His daring, his energy, his integrity ; his lofty sense of justice ;
his famiUarity with the character, habits, prejudices, and language ofthe people;
the awe and respect with which he was regarded in India — all fitted him pre
eminently for the exalted post.
The present Viceroy of India was born in Yorkshire, on the 4th of March,
1811. He came of a good stock. " About half-past one o'clock in the afternoon
[of the 4th of May, 1799], General Baird, having completed his arrangements,
stepped out of his trench, drew out his sword, and, in the most heroic and animating
manner, said to his men — ' Come, my brave fellows, follow me, and prove yourselves
worthy the name of British soldiers ! ' In an instant both columns rushed from
the trenches, and entered the bed of the river, under cover of the fire of the
batteries. Being immediately discovered by the enemy, they were assailed by
rocketsand musketry. The forlorn hope of such an attack consisted of a sergeant and
twelve Europeans, who were followed by two subalterns' parties : that of the right
column was commanded by Lieutenant Hill, of the 74th; and the other, of the left
column, by Lieutenant Lawrence, of the 77th." Thus wrote, says Mr. Kaye, in
the first year of the present century, Colonel Alexander Beatson (historian of the
war with Tippoo Sultan, and of the famous siege of Seringapatam), of these two
lion-hearted subalterns, who had thus volunteered for the forlorn hope. The first-
named went to his death ; the second came out of the breach badly wounded, but
alive. Having recovered from his wounds, Alexander William Lawrence took to
himself a wife— the daughter of a Protestant clergyman in the north of Ireland,
named Knox. Their union was a fruitful one. The first-bnrn of the family was a
daughter, who, in womanhood, became all tbat an elder sifter could be to her
brothers^ and whose good influence upon them was ever gratefully acknowledged.
Three sons followed. In time, Major Lawrence returned to England, and was
appointed lieutenant-colonel to a garrison battalion then posted in the island of
Guernsey. In a few years afterwards, Colonel Lawrence bethought himself that
the time had come for placing his boys out in life ; and he wisely determined to
213

DURBAR AT LAHORE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.

IS

find if he could, standing-room for them in the great continent of India, where
every man had a fair chance, without reference to birth or fortune, of making his
way to tbe front. Fortunately, he had some interest at the East India House. A
connection of Mrs. Lawrence's family, Mr. Huddlestone, was one of the directors
of the East India Company; and thus one son after another found his way to
fame and fortune.
Shortly after Sir John Lawrence had proceeded to assume the government,
the Secretary of State for India made his statement in the House of Commons,
respecting the financial, commercial, and agricultural condition of India. The
details presented astounding proofs of the prosperity of India. The surplus
revenue was £257,000; nine millions sterling of the debt of India had been
liquidated; the revenue derived from the opium cultivation amounted to
£8,055,000; the cotton crop consisted of 160,000,000 lbs. In 1858-59, inthe
normal state of India, before the rebellion, the coffee imported into England
amounted to 11,000,000 lbs. ; in 1864, to 21,000,000 lbs. Indigo, in the same
time, ran up from 9,000,000 to 11,000,000 lbs. Jute had received an immense
impetus ; and the exports of wool had increased from 15,000,000 to 2 1 ,000,000 lbs.
The value of the tea grown in Assam was, in 1858-59, £60,000; in 1863, it had
reached £223,000. In return for the exports, India had received, in five years, no
less than £60,000,000 in silver, and £25,000,000 in gold bullion, the greater part of
which was applicable to household and decorative purposes. Finally, a material
addition to the vegetable wealth of the country had been made in the cultivation
of the cinchona plant, a South American exotic, which yields quinine.
Sir John Lawrence found the local government of India in a very effective
working: condition. The native members of the legislative council had taken a
very active part in legislation, and expressed their opinions freely at the council
board. The number of native councillors was, in 1864, sixteen; of whom eight
belonged to the council of the lieutenant-governor of Bengal, five to that of Bom
bay, and three were members of the Madras council.
To test the friendship of the people, Sir John Lawrence, in 1864, held a
durbar, the like of which had never been known before. At Lahore, upwards of
600 princes and chieftains attended. The scene was one of unparalleled grandeur.
North of the city of Lahore, between the walls of the fort and the Eavee, which
flows by the city, stretches a level plain, green with close turf, and studded here and
there with clumps of dark-leaved trees. Here the magnificent and spacious tents
for the durbar of the viceroy had been pitched. At the extreme end was the throne,
on a raised dais spread with cloth of gold, and covered with a rich crimson canopy.
At each side of the throne, and ranged in the form of an ellipse, stood the
rajahs, chiefs, and native gentry, all gaily attired. There was the Maharajah
of Cashmere, the province so celebrated, in poetry and romance, for the ex
quisite texture of its shawls, and the beauty of its women: the Maharajah of
Puttiala, the splendour of whose Court was only eclipsed by the magnificent
example of fidelity to his engagements, which he afforded during the perilous
crisis of the great insurrection; and many lesser known, but equally faithful
notabilities. Blazing with diamonds, emeralds, and pearls, and arranged in
superb robes, which put the stiff fashions of European Courts to shame, they went
to the durbar, in a style of whieh the written narrative gives but a poor idea. Sir
John Lawrence addressed the chiefs in the Hindoo language. " It is something,"
wrote a newspaper correspondent, " to have a Governor-general who can address
the chiefs in a language they can understand; it creates a link only second
to that which is formed by identity of race. If, when his excellency presented
the Star of India to the Eajah of Kuppoortulla, he had addressed him in English, his
words, so well calculated to inspire all his hearers with a feeling of emulation, would
have lost much of their force in being translated by the interpreter." After tbe
speech the various presentations were made ; and when the last sirdar had been
introduced, tokens of honour were conferred on twenty of the leading chiefs.

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [war with ehootan.

During the ceremony, the pipers of the 93rd Highlanders, whose cheering notes
had once aroused the drooping energies of the troops cooped up in Lucknow,
played a variety of spirit-stirring tunes, which much exhilarated the native chiefs,
to whose ears the pipe sounded as some of their own native music.
On the day following the durbar, Sir John Lawrence officially opened the
first section of the Punjaub railway line, from Lahore to Mooltan, expatiating, in a
suitable pubUc address, upon the political and commercial improvement which the
line was calculated to produce. A dinner was given, on the occasion, to 120
European employ is on, the line; and an eye-witness remarked — " The durbar, at
which the viceroy received 600 princes and chiefs in a splendid tent, pitched on
a vast plain, was doubtless a magnificent sight; but we regarded the assembly of
a hundred hard-handed, plain English mechanics in an ordinary railway waiting-
room, erected in the ancient Sikh capital, as far more curious and suggestive, and
one calculated to excite emotions of a more pleasurable nature. The one was a
mere pageant, representative of the barbaric splendour of the dark ages ; while the
other was the Uving embodiment of progress and enlightenment."
One Uttle war marks this period of our Indian history. It was a war of
ignorance, not of discontent.
At the foot of the western Himalayas lies a strip of territory, called Bhootan,
lying directly north of Lower Bengal, conterminous with the province of Assam.
Since 1774, the British had held no intercourse with this state, which is, indeed,
composed of people scarcely removed from barbarism. Early in 1864, a mission,
or embassy, was sent to Bhootan, consisting only of four European gentlemen, and
200 coolie attendants. The object of the mission was to demand the surrender of
several British subjects, who had been seized by the Bhootan hill-men ; the restora
tion of plundered property, and security for the future peace of the frontier. The
Bhootan chief received the message with savage insolence ; grossly maltreated the
envoy and his suite ; and only released the former upon his promising that a British
province should be ceded to him. The government, of course, could not confirm
such an agreement. On the contrary, it was immediately repudiated, and a force
equipped to obtain satisfaction for the outrageous insult offered to the embassy.
The satisfaction took the form of the seizure of certain districts, and of the occu
pation of the passes between the highlands of Bhootan and the British territory.
One extract from a letter wiU show the difficult nature of the task in which
our troops had to engage. The writer says — "I send off a few lines, just to tell
you that we took this famous place (Dalimkote) the day before yesterday, not, I
am sorry to say, without serious loss : the Bhootans having fought with much more
courage and resolution than we expected; and the fort being naturally and
artificially strong, and in a most commanding position. We were opposed nearly
all the way up the hill, and could only proceed by a narrow tortuous road, con
stantly exposed to showers of arrows and stones, both of which the Bhootans threw
with great force and precision. The column got up close to the fort without any
serious loss : but then there stood the fort before us, on a hill about two hundred
feet high, surrounded by a thick wall of about thirty feet elevation. We soon
brought our small mortars into position ; and were 'getting on very well with the
work — throwing shells and carcasses into the fort at about a couple of hundred yards'
range, when, from a fuse being too short cut, the shell burst in the muzzle of the
mortar, and exploded a quantity of powder which poor Griffin was weighing out
for the charge; and, in an instant, three officers — Griffin, Anderson, and Waller—*
and some artillery close by, were blown to atoms. This was a terrible catastrophe
to the whole force, and had nearly been far worse, as our esteemed and gallant
Brigadier Dunsford was within a yard of the group, having only that instant left
poor Griffin to give some orders to Captain Perkins, of the engineers. By this
untoward calamity the force lost the services of three most excellent officers and
seven men, and also one of their mortars, which became utterly unserviceable.
With great difficulty, and after some delay, an Armstrong gun was brought up the
215

the new rule.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a,d. 1864.

hill, and was soon plaoed in position, and brought to play upon the confronting
bastion, and, with a carcass, set fire to the buildings inside the fort. This the
general thought an auspicious signal and time for an assault ; and, having got the
scaling-ladders up, the storming party made a rush, and carried the place at once,
the Bhootans bolting out on the opposite side. Dalimkote is a fearfully strong
place, and was not taken without several casualties — the general having had several
men shot close to his side, and not a few narrow escapes. Our work is not com
pleted yet, as we have one more fort to take — that of Dhurm Sing — said to be
nearly as strong as this, but not in such a commanding and difficult position. Our
loss has been heavy ; but, considering the important result, and the rapid way in
which it was obtained, I do not think it disproportionate if we deduct those killed
by the unfortunate explosion. Collins, of the engineers, is wounded severely — both
his legs having been broken by the explosion ; McGregor, the general's brigade-
major, slightly wounded on the scalp by a gun-shot; and Loughman, of the 18th
native infantry, wounded by an arrow through his right arm. We have, besides,
eight men killed, and forty-six wounded. We were at it from ten in the morning
until six in the evening; and you may imagine that we were not sorry when the
affair was over, and the fort in our possession. We are not enamoured of hill and
jungle warfare, where the highest military skill, and the best soldiers, may be
employed with comparatively inadequate results."
In taking leave of India, we must not omit the violent cyclone in the Bay of
Bengal, in November, 1864, which extended along the coast from Calcutta nearly
to Madras. The waters of the Ganges were driven back by the wind, and sub
merged a large portion of the Sonderbunds. The island of Saugur was inun
dated, and 7,000, out of a population of 8,500 persons, were drowned. But the
greatest suffering was experienced at Masulipatam, where the sea broke over the
land along a space of more than eighty miles ; and, in some places, to a distance of
seventeen miles inland — destroying villages, crops, and cattle ; filling up the wells ;
and, as the waters broke in during the night, allowing little chance of escape to
the wretched inhabitants. The total loss of life, during this terrible night, was
estimated at not less than from 60,000 to 70,000 souls. On the flood retiring, the
number of bodies of men and animals left behind was so great, that but for the
strenuous exertion of the English in burying and burning them, and providing
food and shelter for the surviving population, an infectious fever would have
followed close upon the previous calamity.
Here we close our summary of Indian history. We see it fruitful, prosperous,
and at peace : no longer the heritage of a trading Company, but under the sway of
Queen Victoria. Under the old Company's rule wonders had been wrought : war
like races had been subdued; native princes dethroned; and a great empire
founded. But it had long been felt that India, in order to become an attached
dependency of Great Britain, must, as Lord William Bentinck wrote, be governed
for her own sake, and not for the sake of the 800 or 1,000 individuals who are sent
from England to make their fortunes. They had been found totally incompetent
to the charge ; and, in their hands, administration in all its civil branches— revenue,
judicial, and police— had been a failure. The Indian government, as compared with
that of England, says Mr. Ludlow, has been, emphatically and admittedly, a middle-
class government: often a stepping-stone to aristocratic rule at home. More
peers' robes have been won in India than carried thither ; and, accordingly, its
faults have been, in great measure, middle-class faults— the grasping after wealth ;
the hastening to be rich ; the narrowness of view ; and not a little of the arrogance
of the purse— the vulgar assumption of superiority. A change was called for, and
the mutiny accelerated it. And thus India passed under the sway of one who holds
"A nobler office upon earth.
Than arms, or power of brain, or birth,
Could give the warrior kings of old."
Let us hope a bright future under the new rule. We have, in India, an immense

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [orsini's plot.
garden of incalculable fertility, from which to draw all the raw produce that our
manufactories can need : myriads of willing and industrious hands to bring it forth ;
and myriads of ready-found customers for all the handiwork of our operatives at
home. The cause of the welfare of the people of India, is the cause of the wel
fare of the people of England. We suffer here for misgovernment there. English
apathy and indifference in India produce want and discontent. The better we So
our duty to India, the dearer and more valuable will India be to us.

CHAPTER XI.
HOW THE PALMERSTON MINISTRY FEIA.

When parUament met, in 1858, it seemed as if Lord Palmerston would carry every
thing before him. It was not so : and why it was not so we will now proceed
to tell. In a letter written, in 1835, to his friend Senior, the late Archbishop of
Dublin wrote — " By what I can learn, the * measures not men' party, or ' fair
triaUtes,' seem to gain ground ; the principle of it being, I conceive, that the king
may, now-a-days, please himself as to ministers, since it is no longer they, but the
reformed parliament that governs the country. A minister will no longer go out
as soon as he fails to. carry any measure ; but will ,act the part of a cook at an hotel,
who proposes a dinner, but offers to send up any dishes the company like better.
If this state of things be established, it will be the greatest practical result of a
reformed parUament. One consequence will be, that men of the highest character
will no longer take office. A minister used to be a stage-coachman, who drove, at a
certain fixed hour, and a settled road, those who chose to go by his coach : now he
wiU be a gentleman's coachman, who drives where and when his master bids him.
They will only accept office for private pay and patronage. The evil resulting will
be — no one responsible, unless a law is passed to make every M.P. responsible indi
vidually for every motion he makes. Another will be — a sort of unsteady yawning
course of the state ship. Mr. Ward will carry a measure to-night, and Sir Eobert
Peel another a week after ; and Lord Stanley a different one afterwards : so that
our legislature will be a more motley ' picnic' than ever."
About this time the state ship pursued what Whately calls an unsteady
yawning course.
On the evening of the 14th of January, as the Emperor Napoleon and tho
empress had just arrived at the door of the opera in Paris, three explosions of
shells were heard. Neither the emperor nor the empress were touched, though th*
hat of the former was broken to pieces, and the carriage in which they sat was
mueh shattered. A great number of the crowd were wounded— some of them
mortally so. Two persons were killed on the spot ; six others died in consequence
ol their wounds; and 156 persons were, more or less, injured. Their majesties, on
entering toe opera, were received with the warmest enthusiasm ; and, on leaving it
at midnight, they found the boulevards illuminated in honour of their escape
Several arrests were made during the night; and amongst the persons taken were
lelice Orsini, and another Italian named Pierri. On the person of the latter was
iound a six-shot revolver, a grenade, similar to those which were hurled at the
carriage, and a poniard.
The attempt was followed by an expression, on the part of a portion of the
French people and press, of much ill-will towards this country, where it was said
that the conspiracy agamst the life of the emperor had been projected. The
president of the senate, in the course of his address of congratulation to the
Q 217

feeling in France.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1858.
emperor on his escape, observed — " The revolutionary spirit having been driven
from France, has settled down abroad, and become cosmopolite. It is from foreign
strongholds, erected against France, situated in the centre of Europe, that fanatical,
hired assassins are sent, with fire and steel, against the prince who bears on his power
ful arm the buckler of European order — execrable conspirators, whose policy is assas
sination ; and who even assault gentle women, unaware that some of them have the
. hearts of heroes ! But how comes it that, as these implacable revolutionists trample
all the duties of hospitality under foot, and are united in their mad plans of
destruction, foreign governments and peoples do not take measures to give a
legitimate support to the cause of order ? The law of nations authorises it ; justice
and common sense make it a duty." Count de Morny said, that " the members of the
legislative body, when they saw such abominable attempts prepared abroad, asked
themselves how neighbouring and friendly governments were powerless to destroy
those laboratories of assassination ? — and how the laws of hospitality could be
applied to wild beasts ?" M. Baroche hoped that " the community of danger*
would lead to a natural and extensive solidarity between all nations ; and that
those cowardly assassins who abused the hospitality they found in friendly nations,
and the protection afforded by their laws, in order to organise conspiracies and
construct infernal machines, would be at length, by mutual consent, driven out
of civilised Europe, to which they were at the same time a danger and a disgrace."
Further addresses, reflecting on the protection given by England to exiles,
and on the freedom of the French and Belgian press, appeared in the official
Moniteur. But the addresses presented to the emperor by the army, were
remarkable for the unmitigated hostility to England, expressed in them all.
Selections from them were published in the Moniteur, with an intimation that it
might be useful for the country to be aware of the spirit that animated the army.
We select a few passages. "In expressing our wishes tbat your majesty's life, so
intimately connected with the repose and prosperity of France, may be for ever
preserved from all parricidal attempts, it does not suffice the army to form a
rampart round its sovereign ; it is ready to shed its blood in all places, to reack
and annihilate the partisans of regicide." — " The army is afflicted that powerful
friends, whose brave armies so lately combated by our side, cover with their protec
tion, under the name of hospitaUty, conspirators and assassins, who exceed those that
have gone before them in all that is odious."—" This odious and cowardly attempt
has filled our hearts with indignation and wrath against those who become the
accomplices of these sanguinary conspirators, by giving them an asylum." — " Those
wild beasts who, at periodical epochs, quit a foreign soil to inundate the streets
of your capital with blood, inspire us with no other feelings than those of disgust;
i ¦ jy°Ur maJesty wants sol<Uers to get at these men, even in the recesses of
their den, we humbly beseech you to choose the 82nd regiment [the one from
which this address emanated] as part of the advanced guard of that army." The
national guard of the Seine protested "against the asylum accorded to vile
scoundrels, whom all civilised nations ought to brand and drive from their
territory. The 19th military division declared, that "the odious and cowardly
attempt had filled their hearts with indignation and rage against those who,
by giving an asylum to the sanguinary anarchists, made themselves their accom
plices. The address of certain colonels of the line went still further : they
expressed their readiness to march to England, and drag forth the criminals from
their asylum, if the English government would not expel them.
The emperor, apparently, showed no desire to join in the manifestations
made by his officers and the people. He and the empress attended the ball given
by Lord Cowley in honour of the marriage of the princess-royal, on the evening
of her marriage-day, when her majesty wore a dress trimmed a I'Ecossais,
especially in compliment to the royal bride; and the emperor wore the order
of the Garter The members of the imperial family, all the French ministers,
the marshals of France, and the high, social, and legal functionaries, were present.

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the emperor's speech.
About the same time, a brass field gun — one of the most perfect specimens pro
duced, up to that time, in the royal gun-foundry at Woolwich arsenal, mounted on a
suitable carriage — with ammunition waggon, and a couple of limbers, made of fine
old EngUsh oak, were presented by the queen, as " a mark of her esteem to his
imperial majesty, Napoleon III." Notwithstanding the reciprocal feelings of
regard and friendship thus evinced by the sovereigns for each other, the passions
of their subjects were very near causing a rupture between the two countries.
The language of the French army and the French press produced violent retalia
tory articles and speeches in England ; and when, on the 27th of January, the
Moniteur pubUshed the addresses from the French troops, containing the language
we have quoted, Lord Palmerston evidently thought it was time to interfere.
The Earl of Clarendon, accordingly, called the attention of Count Persigny to the
subject, pointing out the effect which the addresses had on the English people, and
the construction which would inevitably be placed upon the publication of such
documents in the official paper of the French government. The count immediately
communicated this conversation to M. Walewski, who, on the 6th of February,
repUed to the ambassador. He pointed out the opposition of the addresses to " the
language which the emperor's government had not ceased to hold to that of her
Britannic majesty; and, attributing the appearance of the objectionable words to
inadvertence, caused by the number of the addresses, added — " The emperor enjoins
you to say to Lord Clarendon how much he regrets it." This despatch, read in
both Houses of parliament, and published in the papers, caused the feeling in
England, roused by the miUtary addresses, to subside.
At the opening of the French legislative chamber, the emperor did not forget
to amide to the attempt which had been made upon his life. After speaking of
the internal affairs of France, he referred to its navy, which, he said, was acting in
China with the English fleet, " to obtain redress for common grievances, and to
avenge the blood of our missionaries, who have been cruelly massacred." Napoleon
then declared that the relations of France with foreign powers were never on
a better footing ; and that he was convinced, at Osborne as well as at Stuttgardt,
his desire to keep up the intimacy of old relations, as well as to form new ones,
was equally shared by the chiefs of two great nations. In reviewing the position
of France, he said it adopted the great and civilising principle of 1789 ; but that
it was the enemy of every abstract theory. " Moreover, there is a truth inscribed
upon every page of the history of France and England— namely, that Uberty
without obstacles is impossible, as long as there exists in a country a faction which,
obstinately disowns the fundamental basis of the government; for then liberty,
instead of enlightening, controlling, ameliorating, is nothing else, in the hands of
factions, but a weapon of destruction. Therefore, as I did not accept the power of
the nation with the view to acquire that ephemeral popularity — the /paltry prize
of concessions exacted from weakness — but with a view, one day, to deserve
the approbation of posterity, by founding something lasting in France, I do not
fear to declare to-day to you, that the danger, no matter what is said to the
contrary, does not exist in the excessive prerogatives of power, but rather in the
absence of repressive laws." Finally, the emperor observed, that the recent attempt
on his Ufe did not shake his security in the present, or his faith in the future. "If
1 five, he remarked, "the empire will live with me ; and if I should fall, my very
death would only tend to strengthen the empire ; for the indignation of the.
people and of the army would be an additional support to the throne of my son.
Let us attend calmly to our daily work, for the welfare and the greatness of our
country." °
The emperor then, fortified by his subjects, and perhaps alarmed at the nu
merous attempts on his life, made a claim on this country, which led to no little
unpleasantness. As we have shown, he extolled highly repressive laws ; and he
attempted still more in that direction. Foreign journals, especially those of
England and Belgium, were excluded from France; and the Belaian govemmeaS
«2 210

THE DE5IAND ON ENGLAND.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1858.
was required to put down two papers published at Brussels. Nor was this all :
the French government aimed at the destruction of that hospitality which the free
states of Europe, especially England, were in the habit of extending to political
exiles of all opinions. On the 22nd of January, Count Walewski sept a note to
England, Belgium, Sardinia, and Switzerland, demanding, in the name of the
government of France, certain measures respecting refugees, which might prevent
the renewal of attempts at assassination.
In the despatch to M. de Persigny, his attention was called to the circum
stances connected with the attempt on the emperor's life ; and the foreign minister
reminded him, that that attempt, like those of Pianori, and the plot in which
Mazzini, Ledru Eollin, and Campanelli directed the assassins whom they had
furnished with arms, had been devised in England. At the same time, M.
Walewski declared, that " the government of the emperor was persuaded of the
sincerity of the sentiments of reprobation which they created in England.
He was equally convinced, that with such proofs in their possession of the abuse of
hospitality, the English government and people would understand at once to
what extent France was justified in directing their attention to them. Appre
ciating the liberality with which England was disposed to exercise the right of
asylum in regard to foreigners — the victims of political struggles — yet, when
assassination was elevated to a doctrine, preached openly, and practised in repeated
attempts, the French government felt it a duty to ask — ' Ought the right of
asylum to protect such a state of things ? Was hospitality due to assassins ?
Ought English legislation to continue to favour their designs and plans?
And could it continue to shelter persons who, by their flagrant acts, had placed
themselves beyond the pale of common right, and under the ban of humanity?'"
In putting these questions, Count Walewski said he was only re-echoing the
sentiments of France. He refrained in any way from indicating the measures
which ought to be adopted; but as the repetition and the wickedness ofthe
guilty enterprises exposed France to a danger, against which he and his colleagues
were bound to provide, tbey asked her Britannic majesty's government to assist
them by affording a guarantee of security, which no state could refuse to a neigh
bouring one, and which France was authorised to expect from an ally.
About the same time, Count de Persigny, the French ambassador in England,
took the opportunity afforded by an address from the corporation of London, con
gratulating the emperor on his escape from the recent attempt on his life, to explain
to the English public the position which he took upon the subject. " Permit me,"
said he, " to tell you what is the true question. It does not lie in the attempts
at assassination in themselves, nor even in the crime of the 14th of January,
which your government would have hastened to have warned us of, if it could have
known it beforehand : the whole question is in the moral situation of France,
which has become anxiously doubtful of the real sentiments of England. Reason
ing in effect by analogy, popular opinion declares, that were there in France men
sufficiently infamous to recommend, in their clubs, in their papers, in their writings
of every kind, the assassination of a foreign sovereign, and actually to prepare
its execution, a French administration would not wait to receive the demands of a
( foreign government, nor to see the enterprise set on foot. To act against such
conspiracies, to anticipate such crimes, public notoriety would be sufficient to set
our law in motion ; and measures of security would be taken immediately. Well,
then, France is astonished that nothing of a like nature should have taken place
:n England ; and Frenchmen say, ' Either the English law is sufficient, as certain
lawyers declare— and why, then, is it not applied ?— or it is insufficient, which is the
opinion of other lawyers ; and, in this case, why does not a free country, which
makes its own laws, remedy this omission ?' In one word, France does not under
stand, and cannot understand this state of things; and in that resides the harm;
for she may mistake the sentiments of her ally, and no longer believe in her sin
cerity." In reality, Count Persigny held out a threat.
220

a.d. 185S.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the conspiracy bill.
The French government were very much in earnest in this matter. On the
20th of January, Count Walewski addressed a despatch , to Count Persigny. It
stated, that the recent attempt on the life of the emperor, like those which
had preceded it, had been projected in England ; and then continued — " No one
appreciates and respects more than ourselves the liberality with which England
loves to practise the right 'of asylum towards foreigners, victims of political
struggles. France has, on her part, always regarded it as a duty of humanity,
never to close her frontiers to any honourable misfortune, to whatever party it
might belong ; and the government of his majesty has no intention of complaining
that its adversaries can find a refuge on English soil, and live there peaceably,
under the protection of British laws. But how widely different is the attitude of
the adepts of demagogy established in England. It is no longer the hostility
of erring parties manifesting itsetf by all the excesses of the press, and every
violence of language ; it is no longer even the labours of the factious, seeking to
agitate opinions, and to provoke disorder; it is assassination reduced to a doctrine,
preached openly — practised in repeated attempts, the most recent of which has
just struck Europe with stupefaction. Ought, then, the right of asylum to protect
such a state of things ? Is hospitality due to assassins ? Should English legisla
tion serve to favour their designs and their manoeuvres ? And can it continue to
protect persons who place themselves, by flagrant acts, without the pale of common
law,. and expose themselves to the ban of humanity ?"
In France, the opportunity was, as we may suppose, improved. A new
" loi des suspects" was enacted, which conferred upon the government the power of
subjecting accused persons, " whom serious facts point out as dangerous to public
safety, without trial, to be fined, imprisoned, removed to the interior, or earried off
to Algeria or the colonies." That the people might the more readily be brought
within the influence of the sword of the state, all France was parcelled out into
five military divisions, each under its general ; and the whole under Marshal
Pelissier. An uneasy feeling had been created by these events in the minds of the
people of this country. When parliament met on February 4th, Mr. Eoebiick
inquired whether there had been any correspondence with the Court or minister
of France, on the subject of any alteration in our criminal laws ? Lord Pal
merston replied, that a despatch had been addressed to the French ambassador in
this country, but that no answer had been returned. It was unfortunate for his
lordship, that when he did return one, it was more in accordance with French than
English sentiments.
On the 8th of February, Lord Palmerston, in pursuance of the demand made-
upon him by the French government, moved for leave to " bring in a bill to amend
the law relating to conspiracy to commit murder." Circumstances, he said, arose,
from time to time, which pointed to the necessity, or at least the expediency, of
revising particular laws. An event of that kind had recently happened. A
conspiracy was formed, partly in this country, to commit an atrocious crime. The
consequence has been, that foreign nations, ignorant of our laws, have thought that
we are indifferent to crimes of this nature, and rather disposed to look upon them
with favour. A disposition prevails upon the continent to think that parliament
should take some steps to remove aliens on mere suspicion ; but it is not the inten
tion of government to propose any measure of that kind : such a power would
lead to abuse; and to grant it is out of the question. The hill proposed— that if
any person in Great Britain conspired with any persons, either within or without
this country to commit murder in these or any other dominions, they shall be
deemed guilty of felony, and, on conviction, be liable to be sentenced to penal
servitude for life or for any term not less than five years ; or to imprisonment,
with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years: the same
penalties to apply to any one who shall persuade, instigate, or solicit any other
person to commit murder, either within or without her majesty's dominions. This,
'.21

DEBATE IN THE COMMONS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1858.

Lord Palmerston held, would be an improvement on the existing law, and proceed-
ino- " as far as we can go without violence to the constitution."
An amendment was moved by Mr. A. W. Kinglake, to the effect that the
House deemed it inexpedient to legislate in compliance with the demand made by
Count Walewski's despatch, until further information be obtained. Mr. Hadfield,
Mr. W. J. Fox, and Mr. Gilpin denounced the bill. They argued that it was
unnecessary, and that it would prove a dead letter unless it provided for espionage
by means of the French police. If, they argued, we oblige France to-day, some
thing may be done to oblige Austria to-morrow ; and after that, perhaps, something
to oblige the King of Naples. If England gave way, what could Belgium, Switzer
land, or Sardinia be expected to do ? Persons who wade through slaughter to a
throne have no right to ask their neighbours to watch over their safety. Assassins
did not grow in England ; they go out of it : but they first come into it from
countries administered by governments who make assassins. Mr. Eoebuck called
upon the Commons, as " freemen, and the great protectors of the oppressed in
Europe, to throw out the bill with all the ignominy it deserved." On the debate
being adjourned, the proposed bill was opposed by many members, including Lord
John Eussell. The real question, he said, was, that the French government wanted
to put an end to assemblages of fanatical politicians in London, which could only
be done by sending them out of the country before any crime could be proved.
He trusted that the House would stand by the established laws of England. Let
those who would, support the bill: in their shame and humiliation he was deter
mined not to share. On a division, the ayes were 299 ; noes, 99. The bill was
therefore brought in, and read a first time.
The second reading of the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, as it was termed, was
fixed for the 18th of February. Mr. Milner Gibson, in accordance with previous
notice, proposed the following amendment : — " That the House hears, with much
concern, that it is alleged that the recent attempts on the life of the Emperor of
the French have been devised in England, and expresses its detestation of such
guilty enterprises. That this House is ready at all times to assist in remedying
any defects in the criminal law, which, after due investigation, are proved to exist;
yet it cannot but regret that her majesty's government, previously to inviting the
House to amend the laws of conspiracy at the present time, have not felt it to he
their duty to make some reply to the important despatch received from the French
government, dated Paris, January 20th, 1858 ; and which has been laid before
parliament." The amendment was seconded by Mr. Bright, who had found his way
back into the House of Commons as member for Birmingham. A warm debate
ensued, during which Mr. Gladstone uttered these truthful and eloquent remarks—
" These times are grave for liberty. We live in the nineteenth century ; we talk
of progress; we believe that we are advancing: but, can any -man of observation,
who has watched the events of the last few years in Europe, have failed to perceive
that there is a movement indeed, but a downward and a backward movement?
There are a few spots in which institutions that claim our sympathy still exist and
flourish. They are secondary places ; nay, they are almost the holes and corners of
Europe, so far as mere material greatness, although their moral greatness will, I
trust, ensure them long prosperity and happiness. But in these times, more than
ever, does responsibility centre upon England; and if it does centre upon England,
upon her principles and her laws, and upon her governors, then I say that a
measure passed by this House of Commons— the chief hope of freedom— which
attempts a moral complicity between us and those who seek safety in repressive
measures, will be a blow and a discouragement to that sacred cause in every country
m the world." The debate bore hardly on the government. It was evident the
public opinion of the country was against them ; that Lord Palmerston's readiness
to change the laws of England at the dictation of a foreign potentate was
peculiarly unacceptable : and when the great Tory party went over to Mr. Gibson,
when Mr. Disra°li walked into the same lobby with Mr. Bright, it was clear the

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the royal marriage,

battle was lost. On a division, the numbers were — ayes, 215 ; noes, 234 : giving
a majority of nineteen against the second reading. This result was received with
loud cheers. On the following Monday, Lord Palmerston announced that there
was only one course which ministers could pursue with a regard to their own
honour, and a due respect to the House. They had, therefore, tendered to her majesty
the resignation of their offices, and merely held them for the purpose of carrying
on the business of the country until their successors were appointed.
Count Walewski, on reading the debate upon the second reading of the Con
spiracy Bill, immediately had an interview with Earl Cowley, whom he authorised
to express his astonishment and regret at the interpretation put upon his Ian
guage; and at its being believed, with the knowledge he had of England, that
he was " capable of applying, as a generality, an imputation which the. context of
his despatch proved could only have been intended for a definite class of
strangers." The ambassador, in communicating this message to Lord Clarendon,
added, that Count Walewski " had evinced so much concern that the deplorable
events which had occurred should not interrupt the friendly relations existing
between the two countries, that it was not to be supposed he would have
said aught that could be construed into an attack upon the liberties of the
British nation." As soon as the Derby ministry was formed, the Earl of Malmes
bury wrote to Earl Cowley, requesting him to take the earliest opportunity of
assuring Count Walewski, that her majesty's advisers were " earnestly desirous of
maintaining, in their integrity, those close and friendly relations which, since the
restoration of the empire, had marked the alliance between Great Britain and
France, to the great benefit of both countries." To maintain those relations,
however, whilst highly gratified by the full and frank assurances given by Count
Walewski to Earl Cowley, the noble lord thought that some causes of misappre
hension should be removed, as, if unexplained, they would continue to produce
painful effects upon the public mind of England. Count Walewski, by stating,
in his despatch, "that the late attempt, like others which had preceded it,
had been devised in England, and that assassination, elevated to a doctrine,
was preached openly, and practised in repeated attempts ; and in asking whether
the right of private asylum should contribute to favour such designs and plans ?
— had been understood to imply, not only that the offences enumerated were
not recognised as such by the English law, but that they might be committed
with impunity, and that the spirit of English legislation was such as .designedly
to screen and shelter the offender." His lordship showed that such was a wrong
construction of EngUsh law ; and pointed out, that " since the late atrocious attempt,
proceedings had been instituted in two eases— one for complicity in the late
murderous attempt ; another for a publication elevating assassination to a doctrine."
Count Walewski assured Earl Cowley (who read Lord Malmesbury's despatch to
him on the 8th of March), that "nothing could have been further from his in
tention than to convey, in his despatch of the 20th of January, any imputation
whatever on the moraUty or honour of the British nation." In a despatch of the
11th of March, to Count de Persigny, his excellency expressed the same sentiment.
Under his premiership, Lord Palmerston had the pleasure of assisting at the
marriage of the princess-royal (which was celebrated on the 25th of January), to
Prince Frederick William, of Prussia. The ceremony took place in the Chapel
Eoyal of St. James's Palace. Her majesty wore, on the occasion, amongst other
jewels, the Koh-i-Noor. She took her chair, surrounded by her young children,
near the altar : the princesses in white ; the princes in the Highland dress.
Lord Palmerston stood on the right, and the Duchess of Sutherland on the left
of her majesty. On the arrival of the bridegroom, he walked slowly up the
chapel, bowed to the queen and his mother, knelt in front of the altar for a
few moments, and then rose, and waited for his bride. After a pause, the
princess-royal entered : on one side was her father, on the other her grand-uncle,
King Leopold. She was followed by her youthful bridesmaids. The aspect of
223

TRIAL of orsini.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858,

the princess at this moment is thus described by a spectator : — " The gorgeous veil
she wears, depending from her head-dress, is thrown off, and, hanging in massive
folds behind, leaves the expression of her face completely visible as she walks slowly,
her head slightly stooped in bashfulness, and her eyes cast down upon the ground.
Thus all can distinctly see the mild, amiable expression of her face, so replete with
kindness and deep feeling, and a peculiarly touching aspect of sensitiveness. Her
bright bloom of colour has completely deserted her ; and even when compared with
her snowy dress, her cheeks seemed pale, and her whole appearance denotes
tremulousness and agitation." The prince-consort gave away the bride, who
seemed overcome almost to fainting. When the service was concluded, and the
Hallelujah chorus pealed forth, the bride gave vent to her long-suppressed feelings,
and threw herself upon her mother's bosom, with a suddenness and depth of
feeling that thrilled through every heart. The queen fondly kissed her, and the
bridegroom embraced the princess, and endeavoured to calm her emotion. On
leaving the chapel, the bride and bridegroom walked together, and the princess
recovered her naturally gay expression, and her eyes sparkled with delight. Of
the festivities that took place at Buckingham Palace, and of the illustrious party
assembled there, it is needless to speak. On the 2nd of February, the distinguished
pair embarked at Gravesend, to proceed to Prussia. Snow fell heavily during the
day, which was cold and gloomy. After a protracted voyage, on account of the thick
weather, the prince and princess reached Antwerp in safety. Both at London and
Berlin there were festivities of all kinds in honour of the marriage, whieh appeared
to be one of affection, rather than of interest. i
One other event — the trial of certain refugees in England — was also the effect of
Lord Palmerston's activity at this time. Dr. Simon Bernard, a French refugee,
and a teacher of languages, residing at Bayswater, was arrested on a charge 'of com
plicity with Orsini, and the attempted assassination of the emperor. Mr. Allsop,
an Englishman of property, and friend of Coleridge, only saved himseff from a
similar fate by flight. In addition to this, a government prosecution, for a libel on
the Emperor of the French, was instituted. Edward Truelove, a bookseller in the
Strand, had published a penny pamphlet, entitled Tyrannicide, is it Justifiable?
The law officers of the crown considered that this pamphlet Was a false, malicious,
and scandalous libel on the emperor, with a view to incite persons to assassinate
him. A. warrant was issued, and Truelove arrested, and committed for trial. In
his case bail was taken, but refused in that of Dr. Bernard. A few weeks after- '
wards, a Polish refugee, named Stanilaus Tchorsewski, was arrested, and carried
before Mr. Jardine at Bow Street, for the publication of a pamphlet in French,
described in the warrant as a malicious libel concerning his majesty the Emperor
of the French, with intent to incite divers persons to assassinate his said majesty.
Tchorsewski was committed to take his trial.
Simultaneously with these proceedings in England, was the trial in Paris of
those who had recently attempted to take the life of the emperor. The conspirators
were four— Orsini, Eudio, Pierri, and Gomez— all Italians. The first three were
sentenced to be executed in black garments as parricides ; the fourth, who occupied
merely a menial position, and pleaded that he but obeyed his master's orders, was
condemned to penal servitude for life. Orsini stated that he had.no hatred of
France. A French army had overthrown the Eoman republic; but he was per
suaded that this was the act of the government only. He had, in England, written
and spoken in favour of political intervention to free Italy, being desirous of
proceeding legally. Finding these steps ended in nothing, he became convinced
that the Emperor Napoleon was opposed to the independence of Italy, and there
fore he resolved to kill him. From his prison, Orsini addressed a letter to the
emperor ; in which he said—" In order to maintain the balance of power in Europe,
it is necessary to render Italy independent, or to lighten the chains by which
Austria holds her in bondage. Shall I ask that, for her deliverance, the blood of
Frenchmen shall be shed for the Italians ? No ; I do not go so far as that. Italy

WmsT

AfmSfc

MARSHALL PELISSIER, BUG BE HAL AH© F
O.B. 18 6 4

THZ LOTTDOS PKIKTTSTG- AND FUBTJISHIFO COMPANY LIMITED .

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the duke of malakofiv
asks tbat France shall not intervene against her ; and it shall not allow Germany to
' support Austria in the struggles in which she may, perhaps, be soon engaged. This
is precisely what your majesty can do, if you are so inclined. On your will, there
fore, depsnds the welfare or misfortune of my country — the life or death of a
nation to which Europe is, in a great measure, indebted for her civilisation." In
a second letter to the emperor, he said — " Assassination, in whatever garb it may
be disguised, does not enter amongst my principles, although, by a fatal error of
mind, I have allowed myself to be led on to organise the attempt of the 14th of
January." *.
Orsini and Pierri were guillotined early on the morning of the 13th of March.
Great numbers were present; and a body of 5,000 troops assembled round the
scaffold. Pierri exhibited a feverish excitement ; but Orsini was immovably calm. '«"
The work of death was rapidly done, and the crowd quietly dispersed. The. life of
Rudio was spared.
All this time intense excitement pervaded France, and a feeling of alarm
appears to have taken possession of the French government. Arrests and repressive
measures followed each other with great rapidity. Nor could the emperor allay
his apparent agitation with respect to the Uberty of political exiles in this country.
A pamphlet, entitled L'Empereur Napoleon III. et VAngleterre, was published in
Paris. Though written by M. Guerronnierre, it was attributed to the inspiration
of the emperor. It harped, with a disagreeable perseverance, on the delicate rela
tionships of the two nations: bitter complaints were made of the unfriendly
feeUng which, it was alleged, England entertained against his imperial majesty ;
and the advantages conferred on England by the French alliance were insisted on.
It affirmed, that " in London there are held meetings where assassination is glorified..
In London are sold atrocious libels, in which the murder of the sovereigns of
Europe is elevated to a system — to a right, to a duty ; in which thrones, altars,
armies, laws, the magistracy, society, and God himself, are dragged through blood
and mire. Such saturnalia surpass even barbarism. There is not a law, in
ancient or in modern times, which tolerates them ; and can it be pretended that
this tolerance is, on the part of England, merely the exercise of the right of
asylum ?" How extravagant were these representations, was evidenced by the fact,
that for proof of them, the writer was compelled to refer to what passed at a public-
house near Temple Bar, where a discussion forum held its sittings, and where
one of the subjects debated was — "Is regicide permitted under certain circum
stances ?"
A better feeling gradually grew up. The correspondence between Earl Malmes
bury and Count Walewski was understood to have put the relations between
the two countries on a more satisfactory footing, as the disavowal of the French
foreign minister removed the only ground of complaint which could be urged
against the despatch of the 20th of January. After the correspondence, it was
thought that the Count de Persigny had better retire from the London embassy.
He did so ; and the Duke of Malakoff, who was on such familiar terms with the
English army in the Crimea, was sent to replace him as ambassador to the Court of
St. James's. The duke arrived in London on the 16th of April, and was most
cordially welcomed. On the 6th of May, the members of the Army and Navy
Club invited his excellency to dinner, at the club-house, St. James's Square
General Williams, the defender of Kars, presided ; and the duke met many of his
old companions-in-arms. The spirit displayed in the speeches delivered on this
occasion, which were animated by a friendly feeling to France, and expressive of
warm alliance between the two nations, on terms honourable to both, was very
gratifying to Napoleon, who, according to an article on the change of ambassadors,
which appeared in one of his official organs, selected the marshal as his represen
tative at Queen Victoria's Court, because he " personified the alliance between the
two nations, and was, in his person, a living monument of dangers and glory
common to both." About the time that the Duke de Malakoff received his appoint-
225

tesriONAGE in France.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
ment, the lands at St. Helena, forming the sites of Longwood and the tomb of
Napoleon I., were made over to the emperor and his heirs for ever.
England did well in keeping to its old ways and institutions. A correspon
dent of the Times gives but a dreary view of affairs in Paris at the period of
which we write. He says — " Over everything there is a gloom and uneasiness.
People are talking timidly, and with measured dulness, on unusually commonplace
topics. Men consider whether they ought to be walking with a friend whom they
have known for years. Two persons will be speaking together, and, on seeing a
third person join them, will suddenly pause, and turn the conversation. There
will be, in the midst of social intercourse, a man who checks the mouth,<and puts a
guard on every tongue. People will talk with him, shake hands with him ; but
they will be careful of what they say before him. Individuals are careful what
books they have in their libraries ; what papers they have in their writing-desks.
They do not talk affably with their inferiors, as light-hearted Frenchmen in the
old time did. The concierge, the waiter at the cafi, even the private servants, are
kept at a distance. In a railway carriage, it is well not to be too conversational
with a neighbour. In a letter, it is as well to confine yourself to good wishes
for your correspondent's health ; for Paris and France are under strict surveillance;
and no one knows who are the watchers, and who are the watched. The empire
is espionage ; its incarnation is a mouchard. It is not only that reorganised agents
of police are in every street and public place ; that the comings and goings of well-
Known democrats are watched ; that the assemblies of communists are hunted out ;
but men of every rank, every phase of character, every shade of political opinions,
are at the mercy of an immense army of spies, who penetrate everywhere — who
follow the individual even into the confidence of his family and private Ufe; and
who spread distrust and apprehension through the country."
France, we may remark en passant, does not seem to have changed much for
the better yet. The Paris correspondent of the Morning Star, writing from that
gay capital in October, 1866, says—" According to the twelfth paragraph of
Article 475 of the penal code, I was aware that every Frenchman was compelled,
under pain of infraction of the law, to aid all government officers, policemen, &c,
in all cases of accident, rows, or riots, -^ shipwreck, inundation, fires, and other
calamities, as well as in case of pillage or robbery. Every Frenchman is, moreover,
bound to seize a guilty party, and give him up to justice. All this we have all
been perfectly aware of. I also knew that there were a numerous body of men
who gained their bread by the revolting occupation of spy. Yet, till now, I
fancied these spies— or mouchcvrds, as they are here called— filled no other func
tion. A trial, which has just taken place in Paris, would, however, lead me to
conclude that every individual in this country is qualified to serve the police,
whatever may be bis other occupations, and employed by government to be kept
au courant of what is going on. Thus the head of a restaurant, one's private
servant, one's porter, &c, may be, for aught we know, in the pay of the police.
We are, in fact, living in an atmosphere of mouchardism. It is, however, no joke
or sinecure to be a spy. Witness Clercemvault, a costermonger, who, although he
had means of gaming his livelihood honourably, enrolled himself in that mysterious
confraternity He, having repeated what he heard, or denounced what he saw,
naturally made an extensive circle of enemies. On the 16th of last June, between
eif'™ mne ° clock ln the evening, Hentz Leperteur, and the brothers Neveu,
who had cause of complaint against him, on account of revelations he had made
to the police, attracted him into a lonely spot near Paris, accused him of being a
spy, and threw themselves upon him, armed with open knives, and all but
murdered him. Hentz Leperteur has been sentenced to twenty years' hard
labour ; the brothers Neveu got off, owing to extenuating circumstances."
. .But we must return to the trial, instituted by Lord Palmerston, at the
instigation of the French government. On the 9th of April, true bills were
returned against Dr. Bernard, Mr. Truelove, and Stanilaus Tchorsewski. Great
226

a.d. 1858.] , VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [dr. Bernard's TRlAn.
excitement prevailed on the subject. The prosecution was felt to_ be purely
political. The trial commenced, at the Old Bailey, on the 12th of April.
Dr. Bernard was charged as an accessary, before the fact, to the murder of
Nicholas Battie, and of another person (name unknown), whose deaths resulted from
the explosion of certain hand-grenades, or, shells, hurled at the carriage of the Em
peror of the French, on the evening of the 14th of January. The prisoner objected
that the court had no jurisdiction to try him on that indictment ; and therefore he
declined to plead. This objection was overruled, and the plea of " not guilty"
entered for him. The details of the trial are too prolix for our pages. _ The
prosecution sought to establish the guilt of Dr. Bernard by a long chain of
circumstantial evidence. It is a well-known rule of English law, that when a case
rests entirely on circumstantial evidence, that evidence must not only be consis
tent with the hypothesis of the guilt of the accused person, but it must also
exclude every other hypothesis. It must not only be shown that he may be guilty,
but that, on the evidence, it is impossible he can be innocent. The evidence
against Dr. Bernard did not fulfil this condition ; and the fact that the trial lasted
six days, and had been undertaken at the instigation of the two most powerful
governments in the world, raises a presumption that the evidence of guilt was weak.
There were certain indisputable facts. An attempt was made on the life of the
emperor by Orsini, Pierri, Eudio, and Gomez. The weapons used were shells,
exploded by fulminating powder ; and the shells were made by Mr. Taylor, of Bir
mingham, to the order of Thomas Allsop. Some time before the murderous
enterprise, Bernard bought, in London, the materials used for making the fulmi
nate of mercury. He was on intimate terms with Orsini ; and he hired Eudio to
join Orsini in Paris. It was, however, proved that Bernard caused some pieces of
iron, supposed to be detached parts of grenades, to be conveyed to Brussels, and
thence to Paris. He also sent two revolvers, which were delivered to Orsini in
the French capital. In addition to this, Bernard was a republican, and avowed
himself a conspirator against the despotic government of France. This was the
whole case against him, with the exception that a letter was found in his
lodgings, written by Allsop in January, 1857, and couched in violent language
against the emperor. There was no proof that the shells made by Mr. Taylor, and
paid for by Allsop, ever reached the hands of Dr. Bernard. An attempt was made
to identify them with the pieces of iron which he sent to Brussels ; but the evidence
on this point was not satisfactory. Neither was there anything to show what use
he had made of the mercury, nitric acid, and alcohol, which he had purchased in
his own name. More important still, there was no evidence to connect him with
the acts of Orsini in Paris. Not a scrap of writing was found to implicate him;
and he was not named in the confessions made by the four condemned. If Ber
nard was a party to the plot, Eudio must have known it; but neither Eudio nor
Gomez were produced as witnesses. The question for the jury was, whether
Dr. Bernard knew that Orsini went to Paris with the deliberate intention of
assassinating the emperor ? The explanation offered on his behalf was, that he had
assisted Orsini and his confederates to go to Paris, in furtherance of a revolutionary
movement for the independence of Italy, and not to attempt the emperor's life ;
and that Orsini, when in Paris, formed the design which he carried into execution
on rie 14th of January. This statement was supported bv the subsequent conduct
an 1 declaration of Dr. Bernard. Orsini, on taking his departure, told every one
bis destination was Paris. When the news of the attempt at assassination reached
this country, Dr. Bernard appeared utterly confounded, and refused belief. He
assured every one who listened to him, that he knew Orsini well ; that he was
acquamted with his object in going to Paris; and it was impossible that his
friend could have formed the idea of assassination. He made no attempt to conceal
Papers, or remove them to destroy evidence, or to hide himself. There was at
Itast, so much doubt, that the jury declared him " not guilty." On the announce
ment of this decision there was loud and repeated cheering in court. Bernard

in

227

the " cagliari."] LIFE AND TIMES OF 1&J>. 1859,

an excited manner, waved his handkerchief, and exclaimed,. " I am not guilty — I am
nqt guilty I Honour to an English jury ! England has always been, and will
always be, the land of liberty ! England will always crush tyranny wherever it
may be !" An immense crowd had assembled in the streets ; and on the result of
the trial being made "known, continued eheering, and a scene of great excitement,
took place. Many of the French j ournals were offended at the cheering, and regarded
it as an expression of ill-will towards the emperor. It was not that. In England
we always sympathise with the weak, rather than the strong— hence the joy
manifested by the populace. Edwin James, the counsel for the defence, became .
the idol of the mob, and gained a seat for Marylebone.
For some time the government appeared inclined to proceed with the prosecu
tions against Truelove and the^ Pole, Tchorsewski ; but they eventually came to th©
conclusion of abandoning a course which had, at the least, the appearance of an
attempt to coerce the press. On the 22nd of June, the trial of Mr. Truelove; was-
to take place in the Court of Queen's Bench, before Lord Campbell and « special
jury. Considerable excitement prevailed, and the court was- crowded,, when the
prosecution was withdrawn' by the Attorney-general, on Mr. Truelove admitting,
that he never intended to countenance the crime of assassination, and that he
was ready to express his regret that any such misconception should have been :
put upon his publication. A similar proceeding then took place- with respect to
Tchorsewski, and the press prosecutions were at an end. The Derby ministry acted
wisely in retiring from proceedings which they did not originate. Orsini's attempt
created in France a feeling of irritation against England. The French govejjnment
saw an opportunity for striking a blow against the right of asylum, freely accorded
in this country to political refugees of every nation, and of all shades of opinion.
Count Walewski, for a short time, even entertained the hope that, he could not
only obtain the expulsion of obnoxious refugees, but some limitation of our Uberty
of the press. Lord Palmerston, probably, did not intend to go this length ; but he
was anxious to. conciliate a powerful ally. The Conspiracy Bill, the arrest of Ber
nard,, and the prosecution of an English bookseller, were all parts of an un-English
policy ; and the English people were anxious to show that they would not tolerate
even the semblance of yielding to foreign dictation — that England would be
England stUl — free in speech, free in its offer of shelter and liberty to the oppressed
of every clime. The speech of King John to the pope's legate — with but a slight
variation — should have been in Lord Palmerston's mouth. Shakespeare makes
that poor puling king exclaim —
" Tell him this tale ; and from the mouth of England :
And thus much more — that no Italian priest
Shall tithe or toll in our dominions ;
But as we, under heaven, are supreme head,
So under Him, that great authority,
Where we do reign we will alone uphold,
Without the assistance of a mortal hand."
Had Lord Palmerston spoken in some such strain, he would have remained in
office. *
In another matter Lord Palmerston seems to have acted in a manner
unworthy of his ancient fame. It appears, that in June, 1857, the steam-boat
Cagliari, which performed the mail service from Genoa to Tunis, started on her
usual trip. During the voyage, a number of persons — most of them discharged
soldiers of the Italian legion — possessed themselves of the command of the vessel,
directed her course towards the Neapolitan coast, and attacked the island of Ponza,
where they took on board 300 persons condemned for political offences. The
Cagliari was subsequently captured by two vessels of the Neapolitan navy. On
this, the owners of the packet demanded its restoration, on the ground that the
captain and crew had acted under the influence of force. The Neapolitan govern
ment replied that the ship was officially confiscated. The crew, including Watt
228

i.-i w TOnrruns and rnMamso caKpii,y.i1KiraD

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [conservative ministry
and Park, the English engineers, were sent to prison to await their trial ; and the
British consul was not permitted to see his unfortunate countrymen. On the
attention of Lord Palmerston being drawn to the subject in parliament, he replied
that full inquiry had been made into the circumstances, and that the British
government did not feel bound to interfere. Here was an abandonment of the
civis Romanus sum doctrine with a vengeance. Surely, like fiery port, his lord
ship had become toned down by old age.
When the Conservatives came into office, they found public opinion very sore.
People believed that the government had been meanly permitting Englishmen,
guilty of no crime, to suffer a cruel imprisonment in the dungeons of Naple's.
The new government took up the matter warmly. On the 15th of March, the
Chancellor of the Exchequer made a statement respecting it. He said that, as the
jurisdiction of the King of Naples had been acknowledged by the late ministry,
the present one was prevented from taking any steps in contravention of that
decision. The government would submit their case, he said, to the law advisers of
the crown ; and then act without fear or favour, whether they deemed it their duty
to assert the rights of a sovereign, or to vindicate those of their fellow-subjects.
He added, that all the papers connected with the case should be laid before the
House. On the 22nd of March, Mr. Disraeli informed the House, that in conse
quence of the representation of the British consul, the King of Naples had given
orders that Watt should be immediately released ; that Park had been released
on bail ; and that he had been placed on trial, which was conducted in a spirit of
impartiality. Park was subsequently set at liberty ; and a demand was made by
the British government on that of Naples, for compensation to him and his com
panions. Eventually, the King of Naples agreed to pay £3,000 as compensation,
and to deUver up tbe ship Cagliari, and the whole of her crew, into the hands of
the government of this country.
Homer, we are told, sometimes nodded ; and it seems, occasionally, England's
far-famed Secretary was under somniferous influences. Still, in the fact that
there was joy in Vienna, and among the despotic rulers of the continent, when it
was heard that Palmerston was Premier no longer, we have the best compliment to
his lordship's policy and power.

CHAPTEE XII.
THE CONSERVATIVES IN OFFICE.

Lord Derby, as head of the party that formed the most numerous section of the
majority against the late government, received the queen's authority to form
a new ministry. He undertook the task, though perfectly conscious that he
possessed neither a parliamentary majority, nor that broad basis of popular support
which is usually regarded as essential to the leader of the government.
Of this brilliant orator, the following particulars are worth recording. Edward
Geoffery Stanley, Earl of Derby, was born in 1799, at Knowsley Park, Lancashire.
Having been educated at Eton, and at Christchurch, Oxford, Mr. Stanley, in
1821, became a member of the House of Commons, in which, for the next twenty
years, he enacted a most conspicuous part. He seems to have been in no haste
to trespass on the attention of the illustrious assembly ; but when he broke
silence in 1824, his maiden speech, though on a matter of mere local interest,
elicited a high eulogium from Sir J. Mackintosh ; and in the course of the same
session, his second oratorical effort, on the subject of the Irish church, exhibited
the readiness, aptitude, and ability of an experienced debater. Mr. Macaulay
229

lord derby.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
remarked, that Mr. Stanley's knowledge of the science of parliamentary defence
resembled an instinct ; and that it would be difficult to name any other debater
who has not made himself a master of his art at the expense of his audience.
During the brief Canning and Goderich administrations, Mr. Stanley, as Under-
Secretary for the Colonies, was initiated into official mysteries ; and on the forma
tion of Lord Grey's government, he was nominated to the then arduous post
of Chief Secretary for Ireland. But although the young nobleman's poUtical views
were of the most liberal character, the constituency of Preston preferred the
claims of Henry Hunt, the popular, but now forgotten, demagogue. However, Mr.
Stanley found his way into' the political arena through the borough of Windsor;
and was, ere long, engaged in those single-handed conflicts with O'Connell and
Shiel, which, for years, excited parliament, and alarmed the country. While the
Eeform Bill was under discussion in 1832, his singular genius for debate was often
exercised with effect in defence of its provisions ; and, about the same time, he
carried the measure for national education in Ireland. The question was one of
absorbing interest in the country; and the feeling, when the outline of the plan
was made known, was one of general dismay among a very large body, both of: the
clergy and laity. It was affirmed, though very untruly, that Dr. Whately had been
sent to Ireland as Archbishop of Dublin, for the very purpose of carrying out the
system. That system failed.' How it would have worked, and whether its-success
would have been greater, as a mixed system, had the great body of Protestant
clergy, and laity supported it, it would be now vain to inquire. That the results
would have been different from those which have taken place, can scarcely "be
doubted; but what those results would have been, is another question. Whether
a mixed system of education (really^ and not nominally mixed, as has been the case
in some instances) ,can ever work effectually in a country where different religious
systems are held with such intensity as in Ireland," is in itself a question not easily
or quickly answered.
' It was in the session of 1833 that Mr. Stanley's ability was most conspicuous,
and his voice most potent in the battle of ¦' debate. At the opening of parliament,
he overpowered the Irish repealers, says Men of the Time, by his1 vehement
invective ; and, combining the pride of patrician blood with the pride of intellectual
prowess, it , would, indeed, have been something novel in human nature, if
he had not manifested a degree of scorn for his adversaries. This tendency soon
raised up a host of foes eager to annoy him. The complaint of hauteur became so.
frequent, that the leader of the opposition came to the rescue* " I have often,"
6aid Sir Eobert Peel, " heard the right honourable gentleman taunted with his
aristocratic bearing and demeanour. I rather think I should hear fewer complaints.
oh that score if he were a less powerful opponent in debate." Whether Mr. Stanley
were wise in thus treating his opponents, is a question to which many have re
turned a negative, reply. Be this as it may, that year he carried the Church, .Tem
poralities Bill, and the measure for emancipating the West India slaves ; having,
for tiie latter purpose, become Colonial- Secretary, and a member of the .cabinet.
In 1834, alarmed at the ministerial project of still further reducing the Irish
church establishment,- Lord Stanley withdrew from office, carrying Sir J. Graham,
Lord Eipon, and the Duke of Eichmond in his train. He "declined to take part in
the administration formed by Sir Eobert Peel, on Lord Grey's resignation ; but
after acting with the Conservative opposition for seven years, he accepted the
seals of the Colonial Office in 1841 ; and occupied that post for four years, in the
course of which he was removed to the House of Peers. At the close of 1845,
when Sir E. Peel arrived at the resolution of abandoning the cause of protection,
Lord Stanley withdrew from office ; and next year, though with seeming reluctance,
placed himself at the head of the opposition, illustrated and rendered memorable
in the House of Commons, by the industry of a Lord George Bentinck, and the
genius of a Disraeli.
In 1851, the resignation of Lord John Eussell brought the Conservatives to
230

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a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord Stanley.
the very gate of office ; and after the Whigs had retained office a year longer, in
February, 1852, the Conservative chief, who, meanwhile, had succeeded his father
as fourteenth Earl Derby, accepted the responsibiUties of office, and constructed a
cabinet. Having succeeded in unravelling the tangled web — so says an aris
tocratic admirer— of government difficulties, financial and diplomatic, created by his
predecessors, he was obUged to retire before the usual combination of Whig and
Kadical partisans.
In 1852, on the death of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Derby was elected
Chancellor of the University of Oxford.
On the fall of the coalition cabinet, in 1855, the earl declined to undertake
the duties of government, on the ground that the only ministry he could have
formed would have been dependent for existence on the forbearance of his foes.
His lordship was ably supported by Mr. Disraeli, as Chancellor of the Ex
chequer, whose_ extraordinary eloquence in debate, and infiuence in the cabinet,
obtained for him the lead of the House of Commons ; and by Mr. Walpole, who,
as Home Secretary, if without the more brilliant qualifications of his colleague,
showed that he was well fitted for office, and that his character was strongly
marked by honesty of purpose, and devotion to his duties. The Lord Chancellor
was Sir F. Thesiger ; the President of the Council, Marquis of Salisbury; Foreign
Secretary, Lord Malmesbury ; Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley ; War Department,
General Peel ; President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Henley ; President of the
Board of Control, Earl of Ellenborough ; Lord Privy Seal, Earl of Hardwicke ;
Board of Works, Lord John Manners, famed all the world over for his unfortunate
couplet — , " Let learning, laws, and commeircs die,
But save, oh save our old nobility."
The First Lord of the Admiralty was Sir John Pakington, an amiable and
excellent man, a sound churchman, a fair debater — nothing more.
Next to Mr. Disraeli, Lord Stanley is the most able of the new ministry — the
one most esteemed and respected in the House or out. His lordship, the eldest
son of Earl Derby, was born in 1826 ; and was educated at Eugby, and Trinity
College, Dublin, where he was first-class classics, besides taking mathematical
honours, and gaining a declamation and other prizes. While travelling in America,
he was elected Lord George Bentinck's successor, as member of parliament for the
borough of Lynn; and having returned to England, he deUvered, in the House of
Commons, during the summer of 1850, a speech on the subject of the sugar
colonies, which was highly praised by Lord Palmerston aSd Mr. Gladstone. Lord
Stanley, with a laudable anxiety to prepare himself, by study and travel, for the
work of the state, and the walfare of the senate, next paid a visit to the East ; and
was still in India when nominated, in March, 1852, Under-Secretary of State for
Foreign Affairs, in the Derby ministry; and in the spring of 1853 (having, in the
meantime, resigned with his party), he submitted to the House of Commons a motion,
which had for its ultimate object a more complete reform of Indian affairs than
that contemplated by the coalition cabinet. It is chiefly, however, as a social
reformer, and to his indefatigable exertions out of parliament, for the intellectual
improvement of the great body of the people, that Lord Stanley is mainly noticeable.
He has the reputation of being by far the ablest scion of the aristocracy that
has entered parliament since the era of the Reform" Bill. In the establishment of
baths and washhouses, of mechanics' institutions, of public libraries, of improved
dwellings for the labouring classes, he has taken an active part. When, in 1855,
the death of Sir W. Molesworth created a vacancy in the Colonial Office, Lord
Palmerston, sensible of Lord Stanley's talents and popularity, offered him the seals
of that department; but he declined the office. "The offer of the Colonies,"
said a writer in a paper at the time, "was alike honourable to Lord Palmer
ston and Lord Stanley. It was a recognition, on the Premier's part, of Lord
231

tORD lytton.] *LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1-858.

Stanley's known talents,-, and, of another of his qualities still rarer — we mean
his studious devotion, to statesmanship as the business of his life. Everything here
has been so long rated by the parliamentary standard only, that statesmanship
proper scarcely, exists. We have debaters in plenty, but no Metternichs and Ches
terfields ; while, of the higher and more, philosophical class of statesmen — men who
sstudy history, and,, at the same time, their age as part of history — a specimen is as
rare as the capercailzie is in Scotland. Without the pedantry of a doctrinaire,
Lord Stanley has the speculative seriousness of a student, and. unites with that
a most attentive observation to the Uving time, without which no man can be
worth a straw as a practical politician. It is an' unquestionable honour to him to
have been so. selected by a veteran judge of men like. Lord Palmerston, whose forte
is, probably, his knowledge of mankind." , ., ¦¦
In a little while, the new administration was strengthened in the. acceptance,
by Sir Bulwer Lytton, of the Colonial Secretaryship, vacated by Lord Stanley for
that of India. Sir Edward had acquired unusual, fame as a novelist, dramatist,
pOet, and historian: his numerous works have placed him foremost among the
sterling writers of the age. As the representative, pf one of the most ancient
.families in' England, and as a member for an influential county, he re-entered
parliament with all the prestige which a popularity that embraced all ranks could
confer. He soon made it apparent, tbat among, the attainments by which he. had
been so bountifully gifted, he possessed eloquence of the. highest order. Having, in
-this way, raised himself to the firsf, rank of parliamentary, oratory in the estimation
both of friends and opponents,, he accepted office, His untiring attention to
the business of his department; his numerous lucid, yet elaborate, expositions of
every question of policy he was. required to defend ;.. and .the sound discrimination
he displayed in the appointment pf subordinates, point him out as one of the most
efficient Secretaries of State that has held office since the establishment of our
colonial empire. Sir , Lytton (now Lord Lytton) is the son of General Bulwer,
of Heydon Hall, Norfolk; and was born in 1805; After having spent his boyhood
at private schools, and under the care of two tutors, young Bulwer went to
Cambridge, where he signalised himself by his luxury, and by his carrying off the
Chancellor's prize medal with his English poem of Sculpture. In 1827, he
appeared as a novelist. In 1831, he was returned to the House of Commons,, as
member for St. Ives ; and became conspicuous in the ranks of the English Radicals.
He strove, in his senatorial capacity, to link -his name still closer with literature by
his exertions in favour of a law for the protection of dramatic copyright, and of
measures for relieving the newspaper press from the burden of the stamp laws.
When Sir E. Peel, took office in 1835, Bulwer published a pamphlet, entitled The
Crisis, which ran rapidly through more than twenty editions, exercised no incon
siderable influence on the elections, and is said to have won for its author a
¦baronetcy. In 1842, he was. rejected by the borough of Lincoln, w"hieh he had
long represented in parliament. From that date, for several years, he was out of
parliament.- In 1851,. when parties had been broken up and re-cast, he — having
meanwhile inherited • Knebworthr, with the estates of his maternal ancestors, and
'assumed, by royal Ucense, tbe -name of Lytton — again entered the poUtical arena
. with a pamphlet, in the-" form of Letters to John Bull, recommending a settlement
of the protection question" oh terms of mutual compromise ; and when parliament
was dissolved in 1852, he was a successful candidate for the county of Hertford,
and took his seat in the House as a Conservative, and a supporter of Lord Derby.
The position of the new Premier was one of remarkable difficulty. Our rela
tions with France, and the state of our affairs in India, rendered uncertainty in the
government perplexing and injurious. On the 1st of March, Lord Derby made,
in the House of Lords, his expected statement as head of the new government. He
said that the recent victory in the Commons, with the displacement of the ministry,
was unexpected ; that it found him unprepared for taking office ; that on attending
the summons of the queen, he besought time to consider ; and only accepted the
232

LOEB 'STA1ILEY.

A.D, 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord derby's speech.

post which her maj esty had conferred upon him, at her persevering desire. Alluding
to the state of parties, he said — " It is very like the distinctions of the various
grades of rank in society at large. There is a broad interval between the highest
and the lowest ; but the gradation by which one melts into the other is so imper
ceptible, that it is difficult, with regard to social rank and to political parties, to
state precisely where one commences and the other ends. Desiring to form a
government upon a basis whieh should be Conservative in the truest sense of the
word, but, at the same time, not indisposed to measures of progressive improvement,
I hoped to obtain the assistance of those eminent persons who, not belonging to
the government we have succeeded, shared to such a degree the opinions of the
Conservative party, that they might be deemed guilty of an inconsistency in asso
ciating themselves with me in the difficult task I had undertaken." The persons
thus applied to were — Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Newcastle, and Earl Grey ; but
as they decUned joining Lord Derby, he was thrown back upon his political followers.
With regard to India, Lord Derby considered, that though much remained to
be done, yet he did not entertain any doubt but that the continued exertions of the
gallant troops of her majesty would, at no distant period, terminate the formidable
insurrection whieh raged there. The China war he still considered was entered
upon unadvisedly, and upon insufficient grounds ; yet he cordially rejoiced at the
success which had hitherto attended the British arms. " The best result of that
success, however, will be, that it will give the opportunity of concluding, with the
least possible delay, a safe and honourable peace, and will enable us to resume the
benefits and advantages of that commercial intercourse, for which alone it can be of
the slightest advantage to maintain any communication whatever with such a
country. The idea of territorial aggression — of doing more than obtaining ade
quate means for freely carrying on peaceful commerce, will, I trust, never enter
the head of any minister who conducts the affairs of this country."
Of the French difficulty Lord Derby spoke at great length. This country had
but one desire with regard to France : that, remaining on friendly terms with it,
she should have within herself all the means of contentment, wealth, and pros
perity. Its form of government was, if not a matter of indifference to us, at least
one in which we had no cause or right to inquire. But whatever the government,
it was of vast importance to France, and hardly of secondary importance to Europe,
that that government should enjoy a condition of permanence and stabiUty.
Towards the maintenance of that condition, the Ufe of the remarkable man who pre
sided over the destinies of that country was of great and paramount importance. " I
cannot, therefore, wonder, however deeply I may deplore, that upon the news spread
ing through France that this atrocious deed was the act of refugees coming straight
from England, with the enthusiastic expressions of loyalty and congratulation at the
safety of the emperor, there should have been mingled, especially from the army of
France, some expressions which, seeing how unworthy they were as applied to
England, must naturally have wounded the feelings of this country. Under the
circumstances, I think that such expressions ought not to have been too nicely
scanned, even if his imperial majesty, with that frankness and candour which he
has always displayed in his relations with England, had not fairly avowed the regret
he felt that such language had been suffered to appear in the public papers,
and thereby to create a just resentment in the people of this country." Lord Derby
did not consider that the hospitality of England was due to assassins ; but he con
tended, that not only assassination, but conspiracy, or incitement to assassinate,
whether by publication or by word of mouth, was an offence recognised by the law
of England. Intention, however, unaccompanied by any overt act, so long as the
intention remained in the mind of the party alone conceiving it, afforded no ground
for prosecution. Suspicion did not warrant punishment in any such case. The
evidence of guilt must be such as to satisfy a jury. The new ministry had come
to the resolution of pointing out to the French minister the misconstructions which
had been placed upon his despatch ; and, in the most amicable manner, to request of
VOL. IL R 233

THE ELLENBOROUGH DESPATCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1855.
him an explanation which might remove the painful impression prevailing among
the English people. Pending that reply, the government deemed it their duty to
put in force the existing powers of the law, for the purpose of checking these
dangerous and alarming conspiracies.
In describing the policy of the new administration, the earl observed, that
whilst we " firmly maintain the great institutions of the country, we shall not
hesitate to propose and support measures of undoubted improvement and progress,
and to introduce, whenever necessary, safe and well-considered improvements.
There could be no greater mistake than to suppose that a Conservative ministry
necessarily means a stationary ministry. The constitution itself was the result of a
series of perpetual changes." Before concluding, the noble earl referred to the
subject of parliamentary reform. He would have been well satisfied that no legis
lation on a subject so exciting should be called for from the government. Yet he
could not exclude from his consideration the fact, that for three or four years, not
only had a demand been made, but a promise had been given by successive govern
ments of the introduction of a Eeform Bill. He would not pledge himself and his
colleagues to introduce such a bill ; but, as soon as the pressure of parliamen
tary business enabled them deliberately to consider the question, they would direct
their attention to the defects existing in the laws regulating the representation
of the people in parliament, and to the amendments which might be made in
those laws.
The settlement of the new form of government for India was the first and
most urgent matter for the consideration of parliament. Mr. Disraeli, on March
the 26th, introduced into the House of Commons Lord Derby's bill for the future
government of India, and its transference from the East India Company to the
crown. Fearful of an opposition which might endanger the existence of the new
ministry, Mr. Disraeli adopted, on the reassembling of parliament, a suggestion of
Lord John Eussell's ; and instead of pressing his measure, proposed a series of
preliminary resolutions on the subject for the consideration of the House.. These
resolutions were discussed seriatim.
During the progress of these discussions, the existence of tbe ministry was
threatened by another circumstance connected with the affairs of India. Lord
Ellenborough, in anticipation of the fall of Lucknow, caused a despatch to be
addressed to Lord Canning, the Governor-general of India, recommending a
merciful policy towards the rebels. Punishments, it said, had been too frequent and
severe; adding — " While we may be unable to forget the insanity which, during the
last ten months, has pervaded the army and a large portion of the people, we should,
at the same time, remember the previous fidelity of a hundred years, and so conduct
ourselves towards those who have erred, as to remove their delusions and their fears,
and re-establish, if we can, that confidence which was so long the foundation of our
power." In issuing these directions, it was assumed that the government were
actuated by a desire to obtain popularity, and to pass a censure upon Lord Canning.
Party feeling was introduced into the discussion, which speedily waxed warm.
On the 14th of May, Mr. Cardwell moved the following resolutions in the
Commons — in other words, he moved a censure on the ministry v — " That this
House, whilst, in its present state of information, it abstains from expressing an
opinion on the policy of any proclamation which may have been issued by the
Governor-general of India in relation to Oude, has seen, with regret and serious
apprehension, that her majesty's government have addressed to the Governor-
general, through the recent committee of the Court of Directors, and have published,
a despatch condemning in strong terms the conduct of the Governor-general ; and
is of opinion that such a course, on the part of the government, must tend, in the
present circumstances of India, to produce the most prejudicial effect, by weaken
ing the authority of the Governor-general, and encouragiug the further resistance
of those who are in arms against us." A full House attended to take part in the
discussion, which it was expected would have ended in the defeat of the ministry.
234

A.b. 1858.;] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON, .[india bill,

The debate extended over four nights. During the course of it, Sir De Lacy
Evans declared that the motion would imperil our interests in India; and gave
notice that he should move a resolution, "That, in the opinion of this House,
the proclamation of the Governor-general of India, pronouncing a confiscation
tc the British government of the proprietary rights of the people of Oude was
not equitable, politic, or calculated to promote the pacification of the people of that
country, and ou^ht not to be carried into effect." Mr. Bright also declared that
the proclamation was one of war to the knife ; and that the Governor-general
would require a new army at his back to carry it out. He added, that there was
quite as much zeal for places as for the good of India in the resolution before the
House. Such seems to have been the general feeling; for, on the 21st of May,
Mr. Cardwell withdrew his motion, in accordance with the request of Lord
Palmerston,. An amendment, by Mr. DillWyn, member for Swansea, had been
moved, to the following effect :— " That this House generally approves of Lord
Canning's policj up to the time of the Oude proclamation, and is quite satisfied
with the judgment and firmness he has evinced during the crisis in India ; but
declines to give opinion upon the proclamation itself, until it has further informa
tion on the state of Oude when it was issued, and also Lord Canning's reasons for
issuing it." This amendment likewise fell to the ground.
PubUc opinion generally condemned Lord Canning's policy of confiscation,
as calculated to incite the people of Oude against Us, and to produce irritation
where we desired to tranquillise. Prior to the debate, Lord Ellenborough resigned
his position as a member of the ministry. The publication of the letter to Canning
was, he said, entirely his own act. " I knew what was right," said his lordship ,
" and I did it. I haVe served the people of India faithfully for thirty years ; and 1
Will not now do an act, at the close of a public life, to injure them." He was suc
ceeded, as President of the Board of Control, by Lord Stanley >
A further complication of the difficulty in which the government had become
entangled in this matter, was occasioned by a statement of Lord Granville, that the
late President of the Board of Control (Mr. Vernon Smith), had, some time
previous, received a private letter from the Governor-general, in which his lordship
stated, that he considered his proclamation to the people of Oude required an
explanatory despatch ; but that, owing to the great pressure of business, he had not
been able then to send it. This communication, from inadvertence or design, had
been withheld, by the late President, from his successor at the Board of Control ;
and the present government felt they had just ground of complaint at the unusual
reserve, by which, it was contended, the noble earl had been placed in a false
position with respect to the Governor-general's proclamation.
On the 17th of June, the report ofthe resolutions on the government of India
was read to the House ; and leave given to introduce a bill founded upon them,
which was at once introduced by Lord Stanley. It passed a second reading on the
24th, without a division ; and its third reading on the 8th of July, amidst loud
cheers from the House. The following night it went to the upper House, where
it passed on the 23rd. Some amendments were made by the Lords, which the
Commons subsequently agreed to. This bill, the main outline of which we have
already given, was considered to embody the most important points of both Lord
Derby and Mr. Disraeli's bills.
At this time, a question, which had long, in some Way or other, been before
parliament, was satisfactorily disposed of. By a mistake, Jews had been excluded
from parliament. The oath required of members, since the Catholic emancipation,
had to be taken on the faith of a Christian. The constituencies were thus deprived
of a right : if they returned Jews to parliament, the latter were not allowed to sit
in it; and were thus punished for their religious opinions. It was felt by all
who could think rightly, that this twofold wrong was indefensible. The Jewish
question, m the opinion of Mr. Disraeli, was one of the utmost importance. " It
may be observed," he writes, "that the decline and disasters of modern com-
H 2 235

Jewish question.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
munities have generally been relative to their degree of sedition against the Semitic
principle. Since the great revolt of the Celts against the first and second Testa
ments, at the close of the last century, France has been alternately in a state
of collapse or convulsion. Throughout the awful trials of the last sixty years,
England, notwithstanding her deficient and meagre theology, has always remem
bered Zion. The great Transatlantic republic is intensely Semitic, and has pros
pered accordingly. This sacred principle alone has consolidated the mighty empire
of all the Eussias. How omnipotent it is, cannot be more clearly shown than
by the instance of Eome, where it appears in its most corrupt form. An old man,
on a Semitic throne, baffles the modern Attilas, and the recent invasion of
the barbarian, under the form of red republicans, socialists, communists — all
different phases, which describe the relapse of the once converted race into their
primitive condition of savagery. Austria would long ago have dissolved but for
the Semitic principle ; and if the north of Germany has never succeeded in attaining
that imperial position, which seemed its natural destiny, it is that the north of
Germany has never, at any time, been thoroughly converted. Some, perhaps, may
point to Spain as a remarkable instance of decline in a country where the Semitic
principle has exercised great influence. But the fall of Spain was occasioned
by the expulsion of her Semitic population — a million families of Jews and
Saracens, the most distinguished of her citizens for their industry and their
intelligence, their learning and their wealth."
Perhaps, in a similar paragraph, there was never more nonsense and confusion :
but the writer of it is in power ; he must do something for the Jews, even though
he sneers at " the equivocal principle of religious liberty ; the unqualified applica
tion of which principle seems hardly consistent with that recognition of religious
truth by the state, to which we adhere, and without which it is highly probable that
the northern and western races, after a disturbing and rapidly degrading period of
atheistical anarchy, may fatally recur to their old national idolatries, modified and
mythically dressed up according to tbe spirit of the age."
The Oaths Bill, by which Jews would be permitted to enter parliament, was
read a third time in the Commons, on the 13th of April, and passed amid the cheers
of the House. When the bill was sent to the Lords, they struck out the clause by
which the Jews would be admitted to the lower House, and made other " amend
ments." On its being returned to the Commons, they (May 10th) voted, by a
majority of 113, that the House disagreed to those amendments; and a committee
was appointed, of which Baron Eothschild was a member, to draw up the reasons
for disagreement. A conference with the Lords respecting the amendments was
then appointed. The Lords, not disposed to yield, brought forward two bills of
their own on the subject, both of which would permit the admission of the Jews, but
in an evasive and ungracious way. One of these (Lord Lucan's) was passed by the
peers. It proposed to give either House the power to omit the words, " on the
true faith of a Christian," from the oath whenever a Jewish member declared that he
had a conscientious objection to the form. This measure was accepted as a solution
of a great difficulty, and to avoid a collision between the two Houses. Yet, even
in yielding so far, the Lords insisted upon recording their reasons why the Jews
ougnt not to be allowed to sit in parliament. When the bill was sent to the
Commons, Mr. Newdegate moved that it be read a second time that day six months.
Lord John Eussell said that the concessions of the Lords had been anything but
gracious or generous ; but still, the best course for the House to pursue, was to
accept the bill, as a mode of escaping from the position in which they were placed.
The bill passed, and the question on which the two Houses had disagreed for a
period of ten years, was settled by a compromise. Baron Eothschild took his seat
in the Commons on the 26th of July. A few other Jews have since found their way
into parliament ; but it must be confessed, on all sides, that the House of Commons
is as much a Christian assembly as it ever was.
There was also another question — that of church-rates — which the House
236

A.D. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [parliament prorogued.
tried to settle ; but, alas I in vain. On the subject of church-rates, the Commons
and the Lords again came into collision. Many attempts had been made at a
compromise, or commutation of church-rates. On the 8th of June, the Commons
passed a bill for their total aboUtion : the ayes being 266 ; noes, 203 —leaving a
majority in favour of the measure, of 63. The reasons of the majority were
irresistible. The dissenter supports his own place of worship : why, then, should he
have to pay for the repair of the churches of the wealthiest sect in Christendom ?
The idea is utterly preposterous and absurd ; and, accordingly, in many of the
large towns, by the consent of sensible churchmen themselves, no rates had been
levied for years. The abolition was supported, not only by dissenters, but by
sincere friends of the church as well. The bill, however, was opposed in the Lords
by the Premier, who yet held out a hope that he might, at some future time,
yield his assent to such a measure. On being put to the vote, there was an over
whelming majority of 151 against it. Public feeling at the time, however, was so
excited, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that it was the intention
of the government to introduce a bill, next session of parliament, to settle the
question of church-rates — a settlement, unfortunately, not effected yet.
Little else was done by the parliament. The financial statement and budget
of Mr. DisraeU, brought forward on the 19th of April, conciliated the House of
Commons, and gave satisfaction to the country. The revenue had been affected by
the commercial panic : there had been one the previous year ; therefore, though a
deficit was to be accounted for, the country was not in the humour willingly to
accede to the imposition of fresh taxes. The income-tax he left at the reduced
rate of 5d. in the pound ; but he equalised the duties on spirits, and made it
imperative, that every person drawing a cheque at a banker's, should put a penny
stamp on it.
Some attempts were made, in both Houses of parliament, to induce the legis
lature to revise the Liturgy, and to omit some of the political services of the
church, in consequence of their being offensive and obsolete. These attempts,
however, were defeated by the strong Conservative feeling, especially in reference
to the church and its affairs, which prevailed in both Houses. A motion in the
Commons, by Mr. H. Berkeley, for leave to bring in a bill to cause the votes of
parliamentary electors to be taken by way of ballot, was rejected by 97 ; 1 97,
however, voting in its favour. Attention was several times, in both Houses, called
to the offeusive state of the Thames, in consequence of the vast amount of sewage
continually discharged into it. It appeared that the Board of Works was re
sponsible, and that the government did not wish to take the matter out of its hands ;
but Lord John Manners stated that a bill would be brought forward on the subject.
A resolution, by Mr. Gibson, that " This House is of opinion that the maintenance
of the excise duty on paper, as a permanent source of revenue, would be impolitic,"
was agreed to— a circumstance which pointed to no distant legislation on th©
subject. During the session, an act was passed for the future government of the
Scottish universities ; and another, by which the new colony of British Columbia,
m North America, was established in consequence of the recent discoveries of gold
there. Parliament was prorogued by commission on the 2nd of August, the royal
speech _ containing nothing very remarkable, nor calling for particular comment.
The ministry must have felt the prorogation as a relief. They were not popular ;
they were dependent solely on the great landlords and county constituencies..
Still, their weakness was their strength. No serious opposition was made to them,
as it was felt they would be powerless before it. They asked for time ; originated
nothing, and favoured open questions. They yielded to majorities, and passed or
withdrew measures according to the temper of parliament. So, on the whole, they
had had a fair trial, especially as, in the opinion of many, the Liberals are all the
better for a short sojourn in the bleak wilderness of opposition. Whigs in office are
237

CHERBOURG.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 185.&

often said to be no better than Tories. Therefore, there was little weeping and
wailing when it was found the session had been closed, and that Lord Derby's
ministry was still in power.
The summer passed off peacefully ; and the loyalty of the nation was excited
and gratified by the appearance of the queen in the busy neighbourhood of
Birmingham, to open a park for the people. Of late years, there had been a great
disposition evinced, in the wealthy and influential circles of society, to provide, not
only in the metropolis, but in the provinces, parks and other places of recreation
for the working-men and their families. Sanitary reformers had been preaching so
long in favour of fresh air and exercise, that at length people began to practise.
Waste lands were sought after ; commons were set apart ; wealthy manufacturers,
like Mr. Strutt, of Derby, out of their pockets paid for parks, which were handed
over for the use of the people for all generations. Amongst other places to which
the movement extended, was Birmingham. In 1857,, a proposal was started to,
purchase Aston Hall and park, in the neighbourhood of that town, with the view
of converting the ground into a people's park, and of appropriating the hall to the
purposes of popular education, information, and amusement. The proposal was
warmly taken up : the working-men contributed largely themselves to the necessary-
funds. By May, 1858, the arrangements were so far completed, that it was
thought the park might be opened to. visitors ; and the managers were of opinion
that it would confer great iclat upon their undertaking, if they could induce her
majesty to inaugurate it. This she graciously consented to do ; and Tuesday, the
15th of June, was fixed for the ceremony to take place. Her majesty accepted an
invitation from Lord Leigh, the lord-lieutenant of Warwickshire, to take up her
residence at his seat, Stoneleigh Abbey, near Birmingham. She arrived there on
the 14th. The next day the park was opened amidst universal rejoicing. Tri
umphal arches were erected in the most important spots her majesty had to pass.
One of the most gorgeous and imposing of these arches was placed on Gosta
Green, by the gun-makers. It had a space of fifty feet ; and the height, to the
top of the banner tbat surmounted the royal arms, was eighty feet. The arch
was crowned with the banners of all nations : in the centre was a star formed with
muskets, having the bayonets fixed, surrounding the motto — ''Victoria and Albert,
God bless them." The arch itself displayed the words^-" Welcome to, our Queen,"'
in gold letters on a purple velvet ground. Other mottoes exhibited were — " God
protect the Eoyal Family." " The Gun-makers' Welcome to their Queen," The
pillars and the arch itself were adorned with stars and other devices, formed
of swords, lances, and pistols, beautifully polished ; and the value of the arms used in
the construction of this trophy, is said to have been upwards of £4,000. There
Were 20,0. pistols, upwards of 300 muskets, 8,000 ramrods, 4,000 bayonets, 200(
lances, and 86 flags, employed in the construction of this arch.
Another royal visit this summer must not be altogether overlooked. At the
distance of seventy miles, almost opposite Portsmouth, is the old Norman town of
Cherbourg. Louis XIV. began to fortify it, with a view to operations against
England ; his successors carried out, partially, the plans which had been laid down,
by Vauban. The great revolution stopped the works for a time, until the first-
Napoleon caused them to be recommenced, avowedly with a view to operations.
against England. While at St. Helena he stated this very clearly. " My great
object," he said, " was to renew, at Cherbourg, the marvels of Egypt. I meant to.
have concentrated there all my maritime forces ; and in time they would, when
needed, have been immense, in order to strike a grand blow at the enemy. I laid
out my plan in such a manner, that the two nations would have been, so to speak,
forced to struggle hancl-to-hand ; and the issue could' not have been doubtful, for
we should have had more than 40,000,000 of French against 15,000,000 of English.
I should bave terminated it with a new battle of Actium." Napoleon could not
Wry out his views to their final completion ; but his successors have done so most
effectually. The works at Cherbourg were proceeded with, unremittedly, under the
23.8,

a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. wheatstone.

Bourbons and Orleanists, exciting little notice till they were approaching com
pletion under the renewed Napoleon dynasty. Then public attention was all at
once called to the place ; and few foreign events occasioned more sensation than
the opening of a new dock there, which, planned in 1803, was only completed in
1858 ; and the inauguration of a statue of Napoleon I., in August of the latter
year. Louis Napoleon had only completed what his predecessors had begun —
works whieh, if not finished, would result in an enormous waste of the public
money. By many it was considered these works were a standing menace to this
country. However, they were opened as if they were nothing of the kind ; and
the emperor resolved to invite her majesty and her ministers to visit Cherbourg on
so great an occasion. The invitation was accepted ; and a number of the members
of the House of Commons resolved also to be present. The 4 th of August was the
day fixed for the arrival of the emperor and empress at Cherbourg ; and the fites,
attendant upon the inauguration of the dock, railroad, and statue, it was arranged
should extend from the 5th to the 8th. The queen resolved to sail for Cherbourg
on the 4th; and on the morning of that day her majesty embarked on board the
Victoria and Albert, accompanied by the Prince Consort, the Prince of Wales, and
the Duke of Cambridge. The Earl of Malmesbury and Sir John Pakington, the
Foreign Secretary, and first Lord of the Admiralty, also formed part of the royal
party ; and several members of the household embarked on board the Admiralty
yacht, Black Eagle. The yachts were escorted by a squadron of six men-of-war.
There were fetes, and banquets, and illuminations. At the grand entertainment on
board the Bretagne, the French emperor proposed the health of the queen, in
language not unworthy of remembrance. "I drink to the health of her majesty,
the Queen of England ; to that of the prince who shares her throne ; and to that
of the royal family. In proposing tMs toast in their presence, and on board the
French admiral's ship in the port of Cherbourg, I am happy to show the feeling we
entertain towards them. In effect, facts speak for themselves ; and they prove that
hostile passions, aided by a few unfortunate incidents, did not succeed in altering
either the friendship which exists between the two crowns, or the desire of the two
nations to remain in peace. Therefore I entertain the sincere hope, that if
attempts are made to stir up old resentments, and the passions of another epoch,
they will break to pieces upon public common sense, as the waves break upon the
breakwater which, at this moment, protects the squadrons of the two empires
against the violence of the sea." The way in which the toast was received showed
that all present reciprocated the sentiments of the emperor ; and after the lapse of
a few minutes Prince Albert rose, and cordially and gracefully returned thanks, at
the same time proposing the health of the emperor and empress. On the 6th, the
queen returned; and thus ended the visit to Cherbourg, which was, however,
discussed bitterly and warmly in the press, and occasionally by members of parlia
ment, for some time to come.
A greater work than the completion of the forts and docks at Cherbourg was
achieved at this time.
In the ancient town of Gloucester, in the year 1802, was born Charles Wheat-
stone, the scientific inventor of the electric telegraph. Mr. Wheatstone's connec
tion with this wonderful discovery is set forth in an official paper, drawn up by Sir
Isambard Brunei and Professor Daniell, at a time when some misunderstanding had
arisen from conflicting claims as to the origin of the important invention. We
reprint the document. "In March, 1836, Mr. Cooke, while engaged at Heidelberg
in scientific pursuits, witnessed, for the first time, one of those well-known ex
periments on electricity, considered as a possible means of communicating intelli
gence, which have been tried and exhibited, from time to time, during many years, by
various philosophers. Struck with the vast importance of ,an instantaneous mode
of communication to the railways, then extending themselves over Great Britain,
as well as to government and general purposes, and impressed with a strong con
viction that so great an object might be practically attained by means of electricity,
239

ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 185?.
Mr. Cooke immediately directed his attention to the adaptation of electricity to a
practical system of telegraphing ; and, giving up the profession to which he was
engiged, he, from that hour, devoted himself exclusively to the realisation of that
object. He came to England in 1836, to perfect his plans and instruments. In
February, 1837, while engaged in completing a set of instruments for an intended
experimental application of his telegraph to a tunnel on the Liverpool and Man
chester railway, he became acquainted, through the introduction of Dr. Eoget,
with Professor Wheatstone, who had, for several years, given much attention to
the subject of transmitting intelligence by electricity, and had made several dis
coveries of the highest importance connected with this subject. Among these were
his well-known determination of the velocity of electricity when passing through
a metal wire ; his experiments in which the deflection of magnetic needles, the de
composition of water, and other voltaic and magneto-electric effects were produced
through greater lengths of wire than had ever before been experimented on ; and
his original method of converting a few wires into a considerable number of
circuits, so that they might transmit the greatest number of signals which can be
transmitted by a given number of wires by the deflection of magnetic needles. In
May, 1837, Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone took out a joint English patent, on a
footing of equality, for their existing inventions. The terms of their partnership,
which were more exactly defined and confirmed in November, 1837, by a partner
ship deed, vested in Mr. Cooke, as the originator of the undertaking, the exclusive
management of the invention in Great Britain, Ireland, and the colonies, with the
exclusive engineering departments as between themselves, and all the benefits
arising from the laying down of the lines, and the manufacture of the instruments.
As partners standing on a perfect equality, Messrs. Cooke and Wheatstone were to
divide equally all proceeds arising from the granting of licences, or from the sale
of the patent rights ; a per-centage being first payable to Mr. Cooke as manager.
Professor Wheatstone retained an equal voice with Mr. Cooke in selecting and
modifying the forms of the telegraphic instruments ; and both parties pledged
themselves to impart to each other, for their equal and mutual benefit, all
improvements, of whatever kind, which they might become possessed of, connected
with the giving of signals, or the sounding of alarm by means of electricity. Since
tbe formation of the partnership, the undertaking has rapidly progressed, under
the constant and equally successful exertions of the parties in their distinct
departments, until it has attained the character of a simple and practical system,
worked out scientifically, on the sure basis of actual experience. While Mr. Cooke
is entitled to stand alone as the gentleman to whom this country is indebted for
having practically introduced and carried out the electric telegraph as a useful
undertaking, promising to be a work of national importance, and Professor Wheat
stone is acknowledged as the scientific man, whose profound and successful re
searches had already prepared the public to receive it as a project capable of
practical application, it is to the united labours of two gentlemen so well qualified
for mutual assistance, that we must attribute the rapid progress which this im
portant invention has made during the five years since they have been associated.
(Signed— M. I. Brunei; J. F. Daniell. London: April 27th, 1841)." Professor
Wheatstone is also the inventor of the well-known stereoscope ; but it is upon his
scientific skill in connection with the electric telegraph that his fame will chiefly
rest. At the Paris Universal Exhibition of 1855, Professor Wheatstone was one
of the jurors in the class of " Heat, Light, and Electricity ;" and was created a
Knight of the Legion of Honour for his application of the electric telegraph.
In 1859, the system had grown and prospered ; and was applied to the sea as
well as to the land. It was stated, at a recent meeting of the Birmingham British
Science Association, that 14,000 miles of submarine cable had been laid down ;
though, unfortunately, but 5,000 miles of them were at work : and now the
climax is reached, and the Old and the New World are joined by means of the
electric telegraph. On Monday, August the 9th, the first perfect message was
240

a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the American cable.
despatched. It was sent from the directors in London to the directors in
America, and was as follows: — "Europe and America are united by telegraph.
Glory to God in the highest. On earth peace and good- will to men." The first
business message was received in London on Friday, August 1 3th, announcing that
a collision had taken place between the steamers Europa and Arabia : the latter
being slightly injured, and the former obliged to out into St. John's, New
foundland. This great national undertaking requires a little further notice. Six years
were spent in getting over all the difficulties relating to the formation of an
Atlantic Telegraph Company ; but at length the company was established, with a
capital of £350,000, in shares of £1,000 each, and a guarantee obtained from the
English and United States' government, equal to 8 per cent, on that amount. The
cable was made — half by Messrs. Glass and Elliot, and half by Messrs. Newall.
The conductor — six wires round gutta-percha — weighed 106 lbs. per mile ; the in
sulator — three layers of gutta-percha — weighed 261 lbs. per mile. The sheath
was made of eighteen strands of iron wire, each consisting of seven small wires ;
and was imbedded in a layer of jute yarn, saturated with a solution of tar,
pitch, beeswax, and linseed oil. It weighed one ton per mile, and was six-tenths
of an inch in diameter. In 1857, an attempt was made to lay this cable. Unfor
tunately the cable snapped in two ; a few hundred miles of it were lost, and the
remainder was brought to Devonport, where it was kept in tanks during the winter
months. On the 10th of June, 1858, the wire squadron (as the sailors called it) sailed
again. The 2,100 miles saved from the former enterprise, and 900 miles of new
cable, made 3,000 miles, with which to renew the attempt. On the 26th, after a
stormy passage, the ships reached mid-ocean — the Agamemnon having one-half of
the cable, the Niagara the other, with the Gorgon and Valorous in attendance.
When the two halves had been spliced, that portion of the cable was dropped
into the sea, and the ships parted company ; the Agamemnon steaming eastward,
towards Ireland, and the Niagara westward, towards Newfoundland, paying out the
cable as they went. It was a most unlucky attempt. The cable broke on that
very day ; then on the 27th ; and a third time on the 30th. It was mended twice ;
but the ships were so driven about in the hopeless attempt to mend it a third
time, that the engineers became disheartened, and returned to Ireland.
Another attempt was made. As there was still enough cable on board, the
ships set forth again, and reached mid-ocean on July 20th. They spliced the ends
of the two cables, and made them into one. Favoured by a calmer state of the
weather than before, the two ships steadily proceeded in contrary directions, paying
out as they went. No mishap of any moment having occurred, the Niagara
came in sight of Newfoundland on August 4th ; and, on the next day, the Agamemnon
reached Valentia, on the west coast of Ireland. Connections were speedily made
with land-wires on both shores, and the electrical apparatus was set to work. The
joy was great; and well it might be. Queen Victoria and President Buchanan
congratulated each other in telegrams which speedily reached their destination.
Her majesty's message contained the words— " The queen is convinced that the
president will join her in fervently hoping that the electric cable which now
connects Great Britain with the United States, will prove an additional link between
the two nations, whose friendship is founded upon common interests and reciprocal
esteem." The Lord Mayor of London and the Mayor of New York exchanged
greetings ; but, alas . the joy occasioned by the success of the enterprise was of
short _ duration. The cable spoke for twenty-five days : conveying 129 messages,
containing 1,474 words, from England to America; and bringing back 271 messages,
containing 2,885 words, from America to England : but the effort was too great—
the cable lost its voice. After September, its insulation was ruined from some
cause never ascertained.
This was a serious blow: the cable was lost, and £415,000 gone. The diffi-
241

fresh efforts.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
*" — ~ —  — «
culties being so great, many other routes were suggested. At the same time, the
commercial advantages of American telegraphy appeared too overwhelming to allow
the project to sleep. Even during the short time of working the cable in 1858, it
was considered that one single telegram saved the country £40,000. An order had
been sent to transport troops from Canada to India during the later months of the
mutiny. News from India announced it was quelled, and a telegram counter
manded the embarkation of the troops just in time. A letter by mail would have
been too late. As a means of keeping up public interest in the subject, a tele
graphic soirie was held, at the house of Mr. S. Gurney, during which telegrams
were exchanged with some of the most distant cities of Europe, the wires being
carried into the drawing-room of the mansion. The Earl of Shaftesbury inquired
after the health of the Emperor of Eussia ; and, in four minutes, the reply was —
that his imperial majesty was quite well.
In 1859, the government agreed to guarantee 8 per cent., for twenty-five years,
on a fresh capital of £60,000, for a new and much-improved cable, and to pay
£20,000 a year for government despatches. Even this temptation did not at that
time draw capitalists. A committee was, however, appointed to inquire into the
circumstances connected with the making and laying of submarine cables ; to make
experiments; and to draw up a body of recommendations. Mr. Fairbairn, Pro
fessor Wheatstone, Captain Galton, Mr. Bidder, Mr. Latimer Clark, Mr. Edwin
Clark, Mr. Vorley, and Mr. Seward, constituted the committee. In 1861, they
presented a report, recommending improvement in the manufacture of the cable.
In 1863, the directors again submitted the whole question to a scientific committee,
who amplified the recommendations given by the former committee. In the early
part of 1864, capitalists came forward to take new shares, and contracts were
entered into for the manufacture of the cable. The Gutta-Percha Company, who
made the core, and Messrs, Glass and Elliot, who made the sheath, and finished the
cable, combined to form the Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Company,
Limited. In the summer of 1864, the manufacture of the cable commenced. It
was finished at the rate of seventy or eighty miles a week ; and the whole quantity
of 2,300 miles was ready by January, 1865.
As the Great Eastern was lying idle, it was chartered by the directors for the
purpose of carrying out the cable. Great alterations were necessary, to adapt her
to the reception and safe bestowal of 4,000 tons of telegraphic wire. Three
enormous iron tanks were constructed ; two of them fifty-eight feet diameter ; the
other fifty-two feet; and all of them twenty-six feet deep. When filled with cable
and sea-water, they weighed 5,300 tons. At the stern was fitted up a paying-out
machine, consisting of an elaborate system of V wheels, friction-wheels, vertical
guides, iron channels, guide-wheels, riding-wheels, break-straps, levers, weights,
drums, guide-knives, driving-pulleys, flange-wheels, double-purchase winches,
dynamometers, graduated scales, and other apparatus, to ensure the smooth and
safe passage of the cable from the tanks into the sea. By June, when the ship was
loaded with coal and stores, she had a weight of 24,000 tons on board, and drew
33 J feet of water. At Midsummer, just when all were ready to start, the directors
raised money by means of preference shares ; and they went so far as to prophesy
that, by the end of July, the £5 shares would be worth £24.
The arrangements made for defining the duties and responsibilities of the
persons concerned in the enterprise, were remarkably clear and systematic. The
Atlantic Telegraph Company supplied the funds, chose the route, ordered the
cable, and were to take it under their charge when successfully set to work. The
Telegraphic Construction and Maintenance Company were to make the cable, and
to submerge it, receiving payment that was to vary in amount according to the
success of the making, submersion, and testing. The Great Ship Company lent
their officers, ships, and men, on stipulated terms, to the Construction and
Maintenance Company, by whom the responsibility of the submersion was assumed.
The utmost caution was taken that there should be no clashing of authority, no
242

a.d. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [success at last.
disputed liability, when the critical time arrived. The working responsibility
rested chiefly with M. de Sauty, Mr. Canning, and Mr. Clifford, the chief electrician,
engineer, and mechanician of the Construction and Maintenance Company. The
Atlantic Telegraph Company sent out Mr. Cyrus Field to represent the directors ;
Mr. Varley, their electrician ; and Professor W. Thompson, a great authority on all
matters connected with electric telegraphy : but all these were requested to give
advice only, and in such a form as to absolve their company from any liability of
such advice. The Great Ship Company sent Mr. Gooch, one of their directors, to
represent them. The management of the Great Eastern was entrusted to Captain
Anderson, one of the most experienced of the Cunard officers, assisted by Captain.
Moriarty, whose services were lent by the Admiralty. As Captain Anderson had
found, during many hundred voyages across the Atlantic, that July is generally a
tranquil month on the ocean, it was resolved to make use of that period. The
Terrible and the Sphinx were also lent, to render any necessary aid. The Great
Eastern was to take the main cable, the Caroline the thick shore-end, to
Valentia. The United States' government being in ill-humour with England
at that time, would neither subsidise the cable, nor lend ships of war to assist in
laying it.
The Great Eastern set forth on her momentous journey in the appointed
month, though a week or two later than was intended, carrying a dead freight of
immense value, and a living freight of 300 souls. For a time all went on well.
On August the 2nd the cable snapped ; four times it was raised from the bed of
the ocean. All was over ; there were not materials enough on board for a fifth
attempt. The Terrible steamed on to Newfoundland, to announce the failure to those
who were anxiously awaiting the result there; and the Great Eastern, after-
placing buoys over the place where the disaster had occurred, returned home,,
bringing with her a staff of indefatigable men, who had nearly worked themselves
to death during the incessant labours of twenty-one days. A length of 5,500 miles
of cable had been, altogether, made for this Atlantic enterprise, from 1857 to 1865,
and nearly 4,000 miles of it had been swallowed up by the sea. A million and
a quarter sterling had been sunk, and grand hopes crushed. There was a brilliant
writer, Dr. W. H. Eussell, on board the Great Eastern, to record the proceedings
day by day. There were lithographic presses and printers on board, to strike off a
hundred copies or so of every day's record ; there were envelopes kept ready directed
to the editors of seventy or eighty papers in England and America ; there was a
copy of each day's lithographed diary put into each envelope, and arrangements
made to forward them aU to their destinations. As it turned out, however, the
diary was one of disaster.
Sanguine as ever, and undeterred by misfortune, the directors made another
attempt. More capital was raised ; a new cable was manufactured ; and, in 1866,
the attempt was successful — as successful as could possibly be desired. A new cable
was laid down, and the old one was raised up ; and both, at the time at which we
write, are in good working order.
The picking up the old cable deserves more than a passing notice. The
buoys were laid down with such certainty, that the Great Eastern actually came
foul of one, "at the very moment that her grapnel was fast on the cable I The
method was to get north or south of its line, in accordance with the direction of
the wind and drift, the tackle hanging down so as to seize it. The nice instru
ments invented for the service showed to an ounce the strain upon the gear; and so
soon as that strain mounted beyond the weight of the gear itself, they might be
pretty sure that, the lost cable was caught, and coming off the bottom.
aIA™* WES ther6 such a Piece of hook-and-line fishing since the world began.
Ihe Albany got the first bite; but the great ship hooked up only 'some soft mud,
like putty, with a stone as big as half an almond.' After a while the cable was well
struck ; it came higher and higher, until it was clear above water ; and then, with
243

BANQUET IN LIVERPOOL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A,D. K-&*.
a loud cheer, everybody on board the Great Eastern hailed- it, half white with the
ooze of its bed — iust saw it, ere it twisted out of the grapnel and rolled back again.
Once more it was secured and hauled up near the surface ; but the splice of tbe
buoy and grapnel ropes slipped, and away went the evasive prize. Next, the
Albany got a grip of it, but it parted, and she only hauled two or three miles on
board. Meantime the Atlantic was in its fitful moods, and did almost all it could
to spoil the sport, with seas so rough, and winds so contrary,, that the Terrible and
another consort were obliged to depart. But the determination on board the
Great Eastern, from the captain to the cabin-boys, was to goon fishing 'till the last
biscuit and mile of grapnel rope were used up.' The electricians boldly shifted their
ground eighty miles to the eastward — hit the line with the same certainty — got a
nibble or two, and then, at the fifteenth haul, the Great Eastern had hold of the
cable, and brought it for good and all to daylight. There was no cheering this
second time; everything was done amid the calm weather in dead silence, till the
stoppers were fast, the saw was boldly put across the loose end, and the- other end
was brought on board. Here ensued a minute of painful suspense, while the men
of science sent the all-important tests through the wire ; but the next — when the
cable spoke to Valentia, and all was well ! — there was a ringing cheer. Nothing
remained but to make the splice, and finish the glorious success. Eight well was
the triumph of that thrilling moment earned by everybody engaged : for every
body, we are told, worked as faithfully and anxiously as if the cable had been his
own private venture."
Nor must we omit the grand banquet given at Liverpool, in the month of October,
to the layers of the Atlantic cables ; presided over by the Eight Hon. Sir Stafford
Northcote, President of the Board of Trade : nor the speech of Lord Stanley, who
was in office when the first cable was laid, and now again upon the successful
completion of the gigantic enterprise. His lordship, in the course of his speech,
said — " In my own name, and that of my colleagues, I thank you for your reception
of us ; and now, if you permit me, I will at once, though by an abrupt transition,
pass on to the toast which has been entrusted to my care. That toast is, ' England
and America united.' (Loud cheers.) Those words may be taken either as the
expression of a hope, or as the assertion of a fact : physically the thing is done.
England and America are united by an enterprise to which I shall leave my friend,
the chairman, to speak in detail ; but of which I cannot refrain from saying, it
appears to me the most marvellous triumph of mind over matter, of man over
nature, that the annals of science have as yet recorded (applause); and while
England and America retain their engineering and naval pre-eminence amongst
the nations of the world, I venture to predict, that the names of those who have
been the workers in this great undertaking — the names of Canning, of Glass, and
of Anderson — will be honourably remembered, not only on this, but on the other
side of the Atlantic. (Loud cheers.) Now, what will be the effect of this new
state of things, of this instantaneous communication between the Old World and
the New — a communication which will, in a few years, extend over the whole
of the civilised globe ? So far as our colonies are concerned, much is obvious. In
all matters, civil or military, in which the home government ought to interfere,
it can do so with infinitely more effect ; because, in critical times, instructions
founded on information a fortnight or month old can be of very little practical
value. So, again, in matters of trade, I suppose that the saving of labour will be
considerable, and that some forms at least of speculation will be, in some degree,
checked when certainty is substituted for conjecture (hear, hear) : but to us, in
this country, and in the present case, the diplomatic aspect of the question is the
most important. We are going to bring the people of England and of the United
States into a far closer connection with one another than has ever existed before.
That is, in my mind, a great gain. Some-one has stated, that the opinion of
foreign nations is an anticipation of the judgment of posterity; but, without
adopting that phrase absolutely, it is undoubtedly true that lookers-on, not per-
244

a.d. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [government honours.
sonally affected by the results of what is being done, yet feeling in them a warm
interest, are thought to be able to judge better of what is passing than those who
are in the thick of the fray. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) I think, then, that England
and America are both in a position to gain mutually fair and temperate criticism
of one another's proceedings. They have no opposite interest. United they are a
match for the world ; while a quarrel between them would be a fearful injury, not
only to themselves, but to the best interests of mankind. (Cheers.) The more
they really know of one another the better ; but there is something to be said on
the other side ; and I should not be doing my duty here if I did not say it. There
may be criticism which is not fair, not temperate — criticism which is hasty, partial,
passionate : perhaps on both sides of the water we have had a little too much
of that (hear, and cheers) ; but it does not result from hostility : on the contrary,
if it did not sound paradoxical to say so, I should say that it arises quite as much
from an anxious desire which both nations feel that the credit of those represen
tative institutions which are common to both, should by both be maintained.
(Hear.) I do not suppose that such criticism as I have spoken of can ever wholly
cease ; for I have sometimes thought that England and the United States are like
two individuals related by family ties, both interested for the credit of their
common family, both of whom would be sorry should any real harm happen to the
other : but not always agreeing in ideas, and not being of a reticent disposition,
however friendly, now and then claim the privilege of relationship to express their
opinion of each other's affairs, in a manner which, though it may be frank, is not
always judicious or agreeable. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) The lesson I draw from
it is, that now that we are going to be nearer neighbours, we must learn to be
sparing of such criticism ourselves, and not too sensitive or impatient when it is
appUed to us. (Hear, hear.) We are bound to bear in mind, that a common
language, if it brings, on the one hand, immense advantages, has, on the other,
some responsibilities and some inconveniences. In private life, probably, no man
speaks of his friends in precisely the terms he would use were they face to face.
Nations converse by newspapers ; and every word which they say of one another is,
by the necessity of the case, said also to one another. It is in the earnest hope
that we may use our new privileges as befits us both ; it is in the deep conviction
that on the union of the two nations, more than on any other earthly thing, the
future of civilisation depends ; and it is with the conviction, also, that whoever
wilfully or ignorantly estranges them one from another, is doing, on the whole, the
very worst act a human being could commit — it is with these feelings that I now
give you the toast, ' England and America united.' " (Loud applause.)
In the course of the evening, the chairman read a communication from the
Earl of Derby, conveying the sentiments and intentions of her majesty with respect
to the Atlantic cable expedition and its promoters. Her majesty was desirous of
testifying her sense of the merits displayed in this great enterprise, and had com
manded his lordship to submit, for special marks of her royal favour, the names of
those who, having had assigned to them prominent positions, might be considered
as representing the different departments, whose united labours had contributed to
the final result ; and had commanded him to convey her congratulations to all
whose energy and perseverance, skill and science, had triumphed overall difficulties,
and accomplished a success alike honourable to themselves and their country. Her
majesty had accordingly directed that Captain Anderson, Professor Thompson, and
Messrs. Glass and Canning, should be knighted ; and that Mr. Sampson, deputy-
chairman of the original company, and Mr. Gooch, M.P., should receive the honour
of baronetcy. If Mr. Cyrus Field received no such mark of royal favour, it was
because her majesty did not wish to interfere with what might seem to be the
natural functions of the government of the country to which Mr. Field belonged,
and which he had served equally with this country in the work which had been
done. _ The chairman continued, that Lord Derby had wished to confer upon
Captain Anderson some further mark moise immediately connected with his own
245

4RELAND,] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1858.
profession ; but he had been greatly disappointed to find that neither the rules of
the naval service, nor the statute of the Order of the Bath, allowed him to do so.
In a commercial point of View, the need of the Atlantic telegraph was great.
It was stated by Captain Hamilton, at the meeting to which we have already
referred, that the annual value of our imports and exports from and to America,
including the United States and the British colonies, amounted to something like
£100,000,000. Taking the average time of passage at about fourteen days, there
Was something like £4,000,000 of property afloat between Great Britain and
America ; while the quantity of wheat and wheat-flour, which was imported for the
subsistence of our people, averaged 9,000,000 cwt.
It is recorded that, not many years ago, amusement was excited at a dinner
party in London, when one of the guests made a slender figure of steel move its
arms and legs by some occult means. Nobody could understand the trick till Mr.
Wheatstone, its exhibitor, displayed his little battery and its wires. The upshot of
an invention which was once deemed so insignificant, is, that now continent
articulates to continent ; that America and England are made one ; and that in so
splendid a success, we have the assurance of a day when lines shall be laid under
every ocean, and over every land, annihilating distance and time.
But we must return to our chronicle. In 1858, Ireland was again unusually
troublesome. Under the operation of the Encumbered Estates' Act, a large
amount of English and Scotch capital had been introduced; cultivation was
extended ; crime and pauperism were diminishing ; and the aspect of the island
when Lord Eglinton again took the office of Lord-Lieutenant, was very different
to what it Was in 1852, when his lordship held that office before ; but nevertheless,
secret societies — the bane of Ireland^continued to exist. The Eibbon Society
revived its operations, and many murders were the result, Circulars were sent to
many persons, soliciting them to join societies which were forming with a view to
the benefit of the country, and the establishment of its independence. Not con
tented with this, and in spite of the opposition and censure of most of the Soman
Catholic priests, it appeared that a conspiracy had been actually formed of a
revolutionary character, and that foreign aid was to be invoked. In consequence,
on the 3rd of December, a proclamation from the Lord-Lieutenant appeared,
announcing the information received by government, " that societies, or associations
of persons, existed in several parts of Ireland, the members of which are bound
together by oaths or obligations of a seditious or treasonable character." Persons
were warned not to belong to these societies. The firm determination of the
government to use all the means in its power for their suppression, and for the
punishment of persons belonging to them, was declared. One hundred pounds was
offered for such information as would lead to the conviction of any of the persons
who had administered the oaths, and £50 for the conviction of any member of such
illegal associations. This proclamation was followed by the seizure of numerous
persons at Bantry, Skibbereen, Kecmare, Bandon, Cork, Kerry, Killarney, Callan,
Ballydonnel, and other places. Before the year closed, nearly a hundred
persons were in custody, and more were arrested in January, 1859. The charge
against them was, that they were members of a secret society, called " The Phoenix,"
whose object was to procure the invasion of Ireland by American filibusters, or by
a French force, which the conspirators were prepared to join, to make war upon
the English government. The principal evidence of the existence of this treason-
. able combination was derived from Daniel Sullivan, an approver or informer. The
information given was confirmed by other sources.
It appeared from the statement of this man — who was a process server, and
who is said, by an unfriendly witness, to bave had nothing repulsive in his counte
nance ; but a smart, intelligent, and good-looking man of about twenty-seven years
of age — that he first became connected with the Phoenix Society on the 20th of
August ; but it must have been in existence some time before. He took two oaths
—one of "secrecy," the other of "brotherhood;" and he said the object of tbe
24-6

a.d. If 59.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [reform agitation.
society was, to be ready to take up arms, as the Americans were expected befora
Christmas, and they would be joined by the French. Ireland was then declared to
be an independent republic. The members were bound to secrecy ; pledged to take
up arms at a moment's warning ; and engaged to yield implicit obedience to their
leaders. They held secret meetings and -drills, and had a variety of pass- words and
signs: one sign was passing the right hand over the right cheek, which was
answered by a motion of the right hand at the back of the left ear. Among the
pass-words were — "Don't be ignorant." "Have better breeding." "The night
is dark." " The clouds are dark and heavy." " We expect a war between France
and England." " The Irish brigade are advancing." The conspirators appear to
have had but few arms ; doubtless they expected them from America or France.
The murders by Eibbon-men, and the disclosures of the machinations of the
members of the Phoenix Society, alarmed many of the landowners of Ireland ; and
a meeting was announced to be held in the Eotunda, Dublin, on the 27th of
January, 1859, for the purpose of calling the attention of government to the state
of the country. This meeting was disapproved of by most of the noblemen and
gentlemen connected with the Liberal party in Ireland, though several members of
that party supported it ; and one of the most eminent men among them, as a
magistrate and a country gentleman, acted as one of the secretaries to the
committee. The government, also, held out no encouragement to those who took
the lead in tbe movement ; and, at the last moment, it was abandoned. But the
committee declared, in a circular issued on the 24th of January, that the secretaries
and two members of that body had had an interview with the Lord-Lieutenant, of a
most satisfactory nature, in which the objects of the contemplated meeting had
been fully attained. Therefore, instead of meeting and passing resolutions, they
presented an address to his excellency ; in which they stated, that they considered
it right "to press earnestly upon the consideration of the government, the feeling
of insecurity for life and property, which pervaded the minds of many of her
majesty's loyal and peaceable subjects." This circular was followed by one, on the
25th, from the noblemen and gentlemen opposed to the meeting, denying that life
and property were more insecure in Ireland than in any part of her majesty's
dominions ; and expressing their opinion, that what was wanting to ensure content,
was the putting the law of landlord and tenant on a better footing. There was
no further attempt, in Ireland, to disturb the public peace till 1865, when
Fenianism raired its head, and led to the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act, and
the capture of many men and military stores.
In England, towards the end of November, commenced the reform movement,
which gradually spread over the country, though unattended by that earnestness and
agitation which characterised the reform period of 1 832. Successive governments
having declared they would take up the question of reform, Lord Derby's government
promised to bring in a Eeform Bill in the following year. The country, at that
time, seemed very indifferent upon the subject; and it was only by the efforts of a
portion of the London press that any section of the public were roused into
action. Some meetings, however, were held in October ; and, on the 27th of that
month, Mr. Bright appeared in Birmingham, at the first public meeting he had
attended since his illness. There was a very numerous attendance ; and, we need
not add, the honourable gentleman delivered a very eloquent address. The
Birmingham meeting — one of the resolutions passed at which called on Mr. Bright
to draw up a Eeform Bill — was followed by others: the numbers continued
increasing each week, till parliament assembled in February, 1859. At these
meetings, household suffrage, or manhood suffrage, triennial parliaments, and the
ballot, were demanded ; but, though numerous, they could not be considered as-
conveying the voice of the country ; for in very few places could the persons attend
ing them be deemed to represent the feelings of the mass of the inhabitants of the
districts in which they were held. At most of tbe meetings confidence was voted
in Mr. Bright, who, before the close of the year, produced a Eeform Bill, the
247

THE IONIAN ISLANDS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
principle of which was the disfranchising a great many small boroughs, to transfer
the seats to populous districts ; and, by the mass of reformers, his bill was cordially
received. In October, fears were entertained that a dispute between France and
Portugal might lead to a demand for the aid of this country on the part of the
latter, and occasion a war between France and England. For several years tho
French had been endeavouring to introduce negro emigrants, as labourers, into the
West India Islands ; and the Portuguese government had given permission for such
emigrants to be conveyed from their colony of Mozambique to the French island of
Eeunion. The part of the colony from which they had to be taken was specially
defined ; and a French vessel, the Charles et Georges, having been found in a
position off the coast where she had no right to be, with 100 negroes on board,
the Portuguese authorities seized her. The court of Mozambique condemned her
as a lawful prize. She was accordingly confiscated, and the captain imprisoned.
As she had an agent accredited from the French government on board, that
government took up the question, contending that the presence of such an agent
was an irresistible proof that no violation of the treaty, to which France was a
party, prohibiting the slave-trade, had been committed. The restoration of the
ship to the owners, the liberation of the captain, and the .payment of an in
demnity for the loss the owners had sustained by the detention of the vessel, were
demanded by France, and refused by Portugal. The latter proposed to refer
the matter to arbitration; but the government at Paris, as one of its agents
made a point of honour of the case, insisted upon immediate compliance with their
demands ; and, to enforce them, they sent two men-of-war to the Tagus, which
appeared off Lisbon on the 14th of October. The Portuguese government yielded to
this display of force, under protest; and Lord Derby and his colleagues were
blamed, in certain quarters, for not supporting an ancient ally. The Earl Cowley
and Lord Malmesbury did actually interfere, so the censure referred to fell to the
ground. Fighting was out of the question. England, especially after the .
blunders and the disappointing finale of the Crimean war, had ceased to have much
faith in war as a means of spreading civilisation and progress. England had always
disapproved of the emigrant scheme, as tending to revive the slave-trade; indeed,
many contended that it was the slave-trade under another name. After the
affair of the Charles et Georges, the Emperor of France appointed a commission
to inquire into the matter, and the result was the prohibition of the practice.
No little astonishment was created, in November, by learning that Mr.
Gladstone had accepted an appointment at the hands of his political opponents,
and had been sent out by Lord Derby on a mission to the Ionian Islands, which
then, as usual, were in a disturbed state. In 1849, a constitution was granted to
the Ionians by Lord Seaton, then Lord High Commissioner, which placed the
management of their domestic affairs in the hands of a parliament, chosen by a
suffrage nearly universal. At first, this concession pleased the people much ; but,
in 1853, intrigues against the Turks were commenced; and, from that time, the
object of the people was to join with the Greeks, who were only hindered from
the invasion of Turkey, during the Eussian war, by stationing an allied French and
English force in Athens. Mr. Gladstone had scarcely left England when the
public were surprised by the appearance of a despatch from Sir John Young, then
Lord High Commissioner, dated June 10th, 1857, in which he expressed his
opinion that England was in a false position in the Ionian Islands ; and suggested
that she should retire from the protectorate, retaining Corfu as a colony. The
conclusion was immediately drawn that the English government assented to the
views of Sir J. Young, and that the mission of Mr. Gladstone was to carry them
out. It appeared, however, that the despatches had been stolen. Sir J. Young, of
course, had to resign, and Mr. Gladstone succeeded him ; but the declaration of
the latter, that he had not come to abolish the protectorate, or remove treaties, but
merely to rectify abuses, and to promote the happiness of the people, most
248

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [parliament meets.
materially diminished his popularity. In short, the mission may be briefly
described as a failure ; and Mr, Gladstone must have been glad to relinquish his
power and return to England, which he did in 1859.
The year closed with a terrible accident at the Victoria Theatre, London. On
the 28th of December there had been a day performance, and there was to have been
an evening one. The spectators for the latter were waiting on the stairs ere the first
spectators had left. The manager had provided for the exit of the day audience
by a different way from that which was opened for their successors ; but an escape
of gas, or the ignition of lucifers or fusees, caused an alarm of fire. It is impossible
to describe the confusion that ensued. Those who were going out hurried to the
barriers which had been raised to prevent the crowd from entering, and attempted
to rush down ; while others kept ascending the stairs, and choking up the passage,
unconscious, at first, that anything had occurred. The appalling shrieks that
reached their ears, however, alarmed them, and they, in their turn, attempted to
find their way back to the door. In the struggle which ensued, no consideration
was shown to age or sex. The cry was, " Save your lives who can." Many were
thrown down and trodden upon ; and before the stairs and passages were cleared,
sixteen persons were bruised and trodden to death, and more than fifty dangerously
wounded. The accident threw a gloom over the district in which it occurred ; and
a few days afterwards another happened at the Polytechnic Institution, from the
stairs giving way as the audienee were retiring, which occasioned nearly as
many casualties. Seldom, in London, had there been such fatal accidents at places
of amusement. The new year opened under unfavourable circumstances.
In Franee war was resolved on ; and, in a Uttle while, the peace of Europe was
disturbed. Parliament met in February ; and we had a Eeform Bill introduced by Mr.
DisraeU, as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Derby administration. On
February 28th, he rose for leave to bring in a bill to amend the laws relating
to the representation of the people of England and Wales, and to facilitate the
registration and voting of electors. He opened by declaring that nothing could
exceed the gravity of the subject. He then gave a brief outline of the history of
the subjeet. Eeform had been fifteen years a parliamentary question ; and it was
then ten years since the Prime Minister had announced, in that House, that a
change ought to be made. Events prevented that opinion from being acted on ;
but in 1852, the speech from the throne proclaimed the necessity of making a
change in the Act of 1832. In consequence, a measure of parliamentary reform
had been brought forward by Lord John Eussell, the Prime Minister. A change
of administration prevented that measure from being proceeded with. Two years
later, a minister, born and bred in the Tory camp, was also of opinion that it was
his duty to recommend a measure of reform to his sovereign ; and an announcement
to that effect was made once more in the royal speech of 1854. In consequence, a
second measure was brought forward by the government of Lord Aberdeen. The
great war which succeeded it, again prevented it from making further progress.
Lord Palmerston succeeded to the head of affairs ; and though he, as Mr. Disraeli
declared,^" was considered a statesman who has no morbid sympathy with advanced
opinions, 'yet he repeated to the sovereign the advice given by Lord John Eussell
+w +0iT Aberdeen5 aDd the royal speech for 1857, for the third time, proclaimed
that the attention of the legislature would be called to parliamentary reform.
Under these circumstances Lord Derby resolved to attempt a settlement of the
question himself, that it might be no longer left " for the reorganisation of an
opposition, the desperate resources of faction, and the chronic excitement of the
popular mind."
"We propose," continued Mr. Disraeli, "to introduce into these borough con-
1 1™fncie'LIlew franchises. In the first place, we shall introduce, as the foundation
o# the suffrage, a class of property which hitherto has not formed an element out
VOL. n. s 249

NEW REFORM BILL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
of which voters have been created. I mean personal property. We shall propose
.to allow persons who have funded property — property in bank stock, or East India
stock, and bonds — to the amount of £10 per annum to exercise the suffrage.
* * * * There is another franchise which we shall also recommend the House
to adopt ; and that is one which depends upon the possession of a certain sum in
the savings bank. A man who has had £60 for a year in a savings bank will,
under this, if it become law, be an elector for the borough in which he resides.
Again, a man who has a pension for public service, but who has ceased to be
employed in that service, whether it be her majesty's naval, military, or civil
service, to the amount of £20 a year, will, under this bill, if it become law, be
entitled, to a vote, wherever he may reside. Then, again, sir, the occupants of
a portion of a house, the aggregate rent of which amounts to £20 a year, which
would be 8s. a week, will also be entitled to a vote. * * * * We have thought
it advisable that the suffrage should be conferred upon graduates of all universities ;
upon the ministers of religion, whether priests and deacons of the church, or
ministers of denominations, under regulations which the House will find in the
bill; upon the members of the legal profession, in all its branches, whether
barristers, members of the inns of court, solicitors, or proctors; and upon all
members of the medical body who are registered under the late Medical Act. To
these we have added such schoolmasters as possess a certificate from the council."
With regard to the county franchise, Mr. Disraeli proposed to harmonise it.
" We think there is a principle, the justness of which will be at once acknowledged,
the logical consequences of which will be remedial, and which, if appUed with due
discretion, will effect all those objects which we anxiously desire With respect
to the county constituency. We find that principle in recognising the identity of
suffrage between county and town. I will proceed to show the House what, in our
opinion, would be the practical consequences of recognising that identity. If the
suffrages of the town are transferred to the county, and the suffrages of the county
transferred to the town, all those voters who, dwelling in a town, exercise their
suffrage in the county, in virtue of a county suffrage, will record their votes in the
town; and the forty-shilling freeholder, resident in a town, subject to the pro
visions in the bill, which would prevent the constitutional instrument being turned
to an improper use, will have a right to vote for the borough in which he resides.
This, as well as the franchise founded on savings banks, will open another avenue to
the mechanic whose virtue, prudence, intelligence, and frugality, entitle him to
enter into the privileged pale of the constituent body of the country. Therefore,
the first measure would embody this logical consequence — that it would transfer
the freeholders of the town from the county to the town. But, if this principle be
adopted, there are other measures, in our opinion, it would be the duty of
parliament in this respect to adopt. Since the year 1832 there has been an
immense increase in the population of this country, irrespective of the ratio of
increase with which we are acquainted. The creation of railroads in particular
districts has stimulated that increase ; and thus has come to pass in England that,
in a great many of the boroughs, there is a population residing who, for all social
and municipal purposes, are part and parcel of the community, but who, for
parliamentary purposes, are pariahs. A man votes for a municipality ; he pays
parochial rates and taxes ; he is called upon to contribute to all purposes of charity
and philanthropy in the borough ; but because he lives in a part of the borough
which exceeds the boundary that was formed in 1832, he is not, though he lives in
a £10 house, permitted to vote for members of parliament. Now all this
extramural population, in fact and spirit, consists of persons who ought to be
electors in the borough in which they reside; and we, therefore, propose that
boundary commissioners should visit all the boroughs of England, and rearrange
them according to . the altered circumstances of the time. I know that these
boundary commissioners may cause some alarm in the country. I know there are
traditions of party arrangements effected by that machinery, which, whether true
250

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [speech of Mr. Disraeli
or not, left an unpopular recollection in the House of Commons. I believe that, iu
the present state of public feeling on this subject, so moderate as it is, and in the
present balanced state of parties, no partial or improper conduct of that character,
if it ever did take place, could be repeated." Mr. Disraeli stated, the machinery
for that purpose would be the enclosure commissioners. He continued — " Coming
to that part of the bill which concerns the mode of registration and of voting, I
would propose that, in future, there should be a self-acting register for the
counties. That the overseer of each parish should make out a list of owners and
occupiers, which could be revised and added to subsequently. Under this plan no
one need make a claim to be registered, Unless he finds his name omitted : as to
the mode of Voting, I propose, in the first instance, greatly to increase the number
of polling-places. There would be one polling-place in every parish where there
are 200 electors ; and where the number is less, the parishes would be grouped till
they reached that number, and a fitting place established for each group ; each
voter would vote for the place where he resided, and, therefore, a residence
quaUfication register would be kept, as well as a property qualification register.
The expense of the Various polling-places would be thrown upon the counties. I
would not compel all voters to vote personally ; and should, therefore, propose that
voters might make use of ' voting^papers.' That system has been tried elsewhere,
and the consequence was that 90 per cent, of the electors voted for the guardians of
the poor, while, for the legislature of this great country, only 50 or 60 per cent.
voted. I believe that a machinery might be devised which would prevent all
attempts at deception or personification, which, if attempted, would be held a
misdemeanour," As to representation, the ' right hon. gentleman continued — " I contrive to
divide this branch of the subject into cases where there is a Want, of representation,
and those where a representation exists, and not an adequate one. » We find both
of these circumstances characteristic of the West Eiding of Yorkshire, and South
Lancashire, There, then, are distinct interests which are hot represented in this
House ; and some, also, which are Very inadequately represented. I mean by the
term ' inadequately represented,' to say that there are several distinct interests,
while the present members are returned to this House by the predominating
interest ; the other interests, which are considerable enough to challenge and claim
our consideration, being virtuaUy unrepresented. We propose, therefore, to add to
the West Eiding of Yorkshire four members. Here I will not speak of population
or property, because we are not about to offer a proposition to the HoUse formed
merely upon population or property. In the West Eiding we find a great territory,
seventy miles in length, which is purely agricultural. We find another great
division studded with towns, none of them important enough, or having distinctive
interests enough, to be represented; yet, in their aggregate, constituting a
wonderful hive of industry and energy, And there is still another portion of the
West Eiding where there are blended and Varied interests, We propose, therefore,
to add four members to the West Eiding of Yorkshire, and to divide it, not
according to a mathematical arrangement as to population, but according to its
separate interests. The principle of division will be in accordance with the local
demarcations of wapentakes. If property be the test, the property here is identical ;
for, however varied in the number of their population, the property of the
wapentakes is as follows : — We propose that there should be a West Yorkshire, with
a population of 472,000, and a property of £963,000. That is the division in
which you will find Keighley, Dewsbury, and a score of towns which you cannot
summon here, but which, if you adopt these principles for your constituent body,
would be voting for county members, and, therefore, they oUght to vote with the
distinct interests with which they are connected. We propose that there should be
a North-west Yorkshire, with a population of 129,000 ; and South Yorkshire, with
one of 225,000. * * * * We propose to add two members to South Lanca
shire — that is to say,, we propose to distribute the county of Lancashire into thre*
s2 2.51

his reform bill.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.

divisions. One will be the Hundred of West Derby, and one the Hundred of
Salford. These divisions are the same as those proposed by the noble lord the
member for London, except that one of the hundreds of North Lancashire was
inserted in the West Derby in his bill, and it now remains connected with North
Lancashire. This will be an addition of six to the number of county members.
There is another county to which we propose to add two members, and that is the
county of Middlesex, which we propose to divide. By dividing Middlesex, the
claims of Kensington, Chelsea, and a hundred other suburban districts, the claims
of which have been urged in this House, will be provided for. They will form
part of West Middlesex ; while the distinctive interests of the other portion of the
county, the northern division, will be also represented in this House. These are all
the additions which we propose to make to the county representation — eight
members. " It is now, sir, my duty to call tbe attention of the House to those places which,
because they possess distinct interests which are not duly represented in this
House, ought, in our opinion, to be duly represented here. The first place which,
in our opinion, ought to be represented in the House of Commons, is the town of
Hartlepool, and its immediate district. There is no place in England more
distinguished by the energy of the inhabitants, its rapid progress, and the character
of its industry. In North Durham there are four great towns which are unre
presented, and there are two county members. In South Durham there are two
county members, and no town which is unrepresented. I will not dwell upon the
population of Hartlepool. I will not rest the granting of a franchise, although the
population is very considerable — upwards of 300,000 — on that ; but I rest it upon
the rapid development of its considerable industry, and the fact that, at this very
moment, its importation of foreign goods is even larger than that of her coasting
trade. We therefore propose that there should be a member for Hartlepool. For
the same reason — that is, a place where the shipping and mercantile interests of this
country are conspicuous — we are of opinion that Birkenhead ought to be represented.
There is a part of Staffordshire which we think deserves and requires the
consideration of the House. It is that district called the ' black country,' where an
immense distinctive industry has arisen since the passing of the Eeform Act ; and
we therefore propose that West Bromwich and Wednesbury shall return a member
to this House. I said tbat we had allotted only two additional members to South
Lancashire, because we thought that there were two towns in that county whose
interests required to be represented in this House ; and, therefore, we recommend
that two members should be allotted to Bromley and Staleybridge. That will be five
additional borough members. Turning now to the south of England, we find a
place in Surrey which ought to be represented — viz., Croydon ; and in the county of
Kent, we propose that a member should be allotted to Gravesend, a very ancient
town, with a distinctive character, and, in every sense of the word, entitled to a
representative." Approaching the question of the suppression of the right to send members to
parliament, the honourable gentleman observed — " It is sometimes said that there
are constituencies in this country so small that it is an indefensible anomaly to
permit them to exist. There are, it is true, some constituencies which cannot be
defended, if the numerical majority is to govern England ; but there are some very
.small constituencies which may perform a very important part in the representation
of the principles upon which the English constitution is founded, which are still
upheld in this House, and still revered in this country. I will take an instance.
In all those rattling schemes of disfranchisement with which we were favoured
during the autumn, when every gentleman thought he could sit down at his table
and reconstruct the venerable fabric of the English constitution — if there was one
point more than another in which those Utopian meddlers agreed — if there was one
enemy which they were all determined and resolved to hunt down, it was the
borough of Arundel. There every vice of the system seemed to be congregated — a
252

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the debate.

small population, a small constituency, absolute nomination. Well now, sir, that
is very well for autumnal agitation ; but let us see how it practically works in the
ancient and famous society of which it is our pride and privilege to be members.
There are 900,000 Eoman Catholics in England, scattered and dispersed in every
county and town — of course a minority. What means have they of being repre
sented in this House, especially in the present — as I deem it — unfortunate state
of feeling in England with regard to our Eoman Catholic fellow-subjects? There
is one English Eoman Catholic member of parliament, who bears a name which will
always be honoured by England and Englishmen ; and practically, and in the spirit
of the English constitution, the 900,000 Eoman Catholics of England — men of
ancient lineage and vast possessions, whose feelings all must respect, even if they
do not agree with — these, in every particular, find a representative in the borough
of Arundel. . That is the practical working of our constitution. You talk of the
small number of the constituency of Arundel — 900,000 Eoman Catholics ! Why it
is more than the West Eiding of Yorkshire; it is double that of the Tower Hamlets.
Therefore, sir, we are not to say, because a constituency is small, that it is the
source from which we must inevitably draw the constitutional means of completing
the representation of England. The House will do me the justice of observing tbat,
by the measure which, on the part of the government, I have placed before them
to-night, whatever arrangements may be made with existing boroughs to find
means of effecting the representation of interests not represented, without increasing
the numbers of the House, no man will be disfranchised. By adopting this
principle of identity, of suffrage, even if a man loses the member who represented
his borough, he may still go to the poll or send his voting-paper; and, under all
circumstances, that is a compensation which was never offered in schemes of
parliamentary reform. We do not feel it our duty to recommend to parliament
that any borough represented by a single member, like Arundel, should lose its
member. We do want, in order to complete the representation of the country,
fifteen seats in the House."
Then came the question as to the rule for finding these fifteen seats. " In the
last census," continued the speaker, " if you throw your eye over its parliamentary
results, you will find that there are fifteen boroughs represented by two members
each, and tbe population of which is under 6,000. Only fifteen boroughs ! It
will be an admirable opportunity for a display of patriotism— an opportunity seldom
offered by the occasions and circumstances of society to the members of those
places. I have no personal feelings on the subject. I do most sincerely and
ardently hope that, when there is a new parliament, we may all meet again ; but if
these fifteen boroughs, now represented by two members each, though with a
population under 6,000 — without our using force to compel them — make this
concession, we shall complete the representation of the country according to the
principles upon which, I believe, our representation ought to rest. Therefore, sir,
in the bill, which will shortly be in the bands of members, there are provisions
that the fifteen boroughs in question shall, in the next parliament, be represented
by only one member each." These boroughs were— Honiton, Thetford, Totnes,
Harwich, Evesham, Wells, Eichmond, Marlborough, Leominster, Ludlow, Andover,
Knaresborough, Tewkesbury, Maldon, Lymington.
After a debate on the first reading (in which Lords Palmerston and J. Eussell,
Messrs. Newdegate, H. Drummond, and J. Bright, took part), Mr. Disraeli replied
as follows : —
" The intention of the government, with respect to the four seats still in reserve,
arising from the disfranchisement of Sudbury and St. Alban's, was, that they
should still remain vacant. The honourable member for Sussex asked me whether
the government could give any estimate of the reduction of the constituency by
transferring the borough freeholders from the county ? There is a return— in fact,
I believe two returns— on the table of the House on that subject, and the number
has been aheady stated accurately by another member of the House, in the course
253

Ministry defeated.] LIFE AND TIMES" OF rA.D. \S5&.

of the debate. I believe the last return is 105,000. The same honourable gentle
man asked me whether the forty-shilling freeholder will vote in the borough in
which he resided ? He will, if his forty-shilling qualification is within the borough ;
if- not, he can vote by means of the polling-pSpers. I am asked,, also, if it is our
intention that the occupier of a £10 house, and a forty-shilling freehold, is to have
only one vote ? Sir, it is intended that he should have only one vote. Another
honourable gentleman asks me whether I can give him any calculation of the
number of voters who will be added to the constituencies by the different schemes
I have introduced to-night ? It would be impossible to give any estimate of that
kind which could be depended on. All I can say is, that the increase will be very-
considerable — exceeding, I have no hesitation in saying, 500,000; but the suffrage
will depend so much upon a man's own energy — so many will, I think, be ani
mated by the avenues which would be opened for the attainment of the suffrage,
that it would be impossible to give the dry statistical accounts which could be
furnished if it depended merely upon property, occupation, and voting qualities
alone, and which would easily be ascertainable by returns. Then- the honourable
member for Hull inquires of me whether the cost of polling-places for boroughs
was also to be defrayed by the localities, as well as those for counties ? In this.
bill it will be found that the cost of polling-places for boroughs will not' be so
defrayed, for public rooms can there be easily obtained. We do not propose to
free the candidate from that expense ; it is, we think, a legitimate expenditure,
The honourable member for Cambridge inquires of me, whether, by the £10.
qualification of the counties, I mean only the qualification which arises from the
possession of a house ? The bill mentions the qualification, which arises from lands.
and tenements." The bill of Lord Derby having been rejected by the House of Commons, the
government determined to appeal to the country^ The result was an adverse
decision. Lord Derby went out, and Lord Palmerston again returned to power.
One result of this state of things was, that the reform question was once more left in
an unsatisfactory condition. Had the Liberals accepted Lord Derby's measure ; had
they let it go into committee, and modified and improved it, a fair measure of reform
might have been passed. Such a settlement did not suit the personal ambition of
the leaders of the Liberals. Their creed was, that they alone were competent to
deal with the delicate question ; and, in the meanwhile, all legislative improve
ments are impeded; one impotent administration succeeds another; and parlia
mentary reform is postponed.
The Conservatives resigned on June 11th, having been beaten by a vote of
want of confidence the ''day previous. The feud between Lord John Eussell and
Viscount Palmerston was healed, and the confidence of the Liberals, even of the
most advanced of them, was given to the new cabinet. There had been a meeting
at Willis's rooms, in which all sores had been healed, and promises of better beha
viour made for the future. There was one exception — that of one who was to do
much for the success of the Palmerston cabinet nevertheless : we mean Mr. Cobden,
Lord Palmerston announced his determination to reserve certain seats in his cabinet
for the leaders of advanced liberalism. Meanwhile, the great free-trader had not
yet returned to England from America, It was only on his arrival at Liverpool
that he learnt, from a deputation of gentlemen, who went off and boarded the
steamer by which he voyaged, that the Premier had designated him to the appro
priate office of President of the Board of Trade. Mr. Cobden determined not to
accept the proffered post. He called upon Lord Palmerston, at Cambridge House,
and frankly told his lordship he could not serve under him. It was understood
that when Palmerston remonstrated and advised reconsideration, Cobden rejoined
that he had always regarded him as a most dangerous minister for England, and.
that his views still remained the same. (Mr. Cobden forgot tbat now Lord
Palmerston had passed threescore years and ten, and had reached the time when
the fire and rashness of an earlier day had long passed away,) Mr. Cobden stated,
54

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A.D. 1S47.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [cdiffNT cavour.
also, that he felt he would be doing violence to his own sense of duty if he
attempted to act with a minister to whom he had all along been opposed.

CHAPTEE XIII.
ITALY AND THE ITALIAN WAB.

Since the peace of Vienna, Austrian influence had been gradually extending in
Italy. Charles Albert, of Sardinia, as we have seen, had vainly waged war with it.
At the congress held in Paris, at the conclusion of the Crimean war, Count
Cavour endeavoured to induce the other powers to make a declaration in favour of
establishing a temporal sovereignty in the Legation, and, generally, of Italian
independence. He did not succeed ; but the language then held with respect to
the predominance of Austrian influence, its pernicious effects, and the disgust it
excited amongst the inhabitants of Italy, alarmed the government of Vienna.
From that time the relations between France and Austria became less cordial.
Count Cavour, the first of statesmen Italy has produced in modern times, was
born in 1810, of one of the most ancient and wealthy families in Piedmont. As a
mere boy, when enrolled among the royal pages, he provoked his dismissal by a
witticism on the absurd formalities of the Court. He was then placed at the
military academy at Turin, where he pursued his studies with distinction ; and, in
due time, was appointed to a lieutenancy of engineers. But scarcely had the
young officer been introduced into the circles of the capital, ere his independence
of character and powers of sarcasm soon displayed themselves so conspicuously, that
his family were either cautioned or considered it prudent to send him out of the
country. In those days, to be kept from royalty was looked upon as a heavy in
fliction, and Cavour's absence was generally regarded as an exile.
He spent several years abroad, alternately residing in London, Paris, or Genoa ;
pursuing his studies, and gaining the experience so conducive to his subsequent
fame. Especially did he delight in works on English political economy ; and his
writings on finance, free trade, and agriculture, in various French periodicals,
showed his depth and clearness of reasoning. Our English laws and institutions
were also diUgently investigated. He travelled over a great part of the United
Kingdom ; and his essay on the actual condition and prospects of Ireland, which
appeared in the Revue Novelle, attracted considerable attention. In 1842, and not
till then, did he return, or was encouraged to return, to Italy.
A gleam of hope appeared in that unhappy land. Charles Albert's leanings
towards a change of system were becoming apparent in his patronage of railroads
and scientific congresses, so eagerly solicited by cultivated Italians, as mediums of
national intercourse and discussion. Cavour, in concert with Balbo, Santa Eosa,
and others, engaged in forming the Associazione Agrazia, the avowed purpose of
which was the improvement of agriculture ; in reality, it was designed, through its
meetings, held, by turns, in the chief towns of the kingdom, to open a field for
debate on the requirements of the country, and to foster the desire for legitimate
reform. Austria detected this. A Milanese journal was suspended for having
spoken favourably of the association. Cavour and his friends next started the
Resorgimento, or Eesurrection, which speedily became the most important organ
of the Moderate party allWer Italy. Towards the close of the year, in conjunc
tion with Balbo, Selvio, Pellico, and others of their party, Cavour addressed a
petition to the King of Naples, still inflexible to all suggestions of reform,
implo:ino- him to conform to " the policy of Pius IX., of Leopold, and of Charles
Albert; to the policy of foresight, of forgiveness, of civilisation, and of Christian
charity." 255

CAVOUR's career.] _ LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852,
In the first session of the sub- Alpine parliament, in which he sat as one of the
representatives of the city of Turin, Cavour soon distinguished himself as a skilful
debater, and unrivalled in financial knowledge. In the stormy discussions of that
period, where an assembly, entirely new to its responsibilities and the mere routine
of office, found itself at war, and exposed as well to the contagion of republican
France, and to the hostile machinations of Mazzini, Cavour never ceased
courageously to oppose the inroad of democratic passions which elsewhere mastered
the Moderates, and even seriously threatened to preponderate in Piedmont. Con
sequently, he was much abused by turn ; and when, after the reverses of the royal
army in Lombardy, in 1848, he sided with the ministry who were adverse to the
immediate renewal of the war, he was reviled as a renegade and traitor. He had
the courage openly to combat the extreme irritation just then prevailing against
the British government, owing to its strenuous recommendations of peace, and
efforts for securing it. " I hold it as certain," he said, " that England has entered
frankly, honourably, resolutely into this mediation. This declaration will subject
me, I well know, to be more than ordinarily taxed with Anglo-mania, and will
render me the mark for the invectives of a large portion of the daily press ; but
whatever the fate awaiting me beyond these walls, I flatter myself that my col
leagues, after hearing the reasons upon which my opinion is based, will absolve me
from the grave accusation • of not being as true a lover of my country as any here
present." He then proceeded to demonstrate all that might be gained by prudence
and delay ; all that would infallibly be lost by precipitation. But these arguments,
of which the soundness was only too soon experienced, completed his unpopularity,
and, in a new election in January, 1849, Cavour lost his seat in the Chamber of
Deputies. Ee-eleeted deputy in the summer, Cavour gave his warm support to the
Azeglio ministry; and, in 1850, he accepted, under him, the portfolio of Commerce
and Agriculture. Notwithstanding the unsettled state of the country, Cavour
signalised his first year of office by a remarkable development of its commerce and
internal resources. In six months he also took charge of the Ministry of Finance.
In this new department his remarkable activity and administrative capacity rapidly
displayed themselves. He concluded advantageous treaties of commerce with
Belgium and England ; laid the basis of free trade ; set on foot the construction of
new railroads ; encouraged native manufactures ; and restored so much confidence
by his financial statement, that in the course of the summer of 1851, he raised a
loan in England on very favourable terms, and, soon afterwards, one in Turin.
When the coup-d'etat took place in Paris, Austria, in conjunction with two
other absolute Courts (Tuscany and Naples), it is believed directed an ambassador
to proffer to King Victor Emmanuel the recommendation to conform his govern
ment to tbat of the other Italian states, giving him, at the same time, indirectly,
to understand that he might have to repent of his pertinacity in adhering to a
contrary system. The abuses to which the constitution gave rise, the license of
the press, and other points that had already been the subject of recrimination to
these powers, were again insisted upon, with the desire of seeing representative in
stitutions annulled in Sardinia, as they had been in their own dominions. An
additional embarrassment was soon furnished by the remonstrances of France on the
subject of the political refugees, whose presence so near her frontiers was con
sidered dangerous to her tranquillity. In the discussions which ensued, Azeglio
and Cavour parted company. Cavour inclined to Eatazzi, who had been a violent
ultra-liberal. The important post of President of the Chamber of Deputies having
become vacant, Cavour obtained it for his new ally, Eatazzi. The ministers in
general disapproved of this appointment; and in May, 1852, the cabinet was
remodelled, with Cavour out of office.
The parliamentary recess was spent by Cavour in Scotland and England,
where he met with many of our leading statesmen. At Paris, where he appointed
a meeting with Eatazzi, he procured for both an interview with Louis Napoleon.
256

' J

"¦Ttryi

A.D. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Italian question.

He then returned to Italy, to be summoned to the head of affairs — a position he
declined on learning that the condition annexed to this charge, was the renewal of
the negotiations with Eome. In 1852, in the beginning of November, unshackled
by any condition, the count became head, of the Piedmontese cabinet. Meantime,
Azeglio, the artist and soldier-statesman, who had done his fatherland such good
service,- cheerfully returned to private life, and took up his pencil to repair the
inroads on his fortune, occasioned by three years of office.
For the next two years Cavour chiefly occupied himself with internal economy,
and avoided the difficult and delicate question as to civil marriages, and other
matters connected with Eome. In the course of 1853 alone, the government pre
sented no less . than 142 projects of lawj which embraced municipal organisation,.
the army, finance, and pubUc worksi Immense sums were voted for the construc
tion of, railways in all the provinces; electric. telegraphs were everywhere laid
down, and a convention was entered into for a submarine cable ^between- Spezia
and the island of Sardinia. . At the same time relations with Vienna were broken
off in consequence of Eadetzky's unjustly sequestrating the possessions of all the
Lombards residing in Piedmont.
In 1855, CavOur announced — the great step in advance — the alliance of Sardinia
withJEngland and France against Bussia.- In the spirit of a prophecy, which was
speedily reaUsed, in defending it in the Italian Chamber, Count Cavour exclaimed — •
" I hold it as.indispensable to the improvement of the actual state of Italy, and
exceeding aU. other considerations in importance, to raise Up her reputation, so
that all the people of the world, rulers and ruled, shall be compelled to do her
justice. For this, two things are necessary; to prove to Europe, first, that Italy
has sufficient sense and moderation to sustain free institutions, . and fo adopt the
'most perfect known form of government-; secondly,, that the. military valour of her
people, is requal to that of her forefathers. You have as yet done Italy good service
by the conduct you have pursued during seven years, proving, in the most con
spicuous manner, that; Italians can govern themselves with wisdom, prudence, and
loyalty. It is now your privilege to render her an equal, if hot greater service : it
is given to our country to demonstrate how the sons of Italy can bear their part in
fields, of .glory. I am certain that the laurels reaped by oUr soldiers in the East,
will do more for the future fate of the peninsula than all that has been effected by
those who thought to achieve her regeneration by their eloquence or their pen."
Bowed down by successive bereavements, within a few days Victor Emmanuel
had mourned the loss of the queen-dowager ; of his own consort, Adelaide of
Austria; and of his only brother, the Duke of Genoa, the destined general of the
Crimean expedition. Influenced, by the clergy, who, of course, had seen in the
calamities which had fallen on the royal house a judgment from heaven, the cabinet
had nearly fallen. The Piedmontese bishops, prompted by Eome, proposed to the
king, on condition of the withdrawal of the motion on the suppression of convents,
to take upon themselves the charges of augmenting the income of the rural clergy.
More than ever solicitous of peace with the church, Victor Emmanuel's first impulse
was to accede to this offer, the. secret bearing of which he did not at once penetrate.
But Cavour, and the rest of the -cabinet, declared themselves unable to accept a
.compromise which would forfeit the political independence of the state; and
tendered their resignation. Victor Emmanuel said he would take time to consider of
it. Count Eeyel was sent for — the friends of freedom were alarmed. At this
juncture Azeglio flew to the assistance of his former colleagues : the country
was saved ; and Cavour returned to office. The Piedmontese were cheered by his
return to power, by the gallantry of their troops at the battle of the Tchernaya,
and with the reception given in Paris and in London to their king.
At the congress of Paris, as we have seen, Cavour pleaded the cause of bleeding,
oppressed, and degraded Italy; nor did he speak in vain. "The Italian question,"
he said, on Jus return, " has now become a European question. The cause of Italy
has not been advocated by demagogues, revolutionists, and sections. It has been
257

anger of Austria.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.
— ...  — —  "¦¦¦"¦' ' ¦ f
carried before the congress by the plenipotentiaries of the great powers of Europe,
From the congress it has now passed to the tribunal of public opinion. * * * *
The struggle may be long; it will demand prudence and reflection; it will be
subject to fluctuations and difficulties; but I have the firm conviction that our
cause will ultimately triumph."
The improvement of the country was not lost sight of in the midst of the
excitement produced by these foreign questions. No department escaped the
ministry's attention. Free schools, evening classes, public lectures, infant schools,
and asylums, all attested its solicitude for the intellectual and moral cultivation of
the people. True to the cause of religious liberty, it permitted the erection of
three Protestant churches — at Nice, at Genoa, at Pignerol, for the Valdese worship \.
and the members of the free Italian church held their meetings in Turin, Genoa,,
and several of the provincial towns, without molestation. Extensive manufactories
of silk, woollen stuffs, soap, wax, and composite candles, linen, glass, and china,,
springing up on every side, show the spread of industrial undertakings ; and of
the perfection to which these may be carried, as well as jewellery, fire-arms,
cabinet and wood carving, the National Exhibition at Turin, in 1858, gave some
remarkable specimens. Agriculture, as may be expected from the early patron of
the Associazione Agrazia, is carefully promoted. The iron mines of Savoy and of
the island of Sardinia, formerly a state monopoly, now wisely thrown open to,
individual enterprise, promise to become of considerable importance. The newly-
opened marble quarries of the Alps and the Apennines lead to similar expectations.
So great is the improvement in machinery, that the railroads which cover the state
are now traversed by locomotives of native construction ; and the watch-makers of
Savoy rival those of neighbouring Geneva. The navy is also considerably increased ;
and the mercantile marine is increasing as rapidly and materially.
After the congress of Paris, the relations of Sardinia and Vienna were, if
possible, less amicable than before. The Austrian emperor, who, in 1855, had
purposely slighted the Court of Turin, by returning no answer to the official
notification of the deaths of the two queens, was deeply hurt when he visited Milan
two years after, that, of all the princes of Italy, Victor Emmanuel was the only one
who sent no officer to compliment him. Additionally exasperated by the coldly
contemptuous treatment he received from all classes of the Lombards, he, it
was said, was with difficulty restrained from an aggressive movement against
Piedmont. In the spring of 1857, an angry remonstrance was addressed to Count
Cavour, from the Foreign Office at Vienna, on the offensive tone of the Piedmontese
fournals towards the imperial government, and at the passive attitude of the
Sardinian ministry in suffering those personalities, " by which the emperor felt him
self personally aggrieved ;" at the sanction given to a subscription for the hundred
pieces of ordnance for Alexandria ; and the reception of pretended deputations from
the Lombard provinces, to express their admiration of a poUcy their own govern
ments disapproved.
Cavour's reply, says Mr. Gretton, was considered a most skilful combination of
cool reasoning, sarcasm, and intrepidity. Admitting that the language of the liberal
press in Piedmont was, to his regret, often intemperate, he regretted equally that the.
institutions of the country only permitted him to recommend the imperial govern
ment to turn to account the means provided by the Piedmontese legislature, for the
punishment of offences of this description. At the same time, he owned himself
unable to understand how the hostility of the liberal journals could entail any
inconvenience on the Austrian government, as their introduction into the provinces
of the empire was severely interdicted ; and called its attention to the fact, that
the attacks of a portion of the English and Belgian press, equally, if not more
violent upon the policy of Austria, had never been considered as dangerous to its
security, nor ever been construed into an act of premeditated iU-will, or culpable
indifference on the part of their respective governments. The sensitiveness now
258

j.D.iRfls.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [plombieber.

displayed would lead to the inference that the Austrian newspapers: themselves, ia
their allusions to Piedmont, never passed the limits of moderation. Far from this„
however, being the fact, he contended that the virulence of their language, the-
personality of their attacks against King Victor Emmanuel and his ministers,,
yielded in nothing to the excesses of the Sardinian press, of which complaint was
made ; without taking into account this notable difference— that whereas the latter
were the emanations of a free press often antagonistic to its own government, the
former, as having been previously submitted to the censorship, and appearing in the
columns of official journals, might be taken as conclusive evidence that they were
sanctioned, if not even directed, by the cabinet of Vienna.
The count continued—" With respect to the demonstrations we are accused of
having provoked in other parts of Italy, we defy the production of a single fact to.
justify the assertion. The Sardinian government having called the attention of the
congress of Paris to the condition of Italy, and the necessity of ameliorating it by
peaceful and legal means, this proceeding excited, without any other provocation,,
the expressions of gratitude and sympathy of a great number of individuals inhabiting
different parts of the Peninsula. There is nothing in this to authorise the com
plaints of Austria. She, also, though differing as to the means to be employed, has .
recognised that the state of things in Italy required modification. By the acts she
has recently accomplished, by those announced as speedily forthcoming, she has
demonstrated that the statements of the Sardinian plenipotentiaries were not devoid
of foundation, and that the approbation inspired by their efforts cannot be imputed
as proofs of direct hostility to Austria."
This explanation failed to satisfy Austria. Undoubtedly, Piedmont, under
Cavour, was a bad neighbour. In the early part of 1857, the National Society of Italy
was formed in Turin, with its committees ; and such committees were soon spread
throughout the kingdom. Its aim was to expel Austria from the Peninsula ; to
transfer her dominions to Victor Emmanuel. The government also encouraged
deserters and refugees from Venetia and Lombardy, who were received in Piedmont,
and formed into a military corps, the members of which made no secret of their
object — the termination of Austrian rule in Italy, At that time, the Archduke
Maximilian (the present unfortunate Emperor of Mexico ; brother to the Emperor
Francis Joseph) was governor of Lombardo- Venetia. He was disposed to adopt
liberal measures ; hut was compelled to carry out the orders he had received ; and
before the year closed, the discontent became general and immense. The archduke
had been very popular when he first assumed the government.
But Cavour felt that,, by herself, Italy was no match for Austria. Something
more was required — a. stronger arm ; and that arm was supplied by France, Louis.
Napoleon felt that if he aided Italy, he was enabled to realise one of his earliest
dreams— to humble Austria; and, at the same time, to aggrandise France. Cavour
was ready to ask ; the French emperor to grant,
Accordingly, in November, 1858, the celebrated meeting at Plombieres took
place. The emperor and empress went there, not for its warm baths exclusively,.
or even principally, There his ministers followed him ; and, whilst Count Cavour
was invited from Italy, tbe Earl of Clarendon and Lord Palmerston (though not
then in power) were sent for from London.. A veil is drawn over the proceedings :.
nevertheless, one cannot go far wrong if we conclude that the subject of dis
cussion by the distinguished party, was Italy. Eumour avers, and we have
reason to believe correctly, that a treaty was then concluded between France and
Sardinia, in which the session of Savoy and Nice was agreed to by the latter, as the
price to be paid for the support of. the former ; and to draw still closer the alliance
between the two countries, a marriage between the Princess Clotilde, daughter of
the King of Sardinia, and the Prince Napoleon, son of Prince Jerome, and cousin
to the emperor, was arranged. During this time a considerable increase in the
Sardinian army had taken place. Austria had also augmented the number of her
troops; and when 1858 closed, the two powefcs seemed on the brink of war. 259

Garibaldi.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
Under these auspices the year 1859 opened. The first day of that year was-
observed in Paris with the usual festivities ; and the customary reception at the
Tuileries took place. To the Austrian ambassador the emperor said little; but
that little indicated much. " I regret," he exclaimed to M. Hubner, " that our
relations with your government are not so good as they were ; but I request you
to tell the emperor tbat my personal feelings for him are not ehanged." In this
little incident every one saw reason to apprehend war ; and the speech produced an
immense sensation all over Europe — a sensation not diminished by the official
Moniteur, a few days after, declaring that there was nothing to authorise the
fears occasioned by certain alarming reports.
Although the war against Austria had beendecided upon by the emperor,
intfUigence reached Cavour, about the end of March, 1859,. that a change had
occarred in the imperial mind. On the 25th of that month, therefore,, the count
went in all haste to Paris, to judge for himself how matters stood- He found the
emperor wavering, as if he were almost afraid of engaging in the war he had pro
mised to undertake for the independence of Italy. Indeed, after his first interview,
Cavour thought that Napoleon was desirous of withdrawing from his solemn en
gagement ; and he had made up his mind to carry out the plan of his
country's redemption by summoning all the revolutionary elements in Italy,,
and trusting to the strength of his cause, and the valour of his countrymen.
Baron Hubner, the Austrian ambassador at Paris, had got hold of the change
in Louis Napoleon's mind ; and he therefore desired Count Buol to assume a
threatening attitude towards Piedmont, as he assured him both the ruler of France
and his ministers had decided to abandon Sardinia to her fate. The advice of
Baron Hubner was accepted, Austria became decided. However, though the-
Austrian representative was well informed at the beginning of this transaction, he
was not so at its end. Cavour having had a second conversation with the emperor,,
succeeded in making him change his mind ; and it was decided that the first
pretext should be seized upon to declare war against Austria. Cavour returned to-
Turin completely victorious, while Baron Hubner still thought that his adversary
had failed in his negotiations.
Towards the middle of April, Garibaldi was suddenly summoned to Turin by
Count Cavour. The famous Italian leader was, as usual, in bad humour with the
prime minister ofthe king. Distinguished by courage, disinterestedness, and publie
spirit ; bred to simple and daring occupations ; endowed with an unbounded frank
ness — Garibaldi had no great liking for Cavour. He thought him too proud of his
descent, and of his intellectual superiority. Nevertheless, Garibaldi obeyed the
summons, and learnt that the hour was at hand to strike for Italian freedom, and
that his aid was required. Moreover, he was informed of the condition upon
which the assistance of France had been secured. Garibaldi is reported to have
replied to Count Cavour as follows : — " Although my principles are known both to,
you and the king, I feel tbat my first duty is that of offering my sword to my
country. My war-cry shall be, therefore, ' Italian Unity, under the constitutional
rule of Victor Emmanuel.' Mind, however, what you are about, and do not forget
that the aid of foreign armies must always be paid for dearly. As for the man
who has promised to help us, I ardently wish he may redeem himself in the
eyes of posterity by achieving the noble task of Italian liberation." When
Garibtildi departed from this conference, he did so as commander of the Cacciatori
della Alpi — a corps of volunteers, which bad been organised by General Cialdini.
Need we stop to narrate the marvellous career of Garibaldi — a career re
sembling romance more than reality — a name beloved and revered by the friends
of freedom in every corner of the globe ! There are few who are not familiar
with that calm, saintly face, and have not followed the career of the hero. Now,
as in 1848, when the Eoman assembly charged the triumvir to save the honour of
the republic, and repel force by force, he was the man of the hour. May we just
cast a retrospective glance at that brief day of glory ! " It was then," wrote Dumas,
260

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [war declared,
*'the providential man appeared. Suddenly a great cry resounded through the
streets of Eome, of — ' Garibaldi ! Garibaldi !' And an immense crowd cheered as they
preceded him, throwing their caps in the air, and waving their handkerchiefs. It
is impossible to describe the enthusiasm which took possession of the popu
lation at the sight of him. He might have been thought to be the protecting
god of the republic, who hastened to the defence of Eome. The courage of
the people increased with their confidence, and it seemed as if the republic had
not only decreed defence, but victory." But to return. Garibaldi's division, though
slight in numerical strength, was, in itself, a valuable army. It was formed from
the best elements of Lombardy, of Eomagna, and of the minor duchies ; the guides
and the Genoese sharpshooters had to provide their equipments and their horses ;
and in their ranks were, therefore, to be found the youth of the most wealthy
famiUes of Genoa, Milan, and Bologna. It was felt that, once in Lombardy, such a
body of men, commanded by so illustrious and popular a general, would not fail
to recruit its ranks, and become the nucleus of national insurrection.
While these warlike preparations were going on in Piedmont, the. latter was
imperiously required, by the Court of Vienna, to disband the free corps in three days.
The summons was, of course, a declaration of war. Austria had lost her temper,
and was, at last, fairly caught in the trap which Cavour had so ably prepared for
her. Baron Kellersberg, the bearer of the imperial despatch, was sent back to
Milan at the expiration of the third day, and the Austrian general, Gyulai, was
then ordered to pat into execution the threatened invasion of Sardinia.
It may be added that, previously, Earl Cowley had gone to Vienna, in the vain
hope of preserving peace. The British cabinet considered Austria had taken a rash
step in its summons to Piedmont. It solemnly protested against it ; " assigning to
Austria, and fixing upon her, the last responsibility for all the miseries and
calamities inevitably consequent upon a conflict which was on the eve of being
averted; but which, once begun, would produce a more than ordinary amount of
social suffering and political convulsion." The censure was unjust. Austria, if she
meant to retain her hold on Italy, had no alternative but to fight for it. France
and Piedmont both meant war. Count Cavour made one last effort to get the
Derbyite administration on his side. Knowing it to be far from friendly, he sent
Mazzinio Azeglio, and Commendatore Nigra, towards the end of April, to London,
in the hope bf convincing the magnates of Downing Street that the threatening
attitude of Austria had rendered peace impossible. It does not appear that much
good came of this mission, as, a fortnight after, a member of the government
attempted to mystify this country, by speaking of the struggle then proceeding in
the plains of Northern Italy, as "the war now raging in Italy, for some purpose
whieh no one can understctmd."
Gyulai's first step was to invade Piedmont on the right and the left bank of
the Po. England made one more attempt at peace. The answer from Paris was,
" It is too late." On the 2nd of May, Victor Emmanuel addressed a proclamation to
the Italians, in which he called the nation to arms. The Sardinian regular army
consisted of five excellent infantry divisions, of about 13,000 men. Each division
had two battalions of Bersaglieri; a regiment of cavalry; three batteries of
artillery, of six guns ; and a company of sappers. There was a division of cavalry,
under General Sambery, numbering sixteen squadrons, to which two batteries of
horse artillery were attached. The numerical strength of this division was '2,200
horse, and twelve pieces of artillery. The French army consisted of the Im
perial Guard, commanded by General Ee^nault de Saint Jean d'Angely; and
of five corps d'armie, under the orders of M'Mahon, Canrobert, Niel, and Prince
- Napoleon. On the 12th of May the French emperor made his entry into Genoa. The
people were in a state of joy, almost savouring of delirium. He addressed his
Boldiers— " I come to place myself at your head, to conduct you to the combat.
We are about to second the struggles of a people now vindicating its independence, 261

SIA«ENTA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859,
and to rescue it from foreign oppression. This is a sacred cause, which has tho
sympathies of a civilised world. I need not stimulate your ardour. Every step will
remind you of a victory. In the Via Sacra of ancient Eome inscriptions were
chiseled upon the marble, reminding the people of their exalted deeds. It is the
same to-day. In passing Mondovi, Marengo, Loda, Castiglione, Ancona, and
Eivoli, you will, in the midst of those glorious recollections, be marching in another
Via Sacra. Preserve that strict discipline which is the honour of the army.
Here — forget it not — there are no other enemies than those who fight against you
in battle. Eemain compact, and abandon not your ranks to hasten forward.
Beware of too great enthusiasm, which is the only thing I fear. The new armes
de precision are dangerous only at a distance. They will not prevent the bayonet
from being, what it has ever been, the terrible weapon of the French soldiery.
Soldiers 1 let us do our duty, and put our confidence in God. Our country expects
much from you. From one end of France to the other the following words of
happy augury re-echo—' The new army of Italy will be worthy of her elder sister.' "
The emperor arrived at Alexandria on the 13th, and took the command-in-chief of the
allied army. He resolved to make the attack on the Austrian right, and massed his
troops on his own left, following the Austrians in what was now a retreat. After
several skirmishes, which produced no results, the first action took place on the
20th of May, at Montebello. The Austrians were defeated, with the loss of about
15,000 killed and wounded, and 200 prisoners. The Austrian general had been
completely out-manceuvred. At the same time the whole of the French received an
order to prepare to change its front. This strategetic movement, one of the most
skilful recorded by military historians, was commenced on the morning of the 28th
of May. The strictest secrecy was preserved, and there were but few of the French
staff-officers who knew the real intentions of the emperor. The last and most
important orders were only despatched during the night of the 29th, and the
greatest care was taken that no suspicion of the contemplated design should reach
the Austrian general-in-chief. In less than three days this remarkable movement
was made, with astonishing order and precision, almost under the very eye of the
enemy. The Sardinians gradually concentrated at Vercelli ; the French occupying the
posts they vacated as they advanced. On the 30th of May, they crossed the Tesin
at several points; drove the Austrians from Palestro; and, on the 30th, beat
a corps of 20,000 men, who attempted to recover possession of that post. On the
1st of June, the allies made a demonstration to the east, which caused the Austrians
to continue their retreat by Vigevano, Bereguardo, and Pavia. This backward
movement was made in a most orderly manner : the enemy were closely followed
by the French and Sardinians. On the 3rd, the Austrians re-crossed the Ticino ;
and, the same day, General M'Mahon crossed the river, and established himself on
the Austrian territory. On the 4th, Napoleon resolved to make an attack upon the
enemy, in concert with General M'Mahon. His majesty, at the head of the
Imperial Guards and the Zouaves, crossed the Ticino by the bridge of Buffalora,
and advanced to Magenta, which stands on the direct road from Novara to Milan.
M'Mahon directed his march to the same place, and both divisions of the allies
had to force their way against the determined resistance of the Austrians.
M'Mahon decided the fate of the day, by driving the right wing of the Austrians,
after a fierce conflict, from Magenta. Driven back also from every other point,
they withdrew, on the approach of night, to Abbiategrasso, leaving 6,000
prisoners — chiefly Italian deserters — in the hands of the enemy. Their loss was,
as estimated by the French, 5,713 in killed and wounded : that of the victors
was stated, by the same authority, to have been 2,958. For his share in the
victory, M'Mahon was created a marshal of France, and Duke of Magenta.
But we must return to Garibaldi, who, in the beginning of May, was sum
moned to head-quarters, to confer with Victor Emmanuel as to the conduct of
the campaign in Lombardy. After a great deal of talking over maps, and
262

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [garibaldi's plans.

much discussion of strategetical combinations, Garibaldi begged to be allowed to
observe that he would not undertake to carry out any concerted plans, and that
he wished to be left to his own daring aspirations. The king's reply was—" Go
where you like ; do what you like ; I feel only one regret— that I am not able
to follow you." In five hours Garibaldi was at the head of his dashing volun
teers. He and they were soon on Lombard soil. At Varese, and Mauro, and
elsewhere, he thoroughly defeated the Austrians, under Lieutenant-marshal
Urban ; and escaped the latter, who made sure of crushing him by his superior
strategy. "There is," writes Count Arrivabene in narrating this affair, "something ap
parently supernatural in the life of the Italian leader. Few generals could have so
wonderfully escaped from the grasp of an overpowering enemy, who felt certain
of surrounding him ; and, indeed, had taken measures for that end. The ability
shown by Garibaldi during the short campaign I have just sketched, and in sub
sequent operations, was, no doubt, the result of his experience ; and the successes
he achieved are mainly to be attributed to that power of comprehensiveness
which he possesses in so high a degree. Being an excellent mathematician, he at
once studies the ground on which he is going to operate ; calculates all possible
combinations of strategy and tactics, and acts accordingly. Endowed with the
greatest determination, he never hesitates. His plans being once settled in his
mind, he strikes instantly, dares all issues, and succeeds. There is, besides, another
¦consideration, which may appear strange at first sight ; but which, nevertheless, is
-confirmed by experience. The secret of Garibaldi's victories is to be found
principally in the system he has adopted, of doing almost always the contrary of
that which is suggested by the strict rules of war; in a word, of acting quite in
opposition to what the enemy would expect him to do. In the campaign of Upper
Lombardy, Urban had always thought — and he was right, according to the principles
of war— that Garibaldi had a base of operations — a line from which, in case of
reverse, he could fall back upon the allied armies. Hence the indecision of the
Austrian general: hence Garibaldi's marvellous escape from Villa Medici. It is
true that the Italian leader did everything to confirm the Austrian commander
in his opinions ; but the fact is, that his communications with .the Sardinians
were almost cut off, without the Austrians being aware of it. He always acted
alone. His principal aim was to spread the insurrection among the Lombard
population ; and he pretended to fall back upon the Franco -Sardinian army, in
order to advance more rapidly. With the intuition of military genius, he con
ceived that, by gaining the Lake of Garda, and occupying the mountain districts
of Gardonne and Sala, the Austrians would be obliged to send a considerable force
in pursuit of him; and that this would help the allied forces, in case a reverse
should retard their progress towards the Mincio. The means resorted to by
Garibaldi, in order to lead his adversary astray, were no less vigorous, and
always succeeded. His plan is to deploy as many forces as he can spare, in
opposite directions. When he first arrived at Como, he sent Captain Jesrari, with
150 men, to Leno ; then he ordered sub-lieutenants Cavano, Pisarro, and Zeffrina,
to lead, each of them, twenty or thirty men on three different roads, to attack the
Austrians wherever they should meet them, without, however, engaging themselves
too much. He then made the enemy believe that he was at the head of numerous
troops; and the Austrians were easily kept in error. This system had also the
advantage of impressing the people of the country with his superiority in nu
merical strength, and of inducing them to take up arms against their oppressors.
The effect of this skilful plan was, that when Urban retired on Mauro, be was
quite convinced that General Cialdini's division was operating with Garibaldi-
whilst, in fact, the first-named general was then engaged at Palestro, with Baron
ZobeL To act upon Urban's mind, Garibaldi, now and then, sent telegraphic
messages to Cialdini from different places, knowing that they would be intercepted
by the Austrians. In one sent from Como, he said-' Help me : Urban will attack
263

Italian unity.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
me to-morrow; I cannot resist.' From Varese he had telegraphed — 'I am
obliged to fall back upon you. Send the cavalry to support my backward move
ment.' Neither Cialdini nor any other general were within the reach of such
telegrams. There was, however, a general who read them, and who never thought
they were concocted with a view to his own deception." And thus Urban, at the
head of 10,000 excellent troops, was never able to isolate and surround 3,000
Cacciatori, under General Garibaldi.
We now resume the story of the allied forces. The result of the victory of
Magenta was, that the capital of Lombardy was open to the monarchs. Louis
Napoleon was overwhelmed by his reception. The Milanese had never before seen
a liberator within the walls of their city. Charles Albert had only passed through
it after the rising hopes of Italy had been crushed at Custoza. But now they
beheld before them the chief of the generous French army. No wonder they were
in ecstacies of delight. "How this people must have suffered!" the French
emperor was heard to exclaim. Better still than this demonstration was the fact
that the revolution was already spreading itself in the minor states of Italy. The
Duchess of Parma had thought it prudent to leave her territories on the 9th of
June. Two days afterwards, Francis V., following the retreating movement of the
Austrians from Ancona, Bologna, and Ferrara, towards the Po, abandoned his
Liliputian dukedom of Modena. The population of these states, freed from their
former masters, followed the example of the Tuscans and the Lombards, and pro
claimed Victor Emmanuel their king- In less than seven days the pope lost the
Legations, and the petty sovereigns their dominions. Unity was the war-cry of the
Italians, both in the centre of the peninsula and in the north. But unity did not
find favour in Louis Napoleon's mind, and had not been anticipated in his conven
tion at Plombieres. To stop the revolutionary movement which pervaded the
peninsula, and to prepare the Italians for the idea of a confederation, were there
fore thoughts which might have been traced, by a keen observer, in the conduct of
the emperor, even before the battle of Solferino.
The retreat of the Austrians was not made without fighting ; but the only
important action was that on the 8th of June, when a body of several thousand
men, under General Benedek, which was isolated from the main army, was attacked
by the French at Melagnano. The fighting continued that day, and part of the
next; the Austrians lost 1,500 men, but were not "prevented from continuing their
retreat. On the 14th of June, the Emperor Francis Joseph arrived, and took the
command-in-chief. On the 18th, the army crossed the Mincio, and was centred in
the Quadrilateral, so called from the four fortresses of Legnano, Verona, Mantua, and
Peschiera, which were considered to constitute it the key of Lombardo- Venetia ;
and, on the 20th, the emperor established his head-quarters at Villafranca.
Strange to say, just as his system of state-craft was about to collapse, Prince Met
ternich died.
After a few days' repose, the allies, following the movements of the Austrians,
occupied Lonato and Castiglione, and prepared to take up strong positions on the
west side of the Mincio, as it appeared to be the intention of the enemy to con
centrate their forces, and make a stand on the eastern bank of that river. Although
the Emperor Francis Joseph had nominally taken the command, since the resigna
tion of Gyulai, of the army of Italy, the direction of the military operations
depended on General Hess. He seems to have been in ignorance of the movements
of his adversaries ; and they were equally ignorant of his. With an army rein
forced by the garrisons of various Italian cities, he was enabled to bring into
action 156 battalions and eighty-eight squadrons, which, artillery included, num
bered 140,000 men. Inasmuch as these were all fresh troops, while the French
had already suffered from long marches and actual engagements, there was
probably no great disparity between the combatants. General Hess divided his
imposing force into two armies : the second, under the command of Count Schlik,
formed the right wing, and was to take possession of Castiglione and Lonato,
264

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [solferino.
marching through the hilly country, which extends from Volta to the Lake of
Garda ; while the first army, which, under Count Wimpffen, formed the left wing,
was to march through the plain on Montechiaro. The plan of General Hess was
skilful, and its success was probably regarded by him as certain, the Austrians
having exercised there since 1815. It failed, however, owing to the inability of
the general to change his design in accordance with the altered circumstances.
On the morning of the 24th of June, the engagement began. The length of the
Austrian line was not less than ten miles, and the key of its frontier was Solferino.
Cauziana, where, at the commencement of the battle, Francis Joseph established
his head-quarters, may be considered as its centre.
Early on the morning of the 24th, the corps under the command of Baraguay
d'Hilliers and M'Mahon, found themselves in the presence of the enemy. At 5 A.M.
the engagement commenced. On receiving the messages of his marshals announcing
the fact, Louis Napoleon at once ordered his staff to precede him to Castiglione ;
whilst he himself, escorted by the Cent Gards, drove, with all speed, in the same
direction. He was fully aware that a great battle had begun. Turning to one of
his aides-de-camp, he said — " The fate of Italy is, perhaps, to be decided to-day."
When Louis Napoleon arrived at Castiglione, the fight, which had simul
taneously begun on the right and in tbe centre, had also become more serious on
the left. Alighting from his carriage, the emperor ascended the steps of St. Peter's
church, from whence the great panorama spreads around. As he surveyed the
ground, the smoke of the guns enabled him to form an exact idea of the different
combinations of the battle then being fought. The directions he sent his generals
as soon as he descended, certainly evinced the penetration of the experienced com
mander. " He at once perceived," says Count Arrivabene, "that the object of the
Austrians was to divert the attack of Solferino by outflanking the right of the
French army, filling up the space between the second and third corps, and thus
cutting the enemy's forces in two. The emperor, therefore, commanded the cavalry
of the Imperial Guard, under General Morris, to join M'Mahon, to whom he sent
orders to dislodge the enemy from Morino's farm ; he also directed General Eeg-
nault de Saint Jean d'Angely to march with the Imperial Guard behind the heights
on which the first corps was fighting."
These orders were soon executed. The farm was invested by Decaens ; Auger
shelled it with his rifled guns; a sharp fight took place, and the enemy was obhged
to fall back on his reserve, advancing from Guidirinolo.. Auger's shells and
shrapnels burst by hundreds amidst the Austrian columns massed in the plain -
while their round shot scarcely reached the front of the opposing forces.
uJ' was 80on after the taking of Morino's farm that Louis Napoleon mined
M Mahon, to communicate his plan to him. In a few words he told the duke to
watch the movements of the enemy on his right wing, and to maintain himself on
the plains which separated him from the fourth corps. He was also to prevent the
Austrians dividing his forces from the first corps, and was not to miss any oppor
tunity of bending towards Cauziana as soon as the attack of Baraguay d'Hilliers on
bolierrno succeeded, and Niel's corps had made its appearance. To keep open the
communication of his corps with that which Niel commanded, the cavalry of the
Imperial Guard was to take up a position on his right.
Judging from these instructions, the plan of the emperor appears to have been
clear and precise. His design was to carry Solferino at any cost, and then, by a
flank movement, to beat the enemy out of his positions at Cauziana. It is not
requisite that we describe here the varied fortunes of the day. It suffices to say,
after a severe and protracted struggle, the French were victorious, and in the after
noon the enemy were compelled to begin a general retreat. Baron Benedek, who
since the morning had been engaged with \ictor Emmanuel's army on the right,
was directed to hold his ground, in order to protect this retreating movement, and
then slowly to follow, placing his corps under the protection of the guns of
Peschiera. He obeyed, but reluctantly ; for he had hoped to have struck a decisive
vol. n. T 265

MEETLNG AT VILLAFRANCA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1 859.
blow at the Sardinian army, which, as he afterwards said, he would have driven
into the Lake of Garda. The retreat, however orderly, was so rapid, that the
Austrian emperor, who is reported to have wept at the ruin of his fortune, had
hardly time to gain the cross-road leading from Cauziana to Valeggio. Two hours
afterwards Cauziana was filled by his victorious adversaries; and Casa Pastore,
which had been the temporary dwelUng of Francis Joseph, opened its doors to
receive the rival emperor. When the retreat began, the scene of battle was visited
by a fearful tempest— one of those summer storms which envelop in a whirlwind
of rain and fire the whole of the country they fall upon. Dark clouds hung over
that immense field of death, and lightning and thunder rivalled and subdued the
glare and roar of man's artillery. The loss on both sides was enormous. Of the
Austrians, at least 20,000 were killed and wounded ; 6,000 were made prisoners ;
and seventy pieces of cannon fell into the hands of the allies. The French had
12,000 privates and sub-officers, and 720 officers, and the Sardinians 6,000 rank
and file, and many officers, put hors de combat.
On the 28th of June, the allies having replaced the bridges destroyed by the
Austrians in their retreat, crossed the Mincio without opposition. On the 30th,
the French emperor established his head-quarters at Villafranca, at which time
Peschiera,. on the Lake of Garda, was invested by the Sardinians ; Verona by the mass
of French troops ; and a strong force was detained to watch Mantua, and prevent
any attack from its garrison. On the 1st of July, Prince Napoleon joined the
allied army with 35,000 troops from Central Italy, and expectation was at its
height, anticipating the result of an attack upon the famed defences of Venetia,
when all Europe was startled by the intelligence that, on the 8th of July, in conse
quence of overtures from the Emperor Napoleon, an armistice was concluded
between the belligerents, to extend to the 25th of August.
Cavour was as much deceived as the rest. Two days, says Count Arrivabene,
after the battle of Solferino, Count Cavour, and his intimate friend and secretary,
Nigra, had a long interview with the French emperor. They found Louis Napoleon
exceedingly disgusted with the quarrels of his generals ; deeply impressed by the
horrible scenes of war he had just witnessed for the first time in his life; but,
above all, proud and deUghted that the military glory of France, and the su
periority of her army over the Austrians, had been once more splendidly asserted.
It was generally affirmed, at the Sardinian head-quarters after this interview, that
the emperor, far from intimating that it was his intention to make proposals of
peace, hinted to Cavour, that to ensure the total defeat of the enemy, he had made
up his mind to help the Hungarians. This report was strengthened by the evidence
of facts ; one of the latter being the appearance of Kossuth's army at the French
head-quarters. Yet, at that very time, General Fleury was receiving from the Kaiser at
Verona, an affirmative answer to the letter in which Louis Napoleon had proposed
an armistice. Victor Emmanuel and his generals were overcome with emotion.
On the morning of the 11th, the two emperors met at Villafranca. What
passed at that meeting, which lasted little more than an hour, nobody can tell.
It has been stated, however, that the two conversed sometimes in Italian, but
more frequently in German. During the conversation, Louis Napoleon, as if
mechanically, picked to pieces some of the flowers placed in a vase before him, the
petals of which were found scattered about on the floor, at the side of a table
where the landlady of the house had noticed that he sat. When the sovereigns
left the house, and appeared in the streets, to present to each other the officers of
their staffs, the younger looked pale and embarrassed ; the elder gay, and at ease.
The proud descendant of the Hapsburgs, doubtless, felt bitterly the humiliation
of that period. Louis Napoleon had satisfied what was thought to be on«
of his greatest desires — the dealing in person with a legitimate emperor. Nothing
was written by the two monarchs at this meeting. On returning to Valeggio,
Louis Napoleon sent for his cousin, and despatched him as a plenipotentiary to
26G

A.6. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Italians mortified.
Verona, that he might arrange with the Austrian emperor the preliminaries of the
famous peace which was definitely settled by the treaty of Zurich. On tha
evening of the same day, he informed Victor Emmanuel of what he had done.
Mortified and surprised beyond all description, Cavour, as soon as he heard
the unwelcome news, rushed from Turin to Mourand, to have an audience with
his royal master. The great statesman's face was scarlet ; and his manner, usually
bright and gay, now the reverse, indicated the storm that raged within. The inter
view lasted about two hours ; and it was a tempestuous one. It was stated at the
time, that the.first words spoken by Cavour were anything but respectful towards
the French emperor. He advised Victor Emmanuel at once to reject the terms of
peace, and to withdraw his army from Lombardy ; thus leaving Louis Napoleon to
extricate, himself from the difficulty of the situation as best he might. Cavour
plainly told his sovereign that Italy's honour had been betrayed, and her dignity
offended ; he even went so far as to advise an abdication. It is said that, during
the discussion, the king showed a degree of calm of which he was scarcely thought
capable. He tried in all ways to appease the excitement of his minister, who,
overcome with grief, seemed almost to have lost his mind. It was generally
reported that Cavour's rage went so far as to induce him to use words which led to
his dismissal from Victor Emmanuel's presence. Cavour resigned rather than be a
party to such a peace.
On the evening of the 12th of July, the emperor left Morambano for Milan,
on his way back to France. The dead silence of the crowd which thronged the
streets of that city, and of Turin, when he passed through them, must have told
more powerfully than the most passionate utterance could have done, what were
the feeUngs of the Italians on the Villafranca agreement. The local authorities
were, fortunately, able to prevent any hostile demonstration ; but Louis Napoleon
could not mistake the attitude of the masses. In answering an address of the
governor of Milan, he said that he was surprised at the ingratitude of the Italians,
This remark the French emperor, perhaps, would have spared, had he reflected that
the Milanese could not possibly resign themselves to the thought that Venetia, and
other ItaUan provinces, had been sacrificed, either, as Cavour said at the time, to the
considerations of a selfish policy, or to a hasty impulse of the emperor's changeable
mind. Italy was to be free from the Alps to the Adriatic Alas ! the magnificent
promise of Louis Napoleon had not been fulfilled. Mrs. Barrett Browning's
poem, A Tale of Villafranca, is so appropriate, that we must here quote a
part. "A great man (who was crowned one day)
Imagined a great deed.
He shaped it out of cloud and clay ;
He touched it finely, till the seed
Possessed the flower ; from heart and brain
He fed it with large thoughts humane
To help a people's need.
" He brought it out into the sun —
They blessed it to his face ;
' Oh, great pure Deed, that hast undone
So many bad and base !
Oh, generous Deed, heroic Deed,
Come forth, be perfected, succeed,
Deliver by God's grace !'
" Then sovereigns, statesmen — north and south-
Rose up in wrath and fear,
And cried, protesting by one mouth,
' What monster have we here 1
A great. Deed, at this hour of day ?
A great, just Deed, and not for pay f
Absurd— or insincere !
» 2 267

the peace.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
" 'And if sincere, the heavier blow,
In that case, we shall bear ;
For where's our blessed status quo ;
Our holy treaties, where
Our rights to sell a race, or buy,
Protect and pillage, occupy,
And civilise despair V
" Some muttered that the great Deed meant
A great pretext to sin ;
And others, the pretext so lent
Was heinous (to begin).
Volcanic terms of great audjust
Admit such tongues of flame, the crust
Of time and law falls in.
" A great Deed in this world of ours !
Unheard of, the pretence is,
It threatens plainly the great Powers ;
Is fatal in all senses.
A just Deed in the world ? — call out
The rifles ! be not slack about
The national defences.
" And many murmured, 'Prom this source
What red blood must be poured !'
And some rejoined, ' 'Tis even worse ;
What red tape is ignored !'
All cursed the doer for an evil j
Called here, enlarging on the devil ;
There, monkeying the Lord !
" Some said it could not be explained ;
Some, could not be excused ;
And others — ' Leave it unrestrained ;
Gehenna's self is loosed.'
And all cried, ' Crush it ; maim it ; gag it !
Set dog-toothed lies to tear it ragged,
Truncated and traduced.'
" But he stood sad before the sun
(The peoples felt their fate) ;
'The world is many, I am one,
My great Deed was too great ;
God's fruit of justice ripens slow ;
Men's souls are narrow, let them grow ;
My brothers, we must wait.'"
The peace agreed to between the high contracting parties was on the following
bases : — " The two sovereigns will favour the formation of an Italian confederacy.
Tbat confederation shall be under the presidency of the holy father. The Emperor
of Austria cedes to the Emperor of the French his rights over Lombardy, with the
exception of the fortresses of Mantua and Peschiera, so that the frontier of the
Austrian possessions shall start from the extreme range of the fortress of Peschiera,
and shall extend in a direct line along the Mincio as far as Grazio, thence by
Senzarolo and Suzzara to the Po, whence the actual fortress shall continue to form
the limits of Austria. The Emperor of the French will hand over the ceded
territory to the King of Sardinia. Venetia shall form part of the Italian con
federation, though remaining under the crown of Austria. The Grand Duke of
Tuscany and the Duke of Modena return to their states, granting an amnesty.
The two emperors will ask the holy father to introduce indispensable reforms in his
states. A full and complete amnesty is granted on both sides to persons compro
mised in the late events, in the territories of the belligerent parties."
On the 12th of July, Napoleon announced the conclusion of peace to his army,
telling his soldiers that the principal end of the war had been obtained, and Italy
would become, for the first time, a nation. Venetia, it was true, remained to
268

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [victor emmanuel.
Austria, but it would "form part of the Italian confederation ; and " Italy being
henceforth the mistress* of her destinies, it would be her own fault if she did not
progress in order and Uberty." The troops were further told, that " they would
soon return to France, and their grateful country would receive with deUght the
soldiers who carried the arms of France to such exalted glory ; who, in two months,
had freed Piedmont and Lombardy, and who only stopped because the struggle
was likely to assume proportions which were no longer in relation with the interests
which France had in that fearful war." The same day Victor Emmanuel issued
two proclamations ; one to his troops, praising their valour, and telling them that
important affairs of state caUing him back to his capital, he had entrusted General
Marmora with the command of the army. The second to the people of Lombardy,
whom he congratulated on having had their independence assured by the pre
liminaries of peace ; and calling upon them " to trust to their king, who, estab
lished on solid and imperishable bases, would promise happiness for the new
countries which Heaven had entrusted to his management." Francis Joseph also
addressed a proclamation to his army ; in which he said that he " entered on the
struggle for the sanctity of treaties, relying on the enthusiasm of his people, the
valour of his army, and the natural allies of Austria." He spoke in high terms of
the heroism of his troops, fighting against an enemy superior in numbers, and
which stiU remained firm, courageous, and unflinching. But, without allies, he
yielded to the unfortunate circumstances of policy, in presence of which it was
his paramount duty not to uselessly shed the blood of his soldiers, and impose fresh
sacrifices on his people. These proclamations, as we may suppose, took the
uninitiated by surprise.
Of the preliminaries of peace, agreed to at Villafranca, a definite treaty was
signed af Zurich, where the Baron de Bourqueney and the Marquis de Bonneville
represented France ; the Count Collorado and the Baron de Meyrenburg, Austria ;
and the Chevalier Desambrous, Sardinia. They held their first meeting on the 6th
of August, and did not finish their labours till the 11th of November. On tbat day
the treaties, three in number, were signed. The first, concluded between France
and Austria,- stipulated for the cession of Lombardy to France. By the second,
between France and Sardinia, the former eeded that province to the latter. By
the third, to whieh the three powers were parties, peace was re-established between
them. The debts of the Lombardo-Venetian kingdom, which had been the great
difficulty, were thus arranged: — Sardinia was to pay Austria £10,000,000, and
France £2,400,000, as an indemnity for the expenses of the war, which, according to
Count Walewski, amounted to six times that sum. The signing of the treaties was
followed by an agreement, entered into between the two emperors, to assemble a
congress, for the purpose of communicating to the other powers the treaties just
concluded, and to deliberate on the measures which held out the most likely
prospect for the founding the pacification of Italy on solid and durable bases.
Invitations to the different powers were sent out by France and Austria, and the
day of assembling was fixed for January 5th, 1860. We may here state, that
the preUminaries of Villafranca, and the treaties of Zurich, were alike disregarded
by the Italians. Mazzini had taught Italian unity ; Garibaldi was its propagator.
The successes of 1859 had filled all Italy with hope and courage. The
French emperor had put. bis hand to the plough, and looked back. Not thus
acted Garibaldi.
On the 10th of August Victor Emmanuel made his solemn entry into the
capital of Lombardy. Previous to that year many centuries had elapsed since the
people of Milan had greeted the arrival of a true Italian monarch in that city.
After the battle of Magenta the king had passed a few days there, but the
enthusiastic reception he met with on that occasion was, to a certain extent, shared
with his powerful ally. Matters had now greatly changed. The peace of Villa
franca, in the estimation of the Milanese, absolved them from the duty of
unbounded gratitude towards the emperor ; and, at the same time, strengthened 2(J9

garibaldi.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.
the ties which united them to the gallant sovereign of their choice. In the
meanwhile great political events were occurring. Farini had been appointed
dictator of Modena and Parma, by the unanimous vote of the Chambers of those
states. Lionetto Ciprino was governing the Legations with almost dictatorial
powers ; and Baron Rieasoli was enforcing, with the determination of his ancient
Eoman character, the unmistakable will of the Tuscans, as manifested in their
assembly. The principle of Italian unity, under the constitutional rule of Victor
Emmanuel, was thus established over a large part of the peninsula. Although the
resignation of Count Cavour had thrown the government of Sardinia into the some
what less firm grasp of Eatazzi and La Marmora, the mover of the political machine
was still the great Italian statesman, who had been forced by the unexpected peace
to retire into private life.
A still greater man, Garibaldi, was in retirement.
The army of Central Italy was placed under the orders of General Fante.
Garibaldi was then under him. The liberator wanted to advance to Rome; he was
held back by Fante and French diplomacy, and had no alternative but to
resign. Before leaving Romagna for the island of Caprera he had a sad duty to
perform. On tbe shore of the Adriatic, not far from Ravenna, spreads the far-famed
" Pineta," a pine forest of the ancient Romans. In the middle of this forest died
Anita, Garibaldi's darling and noble wife. After the fall of Rome, the hero having
failed in an attempt to sail for Venice, was wrecked with Anita and a few daring
friends on the shores of the Adriatic, not far from Cernia. A few devoted
peasants tended him till he reached a farm belonging to Count Guiccioli. Anita
was on the eve of making her husband the father of a third child. She had gone
through all the hardships of a stormy voyage without a murmur ; she had
courageously walked through a part of the thick forest ; but at last she fell to the
ground, exhausted and heartbroken, and on entering the farm she expired in his
arms. At a mile from the farm there is a solitary chapel. Before leaving the
peninsula, Garibaldi, accompanied by his children Teresa and Menotti, hastened' to,
that chapel, to behold once more the grave of his faithful companion. The twilight
hour was spreading its soft shades through the alleys of tbe forest, as the hero trod
the same paths he had trodden in 1849, when hunted by tbe Austrians Uke a wild
beast. A priest was waiting, who conducted them to the altar, near to which the
humble tomb of Anita was to be seen covered by a black drapery, adorned with
wreaths of flowers, freshly gathered. A mass was performed in the chapel, and
Anita was mourned and wept anew.
And now Garibaldi leaves the land he has loved well, and well fought for — tbe
land of whieh he is the most illustrious hero — and betakes himself to the bleak
island of Caprera. "When proscribed, and all but a prisoner in the island of
Maddalena, he saw lying before him," writes Dumas, "the desolate and rocky isle
of Caprera. "This extraordinary man, who had spent twenty years of his existence in
fighting for the liberty of two worlds, whose life had been that of long devotion and
self-sacrifice, sighed bitterly when he reflected that he did not even possess a stone.
on which he could lay his head.
" It then occurred to bis thoughts, that the man who should possess that
island, who could live there alone, far away from the contentions of men ever eager
to persecute and tyrannise one another, would indeed be happy.
" Ten years afterwards, Garibaldi, who never imagined that he should be that
happy mortal, succeeded to the inheritance of 40,000 francs, by the death of his
mother. " He at once bought this island, the object of his ambition, for the sum of
13,000 francs; and then purchased a small vessel for 15,000 francs more; and with
the rest, assisted by his son and his friend Ozzigoni, he built a white house, visible
from the sea — the only building, indeed, on the island."
27Q

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. # [sictly.
In 1860, in the spring, Garibaldi is at Turin, in his place in parliament.
Cavour is once again premier. The deputies have somehow learnt that Savoy and
Nice are to be ceded to the generous friend that made war for an idea. This sad
fact had been already anticipated by some Italian politicians, for it was known that
when, two months before, General Dahormida, the Minister for Foreign Affairs
during Ratazzi's administration, went to Paris to settle the war expenses claimed
by France, a hint was thrown out that if those two provinces were made over to her
the sum would not be asked for. Cavour was subsequently induced to consent to
the sacrifice, as the only means of removing the opposition of Louis Napoleon to
the annexation of Central Italy. On the 19th of April the discussion began. At
one o'clock the galleries of the Chamber were filled with people, for it was known
that Garibaldi intended to attack the advisers of the crown, for having betrayed the
interests of the nation in consenting to the cession. " The scene I witnessed that
day," writes Count Arrivabene, " will never be effaced from my memory. There
was something very affecting when the great Italian general rose, and, in a stern
voice, began to read the fifth article of the constitution, by which no sale or barter
can be made of any part of the state without the sanction of parliament."
Garibaldi, as we know, pleaded in vain. The vote was strongly urged as a
political necessity ; and, as such, carried. As for Victor Emmanuel, it is stated,
that when he heard that the cradle of his ancestors was asked for by his powerful
ally, tears came into his eyes. No doubt he was prepared for the sacrifice, for he
well knew of the arrangements of Plombieres ; but as the peace left Venetia to
Austria, he had hoped that the sacrifi.ee would have been spared.
Disappointed in parliament, Garibaldi again recurs to the sword.
In May the party of action was ready. " Sire," wrote Garibaldi to his ma
jesty, "the cry for help, which reaches me from Sicily, has touched my heart, and
the hearts of some hundreds of my old soldiers. I have not advised the insurrec
tionary movements of my Sicilian brethren ; but, as they have risen in the name of
Italian unity, personified in that of your majesty, against the most disgraceful
tyranny of our age, I did not hesitate to take the lead of tbe expedition. I know
that I am going to embark on a dangerous undertaking ; but I trust in God and in
the courage and devotion of my comrades, Our war-cry will be — ' Italian Unity —
Long live Victor Emmanuel ! its first and bravest soldier.' Should we fail in the
enterprise we have undertaken, I trust that Italy and liberal Europe will not forget
that it has been determined by the most unselfish sentiments "of patriotism. Should
we succeed, I shall be proud to adorn the crown of your majesty with a new and,
perhaps, its brightest jewel, on the sole condition that you will prevent your
advisers from handing it over to foreigners, as has been done with my native
country. I have not communicated my project to your majesty, for I feared that
the great devotion I feel for you would have succeeded in persuading me to
abandon it."
Sicily had long writhed under the brutal sway of the Bourbons, and its people
were ready to revolt. Even then they were in a state of insurrection, when Gari
baldi, with 1,067 volunteers, landed at Marsala on the 11th of May. On the 15th,
he defeated, after a fight of three hours, the Neapolitan general. At Palermo,
where a reign of terror had existed— for it was known that Garibaldi was coming-
Dumas writes— "The very name of Garibaldi was as a tower of strength to the
patriots, and a sufficient consolation for all they had to endure.
'' Children, whenever they were near a sbirro, chanted, in. every variety of tone,'
* Garibaldi is coming ! — Garibaldi is coming !'
"The wife, deprived of her husband— the mother of her son, and the sister of
her brother— instead of shedding useless tears, all hopefully exclaimed— ' Garibaldi
is coming !'
"The popular exultation increased so much, that tbe sbirri appeared to
shudder at the reiterated mention of this name, so terrible to every bead of
tyranny. 271

the army of action.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 186*0.
" A crowd gathered in the principal street of Palermo. The NeapoUtan ruler
determined he would make them cry — ' Long live the King of Naples !'
" A group of soldiers and sbirri accordingly entered the street, shouting —
'Long live Francis II.!'
" Not a single response was made by the people.
" The soldiers and sbirri then surrounded a group of bystanders, exclaiming,,
vehemently and loud — 'Long live Francis II. 1'
" Still not a sound was heard in reply.
" After an ominous pause, a man threw his hat up into the air, and cried
loudly — ' Long live Victor Emmanuel !'
" The words were scarce uttered when he fell pierced with bayonets.
" Then the musket, the bayonet, and the poniard did their deadly work. Two
men were killed, and as many as thirty persons, including women and children,
were wounded.
" The whole population retired without replying to this wanton effusion of blood
— this murderous massacre — in any other words than those so simply emphatic,
yet so terrible to tbe baffled sbirri — ' Garibaldi is coming ! — Garibaldi is coming !'
" The next morning all the horrible details of this unprovoked massacre were
everywhere talked about; fathers, while peaceably walking with their children,
had been grievously wounded, both themselves and their young ones ; others, again,
men and women, who had fled for safety into some cafe, had been pursued thither,
and sabred by the gendarmes.
" The next day, indeed, Palermo presented a very alarming appearance. Like
the warning of Belsbazzar, the walls of the town bore the equivalents to the terrible
' Mene Mene Tekel Upharsin,' in the simple phrase — ' Garibaldi is coming ! — Gari
baldi is coming !'
" During the whole day the streets remained empty, and the windows were all
closed. But when the evening had set in, the shutters were reopened, and all
through the night anxious looks were directed towards the vast amphitheatre of
hills round Palermo, in the hope of perceiving the lighted beacons that were to
announce the arrival of the long-expected assistance from the interior of the
island. " One morning — it was the 13th of May — a cry rang through the town —
' Garibaldi has landed at Marsala — the avenger has come.' "
On June the 6th, the Neapolitans signed a convention to evacuate Palermo,
and the whole of Sicily, except Messina, Melazzo, and some other less important
fortresses. Now that he was master of Palermo, Garibaldi did not rest idle. He
increased his troops ; he summoned all the resources Sicily could afford ; he hired
steamers ; bought arms and ammunition, and made every preparation to resume
the campaign. On the 20th of July the battle of Melazzo was fought, and that
decided the fate of the island.
He now turned his undivided efforts to the emancipation of Naples. L'Armata
Meridionale, as it was called, had been greatly increased ; indeed, so much so, that,
aided by the insurrection, it could bave easily matched the legions of Francis II.
Its organisation, of course, was somewhat irregular. The first brigade, under
General Eber, a Hungarian of great literary and military merit, was about 2,000
strong ; the second, commanded by Bixio, numbered 25,000. These divisions bad
for their chief General Turr, the well-known Hungarian officer. The second divi
sion was under Cosenz, a Neapolitan of distinction, and possessing great military
knowledge. Count Millitoz, Sacchi, and Eberhardt were the three brigadier-generals
of the division, which was 8,000 strong. Medici, a Lombard, rather heavy and
rough, but undoubtedly the best general of the army, was in command of the
fourth division, which numbered 4,800 men. To these divisions was to be added
that which Colonel Pinciani had intended to take into the papal states, but which
joined the rest of the army in Sicily. At a later period, 500 Hussars, under the
command of Caussimi; 300 Guides, commanded by Missori; 450 artillerymen,
272

A.D. i860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [prancis it.

under Orsini andScalia; and 160 engineers, completed this curious army, which
had been organised within a period of three months. The navy was composed of
the steam-sloop Velore, and eleven steam transports. The Marquis Anguissola,
the NeapoUtan commander of the Velore, had passed over with his vessel to the-
national cause. With these forces, Garibaldi undertook and accomplished the
annexation of a kingdom which might have been defended by a well-organised
army of at least 80,000 men. But the right cause was on his side : he had with
him the majority of the NeapoUtan population ; and, above all, he was surrounded
by that prestige which is in itself an army. Under such a leader the march was
an ovation. Towns were taken, and armies surrendered scarcely without firing a
shot. In Basilicata the insurrection was in full swing. Colonel Boldone, formerly
in the service of the Neapolitan government, and a country gentleman, named
Nignona, were in command of the revolutionary bands of Basilicata, which num
bered about 8,000 men. These, added to the Calabrians, and the 25,000 troops
forming the regular army of the revolution, enabled Garibaldi to bring into the
field a respectable force, one-third of which, at least, would have matched an equal
number of any European army. In the general and well-developed insurrec
tionary element lay the true secret of those bold movements of the dictator, which
ended in so signal a triumph. Garibaldi, with only a few of his followers, was
always thirty or forty miles in advance of the leading column of his army. Had
it not been for the insurrection and the dread which his name inspired in the
Neapolitan soldiers, he might have been made prisoner a hundred times without
his army knowing it till days after. At Salerno, the manifestations of the popu
lar joy were such as Count Arrivabene (who attended the expedition as the reporter
to the Daily News) had never seen surpassed. It was a sort of madness such as
only southern races fall into. The demonstrations were those of a people who
had abruptly passed from a state of utter slavery to freedom — from inaction to
action — from death to Ufe.
On his accession to the throne of his father, Francis II. found the kingdom
he had inherited in a state of complete moral dissolution, chiefly brought about
by the ferocious system of government which had signalised the reign of Fer
dinand II. Corruption on a large scale had been carried on by every class of
functionaries, from the highest to the lowest. There were few magistrates,
generals, or government officers, who could not have been bought ; the only question
was, as to the best way of offering the required price. The administration was,
consequently, thrown into a state of utter confusion ; and the army reduced to a
body of praetorians, who only cared for their private interests, honour and
courage having deserted their banners. Favours were bought, impunity secured,
pohtical and private revenge countenanced, nay, encouraged by the government.
Thousands of good citizens were driven from their native country — carrying with
them into foreign lands, or into the free state of Piedmont, a lively picture of the
sufferings of their fellow-countrymen, and of their own miseries. The all-power
ful, cruel, and corrupt police, were aided in their tyranny by the influence of
Austria and Rome ; and all this while the northern part of the peninsula was
prospering under the rule of a constitutional king, and progressing towards the
unification of the country, through the valour of the army, and the wisdom of the
people. The difference between the two systems was the more striking, because
the standard of happiness was to be found within the common country.
Happiness and gradual amelioration had become the lot of Piedmont ; misery
and moral degradation were the fate of Naples. The new king, badly trained by
an Austrian step-mother, came to the throne, only to follow the path his father
had trod with such fatal success. He had been educated by the Jesuits. His
character was weak : he deemed himself a ruler by right divine ; and totally un
acquainted with the wants of our age, he was led to believe that he could uphold a
system which was in every way founded on an entire negation of human rights.
England, Sardinia, and France warned him, and remonstrated in vain. Why
273

ALEXANDER DUMAS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.
should he heed their words ? France was ruled by a parvenu ; England and Sar
dinia were the upholders of revolutionary principles. Such was the reasoning of
this foolish king. It was from Rome, and Vienna, and St. Petersburg, that he
condescended to take advice.
But events had struck down Austrian pride and power. The guns of Ma
genta and Solferino had emancipated Italy from her embrace. No sooner was
Francis Joseph humiliated, than the petty sovereigns of Italy were swept away,
and the position of Francis II. became more perilous every hour. The rising of
the Sicilian patriots had, though quenched in blood for a time, been revived with
greater force on the appearance of Garibaldi on the island. After having failed
to satisfy the popular demands by charging General Filangueri with the formation
of a hybrid Liberal government, the young king saw the necessity of evoking
from the tomb the constitution of 1848, which bis father had stifled after the
15th of May of the same year. But, unfortunately for him,, though fortunately
for Italy, the day for such a compromise was gone by.
In bis distress, Francis II. sent Signor Manua to Turin, charged with the
duty of negotiating an offensive and defensive alliance between the two kingdoms —
an alliance which had been contemptuously rejected by the Neapolitan Court, when
proposed by Sardinia only six months before. But it was too late ; Garibaldi had
already entered Palermo. In vain ambassadors pleaded the cause of the unfortunate-
king in London and Paris. In his own Court there were conspiracies against him.
" Two days after the victory of Melazzo," writes Count Arrivabene, " Alexander
Dumas volunteered to go to Naples on board his yacht Emma, in order to watch
the course of events, and try to hasten the revolution. On his arrival at Naples,
the famous romance writer began to carry out bis revolutionary projects, and
turned the deck of his yacht into a perfect tailor's shop, where red shirts were
openly manufactured under the windows of the king. With all the activity of his
nature, Dumas enlisted new conspirators ; secretly spread Garibaldi's manifestoes ;
distributed arms and ammunition ; and, in short, became the most active agent of
the national propaganda. So far, indeed, did he go, and so openly did he act, that
the French admiral and the French ambassador intimated to him, that if the
Neapolitan government should order his arrest, they would not protect either his
yacht or himself. Dumas, however, is not easily frightened, so he pursued his work
all the same."
In the meanwhile Garibaldi had crossed the straits, had captured Reggio, and
had begun his progress towards Naples. Don Liborio Romano, seeing that the
first throw had been gained by the dictator, thought it expedient to lay down the
conditions on which, if Francis II. should lose the others, he would step in and
serve the new master. Knowing that Dumas had been sent to Naples by Garibaldi,
Don Liborio went to see him, declared himself a warm Garibaldian, and offered his
co-operation. This, of course, he professed to do for the good of his country ;
for there is no man, however cynical he may be, who does not try to justify a
reprehensible action by alleging the uprightness of his intentions. The practice
is said to be held in great favour by the Jesuits ; and Don Liborio seems to have
studied in that school with great effect. All the arrangements for the conspiracy
were therefore discussed by the minister and the French author. They were to
communicate through Signor Corroborgo, Don Liborio's private secretary ; and
in case the plot should be discovered, a safe refuge for the minister was negotiated
by Dumas with the commander of a foreign man-of-war, who was told that Don
Liborio might find himself under the necessity of applying for his protection.
The conspiracy, though carried out with the greatest secrecy, was, however, de
tected by the secret police of the Court. A few days before the flight of the king,
Francis II. called his Home Secretary into his cabinet, and abruptly said to him — ¦
" Don Liborio, I know that you are keeping up secret relations with Alexander
Dumas, and that you are treating with Garibaldi."
" Yet', sire," answered Don Liborio, " it is my duty to watch the intrigues of
274

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [garibaldi in Naples.
your enemies ; and, in order to follow them more closely, I have resorted to the
artifice of assuming the character of a conspirator."
Count Pahlen gave a similar answer to Paul I., the day before the emperor was
strangled. Thus betrayed on all sides, Francis II. fled to Gaeta. At six on the evening
of the 7th of September, Francis II. and his queen, accompanied by the gentlemen
of the royal household, and the ambassadors of Spain, Austria, Prussia, and
Bavaria, went on board a Spanish man-of-war, and steamed along the bay towards
Gaeta. The only tears which accompanied him in his flight, were shed by a few
fisherwomen of Santa Lucia, whose curate had told them that the miraculous
Madonna was bitterly weeping for the cause of the fugitive king. Not a man of that
populous city was seen to bid a last farewell to the departing vessel. Except the
ministers and the courtiers, there was no one beneath the deserted portico of the
royal palace to pay the last tribute of compassion to an unfortunate prince. Francis
II. might have exclaimed, in the language of Tennyson —
" Woe is me !
Authority forgets a dying king,
Laid widow'd of the power, in his eye,
That bow'd the will."
When the Spanish man-of-war, which carried the last Bourbon sovereign of
Naples to Gaeta, was leaving the harbour, the Neapolitan frigate, Guiscardo, was
lying hard by. Francis II. asked the Spanish commander to stop and put the
galley to sea, as he desired to go on board the latter vessel, with a view to
persuading the commanding officer te follow him with his ship to Gaeta. In a
few minutes the king was on the deck of the Guiscardo, only to experience another
disappointment. He harangued the crew, he adjured the officers; but the crew
were violent, and the officers answered that they could not recognise the royal
authority. Great inducements, and even threats, were employed by the gentlemen
of the king's suite to induce the seamen to return to their duty, but all was in vain.
The commander of the Guiscardo was not to be moved ; and Francis II. left the
deck in despair, muttering now and then the words, " I have been betrayed ; I have
been betrayed*"
Meanwhile Garibaldi arrives in Naples. A weak attempt to organise a
provisional government, and to proclaim Victor Emmanuel king, has failed.
Accompanied only by a few followers the warrior of freedom entered the city. He
has little to fear as he drives under the guns of St. Elmo or Castelnuovo, still
garrisoned by the troops of the departed king. " He is aware of his moral force :
he knows that the people of Naples are thronging the streets and piazzas only to
see and cheer him ; and that not one of those soldiers would dare to fire a gun or a
musket at the man of fate, the asserter of the people's rights. His carriage makes
its way through the dense masses of applauding spectators. He has just reached
the church of the Carmine, in front of which once rolled the severed head of the
Italian Coradino; and in whose holy precincts flowed the blood of the young
revolutionary fisherman, MasanieUo. The crowd grows thicker and thicker. The
wide roads of the Mandracchio, of the Largo di Castello, and of the street of
ban Carlo, are so choked with people that it is almost impossible for the carriage
to break through. Missori, Statetta, and Nullo, are the heralds who precede the
modest cortege, and sueceed in opening the path. They pass the corner of the
ioledo, and at last reach the palace of the Forestra. Garibaldi alights from the
carriage, and is received by the National Guard and the Eletti, or municipal
councillors. Don Liborio Romano had already joined him at the station. But an
immense multitude, almost wild with joy, are assembled in the west piazza. They
call upon the dictator to show himself, and Garibaldi appears upon the large
balcony of the palace. Addressing the people, he tells them that they must prove
to Italy that they are worthy descendants of MasanieUo. He then retires, for he
has more important work to do." 275

BATTLE OF VOLTURNO.J LIFE AND TIMES . OF [A.D. I860.

Flushed with success, the party of aetion, uaving rescued Naples, were now
eager to dash on to Rome. In Naples itself matters were progressing more rapidly
than the wise and moderate -desired. Mazzini had eome, and there had been a talk
of a republic. Cavour saw that the best means of thwarting the danger was by
striking a blow which, while it would prove fatal to the temporal power of the
pope in Umbria, would re-establish, on a firmer basis, the prestige of the con
stitutional monarchy throughout the peninsula, and hasten the annexation of the
Neapolitan provinces to Sardinia. The mercenary legions which, under the
command of Lamoriciere, were gathered in the Roman states, and the dissatisfaction
of Pio Nino's subjects, were enough to justify the course which the cabinet of
Turin had adopted. An assurance that France would not effectually oppose the
crossing of the papal frontier, had been obtained from Louis Napoleon at Chambery,
when it was urged by Farini, that, if Sardinia were not allowed to enter the states
of the church, Garibaldi would undertake the task in the name of the revolution.
The campaign in Umbria having been decided on, Sardinia again took the lead of
the Italian movement. On the night of the 10th of September Cialdini crossed the
papal frontier at Saludiccio, while Fante marched from Arezzo on Foligno.
Military operations, therefore, had begun ; and they were to be carried out, till
Victor Emmanuel should be enabled to effect his junction with Garibaldi on the
Volturno. The organisation of the army was Garibaldi's first occupation after his arrival
in Naples. Towards the middle of September he was able to occupy the positions
before Capua with an army of 37,000 men. On the other side of the Volturno
Francis II. mustered an army of about 43,000 soldiers ; among whom was a fine
body of cavalry, from 7,000 to 8,000 in number. Screened by the line of the
Volturno, and enabled to obtain provisions and ammunition by sea from Gaeta,
and by land from the road to Velletri, Francis II. was in a position to hold his
ground until the hoped-for Austrian and papal reinforcements should arrive to
help him. Being master of so strong a position, he could threaten Naples at any
moment, for, by a bold march of twelve hours, his army could easily reach it.
Whilst in this position news came of the victory gained by Cialdini over
Lamoriciere, at Castelfidardo. This was a great military event. The advance of
Victor Emmanuel's army in the rear of the Neapolitans deprived the latter of their
advantages of position. They had, therefore, no alternative but to try the fortunes
of war, and assume the offensive against Garibaldi. Francis II. was quite aware
that, if he could succeed in routing the Garibaldians and reoccupying Naples,
diplomacy would arrest the march of the Piedmontese, and thus restore him to the
throne of his fathers. He accordingly held a council of war at Capua, in which it
was decided, that on the 1st of October, his birthday, the whole of his army should
be concentrated between Capua and Cajazzo ; then, crossing the Volturno at different
points, and falling upon the Garibaldians, should, if possible, cut through their
line, and march on the capital. The attempt was made, and signally failed.
Garibaldi, with about 11,000 men, resisted 30,000 Neapolitans; and had routed
them as soon as his reserve, scarcely numbering 5,000, reached the field of
battle. The Garibaldians had thus won the day by themselves; for the report then
„ spread throughout Europe, and stiU believed, that the Piedmontese arrived in time
to help them, is totally unfounded. Garibaldi's success was followed up by Bixio
on the 2nd, when he captured 5,000 of those Bavarians and Neapolitans whom he
had beaten the previous day, and who had in vain attempted to re-cross the
Volturno. The loss sustained by the Neapolitans on the 1st may be reckoned at
2,500 killed and wounded, and 500 prisoners. The Garibaldians had 1,280 hors
de combat, and 700 prisoners and missing. Such were the losses in the battle of
Volturno. In a few days after, Capua fell into Garibaldi's hands.
Political affairs in Southern Italy now entered on a new phase. The ple
biscite had already determined, by 1,303,064 votes to 10,312, that the Bourbons
should cease for ever to rule over a country they had so long misgoverned.
276

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [death of cavour.
Garibaldi had accomplished his task. He had won Naples, and presented it to
Victor Emmanuel, as a noble contribution towards the sacred cause of Italian
unity. . The parting was not pleasant : the reward righteously earned, was un
righteously withheld. Garibaldi asked that he should be appointed for three years
governor of Southern Italy, with almost dictatorial powers ; that the decrees he
had signed during his dictatorship should be respected, in so far as they did not
oppose the constitutional laws of the country ; and that the rank conferred upon
him by his companions-in-arms should be recognised by the new government.
The first of these demands was peremptorily refused ; the second and third, the
ministers of the king were only disposed to grant upon certain conditions. In his
interview with the king at the royal palace, Garibaldi renewed his application, and
could not be persuaded to desist from it. It is even stated that, on this occasion,
the general said to Victor Emmanuel — " Get rid of Cavour, and allow me to march
on Rome." To which the king is reported to have answered — " I will not get rid
of my Premier, and you shall not go to Rome." Victor Emmanuel having failed
to bring about the reconciUation which he desired, there remained nothing for
Garibaldi but to leave Naples.
And, with thirty pounds, the dictator of the richest provinces of Italy — the
man who had added 9,000,000 of people to the Italian kingdom— went back to his
island home. When informed of the low state of his treasury, he said with a
smile — " Do not be anxious, Basso ; we have at Caprera plenty of wood and corn,
which we will send to Maddalena for sale." In justice to Victor Emmanuel, it must
be stated, that Garibaldi was repeatedly offered rewards and distinctions, all of
which he declined.
The remainder of the story of Italy, so far as concerns this narrative, may
soon be told. Francis IL, morally supported by the presence of a French fleet,
determined to make a last stand in Gaeta, trusting that Austria would, sooner or
later, come to his rescue. Having chosen those which he considered the best
regiments of his army, he shut himself up with about 16,000 men, and prepared
for the worst. On their side, the Piedmontese, under General Cialdini, established
themselves, towards the end of November, 1860, at Mola, and began the siege
On the 14th of February, 1861, Gaeta surrendered to Cialdini: and the king and
queen left, on board the Freneh ship Moucette.
Italy was soon called on to sustain, in the sudden and unexpected death of
Count Cavour, a heavy loss. Count Arrivabene writes-" There are deaths
which induce us to mourn rather for the living than the departed ; and conspicuous
ZZL^T ^ ^ ^t Vf FaV°Ur- Subse1«ent events have impressed tH
sad conviction on every Italian heart ; for, from the 6th of June, 1861, to this
sT ton0ona^LtbiPaS^d,°nrWhlCh ^m^l Italians have not nad occasion to
say to one another— 'Had Cavour lived, public affairs would have progressed
satisfactorily ; escaped this danger, or avoided that delay.' And not o^of my
countrymen doubts that, were Cavour still with us, we should, by this time hT7e
proclaimed the unity of Italy from the capital. There may 'hav heel Italians
whore piot,s Cavo hated/ with the warmth of a brave and honest man ;' and who
L h irof I"0* ^ [r«^ M- memory after death ; but thesl, to
™MH ™?£ • y °0Wltll be rt said> *ere few in number-a small class of
C^r ¦' Ih° eSerf?e nT° mfluen«e over public opinion. The memory of
Count Cavour is honoured in Italy with a unanimity rarely manifested in any
from wh'i^ r^ T 5 5r ^r8/^ «»* a great sorrow has befallen ?he lami
ilTjH, Cr°ur /f deParted> after having rescued it from the slavery wherein
who both LPS^ed i0\c^ies' ItalJ can unquestionably boast of other men*
7^'aT^J the'r E?0ral influence> and by the deeds they have performed are en-
ne n nt^^f1?^0' ^ fell^"^trymen ; and Lemo^t amon^ ' them I
need not say, stands the valiant conqueror of Naples and Sicily. Yet the services
of Cavour exceed by far the achievements of all others. He it was who prepared
and gave the first impulse to the great national struggle of 1859. He was S

277

(GARIBALDI'S FAREWELL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
mind of Italy ; the rest were but its arms. From the first assumption by Cavour of
the duties of Prime Minister, in November, 1852, down to the 30th of May, 1861 —
the very day he was taken ill — he was the very soul of the Italian movement. His
prodigious activity was equal to any demand that might be made on it. He was
not only the Minister of Foreign Affairs, but the de facto minister of every depart
ment. He found time to attend to everything — to give the necessary impulse to all
the branches of the public administration. * * * * Engrossed with NeapoUtan
affairs at the period when he was stricken with mortal illness, the recollection of
them haunted his fervent brain. Even a few hours before his death, ' I will have no
state of siege,' he continually repeated while his last hour was approaching. It
was by the beneficent influence of good laws, and wise administrations, that he
hoped to bring the annexed provinces of the south to a steady and orderly condition.
The mistakes he had been led into by the so-called consorteria of political exiles,
he willingly confessed ; and he had already set to work to have repaired them, when
nis exertions were cut short by death." All Turin was present at his funeral, in
common with the bodies of state, national authorities, and deputations. The
theatres at Turin, Genoa, Milan, and elsewhere, were shut up for two evenings.
In his farewell address to his companions-in-arms, Garibaldi said —
" We must consider the period which is just drawing to a conclusion as almost
the last stage of our national resurrection, and must prepare ourselves to finish
worthily the marvellous design of the elect of twenty generations, the completion
of which Providence has reserved for this fortunate age.
" Yes, young men ! Italy owes to you an undertaking which has merited the
applause of the universe. You have conquered, and you will conquer still, because
you are prepared for the tactics that decide the fate of battles. You are worthy of
the man who pierced the serried ranks of a Macedonian phalanx, and who con
tended not in vain with the proud conquerors of Asia. To this wonderful page in
our country's history, another more glorious still will be added ; and the slave will
show, at least, to his free brethren a sharpened sword, forged from the links of his
fetters. To arms, then, all of you ! — all of you ! — and the oppressors and the mighty
will disappear like dust. You too, women, cast away all cowards from your em
braces ; they will only give you cowards for children ; and you, who are the
daughters of the land of beauty, must bear children who are noble and brave.
Let timid doctrinaires depart from among us, to carry their servility and their
miserable fears elsewhere. This people is its own master. It wishes to be the
brother of other people, but to look on the insolent with a proud grasp ; not to
grovel before them, imploring its own freedom. It will no longer follow in the
trail of men whose hearts are foul. No ! no ! no ! Providence has presented Italy
with Victor Emmanuel. Every Italian should rally round him. By the side of
Victor Emmanuel every quarrel should be forgotten— all rancour disappear.
Once more I repeat my battle-cry — 'To arms all of you !'' If March, 1861, does
not find 1,000,000 of Italians in arms, then alas for liberty ! alas for the life of
Italy! Ah, no! far, far be a thought which I breathe like poison. March, 1861,
or, if need be, February, will find us all at our posts. Italians of Calatafimi,
Palermo, Ancona, Volturno, Castelfidardo, and Isernia— 'and with us every man of
the land who is not a coward and a slave — let all of us, rallying round the
glorious hero of Palestro, give the last blow to the crumbling edifice of tyranny.
Receive then, my gallant young volunteers, at the honoured conclusion of ten
battles, one word of farewell from me. I utter that word with the deepest affec
tion, and from the very bottom of my heart. To-day I am obliged to retire, but
for a day only. The hour of battle will find me with you again by the side of the
champions of Italian liberty."
They met — the hero and his followers ; but under the frown of the ItaUan
government; and then not till 1862. A Sardinian force was sent to stop the
liberator, and he was wounded at Aspromonte by an Italian bullet. All Europe
cried shame. 278

AD<1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.  [aspromonte.
The following letter, dated Turin, September 6th, gives the fullest account
we have yet seen of the events which led to the capture of Garibaldi:—
"General Cialdini, upon hearing of Garibaldi's landing at Melito m Calabria
lost no time in laying his plan of operations. He directed Generals Revel and
Vklardi to occupy toe narrow isthmus of Tiriolo, between Nicastro and Catanzaro
!S£Jt3, which, if strongly guarded, most effectually cuts off the extreme
peninsula of Calabria from the adjoining mainland Having thus shut up
Garibaldi within this comparatively small compass Cialdini ordered the royal
cruisers— the Garibaldi, Vittorio Emmanuele, and Tripoli^- to ply along the
srulfs of SquiUace and St. Eufemia, and so to watch the coasts as to prevent
Garibaldi from re-embarking. He then collected a considerable force at Reggio,
and, placing Pallavicino at their head, he bade them look out for Garibaldi, to
press upon him as closely as possible, so as to drive him towards the divisions of
Revel and Vialardi on the isthmus, and whenever they came up with him to attack
him, 'anywhere and anyhow,' unless he consented to an unconditional surrender.
In less than forty-eight hours all the troops had taken their positions.
" Garibaldi, it seems, had landed at Melito with from 2,500 to 3,000 men ; but,
as he compelled his men to very laborious marches over the mountains, he strewed
so many of them on his path, that, according to the report written by the officers of
his staff on board the Duca di Genova, on the 31st of August, only about 1,500 of
them had kept up with him when he took up his position at Aspromonte on the
28th, in the evening. He had, on the previous day, felt his way here and there,
and reconnoitred the ground towards Gerace, St. Eufemia, Bagnara, and Palmi ;
but the first skirmishes with the royal troops soon convinced him that he had to
deal with earnest adversaries, and he pitched his camp on the brow of the hill.
Pallavicino looked for him along shore ; but, upon glancing upwards, he beheld
the red shirts on the mountain, west ; and, following orders, he instantly divided
his troops into three columns, and marched. He had with him the 6th Bersaglieri
battalion, part of the 25th battaUon of the same corps of Ught foot, part of the
4th regiment, under Colonel Eberhardt, a Prussian, companion of Garibaldi in
1860, and parts of the 29th and 57th regiments. On the whole, his force does
not seem to have exceeded 1,800 men. The summit of Aspromonte consists of a
vast triangular table-land, open towards the sea on the north-west, but covered
with a wild wood on the inland side, where it joins the main Apennine ridge.
Garibaldi had placed his men under cover of the wood, and his head-quarters were
in a very small room of one of the two huts rising in the centre of that bleak
Alpine platform. The place bears the name 'I Forstali.' The night between the
28th and 29th was cold and rainy. There were heavy showers from time to time,
and violent gusts of wind, putting out the volunteer bivouac fires. In the evening
and the morning scanty provisions were distributed ; but the Garibaldian column
was too strong to be able to support itself in the mountaius, as it was too weak to
fight its way through the royal forces. Garibaldi had come to the resolution of
dividing his little army into two bands, with intent to direct them through dif
ferent roads to a given point : but the royalists had already reached Arci ; they
had fallen-in with the Garibaldian outposts at St. Stefano ; and before Garibaldi
*had collected all his stragglers, previous to a start, Pallavicino was upon him. It
was on the 29th (a Friday — unlucky day !) that Pallavicino was at St. Stefano ; two
hours' march brought him to the table-land, on a level with the volunteers. Gari
baldi crossed a small stream that divided the plain ; he moved towards the wood — ;
a very dense pine wood, which mantled the ground on the first undulation of the
hills. As the advanced lines of the Bersaglieri reached the brow of the table-land,
the. whole of the Garibaldian youth had sought the shelter of the wood. It was
about noon.
" So far there is little or no discrepancy between the various reports which I
have before my eyes ; but now I beg you to listen to the two hostile parties, as
they tell their story one after another. ' The troops,' says the letter of a royal
279

CSARIBALDI WOUNDED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1862.
officer, an eye-witness, 'advanced to the attack; they were received by a rifle-shot,
and the fight began; a column of the royal troops turned the left flank of the
Garibaldians, and threatened them also in the rear. The volunteers were routed.
Pallavicino waved a white handkerchief; the firing ceased, and a parlimentaire
presented himself to Garibaldi. The latter was wounded : seeing the parlimentaire,
he snatched up a revolver to shoot him; his own officers, who were by his side, had
to tear the weapon from his hand. He cooled a little, and asked on what conditions
they were to treat. ' On no conditions,' was the answer ; * passive surrender, and
no terms.' ' If it be so,' Garibaldi repUed, ' let us recommence the fire ;' but this
was impossible. All his camp was in utter disorder, enveloped all round by the
royalists ; he had to bow his head, and yield to fortune. The struggle had lasted
an hour, or little more. There were about twelve killed between the two parties ;
the wounded were about one hundred.'
" Now for the report of the Garibaldian staff already alluded to : — ' Garibaldi
was in the centre of the hill slope occupied by his column ; he sent his officers all
along the front with repeated, express, positive orders not to fire. We were being
surrounded on all sides ; the Bersaglieri were within shot ; they had levelled their
pieces ; all our column was perfectly still. Not one shout .; not one shot. The
general alone stood up, with his wide gray plaid cloak lined with red, thrown on his
massive shoulders, following the movements of the royalists with his spy-glass, and
from time to time turning to repeat the order, ' Do not fire !' The officers took up
the cry, and ' Do not fire !' went the round of the whole line. But the troops had,
on the contrary, precise orders to attack. The Bersaglieri opened fire, and moved
forward. No intimation or summons preceded the fire ; no parlimentaire was sent.
The firing deepens ; the bullets hissed on all sides round our heads. Unfortunately
some of our raw recruits, unaccustomed to such terrible sport, answered by a few
random shots ; the others did not stir. Every one kept his own ground, some
standing, some seated. All the trumpets gave the signal to stop fire; all the
officers verbally issued the same order. The troops, on the contrary, set up the
signal ' forward,' and advanced with well-sustained fire. The general, always at his
post, standing in the midst of the densest shower of balls, again cried, ' Do not
fire !' He was uttering those words when two bullets struck him ; one, a spent ball,
on the thigh of the left leg ; another, with full force, on the ankle of the left foot.
Garibaldi, at the moment of being wounded, not only stood up, upright, but he
assumed a majestic attitude ; he took off his hat, and waving it with his left hand,
he repeatedly cried, ' Long live Italy ! do not fire !' Some of the officers, the nearest
to him, removed him, and laid him under a tree. There, with his habitual calmness,
he continued to give his orders. The most precise were the following : — ' Let
them come near. Do not fire !' On all our front the fire had ceased. Presently
Menotti was brought to the spot. He also had been hit by a spent ball in the calf
of his left leg. He was in great pain, unable to stand. Father and son were laid
under the same tree ; a group of officers and soldiers gathered round the general,
He had lighted a cigar, and was smoking. He said to all, 'Do not fight !' The
officers, questioned by their soldiers, also invariably answered, ' Do not fight !' The
trumpets, too, never ceased from their signal, ' Stop fire !' — not for our men, but for
the troops which fired as they advanced, even when they had come up and were
mixed with our volunteers. From the first shot, to this moment, hardly a quarter
of an hour elapsed. Here a strange sight presented itself. Friends, relatives,
brothers, companions in recent battles, when they fought for their fatherland, meet
and recognise each other. Some are clad in the red shirt, others in the regular
uniform ; and here were shaking hands, embraces, mutual reproaches and upbraid-
ings, especially on the part of the red shirts, who protest and declare that ' aU
they wanted was Rome.'
" The narrative proceeds, stating that here a lieutenant of the staff (royal)
appeared before Garibaldi, who bad a him put off his sword, as a parlimentaire
should be unarmed. Other Bersaglieri officers were disarmed in the same manner,
2S0

A.D. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [aspromonte.
though the general soon afterwards ordered that their swords should be restored to
them. Meanwhile the surgeons examined and dressed the general's wounds. "He
bade them apply cold water to them, and all the time he smoked with great
calmness and firmness. He asked whether an amputation was necessary? — in which
case it should be done forthwith. The doctors assured him there was no occasion
for such an operation. Garibaldi asked to see Pallavicino, who, twenty minutes later,
came to him uncovered, and with every demonstration of respect. It was afterwards
settled between the officers of both staffs, that the Garibaldian column should be
disarmed, and placed under the escort of the royal troops. It was agreed that
Garibaldi should be removed to Scylla, with as many of his officers as he wished
to have with him, all of whom should retain their swords. The dead on both sides
were very few; very few also the wounded. In corroboration of this assertion, I
must state that the number of the wounded, on both sides, according to official
tidings, does not exceed forty-eight.
"Towards evening the Garibaldians improvised a litter for the removal of
their chief. After an hour's painful march, over rugged paths, they came to a
hut where some wounded men had been laid. Garibaldi refused to abide there
for the night. He wished to be taken to some other hut or hay-loft, where
he might be alone. The journey in the dark, on so rough a road, must have
caused great torture to the general; but he never uttered a complaint, nor a
groan. They thus, after three hours' march, reached the hut of the Pastore
Vincenzo, a spot well known to the heroes of the expedition of 1860. There, with
straw and cloaks, they made up a bed, on which the general rested. ' The night
was feebly lighted by the moon ; great silence reigned over the country, only broken
by the barking of the shepherds' dogs.' They prepared water for the hero's
wounds ; they gave him broth made of goat's flesh. It was midnight. At dawn
they were up, constructing a more comfortable litter ; at 6 A.M. they left for Scylla.
When the sun rose they screened the hero by a laurel canopy. With the exception
of a few halts of half-an-hour, they toiled down those dreary paths till 2 p.m., when
they reached their destination.
"At ScyUa, Garibaldi, who had asked Pallavicino to obtain for him leave
tp embark on board an English vessel, was informed that his request could
not be complied with. The number of officers who were to accompany
him was also reduced to ten. Garibaldi instantly embarked on board the Duca
di Genova, which was ready for departure. The boats which conveyed him on
board passed before the Stella d'ltalia, on the deck of which were General
Cialdini, Admiral Albini, and others. ' No salutation passed between the prisoner
and his captors.' Two or three volunteers (orderlies), who, had been allowed by
Pallavicino for Garibaldi's personal service, were sent back by an order of Cialdini,
conveyed through Albini ; but the order was revoked, and the orderlies were suf
fered to accompany their chief. Garibaldi parted with his companions with the
cry, ' A Roma ! A Roma !' The treatment of the prisoners on board the Duca di
Genova was, by their own confession, ' most courteous and considerate.'
" I have thus given the pro and con of all I could collect respecting this
melancholy affair. To readers who are able to compare notes with something like
critical discernment, the real truth will shine forth with irresistible clearness. That
Garibaldi wished to avoid an encounter, and Pallavicino had orders to seek it,
appears very evident. The king's government felt the necessity of dealing a de
cisive blow, and ending a game which had been suffered to continue too long. For
the rest, after the fight, both parties behaved with honour and moderation ; and,
bating exaggeration, neither of them has any reason for dissatisfaction."
Since tbe above was written, the report of General Cialdini on the engagement
at Aspromonte, has been published in the Turin Gazette. The report states, that
the instructions given to Colonel Pallavicino were, to pursue Garibaldi unremit
tingly if he sought to fly ; to attack him if he offered battle, and to destroy his
band. The official Gazette also publishes Colonel Pallavicino's report ; according tp
VOL. II. u 281

GARIBALDI A PRISONER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1862.
which his left attacked the volunteers in front, and, after a brisk fire, carried the
position they occupied. The rebels were then surrounded on all sides, and ulterior
resistance was useless. At this juncture they signalled the royal troops to stop
firing, and Colonel Pallavicino sent an officer of the staff to summon Garibaldi to
surrender. Garibaldi replied that he would never surrender. The staff-officer was
made prisoner, as well as another envoy subsequently sent by Colonel Pallavicino.
They were, however, afterwards released. Garibaldi requested to be allowed to
embark on board an English vessel. Several volunteers, when questioned, said
they knew nothing of the king's proclamation. Some believed that all had been
arranged with the government ; whilst others said that Garibaldi had deceived them.
At Aspromonte three flags were found, inscribed with the words, ' Italy ! Em
manuel !' but not bearing the cross of Savoy, nor having the blue riband attached.
No documents nor money were found.
The Movimento of Genoa gives the following particulars as to the place in
which Garibaldi was confined : — " The building, which contains six rooms, has no
furniture whatever, with the exception of some mattresses stretched on the ground
for the prisoners. Their kitchen contains no other articles than two magpies,
which often hop over the whole house. The food is not bad, but it is served
without any table-cloth. The general's chamber alone presents any appearance of
furniture. It is not very large. The walls have been at one time covered with
velvet paper, which now hangs down in shreds. There are two great cupboards, of
wretched appearance, and painted yellow ; four or five chairs ; a little table, on
which stands a brass candlestick, with a tallow candle ; and the bed where Garibaldi
is lying. ' This bed is worth notice. The mattress is of double thickness. There
are four bolsters, but two are without cases.'" Ultimately Garibaldi was
pardoned. His friends in England sent him all that they could ; and at length the ball
in his ankle was extracted, after the failure of an English, by a celebrated French
surgeon. Nor was Garibaldi ungrateful. Whilst yet lying sad, wounded, and a captive,
he thus addressed the English nation : —
" It is while under the double pressure of bodily and mental pain that man
can most truly and most acutely appreciate good and evil, and, leaving the authors
of his misery to eternal shame, devote unlimited affection and gratitude to his
benefactors. And that to you, 0 people of England, I owe a heavy debt for
benefits bestowed, I feel in the inmost recesses of my soul. You were my friends
in prosperity, and now you continue the precious boon in the days of my adversity.
May God reward you ! And my gratitude is the more intense, 0 worthy people,
. inasmuch as, rising as it must do beyond the mere level of individual feeling, it
becomes sublime in the general sentiment towards those nations whose progress
you represent. Yes ! you are deserving of the gratitude of the world, because you
offer an asylum for misfortune, from whatever part it may come ; and you identify
yourselves with misery, pity it, and relieve it. The French or Neapolitan exile
finds in your bosom shelter from his tyrant ; he finds sympathy ; he is helped,
because an exile, because unhappy. The Haynaus — the hardened instruments of
autocrats — find no rest in your liberal land, and fly terrified before the bitter scorn
of your generous sons. And, in truth, without your noble bearing what would
Europe be ? Tyranny seizes its exiles in those other lands where virtue is un
natural, where liberty is a lie ; but they are still safe on the sacred soil of Albion.
I, like so many others, seeing the cause of justice trampled under foot in so many
parts of the world, despaired of human progress. But, turning to you, my mind is
calmed — calmed by the contemplation of your fearless progress towards that end
to which the human race seems called by Providence. Proceed on your way, 0
calm, unconquered nation, and be less tardy in calling your sister peoples in the
same path of human progress. Call the French nation to co-operate with you.
You two are worthy to march hand-in-hand in the vanguard of social progress.
282

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [garibaldi in London.
Yes, call her ! In all your meetings let ' concord between the two great sisters' be
your cry. Yes, call her ! Call to her always, and in every manner — with your voice,
and with the voice of her great exiles — of Victor Hugo, the high priest of human
brotherhood. Tell her that conquest is, in this age, an anomaly — the emanation of
an unsound mind. . Why should we covet the lands of others, when all men should
be as brethren ? Yes, call her ! And she, forgetting that she is temporarily under
the dominion of the genius of evil — if not to-day, to-morrow ; if not to-morrow,
later — wiU reply as she ought to your generous and regenerating appeal. Call,
and at once, the bold sons of Helvetia, and clasp them firmly to your breast ! The
warUke children of the Alps — the vestals of the sacred fire of liberty on the
continent of Europe — they will be with you. What a host! Call the great
American republic, for she is, in truth, your daughter, and is struggling now for
the aboUtion of that slavery which you have aUeady so nobly proclaimed. Help
her to escape from the terrible strife waged against her by the traders in human
flesh. Help her, and then place her by your side at the great assembly of nations —
that final work of the human intellect. Call to your side all those people who
would be free, and lose not an hour. The initiative, which belongs to you to-day,
may to-morrow concern another. May God forbid such a calamity ! Who ever
more gaUantly than France ih '89 assumed that responsibility ? At that solemn
moment she held up ' reason' to the world, crushed tyranny, and consecrated free
brotherhood. Now, after nearly a century, she is reduced to combat the liberty of
nations, to protect tyranny, and over the altar of reason to erect the symbol of that
wicked and immoral monstrosity which is called the papacy. Arise, then,
Britannia, and at once ! Arise with your undaunted brow, and point out 'to the
peoples the path they must tread ! With a congress of the world to decide between
nations, war would be an impossibility. No longer would there exist those standing
armies which make Uberty impossible. What weapons ! What defences ' What
engines of attack and defence ! And then the millions squandered in implements
of destruction would be employed in fomenting the industry and diminishing the
misery of the human race. Begin, then, 0 people of England ; and, for the love of
(rod, initiate the vast human compact, and bestow this great gift on the present
generation I Besides Switzerland and Belgium, you would see other nationsf urged
on by the good sense of the people, accept your invitation, and hasten to enrol
themselves under your banner. Let London now be the seat of this congress,
which shall be in future agreed on by a mutual compact of arrangement and
convenience. Once more, God bless you ! May He repay you for the benefits you
have heaped so prodigally on me .'-With gratitude and affection, yours,
«Varignano,SePt.28.'' ' "Garibaldi.
nationnalifvgla^7e JT, PrivileSed> in 186*> to welcome the hero of Italian
h wft^l /l,^ or emperor receive such an ovation. From the
Se L whi% f' a]1TconsPlred t0 do Wm honour. Never was there such a
Of^nrL 5 ntere<! ^ondon>aild a« its workmen turned out to meet him.
^S^TJST^ wit5 ?e fre^dom of the city- At the C^stal Pala<*
in Ms honou^- d ^ *** ^ °f the S°*g C°mp°Sed
" Hail ! oh, leader, from darkness and sorrow
Fame hath woven a wreath for thy brow ;
.Bright be the dawning of Italy's morrow—
Dawn it shall, for the herald art thou.
U tranbaldi ! true and noble heart,
Lead on, we are thine
Until our latest breath ;
From hearths, and homes, and loved ones we depart,
lo battle, to glory, to death!"
Was sung no words can describe the scene which took place. The princinal
vocahsts turned towards the balcony which contained Garibaldi, art with
283

DEPARTURE OF GARIBALDI.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
every gesture and look of which the impassioned Italian frame is capable,
signified their enthusiastic concurrence in the sentiments, to the utterance of
which they lent every power with which nature had gifted them. The choir and
orchestra, inspired by the fervent action of their excellent conductor, who, with his
national colours tastefully displayed upon his breast, threw himself with all the
ardour of a loving compatriot into his work, seconded their efforts nobly ; and thus
a chorus was produced, such as can never be forgotten by the least susceptible in
dividual who was privileged to hear the strain, and see under what circumstances it
was sung. At the first line of the refrain, " 0 Garibaldi nostro, salvatore," the
audience, moved by one impulse, rose up, and remained standing, turned towards
the Italian hero, during the remainder of the piece. When all was ended,
the voice of the multitude found scope ; and men and women, artists and con
ductor, laid down their respective functions to join in one overpowering demon
stration of enthusiastic devotion to the serene-looking and noble man, who looked
down in a sort of glad, yet quiet wonder, too great to be confused by this tumul
tuous homage ; and replied better by his sympathetic eyes, moved lips, and very
simple gestures, than by any amount of actions, such as are associated with heroes
of a similar kind. The chorus of Ernani was made to do homage to the general V
by the words " A Garibaldi gloria" being substituted for the name of Charles the '
Fifth ; and this was followed by the English national anthem, the solo verse of
which was finely sung by Mademoiselle Fricci. Then followed a well-merited
cheer for Arditi, and many more for Garibaldi and Menotti, whose departure from
their gallery terminated the concert;
At the close of the proceedings swords were presented to Garibaldi and his son,
by the Italians resident in London. Garibaldi received his sword with the words —
" I thank you, Italians, for this beautiful present. I promise you I will never
unsheathe it in the cause of tyrants, and will draw it only in support of oppressed
nationalities. I hope yet to carry it with me to Rome and to Venice." Other
presentations were made, and other addresses offered; after which the general and
his party returned to London. On his way back from the Crystal Palace, the
general paid a visit to the Duke of Somerset, at his official residence at the
Admiralty. In the evening he dined with Lord and Lady Palmerston, at
Cambridge House. ; ,
In the midst of all this popularity, the public, were thunderstruck by hearing
Garibaldi was suddenly to leave England. The explanation, believed in many
places, was, that he was sent away in consequence of an .intimation from high
quarters that his presence here was a cause of embarrassment between England and
France. The public said Garibaldi never was in better health; that Mr. Glad
stone was deputed to give Garibaldi the hint ,; and that the whole affair was a dis
graceful truckling to the French emperor. .The official statement of the Premier,
of course, denied this ; but more than one smile was seen on many an M.P.'s face
while Lord Palmerston gravely assured the House of Commons, that, so far from
the French emperor's being hurt by the reception afforded to Garibaldi, on the
contrary, he had expressed to- the Earl of Clarendon his delight at it. The writer of
this may be excused for being sceptical on this point, as the last time he was at Paris,
the orders were that no portraits of Garibaldi were to be exposed for sale. But
the real truth is, Garibaldi's health was suffering. The excitement and the change'
of living were too much for him. On Monday night, after the general's return
from the Crystal Palace, he was so confused that he could not recollect whether he
had been to the Crystal Palace once or twice. Rest, therefore, he required ; but why
not rest in England ? And then he might have visited the great towns which had
such strong claims on his presence. In the meanwhile, let it be said that every one
was delighted with him, and that, in his foreign English, he has pretty well made a
clean breast of it politically. He was understood to prefer Mr. Russell (as he calls
him) to Mr. Palmerston ; tbe latter aged statesman he considered to be far too
friendly with the French emperor ; and we need not add that Louis Napoleon, many
284 J

OTKtbyD. J 'B(nxDB.fnmLaSha\xt&ra^h-

©mo-ialid)

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [state of italt.

as are his admirers, cannot class Garibaldi amongst the number. Indeed, we may
go so far as to say, if the loving and tender-hearted Garibaldi hates any one on the
face of the earth, it is the French emperor. And no wonder. It is owing to him
Garibaldi was driven from Rome, that he was struck down at Aspromonte, and that
even his Italian nationality has been taken from him. No wonder. Garibaldi
cordially dislikes the French emperor. The simple soldier and the wily intriguer
have nothing, and can have nothing, in common. What fellowship hath light with
darkness ? was asked in old time.
For years to come the Italian question will occupy men's minds. In our days
we have seen it presented in a wonderfully changed aspect to the world. For ages
the fairest portion of the surface of Europe was trodden under foot by the despot
and the priest. In vain were revolutions attempted — in vain did patriots die —
the hour of the regeneration of Italy had not yet come. In our day we have seen
the first grand movement in that direction. Italy, aided by France, resolved to
shake off the Austrian yoke. Undoubtedly she has gone further and faster than
France intended ; and the result is that, with the exception of Rome, Italy is free.
The question now is, is she worthy of this freedom — can she maintain it ? The
Italian revolution, mixed as it is, like all human things, with elements base and
ignoble, and somewhat barren in the production of those great men whom lesser
convulsions have rarely failed to draw forth, is yet assuredly, judged in all sober
ness, one of the grandest events in modern history. It is no sudden gust of
national passion impetuously overturning the thrones of the past, but a slowly
elaborated achievement, wrought out with immense sacrifice — sacrifice not only of
Uves and gold such as every revolution claims, but of provincial and national
interests and prejudices, which are the last things usually abjured in such convul
sions. It is not an outbreak of fanaticism either religious or political, the work of
men disgusted by the falsehood of one system, and blindly rushing at its opposite.
Rather with regret do we see the Italian Catholic caring so little to cast down the
idols of his church, and rejoice to find the Italian citizen content to replace politi
cal despotism by a constitutional monarchy, and not by any more democratic
system, for whose enjoyment he is yet untrained. Lastly, it is not a revolution of
a single class of the population — a cabal of nobles, or a rebellion of the middle
ranks, or a riot of the mob — nor yet is it the work of a great capital city deciding
by itself the cause of the whole country, as Paris has so often presumed to do for
France. Never, perhaps, in any history has a revolution been so completely the
reverse of all this. Italy is being very rapidly regenerated. Railways have been
developed, and the common roads of the country have been vastly improved, espe
cially in Naples and Sicily. Before the annexation of the other provinces, Pied
mont was vastly in advance of the rest of Italy in education. One in ten out of
the entire population attended the schools ; while, in Naples, not one in ninety did
so; and, in Sicily, out of the female population, even at present, not one in two
hundred. The first care of the government has been to reform the system of educa
tion, to open schools both for boys and girls in every commune, and to train fitting
teachers. The army of Italy now consists of 400,000 — a terrible, but at present a
necessary, expense. Important changes are taking place in the administration of
justice. Nor is this a small matter when we remember, as Miss Cobbe tells us,
that in the provinces which formerly owned the sway of the successor of St. Peter,
or of Bomba and Bombalino, no safeguard of persons or property, no trial by jury,
no habeas corpus, no coroners' inquests existed. Every judge almost had bought
his office by a bribe, and used it with every venal trick. Another good sign is to
be found in the fact that Italy is beginning to read. Of anything to be called a
national literature, there is, says Miss Cobbe, as yet no sign ; but newspapers are
increasing ; and, in time, the people will read. Of course, there is a reactionary-
party, consisting of the old nobility and the priests ; but the former are losing
their temporal influence, and the latter are now mainly recruited from the lower
strata of society. 285

SKETCH OF PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.

CHAPTER XIV.
PALMERSTON AGAIN PREMIER.
In 1859, the Tories have appealed to the country: the verdict has been against
them— they resign.
Lord Palmerston is again at the head of affairs. In a work published this
year — Chiefs of Parties — we find the following sketch of his lordship — a sketch
which, at the time, represented pretty fairly the opinion of the sensible and well-
informed : —
" In his system of managing the House of Commons, Sir Robert Peel was
called a great parliamentary middle-man. Irish society also supplies the illustra
tion most apt for Lord Palmerston's foreign policy. He was the Captain Rock of
Europe. The desultory fierceness and wordy arrogance of Lord Palmerston's
diplomacy, imitated, on a vast scale, the minacious lawlessness of agrarian outrage
in Ireland. " His rage for meddling with the affairs of small communities was of the most
singular kind. A petty territory — whose name is probably omitted by some of the
gazetteers, and whose frontiers have the same proportions to European demarcations
as the borders of a Kidderminster carpet to the boundaries of England — could not
go right unless its internal affairs were supervised and regulated from our too
famous ' F. 0.' in Downing Street. We had to conquer Brobdignag, and we had
also to dwarf our minds to the backstairs intrigue of each atom of the Liliputian
confederation. Our diplomacy, under Lord Palmerston's auspices, was becoming
ludicrous. Its machinery was applied to the arrangement of trifles beneath con
tempt. Village scandals were exaggerated into diplomatic questions of momentous
importance. Somebody in some place pulled another by the nose, and their
respective nations had recourse to protocols. The most contemptible squabbles
were brought before the cabinet of the British empire. Under no other Prime
Minister was there so much personal acrimony, such envenomed bitterness, such
constant spleen about trifles, as under Lord Palmerston. - •
" There was scarcely a country in the world where we were not involved in a
diplomatic entanglement about some ridiculous trifle entirely beneath the states
manship of a great empire. In Greece a minister insisted on introducing to the
Court a lady of doubtful reputation. The queen resisted. Then came a minis
terial crisis, and all our diplomacy was set to work. Could anything be more ridicu
lous than our interference in such petty Court scandals at the other end of Europe ?
If Mayfair was gossiping for a week about the tattle of the Orkneys and the
Hebrides, or if the Secretary of State for the Home Department were called on to
aid in a case of female small-talk about what Mrs. Honour said about Mrs. Abigail,
we should all laugh.
"At Tuscany, a squabble about an attachi of the Sardinian legation was
magnified into a mighty affair, as if it were as serious as some of the causes of
quarrel between Charles V. and Francis I. And then, crossing the Atlantic, our
foreign office busybodies were all in a hurry, on account of some despicable
filibustering expedition. The steam had to be got up to an armada panic tem
perature. Immense events were looming in the distance : when, lo ! two or three
suspicious-looking crafts are seen, hull down, on the horizon ; our West Indian
fleet gives chase. ' England expects that every' — little middy should have a laugh
at the big- wigs; and the farce ends — not in another Trafalgar, but after the
plan of battle in the Critic : — ' The Yankee fleet I cannot see, because 'tis not
in sight.' " Lord Palmerston, in his mode of treating foreign affairs, had a strange talent
286

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [his failings.
for nursing a whitlow into a wen. His political habit was so inflammatory, so
constitutionally excitable, that the prick of a pin was a grave wound in his case.
To exaggerate trifling grounds of irritation into serious causes of anger was a fatal
and fooUsh policy. ' This country cannot afford little wars,' said Wellington : nor
can it. The consequences of this mania for meddling are ruinous, and also
ridiculous. A busybody is always mischievous to himself, while the cause of
mirth to his neighbours. Dramatists and novelists, in all ages, have delighted in
painting the character of one who minds everybody's business but his own. The
character has a popular relish, because it is so readily recognised. John Bull was
playing it before the world under Lord Palmerston's management; Foreigners
took his ' F. 0.' in Downing Street as a contraction for Figaro, the cypher letters
which supplied the key to his foreign policy. His system was discredited from
the most opposite quarters. The Duke of Wellington opposed it; so did Sir
Robert Peel and the Earl of Aberdeen, and Earl Grey and Sir William Molesworth,
and Mr. Cobden ; and last, and not least, for twenty years the Times denounced it
with great energy and ability.
" No change in a melodrama could be more startling than that by which Lord
Palmerston was converted into being the chief of the Liberal party, and the leader
of the House of Commons. On the domestic question he had always been neutral.
His relationship to his colleagues in the Melbourne Whigs and the Bedford Whigs,
was just as if he and they had shaken hands upon an agreement. ' So that you allow
me to dictate to Christendom as I like, you may pull and drag Old England to
pieces if you please. I will not meddle with you, and leave me alone.' In point
of fact, several of his Whig colleagues were not competent to check him.
" When Lord Aberdeen fell, the position of Lord Palmerston was powerful. He
stood well with the Tories. Society had always said, 'There's a great deal of
Toryism in Lord Palmerston.' He had some ephemeral and flying popularity with
the plebeian politicians, who are inspired by the licensed victuallers; and in
London he was vastly popular. He knew everybody worth knowing, and he was
ready to receive anybody who had anything to tell that was worth hearing. His
mansion was the resort of a strange congress. The clubs often stared at the names
of his guests ; and even the House of Commons wondered how his bitterest and
most envenomed assailants on the Monday, enjoyed his hospitaUty on the next
Saturday. Cambridge House and its witcheries produced great effect. Lord
Palmerston had so many personal and social resources, that he felt quite confident,
when the patronage of the Treasury was placed at his disposal, that he could get
any amount of popularity that he would require.
" So he could, and so he did. It rained panegyrics for a twelvemonth. He
was described insidiously as a second Chatham. The ears of the town were
stunned with the clatter of his admirers : their reasoning was the logic of defiance ;
their rhetoric was the tautology of boast. Amidst their vaunting verbiage was a
vehement chuckle, which occasionally rose into a stormy self-approbation, that
showed Master iEolus was still puffing away —
" ' Milla se jactet in aula
jEolus, et elauso ventorum caroere reguet.'
" But though he could obtain the noisy and fictitious counterfeit for a real
popularity, my Lord Proteus could not secure the confidence of a party ; for his
triumph was only for the hour. As a party chief, and as a leader of the House of
Commons, Lord Palmerston decidedly failed, and failed ludicrously. * * * *
Experience failed him in his post. His tone and conduct in the leadership of the
Commons were utterly unworthy of the place and the audience, and were most
unsuitable to one with the ambiguous antecedents of the noble lord. Never did
any of his lordship's predecessors so entangle themselves with adversaries, and
descend to 'ribald ridicule.' His tone was not only unbecoming a man of his
rank and station, but it was maladroit in an assembly where the noble lord had
< 287

SKETCH OF PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
some superiors, and several equals, on the score either of birth, or of fortune, or
eloquence, or lofty intellect. It was the first time that parliament had seen the
spectacle of a blustering leader of the House of Commons. Lord North was often
familiar, but never vulgar; if he was too often witty on grave questions, Lord
North was neither offensive nor coarse. His delightful temper has been comme
morated by the most brilliant of his adversaries. It may be doubted whether, in
the orations of Burke, Fox, and Barre, against Lord North, there was so galling a
passage as that withering invective hurled by Mr. Bright against the ' official per
sonage' who sat on those treasury benches some years before he (Mr. Bright) was
born. Lord Palmerston, we surmise, does not yet forget the vivid contrast drawn
by Mr. Bright between the leadership of Sir Robert Peel, Lord J. Russell, and
Mr. Disraeli — ' who left no stain on that distinguished post' — and the style assumed
by Lord Palmerston himself. If the Premier forgets Mr. Bright, others do not.
The House cheered that speech vehemently.
"But it was droll to witness the jovial tone in which the Prime Minister
laughed at the public, and both houses of parliament, and even himself ! He took
them all in as regularly as the newspapers ; he played upon them all round with
unparalleled hilarity ; winked to confederates in his secrets (if not in his cabinet) ;
gave the artful leer of invitation to some of his confiding dupes ; and then, after
chuckling over some decoyed Benthamite, he put on a sentimental face, while he
heaved a sigh over some ruined Whig reputation ! The rollicking air with which
he performed his cajollery was quite wonderful in its way ; and he never seemed
more astonishing than when, with a grimace on his face, he encountered a British
public in its gloomiest mood. For the growls of John Bull, the comic Premier
had his wallet of small pleasantries of an excruciating kind. But his prodigious
performances in luring the Radicals into supposing him to be playing their game,
while he was really aiding to put us back to Tory times, was far more ludicrous
than his best joke.
" It was this singular position of Lord Palmerston that explained the qualified
support given him by some of the Conservatives. They found it hard to take part
against a gay old Tory of the oldest school disguising himself as a Liberal, and
hoaxing the Reform Club.
" As a matter of sentiment, many Conservatives refused to deal roughly with
one whom they regarded as a sort of parliamentary grandpapa. They forgave
the irregularity of his political conduct. They did not fire upon a craft which
belonged to their own squadron, though for the time it hoisted false colours.
Severer courses would have been warranted towards him ; but it would have been
waste of what Canning called ' that valuable commodity, indignation,' to lavish any
of it upon a cabinet minister in a cap and bells. A solemn lecture, richly deserved,
would have convulsed the jolly Premier.
" He was taken at his word, and looked at as a great parliamentary quiz-
making game of everything. His elevation was traceable to the rout of the
Peelites, the fall of Lord John Russell, and the dearth of talent amongst the
independent Liberals. With great connections, and experience without parallel,
it took our ' Brummagem Alcibiades' fifty years to climb into the Premiership,
though Mr. Perceval, Lord Liverpool, and several more statesmen under whom he
served, gained that distinction with few of his personal advantages.
" Yet it cannot be denied that the vis comica of his political career was well
kept up. His capacity for pastime was incessant. If thorough-going jollity
could pilot the state vessel, the helm should never have been taken from the
rollicking Premier. The jesting way in which he encountered a difficulty, and
succumbed under it without a pang of self-reproach, was a rare sight. The
joyousness with which he offered his hand to friends and foes, treating them
all alike, with the same impartial jocularity, and the sportive ease with which
he played with principles, was amusing as a piece of character. But Lord
Palmerston, at that time, wearied the House of Commons. He lost its respect.
288

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [his failings.

and it rose against him. His elevation to the pinnacle of power made him grow
giddy, and he affected to be a dictator. His wit was not brilliant enough, or his
eloquence so dazzling, as to hide the egregious errors of his department when he
assumed the part of a low angry wag. He had never been a party man ; he had
coquetted with all connections; and it seemed rather absurd to take up the
obsolete name of a Canningite after the Reform Bill had been carried. It was
curious that he exhibited some of the worst traits of Mr. Canning. * * * *
Though he did not succeed as chief of a party, or as leader of the House of
Commons, Viscount Palmerston was nearly the greatest personal success in the
poUtics of his age. * * * * For a season, during his culmination, Cambridge
House, in the eyes of Europe, was 'No. 1, London;' and its occupant might be
fancied as looking down, from the Piccadilly highlands, upon the Stafford House
Whigs, the houses of parliament, and even upon a grander and more august abode.
It was a dictatorship, fast but fleeting. The entourage of his domestic circle was
unrivalled. With Almack's, with Exeter Hall, with the Irish Orangemen, with
the Reform Club, with invisible factors of public opinion, he had special relations.
He had fortune, and fashion, and fame ; he stooped to conquer ; and it was wonderful
that he was not stifled under the cloud of incense which rose up before him.
Walpole and Pitt were not intoxicated by the giddy height, where they stood
so long ; and Lord Palmerston, from the sudden elevation, might be pardoned for
losing his steadiness. The Duke of Portland died at seventy years of age ; and it
was with him that Lord Palmerston commenced his career ; and, since the revolu
tion, Lord Palmerston was our oldest Prime Minister.
" The sight of so much vigour with so much age — of seventy winters carried
with buoyant and elastic ease after a life of hard toil and excitement— was dazzling
to behold. His mind was fresh and vivid; his tongue keen, trenchant, and
vivacious ; his temper did not corrode, though he became dictatorially contumelious ;
neither was he retrospective or servile in his conversation, like some of his col
leagues and companions. In the morning, with a playful and extremely arch speech,
the gay viscount would make a bevy of bridesmaids titter ; in the afternoon he
would quietly arrange his thunderbolts, for the battering of some second-rate
powers ; and, in the evening, he was ready to Hector a House of Commons, and,
with a bold front, to browbreat a bench of provincial tribunes. He forgot himself
at last. His pretensions were great, but those of the House of Commons were
greater still. He spoke and lorded it in his own time ; but the Commons rose in
the name of England. They had amongst them patrician families, whose blood-
springs had been running for centuries before the Temples were chronicled in story ;
and the gentlemen of England, with pedigrees prouder than their oldest oaks,
would not tolerate being treated as if they were so many shopkeepers or Mary-
lebone vestrymen. The House of Commons spurned him ; and it was right that
the lesson should be given him : but it was a terrible lesson, and a tremendous fall.
Another man would have been mortified at such humiliation ; but Lord Palmerston
did not feel it : and it is the worst thing that can be said of him. His fatal fault was,
in not being able to distinguish between true and false public opinion. It is sin
cerely to be lamented that, at the beginning of 1858, he lost such an opportunity
ot consolidating and purifying his reputation. He broke down when he had to
mediate between the people of England and the passing wrath of the Emperor
wu **eilch- Wllere, then, were his defiance and his menacing self-confidence ?
Where then, was the nerve of the modern Chatham ? He clouded the character of
ina diplomatic system, and authenticated the censure of those who had condemned
nis policy, as consisting only of the commonplace acts of wordy insolence and
dexterous subservience. When pitted against a formidable antagonist, he failed;
and it was lamentable that it should have been before a Bonaparte that the tone of
England should have faltered, and the reputation of Lord Palmerston crumbled.
It was under its noisiest vindicator that the honour of Britain was, for a time,
gravely compromised. But the subject is too painful to dwell upon." 289

mr. Gladstone.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.

Such was the opinion held by many, as they saw Lord Palmerston, in 1859,
again return to power.
Let us take another portrait. In the Russian Sketches, written at this time,
Mr. Sutherland Edwards observes — " It may be remarked that, in or out of office,
Lord Palmerston is always the representative, of England. The Russians, one way
or another, evidently think a great deal of him. They tell the strangest anecdotes
about him ; and have paid him the compliment of bestowing his name on a
fashionable great-coat. Mr. Urquhart, who proves regularly every week, in a paper
by no means generally known, that Lord Palmerston has been, for years past,
nothing but an employi of the Russian government, would be astonished to find
how little that minister's services are appreciated in Russia itself,- where the noble
lord is perpetually abused by all classes of the community, as the special enemy of
Russia, and as an intriguer, whose machinations may, at any moment, involve
Europe in a fresh war. This is not merely the pretended belief of the military ;
it is the firm conviction of the mercantile classes, who, in Russia, as in every other
country, are in favour of peace at any price." At the time of the Crimean war, a
caricature appeared in St. Petersburg, representing Lord Palmerston pointing to
the map of Russia, and bullying the sultan : Louis Napoleon is standing behind,
and flourishing a sword evidently much too big for him ; the sultan seems at a
loss what to do ; while a Russian soldier, keeping quite aloof, wears a portentous
frown, as if to ' indicate that he must interfere. The verses accompanying
Mr. Edwards translates as follows : —
" 'Tis Palmerston the warlike !
With diplomatic skill
He conquers Russia on the map,
According to his will.
Fired by the martial prowess
Of the ever-daring lord,
' Allons, Courage!' ci^es the Frenchman,
Waving high his uncle's sword."
In Russia, as elsewhere, Lord Palmerston was considered the evil genius of
Europe. At dinners at Damascus, Mr. Disraeli makes an Eastern emir pettishly
exclaim — " I cannot endure this eternal chatter about Palmerston. Are there no
other statesmen in the world besides Palmerston ?" Even on the other side of the
Atlantic 1 his influence was felt. He was at the bottom of all the American
intrigues; and if things went wrong in the great republic of the west, it was
Palmerston's fault. We read, in an American paper, that the mad act of Brown
and his deluded followers at Harper's Ferry, was all owing to Lord Palmerston.
We shall see that, with his lordship a second time Premier, abroad he is equally
susceptible of affront ; but at home he has learnt a wiser policy. He ceases to Hector
the House of Commons. They trust him : he treats them with respect. But his
chief successes are due to the fact, that Mr. Gladstone is Chancellor ofthe Exchequer.
In 1859, Mr. Gladstone attained that elevated rank in statesmanship which,
at the time at which we write, has made him the most popular and powerful of
living men.
Mr. Gladstone's peculiarity is, that he works better in office than out of it.
In 1859, people were still afraid of him, as metaphysical and crotchety. The
criticism of that day implies that he lacked directness. "His understanding,"
says one, "is rapid in apprehension, powerful in retention, and versatile in capa
city. There is scarcely one of the sciences in which he could not with facility
become a proficient. Vigorous and plastic, and with all his faculties under the
ready command of its owner, his intellect would be enviable but for defects which
will always cause doubts as to the soundness of his conclusions. He is too pre
cipitate in theorising; too subtle and overstrained in his inductions; and he places
too much credence in the philosophic potentiality of the logic of tbe schools.
These are blemishes which seriously detract from the moral weight of his assem-
290

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. Gladstone.

blage of brilliant faculties, as an administrator, an orator, and a writer. * * *
Apparently taking pleasure in puzzling others, Mr. Gladstone often bewildered
himself. A jury of M.P.'s, selected impartially, would find it impossible to return
a verdict as to his creed. He has been a Tory upon the turn, a Liberal of a loose
sort, and a Christian in a state of chrysalis. What his next development might be
would defy the computation of the most scientific observer. As yet he has never
been a Whig ; and his ingenious intellect would find it difficult to weave a creed
for the families. To drag parliament into a labyrinth, of which he alone should
possess the logical clue, that he might enjoy the confused crowd asking for
deliverance from his aid, would seem to be his mission. He asks the House to
weigh a series of scruples with him, but gives it nothing to weigh them with ; and
he enjoys the sight of honourable members tantalised, while he refreshes himself
conscientiously." Mr. Gladstone, in 1859, is accepted as " a brilliant representative of that class
of the community who derive their wealth from commerce, and their prejudices
from the universities. His social and political vitality are already much affected
by his Liverpool origin, and his Oxford training. We see the marks of his non-
aristocratic origin in his freedom from traditional party spirit. His mind, unlike
that of Lord Macaulay, has no partly natural, partly acquired deference of a senti
mental kind to the great families of England. To his intellect, the territorial
constitution, panegyrised by Mr. Disraeli, must appear as absurd as his own
Oxford Logic and State Conscience to the author of Vivian Grey. We rather miss
the historical elements in his parliamentary speeches. Of national antededents he
seems to take comparatively little notice; and he' tries to solve difficult social
subjects with the elaborate apparatus of a logic less perspicuous than, and almost
as abstract as, the arguments of the late Sir W. Grant. His speeches have none
of that racy English idiom, that homeliness without coarseness, that happy
mixture of pithy sense and popular frank manner, which are almost classical in
parliament. There is in them too much of the academical arts of persuasion — too
great a parade of logic, inducing the suspicion of undetected sophistry. Yet the
power displayed when upon his legs, and at a pressing emergency, by Mr. Gladstone
is admirable. The ease and supple adroitness which he manifests are dazzling in
themselves, and, as gladiatorial feats, evoke the admiration of the senate. Profi
cient in the mechanical parts of an orator, with perfect command of language,
no extempore speaker in parliament excels Mr. Gladstone in the finished style and
logical arrangements, even of his unprepared speeches."
Mr. D. Maddyn— for it is to him we refer— continues— " One of Mr. Glad
stone's finest displays of talent was in the debate in which Lord Derby's cabinet,
in 1852, fell from office. On that occasion, the concluding night of the discussion
was occupied nearly altogether by Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone; and those who
were present will not forget the displays of eloquence made, worthy of the proudest
days of parliament. Mr. Disraeli confessedly made an extraordinary tour deforce,
under very trying circumstances, calculated to depress and dishearten an orator.
Jaded with excessive fatigue from being the main man of business in his party;
with an unexpected coalition of hostile parties in his front; personally
assailed by a host of adversaries, and representing a sectional and then
deieated cause, the member for Bucks stood up to the last encounter with desperate
energy and fought for his flag with those dauntless qualities which always obtain
admiration from a large audience of Englishmen. Scalping his assailants right
and left; bearding with unfaltering nerve, his coalesced and triumphing oppo
nents, he denounced their projects, and criticised some of the antecedents of some
of his political censors with galling severity. Exulting in his command of
language he met bitter taunts by thundering invectives. In a vehement and fiery
style of rhetoric rarely heard now-a-days, he poured forth a flood of incriminating
rhetoric; and, with buoyant self-reliance, appealed to the prejudices of his parti
sans, and lashed their passions. The circumstances of the crisis, and the speaker's
291

LORD CAMPBELL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.

eloquence, made this one of the most effective oratorical displays heard within the
walls of parliament in modern times. It was the stag at bay, and fighting under
the smart of his ministerial death-wounds. To reply to such a speech required
talents of a rare order. It was two hours past midnight, and the House was eager
to divide. If the orator who had- just sat down' had spoken under circumstances
calculated to dishearten, the orator who had arisen had the difficulties to contend
with of an audience at once excited and jaded, and the advanced :period of the
debate. Disregarding, the signs of impatience in his; hearers, Mr. Gladstone
rapidly and artfuUy wound himself into the ear of the Commons. Roused, himself,
by the great effort, of his adversary, he strained' his powers' to the uttermost, and
Became grand with natural passion. For two hours he enchained the attention of
that audience ; and, with masterly art, he vindicated the policy of free trade, and
inveighed against the protectionists. Nor was there any other debater than Mr.
Gladstone Who possessed* the union of financial knowledge, readiness of logic, and
rare parliamentary eloquence requisite for replying to Mr. Disraeli on that eventful
night. This was the greatest success, as a speaker, ever attained by him, and was
in itself enough to stamp his name in the annals of parliament."
In the upper House, as Lord Chancellor, the Premier has the assistance of
Lord Campbell, who received the rudiments of his education at the unpretending
grammar-school of his native town, of which his father was' the clergyman ;. whence
he removed, at a comparatively early age, to "enter as a student at the university of
St. Andrew's, where the Rev. George Hill, . afterwards principal of St; Mary's
College, was his tutor. After taking his degree- of Master of Arts at his uni
versity, he, fortunately for himself, decided to repair to London to try his
fortune at -the English bar. -In the year he attained his majority. he came to
the great metropolis, and entered his name among the students of Lincoln's. Inn. He
was called to- the har in Michaelmas Term, 1806. It will not be out of. place
to remark, that while a student of Lincoln's Inn, he, with an honourable desire
of independence, acted as one of the parliamentary reporters on /the Morning
Chronicle newspaper. In 1817, he was made king's counsel; in' 1830, he entered
the House of Commons as M.P. for Stafford. He was made Solicitor-general" in
1832, by Earl Grey; and in 1834 he became Attorney-general.' In 1841, he was
made Lord Chancellor of Ireland by Viscount Melbourne. It was only a short
time before he proceeded to Dublin, that he made his great forensic speech for the
defendant in the celebrated case of " Norton v. Lord Melbourne." On the return
of the Whig party to office in June, 1846, after the resignation of the late Sir
Robert Peel, Lord Campbell joined the cabinet, and was appointed Chancellor of
the Duchy of Lancaster in the succeeding month. In 1850, his lordship was
appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Queen's Bench, which became, vacant on the
death of Lord Denman. He held that high legal and judicial post until Lord
Palmerston's accession to the head of the government in 1859, when -he selected
Lord Campbell to fill the distinguished office of Lord Chancellor— -an appointment
which gave general satisfaction. His lordship was something more even than a
great lawyer. As a literary man, he had acquired some reputation. His Lives of
the Lord Chancellors of England, and his Lives of the Chief Justices of England,
are well and widely known.
His lordship married, September 8th, 1821, Miss Mary Elizabeth, eldest
daughter of Sir James Scarlett (afterwards Lord Abinger); by whom (who was
created Baroness Stratheden in 1836) he left issue three sons and four daughters —
namely, William Frederick, Lord Stratheden ; the Hon. Hallyburton and the Hon.
Dudley Campbell ; the Hon. Louisa, married to the Rev. W. S. White ; the Hon.
Mary, the Hon. Cecilia, and the Hon. Edina.
The Lord Chancellor ranks, after the princes of the blood-royal, as the first
lay subject. Anciently the office was conferred upon some dignified clergyman.
He is the reputed keeper of the sovereign's conscience. Amongst the great
prerogatives of his office, he has the power to judge according to equity, con-
292

LORD CAMPBELL

OB 1861

"3N EEISTINO AND PDBUSHING COMPANY, UkflTKD.

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [sir R. bethell.
science, and reason, when he finds the law of the land so defective that the subject
would be injured thereby. If a person be illegally imprisoned during the vacation,
he has power to grant a habeas corpus, and do him justice according to law ; the
Queen's Bench and Common Pleas not being competent to grant such writ but
in term time. His patronage is great, as he has the power to collate to all
ecclesiastical livings in the gift of the crown.
In the House of Commons, the Attorney-general is Sir. R. Bethell — next to
Mr. Gladstone, Lord Palmerston's most valuable ally.
Lord Westbury, the late distinguished chancery advocate, and first law1 officer
of the crown in the administrations of the Earl of Aberdeen and Viscount Pal
merston, is a native of the town of Bradford, in Wiltshire, where he was born on
the 30th of June, 1800.
He is descended from an ancient Welsh family of the name of " Ap Ithel."
His father, Dr. Bethell, was a physician, residing in Bristol, and afterwards in
London. This gentleman enjoyed the reputation of being exceedingly skilful in
his profession : he was a man of education and considerable mental powers, who.
had little or nothing to depend upon but his medical practice. He devoted
himself earnestly to the education of his son Richard, the subject of the present
sketch, who invariably attributes whatever success he has had in life to his
father's attention to his education, and to the care and skill with which that gen
tleman formed and disciplined his mind from his earliest years.
The subject of our sketch was brought up in Bristol, where his early educa
tion was conducted at a grammar-school. The school was given up just before he
attained the age of thirteen, when he returned home, and remained for a short
time, still pursuing his studies under the care of his father. As soon as he was
fourteen years of age, his father determined to send him to the University of
Oxford, where he at once proceeded, and presented himself for admission into
Wadham College. This was in the month of October, 1814. After some demur
by the authorities on account of his extreme youth, the boy was permitted to
matriculate, and began to reside as a commoner. A scholarship at Wadham Col
lege was the subject of a competitive examination in June, 1815; and it is a
noteworthy fact, that although there were many candidates, and consequently a
severe contest, young Bethell, in spite of his extreme youth, was fortunate enough
to obtain it, and to be elected scholar on the day he was fifteen. To this scholar
ship the college added an exhibition for proficiency in Greek ; and these emolu
ments enabled the young student to take his degree of Bachelor of Arts with com
paratively little assistance from his father. He was examined for his degree in
April, 1818, before he had reached the eighteenth year of his age, when he obtained
a first class in classics, and a second class in mathematics. Mr. Bethell continued
to reside in the university, wholly maintaining himself by private pupils, until he
obtained a feUowship in the year 1822. He then came to London, having some
time previously entered as a student at the Middle Temple, and began a diligent
course of study for the profession of which he is nOw so distinguished an ornament.
He was called to the bar by the Hon. Society of the Middle Temple, in November,
1 823 ; immediately after which he began to practise in the courts of equity. His
success was unusually rapid. One circumstance which brought his name into par
ticular notice may be mentioned, to show that no one can tell the benefit that may
result in future life from some distinction gained in the early part of it. When
Richard Bethell was examined for his degree at Oxford, in 1818, Dr. Gilbert, now
Bishop of Chichester, was one of the public examiners, and subsequently became
the principal of Brazenose College, in that city. Shortly after Mr. Bethell was
called to the bar, a suit in chancery was commenced by, the late Lord Suffield
against the college, which involved matters of great importance, not only to that
establishment, but to all the colleges in Oxford founded before tbe accession of
William III. Dr. Gilbert appointed Mr. Bethell, though a young and inexpe
rienced practitioner at the bar, counsel for the college ; and gave, as a reason for it,
r 293

sir R. bethell.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
the favourable impression made upon him by Mr. Bethell's public examination.
An adverse decision would have seriously affected the interests of the college, in
consequence of which several very eminent counsel advised a compromise of the
suit. But Mr. Bethell strongly recommended the opposite policy ; he encouraged
the representatives of the college to resist the action, which was accordingly
brought into court, and was finally decided in their favour. It is understood that
the learned counsel's arguments chiefly influenced the judge (the late Sir John
Leech) in arriving at this determination. This success at once trebled Mr. Bethell's
practice, which increased year by year, until, in the beginning of 1840, Lord Cot-
tenham promoted him to the dignity of Q. C.
On the elevation of Mr. Knight Bruce and Mr. Wigram to the bench, and the
death of Mr. Jacob, Mr. Richard Bethell became .the leader of the court of the
Vice-Chancellor of England, Sir Lancelot Shadwell, and at one time was supposed
to have had great power of influencing his mind. A ridiculous pun used to be
current in court in reference to this supposition. " Why is Shadwell like King
Jeroboam ?" Answer : " Because he has set up an idol in Bethel."
Mr. Bethell appears to have been reluctant to enter the House of Commons ;
but having given a promise to Mr. (now Sir William) Hayter to do so, he became
a candidate for Aylesbury in April, 1851, when a vacancy in the representation of
that borough was occasioned by Mr. F. Calvert being unseated. Mr. Bethell was
opposed by Mr. Ferrand, but was returned over that gentleman by a considerable
majority. At the general election of 1852, he had a severe contest to regain the
seat lost by the dissolution of parliament, but was finally returned in conjunction
with the celebrated author and traveller, Mr. Austen Henry Layard ; the numbers,
at the close of the poll, being as follows : — Mr. Layard, 558 ; Mr. Bethell, 525 ;
Dr. Bayford, 447 ; and Captain J. T. West, 435. The learned gentleman was re
elected as one of the representatives of Aylesbury on several subsequent occasions,
until the month of May, 1859, when circumstances occurred which led him to
retire from the borough. At the general election in that year, the Conservative
party proposed to Sir Richard Bethell that the sitting members should be returned
without a contest, to which he agreed. When the time of election arrived, how
ever, another candidate was brought forward by the Liberal party, in the person of
Mr. Vernon Wentworth, son-in-law of the Marquis of Clanricarde. Sir Richard
declined to go to the poll, and, accordingly, withdrew from the borough which he
had represented with distinguished ability upwards of eight years. The honour
able gentleman took his seat in the new parliament, nevertheless. Having received
an invitation to canvass the electors of Wolverhampton, he went there, and was
elected without opposition, in succession to Mr. Thornely, who retired on account
of ill-health, after serving his constituents faithfully for many years.
The Vice-Chancellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster was conferred upon Sir
Richard Bethell in 1852. In the month of December in the same year, when the
Earl of Aberdeen formed his memorable coalition ministry, the honourable and
learned gentleman received the appointment of Solicitor-general ; Sir Alexander
Cockburn, at the same time, taking office as Attorney-general. Shortly after the
changes consequent upon Lord Aberdeen's accession to the Premiership, the new
Solicitor-general received the honour of knighthood. While engaged in the dis
charge of the duties of this important post, Sir Richard Bethell greatly assisted in
carrying the Succession Duty Bill ; also the Oxford University Reform Bill ; the
abolition of the Ecclesiastical Courts ; and several other measures of importance.
On the promotion of Sir Alexander Cockburn, in November, 1856, Sir Richard was
appointed Attorney-general, in which capacity he carried, after a formidable
struggle, measures for the abolition of the Ecclesiastical Testamentary Courts, the
establishment of the Divorce Court, &c. He also brought before parliament the
Fraudulent Trustee Act, and the Charitable Trusts Act, in addition to certain
measures relating to improvements in equity and common law courts.
When the new Court of Probate and Divorce was about to be formed, it
294

A.D..1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [milner gibson.
is understood that Lord Palmerston offered the judgeship to Sir Richard Bethell
asanacknowlelnientof his distinguished services in conducting to a successful
Sue the unportent measures of law reform upon which the court was established
Pationage to the extent of £40,000 is attached to the office: but Sir Richard
dedSFthe offer, considering that the circumstance of his having had the carnage
of ne bills in tne lower House, might lay him open to the imputation that ^
exertions in connection with them had not been of that disinterested character
which parliament and the public had a right to expect at his hands
The learned gentleman resigned the Attorney-genera ship in February, 1858,
on the failure of Lord Palmerston's famous Conspiracy -Bill ; but returned to office
in June, 1859, although generally named for the Lord High Chancellorship.
In the House of Commons Lord Westbury was an eloquent speaker and a
ready debater Unlike many honourable members, and unlike many of his brethren
at the bar he introduces the largest amount of matter in the fewest possible words ;
while he rarely, if ever, repeats an idea. As an illustration of his powers of oratory,
it may be mentioned that short-hand writers, in reporting many speakers, are able
to lay down their pens from time to 'time during the delivery of speeches without
losing anything of importance. Repetitions and unnecessary phrases are so frequent,
and so readily detected by professional stenographers, that they can desist from
their labours minutes and minutes together, and yet afterwards present an un
questionably full and accurate report. With Lord Westbury, however, the
case is widely different. His ideas are so aptly expressed, and his arguments so
concise, that a momentary inattention would indubitably result in the omission
of some sentence necessary to the whole, and consequently fatal to the report. The
measures adopted by the Inns of Court for the education of the students, are due to
the exertions of Lord Westbury. He was, from the commencement, chairman of
the Council of Legal Education.
Amongst the important law cases conducted by Sir Richard Bethell, may be
mentioned the Egerton will, the Montrose peerage, and the Shrewsbury peerage
cases. In the former, property was involved to the enormous extent of £2,000,000
sterling. In the latter, he appeared, by virtue of being Attorney-general, as
assessor on behalf of the crown ; and afterwards, when out of office, during Lord
Derby's administration, as counsel for the infant son of the Duke of Norfolk.
At the Board of Trade, there is an infusion of Radical blood in the person of
Mr. Milner Gibson. This popular politician was born at Trinidad, in 1807, and
was the only son of the late Major Gibson, of the 87th regiment. Young Gibson
was a wrangler at Cambridge, and first entered parliament as Conservative member
for Ipswich ; but, two years later, having changed his opinions, he resigned his'
seat, and once more appealed to his constituents. He was defeated, and remained
for some time out of parliament, having, in the interim, contested the borough of
Cambridge without success. During this interval in his parliamentary career, he
threw himself, heart and soul, into the great movement which had for its object the
abolition of the duty on corn, and became one of the most successful orators of the
League. In 1841, he was invited to stand for Manchester ; and, after a smart
contest with Sir George Murray, was returned for that important constituency.
In 1846, at the conclusion of the anti-corn-law agitation, when Lord John
Russell had taken office, and declared that his general policy was to carry out, to
their natural consequences, the principles of free trade embodied in Sir Robert
Peel's recent legislation, the minister sought to strengthen his cabinet by incorpo
rating with it some of the leading members of the League ; and the great skill,
business habits, and persevering character of Mr. Gibson, marked him for selection.
Accordingly, he became Vice-President of tbe Board of Trade, and a Privy
Councillor ; and held that office until it was thought that his connection with the
government might embarrass him in his relations with his constituents, who were
more desirous of progress than Lord John Russell was at that time. In 1848, Mr.
Gibson resigned his position, and took his seat on the benches famed as those
295

earl of Carlisle.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
of the Manchester party. Indeed, he so thoroughly identified himself with the
peace advocates, that in 1857, on a general election, he lost his seat for Manchester.
However, he managed to get back into the House as member for Ashton-under-
Lyne. As M.P. for Manchester, he moved the vote on the Conspiracy to Murder
Bill, which led to Lord Palmerston having to resign his Premiership. As an able
tactician and pleasing speaker, Mr. Gibson has few equals in the House. This was
illustrated by his conduct as leader of the agitation for the repeal of the taxes on
knowledge. At the termination of the anti-corn-law agitation, Mr. Gibson
became the parliamentary advocate of free trade in knowledge. Session after
session he called the attention of the House to the subject. He prevailed at length
upon the Chancellor of the Exchequer to repeal the duty on advertisements. In
1855, he succeeded in abolishing the penny stamp on newspapers ; and even when
we had still war budgets, Mr. Gibson tried hard for the repeal of the tax on paper.
In this agitation he was indefatigable. The society was nothing without him. It
was Mr. Milner Gibson, the member for Manchester, who conferred on it re
spectability and power ; who presided at the annual meetings in the metropolis ;
who put the facts of the case in a telling way before the House of Commons; and,
by his tact and bonhommie, secured parliamentary votes, which compelled the
Chancellor of the Exchequer to:take action in the matter.
The Right Hon. Edward Cardwell is Irish . Secretary. He is a Liberal Con
servative, and was first returned to parliament in 1842, for Clitheroe. He next had
the honour of representing Liverpool'; losing which, and unsuccessfully contesting
Ayrshire, he became M.P. for the city of Oxford, on the appointment , of Sir
W. Page Wood to the Vice- Chancellorship, in the beginning- of January, 1853.
At college Mr. Cardwell attained high honours ; and he was yvell trained and
qualified for success at the bar. In his political character as a free-trader, he is
one of its most zealous advocates; and distinguished, for the Uberality of his
opinions in all matters "which concern the commercial- interests of the country. He
is also remarkable -for the accuracy and extent of. his, knowledge of such subjects:
He has served the country in various offices. His first appointment dates .from
1845, when he was Secretary to the Treasury. Although not "a professed. orator,
Mr. CardwelPs concisely arranged remarks . invariably command the most profound
attention. Ih his speeches he delivers himself in a free and unpretending manner
— in an even conversational tone — free from any violent gusts of passion, and
utterly free of, all oratorical tricks, or attempts at effect. He is now at the. age of
maturity — affable and courteous, both inthe House and in private life ; conciliatory
in matters where his especial duties are concerned, and, in some, respects, where
asperity of temperament is almost difficult to be avoided. Let the discussion be.
what it may, or the warmth of debate ever so great,.itis impossible to disturb Mr-
Cardwell's habitual calmness and self-possession. A contemporary observes — :" Mr.
Cardwell is, perhaps, one of the most polite men that, perhaps, ever held an official
appointment ';¦ and I should confidently believe the most scrupulous in the discharge
of its 'duties. As far as I have personally witnessed/ his- conduct through a
lengthened period, as a public man, it has ever been marked with moral rectitude,
and the earnest desire to aid the administration under which he has fulfilled various
offices to the best ofhis ability, blended with discretion and judgment agreeably to
the dictates of his own conscience." To such an one, the office of Irish Secretary,
for reasons to which we need not more particularly allude, is exceedingly
appropriate. His chief, the Irish viceroy, is that genuine and well-meaning Whig, with
a pleasant face, and a warm heart — the late Earl of Carlisle, better known to Exeter
Hall and the British public as Lord Morpeth. The noble lord was compelled to
resign the Lord-Lieutenancy of Ireland in consequence of ill-health. Since his
return to England he had been living in retirement at Castle Howard. The disease,
however, under which he was suffering made steady progress ; and the noble lord
died in 1864. He was born in April, 1802. As Viscount Morpeth he pursued his
296

M '

-— ^K

h~.

W^MMm^mMm^Sm

EARL @F CARLISLE

0. B. 18.64

\".' ah>: pnjiriS'fni^ 'oiU'Aijy, i.rwnED

A.D. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. lowe.

studies with great success at Oxford, and entered ' public life as member for the
borough of Morpeth. In 1841, after being elected for Yorkshire, he became Chief
Secretary for Ireland. On the dissolution of parliament, which preceded the
retirement of Lord Melbourne's administration in 1841, he stood again for the
West Riding, and was defeated. Afterwards he visited the United States, where
he received unusual honours. He was subsequently again elected for the West
Riding, and was appointed Chief Commissioner of Woods arid Forests ; and, later,
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. In 1848, he succeeded to the earldom. In
1855 when Lord Palmerston's government came into power, he was appointed
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and held the office until the advent of the Derby
administration. When Lord Palmerston returned to office, the earl was again
appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and remained in that office until a few
weeks of his death. He was the author of A Diary in Greek and Turkish Waters ;
and one of his lectures on the life and writings of Pope, was a most able criticism
of the writings of that poet. Lord Carlisle died unmarried ; and was succeeded in
the peerage by his brother, the Hon. and Rev. W. G. Howard, the eighth earl.
Another noticeable man in the new ministry is the Right Hon. Robert Lowe,
M.P. for Kidderminster. In our time few have achieved greater parliamentary
successes. He was returned to the House of Commons in July, 1852; and upon
the third occasion of his addressing the House, in opposition to Mr. Disraeli's
budget, he was complimented by the most distinguished men on both sides. In
the foUowing month he was appointed one of the secretaries of the Board of
Control. Mr. Lowe is the son of the late Rev. Robert Lowe, rector of Bingham,
Notts., where he was born in 1811. He was educated at Winchester, and University
College, Oxford ; and at the Union Debating Society he was one of the most
talented and vehement orators on the Liberal side. In 1833, he took his degree.
In 1835, he was elected a fellow of Magdalen; in 1842, after he had obtained
a high reputation at Oxford as a private tutor, he was called to the bar at Lincoln's
Inn ; and the same year sailed for Australia, where, as a colonial barrister, he soon
acquired a very lucrative practice. In 1843, Mr. Lowe was nominated one of the
legislative council, and greatly distinguished himself by his labours upon the
education and land questions ; his committee reporting in favour of Lord Derby's,
or the Irish national system, which now forms the basis of the educational plan
adopted in every part of Australia, except Sydney. He took a very active part in
colonial political struggles, and in exposing the administrative abuses of the colonial
government ; besides distinguishing himself as a successful law reformer — one of
his measures being tbe abolition of imprisonment for debt. Mr. Lowe returned to
England, in 1850; and, in 1852, commenced his parliamentary career. In 1855,
he was created a Privy Councillor, and appointed to the Vice-Presidency of the
Board of Trade ; and, shortly afterwards, to the office of Paymaster-general. In
1859, he was Vice-President of the Board of Education.
"Mr. Lowe's speeches,, while in Australia, were distinguished," says a writer in
the Illustrated London News, "by close argument, felicitous illustration, and
notations ; ridicule and sarcasm being powerful weapons in his calm hands : but in
denouncing fraud, tyranny, or injustice, he can be terrible in vehement invective."
Nor must we forget that important personage, the parliamentary whipper-in.
That office, on the present occasion, is filled by the Hon. Mr. Brand, M.P. for
Lewes. The Treasury whipper-in is a great and important person. He takes you
under his protection, and your seat is safe. He frowns, and you had better accept
the Chiltern Hundreds. Be on good terms with Mr. Brand, and you are elected a
member of the Reform Club ; your son gets a birth in the Circumlocution Office ;
your wife has a ticket for Lady Palmerston's assemblies. The whipper-in, when
on duty, is the most active of men. You will see him in the lobby when the
Speaker is at prayers ; after the Speaker has done prayers ; long after the gas has
been lit — far into the night; ofttimes in the early hours of the approaching morn.
He seems to live in the lobby ; to be able to do without food and sleep ; and
vol. II. X 297

mr. gilpin.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
to have the gift of perpetual motion. He says to one, " Come," and he cometh ;
to another, " Go," and he goeth. He is friendly with all ; and tries to make things
pleasant to all. He can talk to a dozen M.P.'s at once : he holds one by the
button ; to another he gives a friendly dig in the ribs ; he slaps peers jocosely on
the shoulder, and shakes hands heartily even with Irish M.P.'s. His duty is, as
Canning said, " To make a House, to keep a House, and to cheer the minister."
Altogether he is a very 'powerful man ; not an orator, but perhaps something better,
as facts speak stronger than words.
The Paymaster-general is the Hon. Mr. Cowper, Lord Palmerston's step-son —
a respectable Whig, who has ever been in office with his party since he was
appointed private secretary to Lord Melbourne. One little fact will testify as to
Mr. Cowper's manliness of character. We have referred to the Sunday disturbances
in Hyde Park. On one occasion, while a stump orator was holding forth vehe
mently on the question of aristocratic selfishness and tyranny, and especially signal
ling Mr. Cowper as the object of his animadversions, Mr. Cowper himself chanced
to be a listener ; and, on the conclusion of the stump oration, declared himself the
individual who had been thus violently abused. Standing on the late speaker's
bench he boldly addressed the multitude, entirely vindicating his character, and
clearly and decidedly arguing, that so far from attempting an invasion of the people's
rights, his efforts to preserve the park were in the interest of the community at
large. His aim was, in reality, to afford the utmost freedom of access to the
humbler classes, who had but one day in the week to enjoy the privilege. It
is almost needless to add, that the multitude were highly satisfied with the honour
able member's declaration; and that they greeted his unexpected appearance
among them, to the great dismay of the stump orator, with the very heartiest
cheers and acclamations. It speaks well for Lord Palmerston, that Mr. Cowper,
with all his merits, is in a, comparatively speaking, subordinate position. Against
his lordship little charge of nepotism could be laid. His maxim was that of
Fourier — " To every man according to his capacity ; to every capacity according
to its work."
His appointment of Mr. Gibson showed Lord Palmerston's Christian-like
forgiveness of injuries. It was also a holding out of the olive-branch to the extreme
Radicals, which was followed by the adhesion of another advanced Liberal.
Northampton, a very dissenting and Radical borough, returned Mr. Charles
Gilpin as its representative to parliament; and Lord Palmerston made him
Secretary to the Poor-Law Board. There was little of the blue blood of aristocracy
in Mr. Gilpin's veins. Originally, he was a commercial traveller, hailing from
Manchester. He then became the Quaker bookseller in Bishopsgate Street,
London ; and, as a relative of Joseph Sturge, and a Quaker, had much to do with
peace societies, temperance societies, societies for the abolition of death punish
ments, and so forth. He had worked his way, also, into the Common Council of
the City of London ; and had been known there as the champion of advanced
political reforms. In the House of Commons his place had been with Cobden and
Bright ; and it was thought rather clever, on Lord Palmerston's part, to detach Mr.
Gilpin from his natural leaders, and to place him on the Treasury benches. The
Premier gained more than Mr. Gilpin by this step : the latter found his tongue
tied, and himself reduced to insignificance, politically speaking ; the former acquired
the credit of. rising above party or aristocratic considerations, desirous to be
on good terms with the Manchester school, and to confer office on men qualified, by
business tact and talent, for the successful discharge of the duties attaching to it.
As might be expected from Lord Palmerston's antecedents, the new ministry
acted the play of Hamlet, omitting Hamlet. The late cabinet had gone out on a
Reform Bill ; the new cabinet took care that, at any rate, they would avoid such a
catastrophe. The affair is too disgraceful to dwell on. It is little that we feel
inclined to say on the unwelcome theme.
In the royal speech of June, 1859, as soon as the new parliament met, the

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [reform.

queen was made to say—" I should, with pleasure, give my sanction to any well-con
sidered measure for the amendment of the laws which regulate the representation of
my people in parliament ; and should you be of opinion that the necessity of giving
your immediate attention to measures of urgency relating to the defence and financial
condition of the country will not leave you sufficient time for legislating with
due deliberation, during the present session, on a subject at once so difficult and
extensive, I trust that, at the commencement of the next session, your earnest
attention will be given to a question of which an early and satisfactory settlement
would be greatly to the public advantage."
Again, in January, 1860, her majesty states — "Measures will be laid before
you for amending the laws which regulate the representation of the people in par
liament, and for placing that representation on a broader and firmer basis."
While in opposition, Lord Palmerston, during the discussion of the Derby-
Disraeli Reform Bill, is reported to have said — "With respect to the borough
franchise, I confess, myself, that I entertained a strong opinion that the £\0 fran-
- chise was one that ought to be maintained ; but, on further consideration and
inquiry, I am of opinion that it would be desirable to lower that amount, for the
purpose of admitting to the franchise the better, the more instructed, and the
more respectable class of working-men. * * * * I am convinced a reduction
might be made, and I think ought to be made, in the borough franchise. * * *
I do not suspect that the government have quite so great a want of a due sense of
the duties which they are called upon to perform, as to abandon thus a measure
which they have deliberately undertaken to propose to parliament on the important
subject of reform. * * * * If this measure is not now carried, and the
question is hung up for public discussion for the next twelve months, I am sure it
is scarcely necessary to remind the House that great public inconvenience is likely
to be the result."
In his election address, in June the same year, he declares — " We shall also
have to consider the important laws which regulate the representation of the people
in parliament ; and I trust that we may be able so to deal with that subject as to
strengthen the institutions of the country by placing them on a broader and firmer
foundation." When the new parliament had met, and he was again Premier, Lord Pal
merston excused the delay in bringing in a new Reform Bill as follows: — "It
would be trifling with so great and important a subject as that of parliamentary
reform, if we were to attempt to introduce into this House, during the present
session, a bill upon that subject. That it will be our endeavour and determination
to avail ourselves of the earliest moment of the next session ^of parliament to
prepare and produce such a bill, I will give the assurance of myself and my col
leagues." And, in 1860, when the House seemed inclined to trifle with the measure, he
thus expressed himself—" I say it is not a straightforward or a manly course to
endeavour, by delay, to oppose the passing of a measure to the principles of which
gentlemen on the other side of the House are as much pledged as those who sit on
this. * Is the House prepared to affirm that there shall be no reform
in the representation of the people? I ask honourable gentlemen opposite,
whether, after all that passed when their leaders were in office, they will venture
to affirm that there shall be no reform in the representation of the people? It is
impossible ! r
His colleagues were of the same opinion. Sir George Grey said— "I believe
that there are very few honourable members who do not think it is absolutely
necessary that this question should be .disposed of; not by attempting to set it
aside, or shelve it; not by endeavouring to shut Lthe doors against those of the
working classes who are now excluded from the franchise, but by the admission of
a portion,_ at least of them to the exercise of the suffrage upon the principles
embodied in the bill now before the House."
x2 299

MORAL REFORMS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
In July, 1859, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Gladstone, made his
financial statement. The total revenue of the year, which had been estimated at
£63,900,000, had produced £65,477,000 ; the total annual expenditure had been
£64,663,000; the surplus being upwards of £800,000. The revenue for the
current year he estimated at £64,340,000 ; and the expenditure at £69,207,000.
He proposed to meet the deficiency by several measures, the principal of which,
was the addition of fourpence in the pound to the income-tax, payable on incomes
of £150 a year, and upwards.
The Divorce Act, enabling husbands and wives to gain a divorce when the
matrimonial tie was unbearable (which had been found to work well), was
further amended. In July, Lord Brougham called the attention of the House to
its working, which had been satisfactory; but he argued that the amount of
business in court showed the necessity of an increased judicial force. Undoubtedly,
much of the success of the new court was due to the appointment of Sir Cressweli
Cresswell as its first judge. Sir Cressweli was educated at Emmanuel College,
Cambridge'; and called to the bar at the Middle Temple in 1819. Having won for
himself the rank of king's counsel in 1834, and led the northern circuit with an
ability which acquired for him high reputation, he was elected as M.P. for Liver
pool in 1837. Mr. Cresswell continued to represent that great commercial com
munity till 1842, when, by the government of Sir Robert Peel, he was appointed
one of the justices ofthe Common Pleas, and knighted on his elevation to the bench.
Sir Cresswell gave such signal proofs of his accuracy, his acuteness, and his quick
wit, that his appointment, in 1858, to be judge in the newly-created Divorce Court,
was, on all sides, considered most appropriate ; and, till his death, which took place
a few years after, by an accident when riding, every one felt that Sir Cresswell
discharged the duties of his delicate and difficult position with unparalleled ability
and tact. Parliament was prorogued by commission, August 13th, the royal speech being
read by the Lord Chancellor.
Amongst the miscellaneous occurrences of the year, we may note that, on Feb
ruary 26th, the Armstrong gun, a weapon of vast range and great power, was
introduced into the artillery service of Great Britain, after numerous testing-
experiments at Woolwich. — A curate, Mr. Poole, who had introduced the con
fessional at Knightsbridge, had his license revoked. — At Malta, the custom
hitherto observed, of sentries carrying arms, and presenting arms at the passage
of the Host in procession, was discontinued, in consequence of instructions from
the home government. — At Galway, there were serious riots on account of
Father Gavazzi visiting that town to lecture against popery. — Australia was
also favoured with two new bishoprics — that of Brisbane and Goulbourn. To
wards each of these new bishoprics the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts contributed £1,000. — In small matters, we note that, on the 10th
of April, about 200 ministers of the gospel, in London and its vicinity, preached
sermons on the early closing of shops, with the view of allowing assistants addi
tional time for mental improvement ; that a great meeting was held at Willis's
ro.oms, in support of the drinking fountain movement, the ' Earl of Carlisle in
the chair; and that, on the 21st of April, the first public drinking fountain,
erected under the superintendence of the association, at the expense of Samuel
Gurney, Esq., M.P., was opened at the corner of St. Sepulchre's churchyard, in
the presence of a large number of spectators, by Mrs. Wilson, daughter of the
Archbishop of Canterbury. Vauxhall Gardens was also closed at this time; not so
much, however, an indication of advanced morality as of the increased value of its
site as building-ground.
In the scientific world, the wonder of the time is the Great Eastern steam-ship,
which, on the 7th of September, left her moorings at Deptford, for Portland roads.
On the voyage, which was otherwise satisfactory, an explosion took place off
Hastings, owing to some imperfection or neglect in connection with the casing of
300

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [" great eastern."
one of her boilers, when ten firemen were killed, and several persons seriously
injured. Ultimately the ship makes successful voyages to America. One of them
is thus described by a writer in the New York Herald ; —
" Seven hundred feet of flush deck, never wet with spray in any ordinary gale ;
1,200 people sprinkled about the monster, making no more show than the ordi
nary complement of a common steamer for society. The four 18-pounders peal
out their parting salute to the crowded docks at Liverpool, and notify us that we
are under weigh — a fact that is hardly indicated to a close observer by any jar ofthe
engines, or any motion of the ship, even when she is going at speed in smooth
water. Below decks the ship looks most unostentatiously plain, but substantial to
the highest point ; and with the hammering she had in the terrific gale when she
lost her rudder, and afterwards, when she struck a new-found rock in mid-channel
off Montauk, not the slightest sign of strain can be found upon her. Her arrange
ments for passengers are the first step in that reverse of old quarter-deck rules
which steam must sooner or later bring, in order to avoid coal-smoke and other
nuisances. Her forecastle for the crew, to speak Hibernice, comes next the taffrail,
then the quarters of the steerage passengers on the after part of the two decks,
with air ports, which can be kept open all the time — price of passage being about
what a labouring man can earn during the thirty-five days that he will save as
compared with the crowded 'twixt decks of a sailing ship. Forward of this comes
the intermediate steerage, where, at a low rate, a few passengers get very fail-
quarters in rough state-rooms, which most people would prefer, for eleven days, to
the cabin of a sailing ship for forty. These arrangements for the crew and steerage
passengers take up less than a quarter of the ship's length. Next comes the
second cabin, the occupants of which share the remaining three-quarters of the
deck with the captain, officers, and first-class passengers. Below decks they are
only separated by an iron bulkhead and a curtain door from the first cabin, and
yet, practically, all the advantages of the first class, good air, state-rooms,
good, substantial food, and a fair half of the delightful music which the band dis
courses at meals in the first cabin. We now come to the more aristocratic part of
the ship, which is generally plain as a pikestaff, and owes its attractions more to
its ample light and perfect ventilation, than to any attempt at elegance or orna
ment, excepting the grand saloon and ladies' cabin, which shine with gilt and
mirrors. Those who have been smothered for a fortnight in the little air-tight
state-rooms of the little 3,000-ton steamers, flavoured with sea-sick reminiscences,
can but appreciate the luxury of an open port, fifteen inches in diameter, in each
state-room. Here you can get quarters in rooms, varying from twenty feet square,
at corresponding prices, but all having the one thing needful for health— namely,
fresh air ad libitum, and some suites of rooms with baths and water-closets
attached. We have now surveyed the comforts of the ship. The luxuries consist
of a good table, attention, service, and a most capital band of fifteen pieces, which
sounds the reville in the morning, and the retreat at night ; announces the meals by
bugle-calls, accompanies the dinner below, and then amuses the world above for an
hour or two about sunset, giving the steerage and other passengers a chance, which
they often wait for, to dance upon the broad and even deck. But, asks a timid
friend, how about safety with all this comfort, luxury, and grandeur ? and how
about sea-sickness ? Let us weigh our good ship's qualities in the light of pru
dence and experience. Once at sea, all admit that she is the safest ship that floats.
She is built with wonderful strength and skill, and has stood more tests than any
ship now extant. ^ Any ordinary collision with other vessels could only result in
her favour. She is nearly fireproof, and her fire-engines have lain nightly along
her decks, reducing her danger to almost nothing. A gale of wind at sea is
merely sport to her. In case of breaking down one set of engines, she has, besides
her sails, either her screw or her paddles left. ' But how can she be safe in approach
ing the shore with her unwieldy bulk and great draught of water ? Let those who
saw her go into Queenstown inner harbour before a gale of wind, and turn in her
301

THE "ROYAL CHARTER."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
own length amid the shipping, under the guidance of Captain Paton, as a steed
obeys its rider, say whether she is docile. In truth, the advantages of handling
her in narrow water by turning the screw one way and the paddle the other, makes
her, under skilful hands, more manageable than ordinary sea-steamers. This brings
us to her one admitted fault, counterbalanced by so many virtues — that she draws
five feet more water than a steamer of 3,000 tons, and may thus pick up a new
ledge of rocks or an old sand-bar when the other would go clear. True, she may
again, as she did off Montauk ; and what was the result ? With six holes in her
bottom, one of them one hundred feet long, and one forty feet long, she resumed
her voyage into port, and delivered her passengers unfrightened, her cargo un
damaged. She has, in fact, double bottoms, three feet apart, besides a great
number of compartments, some of which could be filled by ruptures in both her
bottoms without the ship sinking. It would be a long story to tell the patience
and invention which enabled Captain Paton and his officers to repair her bottom
without the help of any dock ; but the same qualities which then got her out of
difficulty gives the best guarantee for ber future safety while he walks 'the
monarch of her peopled deck.' How about sea-sickness ? There is absolutely no
pitch to her in any ordinary gale, an angle of six degrees being the greatest her
decks ever attain fore and aft. Here is one-half the motive cause of sea-sickness
taken out. She rolls with an easier motion than most ships, but still she rolls at
times about as much as smaller ships. On the passage we have had racks on the
table to secure the plates part of two days. Very sensitive people will still some
times be sea-sick on board ; but, with freedom from pitching and from bad smells,
and with the abundance of fresh air, it is difficult to imagine any better security
against nausea than she furnishes. Out of 1,200 passengers a few have been sick;
but a great majority of those who are usually sea-sick are entirely free from it.
Let us now leave these dry details, and revert to the scene which enlivened the
good ship on the 4th of July, 1863. The sky was bright, the sea was blue and
smooth, and most of her passengers were on deck. About noon certain mysterious
bundles were seen rising to her masthead; and, at a signal from Captain Paton,
these unrolled and displayed the glorious stars and stripes upon one mast, and
St. George's red cross on the other, while her cannon thundered forth a national
salute, and the full band gave us the inspiring ' Hail, Columbia.' The salute
ended, two standards were handed — one, the American, to a fine-looking English
man, and the other, English, to a stalwart American ; and the passengers, steerage
and cabin, marched three times round the ship (nearly a mile), led by the band,
playing national airs. A few speeches, good for the shortness, if for nothing else ;
cheers for the flag, for the queen, for the ship, and for Captain Paton, closed this
harmonious festivity. At dinner the best feeling was manifested by all, and much
interchange of courtesy between Americans and English occurred ; but there was
no formal celebration, our energies being reserved for the evening."
Another item of shipping intelligence is the arrival of Captain M'Clintock, in
September, from the Arctic region, whither he had been looking, in the Fox
yacht, for Sir John Franklin and his brave companions, who had sailed there to
prosecute geographical inquiries. Alas ! no living trace of the expedition remains :
they are all dead. Such is the conclusion at which Captain M'Clintock arrives.
He brings home numerous relics, to be religiously preserved.
In November, on the 26th, there is a terrible gale, causing extensive loss of
life and property over England, and on its coasts. A fine new steamer, the Royal
Charter, homeward bound from Australia, is wrecked off the Isle of Anglesey, just
as the passengers had calculated that all danger was past, and that " home, sweet
home" was safely reached. Sad to- say, of a crew and passengers numbering 500,
more than 450 perished in that dark and dreadful storm off that rocky coast.
In foreign matters — with the exception of Italy, to which we have already
alluded — there is little to interest. In July, the island of St. Juan, in the strait
between Vancouver's Island and the Washington territory, is taken possession of by
302

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON.  [sckamyl.
General Harvey, in the name of the United States' government— an assumption
protested against by Governor Douglas, of British Columbia, on behalf ot Great
Britain. .
At Paris, in April, there was a conference of the European powers m reference
to the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. Couza, the new hospodar of
Wallachia, had been previously elected to the hospodarship of Moldavia,_ thus
practically uniting the two principalities under one government ; and this, on
certain conditions, was accepted by the sultan.
Schamyl, the heroic leader of the Circassians, is this year betrayed to the
Russians. Concerning this man, so much has been written that is false, that it
is really difficult exactly to ascertain what is really true. It is said he was born in
1797, in the north of the Caucasian district of Daghestan. From his earliest years
he was proud and ambitious, inclined to athletic sports, and trials of skill with his
compeers. A mystic as well as* a soldier, Schamyl soon became a noted man. In
1824, when he first took part in his country's defence, the leader of the Lesghians,
the most warlike of the tribes, was Kasi Mollah. Schamyl became one of his
ardent and efficient followers, and rapidly rose in esteem, on account of his valour
and devotion. For several years the mountaineers defended themselves with
brilliant success; but, in 1831, the Russian general, Van Rosen, assembling a
large army, marched against Koissu, in northern Daghestan ; stormed the reputedly
impregnable pass ; drove his enemy from position after position in sanguinary
battles ; and finally threw Kasi Mollah and his Murids back upon Himry. The
Russians surrounded the place ; and the besieged fought their last battle. Kasi
Mollah and his Murids were all slain. Schamyl, pierced by two balls, fell at his
leader's feet. From this critical predicament he managed, nevertheless, to escape in
time to be present at the first meeting of the discomfited tribes, held after the
battle. In 1836, he was elected Kasi Mollah's successor. In 1837, he inflicted on
the army of General Iweletsch the most serious defeat, until then, sustained by the
Russians. In the same year, with a handful of men, he defended Tiliboa so success-
, fully against 12,000 Russians, under General Hafi, that they, in spite of partial
success, had to make a precipitate retreat. The result was, that a division which
had heretofore existed was healed, and tbat Schamyl was universally recognised
as leader. The Czar Nicholas now visited the Caucasus; and preparations were
multiplied on either side. The Russians had this advantage — that they had com
pletely hemmed in the enemy in his mountainous territory : nevertheless, he evaded
them, and often inflicted on them considerable loss by his attacks. In 1839,
Schamyl was placed in extreme danger while defending the castle redoubt of
Akhoulogo, against General Grabbe. Fifteen hundred of his Murids fell, and 900
were taken prisoners : yet, when the battle was over, Schamyl was nowhere to be
found. The Russians, knowing that he had been present, and believing that they
were masters of all the communications of the place, could not believe that he had
escaped them, until they found themselves attacked in the rear by another force
led by Schamyl in person. These numerous escapes have contributed to exalt
Schamyl, among the great mass of his followers, as a being enjoying the special
favour of Heaven. His mode of warfare was strictly adapted to the nature of the
country in which he operated ; and was essentially defensive, notwithstanding the
frequency of his forays. His personal appearance is thus described :— " He is fair,
with grey eyes and a regular nose. He is a middle-sized man, and a sufferer from
pain in the eyes. His hands, feet, and mouth are small ; and his skin is whiter
than that of his countrymen. His beard is grey."
at. ,T1le y°ung Queen of Portugal died this year, after an illness of only five days.
She had been only a few months married.
Spain, a country that never pays its debts, and is always in disorder, must needs
rush into an unjustifiable war with Morocco. The government of the latter
country energetically protested against the harsh and precipitous conduct of Spain
in commencing hostilities. The protest, which is addressed to the representatives 303

French designs.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
of foreign powers resident at Tangier, and is signed Mahommed le Kalib (the
Morocco Minister for Foreign Affairs), thus concludes — " Our desire is to keep up
the most friendly relation wi/th all nations ; but we renew our protest against the
unjust conduct of the Spanish nation, which does not know how to decide on what
it demands, or how to respect its promises. We appeal to Almighty God, and to
the great and powerful governments of Europe and America ; we appeal to all men
who in this world follow the path of justice, and who judge the rights of others
without having recourse to force. We put our trust in God, praying Him to
regard us with a favourable eye. We calmly await the course of events, and we
shall act in such a way that no one shall be able to reproach us : all the evil will
come from our enemies. Peace be with you."
As regards our illustrious ally, the French emperor, there was still, in England,
a considerable amount of uneasiness. We were alarmed at the ease with which
France suddenly despatched an immense army to Italy. The sudden peace of
Villafranca brought with it fresh suspicions ; and in parliament, and in the press,
there certainly was displayed but little cordiality towards France.
On the 21st of August, the session of the council-general was opened. On
taking his seat as president of the Pay de Dome, Count de Morny especially
adverted to the warlike speeches in the English parliament, the articles of a similar
tendency in the English newspapers, and the volunteer movement. These things
were justified, he said, in England by the tone of the French press, which was
alleged to be that of the French government ; and he represented the English as
saying, that " the emperor retained, at the bottom of his heart, the desire to
avenge Waterloo and St. Helena ;" and that he had only concluded peace with the
Emperor of Austria, as he had previously done with the czar, to render Francis
Joseph his friend, and an enemy of England. The count denied all this. He told
his hearers, that when he went as ambassador to Russia, his instructions were, " not
to let any encroachment be made on the English alliance." And the subsequent
acts and objects of the emperor had been equally misrepresented: but, he said,
" time, and the determination of the emperor to lead France into the occupations
and labours of peace," would, he doubted not, triumph over chimerical fears. " The
only war to be made on England was a manufacturing and commercial war." The
only conflict between tbe two nations was to be one of progress and civilisation ;
loyal, avowable, and which would be advantageous to all. That was what the
emperor desired ; and he called on his hearers to second the efforts of his majesty.
On the same day, another of the emperor's friends, M. de la Guerronniere, president
of the council-general of the Haute Vienne, endeavoured to lessen the disgust
which was expressed in many quarters at the preliminaries of Villafranca. He
described the agreement between the two emperors as a fitting sequel to the
victories gained by the French armies. " It tore," he said, " one of the most mourn
ful pages of the treaty of 1815." It changed and reformed the conditions of the
balance of power in Europe, and secured for France a preponderance which Louis
XIV., notwithstanding the sword of Turenne, and the genius of Colbert, could not
accomplish. The feeling of distrust in this country still existing, four Liverpool merchants
— Messrs. Shaw, Irving, Mellor, and Blackwell — had the impudence, or ignorance,
to address a letter to the French emperor, requesting to know " what were his
intentions with respect to England." M. Mocquard, the private secretary of the
emperor, replied to this missive in his majesty's name, on the 30th of November.
He told the four merchants that, " on the one hand, they were affected with an
imaginary disease, which seemed to have attacked their country like an epidemic ;
on the other, they counted on the loyalty of him from whom they expected an
answer." He assured them that, " up to that moment, there had been no word of
the emperor, or an act, which had permitted a doubt respecting his sentiments,
and, consequently, his intentions towards England. His conduct, irrevocably the
same, had not, for a moment, ceased to be that of a faithful ally. That which he
304

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [fears of france.
had been, he wished to continue to be. In proof of the fact, there was the
approaching community of distant perils between the soldiers (alluding to the
Chinese war) of the two nations."
Still, what Mr. Cobden terms the "panic" went on. The Lords had
originated it: they did not avowedly espouse or defend the cause of Austria; public
opinion was too strong in the opposite direction. But, to " proclaim the danger of
an invasion of England, and thus rouse the hostile passions of the French emperor,"
wrote Mr. Cobden, in his pamphlet on the Three Panics, "operated, to some
extent, as a diversion in favour of his antagonists ; and he is said, by those who
were in a position to be well-informed on the subject, to have been so far influenced
by the hostile attitude manifested in high quarters in this country, that it operated,
among other causes, disadvantageously to the Italian cause, in bringing the cam
paign to a precipitate close." On the 1st of July, the volunteer corps and the
navy estimates became the subject of discussion in the upper House. It seemed
as if we were actually at war with France. Lord Ellenborough called for seventy
line-of-battle ships, but declared that no increase of the navy could, under present
circumstances, protect us against invasion ; that, for "six months in the year, an
enemy may land 60,000 to 80,000 men on any beach on the south coast of
England;" and, with his wonted proneness to strategy, he called for forts to protect
" all the ports and all the roads in which it would be possible for an enemy to
place a fleet with any degree of security, and where he might form tetes-de-pont
that would assist his future operations ;" and he particularly pointed to Portland,
" that port which the late French ambassador went down to reconnoitre, and which
he took the trouble of visiting at the end of last summer, in order to see the parti
cular advantages it possessed. He trusted that whenever that respectable gentle
man went to that port again, he would find it in a better position than when he
saw it last."
Lord Howden, who said " he resided in France, and his social relations were
chiefly in that country," declared that the entire population of that empire were
eager for the invasion of England, regardless of the consequences.
" He did not believe that the idea of conquering this country had ever entered
into the head of any sane Frenchman, any more than any sane Englishman had
ever entertained the notion that we should allow ourselves to be conquered by
France. He felt assured that no Frenchman had ever dreamt of taking possession
of this island ; but he felt almost equally certain that every Frenchman living-
dreamt, both by day and by night, of humiliating this country, and robbing her
of the position which she alone maintained among the nations of Europe — that of
possessing an inviolate soil. Thousands of persons in England scouted the very
thought of an invasion. They asked, ' What is the use of it ?— it could have no
permanent result.' The people of France were aware that it could not ; but then
they did not adopt the same mode of reasoning on the subject. A forlorn hope
might enter some miserable village, inhabited by six fishermen and a ploughboy ;
a bulletin might be signed on British soil, proclaiming the glorious triumph "of
French arms ; the French eagles might stream from every steeple from Acton to
Ealing, and from Ealing to Harrow. The very prospect was enough to throw every
frenchman into a transport of joy, and that, too, though he might be perfectly
aware that not a single one of his countrymen would return home to tell the tale."
But the great speech of the session on this subject, and one which was a nine
days wonder at the clubs, has yet to be noticed. On the 5th of July, Lord Lynd
hurst brought forward the subject of the national defences. He began his argu
ment by repeating the statement of the First Lord of the Admiralty, that
.b ranee exceeded us the year before, in a small proportion, in line-of-battle ships;
but that she exceeded us, in an enormous proportion, in steam frigates." He
brings the two "fleets" into combat in the Channel ; and argues, in case of defeat,
that we have no reserve to prevent an immense military force from being landed
on our shores. The "fleets" are brought also into collision in the Mediterranean 305

m.p.'s alarmed.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.

and elsewhere ; but no allusion is made to the existence of any other than ships of
the line and frigates. He cites Lord Palmerston's " very emphatic words, that
steam has converted the Channel into a river, and thrown a bridge across it;" and
he argues that "a large army may, within a few hours — in the course of a single
night — be landed on any part of our shores." " I know," said he, " from informa
tion which I have received, and the accuracy of which I do not doubt, that the
French are, at the present moment, building steamers for the purpose of transporting
troops, each of which is constructed to carry 2,500 men, with all the necessary
stores. This, therefore, is the description of force which you must prepare your
selves to meet." Pie called for an establishment of 100,000 troops and embodied
militia, and the same number of disembodied and trained militia, " in order to be
prepared for. any emergency which may arise." He avowed that he felt something
like a sentiment of humiliation in going through these details. "I recollect,"
said he, "the, day when every part of the opposite coast was blockaded by an
English fleet. I remember the victory of Camperdown, and that of St. Vincent,
won by Sir John Jervis ; I do not forget the great victory of the Nile ; nor, last of
all, that triumphant fight at Trafalgar, which almost annihilated the navies of
France and Spain. I contrast the position which we occupied at that period with
that which we now hold. I recollect the expulsion of the French from Egypt ;.
the achievement of victory after victory in Spain ; the British army established in
the south of France ; and, last of all, the great victory by which that war was
terminated." Interspersed with these irritating reminiscences were such remarks
as — " I will not consent to live in dependence on the friendship or forbearance of
any country :" " are we to sit supine on our own shores, and not prepare the means
necessary in case of war to resist that power ?" — remarks which, as Mr. Cobden
wrote, " considering our overwhelming naval superiority at. the time, can be com
pared only to tbe act of brandishing a weapon in the face of a friendly neighbour."
In the House of Commons, the great panic speech of the session, as Mr.
Cobden terms it, was that of Mr. Horsman, who, on the 29th of July, brought
forward his motion for raising money, by loan, for completing the necessary works
of national defence, projected or already in progress. The assumption was, that all
other modes of defence, whether by fleets, armies, militia, or volunteers, were in
sufficient. He proposed to borrow a sum of money, which ultimately took the
formidable proportions of from ten to twelve millions, to be expended on fortifica
tions. " Not a moment," exclaimed the honourable gentleman, " must be lost in
making the country safe against every accident ; and until it was so, we must act
as if the crisis were upon us. No human tongue could tell how soon or suddenly
it might arrive ; and that it might still be distant was our good fortune, of which
we should make the most. Every public or private yard should be put into full
work ; every artificer and extra hand should work extra hours, as if the war were
to begin next week. As gun-boats could be built more rapidly than men-of-war,
gun-boats should be multiplied as fast as possible ; as volunteers could be enrolled
faster than the line, they should at once be raised ; as rifles could not be made fast
enough in England, we should renew that order in Belgium, even though they
should cost sixpence a piece more than the Horse-Guards' regulation ; and night
and day, the process of manufacturing, constructing, arming, drilling, should go on
till the country was made safe ; and then we might desist from preparations, and
return to our peace expenditure, with the certainty that these humiliating, lower
ing, and degrading panic-cries of invasion would never disturb our country or our
government again."
Yet, after all, we were not so badly off. In a subsequent debate on the
national defences (5th August), Lord Palmerston said — " I hold that, in the event
of war, we could put into the field something little short of 200,000 fighting-men.
We have the regular force of, I hope, not less than 60,000 men. Then we have the
militia, the establishment of which is 120,000 men; and if that militia be
well recruited and supplied — as, in the event of emergency, I am sure would
306

a.d. 1859.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the volunteers.
be the case — I reckon upon 100,000 there. Then we have 14,000 yeomanry ;
12,000 or 14,000 pensioners; and then Ave have those men who have served
their ten years, with whom my right honourable friend, the Secretary for
War, proposes to deal to-night. We have, also, always at home a certain force
of marines; and we could, if we chose, reorganise, our dockyard battalions for
the defence of those establishments. Putting all these forces together, I say that
an enemy contemplating an attack upon us, must reckon upon not less than
200,000 men to resist him."
Outside the walls of parliament, the panic took the more sensible form of the
establishment of the rifle corps movement — a movement which has for its aim,
" Defence, not defiance ;" which has rendered us secure at home ; and which has
done much to add to the manliness of a public hitherto too much absorbed in
business or sedentary pursuits. Not only were special meetings called to forward
the object, but at every public gathering, whatever its origin or purpose, the topic
was sure to be obtruded. Especially was it so at the Agricultural Society's meet
ings, whose orators, instead of descanting on the rival breeds of cattle, or the various
kinds of tillage, discussed the prospects of an invasion, and the best mode of dealing
with the invaders. " How much will you charge the French for your corn Avhen
they land ?" cried one of his audience, to a sturdy Somersetshire yeoman, who was
on his legs addressing them ; and his reply — " They shall pay for it with their
blood" — elicited rounds of applause. The assumption everywhere was — founded on
the declarations made in parliament — that France was surpassing us as a naval
power. In the language of Mr. Cobden — who may be taken as a witness to
the feeling of the time — the ambitious designs of the third Napoleon were discussed
in language scarcely less denunciatory than that which had been applied to his
uncle fifty years before. To doubt his hostile intentions was a proof of either want
of patriotism or of sagacity : had not venerable peers proclaimed their alarm ; and
would they have broken through their habitual reserve without sufficient cause ?
And did not successive governments make enormous additions to our navy estimates :
they were in a position to command exclusive information ; and was it likely,
unless they had positive proof of impending danger, that they would have imposed
such unnecessary expense on the country ? This last appeal was quite irresistible ;
for the good British public defer, with a faith amounting to superstition, to the
authority of official men. All this tended to throw the odium of our increased
taxation on the emperor, who was supposed to personify our national danger ; and
the ominous words were sometimes heard — " We had better fight it out." Such
was the state of fear, irritation, and resentment in which the public mind was
thrown towards the close of 1859 ; and probably at no previous, time, within the
experience of the present generation, had an accident afforded the occasion, would
the country havebeen so resigned to a war with France.
Happily, owing to the wisdom of their rulers, no such terrible catastrophe as
war between France and England occurred. Happily, also, the volunteer move
ment took root, and prospered, and became a permanent institution. It began by
*e™ral corps offering their services, in 1859, under the old act of George III. In
lSbd, the volunteer force was returned at 159,000— a number, perhaps, less than
was at one time anticipated; but sufficiently large to provide, with the addition of
tne regular army, for the defence of the country, and to preserve us from the dis
graceful panics with which it had been our habit periodically to fall. When Lord
raimerston s administration came into office, there were thirteen corps established.
ineir services were offered gratuitously, and they received no arms or ammunition.
nrst step taken by Lord Herbert towards granting the volunteers assistance,
was tue otter to supply from 15 to 25 per cent, of the rifles and ammunition.
Ultimately the whole of the rifles used by the volunteers were supplied from the
government stores. Other steps were taken, with a view to promote the efficiency
or tne torce; but still no pecuniary aid was given. In 1862, a commission was
appointed to consider the state of the volunteer organisation; and they recom-
307

GOVERNMENT AID.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1859.
mended a grant of money, to which parliament readily assented ; and government
resolved to give every man of the Light Horse Engineers and Rifle Volunteers, who
should come up to the prescribed standard of efficiency, 20s. a year ; and if he
should go through the appointed course of ball-practice, 10s. a year in addition.
To every efficient artilleryman, 20s. more is also given ; and for certain other
requirements, 10s. additional. In 1862, the vote taken on behalf of the force was
£122,888; in 1863, £321,884 — a sum the nation does not, nor need not, grudge.
It is not too much for an army of 159,000. We are not an aggressive people.
We have no designs against the happiness, the freedom, or the -prosperity
of other nations. All we ask is, that our soil may be preserved from the tread of
the invader ; that our commerce may be secure ; that the sanctity of our hearths
and homes may remain undefiled : and thus is it that the volunteer movement is
the most popular movement of the day ; that we all rush to its annual reviews on
Brighton Downs; that in its friendly rivalries we rejoice, and find that, like Barry
Cornwall's far-famed Trinity ale — " When rightly understood,
It promoteth brotherly neighbourhood."
In the good old days the English were the first bowmen of Europe. At the
battle of Hastings our Anglo-Saxon forefathers learnt a lesson which they took
care not to forget. From that period the English archers began to rise in repute,
and, in course of time, proved themselves, by their achievements in war, both the
admiration and terror of their foes. The exploits of other nations were thrown
into the shade. The great achievements of the English bowmen, which shed lustre
upon the annals of the nation, extended over a period of more than five centuries.
All the youth and manhood of the yeomanry of England were engaged in the
practice of the long bow. We were at that time a nation of volunteers. Hence
sprang the large bodies of efficient troops, ready for the service of their country.
These men were not a rude undisciplined rabble, but were trained and disci
plined to deal their arrows with terrible effect. Some few places still retain names
which tell us where the bowmen used to assemble for practice — as Shooter's Hill, in
Kent; Newington Butts, near London; and St. Augustine Butts, near Bristol.
Many of the noble and country families of Great Britain have the symbols of
archery on their escutcheons. There are also existing families who have derived
their surnames from the names of the different crafts formerly engaged in the
manufacture of the bow and its accompaniments. As, for instance, the names of
Bowyer, Stringer, Arrowsmith, &c. If we refer to our language, there will be
found many phrases and proverbial expressions drawn from, or connected with,
archery ; some suggesting forethought and caution — as, "Always have two strings to
your bow;" it being the custom of military archers to take additional bowstrings
with them into the field of battle: "Get the short hand of your adversaries ;:'
" Draw not thy bow before the arrow be fixed ;" " Kill two birds with one shaft."
In speaking of a man's evil designs recoiling upon himself, they expressed it as,
" To outshoot a man in his own bow." " He shoots wide of the mark," represented
a foolish guess. "A fool's bolt is soon shot," was the way in which they
described vague and silly conversation. It, was said of braggarts, "Many talked of
•Robin Hood who never shot with his bow." Our ancestors also expressed libe
rality of sentiments, and their opinion that merit belonged exclusively to no par
ticular class or locality, by the following pithy expressions : — " Many a good bow
besides one in Chester ;" and " An archer is known by his aim, and not by his
arrows." And the result was, we never feared invasion. Those were not the times
when old ladies were frightened out of their night's sleep. Every Englishman
was a free, a ready, and a fearless soldier. The foe might growl at a distance, but
he never dared to touch our shores, to plunder our cities, to massacre our smiling
babes, and to do outrage worse than death to our English maidens : and thus it
308

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the french treaty.
will continue to be, now that the bow has been superseded by the rifle, when our
lads of public spirit respond to the poet's appeal —
" Form ! riflemen, form !'

CHAPTER XV.
PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION, AND THE FRENCH TREATY OF COMMERCE.
In the letter of the Paris correspondent of the Times, dated December 22nd, 1859,
and which appeared in that journal of the 24th, a conversation between an English
man and a Frenchman was reported, which we are told did not at first excite much
attention. The Englishman, without entertaining them himself, was described as
drawing the attention of the Frenchman to the feelings so prevalent in England,
that France entertained bad intentions towards that country. As particular facts
denoting those intentions, " the development given to the French navy, out of all
proportion to the requirements and greatness of the country ;" " the building
iron-plated ships at Toulon," and, " at Nantes, hundreds of flat-bottomed- boats ;"
the large suppUes of coal which had been imported, and the activity at the arse
nals, were insisted upon by the Englishman. The Frenchman explained them all.
First, ignoring " the supernumerary" and " extraordinary" credits which had every
year been added to the sums voted in the budget, he pointed out, " that not a
centime could be expended without the vote of the legislative body, and the pre
vious examination of the council of state ;" and that the sums voted "indicated no
excessive expenditure on the part of government." With respect to the navy, it
had been directed by a royal ordinance of November 22nd, 1846, that the naval
force on the peace establishment should comprise 328 ships, of which forty were to
be of the line, and fifty frigates. When the great superiority of steam over sailing-
vessels became manifest, the emperor, in 1855, named a commission, under the
presidency of Admiral HameUn, to fix the basis of the new fleet necessary for
France. The commission reported in favour of transforming the sailing ships into
steamers. It was calculated that thirteen years would be required to complete
the transformation ; and an extraordinary credit for the navy, of 17,000,000 francs
per annum, was voted for the thirteen years. At that moment they had thirteen
ships of the line and thirty-five frigates to build, to complete the peace establish
ment fixed by Louis Philippe. As to the plated vessels, which were claimed as an
invention of the emperor, they were merely an experiment ; and transports were
building, because the merchant navy was not sufficiently developed to enable the
government to procure steam transports when needed. As to the flat-bottomed
boats, they were intended, when the English ministry seemed disposed to make
coals a contraband of war, to promote the internal communication. French coals
were brought to Nantes, and had to be taken to Brest by canals ; and the boats
were intended to facilitate the transfer over the docks. As to the quantity of
coals purchased and imported, they were required to supply the fleet in China, and
in other parts of the globe ; and the activity in the arsenals was the result of that
state of transformation which the artillery as well as the ships had to undergo.
Ihe Englishman thanked his companion for the information, and said he would
turn it to account. It turned out that the Englishman was Mr. Cobden, and the
trenchman the emperor himself.
It had occurred to Mr. Cobden, as it had done to Mr. Pitt before him, that a
commercial treaty with France would tend to perpetuate peace and good-will
between that great country and ourselves. " He had frequently," says his biogra
pher, " talked over this idea with other illustrious free-traders, especially with such
309

ALARM IN FRANCE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.
men as Michel Chevalier, the distinguished French political economist, and Mr.
Bright : and the latter publicly expounded it, and urged its adoption, in a speech
delivered shortly after the formation of the ministry in 1859. Chevalier, when he
read this speech, wrote to Cobden, stating his belief that the time was now ripe
for the completion of the idea which had formed so frequent a subject of their
mutual converse and their dearest hopes. He also declared that the co-operation
of the emperor Avas certain. This was a great encouragement to Cobden, and he
resolved to set about the task. He communicated his plans to Mr. Bright, and
the two proceeded to Hawarden Castle, the seat of Sir Stephen Glyn, a relative of
Mr. Gladstone, and whom the latter gentleman was then visiting. Mr. Gladstone
accorded at once his warmest approval. Cobden then waited upon the Premier,
who also sanctioned the enterprise ; and the former proceeded at once to Paris, to
commence the execution of his difficult but glorious task." The negotiation was
long and protracted. In France, a land thoroughly devoted to the doctrine of
protection, there were enormous difficulties to be overcome ; but the French em
peror, it seems, had made up his mind on the subject ; and, such being the case,
every obstacle in time gave way.
The first indication of the emperor's intention was given in a letter, which, on
the 5th of January, he addressed to the Minister of State. In this letter his
majesty said, that "notwithstanding the uncertainty which still reigned upon cer
tain points of foreign policy, it was easy to predict with confidence a pacific solution ;
and the moment had arrived when they could occupy themselves with giving a
great impulse to the different branches of the national riches. * * * For a
long time the truth had been proclaimed that it was necessary to multiply the
means of exchange to render commerce flourishing; that, without concurrence,
industry would remain stationary, and keep up those high prices which opposed
the increase of consumption ; and that agriculture itself, which prospered industry
and developed capital, would remain in its infancy." It was therefore necessary to
" develop successively the elements of public prosperity, only taking care to ascertain
within what limits the state ought to follow the different interests, and what order
of preference it ought to accord to each. Before developing their foreign commerce
by the exchange of products, agriculture must be ameliorated, and assisted with
capital to carry on its works of drainage, and industry must be freed from those
internal burdens- Avhich placed it in an inferior position. * * * As 160,000,000
francs of the war loan remained unexpended, the legislative body would be asked
for authority to employ that sum in public works, and also to sanction the follow
ing measures: — The suppression of, duties upon wool and cottons, and their
gradual reduction upon sugars and coffees ; an improvement in the means of com
munication ; a reduction of the duties upon canals, and, as- a consequence, a
general lowering of the cost of transport; to advance loans to agriculture and
manufactures ; to undertake Avorks of public utility ; to suppress prohibitions ; to
conclude treaties of commerce with powerful foreign nations. These measures, it
was anticipated, would multiply the means of exchange. The successive reduction
of duties on articles of great consumption would then be a necessity ; as also the
substitution of protective duties for the prohibitive system which limited their
commercial relations."
The appearance of this letter caused the greatest consternation among the
French manufacturers, all of Avhom were the supporters, not merely of high protec
tive, but of prohibitive duties on foreign goods. At Rouen they threatened to
discharge their Avorkmen; and such was the outcry raised, that, on the 18th of
January, it was announced in one of the semi-official papers, that the protective
and prohibitive duties would not be abolished before July, 1861, Avhen they would
be replaced by protective duties of 30 or 35 per cent. ; and that before taking any
definitive resolution, the emperor would hear the opinion of the principal manu
facturers. In many of the commercial towns, such as Bordeaux and Havre, the
emperor's letter had a different effect. In those places, the announced abandonment
310

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [treaty of commerce.

of prohibition, and the expected improvement of commerce, gave rise to great
rejoicings, and banners were displayed as if a great victory had been gained.
On the 23rd of January, the commercial treaty was signed, and was considered
very favourable to France. Whilst England agreed, as soon as the ratifications
were exchanged, to admit all French produce and manufactures free of duty,
except wines and brandies (the duties on which were to be reduced), France con
tinued her prohibitive duties until October, 1861, except on coal and iron, and raw
materials ; and then ad valorem imposts, not to exceed 30 per cent., were to be
substituted. Coal and iron, so much wanted in France, were to be admitted
immediately at reduced duties ; and England bound herself not to prohibit the
export of the former article. Raw materials were to be admitted duty free, after
July, 1861. The treaty was unpopular in both countries; and there was great
difficulty in settling the details, and apportioning the duties, which was done by
MM. Rouher and Chevalier on the part of France, and Mr. Cobden on the part of
England, assisted by committees of the various manufacturing interests. The
treaty was to continue in force ten years.
After the successful completion of the French treaty, Lord Palmerston, on
the part of her majesty, offered to Mr. Cobden a baronetcy, and a place in the
Privy Council. Cobden declined the hereditary rank and the personal honour.
He was contented with having performed his duty, and earning the eulogium
passed upon him in parliament by Mr. Gladstone, who, in explaining and defending
the commercial treaty, said — "With regard to Mr. Cobden, speaking, as I do,
when every angry passion has passed away, I cannot help expressing our obligations
to him for the labour he has, at no small personal sacrifice, bestowed upon a
measure which he, not the least among the apostles of free trade, believed to be
one of the most memorable triurhphs free trade has ever achieved. Rare is the
privilege of ahy man, who having, fourteen years ago, rendered to his country one
signal and splendid service, now again, within the same brief span of life, decorated
neither by rank nor title, bearing no mark to distinguish him from the people
whom he loves, has been permitted to perform a great and memorable service to his
sovereign and his country."
In the House of Commons, the discussion on the treaty was very vehement.
It was gallantly defended, however, by Lord Palmerston, Milner Gibson, Mr.
Gladstone, and many others. In introducing it to the House in his budget speech
of February 10th, Mr. Gladstone said —
" I will not affect to be unaware that many objections have. been stated to
this treaty. It has even been said that its terms indicate a subserviency to France,
and involve a sacrifice of British interests to those of foreign nations, or of a
foreign government. Sir, I am thankful to think that no ministry, be its o.Avn
merits, or be the distinction of its chief what they may, can, in this country, hold
office for a single Session upon terms involving subserviency to any foreign power
whatsoever. There is, with us, a perfect security for the honour of the country (to
omit all mention of any other guarantee) in the nature and in the traditions of
the two houses of parliament. But, sir, I know not what is meant by subserviency
to France as regards the articles of a treaty like this. We have given to France,
in the proper sense of the term, nothing by this treaty, if I except some apparent,
but very trifling, fiscal sacrifices which we are to make with respect to the single
article of brandy. I mean that, perhaps, it might not be necessary for our pur
poses to reduce the duty to quite so low a point as is fixed by the treaty ; and
therefore there might be a question whether, in that form, there may be a con
cession of some infinitesimal advantage. But with that small, and, I believe,
solitary exception, we have given nothing to France, by this treaty, which we have
not given with as liberal a hand to ourselves. And the changes here proposed, are
changes every one of which deserves the acceptance of the House on its own
merits, in conformity with all the principles that have been recognised and acted
upon for many years past by the legislature. 311

MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.

" But further, sir, as respects the charge of subserviency to France, I know
that this, treaty may be said to bear a political character. The commercial relations
of England and France have always borne a political character. What is the
history of the system of prohibitions on the one side and on the other, which
grew up between this country and France? It was simply this — that finding
yourselves in political estrangement from her at the time of the revolution, you
followed up and confirmed that estrangement, both on the one side and the other,
by a system of prohibitory duties. And I do not deny that it was effectual for its
end. I do not mean for its economical end. Economically it may, I admit, have
been detrimental enough to both countries ; but for its political end it was
effectual. It was because it was effectual that I call upon you to legislate now for
an opposite aim, by the exact reverse of that process. And if you desire to knit
together in amity these two great nations, whose conflicts have so often shaken the
world, undo, for your purpose, that which your forefathers did for their purpose,
and pursue, with equal intelligence and consistency, an end that is more bene
ficial. " I do not forget, sir, that there was a time once when close relations of amity
were established between the governments of England and France. It was in the
reign of the later Stuarts : it marks a dark spot in our annals ; but the spot is
dark because the union was a union formed in a spirit of domineering ambition
on the one side, and of base and most corrupt servility on the other. But that,
sir, was not a union of the nations, it was a union of the governments. This is
not to be a union of tbe governments apart from the countries ; it is, as we hope,
to be a union of the nations themselves ; and I confidently say again, as I have
already ventured to say in this House, that there never can be any union between
the nations of England and France except a union beneficial to the world ; because,
directly that either the one or other of the two begins to harbour schemes of selfish
aggrandisement, that moment the jealousy of its neighbours will be aroused, and
will beget a powerful reaction ; and the very fact of their being in harmony, will
of itself be, at all times, the most conclusive proof that neither of them can be
engaged in meditating anything which is dangerous to Europe.
" There is another class of objections, of which I do not complain, but which,
nevertheless, I hope to remove. There are those who say that a commercial treaty
is an abandonment of the principles of free trade. Well, certainly a commercial
treaty would be an abandonment of the principles of free trade, in the latitude in
Avhioh we now employ that phrase, if it involved the recognition of exclusive
privileges, or if it were founded on what I may call haggling exchanges. In this
sense, I admit that Mr. Pitt's commercial treaty would, if we had now adopted it
in the precise terms in which it was expressed, have been, on our part, if not an.
abandonrhent of free trade, yet a retrogression rather than an advance ; but, at
the same time, I cannot mention that treaty without saying that I think it was,
for the time at which it was made, one of the very best, and one of the very wisest
measures ever adopted by parliament, and that it has contributed, at least as
much as any other passage of his brilliant career, to the fame of the great states
man who introduced it. We, however, have no exclusive engagements ; we have
not the pretence of an exclusive engagement. France is perfectly aware that our
legislation makes no distinction between one nation and another ; and that what
Ave enact for her, we shall, at the same time, enact for all the Avorld. Nor have we
affected to be undertaking burdens in exchange for benefits ; we have dealt with
s the stipulations of the treaty, subject to the slight exception I have named, as
being, on both sides, only beneficial throughout.
" I am, hoAvever, a little surprised at the number and variety of these objec
tions, which come rushing from all quarters. It is like the ancient explanation of
the physical cause of a storm, which taught, by the poet's mouth, that all the
winds — north, east, west, and south — come rushing together upon a single point —
" ' Una eurusque notus que ruunt creber que procellis Africus.'
312

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [french treaty.
" Sometimes we are told that a treaty is an obsolete and antiquated idea; some
times that it is a dangerous innovation. In the view of one class, it is an abandonment
of free trade. There are also men of another class, holding opinions diametrically
at variance with these ; and they are gentlemen with whom we shall have much
difficulty in dealing. These are they who find fault with it ; and that, I must say,
is by far the soundest objection, inasmuch as it is, unquestionably, founded on the
facts, because it is an abandonment of the principle of protection. This treaty is
an abandonment of the principle of protection. I am not aware of any entangling
engagements which it contains. It certainly contains no exclusive privilege ; but
it is an abandonment ofthe principle of protection ; and a means, I hope, tolerably
complete and efficacious, of sweeping from the statute-book the chief among such
relics of that miscalled system as still remain upon it."
The Chancellor of the Exchequer unfolded his plan, which included a proposal
for an extension of the license system to refreshment-houses for the sale of wines ;
the abolition of the duty on paper, and on numerous other articles ; the renewal
of the income-tax, at tenpence in the pound on incomes above £150, and seven-
pence in the pound on incomes above £100 ; also other measures : and a fierce
contest ensued.
On February 20th, on the motion for going into committee on the Customs'
Act, Mr. Disraeli moved an amendment — " That this House does not think fit to
go into committee, on the Customs' Act, with a A'iew to the reduction or repeal of
the duties referred to in the treaty of commerce between her majesty and the
Emperor of the French, until it shall have considered and assented to the engage
ments in that treaty." This amendment was supported by Sir Hugh Cairns, Sir
F. Kelly, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Ayrtoun, Mr. Malins, Mr. S. Fitzgerald, and Mr.
Horsman ; and opposed by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Attorney-general,
Mr. Bright, Lord John Russell, and Lord Palmerston ; and, on a division, was
negatived by 293 to 230 votes. Nor was this the only attempt made to defeat the
measure. On February 21st, Mr. Du Cane moved the following resolution: —
" That this House, recognising the necessity of providing for the increased expendi
ture of the coming year, is of opinion that it is not expedient to add to the
existing deficiency by diminishing the ordinary revenue ; and is not prepared to
disappoint the just expectations of the country, by reimposing the income-tax at
an unnecessarily high rate." The discussion was continued for three nights. On
the third the government gained a "decisive victory. The numbers were — for Mr.
Du Cane's motion, 223 ; against, 339.
Subsequent events have confirmed the expectations of those who, in a spirit
of enlightened patriotism, planned, and supported, and carried the commercial
treaty with France. Fortunately, Mr. Cobden lived to see all the morose ' vatici
nations, both of French and English opponents, disappointed. " He lived," writes
his biographer, " to hear from his antagonists their own candid confession of their
error ; and the French manufacturing classes, who were, five years before, the most
protectionist body in Europe, not only vied with the English people in their expres
sion of sorrow at Cobden's death, but it was a common saying of English travellers
to France, in the spring and early summer of 1865, that they actually believed the
mourning for Cobden occupied more deeply the French bosom than the English.''
As years roll away, the good effects of the beneficent treaty, on both sides of the
Channel, will be better appreciated and understood.
Meanwhile, we must state, that, from papers published by authority, we find
that the exports of the French manufactures increased, by important but sober
gradations, from 2,266,400,000 francs in value, at which they stood in 1859, the
year before the French and English treaty, to 2,924,000,000 in 1864, being an
increase of 657,800,000 francs. Descending to the details, we perceive that the
cotton, linen, and woollen manufactures, which it was said would suffer most, haye
not only maintained a regular increase, but, in certain cases, made a startling
progress. In respect to these articles, it would have, perhaps, been more satisfac-
TOL. II. y 313

result of the treaty.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.

tory if the writer of these papers had 'assigned the proportion of allowance that
must be made for increased prices in judging of increased exports by increased
values. But, on the other hand, it is to be remembered that the increase of prices,
owing to the American war, greatly checked the natural development of trade. In
this period, however, of unexampled disturbance, the cottons exported amounted
to 26,000,000 francs more in 1864 than in 1859. So in linens, although for these
goods France has to import from Belgium and England the raw material, the
increase of French exports in the same period was 9,000,000 francs, or more than
one-half. Since 1859, also, the woollen industry,' which was to be utterly annihi
lated, has nearly doubled, and the figures with respect to yarns are equally remark
able. In metals France is less richly endowed than any other country in Europe ;
but although she has to import the raw material, her metallic exports rose in the
five years 1,500,000 francs ; and that part of them which consisted of machinery,
increased no less than 2,700,000 francs. And in all these cases, it is to be remem
bered that the amount of exports in 1859 was considerably above the average. In
chemicals and in fish (about which great fears were entertained), the result was
quite as encouraging.
On the whole, the effect of the treaty was, " by the removal of encumbrances
(some of which, being indirect in their pressure, were not assignable with precision),
to enlarge the extent to which France was able to meet competition, not only in
her own, but actually in foreign markets, to an extent and with a rapidity that
the most sanguine expectations could hardly have realised." The more precise
question, as to whether Great Britain has, in a peculiar manner, profited to the
detriment of France, is settled by figures, which show that the increase of French
exports to Great Britain is quite as great as the general increase in the totals. In
linen alone there is an infinitesimal decrease. In woollens, French exports to this
country have increased from 39,178,000 francs to 98,512,000; in cottons, from
5,742,000 to 12,671,000; in metal goods, from 4,395,000 to 8,912,000; in yarns,
from 406,000 to 8,842,000 ; and in fish, from one million of francs to three.
As the budget of the new year was the greatest free-trade budget since the
time of Sir Robert Peel, it will not be out of place here to give a few figures from
a paper published by the Board of Trade, and which abundantly testify to the
blessings accruing to England and her commerce from the liberal commercial
policy of late years. It appears that the exports of 1842 were but little in excess
of those of the previous thirty years; but while, in 1842, our exports of home
produce were worth £113,841,802, in 1865 they were worth £363,067,112. Our
imports, in the same period, rose from £65,253,286 to £181,806,048. Then taking
our exports of foreign and colonial produce, we find they increased in real value
from £18,636,366 in 1842, to £52,995,914 in 1865. The increase of articles of
food imported tells a story quite as agreeable. In 1842, we only imported
8,355 cwts. of bacon and hams; but, in 1865, we received 713,346 cwts. No
horned cattle were admitted in 1842 ; but 283,271 came in 1865. Butter — a good
test of popular plenty — increased from 175,197 cwts. to 1,083,717; eggs, from
under a million, to nearly four; while rice was imported, in 1865, in a quantity
nearly four times as great as when these economical changes began. The quan
tities retained for home consumption of articles still under customs' duties are
equally significant, though we will not trouble our readers with the figures. As to
exports of British manufactures, that of haberdashery is multiplied, between 1842
and 1865, nearly sevenfold ; that of cotton nearly threefold ; earthenware, three
fold; hardware, more than threefold; leather, sixfold; linen yarns, 100 per cent.;
linen manufactures, fourfold; machinery, tenfold; iron and steel, fivefold; tin
plates, fourfold ; silk, fourfold ; woollen yarn, eightfold ; woollen- manufactures,
fourfold. Was there ever a brighter picture? Happily, the navigation laAvs
repeal produced one as bright. British tonnage entered with cargo was 17,413,643
in 1865, against 5,415,821 in 1842; while the foreign tonnage was 7,572,202,
against 1,930,983. The building of ships went on, in 1865, to an extent thrice as
314

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the paper duty.

great as in 1842; and between 1851 and 1865, our steamship tonnage increased
from 186,687 to 823,533. Passing to the excise and customs' duty total, we read,
once aoain, in this document, the happy results on which Mr. Gladstone has so
often congratulated the country.
But we must return to the budget. One part of it contained a clause for the
repeal of the duty on paper — a duty which had been condemned already by a vote
ofthe Commons. "The paper duty," said Mr. Gladstone, "is a bad duty. In
the first place, as a uniform duty on a variable article, how does it operate ? It
presses on the poorer sorts ; and while we find that the duty on fine papers, owing
to the growth of literature, is rapidly increasing, on the coarser sorts it does not
advance. Look, again, at its operation on literature. On dear books, which are
published for the wealthy, it is a very light duty ; on books brought out in large
quantities, by enterprising pubUshers, for the middle and lower classes, it is a very
heavy and a very oppressive duty. I think the committee will admit that it is a
most desirable and legitimate object to promote the extension of cheap literature.
I do not speak of newspapers alone, but of newspapers and periodical publications
in common with aU the other cheap literature which we have seen so greatly
enlarged of late, and the character of which, I am bound to say, since the penny
stamp on newspapers was removed, has been so highly creditable to the con
ductors of what is called the cheap press.
" It is hardly possible to describe adequately, except by an amount of detail
on which I shall not venture, the manner in which the paper duty obstructs
general skill and enterprise. I spoke just now of the production of British and
of spurious -wines. Strange as it may seem, this subject has a point of contact
with the paper manufactures. I am told that, in an inland town, there is a
manufacture of British champagne. It is made from rhubarb ; and the suggestion
has been made, that after the champagne has been extracted from the rhubarb,
the residue of pulp or fibre should be made into paper. That is, or seems to be, a
recommendation. I believe really, and seriously} that whatever grows and has
fibre, might, by skiU and enterprise, probably in course of time, be made available,
in one mode or another, for the purposes of paper, if it were not for the necessary
obstructions offered by the regulations of the excise department.
"But again, what are the purposes to whieh paper is applicable? Not only
those narrow ones with which the ordinary experience of every man makes him
famiUar. I do not think the committee is aware of the enormous variety of pur
poses to which this material may, in one form or another, be applied. I have a
list of sixty-nine trades, in hardly one of which an ordinary consumer of paper
would guess it to be used. For example, it is largely used by anatomical ma
chinists to make artificial limbs ; by telescope-makers ; by boot and shoemakers ;
by cap-manufacturers, for the foundation of caps and hats, forming all the peaks,
and many of the tops, which look like leather; by china and porcelain manufac
turers; by coach-makers; by comb-makers; by doll-makers; by ship-builders.
Again, m making optical instruments ; in pictures and looking-glasses ; in port
manteaus; in Sheffield S00<is and teapots. One manufacturer writes that he has
made panels for doors from paper; and, above all, he looks forward to making-
carnages of paper when the duty shall have been taken off. Another manufac
turer, who is asked into what combinations paper may be made to enter, writes to
me— and 1 think it is a very just and forcible observation—' Who can fix the limit
to ingenious combinations when we see india-rubber, for instance, being made into
strong and durable combs, and other articles of that sort.' ' Only this morning '
he proceeds I was informed that paper pipes are actually made, prepared with
bitumen, and capable of standing a pressure of 300 lbs. of water to the inch.'
lhese are partial, but not uninteresting details ; and I think that to which they bear
consenting witness, is the unbounded expansion of which this trade is capable, and"
the way ii i which we may confer benefits on the working classes, by means of
abolishing the charge; not only because they will get paper cheaper, which must
Y^ 315

THE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.

be of advantage to every man who furnishes a cottage, and who desires to give
some of his rooms an appearance of comfort and neatness, and to every purchaser
of tea and sugar — for into the cost of these, too, it enters when tea and sugar are
wrapped in it — but by putting in motion an immense trade, we shall, I trust, give
a greater and wider stimulus to the demand for the labour of the country. Above
all other benefits, let me say, the great advantage of this change is, in my opinion,
and that of her majesty's government, that we may hereby provide a diffused
demand for labour, and, in particular, a demand for rural labour ; that we shall not
merely stimulate the process for massing people together in great centres of industry,
but the demand for labour all over the country. Where there are streams, where
there are villages, where there is pure and good air, and tolerable access, these are
the places in which the paper manufacture tends to establish itself."
Mr. Gladstone then argued against the possibility of being able to preserve
the harassing and vexatious excise duty on paper. " The heads of the inland
revenue department are completely agreed that there ought to be a repeal of the
duty. I asked the gentlemen whom I may call the agitators against the duty, to
furnish their reasons in a series of short propositions, in order that I might see
how far they could be admitted by the inland revenue. They sent me fifteen
arguments, and I transmitted them to the Board of Inland Revenue. The heads
of that department replied, that two of the propositions were rather in the nature
of general propositions of political economy, upon which they could give no
opinion; but that with regard to all the other thirteen, they agreed with the
agitators. We are warned by the conclusions of that Board, that we cannot reckon
on being able to maintain the duty beyond a certain time. Such are the difficul
ties raised as to what paper is, and what is not paper ; as to what are sheets of
fibrous substance, and what are not, that not only is there the greatest soreness
among the manufacturers, coupled with the sense of injustice that attends capri
cious and unequal law, but the officers of the revenue find it more and more
difficult to perform their duty ; and the maintainers of the law will soon be placed
in the same ridiculous position in which they were placed some years ago, when
they were found unable to say what was a newspaper. In short, as the paper duty-
must sooner or later follow the newspaper stamp, for the honour of the law, and
for the advantage of the state, we say, let it be sooner, and not later ; and we
propose that it should follow now."
On March 12th, Mr. Miles moved an amendment on the paper duty, to the
effect that it was better to reduce the income-tax by one penny in the pound, than
to abolish the paper duties. For the amendment, 192 ; against it, 245. On May
8th, the Abolition Bill was read a third time, and passed by 219 votes to 209.
In the Lords, the repeal of the paper duty was not regarded with a favourable
eye. The peers thought books and neAvspapers were cheap enough ; perhaps they
thought a little learning Avas a dangerous thing. It had been the fashion, in the
upper circles of society, to regard newspapers with a very unfavourable eye. A
heavy advertisement duty was imposed on them ; a prohibitory stamp was levied ;
and the duty on paper rendered it bad and dear. A society for the repeal of these
taxes — commonly called taxes on knowledge — was established, and, in time,
triumphed. First, the newspaper duty was repealed ; the next battle was on the
stamp, now reduced to one penny. A parliamentary committee had reported, in
1851, that news was not a subject for taxation; and thenceforward the agitators
for the repeal redoubled their evidence to show that this duty did serious evil ;
that it was an incentive to ignorance and . drunkenness ; that a free press must be
a good press, and that, in consequence, the intelligence and morality of the
country will improve. Men of great experience in literature, acquainted with the
management of newspapers, with hardly one exception, concurred in stating how
much an unstamped newspaper tended to the moral advancement of the people.
Mr. Whitty, the proprietor of the Liverpool Journal, stated before the com
mittee — " Previous to the reduction of the price of newspapers in Liverpool to
316

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [parliamentary report.
threepence, in 1847 there came into Liverpool about 20,000 of those threepenny
papers weekly ; and the moment that we reduced our prices, and sold at the same
price, of course we had a decided preference, and the result was that we nearly
annihilated that trade; but the trade immediately revived in going up in our
prices again, and is now almost as flourishing as ever it was.
" Then you are of opinion that if newspapers were sold at low prices there
would be few or no bad publications issued ? — Yes, very feAV indeed. That is my
decided opinion after all the reflection that I have given to the subject, and the
exercise of the experience that I have had.
" Can you state to the committee some grounds for that assertion ? — One is
the illustration that I have just given of the effect produced in Liverpool; the
other two illustrations are — first, the unstamped publications driving out the
obscene trash ; and the threepenny papers, which, indeed, have nearly annihilated
all that kind of publications.
" You fancy that a purer taste has been created ? — Yes, the appetite grows by
what it feeds upon ; in fact, newspapers are the only things that people will ever
readr and that they desire to read: for instance, the working people now can read
them only through the public-houses or coffee-houses. In Liverpool we have no
coffee-houses, and they must go to the public-houses, and they get them when
they are very old.
" Does it follow that the taste for good papers is the most prevalent ? — Un
questionably ; we find that good is always preferred by the multitude : in a theatre,
for instance, and even the speeches delivered in parliament, reported in newspapers,
and in literature of every description their taste is natural ; in other and the more
educated ranks, of course, the taste is, to a great extent, artificial — conventional ; it
may be bad or it may be good ; but the taste of the people I apprehend is always
correct. " Some doubts have been entertained as to the effects of cheapness on the
quality ; you seem to think that it would do good ? — Immense ; I should say,
decidedly, that in our own case it improved our paper very considerably; besides,
the very fact of addressing a larger number would have a great influence upon the
writer, as it would have in the same way on an orator : he would exert himself
more, and feel more sympathy ; that was the case I know always with myself."
The beneficial effect of the repeal of the stamp in promoting morality, was
also much dwelt on by Mr. John Cassell.
" The effect of your evidence is this, if I understand you, that it would assist
the objects of all those temperance movements, and those moral and religious
movements, materially, if their monthly organs or class publications were per
mitted to contain news and narratives of passing events ? — Yes ; my opinion is,
that if we are allowed to publish news— and I take it from my own experience —
tor instance, take the temperance movement, here is this periodical coming out
month after month, and it is crammed, from one end to the other, with entirely
temperance news; it is the same subject over and over again : if we could mix up
with this temperance news— letting temperance be its object— general intelligence,
our circulation would be four or five times greater than it is now.
thus, in fact, aiding the cause of temperance? — Yes, most materially; any
one must be aware that an individual, especially amongst the working classes— I
speak irom my own experience, having associated in my earlier days with the
operative classes— a man makes a resolve that he will be temperate, and he has a
great deal to contend with in the workshop ; and it requires something in the shape
of a periodical to stimulate his zeal, and keep him up to high-water-mark."
+1 p t? evidea1ce was also; given by Messrs. Bunting ; the Norwich operative ;
Tneitev. 1 nomas bpencer, the well-khoAvn advocate of social and political reform;
ill H^w°° .' t3?e ^eat Manchester bookseller; W. E. Hickson, late proprietor
of the Westminster Review; Dobson Collett, the secretary of the Society for the
repeal ot the Taxes on Knowledge; and other gentlemen. We make one extract
317

THE LORDS AND THE PAPER DUTY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.

from the evidence of this latter gentleman, to show that, with a cheap press, we
should have it more ably conducted than at present. Sir T. F. Lewis put to Mr.
Collett the following questions : —
" Would a' reduction in the price enable the proprietors of newspapers to pay
more for the literary talent employed ? — Undoubtedly.
"Would they not, by paying more liberally, obtain higher literary talent? —
Yes. I was told by one of the managers of the Weekly Dispatch, that when the
law was altered, and the postage reduced to a penny, they had to recast their
management ; a paper arose at threepence, which contained all the news of the
week; and, in order to compete with that paper, they were obliged to engage writers
of eminence, who wrote articles which no other paper could produce ; and having
done so, their paper is now in as firm a position as it was before."
We could strengthen our case by extending the extracts ; but we have given
enough. The tax as it existed was utterly bad. The post-office was cheated.
Intellectual nutriment was denied the people. The working-man was driven to
the public-house for his newspaper. All who wished well to the people — who
wished to see intelligence and morality increase in the land — demanded the repeal
of the newspaper tax : and it was repealed ; and the last of the taxes on
knowledge would have shared the same fate had it not been for the Lords. On
May 21st, Lord Granville moved the second reading of the Paper Duty Bill,
which was opposed by Lord Monteagle, who moved that the bill be read a second
time that day six months. The amendment was supported by Lord Lyndhurst
and the Earl of Derby. On a division, the numbers were — for the second reading,
present, 90; proxies, 14 : total, 104. Against — present, 161; proxies, 32 : total,
193. Majority against the second reading, 89.
In all parts of the country this act of the Lords was regarded with regret and
dislike. The public knew that Messrs. Chambers, of Edinburgh, had been com
pelled to abandon a cheap and useful publication, which had reached a sale of
80,000, because it did not pay, in consequence of the burden of the paper duty ;
that the same cause had arrested so many of the noble enterprises of Mr. Charles
Knight; that another leading firm had to pay £10,000 a year duty on their
publications. People were convinced, moreover, that the Lords retained this
tax on paper, after it had been abolished by the Commons, by what was
deemed an unconstitutional stretch of prerogative. The friends of cheap know
ledge Avere on the alert. A Constitutional Defence Association was formed, of
which Mr. White, M.P. for Brighton, was chairman. Numerous petitions were
presented to the House of Commons against the aggression of the House of
Lords on the privileges of the House of Commons, by rejecting tbe Paper Duty
Bill. One from Birmingham was signed by 10,000 persons. It seemed as if
there might be an angry collision between the two Houses. However, the matter
Avas settled by Lord Palmerston's moving the following resolutions, which were
ultimately carried : —
" 1. That the right of granting aids and supplies to the crown is in the
Commons alone, as an essential part of their constitution ; and the limitation of
all such grants, as to the matter, manner, measure, and time, is only in them.
2. That, although the Lords have exercised the power -of rejecting bills of several
descriptions relating to taxation, by negativing the whole, yet the exercise of that
power by them has not been frequent, and is justly regarded by this House with
peculiar jealousy, as affecting the right of the Commons to grant the supplies, and
to provide the ways and means for the service of the year. 3. That to guard for
the future against an undue exercise of that power by the Lords, and to secure to
the Commons their rightful control over taxation and supply, this House has in its
own hands the power so to impose and remit taxes, and to frame bills of supply,
that the right of the Commons as to the matter, manner, measure, and time, may
be maintained inviolate."
In the Commons, one more fight was made for dear paper. On August 6th,
318

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [reform.
in debate on the Customs' Act, an amendment was moved by Mr. PuUen, to the
effect that it was not desirable, at present, to take any steps for the reduction of the
import duty on foreign paper. On division, there voted for the resolution, 266 ;
majority against it, 233. We may add here, that in 1861 the paper duty was
quietly repealed.
Another important question agitated now, was that of reform, to which par
liament had been pledged times without number. Lord Palmerston, it may be,
was not an ardent reformer, but he Avas quite prepared to carry a measure of
reform if the House desired it. Accordingly, on March 1st, Lord John Russell
obtained leave to bring in a bill to amend the representation. His lordship said —
"We propose to add to the county franchise an occupation franchise of £10
a year." In the boroughs, the franchise was to be lowered to £6. Lord John pro
posed to deal with the question of disfranchisement as folloAVs : — " The principle of
total disfranchisement is one of very grave importance. It ought not to - be
adopted without some grave and palpable benefit would accrue from it. I cannot
think, therefore, that the abolition of some six or seven, or ten boroughs, leaving
eight or ten others of a similar character, immediately above them in population,
would be a wise or expedient measure. It would evidently create great dissatisfac
tion among those that are disfranchised ; and they would certainly be able to show
that other boroughs immediately above them were much of the same description.
It is a much milder proposition to say, that at the bottom of the scale there are a
certain number of boroughs which may still continue to be represented, but which
are now overweighted in the representation ; and some of these seats should be
given to the more populous towns and larger counties. We therefore propose
that boroughs whose names I will read shall no longer send two members to par
liament. -They are — Honiton, Thetford, Totnes, Harwich, Evesham, Wells, Rich
mond, Marlborough, Leominster, Lymington, Ludlow, Andover, Knaresborough,
Tewkesbury, and Maldon. Thus far, I believe, the list agrees with that contained
in the bill of last year. We go on, however, to reform Cirencester, Huntingdon,
Chippenham, Bodmin, Dorchester, Marlow, Devizes, Hertford, and Guildford — that
gives us twenty-five seats on the Avhole, which would have to be. disposed. of by
parliament. Now we propose that the following counties shall return additional
members — namely, the West Riding of Yorkshire, two additional members. All
the rest which I will read are to return one additional member — namely, the
southern division of Lancashire, the northern division of Lancashire, the county of
Middlesex, the western division of Kent, the southern division of Devonshire, the
southern division of Staffordshire, the North Riding of Yorkshire, the parts of
Lindsey (Lincolnshire), the southern division of Essex, the eastern division of
Somerset, the western division of Norfolk, the western division of Cornwall, and
the northern division of Essex. It will be seen that we do not propose to divide
the West Riding of Yorkshire ; and the reason is, there is a great repugnance in that
vast riding to have its magnificence at all diminished by a partition. There will
thus be fifteen seats given to counties ; of which, though some are of a manufac
turing, others are essentially of an agricultural character. Coming to boroughs,
we propose that Kensington and Chelsea combined shall form one borough, to
r£tu™ two members to parliament ; that Birkenhead, Staleybridge, and Burnley
should, in future, return one member each ; and that Manchester, Liverpool, Bir
mingham, and Leeds, should henceforth return three members each, instead of two.
Ihe House may remember that, upon a former occasion, I made a proposition
which was not very palatable to the House, and which was certainly not popular
in the country— namely, that there should be a division of votes ; in other words,
that where there were three members, each elector should have only two votes.
As that proposition was not very popular— although I think it a fair and just one
—1 shall not attempt to renew it upon the present occasion. * * * * Sir, I
have stated the distribution of seats which Ave propose to make with reference to
counties and boroughs. But there is another seat at our disposal, and we propose
319

national defences.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
to give it to a learned body, which contains within it a sort of representation of
those who are excluded from the older universities. I mean the University of
London." The second reading led to an animated debate, which was again and again
adjourned. On May the 3rd it was read a second time. It was, however, evident
that the opponents of the measure were strong enough to destroy it by delay; and,
accordingly, on the 11th of June, on the motion for going into committee on it,
Lord John Russell intimated to the House that, in consequence of the large
number of amendments proposed by members, and the lateness of the session, it
had been determined by government to withdraw the bill. The order for going
into committee was then discharged. In the upper House, on the motion of
Earl Grey, the peers had already agreed to appoint a select committee tb inquire
into certain matters relating to the representation of the people in the Commons'
house of parliament.
In the midst of all these discussions, the important subject, as it was deemed,
of national defences was not lost sight of. On August 2nd, the plans for new
fortifications were discussed ; and a resolution being moved for raising two millions
for executing the first portion of the plans, Mr. Lindsay proposed an amendment,
to the effect that it is not expedient to enter into a large expenditure on land for
tifications ; but, on August 9th, the bill was read a second time — an amendment, by
Mr. Edwin James, to the effect that further information should be obtained before
proceeding with the bill, having been rejected by 143 to 32. Indeed, the Prime
Minister left no alternative. His speech of July 8th, on the subject, was quite a
panic one. Lord Palmerston said — ¦" Now, sir, as to the necessity for these works.
I think it is impossible for any man to cast his eyes over the face of Europe, and
to see and hear what is passing, without being convinced that the future is not free
from danger. It is difficult to say where the storm may burst ; but the horizon is
charged with clouds which betoken the possibility of a tempest. The committee,
of course, know that. In the main, I am speaking of our immediate neighbours
across the Channel ; and there is no use in disguising it."
The effect of this speech in France was fully equal to that which it created in
England. As Mr. Cobden said— "At that moment, the negotiation of the details
of the commercial treaty with France, upon the liberal arrangement of which
depended the whole success of the measure, was at its most critical and important
stage. The public mind was under considerable misapprehension respecting the
progress of the measure, owing to the systematic misrepresentations which were
promulgated in certain political circles, and by a portion of the press. The British
ministry alone knew that, up to that time, the French government had manifested
a disposition to carry out the details of tbe treaty with even unexpected liberality ;
and they could not have been unaware how important it was at such a juncture, to
preserve a conciliatory tone towards that government. It was at this critical
moment that the speech burst upon the negotiators in Paris. Had its object
been to place the British commissioners at the greatest possible disadvantage,
it could not have more effectually accomplished the purpose. It cut the ground
from under their feet, in so far as the French government had been actuated by
the political motives (apart from politico-economical considerations) of seeking to
strengthen the friendly relations of the two countries, as represented by their
governments. This plea of high state-policy, with which the emperor's govern
ment had met the complaints of the pqwerful interests Avhich believed themselves
compromised by the treaty, was in a moment silenced and turned against itself.
The offensive passages in the speech were instantly transferred to the pages of the
protectionist organs, accompanied with loud expostulations addressed to their own
government. ' You are sacrificing us,' they said, ' in the hope of conciliating the
' political alliance of our ancient rival ; and now behold the reward you are receiving
at the hands of the Prime Minister of England !' These taunts resounded in the
salons of the enlightened Minister of Commerce ; and murmurs were heard even
320

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [SYRIA.

in the palace itself. A profound sensation was produced among all classes by this
speech ; and no other words could adequately express the emotions experienced by
the French negotiators, but astonishment and indignation. Had ' the emperor
seized the occasion for instantly suspending the negotiations, he would have
undoubtedly performed a most popular part ; but on this, as on other occasions,
his habitual calmness and self-mastery prevailed ; and to these qualities must be
mainly attributed the successful issue of the treaty." He did more. Aware of
the doubts which seemed to pervade all classes of English society, he addressed a
letter to Count Persigny, disclaiming any hostile feeling towards this country.
In the meanwhile, in more than one quarter of the globe, the forces of England
and France were acting side by side. In the course of the month of June, the
European public were struck with horror by the receipt of intelligence from Syria
of the massacre of thousands of Christians by the bigoted Mahommedans of the
Lebanon. For a couple of months the frightful Avork was continued. During its
progress Abdel Kader gave an asylum to the consuls, and other persons, and
armed his followers to protect the Christians as far as possible. The represen
tatives of the five great powers assembled ; and, on the 3rd of August, two protocols
were signed between those powers and Turkey : the former agreeing , to send a
military force to restore order in Syria, and the latter assenting to the intervention.
It was at first arranged that aU the powers were, to contribute to the occupying
force; but ultimately only 6,000 French troops were sent, and a French and
English squadron took up its station off the coast. The massacres had ceased
before the French soldiers arrived. On July 31st, Lord Dufferin was sent by the
British government to assist in alleviating the misery there prevailing, and in
bringing about a restoration of security. On the 20th of August, Fuad Pasha, the
commissioner appointed by the sultan to quell the disturbances in Syria, and to
punish the guilty, caused 167 persons, implicated in the massacre, to be publicly
executed at Damascus, of whom 110 members of the police were shot; and fifty-
seven persons were hanged in the most public parts of the city. It was estimated,
that in Damascus alone, during the five or six days of the reign of terror, about
5,500 men, women, and children were massacred ; and that the total number of
persons killed in cold blood by the Druses and Moslems, since the disturbances
broke out, was estimated at 12,000: 163 villages, 220 churches, seven convents
were destroyed; and 200 priests were butchered. Many of those concerned in
these atrocities were sent by Fuad Pasha to Constantinople to be imprisoned, and
put to hard labour. The French soldiers assisted in re-establishing order ; and
their stay in Syria, which was to have ceased in March, 1861, was prolonged, by the
consent of the other powers, to June, when they returned to France.
With China we were again at war, though not through our own fault. By the
treaty of Tien-tsin, it had been stipulated that the French as well as the English
should have liberty, at all times, to travel through all parts of the country ; and
that the treaties concluded with England and France should be ratified at Pekin,
m presence of the ambassadors accredited to the emperor. A small squadron of
J rench and English vessels, acting as a convoy to the ambassadors, proceeded from
bbanghai, in June, 1859, to the Peiho river, on their way to the Chinese capital.
X° ar^vinS °ff the island of Sha-lin-tien, in the gulf of Pecheli, it was ascertained
tnat the Taku forts had been repaired, additional guns mounted, and a strong
lartar lorce stationed there. When the allies attempted to proceed up the river,
tney iound their advance obstructed by barriers placed across the stream. After
spending several days in negotiations without effect, an attempt was made to force
a passage ; but there were only eleven small French and English vessels, with guns
or ngnt calibre ; and after fighting some time they were obliged to withdraw, with
tne loss ot upwards of 600 killed and wounded, and three guns. The ambassadors
ana tne. expedition returned to Hong-Kong; and despatches were sent to the
governments of Europe, by whom reinforcements were immediately despatched,
witn orders to force the passage of the Peiho, and proceed to Hong-Kong. Baron
321

china.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
le Gros and Lord Elgin were deputed, as commissioners from France and England,
to proceed to that city, and conclude a fresh treaty, which was, to include an
indemnity for the additional expenses which the bad faith of the Chinese had
thrown upon the allies. The commissioners embarked in the Malabar, Avhich,
when leaving the port of Galle, in the island of Ceylon, was wrecked : the bullion on
board, the baggage, with the commissioners' credentials and papers were lost ; but the
crew, passengers, and part of the mails were saved. Their excellencies proceeded to
Hong-Kong, where they arrived on the 21st of June. It was then found that the
French contingent was not so strong as that of England by 2,000 men ; and that
a vessel containing their harness had been lost at Amoy. Baron le Gros, therefore,
issued a protest against the expedition proceeding ; but Lord Elgin induced him
to withdraw it. The expedition sailed on the 26th of July, and reached the Peiho
on the 1st of August, when the commissioners established themselves at the village
of Pehtang, where they found the northern and southern forts evacuated. The
troops commenced their march into the interior on the 12th; attacked 'and
captured a fortified A'illage called Tanghoo on the 14th, taking forty-five guns ; and,
on the 21st, they attacked and captured the Taku forts, after a determined
resistance on the part of the Tartar garrison. Count Montauban commanded the
French, and Sir Hope Grant the English forces. The forts were attacked upon a
plan proposed by the latter, against the protest of the former, who declared that he
would wash his hands of all responsibility should the attack fail. The count's
staff were of a similar opinion.
After the capture of the forts, the allies advanced to Tien-tsin, where they
were informed commissioners were waiting to negotiate Avith them. There they
experienced more proofs of the Chinese insincerity. A draft of a convention was
draAvn up, which was to be signed on the 8th of September. When that day
arrived, however, after considerable hesitation, the Chinese officials, who had repre
sented that they had full powers, declared they could not affix their signatures till
the draft had been submitted to the emperor. Lord Elgin and Baron le Gros
immediately broke off the negotiations, and ordered the commander-in-chief to
advance to Tang-chow, on the road to Pekin. Here they defeated the Chinese
army, and took seventy-five guns. The enemy had 600 killed, while the loss of the
allies was small : but an event occurred which cast a great gioom over the army.
Mr. Parkes, the British consul, was entrapped into a discussion with some Chinese
officials at Tang-chow ; and though protected by a flag of truce, he and his com
panions were surrounded by a Tartar force, and carried off prisoners. Mr. Lock
(Lord Elgin's private secretary), Captain Brabazon, Lieutenant Anderson, Private
Phibbs, M. de Norman (attachi to her majesty's legation), Mr. Bowlby (corres
pondent of the Times), the Abbe de Luc, M. l'Escayrac de Lauture (who Avas
on a scientific mission), Colonel Grandchamps, Intendant Debut, M. Arden,
several French soldiers, and eight Sikhs, were taken with Mr. Parkes. Some of
them died from the inhuman treatment they received.
On the 21st of September, the allies advanced in the direction of Pekin, and
a^ain encountered and defeated the Chinese, whose loss was estimated at 2,000
killed and wounded. The next day a flag of truce was sent in from Pekin, with
proposals to reopen the negotiations; but the allied commissioners refused to treat
till the prisoners, so treacherously entrapped, were restored. After halting a short
time to rest, they, on the 5th of October, had advanced so near Pekin, that the
emperor, in great haste, had to quit his capital. On the 6th, the emperor's
summer palace Avas taken possession of by the French, who despoiled it of all its
splendid ornaments and furniture before the English came up. When the latter
arrived they burnt the palace, as a punishment for the violation of a flag of truce.
On . the 8th, another demand was made for the release of the prisoners ; and
Messrs. Parkes and Lock, a Sikh soldier, M. l'Escayrac de Lauture, and four
French soldiers, were sent into the allied camp. On the 12th, five Sikhs and one
French soldier were also allowed to return. The allied army, with its siege-train,
322

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [a remarkable year.
was now concentrated before Pekin ; and the Chinese were informed, that unless the
letters of the convention, drawn up at Tien-tsin, were agreed to, and the gates of
Pekin thrown open, the capital would be bombarded next day. On the 13th,
just before the time allowed had expired, a chief mandarin, Hangchu, announced
that the demands of the allies were acceded to, and the gates of Pekin at their
disposal. The outer and inner gates were immediately taken possession of, and a
portion of the allied force was cantoned on the walls of Pekin.
Two more Sikh soldiers Avere given up by the Tartars on the 14th of October ;
but that was all. The others died of the tortures to which they were subjected,
excepting Captain Brabazon and the Abbe de Luc, who were beheaded by the
order of one of the Chinese generals, .in revenge for a Avound he had received.
The bodies were all restored except that of Captain Brabazon ; and, on the 17th,
they were buried with due solemnity in the Russian cemetery outside Pekin. On
the 24th of October peace was concluded, when the English treaty was signed.
The terms were — a renewal of those agreed to at Tien-tsin in 1858, Avith the addi
tion of articles stipulating the payment of an indemnity for the expenses of the
war, and to the families of the men who had been betrayed and murdered ; opening
the port of Tien-tsin to the trade and commerce of French and British subjects ;
removing the interdict to the emigration of the Chinese to the colonies of the
alUes ; and ceding Cowloon to the British crown, as a dependency on Hong-Kong.
The treaty signed and ratified, the allies left Pekin for Tien-tsin on the 1st of
November, where the troops remained till the middle of 1861. There has been,
however, no further dispute with the Chinese. Indeed,1 in a little while after, we
were astonished to find that we were fighting against the Taepings, on behalf of
our late enemies. In March, 1861, Mr. Bruce arrived at Pekin, to take up his
residence as British plenipotentiary ; and Ave have been on decent terms with China
ever since.
And thus passed away the memorable year 1860. WhateArer we may think
of the legislation of that year, we must all concur in the opinion that it was no
ordinary year in the financial history of the country. It Avas, as Mr. Gladstone
subsequently remarked, " a year in which the House gave its sanction to that great
instrument, the treaty of commerce with France. It was a year in which we
received a remission of our hereditary burdens through the diminution of the charge
on the national debt, such as Ave probably shall never receive again. It was a year
in which the controversy with respect to protection, so long the leading cause of
agitation in the country, and of political disorganisation in this House, may be
said to have been at length officially wound up ; for it closed without leaving on
the statute-book of the United Kingdom one single properly protective duty of
more than nominal amount. It was also a year of the highest taxation, and of the
greatest expenditure, that has ever been known in this country, unless in the midst
of a European war. And, finally, it was a year marked by a succession of
seasons— the spring, the summer, the autumn, and the winter — the most unfavour
able of all with which it has pleased Providence to visit us during the course of
about half a century. The questions, I may further observe, which were decided
in the House during the last session, were questions of no ordinary moment, from
whatever point of view we may regard them. The issue which they raised was no

trifling issue. In the beautiful tragedy of Schiller, Mary, Queen of Scots, is made to
say of herself, 'I have been much hated, but I have been also much beloved;' and I
think 1 may say, with equal truth, that the financial legislation of last year, while
1 do not mean to contend that it was not unacceptable to many, met, as a whole,
with signal support from a great mass and power of public opinion in the country.
iie that as it may, I feel bound to admit, that although the financial proposals of
tne government were, in the last session, fully, minutely, and even keenly
canvassed, they were also fairly, and in no factious spirit, discussed within these
walls. this testimony is true. In our modern history, it is evident 1860 was no
common year. .323

the census.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

CHAPTER XVI.
POPULATION, EDUCATION, AND THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.
The England of Palmerston's old age was very different from that of his youth, as
regards population. In 1861, the census had taken place, and many interesting
facts gathered. The town or village of Birkenhead, at the census of 1801,
numbered 101 persons. After the lapse of sixty years, so rapid has been the
advance in this thriving, vigorous town, that we find the number of inhabitants
to be no less than 51,649 at the last census of 1861. Manchester, with
Salford, sixty years ago, numbered 24,867 inhabitants; by the last census (1861),
the number rose to 441,171, having increased nearly seventeen times in population
during the present century. Cheltenham, within the last sixty years (1801— 1861),
has increased nearly twelve times ; Brighton, nine times ; Merthyr-Tydvil and
Bradford, seven times ; Burnley and Preston, about six times ; whilst Southampton
and Ashton-under-Lyne have increased nearly sixfold their population.
The following cities or towns have quintupled their population during the
first sixty years of the nineteenth century— namely, Liverpool and Blackburn ;
Avhilst Huddersfield, Northampton, and Rochdale, have very nearly added a fivefold
addition. The following cities or towns have quadrupled their population : — Dudley,
Bolton, Stoke-upon-Trent, Birmingham, Sheffield, Swansea, Bury, Leicester, and
Derby. The following have added nearly a fourfold addition in the last sixty years
(1801 — 1861) — namely, Leeds, Gateshead, Plymouth, Stockport, and Walsall.
The following cities or towns have trebled their population : — Wigan, Maccles
field, Ipswich, Oldham, Hull, Newcastle-on-Tyne, South Shields, Dover, Carlisle,
Halifax, Sunderland, London, and Maidstone.
The following have added nearly a threefold addition — namely, Portsmouth,
Chatham, Worcester, Reading, Cambridge, Coventry, Nottingham, and Tyne-
mouth. The following cities or towns have doubled their population in sixty years
(1801 — 1861)— namely, Bristol, Oxford, York, Warrington, Wakefield, Chester,
Norwich, Yarmouth, and Wolverhampton ; whilst Exeter and Bath have nearly
added a twofold as an addition to their population in the present century.
The number of persons residing in the British Islands on the 8th of April,
1861, was 29,058,888. The men in the army, navy, and merchant service, out of
the country, either abroad or afloat, amounted to about 275,900. We may there
fore set down the total population of the United Kingdom, including the Channel
Islands and Isle of Man, this census year, at 29,334,788 ; their distribution being
as follows : —

England and Wales 
Scotland ...
Ireland Islands in the British Seas
At home ...
Out of the country — Army, about
» ' Navy

Merchant seamen, about

20,061,725 3,061,329 5,792,055 143,779
29,058,888 137,000 42,900 96,000

Total United Kingdom  29,334,788
324 -

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the census.

As the population in 1801, when the first census Avas taken, was estimated
at 16,095,000, we find, at the end of sixty years, more than 13£ millions had been
added to the resident inhabitants of the country.
But in this rate of progression there had been a falling off. During the years
1801 to 1831, the rate of increase was more than twice as fast as that shown
by the returns of 1831 to 1861. The principal cause of this falling off is to
be attributed to emigration. Since 1831, nearly 5,000,000' of emigrants had left
the country ; of these, no doubt, some returned, and many were foreigners : but
the number is exclusive of emigrants who embarked in ships, not coming under
the notice of the government inspectors. The fecundity of marriages in this
country is a subject which cannot be fully investigated upon the present imperfect
data ; but we have no reason to believe it is diminishing. The ratio of births
to population exhibits no falling off. In France, it is well known, that while the
¦rate of marriage has increased, the marriages are less prolific.
The females preponderate : yet it is a fact, that in Great Britain, of children
born alive, 105 boys are born to 100 girls ; and the proportion in France is the
same. The males continue to preponderate until their seventeenth year, when the
number of the two sexes are nearly equal. At all subsequent ages the females are
in excess of the males; the change in the proportions being. mainly due to a
difference in degree of dangers to which they are exposed ; to a lower rate of
mortality amongst females, from diseases, as well as from violent causes, and to
emigration. The disparity of the sexes has always been regarded as one of the
least satisfactory conditions of our population ; but in a country where more than
3,000,000 of adult women are withdrawn, more or less, from domestic duties
to follow employments in the different manufactures and trades, the evil is not
without some mitigation. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that, in
Australia and other British colonies, the proportion of the sexes is unfortunately
reversed to such an extent as to render a well-organised system of female emigra
tion extremely desirable. In Scotland, the excess of females is still greater. The
Scotch are an emigrating people ; their love of adventure and independence
distributes them over the face of the earth ; and as the Scotchman goes forth alone,
the resident population contains an undue proportion of females. As a matter
of course, there are fewer marriages in Scotland ; and the proportion of women
bearing legitimate children, is much smaller in Scotland than in England.
This circumstance partly explains why the Scottish people have not increased at an
equal rate with the English. In the towns of Scotland, however, the proportion of
marriages is much higher than in the naval parts, and the population is increasing
accordingly. The commercial legislation of later years is fully justified by the returns of
the census. It brings to our view two classes of localities — those in which the.
population has increased, and those in which it has diminished. Of the 631
superintendent registrars' districts, no less than 248 had decreased. These were
almost exclusively agricultural. But the districts comprising the great seats of
manufacturing, mining, and commercial industry, maintained their rate of
increase; and some of them made astonishing advances. For example, the group
of districts having Manchester for a centre, has an augmented population to the
extent of 274,000; Birmingham, with its immediate locality, increased 187,000;
and the extension of mining operations on the Tyne, led to an increase in New
castle and the adjoining district, of 158,000. Lancashire had increased " 20 per
cent. ; Durham 30 per cent. Other instances of a great development of numbers
are- Staffordshire, 23 per cent.; Surrey, 22; Kent, 19; Middlesex, 17; West
Kiding of Yorkshire, 14; Glamorganshire, 37. The enormous growth of the
metropolis, which may now be said to extend far beyond the limits adopted in the
l.ocal Management Act, and by the registrar-general, will explain the high rates
ot increase m Middlesex, Surrey, and Kent. The inhabitants of London are now
returned as amounting to 2,803,034 : the addition, during the last decennium, 325

population.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
having- been 440,798, or 19 per cent. But we may fairly credit the metropolis
Avith a portion of the increase in West Ham, Croydon, Kingston, Richmond,
Brentford, Edmonton, and other districts, whieh are largely inhabited by persons
engaged in business in London, with those who minister to their wants.
London is one of the eleven divisions into which England and Wales have
been divided for the purposes of statistical comparison. These divisions are on
the same scale as the four provinces of Ireland, and their main features correspond
with the earlier. di\Tisions of the country. Arranged in the order of their rates of
increase since 1851, they stand thus — Increase per Cent.
London ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 19
Northern division (Durham, Northumberland, &c.) ... 19
North-west division (Cheshire and Lancashire) ... ... 18
West Midland (Gloucester, Salop, Stafford, &c.)  14
South-eastern division (Surrey and Kent, extra melvop.,
Sussex) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 13
' Yorkshire division ... ... ... ... ... ... 13
Welsh division ... ... ... ... ... ... 11
North Midland (Leicester, Lincoln, Notts.) ... ... 6
South Midland (Middlesex, extra metrop., Herts.) ... 5
Eastern division (Essex, Suffolk, Norfolk)... ... ... 3
South-western (Wilts., Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset) 2
These figures point to the localities where the tide of population has ebbed,
and to the direction in which it has floAved. A table exhibited, in parallel columns,
the ascertained increase, and the natural increase, or excess of births over deaths in
each of these eleven districts. A comparison of the numbers affords some idea of
the extent of migration to the principal centres of trade, manufactures, and
mining industry, chiefly from the inland districts. The absolute increase in
London we have seen to be 440,708. The excess of registered births over deaths
was only 253,989 ; and although this is an under-statement, on account of the
unregistered births, a large proportion of the difference, 186,809, consists of immi
grants. Nor can we be surprised at this further instalment of strangers when we
recollect that more than half the inhabitants of London Avere born elsewhere. In
the following divisions the actual increase exceeded the natural increase as
follows: — North-western, 138,262; northern counties, 29,461; south-eastern,
'21,468. In the West Midland district, the difference between births and deaths is
the same, within a few hundreds. All the remaining divisions presented indica
tions of having been exposed to a drain of population, which, in some cases, has
swept aAvay nearly the whole of the natural increase ; and, in several of the counties,
large numbers besides. Thus, in the eastern division, consisting of Essex, Suffolk,
and Norfolk, the natural increase was 129,726 ; while the ascertained increase Avas
only 28,220 ; to Avhich number the district of West Ham contributed nearly 25,000.
In the south-western division, consisting of Wilts, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, and
Somerset, the natural increase was 200,673; and as the actual increase was only
32,290, it is clear that persons representing the difference of 168,383, have left
. these counties to seek employment, or the means of improving their condition in
other parts, at home or abroad. The localities thus discovered by the census to
have been partly denuded of their population, are entitled to the credit of having
bred the stalwart men whose labour has proved so useful elsewhere. The decrease
so general throughout the agricultural districts, has been greatest in the counties of
Cambridge, Rutland, Norfolk, Wilts, and Suffolk. Anglesey and Montgomery, in
Wales, also sustained a loss. Their decrease may have resulted from the use jf
machinery, and from the substitution of the breeding of stock for tillage ; still it
is clear the main cause has been the fact, that in the manufacturing districts
326

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the agricultural classes.
labour was better paid, and the operative could lead a better life ; and this fact
had been remembered by the Liberal administration, of which Lord Palmerston, at
this time, was the head. In times past it was otherwise. We tamely tolerated
injustice; and what Disraeli calls the territorial system of government was the
result. When Old Sarum was young — when Gatton's solitary mound had a stake
in the country — when Manchester barely had a " local habitation and a name" —
Avhen to travel from Wales to the metropolis took more time than it does now to
travel from the metropolis to Vienna — then the old system answered. It did not
ruin the manufacturers, for there were none to ruin. It did not starve the mil
lions, for there were no millions to starve. The serf repined not at his degrada
tion, for the iron had entered into his soul ; and, in his hopes and aspirations, he
had almost ceased to be a man. But times altered ; men increased and multiplied ;
great cities became the centres of civilisation and industry; science had gone
forth to make Ufe happier for the masses ; and the change had extended even to
the highest offices of the state. The truth is, under the old rural system — under the
sway of the rosy-cheeked squires, as Carlyle called them — the country was rapidly
going to the bad. The legislator was as ignorant as those for whom he legislated.
Our readers may remember the terrible protest of the Rev. Charles Kingsley, in
his Teast, against the old state of things; of which, happily, now little trace
remains. The houses and degradation of the peasantry were sketched with a
masterly hand. What could have been sadder or truer than the picture of the
widow watching where her husband was slain ; and exclaiming —
" ' I am long past wailing and whining —
I have wept too much in my life :
I've had twenty years of pining
As an English labourer's wife.
" ' A labourer in Christian England,
Where they cant of a Saviour's name,
And yet waste men's lives like the vermin's
For a few more brace of game.
There's blood on your new foreign shrubs, squire';
There's blood on your pointer's feet ;
There's blood on the game you sell, squire,
And there's blood on the game you eat !
You have sold the labouring man, squire,
Body and soul to shame,
To pay for your seat in the House, squire,
And to pay for the feed of your game.
You made him a poacher yourself, squire,
When you'd give neither work nor meat ;
And your barley-fed hares robbed the garden
At our starving children's feet.
' When packed in one reeking chamber,
Man, maid, mother, and little ones lay ;
While the rain pattered in on the rotting bride-bed,
And the walls let in the day :
When we lay in the burning fever
On the mud of the cold clay floor,
a J?u Parted us a11 for three months, squire,
At the cursed workhouse-door :
^roPf relled Iike brutes> and who wonders ?
What self-respect could we keep,
Worse housed than your hacks and your pointers,
Worse fed than your hogs and your sheep 1 327

education.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
" ' Our daughters, with base-born babies,
Have wandered away in their shame ;
If your misses had slept, squire, where they did,
Your misses might do the same.
" ' Can your lady patch hearts that are breaking
With handfuls of coals and rice,
Or by dealing out flannel and sheeting
A little below cost price ?
" ' You may tire of the gaol and the workhouse,
And take to allotments and schools,
But you've run up a debt that will never
Be repaid us by penny-club rules.
" ' In the season of shame and sadness,
In the dark and dreary day,
When scrofula, gout, and madness
Are eatiDg your race away ;
" ' When to kennels and liveried varlets
You have cast your daughter's bread,
And, worn out with liquor and harlots,
Your heir at your feet lies dead :
" ' When your youngest, the mealy-mouthed rector,
Lets your soul rot asleep to the grave,
You will find in your God the protector
Of the freeman you fancied your slave.' "
Fortunately, the worst consequences of the system were modified by the
harmless character of the abilities of the rustic squire. He hunted, and sported,
and rode well, partly because he liked it, and partly because his father did so before
him. He was a country magistrate ; and quite as often committed himself as the
culprits who trembled before him. Often, to his great annoyance, he was compelled
to represent his county in parliament, because no one else would undertake the
bore. Of course, he distributed coals and blankets at Christmas ; and his estate
Avas well set with man-traps and spring-guns. He was a zealous churchman, and
hated alike the foreigner and the pope. Having vegetated his appointed threescore
years and ten, he was gathered to his fathers ; and the county paper of the next
Saturday devoted a paragraph to the record of his uneventful life. If there was
more energy in the man — a love of distinction, that, in the lower walks of life,
would have made him a useful member of society — it vented itself in a thousand
silly ways; in the stupid jokes and childish absurdities of that class of men of
whom the Marquis of Waterford was a type. Out of such raw material good
legislation was impossible. The government of such was marked by monstrous
injustice and Avanton extravagance in every age of its career. It placed us on the
brink of ruin : it overwhelmed us with debt : it filled our towns with Chartists,
and our colonists with the seeds of revolt. Over the decline of rural life, and the
rise of towns, no lover of his race need pause to shed a tear.
The education of the people, also, at this time, was the subject of very serious
consideration. In 1858, a commission was appointed by her majesty, in com-
..pliance with an address from the Commons' house of parliament, "to inquire
into the present state of popular education in England ; and to consider and
report what measures (if any) are required for the extension of sound and cheap
elementary instruction to all classes of the people." The commissioners named
Avere — the Duke of Newcastle, Sir John Taylor Coleridge, Rev. William Charles
Lake, M.A., Rev. William Rogers, M.A., Professor Goldwin Smith, Nassau William
Senior, Esq., and Edward Miall, Esq. The commissioners were instructed to make
their report vrithin two years from the date of their appointment , but this period
was subsequently extended for another year. The report of the commissioners,
328

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [infant schools.
embodying the facts they had collected, and the recommendations which they
suggested, was agreed upon, and signed by them, in March, 1861; and having
been submitted to her majesty, was presented to both houses of parliament, and
pubUshed for the information of the public.
The commissioners, in carrying out the object of their appointment, found it
expedient to employ, with the sanction of government, ten assistant commissioners,
to each of whom a specimen district was assigned, into the educational condition
of which he was to examine most minutely. The commissioners' report was in six
divisions. 1. The subjects connected with the education of the independent poor.
2. The education of paupers. 3. The education of vagrants and criminals.
4. Naval and military schools connected with the state. 5. Educational charities ;
and charities which may be made applicable to education. 6. Statistical returns,
so as to illustrate the course of the report. The results may be abridged as
follows: — National Society, expending £15,811 ;. British and Foreign School
Society, £15,947 ; Catholic Poor School Committee, £4,745 ; Wesleyan Education
Committee, £4,441 ; Home and Colonial School Society, £8,776 ; Church Education
Society, £2,761 ; Congregational Board of Education, £1,977 ; London Ragged
School Union, £5,142 ; and the Voluntary School Association. There were
likewise twenty-four diocesan Boards of Education connected with the church of
England. Of these, the first, that of Durham, was established in 1811. These
Boards had twenty training colleges under their superintendence.
Of training colleges, there were, in England and Wales, thirty-four. Two
of them, Lichfield and Homerton, did not receive government aid. Of thirty
under government inspection in 1858, thirteen were for male teachers, thirteen
for female teachers, and four for both male and female teachers'. The total amount
of government grants to these schools, exclusive of building grants, was, to the end
of 1858, £225,337 7s. 4a\ ; the total cost of building, enlarging, and improving
the colleges, amounted to £334,984 3s. 9d., of which government contributed
£101,641 6s. 6a.; the total income was, in 1858, £94,734 Is. 3d, of which
£50,518 5s. id. was received from government. With the exception of female
teachers for infant schools, the supply of teachers from these training institutions
was found to be equal to the demand.
Of the infant schools founded by Robert Owen, and improved by Wilder-
spin, the commissioners report — "It appears to follow that infant schools
form a most important part of the machinery required for a national system of
education, inasmuch as they lay the foundation, in some degree, of knowledge,
and, in a still greater degree, of habits which are essential to education ; while,
without them, a child may contract habits, and sustain injuries, which the best
school afterwards will be unable to correct and remedy." Besides these public
infant schools, there are found, in almost all parts of the country, private or dames'
*?ho0™' wnicl1 are frequently little more than nurseries, in which the nurse collects
the children of many families into her own house, instead of attending upon the
children of some one family. Here congregate the
' Infants of busy, humble wives, who pay
Some trifling price for freedom through the day."
The education given in such schools is generally wofully deficient, as might be
expected in such cases, where the teachers are aged females, or unqualified persons,
who have taken to teaching as a last resource. The children are collected together—
it may be in one room, which is the only apartment of the schoolmistress.
fccnolars may be often seen sitting round the sides of a four-post bed, on low
f?i! Ta %A the bed fo™Ungaback to the seat; sometimes on the sides
ot tne bed. The room is often so small that the children cannot stand, in a
semicircle round the teacher." Trained infant school mistresses are, as yet, few in
number, ihe Home and Colonial School Society has, for some years, directed
special attention to this department of training; and some of the recently in-
vol.ii. z «" 32Q •*

pauper education.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

stituted normal schools are assisting to prepare a large number of properly
qualified mistresses for infant schools : but more enlarged efforts in this direction
are urgently needed ; and the commissioners earnestly recommend that the com
mittee of council devote its attention, and give its powerful aid, to the supply
of this want.
Of 1,895 public schools in the ten specimen districts, 108 per cent, were
infant schools; ofthe scholars, 31 per cent, were between three and seven years of
age. In 1858, according to an estimate made by the commissioners, who applied
to the schools in the whole country the ratios obtained from the ten specimen
districts, it may be assumed that there were, in England and Wales, 58,975 week
day schools, affording instruction to 2,535,462 children ; of which number about
one-eighth may be reckoned as belonging to the middle and upper classes, and the
remaining seven-eighths to the poorer classes. Of this army of two millions and a
half, of which about a million may be reckoned as infants under seven years of
age, 400,000 are drafted off annually into general society, to take their place in the
busy scenes of life.
The Sunday-school system was established by Robert Raikes, of Gloucester,
but little more than eighty years ago. The number in England and Wales, in
1833, was 16,828, containing 1,548,890 scholars. In 1858, the number was esti
mated at 33,872, with 2,411,554 scholars. This class, of schools may or may not be
very valuable. Their usefulness must, to a great degree, depend upon that of the
teachers, who are chiefly voluntary, and, in many cases, young and inexperienced,
and not thoroughly alive to the Avork. In Wales, the Sunday scholars comprise
adults as vrell as children ; men and women, advanced in life, are frequently found
among the classes. In some parts of the South Wales district, more than half of
the population attended the Sunday-schools in 1858, the general average being
upwards of one-third; and of these half were above fifteen years of age. This
statement will be better understood by comparing it with the fact that, in 1858,
the number of Sunday scholars, in England, was about one-eleventh of the popu
lation. In Rochdale and Bradford, which may be taken as representatives of the
large manufacturing towns of Leicestershire and Yorkshire, the Sunday scholars
include a large proportion of adults. At Bradford, about one-fourth, and at
Rochdale nearly one-third, of the female scholars were above fifteen years of age.
In the Welsh Sunday-schools, the text-book is the Bible, which is read through,
chapter by chapter, verse by verse ; and questions and answers as to the meaning
of the passage under consideration, are freely interchanged between the master or
leader and the members of the class, or between the members themselves. At the
close of the exercise, the teacher usually sums up the opinions which have been
expressed, and gives his own views, with his reasons. The younger classes are
chiefly occupied in learning to read, and in repeating psalms and verses of scrip
ture which they have committed to memory. To the proficients in such exercises
prizes are occasionally awarded.
In 1858, it Avas estimated that there were, in England and Wales, 2,036
evening schools. Not only to the mere labourer is evening instruction acces
sible and useful: the evening classes in King's College, London; the evening
classes for young men in the city of London; the classes in connection with
the London Mechanics' Institution and the Working Man's College, in which,
in all, about 2,000 students enjoy the benefit of a superior education in the
evening, are admirable examples of the adaptation of this class of school to the
requirements of the age in which we live.
In March, 1860, the number of children in workhouse schools was 30,654.
It is estimated by the commissioners, that at least 100,000 out-door pauper chil
dren receive no education whatever. Of this aggregate of 100,000 children, more
than 8.000' are added annually to the adult population. The commissioners say,
that the most of these are divided between the gaol and the workhouse : they
form the hereditary pauper and criminal class. To some extent the cause of this
330

AD- 186i.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [ragged schools.

lamentable circumstance may be found in the kind of training which children in
workhouses have been accustomed to receive. They have been allowed to asso
ciate freely with the adults, many of whom have spent years in crime, and the
force of whose pernicious example operates more or less on all. Some of the
assistant commissioners, however, give emphatic testimony to the efficacy of the
instruction giA-en in workhouse schools in their districts. Mr. Fraser, Avho reported
in reference to one of the specimen agricultural districts, states that the instruc
tion is not ambitious in its range, but thoroughly sound of its kind. Mr. Hedley,
who had charge of the other specimen agricultural district, remarks that the boys
in the workhouse schools are superior to the boys in the elementary day schools in
their educational acquirements. This may arise from the enforced regular
attendance, and "the smallness ofthe number of boys generally under one teacher.
Mr. Hedley adds, that one beneficial effect of industrial training in workhouse
schools, is found in the improved health and spirits of the boys. A promising
experiment has been made, of late years, which has already justified, to a great
extent, the hopes of its promoters. In 1841, the poor-law commissioners estab
lished a system of district schools, six of which are in operation, and have been
eminently successful. In these schools, the children from contiguous parishes, or
unions, are collected together, and placed under competent instruction, industrial
as well as intellectual, and under efficient superintendence ; and it has been found,
that whereas, from the ordinary workhouse schools, about 50 or 60 per cent, of the
scholars have grown into paupers or criminals, from the scholars in district schools
the pauper and criminal class have only received about 2 per cent. Besides these
large district schools, in which, in March, 1860, there were 2,549 scholars, there
are what are called separate schools. Of these, the number, in March, 1859, was
nineteen, educating 4,381 scholars ; making a total of 7,063 pauper children under
an efficient course of education. An example of a separate school may be quoted
in that of Stepney, which, in five years, educated and found situations for 229
boys, of whom 216 retained their situations, and were reported as doing well.
The Poor-Law Board, in its annual report for 1860--'61, says — "Although some
difiBculties may occasionally arise in the management of separate establishments
for children, their maintenance and education in schools removed from the asso
ciations of a workhouse are so manifestly advantageous, that it appears highly
desirable to promote the formation of such schools in all practicable Cases."
Relative to ragged, industrial, and reformatory schools, the commissioners
report as follows : — " There are, in England and Wales, 192 week-day ragged schools,
containing 20,909 children, of whom 10,308 are males, and 10,601 females. The
average number of children in each school is 10S-9. There are fourteen evening
ragged schools, containing 707 scholars ; 493 males, and 214 females. The London
Ragged School Union was founded in 1854. Its total income, in 1859, was £5,142.
Of the industrial schools there are eighteen certified under the acts of parliament
referring to such institutions, which contain 1,193 inmates, of whom 574 are males,
and 619 females ; 171 of the whole number were received under sentence of magis
trates. The income of the schools for 1860, was £20,599 19s. 9c?. Of uncertified
industrial schools there are thirty-six, with 2,822 children, of whom 1,647 are
males, and 1,175 females; and a total income of £21,541 4s. 9d. for 1860. The
total number of reformatories in England and Wales, certified under the Re
formatory Act, was forty-seven in May, 1860, with 2,594 inmates on the 31st
°tJ)f™ber» 1859, and an aggregate expenditure of £74,361 Is. 9d. in 1858.
About £2,000 a year is now received from the parents of juvenile criminals, for
their support m reformatories." The commissioners speak highly of the efficiency
of reform schools. " Upon the whole, none of the institutions connected with
education appear to be in a more satisfactory condition than the reformatories.
We have no recommendations to make respecting them'; as, apart from the excellent
manner in wnich they appear to be working, their establishment is still so recent,
that the time for such alterations as may be required has not yet arrived."
z2 331

attendance at schools.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
In 1859, the total average number of soldiers whose names were on the books
of regimental schools, was 11,195; but the average daily attendance was only
3,934. In the schools for the children of non-commissioned officers and privates,
in 1858, the number of children under instruction was 11,062. In both kinds of
schools small fees are charged. At the school for boys in Woolwich Arsenal, out
of 1,300 boys from ten to eighteen years of age, employed in the arsenal, the
average attendance at the school, in 1858, was 621. In the' normal school for
regimental schoolmasters, in the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea, there are
forty students in training. The number of trained schoolmasters at present in the
army, is 244 ; and of trained schoolmistresses, 242. In the Royal Military Asylum,
or Duke of York's School, there are about 500 boys under instruction. In ships of
the navy, having a complement of not less than 300 men, schools are established ;
but they are not generally very efficient. Besides these, there are schools for
apprentices and factory boys in the naval dockyards, which had under instruction
441 apprentices and 599 factory boys in 1859 ; schools on board ships in harbours ;
royal marine schools, for preparing boys for service in the navy ; and Greenwich
Hospital schools, in which 800 boys — sons of deceased and disabled seamen — receive
education, and where nautical studies form a prominent feature.
From the report, we gather that, in all the specimen districts, and also
throughout the kingdom, considerable improvement has taken place with regard
to the relative number of children attending school. In the ten specimen districts,
taken together, the number of scholars attending public and private week-day
schools, in 1851, Avas 1 in 9-09 of the whole population; in 1858, the number was
equal to 1 in 7-83 of the population. For England and Wales, in 1858, the
proportion was estimated at 1 in 7-7. These figures may be usefully compared
Avith the proportion of scholars to the population in France, which is 1 in 9 ; in
Holland, 1, in 8-11; and in Prussia, under a system of compulsory education,
where the proportion reaches 1 in 6'27.
From the returns obtained from the specimen districts, it would appear, that
of every hundred children actually under instruction in public schools, 3, and
in private schools, 5-4 are under three years of age ; 19#8 in public, and 34'7 in
private schools, are from three to six years of age ; 47-6 in public, and 40-8 in
private, are from six to ten years of age; 24-2 in priyate, and 14*5 in public
schools, are from ten to thirteen years of age; and 5'4 in public, and 4*6 in
private schools, are above thirteen years of age. It appears that six years is the
average attendance at schools. The average daily attendance at public week-day
schools, in the specimen districts, and probably throughout the Avhole country, is
about 76 per cent, of the number of scholars on the books. Wales presents the
lowest ratio, attendance being 71#9 per cent. The highest average is in the
Lancashire and Yorkshire manufacturing districts, where it is 82-4 per cent. — an
amount of attendance secured chiefly in consequence of the adoption of the half-
time system. The ratio of attendance in private week-day schools is much higher,
being 84*8 per cent. Sunday-schools show an average attendance of 74-2 per cent.
Evening schools, 67'6 per cent. The Sunday-school attendance, as we may expect,
is highest in Wales, being 80*9 per cent. It is lowest in Bradford and Rochdale,
being 67*3 per cent.
"The following calculation," says a writer in the British Almanac for 1862,
from which we have quoted largely, " may be taken as a rough outline of the
history of the course of education of the typical English schoolboy, deduced from
the preceding statements : — He is at school for nearly six years, when he is between
six and twelve years of age ; he attends about seven hours daily, for about 150
days in the year, and changes his school every other year. This is exclusive
of his Sunday attendance. He has thus about 900 days' schooling, at an aA'erage
cost to his parents of about 4c?. a week, or £2 10s. for the whole period."
With regard to the quality of the instruction given, the same writer adds —
" The various subjects of education are commonly taught, in the common day-
332

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [public grants.

schools, in a very unpractical way. With respect to reading* it was found, m the
specimen districts, that a larger proportion of scholars were being taught reading
than any other subject in the week-day and Sunday-schools; in the evening
schools, about an equal proportion were learning reading and writing. A con
siderable number acquire the mere art of reading with considerable ease ; but there
is a lamentable want of the faculty of understanding what is read. This it is often
considered not within the teacher's province to care for. Writing and arithmetic
are also, in many cases, taught in a very imperfect and mechanical manner." _ The
scholars appear to be taught little to help them in their future career. Political
economy is avoided. About 1 per cent, of the male scholars only are taught
mechanics. Now, the greater number of these scholars become labourers ; they
will be constantly using machines and tools : but in consequence of their ignorance
of the mechanical laws which govern matter, an immense amount of their labour
will be uselessly expended.
The commissioners recommend certain alterations in the conditions on which
grants are made to the schools of the independent poor, and also in the mode of
providing the amount required for maintaining these schools. They recommend
that the grants shall be regulated by the opinion formed by the inspector as tp
the discipline, efficiency, and general character of the school ; and also on the pro
ficiency in reading, writing, and arithmetic, displayed by the scholars in the
examinations before the inspector (plain work being added in the case of girls),
and to be reckoned only in respect of such children as have attended school at
least 140 days in the year preceding the day of examination. Other suggestions
and recommendations are made by the commissioners, some of which have been,
with modifications, embodied in the minutes of the committee of the Privy Council
on education, establishing a revised code of regulations, adopted July the 21st,
1861, and appointed to come into full operation after the 31st of March, 1862.
In this code, the object of the educational grants is stated to be, to promote the
education of the children belonging to the classes who support themselves by
manual labour ; and every school assisted from the grants must either be a school
in connection with some recognised religious denomination, or a school in which,
besides regular instruction, the Scriptures are read daily from the authorised
version. By Article 40, the managers of day-schools may claim, per scholar, one
penny for every attendance after the first hundred at the morning or afternoon
meetings; and after the first twelve at the evening meetings of their school,
within the year ending the last day of the month preceding that fixed for the
inspector's annual visit. Attendance under half-time acts may be multiplied by
two to make up the remainder. One-third part of the sum thus claimable is
forfeited if the scholar fail to satisfy the inspector in reading; one-third if in
writing ; and one-third if in arithmetic respectively. Article 46 specifies certain
conditions, which, if not satisfied, the school will not receive any grant. And
Article 47 specifies certain defects in the efficiency of the school, or in its arrange
ments, which will entail a reduction of the grants. Hitherto the teacher received
the amount of the government grant in addition to his salary from the managers ;
but by the new code, the money was to be given to the managers, who were to make
their own arrangement with the teacher. The new code created considerable dis
satisfaction. Its advocates argued that it presented a greater stimulus to the
really meritorious and efficient teacher ; that it tended to secure to the scholars
the best efforts of their teachers in imparting the elements of a sound practical
education, and thus to raise the standard of elementary instruction throughout the
kingdom. The storm was fierce, and lasted long; and, in consequence of it,
Mr. Lowe resigned his seat in connection with the educational department, not
withstanding the support he received from his Premier.
Another subject of passionate discussion, in connection with education at this
time, was what is called the conscience clause. It is well known that, up to 1833,
parliament made no grants whatever towards educating the poorer classes. The
333

conscience clause.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.d. 1861.
clergy of the established church, stimulated by the rivalry of other sects, and the
fear of losing their hold on the young, were early in the field. The National
Society was incorporated, so long ago as 1811, expressly "for the education of the
poor in the principles of the established church." Not till more than twenty
years after — that is, in 1833 — did parliament provide any means for that purpose.
In 1839, under Lord Melbourne's ministry, the administration of these parlia
mentary grants was entrusted to a committee of her majesty's Privy Council. This
committee, however, co-operated with the National Society in good faith and Avith
apparent sincerity. Building grants- Avere to be made, school sites were to be
legally secured, and inspectors were to be appointed by the committee. But those
inspectors were not to be appointed without the consent of the two archbishops ;
the general instructions relating to religious teaching were to be framed by the
archbishops, and again communicated to them before receiving the final sanction
of the committee. The reports of the inspectors were also to be transmitted in
duplicate, and at the same time, to the archbishop of the province and to the com
mittee, and a copy was likewise to be sent to the bishop of the diocese. Up to
1846, the committee of council on education and the National Society worked
together harmoniously and successfully. In that year, however, certain "manage
ment clauses" were drawn up, and one or other was required henceforth in every
trust-deed of schools in union with the National Society, and receiving building
grants from the committee. In 1858, other and more serious innovations Avere
made. For the first time dissenters were declared eligible as managers of church
schools ; and, moreover, the conscience clause Avas insisted upon in all parishes where,
according to the views of the committee of council on education, there is no room
for a second school. These innovations proved a very apple of discord. The Na
tional Society, after a long correspondence on the subject, repelled the introduc
tion of the conscience clause into schools in union with it, and ceased to have any
dealings Avith the committee of council.
The better to understand the real merits of this controversy, we may premise
that this famous conscience clause has something of a Protean character about it ;
but the last form it assumed, in 1864, is as follows : — " The said committee shall be
bound to make such orders as shall provide for admitting to the benefits of the
school the children of parents not in communion with the church of England, as
by law established ; but such orders shall be confined to the exemption of such
children, if their parents desire it, from attendance at the public worship, and from
instruction in the doctrine or formularies of the said church, and shallnot other
wise interfere with the religious teaching of the scholars, as fixed by these presents,
and shall not authorise any other religious instruction to be given in the school."
It may be said, perhaps, as Lord Harrowby stated in the Times, that the applica
tion of this clause is not insisted upon " in the cases which strike the eye and the
heart Avith terror and compassion, where the masses of a squalid population are
crowded together, and their children are thronging the streets, uncared for in body
and soul." It is applied, indeed, only to places too small for a second school to be
established — to such as contain a population of less than 500. This, at all events,
is the theory, though the practice seems to vary; and it is asserted, on good
authority, that no place containing less than 150 children, or 900 population,
would be deemed large enough for two schools. But it appears that there are no
fewer than 9,000 parishes having a population under 500. In every such instance,
if a parliamentary giant Avere asked for, the conscience clause would be accounted
a necessary accompaniment. Again, though one-sixth has been said to be the
minimum of dissenters required for the interposition of the conscience clause, it
has been alleged on the best authority, that " it was very much a matter of dis
cretion with the vice-president of the committee of council on education, what
minority he will consider sufficient to require consideration in building a national
school." Such is a brief sketch of the history of the conscience clause, and its applica-
334

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [John pounds.
tions. It seems but fair, in small parishes, that the children of dissenters should reap
the benefits of state giants for educational purposes. As a matter of policy, one
would have thought churchmen would have been only too glad to get such under
their influence ; else how is the church to become what it claims to be — the church
of the people ? At any rate, churchmen have not yet been brought to this way of
thinking. They declaim on the arbitrary behests of the committee of council :
they blame it strongly for introducing so exceptional a condition, and for not pre
ceding that introduction with some notice and discussion. As to parliamentary
privileges, they never appear to have caused a moment's hesitation. " Yet we
would naturally suppose," they say, " that such a wholesale interference with its
own system of education would require its sanction or consent. The one great
objection, however, to the conscience clause is this, that it is legislation for the
minority, and yet a yoke upon the necks of all. It has converted Avhat should be
the law into the exception, and exalted the exception above the general rule. Thus,
the conscience clause is invariably insisted upon wherever only one national
school is required ; but all experience proves that it is not enforced in one case
out of scores. It follows, therefore, that the committee of council go out of their
way gratuitously and wantonly to offend the consciences of churchmen on the
mere hypothesis that they may thus relieve the consciences of dissenters — an
hypothesis proved to be improbable in the highest degree. For though the abso
lute exclusion of all distinctive religious teaching is not enjoined by the conscience
clause, but only prohibited after objection tendered by the parents in the case of
particular and individual children, it cannot be denied that this general limitation
for particular and hypothetical cases in the matter of religious education, will
sound very much like an infraction of their highest privileges in the ears of the
parochial clergy, as well as an invasion upon their OAvn liberties. The conscience
clause, indeed, stands as a stumbling-block at the threshold. It proclaims its own
terms and no surrender; and yet, in hundreds of cases, it would never be opera
tive. Is this a wise policy? Is it either generous or charitable thus to stand at
the door and refuse admittance, unless certain conditions have been agreed to
which are certainly offensive, mostly a dead letter, and hardly ever necessary?"
Such is the grievance associated with the conscience clause. On the other hand
the very fact of its being all but useless and inoperative diminishes its importance'
and detracts from its offensiveness. In practice, therefore, the conscience clause
is not formidable. Its dangers are proved to be more imaginary than real, in the
estimation of churchmen themselves.
«. o^4M™«sti0n ™*k th" subject of education, it maybe mentioned, that on
SfrS, S ?J1 axSunda7-scho01 Jubilee, at Halifax, took place, when upwards of
db,000 attended the meeting, in the Manufacturers' Piece Hall. Eighty-seven
schools were represented ; some from a distance of sixteen miles.
i^dJ1 LL0£d°V£ Jnlj' \ Publl^meetil»g was held, to found a free public library,
under the Free Libraries Act. The proposal was rejected by a large majority.
JJoJ^l^r^l th}s*ess™> the E^l of Shaftesbury called thi attention of the
ra^edthlt^1' t f the report of the education commission which referred to
uSerot ¦ Vtv, fl 'Tm m ^ he Pr0t'ested a^ainsfc' as unfair> untrue> a»d
chief ZZL l\ ? a u X™08*0* defen<ied the commissioners, and stated the
which SStiMt^ tbl'°Ught th6m t0 the co»clusi™> that ragged schools in
rSsitnS tlliu ^lUt ^^ °ot given, were not proper subjects for public
S countiw He ^ r^!15^ WOuld be detrimental to the other schools of
1™1 S ™ «mtended that the class of children at present in ragged school*
the name of John ffS 7 ?*?Te t0 m^ed Schools- With tllem is ""dated
tne name ot John Pounds, of Portsmouth. In 1781, when he was fifteen years of
335

ANDEEW WALKER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.

age, he met with an accident, which crippled him for life. His trade was that of
a cobbler. He had adopted a nephew ; and, thinking that he could instruct the
youth better with a companion than alone, he obtained, as a second pupil, the son
of a poor woman in the neighbourhood. Other children were sought by him ; and
he went on teaching and instructing till 1839, when he died, aged seventy-two ;
" regretted," says the writer of the article " Ragged Schools," in the British
Almanac for 1861, "by many who had learned to appreciate his character; and
especially by the young men and women to whom he had given the first start
in life. In his latter years he had usually about forty children gathered around
him ; the aggregate number of those who had been under his care being not less
than 500."
It was about the time that John Pounds died that efforts of a similar kind to
his were put forth in some well-known localities in London, as well as in other
parts of the kingdom. George Yard, Whitechapel, and Wellclose Square, Ratcliffe
Highway, may be mentioned as places where something of this kind was done in a
desultory manner. Probably the city of Bristol was the first to possess a regularly
organised ragged school of the modern type.
In the metropolis, it was a city missionary who commenced the ragged school
system. " Andrew Walker, a Scotch gardener, in the pursuit of his occupation, came
to London ; and, becoming acquainted with the condition of a district lying near
to Westminster Abbey, commonly known as the Devil's Acre, he took the matter
deeply to heart. He applied to the authorities of the City Mission ; was accepted ;
and commenced his career as a missionary in Westminster about 1839. During
the sixteen years of his labours there, he witnessed gradual improvement, and had
many evidences that his arduous labours were not all in vain. It must be re
membered that Mr. Walker was a pioneer, and his operations were conducted
in the very worst and most dangerous of the enemy's ground. Men, women, and
children were intimately acquainted with the various appliances of deception, vice,
, and crime. On Sunday evenings, in a house belonging to the dean and chapter,
there was a school for thieves, and a mock judicial court, in Avhich young pick
pockets were shown how best to conduct and defend themselves when brought
before a real judge. There were public-houses where dancing parties were
accustomed to be held, in which persons of both sexes danced in a state of nudity.
Whole streets and entire squares were occupied by houses of ill-fame ; and there
were regular establishments, from which the professional beggars, who honoured
the district with their presence, might hire, at the charge of 2s. a day, widows'
weeds, naval and military uniforms, wooden legs and arms, bandages, and other
implements of imposture ; children, in any number, could be had from the agency
office at 9c?. per day, or, direct from their parents, at 6d. per day, to be exhibited
for the purpose of engaging the sympathies and emptying the pockets of a
benevolent public. It required a man of no ordinary nerve, and of no ordinary
tact, to carry the war into such a district. Happily the personal appearance of the
missionary pioneer was sufficiently imposing to inspire caution in any who might
feel disposed, by physical force, to resist his advance into their domains ; while his
native kindness of heart, coupled with practical wisdom in the management of his
schemes, accomplished at length, to a very large extent, the reformation he desired.
He commenced his more active aggression by hiring a stable in NeAV Pye Street,
Westminster, in which, after some rough fittings bad been placed, the work of
instruction Avas commenced, and various means were employed to gain the attention
both of parents and children. As he proceeded assistance came to him from
numerous and unlooked-for quarters. Some of those well known in the locality as
proficients in crime, underwent a change of life, and became helpers in school
efforts. Lord Ashley (now the Earl of Shaftesbury) came very early to the aid of
these useful exertions ; and, by his personal interest in the work, his judicious
advice, his pecuniary assistance, and his influence with others among the higher
336

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [post-office savings banks.
classes, rendered invaluable service. * * * * Mr. Walker subsequently com
menced a nursery in Clapham, in which he employed youths discharged from prison ;
and had some success in assisting these outcasts to gain a useful and honourable
place in society." Among other city missionaries of like spirit, who set earnestly
to work in this field in other parts of the metropolis, with corresponding success,
may be named Mr. Jackson, Mr. Vanderkisf e, and Mr. Langridge.
In the year 1844, there had been established in London sixteen schools, with
200 voluntary teachers, and 2,000 children. It Avas at this time that the Ragged
School Union was formed — an institution which 'has been of much service in
strengthening and directing local operations. Other towns followed the good
example. Industrial and reformatory schools were established, in connection with
ragged schools, in all parts of the country ; and the useful institution of shoeblacks
was one result. In London, in 1859, there were 319 thus earning an honest
UveUhood. Practically, a great educational step for the adult population Avas passed this
session : we refer to Mr. Gladstone's act for the establishment of post-office savings
banks. Mr. Sikes, of Huddersfield, catching at a hint given by the practice of
a bank in Australia, conceived the idea of making all the money-order offices
contributory to the savings banks. He proposed to establish a central savings
bank in London, to whieh depositors might send their money through the money-
order office, in sums of not less than £1 ; and which should issue, in return or
acknowledgment for the remittances, savings bank interest-notes to the amount
remitted ; that is, notes entitling the holder to receive the amount of his deposit,
with the addition of interest, at the rate of 2\ per cent, a year. The deposit might
be remitted, in the form of a money-order, through the post-office, and the interest-
note be received, by the same means, in one or two days. As it would be very
undesirable that the interest-notes should come into circulation as a currency, the
names of the owners would be written upon them, and they would be only payable
to the owners, or their representatives, who might obtain the amount by complying
with a simple form at the post-office. The views of Mr. Sikes were fully developed,
both in a printed pamphlet, and in a paper read to the congress on social science,
at Bradford. Upon the basis here laid' down Mr. Gladstone legislated, and with
great success. By means of post-office savings banks, persons are enabled to
invest their minutest savings securely and profitably ; and thus the labourer or
artisan had an incentive to sobriety and industry such as he never had before.
But we must say something about the occupations of the people, as shown by
the census of 1861. For this purpose the returns were classified as follows:—
Professional, domestic, commercial, agricultural, indefinite, and non-productive
The professional was divided into three orders. The first, comprising persons
engaged in the general or local government of the country, amounts to 87 350
Ihe second, persons engaged in the defence of the country, reckons 131,194.
Ihe third, persons engaged in the learned professions, or occupied in literature,
411 957 SC16nCe' 1S Stat6d at 262'663' The total of the professional class is
_ The domestic class forms the largest division of the population. It is divided
into two orders— persons engaged in the domestic offices or duties of wives,
^o°SqqC eSS6S °L families' and children's relatives: to this class belong
io U58,938 persons. The second class, comprising persons engaged in entertaining
and performing personal services for man, consists of 1,367,782. The commercial
^l°TUSeS tW° °rClerS% The first' that of Persons who W OT seU, help, or lend
money, houses or goods of various kinds; the other, of persons engaged in the
cksIeeJSC6e23°,7l0.en' & ' ^^ *** ™ssaSes- T^ total number of both
1 924TnoT icultural„d.ass *s divided into two orders; the first amounting to
1,924,110 persons. This order is again subdivided into^-1. Those workinf in
fields and pastures, 1,883,652. 2. Working in woods, 8,926. 3. Those Tgardens 337

occupations of the people.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
81,532. Under the second class are ranged persons engaged about animals;
their number is 86,344.
The industrial class, 4,828,399, is thus divided —
Persons engaged in art and mechanical productions, in
whieh matters of various kinds are employed in com
bination   953,289
Persons working and dealing in the textile fabrics, and
in dress ...  !"  2,231,617
Persons working and dealing in food and drinks . . . 430,220
Persons working and dealing in animal substances . . . 56,092
Persons working and dealing in vegetable substances ... 144,184
Persons working and dealing in minerals ... ... 1,012,997
The indefinite, or non-productive, class is thus divided —
General labourers  309,883
Other persons, of indefinite occupations ... ... ... 45,919
Persons of rank or property, not returned under any
office or occupation ... ... ... ... ... 110,299
Persons living on income from voluntary sources and
rates  72,724
Prisoners and others, of criminal class, of no specified
occupation ... ... ... ... ... ... 3,366
Vagrants and gipsies ... ... ... ... ... 1,903
Persons of no stated rank, profession, or occupation ... 150,890
Mr. Charles Knight adds — " There are two other tables having relation to the
occupations of the people, which are interesting. That of the foreigners . in
England shows how little their industry enters into competition with native
exertions. The total foreigners, those of European states, amount to 73,434
persons, of whom 50,844 are males, and 22,590 females. Of the females, 13,790
belong to the domestic class, of which 3,432 are in attendance. Of male domestic
servants, there are 4,433. In the professional class, Ave find, as teachers of music,
and musicians, 2,025 males, 223 females; of teachers generally, 1,133 males, 2,147
females. There are 4,777 persons engaged in mercantile pursuits ; 15,737 carriers
on seas and rivers. Of the industrial class, those engaged on dress amount to
6,649 ; those on watches and philosophical instruments, are 1,297. In furniture,
there are employed 1,071. Very different is the present time from that in Avhich
the Flemings were the principal weavers in England. All the foreign workers
earning a living among us, in the factories, for textile fabrics, wool, worsted, silk,
cotton, flax, and mixed materials, amount only to 529.
" There are special tables appropriated to the blind, and the deaf and dumb.
The total number of the blind is 19,352. Happy is it that they are not wholly
deprived of the power of being useful to the community: 56 are clergymen,
ministers, and church officers ; 609 musicians, and teachers of music ; 79 teachers.
Belonging to the agricultural class, there are 1,460 ; to the industrial class, 4,000.
We may see, in several items of these returns, hoAv the sense of touch compensates,
in some degree, for the loss of sight. There are 677 workers in dress, and 638 in
cane, rush, and straw. Amongst the blind, there are 539 pea-sons of , rank or pro
perty not returned under any office or occupation ; and 1,091 living on income from
voluntary sources, and rates.
"The total of the deaf and dumb is 12,236. Of these, 5,104 belong to the
domestic class; 932 to the agricultural; and 2,909 to the industrial. Of this
class, 1,949 are Avorking and dealing in the textile fabrics, and in dress." In
documents such as these, as Mr. Knight has well remarked, " the inner life of a
nation may be traced."
In parliament, some little attention was drawn to the condition of the labour
ing classes. On February 28th, the Earl of Derby, in presenting some petitions
338

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [house accommodation.

respecting the demolition of labourers' dwellings, in consequence of the construc-
¦ tion of great public works, especially raihvays in the metropolis, suggested whether
it might not be desirable to appoint a committee to inquire into the effect of the
extension of railways upon the moral and social condition of the metropolis. On
March 11th, his lordship got the House to agree, "that it be an instruction to the
committee on the metropolitan railways, to inquire into and report on the number
of houses and of inhabitants whieh are to be removed by the Avorks of the respective
railways, and whether any provision has been made, or is required to be made, for
diminishing the evils consequent." On April 12th, the sheriffs of the city of
London appeared at the bar of the House of Commons, with a petition from the
corporation of the city of London, praying, that in the case of the metropolitan
railways which are seeking to have termini in London — in consequence of which
many of the working classes would be driven from their present abodes — provision
should be made for the conveyance of the working classes from the stations of such
railways at cheap rates. Again, in August, the Earl of Shaftesbury moved an
address to her majesty, for an inquiry into the employment of children and young-
persons in trades and manufactures not already regulated by laAV. The motion Avas
agreed to, and discoveries were made of a character which imperatively demanded
parliamentary interference.
The subject of providing decent house accommodation for the labouring-
classes, driven from their homes in such large numbers by recent London " im
provements," has lately been much before the public. Regarding the evil of
overcrowding, which at present obtains among the poor, Mr. Tucker, a Berkshire
magistrate, tells us — "Two years ago, I read to the friends of the Faringdon
Agricultural Library a paper on the condition of the agricultural labourer, in which
I drew attention to the vast efforts that had been made for the advancement of
agriculture in all its departments ; and endeavoured to show that everything which
science or art could devise, or money command, had been made tributary to this
object, and that not merely in improved methods of cultivating the soil, and the
introduction of new and impiwed implements and machinery, but also in the
breeding, feeding, and housing of cattle in dry, clean, well-ventilated buildings :
at the same time, I pointed to the fact, that while all these gigantic efforts were
called forth in that direction, comparatively little had been done to improve the
well-being of the labourer, and especially as regards cottage accommodation.
These obserA'ations, I believe, are just as true now as they were two years since;
and, feeling a deep interest in the question, I have employed competent persons to
visit every town and village in the Faringdon Union, to obtain exact information
as to the accommodation and number of inmates in every cottage in the Union
lhat information I hold in my hand; but, as it is too minute, circumstantial, and
voluminous to lay before this meeting, I have made a digest ofthe leading features,
which, with permission, I will read to you." This digest was published in the
lwnes, and was a most sickening report. Other gentlemen followed. Air. James
Harvey, chairman ofthe West London Union, writes— "Some time since, tho
fwf^w^?0"' aBd °ne °f the guardians of this Union, visited Plumtrea
w^w ±10lD0™' whlcn contains twenty-seven houses, without back-yards, and,
rJmJL eTl\T> WitTh0llt back liSUs- These houses were occupied by 676 men
women, and children. In one room, 10 feet by 13, and 8 feet 6 high, there were
In tTfhVrT ?! and tePmg-™.,two men/five women, and six children.
™Z!lfe17 feet, long and 16 feet wide' includiES the PassaSe> ™tJl
ffn^v ™ °r? and attic' there were ri*»y-B™ persons living and sleeping,
relevinJyoZ/°nrfeilr 1U the bas<™t. On another occasion, when our
the Zgrn£ Z ^t ^T in this C0Urt' between twelve and one °'°^ in
attemTtwfo ° w aPPrehens,lon of a man who had deserted his wife, in
M^mZZoflTr^Ahe WaS °°mPelled t0 waituntil the inmates had
"St „ flb6hmd the door> so that the door could be opened. The people
lay so thick-.on the floor that he had to be cautious in stepping between them, fc
339

oveeceowding.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
this room there was one child suffering from the measles, and another from the
small-pox. On opening the door, the stench was so great that the police-officer
who accompanied him was obliged to withdraw. From this court alone, the parish
has had to pay extra fees to the medical officer for the confinement of an incredible
number of young women, and ' widows,' of illegitimate children. The cases con
tinually being brought before our board of once respectable Avomen who have
fallen under such conditions are truly heartrending, and form one of the greatest
difficulties with which boards of guardians have to deal.
" A house in Holborn Buildings, 18 feet deep and 18 feet wide, including the
passage, was visited last week, and was then occupied as follows : — Attic, seven
women; first-floor front, five women; ditto back room, two married couples;
ground-floor front, five men ; ditto back room, four men : in all, twenty-
five persons, paying Is. 6d. each per week — equal to £97 10s. per annum. The
house is rated to the poor at £15 per annum ! A short time since, a respectable
married woman, with an infant nine months old, who had been deserted by her
husband, lodged in this house for five weeks, paying Is. 6d. per week for half a bed
with a perfect stranger. She was then obliged to come into the workhouse. The
respectable poor, in their distress, are thrust into these dens of demoralisation,
because there are not dwellings within the reach of their means.
" In Plough Court, Fetter Lane (a blind court), containing thirty-eight
houses, at the taking of the census of 1851, nearly 2,000 people were living and
sleeping, giving an average of forty persons to each house."
The cases cited here are not exceptional. They are such as exist in all our
towns and villages, and indicate not so much the poverty as the improvidence of
the poor. The truth must be told. More than anything else, it is requisite that
the working classes be decently lodged, and not compelled to live in pestiferous
dens, to escape which men and women are driven, in self-defence, to rush to the
beer-shop, the gin-palace, or the public-bouse. The dwellings of the poor, in the
back-streets and alleys of our towns, and often on the estates of rich, and even
benevolent landlords, are as wretched as they are degrading. In France the opera
tives are considerably better lodged. In London, and in all our large towns, it is
not uncommon for families, of all ages and sexes, to sleep in one room, without
the slightest attempt to preserve decency. The evils resulting, appalling as they
are, are still further enhanced by the state of the back-streets and alleys of our
toAvns. The condition of these streets and alleys is as bad as it can be. They
are built after no plan ; they are narrow, and often closed at one end ; they are
very badly drained ; the openings of what drains there are, are generally close to
the windows or doors of the houses ; there is often only one privy for three, four,
and sometimes as many as ten houses ; the streets and yards are used for the fil
thiest purposes, and the stench is often insupportable. Recently, the writer of
this work had occasion to visit a town of this description a few miles out of
London. We could scarcely believe, till we saw it, that human creatures could
live in such degradation. The sight was appalling. The houses, with their cold
brick floors, windows stuffed with rags, with dust and filth all around, were not fit
for pigs. No gentleman would lodge in such places his horses or hounds ; yet
these hovels were crowded ; and as we saw the wretchedness within and without,
we thought how deep and dire must be the poverty of the surrounding neighbour
hood. Women were there, all slovenly and filthy ; and in these wretched sties —
for they could scarce be called houses — were young children born and brought up.
For what? It was needless to ask. The answer was too obvious. "Men do not
gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles." Such a childhood can but lead to a
manhood vicious and degraded, and stained with crime. The people were not
poor. Most of the men earned a guinea a Aveek ; many as much as thirty
shillings. A great deal of money was paid aAvay in the district, which was one of
market-gardeners. Yet the labourers who received it all, lived in a state little, if
any, better than that of savages. The inspector of police was with us. We asked
340

A.D. 1861.]

VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [criminal statistics.

him how the money was spent?— how, with such wages, there couldbe such deep
and utter poverty ? The answer was, as we anticipated — it Avas all spent at the
public-house. The clergyman of the parish told us the same. The magistrate
gave us a similar reply. Nor could we wonder at it. What man or woman would
stop in such filthy, stinking hovels as those we looked into ; who, with a few pence
in his or her pocket, could march off to the public-house, have a cheerful fire, and a
comfortable room, congenial company, and the exhilarating stimulus of a pot or two
of beer. These wretched hovels, we found, paid 15 per cent, to their owners,
who therefore, did not care to build better : and thus they demoralised a whole
district, and made men, and women, and children drunkards and criminals for the
sake of a Uttle extra gain.
In 1860, the first complete return of the judicial statistics of England and
Wales was published. The poUce force, in 1860, consisted of 6,082 borough con
ies ; 7,761 county constables ; 6,289 metropolitan police ; and 628 London police.
The returns, procured by the police, of the criminal classes, were as follows : —

Known thieves and depredators under 16
over 16
Receivers of stolen goods

37 73 JJ
Prostitutes 
55 
Suspected persons
55 55
Vagrants and tramps . .
55 55
Total under 16..
„ over 16..
Total 

under 16
over 16
under 16
over 16
under 16
over 16
under 16
over 16

Males.

4,208
25,407 48
3,520

3,473
25,238 2,968
11,639

10,51765,804

76,321

Females.

Total.

1,467
7,012 23
849
1,873
28,927 1,130
5,3652,163 5,894

6,656
48,047

54,703

5,495
32,419 71
4,369 1,873
28,927 4,603
30,603 5,131
17,533

17,173
113,851

131,024

Besides these, there are 24,121 others in prisons and reformatories ; making a
total of 155,145.
The police reported houses of bad character as follows : —
Houses of receivers of stolen goods
PubUc-houses, resorts of thieves and prostitutes
Beer-shops „ „
Coffee-houses „ „ „
Other suspected houses „ ,,
Brothels 
Tramps' lodging-houses 

3,080 2,430 2,508 440
1,818
7,558
6,887

24,711
During 1860, the police had information of 50,405 indictable crimes; 24,862
persons had been apprehended, of whom 18,044 were males, and 6,818 were
females; 384,918 persons were charged with offences to be determined summarily.
The total number of persons proceeded against, either on indictment or summarily,
was 409,780: the males numbered 323,551, and the females, 86,229. The report
states that 19,864 were known thieves; 20,660 prostitutes; 16,374 vagrants and
tramps; 46,142 suspected persons; 2,468 habitual drunkards; 137,574 were of
341

London drainage.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
previous good character; and of 144,405 the characters were unknown. Each
prisoner cost the country £26 5s. 6d. The actual cost to the state of each convict,
after deducting the proceeds of his labour, was £19. At the Middlesex Industrial
School, opened in 1859, and containing, in 1861, 265 inmates, the cost per head,
per annum, was £24 0s. 10%d.
In the courts of common law, 97,568 writs of summons, and 512 writs of
capias were issued ; 2,069 causes entered for trial. In the County Courts, there
Avere 782,384 plaints entered. In 1860, there were 2,820 insolvent petitions filed;
and, in the Bankruptcy Courts, 1,326 petitions were presented; 848 by creditors,
and 432 by traders themselves. Under the statute which provides for traders
settling their affairs by private arrangement, Avithout bankruptcy, there were 218
petitions. In parliament attention had been called to the defective state of the bank
ruptcy law; and an attempt was made to remedy it. On February the 11th, on
the motion of the Attorney-general, a bill was brought in, and read a first time, for
that purpose. In April it Avas read a third time, and passed the Commons. In
the Lords the measure was successful ; but considerable opposition was made to it.
In the Commons, on July the 18th, after a warm discussion, an amendment, by the
Lords striking out from the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Bill the provision for a
chief judge in bankruptcy, Avas rejected by 173 to 129. However, on the 31st,
the Commons thought better of it; and it was agreed, on the motion of the
Attorney-general, not to insist on their disagreement with the Lords. This act
consisted of 232 clauses ; and as it particularly affected the commercial and trading-
classes, Avas, perhaps, the most important passed in the session. It decreed
that heneeforth the Court of Bankruptcy will consist of the present commissioners ;
and to them is confided all needful poAvers of the superior courts of law and equity,
and of the Court for Relief of Insolvent Debtors. The County Court judges are
henceforth to exercise in the county all the powers of district commissioners. The
London commissioners are, as vacancies occur, to be reduced to three. The Court
for Relief of Insolvent Debtors was abolished, and the jurisdiction of the County
Courts for insolvency is discontinued. The existing Court of Appeal in Chancery Avas
preserved, and appeals were to be made to it from the County Courts in bankruptcy,
as well as from the Court of Bankruptcy proper. Questions of fact may, under
the directions of the Court of Appeal, be tried in bankruptcies by juries ; or issues
may be sent to be tried by law. The principal feature of the act was, that non-
traders are brought within the privileges and liabilities of bankruptcy, although
the distinction between a trader and a non-trader was, for some certain purposes,
preserved. But it is needless to enter more into the particulars of a bill whieh, in
its working, has given great and wide-spread dissatisfaction, and which the com
mercial public, at the first fitting opportunity, have determined to get reformed.
In London a huge sanitary improvement is being carried out. It appeared, in
1860, considerable progress had been made with the main-drainage works. The
northern high-level sewer was completed from Hampstead to the river Lea, a
distance of nearly nine miles ; and the remaining portion, from Lea to Barkino-
Creek, a distance of about six miles, is in a fair way of completion. The works at
ihe Lea are of a very difficult character, the sewers having to be carried by iron
aqueducts, supported on columns, across no less than seven branches of the river,
and over several lines of railway. The southern high-level seAver is much less
advanced than the northern. The works there are of an extremely difficult cha
racter, especially at Deptford, Avhere the subsoil, which had to be bored for the
low-level sewer, proved to be a running sand, filled with an unprecedented
volume of water. " Up to the present time," reports Mr. Bazalgette, the engineer,
"nearly one million has been expended upon the works, purchase of the land, and
incidentals ; and there are now about 6,000 workmen actively engaged upon the
works, in addition to those employed in brick-making and other trades in various
parts of England, which will probably swell the number to about 10,000. It
342

a,d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [london traffic.
will fairly be expected," he adds, " that tbe main intercepting scheme will be
completed in about two years from this time." The original estimate for the
intercepting scheme was £3,000,000 ; and Mr. Bazalgette was still of opinion that
it would be completed for about that sum ; but he warned us that another half
million would be required for improving the tributary seAvers, and covering all
open streams, before the London drainage can be pronounced perfect.
Another great work begun, was that of the embankment of the Thames. The
House of Commons passed a resolution continuing the ninepenny tax on coals,
within the limits of the Metropolitan Police Act, for that express purpose. The
committee appointed by the House to report on the plans submitted to them for
inspection, recommended one which the chief commissioner embodied in a
biU, which was carried through parliament. The coal-wharves and docks between
Westminster and the Temple were to be removed, and a spacious roadway was to
be formed, commencing " at Westminster, by an easy descent, opposite the clock-
tower, and to be continued, one hundred feet in width, to the eastern boundary of
the Temple Gardens, from which point the road would be reduced to seventy feet
in width, and carried on a viaduct, supported by piers of masonry, rising to the
level of Blackfriars. Bridge — so constructed as to leave a breadth of water for the
convenience of the city gas-works and the adjoining wharves, of about seventy or
eighty feet. The commissioners, as the embankment would cease at Blackfriars,
recommend that the thoroughfare should be continued eastward to the Mansion-
house ; for without such a street no relief would be given to the crowded thorough
fare of Ludgate Hill, St. Paul's Churchyard, and Cheapside. The main length of
the embankment is about 7,000 feet ; but it is completely divided by the bridges
into sections, and each is to be treated as a separate design."-—" On either side of
Hung-erford and Waterloo Bridges would be steam-boat landing-places, the
dummies for which would be partly concealed within recesses, formed by project
ing into the river, in front of the general line of embankment, massive
granite piles, with moulded pedestals, rising high (about thirty feet) above the
roadway, and hereafter to be enriched with groups of statuary and bas-reliefs.
Half-way between Hungerford and Waterloo Bridges it is proposed to construct a
flight of landing-steps, sixty feet wide, projecting into the river, and flanked at
each end with massive piers rising to the level of a few feet above the roadway,
which would add much to the effect of this central feature as viewed from the
river." The other bridges and intermediate landing-places will be treated- in a
similar way. " The embankment wall itself has been enriched with mouldings of
a simple character, down to the level of high-water-mark, the continuous line of
moulding being broken by the introduction, at intervals, of massive blocks of
granite,, to carry ornamental lamps, and by occasional recesses for promenade
seats." Another undertaking, which, in its results, was found a wonderful conve
nience to Londoners, and people from the country visiting London, was the Metro
politan Railway, the works of which were constructed with unrivalled skill and
rapidity. It was opened in 1863. Ultimately it was connected with the Great
Northern Railway, and then Avith the London, Chatham, and Dover. Thus, from
the latter, place to the very north of England, there is uninterupted railway com
munication — a matter of no slight importance when we remember the crowded
state of the streets of London, the difficulty pedestrians have in crossing them,
and the distressing accidents whieh daily occur in consequence.
In 1859, Mr. D. W. Harvey, commissioner of city police, caused to be pre
pared an account of twenty-four hours' traffic over London Bridge, from six in the
morning on March 16th, to six in the morning on March 17th. The number of
persons on foot was 107,074; and in vehicles, 60,836; or 167,910 altogether.
Ihe vehicles were 4,483- cabs,. 4,286 omnibuses, 9,245 waggons and carts, 2,430
other vehicles ; or 20,444 in all— 7,000 persons and 850 vehicles per hour night
and aay .1 It is said of a stranger who came to London for the first time, and took
343

morals.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
up his quarters in one of the most crowded streets of the city, that he remained
standing at the door the whole of the first day of his London existence, because he
waited until the crowd had gone. " A man," says a German writer, " who would
do that, must rise and go to bed with the oavI."
It is to be feared, that while parliament was looking after the morals of the
poor, our law-makers forgot to look at home. The poor are looked after by the
police ; visited by the city missionary ; their attendance at a place of worship is
competed for by the clergy of various and rival sects ; their wants and woes are
worked up into newspaper articles ; and they live, as it were, in houses of glass. It
is true that one-half of the world does not know how the other half lives ; but it
is not true in the sense in which it is generally affirmed. Who would have thought
it possible that a pious baronet, taking the chair at a religious meeting in Exeter
Hall, would prove a felon ; that a great discounting house, eminent in the mercan
tile and philanthropic world, would sanction the circulation of forged dock- warrants ;
that the manager, about to engage in prayer at a meeting of directors, would turn
out to be the manager of the greatest swindle in modern times. Society would
never have believed that the charitable Redpath, or the dashing Robson, or the
wealthy Roupell, M.P. for Lambeth, were forgers and cheats : and yet they were all
that, and more ; and our trading classes, becoming richer, and more sunk in
flunkyism every day, certainly set their inferiors but an indifferent example. In a
work published at this time, the writer says — " If I were to tell what most men
know — what every one knows except those whose business is to know it, and seek
to reform it — I should be charged with indelicacy (as if truth could be indelicate),
and my book, perhaps, prosecuted by the Society for the Suppression of Vice, if
that abortion exists still. We are choked up with cant; almost everything we
believe in is a lie. The prayer of Ajax should be ours — ' Light ! more light !' "
One or two facts will suffice.
The Hon. Mrs. Norton, writing to the Times, in defence of her new novel,
Lost and Saved, says — " It is complained that this is not a book for the very
young. I did not write it for the very young ; I should not give novels to the very
young, any more than I should teach my daughter French out of Gil Bias, though
that was a general fashion in the last generation. I myself read no novels, saw no
plays, nor ever attended the opera till I was married. And to those who object to
a story of the cruel vices of fashionable life, written with a moral purpose, and an
effort at warning, I must say that this last amusement struck me then with a
surprise which no after familiarity has ever obliterated. The opera is, unquestion
ably, the favourite amusement of the English aristocracy. Now, what are the plots
of the principal operas ?
" The plot of Don Giovanni is so well known that the name has passed into a
by-word for profligacy. In Norma, two Druid priestesses are seduced. The elder
priestess, with consummate hypocrisy, continues to head all sacred rites till jealous
frenzy forces from her the fact that she is the mother of two children. These
children she threatens to murder, but spares, and is herself executed ; leaving it
doubtful whether or not the younger priestess, and inconstant lover, are to ' live
happy ever after,' or not.
" In the Sonnambula, a young lord puts up at the village inn, where two young
women walk into his room at night ; one from wantonness, the other because she is
a somnambulist. The somnambulist, who was a bride on the point of marriage, is
unable to convince her betrothed, by any amount of melodious argument, that she
is innocent, till, during a repetition of her somnambulism, he is compelled to
admit that ' seeing is believing,' and all ends happily.
" In the Favorita, a young monk falls in love with a lady while dipping their
mutual fingers in holy water; forsakes his monastery; Uves a life of pleasure;
goes to the wars, and returns, covered with glory, to claim her hand. But he dis
covers she is mistress to a king, so renounces the tainted bride, and returns to his
monastery, where the lady arriving, disguised as a male novice, he instantly reverts
344

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the windham case.

to his earthly passion, and proposes to her to elope. He then finds that she has
poisoned herself, and, appointing the next day for his own death, from a broken
heart, the piece ends.
" In Lucrezia Borgia, a beautiful youth, of unknown parentage, falls in love,
at first sight, with his own mother ! Not knowing this fact, but learning that she
is the infamous Lucrezia Borgia, he clambers up, and strikes out the first letter of
her name with his dagger, leaving the word ' Orgia.' Seized while completing this
insult, and dragged before her husband, a pretended pardon from the latter (who
believes him to be Lucrezia's paramour), is followed by the presentation of a cup
of poison. Lucrezia offers an antidote as soon as she can, and he is saved for the
nonce. But, attempting to destroy a whole group of her insulters, with whom he
is feasting, she poisons him over again. A few drops only of the antidote remain,
which he magnanimously refuses to take, since there is not sufficient to share with
his friends. He therefore dies ; learning, at the last moment, that the fatal _
enchantress he had adored is his profligate mother. ^^
"In Rigoletto, the buffoon, or jester, in another most profligate Court, hala
beautiful daughter, who is seduced by the duke, his master, while he is encourS-
ing the duke's vices, and ridiculing the misery of an aged nobleman, in whose
family the like misfortune has occurred. Cursed solemnly by the old nobleman, he
discovers that his daughter is ruined, and that he himself connived at her fall,
thinking it was the abduction of some other woman. Finally, he hires an assassin
to murder the lover, tie him up in a sack, and throw him into the river ; but the
daughter is unfortunately murdered, in mistake, by the hired bravo ; so that when
the father triumphantly drags out the sack with the body, he finds it to be the
corpse of his own child.
"We have, besides these, an operatic version of Goethe's Faust; and the
Traviata, a story of an 'unfortunate,' beloved by a young gentleman of good
fortune, and held to be (Heaven knows why) a more improper opera than even
Lucrezia Borgia."
Again, let us take the case of the Windham trial — that scandal which really
shocked society. The property and name of the great Windham was inherited at
this time by a young man who had received the usual training of the class to
which he belonged. His uncle was General Windham, the hero of the Redan;
his relatives were people of title ; so that the lad had what may be considered as
every advantage for his start in life. Some little time before he attained his
majority, Mr. Windham was smitten, in the park, by the charms of a lady with an
elegant equipage. She belonged to the class conventionally known by the title of
"pretty horsebreakers," a phrase, the appropriateness of which we might well
question, if we were so disposed, seeing that it indicates only an incident, and not
an essential attribute of their career. Her Christian names were soft and pretty—
'Agnes Anne ;" her surname was more prosaic and business-like, although it was
the same as that of one of our most accomplished and most poetical of Englishmen
Kogers. By a justifiable license, universally recognised on the stage, as well as
m her own particular world, she changed this unromantic cognomen for the more
aristocratic appellation of Willoughby; and we must so far pay tribute to her taste
as to call her by that name. At the time Mr. Windham became fascinated, Agnes
f«!nn°Ug y™ Under the P^tection of a gentleman who allowed her the sum
01 i^uuu a year— a sum, we may remark, which is about the highest allowed to
the permanent servants of the crown in England. Mr. Windham paid his
addresses, but Miss WUloughby did not receive them with favour. She intimated
ht^OOOs ™ nt m\^d Unwillingness to part with her protector, and
^LT'Ta 7 £1 Nevf^elffless> Mr. Windham persevered. He offered her mar-
HOflllwT' °f £8°° in PerPeW; to be afterwards increased to
£1,500 when Windham came in for the bulk of his property, which altogether
rdTsie^Xla5'°0°Arr- ^hough she all along a^r's to have expfessed
her dislike to the man and the match, these terms attracted her, and she agreed to
& A 345

FESTIVITIES AT DOVER.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
marry, stating as her reason, that it would enable her to educate and provide for
her sisters — it is to be hoped in a way to prevent them following her own course of
life. The settlements were made ; the marriage took place a few days after Mr.
Windham came of age, and every stipulation on his part fulfilled ; but he appears
to have begun making wholesale purchases of jewellery for her. In a few weeks,
Agnes Anne Windham, as she now indisputably had become, was endowed with
trinkets to the value of £14,000. With all the attractions of her new position,
however, she does not seem to have relished it ; for, before two months had elapsed,
the bride had left her husband. Such a termination to such an alliance, we need
scarcely say, was no more than might have been anticipated ; and, under ordinary
circumstances, the story would have ended here. Mrs. Windham would have
retained her jointure, and, doubtless, devoted herself to the education of her young
sisters ; while Mr. Windham would have been left to ponder over the mutability of
women. But the relations of the young gentleman took steps which reopened the
whole arrangement, and which, apart from the interests of the parties involved,
are of no small public consequence. Of these, the least important is that which
came before Vice-Chancellor Page Wood, by which it was sought to punish an
attorney who acted for Mr. and Mrs. Windham in the matter of the settle
ments. But, although this gentleman's conduct was open to question in some
particulars, the Vice-Chancellor could not, as Mr. Windham's relatives asked,
consider it a contempt of court. The more serious question had next to be
decided. A commission of lunacy on the young gentleman who is the prin
cipal actor in these unhappy transactions was held; and it had to be argued
whether the folly shown by him throughout the affair indicated a weakness of
mind so great as to make him irresponsible for his actions, and incapable of
managing his affairs. The decision was for Mr. Windham, as was anticipated. It
was felt, if the court was asked to declare a man of unsound mind, only because
of his infatuation for a woman worthless in her conduct, and below his station in
every respect, the court would have enough to do ; and many, we may, be sure,
were not sorry tbat it shrank from the Herculean task. As regards poor Windham,
it would have been well had the court decided otherwise, and appointed others to
take care of estates which he could not manage or retain. Stripped of all his
property, abandoned by his Avife and friends, he became the driver of a stage-coach,
and died suddenly in an obscure public-house, after he had scarcely passed the
period of youth.

CHAPTER XVII.
THE AFFAIR OF THE TRENT, AND NATIONAL DEFENCES.
In the autumn of 1861, there were grand doings in the ancient port of Dover.
Lord Palmerston was to be installed as Lord Warden. The holiday shows
witnessed there on that occasion were not only a splendid pageant, but also some
thing more. The installation of the Lord Warden on Bredenstone Hill was not a
mere " revival" without sense or meaning. Dover did not turn out to behold a
hollow ceremony. The Cinque Ports, the two ancient towns, and their " limbs,"
did not send their foremost men and their gallant volunteers to take part in an idle
form. The Dover pageant of a review, an installation, and a good old English
banquet, was a reality. For, 'combined with the ancient forms, was the spirit and
the body of the present time. Lord Palmerston appeared in the centre of the
spectacle, not only as the great minister whom the nation as well as the queen
delighteth to honour, but as the very embodiment of the England of 1861 —
346

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the case of anderson.
watchful and resolute, but friendly and generous towards all with whom she may
have relations. Those who went to greet him perfectly understood that the
Premier was not only the Warden of the Cinque Ports, but the Warder and the
Warden of Great Britain. There was no one in the United Kingdom, or in Europe,
who in perusing his speech, doubted the power to which allusion was made when
he said— "We accept with frankness the right hand of friendship wherever it is
tendered to us. We do not distrust that proffered right hand because we see the
left hand grasping the hilt of the sword. But when that left hand plainly does so
grasp the hilt of the sword, it would be extreme folly in us to throw away our
shield of defence." _ .
At this time our relations with America were becoming delicate and difficult.
A fugitive slave, named Anderson, had escaped to Canada ; but not without, in
self-defenee, having been compelled to murder one of the Americans, whose dis
graceful vocation it is to seek and recapture runaway slaves. Of course Anderson.
told no one what he had done. He settled quietly, worked hard, saved his money,
and became the proprietor of a house. About the commencement of the year I860,.
Anderson's secret was betrayed, and a justice of the peace, named Matthews, upon
the information thus furnished, caused Anderson to be arrested ; but no witness
appearing, Anderson was released. Only three days after he was again arrested on
the information of a wretch named Gunning, a professional slave-catcher : but,
after some weeks' imprisonment, Anderson was again liberated. Gunning, however,
did not despair, and returned from the United States with additional evidence.
Anderson was again committed to gaol, and the Washington government claimed
him. The Canadian Governor-general had the case brought before the Court of
Queen's Bench of Canada, by habeas corpus. A majority of the judges determined
that Anderson should be given up ; but the judgment was reversed when referred
to the Court of Law and Appeal. The excitement in Toronto was very great ; and
when the news reached London, equal excitement was produced in England. The
Anti-Slavery Society memorialised the government. They did more : they applied
to the Court of Queen's Bench, at Westminster, for a writ of habeas corpus to
issue for the production of the person of Anderson in that court. The writ was
granted ; and when issued by the Court of Queen's Bench, was despatched to Canada
by the first mail. By the same mail a letter was despatched from Lord John
Russell ; but, in the meantime, after eight months' confinement in a Canadian gaol,
Anderson had been liberated, on the ground that the warrant was not issued in
conformity with the statute : because, first, it did not contain a charge of murder,
but merely of felonious homicide ; whereas neither the treaty nor the statute either
authorise a surrender, or a committal for the purpose of surrender, for any homicide
not expressed to be murder. Secondly, that the warrant Avas not expressed to be the
purpose of surrender, but only until the prisoner shall be discharged by due course
of law, whereas the statute requires both. Upon the merits of the question itself
no judgment was given. In a short time, Anderson, after he was set free, came to
England ; very naturally he felt, as long as he stayed in Canada, he might be again
arraigned. He knew the perseverance and implacability pf his enemies, and how
ready to forward their designs were numerous base persons, both in Upper and
Lower Canada. In England he was enthusiastically received, especially at Exeter
Hall. A committee was formed to raise a fund on his behalf; and very successful
and warm were the meetings at which Anderson attended. His true friends,
however, felt that it was better for him to be removed from the excitement of
London; and accordingly he was placed in a quiet village in Northamptonshire for
twelve months, where he made considerable progress in his studies. At the end of
that time he was removed to Liberia, to which he was offered a free passage by the
African Mail Steam Company, and where, by the kindness of the Liberian consul-
general, a tract of land had been aUotted him.
xi. in *£e HousJe.of Commons, February, 1861, in reply to questions respecting
the Canada extradition case, Lord Palmerston stated that the Secretary of State
2 A 2 '347

AFFAIR OF THE TRENT.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
for the Colonies had written to the Governor-general of Canada, desiring that John
Anderson should not be given up to the United States' authorities without
directions from the home government; and^ he would not be given up until the
question pending in the Court of Queeni's Bench was settled. The terms of the
treaty were clear, that before Anderson was given up, it must be established, ,by a
court of competent jurisdiction, that he had "committed what, by the English law,
would be considered murder. If Anderson had not committed murder, he could
not be claimed under the treaty.
In the last week of November, 1861, news reached England that Captain
Wilks, of the American navy, had carried off four American citizens from the deck
of an English vessel, in violation of international law. It appeared, that ' while
on her way to England, the English mail-steamer Trent was stopped by the Federal
steamer San Jacinto, and Messrs. Mason and Slidell, the Confederate commis
sioners,- taken from her. Commander Williams, the mail agent on board the
British steamer, in a speech delivered at a 1, dinner of the Royal Western' Yacht
Club, thus narrates the affair — " As to the manner in which the act on board the
Trent was. per formed, he was, at the time Captain Moir came to him to say that a
suspicious vessel was' ahead, on the main-deck, reading. A very few minutes after
the vessel was descried, they hoisted their ensign on board- the; Trent. It* was not
responded to. As they approached the San Jacinto, a shot . was fired across the
bows of the Trent. They proceeded ¦ slowly, and put her helm a-starboard, • and
approached-. They were not half a cable's length from her. He would say she
stopped— except that she had steerage way— when a shell was fired across her bows ;
and that was the way which it had been thought proper to' style as ' unexception
able.' ¦ With regard to the manner in which Lieutenant Fairfax and he parted —
Mr. Fairfax came to him on the main-deck,: hat In hand, and. said in effect — -'Sir,
I have a painful duty to perform, and if, in the 'excitement of ; the moment; I have
said aught that by possibility can be construed into .a personal offence,' or an insult
towards you, : I must humbly beg your pardon, sir, rer I never meant it.' He ¦
replied — 'Mr. 'Fairfax,. I, have had a painful. scene to witness— a scene of degrada
tion. to my.country's flag. I do not deny that my feelings" have been greatly
excited; but if :by any gesture I have done aught to offend you, as a man, there is
my hand,, sir, and J crave your forgiveness.' Mr. Fairfax had said .that' his (Com
mander Williams's) manner was so .violent he was compelled to request Captain
Moir to remove him from the deck, and that there was no union existing between
him and Captain Moir. He utterly "denied that there ever occurred one single
instance of a .want of unity between Captain Moir and himself; and he was proud
to have the . opportunity of saying that he could bear testimony to the high cha
racter, of .Captain Moir: It was said by the American papers that Captain Wilks
could not .have received instructions from his government at Washington, for that
he was on his return from the western coast of Africa, wending his way through the
Bahama .Channel to New- York. Button the :16th: or l7th-of ¦ October, he (Com
mander. Williams) saw the San Jacinto off St. Thomas. He went on his way to
Mexico,* going to Havannah, Vera Gruz,: and Tampico. Onhis return to Havannah
on the 6th of November, he found that the San Jacinto had been to Havannah from
, St. Thomas ; that she had coaled there ; and that two of her officers, passing them
selves off as Southerners in their hearts, had lunched with Mr. Slidell and family,
and extracted from them their intended movements. Miss Slidell branded one of
the officers to his face with his infamy, having been her father's guest not ten days
before. Mr. Fairfax had denied that the marines made a rush towards Miss Slidell
at the charge with fixed bayonets, but he (Commander Williams) most positively
affirmed that they did so. Miss Slidell did strike Mr. Fairfax, but she did not do
it with the vulgarity of gesture which had been attributed to her. Miss Slidell
was with her father in the cabin, with her arm encircling his neck, and she wanted
to be taken to prison with him. Mr. Fairfax attempted to get into the cabin— he
did not say forcibly, for he did not say a word against Mr. Fairfax, so far as his
o4o

~Eii icanOT FEnraure- _&*n> ybbiasexbg commht .

a.d. 1861.J VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [action of the government.
manner was concerned — he attempted to get her away by inducements. In her
agony, then, she did strike him in the face three times. With regard to the cir
cumstances attending the marines rushing with the points of their bayonets at
Miss Slidell, it was then that she screamed for her father, who broke the window
of the cabin, through which he thrust himself; and as she screamed, he (Com
mander Williams) had just time to put his body between their bayonets and Miss
Slidell." '
Before sitting down, he read a letter which he had received from his chief,
Captain Patey, showing that he had the approbation of government for his part of
the affair ; which, after referring to the circumstances of the case, concluded as
foUows: — "I am commanded by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty to
convey to you their lordships' approval of your conduct whilst acting as naval
agent on board the Trent on the occasion in question ; and also of the judicious
steps you subsequently took for making the matter known to Lord Lyons and
Vice-Admiral Milne, and other British authorities. — Charles Patey, Captain
Superin tendent."
All England anticipated war with America. A proclamation appeared, pro
hibiting the exportation of munitions of war. Expedition after expedition was
despatched across the Atlantic. In three weeks, from 10,000 to 11,000 troops were
on their way across the Atlantic, and our naval force at that station was nearly
doubled. The English public was certainly in a great rage. The deck of a
British man-of-war was sacred, and that sanctity had been rudely violated. The
people were ready to make any sacrifice to obtain reparation for the wrong.
A despatch, courteously worded, dated November 30th, 1861, was forwarded
by the British cabinet to Washington, expressing the belief that Captain Wilks
had acted without the authority of his government, and requiring the surrender of
the captured envoys. It was calculated that an answer to this despatch could be
received in about a month. It arrived, in fact, on the 9th of January. On the
3rd of December, three days after the date of the British despatch, the French
government forwarded a communication, through their minister at Washington,
expressing their disapproval of the act of Captain Wilks, accompanied with the
courteous intimation that all the neutral powers were interested in the disavowal
of the proceeding on the part of the United States' government. This despatch was
formally communicated to the British government on the 6th of December. On
the 19th of December, Mr. Adams, the American minister, waited on our Foreign
Minister, to say that " no instructions were given to Captain Wilks to authorise
him to act in the manner he had done. Neither had the United States' govern
ment committed itself with regard to any decision upon the character of that act.
The government would wait for any representation the British government might
make before coming to any positive decision." On the 18th of December, the
Austrian, and, on the 25th, the Prussian government, sent despatches to Wash
ington, supporting the claim of the British government. The Russian ambassador,
at London, wrote to his colleague at Washington, condemning the conduct of
Captain Wilks ; and this was confirmed by the Russian government. These pro
ceedings of the three great powers were immediately made known to the British
government, who must have felt that the chance of war was indeed small, espe
cially considering the internal strife by which America was torn asunder and
convulsed. The American view of the transaction appears to have differed very con
siderably from our own. According to Ward Beecher, they thought nothing of
the indignity offered to England in boarding a British steamer, and abducting two
of the passengers. In his farewell speech at Manchester, the reverend gentleman
said — " You will recollect that an American naval vessel, by accident — if there be
such things as accidents — overhauled an English mail-steamer, and took from it
two men who represented themselves as ambassadors from the so-called Con
federate government to the Courts of England and France respectively. I remem-
349

FEELING IN AMERICA.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
ber very well, when the ship came from Europe, and the tidings spread across
America as quick as lightning could flash, that, for a day or two, the universal
feeling was — 'Here's a stupendous joke.' Everybody laughed. It struck the
comical feeling of the nation, that these two men should have started off to repre
sent the Confederates at St. James's and in Paris, and, instead, found themselves
in Fort Lafayette. And there was a feeling of immense good-nature, and even
jollity. Then, after two or three days, some lawyer men began to inquire in the
papers — 'What is the law on this subject? It may be a very good joke; but
what says the law ?' We began to draw down our faces, and say — ' Sure enough
there is an England, and she will have a word to say. What, then, is the law ?'
Then began to be quoted what the English law was; our papers began to be filled
with English precedents and English conduct ; and there was a universal feeling
that we had acted according to English precedents. That conviction is yet un
changed, and never will be changed, because it is according to fact. But I had
the opportunity of knowing, ' from my position, both as preacher, lecturer, and
editor, that the feeling of the people was, ' We are going to do what is right now,
whatever it is. If we are in the wrong, we shall concede this matter ; but if we
are in the right, we will not budge an inch, neither by bullying nor intimidation.'
At the moment the information came to our shores of these facts, Mr. Seward
addressed a confidential communication to Mr. Adams, instructing him to read the
same to Earl Russell'; the purport of which was, that this had been done without
the privity or assent of the government, who were prepared, on the statement of
England's wishes, to settle this matter amicably. Mr. Adams read that to Earl
Russell, and it lay nine or ten days quiet. The letter being confidential, Mr.
Adams scrupulously avoided speaking of it ; but it leaked out, nevertheless, that
there had been a communication from the American government to the English,
and everybody was asking what was its nature. This communication having been
read, I think, on the 19th of December, it would be about the 29th that your
Morning Post, which is supposed to be a semi-official organ, declared that there
had been a communication from the American government, but that it had
nothing to do with the Trent affair. And whereas it was a communication on
that, and nothing else. To this hour that paper has never explained nor retracted
that malicious falsehood. From that point complication began — I believe that.
But there was something before that. Even before that message came from
Washington, and before the British government had heard what we had to say,
orders had issued that British troops should repair to Canada, and the navy and
dockyards were put on double labour. England has neA'er shown want of prompt
ness and spirit ; but I believe you can find no other case in English history in
which a misunderstanding between ships of two nations has been treated with
similar precipitancy — not waiting to hear explanations, but preparing for war, or
threatening war, before you could possibly have the real facts. As to what took
place on the other side, I am alleged to have been all wrong when I said the
American government showed instant disposition to make reparation, because, on
the other hand, we heaped honours on Captain Wilks all through the nation.
When we thought we were right, we did ; but after we found out, by the declara
tion of our government, that we were wrong, point me to one instance in which
even the slightest popular assembly undertook to traverse the decision of our
goA'ernment by showing attention to Captain Wilks."
There is much force in these observations. We need not go so far as Mr.
Beecher, and defend the conduct of Captain Wilks, as sanctioned by English prece
dent ; but the conduct of Lord Palmerston and the British government Avas cer
tainly more spirited than friendly. There was little danger of war with America.
The Americans at that time had quite enough to do. Nor were our successes,
Avhen at war with the people of that country, such as to create any desire in this
country again to engage in an American war. We had gathered feAV laurels in our
American encounters ; nay, Canada, with its vast and defenceless frontier, suppUes
350

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [feeling of france^
an additional motive for desiring peace with our kinsmen across the Atlantic.
We could listen to, and treat with proper respect, the criticisms of a popular
orator and leader such as Mr. Beecher ; but when America sought to condemn us
on the testimony of Mr. Edwin James, formerly M.P. for Marylebone, that was
quite a different affair. Mr. James had been compelled to withdraw from England
under peculiarly unpleasant circumstances. He had been a popular advocate:
he had defended Anderson, and was at the height of his popularity, when it was
found that he had suddenly left England, and gone to America, where he, like a
renegade, declared the conduct of England in the Trent affair was altogether
wrong. It appeared that this legal worthy had been guilty of involving Lord
Worsley, son of the Earl of Yarborough, in liabilities to the extent of £30,000.
He had victimised a respectable attorney, named Fryer, residing at Wimbourne.
Mr. James had been counsel in a cause in which Mr. Fryer was attorney. The
latter was so much struck by his zeal and ability, that he became his friend, then
his creditor ; and, finally, compassionating his embarrassed condition, conceived the
idea of relieving him from his distresses by paying off all his debts, ; recouping
himself by the receipts of his professional income. Under this arrangement,
Mr. Fryer had paid, in two years, no less than £22,000. Then came the crash ;
and then, for the first time, Mr. Fryer and Lord Worsley became convinced of the
claims of each other. The third charge made against Mr. James involved profes
sional dishonesty. He was counsel for Mr. Scully, the plaintiff in the cause of
Scully v. Ingram, the latter gentleman being the well-known proprietor of the
Illustrated London News. In the course of the trial, Mr. James cross-examined
the defendant in the style in which he was a great master. Poor Ingram was
completely shaken, and terribly cut up. The result of the trial was a verdict for
Mr. James's client, the plaintiff. A rule for a neAV trial was obtained. In the
meanwhile Mr. Ingram said to a friend — " I must lend Mr. James some money."
The friend did not see the necessity ; upon which the victim replied — " I must — I
am afraid I must ; I must do anything he asks." Among the papers of Mr. Ingram,
who was drowned in Lake Ontario, in the disaster of the Lady Elgin, was found a
letter of Mr. James, in which he admitted a loan of £1,250, with the expression —
" You shall not repent of your kindness to me." At the second trial, Mr. James, not
withstanding his success on the first occasion, compromised the case. Thus, bankrupt
in character and purse, the popular demagogue of Marylebone sought to pander to
the democracy of the New World, and to regain the position he had so long held
in the Old. It does not appear, however, that his efforts were crowned with
success. Mr. Cobden said — " The difficulty in which we found ourselves when under
the sudden necessity of providing warm clothing for our troops, brought the dis
position of the French emperor to a singular test. Such is the severity of the.
winter in Canada, that sentries are often required to be relieved every half-hour to
avoid being frozen ; and there is frequently a fall of seven feet of snow during the
season. For such a rigorous climate, a corresponding equipment of clothing was
indispensable. Among other articles of necessity were long boots, in which we
found ourselves deficient. The following little incident must be given in the
words of Sir G. C. Lewis, the Secretary for War, delivered in the House of Com
mons on the 17th of February, 1862; and, as it is taken from the newspaper
report of the speech, the expressions of feeling, as they were elicited from the
House, are also retained :— ' There was one article that was not used by any of our
regiments, and which was not in store in this country— the article of long boots.
The French government having been informed of our difficulty, undertook the
supply of 1,500 pairs of boots, which came over in forty-eight hours from Paris
(cheers), and at a cost for which they could have scarcely been obtained from our
contractors. (Hear, hear.) . I am happy to mention this as a proof of the friendly
action of the French government (hear, hear.)' "
The danger of war with America soon passed away. The act of the indiscreet
351

the peace society.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 18C2.

commander, Wilks, was disowned ; and England and America, happily for them
selves, and the world's welfare, remained at peace. The Quakers, as usual, had
been alive and active. They had sent up a deputation to Lord Palmerston, trust
ing, that if the answer of the American government was unfriendly, the matter
might be referred to arbitration — a principle which the British government, to its
great honour, was the first to commend to the attention of the Paris conference of
1854, through the mouth of Lord Clarendon. Lord Palmerston was reminded
that, on that occasion, the members of the conference did not hesitate to
declare, in the name of their governments, the wish that states between which any
serious misunderstanding may arise, should, before appealing to arms, have recourse,
so far as circumstances might allow, to the good offices of a friendly power.
" The principle thus formally consecrated by the sanction of all the great
governments of Europe, has since received the spontaneous and cordial homage of
eminent statesmen of this country, of various political parties. It was described
by Mr. Gladstone, ' as a great triumph ; a powerful engine on behalf of civilisation
and humanity.' "
In conclusion, they said — " We would further remind your lordship, that Great
Britain and the United States have already, in their relations with each other,
solemnly recognised this principle, even in its most rigid form of application. In
a treaty between the two governments, relative to fisheries, commerce, and naviga
tion, ratified at Washington September 9th, 1854, there is a clause which provides
that, in case of any differences- arising between the contracting parties on any
matter connected with the treaty, the question in dispute shall be referred first to
commissioners ; and, in the last resort, to an arbitrator or umpire, to be mutually
chosen: 'the high contracting parties' — such are the terms of the treaty —
' solemnly engaging to consider the decision of the commissioners conjointly, or of
the arbitrator or umpire, as the case may be, as absolutely final and conclusive in
each case decided upon by them or him respectively.' "
We had thus peace with France and with America ; yet Lord Palmerston was
still bent on spending millions and millions, to no purpose, in useless preparations
for war. In October, from highly influential quarters, the following memorandum had
been forwarded to him : —
"The present peculiar and exceptional state of the English and French
navies, the result of scientific progress in maritime armaments, offers an oppor
tunity for a reciprocal arrangement between the two governments, of the highest
interest to both countries.
" During the last century, and down almost to the present day, the relative
naval strength of the two countries has been measured by the number of their
line-of-battle ships. But, owing to the recent improvements in explosive shells,
and other combustible missiles, and in the modes of projecting them, these large
vessels have been pronounced, by competent judges, no longer suited for maritime
warfare, and warning voices have even proclaimed that they will henceforth prove
only a snare to those who employ them.
" This opinion has found utterance in several emphatic phrases.
" ' Wooden ships of the line,' says 'one, ' will, in a future naval war, be nothing
but human slaughter-houses.' 'They will be blown to lucifer-matches,' says
another. A third authority tells us, that in case of a collision between two such
vessels, at close quarters, the only words of command for which there will be time,
Avill be, ' Fire, and lower your boats !' Whilst a fourth declares, that ' any govern
ment that should send such a vessel into action against an iron-plated ship would
deserve to be impeached.'
" It hardly required such a weight of evidence to convince us, that to crowd
nearly 1,000 men upon a huge wooden target, with thirty or forty tons of gun
powder at their feet, and expose them to a bombardment Avith detonating shells
and other combustible projectiles, must be a very suicidal proceeding.
352

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [reasons for peace.
" The governments of the maritime states have shown that they share this
opinion by abandoning the construction of line-of-battle ships.
" America, several years since, gave the preference to long, low vessels, pos
sessing the utmost possible speed, and being capable of carrying the largest guns.
"France was the next to cease building ships of the line.
"The British government have come to the same decision; and they gave a
pledge last session, with the approval of parliament, that they would not complete
the vessels of this class which were unfinished on the stocks.
" It is under these circumstances that the two countries find themselves in
possession of about one hundred wooden ships of the line with screw propellers.
England has between sixty and seventy, and France between thirty and forty of
these vessels, the greater part of them in commission; and their maintenance
constitutes one of the principal items in the naval expenditure of the two countries.
" It will be admitted that if these vessels did not exist they would not now be
constructed, and that when worn out they will not be renewed. It is equally
indisputable, that they have been built by the two governments with a view to
preserve a certain relative force towards each other.
" In proof that this rivalry has been confined exclusively to England and
France, it may be stated, on the authority of the official representative of the
Admiralty in the House of Commons, that Spain has only three, Russia nine, and
Italy one, of this class of ships. America has only one.
" These circumstances suggest, as an obvious course to the two governments,
that they should endeavour to come to an amicable agreement, by which the
greater portion of these ships might be withdrawn, and so disposed of as to be
rendered incapable of being again employed for warlike purposes. This might be
effected by an arrangement which should preserve to each country precisely the
same relative force after the reduction as before. For instance, assuming, merely
for the sake of argument, England to possess sixty-five, and Fiance thirty-five,
then for every seven withdrawn by France, England should withdraw thirteen;
and thus, to whatever extent the reduction was carried, provided this proportion
were preserved, the two countries would still possess the same relative force. The
first point on which an understanding should be come to, is as to the number of
ships of the line actually possessed by each — a very simple question, inasmuch as it
is not complicated with the comparison of vessels in different stages of construction.
Then, the other main point is to agree upon a plan for making- a fair selection,
ship for ship, so that the withdrawals on both sides may be as nearly as possible of
corresponding size or value. If the principle of a proportionate reduction be
agreed to, far fewer difficulties will be found in carrying out the details than must
haye been encountered in arranging the plans of co-operation in the Crimean and
Chinese wars, or in settling the details of the commercial treaty."
The memorandum argued, that just as the ships of the line had become
obsolete, the new iron-plated vessels then building would, in turn, become the
same ; and that, in the meantime, France and England were wasting their wealth,
and, by the financial pressure thus created, irritating the population of the two
countries. liT^e Britisn tax-payers believe, on tbe authority of their leading statesmen,
that the increased burden to which they are subjected is caused by the armaments
on the other side of the Channel. The people of France are also taught to feel
similarly aggrieved towards England. The feelings of mutual animosity, produced
by this sacrifice of substantial interests, are not to be allayed by the exchange of
occasional acts of friendship between the two governments. On the contrary, this
inconsistent policy, m incessantly arming against each other at home, whilst
uniting tor common objects abroad, if it do not impair public confidence in their
sincerity tends at least to destroy all faith in an identity of interests between the
rulers ana the ruled, by showing how little advantage the peoples derive from the
friendship of their governments. 353

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEEDINGS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1862.
"But the greatest evil connected with these rival armaments is, that they
destroy the strongest motives for peace. When two great neighbouring nations
find themselves permanently subjected to a war expenditure, without the compen
sation of its usual excitements and honours, the danger to be apprehended is, that
if an accident should occur to inflame their hostile passions — and we know how
certain these accidents are at intervals to arise — their latent sense of suffering and
injury may reconcile them to a rupture, as the only eventual escape from an other
wise perpetual war taxation in a time of peace.
"Circumstances appeal strongly to the two governments, at the present
juncture, in favour of a measure of wise and safe economy. In consequence of the
deplorable events in America, and the partial failure of the harvests of Europe,
the commerce and manufactures of both countries are exposed to an ordeal of great
suffering. Were the proposed naval reduction carried into effect, it would
ameliorate the financial position of the governments, and afford the means for
alleviating the fiscal burdens of the peoples. But the moral effect of such a
measure would be still more important. It should be remembered, that although
these large vessels have lost their value in the eyes of professional men, they
preserve their traditional terrors for the Avorld at large; and when they move
about, in fleets, on neighbouring coasts, they excite apprehension in the public
mind, and even check the spirit of commercial enterprise. Were such an amicable
arrangement as has been suggested accomplished, it would be everywhere accepted
as a pledge of peace, and, by inspiring confidence in the future, would help to
reanimate the hopes of the great centres of trade and industry, not only in France
and England, but throughout Europe.
"Will not the two governments, then, embrace this opportunity of giving
effect to a policy, which, Avhilst involving no risk, or sacrifice of honour, or
diminution of relative power, will tend to promote the present prosperity and.future
harmony of the two countries, and offer an example of wisdom and moderation
Avorthy of this civilised age, and honourable to the fame of the two foremost nations
of the earth ?" It does not seem that the memorial had much weight with Lord
Palmerston or his supporters in the House of Commons.
On the 3rd of June, 1862, Mr. Stansfeld proposed in the House a resolution, to
the effect that " the national expenditure is capable of reduction without com
promising the safety, the independence, or the legitimate influence of the country."
This was a great field-night in the House. Several amendments had been put upon
the paper — two or three more or less friendly to the government ; and one — that of
Mr. Walpole — was supposed to raise the direct issue of " no confidence." It was
expected that the Tories and Radicals Avould join ; that Lord Palmerston would be
defeated; and that Lord Derby Avould come in. There was a crowded House; an
unusually disordered preliminary debate ; and great excitement in the House, and in
the ladies' and the strangers' gallery. It turned out contrary to general expectation.
There was ho fight after all ; and Mr. Walpole withdrew his amendment, apparently
not a little to the chagrin of some of his own friends and supporters.
Mr. Cobden spoke before the close of the discussion. After a severe reply to
Mr. Horsman, whom he accused of the most callous carelessness tothe real welfare
of the nation so long as the armaments were kept up in their inflated state, he
undertook to deal Avith the plea that our expenditure was kept up on account of
the necessity to protect ourselves against France. " Why should we not endeavour
to produce peace and quiet in a cheaper Avay ? We were in alliance with France.
Why could not Lord Palmerston, or somebody else (he, Mr. Cobden, would under
take to do it), take the matter in hand, and talk over the question of the iron
vessels ? The consequences would be perfectly disastrous unless the government
would address themselves to the task" of retrenchment, and to the relations of the
country with France." He continued —
" Look at what is going on beyond the Atlantic. Everybody has complained
that America was very overbearing in her foreign policy. Very well ; but bear in
354

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. cobden's speeches.

mind America was never well armed. She had but fourteen or fifteen thousand
soldiers.: she never would have a fleet : she has not had a line-of-battle ship in com
mission for the last ten years-— certainly not more than one. If, then, America
played the bully without arms, what Avas it that impressed her will upon the rest of
the world ? Undoubtedly it was that you gave her credit for having vast resources
behind her which were not unnecessarily displayed in a state of armed defiance.
Well, what has been the result of the present deplorable Avar in America ? You
have seen that country manifesting a power such as I have no hesitation in saying
no nation of the same population ever manifested in the same time. No country
in Europe, possessing 20,000,000 of people, could put forth the might, could show
the resources in men, money, and equipments that the Federal States of America
have done during the last twelve months. Taking the whole country together,
about 30,000,000 of people have kept nearly 1,000,000 men in arms; and they
have, upon the whole, been equipped and supplied as no other army ever was before.
Why was that ? Simply because the Americans had not exhausted themselves
previously by high taxation. They were a prosperous people. Their wages and
profits were high, because their taxation was low ; and as they were earning quite
twice as much as the people of Europe earned when the war broke out, they had
only to restrict themselves to one-half of their usual enjoyments, and they found
means of carrying on the war. That, I think, is a doctrine that applies to us as
well as to the Americans ; and I deny that a nation increases its power, and is
better prepared for carrying on war, because it always maintains a large war
establishment in time of peace."
The nation and the Premier were deaf to all Mr. Cobden's reasonings. In
one of his last speeches, the great free-trader undertook to show, that the alarmist
government statements about the strength of the French navy were entirely falla
cious and delusive. He continued — " In the whole of the past five years, I defy
any one to show an instance in which the noble lord (Lord Palmerston) ha3 advo
cated an increase of our naval armament in reference to any other country than
France. We have heard from him the word ' invasion' a dozen times within the
last feAV years. Now, for a Prime Minister to talk about this country being invaded
by a friendly power, without one fact to justify the suspicion of it — on the con
trary, when the navy of that government is less than at any former time — is to
commit this country to an attitude towards that neighbouring power, that no
minister ought to give it with the levity of indiscretion that has marked the
noble lord's course on the subject."
It is only fair to Mr. Cobden's memory to quote the closing passage of this
speech, in which he clearly showed that he was not an advocate for peace at any
price. "There is no question in this House as to defending the country against a
foreign enemy. It would be a piece of supreme impertinence in me, or any other
man, to lay claim to an exclusive interest or regard for the security of the country
against a foreign enemy; and I hold the man to be a charlatan who sets up a
claim to popularity because he holds the honour and safety of the country in
higher estimation than I do. That is not the question here, where every man has
an equal interest in the safety of his country. We may take different views, as we
are entitled to do, as to the best modes of fortifying, and permanently defending
the country. Some think we cannot do better than appeal for armaments and for-
tincations, in addition to our existing resources in time of peace, notwithstanding
the weight of taxation under which the country is struggling; while others, like
myseli, may think with Sir Robert Peel, that you cannot defend every part of your
coast and colonies; and that, in attempting to do so, you ran a greater risk of
danger to the country than you would incur by husbanding the resources which
you are now expending upon armaments, so as to have them at call in time of
emergency. I hat is my view. Let no one presume or dare to say that he has
more regard for the safety of the country than I have. They may try to create
355

MR. GLADSTONE'S BUDGET.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.

imaginary dangers, and to take credit for guarding against them. But give us a
real danger ; show us that our navy is not equal to our defence ; that a neighbour
is clandestinely and unduly trying to change the proportion which its force should
bear to that of the mercantile people living in our island, and then I would wil
lingly vote £100,000,000 of money to protect our country against attack. But in
saying this I claim no merit ; I do not set myself up as a great patriot ; for there
is nobody here but what would put his hand in his pocket, and spend his whole
fortune, rather than have this island defiled by the foot of an enemy.
" Our wealth, commerce, and manufactures grow out of the unskilled labour
of men working in metals. There is not one of those men, who, in case of our
being assailed by a foreign power, would not, in three Aveeks or a fortnight, be
available, with their hard hands and thoughtful brains, for the manufacture of
instruments of war. That is not an industry that requires you, at every step, to
multiply your armed men. What has given us our Armstrongs, our Fairbairns,
our Whitworths ? The industry of the country in which they are mainly occupied.
It has been sometimes made a reproach against me and my friends, the free-traders,
that we would leave the country defenceless. I say, if you have multiplied the
means of defence ; if you can build three times as many steamers in the same
time as other countries ; and if you have that threefold force of mechanics of which
my honourable friend has spoken — to whom do you owe that but to the men who,
by contending for the true principles of commerce, have created a demand for the
labour of an increased number of artisans in this country ? Go to Plymouth or
Woolwich, and look at the names of the tools for making fire-arms, and shot and
shell ; they bear the names of men in Birmingham, in Manchester, and Leeds — men
nearly all connected, for the last twenty years, with the extension of our commerce,
Avhich has thus contributed to the increase of the strength of the country by
calling forth its genius and its skill. I resist the attempt which has been made
to show that I am not a promoter of the strength, the power, and the greatness of
this country; or that I, or any of those who act with me, have been indifferent to,
or ignorant of what constitutes the real strength and greatness of the country."
On the economical part of the question, Mr. Cobden had, to a certain extent,
an ally in Mr. Gladstone. More than once, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he
complained of the enormous and increasing expenditure of England and other
countries in warlike matters. As regards ourselves, in his speech on the budget of
April 3rd, 1862, he said — " Let me now present the subject to the committee
more at large. Gathering together the transactions of the last three years, I will
state the amount which, in those years, we have had to defray of what may fairly
be called war expenditure. The account for China, up to March 31st, 1862, as I
have just stated, is £7,034,000 ; but, in addition, we have had to pay, for a former
Avar, £444,000 ; making a total, in round numbers, of £7,500,000. With respect
to New Zealand, we have brought to charge at present £250,000 ; but that does
not include any consideration of the question, how far the 5,000 or 6,000 men
Avho have, been in New Zealand, would have been kept on the establishment of the
army if not wanted for service there. I ought likewise to state, that the sum I
have named is only what we have both paid and brought to account up to
March 31st, 1862 ; and I am bound to add, it does not cover the whole even of
the direct charge for war expenditure in New Zealand. Again, the despatch of
troops to British North America, in the past winter, disturbed the finance of the
year ; though it alike answered the necessity of the case, and the feeling of the
country. It added to our charge the sum of £850,000. Hence, the total of the
direct Avar charge we have incurred during the iast three years, is £8,600,000,
even when estimated upon a principle which, I think, undoubtedly places it below
its real amount."
In opening his budget in 1863, Mr. Gladstone again referred to our increas
ing expenditure as follows: — "The causes which have, during recent years,
attracted an unusual degree of interest in the annual financial statement, are not
356

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. Gladstone's speech.

of such a nature that any well-advised lover of his country should desire their
operation to be permanent. They may be summed up in the following words.
The few years which have last past have been of unusual pressure upon the
resources of the country, and have been, as times of unusual pressure must be,
years likewise of unusual anxiety. During the course of the last session of par
liament, that anxiety found its natural and most legitimate method of expression
in a resolution of the House of Commons. In the resolution to which I refer, her
majesty's government found it declared by the House (the proper organ of the
sense of the country, especially upon such a subject), that while it was the desire
of the House that — I am now not quoting the words, but referring to the spirit of
the resolution — ample provision should be made for the honour and security of
the country, and for the efficiency of the public service, it was likewise the fixed
opinion of the House, that the burden of taxation was inconveniently heavy, and
that efforts ought to be made in that respect to afford relief to the people. * * *
And as it is well the people should understand — what, at the time I refer to, her
majesty's government, by the mouth of my noble friend the First Lord of the
Treasury, fully acknowledged — that that resolution was not premature, but, on the
contrary, was well founded, and was fully justified by the circumstances of the
case ; it is well they should understand how rapid, how peculiar — I will venture
to say how exceptional — up to a certain point, had been the growth of the public
expenditure; and how much it was to be desired — indeed, how needful it had
become — in the interests of the nation, that the subject should attract a particular
attention. Now I will advert first to the expenditure of the financial year 1859,
the first year subsequent to the Russian war, the accounts of which were not
extensively affected by war charges. The expenditure of that year very con
siderably exceeded the scale of our expenditure before the war. It amounted to
£64,664,000; but in the very next year, 1859— '60, the expenditure increased to
£69,502,000, showing an augmentation of £4,838,000. In the next year, 1860~'61,
the amount again rose, and came to £72,842,000, showing an augmentation of,
within two years, no less than £8,178,000. I will next refer to the average of the
four years from 1859 to 1863; andi take these four years' because they are the
years to which the general description of large disbursements particularly apply.
The average charge of these years was £71,195,000, if we include the amount paid
out upon fortifications ; and £70,678,000 if that item be excluded. This increase
upon the aggregate public debt is even larger than it seems, because it occurred at
a time when we had enjoyed a peculiar relief, amounting to more than two millions
of money, from the charge of the national debt, owing to the lapse of the long-
annuities." This increase the orator accounted for as follows: — "There were extensive
and costly transformations of arms and vessels, which appeared to be required by
the progress of miUtary or naval science. There was a great advance of philan
thropic views with regard to the condition of our seamen and soldiers. This
advanced the improved state of -public sentiment ; led to a great and somewhat
sudden expenditure; but to an expenditure grudged, I believe, by none— at least
as to the principle on which it rested. There was, thirdly, a great extension of
our military estabUshments, having reference, in no inconsiderable degree— as must
always be the case, from the sympathy that prevails between nation and nation— to
a like increase in military establishments abroad, and to the general circumstances
ot Europe.^ There was, further, a desire, warmly and very generally, even if not
quite unanimously entertained by the public, that the fixed defences of the country
should be strengthened and enlarged. And yet, again, there were direct war
charges, which amounted to a very large sum of money. All these causes of increase
in the public expenditure were definite in their character, and easily traceable in
their efiect. But I should not do full justice to the elucidation of the case, if I
tailed to add, that, together with these causes, another cause came into operation,
which is less easy to follow and detect, but which is pretty certain to exercise a
357

lord palmerston's speeches.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
powerful influence at periods when, from whatever reason, a vast and sudden
increase of public expenditure may occur. I mean in this, that, together with the
called-for increase of expenditure, there grows up what may be termed a spirit of
expenditure — a desire or tendency prevailing in the country, which insensibly, and
unconsciously perhaps, but really, affects the spirit of the people, the spirit of the
public department, and, perhaps, even the spirit of those whose duty it is to submit
the estimates to parliament, and who are most specially and directly responsible
for the disbursements of the state. When this spirit of expenditure is in action,
we must expect to find some relaxation of the old principles of prudence and rules
for thrift, which direct and require that, whatever service is to be performed for
the public, should be executed in the most efficient manner, and at the least prac
tical cost."
These warning voices were uttered in vain. Our war expenditure goes on
increasing. Any man who will consult the last Appropriation Act, will find that
the charge for the army service during the year ending March 31st, 1865, was
£14,340,000 sterling ! The actual expenditure of the preceding year was rather
more. Enormous as this sum is, we must remember it is exclusive of £11,000,000
paid for the navy, and of £13,000,000 expended in India, where we have 75,000
Avhite soldiers, and troops of otlier kinds, running our account up to an enormous
total. The nation is thus paying, it appears, hard upon £41,000,000, all things
included, for its defence ; and that is a peace estimate. To make matters worse,
we find that we are paying from 25 to 60 per cent., and even more, above the
charges of continental war-offices. Yet, in spite of this enormous expenditure, it
appears, from a parliamentary return just issued, that we could, in case of inva
sion, muster no more than 40,000 or 50,000 regulars. It appears, for ever}7
regular soldier, prepared to repel invasion, we are paying £300 a year. It is ten
years since the Crimean war exposed the utter maladministration and reckless
Avaste of the War-Office ; and this is how Ave have improved ! After lavishing the
gains of industry upon the department in Whitehall, our army is so unpopular
that bounty cannot bribe the rustic into it, and the regiments are not strong enough
to perform their ordinary duties at home, and to keep up the necessary reliefs in
our foreign and colonial stations. Spending more than any great power upon our
soldiers, Ave yet count but a handful of effectives to every thousand of theirs. As
a military nation, we had become, but for our volunteers, a laughing-stock and a
by-word. The newly-published report, going out of its way to stir up our terrors,
kindly informs us, that upon the sea we are no longer paramount, or even powerful ;
and it demands " a large increased expenditure" to bring the defensive forces of"
England merely to the standard of safety.
In his great speech of July 23rd, 1860, Lord Palmerston unfolded the govern
ment plan of coast defence. After a few retrospective remarks, his lordship said — >¦
" Sir, the recommendations of the commissioners, which have been confirmed
after revision by a committee of military officers, called the Defence Committee,
amount to a recommendation of a total outlay of £11,000,000, in which is included
£1,500,000 for armaments and floating defences. I hold that it is absolutely
necessary, for the safety of the country, that these recommendations should be
carried into effect. Now there are two ways of doing this. You may either vote
"annually such a portion of the annual income as the country would like to spend
on a matter of this kind, and, by so doing, defer, perhaps for eighteen or twenty
years, the accomplishment of these defences ; or you may like that course which it
will be my duty to recommend, and endeavour to complete them at the earUest
possible period, without, at the same time, laying upon the country a larger annual
burden than would be incurred if you prosecuted these works more slowly. I
mean, you may, by raising terminable annuities, to run for thirty years — a sum that
will be sufficient, in the course of three or four years, to complete these works — get,
within a short period, the security you require ; and you will not lay upon the
country a much heavier annual burden than that which would be incurred if you
358

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [speeches of palmeeston.

were to wait until the slow process of annual votes brought you the money necessary
to carry those works to a conclusion. If these works are necessary, they are so
as soon as we can get them. They are necessary for time present ; and it would
be folly to postpone, for eighteen or twenty years, the completion of defences against
dangers which I hope may not arise ; but dangers which Ave may contemplate as
possible, and which, if possible, may be possible in a short space of time."
In reply to Lord Fortesque, it was stated by Lord de Grey and Ripon, that
the volunteer force was 130,000 strong. People asked why, if we had such a
force of volunteers, we should be required to spend so much in national defences
and fortifications ? — which, it was argued, would be of no earthly use when com
pleted. The peace party maintained that commerce, and not stone walls, was our
best security. Lord Palmerston, however, thought differently.
As to the necessity, said the noble viscount — " It is in no unfriendly spirit that
I am speaking. No one has any right to take offence at considerations and reflections
which are purely founded upon the principles of self-defence. * * * We see in
France an army of over 600,000 men, of whom above 400,000 are actually under
arms ; and the remainder are merely on furlough, and ean be called into the ranks in
a fortnight. That army is greater than France requires for the purpose of defence. No
nation in.the world would think, unprovoked, of attacking France. Nothing can be
gained by it. No one would expect to dismember France ; and no one would fare
otherwise than ill who ventured upon an unprovoked attack on France j and
therefore, for the defence of France, we may pronounce that vast army unnecessary.
I do not mean to say that that army is raised for the deliberate purpose of"
aggression. I trust it is not :. but the possession of power to aggress frequently gives
the desire to do so. You cannot — you are not entitled to — rely upon the forbear
ance of a stronger neighbour. You are bound to make your defensive means
proportionate to his means of aggression.
" But, sir, is it only on land that the arrangements of France are dispro
portionate to her necessities for defence ? We know that the utmost exertions
have been made, and still are making, to create a navy very equal to our own — a
navy which cannot be required for purposes of defence, and which, therefore, we
are justified in looking upon as a possible antagonist we may have to encounter—
a navy which, under present arrangements, would give to our neighbours the
means of transporting, within a very few hours, a large and formidable number of
troops to our coast. But, further; while, on the one hand, the French navy has
increased far beyond any amount that it has reached since the end of the last war
our navy has, on the other hand, from the changes which have taken place, from
sailing ships to steam, necessarily diminished in numbers."
An invasion argued his lordship, might be attempted, either with the hope of
conquest, or with a view to get possession of the metropolis, or to destroy our
armvy in tl1P fi°^0n S *" W^ to fortify- I* ™M only be defended by an
command of the st. ^ ^ *** *"****> ** l°SB °m ™J, a»d the
™a "^utJ01f anfy bei.Dg limited in amount, and your military means limited
and your dockyards-points that require defence-the way to get the West
the smal W6 t0 TV* %T7 f *» Md> is to make anai^Vfi^Kj
Pembroke, and the like, and leave London undefended ? Mv answer i - fS'Ti'
^^V"^ ™ -J a 'defence tef^^^g?^
our dockyards^ Z^Z^l^tL^ t0 T***^ "^^
ance. Liverpool, for instance? a oort of ow ar^?ther P ace« of great import-
Newcastle, and other seaports: My answel to tT' ^^ W*?*08' B™tol,
that we have not neglected thesefe bVS tl ^et^TtSZ^ 359

palmerston's speeches.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
commercial towns need not be of the same kind and character as those required
for your dockyards." Lord Palmerston then referred to what was being done by
France, Belgium, Prussia, Italy, and Russia, in the way of fortifications ; and
concluded by moving — " That it is the opinion of this committee, that towards
providing for the construction of works for the defence of the royal dockyards and
arsenals, and of the ports of Dover and Portland, and for the creation of a central
arsenal, a sum not exceeding £2,000,000 (the sum to be taken that year) be charged
upon the consolidated fund."
In the adjourned debate, Lord Palmerston repeated — " We want to protect our
dockyards and certain other important points from being taken by a coup-de-main.
* * * * In time of peace it would not be necessary to make any addition to
your regular army as the result of the erection of these forts ; while, in time of
war, you might man them by placing behind them troops competent for their
defence, although, perhaps, less perfect in training than your picked soldiers. I
may add that, if you should not possess the works of this description necessary to
defend your dockyards, you would be compelled, as is well stated by the com
missioners, to keep up a larger number of men than would otherwise be required
for the purpose of defending those very places which we now ask you to enable us
to fortify." .
These arguments found favour with the House. On a division, the amend
ment was rejected by 165 to 37 ; and the original question was put and agreed to.
The next great debate on the subject was on June 23rd, 1862. There had
been a little skirmishing in 1861, when Sir Cornewall Lewis entered into a long
account of what had been done at Portsmouth and Plymouth. With regard to
Spithead, continued the honourable baronet —
" It will be in the recollection of the committee, that, soon after the action
which took place between the Merrimac and Monitor, and which was suffered to
haA'e an important bearing on the construction of these forts, considerable
difference of opinion was manifested on the subject ; and the government, yielding
to the wish of the House, suspended the works ; and a considerable sum, I fear,
will have to be paid the contractor as compensation for the suspension. A large
portion of the working season of the year has now been lost. In the meantime,
however, experiments have been in progress in Shoeburyness, which are believed to
have a direct bearing on the question — how far these forts would be able, with
heavy ordnance, to stop a vessel entering the roads ?"
Viscount Palmerston, after referring to the remarks of previous speakers, said —
" Some honourable gentlemen deal very summarily with these matters.
Some say — ' Do not fortify your dockyards:' others — 'Do not have so great a
standing army ;' and others, again, maintain that the fleet is too large. That is
not the common opinion of the country on any of these points ; but, if all these
opinions were acted upon, the result would be, that the country would have
neither fleet nor army, nor a dockyard ; and that we should have to rely entirely
on the good-will, kindness, and forbearance of our neighbours to protect us, in all
possible contingencies, against any difficulties in which we might be involved. I
do not think that is the feeling of the British nation. I think, on the contrary,
that the British nation feels, and I am sure that this House feels, that a country
like this ought to be on a footing of respectability, at all events, and with the
means of defending itself against all enemies. I have been told this evening, that
the grounds on which I proposed this vote on a former occasion — two years ago —
were offensive to a neighbouring power. I deny entirely that assertion. I then
based the vote, as I do now, entirely on grounds which are essential to a good
understanding with all powers. With respect tq France, which was the power
mentioned, I should say that a footing of equality, in regard to self-defence, is
the only possible foundation for a strong friendship and alliance —
" ' Paribus se legibus ambse,
Inviotse gentea eterna et federa mittant.'
360

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [speeches of palmerston.

" So long as nations are equal, they are likely to be friends. We all know how
quickly passions are excited, and how easily nations are led away. We know how
impossible it is to reckon on the friendly feelings of any nation, even for a twelve
month. We have had an example of this in America ; and, therefore, we should
be acting culpably towards ourselves, and not fairly towards other countries, if, in
the notion, or even in the conviction, that other countries would remain friendly
to us we should leave ourselves destitute of those means of defence which every
nation is bound to provide for itself."
The second reading of the Fortification Bill was carried on the 30th of
June. Lord Palmerston said —
" These works are of two descriptions ; some are for the purpose of meeting
attacks from the sea ; others for the purpose of meeting attacks from the land.
Now, some gentlemen say it is absurd and nonsensical to think of invasion.
With all respect and deference to them, that opinion seems to me nonsensical and
absurd. Why, really, can any man who respects his audience, gravely tell the
people of England that invasion is impossible. Look at the history of this
country. Few countries have been oftener threatened with invasion than this
island. We were in great danger of invasion in fhe time of the late war with
France; and I beUeve that nothing saved this country then but the battle of
Trafalgar. It is said you cannot be invaded, because no enemy can land a large
force within the given time. What did the French do about three years ago, when
a large body of men was sent to Italy? Of course, honourable gentlemen
recollect the rapidity with which that large force was despatched from Toulon and
MarseiUes ; and was landed with the utmost facility, together with all their guns
and ammunition. Then it was said it was all very well to land in a port, but
that landing on the coast is a very difficult operation; and that when we landed in
the Crimea, if there had been a few guns to resist us, the landing could not have
been effected. If that is the case, then, I say, give us the guns to defend the
places Ukely to be attacked ; and do not disparage the forts, placed in a position
to prevent the landing of an enemy. People talk of 100,000 men landing ; but
it is not necessary to land 100,000 men in one place to destroy the dockyards : for,
supposing Portsmouth to be open, then if 20,000 men were landed there, 20,000
at Plymouth, 20,000 in Ireland, and 20,000 made diversions elseAvhere, I should
Uke to know whether, considering the small garrisons put in such places, unassisted
by works, the dockyards would not be destroyed ; and with them all our power at
sea to defend the commerce and coasts of this country. * * * * It has been
said that the application of steam-power on board of vessels has made the
blockading of a foreign port more easy. On the contrary, it has rendered it
mfinitely more difficult and uncertain, because the ships of the blockading
squadron must be perpetually returning to this country to replenish their coal.
They carry coal for about ten days ; and the force must, of course, be of such an
amount as to make allowances for vessels coming here and going back again. On
the other hand, the ships watching to break the blockade, being propelled by
steam, are independent of the weather and of tides ; and, seizing their opportunity,
might come out m the evening, cross the Channel in the course of the night, and
be upon our shores next morning. Steam, therefore, instead of giving facilities
for blockade, only gives facilities for the blockaded force to come out and
reach the place it intends to arrive at. * * * * Some honourable gentlemen
maintain that field-works would be sufficient; and mention has been made of
oebastopol, and other places, in connection with this subject. Field-works are
good things, undoubtedly, when there is a large force behind them; but
field-works, as military men know, can be assaulted and run into; and
there requires to be behind them a force nearly equal to that which attacks them.
mt when you have counterscarps and glads, and the other arrangements of
fortified places, you caimot take them at all, if well fortified; and therefore, if
you want a small body of men, less disciplined than the attacking force, to maintain
vol. ii. 2 b 361

palmerston's speeches.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D-. 1862.

themselves in any position, you must give them all the advantages which science
supplies in the art of defence. With regard to Sebastopol, it should be re
collected there was an immense army behind it, as large, or larger, than the
attacking army ; and each party took about three weeks to prepare. Now, if an
attack were made on any of our ports — on Portsmouth or Plymouth — I do not
think that the enemy would give us three weeks to prepare our defences. We
must have them ready beforehand ; and therefore it is in vain to say that field-
works would stand in lieu of fortifications. You would not, in a case of emer
gency, have time to make them ; and when made, they would not give the same
advantage to a force less disciplined than the attacking army, as fortifications.
My honourable friend, who spoke last (Sir Morton Peto), said that we ought to
abandon our dockyards — that they are unnecessary — .and that we ought to have
nothing but iron ships ; and that these are best constructed in private yards. I
have heard the example of America often quoted as a model for imitation in
this country ; and it is but very recently that the government of America
announced their intention of establishing great naval arsenals on the Mississippi
and elsewhere, for the construction, in government arsenals, of iron ships. They
distinctly stated that they did not wish to trust to private enterprise for the
purpose. We do not follow that example in all respects ; but as my noble friend
(Lord C. Paget) has stated, building a ship is one thing, and keeping it in repair
is another. You cannot send ships to private yards, from time to time, for repairs."
On July 7th, in committee on the bill, Lord Palmerston thus replied to
Mr. Cobden's attacks : —
" I differ so entirely from the honourable member, that it is quite natural I
should feel proud of being the object of the honourable member's attack. He
says that I am actuated by an idea. Sir, I am actuated by an idea. My idea seems
never to have entered the fertile brain of the honourable member. My idea is,
that England ought to be defended — that her navy cannot exist without her dock
yards ; and that those dockyards must be placed in a safe position, against sudden
attacks. The honourable member has told us that he is ready to spend £1,000,000
to maintain a good navy. Now we do not wish him to do any such thing. We
ask for no more than the moderate sum recommended by the defence com
missioners, to place our naval arsenals in a state of safety. I say that the hon
ourable member for Rochdale is in a state of blindness and delusion, which
renders him unfit to be listened to by the country as an adviser on matters of
this sort. When the honourable member deals in matters that he understands,
when he descants on questions of free trade and commerce, we generally listen to
the honourable gentleman with the utmost deference and respect. He understands
those subjects; he is imbued with sound principles; and his conclusions command
our assent. But he goes beyond his crepidam on such matters as these. When
he descants on our naval and military defences, he goes beyond the scope of his
knowledge, and beyond the reach to which his understanding has extended ; and he
becomes a most dangerous adviser to this House and the country."
In 1863, the fight was renewed. The votes were — ayes, 132; noes, 61.
Lord Palmerston's speech Avas spirited and successful. Mr. Cobden and his party
were not however, by any means vanquished. The last speech of that exceUent
man was delivered in July, 1864, when he moved a series of resolutions, depre
catory of the great extension of the government manufacturing establishments.
He cited as an authority Burke, who, in a speech delivered in 1780, "laid down,
in language which it is impossible to surpass, the reason why the government
should not manufacture its own supplies, but should depend upon the competition of
individual manufacturers." " He said," observes Mr. M'Gilchrist, who has ably epi
tomised the speech, " the negligence of the government and the Treasury had become
so great and the departments had taken upon themselves such an immense increase
of manufacture, that they laughed at the idea of parliament superintending the
details of the administration. Indeed, Mr. Cobden himself objected to parUa-
362

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. cobden's speech.
ment undertaking such functions. He thought tho House could interfere, with
great advantage, in prescribing the principles on which the executive government
could be carried on : but beyond that, he held it to be utterly impossible for the
legislature to interfere with advantage in the details of the administration of the
country : and he said that, in the early years of his experience in parliament,
when Sir Robert Peel was Prime Minister, lie would have resented the appoint
ment of the parUamentary committees of inquiry into the details of administration,
as tantamount to votes of want, of confidence. Sir Robert would have said, if such
a committee had been proposed in his time, and when he held the reins of power,
' If you think the administration is not satisfactorily conducted by me, then you
must find somebody else to undertake it.' To give some idea of the rapidity of
the rate at which government had become manufacturers, Mr. Cobden reminded
the House, that up to the close of the Crimean war, the British government had
never cast a cannon, or made a shot or shell : and when it was determined to cast
6S-pounders at Woolwich, the proprietors of the Low Moor works — who had pre
viously supplied the government, and who not only took selected qualities of their
own iron, which is the best, but used coal of a peculiar kind, fresh from the earth,
to smelt it  would not sell pig-iron to the Woolwich estabUshment. The result
was, that having got the machinery for casting guns, there was no iron fit to cast.
They had to go into the market, and buy the ordinary kind of pig-iron ; and, as a
consequence, the guns were pronounced rotten, and never used. He then told the
story of the government and Whitworth and Armstrong guns ; and dwelt with
great glee upon the naiveti with which the leading men at Woolwich came before
the committee appointed by the House, and tried to show that they were pro
ducing the guns cheaper than at Elswick, Sir William Armstrong's factory ; for
getting that the two were one and the same concern — Sir William's works being
as much a government establishment as that at Woolwich ; for they were both
started by the government with the nation's capital."
As regards small- arms the same course had been pursued. "Till the close of
the Crimean war the government did not manufacture a single rifle : they were
furnished by private contractors, and spoken of in the highest terms by the
Sebastopol committee of 1855 ; while the medical, commissariat, and other depart
ments were unflinchingly condemned. But the government gets an idea into their
heads that, at some moment of dire necessity, when they are in great need of
rifles, there might be a strike among some class of the workmen who manufacture
their various parts ; the more so, as if only the maker of the lock struck, it would
stop the manufacture and delivery of the whole rifle. This was quite true ; and
the natural remedy was, that they should give orders to capitalists, who would set
up machinery for manufacturing the whole musket. But government could not
be made to comprehend a thing so obvious as this, and erected an enormous manu
factory for the construction of rifled small-arms at Enfield ; and they actually sent
to America to procure the necessary machinery. And now all " had gone for
nothing, for the superiority of the Lancaster - and Whitworth to the Enfield rifles
had been acknowledged."
In referring to the difficulty found in making the conductors of the govern
ment establishments understand the value of capital, Mr. Cobden observed—
,, r°u,?ever could make the gentlemen at the head of the departments understand
that they must pay interest for capital, rent for land, as well as allow for
depreciation of plant and machinery. The manner in which the government
officials chuckled over the supposed greater cheapness of their results compared
with those of the private manufacturer, always reminded him of the story of the
gipsies who sold brooms. One said to the other, 'I can't conceive how vou can
attord to sell your brooms cheaper than I do, for I steal all my materials.'" ' Oh,'
says the other, ' but I steal my brooms ready-made.' "
In the same way, Mr. Cobden termed "Lord de Grey and Ripon" the most
extensive tailor in the world, and once more propounded his oft-repeated views as
^BJ 363

" punch" on fortifications.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
to the folly of large expenditure for ships in the present transitionary state of
naval architecture, and the science of gunnery. His closing words were —
" I know of nothing so calculated, some day, to produce a democratic revolu
tion, as for the proud and combative people of this country to find themselves, in
this vital matter of their defence, sacrificed through the mismanagement and
neglect of the class to whom, with such liberality, they have confided the care and
future destinies of the country. You have brought this upon yourselves by
undertaking to be producers and manufacturers. I advise you, in future, to place
yourselves entirely in dependence upon the private manufacturing resources of
the country. If you want gunpowder, artillery, small-arms, or the hulls of ships
of war, let it be known that you depend upon the private enterprise of the country,
and you will get them. At all events, you will absolve yourselves from the
responsibility of attempting to do things which you are not competent to do; and
you will be entitled to say to the British people — ' Our fortunes, as a government
and a nation, are industriously united ; and we will rise or fall, flourish or fade,
together, according to the energy, enterprise, and ability of the great" body of the
manufacturing and industrious community.' "
Mr. Cobden was not alone in his attacks on government. Sir Morton Peto,
Mr. Bernal Osborne, and others, repeatedly censured the government plans. On
March 12th, 1863, a motion of Mr. Lindsay's against building wooden ships to be
cased with iron armour-plates, was rejected, after a long discussion, by 164 to 81.
As far back as 1861, he had moved three resolutions on the subject of the construc
tion of ships of war, deprecating any further expenditure on the building or repair
of wooden ships ; but with little success. In the same year, Sir Frederick Smith
had moved — " That it is expedient that such reforms should he made in the control
and management of the naval yards as will tend to promote greater efficiency, and,
consequently, to insure greater economy in these establishments." But the motion
had been withdrawn. The real truth is, the class of officers in parliament, belong
ing to the army and navy, swamp the independent members, and render economical
reform almost impossible. Backed by government, they are irresistible. In vain
an independent member opposes: his arguments are borne down by weight of
numbers, who have a direct interest in large expenditure. A spendthrift, while
his money lasts, is always popular ; and the same rule holds good with regard to
governments. Independently of that, a large expenditure means a large amount of
the kind of influence without which, in old reform times, it Avas argued, by the
Duke of Wellington, that it would be impossible to carry on the government of the
country: and then argued the immense majority of the public — "Let us be secure,
at whatever cost." The nation knew little of the matter. All it wanted
was, that what was necessary should be done ; and, as the naval and military men
had quite made up their minds that millions were to be spent in the erection of
forts; in the invention and improvement of projectiles; in the construction of
iron-'clads ; and, as Lord Palmerston was of the same opinion, the money, however
enormous the amount, was readily voted.
One other voice was also raised on behalf of peace, and an economical army
and navy expenditure. In spite of the opinion of what was termed " society"— of
the gossip of the clubs — of the interested pressure of officers inside the House or
out— Punch, at this time, ridiculed the efforts we were making on all sides to
increase an immense extravagance— an extravagance of which alone a wealthy
people could be guilty. In an article headed, " A Probable Chronology," we read—
" 1860. Mr. Armstrong, of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, invents rifled ordnance that will
• knock ' any' ship to pieces. He is knighted, and the Admiralty is benighted.
1861. The Admiralty recovers, and invents iron ships that resist any known cannon-
balls' 1862. Sir William Armstrong invents a gun tbat smashes the iron ships into
black smithereens. The Admiralty collapses. 1863. The Admiralty re-expands,
and invents platina ships fastened with diamond cement, and Sir William Arm
strong's balls fly to pieces like bon-bons. Mr. Gladstone doubles the income-tax.
364

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [America.
1864. Sir William Armstrong invents brazen thunderbolts (supposed to be the
original Jupiter's), and, in a pleasing experiment, sends the greater part of the
British fleet to the bottom of the sea. 1865. The Admiralty invents torpedo
vessels, which sail under water, and below any range of guns. Sir William
Armstrong tears his hair, and swears in the Newcastle dialect. 1866. Sir William
Armstrong invents a vertical gun that discharges Greek fire straight down, and a
second time he destroys the greater part of the British fleet. The Lords of the
Admiralty are about to hang themselves, when a thought strikes them, and they
don't. Mr. Gladstone again doubles the income-tax. 1867. Dr. Cumming, who
has for some weeks been having in his coals by the sack only, suddenly proclaims
the Millennium. As there is noAV to be peace everywhere, the Admiralty does not
invent anything, but waits to see. In order to test Dr. Cumming's veracity, and to
find out whether Uons will lie down with kids, the Zoological Society (against the
advice of their excellent secretary, Mr. Sclater) let loose their biggest lion while a
charity-school is in the gardens. As the lion, instead of lying down with a kid,
only lies down to digest him, the Admiralty thinks there is some mistake some
where, and determines to invent a new fleet. Mr. Gladstone once more doubles
the income-tax. 1868. The Admiralty invents a stone fleet, with cork keels, and
defies Sir William Armstrong. 1869. Sir William Armstrong invents the Hannibal,
or alp-shell, which contains the strongest vinegar, and melts the stone ships.
Having, for the third time, destroyed the British fleet, he is raised to the peerage
as Lord Bomb. 1870. The Admiralty invents an aerial fleet, which sails in the
clouds, out of shot-range, and the First Lord takes a double sight at Sir William
Armstrong. Mr. Gladstone a fourth time doubles the income-tax. 1871. Lord
Bomb invents a balloon battering-train, and, in an experimental discharge, brings
down all the British fleet into the German Ocean. 1872. The Admiralty, in des
peration, invents a subterranean fleet, which is to be conveyed by tunnels to all the
colonies ; but Mr. Gladstone blandly suggests, that, as everybody now pays twice his
income in taxes, the people may object to further imposts unless some proof of
economy is given. Government, therefore, stop the pensions of 100 superannuated
clerks, discharge some extra night-porters at the Treasury, and bring in estimates
for the subterranean fleet. 1873. Lord Bomb invents his typhaeons, or earthquake
shells, and suffocates the British fleet in the Tasmania Tunnel. Mr. Gladstone a
fifth time doubles the income-tax. 1874. The Emperor of the French proclaims
the Millennium, which, of course, immediately occurs ; no more war ships are
wanted, and the collectors remit the quarter's income-tax not yet due. Lord Bomb
invents his volcano fireworks in honour of the occasion, and, by some accident,
burns up the public." .
Ridicule was not thrown away. While we had entered on a career of commerce
and free trade — a career impossible except on the maintenance of perfect peace — it
did seem most extraordinary and inconsistent to be preparing, at the same time,
for wars evidently to be more bloody and destructive than any that had been waged
and won by England in days gone by.

CHAPTER XVIII.
THE AMERICAN WAR, AND LANCASHIRE DISTRESS.
IN England, it began to be felt, in 1860, that the American republic was divided
into two parties-those who kept slaves, and those who" held slavery to be at
ZtW ™to.the kws of God and man. The abolitionists were strong in the
north of America, the slave-owners in the south. ¦
365

Kansas.] , LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
The first collision between the opposing parties was occasioned by the fight
for territories. Years ago, it had been decided by the representatives of the nation,
in Congress assembled, that tbe spirit of the Federal constitution solemnly, as they
phrased it, and for ever, prohibited the existence of slavery " in all that territory
which lies north of 36° 30'." This compromise was afterwards repealed ; and it
was left for each state to decide whether it would be slave or free.
In 1856 there was a great battle about Kansas. Was it to be admitted to the
Union ; and if so, as a free or slave state ? The opposing parties planted them
selves in it as quickly as they could. Ultimately it entered the Union under an
anti-slavery constitution ; and the Southern planters prepared for vengeance. Up
to this time all the power of the North had been in their hands. Mr. Alexander
N. Stephens, the vice-president of the Confederacy before disruption, admitted
that the South had always possessed the control of the government ; that it had
a majority of presidents chosen from among themselves. The South had had
sixty years of presidents, and the North only twenty-four : of the Supreme Court,
eighteen judges were South, and eleven sprung from the North. Presidents of
the senate had been twenty from the South, against eleven from the North ; and
Speakers of the House, twenty-three to twelve ; Attorney-generals, fourteen for the
South, against five for the North ; and Foreign Ministers, eighty-six to fifty-four.
Though three-fourths of the business requiring diplomatic agencies abroad were from
the free states, the higher officers of the army and navy were, by a vast majority,
men of the South ; while the soldiers and sailors were Northerns. More than two-
thirds of the clerks, auditors, comptrollers, filling the executive department for the
last fifty years, had been nominees of the South, though only one-third of the
white population of the country belonged to the South ; and more than three-
fourths of the revenue collected for the support of the government, have uniformly
been raised from the North. These are admissions made by Mr. Stephens himself,
who further asked — " What right has the North assailed ? What interest of the
South has been invaded? What justice has been denied? And what claim,
founded on justice and right, has been withheld? Can either of you, to-day, name
one governmental act of wrong deliberately and purposely done by the govern
ment of Washington, of which the South has a right to complain ?"
According to Mr. Beecher, it was in 1848 the first endeavour was made in the
Northern States to form a platform that should carry rebuke to the slaVe-holding
ideas of the South. " Before this, however, I can say, that under God, the South
itself had, unintentionally, done more than we to carry on this work of emancipation.
First, they began to declare, after the days of Mr. Calhoun, that they accepted
slavery no longer, as a misfortune, but as a divine blessing. Mr. Calhoun ad
vanced the doctrine, which is now the marrow of secession — that it was the duty of
the general government, not merely to protect the local states from interference,
but to make slavery equally national with liberty. In effect, the government was
to see to it, that slavery received equivalents for every loss and disadvantage
which, by the law of nature, it must sustain in a race against free institutions.
The South having the control of government, knew, from the inherent weakness of
their system, that, if it were confined, it was like huge herds feeding on small
pastures, that soon gnaw the grass to the roots, and must have other pasture, or
•die. And then came, one after another, from the South, assertions of rights never
before dreamed of. From them came the Mexican war for territory ; from them
came the annexation of Texas, and its entrance as a slave state; from them came
that organised rowdyism in Congress, that browbeats every Northern man who had
not sworn fealty to slavery — that filled all the Courts of Europe with ministers
holding slave doctrines — that gave the majority of seats on the bench to slave-
owning judges — and that gave, in fact, all our chief offices of trust, either to
slave-owners, or to men who licked the feet of slave-owners. Then came that ever-
memorable period, when, for the very purpose of humbling the North, and making
it drink the bitter cup of humiliation, and showing to its people that the South
366

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [Abraham Lincoln.
was their natural lord, was passed the Fugitive Slave Bill. * * * But whom
the devil entices he cheats. Our promised peace with the South, which was the
thirty pieces of silver paid to us, turned into fire, and burnt the hands that took
it. For how long was it, after this promised peace, that the Missouri compro
mise was abolished, in solemn disregard of a solemn compact ? The first triumph
of the North was the fact that Kansas became a free state. By this time a new
conscience had been formed in the North, and a vast majority of all the Northern
men stood fair and square on the subject of slavery. The result was, in time, the
election of Abraham Lincoln. Did the South submit? No offence had been
committed — none threatened ; but the allegation was, that the election of a man
known to be pledged against the extension of slavery, was not compatible with
the safety of slavery as it then existed. On those grounds they took steps for
secession." We must pause here. At a turning-point in the life of a nation, or an indi
vidual, much depends upon a man. The election of Abraham Lincoln to the
presidency of that grand and great republic teaches many lessons. It illustrates,
in a peculiar way, the free character , of American institutions. He was a self-
made man, and rose to be, for a time, a king amongst his class. Not a working-
man in this country — not a mechanic or peasant in this land of ours, but can
gather up a moral from his splendid success. True, none can hope to be elected to
a similar position here ; but in the Old World, as in the New, the law is, that the
strong man — the man who can rule himself, the man of resolute endeavour — must
rise. The rule is exempUfied on a larger scale in America than here, simply
because a new country abounds more with opportunities than an old one. Emerson
tells us of " the sturdy lad from New Hampshire or Vermont, who, in turn, tries
aU the professions — who teams it, farms it, peddles it, keeps a school, preaches,
edits a newspaper, goes to Congress, buys a township, and so forth, in successive
years, and always, like a cat, falls on his feet." The new president belonged to
this class. Six weeks' schooUng seems all he ever had ; a terrible uphill game had
he to play. In starting, the chances were frightfully against him. Just as he
was getting on, his partner, in an unfortunate speculation, plunged him into debt,
and he had again to begin the world. Yet he never lost heart, and we see him
gradually climbing up till he was placed in the topmost chair of state. In Eng
land, we should look long at such a man before we made him even an M.P. ; but
in America they manage things differently. As to whether he was qualified to rule
the destinies of the republic, he soon let all the world perceive that he was equal
to the work : and here we must confess that the practical effect of such success in
America must — better than reams . of letterpress, or millions of homilies — teach
Americans to be men in the, highest acceptation of the term. It is impossible to
estimate the amount of stimulus to endeavour and industry, and self-denial, and
upright conduct, which such a career as that of Abraham Lincoln must give to the
youth and manhood, even when lowest in the social scale, of the United States. There
is virtue in a land where such plain, unpretending, unassuming men as Abraham
Lincoln can be lifted on the shoulders of the people into power. . The following-
sketch of Lincoln's early days appeared in the New York Tribune : —
" A full and truthful biography of Abraham Lincoln would make a book of
the deepest interest. He furnishes, in his history and individual character, a noble
specimen of true moral courage and manhood — the best sample among us of the
gigantic growth of intellect and character under the fostering influences of Ameri
can institutions and society, when not dwarfed by idleness, dissipation', or dis
honesty. Every labouring man in the country, toiling under the weight of poverty
with a view to better days, and every student struggling for knowledge and ad
vancement, under whatever difficulty, has stock in Old Abe, and may be justly proud
of him as one of his class, who has demonstrated the distinguished success that may
crown any honourable ambition properly cultivated.
"Forty-four years ago Mr. Lincoln's father emigrated from Kentucky to
367

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.
Spencer County, Indiana, where he purchased a small farm. Ten years or so after,
the project of a public school in the neighbourhood was started, and, meeting with
encouragement, a log school-house was built, at which Abe, then about sixteen years
old, and who had never attended school before, was installed. Exactly six weeks
after the school commenced, an execution against his father — the result of
endorsing a note for a friend — swept away the little farm, and the student was com
pelled to leave school to join his parent, who, greatly disheartened by his
misfortune, had determined to emigrate to Illinois with his family.
" In due time the Lincoln family reached Coles' County, where it was decided
to seek their fortunes. By dint of hard labour at low wages, enough money was
saved, in the course of two years, to purchase and pay for eighty acres of govern
ment land. The son assisted his father for some time in the cultivation of his
farm ; but, becoming imbued with the spirit of enterprise, he eventually started
out to find his fortunes; and, coming to Macoon County, after considerable
difficulty in obtaining work, came across a Mr. Hawks, with whom he closed a
contract to cut and split 3,000 rails. While at work at this job he found more
time than heretofore to improve his mind ; and it is stated of him, that when
noon arrived, he would mount a log, swallow his dinner in eight or ten minutes, and
then spend fifty minutes in close study before commencing his afternoon's work.
While engaged upon this job, our hero made the acquaintance of a man who
proposed that they should build a flat boat ; that he would stock it with grains and
provisions ; and that Abe should command the said flat boat on an expedition
down the Sangamon river to the Illinois, down the Illinois river to the Mississippi,
and down this river to New Orleans, when the flat boat and cargo should be
disposed of. The enterprise looked promising; the flat boat was built and loaded ;
Captain Lincoln proceeded on his voyage, and, in due time, arrived in New York ;
disposed of boat and cargo, and shipped for home as a deck-hand on board one of
the Mississippi river steam-boats.
_ "The first flat-boat expedition proved so successful that two others were
projected; and, by the time they were completed, Lincoln had saved several
hundred dollars. With this money he opened a small store, at a settlement known
as New Salem ; and, with the usual foolishness of new beginners in business, he
took in a partner. ' I reckon now,' said Lincoln, alluding to the enterprise on a
future occasion, with one of those proverbially comical expressions of countenance—
'I reckon now that that was the store;' and I judge, from his ludicrous description
of its miscellaneous contents, that it might have been. However, the new business
went along badly, and did not prove profitable. The partner insisted that they
must add some whiskey to their stock in trade if they would save themselves; but
to this proposition Lincoln stoutly objected ; but the partner as stoutly insisting,
Lincoln finally sold out to him. About this time the Black Hawk war was the
subject of excitement. A new militia company was to be formed, and there was a
strife as to who should be the captain. There was a tall pompous fellow in the
neighbourhood, glorying in the military title of 'Major,' who was very anxious for
the new office, -and who felt confident of obtaining it. When the day of election
arrived there proved to be from a dozen to fifteen candidates for the captaincy.
Ihe plan of election adopted was novel. A space was cleared, and it was agreed
that each candidate should march across this space, with his friends following him
in single fafe; and the man who had the largest procession of friends should be
declared the captain. While the processions were forming, some of the 'boys'
caught Lincoln by the arm, and declared that he should be a candidate. He pro
tested that he knew nothing about military matters ; but a stout fellow pushed him
forward while his supporters formed behind. Great was the astonishment and
mortification of the major when he discovered that Lincoln's procession out
numbered his own by two men; and Lincoln was therefore declared to be captain.
Upon, Lincoln s return from the war, he discovered that his old partner had
368°Wn customer in the whiskey traffic, and that he had 'decamped'

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [secession.
without paying the debts of the trading concern, amounting to 1,100 dols., and
without leaving anything to pay them with. ' Here, then, I was,' said Mr. Lincoln
once to a friend, '1,100 dols. in debt, or 1,100 dols. worse off than at anytime in
my Ufe before ; for I had not a single dollar to pay this indebtedness with. What
to do I was at a loss to know. I thought the matter over for many days, and was
greatly distressed. To go to work at the customary wages of a ' hired hand,' and
earn 1,100 dols. — it seemed as if I could not do it. But I determined at last to
try. I never in my life knew a man who, resolved to do his duty, did not have
some means opened up to him — no matter how impossible, seemingly, was the
accomplishment of that duty at the start.' And so it proved in this case with
honest Abe. Stumbling, accidentally, upon a book on surveying, he at once made
himself master of the science, and commenced the business of surveying as a
profession, having in the meantime removed to Springfield. Here he made friends
very fast, and soon became exceedingly popular ; so much so, that he was selected as
a Whig candidate for the legislature, and was triumphantly elected, holding the
office for four years, during which time he became noted as a shrewd and intelligent
debater. He saved money enough during these four years to pay off all his 1,100
dollars' indebtedness, even to the last shilling. During his legislative term he
commenced studying law by the advice of Judge Logan and John D. Stewart, of
Springfield, who had discovered in him the evidences of an acute and remarkable
inteUect. He was admitted to the bar a few months after, got married, and at
once pushed forward to the front rank in his profession.
" Such is Mr. Lincoln's early history, given in meagre but truthful outline.
I need only add that, in his personal habits, Mr. Lincoln has always been strictly
abstemious, using neither tobacco nor spirituous liquor of any kind. No man,
moreover, ever yet accused him of an ungenerous or a dishonourable act or thought.
Said I not truly that he furnishes the best sample to be met with of the gigantic
growth of intellect and character, under the fostering influences of American insti
tutions and society, when not dwarfed by idleness, dissipation, or dishonesty ?"
The personal appearance of Mr. Lincoln was thus described in the Chicago
Press and Tribune: — "Mr. Lincoln stands six feet four inches high in his
stockings. His frame is not muscular, but gaunt and wiry ; his arms are long, but
not unreasonably so for a person of his height ; his lower limbs are not dispro
portionate to his body. In walking, his gait, though firm, is never brisk. He
steps slowly and deliberately, almost always with his head inclined forwards, and his
hands clasped behind his back. In matters of dress he is by no means precise.
Always clean, he is never fashionable ; he is careless, but not slovenly. In manner
he is remarkably cordial, and, at the same time, simple. His politeness is always
sincere, but never elaborate and oppressive. A warm shake of the hand, and a
warmer smile of recognition, are his methods of greeting his friends. At rest, his
features, though those of a man of mark, are not such as belong to a handsome
man ; but when his fine dark gray eyes are lighted up by any emotion, and his.
features begin their play, he would be chosen from among a crowd as one who had
in him not only the kindly sentiments which women love, but the heavier metal
of which full-grown men and presidents are made. His hair is black, and, though
thin, is wiry. His head sits well on his shoulders, but beyond that it defies
description. It nearer resembles that of Clay than Webster ; but it is unlike
either. It is very large, and, phrenologically, well proportioned, betokening power
in all its developments. A slightly Roman nose, a wide-cut mouth, and a large
complexion, with the appearance of having been weather-beaten, complete the
description." Secession had commenced long before Abraham Lincoln was placed in the
presidential chair. South Carolina led the way. On the 20th of December, 1860,
a convention, held at Charleston, declared the union of the American states dis
solved. She was foUowed by Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee. North Carolina was the last to withdraAV
369

THE SOUTHERN CONFEDERACY.] LlFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
from the North, which she did on May 20th, 1861. The aggregate area of these
eleven states was 767,893 square miles, which is more than eight times the area of
Great Britain. According to the census of 1860, the free population of these
eleven states was 5.581,649 ; the slave population, 3,520,116 : total, 9,101,765.
The first shot was fired on the 9th of January. A vessel sent with troops and
stores to reinforce Fort Sumter, at the entrance of Charleston harbour, as she was
passing Morris Island, was fired upon, when she stopped her course, and retired.
On the 9th of February, a convention of the seven states which had then
seceded (held at Montgomery, in Alabama), elected Mr. Jefferson Davis to be pro
visional president of the Confederate States ; and, on the 18th, he was inau
gurated. On the 4th of March, the South lost their friend in Mr. Buchanan, who had
been, as president, entirely subservient to them ; and Mr. Abraham Lincoln
assumed office. Naturally, he was reluctant to proceed to extremities. He made,
on this occasion, the following statement : — " I declare that I have no purpose,,
directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of slavery in the states
where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so ; and I have no incli
nation to do so. Those who elected me, did so with the full knowledge that I had
made this, and similar declarations, and have never revoked them. And more
than this, they placed on the platform, and as a law to themselves and me, the
clear and emphatic resolution which I now read — ' Resolved, that the maintenance,
inviolate, of the rights of the states, and especially the right of each state, to
order and control its own domestic institutions, according to its judgment exclu
sively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and en
durance of our political fabric depend ; and we denounce the lawless invasion,
by armed force, of the soil of any state or territory — no matter under what
pretext — as the gravest of crimes.'" But the South had no faith in the decla
rations of Mr. Lincoln or of the republicans, and refused aU terms of accom
modation. The issue was to be decided on the battle-field.
One of the first proceedings of Mr. Lincoln's government, was to endeavour
to reinforce, and supply with provisions, the garrison at Charleston. For this
purpose, a number of transports, under convoy of two ships of war, proceeded
from New York; but the fleet was dispersed by a storm. Meantime, Major
Anderson, who commanded the forces of the United States at Charleston, had
evacuated Castle Pinckney and Fort Moultrie, and had removed the smaU gar
risons to Fort Sumter. On the 11th of April, General Beauregard, who com
manded the Confederate troops and forts at Charleston, sent a summons to
Major Anderson to surrender. General Beauregard met with a refusal; and on
the 12th commenced the bombardment of Sumter by the other forts and bat
teries. The assailed fort replied vigorously for some time; but the bombard
ment having continued about forty hours, the garrison surrendered. Major
Anderson was courteously treated; and, on the following day, was started for" New
York. Only two or three men were killed, and a few wounded. The North was
indignant, and immediately declared war. The militia, to the number of 75,000,
were called out ; the ports of the South were placed under blockade ; the navy
yard at Norfolk dismantled ; and ships were destroyed, to prevent their falling into
the hands of the Confederates. On the 3rd of May, President Lincoln issued a
proclamation, calling out 42,000 volunteers; and directing that the regular army
should be increased by 23,000 soldiers, and the navy by 18,000 seamen.
Equally determined was the South: 8,000,000 of dollars were raised as a loan,
and 100,000 volunteers authorised to be accepted by the Confederate States'
government for a twelvemonth's service. These efforts would have been in
vain had it not been for the treason of one man. Mr. Floyd, of Virginia when
Secretary of War, under Mr. Buchanan's administration, had, by a single 'order,
effected the transfer of 115,000 improved muskets and rifles, from the Springfield
armoury and WatervUet arsenal, to different fortresses in the South
370

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the " merrimac."
Neither North nor South anticipated the terrible nature of the struggle on
which they had entered. The New York papers derided the rebellion.
The Tribune declared — " The nations of Europe may rest assured that Jefferson
Davis and Co. will be emerging from the battlements at Washington, at least by
the 4th of July. We spit upon a later and longer deferred justice."
The first serious contest of the war was to occur in the low country of Vir
ginia. On the 10th of June the battle of Bethel was fought.
In July, the head-quarters of the Federals, commanded by General M'Dowell,
were at Centreville; about twenty miles S.W. of Washington, and about eight
miles from the Confederate forces at Manassas. At about six o'clock on the
morning of the 21st of July, the first battle of importance between the two
main armies was commenced, in the vicinity of a stream called Bull Run.
During the forenoon the attacking party seemed to have the adA'antage, and pushed
on bravely till about three o'clock in the afternoon, when General Beauregard,
having unmasked certain concealed batteries, and General Johnston having come
up with reinforcements, the Federal troops began to break and run. The retreat
soon became a rout, and finally a panic ; the flying army leaving behind them
nearly all their artillery, a large portion of their small-arms, and most of their
ammunition, baggage, and stores. The loss of the Federals was announced,
officially, to have been 462 men and nineteen officers killed ; and 947 men and
sixty-four officers wounded. The loss ofthe Confederates Avas said to have been only
sixty killed and wounded. The Confederate army was stated to have numbered
15,000 men, and the Federal army 18,000. At the end of October, General Scott,
on account of his age and infirmity, resigned the command-in-chief of the army of
the United States, and General M'Clellan was appointed to succeed him. By the
end of the year, President Lincoln reported that the ' army consisted, altogether, of
660,971; and on the 31st of December, cash payments were suspended by the
United States.
General M'Clellan had been lifted into an immense popularity by his successes
in North-western Virginia. For weeks he had been the object of a sensation.
His name was displayed in New York on placards, on banners, and in newspaper
headings, with the phrase — " M'Clellan — two victories in one day." The news
papers gave him the title of the "Young Napoleon." He was only thirty-five
years of age,, small in stature, with black hair and moustache, and a remarkably
military precision of manner. He was a pupil of West Point, and had been one
of the ¦ American military commission to the Crimea. When appointed major-
general of volunteers, by Governor Dennison, of Ohio, he had retired from the
army, and was superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi railway. After his
taking the command of the army of the Potomac (as it was termed), he busied
himself incessantly in superintending the drilling of his troops. Having at length
brought his army into proper condition, the general advanced from Washington,
and, on the 10th of March, proceeded to attack the Confederates at Manassas ; but,
he was too late. General Beauregard had retreated, with all his stores. Instead
of following him, General M'Clellan organised a new plan of operations for the
reduction of Virginia, and capture of Richmond. Leaving about 30,000 men behind
to cover Washington, and having assembled about 80,000 men, well equipped,
and with a formidable battering- train, between the York River and James River,
under the protection of the guns of Fort Monroe, he himself, with about 30,000
more, proceeded to join them. His intention was to advance gradually towards
Richmond ; and, when sufficiently near, a number of gun-boats were to force their
way up the James River, and co-operate with the army in assaulting the city.
Already one of the most novel events of the war had occurred. In March, the
Merrimac, one of the ships which had been sunk in Norfolk harbour, but which
had been raised, repaired, plated with iron, and fitted with two iron beaks at the
stern, attacked the Federal ships in Hampden Roads, at the mouth of the James
River. She was mounted with ten large guns ; and, after firing tivo, ran into the
371

southern successes.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
Cumberland sloop of war, striking her with the sharp bows, and making a
large hole at the water-mark. The Cumberland immediately began to sink, when
the Merrimac backed a little, and ran into her a second time, making another
large hole: the Cumberland then heeled over, and finally sank, with about 130 men.
The Merrimac next attacked the Congress, a 50-gun frigate, which, -in less than an
hour, hoisted the white flag. In the evening, the Monitor fortunately arrived
from New York. This vessel was the first specimen of those, iron-clad floating
batteries, of which several others have been since constructed. It had a turret,
which was, in fact, a revolving bomb-proof fort, carrying two 11 -inch guns. On the
morning of the 9th, the Merrimac again came out, and attacked the Minnesota, a
Federal steamer carrying forty guns, which would probably have been destroyed
had not the Monitor appeared on the scene. The action between the Merrimac
and the Monitor lasted a considerable time ; and the result was, that the former,
considerably injured, was compelled to retreat into Norfolk harbour. The Federal
successes by sea were greater than by land. On April 10th, island No. 10 and
New Orleans were captured. In May the navy yard in Norfolk was won, and the
formidable Merrimac was blown up.
The disasters on the Mississippi frontier constrained the South to adopt the
policy of concentrating its forces in the interior of Virginia, under the deservedly
popular General Lee. Here battle after battle was fought. On June 25th, 26th,
27th, 28th, 29th, 30th, and July 1st, the battles of the Chicahominy occurred.
The two most famous battles of the series were fought on the 27th and 30th. The
loss of the Federals was estimated at 20,000 killed and wounded; that of the
Confederates also must have been very large, as the Federals had the superiority in
artillery. In August the second battle of Manassas was fought. Soon after, a
¦portion of General Lee's army crossed the Potomac, into Maryland and Pennsylvania.
General Jackson, having invested Harper's Ferry, paroled more than 8,000
prisoners, and obtained 10,000 small-arms, forty cannon, and a large quantity of
ammunition and stores. He then joined General Lee, and the battle of Antietam
was fought, with indecisive results, yet with a . total loss to the Federals of
14,700 men.
On the 22nd of September, President Lincoln issued his celebrated emanci
pation proclamation, to the effect that, on and after the 1st of January, 1863, all
slaves, within any state or part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in
rebellion against the Federal government, shall henceforth be for ever free.
On the 7th of November, General M'Clellan was relieved from the command
of the army of the Potomac ; and General Burnside was appointed ,his successor.
General M'Clellan was much blamed for not having pursued the Confederates into
Virginia after the battle of .Antietam. The battle of Fredericksburg was won by
General Lee, with a loss of 1,800 killed and wounded ; while that of the Federals
was estimated at 14,000.
In 1863, the fighting was fiercer than ever. At the battle of Chanqellorsville,
fought on May 2nd, the Confederates lost their greatest hero, General Stonewall
Jackson. General Jackson, at the siege of Vera Cruz, commanded a battery, and
attracted attention by the coolness and judgment with which he worked his
guns. For his conduct at Cerro Gordo he was made a captain. He was in all
Scott's battles en route for the city of Mexico ; and he behaved so well, that he
was brevetted major for his services. To his merits as a commander, he added the
virtues of an active, humble, consistent Christian. He was vulgarly sneered at as
a fatalist ; his habits of soliloquy were derided as superstitious conversations with
a familiar spirit; but the confidence he had in his destiny was regarded by his
admirers as a mark of genius. The following description of him is given by one
who knew him : — " He is as calm in the midst of a hurricane of bullets, as he
was in the pew of his church at Lexington, where he was professor of the Institute.
He appears to be a man of almost superhuman endurance. Neither heat nor cold
372

aj>. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [stonewall jackson.

make the slightest impression on him. He cares nothing for good quarters and
dainty fare. Wrapped in his blanket, he throws himself down on the ground, any
where, and sleeps as soundly as though he were in a palace. He lives . as the
soldiers live, and bears all the fatigues and all the suffering they do. He never
seems to sleep, and lets nothing pass without his personal scrutiny. He can
neither be caught napping, nor whipped when he is wide awake. The rapidity
of his marches is something portentous. He is heard of by the enemy at one
point ; and before they can make up their minds to follow him he is off to another.
His men have little baggage, and he moves nearly as he can without encumbrance.
He keeps so constantly in motion, that he never has a sick list, and no need of
hospitals." His biographer, Professor Dabney, gives anecdotes illustrating Jackson's
nobleness of character, efficiency as a general, and unflinching determination to do
his duty. Jackson had studied, practically and theoretically, the art of war. He
was no carpet knight, but a real soldier ; no brawling politician of the tavern or
the market-place, but a real patriot. He was of the South, and he cast in his lot
with the South ; and was a leader of whom any cause might have been proud.
His knowledge of strategy was great ; and he had the rare knack of securing the con
fidence of his men, who, under his leadership, were ready to go anywhere. He was
as tender of them as if they were his children. On one occasion, after he had been
in an action, he would not leave till the last of the wounded had been removed ; and
it was not till the last picket was posted, that the general sought a few hours' repose.
When his faithful servant, knowing that he had eaten nothing since the morning,
came with food, he said — "I want none; nothing but sleep;" and, in a few
minutes, was slumbering like an infant. Yet this tender man was stern, as a
soldier should be. A part of the men of the 27th regiment, in the Stonewall
Brigade, who had volunteered for twelve months, found their year had expired, and,
laying down their arms, refused to serve another day. Their colonel referred to
Jackson for instructions. His reply was — " What is this but mutiny ? Why does
Colonel Grigsby refer to me to know what to do with a mutiny? He should shoot
them where they stand ;" and Jackson gave orders accordingly : hearing which, the
insubordinate companies very wisely returned to duty. In the same firm spirit
he ordered the officers under him. Riding up to a colonel on one occasion, pre
vious to an engagement, he said — "I expect the enemy to bring artillery to
this hill, and they must not do it. Do you understand me, sir ? They must not
do it. Keep a good look-out, and your men well in hand ; and, if they attempt to
come, charge them with the bayonet, and seize their guns. Clamp them, sir, on
the spot :" and, as he gave the order with clenched fist and strident voice, Jackson
made men's ears tingle.
Yet, all the while, General Stonewall Jackson was ever anxious about
the religious welfare of those around him. Whenever there was an oppor
tunity, divine service was performed ; and Jackson was always a worshipper. For
him death had no terror. On one occasion, he said to a brother officer — " Nothing
easily can mar my happiness. I know that heaven is in store for me, and I should
rejoice at the prospect of going there to-morrow. Understand me, I am not sick,
I am not sad : God has greatly blessed me ; and I have as much to love here as any
man, and life is very bright to me ; but still I am ready to leave it any day
without trepidation or regret, for that heaven which I know awaits me, through
the mercy of my heavenly father. And I would not agree to the slightest di
minution of one shade of my glory there, for — (here he paused, as though to consider
what terrestrial measure he might best select to express the largeness of his
joys) — No! not all the fame which I have acquired, or shall ever win in this
world." Such was the man who illustrated and adorned the cause of the South.
He never had a day's holiday. No wonder that he prayed daily, and earnestly, for
peace, blessed peace : and his prayer was answered ; but it was the peace not of
this world, but of a better world than ours, that he found, as, shattered and
weak with loss of blood, he breathed his last just as_, victory had again crowned
373

death of jACifsoN.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

his efforts with success. A peculiarly melancholy feature in the case was, that
he was shot by the deadly fire of his own troops, who mistook him and his friends
for the Federals. His right hand was penetrated by a ball ; his left fore-arm
lacerated by another ; and the same limb broken a little below the shoulder by a
third, which not only crushed the bone, but severed the main artery. His horse
also dashed, panic-struck, beneath the boughs of a tree, which inflicted severe blows,
lacerated his face, and almost dragged him from his saddle. The general was taken
to the rear ; amputation was immediately resorted to, and, for a little while, it
seemed as if the life, of such value to the Confederacy, Avould be saved. It was,
however, otherwise decreed ; and he died, and was buried, amidst a nation's tears.
The poet tells us — " How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blest !"
And thus died Stonewall Jackson.
We have not yet told how Jackson acquired his sobriquet. At the battle of Bull
Run, as the fragments of the Confederates left, and fell back before the Federals,
the reserve, under General Jackson, was ordered to advance. At right angles to the
stream there ran an elevated ridge, the Confederate side of which was covered
with a thicket of pines, affording admirable shelter for sharpshooters. Here
Jackson took his stand, and for four hours resisted the most determined efforts of
his foe. Unable, by the most desperate efforts, to drive him before them, the
Federals assailed the division on his right, and gradually drove the Confederates
away. In this critical position, a commanding officer galloped up to Jackson.
" General, they are beating us back." " Then," he replied adroitly, " we will give
them the bayonet." Reinspirited by the hero's firmness, the officer rode back to
his half-beaten soldiers, and exclaimed — " There is Jackson ! standing Uke a stone
wall! — rally behind the Virginians." From that hour, which turned the tide
of victory against the North, Stonewall Jackson became a household word
through the South. His way of fighting was the theme of eulogies in the pulpit
and the press. " We see him now — the old slouched hat
Cocked o'er his eye askew ; '
The shrewd dry smile ; the speech so pat,
So calm, so blunt, so true.
The ' Blue-Light Elder' knows us well.
Says he, ' That's Banks — life's fond of shell :
Lord, save his soul ! We'll give him' — well,
That's 'Stonewall Jackson's way.'
" Silence ! ground arms! kneel all ! caps off!
Old Blue Light's going to pray ;
Strangle the fool that dares to scoff.
Attention ! Its his way.
Appealing from his native sod,
In forma pauperis, to God —
' Lay bare Thine arm ; stretch forth Thy rod.
Amen.' That's ' Stonewall's way.'
*****
" Ah ! maiden, wait, and watch, and yearn
For news of Stonewall's band ;
Ah ! widow, read with eyes that burn
That ring upon thy hand.
Ah! wife, pray on, sew on, hope on,
Thy life shall not be all forlorn.
The foe had better ne'er been born
That gets in ' Stonewall's way.' "
General Robert Jefferson Jackson (commonly called Stonewall Jackson) died
in hospital, a few miles south of Fredericksburg, on the 9th of May •
374 J'

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [siege of Charleston.

General Hooker dashed on, as he fondly dreamed, to Richmond; but he
fared no better than others. He was driven back by General Lee ; but, soon after,
the Confederates lost the powerful fortress of Vicksburg. By water the Federals
had a great advantage. The naval squadron of the Mississippi was under the
command of Admiral Porter, who had at his disposal more than one hundred
armed vessels, including iron-clads. Admiral Farragut having ran past the bat
teries of Port Hudson with part of his Gulf squadron, co-operated with Admiral
Porter; and General Grant attacked Vicksburg by land. The fortress, with its
garrison, surrendered, unconditionally, on the 4th of July. The prisoners paroled
were more than 30,000; the artillery about 200 pieces; the small-arms about
70,000 ; together with a large quantity of ammunition.
The battle of Gettysburg must also be noticed. On the morning of the 1st of
July, the hostile armies came into collision four miles west from Gettysburg.
After a struggle of some hours the Federal troops were driven back through the
town, with heavy loss of men, and several pieces of artillery. They retired to a
range of hills. The attack was not pressed in the afternoon, and the preparations
for another attack were not completed till the afternoon of the 2nd of July. The
Federals held a high and commanding ridge, along which they had massed a large
number of guns. General Ewell occupied the left of the Confederate line, General
Hill the centre, and General Longstreet the right. Advantageous positions Avere
captured on the right and left, and the contest ceased when if became dark. On
the 3rd, dispositions were made for the attempt tq drive the Federals from the
heights, which they had strengthened by earthworks. The battle recommenced on
the afternoon of the 3rd, and raged with great violence till sunset. The Con
federates failed in their attempts, and were obliged to fall back on their original
positions, with severe loss. The strength of the position held by the Federals,
deficiency of ammunition for the artillery, and other considerations, determined
the Confederates not to hazard another attack. They remained at Gettysburg
during the 4th, and, at night, began to retire. The weather was very wet and
stormy during the retreat, and the river had risen above its usual height. By the
13th, however, the waters had fallen a little, and were found to be fordable, though
still deep ; the pontoon bridge, which had been partly broken, was repaired ; and,
by one o'clock in the afternoon of the 14th, the whole of the Confederate army,
with aU its trains of stores and batteries, had recrossed the Potomac. No serious
interruption had been made by the Federals. Their loss was supposed to have
been about 15,000 ; and that of the Confederates was, perhaps, not much less.
In New York city, where the rowdy element is strong, and where the
friends of the South were numerous, the commencement of the conscription
produced a series of riots, which continued from the 13th of July till the
16th, and were not entirely suppressed till the 17th, when more than 30,000
soldiers of the regular 'army, besides militia, had been assembled in and around
the city. The destruction of property, caused by incendiary fires, was valued at
more than £80,000. The number of persons killed was about seventy-six, inclu
sive of some twenty negroes, murdered by the mob. About 600 persons were
wounded, or otherwise injured. On both sides Herculean efforts were made. In
. accordance with the acts passed by the Confederate Congress, in April and Sep
tember, 1862, President Davis, on the 21st of July, issued a proclamation, calling
out for military service for three years, if the war should continue so long, the
whole of the able-bodied population of the Confederate states, between the ages of
eighteen and forty-five.
Charleston was besieged, on a gigantic scale, by the Federals. All July and
August they were hard at work. In Tennessee the Confederates gained a victory
by the defeat of General Rosencrans. General Bragg, having been reinforced
with two divisions of Longstreet's corps, from the army of General Lee, on the
19th of September, at ten o'clock in the morning, attacked the army of General
Rosencrans. Falling, at first, upon the left wing, under General Thomas, the
375,

successes of the north.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

Confederates caused the reserves of the centre and right to be sent to his support.
They then suddenly attacked the centre, drove it back, and separated the two
wings. There was much confusion and rout, and the Confederates captured many
guns ; but the Federals were partly rallied, and held their ground. On the 20th,
the attack was renewed, and the centre and right were defeated, and compelled to
retreat. The left wing, under General Thomas, having secured a strong position,
resisted, with resolute bravery, till dusk, when it fell back, and, during the night,
joined the rest of the defeated army at Chattanooga. General Bragg reported
that he had captured 7,000 prisoners, thirty-six pieces of artillery, and 15,000
small-arms. The Federal loss, in killed and wounded, must have been very large.
This was the battle of Chicamauga, so called from the name of a stream near
Avhich it was fought. For nearly three months after, by none of the armies in the
field was anything of importance achieved. In the north, however, for the cause
of free government, better times were drawing nigh.
Up to this time the North had laboured under a serious disadvantage. It had
no general equal to the work required of him. In the person of Ulysses Grant, he
at length appeared upon the scene.
Sprung from a family of Scotch extraction, Ulysses Grant was born at Point
Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, on the 29th of April, 1829. He was trained at
the military academy, West Point, and took an active part in the Mexican war.
At its termination he married, and helped in his father's business, a leather and
saddlery store, in St. Louis. In October he was appointed commander of all the
Federal armies in the south-west. The Federals, defeated and demoralised,
cowered in Chattanooga ; while their victorious enemies, intrenched on the moun
tain ranges that dominate the town, held them in a state of siege. Joined by
Sherman, after a tedious and difficult march, he inflicted a heavy blow on the Con
federates on the 25th of November. Jefferson Davis had visited Bragg's lines, and
pronounced them impregnable. Grant knew better. With an army of 85,000
strong, he led an attack, which the Confederates at first thought was nothing but a
review, so safe did they deem their position. For a time the battle was doubtful,
till Hooker's advance becomes a glorious success. The Confederates stoutly
Avithstand; but the fear of being cut off and captured, ultimately compels
them to fall back. As a result of this victory, Grant captured 6,000 prisoners,
forty pieces of artillery, and 7,000 small-arms ; besides killing or wounding 5,000
of the enemy's forces. " After a long and severe battle," wrote Jefferson Davis,
" in which great carnage was inflicted on the enemy, some of our troops inex
plicably abandoned positions of great strength ; and, by a disorderly retreat, com
pelled the commander to withdraw his whole army to a position some twenty or
thirty miles in the rear." This was the thin edge of the wedge. Sherman then
went in pursuit of Longstreet, in Eastern Tennessee, when the latter retreated.
The critical year (1863) of the war ended better for the Federals than it
commenced. During the first six months the Confederates were everywhere
successful. At the close of the year, the whole aspect of affairs was changed.
During its last six months, the Northerners had won two great battles — Gettysburg
and Look-out Mountain. They had captured six important towns : Vicksburg and
Port Hudson, the greatest Confederate strongholds in the south-west ; Chattanooga,
the base of Federal operations against Georgia ; Knoxville, the capital of Eastern
Tennessee ; Little Rock, the chief town of Arkansas ; and Jackson, the state capital
of Mississippi. They had pushed back the Southern forces, excepting Lee's army,
into the Gulf states, and established themselves firmly in Louisiana, Arkansas,
Mississippi, and Tennessee ; and, as a consequence, had opened up the three great
rivers that have given their names to the three last states. Of prisoners taken
during the war, the Confederates could only number 15,000, to 40,000 captured by
their foes. The value of vessels (1,000 in all) seized up to January 1st, 1864,
while attempting to run the blockade, was nearly three millions ; and, to crown all,
their greatest hero was dead. In the beginning of the year, affairs at first were
376

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [general grant.
unfavourable to the North : at the same time, all was gaiety and amusement in
New York ; whilst misery and depression prevailed in the South. While gold was
160 in New York, it was at a 1,000 premium in Richmond. The North throve
with the war, and was in no hurry to have it brought to a close. " Wages," says
Mr. Stacke, " had risen in an extraordinary manner ; and every one seemed to be
doing a roaring trade. Railways, mines, and companies of every description, that
languished before secession, seemed to spring into new life and prosperity, owing to
the influence on speculation exercised by the war. Whole cities were embellished ;
and one (Chicago) actually raised some feet by the wealth amassed during the war.
Never was there such gaiety in New York : never had there been so many places of
amusement opened : never had the theatres been so well attended, nor luxury and
wealth so generally displayed. Notwithstanding the enormous customs' duties, the
most expensive articles of European manufacture were in large demand." The
shoddy class was the name given for the new men, who, enriched by a lavish
government expenditure, sought to astonish the vulgar by their ostentatious
display of wealth.
On the 12th of March, Grant was appointed commander-in-chief of all the
armies of the United States. At this time the North reposed unbounded confidence
in the "Western Tanner," as he was called. His many victories were the warrant of
their faith. Equal confidence, on the Confederate side, was reposed ^ in Lee. He
had never been defeated on Virginian soil ; and, even in his invasions of the North,
had always retired after inflicting more damage on the enemy than he had received
himself. Since he had taken command of the army of Virginia, in 1862, he had
beaten, in succession, M'Clellan, Pope, Burnside, and Hooker ; and had brought
Meade to a full stop at Mine Run, where, at the end of 1863, the latter attempted
to make his way to Richmond. Disaster after disaster had come upon the South ;
but Lee stiU defied the whole power of the North to pass over the sixty miles that
intervened between Richmond and the Rappahannock. With his inferior number he
had almost always beaten the Unionists. In the . course of a year and a-half, he
had crushed five Federal advances on Richmond, which had cost the Federals
30,000 dead, and nearly 200,000 wounded. And now the great general of the
North was pitted against the general of the South. Grant's designs were not
confined to one army. He determined to prevent the concentration of the
Confederates by a simultaneous advance east and west. The point to be attacked
in the eastern campaign was Richmond ; of the western, Georgia. As regards the
management of the campaign in Georgia, he left that wholly to William Tecumseh
Sherman, the greatest military strategist since the death of Napoleon the Great.
Grant, in person, directed the Virginian campaign. Meade's army was to out
manoeuvre Lee, and, if possible, cut him off from his supplies. A force, under
Sigil, was to pass down the Shenandoah, and break the line that runs from
Richmond to the west; and an expedition, under Butler and Gilmore, was to
sail up the James River, and attack the doomed city from the south. The
Federals had 150,000; their enemies, including the garrison of Richmond, had
100,000. The latter had no chance against the former. In the first week in May
the battle began. After a week's hard fighting, in which the loss of life had been
great, and the success Of the Federals small, Grant telegraphed to Washington —
" I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all the summer." Grant changed
his plan of attack ; but fortune was equally hard to find. For every mile the
Federals had moved, they had lost 1,000 men, and yet appeared no nearer success.
The confidence felt in the North began to abate. Still Grant held on his way,
and, in time, he succeeded. The battle of the Five Forks, in March, 1865, was the
last effort of the Confederates. Lee now saw, that to retire on Richmond would
aUow Sheridan to cut off his line of retreat; and, consequently, ordered the
evacuation of Richmond and Petersburg on the following day. It was Sunday,
and Jefferson Davis was at church, when the word came that Richmond was to be
abandoned. It was a sad hour for him, and for all, when it wasfelt that the city,
vol. II. • 2 c 377

Lincoln assassinated.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

which had, for forty-five months, defied the efforts of a most powerful army and
people, was to be abandoned — a city for Avhich such tens of thousands had
perished on the battle-field. It was hard to leave such a city to its fate ; but there
was no alternative. The fate of Lee's army is soon told. rOn its way westward it
Avas surrounded ; and, on the 9th of April, after some letters had passed between
Grant and Lee, the latter surrendered at Appomatox Court-house, the arms being
taken, and parole exacted. The Confederates, to the number of 26,000, were
allowed to return home. Before they dispersed, Grant, on Lee's suggestion,
supplied them all with rations. Poor fellows ! they had little to boast of in
that way.
When the news of the fate of Richmond reached the North, great was the joy.
The streets of the town re-echoed with peals of applause — women cheering and
waving handkerchiefs from the windows to the exulting crowds below. A week
after came the intelligence of the entire surrender of Lee's army. If possible, the
excitement became greater ; all was joy. Victory had at length declared itself for
the North — for the cause of freedom and humanity. The great republic was saved ;
the Union was preserved. In days of darkness, when disaster after disaster came
down upon the North, there were found those who took their stand upon principle ;
Avho believed they were fighting for great ends : and now they were justified; and
for once, in this world of ours, right had become might. The friends of the slave,
who, at one time, were hunted from the cities of the Union — who were never safe
from attack — who lived in danger of their lives — had seen the slave-power crushed,
and their beloved country's reproach wiped away.
In the midst of this universal rejoicing, all the world was astonished and
saddened by learning that, on the 14th of April, Abraham Lincoln, who had been a
second time re-elected president of the republic, had been, suddenly and foully
assassinated. The president was, at the time, in a private box at Ford's Theatre,
Washington. In the letter which conveyed to Mr. Adams the mournful intelU-

gence, it was stated that —

: The president, about eight o'clock, accompanied Mrs. Lincoln to the theatre.
Another lady and gentleman were with them in the box. About half-past ten,
during a pause in the performance, the assassin entered the box, the door of which
was unguarded ; hastily approached the president from behind, and discharged a
pistol at his head. The bullet entered the back of the head, and penetrated nearly
through. The assassin then leaped from his box upon the stage, brandishing a
large knife, or dagger, and exclaiming " Sic semper tyrannis," escaped in the rear
of the theatre. Immediately upon the discharge the president fell to the door
insensible, and continued in that state until twenty minutes past seven, when he
breathed his last !"
When the news of this melancholy event reached Europe, it created wide
spread indignation and deep regret. The intelligence was received in London on a
Wednesday, when there was only a day sitting of parliament, and but sixty
members present. They all signed the following address, which was presented the
same evening to Mr. Adams :— " We, the undersigned members of the British House
of Commons, have learned with the deepest horror and regret that the president
of the United States has been deprived of life by an act of violence ; and we desire
to express our sympathy in this sad event with the American minister now in
London, as well as to declare our hope and confidence in the future of that great
country, which, we trust, will continue to be associated with enlightened freedom
and peaceful relations with this and every other country."
Subsequently the leaders of the great parties in the House expressed their
horror of the crime which had been committed. The scene on 'Change at Liverpool
will not soon be forgotten. The excitement has rarely, if ever, been exceeded.
Late m the day, a requisition to the mayor was drawn up, requesting him to call a
public meetmg to express the sorrow and indignation of the people. Hundreds
signed with avidity, and the mayor issued a proclamation for a meeting at

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [sensation created.

St. George's Hall, on the afternoon ofthe 27th, to be adjourned to the evening of the
same day, so that the working classes might also have an opportunity of attending.
Flags on the Town Hall and other buildings, and on the shipping at Liverpool,
were displayed at half-mast. Meetings of the Americans resident in London,
also the Union and Emancipation Society, and public gatherings at Manchester,
Birmingham, &c, were likewise held to express their sentiments. The Liverpool
Post of the 27th was printed with mourning columns. The Times said — " Nothing
in political history can be remembered that has ever drawn forth a more unanimous
feeling than this news. Personally President Lincoln enjoyed the kind regards of
every one in England. The extent to which his influence was estimated in
upholding amicable relations between England and the United States, has been
shown by the fall, of unusual severity, in all classes of securities." It further
remarked — " The news will .be received throughout Europe with sorrow as sincere
and profound as it awoke even in the United States themselves. Lincoln's perfect
honesty speedily became apparent, and Englishmen learned to respect him." It
also said — " Unjust as we beUeve it to be, the Confederate cause will not escape the
dishonour cast upon it by these wanton murders." The Daily News said — " Lincoln
has not fallen in the flush of triumph, for no thought of triumph was in that
honest and humble heart ; but his task was accomplished, and the battle of his life
was won ; and, in all time to come, among those who think manhood is more than
rank, Abraham Lincoln will be held in reverence." The article further says — " We
will not, Avithout overwhelming proof, let the horrible conspiracy, or the phrases of
its actors, lead us to lay it to the charge of abettors in the South." The Star
paid a warm tribute to Lincoln, and eulogised his steadfast policy of peace, in spite
of all provocation, towards England. It also expressed confidence that the
North, even in its hour of just indignation, would still bear itself with that
magnanimous clemency which thus far had illumined its triumph. The Daily
Telegraph said — " From vulgar corruption, from factious hatred, from meanness,
jealousy, and uncharitableness, this ruler was nobly free. At last came what
seemed to be the fruition of his labours— the reward of his patience and courage.
He entered Richmond as a conqueror, but he launched no decree of proscription,
for the fight appeared to be over ; and it was not in the man's large heart to bear
malice towards a beaten foe. He spoke very kindly of Lee (says Stanton) ; and, on
the same night that he pleaded for peace and for mercy, a villain killed him. Not
for Lincoln himself can the end be considered unhappy." Much uneasiness was
evinced in regard to the assumption of the presidency by Johnson, on account of
the unavoidable deductions drawn from his conduct at the inauguration, and the
tenor of his speeches.
In the House of Lords, May 1st, Earl Russell moved an address to the queen,
expressive of the sorrow and indignation with which their lordships had heard of the
assassination of President Lincoln ; and he informed the House that the queen had
written a letter to Mrs. Lincoln, "from a widow to a widow," offering her
condolence. The motion was seconded by the Earl of, Derby, and agreed to
unanimously. In the Commons, a similar address was moA'ed by Sir George Grey,
and seconded by Mr. Disraeli.
Punch altered his tone, and joined in the general tribute of regret and
admiration. In his cartoon on the subject was the representation of a funeral
bier. At the head of it Columbia sits weeping ; and, at the foot, a slave, with
his manacles stricken off, is buried in grief. Britannia stands in the centre, and
offers a funeral wreath, to be deposited by the side of one laid on the bier by
Columbia. The whole picture is touching and suggestive. It is accompanied by
the following graceful lines : —
" You lay a wreath on murdered Lincoln's bier,
You, who with mocking pencil wont to trace,
Broad for the self-complacent British sneer,
His length of shambling limb, his furrowed face.
2 C 2 37 9

death of Lincoln.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
" His gnarled hands, his unkempt, bristling hair,
His garb uncouth, his bearing ill at ease,
His lack of all we prize as debonnaire,
Of power or will to shine, of art to please.
" You, whose smart pen backed up the pencil's laugh,
Judging each step, as though the way were plain, —
Reckless, so it could point its paragraph,
Of chief's perplexity, or people's pain.
" Beside this corpse, that bears for winding sheet
The Stars and Stripes he lived to rear anew,
Between the mourners at his head and feet,
Say, scurril jester, is there room for you ?
" Yes, he had lived to shame me from my sneer,
To lame my pencil and confute my pen —
To make me own this hind of princes peer,
This rail-splitter a true-born king of men.
" My shallow judgment I had learnt to rue,
Noting how to occasion's height he rose,
How his quaint wit made home-truth seem more true,
How, iron-like, his temper grew by blows.
" How humble and yet hopeful he could be !
How in good fortune and in ill the same !
Nor bitter in success, nor boastful he,
Thirsty for gold, nor feverish for fame.
" He went about his work — such work as few
Ever had laid on head, and heart, and hand-
As one who knows, where there's a task to do,
Man's honest will must Heaven's good grace command.
" Who trusts the strength will with the burden grow,
That God makes instruments to work His will,
If but that will we can arrive to know,
Nor tamper with the weights of good and ill.
" So he went forth to battle on the side
That he felt clear was Liberty's and Right's,
As in his peasant boyhood he had plied
His warfare with rude Nature's thwarting mights—
" The uncleared forest, the unbroken soil,
The iron-bark, that turns the lumberer's axe
The rapid, that o'erbears the boatman's toil,
The prairie, hiding the mazed wanderer's tracks,
" The ambushed Indian, and the prowling bear-
Such were the needs that helped his youth to train •
Rough culture— but such trees large fruit may bear, '
If but their stock be of right girth and grain.
" So he grew up, a destined work to do,
T,And li-^ed to do Jt : four kng-smffering years
Ill-fate, ill-feeling, ill-report, lived through,
And then he heard the hisses changed to cheers,
" The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise,
And took both with the same unwavering mood •
¦Till, as he came on light, from darkling days
And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood,
" A felon hand, between the goal and him
Reached from behind his back, a trigger prest-
And those perplexed and patient eyes were dim,
380 SaUnt' long-labouriDg limbs ™re laid to rest.

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [close of the war.

" The words of mercy were upon his lips,
Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen,
"When this vile murderer brought swift eclipse
To thoughts of peace on earth, good- will to men.
" The Old World and the New, from sea to sea,
Utter one voice of sympathy and shame !
Sore heart, so stopped when it at last beat high,
Sad life, cut short just as its triumph came.
" And deed accurst ! Strokes have been struck before
By the assassin's hand, whereof men doubt
If more of horror or disgrace they bore ;
But thy foul crime, like Cain's, stands darkly out,
" Vile hand, that brandest murder on a strife,
Whate'er its grounds, stoutly and nobly striven ;
And with the martyr's crown crownest a life
With much to praise, little to be forgiven !"
On the same day that John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln, a savage
attempt was made to assassinate Secretary Seward, the most acute diplomatist and
experienced statesman of the North. Mr. Seward was lying ill in his bedroom,
suffering from the effects of a serious accident, when a tall, powerful man, named
Payne, appUed at the house for admission, saying he had come with a prescription
from the doctor. Being stopped by tbe secretary's son, Mr. Frederick Seward, on
the stairs, he snapped a pistol at the young man's head, which, fortunately, did not
go off. Quickly the ruffian struck his opponent to the ground with the end of the
pistol, and burst into the secretary's chamber, where Miss Seward was in attendance
on her father. Reckless of witnesses, the man rushed to the bed, and, with a
knife, slashed at the face of Mr. Seward, who, fortunately, had strength enough to
fling himself out of the bed, on the far side, before a mortal wound had been
inflicted. The would-be assassin then turned away, and quickly escaped. There
is reason to beUeve that a few desperate men, of whom Booth and Payne were the
chief, had resolved to murder most of the eminent Federals, commencing with the
president. It is certain that General Grant, who was expected to have been at the
theatre, but who had gone to Washington on private business, had a very narrow
escape. Immediately after the death of Lincoln, the vice-president, Andrew Johnson
(in accordance with the regulations of the constitution), assumed the dignity of
chief magistrate. The English papers, on his accession, vilified him in the most
extraordinary and uncaUed-for manner. His task was one from which the boldest
might have shrunk. Called from the lowest strata of society, Andrew Johnson has
to solve the question as to the reconstruction of the Union, and the emancipation
of the slave. At present he seems to act as if he thought more of the whites
than the negroes of the South. He objects to extend the franchise to the latter :
the abolitionists, on the other hand, assert that the object of the war is lost if
perfect equality be not established. According to them, the blacks, who haye
fought for the Union, deserve a vote as much as the whites who fought against it.
They argue, that if the negroes be not admitted to vote, there is danger of the
Southern representatives working to bring about a repudiation of the national
debt ; and that if Congress does not take steps now to secure the negroes the
rights and privileges of free men, legislation on this matter will be impossible
when the South has got a powerful voice in the councils of the nation.
Such is a brief outline of the American war, in which Lord Palmerston managed
to maintain a neutrality, acceptable, apparently, neither to Earl Russell, Mr.
Gladstone, or the aristocracy in general. The upper classes in this country, and the
Times, had an undeniable leaning to the South. The Confederates were gentlemen ;
the best blood of England ran in their veins : the men of the North were a mean
381

THE "ALABAMA."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.

Yankee lot, sympathy with whom was out of the question. Such was the general
feeling in " good society." There were many who knew better, but they were poor
men ; the industrious classes had little or no political power. " Recognise the South,"
was the cry more than once raised in the British parliament. It was understood
that the French emperor was quite ready to join us in such recognition. Happily,
the ministry, of which Lord Palmerston was the head, were preserved from such
an act of folly.
Yet, more than once we nearly came into collision with the Federal power.
There was the affair of the Trent — we have already referred to that. Then there
Avas the case of the Alabama, which sailed away from Liverpool under false pre
tences ; and without even going into a Confederate port, claimed to be a Con
federate man-of-war, and, in that capacity, did immense damage to the mercantile
shipping of the North. At Terceira, to which she sailed, she took on board
provisions and arms from English vessels ; and Captain Semmes, late of the
Confederate cruiser Sumter, assumed the command. At length, in June, 1864,
he steamed into the harbour of Cherbourg, outside which the Federal frigate,
the Kearsarge, shortly afterwards appeared. There he challenged its commander,
Captain Winslow, to fight a duel. The challenge was accepted; and the
Alabama, on the 19th of June, steamed out of the harbour; Captain Semmes
having wisely left all valuables behind, and, like a good Catholic, heard mass. The
two ships began manoeuvring to bring their guns to bear upon each other most
effectively ; and the firing soon became very rapid. The Alabama strove to
approach her antagonist, probably with a view to boarding ; but the Kearsarge
preferred a judicious distance, and delivered her shots with a precision that soon
began to tell on her adversary's sides. Before an hour had passed, the Alabama's
boilers were pierced, and her rudder carried off. Owing to the skilful arrange
ment of chain-cables covering the sides of the Kearsarge, the Alabama's shots
produced but little effect. It was clear it was all up with the Alabama,
which, however, continued firing till she sank. Captain Semmes jumped into
the sea, was picked up by an English yacht, and landed in England. During his
career, he had captured and burned nearly 100 vessels of the American merchant
service; and his defeat caused intense rejoicings in the North. Unfortunately,
the evil done by the Alabama has survived her destruction. America claims
compensation from us for the mischief done by the A labama. No decision, how-
eve'r, has been come to. Earl Russell refused to submit the case to arbitration.
Yet, apparently, such was the fairest course. If England is to blame, by all
means let her pay.
Let us pause in our chronicle, to do justice to the brave soldiers of a defeated
cause. In so far as the Southern Confederacy realised the right of a people to
choose their own form of government, their cause was one which all could sym
pathise with ; but then our sympathies were forbidden, as it was clear to all — as,
indeed, it was officially declared — that slavery was the corner-stone of the new
republic : still we must admire the courage and dash of the soldiers of the South.
It was a splendid army, that of Virginia ; and even the victors cannot refuse it its
meed Of praise. It will be long before the memory of its heroism and valour
passes away. Ofttimes there is a glory for the vanquished, as lasting and as
genuine as that which attends the conqueror's steps. A German officer Herr
Von Borcke, has helped us to realise this in the most vivid manner. In his
Memoirs of the Confederate War for Independence, justice is claimed 'for, and
done to, the soldiers with whom he cast in his lot. In his lively columns Ave get
a glimpse of the true state of affairs in Dixie Land, as it was termed in the familiar
phraseology of the time. Herr Von Borcke is a giant, with physical strength in
proportion to his size, rejoicing in the possession of a Damascus blade almost as
wonderful as King Arthur's "brand Excalibur," whose appearance makes the
enemy to flee, and whose daring horsemanship always rescues him when danger is
near. The hardships of a soldier's life affect him not. Clothed in rags, deprived
382

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [gallantry of the sodth.
of sleep, condemned to short commons, stretched on the bare earth beneath an
inclement sky, his bosom burns with martial fire. His chief, the dashing cavalry
officer, General Stuart, seems to have been cast in a similar mould. He describes
the general as " a stoutly built man, rather above the middle height, of a most
frank and winning expression — the lower part of his face covered with a thick
brown beard, which flowed over his breast." His dark eye was quick and
piercing ; his whole body seemed instinct with vitality. He was " the model of a
dashing cavalry leader." Our author's comrades were gallant and joyous Vir
ginians, " whose easy and graceful seat betrayed the constant habit of horseback
exercise ; and they were mounted mostly on blooded animals, some of which the
most ambitious guardsman, or the most particular swell in London, would have
been glad to show off in Hyde Park." Nor is the camp life he describes an
uninviting one. It has its pleasures as well as its hardships, its joys as well as its
sorrows. To the living, there was the flush of victory ; to the dying, the solace of
having fallen in their country's cause. " Tell my friends," said a lad, whose life-
blood was ebbing fast away on the field of battle — "tell my friends," said he,
" though the Yankees have killed me they have not conquered me." And then,
over the camp fires, what genial stories were told, what jolly songs sung. In all
the fun the general was the first to lead the way. Nor did the brave forget the
fair. Every now and then there was a ball, and Venus outshone Mars. More than
once, balls of another description interfered with the amusements of the evening ;
and then the gay laughing girl, in silk and satin, was suddenly transformed into the
nurse, tiU she fainted away in the midst of the agony which, lovingly, she had
sought to ease. Such is a soldier's life ; such are the lights and shades of his
career. Herr Von Borcke joined the Confederates in the spring of 1862, and was first
under fire at the battle of Seven Pines, where he had the opportunity of closely
observing General Longstreet — " a stout man, of middle height, and most agreeable
countenance ; a long brown beard gave something leonine to his appearance ; an
engaging simplicity was his prevailing characteristic." After the battle, Jefferson
Davis appears—" a tall, thin man, with sharply-defined features, ari air of easy
command, and frank, unaffected, gentlemanlike manners." More than one cha
racteristic glimpse is given of Stonewall Jackson. Our author is sent to him for
orders. In answer to the question, " Where shall I find General Jackson ?" his
commander replied, " Where the fight is hottest." On another occasion, in the
midst of a fearful cannonade, with shells bursting all round him, he discovers the
general sitting comfortably on a caisson, quietly writing his despatches. To our
author's expostulations he replies — "My dear major, I am very much obliged to
you for the orders you have given. Hill will take care of the enemy in our
rear. I know what they are; there cannot be more than two brigades of
them ; and as for my position here, I believe we have been together in hotter
places before." The great hero then calmly resumed his writing, cannon-shot
ploughing up the ground all round him, and covering his MS. with dust. On
another occasion the major slept in the general's tent. "Wearied out by the
exertion of the previous day, I was still deeply wrapt in slumber, when I felt
the pressure of a light touch on my shoulder, and a mild voice said to me, 'Major,
it is time to rise and start.' Before I was yet fully awake, my caller placed a basin
of water and a towel on a camp stool near my head, and continued — ' Now,
major, wash quickly ; a cup of coffee is waiting for you ; your horse is saddled,
and you must be off at once.' To my utter surprise I discovered that my
attentive servitor was -the great Stonewall himself." Major Borcke staid with the
Confederates till 1864. He had helped to drive back M'Clellan, Burnside, and
Hooker; and had received a wound, which at first was considered mortal. With
his health impaired, it was thought he could serve the cause by a voyage to England.
Accordingly he ran the blockade, arriving in England, after a circuitous route by
the West India Islands, in the month of February, 1865. "There," he writes,
383

the cotton trade.] LIFE AND TIMES .OF [a.d. 1860.

" I was saved the grief of being an eye-witness of the rapid collapse of the Con
federacy, and the downfall of a just and noble cause."
But the American war touched us in another and a still more vital part.
England's mission, in modern times, was thought to be, to make calico for all the
world ; and all our cotton chiefly came from America. The South said, " Cotton is
king. England cannot do without cotton ; and she must interfere in our behalf."
Never did a people act more grandly than the cotton-spinners of Lancashire. Let
the war last, they said, so that the cause of freedom win. Not a voice came
from the starving operatives of the north on behalf of the Confederacy.
The reader's attention is invited to Lancashire in 1860. A writer in the
British Quarterly says — " Let us visit the quays of Liverpool, the warehouses of
Manchester, and the mill-rooms of the busy towns thickly studding her exten
sive coal-fields. In the first place, the cotton manufacture in Lancashire, and
parts of Cheshire and Derbyshire, has attracted around it a population of
some 3,000,000 inhabitants. The 2,650 factories which are found in this region,
employ 440,000 of this multitude within their immediate precincts ; and, amongst
them, wages amounting to £11,500,000 a year are distributed. A power, equal
to that of 300,000 horses, of which 18,500 are water-power, drives the machinery,
guided and governed by quick eyes and lissom fingers. The 30,387,467 spindles,
making from 4,000 to 6,000 revolutions a minute, and 350,000 power-looms, are
incessantly at work full time, to produce totals, in yarn and cloth, that mark 1860
as the annus mirabilis of King Cotton. These spindles are fed with
1,051,623,380 lbs. of cotton; 9£ ounces of cotton wool per week for each; and
the fluffy food arrives —

" From America
„ East Indies ...
„ West Indies ...
„ Brazils
„ Other countries

1,115,890,608 lbs
204,141,168 „
1,050,784 „
17,286,864 „
52,569,328 „

Total 

. 1,390,938,752

" The power-looms thus coming into play, produce, for the household require
ments of this kingdom, 180,000,000 lbs. weight of cotton fabrics, valued at
£23,000,000 ; and for exportation, 2,776,218,427 yards of cotton cloth, besides
197,343,655 lbs. of cotton twist and yarn, and a comparatively small quantity of
hosiery, &c, valued at £1,755,163. The invested capital of £65,000,000, produces
goods, this single year, which equal in value £76,012,380, or nearly £6,000,000 more
than the gross revenue of the kingdom for the same period. In December
Liverpool is full to repletion. The stock of raw cotton remaining over for 1861,
is 250,286,605 lbs. The spindles are consuming as much as they can; and this
is the surplus— that is clear enough. But how is it with the demand ? Hitherto
the appetite for cotton goods has been insatiable. The markets of the East have
extended their great jaws, and cried for more. Grey shirtings have been active;
mule-yarns and water-twists have ruled high. But already words of warning
have been heard. India, it is true, has this year taken, of the entire export, one-
third, valued at £17,000,000 ; and, behold ! her warehouses are full. China is also
over-fed: but an express train is stopped with difficulty; it often shoots past the
intended platform. In Lancashire there is no stopping the career of this terrific
prosperity : the mama for gain is upon all classes. Liverpool, anxious to distribute
her bales, says, Go on ; and Manchester, dazzled with the wealth that flows in
upon her neglects the warning, and presses forward. For some years preceding,
fabulous fortunes had been amassed in so short a time, that there was a general
rush to the cotton manufacture. Cotton was everything ; and every man no
matter what his business, who had realised, or could bring together a little

384

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [signs of distress.
capital, made haste to turn it into spindles and looms. The unsightly masses
of stone and brickwork, which call upon the mill-streams to reflect their ug
liness, and to receive their refuse, carry, many of them, in such nicknames as
Punch, Noggin, Lather-box, and Physic — playfully applied by the workpeople — the
indications of their occupiers' previous calling."
Mr. Arnold says, there never was, probably, such a weight of cotton and
cotton manufactures in England as at the time of the battle of Bull Run. The
increasing probability of hostilities in America, had induced shippers, early in the
year, to bring forward the crop of 1860 with unusual haste ; and, before the end of
1861, the imports from America, for the five months of the. year, amounted to
694,650,000 lbs. To this must be added the surplus raw stock of 1860, amount
ing to 250,286,605 lbs. ; and the increased imports from India, amounting to
120,453,500 lbs. Production continued at nearly the same rate as it had done in
1860. The exports of the yarn and goods, for the first nine months of the year
1861, amounted to 537,969,000 lbs., less only by 16,250,000 lbs. than the exports
for the same period of the previous year. But the total production of yarn and
goods, from January to September, 1861, was 779,279,000 lbs. ; of which, there
fore, 241,801,000 lbs. were retained at home. The average home consumption for
this period would be 135,000,000 lbs. ; so that, in the first nine months of 1861, at
least 100,000,000 lbs. of yarn and goods were added to the stocks remaining in
the country. The weight of raw cotton, and of manufactured, at this time in the
hands, or at the disposal, of the British cotton trade, cannot have fallen far short
of 1,000,000,000 lbs. This was in their possession when first they welcomed a
rising market. They had recklessly pushed production beyond requirement. With
all the assistance of low wages, light taxation, and perfect domestic peace, manu
facturers had made their spindles revolve faster, their shuttles move more quickly,
than they had ever done before. They had done this in fear and trembling ; they had
been encouraged by the excitement which burned at the prospect of such increasing
markets ; they had aroused a competition, which recognised no duty paramount to
that of obtaining the largest share of profits ; and, at the moment in which they
might have expected judgment and execution in the shape of a large de
preciation of the value of their commodities — almost in the very hour when
the reaction, to which they had given no heed, was upon them, the scene shifted :
the war in America assumed an aspect of determined continuance; and the
blockade of the Southern ports was declared effective. The price of cotton rose
rapidly ; and immediately profits became great.
The first signs of distress in the manufacturing districts appeared in October,
when many factories began to run short time. But the American war, to which
this distress was then generally referred, had as yet far less to do with it than the
overstocked condition of the markets. Every one who can pretend to the slightest
knowledge of the cotton trade, knows that short time must have, under any cir
cumstances, prevailed very extensively during the winter of 1861, and the whole of
1862. Before it became evident that war would ensue in America, many of the
great spokesmen of the cotton trade had predicted this necessity. Had there been
no war in America, hard times must have come upon all in the winter of 1861. As
it was, this event brought relief to all the holders of goods, wealth to the specu
lators in cotton, and a comfortless autumn, with a hopeless winter prospect, to the
operatives. The manufacturers and cotton-holders began making enormous profits.
In two years Mr. Arrold estimated it at £36,000,000.
"But October, 1861, brought very different prospects to the needy manufac
turers, to the small shopkeepers, and to the operative classes generally. Short
time means short wages, and much .compulsory idleness; less food, and less
pleasuring to _ the operative. It' means, to the manufacturer without capital, a
serious reduction of income, with no corresponding abatement in his expenditure
on account of the fabric and machinery of his mill. It means very short profits,
long credits, and, perhaps, many bad debts to the little working-class shopkeeper. 385

preparations for relief.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
" At this time comparatively few mills had stopped altogether, but soon many
Avould do so ; and the prospects of labour in the manufacturing- districts were never
more gloomy. It was known that the distress which was now felt was the conse
quence of a glut rather than of a famine. The impending cotton dearth had, no
doubt, its influence ; but there was, as yet, no scarcity of cotton in Lancashire.
The results of the short time of 1861 are written in the savings banks' return for
that year, Avhere it is seen that the amount withdrawn, in England alone, exceeds
that paid in by £834,792, showing a larger surplus of abstraction than any since
the year 1848, of revolutionary memory.
" In the latter. months of this year, though the cotton famine was not evident
in the warehouses of Manchester and Liverpool, it began to show signs of its
approach in the streets and roads of the manufacturing towns. Groups of idlers,
no longer listeners for the factory bell, were to be seen at every street corner. In
busy times the operative class is only to be met with out-of-doors at regular inter
vals during the day — the clatter of their clogs or shoes on the pavement in the
early morning, at mid-day, and in the evening ; but now it was heard at all times —
not with the quick step of full time, but with the dropping patter, so remindful of
their blameless inactivity."
The cotton famine, it was believed on all sides, would not last long. Even
among the operatives, few Avere willing to look upon the dark side of the prospect.
The friends of the North believed that the South would tire of its folly ; and, in
the South, a similar feeling was entertained as regards the North. Still people in
some quarters began to look forward with alarm. The Chamber of Commerce of
Manchester evinced its fears with reference to the failure, by summoning a meet
ing to agitate the question of the cotton supply; and India, too long neglected,
received some encouragement to increase her production of cotton. In a letter,
dated 11th of November, and addressed, by the President of the Poor-Law Board,
to the Board of Guardians throughout the district, they were informed, that "the
Board viewed, Avith some apprehension, the effects which may ensue from the
stagnation of the cotton trade; and that the Board were then considering the
manner in which any unusual amount of distress may be effectually provided for.
They were reminded that the machinery of the law was to be tempered with
judicious management, and were promised that every assistance and facility should
be given to them in the discharge of their arduous and increasing duties." By the
end of the year it became evident extraordinary measures must be taken to meet
the fast-accumulating destitution.
Wigan was among the first of the Lancashire towns, according to Mr. Arnold,
to produce a definite organisation. At a meeting, held in the Moot Hall, on the
3rd of January, it was resolved that a committee should be formed, and measures
adopted to alleviate the distress. It was stated that the operatives of Wigan were
now losing £3,000 per week in wages; and £1,000 was raised in local sub
scriptions on the day of the meeting. By the 10th, the Wigan committee had
collected £2,000, and divided their town into districts, each having its separate
sub-committee. The mode of relief adopted, was that of giving chequesf of a
certain value, upon provision-dealers, to be expended in such articles as the appli
cants chose. At Blackburn the distress now began to be great. A sub-committee
devoted itself to the distribution of soup, and the Board of Guardians largely
augmented the staff of relieving officers. The number of paupers in Blackburn
was now increasing at the rate of 150 per week. Preston Avas next added to the
list; and the numbers relieved in this borough, during the third week in January,
were three fames as numerous as those on the guardians' books in the same week of
the preceding year The guardians were perplexed how to act, between the neces
sity ot granting relief and their unwillingness to class these unfortunate persons as
paupers Oldham Bury, Rochdale-in fact, all towns in the district, more or less,
began to suffer The Poor-Law Board felt it their duty to refuse permission to
suspend their order as to the relief of able-bodied men, which required that their
OOO

a.d. 1862.]' VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mansion-house committee.
relief should be given half in money, half in kind, and that they should be set to
work under the direction of the Board of Guardians. This order -did not prohibit
the bestowal of relief in cases of sudden or urgent necessity ; nor did it compel the
pauperisation, in the workhouse, of those to be relieved. It did not necessitate that
their houses should be stripped of furniture, nor that they should be naked and
homeless before they Avere fit subjects of relief. Had it not been for the general
establishment, at this time, of local relief committees, the guardians would have
fafled to grapple with the surrounding distress. Early in February, Rochdale and
other places followed the example of Wigan and Blackburn, as they, in their turn,
may be supposed to have modelled their system on that of the Manchester and
Salford District Provident Society, which had established a special fund for the
relief of the operatives, and had already distributed food and clothing to nearly
6,000 persons. In the middle of February, a very decided stand was made in the
Ashton and other Unions, against what was termed the labour test. The guardians
were at their wits' ends to devise work, such as should meet the case of operatives
whose soft fingers had never been accustomed t<5 stone-breaking and oakum-pick
ing. As the spring advanced- the distress deepened, and all classes were seriously
concerned ; yet there was no word about the recognition of the South, or of hosti
lity to the North. The Manchester Examiner, about this time, wrote — " Let this
be said in favour of the political morality of Lancashire — that at a period of great
and increasing gloom, when factious councillors and mischievous politicians told us
that war was our only escape from ruin, and urged upon us an act of intervention,
whieh would be carried out with the consent and applause of the whole country,
Ave refused to buy prosperity at the cost of a public wrong, and were willing to
suffer, rather than connive at the violation of a great principle." There can be no
doubt that the operatives, thus quietly submitting to starvation, were strongly
favourable to the Northern policy, firm in their hatred to slavery, and faith in
democracy. By the majority of this class it was believed intervention would have
brought relief; yet they opposed it to the very last. We must admire the
nobility of the attitude they assumed. They believed they were martyrs for a
principle, and were content to be such. But now a demand for help was made to
the nation; and England, sympathising with Lancashire, anxious that nothing
should occur to menace the strict neutrality which she desired to observe towards
America, lent a ready ear to the tales of distress from the cotton districts.
London, as usual, was early in the field. Owing to the exertions of Mr. W.
(now Alderman) Cotton, the Mansion-house committee was formed. On the 16th of ¦
May, the Lord Mayor informed the public, that a meeting had been held of the
gentlemen who had interested themselves in the establishment of this fund, and
that it was resolved to send £1,500 to the distressed districts. This was the first
instalment of the relief given by what was known as the Lancashire and Cheshire
Operative Relief Fund. Its committee has always been essentially executive ; and
its limitation to five or six members, gave great directness and simplicity to^ its
action. Early in June, the Mansion-house committee — passed, by acclamation,
from a provisional to an established committee — nominated a committee, and pro
ceeded to organise that system of grants which continued as long as the occasion
for them lasted. The labours of this committee were not interrupted by the
retirement of Mr. Cubitt from his two years' tenancy of the Mansion-house. He
Avas succeeded in the duties of chairman by Lord Mayor Rose.
If Manchester was later in the field, there were many reasons why this should
be the case. In the first place, there Avas the Manchester and Salford District
Provident Society already in existence. In the next place, the distress in Man
chester was not very severe ; and many thought that the crisis might be passed over
without calling for any special measure of relief. At length it was evident to the
men of Manchester that it was time to do something. Accordingly a conference
was held in that city, and a central relief committee appointed. On the 20th of
June, the central relief committee was formally established by resolution, and
387

SCENES AT BOARD-ROOMS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF '[A.D. 1862.

consisted of the mayors and ex-mayors of the principal cotton districts, together
with a number of gentlemen chiefly known in connection with the commercial
interests of Manchester. Before the end of the month, the committee was in full
working order ; and had passed the following resolution, copies of which were sent
to the lord-lieutenants of counties, the mayors of cities and boroughs, and other
officials throughout the kingdom — " That the existing distress of the workpeople
connected with the cotton trade in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire,
and the well-founded expectations of its increasing in intensity as the winter
approaches, warrant the committee in communicating to the various counties,
cities, and towns of the country, that it is prepared to receive any sums that may
be subscribed for the object in view, and will give its best attention to the proper
and judicious distribution thereof."
In May the government sent Mr. Farnall into the distressed districts, as
special commissioner, and directed him " to make inquiry into the operations of
the poor-laws, and the orders of the Poor-Law Board at the present time, on the
condition and habits of those workpeople who, from a great diminution in the
demand for labour in the cotton districts of the counties of Lancashire, Yorkshire,
and Cheshire, have suddenly and unavoidably fallen into temporary distress." " He
Avas," says Mr. Arnold, " requested to embrace every opportunity of personally com
municating with all authorities and special organisations administering relief and
succour to the poor ; he was to interpret and define the true spirit and breadth of
the poor-law ; to create and sustain harmony ; to promote liberal and judicious
action ; to examine into the manner in which the poor were relieved ; to find out
what labour was required of them, and to suggest the most suitable forms of
employment. Finally, he was desired, by Mr. Villiers, to keep a daily journal of
his proceedings, and to give a weekly report of the progress of his labours."
In the meanwhile the distress went on increasing ; for it was -long before the
operative could bring himself to the degradation of asking parochial relief. On the
faces of many of the claimants there was seen the blush of shame. A correspon
dent of the Manchester Examiner thus describes the scene usually to be witnessed
at the board-room : —
"A clean old decrepit man presented himself. 'What brought you here,
Joseph?' said the chairman. 'Why, aw've nought to do, nor nought to tak to.'
' What's your daughter Ellen doing, Joseph ?' * Hoos dawt o' wark.' ' And what's
your wife doing ?' ' Hoos bin bed-fast aboon five year.' The old man was relieved
¦ at once ; but, as he walked away, he looked hard at his ticket, as if it was not
exactly the kind of thing ; and, turning round, he said — ' Couldn't yo let me be a
sweeper of the streets istid, Mr. Eccles.' A clean old woman came up, with a snow-
white nightcap on her head. ' Well, Mary, what do you want ?' ' Aw could like
yo to gi mo a bit o' summat, Mr. Eccles, for aw need it.' ' Well, but you have
some lodgers, haven't you, Mary ?' ' Yegh, aw've three.' ' Well, what do they pay
you ?' ' They pay'n mo nought ; they'n no wark ; an one cannot turn 'em eawt.'
This was all quite true. ' Well, but you live with your son, don't you ?' continued
the chairman. ' Naw,' replied the old woman, ' he lives wi' me, and he's eawt of
AA-ark too. An could like yo to do a bit o' summat for us ; we're hard put to it.'
' Don't you think .she'd better be in the workhouse ?' said one of the guardians.
'Oh, no,' replied another, 'don't send the old woman there : let her keep her own
little place together if she can.' Another old woman presented herself, with a
threadbare shawl drawn closely round her grey head. 'Well, Ann,' said the
chairman, ' there's nobody but yourself and your John, is there ?' ' Naw.' ' What
age are you ?' ' Awm seventy.' ' Seventy ?' ' Aye aw am.' ' Well, and what age
is your John ?' ' He's gooing i' seventy-four.' ' Where is he, Ann ?' ' Well, aw laft
him deawn i' th' street yon gettin a load o' coals in.' There was a murmur of
approbation round the Board, and the old woman was sent away relieved, and
thankful. There were many of all ages, clean in person and bashful in manner,
with their poor clothing put into the tidiest possible trim : others were dirtv and
388 J

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [deep distress.
sluttish, and noisy of speech ; as in the case of one woman who, after receiving her
ticket for relief, partly in money, and partly in kind, whipped a pair of worn clogs
from under her shawl, and cried out, ' Aw mun ha some clogs awfore aw go too ;
look at those ; they're a shame to be sin.' Clogs were freely given ; and, in several
cases, they were all that was asked for. In three or four instances the applicants
said, after receiving other relief, ' Aw wish yo'd gi' me a pair o' clogs, Mr. Eccles.
AavcI had to borrow these to come in.' One woman pleaded hard for two pairs,
saying, ' Yon chy It's quite bar-feeut ; and he's wet-chod (wet-shod), an as ill as he
can be.' ' Who's wet-chod ?' asked the chairman. ' My husban is,' replied the
woman, ' an he cannot ston it just neaw. Ye mun let him have a pair if you con.'
' Give her two pair of clogs,' said the chairman. Another woman took her clog off,
and held it up, saying, ' Look at that ! We're o' walkin o' th' floor an smoor it wi
cowds.' One decent-looking old lady, with a starved face, applied. The chairman
said, ' Why, what's your son doing now ? Has he caught no rabbits lately ?'
' Naw, aw dunnot know as he does. Aw got nought, an its me as wants summat,
Mr. Eccles,' replied the old woman, in a tremulous tone, with the water rising in
her eyes. ' Well, come, we must not punish the old woman for her son,' said one
of the guardians. Various forms of the feebleness of age appeared before the Board
that day. ' What's your son John getting ?' The old woman put her hand up to
her ear, and answered, ' Awm very deaf; what sayn yo ?' It turned out that her
son was taken ill : and they were relieved. In the course of inquiries, I found
that the working-people of Blackburn, as elsewhere in Lancashire, nickname their
workshops as well as themselves. The chairman asked a girl where she worked
last ? and the girl replied, ' At the Puff and Dart.' ' And what made you leave
there ?' ' Whau they were woven up.' One poor fellow, a widower, said he had
' watched a bit at Bang, the nation, till he was taken ill, and then they stripped his
place' (that is, they had given his work to somebody else). Another, when asked
where he had been working, replied, ' At Se'n-acre Brack (Seven-acre Brook),
where th' wild monkey were cotched.' It seems that an orang-outang, which once
escaped from some travelling menagerie, was retaken at this place."
But we have as yet failed to give an adequate impression. Dark, and deep,
and dire was the suffering of that hour. A newspaper correspondent writes —
" He pointed to some of the cases in his books. The first was that of an old
man, an overlooker of a cotton-mill. His family was thirteen in number. Three
of the children were under ten years of age ; seven of the rest were factory opera
tives ; but the whole family had been out of work for several months. When in
full work, the joint earnings of the family amounted to £4 a week ; but, after
struggling on in the hope of better times, and exhausting the savings of past
labour, they had been brought down to the receipt of charity at last, and, for six
teen weeks gone by,, the whole thirteen had lived upon 6s. a week from the relief
fund. They had no other resource. I went to see them at their own home after
wards, and it certainly was a pattern of cleanliness, with the little household goods
there still. To see that house a stranger would never dream that the family were
Uving on an average income of less than sixpence per head per week. But I know
how hard some decent folk will struggle with the bitterest pbverty before they
give into it. The old man came in whilst I was there. He . sat down in one
corner quietly, tinkering away at something he had in his hand His old corduroy
trousers were well patched, and just new-washed. He had very little to say to us,
except that ' he would like to get summat to do, for he were tired- o' walkin
abeaut.' Another case was that of a poor widow woman with five young children.
This family had been driven from house to house by increasing necessity, till they
had sunk at last into a dingy little hovel, up a dark court, in one of the poorest
parts of the town, where they huddled together about a tireless grate, to keep one
another warm. They had nothing left of the wreck of their home but two ricketty
chairs, and a little deal table, reared against the wall, because one of the legs Avas
gone. In this miserable hovel, which I saw afterwards, her husband died of sheer
389

sewing-schools.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
starvation, as was pronounced by the jury on the inquest. The dark damp hovel
where they had crept to was scarcely four yards square; and the poor woman
pointed to one corner of the floor, saying, ' He deed i' that corner.' He died there
Avith nothing to lay upon but the ground, and nothing to cover him in that tireless
hovel. His wife and children crept about him there to watch him die, and to
keep him as warm as they could. When the relief committee first found them
out, the entire clothing of the family of seven persons weighed eight pounds,
and sold for fivepence as rags."
As the distress increased, further exertions to relieve it were made. A meet
ing at Lord Ellesmere's was held, and the Cotton Districts Relief Fund was formed,
with the Earl of Derby for chairman ; Colonel Wilson Patten for treasurer ; and,
for secretary, Sir James Kay Shuttleworth. This committee naturally attracted
the support of the wealthy classes of the metropolis, and money flowed fast into
its coffers. By the 8th of August its funds amounted to £40,000. Ultimately the
central executive committee was formed. The three relief funds, collected, re
spectively, at Manchester, Bridgewater House, and Liverpool, were placed at
its disposal. It was resolved that the central executive committee should meet
every Monday at Manchester ; and it was arranged that notice should then be
received of the grants which had been made during the previous week, from the
funds of the Mansion-house committee, who now seemed determined, in spite of
several overtures for amalgamation, to remain a separate and independent organi
sation. The complete system of local relief committees was then organised ; and
the result was, no corner of the district was unvisited, and no deserving person was
left unrelieved. The Lancashire lasses excited much sympathy : their danger was
peculiar and great ; they could not dig ; they were ashamed to beg ; and it was a
happy thought which led to their employment in sewing-schools, wherein they
acquired facility in another and more domestically useful description of cotton
Avork than that to which they had been accustomed in the factories ; and, what was
of equal value, they were submitted to order and discipline, and learnt not a few
lessons, the benefits of which will endure as long as life. To the Manchester
Board of Guardians must be given the credit of this step. It also has the distinc
tion of having been the first to recommend that educational exercises should be
accepted as the labour required in return for relief. Subsequently, male adult
schools were established. Mr. Redgrave, one of the factory inspectors, thus speaks
of them : —
"At the male adult schools I have occasionally thought there was an appear
ance of weariness ; but this is not surprising. The employment of females, in
seAving and knitting, was a proper and congenial occupation for them ; and though
the attendance of classes might have been somewhat irksome, yet, upon the whole,
they were all doing something which had a practical result. In some schools they
made shirts for the militia ; in some they made all kinds of clothing, for distribu- '
tion by the relief committee, and, in others, for sale; but in the male adult schools,
it was not found possible to set the men at work upon an occupation which would
be equally congenial to them. Wherever it was possible, the men were taught
trades, as shoemaking and mending, carpentering, mat-making, &c; but the
number was comparatively small ; and the great bulk of the operatives attended
school merely as a condition of relief. The life of a labourer is monotonous. He
rises at a given hour; goes to work — to the same work— every day ; does to-day as
he did yesterday : but that which makes his life a cheerful one is, that he receives
the value of his labour. In these schools, it was impossible not to feel that the
time spent there was, compared with their former labour, unproductive; and I was,
therefore, the more impressed with the attention bf the men in these classes, and
the anxiety of so many to improve themselves, especially in arithmetic. It some
times caused a shade of melancholy to see an old grey-headed man leaning over
his desk, and poring through a sum in reduction or practice; but this was
relieved by being told, by a frank-spoken spinner, in his own hearty manner, while
390 j ,

A.D. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the rate in aid.
showing the sketches of geography, and what he was reading, ' They could not
give us work, and so God put it into their hearts to give us the next best to it.'
These men cannot return to their homes without feeling that instruction is one
means of adding to happiness, and to the purpose of life. They frequently ex
pressed their conviction that they had lost much from not having had more
instruction in their younger days ; and the desire for their children to attend
School, and to improve them, has certainly been shown favourably."
Before parliament was prorogued, Mr. Villiers brought in his Rate in Aid
Bill — a judicious step. He had to select between national grants, the bestoAval of
special borrowing powers upon each parish, and the rate in aid. He wisely pre
ferred the latter.
In bringing his measure before the House of Commons, Mr. Villiers did
not conceal his apprehension that the distress would seriously increase ; but, at the
same time, he was unAvilling to admit that the ordinary sources of relief were, >as
yet, inadequate. He was careful also to show that his proposal Avas not entirely
new, but that it aimed at giving vitality to the existing law. When first laid on
the table of the House, the bill proposed that the rate or aid should come into
operation in any parish in which the expenditure for the relief of the poor ex
ceeded by two-thirds that of previous years. At first, it was proposed, that in, case
of a Union becoming insolvent, the parishes of the county should be liable to a rate
for its assistance. The power of putting the act into operation was to remain
with the Poor-Law Board, who were to be invested with authority to recommend
the issuing of an order in council, directing the levy of the rate in aid. The bill
was received with much favour in the district. In the House of Commons, a some
what different feeling was manifested by the Lancashire members. Mr. Cobden
urged that the government should allow the guardians a power of contracting loans,
to be lent to the distressed operatives, who, he stated, would gladly repay every
farthing upon the return of good times. In committee, Mr. Villiers introduced
amendments fixing the amount of rates, upon payment of which, the parish
might call for a rate in aid upon the Union, and the Union upon the county —
at five shilUngs in both cases ; and substituting a special order of the Poor-LaAV
Board for the proposed order in council. Upon Mr. Potter's suggestion, Derby
shire was included. While the House was in committee on the bill, Mr. Cobden
reproved Lord Palmerston for his want of appreciation of the mill-owners'
sympathy with their unfortunate hands. He stated roundly, that ninety-nine of
every hundred of the manufacturers were working at a loss. This, adds Mr.
Arnold, may have been correct in the present tense, and within the technical de
finition of the term manufacturer ; but he would be very reckless of truth who
should now assert that these ninety and nine were actual losers by their industry.
Besides, there was a class of cotton-spinners whose goods were, even then, in very
active and profitable demand. If we are to believe Mr. Arnold, Lord Palmerston
had a truer perception of the character of the Lancashire mill-owners than Mr.
Cobden. Mr. Arnold writes — " Manchester and Liverpool men made their millions,
and subscribed their thousands. The inference from their conduct is — not that any
other community would have been more liberal, but rather that the commercial
spirit does not encourage generosity to overgrow the other sentiments of human
nature. Such behaviour will not, however, have been without its moral, if it
should dispel that most absurd illusion, that liberality is the corollary of affluence."
But to return to the Union Relief Aid Bill, which was further modified in
committee. It was suggested that it would be much more easy to pay the extra
burdens of these hard times upon the return of prosperity ; and that therefore a
power of raising loans would be preferable to that of calling for a rate in aid. It
was further contended, that as the excess of rates above the average amount would
be incident upon the occupier without imposing any charge upon the property
owner, by deferring the time of payment, the burden would be borne with more
proportionate equality. These suggestions were both plausible and just. When it
391

distress at blackburn.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.

was seen to be the desire of the legislature to grant this borrowing power, no
objection was raised on the part of the government. Their endeavour, in framing
the measure, had been to adhere, as closely as possible, to the principle of the
existing law. As an alternative for the rate in aid, it was conceded that the Board
of Guardians, with the sanction of the Poor-Law Board, might raise loans, to be
secured upon the common fund of the Union. Three shillings in the pound was
subsequently fixed, in lieu of five shillings, as the amount of rates which a parish
must bear before calling for the rate in aid. Finally, a clause was inserted, giving
the chairman and vice-chairman of a Union power to appoint a guardian to
represent the Union in the extraordinary administration of relief under this act —
a privilege which, it may be said, was never made use of. In the House of Lords,
the Union Relief Aid Bill received some discussion, but no amendment. Oppo
sition lords reproached it for coming so late in the session ; and expected that Lan
cashire would have borne rates of ten shillings in the pound before appealing
to the legislature for assistance. They assumed that the present annual charge for
poor-rates in Lancashire was two shillings in the pound ; which, though true if the
total amount collected had been charged upon the assessment of the county, was by
no means true of certain townships and parishes. ' In support of the measure, it
was shown that its introduction at the commencement of the session, would have
had the effect of lessening the national sympathy for the distressed population of
the cotton districts, and of diminishing the local ability of self-help. It was also
shown that the poor-rate of Preston was, at this date, seven times greater than it
had been in the previous year ; and a Lancashire peer gave it as his opinion, that
a five-shilling rate would be, in fact, a fifteen-shilling rate upon those who could
pay the demand of the overseers. Three days after the bill became law, and in the
royal speech at the end of the parliamentary session, there was a flattering re
cognition of the manner in which Lancashire was bearing her trials. It must be
remarked that the queen's sympathy was not confined alone to words. In July, as
Duchess of Lancashire, she had subscribed £2,000 to the relief fund.
The distress darkened and deepened. The condition of the operatives of
Blackburn, who had goods pledged to the amount of £30,000 in the pawnbrokers'
shops, is thus described by the Times' correspondent : —
" With all it was the same tale : savings spent ; credit exhausted ; the pawn
shop or the auction-room ; and, last of all, the terrible alternative — starvation or
relief. _ One small street I found entirely occupied by the workpeople employed at
one mill which had been stopped more than a twelvemonth ago. Every family had
passed through the last winter without wages, and were now at the end of their
resources, dependent entirely on relief of some kind. Most of them had been
receiving it for weeks past ; but in hardly a single cottage was there to be seen
more than a couple of chairs and a table, and round the walls a few gay pictures,
for which the weaver seems to have as great a passion as the collier. Some of them
were lying four and five in a bed ; others on a bundle of straw ; and all had run
considerably in debt. At one corner of the street was kept a little provision and
drapery store, by an old woman, who had fed and clothed the street for some fifteen
years past. To deal elsewhere would have been a breach of custom and tradition
which no respectable inhabitant had ever been known to commit. I am afraid to
say how deeply the street has got into this benevolent woman's debt. Her heart
had bled for her customers ; she could not bear to see them want what she could
supply ; and, little by little, she had allowed their scores to run on until the sum
total must be something considerable. Nearly all owned to being £4 or £5 back
in their shop, as the phrase is ; some to £7 ; and a few even to £10 : and one
could but admire the perfect confidence of their creditor, that when good times
returned, every farthing of it would speedily be wiped off. In this way the tender
hearted shopkeeper had helped many a family through the hard time, and supplied
them with articles which do not enter into public relief. ' If it had not been for
her,' said a poor woman, ' where should I have got a bit of soap to wash my
Ot7A

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [clerical contributions.
children.' Such instances I am told are not uncommon ; and, indeed, nothing is
more creditable to the workpeople than the manner in which they have sympathised
with each other's distress, and assisted each other wherever there was the power.
The hands yet fully employed have subscribed very liberally to the relief fund ;
and I have heard of cases where a man on full time would yield up his looms for
a couple of days or so to a less fortunate friend, to give him a chance of earning a
few shilUngs. Even the poorest, who have nothing else to offer, will give the
shelter of their roof to those who could not afford to pay for lodgings ; and there
are many young girls who have been living rent-free for months in this way — a
week with one family, and a week with another. In one house, of the lowest class,
I saw, lying on chairs, a little child, not more than two months old, whose mother,
a lodger in the house, had died just after its birth. The mistress of the house — an
old woman, who got her living by hawking hearthstone about, with not the best
character in the world, and who had just had her dole of meal stopped because she
had been caught giving it to her donkey — sooner than send the little thing to
the workhouse, had taken on herself the responsibility of bringing it up. The
street which I have mentioned was fortunate in one respect — all the houses
belonged to their employer; and none of the inhabitants had been called on to
pay rent for a twelvemonth. There are many landlords here who are losing
heavily; and when they happen to be poor men, who have scraped and saved, and
acquired cottage property through building societies, they are very much to be
pitied. One of the hardest cases I have seen was that of a poor widow, with two
young children, whose husband had left her with three cottages. They ought to
have brought her in 9s. a week ; but, for some months, she had scarcely got more
than 3s. She had just been served with a summons for 18s., poor-rates for them,
which, of course, she was just as able to pay as the national debt. She had her
oavu rent to pay ; and, of course, was shut out from all relief by the rules both of
the guardians and the relief committee." -
As the winter approached, the whole country was aroused. The bishops issued
pastorals to their clergy on the subject. Cardinal Wiseman had done the same.
Nor were the various classes of dissenters behindhand. The army and navy had
contributed their cash, and the colonies had sent freely of their abundance.
The thanks of the committee were wafted to Buenos Ayres, for a donation of
£415, and to Bangalore for half that amount. Egypt had her acknowledgments for
value received ; and many cities and towns of the United Kingdom. Belfast and
Newcastle, Dublin and Tunbridge Wells, with many others, partook of the same
reward. Oxford had opened her mythical chest; Birmingham had sent her
monies ; wealthy firms had made large donations : one had forwarded 3,000
needles, and another 2,000 tons of coals. In rural districts the cry of relief for
Lancashire had been raised, and not in vain. At this time there were 208,621
persons in receipt of parochial relief ; and, besides this large number of paupers,
there were 143,870 persons reUeved by the local committees. In November, desti
tution advanced at the rate of 3,000 persons a day. In one week in December,
when the maximum of distress was recorded, the numbers reached a total of
496,816 persons supported by parochial or charitable funds. In January, 1863,
things began to mend. There was a satisfactory increase in the numbers employed,
and a corresponding diminution of the responsibilities of the relief committees.
In February, the speech from the throne contained an allusion to the cotton
manufacturing districts. Her majesty expressed heartfelt grief at the severity of
the distress, and acknowledged the noble fortitude and exemplary resignation
with which it had been borne. She referred to the abundant generosity with
which all classes of her subjects, in all parts of the empire, had contributed to
relieve the wants of their fellow-countrymen ; and spoke of the liberality with
which her colonial subjects had given their aid, as proving that, although their
dwelling-places were far away, their hearts were still warm with unabated affection
for the land of their fathers. The royal speech also made well-deserved mention
VOL. u. 2 D 393

RIOTING LN LANCASHIRE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.
of the relief committees, as having superintended, Avith constant and laborious
attention, the distribution of the funds entrusted to their charge.
Lord Derby, on tbe motion for the address, spoke at length with regard to the
condition and prospects of Lancashire. He said that the cutting off of the ma
terial of a manufacture which had risen to such an unparalleled height, was,
however, expected to produce worse miseries than those which had overwhelmed
the manufacturing districts : and Avith graceful depreciation of his own exertions,
he referred, in terms of eulogy, to those men of business, who, " engaged in trans
actions on which it was necessary for them to bestow constant attention, gave
' hours and days, and weeks and months, of their time gratuitously, and without the
slightest recompense, except the consciousness of the good they were doing, to the
alleviation of the distress around them." He pointed out the hardship, while ac
knowledging the necessity, of making no distinction, in the distribution of
relief, betAveen those who had been earning 30s. and 40s. a week as wages, and
those who had only earned 7s. or 8s. ; and the natural consequence, that while the
distress had been severely felt by the higher classes of workmen, by the lowest it
had been scarcely felt at all. He foretold the increasing difficulties of the small
capitalists ; and predicted that two or three years must elapse before the cotton
trade would enjoy ordinary prosperity. In the Commons, Mr. Villiers introduced
and carried a bill for the continuance of the Union Relief Aid Act. In the course of
the debate which followed, it was mentioned that as many as 4,000 persons in Oldham
had, in one fortnight, changed their position from rate-payers to rate-receivers.
About this time there was a little rioting in the suffering districts. When
the American ship, George Griswold, arrived, laden with contributions, the occasion
was chosen for the purpose of making a demonstration. In celebration of the
Prince of Wales's marriage, a meeting was convened in Stevenson's Square, Man
chester ; the chaplain of the George Griswold was to attend, and there was to be a
distribution of 15,000 loaves. They were to follow the bread in procession to
Kersal Moor; and a prominent part of the pageant was to consist of two boats
drawn on lurries ; one from the relief ship, flying the stars and stripes, manned
Avith sailors ; the other a black and suspicious-looking craft, with a crew of men in
the stage-dress of pirates. A row. ensued ; loaves were thrown about — were trodden
upon— were appropriated in armfuls by the least respectable, and, probably, the least
necessitous portion of the crowd. At Staleybridge, where there were many Irish,
more lawless proceedings took place ; the stores were broken into and plundered;
the Riot Act Avas read ; the hussars cleared the streets, and many rioters were im
prisoned. An effort was made to extend the disorder to Ashton-under-Lyne, where
shop-breaking and stone-throwing were also perpetrated. Dunkinfield and Hyde
were visited by crowds of marauders ; but after a good deal of contention, and
swearing, and fighting, the rioters gradually dispersed, and the rioting ceased. At
Stockport, an attempt was made to foment disorder by a similar class to that
which had been guilty of rioting in the Staleybridge district. A considerable
number of men had been employed by the Stockport Board of Guardians, in making
roads, and other out-door work. The suggestion of a paltry grievance was sufficient
to cause a partial strike, and to collect a crowd. A few broken windows, however,
was the worst result The men in the relief schools at Stockport flatly refused
to join the rioters, as did the better class of out-door labourers ; and this, together
with the resolute attitude of the authorities, quickly succeeded in quelling the
disturbance At Wigan the same agitation prevailed. A procession, numbering
440 recipients of relief marched to the workhouse, where the Board of Guardians
were assembled to lay before them a bUl of complaint. "Their hours of work,
Sp^r^Y^ eiTZ crasi**edtool°*g; the guardians were not sufficiently
liberal ; and they had been called savages by a local paper." Ultimately, all the
grievances were satisfactorily explained, and work was speedily resumed. At
Preston, also, there was a tendency to riot, which, however, was soon suppressed.
Mr Ferrand, the somewhat notorious M.P. for Devonport (who had been

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [mr. rawlinson's reports.
a champion of the operatives in the agitation to obtain the passing of the
Ten Hours' Bill, and also a champion of the farmers, in opposing the aboUtion of
the corn-laws), endeavoured to get parliament to act more directly in the matter
than it had hitherto done. On the 28th of April, he moved, amid general
cheering, " That, in the opinion of this House, it is the duty of the government
to take into consideration, without delay, Avhat measures may be necessary to
relieve the "distress which prevails in the cotton manufacturing districts, so
that the people may no longer continue unemployed." Although Mr. Ferrand
did not directly state the form of employment he would recommend, the tone
of his speech indicated a comprehensive measure of emigration, to be carried
on with the patronage of the state. To his resolution, the member for Carlisle
moved, as an amendment, the appointment of a royal commission, to inquire into,
and report upon, the subject. Mr. Villiers stated that he had already determined
to send into the district a commissioner, to direct as to the employment of the
operatives in draining and improving agricultural land : and here the discussion
terminated. Mr. Robert RaAvlinson, the ci vii engineer selected, was well chosen.
He was a Lancashire man ; and had taken a high position as a sanitary reformer.
He had long been in the service of the government. He had been a sanitary com
missioner with the army in the Crimea ; and he was now chief inspector of the
Local Government Act office. He was the man to send down to Lancashire, which
needed sanitary reform. The rate of mortality was nearly one-half per cent.
higher in Lancashire and Cheshire than the rest of England. There was little
house-drainage ; dirt-heaps were formed all round the dwellings of the poor ; many
of the streets were unpaved ; the rivers also were polluted. Mr. Rawlinson's
estimate was, that £1,500,000 might be spent in forming main sewers, house-
drains, street-paving, suburban roads, parks, and recreation grounds; enclosing
waste land, land-drainage, &c, &c. In one of his reports to the President
of the Poor-Law Board, Mr. Rawlinson writes —
" 1. There is plenty of useful work to be done at the several distressed towns
and places. " 2. The governing bodies, so far as I have consulted with them, will com
mence such works if they can obtain legal power, and necessary money at a low
rate of interest.
"3. A large portion of the able-bodied operatives can, and will, do this work,
if paid fair, but reasonable wages.
" 4. There is ' sufficient local knowledge to design and superintend any works
commenced. " 5. Any advance of money by government should be as a loan, on security of
the entire rateable property of each district, at a remunerative rate of interest, and
repayable at stated intervals.
" 6.. For each loan, a petition, with plans and estimates, to be forwarded to
some government office or officer on the spot, if preferred ; and a report or recom
mendation to be sent in before such loan is granted.
" 7. Advances to be made, not in a lump sum for the whole amount of the
loan contracted for, but upon certain certificates monthly, as the work is done.
" 8. The local authorities to be enabled to stop short, at any point in the
progress of the works, should trade revive so as to call the hands to regular work.
" 9. The money borrowed should not be appropriated for other works than
those scheduled in the report leading to the sanction.
" One or two inspectors, as at the Local Government Act office, ought to do all
the government work required.
" The action of the local authorities must be unfettered, or there will be mis
chief. There may be advice when asked for, as under the Local Government Act.
" The several town-clerks may, with advantage, be consulted as to the legal
clauses in any short bill, if one is to be prepared.
" There are mostly some legal peculiarities in each place, which block local im-
2 D 2 395

parliamentary action.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
provement. I feel the delicacy, and, in some respects, _ danger, in exceptional
legislation ; but do not know how it is to be avoided in this case."
A measure, accordingly, was proposed by Mr. Villiers — the Public Works Bill —
and carried. Its object was to promote the class of works which would afford em
ployment for the largest amount of unskilled labour. The public works loan
commissioners (by no means a new body) were to be the depositaries of the fund
applicable to the purposes of the bill ; who were to advance loans upon the authority
of orders of the Poor-Law Board, after the Board had satisfied themselves that the
borrowing powers were valid, and through the inspection and report of their
officers that the plans were correct, the estimates reasonable, and tbe works
such as were sanctioned by the provisions of the bill. The measure gave universal
satisfaction. The Manchester Guardian, on the day following the introduction of
the bill, said — " As soon as it has become law, no locality which possesses the power
of levying rates, will be able to allege its want of means as an excuse for not
finding employment for its distressed population." It was also equally approved
of by the members for the cotton districts, and the central executive committee.
Nor was this all that was done in this session of parliament. The House of
Commons devoted a night to Mr. Caird's motion for a select committee, to inquire
whether any further measures could be taken within the legitimate functions ofthe
Indian government, for increasing the supply of cotton from that country. Mr.
Caird, who was distinguished for his agricultural knowledge, stated that the Indian
field of production was unlimited ; and that, though the climate of India was
warmer by 12° than the Southern States, yet that the deficiency of rain might
easily be obviated by works of irrigation. It was contended by Mr. Cobden, as the
representative of the manufacturers, that the government, the gigantic absentee
landlord of this Indian farm, was blamable for refusing to encourage the production
of cotton by the remission of the land-tax. Sir Charles Wood had declined to
allow the remission even upon small patches of land in Madras. He maintained
that the distress of the cotton districts ought not to be relieved at the expense of
the people of India. But the moral of the debate was spoken by Mr. Bright, in
the words, that " there was no short cut to that which it was wanted to obtain."
In committee upon the new Continuance Bill of the Union Relief Aid Act,
Mr. Villiers proposed two amendments, which were both agreed to — the first
being, that six shillings should be substituted for five, as the charge to be borne
upon the net rateable value of the Unions, before they were empowered to call for
contributions from their counties. Experience of the worst season of distress had
shown that this amount would render the county rate in aid practically inoperative,
as no Union would endure rates amounting to six shillings while possessed of the
power of borrowing. This 'power Mr. Villiers now proposed to facilitate by his
second amendment, authorising the loan commissioners to make advances to the
Union, chargeable to the common fund, and repayable in twenty years, with interest
at 3| per cent.— a concession, says Mr. Arnold, "not quite guiltless of wise indul
gence." Lancashire has owed much to the exceptional circumstances which caused
her distress; much to their incidence upon the national policy; much to the
influence and the dread of her concentrated population. All this, together with the
temporary nature of the crisis, and the desirability of excluding discontent from
the district, pleaded for allowance of this easy postponement of local burdens, with
a force which it might well be thought could rarely so establish a subsequent claim ;
and the power was given as one strictly exceptional.
In 1864, the good effect of the Public Works Act was everywhere felt. It
raised the spirits of the operatives by giving them remunerative employment, the
results of which they, and their children after them, would enjoy ; and it produced
an excellent effect upon the numerous class of small shopkeepers, who had suffered
grievously through the distress. In his Report, November 7th, 1864, Mr. Rawlinson
says—" It is impossible to calculate precisely the effect of such an expenditure
upon local employment. During the last twelve months, it was the oninion of
396 r

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [international exhibition.
many well-informed persons, that the production of cotton manufactures had fallen
to as low a point as in the corresponding period of 1862. For the week ending the
29th of October, 1864, 6,424 men were employed; of whom 2,422 were skilled. I
estimate the number engaged in getting stone and other materials at not less than
2,000, which will make a total of 8,424 ; who, with their dependent families, will
represent a population of from 30,000 to 40,000 persons, deriving their subsistence
from these works."
The story of the Lancashire distress need not be further told. The crisis was
past ; and, by the sufferers, it had been bravely borne. England had never given
her working classes credit for such self-control — such wisdom — such endurance.
The nation had done her duty ; a better understanding had been created between
the upper and lower classes of society ; and the bitter feeling often cherished by
the men towards the masters was softened and removed. The cotton famine was
not an unmixed calamity. It inculcated habits of .providence and co-operation;-
and it gave an impulse to education and sanitary improvement, which must issue in
permanent and beneficial results. It, besides, taught the miU-owners of the north
not to be dependent on one country alone for a supply of cotton ; and thus it gave
an additional impulse to commerce and friendly relations between ourselves and
other states. Twenty years ago the cotton famine would have nearly plunged us
into civil war. That such was not now the case shows the marvellous triumphs
of popular education and a cheap press. The lesson is to be deeply pondered over
by our rulers, too much inclined to fear the people, and to shrink from contact with
them. To each and all of them, the history of the cotton famine says, in the
language of one of old—" Oh, thou of Uttle faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?"

CHAPTER XIX.
PPBIIC FESTIVITIES, AND THE KOTAL FAMILY.

We turn from the record of war and national calamity to other and more joyous
themes. In 1862 there was another International Exhibition in London. It was
opened, May the 1st, with great pomp and ceremony. Lord Palmerston, of course,
officiated in it ; and, whenever visible, was loudly cheered.
The foreign nations whose contributions were displayed in this vast area,
were represented by thirty-four acting commissioners. There were thirty to watch
oyer the products of the British colonies and dependencies. London was aUve
with the men of commerce from all lands, who came to compare and to learn ; and,
besides, there came the critics, to record and to judge. Even Japan sent her
ambassadors to take notes. The annual meeting of the National Association for
the Promotion of Social Science was held in the capital of England this year.
The Royal Agricultural Society held its annual exhibition at Battersea Park.
There was a Handel festival, with 4,000 performers, at the Crystal Palace. The
volunteers met at Wimbledon, and Lord Palmerston distributed 'the prizes. There
never had been such feasting in London before, in spite of the cloud of sorrow
which rested heavily on the home of the English queen. The city feasted the
Viceroy of Egypt; and, besides, gave a ball to 3,000 persons. There was a great
Social Science soirie, in the queen's palace of Westminster. At a friendly dinner
given to the foreign workmen who came over to visit the Exhibition, a letter from
Lord Palmerston to the secretary was read. " I am glad," wrote his lordship,
" that you are going to give a welcome to the working-men of France, who have
come to visit our Exhibition ; and I hope you will explain to them that there ought
397

international exhibition.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
to be emulation, but no jealousy, between the productive industries of England and
France," In 1862, 6,087,000 persons visited the Exhibition in Brompton.
The following were the words (by the poet-laureate) sung to Professor
Bennett's music at the opening : —
" Uplift a thousand voices full and sweet,
In this wide hall with earth's inventions stored,
And praise th' invisible universal Lord,
Who lets once more in peace the nations meet,
Where Science, Art, and Labour have out-poured
Their myriad horns of plenty at our feet.
" O, silent father of our Kings to be,
Mourn'd in this golden hour of jubilee,
For this, for all, we weep our thanks to thee !
" The world-compelling plan was thine,
And, lo ! the long laborious miles
Of Palace ; lo ! the giant aisles,
Rich in model and design ;
Harvest-tool and husbandry,
Loom and wheel, and engin'ry,
Secrets of the sullen mine,
Steel and gold, and corn and wine,
Fabric rough, or Fairy fine,
Sunny tokens of the Line,
Polar marvels, and a feast
Of wonder, out of West or East,
And shapes and hues of Art divine,
All of beauty, all of use,
That one fair planet can produce,
Brought from under every star,
Blown from over every main,
And mixt, as life is mist with pain,
The works of peace with works of war.
" O ye, the wise who think, the wise who reign,
From growing commerce loose her latest chain,
And let the fair white-winged peacemaker fly
To happy havens under all the sky,
And mix the seasons and the golden hours,
Till each man find his own in all men's good,
And all men work in noble brotherhood,
Breaking their mailed fleets and armed towers,
And ruling by obeying nature's powers,
And gathering all the fruits of peace, and crowned with all her
flowers."
The building, by Messrs. Kelk and Lucas, in Brompton, was not much
admired ; but it was very large, and was well filled with the products of the
industries of all the nations of the earth. The death of the Prince Consort was,
however, to it a very heavy blow. There was no one with authority, or tact, or
knowledge, or judgment to take his place. Had he lived, and been enabled to
preside over it, the Exhibition would have been of a far higher character ; but it was
a success nevertheless. Fortunately there were no great expectations formed ; we
had no hopes of universal peace ; little was said about the brotherhood of nations ;
and the allusions to the millennium, even on the part of clerical gentlemen, were few
and far between.
At the distribution of the medals and rewards, in July, Lord Taunton read the
report of the council of chairmen on the work of the juries, which we subjoin in full.
the work of the several juries having been brought to a termination, it
becomes the duty of the council of chairmen to explain the manner in which the
juries were constituted, and the result of their labours
"The juries consist of English and foreign members in varying proportions.

a.d. 1862.] ' VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [report of the council.

The English jurors were, in the first place, nominated by exhibitors ; and these
nominations having been carefully considered, her majesty's commissioners in
variably appointed such persons as appeared to be named by the general agree
ment of a trade or district. In cases where the nominations were not made on a
common understanding, tbe royal commissioners were- guided in their choice by
the number of votes given to particular individuals ; and, in some instances, by
the desire expressed by exhibitors, that the commissioners should themselves select
persons possessing the necessary qualifications.
" The British colonies were represented by jurors recommended by the several
colonial commissioners.
" Foreign nations taking part in the Exhibition had a right to nominate one
juror for every class in which they were represented by twenty exhibitors, and for
every section of a class in which they had fifteen exhibitors. As an alternative,
each nation had a certain number of jurors allotted to it, in proportion to the space
which it occupied in the building ; and several countries accepted this alternative.
Her majesty's commissioners, without fixing any arbitrary proportion between
foreign and English jurors, appointed as many of the latter to each jury as the
experience of past Exhibitions showed to be necessary for its efficiency.
" The juries were sixty-five in number, grouped so as to form thirty-six classes,
or head juries, corresponding to the thirty-six industrial classes, under which the
objects are arranged in the Exhibition. Each of these head juries, when subdivided
into sections, acted as a united body for the confirmation of awards. Before, how
ever, these awards were considered final, they were brought before, and received
the sanction of, a council, consisting of the chairmen of the thirty-six head juries.
The chairmen forming the council Avhich regulated the affairs of the juries were
nominated by her majesty's commissioners from the jurors of different nations, a
number being aUotted to each country relatively to the space assigned to it in the
building. The council was presided over by a chairman appointed by her majesty's
commissioners. "Her majesty's commissioners decided that only one description of medal
should be awarded by the juries. This decision considerably facilitated their
labours, as it became necessary only to reward excellence wherever it was found,
without reference to competition between exhibitors. As the work of the juries
advanced, it was ascertained that many articles possessed excellence of a kind which
deserved a special mention, without, however, entitling them to a medal; and,
although it involved some departure from the principle that had been originally laid
down, yet the councU of chairmen acceded to the wish of the juries, and permitted
such cases to be classed and published under the title of ' honourable mentions.'
"The jurors and their associates engaged in examining the objects of the
Exhibition, amounted to 615 persons ; of whom 287 were foreigners, and 328 English.
They are men of high social, scientific, and industrial position, drawn from nearly
every civilised country in the world. Their labours have occupied two months, and
have been of the most arduous description, as they had to examine the objects
displayed by at least 25,000 exhibitors. It can scarcely be expected that none of
the articles exhibited have escaped their attention. In a few instances, the delay
of arrival or of arrangement has rendered it impossible for the juries to examine
every article now within the building ; while in other cases, errors in classification
have rendered it doubtful to which of the juries the duty of examining some par
ticular objects should fall. Every effort, however, has been made to conquer these
obstacles ; and the omissions, if any, must be very few in number, and are not owing
to the want of attention of the juries or of the officers engaged in facilitating their
work. " The number of medals voted by the juries amounts to nearly 7,000 ; and the
' honourable mentions' to about 5,301). The proportion of awards to exhibitors is
greater than in the International Exhibition of 1851, but less than in that
of 185;5. ' 399

working-men's exhibition.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
" Notwithstanding the varied nationalities represented in the juries, it is gra -
tifying to record that the utmost harmony has prevailed during the whole time that
the jurors have been associated in their labours. The mutual dependence and in
timate alliance between the industries of the world, have been illustrated by the
zealous and impartial efforts of the jurors of different nations to recognise and
reward the merit displayed in the exhibitions of their industrial competitors.
" We are glad to observe that the state of industry shown in the International
Exhibition, gives evidence of a singularly active and healthy progress throughout
the civilised world ; for while we find every nation searching for new raw materials,
or utilising products hitherto considered as waste, we are struck especially with the
vast improvement in the machinery employed to adapt them to industrial purposes,
as well as with the applications of science, and with the great and successful
attention which is now given to all the arts necessary to gratify our taste and sense
of beauty. " We cannot conclude this report without expressing our obligations to Dr.
Lyon Playfair, the special commissioner for juries, for the constant and intelligent
assistance which he has rendered to us throughout our labours, as well as to the
deputy commissioners and secretary, who have acted under his direction, and have
afforded efficient aid to the several juries during their inquiries."
Lord Palmerston himself was a great man for opening Exhibitions. At the
one by working-men in the Westminster Road, he thus spoke : —
" Ladies and gentlemen, — I must, in the first place, express the deep gratifica
tion it has afforded me to be allowed to take part in what has been truly one
of the most interesting ceremonies I have ever witnessed in my life. What can
be more interesting to any man who takes an interest in the welfare and happiness
of his fellow-countrymen, and the development of talent among them, than to
have seen pass before him that goodly thread of men, women, and children,
recipients of prizes awarded for the merits which they have displayed in the
Exhibition just closed this day ? If there be some whose not unreasonable ex
pectations of higher rewards have been disappointed, they should recollect that the
judges appointed by the body of exhibitors had a most difficult task to perform;
difficult exactly in proportion to the amount of talent displayed by the exhibitors.
Because Avhere there are 600 candidates for distinction, and 300 prizes to be
awarded, great, indeed, must be the difficulty of picking out the 300 best. It
is impossible that the most accurate judgment, and the most sedulous care in
selecting half the names-of so large a body, where all have displayed great merit,
could satisfy every man that his merits have been duly appreciated, and the reward
assigned to him which he thinks ought to have been his meed. It is indeed re
markable that, such intellectual distinction should have been exhibited by persons
of all ages, of both sexes, even by some whose military uniform showed that
their leisure hours are occupied in the service of their country; and by those also
who, from their affliction, might be supposed disqualified from competing in such an
Exhibition as this. I have seen many recipients of medals pass before me to-day,
whom you could scarcely see on account of the lowness of their stature— children,
almost, of precocious talent, from whom we may fairly expect that, in their maturer
age, they will arrive at great distinction in their respective careers. This Exhibition,
and the works which it contained, are extremely significant of the happy constitution
under which we have the good fortune to live— that constitution which opens to every
man having talent, industry, perseverance, and good conduct, any honours and
distinctions which his turn of mind and attainments may qualify him to aspire to.
We live under a constitutional monarchy; and of such a monarchy, an aristocracy
of wealth and an aristocracy of rank are essential ingredients. It is true that
aristocracies of wealth and rank exist in many other countries; but, unfor
tunately, there are almost impassable barriers separating them from the rest of the
W™' f 11 ?>? Tf^-?^ iQ, this C0Untry- With regard to the aris
tocracy of wealth, the medals distributed to-day have inscribed on them the names

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [working-men's exhibition.

of a great number of men, who, starting from very small beginnings, attained by
their talent, their industry, their perseverance, and their good conduct, the very
highest positions of social merit and distinction. Many more might have been
added to that list. And you must have all seen, in your own experience, men
starting from the smallest beginnings, who have in this very city realised princely
fortunes. In the manufacturing districts examples of this kind are abundant ; for
no man can go, even for a few days, into those districts without hearing of great
wealth acquired by men who started with little ; but, by their talents and genius,
raised themselves and their families to opulence. Then, again, does the aristocracy
of rank in this country consist simply of those who can count in their pedigree
generations of noble ancestors ? Look at all the great men who have figured in
public Ufe. Look at your army, your navy, your law, your church, your states
men. You will find, in every one of those careers, men who have risen to the highest
points ; who have either themselves started from the smallest beginnings, or whose
fathers began with nothing but their talents, their industry, and their energy to
aid them. I do not mention the names of any of these; though, for the men
themselves, and for their families, it would be a most honourable roll : but
you are all conversant with names renowned in the history of the country, who
belonged, not to noble famiUes, but who founded noble families; springing, many
of them, from the very class which I have now the honour of addressing. Does
not this afford even greater encouragement than the prizes just distributed to all
of you who have cultivated the talents with which nature has endowed • you ?
Wealth is, to a certain extent, within the reach of all ; but be assured of one thing —
that even if you fail in gaining those summits of ambition which I have indicated,
there is no greater source of private comfort, and of individual happiness, than
the exercise of intellectual faculties, and the enjoyment of domestic affection.
The exercise of the intellectual faculties, to which the exhibitors here show tbat
they have devoted themselves, must make them happier men ; must contribute to
raise them, not only in their OAvn estimation, but in the estimation of all who
know them ; and must lead to the noblest of all exercises, of all pleasures — the
cultivation, improvement, and development of the human intellect. I may be
told that the examples I have cited of men who attained great Avealth or
distinguished positions are few, while the competitors are many ; and that to the
bulk of those who struggle to arrive at such goals the effort must be hopeless. I
would ask whether any of you have not gone, on a fine bright day in the beginning
of summer, to that great seat of amusement, Epsom race-course, and seen horses
run for that celebrated race, the Derby ? Three or four hundred horses entered for
the race, but only one won the prize. All the rest failed to obtain the object of their
ambition. But those luckless horses that did not win the Derby, won other races.
If they were good for anything, they all won something. And thus the- training,
the industry, the pains, and the expense of those who had fitted them for the com
petition in which they were to take part, were eventually repaid. And so I say to
you — you are competitors for prizes. You may not all become generals or admirals ;
you may not all become lord chancellors or archbishops ; you may not become
members of the cabinet ; but, depend upon it, you will, by systematic industry,
raise yourselves in the social system of your country — you will acquire honour and
respect for yourselves and for your famiUes. You will have, too, the constant
satisfaction of feeling that you have materially contributed to the dignity of your
country, to its welfare, to its prosperity and greatness, and that you have been
worthy of the nation to which you belong. I beg again to express the extreme
pleasure I have derived from what I have witnessed to-day; and I trust that,
hereafter, these Exhibitions may be even more successful than the present. Go
on, ladies and gentlemen, and prosper; and depend upon it that the blessings
which you will confer upon yourselves and your families will be proportioned to
the industry you display, and to the cultivation which you give to those faculties —
those noble faculties with which Providence has endowed you." 401

ROMSEY EXHIBITION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
On another occasion, when the scene was laid at Romsey, his own locality, the
claims of which were never forgotten, or urged in vain upon his lordship, he said —
" Ladies and gentlemen, — I am proud of having been permitted to attend the
opening of this interesting Exhibition ; and not the less so because I appear before
you in that which is generally considered not a very enviable position — namely, that
of a false prophet. I am bound to confess that when our excellent vicar first
communicated to me the intention of the town of Romsey to set on foot an
Exhibition of this kind, I hastily, and not sufficiently estimating the energy of the
people of Romsey, expressed an opinion, or rather an apprehension, that the
project would fail. This magnificent display of works of art, and science, and
industry, and the numerous assembly which I now have the honour of addressing,
amply refute the expectations which I then expressed, and show that I am what I
stated — in that respect, at least — a false prophet. But, unlike false prophets in
general, I rejoice in the misconception under which I laboured, and the falsification
of my prophecy ; for nothing can be more gratifying than to see the results of the
labour of those who have been charged with preparing this Exhibition. I may
add, that I think, from those whom I now see assembled in this room, there is
every reasonable prospect, that not only will those walls contain objects most worthy
of admiration and of study, but will be filled by those who will be ready to admire
and improve themselves by what they see. There can be no question that
periodical displays of the works of genius tend not only to amuse but to improve
and to cultivate our minds. They show those models of perfection which, more or
less, other men may imitate, and, perhaps, may equal. This is not merely confined
to Exhibitions of this sort. I remember, some years ago, making a tour through
Holland, a country peopled by men who are industrious, persevering, and who
neglect no opportunity of improving themselves and the country in Avhich they
live ; and every town of any consideration that I passed through, had not merely a
temporary Exhibition, but a permanent museum containing a collection of matters
of general interest. Well, I am afraid that we cannot, in this little town of
Romsey, aim at aspiring so high until there shall be some Romsey Hartley who will
be kind enough to bequeath us a large legacy. I will venture to say, that if that
should happen, the people of Romsey will not spend more than one-half of it in
litigation before they are able to lay the first stone of a building in honour of the
founder. It is most gratifying to see the results of the energy and diligence—
the unconquerable diligence of those who have been charged with arranging and
getting together this Exhibition. But among the objects of interest and°admira-
tion which this Exhibition brings before us, I must not forget to point out to you
the proof it affords of the universal genius of our Avorthy vicar; for not only does
he, as you all know, take especial and good care of your welfare in a future world,
but you will see, in one of the compartments of this Exhibition, a most skilful
arrangement for preserving the lives of men in this world from shipwreck and
other accidents at sea. We people of Romsey— I am proud to call myself one, for
I was born here close by— we people of Romsey have some reason to be satisfied
with that which this town has produced in the way of human intellect. We have
seen, in our abbey church, a monument to Sir William Petty— a man most dis
tinguished in the history of the country— who was born in Romsey. Well, there
was another instance of genius which I may be permitted to mention— namely, that
among your townsmen of the present time there was a Mr. Lordan, who performed
that which is a feat in literature. He printed a book which he had never written,
but which he had composed; and as fast as he composed it, word for word, instead
ot writing it down m manuscript for future correction, as most authors do, he set to
work and printed it off at once. Here we have the book now printed from the
actual and immediate impulse of Mr. Lordan's mind. As I have already said, it is
not surprising that we here in Romsey should take pleasure in seeing the produce
of modern history, skill, and genius, when we have here, in our town, to contem
plate every day one of the most splendid monuments of the genius of times gone
402 °

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [sailors' home.
by, in that venerable church, which, I may venture to say, has, all things considered,
no rival — certainly no superior — in any part of the kingdom. I thank you for
having been permitted to be present at the opening of this Exhibition ; and I hope
the room may, every day it is open, be as crowded as it is at the present moment."
As a further illustration of Lord Palmerston's readiness to assist, as far as
possible, what was Avorthy of assistance, take his laying the foundation-stone of
the building for the enlargement of the Sailors' Home, in the neighbourhood of the
London Docks, in August, 1863. The proceedings took place under a large tent,
erected by Mr. John Edgington, of Smithfield Bars. From the address presented
to Lord Palmerston by Admiral Bowles, we learn that the new building cost nearly
£13,000 ; and that its object was to provide a home — combining security, freedom
of action, and social enjoyment — for the sailor, on his return from a perilous
voyage ; and to promote his moral elevation and religious improvement. " As a
proof that these objects have, in large measure, been accomplished, we beg to call
your lordship's attention to the fact, that, since the opening of the institution,
139,180 seamen have availed themselves of the advantages it holds out; and such
is the confidence inspired by its operations, that no less a sum than £1,110,980 has
been received from these men, and directed into legitimate channels for their
benefit." His lordship replied as follows : — " I can assure you that I feel great
pleasure, and I may say pride, in having been permitted to take a part in this most
interesting ceremony. We are, by our insular position, necessarily a seafaring
nation. All our interests, I may say our national independence, are connected
with the skill, the enterprise, the daring courage of our seamen. It is needless to
point out that, by the great extension which the principles of free trade have
received of late years, our commercial intercourse with other nations, carried on in
every ocean, has incredibly increased ; and that we now are dependent upon our
commerce for the maintenance of our national industry, for the subsistence of a
great part of our population, and for the markets to which the produce of our
manufactures is destined to go. If, then, nothing but commercial interests were
concerned, it would be needless to point out how greatly the strength and pros
perity of the country depend upon our seafaring population. But there are still
higher considerations than that to point out their value, and how much they
deserve encouragement from their fellow-countrymen. It is true that something
near 30,000,000 of men could not be conquered by any invasion that might
reach these shores. But, short of that, we might, if we lost the command of the
seas, be blockaded by tbe cutting off of our foreign supplies, and, by the preven
tion of our export trade, be reduced to very distressing extremities ; and therefore,
in that point of view, we ought fully and highly to appreciate the value of our
sailor fellow-men. Well, it is the result of their life to be separated in great
measure from intercourse with their fellow-men oh land, that they are peculiarly
a simple-minded and a guileless set of men ; but simple-minded and guileless men
are too often, when they come into contact with them, the victims of men of
different character. A sailor, when he comes to port, cannot go, probably, to the seat
of his family — he cannot go to his friends and relations. He must remain in the
port where he has landed ; and in that port he is exposed to every temptation, and
to the loss both of his money and his health. Well, these institutions tend to
provide him with a home. It is said, indeed, that ' his home is on the deep ;'
but we provide him with a home on terra firma ; and it is needless to point out
how much his physical and moral interests are promoted by a reception such as he
meets with in these institutions. They are, indeed, a part of those great social
improvements which have been made in recent times ; and I may truly say that
among them few are more deserving of public encouragement, and few are more
conducive to the real interests of the country. I, therefore, am glad— and I return
thanks to those who gave me the invitation — I am glad to be present, and con
tribute to the foundation of an institution which will be attended with such great
na.firmn.l n.dvantn.crp.s ."

national advantages,

403

DEATH OF PRINCE ALBERT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
His lordship then laid the stone with the usual honours. It bore the following
inscription : — " This chief stone of the new building in extension of the Sailors'
Home, was laid on the 4th day of August, in the year of our Lord, 1863, and
in the twenty-seventh year of the reign of her most gracious majesty Victoria,
Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, by the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Pal
merston, K.G."
About this time the Prince of Wales began to take an active part in public
life. He had been carefully trained, and studied at Oxford and Cambridge
universities. At the Curragh, in 1861,. he had learnt something of camp life, and
military duties. He had been called tb the bar, and admitted as a bencher of the
Middle Temple. In July, 1860, he had embarked at Plymouth, on board H.M.S.
Hero, on a visit to Canada and the United States. The Duke of Newcastle,
Colonial Secretary of State, accompanied the prince. At Quebec, where he arrived
on the 18th, he was received with the utmost enthusiasm. In September, under
the title of Baron Renfrew, he entered the United States, on his way to Washington
to visit the president ; and, in November, he returned, after having done much, by
his manners and appearance, to sustain and create a friendly feeling, on the part of
the colonists and the Americans, towards the mother country. In the royal family
there was a talk of a wedding : the Princess Alice had a lover. There was to be
gaiety and grand doings at Windsor ; when suddenly there flashed through the
land the sad news that Prince Albert was ill ; and then that he was dead — dead, too,
just as Christmas festivities had commenced. Every one felt stunned by the
appalling calamity. A man whom we all knew and loved — who had done so much
for us — whose presence was so familiar to us on all public occasions, or when an
impulse to any noble work was required — the husband of our queen — the father of
our princes — in the very prime of life, almost without a word of warning, carried
off by death. No one could believe, that sad Sunday, that such was the case. " It
cannot be true," was the universal hope. With what anxiety were Monday's papers
greedily purchased ! As much as 5s. were, in some cases, offered for the Times ;
and, as we walked in the streets, and saw the shops all partially closed, and heard
the hum of conversation all round, one, alas ! could not but feel that there was no
deception in the matter; and that, indeed, Prince Albert was no more. All
felt for the widowed queen, whose own mother had been seized by the King of
Terrors not long before. People were actually merry when George the Mag
nificent was gathered to his fathers : there was decent sorrow for King
William IV.: but, for Prince Albert the Good, as the Athenaeum called him,
there was lamentation deep and sincere in every English home.
The publication of the unfavourable bulletin on Saturday morning, coupled
with the intelligence that the Prince of Wales had been summoned to tbe castle
from Cambridge during midnight, spread dismay and astonishment throughout
the country. Then, all at once, the fearful affliction which threatened her majesty
was seen, and on every side information as to the state of his royal highness's
health was sought for with the most intense eagerness. The announcement in the
afternoon, that a change, slightly for the better, had taken place in the illustrious
patient's condition, was welcomed as almost a relief from the state of feverish
anxiety under which all had waited for news. Unhappily, this slight improve
ment proved to be but a precursor of the fatal issue. During Saturday morning—
at least in the early part— his royal highness undoubtedly seemed better ; and
notwithstanding that his condition was in the highest degree precarious, the change,
though sudden, was marked, and almost justified the strong hopes which were then
entertained that he would recover. This change was but for a short time, and, in
fact, but one of those expiring efforts of nature, which give delusive hopes to
the mourners round so many death-beds. Soon afterwards his royal highness again
relapsed; and, before the evening, it became evident that it was only a question
of an hour, more or less. The prince sank with alarming rapidity. At four, the
physicians issued a bulletin, stating that their patient was then in " a most critical
404

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [his last hours.

condition ;" which was, indeed, a sad truth, for at that time almost every hope
of recovery had passed away. Her majesty, and the Prince of Wales, the Prin
cesses Alice and Helena, and the Prince and Princess of Leiningen, were with
their illustrious relative during all this mournful and most trying period. The
approach of death from exhaustion was so rapid that all stimulants failed to
check the progressive increase of weakness ; and the fatal termination was so clearly
foreseen, that even before nine o'clock on Saturday evening, a telegram was
forwarded from Windsor to the city, stating that the Prince Consort was then
dying fast. Quietly, and without suffering, he continued slowly to sink — so slowly
that the wrists were pulseless long before the last moment had arrived, when, at a
few minutes before eleven, he ceased to breathe, and all was over. An hour after,
and the solemn tones of the great bell of St. Paul's — a bell of evil omen — told all
citizens how irreparable had been the loss of their beloved queen — how great the
loss to the country.
The Times (from which we take the foregoing details) adds some particulars,
which wiU also be read with deep interest.
" We believe," it says, " that the prince himself had for some days a melan
choly conviction that his end was at hand. The recent death of his relative,
the King of Portugal, from a similar disorder, is understood to have had an
unfortunate influence upon him, and possibly assisted the progress of the malady.
It is said that, as early as Wednesday morning, the prince expressed his
beUef that he should not recover. When the improvement took place on Saturday,
it was agreed by the medical men, that if the patient could be carried over one
more night, his Ufe would, in all probability, be saved. But the sudden failure
of vital power which occurred in the afternoon frustrated these hopes. Congestion
of the lungs, the result of complete exhaustion, set in ; the prince's breathing became
continually shorter and feebler, and he expired without pain at a few minutes
before eleven o'clock. He was sensible, and knew the queen to the last. The Duke
of Cambridge and the following gentlemen connected with the Court were present —
General Bruce, Sir Charles Phipps, General Grey, General Bentinck, Lord Alfred
Paget, Major Du Plat, General Seymour, Colonel Elphinstone, and the Dean of
Windsor. " It must have cheered the last moments of the illustrious patient to see his
wife and nearly all his children around his bed. The princess-royal, being at
Berlin, was prevented by recent severe indisposition from travelling ; and, indeed,
the death of the prince followed too soon on the discovery of his danger for such a
journey to have availed her. Prince Alfred was serving on board his ship on the
other side of the Atlantic ; but the Prince of Wales and the Princess Alice were by
his side, together with several of the younger members of the family. Of the
devotion and strength of mind shown by the Princess Alice all through these
trying scenes it is impossible to speak too highly. Her royal highness has, indeed,
felt that it was her place to be a comfort and support to her mother in this afflic
tion ; and to her dutiful care we may perhaps owe it that the queen has borne her
loss with exemplary resignation, and a composure which, under so sudden and so
terrible a bereavement, could not have been anticipated.
" This fact will, we are sure, give the greatest satisfaction to the country ; and
we may add that, after the death of the prince, the queen, when the first
passionate burst of grief was over, called her children around her, and with a
calmness which gives proof of great natural energy, addressed them in solemn and
affectionate terms, which may be considered as indicating the intentions of a
sovereign who feels that the interests of a great nation depend on her firmness.
Her majesty declared to her family, that, though she felt crushed by the loss of one
who had been her companion through life, she knew how much was expected of
her ; and she accordingly called on her children to give her their assistance, in
order that she might do her duty to them and the country. That her majesty may
have health and strength to fulfil these noble intentions, and that she may live
405

FUNERAL OF PRINCE ALBERT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
many years in placid cheerfulness and peace of mind, alleviating the recollection
of her loss by sharing" the happiness of her children, will be the earnest prayer of
all her subjects."
In a large number of churches and chapels, on the Sunday after the mournful
event, special reference was made to the subject, and special prayer was offered on
behalf of the queen and the royal family. The Lord Chamberlain issued an order
for " all persons" to "put themselves into decent mourning" — a request generally
complied with. In Paris the mournful tidings of the death of the prince caused a
profound sensation. The emperor despatched an aide-de-camp to her majesty,
with an autograph letter expressive of his sorrow, and, we may presume, that of the
empress, at the melancholy event, and offering suitable condolence. The King and
Queen of Prussia, on receipt of the intelligence, paid a visit of condolence to the
croAvn princess. The king also sent his aide-de-camp to Lord Loftus, to express his
sympathy for the royal family of England. The Prussian Court went into mourning
for four weeks.
The funeral of the prince was fixed for Monday, December the 23rd, between
eleven and twelve in the forenoon, in St. George's Chapel, Windsor. The " royal
vault" in which the body of the prince was deposited, had not been opened, except
for the funeral of the queen-dowager, since the death of William IV. Three
gates close the entrance to this final resting-place of departed royalty, the keys of
Avhich are kept by the sovereign, the Lord Chamberlain, and the dean of the chapels
royal. According to custom, the body was interred in four coffins, the inner one
or shell being of polished mahogany cased outside with lead ; then an outer plain,
but very massive coffin of mahogany ; over all comes the state coffin, or case, of
crimson velvet, and with massive silver-gilt ornaments. On the leaden coffin was a
silver plate, engraved with the style and titles of the deceased prince. The outer
mahogany coffin simply bore a plate with his name and the date of his birth and
death. On the state coffin was the customary silver-gilt plate, bearing an inscription
similar to that on the leaden coffin.
The funeral was, in accordance, as it was understood, with the wishes of the
deceased, very plain and quiet. In fact, the recent precedent set at the interment
of the late Duchess of Kent was as closely followed as possible ; and though, from
the very large numbers of attached friends whom the prince had left to mourn his
early loss, the funeral was necessarily on a scale of greater magnitude, it was not,
as regards state, less strictly private. The Prince of Wales was, of course, the
chief mourner. A few days after Prince Albert's decease, according to the custom
observed on the decease of the kings of England, the body ofhis late royal highness
Avas dressed in field-marshal's uniform, and placed in the shell, when, by command
of her majesty, those of the royal household who might desire, were permitted to
take a last farewell of their royal master; and in the evening the body was
soldered down. On the leaden coffin is a massive silver plate, with the following
inscription : — "Depositum
Illustrissimi et Celaissimi Alberti,
Principis Consortis,
Ducis Saxonise,
de Saxe-Coburg et Gotha Principis,
Nobilissimi Ordinis Periscelidis Bquitis,
Augustissimae et Potentissimse Victoria P„egin38
Conjugis percarissiini,
Obiit die decirao quarto Decem bris, MDCCCLSI.
Anno astatis suae XLIII."
The following account of the last hours of Prince Albert appeared in a
country paper— the Northern Whig. The editor, in introducing it, says—
"There has reached us, from abroad, a most interesting extract from a letter
which was written by a member of the queen's household, shortly after the death
of Prince Albert. The extremely confidential position which the writer held at
406

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [grief of the queen.
.  ,  1 
the time, not only gives the assurance of perfect reliability, but invests the following
lines with a very special interest. After describing the griefs and fears of the
whole household for the queen, the writer speaks of the personal loss sustained in
the death of Prince Albert : —
" ' How I shall miss his conversation about the children ! He used often to
come into the school-room to speak about the education of the children, and he
never left me without my feeling that he had strengthened my hands, and raised the
standard I was aiming at. Nothing mean or frivolous could exist in the atmosphere
that surrounded him ; the conversation could not be trifling if he was in the room.
I dread the return of spring for my dear lady. It was his favourite time of the
year — the opening leaves, the early flowers, and fresh green were such a delight to
him ; and he so loved to point out their beauties to his children, that it will be
terrible to see them without him. The children kept his table supplied Avith prim
roses, which he especially loved. The last Sunday he passed on earth was a very
blessed one for the Princess Alice to look back upon. He was very ill and very
weak, and she spent the afternoon alone with him, whilst the others were in church.
He begged to have his sofa drawn to the window, that he might see the sky and
the clouds saiUng past. He then asked her to play to him, and she went through
several of his favourite hymns and chorals. After she had played some time, she
looked round and saw him lying back, his hands folded as if in prayer, and his eyes
shut. He lay so long without moving that she thought he had fallen asleep.
Presently he looked up and smiled. She said — 'Were you asleep, dear papa?'
' Oh no,' he answered ; ' only I have such sweet thoughts.'
" ' During his illness his hands were often folded in prayer ; and, when he did
not speak, his serene face showed that the ' happy thoughts' were with him to the
end. The Princess Alice's fortitude has amazed us all. She saw from the first
that both her father and mother's firmness depended on her firmness, and she set
herself to the duty. He loved to speak openly of his condition, and had many
wishes to express. He loved to hear hymns and prayers. He could not speak to
the queen of himself, for she could not bear to listen, and shut her eyes to the'
danger. His daughter saw that she must act differently, and she never let her voice
falter, or shed a single tear in his presence. She sat by him ; listened to all he
said ; repeated hymns ; and then, when she could bear it no longer, would walk
calmly to the door, and rush away to her room, returning soon with the same calm
and pale face, without any appearance of the agitation she had gone through.
" ' I have had several interviews with the poor queen since. The first time she
said — ' You can feel for me, for you have gone through this trial.' Another time
she said how strange it seemed, when she looked back, to see how much, for the
last six months, the prince's mind had dwelt upon death and the future state ; their
conversation had so often turned upon these subjects, and they had read together a
book called Heaven our Home, which had interested him very much. He once
said to her — ' We don't know in what state we shall meet again ; but that we shall
recognise each other, and be together in eternity, I am perfectly certain.' It seemed
as if it had been intended to prepare her mind, and comfort her ; though, of course,
it did not strike her then. She said she was a wonder to herself, and she was sure
it was in answer to the prayers of her people that she was so sustained. She feared
it would not last, and that times of agony were before her. She said — ' There's
not the bitterness in this trial that I felt when I lost my mother ; I was so rebellious
then ; but now I can see the mercy and love that are mixed in my trial.' Her
whole thought is now to walk worthy of him ; and her greatest comfort to think
that his spirit is always near her, and knows all that she is doing.' "
¦ _ In taking leave of this mournful part of our history, we can only add that
Prince Albert's memorials are numerous in all our chief towns and cities ; and that,
while we write, the papers contain an account of a statue being erected at Wolver
hampton, and of the queen assisting at its unveiling.
In some cases these memorials took a form and shape more in accordance with
407

THE PRINCE OF WALES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1862.

the wants of society and the spirit of tbe age. Utility was not lost sight of. It
was felt desirable, that whilst the memory of a prince, exceptionally good and great,
should be preserved, at the same time the memorial should be associated with
something of permanent benefit, such as better accommodation for the poor,
drinking fountains, &c. In Suffolk, for instance, the people of that county did a
very wise thing. Not only did they erect a monument to "Albert the Good,"
consonant with the character of that beloved prince, but provided an institution
calculated to confer signal advantages on the middle*class population of the county
through all time. Nothing is more needed in the rural districts than efficient
middle-class education at a reasonable price — that is, a price which can be paid by
farmers, whose profits, it is generally acknowledged, do not exceed 10 per cent.
Suffolk has supplied her need. By the strenuous efforts of the county magnates and
others, there now stands at Framlingham the Albert College, wherein the son of
any middle-class man may receive a sound practical education for the sum of ^25
per annum, inclusive of lodging, board, and washing. The building, which is of
noble proportions, constructed to contain 300 boys, cost £20,000, the greater part of
which was raised in the county. It opened the first term with 270 boys. The
founders have proposed to themselves, in establishing this school, " to furnish to the
middle classes in Suffolk the means of obtaining such an education for their sons,
as shall place them, for all practical purposes, in such a position with the upper and
lower classes as will fit them for the society in which it will be their lot to live."
Amongst the subjects of instruction Greek figures as an extra. These subjects
are divided into, first, those taught to all ; second, those taught only by the desire
of parents. Religious instruction, according to the wishes of parents ; instruction
in the elements of an English education, reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic,
grammar and composition, history and geography, is given to all without distinction.
Parents are requested to inform the head master, the Rev. Albert Daymond,
whether they wish their sons to be taught Latin, French, German, mathematics,
drawing, land-surveying, the elements of natural science, agricultural chemistry,
&c. We have received most satisfactory testimony as to the success of this school.
The examiner reports well of the tone of morals and the quality of instruction ;
Mr. Daymond speaks favourably ofthe masters associated with him, and the material
he has to mould. This is an example England could well afford to see repeated
until every county was furnished with similar educational apparatus : and we are
sure that no way of preserving his memory could have been more acceptable to
the prince. On the 1st of July, 1862, another royal wedding took place. The Princess
Alice was married to Prince Frederick William, eldest son of the brother of the
Grand Duke of Hesse. As it was thought the marriage was one of affection, the
nation participated in the event, and wished the young couple joy.
In 1862, the Prince of Wales had the pleasure of a trip to the Holy Land. The
journey had been long in contemplation, and formed part of the admirable plan of
education devised by the late prince, his father. It was deeply cherished to the
last days of his life, and even, it is believed, recommended with his failing breath.
In deference to this wish, the journey of the Prince of Wales was at length under
taken at a time when his presence could ill be spared in the palace, and when the
prospect of the Great Exhibition seemed almost to depend on his taking the place
of the late Prince Consort. On the 6th of February, the prince left Osborne for
London ; and embarked the same evening at Dover, where the royal yacht, Osborne,
was appointed to be in waiting to convey his royal highness and suite to Alex
andria. The prince travelled incognito as Baron Renfrew. His suite consisted of
Major-General Bruce, the Hon. H. Meade, Dr. Minter, physician ; Colonel Keppel,
and Major Teesdale, equerries; and lastly, the Rev. Dr. Stanley, the accomplished
historian of the land about to be visited. His royal highness landed at Alexandria
on the 1st of March. On the 4th, he left Cairo for the purpose of visiting the
Pyramids, and the wonders of Upper Egypt. The prince then returned: to Cairo,
408

o

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [he sits in parliament.

and re-embarked for Jaffa. On receiving tidings of the prince's approach, the
Pasha of Jerusalem went forth to meet him on the Jaffa road ; and, in his company,
the little English party performed the last stage of its journey, preceded and
followed by a numerous and picturesque escort of Turkish horsemen. The welcome
offered to the prince by these accomplished cavaliers was according to the
picturesque custom ofthe East. He visited Damascus, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem;
and, on April the 7th, came the excursion to Hebron, which will, undoubtedly, long
be regarded as the most memorable event of the prince's pilgrimage. Never before
had an unbeliever been permitted by the Turks to visit the tombs of the patriarchs ;
and the Pasha of Jerusalem did all he could to dissuade the prince from the
dangerous attempt. At length, finding all remonstrance useless, he accompanied
the prince. The little place was taken possession of by the military; guards
were stationed in every spot where it was possible some fanatical Moslem might
attempt to avenge the intrusion. Happily no mischief was attempted ; and, after
visiting all the chief cities in Syria, Rhodes, and Patmos, the homeward route was
taken through the well-known scenes of Smyrna, Constantinople, Athens, Malta, &c.
On the 14th of June, his royal highness reached Windsor Castle.
When parliament met, on February 6th, 1863, there was, in the speech from
the throne, the announcement of another royal marriage. It appeared one of the
fairest of princesses had consented to a marriage with the Prince of Wales. The
parUament was opened by commission. His royal highness the Prince of Wales,
Duke of Saxony, Duke of Cornwall and Rothsay, Earl of Carrick, Earl of Dublin,
Baron Renfrew, Lord of the Isles, and Great Steward of Scotland, having been
created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, was, in his parliamentary robes, and
wearing the collar of the Order of the Garter, and of the Star of India, introduced
in the foUowing order : —
Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod. Garter King-of-Arms,
Bearing His Boyal Highness's Patent of
Creation.
The Lord Kingsdown.
The Earl of Derby, K.G.
Lord Chamberlain of the Household. Lord Steward of the Household.
Deputy Earl Marshal. The Lord Great Chamberlain.
Lord Privy Seal. Lord President of the Council.
The Coronet of the Prince,
On a crimson velvet cushion, borne by the Hon. H. Meade,
one of the Gentlemen of His Boyal Highness's Household.
His Royai. Highness the Prince op Waxes,
Carrying his Writ of Summons ; supported by
The Duke of Newcastle, E.G., H.B.H. the Duke of Cambridge, E.G.,
in his robes. in his robes.
Attended by
The Earl of Mount Edgcumbe. The Earl Spencer.
All in their robes.
And proceeded from the bar up the House, with the usual reverences. The writ and
patent were then delivered to the Lord Chancellor on the woolsack. His royal
highness then proceeded, with his supporters, to the table, the rest of the procession
standing near. The letters patent and writ were read by the clerk of the parlia
ment at the table, where his royal highness took and subscribed the oath. After
which the prince was conducted to his chair, on the right hand of the throne;
and his (royal highness being covered as usual, the ceremony was concluded, and
he received the congratulations of the Chancellor.
_ The royal speech was then read. The first paragraph was as follows :— " Her
majesty commands us to inform you, that since you were last assembled, she has
declared Jier consent to a marriage between his royal highness the Prince of
Wales, and her royal highness the Princess Alexandra, daughter of Prince
vol. ii. 2 E ' 409

ROYAL MARRIAGE ANNOUNCED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.

Christian of Denmark; and her majesty has concluded thereupon a treaty Avith the
King of Denmark, which will be laid before you."
This paragraph of the queen's speech gave universal satisfaction. In the
House of Commons, in proposing resolutions for providing an establishment for
the Prince and Princess of Wales, Lord Palmerston said — "In doing so, I
would remind the House of the happiness in which we live under a constitutional
monarchy. The people of this country not only are now, more than at any former
period, sensible' of the blessings which' that form of government confers, but they
have also an opportunity of appreciating its value by contrasting it with events
which are passing in other parts of the world. We see, in the East, some of the
evils which are incident to arbitrary sway. We witness, in the West, the wide
spread misery and desolation which are sometimes created by democratic and
republican institutions. We enjoy a happy medium between the extremes of these
two forms of government. Our institutions not only confer happiness and tran
quillity upon the people of these realms, but enable them to enjoy the most perfect
freedom of thought, of speech, of writing, and of action, undirected and uncon
trolled by the edicts of despotic authority, or by the Lynch law of an ungovernable
mob. Well, sir, I trust that the people of this nation will long continue to enjoy
these advantages, and that their hearts will be turned to the Almighty Dispenser
of events with thankfulness — with reverential thankfulness- — for the lot which has
been thus assigned them ; and I am persuaded that their bosoms will be full of the
most affectionate attachment towards that sovereign and family under whose mild
and beneficent sway, humanly speaking, those blessings have been conferred. Sir,
there are occasions, in the course of human affairs, in which events that are
matters of joy and rejoicing, produce pleasure that begins and ends with the occa
sion on which it arises ; but there are other occasions where joyful events link and
connect the present with the future, when the happiness which mankind enjoys at
the moment, is an earnest and security for happiness for the future. Such an
occasion is the present, when the heir-apparent to the crown is going to contract
a marriage which will, I trust, not only be productive of domestic happiness to the
family in the midst of which it is to be celebrated, but holds out to this country a
prospect of a long line of succeeding sovereigns, who, by virtue of transmitted
qualities, and of the recollection of those who went before them, will imitate the
virtues of the stock from whence they spring, and will contribute, as much as the
present family do, to the happiness, the welfare, and the dignity ofthe country over
which they rule."
In referring to the sum to be asked from parliament for the prince and
princess, Lord Palmerston continued —
"The Prince of Wales, in 1745, and the Prince of Wales at an earlier period,
in 1715, had each of them a net income of £100,000 a year — in one case in addition
to the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall. It is not quite clear, from the words
made use of, whether, in both cases, that income was in addition to the £100,000.
I rather infer that it was. Now, everybody is aware what a great change has taken
place in the value of money since either of those remote periods, and how little a
sum of the same nominal amount represents, in the present day, the command of
things which it did either in 1745 or 1715. Coming down to a later period, when,
in 1795, Mr. Pitt proposed, and the House assented to an establishment for the
then Prince and Princess of Wales, the arrangement was not a simple one,
because it was complicated by the payment of the large debts due at that time by
her royal highness the then Princess of Wales. But the total amount of allow
ance that was granted, including that portion which was set aside for the liquida
tion of the prince's debts, was £138,000, charged partly upon the civil list, and
partly upon the consolidated fund ; and although, for a certain number of years,
the appropriation of a large portion of the amount to the payment of debts,
reduced the available income of the then Prince of Wales to something, I believe,
between £60,000 and £70,000, yet I apprehend that, about the year 1806, the debts
410

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMERSTON. [the -princess arrives.

having been discharged, the Prince of Wales entered into the receipt of £138,000.
Now, it is not the intention of her majesty's government, nor is it the desire of
her majesty, that the present appropriation by parliament should be founded upon
what was then proposed for the Prince of Wales. His royal highness is in the
receipt of the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall; and, to the honour of her
majesty, and of the Prince Consort, be it said, that whereas, in former reigns it
was understood, and the practice was, that during the minority of the Prince of
Wales the revenues of the duchy of Cornwall were added to the available revenues
of the crown, in the present reign those revenues have been carefully and studiously
set apart, to accumulate for the benefit of the Prince of Wales, till he became of
age. The funds thus accumulated are very considerable. Part of them have been
invested in the purchase of a landed estate in the county of Norfolk, which cost, I
believe, about £220,000, the nominal rental being £7,000 a year ; but it may be,
there will be deductions, as honourable gentlemen will well understand, and there
may not be more than £5,000 available income. Part of these accumulations
must be set aside for the outfit of the Prince of Wales ; and part also will be
required for the purpose of building, upon the Norfolk estate, a mansion more
suitable than the present one to the dignity and station of its new occupants.
Making these deductions, the details of which I -will not trouble the House to go
into, the probable income of the Norfolk estate, together with the income arising
from the investment I have mentioned, and from the remaining accumulations,
may be taken, in round numbers, at about £60,000 a year. Well, we think that a
sum of £100,000 a year would not be disproportionate to those expenses which
must fall upon a person in the exalted position of his royal highness the Prince
of Wales ; and I shall, therefore, have to propose to the House to grant £40,000
a year, out of the consolidated fund, for the establishment of the Prince of Wales.
Such of those whom I am now addressing, and who, fortunately for them, are not
in the single, and bachelor state, weU know that there are expenses which the
Princess of Wales must incur, and which require that she should have a separate
and sufficient income ; and, by the treaty of marriage recently concluded between
her majesty and the King of Denmark, the allowance undertaken to be secured to
her royal highness, was £10,000 a year for her own separate use. The grant,
therefore, which to-night I shall have to ask of the committee, will be one of
£50,000 a year— namely, £40,000 for the aggregate estabUshment, and £10,000 for
the separate use of the princess."
Provision was also made for the princess in case her husband should die.
Lord Palmerston said — "In the case of the Princess of Wales, the wife of
George IV., the jointure was fixed at £50,000. We do not propose, in the present
instance, that it should be so high an amount. We think that £30,000 a year will
be a sufficient amount ; and, therefore, although the allowance to the late Princess
of Wales, during the joint Uves of herself and husband, was less than the amount
stipulated for the present princess ; yet, putting one thing against the other, though
the present aUowance is greater— and I think not greater than it ought to be — the
jointure will nevertheless be reduced to the amount I have named."
On March the 6th, the Princess Alexandra of Denmark arrived at the Nore ;
and, on the 7th, landed at Greenwich, where she was received with every
demonstration of delight. The Prince of Wales met her there ; and the corporation
and inhabitants presented an address to each. They came to the Bricklayers' Arms
station by rail, and thence proceeded in an open carriage, with a large suite of
attendants, through a continued crowd of welcoming spectators. At London
Bridge, where a triumphal arch had been erected, they were met by the city
corporation in state, who preceded the procession, which had literally to force its
way through the immense crowd which flocked to meet them. Almost every
house was adorned with banners or devices. At length the procession reached
Temple Bar. Here, disencumbered ofthe civic pomp, a quicker progress was made ;
and through applauding multitudes the royal carriages passed along the Strand,
2e2 411

the marriage.] , LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
and by Hyde Park, which was lined with volunteers, and, arriving at the Great
Western station (which, like that of the Bricklayers' Arms, was richly decorated)
proceeded thence by rail to Windsor. The only drawback to the general joy was
that, through mismanagement, the crowd in the city had been so dense that several
persons lost their lives. However, all were charmed with the beauty of the young
princess, and gave her a reception such as must have compensated for the abandon
ment of her northern home.
On the 10th the marriage of the prince and princess took place at Windsor
which they left in the afternoon for Osborne, receiving at Southampton addresses
from the inhabitants and corporation of that ancient and loyal borough. The
wedding was celebrated with the requisite pomp ; and the widowed queen, from a
private nook, surveyed the whole. The enthusiasm in favour of the young
and beautiful " Daughter of the Isles" was intense. The event was celebrated by
illuminations and festivities in every town, and almost every village, in the United
Kingdom. Unfortunately, in the city of London lives were again lost, through
the pressure of the crowds. These accidents led, in parliament, to several discus
sions on the city police, and were quoted as an argument in favour of placing them
under the care of the Home Office. The fact was, that just at that time there was
an interregnum — the city police force had but recently lost its efficient and expe
rienced head.
Never did our poet-laureate indite a warmer welcome than on the occasion
of the marriage of the Prince of Wales with the Princess of Denmark.
" Sea-king's daughter from over the sea? Alexandra !
Saxon and Norman, and Dane are we ;
But all of us Danes in our welcome of thee,
Alexandra !
Welcome her, thunders of fort and of fleet ;
Welcome her, thundering cheer of the street ;
Scatter the blossom under her feet !
Break, happy land, into earlier flowers !
Make (music, O bird, in the new-budded bowers !
Welcome her, welcome her, all that is ours !
Warble, O bugle, and trumpet blare !
Flags, flutter out upon turrets and towers !
Plames, on the windy head-land flare '
Utter your jubilee, steeple and spire !
Clash, ye bells, in the merry March air
Flash, ye cities, in rivers of fire !
Welcome her, welcome the land's desire, Alexandra !
" Sea-king's daughter, as happy as fair,
Blissful bride of a blissful heir ;
Bride of the heir of the kings of the sea ;
O joy to the people, and joy to the throne !
Come to us, love us, and make us your own :
.Cor Saxon, or Dane, or Norman, we,
Teuton, or Celt, or whatever we be,
We are each all Dane in our welcome of thee
Alexandra !"
Wale? wibet?pa™iVerAf 7 °{Athe ™iaSe of ^s royal highness the Prince of
h^:XtoVe^t^ez^ of Demnark> their infant L - admitted> b?
seated th°erem2stv' tS ^ ^^ (,L°/d Palme^on was one of them) being
of the Kobe, tw A nren^atT^ded bj ^e Duchess of Welington, Mistress
Henrv Renting K nnl, Jt ~f ?7, De Tabley> and Lieutenant-General Sir
STJreSSd foAf ' the L°rd and Gl°™ in Waiting-took her place in the
hTlnShelfent ^ °ne °\th& Sp°nsors- The oth^ sP°*sors for his royal
highness the infant prince, were then conducted to their places in the chapel.

< i

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the queen's sympathies.

Their royal highnesses the Prince and Princess of Wales, and the other
members of the royal family not being sponsors, met in the visitors' drawing-
room; and were thence conducted by the Lord Chamberlain to the bow room,
where her majesty's household, and others taking part in the royal procession, had
previously assembled.
The royal personages having been conducted to their seats, and the great
officers and other attendants having their appointed places on either side of the
chapel, the service commenced with the performance of sacred music.
The Archbishop of Canterbury having asked, in accordance with the terms of
the Eubric, " Hath this child been already baptized or no ?" and received an
answer that it had not, proceeded with the service, until he came to the prayer —
" Almighty, ever-living God," &c. The Countess of Macclesfield then gave the
infant prince to the queen, who handed his royal highness to the primate. His
grace, having taken the child in his arms, said to the godfathers and godmothers —
"Name this child."
Her majesty the queen then said, in a clear voice —
" ALBERT VICTOR."
The archbishop then poured water on the child's face, and made the sign of
the cross upon his forehead, saying — " Albert Victor, I baptize thee in the name of
the Father, and the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
His grace then handed back the newly-baptized infant to the queen ; and
then said—" We receive this child into the congregation of Christ's flock, and
do sign him with the sign of the cross, in token that, hereafter, he shall not
be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified, and manfully to fight under His
banner against sin, the world, and the devil ; and to continue Christ's faithful
soldier and servant unto his life's end." The other portions of the service
having been read, the archbishop, turning to the sponsors, said — " Ye are to
take care that this child be brought to the bishop, to be confirmed by him as
soon as he can say the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments
in the vulgar tongue; and be further instructed in the church catechism set
forth for that purpose."
The ceremonial concluded with the performance of sacred music.
In June, the prince appeared in public, at the inauguration of the Great
Exhibition memorial to Prince Albert, in the Horticultural Gardens. The queen
had privately inspected the work on a previous day. Originally intended as a
memorial of the Great Exhibition of 1851, it was converted into one of the
prince by having his statue placed on the summit, and by the inscription on its
sides. It is a commonplace mixture of allegory and reality. In July, the Prince of
Wales laid the foundation-stone of the Warehousemen and Clerks' Orphan Asylum,
at Caterham ; and ever since, it must be said of his royal highness, that he has
always been ready to assist, by the attraction of his presence, when possible, every
good work. Nor has the princess been behind in such matters ; and her presence
has been a greater attraction than that of her lord.
Let us add, that while the widowed queen indulged her grief in retirement,
and 'rarely appeared in public ceremonials, in all the events of the time which
aroused popular sympathy, she was ready to take a practical interest. There was
a terrible calamity, known as the Hartley colliery explosion— one of the saddest
casualties ever recorded in the north of England. In the midst of her grief, the
queen was not slow to feel for the grief of the many women made widows by that
mournful event. On another occasion, when a poor woman lost her life at Aston
Park, Birmingham, on the occasion of a popular fite there, in one of those sensa
tional performances which had become the fashion of the day, her majesty com
manded the following letter to. be sent to the mayor of Birmingham. It was
dated, " Osborne, July 25th, 1863." 413

the queen's conduct.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

« Sjrj  The queen has commanded me to express to you the pain with which
her majesty has read the account of a fatal accident which has occurred during a
fite at Aston Park, Birmingham. Her majesty cannot refrain from making known,
through you, her personal feelings of horror that one of her subjects — a female-
should have been sacrificed to the gratification of the demoralising taste, unfor
tunately prevalent, for exhibitions attended with the greatest danger to the per
formers. Were any proof wanting that such exhibitions are demoralising, I am
commanded to remark that it would be at once found in the decision arrived at to
continue the festivities, the hilarity, and the sports of the occasion after an event
so melancholy. The queen trusts that you, in common with the rest of the towns
people of Birmingham, will use your influence to prevent in future the degradation
to such exhibitions of the park which was gladly opened by her majesty and the
beloved Prince Consort, in the hope that it would be made serviceable for the
healthy exercise and rational recreation of the people."
On another occasion, when the public had been alarmed and horrified by the
increasing number of railway accidents, there came from Osborne, again, a cry on
behalf of her people, from the widowed queen. In 1864, at a meeting, at Man
chester, of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Eailway, the chairman
(Mr. Watkin, M.P.) said that her .majesty the queen had written to some of the
railways centred in London, as follows : — " Sir Charles Phipps has received the
commands of her majesty the queen to call the attention of the directors of the
 to the increasing number of accidents which have lately occurred upon dif
ferent lines of railroad, and to express her majesty's warmest hope that the
directors of the  will carefully consider every means of guarding against these
misfortunes, which are not at all necessary accompaniments of railway travelling.
It is not for her own safety that the queen has wished to provide in thus calling
the attention of the company to the late disasters. Her majesty is aware that
when she travels extraordinary precautions are taken ; but it is on account of her
family, of those travelling upon her service, and of her people generally, that she
expresses the hope that the same security may be ensured for all as is so carefully
provided for herself. The queen hopes it is unnecessary for her to recall to the
recollection of the railway directors the heavy responsibility which they have
assumed since they have succeeded in securing the monopoly of the means of
travelling of almost the entire population of the country." And thus the queen,
though in retirement, and deprived of the husband of her brighter and happier
hours, was still as much as ever alive to the public weal. In other respects her
conduct has been equally worthy of praise. The principle of hereditary succession
has been put to a severe test in England ; for we have had few kings fit for their
station, or who have failed to furnish arguments against the system which, at first
sight, seems so monstrous and absurd. As a writer in a daily paper has well
remarked — " It has pleased God, at the present time, to bless the nation with a
ruler who, for nearly thirty years, has fulfilled her high office with a constant
sense of solemn responsibilities. For nearly thirty years Victoria has stood in the
full gaze of her people ; and nobody has been able to allege one single instance of
the misuse of her power. Who among us would have stood an equally severe
test ? Is there any other public person in the realm to whom a similar tribute of
praise could be given without sycophancy? We may, for reasons which we have
recently stated with unqualified frankness, desire to learn that time has been per
mitted to fulfil its office in assuaging grief, and to see the royal countenance once
more lending its general encouragement to our social life ; but a great debt of
national obligation must be cancelled before we join in accusing Queen Victoria of
neglecting duty." We all feel, in the language of Mr. Bright, on a memorable
occasion, " that the woman, be she queen of a great realm, or be she the wife of
one of your labouring men, who can keep alive in her heart a great sorrow for the
lost object of her love and affection, is not likely — is not the most likely— is not
at all likely — to be wanting in a kind and generous sympathy for you."

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [father ignatius.

CHAPTEE XX.
CHIEFLY ECCLESIASTICAL.
One morning, in May, 1851, Lord Palmerston received a singular visitor. The
•stranger wore sandals; on his breast was the badge of a monkish order; and his
garb altogether was curious and suggestive. The visitor was the Hon. Mr.
Spencer, better known as Father Ignatius. He thus describes his visit :—
" It will not be foreign to my purpose to relate how my acquaintance with his
lordship had been formed. May I venture to call it a friendship ? It was at the
close of a long run with Lord Derby's staghounds— I mean the grandfather of the
present Earl— I think, in 1821; we finished, I think, twenty-four miles from
London ; and I was making up my mind for a long, tedious ride home, on my
tired horse (for I was not up to having second horses and grooms in my suite on
these occasions), when Lord Palmerston, who was likewise in at, not the death, but
the taking (I forget the proper sporting term), of the stag, understanding my
case, and knowing me by sight— though, I think, till then we had never spoken —
gave my horse in charge to his groom, and took me home with himself in a
post-chaise. For the short remaining time of my being known as a young man
about town,- as we met at one party or another, Lord Palmerston continued to
accost me with a kind word, to which I had good reason, it will be allowed, to
respond in the best manner I knew how. At the close of the London season of
1822, 1 made my bow and withdrew from that stage, to prepare for taking orders ;
and, except an interview of a few moments in 1834, we had never met till I
appeared before the now far-famed, and, by many, dreaded Foreign Secretary, with
my parsonish habit and sandalled feet, for a private audience. * * * * On
entering his private room, I found him engaged in looking over what Seemed
official papers, which he had upon his knee while he spoke, though without the
least sign of impatience or wish to get rid of me ; but I saw that what became me
at once was to enter on business, without waste of time or words. * * * * I
think I began without any kind of apology, for his lordship's look gave me no
feeling that any was needed or expected. I said — ' That in coming to speak to his
lordship on this subject, I had not so much to ascertain more and more that there
was no danger of what I proposed causing offence to our government, as I thought
what I had heard from others was sufficient proof of this ; but I wished to put as
many of our public men as I could meet with in possession of all our intentions
and proceedings, in order that, if at last I succeeded in moving the Catholics to be
interested about them, and these matters came before the public, they might know
from myself in person what I really intended; and might be enabled, if they
thought fit, to do me justice.' This was the substance of what I said to him.
Having thus concluded, I awaited his answer, which was about as follows : — ' As
you wish to know what I think of your doings, I must say I do not by any means
agree with you in considering it a desirable result that this country should again
be brought under subjection to Eome. I do not profess to take my view from the
elevated and sublime ground on which you place yourself. I mean, I speak not
with reference to religious interests, but to political; and, as a politician, when
we consider the way in which the pope's government is opposed to the progress of
liberty and liberal institutions, I. cannot say that I wish to see England again
under such influence.' Thus far I do not mean to say that what I heard was
anything agreeable to me. Neither the matter nor the tone were agreeable to me
There was something sarcastic in his tone. * * * * 'But, as to what you
are doing, as it must tend to conciliate Catholic powers towards England, what
have I to say but that it is excellent ?'— or some such word, expressing full and
415

STATE OF THE CHURCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.
cordial approbation. After this he went on with some remarks on the establish
ment of the hierarchy, which, of course, were in accordance with what he had, I
think, been saying a few days previously in parliament, complaining of it as
offensive and injurious; but on this part of the conversation I need not dwell, as
it had no bearing on the subject which I had proposed to him. With regard to
that, my impression was that he had listened with attention to what I had said ;
had at once perfectly understood me ; had answered me so as to make me perfectly
understand him on the subject, simply and openly ; and that what he had said was
entirely satisfactory to me. I could wish for nothing more, except, of course,
what St. Paul wished for in the presence of Festus and Agrippa. I then rose ; so
did he ; then shook hands with me, and most cordially thanked me for having
renewed our old acquaintance."
Lord Palmerston easily got rid of his ecclesiastical visitor, with whom he had
little trouble. His was not a nature to vex itself much with the doubts and
embarrassments of tender consciences ; but, as Prime Minister, he had much to do
with church matters ; and he was singularly fortunate in having what, in worldly
language, might be considered an unusual quantity of good things to give away.
As his patronage was chiefly extended to what is called the Evangelical or
low church party, its organ was in a state of intense delight ; and on one occasion
so far forgot itself as to hint something about his lordship being the man of God —
an insinuation which, in profane circles, when it was remembered that Lord
Palmerston was the Cupid of the Georgian era, gave considerable amusement.
At this time the state of the church of England was peculiarly unsatisfactory.
The nation had outgrown the establishment; and the spectacle of its ministers
quarelling among themselves, and yet all signing the same articles, for the sake of
paltry emoluments and position in society, was not pleasant to men of thoughtful
minds. The intellectual and high-spirited of the young preferred anything rather
than enter the church ; and the bishops were compelled to confess that, year by
year, they had a lower class of candidates to examine and ordain. It was not easy
to see how it could be otherwise ; and it was clear that Lord Palmerston was far too
wise and wary to intrude into the field of controversy. He left churchmen to fight
their own battles, confining himself chiefly to sympathy with popular rather than
high-church notions; and believing — or we have been strangely misinformed —
that, as regards a sermon, the chief element of beauty in it was its brevity. The
church of England was divided then, as now, chiefly into three great parties-
high church, low church, and broad church. Dr. Dollinger, a competent and an
impartial, because a Eoman Catholic witness, thus describes them.
After referring to the rise of the low church, or Evangelical party, he says .
— " Its favourite doctrine, and most effective instrument, is the dogma of 'justifi
cation by imputation,' which is so popular in England and America; and, when
proclaimed with fluent oratory, fills both churches and chapels. This party is most
deficient in university culture ; and there is no question of theological science
among its adherents ; their literature consists, almost exclusively, of sermons and
writings ' for edification ;' they also occupy themselves and their hearers much
with apocalyptic and millennarian theories and prophecies ; with the approaching
fall of ' the man of sin,' and ' the beast ;' or with the discovery of the ten lost
tribes, and so forth. A narrow understanding, a defective education, and an
unacquamtance with the world, are, according to Arnold's definition, the signs of
an Evangelical ; internally, the Evangelicals stand in nearer relationship to the
dissenters— Methodists, Congregationalists, and Baptists— than to the high church,
whom they cordially hate.
" The true Anglican, or high churchmen, take a middle position between the
Evangelicals and the Tractarians. They reject, as a rule, the Protestant doctrine
pf justification, and the Calvinistic degradation of baptism to a ceremony. They
value the professed apostolic succession of the Anglican episcopacy; they maintain
the existence of a church endowed with doctrinal authority: but they defend.

a.d. 18C0.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [puseyism.

themselves against every logical conclusion that must be drawn from such pre
mises. * * * * They are really the best sons, and truest representatives of
this church, and are most content with its existing state ; and since, also, they are
by no means exacting in their claims on the Christian lives of their congregations,
they are much in favour with those classes who give the tone to society. * * *
As these Anglicans formerly found the continual profanation of the Lord's Supper,
in consequence of the Test Act, to be quite a matter of course, so they now feel
no repugnance at the burial service ; and the clergy of the established church,
Evangelicals and high churchmen, are certainly the only clergy in the world who
give every deceased person to the grave, let him be even a Catholic or a dissenter,
in the sure and certain hope of a blessed resurrection: There can hardly be a
more distinct declaration, that after all, belonging to the church, taking part in her
services, and using her means of salvation, can be 'a matter of no consequence."
Out of this party have grown the Tractarians, or Puseyites, or, as we should
now call them, the Eitualists, which, if Dr. Newman be an authority, commenced
their operations in Oxford in 1833, when Mr. Keble preached his sermon on
national apostasy. In his Apologia Pro sua Vita, Dr. Newman sketches the rise
and progress of his religious life. We refer to it here as forming part of the reli
gious history of the time.
This work was another illustration of the old truth — What dire offence from
little causes spring ! A few words spoken by Professor Kingsley led to a correspon
dence which resulted in the composition of this masterly and interesting volume.
Professor Kingsley charged Dr. Newman with being either a liar or a fool. The
insinuation was uttered in the course of lecturing or speaking, and in the careless
way in which men of one persuasion generally speak of men of another persuasion.
Dr. Newman seized the opportunity to set himself right with people who have utterly
misunderstood him. In order to do this, he writes a history of his religious life,
and of the causes which led him to abandon the church of England for that of
Eome. This leads him to annihilate the Eev. Charles Kingsley, and, in language
of exquisite beauty, to vindicate the honour and integrity of his own career. This
book is a history of the rise and fall of Tractarianism. It shows where it was
found, and to what it leads. We are much mistaken if it will not occupy a place,
as a text-book, in certain circles. "I was," says Dr. Newman, "brought up,-
from a child, to take great delight in reading the Bible; but I had no formed
religious convictions till I was fifteen. Of course, I had perfect knowledge of my
catechism." Even then Dr. Newman was very superstitious, and used to cross
himself on going into the dark. At fifteen he became converted. Eomaine,
Thomas Scott, and Dr. Wilson (afterwards Bishop of Calcutta), much influenced
him at that period of his life. Law's Serious Call also much impressed him.
From Joseph Milner he learned to love the Fathers ; and from Bishop Newton he
learned that the pope was the antichrist predicted by Daniel, St. Paul, and St.
John. Perhaps, with the exception of the preference for a life of celibacy, and of
an undue leaning to the church catechism, there was not much here to induce the
most far-sighted Eoman Catholic to imagine that young Newman would, in time,
become one of the most zealous champions and noblest trophies of his church.
Still less could this have been anticipated when he went to Oxford in 1822, and
became attached to Mr. Whately, the late Archbishop of Dublin.
It seems to us that we have now reached the point when Dr. Newman's
career as a Protestant was at its height. Henceforth, the steps taken— though
taught by Protestant divines— all helped him on his way to Eome. Dr. Sumner,
v^a ^k^ishop °f Canterbury, taught him to give up Calvinism, and to receive
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration; and of Dr. Hawkins, the present provost of
Oriel, he learned the doctrine of " tradition"— viz., that Scripture was never
intended to teach doctrine ; and that, if we would learn it, we must have recourse to
the formularies of the church: for instance, to the catechism and the creeds
About this time, also, Mr. Newman embraced the doctrine of apostolical succes-
417

DR. NEWMAN'S HISTORY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.
sion; and learned, from Bishop Butler's Analogy, not merely the truth of a
visible church, and the historical character of revelation, but the doctrine of pro
bability and the sacramental system — the doctrine that material phenomena are
both the types and the instruments of real things unseen. Dr. Whately taught
Mr. Newman the existence of the church as a substantive body or corporation, and
fixed in him "those anti-Erastian views of the church polity, which were
one of the most prominent features of the Tractarian movement." This
movement was now to be originated. In 1827, Keble published his Christian
Year. In 1826, Newman met with Howell Froude. He professed openly his
admiration of the church of Eome, and his hatred of the Eeformers. " He fixed
deep in me," writes Dr. Newman, " the idea of devotion to the Blessed Virgin ; and
he gradually led me to believe in the Eeal Presence." About this time, Bishop
Bull made it clear to our author, that antiquity was the true exponent of
Christianity, and the basis of the church of England. In writing his history of
The Arians of the Fourth Century, Dr. Newman got his doctrine of angels, whom
he considers as carrying out the economy of the visible world. At this time great
events were happening. The Eeform Bill had been carried ; and Liberal principles'
were gaining the upper hand. The church was in danger ; and Dr. Newman felt
that Beformation principles were powerless to rescue her. Dr. Newman, of course,
hates Liberalism with a perfect hatred. " " It was the success of the Liberal cause
which fretted me inwardly. I became fierce against its instruments and its mani
festations. A French vessel was at Algiers : I would not even look at the tricolour.
On my return, though forced to stop a day at Paris, I kept in-doors the whole
time ; and all that I saw of that beautiful city was what I saw from the top of a
diligence. The Bishop of London had already sounded me as to my filling one of
the Whitehall preacherships, which he had just then put on a new footing; but
I was indignant at the line he was taking, and from my steamer I had sent home
a letter declining the appointment." The times were out of joint. Something
had to be done. Dr. Newman began to think he had a mission. Immediately on
his return, "Mr. Keble preached the assize sermon in the university pulpit. It
was published under the title of the National Apostasy. I have ever considered
and kept the day as the start of the religious movement of 1833." Mr.
Newman found that a movement had commenced in opposition to the specific
danger which, at that time, was threatening the religion of the nation and its
church. Several zealous and able men had united their counsels, and were in
correspondence with each other. The principal of these were Mr. Keble,
Howell Froude, Mr. William Palmer, of Dublin and Worcester College ; Mr.
Arthur Percival, and Mr. Hugh Eose. The latter had, in 1832, commenced
The British Magazine, in order to unite churchmen together, and to make a
front against the coming danger. The time had come to publish the tracts.
When Dr. Pusey j oined him, great was Mr. Newman's j oy. " Without him we should
have had no chance, especially at the early date of 1834, of making any serious
resistance to the Liberal aggression. But Dr. Pusey was a professor and canon of
Christchurch; he had a vast influence in consequence of his deep religious
seriousness, the munificence of his charities, his professorship, his family con
nections, and his easy relations with university authorities." Thus- things went
' on till the appearance of Tract 90, and the founding of the bishopric of Jerusalem.
The unanimous condemnation of the tract by the bishops, which followed, taught
Mr. Newman that his views were not those of the church of England. And when
the Jerusalem bishopric was founded, the church of England seemed to him
to become a defender of heresy, and to forget its- Catholic character. Thence
forward there was no rest till he got to Eome. Logically, we believe, he was right,
though reluctantly he took the step. That he did so, we are of opinion is much
to his credit. There is no vid media. If the Bible is to be abandoned — if we are
to take, instead, the traditions of the Fathers and the teachings of antiquity, Protes
tantism is, of course, a mistake, and Eome is once more the mistress of the world.
418

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [francis newman.
Of the broad church party, Dr. Dollinger says— "They have nothing
positive. Their entity is in negative; they can only be described by saying they
are not Anglicans ; they are not Evangelicals ; and so on. They are all under the
influence of German literature and theology ; they are opponents of a fixed form
of doctrine, and they endeavour to make the contradictions of the Anglican church
more tolerable, by assigning to dogma in general only a relative and temporary
value, and declare a sort of general Christianity levelled and smoothed on ration-
aUstic principles, to be all that is essential ; though they are well content with
the established church, as being a decorous institution, the best emblement of the
national will in matters ecclesiastical, and well adapted to the real state of things."
The chief men of this party were Professor Jowett, the authors of Essays and
Reviews, Dean Stanley, Professor Kingsley, and last, and not least, Bishop Colenso.
The late Mr. Eobertson, of Brighton, was nearly, but not quite, allied to this sect.
Dr. DolUnger might well be surprised at the position of the church of
England, where, according to the Times, " There is nothing to prevent any one
from going out into the market, and buying a living for any silly, fanatical,
extravagant, or incapable noodle of a son ; and installing him, forthwith, as the
spiritual mediator between the Almighty and one or two thousand of his creatures."
He sees its bishops powerless concerning doctrine and discipline. He adverts
to the nepotism of the church, and continues — "Thus, according to the confession
of serious and conscientious men in the English church, it is an entirely worldly
institution. The ecclesiastical offices have been, for 150 years, disposed of by
the civil power, chiefly according to political views, and regarded and treated
according to their lucrative value ; the bishoprics, and other rich preferments,
have been employed to procure for the ministry the support of influential
families. At present they are chiefly bestowed on men of the Evangelical party,
as these are most agreeable to powerful dissenters, and to great numbers of
similarly disposed Anglicans of the middle class. The designation of a church
benefice, as a living, is very characteristic. It is regarded entirely as a piece
of private property ; as a mere ware that can be bought, and sold, and bargained
for as one pleases. The most open simony is an every-day occurrence in England,
and meets with no remonstrance on the part of the bishops. It creates no
surprise when the next presentation of a living is publicly offered for sale ; and
it is quite usual for a father to buy for one of his sons a commission in the army,
and for the other the next presentation to a church living. And yet, every
clergyman, upon entering on his Uving, has to take an oath that he has not
obtained it through simony."
No wonder that, in Palmerston's time, men left the church. The Hon. Mr.
Spencer, to whom we have already referred, was one. Another was the Hon.
and Eev. Baptist Noel, who became a Baptist clergyman: another was Blanco
White, who became very negative ; and who was followed by Stirling, and Francis
Newman, the brother of Dr. Newman, who went over to Eome. He also has
published, in his Phases of Faith, his religious experiences. Very early his
training led him to come in contact with the church system, and to feel its
hollowness. In the ceremony of his confirmation, at the age of sixteen, he says —
" Everything in the service was solemn to me except the bishop ; he seemed to me
a made-up man." He began thus early to feel the difficulties all ought to feel in
the conjunction of Calvinistic articles and a popish ritual. A year later, on
entering the university, and subscribing to the articles, he perceived that not
one-sixth of those who were compelled to subscribe " had any religious convictions
at all ;" and " that the whole system of compulsory subscription was hollow, false,
and wholly evil." All his articles of faith at Oxford were torn away. The more
his brother expatiated on the power of the bishops, the more Francis WiUiam
distrusted and disliked them. He had come to perceive that "the episcopal order
might be described as a body of supine persons, known to the public only as a
dead weight against all change that was distasteful to tb° civil power." That
419

DR. WHATELY'S DEATH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF {±.v. 1863.

they had never "taken the lead in denouncing" the prevalent iniquities of the
people; that they had never aided the great social reformers; that their patronage
had exercised a strongly narcotic influence over the two old societies of the church;
and that their nomination by the crown was an utter anomaly and wrong.
Even if this had not stood in the way of his entering the church, the ordination
service would ; for " he could not, for an instant, believe that the bishop could
transmit to him the power to forgive and retain sins." No wonder that Francis,
like his brother John, was compelled to find that, in the church of England, there
was no room for such as he : that he found, as all true men must find, that
conformity, however great may be its rewards, is dear at the price of mental
freedom and self-respect.
Far away, in the grammar-school at Eugby, Dr. Arnold was trying to settle
church difficulties— trying to put new wine into old bottles — till he died. His
theory was more political than religious : that the church of England and the
nation are synonymous. Of course, he failed ; but he did the state good service,
nevertheless. He raised up for church and parliament, for the law and public Ufe,
some of the noblest of our modern men.
In the Irish church, also, at this time, there was a remarkable man, whose
influence was great; and of which, we can truly say, that it is deeply to be
regretted it was not greater. Archbishop Whately — for it is of him we write —
was feared by all. The Whigs trembled lest in the House of Lords, as Lord
Holland said, he might at any time get up and declare that there was no use in
the order of bishops ; and the high-church party were aroused and irritated by his
powerful logic, and irresistible common sense.
Archbishop Whately died in October, 1863, at his country residence, Eoebuck
House, near Dublin. His grace had long been suffering from an illness which, at
his advanced age (he was born in 1787), could have but one result; and the
bulletins, which had been published from day to day, prepared the public mind for
the melancholy event. The late archbishop was the son of the Eev. Dr. Whately,
of Nonsuch Park, Surrey. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, of which, in
1819, he was elected a Fellow. The college of Oriel is famous for having sent out
some of the greatest thinkers of which English churchmen of the present genera
tion may boast ; such as Dr. Arnold, Dr. Copleston, Dr. J. H. Newman, and the late
archbishop. Whately was appointed to read the Bampton lectures in 1822, in
which year he accepted the rectory of Halesworth, in Suffolk, value £450 per
annum. In the contest which took place in the university, when Sir Eobert Peel
appealed to his learned constituents upon the Catholic question, Whately voted for
the right honourable baronet. In 1830 he was appointed President of St. Alban's
Hall, and Professor of Political Economy; and, in 1831, he was consecrated
Archbishop of Dublin and Bishop of Glendalagh. The diocese of Kildare was
subsequently added to his charge. From the life recently published by his
daughter, it appears this appointment was made by Earl Grey solely on public
grounds. He and Whately had never met. His lordship published a considerable
number of theological writings, consisting of sermons and charges, all marked by a
desire to place religion on a simple and scriptural basis, and in harmony with
man's intellectual nature. His style was aphoristic and luminous, and his
reasoning severe. In the administration of his office he displayed a uniform
liberality, and was a constant promoter of the national system of education in
Ireland. He was the author, among other works, of a treatise on political economy,
and of the best manual of logic which we possess.
"Forty years ago there was," wrote the Times in a leader after the arch
bishop's decease, " in the University of Oxford a man who seemed to have devoted
himself, single-handed, to stem the whole current of academic sentiment and
opinion. The university, with hardly an exception, was one way, and Eichard
Whately the other. Oxford had resigned itself to orthodoxy and Toryism, and
Whately was an inquirer and a Liberal. Tomline ruled in the lecture-room ; the
420

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [whately's career.
formulas of Aldrich were committed to memory for the schools ; and a succinct
course of reading, which then had the charm of novelty, carried the more ambitious
through certain poets, histories, and 'sciences,' to the first or second class of
honours. Not only a revolution, but a revolutionary age, had then been happily
surmounted ; the great type of self-will, and the nearest figure of antichrist the
world had yet seen, had just been laid under a willow-tree at St. Helena ; and few,
indeed, were the students who did not come up to Oxford, resolved to conform to
anything that was established, whether in thought, word, or deed. Whately
seemed to have formed the exactly opposite resolution. He had counted the cost,
which appeared to him very trifling, and he was evidently prepared to run a tilt at
any number of the men he found about him. He was not really single-handed, for
he had friends in council, and even teachers, from whom he derived inspiration.
But Coplestone was quite content to think profoundly, to read, to criticise, to
amuse his friends with his wit and humour, to write good Latin, and make young
gentlemen wise statesmen ; and gladly left to his pupil a movement for which he
was himself becoming physically disqualified."
So Whately, whether as Fellow or tutor of his college, or as president of a
hall, and so taking part in the government of the university, talked and wrote as
no man had ever talked or written before on the banks of the Isis, unless it might
be some doubting doctor of the middle ages, whose very name has been happily
suppressed by his pious survivors. All that he said and wrote went to make
people think for themselves, to value truth for its own sake, to be content with no
prescriptive reasoning, to be just, generous, and public-spirited. His was a sharp
and almost violent reaction against prejudice, sophistry, bigotry, and all the shams
that had substituted 'falsehood for truth, and the part for the whole. But he
unsettled where he could not re-arrange ; he disturbed where he could not calm ;
he raised doubts, which he was content to see working their way ; and even his
friends compared him to the fisherman who lashed the stream with his pole, but
had no net to secure the fish as they swam away. But wherever he went he was
easily and always master of the situation ; his talk was a rapid and overflowing
stream of argument, quotation, illustration, which it was impossible not to admire.
It was all the same whether in his old common room, among the friends of his
youth, or in companies where he was regarded as a heretic and a false philosopher.
He often surged into' indignation ; he satirised freely, and snubbedjwithout a qualm,
or even a thought, for his victim. He walked over ignorance, stupidity, and
conceit, as a man crushes the shells on the sea-shore. There limped about the
university, men whom he had fearfuUy, maimed, without his knowing anything
about it, and who revenged themselves by loud complaints when safe out of
hearing. But to genius and to goodness Whately felt as a brother; and even
where there was some disagreement or diversity of temper, he was a loving,
confiding, and most zealous friend. But what was he to be ? — for even at Oxford
every man has a future as well as a present and past. The singularity and
freedom of his manners, and indifference to the feelings of those he did not like or
respect, seemed to cut him off from all promotion. Indeed, nobody thought of
him in that light, any more than he did himself, in all probability. He lectured
lying on a sofa, with his legs over the end. He would throw a stick, or roll a
turnip, for the amusement of his dogs in Christchurch meadow. He always had a
fidus Achates, who had little else to do but to keep pace and listen. What else
could Whately be ? True, he was known at Holland House ; but so were others,
of high standing and of less blemished orthodoxy. It seemed almost certain that
Whately would live and die an Oxford "head," of the eccentric, unaccommodating,
and ultimately unsociable class. There are such men. He would die and die out
there ; he would live a brief term in the short memories of common rooms, and
the somewhat longer recollections of those older dons who meet to revive
names, to compare dates, to trace careers, to pronounce terse judgments and
sentimental epitaphs upon dead movements and buried reputations. 421

professor jowett.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
" All at once Oxford was thunderstruck to hear that Whately was Archbishop
of Dublin. The university was thrown on its beam-ends by the news. It could
not have been more astonished had it heard that a conclave of cardinals had
elected him to the holy see. It was true that by this there were certain temporal
difficulties to be settled in Ireland as best they could, and that Whately was
known to have talked about them, as he did of everything else ; it was true, also,
that by this time the ' powers that be' had somewhat changed ; but universities
take time to understand changes. Like kine, they are ruminating bodies. It was
thought tbat he was utterly unfit for dignity and position ; that he would throw
the Irish church into a flame, and involve himself and all about him in difficulties
from which they could never be set free. It was assumed that he knew nothing of
the Eoman Catholics ; that the established church would excommunicate him for his
theology ; and that his want of manner and tact would offend the Irish government
and magnates. He was gravely assured that even his life was in danger, and that
somebody or other — it was not clear who — would answer his arguments with a logic
happily unknown at Oxford. His reception on the other side was not very cordial.
However, it was soon known that he found Dublin at least as congenial and
pleasant as Oxford. He was immediately admired, soon liked, and eventually
found as useful as his patrons could possibly have anticipated. He soon astonished
even those who had known him at Oxford, by two achievements beyond the power
of most men even in this versatile and practised age — his evidence before the
select committee on the Irish tithes; .and the compromise he effected with
Archbishop Murray for the introduction of a system of national education. With
regard to the former, when it is considered that the archbishop had not had those
opportunities and that experience that constitute what is called a practical man,
and that for many of the questions he could not have been prepared, his evidence
showed a marvellous amount of information and of insight into men and things.
The latter — that is, the compromise — was the result of long negotiation, and the
careful preparation of school manuals. As a political act, to meet a very pressing
emergency, and bring together for a time extremes said to be utterly unsociable, it
must be called quite successful. It led to twenty years of peaceful if not hearty
co-operation, at a most important epoch of our common annals. No one can
pretend that it was not worth the compromise, and that Eichard Whately has not
left his mark on his church and his country."
We have already spoken of the Hampden controversy, which reflected disgrace
on most of the clergy connected with it. In Palmerston's time there were many
more such cases. In 1863, Professor Jowett, the Oxford Greek professor, was
subjected to a considerable amount of annoyance by the orthodox party. However,
it came to an inglorious termination. As the judge of the University Small Debts
Courts refused, in the exercise of his discretionary powers, to hear the case, the
three prosecutors proposed to make application to the Queen's Bench for a manda
mus, requiring the judge to hear it. On taking the opinion of two first-class
ecclesiastical lawyers, however, they found, in brief, that though the Queen's
Bench had probably power to issue the mandamus, yet that the court had cer
tainly a discretion, and would use it, not to issue the writ. The prosecutors
learned, at the same time, to their mortification, that there was a superior court in
the university itself, to which they might have appealed; but that, while they
were trying the Court of Queen's Bench, the legal time for appealing to the
university court had passed away. They incurred, therefore, for nothing, the
odium of prosecuting a man for a book several years old; of defeating themselves
by their own blunders, and of making the Greek professor— very popular before-
more popular than ever. But, before that, there was the great Gorham case,
declaring, to the mortification of the evangelicals, that baptismal regeneration was
taught by the church of England ; and the Knightsbridge affair, considered, at the
time, a blow to the ritualists— one from which, however, they have, if we may iudge
by appearances, speedily recovered. In March, 1859, the Archbishop of Canter-

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [bishop colenso.
bury gave his decision in the case of the Eev. Mr. Poole, accused of introducing
the practice of the confessional at St. Barnabas, Pimlico. The archbishop's deci
sion was confirmatory of that of the Bishop of London, revoking Mr. Poole's
license. In the autumn of the same year there were disturbances at the church
of St. George's in the East, London, in consequence of the rector, the Eev. Bryan
King, adopting a ritual and vestments similar to those of the Eoman CathoUcs, and
his refusal to allow a suitable time for the Sunday afternoon lecture, by the
Eev. Hugh AUen. After ten weeks had elapsed, the Bishop of London undertook
to arbitrate in the case, and propounded an accommodation. This proved ineffec
tual; for after the church had been shut up for several Sundays, on its being
reopened the disturbances were recommenced. Eitualism is all very well for
fancy churches ; but not for the people and parochial churches. This fact became
clearer every day.
The appearance of Essays and Reviews created a considerable consternation
amongst the orthodox party in the church. The authors of this obnoxious pub
lication were Dr. Temple, chaplain to the queen, and head-master of Eugby;
Dr. Williams, vice-principal and professor of Hebrew, St. David's College, Lam
peter; Professor Baden Powell, of Oxford; Mr. Wilson, vicar of Great Staughton,
Hants ; the Eev. Mr. Goodwin ; Mr. Pattinson, rector of Lincoln College, Oxford ;
and Professor Jowett, of Oxford. The book was thus written on the co-operative
principle; was decidedly rationalistic; it contained little novelty; the novelty
was in the fact that clergymen of position should thus write to shake the faith of
the people. Their work, in university circles, was known as the seven against
Christ ; and, in one or two cases, the law courts were appealed to, and the ortho
dox triumphed. Alas ! their triumph was not of long duration. On February 8th,
1864, by the judicial committee of the privy council, the judgments of the Court
of Arches, in the cases of the Bishop of Salisbury against E. Williams, and of
Fendall against Wilson, for articles written in Essays and,- Reviews, were
reversed. A still greater sensation was created when Bishop Colenso, of Natal, published
his work on the Pentateuch — a work, again, with little novelty to the well-
informed in such matters ; but remarkable for the fact, that in it a bishop demon
strates the falsehood of that Scripture which he has in public to read and sanction.
The anomaly appeared, even to Bishop Colenso, so extraordinary, that he was
prepared to come over to England, and resign his office ; but the judgment in the
case of the Essays and Reviews, decided him that it was his duty to remain in
the church. His colonial superior, Dr. Gray, Bishop of Cape Town, thought other
wise. It appears that, in the year 1863, charges of heresy were preferred against
Dr. Colenso, before Dr. Gray, Bishop of Cape Town, who deliver'ed a sentence upon
those charges, by which he deposed the Bishop of Natal from his office, and further
prohibited him from the exercise of any sacred functions within the metropolitan
province of Cape Town. The Bishop of Natal protested against this assumption of
authority, and petitioned the judicial committee, praying that he might be declared
entitled to hold his see until the letters patent, which had been granted him,
should be cancelled by due process of law. On March 20th, the judicial com
mittee of the privy council decided that the Bishop of Cape Town bad no jurisdic
tion over the Bishop of Natal, and had, therefore, no power to remove him from
his office, and that the proceedings against Bishop Colenso were null and void
in law. This decision astonished all parties. When recording it, the Times wrote —
"It is hard to say which of the contending parties has the more or less
reason to be satisfied with this singular result. Dr. Colenso has successfully
disputed, the authority of the Bishop of Cape Town, but only to discover that
his own authority is equally shadowy; and the Bishop of Cape Town, if he is
compelled to surrender his usurped authority in Natal, may console himself by
reflecting that Dr. Colenso has no power to assert a counter-authority, and that no
423

DECISION OF THE PRIVY COUNCIL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.
clergyman need be contaminated against his will by any intercourse with episcopal
heresy. That which will probably strike the public as forcibly as anything, is
the confusion which this judgment brings to light. Here have bishops been
sitting in solemn conclave, and going through all the elaborate forms of ecclesias
tical trial and judgment; hearing learned arguments, and pronouncing pompous
decisions : and it turns out that they were going through no more than a sort
of ecclesiastical play; and that, for all practical purposes, they might just as
well have been acting a mediaeval farce for their own amusement in London. The
good they have done is to furnish an opportune illustration of the sort of ecclesias
tical law which their friends would be glad to introduce in this country ; but,
more than this, we see ' official persons' drawing up the most elaborate letters
patent for these two, and for other colonial bishops, in innocent ignorance that they
were producing mere waste-paper. Solemn documents have passed the great
seal over and over again, which are simply null and void ; and oaths have been re
peatedly taken, which either had no meaning, or which it would have been illegal
to observe. The depth of confusion which these ecclesiastical demonstrations have
reached is, indeed, unfathomable. One cannot but feel a certain compassion for
the colonial bishops, who are thus reduced to so helpless, and, comparatively,
insignificant a position ; but the public in general, and the colonies in particular,
may be sincerely congratulated on this issue of what promised to be a most trouble
some and difficult question. For the future, whatever may be the distracting
influences which Zulus, Kaffirs, or other heretical savages may bring to bear
upon the Christianity of the colonies, the consequent disputes will have to be
settled by the voluntary action of the colonists themselves." — "From this as
tounding decision," wrote the Morning Advertiser, "two or three questions
immediately flow. First — Since the crown has thus befooled the Bishop of Cape
Town — sending him to Natal to hold a visitation, to pass a sentence, and then
to maintain it in England — does the crown really mean to leave the bishop
to pay all the costs of these proceedings ? From first to last, the bishop cannot
have spent less than £2,000, which, we suppose, is equal to three years' income ;
and he has done this in pursuance of instructions clearly given to him in the
queen's patent. If the crown has given him wrong instructions, is the crown to
throw the cost of his obedience on himself ? Secondly — But, again, are these colonial
bishops to be irresponsible persons, subject to no law whatever ? It is decided
by this judicial committee, that, do what he may in matters of religion, the
Bishop of Natal has no superior — is subject to no jurisdiction. Now, he has
already written in favour of the allowance of polygamy ; and he was present
at that meeting of the Anthropological Society, in which Mahommedanism was de
clared to be better suited to Africa than Christianity. He was present, and
uttered no protest. What if he should take it into his head to turn Mahommedan ?
Stranger things have been seen. But, if he took this step, where is the remedy ?
According to this judgment of the judical committee, there is none ! Surely it is
impossible that matters can be left in such a position as this !" The Daily News
asked if there was a diocese of Natal at all ? and dwelt on the full and emphatic
declaration of Erastian principles made at the very opening. " The bishops
are declared to be ecclesiastical persons, who ' have been created bishops by the
queen, in the exercise of her authority as sovereign of this realm, and head of
the established church;' 'their legal existence depends on acts which have no
validity or effect except on the basis of the supremacy of the crown;' 'they are
the creatures of English law, and dependent on that law for their existence, rights,
and attributes.' These principles, which are enunciated and iterated with a
certain zest at the beginning of the judgment, form the basis of all the reasoning
on which it proceeds. The lords of the judicial committee say—' We must treat
the parties before us as standing on this (legal) foundation, and on no other.' "
Very wisely Lord Palmerston left the churchmen to wrangle among them
selves ; and he filled up all the vacancies as they occurred, in a wav of which the
424 J

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [ecclesiastical patronage.
public generally approved. This ecclesiastical patronage was enormous. During
his first year of the Premiership, not a single vacancy occurred among the right
reverend occupants of the episcopal bench; but, in the following year, Lord
Palmerston was called upon to make no less than five appointments — namely,
to the bishoprics of Carlisle, Durham, Gloucester and Bristol, London, and Eipon.
The annual value of those sees, respectively, is as follows: — London, £10,000;
Durham, £8,000 ; Gloucester and Bristol, £5,000 ; Carlisle, £4,500 ; and Eipon,
£4,500 ; showing a total value of £32,000. To the see of Eipon, Dr. Bickersteth
was appointed — Dr. Longley, who had previously held it, being translated to
Durham. Dr. ViUiers was installed at Carlisle ; Dr. Baring at Gloucester and
Bristol; whilst the metropolitan see, vacant through the resignation of Bishop
Bloomfield, was conferred on Dr. Tait, Dean of CarUsle. In 1857, there was but
one vacancy ; and that was in the see of Norwich, value £4,500. To this bishopric
Dr. Pelham was appointed. Passing over the interregnum in Lord Palmerston's
power, which took place in the years 1858 and 1859, we come to 1860, a year in
which many rich pieces of ecclesiastical patronage fell to the disposal of the lord
of Broadlands. In the month of May died Dr. Musgrave, Archbishop of York, the
revenues of the see being £10,000 per annum. Dr. Longley was now translated
from Durham to York ; Dr. Villiers was translated from Carlisle to Durham ; and
Dr. Waldegrave was placed in the vacant see of Carlisle. The same year also
witnessed vacancies in the bishoprics of Eochester and Worcester, each of the
value of £5,000 per annum. To the former was appointed Dr. Wigram ; and to
the latter, Dr. Philpot. Dr. Villiers did not long . survive his translation from
CarUsle to Durham. He died in 1861, and was succeeded by Dr. Baring. The
translation of the latter prelate rendered vacant the see of Gloucester and Bristol,
which was given to Dr. Thomson. But it was not until the autumn of 1862 that
the richest pieces of church preferment fell to the disposal of Lord Palmerston.
In the month of October, in that year, the venerable primate of Ireland, the Eight
Eev. Lord John Beresford — who had been in failing health for many months — was
gathered to his fathers at the age of nearly ninety years. The value of the primacy
was about £14,500 a year ; and to it succeeded a near relative of the deceased, the
Eight Eev. Lord Marcus Gervais Beresford, aforetime Bishop of Kilmore, Elphin,
and Armagh. The vacancy created by this translation was filled by Dr. Verschoyle,
Dean of Ferns. But the richest of all the prizes of ecclesiastical patronage was
shortly to fall into the hands of the lucky Premier. The aged Archbishop of
Canterbury was gradually sinking from exhaustion consequent on natural decay,
and swiftly followed the primate of all Ireland to the grave. On the 6th of Sep
tember, by the death of Dr. Sumner, the primacy of all England, with an income
of £15,000, fell to the disposal of Lord Palmerston. As in the case of York, the
Premier, in filling this archiepiscopal see, contrived to make three appointments
out ot one vacancy. Dr. Longley was translated for the third time within six
years, and sent from York to Canterbury. Dr. Thomson was promoted from
Worcester and Bristol to the archbishopric of York ; whilst Dr. Ellicott, Dean of
7et^r' ™ appointed Bishop of Gloucester and Bristol. And then, in the autumn
oi isw, toe fourth archbishopric happened to fall in. The death of Dr. Whately
gave tne premier a piece of patronage, value £7,636 per annum. Lord Palmerston
twice tilled the bishopric of Cork; Dr. Fitzgerald, who was appointed in 1857,
having been translated from this see to that of Kilaloe, in 1861. He likewise
supplied vacancies in many Irish deaneries ; and in England those of Canterbury,
Westminster Carlisle, Eipon, Lincoln, Gloucester and Bristol, and Exeter twice.
ine united annual value of the sees held by the twenty-seven prelates, who
constitute the English hierarchy, is £151,200; and of this Lord Palmerston had
had the disposal of very nearly one-half, or £75,500. Vast as this amount of
ffi'wifTi *PPear! lfc Sh°WS more strikingly by contrast with that which has
SIiV iSffi lot °f Prions Prime Ministers. Sir Eobert Peel held office from
vJt ° and„in these five years filled as many bishoprics— those of Chichester,
L" "" z F 425

CHURCH DIFFERENCES. | LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
Ely, Lichfield, Oxford, and St. Asaph — with an annual value of £23,400. During
the six years of Lord John Eussell's administration, from 1846 to 1852, the amount
of patronage which fell to his disposal was just as much as that which in one year
alone — 1856 — fell to Lord Palmerston. Lord John filled the primacy, and the
bishoprics of Chester, Hereford, Llandaff, and Manchester, with an aggregate
revenue of £32,100 per annum. During Lord Aberdeen's ministry, from 1852
to 1855, the bishoprics of Bath and Wells, Lincoln, and Salisbury were filled, with
an annual income of £5,000 each. The Earl of Derby has holden office
altogether about two years and two months — namely, ten months in 1852, and
sixteen months in 1858-'9. ' The only episcopal appointment made by the Con
servative leader was that of Dr. Campbell to the bishopric of Bangor, in 1859,
the revenues of the see being £4,000 a year. From these calculations it will be
seen, that the aggregate amount of patronage disposed of by Sir Eobert Peel, Lord
John Eussell, the Earl of Aberdeen, and the Earl of Derby, amounted to £75,400.
So that Lord Palmerston, in seven years, had, within the small sum of £3,000,
disposed of as much church patronage as his predecessors in the Premiership
during a period of sixteen years. But when we take into consideration the
noble viscount's Irish patronage, representing a total of £28,120 per annum, and
add this to the £71,500, the value of his English church preferments, we have
a grand total of £99,620, or a yearly sum amounting very nearly to £100,000.
Such is the annual value of the appointments which have been made by
Lord Palmerston. Of the twenty-seven prelates who sit in the House of Lords, no
less than ten have been placed there by himself. Add to these five Irish sees, and
the number of his bishops is increased to fifteen. Twice he filled the arch
bishopric of York ; once the archbishoprics of Canterbury, Armagh, and Dublin—
Dr. Trench, Dean of Westminster, being appointed to this last. Three times the
noble lord had been called upon to appoint new overseers to the dioceses of
Gloucester and Bristol, and Durham; and twice he filled the vacant bishoprics
of Carlisle and Cork; and once those of London, Eochester, Norwich, Worcester,
and Eipon. Of the twenty-seven prelates on the episcopal benches, ten owe their
positions to Lord Palmerston ; five to Sir Eobert Peel ; four to Lord Eussell ; three
tothe Earl of Aberdeen; two, the Bishops of Peterborough and St. Davids, to
Lord Melbourne; one, the .Bishop of Winchester, to Lord Liverpool; one, the
Bishop of Exeter, to the Duke of Wellington ; and one, the Bishop of Bangor, to
the Earl of Derby. r & >
Meanwhile < the ecclesiastical trials and ¦ troubles, at which we have > glanced,
were teaching the Premier and all men that something must be done to liberalise
the church and the universities. "I have long been of opinion,"' wrote the Eev.
W._ G. Clark, Fellow and tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, "that the
maintenance of religious tests keeps from the universities many who might have
been their ornament and support, and affords to the church no security at all
commensurate with the odium they excite. In fact, the only dissenters they
exclude are those who have a very scrupulous conscience, and a very high sense of
the obligations of a promise— precisely the men we should be most anxious to
admit. And the same may be said of the clerical profession. More and more, as
experience shows, men of " scrupulous conscience and of a very high sense of the ob
ligations of a promise," refuse to become church ministers, and feel that any honest
way of getting a livelihood is:better than that. In 1864, Mr. Dodson nearly carried
his bill to abolish subscription to the articles on taking the degree of M.A.,
D.C.L. and M.D.; and thus, in religious matters (in 1862 the Eev. M. Heath was
deprived of his living for heterodox sentiments contained in his sermons), the
England of Lord Palmerston's old age had altered very much from that of his
youth. One juvenile enthusiast had even gone so far as to found a monastery,
first at. Claydon, m Suffolk, and then at Norwich ; and to walk about the streets in
a monkish costume. Thus, between rituaUsm on the one side, and broad churchism
on the other, the establishment had grown > to be in a state in which it was
426

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [house of commons.
encompassed by such dangers as had never threatened it in "the good old
times." Those acquainted, however, with the history of the English state church
need trouble themselves Uttle, or feel but little alarm, when the cry of danger is
raised. If tender consciences are shocked — if weak brothers are offended — if
high-spirited men think it mean and ignominious to subscribe to that which they
do not and cannot believe, for a bit of bread — if the men of cultivated intellect
reject the services of the church, and join the ranks of practical dissent, it matters
little. Where there is a wealthy endowment there will always be a state church;
where ,there is money to give away there will always be hands stretched out to
receive it ; where the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together. The
church of England can never claim to be tbe church of the nation. As long as our
territorial system of government prevails, it will last ; as long as it is thought
genteel to go to church, it will last ; as long as the middle class in our land is
absorbed in money-making and frivolous amusements, it will last : but on those
who feel, as many do, that God's truth can win its way in spite of principalities
and powers — who believe the living faith of Christ and his apostles (the poor
fishermen of Galilee) is not aided but crippled by state patronage and support — its
hold will be weakened day by day. It is even questionable whether its exclusive
command of the universities is a real benefit. A university training did not make
Gibbon a Christian, while it drove Shelley into fierce and bitter hostility to
Christianity. Sir James Graham confessed, on one occasion, in the House of
Commons, that he received no religious teaching whatever while at Oxford.
Besides, it is a fact, that the sceptical writers of the day, such as Newman and
others, are university men, trained to be church ministers, but on whom a residence
at Oxford or Cambridge had much the same effect as a residence at Eome had on
Luther. There were, as was .to be expected, endless agitations and discordant
passions, all the while Lord Palmerston was Premier, on church matters; but his
lordship was too wary to interfere.

CHAPTEE XXI.
A PEW HOUSE OF COMMONS' NOTES.

" Zo^Tthl "SL \ ^ ?6VT> n 1861' sa?s' in a Parliamentary sketch-
Among the freshest arrivals of spring is that marvellous young old man Lord
Palmerston. He comes up jubilant as the earliest lark, and crisp and i 'as the
brightest spring flower. No frost of age seems to have chilled the Me thlt I W
S&f*"" tf ?" W- A SUMhine breaks out through his fe^dfcaST
tetj^rsVTi^T^ "-T3 and ^ee/years with Z fughteS
o«r^~^
ever-renewed sprig Tnlhe buE K ^rW? * lts best *t of sunshine. The

the civil service.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

freshen his life, and yield him, in his quiet hours, sustaining draughts. When it
shall cease to be spring with him, we trust he wiU lay his head on his pillow, and
find his last sleep to be everlasting refreshment. His buoyant spirits have
lio-hted up many a hard and prosy debate, and vivified many a dull House,
and made the old and leafless survivors of autumn open their eyes and fancy it was
spring again."
Let us gather together a few parliamentary items here. In 1861, the four
seats in the House of Commons, forfeited by the disfranchisement of St.
Alban's and Sudbury, were allotted. One was given to Birkenhead, another to
Lancashire. In February, Mr. Locke King moved for leave to bring in a bill to extend
the franchise in England and Wales, the object being to establish a £10 franchise
in counties. Lord Palmerston, while not opposing the introduction of the
measure, could not promise any active support, as he thought it injudicious, after the
reception the government Eeform Bill met with last session, to revive the question
in the present session of parliament. On a- division, the motion was lost by
167 to 51. Mr. H. Berkeley brought on his annual discussion on the ballot, which
was rejected by a large majority; as was Mr. Baines's bill to reduce the borough
franchise. It is clear the House had no stomach for any kind of parliamentary
reform. In most respects the action of the House was negative. Commissions
were appointed for all sorts of things — to consider the embankment of the Thames ;
to inquire into the present system of transportation ; to inquire into the constitu
tion of the Board of Admiralty ; to inquire whether and what alterations may be
advantageously adopted in regard to the defence of the British dependencies;
to inquire into the diplomatic service: and then there was one to inquire into
the case of Mr. Stewart, one of the members for Cambridge, who had, on a
recent occasion, come from a .lunatic asylum, where he was residing under the care
of the proprietor, and had given a vote on a division in the House. Members
were far more ready to trifle, and evade the consideration of difficult questions,
than to work. Thus, for instance, it had been resolved that admission to the civil
service should be, not as previously, by favour, but by competitive examinations, in
which the candidate who answered best the questions put to him should have the
preference over others. Still the House was quite ready to laugh at the new
system ; and we find Mr. Baillie Cochrane excited some amusement by noticing
certain absurdities of the test examination system. Among the questions set in
1860-61 were the following :— " What do you understand by a good English style?
and give proofs of your being able to write in such a style. " Write a series of short
sentences, every one of them containing a figure of speech." Another question
was, " Give a description of winter, stating its various duties and amusements." He
(Mr. Cochrane) did not know whether " curling" was one of the winter amusements
referred to by the examiner. Another question — all these were to be answered
in two hours— was, " Give a bit of English historians, characterising each of them
by a single epithet." Another was this—" Compare the infiuence of the ballad
writers of early, times with that of the press of the present day." One of the things
asked of the candidate was to write a panegyric upon General Garibaldi, General
Havelock, and Sir I. ¦ Newton. They were asked, also, to " write an essay on the
queen's visit to Germany ;" and " if a holiday were given to a man employed in a
public office, . how it would be advisable to spend it ?" No less than six times
students were asked to give essays on Garibaldi's expedition to Sicily : but perhaps
every other instance of absurdity was exceeded by the following question : " Give
your views on the late fight for the championship between Tom Sayers and
Heenan." He would cite only one more, as being perhaps the most extraordinary of
all, much as they had heard of the views of geological theorists. "Give the
evidence which exists for believing in former submersions of the British Islands
beneath the sea. State when the last of these submersions took place, and by what
phenomena it was accompanied."
428

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [parliamentary proceedings.

International laws, educational discussions, national defences, were the
questions chiefly agitated in 1862. On March 4th, a resolution, proposed by Mr.
Arthur Mills, with an addition by Mr. Baxter, passed, to the effect that, while all
portions of the British empire have a claim to imperial aid, against perils arising
from the . consequences of imperial policy, the colonies,' which have the right of
self-government, ought to undertake the main responsibility of providing for their
own internal order and security ; and such colonies ought to assist in their own
external defence. In April, Mr. E. Sheridan, by a majority of 127 to 1 16 against the
government, obtained leave to bring in a bill to reduce the duty on fire insurance
at once, from 3s. to 2s. per cent., and at the expiration of five years, to Is. per cent.
The House also agreed to appoint a committee to consider the practicability of
adopting a simple and uniform system of weights and measures. Other committees
were chosen, to inquire whether any consolidation of some of the offices of the
Board of Inland Eevenue might be effected ; to inquire into the operation of the
petty charges on commerce, imposed in 1860 ; to inquire into the operation of the
present scale of sugar duties; to consider the expediency of legalising the cir
culation, in the United Kingdom, of the sovereigns coined at Sydney; to inquire
into the working of the law relating to patents. In July, on the motion of Lord
Elcho, it was agreed to present an address to her majesty,, praying for the ap
pointment of a royal commission to inquire into the present position of the Eoyal
Academy, in relation to the fine arts, and the occupation of a portion of the National
Gallery. A night-poaching bill was carried. The country gentlemen could always
take care of themselves, but in vain did members try to get church subscription
modified, or to carry the abolition of church-rates, or to get the ballot into use for
the election of members of parliament. One step taken in the right direction,
was that of passing an act to facilitate the proof to, and the conveyance of, real
estates. As regards parliamentary reform, nothing was done. The subject appears
to have been, by common consent, utterly ignored.
In 1863, an attempt was made to put down the city police. Sir George
Grey moved for leave to bring in a bill amalgamating them with the metropolitan
police ; but it was subsequently withdrawn. Mr. Soames' Sunday Bill was equally
unsuccessful. In June, Mr. Bagwell moved a resolution, that it was impolitic any
longer to exclude Ireland from the operation of the volunteer system. Lord
Palmerston opposed, not from any doubt of the loyalty of the Irish ; but he argued
that religious warmth was likely to lead to dangerous results when the parties were
armed. The motion was wisely negatived by 156 to 45. In many matters the
House, as usual, was liberal with other people's money. Mr. Lowe moved for
a grant of £804,000 for public education, and the grant was agreed to ; and
£122,883 were voted for the department of science and art. Lord Palmerston
moved for a grant of £120,000 for the purpose of purchasing the land on which
stood the Exhibition building at Kensington Gore, preparatory to purchasing the
building, at a cost of £80,000. Some opposition was made; but, ultimately,
£67,000 was voted towards the purchase of land. In March, Mr. Forster called
attention to the fitting out, in our ports, vessels of war for the Confederates, in
contravention of the Foreign Enlistment Act. The Solicitor-general replied to
Mr. Forster, that the government had acted with good faith towards the United
States ; they were anxious to enforce the law, but they must have legal evidence
of its violation before they could act. Lord Palmerston contended we had done
everything the law enabled us to do; and that the Northern States had no just
cause of complaint. In May, Mr. Gladstone had to suffer a slight defeat. In his
budget for the year, he had introduced a plan for the taxation 'of charities. He
showed abundantly the mischief many of them did, and the way in which their
funds were wasted. This case seemed unanswerable. However, the House of
Commons was of a contrary opinion; and he had to withdraw that part of his
scheme. In July, Lord Naas drew attention to the state of affairs in China, where,
he said, we were injudiciously interfering. Mr. Layard maintained, that per-
429

queen's plates.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

mitting officers to serve in the China army was no breach of neutrality. Lord
Palmerston said he could not understand the censure of Lord Naas, who seemed
to imply that we were teaching the Chinese the art of government, how to regulate
their finances, increase their revenue, and improve their administration : he
admitted these charges, and claimed credit for them. In July, Mr. E. Sheridan
gained another victory over government, by carrying a resolution to the effect,
that the duty on fire insurance was excessive, and should be reduced. Some
legislative measures — smallj but useful — were passed ; but no mention was
made of reform, or no measure, of a partial character even, was attempted to be
carried. One of the debates was on racing matters and queen's plates, on which Lord
Palmerston was an authority. General Peel, as a great supporter of the turf,
called attention to the subject. Lord Palmerston said he entirely concurred iu
what had fallen from the gallant officer opposite. He differed from those who
contended that the breed of horses had deteriorated. He believed that, generally,
the breed of horses was better than ever it was as to size, substance, power, and
endurance. Let any man go into a racing-stable, and seeing the bone and
substance of the horses, let him ask himself what he would wish to see better in
the shape of a four-legged animal. The fact was, greater pains were now taken
to bring the two-year-olds to a greater size than formerly. If the breed of horses
in this country had deteriorated, foreigners would not come here to buy English
horses. But, every year, more and more foreigners come here from the continent
to buy English horses. A deputation of gentlemen, from the Eoyal Agricultural
Society of Ireland, called upon him, and complained that the breed of horses there
was deteriorating ; but they stated, in the course of conversation, that, from the
port of Dublin, 5,000 horses had been exported in the course of last year. No
doubt the principle of supply and demand would operate in regard to horses as in
regard to other articles, and that an effectual demand would be met by the supply.
With regard to the motion, the subject would be considered by the Master ofthe
Horse, in common with the best judges of the turf; and they would see whether
greater weight, or longer distances, would or would not be advisable in improving
the breed of horses. But it appeared to him that there was greater weight in what
the gallant general said, that they ought not to abolish prizes which applied to
horses of greater age than those which usually ran.
This reminds us of a sketch of Lord Palmerston in the hunting-field, as
described in the Mark Lane Express, in the winter of 1864-'65. The writer
says — " The meet of the Hursley hounds, on Monday, was at Eldom Farm, when a
messenger arrived to announce that Lord Palmerston intended honouring the field
with his presence ; and, accordingly, punctual to the appointed time, the veteran
Premier made his appearance, under the pilotage of the Hon. Ealph Dutton, M.P.;
¦ and astonished every one by the ease with which he dismounted the horse he rode
to covert, and got on his hunter, looking as fresh as he was ten years ago, and, as
usual, affable and pleasant to all. The hounds were thrown into Michaelmas,
a covert belonging to Mr. Dutton, when a leash of foxes was immediately afoot;
and, after twenty minutes in the woodland, ran to ground about a mile from the
find, his lordship being one of the first up with the hounds. Another fox was then
hallooed away, and a capital run followed of one hour and twenty minutes. Lord
Palmerston remained the first thirty minutes in the open, and rode right well, his
honourable pilot being frequently heard to exlaim, ' This way, my lord !' making
for a gate, or a gap: but, on one occasion, the hounds were running quite in
another direction to that suggested, when his lordship was understood to say—
' But there go the hounds, and I must follow them ;' and away he went as hard as
he could go, and was soon up with the leading horseman, leaving his honourable
pilot to look out for gates and gaps."
We must here digress a little further. In 1864, on the occasion of a visit to
Tiverton, Lord Palmerston attended the races, and dined at the race ordinary ;
430

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [a sportsman's sketch.
where, after his health had been drunk, he said— "Mr. Nagle has been pleased to
advert to what I have been doing in Ireland as an Irish proprietor. I will only
say that if as my worthy friend stated, that man is a benefactor to mankind who
makes two blades of grass grow where only one grev/ before, I may claim some
merit, because I had at one time nearly 1,000 acres of blowing sand where no
blade of grass grew ; and now, in consequence of having assiduously planted that
sand with bent, which dies away after it has come to a certain growth, and is
followed by grass, I have succeeded in covering the whole of that barren spot with
grass • and, therefore, I have done something more than make two blades of grass
grow where only one grew before. I am glad to say that I and my tenantry are
on very good terms ; and although I am happy to see a great many faces when I'
visit that part of the country, for their own sakes I should be glad if many of them
would go to a place where they would be more able to benefit themselves. But so
long as they choose to remain in their present position, I shall be most happy to
allow them. Mr. Nagle remarked that he was not allowed to advert to politics.
But I beg leave to advert in a certain degree, I will not say to politics, but to
political conditions, and, especially, to government and parliamentary conditions ;
for there is a great similarity between government and parliamentary conditions
and the racing, 'which we have been attending to-day. The House of Commons
very much resembles a race-course. First of all, parties go there and run for the
queen's plate. It is a general sweepstakes, and more than one takes the stakes if
he wins. Then, again, there is the match ; and he is a lucky man who does not
meet with his match ; but almost every man does meet with his match, and he is
not at all contented in that encounter. Our rules are somewhat similar to those
which guide the turf, because there is that good feeling in the House of Commons
which gives weight for age. It is very true that the young ones are, sometimes,
very apt to bolt out of the course. We have one rule which is not enjoyed to
the same degree by the turf — that is to say, that sometimes we run a dead heat,
which, in parliamentary language, is expressed by the words 'a tie.' But then
our judge does not make us run the heat over again ; does not make us go through
the debate again ; and take the division over again. Our judge decides the matter
on the spot ; and, a dead heat having been run, he decides in favour of one horse
or the other, just as he may think it best to do. The Speaker settles the matter.
He gives the casting vote. Then there is another thing in which we greatly
resemble the turf — that is to say, it often happens that a very good-looking horse
breaks down. And so there is a great analogy, in reality, between things that
apparently differ very much. I think I have shown — perhaps you were not
aware of it before — that there is a great analogy between parliament and the turf.
I think I have kept my word,, and given you a little of parliamentary conditions.
I hope, in so doing, that I have not intruded anything that was not strictly in
accordance with your rules; that I have not introduced anything which is not
entirely appropriate to a race-meeting. I will now conclude by returning my best
* thanks for the honour which you have conferred upon my colleague and myself by
drinking the toast with so much cordiality." The noble lord resumed his seat
amid loud and long-continued cheering.
But we must return to the House of Commons. In the Sporting Magazine
for 1865 we have the following description, under the title of "A Sportsman's
Sketch of Lord Palmerston." The writer says — " Then we read of him as Lord
Warden of the Cinque Ports, settling a dispute at the Dover races, or taking the
chair at the Tiverton race ordinary, and making that happy comparison between
horses entered for the Derby and House of Commons ' colts.' Members generally
made a point of dropping in to hear him move the adjournment of the House till
Thursday, on the eve of ' the Isthmian games ;' and his humour was rendered still
more playful from, the thought of how very little Mr. Bright or Mr. Hadley could
appreciate the holiday. He was quite in. his glory when he interfered, as leader of
the House, between 'Portmanteau Peel' and 'The O'Donoghue;' and gravely
431

the last session.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
recounted to that somewhat troublesome Tamworth pupil the things which were to
befall him, beginning thus : ' You will have an invitation.' Taking only his
little off-hand speeches out of the House, who was ever so happy ? His definition
of dirt to a deputation could give 7 lbs. to any philosopher's out. No one could
hand over prizes to a school-girl or a labourer with a more pleasant word of
encouragement ; and no one, save a Loughboro' dominie, was found to dispute the
justice of his condemnation of those very thin up and thick down-strokes whicli
' look like area railings on one side.' If an opponent proposed the health of
' Her Majesty's Ministers,' he could freely assure him that there was no incon
sistency in his conduct to wish, them health, as they could hardly enjoy it in
perfection unless they were relieved from the cares of office. Then, too, when
that banquet was given to ' Old Charley' at the Eeform Club, before he went to the
Baltic, who but ' Pam' would, have thought of roasting him about his specific for
getting tup lambs ? Who knew half so well as he did how to propose the health
of the bridesmaids, 'whose champion I am;' and no doubt he was more than
equal to the occasion at the very last marriage that he attended, and hailed as his
new nephew a bridegroom of seventy-two, who espoused a ' fair and forty' spinster.
Be the occasion what it might, he said or did the right thing. Your ' London
correspondent' delighted to eke out his 'copy' with a story of how, on one of those
Saturday evenings at Cambridge House, where honey was put on the political
wasps, one of them tumbled backwards into a flower-stand or flower-pot, and,
sticking there, was extricated with the most comic condolence by his host ; and how,
when a lady in a Hampshire lane had undergone a most distressing accident to her
crinoline, 'a gentleman, who proved to be the Premier of England, descended
swiftly from his carriage, helped to pin her up, and insisted on driving her to her
residence.' 'Just like him,' said every reader — 'always on the spot.' Lord
Aberdeen took occasion to point out, when he took the head of the coalition
ministry, well-nigh thirteen years ago, that he was the younger man of the two ;
but, hard as he looked, the old Scotchman held life on a frailer tenure. ' Pam'
then seemed comparatively buoyant and young; and we shall never forget the
almost savage energy with which, at seventy-four, he jumped out of his brougham
and strode across Westminster Hall, and through the folding-doors, when he
came down to the House just after he had frittered away his great 'pluck' majority
of '57, and let in Lord Derby once more. For years after that, he and the grey
horse were seen busy with their constitutional in Eotten Eow ; and each walker
turned his head as he passed the tall and erect old gentleman with the velvet-
faced great-coat strolling up Piccadilly before dinner. Then he suddenly seemed
to grow weaker, and there was more of the old man in his dress. Members shook
their heads, and prophesied (as the opposition papers took care to let him know)
that he would hardly meet another parliament, when, with his arm in a sling, he
almost tottered across the lobby, leaning heavily on his stepson. If you saw him
in his carriage by himself, his head was sunk deep on his bosom, as if life was a
burden, and he only wished to be at rest. And so it was his lot to ' fade as the
leaves do, and fall in October.' He died as he wished to die, with harness on his
back. He had kept parliament together for six sessions."
In 1865, the sixth session of the sixth parliament of Queen Victoria was
, opened by commission. The queen's speech, which was read, began by con
gratulating both Houses on the birth of a son to the Prince of Wales. It then
referred at some length to the affairs of Denmark and Greece ; more shortly to the
attack on Kagosima, in Japan ; to the insurrection in New Zealand ; and to the
surrender of the Ionian Islands in the kingdom of Greece. It promised the House
of Commons a due attention to economy in the preparation of the estimates;
congratulated the Houses on the general prosperity of the country, notwithstanding
the continued depression of the cotton trade, which it was trusted would be
gradually relieved by increased supplies of the raw material from extended
sources; announced the appointment of a commission for revising the forms
432 " 5

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mr. stansfeld.

of subscription and declaration to be made by the clergy of the established
church ; and concluded with a prayer for the welfare and happiness of her loyal
people. An event occurred in 1863, which gave Lord Palmerston a considerable amount
of trouble in this session of parliament. In December, at Paris, four Italians,
named Greco, Imperatori, Trabuco, and Scaglioni, were arrested by the French
police, charged with an intention of assassinating the emperor. On the 25 th of
January their trial took place. It was proved that, on their first entering France
from Italy, they had been under the constant watch of the police, in consequence,
it was said, of Trabuco being recognised as having been pointed out as a dangerous
character in 1862. Greco at once admitted the fact, stating that the proposal had
come from Mazzini, who had furnished the money, the explosive bombs (which
were proved to be of a most dangerous character), and the weapons ; and that no
one had come between him and Mazzini. Trabuco confirmed Greco, saying that
he had a life for his country which had been oppressed by the emperor. Imperatori
declared that Greco had drawn him into the plot by degrees; and Scaglioni
pleaded that he had been drawn into it by Imperatori. All were found guilty —
Greco and Trabuco sentenced to transportation; Imperatori and Scaglioni to
twenty years' imprisonment.
As to Mazzini's connection with the plot, few placed much credence in the
statement ; but it was known that Mazzini was a friend of Mr. Stansfeld's, and
that Mr. Stansfeld was one of Lord Palmerston's most promising colleagues. The
opportunity for damaging the ministry was too valuable not to be made the most
of by the Conservative party.
James Stansfeld, Esq., M.P. for Halifax — a Junior Lord of the Admiralty,
where he won great fame by his mastery of details, heretofore considered incom
prehensible — belonged to the advanced Liberalism, without whose support even
Lord Palmerston would have found it difficult to hold his ground. The nation,
wearied of seeing perpetually the same men in office — men who had been useful
in their day, but who were now a little inclined to lag behind — demanded fresh
blood; and, in deference to this demand, Mr. Stansfeld had been placed in a
subordinate office in the ministry. The selection was judicious, as Mr. Stansfeld
had already won a position in the House, and, out-of-doors, was held in high
esteem, as an exponent of principles and practices more in conformity with the
spirit of the age than those of timid Whig noblemen, long past, not merely the
freshness and ardour of youth, but the prime of life. Born in 1820; educated
at University College, London; an LL.B. of the London University; called to the
bar of the Inner Temple in 1846, Mr. Stansfeld's youth had passed amidst cir
cumstances which made all men of intellect and generous disposition ardent
politicians. _ In his boyhood the Eeform Bill had been carried, and the middle
classes admitted to the possession of political power. In his youth, he had seen
the misery created by the corn-laws, made, in spite of the people, by the land
lords in their own parliament, and for their own ends. As the evils of class
legislation had been gradually removed, he had seen the welfare and the happiness
of the nation increased. In many ways, before he was a M.P., he had been noted
in London for the zeal and ability with which he had pleaded the cause of oppressed
nationalities ; and to the great work of Italian regeneration, especially, he had
cheerfully given his time, his talent, and his worldly goods. Quite unexpectedly
he was returned to parliament in 1859. His place was on the benches below the
gangway, side by side with Cobden and Bright, who gave a cordial welcome to so
able an ally. There were those who complained somewhat of the narrowness of
the Manchester school, and who saw, in the member for Halifax, signs of an intellect
more cultivated, and of a wider range of thought. As he made his way in the
House they rejoiced ; and were not sorry to see him placed on the Treasury
benches, believing that there, in time he would occupy a more important
position, and one in which he could give effect to the principles he and they held
433

mr. lowe resigns.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
dear. But Mr. Stansfeld was a friend, of Mazzini's ; and as he was no scion of
a noble house — " no tenth transmitted; of a foolish face" — it was deemed fair to
hunt him down. Mazzini was, it was said, at least an assassin. Consequently
Mr. Stansfeld was- the- friend 'of an assassin — of a man who recommended the
assassination of our faithful ally,, the French emperor. Was such a one, to be
tolerated on the Treasury benches? English people are very sensitive . in. such
matters: It had been charged :against Mr. Huskisson* thatihe had been a member
of the French' National 'Convention ; and. the, stigma,, as it was, deemed, was never.
lost sight of .'by his political opponents. But to. brand Mr. Stansfeld.as a^friend-pf.
assassins, was not, merely to drive him from office, but, to. extinguish a promising.
career. The- attempt was made ; but, fortunately, failed* , . ¦•¦'. ¦ ¦
On March 17th, a Norfolk baronet, Sir H. Straoey, moved' a resolution, that,
" The statement of the Procureur-general, on the trial qf .Greco, implicating, ,,a?
member, of the> House, and. of her majesty's government, in the plot for the assassi-,
nation of our ally, the. Emperor of the French, deserves- the serious consideration off
this- House."' Mr. Stansfeld denied any participation in the plot; expressed- his.
belief that, the accusation, against Mazzini was equally. . unfounded ; generously
declared that he, was proud, of.' his friendship,.; explained, his relation with' that
gentleman, who, he said, had letters for him addressed to' his house,, under, the name-
of Flower, but ofthe contents of which he (Mr. Stansfeld) was ignorant : adding that,
on accepting office, he had- ceased to have any so addressed. . After.a debate of some
length, the House divided — 161 in favour, and 171 against the resolution,-, Lord-
Palmerston, with his usual pluck, defended his colleague. His lordship always did.
defend his colleagues; and the House liked him better for it. .Again- the. subject,
was referred to, inconsequence of a question put by Mr. Cox, M.P, for Finsbury—
a man whose position in the House had been a source of laughter to many. Mr. Cox
had .better have been quiet. At the next election, his conduct on the occasion, lost
himhis seat; and Finsbury felt herself no. longer, disgraced. . ,' ¦'. '
The Conservatives were beaten; but the calumnious charge was still. the talk
of country squires and rival M.P.'s all that Easter vacation. On. reassembling,
which the House did on April 4th, Mr. Stansfeld announced that, believing; from
the manher in which he had been attacked with reference to his friendship Jbis
Mazzini, that his retention of office would be an embarrassment to the- ministry, he
had resigned. Lord Palmerston said tbat he was quite convinced of the complete) '
innocence of his honourable friend, and regretted his loss as a colleague- off
unswerving integrity and untiring industry: and thus the matter was. settled.
Ihe Duke of Somerset, the First Lord of the Admiralty, it was said;, much'
regretted Mr. Stansfeld's resignation. As . regarded, the public, the M.P. for
Halifax bad gamed rather than lost in popularity. •--»-"
In a few days after, Lord Palmerston was deprived of another of his, ablest :
allies. - On April the 12th, Lord Eobert Cecil moved a resolution, that the mutilation,
of the reports of the; mspectors-of schools was a violation of the understanding under!
which the, appointment of inspectors had been originally sanctioned. He stated
cases m which the information thus given had been withheld; and maintained that,
as presented the reports were not trustworthy. Mr. Lowe denied that the reports
were garbled but that when the inspectors diverged into discussion-gave
arguments instead of reporting facts-they were returned to them for correction..
Mr. Walter, and others, took part in the debate, asserting that passages in- the
reports were marked; and the resolution was carried by 101 to 93. In the House
of Lords, a few days after, Earl Granville, referring to the resolution passed by the
Commons defended the council of education from the censure passed upon it-
He said that, as President of ¦ the Council, he was the responsible person, morally
and officially ; and he denied, as Mr. Lowe had done, that reports had been
mutilated. He trusted that a committee would be granted, in which all the
circumstances would become known ; and he had no fear of the result. On the
same day m the House of Commons, Mr. Lowe stated that, in consequence ofthe

ED¥aKD baiie

TTJE LCHbCjS PT-U IfTUTG JSNB aPUBLfSULRO COUPANX IIMITED.

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the opposition attack.
vote of April the 12th, he had resigned the office of Vice-President of the Board of
Education ; but he thought that the vote, which he considered imputed to him a
want of veracity, had been passed in mistake. Lord E. Cecil disclaimed the
intention of impeaching Mr. Lowe's veracity. Lord Palmerston, in his charac
teristic manner, regretted the resignation of Mr. Lowe, which all his colleagues
had endeavoured earnestly to prevent. On May the 12th, Sir George Grey
moved for a select committee, to inquire into the practice of the committee of
council of education, with respect to the reports of the inspectors of schools;
rendered desirable, he said, in consequence of the resolution of the House on April
the 12th, which had been arrived at under a mistake. Sir J. S. Pakington
moved an amendment for extending the scope of the inquiry; which, after a
discussion, in which the justification of Mr. Lowe was allowed to have been
complete, was rejected by 142 to 93.
Some few attempts were made to get partial reforms carried, but the anti-
reform feeling of the House was too strong for them to succeed. Mr. Locke
King's bill to extend the franchise in counties to occupiers of the annual value of
£10 was rejected. Mr. Baines's bill to reduce the borough franchise from £10 to
£6 met with a similar fate, in spite of the support of the Chancellor of the
Exchequer, on the ground of the moral character and material progress of the
middle and working classes, and the desirability of deciding such questions before
any popular agitation should arise. Nor was Mr. Berkeley more successful with
the ballot. His motion that, at the next general election, " it was expedient
that a fair trial should be given to the vote by ballot," was rejected by 212 to 123.
Lord Palmerston opposed it, as inconsistent with the character of Englishmen.
Out of the House it began to be whispered that ministers were getting a little
shaky. Under Lord Palmerston's rule, the House of Commons, which had been
elected with the idea of carrying a satisfactory and comprehensive measure of
reform, had exhibited a stronger Conservative feeling every day. The Liberals
themselves, in many instances, consequently gave his lordship a reluctant and
grudging support. That fidelity to party obligations which had characterised the
political history of England, from the days of the Eevolution to the passing of the
Eeform Bill, had, in a great measure, disappeared. By many of the Liberals — that
is, by all who ranged themselves under the banner of John Bright — the Premier was
considered a Tory, from whom nothing of a truly liberal character was to be
expected ; and by many a Tory Lord Palmerston wa,s maintained in office, as a
barrier against further concessions to the spirit of the age. It was also understood
that many of the country gentlemen, headed by Mr. Newdegate, mostly preferred
the sway of Lord Palmerston to that of their necessary leader, Mr. Disraeli ; and
thus no organised effort had been made by the opposition for his overthrow.
In July the ministry had to sustain a fierce attack. A formidable attempt
was made to turn them out by Mr. Disraeli, who moved, on the 4th, that " a
humble address be presented, to thank her majesty for directing the correspondence
on Denmark and Germany, and the protocols of the conference recently held in
London, to be laid before parliament. To assure her majesty that we have heard,
with deep concern, that the sittings of that conference have been brought to a close
without accomplishing the important purposes for which it was convened. To
express to her majesty our great regret that, while the course pursued by her
majesty's government has failed to maintain their avowed policy of upholding the
integrity and independence of Denmark, it has lowered the just influence of this
country in the councils of Europe, and thereby diminished the securities of peace."
It is to be feared that the charge, the very serious charge, thus formally enunciated,
was not altogether baseless. However, it is clear that a Conservative ministry
would not have acted a bit better than did the one of which Lord Palmerston was
the head. The debate was adjourned for four nights; Messrs. Cobden, Layard,
and Osborne respectively moving the adjournment. All the leading men in the
House spoke on the question. At the end of the debate the House divided on the
435

THE division.]

LIFE AND TIMES OF

[A.D. 1864.

amendment of Mr. Kinglake, to which Lord Palmerston had given his assent. On
a division, the result was a majority of 18 for government.

The following is an analysis of the division
on Mr. Disraeli's vote of censure, distinguish
ing the votes of English, Scotch, and Irish
members : — England.
Majority for government ... 41
Voted for government  254
Pairs  6

Liberals absent
Speaker . . .

2G0 51
266

Against  213
Pairs  7

Conservatives absent
Vacant 

220 11 1
232

Scotland.

Majority for government ... 23
Voted for government  35
Paired  2
Absent  1

AgainstPairedAbsent ,

3812 2 1
15

Ireland.

Majority against government . . 46
Voted for government  26
Absent .  3
Paired  1

30

Against  72
Absent  3
Paired  0

75

Majority for government in England
,, „ Scotland

Deduct majority against government
in Ireland ........;
Majority for government

41
23
64
4618

The following Conservative members voted
for government : —
Chapman, J. I Pugh, David.
Dutton, Hon. B. | Legh, Major Cornwall.
Scourfield, John Henry.
The following Liberal members voted against
government : —

Acton, Sir J.
Brady, Dr.
Blake, J. A.
Bowyer, Sir G.
Cogan, W. H. F.
Corbally, M. E.
Greville, Colonel.
Greene, John.
M'Evoy, E. Total

M'Mahon, P.
M'Cann, J.
O'Reilly, M.
O'Donoghue, The.
O'Connor Don, The
O'Ferrall, M.
Scully, V.
Sullivan, M.
Waldron, L.
-18.

The above are all Irish members, and, with
the exception of Colonel Greville, Eoman
Catholics. No English or Scotch Liberal member voted
against government.
Voted for government — Liberals . . 310
,, „ Conservatives 5

Voted against government — Con- \ „*q
servatives  t '
Voted against government — Liberals . 18
Paired for government — Liberals .
Against — Conservatives ....
Absent — Liberals 
,, Conservatives ....
Speaker 
Vacant— East Gloucester ....

-315

-297 9 99
15 11
656

The debate was thus epitomised in the Times, under the date of July 29th :—
" At the end of June, Lord Palmerston and Lord Eussell announced to both Houses
the renewal of the war between Germany and Denmark, and the determination of
the government to remain absolutely neutral. Both ministers stated, in language
which had previously been concerted, the general course of. the negotiations ; and
the reasons of a neutrality which approved itself to the judgment rather than to
the feelings of the community. A concluding intimation that English patience
might perhaps not prove inexhaustible, exposed Lord Palmerston to severe
criticism. After the impunity with which Lord Eussell's warnings had been
disregarded by the German powers, a contingent menace seemed undignified and
436 °

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the debate.
useless. The imprudent outburst, perhaps, betrayed the impatience of the leaders
and organs of the government, at the restraint which may have been imposed on
their activity by cautious colleagues. The eagerness of Mr. Disraeli to expose
Lord Palmerston's indiscretion,' implied a doubt whether parliament could be
induced to condemn the general policy of the government ; but the opposition
had no longer a choice between the loss of a great opportunity, and a regular party
engagement. At a meeting in Lord Salisbury's house, on the following day, it
was resolved that Mr. Disraeli should move a vote of censure ; and the first week
in July was occupied with the most remarkable debate which has occurred in the
present parliament. The advantages of: full parliamentary discussion were never
more thoroughly exemplified. Although the merits of the controversy, the con
duct of the belligerents, and the policy of neutral powers had been sifted and
illustrated by innumerable. writers, the question was not exhausted until conflicting
opinions were brought into immediate juxtaposition. On the last day of the
debate, Lord Malmesbury moved a similar vote of censure in the House of Lords ;
and, accordingly, almost every prominent member of either House was enabled to
share in the discussion. The subject admitted of many independent methods of
treatment; and successive speakers profited by the occasion, not only to support
their respective parties, but, at the same time, to advocate their own peculiar
opinions, and to assert their positions in any future political combinations which
might result from the division. Mr. Disraeli opened the debate by one of those
laborious essays with which he is accustomed, from time to time, to counteract
the prejudice which may attach to brilliancy and genius. Foreseeing that he
would have room for epigrammatic personalities in his reply, he chose, in his
opening act of accusation, to be prolix, documentary, and tedious. He proved, by
copious extracts from the published correspondence, that Lord Eussell had lectured
the Danes, and warned the Germans ; and it was unnecessary to show that good
advice had in both cases been wasted. There is always a presumption that failure
is the consequence of error or incapacity ; and the House of Commons was not
disinclined to condemn diplomatic transactions which had become profoundly un
popular : but Mr. Disraeli was compelled to disclose, both in his language and in
his reticence, the inherent weakness of his case. The government was, in substance,
charged with the ignominious maintenance of peace ; and the opposition was not
ready to pledge itself to war. Mr. Disraeli virtually admitted that, if he had
been in office, he would have insisted on the treaty of 1852 ; and that, nevertheless,
he would ultimately have acquiesced in a compromise, or connived at the violence
of Austria and Prussia. The only alternative which he suggested consisted in a
deference to the Emperor of the French, which would have been even more un
palatable to the House and to the nation than the ministerial policy. Eetro-
spective criticism fell comparatively dead when there was no opportunity of choice.
The vote of censure on the government became a vote of confidence in the opposi
tion ; and, consequently, not a single Liberal member for Great Britain found an
excuse for deserting his party. Mr. Gladstone answered his rival with his wonted
superiority of oratorical fertility and dialectic force. With the readiness of
a consummate advocate, he confuted Mr. Disraeli by the context of his own
citations ; and he persuaded himself, and almost convinced his audience, that Lord
Eussell s changes of tone, from defiance to regret, had been consistent expressions
of a uniform policy deliberately adapted to circumstances. His apology assumed,
that down to January last, menacing language was justified by French co-opera
tion ; and that the English government had exercised a dignified reserve from the
moment at which it found itself alone. As the distinction was not wholly
imaginary, the supporters ofthe government applauded the fluent exposition of a
theory which seemed to reconcile their consciences with their votes ; and this
expression lasted, though subsequent speakers tried to show that Denmark had
relied on the separate assistance of England, both before and after the avowed
secession of France. 437

speeches of the members.] LIFE AND TIMES OF • [a.d. 1864.
" The principal members of the opposition displayed a vigour and ability which,
in some degree, justified their pretensions to office. General Peel, who is regarded
by a section of his party as the destined successor of Mr. Disraeli, delivered an
animated and effective speech against the pacific policy of the government. Lord
Stanley, in consistency with the opinions which he has uniformly professed,
commanded the attention of the House, and the applause of his own party, by
an able argument for peace. The government was assailable in both directions,
as its opponents found it convenient to censure either the vigour of the earlier
despatches or the final adherence to neutrality; but in politics, as in war, con
verging attacks are seldom dangerous, as the defence is conducted on interior
lines. Lord Stanley's able speech was chiefly remarkable as an announcement,
after a lengthened silence, that his anomalous connexion with the Conservative
party still formally exists. Among the opposition speakers who have scarcely yet
attained to the front rank, the .most conspicuous were Lord Eobert Cecil and
Mr. Hardy, both of whom may expect to occupy places in Lord Derby's future
government. In a spirited encounter with Mr. Gladstone, Mr. Hardy sustained
the character of an acute and popular debater. Lord Eobert Cecil would, perhaps,
have been a more formidable antagonist if he had conformed less scrupulously to
the requirements of party. From a careful, if not impartial, study of the dispute,
he had emerged a vehement partisan of Denmark and of war. Ambitious, inde
fatigable, and indomitably pugnacious, he had still to earn the confidence which is
seldom accorded to undisciplined energy. Lord Eobert Cecil's political associates,*
however, have, perhaps, discovered that his vehemence arises not from impracti
cable enthusiasm, but from a polemical temperament, and a logical preference
of extremes. Advancing years, and the enforced silence of office, will, probably,
hereafter correct the impatient vivacity which sometimes disturbs parliamentary
conventions. In the great party debate, Lord Eobert Cecil distinguished himself
by extracting from the correspondence some damaging quotations which had
escaped the industry of his predecessors.
"The occasion was unusually favourable to independent or unattached poli
ticians ; for it was possible, without scandal, to speak against the government, and
to vote against the opposition. Mr. Kinglake strove to reduce Mr. Disraeli's
cumbrous resolution to a simple issue. Mr. Eoebuck, Mr. Horsman, and Mr.
Osborne, may, perhaps, not be desirous of places in the cabinet ; but they fully
understand the immunities of non- official Liberalism. The ministers had the
advantage of seeing their foibles dissected by three of the ablest representatives
of as many classes of friendly critics. Mr. Eoebuck is a plain-spoken person ; Mr.
Horsman is, as Mr. Disraeli said, a superior person ; and Mr.' Osborne is a privileged
person, and a 'chartered libertine' in debate. The imbecility of Lord Eussell,
the folly and incapacity both of the government and the opposition, and the
special errors of Lord Palmerston, were the subjects of as many clever and
amusing disquisitions on the part of these volunteer ' advocates of the accuser.'
Mr. Cobden, with equally bitter feelings of animosity against the government,
pursued a worthier object, in profiting by the temporary discredit of diplomacy,
to recommend his favourite theory of political isolation, and of exclusive national
-devotion to the .pursuit of gain. It is seldom pleasant to be the object of ela
borate invectives, or even of improving moral demonstrations ; but Lord Palmerston,
whose experience and sagacity secure him from undue sensitiveness, may probably
have felt that no better service could be done to his government, than to utter,
with amplification, all the latent dissatisfaction which had endangered the
allegiance of his party, while it had nerved the energies of his opponents. There
was no danger that the House would adopt Mr. Osborne's jokes or Mr. Eoebuck's
exaggerations in practical earnest. Mr. Cobden's theories were still less to be
feared; and Mr. Disraeli and his allies had been forced to admit their want of a
distinctive policy. The ministerial speeches, with the exception of Mr. Gladstone's,
had not been remarkable. Mr. Layard contrived, in some instances, to offend
438

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [affairs of Denmark.

the prejudices of the House; and the Attorney-general, who has deserved and
acquired a great parliamentary reputation, was unusually feeble. Lord Palmerston,
at the close of the debate, seeing victory within his reach, boldly passed from the
immediate question to an enumeration of the merits and services of his govern
ment; and challenged the opposition on the issue of public confidence in the
contending parties. A majority of eighteen, secured notwithstanding the defection
of several Eoman Catholic members, formed almost a dramatic conclusion to the
events of the session. There is now little doubt, that the ministry which came in
with the parliament will witness its natural close. The discussion in the House of
Lords was shorter ; and, on the whole, it was more advantageous to the government.
In Lord Derby's absence, the conduct of the attack devolved on Lord Malmesbury ;
and Lord Eussell and Lord Clarendon spoke with higher authority than Mr.
Layard, or even than Mr. Gladstone. The peers who were present at the debate
gave the government a small majority ; and although the balance was reversed by
the employment of proxies, the collective verdict of 'parliament amounts to con
donation, if not to approval, of the ministerial policy."
As we have given none of Lord Palmerston's speeches on Danish affairs,
the present is an appropriate time for the insertion of the one he delivered on
July 2nd.
Lord Palmerston, in presenting, by command of her majesty, the protocols
relating to the proceedings of the conference, observed that there never was an
occasion on which a minister of the crown had to make a statement to the House
of Commons and the public upbn a subject in which the feelings, the sympathies,
and, he might say^ the anxiety of the country were more deeply engaged. He had,
however, simply to communicate. to the House a short abstract of the proceedings
of the conference, contained in the papers to be laid upon the table. He pro
ceeded, first, to give a general outline of the transactions which 'had led to the
Dano-German quarrel. He described the circumstances out of which the treaty of
1852 had arisen, which contained arrangements assented to by the chief European
powers; sthe object of that treaty, to which certain powers did not assent; the
diplomatic negotiations which foUowed the treaty ; their objects and results. " If
all the parties," 'he remarked, "had been actuated by a spirit of justice, no compli
cations '.would have taken : place ; but events happened which, the- German powers
contended, contravened engagements; and during the discussions the late King of
Denmark died. Fresh subjects of dispute. then arose between the Federal Diet and
Denmark; and her majesty's government! urged that, of Denmark to adopt certain
measures which would. place it in the right; and it did so. But the Diet alleged
that a question had existed as to the title to the duchy of Holstein, and decided to
oceupy that duchy. He was of opinion that the Diet had assumed an authority
which did not belong to it. Execution was, however, decreed by the Diet, and
Federal troops entered the territory to enforce an execution unjust in itself. Then
arose the question of the pretensions ofthe Duke of Augustenburg, and the Germans
determined to enter Sleswig, and to hold it as a material guarantee. When the
Federal troops entered Holstein, the Danes refrained from offering any resistance
to them. In Sleswig, however, their feelings were so strong that they were -resolved
to resist, and did so against superior numbers. Up to the occupation of Holstein,
allthe parties to the treaty of 1852 continued to adhere to its stipulations, and
even Prussia did not dispute its binding nature. Military operations, with which
the House was familiar, had led to the occupation of the whole of Sleswig and part
of Jutland. A conference was proposed to consider means of re-establishing peace,
whieh was agreed to. On the 25th of April the conference met, and continued its
labours till. last Saturday.- The first proposal was for a suspension of hostilities,
and, after some delay, agreed to, for a month. The belligerent powers were then
asked what conditions were required to put an end to the war. Difficulties then
appeared as to the proposals, the nature of which he explained. The neutral
powers agreed.to propose a line of separation in Sleswig, and they proposed that- of
439

A CHINA DEBATE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
the Schlei, which they considered a fair one, giving Denmark a proper frontier.
This proposal was accepted by Denmark, but refused by the German powers, who
required another line. Time pressed, and the neutral powers urged a prolongation
of the suspension of hostilities. With much difficulty an extension of a fortnight
was obtained, which expired on Sunday. Throughout the conference perfect
unanimity had subsisted among the representatives of the neutral powers. As
Earl Eussell had been chosen president of the conference, all the proposals were
made in his name, but they were to .be considered as proposals of all the neutral
powers ; and this was a very important matter. Seeing, apparently, no possibility
of getting the belligerent powers to agree upon a line of separation, they proposed
that a question so narrow should be referred to arbitration. The German powers
accepted the proposal on condition that they might, if they pleased, decline the
line fixed upon by the arbitrator. The answer would have been more frank
and candid if they had simply rejected the proposal. The Danes, on the other
hand, declared against arbitration ; they said they had accepted the line of the
Schlei, and further they would not go. The French representative, by desire of
his government, proposed another arrangement — namely, that an appeal should be
made to the population of the intermediate district between the two lines. This
proposal was negatived by Denmark. Thus the labours of the conference were
brought to a close, and war was to begin again about a question involving, not the
existence of a nation, but the possession of a comparatively small district. Then
it became the duty of her majesty's government to consider seriously the course
they should adopt. They were of opinion that, in this case, might had overridden
right, and that the sympathy of the British nation generally was in favour of the
Danes ; and they should have been glad, if it were possible, to take part with
Denmark. On the other hand, originally she had been in the wrong herself.
The matter in dispute was small ; and it was impossible to lose sight of the resist
ance which we should have to overcome. France had declined to take any active
part in support of Denmark, and Eussia the same. The whole brunt of the effort
to dislodge the German troops from Holstein and Sleswig would fall upon this
country alone. The government had therefore not thought it consistent with their
duty to advise their sovereign to take such a course, and to recommend to parlia
ment such an effort and such a sacrifice. He did not say that, if the war assumed
a different character, and the existence of Denmark as an independent power was
at stake, the position of this country would not be subject to reconsideration. If
there should be any change in the policy of the government, it would be commu
nicated in parliament, if it were sitting; and if not, it would be called together."
A minor debate was that which ensued on China, when the Manchester party and
the Premier, as usual, came into collision. The occasion was Mr. Cobden's moving
a resolution declaring that the policy of non-intervention, observed with regard to
Europe and America, should also be observed with regard to China. It appears,
that after beating the Chinese imperial forces, we were fighting their battles for
them against the Taepings— a new set of rebels who had sprung up suddenly, and
laid waste the fairest portions of the empire ; and would, most probably, have
carried all before them, had it not been for our aid. We had supplied the Chinese
with gun-boats and naval officers. Mr. Cobden said he believed that no one
representing this country in China was satisfied with the present state of things.
The merchants were dissatisfied; Sir F. Bruce seemed no longer to have a policy;
and our military commander recommended the abandonment of the policy which
they had been led to believe was to re-establish the imperial government in China.
Our object in China was simply trade. In the course which had been taken we
had consulted neither our honour nor our interests. Our military operations had
ended most unsatisfactorily, so far as our trade was concerned. China was the only
country where we had sought to extend our trade by force of arms, and it was the
only country where our trade had not progressed. He showed by figures that the
trade had not increased ; and commented on the reckless assertions to the contrary
440 J

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the last session.
which had been made by the Premier. He reviewed the course which had been
taken with respect to China, and contended that the proper course would be to
obtain another trading depot like Hong-Kong. If that were done, trade would
soon come to it. He feared that a similar policy to that which had been , pursued
in China was going to be followed in Japan. He expressed a strong hope that
such would not be the case, and urged that the merchants should there confine
themselves to the treaty ports. He concluded by moving his resolution.
Mr. Layard asked where and how they were to get the second trading
station suggested by the hon. gentleman ? He defended the policy of the govern
ment and declared that under it our trade with China had largely increased.
Our relations with that country were now greatly improved. All that the
o-overnment had done, was to prevent the Taepings from entering the treaty rjorts.
He defended generally the policy which had been pursued.
Lord Naas contended that we ought to have maintained strict neutrality.
The policy we had pursued had been a failure. In proof of this he specially
instanced Captain Sherard Osborne's expedition.
Mr. B. Cochrane and Mr. Liddell took a similar view.
Mr. Gregson did not think our relations with China were in an unsatisfactory
state, nor did he think we had been the cause of the anarchy which prevailed in
China. After some remarks from Mr. Kinglake, Colonel Sykes, and other members,
Lord Palmerston defended the policy of the government. Our wars with
China had been the natural consequence of communication between a highly-
civilised and a half-civilised people. He justified the wars in which we had been
engaged with that country, and said they would have been more frequent had not
the monopoly of the East India Company been abolished. The effect of our policy
had been to increase our trade ; and those persons who wished, by a change of
policy, to narrow our foreign markets, were, in fact, taking the bread out of the
mouths of the working classes of this country, and depriving them of the means
of earning it. He believed the course taken by the government had the
approval of the country, and he was certain it would be of benefit to our
commerce. Mr. Bright severely denounced the manner in which the noble lord had
dealt with the question. He had defended a policy which had been fraught with
unutterable horrors, and had charged Mr. Cobden with disregard of the trading
interests of the country, than which nothing could be more unjust. It was
clear to every member of the House that a policy of intermeddling was a policy of
idiotcy. The last session of parliament in which Lord Palmerston was destined to
figure met on February the 7th. The queen's speech congratulated the Houses on
the pacific condition of Europe, and lamented the continuance of the civil war in
America; it next mentioned the hostile operations against one of the Japanese
chiefs, which had ended in his submission ; hopes were expressed for the speedy
restoration of peace in New Zealand by the submission of the Maories, who, it was
added, would be treated mildly and equitably. The speech next expressed satis
faction with the proposed confederacy of our North American colonies ; promising
that, when the conference of delegates had proposed a scheme, a bill should be laid
before the Houses to carry it into effect. Congratulations were offered on the
prosperous state of India, but with regret for the calamity experienced by Calcutta
and other places from the storms of last November. Parliament voted £1,500,000
for the new law courts, between Carey Street and the Strand. On the motion of
Mr. Doulton, a select committee was appointed to inquire into the best means of
preserving for the public use the forests, commons, and open spaces in and around
the metropolis. Mr. Baines made an unsuccessful attempt to carry his bill for the
reduction of the borough franchise. Mr. Berkeley fared no better with his ballot.
Ministers were beaten by the legal profession. In May, on going into committee
VOL. II. 2 g 441

poland.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
of supply, Mr. Denman moved a resolution, that the annual- certificate duty paid
by attorneys and solicitors should be abolished. It was opposed by the Chancellor
of the Exchequer ; but carried, on a division, by 146 to 143. One sign of the
times was the passing of an act for the more useful application of sewage in Great
Britain and Ireland ; another was one for the establishment of a fire brigade in
the metropolis ; another was the amendment of the laws of partnership, so that the
advance of money by way of loan, to a person engaged, or about to engage, in trade,
" upon a contract in writing with such person that the lender shall receive a rate of
interest varying with the profits," shall not constitute partnership ; another was
an alteration in the management of Greenwich Hospital, in consequence of which
the pensioners, or the majority of them, left it, preferring an increased allowance
instead ; another was to amend the law as to the subscriptions and declarations
made, and oaths to be taken, by the clergy of the established church of England
and Ireland. An act to amend the oaths taken by Eoman Catholic members of
parliament was not so successful ; it was carried through the Commons, but rejected
by the Lords, led by the Earl of Derby.
In April Mr. Gladstone made his financial statement for the year. He said,
that the estimated expenditure, as contained in the Appropriation Bill, had been
£67,000,000 ; while the actual expenditure had been less, to the amount of
£611,000. The estimates of the revenue had been exceeded by the actual receipts
in every branch, and the result was a clear surplus, after deducting £620,000 for
fortifications, of £3,231,000. With this surplus he proposed to effect reductions
which would occasion an estimated loss to the revenue, this year, of £3,778,000,
and in the financial year, of £5,420,000. As usual, Mr. Gladstone demonstrated
the benefit of the free-trade policy pursued by government ever since he
had been in office ; and the protectionists, or Conservatives, had little or nothing-
to say. In March, this session, Mr. Pope Hennessy, as he had done repeatedly, brought
the affairs of Poland under discussion. As this was the last utterance of Lord
Palmerston on Polish affairs, we reprint his speech. His lordship said he regretted
that the question had again been mooted. "The subject of Poland has been
repeatedly discussed in this House. Now, it appears to me that there is a rule
which ought to be strictly observed in bringing subjects forward for discussion.
A motion of this nature ought only to be put upon the paper for the purpose of
obtaining from the House, once and for all, a decisive expression of opinion, which
may have the effect of influencing events; or for the purpose of justifying and
obtaining from the government some action, with a view to giving effect to the
opinion which it at the same time endeavours to extract from the House. Now,
with reference to the first point, this subject has been repeatedly discussed in this
House. The hon. and learned gentleman has himself this evening quoted opinions
expressed on similar occasions to the present ; so that, as far as a deliberate expression
of opinion as to the conduct of Eussia towards Poland is concerned, nothing can be
added to what is already contained in the records of parliamentary proceedings ; and
any less vehement expression of feeling only tends to weaken instead of strengthen
ing what has been done before. I think, therefore, that inasmuch as the object
of the hon. gentleman was to obtain from the House a condemnation of the conduct
of Eussia towards Poland, he would have better consulted the interests of the
country whose wrongs he deplores by allowing the matter to rest upon the
recorded opinion of the House, instead of weakening his cause by conducing to
the supposition that, by the way in which this debate is conducted, the interest
excited in favour of the Poles has in any way subsided. As far as eliciting an
opinion from the House is concerned, I think that the hon. gentleman has mis
judged the course which he should have followed. Then with regard to the second
point— a resolution in this respect should have the object of inducing the
government of this country, acting upon the promptings of parliament, to interfere
m the affairs of Poland for the protection of the Poles. This could be done either
442

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [poland.
, j ___ . . . .
diplomatically or by the employment of force. But the hon. member disclaims
any desire that this country should go to war for Poland ; and, as he says to-night,
he never urged such a course upon the government. I willingly subscribe to that
assertion. He especially always disclaimed any desire that anything falling from
him should be construed into a wish on his part that there should be a war between
England and Eussia on behalf of Poland. But the hon. member, and with him
many other hon. gentlemen in this House, earnestly recommended, on the part of
the government, the employment of diplomatic exertions in favour of Poland.
The government was not only asked to undertake this duty by itself, but we were
strongly urged to enlist the other governments of Europe in our endeavour to
persuade Eussia faithfully to perform her engagements, and to adopt a different
course with the Poles. That action was adopted by us, and failed ; and because
the result of those diplomatic exertions did not realise their anticipations, hon.
gentlemen have made that very failure a matter of reproach to us. The natural
feeUngs of the Eussian people induced them to rally round their government.
They considered those representations as implying an intention to coerce the
independent action of a great nation ; and so far from those representations
producing any good result, I am afraid that they only tended to increase the
irritation which existed in Eussia against the Polish nation. Here, then, sir, the
employment of force is disclaimed by the hon. member, after the failure of
negotiations adopted by the advice and at the earnest entreaty of the hon. gentle
man, and after the failure of similar representations made by nearly all the non-
Polish governments of Europe, who had been induced to make these exertions by
the influence of the English government. But the hon. gentleman is not deterred
by his own disclaimer and by the failure of what he recommended, and he now
propounds a third method of inducing Eussia to perform her engagements —
namely, that this House should make a declaration of forfeiture, and should withhold
the payments to Eussia stipulated by treaty. I would ask, however, what would
be the value of a declaration made by this House that Eussia had forfeited a right
accruing to her by virtue of a European treaty. This House is not a treaty-making
power ; and this House, I most respectfully submit, is not a treaty-breaking power.
If any treaty which the crown of England has contracted has been broken by the
power with which the treaty was concluded, it rests with the crown to represent
its claims, and, if necessary, to make war in their vindication ; but I maintain that
neither the crown nor any one power has the right, by its own declaration, to
emancipate itself from obligations contracted with another power. Therefore, the
first part of the hon. member's motion, declaring that the Emperor of Eussia' has
forfeited his rights to Poland, in consequence of his non-compliance with the
engagements of the treaty of Vienna, would be a declaration unattended by any
practical value, and inconsistent, as I think, with the dignity of the House and the
respect which it owes itself. Then the hon. member makes another proposal. He
proposes, in consideration of the violation by Eussia of the engagements of the
treaty of Vienna, of June, 1815, the discontinuance of the payment on account
of the Eusso-Dutch loan, which was stipulated to Eussia, not by the treaty of June,
1815, but by the treaty of the May preceding ; and, therefore, in no way connected
with the Polish engagements. That engagement on our part had, I repeat, no
connection whatever with Poland. The engagement in connection with the Eusso-
Dutch loan was undertaken on our part in consideration of Eussia supporting the
union of Holland and Belgium. The case of forfeiture was to be the failure of
Eussia to exert her force and means to maintain that union, if it could be
maintained at all. Before the revolution in Belgium no question could arise • but
when that revolution had taken place, and a conference ofthe five powers assembled
the governments of England and of France, under the circumstances, were of
opinion that it was hopeless to expect that the union, which had been broken by
the insurrection, could be re-established with any advantage to Europe, or any
prospect of permanence. Eussia, Austria, and Prussia were of a different opinion.
2 G 2 443

palmerston's speech.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.,
They wished the union to be re-established by force; and one great object of the
conference was to press upon those three powers to acquiesce in what we considered
to be a fact irreversible, except at the risk of a general European war. Eussia
very reluctantly consented to do that which the English government wished —
to agree to the separation of Belgium from Holland : but then Eussia said —
" ' By the letter of the treaty, by the separation of Belgium from Holland,
if not prevented by Eussia, or if Eussia has not used her best efforts to prevent it,
she forfeits the payment to her of the amount insured to her on account of the
Eusso-Dutch loan ; and, therefore, as it is at the request of England, at her earnest
desire, that we consent to the abandonment of the union, it would be the height of
injustice for England to deprive us of the annual payments which, under the
former treaty, she undertook to make to us.'
"That observation was so entirely just and equitable, that the English
government had no answer to make ; and a new treaty was signed, agreeing that
the payments should be continued, upon Eussia consenting to the separation of
Belgium from Holland ; and that in case, at any future time, a different arrange
ment should be contemplated, Eussia should not concur in such arrangement
without the consent of Great Britain ; pointing to some different position of
Belgium, which might be deemed inconsistent with the interests of Great Britain.
But for us to turn round now, and to say to Eussia, ' Because you, Eussia, have
misconducted yourself with regard to Poland; because you have broken the
engagements in the treaty of June, 1815, with regard to Poland, we are therefore
to break our engagements founded upon a different treaty, and based upon wholly
different considerations,' would be to do that which, I hope, this House and the
government would ever be ashamed of even contemplating as possible. But see to
what an impotent conclusion the hon. and learned gentleman comes. He is
eloquent upon the wrongs of Poland, which nobody denies ; declaring that great
European rights have been violated ; asserting that in which I do not concur —
that wherever there is a right there is an obligation to enforce that right. I deny
that proposition altogether. ' Where there is a right, there is also a discretion to
enforce it or not, according to circumstances — to the facility or the difficulty of the
task. But see, again, to what an impotent conclusion the hon. gentleman comes.
Here is an hon. member who arraigns Eussia before the tribunal of the world for
breaking her engagements, for acting the tyrant towards a deservedly commiserated
people, and for having committed cruelties which, in a former motion upon this
subject, he designated in terms which were not, as I thought, very proper for this
House to adopt; but, having arraigned Eussia for one of the greatest crimes
recorded in history, as my hon. and gallant friend behind' me has stated, the hon.
member thinks it would be consistent with the dignity of this great country to
sconce Eussia of a payment of some £70,000 a year. If the breach of engagements
on the part of Eussia be such as the hon. member thinks, and as other hon.
members agree with him in thinking it to be, then that might be a cause of war ;
we might take up arms, if we could do so with effect, to vindicate the rights of
Poland, and the engagements of the violated treaties ; but I must say it would be
a thing altogether unworthy of this House, and unbecoming to the country, that
we should show our sense of a great European wrong by putting into our pockets,
instead of paying into the Eussian treasury, a sum which, by a solemn treaty, we
had undertaken to pay to Eussia. Whatever might be the feelings of the House,
it would be a clear violation of an engagement— an engagement wholly distinct
from the question of Poland— one not to be affected at all by the conduct of Eussia
towards Poland ; and, therefore, I hope that this House will not agree to the
motion of the hon. gentleman ; inasmuch as I think a record of its opinion upon
the conduct of Eussia has been sufficiently made in its debates ; and the means
by which the hon. gentleman proposes to give effect to that opinion, is one that it
is not fitting to the dignity of the House, or the good faith of the country, to
adopt." 444

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [speech on cobden's death.
In April, the great free-trader, and apostle of peace — Eichard Cobden —
died. On the order of the day for going into committee of supply, Lord Pal
merston, evidently under strong emotion, said — "Mr. Speaker, it is impossible
for this House to have that order put, without calling to its mind the great loss
which this House and the country have sustained by the event which took place
yesterday morning. Sir, Mr. Cobden, whose loss we deplore, occupied a prominent
position, both as a member of this House and as a member of the British nation.
I do not mean, in the few words I have to say, to disguise or to avoid stating that
there were many matters upon which a great number of people differed from Mr.
Cobden, and I among the rest ; but those who differed from him the most, never
could doubt the honesty of his purpose, or the sincerity of his convictions. They
felt that his object was' the good of his country, however they might differ on
particular questions from him as to the means by which that end was to be
accomplished. But we all agree in burying in oblivion every point of difference,
and think only of the great and important services he rendered to our common
country. Sir, it is many years ago since Adam Smith elaborately and conclusively,
as far as argument could go, advocated, as the fundamental principles of the
wealth of nations, freedom of industry, and unrestricted exchange of the objects and
results of industry. These doctrines were inculcated by learned men — by Dugald
Stewart and others; and were also taken up, in process of time, by leading
statesmen, such as Mr. Huskisson, and those who agreed with him: but the
barriers which long-established prejudice, honest and conscientious prejudice, had
raised against the practical application of those doctrines for a long series of years,
prevented their coming into use as instruments of progress in the country. To
Mr. Cobden it was reserved, by his untiring industry, his indefatigable personal
activity, the indomitable energy of his mind, and, I will say, that forcible and
Demosthenic eloquence with which he treated all the subjects which he took in
hand— it was reserved to Mr. Cobden, aided, no doubt, by a great phalanx of
worthy associates— by my right hon. friend the President of the Poor-Law Board,
and by Sir E. Peel, whose memory will ever be associated with the principles
Mr. Cobden so ably advocated— it was reserved, I say, to Mr. Cobden, by exertions
which never were surpassed, to carry into practical application those abstract
principles, with the truth of which he was so deeply impressed, and which, at last
gained the acceptance of all reasonable men in the country. He rendered an
inestimable and enduring benefit to our country by the result of those exertions.
But great as were Mr. Cobden's talents, great as was his industry, and eminent as was
his success, the disinterestedness of his mind more than equalled all of these. He was
a man of great ambition; but his ambition was to be useful to his country: and
that ambition was amply gratified. When the present government was formed,
Lwt M1Sen E^a^J- ^her majest? t0 offer t0 Mr" Cobden a «eat in the
I SL a' ^ dedined; and frankly t0ld me' tbat he thoug*t he and
toereforp hi ^a ! T* manZ imPortant principles of political action; and
tiation of wV b T n°\f th.er fmfortably for me or for himself, join the adminis-
Cobden tW TOS ^ head" * tMnk h& WaS Wr0DS : but this : wil1 saJ of Mr,
S^tSScS0^ ^T, £tl°n& he ma? W differed from li upon
Sact with htP -^P !"' °r thG aPPllcafcio11 of tnose principles, could come into
forthtxn^wK Z ^h0Ut,ca"yfgaway the strongest personal e'steem and regard
tor the man with whom he had the misfortune not entirely to agree. Well sir
TiHl f ach;e™ts °f Mr. Cobden were, in the first place! the abrogation
of those laws which regulated the importation of corn, and the great develof ment
which that gave to the industry of the country ; and the commereiTl arranSnts
I S tt neS°tiated ^ France, which paved the way and tendeTgreativ to
445

MR. edmunds.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
have gratified the crown to bestow for important services rendered to the country,
and which I think it would not have been at all derogatory for him to accept.
But the same disinterested spirit which actuated all his conduct, whether in
private or in public, led him to decline even the acknowledgments which would
properly have been made for the services he had rendered. Well, sir, I can only
say that we have sustained a loss which every man in the country will feel. We
have lost a man who may be said to have been peculiarly emblematical of the
constitution under which we have the happiness to live ; because he rose to great
eminence in this House, and acquired an ascendency in the public mind, not by
virtue of any family connexion, but solely and entirely by means of the. power and
vigour of his mind, that power and vigour being applied to purposes eminently
advantageous to the country. Sir, Mr. Cobden's name will be for ever engraved
on the most interesting pages of the history of this country ; and I am sure there
is not one in this House who does not feel the deepest regret that we have lost one
of its proudest ornaments, and that the country has been deprived of one of her
most useful servants." Let us add, that in this generous eulogy, Lord Palmerston,
whose remarks were greeted with cordial cheers, was not alone. The eminent
leader of the opposition joined in a few graceful words. Perhaps, for the first
time in the House, Cobden's friend and faithful colleague, John Bright, com
manded the sympathies of all his hearers. His speech was short, yet eloquent.
Evidently overwhelmed with grief, and scarcely able to speak on account of it, he
said — " I feel that I cannot address the House on this occasion. Every expression
of sympathy which I have heard has been most grateful to my heart; but the
time which has elapsed since I was present when the manliest and gentlest spirit
that ever actuated or tenanted the human form took its flight is so short, that I
dare not even attempt to give utterance to the feelings by which I am oppressed.
I shall leave it to some calmer moment, when I may have an opportunity of
speaking to some portion of my countrymen the lesson which, I think, will be
learnt from the life and character of my friend. I have only to say that, after
twenty years of most intimate and most brotherly friendship with him, I little
knew how much I loved him until I found that I had lost him." Well might Mr.
Bright be sad. In the storm and battle of parliamentary life, he well knew that he
could never have such a one by his side again.
One of Lord Palmerston's last speeches in the House was to announce the
resignation of the Lord Chancellor. This reminds us that we must here give- the
history, as it was termed, of the Westbury scandal.
On March 7th, the Lord Chancellor explained to the House of Lords- the
circumstances connected with the resignation of Mr. L. Edmunds, of the offices
of clerk of the patents, clerk of the commissioners of patents, and reading
clerk of the House of Lords, He said that Mr. Edmunds had been accused of
defalcation in his office of clerk of the patents; an investigation had taken place;
Mr. Edmunds had paid over £7,872, which, he said, was all that was due ; but
that there were other claims amounting to £9,100. He (the Lord Chancellor) had
intended laying these facts before the House immediately on its assembling ; but
delayed doing so at the request of Mr. Edmunds, who, after a few days, sent in
his resignation. On consulting with the law-officers of the crown, he found there
were no grounds for a criminal prosecution, and, therefore, he suffered Mr. Ed
munds' petition for a retiring pension to be presented to a committee of the
House, who had granted him £800 a year, which grant would only be in force
according to the result of the investigation for which he was about to move. He
added, that the office of clerk of the patents, which required to be filled imme
diately, had been given to his son, as also that of reading clerk to the House.
The Earl of Derby thought that undue haste had been used in accepting the
resignation; the facts should have been laid before the House, which would then
have decided whether the misconduct in one office should involve the loss of the
other. He hoped, however, that the investigation would be a searching one, and
446 ' s

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the lords' committee.
would extend to every transaction involved. No vote was taken, but a committee
of inquiry was appointed. This was the least that could have_ been done. Public
suspicion had been aroused, and most alarming rumours were in circulation.
In the Westbury scandal many were involved. Mr. Edmunds, it appears,
was appointed to the clerkship of patents in 1833, during the Chancellorship of
Lord Brougham, at a salary of £400 a year. The Times asserted, " that three-
fourths of that salary — in other words, £300 a year — have been, from that time to
the present, paid over, under the direction of Mr. William Brougham, the brother
of Lord Brougham, and late Master in Chancery— £100 to Mr. William Brougham
himself, and £200 to keep down the interest of a mortgage of £5,000 on the
landed property of Lord Brougham. If this transaction be admitted to be blame
less, it will be made clear that the profits of public offices are to be appropriated,
not to those who discharge their duties, but in some way or other for the benefit of
the persons by whom they are conferred. Then, as regards the defalcations of
Mr. Edmunds, there was a culpable laxity. The charge is, that fees have been
received on behalf of the public, which fees should at once have been paid over to
the Exchequer." How came it, people asked, that Mr. Edmunds should be able
to retain such fees in his own hands ; and that he was allowed to resign, and to
resign with a retiring pension, as if, instead of being a defaulter to a large extent,
he had served the pubUc faithfully and well ? There the Chancellor was much to
blame. It was certain that Mr. Edmunds, instead of being prosecuted, as he should
have been, was allowed to resign his situation ; that his petition for a pension was
presented by the Lord Chancellor, and that a pension was granted him. It was not
denied that the Lord Chancellor, who presented the petition, had official know
ledge of the case ; nor did the members of the committee assert that they were in
ignorance of the rumours which were in circulation. They must have known that
Mr. Edmunds, by his conductj had forfeited aU claim to a pension ; and whilst we
blame them, we must blame the Chancellor much more, who must have known all
the facts, arid, by his silence in the matter, helped to lead the committee astray. It
must be admitted, that all the noble lords who took part in the discussion, con
curred in regretting, if not censuring, the reticence of the Lord Chancellor on this
head. The fact that Mr. Edmunds thought proper, or, what is more probable,
found it unavoidable, to make a clean breast of it, did not entitle him to stand in
the position of a person void of offence ; and though the propriety of using his
confession to his prejudice in support of a criminal prosecution might have been
questioned, it was unpardonable that he should be allowed to hold himself forth as
a meritorious public servant entitled to a retiring pension. But when the Lord
Chancellor designed the offices thus vacated for members of his own family, the
course he pursued became still more imprudent. Altogether, the more the case
was discussed the worse it seemed. The . idefenee of the Chancellor was most un
satisfactory. He allowed an officer, guilty of misconduct, to evade legal trial ; he
allowed him to receive a pension; and he placed a relative of his own in the vacant
office. The report of the committee was very damaging to Lord Westbury. They ex
pressed their regret that " Mr. Edmunds was allowed to resign, and thereby withdraw
himself from the impending inquiry before the Lord Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor."
They were of opinion," that the inquiry ought to have proceeded ; and if the charges
which Mr. Edmunds had been formally called upon to answer had been established
(as, in the judgment of the committee, the principal part of them must have
been), he should at once have been dismissed, leaving it open to future considera
tion whether ulterior proceedings ought to have been taken against him." The
committee considered the following four charges against Mr. Edmunds proved : the
misapplication to other than public purposes of the discount on stamps purchased
with public money ; the retention, in his own hands, of fees received for patents ;
the transferring to his own account, and appropriating to his own use, certain
sums of public money; lastly, the retaining, in his own hands, a sum of £399,
447

the chancellor resigns.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
paid on behalf of a defaulting clerk, to make good deficiencies. The committee
blamed the Lord Chancellor for suffering Mr. Edmunds to resign with a retiring
pension. In their opinion, it was incumbent on him, who presented the petition
of Mr. Edmunds to the House of Lords, in some manner to have apprised the
parliament office committee of the circumstances under which the resignation of
the clerkship had taken place, and with which the Lord Chancellor was officially
acquainted, and not to leave them to decide the question of a pension, with no
clearer light than that which could be derived from vague and uncertain rumours.
" The committee, however, have no reason to believe that the Lord Chancellor was
influenced by an unworthy or unbecoming motive in thus abstaining from giving
information to the committee." With regard to the payment of £300 a year out of
Mr. Edmunds' office, first to Mr. James, and then to Mr. William Brougham, the
committee remark, that " the application of the money is immaterial ; any private
arrangement that a portion of the salary of a public officer, which is the remunera
tion of his services, shall be applied to the benefit of any other person, is a grave
offence against public morality, and deserves the severest condemnation." They
acquitted Lord Brougham of any knowledge whatever of the transaction. The
committee rejected a paragraph which .omitted all exculpation of the motives of
the Lord Chancellor, by a majority of one — five Tories voting for it, and six
Whigs against it ; and they refused to recommend the House to reconsider its
former opinion with regard to. the pension of Mr. Edmunds.
But the matter was not allowed to rest here. The report, from which we
have quoted, was laid on the table of the House of Lords, May 4th. On the 9th,
on the motion of Earl Granville, the resolution of the House, for granting a
retiring pension of £800 a year to Mr. Edmunds, was rescinded.
Further action was taken in the matter. In the House of Commons, on the
3rd of July, Mr. Hunt, in a speech of great extent, moved a resolution — " That the
evidence given in the case of Leonard Edmunds, and in that of the Leeds Bank
ruptcy Court, showed a laxity of practice and want of caution, on the part of the
Lord Chancellor, that was highly reprehensible, and calculated to throw discredit
on the administration of the high offices of state." The Lord Advocate defended
the judgment of the committee, which had absolved the Lord Chancellor from
blame. Mr. Bouverie moved an amendment, acquitting the Lord Chancellor of any
corrupt motives in the appointment to the Leeds Bankruptcy Court; but affirming
that the granting of the pension was highly reprehensible, as showing a " laxity of
practice and want of caution, with regard to the public interests, on the part of
the Lord Chancellor in sanctioning the grant of retiring pensions to public
officers against whom grave charges were pending." Mr. Hunt withdrew his
amendment in favour of this; and, after .a long debate, Mr. Bouverie's amendment
was carried unanimously. Against the vote of the House of Commons, Lord
Westbury found it impossible to stand.
Nor even here did the matter end. One of the persons implicated in these
dirty transactions, was the Eev. Mr. Harding, rector of St. Anne's, Wandsworth;
and a meeting of his parishioners was held in August, which almost unanimously
censured his conduct. From the evidence, which came before the House of Com
mons, it appeared that an appointment was given to Mr. Welch in the Leeds
Bankruptcy Court, by means of pecuniary inducements alone. According to the
report, it appeared that a gentleman of the name of Welch, wishing to obtain
an appointment in the gift of the Lord Chancellor, applied to the Hon. Eichard
Bethell to use his influence with his father to obtain the appointment ; and a
sum of £500 passed from the hands of Mr. Welch to Mr. Bethell, with a view to
get that influence. Mr. Harding was employed by Mr. Bethell to go to Mr.
™«f *Je mo°ey- Mr- Harding contended that there was a further sum
ot £1,000 to be paid by Mr. Welch on his getting the appointment : and the
~gcemo°, ^ th£ f\\ HardinS was to nave one-third of that £1,000— namely,
£333 6s. 8(2. Mr. Bethell got into difficulties, and left the country because of

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [parliament dissolved.

those difficulties. He did not obtain the £1,000 from Mr. Welch; but Mr.
Harding applied for his third. The application was repudiated by Mr. Welch
altogether. Mr. Harding then sent down another clergyman to Leeds to get the
money. This journey was in vain. Mr. Harding then employed his solicitor ; and
intimated that the payment of the money would screen Mr. Welch from an
exposure of the facts. He worked on the latter gentleman's fears, and succeeded
in getting his claim satisfactorily settled. It was in evidence, that his clerical
friend kept out of the way, to avoid being served with the Speaker's warrant. He
had an interview with Mr. New, a respectable solicitor, who had put to him this
practical question. Mr. New asked him if he had mentioned the matter to others.
Mr. Harding said he had not. Then, said Mr. New, he knew from whom the
anonymous letters he had received had proceeded; because nobody would have
written them who did not know of the transaction. On this matter the committee
reported as follows : — " Your committee have given the more prominent features
and statements on this matter : for minute details they refer to the evidence of
parties concerned. The statement of Mr. Harding is irreconcilable with those of
Mr. BetheU and Mr. Welch. Mr. Harding's statement, if true, discloses a corrupt
bargain between the three parties. If false, it is a gross attempt at extortion.
One or other'of these conclusions would be established by judicial investigation of
the facts of the case ; but as each of them involves the liability to a charge of a
highly penal nature, your committee, not having the opportunity of examining
witnesses upon oath, or of bringing the parties inculpated to a formal trial, pur
posely abstain from expressing an opinion as to which of the two views above
mentioned should be adopted. They consider it their duty to observe, that the
indisputable facts are such as to render it essential to the public interest, that the
case should, as soon as possible, be made the subject of legal investigation." But,
after all, no further steps were taken.
On July 5th, after the royal assent had been given by commission to 212
bUls, the Lord Chancellor gave an explanation of his resignation ; glanced at the
measures of law reform he had introduced ; and thanked the House for the kind
ness uniformly displayed towards himself. His bitterest opponents could have
felt no resentment then. We are all poorer for the loss of great reputations, or
when dishonour is done to a noble name. Happily for us the spectacle is as rare
as it is sad. In public life seldom is any scandal able to sully the ermine of our
great men. Lord Palmerston must have felt the shame and humiliation deeply.
As Sir E. Bethell, the Lord Chancellor had lent him most efficient aid. He him
self, in the matter of patronage, had been remarkably exempt from blame.
Sorrowful, indeed, must his lordship have been as the Lord Chancellor, in his old
age, resigned his stately office, and sailed away to bury his resentment and grief in
a foreign land.
But the time was fast arriving when the Premier was to have done with
such vexations and disappointments. On the 6th of July, the Commons were
summoned, and the queen's speech was read by commission. It thanked the
houses tor several of the measures they had' passed, for the supplies voted, and for
tneir attention to the business of the country. It congratulated them on the
general prosperity, the beneficial results from remission of taxation, and the
tmancial arrangements. It announced the friendly relations existing with all
tne European powers, and the cessation of the war in America. Finally, it
announced the immediate dissolution of the House of Commons, and the issue of
—Ji? & T .ele"tlon- Little thought M.P.'s, as they hastened home thus
^W I^H7^ n ^ar-some to recruit in their pleasant houses, others to'
twl, S /T1 ^f £ c°ntested election ; almost all of them to swear that
th% loot nJ£Tt f ^Imerston a cordial support-that never again should
they look upon his face or listen to his words; that: when next they met, he would
wouldTth^ ^ ^S-5 that a11 of him which would remai» to them then^
would be the memory of his name and fame. ¦ 449

Greece.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
Our poet-laureate makes King Arthur say —
" The sequel of to-day unsoldiers all
The goodliest fellowship of famous knights
Whereof this world holds record. Such a sleep
They sleep — the men I loved. I think that we
Shall never more, at any future time,
Delight our souls with talk of knightly deeds,
Walking about the gardens 'and the halls
Of Camelot."
It may be that some such thought may have passed through the Premier's
brain as, for the last time, he caught the Speaker's eye ; or listened, for the last
time, to the door-keeper's exclamation, " Who goes home ?"

CHAPTEE XXII.
FOREIGN AJTAIES, AND THE COLONIES.
Sidney Smith, in one of his letters, complained terribly of the way in which Lord
Melbourne suffered Lord Palmerston to do as be pleased; and intimated that,
under Lord Grey, such license would not have been allowed. Earl Eussell, we
may imagine, as Lord Palmerston's Foreign Secretary, would, in his way, attempt
to be as independent as Lord Palmerston. We cannot conceive, however, of the
latter completely abandoning his favourite occupation of putting the continent to
rights. The noble viscount's knowledge and experience, besides, must have been of
great assistance to the earl, who understood reform questions better than those
relating to foreign affairs. We may, therefore, presume that the policy pursued
and recommended by Earl Eussell was that of his chief, who would control and
guide, especially in difficult and delicate matters, and would take care that the
earl did not make the mistakes of which he was guilty when he went to Vienna.
At the same time it must be confessed that the foreign policy of Lord Palmerston's
later years was not that of his youth ; that he had become far more peaceable and
forbearing; that he had changed somewhat from what he was, when he had
drank — " Delight of battle with his peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy."
It is difficult to write about foreign policy, which is always more or less
contradictory and unintelligible ; arising from the fact that, while from the nature
of our parliamentary government it is too democratic for foreign princes, it is,
from the same cause, too autocratic for foreign people. But it is clear that we
had got into a transition state ; and that we were constantly bewildered by the
contradiction between our former interference and our latter practice of giving
no practical aid to our friends, but only advice gratis, in which Earl Eussell's art
was great. In October, 1862, there was a change in the government of Greece — King
Otho was compelled to abdicate. Immediately afterwards Earl Eussell com
municated with the French and Eussian governments, urging upon them that the
protocols and treaties of 1829, 1830, and 1832, by which any member of the
reigning families of the three powers was prohibited from occupying the throne of
Greece, should be held binding. The Eussian government agreed at once to this
proposal ; but the French government did so with a great deal of reserve. Lord
Eussell then wrote to our ambassador at Greece in these terms : — "Her maiestv's
450 J J

A.D. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [MEXICO.

government have no desire to influence the decision which the Greeks may come to
as to the choice of their new sovereign, except to remind them that, by the
agreements and engagements entered into between France and England, and
Eussia, no person connected with the royal and imperial family of either of the
three powers can be placed upon the throne of Greece." As soon, however, as Lord
Eussell saw Eussia hesitating as to whether Prince Leuchtenburg was excluded, the
candidature of Prince Alfred assumed a new character. The Greeks became more
and more enthusiastic on behalf of the prince; and Lord Eussell did nothing
till December, when Mr. Elliot was despatched to Athens on a special mission.
On the 5th of February, 1863, Mr. Elliot made this speech to a Greek deputation
which waited on him : —
" I am charged by my government to notify to the provisional government of
Greece, that her majesty's government have, with the concurrence of the Emperor
of the French, agreed to recommend the Prince Ernest, of Saxe-Coburg, as a
suitable candidate for the throne of Greece. The emperor eagerly accepted this
proposition made by England ; and Prince Ernest accepts the throne that is offered
him, ,ori condition that he shall continue to hold, so long as he may consider it
desirable to do so, his hereditary states. The prince, once proclaimed King of
Greece, will propose to the national assembly, as his successor, one of the sons of his
cousin Augustus and the Princess Clementine, daughter of Louis Philippe, late
King of France. This prince is seventeen years of age, and will be educated in the
faith of the orthodox Greek church."
On the 4th, the national assembly of Greece declared the throne to be
forfeited by King Otho and his family ; and that Prince Alfred had been elected
king of the Greeks by 230,000 votes. On the same day, it was stated in the Coburg
Zeitung, that the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, who had been proposed, had finally
decUned its acceptance. In this dilemma England again commenced a search in
favour of a suitable candidate. Nor was it long before one was found. Prince
WilUam George of Denmark was elected King of Greece by the national assembly,
and on the 30th of March was, with the sanction of England and France,
unanimously proclaimed as George I. On the 22nd of April, Prince Christian, of
Denmark, announced that, the obstacles being removed, he accepted definitely the
throne of Greece for his son. We did all we could to make his new kingship
comfortable, and handed over to him the Ionian Islands, which had been placed
under our care by the treaty of Vienna. In September, the Ionian assembly
declared in favour of uniting the islands to the kingdom of Greece ; returned
thanks to Great Britain and Queen Victoria for benefits received, and for the
realisation of the wishes of the people for a restoration of their nationality ; and to
the other protecting powers for their ready concurrence in the measure. In the
same month the King of Greece, after having visited the Courts of France and
England, arrived at Athens, and was enthusiastically received.
In October, 1861, without any expression of public opinion, we were all
much surprised at learning that a convention had been signed at Lisbon, by the
representatives of England, France, and Spain, for intervention in Mexico, to
enforce certain pecuniary claims against the Mexican government. Our troops, as
did those of Spain, soon came home again, when it was found that the aim of the
French emperor was to establish a new form of government. Left to herself,
France conquered Mexico, and placed an Austrian archduke, Maximilian— the
only one of the archdukes at all popular, or who had shown any political
ability— on the throne of the new empire ; which, however, had no vitality. It
was maintained alone by the French arms; and, as they were withdrawn,
it fell. J '
We had at this time, a little squabble with Brazil. The British legation at
Kio Janeiro having demanded in vain an indemnity for the plunder of a British
vessel wrecked on the coast, and also an apology for the imprisonment of some
British naval officers, caused five merchant vessels to be seized. The vessels were
451

letter of louis napoleon.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
given up on an undertaking to pay the indemnity, to be settled in London ; the
other question was referred to the arbitration of the King of the Belgians. As we
were clearly in the wrong, that sagacious monarch was not long in making up his
mind. In his award, made known on the 18th of June, 1863, he said — "That, in
the mode in which the laws of Brazil have been applied towards the English
officers, there was neither premeditation of offence, nor offence, to the British
navy." In 1863, the aspect of the continent was unpleasant. Germany and Denmark
were at loggerheads. Poland was in rebellion against Eussia. Austria was, as
usual, in financial and political difficulties. In short, there was every prospect of
a European war. Under such circumstances, the Emperor of the French addressed
the following letter to the Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date,
Paris, November 4th : —
" Madam, my Sister,— In face of the events which daily arise, and press
themselves on my attention, I deem it indispensable to impart my whole thoughts
to the sovereigns to whom the destiny of nations is confided.
" On all occasions, when great convulsions have shaken the foundations
and deranged the limits of states, solemn compacts have followed to reduce to
order the new elements, and to recognise, while revising them, the changes that
have been effected.
" Such was the object of the treaty of Westphalia in the seventeenth century,
and of the negotiations of Vienna, in 1815. It is on this last foundation that the
political edifice of Europe now rests; and, nevertheless, your majesty is not
ignorant that it is crumbling to pieces on all sides.
"If one considers attentively the situation of the different countries, it is
impossible not to admit that on almost all points the treaties of Vienna are
destroyed, modified, disregarded, or menaced. Hence there are duties without rule,
rights without title, pretensions without restraint — a peril the more formidable,
since the improvements produced by civilisation, which has united peoples together
by an identity of material interest, would render war still more destructive.
" This is a matter for serious reflection. Let us not delay taking a decision
until sudden and irresistible events disturb our judgment, and draw us, in spite
of ourselves, in opposite directions. I now, therefore, • propose to your majesty
to regulate the present, and to secure the future by means of a congress.
" Summoned to the throne by Providence and the will of the French people,
but brought up in the school of adversity, it is, perhaps, less allowable for me than
for others to ignore the rights of sovereigns and the legitimate aspirations of
peoples. Thus I am ready, without any preconceived system, to bring to an
international council a spirit of moderation and justice, the ordinary portion of
those who have undergone so many different trials.
" If I take the initiative in such an overture, I do not yield to an impulse of
vanity, but because I am the sovereign to whom ambitious projects have mostly
been attributed. I have it at heart to prove, by this frank and loyal overture, that
my sole object is to arrive, without convulsion, at the pacification of Europe. If
this proposal be agreed to, I beg your majesty to accept Paris as the place of
. meeting. " If the princes, allies and friends of France, should think fit to enhance by
their presence the authority of the deliberations, I shall be proud to offer them
cordial hospitality. Europe will, perhaps, see some advantage in the capital whence
the signal of confusion has so often arisen, becoming the seat of conferences
destined to lay tbe basis of a general pacification.
"I take the opportunity of renewing to you the assurances of the high
esteem and inviolable friendship with which I am,
"Madam, my Sister,
" Your Majesty's good Brother,
" Napoleon."
452

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [earl russell's reply.
After the receipt of this important epistle had been' acknowledged, the
following despatch, dated from the Foreign Office by Earl Eussell, November 12th,
was sent to Earl Cowley, as a reply : —
" My Lord, — Her majesty the queen having been pleased to refer to her con
fidential servants a letter of the Emperor Napoleon, addressed to her majesty on
the subject of a congress, I proceed to inform you of the view which her majesty's
government take of the proposal contained in it.
" The letter invites her majesty to take part in a congress, to be held in Paris,
on the affairs of Europe.
" I am commanded, in the first place, to inform your excellency that her
majesty's government see in this step a proof of the interest taken by his imperial
majesty in the welfare of Europe.
" I wiU now proceed to remark on the ground stated for this proposal, and
then examine the proposal itself.
" His imperial majesty observes, that on all occasions when great convulsions
have shaken the foundations and deranged the limits of states, solemn compacts
have been entered into, having for . their object to reduce to order the new
elements, and to recognise, while revising them, tbe changes that have been
effected. Such was the object of the treaty of Westphalia, in the seventeenth
century, and of the negotiations of Vienna in 1815. On this last foundation the
political edifice of Europe now rests ; and nevertheless, his imperial majesty observes,
it is crumbUng to pieces on all sides.
" The emperor goes on to state that, if the situation of the different countries
is attentively considered, it is impossible not to admit that, in almost all points,
the treaties of Vienna are destroyed, modified, disregarded, or menaced.
" When so important a proposal as that which the emperor has put forth is
made to rest on certain grounds, it is our duty to examine carefully the grounds
themselves. "Nearly half a century has elapsed since the treaties of 1815 were signed.
The work was somewhat hurried by the necessity of giving repose to Europe°after
so many convulsions. Yet the changes made in this period of fifty years, have
not been more than might have been expected from the lapse of time, the
progress of opinion, the shifting policy of governments, and the varying exigencies
of nations. If we take half a century from the peace of Westphalia to 1700,
or a similar period from the peace of Utrecht to 1763, we shall find those periods
marked by extensive changes, as well as the period which has elapsed between
1815 and 1863.
" Yet it was not thought necessary at the epochs mentioned to proceed to a
general revision either of the treaty of Westphalia or the treaty of Utrecht.
" Jt is tne conviction of her majesty's government, that the main provisions
ol the treaty of 1815 are in full force ; that the greater number of these provisions
haye not been m any way disturbed ; and that on these foundations rests the
balance ot power in Europe.
•f - "a If' inst®ad of saying that the treaty of Vienna has ceased to exist, or that
it -is destroyed, we inquire whether certain portions of it have been modified,
disregarded, or menaced, other questions occur. Some of the modifications which
nave taken place have received the sanction of all the great powers, and now form
part of the public law of Europe.
T= .A1" ** P™Posed to Sive tflose changes a more general and solemn sanction ?
Is such a work necessary ? Will it contribute to the peace of Europe ?
»t,h «.?* P TS °f ^treaty of Vienna have been disregarded or set aside,
powers ofE^ *"** * ^ ^ n0t ^ neo^ de *™ ^ a11 ^
recognition a'Tctiontotore SS^T" "** ^ ^ ****> ^ * that
"Lastly come those parts of the treaty of Vienna which are menaced; and
453

letter of m. drouyn de lhuys.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
upon those portions the most important questions of all arise. What is the
nature of the proposals to be made on this subject by the Emperor Napoleon ?
In what direction would they tend ? And, above all, are they, if agreed to by a
majority of the powers, to be enforced by arms ?
" When the sovereigns or ministers of Austria, France, Prussia, Eussia, and
Great Britain, met at Verona in 1823, upon the affairs of Spain, the first four
of those powers carried into effect their resolutions by means of armed forces, in
spite of the protest of Great Britain. Is this example to be followed at the
present congress in case of disagreement ? Upon all these points her majesty's
government must obtain satisfactory explanations before they can come to any
decision upon the proposal made by the emperor.
"Her majesty's government would be ready to discuss with France and other
powers, by diplomatic correspondence, any specified questions upon which a
solution might be attained, and European peace thereby more securely estab
lished. " But they would feel more apprehension than confidence from the meeting
of a congress of sovereigns and ministers without fixed objects, ranging over the
map of Europe, and exciting hopes and aspirations which they might find them
selves unable either to gratify or to quiet.
" Her majesty's government have no reason to doubt that the Emperor Napoleon
would bring into such an assembly a spirit of moderation and of justice. They feel
confident that his object is to give security to the peace of Europe. The only
question is as to the means by which that object is to be attained.
" You are directed to read and give a copy of this despatch to M. Drouyn de
Lhuys." To this M. Drouyn de Lhuys replied —
_ '_' The imperial government have no intention either to apologise for, or to
criticise, the treaties of Vienna. The emperor declared, on mounting the throne,
that he should consider himself bound by the engagements subscribed to by his
predecessors. Lately again, in his letter to the sovereigns, his majesty showed that
the diplomatic acts of 1815 were the foundation on which rests to-day the political
edifice of Europe. But this is, he considers, an additional reason for examining
whether this foundation is not shaken to its base.
"Now, the cabinet of London recognises with us that several of these stipula
tions have been seriously infringed. Among the modifications which have taken
place, some have been consecrated by the sanction of all the great powers, and, at
present, constitute a part of international law ; others, on the contrary, carried
into execution, have not been recognised as law by all the cabinets. As regards the
first, we cannot help calling attention to the irresistible power with which they
have forced themselves on the acceptance of the governments. The eagerness of
England herself to give to them her adhesion proves how little the former combina
tions answered according to the expression of Lord Eussell, the requirements of the
lapse of time, the progress of opinion, the shifting policy of governments, and the
varying exigencies of nations ; on the other hand, are we not authorised in believing
that changes so important have diminished, to some extent, the harmony and
equilibrium of the whole ? We admit, with Lord Eussell, that it is not absolutely
necessary to give to these changes a more general and more solemn sanction; but
we consider it would be an advantage to clear away the ruins and reunite ina
single body all the living members.
"As regards the modifications to which the powers have not given a unanimous
assent they constitute so many causes of dispute, which, at any moment, may
divide Europe into two camps. Instead of leaving the decision of these to violence
and chance, would it not be better to pursue their equitable solution to a common
agreement, and sanction these changes by revising them ?
"The third category comprises those parts of the treaty of Vienna which are
menaced^ 'Upon those portions,' says his excellency, the principal Secretary of

a.d. 1863.> VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [m. drouyn de lhuys.

State, ' the most important questions of all arise. What is the nature of the pro
posals to be made on this subject by the Emperor Napoleon ? In what direction
would they tend? And, above all, are they, if agreed to by a majority of the
powers, to be enforced by arms ? '
" The emperor, while he pointed out to Europe the dangers of a situation in
deep commotion, indicated the method of averting the dire calamities which he
foresees, and at which he, less than others, perhaps, would have reason to take alarm :
for the questions out of which, at the present time, war may arise, interest France
but indirectly ; and it would depend on herself alone whether she would take part in
the struggle or stand aloof from it. This he did by addressing all the sovereigns in
fuU confidence, and simultaneously, without previous understanding with any of
them, in order the better to testify his sincere impartiality, and to enter upon, free
of every engagement, the important deliberations to which he invites them.
Himself the youngest of sovereigns, he considers he has no right to assume the
part of an arbiter, and to fix beforehand, for the other Courts, the programme of
the congress which he proposes. This is the motive of the reserve which he has
imposed upon himself. It is, moreover, so difficult to enumerate the questions, not
yet solved, which may disturb Europe.
"A deplorable struggle is bathing Poland in blood — is agitating the neigh
bouring states, and threatening the world with the most serious disturbances.
Three powers, with a view to putting a stop to it, invoke in vain the treaties of
Vienna, which supply the two sides with contradictory arguments. Is this struggle
to last for ever ?
" Pretensions opposed to one another are exciting a quarrel between Denmark
and Germany. The preservation of peace in the north is at the mercy of an
accident. The cabinets have already, by their negotiations, become parties to the
dispute. Are they now become indifferent to it ?
" Shall anarchy continue to prevail on the lower Danube ? And shall it be able,
at any moment, to open anew a bloody arena for the dispute of the Eastern
question ?
" ShaU Austria and Italy remain, in presence of -each other, in a hostile
attitude, ever ready to break the truce which prevents their animosities exploding ?
" Shall the occupation of Eome, by the French troops, be prolonged for an
indefinite period ?
"Lastly, must we renounce, without fresh attempts at conciliation, the hope
of lightening the burden imposed an the nations by the disproportionate arma
ments occasioned by mutual mistrust ?
" Such are, sir, in our opinion, the principle questions which the powers would,
doubtless, judge it useful to examine and decide.
"Lord Eussell surely does not expect us to specify here the mode of solution
applicable to each of these problems, nor the kind of sanction which might be
given by the decisions of the congress. To the powers there represented would
pertain the right of pronouncing upon these various points. We will only add,
that it will be in our eyes illusory to pursue their solution through the labyrinth of
diplomatic correspondence and separate negotiation ; and that the way now proposed,
so far from ending in war, is the only one which can lead to a durable pacification.
_ At one of the last meetings of the congress at Paris, the Earl of Clarendon,
invoking a stipulation of the treaty of peace which had just been signed, and
which recommended recourse to the mediation of a friendly state before resorting
to force, m the event of dissension arising between the Porte and others of the
signatory powers, expressed the opinion ' that this happy innovation might receive
a more general application, and thus become a barrier against conflicts which
frequently only break forth because it is not always possible to enter into explana
tion, and to come to an understanding.' The plenipotentiaries of all the Courts
concurred unanimously in the intention of their colleague, and did not hesitate to
express, in the name of .their governments, the wish that states, between which any
455

earl russell.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
serious misunderstanding may arise, should have recourse to friendly mediation
before appealing to arms.
" The solicitude of the emperor goes further ; it does not wait for dissensions
to break out, in order to recommend an application to the actual circumstances of
the. salutary principle engraven on the latest monument of the public law of
Europe; and his majesty now invites his allies 'to enter into explanations, and to
come to an understanding.' "
Lord Eussell, after admitting the benevolent aims of the emperor, and claiming
the same for England, proceeded to observe —
" Her majesty's government understand, from the explanation given by M.
Drouyn de Lhuys, that, in the opinion of the government of the emperor, it is
obvious to every one, that there are several questions, not hitherto solved, which
may disturb Europe. Of this nature are the following : — ¦
[The noble lord having specified them, and referred to the further proposals
of the emperor, which we have printed in the letter of his foreign minister,
continues] —
" These, no doubt, are the principal questions which either disturb or threaten
the peace of Europe ; but there is a further question which her majesty's govern
ment considers to lie at the bottom of the whole matter; and that is the fol
lowing : —
" Is a general congress of European states likely to furnish a peaceful solution
of the matters in dispute ? This, indeed, is the question which it behoves the
governments ofthe different states to consider seriously and attentively.
" There appears to her majesty's government to be one main consideration
which must lead to this conclusion —
"After the war which desolated Germany, from 1619 to 1649, and after the
successive wars which afflicted the continent of Europe from 1793 to 1815, it was
possible to distribute territories and to define rights by a congress, because, the
nations of Europe were tired of the slaughter, and exhausted by the burdens of
war ; and because the powers who met in congress had, by the circumstances of
the time, the means of carrying their decisions and arrangements into effect.
" But, at the present moment, after a long continuance of peace, no power is
Willing to give up any territory to which it has a title by treaty or a claim by
possession. " For example, of the questions mentioned as distinguishing or threatening
Europe, two of the most disquieting are those regarding Poland and Italy.
" Let us examine the present state of these questions, and see whether it is
probable that a congress would tend to a peaceful settlement of them.
" In the first place, with regard to Poland, the question is not new to France, to
Austria, or Great Britain. For several months these powers, while carefully
abstaining from any threat, have attempted to obtain from Eussia, by friendly
representations, the adoption of measures of a healing nature; but have only
succeeded in procuring promises often repeated, that, when the insurrection shall
have been put down, recourse will be had to clemency and conciliation. Would
there be any advantage in repeating, in the name of a congress, representations
already made with so little effect ?
" Is it probable that a congress would be able to name better terms for Poland,
unless by a combined employment of force ?
" Considerable progress has been made, by the military preponderance, and
unsparing severity of Eussia, in subduing the insurgents.
"Is it likely that Eussia will grant, in the pride 'of her strength, what she
refused m the early days of her discouragement ?
"I^Uld fhe Cre^e an indePendent Poland at the mere request of congress?
But if she would not, the prospect becomes one of humiliation for Eurepe, or
of war against Eussia; and those powers who are not ready to incur the cost and
hazard of war may well desire to avoid the other alternative.
456

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the congress.

" It may be said truly that the present period is one of transition. If the
insurrection shall be subdued, it will then be seen whether the promises of the
Emperor of Eussia are to be fulfilled. If the insurrection shall not be subdued,
or if, in order to subdue it, the Polish population is treated with fresh and, if that
be possible, with aggravated rigour, other questions will arise which may require
further consideration, but which would hardly receive a solution from a large
assembly of representatives of all the powers of Europe.
"Indeed, it is to be apprehended that questions arising from day to day,
coloured by the varying events of the hour, would give occasion rather for useless
debate than for practical and useful deliberations in a congress of twenty or thirty
representatives, not acknowledging any supreme authority, and not guided by any
fixed rules of proceeding.
" Passing to the question of Italy, fresh difficulties occur. In the first place, is
it intended to sanction, by a new treaty, the present state of possession in Italy?.
The pope, and the sovereigns related to the dispossessed princes, might, on the one
side, object to give a title they have hitherto refused to the. King of Italy;
and the King of Italy, on the other hand, would probably object to a settlement
which would appear to exclude him, by inference at least, from the acquisition
of Eome and Venetia.
" But is it intended to ask Austria, in congress, to renounce the possession of
Venetia? Her majesty's government have good grounds for believing that no
Austrian representative would attend a congress where such a proposition was to be
discussed. They are informed that, if such an intention were announced before
hand, Austria would decUne to attend the congress ; and that, if the question were
introduced without notice, the Austrian minister would quit the assembly. Here
again, therefore, the deliberations of the congress would soon be brought in sight
of the alternative of nullity or war.
" But is it possible to assemble a congress, and to summon an Italian repre
sentative to sit in it, without discussing the state of Venetia ? The Emperor of
the French would be the first person to feel and to admit that such a course would
not be possible.
" With regard to Germany and Denmark, it is true that several of the powers
of Europe have interested themselves in that question ; but the addition of Spain,
Portugal, Italy, and Turkey to the deliberations, would scarcely improve the
prospect of a satisfactory solution. And if, with regard to Poland and Italy,
no beneficial result is Ukely, what," argued his lordship, " would be the good of a
congress ?"
The idea of the congress was spurned by the Conservatives. In Blackwood's
Magazine, for instance, appeared such lines as the following, entitled "The
Invitation:" —
" Will you walk into my parlour 1 sayB the little man so sly ;
I cordially can offer you my hospitali-ty :
Some ugly things, I'm certain, could be settled in a trice,
If you and I would only try : and wouldn't that be nice ?
Will you, will you, will you, will you, walk in, neighbour dear ?
Will you, will you, won't you, won't you, friends and neighbours dear ?
Sure such a mess was never seen, a chaos so complete,
Where black and white, and wrong and right, in wild confusion meet.
We ve rights without a title, and demands without restraint,
And duties where there's nothing due, enough to vex a saint.
Will you, will you, &c.
" A congress is the thing we need, our quiet to insure,
lo regulate the present, and the future to secure ;
And 1 m the man to moot the plan, as all of you must feel,
Kor well 1 know, both high and low, each spoke of Fortune's wheel.
Will you, will you, &c.
VOL. II. 2 H 457

reply of Austria.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
" It isn't out of vanity I wish to take the lead,
It is because my character's so very bad indeed.
Men call me so ambitious, still to selfish ends awake,
But when they see me frank and free they'll think it a mistake.
Will you, will you, &c.
" Then for our place of meeting, let me hope you all will give
A preference to my house and home, and with me come and live :
The peaceful drama we're to act this well-known scene befits,
From which of old came schemes so bold — to blow you all to bits.
Will you, will you, &c.
" And you, friend Bull, especially, I trust, will not refuse,
Though nothing you may hare to gain, and everything to lose :"
And so on.
The Swiss confederacy were almost alone in their approval of the imperial idea.
The King of Belgium and the King of Holland were favourable. From the
Moniteur we reprint the reply of the Emperor of Austria : —
" ' Monsieur mon Frere, — The letter written to me by your majesty on the 4th
of November, directs my attention to the precarious state of Europe, to the dangers
which may result therefrom, and proposes to me to regulate the present, and assure
the future, in a congress.
" ' This step is suggested to your majesty by the sincere desire of sparing the
world the calamities entailed by war. To preserve and assure to Europe the
benefits of peace, at the same time preserving from any attack the honour and
dignity of the countries we govern — such should indeed be one of our most constant
cares. Such is also my dearest wish ; and, to attain this end, my co-operation will
always be secured to your majesty.
" ' Guided by this sentiment, I have conscientiously examined the proposition
which has been made to me. I was bound to ask myself if, in its present form,
your majesty's project united all the conditions which would permit me to hope
for a result in conformity with your desires and mine ?
"'The success of every enterprise depends, in a great measure, upon the
manner in which it is undertaken, and the plan which has been marked out.
The greater the difficulty of the enterprise, and the more it demands the co
operation of various forces and wills, the more urgent it becomes- to have a- clear
understanding upon the point of departure; to define the object and means of
action held in view ; to determine beforehand, in fact, the line of conduct that
will be followed. These conditions appear to me to essentiallv affect the
success of the work that your majesty desires to essay, and to which you invite me.
Before joining it, I therefore deem it indispensable to be enlightened
upon certain preliminary points. In a word, I should wish to know, with some
accuracy, the bases and programme of the deliberations ofthe congress which would
assemble. °
"'In specifying beforehand the questions to be examined by the congress, and
agreeing upon the direction to be given to its labours, unforeseen obstacles' that
might compromise everything would be avoided; this course would also remove
dangerous and almost insolvable problems, which, unexpectedly raised, would only'
envenom the debates, and give rise to fresh complications, instead of obviating
those which already exist.
'"These considerations appear to me too important not to deserve all the
attention of your majesty. Prince Metternich will be charged, on his side, to state
them with greater development. The particular good-will and confidence which
your majesty has always been good enough to manifest towards my ambassador,
wiU facilitate I trust this preliminary understanding, which it appears to me
majest S ^ SUPP°rt t0 ^ plan conc^ved b7 y°ur
458

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the pope's reply.
" ' I take this opportunity of renewing the assurances Of the high esteem and
inviolable friendship with which " ' I am, Monsieur mon Frere,
"'Your Majesty's good brother,
« ' Vienna, Nov. 17.' " " ' Francis Joseph.
" The following is the reply of the King of Prussia : —
" ' Monsieur mon Frere, — Your majesty, in writing to me the letter which your
ambassador presented to me on the 13th of November, must have been convinced
that the generous sentiments which inspired you would be responded to with that
cordial assent which a sovereign, having at heart the welfare of nations, could not
decline joining in the noble object which your majesty proposes to the European
powers, by inviting them to a general congress. During the course of the last
half century the treaties of 1815 have necessarily undergone modifications, which
the irresistible influence of time and events exercises upon human institutions.
Nevertheless, those treaties still continue to form the foundation upon which
the political edifice of Europe actually rests. It will, therefore,, be a task worthy
y of the efforts of all governments interested in the maintenance of order and of
peace to consoUdate that foundation; to provide for those portions which have been
destroyed!, or which will have to be abolished, and to give additional guarantees to
such enactments as may be misunderstood or menaced. In such a work I will join
with all my heart, and in perfect liberty only to consult my own solicitude for the
general interests of Europe ; because, as Prussia has never outstepped the limits of
treaties, she has no direct interest in provoking or declining the. meeting of a
congress. Such a position enables my government to lend its impartial and
disinterested support to establish between the powers convoked a preliminary
understanding, upon the principles of the congress, and to obviate, by prudent
negotiation, the difficulties which might cause germs of discord in a work of
conciliation and of peace. To this effect my government will be happy to
receive any overtures your majesty may think fit to make respecting preliminary
views. " 'I thank your majesty for the hospitality which you have kindly offered
me, and I am sure I should meet with a welcome at Paris, which renders so
dear to me the remembrance of my sojourn at Compiegne ; but it is rather
for our ministers united in council, to enlighten by their discussions, and to
prepare for the sanction of the sovereigns the proposals which will be submitted
to the congress.
! 'I take advantage of this opportunity to renew the assurances of the high
esteem and special friendship with which I remain, Monsieur mon frere, of your
majesty, ,. , ^ , " ' Le bon Frere,
"'Berlin, Nov. 18.'" "'William.
" ^ following is the reply of the pope to the Emperor Napoleon :—
isi-I1?)e" i MaJesty — The thought which your majesty expresses of being able
to establish, without shock in Europe— with God's blessing elsewhere also!— with
the concurrence of the sovereigns, or of their representatives, a system which calms
men s minds, and restores peace, tranquillity, and order to the numerous countries
wnefe, unhappily these benefits are lost, is a design which greatly honours your
majesty and which, with the co-operation of all, assisted by Divine grace, would
produce the best results. We co-operate, therefore, in so laudable a project in a
perfectly cordial spirit, and can now earnestly assure your majesty that all our
moral support Will be afforded to the congress, in order that the principles of
justice m these days so much misunderstood and trodden under foot, may be
re-established to the advantage of society in its present agitated state, that violated
rights may be admitted in order to be asserted in favour of those Who have had to
sutler by their violation, and especially in order that the real pre-eminence which
J H 2 459

emperor of Russia's reply.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.
belongs naturally to the Catholic religion, as being the only true one, may be
re-established, especially in Catholic countries.
" ' Your majesty cannot hesitate to believe that the vicar of Jesus Christ
either from the duties of his sublime representation, or from the conviction he
entertains, that in the Catholic faith, in conjunction with practice, is to be found
the sole means proper to moralise the peoples, cannot in the midst of congresses,
even political ones, fail in his obligation to sustain, with the greatest rigour, the
rights of our most august religion, which is one, holy, catholic, apostolic, and
Eoman. " ' The confidence which we express of seeing violated rights vindicated,
springs from the conscientious duty imposed upon us by their guardianship. In
showing ourselves full of solicitude on the subject of these rights, we do not wish
your majesty ever to suppose that we could entertain any doubt with regard to
those appertaining to this holy see, since, besides the other motives which militate
in its favour, we have also the assurances which your majesty has several times
given, and caused to be given pubUcly — assurances which it would seem to us offen
sive to doubt, coming from so high and powerful a sovereign.
" ' After this preUminary explanation, which has seemed to us all the more
opportune that we better understand your majesty's views, we are happy to add
that we applaud material progress, and desire, besides, that nations should be in a
position to enjoy peaceably their property, as much for the profit that they derive
therefrom, as for the occupation which it gives them. We could not say as much
in the case of our being invited to satisfy certain aspirations of some fractions of
these nations — aspirations which cannot be reconciled with the principles above
enunciated. " ' We entertain the hope that your majesty, with your high perspicacity,
will recognise in our frank communication the character of loyalty which always
accompanies the acts of this apostolic see, and, at the same time, the evidence of
the great esteem which we entertain towards your august person, to whom
we have in no way hesitated to speak thus explicitly in a matter of so much
importance. " ' Hereupon, with the assurance of our paternal affection, we give your
majesty, your august consort, and the imperial prince, our apostolic benediction.
" ' Given in our palace of the Vatican, the 20th of November, 1863.
,_ . "' Pius P.P. IX.'"
The Moniteur also published the answers of the Emperor of Eussia, the King
of Saxony, and the King of Wurtemberg to the letter of invitation to the
congress. It appears that the first-named potentate claims'for himself the original
idea of concert between the sovereigns intrusted with the destinies of nations, as
the best means of putting an end to the general disquiet of Europe. In proof of
his good intentions, he appeals to all he had already done in reducing his arma
ments, abolishing compulsory enlistment throughout his empire, and introducing
other important reforms. If he suspended these beneficial measures, or reverted
to the ancient system, it was owing to the events which menaced the tranquiUity
and even the integrity of his states. He asks for nothing better than to be
allowed to resume the reforms upon which he had entered; and the moment for
doing so can only be hastened by the subsidence of agitation in Europe. The
assertion of the Emperor Napoleon, that the treaties of 1815 no longer exist, is,
perhaps, referred to by the czar when he observes that, while the repose of the
world does not consist in immobiUty, neither is it to be attained by "the instabi-
fity ot political combinations, which each generation would be called upon to
undo, and to recommence according to the passions and the interests of the
moment, but rather by the practical wisdom which imposes on all respect for
established rights. r
The czar would, of course, feel very happy if the Emperor Napoleon's plan led
to a frank understanding among the sovereigns ; but that can only result from the

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Danish question.

assent of the other powers ; and that assent depends on his laying before them the
precise questions they have to examine, as well as the bases on which the under
standing is to be established.
The King of Saxony would be quite delighted to' assist in the realisation of
the emperor's magnanimous designs if the cabinets of Europe agreed to do the
same ; if Germany, " and, above all, its two great powers, as the leaders," asso
ciated themselves in the work.
The King of Wurtemberg is not less profuse in good wishes and compliments.
Struck with admiration of the " noble intentions" of his imperial brother, he, too,
would endeavour to promote the favourable disposition of the Diet towards the
projects ofhis majesty, "unless such of the powers of Europe, whose co-operation
must be considered indispensable to the settlement of the questions to be laid
before the congress, should, after more precise information from the Tuileries, raise
obstacles of a nature to cause the project of a European congress to be abandoned."
The king then poUtely thanks the emperor for his offer of hospitality in Paris, and
assures his "good brother" of his high esteem, and his inviolable friendship.
Unfortunately, obstacles were raised.
Not many years elapsed, however, before one of the principals had reason to
rue the day when they aUowed the obstacles to be irresistible. A congress might
have saved many a crown that has since been lost.
One bad result of this refusal, on our part, to enter into a congress, was the
coolness which grew up between France and England, in consequence of which
the Uttle kingdom of Denmark was shorn of Schleswig and Holstein — a disaster
that led to the complete ruin of Austria, and placed Prussia at the head of
Germany; which would not have been the case had not Austria and Prussia
taken Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark, and then quarrelled about the division of
the spoil. We must devote a short space to the history of the Danish question.
In May, 1852, a treaty was signed in London by the representatives of France,
Austria, Prussia, and Great Britain ; to which, subsequently, Eussia, and some of
the minor states of Germany, gave their assent. This treaty had been brought
about by Frederick VII., of Denmark, who, having no direct heirs, took this step
to prevent any difficulty arising as to the succession on his decease. The settle
ment was rather complicated. The SaUc law did not exist in Denmark, but it did
in Schleswig and Holstein ; then, again, Holstein and Lauenberg were members of
the German confederation. It was the aim of the king to unite all these elements
in one person. The most direct heirs were the children of the Landgrave of Hesse,
by an aunt of the reigning king; but they were excluded by the Salic law. They
were bought off (as also, in 1852, were the claims of the Duke of Augustenberg,
who, on certain conditions, signed a renunciation of his rights), and the true heir
was declared to be Prince Christian, of Schleswig-Holstein-Sbnderberg, Glucks-
burg. If, treaties and guarantees were of any avail, Prince Christian had every
certainty of a peaceful succession to the throne.
It was otherwise decreed. Frederick VII. died November 15th, 1863 ; and, on
the following day, Christian IX. was proclaimed king. Holstein was dissatisfied;
and when the young Duke of Augustenberg claimed his rights, in spite of their
previous sale by his father, there was a strong disposition to support him. At the
same time, the Duke of Nassau, the King of Bavaria, and some other of the petty
German sovereigns, agreed to support him; and the Frankfort Diet, without
deciding m his favour, expelled the representative of the King of Denmark, as not
being_the recognised sovereign of Holstein. German troops were actually sent
into liolstem and Lauenberg. On the last day of the year, Earl Eussell wrote to
the Diet, proposing a conference, and a suspension of action while the conference
was sitting. In his despatch, he said— "The powers who signed the treaty of
l^ondon, together with the Germanic confederation, are those first bound to establish
the arrangements and terms of ultimate agreement. Moreover," he added, "that
though the individual right of succession was a small question, yet it is of great
461

DENMARK INVADED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
importance that the faith of treaties should be upheld ; that right and_ possession
should be respected ; and that the flames of war should not be spread over Europe
through questions which quiet, and timely exercise of reason and justice, might
conduct to a peaceful solution."
No sooner had the Federal force, which was furnished by Hanover and
Saxony, taken possession of Holstein and Lauenberg, than Austria and Prussia,
as the chief powers in Germany, gave notice that they intended to be the executors
of the decree of the Frankfort Diet, and that the Federal troops must evacuate
the territory ; which, accordingly, they did. The demands on Denmark were then
renewed by the two great powers ; which, being resisted, hostilities commenced in
earnest on February 1st, 1864, The Danes retired behind the Eider, believing,
after what Lord Palmerston had said, that England and France would, sooner or
later, interfere on their behalf. They also trusted to the Dannemarke, an ancient
rampart, which had been strengthened since 1859. Alas ! as regards the Danne
marke and their allies, the Danes found their hopes were vain. On February 1st,
General Von Wrangel, who commanded the Prussian forces, crossed the Schleswig
frontier ; took possession of Gottorp, the Danish troops retiring ; and issued a pro
clamation to the Schleswigers, telling them that he had come '' to protect their
rights; and that the governments of Austria and Prussia had determined to
abolish the incorporation of Schleswig with Denmark." On the 2nd, there was a
severe fight between the Prussians and the Danes, in which the latter were worsted.
On the 3rd, the Danes fought the Austrians, and were again defeated by numbers,
and superior artillery and small-arms. Then commenced for the Danes a dis
astrous retreat. ' Schleswig fell, of course. The Austrians took Flensburg after a
slight resistance ; while the Prussians followed the Danish forces, who had fallen
back on Dybbol, or Duppel — a strongly fortified position, opposite the Isle of Alsen. ,
The abandonment of the line of the Dannemarke occasioned much indignation at
Copenhagen. The Eigsraad voted high-spirited addresses ; but they could provide
neither arms nor men. In England, also, there was much anger ; and many young
men, moved by the beauty of the Princess of Wales, and the extremity of her father,
talked of going to fight for the Danes ; but they thought better of it. The
smaller states of Germany were also vastly indignant at the mode in which Austria
and Prussia, for purposes of their own, had superseded the authority of the Diet ;
and the Federal commissioners issued a proclamation, in which they stated, that
the occupation of Altona by the Prussian troops, could only be regarded as " an aet of
violence, in direct contradiction to declarations very recently made by the high
cabinets of Vienna and Berlin ;" especially as it was expressly pointed out as self-
evident in the instructions of the Diet, forwarded to the commissioners on the
22nd of December, that continuous occupation of the Holstein territory was reserved
for the Federal troops alone. No one, however, pitied them. They had been
thoroughly duped ; and the general opinion in England was, that it served them
right. We may be sure that neither the patriotic addresses of the Eigsraad, nor
the dissatisfaction of the members of the Diet, nor the censure of Europe, had
any effect in stopping the progress of the superior forces of Austria ?ind Prussia.
On February 7th, General Von Wrangel announced, that, in future, Austrian and
Prussian commissioners would administer the civil government of Schleswig, " the
sea surrounded," and that the German language would alone be used in all branches
of the administration.
Not satisfied with the successes they had achieved, Marshal Wrangel set down
to besiege Duppel ; while General Gallenz, who commanded the Austrian troops,
undertook the capture of Fredericia, in Jutland, and thus invaded Denmark
proper. This step was disapproved of at Vienna when it was made, known ; but
meanwhile, after a bombardment the Danes retired. At Duppel, the Prussians
had to wait a few days for their artillery, and then it was all up with the Danes.
Indeed, they never had a chance. At Duppel they could only oppose 12,000 men
to 30,000, infinitely better armed. On one occasion, a Danish iron-clad, the Rolf
462

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gastein convention.
Krakl, did good service : but what was a temporary success in the face of tre
mendous odds ? Soon after, the town of Sonderberg, in Alsen, was bombarded ; and
on April 18th, after a gallant defence, the last remaining bastions were stormed,
and the Prussians were masters of the place, the garrison retiring into Jutland.
After the fall of Duppel the Prussians entered Jutland, levying heavy contributions
on the defenceless inhabitants, in compensation for the damage to property, caused
to Prussian, as well as other German subjects, by ships and cargoes captured by
the Danes. On June 29th, the Prussians attacked Alsen, and, after a sharp
contest, obtained possession of it. The Danish troops, embarking on board their own
vessels, were taken to Funen. Thus beaten, in spite of their gallantry, by superior
forces, and deserted by their allies, the Danes were compelled to sue for peace.
On the 20th of July, a suspension of hostilities was agreed upon for ten days, by
which it was agreed that the troops of Austria and Prussia were to remain in
Jutlatnd until peace was ratified. On the 30th of October this was done, and
Schleswig-Holstein, Lauenberg, and a part of Jutland, were given up to the haughty
and exacting conquerors. After these powers had taken possession, Austria gave
up Lauenberg to Prussia, on payment of a stipulated sum ; the civil administration
of Holstein was assigned to Austria, and of Schleswig to Prussia. The next
thing was to settle as to the future. Accordingly, the convention of Gastein was
held on August 14th, 1865. In that convention, after all that had been said and
done to the contrary, Prussia having obtained Austria as her accomplice, found no
difficulty in securing her consent to the declaration that the real title to the
duchies was in the King of Denmark; and that consequently, by the treaty of
October, that right was now vested in the two sovereigns. Prussia then threw off
all disguise, and announced her intention to annex them to her own dominions ;
and offered Austria a pecuniary compensation, which was declined ; Austria
wanting to get the duchies declared independent, and to have the question settled
by the Diet ofthe confederation, where she expected to have a majority. We must
add here that, eventually, Austria and Prussia went to war ; that the battle of
Koniggratz destroyed Austria as a German power ; and that, by the force of the
sword, Prussia became lord of aU. Thus poetic justice was done to the smaller
states of the confederation, who were so eager to rob Denmark of the duchies.
Earl EusseU's despatch on the Gastein convention bears date September 14th,
1865 ; and is as follows : —
" The charge d'affaires of Prussia has communicated to me the substance of
a despatch relating to the convention of Gastein, and the newspapers of Berlin
have since published the text of that convention.
"Upon thes first communication to her majesty's, government of the pre
liminaries of peace signed at Vienna, I stated, at Vienna and Berlin, the views of
her majesty's government upon those preliminaries. The present convention has
only served to increase the regret her majesty's government thus expressed.
"The treaties of 1815 gave the King of Denmark a seat in the German Diet, as
Duke of Holstein.
" The treaty of 1852 recognised the right of succession to the whole Danish
monarchy, which the late king had established in the person of the present king.
"That treaty has, in spite of the assurances given in the despatches of
January 31st, 1864,, been completely set aside by Austria and Prussia, two of the
powers who had signed it.
" It might have been expected, that when treaties were thus annulled, the
popular feeding of Germany,, the wishes of the peoples of the duchies themselves,
and the opinions of the majority of the Diet, so explicitly put forth by Austria and
Prussia in the sittings of the conference of London, would have been recognised
in their place. In this manner, if one order of rights had been overthrown, another
title, derived from the assent of the people, would have been set up, and that title
might have been received with respect, and maintained with a prospect of
permanence* 463

German unity.] LIFE AND • TIMES OF [a.d. 1848.

" But all rights, old and new, whether founded on the solemn compact of
sovereigns, or on the clear expression of the popular will, have been set' at nought
by the convention of Gastein, and the dominion of force is the sole power acknow
ledged and regarded.
"Violence and conquest are the basis upon which alone the partitioning
powers found their agreement.
"Her majesty's government deeply lament the disregard thus shown tothe
principles of public right, and the legitimate claims of a people to be heard as to
the disposal of their own destiny.
"This instruction does not authorise you to address observations on this
subject to the Court to which you are accredited, but is intended only to point out,
when the opportunity shall arise, what is the language you are expected to hold."
Thus, at last, the Germans, in a rough way, got unity.
Whilst we are writing, a document, drawn up by the late Prince Consort, on
the subject of German unity,'in the year 1848, when it was felt that things could
not remain as they were much longer, is just published. Had it been adopted,
the Frankfort Diet would have been still in existence. The prince writes —
" The problem that must be solved is to convert Germany from a confederation
of states (Staatenbund) into one Federal state (Bundesstaat). If the solution is
to be salutary and permanent, it must be developed out of the state of affairs at
present existing, and becoming the starting-point of entire German history. It
must not be a cut-and-dried theory, but the final representation of a position long
foreseen and desired by the German people ; in which, at one and the same time,
all conditions and requirements of the state generally are fulfilled in the most
satisfactory way. In Germany we have various individual peoples — states complete
in themselves — dynasties and crowns — all which must be united. It would be
sinful to reduce to a common level and to obliterate the individualities of the
peoples by a centralisation, shaping all after the same pattern : for it is in the
peculiarity and legality of such individualities that the many-sided vitality and
freshness of life of the German people consists. The crowns and dynasties which
are identical with the personality (personlichkeit) of these states, must not be
infringed or humiliated, if the personality and executive power of the individual
states they represent is not to be destroyed ; but both states and peoples should be
taken together practically, as a whole, and efficaciously constituted.
"I think the solution should be the following : — The princes of the Germanic
confederation, together with the four burgomasters of the free towns, form a con
ference of princes, and elect, from among this number, a German emperor, either
for Ufe, or for a term of years (ten ?).
" The estates of the various German states elect from among the members of
both their Chambers, a number proportionate to the population and importance of
the individual states, and organise therewith a German Diet (Reichstag).
"An Austragal court (Reichsgericht), presided over by an irremovable chan
cellor, to form a supreme court, composed of the legal faculties of the German
universities, decisive in all questions between the different individual states;
between the various governments and their estates ; in all German succession and
regency questions ; also in territorial divisions and cases of heirship.
"The representation of Germany to be incumbent upon the emperor. All
imperial business to be carried on in his name. In conjunction with the conference
of princes, he is to appoint to public offices. At the head of the said conference, he
will, upon each occasion, open the Diet. He is at Uberty to reject the propositions
of the conference of princes, and a resolution of the Diet can only become valid by
his sanction. He may, where he thinks fit, allow himself to be represented by
another prince. His ministers to be the minister for foreign affairs, and the two
presidents of a Chamber of Commerce and a council of war. These ministers to be
responsible to the Diet. The ministry for foreign affairs has to negotiate with
foreign ambassadors, and, in extraordinary cases, to send envoys to foreign Courts.
464

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [poland.

" The German Chamber of Commerce, composed of officials from the various
states, to have the management of the German customs, navigation, roads, railways,
postal, and traffic systems.
" The German council of war, formed of generals from the various armies, to
conduct the organisation of the German army, composed of troops from the
different separate states, at the head of which shall be a Federal commander-in-
chief in time of war. The German fortresses and the (prospective) German fleet
to be also under the management' of the council of war.
"The German sovereigns themselves, or princes of their houses representing
them, to form the conference of princes. This conference to possess a veto upon
the resolutions of the Diet, and upon the appointments to offices by the emperor.
Under the emperor's presidency the conference appoints the members of the three
imperial Chambers (Reichskammern). It has to sanction the propositions to be
made by the emperor to the Diet. It votes by majority, yet so that the princes of
the larger states have a comparatively larger number of votes. Every prince may
vote by proxy. The conference of princes, with the emperor, appoint the Federal
commander-in-chief, in the event and pending the duration of a war.
" The Diet (Reichstag) to assemble every three years. The deputies (Reichs-
boten) of which it is composed, from both Chambers of the various states, sit and
debate together, but vote in two voting bodies (Curien) corresponding to those
Chambers. Let each member speak from his seat. The Diet votes by majority, so
that the agreement of both voting bodies is necessary for decision. Let the
number of the members not be too large : not above fifty in the first, nor 150 in
the second Chamber — together, 200. A marshal of the Diet, elected by the entire
Diet from the first voting body (Curie), to act as president.
" Thus we have, then, an emperor as the representative and personification of
German unity, and as the supreme officer of the executive power. His worthiness
is guaranteed by choice of, and from, twenty-seven crowned heads ; upon whom,
on the other hand, falls back part of the splendour of the dignity voted from among
and by them. Further, as a branch of the executive power, a ' responsible
ministry' in the presidents of the three imperial Chambers, and a Federal
commander-in-chief, whose ability is guaranteed by his election when his services
are required, and for a certain period only. Further, a conference of princes, as
the immediate participator, both of the executive power and of the representative
importance of the emperor, who, by this necessary participation, perfectly secures
the undiminished continuance of the power and sovereignty of all German crowns.
Then a Diet, as the expression of the collective will of the whole German nation,
yet so composed, that, at the same time, the individuality of every single German
people and state is completely represented by the despatch of the delegates of the
empire (Reiehsboten) from its own estates. Lastly, we have a supreme Austragal
tribunal, as the expression of entire German legal wisdom, relieved from all external
influences by its irremovability.
"The authority of all these tribunals naturally only extends to matters of
general German importance — which would have to be more exactly defined —
without interfering in the legislative and administrative departments of individual
Suites. We must now devote a little space to that sad chapter — the wants, and
wrongs, and woes of Poland. In 1861 and 1862, the Eussian government took it
into its head to make the administration of the kingdom entirely Polish ; re
establishing the University of Warsaw, trebling the number of gymnasiums in
Poland, and founding schools even for the peasantry. Nevertheless discontent
existed. In April, 1861, there were popular demonstrations at Warsaw, in conse
quence of the Eussian government dissolving the Polish Agricultural Society, of
which Count Andre Zamoyski was president. On the 8th the troops fired on the
populace ; and the numbers killed and wounded, on that and subsequent days,
amounted to about 1,000. The summer passed off, however, peaceably ; and the
465

EARL RUSSELL'S DESPATCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.
land was quiet till January, 1863, when the insurrection began. A conscription, it
appears, for the Eussian army had been carried on for two or three days ; and had
been submitted to quietly, until it was discovered that, instead of the usual plan,
a selection was being made of all the young men of education, and suspected of
patriotic feeling. On this being ascertained, the young men left their homes, with
drew to the woods, provided themselves with arms, and prepared for resistance. In
many places the Eussian soldiers, when in small parties, were massacred ; and the
insurrection spread rapidly. The insurgents broke up the railways and the
telegraphic wires; and, dispersing themselves in small bodies, embarrassed the
movements of the Eussian military forces, and frequently succeeded in defeating
them with considerable loss. The rising was badly timed. The country was not
prepared for the insurrection when it broke out. The most influential part of
Polish society was opposed to it. Mr. Sutherland Edwards, who went out as the
Times' commissioner, wrote — " In fact, there were scarcely a dozen men in Poland
who wanted a Polish insurrection in January, 1863. The Eussian government, the
Grand Duke Constantine, and the Marquis Wielopolski, the Polish chief of the
civil government in Poland, did not want it at all. The Polish national com
mittee wanted it in the spring. The committee organised by the Polish moderate
or aristocratic party, wanted it in 'two years, or still later ; but, at all events, not
until full preparation had been made, until the peasant question had been settled
definitively, and until the state of affairs in Eussia and abroad should seem to give
the rising a fair chance of success. Tbe insurrection was not desired by the French
government, which was allied with Eussia at the time, and whieh had just proved
its Polish sympathies by arresting Polish agents in Paris, and stopping the supplies
of arms intended for the future insurgents. As for the English government, its
representative at St. Petersburg heartily approved of the system introduced by the
Marquis Wielopolski; which, indeed, could only be objected to by the jealousy of
the Prussian and Austrian governments, and by such Poles as were resolved, at all
hazards, to prevent even a temporary reconciliation between Poland and Eussia.
The English consul-general and vice-consul at Warsaw were also of opinion thai
the Poles would best consult their own interests by accepting the reforms
introduced by the Marquis Wielopolski."
Desperate was the contest carried on. After two successful engagements with
the Eussians, on the 16th and 17th of March, Langiewicz was attacked, and, after a
severe struggle, the insurgents were defeated and dispersed. Langiewicz, with
about 90O of his adherents, succeeded in crossing the Austrian border. He was
lodged in his castle of Cracow, and his men were disarmed and imprisoned. In
April a more serious character was given to the struggle, by the fact that England,
France, and Austria sent, separate notes to St. Petersburg respecting Poland,
remonstrating against Eussian cruelties; to which Prince Gortschakoff repUed,
attributing the revolt to the revolutionary tendencies with which Europe was
affected, "which are the curse of our age, and are now concentrated in this
country." In his note to England, he complained " of the continual conspiracy
which is being organised and armed abroad, to keep up disorder in the
kingdom."
.^ , ^,he ideas of tbe Ellglisn government on the subject may be best learnt from
Earl Eussell s despatch, dated June the 17th. His lordship writes—
^ "Her majesty's government have considered with the deepest attention the
despatch of Prince Gortschakoff of the 26th of April, which was placed in my hands
by Baron Brunnow on the 2nd of May. Her majesty's government are not desirous,
any more than Prince Gortschakoff, of continuing a barren discussion. I will
therefore pass over all the controversy regarding my previous despatch. I wiU
not endeavour, m the present communication, to fix the precise meaning of the
article regarding Poland- in the treaty of Vienna; nor will I argue, as Prince
Gortschakoff seems to expect I should do, that there is only one form under which
good government can be established. Still less will I call in question the
466 ^

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [earl russell's despatch.
benevolent intentions of the enlightened emperor, who has already, in a short time,
effected sueh marvellous changes in the legal condition of his Eussian subjects.
Her majesty's government are willing, with the Emperor of Eussia, to seek a
practical solution of a difficult and most important problem. Baron Brunnow, in
presenting to me Prince GortschakofTs despatch, said—' The imperial cabinet is
ready to enter upon an exchange of ideas upon the ground and within the limits
of the treaties of 1815.' Her majesty's government are thus invited, by the
government of Eussia, to an exchange of ideas upon the basis of the treaty of 1815,
with a view to the pacification and permanent tranquillity of Poland. Before
making any definite proposals, it is essential to point out that there are two
leading principles upon whieh, as it appears to her majesty's government, any
future government of Poland ought to rest. The first of these is the establish
ment of confidence in the government on the part of the governed. The
original views cf the Emperor Alexander I. are stated by Lord Castlereagh,
who had heard from the emperor's own lips, in a long conversation, the plan he
contemplated. " The plan of the emperor is thus described by Lord Castlereagh r— ' To
retain the whole of the duchy, of Warsaw, with the exception of the small portion
to the westward of Kalisch, which he meant to assign to Prussia, erecting the
remainder, together with the Polish provinces formerly dismembered, into a
kingdom under the dominion of Eussia, with a national administration congenial to
the sentiments of the people.'
" The whole force of this plan consists in the latter words. Whether power
is retained in the hands of one, as in the old monarchy of France — or divided
among a select body of the aristocracy, as in the republic of Venice — or distributed
among a sovereign, a House of Peers, and a representative assembly, as in England —
its virtue and strength must consist in its being a 'national administration
congenial to the sentiments of the people.' The Emperor Alexander II., speaking
of the institutions he has given, says — ' As to the future, it necessarily depends on
the confidence with which these institutions will be received on the part of the
kingdom.' Such an administration as Alexander I. intended, such confidence as
Alexander II. looked for, unhappily do not exist in Poland. The next principle of
order and stability must be found in the supremacy of law over arbitrary will.
Where such supremacy exists, the subject or citizen may enjoy his property or
exercise his industry in peace ; and the security he feels as an individual, will be felt,
in its _ turn, by the government under which he lives. Partial tumults, secret
conspiracies, and the interference of cosmopolite strangers, will not shake the firm
edifice of such a government. This element of stability is likewise wanting in
Poland. The religious Uberty guaranteed by the solemn declarations of the
Empress Catherine, the political freedom granted by the deliberate charter of the
Emperor Alexander I., have alike been abrogated by succeeding governments, and
have been only partially revived by the present emperor. It is no easy task to
restore the confidence which has been lost, and to regain the peace which is now
everywhere broken. _ Her majesty's government would deem themselves guilty of
great presumption if they were to express an assurance that vague declarations of
good intentions, or even the enactment of some wise laws, would make such an
impression on the minds of the Polish people as to obtain peace, and restore
obedience. In the present circumstances, it appears to her majesty's government that
nothing less than the following outline of measures should be adopted as the basis
ot pacification:— 1. Complete and general amnesty 2. National representation,
with powers similar to those which are fixed by the charter of the 15th (27th)
November, 1815, 3. Poles to be named to public offices in such a manner as to
form a distinct national administration, having the confidence of the country.
4. .bull and entire liberty of conscience; repeal of the restrictions imposed on
CathoUc worship. 5. The Polish language recognised in the kingdom as the
467

REBELLION SUPPRESSED.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.

official language, and used as such in the administration of the law, and in
education. 6. The establishment of a regular and legal system of recruiting.
" These six points might serve as the indications of measures to be adopted,
after calm and full deliberation. But it is difficult, nay, almost impossible, to
create the requisite confidence and calm while the passions of men are becoming
daily more excited, their hatred more deadly, their determination to succeed or
perish more fixed and immovable. Your lordship has sent me an extract from the
St. Petersburg Gazette, of the 7th (19th) of May. I could send your lordship, in
return, extracts from London newspapers, giving accounts of atrocities equally
horrible, committed by men acting on behalf of Eussian authority. It is not for
her majesty's government to discriminate between the real facts and the exaggera
tion of hostile parties. Many of the allegations of each are probably unfounded";
but some must, in all probability, be true. How, then, are we to hope to conduct
to any good end a negotiation carried on between parties thus exasperated ? In an
ordinary war, the successes of fleets and armies who fight with courage, but with
out hatred, may be balanced in a negotiation carried on in the midst of hostilities.
An island more or less to be transferred, a boundary more or less to be extended,
might express the value of the latest victory or conquest. But where the object is
to attain civil peace, and to induce men to live under those against whom they
have fought with rancour and desperation, the case is different. The first thing to
be done, therefore, in the opinion of her majesty's government, is to establish a
suspension of hostilities. This might be done, in the name of humanity, by a
proclamation of the Emperor of Eussia, without any derogation of his dignity.
The Poles, of course, would not be entitled to the benefit of such an act unless they
themselves refrained from hostilities of every kind during the suspension. Tran
quillity thus for the moment restored, the next thing is to consult the powers who
signed the treaty of Vienna. Prussia, Spain, Sweden, and Portugal must be asked
to give their opinion as to the best mode of giving effect to a treaty to which they
were contracting parties.
"What her majesty's government propose, therefore, consists in these three
propositions : — 1st. The adoption of the six points enumerated as bases of negotia
tion. 2nd. A provisional suspension of arms, to be proclaimed by the Emperor
of Eussia. 3rd. A conference of the eight powers who signed the treaty of
Vienna." Thus stimulated, the Polish revolution went on apace, and the aristocracy and
the moderate party reluctantly were compelled to join it. The only notice Eussia
took of Earl Eussell's despatch was to bid his lordship look at Ireland. In August,
the insurgents, under Lelewel, sustained a total defeat, and Lelewel was slain. The
contest was then continued by Czachowiski, who was defeated in October, and
received wounds of which he died in prison a few days after. And thus, once
more in vain, had Poland shed her blood, and cried to Europe for help.
The story of the late revolt will never be truly told. It is in the hands of the
Eussian government; and it knows that, in such a matter, silence is golden. The
Times' correspondent wrote, after order again reigned in Poland — " The more fully
the particulars of the late Polish rebellion come to light, the greater and graver
appears the struggle of that unfortunate race. In making up accounts, the Eussian
government have now discovered the significant fact, that the number of people
who left Warsaw to join the insurrectionary bands in 1862 and 1863, amounted to
no less than 8,128, out of a population of 216,000. Of these, 83 were children
between 10 and 14 years old; 1,902 were between 20 and 25; 1,463 between 25 and
30; 869 between 30 and 35; 568 between 35 and 40; 376 between 40 and 45; 207
between 45 and 50; 110 between 50 and 55; 62 between 55 and 60; 43 between 60
and 65; 18 between 65 and 70; 9 between 70 and 75 ; 4 between 75 and 80; 3
between 80 and 85. These figures have been ascertained by comparing the
evidence of the police registers with the number of the missing, and the facts
elicited by the courts of inquiry; and, as must be naturally the case under the
468 J

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [war ln new Zealand.
 ....  —
circumstances, are rather • below than above the mark. Among the emigrants,
forming actually 4 per cent, of the population, were 6,447 unmarried men, 1,233
husbands, 129 widowers, 181 girls, 83 wives, and 54 widows. Classifying them
according to their several professions, we find 2,226 artisans and operatives among
the number ; 1,066 valets and domestic servants (out of a. total of 19,004 of both
sexes) ; 197 members of the civil service, 140 public scribes, 173 pupils in the
higher educational establishments, when no more than 600 were attending lectures
at the time; 82 schoolboys, 42 of their teachers, 185 soldiers on furlough, 27
officers on haUvpay, 9 proprietors of landed estates, 7 doctors, 32 priests, 2 rabbis,
3 Jewish teachers ; and so on through every rank and condition of life, down to 44
fraU followers of Venus Vulgivaga."
In 1864, Mr. Cardwell, who had succeeded the Duke of Newcastle at the
Colonial Office, found he had enough to do.
First of all, he had to vindicate the conduct of his department in New
Zealand. Towards the end of 1863, we received- the unwelcome intelligence that
the tribes in the northern island had broken out in open revolt, and that we were
again at war. The country about Auckland, one of the earliest settled and most
flourishing districts of the islands, was the scene of atrocities, which led one to
doubt whether a quarter of a century of Christian teaching had had much effect
on the cruel and perfidious natives. In the middle of July, Eewi, a chief who
had long been the leader of the malcontents, and who is suspected of having insti
gated some foul murders, began to rouse the Maories in the neighbourhood of
Auckland to rebellion. His object was to make a general rising of the northern
tribes, particularly the Waikatoes, a warlike race, whose country is close to
Auckland ; and then, by a sudden movement, to exterminate the settlers. The first
act which he contemplated was the murder of some white men on the Waikato
Eiver. However, his plot was discovered ; the troops were withdrawn from the
Taranaki district, where they had been watching , some ill-disposeid natives ; and
preparations were made for anticipating the outbreak by a movement against the
Waikatoes. While this was taking place, the natives began the struggle by mur
dering two settlers at a place called Drury, about twenty miles from Auckland.
Two days after, an escort was attacked within a short distance of the same place.
The soldiers fought with the utmost bravery, driving . the natives back into the
bush. Finally, the escort made good its retreat to a. neighbouring house, where it
remained until reinforced; but the loss was no less than four killed and ten
wounded. After this, both government and people prepared for war on a large
scale. The first military movement was made by General Cameron, with 500
men, advancing against the natives, who, to the number of several hundreds, fought
with considerable skill, making a stand at every favourable point, and defending,
with the greatest obstinacy, certain positions which they had fortified with lines
of rifle-pits. These people belonged to the Waikato tribe, which, from its proxi
mity to Auckland, seemed, at any rate, to have become proficient in the art of
warfare. The colony sprang to arms with an alacrity equal to that which the
mother country would exhibit if threatened with invasion. It was estimated that
in a few weeks there were 4,000 volunteers and militia fully armed. The native
warriors were reckoned at 7,500 men. On the 22nd of July, the native settlement
of Kizi-Kizi was attacked, and taken, after a vigorous defence, by General
Cameron's troops, whose loss was small. From this time the Maories would not
meet the British forces in the field, but continued to ravage the province. Then
there came disaster, needless and inexcusable, to the British troops, and Sir George
Grey was sent to New Zealand, from the Cape. - After twelve months of unsatis
factory victories on the part of the British, the long and calamitous warfare with the
Maories was brought to a close, in August, 1864, by their almost unconditional sub
mission. The revolt was punished only by a forfeiture of a small part of their
lands. The Colonial Office was rudely assailed on account of an unwise and disastrous
469

THE ASHANTEE WAR.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
expedition which the governor of Cape Coast Castle had thought fit to organise
against the King of Ashantee. In February, 1864, the King of Ashantee,
having made war on the Fantees (an African territory under the protection of the
British at Cape Coast), who had refused to give up two fugitives claimed by him,
Governor Pine ordered a force to be marched, to repel and punish the Ashantees.
The wet season set in much earlier than was anticipated ; and, without seeing an
enemy, or firing a shot, the force of above 1,500 men, chiefly coloured men, officered
by Europeans, were prostrated by fever ; the loss by death, independent of the
suffering, was fearful, and the remains of the expedition Were ordered to return.
This wretched war was undertaken by Governor Pine with the sanction Of the
Colonial Office ; and we had a war which cost US, so it is said, Jl,00u a day.
Worse still, it was not till the notice of censure of Sir J. Hay was put on the
order-book of the House of Commons, that the Gladiator was sent to bring back
the wretched survivors.
As an illustration of the way in which matters were managed under Governor
Pine, we give the following extract from a letter in the Times, August 10th, 1864.
The writer describes " a most important post."
" The camp of Swaidroo Akim, situated on an elevation, in the midst of dense
forest and underwood, covered about an acre of ground. Its stockading was placed
so loosely that I have seen many of the stakes pulled out in a minute by one man.
There were four entrances, none of which could be shut in case of attack ; any
means for doing so having remained unprovided. There was no ditch, neither were
there any drawbridges ; and the stockading itself, which had, for some time, a gap
of fifteen or twenty yards, was partly composed of plantain stems — a material not
stronger than cabbage-stalks, and would have afforded an attacking party about
the same amount of protection it would to the defendants, owing to there being no
loopholes or banquettes to enable the latter to fire on the former. The magazine
was within fifteen paces of the best point of attack. It was joined to the store,
and could only be entered by that building, which was composed of timber ; both
were thatched with palm branches, dry and crisp as snuff. There was ho tank nor
well ; nor was there any water within the stockade ; neither could any be obtained
nearer than a river three-quarters of a mile distant, to which a fatigue party went
each day for a daily supply. We had no cannon, nor ordnance of any description,
excepting two rocket-tubes, which could only be fired into the air if it was not
intended to set fire to the stockading. Will any man believe that such a camp,
120 miles from the base of operations, and which had not an intermediate post,
kept our protectorate free from invasion? Its garrison consisted of one small
company only ; and very often, from disease, not one-half could be relied on. The
Ashantees are brave and numerous ; and it is well known that, had they desired,
they could have brought against the camp an army of 40,000 men, not badly
equipped, better adapted, and infinitely better accustomed to bush-fighting than
West Indian troops ; and that nothing but a precipitate flight could have saved her
majesty's soldiers. We have not killed or wounded a single Ashantee ; we have
not inflicted the slightest chastisement whatever ; and we have returned, sick and
dirty, to Cape Coast Castle, having destroyed our stores at the two dens."
In 1863, there was great commotion about the burning of Kagosima, It
appears, that in spite of the treaty between ourselves and the Japanese, they were
very much opposed to the entrance of foreigners into their country; and it was
almost impossible to gain redress for the injuries inflicted on them. A Mr.
Eichardson had been murdered in 1862, under peculiarly atrocious circumstances,
by the Prince of Satsuma :¦ and no satisfaction having been obtained from either
toe michardo or tycoon for it, a British squadron was despatched, under Admiral
Kuper, to reduce the fortified' town of Kagosima, which was the property of the
prince. On August I5th, 1863, a bombardment was commenced, which was
vigorously replied to by the forts ; but by dusk the town was in flames, and three
of the forts silenced. On the following day the attack was renewed; the town was
470

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the march to kirkee.
reduced to a mass of ruins ; the palace, arsenal, and three steam-vessels utterly
destroyed. The British lost two captains ; eleven seamen were killed, and thirty-
nine wounded. This vigorous measure led to an animated discussion in the House of
Commons. The peace party were indignant. They assumed that an English
minister and admiral had not only wantonly burnt a city of 180,000 inhabitants,
but that they had also complacently boasted of the proceeding. On fuller infor
mation, the population of Kaigosinaa collapsed to 40,000 ; and it appeared that
there had been no loss of Ufe, and but little sacrifice of property.
In 1865, an inexcusable sacrifice of life was perpetrated by certain Indian
officers. On the 11th of April, a detachment of 100 men of the Eoyal Artillery
was ordered to march from Mhow to Kirkee. The beats of summer had com
menced, and cholera was known to be raging on the line of march. The in
evitable consequences followed : the detachment was struck by their terrible
enemy after they had been three days on the road ; and tbey were eventually
compelled to relinquish their journey, and return to Mhow ; but not before twenty-
six of their number had been sacrificed, and the remainder had been exposed to the
most cruel sufferings. From a parliamentary return, it appears that a grosser story
of mere blundering has seldom been told. These unfortunate men belonged to a
battery, which it had been determined, at least as early as the 1st of March, to
disband, and to distribute among. the other batteries of the Bombay army; and it
appears to- haye been the first blunder in the case that, in consequence of some
confusion between the adjutant-general's and quartermaster-general's depart
ments, the transfer of the men had been delayed until April. At all events, the
quartermaster-general represents himself as " surprised," on his return to head
quarters at the beginning of April, at receiving a telegram JErom General Green,
inquiring whether the detachment in question was to be marched to Kirkee. No
answer having been sent, the inquiry was repeated on the 1 Oth ; and an answer
was then despatched the same day, directing the march to take place. The
former reports on this part of the subject were so far incorrect, that, in neither of
these telegrams from General Green, did he make any protest against the march
of the men, or make any allusion to the fact that cholera prevailed on the road.
On the very day, however, on which he received the quartermaster-general's
telegram, he had occasion to write to bead-quarters respecting some deserters who
were to be sent up to Mhow for trial. In this communication, which was
despatched by post, and not by telegraph, General Green referred, for the first
time, to- the prevalence of cholera. " I would deprecate," he said, " the men being
sent up at ail at this time of the year, if it can possibly be avoided, for cholera is
on the road ; great heat has set in ; and I would much prefer to await the first fall
of rain ;" which would have been in June. This letter was not received at head
quarters until six days afterwards, or on the 17th of April. Immediately on its
receipt, the quartermaster-general telegraphed that he would delay the despatch of
the deserters; and he added, that "the same objection seemed equally to apply to
the proposed mareh of the artillery." But this was too late. The blunder had
been committed. The detachment had marched, as originally ordered, on the 12th ;
and by the time the telegram was received, they were dying like sheep on the
Far away, in Abyssinia, we had also a very unpleasant entanglement. It
appears that the king of that country had thrown an English consul, Mr.
oameron, into gaol; and, more than once, there had been a parliamentary dis
cussion on the subject. For a long time the public considered the consul had
Deen imprudent, and had paid the penalty of his imprudence. Then we learnt
that the arrest of Consul Cameron was not in any degree his own fault, but arose
irom the change of policy in the British government with regard to Abyssinia.
.mat we had any particular policy with regard to Abyssinia, was, to most of us, a
matter ot astonishment. It appears, then, that our policy towards Abyssinia has
Deen, to countenance her to maintain her independence against the Turks. In
471

Abyssinia.] LIFE AND TIMES OF LA-D- 18°"4.

1849, we appear, for this purpose, to have executed a treaty with the then
sovereign of Abyssinia ; and the Abyssinian pilgrims to Jerusalem were placed
under the care of Bishop Gobat ; and, in his absence, of the British, consul there.
The Copts and Armenians in Jerusalem kept up a constant annoyance of the Abys
sinians; and finally, making an unhandsome use ofthe fact that all the Abyssinian
monks had died of the plague, destroyed their title-deeds, took possession of their
convent, and sold it to the Eussians for 60,000 roubles — as it would seem, with
the sanction of the Turkish authorities. The Emperor Theodore retaliated for
these injuries by ill-treating the Coptic patriarch. The Abyssinians were expelled
from Jerusalem, on the ground that they were Turkish subjects ; and arrived, in
a state of destitution and misery, in their native country, much to the indignation
of the emperor. It appeared, also, that we agreed, in 1849, to keep open the
avenues of approach betwixt the sea-coast and Abyssinia; whereas we had since
consented to the acquisition, by Egypt from Turkey, of the territory of Massorah,
which is the only access from Abyssinia to the sea. The emperor claimed to hold
Consul Cameron as a hostage for the recognition of the independence of Abyssinia,
in accordance with our treaty of 1849 ; for the repression of Egyptian outrage
along the frontier ; for , the restitution of the Abyssinian church and convent at
Jerusalem ; and for the reopening of the communication with the sea by Mas
sorah. Other accounts laid the blame of his imprisonment on the government, for
neglecting to answer the letter sent by the Emperor Theodore, on the occasion of
his accession to his hereditary throne. In the House of Commons, in a debate
which took place on the subject in June, 1864, Sir Hugh Cairns contended that
the government had neglected Mr. Cameron. Mr. Layard insisted that he had
become involved by his own indiscretion, and that the government had done all in
its power to obtain his release. The negotiations on the subject were tedious and
protracted ; but they were not to be regretted if they taught us to withdraw our
consuls from places where they cannot be sheltered by the power of England. It
was something very much like absurdity to place a man in such a position. Here
was a barbarous prince, almost inaccessible to arms, who had got a British agent
completely within his power. Negotiating with him for the release of his prisoner,
was like coaxing a cat to give up a mouse. Any appearance of violence would have
been fatal, as the victim would have been sacrificed before any. help could have
arrived. In the North American colonies a desire for union began to express itself, for -
which we may augur happily as to the future of that great district, peopled with
English colonists, and rejoicing under English rule. The domestic troubles in the
republic, and the unprotected state of the colonial frontier, led the leading men of
all parties to see the propriety — we might write, the necessity — of some such step.
A scheme for a confederation was framed by a congress of delegates ; and there is
reason to hope that, sooner or later, it will be adopted -by the various legislatures,
with the cordial sanction of the imperial government. It was proposed that a
governor-general, appointed by the crown, should preside over a parliament, con
sisting of a council appointed for life, and a representative body, which adopted
the great historical name of the House of Commons. With a wise regard for
harmonious action, it was stipulated that the first members of the council should be
chosen from the various colonies, in a fair proportion ; from the supporters of the
actual governments, and from the ranks of the local opposition. The House of
Commons, like the lower house of the American Congress, is to represent the whole
population, according to the latest census ; the basis of calculation consisting in a
fixed number of members permanently assigned to Lower Canada. The several
colonies, like the states of the American Union, are to manage their domestic
affairs by means of provincial assemblies ; and their lieutenant-governors are to
be appointed by. the crown, on the recommendation of the governor-general. The
scheme necessarily resembles the constitution of the United States, as it is adapted
to a precisely similar condition of society; but some of the defects which experience

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [JAMAICA.-
has disclosed in the older fabric appear to bave been judiciously avoided.
Eesiduary powers, which have not been specifically appropriated, are to, be referred
to the general government. In the last session of the parliament which met under
Lord Palmerston's auspices, the scheme was made matter of prominent notice in
the queen's speech. The subject became invested with additional importance in
consequence of the action of the United States' government. In March, 1865,
Earl Eussell laid on the table the formal notice, from that government, of the
termination, at the end of a year, of the reciprocity treaty between itself and
Canada. At the same time, his lordship expressed his regret that anything should
disturb our amicable relations with the government of America ; and gave utter
ance to the hope that, within the twelvemonth, some satisfactory agreement or
convention might be made — a hope which does not appear to have been realised at
present. The closing weeks of Lord Palmerston's life were clouded with a great
calamity. On the 11th of August, 1865, an insurrection of the negroes broke out
in Jamaica, in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, near Morant Bay. The
outbreak was accompanied by some atrocious murders, burning of property, and
plunder ; but it was put down in a manner which clearly evinced that Governor
Eyre had lost his head, and that the officers under him had acted recklessly
and illegaUy, and had brought lasting disgrace on the British name. Mr. Eyre was
recalled, and Sir H. Storks was sent out in his stead. A commission was appointed
by the government, to inquire into the whole affair. They agreed to a report, which
was published next year. The document was of great length ; but its conclusions are
brief : — " First, the commissioners say that the disturbances at St. Thomas-in-the-
East originated in a planned resistance to lawful authority. 2. That the causes of
this insurrection were threefold: (a.) A wish of the negroes to get the land rent-
free. (6.) Their want of confidence in the administration of the law. (c.) Personal
and poUtical motives. 3. That had the insurgents gained any advantage, there is
reason to beUeve that the whole island would have been in a state of insurrection.
4. That Governor Eyre exhibited skill, promptitude, and vigour during the first
part of the insurrection ; and that, by that means, he put down the disturbances.
5. That the military and naval operations were prompt and judicious. 6. That
martial law was continued too long : and, 7. That the punishments inflicted were
excessive." Accompanying this report, is a despatch from Mr. Cardwell to Sir
Henry Storks, in which he expresses his concurrence in the conclusions of the
commissioners ; and goes, at some length, into the case of Mr. Gordon, whose trial
and execution are events which the government cannot but deplore and condemn.
In a leader on the subject, the Times wrote — " Our readers will be prepared
to hear that Gordon's trial and execution occupy a very large space in the report.
We cannot but regret that, upon this most important subject of inquiry, as well
as upon some others, the commissioners forbear to draw the legitimate inferences
from the materials which they have collected. In the ' comment on the case of
Mr. Gordon,' there is really nothing to show whether, in their opinion, Mr. Eyre
was justified in sending him to Morant Bay at all. They detail, at considerable
length, the previous disturbances in the parish of St. Thomas-in-the-East, in which
Gordon had taken an active part ; the evidence bearing on his connection with
Paul Bogle ; the language and acts imputed to him immediately before and after
the massacre ; and the circumstances of his trial. Upon the whole, they conclude
that no sufficient proof has even yet been adduced — much less was adduced before
the court-martial — ' either of his complicity in the outbreak at Morant Bay, or of
his having been party to a general conspiracy against the government.' Now, if
' the evidence, oral and documentary, was wholly insufficient' to prove the guilt of
Gordon, it seems to follow that he was unjustly condemned, and that Governor
Eyre ought not to have confirmed the sentence; but the commissioners do not
explicitly say so, nor is there the slightest allusion to Gordon's case in the ' conclu
sions' at the end of the report. Here, again, we must refer to Mr. Cardwell's
vol. n. 2 1 473

governor eyre.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

despatch for an impartial commentary on the facts elicited by the inquiry. After
referring to Mr. Eyre's explanation of his own course, Mr. Cardwell observes that,
so far from any necessity existing for the summary delivery of Gordon to. the
jurisdiction of Lieutenant Brand, an obvious alternative suggested itself, and was
recommended by Mr. Westmoreland. Once on board the Wolverene, he might
have been kept there in safe custody until he could be tried by the ordinary
process of law ; as it was, the formality of his transmission to Morant Bay added
nothing to the legality of his execution." If valuable life had not been lost— if
disgrace had not been brought on the nation which commits such things, many
facts have subsequently appeared, which have placed the conduct of some of the
British authorities in the most ridiculous light. . For instance : Mr. Eyre wrote to
have a ship tried by court-martial, and was highly indignant that the order was
not obeyed at once. In England, the Quakers, and the hereditary friends . of the
blacks — such as Mr. Charles Buxton — were up in arms immediately. A Jamaica
committee was formed, of which Mr. John Stuart Mill was one ; and it was
resolved that the government be urged to bring Mr. Eyre to trial, " as well as his
principal coadjutors in the so-called insurrection at Morant Bay : and that, in case
Mrs. Gordon should take proceedings against the persons concerned in the illegal
execution of her late husband, the committee will render her such assistance as is
in their power."
The decision of the " Jamaica committee" to prosecute Mr. Eyre for his
share in the death of Mr. Gordon, was not arrived at without a protest from Mr.
Charles Buxton. In a very temperate -and able letter, Mr. Buxton pointed out, that
no one " who has due regard to truth, can deny that Mr. Eyre really shared in the
belief, universal, at the moment, among all the white and coloured men of the
island, that such a conspiracy had existed, and that Mr. Gordon was, to a great
extent, guilty of promoting it." Under the circumstances, no one can regard. the
course taken by Mr. Eyre as involving him in the guilt of murder. He goes on to
show, that not even those who advocated the trial of the late governor, can desire
that he should be hanged. In the improbable case of his conviction, he would
undoubtedly receive a free pardon ; but it is still more likely that he would never
be convicted at all. Mr. Buxton adds — " As things stand, we have, at any rate,
achieved a considerable amount of success. At any rate, Mr. Eyre has been dis
missed with severe censure, thoroughly endorsed by the British public ; and it
would be impossible for any government again to employ an officer whose mis
conduct has been so fully exposed. The punishment that has befallen him is not
adequate — is, indeed, far from being adequate to his offences; but still it is
sufficient to be a serious warning to others. But all the good effect of this
example would be done away, were he tried, and deliberately acquitted, or
pardoned by the queen, amid the plaudits of the British people." He closes his
letter by intimating that, as he cannot hope to carry his views against an over
whelming majority in the committee, he retires from the chairmanship ; and, from
the wording of his resignation, apparently from all connection with its future
proceedings. Mr. Eyre was not, however, without influential friends. On his return to this
country, he was invited to a great banquet at Southampton, with the. Earl of
Cardigan in the chair ; and a committee was formed to aid him in his defence, of
which such distinguished men as Professor Kingsley, Thomas Carlyle, and John
Buskin formed a part. They called upon society to hail Governor Eyre as a
saviour, who had struck down a rebellion which threatened indescribable horrors to
the white population of Jamaica.
On his way to this country, Colonel Hobbs, one of the most active partici
pators in the suppression of what he deemed rebellion, committed suicide. His
brother wrote to the Times to vindicate his memory, as he had been charged with
wanton and unnecessary cruelty in dealing with the negroes. " Now," says the
Times, " if the question is to be raised at all, it must not be forgotten that any

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [colonel hobbs.
unfavourable impressions which have prevailed against Colonel Hobbs were-.produced
originally by his own despatches. When a responsible officer of .mature ,age,
engaged in quelling an outbreak, which may either be a riot or a rebellion, writes
to head-quarters to say that he regrets the not having shot six unarmed prisoners,
'as they are, no doubt, rebels;' that 'he has killed between fifteen and twenty
negroes, whom he likewise assumed to be rebels, ' at extraordinary long distances,'
'on the hill sides and in trees;' that he has fired all the vacant houses in one
locaUty ; that he has ' utterly destroyed' a whole settlement in another ; and so
forth— there is no; harshness in concluding that he has, at least, adopted a very
ruthless mode of warfare. When he goes on to inform General O'Connor, in
another despatch, that he has ordered eleven prisoners to be shot at once, ' finding
their guilt clear, and being unable to either .take or leave them,' adding the remark,
that 'their countenances were all diabolical, and tbey never flinched the very
slightest,' there is no want of charity in ascribing to the writer— in default of
evidence tothe contrary — loose .ideas of justice, and a culpable, indifference to the
value of human life. When he affirms, afterwards, that, having in his possession
'the most conclusive proof of Mr. G. W. Gordon being a chief mover in this
rebeUion,'he has sent an express to Morant Hay, 'requesting him to be sent to me
(if there) for execution,' and when he follows up this assertion by a minute
description of the means whereby he stimulates the intelligence of 'Paul Bogle's
valet,' and assists him to identify the ringleaders, it is not altogether unreasonable
that he fshould be taken at his word. Now, these assertions were actually and
Uterally contained in letters written by Colonel Hobbs, and forwarded by Governor
Eyre to the Colonial Offiee — letters which, as the colonel subsequently declared,
were never intended to be published; but which, like all other categorical state
ments on matters of fact, must either have been true or false. Colonel Hobbs
himself, when examined before the commission, virtually accepted the latter
alternative, and represented some of them to have been false, if not false to his
own knowledge; others he explained away, , and some he avowed with a justification.
For instance, he distinctly retracted the very circumstantial story about Anderson,
Paul Bogle's valet, denying, in direct contradiction of his own written words, that
any rope was ever attached to his own stirrup, or that of any one else. The fifteen
or twenty negroes supposed to have been picked off at long ranges, dwindled down
to vanishing point, like the men in buckram, upon close investigation. The troops
had fired at them, and boasted of killing them ; but the colonel had since ascer
tained that they ' had merely dropped into the grass without being hurt.' As for
the eleven whose guilt was clear, and who, partly on this ground, and partly: because
it was impossible either to take or leave them, were executed on the spot, no such
plea was avaUable. These unfortunate people were past .resuscitation ; but Colonel
Hobbs protested, that in disposing of them in this summary way, he had been
mainly influenced by the free and easy note from Colonel Elkington, which depre
cated any consignments of prisoners, and dwelt with admiration on the services of
two other officers who were 'hanging like fun,' and shooting every black man who
could give no account of himself. The most ' conclusive proof of G. W. Gordon's
guilt resolved itself, under the same process, into the asseverations of 'about fifty
persons,' that a man named Gordon was connected with the insurrection, coupled
with the discovery of a lamp, which Anderson said had been presented by him,
in Paul Bogle's chapel."-
Undoubtedly, affairs are in a very unsettled state inthe West India Islands.
More than half the large estates that were growing sugar in 1834, are now thrown
up. In 1805, Jamaica had 859 sugar estates in cultivation; and exported 137^000
hogsheads of sugar, and 24,000,000 lbs. of coffee. In 1834, these figures had
already declined to 646 estates in cultivation, and export of 79,465 hogsheads
of sugar, and 17,859,277 lbs. of coffee. .In 1862, the export of sugar had sunk
to 33,097 hogsheads ; and finally, in 1865, to 23,750 hogsheads, grown on 30.0
estates. As the hogshead of sugar costs, in wages, about £11, the diminution
2 1 2 ' ' 475

state of Jamaica.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

of 10,000 hogsheads in four years, shows, in that time, a reduction of wages to the
labouring population of £110,000. The population, meanwhile, has, in the last
quarter of a century, increased by 100,000 souls ; so that a larger population has
had a smaller amount of wages to expend ; and this at a time when there has
been an immense advance in the price of clothing, and other articles of import.
Still we are not to gather from this gloomy picture that emancipation has failed,
that the islands are going to decay, or that the blacks are worse off than they
were. " My own opinion," writes Governor Eyre himself, in a despatch to Mr.
Cardwell, of August 19th, 1865, "is (greatly as I regret being compelled to admit
it), that Jamaica, like some of the other smaller West India Islands, is in a state of
transition ; that it is, in fact, gradually passing into the hands of quite a different
class of proprietors from that which held possession some thirty years ago." Now
we do not, with Mr. Mill's testimony to the happiness of small peasant proprietors, at
all regret this change : nor did that able and wise governor, Sir Charles Darling,
a West Indian himself; who, in a despatch of December 26th, 1860, says— "I look
upon it as a settled point, that the great mass of the emancipated population, and
their descendants, are betaking themselves to the cultivation of the soil on their
own account, either as a source of profit, or as the mere means of subsistence.
The proportion of those who are settling themselves industriously on their own
holdings, and rapidly rising in the social scale, while commanding the respect
of all classes of the community (and some of whom are, to a limited extent,
themselves the employers of hired labour, paid for either in money or in kind),
is, however, I am happy to think, not only steadily increasing, but, at the present
moment, is far more extensive than was anticipated by those ignorant of all
that took place in this colony in the earlier days of negro freedom. There can
be no doubt, in fact, that an independent, respectable, and, I believe, trust
worthy middle class is rapidly forming." He concludes the despatch in question
as follows : — " Thus it is that Jamaica presents, as I believe, at once the strongest
proof of the complete success of the great measure of emancipation, as relates to
the capacity of the emancipated race for freedom, and the most unfortunate
instance of a descent in the scale of agricultural and commercial importance as a
colonial community."
As an illustration of the change referred to, let us take the testimony of Mr.
Samuel Eennals, custos of St. Thomas-in-the-Vale, in a letter of March 23rd, 1865.
He says — " In the district in which I reside for a portion of the year, and in
which I possess property, realising a rent-roll from land tenanted by negroes, of
between £200 and £250 a year, the population numbers from 5,000 to 6,000 souls,
according to the last census of 1861. There are no sugar estates, nor are there
any properties of any extent carried on by the owners in the cultivation of coffee,
or any other export. The lands are rented out in small lots (generally from one
to five acres each) to labourers ; and, immediately upon emancipation, they pur
chased freeholds, now planted with coffee, arrowroot, and the usual ground
provisions, as well as Indian corn, to a very considerable extent of acreage. In
fact, they are formed into a very numerous middle class ; and I do not believe that
they would be induced, under any circumstances whatever, to become, in the
general acceptation of the term, a labouring class."
Governor Eyre confirms this statement. In a despatch of April 10th, 1865,
after speaking of the imports of the last five years, he says, that " the labouring
classes, by the cultivation of coffee, honey, beeswax, ginger, and other products,
have themselves largely added to the value of the general exports of the colony
during the same period." Dr. Hamilton, a member of the executive committee,
writes— "Since emancipation, a large number of the then existing coffee planta
tions have been thrown out of cultivation; and yet, since 1860, the average
exports of coffee have not diminished. Had Dr. Underhill, or his correspondents,
travelled through the coffee districts, they would have found that this was due to
476

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [general lamothe.
the number of small settlers who now grow coffee on their little freeholds ; and if
the exports of ginger, beeswax, honey, &c, are considered (all of which are the
produce of the small freeholders), it will be apparent that these branches of
industry are not in the deplorable condition Dr. Underhill would have us believe."
Mr. Shaw, inspector of prisons, under the date of April 20th, 1865, expresses
himself to the same effect. We also gather that, in many cases, the small pro
prietors are taking to the cultivation of sugar. Dr. Bowerbank, custos of Kingston,
writes, March 15th, 1865 — "We are assured by those who best know the country,
that the cultivation of sugar, on a small scale, and by a middle and better class of
labourers, is rapidly increasing. * * * An American workman, in a distant
parish, has manufactured and put up forty small sugar-mills, and is now engaged
in erecting six more. The rollers and frame are of wood, with iron cogwheels.
They can be made and put up for £5 or £6 a set. The demand for mills at this
price is more than he can meet ; and so pressing is the call for them, that he
has at present engaged extra tradesmen in manufacturing them. Hundreds of
these small mills are already in operation." Other custodes testify to the same
fact. Mr. Lewis Mackinnon writes from Vere — " The island is getting gradually
covered with nice cottages and thriving settlements, where not only vegetables,
but sugar and coffee are grown to a considerable extent." Another says — " Each
year more land is cleared for the cultivation of coffee, sugar, arrowroot, &c."
Again, says another — " The peasantry here not only raise ground provisions, but
may produce the staples of the colony — sugar and coffee, beeswax, cocoa, arrow
root, starch, tobacco, cotton, and other minor products."
From these facts we can quite understand the value the blacks put on land,
and the unfriendly feeling with which the new order of things is received in certain
quarters. Our readers will remember that the outbreak at Morant Bay originally
resulted from a dispute about the possession of land. Yet this feeling ought not
to tinge and colour the conduct of the official class in the way in which it does.
It is clear that the days of the great planter are gone ; that his reign is over ; that
a new order of things has arisen ; and. it is in vain that we kick against pricks, or
war with the stars or the course of nature. From the tendency of the people to
buy small properties, and cultivate them, there is at present no escape. The
larger planters may still talk about assistance by loan from the mother country.
General Eyre writes, August 19th, 1865 — "I have myself no faith in the resus
citation of the bygone prosperity and still decaying interests of the Jamaica
planters, through the instrumentality of any adventitious stimulus, such as a
government loan is intended to be." And, if we are wise, instead of regretting the
past, we shall encourage the small proprietors all we can, and wait for the dawn of
better days in Jamaica — better days which, we fear, the recklessness and cruelty
with which the blacks were treated by the panic-struck whites — headed by
Governor Eyre — must be postponed for some time to come.
Parliamentary papers, subsequently published, in a remarkable degree illus
trate and confirm the suspicions entertained in many quarters as to the wisdom
displayed on the occasion of the outbreak. For instance, there is the case of
General Lamothe. It appears that the general — an officer in the Haytian service —
had left Hayti in consequence of political differences with the dominant party, and
had been quietly living at Kingston for many years. A few days before the out
break, he embarked with his son and three friends on board the schooner Oracle,
which had been chartered by a house at Kingston, to take a miscellaneous cargo
to Hayti. The Oracle, having been at sea six days, was driven back by a strong-
wind, and compelled to take refuge in Port Antonio. But in the meanwhile the
outbreak in Jamaica had taken place ; and although it had been put down, Port
Antonio was under martial law. Governor Eyre had made up his mind that all
the Haytian refugees in Jamaica were conspirators against the throne and dignity
of the queen, and had had those at Kingston arrested, including the paralytic
ex-Emperor Soulouque ; so that when the Oracle returned, the Haytians on board
477

wanton outrages.] LIFE" AND TIMES- OF [a.d. 1865.
would probably have been made prisoners, even if it had not been found that the
s'chooner had powder on board. The fact that the powder had been openly shipped
at Kingston, with the observance of all due formality, was overlooked or thought
of no consequence. In times of danger and excitement, however, it is- better to
err on the side of' excessive vigilance ; and we cannot blame the authorities for
taking the Oracle in charge for a time. But there was never the least reason for
connecting the Haytians with the Jamaica outbreak ; and the inquiries whieh have
been made into the complaints of General Lamothe, show that gross and' wanton
outrages had taken place, which nothing could excuse. The general complained to
Earl Eussell that he had been robbed and treated with the utmost indignity, and
Lord Eussell induced the Admiralty to order an official investigation, which has
established the main charges. It appears by the evidence that, when a guard was
put on board the Oracle by Lieutenant Irvine, of the Aboukir, he did not place
any responsible naval officer in charge. The trunks of the passengers were broken
Open, no inventories were taken, and the cabin was ransacked and cleared out.
These facts are made out to the satisfaction of Admiral Hope, who blames Captain
Luke, of the 6th Foot, the officer in command at Port Antonio. On tho 25th of
October, General Lamothe and his party were embarked on board the Wolverene,
conveyed to Port Eoyal, and transferred to the Aboukir, where he complains they
were _ " exposed to public derision." On this part of his letter, the Court of
Inquiry report: — "We find that, during the time General Lamothe and his party
were prisoners on the starboard side of the main deck of the Aboukir-— -viz.,
from the evening of the 29th, to the afternoon of the 31st October— they were
exposed to offensive epithets and jeers from the men on board the Aboukir."
Commander Smith tells us what was the nature of the insults offered by common
seamen to a general officer, who was simply under precautionary detention. In
a sentence in which delicacy and frankness are curiously blended, he says—
" The jeering was of a nature which referred to the certainty of the Haytians
getting a d1  d good thrashing, and the probability of General Lamothe and
his party getting hanged." Oddly enough, Captain Smith says, elsewhere—
'Eektxveto his treatment, I can only say that, before leaving the ship, General
Lamothe thanked me for the attention he had received on board." Of course,
when Captain Smith found out what was going on, he stopped the annoyance; but
before this was done, a drunken sailor of the Bulldog had slapped the general on
the mouth, and called him an "old negro." The general's complaints become,
moreover, mournfully ludicrous in the impassioned style ofhis letter:— "Ami
among civilised men or among savages? I exclaimed, in the heat of my in
dignation. Why do you not kill me at once ?" The letters which describe these
transactions are very sorrowful reading. Of course, an apology will be made to
General Lamothe ; and he will be compensated for the ill-usage he has received.
But the individual grievance is nothing compared with the damage done
to the character of the public service, when such outrages are shown to be possible
on board a British man-of-war. « If we had read first in any foreign paper," says a
writer in the .Daily News, « the statements which now come to us, confirmed by
the most authentic evidence, we should have denounced them as foul libels, which
could by no possibility be true.'
We can only adU, that, the events recorded here will, we hope, teach a
lesson, needed in certain quarters. In George III.'s time, Governor Wall was hung
for cruelty, after an interval of twenty years had elapsed. We have no wish to see
a similar fate overtake Governor Eyre. But we have it in evidence that
1,000 houses were wantonly burnt; and that the "total number of deaths, caused
by those engaged m the suppression, amounted to 439."

478

a.d. 1858.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [assheton smith.

CHAPTEE XXIII.
DE MORTT7IS.
We have incidentally described the deaths of many of the great men who illus
trated and adorned the Palmerston era. Some of them had been his cotem
poraries and rivals in the political arena ; some he had followed to the grave ; with
most of them he had been, more or less, mixed up in the free intercourse of
poetical Ufe. We must note here, briefly, a few of the representative men who
pre-deceased his lordship.
One of these was the late Mr. Assheton Smith, who died in 1858. He was a
denizen of the same county as Lord Palmerston ; and, like him, a mighty hunter.
He was exactly half a century a master and owner of hounds. " Of iron nerve
and constitution, he was," says his biographer, Sir Eardley Wilmot, " the best, as
he was the foremost rider- of the day. Fox-hunting, however, though his chief, was
not his only pursuit. As a most useful country gentleman, a good classical scholar,
an excellent man of business, warmly devoted to science, and a generous dis
tributor of his wealth, he turned to a good and useful account those mental, and
physical, and worldly advantages wherewith Providence had liberally endowed
him." This is high praise — perhaps a little too high — for Mr. Smith was in par
liament for a, time, and he was a Tory of the old school ; and we know if the Tories
of the old school had had their way, England, long ere this, would have been irre
trievably ruined. Neither can we think Mr. Smith's piety was of the deepest, if
we are to judge by his biographer's arguments in its behalf. " Mr. Smith had," he
teUs us, " a most simple and devout faith, his favourite motto being — ' Whatever
happens, aU is for the best ;' and whenever he saw any one in sorrow or distress, he
always said — ' We must submit to God's will, whatever it is.' " In a man born to
£45,000 a year — for his landed estates brought him in £15,000 a year ; and his
slate quarries near Carnarvon, yielded £30,00,0 a year— -resignation to his lot, if it
was a virtue, was not one of a very trying character. But to return to Mr.
Assheton Smith. He was born in Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square, on the
2nd of August, 1776. As a boy he was inflexible and stubborn in his resolutions.
At Eton, to which school he was sent when seven years old, he excelled in cricket.
Boating was also one of his favourite diversions-; but his Eton career was prin
cipally rendered remarkable by his battle with Jack Musters — the Musters who
married Lord Byron's beautiful Mary Chaworth — still spoken of by Etonians as
one of the most hard-fought and severe contests ever recorded in the annals of
youthful pugUism. At Nottingham, when standing in opposition to the Eadical
candidate in 1818, this pugiUstic prowess stood him in good stead. He was the
unpopular candidate, and no one would listen to him. At length, with a
stentorian voice, heard above the uproar,, he cried out, "Gentlemen, as you
refuse to hear the exposition of my political principles, at least be so kind as to
listen to these few words : — I will fight any man, little or big, directly I leave the
hustings, and will have a round with him now for love." The effect was electric —
he had touched a sympathetic chord : instead of yells and groans, there were rounds
of cheers ; and though he. was beaten, no further opposition was offered him. In
1794, young- Smith became a gentleman commoner at Christchurch, Oxford.
Already he had become distinguished as a rider ; and, in 1800, we find him signalised
in song as a most daring and successful horseman. In 1806, he succeeded Lord
Foley at Quorn : here, with a fine stud and splendid hounds, he kept the game alive
for ten years. In 1816, Mr. Smith took his stud to Lincoln to work the Burton
Hunt. He held this capital country for eight years, until 1824, when he was
succeeded by Sir Eichard Sutton ; and, after an interval of ten years, during which
479

other sportsmen.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. I860.

he hunted chiefly at Belvoir, went into Hampshire. In 1827 he married ; and in
the following year, on the death of his father, he removed his hunting establish
ment, and soon after set about making extensive alterations : the old house was
pulled down; but the chief improvement effected was the metamorphosis 'of that
formerly intractable woodland country about Tedworth, into a fine fox-hunting
district. His stables and kennels were built on his own plans. In 1845, Sir
Eardley saw there fifty horses in the stables, including hunters, carriage-horses, and
hacks, all in first-rate condition, and each apparently as familiar with the squire
as a pet dog. The summer months were generally passed by Mr. Smith on his
property in Carnarvon, where he had ample scope for indulging in his sea-going
propensities. In 1829, Mr. Smith practically turned his attention to the
building of steam-vessels ; and it is a moot point whether to himself or Mr.
Scott Eussell is to be given the credit of discovering the hollow water-lines. Mr.
Smith was also tbe first to recommend to the Duke of Wellington, when on a visit to
Tedworth, the formation of a fleet of gun-boats. At the instance of his grace
the idea was made known to the First Lord of the Admiralty. Some time after,
when walking down Eegent Street, Mr. Smith met the gentleman in question, of (
whom he asked if his letter had been received. The First Lord repUed that it had, "
but that the Admiralty could not pay attention to all the recommendations made
to them. Upon this Mr. Smith took off his hat, and, turning away from him with
a stately bow, observed — " What his grace the Duke of Wellington considered
worthy of attention, I think your lordship might at least have condescended to
notice." Until Mr. Smith had reached his eightieth year he showed no sign of
physical or mental decay. His head was as clear, and his hand as firm as they had
been twenty years before. If he felt himself not quite well of a morning, he used
to plunge his head into cold water, and hold it there as long as he could. His end
was peaceful. Teetotallers will be glad to learn that, in his mode of living, Mr.
Smith was peculiarly abstemious as regarded drinking ; but in eating he indulged
more freely, and his appetite was surprising. The immense exercise which he was
daily in the habit of taking, and his early hours in the morning, required an
adequate supply of nourishment ; and after his severest day's work he was never
" off his feed." His well-knit and manly frame, combined with great activity in
the use of his limbs, rendered him successful in all athletic sports. In his youth
he was a first-rate swimmer, rower, cricketer, and shot ; as a player of billiards he
had obtained eminence ; as a landlord he was kind and judicious ; as the village
squire, while he feasted all the great, he never forgot the small. His charities
seem to have been many ; but then he was rich, and had no children. His chief
fame, however, is as a fox-hunter. The Emperor Napoleon addressed him as Le
Premier Chasseur d'Angleterre. The Parisians knew him as Le Grand Chasseur
Smit. There has not been a book published that does not allot to him the highest
place as a master of hounds, a huntsman, and a rider. Such a man, it is true, did
not play a high part in the world's drama. To live for fox-hunting seems some
what ignoble : but Mr. Smith did what he undertook to do thoroughly ; he lived on
his estates, and he promoted the prosperity of all around him. He was a public '
benefactor, by sustaining those field-sports which do so much to invigorate our
national character. He may not have been a model man altogether ; but few men
in his time lived more honourable and manly lives. — Nor must we forget Sir Tatton
Sykes, the great Yorkshire baronet— famed in the annals of the turf— who died
at an extreme old age; and who kept up his enjoyment of life almost to the .
very last. Then there was Viscount Combermere, better known as Sir Willoughby
Cotton, a companion-in-arms, in India and the Peninsula, of Arthur, Duke of
Wellington— a hero of whose memory the British army may well be proud. And
here, also, we must record the name of Charles Waterton, the great naturalist, of
Waterton Hall, who had travelled in pursuit of his favourite studies in many
lands ; and who had ridden on the back of an alligator — a feat justly considered
unparalleled in his time. We must also add to the list Sir James Outram, of
480

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [ball hughes.
Indian fame; Sir James Clark Eoss, the Arctic navigator; General Sir Howard
Douglas, the military engineer, who lived to be eighty-six ; and the great Earl of
Dundonald, who, in the year 1860, and at the age of eighty-two, departed this life,
after he had vindicated his fair fame, cruelly sacrificed to party animosities in his
youth ; and had won the honours — iate, but not too late — from his sovereign to
which his courage, his sailor-like daring, and his great sagacity, undoubtedly gave
him the most righteous claim. Lord Palmerston had seen that family of warriors
— Sir C. Napier, the conqueror of Scinde ; Sir William, the historian of the Penin
sular war ; Sir Charles, the admiral — all gathered to their fathers. The soldiers and
sailors ; the hunters and sportsmen ; the mighty men of war, who had won vic
tories, and been recorded in Gazettes ; who had blazed in the full sunshine of
London life and gaiety — the men who had been the fashion — the proud beauties
who had been the rage — had, one after another, passed away ; and it was left to
Lord Palmerston to connect with the new age these great men and lovely women
of the past.
In his own particular sphere as a leader of society, and a parliamentary chief,
what food for reflection must he have had in thinking of those' who had gone
before. He had outUved Crockford's, the members of which included, writes
Captain Gronow, all the celebrities of England, from the Duke of Wellington to
the youngest ensign of the Guards ; and at whose gay and festive board, " which
was constantly replenished from midnight to early dawn, the most brilliant sallies of
wit, the most agreeable conversation, the most interesting anecdotes, interspersed
with grave political discussions and acute logical reasoning, proceeded from the
soldiers, scholars, statesmen, poets, and men of pleasure, who, when the House was
up, and balls and parties at an end, delighted to finish their evening with a
little supper, and a good deal of hazard, at old Crockey's." In 1843, died old
Lord Allen, one of the last of the prince-regent set. He, writes Captain Gronow,
greatly resembled, in later life, an ancient grey parrot, both in the aquiline outline
of his features, and his peculiar mode of walking with one foot crossed over the
other, in a slow and easy manner. He was a regular cockney, and very seldom
left London ; but, on one occasion, when he had gone down to Dover, for the sake
of his health, and complained to his facetious friend that he could get no sleep,
Alvanley ordered a coach to drive up and down in front of the windows all
night, and made the " boots" call out, in imitation of the London watchman of that
day — " Half-past two, and a stormy night." The well-known rumble of the wheels,
and the dulcet tones of the boots, had the desired effect. The " King," as h6 was
termed, passed excellent nights, and was soon able to return to his little house in
South Street, with renewed health and spirits. Another great dandy, who died
only so lately as 1861, was Ball Hughes, in his youth considered a good match by
aU the women in London ; and who made a great sensation by marrying a beautiful
Spanish danseuse, named Mercandotti (who had been engaged for the season for
£1,800, at the King's Theatre), to the intense disappointment of fashionable
society. Captain Gronow writes —
"One night, March 1st, 1823, the house was enormously crowded by an
audience eager to see the favourite in the then popular ballet by Auber, A If red;
when, just before the curtain drew up, the manager came forward, and expressed
his regret that Mademoiselle Mercandotti had disappeared, and that he had
been unable to discover whither she had gone. Knowing ones, however,
guessed that she had been carried off by the golden Ball, whose advances had
been very favourably received, and who had evidently made a strong impres
sion on the damsel ; and a few days after, the Morning Post announced that
a marriage had taken place between a young man of large fortune, and one
of the most remarkable dancers of the age. The persons present at the mar
riage were, the mother of the bride, Mr. Ebers, and Lord Fife. The honeymoon
was passed at Oatlands, which the' happy bridegroom had shortly purchased before
from the Duke of York." 481

kate north.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.

Ainsworth wrote the following epigram on this event—
" The fair damsel is gone ; and no wonder at all,
That, bred to the dance, she is gone to a Ball."
It is needless to observe that the golden Ball died, comparatively speaking, a
poor man. His love of gaming was such that, at one period of his life, he would
rather play at pitch and toss than be without his favourite excitement. He told
Gronow that at one time he had lost considerable sums at battledoor and shuttle
cock. On one occasion, immediately after dinner, he and the eccentric Lord
Petersham commenced playing with these toys, and continued hard at work
during the whole of the night ; next morning he was found by his valet lying on
the ground, fast asleep, but ready for any species, of speculation. Another of the
set was Scrope Davies, the friend of Byron and Moore. Deserted by fortune and
friends, as all gamblers, sooner or later, are, Davies retired to the continent.
Having heard that Brummell had obtained a consulship when Lord. Melbourne
came into office, Scrope went over to London, and had an interview with the noble
lord ; but he toid his friends — " Lamb looked so sheepish when I was ushered into
his presence, that I asked him for nothing ; indeed, there were so many nibbling
at his grass, that I felt I ought not to jump over the fence into the meadow upon
which such animals were feeding."
Lord Palmerston also outlived, not merely the Four-in-hand Club — consisting
originally of Lord Sefton, Lord Barrymore, Colonel Berkeley (afterwards Earl Fitz-
hardinge), Mr. A-kers, Sir Bellingham Graham, Sir Henry Peyton, Mr. Clutterbuck,
Mr. Cholmondeley, of Vale Eoyal ; Sir John Lade, Mr., Fenwick, Lord Worcester,
and the Hon. Major Forrester — but the second club of the same sorti revived in
1.838, by Lord Chesterfield and others. His lordship must have been familiar with
the black carriage, and black horses of Lord Onslow, too eccentric to, obtain the
suffrages, of any of the Four-in-hand Club, and whose memory is embalmed in
four lines, which posterity will not willingly let die. They are as follows :. —
" What can Tommy Onslow do ?
He can drive a curricle and two.
Can Tommy Onslow do no more ?
Yes, he can drive a. phaeton and four."
Another of these worthies, whose turn-out always made a sensation from its
excessive elegance, was a man named Eichards, better known by the cognomen of
Tom Pipes, from the following circumstance. Having run through an enormous
fortune, he was compelled to borrow money at an exorbitant interest ; and a well-
known tobacconist, in Oxford Street, lent him large sums on condition that
Eichards should take one-half the amount in tobacco-pipes, and other such com
modities ; and the needy man was always inviting his friends to take off his hands
a portion of this stock in trade. He, of course, like all other borrowers upon post
obit bonds, became completely ruined ; and one kind friend obtained for him what
was, in those days, a refuge of the destitute— a consulship. It was to Nantes he
went ; but his pecuniary difficulties hung about him, and he got into scrapes, and
• lost his appointment.
In the gossiping pages of Captain Gronow we hear of names now having no
meaning, but full of the gay world in which Viscount Palmerston shone. There
was the beautiful soldier's daughter, Kate North, who, in her- poverty and despair,
had accepted the protection of the Duke of York. One summer morning a friend
of- the> duke's called upon her, and told her that his royal highness would be under
the necessity of giving up his connexion with her ; for he had promised the king,
his father, that if his debts were paid, he would never more see the object- of his
affection. Poor Kate's heart was full : she could not reply to the messenger; but,
bursting into tears, hid her face, and flew out of the room. The sting which had
been inflicted was more than she could bear, and she was seized with brain fever;
but, with much care and quiet, in course of time, the poor creature recovered her
482

A>D. 1820.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [miss brooke.
health and composure of mind. There was no woman so much admired in
London atthe time as Kate North : her bewitching manners, the charm and grace
of her conversation, brought to her pretty house in Green Street innumerable
admirers. Among those anxious to woo her, a noble Scotch lord was most
assiduous in his attention ; and he at length succeeded in prevailing upon her to
accept the offer of his protection. She lived with him several years, and bore him a
daughter, who is now the wife of a baronet, and the mother of a numerous family.
But the canker in Kate's mind was all this while corroding her life. She visited
Paris for change of air and scene; but there her senses left her; she became raving
mad, and died in a foreign land, without a friend to close her eyes.
Then there was Sally Brooke, the daughter of a beneficed clergyman, who had
agreeable manners, was highly educated, and always moved in the best men's
circles. She was most particularly noticed by the Prince of Wales, and, conse
quently, well received by those who basked in princely favour. Not a word, how
ever, was ever breathed against her honour, and she was always looked upon as a
model of unimpeachable morality. Her beauty was such that she became the
object of general admiration, and her portrait was taken by the first painters of
the day. The Hebe, by Stroeling, engraved by Heath, remains to enable the world
to form some idea of the matchless charms of the original. Her figure was perfec
tion, and the sculptor would have been delighted to obtain such a model. From
whence she derived her income was always a mystery. A silly story was for a
moment circulated, that a person of the name of Bouverie, commonly called the
Commissioner, had succeeded in captivating her ; this, however, soon died away.
Whatever may have been her resources, she kept up a good establishment, and
lived always Uke a lady, but without much show. Her house was the rendezvous
of the first men in London ;• but to her own sex she was distant and reserved, never
admitting any female to her famiUarity. On one occasion Miss Brooke dined at
the house of a noble marquis, where some of the fashionable young men of the day
were invited to meet her. Mr. Christopher Nugent, a nephew of the celebrated
Burke, was most assiduous in his attentions, and begged permission to> pay her a
visit. The request was granted, and a day and hour named. Some of the> party
preserub incidentally mentioned this engagement in the presence of the widow of a
Mr. Harrison, a lady who had access to the best circles in consequence of her
.remarkable beauty, and who had some right to place Mr. Nugent on the list of
her admirers. Jealous of her rival, the widow dressed herself as a boy, knocked at
the door in Green Street, and was admitted into the presence of Miss Brooke, who
was reclining on a sofa, while Nugent was on his knees before her-. The widow,
finding her lover in smoh a, position, rushed upon him, seized a knife, and plunged
it into- his breast, fortunately without inflicting a mortal wound. The anger of
the lady was, however^ soon over, as Nugent and the lovely widow were soon after
seen walking together in Hyde Park. After being the admiration of the world of
fashion for several seasons, Miss Brooke, seeing wrinkles coming, retired to Baden.
There she was robbed of all she possessed, and died Of dropsy at Strasburg — " the
world! forgetting^ by the world forgot."
Mademoiselle Dmthie, the most renowned of her class, lived in great splen
dour and magnificence at Paris- before the first revolution. The old Lord
Egremont and the Count d7 Artois were rivals for her favours. Her carriage was
covered with gold, and drawn by eight cream-coloured horses. She emigrated to
England, and at once became the idol of the young men of fashion. In London
her principal admirers were Bob Byng, brother of the M.P. for Middlesex; Perre-
gaux, the rich banker, who had emigrated ; and Mr. Lee. The younger brother of
the latter gentleman acted the part, of master of the ceremonies to the fair French
woman ; gave her his arm in all the public promenades, and escorted her to the
play and opera on all occasions. The elder Lee, her favoured inamorata, though
dotingly fond of her, would never appear with her in public. The Duke of
Queensberry, a> great, friend, of the. ladies, as of all persons of her persuasion, asked
483

the misses berry.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.
her the meaning of her conduct with respect to the two brothers. She replied,
with unblushing effrontery, " The younger Lee is mon lit de parade ; the elder
mon lit de repos." Mr. Lee, whose fortune was much injured by her extravagance,
bade her farewell in a single Latin line, which, he told her, her friend the Duke of
Queensberry, of whom he was rather jealous, would translate. It was " Non possum
te cum vivere nee sine te." Of such mercenary beauties there were more than
enough in London. Happily, Lord Palmerston appears to have had more self-
respect and good sense than to be connected with such. He had warning, too, in
the poverty and misery of many of his cotemporaries in London life, of the ruinous
character of such connections. The sums of money such men as Lord Fife would
spend on a single charmer were enormous ; and the impudence of the class was
insufferable. Harriet Wilson actually succeeded in almost getting a promise of
marriage from the Duke of Beaufort. The lady in question was one of the most
notorious traviatas of the day ; had written her memoirs, and become the scandal
of the metropolis. One of her sisters had married a peer of the realm ; and another
a famous harpist, of very doubtful character, who had been one of the most licen
tious men of the day, and afterwards carried off the wife of a distinguished English
composer. Perhaps, if English wives had shown the spirit of a Duchess of Montmorency
in Louis XV.'s time, more decorum would have characterised English society. The
duke was married to a lady of great beauty, and ancient family ; nevertheless he
led a sadly improper life. He even went so far as to appear in public with the
celebrated dancer, Mademoiselle Guimard, about whom all the young men of the
day were raving. One night, on the duchess entering her box at the opera, with
several friends, she beheld, to her horror and amazement, the duke, her husband,
seated at the back of the pit box, along with the charming dancer. This was an
outrage which the duchess could not endure. She sent one of the gentlemen
who were with her to request her husband's immediate presence, and thus ad
dressed the astonished culprit — " I have always been a faithful and devoted wife ;
but let me warn you in time. If you ever again commit such an outrage, re
member this — that you cannot make Montmorencys without me; and I can
make them without your assistance." The duke's fear and pride were roused by
this very broad hint, and it is said he, from that period, reformed.
Time and space would fail to tell of the stars of the opera, that shone brightly
for awhile, and then went out in utter darkness, during the Palmerston era : what
triumphs were created by the singing or acting of such artists as Malibran, Grisi,
Eubini and Tamburini, Pasta, Catalini ; by the tragedienne Eachel, who was, from
all accounts, off the stage a very different person to what she was on ; Lablache,
Catherine Hayes, Taglioni, Madame Vestris, Fanny Ellsler, Madame Schroder
Duverney, Mrs. Siddons, and many more; of whom men raved, but whose charms
and names call up no excitement, flush no faces now.
In 1851, died at Hampstead, in her eighty-ninth year, Miss Joanna Baillie,
authoress of numerous tragedies, and one ofthe many distinguished literary women
of the time. With some of them Lord Palmerston was on friendly terms. In the
Journal and Correspondence of Miss Berry, there is more than one intimation of
considerable intimacy with the Palmerston family. Miss Berry, writes the
editor, the late Lady Theresa Lewis, has more than ordinary claims to live in the
memory of those to whom she was personally known. For an unusually lengthened
period of years she formed a centre, round which beauty, rank, wealth, power,
fashion, learning, and science were gathered ; merit and distinction of every degree
were blended, by her hospitality, in social ease and familiar intercourse, encouraged
by her kindness, and enlivened by her presence. She was not only the friend of
literature, and of literary people, but she assiduously cultivated the acquaintance
of intellectual excellence in whatever form it might appear; and, to the close of her
existence, she maintained her interest in all the important affairs of life, whether
social, literary, or political. Without any remarkable talent for conversation
484

a.d. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [death of the berrys.
herself, she promoted conversation amongst others, and shed an air of home-like
ease over the society which met under her roof, that will long be remembered by
those who had the opportunity of witnessing it, and who saw the consequent
readiness and frequency with which the guests of her unpremeditated parties
availed themselves of her general invitation. From the age of seventeen or
eighteen, to that of nearly ninety, Miss Berry, and her sister Agnes (one year
younger than herself), lived constantly in society, both at home and abroad : they
had seen Marie Antoinette in all her pride and beauty ; and they lived to regret
the fall of Louis Philippe, for whose prudence and abilities Miss Berry had, for
many years, conceived a high respect, and with whom she was personally acquainted.
Born in the third year after the accession of George III., she lived to be privately
presented to Queen Victoria a few months before her death. In her early youth
she gained the respect of her elders, and was well known to have engaged the
devoted affection of one already far in the decline of life. In her old age, the loved
and admired of the fastidious Horace Walpole won the hearts of the grand
children and great-grandchildren of the friends of her youth, and will be affec
tionately remembered by some who still lingered in childhood at the time of her
death. Miss Berry's first literary effort was in assisting, or rather executing for
her father, the work of editor to the various MSS. left jointly to him and his
daughters, by Lord Orford. In May, 1802, a comedy in five acts, entitled Fash
ionable Friends, by Miss Berry, was brought out at Drury Lane. It was after
wards published by Miss Berry, in the complete edition of her works, with her
own explanation of the cause of its failure on the stage. Her next work was to
edit the letters of Madame du Deffaud, in 1810. In 1815, Miss Berry published
the original letters of Eachael, Lady Eussell, with some account of her life. In
1828, Miss Berry brought out the first volume of her most considerable work, en
titled A Comparative View of Social Life in England and France, from
the Restoration of Charles II. to the Present Time. The second Volume
followed three years later ; and both volumes were republished in the complete
edition of her works, which appeared in 1844. Her last publication, dated 1840,
was a defence of Lord Orford, whose character had been roughly handled by Lord
Macaulay, in an article in the Edinburgh Review.
In January, 1852, Miss Agnes Berry died; and at the end of the year, Miss
Berry. She was buried by the side of her sister at Petersham. The chief mourners
were Mr. Crauford, the Hon. Frederick Byng, Dr. Milman, Dean of St. Paul's; and,
amongst the numerous friends who voluntarily paid this last tribute of respect, were
Sir H. Ferguson Davie, the Earl of Carlisle, Mr. Monckton Milnes, Mr. Charles
Greville, Mr. John Abel Smith, &c, &c. The day after the funeral, a poem appeared
in the Times on the subject, from the pen of Mr. M. Milnes, now Lord Houghton.
We give the first and second verses : —
" Two friends within one grave we place,
United in our tears ;
Sisters scarce parted for the space
Of more than eighty years :
And she whose bier is borne to-day — ¦
The one the last to go —
Bears with her thoughts that force their way
Above the moment's woe.
"Thoughts of the varied human life
Spread o'er that field of time ;
The toil, the passion, and the strife,
The virtue and the crime :
Yet, 'mid this long tumultuous scene,
The image on our mind
Of these dear women rests serene,
In happy bounds confined."
Of Mrs. Hemans, and of unhappy Letitia Landon, and other lady writers, we
485

MRS. browning.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.
can give but the names. Maria Edgeworth died in 1848, aged eighty-three;
Mary WoUstonecroft Shelly in 1851, aged fifty-three; Mrs. Marcet, famed for her
educational and scientific works, lived to be eighty-nine ; Mrs. Gore, the charming
painter of fashionable life and manners, died in 1861 ; Mrs. Jameson, the accom
plished critic, in 1859; Lady Sydney Morgan in 1858 ; Mrs. Trollope, the novelist
and American caricaturist, lived to the age of eighty-four, and departed this life
in 1862; Lucy Aikin, a writer of history, of no mean reputation in her day, lived
to be eighty-three, and died in 1863.
One of the brightest songsters of the later period of Lord Palmerston's life was
Elizabeth Barrett Browning. She was a born poet. Eegard being had merely to
the artistic qualities of her works, it would be difficult to name any one of her
sex who has equalled, or even approached her. Never did a bosom beat with
nobler instincts towards humanity and freedom than her's. In the Literary
Recollections of Miss Mitford— -herself a genial and pleasing writer — we read —
" My first acquaintance with Elizabeth Barrett commenced fifteen years ago ; and
she was then certainly one of the most interesting persons I had ever seen. Of a
slight, delicate figure, with a shower of dark curls falling on either side of a most
expressive face ; large, tender eyes, fringed with dark lashes ; a smile like a
sunbeam, and such a look of youthfulness, that I had some difficulty in persuading
a friend, in whose carriage we went to Chiswick, that the translatress of the
Prometheus of ^Eschylus, the author of the Essay on Mind, was, in technical
language, 'out.' During my stay in town we met frequently; and after my
return to the country, we corresponded very regularly ; her letters being just what
letters ought to be — her own talk put upon paper. The next year was a painful
one to herself and all who loved her; she broke a blood-vessel in the lungs. If
there had been consumption in the family, that disease would have supervened ;
but, happily, she escaped this fatal English malady. The vessel, however, refused
to heal; and after attending her for a year at her father's house in Wimpole
Street, Dr. Chambers, on the approach of winter, ordered her to a milder climate.
Her eldest brother — a brother in heart and talent worthy of such a sister —
together with other affectionate relatives, accompanied her to Torquay; and
there occurred that fatal event which saddened her bloom of youth, and gave a
deeper hue of thought and feeling, especially devotional feeling, to her poetry.
Nearly a year had passed, and the invalid, still attended by her companions, had
derived much benefit from the mild sea-breezes of Devonshire. One fine summer
morning, her favourite brother, together with two other fine young men, his
friends, embarked on board a small sailing vessel for a trip of a few hours.
Excellent sailors all, and familiar with the coast, they sent back the boatman, and
undertook themselves the management of their little craft. Danger was not dreamt
of by any one : indeed, after the catastrophe no one could divine the cause ; but in
a few minutes after their embarkation, and in sight of their very windows, and
just as they were crossing the bar, the boat went down, and all who were in her
perished. Even the bodies were never found. This tragedy nearly killed Miss
Barrett ; she was utterly prostrated by the horror and grief, and a natural, but most
unjust feeling, that she had been in some sort the cause of this great misery. It
was not until the following year that she could be removed in an invalid car
riage, and, by journeys of twenty miles a day, to her afflicted family and her
London home. On her return began the life which she continued for so many
years, confined to one large and commodious, but darkened chamber, to which
only her own family and a few devoted friends were admitted— reading, mean
while, almost every book worth reading, in almost every language ; studying, with
ever-fresh delight, the great classic authors in the original, and giving herself
heart and soul to that poetry of which she seemed born to be the priestess."
We learn from the source whence the above remarks are derived, that Miss
Barrett's vocation displayed itself very early in life; that she wrote largely at
ten years old, and well at fifteen. Her first important essay in authorship was

a.d. 1850.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mrs. browning.
a translation of the Prometheus of iEschylus, published anonymously in 1833 :
her own maturer judgment pronounced this attempt a failure, and it was there
fore replaced in the collected edition of her works by an entirely new version.
Five years later appeared The Seraphim, a poem, holding, as it were, an in
termediate position between an ancient Greek tragedy and a Christian mystery ;
the idea of which had suggested itself during the progress of her labours on
the Prometheus Bound. With it were associated some miscellaneous poems, a
portion of which had already appeared in the pages of periodicals, where they
had won (in spite of some obscurity of manner and expression) high appre
ciation for their poetic beauty and earnest tone of feeling. Though chiefly
known to the multitude by these productions, Miss Barrett also wrote many
admirable and erudite prose articles on the Greek Christian poets and other
subjects, which were considered to afford evidence of unusually keen insight
and extended intellectual attainments. After a long continuance of that secluded
life which has been referred to in the words of her intimate friend, a gradual im
provement took place in her -state of health ; and the beauties and pleasures of
the external world, from which she had been debarred for years, once more became
accessible to her. Several years ago she became the wife of Eobert Browning, the
poet ; and, immediately after her marriage, accompanied him to Pisa. They subse
quently removed to Florence, which continued to be their permanent home (and
where she died); although occasional visits to England afforded opportunity
to Mrs. Browning's friends of rejoicing with her in the possession of a lovely
boy, and a renewed measure of health and strength. The publication, in 1850, of
her collected poems, in two volumes, gave a great impetus to her reputation,
and obtained very general acknowledgment of her title to rank, in many
points of view, as the first female poet of the age. A small number of unpub-
Ushed poems appeared in this edition; and among them was Lady Geraldme's
Courtship, which has been cited as one of her happiest inspirations. An
inspiration it might indeed be called, inasmuch as it was written in twelve hours,
having been required, at the last moment, to complete the uniformity of her
volumes ; and composed in haste to save the packet which was to convey the
proof-sheets to America. In 1851, appeared Casa Guidi Windows, a poem, the
theme of which was the repeated struggle for liberty which she had oppor
tunities of witnessing from the windows of the Casa Guidi, her own Florentine
residence. Although critics have not failed to do full justice to the generous
impulse, fine imagination, and social and political wisdom of this production, the
fantastic and rugged forms in which the ideas are frequently clothed, would be
likely to render it only partially acceptable. It is, probably, by such poems as the
Poet's Vow, Catharina to Camoens, Bertha in the Lane, Cowper's Grave, and a
host of others which throng upon the memory, that Mrs. Browning will touch the
hearts of her readers most closely ; and it will be from them, therefore, that she will
derive her most enduring renown. In 1856, Mrs. Browning published Aurora
Leigh. Since Aurora Leigh, the only published work of Mrs. Browning's, we believe,
is a small volume, entitled Poems before Congress. One or two little pieces of
her's have occasionally adorned the pages of the Cornhill Magazine. In her
later poems, curious and loving students of her verse fancied they could detect
some unconscious reflection — very pleasant to see — of her gifted husband's thought
and style. It is less doubtful that her love of Italy, and her desire for its freedom
and independence, were intensified by his well-known passionate strength of sym
pathy for that country and that cause. It takes away something from the pain
which those who love and honour her. memory must feel at her loss, to remember
that she lived to witness the regeneration, and breathed her last on the enfran
chised soil, of the nation whose redemption had been one of the strongest aspira
tions of her noble heart.
What poets and schools of the poets did Lord Palmerston outlive ! In 1800,
487

tom hood.]. LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1845.
the sensitive, melancholy, yet humorous and pathetic William Cowper feU
asleep, and was buried in an obscure provincial town. In 1784, all that was
mortal of Eobert Burns ceased to exist. ' Shelley and Keats just sparkled, and then
vanished from the horizon, while Lord Palmerston was in the War Office. To
Byron, to Coleridge, to Wordsworth, to Southey, and Tom Moore, a longer lease
of life was given. Thomas Campbell died, and was buried in Westminster Abbey,
in 1844; while Samuel Eogers, Esq., poet and banker, seemed immortal. Let us
pause on a few names. Perhaps never did a man do so much good with a small
poem as did Tom Hood with his " Song of the Shirt." The story of his life is
soon told. He was born in the Poultry, London, where his father was a publisher
and bookseller, in 1799. Of his education but little is known. He was articled
young to his uncle, who was an engraver, and, in his employment, learned much
of that facility of drawing which afterwards distinguished . him. He was com
pelled to end his engagement, and to proceed to Scotland, where he remained two
years, gathering strength, and where he made his first essay in authorship in the
columns of a Dundee newspaper. Eeturning to town, and, apparently, resuming
his work as an engraver, he got a more congenial appointment, in 1821, as sub
editor of the London Magazine. Hood was thus at once launched upon the
literary world of London, and gradually acquired a public reputation. In 1824,
he married a lady admirably suited for him, and who was at once his idol and his
butt. Early in 1835, he removed with his family to Coblentz ; and he remained
abroad five years, working hard all the time at Comic Annuals, and various other
well-known publications, such as Up the Rhine. From the period of his going
abroad is dated the commencement of his illness, against which he bravely strug
gled till 1845, when the foe triumphed, and ended his useful and laborious career.
It was at this closing period of his life that he wrote the " Song of the Shirt," and
the " Bridge of Sighs." In those poems he astonished all by the new vein which
he opened up ; and in them he did what he wished to do — helped to bridge over
the gulf between Dives and Lazarus, between rich and poor. As a punster, Hood
was unrivalled. " Three such men," said a writer in the Times, " in succession,
as Theodore Hook, Thomas Hood, and Douglas Jerrold, of whom, it is almost
needless to add, that our hero was comparatively the greatest, have exerted such an
influence on London society by the brilliancy of their power, that punning has
obtained an eminence in quarters where, at one time, it would have been deemed
the height of vulgarity to venture on any species of word-play." The same writer
adds — " It will be found that nearly all the most successful puns depend on this
fact— the jumble of Saxon, Danish, Celtic, Latin, Greek, and Hebrew roots in the
English language, so that the same syllable has different meanings, according as
it has been derived from Saxon or from French, from Danish or from Hebrew."
Hood was, no doubt, wonderfully successful in his puns, even without overstepping
the limits of pure Saxon roots : as thus, in referring to the death of Sally Brown's
sweetheart : — '
"His death, which happened in his berth,
At forty odd befel :
They went and told the sexton, and
The sexton tolled the bell."
Or, again, with regard to Ben Battle : —
" Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war's alarms ;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms !
" Now, as they hore him off the field,
Says he, ' Let others shoot,
For here I leave my second leg,
And the Forty-second Foot.' "
But, in general, the most successful puns are due to the variety of elements in
488 J

A.D. 1820.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [winthrop praed.
the EngUsh language. The wit of Jerrold's comparison between puppy-ism and
dog-matism, or of Hood's contrast between piety and mag-piety, depends upon
this law. Sir Charles Napier's celebrated despatch, after one of his great battles,
is another good instance : — " Peccavi" — i" have Scinde : and all the more clever
from his adopting a third language to be the envelope, mask, and domino of the
pun. Sometimes, when the pun is not due to a comparison of two different
languages, it is obtained by a comparison of dialectical varieties, and especially by
the recognition of slang. As, for example : —
" The death of kings is easily explained ;
And thus upon a tomb it might he chiselled : —
' As long as George the Fourth could rain, he rained,
And then he mizzled.' "
Hood punned, and wrote comic verses, because he was compelled to — because
the pubUc preferred rather to laugh than to weep : nevertheless, his serious verse
is deeply touching ; and it was as perfect and complete in his earlier as well as his
later years. As an illustration, we add a little poem on his sister's death.
"We watched her breathing thro' the night,
Her breathing soft and low,
As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.
" So silently we seemed to speak,
So slowly moved about,
As we had lent her half our powers
To eke her living out.
" Our very hopes belied our fears,
Our fears our hopes belied,
We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.
"For when the morn came dim and sad,
And chill with early showers,
Her quiet eyelids closed — she had
Another morn than ours."
Of another poet and scholar, and man of the world, more famed since his
death than before, we would speak a little. Winthrop Mackworth Praed (for it is
to him that we allude) was the third and youngest son of William Mackworth
Praed, sergeant-at-law, and for many years chairman of the Audit Board. He
was born in John Street, Bedford Eow. As a child, he was tender and delicate.
He delighted in reading of a more profitable kind than is common with young
people : Plutarch's Lives being one of his chief favourites. Shakespeare he would
read aloud to his sisters. Young as he was, he already took much pleasure in
chess, of which he continued fond during the whole of his life, and soon became
a very good player. He also amused himself with the composition of dramas, too
unripe, as may well be supposed, for publication ; but in which he already dis
played that talent for drollery which he afterwards exhibited in so refined and
elegant a form,. At Eton, to which he was sent before he had completed his twelfth
year, his intellectual superiority was fully recognised, and received the fullest and
most appropriate encouragement. Here he took a principal part in carrying on
The Etonian. It was Praed's genius that impressed upon it its distinctive cha
racter, and that chiefly contributed to obtain for it the reputation which it still
retained above all other juvenile periodicals. To Cambridge Praed went with a
reputation which no Etonian had carried thither since the days of Canning. It
was, however, soon apparent that neither his time nor talents would be devoted
exclusively, or even mainly, to the pursuit of university distinction. His dis
position was eminently social — his company gladly welcomed wherever he pleased
to bestow it, whether by his immediate contemporaries, or by men of brighter
vol. n. 2 k 489

winthrop praed.] LIFE AND TIMES ;OF [a.d. 1839.
standing. His scholarship was elegant, refined, and tasteful. Many were -his
university successes. At the Union Debating Society, Praed soon gained highrank.
" It was here that Mr. (afterwards Lord) Macanlay [first became known as an
orator, many of his speeches in this mimic arena being little inferior, in rhetorical
skill or in force of argument, to his most splendid achievements in parUament.
Scarcely less remarkable, in a different style, was the clear and commanding elo
quence of Mr. Charles Austin, then equipping himself for the very high position
which he afterwards obtained as an advocate and parliamentary lawyer. After
these and a large number of promising speakers, destined to obtain celebrity
either at the bar or in the senate, there was no third name that could be put in
competition with that of Praed." When Knight's Quarterly Magazine was es
tablished Praed became one of its principal contributors. In 1825, we find him
again at Eton, as private tutor to Lord Ernest Bruce, a younger son of the Marquis
Of Aylesbury. During 'this period he was a constant contributor to the magazines
and annuals of the day. In 1 829, he was called to the bar at the Middle Temple.
He went the Norfolk circuit, and was rapidly rising in reputation and practice ; but
statesmanship had 'been his aim all through life, and the time had come when that
aim was to, be realised. He was first returned to parliament for St. Germains, in
1830, and again for the same place atthe general election of 1831. In 1832, he
contested unsuccessfully the borough of St. Ives ; but in 1834, he was returned,
with Mr. T. Baring, for Yarmouth. The exertions which he used to secure his
seat overtasked the powers of his constitution ; and, it is believed, first developed
— if they did not lay— the foundation of that fatal disease, to which a few years
afterwards he fell a victim. His success in the House of Commons was sufficient
to induce Sir Eobert Peel to offer him the office of Secretary to the Board of
Control, which offer he accepted. In 1837, Praed retired from Yarmouth, and
became M.P. for Aylesbury, which post he held till the day of his death. During
the latter years of his life he held the office of Deputy High Steward of the Uni
versity of Cambridge, and looked forward, at some future time, to representing in
parliament the university itself. This, however, was not to be. In 1838, Mr. Praed
was engaged, with Mr. T. D. Acland, Mr. Matheson, Mr. H. W. Coleridge, and other
friends in and out of parliament, in preparing a scheme of education for the children
of the labouring classes, to be carried out under the auspices of the National Society.
In 1839 he died, and was buried at Kensal'Green. He left two daughters, under whose
authority, a few years after, their father's poems were given to the pubUc ; and by
means of them the name and fame of Praed will live for many years.
w ^And,I10W ^hat must the verdict be as to Praed's -claim to ^'immortality ?
We have two volumes of verse, melodious, refined, tender, sparkling, and full of
pathos and fun. He is not of the school of to-day : Praed wrote before Tennyson.
He wrote when the reaction against Byronism had set in, and when societv
required in its poet that he -should be a gentleman, and full to overflowing
of refinement and wit. His were the days of annuals and Books of Bemity.
People then had not come to believe in missions, or woman's destiny, or in her
equality with man. She was then to be wooed and won in the old Whtly style,
as something almost too bright or good for human nature's daily foodf She had
not then made the frightful mistake of being jolly and fast, and of aping the tone,
in morals and fashions, of the Anonymas of her time. And of such a society
Praed was the poet-laureate He was more. He had a humour which rivalled that
of Hood, or of the author df the Ingoldsby Legends. We take it that Wordsworth
was pre-eminently the poet of his time; yet Praed was no imitator of Wordsworth.
Praed s poems are worth reprinting, and are really poems, not themes inverse;
and his charades and enigmas are quite an art in themselves. " The character,"
writes a friend, " of Praed's Latin and Greek verse is peculiar. It is the exact
translation, for the -most pari, of the same style and diction -which he wielded
with hardly greater ease in his native language. The same sparkling antitheses,
the same minute elaboration -of fancy, whether employed in depicting natural or

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [cardinal wiseman.
mental objects, and the same ever-present under-current of melancholy, are found
in both. 'Of a certain kind of Greek, adapted to the curious production called
at Cambridge a Sapphic-Ode, and of a certain degree of Latin scholarship com
petent to express all the ideas necessary to his verse, :but not to sound the depth or
espand the capacities of the language, he was master. His epigrams are, perhaps,
the most scholarlike of his productions."
But we must not only chronicle ladies and poets. A few further notices wUl
give the reader a better idea of the literature, and learning, and art of Lord
Palmerston's time. In the course of our work we have referred to most
of the distinguished men of his day ; but still there are other names yet to be re
corded. Horace Twiss, author of the Life of Lord Eldon, died in 1849 ; as also
did Horace Smith, the author of Rejected Addresses ; and Etty, the artist. :Sir
Martin Archer Shee, President of the Eoyal Academy, died in 1850. The
dissenting religious world lost a great man in 1851— -Dr. Pye Smith, the principal
of Homerton College, and author of a very learned work, called Scripture Tes
timony to the Messiah. Dr. Lingard,the great Eoman Catholic historian, died
at about the age of eighty-two, in the same year. Eobert Dale Owen, the sociaUst,
died atthe age of eighty-seven, in 1858. As we have recorded our opinion of
him already, it is only fair that we add that ofhis admirers. Mr. Sargent, in his
Robert Owen, and his Philosophy, writes — " Those, however, who think of
the old man with a contemptuous pity, have need to be reminded how important
was the 'position he once occupied, and how great was the good he effected. As a
young man, he was the munificent supporter of Lancaster and of Bell in their
early efforts ; and the liberal friend of Fulton, in his various mechanical
projects. It was Owen's publications which recommended to the Prussian govern
ment its scheme of inational education, and a system of pauper management to
the Dutch. The establishment of infant schools is his work, and followed in
evitably from his studious care to place the people in circumstances favourable to
their 'development. By his persevering efforts, first at Manchester, and then at
New Lanark, he showed, in practice, that much might be done to improve the con
dition and fhe character cf factory workers ; and the various plans since carried out
are traceable to him as their originator. The first Sir Eobert Peel had the honour
of being the prime mover, in parliament, of the measures for restraining, by law,
the abuses of the factory system ; but it was at the instigation of Owen that the
movement of 1819 commenced."
In 1859, died Frank Stone, the artist; and De Quincy, the author of Confes
sions of an Opium Eater. Sir Charles Barry, the architect ; Albert Smith, whose
ascent of Mont Blanc was a great source of profit to the^narrator, and amusement
to the 'hearer; Sir Charles Eoss, the far-famed miniature painter; G. P. E.
James, the novelist ; and Dr. Croly, poet and divine, died in 1860. Sir Peter Fair-
bakn died in 1861; as did Eichard Oastler, who had fought bitterly against political
economists for the rights of labour, in Yorkshire factories more especially. Henry
Thomas Buckle, the author of the History of Civilisation, died in 18,62, at the
age of forty, and left his great work, to the grief of many, but half done. The
great surgeon, Sir Benjamin Brodie, also died that year. Nor must we omit the
names of Henry Hallam, the great historian; of Turner, the artist, rightly buried
in St. Paul's Cathedral; or of Leigh Hunt, who was sent to gaol for calling George
the Fourth an " Adonis of fifty ;" nor Mulready, the artist. In 1864, died Dyce, the
historical painter ; T. P. Cooke, the popular hero of Black-eyed Susan; Lance,
whose fruit and flowers, as -displayed in the annual exhibition of the Eoyai
Academy, were perfection ; and John Leech, to whose delightful cartoons Punch
owes its immortality. Never before had the caricaturist been so graceful, so true
to nature, or displayed such thorough acquaintance with all that was best and
manliest in English' life. Sir Joseph Paxton, for whom we are indebted for im
proved landscape-gardening, and crystal palaces for all sorts and conditions of men,
died in 1865. In the same year, also, died Cardinal Wiseman — a man who
2K.2 491

WILLIAM THACKERAY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.
requires more than a passing line. Cardinal Wiseman was the son of the late
Mr. J. Wiseman, merchant, of Waterford and of Seville, in which latter city the
late cardinal was born on the 2nd of August, 1802. When little more than five
years old, young Nicholas Wiseman was sent to England, and placed at a boarding-
school at Waterford. In 1810 he was transferred thence to the Eoman Catholic
College of St. Cuthbert, at Ushaw, near Durham, where he remained until 1818.
In that year he obtained leave to quit Ushaw for Eome, where he became one of
the first members of the English College, then recently founded at Eome. In the
next year he had the honour of preaching before the then Pope Pius VII., and was
created a Doctor of Divinity in 1824, shortly before the completion of his twenty-
second year. In the following spring he received holy orders, and in 1827 was
nominated Professor of Oriental Languages in the Eoman University, being at that
time vice-rector of the English College, to the rectorship of which he was pro
moted in the year 1829. Dr. Wiseman returned to England in 1835 ; and in the
Lent of the foUowing year, he delivered, at St. Mary's, Moorfields, a course of lec
tures, in which he vindicated, at considerable length, the principal doctrines and
practices of the Eoman Catholic church, and with such success, that the Eoman
Catholics of the metropolis presented him with a gold medal, commemorative of
their gratitude and of their high regard for his talents and acquirements. In 1840,
the late Pope Gregory XVI. increased the number of his vicars-apostolic in
England from four to eight ; and Dr. Wiseman5 was appointed coadjutor to the late
Bishop Walsh, then vicar-apostolic of the midland district, being at the same
time elevated to the presidency of St. Mary's College, Oscott. In 1848, on the
death of Bishop Griffiths, Dr. Wiseman became pro-vicar-apostolie of the
London district, and subsequently was again coadjutor to Dr. Walsh, then
moved to London. On his death, in 1849, Bishop Wiseman succeeded as vicar-
apostolic. The next stage in Dr. Wiseman's life is that which, as it has been
more controverted than any other, so also is it that by which his name will be longest
remembered. In August, 1850, Bishop Wiseman was summoned to Eome, to the
"threshold of the apostles," by his holiness Pope Pius IX., who, on the 29th of
the following September, issued his celebrated " Apostolical Letter," re-establishing
the Eoman Catholic hierarchy in England and Wales, at the same time issuing a
"brief," elevating Dr. Wiseman to the archbishopric of Westminster. In a
private consistory held the following day, the new " archbishop" was raised by the
sovereign pontiff to the dignity of a cardinal priest, the ancient church of St.
Pudentia, at Eome, in conformity with the ecclesiastical custom, being selected
by him as his title. His eminence was the seventh Englishman who has been
elevated to the hat of a cardinal since the Eeformation, his predecessors in this
respect having been Cardinal Pole, Cardinal Allen, Cardinal Howard, Cardinal
lork Cardinal Weld, and Cardinal Acton. The name of Cardinal Wiseman was
well known m that portion of the literary world which interests itself in contro
versy as one of the most frequent and able contributors to the Dublin Review, of
which he was for some years the joint editor. To the London world, and to the
public at large, Cardinal Wiseman's name was rendered most familiar by his
frequent appearance upon the platform as a public lecturer upon a wide range of
subjects connected with education, history, art, and science; and in this capacity
his eminence always found an attentive and eager audience, even among those who
were most conscientiously opposed to his spiritual claims and pretensions, and who
most thoroughly ignored him as "Archbishop of Westminster." The cardinal had
been suffering for about twelve years from diabetes. In 1860, whilst in Eome, he
suffered severely from carbuncle. His last illness was erysipelas of the head and
face It was followed by a carbuncle on the scalp. To the great grief of his
friends he gradually sank, exhausted by this accumulation of maladies.
_ Suddenly, in the fulness of his fame, England's greatest novelist, or keenest
social satirist, at any rate-Wham Makepiece Thackeray-was borne away by
death. On December 24th, 1863, the news circulated through London that the

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [deaths in parliament.
author of Vanity Fair was dead. It was only two days before that he had been
seen at his club, radiant and buoyant with glee. His medical attendants attributed
his death to effusion on the brain. It appeared that he had a very large brain,
weighing enormously. For many years his large frame and silvered head had been
conspicuous in society. The prominent incidents of a literary man's life are not
numerous ; and there have been published so many memoirs of Mr. Thackeray, in
biographical dictionaries and other works, that we need not go much into detail
in recording dates. He belonged to a Yorkshire family, and was descended
from that Dr. Thackeray who was for some time head-master at Harrow, and who
introduced there the Eton system. His father was in the civil service of the East
India Company ; and he was born at Calcutta in 1811. He was educated at the
Charterhouse, which he loved to describe in his novels. Then he went to Cam
bridge; but he left the university without taking a degree, and went to the con
tinent with a view of studying art. He might in those days be seen at Eome, at
Weimar, and at Paris, enjoying every kind of society, chiefly that of the artists.
He has described this sort of life abundantly in his tales. It was some years after
this that he turned his attention to literature. He had begun life with what
might be considered a good fortune; but he lost his money, and had to work.
" He began," says the Times' critic, " as a writer in Fraser's Magazine, in the
days when Maginn was its ruUng spirit ; and, under the name of Michael Angelo
Titmarsh, wrote scores of essays, reviews, tales, sketches, poems of very unequal
merit, which brought him little renown, and not much emolument. He con
tributed to other periodicals, wrote various books of travel, and worked for the
pubUshers — any that came to him — as a barrister takes his brief from any respectable
attorney. The mass of work which he -got through in this way was very great;
but much of it is interesting only as the early practice of one who, before long, rose
to be a master of English. On the whole, as we look back upon these writings, we
do not think that if his fame at that time was unequal to his merits, the public
were much to blame. The very high opinion which his friends entertained of him
must have been due more to personal intercourse than to his published works. It
was not until 1846 that Mr. Thackeray fairly showed to the world what was in
him. Then began to be published, in monthly numbers, the story of Vanity Fair.
It took London by surprise — the picture was so true, the satire was so trenchant,
the style was so finished. It is difficult to say which of these • three works is the
best — Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, or The Newcomes. Men of letters may give
their preference to the second of these, which is, indeed, the most finished of all his
works. But there is a vigour in the first-mentioned, and a matured beauty in the
last, which, to the throng of readers, will be more attractive. At first reading,
Vanity Fair has given to many an impression that the author is too cynical.
There was no man less ill-natured than Mr. Thackeray ; and, if anybody doubts
this, we refer him to The Newcomes, and ask whether that book could be written
by any but a most kind-hearted man ? We believe that one of the greatest miseries
which Mr. Thackeray had to endure, grew out of the sense that he, one of the
kindest of men, was regarded as an ill-natured cynic. He produced many works
besides those which we have mentioned; and among them, perhaps, Pendennis
ought to be named as standing on a nearly equal level. Over and above this,
some of his minor works are perfect in their way. There is a little tale of his —
Barry Lyndon — which the more ardent lovers of Thackeray's writing regard as
his masterpiece. We have mentioned enough, however, to justify the opinion
that, except Mr. Dickens, no modern English novelist ranks higher than William
Makepeace Thackeray. As studies of human nature, and as specimens of pure
idiomatic English, perhaps nothing better has been written than that which we
have under Thackeray's name. There is a rich humour, too, in his writing which
is very amusing. For humour and play of fancy what can be better than his
poems ? They are among the cleverest things in the language."
In the House of Commons, in addition to those we have already mentioned, 493

MR. cobden's death.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
what hosts of his contemporaries- had; Lord Palmerston outlived; In 1848 died
Charles BuUer, a promising statesman and political writer: He had long outlived
his quondam friend, and, subsequently, political opponent, Wilson Croker — the
Mr. Elgsby of Conimgsby. Lord Palmerston had seen the Eadieal M.P.'s —
Cobbett; Sharman Crawford; Wakley, of the Lancet; Tom Duncombe, the
gay and agreeable sinner, so dear to Finsbury ; Lord Dudley Stuart, the: friend of
the Poles1 — all gathered' to their fathers. Abaut'the same time there passed away
a man well known, in his day — Daniel Whittle Harvey, the fervent Eadieal M.P.
and newspaper proprietor of a time when political life was something real, some
thing earnest; but who, latterly,- was known as. a terror to evil-doers, and especially
cabmen, inthe city. In the. opinion of the latter, the "V.. E." on the badge was
supposed^ to stand for Vittle. 'Arvey, as the comic literature of that day still testi
fies. • To the last Mr. Harvey was a wonderfully active man ;. audi only a few days
previous to his death, he ran up-stairs as if he were a mere lad. • As an instance- of
what talent and perseverance may do, he deserves remembering. While a boy, he
used to write his name on his desk, " Daniel Whittle Harvey, M.P. for Colchester ;"
and M:P. for Colchester he became. In 1837, he was- considered, by Mk James
Grant, as one of the most gifted men in parliament. Mr. Grant describe* him as
" one of the speakers in the House whom no one would ever tire of hearing. His
ideas always strike you as excellent, and his; illustrations are' usually of the most
felicitous kindi You are often surprised, as well as pleased, by thebrilliant things
he says. His language is elegant to a fault.- At refined sarcasm," Mr. Grant, adds-,,
" he has few equals. No man can cut an opponent more delicately, and at the
same time so deeply. Some of his efforts in this way have been the- happiest that
ever met my notice, either in speeches I have heard delivered, or in the course of
my reading.?' Such is fame. Of the late Daniel Whittle Harvey as an.M.P., and'
elegant, eloquent, and. sarcastic speaker, the present generation knows;* nought.
In life how soon one is pushed off the stage. Of other members who,, like Harvey*
had risen from the ranks, let us note W. J. Fox,. M.P. for Oldham; Herberts
Ingram, who, as a boy, had blacked the shoes of one of his constituents}.;- Mar-
Brotherton (famed for his annual motion to the; effect that the. House do adjoura:
at twelve o'clock), who had been a poor factory lad ;. William Schaw Lindsay, .whd
had been a cabin-boy, and undergone more suffering than usually faUs to the'lot df
such. Old Colonel -Sibthorp, whose invectives against foreigners, and against Whigs
and Tories, always created roars of laughter, died in 1861. Mr. Muntz, the bearded
Birmingham M.P.; Mr. Attwood, the leader of the unionists during the reform
agitation era ; Mr. George Byng, so long the father of the House;, must also toe
enumerated here.. The latter gentleman not only had the honour of being?-,- cos-
sideredas the father of the House, but he had also the additional fame of hasasag:
been, for the long period of half a century, not only a representative of the- peonle^
but the representative of the same constituency— a circumstance, we believe, ,wfr
paralleled in the history of the House of Commons.
n ,. ?n ApTri1' 18<?5'' a11 El%knd was startled by hearing of the death of Eichard
Cobden.. It was known that he was ill;, but,. it was hoped* not seriously so;- Fob
four years Mr. Cobden had suffered from asthma, and, under the 'advice of hid
Physicians, abstained as much as possible from any active duty during winter. A
few months before his- death he transgressed this rule so far as to address his con*
stituents at Eochdale, m one of those great speeches which have done so much to
educate the nation, and to put to flight the pernicious errors in political science to
which the ruling class of this country has clung with so much pertinacity. But
the consequence of his speaking at Eochdale was to warn him once again that he
could not be too careful during an English winter.. Accordingly, in reply to a
letter from Mr. Bright, he invited that statesman to meet him at Midhurst, as he
did not contemplate resuming his seat in parliament till a more advanced period of
the session. In the course of their conversation, he recalled the fact that his only
son was buried m Lavington churchyard, and that there,, too, he would be buried.
494

RIG MARIE) COBBE N

03.1865.

TEE LONDON PHEHTmT> AHD PDBLtSHIND COMPANY- L UrtlT BT>

A.Dt 1865.]] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [opinions of the press.
The reference to his death was not, indeed, caused by any presentiment of his
own approaching decease, for he was then, deeply engrossed with public affairs-;
and so engrossed, that as the time for the Canada debate drew nigh, he was seized;
with an uncontrollable desire to unfold- his views upon the whole question in par
liament. On the 21st of March he accordingly came up to London on one of those
bitter days when even men of robust strength felt the necessity of caution Imme
diately on arriving at his residence in Suffolk Street he was seized with an attack
of asthma, which was so far relieved on Wednesday that he was able to see some of
his friendSi On Wednesday, between five and six in the afternoon, the attack
returned with great severity. Dr. Eoberts, of Grosvenor Street, was consulted;.
and we need not say that, every attention was bestowed by that gentleman to save
for the country a life so precious. Indeed, for some days it was hoped Mr. Cobden.
would recover from the attack. On Friday the symptoms were not favourable,.
hut on Saturday morning he was thought to be a- little better. Throughout Satur
day the disease continued ; it had ripened into that form of the distemper known
as congestive asthma, followed by an attack of bronchitis. In the course of Satur
day he made his wiU, appointing Mr. Thomasson,. of Bolton, Mr. Thomasson, jun.,
and Mrs. Cobden, his executors. He also subscribed a letter to Mr. Bazley, M.P.,
Mr. Henry Ashworth, of Bolton, and Mr. John Slagg, of Manchester, who hold
some funds in trust for Mr. Cobden's children. He rallied: about midnight, and
conversed a Uttle. Mr. Bright was then in the house ; Mr. Moffat,. M.P. ; Mr.,
Fisher,, of. Midhurst ; and Mr. Fisher, jun., in addition to Mrs.. Cobden and her-
second daughter. But the insidious disease was too busy with its fatal mission to
permit of. longer hope. GraduaUy, without suffering, and with the same tran
quiUity of mind as had distinguished him throughout life, the great reformer
passed away. He died at a quarter past eleven on Sunday morning, being only in
his sixty-first year.
Mr- Cobden evidently regarded the emancipation of the industry of the people
as the great work of his Ufe. Although he took part in many movements for
various kinds of reform, he never assumed to place himself in the same relation to
any great public question as that in which he had stood to free trade. His was a
practical nature. He had no idea of playing with politics ; and, for the class of
whom Lord Palmerston was the type — a. class, however, without which, under
present circumstances, government is an impossibility — he had little sympathy.
"These pecuUarities," says a writer in the Daily News, "these infirmities, as some
would caU them, unfitted him for many positions which he only wanted a certain
elasticity to fill with distinction. His simplicity, and the dislike with which he
could not but look on political trifling, threw him out of rapport with a large
class of poUticians, who mistook for weakness of temper an impatience which was
entirely moral. The service which he rendered to the country as the negotiator
of the French treaty is too recent to be forgotten, or the indifference to honour
which he showed when offered some mark of distinction at its conclusion. The
benefits of the great commercial reforms, which it had been his privilege to bring
about, increase year by year ; and in them he possesses the best of titles to his
country's lasting remembrance."
A writer in the Star, the organ of his party, asked — " Why did this eminent
pubUc servant never serve his sovereign and his country in any of the first offices
of state? Why was it tbat he who has done more to make England greater,
and her people more contented and prosperous, than all the warriors whose tombs
encumber Westminster Abbey, went down to his grave unennobled by the crown,
not honourable by any patent of heraldry, not distinguished from the common
crowd by any title of precedence or acknowledgment of his pre-eminent worth ?
The answer, we are afraid, must be that Eichard Cobden despised those vulgar
rewards which the ordinary politician regards as the appropriate termination of
his career ; and that, during his time, there has been no ministry in England
which had his unreserved confidence and approval. It has not been because the sove-
495

THE " MORNING STAR."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

reign sought to withhold from him some mark of her esteem ; not because Premiers
have not sought the honour of his assistance at the Board of the Privy Council;
and not because the ruling classes would not gladly have counted Eichard Cobden
as one of their own order. It is . true there was a time when it was said repre
sentatives for agricultural constituencies, who felt themselves obliged to vote with
Sir Eobert Peel, gravely represented that they had to follow the Premier in his
new career, lest the calamity should happen of Mr. Cobden being made a minister,
and called upon by his sovereign to inaugurate the new rigime which he had been
instrumental in bringing about. Some have also said, that the true reason for the
conversion of the Duke of Wellington to a free-trade policy, was the statement
made to him by Sir Eobert Peel, that, unless they continued in office, the queen
would have no resource but to send for Mr. Cobden. If that contemptible feeling
ever did exist to any great extent, it was not lasting; for it was at this very
time, after Sir Eobert Peel was defeated on his Irish policy, and the Whigs had
succeeded to office, that the first direct approach was made with a view of inducing
Mr. Cobden to join the cabinet. He had resolved to spend some months in
foreign travel ; and on the fact becoming generally known, Lord John Eussell
wrote to him to express his regret, as he had hoped that he might be induced to
join the cabinet which was then being formed. At this time, also, the Times,
believing, no doubt, that a man who had accomplished so much, and who was
publicly hailed in parliament by the Premier of England as one who, by his
unadorned eloquence, had revolutionised the policy of his country, was endeavouring,
by all manner of fulsome eulogy, to det_jh Mr. Cobden from his co-workers in the
great cause. The praise of that organ, we need not say, was valued by the
illustrious statesman at the same worth as the virulent abuse with which it had
more consistently followed his career. If the great free-trader, however, had been
less sternly patriotic — had his principles been more flexible, and his ambition
rather for his own personal success than the public good — there can be little doubt
that he might, as he stated to his Eochdale constituents, have been Prime
Minister of England. A more definite proposal was made to him in 1859. When
the ministry of the day came into power on the strength of their professions of
reform, and sustained by the united Liberal party on the basis of the union
publicly adopted at Willis's Eooms, Mr. Cobden was in America. The presidency
of the Board of Trade was reserved for his acceptance ; and on his return he waited,
by appointment, on Lord Palmerston. There never was any hesitation in his own
mind as to the course he should adopt; and he did not disguise from his more
intimate friends that his only possible answer must be a refusal. Nothing
transpired publicly of the nature of the interview — memorable in many respects—
except that the post reserved for him had been courteously declined. We may
now state,, however, that the conversation which took place was as frank and
direct, on the part of Mr. Cobden, as his speeches in the House of Commons. He
told Lord Palmerston, in answer to remonstrances against his decision to decline
the honour, that he had always regarded his lordship as one of the most dangerous
ministers England could possibly have, and that his views had not undergone the
slightest change. He felt that it would be doing violence to his own sense of
duty, and injuring his own character for consistency in the eyes of his countrymen,
to profess to act with a minister 'to whom he had all along been opposed on public
grounds. This frank avowal of opinion did not prevent the minister making the
offer of a baronetcy, and a seat in the Privy Council, to Mr. Cobden, after the
successful negotiation of the French treaty. This offer Mr. Cobden, of course,
declined. The same uncompromising adherence to his views was displayed still
more recently. In January, 1865, Mr. Gladstone wrote to Mr. Cobden, wishing him
to accept the chairmanship of the Board of Audit, with a salary of £2,000 per
annum. The answer of the true economist was, that he must decUne ; and, in
declining, express the feeling that, if he had been induced to accept, he would have
had, in the performance of his duties, a constant sense of disgust at the scandalous
496 °

A.D. 1865.] . VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [cobden's memory.

and unnecessary expenditure of the government. Thus it is that Eichard Cobden's
name was, to the end, as unadorned as his eloquence ; that his integrity was proof
against the blandishments of honour ; and that place had for him no temptation,
when the acceptance of place meant the abandonment of his principles."
We have referred to Lord Palmerston's speech when the news of Mr,
Cobden's death reached the House of Commons; and now give the generous
utterances of the leader of the Conservatives on the same occasion.
Mr. Disraeli said — "Sir, having been a member of this House when Mr.
Cobden first took his seat in it, and having, indeed, remained in this House
during the whole time of his somewhat lengthened parliamentary career, I
cannot reconcile myself to silence on this occasion, when we have to deplore the
loss of one so eminent, and one, too, in the full ripeness of his manhood, and
the full vigour of his intellect. Although it was the fortune of Mr. Cobden to
enter pubUc life at a time when passions were roused, still, when the strife was
over, there was soon observed in him a moderation and temperateness of expression
that intimated a large intellectual capacity, and high statesmanlike qualities.
There was, in his character, a peculiar vein of reverence for tradition, which often,
unconsciously to himself, subdued and softened the severity of the conclusions to
which he may have arrived. That, sir, in my mind, is a quality which, in some
degree, must be possessed by any man who attempts or aspires to sway this
assembly. Notwithstanding the rapid changes in which we live, and the
improvements which we anticipate, this country is still Old England. What the
qualities of Mr. Cobden were in this House, all now present are able to judge. I
think I may say that, as a debater, he had few equals ; as a logician, he was close
and compact ; and, I would say, adroit, acute, and, perhaps, even subtle. Yet, at
the same time, he was gifted with that degree of imagination, that he never lost
sight of the sympathies of those whom he addressed ; and so generally avoiding to
drive his arguments to an extremity, he became, as a speaker, both practical and
persuasive. The noble lord, who is far more competent than myself to deal with
such subjects, has referred to his career as an administrator. It seemed to be
destined, notwithstanding the eminent position which he had achieved and
occupied, and the various opportunities which offered for the ambition which he
might legitimately possess, that his life should pass without the opportunity of
showing that he possessed those talents and qualities so valuable in the council
and in the management of public affairs. But still, it fortunately happened that,
before he quitted us, he had one of the greatest opportunities which a public man
could enjoy ; and, in the transaction of great affairs, obtained the consideration of
the two leading countries of the world. There is something mournful in the
history of this parliament, when we remember how many of our most valuable and
eminent public men have been removed from among us. I cannot refer to the
mstory of any parliament that will bear down to posterity so fatal a record. But,
sir, there is this consolation remaining to us, when we remember our unequalled
and irreparable losses — that those great men are not altogether lost to us ; that
their words will often be quoted in this House ; that their examples will be often
referred to and appealed to ; and that even their expressions may form a part of
our discussions. There are indeed, I may say, some members of parliament who,
though they may not be present, are still members of this House, are independent
of dissolutions, of the caprice of constituencies, and even of the course of time. I
think that Mr. Cobden was one of those men. I believe that, when the verdict of
posterity shall be recorded upon his life and conduct, it will be said of him that,
looking to his expressions and his deeds, he was, without doubt, the greatest
political character that the pure middle class of this country has as yet produced;
that he was an ornament to the House of Commons, and an honour to England."
Far and near were these mournful utterances caught up and re-echoed. In
Paris, amongst the wisest and best, there was as much readiness to do honour to
Cobden's memory as in his native land. The Foreign Minister of France,
497

marquis of Londonderry.] LIFE AND; TIMES OF • [a.d. 1854.
M." Drouyn de Lhuys, introducing an admirable innovation in diplomatic inter
course, sent a despatch on the all-engrossing theme to tfhe French ambassador in
London. In the Corps Legislatif the subject of Cobden's death was introduced by
its vice-president, M. Foreade la Eoquette ; and his warm expressions of esteem
were applauded and repeated on every hand. " The death of Eichard Cobden,"
he said — " and I feel convinced that the Chamber- will cordially join in the senti
ment — is not alone a misfortune for England, but a cause of mourning for France
and humanity." The emperor, in a similar spirit, declared his intention to place
a bust of the great free-trader in his palace of Versailles. In the Prussian
Chambers there was a sympathetic allusion to the subject; nay, more — on the-
distant Danube, when Prince Milosch, of Servia, heard of the mournful event, he
decreed that services in honour of Cobden's memory, and for the peace of his soul,
should be held in the cathedral of Belgrade, and the other churches of the Greek
communion in his principality. In his native land, in all quarters, of course, many
were the touching tributes to his memory. Elizai Cook's welcome verse spoke
the language of the people. The poetess writes —
" Cobden ! proud English yeoman name !
I offer unto thee
The earnest meed that all should claim
Who toil midst slander, doubt, and blame,
To make the free more free.
" Thy voice has been among the few
That plead for human right :
It asked for justice ; and it grew
Still louder, when the fair and true
Were trampled down by might.
"Thy heart was warm ; thy brain was clear. ;
Thy wisdom prompt in thought ;
Thy manly spirit knew not fear,
But held its country's good' most dear,
Unwarped, unbribed, unbought.
" An open foe, a changeless friend,
Thy gauntlet pen was flung,
More ready, in thy zeal, to lend
A shield to others, than defend
Thyself, from traitor's tongue.
" A homebred Caesar thou hast been,
Whose bold and bright career
Leaves, on thy brow the wreath of gxeen,
On which no crimson drop is seen,
No widow's bitter tear."
In 1854, died one of the extreme Tories, the Marquis of Londonderry., Ne
man had been more unpopular in his day. During the reform agitation he' had!
been mobbed, and had his windows shattered ; and, again, when he was nominated
ambassador to the Court of Eussia, such a dead set was made against him in the
House of Commons, that Sir Eobert Peel had to cancel the appointment., The^
Duke of Buckingham thus comments on the latter act:— "Thus, most unjustly, as,
well as most impolitically, a nobleman of the highest character and abiUtiea was-
deprived of the opportunity of serving his country effectually, at a period when a
good understanding between the Courts of London and St. Petersburg was essential
to the interests of both countries, to gratify private spite and public- prejudice..
There is reason to believe that the anti-British policy of the Eussian government—
which, under the management of English diplomacy, a few years later, produced!
that discreditable climax of official blundering, the Crimean war— commenced from
this date ; and that the blood and treasure it cost England! would have been saved,
and the iU-feelmg it created throughout Eussia prevented, had Lord Londonderry
been permitted, to fulfil the duties of the important post in which he- had been
498

A.D. 18-61.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [speech of mr. disraeli.

placed." Such is the opinion of an eminent nobleman: it is not the one, however,
generally entertained. In 1861, a monument to his lordship's memory was erected
in Durham. At the inauguration Mr. Disraeli assisted. After the ceremony was
terminated, lunch was held in the Town Hall; and, in reply to the toast of
"Mr. Disraeli and the House of Commons," the distinguished Conservative leader,
amongst other things, said that he had been bound to the late marquis by powerful
ties for a quarter of a century.
" I knew him well ; and I am fain to believe that I- rightly appreciated the
quaUties of his mind and character. He was- an individual of the greatest energy
that I ever was acquainted with ; but there was this characteristic about the late
Lord Londonderry — that he combined the greatest energy of character with a
singular softness of heart. He was, above all men, a faithful friend. It has some
times been said that he, as all other public characters, was occasionally deficient in
that judgment which is necessary to a perfect character ; but this must be said of
Lord Londonderry — that he succeeded in everything that he undertook ; and when
I. find general and signal success, I am not prepared to admit that there has been
deficiency of judgment. As a soldier, no one will deny his eminence. At one of
the most important crises of modern times — in an age celebrated for its warriors
and commanders — in, an age' which produced Murat and Anglesey, Charles Stewart
was second to no one. But I say that he was not only a successful soldier;, he was
an extremely able and adroit diplomatist. The- political records ofthe important
age of the revolution aiy wars, which are now irregularly unfolding thek secrets to'
the generation of which we are members, only bring forth fresh evidence of the-
great abilities of the late Lord Londonderry. Why, in the work of Sir Eobert
Wilson, who was opposed to him in politics- (which has recently been published), we
find: there frequent, abounding, and indubitable evidence of the great services
which Lord Londonderry; — then Lord Stewart — accomplished for his country,,
many of which, until this publication, were unknown ; and his services, when he;
was at the head-quarters of the King of Sweden, have taken their place in history
with- his humane virtues, which considerably contributed to the great result which
crowned that long revolutionary war. What his character was in private life, how
he dealt with those great accidents of fortune which he partly inherited, and which
he otherwise in a still more' interesting manner acquired, you who sit in this hall
are better judges than I am, having had much communication with him upon
public affairs ; but I can truly say that Lord Londonderry was, although a party
man, more superior to prejudice than many individuals that you encounters He
was a man of a very enlightened mind — a man who thoroughly understood the;
characteristics, and necessities, and wants of his age ; and a man who truly under
stood* that, in a commercial country like England, the aristocracy of the country
should place themselves at the head of that great commercial interest, and sym
pathise with it. In all this we find Lord Londonderry was not wanting ; but, on
the contrary, I think I am only speaking the language of accurate truth, when I
say that he,, individually, gave no mean impulse to the enterprise of the county of
Durham., Well, then, I say that a man who has done these things ; who, in his
youth, was a successful Warrior ; who, in his middle ag-e, was entrusted with the
diplomatic interests of his country — representing them at foreign Courts, or con
ducting negotiations on the field of battle even, with signal success; who, in
private life, and in the more contracted sphere of the counties of Ireland and
England, with which he was connected, showed himself possessed of all the quali
ties of an eminent citizen, was no mean character. He was one that deserved to
he recollected in the affections of his country ; and I think that it is equally to the
honour of himself and his family, and to the county of Durham, that you, in so
public a manner, record your sense of his character and services ; and, in doing so,
encourage those who come after him to remember his great example, and to retain,
by the utmost efforts of their nature, the affection of this great community."
In legal circles the mortality had been almost as favourable to Lord Palmer-
499

LEGAL PATRONAGE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
ston as in ecclesiastical ones. Many were the vacancies which occurred while he held
the reins of office ; and great, consequently, was the patronage which was placed in
his hands. When, in the month of February, 1855, Lord Palmerston constructed
a government upon the ruins of the fallen administration of Lord Aberdeen, he
retained Lord Cranworth in his place upon the woolsack. In like manner, Sir
Alexander Cockburn and Sir Eichard Bethell (who, with the Lord Chancellor, had
been appointed, in 1852, by the Earl of Aberdeen) were continued in their respective
posts of Attorney and Solicitor-general. At that time the Lord Chief Justice of
England was Lord Campbell ; and the judges of the Court of Queen's Bench, were
Justices Coleridge, Wightman, Erie, and Crompton. Her majesty's Court of
Common Pleas was presided over by Lord Chief Justice Jervis ; the puisne judges
being Justices Cresswell, Williams, Maule, and Crowder. The year 1855 witnessed
a vacancy in the Common Pleas, when, by the death of Mr. Justice Maule, Mr. James
Shaw Willes was elevated to the judicial bench. In November, 1856, Lord Chief
Justice Jervis died, and Sir Alexander Cockburn, the Attorney-general (whose defence
of Lord Palmerston, on the last night of the Pacifico debate, was not forgotten),
was placed in the vacant seat. In 1857, the death of Baron Alderson occasioned
another vacancy, which was filled up by the appointment of Mr. Sergeant Channell.
In 1859, Mr. Justice Crowder died, and his judgeship was given to Sir H. S. Keat
ing. In March, 1860, Mr. Baron Watson died suddenly, whilst on circuit; and
Mr. James Plaisted Wilde, Q.C., was appointed in his stead. Then, in 1861, Lord
Campbell died suddenly. The next death was that of Mr. Justice Cresswell; and
then the death of Mr. Justice Wightman placed another seat at Lord Palmerston's
disposal : and thus the old men moved off, and the new ones rose up to occupy
their vacant places. The ancients tell us, those whom the gods love die young.
According to the poet Wordsworth, those whose hearts are dry as dust, burn to
the socket. Are we to imagine, then, that bishops and judges are not favoured of
heaven ? At any rate, it must be confessed they cling to life, and die very hard.
Nevertheless they had all to join in the dance of death, and to go the way along
which the loved, and the beautiful, and the young, upheld by a living faith, have
gone before them, rejoicing. It is ofttimes very astonishing how old people, for
whom one would think the world had few charms, shrink from parting with it.
Old Madame Eothschild, mother of the mighty capitalists, attained the age of
ninety-eight : her wit, which was very remarkable, and her intellectual faculties,
which were of no common order, were preserved to the end. In her last illness,
when surrounded by her family, her physician being present, she said, in a sup
pliant tone, to the latter—" Dear doctor, try to do something for me." " Madame,
what can I do ? I can't make you young again." " No, doctor, I don't want to be
young again, but I want to continue to grow old." And this is the way with them
all. To continue to grow old is a pleasure of which the young and vigorous can,
however, form but a poor idea.
When Lord Palmerston was a baby, the great struggle for place and power,
between Pitt and Fox, had but scarce begun. On he lived, as the men of George
the Third's time, and of the Eegency, and of the fourth George, and of the sailor-
king, were, one by one, summoned to the silent land: and now for him, at length,

. the end draws near-

1 The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks ;
The long day wanes ; the slow moon climbs ; the deep
Moana round with many voices."

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [irish legislation.
CHAPTEE XXIV.
MOKE ABOUT IRELAND.
If a certain historian be correct, she is the happiest woman about whom nothing
can be said. There is a great deal of truth in this remark, if applied to nations.
Those most talked of are not always in the happiest condition. For instance, there -
is Ireland. In parliament, no part of the kingdom creates such discussion ; and yet,
on all sides, it is admitted that no part of the kingdom is so unhappy ; and not a
year passes but the government and the people of this country have some cause for
uneasiness respecting Ireland.
In 1858, several persons were arrested in Belfast, on the charge of being
members of a private society.
In 1859, there were serious riots at Galway, on account of Signor Gavazzi (or
Father Gavazzi, as he was sometimes called) visiting that town, and delivering a
lecture there against popery. The same year a man named Daniel Sullivan was
arrested on the charge of being a member of the Phoenix Secret Society. After a
trial, which lasted three days, Sullivan was found guilty, and sentenced to ten years'
penal servitude.
In 1860, Mr. Pope Hennesy obtained leave to bring a bill into the House
of Commons, embodying the principle of tenant-right ; which, however, does not
appear to have got much further. In England there are no complicated questions
about tenant-rights. The law and the custom of the country are equally clear. In
Ireland tbe tenant and tbe landlord are always at loggerheads. On one occasion,
in 1861, Mr. Scully endeavoured to get the House to inquire into the conduct of
a landlord — Mr. J. G. Adair — one of the justices of the peace for the county of
Donegal, who had recently ejected nearly all the inhabitants from a tract of land on
his estate in that county; but the motion was negatived. In that year the queen
and Prince Albert visited the camp at Curragh, and the lakes of Killarney, and were
received with an enthusiasm which showed how loyal the Irish were at heart, and
how easy it would be to gain their affections if the English nation really cared
to do so.
Sir Eobert Peel, Lord Palmerston's Irish Secretary, was always getting into
scrapes with the Irish members. In 1862, he brought in a bill for the registration
of births and deaths in Ireland ; the plan proposed in which, was to entrust the
registration to the constabulary in Ireland — a body of officers who were stated to be
very efficient. A few days after, Lord Palmerston informed the Speaker that a
breach of privilege had been committed by O'Donoghue, the member for Tipperary,
who had sent a hostile message to Sir Eobert Peel, on account of expressions used
in the course of debate. After some explanations had passed, the honourable
member for Tipperary, on the call of the Speaker, gave an assurance to the House
that the matter would be carried no further.
In 1863, the lawlessness of the Irish was still further illustrated in very high
quarters. The Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, in a progress through Galway, was shot
at from an hotel at Maam, by direction of the Earl of Leitrim. Fortunately no
harm was done ; but the earl was very properly, shortly after, dismissed from the
commission of the peace in the counties of Leitrim, Donegal, and Galway.
In 1864, the outrages in Ireland were of no ordinary character. In the August
of that year there was an immense demonstration in Dublin, in honour of Daniel
O'Connell, by laying the foundation-stone of a monument to his fame. The Times
thus relates the affair : —
"The great day for Ireland has passed, and the monster procession went
through the city without doing any mischief, except the serious loss inflicted by the
501

THE O'CONNELL DEMONSTRATION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
suspension of business. Nearly all the shop-windows were closed, and the town
wore the aspect of a holiday. In almost every house along the line of the
procession, groups of ladies and gentlemen were looking from the windows; but
they had, in many cases, more of the manner of people enduring a privation than
enjoying a triumph. The 8th of August might be called the greenest day that
Dublin has ever seen. Green in profusion met the eye in every direction. The
horses, the carriages, the drivers were all adorned with green — green in every shape
in which it could be used. Those who could not afford to -buy rosettes, or sashes,
or scarfs, got leaves or boughs. With the native colour were blended white, yellow,
and gold. These colours were all laid thickly on the immense standards of the
trades, many of which had emblematic figures, and greatly delighted the crowds of
men, women, and children in the -streets, who presented one continued mass of
human beings as far as the eye could reach along the line of procession in every
direction. They had to wait long beyond the appointed time for the procession ;
but their conduct was marked with good order and good-humour throughout. The
police had little else to do beyond sending vehicles in the right direction. Every
section of the procession had its own chief and subordinate officers ; and the whole
moved according to a system of discipline which they had established. Ten o'clock
was the hour mentioned for starting; but it was not till near one o?clock that the
old state , coach, drawn by six horses, was seen moving from the Mansion-house.
The procession was formed in the order laid down in the programme ; but there
were gaps caused by the absence of 'classes that were expected to be represented.
It was made up principally of the trades, the corporations, the schools, and the
religious fraternities. Numerous bands played at different places as the procession
advanced. It occupied one or two hours in passing each point, which shows to
what a length it must have extended ; but it was sometimes delayed by restive
horses. There was not much enthusiasm manifested anywhere ; but the fact that
so much trouble had been taken, and so much money had been spent, to make the
demonstration respectable and. successful, shows that there is a deep feeling connected
with the memory of O'Connell among the lower classes, and, to a great extent,
among the middle class. Those who got up the demonstration have every reason to
congratulate themselves with the result. It was, undoubtedly, a magnificent
display ; and none of O'Connell's monster meetings was more orderly or more
peaceably disposed. There was no manifestation of sectarian feeling on the part of
the most ignorant — no disposition to molest any one on account of his religion or
politics. There may have been isolated cases of rudeness out of the range ,of the
procession, but they must have been very rare. It is impossible to calculate the
number of people attracted by the show ; but, in Dame Street alone, there could
not be less than 50,000 ; while many other streets were filled in the same way.
"The procession arrived at the site ofthe monument in Sackville Street, where
the hordes filed off. Within the enclosure Sir John Gray read an address to the
Lord Mayor, eulogising O'Connell, recording his achievements for Ireland, and, in
the name of the monument committee, of which he is chairman, requesting him, as
chief magistrate of the city, to lay the first stone. His lordship read a suitable
reply, after which the ceremony was performed. The trowel, of solid silver, was
presented to the Lord Mayor; and the 'mallet, of ornamented -bog-oak, to Sir John
Gray, to mark the committee's sense of 'the vast services rendered by him in
originating, promoting, and carrying out to the advent of its completion this
great national monument of Ireland's gratitude to her greatest son, the immortal
Liberator.' "It was near six o'clock before the ceremony was over. It was almost
immediately followed by a banquet in the round room ofthe Eotunda, the whole
area of which was covered with tables, and still it was said many failed to obtain
accommodation. About 400 gentlemen sat down to dinner. The Lord Mayor
presided. ' The Pope' was not in the list of toasts. ' The Queen,' ' the Prince and
Princess of Wales,' &c, were received with warm demonstrations of loyalty; Mr.
502 J

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Belfast riots.
Levey?-s band adding much to the entertainment ; while one gentleman sang 'God
¦save the -Queen,' and some other songs. On 'the Memory of O'Connell' being
given, the most Eev. Dr. Leahy, Archbishop of 'Cashel, delivered an eloquent
speech. Able speeches were also delivered by Mr. Kavanagh, Sir Colman O'Loghlen,
M.P., Mr. Dillon, Sir John Gray, and especially by Mr. Maguire, M.P. Mr.
Kavanagh, one of the secretaries, complained that the higher classes, whom
O'Connell had emancipated, were not represented there that day ; it was a people's
demonstration, and the people had not yet got the benefit of emancipation. ' No
peers, no judges ; none but the people honoured the immortal memory of the great
Liberator.' Mr. Maguire, replying for 'the House of Commons,' paid. an eloquent
tribute to the -memory of O'Connell, dwelling on his services in parliament to the
cause of freedom and humanity, and urging the necessity of union among the Irish
representatives. Emancipation had done everything for the rich — nothing for the
poor ; and it was their duty to see it carried out on behalf of the people. Sir
John 'Gray complained strongly of the absence of the bar, which owed bo much to
O'Connell ; yet it was represented only by Sir Golman O'Loghlen and Mr. Dillon.
Sir Colman made an able speech. He was there as O'Connell's friend, and one of
his counsel — as the son of the first Eoman Catholic elevated to the bench, as the
result of emancipation — as member for Clare, where the victory was won. He
described the Eoman CathoUc party as O'Connell found it, and the position to
which he had raised it. Mr. Dillon made a powerful speech ; but rather strong
against England, and ' the rule of the stranger.' The proceedings were harmonious,
and the meeting enthusiastic. It did not break up till midnight."
Such a demonstration as this was too much for the bigoted Orangemen and ad
vocates of Protestant ascendency in Belfast. Accordingly, they met in vast numbers ;
burnt O'CanneU's effigy in that town, and, on the following day, buried the ashes
withmuch solemnity. This gave, as it was intended that it should, great offence to
the Eoman Catholics. Irritable feelings were excited, which resulted in an attack
on the party forming the procession, the breaking of the windows of Protestant
chapels, and the wrecking of the houses inhabited by Protestants. On succeeding
days the riot became more violent, as the anti-Catholics banded themselves in fight
against then- adversaries. The police were powerless, were pelted with stones,
and driven away. As these combats continued, a military force was sent for, and
additional poUcemen ; but though these came to the number of 3,000 soldiers and
1,000 of the poUce, they were ineffectual to stop the rioting, though many of the
ringleaders were apprehended, the mob fired upon, several killed, and many
wounded;. and, as is usually the case, some children and others who had taken no
part in the riots. These disgraceful proceedings were continued till Saturday, the
13th, when a cessation took place. They were, however, renewed on the 16th, and
continued tiU the 19th. The town authorities seemed quite to have lost their
heads, or else were strangely indifferent to the preservation of peace. Any com
munity, -however uncivilised, would have been disgraced by such an outrageous
defiance of law ; .but Belfast was a superior town : indeed, on the whole, one of the
most flourishing and well-behaved in Ireland. For more than fen days Belfast
was engaged in a quarrel which might have obtained the dimensions of a civil war,
if it had not been, comparatively speaking, bloodless. Before the riots had
ended there were nine killed and 1.76 wounded, in the general hospital, besides
many who were treated, at their homes privately. The repetition of the scandal
will probably be prevented by a better organisation of the police-; but the
occurrence forcibly illustrated the difficulty of governing Ireland, where .national
character intensifies sectarian bitterness and hate. In the House of sCommons, the
events we have recorded gave rise to considerable discussion. Yet, if well-meaning
were sufficient to ensure peace in Ireland, she should have been content. Her
Lord-Lieutenant, the Earl of Carlisle, was one of the most amiable and well-
meaning men in the world. According to him, better days were always coming —
the Irish iiniUenmum was always near. He was succeeded by Lord Wodehouse, 503

THE IRISH CHURCH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
a younger and more active man, who had the good fortune to find the
country recovering slowly from severe and long-continued distress. But tiU the
English parliament dare boldly face the church question, it is in vain to hope that
time or prosperity, or emigration, will abate the discontent and the propensity to
internal discord which still interrupt the social regeneration of Ireland. The
population, in 1861, was returned as 5,793,967. This total is made up as
follows : — Established church  693,357
Eoman Catholics ... ... ... ... ... 4,505,265
Presbyterians  523,291
Other Protestant denominations ... ... ... 72,054

5,793,967

According to these figures there had been a decrease in the number of church
goers, since 1834, of 158,707, in spite of the fact that, within the same period of
time, nearly 300 new churches had been built. The total of parishes in Ireland is
2,428. Nearly two-thirds of this number consist of parishes in which the members
of the church of Ireland are less than 100 ; yet this is the church which we endow
and support. In the good old times we did a great deal to convert the Irish. All
Catholics were excluded from the upper and lower houses in the Irish parliament;
Catholics were forbidden from acting as guardians to their own children, or the
children of other persons. By becoming a Protestant, any child could secure the
estate of a Catholic father; marriages between Catholics and Protestants were
strictly forbidden ; no papist- was to be the purchaser of land, or even to hold a
lease of it for more than thirty-one years. Catholics could not hold an advowson,
nor any civil or military office ; could not vote at elections ; could not reside in
Limerick or Galway, except upon certain conditions. Such was the benignity of
the English policy towards Ireland in 1704; and five years later this affection
became still more intense. From that time no papist was to distrust the care of
Providence so far as to be the holder of an annuity for life; while greater
inducements than ever were held out to such persons as might be disposed to
profess themselves Protestants, and to such as might choose to employ themselves
in detecting popish delinquents. The papist wife, who coveted an increase to her
iointure, had only to renounce papistry, and the law granted her desire. The papist
son, who wished to obtain an immediate and separate means from his father's
estate, had only to certify to the Court of Chancery his conversion to Protestantism,
and the thing was done at once. According to the same act, every priest,
professing to be converted, was entitled to receive £30 a vear ; and any papist
schoolmaster, practising his vocation, might be transported to the plantations.
Any papist above eighteen years of age might be compelled, by any two magistrates,
upon pain of imprisonment for twelve calendar months, to disclose what he knew
about popish priests, the celebration of the mass, Catholic schools, or any such
matters. In all trials having respect to those statutes, the juries were to be
exclusively Protestant. No Catholic was to serve, on any occasion, on a grand jury.
Papists were not only excluded from acting for members of parliament, but from
voting at parish vestries, or from filling the important and lucrative offices of
constable or watchman. In this posture of affairs it can be no wonder to find the
gown and wig among the things forbidden to the Irish Eoman Catholic; but it did
seem like verging upon excess, says a writer in a quarterly review, even in those
insurrectionist days, to enact that a Protestant barrister marrying a papist wife,
should be judged in law as having become a papist, and subjected to the usual
penalties. Nor was this all — the priest who officiated on such an occasion ran the
chance of being hung. It was further decreed by the legislative wisdom of those
days, that, during war with a popish power, persons who suffered loss by privateers
were to make their presentment of loss to a grand jury, and the said jury were to

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [irish grievances.
levy an impost exclusively upon Catholics, that the sufferers might be indemnified.
It is true those acts have long since been repealed ; but it is equally true that the
bitterness which they created still remains, and that the church which they were
to foster and protect is as hateful to the people as ever.
In 1844, Mr. Disraeli said — "That dense population, in extreme distress,
inhabited an island where there was an established church, which was not their
church ; and a territorial aristocracy, the richest of whom lived in distant capitals.
Thus they bad a starving population, an absentee aristocracy, and an alien church ;
and, in addition, the weakest executive in the world. Well, then, what would
honourable gentlemen say if they were reading of a country in that position?
They would say at once, the remedy is revolution. But the Irish could not have a
revolution; and why? Because Ireland was connected with another and more
powerful country. Then what was the consequence? The connection with
England thus became the cause of the present state of Ireland. If the connection
with England prevented a revolution, and a revolution were the only remedy,
England, logically, was in the odious position of being the cause of all the misery
of Ireland. What, then, was the duty of an English minister ? To effect, by
policy, all those changes which a revolution would do by force. That was the
Irish question in its integrity." And, we may add, that was the policy which
neither Mr. DisraeU nor Lord Palmerston had the moral courage to recommend or
carry out.
Left to themselves, the Irish did what most Englishmen would have done.
In the last week of December, 1864, an "aggregate meeting," convened by the
Lord Mayor of DubUn, " for the purpose of forming an association for the following
objects — 1. A reform of the law of landlord and tenant, securing to the tenant
full compensation for valuable improvements; 2. The abolition of the Irish
church establishment ; 3. The perfect freedom of education in all its branches" —
was held in the round room of the Eotunda. It was (says the Freeman's
Journal) a most important demonstration in every respect, well calculated, from
its numbers, and the rank and position of those who attended, to exert a powerful
and wide-spread influence, and entitled to the utmost weight and consideration.
The requisition for the meeting, presented to the Lord Mayor, was most numerously
and influentially signed. It included the signatures of twenty-three members of
the Catholic hierarchy, the names of several hundreds of the other dignitaries,
parish priests and curates, members of parliament, magistrates, landed gentry,
professional men, merchants, traders, municipal representatives, &c. The meeting
was called for twelve o'clock ; but long before that hour, the round room, and the
approaches to it, were densely thronged. The platform and the reserved seats and
gallery were crowded by Catholic prelates, clergy, and laymen, representing every
class and interest of the country; and we learn from the papers, that the meeting,
which was very enthusiastic, passed off with great success. Now, it is not creditable
to the government of the people of this country that such a meeting as this should
have taken place. It is a disgrace to the statesmanship of our time, that even now,
after Ireland has been united (?) to England for ages, it should be left to any
class of men to prepare a new Irish agitation ; and that the requisition, calling
upon the Lord Mayor of Dublin to inaugurate it, should have been signed by
twenty-three Eoman Catholic bishops, 200 priests, and some thousands of laymen ;
and certainly no facts can be well more disgraceful, or more tend to alienate the
Irish from the English, than those embodied in the resolution moved by Archbishop
Cullen — that "we demand the disendowment of the established church in Ireland,
as the sole condition on which social peace and stability, general respect for the
laws, unity of sentiment and of action for national objects, can ever prevail in
Ireland. And, in making this demand, we emphatically disown any intention to
interfere in the vested rights, or to injure or offend any portion of our fellow-
countrymen ; our desire being rather to remove a most prolific source of discord,
by placing all religious denominations on a footing of perfect equality, and of
vol. ii. 2 L " 505

the church question.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
leaving each church to be maintained by the voluntary contributions of its
members." And stating that the entire ecclesiastical revenues of Ireland
amounting to upwards of £580,000 annually, are appropriated to the maintenance
of a church which counts among its members only 691,872 persons, or less than
one-seventh of the entire population.
Englishmen talk of their love of justice and fair play ; but it seems utterly
ignored where Ireland is concerned. No questions are so exciting as religious
ones. Of all bitterness there is no such bitterness as that created by theological
controversy ; yet, age after age, we have left this perpetual root of bitterness in
Ireland. And what has been the consequence ? — that the Irishman is, and ever
has been, the enemy of the Englishman ; that, wherever he goes, he carries with
him hatred of England and its institutions; that our government, even now that
Ireland has been decimated by famine and emigration — now that the population
and the resources of Ireland have dwindled down under English rule — are afraid to
sanction a volunteer force in Ireland ; and that when our Foreign Secretary lectures
the Eussian czar or the Austrian emperor, in accordance with the traditions of the
Foreign Office, he is generally reminded of Ireland. Thus it is that Ireland is
everywhere supposed ready to throw off the hated yoke of England, and to be only
united to her by main force. In the coming war with which the American Irish
threatened us, when the southern confederacy should have been broken up, Ireland
was to be the land in which a friendly welcome was to be given to an invading foe.
Frenchmen are to be met with by thousands imbued with a similar idea. Eightly or
wrongly, such seems to be the opinion held in all quarters of the globe. Thoughtful
men have in vain endeavoured to arouse Englishmen to the dangers of the present
state of things. The church in Ireland, wrote Dr. Arnold years and years ago, no
human power can save ; and Professor Goldwin Smith— a man whom no less an au
thority than John Stuart Mill declares to be the first political philosopher of the
day— is equally emphatic. Yet no one dares to touch the question ; and when the
Whigs carried the appropriation clause, the nation was more ready for a fair
settlement of the difficulty than now. We write as Englishmen. We cannot see
that Protestantism gains by force. We believe it is the church question which
keeps Ireland Eoman Catholic and anti-English. In doing justice there can be no
danger. Scotland is a case in point. At one time our English statesmen were ,
foolish enough to attempt % to force an episcopalian church establishment on
presbytenan Scotland. How that attempt failed— how the force invoked recoiled
upon the heads of those who invoked it— how Wentworth, and Laud, and Charles I.,
all perished miserably on the scaffold in consequence ;— all these things are
matters of history. But the case of Ireland is still stronger. There must be more
sympathy between episcopalian and presbyterian than there can be between
episcopalian and Eoman Catholic. Historically, as Dr. Cullen observes, the re-
establishment of our episcopalian church in Ireland had no pretence whatever to
national sanction or support. The body which adopted Henry VIII. as head of the
church in Ireland was not, properly speaking, a parliament of Ireland, as a great
part of the country at that time had not acknowledged the dominion of England,
and did not therefore send representatives to her parliament; and we all know that
the legislation, by means of which it was sought to compel Catholics to become
Protestants was of the most atrocious character. To do to others as we would wish
others would do to us, is the golden rule. No Englishman would like to see the
church of the minority established in these realms; nor can we expect an Irishman
to think otherwise. Ireland may have other grievances ; but the church question
is the one which has made Ireland England's difficulty, and which has neutralised
all the advantages resulting from the union. It is one which English people must
learn to face— one on which English statesmen must be prepared to legislate.
Ireland Tmistibe made prosperous and contented as the rest of the empire; then
the Protestant m Ireland will have reason to rejoice when the bitter feeling with
which he is regarded by the majority ofhis countrymen shall have passed away.
DUO

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [fenianism.

In vain, however, were such considerations urged upon our ruling classes.
The British nation went one way, and the Irish another. Towards the autumn of
1865, the Irish executive began to be alarmed. The towns were filled with Yankee
Irish with a military air, and with money in their pockets. Inflammatory writing
and language abounded on all sides. There were rumours of nightly drillings, and
of a wide-spread conspiracy. In September, the Dublin police took possession of
the office of the Irish People newspaper, and seized the persons found on the
premises, charged with being members of the Fenian brotherhood, and engaged in
treasonable attempts against the government. On the same day numerous arrests
were made in Cork, the persons arrested being charged with the like offence ; but,
in their cases, baU was taken for their appearance at a subsequent investigation ;
while, at Dublin, the persons charged were remanded to prison till another hearing.
Other arrests followed ; and, on September 20th, some persons were apprehended in
Manchester and Sheffield, and conveyed to Dublin, charged with conspiracy. A
few days after ' Lord Palmerston's decease, Stephens, alias Power, the reported
Chief Centre of Ireland, was apprehended, examined, and committed for trial — a
trial which he managed to elude by escaping from his cell, and since which he has
contrived to retain his freedom, in spite of the efforts of the police, and of the
attraction of enormous government rewards.
The Fenian madness is a cause of some uneasiness among all classes in
England. It is popular nowhere save in Ireland, among the shopmen and peasantry.
The gentry, clergy, middle classes, and press, have not among them, it appears, a
single sympathiser for the association ; but still there are as many in connection
with it as may do some mischief. The Saunders' News-Letter's " own corres
pondent" had a letter on " the social aspect of the south of Ireland ;" in which he
takes a present view of Fenianism, the result of his inquiries, and a retrospective
glance at the secret societies of the past. He says —
" Having, in my former letter, adverted to the favourable changes that have
taken place in the condition of the people of the south of Ireland within the last
twelve or fifteen years — the improvement in their dress, their cottages, and their
personal habits, and the facilities given to those living in the remotest districts of
finding a market for anything edible which they may have to sell — I propose
giving the result of minute and careful inquiries on two or three matters of general
interest at the present juncture; and perhaps, as 'Fenianism' is so much spoken of,
a few truthful observations as to the movements may not be inapposite. It is not
a Uttle singular that, among the humbler classes of the peasantry and small
farmers, though they are much better off than hitherto as a class, there is a strong
feeUng of discontent and dissatisfaction with the English government, and yet
founded upon no one specific ground of complaint. The fortunes realised by some
of their friends and acquaintances in America, the insecurity of the tenure of
land, the narrow limits of the frontier ground interposed between independence
and absolute penury, exercise their disturbing influences ; but tbe principal cause
is to be traced in the extensive circulation of seditious publications, dwelling for
ever on the same theme, and inculcating undying hatred to the ' Saxon.' At fairs
and markets, in the very hearing of the police, the largest audience is sure to be
collected round the two scarecrows who yell most loudly treasonable appeals to the
passions and prejudices of their hearers ; and then, again, the forge, or some other
place of meeting, or the hill-side, is chosen on Sunday, and crowds Usten with an
attention only to be equalled by Arabs when gathered round their best story-teller,
to abuse of the government, of landlords, of the stranger, and to every narrative of
alleged oppression and wrong, until interest deepens into excitement, and sympathy
with the oppressed into revengeful feelings against their alleged oppressors. Week
after week this ceaseless ' drip' keeps falling ; and, hearing only the one, side, what
wonder if a serious impression is at last made ? They attribute something of a
mysterious veracity to anything which is in print ; and the expression, ' Sure I seen
it on the paper,' is considered a conclusive answer to any further cavil or doubt as
2 L 2 507

fenianism.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
to the accuracy of any statement, however startling. The writings of the Press
newspaper, vigorous and impassioned, heralded the rebellion of 1798. The Felon
and other journals, of a congenial class, urged on the outbreak of 1848 ; and similar
agencies are still at work, and with a zeal and an ability deserving of a better
cause. Since the middle of the last century, secret societies and associations and
factions have had their centres of union and their affiliated members ; and while
' Shanavests' and ' Caravats,' ' Three-year-olds' and ' Four-year-olds,' ' Magpies'
and ' Black Hens,' owe their origin rather to personal feuds, perpetuated from one
generation to another with Corsican fidelity, than to sectarian prejudices,
' Eibandism' has always had politics mixed with its other objects ; and, while
widely spread in Dublin, Meath, Longford, Louth, Cavan, Donegal, Antrim, West-
meath, Fermanagh, Sligo, &c, it is a remarkable fact that it did not succeed to
any very material extent in the south of Ireland ; and when, in 1840 or 1841, the
whole correspondence of the society became known to the authorities by the arrest
of one of the principal secretaries, it was ascertained that a single lodge did not
exist in the county of Tipperary, save one on the confines of the county Galway.
Any one who desires to read some very interesting details as to the way in which
the people are organised for an insurrectionary movement, ought to turn to the
report of the secret committee of both Houses of parliament, made in 1798 ; and
then, as since, one of the great objects has been to give the general members as
little insight as possible into the acts of the confederacy, or of the heads of each
department, but merely to inform them that, when called upon, they are to exer
cise a blind and an implicit obedience. To give an example. At the summer
assizes of 1840, a man named Clark was indicted at Cavan for taking an unlawful
oath, and an approver, Andrew Brien, gave this evidence : — ' Court. — What was
the object of the society ? Witness. — I cannot well tell, but we were bound to
obey. Obey whom ? — The heads of the people. And did you not understand the
society's object ?— I could not tell except by hearsay ; but I always heard that we
were to be ready here if any attack or insurrection should break out in England.'
The Eiband Society drew within its' circle very many by fear, but more by the
knowledge that a member who supposed he was injured could call upon others to
assist him, even to the extent of murder ; and the decrees of the German ' Secret
Tribunal' were not executed with more terrible certainty, as ' Wild Goose Lodge,'
and other well-known scenes of slaughter on a larger scale, can attest. And now,
as respects the ' Fenians,' what are their objects ? — what are their resources and
organisation ? and what repressive measures ought to be adopted in reference to
them? Their objects are avowed, and with a candour that would make a diplo
matist doubt they were speaking the truth, and raise an unfounded suspicion they
were trying to mislead— a separation from England— a republic in Ireland— the
repulsion of all who either oppose them or don't assist them— a redistribution of
the land ; and, in fact, wholesale confiscation. That there are sincere and genuine
enthusiasts among the society may be fairly conceded— men who think Ireland has
been treated as a step-sister; and that from almost the sovereign down to the
humblest English official, there has been a long-continued neglect of the country,
and a slighting tone adopted in speaking of the people; but the great majority of -
the enrolled consist of the youth who are fired with martial ardour— of those in
towns who think their condition ought to be superior, or have nothing to do, and
of farming lands and servants ; while there are others to whom the emphatic line of
Crabbe will apply individually — n
' Who call the wants of knaves the rights of man.'
"From inquiries made in various quarters, it appears that the present ' Fenian'
movement is met by the most strenuous opposition of the Eoman Catholic clergy:
the people are warned against its folly and its impolicy; and in most instances the
rites of the church are denied to those who persist in remaining members of the
confederacy: but with all the veneration attached by the peasantry to the priestly

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the wants of Ireland.
office, the instances are not unfrequent in which even this ban has lost its
influence. The respectable and comfortable farmers have no sympathy with the
conspiracy, but speak of it with either contempt or dislike ; and if any have joined
it, it is in order to secure immunity from annoyance or violence, belieying that the
whole affair will blow over when thoroughly friendly relations are established with
the American government. The principal districts in which ' Fenianism' prevails
to a marked extent, are Dublin, Cork, Tipperary, Limerick, and Sligo; and
'drilUng' at night, and at pretended hurling-matches, is carried on to a great
extent. The instructors are easily procured, for the militia always comprises
among its members idle fellows who are ever ready for mischief, with something of
the knowledge of soldiers, without the fidelity which always springs from
discipline ; and when, at the end of a month, they are flung out upon the country —
neither civiUans nor soldiers — it is easy to get some to act as instructors in the newly-
organised corps. The constabulary have not been very successful in making
arrests ; and if, instead of going in uniform, they were to assume a disguise, their
miUtary carriage and air — their moustaches and general appearance — would at
once expose them to detection. A good many arms are being got together by the
affiUated members ; but their drilling is as yet very inefficient, as the men do not
venture together in any large bodies. However, their organisation is becoming
better every day ; and without there being the least ground for alarm, in mercy to
the people themselves, those who have made them their dupes ought to be proceeded
against without delay. In many places men from America have returned with , the
ostensible view of seeing their friends, and well supplied with gold, not greenbacks.
I may add, that a most intelligent gentleman, who has just returned from Chicago,
after being absent from Ireland for eighteen years, informed me that a very strong
conviction of the feasibility of an invasion of this country exists across the
Atlantic ; that money to a very large amount is available, but that the American
government is most sincere in its efforts to discourage the whole affair; that
every opposition is given to it by the officials, and not without already producing a
good effect."
After Lord Palmerston's death Fenianism became more outrageous. In
America, Canada was invaded; and in Ireland the Habeas Corpus Act was
suspended. The land was overrun with soldiers and armed constables, and spies
and informers reaped golden gains.
Government is, of course, blamed by both parties. According to the
Conservatives, too much deference is paid to the Eoman Catholics. According
to the latter, the Protestant party have been petted up till they feel themselves
above aU law.
The Whigs are very unhappy, and much to be pitied. They have laboured
for the removal of Eoman Catholic disabilities : their greatest men were excluded
from office for years on that account. Whenever they have endeavoured to benefit
their Eoman Catholic fellow-subjects, or confer honour on any of them, all the
Irish Protestant newspapers have been in a rage, and wrote bitter things concerning
them. And yet the Irish will return Tory M.P.'s — will leave their native land — will
emigrate to America — will there cherish the deadliest bate against British rule — and
will plot and plan for Irish independence, and for the day when the French
tricolour and the stars and stripes shall wave harmoniously over the green isle.
Nor are the Tories much better off: their own party charge them with
disloyalty to their principles — with truckling to the Eoman Catholics — with
damaging the Protestant ascendency, which they consider the bulwark of Ireland ;
and thus, amidst the discordant utterances of faction, the voice of the nation is
never heard.
The want of Ireland, said the social reformers, is temperance societies.
Certainly, at one time, the Irish were not the soberest people in the world. Well,
Father Mathew paraded the land. His converts, who took the pledge from him,
were numbered by tens of thousands. He led a blameless life, and died almost a
509

public meetings.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
martyr to his zeal. But a sober conspirator is rather more dangerous than a
drunken one. Lodge such a man comfortably ; give him good wages ; take the tax
off his inflammatory newspaper, and teach him to read it, and he becomes more of
an enemy to England and its institutions than ever.
The clergy of the established churches of England and Ireland have also their
remedy — more churches, more money, more power. Their demand is natural:
unfortunately, it is not statesmanlike.
•In the meanwhile Ireland arms and conspires ; and with a basis of operations
in America, threatens to be more dangerous to the peace of the empire than even
of old. If the national leaders of the people, the country gentry and the clergy,
do not head this movement, it matters little if America can send over hundreds of
Irishmen, rich in gold, in political warfare, in miUtary experience.

CHAPTEE XXV.
LORD PALMERSTON- ON" THE PLATFORM.

In this country there are many ways of acquiring popularity ; indeed, our natural
reverence for aristocracy is so great, that it is wonderful indeed if any of them ever
become unpopular. John Bull loves a lord ; and the sight of one presiding at a
Bible meeting, or on the platform of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel
in Foreign Parts, or uttering a few unconnected sentences about the conversion of
the Jews or the coming of the millennium, is very precious in the eyes of old
women of either sex. It is seldom that a lord can do wrong ; and, if he does, his
admirers and apologists have a great deal to say on his behalf. Exeter Hall was
an institution which sprung into existence as if for the purpose of placing the
middle classes of this country more and more under the influence ofthe peerage;
and one of the latter class had only to appear on that platform, and he was received
with thunders of applause. City men are almost as bad as the religious pubUc.
A railway, or a financial company, that can secure the services of a lord as
chairman, has great reason to rejoice. If it goes to the dogs, and ruins all the
shareholders, no fault will be found with the noble lord in the chair, in whose
favour a unanimous vote of thanks is sure to be passed. Human nature is much
the same now as it was when Pope wrote —
" What woful stuff this madrigal would be
In some starved hackney sonnetter or me ;
But let a lord once own the happy lines,
How the wit brightens ! how the style refines !
Before his sacred name flies every fault,
And each exalted stanza teems with thought."
An^t,it lS ^hif feeling whicQ has made the reputation of so many statesmen,
and has handed names down to posterity, of which otherwise we should never have
heard. Poor Brough wrote —
" My lord Tom Noddy's the son of an earl,
His hair is straight, but his whiskers curl ;
His lordship's forehead is far from wide ;
But there's plenty of room for the brains inside.
He writes his name with indifferent ease,
He's rather uncertain about the d's ;
1 But what does it matter if three or one
To the Earl of Fitzdottrel's eldest son 1"
510

a.d. 1855.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [palmerston at romsey.
In any circle, amongst any set of men, Lord Palmerston would have won
his way : less than any man living did he trade on his rank and title. He never
pushed himself before the public by presiding at public meetings, or taking any
part in them, except in his own immediate locality, and amongst those who had
a legitimate claim upon his services ; or when his position was such that it would
have looked like affectation to refuse to appear upon certain platforms- — as when
he visited Manchester and the north, and was received with joyful acclamations in
what he deemed the head-quarters of the enemy. But the House of Commons
was his place ; and he was content to rely upon the power he acquired there,
without adding to his popularity by talking Buncumb in Freemasons' Tavern or
Exeter Hall. As a neighbour, he was always ready to be present on public
occasions — as the opening of the Hartley Institute, at Southampton; or on the
occasion of an international banquet. But it was at Eomsey that he was most at
home ; and it was that little town— caUed Eomsey-in-the-mud by its neighbours —
that he most deUghted to honour. And on such occasions as those of agricultural
meetings and ploughing-matches, what sensible truths he uttered, and what
wholesome advice he gave to farmers and their labourers ! How steadily did he
set his face against the workman's bane, beer and tobacco ; and how strongly did
he urge upon the farmers the need to them of a better education, and of more
enterprising habits ! At such times all England was delighted to look on and
Usten. Let us give one special illustration of his lordship's neighbourly character.
In 1860, Dr. Beddome, his lordship's country medical attendant, died, at a good
old age. The doctor was a consistent and most respected dissenter. He had been
more than once mayor of Eomsey ; and he was, besides, the senior deacon of the
congregational chapel in that town. Lord Palmerston attended at his funeral, and
followed as a mourner at it, even though it took place in a dissenting chapel.
This was a kindly thing to do : but how few noblemen would have done the same ;
and how easily could his lordship have pleaded as an excuse (if excuse had been
needed), the want of time, occasioned by the heavy burden of state affairs. It was
this genial nature that made his lordship popular everywhere, as much on the
platform as in the House of Commons.
Let us chronicle a few of his utterances on such occasions.
In October, 1855, the mayor, town council, and inhabitants of Eomsey pre
sented a congratulatory address to him on the capture of Sebastopol, on his return
to his seat at Broadlands. In reply, his lordship said — " The occasion which has
assembled us together to exchange congratulations, is one of the most important
which has happened in recent times. I mean the capture of Sebastopol. It is an
event of which our allies the French, the Sardinian, and the Turkish nation may
be proud, and which must inspire joy and exultation in the breast of every
generous freeman on the surface of the globe. We have been told that the
commander of the Eussian army has left nothing to the allies but ' blood-stained
ruins ;' and no doubt, so far as depended on him, as far as time allowed, as far as
his means of destruction extended, it was his intention to leave nothing else to the
victorious enemy. But although, in retiring, he destroyed everything that could be
burned within the time allowed for his remaining stay, the allies, on entering the
town, found among the blood-stained ruins no less than 4,000 pieces of cannon, an
immense quantity of powder, an enormous amount of cannon-balls, and materials
of various kinds, necessary for the prosecution of the war. Well, what does this
teach us ? Does it not show us the vast importance attached by Eussia to that
stronghold of Eussian power in the Black Sea ? Why was that vast accumulation
of warlike material made— more than could be required for the prolonged defence
of the place ? It was because they felt tbat Sebastopol was the stronghold of
their power in the East ; and that from that centre was to radiate the extensive
powers which would lead to the conquest of Constantinople, and from that centre
of empire to sway the destinies of Europe. That, I think, affords satisfactory
evidence of the judgment of our government in directing against Sebastopol the
511

palmerstou at leeds.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
great power of our army and navy in the Black Sea. We have been contending
with an army of what they call a million of men, but which may be set down at
600,000, or even 800,000 men. Well, admit the whole of the greater portion of
that force was set free from the Baltic to the Euxine, by the neutral position of
those powers which border the European frontier of Eussia. Eussia had nothing
to fear from either Austria or Prussia. She was, therefore, at liberty to send down
to the Crimea and defend Sebastopol, and drive our armies, as she naively boasted
she could do, into the sea. She had nothing to prevent her sending army after
army, division after division, the garrison of Poland and the garrison of St.
Petersburg — in fact, every man whom she could feed at so distant a place. Well,
gentlemen, every war is a calamity ; but this war has brought its evils as little
home to the people of this country as was possible, consistently with the nature of
things. Our enemy has seen his arsenals in the Baltic blazing to the sky. Our
enemy has seen that great fleet of twenty-eight or thirty sail of the line, on which
the revenues of the country were squandered, and for which crews were conscribed —
and, to make those crews efficient, they were taught, during the icy rigours of
winter, to mount fictitious masts erected in their barrack-yard, and to imagine
that they were climbing up the rigging of their fleet — they have seen that fleet
cooped up ignominiously in its harbour, not daring to face the allied squadrons,
which never were superior in number to the Eussians, however superior they
might be in other respects on which victory depends. In the Black Sea they
have seen a fleet which, not long ago, proudly swaggered over the waves of the
Euxine, and whose most glorious achievement was the barbarous outrage at
Sinope; they have seen that fleet, not captured in open battle after a brave
resistance, but sinking under the hand of its own commander, and leaving nothing
but the topmasts sticking out of the water as marks of the degradation to which
they have been subjected. They have seen the great arsenal, and the grand capital
of which they were so proud, but of which they were so chary as to allow no
prying stranger to enter its walls, so that the only Englishman that has ever
given any account of it was compelled to find his way within the gates disguised as
a peasant, and covered up in a cartful of hay; they have seen the arsenal so
studiously concealed from the eyes of jealous strangers, in the possession of an
enemy, after having vainly endeavoured for twelve months to defend it. It would
ill become anv man, in the situation which I have the honour to hold, to talk of
the future, or to advert to prospective measures ; but this, I think, I am well
warranted in saying. Viewing the manly spirit which animates the people of this
country— viewing the general support whieh parliament has given to the govern
ment in every measure connected with the prosecution of the war— viewing the
perfect good faith and undeviating constancy of purpose which animates our
great ally the Emperor of the French— viewing the sympathy which our cause
excites among the people of every free country in the world, even in places where
mistaken views of interest lead their governments to a different course— viewing,
also, the justice of our cause, I am confident we may look to such a result of the
contest in which we are engaged, as may place the future liberties of Europe— as
may place the interests, the main and permanent interests of the countries which
are now allied — upon a sure and lasting foundation."
In November, 1860, Lord and Lady Palmerston paid a visit to Yorkshire.
The original programme extended over two days only; but invitations to take
part in many public ceremonies poured in upon him, and he was unable to get
away. One day he attended a conference in the Eoyal Eeception-room, Town
Hall, Leeds, on the subject of the amendment and consolidation of the bankruptcy
law. In the evening he presided at a soiree of the Leeds Mechanics' Institution
and Literary Society. The next day the Leeds corporation presented a con
gratulatory address; and again in the Victoria Hall, to which no less than 1,800
tickets had been issued: which event was celebrated by all the state and ceremony
that the corporation could employ. His lordship also presided at the annual

a.d. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [palmerston at Glasgow.

meeting of the Leeds Eagged School and Shoeblack Society, at the Music Hall, in
Albion Street. Shortly after, Lord Palmerston became the guest of E. M. Milnes,
Esq., M.P., at Fryston Hall, near Pontefract, where he received an address from the
corporation, and opened the new market-place which they have recently built.
During his stay he met the tenantry of his Fairbairn estate, who invited him to
luncheon at the vicarage, Ledsham. An interesting incident occurred at Fairbairn.
His lordship noticed a dirty-looking, miserable little building, used as a lock-up,
and remarked that it was as bad as one of the prisons in Naples. On inquiring to
whom it belonged, he was rather surprised to find that he was the owner of it
himself. He instantly gave orders that it should be pulled down. Leaving
Fairbairn, the noble lord gave a piece of land to enlarge the burial-ground attached
to the chapel of ease there. He also inspected the schools in the village, of
which he is the principal supporter.
On the 29th of March, 1863, Lord Palmerston was installed as Lord Eector
of the University of Glasgow. In consequence of the eager throng of the citizens,
the ceremony was removed from the old College Hall to the neighbouring church of
St. John's, which was filled from an early hour by an excited crowd of students
and ticket-holders, who whiled away the tedious hours of waiting (says the writer
of the account in the Annual Register) by strains of melody of a character rather
different from those which are wont to rise within those walls. On the appearance
of Lord Palmerston he was loudly cheered. After thanking the students for the
honour they had conferred upon him, in electing him to the office of Lord Eector,
he gave them an address, which was admitted by all to be a masterpiece of sound
and earnest reasoning, founded upon the maxim that education is the art which
teaches men how to Uve. Lord Palmerston warned his hearers that there must be
a moral foundation to knowledge ; that self-discipline and self-control are necessary
to successful culture ; and that, moreover, they must be acquired early ; for, as a
general rule, they are unattainable by those who have passed a youth without fixity
of purpose. But, of learning proper, the best language must be sought in the
classic books of Greece and Eome, and in the best productions of British genius.
Mathematics, too, as the most perfect of sciences, and the most useful form of
logic, should form part of the student's course. History is to be read as far as is
consistent with application to a particular line of study ; and he strongly dwelt on
the necessity of cultivating the study of chemistry, geology, and physiology.
These sciences he passed in review, and urged his hearers to look upon them not
merely as means to success in life, but as completing the culture of an English
gentleman; enabling him to judge of his place and scope in the world — in short,
teaching him how to Uve.
In the evening a grand banquet was given to Lord Palmerston in the City
Hall, where covers were laid for upwards of 900. Here, again, the Premier
delivered an excellent speech. From that part of it which was political we make
the following extract: — "It has been, no doubt, the great object and aim of those
who have been engaged in the conduct of public affairs, to maintain the honour
and dignity of the country ; but, at the same time, to preserve it in peace. And,
gentlemen, that is not so difficult as at first sight it may appear ; for so long as
those who are charged with the responsible management of the public affairs know
that they are watched, on the one hand by an intelligent and careful nation, who
would, by interposition, prevent them from engaging rashly in unwarrantable
enterprises ; they know, on the other hand, that there is a determined spirit in the
British nation, which will not suffer itself to be wronged — which will not brook
insult — which is ever ready to repel aggression ; and, by maintaining within itself
the means of an adequate defence, will teach other nations of the world that we
refrain from aggression, while we are determined to commit no wilful injury;
while we are resolved to infringe on no right belonging to others, on the other
hand, Noli me tangere. Let others be careful how they give us cause to resent
anything that would give us just reason to deem it provocation: but I am glad to
513

PALMERSTON AT EDINBURGH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.

say there never was a period when this country was upon better terms of friend
ship with all the nations of the earth. I advert not to those contending parties in
America, who sue us like rivals who sue a fair damsel, each party wanting us to
take up her cause, and each feeling some little resentment on account of that
neutrality which we preserve, and which they, both of them, in some degree, charac
terise as unfriendliness. But, setting aside these feelings, which create no irrita
tion in our mind, and do not in any degree diminish that friendly feeling which
ought to prevail between kindred races, as they and we are — I say, barring
that, we may fairly congratulate ourselves that there is no nation, no government
with whom we have political or commercial intercourse, with whom we are not
upon terms of the most satisfactory friendship."
The next day his lordship went to Greenock, being taken down the river
with a distinguished party. At the Town Hall he received addresses from the
provost, and other authorities of Greenock; after which he sat down to a hand
some entertainment, and, on his health being drank, made a complimentary and
interesting speech. Eeturning to Glasgow, he was present, in the evening, at a
crowded soirie of the working-men, given in the City Hall. In his reply to an
address presented by them, Lord Palmerston said, in reference to the civil war in
America — " It is not fitting or becoming, that the British nation, as a nation,
should take part in that contest. It is a lamentable event in the history of man
kind ; and, depend upon it, that war, under any circumstances, is a great affliction
to a country : that of all wars that most afflict a nation, a civil war is the one most
to be deplored; for there you have brother fighting against brother, relations
arrayed against relations. You have a contest scattered over the wide surface of
the country, and desolation marking the track of the contending armies, perhaps
even greater than that inflicted by the invasion of a foreign force. We lament
that state of things ; we should be most happy if it had been in the power of this
country, by any available interposition, to reconcile those conflicting parties ; but
we felt, and we know, that any attempt of that kind, in the existing state bf
things, would have an effect the reverse of that we intended — would not accom-r
plish the purpose we had in view, and would render it difficult, if not impossible.
If a different state of things should arise — that the friendly counsels of England
should be listened to with success — I am persuaded that you, and the rest of the
people of this country, will think that we acted rightly in taking this decision.
That war has, indeed, inflicted deep suffering and privation upon large portions of
the working classes of this country — less, perhaps, in point of extent here, in
Glasgow, than in Manchester and other manufacturing districts ; but even here it
must have been grievously felt ; and many might have felt that we, by taking part
in that contest, and declaring ourselves on the one side or the other, might have
put an end to that privation and hardship : but that would have been a short
sighted course; and, depend upon it, if we had taken that course, we should have
failed in our object, and increased, instead of diminishing, the sufferings we
intended to alleviate."
On the following day Lord Palmerston was present at a breakfast given
to Admiral Sir James Hope by the president of the Garter Club, and was then
elected an honorary member, on which occasion he made a brief but humorous
speech. He then proceeded with a large party to Edinburgh, to receive the
freedom of the Scottish metropolis. In returning thanks, his lordship reverted to
the three precious years he had spent in early youth at the Edinburgh University,
and was glad to find that the citizens remembered him for " auld lang syne."
His lordship spoke strongly of the advantages arising from municipal institutions,
in the preservation of the liberties of the people, and in the education of men to
take part in the larger affairs of life. Lord Palmerston then proceeded to the
university, where a large assemblage had collected, in order to receive the
honorary distinction of LL.D. The ceremony took place in the Library Hall. His
lordship's reply consisted chiefly of a sketch of his own experience at the Edinburgh

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [and the guildhall.
University, and of laudatory remarks upon the university systems of England and
Scotland. He dwelt, with a natural warmth of feeling, upon the associations
called up by a sight of those walls ; within which, some sixty years ago, he listened,
with a goodly array of young men who have long since become famous, to the
prelections of Dugald Stewart and Playfair. In his honour a grand banquet was
given in the evening at the Music Hall. Lord Palmerston, after his health had
been drank, in reply, said that the kindness he had received in Scotland had made
the deepest impression on his heart. He spoke of the encouragement such honours
held out to public men. He referred to his former residence in Edinburgh, and
said that he looked back to that period with the most affectionate remembrance ;
and the association and friendships which were there contracted he should ever
regard as the most valuable of his life. His lordship then spoke of the assistance
he had derived, in public life, from the counsel of men distinguished for their
abiUty and talent. Eeference was made to the satisfactory state of our army and
navy, and to the existence of our volunteer forces. His lordship dwelt, long and
eloquently, upon the moral influence of Great Britain upon other nations. There
was hardly a single country in Europe, he said, that had not, in some particular
shape, with some modification or other, institutions formed after the pattern, or,
at least, upon the principles, of her constitution ; and he was proud to say that
some of those nations were greatly indebted, for the benefits they enjoy, to the
assistance and countenance which they receive from the government of England.
Warm sympathy was expressed for the Poles ; and his lordship deeply deplored the
unhappy war raging in America. In the former case, diplomatic interposition was,
however, all that the government or the nation at large, he thought, considered
advisable; and, in the latter case, notwithstanding the sufferings among large
masses of our artisans consequent thereupon, we had no alternative but to pursue a
strict neutrality between the contending parties.
Lord Palmerston's next visit was to Leith, where he spoke on the subject of
free trade, and its great development, of late years, in the neighbouring towns he
had come to visit. Years had done wonders, combined with free trade, to increase
the happiness and wealth ofthe community amongst whom he was then sojourning.
Scotch philosophers had been the first to investigate into, and explain, the causes
of national prosperity. In Scotland his lordship had learnt the elements of that
science ; and it was but right and proper that he should return to Scotland to see
how, in the increase of its population, in their growth in wealth and education, and
civilisation, free trade had blessed the land. The Scotch are said to be a sober
and more hard-headed people than the English ; not so easily led away by cant ;
but their reception, nevertheless, of the Premier was all that his best friends could
desire, while his lordship's speeches on the occasion were wise and weighty, worthy
of his station and himself.
In 1864, the new Lord Mayor of London had the pleasure of inviting to the
annual dinner at the Guildhall two of the most distinguished men of the day.
In his speech on the occasion, Lord Palmerston gracefully alluded to it. He
said — " I congratulate you, my Lord Mayor, that you have, on the present occasion,
among the vast number of distinguished guests, two men eminent in their
respective countries for their great intellectual attainments, and for the services
which they have rendered to mankind. One is our fellow-coutryman ; the other
is a native of that great country, and a member of that great nation, which lies
but a short distance from our shores. It is needless that I should say that the
first I allude to is a man well known to this city as in all countries — I mean Lord
Brougham. He is a man who has distinguished himself in every career of
intellectual display; whether as an advocate, most eloquent and successful —
whether as a parliamentary orator, with eloquence and power never excelled — •
whether as having distinguished himself in literature — whether as having trodden
successfully all the various paths of science — or whether, npt content with his own
attainments, but anxious to spread the blessings of learning and instruction 5J5

LORD PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
throughout the land, as the promoter of the diffusion of the knowledge and
education of all classes of the community. But you have also a most dis
tinguished foreigner. You have Monsieur Berryer, a man who has attained the
greatest eminence in his own country ; whose name is known throughout the
nations of Europe as being unrivalled in eloquence at the bar, and respected and
esteemed for that dignity of character, for that elevation of mind, and for that
nobleness of sentiment, which are essential, when combined with eloquence and
talent, to make the perfection of legal or any other character. I am glad, my
Lord Mayor, that you have had the opportunity of doing homage to the ability
and talent of France, by inviting to your table the man who is the most worthy
representative of the intellect and, I will say, the industry of his country. I trust,
my Lord Mayor, that this banquet may add another link to that bond which ought
to unite, and which, I trust, does unite, two nations neighbours to each other —
nations which are capable of inflicting on each other immense injuries as
enemies ; but which are, on the other hand, able to confer the greatest benefit
as friends." In the same year, the memorial statue, erected in the city of Hereford, to
Sir Cornewall Lewis, was publicly unveiled by Lord Palmerston. There was, of
course, an immense assemblage of people. His lordship paid a cordial tribute, on
the occasion, to the memory of Sir G. Lewis, dilating on his vast learning, his
great talent, his wonderful aptitude for business, his genial friendship, and his
amiable disposition. In 1864, Lord Palmerston worked very hard as a speech-
maker, and made exertions that would have been very trying to many a younger
man. In August, that year, Lord Palmerston visited his old constituents at Tiver
ton. He had not done so for many years, having been obliged, on several occasions
during that period, to disappoint them, after all arrangements had been made, owing
either to the exigencies of public business or temporary illness. A short time pre
viously, Lord Palmerston intimated that he would pay his long-deferred visit on the
occasion of Tiverton races; and the mayor and corporation determined to invite him
to a public banquet the previous evening. The Premier, who looked remarkably well,
and was in excellent spirits, arrived on Tuesday, August the 23rd, from London. At
Tiverton junction he was heartily welcomed by the mayor, and a considerable
number of the chief inhabitants of the borough ; but when the train arrived at
Tiverton, the station and its approaches were densely crowded, and his lordship,
having entered his carriage, was escorted, amid enthusiastic cheers, to his hotel, the
Three Tuns. Lord Palmerston, on presenting himself at the window of the hotel,
was received with loud cheering. When silence was restored, his lordship said—
"Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, my good friends all,— I thank you most
heartily for the kind reception which I have just met with from you. I am
accustomed to be warmly received in this town of Tiverton ; but I must fairly own
that I never met with a more general and cordial reception than that which has
awaited me to-day. I am always glad to come to this town, and this beautiful
neighbourhood, whenever I am able to do so. I regretted very much, upon a late
occasion, I was tied by the leg, unable to leave ; and I think that a man who is tied
by the leg and foot to London, cannot hope to make his way to Tiverton. I am '
glad, however, to meet so many of you to-day; and I trust that, during the two
days that I mean to pass here, I shall have an opportunity of seeing all those good
friends to whom I am so much indebted. If I can augur of the future increase
and prosperity of Tiverton from what I now see before me, I must say that the
great numbers and good looks of the rising generation, augur well and fairly for the
increasing prosperity of Tiverton. It is a proof that the people have good
employment; and the appearance of the younger part of them shows that due care
is taken of their education and manners, and that the good and healthy air of this
town has its due effect upon the constitution and looks of the young. We all
know that those who are past their childhood— especially those of the fair sex—
retain their good looks to a later period of life here than is often their lot in other
516

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [at tiverton.

parts of the world. I can only repeat that it has given me the greatest pleasure to
be so well received ; and that, from the bottom of my heart, I thank you for the
kind demonstration which you have made. I am glad I have the pleasure of
meeting you in such magnificent weather. It has sometimes occurred, when I have
been here, that there has been a little dewy fall from the skies. You are, I
beUeve, panting for rain ; but I trust it will not come down for the next two or
three days, so as to injure the attendance at your races." Three cheers were
then given for the ladies, three for the mayor, and three for Mr. Hole ; and Lord
Palmerston retired.
In the evening there was, of course, a banquet, under the presidency of the
mayor. After his lordship's health had been drunk, Lord Palmerston, who was
received, according to the report in the Times, with several rounds of most
tremendous cheering, repUed as follows : —
"Mr. Mayor and gentlemen, — I beg to return you my most sincere thanks
for the kind manner in which this toast has been proposed and received ; and I
can assure you that a testimony of good-will from the people of Tiverton must
always be most grateful to me. I feel under most peculiar obligations to the
people of this town. I came here first a stranger — an entire stranger — to you ; and
if, as you did, you accepted me as your member, it could only be from your
thinking that my conduct in public life had been such as to deserve your approba
tion. From time to time it has been a source of great pride and gratification to
me to find, on every occasion of my revisiting this town, that the cordiality of my
reception may be -accepted as a proof that the good opinion which originally led to
your taking me as your member has not been diminished, but increased. I can
assure you that I feel a most hearty pride at being, and, I trust, continuing to be,
your member. The reverend gentleman who returned thanks for the clergy, did
me the honour to allude to matters which are the personal acts of the minister who
fills the office that I do — I mean the choice of the persons who are to fill the high
dignities of the church. Well, I am glad that the selections which I have thought
it to be my duty to make, have met with general approval. I hold the task of
making those selections to be one of the most important duties that can devolve
upon the person who holds the office which I have the honour to fill, because there
are many things which depend upon a good choice. These are, in the first place,
the moral and religious training of the country — of those who are members of the
church of which these persons are chosen to be high dignitaries ; but there is a
further bearing on a good selection in these cases ; because, in a free country like
this, where every man is entitled to hold his own opinions, where men are accus
tomed to investigate the grounds of the opinions which they entertain, or which
they may intend to adopt, there must necessarily be great differences on religious
subjects. No doubt we might all wish that the whole nation could be of one creed.
That is impossible in a free country ; but what can be done, and what ought to be
done, is, that those who hold high office, and those who are at the head of the
established church, should, by their bearing towards those who differ from them in
reUgious opinions, mitigate those acerbities which are, perhaps, inherent in the
diversities of opinion on so important a matter, both here and hereafter ; that they
should, by their manner and bearing towards those of different opinions, render
those differences as little perceptible as possible, and endeavour to inculcate that
charity which is the basis of our common religion. I trust and believe that the
choice which it has been my lot to make, has been made in this direction, and that
those who have been elevated to fill high positions in the established church, will,
by their bearing towards different communions, continue to prove that, although
each may be sincere in holding opinions at variance with one another, never
theless all feel that there are common feelings, common interests, and common
obligations which pervade the mass, and that those feelings, interests, and
obligations ought not to be embittered by any asperities between different sects.
We have, most unhappily, seen very recently proofs that, in the sister kingdom, those
517

LORD PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
differences of religion have led to most disastrous and lamentable outbreaks ; but
let us not ascribe events entirely to difference of religious opinion ; they are rather
connected with long-established feuds, and should be looked upon rather as political
demonstrations than as uncharitable feelings, in regard to the religions of the two
parties who come in contact. Notice was also taken of the circumstance, that it
has fallen to the lot of the government of which I am a member, to preserve to this
country the blessings of peace. Now, gentlemen, no doubt the preservation of
peace, with honour, with consistency, with the interests and dignity of the country,
with its interest at home and its dignity and reputation abroad — the preservation
of peace upon such conditions is the primary duty of any administration that may
be charged with the conduct of national affairs. I do not think it desirable that
we should be of that section, which I believe really does not now exist, although it
is a by-word sometimes used — I do not think it desirable that we should be of the
peace-at-any-price party. I do not believe that those who are commonly desig
nated by that name are at heart insensible to the honour and interest of the
country. There may be differences of opinion as to the magnitude of the case, as
to the validity of the reasons which may induce the country to draw the sword-;
but I am persuaded that there is no Englishman who would not, if he thought the
interests, and honour, and dignity of the country were at stake, join in its defence
by Whatever means, personal or otherwise, which he might be able to command.
There have been, indeed, of late years, during the five years which I have been in
office, several cases which might have led this country into war. We might have
embarked in war, and with great acquiescence in popular feeling, for the rescue of
the Poles. Well, we deplore their unhappy fate; we endeavoured to enlist in
their cause the moral and political action of all the different powers of Europe, and
we did so ; but they unfortunately failed ; and perhaps it was in the nature of
things that our efforts should not succeed. But however the enthusiasm of a large
portion of the community might have urged us to- take more active measures, we
did not think — and I believe the majority of the country is of opinion that we
thought right — we did not think that was an occasion in which it would be justi
fiable to call on the people of England to make those exertions and sacrifices which
such a war would have called for. Then there was the American civil war. There
is much diversity of opinion as to the merits of the contending parties. Some are
for the North, on the ground of their hatred of slavery ; some are for the South, on
the ground of their love of freedom and independence. We might have been
involved one way or the other if we had listened to many of those who urged dif
ferent courses of action ; we might have been involved in the quarrel ; but I believe
the country is glad we have abstained from taking that course. We could have
had nothing to gain, and we' should only have added thousands of our own sons to
the hecatomb of victims which that calamitous and bloody slaughtering war has
sacrificed. We may hope that time and reflection — and recent advices from
America show some favourable symptoms— we may hope that time and reflection,
and the fact of the immense losses which have been sustained, and the slight hopes
of success which appear on the part of the North — we may hope that many months
will not elapse before some progress will be made towards healing that tremendous
breach which now exists. But of this I am convinced — that if we had yielded to
those who, from the purest motives and from a sincere conviction, urged us to
interfere, to offer our mediation, to endeavour to reconcile the quarrel between the
parties before matters were ripe for our adjustment, we should not only have failed
in accompUshing that object, but we should have embittered the feelings between
that country and this, and have rendered the future establishment of good relations
between us and them less easy and more difficult. Therefore I think our neutrality
was wise, and I am sure that it is appreciated by the country at large. Well, then
came that unfortunate Danish question ; and I am sure every Englishman who has
a heart in his breast, and a feeling of justice in his mind, sympathises with those
unfortunate Danes, and wishes that this country could have been able to draw the
Olo

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [at tiverton.
sword successfully in their defence ; but I am satisfied that those who reflect on
the season of the year when that war broke out, on the means which this country
could have applied for deciding in one sense that issue — I am satisfied that those
who make these reflections will think that we acted wisely in not embarking in
that dispute. To have sent a fleet in mid-winter to the Baltic, every sailor would
tell you was an impossibility; but if it could have gone it would have been
attended by no effectual result. Ships sailing on the sea cannot stop, armies on
land ; and to have attempted to stop the progress of an army by sending a fleet to
the Baltic, would have been attempting to do that which it was not possible to
accomplish. If England could have sent an army— and although we all know how
admirable that army is on the peace establishment, we must acknowledge that
we have no means of sending out a force at all equal to cope with the 300,000
or 400,000 men whom the 30,000,000 or 40,000,000 of Germany could have
pitted against us — such an attempt would only have insured a disgraceful dis
comfiture — not to the army, indeed, but to the government which sent
out an inferior force, and expected it to cope successfully with a force so vastly
superior. We are, as a nation, I trust, sufficiently strong to defy attack from any
enemy. We have, in round numbers, 300,000 militia and volunteers, in addition
to the regular army ; and, as they can be immediately increased, we have force
amply sufficient to defy attack, from whatever quarter it may proceed. We have a
fleet growing every year, adapting itself to the modern requirements of naval
warfare, and fully adequate for the defence of the country. Our object is defence,
not aggression. But this state of things does not allow this country to undertake
vast operations beyond its confines ; calling on the nation to make great exertions,
to make great sacrifices, both of men and money, in order to send out an army fit to
cope with the vast establishments, maintained by other countries. Well, we did
not think that the Danish cause would be considered as sufficiently British, and as
sufficiently bearing on the interests, and the security, and the honour of England,
as to make it justifiable to ask the country to make those exertions which such a
war would render necessary; and I am sure that the verdict of the country will be,
that, in this respect, the government judged rightly. But, while we have pre
served peace, the nation has been doing its work too. It is the duty of the govern
ment to keep the country at peace as long as it can do so without sacrificing its
honour, its dignity, or its interests. It is the duty of the people of the country to
advance its trade, to extend its commerce, to increase its resources, and to promote
its welfare of every sort and kind. This duty has been nobly performed by the
people of this kingdom : and there never was a period of equal length during which
this country has made such enormous strides in wealth, and in everything which
constitutes the comfort, the happiness, and the welfare of the nation. The
government can only contribute to these results by removing obstacles and afford
ing faciUties ; but it remains for the people themselves to make those exertions by
which alone these results can be obtained. Government cannot, interfere with
private enterprise. Every now and then we are called upon to subsidise or assist
this or that enterprise ; we are told that a little contribution from the public
revenue would set up this manufacture, would assist another, would give scope to
industry, and would foster a rising commerce ; but these things are only done in
countries where the people are paralysed by despotic power, and where they require
the vivifying and electrical touch of the government to rouse them to an exertion
which is not their natural condition, nor their habitual practice. In this country
every man is alive, every man knows best how to employ his capital, how to direct
his genius, whatever it may be : whatever line you may take, whether it be active
exertion in distant parts, or the studious labour of invention at home, or the direc
tion of the industry of thousands of our manufacturing workmen, in this country
every man knows best how to contribute to the public wealth and to his own
prosperity and advantage ; and all that the government has to do is to leave things
alone, to throw down barriers and obstructions, where barriers and obstructions are
519

PALMERSTON AT BRADFORD.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
pressed, and to give that freedom to industry, and activity to commerce, by which
alone the general welfare of the country can be advanced. That has been our task,
and I think we have performed that task well and successfully ; and if anybody
will take the trouble to look back — which few men are disposed to do, because they
are too busy looking forward — if any man will look back, and glance at the
immense progress which has taken place in this country during the last thirty
years, he will be astonished at the magnitude of the improvements which have
been made, the magnitude of the obstructions which have been thrown down, the
magnitude of the new doors to industry which have been opened, and the progress
which the country has made in national wealth and the comfort and happiness of
the people. I need not, indeed, preach these doctrines in this town, because here
they have not only been understood, but successfully practised. It is not in
Tiverton, where a most thriving and durable manufacture has been so long estab
lished, that I need debate on the advantage which genius, industry, enterprise,
capital properly applied and adapted with skill, produce not only to the individual
who directs the machine, but to the whole community who are in any way con
nected with such a system." The noble lord, after passing a high eulogium on his
lamented colleague, Mr. Heathcote, concluded by thanking the guests around him
for the manner in which he had been received among his kind friends in Tiverton,
saying that these periodical visits were always marked with a red letter in his
diary. A few days previously, Lord Palmerston had paid a visit to Bradford,
Yorkshire, on the occasion of laying the foundation-stone of the new Ex
change. It was originally intended that the visit of the Premier should not in
any way have been converted into a political demonstration. However, previous to
his lordship's wish, a meeting of the working-men was summoned by placard, for
the purpose of reviewing Lord Palmerston's representative policy ; of considering
in what manner the unenfranchised working classes of this great community ought
to receive him on his approaching visit ; and to determine what steps should be
taken by them to undeceive him as to the supposed apathy and carelessness of the
people on the importance of parliamentary reform. This meeting did not seem to
have been numerously attended ; and the local organ of the press protested, in
terms not very complimentary, against the claims of its promoters to be considered
the champions and representatives of the unenfranchised working classes of Bradford.
Certain it is that the meeting was by no means unanimous. The chief objection
of nearly every speaker was, that Lord Palmerston was not the right man to lay
the first stone of the new Exchange, because he had never done anything for
commerce ; and that another, whose life had been devoted to efforts to Uberate
commerce, and to cause that extension of trade which rendered a new Exchange
necessary, might have been more appropriately selected to perform the ceremony.
Moreover, it was alleged that his lordship had played false on the question of
reform, and had burked the reform measure which he had been pledged to
carry ; and on which, if he had been sincere, he ought to have staked the existence
of his ministry.
Many of these statements, however, were disputed by persons in the meeting,
and uproar was frequent. For instance, a person in the gallery insisted, when this
statement was made, that Lord Palmerston had not been the cause of reform
failing, but the indifference of the people themselves. The following were the
resolutions which were passed, with some dissentients : 
"That this meeting believes that Lord Palmerston, although formally pledged
to a considerable extension of the franchise— not only at Willis's Eooms, in London,
m the spring of 1859, but on other occasions in the House of Commons— has,
nevertheless, been the greatest obstruction to every measure of reform, no matter by
whom introduced. That this meeting, although told that Lord Palmerston has no
direct political object in view in his forthcoming visit to lay the foundation-stone
of the new Exchange, denies that he can, on such an occasion as that event, divest

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Bradford address.
himself of his ~ political character and influence ; and therefore we, the working-
men of Bradford, deem it a most fitting and legitimate opportunity for exhibiting
to his lordship our disapprobation and disappointment at his breaking faith with
the people in not fulfilling those pledges ; and of protesting against his assumption
that they are apathetic and careless about reform, and content with the extra
vagance at home and jealousies abroad, promoted by his lordship's policy. That
we, the unenfranchised men of Bradford, as a method of showing our disappro
bation of such poUtical immorality and injustice, do hereby pledge ourselves, on the
occasion of his lordship's visit, to observe a dignified but significant abstinence
from all enthusiastic cheering.
" That an address, couched in a respectful1 but firm tone, embodying the spirit
of the foregoing resolutions, be presented to Lord Palmerston, and that the address
now read be presented."
The managing committee and the authorities declined to allow this address to
be presented to Lord Palmerston; alleging, not without cause, that it would
introduce a most unwelcome political element into the affair, altogether contrary
to the understanding on which the invitation to visit the town on this occasion
was given, and accepted by Lord Palmerston. After some negotiations, the result
of which, according to the authorities, was that, in their opinion, a satisfactory
arrangement could not be effected, they determined to adhere to their decision.
The working-men's committee, however, issued the following placard : —
"The Palmerston reception committee having, on Friday, put their veto
upon the address adopted at the working-men's meeting, sent on Saturday an
influential deputation, consisting of the worshipful the Mayor and Aldermen Law
and Scholefield, to negotiate some slight modifications in its terms, which were
agreed to by the respective deputations from each committee, on the ground upon
which it would be accepted by them. Mr. Alderman Scholefield took the amended
address, and submitted it to the executive committee, who empowered him, after
making further alterations, to inform the working-men's committee, that if the
executive's alterations were adopted, the address would be presented to his
lordship's secretary on Monday. When the address, with the executive's alterations,
was again presented to them to-day at noon, the chairman of the executive
committee, Mr. H. W. Eipley, emphatically declared the address should not be
presented to his lordship. This is an unjust assumption, and can only be accepted
as an unmerited insult offered to a large further meeting held on Monday last in
the Temperance Hall. Working-men, respect yourselves to-morrow (Tuesday)
by observing a peaceable demeanour, and let your determination be a dignified and
significant sUence.
" The Working-Men's Lord Palmerston Visit Committee, Bradford, Monday,
Aug. 9, 1864."
A portion of the nonconformist body also issued a placard, protesting against
the course pursued by Lord Palmerston with respect to church-rates, and other
religious and controversial topics.
The procession, on the appointed day, passed off quietly. The proceedings
were very simple. The mayor, Mr. Farrar, having briefly bid Lord Palmerston
welcome to Bradford, and expressed the high sense of the inhabitants for the
honour which he had done them in visiting their town, Alderman Wrightson, as
the chairman of the New Exchange Company, presented the following address,
which was read by Mr. Eawson : —
" To the Right Hon. Viscount Palmerston, KG., G.C.B., M.P., First Lord of
Her Majesty's Treasury.
"May it please your lordship, — Having requested your lordship to honour
this town with your presence on this memorable day, we, the directors of the
Bradford Exchange Company, would tender to you our warmest thanks for the
gracious manner in which your lordship has consented to take part in the important
VOL. n. 2 M 521

LORD PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.

commercial ceremony for which we are assembled. Before we ask your lordship
to lay the first stone of the structure which is to rise on this site, we would, for a
moment, call your lordship's attention to the circumstances which have required
its erection. The building now used as an Exchange was opened in the year 1828.
Three years after, the population of the borough was 43,527; in 1861 it was
upwards of 106,000. In the year 1828, there were not more than two or three
firms trading as stuff merchants in the borough; in 1861, the number thus engaged
was 157. In the year 1841, the annual rental of the property in the borough
assessed to the poor-rate, amounted to £137,778; this year the same amounted to
£315,740. In 1831, the number of houses was 8,193; now it is about 24,800.
In 1836, the number of registered parUamentary voters was 1,347 ; now'it is 4,564.
The tables of mills and machinery, imports as to wool, and exports as to worsted
fabrics, would show- similar increase. It will not, therefore, surprise your lordship,
that the building which was considered sufficient and capacious for the wants of
1828, should be found quite inadequate to the requirements of the present time.
Sensible that our commercial empire is most emphatically peace, we congratulate
your lordship on that enlightened policy which has so recently secured one of its
blessings in the increased connections between this country and France, and of
which we trust that the French treaty, so eminently beneficial to both countries, is
but the first fruits ; that your visit to this town is in a time of peace, and this
proposed building is to be .one of its many victories. The trade of this borough
was never more remunerative than at present to the skilful hands of toil, and the
vast capital that is employed connects it with the prosperity of the farmer at home
and the distant colonist, with every sheepfold, however remote, and every shepherd
in every clime. Its ambition is to hang its trophies in every household, to wrap
them round the inmates of its houses. In asking you to lay the foundation-stone of
this monument of the prosperity of this district, we congratulate your lordship
that you have lived to see so many insignificant villages in your country rise to the
importance of large and influential towns; so many limited occupations expand
into gigantic manufactures; so many feeble tributaries to the national wealth
become mighty streams, swelling its resources. Nor are we less glad to see you
among us, after so many honoured years of public service, not an old man broken
with the storms of state, but still a man of sovereign parts, whose age has charms
in it. We shall be delighted to associate your lordship's name with the com
mencement of the important edifice which is to adorn and benefit this town, as we
have long had to make your lordship's motto, ' Flecti non frangi,' the foundation
of the delicate manipulation of the materials of our manufacture ; desiring for this
building no higher honour than that it may witness as steady a growth in the
success of this town as your lordship has seen in the prosperity of your country, and
that passing years may mark its walls with as gentle a hand as they have laid
upon your lordship, and gather around it as many gratifying marks of reverential
regard as your lordship enjoys.
" Given under the seal of the Bradford Exchange Company, the 9th day of
August, 1864."
The stone was then laid with the usual observances, amid hearty cheers.
Lord Palmerston then said — " Gentlemen,— I must, in the first place, beg the
people of this town to accept my most hearty thanks for the kind and cordial
reception which I have met with this day. I can assure you that the recollection
of it will never depart from my memory. It has afforded me great pleasure to be
instrumental in what is technically called laying the foundation of your new
Exchange ; but that foundation has been laid long since by the people of Bradford
themselves. For it is in the industry, and in the prosperity, or in the successful
exertions of the people of Bradford, that has been laid the foundation, not only of
this building, but of real future prosperity, of which this building will only be the
emblem and representative. You have, indeed, in the address which I have just
had the honour of receiving, made mention of the wonderful growth of this town
522 s

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [at Bradford.

in an inconceivable short space of time; but I trust that it is still destined to
equal some of the larger seats of industry ; and that, when I may have again the
pleasure of revisiting this town, I maj see that this prosperity has been continued
still more rapidly than during the period to which your remarks have referred.
Indeed, when I look round on your prosperity to-day,, I should have thought that
the population of Bradford had been much larger than I am told it now is. I
know that I am welcome here, and I know how warm-hearted the hearts of
Yorkshiremen are — how kind they are to those whom they have invited, and how
disposed they are to show the warmth of their feelings by the strong, outward
demonstration of their voices. It is not the first time that I have been in this
county ; but I must say that the kind reception which I have this day received
exceeds anything which I have been entitled to expect even from warm-hearted
Yorkshiremen. Consider that what we have done to-day is, that we have laid the
foundation of a temple of peace. Because your industry not only is productive of
peace, but is essentially prosperous in peace ; it is, therefore, the cause and the
effect of peace ; and I look upon it that the Exchange, which is to rise from this
site, may be properly designated as a temple of peace. You have mentioned the
great development which the commerce of this country,, and the independence of
Bradford, have received from the commercial treaty with France. Well, that
treaty has had another effect ; it has not only given a stimulus to industry, and
compensated, in a great degree, for those calamities which have befallen other
countries, but it is every year cementing the good feeling between two neighbouring
nations, both of which have no cause for that reciprocal jealousy, have no ground
for that mutual hostility, which has too often marked our nation in times gone
by. But we have every reason to find, in interests in common, and in sympathies
of feeling, mutual relations of friendship ; and I trust that the people of Bradford
may properly be said to be most important negotiators in that respect. Gentle
men, I will not detain you longer. If I were to say all I feel I should keep you
here till sunset. It would be an unfair return for the courtesy you have shown
me. I shall, therefore, again thank you for the kind reception which I have
experienced, and say that I am proud of having been applied to to preside at this
ceremony, which, I trust, is only the harbinger of future greatness and increasing
prosperity for this industrious and increasing town."
In the evening there was a banquet; and, after that, a monster meeting in
the great hall, at which 4,000 people were present, and at which another address
was presented. A vote of thanks was then passed to his lordship for his attendance.
In the course of his reply, Lord Palmerston said — " In despotic countries, those
who have the conduct of affairs are deprived, by custom, of those opportunities
which are enjoyed in a free country like this — mixing with their fellow-countrymen
on those easy terms in which it has been my good fortune to mix to-day with
the people of Bradford. It is customary to talk of the labours and anxieties of
office. Well, those labours and anxieties are light to those who believe they are
doing their duty to the best of their power. That only harasses which time and
opportunity prevent them from doing ; that which they are able to do is a source
of satisfaction if they feel they are doing their best ; and whether their efforts are
attended with success or failure, their minds are satisfied that they have performed
their duty to their country. But it is a great and heartfelt satisfaction to be able to
meet, as I have done to-day, and as I have had other opportunities of doing, the people
of England, to see their faces and show one's own. It is a great, satisfaction to feel
we meet on terms of good fellowship ; and that while, on the one hand, sympathy
must be excited more strongly in the minds of those who govern, on the other
kindly feelings are inspired in the minds of those with whom we meet. It has
been deeply gratifying to me to have been allowed this day to lay the first stone of
a fabric which is to be the scene of business and commercial transactions in this,
I will say great, but destined to be still greater and more prosperous, community.
I might say that I hope this building will- be everlasting ; but I may, perhaps,
2 M 2 " ' 523

PALMERSTON AT BRADFORD.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.

venture to think that, ample as its dimensions have been planned, capacious
as its halls will be, the day may come when the increasing commerce and trans
actions of business in Bradford may outrun the capacity of the building; and
that some other man succeeding me may be called upon to lay the first stone of
a larger, ampler, and more capacious Exchange. There is something particularly
interesting in this town of Bradford, for it is a type of the English character. I
consider that character to be marked by perseverance, industry, enterprise, judg
ment, and courage in pursuing that which has been undertaken. All these
qualities have been marked by the people of Bradford. You have converted that
which may almost be said to have been a barren moor, with only a few scattered
hamlets, into a thriving and great commercial town. Your progress has only
been begun. Happy will it be for those who shall watch and mark its future
career. But in the course which you are pursuing, you are not only contributing
to ^your own wealth, and comfort, and well-being, but you are contributing im
mensely to the wealth and strength of that country of which you form so dis
tinguished a portion. You have been pleased, in the resolution, to advert to the
conduct of public men — mine among others. It is true, I trust, and am proud to
say, that, during the last five years, this country has enjoyed a state of increasing
prosperity and comfort ; and that, while we have been in a thriving condition at
home, our honour, and the dignity and interests of the country, have been main
tained ; and, adopting words which are familiar to the ears of all, the great
influence of England in foreign countries has not been lowered. These results are
the consequence of the combined efforts of an administration of which I may be
permitted £o say, that no other administration that ever existed contained within
itself a greater number of able, distinguished, and capable men. I venture,
without fear of contradiction, to say that there never was a government in which
every department of state was better filled than it has been filled by the govern
ment which is now in power ; and, therefore, it would be unjust to attribute any
peculiar merit to any one member of the administration. The merit belongs to
the combined and united efforts of all ; and it is only by such a continued and
united course of action, that any government can accomplish results worthy of
obtaining the confidence and good-will of their fellow-countrymen. It has un
doubtedly been one of the main objects of the policy of the government to remove
all obstacles that stand in the way of the development of the industry and com
merce of the country; and to induce, as far as they are able to do so, other
countries to adopt the doctrine, and follow the example, which have been set to
them, and held forth by us. But that task is not an easy one. There is nothing so
difficult to" uproot as a prejudice long established in the human mind ; and although
those who have cast away a prejudice, who have abandoned an error, and got into the
road of truth, may wonder that others have not done the same, yet, it is a re
markable fact, that the mind of man is prone to cling to errors as long as men are
interested in them ; but when they have turned their back upon them, and have
come to the truth, they wonder, not only that others do not follow them, but that
they themselves should have ever entertained the same errors and prejudices. We all
know what a long battle was fought in the country between free-trade opinions
and the system of protection. We all know how many a man conscientiously
thought that the country would be ruined by taking away that protection which
this, that, and the other class had had from time immemorial, to the prejudice of
every other class, to the detriment of the country at large. It is long before a
nation can learn the truth that, in all regulations of commerce, you have to con
sider not- the interest of one particular class as producers, but the interest of that
much larger class, the consumers— namely, the whole nation. Although a
government may often appear hard-hearted and severe in dealing with the interest
of a class of producers who have hitherto been protected, yet it ought to be borne
in mind that they are only doing their duty to the many ; and that, in fact, even
the interest of those few will, in the long run, find a benefit in the changes which

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the French treaty.
are made. We all recollect the time when, a proposal being made to abolish the
protection which the agricultural producers had long enjoyed, the people were told
that the country would be ruined — would be starved ; that the land would go out
of cultivation ; that the agricultural interest would vanish and perish : and they
said — ' For heaven's sake, don't inflict such a calamity upon the country !' Well,
what has been the consequence ? Not only, by the repeal of the corn-laws, have
the bulk of the community received large supplies of food which previously they
could not get, and been able, in exchange for them, to send forth the products
of their industry, but the agriculturist himself has greatly benefited by the change.
Every class which is protected puts on its nightcap, and goes to sleep ; and it
requires that which the school-boys call ' the cold pig,' the application of com
petition, to stimulate the energies of the man, and make him bestir himself, and
improve the calling to which he has devoted his mind and capital. Well, that has
been the case with the agricultural interest, and that will be the case with all
other nations which shall adopt our principles of free trade ; but if you come
to talk to them about it, they pour forth such force of argument that you would
think the trade would be ruined, and the other branches of industry would be
impoverished, and that you cannot afford to take the bread out of the mouth of
this class and that class. But they forget the interest of the consumer. They
look only to the small and local interests ; and they are as deaf as an adder, and you
cannot persuade them to adopt the doctrines you preach. Nothing can convince
other nations except the broad and patent example of the prosperity which
England has reached from the abolition of that protective system. We are often
told that we ought to make commercial treaties with other countries, and'thereby
gain, in exchange for the admission of other commodities, facilities for the ad
mission of ours. That system has been rendered impossible by that which we have
already done. In the case of France it was a necessity, because the French
government, although desirous of entering into a system of free exchange with us,
was unable to do so, except as the consequence of a treaty ; and that treaty, as has
justly been said, and every man in this town well knows, has been of the greatest
advantage to England. I am glad to think that it has been peculiarly beneficial
to Bradford ; that it has been a great advantage to the French nation, who, when
it was first proposed, thought it was a calamity from which they could probably
with difficulty recover. Well, that treaty was made. We had to take off import
duties from an immense number of commodities. It was impossible to limit the
abolition of duty to articles coming from France, because, with our insular
position, commodities from other countries would surely have come through
France ; and, therefore, what was granted to France was granted to every other
country. In fact, we have acted upon what common sense prompts — your nego
tiation with a foreign country. If it is real and sincere that you will abolish
certain import duties here if they will abolish certain duties, that is very much as
if two men had shackles on their legs, and one was to say to the other — ' Now, if
you will take off your shackles, I will take off mine, but not otherwise.' If the
duties which we impose upon the importation of foreign commodities which are
wanted by the consumers of this country are a burden upon the country itself, and
the remission or abolition of these duties is a gain — whether it be accompanied or
not by any corresponding remission or obligation on the part of other countries —
we do it for our own sakes ; and so we tell these foreign countries. They don't
very much believe us. They say — making an erroneous use of words, and there
is no greater cause of error in reasoning than the misapplication of terms — they
say, especially in Germany, if we let in English commodities" upon a low duty, and
without difficulty, we shall be inundated by British commodities. They think, in
their own minds, what an inundation of water is, and that the same evil effects
would arise from the admission of European commodities, that would happen
from the breaking of one of their great dykes. They totally forget that we
are much too sensible to make them a present of what we have been making ; that
525

wilts rifle association.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
we only send our commodities abroad as an exchange for an equal value to be
received here ; and that, therefore, they cannot be inundated with our goods
unless they themselves, by their own industry, create an equal value to send to us
in return ; and that, consequently, every additional commodity which we send
abroad is the cause of additional industry, additional capital, and additional em
ployment to their manufactures at home. Well, gentlemen, we have pursued this
course. On the one hand we have acted on the principle of reducing duties for
our own benefit and our own advantage ; and we have held out to other countries
the example of our success as an encouragement to them to follow our course.
But I remember talking to a very distinguished political economist of a foreign
country, and explaining to him how it had succeeded with us. He said — ' Ah ! it is
all very well. You have got rich by protection, and now you can afford free trade.'
I tried to persuade him that protection had slackened our course of progress —
that we were less wealthy than we should have been if protection had been got rid
of sooner. He said- — 'No ; you have got rich by protection, and now we are poor
you want to keep us poor, by asking us to get rid of that shield under cover of
which you have amassed the wealth which you now possess.' Well, gentlemen, all
I can say is, that the course which has been pursued for the last five years has
been conducted with benefit to the country. We have succeeded in preserving
peace, although there were great events arising in different parts of the world,
in which we might have been implicated; and exhortations were not wanting.
We might have been tempted, plausibly enough, upon good principles and good
motives ; but we refrained from doing so. We have maintained peace ; and I
think, in that respect, we have done our duty to the country."
One more speech from his lordship will conclude this part of our subject.
We now quote one, delivered in September, 1864, on the occasion of the fourth
annual meeting of the Wilts Eifle Association. After the great meeting of the
National Eifle Association, that of the county of Wilts commands the first place
amid the local gatherings, both from the number of competitors, and the amount
and value of the prizes offered — a result entirely owing to the liberality of the
landed proprietors and gentry of the county; for, in addition to local prizes to the
value of £390, a further sum of £300 was given for general competition, which
attracted, at the time, the large number of 250 candidates. The shooting — which
lasted, in consequence of the severity of the competition, nearly a week, in the
ancient city of Salisbury— having terminated, the prizes were distributed at
Wilton House, where Lady Herbert gave a grand luncheon to her guests, and
about 600 of the ilite of the county. Lord Palmerston then presented the chal
lenge cup to the winner, Sergeant Jeffries, of the 6th Wilts. The noble lord,
who met with a most enthusiastic welcome, said— " Gentlemen Volunteers,— I
address those who are volunteers, and those who mean to be volunteers. It has
afforded me great pleasure to obey the commands of Lady Herbert, in presenting
to this good shot and excellent soldier the challenge cup which I have just put
into his hands, for this cup embodies that principle which leads to distinction in
every career— I mean the principle of honourable emulation. It is not only won
by successful emulation, but it must be annually kept by successful emulation ; and,
without disparagement to the gallant soldier who has so well won it, I may express
f.ll{f1™ next year lt may be won by a better shot than he who has now become
the holder of this valuable trophy. My noble friend has eloquently and truly
dilated on the causes which led to the original establishment of the volunteer
system of this country ; and I must say that a nobler display of national feeling,
of sagacious patriotism, and of persevering courage, was never exhibited by any
nation. Its original cause was, as my noble friend stated, temporary ; but I trust
that its effects will be permanent, and that this institution, so valuable and so
important to the best interests of the country, will continue, for all ages to come,
to be a great national institution. It is quite true that, some few years ago,
circumstances to which it is unnecessary to advert, led the people of this country
526

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [our national defences.
to reflect that the ordinary and established means were not sufficient to keep
away the dangers which it foresaw might, at all events, be possible. We differ in
many things from the great powers of the continent. We live on an island
accessible to any invader who might chance to land on our shores at almost every
point of our large maritime circumference. We therefore cannot pretend to
defend ourselves as continental states may do, which, being accessible in only one
avenue of attack, by one valley, or by one pass, may successfully fortify their
vulnerable points, and by stationing there a military force, may think themselves
secure from invasion until they can colleet a large army to resist the invading
enemy. We have not thought it possible, and it would be idle and foolish to
attempt, to fortify the whole of the extensive shores which begirt these islands.
We have done that which is within our means, and which is sufficient for our
purpose. We have begun and carried out, to a great extent, those works which are
necessary to protect from sudden attack those naval dockyards and arsenals which
are the cradles of our maritime power, and the defenders of the best interest of the
country ; for it is needless for me to point out that, if we lost the command of the
seas which surround our shores, and a hostile squadron was allowed to blockade
our ports, our commerce, our industry, and our independence would be seriously
endangered. This work was begun by the late noble occupant of these estates,
who devoted his best energies to commence these operations. His plans have
been followed out, and I trust that they will soon be successfully completed.
Well, although the defence of England, if she is ever attacked, must be by
armies in the field, it is not our habit, it does not suit our constitution nor
our interest, to assemble permanently under arms those hundreds of thousands of
soldiers who may be found in every country in Europe. We think that it would
be an unnecessary pressure upon our resources to keep and maintain such a force
in time of peace. We think that it would draw away a valuable portion of the
people from the pursuits of industry, and be a drain on the wealth and resources
of the country for a time of emergency. We have, however, the militia— ^-an
admirable force, well discipUned, ably officered, and animated with the best spirit.
We have thus a force of some 112,000 men, ready, if the occasion be required,
to take its place in line beside the regular army. Well then, gentlemen, the
volunteers of England came forward to make up the deficiency. You came forward
with courage, patriotism, and a devotion to the public service beyond all praise,
which has excited the admiration of all the world, and which has entitled you to
the warmest thanks of the country. I believe that I am not overstating the case
when I say that, at the present moment, there are from 150,000 to 160,000
volunteers organised, equipped, trained, and disciplined, with officers who have
made themselves acquainted with their duties ; and we know that when these corps
have assembled in considerable numbers, and joined in the movements which do
not belong simply to battalions, but also to divisional operations, they have excited
the admiration of military men, and the astonishment of strangers who have visited
this country. You know, gentlemen volunteers of England, you well know that
numbers alone do not constitute strength ; that large assemblies of men, although
in uniform and with the best of weapons, are not by their numbers alone
competent to meet, with success, an enemy disciplined and trained ; and there
fore you have, at a great sacrifice of private occupation, at a great devotion
of time, which in this country is money — you have made these sacrifices in order
to become thoroughly acquainted with the duties of your profession — your
honourable profession, for so I will call it. Well, gentlemen, you have, by your
perseverance, by your constant attention to your duties, made yourselves masters
of all those movements which belong to separate battalions, and also to collec
tions of battalions in brigades and divisions. You have also well thought that
it is one thing to meet and another to kill an enemy. To move to meet an
enemy without being able to bring him down, is only getting nearer to danger
yourselves. There is, however, no fear that those who have so well exhibited
527

burning of the "Amazon."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1852.

their skill to-day and yesterday, will neglect a practice as necessary almost as your
drill, and even your battalion and divisional exercises. The people of this island
have in all times been famous as marksmen ; and in the days of old, when war was
carried on, I will not say with less deadly, but with more clumsy weapons, such as
bows and arrows, the British archer was celebrated in every battle-field of Europe
in which he was engaged, and his skill was shown from the slaughter which he
made of his opponents. Well, gentlemen, that keen eye, that strong arm which
so distinguished your ancestors is not wanting to you. This day you have given
ample proofs of your skill in the weapon which is placed in your hands. You
have proved yourselves worthy descendants of worthy ancestors, equally ready to
defend your shores from attack, and, if need be, to vindicate the honour of your
country wherever your services may be required. I congratulate you on the
assemblage here to-day. I congratulate you, in the first place, on your success,
and the interest which the vast crowd I see here — not merely the accumulation of
our own sex, but of the beauty of the other sex — takes in that success ; and I trust
that this interest which your fellow-men and women take in your success, will
serve as an additional encouragement to you to persevere."

CHAPTEE XXVI.
ACCIDENTS AND OFFENCES.

History is something more than a stately pageant made up of lords and ladies,
kings and queens. We know little of the world if we only look at the leading
actors on the stage. Out of the elements df human life, pleasure and pain,
laughter and tears, are constantly being evoked. The poet Gray, contemplating
the light-hearted youth of Eton, in language beautiful,- in spite of its familiarity
to us all, exclaims — " These shall the fiery passions tear,
The vultures of the mind,
Disdainful anger, pallid fear,
And shame that skulks behind ;
Or pining love shall waste their youth,
Or jealousy, with rankling tooth,
That inly gnaws the secret heart,
And envy, wan and faded care,
Grim-visaged, comfortless despair,
And sorrow's piercing dart."
From these passions are generated crime and love of adventure, and much that
is dark and bright in human life.
The year 1852 was distinguished for the terrific character of its casu
alties. In the beginning of the year, the Amazon steamer, on her way to
the West Indies from Southampton, was burned in the Bay of Biscay. She had a
valuable cargo, fifty passengers, and a crew of 110 officers, engineers, and men.
The fire was most rapid and destructive; 102 perished in the flames or by
drowning. _ It is impossible adequately to describe the horror which the news of
this appalling catastrophe spread throughout the country. Amongst the passengers
who perished was Mr. Eliot Warburton, whose literary talents were of a high
class ; and who was then on a voyage of benevolence to the Indians who lived on
the Isthmus of Darien. The sensation caused by the destruction of the Amazon
had scarcely subsided, when, in the beginning of April, intelligence was received
ot the wreck of her majesty's steam troop-ship Birkenhead, near the Cape of Good
528

A.D. 1852] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the holmforth reservoir.
Hope, with fearful loss of life. She was conveying detachments to reinforce the
several regiments serving at the Cape, in consequence of the Kaffir war ; and had
on board thirteen officers, nine sergeants, and 466 men. Besides these, there were
on board twenty women and children, and some officers of the medical staff. The
crew consisted pf about 130 officers and seamen. Of this total, but 190 were saved.
The resolution and coolness of ali was remarkable ; " far exceeding," wrote Captain
Wright, " anything that I thought could be effected by the best discipline. Every
one did as he was directed ; and there was not a murmur or a cry among them
until the vessel made her final plunge. All the officers received their orders,
and had them carried out, as if the men were embarking, instead of going to the
bottom ; there was only this difference — that I never saw an embarkation conducted
with so little noise and confusion. When the vessel was just about going down,
the commander called out, ' All those who can swim, jump overboard, and make
for the boats.'- We begged the men not to do as the commander said, as the boat
with the women must be swamped. Not more than three made the attempt.
Under this heroic obedience to discipline, the whole mass were engulphed in the
waves by the sinking of the ship. Such as were not sucked into the abyss, clung
to the masts and yards ; some struck out for the shore ; others grasped floating
spars, and pieces of drift wood: the greater part perished terribly amongst tbe
sharks, very numerous at that neighbourhood ; more were swept into the bank of
seaweed, entangled and drowned ; and about thirty or forty were fortunate to find
a passage through the weed, and reached the shore exhausted, naked, and shoeless.
Under a burning sun they had to traverse arid sand, thickly planted with prickly
shrubs, and destitute of inhabitants, until at length they reached a farm-house,
where they received every attention."
Of another kind was the sad fate of Captain Allen Gardiner, and a band of
missionaries, who had proceeded to Terra del Fuego, in connection with the Pata-
gonian Missionary Society, in September, 1850. They were known to have landed
on the coast, and received some precarious supplies from passing whale ships. But
a long period had elapsed, and no tidings had been received of the devoted band.
The Admiralty therefore gave directions to Captain Morshead, of the Dido, to
ascertain their fate. The result was, it was discovered that the entire party had
perished of starvation.
In February, 1852, the village of Holmforth was the scene of a deplorable
disaster. The gorge in which it is placed is a valley running up into the great
central ridge of England, which culminates in the peak, and is close to the point
where the counties of Derby, Cheshire, Lancashire, and Yorkshire meet. Further
on the gorge opens up several smaller valleys, down which descend rapid streamlets,
and which, uniting, form a considerable torrent, which falls first into the Calder,
and then into the Ouse. Advantage has been taken of this stream for manu
facturing purposes ; and the district is a busy and thriving one. As the stream
was irregular, the mill-owners of the valley, in 1837, formed extensive reservoirs to
retain the feeders in the descent, and to discharge them into the main water-course
with a regular supply. Three such were formed, the principal one being the
Bilbery reservoir, calculated to intercept the drainage of about 2,000 acres, and
to retain a column of water fifty feet in height. For some time, it appears, this
reservoir had been getting into a dangerous state. On the afternoon of February
4th, the water rose a foot in each hour ; and the attendants became aware that
some casualty would occur. The inhabitants of the valley seemed to have treated
the affair with supine indifference, and retired to repose. That same night the
whole embankment gave way, and the pent-up waters rushed down the valley in
one destructive and irresistible mass. Nearly one hundred human beings were
drowned ; and the damage to property destroyed was estimated at £600,000.
In many cases whole families were swept away ; one poor old man lost all his
children and grandchildren, and attended nine corpses to the grave. By this
calamity, 4,986 adults, 2,142 children, earning nearly £4,000 per week, were
529

SIR J. FRANKLIN'S EXPEDITION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1848.
instantly rendered destitute. One family, who, the night before, were worth £10,000,
were reduced to ask clothes to cover them.
In 1854, the Arctic mail steamer, on her way to America — one of the finest of
Collins' line — was lost by a collision, and 350 persons perished miserably ; and to
many a home the terrible news brought grief, and poverty, and tears. In that
same year, also, it was felt that it was in vain to search further for Sir John
Franklin and his adventurous comrades, who had gone to the north polar region, on
a voyage of discovery. Dr. Eae returned, bringing traces of them ; and subse
quently Captain M'Clintock brought back relics of the unfortunate men, who, no
doubt, were killed by the climate.
Sir John Franklin had left Sheerness in May, 1845, in command of two
veteran ice-ships, the Erebus and Terror, with picked crews of 138 men in all, and
with Captain Crozier as his second in command. He had three years' full provision
on board, and a transport in attendance with additional stores, which were to be
transferred when the ships reached Davis' Straite. His orders were these. He
was to proceed with all despatch to Lancaster Sound, and, after passing through it,
he was to sail westward, in latitude 70° N., without losing time, or stopping to
examine any opening to the westward till he reached Cape Walker — a point on the
south side of Barrow Straits, about half-way between the mouth of Lancaster
Sound and the mouth of Banks' Straits. He was then to penetrate to the south
and westward, and make his way to Behring's Straits by this route. He was
warned, indeed, not to try to pass by the direct western route, through Banks'
Straits, until it was certain that ice, or some inseparable obstacle, barred the
south-westward route against him.
For the bold attempt there was no better man than the experienced Arctic
navigator, Sir John Franklin. When his appointment was proposed, Lord Had
dington, the then First Lord of the Admiralty, sent for Sir Edward Parry, and
said — " I see, by the navy list, that Franklin is sixty years old : do you think
we ought to let him go ?" Sir Edward answered — " He is a fitter man to go
than any I know; and if you don't let him go, the man will die of disappoint
ment." On the 26th of July, a whaler saw the ships moored to an iceberg on the
eastern side of Baffin's Bay, nearly opposite the mouth of Lancaster Sound,
waiting for a chance to push through the middle ice. A few days previously, a
Mr. Eobert Martin had been alongside of the Erebus and Terror, and had had
several conversations with Sir John FrankUn and his officers. Sir John said he
had provisions for five years ; that, if necessary, he would make them last seven ;
and that, in addition, he had got several casks of salted birds. On the 26th or
28th, two parties of the officers dined with Mr. Martin ; and they told him that
they fully expected to be out four, five, or even six years. Next day he received
an invitation to dine with Sir John ; but the wind shifting, he was obliged to
proceed on his course. For two days more he saw the ships lessening in the dis
tance : that was the last sight of them. They went on their way, and were never
seen by white men more.
In 1847, people began to look out for news of Sir John : it was thought
strange that the whalers had seen nothing of him. In 1848, three expeditions
were fitted out to search. First, ships were to be despatched to Behring's Straits, to
sail eastward, so as to meet the Erebus and Terror if their efforts had been so far
successful as to bring them anywhere near the western end of the passage. Next,
boats were to coast along the northern shores of America, from the mouth of the
Mackenzie Eiver to Victoria Land, not far from the mouth of Great Fish Eiver,
so as to discover if, from any disaster, the crews had been compelled to abandon
their ships. Had they done so, it was expected that they would at once make
their way south, to some of the Hudson's Bay Company's posts. Lastly, two
vessels were sent to follow their track as closely as possible. These, it was hoped,
could hardly fail to come across some traces of the wanderers, or to hear some
530 '

a.d. 1850.1 VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sir john franklin.

reports of them from the natives. The first expedition was a complete failure.
The Herald and the Plover found no traces whatever of the lost explorers, and
returned to England in 1849.
One little fact shows the feeling which animated the public at this time.
A Mr. Sheddon, a mate in the navy, had been invalided, and was dying of consump
tion. He owned, and sailed himself, a small steam yacht. At his own expense he
undertook the search for Sir John Franklin ; and meeting Lieutenant Franklin
during his boat journey to the Mackenzie Eiver, he assisted him in every possible
way. Exhausted by his exertions, this gallant seaman died two months after
wards. The second expedition was prompter, but not more successful than the first. It
was given to Dr. Eichardson, Franklin's old and warm friend. He was assisted
by Dr. Eae, a man equally experienced in Arctic discovery. Dr. Eichardson re
turned in 1849. Dr. Eae remained a year longer.
The third expedition was commanded by Sir James Eoss. It consisted of
two ships, the Enterprise and Investigator, powerful vessels, thoroughly manned
and equipped for three years. At Melville Bay Sir James began his search, and
examined the coast minutely up to Lancaster Sound ; and then proceeded along
the Sound and Barrow Straits, making nightly signals, erecting beacons and
flagstaff's, and depositing cylinders, with directions to Sir John Franklin to make
for Port Leopold, where a depot of provisions was to be left; and where the
ships were shut out for a year.
On the 15th of May, 1849, Sir James Eoss and Lieutenant M'Clintock,
with twelve men, set out from the ships to explore North Somerset, the land on
the coast of which Port Leopold is an inlet. Up to the 5th of June they plodded
south, along the coast, till they reached a bay — Brentford Bay — separated from a
corresponding bay, on the other side of North Somerset, in Prince Eegent's inlet, by
only a narrow neck of land. Sir James was obliged to halt here, though he
wished much to go forward till he reached his old . discovery, the Magnetic
Pole, which lay just before him. Here it is sad to think how close he was on
the traces of Sir John ; but Sir James, ignorant of this, was obliged to return,
which he did not a moment too soon, for he had only one day's provisions
left; and his men were all ill, and completely knocked up. In his absence other
parties had been sent out from the ships — north, east, and south ; but, alas ! all in
vain. Sir James, on his return to the ships, built a house at Port Leopold, and
left in it twelve months' provisions, with the Investigator's steam-launch, a vessel
large enough to have carried the whole of Sir John Franklin's party to Baffin's
Bay. In November, Sir James, disappointed, returned home.
While Eoss was on his return down the west side of Baffin's Bay, a ship, the
North Star, had been sent out with orders and supplies to meet him, and also with
instructions to deposit provisions along the south side of Lancaster Sound, and
Barrow Straits. She failed in her task, from the extraordinary severity of the
season. The North Star returned in 1 850.
Parliament and the public were still eager and excited on the subject. Lady
Franklin had offered, first £2,000, and then £3,000 to the first crew who should
bring effective help to her husband and his men. In 1849, the government
offered a more substantial inducement in the shape of a bounty of £20,000.
In 1850, the Enterprise and Investigator were again despatched ; Captain
M'Clure in command of the latter. Later in the year, no less than ten vessels
were collected in Lancaster Sound, to carry on the search from the east. One of
them was the Felix, with her tender the Mary, under Admiral Sir John Eossj
who, at the age of seventy-three, though the Admiralty had declined his services,
redeemed his promise to Franklin, that if he did not return in 1847, he would go
in search of him. Lady Franklin herself had sent a small schooner, the Prince
Albert, under Captain Forsyth, to examine Prince Eegent's Island. Some of them
found traces of the explorers. Captain Ommaney, of the Resolute, drew some
531

dr. kane.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1853.
painful conclusions from his observations — that, since the graves he had discovered
were of young men, the crews were not in good health ; and the other, that the
preserved meats were of bad quality. In the winter of 1851, sledging parties
went out to seek for traces of the Franklin party— of course, in vain. Yet, more
than once, the ships, with the dead or dying crews, were on the point of being dis
covered. It is sad to think that some of them might have been alive, and that
help and aid were to them so very near.
In 1852, another attempt was made. Undoubtedly, it was no use going over
the old ground, which had been thoroughly explored. As Captain Wilks, of the
United States' navy, sensibly observed — "Fatal errors have been made in
attempting the search in vessels, it being quite evident to the simplest mind, that
if ships can track Sir John, he certainly would be enabled to get out. Therefore,
it has always appeared to me absurd nonsense, and a waste of time, energy, and
money, to help vessels, the scene of whose operations must be limited to the fine
of the fast ice." Accordingly, in 1852, Captain Austen's plan of using the ships
merely as a base of operations, and of searching by means of boats and sledges,
was adopted. For this purpose, Sir Edward Belcher sailed, in 1852, with a most
powerful and efficient squadron, and fully carried out his instructions. Lady
Franklin had also engaged two ships to keep up the search ; the Isabel, under
the command of Captain Inglefield, and the Albert, under Captain Kennedy, with
whom was the gallant Lieutenant Bellot, of the French navy, as a volunteer.
Once, when at the bottom of Peel Sound, and off the western entrance of BeUot
Strait, Captain Kennedy looked southward, to see if there were any passage in
that direction, down which Franklin might have gone. There was ; and there
were the remains of Franklin's ships and crews, though Kennedy knew it
not. It was on this voyage that the gallant Bellot lost his life. He had been with
his seamen upon a floe of ice, when it separated from the main pack, and was
blown away from the shore. The two sailors stayed crouching on the ice, and, after
thirty hours' perilous tossing, were rescued; but Bellot had mounted a small
hillock of ice, to see where they were, and to find out if anything could be done.
A gust of wind hurled him from his slippery seat, and he fell into a fissure in the
ice, and appeared no more. It has been justly remarked — " The records of Arctic
heroism can show no brighter name than that of Bellot. He was endeared to
all his shipmates by every social quality, as well as by his unflinching valour
and daring." A subscription was afterwards set on foot in England, with the view
of providing for Bellot's family, and erecting a monument to his memory in
Greenwich Hospital.
In 1853, Captain M'Clure returned, after being nearly lost in the ice. He
was knighted ; and he and his companions were rewarded for what was called the
discovery of the north-west passage. He had, however, seen nothing of Sir
John Franklin.
The same year, Dr. Kane, in the Advance — a ship nobly fitted up by Mr. Grin-
nell, of New York, who had already aided in the search of Sir John Franklin,
actively _ engaged in by our American friends — left New York, to seek for the
lost navigators. " Feeble in health, but great in courage, perseverance, and talent
for command, this simple surgeon," writes the author of Arctic Discovery and
Adventure, "(now with a lieutenant's commission), with a crew of fifteen men, in a
little hermaphrodite brig, of 144 tons, equalled any, and surpassed most, of the
giants of Arctic travel — the men of iron frames, and with vast appliances at
command. His own record of what he did, and what he underwent, is, as it is
one of the many beautiful, one of the most wonderful of the many beautiful
and wonderful books which the teeming Transatlantic press supplies; Dr. Kane
was fervently of opinion that Franklin was far north of any point that had yet
been reached, and was imprisoned in a warm polar sea, abounding in fish and
game. His proposed method of search was to travel along the land as soon as
532 &

a.d. 1854.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [remains discovered.
his ship had carried him as far north as she could. This search, he believed,
would most profitably be made under the lee, as it were, of overhanging Greenland,
on its western side ; and that, for this purpose, Smith's Sound would be far pre
ferable to any other channel. He further considered that the land, rather than
the ice, should be the base of operations; and that the first object should be to
travel due north, as fast and as far as possible." When Kane returned, he
heard that, not in any mysterious polar sea, but in one of the best-known
districts of all that had ever been visited, within a few miles of where expedition
after expedition had been prowUng, Sir John Franklin's crew had died in heaps,
in the agonies of hunger.
Dr. Eae, with instinctive pertinacity, and a sure conviction that he was on
the right track, had at length fallen in with some Esquimaux, from whom he
learnt what he hastened to England at once to make known. The following is the
report to the Admiralty, which he forwarded as soon as he arrived. The letter
is dated Eepulse Bay, July 29th, 1854 : — " Sir, I have the honour to mention,
for the information of my lords commissioners of the Admiralty, that during my
journey over the ice and snow, with the view of completing the survey of the west
shore of Boothia, I met with Esquimaux in Pelly Bay, from one of whom I
learned that a party of white men (Kablounans) had perished from a want of food
some distance to the westward, and not far beyond a large river containing many
falls and rapids. Subsequently, further particulars were received, and a number
of articles purchased, which place the fate of a portion, if not of all, of the then
survivors of Sir John Franklin's long-lost party beyond a doubt — a fate as terrible
as the imagination can conceive.
" The substance of the information obtained at various times, and from various
sources, was as follows: — In the spring, four winters past (1850), a party of white
men, amounting to about forty, were seen travelling southward over the ice, and
dragging a boat with them, by some Esquimaux, who where killing seals near the
north shore of King William's Land, which is a large island. None of the party
could speak the Esquimaux language intelligibly ; but, by signs, the party were
made to understand that their ship or ships had been crushed by ice, and that they
were now going where they expected to find deer to shoot. From the appearance
of the men, aU of whom, except one officer, looked thin, they were then supposed to
be getting short of provisions, and purchased a small seal from the natives. At a
later date of the same season, but previous to the breaking up of the ice, the bodies
of some thirty persons were discovered on the continent, and five on an island near
it — about a long day's journey to the north-west of a large stream, which can be
no other than Back's Great Fish Eiver (named by the Esquimaux Doot-ko-hi-calik),
as its description, and that of the low shore in the neighbourhood of Point Ogle
and Montreal Island, agree exactly with that of Sir George Back. Some of the
bodies had been buried (probably those of the first victims of famine). Some
were in a tent or tents ; others under the boat, which had been turned over to
form a shelter ; and several lay scattered about in different directions. Of those
found on the island, one was supposed to have been an officer, as he had a
telescope strapped over his shoulders, and his double-barrelled gun lay underneath
him. "From the mutilated state of many of the corpses, and the contents of the
kettles, it is evident that our wretched countrymen had been driven to the last
resource— cannibaUsm — as a means of prolonging existence.
"There appeared to have been an abundant stock of ammunition, as the
powder was emptied in a heap on the ground by the natives, out ofthe kegs or cases
containing it ; and a quantity of ball or shot was found below high-water-mark,
having probably been left on the ice, close to the beach. There must have been a
number of watches, compasses, telescopes, guns (several double-barrelled), &c. ; all
of which appear to have been broken up, as I saw pieces of those different articles
with the Esquimaux, together with some silver spoons and forks. I purchased
533

MR. HALL'S THEORY.] ' LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
as many as I could get. A list of the most important of these I enclose, with
a rough sketch of the crests and initials of the forks and spoons. The articles
themselves shall be handed over to the secretary of the Hudson's Bay Company on
my arrival in London.
" I offer no apology for taking the liberty of addressing you, as I do so from
the belief that their lordships would be desirous of being put in possession, at as
early a date as possible, of any tidings, however meagre and unexpectedly obtained
regarding this painfully interesting subject.
" I may add that, by means of our guns and nets, we obtained an ample
supply of provisions last autumn ; and my small party passed the winter in snow-
houses, in comparative comfort, the skins of the deer shot affording abundant warm
clothing and bedding. My spring journey was a failure, in consequence of an
accumulation of obstacles, several of which my former experience in Arctic travelling
had not taught me to expect."
This was felt to be conclusive, and deep was the regret it occasioned. The
government, however, were satisfied, and abandoned all further attempts to clear
up the particulars of the terrible catastrophe. Up to Franklin's departure they
had spent £336 3s. Id. in searching for the north-west passage. Since, the
government searching expedition had cost the country the enormous sum bf
£900,000. The conclusion was reluctantly come to, but it was endorsed by the
nation at large.
Sir John Franklin— thus believed by all the world, except his devoted wife,
who kept on hoping against hope, to be dead— was born at Spilsby, in Lincolnshire,
1786. In 1800, he entered the navy, on board the Polyphemus ; and served as a
midshipman in the action off Copenhagen, 2nd of April, 1801. He sailed with
Captain Flinders, in her majesty's sloop Investigator, to New Holland, on a
voyage of discovery ; joining there the sloop Porpoise, and was wrecked on a coral
reef. In 1805, he was signal-midshipman on board the Bellerophon, at the battle
of Trafalgar, on the 21st of October. In 1808, he escorted the royal family
of Portugal from Lisbon to South America, as lieutenant on board the Bedford.
In 1814, he served in the expedition against New Orleans, was wounded, and
officially recommended for promotion. On the 14th of January, 1818, he was
appointed to the brig Trent, to accompany the Dorothea, Captain Buchan, to
Spitzbergen. In April, 1819, he started, in command of the land expedition, to
the mouth of the Coppermine; and was appointed to the rank of commander in
1821, and to post-rank in 1822. In 1825, he commanded the expedition to the
mouth of the Mackenzie Eiver, in co-operation with Captains Beechy and Parry.
From 1830 to 1834, he was in command of her majesty's ship Rainbow, on the
Mediterranean station; and, in 1835, was appointed governor of Van Diemen's
Land. He had surely earnt his right to leisure ; but his fate, or his energy, or his
ambition urged him on, and he died, as he had lived, in the service of his country.
Ihe date of his death, from documents discovered by Captain M'Clintock, who
sailed in search of relics in 1857, was the 11th of June, 1847. Sir John had
discovered/however, unconsciously, the north-west passage.
_ Mr. Hall, the commander of the last Arctic expedition, which sailed in 1862, met
with some relics of Sir John Franklin's expedition. In a paper published in Canada,
it was stated, that "Mr. Hall learned that, a few years since, a party of Innuits
(natives), had seen two Codluna (white men's boats) ; and found, on one ofthe Lower
bavage Islands, which commence near the mainland on the north side of Hudson's
Straits, what they termed soft stones. One of the Innuits, who had become pos
sessed of a gun and ammunition from the Hudson's Bay Company, recognised them
as- bullets. Sir John Franklm, not knowing how long he might be detained in the
Arctic seas, carried out a large quantity of ammunition ; and Mr. Hall has not a
particle of doubt, that the crews of these boats, in their endeavours to get them
through Hudson s Straits, and on to Labrador, had thrown out these bullets, so that
their progress might not be impeded." If this be so, it is yet maintained that
534 J

a.d. 1856.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [robson and redpath.

some of the retreating crews made their way much further south than has been
supposed. It is also asked whether it is not possible that some of the crews may
be living among the savages in the desolate and unknown wilds to the north of
Hudson's Bay, or even in Labrador itself? At any rate, their fate is still enveloped
in mystery. Enough of this sad record of wasted life and treasure. Let us glance at some
of the leading criminals of the last few years. By so doing we shall get a better idea
of the England of our and Palmerston's time. We begin with an offence fortunately
rare. In 1858, the mayor of Sligo, his two deputies, and two poll-clerks, were
committed to Sligo gaol for conspiring together, previous to the last election for
the borough, to return Mr. Somers by a fictitious majority, produced by ¦
corrupt and illegal means. In the same year there were riots at Kilkenny, by
labourers, who destroyed reaping machines; and in Bradford, Yorkshire, about
twenty persons died, and 200 were more or less injured by eating sweetmeats,
in which, by mistake, a quantity of arsenic had been used instead of plaster of
Paris. In 1858, the fashionable world learnt that a banking firm, held in high repute,
especially in the religious world, had failed. The bank referred to was that of
Strachan and Sir John Dean Paul. Its failure was a great blow to the evangelical
party, who felt it the more, as the pious baronet, it seems, had misappropriated
money placed in his care ; and was tried, and found guilty of an offence which
compeUed him to pass some years in the retirement of the Portland convict
establishment. Next year, by the failure of another bank (the Eoyal British), more
mischief was done, and again the law was compelled to interfere. Some of the
directors were sentenced to imprisonment, for terms more or less long, for falsely
making it to appear that the bank was in a better position than it really was. As
usual, the directors had not forgotten to help themselves to the treasures of the
bank ; and no one pitied them. The misehief they committed on the community
was great. Their shareholders were to be found among all classes and conditions
of men. In it the capitalist had speculated, and the widow had confided to its
care her all. The operations of creditors were most hostile, and the law's pro
ceedings most ruinous and costly. Under the Winding-up Act, a call was made on
the creditors of £75 a share; and, under the bankruptcy, of £50. Thus the
frightful sum of £125 per share was claimed, after the poor shareholders had lost
what they had akeady paid on their shares. The way in which this miserable
matter was managed reflected great shame on English law.
The mercantile world was, however, at this time, getting used to the scandals
which seem, more or less, to attach to all joint-stock associations and limited
liability companies. In 1856, it was discovered that a man named Eobson, a clerk
in the employment of the Crystal Palace Company, had forged shares to the extent
of £28,000. He was a gay man of pleasure, fond of theatres and fast life ; and wise
people shook their heads, and said, " What other end could be expected ?" But the
gay world had its revenge, when it was found that the benevolent and respectable
Eedpath had managed, while an official in the secretary's office of the Great ,
Northern Eailway Company, to rob them to the extent of £250,000. Both
criminals, we need not add, were tried and transported. It is strange that, at one
time, Eobson and Eedpath were fellow-clerks. The former soon died ; the latter
still survives, waiting once more to be a respectable member of society, though
never, perhaps, to be again a Great Northern Eailway official.
In 1857, there was a terrible colliery explosion — the Lundhill, near Barnsley —
and 189 lives lost. In that year, also, Palmer, a surgeon at Eugby, was hung for
poisonings of a most atrocious character.
In 1859, an attempt was made to blow up a house in Sheffield, in which
resided a Mr. Linley, in consequence, it is supposed, of his refusing to join the
saw-grinders' union. Happily, none of the inmates were injured. In the same
year a trial took place, which created almost as much excitement as did that of the
535

the agapemone.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. I860.
murder of Cooke by the sporting surgeon Palmer, or the case of the Mannings. In
August, Dr. Smethurst, of Eichmond, after a lengthened trial, was found guilty of
the murder, by poisoning, of Miss Isabella Banks, a lady of property he had per
suaded to Uve with him, though aware that he was a married man. On the 12th
of November he was committed for bigamy, a free pardon being given him in
respect of the capital offence. Public opinion felt that Dr. Smethurst had reason
to be grateful for the view of the matter taken by the law-officers of the crown.
In 1860, George Pullinger, cashier of the Union Bank of London, was arrested
on a charge of embezzlement. He had appropriated -to his own use, chiefly for
betting and time-bargains on the Stock Exchange, about £263,000. He was subse
quently tried and convicted, and sentenced to penal servitude for twenty years.
In the same year, all England was startled by the commission of a very atro
cious crime. There was a sub-inspector (of the name of Kent) of factories, living
in Eoad, Somersetshire. He had been twice married, and had had children by
each wife. The youngest was a little boy. Early one summer morning the little
fellow was missed from his cot in his nurse's room ; and, after an hour's search,
his body was found stuffed down the seat of a privy on the premises, with his
throat cut from ear to ear. Several judicial inquiries were made into the subject;
but the murderer was never discovered, notwithstanding the efficacy of what the
papers termed a vigilant and effective police. Many years after the murderer con
fessed the crime. The little boy had been made away with by his step-sister, Miss
Constance Kent, who was tried, and acquitted on the plea of insanity.
A singular law-suit in 1860, illustrated, in a remarkable manner, the depths
of human credulity. For some years past the public had been scandalised and
amused by the proceedings of certain persons residing at a mansion near Bridge-
water. At this mansion resided a James Henry Prince, educated at Lampeter
College, Wales, and ordained deacon and priest. In 1834, after having been
visited with ecclesiastical censures, he repaired to Brighton, and there opened a
chapel of his own, which he called Cave Adullam. Thither he was followed by
four ladies of the name of Nottidge, each of whom had a fortune of between
£4,000 and £5,000. With their money, and that of other dupes, he erected the
Agapemone, near Bridgewater, and where practices of the most questionable, and
pretensions of the most extraordinary character, appeared. According to Brother*
Prince himself, a fresh religious epoch had opened on the world. We were to Uve
under a new dispensation, which, if it did not contradict, was at least to supersede
the forms of belief in which we had all been trained. The key-stone of the new
system was this :— Various covenants have, at different times, been offered to man
by his Creator. At first, Adam was the divine witness ; then the patriarchs, as
Noah and Abraham; then a far greater one than these. But each dispensation
was closed whenever any one was found perfect under it. Now, in Brother Prince
was found perfection under the Christian dispensation; and, consequently, a new
religious epoch commenced, with this man as its witness. All these Nottidges were
completely under Prince's power. . In July, 1858, the eldest of them, Louisa Jane,
died intestate, and a bill m chancery was immediately filed by her brother, for the
purpose of forcing Prince to disgorge his unholy spoils. The judgment of Vice-
Chancellor Stuart satisfied ,the public. He said, the bill alleged that the gift
had been obtained by misrepresentation and deception, and was made under the
influence of a gross delusion, inculcated and encouraged by the defendant for his
reTtS0868' *tA Slftnf d? under ** Quence of delusion and deception, whether
SSL T^aT^I OT otters temporal, cannot be valid. Of the undue
SZ. . t ¦ G?w L °Ver the mind of Miss Nottidge there was ample-
ZhZl^f tnAm-S' that thlS ??' by falsel? and Wasphemously pretending that
Sft of the Ibn 7^1 mif ?' had imp°Sed on these weak women, and obtained a
verv cW <£ ? ^ir fortunes. As to Miss Louisa Jane Nottidge the case was
had beer, rnfl S? ' f°rtunat^ eseaPed the degradation of such a marriage as
had been made the means of conveying all the money of her sisters into the

a=d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the bank ox deposit.
pocket of the defendant; but the' defendant's own statements showed that he had
obtained this gift of all her property by imposing a belief upon her weak mind
that he sustained a supernatural character. This successful imposture was the
influencing motive for the gift ; and, therefore, vitiated it entirely. The Vice-
Chancellor concluded by decreeing that the transfer had been improperly obtained,
and must be set aside.
Another case of fraud, connected with a bank, occurred in February, 1861.
The Commercial Bank of London, whose principal office was in Lothbury, had a
branch office in Henrietta Street, Covent Garden. In the accidental absence of
the ledger clerk, John Durden, it was discovered that he had long been engaged
in extensive frauds upon his employers. The duties of this man, who had been in
the company's service about ten years, were purely clerical. He had nothing to do
with the receipt or payment of money ; his sole duty was to enter in a ledger,
lettered D to H, an account of all sums received or paid on account of the
customers whose names commenced with that series of letters ; and to keep, also,
their pass-books. Durden procured a confederate in the person of one Holcroft, an
insolvent boot-maker, whom he put into a nominal business, and instructed to open
an account at the Commercial Bank. As this man's name commenced with H, his
ledger account and the corresponding pass-book was in Durden's charge. When
a sum of money was paid in to. the account of some customer of the ¦ bank, whose
name also commenced with H, Durden made a double entry in his ledger ; that
is, he credited the real customer with the amount, and also entered it to the credit
of Holcroft. Of course, Durden never took a holiday, or the fraud would have
been discovered. However, he was taken ill ; suspicions were aroused, and it was
found that he had thus robbed the bank of no less than £66,992. Durden was
sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude, and the Commercial was amalgamated
with the Westminster.
In 1861, a dreadful famine prevailed in the north-west provinces of India.
There had been no rain ; and throughout a vast extent of territory — of 25,000,000
square miles, with 11,000,000 of inhabitants— the lower class perished of famine:
300,000 persons thus died. Parents' slew their children to avoid protracted death,
or sale to strangers ; mothers sold their infants for a shiUing, to protract existence
for a single day ; and, in some districts, the caste of the purchasers was disregarded.
Committees were formed in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and other cities ; and the
most generous contributions raised. In London a meeting was convened by the
Lord Mayor, on the 28th of March ; and, on the 3rd of April, they were able to
remit to Bombay £20,000. From England, it appeared, altogether, that the noble
sum of £107,585 had been sent. It was no easy task to organise a proper mode of
distribution of the sums raised ; however, this was done in the most successful
manner, under the guidance of the late Colonel Baird Smith, who fell a victim,
unfortunately, to his own humane exertions.
The failure of the Bank of Deposit, in 1861, revealed one of the worst and
most sad cases of villany ever announced to the London public. The object of
this association was stated — 1.' Mutual life assurance. 2. Investment of money
by depositors for accumulation, or on interest. 3. For granting loans. For these
purposes the society's funds were to be divided into three classes — the mutual
investment fund, the mutual assurance fund, and the general fund. There
was also a nominal Board of Directors, comprising some aristocratic or popular
names ; but the concern was really in the hands of Mr. Peter Morrison. The
capital stock of the association figured, at the head of its printed documents, as
£100,000 ; but even in the figures of the account-books, the capital stock never
exceeded £20,050 10s. ; and of this, only £8,593 10s. was contributed in cash :
£7,100 represented expenses paid- in getting up the scheme ; and £4,357 was a mere
juggling of figures, the" sums being entered in the ledgers as loans tothe sub
scribers, and then appearing in the capital account as subscriptions paid. Much
of this sham capital was got rid of in the same ingenious manner: amounts
vol. n. 2k 537

duties of directors.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

of capital stock were marked as repurchased or cancelled; and' the sums were
written off the ledgers as paid. Starting with this audacious fraud, Mr. Peter
Morrison seems to have gone on gaily for seventeen. years. Large numbers of a
class of persons who are able to save small sums, attracted by the bait of high
interest, bonuses, &c, invested their little fortunes in one or other of the three
funds just described; and, under one pretext or another, were induced to sign
the papers which made them members. When the scheme collapsed, the cause was
not far to seek. " We do not find," say the accountants, " that any profits have at
any time arisen from the business which has been carried on. In every year, the
total amount allowed for interest on deposits, has exceeded the amounts charged to
borrowers." Money appears to have been lent on the most worthless security...
What the managing director secured for himself no one ever knew, as he suddenly
disappeared ; and with him was lost the only guide through the labyrinth of con
fused and deficient accounts.
In 1865, people got used to this state of things. The story had grown to be
very old, of immense frauds and rascalities contrived by the roguery of a manager,
and the culpable carelessness of directors ; and actually, in 1867, the law vindicated
itself by the imprisonment of the director of a joint-stock association for five
years, who was not contented with selling his business to a company for £25,000,
and receiving from them the insignificant salary of £3,000 a year ; but must needs
help himself to the money of the company as well, to meet the deficiencies con
sequent on his_ own numerous speculations.
The truth is, we require more stringent legislation on this subject than we
have ever yet had. A serious commercial crisis has shown how utterly futile is
the trust reposed by shareholders in officials, and parliament will not permit the
subject to rest without ample and searching debate. It is true that the question,
" What are the duties of a director ?" might, at first sight, appear easy to answer ;
but events have shown that the problem is beset with a host of embarrassing
considerations. Theory would say that he should direct, control, supervise;
practice has too often said that he may undertake such functions, and yet evade
their fulfilment. Promise declares that the office is accepted as a sacred trust, to
be exercised with conscientious vigilance; performance often defines it. to be a mere
blind and make-believe, or a partnership in a game of speculation, dealing with
the fortunes of the few and the pittances of the many as so many counters, to he
tossed from hand to hand like the playthings of an hour. But, however difficult
it may be to determine what the precise obligations are, an honourable man has no
difficulty whatever in saying what they are not. A director should not undertake
a task which he is too busy or too indolent to perform ; he should not go through*
it in a perfunctory and negligent manner; he should not make his supervision a
pretext and not a reality ; nor should he permit things to be done with the corpo
rate property entrusted to his charge, which he would shrink from allowing in the
case of his own. It is not his duty to sign documents of whose meaning and
purpose he is kept in the dark ; or to sanction reckless gambling, when he has
been elected to promote legitimate trade ; or to go hand-in-hand with pliable and
unprincipled colleagues through a long series of collusive deceptions. He has
been appointed for another purpose than merely to sign cheques and initial
minutes— to pay a few formal visits to the board-room, ask unimportant questions,
and put up with any replies— to draw with exemplary punctuality his fees- for
attendance, and present himself to the public as a man who directs that which he
knows to be, mainly through his own default, far beyond his control. In short, he
should not be a pretender, or engage to perform a task beyond his will or his*
ability ; nor, when he has failed to do what he promised, should he prolong a
deception that he himself is the best qualified to expose. He is bound not to
deceive those towards whom he stands in the position of a trustee, and not to
impose on the outer world, with which his representative functions bring him into
close and constant relation.
538

a.d. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [duties of directors.
But, says the writer of an article in the Daily Telegraph, when, instead of
negative inferences, we come to positive prescriptions, we find it much less easy
to prescribe duties than to enumerate prohibitions. The first difficulty is with the
individual himself, whom, on examination, we ascertain to be one kind of person
in his private capacity, and another in the board-room. An invincible laxity, not
of morals, but of habify affects almost all commercial men on this subject. An
individual who, in managing his own business, would not commit misdeeds^
himself, and who would look sharply after the acts of his servants, throws both
his strictness and his vigilance aside so soon as his- fellow-men depute him to
manage their affairs in conjunction with his own. Human nature is sometimes a
riddle; otherwise one might' suppose that a combination of personal motives
would strengthen a man's interest in- a subject, instead of weakening it. A
person who has accepted 'a position which places the fortunes of hundreds at his
disposal, is bound by peculiar and almost sacred considerations to fulfil his
duty with the most scrupulous care. His appointment as a delegate, while it is a
compliment to his integrity, is a mute appeal to his honour; and if the office
conveys distinction, it also involves corresponding responsibility. He is a trustee
for others as well as for himself; and^ far- from inducing remissness, this should
stimulate him to more vigilant effort. Practically that is not the case. In, too
many instances the modern director does nob direct at all; but, deputing that work
to another, confines himself to accepting the emoluments and the honour, while he
systematically neglects the correlative duties. He is expected, and is appointed, to
scrutinise every business transaction ; to see that it is recommended- by ordinary con
siderations of prudence and safety, such as would influence him in any of his
private affairs ; to watch that every enterprise undertaken or speculation fostered
is permissible, not merely by the rules of the particular institution which
he manages, but by the higher principles of commercial morality; to extend as-
vigUant a> supervision to minor details of finance, of correspondence, and of per
sonal character, as he exercises over his own business. If, doing none of these
things, and leaving the duty to others, he accept one-sided statements as a sub
stitute for close' personal inspection, he, wilfully or not, glaringly neglects his
trust, and is morally answerable for the consequences. But, in truth, the active
duties of a director extend much beyond the points we have named. Those that
can be defined, though often systematically- neglected, are neither his only nor his!
most important functions. There are others, vague rather than avowed* — under
stood, though not stipulated* — which he is bound to exercise. His vigilance
should extend beyond the board-room, and should involve a surveillance, more
or less minute, over even the private concerns of those whom he permits to control
the . property entrusted to his own guardianship. In one word, he ought to
exercise as watchful a care as he is accustomed to do in the case of his own ser
vants and assistants. Many of the most flagrant scandals which the financial
world has witnessed, might have been avoided had directors practised their duties
after leaving the council-table. We do not want the eminently respectable city
man to turn spy over the actions and habits of his underlings ; all we desire is,
that he should not wilfully shut his eyes to what every one else sees, marvels at,
and draws his own conclusions from. In modern society, a good deal that is
objectionable is winked at ; but there are limits to the indifference even of the
most well-bred people. When, for instanoe, an individual, whose utmost income
is perfectly well known to be £500 a year, lives at the rate of £5,000, society
has a prescriptive right to infer that there must be something wrong. Or if a
gentleman, enjoying the handsome salary of £3,000 per annum, spends at the
rate of £20,000, it does not require a severe exercise of the logical faculty, on the
part of his employers, to argue that his business doings should be carefully watched.
If such principles had been carried out in certain recent and notorious cases,
infinite loss and suffering would have been spared to the innocent, and the guilty
would have been arrested at the outset of their career. For the want of a little
2 N 2 539

garrotte robberies.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.

moral courage, ruin has been brought to hundreds, and manhood has sunk to the
dust, crushed by the curse pronounced on him who robs the widow and the
In 1861, the Baron de Vidil, a French nobleman, was riding with his son,
when a murderous attack was made upon the latter by the former. At the trial
the son refused to give evidence against the father, and, for this contempt of court,
was imprisoned for one month. For the assault the father was sentenced to two
years' imprisonment, with hard labour. In July, in the same year, about mid-day,
in Northumberland Street, Charing Cross, a money-lender, named Eoberts, was
killed in self-defence, by a Major Murray, whose life he had attempted to destroy.
In January, 1862, a most distressing casualty occurred. On the 16th of that
month, 204. men and boys lost their lives by suffocation in New Hartley colUery,
near Newcastle, in consequence of the breaking of the beam which overhung the
shaft, and which 'formed part of the pumping machinery. Universal sympathy
was excited for the bereaved relatives of the miners, and upwards of £70,000 was
raised in a few weeks for their relief.
In the same year the metropolis was alarmed by the extension, in the dark days
before Christmas, of the detestable practice of garrotting. For several years there
had been occasional instances of garrotte robbery — a method of highway plunder,
which consists in one ruffian seizing an unsuspecting traveller by the neck, and
crushing-in his throat, while another simultaneously . rifles his pockets. The
scoundrels then decamp, leaving their victim on the ground, writhing in agony,
with tongue protruding, and eyes starting from their sockets, unable to give an
alarm or to attempt pursuit. Bold with impunity, these savages committed their
crimes in the most public places, and often in the light of day. To this singular
audacity they added a wantonness of cruelty which excited the utmost terror.
Frequently, when the garrotter had throttled his victim into unconsciousness, the
confederate struck the poor man crushing blows with his life-preserver ; and, after
robbing him without a struggle, left him, bleeding and mangled, on the
pavement, disfigured and, perhaps, injured for life. In other instances, after com
pleting the rifling, says a writer in the Annual Register, they hurled him to the
ground, and then kicked him on the head until his skull was fractured and his
features defaced. These cruel acts were committed in such places as Lincoln's Inn
Fields, Brunswick Square, Blackman Street, Long Acre, Bloomsbury Street, Pall-
Mail, Cockspur Street, and other of the most frequented public thoroughfares of
the metropolis. These dreadful outrages spread terror over all the millions that
inhabit London. The crime was so frequent, and the consequences so serious, that
each individual felt personal alarm. Many of these ruffians were tried before
Baron Bramwell, at the Central Criminal Court, in November ; and, as many of
them were ticket-of-leave men, he had little hesitation in inflicting on them severe
and unexpected sentences. The baron, who earned the gratitude of the public for
his conduct during the trials, fgave a short sketch of the career of each as he
awarded his punishment. The sentences were all such as would be felt by their
confederates— penal servitude for life, for twenty, for ten, or fifteen years. In all,
about twenty-nine of the most dangerous ruffians that had held London in
subjection, were brought to justice at these sessions. The effect was immediate :
either all the outrages which had alarmed the public had been perpetrated by a
small number of individuals, or the convictions of those memorable sessions had
struck their companions in crime with terror; for, though a few daring outrages of
the same kind were perpetrated during the winter, the reign of terror was at
an end, and the inhabitants of the metropolis once more traversed their streets
without starting at every footstep, or turning pale at their own shadow.
In the same year an immense sensation was produced, in fashionable and
political circles, by the trial of William Eoupell, late M.P. for Lambeth, for
forging a will and other deeds, purporting to be executed by his father. For a
time Mr Eoupell had held a high position in society, and been considered a man

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the roupell forgeries.
of great wealth, advanced political views, and of high character. The illegitimate
son of Eichard Palmer Eoupell, a man of large property, by a woman whom he
married only after he had lived with her a great number of years, William
Eoupell had acted as sole executor of a will, produced and duly proven in Doctors'
Commons. Under this authority, having unbounded influence over his mother, he
disposed of the various estates of his late father, and mysteriously squandered the
proceeds, stated to have amounted to something near £300,000, in the course of
about five years, for part of which time he represented Lambeth in parliament.
On his younger and legitimate brother coming of age, he proceeded to recover
possession of the estates wrongfully disposed of by his brother William ; and the
case of Eoupell and others v. Waite was tried at Guildford, the plaintiffs calling,
as their chief witness, William Eoupell, who then and there accused himself of
forging the will under which he had been acting. He also confessed to an extra
ordinary series of forgery of title-deeds, effected by him during his father's lifetime,
- under which he had sold various portions of the Eoupell Park estate. Ordered
into custody at Guildford, he was brought to trial at the Central Criminal Court,
and sentenced to transportation for life, after he had given a summary of his
career, and traced his first step in crime to his desire to repay money borrowed
from a friend to purchase books. He professed the utmost contrition for his acts,
and declared his preference for punishment rather than freedom, with continuous
remorse — a theory by no means universally received as a satisfactory reason for his
surrender. A good deal of doggerel was written on the occasion. In Fun, a poet (?) im
provised the event in the following manner : —
" To Westminster a member came,
Of the Liberals a supporter ;
And he was returned to Westminster,
From the other side of the water.
His father, Dod said, had melted lead
Somewhere down and about that quarter ;
But the gentlefolks all, they tc>ok off their hats
To the Croesus from over the water.
With a do, &c.
" 2Tow the Lambeth folks this wealthy gent,
As their member, did decide on,
'Cos they thought he'd set fire to the river Thames,
What the penny steamers ride on ;
But little they knew he'd happened to do
Some things that he did'nt oughter ;
For he'd forged a will and several deeds,
Had this member from over the water.
With a do, &c."
The writer ends —
" And the public said, ' Well, this here Eoupell
Has got no more than he oughter ;'
So there was an end of the wealthy gent
As was member for over the water."
On January 9th, 1863, four men, named Buncher, Burnett, Williams, and
Griffiths, were charged, at the Central Criminal Court, with committing forgeries,
to a large amount, on the Bank of England, chiefly by means of paper expressly
manufactured for the bank, which they had contrived to steal.
One November evening, this year, a woman and two little girls were found
dead in a cab," on arriving at the Eoyal Oak, Westbourne Grove. The cab had
been hired at the Shoreditch railway station, by a man who had accompanied
them as far as Furnival's Inn, Holborn, where he alighted, and paid the cabman,
having, during the journey, caused the latter to stop, and get a pint of porter, in
Bishopsgate Street. It was subsequently ascertained that they were the wife and
541

THE UNITY BANK.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1863.

children of a man named Hunt, living at Camberwell, who had ridden with them
in the cab, and that they had been poisoned with prussic acid. Hunt, on being
arrested, swallowed aconite, and died.
In the same year decent people were disgusted with another of those exhibi
tions known as prize-fights, the enthusiasm of which -had been vastly. stimulated
by what took place in I860, when Heenan, the. American pugilist, and Tom Sayers,
the champion of England, had met and fought in this country. The event had
raised Tom Sayers to the very pinnacle of fame. He had become the hero of the
Stock Exchange ; of the House of Commons ; of all fast people whatever, for his
endurance of punishment, and Anglo-Saxon pluck. Leading articles in leading
journals appeared in his favour, and his not very intellectual countenance was as
familiar to the public as that of the Bishop of Oxford, or Mr. Spurgeon. In 1863,
again Heenan appeared upon the scene, to contend, not with his old antagonist,
but with, in sporting circles, the far-famed King. Heenan had better have staid
in America. He had won some fame by his encounter with Sayers, but he for
feited it all by his set-to with King. It now seemed that he was totally incapable
of coping with a man of average capacity in his sanguinary calling. It is difficult
to describe how thoroughly popular anticipation was disappointed by the result.
The soundest judgment and the coolest calculations had settled beforehand that the
American could not fail to win. Not only were the advantages in betting wholly
upon his side, but even the friends of his antagonist acknowledged, by their acts, if
not in words, a sense of inferiority.
Not many years ago the Unity Bank was started in the city of London, with a
great London alderman at its head. Its prospectus, like " hope, told a flattering
tale." It was to offer a boon to the public, and it was to be a source of profit to
the shareholders : so said the directors — and the directors were all- honourable men !
After a little time unpleasant remarks began to be made about the bank. It .was
intimated that the affair was not going on well ; unpleasant questions were asked
at the bank's meetings, and insinuations were thrown out occasionally against the
directors — which, of course, the latter resented in the usual off-handed official manner.
At length the evil day came ; no equivocation, no cooking of accounts, no sup-
pressio veri would then avail. It was resolved to wind up the far-named Unity
Bank, to save what could be saved for the deluded shareholders, and to let
the whole wretched business be terminated in the most satisfactory manner.
possible. From a report published at a public meeting, we learn a little as
to the disgraceful way in which this bank had been carried on. From the
first to the last it appears to have been a very dishonest affair. In the first place
the directors appear to have appropriated to themselves £2,987 7s. illegally. The
directors, after taking care of number one, seem not to have been unmindful of
their friends, and, in their .zeal to oblige them, to have rather overshot the line
which separates right from wrong. Thus, from one of the favourites of the bank,
who had succeeded in getting £2,000, the liquidators obtained, after the appli
cation of pressure, £1,000 ; and from another, to whom £4,500 had been advanced,
4s. in the pound. As to the securities which the directors had kindly taken, they
seem to have been of the most extraordinary character. On £400 worth of the
debentures in the Consols Insurance Company, £1,475 had been advanced. The
Catholic BookseUing Company had obtained £1,696 13s. 5c?.; and, besides, had
-dragged the bank into a law-suit which had cost it £150. Then some mining shares
had been deposited as security for a loan, which turned out to be of no value.
They actually found that they had got stolen warrants in their possession-
warrants deposited by a convicted felon, who got £137 10s. for them. They
might possibly get £20 for them from the rightful owner. Then, again, they
found the securities of the Patent Seamless Leather Company, the Patent
Smokeless Chimney Company, and the Patent Fibre Company ; £2,600 had been
advanced on these, and they might get £40 on a reversion from the party to whom
the advance was made. The bank had jewellery transactions — a lady's bracelet,
542 J

&

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gunpowder explosion.
ring, and watch ; and they who deposited them obtained £2,644 ; and although
the liquidators sold these things in the best market, they only got £80.
•The directors were also general merchants. They had some glass, for which they
got £4 18s., but upon which had been advanced £375 19s. 8d. They had some tea
and coffee. The liquidators got samples of it; but if they had taken it it would
have poisoned them. They sold it for £24 ; but £200 had been advanced. There
were 125 tons of guano. The liquidators thought that they had found corn in
Egypt; but, alas! it proved to be sad rubbish. They went to the party who
pledged it, and he said it was worthless. After trying to sell it to the guano mer
chants, they eventually disposed of it for £80 ; £1,700 had been advanced upon it.
£640 was advanced on wine warrants ; and they thought, as there were a great many
wine-bibbers, they would be able to sell them; but, unfortunately, the wine
had turned to vinegar, very little sherry being left. It was sold for £100,
there being a loss on the transaction of £540. The party who pledged the
warrants had obtained possession Of some of them under the pretence of getting
samples; sold them, and pocketed the money. The manager of the bank, on being
asked about the matter, said he had forgottenft. Out of £20,000 of securities of
this description, £1,200 had been realised— ^about Is. in the pound. Nor is this
all. Atthe meeting referred to, Dr. Cooke, the chairman, stated that he held in ¦
his hands £90,000 of overdue, bad, and dishonoured bills, showing a great want of
commercial knowledge among the directors. This is a : mild way of putting it.
These directors were supposed to be honourable and conscientious men. On the
faith of their representations, people who had saved a little money — people who
had a 'Uttle money, such as widows and spinsters — 'people who wanted to make a
little money in a legitimate way — became shareholders in the concern. By its
shipwreck, some of these, perhaps, may have been brought down to a state of
hopeless poverty, and find themselves, in the evening of their days, compelled to
fight the battle of life over again. It is such as these who suffer ; and it is oh
their behalf that we indignantly note the proceedings of this wretched bubble.
Legitimate banking associations are all right and proper ; but such banks as the
late Unity are very little better than ruinous associations, however they may have
been puffed up in their day, or however respectable may have been their Board
of Directors. The truth is, public opinion cannot exercise too severe a sur
veillance over such associations ; their shareholders cannot look too narrowly
after the directors. The odds are all in favour of the bank against the
shareholders. The chief cause of all these disasters, perhaps, may be found in the
very nature of their constitution. A public company has no conscience. As a
director, a man may wink at what he would indignantly denounce in private life.
A violent gunpowder explosion took place on January 18th, 1864, in the
evening, on board the Lottie Leigh, lying in the Mersey. There was a fire on
board, and the consequence was, that eleven tons of gunpowder, which was part of
her cargo, exploded. The effects on Liverpool and Birkenhead were terrific : the
.gas in the streets and shops was extinguished; windows were blown in; but,
fortunately, there was no loss of life.
In Sheffield, in March, a more terrible calamity occurred. Exactly at mid
night an overwhelming flood swept down from an enormous reservoir at Bradfield,
carrying away houses, mills, bridges, and manufactories; destroying property esti
mated at half a million sterling, and causing the loss of about 240 human lives.
The Bradfield reservoir, which burst its banks, is situated rather more than a
mile to the west of Bradfield, and about eight miles from Sheffield. It is the pro
perty of the Sheffield Water-works Company, and was one of a series of reservoirs
from which the company intended to supply the increasing wants of the town.
It was formed by throwing an embankment across the gorge intercepting the
moorland stream, which gradually filled up the whole of the valley to nearly the
level of the top of the embankment. The first sod was turned on New Year'-s-day,
1859. The reservoir was intended to supply the compensation water which the
543

THE BRADFIELD RESERVOIR.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.

company was bound to supply to the millrowners on the Loxley, and the surplus
would have been available to meet the requirements of the town of Sheffield. Its
capacity was so vast as to hold the drainage from a gathering of not less than
4,300 acres ; the reservoir covered seventy-six acres. From the dam-head to the
embankment the sheet of water spread out more than a mile in length, and a
quarter of a mile in width. In the centre the depth was between eighty and
ninety feet; and the reservoir would contain 114,000,000 cubic feet of water, or
691,000,000 gallons. It was nearly completed, but had never been used for the
supply of water to the town of Sheffield. The embankment, at its base, was 500
feet wide, 100 feet high, and twelve feet wide at the summit. In order to secure
a perfectly sound foundation, an excavation was made to the depth of sixty feet.
This vast work stretched itself across the valley for the space of 400 yards. In
the embankment there were about 400,000 cubic yards of material. The weir that
was provided to carry off the overflow was sixty feet wide, and it conducted the
water down a stone channel into the Loxley. The 11th of March was a very
stormy day. The company's engineer examined the works, and left, as he thought,
all safe about four o'clock. At half-past five, a workman, in crossing, noticed a
crack in the side of the embankment, about wide enough to admit a penknife,
extending along the side some twelve feet from the top, for a distance of nearly
fifty yards. He told another workman of it, who told a farmer, who told one of
the company's overlookers. About seven in the evening, perhaps a couple of
dozen persons had met to examine the crack with lanterns. All said there was no
immediate danger, but thought it as well to send to Sheffield for the company's
engineer to return as speedily as possible; those remaining there opening the
pipes, and doing the best they could under the circumstances. At nine, most of
those who had gone to examine the crack returned home, on the assurance of the
workmen and contractors that there was no danger. About ten the messenger
came back from Sheffield with Mr. Gunson, the engineer, and Mr. Craven, the
contractor. They see the crack, which is wide enough to admit a man's hand, but
still they do not apprehend danger. Mr. Fountain says to Mr. Gunson, " If we do
not relieve the dam of water, there will be a blow-up in half-an-hour." There
upon, as a measure of precaution, Mr. Gunson decides to diminish the pressure of
water by blowing up the weir with gunpowder. Preparations are made ; but, for
some reason or other, the powder does not ignite. Before making another attempt,
Mr. Gunson and Mr. Swinden go back with lanterns to the crack, to see if it shows
any symptoms of enlargement. They try to measure from the top of the embank
ment to the crack, to ascertain if it is above or below the surface of water in the
reservoir. Mr. Gunson stoops with a lantern to examine. All seems to be about
as before ; but when they, get to the end of the crack, Mr. Gunson raises his head,
and just as he does so he sees that the water is foaming like a white sheet over the
embankment. It comes down to Mr. Gunson's feet, and drops down the crack.
Mr. Gunson thinks there may be time enough to examine the valve-house, to see
what quantity of water is escaping ; and, to get there, he creeps down the slope of
the embankment as cautiously as possible. Mr. Swinden sees that this is impos
sible, and calls upon Mr. Gunson to come back. The latter, as he does so, casts
his eyes upwards, and sees an opening about thirty feet wide at the top of the em
bankment, and the water rushing out in an immense stream. The catastrophe is
now inevitable. Mr. Gunson exclaims to his companion, " It is all up ; the em
bankment is going !" They rush across for their lives. In a moment the water is
on their track, the chasm extends, the centre of the embankment sinks, and the
pent-up flood of 114,000,000 of cubic feet of water rolls like an avalanche
down the valley, with a noise like thunder, and sweeps before it houses, mills, men,
cattle, trees, and rocks. Terrible are the scenes, graphically described. Onward
poured the flood, until Sheffield was reached. It passed on like a great wave. In
a quarter of an hour it turned what had been happy homes, smiling gardens, busy
mills, into a waste, howling wilderness. Mr. Eawlinson, the government inspector,
544

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT , PALMEESTON. ".: [distressing scenes.
states, that "the objectionable ¦ mode of laying the outlet, pipes most probably
fractured the puddle-wall. At the ..point of crossing, the loose state of the
material at the top of the bank lets in the water as it rises in the reservoir. This
water has, most probably, forced its way down the face of the puddle to the
fracture in the puddle-wall above the outlet pipes, and hence the destruction, so
swift and terrible in its effects" — thus confirming the finding of the jury, that
" there has not been that engineering skill and attention, in the construction of
the works, w,hich . their magnitude and importance demanded." Thus, for the
future, this terrible tragedy may lead to more care in the execution .of. such
important works. Another lesson to be learnt from it is the ready character of
English charity. In about two months, the noble sum of £50,000 was raised. As
to the shareholders — who, before the flood, could reckon their £100 paid-up shares
as worth £146 ; which shares dropped to £40 — counsel's opinion was taken ; and it
was to the effect that the Water Company was liable to make compensation for all
the damage occasioned by the flood ; and that while the property of the company
might be taken in satisfaction as far as it would go, the private property of the
individual shareholders could not be touched. Such is the story of the Sheffield
flood. Many of the particulars of this tragedy were of the most distressing character.
In the town of Sheffield itself, the destruction of property was almost greater
than in the valley ; but there, fortunately, it was attended with comparatively little
loss of life. The Sheffield Telegraph stated — " In the town the first alarm was
given at about a quarter-past twelve. The sharp hiss as of escaping steam, the
sound as of a mighty rush of water, made people run towards the river, when it
was found that the Don was in an extraordinary; flood, and that some dreadful
calamity had occurred. At two o'clock the height and force of the current had
greatly abated. There was still a great volume of water, and the roar with which
it rushed along was like that of an express train in a cutting. On Lady's Bridge
a great number of people were standing, looking over the parapets on the fearful
heaps of timber mixed with straw and other debris, which the flood had piled up
against the mason-work of the bridge. . The immense quantity of rafters, flooring,
joists, planks, and miscellaneous articles, heaped to within a few feet of the, top of
the bridge, told a portentous story of the buildings destroyed ; and melancholy
were the forebodings of those who looked upon the ruin. There seemed wood
enough to build a village. But, bad as were the fears of those who looked upon
the evidences of disaster, none knew how dreadful$was the reality; and the majority
had not the most distant idea of the loss of life that had occurred. At the police-
station was a little crowd of poor ill-dressed people who had been flooded out of
their dwellings, and who were glad to spend the night crouching round the fire ;
and in the streets were several people moving about hastily with torches, which
they had improvised. But as yet, beyond the sight of wet people and wet streets,
and beyond the roar of the river, and those ominous, but as yet unexplained, heaps
of timber about the bridge, there was nothing known among the crowd of the
loss of life ; and the spectators fondly hoped that the mass of wood might prove to
be nothing but the contractor's plant, increased by rubbish from off the banks of
the river. " In the darkness, one could only guess, from the fearful rumours that came
from the lower part of the town, what the scene there would be at daylight. The
morning of Saturday fully realised the worst fears of the night. The wooden
bridge at Hillfoot had disappeared — completely carried away by the first rush of
water, and with a noise that startled the sleepers around, who sprang from their
beds with alarm. The view from their windows did not tend to reassure them, for
the flood was all around, boiling and seething along, filling the houses, rushing up
the stairs, floating the beds and furniture. The scenes and cries for help are
described as heartrending. Just below the bridge, by the weir, stood a small house,
occupied by James Sharman and his wife, who attended to the shuttle of the goit
545

THE BRADFIELD RESERVOIR.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
that supplies Messrs. Butcher's works at Philadelphia. Against this house the full
force of the current broke. The inmates were Sharman, his wife, and a daughter-
in-law with several children. The watchmen aroused them when the water began
to rise, and they hastily left their dwelling. Scarcely had they been out of the
house a minute when the current carried it away, and now not a vestige of the
place remains except the foundation. The bridge over the goit went along with the
house. At Philadelphia corn-mill, which stands close to the water's edge, a
number of horses were drowned in their stables, pigs in their sties, and fowls on
their roost. We have not heard that any life was lost at this point. Crossing to
Bacon Island, a low-lying piece of ground between the goit and the river, the
only access to which is now the narrow plank of the shuttle-frame, we came
at once into what had evidently been the very heart of the flood in this part
of the valley. Gardens were covered deep in slime. Trees, edges, and walls
were levelled with the ground. A man and his wife, named Wright, lived in a
block of houses here, with their child, and another child that was staying with
them. On Friday, Wright went to a funeral, and the neighbours did not know
whether he had returned : but both he and his wife and one child are missing.
One little thing was found in its bed after the water had sufficiently subsided to
enable men to get about ; but the other members of the household, perhaps aroused
and attempting to escape, had been carried away. In the block of houses, forming
an irregular square, of which Wright's formed a part, every one is damaged to a
greater or less extent. The flood rose to the chambers, and floated the inmates in
their beds. The lower apartments are filled with broken furniture and mud.
The doors and windows are broken in by the flood, and by the trees and wood
that it carried along with it. Of course, all the houses and works along the
river-side have been flooded, and damage to a fearful extent has been done. In
Messrs. Butcher's works at Philadelphia, the body of a woman, peffectly naked,
was found ; and it was believed that a whole family, living near Neepsend Bridge,
hadbeen washed away. In Ebenezer Street, the body of a man, rather under toe
middle height, with a moustache, was found and conveyed to a public-house in
Bowling-Green Street. At Kelham rolling-mill the men were compelled to escape
by the roof ; and, in doing so, by some means set it on fire. When the flood had
reached its height the water rapidly subsided,' leaving the marks of its presence in
the streets, which were, in many places, knee-deep in mud. Almost before they
were passable persons sallied from their houses, and the evil news spread quickly.
The streets of the town were thronged with persons hurrying to different parts,
anxious to inquire into the fate of friends dwelling near the level of the river.
While the darkness lasted little could be learnt from observation ; but voices were
heard shouting greetings over the wastes of mud and water, and eagerly inquiring
how others had fared in the calamity. One had heard the first rush, and sprang
out of bed to see the street filled with water. Another had been sleeping on the
ground-floor, and heard a rush of water. He awoke his companion, who thought
it rainedhard. No, it could 'not be rain ; the rush was too great for that. The
bed moved — it was wet — he put out his foot, and found himself up to the knees
in cold water. Such incidents might be multiplied indefinitely. It needs only to
be known that, at the dead of the night, a great dark flood flowed through a densely
populated part of the town, rousing the sleepers from their beds, and only too
frequently drowning them like rats in a hole. The horrors of Friday night are
known in the hearts of thousands, but can never be told.
" The destruction of property, all over the low-lying neighbourhood round the
Midland station, has been enormous. This portion of the town was, for a time,
completely inundated. All the large manufacturers are believed to have suffered
great loss ; and the small householders are mostly ruined. The loss of property is bad
enough ; but the loss of life is, of course, the chief cause of regret here. Aroused
from their sleep in the dead of night, the poor people, perhaps only half awake,
seem to have made their way at once into the streets, and were swept awav instantly."
546 *

a:d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gunpowder explosion.
Several bodies recovered were partially dressed, while others were entirely
naked, their clothing having been literally torn from their bodies by the violence
of the stream. Carried away by the furious current, some of the bodies were found
in most extraordinary plaees — two having been washed among the carriages in the
Midland station.
In the summer of 1864, a great shock was given to all by the intelligence that
a respectable clerk had been murdered in a flrst-class railway carriage on the
North London line. The victim, whose name was Briggs, was about sixty years
old. His skull was broken, and he had been flung out of the carriage on the line
near Hackney Wick, where he was found alive, but insensible. Suspicion fell upon
a German in poor circumstances, named Miiller, who had suddenly left England,
and had gone to America. A long chain of circumstantial evidence pointed him
out as the wretch who had done the deed. A detective officer was sent in pursuit
of him, who arrived at New York before the murderer, as the latter was on board
a --sailing vessel, while the former went by steam. Miiller was captured, and
brought back to this country. Great efforts were made to save him. The Ger
mans in London subscribed a large sum for his defence ; but he was tried, com
mitted, and hung — and, as every one deemed, rightly (with the exception of the
fanatics of the society for the abolition of punishment by death) — for the murder of
poor Mr. Briggs. For some time the event created quite a terror in society ; and
travellers took good care not to travel in a railway carriage with another man
.alone. Fire was especially destructive in London this year. ' In July, at mid-day, the
ehapel of the Savoy, in the Strand, and the last relic of the ancient palace, was
burnt down — nothing remaining but the bare walls. On learning the event, the
queen at once undertook to restore the building, in which she had previously
taken much interest, at her own expense. In September, Haberdashers"Hall, and
some fine new buildings in Gresham Street, were destroyed by fire. The>damage was
estimated at nearly half a miUion, besides the loss of many valuable paintings,
and other historical relics of the Haberdashers' Company.
In October, there was an explosion in the neighbourhood of London, such as
had never been known before. Early on Saturday, October 1 st, the sad occurrence
took place, killing' eight or nine persons, if not more; wounding others, and carry
ing consternation and alarm among the inhabitants ofthe whole neighbourhood for
many miles around.
The explosion occurred in a 'gunpowder depot belonging to Messrs. John Hall
and Son ; and, almost simultaneously, in a magazine of smaller -size, used by
Messis. Day and Barker — both of them located in the Plumstead Marshes, on the
margin of the Thames, two miles south of Erith, and about an equal distance from
the village of Belvedere. It should be understood that these places were used
entirely for the storeage, and not at all for the manufacture, of gunpowder. The
quantity supposed to have been exploded, in three distinct shocks, was between
120,000 lbs. and 150,000 lbs. The belief of persons conversant with the trade was,
that the first shock took place on board one of the barges, unloading at the time ;
that the terrific concussion produced by it tore asunder the larger magazine ; and
some of the burning fragments alighting on it, caused an explosion infinitely
more appalling, and which was instantaneously followed by the explosion of the
'Smaller depot. The buildings were entirely destroyed; no survivors were left to
fell how the calamity occurred; and a gap of more than 100 yards was made in the
embankment by which the river was confined. Fortunately, the accident happened
at low-water; but, with the tide rising, fears were entertained of a disastrous inun
dation. A message was sent by- Mr. Moore to Mr. Houghton, one ofthe contractors
under the Metropolitan Board of Works, at Crossness Point, about a couple of
miles off; and, within twenty minutes afterwards, he had arrived upon the scene
with 400 navvies, with all their tools and barrows. A communication was also
forwarded to the garrison at Woolwich ; and by half-past nine o'clock, detachments 547

gunpowder explosion.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.

of sappers and miners and artillery, to the number of 1,500, under the command
of General Warde and Colonel Hawkins, reached the spot with all the necessary
implements, and set about the repair of the breach with great good-will, and after
the true method of military engineering. They, were followed speedily by the 5th
Fusiliers, who kept the ground from intrusion; and, later in the day, by the
marines— both from the garrison at Woolwich. Before the troops arrived, the
navvies, acting under Mr. Houghton and Mr. Moore, wheeled large masses of clay
in front of the breach ; while others puddled it into a solid bottom, by which
means the subsequent military operations were greatly facilitated. On their
arrival, the sappers and miners made horizontal arches at the back of the breach
with bags filled with clay, one upon another, and with layers of earth intervening—
these arches presenting a formidable front to the advancing tide ; while the rest of
the gap was being filled up and puddled by the navvies. Time was precious, and
there was a scarcity of barrows; but the troops, adapting themselves to the
emergency, formed themselves into lines from places where clay was available, and
passed it along in lumps, from hand to hand, to the point of operations with great
rapidity. About half-past one o'clock, when near high-water, the work became
extremely exciting. The whole force contended with the advancing tide inch by
inch, knowing that, if it once made a breach, the repair of the mischief would be
vastly more difficult than the work in which they were then, engaged. . By three
. o'clock the. embankment was restored in this rough-and-ready, but most efficient
manner, and the crisis had passed. It withstood the succeeding tide, and was
exposed to a severer trial in that of Sunday, which, with a stiff north-easterly
breeze, beat heavily against it for about a couple of hours. At , one time appre
hensions as to its safety existed ; and a party of sappers and miners, who had been
telegraphed for, arrived from Woolwich to assist in the emergency. In case of
failure, Mr. Moore had taken the precaution to send for about a dozen barges,
with a view to have them loaded with clay, and then scuttled in front of the
breach as a kind of breakwater ; but, fortunately, occasion did not arise for the
expedient being carried into effect.
The gap in the embankment, which was repaired with such wonderful
rapidity after the explosions, by the sappers and miners, and the artillery from the
Woolwich garrison, assisted by 400 of Mr. Webster's, navvies from the main-
drainage works at Crossness Point, has never in the least given way, though
severely tested, on succeeding days, by high tides, and a strong north-easterly
wind beating dead against it. Nevertheless, a band of navvies, acting under
Mr. Eowell, were employed to back up the embankment with clay., Mr.
Bazalgette, the engineer of the Metropolitan Board of Works, visited the
spot in the course of the day, and gave directions that the work should be con
tinued by the navvies until it was completed, for reasons affecting the main-
drainage, apart from apprehensions of danger to the adjacent marshes from
inundation. The great outfall works for the main-drainage, at Crossness Point,
are about a. couple of miles from the scene ofthe explosion ; and had the neigh
bouring marshes been flooded, the mischief might not have been confined to that
locality. About £150 worth of plate-glass, at the new works at Crossness Point,
was destroyed by the explosion ; but; the works themselves withstood the shock
without injury.
The damage done at Erith, in particular, in the way of broken glass, and the
injury to property in other respects, was lamentably great. There was scarcely a
house in the place the windows of which were not shattered less or more, and
the inhabitants experienced much inconvenience. The windows of the old parish
church were blown in among the rest, as were also those, in particular, of a whole
row of houses, twenty or thirty in number, situated on the brow of a hill leading
to Bexley, and belonging to Mr. Everett. For some minutes after the explosion
the earth heaved and trembled with the effects of it in and about Erith and Bel
vedere, and the people were appalled and terror-stricken.
548

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [damage done.
At Woolwich, the usual drills and barrack duties were at once dispensed
with as far as practicable, for the purpose of rendering all possible aid to the
sufferers from the explosion. The effects in the garrison and town were very
destructive. The windows in the official departments, at private residences, and
shops, were shattered ; frames and sashes were dashed in, and several persons were
severely injured. In many houses, ceilings and portions of the walls were shaken
down, and people rushed from their houses in dismay. The whole of the medical
staff of the garrison and town hastened to the scene to render their assistance.
Dr. Domville, of the Fisgard, who was the first to reach the place, was pulled
down the river to the immediate locality in the ship's cutter. In the shock many
persons were thrown violently from their, beds to the floor, and the former shook
like ships at sea. In the arsenal and dockyard, serious fears were entertained that
the large workshops would fall in, so great and violent was the concussion felt by
the two shocks immediately following each other. In connection with the showers
of paper, a remarkable circumstance occurred. A lad, named Eaves, was standing
near the royal gun factories, in which he is employed, and picked up one of the
torn pieces of paper which foil around him. He found it to be part of the page of
a ledger, in which his uncle, a foreman in the employment of Mr. Hall, had that
morning entered a memorandum. He had attached his signature at the foot,
together with the date of the entry — namely, October 1, 1864. The shock of the
explosion was distinctly felt in every part of Chatham and Eochester, which are .
distant about twenty-five nines from the scene of the disaster. At Deptford, in
the workshops of Mr: Stone, a large navy contractor, which are under the arches
of the railway there, the gaslights, to the number of about 150, were blown out
simultaneously by the explosion.
Mr- Dawkins, of Belvedere, supplies a graphic description of the catastrophe
as he observed it : —
" On Saturday morning, while reading in bed, I was startled by a tremendous
concussion, that made the walls of my room crackle, and brought down portions of
the ceiUng. Under the impression that an earthquake was destroying my house, I
sprang up, and made for the doorway. The instant I got there a '. loud explosion
shivered my window to atoms, and covered my bed with pieces of glass and of
mortar. At the same time my drawing-room bay window was dashed in ; and, in
another room, two windows, with frames and brickwork, were blown in without
the glass being broken. I dressed as quickly as possible, under the impression
that haff the place, at least, was in ruins. On going out I witnessed a most extra
ordinary sight. The fronts of the houses and the shops, on either side of Bexley
Eoad, had lost their glass, and, very generally, even their , window-frames. . Doors
were blown in, and strong shutters smashed. The confusion, the screaming, the
rushing about in night-dresses, and the anxiety of the mothers for the safety of
their children, surpass aU powers of description. The very dogs yelped with fear.
By this time the dark column of smoke that, after ascending to a considerable
height, spread like a gigantic mushroom at the top, proved that the mischief was
done by the explosion of gunpowder. My friends, I found, had suffered pretty
equally. If their windows were unbroken, the sashes, glass and all, had been
blown inwards. The explosive force, however, acted in some cases most capri
ciously, smashing the windows on the ground-floor, and sparing those on the higher
storeys, or the converse, and breaking those on all sides of the houses. In Belve
dere, indeed, it seems to have acted equally on every side of the bouses, being only
in a slight degree influenced by the direction of the streets. Those houses that
were sheltered by trees suffered equally with those that were exposed. The injuries
resulting from falling window-panes and falling ceilings are merely slight fresh
Wounds and bruises. The breakage of glass extends on this side of the Thames,
along a radius of at least five miles from the scene of the explosion, including
Bexley and Woolwich.
" The force of the explosion may be inferred from the fact, that loose sheets of
549

surrey theatre burnt.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.,
paper were blown as far as Woolwich, and by small charred fragments of the
powder-kegs being found at Abbey-wood, at a distance of two miles and a-hal£
in a straight line. On going to a place that commanded a view of the marshes,
I found the site that had been occupied by one of the magazines a smoking crater,.
one side of which had been blown away into the Thames,. making a breach of fifty
yards at least in the embankment. I> looked in vain for a row of neat cottages
that formerly stood there. It was, fortunately, low-water, or an inundation would
have been- added to the mischief: The number of killed (at least four or five) is
not as yet known, because all those in the immediate neighbourhood of the maga
zines were blown to atoms. One human head was picked up at least a mile fromr
the spot; a leg here, a man's breast there. A piece of human flesh also was fished
out of the river.
" To-day (Sunday) I have been to the scene of the explosion. Everything*!'
within a radius of half a mile — trees, houses, barns — has been utterly destroyed^
except two haystacks, and the debris jumbled in a most extraordinary manneri
Fenders, chairs, bedsteads, and other household goods, are mixed up with bricks
work, fragments of beams, and wrecks of all kinds ; and prove but too surely the
misery and destruction that have been caused. One cottage was swept entirely
away, as with a broom, leaving no heaps of ruins but the ground-floor only to mark
its site." The explosion was distinctly felt at various places, at distances of from thirty,
to fifty miles ; and was, by many persons, mistaken for a slight earthquake.
On the Sunday, thousands upon thousands of people visited the scene of:
the catastrophe, travelling mostly by the North Kent Eailway; and it required
the aid of a strong body of police, at the Erith and Belvedere stations,. to
maintain order and prevent accident. Unhappily, their efforts were not altogether
successful. Throughout the whole day, crowds of people went, by the line from'
London and the intermediate stations, to the scene of the catastrophe, and a. great
number of them lingered there until dark. The result was, that until far towards
midnight they congregated, in dense masses, on the station platforms at Erith and'
Belvedere, and besieged every train that stopped to admit passengers on the up
journey. The railway authorities at the London-bridge station, despatched extra
trains as fast as they could do so with safety, to bring up the people ; but in spite
of that there was great delay, and the last up-train did not leave the Belvedere
station until three o'clock on Monday morning. Some persons suffered much, from
overcrowding : one man, named Marandi, in attempting to enter a carriage in a
general rush which was made for places on the arrival of an up-train, was dragged
among the wheels, and sustained mortal injuries. He was brought to London by
the same train, and taken to Guy's Hospital, where, refusing to be amputated, he
died some three-quarters of an hour afterwards. On Monday, again, vast numbers
of people visited the spot ; and the trains were all, more or less, delayed on the
return journey.
In January of the next year, 1864, the Surrey Theatre, in the Blackfriars
Eoad, London^ was destroyed by fire. It commenced a little before the termina
tion of the performance; but, fortunately, the audience, as well as the actors, were
enabled to withdraw without any one being materially injured; As, however, a
great many people were thrown out of employment by the disaster, the charity of
the public was appealed to, and a large sum of money was speedily raised. In
bcotland, about this time, a terrible accident occurred in a public building, used
for an exhibition, in which the would-be spectators suffered greatly. The crowd,
pressing for admission, burst open the gate leading to a flight of steps, down which
the foremost were precipitated ; and before the pressure could be restrained, there
ay a prostrate heap, six feet high. When extricated, nine young women and ten
lads were dead, and many others were found to be seriously injured.
-n f Vhe Vf y Same month in which Lord Palmerston died, we had* another
illustration, of the dangers of the overcrowding and requirements of modern

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [railway accidents.

civilisation. There was- an explosion of a gasometer at Nine Elms, Lambeth, by
which ten. persons were killed, twenty-two injured (most of them severely), and
many of the neighbouring houses shattered to pieces.
The introduction of the railway system was an immense boon to the public ;
but, at the same time, it added seriously to the distressing casualties which attend
on and shorten human life. Terrible accidents have marked its rise and progress.
We give a few of the more prominent ones. In March, 1859, there was a fright
ful accident on the Great Western Eailway of Canada, in consequence of- the em
bankment having given way, owing to heavy rains. Seven persons were killed,
and seven received serious injuries. In the same year, in consequence of the
washing away of an embankment on the line of. the Michigan Eailway, a train of
carriages was precipitated into the river, at the South Bend, Indiana, and about
eighty persons were killed or injured. Again, at a later period of the year, a
luggage train overtook and ran into, with great force, a passenger train, in a
tunnel near Port Glasgow, by which, out of 500 passengers, about a hundred
were more or less injured — four of them very severely. In 1860, an excursion train
on the Great Northern Eailway, on approaching the King's Cross terminus, being
imperfectly checked, broke down the wall in front of the terminus, crossed the
public street, and injured several persons very seriously. A few months after
wards, in September, there was a distressing collision of excursion trains on the
East Lancashire Eailway, near Helmshore station, about eighteen miles north from
Manchester. Ten persons were killed, and nearly a hundred injured. In 1861,
there was a most grievous accident on a line exceptionally well managed, and
remarkably free from anything of the kind — the Brighton Eailway — a railway
which, connecting London with its favourite watering-place, is extensively
patronised by all classes of the community. The accident to which we refer was
caused by a collision between two excursion trains in the Claydon tunnel, near
Brighton. About twenty persons were killed on the spot, or died from the effects
of the collision, and many others were severely injured. This happened on the
25th of August. On September 2nd, there was a collision on the Hampstead
Junction Eailway, by which fifteen persons were killed, and others severely hurt.
In 1864, a sad accident occurred to a train coming from Ascot, after the close of
the day's races. The trains bringing the visitors back followed each other close,
and, at Egham, one ran into another that was just about departing. Though the
speed of the incoming train was slackened, it could not prevent a collision, by
v/hich four persons were killed, and twenty-five more or less injured. A verdict of
manslaughter was returned against the driver and stoker by a coroner's jury; and,
at the same time, the defective management of the railway directors was severely
and properly censured. We have to record still more unpardonable accidents.
On June the 7th, owing to the rails being left unsecured, a train went off the
line; eleven persons were killed, and between forty and fifty injured. On the 9th,
another aecident, arising from a similar cause, occurred on the South-Eastern
line, near Staplehurst, in which ten persons were killed, and from twenty to thirty
injured. It appears that one of the passengers, providentially preserved, was
Charles Dickens, the distinguished novelist. The train was the tidal one, which
left Folkestone on the arrival of the passenger boat from Boulogne. It was known
when it would start, and at what time it would arrive at Staplehurst; and, at that
very time, the plate-layers had removed the rails, and the consequence was a
tragedy which deeply alarmed all, especially that numerous class of pleasure-
seekers, or men of business, who are in the constant habit of rushing backward and
forward between Paris and London. The inquiries into these and other railway
disasters, confirm the belief that, as a rule, railway accidents are attributable
chiefly fo carelessness and bad management. In their anxiety to pay a dividend,
an inefficient staff of servants is employed, and that staff is overworked and
underpaid. It is to be hoped tbat, in time, railway directors will understand their
true policy, and that there may be less destruction of human life. 551

shipwrecks.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.
But those who travel by sea are exposed to still greater- peril, and one
against which all human foresight is often of little avail. In 1857, a narrow
escape was that of the crew of the Sarah Sands, transport ship, which caught
fire in November. The powder was thrown over-board, the leak kept under, and
the remains of the vessel navigated to the Mauritius in ten days, owing to the
devotion and energy of Captain Castle, and the seamen. and soldiers on board. In
the same month there was a severe storm in the north of Scotland, and many
fishing-boats lost. Off the Banffshire coast alone, forty-two fishermen lost their
lives ; leaving twenty-seven widows, and seventy-nine children. On our coasts
such calamities, though, fortunately, on a smaller scale, are by no means rare. In
how many of our seaport towns is joy thus turned into mourning ? How touching
and appropriate is that beautiful ballad of Professor Kingsley ! —
" Three fishers went sailing out into the west,
Out into the west, as the sun went down ;
Bach thought of the woman who loved him best,
And the children stood watching them out of the town :
For men must work, and women must weep ;
And there's little to earn, and many to keep,
Though the harbour bar be moaning.
" Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower,
And trimm'd the lamps as the sun went down ;
And they look'd at the squall, and they look'd at the shower,
And the rack it came rolling up, ragged and brown :
But men must work, and women must weep,
Though storms be sudden, and waters deep,
And the harbour bar be moaning.
" Three corpses lay out on the shining sands,
In the morning gleam as the tide went down,
And the women are watching and wringing their hands,
For those who will never come home to the town :
But men must work, and women must weep,
And the sooner it's over, the sooner to sleep,
And good-bye to the bar and its moaning."
In 1859, the Eastern Monarch, troop ship, was burned to the water's edge,
and seven persons lost their lives. A few days after, ten excursionists were
drowned in being conveyed from the shore at Watchet to the steamer, the boats
being leaky. In 1861, Captain Harrison, commander of the Great Eastern
steam-ship, was drowned in the entrance to Southampton harbour, in consequence
of the upsetting of a small boat, in which he was going ashore. In the same year,
the emigrant ship Luna was wrecked on the rocks off Barfleur, near Cherbourg,
and about a hundred persons perished. At this time there was a singular accident
at the Porto Bello canal bridge, near Dublin. It appears that an omnibus, being
pulled up on the incline of the bridge, backed down to the foot, its velocity in
creasing ; and when it reached the bottom of the incline, it turned over into the
canal basm, drowning the passengers, six in number. The driver was saved by
being dragged out of the water by a policeman. In October, 1863, there was a
storm of unusual violence. At the New Cross railway station" a shed was blown
down ; two men were killed, and several injured. On the river, many crafts were
driven into collision; and at sea there were a number of wrecks, with considerable .
loss of life The gale continued to blow, at intervals, with great force till Novem
ber 2nd. In December of the same year there was a terrible gale, which did ,
much damage to property and life. In October, 1864, Calcutta wfs visited with a
storm of almost unparalleled severity : 200 ships were blown from their moorings-
pZLTr /¦animfnydnV^ ash0re- There was Sreat los« of l^e, especially
among the native boatmen; and much damage was also done to the buildings of

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [cattle plague.

fhe town; the tents of the natives were nearly all levelled to the ground; the
Eoman Catholic and Scotch churches, and the cathedral, were injured. In the
botanic garden, much mischief was done by the blowing down and uprooting of
the trees. In February, 1865, the barge of the Thames marine officers' training-
ship, Worcester — lying off Erith, with a crew of twenty-two of the young cadets,
under the charge of an experienced boatman — was suddenly capsized, and ten of
the young men unfortunately drowned. In August of the same year, a fearful loss
of life occurred at Port Canning, Calcutta, occasioned by the misconduct of the
drunken crew of a ship which was taking out a large number of coolies to Deme
rara. The ship struck on the Mutlah sands, sprang a leak, and began to sink, but
not finally sinking for twenty-four hours. The crew abandoned her; and the
steam-tug, which had been employed in towing her down, offered only a too tardy
assistance; the consequence being that full 300 of the coolies were drowned;
while a few who managed to swim to some adjacent mud islets were devoured by
tigers. The total number of wrecks and casualties, from all causes, on the coasts
of the United Kingdom, and in the surrounding seas, reported in 1865, was
1,656 ; and thus 698 lives were unfortunately lost.
In the year 1865, a very serious calamity threatened the entire family of John
Bull. There was a rumour, which, in time, settled doWn into an admitted fact,
that an alarming disease threatened the cattle, and that beef was growing scarce
and dear. As the flesh-consuming properties of John Bull are undoubtedly great,
very serious apprehensions were speedily aroused. On the continent, it appeared,
the cattle disease raged with great virulence ; nor was it long before it made its
way to our shores. At length government was compelled to interfere. On August
2nd, an order was issued by the Privy Council, containing regulations for guarding
against the cattle plague; and on the 11th of the same month, in consequence of
its rapid spread, appeared another order, commanding the destruction of infected
beasts, and imposing a penalty of £25 for infractions of the regulations. This
was followed by other orders, appointing inspectors at the ports to examine foreign
cattle, and in country districts, to insure the carrying out of the orders in council.
On September 22nd, in consequence of the plague having extended very widely to
sheep, a new order was issued, by which the previous orders were made to apply
to all infected animals — the word animal to include any cow, heifer, bull, bullock,
ox, calf, sheep, lambs, goat, or swine. In October, a government commission was
appointed to investigate the cause, and the means of repressing the disease ; but
that did not produce much effect in the year 1865; and it was with grief and pain
that the reader of the daily newspaper continued to hear of the alarming and
growing ravages of the cattle disease.
One class of men, however, must have profited greatly by the panic — that is,
the butchers, who bought their meat cheaper, and sold it dearer than ever to the
public. The graziers and farmers, of course, hurried their beasts to market,
anxious to receive any price for them ; and then, under the plea of . coming
scarcity — in spite of actual abundance — the butchers made the public pay enor
mous and unprecedented prices. Pater Familias grumbled, as well he might, when
he was charged for his Sunday leg of mutton as much as a shilling a pound.
The papers were filled with letters and leaders on the all-important theme;
and Punch addressed an appeal, entitled "A Word with Marrowbones and
Cleavers," with which we take leave of this part of our subject. The appeal was as
follows : — " O, mantled with celestial blue,
Arrayed as children of the sky ;
Say, there are none who can but you,
What makes the price of meat so high 1
Thou, Butcher, with a nimble grace,
"Whetting bright blade on trusty steel ;
Now tell me how you can, with face,
Ask fifteen pence a pound for veal ?
VOL. II. 2 O ~ 553

CLASS FALLACIES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
" The Steak that shares a homely name
With Parliament renowned of yore,
Canst thou, without a sense of shame,
__Pnt coolly down at one-and-four ?
That humbler steak, named simply beef,
Less soft of substance and more dense,
Wilt thou impose on our belief
As fairly worth a dozen pence 1
" The price of joints from woolly flock,
That grazed upon the Southern hills,
Convulses us with fearful shock
Whene'er we scan our weekly bills :
For Mutton's cost canst thou pretend
To state a reasonable-ground ;
O thou that legs and loins dost vend -, , .
High as one shilling both per pound !
" No scarcity of sheep and kine,
No murrain hath so ready made
Those hieroglyphic bills of thine,
Tliank importation through Free Trade !
Besides, beneath thy poleaxe fall
Heads which thou smitest but to save :
Behold abundance large in all
The shambles — shall I say thou knave ?
" ' Best short-horns beef,' by wholesale bought,.
Doth but five shillings cost the stone,
The offal sunk ; ye Butchers ought
To thrive full well on that alone.
Namely, horns, tallow, hide, and skin,
Whence ye derive a profit clear ;
But though you get the offal in,
The meat ye sell is awful — dear.
" Ah ! shout not, 'What d'ye buy, buy, buy?'
Until your charges you abate :
Soon will our answer to your cry
Be, ' Nothing at the present rate.'
But now cut in, adventurous Blade,
Thy way to carve out fortune's plain ;
As honest Butcher start in trade ;
Much custom will insure great gain."

CHAPTEE XXVII.
ISTDCTSTBIAl AMD PHILANTHE.0PIC.

The poet tells us — " All men think all men mortal but themselves."
In like manner there are certain principles admitted; but the appUcation of
them is denied under the plea of exceptional circumstances. Free-traders, for
instance were very apt to demand protection for their own particular calling:
The working classes were, many of them, the most determined opponents of free
trade and the Anti-Corn-Law League. In America, at this very time, thev have
had strength enough to impose and sustain the MoreU tariff, the American
shipping laws, , and high duties, under the protecting influence of which,
American commerce is threatened with utter ruin. There was a time-and that
554

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [trade strikes.
not one far removed — when the Spitalfield weavers, the Nottingham stocking-
makers, the Coventry ribbon manufacturers, the Leeds clothier — aye, even the
Manchester cotton-spinners, were all heart and soul in favour of protection. That
fallacy, we shall now see, was becoming exploded ; but a new danger to industry
arose in another quarter. The men were now learning . their strength, and
organising themselves into unions to oppose their masters. Capital and labour we
thus find more and more arrayed against each other. Trade was paralysed, and in
many places destroyed, by this mutual opposition. In reality, the interests of labour
and capital are the same ; but it is clear neither masters nor men have at present
found their way to the proper appreciation of that fundamental principle. The
more intelligent workmen were quite as ready to resort to strikes as their less
fortunate brethren ; and thus much bitterness was created, much suffering endured,
much business destroyed. At first the masters generally got the better of the
men. They had capital, and could afford to wait for the return of more aus
picious times. In 1856, the principal engineering firms of London and Lan
cashire discharged their workmen, and closed their works, rather than submit
to the demand of the Amalgamated Society of Operative Engineers, for the
abolition of piece-work and overtime. A bad thing this for England ; but capital
for the iron-masters of Liege, and other foreign competitors.
In 1859, there was a great strike in the building trades cf the metropolis,
in consequence of the workmen demanding that the hours of labour should be
reduced from ten to nine per day, without any reduction of wages. The move
ment was, in the first instance, directed against Messrs. Trollope and Sons, whose
men struck in a body. The large employers generally made common cause
with Messrs. Trollope, and closed their establishments till the firm in question
resumed operations. The masters also resolved that, previous to returning to their
employment, the men should be required to promise not to connect themselves
with any society which should interfere with the hours or Wages of labour.
This was repudiated by the workmen on strike, who received large contributions
from trade societies in London and the provinces, in aid of their support while
on strike. The erection of many public works was in consequence suspended.
An arrangement was come to in November ; and, after a great deal of suffering had
been experienced, the strike ceased. In the month just mentioned, a man named
WilUam Pereham was committed to prison for two months, for intimidating
workmen in connection with the builders' strike. Pereham appealed, and was
admitted to bail. It must be confessed that the men gained much by organisation,
and are, perhaps, now as well off as they can ever expect to be.
In 1860, there was a strike in the Coventry silk trade, which terminated dis
astrously for the men; they having come to a mutual agreement to make the
best terms they could with their several masters. The truth was that the demand
for Coventry goods was on the decrease. In a rising market the men would have
gained more by standing out. In March, 1865, a very serious strike occurred —
we refer to that of the iron-workers of North Staffordshire, who withstood the
reduction of wages required by the iron-masters to meet the fall in the price of
iron. It appears that they having endeavoured to organise the means of support
by allowing the workmen in other districts to accept the terms till the masters of
North Staffordshire had been compelled to forego the proposed reduction, the
iron -masters throughout the kingdom agreed to lock-out all the men, unless
those of North Staffordshire accepted the offered terms. This was refused, and
the lock-out commenced. It was calculated that the total weekly wages of which
the workmen thus deprived themselves, amounted to £120,000; and, as we may
well suppose, the withdrawal of this occasioned extreme distress. At the same
time, the foreign trade, which amounted to JI 3,000,000 a year, was, to some
extent, interrupted and thrown into other channels. Happily, the extreme mea
sures adopted in self-defence by the masters were not of long duration. In the
beginning of April, the lock-out in South Staffordshire ended. The men promised
2 o 2 555

combination laws.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
not to subscribe towards maintaining the strike in North Staffordshire ; and once
more the masters opened their works.
The basis upon which workmen rest the alleged necessity of combination is
this — that individual competition would be borne down by the tyranny of the
capitalist. We will take their exposition of this principle from a paper issued by
the United Trades' Building Conference, in answer to an address of the Central
Association of Master Builders, in 1859.
" It is only, by association that we can hope to present a barrier against the
aggressive selfishness of capital. Under existing circumstances, to talk of leaving
the artisan individually, and disconnected from the sympathies and support of his
fellow-toilers, to make his arrangements with the capitalist, would be to advocate
the speedy and effectual reduction of the working classes to slavery ; the trampUng
out of their spirit of manhood, and the extinction of that intellect which makes
the English artisan the support of his country's greatness, and the admiration of
the industrial world. The man who employs the labour of a thousand men, and
gathers the profits produced by their labour, has, through the influence of his
capital, as much power concentrated in himself as in the possession of all the men
in his employ. Any individual man among them has only the thousandth part
of the power which is centred in the master for competition or resistance. What
chance has he, then, without the moral co-operation of the remaining 999, of
making an equal contract with his employer ? What power of logic is there that
can show that the employed would not be helplessly at the mercy of the selfish
employer, were it not for the protection afforded by union ?"
In this paper, as is generally the case, the interests of the general public
— the consumer— are quite overlooked. The plea put forth is the one with
which we were too familiar during the agitation of the Anti-Corn-Law League.
The monopolists mean to say—" It is only by association that we can hope to
present a barrier against the oppressive selfishness of those who desire to consume
at the cheapest rate." In the long run, the workman suffers by union— just as did
the old traders and farmers by protection. The labourer relies on others, rather
than his own exertion ; and palms off upon his employer an inferior value of
labour. For a time this system may answer, but it must fail in the long run.
The right of the workmen to combine has been admitted in the fullest manner.
In 1859, the legislature declared as follows :— "That no workman or other person,
whether actually in employment or not, shall, by reason of his entering into an
agreement with any workman or workmen, or other person or persons, for the
purpose of fixing, or endeavouring to fix, the rate of wages or remuneration at
which they or any of them shall work, or by reason merely of his endeavouring
peaceably, and in a reasonable manner, and without threat or intimidation, direct
or indirect, to persuade others to cease or abstain from work, in order to obtain the
rate of wages or the altered hours of labour so fixed or agreed upon, or to be
agreed upon, be taken or deemed to be guilty of molestation or obstruction
within the meaning of the said act ; and shall not, therefore, be subject or liable
to any prosecution or indictment for conspiracy. Provided always that nothing
herein contained shall authorise any workman to break or depart from any
contract or authorise any attempt to induce any workman to break or depart from
any contract As a rule strikes fail, 'and fail speedily, unless protracted and
upheld by other workmen. On the plea that they are fighting for a principle, they
cause a wide-spread rum, and are as mischievous as an invading army. The
spinners strike, of Manchester, in 1810, which threw 30,000 persons out of employ,
continued for four months. The Preston strike, of 1854, which condemned 17,000
persons to idleness, continued for four months. But the power, or the will, of
other workmen to contribute to the union funds at last came to an end. Work
was renewed in the one case upon worse wages; mother cases at the same wages.
dStnrZ1 \l th.e1Iamen^b1^ efffts of str*es," writes Mr. Charles Knight, "the
destitution, the sickness, the deaths of families, is to present salutary warning ; but

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT' PALMEESTON. [masters and men.

it would be more salutary if the principles could be understood, which would
show that strikes must fail." This was written in 1860 ; since then the workmen
have increased in wealth, intelligence, and power. They are now well organised,
have their own paper, are led by clever men, and have numerous funds at
their disposal. And yet for their wrongs, fancied or real, their favourite remedy is
still a strike. It is a folly that it should be so. It is a pity that, between masters
and men, whose interest is always mutual, there should so often spring up a
yawning gulf of hate.
The education of these people is, at present, far from what it ought to be.
According te the registrar -general, of every 100 men married in 1864, there were
twenty-three who put their mark, instead of writing their names, in the marriage
register ; and of every 100 women married, thirty-two were in a similar state. This
is a fact most deeply to be lamented. The savings of these men are chiefly deposited
with the trades' unions, who have large sums of money at their command. It is
generally believed that working-men do not invest in savings banks so largely as
they ought ; the deposits are believed to come more generally from servants, and
others receiving monthly or quarterly wages, than from artisans earning from twenty
to forty shillings a week. It is ascertained that there are about 140,000 persons in
England who are at once owners and occupiers of small houses, varying from £2
to £14 per annum; 25,000 owners and occupiers of houses from £14 to £20;
and 45,000 in houses of an annual value of above £50. It thus appears that
there are just about 200,000 persons altogether paying to themselves an esti
mated rental of £2,800,000, of which about one-half is for houses between £20 and
£50. If it be true, as was lately said, that one single building firm in the metro
polis employs 3,000 hands, who received thirty shillings a week all round, then,
most certainly, the savings of the working classes might be greater than they are.
In 1865, these unions began to create considerable apprehension in particular
quarters. It is certain no one ever contemplated the purposes to which these
formidable associations of working-men had been applied. Societies, which were
originally regarded as mere benefit societies, for the support or organisation of sick
or aged members of the trade, had, by that time, become machines of immense
commercial power, directed to the control of an entire trade, for the exclusive
benefit of a class. Sick funds, and other charitable resources, are still administered ;
but the main object of a trade union in the present day is the regulation of the
trade. The last appeal of workmen, when they want more than a master can
give, is a strike. The latter loses his profits, the former their wages. Now-a-days
the strike does not entail much hardship on the men. The unions have large
funds at command ; and, by the aid of these funds, and a certain peculiar economy
of power, they can . fight their masters with but little suffering and no risk.
All the trade take part in the contest, but all the trade does not strike. The
"strike". is confined to a single shop. In the other shops, the men of the same
trade and of the same union go to work on the very same terms which they have
declared inadmissible in the case of the particular master against whom the strike
is directed. The men on " strike" receive from their fellow- workmen allowances
which are sufficient for their maintenance, and they could remain " out" for two
years as easily as for two months. It is obvious that, except by some counter-
combination, no master could resist this pressure, and yet every effective combina
tion of the masters is violently resented by the men.
Sometimes the masters " lock out" — that is to say, the masters whose men
have not actually " struck" themselves, but who are maintaining those on " strike,"
enter into the contest by closing their doors, and locking out the workmen who would
not be unwilling to come in. This is always designated as a monstrous injustice,
an act of tyrannical oppression, to be reprobated and condemned by public opinion.
Yet it is self-defence ; and the wages thus withheld from the men are only those
which their own union has proscribed as unfit to be taken. They themselves fully
intend to refuse them when the opportunity arises ; but, for the time, they desire
557

CARPENTERS AND JOINERS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
to get them, in order to coerce the particular employer selected for present
operations. What are the masters to do ? If a " strike," as managed in modern
fashion, is not to be met by a " lock-out," it must be successful, for the stress is all
on one side. The men on " strike" are suffering nothing at all, while the master is
exposed to ruin. In fact, we have recently seen that " strikes" have succeeded all
over the country ; and that working-men have obtained improved terms in trade
after trade, and town after town.
If we would learn the power of these societies, let us take the case of the Amal
gamated Society of Carpenters and Joiners, first established in 1860. At the end of
that year it comprised twenty branches, with an aggregate of 618 members, and a
balance of £321 in hand. In 1865, it comprised 134 branches, with an aggregate
of 5,670 members, and a balance of £8,320 in hand. Nor is this the whole extent
of its progress; for it entered, shortly afterwards, into negotiations with the
associated joiners of Scotland, for the purpose of establishing a common under
standing between the two bodies. The treaty had a favourable issue. As far as
the two executives were concerned, all was cordiality and agreement; and it was
hoped that, at a meeting of delegates, shortly to be held, the alliance would be so
ratified as to combine the power and influence of these large and kindred institutions
on suitable occasions. Altogether, the secretary appeared justified in remarking,
that " the desire for combination evinced during the past few years, from the most
skilled artisan to the agricultural labourer — from the chief centres of industry to
the most remote parts of the country — proves, conclusively, that the adoption
of trade societies, in the widest possible sense, is only a question of time."
Let us now turn to the operations of this flourishing union, as shown in its
accounts, and acknowledged in its annual manifesto. The income of the Amalga
mated Society, for the year 1865, was upwards of £10,000, exclusive of a balance of
nearly £5,000 remaining on hand at Christmas, 1864. They could dispose,
therefore, of no less than £15,000 ; and they did dispose of nearly half that sum,
But the distribution of this expenditure deserves attentive remark. Sick members
of the society received £1,369 ; and other allowances, of a kindred nature, bring up
the total disbursements under this head to an amount of about £2,300. The entire
outlay, however, was nearly three times that sum ; so that we find the expenditure
upon benefits, of what is presumably a benefit society, confined to about one-third
of its whole payments. Where did the rest of the money go to ? It went, to the
extent of £730, in salaries to officers and committees ; besides which £217 was spent
m delegations. But the largest item in the whole account, exceeding by 50
per cent, the entire payment to sick members, is the outlay upon "trade privileges,"
amounting to no less than £1,941 8s. Id Now, what are these "privileges" of
such costly charge? Apparently the entry means that this money was spent in
maintaining and enlarging the privileges of trade-that is to say, in procuring
better terms from the employers of labour. That is the only interpretation we can
put upon it; and m another portion of the report, we can discover that the
investment produced its fruit.
_ The secretary gives a list of ninety-four towns in which the Amalgamated
Society is regularly represented; and he recapitulates the instances in which,
during one year, the members of the trade obtained either an increase of wages
tlZ Ved?ctlZ m \ D?mber °f WOrkinS hours- lQ no ^wer than fifty-two
reZtZ °/+- nmety-fouJr was aQ ^vance of wages gained, while in thirty a
S^L was secured. It is specified as worthy of particular remark, that,
thTtl? i P6Tg °f a,brTh ,°f the society in Bradford, the working hours of
of iVrTwT ^ ™.duc?d "ghtand a-half per week, and an advance obtained
Amal«rnX^ ^f i S &t th6 C°St °f a fGW shil^gs-" In addition to this, the
mW^Si wi7 aS' m maDy t0Wns' succeeded in getting a "code of working
ce tain rZl 1 7 f° T™^ ^T* °f masters and men' and thus establishing
told In thff il10"8 thA C°D «UrCt °f trade" How a11 this was done we are frankly
told in the following words :_« In many instances these advantages were granted

a.d. 1865,] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [trades' unions.
when asked for, and in the best possible spirit ; in others, after repeated meetings
between the employers and our members, and mutual concessions. But in some
few instances, after vainly trying to avoid it, We were obliged to resort to the
' old way' of settUng these difficulties, which no one more than ourselves regretted."
The necessity thus experienced accounts, no doubt, for some of the outlay upon
"trade privileges." In conclusion, the secretary hopes, "by just and reasonable
demands, enforced by moderation and consistency, to see the position of our
members still further improved ; and our society increase in numbers, influence, and
usefulness." Of course, if the men are underpaid, these trades' unions, by raising the rate of
wages, are productive of benefit. But then, again, if their masters cannot afford to
give more wages, or to have put a higher price on the articles they manufacture in
consequence, trade is driven away, and the workmen ultimately suffer. That, to
some extent, this has been the case, is borne out by the statistics of the Belgian
iron trade. We heard of a strike, very recently, in the nor th^supported, of course,
by the men in the London union. At length the masters caUed the men together,
told them that such and such a contract had been offered them, and that they
could take it, and would take it, at their old rate of wages. The men agreed to
do this. It afterwards turned out that the same contract had been offered to the
London masters, who had been obliged to decline it. The trades' unions have also
a mischievous effect in other ways. They tend to prevent improvement, and they
secure for the lazy and ignorant labourer a rate of wages he could never earn for
himself, were he judged according to his deserts.
" Not content," says a writer in the Times — " not content with laying down
laws for the government of the members included in the union, they aim at
an ' organisation of labour ;' by which is meant an organisation to control the whole
labour power of the country. In the pursuit of this object, they hesitate not to
commit acts the most tyrannical and oppressive, excluding from employment those,
whatever may be their qualifications, who may not have been initiated under club
law; they ignore aU gradations of skill, and proclaim all men equal, and entitled
to an equal rate of wages. They demand the dismissal of a manager or inspector,
who, by a too faithful' discharge of his duty to his employers, has become ob
noxious to the committee of the trade ; the penalty in such cases, for non-com-
plianee, being a ' call-off ' — that is, a withdrawal of all the men employed. Not
long ago, on a refusal to submit to a demand of this nature by the architect of a
great pubUc work, an order was issued by the committee for a cessation of work,
not only where this dispute occurred, but on all the works in other places under the
care of the same architect.
" Trades' unions seek, by violence, outrage, and intimidation, to obstruct all
mechanical improvements which have for their object the economy of labour. A
striking instance of this nature was related to me to-day. A few years ago, a
valuable machine was introduced by one of our most eminent engineers for
making bricks. It not only reduced the cost of manufacture, but greatly im
proved the quaUty, both as regards appearance and durability. A company was
formed; the eapital was immediately subscribed.; the site was selected; plans .drawn
of the buildings to be erected ; and tenders were solicited from some of our great
contractors for the erection of the works. All went on swimmingly up to this
paint-, but the 'directors were little aware of the obstacles that lay in their path.
" The contract was taken by one of the most eminent firms of builders ; but
no sooner did this fact come to the ears of the committee of the building trades,
than an intimation was given to the "firm, that any attempt to execute the contract
would be followed by a ' call-off' from all the works in which this firm was engaged ;
and, rather than encounter a state of things so serious, they wrote to the Brick Com
pany, stating the position in which they were placed, and expressing their regret
at the necessity they were under of withdrawing from the contract. The Brick
Company applied to other teuilders, but aU to no purpose ; the reason being that the
559

trades' unions.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
committee of the Brickmakers' Union had determined to stop the supply of bricks
to any builder who lent a hand to rear the works of the Brick Company.
" In this strait the company were thrown on their own resources, and they de
termined to do the work themselves. Before they could make bricks themselves,
they required a house for their machinery : they could not get a brick for love or
money. The grounds were picketed ; and any carter bringing material, of what
ever sort, was civilly warned that it would be better for him not to repeat his
visit. " The company then determined to make a wooden erection ; but no timber
merchant was willing to place himself under the ban of the union ; and they were
under the necessity of buying the timber, and getting the building framed, at
Liverpool. " Having,- at a very great sacrifice, obtained a covering for their machinery,
and having obtained from a distance as many bricks as were necessary for the
setting Of the steam-boiler, the one essential was a chimney. They had no bricks,
nor could they obtain any ; but if the bricks had been procurable, there was not
a man who would dare to build the chimney. They, therefore, had recourse to an
iron funnel. On the arrival of this iron chimney on the ground, the next difficulty
was to elevate it to its position ; and, for this purpose, a part of a builder's plant,
known by the name of ' shear legs,' was required.
" They applied to the building firms for a loan of this instrument ; all would
gladly have acceded, but no one dared the risk. One, however, whose sympathies
were stronger than those of the rest, determined to help the unfortunate company,
if possible — not by the loan of his own plant, but by borrowing, in a distant town,
or some remote corner, not supposed to be under the keen eyes of the committee, a
pair of ' shear legs,' which having been surreptitiously brought on to the ground,
the chimney was at length reared.
" The act had not, however, escaped the argus-eyed committee. They traced
the means by which the work had been accomplished, and the unfortunate builder
received a summons to meet the committee at a particular spot and hour on the
following evening; stating, at the same time, that if he failed to appear, aU his men '
would be withdrawn. He felt it necessary to obey the summons, and there met
the august committee. The committee, pointing to the ' shear legs,' put certain
questions with a view to ascertain from the delinquent the extent of his compUcity
in procuring for the Brick Company the means of raising their iron funnel; and,
after fencing with the questions, he was at length told that they were in possession
of all the facts, the truth of which he was at last constrained to admit. He was
then requested to withdraw to a distance while the committee deliberated upon the
case; and after some time he was called up to receive judgment. It was to the
effect that they had been much disposed to punish him by a ' call-off of his men ;
but they would forego the extreme penalty, on the promise that he would avoid
all cause of offence in the future.
" The company at length got the machinery into operation ; but their troubles
were far from being ended. They could make bricks, but no one dared to buy
them. An edict had gone forth that, wherever a machine-brick was found, the
supply from all other sources should be stopped ; and consequently, although, to
some extent, the company have forced their bricks upon the market, very few of
the builders will venture upon their use ; and, at the present moment, their capital
is profitless, solely because they cannot vend one-half the quantity which their
machinery will produce.
• Ai" In this Case' as in many others' a most valuable invention has been obstructed
m the course for which it is qualified— that of cheapening the supply, and im
proving the quality of bricks." "
™ -T^ tra-deS' Uni°n is' in the °Pinion of many of the working-men, a religion.
Ineir faith in its power to benefit their order is undoubting; its dogmas are en
forced by them with the most despotic disregard of individual and personal
560 x

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [wealth of the working class.
freedom. In accordance with the behests of the union, they will encounter sacri
fices with a degree of patient endurance that is really wonderful to contemplate ;
and no wonder, since it is clear that the main object of such associations is to
prevent that natural adjustment of prices which is the unfettered operation of
the law of supply and demand. In short, the trades' unionists are protectionists,
and seek to give to labour an arbitrary and fictitious value. In America they are
the same. The trades' unionists take good care to sell their labour in the dearest
market, and to buy in the cheapest ; but they will not allow to the masters their
right to do the same. They are all for themselves ; and the interests of that im
portant personage, without whom master and man could never exist — the consumer
— are completely overlooked.
Many efforts have been made to get an accurate idea of the extent and the
wealth of the working classes in this country. From the very nature of the case,
it is clear that the estimate of no writer can be fully relied on. " During a dis
cussion, arising out of the general election in 1865, Mr. Bass expressed a belief
that those who, in this country, are usually called the working classes, earn no less
than £380,000,000 annually. Mr. Gladstone, some time after, mentioned it at
£250,000,000 ; but this lower figure was regarded by the Times as too high. Mr.
Leone Levi, of King's College, a great statistical authority, at the request of Mr.
Bass, investigated the subject. Allowing for the increase of the population since
1861, Professor Levi thus distributes the number of workers, male and female : —
In England and Wales, 7,466,000; Scotland, 1,104,000; Ireland, 2,127,000: a
total of 10,697,000. The professor excludes from this number all the professional
class, ahd the greater part of the domestic (wives, children, &c.) and commercial
classes. He also excludes all persons over sixty years of age, whose earnings are
considered to be about counterbalanced by various causes of loss, or non-earning,
on the part of those between twenty and thirty. The wages earned by this mass
of labourers Mr. Leone Levi calculates to be as follows : — England and Wales,
£311,500,000 : Scotland, £42,700,000 : Ireland, £64,000,000 : making a total, for
the United Kingdom, of £418,200,000— a sum vastly exceeding the estimates of
Messrs. Bass and Gladstone. The professor's estimate of the wealth of the nation
is £745,200,000, made up as follows :— £327,000,000 on which income-tax is paid,
and £418,200,000, working class earnings, mostly free from that impost.
If we ask where the manufacturing and commercial population is mostly to be
found, the writer of an article in the Companion to the Almanac for^ 1866,
says, geology and physical geography must furnish us with an answer. Wherever
the stratification, at an attainable depth beneath tbe surface, includes good coal,
there are found a large and important population of pitmen — -as in Durham and
Northumberland; the west lowland districts of Scotland, Lancashire, and North
Cheshire ; Yorkshire and Derbyshire, Staffordshire and Worcestershire, Leicester
shire and Nottinghamshire, Somersetshire and Gloucester, and South Wales.
Wherever ironstone occurs, with coal in the immediate vicinity, there we are sure
to see the wondrous blaze and murky smoke of vast furnaces, so lurid and weird
like at night — as in the black county of Staffordshire, the stupendous works of
South Wales, and the newly-developed and wonderfully prolific region of Cleve
land, in North Yorkshire. Where coal and iron are in this way plentiful, we see
how the trades of machine and engine building grow up near at hand, employing
hundreds of thousands of our best-paid artisans, and developing an amount of
mechanical ingenuity not equalled in any other districts. Where tin and copper
are abundant, as in Cornwall and the western half of Devon, there we find
presented the characteristics of a distinct class of the community — the Cornish
miners, with their sober habits, shrewd intelligence, combined with a dash of
superstition and a tendency towards a system of co-operative labour, not yet,
unfortunately, much developed elsewhere. Where slate crops up to the surface, we
find grow up a district of quarrymen's villages, and a system of operation peculiar
to itself — as in the gigantic slate quarries of Bethesda, near Bangor ; and in the
561

spiritualism.].

LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.

mountain groups that surround Snowdon. Where, as in Cheshire, vast beds of salt
underlie the surface, there is a material at hand which serves as the basis for
numerous chemical manufactures; and this is one reason why, among several, such
manufactures are mostly carried on in the northern counties. Where a peculiar
kind of fire-resisting clav is found, as at Stourbridge, there do we find more
earthen retorts, and crucibles, and fire-bricks made than in any other part of
Eno-land Again, regarding the courses and mouths of rivers rather than the
eeofoo-ical stratification under our feet, we find that nature's work, in that respect,
is the° determining agency to vast accumulations of population. Liverpool is the
o-reatest place of import for cotton, chiefly because the mouth of the Mersey affords a
tempting port of entry for American ships ; and Lancashire became the cotton
county chiefly because Liverpool was the place of import. Flax and hemp
manufacturers have their head-quarters at Leeds, chiefly because the eastern ports
are most suitable for ships laden with that produce from Belgium, Holland, and
the Baltic countries. Glasgow is great, far north as is her latitude, because the
Clyde affords a wonderfully convenient outlet for coal and iron, a suitable inlet
for cotton and other American produce, and facilities for building on a large scale.
So it is all over England and Wales, and the southern half of Scotland. Geological
formation and river debouchment mainly determine the great departments of
manufacturing and commercial enterprise; and in the localities so determined
we find the busy hives of men most peopled.
In 1851, an attempt was made to introduce what is called Bloomerism into
this country. Bloomerism, an American importation, meant a new kind of female
costume for ladies ; and, as it included the use of breeches, it was supposed to be
connected with woman's rights. The new dress consisted of loose trousers,
gathered in at the ankles; a short, but very full, shirt; and a broad hat. In
truth, the dress was much like that worn by school-girls of twelve or fourteen
years of age. Female lecturers, in full costume, attended by a female in
the same dress, endeavoured to familiarise the EngUsh with it, but in vain. It
was patronised by a few doubtful characters, and then, in a little while, heard of
no more. In 1853, the British and Foreign Bible Society, having arrived at the fifteenth
year of its. existence, commemorated its jubilee at Exeter Hall. The chair was
occupied by the Earl of Shaftesbury. The meeting consisted of a large number of
noblemen, prelates, and gentlemen, and members of various denominations. From
statements made to the meeting by the noble chairman, it appeared that, since the
foundation of the society, 8,000 branch societies had been instituted; the
Scriptures had been translated into 148 languages and dialects, of which 121 had
never before been printed; upwards of 43,000,000 copies bad been disseminated
amongst 600,000,000 of the human race : of the languages into which these copies
had been rendered, upwards of twenty-five had existed hitherto without an alphabet,
and merely in an oral form.
The same year, the table-moving mania sprang into existence. People, called
professors of spiritualism, or spiritualists, gravely believed or declared, that if a
number of persons stood round a table, each pressing it with the tips of the
fingers of the hands on' the surface, a mysterious power would gradually set the
table in motion, and rapping would be heard, indicating the presence of spirits, who
would answer questions addressed to them. Professor Faraday did not deem it
beneath his dignity to publish an address to expose the delusion. He declared
himself " greatly startled by the revelation which this purely physical subject has
made of the public mind ;" and said, the system of education that could leave the
mental condition of tbe public in the state in which this subject had found it, must
have been very greatly deficient in some important principle. According to this
acknowledged philosopher, the phenomenon is due to nothing more than the
preponderance or resultant of physical force in one direction, given by a quasi
involuntary muscular action of the experimentalists, where their minds have beea
562

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mr, home lyon.
deadened by long waiting in vacancy, and the sense of touch in the fingers is
benumbed by continued pressure.
It appears the spiritualists made preparations for a fresh campaign, and soon
opened a Spiritual Athenaeum in Sloane Street, Chelsea. At the soirie given on
the occasion, the inaugural lecture was read by Mr. Samuel Carter Hall, of the
Art Journal, and some drawings were exhibited, supposed to be under the direction
of the spirits ; of which all we can say is, that they were atrociously bad. Of
course, Mr. Home was there, and was the lion of the evening. Our readers are
aware this gentleman has taken the name of Lyon — a widow lady of that name
having adopted him as her son, and settled on him £26,000, so that he may be
left free to follow his spiritual career. Nay, more : the lady in question, pending
the settlement of the £26,000, made the happy man a present of the trifle of
£6,000, just to keep the wolf from the door ; and it is not improbable, as the lady
is well off, and has £190,000 at her disposal, and has no near relations (she is the
widow of a general officer, and the estate goes to the heir-at-law, a very distant
connection indeed), she may confer upon the Home-Lyon, as he is now called,
further favours. Virtue is its own reward ; but, in Mr. Lyon's case, virtue has fared
infinitely better. His wife was a Eussian countess, and with her he had a fortune
of £12,000, settled on their only child. The countess is dead, but her spirit is ever
near to advise, and guard, and soothe, and sustain. Whenever Mr. Lyon is in cir
cumstances of difficulty and danger, the spirit of the departed wife immediately
appears. We should say Mr. Lyon has a great affinity for female spirits. Though
not at all a prepossessing looking man in appearance, his manner to ladies is re
markably so. He has an eye of great power ; he is a good linguist ; a beautiful
reciter ; he plays music divinely — in short, he is quite the man for a drawing-room
— to flatter and win over the softer and fairer part of creation. Let us add, on
his fingers are conspicuous diamonds — one the gift of a Eussian, the other of a
French emperor. A very warm admirer of the distinguished spiritualist is that
charming and gifted writer Mrs. S. C. Hall, and at her house many of his sceances
are held. Devout persons are admitted to them, as they will be to the Spiritual
Athenaeum in Sloane Street ; but they must be orthodox, and believers in the
Trinity. The truth is, as one of the most prominent of the sect confessed to a
friend of the writer's, the spirits do not like to appear before sceptical people.
These sceances are always opened with prayers ; and then, if the faithful only are
present, the spirits will appear, turn the table, play but very indifferently on- the
accordion, and make remarks more or less important. From what we can gather
of these spirit utterances, we cannot find that they are in the habit of saying
anything particularly worth hearing ; their philosophy appears to be that of Swe-
denborg ; and you will hear nothing more than you find in his writings.' AU at
once Mr. Lyon is in a trance, his eye, of course, in a " fine frenzy rolling;" and
through him the spirit of some one known to some present appears, and expresses
his regret for misconduct or want of gratitude to some one present while in the
body of this flesh. Depend upon it we lose very little by not being present at a
spiritualist manifestation. Occasionally the spirits do refer to events known only as
you fancy to one ; but they are not always successful. If, for instance, Mr. Lyon
tells the hearer the spirit of some one loved in early youth appears, the chances are
that the manifestation is more or less true. Most of us have loved some fair girl
no longer on earth, and whose memory we should recall upon such an occasion.
But when Mr. Lyon tells her name ; when he says it was Mary, when it was Jane,
one's confidence in the spirits is shaken. There is also something very underhand
about these spirits. If they play the accordion, it is under the table ; if they
convey to you a handkerchief from another party, it is under the table that the
spirit wafts the handkerchief. Does this indicate modesty or something else, to
denote which a term of less favourable meaning must be used ? We give no
opinion ; we only record what we hear and see. We can only add that Mr. Home
Lyon deserves all the eminence he has won, and that he is to be congratulated on
563

the crystal palace.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1854.
finding that spiritualism, like godliness, is great gain. Of course, he is an
American. America appears favourable to the growth of certain phenomena. The
country which rears Barnums and Joe Smiths is distinguished for producing re
markable men ; and amongst the number of the latter may certainly be placed the
favoured head of the spiritualists, Mr. Home Lyon.
In 1853, the shocking brutality so often practised by husbands upon wives, or
upon those who pass for such among the lower classes, compelled parliament to pass
an " Act for the better Prevention of Aggravated Assaults upon Women and Chil
dren." This act extended the power of punishing, on summary conviction, assaults
upon females, and male children under fourteen years of age ; and inflicted the
penalty of imprisonment, with or without hard labour, for a term not exceeding
six months, or a fine not exceeding £20.
In 1854, the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, was opened by the queen, in the
presence of a vast multitude (40,000) of spectators. It stands nearly north and
south, on the summit of Penge Hill ; its length being 1,608 feet ; its greatest
breadth, at the central transept, 384, and at the smaller transepts, 336 feet.
The glass palace of the Great Exhibition of 1851 having been condemned by the
commissioners of woods and works, the structure was purchased by a private
company, and helped to form the building whose opening we now record. It
was purchased for £75,000, and erected at Sydenham for £120,000. The principal
portion of the ground on which it stands was purchased of Mr. Schuster for
£86,661. The first column was raised i_i 1852, before a large assembly of people;
at the bottom of which a glass bottle was deposited by Mr. Laing, containing
the coins of the realm, and a paper bearing an appropriate description. The
building is magnificent, and contains resources for all tastes. There are the
following courts: — Egyptian, Grecian, Eoman; the Alhambra, Assyrian, By
zantine, German-Gothic, English, French, and Italian-Gothic; Eenaissance,
Elizabethan, Italian ; Mediaeval, Pompeian, English, and German modern sculp
ture ; French and Italian modern sculpture ; — all filled with interesting specimens
and copies. Besides, there is an historical portrait and painting gallery; an
industrial department; a natural history collection; and galleries devoted to
the sale or exhibition of manufactured articles. The display of waterworks
at the Crystal Palace surpasses those of Versailles. The terraces are constructed
in the Italian style, and are laid out on a very extensive scale. There is a
broad walk, which extends the whole length of the building. At each end are
immense towers, 250 feet in height; with tanks on the top of each, to hold 1,200
tons of water, which supply all required about the place. The water comes from
an artesian well, 500 feet in depth. In the pleasure grounds is the rosarium, or
mount of roses ; and the island lakes, on which are erected life-size models of
antediluvian animals and reptiles. A library and reading-room, and lectures, are
connected with the palace ; which, aiming at the education of the masses, has, at
any rate, provided all classes of her majesty's subjects with innocent and healthful
recreation. For musical art it has done much ; and its Handel festivals are on a
scale of magnificence and perfection hitherto undreamt of. As a place for dining
well, and feasting gaily, it has been in great request, as nowhere could the holiday-
maker find a purer air, scenery more attractive, or amusements more entertaining.
It has been patronised by as many as 80,000 or 90,000 persons in one day; and, as
long as it stands, will be the daily resort of all Londoners, and of all who come to
London. Its aims are lofty; in some respects they have been disappointed: but
no one can deny but that the Crystal Palace has had a most beneficial effect upon
the manners and customs of the age.
In 1856 government permitted a military band to play in Kensington Palace
gardens, to the great indignation of the religious public, headed by the Archbishop
ol Canterbury, who protested against the innovation. Lord Palmerston's reply was
as follows :— I concurred in the arrangements for performances by the military
bands m Kensington Gardens, and in the parks, for a couple of hours on Sunday
ub.4

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [south-london exhibition.
afternoon, after divine service, because I thought that those arrangements would
afford the inhabitants of the metropolis innocent intellectual recreation, combined
with fresh air and healthy exercise, and such recreation did not seem to me to be
at variance with the soundest and purest sentiments of religion. Such was my
opinion, and such is my opinion ; for I have heard nothing, on the part of those who
object to these arrangements, which has altered my view of the matter. But I find,
from your lordship's letter, and from representations which have reached me
from other quarters, that a great number of persons, whose opinions are entitled to
respect, look upon the matter from a different point of view; and entertain, in
regard to it, strong opinions, widely different from my own.
"In this state of things, I am naturally led to ask myself, whether the
advantage to be gained by a continuance of the musical performances, is sufficiently
great to compensate for the evil of running counter to the religious feelings of a
large body of the community ? And to that question there can be but one answer —
namely, that it is not. I shall, therefore, in deference to the sentiments expressed
by your grace, on your own part and on that of others, take steps for discontinuing
the bands playing in Kensington Gardens and in the parks on Sundays."
In 1857 the Social Science Association was formed. Its principal promoter
was Lord Brougham ; but its sittings were attended by all the leading phi
lanthropists, and many of the legislators of the day. Already it has produced a
great amount of practical good.
One of the most favourable signs of these latter times, is the system of work
ing-men's industrial exhibitions, which has been developed to a considerable extent.
Of these, the principal was the South-London Exhibition, in the Westminster
Road. The exhibition managers consisted of the committee of the Surrey Chapel
Southwark Mission for the Education of the Working Classes, and the working-
men's committee of the Hawkstone Hall Sunday evening services, under the presi
dency of the Eev. Newman Hall. The exhibitors were reminded that the exhibi
tion was an experiment, to be mainly conducted by themselves. All exhibited
articles were to be brought, shown, and removed at the exhibitor's expense, the
committee finding the space and stands requisite for their purpose. Each exhibitor
received a free pass for his personal use, the public being admitted on payment of
twopence each ; children under twelve being charged half price. The price of the
season tickets was fixed at sixpence each. The articles exhibited were divided into
nine classes — useful, ingenious, ornamental, scientific, artistic, literary, amusing,
curious, and miscellaneous. The number of exhibitors was 144, including repre
sentatives of the following occupations and trades: — Carpenters, chimney-sweeps,
shopmen, postmen, whitesmiths, cabinet-makers, printers, joiners, ironfounders,
modellers, labourers, engineers, potters, stone-sawyers, coppersmiths, brushmakers,
tailors, bookbinders, seamen, paper-makers, glaziers, electrotypists, upholsterers,
shoemakers, engineers, gardeners, boat-builders, cork-cutters, and others. In the
first class, that of useful articles, a chimney-sweep exhibited an improved water-
filter; while a painter displayed some anti-garotting cravats. Amongst the
articles of an ingenious nature, was a buttonhole-cutting machine, made by a
smith; a tablecloth cover, containing 4,700 diamond-shaped pieces, made by a
potman ; and a silk shawl, made by an " evangelist." In the ornamental and
scientific classes several objects of much interest were displayed, including speci
mens of the electrotypist's art, a shoemaker's upright bench, a hydrogen gas-lamp
of novel construction, models of steam-engines, designs for model cottages, and a
mahogany portable lever copying-press. In the artistic and literary classes, the
specimens were more numerous than meritorious. A hairdresser exhibited a series
of plaster models, including Moses breaking the tablets, and other ambitious
attempts. Several exhibitors displayed sketches in oil, water-colours, and pencil,
chiefly copies from the large pictures in the Rlustrated London News and, the
British Workman ; while two seamen contributed Berlin-wool-work representations,
neatly worked by themselves, of ships, and other nautical objects. The opening
565

NORTH-LONDON EXHIBITION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.

ceremony, with which the exhibition was inaugurated, was presided over by the
Earl of Shaftesbury; and at the close of the exhibition, it was felt that its results
had been beneficial, and that, altogether, it was a great success.
In another quarter, the example thus wisely set was foUowed. In the Exhibi
tions of 1851 and 1862 the working classes were chiefly represented by their
employers, who devoted their capital to the production of the best specimens of
skilled workmanship, and received the honours, awarded, without any material pre
judice to the interests of the actual producers. In the regulations of the various
exhibitions which followed, both in Great Britain and on the continent, the same
principle was naturally adopted. It is clear, therefore, that although working-men
were not excluded from these displays as exhibitors, the expenses attendant upon
producing objects worthy to be placed in competition with those of the capitalists,
prevented their availing themselves of that privilege, and that, consequently, it
was left to the working classes to do justice to themselves in this respect.
" The idea of holding an exhibition in the north of London," writes Mr. J. F.
Wilson, the historian of the North-London Working Classes Exhibition, "first
suggested itself to Mr. J. J. Watts, whose connection with several philanthropic
institutions in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell, led him to select that locality
for its centre of operation. The small, but successful, exhibition of amateur
productions which had been held at Lambeth in the spring of 1864, had proved
that the working classes were not only able to furnish an interesting displav, but
that they were willing to support it by paying a small fee for admission. This,
therefore, was considered a sufficient inducement to imitate the commendable
example of South London ; and a private meeting of a few personal friends of Mr.
Watts, resulted in a determination to carry out the scheme. Had the original
intention of confining the exhibition to amateur productions of the inhabitants of
Clerkenwell been maintained, and its management conducted, as at first intimated
by the committee connected with the Lamb and Flag Eagged Schools, it would
have differed in no material point from its Lambeth predecessor ; but the willing
ness of several working-men, to take the matter up on independent grounds, to
accept the labour of its management, and to take the responsibility of its success,
caused the proposal to assume a character of its own, and at once alienated it from
purely philanthropic association. In April, 1864, accordingly, a committee was
selected to form the North-London Working-Man's Industrial Exhibition, consisting
of objects manufactured by the exhibitors, either as specimens of skilled workman
ship, or examples of self-taught handicraft. The Agricultural Hall was secured.
A guarantee fund was raised, Mr. Samuel Morley becoming voluntarily responsible
for £100, and Miss Burdett Coutts for the sum of £50. As adjudicators, the com
mittee were fortunate in securing the valuable assistance of P. Le Neve Foster,
Esq., Secretary of the Society of Arts, through whose influence the following gen
tlemen accepted the responsibility of awarding the prize certificates — viz., Thomas
Winckworth, Esq. ; D. K. Clark, Esq., C.E. ; George Wilson, Esq. ; J. Nicholay,
Esq. ; Peter Graham, Esq., and M. Digby Wyatt, Esq. The total number of
exhibitors who applied for space within the given time was 868, contributing about
3,000 different articles ; and these, with very few exceptions, were deposited in
their places before the opening. Other applications, however, were subseqttently
received ; and, in most cases, the objects offered were accepted, but under the con
dition that no right to prize awards could be claimed on the part of the exhibitors.
The ceremonial opening of the exhibition took place on the 17th of October, at
three o'clock. At that hour, Earl Eussell having taken the chair, the ceremonial
commenced by the choir, under the direction of Mr. E. Gleson Wesley, singing
the 100th Psalm. Mr. Watts, the hon. secretary, then read a report, descriptive of
the history and progress of the exhibition. The noble chairman, accompanied by
a select party, then proceeded to inspect the contents of tbe exhibition; and, on
his return, his lordship delivered a short introductory address. On the noble earl
resuming his seat, an original ode, written for the occasion, was sune, the solo
566 5'

A.D.-1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [north-london exhibition.

parts being taken by Miss Louisa Pyne, Miss Leffler, Mr. Elliot Galer, and Mr.
Lewis Thomas, who. tendered their services gratuitously. The inaugural prayer
was offered up by the Eev. Eobert Maguire. The national anthem was then sung
by the choir ; and, after a vote of thanks had been passed to his lordship for his
attendance, Earl Eussell made a short speech in reply, and then retired. The vast
haU was crowded with visitors during the evening, the majority being of the work
ing classes. . There were nearly 6,000 persons present. And this happily continued :
to the last the interest in the undertaking was maintained. According to the rules,
passed at a pubUc meeting, the exhibition was to have been opened on Mondays
and Wednesdays, from ten till five o'clock ; and on Saturdays, from ten till three
o'clock, admission sixpence : and every evening, except Saturday, from seven till
ten ; and on Saturday, from five to ten, admission twopence ; children, half price.
At the time this rule was made, no idea was entertained that the exhibition would
prove of so attractive a character, or that so large a building would be engaged for
the purpose; stiU less that vast crowds of visitors would seek admission to it.
Before the opening, however, the executive received such unmistakable evidence
of the interest taken in the movement, as to demand their extending the time men
tioned in the rule ; and it was, therefore, announced to be open daily for a fort
night, from nine till five, at sixpence ; and from seven till ten, at twopence."
During the first week 62,412 persons entered the building, exclusive of ex
hibitors and others, who possessed free admission, or attended in the execution of
duty. Of these, the majority belonged to the class for whom the exhibition was
specially intended ; and who, of course, were admitted after seven in the evening.
At nine o'clock each night, the hall became so crowded, that the doors were closed ;
and on Wednesday, the 19th, it was estimated that no less than 5,000 persons were
waiting for admission in the streets, when the building was declared to be full.
The unexpected influx of visitors in the evening, forced upon the attention of
the executive some method of affording amusement to those who were unable,
from the crowded state of the hall, to inspect the exhibition. The services of
several choral societies having been gratuitously tendered to the committee, a large
orchestra being situated at one end of the building, and an unoccupied gallery
surrounding the hall, no difficulty was experienced in at; once organising a series
of musical performances ; and these, while they in no way impeded the inspection
of the articles, had the desired effect of drawing away into the galleries a very
large number of persons, who otherwise would have very inconveniently crowded
the area beneath.
It was anticipated that, after the exhibition had been open a few days, the
number of visitors would decrease ; and it was hoped that this might, to some
extent, be the case, in order that the working-men and their families, who could
not attend during the day without making pecuniary sacrifice, might have an
opportunity of examining the objects in the evening. Experience, however,
proved this to be an illusion, for on Monday, the 17th, a week after its opening,
the attendance rose to 17,635 ; and, on the following Thursday, to 22,002, the
highest number; the total for the second week being nearly 100,000.
Under these circumstances it was determined to keep the exhibition open for
another week, although the time originally fixed for its closing had expired ; but
having fulfilled the obligation involved in the rules, of admitting the public for
a fortnight at 2d. in the evening, the committee felt justified, with numerous
applications, to increase the price of admission. During the last week, therefore,
the exhibition was open from nine in the morning until ten in the evening, at a
uniform fee of 6d. No less than 34,705 persons were thus admitted, making,
altogether, a total of 196,926. It is pleasing to be able to record that not the
slightest disorder took place during the entire period of the exhibition. The
objects were protected chiefly by voluntary aid from members of the local
committee, supplemented by a few policemen, whose presence was rather a pre
cautionary than necessary element in the arrangements. 5fl7

working-class exhibition.] LIFE, AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
One of the most interesting sights which the exhibition afforded was witnessed
on Wednesday evening, October 19th, when 1,500 children belonging to the Band
of Hope Temperance Societies occupied the orchestra, and sang a selection of
characteristic songs, under the direction of Mr. Hosier. This demonstration gave
such satisfaction, and so many persons were prevented from obtaining admission
on the occasion, that it was repeated on Tuesday, November 1.
On Thursday, October 27th, a concert, by the members of the Tonic Sol-Fa
Association, took place, un.der the direction of Mr. Sari ; on Wednesday, November
2nd, a similar entertainment was given, under the leadership of Mr. W. S. Young;
and on Saturday, November 5th, Mr. Jennings' choir gave a select vocal concert.
Offers were also accepted from Mr. Henken and others, who contributed , to the
musical arrangements on a lesser scale. Performances upon the organ were given,
at different periods, by Dr. Wesley, Miss Stirling, Mr. Prout, Mr. De Solla, Mr.
Dean (of St. Olave's), Mr. Davies, and Mr. Tunstall; in addition to which the fol
lowing bands were in attendance at various periods during the exhibition: — The Eoyal
Victoria Volunteers, the N Division of Police, 39th Middlesex Volunteers, the Central
London Eifle Eangers (40th Middlesex), and the 3rd City of London Volunteers.
Of the character of the articles exhibited it is needless to speak. Here, as at
Lambeth, was evident the incongruity which existed between the trades of most
of the exhibitors, and the character of the works they contributed. Most of the
men, it seemed, took refuge from toil in something wholly remote from their daily
work. Thus, a hide-splitter sent crayon drawings ; an , operative chemist, heraldic
ones; a compositor, models of steam-boats; a bookbinder, a gun-spring. It
appeared that a police-sergeant and a letter-sorter were artists ; a clerk was a
geographer ; a bell-founder was an architect ; a barometer-maker turned tailor ;
and a tailor turned barometer-maker ; a second letter-carrier wrote plays ; a boot
maker dealt with saucepans ; a chaff-cutter turned painter — so did a working
smith and a messenger ; a solicitor's clerk proposed to colour tobacco-pipes without
smoking ; a hair-dresser sent a statue, larger than life, of Lady Macbeth ; a sailor
did needlework ; a tailor designed railway tunnels, and made beautiful embroidery ;
a goldsmith formed beautiful instruments, and designed dog-carts ; one soldier
produced a counterpane, another a pin-cushion ; a barge builder, stuffed birds ; a
ground labourer executed a table-cloth; a coffee-shop-keeper designed a steel-
plated battle-ram ; and so on. The number of persons who had love enough for
their proper craft, was, of course, very great; and some of their propositions indicated
great ability. In this respect, especially, were the post-office servants remarkable.
Other persons contributed articles which must have taken a great amount of time
and toil to produce. Of this class was a piece of needlework, which was the
result of twenty-one years of work. Another illustration of this was a tea-caddy,
in more than 2,000 pieces ; and the model of a gun in 1,000 pieces. One person
sent pictures as the results of early rising ; but there were hosts of things valueless,
except in so far as they delighted their makers. One thing, adds the Athenaeum
critic, painfully strikes the student of human nature — i.e., the great number of
plans, displaying considerable ability, and, in some cases, indomitable patience,
which, from the circumstance of their whole service being forestalled ; by otbei
inventors, are but sheer waste to mankind. It is painful to know, in these
cases, that as, day after day, their, makers wrought unconquerably, scores of men
passed their doors in silence, who could have told them how vain was their labour.
The same critic adds — " The lover of art who looks for its progress in} the
increased knowledge of the people, will rejoice to see how drawing has occupied
the leisure of so many scores of men and women, of all crafts and trades.'; Carpen
ters, firemen, porters, gas-fitters, butlers, pork-butchers, hatters, bootemakers,
bookbinders, and others, all draw ; and some draw well."
The financial success of the experiment was very great. The cost of fitting-up
the hall amounted to £200; rent, £545 ; gas, £197';, printing, £219 ; superinten
dence, police, firemen and attendants (exclusive of committee), £140; advertisements,,

a.d. 1864. J VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [industrial exhibitions.
£90 ; bill-posting, £72 ; public meetings, £20 ; expenses attending musical ar
rangements, £133 ; incidental expenses, including stationery, postage, carriage, &c,
£87. The sum taken at the doors, during the nineteen days the exhibition was
open, amounted to £2,596 16s. 4d.; of which upwards of £1,000 consisted of
copper. There were also several items of profit arising from the sale of catalogues,
tickets, &c. The total receipts exceeded the necessary expenditure by about £1,000.
Of this sum, about £500 were devoted to the certificates, and the mementoes for
exhibitors, including expenses connected with their public distribution. The Earl
of Shaftesbury, we may as well state here, was the chairman of the committee of
awards. The exhibition closed on November the 7th, in the evening, when a large
number of persons assembled to witness the final pubUc proceedings. The
admission was raised to 2s. 6c?. and Is., in order to prevent the space allotted to
the visitors from being overcrowded. At seven precisely, the Eight Hon. W. E.
Gladstone, Chancellor of the Exchequer, proceeded to the platform, attended by
the officers and committee of the exhibition. The proceedings commenced by the
choir singing the 100th Psalm; after which the hon. secretary read a brief
report of the progress of the exhibition from its opening, and officially announced
its pecuniary success. At the conclusion of the report, the ode composed for the
opening ceremony was repeated, Madame Louisa Vinning taking the principal solo
part. The chairman was then conducted round the building, and inspected as
many ofthe chief objects as possible; during which interval Dr. S. S. Wesley gave
a performance on the organ. On the chairman's return to the platform, the Eev.
J. W. Fowle, M.A., offered a prayer, and the choir sung the Hallelujah chorus.
Mr. Gladstone then rose, amidst loud and continued cheers, and delivered an
admirable address. Thanks were voted to Mr. Gladstone for it; the national
anthem was sung, and then the exhibition was closed.
The example thus set was speedily followed elsewhere. There was another got
up by the Lambeth people,' which was completely successful. They were not, however,
all successes. That of the London Working Classes Exhibition, held in the Floral
Hall, Covent Garden, was a disastrous failure, in spite of the fact that the general
character of the exhibition was of a really superior kind. Another failure, though
on a minor scale, was that known as the East-London Working Class Exhibition of
Arts and Industry, held at the Beaumont Institution, Mile-End. The East-
London Working Classes Industrial Exhibition, held in St. Mary's Schools,
Whitechapel, was more successful. There were 742 exhibitors ; and many of the
articles exhibited were of a very superior kind. From the very first this exhibition
proved popular with the industrial community ; the number of visitors during the
time it remained open (twenty-four days) being not less than 20,000, Another
successful experiment was the Wandsworth Industrial Exhibition, originated by
the working-men of that locality. The number of exhibitors was 135, the
majority of their productions being of an artistic nature. Many of the prizes
offered in connection with these exhibitions having been gained by children and
young persons, the Clerkenwell Juvenile Industrial Exhibition was formed, in St.
Paul's School-room, Allen Street, Clerkenwell ; no one above the age of nineteen
being allowed to exhibit articles, except by special permission. We must also
mention here the International Eeformatory Exhibition, held in the Agricultural
Hall, Islington, under the direction of the committee of the Eeformatory and
Eefuge Union. The comprehensive character of the exhibition is best shown by
the following list of some of the articles exhibited : — Woollen and other clothing ;
also boys' caps, boots, and shoes ; clogs and wooden shoes ; brooms and brushes of
all kinds, and blacking; articles of furniture, and cabinet-making generally;
carpenter's, turner's, and wheelwright's work, and wood-chopping ; printing, plain
and ornamental, and bookbinding; mats and sacks, paper bags, envelopes, and
card boxes; models, toys, and games; bricks, &c. ; articles in iron; cooper's work ;
agricultural produce; articles made of straw; spinning and weaving, knitting and
vol. ii. 2p 569

industrial exhibitions.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

netting-lace, embroidery, and plain and fancy needlework of every description,
&c. In the centre of the hall were exhibited several skilfully designed trophies,
one of which attracted considerable attention. It consisted of a pyramid of
fire-wood, made by the inmates of the Boys' Home, Wandsworth. The pyramid
was hollow, and possessed a door, which led to a fair-sized apartment. The number
of bundles of fire- wood used in the construction of the edifice was 4,000. A series of
workshops was also erected, in which several hundreds of boys and girls worked at
their respective trades and occupations. The articles exhibited came from
English, Scottish, Irish, Canadian, American, Belgian, French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian, Austrian, Eussian, and other reformatories ; the total number of institu
tions represented being about 200. Another characteristic exhibition was that
which, under the name of the Anglo-French Working Class Exhibition of Skilled
Work, was held at the Crystal Palace, during the months of August, September,
and October, 1865. It was professedly promoted by a number of working-men in
London and Paris, for the purpose " of celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of peace
between two powerful nations, in a manner at once appropriate and suggestive;"
but, somehow or other, the thing was a failure.
The leading towns of England, of course, followed the example of the
metropolis. There were important working class industrial exhibitions at
Wakefield, Nottingham, Eeading, Birmingham, Plymouth, Bristol, Manchester,
and other places. The writer of the article on the subject, in the Companion to
the Almanac, says — "In these the local handicrafts were, upon the whole,
adequately represented. At Manchester the exhibition led to the formation of a
Workman's Art Association. The Wakefield exhibition was very creditably got
up ; one of the principal features being the display of woven cloths, which occupied
a case seventy-four feet in length. These cloths were the production of Mosley
manufacturers, and illustrated a comparatively new branch of textile industry. At
Birmingham the number of exhibitors was 753, the majority of whom were!>
handicraftsmen of the town and neighbourhood. At Bristol the number of
exhibitors was 696, very many of whom displayed the fruit of their ingenuity in
models of yachts and other vessels. As in other exhibitions, there were plenty of
examples in which the articles shown were made by individuals engaged in
occupations of a distinctly opposite nature. Thus, a woollen draper exhibited a
set of skulls and cross-bones, carved in ivory ; a policemen, specimens of faifcy
wool-work; a quarryman, an oil painting; a second policeman, a case of moths and
butterflies, collected during his business hours ; a shipwright, several specimens of
ornamental needlework ; and so on, through a somewhat lengthy Ust. Amongst
the ingenious articles was a cask, which would contain 365 different kinds
of liquor at any one time without mixing them. This was made by a cooper."
In February, 1865, an attempt of a still higher kind was made by the London
operative coachmakers, in the Coachmaker's Hall, Cheapside ; and was intended by
its originators to develop the wants and aspirations of the times in which they
lived. "Education," said they, "has reached most working-men, and assisted
them in maintaining a high degree of manipulative skill; they are now desirous
of obtaining a more scientific knowledge of the laws and principles which govern
their work. The French, German, and Belgian coachmakers, desirous of rivalling
the English, have availed themselves largely of the technical schools and schools of
design m their respective countries ; and they have already much increased their
skill in construction, and are approaching as closely in the works of ornamentation
and finish. Our English mechanics are equally desirous of improving themselves;
and by comparing their' own work in its various stages in such exhibitions as the
present, and by planning out their work beforehand, as maybe seen in the drawings
around us, desire to extend their knowledge of the technicalities of their art, and
obtain new ground on which to set their foot preparatory to a higher development
of their craft." It does not appear, however, that the idea was taken up as the
committee desired or hoped. There were less than 140 exhibitors, the majority of
570 ' J J

a.d. 1S65.J VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [industrial exhibitions.

whom belonged to the handicraftsmen class, and who were stimulated to mutual
emulation by the offer of prizes, ranging in value from half a guinea to ten guineas,
for the best specimen of inventive or professional skill. Although the adjudicators
spoke well of the exhibition as a whole, they were compelled to declare that, for
several of the prizes, there was no competition ; while, in other instances, the
articles exhibited were not of sufficient merit to justify the award of the special
prizes announced. As in the case of the South and North-London Exhibitions, the
weakest portion of the coachmakers' exhibition was that in which some knowledge
of ornamental art was necessary to ensure anything like an approach to perfection.
"Producing, as they [the operative coachmakers] do," said the adjudicators, one
of whom was the Marquis of Lansdowne, " work of the highest quaUties as to
finish and soundness, apart from ornamentation, they do not exhibit high powers of
design, nor any great taste for drawing." In this respect the English operative
coach-builder is inferior to his foreign rival, while he surpasses him in all that
constitutes mechanical exceUence.
Of the general absence of inventiveness conspicuous at these exhibitions, one
cause arose from the fact, that the exhibitor had no protection whatever for any
invention or mechanical improvement of which he might be the discoverer. This
led to the passing, during the parUamentary session of 1865, of what was popularly
known as the Workman's Industrial Exhibition Act, whereby that portion of the
patent law which refused protection to an inventor who had publicly exhibited any
article before it had been patented, was modified, so far as articles displayed in
working class industrial exhibitions were concerned. To secure the advantages
conferred by this act, it is necessary that the exhibition should be certified by the
Board of Trade. The effect of this measure has been to occasion a larger display
of inventive power on the part of the exhibitors. At the Birmingham Industrial
Exhibition many specimens of inventive .genius were exhibited, which, but for the
protection afforded by the Industrial Exhibition Act, would never have been
pubhcly displayed.
In his review of the subject, Mr. J. Plummer thus concludes : — "Leaving the
inventive element aside, the mechanical models are generaUy distinguished by an
exactness of construction, delicacy of finish, and excellent workmanship, sometimes
marveUous. At the Birmingham exhibition, a working jeweller exhibited a
penknife and a pair of scissors, each weighing only two grains. Another exhibitor
displayed his ingenuity in a well-worn sixpence, which he had drilled from edge to
edge without the slightest bulge ; while a third artisan showed a miniature watch
of toe size of a threepenny-piece, weighing only four dwts., and keeping excellent
time. It was complete in every respect; and the various parts, mainspring
included, were made by the exhibitor, who was occupied for four years with his
task. In the North-London Exhibition a weighing machine was shown, which
would display the ten-thousandth part of a grain weight ; and in other exhibitions,
objects equally remarkable for their minuteness and accuracy were not unfrequent.
The largest degree of success was, however, achieved in those instances where the
exhibitors displayed specimens of their particular handiwork. There they were
. perfectly at home, and knew what they were about ; going far towards supplying a
remedy for the grievance complained of by many working people, when they
asserted that, in the International Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, the artisan was
robbed by the capitalist of his just meed of recognition. At the East-
London Exhibition, a case of mathematical instruments, the most perfect and
workman-like of the kind, was exhibited by the actual maker ; and, in many other
instances, journeymen watchmakers, jewellers, shoemakers, opticians, electro-
typists, cabinet-makers, masons, -sculptors, chasers, painters, decorative artists,
gilders, and many more, gave evidence of their unusual proficiency in their
respective vocations. This feature of the1 industrial exhibition system is one
which should be encouraged in every possible way, because its tendency is to
raise the standard of professional skiU amongst the workers."
2p2 571

co-operative societies.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
In 1861, it appears the working-men had applied the co-operative system in
as many as 126 towns. The principle of co-operation was as old as society itself;
but it is only of late that it has been adopted as the means of benefiting the work
ing classes. The failures of the Ateliers Nationaux, in France, gave birth to the
Christian Socialists in this country, who attempted some plan of the same kind at
home. The result was the formation of the Working-Men's Association, and the
starting of co-operative stores in the manufacturing districts. In the former the
workers are the capitalists ; and besides receiving the fixed rate of wages, divide
the profits among themselves. In the latter case, the societies are supported by
the aid of capital, subscribed by working-men, who receive a fixed annual per
centage on the amount of capital subscribed ; and also share the profits remaining,
after the payment of interest, among themselves, in proportion to the amount of
purchases made at the stores. The history of a few will best describe the greatness
of some of these undertakings.
Let us take the case of the Leeds Industrial Co-operative and Provision
Society, originated in Leeds in 1847, by a few working-men, in consequence of
the high price of flour, and the excessive adulterations practised by the sellers of it.
The capital was raised by means of shares of 21s. each — no member being allowed to
possess more than one share ; but after a while, an increase of capital being required,
the value of the shares was increased to 50s. each. The society purchased their
own premises; and now deal in grocery, drapery, and other articles. Within
a circuit of twenty miles, they have forty-three agents for the sale of the society's
flour. The number of shareholders is now about 4,000. They had, in 1860, twelve
branch agencies, all described as flourishing. How the society has grown and
prospered appears from the following facts : — In 1847, the funds were £969 16s. 3±d.;
the business done amounted to £5,000 2s. 5d. ; and the profits £43 15s. 1\d. In
1860, the business done was £49,208 13s. 6d. ; and the profits were £2,693 3s. 3d
The goods are sold by means of tin tickets, used for the purpose of verifying the
amount of purchases made by each customer, and for the sake of dispensing with
the unprofitable labour of making several thousand entries in the shop's books.
These tickets are of various sizes, and are stamped with figures, representing various
sums of money. " A customer," writes Mr. John Plummer, " purchasing goods to
the amount of Is. 1 l|d, would receive three tin tickets, representing the sums of one
shilling, eleven pence, and a halfpenny. These tickets are preserved by the customer;
so that, at the end of each quarter, the amount of purchases can be ascertained,
and the dividend paid on presenting the tickets at the office. Several of the
societies divide the profit amongst all the customers, whether shareholders or not;
but many do otherwise, and exclude non-members from any participation in the
profits." J * e
The chief of all these societies is, however, that known as " The Eochdale
Equitable Pioneer Co-operative System." No incident in the industrial history of
any community has proved more successful or more characteristic than this attempt,
on the part of a few Lancashire operatives, to better their condition. The aims
of the society appear to be— the social and intellectual advancement of its members ;
the providing them with groceries, butcher's meat, drapery goods, clothing, shoes,
clogs, &c. ; and affording a safe and profitable investment for the savings of working-
men, who are allowed 5 per cent, on all money invested in paid-up shares. The
society commenced with a capital of £28 : in the year 1860, its business had in
creased to the enormous extent of £152,063. Its gradual rise is thus described in
its almanac for 1860 :— "Fifteen years have now passed since the thought occurred
to a few labouring men of Eochdale, that it might be possible to better their social
condition by joining together, for the purpose of purchasing in a wholesale market,
the various commodities which were needed for consumption in their several
families. Simple and humble as was the thought, many difficulties lay in the way
of its execution. First, the want of means, as they were all poor men, most of
them in the deepest poverty, consequent upon a strike respecting wages, from

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the equitable pioneers.
which they were just emeaging, and for which they had been soliciting assist
ance from the shopkeepers of the neighbourhood. It was the slenderness of this
assistance which gave impetus to the energy with which the idea was first put in
practice. Another difficulty was prejudice, a great deal of which existed in the
minds of most working-men, as to the practicability of provision stores being
managed by the working classes with any profit to themselves. The prejudice was
strong at the time ; for it was still warm in the recollection of many, that several
stores had failed, and that their affairs had been left in the hands of a few, to
wind up at a considerable loss. Besides these difficulties, there was the opposition
they were certain to encounter from the shopkeeping class, seeing that they would
necessarily be losers by the success of these co-operators. But no great cause ever
suffered, in the end, by having difficulties to overcome, and opposition to contend
with. And so these men, being determined to succeed, overcame the first difficulty
by subscribing their pence tiU they amounted to pounds ; and kept on subscribing
till their pounds were sufficient to warrant them in commencing operations. They
overcame the second difficulty by agreeing that all their business should be
transacted for ready money only, both in buying and selling ; so that, on the one
hand, no member could be a debtor to the society; while, on the other, none
but a member could be a creditor. With these conditions no difficulty
was experienced in getting men to take the management of affairs, as there was
then no risk in the matter. As for the last difficulty mentioned — namely, the
opposition of the shopkeepers — they have been battling with it successfully all
along, from the commencement."
Mr. Plummer, who visited the establishment in 1861, says — "The upper part
of the warehouse is used as store-rooms, excepting the top floor, which has a
separate entrance from the street, and is fitted up as a library and reading-room;
and possesses a pair of large globes, a telescope, microscope, &c." He adds — " The
society's Ubrary deserves to be specially mentioned, because its formation reflects
the highest degree of credit on those to whom was entrusted the onerous task of
selecting the requisite works. It is most gratifying to find that their choice has
been influenced by so much good taste and sound judgment, as is evidenced by the
Ust of works which appear in the general catalogue. I particularly observed that,
under the general head of History and Biography, were to be found the several
works of Alison, Bancroft, Boswell, Palgrave, Leiteh Eitchie, Carlyle, Barrow,
Chambers, Thackeray, Knight, Goethe, Hallam, Lord Mahon, Craik, Macaulay,
&c. In fiction occurred the novels of Scott, Dickens, James, Cooper, Bulwer,
Thackeray, &c. ; while, in geography, they had obtained every procurable standard
work. Amongst the books classed under the somewhat lengthy title, ' Mental,
Moral, and Social PhUosophy, and Political Economy,' they possessed the writings
of John Stuart Mill, Chalmers, Eisdell, Martineau, Foster, Grey, Humboldt,
C. Knight, Newman, &c. Their inherent love of poetry was shown by the names
of Burns, Elliot, Massey, Blomfield, Hood, Coleridge, Moore, Hogg, Miss Mitford,
Mackay, Longfellow, Bayley, Shakespeare, &c. Nor were the local poets forgotten,
for they possessed the works of John Cutchley Prince, S. Bamford, John Bolton,
Eogerson, Charles Swain, and others. Under similar headings were to be found
the writings of Lord Brougham, and other distinguished authors; the whole
forming an aggregate of 5,000 volumes. The reading-room contained most of the
best periodicals of the day — such as Once a Week, Chambers' Journal, All the
Year Round, London Review, amongst the weeklies; and Frazer's Magazine,
the Cornhill Magazine, Temple Bar, Macmillan, amongst the monthlies;
whilst the tables were well supplied with the Times, Morning Star, Manchester
Examiner, Manchester Guardian, and other daily and weekly metropolitan and
provincial newspapers. Several members were busily engaged in reading as I
entered the room, and they appeared to take great interest in the articles which
they were perusing."
The success of this great society led, in 1854, to the formation ofthe Eochdale

LEGISLATION ON THE SUBJECT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.Di 1862.

Co-operative Manufacturing Company ; and to that of the Eochdale Co-operative
Land and Building Company. The Eochdale co-operators have presented their
town with an extremely elegant marble drinking fountain, and haye made hand
some donations to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, the Eochdale Dispensary, and the
Manchester Infirmary. They also possess a "Provident, Sick, and Burial Society,"
and a Turkish Bath Company.
We cannot stop' here to give further particulars of these co-operative societies.
It was estimated in May, 1861, by Dr. John Watts, that, up to that time, the
registration of such companies would cover a capital of one million and a-half
sterling ; exclusive of the " Manchester Cotton Company, Limited," whose capital is
one million. Besides the above-mentioned associations, others have been recently
started,' such as the "Preston Co-operative Spinning and Weaving Company;"
" Colne Co-operative Spinning and Weaving Company ;" " Lancashire Co-operative
Spinning and Weaving Company ;" " Calliard's Manufacturing Flannel Company ;"
"Trades' Newspaper Company;" the "London Building Company;" "High
Wycombe Co-operative- Chair Manufacturing Company." There are also many
new stores, several on a very large scale, lately opened in various parts' of the
kingdom. The success, and increasing magnitude, of these co-operative societies, has led
many of the soundest disciples of political economy to believer that in co-operation
will at length be found the means of reconciling the interests of labour and
capital. Mr. William Chambers states, that " it seems almost as if we had got hold of
that for which philanthropists had hitherto been blindly groping, and saw a
solution of those difficult problems, in the relationship of capital and labour, that
had long perplexed writers on social economies; that solution being the more
valuable that it is in the1 course of being spiritedly wrought out by the eo-opesative
body themselves." Such, also, seems to be the opinion of the late Eeeorda. Hill,
John Stuart Mill, and others. It will not do, however, to be too sanguine on this
head. There are dangers to which the principle of association is peculiarly
exposed — dangers which can only be avoided by skill and care. Amongst the
co-operative societies already formed there have been many grievous failures —
failures which should teach wisdom to the managers of more prosperous
associations; The legislature, willing to encourage these enterprises-:, so far as they seemed
sound, in 1862, passed an act which superseded all the others.. By this last-named
statute, any seven or greater number of partners may form themselves into- an
industrial or provident society, for the carrying on of any labour,- trade, or
handicraft, wholesale or retail, except banking, mining, and one or two others, which
are provided for by other statutes. The members must draw up full and expUcit
rules for- their guidance, which rules are to be submitted to the registrar of
friendly societies. If he approves of them he gives a certificate of registration,
which constitutes the society a, body corporate, with a common seal, and limited
liability. No member is to hold a greater interest than £200 in the society : the
organisation is midway, in character, between joint-stock companies and friendly
societies. They may be either manufacturing or trading— may either' make
or supply, buy and sell. In practice, however, says Mr. George Dodd, the
members confine themselves almost wholly to the latter- class of operations.
Hardly any of them keep factories or workshops. Perhaps they are right;, for it is
a serious thing to conduct a large manufacturing establishment, in which either
a committee must manage what they do not understand, or must be dependent
on the skill, honesty, and energy of a manager employed by them. StUl it can be
done, and is done for their co-operative cotton-mills in Lancashire, and woollen-
mills in Yorkshire; but, at .present, the operatives are confined almost wholly to
buying and selling grocery, chandlery, bread, flour, meat, drapery, shoes, hats, and
other necessaries for the famiUes of working-men. Some of the societies deal in
574

ajj. 1786.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [philanthropic progress.
bread and flour only ; others, flour only ; several, drapery only ; while a few embrace
within their range all the miscellaneous odds and ends of a huckster's shop — treacle
and tape, needles and nutmegs, lucifers and laces, pins, pens, candles, &c. It
appears, from a return presented to the House of Commons in May, 1864, that
no less than 381 industrial and provident societies were registered, in England and
Wales, in 1863. At the end of that year there were 108,588 members of societies,
the assets of which were £793,500, and the Uabilities £227,009 — evidence, this, of
the sound manner in which they are carried on. It is evident, where the members
are so connected with each other by local interests, there is little temptation to
reckless trading ; and that the societies offer to their members advantages of the
greatest importance. It seems to us that, in this way, rather than in trades'
unions, or societies of Odd Fellows and Foresters, that the true amelioration of
the state of the working classes in this country will be effected. Thus becoming
capitalists and employers of labour themselves, they will learn that even the
capitalist and the master has his rights and interests ; and that there are mutual
obUgations resting upon all, whether master or man.
We have now to consider the progress, made in philanthropy during Lord
Palmerston's career. To draw a faithful picture of the crime and pauperism which
are making such fearful havoc in our land, and, at the same time, to paint in
true colours the generous efforts of a whole nation ; to attenuate their evil results,
and lighten their perils, is, in such a work as the present, an impossible task. In
our day, the aim of philanthropists is fourfold. To adopt and educate those
unfortunate children who, abandoned by their natural protectors, are thrown
friendless on the world ; to ameliorate the public health by the prohibition of the
sale of spirituous liquors ; to improve the habitations of the working classes — for
which latter aim a distinguished American merchant presented the city of London
with no less munificent a sum than £250,000 ; to evolve- and carry into execution
a penal system combining the reformation with the punishment of the offender.
The annual amount of thefts in the United Kingdom is estimated at £5,200,000.
Another alarming fact is, that there are above 2,000,000 children who receive no
instruction, primary or industrial. Yet philanthropy has been very hard at work
these many years ; although it is chiefly since the passing of the Eeform Bill of
1832 that the great efforts of social reformers have been made. In the good old
times there was very little of public benevolence. The church failed in its duty —
statesmen and landlords were oblivious of theirs ; thus crime grew up, and became
rampant in our midst.
George III. was a narrow-minded man ; but he was, in some respects, a well-
meaning king, and took a real interest in the welfare of the poor. When Mr.
Eaikes, the philanthropic printer of Gloucester, had successfully carried out his
plan for improving the moral and religious condition of the poor by means of
Sunday-schools, the king not only took a deep interest in its success, but Mr.
Eaikes was invited to Windsor, where, in a long interview with the queen, he
explained the objects he had in view, and the principles on which he acted. "It
happened," writes Mr. Jesse, in his Memoirs of the Life and Reign of George the
Third, "that one of his most zealous and active followers in this work was the
once celebrated Sarah Trimmer, between whom and the royal family some kind
of acquaintance already existed. She was the daughter of the late ingenious
Josiah Kirby, who, from the humble position of a house-painter, in a village in
Suffolk, had raised himself to be an artist of no mean reputation. Some of his
drawings had the good fortune to attract the attention of the then powerful
favourite Bute, who, to his credit, obtained for him the appointment of clerk
of the works at Kew Palace, where he had the honour of instructing the queen
in the art of drawing in perspective. Kirby, at this time (1786), was no more ; but
his daughter, Mrs. .Trimmer, was residing at Brentford, on the opposite side of the
river to Kew, where she was actively employed in superintending the Sunday and
industrial schools, which she had been the principal means of establishing. She
575

philanthropy.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.
was easy of access, therefore, to the king and queen, with the latter of whom she
appears to have been more especially in communication. "I have this day,"
writes the benevolent lady, in her journal, "had the unexpected honour of.
attending her majesty; and had inexpressible pleasure in her sensible, humane,
and truly Christian conversation. May her pious designs of establishing Sunday-
schools at Windsor be put in execution !" Again, Mrs. Trimmer writes to a friend
— " Some time last autumn I received a message from the queen, desiring me to
attend her at a certain hour ; and I accordingly waited on her majesty, who re
ceived me with the most condescending kindness : told me she had heard of the
success of the schools under my inspection ; and being very anxious for their es
tablishment at Windsor, desired to have information from me on the subject. I
was honoured with a conference. It is impossible to do justice to the. charming
manner in which the queen expressed the most benevolent sentiments, and the
tenderest regard for the happiness 'of the poor." The king himself, on one occa
sion, visited the School of Industry at Brentford, where we find him winning
the hearts of the children by his kind and condescending behaviour. "A
general joy prevails," writes Mrs. Trimmer, " among the conductors of Sunday-
schools." " About this time, also," writes Mr. Jesse, " we find the king taking an active
interest in the benevolent exertions of John Howard, to ameliorate the,abuses of
prison discipline ; receiving the philanthropist at a private interview at Windsor,
and subsequently heading a subscription for erecting a statue in his honour. This
homage to his virtues was modestly declined by Howard, with his majesty's full
approval. ' Howard,' said the king, ' wants no statue ; his virtues will live when
every statue has crumbled into dust.' "
The impulse thus given rapidly grew and strengthened. Bell and Lancaster
lived to promote popular education. Mrs. Fry took up the cause of the prisons
and the prisoners. The great attack of cholera, in 1849, led to the formation of
sanitary associations, and the study of the laws of health. Mrs. Chisholm, in
1856, we find very active in the promotion of her family emigration scheme,
whereby people starving here were to be transported to peace and plenty in
Australia. The peace congresses, under the superintendence of Joseph Sturge, we
find also increasingly popular, until the breaking-out of the Eussian war, when
the cause relapsed into insignificance, henceforth to do little more than keep
an official or two harmlessly busy. The same remark applies to the Society for
the Abolition of the Punishment of Death. Societies of all kinds for bettering
the condition of poor humanity, were warmly supported by the press and the
people of this country. The voluntary principle was resorted to. There was
often a pleasing rivalry between churchmen and dissenters, as to which should
• ^T P°d' and. secure the larSest amount of trophies in their respective
neighbourhoods. Eeformatory schools were found especially valuable. At the
end of 1857 there were fifty of these certified schools in England, and twenty-
two in Scotland. It was felt that they helped the children to form habits of
application and industry At Eedhill, the agricultural operations of the year
1857 produced a net profit of £300. People's parks were also, at this time, in
augurated on _a grand scale; and museums, and libraries, and schools of art
sustained. The friends of religion began to hold special services in theatres and
public halls, in order to teach the pubUc at large. Indeed, everywhere life and
activity were the order of the day.
Eussell 1858 the S°Cial Science Associati<m met, under the presidency of Lord
. . *n APr\ 1859> about 200 ministers of the gospel, in London and the
Iiw/' PHHa? f6™0118™ lavT of t^ early closing of shops, with the view of
allowing additional time for further mental improvement to the assistants; and
ItTll ¦ SaW ft^t™ °f ,the first Public drmkillg fountain in London,
under the auspices of the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain Association, at the

a.d. 1854.J VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord palmerston's act.
expense of Samuel Gurney, Esq., M.P. In 1860, a public meeting on early closing,
with reference to the volunteer movement, was held at St. James's Hall.
Public attention was drawn to flogging in the army in September of the same
year, in consequence of the frequency and severity of punishments of this nature at
Woolwich. A man named Dames was flogged nearly to death ; and the agitation
created in consequence amongst the people led to a modification of the rules of
military discipline, which was announced in an order of the commander-in-chief in
November. A county meeting was held in the Shire Hall, Worcester, in the above year,
to consider the best method of improving the system of hiring agricultural
servants. Lord Lyttleton, the lord-lieutenant of Worcestershire, presided; and
the meeting was addressed by Sir. J. Pakington, Mr. Bull (a tenant farmer), Sir
E. A. H. Lechmere, the Hon. F. Lygon, and other magistrates. Eesolutions were
adopted in condemnation of the system of hiring servants at statute fairs and
shops ; and in favour of establishing a system of registration in districts, with a
central office at Worcester.
In 1862, an effort was organised to grapple with what is called the social evil.
In February a midnight meeting was called at St. James's Hall, Piccadilly, at
which about 300 prostitutes attended, by invitation; and, after being supplied
with tea and coffee, were addressed by the Hon. and Eev. Baptist Noel. Several
ministers, and other gentlemen, took part in the proceedings. Similar meetings
were held at intervals throughout the year. The result, according to a statement
put forth in August, being, that twenty-six young women were restored to their
friends, one of them having been sent to New York ; eighteen had been placed in
service; four had married; two had emigrated; one was reconciled to her husband;
one employed as a folder, in the warehouse of a printer ; one established in business ;
and ninety-one placed in homes or asylums. The average ages of the young women
thus received was twenty-two years.
The temperance question had been ardently advocated since the days of Father
Mathew. In London the National Temperance League was a very powerful body.
In 1859, there was an overflowing meeting at Exeter Hall, on the occasion of a
body of teetotallers being formed into societies called lodges, under the designation
of the Sons of the Phoenix ; the leading features of the organisation being those of
benefit societies. The assembly was addressed by working-men, one from each
society or lodge. Then there was the United Kingdom Alliance, for the
suppression of the liquor traffic, holding its head-quarters at Manchester,
under the superintendence of Sir. W. Trevelyan; and, in Scotland, there was
the Scottish Temperance League, ably carried on, having a large constituency,
publishing much excellent literature, and doing an immense amount of good.
The shoe-black societies had their origin in 1851, when a meeting was held at
the Field Lane Eagged School, for the purpose of devising plans for the employ
ment of Eagged School boys in cleaning knives and shoes in private houses, when
the expected influx of strangers should visit the metropolis on account of the
Great Exhibition of that year. Three gentlemen were returning home from that
meeting, when, on crossing Holborn Hill, near Chancery Lane, it occurred to one of
them that shoe-blacking in the public streets might furnish suitable employment
for many of the boys. A committee of seven gentlemen, all of the legal
profession, was formed; and on the 31st of March, 1851, five boys were stationed
at selected posts — the first taking up his position in Trafalgar Square, and
inaugurating the scheme by polishing the boots of one of the committee.
Lord Palmerston added to the points of controversy, with regard to ragged
and reformatory schools, by his legislation on the subject in 1854. The act passed
in that year, known as Lord Palmerston's Act, empowers judges and magistrates,
in the case of any child found guilty of an offence which subjects it to fourteen days'
imprisonment at least, to commit such child, after the expiration of its sentence, to
any reformatory which shall have been duly certified by the inspector of prisons,
577

factories' act/} LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

for a term of not less than two, nor more than five, years. Strong objection has
been urged to this enactment, so far as relates to the sending the child to prison
before being sent to the reformatories, on account of the likelihood there is that
the prison will be to him a school for crime ; and that even a fortnight's com
panionship with his seniors in crime, will make him worse than he was when he
entered. On the other hand, the directors of the Eedhill Eeformatory strongly
recommend that, in every case, the juvenile offender should receive an amount
of previous punishment proportioned to the offence of which he had been
guilty. Another legislative effort must be glanced at here. So great were the moral
and physical ills arising from the use of children of tender years in certain trades
and manufactures, that, in 1833, an act was passed, prohibiting their employment
under nine years of age in certain classes of factories ; and forbidding those under
thirteen years of age from working full time. In 1844, the act had been found so
beneficial that it was extended and amended, the age of short-timers being reduced
from nine to eight years. A few years afterwards, the principal features of the
Factories' Eegulation Act were embodied in a measure intended for the reUef of
children and females employed in bleaching and dyeing- works ; and which also
afforded Mr. Eoebuck an opportunity of delivering, in the House of Commons, one
of the most effective speeches he ever uttered there. This speech, in some degree,
prepared the way for the movement which led to the appointment, in February, 1862,
of a royal commission, for the purpose of inquiring into "the employment of children
and young persons in trades and manufactures not already regulated by law."
The first report of the committee was published in 1863, and contained much
information of a valuable and interesting nature respecting the condition of the
children employed in the pottery, lucifer-match, percussion-cap, paper-staining,
lace, and hosiery manufactures ; and in the local trades, known as fustianHcutting,
finishing, &c. ; besides a large amount of evidence with regard to the systematic
violation of the law relating to the employment of climbing boys by chimney
sweepers. The details in the commissioners' report revealed the existence of a
terrible state of things, so far as the mental and physical condition of the children
employed in several of those trades are concerned. Actually, in the hosiery
manufacture, one of the witnesses examined was Edwin Hadden, aged four years!
It would appear that the majority of children employed thus early in the various
trades and manufactures, are the offspring of intemperate and improvident parents ;
and that their employment is, of course with some exceptions, less the result of
poverty than of misconduct on the part of the parents, who frequently expend more
money weekly in intoxicating liquors than they obtain from the labour of their
children. Mr. James Edwards, earthenware manufacturer, of Fenton, says—
" Were it not for the number of beer-houses, many parents, who now waste their
earnings in drink, would have plenty of money to keep their children at home and
at school, without having to send them to work." Mr. John Plummer adds—" This
statement is applicable to the majority of the trades, as I can testify from, my own
personal knowledge."
The fact to which we have just alluded has attracted considerable attention.
It was felt that what the working-man wanted was not the Mechanics' Institute,
with its careful exclusion of politics and theology; nor the beer-shop, with its
demoralising associations; but a place where he could have a comfortable smoke
and chat : in short, a working-man's club. One gentleman, the Eev. Mr. Solly,
who had long pondered the matter in his mind, read a paper on the subject in
1861, at the Dublin social science congress. It appeared that, in 1860, he had got
the Mayor of Lancaster to meet several of the representatives of tbe Mechanics'
Institute and the Local Temperance Society at the Town Hall, out of which
conference a public meeting originated, resulting in the formation of a Working-
Men s Mutual Improvement and Eecreation Benefit Society. The idea, which had
also previously occurred to others, was speedUy taken up ; and, in 1862, during the
578

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Westminster club.

social science congress in London, Lord Brougham consented to take the chair at a
preliminary meeting, and then the Working-Men's Club and Institute Union was
launched into existence.
One of the most remarkable of these clubs is the Westminster Working-
Man's Club and Eeading-room, Duck Lane, opened in December, 1860, and
originated by Miss Adeline Cooper. The club building was enlarged in December,
1861 ; but the cost of its erection and fittings was less than £460. Tbe house
contains a large room on the ground-floor, for coffee, smoking, conversation,
draughts, newspapers, &c. ; a small room for the store-keeper, fitted up with
eupboards, cottage stove, &c; with offices; and the upper floor is divided into two
rooms by a movable partition.
"The history of the club shows a marked progress since its inauguration. A
penny bank was started three weeks after the club was opened ; a loan society in
July, 1861 ; a temperance society, with a sick fund for members, in January, 1862 ;
and a barrow club in the following October. The club has classes for instruction
in reading, writing, and ciphering ; Bible and singing classes ; and arrangements
are made for lectures on interesting and scientific subjects. The reading-room is
suppUed with two daily and eight weekly papers, and seven monthly periodicals.
The members belong, generally, to the lowest order of the industrious poor,
including many costermongers, crossing-sweepers, and labourers, who are attached to
the club as weU by its popular form of government (the committee being chosen by
the members from their own body), as by the advantages it offers, and the low rate
of subscription, which is only one halfpenny per week. There were, at the starting
of the club, forty members. The number had, in August, 1862, increased to 270 ;
and the attendance in October following averaged 136, and had averaged, during
the summer, above 100. The excellent conduct of the members, to whose manage
ment the club was, from the first, entrusted entirely by Miss Cooper, is proved
by the harmony, decorum, and good feeling which has constantly prevailed;
and by the fact that, since it was opened, not a book, or newspaper even,
has ever been taken away. None but working-men are admitted as members.
" Few who are acquainted with the general aspect of working-men's clubs," writes
someone in Good Words, October, 1866,. " would recognise, at first sight, that erected
for the costermongers, street hawkers, and others of the poorest class in West
minster. The building would not disgrace the handsomest street in the metropolis.
The portion set apart for the club has a general room, thirty-two feet by twenty-
four, and thirteen feet high, with a lavatory and other accommodations attached ;
also a kitchen and library. Over the club-room is a reading-room, thirty-three
feet by ' twenty-four ; and also a committee-room and office. In the dwelling-
house, which is entered from St. Anne's Lane, there are seventeen single tene
ments; thirty-eight with two rooms; five with three rooms; let off at Is. 9d.,
3s., and 4s. 6d. a week. The entrance to each tenement is at the back, from stone
external galleries. On each landing are two water-closets, a washing sink and a
tap, with water laid on to both ; also two dust-shafts. Each of the Uving rooms
has one of Nicholson's grates, with oven and boiler ; a lock-up larder, and a coal
closet. One of the most remarkable features in the building, and, perhaps, the
most to be eommended, is the washhouse, placed upon the top floor, by which
arrangement the inmates of the dwelling-house are not annoyed by the steam
from the washing. It is a large and lofty room, with seven coppers and washing-
troughs ; also two drying-closets, properly fitted up. All the floors in the building
are of iron and concrete, boarded over; and the lintels of strong bar iron, no
timber being used in the construction ; and the stairs are of York stone, built into
the walls on both sides ; so that, as far as practical, the building is fire-proof.
In a portion of the building, forming the angle of Old Pye Street and St. Anne's
Lane, is a handsome double-fronted shop, in which the members have established a
co-operative store. This also promises to be a success. Including children, there
are 242 persons in the dwelling-house; and of these sixty are married couples.

working-men's clubs.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
If the integrity or respectability of tenants can be proved by the punctual payment
of their rent, and the good order and cleanUness of their abodes, there is little
more to be desired in those of the Pye Street model lodging-house. Greater
cleanliness than pervaded the whole, at the time of our unexpected visit, we have
rarely met with ; and, on inquiry of the manager, we found there was not a tenant
one week in arrears of rent. Yet the class from which they are taken may be
better understood when we state that, among the tenants, we found, twenty-six
hawkers and costermongers; two grinders; four blind street musicians; two
cabmen ; two chair-menders ; one china-mender ; six widows, most of them char
women ; and the rest made up of persons in a similar grade of society. In the club
and dwelling-house several collateral societies have been formed. There' is a
loan society, a temperance sick benefit society, and a barrow club. There is also
a penny bank, which is a flourishing institution. Miss Cooper has been more
successful than the promoters of model lodging-houses, who exclude the very poor
from the benefits of the palatial buildings they erect.
" On Sundays the club is open, and a simple unsectarian religious service is
then held; the newspapers, &c, are removed, and tracts and religious publications
are placed upon the table. The fundamental rules forbid the use of intoxicating
drinks upon the premises, as well as all gambling, betting, and profane language ;
and although only a minority are total abstainers, experience has proved to them
so forcibly that the club works better without these drinks, that though many
of them at first wished for their introduction, they are now, to a man, against
having them."
It is calculated, that since the establishment ofthe Institute Union, upwards of
seventy-six clubs, representing nearly 17,000 members, have been formed through its
agency. They are to be found in all parts of the country ; but principally in the
metropolis and the northern counties — about thirty-six being situated in London
and its neighbourhood ; and nearly as many more in the midland and northern
districts. In some of the large towns of the north these clubs have been very successful.
The Preston Working-Men's Club numbers 600 members, and embraces the fol
lowing departments. Instruction, including a news-room, small library, and classes
for writing, discussion, elocution, and chess-playing; amusements, including
chess, draughts, dominoes, and, above all, a bagatelle-table ; physical exercise in a
small gymnasium, in a ground adjoining; refreshments, consisting of tea, coffee,
soups, pies, &c. ; but no intoxicating liquors. At Leeds there are two clubs, one
of which possesses a branch for the use of boys and young persons. These two
clubs, together with the branch institution, possess 2,500 members, with an
average daily attendance of 400. At York, the society is described as a model one
— " Not a few of its members were originally public-house frequenters ; but found
the attractions of their own club preferable to those held out by the beer-shop and
gin-palace." The class of men who usually attend these clubs has been described
by the secretary of the Southampton Workman's Hall, who states that " the dis
tribution of trades among the first 700 members was as follows .-—One-fourth, or
172, were labourers, hawkers, porters, &c. ; 109 bricklayers, masons, and carpenters,
&e ; 103 boiler-makers and smiths, &c. ; sixty-one shoemakers, curriers, &c;
hlty-four engineers and seamen; ninety-nine painters and mechanics, &c;
twenty-six tailors ; and the remainder were shopmen, agents, carriers, &c."
In May, 1864, a conference, under the auspices of the Working-Men's Club
and Institute, was held at the Whittington Club, London. The Earl of Lichfield,
Lord Lyttleton, John S. Pakington,Esq., and James Heywood, Esq., F.E.S., presided;
and the questions discussed were as to the means of extending the principles and
the character of working-men's clubs. The members of the conference discussed
such subjects as the desirability, or otherwise, of the committees being composed
wholly of workmg-men; the admission of non-members; defaulting subscribers;
tiie minimum age of admission; the union of clubs with mechanics' institutes;
Do\j

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [reformatory schools.
funds, payments, &c. ; the use of intoxicating liquors, &c. The institute, it must
be remembered, does not form clubs, it only undertakes to give advice. It thus
defines the object of the society, or club : — " To produce a club and institute, as
members of which the working-men of the neighbourhood can enjoy social in
tercourse and pleasant companionship, coupled with opportunities for mental and
moral improvement, recreation, and mutual helpfulness ; and further, to give them
faciUties for carrying on various plans of social improvement, such as co-operative
societies, friendly or benefit clubs, mutual improvement societies, trade or building
societies, and the Uke, in the prosecution of which, working-men, at present, are
often obUged to resort to public-houses, for the mere want of a better place of
meeting." It appears these clubs are not very difficult to form. According to
Mr. Solly, " 300 men, paying 2d. a week, or Is. 6d. per quarter, can rent a
comfortable house to meet in for conversation, business, study, or recreation;
and can keep it well suppUed with newspapers, games, and books ; pay for a house
keeper, coals, gas, &c. ; and, in many places, have a yard besides for skittles, quoits,
and gymnastic exercises. With a little money help from friends and neighbours
they can buy gas-fittings, timber for making tables, benches and partitions ; bricks
and mortar (if needed here and there), white and colour-wash, or paper-hangings ;
and they themselves can have the satisfaction of giving, after their day's work, any
labour required in fitting-up, altering, or repairing the house, so as to be no more
dependent than necessary upon others. A good second-hand piano, and large
bagateUe-board, may easUy be purchased with a few extra contributions from
friends, or a small levy among themselves."
Mr. Sydney Turner is able to report, that " the general progress and condition
of the reformatory schools of Great Britain, throughout the year 1865, was very
satisfactory. At the close of the year, there were 3,560 boys and 948 girls actually
in the schools, and 254 boys and fifty-one girls were on license. The admissions in
1865 were more numerous than in the previous year; the chief increase in
England being in Lancashire and the metropolis ; and a corresponding advance took
place in the commitments of juvenile offenders to prison. The lower classes,
especially of Irish labourers, emigrate in such numbers to those two great centres
of employment, London and Liverpool, throwing thousands of neglected, untaught
children upon the streets for exercise and recreation, that nothing short of a law
for compulsory education can fully meet the evil. Much may be, and is, done to
lessen the number of commitments in the agricultural districts and ordinary towns,
and here and there the mischief may be effectually repressed ; but London and
the great seaports seem to defy such limited efforts, and the gaol and the reform
atory continue filled with children, whom mere neglect and idleness had made first
mischievous and then criminal. Still, it is necessary to mark, that since the intro
duction of the reformatory system, the commitments of juvenile offenders to prison
in England have materially declined; averaging 10,750 in the five years ending
with Michaelmas 1860, they have fallen to 8,821 in the last five years, and in
Scotland from 1,227 to 1,097, and this while adult crime has increased. Mr. Turner
considers that the trained, hardened young thief is now a thing of the past, and
his professional trainer also; or when met with occasionally, it is a mere
travestie of what was once a perilous reality. The mass of juvenile offenders
now are petty pilferers, passers of bad money, &c, going wrong from the want of
proper training and restraint, rather than members of a professed brotherhood
associated to prosecute the art of robbery. The returns from reformatory schools,
relating to the young persons discharged, continue to show an average of success
of from 70 to 75 per cent, for the boys, and 65 to 70 per cent, for the girls ;
and this is fully borne out by the returns of the numbers recognised in prisons.
The average cost per head, in reformatory schools in 1865, reckoning building
outlay and aU expenditure, and including profit or loss on the industrial depart
ments, was £18 12s. 3d. for boys, and £18 17s. 2d. for girls, in England; in
Scotland, £16 5s. 5d. and £14 14s. llcZ. The amount paid by the Treasury was
581

reformatory schools.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
£64,619; from county and borough rates, £9,613; recovered from parents, no
more than £2,480 ; subscriptions and legacies, £10,697. To the other class of schools,
certified industrial schools (with 2,062 children under detention at the close of the
year), 2,548 boys and 1,079 girls have been committed in the past five years; and
1,070 boys and 473 girls have been discharged. ¦ There is great difficulty in
tracing this vagrant and unsettled class ; but it is known that, out of 285 boys and
117 girls discharged and now living, 167 boys and seventy girls are doing well; and
thirty-seven boys and seven girls have been convicted, or are of doubtful character.
There were in the year, upon an average, nearly 3,000 voluntary inmates and chil
dren attending for instruction, and receiving food ; and it is considered that if
some small assistance could be granted by the Treasury for this class, a large pro
portion of them might be very cheaply kept from vagrant habits and petty crimes.
The majority of the children are very young; the instruction given is chiefly
elementary ; and the industrial employment of a simple kind, the object being
rather to foster habits of labour and attention than to teach any particular trade.
The schools are in most cases yery economically managed. The Treasury con
tribution, in 1865, amounted to £19,684; payments from parents and (in Scotland)
parochial boards, £1,239 ; subscriptions, legacies, &c, £20,448. The Industrial
Schools' Act expires with the present year. Some useful amendments are proposed
in the bill for renewing it." From a careful observation of its operation, Mr. Turner
feels justified in saying, that few measures have been adopted by which more good
has been effected by simple machinery, or at a lighter public cost.
Mr. Gilbert writes, that " boys turn out quite as well as may be expected—
often better. Fully 25 per cent, of those whose friends reside in London, are soon
found again in the annals of the police courts The majority of our young London
thieves reside in three localities— Bethnal Green, St. George's, Southwark (at least
that portion of it around Kent Street), and the purlieus of Drury Lane. Here they
are soon found out by their old associates, and receive from them a cordial welcome,
while they are scorned by the industrious and honest. They are now on the verge
of manhood, and imitate men in their amusements j and as the public-house, un
fortunately, ranks amongst the most favourite of these, they generally date their
relapse from it. With those who emigrate the case is far different ; with rare
exceptions they do well. Of fifty boys, principally from Kent, Sussex, and
Hampshire, who emigrated to Canada and Australia, not one turned out badly.
They are, on the contrary, much liked by the settlers, for their steady habits and
superior industry." The agent of the Eedhill school in Upper Canada, writes home—
" All the- boys you have sent me have turned out well, and'are in high favour. Send
me fifty more, and I will engage to find situations for them in a week." The reports
from the Cape of Good Hope, Port Natal, and Australia, are equally favourable. It
is both amusing and instructive to read the letters sent by these boys to
the secretary and the chaplain of the Eedhill schools. Without the sUghtest
obligation to write, except from gratitude, their correspondence is most voluminous,
and their letters are filled with thanks, evidently genuine, for the kindness they
received during the period of their reformation. One letter contained a very
beautiful sentiment. It was from a boy who was deemed irreclaimable. He
belonged to a town in the midland districts, and had been six times convicted of
robbery from the person; some of the cases presenting features of peculiar
atrocity. When first sent to Eedhill he appeared as savage a young rascal as
could possibly be found. A marked alteration was soon apparent in his behaviour.
He became docile and industrious. He was taught the trade of a carpenter, and
soon acquired a very considerable amount of skill at his business. In April, 1861,
Mr. Walters, for the first time, heard from him. He stated that he liked the
country exceedingly. The situation which had been provided for him he had kept
since his arrival ; and his master and mistress were both very kind to him, and
d ™ ff. Waf S; S° mUch S0' that he had been enaWed to put £50 in the
582 contained a ten-pound note. Half of the amount he re-

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [industrial home.
quested might be sent to his sister, who was in bad circumstances ; and the
remainder he wished to be spent in decorating the chapel school in which he had
learned to be an honest man.
In 1861 a new move was made for the poor and deserving. In that year,
Miss Louisa Twining founded a society for the establishment of an industrial home
for girls, in New Ormond Street, Eed Lion Square. This lady was led, thirteen
years ago, to visit the sick in the female wards of the workhouse. From the state
of things she there witnessed, she felt inclined to do what she could to form a
Workhouse Visiting Society ; and for this purpose she united with her several
other ladies. The knowledge thus acquired led to a desire, on the part of the
ladies thus associated, to withdraw from the workhouse contaminations girls of the
age of thirteen. The means required for hiring and fitting up a suitable house
were easily obtained. Miss Burdett Coutts, the Hon. Mrs. W. Cowper, Miss
Goodfellow, Miss Tait, and the Hon. Miss H. Waldegrave, formed the committee
of this home ; while Miss L. Twining, as the lady superintendent, undertook its
direction and daily control. A circular was sent to the different workhouse boards,
requesting them to commit girls to the care of the society at the same sum as they
cost in toe workhouse — i.e., 4s. a week. Of course they took only the best girls,
and refused such as had a bad character. The home is not a reformatory, nor
is it a school. The girls, while staying in the home, are engaged in needle
work and in household duties'; and those who are deficient in reading and writing,
obtain instruction in these branches every evening. But they are, as a rule, not
longer in the home than three or six months ; such as stay twelve are the exception.
It is not the object of the society to give the girls a complete training as ser
vants, but merely to be a link between orderly workhouse girls and respectable
mistresses of the middle class. Whatever is required to make them accomplished
servants they must themselves learn in their situations. The home only gives
them a Uttle preparatory training. It was, in 1863, sanctioned by a certi
ficate of the Poor-Law Board, under an act of parliament ; so that any doubt,
on the part of the Board of Guardians, as to the legality of their sending girls
to it is fully removed. This gives to the home the advantages of a legal
position, as well as the inspection and counsel of duly qualified inspectors. It
appears other homes have been founded in accordance with Miss Twining's.
Eewards are given to the girls who remain in their situations. " It is gratifying,"
writes Mr. De Liefde, " to read that most of the girls are very conscientious in
repaying to the home the expense of their clothes. They also stand in such good
reputation that families are anxious to obtain servants from the home. The
demands annually amount to 200, a number which far exceeds the power of the
society to supply. In 1865, the home cost the society a trifle beyond £702. For
this sum forty-nine girls were supported."
The Co-operative Dressmakers' Society also deserves mention. It has been
instituted with the view of remedying the sufferings of which dressmakers are
often the victims. It is provided that no workwoman shall work more than ten
hours a day, and none sleep together with less cubic space than 400— an allowance
which, as a French critic says, cannot be deemed excessive, since in Pentonville
prison each convict has 800. To avoid the losses entailed by long credit, it is
provided that no article shall be sent out without the bill. If the society thrives,
it will, undoubtedly, have a beneficial influence in many ways ; but, as yet, its
operations are on a very limited scale.
Thus, with what philanthropy was doing for the working-men, and with what
they were doing for themselves, a great change was being effected in English society.
Lord Palmerston had seen the confederacy of the Whig houses to rule England in
the name of a puppet king destroyed ; he had seen the middle classes admitted
to the possession of political power ; he had seen the operatives of the mine, and
the mill, and the workshop, fitting themselves, nobly and bravely, for its exercise.
Such songs as those of Eobert Nicholl and Gerald Massey, born of the poorest
583

female evangelists.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

and lowest in the social scale, had not been lost on him. Too long, exclaims the
latter, in his Voice of Freedom : —
" Too long have Labour's nobles knelt
Before exalted rank ;
Within our souls the iron felt ;
We hear our fetters clank :
A glorious voice goes throbbing forth
From millions stirring now,
Who yet, before these gods of earth,
Shall stand with unblencht brow.
Your day — owr day — of reckoning comes,
Proud lords of land and money ;
Ye shall no longer wreck our homes,
Nor rob us of life's, honey,"
We find Massey, in 1851, thus writing to his brother working-men —
" Our greatest curse is being our own tyrants. Slavery and tyranny are twins :
the slave is only a tyrant in the grub, while a tyrant is nothing more than a de
veloped slave, mounted on the wings of power. It is the despotism we exercise
over ourselves which is the dragon that hinders our entering the Hesperides of a
better life. Let him no longer babble of liberty who is a slave in his own heart,
and a tyrant in his own household. More divine ideas of liberty, equality, and
fraternity must be born in the souls of pure and earnest men ; baptized in the
sanctifying tears of their sufferings and aspirations, and welded into the iron of
their noble lives." When working-men were beginning to write and teach in this
strain, it was evident, indeed, that a new generation, with new ideas and new
arms, had risen up, and that the seed sown by philanthropists and by political
reformers had not been in vain.
During the last few years, evangelistic work, both in London and the pro
vinces, has been very largely taken up by ladies, many of whom have become
preachers as well as district visitors. The number of ladies who have been engaged
in delivering religious addresses at theatres, halls, and other places of public
resort throughout the country, is very considerable ; and it is said to be continually
on the increase. They belong to almost every section of the church — the
establishment and the Plymouth brethren furnishing the majority. In regard to
the last sect, however, it is understood that a " sister" purchases her freedom to
speak only by her expulsion from the brotherhood ; and it is said that lately many
have very willingly done so. Amongst those who have preached in London, at the
Polytechnic, Cavendish Hall, the Marylebone Theatre, and halls in the east-end,
the names of Mrs. Thistlethwaite, Miss Grace Hooper, Mrs. Colonel Bell, the
Misses Bonnycastle, Mrs. Hollier, and Miss M'Farlane, will be familiar to many of
our readers. Mrs. Thistlethwaite is still very popular, and is never advertised to
preach without attracting a numerous and very respectable audience. Her efforts
were first directed towards the improvement of "English hands and hearts"
employed upon the fortifications at Fareham. She was very successful; her
efforts were warmly appreciated by the rough people] amongst whom she worked;
and they presented her with a Bible towards the close of their stay in the
neighbourhood. When Mrs. Thistlethwaite appeared at the Polytechnic or in
Cavendish Hall, the places were always too small to accommodate the crowds
flocking to hear her. Mr. Gladstone, the Marquis of Westminster, and many of
the nobility, several times were among her audience ; and it was no unusual thing
for hundreds to go away, unable to obtain admission. Mrs. Colonel Bell, of
Clifton, is also widely known, but more especially in connection with her efforts to
circulate the Holy Scriptures. She has preached in the east-end ; but her work
has been chiefly in the provinces, where at times she performs the duties of a
colporteur, and sells to the poor, in the market-place and elsewhere, a great
number of Bibles. The work of the Misses Bonnycastle in England, Ireland, and
especially in France, has been very highly spoken of by those who are weU
584

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [excursion trains.
acquainted with it. In Paris, their efforts among*the working classes, and also
among the soldiers, were so successful, that they have devoted themselves especially
to it upon their return to England. Mrs. Hollier, of Cardiff, has been engaged
principally in Gloucestershire and her own neighbourhood, but she has occasion
ally preached in London with great success. Even those most interested in
evangelistic efforts have not always approved of the subjects selected by these lady
evangelists for their pubUc ministrations. Millenarianism and the mysteries of
prophecy are very popular subjects with them ; and, in dwelling upon these, the fair
preachers have been as unpractical as an unusually florid fancy could make them.
Sometimes, when the gospel message has been simply and tenderly delivered, a
nullenarian brother has been asked to pray, or " to say a few words," and an end
has been put at once to all sober thought and reflection. In their addresses, also,
the hearer is made conscious that the preachers feel themselves out of order in
what they are doing, and that they cannot justify their own position without
showing the weakness of every other. Miss M'Farlane's address, however, at the
Polytechnic, was described by a critic as altogether unexceptionable. She
addressed an audience which completely filled the large theatre of that institution ;
and although her sermon was very long, and the day very cold, not one moved
until she had concluded. She is a Presbyterian, and comes to London with
very good credentials, having been usefully employed as an evangelist in some of
the large towns of Scotland. The service which she conducted was of the simplest-
character. She read very impressively a well-known hymn, and afterwards led off
with a well-known tune, in which the congregation joined with great feeling and
spirit. Most of those present were of the speaker's own sex, and seemed to belong
to the middle class ; the few men present belonged principally to the working
classes. England is getting every year to understand more and more the art of being
merry and wise. There was a time when an English holiday was a scene of
debauch and dissipation, at which decent people stood aghast. Now, when a
holiday comes, an excursion is taken, and the citizen is whirled far away from the
cares of business and the smoke and dirt of London. He sees nature in all her
loveUness — he listens to her music — he learns the lore which she teaches — he is
cheered and invigorated by her healthful embrace; and we believe, in spite of
aU that is said to the contrary by bitter Sabbatarians, who believe in the Jewish in
preference to the Christian Sabbath, he becomes a better and a more religious
man. In this respect London has peculiar advantages. No city in the world has
lovelier scenery. On every side it has attractions for the lovers of the picturesque.
On every railway trains run from the metropolis to haunts dear to the hoUday-
maker; and to which they flock by tens of thousands when opportunities occur. From
an interesting article which appeared in the Telegraph, in April, 1865, we learn that
8,000 booked at Bishopsgate on Good Friday, for the Eye-house and Tottenham,
and Epping Forest — a number which would have been doubled had it not been for
the unfortunate and unexpected rain, which sadly damped the ardour and tried the
patience of the lovers of amusement. On Easter Sunday the number of passengers
for short distances from Bishopsgate was 5,500, and on Easter Monday 1 1,000 ;
whUe great numbers, in addition, booked from Old Ford and Mile-end. The total
increase of holiday traffic on this line, as compared with last year, is 7,300.
Hampstead and Highgate are stUl the resorts of thousands ; and then there is the
Crystal Palace, always a joy, and deUght, and wonder to many a holiday-maker.
There is there always something to see. In other directions there are equal
attractions. To Windsor and to Hampton Court, the Great Western and South
western Eailways now take twenty times the number of people that formerly
visited these royal neighbourhoods ; and Easter and Whitsun holidays always swell
the traffic of those lines, as of the North- Western and Great Northern. It has
been the Brighton Eailway which, however, has profited most largely by Easter
excursions ; the volunteer review having, of course, helped in a very great pro-
vol. n. 2 q 585

excursion trains.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
portion to increase the business of the line. The number of passengers, apaxtfrom
volunteers, who booked from London Bridge to Brighton on Good Friday was
2,544; on Sunday it was 2,150-; and on the great popular ^holiday it dropped to
1,404, for the significant reason that many hundreds had availed themselves of the
time so liberally .given them in the issue of return-tickets, and had gone on "Saturday
or Sunday. The number of volunteers who went down on the four days pre
ceding Easter Monday was 4,695 ; and on that day it was 40,775. The evening
trains brought back about 11,000; the number of trains run to .Brighton on Easter
Monday having -been thirty-six, and the number from Brighton thirty-«twfl. >Qn
Good Friday, the visitors taken to the Crystal Palace by the same railway ^compans,
from London Bridge, numbered 20,913; and on Easter Monday, 15,934. Many
seem to have preferred the pleasant route to Sydenham-hiU by tbe London
Chatham and Dover line, between 5,000 and 6,000 having booked from Blackfriars
station alone on Good Friday. This company must have gained immensely ^bythe
holiday movement, the first-signs of increased activity being felt even before 'Good
Friday, so that many of the trains on Thursday, which at times of no extraordinary
excitement would have yielded only £5 or £10, returned sums as dxigh as £150 or
£160. The -stations were, throughout the day, besieged by watering-rplaee
passengers. On Good Friday there were 1,200 excursionists to Eamsgate, Margate,
and Dover ; and, altogether, 2,500 persons were taken down to those places. The
local traffic of the London, Chatham, and Dover line was also very heavy. 'This
temporary increase in the number of travellers over very -short distances maybe
best -exemplified by a reference to the Metropolitan Eailway, on whieh, during
Easter Monday, 67,000 persons were conveyed to and fro, in 300 trains. These
figures -are higher than anything since the opening of the little underground line.
If to this we add the total of equestrians and pedestrians, the numbers who
drive about in carriages of their own or in hired vehicles, and those who travel
by omnibus or steam-boat, we shall get some idea of what a London holiday island
of the extent to which London is benefited by its healthful change.
Perhaps in.no clearer way can we realise the vast benefit conferred on humanity
by our railways than on the occasion of an annual national hoUday. An excursion
train breaks in upon the dull monotony of life— gets you into contact with fresh
faces and places— rubs off prejudices, and knocks into your head, more or less
firmly, new ideas. The mere health question is an important one. How much
better looks every man, woman, or , child in the city after an excursion into the
country, he it only for one day, at a cheap -price, and without danger to life or
limb ! London is taken down into the country. The poorest enjoys what was at
onetime the peculiar property of the rich and great ©f the town. We ask, why are
these benefits onlytobe realised on hoUday occasions ? Thefimehas eome whenithe
problem should be solved. The Metropolitan Eailway, the London, Chatham, and
Dover Eaflway, have;already their workmen's trains. So far as the system has
begun it has worked -well. The next thing to do is to find workmen ihomes^here
they can realise somewhat of the pleasantness of country .Ufe. In these .fluffs of
mprtal and science, and co-operation, surely the thing can be and must -he done.
People now are without excuse. -The country is within the reach of all. Let the
city be .filled with ^warehouses, and workshops, and manufactories.; and let the
workman, as well as his master, enjoy in his own homeland after ; labour, the
pleasures of a country life.

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [limited, liability.

'CHAPTEE XXVIII.
COMMERCE AND iIBAB-E.
¦In the -earlier -.part of Lord Palmerston's political career., England was spending
her money with a. lavish hand. By the time that peace was made, she was in, a
state of exhaustion. Protection was wanted ,by men of all classes ; and the lesson
they all learnt was, that they were the poorer for that .protection. As soon as
England was won over to free trade, wealth poured in upon the land. At the same
time, also, came in abundant supplies of AustraUan.gold; and never was commerce
so-extended, never was trade so prosperous, never didwealth so rapidly accumulate,
as when Mr. Gladstone was .Chancellor of the Exchequer, and when Lord
Palmerston was Premier.
Nest to free .trade, the mainspring of this , enterprise, of. later year^, has .been
anainlyvdue to the limited liabiUty -system.
The first germ of it was introduced into English law in 1826, when an ,act
was (passed, empowering the crown to confer charters of incorporation on certain
trading and other companies, declaring, in the charter, some limit to the liability
ofthe shareholders. Till that time,- every shareholder in a concern was liable to
his last shilling ; and the idea was, that the companies thus exempted were to ;be
especially beneficial to the- community. In 183,4, an act was passed, enabling the
crown -to grant letters patent to certain companies ; and, for this mode of pro
ceeding, it was urged, "that divers conapanies associate themselves together for
trading, charitable, Uterary,, or other purposes, which it would be inexpedient to
incorporate by. royal charters, although it would be expedient to confer upon them
some privileges incident to corporation." -Shareholders' liability was to:be limited,
not in amount, but in time, and when they had ceased to be shareholders three
years. In the same year, a particular statute placed, upon, an improved basis the
conditions for investing -small sums in friendly societies, and insuring honesty in
their management. In 1836, an act was passed relative to benefit ..building
societies. The-shares were not to exceed £100 each; and the payments not to
exceed:£l per month. The society was to buy or build houses, and to .-hold them
as mortgages tiU all the investments were paid up. In 1837, there was a parlia
mentary Inquiry .intothe question of the introduction of the system of limited lia
bility in partnerships, and. more extensively into commercial matters ; and the same
year an act was passed for enabling the crown to confer certain powers -and, immu
nities on tradingrand other companies, an the form of charters. of limited liability.
in 1844, a JointoStock-Companies' Act was passed, to apply to all companies of more
than twenty-five ^members, formed after that date, and mot provided with royal
charter.?, letters .patent, or acts of incorporation. There was to be provisional
registration of all matters relating to the objects and constitution of the society,
before. even shareholders could be invited to join; and .complete registration
ibefore .actually commencing business. Till then , no shares. were to be transferred.
General. meetings, audited accounts, and open proceedings were insisted on for the
safety, of the shareholders. In the same year, also, another parliamentary com
mittee collected evidence on the limited liability principle,; but did not attempt
to recommend its adoption. Immediately after this began -the railway mania,
which impoverished so many of the large .class unduly hastening to be rich.
Tt was some time .before society reeovered-from the shock.
We .find, at length, the .limited liabiUty principle .began to be received with
a -show of favour. Jn 1851, a committee oftherHo.use of Commons examined
thetsubject, and (recommended that any personimightbe empowered to lend. money
for not less than twelve months, with lijmited liability, .the. interest to depend on
2 Q 2 ;5S7

limited liability.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
the profit of the concern for which the money was used. Nothing, however, was
done in the matter till 1853 (excepting the passing of an act for encouraging
industrial and provident institutions, with partial limitation of liability), when a
commission was appointed to investigate the subject. The first thing the
commission did was to inquire into the practical working of the limited liability
principle in other countries. Seventy-five contradictory answers were received,
and the commissioners were puzzled how to act ; and divided, in the ratio of five
to three, against Umited Uability. In their report they say — " We have not been
able to discover any indication of the want of a sufficient capital for the require
ments of trade. The annually increasing wealth of the country, and the difficulty
of finding profitable investments for it, seem sufficient guarantees that any
adequate amount will always be devoted to any mercantile enterprise that holds
out any reasonable prospect of gain, without any forced action upon capital to
determine it in that direction ; while any such forced action would have a great
tendency to induce men to embark in speculative adventures, to an extent that would
be dangerous to the interests of the general 'commerce of the country. However,
we find no reason to suppose that the reputation of British merchants, either at
home or abroad, would be raised by the establishment of firms trading with
Umited liability — but the contrary. Many of the opinions in favour of such a
system are coupled with a recommendation of more stringent regulations for the >
prevention of fraud."
The House of Commons appears to have been of a different opinion.1 In
1854, Mr. ColUer brought forward a resolution—" That the law of partnership,
which renders every person, who, though not an ostensible partner, shares the
profits of a trading concern, liable for the whole of the debts, is unsatisfactory,.
and should be so far modified as to permit persons to contribute to the capital of
-»uch concerns, on terms of sharing their profits without incurring liability beyond
a limited amount; and such modification is especially necessary in Ireland,
regard being had to the peculiar social and industrial position of that part of the
kingdom." The resolution was carried; and, in 1855, was passed the Limited
Liability Companies' Act, applicable to companies, and not to partnerships. By its
provisions, any joint-stock company, except for banking and insurance, established
or to be established under the act of 1854, might obtain a certificate of limited
liability upon complying with certain conditions ; and any joint-stock company
formed on the basis of 1837, or under a private act, might obtain a like privilege
m the same way. The word limited is to form the last word in the name of the
company. The deed of settlement is to be executed by not less than twenty-five
shareholders, holding among them three-fourths of the nominal capital, and having
naid up 20 per cent, of the amount. When three-fourths of the capital is
I jyj unsuccesfful fading, the company must wind up; facilities for which are
afforded by another act. Down to this date (1855) there had been about 900
companies registered under the Joint-Stock Companies' Act of 1844 ; but now these,
offereTthem™10118 nUmber °f new ones' availed themselves of the privUeges
In 1856, another act was passed, empowering any seven or more persons to
form a joint-stock company, for other purposes than banking or assurance, with
permission to decide whether they will be registered with Umited or unUmited
liability, on compliance with certain conditions; and, by another act afterwards
£ ai?y fating company having unlimited liability may adopt the Umited
™Sl T8?* ?l '^-fourths of the shareholders, duly registered, and
publicly announced. In 1858 an act was passed declaring that joint-stock banking
companies may have limited liability, but not for their islue notes.
1863 /fi?li ¦ Decen*er' 1|61'. ^41 companies had been thus created. In
minfoL steSmeS AT" f?me,d' W.lth aQ authorised capital of about one hundred
ScZt £™£l tA"SOTts °f ^terprises were included in the list-banking,
discount, financial, trading, manufacturing, insurance, shipping, hotel, mining, gas

A.D. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the panic.

&c. In 1866, a fresh return was published. During the two years over which it
extends, the total number of companies, including mining enterprises, which were
brought out and floated, amounted, in England, to nearly 3,000 ; in Ireland, to
eighty-six; in Scotland, to seventy-three. During the last seven months of 1864,
the number was 460; in 1865, there were about 1,700 ; and in the first five months'
of 1866, about 750. Of unUmited companies there were only eleven. It is
probable, therefore, that but for the crisis of May, 1866, which, like a biting
north-easter, nipped in the bud so many promising schemes, that year would
have witnessed a development of Umited enterprise and unlimited folly which
would have thrown every previous year into the shade. In the merry month of
May, there were no fewer than eighty-two concerns launched ; " but then there
came a frost, a kilUng frost," and adventurous promoters were left to mourn over
inconstant fortune, and to lament the growth of experience, and the rapid
decrease of cash. The variety of schemes to which the public subscribed or
which solicited support, is wonderful. We have the leviathan concerns — the
" Credit Foncier and Mobilier ;" the " Overend, Gurney, and Co. ;" the " Imperial
Mercantile Credit ;" and others. Then we descend the scale to a " Grand Pump-
room Hotel Company," at Bath, with positively seven shares taken by a confiding
public ; a " Swiss Gardens Company," at Shof eham, also with seven shares sub
scribed for out of 5,000 ; a " Family and Servants' Newspaper Company ;'" a
"Bakers' Eecord and General Advertiser Newspaper Company," whose objects are
stated to be, "the publication of a newspaper devoted to the bakers' trade," and
whose paid-up capital is given as £122 10s.; a "Great Grimsby Ice Company,"
and an " Unpickable Lock Company." - We have coal, iron, gas, petroleum, wood,
cordage, fish, photographic, felt-hat, piano, baking, brewing, manure, tea-growing,
and innumerable other concerns. Almost every branch of industry finds a reore-
sentative. The hotel companies, of course, occupy an important place, and the
towns or districts for which their operations are intended are of the most widely
diverse characters. It seems to be considered not at all necessary that the demand
for accommodation should be urgent and conspicuous. We have associations for
removing furniture, for delivering parcels, for sawing wood, for working stone, for
" making and selling photogen gas," for building and destroying, for planting and
cutting down. There is a magnificent-looking scheme, called the "Omnium
Investment Society," with a nominal capital of £2,000,000, for the comprehensive
purpose of "discounting, and advancing money on security." The company
modestly abstains from giving its address, though it may be presumed the seven
persons who have taken 190 shares out of 40,000, know of its whereabouts. There
are some concerns, however, of an altogether different stamp. The firm of " John
Crossley and Sons," carpet manufacturers, appears as an enterprise in 110,000
shares, of which 105,300 have been bond fide taken, and the call of £10 paid up
on every share — a singular exception to most ofthe companies that figure in the list.
As a rule, all that have a large number of shareholders are in full operation.
In a very few months after Lord Palmerston's death, the fears entertained in
many quarters, of the dangers arising from the too rapid and reckless formation of
limited liability companies, were realised, and we had a panic, which may serve as a
warning, and which will be remembered for many years to come. The law, as it
now stands, is responsible for this to a very great extent ; and some alteration is
imperatively required. The law of limited liability limits the liability of the
shareholder to the subscribed amount of his share ; the liability of the company to
the subscribed amount of its capital. But no provision is made for the relations
to exist between the subscribed and the paid proportions of such share capital.
Hence the secret of the panic. The public has been alarmed, in many cases
needlessly, at its past credulity. The shareholder is alarmed at a responsibility he
never till now contemplated. The fears of the one have acted and reacted on those
of the other. Speculator and investor, borrower and lender, are equally scared ;
and, unless the government step forward to the rescue, the soundest names will be
589

ALTERATIONS REQUIRED.] _ LIFE AND TIMES OF  ^1865^
discredited, and the most justifiable businesses ruined, by a distrust/ which- is in'
man ThTlimitation of liability is, a- sound- commercial principle, but limitation.
should itself be limited on the same basis.. The law has omitted to enact such
further limitation, and hence the panic. _
The defect in the law has been this— viz., that, companies have been allowed
arbitrarily to fix the limits both, of their capital and their credit. The public have
accepted such limits implicitly ; and the shareholder, so long as times were easy,
sacked his exaggerated profits in easy security, and unmindful, of the rainy day..
What has been the practice ? A company is formed of, say,, a million of
capital, in 50,000 shares of £20., On each of these shares £4 has been paid, and
the company is started on 'the scale of a capital of £1,000,000, with assets really
only to the amount of £200,000 ; and, strange to say, the pubUc has accepted these
companies as good to an amount, if not of the full million, at all events to a
proportion much larger than was warranted; by the sum paid. The public, for a
long time, seem to have gone on trusting companies without analysing the meaning
of the word ; to have believed small capitalists, when in combination, to be much
more solvent than when taken one by one;, and to have taken- for granted' that a
man who can pay £4. is good for a. further payment of £16. It has never testedthe
solvency of the shareholders,, and has granted to companies a credit which- the
shareholders individually could never have commanded. " I' have myself," says* a
correspondent of the Times, " for some time been alive to the fact, that there are
few companies in which there is not a great proportion of shareholders unable to
pay calls beyond the small amount usually collected at starting. The proof is
this — that there are few companies the shares of which are not depreciated, whenever
a call is made or anticipated* If the principle of limited liability had been
soundly carried out, such could not have been the case. Calls would, have
measured an increase of business. Shareholders, if solvent, would be glad" to invest
additional capital in a lucrative concern; and the forfeiture of shares for nom-
payment of calls would be a really severe penalty.
" It will thus be seen that the panic has been created both by shareholder* and
the public,, who have suddenly hit upon a flaw hitherto overlooked* The public
have discovered that limited companies have arrogated a margin of credit to which
they were not entitled. Shareholders have awoke to a sense of liability far greater
than they at first contemplated as real. Depositors ask for their money, and- rouse
shareholders by the fear- of a. call. Shareholders sell their shares- at a discount,
and stimulate depositors to ask. for their money. The question now remains —
Where is the remedy? It is impossible to test the solvency .of every- existing,
shareholder. It is equally impossible to prevent insolvents- purchasing: shares-, at
the quotations of the day.
" The answer is this.- Make your paid capital so high as to deter all purchasers
except bond fide investors, and; reduce the margin of unpaid capital to the limits of
legitimate credit.
"I have been told by the manager of one of the soundest of recent companies,
that the large margin of unpaid' capital is not made use of by his directors beyond
a certain limit ; that they, never intend to make use of it ; that it is consequently'
superfluous, and only tends to frighten, the shareholders by a responsibility which
possibly may become reaL
" His observations entirely bear out my own experience.- I believe the exag>-
gerated discrepancy between paid- and unpaid capital, while it deludes the public
and: endangers the shareholder, is perfectly useless- to a well-managed* company.
Honest directors will never accept a credit beyond what they think within their'
range ; and such a credit would be comprised' within a much narrower limit of
unpaid subscription. In France and in Germany the proportion of paid capital is
fixed by law. So should it be fixed in England ; if not by law, at least' by the
good^ sense of the companies.
590

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [histort of BANKS.
"1 would, therefore, suggest to the directors ofthe principal finance companies
still extant, that they should immediately reassure their shareholders by taking
steps to limit the existing liability on the unpaid portion of the capital. This
could be effected by resolutions- passed at general meetings, to lower the nominal
capital of each company to a sum nearer its actual assets in cash. The share
holders would thus be relieved of an unhealthy liability, and the self-assigned credit
of the company would not, I believe, suffer by being straightforwardly reduced
from its nominal to its natural dimensions."
We have already referred to some of the panics which have illustrated our
commercial history — panics which seem the inseparable result of commercial
confidence and commercial enterprise.
The first genuine panic worthy of notice took place in Lord Palmerston's
youth. On the 19th of February, 1793, the Bank of England refused to discount
the paper of Messrs. Lane, Son, and Fraser. Next morning they stopped payment
for a milUon. A panic seized the whole community ; and, before long, a hundred
cowiifery banks failed. In 1797, there was another severe panic, political rather
than commercial. Ireland was the scene of revolt ; the Channel fleet in a state of
mutiny; and our coasts were threatened with invasion. Then we pass on to the
great crash of 1825, of which we have already spoken. The panic of 1830,
commonly called Alderman Key^s panic, was political, and very ephemeral. In
1837, there was another panic, caused by — first, the joint-stock bank mania in
England ; secondly, the open credit system in the American trade ; and, thirdly, the
bankraag system ofthe United States. The year 1847 brought with; it another panic,
occasioned by extravagant railway speculations, and failures in the corn trade. In
ten years we had another — the memorable year 1857 — when Mr. J. Dennistoun and
Co., with numerous agencies in America and Australia, failed for £2,000>,000>; and
when the bank rate of interest was 10 per cent. The total liabilities of British
mercantile houses and banks which succumbed, were estimated at £50,000^000.
Germany also suffered1 greatly in consequence of it. In America, the panic, which
had. preceded ours, may be described as tremendous. " Picture to yourself," writes
the Times" correspondent from New York, October 14th, 1857, "that immense
crowd which assembled to see the Duke of Wellington's funeral procession, all
dressed in male attire, and1 all pressing into Lombard Street ; imagine Lombard
Street expanded to its length, and every third house a bank, with depositors' or
bill-holders bent on obtaining gold for their debts, and you will have a real idea of
the convulsion of Wall Street yesterday. New York was in a state of convulsion.
A financial earthquake was rocking its moneyed institutions to their centre. One
Ml after another — shock succeeded shock — amdl, in the1 panic, no> one felt sure that
at the day's close anything would be left to- tell the tale of the wealth, the
commercial credit, and the honour- of the- mercantile community." Eighteen
banks, says Mr; Arthur Locker, fell in two hours. In the interior all business was
stopped! for a time, by the refusal to take notes, and the impossibility of getting
specie. The Mississippi steamers ceased to run, for the crews could not get their
wages paid; and', at the eity of St. Louis, there lay a line of smokeless funnels, a
mile long. The annual state show and cattle fair occurred in that city during the
height of th© panic ; but buyers- and sellers could scarce come together, for want of
a circulating medium in which they had the slightest confidence.
' Of the panic of 1866, it is not within our province to write. We must, how
ever, refer briefly to, it, as it was due to the financial companies, which had been
ftoafed in 1865, in. the most reckless- and unprecedented manner. In March,
symptoms of coming disaster- were apparent. On the Stock Exchange, shares
were becoming utterly unsaleable. May opened gloomily, and the failure of
the Financial Corporation was announced. It is worth while to pause here for a
momen*, to point out how unjustly the principle of limited liability has been
accused of causing the convulsion of 1866. The firm just spoken of was
nominally limited, but practically unlimited. Its nominal capital was £3,000,000.

jones, loyd, and CO.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
Its paid-up capital was only £125,170. In other words, the shareholders having
only paid up £3 on account of every £100 share, might legally be called upon to
pay the other £97, or more than thirty times the amount of the original venture.
In such a case, " Limited" becomes a mere snare. Under an unlimited partnership,
no man could, possibly be worse off. In this state of fear and distrust, when, on
the 11th of May, it was announced that Overend, Gurney, and Company (Limited),
had suspended payment, with liabilities extending, it was said at the time, to
£18,000,000, every one thought the deluge had come at last. The following
graphic sketch of the state of the city on the 11th of May, is taken from an
interesting article in the Revue des Deux Mondes, by M. Wolonski, a distinguished
French writer on finance. " That date," he says, " will long be remembered in
London. - It was a day of distress and terror, and seemed to be the signal of
general ruin. No one was sure of himself, or of any one else, the moment it
became known that the great house had closed its doors. It was by hundreds of
- millions that the engagements of that gigantic firm, whose fall made the very
ground tremble, were counted. The settlement of a great portion of the commerce
of the world is situated in London ; the settlement of the commerce of England
was concentrated in the city; and the house of Overend, Gurney, and Company,
held one of the foremost places among the small number of establishments in
whose houses is the settlement of the commerce of the city. For a long time it
enjoyed immense credit ; it disposed of enormous securities ; a renown more than
European had multiplied the number of its customers, and augmented the'number
of the deposits confided to it. Thus the fatal Friday which witnessed the disaster,
continues to be popularly known as the 'Overend Friday.'" The crisis of 1866
does not seem to have been caused by over-trading, as was the case in 1857. The
foreign trade of the country, although unparalleled in extent, has, for the most
part, been conducted on sound legitimate principles. Nor was it caused by mer
cantile speculation, in the usual acceptation of the term. The cause evidently was,
the wider extension of credit, and the foolish lenders. In other words, the share
holders in banks and financial companies have been the chief sufferers. The panic
was entirely a financial one ; and happily, many of the concocters of the bubbles
had suffered as much as their dupes.
There is much of the romance of history in the origin of some of the great
private banking-houses still existing in our day— though all more or less threatened
with destruction by the giant of joint-stock enterprise. The origin, among others,
of the house of Jones, Loyd, and Co., was very curious. Mr. Lewis Loyd, the
founder of the house (father of the present Lord Qverstone), began his career as a
Welsh dissenting minister, in a small chapel at Manchester, the congregation of
which included a Mr. Jones, a sort of half-banker, half-manufacturer. In addition
to Mr. Jones there was a young Miss Jones, who attended the sermons of the Eev.
Mr. Loyd ; and, as often happens, the maiden found the orations so eloquent that
she feU in love with the preacher. The affection was responded to by the minister ;
and the two, fearing the purse-proud merchant would never consent to the
mesalliance, were privately married. Of course, when the affair became known to
Mr. Jones, sen. (as it could not fail to do), he was exceedingly angry ; but, seeing
that things went on pretty comfortably with his daughter, he became reconciled in
the end to his reverend son-in-law. Though fond of attending sermons, he did not
think preaching a good business; and, after a while, proposed that Mr. Loyd should
give up the Welsh dissenting chapel, and enter his counting-house as a partner,
under the firm of Jones, Loyd, and Co. Mr. Loyd consented ; and, to extend the
business it was subsequently agreed that he should go to London, and establish a
bank under the name of the Manchester firm; so that Jones, Loyd, and Co., of
Manchester, might draw bills upon Jones, Loyd, and Co., of London ; or, as it was
facetiously called at the time, "pig upon bacon." It soon turned out that- Mr.
l,ewis Loyd was eminently fitted to be a banker ; for his clearness of head, untiring
soo perfect honesty> Proved the foundation of success for the new

a.d. 1780.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [coutts and co.

establishment. After a very long and honourable career, Mr. Loyd retired from
business, being succeeded, as head of the London firm, by his son, Mr. Samuel
Jones Loyd, who was subsequently created Lord Overstone. Thus, the falling in
love of a young Manchester girl with a Welsh dissenting minister, was the cause of
the establishment of an important bank, besides leading to the creation of a new peer
of the realm. This bank is now incorporated with the London and Westminster.
The great banking-house of Coutts and Co. arose under circumstances not
less striking than those connected with the history of Jones, Loyd, and Co. The
father of Mr. Coutts was a merchant of Edinburgh, who had four sOns, the two
youngest of whom, James and Thomas, were brought up in the paternal counting-
house. James, at the age of twenty-five, came to London, and first settled in St.
Mary Axe as a Scotch merchant, from which business, however, he subsequently
retired to become a banker. He took a house in the Strand, the same in which the
firm still exists; and he was joined here, some years after, by his brother Thomas
as a partner — the business being carried on under the name of James and Thomas
Coutts. James Coutts died early, and Thomas was then left sole proprietor of the
bank. His high integrity, joined to a very enterprising spirit, soon gained him
many friends, and made him remarkably successful in his business. A characteristic
instance, both of his shrewdness and enterprise, is given by Mr. Lawson, in his
History of Banking. In the early part of his career, Mr. Coutts, anxious to
secure the cordial co-operation of the heads of the various banking-houses in
London, was in the habit of frequently inviting them to dinner. On one of these
occasions, the manager of a city bank, in retailing the news of the day, accidentally
remarked that a certain nobleman had applied to his firm for the loan of £30,000,
and had been refused. Mr. Coutts listened and said nothing ; but the moment his
guests had retired, about ten o'clock in the evening, he started off to the house of
the nobleman mentioned, and requested the honour of an interview with his
lordship the next day. On the following morning the nobleman called at the bank.
Mr. Coutts received him with the greatest politeness, and taking thirty £1,000 notes
from a drawer, presented them to his lordship. The latter, very agreeably
surprised, exclaimed, "But what security am I to give you ?" <' I shall be satisfied
with your lordship's note of hand," was the reply. The I 0 U was instantly given,
with the remark, " I find I shall require for the present only £10,000 ; I therefore
return you £20,000, with which you will be pleased to open an account in my
name." The generous — or, as it may more truly be called, exceedingly well-
calculated — act of Mr. Coutts was not lost upon the nobleman, who, in addition to
paying in, within a few months, £200,000 to his account, the produce ofthe sale of
an estate, recommended several high personages to patronise the bank in the
Strand. Among the new clients who did so patronise it was King George III.
Mr. Coutts had not only many friends, but real admirers among the nobility ;,
and was an object of attraction to not a few designing matrons, who would have
been but too happy to marry their noble but portionless daughters to the rich
banker. These aristocratic matrimonial speculations were somewhat rudely
dispelled by the choice which Mr. Coutts made of a wife, in the person of Elizabeth
Starkey, a domestic in his brother's service. The union was productive, it is said,
of great happiness to the banker ; and, though children of a servant, his three
daughters married three noblemen — namely, the Marquis of Bute, the Earl of
Guildford, and Sir Francis Burdett. After the death of his first wife, Mr.
Coutts gave his hand to Miss Mellon, an actress. On this second marriage, both
Mr. and Mrs. Coutts were made the constant subjects of unworthy ridicule, which,
however, had no other effect than that of strengthening the confidence of the
husband in his wife. This confidence was displayed in a remarkable manner in the
last will and testament of Mr. Coutts. By this will he left the whole of his
fortune, amounting to above £900,000, to his widow for her sole use and benefit,
and at her absolute disposal, without the deduction of a single legacy to any other
, person. Mrs. Coutts subsequently married the Duke of St. Alban's ; but, under her
593

BARCLAY AND CO.] LIFE: AND TIMES OF' [A.D. 1780.

marriage settlement, wisely reserved. to herself the whole control, of the immense
fortune left to her by her first husband.. On her death she bequeathed the vast
property to the favourite grand-daughter of Mr. Coutts-, Miss Angela Burdett — toe
estimable and beneficent lady, founder of so many churches and schools, who is
now well known as Miss Angela Burdett Coutts. Miss A. B. Coutte continues- to
be the principal proprietor of the old bank in the Strand, the business . being con
ducted for her by trustees, under the old; style of Coutts and Co^
The banking-house of Messrs. Barclay and Co. sprang into existence about
the same time as that of Coutts ; and there are some interesting anecdotes connected
with the history of its origin. On the occasion ofthe state visit of George III.. to
the city, on the first Lord Mayor's Day after his accession to the throne, there was
considerable tumult, and' almost a-riot, in the great thoroughfare from St. Paul's-
to the Bank. The shouts of the people, added to the dismal noises made by toe
creaking of the various signs- over the shops— it must be remembered that the
numbering of houses did not take place before 1770, the- dwellings being dis
tinguished previously by signs, such as the " Leather Bottle" of Messrs. Hoare,. the
bankers in Pleet Street — caused one of the horses of the king's carriage to become
restive, so as to cause imminent danger to the illustrious occupants. In this
emergency, a worthy Quaker and linendraper, David Barclay,, seeing the royal.
carriage swaying to and fro in front of his door, just opposite Bow church,. and the
king and queen seriously alarmed, stepped forth into the street, and addressed)
George III. " Wilt thee alight, George, and thy wife Charlotte, and come into my
house,. and see the Lord Mayor's show?" friend Barclay bluntly inquired of the
majesty of England. The king, who had, with many of: his family,, a strong
partiality for Quakers (imported, probably, from the Hanoverian plains,, where-
Herrnhuter and other sets of " Friends" are rather numerous), condescended' u>
accept the invitation of the worthy linendraper,. and; went up into the firsfe-floor,
over the shop, to see the Lord Mayor's show. The aldermanic cavalcade having
passed, David Barclay introduced the whole of his family to the king and queen :
""George, King of England— Sarah Barclay, my wife ; Sarah Barclay, my wife
—George, King of England," and so forth. On taking his leave to proceed to
Guildhall, his majesty said— " David, let me see thee at St. Jameses- neato
Wednesday, and bring thy son Eobert with thee." David did not: care much fon
the invitation, yet he went westward into the unknown' courtly region, to please hi*
guest of the Lord Mayor's show. When making their appearance, atthe lemefy,
David and Eobert kept a little in the background ; but the king had- no sooner
espied them, than, throwing aside all restraint, of etiquette,, be descended:
from the throne, and, with a, hearty shake of the hand, welcomed the: linen-
draper and his son to St. James's. After saying many kin d words- to both, of tfaemj.
he asked David Barclay what he intended to do with his son. Eobert: and, without
waiting for a reply, exclaimed— " Let him come here, and I wiU provide him-withi
honourable and profitable employment." The word " profitable" sounded pleasant
enough to the ears of David; yet he was too cautious- a man to jump into-anF
wild conclusions about courtly honours. Eefleeting for a moment, the Quaker,
with many apologies,, requested permission to refuse the royal offer, addingr1-
I fear the air of your majesty's Court will not agree with, my: son." The
°Snpi1?el1^ Wa& hj n° means a flatter™g one; yet King George was- not!
ottended, but exclaimed, in his peculiar way— "Well, David,, well, well; you
know best, you know best. But you must not forget, to let me see you ocea*
sionally at St. James's." How often the linendraper and his son went to St.
Jamess, or whether they went at all, history does not tell : it is highly probable
the road from Cheapside to Pall^Mall was not frequently trodden by the two
Quakers, father and son. What is certain, is, that David. Barolav, soon, after-
rejecting the royal offer of honours, established his son Eobert as" a banker in
Lombard Street, m the well-founded expectation, that the thousands- made in.
linendrapery would grow- into tens and hundreds- of thousands- in the exercise
594

aj\1864.] VrSCOUNT" PALMEESTON. [British, exports
of- the art of banking. So it happened, indeed ; and in the course of time,
Robert Barclay,- who would have been, certainly a- bad; courtier, became the
intelligent, founder of one ofthe most flourishing Banking firms of the period.
The mode of conducting the business of banking,, in the latter part of the
eighteenth century, was very different from what it is now-a-days. The banker
early attended on 'Change, which was usually over about half-past two o'clock,;
he then went home to dinner, and not unfrequently to the theatre, and afterwards
returned to Lombard Street, to attend to his business, and: to finish his corres
pondence. Late in the day, when all the letters- were finished, the parcel was
despatched to the post-office, to- go by the night mail, leaving London at twelve
o'clpek. These midnight mails were curiosities, which would astonish a modern
Londoner, accustomed to railways,- steamers, and express trains of forty miles an
hour. The whole correspondence of the British metropolis, involving transactions
of perhaps millions in value, was entrusted to a number, of ragged little postboys,
who carried the letters, in pouches slung across the horses' backs.
In 1863, the declared real valueof the total imports and exports of merchandise,
into and from the United Kingdom, was £444^955,715. In 1864 there was a con
siderable increase : the value of imports into the United' Kingdom had risen from
£217,484,024 in 1861, to £248,980,942 in 1863. The whole of this increase, had
been in colonial produce, the augmentation of which, in the ten years, had- been.
£32,017,710. First in the list of foreign importers, in the place formerly occupied
by the United States, stands France ; which, in the year 1863, found in the people
of" Great Britain, customers for the products of her industry to the amount of twenty-
four millions sterling, or about a tenth part of the entire total we take from all
the countries of the world. Next comes Egypt, which, in t?he course of a few
years; has doubled her import trade with the United Kingdom. Turkey, although
she is lower in the Ust, still continues to make progress.- From Japan, the imports
more than doubled in 1863, compared with the preceding' year. Amongst tire
remaining: countries, the principal of those that present an increase, are China, the
Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Portugal, Denmark, the Philippine Islands, the
Argentine Bepublic, Hungary, Greece, and'1 Hayti. Those showing' a decrease are
Germany, Eussia, Italy, Western Africa, New Canada, and Boliviai
In 1862 and 1863, it appears, from the Board of Trade returns, the three
best: customers of Great Britain were India, the United States, and Germany-., In
the total exports- of British and Irish produce, there was an increase of 18 per cent.
in ISflS:, compared with- the preceding year. The increase was chiefly due to the
largely augmented shipments to British possessions3 which took about fifty-one
millions of goods, or considerably more than one-third of the sum total of all the
exports. In 1'864, there was a vast1 increase of British trade with all the nations- of
the world. This- progress- was particularly visible as- regards India, the United
States, Turkey, and Brazil. In every instance of importance, with the sole excep
tions of France, Spain, and Mexico, the amount of British goods-exported was larger
ih 1864. As regards France, the reaction from the rush of trade, consequent on
the inauguration of the commercial treaty, appears to be continuous; the British
exports thither having been. 10 per cent, less in the first six months of 1863 than in
the preceding year ; while in IS 64 they showed a still further diminution of 11 per
cent. The five principal articles imported into the United Kingdom, are cotton,
iron, wool, tea, and silk. The five principal articles exported, are cotton manu
factures, woollen and worsted' manufactures, metals, iron and' steel, linen manu
factures, and haberdashery and millinery. In 18-63,. the value of imported raw
cotton was much larger than that of the exports of manufactured cotton goods.
The year 1864 was, in every respect, favourable to trade. The' country was
tranquil, both at home and abroad1; the distress in Lancashire was steadily dimi
nishing ; and' the harvest Was even more plentiful than that of 1863. The exports,
accordingly, of British and Irish produce, increased from 146 to 160 millions,
showing anincrease' of nearly fourteen millions, or 9 per cent. The return; indeed^
595

trade and commerce.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
is not so remarkable as that for the previous year, in which there was an increase of
twenty-three millions, or 18 per cent. ; but, as the commissioners remark, this
extraordinary increase represented, to some extent, a rebound from the depression
caused by the American war. In 1860, the British and Irish exports amounted to
nearly 136 millions ; but, in 1861, they fell at once to 125 millions; and in 1862
they fell again more than another million. If this be taken into account, the
increase in the present return will appear even more remarkable than that in the
previous return, as an increase on a full, and not on a diminished, amount. Our •
cotton, woollen, worsted, and linen manufactures provide, as might be expected,
the most important elements in this increase. Our exports of foreign and colonial
produce, which were not depressed by the calamity of 1860, display the' more
moderate increase of from fifty to fifty-two millions, or about 4 per cent. Our
imports, from which, of course, the materials for this vast stream of exportation are,
to a large extent, supplied, show the most extraordinary development of all. They
are increasing, say the commissioners, "at a rate which appears almost incredible."
In 1863 they showed a rise of twenty-three millions over 1862 ; and in the suc
ceeding year they again increased by twenty-six millions. Since 1859 they have
increased from 179 to nearly 275 millions, or at the rate of nearly twenty millions
a year ; and as the rate has been increasing the last two years, it would seem that
four years more will repeat this astonishing result. Cotton, flax, hemp and jute,
tobacco and wool, supply the most important elements in this increase. It is
difficult to determine the total proportion of this vast importation which is con
sumed at home ; but it is evident that the general consumption is steadily on the
increase, and that, if any article exhibits a decrease, it is either from some tem
porary cause, or because another is taking its place. Coffee, for instance, shows a
small decrease, but only to make way for an increase in chicory and tea ; and a
small decrease in the year on the consumption of unrefined sugar, had already been
converted into a large increase at the date the report was written. The decline
during 1864 was simply due to a, temporary derangement of the sugar trade,
caused by the budget of that year. The stream soon steadied itself, and now flows
stronger than ever. The last great feature of these streams of commerce, is the
revenue they produce ; and if this exhibits a diminution, it is only because we
have asked them for less, and not because they had less to give. In point of fact,
the less we ask, the more, in proportion, do we receive ; and our revenue may be
said to be really increasing, though the actual amount of our income is diminished.
The customs revenue for 1863 amounted to £23,217,637 ; and of this we abandoned,
principally on the sugar duties, more than a million and a-balf ; so that all we
asked from the customs of 1864, was £21,473,253. Instead of this, however, they
have presented us with £22,293,503, or £820,250 beyond what we expected. The
same process continued throughout the four following years. Within that time we
have relinquished more than six millions of customs' revenue; but of this more
than three millions and a-balf haye been returned to us.
In 1863, there werelO,b77 sailing vessels, employing 36,720 men, engaged in
the home trade ; and 456 steamers, employing 7,095 men. By home trade, it must
be remembered, we mean the coasts of the United Kingdom, or ports between the
limits of the river Elbe and Brest, In the same year, there were sailing vessels,
engaged partly in home, and partly in foreign trade, to the number of 1,720, with
10,831 men ; and ninety steam-vessels, with 1,693 men. The number of registered
sailing vessels engaged in the foreign trade, with the men employed, exclusive of
masters, was, in 1863, 7,360, with 106,100 men. The same year there were em
ployed in the foreign trade, 574 steam-vessels, with 22,288 men. The total number
and tonnage of sailing vessels and steamers of the United Kingdom, employed in
the home and the foreign trade, inclusive of those engaged partly at home and
partly abroad, was, in 1863, 20,877 vessels, 4,795,279 tons, 104,727 men.
The colonies and dependencies of Great Britain embrace about one-third of the
surface of the globe, and nearly a fourth of its population. Official returns state
596

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [trade and commerce.

the area of these possessions to be 3,319,649 square miles, or nearly thirty times
the extent of the United Kingdom. Of this vast dominion, 933,722 square miles
are in India, 1,587,434 in Australia, and 523,162 in North America. The popu
lation was, according to the latest return, 144,499,761, or five times the population
ofthe United Kingdom. Of this number, 135,634,244 are the presumed popula
tion of British India. The imperial expenditure for the whole of these colonies
and ¦ dependencies, except the empire of India, amounted to £3,509,465, for the
year ending March 31st, 1862. Nearly the whole of the expenditure was incurred
for military purposes ; the cost of the civil administration not amounting to more
than £167,222, or considerably less than one-twentieth part of the whole sum. The
total exports of British and Irish produce and manufacture, to the colonies and
dependencies of the kingdom, were of the value of £42,245,377 in 1861, of
£41,895,039 in 1862, and £50,919,654 in 1863. The total population of these
possessions took, per man, 7s. worth of British produce in the year 1863, a sum which
we expect to see increased as civilisation is extended, and as peace prevails. We
have exploded some fallacies ; we have got rid of some erroneous ideas ; we
have destroyed some restrictions. All the while we were doing this, interested or
shortsighted individuals were prophesying evil. We had destroyed the landlords ;
we were next to ruin the colonies and the shipping interest. So said the Tories all
over the land; so said wealthy ship-owners Uke the late Duncan Dunbar, who
had risen from poverty, and left behind him, to go to distant relations, a million
and a-half of money. Our new policy has been proved to be the best. The
more protection is abandoned, and free trade encouraged, the better is it for all
classes and conditions of men — for the colonist abroad, as well as for the manu
facturer at home. Englishmen have nothing to fear from the healthful and
peaceful revelations of free trade.
As illustrating the enormous extent of our trade and commerce, we add some
later returns.
The registrar-general of shipping reports, that, in the year 1865, there were
21,626 British registered vessels (exclusive of river steamers and colonial vessels)
employed in the home and foreign trade of the United Kingdom, not reckoning
repeated voyages. The tonnage was 5,408,451, and the number of men employed,
197,643. The crews are classified according to capacity, thus— Mates, 24,292 ;
petty officers, 13,546; able seamen, 72,058; ordinary seamen, 19,221; apprentices
and boys, 20,063; other persons, 16,241; engineers, 3,178; firemen, 8,724;
foreigners, 20,280; Lascars, 40. Comparing these figures with those of the
previous year, we find an increase of 113 ships, 199,983 tons, and 1,887 men.
The value of the exports of pig and puddled iron from the United Kingdom
has greatly increased of late years. In 1850, the value was £348,074; in 1851,
£452,119; in 1852, £557,586; in 1853, £1,056,310; in 1854, £1,244,853; in
1855, £1,072,428 ; in 1856, £1,385,118 ; in 1857, £1,609,115; in 1858, £1,084,170;
in 1859, £901,927 ; in 1860, £974,065 ; in 1861, £1,044,304; in 1862, £1,303,641 ;
in 1863, £1,287,968; in 1864, £1,412,352; and in 1865, £1,591,063. For the
first three months of 1866, the value of the pig and puddled iron exported was
£298,452, as compared with £252,686 in the corresponding period of 1865, and
£256,639 in 1864. The quantities of pig and puddled iron exported, year by year,
sincel850, were as follows :— 1850, 141,973 tons ; 1851, 201,264 tons ; 1852, 240,491
tons; 1853, 333,585 tons ; 1854, 293,432 tons ; 1855, 291,776 tons; 1856,357,326
tons; 1857, 422,086 tons ; 1858,, 363,143 tons; 1859, 316,376 tons; 1860,342,556
tons; 1861,388,004 tons; 1862, 444,708 tons ; 1863, 466,423 tons ; 1864,465,985
tons; 1865, 543,018 tons. For the first three months of 1866, the quantities
reached 87,271 tons, as compared with 88,993 tons in the corresponding period of
1865, and 82,925 tons in 1864.
In 1856, the imports of wool into the United Kingdom amounted to
116,211,3921b. In 1857, the total rose to 129,749,8981b.; but in 1858 it
declined to 126,738,7231b. In 1859, the imports were 133,284,6341b.; and in
597

society.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
1860, 148,396,5771b. In 1861, there was ^again aicheok, and the imports receded
to 147,172,8411b. In 1862, there was a great advance, and the receipts rose
to 171,943,4721b. In 1863, there was a further advance to 177,377,6641b.;;
in 1864, to 206,473,0451b..; and in 1865, to 212,206,7471b. The imports have
thus nearly doubled in ten years. The exports of wool have, however, greatly
increased during the same period. In 1856, they amounted to 26;679,7931b.; in
1857,to 36,487,219 lb.:; in 1858, to 36,701,542 lb.; in 1859, to 29,106,7501b.; in
1860, to 3Q,7bl,867 lb. ; in 1861, to 54,377,104.1b. ; in 1862, to 48,076,4991b. ; in
1863, to 63,927,9611b.; in 1864, to 55,933,7391b.; and in 1865, to -82,444,9301b.
The excess of the imports over the exports was as -follows, in each year : — 1856,
89,531,5991b.; 1857, 93,262*6791^; 1858,100,037,1811b.; 1859,104,177,8841b.;
1860, 117,634,710 1b.; 1861, 92,7.95,737 1b.; 1862, 123,-866^73 lb.-; 1868,
113,449,7031b.:;. 1864, 150,539,3061b.; and 1865, 129,761,8171b.
It appear-s that the total quantity of cotton imported into the United
Kingdom in 1856, was 1,023,886,304 lb. ; in 1857, 969,31-8,896 lb. ; in 1-856,
1,034,342,1761b.; in 1859, 1,225,989,07.2 lb. ; in 1-860, 1,390,938,752 lb. ; in 1864,
1,256,984,736 lb. ; in 1-862, 523,973,296 lb. ; in 1863, 669,583,264 lb. ; in 1864,
893,304,7201b.; and in 1865, 977,97-8,288 lb. In consequence of the great and
.general reduction of the European stocks of cotton, the exports of cotton from the
United Kingdom have very greatly increased of late, having been — 146,660,864 lb.
in 1856; 131,927,6001b. in 1857; 149,609,600 lb. in 1858 ; 175,143,1361b. in
1859; 250,339,0401b. in I860; 298,287,920 lb. in 1861 ; 214^714,528 lb. an
1862; 241,352,4961b. in 1863; 214,702,304 lb. in 1864; and 302,908,9281b. in
1865. The excess of the imports of cotton over the exports of cotton was
thus =—877,225,440 lb. in 1856; 837,391,2961b. in 1857; 884,732,5761b. in
1858; 1,050,845,9361b. in 1859; 1,140,599,712 lb. in I860; 958,696,8161b. in
1861; 30.9,258,7681b. in 1862; 428,230,7681b. in 1863; '648'602,4161b. in
1864; and 675,069,3601b. in 1865. It was the small increase, in 1866, in tbe
quantity of cotton available for British consumption, which enabled prices to be so
well maintained after the termination of the American war. Thus, in 1859,'Gotton
averaged 6-76dper lb.; in 1860, 1-lld. per lb.; in 1861, 7-39d. per lb.; in 1862, '
14-24cZ. per lb. ; in 1863, 21-97d per lb.; in 1864, 21-01d per lb.; andiin M65,
l&-20d. per lb.
As an indication of the wealth of the nation, we may state that, in 1864, *the
amount of capital invested in railways, shares and loans combined, was £425,719,616,
at that time paying, on an average, 4£ per cent, upon the capital engaged in their
construction and equipment.

'CHAPTEE XXIX.
.S5.CIETY, XITBEATDB.B, SCIENCE, &SSD ART.
Let us glance .briefly at the ;new generation born and murtured while Lord
Palmerston was -running his distinguished career.
Tt is doubtful whether society had much improved. In the last few years of
his life, the Times had taken tothe discussion of social questions ; from which it
appeared that wealth and luxury had produced their usual effect, and that the in
tegrity and sternness of , principle of an earlier and better day were rare. There were
serious controversies, as to anonymas and pretty horse-breakers, admitted into the
columns of the Times-; and Mr. Grantley Berkeley confesses that. he had witnessed,
on the part of young men, an amount of indecorum which would not have been
permitted in .his youth.
598

a;d. 1865J VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [public schoom.
The Times, not very long .ago, astonished the public by a fierce attack on
tobacco and cigars, and their friends <and consumers. The writer evineed an
amusing ignorance of the manners and customs of theiEnglish. Lord Palmerston
was no friend of tobacco. It might have been written at his request; but he was
the last iman to do anything to make i himself unpopular. A good. letter on the
subject, of eouree, immediately appeared in reply. The writer, " Nimbus," asked
permission to say a word in defenee of his favourite vice. " I quite admit," he says,
"that thehabit of smoking -has increased andgrown upon the English nation to
,an immense extent lately ;-, for T am sorry to say that my memory carries me back
to a period whenthe mere act of walking down St.. James's Street or Piccadilly, in
broad daylight, with a cigar in the mouth, would have cancelled the best reputation
in London; whereas now, that cigar is no impediment to the most gracious how
from the haughtiest head, orthe sweetest smile from the rosiest mouth. jBut I
also remember that the past generation held him a snob who ealled St. James's
Street anything but ' St. Jeems's Street,' or Eome other than ' Boom.' 'So I main-
fain that, like these trifles and the hoops of our wives, which are no trifles, -smoking
is a fashion; and this fashion being adopted by a majority among the males of the
kingdom, our Iron-plated females have wisely recognised it, as we have done their
crinolines, as an accomplished fact. Wisely I say, for they well know that if we
have taken up a bad habit we have i dropped a worse. Three-bottle men have
disappeared. We no longer reel hiccupping and maudlin Into the drawing-room
after dinner, and -we can usually get to bed without assistance. We are no longer
9Jany Lumpkins in youth, and Squire Westerns in age. We may have lost a certain
finikin Frenchified pseudo-politeness of manners.; but I think that, on the whole,
in spite Of their cigars, English gentlemen are as good gentlemen now as ever.
Nobody ever-smokes in drawing-rooms, or any rooms frequented by ladies. I have
travelled much, and smoked much, too, on railways, and I never yet saw smoking
obtruded, to the annoyance of other passengers. If railway companies choose to
ignore a national want, and do not supply smoking compartments, they cannot com
plain if theUnings of their carriages occasionally give an olfactory, contradiction to
therstern prohibition hanging above them. Once I confess! did smoke in -spite of
the strenuous objections of a fellowrpassenger ; but he had a basket of fish with
him. I .'offered, however, to desist if he threw his fi-sh out of the window.; but this
he declined to do; so I smoked on. Who Shall blame me?"
We have much evidence tbat the education of the English gentleman is
^unsatisfactory, and that in too many cases he is a better sportsman or rider than
philosopher or student. Physical education is, of course, a great thing ; but it is
not the end for which man was created. And in the present condition of society,
when -self-defence is superseded by the protection of the law, perhaps it is of less
consequence than at any other time. Our great pubUc schools are expected to do
something better than turn out first-rate cricketers, or ardent patrons of the turf.
We want men iin the higher walks of life — of generous sympathies — of enlightened
views — of lofty .eulture;; leaders in reality, as they are socially by position, and
¦wealth and rank. It does not seem that -such is the case. Instead, we have
effeminate mannikins of the Lord Dundreary class, or fine specimens of animalism
¦of. a lower farm — of which Mr. Windham is an illustrious type. Our working-men
are rapidlytfeeeoming intelligent and educated; our middle classes supply us with
leading orators -and thinkers, and statesmen and divines:; but the further we ascend
in the scale df society, the more barrenness, intellectually speaking, do we find.
Of course, the enervating effects of wealth and rank have much to do with this.
At the same time, it must be confessed that not a little of the blame is due to the
education given at our public schools. This is more apparent when we recollect
the impulse given when a teacher .has ibeen found, at a public school, conscious of
the peculiar .claims of his position, and anxious and able to meet them. No -sooner,
for instance, had Dr. Arnold remodelled Eugby, than it was at once confessed, even
by Dr. Arnold's opponents— for he had many— how, much more thoughtful were the
oyy

public schools.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

men from Eugby than from other public schools. Even to this day this is
manifest. We have only one real statesman amongst the younger portion of the
aristocracy at this time — that is Lord Stanley. He was a Eugby boy. This
question of public schools is an important one : it concerns the highest and the
lowest in the land. The Public Schools Commission have done well in attentively
inquiring into the whole matter. In the appendix to the report, the most
distinguished men in the universities declared, that the preparation for the
university course was imperfectly performed in the great public schools, more
especially in the elementary parts of grammar, and in mathematics. Indeed,' so
imperfect is it, that one-half of the young men are unable to pass their matricu
lation examination, which is a very simple one. It is also said that their
knowledge of the Bible, and of English literature and of arithmetic, is most
unsatisfactory. Indeed, it is said that five-sixths of the pupil teachers who received
aid from government, were better readers than the men who went up for admission
into the universities. The deficiencies of our public schools are great. At Eton,
for instance, there is no provision made for the study of English or of French.
The head-master, indeed, goes so far as to maintain that the boys should have
mastered French previously to going there. The Public Schools Commission
appear to have performed their task wisely and well. They sat for three years, and
exhibited the most unwearied zeal in eliciting information by every possible
means — by printed queries, oral examinations, private letters, and. personal visits.
They collected thus an immense amount of information, which they have digested
with great fairness ; and which, in the language of Lord Stanhope, could not but
be of signal advantage. Perhaps never was the propriety of the classics being
made the leading study in our schools better put. " We are convinced," write the
commissioners, " that the best materials available to Englishmen for these studies
are furnished by the language and literature of Greece and Eome. From the
regular structure of these languages — from their logical accuracy and expression —
from the comparative ease with which their etymology is traced and reduced to
general laws — from their severe canons of taste and style — from the very fact that
they are dead, and have been handed down to us directly from the periods of their
highest perfection, comparatively untouched by the inevitable process of degenera
tion and decay — they are, beyond all doubt, the finest and most serviceable models
we have for the study of language." Again, they say — " Besides this, it is at least a
reasonable opinion that this literature has had a powerful effect in moulding and
animating the statesmanship and political life of Englishmen." It is not, then, of
the time devoted to classic literature that we complain. But surely, when a lad,
at the age of nineteen, leaves a public school for the university, he ought to be a
fair classic ; should be able to speak French or German with fluency and correctness ;
and ought to have some idea of natural science. By all means let EngUsh
gentlemen be good classics. As Dr. Temple remarks— " Modern literature is not
fully intelligible except to those who have studied the classics." Indeed, we go as
far as Mr. J. S. Mill, and assert that classic life contains precisely the true
correctives for the chief defects of modern life. But, unfortunately, most of our
gentry leave our great public schools as poor classical scholars as they are ignorant
of modern languages or of the natural sciences. For gentlemen of leisure, and
position, and wealth, no cultivation of the intellect can be too great. It is on
their intellectual supremacy that they must depend, if they would guard and
preserve their political power. There is no danger of the middle and lower
classes not being educated to the best of their ability; they know that knowledge
is power ; and in spite of the hard struggle of life, and the debasing influence of
the search after riches, they will sooner or later attain it. But there is danger to
our upper classes lest they forget that it is their privilege to do the state some
service— that they abandon their duties— that they sink into sensualists, and thus
lower the tone of action and of thought in the' community at large. And to this
result a low state of education in our public schools would contribute.
600

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [" lady audley's secret."
Unfortunately, also, middle-class education is very deficient ; and hence the
taste which has filled London with music-halls, and which has made the Alhambra
pay as a place of amusement ; while, as a scientific institution, it soon became
bankrupt. It may be asked — Do we degenerate as a race ? or is great mechanical and
intellectual progress consistent with a state of morality by no means of a pro
gressive order ? At the end of her tale of Lady Audley's Secret, Miss Braddon
adds a moral drawn from Scripture, and, therefore, to be assumed unquestioningly.
She says — " I hope no one will take objection to my story because the end of it
leaves the good people all happy and at peace. If my experience of life has not been
very long, it has at least been manifold ; and I can safely subscribe to that , which
a mighty king and a great philosopher declared, when he said, that neither the
experience of his youth nor of his age had ever shown him the righteous forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread." So far, Lady Audley's Secret is a tale of unexception
able morality ; yet the taste which delights even in a truthful picture of feminine
rascality and atrocity, is not of the highest or the purest. There was a time when
woman, however imperfect in real life — and that she is often sadly imperfect we sor
rowfully admit — in the page of the novelist was radiant with every virtue. She was
more sinned against than sinning ; and the fault was to be laid at the door of her
lord and master, man. What an excellent girl was Pamela ; how good was Clarissa
Harlowe ; how virtuous Dr. Primrose's daughter ! Sir Walter Scott's heroines, if
not very clever, or deeply read in science, were good wives and excellent mothers.
The lady of the noveUst has lost these primitive graces. It may be that the
character of the sex has been modified by advancing civilisation ; it may be that,
as she has become more tenacious of her right, she has become less careful about
the commission of wrong. The lady of the modern novel is an enigma ; she has
no heart ; she has every fascination ; she is such a one as —
" Idalian Aphrodite, beautiful,
Fresh as the foam new-bathed in Parthian wells,"
and quite as ready for mischief as that same well-known divinity. Perhaps she
has rather the advantage of the goddess, as she always dresses remarkably well,
and is got up, as the penny-a-liners say, regardless of expense. Of this new
theory of woman Miss Braddon has made triumphant use. Mr. Thackeray had a
dim perception of the truth; Mr. George Sala saw it more fully;. but to Miss
Braddon it has been given to develop it in all its entirety. Lady Audley has no
redeeming virtue. She begins sinning in the first volume, and does not leave off
the bad habit till death finds her unrepentant at Villebrumeuse, where she dies,
after a long illness, described as maladia de languer. Her character is wonder
fully drawn. She is consistent throughout in her unrelenting selfishness, and her
power to ruin and fascinate. Bad women, we are told, are worse than bad men. It
seems, also, as if we must go to a woman to learn how bad a woman may be. Miss
Braddon has thrown her soul into her task ; and the result is a masterly per
formance, and, what common people understand and appreciate better, an
extraordinary success. No part of the tale is scamped. Miss Braddon writes
with a pre-Eaphaelite love of, and eye for, detail ; and yet with all the vivacity and
freedom of a woman of the world. She never fatigues, nor takes you on one side,
to tell you how bad A is, and how good B. We have no stock characters— no bold
dragoon, no muscular Christian, nor even a consumptive and deeply interesting
curate. To some the absence of these personages may be a serious drawback ; but
not so will feel the majority : and Lady Audley's Secret had an enormous sale,
and is still one of the most popular tales in the market. We do not blame Miss
Braddon. Her clear insight into what suits the age, and what it sympathises
with, and her remarkable power, which enables her, month after month, and year
after year, to supply novels to the public, are not to be made subjects of censure.
vol. n. 2b 601

CHARLES DICKENS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D.1865.

There must be the charm of truth about her pages, as well as genius, or their power
on the public mind would be limited and evanescent.
The name of Charles Dickens, of course, occupies the first rank among the
novelists of the day. His genius is something wonderful ; his pathos and humour
are exquisite : while his love of all that is good ; his deep sympathy with humanity
in all its sufferings and trials ; his abhorrence of what is false — render his numerous
writings most acceptable to all classes and conditions of her majesty's subjects.
Every one reads, and every one understands, Charles Dickens. His works are a
Ubrary in themselves. He commenced with the Pickwick Papers, which took the
town by storm ; they were followed by Nicholas Nickleby, Oliver Twist, Barnaby
Rudge, American Notes for General Circulation, Martin Chuzzlewit, Dombefy
and Son, David Copperfield, Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit, Our Mutual
Friend, and Christmas stories innumerable. Mr. Dickens was one of the founders
of the guild of literature and art : and as chairman at public charity dinners, is in
great request ; his speeches, on all such occasions, being generally of the most
felicitous character. This popular writer was born at Landport, Portsmouth,
February, 1812. His father was a newspaper reporter, and young Dickens gave up
the study of the law to follow in his father's steps. His first engagement was on
the True Sun, then an ultra-liberal paper. He next gained an appointment on
the Morning Chronicle ; and in the columns of the same paper appeared his first
¦work — Sketches of English Life and Character, afterwards re-published under the
title of Sketches by Boz. The first of these sketches was published in the old
Monthly Magazine. A passenger by the Britannia, when Mr. Dickens took his
American trip, wrote — "Having crossed the Atlantic in the Britannia, with
Mr. Dickens, I recollect a few of his observations made to me on the passage. I
asked him the origin of the signature " Boz." He said that he had a little brother
who used to resemble Moses, in the Vicar of Wakefield ; that he used to call him
Moses also ; but a younger girl, who could not then articulate plainly, was in the
habit of calling him Bozie, or Boz. This simple and natural occurrence made him
assume that name in the first article he risked to the public ; and therefore he
continued the same, as the first effort was approved of." The Sketches by Boz at
once attracted considerable attention, and attained great success. Another pub
lisher came to an arrangement with Mr. Dickens, and Seymour, the comic draughts
man ; the one to write, and the other to illustrate, a book which should exhibit the
adventures of a party of Cockney sportsmen ; hence the appearance of the matchless
Pickwick Papers, a work of which the reader can never tire. After the series had
been commenced, poor Seymour committed suicide ; and Mr. Ha blot K. Browne
was selected to continue the illustrations, which he did under the signature of Phiz.
Mr. Dickens, in the meantime, had married the daughter of Mr. George Hogarth,
an eminent musical composer, and was now on his way to fame and fortune. In
1846 he founded a new morning paper — the Daily News — of which he was, for a
time, the editor. He organised a large literary staff; he engaged some of the best
of the reporters ; gathered around him some of the most popular writers of the
day : but the paper succeeded so indifferently, that Mr. Dickens retired from his
post. He then established Household Words, which was a complete success ; and
in it appeared that admirable little work, his Child's History of England. Of
late he has principally appeared before the public as reader of his own works, which
readings have resulted in immense satisfaction to his hearers, and in great pecuniary
gain to himself. In conclusion, we may add, in the words of a cotemporary critic—
" Such teeming wealth of invention as we have indicated, not displayed, could only
issue from an exuberant vitality, increasing by its own action. In Mr. Dickens
this overflowing jovial life shows itself, not alone in literature, but in citizenship.
His speeches at public institutions and soiries ; his aid to. social institutions; his
researches into the condition of the poor ; his theatrical performances — recreations
which with others would be labours — all flow from the same exhaustless fount of
personal energy. What benevolence has guided his efforts ; what generous sym-
602 s

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Alfred tennyson.
pathy he has shown to the literary worker ; what manly ground he has taken as to
the claims of literature itself, are known to all. As a writer, whether viewed with
regard to the number or the truth of his conceptions, it is no hyperbole to call him
the Shakespeare of familiar life. As an individual, he has wielded more authority
than any previous member of his class, and wielded itfor the best ends."
England's chief poet, of course, is Lord Palmerston's county neighbour (for
Eomsey is but a few miles from the Isle of Wight), Alfred Tennyson. Our age of
action, of scheming, and making money, does not seem to be rich in poetical
genius. The masters of song have died out, and there are few to take their vacant
places. Tennyson was born in the yeaT 1810, in his father's parsonage in Lincoln
shire. He was educated at Cambridge, and wrote a lyric poem there. In 1830, he
published Poems, Chiefly Lyrical, in his own. name, which attracted little attention.
In 1842, he came more prominently before the reading world ; and though even
then he was discouraged by hostile criticism, his growth in public favour has
ever since been rapid; and now all the young men and young ladies of the
present day swear by Tennyson, as their fathers did by Wordsworth or Scott,
Byron, Southey, or Moore. " Tennyson's biography," says a writer in Men of the
Time, " may be said to be represented by his poems. He has given his life to them.
He does not go into society. He has lived alone, or among a few friends, in or
near London, for many years ; and latterly, since his marriage, in the Isle of Wight.
He is understood to be desirous of having this retiring disposition, and dislike of
publicity, respected ; and what Uttle a curious inquirer might learn of his private
life, a right-minded biographer would not be garrulous enough to repeat. This
retirement and delicacy, this fastidiousness and sensibility, are apparent in their
effect on his works. Care, thought, tenderness, religious sentiment, and brooding
meditation are visible therein. He came just in the dead lull which followed the
noisy popularity of the great poets of the first half of this century. A new poet
with a new manner. He had a prosaic epoch to meet and conquer ; could not
expect, and did not achieve a hasty fame; hence he had to fall back on his own
genius : and circumstances combined with character to make him an elaborate and
fastidious artist in expectation. No man more skilfully and curiously labours to
perfect his work. He is the most classical man of what has been called the
Romantic school. In politics, we beUeve, he is a Liberal. Besides his salary as
laureate, he receives a pension from the crown; but we have understood that
this was a kind of compensation for some pecuniary claim which he had on
government." In 1847 appeared the Princess; in 1850, In Memoriam; in
1852, the Ode for the funeral of the Duke of Wellington; in 1855, Maud and
other Poems. Of all the poems here enumerated, Maud is, perhaps, from its war-
spirit, the one most open to censure. Perhaps no poet, it has been remarked,
equals Mr. Tennyson in his sense of rhythm, and the fitness of verbal sounds to ideas
and emotions. In the following lines who does not hear as well as see : —
" Myriads of rivulets hurrying through the lawn ;
The moan of doves in immemorial elms,
, And murmuring of innumerable bees :"
Or catch the boom of artillery in such a repetition as thisr —
" Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them volleyed and thundered.'
In all his poems similar passages are numerous, testifying to his power to
convey feeling and sensation in every page. There is, besides, a delicacy and
grace, such as commends itself at once to the most critical, and excites the
enthusiasm of the coldest of his readers. Of all modern poets, it may also be
said that we have none more thoroughly English— none with a wider range of
2r2 603

public libraries.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

p0wer  none abler to seize the traits of outward life, or to clothe human truths .
with material beauty.
This brings us to the subject of literature. It is by its written thoughts
that we can best judge society or an age. Of all works it remains true, that,
whatever may have floated upon the wave of time, so as to come within our reach,
must have had something in it to keep afloat — that whatever has touched the
heart, has stirred the chords of human feeling and human passion, must have had
in it something of reality and life. The age may have given it a motley
and fantastic garb, euphuism or alliteration ; or affected wit or quaint conceit
may have disguised : but the fact that it is — that it has not ceased to be when so
many other things that were are not — that, when we read it, it makes us feel, in
spite of its grotesqueness and antiquity — tells us that these are in it — beauty,
vitality, truth. Beneath the gay dress of an harlequin, or the cowl of a monk;
beneath the fustian of the peasant, or the purple of the emperor, there is a com
mon humanity stronger than the accidents of rank or fortune. Nothing that my
brother has written, or can write — how that heart of his has felt — what it has
taken for the beautiful in thought, or the graceful in language — but claims my study
and respect. Whatever tells upon the human heart, and modifies the human
character, cannot but be worthy of our notice. Whatever one man has looked
upon as true, that, though it were scouted before, has henceforth a claim on every
heart ; and an utterance that, to the best of his ability, every one should seek to
understand. A good deal of interesting information about books has found its way into
the newspapers. M. Natoli, minister of public instruction in Italy, has instituted
a comparison between the public libraries in Europe, and their contents. He
says, that the public libraries of Great Britain contained 1,771,493 volumes, being
in the proportion of six volumes to every 100 persons ; while in Italy the propor
tion was 19*5 volumes to every 100 persons. In France there were 4,389,000
volumes, or 11 "7 volumes per cent, of population; in Austria, 2,408,000 volumes,
or 6*9 volumes per cent, of population; in Prussia, 2,040,450 volumes, or 1P0
volumes per cent, of population ; in Eussia, 582,090 volumes, or 1-3 volumes per
cent, of population ; in Bavaria, 1,268,500 volumes, or 26-4 volumes per cent, of
population; and in Belgium, 509,100 volumes, or 10-4 volumes per cent, of
population. The Italian government is one of the greatest publishers in Europe ;
and, especially of late, volume after volume, of imposing magnitude, ample
margin, and portly type, issues from its press. Official persons, senators, deputies,
and others, to whom all these publications are sent, need a set of book-shelves on
purpose for their storage. The thing is done in a most Uberal way, with a great
profusion of paper. It is said that about 6,000,000 francs are annually expended
in government printing and publishing. The Americans are crying out about the
price of books in that country. The heavy customs' duties on the material that
enters into their manufacture ; the heavy taxation, in various forms, levied by the
internal revenue law ; together with the high price of labour there, have made the
publishing of books in that country an almost impossible branch of industry.
English books, and books printed in England, are now taking the places formerly
occupied in booksellers' stores by works of American manufacture. This is a just
retribution for the shameless appropriation of English publishers' goods, and
English authors' brains, for which the Yankee booksellers have long been notorious.
The Bookseller says, that 4,204 new books and new editions were published in
England in 1865— a much smaller number than we should have supposed. Of
these, 849 were religious books and pamphlets; 544 are classed under the head of
Junior Fictions and Children's Books ;" and 390 are novels.
_ _ From the Publisher's Circular, we find that the number of new publications
issuing from the press in 1864, was 3,878 ; falling short, but only to a trifling
extent, of that of 1862, which was 3,913.
Xll604 t0ry' Mr' Froude has much distinguished himself by his studies and

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [historical literature.
researches into that of his own land ; and his volumes, for interest and literary
merit, deserve the highest praise. Mr. Kinglake's History of the Crimea, was,
perhaps, the most notable book of the year 1863, having rapidly passed through
four editions. This work was eagerly expected, and read. Ever since 1856,
Mr.. Kinglake had had in his hands the whole mass of the papers which Lord
Eaglan had with him at the time of his death ; including the leading military
reports of the officers serving under him, his official and private correspondence
with sovereigns, ambassadors, ministers, admirals, general functionaries, wild
adventurers, and faithful friends. In addition to the knowledge derived from all
this invaluable store of material, Mr. Kinglake has been greatly aided by the con
versation and correspondence of English statesmen, and eminent soldiers and
sailors, on the business of the war — men honourably distinguished by that noble
freedom of speech, which rests on the assumption that what is best for England is the
truth. He was further aided by Eussian sources. Of the literary merit of the work,
in spite of its sarcastic tone, there can be no doubt. " The style of composition,"
writes a critic, " if occasionaUy diffuse, or tending to monologue, is characteristically
fine ; the language is lucid and pure, and, if we may say so, rather sculpturesque than
picturesque. There is a sort of placidity in Mr. Kinglake's presentiments of
things or persons, that shows an artist-like power of conception as well as of work
manship. Sometimes, as in the description of the Alma, the multiplicity of
detail, or of the change in the point of view of the recital, may weaken the effect,
or impair the integrity, of impression ; but, in general, the execution is that of a
master in the art of letters." Mr. Grote gave new life to the History of Ancient
Greece ; and Sir Archibald Alison did his best to make Toryism popular. In
sacred history a high place must be given to the History of the Jews, and of
Latin Christianity, by the Eev. Henry Milman, Dean of St. Paul's ; who, in his
earlier years, had gained great repute by his dramatic and poetical works.
Nor must we omit the name of Dean Stanley, of Westminster, whose travels in
Palestine have lent to his pleasing volumes an additional charm. In that
delightful land, half-history, half-biography, our latter literature has been very
rich. Amongst the principal contributors to it have been Mr. Hepworth Dixon,
editor of the Athenaeum ; Charles Knight ; Dr. Hooke, Dean of Chester ; G. H.
Lewes; Dr. W. Eussell, the far-famed correspondent of the Times; and John
Foster, of the Examiner newspaper. Of lady historians, the chief have been
Miss Martineau, the advocate of progress ; and Miss Strickland, who is a fervent
worshipper of the past.
In 1865, Thomas Carlyle, the greatest of our living writers of philosophy and
history, concluded his History of Frederick the Great. The general opinion of
the public was not very favourable to this last effort of the author. It is a great
thing, no doubt, that a man of undoubted power should have applied himself to such
an important subject as the seven years' war ; and should have analysed so marked a
character as that of Frederick, the founder of a kingdom which was raised alone,
of all the modern states of Europe, »on the sole basis of military prowess,
without any distinctive nationality: but it was felt that the author of Sartor
Resartus, of the lives of Schiller and of Sterling, had added nothing to his
reputation by his laborious performance. A French work, republished in this
country in the same year, also created a very great sensation : we refer to the Life
of Julius Caesar, written by the French emperor. This book was brought out
with great promise, amidst a thrill of expectation; and Englishmen, though not
very partial to emperors, were all eager to see the Life. It had a large sale,
and was much talked about : the general impression appeared to be, that the
illustrious author had added little or nothing to our knowledge ; but that he had
cleverly vindicated his great uncle, while apologising for the tyranny of the Eoman
Cassar. The most popular book of the year was, however, Dr. Livingstone's
Narrative of the Expedition to the Zambesi, amd its Tributaries. The Doctor and
his brother Charles, in August, 1859, started from the eastern coast of Africa, and
' s ' ' 605

theology.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

travelled at first up the river Zambesi and its tributaries; their intended goal
beino- certain lakes, heard of, but never before visited, called Shirwa and Nyassa.
Mere geographical discovery, however, is far from being Dr. Livingstone's only
aim. He desires to civilise and Christianise the inhabitants;, and, if possible,
to substitute some lawful and useful commerce, for the profitless and demoraUsing
slave-trade. The year 1865 was remarkable for the sudden rise of a new poetical
s.fcar: — Mr. A. C. Swinburne, whose Atalanta in Calydon excited great attention.
This has been followed by Chastelard, a tragedy, founded on the life of the unfor
tunate Mary Stuart, Queen of Scotland. Both works have been received with un
usual favour, though some faults have been found with his treatment of the latter
subject. A critic says — " The power of poetic expression so remarkably displayed
in Mr. Swinburne's Atalanta in Calydon, is- not absent from his new work.
He still writes with force and beauty, though not without drawbacks of straining
and affectation. In a dramatic point of view, too, he shows, up to a certain
point, striking qualities-." The laureate wreath, however, still rests with Alfred
Tennyson, whose subtle and exquisite verse is familiar equally to the statesman,
tbe scholar, and the man of the world. Here, also, we must record the name of Lord
Palmerston's friend,- Lord Houghton.
Amongst translators Lord Derby holds the lead. His English rendering of
Homer was universally admired. His aim seems to have been to give, as simply
as possible, a pellucid translation of the original. He has not attempted to produce
a rigidly accurate version ; nor has he assumed, like Pope, the privilege of a poet,
to recast Homer's thoughts in the mould of a poetic imitation. He proposes to
be modestly content if " some have recalled to their minds a faint echo of the
strains which delighted their earlier days, and recognise some slight trace ofthe
original perfume." He describes his plan of work in the following passage of his
preface : — " It has been my aim throughout to produce a translation, and not a
paraphrase ; not, indeed, such a translation as would satisfy, with regard1 to each
word, the rigid requirements of accurate scholarship, but such as would fairly and
honestly give the sense and spirit of every passage and of every line ; omitting
nothing, and expanding nothing ; and adhering, as' closely as our language will
allow', even to every epithet which is capable of being translated, and which has, in
the particular passage, anything of a special and distinctive ebaracter."
Of novels the multitude is truly enormous. We have already referred to
Miss Braddon, Dickens, and Thackeray : we must add here the names of Wilkie
Collins and Anthony Trollope, both of whom seem to possess inexhaustible
power. Three ladies also deserve mention — Mrs. Gaskell, author of Mary Barton,
too soon removed from us ; Mrs. Craik, whose John Halifax raised her to the
first rank of novelists; and Miss Evans, whose Adam Bede and Felix Holt have
been read by tens of thousands. The spirited Irish tales of Lever are also still in
great request.
In theology, Dr. Davidson, the Eev. James Martineau, and the Eev. F. D.
Maurice, bave ably advocated liberal ideas. In these days of free inquiry,
when old claims have to be tried at the bar of reason, when men require some
firmer ground of belief than the ipse dixit of the religious teacher, it is not to be
expected that the difficulties of the Old Testament narrative should not arrest the
attention of the theological student. That these difficulties bave been so often
lightly passed over in this country, that they have been evaded rather than fairly
met, arises from the unfortunate position in which the clergy of the establishment
are placed. On all sides it is admitted that they are sworn to maintain creeds* and
articles, and theological formularies, which no man would think of framing at the
present day. The layman is thankful that it is no concern of his to reconcile the
discrepancies which generally exist between the belief ofthe priest and the formu
laries which he has, in a natural or non-natural sense, subscribed. The priest' feels
it, and his influence with intelligent men is proportionately diminished. Another
result is, that every year a lower class of men, as is shown by the Bishop of
606

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [bishop colenso.
Winchester, become clergymen ; and another result is, that, in the same proportion,
the pulpit of dissent becomes more full of honesty, of talent, and of power. This is
not a pleasant state of things for those who believe in the theory of a state church,
and who wish to see it embrace, in its extent, the learning and piety of the land.
Is there no room for free inquiry ? Is the clergyman condemned to a stunted
intellectual life ? If he devotes himself to theological studies, is he to be censured
— to be condemned by bishops, and handed over to the expensive tender mercies of
Dr. Lushington ? And is he to be driven out from the church he venerates, and
given over as Uttle better than one of the wicked ? In our day we have seen more
than one clergyman of high standing claim for himself that noblest boon of men —
the right of free inquiry in matters of religion. Of this class Bishop Colenso is
the latest and most illustrious example. This right of free inquiry he has carried
out to the fullest extent. How it will affect his status as a church dignitary
remains to be seen. That is a question to be settled rather by lawyers than
reviewers. But his book, as the great fact of the day, claims attention. It is a
contribution to biblical criticism to be chronicled ; and it is a book which no one
can read without feeling a respect for the piety and honesty of the writer, however
the reader may differ from his conclusions. Originally Dr. Colenso was trained to
believe in the verbal inspiration of the Bible in its fullest sense ; and when petty
contradictions in it met him, which seemed to conflict with the notion he held
of the absolute veracity of every part of Scripture, he deemed the suggestion as
one to be stamped out desperately as with an iron heel. Alas ! he found no peace
in such a course. Nay, more ; as a missionary bishop, engaged in translating the
Bible into the Zulu tongue, he found his old belief utterly untenable, till, by a
stern sense of duty, there was no help for him but to reconsider the whole question
of the authenticity of the Pentateuch. " The result of my inquiry," writes Dr.
Colenso, " is this — that I have arrived at the conviction, as painful to myself, at
first, as it may be to my readers — though painful now no longer under the clear
shining of the light of truth — that the Pentateuch, as a whole, cannot possibly have
been written by Moses, or by any one personally acquainted with the facts which it
professes to describe ; and, further, that the so-called Mosaic narrative, by whom
soever written, and though imparting to us, as I fully believe it does, revelations of
the divine will and character, cannot be regarded as historically true." The
bishop then proceeds to adduce instances that the books of the Pentateuch contain
such remarkable contradictions, and involve such plain impossibilities, that they
cannot be regarded as true narratives of actual historical matters of fact. He
discusses, for instance, the family of Judah, in the account of which he detects
great inconsistencies. Again, he finds that the size of the court of the tabernacle
was inadequate to the requirements of the congregation which, according to
Leviticus, was there assembled. He maintains that Moses and Joshua could not
address ail Israel, though the narrative intimates that they did ; and that it was
improbable that the priests could comply with the command to carry out the ashes
of the sacrifice without the camp ; that the numbers of the Israelites are contradic
tory ; that the Israelites are described as dwelling in tents, when, in other parts, it
is said that they dwelt in booths. Again, he contends that the Israelites could not
have left Egypt supplied with armour ; that it was impossible that the Passover
could be instituted in a single day, as described in Exodus ; that they could not
have marched up out of Egypt in a single day ; that it was impossible they could
have kept their sheep and cattle in the wilderness; that the number of the_ first
born, compared with the number of male adults, is inconsistent with actual births ;
that, according to the data of the Pentateuch, there could not have been such a
number of the people of Israel in Egypt, at the time of the Exodus, as to have
furnished 600,000 warriors ; .that the duties of the priests, at the celebration of the
Passover, were such as could not have been performed by the limited number of
priests then in office. Again, the war on Midian is narrated, according to the
bishop, in a manner involving evident untruth. In the second part the bishop

periodical literature.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
reaches a higher strain of argument. The question is discussed almost entirely on
philological grounds. According to him, when we proceed to examine critically the
whole book of Genesis, we detect the different hands. One of these writers, it will
be found, is distinguished by the constant use of the word " Elohim ;" the other by
the intermixture with it of the name of " Jehovah." The Elohist was the older of
the two writers, and his narrative may have been used by the other as the ground
work upon which he framed his own additions. The bishop arrives at the
conclusion, that the Pentateuch, " most probably, originated in a noble effort of an
illustrious man, in an early age of the Hebrew history, to train his people in the
fear and faith of the living God. For his purpose he appears to have adopted the
form of history, based upon the floating legends and traditions of the time ; filling
up the narrative, we may believe, perhaps to a large extent, where those traditions
failed him. In a yet later day, though still, probably, in the same age, and within
the same circle of writers, the work thus begun (which was, perhaps, left in a very
unfinished state), was taken up, as we suppose, and carried out in a similar spirit by
other prophetical or priestly writers. To Samuel, however, we ascribe the Elohistic
story, which forms the groundwork of the whole." In a third portion of his work,
which did not attract much notice, Bishop Colenso argues, that the history, when
carefully examined, gives no sign of the Pentateuch itself being in existence in the
age of Samuel, David, or Solomon, much less of the Levitical laws being known,
honoured, revered, obeyed, even quoted or referred to. The book of Deuteronomy is
indicated " to have been written in a still later age." Such is a bare outline of
Bishop Colenso's opinions — opinions which, he tells us, have been confirmed and
strengthened by the criticisms which appeared on his first volume. As to their real
value, it is not for us, in these pages, to inquire. If it be that he is a novice in
theology, it will be so much the easier for the good bishops who have condemned
him, to demonstrate his ignorance and folly.
In mental philosophy, the chief names are those of Sir W. Hamilton, and the
Eev. M. Mansel : in natural sciences, Sir David Brewster ; Dr. Whewell, the late
master of Trinity College, Cambridge ; Professor Faraday ; Professor Owen, the great
comparative anatomist; Sir John Herschel; Sir Charles Lyell, the geologist; and
Mrs. Somerville, far famed for her Mechanism of the Heavens, and the Connection
of the Physical Sciences. In economical science, the first place must be given
to John Stuart Mill, M.P., and Herbert Spencer.
A catalogue of periodicals, published by Messrs. Longman at the beginning of
the year 1864, gives the number of eighty-one quarterly, 559 monthly, and 254
daily and weekly publications issuing from the London press. Besides these, there
are forty-nine Transactions, or publications of learned societies and printing clubs;
giving a total of 743 metropolitan periodical publications. A small number of
works, however, included in this list, are mere serials ; that is, works such as
cyclopaedias, or which it is found convenient to issue in parts, instead of bringing
them out in a complete form. °
The quarterlies are by far the most important class of periodicals. The
Edinburgh and Quarterly take precedence by reason of age; but have to sustain
a very formidable competition from their younger rivals. The British Quarterly
Review, the Christian Remembrancer, the Dublin Review (the organ of. the
V^ZL?p ^1CS\i ^e^a^ Foreign Review, the London Review, the
National Review, the North British Review, and the Westminster Review-all
aiming to express, with more or less distinction, the opinions of different sects or
sections ot the community.
Wark^lfZTl V^l}?ati™s-S°™ of them of high literary merit, such as
.Blackwood and Cornhill-are very varied in character, price/and aim. More
than a score are intended, as their titles indicate, solely for boys and children;
cataciT7 SS? Certainly.d0,I10t affect to -se above the level oi tne meanest
B' HalfPe**y publications are not uncommon among them. The titles of
some of them are curious. We find an Anti-Tobacco Journal, Band of Hope

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [newspapers.
Review, Band of Brotherhood, British Millennial Harbinger, Cheering Words,
Co-operation, Day-star, Dewdrop, Earthen Vessel, Girdle of Truth, Lamp of
Love, Last Vial, Pearls from Golden Strea/ms, Progressionist, Rainbow, Sower,
Sunbeam, Sunshine, Zion's Trumpet, The Sword and the Trowel, &c, &o. The
British workmen and cottagers, the coach-builders and saddlers, the cutlers, the
farmers, the. paper-makers, and, perhaps, a few other trades, have monthly publica
tions, intended expressly for their improvement or information. The Gentleman's
Magazine, the Nestor of English periodicals, still survives : law and physic, the
army and navy, the voteries of fashion, and the lovers of music, have their several
organs. As representative of art, we have the Art Journal — a work of very wide
circulation, which continues to maintain a high reputation for the excellence of its
specimens of engraving. As illustrating a new mania, recently patronised by the
large class who have nothing better to do, we may insert here the name of the
Stamp Collectors' Magazine. Amongst the most popular of the cheap periodicals
ofthe time must be mentioned Good Words, edited by Dr. Norman Macleod,
one of her majesty's Scottish chaplains ; and for which some of the most popular
novelists — such as Professor Kingsley and Mrs. Oliphant — write.
The weekly and daily press is an astonishing indication of the mental activity
of the times in which we live. The Daily Telegraph, price one penny, has a daily
circulation of more than 130,000. The Times Is now reduced to threepence ; the
Standard, the Morning Star, are penny papers. The Daily News, and its
evening edition, the Express, for independent and liberal views of politics, and
parties, may be placed at the head of the class. The Morning Post, at one time,
was supposed to be the special . organ of Lord Palmerston. It was also said that
articles from his pen occasionally appeared in the Globe.
The Athenaeum may be considered as the leading literary organ; the old
Literary Gazette, which, in 1862, assumed the name of The Parthenon, having
come to an end in 1863, after an existence of forty-six years. The Critic,
another Uterary paper of iater origin, also expired in that year. A more miscel
laneous class of papers — half literary and half political — appears to be chiefly in
favour now. Among them, the well-known Saturday Review holds the highest
place ; but the Examiner, the Spectator, the Guardian, the Economist, the Press,
and the London Review, maintain a respectable position nevertheless. Six papers
entitle themselves illustrated ; but such is the progress of wood-engraving, that
illustration is the rule rather than the exception. Of the weekly miscellanies of
instruction and amusement, Chambers' Journal, All the Year Round, and Once a
Week, enjoy extensive popularity. Punch, and its young rival Fun, aim to be, and
often really are, witty and wise. The paper called Public Opinion, professes to
give, weekly, the cream of the speculations of all the other papers, weekly and daily,
upon the most engrossing topics of the day. There are eight weekly publications
of which the price is only a halfpenny. Notes and Queries is an organ of inter
communication, for literary men, upon curious trifles of literary interest. One
very serious and not encouraging sign of the times, is the multiplicity of papers
devoted to sporting matters. " It would, indeed," says the writer of the chapter on
Literature, in the Annual Register for 1863, " be difficult to find any interest which
has not its organ : the ladies, the builders, the mechanics, the artisans, the book
sellers, the printers, the grocers, the chemists, the insurers, the masters, the free
masons, the volunteers, the teetotallers, the boys and girls, are all well represented.
The Transactions and publications of the learned societies form a record of the
investigations and discoveries of the most eminent labourers in the various depart
ments of science and art. Of these, in 1863, there were thirty-five issued for public
sale, and fourteen distributed to the members of the association alone.
It is little we can find room to say of art. An idea of its state, in 1865, may,
however, be gathered from the following extracts from a contemporary critic : — "It
may be stated," he says, "that the present exhibition is, upon the whole, the best
that any of us can remember. The more complete education of the present
609

fine arts.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
generation of painters is now plainly visible ; and we have no longer to deal with
a mass of commonplace works, contrasted with a few noble pictures, but to
examine attentively the performances of painters who are silently, but rapidly,
forming a larger and more consistent school. Even those painters who, Uke
Armitage, Leighton, and Crowe, have been educated abroad, have known how to
steer clear of the peculiarities of foreign schools, and to maintain an independence
and originality, full of promise for the vigour and stability of our own. They have
gained the knowledge acquired by a more severe practice, and apply it, with the
force of their English intellects, to the formation of a style that cannot be con
founded with any of those now prevalent on the continent ; while, at the same time,
with a few striking exceptions, we detect no morbid taste for that offensive species
of originality which is based on vanity, and displays itself in the exhibition of eccen
tricities and peculiarities. Surrounded by so many works of excellence, contending
against an amount of ability unknown a few years back, it redounds to the credit
of most of the academician exhibitors that they have been able so well to hold their
own. Landseer, Herbert, Cope, Elmore, Frith, Hook, Poole, Philip, and Stansfield,
sustained their well-earned reputation. Millais, John Lewis, and Leighton, lately
elevated from the ranks, are, perhaps, the most attractive exhibitors next to Frith,
whose pictures, this year, possess an intrinsic interest for the large crowd of
sightseers." We must add here the name of Holman Hunt, one of the chief of the
pre-Eaphaelites. The same critic observes — " Among the younger painters of this
year, Mr. S. Solomon, Mr. Burgess, and Mr. G. A. Storey hold the foremost
places. The number of landscape-artists on the line was unusually small.
Those, however, which were thus honoured, were of more than average merit. The
portraits were few in number ; but there were some meritorious productions ; the
names of Knight, Grant, Frith, Boxall, &c, being represented. The architectural
drawings were few and far between — a thing easily accounted for when we remember
that architects are too busy in the execution of works, to give up much time to
the execution of plans." Of sculptors, we have few who deserve remembrance ; the
chief of them are Messrs. Noble, J. Durham, Mr. Boehm, Mr. and Mrs. Thorneycroft,
J. Edwards. The popular man for marble statues at this time, whether of princes
or heroes, is Mr. Noble. The "Eve at the Fountain" was the chef-d'oeuvre of E.
Bailey. Other distinguished artists are John Bell, the late John Gibson, Lougb,
M'Dowell, and Westmacott.
On more than one occasion Lord Palmerston had been a judge in questions of
art. He was one of the commissioners present at Gwydir House, Whitehall,
July, 1843, when the opinion of tbat body on the merits of the respective artists
contributing to the exhibition of fresco paintings, exhibited in Westminster Hall,
was formally pronounced by the selection of six from among their number, whom
it had been determined to commission to execute works, on given subjects, for the
decoration of the new houses of parliament. The commissioners present were
Viscount Palmerston, Lord Mahon, Lord Colborne, Mr. Macaulay, Mr. G. Knight,
Mr. Harries, and Mr. Vivian. His royal highness Prince Albert, the president, and
the other absent commissioners, having previously recorded their opinion in favour of
the artists selected no difficulty arose from their non-attendance; and some pre
liminary business having been transacted, the names of the successful competitors
were Charles West Cope, John Calcott Horsley, William Dyce, Daniel Maclise,
Eichard Redgrave, and William Cave Thomas. Mr. Cope had received a first-class
?£?* J u ,hlS Cart00n of the first "Trial hJ Jury," in the exhibition of
« «+ a \ Hors% received a second prize of £200, in 1843, for his cartoon of
St. Augustine preaching to Ethelbert and Bertha-his Christian Queen;" and
Mr. 1 nomas had received an additional premium of £100 for his cartoon of "St.
Augustine preaching to the Britons."
,n^ ^ra^stic anecdote of Lord Palmerston may be recorded here. On one
3lhefy a«*J!ded at the E^l Academy Exhibition, and had become the
purchaser of one of the pictures. The artist took it himself to the statesman's

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [admiral fitzroy.
residence, by whom he was received with the utmost cordiality. His lordship
praised the picture ; but pointed out one little defect. The grass was long, and yet
the picture was filled with a flock of sheep. Grass, his lordship humorously
insinuated, after sheep had fed on it, was short. The artist intimated that the
sheep had only been turned in on the previous night ; and, after a hearty laugh,
both parted mutually satisfied, and mutually pleased with each other.
The president of the Eoyal Academy was the late Sir Charles Eastlake, to
which place he was elected on the death of Sir Martin Shee, in 1850, when, also,
he was knighted. " He is now," says a contemporary writer, in 1856, " the feted
of the nobility, the guest of royalty, and the accredited arbiter elegantiarum of his
time. As the paid director of the National Gallery, the secretary to the fine arts
commission, and the art adviser of her majesty and the Prince Consort, he may be
said to have reached the culminating point of his career."
Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the new houses of parliament, who died
in I860, deserves, at any rate, a line. The palace at Westminster was commenced
in 1840. Her majesty opened the Victoria Tower, and Eoyal Gallery of State, on
the 3rd of February, 1852, when she conferred the honour of knighthood on the
architect. Mr. Scott, the chief of the Gothic school in architecture, was the
gentleman Lord Palmerston delighted to honour. Of the classic school, Professor
Cockered may be placed at the head.
We must record here the pursuit of meteorological science of the late
Admiral Fitzroy, born in 1805 ; the youngest son of Lord Charles Fitzroy,
second son of the third Duke of Grafton. In 1828 he was appointed to the com
mand of the Beagle, a surveying vessel, from which period he commenced his
career as a hydrographical officer. On one occasion, the Beagle was nearly capsized
by a violent gust of wind ; but, by dint of great skill and readiness in seamanship,
she was righted, and brought with her head to the wind, not, however, without loss
of both topmasts, and other smaller spars; her sails, although furled, being torn to
pieces. But the severest disaster was the loss of two men, who were blown over
board and drowned, To his sensitive mind this was a severe blow ; but to have
attempted to render aid in a boiling sea, when all were in similar peril, would have
been useless. The impression made on Lieutenant Fitzroy, by this circumstance,
was very great ; and the lesson derived from it was never forgotten, and ever after
he laid great stress on the silent teachings of the barometer. In a Second survey
ing expedition with the Beagle, he carried a chain of meridian distances around the
globe. He was accompanied, on this voyage, by Mr. Darwin, the celebrated
naturalist. In 1834 he was raised to the rank of post-captain, by Lord Auck
land. In 1837 he received the gold medal of the Eoyal Geographical Society;
in 1838 he was eleeted an elder brother of the Trinity; and, in 1841,
entered parliament as M.P. for Durham. In 1843 he was sent out, by Lord
Derby, to New Zealand as governor. On his return, he filled various capacities
till 1854, when he was appointed to a new office, organised for the purpose
of collecting data from observations at sea, and for deducing results for the
promotion of science and navigation. It had its origin in a conference held at
Brussels in 1853. The first result of practical utility was the establishment of
barometers on the coast for the use of fishermen : these were supplied by the Board
of Trade gratuitously, wherever the population was too poor to defray the expense.
A small manual, in simple terms and bold type, written by Admiral Fitzroy, was
sent with the barometers, and proved of great use.
In 1857, Captain Fitzroy became rear-admiral on the reserve list.
It was not till 1861 that he accomplished the object he had at heart — the system
of storm warnings, or warning signals of approaching dangerous gales. On February
2nd, 1861, the first storm warning was issued; and, before the stated limit of time, the
storm burst furiously on most of our shores, amply verifying all the signals. The
storm warnings gradually gained in public confidence ; and became, at length, of
such personal interest, that foreign nations eagerly resorted to Admiral Fitzroy for

town sewage.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
information respecting them. France was the first to follow and adopt them.
The same system was afterwards established in Prussia, Italy, and Holland ; and is
in progress of adoption in Eussia, both on the Black Sea and in the Baltic. Occa
sional warnings were also sent from the meteorologic office to Hamburg, Hanover,
and Oldenburg, at the request and at the expense of the government of those
states; likewise to Sweden. In 1862, the Weather Book was published. The
admiral's overstrained mind never recovered this pressure ; and he perished sadly,
as we all know. He died deeply honoured and lamented. , On his death, the
storm signals were discontinued ; but, while we write, we find that the under
writers, ship-owners, and members of the mercantile marine service in Liverpool,
have adopted a memorial to the Board of Trade, asking that they may be re
established at once.
Some Eastern despot offered, it is said, a handsome reward for a new pleasure.
To the modern epicure the gods have decreed such a boon. It appears there is a
society for the purpose of introducing eatable birds, beasts, fishes, and vegetables
into this country. They have succeeded in introducing the Chinese sheep, the
eland, and the yam ; and now, with infinite pleasure, we learn that there are most
excellent turkeys in Australia and Central America, closely allied, in. one instance, to
the bustard, but said to be delicious in flavour. " Guans" and " Curassows," too,
are fowls with a plumage exceedingly ornamental, and a flavour " well-spoken of."
Then there are numerous varieties of grouse, Canadian, American, and Chinese, all
more or less eligible ; though the utility of any bird which can exist only in the
form of game would be somewhat limited. The path of real progress evidentlylies
in another direction. Ducks and pigeons are the birds to work with. Already a
new duck has been produced by hybridisation, of which the qualities are so
remarkable, that if they were less strongly vouched for, we should be afraid to
believe them. We have it, however, on the authority of Lord Craven, corroborated
by the experience of Mr. Grantley Berkeley, that the " pintailed cross" has the
charming faculty of always remaining tender. However old he may be, he is never
tough, but " may be killed all the year round as excellent for the table, never
acquiring the hardness to whieh the meat of the tame duck is liable, when grown
to maturity." Yet even this most convenient fowl would be surpassed in merit
by the " Wonga" of Australia, rightly designated " the queen of the pigeon tribe."
Imagine our dovecotes full of these birds, selling, let us hope, at Is. or Is. 2d. a
couple, and " combining, in the most delicate proportion, the flavour of the pheasant
and the grouse !"
Not merely, however, did science search out new food; but, in 1860, or there
abouts, people began to study how to make land more profitable by the employ
ment of town sewage. In Croydon this had been done with great success, and the
produce had been increased threefold in consequence. In 1865, a special act was
passed, empowering the formation of a company, having for its object the utilisation
of the sewage of the northern side of London, under a concession granted: to
Messrs. Napier and Hope, by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Besides the right
to the sewage, the company will have the privilege of reclaiming about 7,000 acres
of sandy freestone between Shoeburyness and the mouth of the Blackwater. The
sewage is to be taken from the reservoir at Barking Point, and conveyed to the
Maphn sands in pipes; to be then employed in irrigating the reclaimed" land ; but
the pipes may be tapped on the way, if the farmers wish to purchase a supply of
the fertilising mixture. The works are estimated to cost £2,400,000, and contracts
have been entered into for their execution. The company have the concession of
the sewage for fifty-four years, on tbe terms of taking the whole of the profits for
the first four years ; and, for the remaining fifty years, dividing the profits equally
with the Metropolitan Board of Works, " with a priority of payment to the share
holders, to the extent of 5 per cent." The sewage of the southern side has not
been assigned ; but several parties are anxious to obtain the appropriation. In
1864, the well-known Essex farmer, Mr. Mechi, wrote—
612

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mr. banting.
" The government commission which is experimenting at Eugby is doing good
public service, proving that no cost or quantity of ordinary manure can compete
with town sewage in the production of grass. Every farmer knows that land which
has produced good grass abundantly, will, when broken up, give the best results
in cereal and other crops ; and yet we hear almost everyone saying that sewage is
only good for grass, while, indirectly at least, it is the very best producer of all our
food. The objection about over-dilution is a mere bugbear, for every acre of British
soil gets an annual rainfall of 2,600 tons. Without this the farmer would be badly
off, although he only mixes with it the manure of two or three sheep. Sewage,
then, is infinitely stronger than the farmer's ordinary manure. A practical ex
perience of ten years with home sewage teaches me its value, and makes me regret
that I have not a town or village near my farm. Let me recommend every doubter
about sewage to read that wonderful book of Liebig's, just published (The Natural
Laws of Husbandry), and he will then be astonished that an intelligent agricul
turist (Sir John Shelley) should say, in the House of Commons, 'But of all
'manure doctors' (in his opinion) none were so dangerous as those who talked of
utilising the sewage of towns.'" In reply to all this, Mr. James Archibald
CampbeU, writing from Eugby itself, says — " Land here, which has produced good
Italian grass abundantly under a plentiful supply of town sewage and other
manures, when broken up, has given anything but the best results in cereal crops.
As to the sewage being infinitely stronger than farm-yard manure, the expression
is vague ; but I well know that £50 worth of farm-yard manure will give a more
profitable return from arable land than £100 worth of town sewage, because the
first can be advantageously applied, whereas the other cannot, on account of its
excessive dilution and consequent bulk. But, for the production of grass, any
amount may be appUed with advantage, if the temperature be sufficiently high."
But whilst people were discussing how to raise crops, and to create fresh sources
of food for the many, in certain quarters it was felt that a man might be over-fed,
and that too much flesh was a nuisance, to be got rid of as soon as possible. The
leader of this new gospel was an immensely stout man — a Mr. Banting — who, by
a judicious system of dieting, exclusive of beer, butter, fat, &c, had reduced himself
to a convenient and agreeable size. Mr. Banting, all at once, found himself famous.
He published a pamphlet on the subject, which had an extraordinary sale, and out
of the profits of which he devoted a very handsome sum to charitable purposes.
He was visited by lords and ladies — by philosophers and men of the world. In
newspapers and theatres there were constant allusions to his name. In the
drawing-room, or on 'Change, every one talked of the new discovery, and of the
benefits to be gained thereby. Writing to the Times, Mr. Banting says — "I have
reason to believe, from the experience of my own case, and the reports of others,
that the quantity of food need only be ruled and governed by appetite, and that
quahty is the great question to be studied in cases of undue corpulence, like mine,
and other diseases for which dietary may be a proper remedy : this will be proved
by ventilating the question. One fact is very surprising, which I take leave to
state— that in every case in which the system called 'Banting' has been adopted,
and parties have carefully weighed themselves at starting (without any exception),
the greatest amount of reduction has "been manifest within the first forty-eight
hours. I have many reports of from four pound to eight pound reduction of
weight in that time, with great personal benefit otherwise. This fact can be proved
by all who choose to try the system, and there can be little risk in the experiment ;
but I have invariably advised all my correspondents and readers to act advisedly
under medical authority, to ascertain clearly the cause of their grievance or suffering
before adopting any new system. Many reports have been circulated, most painful
and distressing to me, of ridiculous interviews with exalted persons; of my illness
from adopting the system, and of my death in consequence ; but all such reports are
utterly false. I have little doubt that other painful and annoying reports of the
illness and death of others are equally so : but a very short time will prove these
613

FEMALE MEDICAL SOCIETY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
facts ; and those persons who have, lor some unwarrantable reason, or possible
mercenary pretext, put them forth, will be conscience-punished, if not utterly
ashamed. I do not profess to have a grain of knowledge of the physiological
reasons for the extraordinary results of the system, nor can I presume to reason
upon any point beyond my own individual experience, which alone is my sheet-
anchor; but am satisfied the system is not unworthy of notice; that it is only yet in
infancy, but is on the fair road to maturity ; and I believe fixed laws will be
engendered, to rule in many cases of affliction, through proper dietary, that will be
trnly beneficial to humanity. Another extraordinary fact I can confidently state
from having proved it on three several occasions. It is, that five ounces of loaf-
sugar, spread over ten days' consumption, will increase my weight above one
pound at the end of that week ; and I have therefore great reason to believe that
sugar and saccharine matters are the main causes of undue corpulence. I neither
ask, claim, nor expect anything for my perseverance in this cause. My only aim
is to elicit thorough ventilation of what I believe an important subject for the
benefit of humanity ; and I believe none so fit and proper as the medical faculty to
work out the problem hitherto rather slighted and overlooked."
In 1847, the first application of ether in surgical operations was made. Its
use was speedily introduced into all the metropolitan and most of the provincial
hospitals, and thence into private practice. A vast number of surgical opera
tions, performed during its influence, appeared in' the public journals ; by which
it was made evident that the ordinary and every-day pains and aches, as weU as
the most excruciating and extraordinary agonies to which flesh is heir, were equally
under the power of this beneficial agent. Towards the end of the year, ether was
superseded by chloroform.
In 1850, two magnificent specimens of ancient Assyrian art, part of the result
of Mr. Layard's researches in the ruins of ancient Nineveh, arrived in this country,
and were placed in the British Museum. They are two bas-reliefs, representing,
the one a winged human-headed lion ; the other, a winged human-headed bull.
Mr. Layard's researches were most successful, and his book on the subject was one
of the most popular works of the season when it appeared.
In 1851, among the minor wonders ofthe Great Exhibition, was a paranthotic
bank lock, whose inventor— Mr. Hobbs— offered £5,000 to the person who should
succeed in picking it; but no one claimed the reward. At the same time Mr.
Hobbs undertook to pick any lock that should be offered him. Of our famous
lockmakers, Messrs. Chubb first defied his skill ; but their patent lock was opened
without much difficulty. Messrs. Bramah had long offered £200 to any who
should open one of their celebrated locks without injuring it. Mr. Hobbs- accepted
the challenge, succeeded, and received the reward, after he had been at work on the
lock twenty-one hours.
,T. .*n *854' the Mini6 rifle' a most effective small arm (the invention of Captain
Mime, of the French army), was substituted, in the queen's serviee, for the old
musket. A portion of the army sent to the Crimea was armed with this fatal
weapon, where it produced such marveUous effects that it was resolved to supply it
to every soldier without delay.
In 1851, the Art Treasures Exhibition, at Manchester, was opened, and was a
great success. It was valued at £6,000,000, and consisted of paintings by ancient
masters, by modern masters, British portrait gallery, sculpture, museum of orna
mental art, water-colour drawings, and historical miniatures
_ About this time a Female Medical Society was formed in London, for the
training and employment of women in obstetrics and diseases of their own sex,
the chairman of which is the well-known Mr. Newman, late professor of the Latin
language and literature at the London University. There was a time when women
gained great distinction as lecturers and professors of medical science; and there
is no earthly reason why they should not study and practise the noble art of healing,
especially where the fair sex themselves are concerned. Our best book on nursing

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the pneumatic tube.

is by Miss Nightingale. One of our most valuable works on military hospitals
proceeds from the same able pen. In many cases women can understand a case
better, and treat it more skilfully than men. Children's and female diseases and
complaints might, in the large majority of cases, be better understood and treated
by women than by men. Medicine is no mystery. It is practised by women ; as it
is, more or less, in every family circle ; and a cure is often wrought quite as much
by the family nurse as by the family doctor. It is to be hoped, then, that the new
society will prosper. Several medical men, of high standing in London, have
expressed their willingness to assist the movement by their personal co-operation
as teachers and managers in the proposed school. The licence of the Society of
Apothecaries is open to women, and the curriculum of study will be adapted to the
requirements of the hall. The committee appeal to the friends of the movement
for aid. In time, they trust, the number of female students will render their insti
tution self-supporting.
A considerable number of persons were invited to the Crystal Palace, in I860,
to witness the exhibition of a new lighting apparatus. For several years back, the
ingenuity of inventors has been directed to the discovery of a mode of lighting,
more economical, more convenient, and more powerful than that which we now
possess by means of the generation of light from coal. The electric light, which
has been frequently exhibited in London, was the nearest approach to a mode of
fighting calculated to supersede the existing means of producing light from coal ;
but, though admitted to be extremely powerful, it was deficient in that steadiness,
continuity, diffusiveness, and economy which .would alone render it available for
the practical purposes of life. These, therefore, were the recommendations which
any new inventors must associate with their light, in order that it should become
of practical importance ; and it was for the purpose of showing how far they had
succeeded in this respect that they had invited the public to witness the
exhibition of their Ught on a particular evening at the Crystal Palace. The new
light is obtained by projecting a jet of oxygen and hydrogen, or oxygen and car-
buretted hydrogen gases combined, upon a surface of lime, and so regulating the
supply, and protecting the lime from crumbling away, as to insure, with perfect
continuity, a maximum brilliancy of intensity and continuity. With regard to the
power of the lime-Ught, a single jet of medium size has been found to be equivalent
to forty argand, or eighty fish-tail burners, each consuming five cubic feet per hour,
or to 400 wax candles of four to the pound. The new light is represented to be
peculiarly adapted for coast-lights, steamers, sailing vessels, railway signals, bridges,
wharves, churches, factories, public rooms, squares, large and important thorough
fares. From its portability, it is eminently adapted for military operations in the
field, both in attack and defenee of important positions, as well as the service of
the coast-guard, both as an element or protection against surprise, and as a valuable
adjunct to the already extensive arrangements for the safety of life. A very
important application of the light is its adaptation to the mining service, by
which the safety of the miner will be effectually secured by the enclosure of the
Ught, and its supply with oxygen gas, without the necessity for direct communi
cation with the surrounding atmosphere. With respect to the important question
of expense, it was stated that the cost of maintaining the light was considerably
less than any other known light, in the following proportion : — Oxy-hydrogen lime
Ught, ld. per hour ; coal gas, Id. ; argand oil, 15d. ; wax candle, 60d. per hour.
In 1859, a company was registered for the establishment, in the metropolis, of
lines of pneumatic tube, for the more speedy and convenient circulation of des
patches and parcels ; and an act of parliament received the royal assent that year,
empowering the company to open the streets, and lay down tubes for the purpose.
The directors, having satisfied themselves and the shareholders, of the complete
mechanical success of the company's system of transmission, by experiments upon
a short line of tube at Battersea, and of its economy and peculiar applicability to
the purposes in view, determined on laying down a permanent tube of thirty inches
615

eobert Stephenson.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1859.

sauee between the Euston station and the north-western district post-office, Ever-
sholt Street. This tube, with the stations, machinery, and appliances, was com
pleted and found to work most efficiently. The length of tube open was only a
third of a mile. The transmission of the first batch of mail-bags through it, took
nlace on February 20th, 1863. Several of the principal officials of the post-office
were present. The whole of the works were in the most admirable order ; and, on
the arrival of the first mail-train, at 9.45 A.M., the mail-bags, thirty-five in
number, were placed in the vans by 9.47. The long chamber was then exhausted;
and the train, containing the first mail ever despatched by the agency of the atmo
sphere was blown through the tube to the station at Eversholt Street, which was
reached at 9.48 A.M. The success was so complete, that the company resolved to
continue their works to Holborn at once. _
Much was done at this time by the establishment of the Working-Mans
College in Ormond Street, owing, principally, to the enlightened efforts of the Eev.
F. D. Maurice, the Eev. Charles Kingsley, Mr. Ludlow, and Thomas Hughes-
author of a book which, all at once, became amazingly popular, Tom Brown's
School-days. From the very first, it did much, among the people, to diffuse and
purify the taste for art and science.
In 1862, many attempts were made to make discoveries in science by
means of the balloon. Messrs. Glaisher and Coxwell undertook several aerial
voyages for that purpose. On one occasion they ascended in a balloon from
Wolverhampton, and reached a height of upwards of six miles. At the height
of five miles and a-half, Mr. Glaisher. became insensible, and Mr. Coxwell nearly so,
in consequence of the intense cold and rarity of the atmosphere. The ascent was
made the first week in September.
In 1861, a telegraphic cable was suspended, between the castle and the Calton
Hill, Edinburgh, by means of which the time-gun at the castle was discharged
simultaneously with the descent of the time- ball on Nelson's monument, Calton
Hill, which is acted upon from the Greenwich Observatory.
In 1859, science mourned the loss of a favourite son. Bobert Stephenson died
on October 12th, at the early age of fifty-six. He will be remembered chiefly for
the London and Birmingham Eailway, for the high-level bridge over the Tyne, at
Newcastle, the viaduct (supposed to be the largest in the world) over the Tweed
valley at Berwick, and the Britannia tubular bridge over theMenai Straits — a form
of bridge of which there had been previously no example, and to which, considering
its length and the enormous weight it would have to sustain, the objections and diffi
culties seemed almost insuperable. In addition to his railway labours, Mr. Stephenson
took a general interest in public affairs, and in scientific investigations. In 1847
he was returned as member of parliament, in the Conservative interest, for Whitby,
in Yorkshire, for which place he continued to sit until his death. He acted with
great liberality to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society, paying off, in
1855, a debt amounting to £3,100, in gratitude, as he expressed it, for the benefits
he derived, in early life, from that establishment, and to enable it to be as prac
tically useful to other young men. He most liberally placed at the disposal of
Mr. Piazzi Smyth, his yacht and crew, to facilitate the interesting investigations
undertaken by that gentleman at the island of Teneriffe ; and very valuable results
have been obtained. He was an honorary, but active, member of the London
Sanitary and Sewerage Commissions ; a Fellow of the Eoyal Society ; a member of
the institution of civil engineers since 1830, of which institution he was member of
council during the years 1845 to 1847 ; vice-president during those from 1848 to
1855 ; and president during the years 1856 and 1857. He received a great gold
medal of honour from the French Exposition d'lndustrie of 1855 ; and is said to
have declined an offer of knighthood in Great Britain. He was also the author of
a work On the Locomotive Steam-Engine, and another On the Atmospheric
Railway System, published in quarto, by Weale.
In the death of Sir T. Brisbane, in 1860, science sustained a loss. The .
616

a.d. 1861.J VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [dr. Donaldson.
naum says — " Sir T. Brisbane's colonial administration was very beneficial.
Besides performing his government duties, he erected an observatory at Paramatta,
and supplied it with books, first-rate instruments, and two assistants from Europe
— all at his own expense. He knew that no observations of the stars, in the
southern hemisphere, had been made since 1751-2, when Lacaille made a very
valuable series of observations at the Cape of Good Hope; and that a wide field
was opened before him at Sydney, for the labours of the astronomer. The result
of his observations at Paramatta, besides many valuable papers contributed to the
Eoyal Society and the Astronomical Society, comprises the Brisbane Catalogue of
7,385 Stars of the Southern Hemisphere — a most important addition to astrono
mical knowledge ; and so highly esteemed were the results, that the home govern
ment, on the representation of scientific men, gave instructions that the Paramatta
Observatory should be kept up at the public expense. On Sir Thomas Brisbane's
return to Scotland, in 1826, he founded his celebrated astronomical observatory at
Makerstoun ; and in 1841, he erected another observatory, in the same place, for
the purpose of making magnetical observations. The instruments supplied to both
observatories were of the best and most costly nature. The sum paid for the clocks
alone, in the magnetical observatory, was 1,200 guineas. The work done has been
excellent. From 1841 to 1846, magnetical and meteorological observations have
been made every alternate hour, except in 1844 and 1845, when they were made
every hour, day and night. Since 1846, nine observations have been made daily.
The results have been published; and the Makerstoun Observatory has justly
acquired the reputation of being one of the best magnetical and meteorological
estabUshments in Scotland. Scientific honours rapidly followed those obtained by
Sir Thomas Brisbane for his military deeds. In 1810 he was elected a Fellow of the
Eoyal Society; and, in 1828, he was awarded the Astronomical Society's gold
medal. He was a corresponding member of the French Institute. The universities
of Oxford and Cambridge conferred upon him the degree of D.C.L. ; and, in 1832,
he succeeded Sir Walter Scott in the presidential chair of the Eoyal Society of
Edinburgh, and retained that office during the rest of his life."
In phUology, the English have never much distinguished themselves. We
have left that department of science chiefly to the Germans. One name, however,
deserves recording here — that of Dr. Donaldson. The Times of February 13th,
1861, in a friendly article, made known to the world his death. He received his
earUer education in the University of London ; but proceeded, at the ordinary age,
to Cambridge, where he was entered at Trinity some thirty years ago. His dis
tinctions at that seat of learning followed in rapid succession. In 1834, he
obtained the highest place but one in the list of classical honours ; and displayed,
incidentally, such evidence of his powers as attracted the special notice of one of
the examiners — the present Bishop of St. David's. The promise of excellence thus
given was speedily fulfilled ; for, within five years of his bachelor's degree, he pro-
. duced his New Cratyhis, a work of extraordinary character from so young a writer.
This — his first contribution to philological science — was followed by a long and
successful series of publications, elucidating the genius and structure of the two
classical languages, and illustrating Greek and Latin by ingenious comparisons
with parent or kindred tongues. A scholar of such eminent proficiency had, of
course, no difficulty in securing his share of academical endowments ; and the prize
of a Trinity Fellowship fell to his lot in the year after his degree. This prefer
ment, however, he did not long retain. In a short time he married, and succeeded
to the mastership of King Edward's School, in the town of Bury St. Edmund's,
where his abilities were devoted, for some years, to the work of direct education.
At this period of his life, having included the Oriental languages in the ever-
widening range of his studies, he published an essay, in which the freedom of
speculation on a Biblical question provoked the censure of orthodox critics. Though
the work reached a second edition on the continent, it found little favour at home ;
and though it was written in the Latin tongue, and addressed exclusively to the
vol. ii. 2 s 617

science and religion.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
learned world, it did not escape popular or hostile comment. It was just at this
time, howevei-, that the great universities of the kingdom were thrown open to
studious and independent residents by the gift of free constitutions; and Dr.
Donaldson returned to a community in which, if learning was to be encouraged,
and labour rewarded, there should surely have been a place for him. He was
not disappointed. The Athenaeum pubUshed the following correspondence, in 1864 : —
" Sion House, Lower Clapton, N.E., Sept. 5th.
" Sir, — I beg to call your attention to the accompanying declaration, now in
course of signature among scientific men, whieh it is proposed to issue when a
sufficient number of names have been obtained. I trust you will approve of the
spirit of the document, and the terms in which it is expressed, and solicit the
favour of your signature to be appended to the memorial.
" I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" Capel H. Bergeb.
" Sir John Herschel, Bart., K.H., F.E.S., &c.
" THE DECLARATION.
" ' We, the undersigned students of the natural sciences, desire to express our
sincere regret that researches into scientific truth are perverted, by some in our
own times, into occasion for casting doubt upon the truth and authenticity of the
Holy Scriptures. We conceive that it is impossible for the Word of God, as written
in the book of nature, and God's Word written in Holy Scripture, to contradict
one another, however much tbey may appear to differ. We are not forgetful that
physical science is not complete, but is only in a condition of progress ; and that,
at present, our finite reason enables us only to see as through a glass darkly; and
we confidently believe that a time will come when the true records will be seen to
agree in every particular. We cannot but deplore that natural science should be
looked upon with suspicion by many who do not make a study of it, merely on
account of the unadvised manner in which some are placing it in opposition to
Holy Writ.' We believe that it is the duty of every scientific student to investigate
nature, simply for the purpose of elucidating truth ; and that, if he finds that some
of his results appear to be in contradiction to the written Word, or rather to his own
interpretations of it, which may be erroneous, he should not presumptuously affirm
that his own conclusions must be right, and the statements of Scripture wrong;
rather leave the two side by side till it shall please God to allow us to see the
manner in which they may be reconciled ; and, instead of insisting upon the
seeming differences between science and the Scriptures, it would be as weU to rest
in faith upon the points in which they agree.'
" Upwards of 210 names have already been received, including thirty F.E.S.'s,
forty M.D.'s, &c. Among them are the following: — Thomas Anderson, M.D.; J.
H. Balfour, M.D.; Thomas Bell; J. S. Bowerbank, LL.D.; Sir David Brewster;
James Glaisher; Thomas Eemer Jones; James P. Joule, LL.D.; Eobert Mam;
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry C. Eawlinson; Thomas Eichardson, Ph.D.; Henry
D. Eogers, LL.D.: Adam Sedgwiek, M.D.; Alfred Smee; John Stenhouse, LL.D.,
who has kindly offered to receive signatures at his laboratory, Eodney Street,
PentonviUe, London."

" Collingwood, Sept. 6th, 1864.
Sir,— I received, some time ago, a declaration for signature, identical with
its wording, or at all events in its obvious purport, with that you have sent me. I
considered that the better course was to put it aside without notice. But since it
is pressed upon me, and to prevent a repetition of a similar appeal, it becomes
necessary for me distinctly to decline signing it; and to declare that I consider
the act of calling upon me publicly to avow or disavow, to approve or disapprove,
m writing, any religious doctrine or statement, however carefully or cautiously

618

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [dr. darwin.
drawn up (in other words, to append my name to a religious manifesto), to be an
infringement of that social forbearance which guards the freedom of religious
opinion in this country with especial sanctity. At the same time, I protest against
my refusal to sign your ' Declaration' being construed into a profession of atheism
or infidelity. My sentiments on the mutual relations of Scripture and science
have long been before the world ; and I see no reason to alter or add to them..
But I consider this movement simply mischievous, having a direct tendency (by
putting forward a new shibboleth, a new verbal test of religious partisanship) to
add a fresh element of discord to the already too discordant relations of the
Christian world. I do not deny that care and caution are apparent on the face of
the document I am called on to subscribe. But no nicety of wording, no artifice
of human language, wiU suffice to discriminate the hundredth part of the shades of
meaning in which the most world-wide differences of thought on such subjects may
be involved; or prevent the most gently worded, and, apparently, justifiable,
expressions of regret, so embodied, from grating on the feelings of thousands of
estimable and weU-intentioned men, with all the harshness of controversial hos
tility. " I am, Sir, your obedient servant,
" J. F. W. Herschel.
" Capel H. Berger, Esq."
Sir John Bowring, who also had a copy of the same circular addressed to him
by Professor Stenhouse, made the following reply, declining to subscribe to it : —
" Claremont, Exeter, August 27th.
"Dear Sir, — In the general spirit of the document to which my adhesion is
asked, I cordially concur. That all truths must ultimately harmonise — that one
truth cannot be inconsistent with another truth — are propositions, axioms rather,
which cannot be contested : to proclaim an approval of them is as much a work of
supererogation as it would be to pubUsh an avowal of agreement with the demon
stration of a mathematical problem. But it appears to me, the period has arrived
when we should endeavour to emancipate ourselves from the tyranny of all dog
matising creeds, all enforced confessions, all foregone conclusions, all compromising
declarations ; perseveringly carrying out, to their necessary consequences, our own
investigations and convictions ; and encouraging others to exercise the same right,
and discharge the same duty. I do not know how the cause of truth and the
interest of reUgion can be better served, than by allowing the utmost latitude to
inquiry. It is not possible, nor, if possible, desirable to prevent comparisons
between the historical revelations of the past, and the scientific discoveries of
the present time. The Bible must be brought into the broad daylight, out of the
darkness to which ancient authority condemned it ; it must be tested by inquiring
knowledge, and taken from the custody of contending ignorance ; it must be cleared
from its cobwebs, and purged from its corruptions. Nothing less ought reasonably
to satisfy those who believe ; nothing more can fairly be demanded by those who
doubt : but thus much may be asked in the interest of all. There is no 'presump
tion' in giving to the world conclusions soberly, seriously, and reverently formed,
be those conclusions what they may. The best resting-place for ' faith,' or hope,
or comfort, will, after all, be found in allowing to the intellectual faculties, with
which God has blessed us, their widest influence and action over the whole field of
thought. By ' proving all things,' we shall be able to ' hold fast that which is
good ;' and we may be fully assured, that the great verities which have stood the
storms and shocks of agitated centuries will remain unbroken through coming ages.
" I am, dear Sir,, your obedient humble servant,
" John Bowring.
" Professor Stenhouse, F.E.S., &c, London."
On the vexed question of man's existence upon earth, and of his origin, whether
from one parent or more, various opinions were entertained. Dr. Darwin opposed
2s2 619

iron-plated ships.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

the Biblical account of the origin of man, and Sir Charles Lyell the Biblical
account of his antiquity. According to Sir Charles, men were cast upon the earth,
inthe language of Horace, "a dumb and filthy herd;" and they were here, living in
a climate as cold as that of Greenland, thousands and thousands of years before our
common chronology makes them inhabitants of earth. The evidence for this is to
be found in the well-known flint implements discovered in France and elsewhere.
Mr. Whitley maintains that some of the so-called flint implements have 'been
undoubtedly formed by natural causes, and not by the hand of man ; and, secondly,
that there is not sufficient evidence to prove that even the most perfect flint
implements are manufactured tools, but that the contrary opinion is the more
probable. Mr. Whitley clearly establishes these two propositions. The absurdity
of supposing these flints to be the weapons of men is evident from their number.
It has been calculated that 800 acres of hunting-ground produce only as much
food as half an acre of arable land, and on this basis the ratio of the lost axes to
the savage population would be as 6,000,000 to one. Again he asks, what could
be their uses ? The cold existing at the period referred to must have been intense.
France had then no tree large enough to form a canoe, or to require stone wedges
to spUt it, and no harvest would ripen requiring stone implements to prepare the
ground for tillage. Mr. Whitley truly tells us — " A few scattered flint chips and
almond-shaped stones are too slender a foundation on which to build a history of
pre- Adamite man existing through a thousand centuries as a dumb and filthy herd."
The whole pamphlet is to be specially commended to Sir Charles Lyell, of whom
Mr. Whitley speaks in proper terms of respect. The witnesses, as he maintains,
break down under cross-examination ; and the special jury by whom the cause must
be heard, can arrive at no other conclusion than that of "Not proven." The
whole case affords a good illustration of the notable saying of Locke, that "Men
see a little, presume a great deal, and jump to a conclusion." Mr. Whitley is no
careless theorist. He is a practical geologist of more than twenty years' standing.
He has studied the drift-beds pf the west, the flint, gravel, and surface deposits of
the south and east, and the terraces and river-beds of the valley of the Somme.
This paper was prepared for, and inserted in, the second number of the journal of
the Eoyal Institution of Cornwall, and is now reprinted in a separate form by
permission of the council.
In 1861, the first of the iron-clad ships which will be required for the "re
construction" of the British navy was launched at the beginning of February, from
the building-yards of the Thames Iron Company, Blackwall. This new engine of
naval destruction was called the Warrior ; and, at the time of its launch, was the
largest man-of-war in the world. The Black Prince, the companion vessel to the
Warrior, was ready soon after ; and these two were each of them nearly twice the
size and tonnage of what the Observer calls "the much-talked-of La Gloire." Sir
John Pakington performed the office of sponsor to the Warrior — a departure from
the usual rule, which generally appoints a lady to officiate at the ship-builder's
font. The Warrior is completely built of iron ; La Gloire is only iron-plated.
The lines of the Warrior are said to be extraordinarily fine, notwithstanding that
her total weight, when she is complete and afloat, is 10,000 tons. The Ust of iron
ships built by the British government, on the new plan, is almost as long as the
catalogue of ships in Homer. They were— the Warrior ; the Black Prince ; a ship
at Chatham, larger than either of these named; three frigates, for which contracts
had been received by the Admiralty; and two steam rams; the Defence, building
on theTyne; the Resistance, on the Thames ; and others. Much was thought of
this gigantic effort for the reconstruction of our navy : but when the American
war broke out, a considerable amount of new light was cast upon the subject; and
m many quarters it was felt that we had been too precipitate.
In another branch of self-defence— that of gunnery— we were, it now began to
be felt, equally reckless, extravagant, and precipitate. Sir W. Armstrong had
been patronised by the government in a most extraordinary manner. Mr. Whit-

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [blakely's GUNS-

worth, of Manchester, claimed to produce a better gun; and Captain Blakely
professed to beat them all. In 1855, the captain took out a patent for a method
of forming guns with an internal tube of cast-iron or steel, enclosed in a case of
wrought-iron or steel, heated and shrunk upon the cylinder. In his specification he

" The improvements relate, first, to a method of forming guns with an internal
tube or cyUnder of cast-iron or steei, enclosed in a casing of steel. I sometimes
form the outer surface of the inner tube somewhat conical, the greatest diameter
being just in front of the trunnions, and tapering both ways, and apply the outer
casing in the form of collars or rings driven thereon ; and in some cases I apply
two or more layers of such rings, according to the strength sought to be obtained,
the trunnions being of one piece with one of the rings. The outer casing may,
however, be applied in the form of collars or rings, heated and shrunk upon the
cyUndrical surface of the inner cylinder or tube ; but I do not claim as my invention
the method of forming guns, or cannon, by the application of collars or rings,
heated and shrunk upon a cylindrical inner tube, save and except when the internal
diameters of such coUars or . rings are, previously to being heated, so much smaller
than the external diameter of the inner tube on which they are shrunk, that, after
being cooled, the outer casing, formed by the rings or collars, is in a state of
tension or permanent strain, similar to that produced when the rings or collars
are forced upon a conical surface, as before described, and the inner tube is, in both
cases, similarly compressed."
The Ordnance Select Committee, in 1861, reported to the late Lord Herbert,
Secretary of War, that Captain Blakely's method, and no other, is the principle
employed in the manufacture of the Armstrong guns ; and it appears to them that
whatever dispute there may be as to originality or priority of invention, and the
use of terms between Captain Blakely and Sir W. Armstrong, there is little or
none in the matter of fact. " Both make, or propose to make," says the report,
" strong guns in the same way." The only difference between the two is, that the
Armstrong gun is not lined with steel, while that of Captain Blakely is. ' Sir
WilUam Armstrong, in a letter dated 21st January, 1857, thus writes to Captain
Blakely : — " Dear Sir, — Your letter of the 9th has reached me here. At present I
am making no guns except for experimental purposes. If you have a valid patent
for any method of construction which I may adopt, I shall, of course, on being
satisfied of that, negotiate with you before I use it commercially. Until then the
question may fairly stand over. You will observe that I make no claim to exclu
sive invention of anything in my letter to the Times, but have confined myself to
a simple description of what I have done." In 1859, Sir W. Armstrong again
wrote to the captain : — " I have received your note of yesterday, and assure you I
have no intention of doing you any wrong, At the same time I must inform you
that the guns which are being made under my direction have no interior lining of
steel, and are not in any way affected by your patent." It turns out, however, that
that is exactly what the Armstrong gun now is. Captain Blakely, in 1859, com
menced a correspondence with the War Office on the subject of his claim, but in
vain ; and, at the same time, commenced an action against the Elswick Ordnance
Company. The latter action was discontinued in consequence of the War Office
refusing to listen to Captain Blakely's claims unless he discontinued his proceedings
against the company. It is hard, we confess, for the captain to have had to suffer
the treatment which he did from our government. In 1854, he first brought his
plan before government. He says — " I had no idea of a patent, or making any
monopoly ; I tendered it to the government simply as a suggestion that occurred to
me, and I did not take any great credit to myself upon the subject." And yet
successive governments refused repeated offers from Captain Blakely to be allowed
to try his gun. This is the more remarkable, as in an experiment made at Shoe-
buryness, Captain Blakely's gun underwent a competitive trial with a cast-iron gun
and a brass one, both in use in the service ; in the course of which the cast-iron one
' 621

calculating machine.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
gave way after 351 rounds, and the brass one after 479 ; whilst the Blakely stood ¦
3,389 shots. The government seems to be gradually coming round to the cap
tain's system, and making them without acknowledging it ; Armstrong's system of
breech-loading and multi-grooved rifling being done away with. One thing was
very clear to the nation, that the expenses of the experiments at Shoeburyness, con
tinued day after day, and year after year, were as frightful as they were generally
unsatisfactory. First ships were iron-plated, to see how they could resist guns ;
and then guns were made stronger and larger, to see how they could, smash iron-
plated ships. So long as the nation can ensure its security, it will not, and does
not grudge the cost : but the worst part of it is, that the more we spend, the more
we find that there is to be done ; till, at length, Europe may say real war is better
and less costly than this intolerable state of armed peace.
The creation of a calculating machine was one of the most remarkable
triumphs of science in later years. Mr. Babbage had long laboured at it. In
1823, the idea of combining an act of mechanical computation with that of simul
taneous printing, in order to obtain results with the positive certainty of their
being exempt from error, seems first to have occurred to him in 1823, when he
commenced the construction of his calculating machine, or difference engine, whieh,
however, was abandoned in 1842. The earliest piece of mechanism to which the
name of a calculating machine could be applied, was invented by Pascal, and
consisted of a series of figure-wheels, having cylindrical bands not unlike Babbage's
machine ; and a complicated machine was invented by Leibnitz ; but the accuracy
of their results depended more or less upon manipulation, the arithmetical opera
tions being executed from wheel to wheel by hand ; and they were both constructed
with a view to perform particular arithmetical operations. An aecount of the
principle and action of Mr. Babbage's machine, by Dr. Lardner, appeared in the
Edinburgh Review for July, 1834 ; and it was the perusal of that article whieh
induced Mr. George Scheutz, a Swede, to construct a machine for a similar
purpose. The following brief but lucid statement of Mr. Colebrooke, in bis address to the
Astronomical Society on Mr. Babbage's machine, also clearly enough expresses the
distinguishing characteristic of the Swedish calculating machine : — " It proposes to
calculate a series of numbers following any law by the aid of differences ; and that
by setting a few figures at the outset, a long series of numbers is readily produced
by a mechanical operation. The method of differences, in a very wide sense, is the
mathematical principle of the contrivance. A machine to add a number of
arbitrary figures together is no economy of time or trouble, since each individual
figure must be placed in the machine ; but it is otherwise when the figures follow
some law. The insertion of a few at first determines the magnitude of the next,
and then of the succeeding. It is this constant repetition of similar operations
which renders the computation of tables a fit subject for the appUcation of
machinery. _ Mr. Babbage's invention puts an engine in the place of the computer
— the question is set to the instrument, or the instrument is set to the question ;
and by simply giving it motion, the solution is wrought, and a string of answers
is exhibited. * * * * It not only saves time and trouble in transcribing
results into a popular form, and setting types for the printing of the table, but it
likewise accomplishes the yet more important objects of insuring accuracy, and
obviating numerous sources of error through the careless hands of transcribers and
compositors." The first machine which the Scheutzes (father and son) constructed was made
at Stockholm, and showed undoubted proofs of great mechanical genius. After
passing through some years of trial and difficulty, Mr. George Scheutz produced
the first model ofhis machine; and having satisfied himself of the practicability
of his scheme, he immediately recommenced his experiments with renewed energy
—expending much capital, as well as devoting all the time he could spare from his
labours as an eminent printer, on which the support of his family depended.

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [calculating machine.
His son, Mr. Edward Scheutz, at that time a student in the Eoyal Techno
logical School of Stockholm, anxious to assist his father, abandoned the career he
had chosen, and, working with him for several years, produced, after many trials
and alterations, a larger and improved machine ; but the economy they had been
compelled to use in its construction, contributed greatly to render this new model
still unsatisfactory in its working, though correct in principle.
After many years of indefatigable labour, and the sacrifice of a large portion
of his fortune, he determined to apply for assistance to the Swedish government,
to enable him to construct a more perfect instrument. After some difficulty the
Diet consented to advance about £280 ; but required a guarantee for the amount
in the case of failure; and, under these conditions, would have ended, unknown
and unappreciated, the vast exertions of two men of great ability and enterprise,
had not some liberal members of the Swedish Academy expressed their sympathy
by rendering themselves partly responsible for the amount. By means of the
assistance thus afforded them, the Messrs. Scheutz, after working with indefatigable
industry, were gratified by seeing the new machine completed before the end of
October, 1853.
A further grant from the government, of about £560, was made soon after the
machine was finished ; but the sums placed at the disposal of the Messrs. Scheutz
were very far from replaoing the money only that had been expended during a
period extending over nearly twenty years. Nevertheless, to quote the words of
Mr. Babbage, " Sweden has thus secured for herself the glory of having been the
first nation practically to produce a machine for calculating mathematical tables
by differences, and printing the results."
In 1854, the inventors visited England, and were warmly received by Mr.
Babbage, Dr. Farr, and other scientific authorities. The machine was exhibited in
one of the apartments belonging to the Eoyal Society at Somerset House, where
its mechanism was explained by Mr. Garrett, to whom the inventors have expressed
themselves greatly indebted for promoting their undertaking in every way. The
machine was afterwards exhibited in Paris, at the Great Exhibition, and a gold
medal was awarded to the inventors.
It was again brought to England, and set to work out some specimen tables,
and was eventually purchased by a liberal American, as a gift to the Dudley
Observatory, at Albany ; but, says the writer of the account from which we have
taken the above particulars, no news has reached us of any work it has per
formed there.
Dr. Farr had, some years previously, expressed an opinion as to the proba-
biUty of calculating some of the fundamental columns of a life-table by machinery ;
and anxious to demonstrate that the calculating machine was not a mere philo
sophical curiosity, but an instrument of practical utility, the registrar-general, at
his instance, recommended her majesty's government to order a new and superior
machine to be constructed, for the purpose of performing the numerical computation
necessary in the calculation of life-tables. The machine was constructed by the
Messrs. Donkin, at a cost of £1,200; and the result has been, the production of a
valuable and elaborate volume of life-tables, for single and joint lives — based on
the observations of births and deaths registered in seventeen years. The tables in
this volume have since been selected by her majesty's government for the insurance
of the lives of both sexes, as they appear to give the most accurate estimate of the
probabilities of English life. But the first adaptation of this machine to the
computation of life-tables was made by Dr. Farr, in the construction of a Ufe-
table in the healthy districts of England.
The machine is limited to calculations involving a regular series, and is not
intended for the solution of isolated questions requiring special answers. In the
coustruction of mathematical tables, the functions are often required at very close
intervals, and for values increasing by small steps. In these cases general methods
of interpolation come into use, the intervening values of the functions being

LEARNED SOCIETIES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
supplied by the machine by the addition of differences. By means of logarithms,
questions of a pecuUar kind, including calculations in the higher branches of
mathematics, can be reduced to very simple formulas, and brought into such
compass as will readily admit their insertion in the machine. "The art," says
Dr. Farr, " is to shape the formulas and the numerical operations so that they can
be executed by the machine, which only performs the operation of addition ; but,
by various expedients, is made to perform, also, subtraction, multiplication, and
division. By a well-known artifice in numbers, adding the arithmetical complement
of one number to another number, and throwing away the unit of the highest
order'.'in the result, it is made, to perform subtraction."
Association has done much for science; distinguished professors have met
together, and thus aided, and instructed, and encouraged each other. London is
full of learned and philosophical societies; the principal, of course, being the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, which holds its annual con
gress in one or other of our leading towns, and which has done much to advance,
and, at the same time, popularise science. A list of some of the leading societies
of 1865 will give an idea of their number and aim. They are — the Acclima
tisation and Ornithological Society; the Aeronautical Society; the Anthro
pological Society; the Archaeological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland;
the Art-Union of London; the Arundel Society; the British Archaeological
Association ; : the Camden Society ; the Cavendish Society ; the Chemical So
ciety ; the Ecclesiological Society ; the Entomological Society; the Epidemiological
Society ; the Ethnological Society ; the Genealogical and Historical Society ; the
Geological Society ; the Geologist Association ; the Hakluyt Society ; the Har-
veian Society ; the Hunterian Society ; Institute of Actuaries ; Institute of Painters
in Water-Colours ; Linnaean Society ; London and Middlesex Archaeological Society ;
London Institution; London Library; London Mechanics' Institution; Mathe
matical Society ; Medical Society of London ; Meteorological Society ; Metro
politan Sanitary Association ; Microscopical Society ; Numismatic Society ; Obste
trical Society of London; Palasontographical Society; Pathological Society;
Pharmaceutical Society; Philological Society; Philharmonic Society; Eay So
ciety ; Eoyal Academy ; Eoyal Academy of Music ; Eoyal Agricultural Society of
England ; Eoyal Asiatic Society ; Eoyal Astronomical Society ; Eoyal College of
Physicians; Eoyal College of Surgeons; Eoyal Geographical Society; Eoyal
Horticultural Society ; Eoyal Institute of British Architects ; Eoyal Medical and
Chirurgical Society; Eoyal Society; Eoyal United Service Institution; Society
of British Artists ; Society for the Encouragement of Arts ; Society of Painters ;
Society of Schoolmasters; Statistical Society; Surrey Archaeological Society;
Syro-Egyptian Society; Zoological Society of London, &c, &c.
In 1843, government established a School of Design at Somerset House, in
which were taught drawing, colouring, designing, and practical geometry. Some
few years later, two private schools (one of which was the Female School of Art, in
Queen Square) were opened on a similar plan. The commencement was on a small
scale; but the demands for admission were soon so numerous, that provision was
made for the reception of a larger number of pupils ; and the success of this
generous experiment increased every day. To the instruction given in the govern
ment schools, were added painting on china, wood-engraving, and lithography.
These schools do not give their pupils the benefits of education alone ; they furnish
them with the means of deriving the utmost advantage from their acquirements
and labours ; for they are permitted to dispose of the designs and paintings : and
so highly are they esteemed, that the manufacturers vie with each other in pur
chasing them. "The success of both schools and pupils," says a French artist, "is
a .triumphant answer to the opponents of the scheme." This example gave fresh
courage to the friends of female culture in every rank of life. There was a
growing dissatisfaction both with private instruction and with that of ladies'
seminaries ; the latter especially were generally confessed to be at once pedantic
624

DUKE CF AmAYU-

TBT. LOHDCIK- J TOTJT-IFe «I3 J^OBLISIirNG- COMHSJTK IJMni!E» '

a.d.1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [art education.
and superficial. The idea was started of establishing schools of a superior order,
something approaching to, though still very far removed from, the colleges of
Oxford and Cambridge. The first was established in Harley Street, under the
title of Queen's College ; and it has continued to be the most important, the crown
having granted it a charter of incorporation. It possesses several free scholarships ;
one founded by the tmeen, the others by subscription.' Professors, of first-rate
eminence have responded to the appeal made to them. They gave lectures on various
subjects, many of, which had been long regarded as. beyond the pale of female
intellect. Certificates are granted in theology, mathematics, Greek,' and Latin:
Erelong other Colleges sprang up in different parts of the metropolis, or in the
principal provincial towns — the Ladies' College, in. Bedford Square;, the Clifton
College, &c. . In' all, the studies are of a far higher order than those in use in
ordinary boarding-schools ; and it is evident that this new system cannot, fail to
exercise a favourable influence on the rising generation.' In 1858, the leaders of
the woman movement started the Englishwoman's Journal, to be devoted exclu
sively to their service. It died, unfortunately, a natural death; not, however,
without attaining its end — that of awakening public attention to' the existing con
dition of women in this country.
With the :surplus profits from the 1,851 International Exhibition, the com
missioners purchased an estate at : South Kensington, bri a, part of which cheap
temporary structures were raised to house the department' that was formerly located
in Marlborough House, and the various collections belonging to ' it ; the schools of
design have been consolidated, and placed under the control of the department,
which is, in great measure, under the direction of Mr. N.-Cole. The committee
of council on education, through . the science and aft department, afford assistance
to the. public in art instruction, by— I. The establishment of a national training
school for art at South Kensington, to which male- and female '• students are
admitted, when properly qualified ; receiving, in aid of their maintenance, an
allowance proportioned to their attainments. When students ¦ have obtained the
requisite certificates of qualification; they are recommended ' as. teachers to- the
local schools of art;, and as long as they perform their duties, they receive from
the department, in;. augmentation of their income, : payments, regulated .by com
petency and successful result of teaching. II. Establishment" of local.art schools,
or drawing unions. A school of art, or local union, for 'obtaininginstru'ction' in
drawing, 'can be -formed wherever the public provides, and < maintains suitable
premises., .-Towards theerection of new premises, the department, is authorised to
make grants; and an art master will be recommended- by the department, on
•condition that, five public schools for the poor, or .500 children, are found to whom
drawing may be taught ; that pupil, teachers of public schooler for:' the: poor are
taught at a low:charge; and that . an evening class is- held three times a week, at
a fee hot exceeding sixpence a week. Th'e.local committee, must .show that there, is
a reasonable' prospect of the master obtaining a livelihood by teaching, drawing.
HI. Annualfngpections. IV. National competition. V. Circulationof AoOks, and
examples from the central museum. VI. . Grants for purchases;of examples, a,nd!dir.ec-
tions how to conduct schools of art in accordaricewith the principles here laid down.
An architectural museum was formed in 1851, in Cannon Eow, Westminster,
to supply the means of referring to, and studying, the architecture of past ages, and
the alUed arts. The South Kensington Museum was commenced in 1856. When
completed, it was passed over, by the commissioners of 1851, to the science and
art department. Since that period, permanent brick structures, under Captain
Fowke, have been added. The art museum, which forms a portion of it, is now
admitted to be one of the best collections of the kind in Europe. The Geological
Museum, Piccadilly, contains , admirably arranged collections, in connection with
the government school of mines.
A subject of great importance, initiated in Lord Palmerston s time— the
inquiry into thecauses of cholera, and the best means of preventing its spread in
' 625

cholera commission.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
Europe — has had some considerable light thrown on it by the investigations
of the International Sanitary Conference, which concluded its sittings at Con
stantinople. The commissioners deal chiefly with the problem of excluding the
cholera from Europe. They deny, upon very plausible grounds, that it is self-
generating, and that it can be carried by the atmosphere. They observe that it
travels along a regular highway, and that it never travels faster than does the
usual passenger traffic ; though this fact might, perhaps, be hard to demonstrate.
They hold that the means of infection are the excretions of choleraic patients — even
of those in the first stages — and that the channels through which it is taken up
are the lungs and stomach. The poison must therefore be, not only subtle and
penetrating, but volatile. It has also the quality of retaining its strength for a
long time, except when neutralised by certain specifically destructive substances — a
property observable in the lower form of animal life, and in the germs of vegetation.
As, however, it requires either to be swallowed or breathed, and as it can only he
conveyed from one place to another by mechanical transportation, the two points
on which the committee have chiefly concentrated their attention are, the place of
its residence, and the modes by which it is carried therefrom. It exists permanently,
as the commissioners say, in the neighbourhood of the Ganges, from which point it
appears to start periodically on its journey through the rest of Asia and through
Europe. The filthy habits of Asiatics keep the disease alive, and promote its
extension ; for though only cholera can produce cholera, sickness, dirt, and bad
ventilation are highly favourable to its development. The Mecca pilgrimages, and
all other religious expeditions common in the East, satisfy both the conditions of
unhealthiness and actual transport. In some of these pilgrimages it is the fashion
for the travellers to carry with them the bodies of their deceased relatives, in order
that the latter may be buried in certain spots supposed to possess peculiar sanctity.
It must be admitted that these facts indicate to European governments, and
especially to England, the necessity of undertaking a very laborious office. This
country alone has the power, and must feel the obligation, of dealing with the disease
in its birthplace. To do so will probably bring our agents into contact with that
mixture of laziness, conceit, and superstition which make up Oriental obstruc-
tiveness, and is not unlikely to excite some physical resistance. Once, however,
let it be established that the cholera starts from a place under British rule, and
England, however heedless of her own safety, could hardly disregard the re
monstrances of those European nations which the pest so frequently devastates.
The means to be used are just such as should be employed in an infected London
district ; though, of course, the application of them in India must, for many
reasons, be peculiarly difficult. Another remedy which the commissioners recom
mend equally to all European governments that can exercise it, is the enforcement
of a rigorous quarantine at every port and station through which the disease
ordinarily travels. Whether the commissioners are mistaken or not in holding
that cholera is never self-generating, on three practical points their judgment is
correct. These are— the place from which the disease starts; the mode in which
it is conveyed hither ; and the means by which that conveyance may be interrupted.
But we may not dwell longer on " the fairy tales of science." Lord Derby
told an audience that he was bom in the pre-scientific era. Lord Palmerston
might safely have said the same. Yet we know no period of history in which
greater progress had been made in a scientific direction, or in which science was
the means of disseminating wider benefits. It is satisfactory to find that, in all
such matters, England was abreast of all her rivals ; and in mechanical contrivance
and enterprise, construction of iron machinery, railways, steam-ships, or telegraphies
wires, considerably a-head. It is to be regretted that so much of this enterprise
and ingenuity has been applied to purposes of destruction— that there should be
stiff such faith in standing armies and physical force. Is it not time that—
" The common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
„.. And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapt in universal law."
02o

aj>. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Australian discovery.

CHAPTEE XXX.
GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORATION.
The illustrious Eobinson Crusoe tells us, that his head began, when h'e was a boy, to
be early filled with rambling thoughts ; and that though his father had given him a
fair education, and designed him for the law, yet that nothing would satisfy him but
going to sea. In geographical science, England, with her hardy sons, has always
taken the lead ; the causes of which pre-eminence have been, rather love of adven
ture, or the spirit of commercial enterprise, than the lust of power. In 1861, we
were all glad to learn that the Australian continent had been crossed ; but grieved,
indeed, were we to find that, in the expedition, three of the explorers had miserably
perished. The character of the interior of the Australian continent had long been a
mystery which it was felt ought to be cleared up; and, in 1860, an exploring
expedition was organised at Melbourne. There was a committee, and plenty of
funds ; and, in August of that year, the expedition, well provided, and under the
command of Eichard O'Hara Burke, started from Melbourne. Towards the end
of September it reached the Darling Eiver, where Mr. Burke established a depot of
provisions, in charge of Mr. Wright ; he himself and seven others pushing on for
Cooper's Creek, to which place Wright was instructed to follow. Cooper's Creek
Ues almost due north from Melbourne, from which it is distant 700 miles, and
seems to have been the most northern point theretofore reached by explorers ; so
that it lay on the threshold of the unknown region. Here it was the intention of
Mr. Burke to form his principal depot of supplies. He arrived at the spot
about the middle of November. Wright's party was obstructed in ite progress by
disease and by the natives ; and, towards the middle of December, Burke, impatient
at longer delay, resolved to set out on his " dim and perilous" journey through the
unknown regions of the continent. He left at Cooper's Creek four of the seven
who accompanied him thither, Mr. Brahe being in charge of the party. Brahe's
instructions were, to remain until Burke should return, or until their provisions
ran short. The leader of the expedition himself, with three companions — Mr.
Wills, Mr. King, and Mr. Gray — and having with him one horse, six camels, and
three months' provisions, started northwards on the 16th of December. What
were the privations and sufferings of this party on their exploring route, who can
tell ? The intrepidity and fortitude of the travellers were, however, equal to the
enterprise. The southern point of the Gulf of Carpentaria, which opens into the
Indian Oeean, was reached successfully by the party on the 1 1th of February ; the
great feat having been performed, for the first time, of a successful journey right
across the Australian continent, from south to north. Now occurs the first illus
tration of what our antipodean contemporaries unite in thinking gross and
unaccountable neglect on the part of the Melbourne committee. Although it
was known that the southern point of the gulf was the place which the explorers
aimed at reaching, no preparations had been made there to receive them : no
succour, no supplies awaited their arrival ; nothing had been done. They rested
three days, and then faced southwards on their return. If the exploratory journey
had been filled with privations and sufferings, what must the return have been ?
We continue the narrative in the words of the Melbourne Age, of November
25th :— " We now come to the last and saddest, though glorious, episode of the
tragic story. Strangely enough, a rumour, which cannot be traced to any satis
factory foundation, reached us a considerable time since from South Australia, and
seemed Uke a premonition of the authentic tale of suffering, heroism, and death,
627

burke and wills.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
which soon shocked the ears and grieved the hearts of the entire community. The
story, which now appears almost in the light of -a prophecy, told us how some blacks
from the far interior had seen three white men, famished and naked, existing
rather than living on a raft in a creek in the midst of the barren wilderness, where
no white man had ever penetrated before. The picture was, it must be owned,
sufficiently horrible to contemplate ; but it fell short of the awful reality yet to be
revealed. The full extent of the calamity was revealed to us only on the evening
of the 2nd of November. It then appeared that, on the very day on which Mr.
Brahe left Cooper's Creek, in consequence of the illness of one of his men — Patton —
and within seven hours of his departure, Messrs. Burke and Wills arrived, with
King, at the depot. They had actually succeeded in their great enterprise^ and
just retained sufficient vitality to reach the spot where they had hoped to find
succour, but where, by an unaccountable and terrible fatality, it was denied them.
So utterly worn out were the survivors of countless perils and inconceivable
privations, that their strength was insufficient to admit of their travelling more
than five miles a day ; and at this tardy pace they well knew that they could not
hope to overtake their former companions, although the latter had so recently
started on their way towards the settlements. Nor did the marvellous fatality
which seemed to pursue them end even here. It is a necessary precaution of
explorers, when they have buried stores or provisions in the ground, to adopt
various expedients to remove all traces of the soil having been disturbed, lest the
aborigines should carry off the hidden property. Mr. Burke and his companions,
having dug up the provisions left behind by the depot party, effaced very carefully
all indications of what they had done, and then went away a short distance, leaving
no memorial of their visit except a letter buried in lieu of the provisions. Had
they omitted leaving some traces of their visit, they were not, even in this ter
rible extremity, beyond the reach of aid. Brahe and Wright returned almost
immediately to the depot, to make a last examination of the place; but not
perceiving any indications of white men having visited the place, they took their
final departure, leaving their famishing comrades forsaken and destitute in the
wilderness. The scenes which followed are almost too painful to describe. The
first attempt of the dying men — for so indeed they were at this time — was to make
towards the outlying settlements of South Australia, which were distant about
150 miles. Gray, we should add, had died of exhaustion a few days after leaving
the Gulf of Carpentaria, on the homeward journey. They lived from this period
almost exclusively upon "hardoo," a seed which grows upon a plant resembling
clover, and whieh is pounded into a sort of flour by the natives. The last' scene of
all we give in the following extract from the narrative of John King :— ' Mr. Wills
and I used to collect and carry home a bag each day, and Mr. Burke generally
pounded sufficient for our dinner during our absence ; but Mr. Wills found himself
getting very weak, and was shortly unable to go out to gather nardoo as before,
nor even strong enough to pound it; so that, in a few. days, he became almost
helpless. I still continued gathering ; and Mr. Burke now also began to feel very
weak, and said he could be of very little use in pounding. I had now to gather and
pound for all three of us. I continued to do this for a few days ; but finding my
strength rapidly failing, my legs being very weak and painful, I was unable to go
out for several days, and we were compelled to consume six days' stock which :he
had laid by. Mr. Burke now proposed that I should gather as much as possible
in three days, and that with this supply we should go in search of the natives— a
plan which had been urged upon us by Mr. Wills as the only chance of saving him
and ourselves as well, as he clearly saw that I was no longer able to collect suffi
cient for our wants. Having collected the seed as proposed, and having pounded
sufficient to last Mr. Wills for eight days, and two days for ourselves, we placed
water and fire-wood within his reach, and started. He then gave Mr. Burke a letter
and his watch for his father, and we buried the remainder of the field books near
the gunyah. In travelling the first day, Mr. Burke seemed very weak, and
628

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [m. du chaillu.
complained of great pain in his legs and back. On the second day he seeihed to
be better, and said he thought he was getting stronger ; but, on starting, did not
go two miles before he said he could go no further. From the time we halted,
Mr. Burke seemed to be getting worse, although he ate his supper. He then said
to me — ' I hope you will remain with me -here until I am quite dead ; it is a
comfort to know that some one is by : but when I am dying it is my wish that you
should place the pistol in my right hand, and that you leave me unburied as I lie.'
That night he spoke very little, and the following morning I found him speechless,
or nearly so ; and about eight o'clock he expired. Two days after leaving the spot
where Mr. Burke died, I found some gunyahs, where the natives had deposited a
bag of nardoo, sufficient to last me for a fortnight, and three bundles containing
various articles. I also shot a crow that evening, but was in great dread that the
natives should come and deprive me of the nardoo. I remained there two days, to
recover my strength, and then returned to Mr. Wills. I took back three crows ;
but I found him lying dead in his gunyah, and the natives had been there, and
had taken away some of his clothes. I buried the corpse with sand, and remained
there for some days ; I tracked the natives who had been to the camp by their
footprints in the sand. The natives, hearing the report of the gun, came to meet
me, and took me with them to the camp, giving me nardoo and fish. They took
the birds I had shot, and cooked them for me. The following morning they
commenced talking to me ; and putting one finger on the ground, and covering it
with sand, at the same time pointing up the creek, said, ' White fellow ;' which I
understood to mean that one white man was dead. They appeared to feel great
compassion for me when they understood that I was alone on the creek, and gave
me plenty to eat. They also used to assist me in making a gourley, or break-wind,
whenever they shifted camp. I generally shot- a crow or a hawk, and gave it to
them in return for these little services. They were very anxious to know where
Mr. Burke lay ; and one day, when we were fishing in the water-holes close by, I
took them to the spot. On seeing his remains the whole party wept bitterly, and
covered them with bushes. After this they were much kinder to me than before ;
and I always told them that white men would be here before two moons ; and in the
evenings, when they came with nardoo and fish, they used to talk about the 'white
fellows' coming, at the same time pointing to the moon. From this time to when
the relief party arrived — a period of about a month — they treated me with uniform
kindness, and looked upon me as one of themselves. The day on which I was
released, one of the tribe, who had been fishing, came and told me that the white
fellows were coming ; and the whole of the tribe who were then in camp sallied out
in every direction to meet the party, while the man who had brought the news took
me across the creek, where I shortly saw the party coming down.' "
In 1861, there was a fierce controversy raised in England, by the appearance
of M. du Chaillu's Travels in Equatorial Africa. Travellers have the privilege of
uttering strange tales ; but, in many quarters, it was considered that he had
abused that privilege. In the unexplored parts in which he travelled, he found
that monstrous and ferocious ape, the gorilla. The country M. du Chaillu
explored, lies between two degrees north, and two degrees south, of the equator,
extending a distance of 400 miles to the interior. That district contains a
greater variety of tribes than has been found in any other part of the African
continent. Each tribe considers itself as a separate nation, and has a distinguish
ing name of its own, though many speak the same language. The common
notion is, that the negroes living under the equator must be blacker than any
others ; but M. du Chaillu's observations contradict that opinion, for he met with
none that could properly be called black ; and he saw several Albinos, who, though
perfectly white, had woolly hair, and the features of negroes. It is M. du Chaillu's
opinion, that those who inhabit a damp and moist, woody, and especially a moun
tainous country, are less black than those who live where the atmosphere is dry.
Some of the tribes with whom he sojourned are decided cannibals; and he felt
629

his travels.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

somewhat alarmed lest they should have a relish for white flesh. The negroes of
the intense south of the equator are more intelligent and civilised than the
others. They possess very imaginative minds, are astute speakers, sharp traders,
great liars ; they possess much power of dissimulation, and are far from being the
stupid people commonly supposed. M. du Chaillu considers the natives of Africa
are divided into two distinct families, separated by the chain of mountains, which,
he discovered in the interior only, which is supposed to cross the continent; the
river system of the region he considered well adapted for commercial enterprise.
For eight years he was familiar with the part of the country concerning whieh he
writes. The four years recorded in his volume were devoted to a systematic exami
nation of the interior. He travelled about 800 miles, always on foot, and unaccom
panied by white men. He shot, stuffed,, and brought home 2,000 birds, of which
more than sixty are new species. He killed upwards of 1,000 quadrupeds, of
which 200 were stuffed and brought home, with more than eighty skeletons. Not
less than twenty of these he maintains to be species hitherto unknown to science.,
In the course of his travels he suffered fifty attacks of African fever ; taking,
to cure himself, more than fourteen ounces of quinine. Of famine, long and
continued exposure to the heavy tropical rains, of attacks from ferocious ants and
venomous flies, he had his share. He had a narrow escape, on one occasion, from
being made king ; and, if his account of the way in which they make kings among
the Myongives be correct, perhaps that was the greatest danger of all. M. du
ChaiUu's book, pubUshed by Murray, and supported by Professor Owen, was
exposed to the severest criticism. In reply, M. du Chaillu , wrote, in the Athe
naeum — ¦" I hope that neither in my book nor in my lectures I have pretended to
be infallible as a naturalist, artist, or traveller ; yet I maintain that I have dis
covered, in Equatorial Africa, the new mammals and birds given as such in the
list .at the end of my volume. All of these were described in the published pro
ceedings of two of the most scientific societies in America (with whieh Mr. Gray
ought to be acquainted), some of the birds as far back as 1855 ; and I defy him to
produce specimens existing in any European museum before that time. My map,
at which he sneers, is a mere sketch-map, it is true ; but it was carefully prepared
from observations made on the spot with the compass, and I will vouch for its
general accuracy. My illustrations (prepared, not in this country, as he asserts,
but in America) were taken either from my rough sketches, or from the actual
objects, with the exception of four or five out of a total of seventy-four. Would it
not have been more fair of Mr. Gray, before giving vent to insinuations that I had
never visited the countries which I describe, nor collected in those countries my
natural history specimens, to have applied to my friends at Corisco, and on the
Gaboon, whose names are mentioned in my book ? Mr. Gray pretends to be in
communication with the missionaries and traders in those parts ; and, therefore,
this course would have been the more obvious, as he would have saved himself
from the imputation of uttering mere calumnies."
The. controversy thus originated became very furious. At the close of the
meeting of the Ethnological Society, in July, 1861, when nearly half the visitors
had left, an extraordinary scene occurred. It appears that M. du Chaillu could no
longer curb his feelings in reference to some very offensive personal observations
and interruptions made by Mr. Malone (a visitor),, and which were held tobe of such
a character as not to warrant publicity. M. du Chaillu, when the room was about
one-third full, as we are informed, heeded not benches or chairs, but, stepping
over them, approached Mr. Malone, and touched him on the shoulder, holding his
fist in his face. Having asked how Mr. Malone dared to have spoken of him in the
way he had, he spat, in his face. Mr. Malone caUed for protection from the chair
man ; and, while in the act of retiring from the room, M. du Chaillu vociferated—
" Coward ! coward !" There were several ladies and gentlemen in the room, but
nothing further occurred. People seem now inclined to believe in gorillas ; at any
rate, M. du Chaillu must have lived in a very savage country. Though he was,
630

a.d. 1790.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the African association.
undoubtedly, much annoyed by the insulting behaviour of Mr. Malone, he had no
right so far to forget himself. M. du Chaillu and Mr. Malone have written
explanations respecting the unexpected fracas. The traveller says — " At a meeting
of the Ethnological Society, on Tuesday, owing to a gross personal attack upon me
by an individual present, apparently one of those who have, for a month past,
incessantly persecuted me by casting doubt upon my veracity, I deeply regret that,
in a moment of great irritation, I was guilty of conduct most unbecoming, which
is peculiarly contrary to the usages of society, and which I was never before guilty
of. I beg, therefore, to express my deep and sincere apology for what occurred. I
have also felt myself bound to apologise to the members of the Ethnological
Society, through their president." Mr. Malone gives the following account of the
affair : — " My part in the meeting was now to come to an end, and I was preparing
to go, when, to my astonishment, I saw, standing before me on a form, a little
figure with dark threatening eyes and hands. It was M. du Chaillu. I did not
hear or heed what he said, for I instantly received the outrage described in the
Globe extract. The statement that no one interfered to protect me from further
anticipated outrage, is not correct. I was soon joined by Dr. Hunt, the honorary
secretary, who had first gone after M. du Chaillu to arrest his further progress. I
was offered many regrets for what had occurred ; and one gentleman, an officer in
the Indian service, previously unknown to me, gave me hia card, and permitted
me to caU him as a witness in case of need. He approved fuUy of the manner in
which I received the outrage. All that remains for me to do, is to ask that M. du
ChaiUu be excluded from the future meetings of this society. That is the only
' revenge' I think it right to take. I think it is due to the visitors who assist the
society in discussion, that such exclusion should be decided upon. I cannot
otherwise accept the invitation, which it is due to myself and to the society to
state, I have received from Dr. Hunt to attend future meetings."
¦ In 1864, the geographical lions of the London season were Captains Speke and
Grant, who asserted themselves to have succeeded where Bruce had failed. In the
autumn of this year, Captain Speke suddenly died, from the accidental discharge
of a gun while out shooting. Since the days of Bruce, more than one effort had
been made to foUow up the sources of the Nile. Indeed, Africa seems to have
always had an attraction for adventurous Britons. Excited by the exploits of
Captain Cook, they looked round for fresh worlds to conquer. It all at once
became impressed upon men's minds, that within the continent of Africa there was a
land entirely unknown — a land abounding with ostrich-feathers, and slaves, and
gold — a land guarded as securely as the garden of the Hesperides. It was known
that a river, navigable by large vessels, rolled through those regions ; and on its
banks rumour placed the far-famed city of Timbuefoo. But what became of this
river ? In vain was the appeal made to ancient or modern geographers. The
Niger was described as flowing east to west, and as ending its course in a large
inland lake. In this passage from iEsehylus some enthusiasts discovered a
prophecy and a promise : — "Seek
A land far disitant, where the tawny race
Dwell near the fountains of the sun, and where
The Nigris pours his dusky waters ; wind
Along his banks, when thou shalt reach the fall
"Where from the mountains, with papyrus crowned,
The venerable Nile impetuous pours
His headlong torrent ; he shall guide thy steps
To those irriguous plains whose triple sides
His arms surround : there have the fates decreed
Thee and thy sons to form the lengthen'd line."
In 1788, the African Association was formed to settle this question. It sent
out Ledgard. Lord Palmerston was, a young man when Park went out at the head ' of a
631

African explorers.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1838.
government expedition, to discover the sources of the Niger. When Park, at last,
after many delays and troubles, saw the Niger once more, out of a party of thirty-
eight, only seven remained ; and these were all sick — some of them sick unto death.
When the boats were ready, only four men besides himself were alive, and one of
the four had gone mad. Unsubdued and hopeful, Park wrote to Lord Camden 
" I shall set sail to the east, with the fixed resolution to discover the termination of
the Nile, or perish in the attempt. Though all the Europeans who are with me
should die, and though I myself were half dead, I would still persevere ; and, if I
could not succeed in the object of my journey, I would, at least, die in the Niger."
And he did so. It was discovered, in 1811, that he had been obliged to fight his way
down the Niger. In the Haoussa country, he had been attacked in a narrow part
of the river from the shores. He defended himself for a long time; then clasping
one of his companions in his arms, he sprung into the river and was drowned.
Government then sent out a double expedition — one to ascend the Congo,
under Captain Tuckey : another to descend the Niger, under Major Peddie.
Insurmountable barriers prevented the meeting, which was fondly anticipated ; and
both 'expeditions failed : their leaders also perished. Others followed — Bitchie,
Denham, Clapperton. It was reserved for Eichard Lander, who had accompanied
the latter as his servant, to strike into the Niger, and to follow it down into the sea.
The friends of Africa were enthusiastic. They must have an expedition to
explore the Niger; to examine the capabilities of the country; to enter into
treaties with the native chiefs for the abolition of the slave-trade ; to clear the
road for commercial enterprise ; and to afford that enterprise, the security which
alone seemed necessary for its development. Sir T. Fowell Buxton, and his
friends, were also extremely anxious that this opportunity should not be lost, of
putting the natives in the way of cultivating the soil, and drawing forth its varied
and numerous resources. A company was to be formed for this purpose, while the
British government should enter into treaties with the native chiefs. The idea
originated with Sir Fowell Buxton, in 1838. The government acceded to his theory.
On December 7th, Sir Thomas writes — "Glenelg intimated that the ministers
were unanimous, and that they had resolved, with some modifications, to act
upon the propositions. I am told that Lord  said it was the boldest conception
that had been struck out in our days." Shortly afterwards Lord Glenelg resigned ;
but his successor, Lord Normanby, was equally in earnest on the subject ; and the
whole cabinet appears to have considered the advantage which would accrue to
England, as well as to Africa, from the opening of so vast a field of commercial
speculation, as sufficiently important to warrant their carrying it into effect.
Mr. Buxton spent some months in the neighbourhood of London, incessantly
engaged, both in communications with the government, and in endeavouring, with
great success, to excite the interest and obtain the co-operation of many of his
friends. In this, his biographer tells us, "as in previous undertakings, he acted
in complete concert with Dr. Lushington, with whom every plan was carefully dis
cussed, and who bore his full share of the burden."
At Dr. Lushington's house was held a preliminary meeting of a few select
friends, before whom Mr. Buxton, in the first instance, wished to lay his views.
He writes— "We have had a very highly satisfactory meeting. I felt that I had
my case well up, and was troubled with no worrying doubts. Every one expressed
that they were perfectly satisfied upon every point. Lord Ashley was very hearty
indeed. The view I took about the climate of Africa was this :— I stated that my
plan was to employ only a few Europeans, and to depend chiefly on the people of
colour. I said, at once, that I gave up all the mouths of rivers, and all the
swampy ground, and looked only to the high ground at the foot of the Kory
Mountains ; that I would not pledge myself to the healthiness of even that part,
but that I expected it would prove very different from the general notions of
African climate."
The first meeting of the Society for the Extinction of the Slave-Trade, and
632

a.d. 1841.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Niger expedition.
the CiviUsation of Africa, was held in July, 1839. The Bishop of London, Lord
Ashley, Sir Eobert Inglis, Sir Thomas Acland, and other influential individuals
took part. Considerable funds were raised. Mr. Buxton writes — "It was a
glorious meeting, quite an epitome of the state. Whig, Tory, and Eadieal, dis
senter, low church, high church, top high church, or Oxfordism, all united. I was
unwell, and made a wretched hand of my exposition ; but good men and true,
came to my aid, and suppUed my deficiencies, and no one better than the Bishop
of London. We determined to form two associations, perfectly distinct from each
other, but having one common object in view — the putting an end to the slave-
trade and slavery. One of these associations to be of an exclusively philanthropic
character, and designed mainly to diffuse among the African tribes the light of
Christianity, and the blessings of civilisation and free labour. The other to have
a commercial character, and to unite with the above objects the pursuit of private
enterprise and profit."
A few days afterwards, Lord Normanby announced to a deputation — con
sisting, among others, of the Bishop of London, Lords Teignmouth, Euston,
and Worsley, Sir T. D. Acland, Sir E. H. Inglis, and Dr. Lushington — that the
government had come to a conclusion to send a frigate and two steamers to
explore the Niger, and, if possible, to set on foot commercial relations with the
tribes on its banks. Sir Edward Parry, the comptroller of steam and machinery,
was appointed to prepare these vessels; and thus began the Niger expedition.
Ships were built expressly for the purpose.
In June, 1840, a pubUc meeting on the subject was held in Exeter Hall,
Prince Albert in the chair ; and formed, as the papers of the time note, " a most
grand and magnificent display of international feeling." So pleased was the
government with the idea,, that Mr. Buxton, about the same time, was raised to
the rank of a baronet. The summer was spent in active preparation. Three
iron steamers — the Albert, the Wilberforce, and the London — were fitted out ; and,
to the great satisfaction of aU who were interested in the subject, the command
was given to Captain Henry Dundas Trotter; Commander William Allen was
appointed to the Wilberforce ; and , Commander Bird Allen to the London.
These gentlemen, and Mr. William Cook, were the four commissioners empowered
to make treaties with the native chiefs for the abolition of the slave-trade.
Several scientific gentlemen were engaged to accompany the expedition — De Vogel,
as botanist; Mr. Eoscher, as mineralogist and miner; Dr. Stanger, as geologist;
and Mr. Fraser, curator of the Zoological Society of London, as naturalist. Mr.
Uwins, a draughtsman, and Mr. Ansell, a practical gardener or seedsman, were also
appointed; and the Church Missionary Society was allowed to send the Eev.
Frederick Schbn, and the Eev. J. Crowther, an African negro (in 1864, created an
African bishop), to examine into the practicabiUty of establishing missions on the
hanks of the Niger.
In 1841, the expedition sailed. Before it started, the steamers destined
for the purpose were visited by Prince Albert. Sir Foweli Buxton writes to Miss
Gurney —
" I went an hour before he was expected, and found everything in the most
perfect order, and the officers in full dress. Trotter looked remarkably well in his
uniform, and I was glad to have the opportunity of seeing him actually engaged in
the command of his people. At the appointed time, two carriages and four drove
on the quay, containing Prince Albert, Mr. Anson, Major Keppel (our late member
for Norfolk), and half a dozen others. I was upon the quarter-deck, and Professor
Airey with me, near the steps, which the prince immediately came up. He
greeted me with the most good-natured familiarity, and expressed his pleasure at
seeing me on board my fleet. He then closely examined everything, and seemed
to take a great delight in the whole concern, and to understand mechanics. He
was especially deUghted with a buoy fixed ready at the stern of the ship, to be let
down at a moment's notice. It contained a light which (at least they said so)
VOL. n. 2t 633

FEVER BREAKS OUT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1841.

water only inflamed. I said to Keppel (not intending that the prince should hear
me ; which, however, he did), ' I wish his royal highness would order one of his suite—
yourself, for example— to be thrown overboard, that we might save your life by this
apparatus.' The prince took up the idea, and seemed half inclined to set Keppel
a swimming, in order that we might have the gratification of the salvage. After
examining everything in the Albert, the boat came alongside; the prince and six
of his attendants got in, and I was also invited, and was not very far from having
reason to regret the honour. The wind was blowing hard, and the tide rolling
along at its full force. Our sailors were not accustomed to the navigation of the
Thames; so that the tide ran away with us, and dashed us with considerable
violence against a yacht at anchor, the William and Mary. We got entangled
among the ropes attached to her anchor ; and a cry was raised from the vessel —
' You will be dragged over, lie down !' Down went his royal highness flat to the
bottom of the boat, and without ceremony we all bundled down too. As it was
the rope scraped along my back. When we got clear the prince sprang up,
laughing heartily at the adventure, saying, ' I have had one ducking before this
year, when I fell through the ice ; and I thought we were going to have a second,
of a much worse kind.' The alarm felt on board the vessels at our situation was
very considerable, and Bird Allen had ordered his boats to be lowered. After
visiting the two other vessels, the prince took leave of Trotter and the company,
and expressed himself highly pleased with what he had seen."
The Niger expedition began to ascend the Nurr branch of the river on the
26th of August, 1841. The chief source of apprehension lay in the deadly climate;
but against its dangers every hi mm precaution bad been taken. Every one was
in the highest spirits, cheered by the novelty and beauty of the scenery, and by
the exhilarating effect of the air. After Sunday Island, where the influence of
the tide gave place to the constant northward current of the river, a marked
change took place in the scenery. The banks began to be slightly elevated above
the water ; and, instead of the mangrove, a variety of beautiful palms and other
trees formed a forest so dense, that, for upwards of a hundred miles (except where
spots were cleared for cultivation), the eye could not penetrate more than a few
yards beyond the water's edge. These clear spots, containing yams, cocoas, cas-
sidas, Indian corn, plantain, and especially sugar-cane, began to appear imme
diately after leaving Sunday Island, and gradually became more frequent. Soli
tary huts were now succeeded by clusters, and clusters of huts by villages ; tho
villages became larger and more populous ; while the natives showed themselves
less timid, and often came in their canoes to hold intercourse with the ships.
Their timidity at first had been great ; but their disposition was invariably
friendly. For the first fifty miles there was little appearance of trade; hut
afterwards large canoes were seen carrying palm oil, destined for Brass Town and
Bonny. As they proceeded, the amount of cultivation of yams, bananas, and plantains,
indicated still more extensive habitations. Some of the officers went into the
country, and were much pleased with its openness and beauty. Here and there
some nice plantations, fenced in, contained cassida, yams, pompions, Indian corn,
and sugar-cane — all kept clean, and in the best condition of culture. The people
were found to be industrious, and more advanced in civilisation than their neigh
bours lower down the river ; their grounds much better cultivated, manufactures
more encouraged, and their social comforts increasing. Up to this time all had
gone on well. The Delta had been passed, and the valley of the Niger entered
under circumstances seemingly the most auspicious.
On the 4th of September, unfortunately, fever of a most malignant character
broke out in the Albert, and, almost simultaneously, in the other vessels. The
expedition, notwithstanding, proceeded towards the confluence of the Niger and
Tehadda, at which point an agreement had already been made for the cession of
land for a model farm. A tract of land was chosen near Mount Patteh, where the
634

a.d. 1841.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [return of the expedition.
soil, though not of the best quality, grew a considerable quantity of cotton ; and
there seemed every probability that cotton would grow on the hills. There were,
on all sides, traces of the ravages of the slave-trading Fulatahs ; but, as the com
missioners observed, "The mere occupation of one or two stations, by a few British
subjects, would have the effect of establishing confidence among the natives, who,
once assured of the protecting care of Great Britain, would be equally induced to
build up their former habitations, and thus furnish a useful population, and have
a beneficial effect on the surrounding tribes." As soon as the land had been
selected for the model farm, the people in the vicinity brought abundance of
provisions to the new settlement for sale ; and those who had nothing to dispose
of, came and hired themselves as labourers. Nothing could exceed the good
feeling shown by the natives on every occasion. Cotton cloths of good manu
facture, spun cotton, calabashes beautifully carved and ornamented, tobacco, cam
wood balls, shea butter, dried buffalo flesh, and dried fish, were brought on board
in great quantities. As with most Africans, trade seemed to be the dominant
passion of the people. " So far," says Mr. Commissioner Cook, " the object of the
expedition had been attained ; and everything promised a favourable termination
to the mission." But now sickness broke out on board, and with such appalling-
rapidity, that Captain Trotter deemed it advisable to send the sick men back to
sea in the London. The intelligence that one of the steamers had returned to
Fernando Po, and that nine men had died of the fever, reached England in
December. On the 21st of September, Captain Trotter was compelled to direct
the Wilberforce to return as well ; whilst he and Captain Bird Allen pushed
forward in the Albert, in the hope of reaching Eabba, a very large town, the
capital of the Fulatahs. After leaving the confluence, tho banks of the river
were found to be better peopled ; and a great many villages were observed. In the
market-place of Goree were not less than from 1,500 to 2,000 people. The articles
exposed for sale were — bags of salt from Abba ; robes of various colours ; country
cloths ; camwood in balls ; iron work, as hoes and shovels ; Indian corn ; ground
nut ; twine silk ; seed of various kinds ; shea butter ; straw hats, with enormous
brims ; platters of wood and calabashes beautifully carved. M. Sehon, also, men
tioned " several large bags of cotton in its raw state." Egga was the largest town
seen on the banks of the river ; the population was reckoned at 7,000 or 8,000.
The people were, in general, tall and well made ; the form of the head, the coun
tenance, and the lighter shade of the colour of the skin, indicated an intermixture
of the Caucasian with the Negro race. The manufacturing of country cloths was
found to be the principal occupation of the people. There were found to be no
less than 200 looms in different parts of the town.
At Egga, Captain Trotter had reached a point 350 miles from the sea. He
had accomplished his object with respect to two of the three kingdoms to which he
had been sent ; but he was now compelled to relinquish the hope of reaching the
town of Abba, and so completing his work. "A very little mediation on our part,"
he observes, " might probably have had the effect of making the Nufi cation more
independent and less oppressed, and have tended materially to the diminution of
the slave-trade." But the sickness on board became so very alarming, that it was
found absolutely necessary, On the 4th of October, to steam down the river with all
speed. Captain Bird Allen, who had been most anxious to persevere, and, in fact,
almost all the officers and men on board, except the negroes, were seized with tho
deadly fever. Captain Trotter himself was, at length, disabled by it ; and, at this
critical period, the engineers, also, were too unwell to perform their duty. Dr.
Stanger, the geologist, however, having learned how to manage the steam-engines
from a scientific treatise on board, undertook to work them himself; and Dr: M.
Williams, in addition to the laborious duties in attending the sick, conducted the
ship down the river, with the assistance of only one white sailor, in the most able
and judicious manner.
While the Albert was still 100 miles from the sea, its disabled crew were
2t2 635

AFRICAN CIVILISATION SOCIETY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1842.

surprised and delighted by seeing a steamer coming up the stream towards them.
It proved to be the Ethiopi, commanded by Captain Bucroft, who had been
directed, by Mr. Jamieson, to afford any assistance to the expedition. This timely
assistance was of the greatest importance. Captain Bucroft and his engineer took
charge of the Albert, and brought her safely to Fernando Po. It was hoped that
Captain Bird Allen, and his gallant fellow-sufferers, would rapidly revive under the
influence of its purer air ; but many were already too far sunk to receive benefit,
and the mortality was most painful. Of the 301 persons who composed the expedition
when it commenced the ascent of the river, forty-one perished from the African
fever. It may be worth while to observe, that, of the 108 Africans on board, not
one died from the effects of the disease. Captain Bird Allen fell a victim to it at
Fernando Po, on the 28th of October.
" Thus," writes Mr. Charles Buxton, " failed the Niger Expedition. From
the facts stated by all the different gentlemen who were on board, and who have
written accounts of what they saw, and also from the direct assertions of the four
commissioners, it would appear that nothing but the climate prevented the expe
dition from fulfilling the most sanguine hopes of its supporters."
Pecuniarily Sir Fowell Buxton was a loser by the event, as he had subscribed *
very largely towards the scheme he had so much at heart ; but the deep disap
pointment he felt, when all the truth became known, arose from higher feelings than
pecuniary ones. " His health," writes his son, " which had been undermined before,
gradually became more feeble ; and he could no longer sustain any mental effort,
especially if attended by any sense of responsibility." To a man the law of whose
nature it was to be at work with head, hand, and heart, it was no slight trial to be
thus prematurely laid aside. He was only fifty-five years of age ; but already the
evening had come of his day of ceaseless toil ; nor was its close brightened . by the
beams of success and joy. The idea of what he termed incomparable horrors of the
slave-trade, had fastened itself upon his mind with the most vivid reality ; the
burning and plundered villages of Africa, the ships traversing the Atlantic with
their cargoes of natives — these pictures were ever before him. When unconscious
that he was observed, he would, at times, utter such groans as if his heart were
sinking beneath its load. But his grief was not of that kind described by an old
divine, which runs out in voice. He rarely spoke of the expedition ; to Captain
Bird Allen's death he could scarcely allude at all : but his grave demeanour, his
worn, pale face, the abstraction of his manner, and the intense fervour of his
supplications that God would pity "poor Africa" — these showed too well the
poignancy of his feelings.
All the spring of 1842 was spent by Sir Fowell Buxton in a succession of
painful efforts to gather some benefit for Africa from the wreck of the Niger
expedition. The model farm was still in existence ; and to obtain the promise of
an occasional visit to it, from a government steamer, was one of the principal
objects at which he aimed. The heads ofthe African Civilisation Society obtained
an interview with Lord Stanley, which Sir Fowell thus describes :— " Lord Stanley
received us very kindly ; and Lushington opened our case with great skill and
boldness too. How hearty my prayer had been for him and myself, that utterance
might be given to us— that we might speak with all boldness as we ought to
speak ! Then followed Sir E. Inglis, saying strong things in a very mild voice,
and in a very gentle manner. Then Acland put in a few words extremely well;
and then I spoke, contending that, one point excepted— that of the climate— we
had met with success in every particular ; and that it would be most- wicked and
shameful to abandon Africa in consequence of anything that had occurred. After
hearing aU we had to say, he offered, very frankly, to send round the cabinet any
paper which we should transmit to him embodying our ideas, and stating what we
would wish."
A public meeting of the African Civilisation Society was held in June. Lord
John EusseU, with generous boldness, came forward and took a prominent part in
636

A.D. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the nile.
the proceedings, boldly asserting the soundness of the principles on which the
scheme had been founded. The Bishop of Oxford spoke with hereditary
eloquence and feeling. He fully admitted the disappointment ; but, like Lord
John Eussell, he did not fear to uphold the principles which had actuated them ;
the righteousness of their cause, and the certainty of ultimate success if dis
couragement did not paralyse their exertions. Amongst the speakers were the
Bishops of Gloucester and Norwich, Lords Mahon, Sandon, Teignmouth, and
Fortescue, Sir E. H. Inglis, and Sir T. D. Acland. In July of the same year,
Lieutenant Webb courageously volunteered to go up the Niger, in the Wilberforce,
to visit the model farm. He found the settlers all well. A large portion of ground
had been cleared ; and from twenty to thirty acres were in good order, mainly
planted with cotton, the growing crops of which were very promising. On the
other hand, owing to the murder of Mr. Can, while returning to the model farm
from Fernando Po, the settlers had been deprived of all effective superintendence.
Mr. Moore, the negro in charge, had no authority over his companions ; and, in
consequence, the most complete - disorganisation had taken place. These evils
Lieutenant Webb expected to remedy, by leaving Mr. Hensman, the surgeon pro
tempore of the Wilberforce, as superintendent ; but sickness appearing on board,
Mr. Hensman could not be spared. Lieutenant Webb, therefore, broke up the
settlement, and brought all the people away. The tribes which had been collected
round the farm expressed the deepest regret at its being removed, and even dis
pleasure that the white man should come and sit down among them " to teach
the fashion," and then go away. For a moment Sir Fowell Buxton was ruffled by
this bitter disappointment. He writes — " As to the model farm, it makes me mad
to think that it was going on so well — our experiment likely to be successful — and
that they were torn away because Lieutenant Webb had not a superintendent to
spare them." -
Very soon came the end. In January, 1843, Sir Fowell proceeded to London,
to bear his part in the painful duty of dissolving the African Civilisation Society.
In reply to the summons to attend the meeting, he says, in a letter to the Eev. J.
M. Trew, " I feel as if I were going to attend the funeral of an old and dear
friend." After the resolution for suspending the operations of the society had
been passed, he addressed the meeting in a tone of deep feeling. He warmly
thanked the committee for their past exertions ; and although he insisted strongly
that the expedition had not failed in any one of its great objects, still he admitted
that there was a necessity for the step which had now been taken. He alluded to
the attacks of the papers; but added, that painfully as he felt all the disasters
which had attended the expedition, he did not accuse himself of having been
imprudent or over-sanguine in the measures which he had proposed.
A less gloomy, and not less glorious, period of African exploration is that of the
Nile, says Mr. Winwood Eeade, which belongs almost exclusively to the present
generation. The Geographical Society is as important a body as the African
Association. Sir Eoderick Murchison is no unworthy successor of Sir Joseph Banks,
and has often acted as ambassador from science to the state. The question of the
sources of the Nile, as far as public curiosity is concerned, is as fairly settled now
as the Niger's mouth is ; and the splendid journey of Sir Samuel and Lady Baker
surpasses the individual exploits of ancient or modern times.
Bruce, as we have intimated, went up the wrong branch. The White Nile, or
Bahr-el-Abiad, was the right feeder to follow, and one the source of which was to be
sought, not eastward in Abyssinia, but due south from Khartoum, in some then
unexplored and unimagined region of interior Africa, the distance of which could
not be told, but which was certainly more remote and less accessible than by
Abyssinia. The ancient geographer Ptolemy, indeed, had considered this to be
the true Nile ; and though Bruce died happy in his Abyssinian delusion, the world
reverted at last to the ancient notion, and knew that not till some more fortunate
explorer than Bruce should stand at the head of the White Nile, far, far to the
637

CAPTAINS SPEKE AND GRANT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
south of its junction with the Blue Nile at Khartoum, would the problem of 3,000
years be solved. But how far to the south of this spot was a mystery. Gradually,
successive expeditions, creeping up the White Nile above Khartoum, explored its
course for nearly 800 miles of direct distance beyond that point; one of these
expeditions, sent by the Pasha of Egypt, in 1841, reaching as far as to 4 deg.
42 min. ; and another, in 1850, as far as 4 deg. 9 min. N. lat. : but the account brought
back by all was, that the origin of the stream was still further to the south,
probably to the south of the equator. This corresponded with information obtained,
by Dr. Krapf and other explorers of Eastern Africa, from the coast ; and at length
it became the settled but somewhat vague belief of the geographical mind — a belief
even indicated by dotted lines on maps of Africa— that the sources of the Nile
were to be found in an undefined region of mountains and lakes lying south of the
equator, and some hundreds of miles west from the Indian Ocean. An undefined
region, we say ; for though the names and positions of some mountains, 200 miles
or so from the east coast were known, and there were rumours of lakes to the west
of those, and the far-famed Mountains of the Moon further inland, the relations of
these lakes and mountains to each other were rsatters, for Europeans at least, of
mere imaginative speculation. The honour of breaking into this unknown region
of sub-equatorial Africa, and of dispelling the mist that there involved the nature
and whereabouts of the Nile's source, if not of actually setting foot upon the exact
spot beyond possible dispute — this great honour was reserved for Captain Speke.
He is famous by two expeditions. In the former, undertaken for general purposes
of East African exploration, rather than with a view to the discovery of the source
of the Nile, Captain Speke was associated with Captain Burton. Captain Speke
reached, crossed, and travelled along the borders of a great lake called Tanganyika,
situated about 700 miles due west of Zanzibar : and he also reached, on the 30th
of July, 1858, the- southern extremity of another broader lake, situated more to
the north, but not so far inland by about 200 miles, called Lake N'yanza. It was
when gazing on this latter lake, known since then as Victoria N'yanza, he con
ceived the idea that it was in that body of waters, 3,740 feet above the sea-level,
and composed of the accumulated drainage of the high lands and mountains
around, that the great Nile, the Mediterranean mouths of which were more than
2,300 miles away to the north, had its origin. Full pf this idea, which he was not
able to verify in that expedition, he returned home ; and it was on the very day
after his return to London, he tells us — i.e., on the 9th of May, 1859 — that his new
expedition was resolved on. He had called on Sir Eoderick Murchison, the presi
dent of the Eoyal Geographical Society ; and to him he explained his views with
respect to the N'yanza Lake. Sir Eoderick at once perceived their importance,
and said to him, " Speke, we must send you there again." Accordingly the new
expedition was organised. It was proposed by some tbat Captain Speke should
adopt the method of all previous explorers who had sought to penetrate the mystery
of the Nile's source, and, starting from Egypt, push his way up the river's course
till his search should lead him either to the N'yanza, about which he had formed
his foregone conclusion, or to some result that should disprove the conclusion.
But he adhered to his original and meritorious idea of attempting the problem, not
by this obvious and commonplace plan, which had so often failed, but by a plan
which may be called the reverse— that of a march inland from the east coast, so as
to again reach the N'yanza Lake ; investigate that lake ; find that outlet of it
which he believed to be, or to lead to, the White Nile ; and then verify his con
jecture to the world by descending the detected river, and reappearing in Egypt.
And so, after the necessary delays of preparation, he found himself, on the 2nd of
October, 1860, with Captain Grant as his single European companion, on the
east coast of Africa, opposite to the island of Zanzibar, with civilisation and white
faces left behind him, and the perils of his extraordinary expedition in front.
Plunging into African darkness at that spot, the two travellers disappear, it may be
said, from human ken for two years and five months ; and when they emerge again

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sources of the nile.

it is at Gondokoro, on the Nile, where Mr. Baker, who has gone up the river so
far on the chance of tidings of them,, meets them on the 15th of February, 1863,
and whence the famous intelligence quickly reaches England—" Speke and Grant
are found, and the Nile is done for." The proceedings of the two years and five
months that elapsed between their disappearance into Eastern Africa, on the
mainland opposite Zanzibar, and their reappearance to European eyes at Gondokoro,
Captain Speke's large volume has narrated; and thence we may determine whether
and how- far Captain Speke has settled, by this laborious expedition, the great
problem on account of which he undertook it.
The route taken by the travellers was, in a great measure, determined by the
obstacles they encountered in their progress, and by their conjectures, in moving
on, as to what way of approach to the lake would be the easiest. They approached
it at last, as we have said, not at its southern extremity, where Speke had dis
covered it in 1858, but by a circuitous way round its western flank, leading them
into the important African kingdom of Karague. By far the most interesting
portions of Captain Speke's book, are his accounts of this kingdom of Karague, the
dominion of the good King Eumanika, where he spent about two months (Novem
ber, 1861 — January, 1862); and then of the still more powerful kingdom of
Uganda, stretching along the whole north-west shore of the lake, and governed by
the terrible King Altesa, under the influence of his mother, the Queen-Dowager
N'yamasore, where he remained no less than six months (January — July, 1861);
during which time he was on the skirts of the lake, and had the pleasure of sailing
on its waters.
At length the travellers " got the road" — i.e., obtained permission to depart —
from the capricious Mtesa, King of Uganda ; and, proceeding northwards, struck
the Nile at Urondogani, some forty miles from the lake, July 21st, 1862. Thence
they reversed their course, actually tracing the banks of the river back to the point
of its junction with the N'yanza, July 28th ; after which their homeward journey
may be said to have begun. Descending to their former station of Urondogani,
they there embark on the Nile, and sail down a portion of its course ; when their
homeward progress is interrupted by a detention in the kingdom of Unyaro, which
is the next kingdom to Uganda, north of the N'yanza. Here they are detained,
with fresh troubles, for three months (August to November, 1862); but at last,
getting away from Unyaro and its feeble fidgety King Karamsi, they recommence
their march, strike the Nile again, and cross it ; avoid a great bend of it, and again
strike it ; and so, on the 15th of February, 1863, reached Gondokoro, where they
find, not Consul Petherick, whom they had expected, but Mr. Baker ; and whence
the news of their reappearance, and of the successful performance of the great feat
they had projected, was quickly flashed to England. Ere long they followed in
person, to tell their story more fully, and to write their accounts of it.
And is, then, the great feat performed ? Is the Nile " done for ?" This is a
question on which, ever since the publication of Captain Speke's volume, geographers
are at variance. That the Nile is as good as " done for" — that Captains Speke and
Grant have taken the entire mystery out of the problem, and brought it to the day
light of solution— all must admit ; the question is only as to the completeness of
the solution. On this point Captain Speke's own summary of the results of his
expedition, as they presented themselves to his mind when he stood at the junc
tion of the Nile with the Lake N'yanza, will have a force now with which no
personal jealousies can mingle. The points upon which doubt and difference of
opinion may still exist, are indicated by Captain Speke himself. That the Nile is
fed from the Lake Victoria N'yanza, a great reservoir of waters gathered from rains
among mountains in that high equatorial table-land, and that the outlet at
Eipon Falls is one of the main channels by which it is fed, may be. set down
as proved. But, is there no. other lake or reservoir to the east or north-east of
the Lake N'yanza, whence there may be larger feeders of the Nile than that from
N'yanza, at Eipon Falls ? And, again, supposing all the upper waters of the Nile
voy

ALPINE TRAVELLERS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
to come from the Lake N'yanza, how is the lake itself fed ? May it not be, after
all, but a kind of intermediate reservoir ; and may there hot be rivers flowing into
it, which, if traced to other accumulations of water, would more truly be the
original sources of the Nile ? It was felt, in many quarters, that a more complete
inspection of the Lake Victoria N'yanza, than Captains Speke and Grant were
enabled to make, was requisite ; as also a more uninterrupted tracing of the upper
course of the Nile, than it was possible for them to attempt. Dr. Barth, however,
accepted what they had done as virtually a solution of the greatest geographical
problem of history.
Sir Eoderick Murchison, writing under date of the 24th September, to the
Athenaeum, says — " Sir, I beg to state, through your medium, that my geogra
phical friends and myself have resolved to bring about the erection of a suitable
monument, to commemorate the exploits of the man who, of all Europeans, first
crossed central equatorial Africa, from south to north, with his companion Grant ;
and who (setting aside all disputes respecting the source of the Nile) unquestion
ably determined the existence and the position of the great water-basin whence the
Nile flows. Yesterday, in company with the gallant Captain Grant, who had
travelled from the north of Scotland, and Dr. Livingstone, I followed the remains
of my lamented friend to the family burying-place of the Spekes, in the church of
Dowlish Wake ; and now that he has been cut off in the zenith of his intrepid
and brilliant career, I feel confident that this appeal will meet with a generous
response." One form of geographical enterprise, that of scaling the hitherto untrodden
peaks and passes of the Alps, was in great favour with Englishmen at this time.
An Alpine Club had been formed expressly for the purpose ; and, by their enter
prise and daring, won great renown. Some terrible accidents, however, happened.
One of them, which occurred in July, 1865, and which sent a thrill of horror
all through Europe, is thus described by Mr. Edward Whymper, president of the
Alpine Club : — " On Wednesday morning, the 12th of July, Lord Francis Douglas
and myself crossed the Col Theodule, to seek guides at Zermatt. After quitting
the snow on the northern side, we rounded the foot of the glacier, crossed the
Furgge glacier, and left my tent, ropes, and other matters in the little chapel at
the Lac Noir. We then descended to Zermatt, engaged Peter Taugwalder, and
gave him permission to choose another guide. In the course of the evening, the
Eev. Charles Hudson came into our hotel with a friend, Mr. Hadow ; and they, in
answer to some inquiries, announced their intention of starting to attack the
Matterhorn on the following morning. Lord Francis Douglas agreed with me it
was undesirable that two independent parties should be on the mountain at the
same time, with the same object. Mr. Hudson was, therefore,- invited to join us;
and he accepted our proposal. Before admitting Mr. Hadow, I took the precaution
to inquire what he had done in the Alps ; and, as well as I remember, Mr. Hudson's
reply was—' Mr. Hadow has done Mont Blanc in less time than most men.' He
then mentioned several other excursions that were unknown to me ; and added, in
answer to a further question—' I consider he is a sufficiently good man to go with
us.' This was an excellent certificate, given to us as it was by a first-rate moun
taineer; and Mr. Hadow was admitted without any further questions. We then
went into the matter of guides. Michael Croz was with Messrs. Hadow and
Hudson ; and the latter thought, if Peter Taugwalder went as well, that there
would not be occasion for any one else. The question was referred to the men
themselves, and they made no objection.
" We left Zermatt at 5.35 on Thursday morning, taking the two young Taug-
walders, as porters, by the desire of their father. They carried provisions amply
sufficient for the whole party for three days, in case the ascent should prove more
difficult than we anticipated. No rope was taken from Zermatt, because there was
already more than enough in the chapel at Lac Noir. It has been repeatedly
asked, ' Why was not the wire-rope taken, which Mr. Hudson brought to Zermatt?'
640

a,d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [alpine climbing.
I do not know ; it was not mentioned by Mr. Hudson ; and, at that time, I had not
even seen it. My rope alone was used during the expedition : and there was, first,
about 200 feet of Alpine Club rope ; secondly, about 150 feet of a kind I believe to
be stronger than the first ; thirdly, more than 200 feet of a lighter and weaker rope
than the first, of a kind used by myself until the club rope was produced.
" It was our intention, on leaving Zermatt, to attack the mountain seriously —
not, as it had been- frequently stated, to explore or examine it; and we were pro
vided with everything that long experience has shown to be necessary for the most
difficult mountains. On the first day, however, we did not intend to ascend to any
great height, but to stop when we found a good position for placing the tent.
We mounted, accordingly, very leisurely ; left the Lac Noir at 8.20, and passed
along the ridge connecting the Hornli with the actual peak, at the foot of which
we arrived at 11.20, having frequently halted on the way. We then quitted the
ridge, went to the left, and ascended by the north-eastern face of the mountain.
Before twelve o'clock we had found a good position for the tent, at a height
of 11,000 feet ; but Croz, and the elder of Taugwalder's sons, went on to look
what was above, in order to save time on the following morning. The remainder
constructed the platform on which the tent was to be placed ; and by the time this
was finished the two men returned, reported joyfully that, as far as they had gone,
they had seen nothing but that which was good ; and asserted positively that, had
we gone on with them on that day, we could have ascended the mountain, and
have returned to the tent with facility. We passed the remaining hours of day
light — some basking in tbe sunshine, some sketching or collecting ; and, when the
sun went down, giving, as it departed, a glorious promise for the morrow, we
returned to the tent to arrange for the night. Hudson made tea, myself coffee ;
and we then retired each one to his blanket bag — the Taugwalders, Lord Francis
Douglas, and myself occupying the tent; the others remaining, by preference,
outside. But, long after dusk, the cliffs above echoed with our laughter, and with
the songs of the guides ; for we were happy that night in camp, and did not
dream of calamity.
"We were astir long before daybreak on the morning of the 14th, and started
directly it was possible to move, leaving the youngest of Taugwalder's sons
behind. At 6.20 we had attained a height of 12,800 feet, and halted for
haff-an-hour; then continued the ascent without a break until 9.55, when we
stopped for about fifty minutes, at a height, probably, of about 14,000 feet. Thus
far we had ascended by the north-eastern face of the mountain, and had not met
with a single difficulty. For the greater part of the way there' was, indeed, no
occasion for the rope ; and sometimes Hudson led, and sometimes myself. We
had now arrived at the foot of that part which, from Zermatt, seems perpendicular,
or overhanging, and we could no longer continue on the same side. By common
consent, therefore, we ascended for some distance by the arite — that is, by the
ridge descending towards Zermatt— and then turned over to the right, or to the
north-western face. Before doing so, we made a change in the order of ascent ;
Croz now went first ; I followed ; Hudson came third ; Hadow and old Taugwalder
were last. The change was made because the work became difficult for a time,
-and required caution. In some places there was but little to hold, and it was
therefore desirable that those should be in front whov were least likely to slip.
The general slope of the mountain at this part was less than 40°, and snow had
consequently accumulated, and filled up the irregularities of the rock face, leaving
only occasional fragments projecting here and there. These were, at times, coated
with a thin glaze of ice, from the snow above having melted and frozen again
during the night. Still, it was a place over which any fair mountaineer might
pass in safety. We found, however, that Mr. Hadow was not accustomed to this
kind of work, and required continual assistance ; but no one suggested that he
.should stop, and he was taken to the top. It is only fair to say that the difficulty
experienced by Mr. Hadow at this part, arose, not from fatigue, or lack of courage,
641

DISTRESSLNG CASUALTIES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

but simply and entirely from want of experience. Mr. Hudsdn, who followed me,
passed over this part, and, as far as I know, ascended the entire mountain without
having the slightest assistance rendered to him on any occasion. Sometimes, after
I had taken a hand from Croz, or received a pull, I turned to give the same to
Hudson ; but he invariably declined, saying it was not necessary. This solitary and
difficult part was of no great extent — certainly not more than 300 feet high ; and
after it was passed the angles became less and less as we approached the summit;
at last the slope was so moderate that Croz and myself detached ourselves from the
others, and ran on to the top. We arrived there at 1.40 P.M. ; the others about ten
minutes after us.
" I have been requested to describe particularly the state of. the party on the
summit. No one showed any signs of fatigue, neither did I hear anything to lead
me to suppose that any one was at all tired. I remember Croz laughing at me
when I asked him the question. We had, indeed, been moving less than ten hours,
and during that time had halted for nearly two. The only remark which I heard
suggestive of danger was made by Croz ; but it was quite casual, and probably
meant nothing. He said, after I had remarked that we had come up very slowly,
'Yes, I would rather go down with you and another guide alone, than with those
who are going.' As to ourselves, we were arranging what we should do that night
on our return to Zermatt.
" We remained on the summit for one hour ; and during the time, Hudson and
I consulted, as we had done all the day, as to the best and safest arrangement of
the party. We agreed that it would be best for Croz to go first, as he was the most
powerful, and Hadow second ; Hudson, who was equal to a guide in sureness of
foot, wished to be third; Lord F. Douglas.was placed next, and old Taugwalder,
the strongest ofthe remainder, behind him. I suggested to Hudson that we should
attach a rope to the rocks on our arrival at the difficult bit, and hold it as we
descended, as an additional protection. He approved of the idea, but it was not
definitely settled that it should be done. The party was being arranged in the
above order while I was making a sketch of the summit, and they were waiting
for me to be tied in my place, when some one .remembered that we had not left our
names in a bottle ; they requested me to write them, and moved off while it was
being done. A few minutes afterwards I tied myself to young Taugwalder, and
followed, catching them just as they were commencing the descent of the difficult
part described above. The greatest care was being taken — only one man was
moving at a time ; when he was firmly planted the next one advanced, and so on.
The average distance between each was probably twenty feet. They had not,
however, attached an additional rope to rocks, and nothing was said about it.
The suggestion was made entirely on account of Mr. Hadow, and I am not sure ii
even occurred to me aarain.
"I was, as I have explained, detached from the others, and following them;
but after about a quarter of an hour Lord F. Douglas asked me to tie on to old
Taugwalder, as he feared, he said, if there was a slip Taugwalder would not be able
to hold him. This was done hardly ten minutes before the accident, and un
doubtedly saved Taugwalder's life.
" As far as I know, at the moment of the accident, no one was actually moving.
I cannot speak, with certainty, neither can theTaugwalders, because the two leading
men were partially hidden from our sight by an intervening mass of rock. Poor
Croz had laid aside bis axe ; and in order to give Mr. Hadow greater security, was
absolutely taking hold of his legs, and putting his feet, one by one, into their proper
positions. From the movements of their shoulders, it is my beliefthat Croz, having
done as I have said, was in the act of turning round to go down a step or two
himself ; at this moment Mr. Hadow slipped, fell on him, and knocked him over.
I heard one startled exclamation from Croz, then saw him and Mr. Hadow flying
downwards ; in another moment Hudson was dragged from his steps, and Lord F.
Douglas immediately after him. All this was the work of a moment ; but imme-
642

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [death of lord f. douglas.
diately we heard Croz's exclamation, Taugwalder and myself planted ourselves as
firmly as the rock would permit ; the rope was tight between us, and the shock
came on us both as on one man. We held ; but the rope broke midway between
Taugwalder and Lord F. Douglas. For two or three seconds we saw our unfortunate
companions sliding downwards on their backs, and spreading out their hands
endeavouring to save themselves ; they then disappeared one by one, and fell from
precipice to precipice on to the Matterhorn glacier below, a distance of nearly
4,000 feet in height. From the moment the rope broke it was impossible to help
them. " For the space of half-an-hour we remained on the spot without moving a
single step. The two men, paralysed by terror, cried like infants, and trembled in
such a manner as to threaten us with the fate of the others. Immediately we had
descended to a safe place I asked for the rope that had broken, and to my surprise
— indeed, to my horror — found that it was the weakest of the three ropes. As
the first five men had been tied while I was sketching, I had not noticed the rope
they employed ; and now I could only conclude that they had seen fit to use this
in preference to the others. It has been stated that the rope broke in consequence
of its fraying over a rock : this is not the case; it broke in mid-air, and the end
does not show any trace of previous injury.
"For more than two hours afterwards, I thought every moment that the next
would be my last ; for the Taugwalders, utterly unnerved, were not only incapable
of giving assistance, but were in such a state that a slip might have been expected
from one or the other at any moment. I do the younger man, moreover, no
injustice when I say, that immediately we got to the easy part ofthe descent, he was
able to laugh, smoke, and eat as if nothing had happened. There is no occasion to
say more of the descent. I ' looked frequently, but in vain, for traces of my
unfortunate companions, and we were in consequence surprised by the night when
still at a height of 13,000 feet. We arrived at Zermatt at 10.30 on Saturday
morning. " Immediately on my arrival I sent to the president of the commune, and
requested him to send as many men as possible to ascend heights whence the spot
could be commanded where I knew the four must have fallen. A number went, and
returned after six hours, reporting they had seen them, but that they could not
reach them that day. They proposed starting on Sunday evening, so as to reach
the bodies at daybreak on Monday; but, unwilling to lose the slightest chance,
the Eev. J. M'Cormick and myself resolved to start on Sunday morning. The
guides of Zermatt, being threatened with excommunication if they did not attend
the early mass, were unable to accompany us. To several, at least, I am sure this
'was a severe trial; for they assured me, with tears, that nothing but that which I
have stated would have prevented them from going. The Eev. J. Eobertson, and
Mr. J. Philpotts, of Eugby, however, not only lent us their guide, Franz Arder-
mattea, but also accompanied us themselves. Mr. Puller lent us the brothers
Lochmatter ; F. Payot and J. Tiarraz, of Chamouni, also volunteered. We started
with these at 2 A.M. on Sunday, and followed the route we had taken on Thursday
morning until we had passed the Hornli, when we went down to the right of the
ridge, and mounted through the seracs of the Matterhorn glacier. By 8.30 we had
got on to the plateau at the top, and within sight of the corner in which we knew
my companions must be. As we saw one weather-beaten man after another raise
the telescope, turn deadly pale, and pass it on without a word to the next, we
knew that all hope was gone. We approached ; they had fallen below as they had
fallen above — Croz a little in advance, Hadow near him, and Hudson some distance
behind ; but of Lord F. Douglas we could see nothing. To my astonishment I saw
that all of the three had been tied with the club, or • with the second and equally
strong rope, and consequently there was only one link — that between Taugwalder
and Lord F. Douglas — in which the weaker rope had been used.
" The letters of the Eev. J. M'Cormick have already informed you respecting
643

THE ENGLISH NAVY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
the subsequent proceedings. The orders from the government of the Valais to
bring the bodies down were so positive, that four days after the events I have just
related, twenty-one guides accomplished that sad task. The thanks of all English
men are due to these brave men, for it was a work of no little difficulty, and of
great danger. Of the body of Lord F. Douglas they, too, saw nothing; it is
probably arrested in the rocks above. No one can mourn his loss more deeply or
more sincerely than myself; for, although young, he was a most accomplished
mountaineer, hardly ever required the slightest assistance, and did not make a
single slip throughout the day. He had, only a few days before we met, made the
ascent of the Gabelhorn, a summit far more difficult, I believe, to reach than the
Matterhorn itself.
" I was detained in Zermatt until the 22nd of July, to await the inquiry
instituted by the government. I was examined first ; and, at the close, I handed
in to the court a number of questions which I desired should be put to the elder
Taugwalder ; doing so because that which I had found out respecting the ropes was
by no means satisfactory to me. The questions, I was told, were put and answered
before I left Zermatt ; but I was not allowed to be present at the inquiry ; and the
answers, although promised, have not yet reached me.
" This, sir, is the end of this sad story. A single slip, or a single false step,
has been the sole cause of this frightful calamity, and has brought about misery
never to be forgotten. I have only one observation to offer upon it. If the rope
had not broken you would not have received this letter, for we could not possibly
have held the four men, falling as they did — all at the same time, and with a
severe jerk. But, at the same time, it is my belief that no accident would have
happened had the rope between those who fell been as tight, or nearly as tight, as
it was between Taugwalder and myself. The rope, when used properly, is a great
safeguard; but whether on rocks, or whether on snow or glacier, if two men
approach each other so that the rope falls in a loop, the whole party is involved in
danger; for should one slip or fall, he may acquire, before he is stopped, a>
momentum that may drag down one man after another, and bring destruction on
all ; but if the rope is tight this is all but impossible."

CHAPTEE XXXI.
THE LAST OF LORD PALMERSTOH- AS PREMIER.
In the course of our narrative we have now reached the summer of 1865, when
the general election was held, and when it was to be seen how far his lordship had
deserved well of his country. To remain at peace with all the world— to develop
the industry of the nation— to render the country secure by means of its army
and navy, particularly the latter — were the main particulars of the Palmerston
programme. Let us glance first at the state of the navy. England has always held that
her navy is her great_ source of security and power. In a letter to Lord North, in
1773, George III. writes — " I cannot conclude without expressing my approbation
of Lord Sandwich's plan for having the guard-ships always ready for immediate
service : that will, I am persuaded, prevent many wars ; for by that means we have
over twenty large ships ready before the enemy can equip one ; consequently about
the start of three months, which is an immense advantage in all military opera
tions." Similar feeling has been, more or less, cherished by all our statesmen ;
even by such men of peace as Mr. Cobden, who was quite ready to admit that we

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [naval expenditure.
required a navy superior to any other power. This is one reason why the
Admiralty has been generally exposed to very severe criticism ; another may be
found in the fact that its accounts have been kept in such a state as generally to
defy all comprehension.
¦ An important pamphlet, entitled The Naval Expenditure from 1860 to 1866,
¦and its Results, has been published by Mr. Eidgway, of Piccadilly. It is
evidently intended as a defence of the late Board of Admiralty, and may be
considered as officially inspired. The following is a summary of its contents : —
The opening paragraph states that the department of the Admiralty has for a
long time been the subject of accusation and complaint, and that these have been
always to the same effect — namely, that for the money expended year by year upon
the navy, the country has not received an equivalent return. After stating that
the permanent officers of the department are prohibited from vindicating their
proceedings, and that outsiders are without the necessary information, even if they
were wUling to incur the trouble of defending them, the writer proceeds to name
a definite accusation which has been made against the late Board. It is to the
effect that the Admiralty had, in the course of six years, wasted no less than
£70,000,000, which had been voted for the purposes of the navy ; and that, in
consequence of such great waste, the ships and guns now possessed by this country
were inferior to those of other powers. These statements the writer believes to be
incorrect. The late Board, instead of having neglected their duties, devoted them
selves to the advancement of those measures on which the future interests of the
British navy must depend. Before proceeding to a discussion of the measures to
which he alludes, and which are classified under six heads, it is thought necessary
to refer to the condition of the navy in previous years. For twenty years preceding
the Eussian war, comparatively small demands were made for the expenditure of
the navy ; and yet, in each session of parliament, outcries were heard for reduction
and retrenchment, the estimates of the year 1835 being pointed to as the model for
imitation. In 1852, our steam fleet consisted of five steam-ships of the line, and
four ships with auxiUary engines. There were, however, twelve other steam-ships
in process of construction. The navy estimates for that year were £5,700,000.
Two years later, the prospect of a war with Eussia led to a rapid augmentation of
the estimates. ' In 1854, they were over £10,000,000, and the actual expenditure
of the year exceeded these by about £5,000,000. In March, 1854, war was
declared, and the Admiralty was called upon to provide a naval force. By great
exertions a fleet was sent to the Baltic. The composition of the crews was
imperfect, there being a lamentable deficiency of petty officers and first-class
seamen. Vessels and gun-boats were finished or built hastily, the timber used being
unseasoned ; and the cost of maintaining and repairing them has been an ever-
recurring source of inconvenience and complaint. This, the writer thinks, made
it obvious that retrenchment and economy are not always synonymous terms, and
hence it was that, on the return of peace, the estimates were not reduced to their
previous amount. In December, 1858, Lord Derby appointed an official committee,
to report, first, on the causes which occasioned the continued large expenditure —
the last estimates which had been voted exceeded £8,000,000 — and secondly, on
the naval force of this country, as compared with the force of foreign powers,
especially that of France. In the January following, the report was made. It
showed that the number of steam-vessels, which was only 177 in 1852, had been
increased to 464 ; that whilst the ships of the line built, being built, or converted
as steamers, were seventeen in 1852, exclusive of four block-ships, in 1858 fifty
ships were in various stages of progress, in addition to nine block-ships. In other
ways the committee showed an increase in expenditure ; but instead of assisting to
reduce the estimates, they recommended that money should be voted for the rapid
conversion of ships of the line, as well as for the completion of the ships in
progress. These recommendations were adopted by the government, and Sir John
Pakington laid the subject before the House of Commons in a speech which
645

DEFENCE OF THE ADMIRALTY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

created considerable alarm. Besides a large addition to the vote for dockyard wages
and materials, he proposed a special vote of £250,000 for building two iron-plated
frigates. The proposals were received favourably by parliament ; but before much
progress had been made with the estimates, an adverse vote on the Derby-Disraeli
Eeform Bill led to the resignation of ministers. Iu acceding to office, Lord
Palmerston and his colleagues agreed to adopt the estimates of their predecessors;
indeed, three months of the financial year had passed before the new Admiralty
Board entered upon their duties. When they met, under the Duke of Somerset,
they found the daily business of the office heavily augmented by the last estimates.
The war with China followed, and led to a large increase in the estimates of 1860.
In each succeeding year the estimates 'were reduced. In the six years — 1860 to
1865 — the total amount voted for the navy was £69,107,900. A tabular state
ment of the actual votes for each of the six years is given as an appendix to the
pamphlet; and a reference to them shows that half of the whole amount — or,
indeed, nearly £36,000,000 — was taken for wages, victuals, half-pay, pensions,
medicines for the navy, and allowances to the reserve force. Thus it appears that,
during the period referred to, the charge for men was about £6,000,000 a year, or
more than the whole navy estimates inthe year 1852. In that year the estimates
were L'5,835,588. The writer states tbat there is no charge against the Board of
Admiralty for extravagance in regard to the pay or the pensions of the navy.
On the contrary, the Board claim credit for having given effect to various recom
mendations of committees and commissioners upon the important subjects of
manning the navy and creating a reserve of seamen. The work done by the late
Board is then described in detail under the following heads: — 1. The manning
of the navy. 2. The establishment of a reserve of seamen. 3. The construction
of iron-clads and other ships. 4. The armament of the navy. 5. The improve
ment of dockyards and docks. 6. The introduction of more accurate estimates and
accounts. On the accession of the late Board to office, there was so great a want
of seamen, that a high bounty bad been adopted to attract men to the royal navy.
Many of the men so obtained were in every way unfit for the service. A better
system has now been introduced, and a better class is obtained. The course
pursued by the Admiralty in providing ships and armaments, has resulted in
creating a most powerful fleet of iron-clads, armed, or in progress of being armed,
with guns unsurpassed by the artillery of any other country. Docks and basins
have been improved, and larger dockyards commenced on a scale adequate to the
requirements ofthe royal navy in future years. Looking at what is shown to have
been done, the writer asks those who have accused the late Board, to point out any
six years in the history of the British navy wherein such immense changes' have
been accomplished as within these last six years. If .parliament should determine
upon a considerable reduction of the navy estimates, such a result must be
attained, not by departmental retrenchments, but by a change of public policy.
If our naval forces were withdrawn from distant stations, a reduction could easily
be made in the number of ships in commission ; the work in our dockyards would
be diminished ; the demands for naval stores lessened ; establishments abroad, coal
depots, and other sources of expenditure would be abolished, and the general duties
of the navy would be restricted to the defence of our own coasts, and the few
military positions which it might be deemed necessary to maintain. There is no
doubt that the adoption of such a policy would be seriously detrimental to the
future efficiency of the British navy. A reduction of 12,000 or of 15,000 men
might be obtained by abandoning the Pacific, the south-east coast of America, and
the stations to the eastward of the Cape ; but such a course would disorganise the
whole system of the navy, and leave this country, in a few years, without
experienced officers or well-trained seamen. From these considerations, taken in
connection with other requirements for the maintenance of the navy at home,
there is but little prospect, for some years to come, that the naval estimates can be
reduced below the sum of ten millions. Those who hold that a minister of
646

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [army expenditure.
marine would be more acceptable to the country than a Board of Admiralty, are
told that a change of name would be immaterial ; the conduct of business must
be much the same under either system. In the last sentence a hope is expressed
that one result of the pamphlet will be, to secure for future administrations a fairer
and more dispassionate consideration than has been vouchsafed to the late Board
of Admiralty. Our army expenditure for the year ending December 31st, 1864, is returned
at £14,774,242 6s. ld. ; and on fortifications, during the same interval of time, we
had laid out £720,000. In that year, also, the excesss of income over expenditure
was £2,241,969 16$. 9d. Our Indian kingdom was maintained at a cost, in 1865,
of £46,547,384. In the same year the amount of the national debt was — of the
unredeemed funded debt, £775,768,295 ; the estimated capital of terminable
annuities was £21,778,603, and of the unfunded debt, £10,742,500; a total of
£808,288,398, a decrease of £4,940,736 from the total of the previous year. Much
in the way of economy has yet to be effected, if we are to pay off our national
debt, or to place ourselves on a level of taxation with other nations. It is not
pleasant to reflect that the cost of each British soldier is estimated at £101 12s.,
while that of each French soldier is but £43 Is.
If we consult the returns of population and taxation of the European states,
we shall find that of the latter we have our fair share. We find France, with a
population of 37,382,225, receives an average contribution from each inhabitant
of £2 5s. 8d. ; England, with a population of 29,070,932, demands £2 6s. ld.
Each individual in Eussia pays 16s. 3d.; in Italy, £1 15s. lid. ; in Austria,
£1 ls.lCd.; in Spain, £1 12s.; Prussia, £1 2s. 2d.; Turkey, 7s. 8d. ; Netherlands,
£2 8s. Id. ; Sweden and- Norway, £1 9s. 2d. ; Belgium, £1 6s. 9d. ; Bavaria, 16s. Id.;
Portugal, 19s. Id. ; Hanover, £1 12s. lOd. ; Saxony, 16s. 8d. ; Denmark, £1 2s. Id.;
Baden, 19s. Id. ; Wurtemberg, 14s. 10d.; Greece, lis. lid.; Switzerland, 6s. Id.;
Hesse-Darmstadt, 16s. 8cL; Hesse-Cassel, 19s. 5d. ; Nassau, 18s. 9d. ; Oldenburg,
£1 4s. 3d. ; Anhalt, £1 16s. &d. ; Holstein and Lauenberg, 8s. lOd. ; Brunswick,
17s. 8d. ; Saxe- Weimar, 18s. 2d.; Mecklenburgh-Schwerin, 8s. lid.; Mecklen-
burgh-Strelitz, £2 Is. 3d. ; Saxe-Meiningen, 17s. 3d.; Saxe-Altenburg, 17s. 9d. ;
Schwarzburg-Sonderhausen, £1 8s. lid. ; Saxe-Coburg Gotha, lis. 4d!. ; Schwarzburg
Eudolstadt, 18s. 10d.; Waldeck, £1 2s. 9d. ; Hesse-Homburg, £1 lis. 8d.; Eeuss
Schleitz, 10s. Id. ; Schaumburg Lippe, £1 Is. 9d. ; Lippe Detmold, 6s. 3d. ; Eeusy
Greiz, 13s. lid.; Lichenstein, 15s. 4d. Of course, now that Europe has been
mapped out anew, fresh returns are required ; but such was the relative taxation
of its various kingdoms in the last year of Lord Palmerston's life. Deeply have
we still to deplore the war policy of Mr. Pitt. The interest per head of our public
debt is 17s. 8d. ; of that of the Netherlands, 14s. lOd! ; of that of France, 9s. 6d. ; of
that of Italy, 7s. 3d. ; of that of Denmark, 7s. 2d. ; of that of Austria, 6s. 8d. In
Belgium, the charge is 5s. 2d. ; in Portugal, 5s. lid.; Bavaria, 4s. 9d. ; Spain,
3s. lOd. ; Saxony, 3s. 8d. ; Hanover, 3s. Ad. ; Sweden and Norway, 2s. lOd. ;
Eussia, 2s. Id. ; Prussia, 2s. 5d. ; Turkey, Is. lid.; and Switzerland, Id. Most
of these national debts were created in Lord Palmerston's lifetime. Price said of
Lord North that he doubled the national debt. " What would he have said,"
observes Bishop Watson, " had he lived to see the state of the debt at the death of
Mr. Pitt ? Lord North's American war rendered it difficult for a man of £500
a year to support the station of a gentleman, and Mr. Pitt's French war made it
impossible." A learned German, M. Haussener, has just published some statistics, from
which We extract the following: — "The wars which have been waged from 1815
to 1864 have caused the death of 2,762,000 men, of whom 2,148,000 were Euro
peans, and 614,000 from other quarters of the globe; which gives an average of
43,800 per annum. These figures do not include the deaths caused by epidemics
resulting, from war. The most sanguinary hostilities of that period are these —
The Eastern war of 1856, in which 508,600 men fell, in the following proportions : —
647

palmerston and reform.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

a

256,000 Eussians, 98,800 Turks, 107,000 French, 45,000 English, and 2,600
Italians. In the Caucasus (1829-'60), 330,000 men lost their lives. The revolt in
India (1857-'59) cost 196,000 lives. The Eusso-Turkish war (1820-'29), 193,000.
The Polish insurrection (1831), 190,000. The whole ofthe French campaigns in
Africa- (1830-'59), 146,000. The Hungarian insurrection, 142,000. The Italian
war, 129,870, of whom 96,874 died on the field, or from their wounds ; and 33,000
from various diseases. The total number of lives lost in Europe, during the wars
from 1792 to 1815, amounted to 5,530,000, which gives, for the twenty-three years,
an average of 240,434 deaths per year." Was it not time, we may well ask, for the
world " to creep into a younger day ?" The merit of Lord Palmerston was that he
perceived this as much as any man, and acted accordingly. He never despaired;
he was always hopeful of the future. Lord Sidmouth died despairing of his
country ; Lord Eldon did the same. " The doctrine of no king is reviving here,"
wrote the latter, in 1832 ; " to which is added what Queen Charlotte, in George
III.'s time, escaped — no queen." " A parliament," wrote the Duke of Wellington
about the same time, " will be returned, by means of which no set of men what
ever will be able to conduct the administration of affairs, and to protect the Uves
and properties of the king's subjects. I hear the worst account of the elections;
indeed, I don't believe that gentlemen will be able to offer themselves as candi
dates." It was not in this way that Lord Palmerston reasoned or wrote. He had
seen the country prosper under reform and free trade — the people more loyal,
more industrious, more intelligent, and better off. Unexampled prosperity had
been the unvarying result of changes which the opponents of them had invariably
declared would bring utter ruin on all classes and conditions of their fellow-
countrymen. George III. wrote to his friend, Lord North — " I own myself a
sincere friend to our constitution, both ecclesiastical and civil ; and, as such, a
great enemy to any innovations ; for, in this mixed government, it is highly neces
sary to avoid novelties. We know that all wise nations have stuck scrupulously to
their ancient customs." Happily for Lord Palmerston, he could not only spell but
think better than his royal master.
At the same time Lord Palmerston was not fond of innovations ; nor was he
one of those rashly given to change. Like the late Lord Melbourne, he was quite
disposed to let well alone, in his old age especially ; and, as regards home politics,
not needlessly to give offence.
In a speech delivered to his constituents at Lewes, the Hon. Mr. Brand,
the Liberal whipper-in, and a gentleman, therefore, whose word may be im
plicitly relied on, stated, that when Lord Palmerston's government was compelled
to withdraw the Eeform Bill of 1860, he stated to the Premier his opinion that it
would be difficult to carry any measure of reform unless it were divided into two
parts ; one dealing with the franchise, and the other with the distribution of seats.
Lord Palmerston's reply was characteristic, for he said it was quite plain that the
then House of Commons was not inclined to deal with the question in any shape;
and that was why it was not mooted again till the parliament was dissolved, in
1865. As usual, Lord Palmerston was right in his conclusion. He was not a man
of deep convictions. Indeed, he. often seems to have improvised them on the spur
of the moment; but the events, of the session of 1866, when the cabinet was upset
on the question of reform, in spite of the powerful advocacy of Mr. Gladstone,
certainly testified to the wisdom of Lord Palmerston, and to his thorough ac
quaintance with the opinions of the House of Commons, and of the nation at large.
And it was this faculty which helped so much to keep his lordship before the
public. He was no rash theorist, or one-sided doctrinaire. If he feasted the great,
he never forgot the small ; if he sided with reformers, he could see something to
admire in the Conservatives. He never forgot that England was a country with
old institutions. Lord Palmerston sympathised with the new, as well as the old.
On one occasion he presided at the distribution of prizes at University College,
London. ,
648

A.D. 1862.] • VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the oxford address.

In July, 1862, there was a grand gathering of great men and others in the
venerable halls of Oxford. The occasion was the annual commemoration of the
founders and benefactors of the university. The proceedings were rendered more
than usually interesting by the announcement that, on this occasion, the honorary
degree of Doctor of CivU Law would be conferred, among other personages of distinc
tion, on Lord Palmerston. The doors of the theatre were opened at ten o'clock,
and in a very short time the building was completely packed, the gallery being
filled by undergraduates, the semicircle by ladies, and the area by Masters of Arts,
and the general pubUc. No sooner was the theatre filled than the usual cries
began ; cheers being given for those who were most in favour, varied by groans and
hisses for those whose popularity was not great among the undergraduates. The
most enthusiastic cheers were given for the Queen, the Prince of Wales, the
Princess Alice, Lord Palmerston, the Lord Chancellor, the Earl of Derby, Mr.
Gladstone, and Mr. DisraeU. The reception accorded to Earl Eussell was not very
enthusiastic ; while mingled cheers and groans were given for Mr. Bright, Dr.
Lushington, and others. Opinions in reference to foreign matters were expressed
in cheers for Garibaldi and the Confederate States of America ; cheers and groans
for the Emperor of the French and General Butler. Nor was the university itself
forgotten; the proctors not being very warmly received; while the University
Eifle Corps, and the University Eight, received due honours. In the midst of the
noise occasioned by these proceedings, the doors were thrown open, and the proces
sion appeared, headed by the Vice-Chancellor, and several of the most distinguished
visitors, among whom were the Lord Chancellor, Lord Lyndhurst, Viscount Pal
merston, Mr. Gladstone, Archdeacon Clerke, &c, followed by tbe heads of colleges,
professors, &c.
The proceedings were then gone through in the customary form, the degree of
D.C.L. being conferred on Lord Palmerston; his Excellency Comm. Francisco
Ignacio de Carvalho Moreira, Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary
from the Emperor of the BrazUs; the Eight Hon. Six Edmund Walker Head;
Lieutenant-General Sir James Outram ; Sir Eoundell Palmer, M.P.'; the Eev. J. A.
Jeremie ; Professor Wheatstone ; T. Watson, Esq., President of the Eoyal College
of Physicians ; and H. Taylor, Esq.
On the termination of the proceedings in the theatre, the greater part of the
company repaired to the Town Hall, for the purpose of witnessing the presentation
of an address to Lord Palmerston, from the corporation of Oxford. The hall was
crowded; and his lordship,- on entering the room, accompanied by the Mayor
of Oxford, the Chancellor, the Vice-Chancellor, Mr. Cardwell, M.P., and aldermen
and other members of the corporation, was loudly cheered.
When the mayor and the more distinguished visitors had taken their places on
the platform, an address was read to Lord Palmerston.
Lord Palmerston then rose, amid loud cheers, and said—" Mr. Mayor, and
gentlemen of the ' corporation, — I can assure you I feel highly gratified, and ex
tremely proud to receive this testimony of good-will from the corporation of this
ancient city — a city famous in history, famous in some of the most remarkable
periods of our history, and always distinguished by unshaken loyalty to the crown
of the realm. I appear before you, I hope, an emblem of that harmony which
ought always to prevail in cities which are the seats of education for the youth of
the realm ; for I come before you in a garb which denotes that I have had the
honour of becoming a member of the University of Oxford ; and I also meet with
a most cordial reception from the corporation of the city. .There have occasionally,
in some seats of learning, been dissensions between ' town' and ' gown.' I trust
that the union of town with gown may be perpetually to the benefit of both. You
have been pleased to express your approbation as to the manner in which the
government of the country have succeeded in steering an even course, preserving,
on the one hand, peace to the country, and, on the other, maintaining unimpaired
the rights, the honour, and the dignity of this empire. Well, gentlemen, the merit
VOL. ii. 2u 649

BRIGHT AND PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF • [a.d. 1865.
is due to that- body of able men who are placed at the head of the different
departments of the state. I have had the good fortune to be associated wifh some
of the most able and distinguished statesmen whom this country at present pro
duces ; and when you say that the nation ought to feel thankful for the course
which has been pursued, I may, in return, say that this nation ought to be grateful
to the city and University of Oxford, for having contributed to that administration
Whose actions have obtained the approbation of the country, two of its most dis
tinguished members — the one my right hon. friend, whom I have the pleasure of
seeing present on this occasion (Mr. Cardwell), who represents the town, and the
other, my friend the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who so worthily represents the
university. I can assure you that it will be the anxious study of her majesty's
government to pursue that course of policy which I am persuaded is the desire of
aU parties in this country ; for, however various political parties may differ as to
some particular questions of internal and domestic poUcy, it is the pride of this
country, that when questions touching the great interests of the nation in its
relations with foreign states — questions touching the honour and dignity of
England — come to be discussed, all party differences vanish before the importance
of the matter, and all parties unite in one common endeavour to maintain unim
paired that dignity, and to preserve uninjured those interests. Gentlemen, I beg
to assure you that I feel proud of the honour which you have conferred upon me
by the address which has been presented, and that I shall ever preserve in my
memory the pleasure which I have received, and the honour whieh has been done
me this day, both in respect of the gown which I now have the honour to wear, and
the address which you have just been so kind as to present to me." Cheers were
then given for Lord Palmerston and Mr. Cardwell, and the proceedings closed.
We have dwelt on this peculiar trait of his lordship's character, because it
actually swallowed up all the rest. At the general election of 1865, his name stood
for everything. The contest was not between Whig or Tory, between free-trader or
protectionist, between churchman or dissenter (of course, there were such issues raised,
and elections decided in accordance with them ; but such cases were few, and far
between), so much as between members who were pledged to give Lord Palmerston
a full and efficient support, and those who declined to do anything of the sort. So
much so was this the case, that on his re-election for Birmingham, in reply to a
question put by an elector, whether Mr. Bright did not think the increase of the
number of Lord Palmerston's supporters would be fatal to the progress of reform ?—
Mr. Bright said — "'For two or three years I have not made it my business,
either in parliament or out of parUament, to assail Lord Palmerston. Lord Pal
merston is an octogenarian. He has lived a great deal longer than most of us will
live ; and I confess I have no wish to enter the lists with an old man upwards of
eighty years of age. I have great sympathy with old age, as much as anybody has ;
and I should be very glad to see Lord Palmerston spend several quiet and pleasant
years in that retirement for which I think he is eminently fitted. But there is
another section of the cabinet to which we owe the various excellent measures
which have been described to you, and my sympathies go with that section. I
find, every session, that it is more powerful in the cabinet, and, I believe, in the
House. I dare say it may soon be powerful enough to become the whole cabinet.
We may then have a better government than we have had for many years. I must,
however, say, without offence, that the party whom I suppose my friend who put
the question represents (the Conservatives), are a party that apparently nobody will
have. As far as we can learn— I may quote an observation Lord Derby made, I
dare say very cleverly, I will not say offensively, in speaking of me— we have no
cause for thinking that the queen wishes to have them. It is quite obvious that
the last House of Commons, although elected at their call, would not have them;
and I suspect, when this election is over, it will be proved conclusively that the
country will not have them. I undertake to say, that if there was a fair repre
sentation of the people, if every constituency was large enough not to be either

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [election speech.
bribed, cajoled, or coerced, that great party, as it is represented to be, would shrink
up to such small dimensions, that very few benches in the House of Commons
would seat the whole of them."
At the same general election, Lord Palmerston was returned at the head of
the poU for Tiverton, though he obtained for his colleague, not Mr. Denman, the
Liberal, but a Conservative, Mr. Waldron. At the nomination, Lord Palmerston
delivered an address, in the course of which he reviewed the history and
position of his government. After some personal and local references, his lordship
said — " Gentlemen, — The course pursued by the government of which I have had the
honour of being a member for the last six years, is written in the statute-books of
the land — is written in the history of Europe — is written in the transactions of the
world. We have, I flatter myself, without the fear of contradiction, honourably
and faithfully performed the duties which our sovereign and the parliament con
fided to our hands. There cannot, I am sure, be found in the annals of the
United Kingdom a period of six years during which the nation has enjoyed more
advantages at home, more respect and honour abroad, than during the existence of
the late parliament. Industry has been relieved from many of those shackles
which previously cramped itsexertions. Wealth has been accumulated ; and, with
regard to some individuals who have been more successful than others in the
pursuits of commerce and manufactures, has been accumulated in a degree which
is almost fabulous. Indeed, to one who did not know it to be true, that degree
might appear to be a great exaggeration of the fact. We are told of individual
men who have amassed a million, even a million and a-half — nay, more, men
hardly known to the bulk of their countrymen, except as honest, industrious,
painstaking men, have acquired an amount of wealth which in former times would
not have been deemed possible. Well, the public wealth has increased with the
aggregation of individual riches ; and every man who has made these large accu
mulations of wealth has been a benefactor to his country, not only by the employ
ment which he has given to thousands under his care, but also by the contributions
which he makes to the revenue, and, consequently, to the prosperity of the nation.
In fact, the wealth of the country has increased so rapidly, that my right honour
able friend the ChanceUor of the Exchequer has been unable to stop that increase
by a great remission of taxation. He has done his best : he has taken off tax after
tax — income-tax, sugar-duties, tea-duties, fire-insurance duty ; indeed, he has gone
through all the catalogue of taxes, nibbling here, cutting down there ; but, in
spite of all his exertions, the country has been determined to produce a large
revenue, and, by that large revenue, accompanied by a great alleviation of burdens
to each individual, we have succeeded in making, for the first time, some note
worthy impression upon the public debt ; while we have also maintained all our
establishments, army, navy, militia, and volunteers, in a state of perfect efficiency.
And, gentlemen, let me say, that is no small matter ; because, depend upon it, the
money which is spent upon national defences in time of peace, provided always it
is not carried to excess, is the best security against the recurrence of war. A
country which accumulates wealth, and does not maintain a sufficient means of
defence, is like a banker who would fill his chest with gold, and leave his doors
unbolted, and his windows unbarred. We know what the result would be to the
banker ; and history and experience tell us what has been the result of a similar
policy to nations. At the same time, our means of defence, in order to be suffi
cient, need not, and never ought to be carried to the extent to which continental
nations carry the numerical force of their armies — armies which are destined
apparently more for aggression than for internal security ; but we ought to have a
proper regard to those defences which secure the people of this country from those
innumerable and indescribable evils which befall a country that is the seat of
military operations. Along with that security and that precaution, it is the duty
of a government to maintain, by every means consistent with national honour and
2u2 651

speech at tiverton.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

self-respect, the most friendly relations with all the great powers of the world.
Well, gentlemen, we have done that. We are upon good terms with all the great
powers of the world ; and the way in which we have observed neutrality in that
afflicting war which has desolated the provinces of North America, in spite of the
strong expressions of passionate partiality which broke forth from different classes
of the country — some in favour of the North, others in favour of the South — I say
that the steadfast and persevering manner in which we refused every solicitation,
and solicitations, too, which came from America as well as from. England, entitles
us, I think, to the thanks, as they contributed to the welfare, of the country.
While the South . imagined, at the outset, that by stinting us in our supply of
cotton we should be compelled to take part with them, the North imagined that
their determination to abolish slavery in the South, would enlist in their favour
the philanthropic feelings of the British nation, and that, on that account, we
should assist them. Well, that cotton famine was a great calamity to this country.
It lasted several years, and its pressure was extreme. But noble, on the other
hand, was the conduct of that part of our manufacturing population who were
thrown out of employment by the cessation of the cotton supply. They showed
that they had rightly understood the position of things. They knew full well —
they could not be ignorant of it — that that pressure, that diminution of supply,
was not owing to any act whatever of their rulers. They saw that it was the result
of events over which the government of their country could have no possible
control. That was one motive which induced them to bear the pressure with
patience. But, on the other hand, they saw the readiness with which their fellow-
countrymen stepped forward to contribute to the relief of their necessities. They
saw that our poor-law arrangements provided great means of relieving their dis
tress ; but they saw also that the nobles and gentry of the land came forward with
magnificent contributions in aid of the resources furnished by the poor-law, to
avert from them some of the evils which' the cotton famine inevitably inflicted.
Well, that was a great drawback from our national prosperity. Then, again, we
had, in the sister island, three successive bad years ; and those who know Ireland,
and are aware how much the great bulk of her agricultural population depend
upon the produce of their small bits of land, will well understand how great was
the calamity of those successive failures of the harvest. But, in spite of these
local calamities, in spite of these partial drawbacks from the advancing prosperity
of the country, I maintain that the wealth and welfare of the United Kingdom
have increased in a greater degree, and in a more rapid manner, during the last
six years to which I have referred, than in any equal period of our history. Again,
it has been thought by some that her majesty's government have been too much
occupied with political matters, and have not sufficiently attended to the extension
of our commercial intercourse with other countries. Far is the truth from such
an assertion. We have been assiduously engaged in Europe in extending, not
only by our example and our precept, but also by our treaties, those principles of
free commercial intercourse which have so well succeeded in this country, and
which we are telling foreign nations would succeed equally with them. We have
greatly enlarged, to the advantage of both nations, the commercial relations
between England and France; and, depend upon it, gentlemen, that one of the
securities for a friendly understanding between two great countries, is the fact that
each country has a commercial interest in maintaining peace and friendship with
the other. We were assisted in that by the late Mr. Cobden ; and most honour
able and successful were his exertions in carrying locally into effect the instruc
tions which he received from the government. His conduct was, indeed, in all
respects, noble ; for he declined those offers which it was my duty to make to him
of rewards from the crown, preferring that reward which a good conscience affords
to a man who has well and faithfully served his country. Gentlemen, there were,
among the French people, great prejudices to be overcome. There were separate
interests, which would, as they thought, be thwarted, and possibly ruined, by the

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [defeat of mr. Gladstone.
competition of British manufactures. They seemed to suppose, as many men do
in many continental states, that commerce is a one-sided operation, and that the
manufacturers of England are silly enough to what they call ' inundate' foreign
countries with their manufactures, without requiring, in exchange, an equal value in
the manufactures and produce of the industry of those foreign countries. They
have found out their mistake. Other nations in Germany are beginning to be
undeceived ; and I trust that the doctrine of the great advantage which freedom
of exchange in productions invariably bestows upon a nation is making its way ;
that while we ourselves shall derive great benefit from its universal adoption, we
shall also have the consolation of thinking that we are conferring benefits equal to
those we receive, and that therefore we are the friends of humanity at large. There
was one remote part of the world which men, in their ignorance — I should rather
say in their unacquamtance — had magnified into an unapproachable region, with
which it was vain to expect any friendly or commercial intercourse — I mean China
and Japan. Well, with both China and Japan we are now upon friendly terms,
and our commerce with both is rapidly and most prosperously increasing. I have
here behind me an honourable friend of mine, Sir John Bowring, who had much to
do in carrying out these great and advantageous transactions, and to whom great
merit must be attributed for having been the first almost to deal with the Japanese
question. Then, I say, seeing that the prosperous and successful exertions of
industry, whether agricultural, manufacturing, or commercial, are the foundation
of national wealth, national welfare, and national happiness, a government which,
like ours, have laboured incessantly and successfully in extending our commercial
relations with foreign nations, deserve, as I think, the confidence and support of
their fellow-countrymen. I trust, then, gentlemen, that I shall find the electors
of Tiverton in the same mind as the House of Commons lately dissolved was, and
that they will give a fair and honest support to me as representing here that suc
cessful government; and that I shall not be deceived in the expectation I have
formed that I shall again carry away from this town that honour which I have for
so many years — and I may say for so many parliaments — enjoyed of being one of
its representatives in the imperial parliament. I wish you, gentlemen, a good-
day ; and, as is said in the play, ' We will meet again at Philippi ;' by which I
mean at the hustings and the polling-booth to-morrow."
The principal incident of the general election was the triumph of the stupid
party (as Mr. Mill terms them) at Oxford, by the rejection of Mr. Gladstone, and
the election, in place of him, of Mr. Gathorne Hardy. Mr. Gladstone had long out
grown Oxford ; and the time had come for it to serve him as it did Sir Eobert Peel,
and as Cambridge did, years before, Lord Palmerston. In 1825, Mr. C. W. Wynn,
in a letter to the Duke of Buckingham, writes — " I have heard nothing lately
about Lord Palmerston ; but, from all accounts, his re-election for Cambridge is so
doubtful (to say the best of it), that I fully expect him to withdraw from it into
the upper house." Mr. Wynn was not quite right in his anticipations. Lord
Palmerston represented the University of Cambridge till the reform era ; and he
was far too sensible a man to exchange the Commons for the Lords — the substance
for the shadow of power ;. and thus it came to pass that, in 1863, his name was a.
tower of strength. The opposition were dispirited. As long as his lordship was
in office, they felt that they had no chance. No other name had such weight with
the parliament or people of England.
As soon as the election was over, it was evident, on all sides, that it had been
conducted with a greater disregard of morality, and with a more unblushing system
of bribery and corruption, than had ever been the case, at any rate, since the
Eeform Bill. It is true, at Lambeth the working-men had returned their friend
and champion, Mr. Thomas Hughes ; that at Westminster the election of John
Stuart Mill had been secured ; that Brighton had ousted a Tory of local standing,
and returned the well-known and highly accomplished Professor Fawcett : but
still people could not shut their eyes to the fact, that many of the candidates,
J 653

BRIBERY AT ELECTIONS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.'D. 1865.
without regard to party, had obtained their seats in the most unjustifiable manner.
It was clear that the wealth of the nation was great, and that the number was very
considerable of new men who were prepared to pay any price to get into parliament
not with a view to political life or official distinction, but merely on account of
social considerations. To many of them a seat in parliament meant admission
into the most select and agreeable club in the metropolis ; and for their wives, and
sons and daughters, admission into circles to which in no other manner could they
find their way. Lord and Lady Palmerston were celebrated for the skill with
which they practised the subtle arts of high life ; and many were the indignant
utterances of stern patriots in the Commons, as they saw their fellow-members
thus seduced from their allegiance to the cause of the people, and learning, in the
agreeable soiries of Cambridge House (Lord Palmerston's town residence) to speak
a very different language to that which they had used when, far away in some
northern democratic borough, they had pledged themselves to demand and support
a full and efficient measure of parliamentary reform. Also, in commercial circles,
much was gained by being an M.P. As a director or chairman of a limited
liability company, it was considered of the first importance to secure the services
of a member of parliament. It conferred respectability at once upon an under
taking, and ensured for it, for a time, the requisite amount of public favour.
There is no reason to suppose that the men who thus purchased their seats were,
in vulgar language, for sale themselves. They were not venal, as were the M.P.'s
of Sir Eobert Walpole, or of George III. They were too rich to be moved by
common pecuniary considerations. They bribed, as we have intimated, more for
the gratification of personal Vanity, than from real culpable motives. In thus
acting, they, perhaps, unconsciously supplied thoughtful men with a good argument
for an extension of the franchise. It was clear that, in the House of Commons,
bribery was regarded as a very venal offence. It was clear, also, that in many of
the boroughs the voters were thoroughly corrupt. Bridgenorth, Bridgewater,
Devonport, Helston, Lancaster, Northallerton, Nottingham, Eeigate, Totnes,
Windsor, Great Yarmouth, were subsequently shown to have been thoroughly
rotten and demoralised.
So gross was the bribery in some of these cases, that a lengthened inves
tigation took place, which was not concluded till the year 1867. As illustrating
the system, which had grown up since the Eeform Bill, we make a few extracts
from the Blue Books, published by the parliamentary commissioners.
We begin with Lancaster. The Blue Book, the result of this commission,
was laid before parliament in February, 1867.- The commissioners report that
they sat for some thirty days in August and September, and five days afterwards
in January; and the report then winds up with the following summary :— "On the
29th of June an active canvass was begun on the part of Messrs. Fenwick and
Schneider on one side, who acted throughout in close coalition, and Mr. Lawrence
on the other, and pursued on both sides with due decorum, as if they really
believed the result of the election would be affected by it." The managers on
each side ; knew better, and consequently substantial means were soon forthcoming
!?« g*«?e-v ,»5 and itwaS fougllt in a manner to entitle both sides to the .
title of .Liberal, in the only sense that a Lancastrian would honour. The com
missioner notice, that the two election agents, although their accounts of the
candidates disbursements "were prepared without any' relation to the real truth of
tne case, admit a scandalous abuse of the expenses allowed to be legal. Thus the
Liberals pay £309, and the Conservatives £171, for the employment of voters and
others as commissioners, canvassers, runners, and staffmen ; while for this little
town, the two sides spent an aggregate sum of £855 4s. 4d. on carriages and the
conveyance of voters, though the whole number of country voters cannot exceed
ddU. But this semi-legal corruption was as nothing to what went on more
secretly. Mr. Schneider, who, as the new man, was to bear the greater part of the
expenses retained the services of Mr. H. Welch, a grocer in the town, and
654 ° '

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Lancaster.
intrusted to him the sums he proposed to use for the purpose of the election.
Mr. Welch -makes a statement from memory of the moneys he received. They
amount, altogether, to £6,055 10s. No part of this was applied £o the discharge
of the so-called legal expenses, which amounted to £1,404 4s. 2d. So " that the
total cost of this election to Messrs. Fenwick and Schneider, appears to have been
£7,459 14s. 2d." On the Conservative side, the cashier was Wilson Barker, a
draper, and he furnishes a clear account of his receipts and disbursements. The
amount, altogether, was £7,061 2s. The legal expenses of the Conservative
candidate were also £1,129 3s. So that, in the most regular and methodical
manner, with a supreme commander-in-chief on each side, the two parties spent, in
the corruption of this little borough, upwards of £15,000. The consequences may
be imagined. " We have spoken," say the commissioners, " of a make-believe
canvass, carried on by the candidates and their supporters. The real canvass was
a very different matter. About three weeks before the election, the emissaries of
either party began to go among the lower class of electors, assemble them at
pubUc-houses, treat them, and discuss the merits of the respective candidates.
Among voters of this class, the whole affair was regarded as a contest kbetween
Liverpool and Barrow. If Lawrence was wealthy so was Schneider. There
would be a great advance in the price of votes. They would decide for whom to
vote when the time drew nearer ; and when the time drew nearer, there was no
shame, nor even the flimsy disguise of cant words. They ran from one party
to the other, proclaiming the last offer, demanding an increase, avowing that
they were for the highest bidder. One witness tells us that the terms used
were those of a cattle-market, only that 'the beasts sold themselves.' The
voters 'struck work;' they spent the nights in public-houses, and the days in
wandering about, begging from the known assistants on either side, a few shil-
Ungs to enable them to continue their debauch. One witness describes how he
kept a small sum by him in a drawer, for the low voters who came to him, from
time to time, for a shilling or two to ' fuddle' with when they were dry of a
morning." The Liberal party had over forty public and beer-houses in Lancaster,
and four in the adjoining village of Skerton. Out of 1,339 persons who actually
voted at the last election, 884 received money or other valuable consideration for
their votes; while a further number of 139, of whom eighty-nine were voters and
fifty non-voters, were engaged in corrupting their fellow-citizens. The com
missioners do not hesitate to fix the guilt of this enormous corruption, as far as
the Liberal party is concerned, on the two unsuccessful candidates themselves,
Messrs. Fenwick and Schneider. They add, that " with regard to the latter, at
least, a deliberate and long-formed determination had existed of carrying his
election at any cost, by corrupt means, and in defiance of the law." Of both of
them the commissioners say — " The very gold destined to be used in bribing in
several instances passed through these gentlemen's hands : * * * * thus con
clusively estabUshing their personal knowledge of, and privity to, the manner in
which their election was conducted." Mr. Lawrence they do not acquit of blame ;
but they do not find that he was cognizant of the acts of bribery committed in
his name. On Mr. H. T. WUson rests the guilt -of the corruption on the Con
servative side. " It now only remains for us to report to your majesty what we
find in reference to the matter into which we were directed to inquire. That
corrupt practices very extensively prevailed at the election of July, 1865. We
find that 844 persons were guilty of bribery at the said election, by receiving money
or other valuable consideration for having given, or to induce them to give, their
votes. We find that a further number of 139 persons were guilty of corrupt
practices at the said election, by corruptly giving or promising money or other
valuable consideration to voters, for the purchase of their votes, or on account of
their having voted, or by corruptly advancing money for the purpose of bribery, or
by treating; and we further find, that of the said 139 persons, eighty-nine were
electors, and fifty (named in Schedule B of this report) were not voters for the
655

totnes.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
borough. Finally, we report to your majesty that, with rare exceptions, corrupt
practices have for a long time prevailed at contested elections for members to serve
in parliament for the borough of Lancaster."
The report of the Great Yarmouth Bribery Commission was issued about the
same time. It gives a minute and interesting narrative of the bribing at the
election in 1865, on both sides, with which the public was made familiar during
the progress of the inquiry ; and, in addition to this, a similar account of the
bribery practised at the two elections immediately preceding, in 1859 and 1857.
The committee find, in respect of the first election — That corrupt and illegal
practices extensively prevailed thereat. That the said election was conducted on
behalf of Sir Edmund H. K. Lacon, and Mr. James Goodson, in a corrupt and
illegal manner.
Secondly.— That the said election was conducted by, and on behalf of
Mr. Alexander Brogden, and on behalf of Mr. Philip Vanderbyl, in a corrupt and
Ulegal manner.
Thirdly. — That ninety-eight persons, whose names are set forth in Schedule A
annexed to this report, committed corrupt practices, and were guilty of acts of
bribery in respect of the votes of other persons. That 430 persons, whose names
are set forth in Schedule B, annexed to this report, committed corrupt practices,
and were guilty of acts of bribery, in respect of their own votes. That twenty-
nine of the persons named in the last-mentioned schedule, and whose names are set
forth in Schedule C, annexed to this report, were guilty of acts of bribery on
both sides.
The report of the royal commissioners, appointed in 1864, to inquire into the
corrupt practices alleged to have taken place at parliamentary elections for the
borough of Totnes, has also been presented. The commissioners (Mr. M. Bere
Mr. C. E. Coleridge, and Mr. F. D. Longe) state, that at the outset of their
inquiry they were met by considerable difficulties, consequent on the change made
in the law by the Act 26th and 27th Vict., cap. 29, whereby their power to refuse
certificates of indemnity is restricted to cases in which witnesses refuse to answer
questions; the law having formerly enabled them to refuse certificates to those
who did not answer questions to the satisfaction of the commissioners. Many of
the witnesses to whom the commissioners would have refused certificates under the
earlier act, were entitled to claim them under the present act. The commissioners
had to deal with every variety of falsehood and prevarication: wilful perjury was
confessedly committed in several instances ; contradictory statements on oath were
continually made ; and few witnesses showed any disposition to tell the whole
truth without the pressure of cross-examination. The consequence of such
reticence had been that the inquiry was much prolonged; yet, after all, the
commissioners could not pretend to have discovered all the facts connected with
the elections that had taken place in the borough. The inhabitants of Totnes
were chiefly small shopkeepers, and persons connected with agricultural pursuits.
The commissioners gave a detailed account ofthe progress of electioneering affairs
m the borough for a long series of years, and illustrate their statement by
recounting various acts of bribery. The lamentable condition of the inhabitants,
on the retirement of Mr. Dent, in 1862, may be judged by the following extract
from the report:— "The disappointment occasioned by his withdrawal was
intense; the picture of that disappointment, as drawn by the witnesses, graphic ;
women coming down with baskets to carry away the sovereigns that were to be
distributed and loudly lamenting their misfortune when it was announced that
there was to be no contest." The sums expended by the various candidates are
also set out in full, so far as they could be ascertained by the commissioners;
though, in many instances, even approximate amounts could not be arrived at. In
conclusion, the commissioners found, that at every election for the borough of
lotnes smce and including the election of, 1857, corrupt practices had extensively
prevailed; that, m 1857, Thomas Mills was privy and consenting to the corrupt
boo

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [bribery.
practices which prevailed at that election ; that the persons named in Schedule A,
annexed to the commissioners' report, had committed corrupt practices, and were
guilty of bribing other persons at that election ; that the persons named in Schedule
B were guilty of bribery in respect of their own votes at that election ; that, in
respect of the election of 1859, John Dunne and Thomas Mills were privy and
assenting to the corrupt practices which then prevailed, and that the persons named
in Schedules C and D were guilty of corrupt practices and bribery, the former in
respect of the votes of other persons, and the latter in respect of their own votes at
that election ; that, in respect of the election of 1862, John Pender and John
Dent were privy and assenting to the corrupt practices then' prevailing, and that
the persons mentioned in Schedules E and F were guilty of corrupt practices and
bribery, the former in respect of the votes of other persons, and the latter in
respect of their own votes at that -election; that, in respect of the election of 1863,
Alfred Seymour, M.P., and John Dent, were privy and assenting to the corrupt
practices then prevaiUng ; and that the persons mentioned in Schedules G and H
were guilty of corrupt practices and bribery, the former in respect of the votes of
other persons, and the latter in respect of their own votes at that election ; and
that, in respect of the election of 1865, John Pender, Alfred Seymour, M.P.,
William Gregory Dawkins, and Bedford Pirn, were privy and assenting to the
corrupt practices prevaiUng at that election ; and that the persons named in
Schedules I and K were guilty of corrupt practices and bribery, the former in
respect of the votes of other persons, and the latter in respect of their own votes
at that election. The commissioners subjoin a full statement of the evidence
taken by them, and beg leave to lay the same before her majesty, for her most
gracious consideration.
The report of the Eeigate election commissioners introduces us to a new phase
in the history of borough corruption, with which we have been favoured of late.
In the cases of Lancaster and Yarmouth, we have seen a venal constituency
making capital out of the rivaky of political parties; and Conservative and Liberal
candidates stooping to bribery as a means of securing a triumph for their respective
principles. The case of Eeigate is of a totally different complexion. Eeigate is,
in one sense, a pure virgin borough. It returns only one member ; but that member
must be a Eadieal. On the other.hand, while the constituents insist that their member
shall accurately represent what may be fancifully called their political principles,
they require that he shall supplement them by a large and generous douceur — in
other words, bribe them handsomely. There is no taint of Conservatism or Whig-
gism about the electors of Eeigate. They are Eadicals, and will not look at any
but a Eadieal candidate ; but, while they are consistent in this, they are equally
consistent in declining to indulge their political convictions at the expense of their
pockets. The man for Eeigate is he who will give effect to their principles, and
pay them liberally for being allowed the honour of doing so.
The inquiry by the commissioners extends over the five elections which
have taken place between 1858 and 1865; and they summarise the results
of their labours in the emphatic declaration, that bribery prevailed more or
less extensively on each occasion. This stigma is all the more odious from the
fact that Eeigate is peculiarly free from all the conditions which could tend
to encourage corruption. It might, if it liked, be the purest borough in- the whole
kingdom. It is not hampered with party rivalries, nor is it subject to intimida
tion or local influence. In fact, according to a witness of long electioneering-
experience, whose dictum is endorsed by the commissioners -as being thoroughly
borne out by the evidence adduced before them, Eeigate has not a particle of
excuse for not being one of the freest and most independent constituencies to be
found from Land's End to John o'Groat's ; for " bribery is all we fear," he said :
" intimidation is gone from Eeigate, and so is landlords' influence." There is no
reason, therefore, that Eeigate should stand out before the world as a conspicuously
venal and debauched constituency, except that it deliberately chooses to be so.
657

reigate election.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
Not that it loves its principles less, but that it loves bribery more. And Eadieal
candidates appear to value it at its own estimate. They go down in twos, and
threes, and fives, to fight for this one seat — each determined to buy it if he can.
Mr. Job Apted, who occupies a disagreeably prominent part in the report, declares
that when Mr. Doulton, of Lambeth, was introduced to the constituency as a
candidate, that gentleman told them that " he meant to buy the borough whether
or no :" adding, that " he had money, and meant to use it." " I asked persons for
their votes," was the interesting confession of one of the canvassers ; " but you
might as well have asked them for their lives, unless, you had money to give them."
As Mr. Doulton failed to obtain the seat, it is fair to presume that Sir Henry
Eawlinson, the successful candidate, was not only equally resolved to win it, but
had more money, and spent it more freely. Eeigate, it seems, has always been
steadfast in selling itself to the highest bidder ; and it is fair to assume that it did
not depart from its noble traditions on the occasion in question.
Passing from the general conclusion that bribery and treating " extensively"
prevailed in each of the five elections under review, we come to one or two
interesting incidents revealed in the course of the inquiry. It appears that
Mr. Leveson Gower advanced £2,500 to his agent in the election for 1863, and
that part of that sum was expended in bribery with his full knowledge. Mr. W.
A. Wilkinson's contribution amounted to no less than £3,100, and he gave his
sanction to its application in the same way. In the election for 1865, Mr. Gower
advanced £2,000, and Mr. Monson £1,730, under exactly the same circumstances.
Of the 760 electors who voted on this last occasion, it appears that 346 were bribed,
and that 296 of that number were occupiers of houses under £20 annual rental ;
while 242 were persons receiving daily or weekly wages. A curious illustration
was given of the mode in which the voters resisted any attempt to deprive them
of what they, doubtless, regarded as their electoral rights in the matter of
obtaining bribes. In the election of February, 1858, there were five candidates ;
and three of them, in a dastardly economical spirit, proposed to determine, by
ballot, which of them should be selected to stand against the other two. It is
obvious, that where there are five candidates, there must be more bribery than
where there are only three ; more agents, canvassers, committee-men, and mes
sengers ; and the men of Eeigate arose in their might, as one man, to resist
the contemplated curtailment of their perquisites. And they did it in this wise.
As soon as the ballot-papers were issued, " men were sent about to buy them up,"
and the purpose of the ballot was thereby vitiated. The common device of
issuing cooked accounts was resorted to by several of the candidates. In the
election of 1865, Mr. Gower's were returned at £1,350; but the actual expenses
were proved to be £600 in excess of that sum ; and Mr. Monson stands under the
suspicion of having paid more than £1,700 in excess of the sum returned by
his agent. That sum, at least, was paid by him to his "illegal agent," or
"unofficial treasurer," to employ the euphemisms current in Great Yarmouth;
and this latter gentleman was careful not to take any trustworthy note of the
manner in which he disposed of the money, and to supplement his neglect by
a lamentable inability to recollect anything very minutely upon the subject. The
one statement of accounts which he handed in to the commissioners is amenable
to the drawback, that several of the persons noted in it as having been# paid
considerable sums by him, are also said to have been paid by Mr. Monson's
legal and recognised agent. The inference is, either that these persons were
paid twice over, or that the " unofficial treasurer" has charged the £1,700 with
expenses which he did not pay out of it. Possibly either of • these conclusions
will be equally agreeable to Mr. Monson. One of the charges is of a peculiar
character — a sum of £110 for "specials." Interpreted by the evidence before
them, the commissioners are in a position to inform us that these " specials"- were
" neither voters, nor in any way connected with the borough, but men usually
known under the designation of ' roughs,' collected from the neighbouring towns,
658

A.D. 1865. ] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [conservative feeling.
and hired to sweU the mob, increase the show of hands at the nomination, and
attend the«proceedings of the polling-day." It seems a large sum of money to
spend in this way.
In the election of 1859, we have one crucial example of the extent to which
bribery was carried. " An elector consented to vote without being paid, provided
his doing so was kept a secret ; as he should be ashamed of having done so if it
were known." One of the agents was told, that if he went into the coffee-room
of the "Swan" he would find some " ginger-bread" on the mantelpiece; he went, and
found a hundred sovereigns. The amount of the bribes appears to have averaged
from two to ten pounds, and was usually paid for " services" as messengers,
committee-men, and so forth. These services were generally confined to " loafing"
and drinking at pubUc-houses. Mechanics and labourers were paid at the .rate
of a pound a day, for " loss of time" in attending the nomination and the poll.
One man was the proud possessor of a rusty old cannon, lying in a ditch in
Eeigate Park. Mr. Gower appears to have conceived an enormous affection for
this venerable piece of ordnance, for he cheerfully gave six pounds for it; and,
no doubt, retains it to this day as one of the most interesting objets de luxe.
FinaUy, say the commissioners — " Hotels, public-houses, and beer-shops were
opened, and kept open for weeks previous to the different contests between
February, 1858, and July, 1865, and a system of treating voters and their friends
was carried on with the keenest rivalry on the part of the respective candidates.
It was there that the main battle of the election was fought."
For the above able sketch of the doings at Eeigate, we are indebted chiefly to
the Conservative Standard, which is only too happy to have an opportunity of
holding up to censure a Eadieal borough. But all parties were alike ready to
resort to bribery to gain the day. Political feeling had very little to do with the
matter. The poor man had to sell that which the rich man was eager to buy.
Unfortunately, the election was often decided by the venal few, and thus a great
scandal was done.
Undoubtedly, at this time, Uttle feeling existed in political matters. There
had come to the nation peace after a storm, leisure to grow rich and wise, and a
consequent desire for epicurean indulgence and ease. In 1861, the editor ofthe
Duke of Buckingham's Memoirs, writes — " The position of the country, and of
Europe, makes all earnest poUticians desire to see the higher offices of the state
fiUed by public men who, in a marked degree, enjoy the public confidence. Of
mere popular idols we have already had too many ; none of them has shown the
abiUty, even if he possessed the inclination, to direct the policy of a great country
in a great emergency. We have not forgotten the collapse, in our Crimean
difficulties, of certain prodigious bubbles that had been expanded by the breath of
a too-confiding people. What England now demands of her administrative officers,
is the highest possible standard of intelligence combined with an equal elevation
of principle." The Whigs we have had an opportunity of again seeing in office, going on, from
day to day, very much in the same style of political existence which distinguished
their former attempts at government. Indeed, the old performances have been
repeated with scarcely any variation, even to the rash experiment of one branch
of the legislature being rendered innocuous by the wise interposition of the other.
" The gifts of one man supply that mechanical quality known as attraction of
cohesion, that keeps such dissimilar elements together. No fair critic of public
men can deny that Lord Palmerston is a statesman of extraordinary resources.
Indeed, his experience, his tact, his judgment, his inexhaustible good-humour, and
rare poUtical sagacity, have maintained his party in power when blunders of every
kind have severely tried the patience of the nation. The Premier is one of the
few Whigs who have profited by their Conservative education. He was a pupil of
Pitt, and a contemporary of Grenville and Castlereagh, Wellington and Canning.
More than half a century has elapsed since he learnt his official qualifications in a

election expenses.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

school that produced the most eminent statesmen of the age ; and though circum
stances have made him diverge from the path in which his career commenced, his
early lessons have enabled him to maintain an elevated position in popular esti
mation, when the reputation of his colleagues has fallen to the ground." This was
the language of a Conservative in 1861. It expressed the feeling of his lordship's •
party in 1865 ; and accounts, in some degree, for the feebleness ofthe efforts made
to oppose him, and for the success of the ministerial candidates in all parts of the
country. He whom they at one time had designated as the firebrand of Europe,
they had now come to trust in as their old saviour from democracy and John
Bright. The election commissioners have drawn considerable attention to the expenses
at elections, independently of any bribery. According to them, the official
return of the total costs incurred by the three candidates collectively at Lancaster,
is set down at £2,529 7s. 2d., including £167 2s. 10c?., the charge made by the
returning officer; at Eeigate, with three candidates, to £2,636 18s. 5d., including
£143 lis. 3d.; at Totnes, with four candidates, to £786 7s. lid., including
£64 4s. 6d ; and at Great Yarmouth, with five candidates, to £1,638 18s. Id.,
including £114 1 Is. 2d. At the general election of 1865, there were 938 candidates.
The largest sum spent at any one place appears to have been in the North Eiding
of Yorkshire, where the total cost incurred by the three candidates amounted to no
less than £27,974 2s. 5fd, including £680 18s. ld Of the larger sum, £470 3s. U.
was objected to, but whether successfully is not clear. As a contrast to this
enormous outlay, Down County and Downpatrick figure for the small sum of
£2 10s. each; the first with two candidates, and the latter with one; while the
cost at Armagh (county), with two candidates, is placed at nil. The amount of
costs incurred by candidates in the counties of England and Wales (excepting
Berkshire, Middlesex, and Brecknock, for which there are no accounts), was
£315,666 lis. 8|d; in the cities and boroughs in England and Wales (excepting
the Isle of Wight, Cambridge University, Dorchester, Huntingdon, Monmouth,
Nottingham, Oxford University, Warwick, Wells, Worcester, Cardiff, Flint, Eadnor,
and Swansea), £315,994 13s. Old; in the counties of Scotland, £32,244 lis. lid.;
in the cities and boroughs of Scotland (excepting Caithness and Wick),
£19,431 13s. 5d ; in the counties in Ireland (excepting Leitrim, Tipperary, Tyrone,
Limerick, and Waterford), £44,801 6s. 7|d ; and in the cities and boroughs in
Ireland (excepting Cashel, Clonmel, Cork, Dublin University, Dundalk, Kilkenny,
and city of Limerick), £24,610 4s. 2±d ; making a total of £752,749 0s. ll\d.
This, however, does not include all the expenses, because the charges made by the
returning officers in the counties in England and Wales amount to £15,655 8s. 3d.;
in the cities and boroughs in England and Wales, to £26,275 lis. lO^d; inthe
counties in Scotland, to £939 6s. l|d ; in the cities and boroughs in Scotland, to
£1,206 12s. 4d ; in the counties in Ireland, to £2,239 5s. SM. ; and in the cities
and boroughs in Ireland, to £1,004 4s. 1\d. ; making a total of returning officers'
charges, of £47,320 8s. lid, and bringing all the costs up to £800,069 9s. 10\d.
But when it is considered that no accounts at all have been furnished from thirty-
one places, that unsuccessful candidates have not stated their expenses, except
payment of returning officers' charges in twenty-six places, and that even the
charges of those officers are not given in ten places, it is clear that the above total
cannot give a correct idea of the whole costs by a very large sum. The expenses
incurred by Mr. Brett, M.P., at the Helston election, were, according to a return
which has just been published, £540.
Lord Palmerston often spoke with great force on the subject of cottage
improvements, at the Eomsey and other agricultural meetings. His own words
on this subject, so much discussed by county landlords, and employers of labour,
are as follow :—" It is not necessary to pull down old cottages to build new ones."
Me added— The effect of improving these dwellings is almost marvellous. Iu tho
fcrst place the comfort of a man's home depends on the tidiness of his wife, and oft
660

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [growth of dissent.
the mode in which she tries to make him comfortable. But there is a temper of
the human mind which is denominated as recklessness. When a thing seems
impossible, it is given up in despair. When a cottage is in such a ramshackle
state that it is impossible for the wife to keep it clean, she becomes slattern;
everything goes to ruin ; the man is disgusted, and flies to the beer-shop." So
much importance did he attach to the cottage accommodation, that he visited
every cottage on his farm, and gave personal instructions for carrying out the
enlargements. Bed-room accommodation, good drainage, and good ventilation,
were his primary objects ; but such simple things as the convenient placing of
pegs for the clothes, and the shelves for the housewife, did not escape his attention.
By his kindly and genial consideration of their wants and comforts, he won his way
to the hearts of his peasantry, and will long live in their affections. It was in the
last summer of his life that, at the annual meeting of the Eomsey Labourers'
Encouragement Society, he delivered a public address, admirably suited to the
occasion, and fuU of that sound common sense in which his lordship loved to
indulge. Having distributed the prizes to those labourers who had earned them, his
lordship addressed the assembled townspeople on the importance of good conduct,
and steady and virtuous habits, to themselves, their families, and to the country at
large. He then enlarged on the value, to the rising generation, of education, not
of a scientific character, but such as would come into their daily use and applica
tion ; dwelling especially on reading, writing legibly, and mental arithmetic. The
members of the association afterwards dined together, under the presidency of Mr.
Dutton, M.P. ; but the noble lord was not present. To dine with his neighbours,
and friends, and tenantry, had always been his lordship's delight ; and his com
pelled abstinence must have been painfully suggestive to himself and others. The
spectacle was also always pleasing to the nation. Though Premier, his lordship
did not forget the ties of citizenship or duty ; or the social civilities which bridge
over-^what would otherwise be most mischievous in its effects — the separation of
classes, which so unhappily characterises our land.
As a still further illustration of this great and fine quality in his lordship, we
may mention that, on one occasion in the course of the year of which we write, he
formed one of Mr. Spurgeon's congregation at the Metropolitan Tabernacle ; and,
after the service, had an interview with Mr. Spurgeon, to whom he presented a
handsome donation on behalf of his college. In this act of liberality he was
consistent to the last ; as, in his earlier days, he often invited to his table the
Eev. John Eeynolds, the Independent minister at Eomsey. As to the arrogant
and absurd pretensions of the high church party, his lordship never believed in
them. His sound Scotch training under Stewart preserved him from such errors.
Indeed, in the matter of religion there had been most wonderful changes in
his lordship's time. The dissenters had become a power ; and the fetters which
had been imposed on them in ignorance, had been removed by such legislation
as he had approved of. The new marriage law, which emanated from the
" ministry of which his lordship was one, came into operation in 1837 ; and the
returns of marriages in England show.that, in the year 1844, there were still 91 in
100 marriages solemnised in churches ; in; the year 1854, they had declined to
84: the returns issued- for 1864, by the registrar-general, give them at 78. In
this last year, nine marriages in 100 were celebrated in Nonconformist chapels,
and five in 100 in Eoman Catholic churches ; and there stood registered for mar
riages, in England and Wales, 5,163 churches and chapels not belonging to the
church of England. Among them were 1,102 Wesleyan chapels, 1,600 Independent
or Congregationalist, 1,091 Baptist, and 602 Eoman Catholic. There were, in Eng
land and Wales, in the year 1864, 8,659 marriages in Eoman Catholic churches, and
19,627 in Nonconformist chapels. Along with the authorisation of marriages in
registered chapels, the legislature sanctioned also marriages before the registrar
without any religious rites at all. The number of these was small at first : in 1841,
•nly 2,064— not two marriages in 100. But in 1854, the proportion approached 661

statistics of crime.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

five in 100 ; and in 1864, it was more than eight in 100 — one marriage in every
dozen ; 14,611 in all — nearly as many as in Nonconformist chapels. The returns are
not made for towns, but for districts. In Cambridge, these marriages without religious
rites were as many as one in seven of the whole number of marriages in 1864; in Ox
ford, one in six ; in Bath, Bristol, Southampton, and Northampton, one in five ; in
Canterbury and Norwich, one in four ; in Plymouth, Stoke Damerel, and Liskeard,
one in three ; in Exeter, 40 per cent. In Lancashire and Yorkshire these marriages
are not very frequent. In Durham and Cumberland they are so numerous, that, in
the entire counties, they amount to one in every four ; in Auckland, they are 40 per
cent, of all the marriages ; in Carlisle, 60 per cent. In Cardiff, they are 40 percent. ;
in Merthyr, very little less ; in South Wales, as a whole, one in four of the marriages.
In Carlisle, the marriages in the register-office are more than double the number of
marriages at church, and more than six times as many as the marriages in Non
conformist and Eoman Catholic chapels. This is owing to local custom. A class
of persons, who formerly married on the Scottish side of the border, attracted by
the easy fashion there, have married in Carlisle since the passing of Lord Brougham's
Act of 1856, invalidating these irregular marriages in Scotland, except after three
weeks' residence of one of the parties ; but the custom of marrying across the
border, without a religious ceremony in church or chapel, makes people prefer
that mode of marriage which excites least attention. Lord Brougham's Act has
extinguished the Gretna Green marriages, or rather those of Mr. Murray, who kept
the turnpike-gate at the border ; for he had almost superseded Gretna, by explaining
to English visitors that the further journey of two miles was superfluous, as the
wedding in his presence on the Scottish side of the border would be equally valid.
He had performed as many as forty-two marriages in one day. In theyear 1856,
he celebrated 757 marriages. At the close of that year, Mr. Murray's occupation
was gone. The Divorce Act had been passed in spite of the clergy. In many other
ways they had also been deprived ofthe undue influence they possessed. It does not
appear that Lord Palmerston much exercised himself with theology ; but he had
sense enough to see that, side by side with the church establishment, had grown
up a wealthy, a cultivated, an energetic dissent, and that no man could rule in
England who endeavoured to ignore that fact.
England, in 1865, had become much changed; and, let us hope, for the better.
Its coal and iron had turned it from an agricultural country into a commercial
one ; had peopled it with intelligence and life. Its railways, and telegraphs, and
canals had made every part of it as busy as any other spot under the sun. It had
become a land of gigantic manufactories, where the millions toiled to supply the
world with the requisites of civilised existence. Out of this industry had grown
wealth, and science, and education ; and almost a desire for an expensive system
of^ government, whether as regarded the extension of cultivation, the duties of
official life, or self-defence. But all the while there was a dark side, over which
the patriot and the philanthropist mourned, and with which the statesman was
bound to contend. There had been crime and pauperism in Lord Palmerston's
youngest days; there was crime and pauperism in his old age. The judicial
statistics for the last years of his lordship's life have been published. It
appears from them, that the total number of murders was 135, being one in
excess of the previous year : seventy-six were reported from the counties, fifty-one
from boroughs, and eight by the metropolitan police. In Lancashire twenty-eight
cases occurred, of which thirteen came from Liverpool. In Yorkshire there were
fifteen cases; in Durham, ten cases; in Somerset, seven; in Southampton,
seven ; in Devon, six ; in Kent, six ; in Gloucester, Stafford, and Worcester,
five each. Some of the remaining counties had smaller numbers; while in
thirteen English and Welsh counties no case of murder occurred. There were
fifty-four attempts to murder, as compared with forty for the preceding year;
and 279 cases of manslaughter, as compared with 214 for the previous1 year. The
cases of stabbing, shooting at, &c, numbered 762, showing a decrease of four fronP
662 5

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [elective franchise.

the previous year. There were 232 cases of concealment of birth in 1864-65,
being less bf three than in the preceding year. Of these, 119 were in the counties,
twenty-five in boroughs, eighty-eight in the metropolitan police district, and none
in the city of London. The burglaries reported were 2,615, being an Increase^of
twenty-four on the previous return ; highway robberies, &c, 716 ; afton, 470 ; and
attempted suicide, 787. The number of proved offences against the person was
2,586; offences against property, with violence, 5,160; malicious offences against
property, 669 ; other offences, 43,298. The total number of persons convicted in the
year was 312,822 ; of whom 262,214 were males, and 50,668 females. The cases of
stealing, and attempting to steal, numbered 44,908 ; the assault cases, 98,776.
There were 10,392 offences agairJst the game-laws. The total number of persons
proceeded against, exceeded, by 12,000, the numbers of the previous year. The
total number of appeals to quarter sessions from the decisions of justices acting out
of sessions, in 1865, was ninety-one ; of which fifty-seven were affirmed, and thirty-
four quashed. The coroners' inquests for the same time amounted to 25,011, showing
an increase of 224 over the previous year ; 17,566 were males, and 7,445 females.
The total cost of the inquests was £74,915 4s. 3d; giving an average, for each
inquest, of £2 19s. lOd The number of commitments in criminal proceedings for
the year was 19,614, being very slightly in excess of the previous year. The
capital convictions for five years were as follows: — 1861, twenty-six; 1862,
twentys-eight ; 1863, twenty-nine; 1864, thirty-two; 1865, twenty. Of the
twenty persons sentenced to death in 1865, eight were left for execution ; one com
mitted suicide in prison ; in eight the sentences were commuted to penal servitude
for Ufe ; in one commuted to a year's imprisonment ; in one the convict was sent to
Broadmoor, as insane ; in one (an Italian), a pardon was granted, on the condition
of his leaving the country ; and in one a free pardon was granted, the verdict not
being considered satisfactory. The number of executions in 1865 was seven, com
pared with nineteen in 1864, and twenty-two in 1863. The number sentenced to death
in 1865, is the lowest on record ; and contrasts strongly with the number forty years
before — the numbers in 1825 being 1,036. The cost of proceedings on indictment,
paid by the Treasury last year, was £134,901 17s. lOd ; or an average of
£7 18s. lOd for each case proceeded against. The total cost of the prisons was
£558,757 14s. 3d, compared with £433,045 for the previous year. The total
.amount paid for reformatories was £48,505 15s. Id; and for industrial schools,
£15,493 15s. 4d The total charge of the lunatic asylum was £49,311 lis. lOd
Another dark epoch in the horizon resulted from the state of the elective
franchise. There was wide and deep-seated discontent among the working-men of
Great Britain. They felt that, so long as they were excluded from the possession
of political power, they were treated as serfs, and were in danger of having their
interests overlooked. In France, in Prussia, in the colonies, in America, their
brethren had votes; and the denial to them, in this country, of the rights of
citizenship was a grievance to be got rid of — an injustice to be no longer borne with
patience — an insult to be resisted. It is true, Chartism, and all ideas of gaining
their rights by brute force, had long been abandoned f but, as much as ever, they
were determined to win them in a constitutional way. * In 1865, they had their
clubs and newspapers, and teachers and orators. They had also become united,
and had learnt that union is strength. Firm in their purpose, rich in the
possession of accumulated funds — with intelligence certainly equal to the generality
of the ten-pound householders, or tenant farmers — they had become a formidable
body, feared by the two great parties in the state alike. In 1832, the middle
classes had petted them; reform ministers had viewed their activity with glee;
but now they were left to fight the battle of their rights alone. In politics,
especially, delays are dangerous. One Eeform Bill after another was introduced into
the House of Commons ;. and then, on some frivolous pretext or other, withdrawn.
Moderate measures would have been of avail : the time at length has come when it
w clear they will be useless, and in vain. -
J " 663

MR. J. Wilson.] LIFE AND TIMES- OF [A.D. I860.*

•"*»

* w. CHAPTEE XXXII.
INDIA OTTOER SIR CHARLES WOOD. • '
* '-. ''..';'
In the course of publication, fresh light is continually poured - in-, upon, historical
questions. Since much of this" work has been printed, many important volumes
have appeared, of which we proceed to avail ourselves. We add a few particulars
here. ". ' • "
" One statesman to whom we have not done justice is the .late. Mr,:. James
WUson, in whom a large and comprehensive knowledge of finance, and taxation"— «
writes Mr. Algernon West, author of a seasonable, volume, entitled. $w*' GhWles
Wood's Administration of Indian Affairs, from 1859 to 1866— r','.was combined
with habits of laborious and untiring application." :
Mr. Wilson's career was successful, and creditable alike to himself andrto- the
institutions of his country. " A poor apprentice to a poor shopkeeper, in*a small
Scotch town, he had, by the force of his unaided intellect, and by the strength of
his unwearied exertions, raised himself, step by step, on the ladder, of fame.* In a -
life comparatively short, he rose from an apprentice to. a, merchant; in which
capacity, a temporary failure, in the panic of 1837, only showed to more advantage
the unselfish probity of his conduct. From a counting-house he passed info parlia
ment ; and, after holding office in the Board of Control, the Treasury, and the
Board of Trade, and being created a privy councillor, he finally. took his seat at the
council table of the Governor-general of India. The leading questions of the day
— the repeal of the corn laws, and the repeal of the-. navigation laws— had given
him ample opportunity of employing himself, with his whole heart, on these
subjects; and he had advocated those great reforms, not only by his speeches in
the House of Commons, and out of doors, but in the columns of the Economist,
which he edited for many years, and in which he demonstrated, in trenchant and
convincing articles, the fallacies of his opponents." In the financial crisis which
occurred in India after the mutiny had been suppressed, and the old reign ofthe m
company superseded, Mr. Wilson was the most fitting man to send out, Accord
ingly, he was despatched by Sir Charles Wood. .
" On the 18th of February, 1860, Mr. Wilson made his first. financial-*tafe-
ment in the council-room at Calcutta. Eeferring to the speech of the Secretary of
State in the House of Commons, in the preceding autumn, Mr. Wilson estimated
the deficit for 1859-60, at £9,2.90,129, which was nearly a million -less than-the
estimate of Sir Charles Wood— a favourable anticipation, which, however, was not
destined to be realised, as the accounts at the close of the year showed an actual
deficit of £10,769,861. Mr. Wilson frankly admitted that, though by the power of
our arms, and the courage ©f our civil administration, a feeling of security -per-,
vaded the country, it was,. unfortunately, no state secret- that ah evil, of the
greatest magnitude was corroding the very heart of our political system, and that- _
it would be in vain we should boast of the restoration of order and tranquillity, if
we could see no end to the financial disorder that notoriously prevailed. Looking
forward to the prospect of the year 1860-61, with which he had principally to
deal, he showed that, after taking credit for the reduction of a million: and three-
quarters in the military charges; ajreduction of one million on accounfiof compen
sation for losses in the mutiny, which had been included in the" estimate for, 1859
-'60; and an increase of income, from the salt duty,«-of £410,000 — the expendi
ture of 18.60-61 would still exceed the income by*six and a-half millions. To
meet this, every attempt would be made\by the reduction' of expenditure ; but
it was apparent that,, in addition, dt would be* necessary . to have recourse t#
664

WJULSO.-N.

'TCrMD PTmusmm company, limited.

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [indian finance.

new sources of taxation. The measures selected for this purpose were a revision
of the customs' duties, an income-tax, and a licence duty, which was, however,
afterwards abandoned.
" In dealing with the import duties, which had been raised during the mutiny,
the government of India lowered them from 20 to 10 per cent: on nearly every
article in the tariff; wool, hemp, hides, and jute, formerly liable to a considerable
export duty, were entirely exempted ; as well as tea, the experiments of its growth
having shown the expediency of giving every encouragement to the attractions it
held out to European capital and European settlers ; and how unwise it would be
to crush, in its infancy, an undertaking which promised so well. Saltpetre and
tobacco, as exceptional articles, were subjected to an increased duty. By these
changes the government of India gave up £82,000 per annum, obtained from
certain customs' duties, which pressed heavily on the commerce of the country ;
while they estimated that they would obtain, in a manner far less objectionable,
£233,700. " Complaints had been made, by Manchester merchants at home, of the unfair
valuation of articles subject to customs' duties; and Sir Charles Wood had pro
mised that the matter should be set right. The leading commercial men in Cal
cutta were therefore caUed together, and, with their advice and concurrence, a
revolution was made of the articles already subject to duty, whereby an improve
ment of revenue was anticipated of £200,000.
" But all these changes, improvements though they were, were insufficient to
meet the increased liabilities which pressed upon the Indian government. Some
larger measure was necessary ; and the government of India proposed an income-
tax of 4 per cent, on aU incomes of £50 per annum, and upwards ; 2 per cent, on
incomes between £20 and £50; whUe incomes below £20 were to be entirely
exempted from its operation.
" It was not to be expected that these taxes would be passed without some
opposition. One of the objections urged against the income-tax was its imputed
novelty, in India; but those who used this argument overlooked the fact, that under
the ancient Hindoo law such taxes were authorised ; and it was pointed out, by Sir
Bartle Frere, that, in the years 1834, 1835, and 1836, taxes on incomes, trades,
and professions, were almost universally levied- throughout British India ; and that
these taxes were abolished in Bengal, the North-West Provinces, and Bombay, not
because they were bad in principle, but because they were so unfairly taxed, and
unequally levied, that it was difficult to enforce them in their then existing
shape." The income-tax, as proposed, was more, therefore, in the nature of a revival
of an old, than the importation of a new tax ; and, with the exemptions and altera
tions that were adopted subsequently to its introduction, it was not calculated- to
press with great severity on any class of natives. The smaller proprietors would
escape payment altogether ; while the tax was intended to bring under assessment
the richer landlords and merchants, who hitherto had contributed absolutely
nothing to the public burdens. It was alleged that such a tax, as regarded the
landowners, was a breach of the perpetual settlement : but even influential natives
of India admitted the fallacy of that objection ; and one of them, the Maharajah
of Burdwan, repudiated the objection in the following words : — "I cannot," he said,
" find anything in the terms of the settlement to convince me that the zemindars of
India have for ever been exempted from contributing to assist the government,
when they incur unavoidable expenses in preserving property, life, the honour, and
all that is dear to them, of those very zemindars." Some little opposition was made
to this tax. No opposition, however, occasioned so much anxiety as that of the
governor of Madras, Sir Charles Trevelyan, who protested against its imposition on
the people of that presidency. As his minute on the subject was published, there
was no alternative, on the part of the government, but to issue an order for his
immediate recall.
VOL. II. 2 x 665

mr. laing.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.

The reduction ofthe annual expenditure was a subject of pressing importance.
As it was declared that the civil administration of India was carried on at a smaller
cost than that of any country in the world, it was clear that it was with the
military expenditure the government would have to deal. For that purpose, in
1859, a military finance commission — consisting of Colonel Jameson as president,
and Colonels Burn and Balfour as members — was appointed.
In April, 1860, Colonel Bum was compelled, by ill-health, to leave India;
and, in June following, the commission was deprived of the valuable services of its
president, Colonel Jameson. Lieutenant-Colonel Simson, and Mr. Eichard Temple,
were afterwards added to the commission ; and the government of India bore
ample testimony to the important services which that commission rendered, as well
as to the benefits which resulted from the labours of Colonel Balfour, who was
appointed chief of the military finance department, and who ably and energeti
cally carried "out the work of reduction and reform which had been suggested.
In dealing with the military charges, Mr. Wilson saw clearly how large
reductions could be made — not, indeed, in the pay and emoluments of either officers
or men, but in the numerical strength of the army ; by a better distribution of
forces ; by control over the commissariat ; and, to use his own words, " by reducing
our army finance to order." His scheme was, to prepare, annually, a budget of
income and expenditure, in order to bring before the supreme government, for
sanction, at the commencement of each year, carefully devised estimates of expen
diture in every department, thereby guarding against irregular and unauthorised
outlays, for which no adequate provision had been made in the ways and means of
the year. In maturing this plan, Mr. Wilson laboured unremittingly, setting at
nought the advice of his physicians, despising the warnings of a fatal and insidious
disease, and, perhaps, not admitting to himself how valuable the continuance of
his health and working powers had become to India. In August he was first
attacked by sickness; but he, nevertheless, refused to slacken his labours.
Although fully aware of the fatal effects of hard work at night, he persisted in the
pernicious habit till absolute exhaustion compelled him to seek rest in vain. Mr.
West writes —
" A trip to sea was talked of — that wonderful panacea for all the diseases of
India; but it was too late. A few days sufficed to render his illness fatal. Lord
Canning visited the sick man on his death-bed, and was deeply touched by the
tone in which he spoke of public matters. Not a word of self, or of his name or
share in public affairs, escaped his lips. He expressed his hopefulness of the
success of the great work in which he had been engaged, and calmly died, adding
another name to that long list of heroes who, at the desk as well as in the more
exciting scenes of battle, have, without a complaint or murmur, laid down their
lives in India in their country's service."
"Nothing can replace," writes one of his fellow-councillors, "the ripe expe
rience and practical sagacity which tempered the unfailing energy of the colleague
we have lost ; and Sir Charles Wood deeply felt the loss of so able a coadjutor."
It was obviously advisable that there should be no delay in appointing a
successor ; and the choice fell upon Mr. Laing, Secretary to the Treasury in Lord
Palmerston's government, who was appointed member of council in Mr. Wilson's
place. On Mr. Laing's acceptance of this appointment, Sir Charles Wood took
occasion to urge, with, if possible, increased force, the absolute necessity of early
and vigorous exertions, on the part of the government of India, in the reduction
of expenditure, wherever it could be effected without neglecting the indispensable
requirements of the public service. In June, 1862, Mr. Laing's health, unsuited
for official life in an Indian climate, compelled him to return to England. In
looking for a successor, Sir Charles Wood's attention was not unnaturally turned
to Sir Charles Trevelyan, whose fitness for employment in India could hardly be
overlooked. He had commenced his career as a Bengal civilian. For twenty
years he had been Secretary to the Treasury at home : but here, with a constant
666

A.D.1859.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [sir c. wood.
strain on his energies, he had not forgotten his old associations and interests in
India; and the letters of Indophilus, which appeared from time to time, had no.t
only attracted the attention, but had taken a great hold of the minds of those at
home, to whom India was not, as it is to many, a terra in cognita. He had shown
himself an excellent Indian administrator during his short rule at Madras. It is
true he had committed one great indiscretion ; but he had paid a severe penalty
in being recalled from so honourable a position. This recall had been to Sir
Charles Wood a very painful though necessary act, and he gladly welcomed the
opportunity of again rendering the services of so able an administrator available
for the public good ; and Sir Charles Trevelyan, after having been the governor
of a presidency, wisely and patriotically undertook a subordinate appointment,
with less responsible duties. Failing health, in a short time, compelled Sir Charles
to return to England, and Mr. Massey was sent out as the financial member of
the Governor-general's council. He had already filled, with considerable
credit, the post of Under-Secretary to the Home Office ; and was, at the time of
his appointment to India, the chairman of ways and means in the House of
Commons. It is time now that we give a fuller notice of Sir Charles Wood's administra
tion of Indian affairs. In the peerage he is called Lord Halifax; but, as Sir
Charles Wood, he is better known to the public at large. In an article which
appeared in the Times, February 6th, 1866, it was said — "As a monument of his
abiUty, industry, and judgment, Sir Charles Wood may fairly point to his six
years' administration of India during a period of transition and unexampled diffi
culty at home and abroad. He found everything in disorder, and had everything
to reconstruct. He had to recast the whole judicial system of India ; to create for
her a paper currency; to superintend the remodelling of her taxation, and the
reorganisation of her finances. He had to develop a railway system ; and last, and
most difficult of all, he had to carry through the Herculean labour of amalga
mating the queen's armies. It has been impossible to do justice to every indi
vidual. We beUeve that, upon the whole, the Indian army has been a gainer by
the change. Where is the man possessed of that extent and variety of knowledge ;
that quickness, industry, and versatility ; that acquaintance with matters financial,
military, naval, judicial, and political, which will enable him to rule, with a firm
unfaltering hand, the mighty destinies of 150,000,000 of the human race ?" With
the aid of Mr. West, we propose to go a little more into detail.
On the formation of Lord Palmerston's government, in June, 1859, Sir Charles
Wood accepted the post of Secretary of State for India. His last office had been
that of First Lord of the Admiralty. It was only four years and a-half since
he had, as President of the Board of Control, taken a leading part in the home
government of India ; but in that short interval of time a great change had taken
place. The grand old East India Company had been swept away : Sir Charles had
now no authority in Leadenhall Street to consult ; but, instead, a board of coun
cillors, selected partly from the officers of the old East India House, and partly
from those of the Board of Control. The working of the department, in its new
form, was inharmonious .and crude, and the whole procedure of official business
had still to be adapted to the new order of things. When Sir Charles took office,
he found the council divided into three committees, in nearly the same manner as
the Court of Directors of the East India Company had been. The despatches were
prepared by the secretaries of the department, as in the old India House; but
instead of being brought in any way before the Secretary of State, tbey were sent
directly to one of the committees, and only reached the eye of the Secretary of
State -when the members of that committee were pledged to the views which they
had already approved. This mode of conducting the business actually put the
Secretary of State for India in a worse position than when he was President of the
Board of Control. Sir Charles Wood at once discerned this very serious defect in
the mode of conducting- business, and determined to remedy it. He divided the
2x2 667

INDIAN GOVERNMENT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.

council into six committees of five members each, every member being on two
committees, the chairman being selected by the Secretary of State. The drafts of
the despatches were submitted to him, who, after making such alterations as he
thought necessary, referred them to one of the committees. These drafts were
then returned to the Secretary of State, and by him sent to council in such shape
as he might determine for final consideration and amendment. The military and
marine branches, hitherto distinct from the general correspondence department,
were now united to it. He also effected a combination of the account, pay, and
audit offices, by which a more efficient and economical system was introduced. It
was also determined to place the supply of stores on a footing which, while
insuring a more perfect responsibility, should be thoroughly efficient to meet the
rapidly increasing requirements of our great Eastern dependency.
" In that and all other arrangements," writes Mr. West, " Sir Charles Wood
was materially assisted by Mr. Baring, formerly his private secretary at the Board
of Control, whose talent for organisation was of special advantage in the rearrange
ment of the department ; and who, from his peculiar aptitude for business, his
power of work, and the experience he had acquired from having been employed in
various public departments, had obtained a degree of official knowledge unequalled
by any of his contemporaries in the House of Commons. The unpopularity inci
dental to any measure necessitating alteration and reduction in a government
office was in this instance, to a great extent, overcome, from its being apparent
that the improvements were carried out, not from a love of change, but for the
good of the service, and in strict accordance with justice. It will be long before
this merit in Mr. Baring ceases to be recognised in the India Office. He had not,
however, the opportunity of watching the practical working of those reforms in
the introduction of which he had borne so prominent a part.
" Mr. Sidney Herbert's elevation to the peerage rendered it necessary that the
War Office should be represented in the House of Commons ; and, in order to
obtain this object, Mr. Baring was transferred to that department. This appoint
ment was amply justified by the able manner in which, with very short time for
preparation, he mastered the complicated details of the army estimates, and carried
them through the House of Commons. The popularity which Lord De Grey had
acquired in the organisation of the volunteer force at the war department, was a
guarantee that the military changes then in progress in our Eastern empire, would
not suffer by his removal to the India Office. The lamented death of Lord Herbert,
however, in the prime ofhis intellectual vigour, and the appointment of Sir George
Lewis as his successor, led to the re-transfer of those two under-secretaries in the
summer of 1861. Two years had not elapsed before the retirement of Mr. Lowe
from the council of education, and Mr. Henry Austen Bruce's appointment in his
place, left a new field of usefulness open for Mr. Baring at the Home Office ; and
the government was strengthened by the acquisition of Lord Wodehouse as Under-
Secretary for India.
" The political exigencies of parliament were not the sole causes which led to
rapid changes in the India Office. The illness, and consequent resignation of the
Earl of Carlisle, the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, removed Lord Wodehouse, in
1864, to a higher position, where his firmness and decision of character were
eminently displayed in grappling with the discontent and agitation of that unhappy
country. Once more the ministerial ranks were reinforced by the addition of Lord
Dufferin, who, formerly known as a daring yachtsman and a graceful writer, and
subsequently as an able diplomatist in Syria, has, by his lucid speeches on the
vexed question of the Indian army, and land tenure in Ireland, raised yet higher
the hopes entertained of the distinguished career that, in all probability, awaits
him." r
These arrangements sadly interfered with Sir Charles Wood's plans. It was
well, therefore, for the latter, that he found in his permanent council, not only
experienced advice, but most ready assistance, of which he largely and glaaly

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [reorganisation.
availed himself. Not satisfied with the mere formal reference of documents to the
committees, it was his constant practice to consult his councillors individually, and
to invite them to state their opinions freely. Very few days ever elapsed without
his seeing many of the members of council. The chairmen of the committees
were requested to confer with him on papers awaiting their consideration ; and, in
matters of more than ordinary difficulty, he would himself attend the committees,
and personally take part in their discussions; and, by this means, business was
got over much more comfortably than otherwise would have been the case.
" It has never," continues Mr. West, " been imputed to Sir Charles Wood
that he is wanting in self-reliance, or that he is too easily led by the opinion of
others. It is therefore a convincing testimony to the skill and tact with which
he availed himself of the abilities and experience of the members of his council,
and of the practical utiUty of his mode of transacting the business which he intro
duced, that, during his whole tenure of office, Sir Charles Wood overruled them
only four times ; on all which occasions, subjects of minor importance only were
involved. With these few exceptions, and the larger and imperial question of the
discontinuance of a local European army, Sir Charles carried with him the majority
of his council on aU the varied measures which were inaugurated and executed at
home and in India. Indeed, so complete was the agreement between them, that,
in the House of Lords, in the session of 1863, a complaint was made, 'that they
never heard of what the council of India did; occasionally there was a dissent,
and nothing more.' The names of Sir John Lawrence, Sir George Clerk, and
many others, are sufficient evidence that this unanimity was not the result of
any lack of independence on the part of the council, but was a proof of their
earnest and willing co-operation with a Secretary of State, whose far-sighted views
were fully appreciated, and perceived by them to be advantageous to the great
interests committed to their charge. One of the main features of the success of
Sir Charles Wood's administration was the constant personal intercourse he held,
not only with his councUlors, and with the members of the India secretariat, but
with others unconnected with the department. No man ever came from India,
whatever his position, with information likely to be of use to the public service,
but found easy access to the private ear of the Secretary of State. Quick, and
somewhat intolerant, as he was of those lengthy narratives of purely personal
interest, often attempted to be placed before him, and which he keenly felt did
but waste the time due to more important business, no man ever bestowed a more
impartial and patient hearing on those whose experience or knowledge entitled
them to attention. Many were those who, on leaving his room after one of these
interviews, expressed their astonishment at the perfect intimacy he displayed with
matters supposed by them to be technical, or only to be attained after a long resi
dence in India, and by years of application to a particular subject." This infor
mation will be new to the public, with whom Sir Charles, from his singularly
unfelicitous mode of speaking, was never a favourite. To most of them, it
appeared that his sole claim to office consisted in the fact that he was a Whig, and
a son-in-law of Earl Grey. Mr. West was Sir Charles's private secretary, and takes
the proper official view of his patron. It may be that the latter has over-rated
Sir Charles. It is clear that the public under-rated his business capability, perse
verance, and tact.
One of the first measures of Sir Charles Wood was to make better provision
for the constitution of the council of the Governor-general, and the local govern
ment of the several presidencies and provinces of India, so as_ to render the legis
lative authority more suited to the requirements of the times. _ Hitherto the
system had been very faulty, inasmuch, for one reason, not to mention others, the
natives of India were overlooked. Under the provisions of the new act, the two
judges of the Supreme Court were omitted from the council ; and a second member,
to be named by the crown, was added. In order to provide for admitting members
of the non-official communities of India to a share in the government of the
669

Indian civil law.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

country, and foT assuring to the natives a voice in the deliberations of the councU,
and at the same time, of maintaining such restrictions as would, at all times,
secure to the government the power of guarding against any legislation which
might seem likely to lead to mischievous results, it was enacted, that when the
Governor-general's council met for the purpose of making laws and regulations, he
should summon, besides the ordinary members, not less than six, not more than
twelve additional members (each nominated for a period of two years), of whom
one-half, at least, should not be officials under government. The additional
members might be chosen from any rank or profession, and might be either
European or native. By this measure, for the first time in the history of India,
did Sir Charles Wood provide, not only for the employment of Europeans, inde
pendent of government, in the work of legislation, but also for the admission of
natives into the council, for the purpose of aiding in the formation of laws for
themselves and their own country. Councils of a somewhat similar institution
were created in Madras, Bombay, and Bengal, to which non-official Europeans and
natives were to be admitted.
The next step in legislating for India at home was taken by the introduction
of a bill for establishing high courts of judicature in India. Before these courts
were formed, if an Englishman, at whatever distance from the presidency town,
was charged with a crime, it was necessary that he should be brought down, with
all the witnesses, to Calcutta ; and it cannot be denied that the inconvenience and
expense of such a system frustrated the ends of justice in a very large number of
cases. This evil has now been remedied by the power given in the act for trying
Europeans elsewhere than in the presidency towns. Mr. West adds—" A native
judge now sits on the bench of the High Court of Calcutta, with great honour to
himself, and advantage to the administration of law ; and, with such a prospect of
advancement, it may be confidently hoped, that other native gentlemen will, in
time, qualify themselves for similar positions of responsibility. It was a matter of
no slight difficulty to amalgamate the Supreme and Sudder Courts, and to bring
the judges, so dissimilar in every respect in their education and training, to work
harmoniously together. The greatest credit is due to the chief justice, Sir Barnes
Peacock, for the hearty way in which he worked to overcome these difficulties ; and
the success that has signally attended the measure in Calcutta, is, in a great degree,
owing to his exertion, zeal, and discretion."
The third measure introduced into parliament during the session of 1860, was
the Civil Service Bill, which, in the first instance, rendered vaUd nominations to
certain appointments, which, it was stated, had been made' by the local govern
ment, in violation of the law requiring that they should be filled by members of
the covenanted service only.
In 1861, Sir Charles Wood appointed a commission to prepare- a code of civil
law for India. Although mainly composed of the same members as the commission
of 1853, it was strengthened by the addition of two of the most able judges in the
land— Sir William Erie and Sir James WiUes. The first part of this code has
been embodied in Act X. of 1865, and comprises the law of succession and
inheritance, generally applicable to all persons domiciled in British India, other
than Hindoo or Mahommedan, each of which portion of the community has laws
of its own on such subjects. An act has been recently passed in India, giving
a law of succession to the wealthy community of Parsees, who reside chiefly in
Bombay, and who were previously subject to the law (very distasteful to them)
administered by the Supreme Court, in matters of succession. Small cause
courts, with a simple procedure, have existed for many years within the Umits of
the presidency towns ; but, until recently, no such courts had been established in
the provinces. The act for establishing recorder's courts in British Burmah,
was followed, in 1865, by an act for the Punjaub and its dependencies. By an act
passed on the 21st of March, 1865, grand juries were aboUshed, and provision was
made for the issue of commissions, addressed by the government to any of the

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the contract system.
judges in the High Court, authorising them to hold sittings in such place or places
as the government might think expedient, for the exercise of the original jurisdic
tion ; provided that, in cases tried under such commissioners, a maj ority of not less
than nine out of twelve of the jurors, with the concurrence of the presiding judge,
should be competent to pronounce a verdict of guilty. Legislative measures, on
many other important subjects, were passed by the government of India during
the period under review — a period unparalleled, in the opinion of its historian, as
regards improvement in judicial administration, since the date of the Cornwallis
code. " Most of these reforms," says Mr. West, " in the administration of the law,
first assumed a definite shape in the form of bills laid before the council of the
Governor-general ; but they had always been previously discussed, and, to a certain
extent, determined upon, in private communications between Sir Charles Wood"
and Mr. Maine, the legislative member of council, and Mr. Hawkins, the secre
tary of the judicial department, in the India Office, at home. It was impossible
that two men could be better qualified to give advice upon such subjects. Mr.
Maine had early distinguished himself as the most elegant scholar of his day, at
Cambridge, where he was head of the classical tripos in 1845. Shortly after
taking his degree, he became Eegius Professor of Civil Law, which appointment
he held until elected Eeader in Eoman Laws and Jurisprudence, at the Middle
Temple. His comprehensive work on ancient law, and other writings, added
largely to his reputation in this country ; and his appointment to the council of the
Governor-general of India has afforded him a fitting and an ample field for the
exercise of all his powers. To a familiar acquaintance with the habits and customs
of the people of India, acquired during a residence of twenty-seven years in that
country, Mr. Hawkins added a deep and intimate knowledge of Indian law, and
the ripe experience of an official life. Originally a member of the civil service, he
had occupied, for ten years, the important post of registrar of the Sudder Court of
Calcutta, and two years judge of that court. In 1853, he was appointed a member
of the Indian law commission ;. and, in 1854, became its secretary. In 1856, the
Court of Directors, ever happy in its selection of its public servants, appointed him
to the judicial and legislative departments of the East India House, from which he
was, to the regret of all who knew him, compelled, by illness, to retire at the com
mencement of 1866."
During Sir Charles Wood's tenure of office, society in India was convulsed to
its centre by an attempt to alter one of the provisions of the penal law as to
breaches of contract. A peculiar class of contracts is common in India, by which
the planter makes advances of money to the ryot, who, in return, pledges himself
to cultivate a particular crop on his land. In regard to many of the articles in
connection with which this system prevailed, such as sugar, milk, &c, no difficulty
has ever arisen ; but the case in part of Bengal was otherwise, where indigo was
concerned. There had been legislation on the subject. The planters required
more, but in vain, until the year 1859, when the ryots refused any longer to culti
vate indigo ; and the Bengal indigo system virtually came to an end. In 1860,
an act was passed in India to enforce the fulfilment of indigo contracts during the
current season. Sir Charles Wood refused to sanction it, and insisted upon the
appointment of a commission. In May, 1860, the commission commenced its
labours, which lasted upwards of three months, and accumulated a very large and
valuable mass of evidence on many points connected with the social condition of
Bengal. The conclusion that the indigo cultivation was unprofitable to the ryot
was arrived at, and was supported by an amount of evidence which was irresistible.
In the spring of 1861, the report of the commission came under the consideration
of the authorities at home ; and the question before them was simply this— Were
criminal proceedings for breach of contracts necessary ? Sir Charles Wood and his
council, after a careful review of the report, were of opinion that breaches of con
tract ought not to entail criminal proceedings; that the relation between planters
671

the ryots.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.
and ryots should be held to be dependent on mutual good-will. The necessity for
their relationship being placed on this ground was not realised by the planters,
relying, as they did, on government assistance, and the strong arm ofthe law being
exercised in their favour against the ryot, who, Lord Canning thought, " had too
long been left in ignorance of the protection which he might claim against the
proceedings of any planter who had bound him by unreal obligations, and who
had enforced them by illegal means." And the decision arrived at was expressed
in a despatch to the Governor-general, on the 18th of April, 1861 ; in whieh, when
reviewing a bill transmitted to the home government, the object of which was "to
provide for the punishment of breaches of contract for the cultivation, production,
gathering provisions, manufacture, carriage, and delivery of agricultural produce,"
Sir Charles Wood says —
"The question of making breaches of contract for the cultivation and
delivery of agricultural produce punishable by criminal proceedings, is not one
which now, for the first time, presents itself for consideration. It has been
maturely considered : and the deliberate judgment of the Indian law commis
sioners ; of the legislative council ; of the Secretary of State for India in council ;
of the majority of the indigo commissioners; of the lieutenant-governor of
Bengal ; and even, as it appears to me, of your own government, has been recorded
against any such measure. I am not prepared to give any sanction to the law
which you propose, and to subject to criminal proceedings matters which have
hitherto been held as coming exclusively under the jurisdiction of the civil tribunal ;
and I request that the bill for the punishment of breaches of contract, recently
introduced by you into the legislative council, may be withdrawn."
The refusal to sanction a penal contract law did not set at rest the indigo
question. The planters knew that the ryot, more alive than formerly to the right
of his position, would not sow indigo to his own loss. The special legislation they
had cried out for with such vehemence was denied them : they feared, after the
terrible exposure of the indigo commissioners, to resort to force and fraud as
formerly; but they were not prepared to yield without a struggle. As landlords,
they informed the ryots who occupied the farms under them, that those who
declined to sow indigo as heretofore, would have their rents raised. The question
involved in this rent dispute was — In what cases, and to what extent, had the
zemindars of 1793, in whose place the planters now stood, the power to raise the
rents of the occupying ryots ? For the purpose of' trying it a case was raised
prominently by Mr. Hills, a planter, in a suit for the purpose of increasing the
rent of one Ishur Ghose. On the trial, it was contended on the one side, by the
ryot, that the rent could only be raised in proportion to the increase in the value
of the produce ; on the other, by the landlord, that the lessee had a right to exact
as much rent as any other person would pay. The decision of the district judge
was — " That it was incumbent on the plaintiff to show that the value of the
produce had increased in proportion to the increase of rent asked for ; and that if
he could show that the value of the produce had doubled, he would be entitled to
recover double the former rate of rent ; and that if it had trebled, he could treble
the rent; and so on." This decision, on appeal to the higher court, was reversed by
Sir Barnes Peacock, and two judges sitting with him ; but on a similar action
being brought again before the High Court, the case, on account of the important
principle involved, was tried by the full court of fifteen judges. The whole bench,
except the chief justice, pronounced against the power of the planter to raise the
rent of the ryot, and decided that the rent could only be raised in proportion to
the increased value of the land, such increase not being due to the exertions of the
ryot. " So," adds Mr. West, " the matter rests for the present in Bengal."
Sir Charles Wood's financial administration of India is thus summarised by
the same authority. Qri taking office he had to face an expenditure of £50,475,000,
with an income of £39,705,000 ; to provide by loan for the deficiency of income,
with the credit of Indian securities seriously impaired; and insufficient as the
672

a.d. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the land revenue.

means of India were to meet the current expenditure on public works, to raise
funds for an increased outlay on that account. He resigned office with the annual
income adequate to the expenditure, with Indian credit thoroughly established ;
and this notwithstanding a considerable increase in the amount expended on public
works. It is in consequence of that success that we are now enabled to look on
India, not in the light of a burden on the British tax-payer, or a borrower on the
British Stock Exchange, but as a solvent state, able and willing to assist us with
valuable commodities, and to pay for all her own internal improvements.
The currency question also required immediate settlement. In the opinion of
Sir Charles Wood, the time had come for a more extended circulation of paper.
The government had hitherto been compelled, in consequence of the imperfect
means of communication, to maintain treasuries, with large amounts of cash in
charge of government officers, for carrying on the receipts and payments of the
state. It is easy to understand that, in the absence of a paper or gold currency,
the constant transmission of large sums, in silver coin, between the government
treasuries was a work of great labour, risk, and expense ; but it would be difficult
to convey to the mind of a person unacquainted with India, the extent to which
the army of the East India Company had for years been employed in detachments
as treasure escorts. Mr. Wilson, soon after his arrival in India, discussed the
whole matter ; and the result was a plan, of which the main features were —
1st. The withdrawal of the privileges of issue hitherto enjoyed by the three
presidency banks.
2nd. The issue of notes by the government at the three cities of Calcutta,
Madras, and Bombay, and in circles at various places in the interior of the country j
the notes issued in any circle being payable only in that circle, and at the presidency
cities. 3rd. That coin or bullion, to the extent of one-third of the notes issued,
should always be kept in the currency departments, and government securities
held for the remainder.
This plan was, with the exception of the last provision, ultimately adopted.
Another very important question was that of the land revenue, which yields a
very large portion of _ the entire income of India. A prominent event in this
matter was the publication, by Lord Canning, in October, 1861, of a resolution
regarding the sale of waste lands in fee-simple, and the redemption of existing-
land revenue. The proposals of the government were to the effect that all unoccu
pied waste lands throughout British India should be sold to any buyer, at a fixed
price of five shillings per acre for uncleared, and ten shillings per acre for cleared
lands. For thirty days after an intending purchaser had put in his application,
any one claiming the property might assert his right to it: if, however, that
period of thirty days elapsed without any claim being made, the property was to
be allotted to the applicant, whose absolute possession was not hereafter to be
disturbed, even if a right of property in the land so allotted should be established.
Compensation might be awarded to any one proving a title to the land within a
year of the sale ; but the original possessor was not allowed to have any claim for
the restoration of his land. Sir Charles Wood insisted on the land being sur
veyed and put up to auction. He also objected to Lord Canning's resolution
authorising the redemption of the land-tax, whether permanently or temporarily
settled, to the extent of one-tenth of the aggregate amount of the assessment in
each district. A special department for the management of the extensive woods of
India was organised, and the cultivation of the cinchona tree (whence we have
quinine) has been, most successful. " On the Neilgherry hills acres and acres of
land are now covered with plantations of these beautiful trees ; and Mr. Markham,
who, with considerable danger to his health and life, originally superintended the
removal of the plants from Peru to Madras, in 1860, and to whoni the credit of
the experiment is principally due, had, on his second visit to India in the autumn
of 1865, the satisfaction of finding all the plantations flourishing, and upwards of
673

education in India.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1862.
a million of trees growing successfully. Some idea of the value of the quinine can
be formed from a remark made in Mr. Henry Waterfield's valuable statement,
showing the moral and material progress of India in 1864-'65, when he mentions
the fact, that independently of the great saving that will accrue from the pos
session of cinchona to the Indian government, which has been estimated at not
less than £50,000 a year for the supply of quinine to the troops alone, the result
of the experiment is very satisfactory in having opened a vast field for the cultiva
tion of this valuable plant, the best species of which appeared likely to become,
ere long, almost extinct in South America, and in having demonstrated that the
medicinal qualities of the bark are capable of considerable improvement under
proper culture ; whilst it is imposssble to calculate the benefits bestowed upon the
general population, by placing within their reach the fever-expelling preparations
of the plant, which, from their high price, have hitherto been inaccessible to any
but the wealthy classes."
In public works a large expenditure was sanctioned by Sir Charles Wood.
Between 1862 and 1865, the annual expenditure on that head was increased by
nearly £4,000,000. In June, 1859, the total length of rail open for traffic
throughout the British dominions in India, was 1,438 miles ; at the commence
ment of 1866, the number of miles open for traffic was 3,332. India was already
covered with telegraphs before Sir Charles Wood became Secretary of State ; but
during his tenure of office, the telegraph from England to India, by the Persian
Gulf, was commenced; and, under the able superintendence, and the personal
exertions of Colonel Patrick Stewart,"'was brought to a successful issue, though,
unfortunately, at the cost of his life. It was a remarkable achievement of science,
that led to the completion of telegraphic communication from India to England,
by a line surrounded with dangers of all kinds by land and sea. From Kurrachee
to Constantinople it extends for 3,000 miles, half of its distance being submarine,
and half through unhealthy countries and desolate wastes. The American war, of
course, stimulated cotton-growing in India ; and government at once set to work
to facilitate its conveyance from the districts where it was produced. Great com
plaints were made in England about the inferior quality and adulteration of the
Surat cotton, which was, no doubt, bad ; but this arose, in great part, from the
system of purchase, encouraged by the European merchants — almost holding out a
premium for fraud. The price given was for quantity, not quality. In the ware
houses of Dharwar a regular system of cotton adulteration existed : on one side of
the sheds was a heap of Dharwar cotton of superior growth ; on the other a heap of
dirty and inferior cotton, to be mixed with it. But this was not all: stones,
rubbish, the sweepings of warehouses, and refuse of every description, were pro
miscuously blended together; and thus, if the quality was deteriorated, the
quantity and the weight were unmistakably increased. The only step which the
government could take to prevent the adulteration of the staple was to pass an act,
punishing fraudulent adulterations with heavy penalties ; and a law to this effect
was enacted in Bombay, which, to a large extent, prevented such dishonest practices.
In education, Sir Charles Wood followed up the system he had commenced in
1854. Universities, like that in London, were established ; and in the schools, the
Irish system of education — that of not allowing religious instruction to be given
as part of the system of the government schools, and of making grants in aid td
all schools, Christian, Mohammedan, or Hindoo— was adopted. The Bible was
placed in the libraries of all the government schools ; and instruction in the Bible,
and in the tenets and doctrines of Christianity, was allowed to be given to pupils
at their own request, and in any manner most convenient, out of school hours.
Up to the present time the system has worked' admirably. Large funds for
the promotion of education were provided from native sources: and as regards
the public expenditure, Sir Charles Wood was firmly convinced that, whatever
was incurred, would, to use the words of Sir Thomas Munro, "be amply repaid
by the improvement of the country; for the general diffusion of knowledge is

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the Mysore princes.

inseparably followed by more orderly habits, by increasing industry, by a taste for
the comforts of Ufe, by exertions to acquire them, and by the growing industry of
the country." One very grave question — that relative to the Mysore princes — created much
astonishment and dissatisfaction in India. The case is thus stated by Mr. West : —
"After the death of Tippoo Sahib at the storming of Seringapatam, in 1799,
these princes and their families had been removed to Vellore, and an allowance of
about £77,000 per annum was settled on them. Their supposed complicity in the
Vellore mutiny, in 1806, entailed upon them their removal to Calcutta, and the
forfeiture of any claim on the British government. They lived in seclusion at
Bussapugla, under the superintendence of a British officer, and were treated
as royal pensioners by the Indian government : but the profligacy and the dis
reputable course of Ufe pursued by several of them, tended neither to their
advantage nor honour, nor to that of the government. In this state of things, Sir
Charles was very anxious that the settlement should be broken up, and the Mysore
stipendiaries absorbed in the general mass of the people. He was desirous to place
them in a better position as regarded their own independence and power of utility,
and, at the same time;, to relieve the government of India from the charge of a
numerous and increasing body of pensioners. He proposed, therefore, to allow
each member of the family to settle where he pleased, away from Calcutta, free
from any government supervision; and, in order to place this in their power,
he proposed to create a certain amount of India stock, the interest of which
should make provision for their incomes. The sum allotted amounted to £17,000
per annum, for their lives. An equal amount was assigned to the heads of
existing famiUes, for their Uves ; and a certain sum was granted for the purchase of
houses, elsewhere than in Calcutta. The whole provision was very far below the
sum originally set apart for their maintenance, or the interest of the sum which
had accrued to the government by their withholding it so many years."
Another question of a similar nature, was Azeeur Jah's claim to be recognised
as the titular Nawab of the Carnatic. Sir Charles refused the claim. Had he
consented, he would have reversed the decisions of Lord Clive, Lord Wellesley,
Lord Dalhousie, and Lord Harris ; and would have entailed on India the mischief
of more royal puppets, whose ancestral names and dynastic traditions made them
often the rallying-points of disaffection and treason.
Another very important question, during Sir Charles Wood's Indian
government, was, whether the administration of the affairs of Mysore, of
which the rajah had been deprived in the year 1834, should be restored
to him? In that year, so bad was the rule "in that country, that Lord
William Bentinck was compelled to move thither a considerable body of troops
to maintain tranquillity, and to administer affairs. His lordship proposed to
restore the rule to the rajah when he found the country getting peaceable and
prosperous. The home government, observing that if the rajah's character was
sufficiently good to enable him to govern any of his territories well, there was
little reason for not restoring the whole to him, expressed their opinion that his
vices were permanent ; and they desired the administration of tbe whole country
to be retained till a good system of government was established, and security
taken for its continuance. The rajah again and again applied for a reversion of
this decision. On referring to the opinion of successive Governor-generals, Sir
Charles Wood found that Lord Hardinge, Lord Dalhousie, Lord Canning, and Lord
Elgin, supported by the valuable opinion of Sir Mark Cubbon, the chief com
missioner in Mysore, had all expressed their views against the restoration of the
administration of Mysore into the hands of the rajah. To these views Sir Charles
Wood naturally attributed much weight ; but to Lord Canning's, especially, he
attached great importance. " The name of Lord Canning," he said, in his despatch
on the subject, " will be for ever associated, in the history of British India, with the
most liberal policy towards the native princes of India. That lamented statesman has

Indian police.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1862.
given proof, not only that questions affecting their rights received from him a fair
and impartial consideration, but that he cherished a lively sympathy with their
feelings and interests ; and his opinion therefore deserves especial consideration
upon the present question." The rajah having since adopted a distant relative,
the power of adopting an heir to his title and his private property has been
admitted ; but no authority to adopt an heir to the raj of Mysore has ever been
ceded to him ; and he has been distinctly informed, by the present governor, Sir
John Lawrence, that no such concession would now be made.
In a former part of our work we have spoken of the Indian army amal
gamation after the mutiny. We only add here, that, in 1863, sanitary commissions
were nominated in each presidency, in accordance with recommendations made in
1859, to inquire into the best means of selecting the sites of military stations, im
proving the health, and preventing epidemics and other diseases incidental to the
British soldier serving in India. Sir Hugh Eose's noble efforts for the amelioration
of the condition of the soldier in the East, were at all times cordially approved
and seconded at home. Workshops, as well as gardens, gymnasia, five's-courts,
baths, cricket-grounds, skittle-alleys, refreshment-rooms, have all been instituted
to relieve the soldier from the depression and lassitude of an enervating climate.
Additional pay was given ; the period of service entitling them to good-conduct
pay was reduced; and further additional advantages offered and secured — all
tending to the increase of the efficiency and comfort of the troops.
Lastly, Sir Charles Wood dealt efficiently and satisfactorily with the police.
" Hordes of military police and local levies, whose name was legion," said an
article in the Calcutta Review, of June, 1861, "and whose aggregate numerical
strength has probably never been accurately known to any one, had grown up in
every district, pervaded every town, and patrolled every highway ; and bids fair, if
allowed to remain undisturbed, to become as great a source of anxiety in the
future, as the pretorian sepoys had proved in the past; while, for the time being,
they consumed the revenue of the country." There were many systems, all
differing from each other. In July, 1860, an able and exhaustive memorandum,
embodying the views of Sir Charles Wood on the principles on which a police
force was to be organised throughout India, was sent to the several presidencies of
Bengal, Madras, and Bombay. Lord Canning, seeing at once the pressing nature
of the subject, appointed a police commission. In consequence of its unanimous
report, Act I. of 1861 was passed in the legislative council of India; and a civil
constabulary is now introduced in all the presidencies, their duties being to preserve
tranquillity in ordinary times ; to protect life and property ; and to perform many
duties heretofore discharged by sepoys, such as furnishing guards for escort of
bullion, for gaols, public treasuries, &c. An improved police has enabled the
government not only largely to reduce the number of native troops, but has, to an
incalculable extent, restored discipline to regiments, which, under the old system,
were constantly broken up, and scattered in detached duties— considered by all
military men to be utterly subversive of proper regimental control and discipline.
Ihe supervision of the police is henceforth to be entrusted to European officers,
themselves responsible to a chief appointed directly for that purpose, and sub
ordinate only to the local government. The new system, from the trial that has
already been made of it, promises well. "We believe," says an Indian writer,
the wheels of police administration have now got into the right groove ; and we
look with confidence to the experience of the next ten years to bear us out in our
conclusions, and to justify our hopes."—" Sir Charles Wood," adds Mr. West, " was
also desirous of seeing vigorous and effective measures taken for the improvement
of the village watch, who were to be carefully selected, and to be placed, under
proper and efficient superintendence, under the control of the magistrates. No great
reform in the village watch could well be carried without the co-operation and
assistance of the heads of the villages, the landholders, and local chiefs. Sir
Uiarles Wood was anxious to follow up, throughout India, the judicious course

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [russian aggression.

pursued by Lord Canning in Oude and the Punjaub, and to invest the native
country gentlemen with considerable magisterial and executive powers; and he
impressed upon the government of India the value of enlisting the landed pro
prietors in favour of *the pubUc interests, not only by law, but by the steady
pursuit, on the part of the magistrates, of such conciliatory measures as should lead
them to consider themselves as parties concerned in the administration of the
country, rather than as servants of the district authorities."
Such is the main outline of the great Indian settlement, under Sir Charles
Wood, as described by a friendly hand. About the time of Lord Palmerston's
decease, Sir Charles Wood met with an accident in the hunting-field, the effects of
which compelled him to relinquish office. He was raised to the peerage, under
the title of Lord Halifax, as a reward for the laborious industry of his life. If
Mr. West is to be depended upon, Sir Charles's absence from the council board
was much deplored by his colleagues. His Halifax constituents, whom he had
so long represented in parliament, appear also to have deeply regretted the
severance of. the tie by which they had long been connected; but neither in the
House of Commons, nor amongst the public at large, has Sir Charles, at any
time, been very popular. It must be confessed, rather, that his personal appear
ance and his manner had a contrary effect. He had too much of the coldness
of the Whig, and too Uttle of the genial temperament of his chief.
Whilst we write (1867), interesting news reaches us of the success of the
Eussians in Central Asia. The Friend of India is anxious that we should secure the
good-will of Bokhara. It says — " The fact is, the question between us and Eussia is
not so much political as commercial. Just now, Bokhara is open to us. Its
merchants have been shut out of Nizni Novgorod, and their property has been
seized at Orenburg; and, consequently, they are exceedingly anxious to open
dealings with us. Trade with them, from Kurrachee through Sukkur, Candahar,
and Balkh, means, ultimately, competition with the Eussians in Hi and Mongolia.
There is quite enough to be done in this direction to make the prospect a tempting
one for our commercial men." But we must act now or never. Once thoroughly
disgust the Bokhariots (says the Friend of India), and let the Eussians get full
possession of the market, and the trade of high Central Asia will have passed out
of our hands altogether. Of course no one but a few Anglo-Indian alarmists
talk of " the necessity of meeting Eussian aggression ;" but if we can open up a
new market without giving anybody just grounds of offence, there can be no
reason why we should not do so.
Another strange story is that of the reputed discovery of the miscreant Nana
Sahib. A Mr. Johnson 'claims to have discovered the wretched Nana of Bithoor.
He finds him to be the commander of the Khan of Khotan's infantry — a nominal
Mussulman, but suspiciously Hindoo in the tie of his turban ; speaking Hindostani,
too, and English, and only a few words of Turkestan, and wearing a Guzeratic
sword and pistols, marked No. 3, E. I. C. Moreover, he is pitted with the small
pox ; has a defect in the left eye ; and is said by those who have been at prayers
with him, to have lost one of his Uttle toes. " Besides, he is (says Mr. Johnson) a
traitor of the deepest dye : harbours evil designs against his khan, and proposed
to me to destroy him and his family, and to make me governor. He wants to get
out of Khotan, and to settle in some Hindoo state ; but says he will not enter
British territory. He has undoubtedly seen a good deal of Europeans." This man
had two companions — one a fine-looking Mussulman, who confessed that he " had
eaten the salt of the English," and that he was a native of Delhi. He pretended
to be a fakeer ; went about with a drawn sword in his hand ; and made Mr. Johnson
nervous by insisting on walking beside his horse whenever he appeared in public.
Mr. Johnson is not likely to be led away by the charm of " sensation" discoveries.
Still, if the Nana Sahib is alive, he must be a good deal changed during the last
ten years. The last man taken up on suspicion was entirely unlike what the Nana
used to be : the informers judged that time would have worked strange alterations.
J s 677

education.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
Mr. Johnson's man is only too like. Still, it is curious that, undoubtedly, as
we read in one of the Indian mails, Feroze Shah, the great Delhi rebel, died
at Bokhara, in August, 1866, having long received a pension of four rupees a day
from the king. If one was at Bokhara, why may not the other be at Khotan ?

CHAPTEE XXXIII.
DE OMSIBUS REBUS.
We continue our efforts to supplement our history with the latest news; and
begin with the state of education, regarding which such wonderful progress had
been made in Lord Palmerston's time.
Now that so much attention is being paid to the great work of education, the
proportion of men and women, in different parts of Great Britain, who were able
to sign their names to the marriage register, merits attention, seeing that it points
out the localities where educational effort should be more particularly directed.
The reports of the registrar-general show that the value of this test has been
misunderstood. It has been suggested that young women are nervous in the
presence of the clergyman, and so make marks when they are able to write their
names. , But, supposing this to be the case, the test is still available for purposes
of comparison, as the timidity which prevents some men and women from writing
their names, or the vanity which prompts others to try who can scarcely put letters
together, must be almost equally powerful in different counties. But against any
women deducted from the ranks of ignorance on the ground of nervousness, must
be set a large number who write their names so badly as to prove that they have
no command over writing for any useful purpose. The value of this test has also
been questioned upon the ground that it is in itself no proof of education; and no
doubt many of the men and women who cannot write may possess great intelli
gence, and have acquired many useful arts ; but thousands, on the other hand,
who read and write, are otherwise indifferently educated. In the absence of an
examination of the adult population of Great Britain, the proportion of persons
able to sign their names in writing may be safely employed as a test of elemen
tary education. Turning to the Scottish registrar-general's report (1866), the
advantages of the Scotch system of education over those of England become
strikingly apparent. It is impossible to say how much Scotland owes to her
system of schools and to the universities, which are accessible to the youth of the
kingdom. One in nine of the men, and one in five of the women, signed with
marks in Scotland; while the report of the registrar-general for England
shows that one in four of the men, and one in three of the women of England and
Wales, could not write their names in the marriage register ; or, in other words,
89 per cent, of the men who married, and 78 per cent, of the women who married
in Scotland, signed their names in writing ; whereas, in England and Wales, the
proportions per cent, who signed in writing, were 77 for men, and 68 for women.
All the men of the counties of Kinross, Peebles, and Selkirk, who married, wrote
their names in the registers ; the proportions per cent, for the women, in each of
the_ same counties, were 96, 98, and 98. The proportions were also 97 in Orkney,
96 in Berwick, and 95 in Eoxburgh. The Scottish counties, in which the propor
tions per cent, of women who signed in writing was lowest, were— Inverness, 50;
Eoss and Cromarty, 52; Eenfrew, 66; Dumbarton, 68; and Lanark, 68. In
Dumbarton fully a third of the population is either Irish, or the descendants of
Irish ; and in Eenfrew and Wigton the "Irish element assumes a high proportion.

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [factory acts.
Dr. Stark states, as a notable proof of the generally successful working of the
parochial school system in Scotland, and in the mainland-rural districts, that 91-7
per cent, of the men, and 83"2 per cent, of the women, were able to sign their
names ; while all the additional private efforts lavished on the towns, only brought
up the proportions of those who could sign their names in writing, to 87 '6 per
cent, of men, and 73*6 per cent, women. In England, the proportions per cent, of
women who wrote their names in the marriage registers were highest in the fol
lowing counties: — Sussex, 84; Surrey, 83; Eutland, 83; Hants, 82; Middlesex,
81; Westmoreland, 76; Kent, 79; Oxford, 78; Berks, 78; Dorset, 77; Devon,
76 ; North Eiding of York, 76 ; Lincoln, 76 ; and Wilts, 76. The proportion per
cent, of women who wrote their names was lowest in South Wales — 44 ; Monmouth,
48; Stafford, 52; North Wales, 51 ; Lancaster, 53; Bedford, 55; West Biding of
York, 57 ; CornwaU, 60 ; Chester, 62 ; and Durham, 62. The great body of the
people of England are many degrees below the people of Scotland in common
education. Time has also witnessed satisfactory results from the introduction of the
Factory Acts, which, according to the latest reports of the inspectors, are approved
aUke by masters and men. Their first object, of course, is to protect the health of
those employed in factories, and to insure that dangerous machinery should be
properly guarded. The next, and perhaps most prominent feature of the acts, is
a Umitation of the hours of labour. In the case of women and children, the hours
of work are restricted to ten and a-half; and, as far as possible, are confined to
between six in the morning and six in the evening. The benefits of this regula
tion, where it is practicable, are described as immense. To all it affords time for
out-door recreation ; to. the young it gives the opportunity of attending evening
schools; and, above all, it enables women and girls to devote some time to the
cares of their homes, and to the cultivation of domestic happiness. Especially
amongst the young are the good effects of these acts most conspicuous. Formerly
these poor children were physically exhausted and stunted by premature toil, and
were denied any adequate opportunities of education. Their labour became
valuable at an early age, and they were at once sent off to the factories,
where, in their tenderest years, they were kept at work all day, and often far into
the night. The system introduced by the Factory Acts is that of half-time. No
child may be put to work before noon and after 1 p.m. on the same day. The
children accordingly are organised into two sets, the one relieving the other at
mid-day ; and for the half of the day during which they are not at work they are
sent to school. The result is extraordinary. These half-time children, who have
spent half the day in manual labour, are actually quicker, more intelligent, more
industrious, and more successful at their' lessons than those who spend all their
time at school. In the first place, it seems that study and work mutually refresh
each other; but it is probably of more importance that the industrious habits
acquired in work are transferred to study. Any one who has observed or taught a
school of young children must know the listless way in which they generally learn.
They have no conception whatever of giving all their attention to what is before
them ; and even without the evidence now afforded by experience, any good master
would have pronounced that his scholars waste half their time. Now, it is this
habit of listlessness and inattention which is effectually cured by manual labour in
a factory. As Lord Shaftesbury (to whom Mr. Walpole paid a handsome tribute)
represented it, "The character of their toil demands accuracy, precision,
constant, unwavering attention, and prompt obedience ; everything must be seized
atthe moment, because nothing can be recovered." And thus, he added, "the
discipline of pots and pans is found nobly instrumental to the acquisition of letters
and learning." It is even stated that, on one occasion, in an examination, " the
half-timers of the several schools distanced the whole-timers, and, in almost every
instance, carried off the prizes." This result really amounts to something like a
discovery in the art of teaching, and ought to suggest some very instructive con-

London.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
siderations to schoolmasters. Moreover, the children have improved in manners
and morals as much as in intelligence and learning.
The half-yearly joint report of the inspectors of factories, dated the 6th of
February, 1867, thus remarks upon the want of uniformity in the existing regula
tions : — " We have referred, in our separate reports, to various matters which we
deem of interest, in connection with our duties. In this our joint report we have
the pleasure of reporting to you, that upon a review of our proceedings in our
respective districts, they appear to be ' as uniform as is expedient and practicable.'
We beg to call your attention to the anomalies which now exist in the regulation
of several trades under legislative restrictions. We have, at various times, and at
some length, urged, in our separate reports, the abolition of the differences now
existing in the hours of work in several of these trades ; and we recur to the subject
now, in the earnest hope that it may receive your consideration. We briefly
recapitulate the more prominent defects which call for amendment. By the
Factory Acts, and by the acts which extend those provisions to other trades, the
hours of work are uniform throughout the country; and they have always given,
and continue to give, the greatest satisfaction. These hours are, for children,
young persons, and women, between 6 A.M. and 6 P.M., with an interval of 1J hours
for meals ; and, on Saturdays, from 6 A.M. to 2 P.M. But, in print-works, children
of eight years of age, and under thirteen, and females above thirteen, may be, and
sometimes are, employed from 6 A.M. to 10 p.m. ; and, if so required, without any
interval ; and boys above thirteen may be employed for twenty-four hours without
any interval. In bleaching, dyeing, and finishing-works, the hours of ordinary
work are the same as in factories ; but there is, in these works, the power to recover
time lost by reason ' of any cause,' the accuracy of which loss it is almost impos
sible to check. The Bleach-works Amendment Act excludes from the operation of
the act all warehouses in which the persons employed are males above fourteen
years of age. Consequently, if in a warehouse a few females are employed, lads of
fourteen years of age are restricted to sixty hours per week ; but if no females be
employed, the labour of these same lads is altogether unrestricted. The above are
not all the anomalies we could point out ; but each is the cause of great dissatis
faction in several localities : and in urging the adoption of uniformity of time in all
estabUshments subject to legislative restrictions, we are satisfied that the alteration
would serve the best interests of the manufacturers and of the operatives."
It becomes us also to say a few words about that great city of London, of
which Lord Palmerston had, for more than half a century, been one of the leading
personages. London, writes the registrar-general, in his annual report, is growing-
greater every day ; and within its present bounds, extending over 122 square miles
of territory, the population amounts, by computation, to 3,037,991 souls. In its
midst is the ancient city of London, within and without the walls, inhabited at
night by about 100,000 people; while around it, as far as a radius of fifteen miles
stretches from Charing-cross, an ever-thickening ring of people extends within
toe area which the metropolitan police watches over; making the whole number, on
an area of 687 square miles around St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, 3,521,267
This population has many interests in common as regards water, air, sewage,
lighting, streets, railways, poor, government, as well' as police ; and many of its
members residing m the outer zones at night, transact business by day in offices,
shops, markets, courts, clustered in the centre of the metropolis. Thus there are
daily currents inwards and outwards; and the people are blended together in a
thousand ways, so as to form a natural community.
The national census is taken in England to show, in each place, the numbers
S a^x. ¦ °enT night' as the? reP^sent the population with which the
deaths and other important statistical elements can be compared. The corporation
fL tw1;? Lo*do?> however, very naturally struck by the significance of the
tact that the population returned at the census within the ancient Umits under

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [board of works.
the jurisdiction of the Lord Mayor was only 113,387, and was constantly
declining, so that in a few years he might appear to be left, by night, the lord of
an empty realm (inania regna), determined to take a census to catch the throng
of people in the city during the day. This has been done with considerable
labour; and the results are published in an interesting report by Mr. Lawley,
and by Mr. Scott, the chamberlain. They show by their day census, in April,
1866, that 283,520 persons reside during the active hours of the day in the city of
London, where only 113,387 persons were found by the national census on April
8th, 1861, and where, at the rate of decrease observed between 1851 and, 1861,
there could have been no more than about 102,887 in the middle of 1866.
The classes that come and go, they say, " comprise some of the most influential,
wealthy, and enterprising of our fellow-countrymen — bankers, merchant princes,
brokers, and wholesale traders — carrying on business which has no parallel in the
world, and contributing, in the aggregate, a larger share of the public revenues
than any, and even than all similar classes in other parts of the empire." This is
true enough; but the reporters probably underrate the residents when they go
on to say — " The night population of the city consists, to a great extent, of the
caretakers of city premises and their families, and of tradesmen and others too
inconsiderable to possess a suburban or other residence." For the census shows,
among the night population, a number of clergymen, lawyers, physicians, surgeons,
merchants, and respectable tradesmen, who, it is to be presumed, form a chief
part of the constituency of the wards by which the 232 common councilmen and
aldermen are elected. The reporters enumerate 679,744 passengers into the city
in the sixteen hours between 5 A.M. and 9 p.m. — a number necessarily greater
than the number of persons entering, as the same person often enters and is
counted more than once. A similar, but less extensive movement of the people
to and from Westminster and the other central districts of the metropolis is going
on. In Manchester, Liverpool, and all the large cities of the kingdom, the same
thing is met with. The great boroughs overflow on all sides.
While the other towns of the kingdom are mainly governed under the
Municipal Act, by councils elected by open voting (5th and 6th William IV.,
c. 76), the city of London is left in the enjoyment of its ancient privileges, and
the rest of the metropolis is governed by thirty-eight parish vestries or boards,
under the provisions of the Metropolitan Management Act (18th and 19th
Victoria, c. 120). The government in the thirty-eight bodies consists of 2,279
vestrymen, elected by ballot. The city of London has a common council of 232
members, including the Lord Mayor and twenty-five aldermen. The metropolis has
thus, in the aggregate, 2,511 members in its thirty-nine parliaments. Each
district, as well as the city, sends one or two members to the Metropolitan Board of
Works, consisting of a chairman and five representatives. Every district is bound,
under the act of parliament, to appoint one or more health-officers ; and St. George,
Hanover Square, has appointed two ; Poplar, two ; Wandsworth, five ; Plumstead,
four ; and each of thirty-four districts, one — making, in the aggregate, forty-seven
medical officers, who have rendered the people of London excellent service.
Woolwich has some pretence for not appointing a medical health-officer, and has
availed itself of the privilege.
The jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Board of Works extends over the whole
area of the London registration division, except Mottingham : it also takes in the
hamlet of Penge, which is in the Croydon registration district, and contained,
around the Crystal Palace, 5,015 people in 1861, on an area of 840 acres. The
rateable annual value of property by the county rate assessment for 1867, is
£15,261,999; the amount required by the Metropolitan Board for that year, from
the several parishes, is £222,167, including £26,380 from the city of London,
which enjoys an annual income, from all sources, of about £200,000.
The mortality of London, it appears, is much affected by the sanitary measures
taken by the Metropolitan Board of Works. Furthermore, the health of the
VOL. II. 2y 681

church activity. 1 LIFE AND TIMES OF. [a.d. 1865.

inhabitants is seriously dependent on the water supplied. The violent outbreak of
cholera in 1866, in the east district, took place entirely among those who drank
the water of the East London Water Company. In that year, 13,054 of the 80,129
deaths in London took place in public institutions : 7,088 of them in the forty-six
workhouses under the control of the vestries and boards of guardians ; 4,980 in
the London, general, and special hospitals ; ninety-five in prisons.
The registrar-general writes — " The main drainage sewers, with the exception of
the northern low level, are now in active operation. They were commenced in Janu
ary, 1859, and formally opened on the 4th of April, 1865. The length of these main
sewers is eighty-two miles ; and, with the pumping stations and other works, cost
about £4,200,000. They carry off the drainage of about 117 square miles, having
a population estimated by the Board at 2,800,000. The sewage intercepted daily
amounts to 14,000,000 cubic feet, equivalent to 396,406 cubic metres, or to about
as many tons by weight ; the quantity discharged at Barking from the sewers
north of the Thames, being, to the quantity discharged from the southern sewers
at Crossness, in the proportion of 10 to 4. The report of the Board justly refers
to the necessity of a constant and abundant water-supply for London, both for
domestic use and for the purification of the sewers ; but it does not refer to
fhe defect in that part of the present drainage system which is under the control
of the vestry boards, and still deprives the people of the full advantages that the
main drainage is destined to bestow."
A great effort had been made by the church party to raise money by volun
tary subscriptions, for the purpose of overtaking the growing population of
the metropolis, and supplying their spiritual needs. The money for this pur
pose was known as the Bishop of London's fund. From the third annual report
we gather the following particulars. It, after giving details in iUustration
of the working of mission districts for the twelve months, stated that the
income during the year had been £41,089 19s. 5d., of which £16,000 was' on
account of instalments previously promised. Of the total amount received,
£7,735 6s. 6d. had been remitted by local associations, and £6,159 6s. 3d. was the
result of church collections. During the same period, the grants voted by the
committee ofthe fund were as follows: — Schools, £6,110; mission buildings,
£1,792; churches, £19,100; thirty-seven sites — viz., thirteen for schools, five for
parsonages, nineteen for churches — £29,753 10s: total, £56,755 10s. The total
income of the fund from June, 1863, to 31st December, 1866, was £189,795 7s. lid.
As against this income the following votes were stated to be in force,
namely — sixty-seven missionary clergy, £11,500; thirty-two parochial clergy,
£2,630 ; thirty-six Scripture readers, £1,951 ; 123 parochial mission women, £800;
total annual charge for agents, £16,581. Votes had also been passed for nine
parsonage houses, £1,700 ; twenty-five schools, £13,450 ; enlargement or fitting of
schools in five cases, £960; Board of Education for small grants to schools, £1,000;
thirty mission buildings, which were also generally used as schools, £13,258;
forty-seven new permanent churches, £47,365 ; fittings and expenses of missions in
thirty-one cases, £1,695; seventy-one sites— viz., twenty-eight for churches,
twenty-four for .schools, five for mission buildings, fourteen for parsonages,
£45,514; annual rent for rooms in ten cases, £423 ; total charge for single grants,
£124,942, of which £67,926, remained to be claimed. The number of clergy cited
to the visitation in 1866, was 1,127, which, as compared with 980 in 1862, gave an
increase of 147. Many of these, however, were missionary clergy, and could not
be considered as permanent additions to the staff of the diocese unless means were
found to maintain them until they secured the endowment of their districts.
During the same period of four years, moreover, there had been consecrated fifty-
two churches, towards sixteen of which the fund had contributed £16,500. Even
after making full allowance for all that was done by other reUgious bodies without
the church, they still needed 325 new clergy, with a proportionate staff of
Scripture readers, and 194 new churches, before London was brought to the scale
682 8

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [metropolitan statistics.
of arrangements for religious instruction which their statistical inquiries had
suggested. In commenting upon the report, it may be remarked, that although
much work has been done, a great deal remains to be performed: and let us
hope that when the period fixed for their labours (ten years) has ceased, the
work will be zealously undertaken by those who come after them. In addition
to the £190,000 which they had received in contributions since 1863, the general
public had given £900,000 ; and the ecclesiastical commissioners had contributed
£530,000. The report of the trustees of Mr. Peabody's gift to the poor of London, shows
that the original fund has been increased by the earnings of interest and rents, to the
extent of £15,416 8s. lid., making the sum total of the trust, at the end of
December, 1866, £165,416 8s. lid. The buildings at Spitalfields and IsUngton
continue to be fully occupied ; good order and contentment prevail ; and the
tenants, in the full enjoyment of new social comforts, and exempted from any
interference with their independence and freedom of action, show no disposition
to change. A few further facts and figures relative to the metropolis may be inserted here.
A return made by the ecclesiastical commissioners states, that the net revenue
of the bishopric of London, in the year 1865, was £20,067 ; of the dean and
chapter of St. Paul's, £10,870; of the dean and chapter of Westminster, £28,739.
In the year ending with October, 1865, the commissioners received, for the
purposes of their "common fund," £6,731 of income from the revenues of the see
of London; £4,160 from the revenues of St. Paul's; £13,378 from the revenues
of the dean and chapter of Westminster; and £24,621 from property vested in
the commissioners, and situate within the limits of the metropoUs : making, in all,
£48,899. There are, in " the city," 440 streets ; and in only seventy of them is there
room for more than two lines of vehicles to pass at a time for the entire length ;
so that a vehicle may stand still in any part of the street, and not interfere with
the progress of one line of traffic. In 111 of the streets only one line of vehicles
can pass; 101 have no exit, and are not thoroughfares at all. In the year 1865,
3,958 summonses were taken out by the city police against drivers and conductors
of vehicles and others, for offences tending to impede the free passage of the
public thoroughfares ; but these were only the worst cases, and were not a tenth of
the number who might very properly have been summoned. In the metropolis
outside "the city," 616 drivers of vehicles were convicted of furious driving in the
year 1865; 140 "persons were run over and killed; and 1,707 persons were maimed
or injured. These statements are authentic, being taken from evidence given
before a parliamentary committee this session by the commissioners of the metro-
politan and the city police.
The cost of the metropoUtan police, in the year 1865, including the dockyard
police, amounted to £630,604. The receipts from the rates were £389,873 ; the
rest of the expenditure was defrayed from the parliamentary grant, from parlia
mentary votes in payment for the services of the poUce at government offices and
public institutions, together with some incidental receipts. The expenditure
included a new item of £41 for expenses at the dockyards, under the Contagious
Diseases Act, and the like sum at military stations. The number of the metro
politan police, on the 1st of January, 1866, was '7,493 — viz., twenty-six superin
tendents, 217 inspectors, 798 sergeants, and 6,452 constables. Compared with the
numbers on the 1st of January, 1865, the return shows an increase of three among
the superintendents, six inspectors, thirteen sergeants, and 280 constables. This
year there are only 805 constables receiving the lowest salary of £49 8s. All
the men have . an allowance of coals. The cost of the police courts, with their
twenty-three magistrates, was £63,051. Penalties produced £13,651 ; the residue
of the expense was provided by parliament. The return does not include the city
police. 2 y 2 683

fortifications.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

The number of persons taken into custody during the year 1865, by the
metropolitan police, was 70,224. Among the charges, were 8,662 for common
assaults, 2,883 for assaults on the police, 2,409 for larceny from the person, 9,130
for simple larceny, 3,121 for unlawful possession of goods, 10,202 for being drunk
and disorderly, and 9,055 for drunkenness alone. As many as 4,971 persons were
taken into custody as vagrants. Of the 70,224 persons taken into custody, 31,103
were discharged by the magistrates, and 35,164 either summarily convicted of held
to bail ; while 3,957 were committed for trial. Of these, 3,091 were convicted and
sentenced, 702 acquitted, and, in 164 cases, either bills were not found or no
prosecution took place. With regard to the instruction of the persons taken into
custody, eighty-nine had received a superior education ; 2,299 could read and write
well; 57,045 could read only, or read and write imperfectly; and 10,791 could
neither read nor write. Of' the total number, 47,421 were males, and 22,803
females ; 362 had been convicted twice, fifty-five three times, eleven four times,
and two five times, and upwards. The number of felonies within the metro
politan police district, affecting property, amounted to 16,077, for which 2,187
persons ' were tried and convicted. These felonies involved a first loss of £71,232 ;
but of this sum £13,688 was recovered, leaving a total loss of £57,544.
Of the question respecting fortifications, in which Lord Palmerston had so
often to make such a fight, we gather the latest particulars from a report
drawn up and presented to parliament, prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Jervois,
E.E., Deputy Director of Fortifications, showing the progress made in the con
struction of fortifications for the defence of the dockyards, arsenals, and naval
harbours of the United Kingdom. The original estimate of 1860 has since been
reduced; and in the schedule of the act of 1865, the total estimated cost was stated
at £6,995,000, of which sum parliament had sanctioned the raising of £5,150,000
by loan ; and at the end of 1866, about £4,500,000 had been expended. The
rise in the cost of labour and of some materials, especially granite, and some
unforeseen difficulties in foundations on the marshy soil of the Medway, will
account for excesses upon the total estimates, amounting to £152,000 over the
sum stated in 1865. An additional £25,000 will also probably be required for
experiments and other incidental expenses ; and a further sum of £35,000 will be
required for cost of lands and special surveys, in consequence of the national survey
not having been completed ; but the cost of these special surveys will reduce the
annual vote for the national survey. A further and much larger excess will be
caused by the necessity of providing iron shields and iron-plated structures for sea
batteries. Since the estimates were framed, great strides have been made in the
construction of armour-plated ships and rifled ordnance ; and it is absolutely
essential that the guns in many works of sea defence should be protected in such
a manner as to be capable of resisting the attack of these modern inventions. A
large number of batteries have therefore been, or are being, constructed for the
reception of iron shields, by means of which alone this protection can be afforded.
In some cases, and especially where batteries in very important positions are liable
to attack by a large force concentrating its fire upon one of them, it is proposed to
adopt a wholly iron-plated construction. The additional sum required for iron
shields and iron-plated structures is estimated at £913,000, bringing the whole
excess over the estimates of 1865 up to £1,125,000; but this, it is considered, may
be reduced to £475,000, by omitting the items for Chatham eastern defences, and
of the site for a central arsenal. If the turrets and turn-tables proposed by the
fortification and defence committees be added, a further sum of £270,000 will
have to be provided in the estimates of future years. Colonel Jervois proceeds to
give a statement of the object and nature of each work proposed, the progress made
in its construction, the expenditure incurred upon it, and the probable sum for
which it can be completed. In the course of these statements, he observes that
submarine mines (torpedoes) would be largely employed in defence against naval
attack. For instance, in a case such as that of the Channel to Spithead, these
684

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the army.
destructive agents would be placed between two works in the central part of the
passage, in such a way as to oblige an enemy's ships to pass close to the forts, the
fire from which would prevent the mines being removed. The mode of applying
torpedoes in the most effectual manner has been for some time under the con
sideration of a committee specially appointed for the purpose. This committee
has tried many experiments, the result of which, in addition to the experience
gained in the late war in America, has shown the great value of submarine mines
employed in connection with forts. The arrangements proposed are such, that
while our own ships can pass over the torpedoes uninjured, those of an enemy could
be blown up. Colonel Jervois describes, in their turn, the new works for the
defence of the Thames. These are about three miles below Gravesend — viz., at
Coalhouse Point, on the left bank of the river, and at Shornmead and Cliffe Creek,
on the right bank. They are about half completed. Pending the completion and
arming of these works, the Thames is defenceless against the attack of an
iron-clad ship. It is proposed, therefore, to include in the estimates an item
for remodelling the old batteries of Tilbury Fort, opposite Gravesend, and
New Tavern Fort, just below the town. In presenting to the Secretary of State
for War this report from Colonel Jervois, General Sir J. F. Burgoyne states that
the plans of all these works have been approved by the fortification committee,
appointed by the late Lord Herbert, and have been subsequently submitted to the
defence committee at the Horse-Guards, of which the Commander-in-Chief is
president. Sir J. Burgoyne adds, for himself, that he has visited the works from
time to time during their progress, and is able to report that, they are being carried
on satisfactorily, and with every indication of answering very effectively the objects
for which they were designed. These objects were briefly described by the royal
commission of 1860, as the defence of harbours which would afford important facili
ties to an enemy, and the protection of vital points at which he would strike.
According to the latest decision of the Horse-Guards, our troops are being
armed, with the Snider rifle; the old Enfields being altered as rapidly as pos
sible. A return of the reports of General Hay, on the shooting at Hythe with the
above rifle, was made to the House of Commons; from which we learn that the
shooting of the 1853 pattern rifle was "very bad." In fact (writes General Hay),
it ceases to be an arm of precision with the ammunition supplied for it, while that
of the short rifle pattern, 1860, is good. "The angle of elevation, however," adds
the general, " of both descriptions of converted rifles is very much higher than that
of the same rifles as muzzle-loaders — namely, about half a degree in both cases.
The additional height of the trajectory, caused by this increase of elevation, is- a
most serious evil in a military arm — almost as great as want of accuracy. No
difficulty was experienced, during the trial, in extracting the cartridge-case ; and the
breech arrangements worked well." In a subsequent report, General Hay says that
"central fire-ball cartridges made up with a shorter or 480-grain bullet, called
pattern 3, the shooting with the Snider breech-loading long rifle at 600 yards,
is equal to, and at 800 yards better than, that of the muzzle-loading long Enfield
rifle, pattern 1853, with ordinary ammunition." A few defects in the weapon are
noted ; but, adds the general, " I have no doubt that these defects will be easily
overcome when the process of manufacture is better understood."
Sir Charles E. Trevelyan has republished, in a pamphlet (Longmans and Co.),
the five letters on the British army which appeared in the Daily News.
After referring, in his preface, to his earlier connection with the subject, as having
conducted the military correspondence of the Treasury, and superintended the
commissariat for many years, and been called on* to assist the royal commission
on the purchase system in 1846, Sir Charles refers to the recruiting system, the
true character of which, he affirms, must be perceived before the real position of
the question can be understood. At present men are got into the army by a
system of swindling ; and it is of course extremely difficult to keep together an
army which has been acquired by practices utterly immoral. "In 1858, 29
685

rifle associations.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865

per cent, of the army at home— 20,360 men out of 70,000— had their names
inserted in the Hue and Cry as deserters. Of these, 18,211, or 33 per cent, of its
strength, were from the line. In order to prevent the army from disbanding,
flogging was re-enacted in the Mutiny Act of 1859, and the punishment known as
' branding' was directed to be inflicted with increased particularity. These severi
ties have diminished desertion, but they haye also checked recruiting." The
recruiting commission recommended that the scale of payment for the purchase of
discharges should be considerably raised. This, Sir Charles observes, would both
check recruiting and increase desertion.
Why, in this case only, do we steel our hearts against the commonest
humanity, and shut our eyes to the most obvious dictates of morality ? We pick
out of the streets persons for whom we are not specially responsible, to reclaim
them in reformatories and penitentiaries ; and ourselves, through our paid agents,
corrupt our own young soldiers, who have the most affecting claims upon us for
protection and help. Even our army reformers, who have done so much for the
soldier after he is enlisted, avert their eyes from the flagrant scandals of the
recruiting system. Whence this gross inconsistency, this strange anachronism?
If the truth be not told there can be no amendment; and the truth is, that,
according to the existing constitution of the army, the existing recruiting system
is necessary for our national safety. There are but two sets of motives by which
mankind is influenced. One appeals to their animal nature and their fears ; the
other, to their human nature and their hopes. By giving to soldiers who enter
through the ranks a share of the military, and nearly the whole of the administra
tive promotion, we could make the army an object of desire to the whole of our
population, including that largest and best portion of it which has been practically
excluded for more than 200 years. The only bitter thing which the mildest of
men — the late Sir Eobert Inglis — ever said in parliament, was during the short
reign of the railway king : — " I can admire an aristocracy of talent ; I can respect
an aristocracy of rank ; but an aristocracy of wealth is not to be endured." The
army is the last place where this principle should be in the ascendant. How much
longer will it be permitted to obstruct every kind of improvement in that branch
of the public service upon which the preservation of all our interests depends ?
The annual report of the National Eifle Association for 1866, presents, in a
thick volume, a great amount of interesting information on the progress of rifle-
shooting among the English race, not only in England and Scotland, but all over
the world ; and by it we learn, that in different parts of India, at the antipodes, in
Canada, and other of our dependencies, the "Hythe position," "Wimbledon
targets," "Wimbledon regulations," and the other technicalities— the jargon
invented within the last six years, between Putney and Eoehampton— were as
"household words." It cannot but be gratifying to know that the Calcutta
Volunteer Eifles held two prize meetings during the year ; the one at Barrackpore,
and the other at Bailgurriah, and competed with Enfield rifles for prizes given by
the Maharajah of Burdwan, the viceroy, merchants, and other patrons of the
patriotic movement : that the Cape of Good Hope Eifle Association held a similar
meeting in the year at Sea Point, and competed, not only with the Enfield, but
with small bores; the latter, however, without any of the " fancy" sights which
have made small-bore shooting the amusement of the few in this country, but
strictly as military weapons : that the New South Wales Association held a meet
ing at Eandriek, near Sydney, when many prizes were competed for with the long
Enfield, by volunteers, and one " all-comers" match, with "any rifle;" a second
meeting being held at Paddington, near Sydney, when not the least honoured
prizes were_ portraits of the Prince and Princess of Wales : that the Northern
India Association held a meeting, when the regular service formed the principal
competitors, the others coming from the Bengal civil service and the Punjaub
police: that the Provincial Association of Nova Scotia held a meeting at Bedford,
when volunteers and regulars competed side by side: that the Prince Edward
686

aj>. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Greenwich hospital.
Island Association held a meeting at Charlotte Town, when the volunteer militia
fired for prizes with the long Enfield; that the Queensland Association held a
meeting at Brisbane, when a company, called by some home-loving Suffolk men
the "Ipswich Volunteer Eifles," gave the best shots; and that the Yokohama
Association held a meeting at about the same time as our Wimbledon, when, with
volunteers' fortune, the competitors first had very wet weather, and afterwards
had to fire under a strong tropical sun. These facts show the oneness of feeling
existing among Englishmen, spread though they may be all over the world. Of
the Wimbledon gathering of 1866, we learn that it was in every way a suc
cessful meeting, the shooting being better, the entries showing a great increase on
the previous year, and the public taking greater interest in the proceedings, as
shown by the fact that there was an increase of nearly £1,000 on the money taken
at the doors over the previous year. The Queen's Prize was more popular than
ever, the sum of £2,196 10s. being received as entrance fees, being an increase of
£148 on the previous year. All the prizes which the holders of military rifles
think they have a chance of winning, attract great numbers of entries, and are
very profitable ; while a loss is entailed by the " Albert,", which is shot for by the
few comers with the fancy rifles. The £500 offered as the " Alexandra" Prizes for
the Enfield, attracted entries to the amount of £1,105 10s. The "Windmill,"
another Enfield competition, attracted entries, for prizes amounting to £300, to
the sum of £577 10s. The "Martin's" Cup, given in honour of Sir William
Martin and his family, the prizes attached to which only amounted to £50,
attracted entries to the amount of £174 10s.; while the "Albert" prizes of £620,
given to any rifles with any sights, and which encourage only the useless and
expensive toy rifle-shooting, obtained only £597 10s. in entrance fees : in other
words, was carried on at a loss of £22 10s. The sight most in use in this com
petition is a spy-hole behind the hammer, capable of being adjusted by very delicate
machinery to allow for the slightest change of wind. The contrivance is said to be
hurtful to the sight, and the large body of riflemen set their faces against
becoming "small-bore men;" while military small-bore shooting finds no en
couragement. We must say a word about Greenwich Hospital and school. In the year 1865,
the administration of Greenwich Hospital and school was vested absolutely in the
Admiralty, and the estimate for the expenditure of the year 1867 has been laid
before the House of Commons. The administration of the Admiralty in larger
matters has been often challenged as wasteful and extravagant ; but the very magni
tude of the dockyard transactions has made it hard to bring home and give exact
precision to the charge. The expenditure of Greenwich Hospital lies in a nutsheU ;
and we have a clear and complete guide to the examination of it in the report
of the royal commission of 1860. It may not be out of place to examine the
estimate of expenditure, and compare it with that of 1859.
"The present hospital staff," says a writer in the Times, "was fixed in 1865,
and we must assume that the Admiralty fixed it at a standard whieh they con
sidered to be sufficient, and not more than sufficient, for the purposes of the hos
pital. It would seem to a civilian's eyes to be excessive. The number of pensioners
is 370, almost all of whom are cripples; but the Admiralty have appointed one
captain and two lieutenants to govern them, and several medical officers to look
after their health. It was thought sufficient, in the first instance, to place at the
head of the medical establishment a deputy inspector-general of hospitals, and this
was the establishment which the House of Commons last year sanctioned. Since
then, the number of pensioners has fallen off; but it is proposed, in this year's
estimates [1867], to provide an inspector-general in addition to the deputy, and
without any diminution in the rest of the medical staff. It is also proposed to add
to the salaries, and, for the first time, to give allowances to the medical officers.
The result is, that the cost of the medical staff, which last year was £1,870, is
estimated for the current year at £3,208. 687

GREENWICH HOSPITAL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF

[A.D. 1865.

"The charge for works and repairs at Greenwich Hospital and school has
always been very large. In the year 1859 it amounted to £9,766, and had
averaged £14,000 a year during the twenty previous years. The royal com
missioners of 1860, appear to have narrowly investigated this large outlay; and
state, on the authority of the inspector of works, that in future years, even with
the hospital full, it might safely be reduced to £5,000 a year. During the last
two years, three-fifths of the hospital has been empty ; but the charge for repairs last
year was £6,157, and for the current year is estimated at £8,240. It would seem
that Admiralty control is not conducive to economy here.
" If I am not misinformed — I only write from hearsay here — a part of this
large expenditure on works has been incurred to meet the fancies of one of the
lieutenants, who required more spacious lodging accommodation than it has been cus
tomary to award to the lieutenants of the hospital. I am told that two storeys
have been thrown into one to please this gallant officer, at a cost to the country
nearly equal to two years of his salary. If this be true, or approximately true, it
is nothing new in the annals of the hospital. A naval officer appointed to the
hospital regards it as his ship ; and, as was said before the dockyard commission,
' the first thing he d<5es is to go to the naval yard ; he wants some alterations
made.' The report of 1860 tells us, that in twenty years there was spent, upon the
officers' apartments alone, at Greenwich Hospital, £47,500. It seems pretty clear
that the practice is likely to continue.
"The total estimate for the current year's expenditure upon the hospital,
exclusively of the school, amounts to £46,843, for a complement of 370 pensioners.
I cannot, I think, better analyse this expenditure than by throwing it into the
tabular form, which was adopted by the royal commissioners of 1860, and by
copying from page 48 of their report, and adding a line showing the estimated cost
for the current year of the Greenwich pensioner, compared with his cost in former
years, and with the cost of a French pensioner, in 1848, at the Hotel des
Invalides : —

Invalide (1848)
Pensioner (1805)
Pensioner (1859)
Pensioner (1867)

Cost to the Institution for Money
Allowance, Food, Clothing, Medi
cines, Nursing:, and Personal
Attendance.

£ s. d.
26 11 2
28 14 4
30 77

51

6*

0

Cost to the Institution for Discipline,
Administration, and Expenses
of Fabric.

£ s. d.
5 5 0
9 1 3
29 18 4
75 5 0

Total Cost.

£ S. d.
31 16 2
37 15 7
59 6 11
126 12 0

" Now, sir, considering that the estimate for a civil hospital in the country, is
£25 to £30 a bed yearly, and for the most luxurious of our London hospitals not
more than £40 a bed yearly, I think that strong reason is shown for questioning
the administration by the Admiralty of this great naval hospital. Make all
allowances you will for the size of the buildings, and for the money and other
allowances given to the pensioners, there remains a residuum of costliness for
which the Admiralty must be held to strict account. I have not the means of
comparing it with Haslar and Netley hospitals. It may be that the Admiralty
and the War Office are more successful there. But this I know, that the manage
ment of Greenwich Hospital is less successful than that of St. George's Hospital,
and costs more than three times as much. I find, too, that the cost is on the
increase; that the estimate of this year exceeds the vote of last year by £1,100;
and that the charge for the medical staff is proposed to be augmented 75 per
cent, over that of 1866.
" I now turn to the Greenwich Hospital school. The royal commissioners of
1860 have entered most fully and minutely into the expenditure under this head.
688

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Greenwich hospital.
They tell us that, in 1821, there were 'two schools, which the Admiralty of that
date, for the sake of economy, threw into one. One of them, called the Greenwich
School, contained 200 boys ; and the other, the Eoyal Naval Asylum, educated and
maintained 600 boys, and 200 girls. The amalgamation was a great financial
success, as the cost of education was reduced thereby from £29 to £16 10s. a
head, making a clear saving of nearly £7,000 a year. In 1860, the commissioners
inform us that the charge has risen again to £29 a head. Now, sir, if the
increase of expenditure represented nothing but improved education and a larger
supply of the necessaries and proper conveniences of life, no one could say a word
against the Admiralty for having gradually undone the work of economy, which
Lord Melville and his Board effected in 1822. But this was not the case. The
food of the boys was, indeed, in 1859 sufficient ; and the education of the two
highest classes of the upper school was admirable; but the state of the dor
mitories was lamentable, the provision for health and cleanliness most inadequate,
and the general arrangements deplorably inferior to what was found in those
magnificent institutions, the district union schools of Han well, Sutton, and Anerley,
in which the pauper children of London and its suburbs are taught, maintained,
and trained to industrial pursuits, at a charge varying from £13 to £15 a year.
The commissioners tell us that, owing partly to mismanagement, and partly to the
increased cost of schooling, the Admiralty, in 1841, found it expedient to reduce
the number from 1,000 to 800 children, striking off the list the 200 girls, and
substituting no other provision for their education or training — with what
unfortunate results, in a moral point of view, page 37 of the report sets forth.
And they go on to say —
" ' We have strong grounds for believing that, with efficient superintendence,
without impairing in the least degree the quality of the education, at the same
time improving all the sanitary arrangements, the entire cost might be brought
within £18 a year for every boy.'
" And again---
" ' The funds devoted to the schools provide now an education for 800 boys.
The same funds, more economically handled, might certainly educate 1,000,
perhaps 1,200 boys.'
" Yet the Admiralty, unmoved by this exposure, uninfluenced by the desire to
turn to the best account the vast educational plant and vacant buildings they have
at Greenwich, and to atone for past extravagance by educating, without increased
outlay, another 200 boys and an equal number of girls (all which, by proper effort,
was within their power), have, without increasing the number of the pupils, added
yet to the cost of the education, and raised it from £21,500 in 1859, to £24,719 in
1866, and propose for the current year an outlay of £25,335. I leave these facts
to speak for themselves. To me, I confess, such waste seems criminal. It is not
only money squandered, but education denied. If the expenditure of 1859
sufficed for 1,200 children, but was employed on 800 only, what are we to say to
the proposed expenditure of 1867 ? It might have reared, for the navy and the
merchant service 1,200 boys, and have provided at the same time for 200 girls, the
daughters of sailors. It is all squandered on 800 boys. I wonder that the naval
lord who presides over naval education can rest quietly ¦ in his bed. I wonder that
his dreams are not haunted by the 'seamen slain, killed, or drowned in sea
service,' who, under the Greenwich Hospital Acts, have a right to claim that their
'children be provided for, and educated so far forth as the hospital shall be
capable to receive them.' If the Admiralty are not equal to the task of civil
and educational supervision, why do they undertake it ? If they have elected to
perform the duty, the blame is theirs if the work be idly and wastefully done."
The different rate of progress in England and France is shown by the recent
census of France, which states that the population of that country has increased
1*82 per cent, during 1861 — '66; while the increase in the eighty-six departments —
excluding Savoy and Nice — inthe previous five years(1856 — '61) was 1-69 percent.
689

ENGLAND AND FRANCE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
The increase of population from 1861 to 1866, was therefore at the rate of -36 per
cent, per annum. The population of England in the ten years, 1851 — '61, increased
at the rate of 1*13 per cent, per annum. The cause of this comparatively slow
rate of increase of population in France has recently been made a subject of dis
cussion by French statists. The proportion of children to a marriage, and, con
sequently, the population of a country, are regulated to a considerable extent by
the age at which marriage is contracted, and by the age of the parents when
the children are born. The mean age at which marriages are first contracted in.
England, is 25-5 years for males, and 24-3 years for females. In France the mean
age of marriage is 30-5 years for males, and 26-0 years for females; but these
numbers include all the re-marriages of widowers and widows, the mean age at
which marriage is first contracted in France being 28*8 years for males, and 24*7
years for females ; the bachelors of France marrying 3*3 years later than the
bachelors of England ; the marriages of spinsters not being much longer postponed
in France than in England. The age of majority in France is twenty-five years;
in England it is twenty-one years ; and it has been remarked, whether the dif
ference in the age of majority between the two countries does not exercise a con
siderable influence with reference to the mean age of marriage, the advanced age
of majority in France, or of what becomes practically the lowest age of marriage
having the effect of retarding marriage in many cases, and partially accounting
for the comparatively small number of children to a marriage. The French official
returns show, that the proportion of births to 1,000 persons living, was 25-87 in
1853, 26-02 in 1857, and 26-21 in 1864 ; while in England, the birth-rate to 1,000
population, was 33-27 in 1853, 34-43 in 1857, and 35-64 in 1864. The birth
rates in France were highest in the following departments : — Nord (Lille) ; Seine
(Paris); Finisterre (Brest); Bas Ehin (Strasbourg); Bouches-du-Ehone (Mar
seilles); Loire (St. Etienne) ; Gard (Nimes); and Pas-de-Calais (Boulogne):
showing that the restriction to the increase of population appears to be less where
industry and commerce are flourishing. The marriage rate (persons married to
1,000 Uving) in each of the two countries, France and England, was 15-50 and
17-88 in 1853; 16-34 and 16-52 in 1857 ; 16-32 and 16-28 in 1861; 16-18 and
16-14 in 1862; and 15-52 and 17-36 in 1864. Owing to restrictions in fecundity
(number of births to a marriage) in France, the marriage rate affords no true
criterion of the condition and prospects of the population. There are, on an
average, but 311 children born in wedlock in France to every 100 marriages;
whereas, in England, the proportional number is 384. The proportion of young
people who marry before attaining the full age of 21, has never been so high in
England as during the year 1864; and it is curious to observe how widely this
practice varies in different parts of the country. In Bedfordshire, 18 in 100 men,
and 28 in 100 women, who married, were minors. In Nottinghamshire, 10 in 100 of
the men, and 22 in 100 of the women, were minors ; the straw-plait and lace-manu
factures, apparently, being the cause of promoting early marriages, by affording
employment to children and to young people. The smallest proportions of minors
who married were in North Wales, Northumberland, Hereford, and London. In
France, marriages are contracted early in the departments of Herault, Seine-et-
Marne, Aisne, Eure-et-Loire, Aude, Gironde, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, Lot-et-Garonne,
and Tarn-et-Garonne. Late marriages are contracted in Ille-et-Vilaine, Haute
Pyrenees, Manche, Doubs, Jura, Basses Pyrenees, C6tes-du-Nord, and Mayenne.
Comparative lateness of marriage in France is not, however, always incompatible
with high rates of fecundity, and, vice versa; for, in the departments of Ille-et-
Vilame and C6tes-du-Nord, where the mean age at marriage is high, the number
of legitimate children to a marriage is comparatively large ; while, on the other
hand, m the departments of Gironde, Oise, Seine-et-Oise, Lot-et-Garonne, and
Tarn-et-Garonne, where the mean age at marriage is low, the legitimate births to
a marriage are comparatively few. The slow rate of increase of population in
France, compared with that of England, may, therefore, be chiefly attributed to a
690

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. Lfabmebs' S0NS"
low ratio of births, the result of late marriages, and of hindrances to fecundity.
Early marriages have the effect of shortening the interval between generations, and
tend in that way to increase the population. The spirit and character of a nation
alone determine the limit to its numbers ; and the increasing power and prosperity
of England and her colonies, resulting from a high rate of increase of population,
have proved the fallacy of the doctrine, " that the increase of the human race
should be restricted, so that it may not outstrip the means of subsistence." The
proportion of deaths to 1,000 persons living in each of the two countries— France
and England— was 21-96 and 22-88 in 1853; 23-75 and 21-80 in 1857; 23-18 and
21-63 in 1861 ; and 21-72 and 23-86 in 1864. In France, in 1854 and 1855, the
deaths exceeded the births. The mean after-lifetime, or expectation of life in
England, is 40-9 years. In France, it is 39*7 years.
A question of necessary importance is, What is to be done with the sons of
the middle classes? The Central Farmers' Club have discussed the important
topic of emigration, not for the agricultural labourer, the carpenter, the black
smith, the wheelwright, and artisans generally, but for young fellows of education
and capital — say sons of farmers ; and the Eev. E. Smythies, of Hathern Eectory,
Loughborough, undertook to tell such men what is the best part of the world
for them to go to with £500 or £1,000 ; and what they ought to do when they get
there. Undoubtedly, emigration is becoming a subject of vast interest to the
middle and upper-middle classes in this kingdom ; and especially are there numbers
of tenant-farmers, and also gentlemen of independent means, with large families,
who wiU be thankful to know of some plan by which active and educated sons
can be established in a useful and honourable position of life, with a prospect
of fair income, a reasonable hope of laying something by for old age, yet without
descending to menial drudgery. In fact, since Mr. Smythies mooted the subject,
he has been overwhelmed with letters of inquiry from persons of the class
referred to.
"What should the young emigrant go out to do?" He should invest his
capital and energies, replies the reverend gentleman, not in tillage agriculture,
not in any trade or commerce, still less in gold digging ; but in sheep and cattle
farming in those parts of the world where pasturage, on an extensive scale, can be
obtained with the least possible employment of labour. The objection to- crop
farming is the exceeding dearness of labour. Sheep farming is unquestionably
the best, and produces the most rapid increase upon the capital originally
invested. " Where should the emigrant stock-farmer go ?" Mr. Smythies considers that
AustraUa and New. Zealand have seen their best days as outlets for emigrants of
the "white-handed" order. In Australia, sheep farming now requires the
command of a large amount of capital; and both there, and in New Zealand,
as well as in the United States, the prevailing policy is to form a population of
small occupiers living by tiUage husbandry. The emigrant's paradise, according
to Mr. Smythies, is the Argentine Eepublic, comprising the immense alluvial
plains lying south of the great estuary of La Plata, and west of the Uruguay,
extending westward to the Cordilleras, or the great range of the Andes, and lying
between the 25th and 35th degrees of south latitude. The climate is extremely
salubrious ; the land level, free from timber, and so good in quality that it is
calculated that an acre of it will keep twice as many sheep as an acre in Australia.
Buenos Ayres, the most southern province, has the best sheep pasturage ; but in
the north, on the border of Brazil, the land is cheaper. Mr. Smythies' son,
joining with partners, bought three square leagues for £600 ; and so quickly
does the soil improve under grazing management, that £600 worth of land will
sell for £900 in a year's time. Sheep vary in price, from 3s. to 10s. a head,
the latter figure being the cost of imported or well-bred ones ; but a good flock
there can be bought for 5s. and 6s. a head. And on an average " run," a flock of
4,000 ewes, and 1,000 ewe lambs, will, in four years' time (according to actual
691

legal reform.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
experience), increase to 33,000 head. It is clear that the utmost freedom
political and religious, is guaranteed by the constitution of the country, and that
there is every security for person and property.
Mr. Parish, her majesty's consul at Buenos Ayres, has sent home some
valuable information. He says — "There is no part of the world where
the emigrant is better received, and better protected by the laws of the country
or where there is less invidious distinction drawn between him and the native of
the country. * * * * In some parts you may travel for fifty or sixty miles
continuously over Englishmen's land ; and invitations are being sent by emigrants
of every class for their relatives to join them. A steady progress is going on
under a liberal government ; and the tenure of land is a great attraction, there
being no difficulty in buying land under the system of registration, which is
far more simple than anything of the kind in Great Britain." On the frontier
where there is some little danger from the Indians, land can be had for almost
nothing; but in well-populated districts, the price of the most eligible and
favourably situated land is 20s. per acre, and that land will carry three sheep
per acre. Mr. Hall, from the Cape of Good Hope, where he has resided nine years, and
has a large area of land, tells us that as much money was to be made there as in
any other part of the world. He had purchased a great breadth of good land at
6s. to 20s. per acre; and recently had given £150 for 1,500 acres, which would carry
one-and-a-half sheep per acre. The Southdown was there found the worst breed
to import ; the Eamboulli and long-wooled rams answering best. With a flock
numbering about 2,000, the increase, in his case, had been 85 to 90 per cent, for
each 100 ewes.
Mr. Smythies thus describes the mode of life of his son and partners in South
America. They rose at four o'clock in the morning ; turned the sheep out of the
corral, where they had been kept during the night ; and got their horses lassoed
and saddled. They breakfasted at five. They were employed up to eleven in
tending the sheep and cattle ; which they did — as indeed everything was done there
— on horseback. By eleven, it was too hot for the stock to graze, and they were
then driven to shade and water. Soon after eleven came dinner. Their living
was good, and seemed to " improve with every letter he got from them." They had
coffee and biscuits, butter and milk, and sometimes tea, for breakfast. For dinner,
they had roast mutton and roast beef, potatoes and boiled pumpkins; supper was of
the same character. They had corn beef, prepared by a Scotch servant. Bread they
did not obtain. After dinner, in accordance with the universal system of the country,
they had a siesta, lasting two or three hours. A little before sunset they put their
sheep and cattle in the corrals ; after which they unsaddled their horses, and turned
them into a paddock, and then prepared for bed. Numbers of persons leading
a life of this kind have made fortunes in a few years, beginning at about
twenty, and returning at thirty to thirty-five years of age. The Indians are
"ugly customers," and on the frontiers are very troublesome ; but they have no
quarrel with Englishmen, as a general rule ; avoid coming in contact with them,
and use no fire-arms.
Much remains to be done in legal reform. At present, nothing in our legis
lation is more unjust to a special class, and more detrimental to personal character,
than the law which makes newspaper proprietors answerable for anv libellous
statements which they may publish in bond fide reports of public meetings. So
general is the ignorance of the public respecting the legal responsibilities of
journalism, that most readers of the daily papers will, even at this date, learn with
astonishment that the privilege which covers substantially truthful reports of pro
ceedings in courts of law, does not extend to any of the other public meetings at
which the interests of the country, the pecuniary expenditure of corporations, or
the affairs of great proprietaries, are openly discussed in the hearing of all who
like to pass through open doors for the purpose of listening to the speakers. Par-

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [criminal convictions.

liamentary, municipal, and poUtical meetings ; municipal council meetings ; local
commissioners' meetings, and meetings of poor-law guardians ; vestry meetings ;
meetings of magistrates ; county, borough, and parish meetings ; meetings of public
charities and institutions ; meetings for benevolent, educational, reformatory, and
religious purposes ; meetings to promote political, legal, and social reforms and
improvements; meetings of mechanics' institutes, literary, and other public socie
ties; public lectures ; meetings of railway proprietors, and of banking and other
joint-stock companies — these are amongst the assemblies which journalism is
required to report; and, under the existing law, may report only at its own peril.
Any one of these assemblies may be productive of occurrences concerning which it
is of the highest moment that the public should be accurately informed : it may be
held with open doors ; the press may have been invited to report its proceedings ;
every speaker may have come to the meeting with the full knowledge that his
words would be published ; the speeches may concern matters about which the
reporters have no special knowledge by which they could measure the veracity of
the speaker ; and yet, if they give currency to a libellous utterance, they are liable
to punishment. No one would read a morning paper which omitted to report the
speeches made by our principal speakers at political assemblies ; no sane person
accepts the statements made in the report of a speech on the authority of the
journaUst who reported it, or the journalist who published it : the statements, be
they true or false, wise or foolish, are accepted as the speaker's words ; and so far
as they may savour of immorality, the speaker is condemned by the moral sense of
the country. But whilst common sense and public opinion thus concur in regard
ing the printed words of a report, the law fastens the penal consequences of its
libellous utterances on the reporter, and allows the guilty speaker to go scot free.
This system of whipping the innocent for the offences of the guilty acts injuriously
in two different ways. By inducing journalists to be more anxious for their own
personal safety than zealous for the information of their readers, it lessens the
number and effectiveness of the safeguards which perfect publicity affords to
private character against the influence of calumnious tongues. By inspiring
speakers with a sense of irresponsibility, it renders/them reckless.
Another question rising up is that of criminal convictions. As recently
as 1856 or 1857, convicts, under sentence of penal servitude, enjoyed practical
mitigations of their punishment on three important points. The labour to which
they were put, in itself not immoderate, was lightened by its interesting nature,
and the prospect which it carried of pecuniary profit. The culprits were engaged
in industrial occupations, which often taught them some handicraft, and for success
in which they were liberally rewarded. Then the mere imprisonment had come to
represent " a period of contemplative seclusion," varied by cheerful work, during
which time the convict was placed upon a dietary so good and plentiful, that he
fared better than any honest neighbours of his own class. Nor was this all ; for
the duration of the penalty was shortened by an extraordinary interpretation of
the law. A sentence of penal servitude for life did not mean penal servitude for
life, nor anything like it. It meant, at the outside, such a confinement as we have
been describing for the space of ten years, and was often not extended beyond
eight. If the seclusion was found to be unfavourable to an offender's health, he
was frequently released after a few months' detention ; and Mr. Measor relates the
case of a convict who, having been sentenced to life servitude for a crime equiva
lent to wilful murder, was liberated in less than three years, and allowed to return
in comfort to his usual occupation in the place where his crime was committed.
Good food, therefore, pleasant employment, and speedy release, were all in prospect
to modify the terrible sentence of servitude for life ; and Mr. Measor informs us
that, according to the ideas of those days, anything like severity of treatment or
labour was regarded as actually detracting from the efficiency, and destroying the
ends, of punishment itself. No wonder that the " mistaken public feeling" which
produced such a system was found rather damaging to the interests of the public.
693

penal servitude.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
There was nothing in punishment to deter a ruffian from crime ; and the conse
quence was that honest men were garotted, while thieves were thought to be
reclaimed. On every one of these points, however, a change has come over our practice.
The hard labour of a convict is now really hard labour ; not a pleasant industrial
occupation, but toilsome, dreary work, without hope or beguilement. Instead of
making ladies' shoes or fancy baskets, with a share in the profits, the criminal is
now put to crank, shot drill, or the monotonous strain of the treadwheel. Instead
of retiring to a comfortable cell after his day's toil, he finds nothing but a wooden
bed with a wooden pillow; and to this painful life there is no visible end.
Formerly, the Ufe sentence of a convict could be " brought under the consideration"
of the Home Secretary, after ten years had elapsed, and in cases of illness much
earlier. Now the time has been extended from ten years to twelve, and from twelve
to twenty — that is to say, no proposal for the mitigation of such a sentence can
be so much as entertained until twenty years of penal servitude have been
endured. Truly, the punishment has been "greatly intensified." Mr. Measor
calculates, indeed, that the practical severity of the sentence has, within the space
of a few years, been " multipUed threefold ;" nor should we be much disposed, after
his explanations, to question the conclusion. Under the old system, a life-sen
tenced prisoner was sent upon an " enlivening passage" to Western Australia or
Bermuda, with nothing to do on the voyage, and with light work, liberal rations,
and attractive prospects awaiting him at the place of his destination. After
serving, not his time, but only a fraction of it, " under the lax discipline of a
colonial prison, with the privileges of rum and tobacco," he returned home by
another pleasant sea-trip with a " small fortune" — £20, £30, or £40, earned in gaol.
That was the old system in practice ; and certainly the new system, with its
grinding toil, its meagre diet, and its painful lodging protracted through inter
minable years, may fairly enough be described as three times as bad.
But now, says the Times, in an able leader, though we admit the force of the
contrast presented to us, and the accuracy of the balance, as struck by Mr. Measor
against the advantages of the offender, we must needs ask whether the present
system can be justly characterised as a second " extreme ?" The old system was
undoubtedly an extreme. To hold that servitude for Ufe should mean servitude for
eight or ten years ; that hard labour should mean light labour ; and that penalty for
crime should bring a better lot with it than honest work— these opinions were
beyond question extravagant. They only need stating to be reeognised as
extravagant now. But is it equally true to say that our present practice is extra
vagantly severe, because penal servitude for Ufe really means little short of penal
servitude for life; because the hard labour enjoined by the law is really hard labour ;
and because fhe lot of a criminal is really painful? Are we not rather now
getting to the simple truth and reality of things ? Of what use is it, for the purposes
of argument, to prove that a sentence of life servitude is now three times as severe
as it used to be, if the former practice offers no true standard of comparison ? It
appears to us that our present system deals with realities as it ought to do ; and that
if any modifications are required in consequence, they should be left to the judge.
It is of the utmost importance that sentences should imply what they profess to
imply, instead of being empty words. Penal servitude should be actually penal
servitude ; and if it means so much more now than it did formerly, that would
be simply a reason for measuring its duration accordingly. No doubt, if a
convict under a life sentence was adequately punished by the system of 1856,
he would be more than adequately punished now; but that is for a court to
consider. We cannot regard our system of criminal treatment as carried to an
extreme, simply because it treats criminals as criminals, and executes the original
sentence. 694

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the east.

CHAPTEE XXXIV.
THE EASTERN QUESTION.
In foreign affairs Lord Palmerston's Eastern poUcy seems on the point of
expiring. Whilst the greater or less extension of suffrage engrosses the pubUc mind in
England, events are silently working in tho east of Europe, and preparing vast
changes. The history of mankind consists, in great part, of struggles between races.
After the struggle comes the victory of one over the other. A settlement is made,
and the same process is repeated.
It is useless to inquire in what proportions force and intelligence enter into
the required superiority. It is compounded of both, as momentum is formed by
weight and velocity multiplied.
to. most cases this natural superiority, once vanquished, never rises again to
its old eminence. So have perished Egyptian, Assyrian, Eoman greatness. So
finishes, before our eyes, the onoe mighty Turkish empire. -
But this is not always so. In the great designs of Providence some nation-
aUties do rise again, and obtain a wide influence over the world. This is the case
with the Greeks in our day.
But where is their power to be found ? Not certainly in the small kingdom
of that name, with its illustrious but diminutive capital. No ; we find Hellenic
intelligence and national feeling in the counting-houses of British merchants ; on
the shores of the Mediterranean ; at Marseilles and Smyrna. Nay, it would be a
curious problem to ascertain in what proportion it directs the affairs of Con
stantinople itself,
We cannot go back to the ardent sympathy for the Hellenic cause which sent
men and money to the shores of Greece forty years ago, and which triumphed at
Navarino. But, subjecting men and things to the most practical analysis, it is im
possible to deny the talent, the enterprise, or the lucid intellect of many Hellenes.
So that, in our day, an ancient civilisation, entwined with the recollections of
classic education, is coming up once again to the surface. The second half of our
century has seen one great task accompUshed in the unity and independence of
Italy. It is probably destined to witness the accomplishment of a greater change,
in the establishment of an Hellenic empire at Constantinople. For, when intel
ligence, wealth, and patriotism all work together, their triumph over comparative
barbarism can only be a question of time ; and neither the efforts of cabinets nor
armies can, in the long run, prevent its realisation.
Who will rejoice at, who will dread, this inevitable march of time ?
In the first category must be included friends to humanity and justice ; for the
inner portions of the Turkish empire can never become civilised, in the European
sense of the word. The traditions and practice of Islam alike preclude it. This
is the moral obstacle. A physical one, of scarcely less moment, is the loose con
stitution of the sultan's power, founded on Oriental tradition, which makes the
local governors all but independent of their sovereign. Hence the empire is really
governed by satraps, who are irresistibly tempted to be merciless and exacting.
Hence flows a permanent stream of misgovernment from each local centre. Turkish
bond-holders, and a few politicians who foUow, in a servile manner, the opinions of
two great public men, not considering the changeful tide of circumstances — these
wul regret the downfaU of Turkish dominion.
Two solutions are possible, The boldest and best would be, to transfer the
695

Russian diplomacy.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. I860.
seat of the Hellenic government to Constantinople, and, with that, all the European
dominions of the sultan would form part of the new empire ; or a federation of
Hellenes might be formed, but still with the city of Constantine as its centre of
government. Such is the pleading of the friends of Greece. Unfortunately, there are two
sides to the question. Eussia will have something to say on the subject.
The Journal de St. Petersbourg, of the 14th March, 1867, pubUshes the
following letters and despatches, which are prefaced thus : —
" We are able to publish the following documents. They date from 1860.
At that time, the situation of Turkey was such as to foretel a crisis. The Hatti-
Houmayoun of 1856, which emanated from the initiative of the sultan, and was
sanctioned by Europe, had awoke among the Christians hopes that were not realised.
The more those hopes had been strong, the more painful was their deception, when
they were convinced that no serious improvement was to be expected from it. The
abundant information the imperial government was receiving from all parts of
Turkey, had prompted it to propose to the great powers an entente between them
and the Porte, in view of proceeding to a collective inquiry upon the real state of
affairs. Prince Gortchaeow wrote the following letters and despatches, to that
effect, to the representatives of his majesty the emperor at London and Paris: —

« i

1. Extract from a Letter from His Excellency Prince Gortchaeow to His
Excellency Baron Brunnow, dated from St. Peter sburgh, April 29th (May
8th), 1860.
" ' We calmly wait for the answers of the great Courts relative to the Eastern
question. Whatever they might be, we have the conviction of having fulfilled a
duty of humanity and of political foreseeing. Our admonitions are not based
upon vague information, nor upon a tendency to exaggerate the situation. It is
us only who know the sum of efforts and sacrifices we have made, and are still
making, to prevent the exploding of the despair1 of the Christian population.
If Europe is wise, she will take the proper steps. I have only touched the main
point of the question in our communications. As to the forms, we shall accept all
that will render more acceptable to the sultan the collective action of the great
powers, if such action is resorted to, provided the fundamental ideas remain
identical. It is far from our intention to humiliate the Ottoman government, or
to create for it new embarrassments by rendering public an European condemna
tion. We wish to save it from the unavoidable consequences of its errors and
blindness. I am aware that, if the details of Europe's intervention were known,
the explosion could be possibly hastened. We shall avoid the publicity of those
details. However, we think that the fact alone of Europe resolutely concerning
herself about their condition — a fact which, in principle, cannot be concealed —
would be a check against a rising to arms, and a motive to induce them to endure
their wrongs a little longer.'

2. Letter from Prince Gortchaeow to Count Kisselew, Ambassador at Paris,
dated from St. Petersburgh, May 12th (24th), 1860.

ac '

'The earnestness with which the French minister of foreign affairs has
received our overtures, is a proof of good-will that we have duly appreciated.
" ' However, we were sure that the urgent necessity of our step could not
escape a mind so deeply affected with the dangers menacing the Ottoman govern
ment, and with the imprudent way it increases them by the course it has adopted :
we could therefore suppose that, by calling the attention of Europe to the gravity
of that situation, we were evoking even the recollections of M. Thouvenel. I shaU
not revert to the condition I have developed in the despatch you will receive to
day ; you will read it to the minister for foreign affairs, and give him a copy of it,

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gortchacow's letter.
should he wish for it. I hope that he ,will be convinced, first, that a prolongated
carelessness of Europe could become a crime against the general peace (un crime de
lese-paix genirale) ; secondly, that the existence of the Ottoman government,
menaced on account of the unbearable existence of the Christians, occasioned by its
acts, can be preserved but by severely punishing the guilty persons, and by
following a more humane conduct towards the Christian population. I repeat
that we do not aim at any exclusive interest for Eussia : our wish is to preserve
Europe from the eventual danger of a general conflagration ; for that purpose, we
openly invite her to co-operate with us in a task that no power could honourably
decline as being alien to its feelings and principles. What we said to France on
that subject we also said to England, Austria, and Prussia. No Court could take
into consideration confidences showing any partiality whatever. You will have
noticed that in my despatch, although we confine ourselves to the heart of the
question, we do not adhere to any programme : and that we are ready to adopt
any form Ukely to ensure success without wounding any susceptibilities. Duty
commands us, however, not to lose sight of an important circumstance — I mean,
that the desire of conciUating all ought not to be pushed to extremities, and to
such an extent that Europe could jeopardise the advantages of the action to which
we invite her. Here time is not our auxiliary ; our opinion is, that every illusion
on that subject would be dangerous. You are already aware that none of the
powers we have applied to have objected to the inquiry. According to an indirect
advice, the Porte alone has instructed Vefik Pacha to protest. One of the docu
ments hereby annexed, will show you what I wrote on that subject to Prince
Lobanow. We persist in our belief that an inquiry, with the concurrence of
Europe, would benefit the Porte. It is only in such a character that it would give
a guarantee to the Christian population; that it would tend to calm their
agitation. We think that it would be possible to instruct the representatives of
the great Courts at Constantinople to discuss that question with the Ottoman
government, by upholding the considerations which are to its advantage. We do
not pretend to say that all the information we have received is of a mathematical
exactness. Moreover, we should be delighted to be convinced it possesses no
foundation whatever ; that would rehabilitate the Ottoman government, reassure
our .conscience, and dissipate our political pre-occupations ; but such a proof can
issue but from an European inquiry conscientiously made. As it is a question of
facts, the contrary evidence ought to result from an examination made on the
spot ; and no cleverness could react against the convictions borne from such
an examination. Moreover, the starting-point of our step lies upon numerous and
painful informations that have been accumulating in our archives for some months.
We are more interested than any other power in ascertaining if that starting-point
is true or false. We have delayed, as long as possible, overtures the gravity of
which we fully understand. We began by forwarding to the Ottoman government
the text of the deplorable informations we were receiving ; we earnestly solicited
the Porte herself to meet that emergency in her own interest. We did not conceal
from her the danger she was incurring. All that has had no other result than
indefinite and illusory promises ; and, finally, the nomination of a commissioner,
appointed two months ago, who had not left Constantinople at the date of our
. latest advices. Prince Lobanow speaks to us in the highest terms of that com
missioner, Soliman Pacha ; but he has not yet received any instructions, and brings
to his task the tribute only of his good personal disposition. Meantime, from
information received from several points, we had learnt that the nullity of the
results obtained, and the aggravation of the sufferings of the Christian populations,
were endangering the efficaciousness of all my own efforts, and of those of our
consular agents, in view to dispose the Christians to have patience a little longer.
We learnt, also, that an explosion was imminent. Then I felt myself at my wits'
end (au bout de mon latin) ; and made to Europe the overtures you know.
" ' M. de Thouvenel wishes it should be well known at St. Petersburgh, that
vol. ii. 2 z 697

despatch to kisselew.J LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.D. 1860.

France and Eussia were sure of being accused of aiming at working the Porte's
embarrassments to agitate the East. Be good enough to tell his excellency that
we accept the challenge for our own part ; and that if the remembrance of the
policy the imperial cabinet has followed for four years is not sufficient to answer
the accusation, we readily leave ourselves to the evidence of the future. However
the apprehension of such an accusation cannot prevent us from fulfilling what we
deem our duty, both as a Christian power and as a power interested in the pre
servation of the general peace. Moreover, the policy M. Thouvenel is speaking of,
is the one which we have adopted, and which we intend to persevere in ; that is to
say, we shall confine ourselves, as much as possible, to the common action, should
we in the execution fail to fulfil immediately all the minor conditions in the
programme sketched at St. Petersburgh. By referring to that programme, M. de
Thouvenel will see that it is conceived in general terms. We have perfectly
understood that the details could issue only from deliberations taken in concert
with the Porte, and brought to maturity. Our initiative was answering an urgent
question. The aim was to persuade the great powers to take into consideration,
in common with the Porte, the condition of the Christians, in order to avoid an
explosion much feared ; and that the first step in that direction ought to be an
European inquiry. Europe herself would judge, from the results of that inquiry, if it
was possible to take any further steps, or if it was wise to act upon the Ottoman
government' to induce it to give, for the preservation of order and tranquillity,
guarantees which the actual state of things does not afford to the Christian
population. This second part of the programme necessarily belongs to time and
to matured reflection. I have just been interrupted by Sir John Crampton,
who has come officially to inform me, that his government gives its assent to an
European inquiry, and who told me that Sir Henry Bulwer had received
instructions to that effect. He added, that Lord John Eussell did not pronounce
himself upon the first and third propositions of our circular, because the ulterior steps
to take in that question ought necessarily to depend upon the results of the inquiry.
Sir John Crampton has observed, besides, that the projected inquiry being to
embrace three provinces, it would be difficult to associate with it the consul of only
one locality; and that it would be more practicable, perhaps, to delegate a
commissioner, who, following the commission on every spot, should receive the
evidence of the consul there ; and would thus be able to perfectly know the whole
of the inquiry. Sir John put forward that suggestion as his own : I told him
I shared his opinion as to the practical purpose, and that we should not at all
decline to adopt it, inasmuch as the Prussian government had informed us of its
intention of entrusting the inquiry to a special commissioner. I apprise you of
the assent of the British cabinet through the telegraph ; and I resume my dictation.
In recalling to my memory M. Thouvenel's letter, it seems to me that I have
treated every point of it ; and that I can confine myself to pray you to assure his
excellency that we set a high value on an intimate entente between M. de Lavaletto
and Prince Lobanow ; and tbat we are much satisfied with the instructions given
to that effect to the French ambassador at the Porte. The essential point— I
cannot repeat it too much— is that we should not be forestalled by events ; I am
sure he will see in it an additional reason for accelerating the common action of
Europe. — Eeceive,' &c.

"3. Despatch of Prince Gortchaeow to Count Kisselew, Russian Ambassador
at Paris, dated May 12th (2Uh), 1860.
'"His majesty the emperor has read with a high interest the communication
the Duke of Montebello had been instructed to make to the imperial cabinet, in
the name of the French government, in consequence of your overtures relative to
the actual state of affairs in the Ottoman empire. We have seen with satisfaction
that, in the despatch M. de Thouvenel has addressed to the ambassador of France
698

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gortchacow's despatch.
at Constantinople, the Tuileries cabinet recognises, as we do, the gravity of the
situation, and the urgency of remedying it both quickly and efficaciously. That
conviction had been imparted to us by two orders of ideas, which, according to our
opinion, ought not to be separated in the j udgment which the great European
powers interested in the peaee of the East must arrive at. The first is the
preservation of the Ottoman empire, which would be greatly shaken by the
internal crisis represented as imminent by all our information. The second is
the sympathy we entertain for the Christian population. In the want of a well-
being and of a prosperity, that can replace but gradually their actual state, they
ought to possess conditions of a tolerable existence ; and those conditions seem to
us even essential to the security of the Porte herself. For it is evident that the
only means the Turkish government has of avoiding the dangers of its situation, is
to gain the loyalty of its Christian subjects by bonds of kindness and gratitude,
instead of feeding and envenoming the passions excited in both camps by the
prolongation of abuses which are inherent to the actual state of things. We think
that the same conviction was shared by all the cabinets, when, in 1856, they took
notice, while admitting its high value, of the Hatti-Houmayoun, the initiative of
the sultan, granted to his Christian subjects. That concession was both meeting
an European interest of the first order, because the general peace is indissolubly
connected with the tranquiUity of the East ; and it gained the good-will of the
great powers in behalf of the Porte, which can but benefit from the prosperity of
the population over whom she rules. It seems to us that that twofold feeling gave
to the great powers the right, and imposed upon them the duty, of insisting on
the promises contained in that act being fulfilled. And in order to impart to that
persistence the necessary character and the required efficaciousness, we thought it
was desirable it should be exerted collectively, and with such an unanimity as to
set off the whole value pertaining to it, for the sake both of the Porte and of the
general security of Europe. Such is the animus of the overtures we have made
to the Courts of Berlin, London, Paris, and Vienna. We sincerely congratulate
ourselves at our intention being appreciated by the French government. The
question, such as we look at it, and such as we have put it, has three distinct
faces — the fundamental part, the form, the urgency. As to the first, M. de
Thouvenel perfectly understands the source of the evils to be cured. Undoubtedly,
the immediate redress of the abuses of authority and of the individual denials of
justice which the Christians complain of, and the exemplary punishment of the
guilty parties, are the first points to be met. But the situation is serious enough
to claim organic measures, such as those M. de Thouvenel has delineated himself.
That is why we had pointed out in our proposals the necessity of advising the Porte
to endow the Christian provinces of Turkey with such a practical organisation as
to satisfy their just grievances. We reserved the appreciation of our proposition
to an entente of the cabinets, of which we refrain prejudging the results. But we
adhere to the principles enunciated by the French government ; and we are quite
ready to support the same order of ideas, as affording an efficacious remedy to a
situation that could not last much longer without danger to Turkey and to
Europe. I say again that those two interests are not separated in the mind of the
imperial cabinet. It is, therefore, scarcely wanted that I should add that, in the
question of form, we are ready to accept any combination likely to conciliate
them, by giving to the Turkish government all the discretion claimed by its own
dignity. We do not impeach its intentions ; and far from willing to encroach on its
rights, we desire to consolidate its authority, and dispel the dangers which menace
it by giving to it normal bases. Therefore we adopt the order sketched by M. de
Thouvenel's despatch ; that is to say :— 1. The representatives of the powers which
signed the treaty of 1856, will address in common to the Porte a note designed to
awaken her from her apathy, and setting forth the solicitude as well as the will of
Europe to see at least the fulfilment of the reform often promised, and still
expected. 2. Those representatives shall be instructed to concert themselves in
2 z 2 6"

gortchacow's despatch.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
all the circumstances where their common action would be justified by the
interests of humanity, in order that their vigilance should excite that of the Porte.
3. Lastly, they shall be authorised to open with the Ottoman minister, pour
parlers, in view of provoking the gradual application of the Hatti-Houmayoun,
and to claim the practical execution of its main clauses. The first of those steps
is the essential starting-point of the two others ; and, as a whole, they seem to us
likely to attain the end we have pointed out to the attention of the cabinets.
Once entered into that path, the foreign representatives will be able to judge more
and more how things really stand, and to find remedies for the evils they will have
discovered in common. The Ottoman government will find in that accord a safe
guarantee that not one of the great powers shall bring into the questioq exclusive
views, jarring with the general interest, on behalf of its own preservation and the
respect of its rights, the use of which is to be regulated to its own good; lastly,
the Christians will see in that moral intervention of Europe a guarantee for the
fulfilment of the solemn promises made to them, and the non-execution of which
drives them to despair. We are disposed to believe that if all the cabinets and
their representatives at Constantinople, avoiding the obstacles and rivalries which
paralyse every concert of action on that ground, and keep alive the apathy of the
Ottoman government, should bring into that work the required compactness and
energy, a great aim will have been attained ; the East and Europe will have been
spared calamities the extent of which it is impossible to foresee. But I cannot
repeat it too often ; in this case the question of urgency predominates over all
others, and even the entente we wish should be established would be inefficacious if
it is not arrived at immediately, and in such a way as to strike every mind. This
is the only chance of preventing the conflicts which we must foresee according to
our information. But that chance would be inevitably lost were we to wait
before requiring the suppression of the excesses committed in Bosnia, in Herze
govina, and in several other districts of Bulgaria. That the representatives of the
great powers at Constantinople should be able to establish, by communicating among
themselves, the reports they receive is above doubt. In presence of the differences
of opinion which agents of a subaltern rank are naturally disposed to bring when
interpreting the views they support, entertained by their respective governments,
it would be difficult to look for a perfect agreement in their appreciations.' The
communication of the representatives would be rendered rather more complicated,
and our opinion is that such a combination cannot produce anything useful. The
only practicable way of meeting the urgency we have pointed out is an immediate
local inquiry, entrusted to a commissioner of the Porte and European delegates.
We are told that the Turkish government does not reject the idea of an inquiry,
but that it intends to entrust it to an Ottoman functionary, and decUnes any
assistance from foreign delegates. We do not believe in the efficiency of such a
measure. The inquiries of this kind are not rare in Turkey. They never brought
any result ; in most cases they tended to aggravate the situation. The Christians
have been too many times deceived in their hopes to place any reliance on them.
Therefore we abide by the proposition we have made. It is the first step to make
along the path we have shown. We consider it as being the only practicable one,
if made without delay. Affairs have reached such a climax, that it is essential, if a
collision is to be prevented, that the Christian populations, whose patience is
exhausted, should be fully convinced that their sufferings have at last been taken
into consideration by the Porte and by Europe, and that both seriously aim at
ending them. The presence of European delegates ; a full inquiry made under
their own eyes, with all deference to the dignity of the Turkish government, but
also with the firm will to arrive at the truth ; and, lastly, an exemplary repression
of the perpetrated excesses — such are the only means to appease an agitation, the
causes of which are too deep to be cured by palliatives. The first point once
accomplished, the remainder would be based upon the entente to which we loyally
invite the cabinets. Meantime, as a matter of course, we shall do everything in
700

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gortchacow's circular.
our power to preach patience and moderation. We fulfil that task for a year with
the utmost soUcitude. But we cannot hope any longer to succeed if positive facts
do not support our exhortations. My duty has been to treat, above all, the great
poUtical questions connected with that state of affairs. May I be allowed to
consider it from another point of view, which, in our opinion, is not the less
entitled to the consideration of the Christian and the .civilised powers ? In
presence of the feeling of emulation, which we deem to be sincere, and which
prompts the governments of Europe to assume the first place in all questions
connected with civilisation and humanity, we cannot admit that diverse measures
and weights should exist according to latitudes. Whatever may be the opinion
one entertains as to the actual state of Turkey, one cannot contend that the events
which have recently occurred in some parts of Europe have not immensely
resounded in the East. The Eastern populations, who have seen that the
situation of some neighbouring states has so deeply excited the solicitude of the
cabinets, must have come to the conclusion that the sufferings they have endured
for centuries, stiU more aggravated by barbarous customs and religious fanaticism,
would meet no longer with the insensibility or the indifference of Europe. They
have been naturally induced to place in her intervention a hope to which it would
be both cruel and dangerous to refuse any satisfaction. In our opinion, the
result wiU be that some of the great powers will assume part of the responsibility
in the agitation prevailing in the East ; and, consequently, the moral obligations
which we think it is their duty and their interest not to renounce.'

" ' 4. Circular of Prince Gortchaeow to the Russian Representatives abroad.
" ' St. Petersburgh, May 20th (June 1st), 1860.
'"The attention which the pour-parlers now going on relative to the
Eastern question have aroused in the whole of Europe, impose upon us the duty of
placing the part taken by the imperial government, and the end it pursues in that
question, above all mistake and false and exaggerated interpretation. For more
than a year the official reports from our official agents in Turkey, inform us that
the situation of the Christian populations under the rule of the Porte, , and
especiaUy in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Bulgaria, is becoming more and more grave.
That situation does not date from to-day ; but far from bettering, as we were led
to hope, it has grown worse and worse during the last year. The Christian
subjects of the sultan had received with confidence and gratitude formal promises of
reform ; but they stiU wait the practical fulfilment of a hope which the solemn acts of
the sovereign, and the adhesion of Europe, had invested with a twofold consecration.
The passions and hatreds, far from being appeased, have assumed a new animosity;
the acts of violence, the sufferings of the populations, and, lastly, the events
which have occurred in Western Europe, and which have resounded through the
whole East, as an incentive and a hope, have ended by bringing agitation there.
It is plain that such a situation cannot last without endangering the Ottoman
empire and the general peace. In that conviction, after having, on the one side,
tried in vain to enlighten the Turkish government on the gravity of such a state
of affairs, by communicating successively to it all the information pointing out to
us the abuses committed by the local authorities ; after having, on the other hand,
exhausted with the Christians all the persuasive means in our power to exhort
them to have patience, we have frankly and loyally spoken our minds with the
cabinets of the great powers of Europe. We have represented to them the
situation, such as it is, according to the reports of our agents ; the imminence of a
crisis ; our conviction that isolated representation, sterile promises, or palliatives
would be insufficient to prevent it; and, finally, the necessity of an entente
between the great powers and the Porte, in order to concert such measures as
would put an end to that dangerous Situation. We have not made any absolute
8 701

gortchacow's circular.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.

proposals on the course to pursue. We confine ourselves to pointing out the
urgency, and to indicate the aim. As to the first, we have not concealed that, in
our opinion, it could not be a matter of doubt, nor susceptible of any delay. As
to the second, it seems to us that it presents two distinct phases ; above all, a local
and immediate inquiry, with the participation of European delegates, in order to
verify the reality of facts; then an accord to be brought about by the great
powers between themselves and the Porte, in order to induce her to combine the
organic measures necessary to introduce into her relations with the Christian
populations of the empire a real, serious, and durable improvement. Therefore it
cannot be a question here of an intermeddling which would wound the dignity of
the Porte. We do not suspect her intentions. She is the party most interested
in being extricated from her present situation. Whatever may be the result of
her blindness, toleration, or feebleness, the support of Europe must be useful to
her, and will either enlighten her judgment or fortify her action. It cannot be
also a question of encroachment on her rights, which we desire to be respected,
nor to resuscitate complications we wish to prevent. The entente we wish to be
established between the great powers and the Turkish government must prove to
the Christians that their condition is taken into consideration, and will be soon
ameliorated. Meanwhile the Porte ought to see in it a sure guarantee of the
benevolent intentions of the powers, which have placed the conservation of the
Ottoman empire among the essential conditions of the European equilibrium.
Therefore both sides ought to be satisfied. The Turkish government ought to see
in that entente a motive of confidence and of security, and the Christians of
patience and hope. On her side, after the experience she has acquired, Europe
could not, in our opinion, find elsewhere than in that moral action the guarantees
required by a question of the first order, with which her peace is indissolubly
linked, and in which the interests of humanity are mixed with those of politics.
Our august master has never disavowed his strong sympathy for the Christians.
His majesty will not charge his conscience with the reproach of having remained
silent in fa'ce of such sufferings, when so many voices were raised elsewhere under
circumstances much less imperative. Moreover, we are deeply convinced that such
an order of ideas is inseparable from the political interest felt by Eussia, as well as
by all the powers, for the preservation of the Ottoman empire. We flatter
ourselves that all the cabinets concur in tbat view. But we have also the
conviction that the time of illusion is past, and that every hesitation, every
adjournment, will involve grave consequences. By contributing with all our might
to place the Ottoman government in a situation enabling it to dispel all those
eventualities, we think we are giving it a proof of solicitude, and, at the same time,
fulfilling a duty to humanity. In inviting the great powers to join us, we think
we are avoiding every possibility of exclusive views or of meddling. Such is the
aim .of the overtures we have just addressed to the Courts of Berlin, London, Paris,
and Vienna. Whatever their result may be, we deem it important that the
thought which has presided at them should be thoroughly understood. You are
therefore authorised, by order of his majesty the emperor, to read this despatch to
the minister for foreign affairs.'
" In the meanwhile the Porte, willing to reassure the great powers while
avoiding their control, had entrusted the grand vizier, Mehemet KiprisU Pacha,
with the mission of proceeding himself to the provinces to inquire about the real
state of affairs. This step has been favourably appreciated by the cabinets.
Without connecting that measure with any illusion, the imperial cabinet did aU in
its power in order that it might realise all the hopes derived from the personal
reputation of the grand vizier himself. The Eussian consuls in all the localities
he was to visit had been ordered to point out to him all the facts they knew, and
such as to enlighten him during his mission."
This letter was written six years since ; but Eussian diplomacy ever remains
the same. 702

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gortchacow's letters.
" ' 5. Extract of a Letter from Prince Gortchaeow to the Russian Ambassador
at Turin, dated from Tsarskoe Selo, June 3rd (15th), 1860.
" ' There was a way to bring about a European inquiry, which would have
enabled the great powers to sound the depth of the wound ; and to decide for
themselves on the necessity of immediate and efficacious remedies. That occasion
was lost, owing to their unwillingness to entertain our proposition on that subject.
We are now reduced to the results of a Turkish inquiry, and to the hope we might
found on the personal inspirations of KiprisU Pacha. However, as it seems
settled that, on his return to Constantinople, the grand vizier will communi
cate the issue of his mission to the representatives of the great powers, that will be
another opportunity for them to offer advice, the practical value of which will
depend upon the accord that will have been established among them.'
"The letters Nos. 6, 7, and 8, relate to the massacres of Djeddah and
Dumas. Eussia insisted on the insertion in the protocol, relative to the occupation
of Syria by France, of an additional clause, extending to all the Christian popu
lations of Turkey the moral benefit of the European intervention. She did not
succeed. "On the 21st of July (August 1st), Prince Gortchaeow wrote to his excellency
Baron de Brunnow, ambassador of Eussia in London, a letter, of which the
following is an extract : — -
" ' 9. It seems to us impossible that the powers of Europe should stop half
way, and that their foresight should not extend beyond the events in Syria. If
Mehemet KiprisU, on his return to Constantinople, does not adopt vigorous organic
measures, his mission will prove a narcotic; and, some fine morning, Europe
will awake, taken by surprise, as she was by the massacres in Asia Minor. We
wish to avoid that gloomy and shameful waking, rendered twofold dangerous by
recent experience. We entertain the intimate conviction that the best preservative,
the only one perhaps, is to induce the Christian population to remain patient by
giving them the certitude that Europe collectively works seriously to ameliorate
their condition. The precedent of Syria opens the way to her. The stipulations
of the treaty of Paris impose upon her the obligation of doing so ; and the Porte,
if she could understand her true interests, would thank Europe for having rendered
it necessary for her to follow the only policy which can maintain her power.'
"After long negotiations, in which prevailed the fear of the cabinets of
provoking the insurrection of the Christians, should they give them premature
pledges of the solicitude of Europe, the conference broke up after having agreed
upon the draft of two protocols. The first related- to the intervention of Syria ; the
second recalled to the attention of the Porte the Hatti-Houmayoun of 1856 ; and
expressed the value they set upon the realisation of her promises, and the adoption
of measures to ameliorate the condition of the Christians of every church in the
Ottoman empire. Prince Gortchaeow wrote, on the 29th of July (9th of August),
1860, to the Eussian ambassador in London, a letter concerning the second
protocol, of which the following is an extract : —
" ' 10. The second protocol, agreed upon in London, and signed in Paris, offers
to us a starting-point for. collective action in case of need. We most sincerely
wish that such an eventuality should never occur. But, now-a-days, who can
foresee the events and the necessities ? The situation of Constantinople is very
alarming. Every diplomatist has asked a ship for his security. If a catastrophe
takes place in the capital of the Ottoman empire, it will rebound, inevitably and
immediately, I fear, to the European provinces. Will the powers, then, remain
with their arms folded ? In order not to be surprised a second time, as in Syria,
it would be indispensable to concert from this day the conduct to be followed in
common. We will mature that question. For tbe present I confide to you no
overtures; but if the attention of Lord John Eussell has been called to that
eventuality, and should he speak of it to you, give your approval of the justness of
the point of view, and let him confide his thoughts to you.' 703

gortchacow's letters.] LIFE- AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1860.
"'11. Letter from His Excellency Prince Gortchaeow, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, to His Excellency Baron de Brunnow, Ambassador in London, dated
Peterhof, August 5th, 1860.
" ' We are far from wishing to force the hand of any one. Let each one act
according to his convictions, and accommodate himself to the time as he understands
it ; but let him be well assured of three things — 1. That at present time destroys
more than it consolidates. 2. That the Ottoman empire can be saved only by the
unanimous determination of the great powers to oblige her to enter practically into
equitable courses. 3. That we desire to continue the collective action invoked by
us from the first ; but not losing sight of the position we should be placed in if our
co-religionists were to be slaughtered in the proximity of our frontiers, and that we
had to look upon these massacres with folded arms. Mr. Erskine has been charged
to make me acquainted with the formula adopted by Lord John Eussell, in order
to make our additional clause pass. It commenced, as you know, with the words,
' It is well understood,' &c. The principal Secretary of State had charged him to
ask me if I felt satisfied with it. I told him that we should have been satisfied
with less; that, in order not to delay by a single day the assistance sent to" the
Christians in Syria, the emperor had given Count Kisseleff orders to sign the
convention even without our clause, whilst preserving the conviction that it was
imperatively required by the necessity of the situation ; but that it was not the
question to know if I were satisfied with the formula adopted, but whether events
would be satisfactory, and that with regard to the latter I entertained the most
serious doubts ; that, now more than ever, men placed at the head of public affairs
should take care that the masses do not apply to them the words of the Chancellor
Oxenstenja to his son ; and that, if authority ceased to be the guardian of their
interests, it would lose in their eyes the reason for its existence.
" ' I recapitulated to Mr. Erskine, in a few words, the ideas of our august
master. First, we desire the maintenance of the Ottoman empire ; but on rational
conditions of existence. Secondly, that, if that empire should fall, we do not
covet any territorial aggrandisement, any exclusive advantage, provided that the
other powers give proof of the same disinterestedness ; but precisely because of
this entire absence of arriere pensee, we think it to be our right and our duty
more loudly to raise our voice to modify a state of things intolerable to the
eyes of humanity, or of civilisation, if you will — this word being the order of
the day. " ' I think, my dear baron, that no one can display his face more openly
than this. Let any one regard me closely, and he will see that I do not wear a
mask. — Eeceive,' &c.
" Meanwhile, the inquiry confided to the grand vizier had pursued its course.
In the space of four months, Mehemet KiprisU Pacha had been able to traverse
Bulgaria, Eoumelia, and Macedonia ; when an order from the sultan recalled him
to Constantinople, leaving his task unfinished.
" The results of the inquiry were stated in a memorandum communicated by
the imperial cabinet to the representatives at foreign courts of his majesty the
emperor. This document is too voluminous to be given here. It states —
" ' That, notwithstanding all his good-will, the grand vizier had been able to
collect but few complaints at secondary points, and from inferior or uninfluential
people — such as the police, the collectors of tithes, the Tchourbadjis, and the Hadja
Bachis Christians.
" ' In his report to the sultan, Mehemet KiprisU Pacha also declares that he
had not anywhere found any indication of the pretended system of persecution.
The list of misdeeds communicated by the Eussian government, had nearly entirely
disappeared before the examination of a tribunal instituted under the auspices of
the grand vizier. There remained but a few isolated crimes, such as are met with
in all societies, even under the best organised governments. On the other hand,
Mehemet KiprisU Pacha pointed out the remarkable progress made within ten

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [brunnow's despatches.
years, and saw therein grounds of satisfaction and encouragement. He had,
moreover, caused to be drawn up a provisional statute in twenty-one articles, for the
pachaliks of Bulgaria. But this statute contained no other rules than those long
since promulgated by the Hatti-Houmayoun, and afforded no guarantee of a
better execution than formerly.
" ' This issue of an inquiry, announced with so much solemnity, could not
but aggravate the position of the Christians. This was the general impression
in Europe.' "The ambassador in London of his majesty the emperor wrote on this subject,
on the 17th October, 1860, as follows : —
" ' 12. Despatch of Baron de Brunnow to Prince Gortchaeow, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, dated London, 17th (29th) October, 1860.
"' The government of her Britannic majesty has disapproved the precipitate
return of Mehemet KiprisU Pacha, suddenly recalled to Constantinople before he
had concluded his mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In reply to the inter-
peUations which Sir H. Bulwer has been instructed to make on the subject, the
Porte has declared that the state of the roads, at this advanced season of the year,
created an obstacle to the pursuit of the journey of the grand vizier. Without
aUowing himself to be misled by this purely evasive answer, Lord John Eussell
perseveres in^his intention of giving to the results of the inquiry a practical and
serious application. With this object he has collected, in a complete repertory,
the depositions made by the English agents, whose evidence has been officially
required by order of the government of her Britannic majesty. The principal
Secretary of State will send to Sir J. Crampton two printed copies of this document,
intended to be submitted to the imperial cabinet. In announcing this to me as an
event very near at hand, he expressed the hope that your excellency would find in
it the proof of his sincere desire to co-operate in the accomplishment of the work
of ameUoration commenced by the imperial cabinet.
" ' Lord John Eussell appears to me to devote to this task a reflecting zeal.
Without giving himself up to exaggerated fears, he seeks to inform himself exactly
of the elements of trouble and disorder which the Ottoman empire contains. He
has communicated to me on this subject a statement worthy of remark, which he
had gathered from the recitals of an Englishman long familiarised with the habits
of social life in the East. This agent attributes to the work of secret societies the
anti-Christian movement, which is making itself felt everywhere in the East. The
propaganda of murder produces the same disasters, sometimes in India, sometimes
in Arabia, sometimes in Syria. Dervishes preaching this fatal doctrine, leave
everywhere the sanguinary traces of their passage. These agents of Mussulman
fanaticism darkly traverse regions separated by long distances, to carry misfortune
into the bosoms of Christian populations. Lord John Eussell appeared to me
much struck by this mysterious fact, which seems in strange contradiction to the
daily habits of modern civilisation. — I have the honour,' &c.

" ' 13. Despatch from His Excellency Baron de Brunnow, Russian Ambassador _ in
London, to His Excellency Prince Gortchaeow, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
dated London, October 25th (November 6th), 1860.
'"Since my report of the 17th (29th) October, No. 157, Lord John Eussell
has confidentially communicated to me the enclosed repertory of the information
gained by the English agents on the present position of the Christian populations
in Turkey. " ' I have reason to believe that Sir John Crampton will already have had
the honour to submit this document to your excellency. On my side, I have
considered it my duty to place it before your excellency.
"' Without allowing myself to anticipate the judgment you will pass on the
705

BRUNNOW'S DESPATCHES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1860.

merits of this work, I will confine myself to giving you an account of the general
impression which it has produced in my mind.
" ' The English agents appear to me to have undertaken to present the Turkish
rigime in the least unfavourable light possible. But, notwithstanding this
tendency, they have been obliged to acknowledge the reality of the grievances of
which the Oriental Christians demand the redress. This fact remains established.
As to the measures of amelioration suggested by the English consuls, they appear
to me, in great part, very superficial. However, it will be necessary to guard
against rejecting them, as a whole, without further examination. On the contrary,
in discussing them one by one, there might, perhaps, be means' of completing them
in a manner that would bring out of this examination a plan of reform which,
though far from being perfect in our eyes, would contribute, at least, sensibly to
ameliorate the condition of our co-religionists. In a word, the English work is
one more step towards the accomplishment of the great result to which the imperial
cabinet has devoted its generous efforts.'

" ' 14. Despatch of Baron Brunnow to Prince Gortchaeow, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, dated London, 30th October (11th November), 1860.
'"My despatch of the 25th October (6th November), No. 163, transmitting
to your excellency the repertory of information gained by the English agents on
the position of the Christians in Turkey, stated that, in my opinion, that work,
notwithstanding its imperfections, would enable us to proceed further in the path
of practical and serious reforms, of which the imperial cabinet was the first to point
out the necessity and claim the accomplishment. In the hope of meeting with the
approbation of the emperor, our master, in taking this step, I continue to advance
in that path.
"'I have to-day to notify a certain progress which we have just made, in
following this line of conduct.
" ' Lord John Eussell has had a very warm ' discussion with the Ottoman
ambassador on the subject of the information gathered by the English agents.
The principal Secretary of State maintained, that the grievances shown by that
inquiry would require to be redressed ; and that it would be to the well-understood
interests of the Porte to agree amicably with the representatives of the friendly
powers on the measures of amelioration to be taken.
" ' M. Musurus combated this proposition. According to him, it would lead
to a manifest violation of the sultan's rights of sovereignty, and would injure his
independence. The principal Secretary of State persisted in his argument. He
reminded the Ottoman ambassador of the promises contracted by the Hatti-
Houmayoun, of which the treaty of Paris shows the high value. In a great
measure they remain unfulfilled. Therefore, the powers who signed the treaty of
peace have occasion to inquire into, and to occupy themselves with, the non-
fulfilment of these promises.
" ' These reflections, of which M. Musurus refused to acknowledge the validity,
did not terminate in an understanding. Each remained of his own opinion. The
Turkish ambassador put an end to the interview with much dissatisfaction. In
communicating to me these details, Lord John Eussell appeared to me more and
more penetrated by the conviction, that it is necessary to persevere in the attempt
at reform with which the Christian powers are occupied in common. The idea of
a step to be taken in this sense at Constantinople, begins to show itself more
clearly every time that I return to this question in my interviews with the principal
Secretary of State. — I have the honour,' &c.
" The idea of a conference at Constantinople, to examine, in common with the
Porte, the reforms, the urgency of which was acknowledged by all the cabinets,
had, in effect, been put in form by the British government. Lord John Eussell
had elaborated an entire plan of very serious organic reform, which proposed,
706

s

a.d. I860.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [gortchacow's circulars.
among other clauses, the armament of the Christians, and their participation in
the military service. This idea, however, to which the imperial cabinet was
favourable, was abandoned, in consequence of the opposition of the French
government ; which, foreseeing the refusal of the Porte, and the want of accord
among the cabinets to insist upon their decisions, preferred to abstain from a
step without practical utility.
" The cabinet of London adjourned its proposal for three months.
"Prince Gortchaeow wrote as follows, on the 17th December, to the
representative of his majesty the emperor at Constantinople: —
" ' 15. Despatch of His Excellency Prince Gortchaeow, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
to Prince Lobanow, Minister of Russia at Constantinople, dated St. Peters-
burgh, 11th December, 1860.
" ' Some time since you transmitted to us a proposal of the English ambas
sador, tending to the assembly of the conference of the representatives of the five
great powers, in order to deliberate on the reforms to be recommended in common
to the Porte. By order of his majesty the emperor, you were immediately autho
rised to take part in that assembly.
" ' You will, no doubt, have already learned that, at present, the British
government proposes to adjourn it for three months, in order to give the Porte
time to prepare and to put in force its own ideas of reform ; and to leave it thus
an initiative, which would preserve its dignity whilst offering a basis for the
deUberations, and that the cabinets of Paris and Berlin have adhered to this
proposal. " ' Last winter, we were the first to point out the situation of Turkey
to the attention of the great powers, urgently inviting them to come to an
agreement which, in our profound conviction, could be the only means of pre
venting dangerous complications, by applying serious ameliorations to the condi
tion of the Christians. The events in Syria followed but too soon to confirm our
predictions. " ' Our desire had been to prevent elsewhere the calamities which called for
the intervention of Europe in Libanus and Damascus. Without disguising from
ourselves that the inquiry confided to Mehemet KiprisU Pacha did not meet the
exigencies of so urgent a situation, we suspended our judgment on that inquiry
until the time when its result should be known. We hoped that the grand vizier,
informed on the deplorable state of the provinces of Turkey in Europe, would
return to Constantinople with the firm resolution to propose efficacious reforms.
We willingly reserved the initiative of them to the Porte, in the conviction that
the representatives of the great powers would therein find occasion to exercise in
common a salutary action, in order to accelerate these reforms, and to render them
serious and efficacious.
" ' The report of Mehemet KiprisU Pacha to his majesty the sultan has been
communicated to us ; it has dispelled the last illusions that we could entertain.
The traces of his passage are, I regret to say, of a nature to extinguish the hopes
that the Christians may have founded on the direct action of the Porte.
" ' This impression seems to have been shared by the English ambassador
himself, since he has judged it necessary to make up for the inaction of the Turkish
government, by drawing up a project of reforms ; and has convoked, by order of
his government, a conference of the representatives accredited at Constantinople,
in order to submit it to their deliberation.
" ' This overture responded so well to our own convictions, that we hastened to
give it our entire adhesion. Without placing an exaggerated confidence in the
efficacy of the deliberations of the conference, the simple fact of its assembling
being known to the Christian populations might still sustain their courage in
resignation. Here was an opportunity which, under existing circumstances, ought
not to be neglected. Now, as an adjournment for three months would be a

circulars of gortchacow.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1861.

disappointment which would take away from the Christian populations, already so
cruelly undeceived by the issue of the inquiry confided to KiprisU Pacha, the last
ray of hope which they could attach to the collective solicitude of Europe, it would
be, in our opinion, to throw into the midst of the combustible matters which cover
the Turkish soil the spark which might set them in a blaze.
" ' I have not concealed this opinion from the representatives of the great
powers at St. Petersburgh, and you are invited to express yourself in the same
sense both to your colleagues and to the Ottoman ministers.
" ' Our august master perseveres in his conviction that the position of Turkey
requires urgent measures ; that the duty of Europe, for its own interest, as well
as that of the Porte and the Christian populations, is to prevent new disasters, in
order not to be exposed to the much more painful task of repairing them ; and
that an immediate entente of the great powers among themselves, and with the
Porte, would offer a chance of attaining this result.
" ' We are disposed to all the consideration possible for the dignity of the
Ottoman government ; and we do not at all refuse to leave to it the initiative of
the proposals to be made : but on condition that it take up without delay the
conference of representatives — in a word, that it substitute, if it will, its own
convocation for that of Sir H. Bulwer, but that this convocation take place
without delay.
" ' Nothing is opposed to the discussion having, for a point of departure, the
reforms which the Porte has already in view ; the foreign representatives could add
to them such as they think it desirable to produce.
" ' The measures to be taken would result from the entente established at the
end of the deliberations, to which, for our part, we should carry the most con
ciliating spirit. But setting aside the question of form, we consider it our duty
to maintain, in substance, our point of view, even should we remain alone in taking
up this ground. — Eeceive,' &c.
'"16. Despatch from His Excellency Prince Gortchacow, Minister, of Foreign
Affairs, to His Excellency Baron de Brunnow, dated St. Petersburgh, 12th
January, 1861.
" ' Your excellency's despatch of the 1st (13th) January has been placed
before the emperor. His imperial majesty has deigned to approve the observations
that you have made to the British principal Secretary of State, on the adjourn
ment of the conference, the meeting of which at Constantinople had been proposed,
for the consideration of the reforms to be recommended to the Porte.
" ' There is, however, an important point to which I must call your attention.
In your interviews with Lord John Eussell, you have rightly insisted that this
adjournment should not imply the abandonment of the question. The idea of the
imperial cabinet goes beyond this. We have not adhered to the adjournment. The
despatch which, by order of his majesty the emperor, I addressed to Prince Lobanow,
and of which your excellency has received a copy, proves this. We have declared
ourselves ready to yield to the scruples manifested by the Turkish government,
and of which the cabinets of Paris5 and London have admitted the value, as to the
initiative. We have consented that the Porte should substitute its own con
vocation for that of England, and that it should itself take up the conference on
the reforms whieh it may have prepared. But we made the express condition that
this convocation should take place without delay.
'"It is neither from amour-propre, nor from obstinacy, that we persist in
this respect on our point of view. AU the cabinets are struck as we are by the
increasing gravity of the state of affairs in the East, in presence of the events
which seem to be preparing in Europe for the coming spring. The necessity of
calming the minds of the Christian populations is then more evident than ever.
Now, the best means of sustaining their patience, and preventing the resolutions

A.D. 1861.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [brunnow's despatches.

which despair might inspire in them, is to give them the certainty that the powers
will occupy themselves with their fate in concert with the Porte, and that the
sad result of the mission of Mehemet KiprisU Pacha is not the last word spoken
on their condition. The adjournment, we fear, would be looked upon by them
as a fruitless termination ; and, under this impression, three months would amply
suffice to allow the development of a crisis which nothing had been done to
prevent, whilst external excitations would tend to provoke it.
'"The immediate convocation by the initiative of the Porte would, on the
contrary, cause hope to revive in minds which it has nearly abandoned ; and would
give a chance for the maintenance of tranquillity which is for the interests of all.
It is therefore that we insist that it take place without further delay.
"'If once the conference were really assembled, we would attend to the
proposals ofthe Porte, in order to examine them in concert with the other powers;
and it certainly would not be our fault if they did not come out of these
deUberations as complete as possible. The essential point, I repeat, is that it
be positively known that these proposals will be made, when they will be made,
and that the collective assembly, which is to take cognisance of them, be now
decided upon, in order to show that this time the intentions are serious, and to
prevent the fear of new deceptions. From the moment that the principle of this
assembly seems to be admitted by common consent, we cannot understand why
time, which present conjunctures render doubly precious, should be lost.
" ' Your excellency is authorised to read the present despatch to the principal
Secretary of State of her Britannic majesty, and to leave him a copy of it. —
Eeceive,' &c.

"5

" ' 17. Despatch from His' Excellency Baron Brunnow, Russian Ambassador in
London, to His Excellency Prince Gortchacow, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
dated London, January 24th (February 5th), 1861.
" ' In coming from the audience at Buckingham Palace, I called upon the
principal Secretary of State, to read to him, and give him the copy of, the
despatch which your excellency did me the honour to adress to me, under date of
the 12th (24th) January, and which reached me last evening.
" ' In acquitting myself of this duty, I took care to clearly point out the
sentiment of high foresight which induces the imperial cabinet to insist upon the
immediate assembly of the conference at Constantinople, in the well-understood
interest not only of the Christian populations, but of the Porte itself.
" ' Lord John Eussell, dn appreciating this motive, expressed to me anew his
regret at not having succeeded in the first trial which he had made toopen the
deUberations to which Sir H. Bulwer had invited his colleagues, with a view to
arrive at an early agreement as to the measures of reform to be recommended to
the Porte. " ' He acknowledged the benevolence of the intentions which determined the
imperial cabinet to leave to the sultan the initiative of this deliberation. But he
doubts the earnestness and good-will that will be shown by the Pfli'te in taking this
initiative. JJW
" ' The reports of Sir H. Bulwer seem to attest, on the ctfKrary, the desire of
the Ottoman government to gain time by seeking to avoid the difficulty of a
collective examination.
" ' The system of temporisation which prevails in all the actions of the Porte,-
is shown here by the language of the Ottoman ambassador. According to his view,
three months' respite ought to be allowed to the Turkish government before
proceeding to any plan of reform whatever. Lord John Eussell was the first to
destroy this illusion. He declared that, in his opinion, if it were agreed to allow
to the Porte a preparatory interval to meditate and ripen the measures of amelio
ration judged indispensable for the consolidation of the well-being and the repose

BRUNNOW'S DESPATCHES. LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1861.
of the Christian populations, it was certainly not three months to be allowed to
pass away in a state of inaction. Far from that, it was, at the expiration of that
delay, that the Porte should be in a position to produce in its entirety the result
of its labours. It was then, also, that the representatives of the friendly powers
would be enabled to judge of the merits of the plan of reform, in order exactly to
appreciate what additions would be required to it.
" ' After having communicated to me these explanations, the principal
Secretary of State informed me that he would not fail to take into serious con
sideration the reflections so clearly expressed in the despatch of the 12th January,
of which I left a copy in his hands.
" ' This document will one day serve to attest that, if the eventualities so
long pointed out by the imperial cabinet should ultimately disturb the repose of
the interior of the Ottoman empire, it will assuredly not be upon Eussia that the
reproach of a want of foresight and of solicitude will fall ; whilst you, my prince,
have devoted all your energies to turn away from Europe the danger of so grave a
trial.. — I have the honour,' &c.
" Three months afterwards, on the expiration of the term proposed to the
Porte, the ambassador of his majesty the emperor in London addressed to Prince
Gortchacow the following despatch : —

« i

18. Despatch from His Excellency Baron de Brunnow, Ambassador of Russia
in London, to His Excellency Prince Gortchacow, Minister of Foreign Affairs,
dated London, 1th (Wth) April, 1861.
" ' Arrived at the termination of the delay of three months, fixed by Lord John
Eussell, to allow the Porte to ripen its plan of reforms in favour of the Christian
populations, I considered it my duty to interrogate the principal Secretary of State
on the result which this preparatory work had produced.
" ' He made the avowal that the reports of Sir H. Bulwer on this subject are
entirely barren. From day to day the Porte has deferred the communication of
the plan which it has promised.
" ' I insisted on the necessity of not habituating the Ottoman ministers to
contract engagements with the great powers which they have no intention of
fulfilling. " ' On his side, the principal Secretary of State acknowledged the opportunity
of reminding the Porte of the obligation it is placed under to give effect to a
system of amelioration, of whieh it ought to understand the urgency for its own
interests. He will hasten to write in this sense to the English ambassador,
desiring him to reiterate to the Ottoman government strong remonstrances against
the slowness with which it proceeds to keep its" word.
" ' However doubtful may be the result of this new step, it nevertheless con
stitutes a serious duty in my eyes. In effect, my prince, when Turkey shall have
finished by drawing upon herself the misfortunes which we have so long presaged,
then will come the day when we may remind the other powers that it was not our
warnings that were wanting to prevent the catastrophe while there was yet time. — ¦
I have the honour,' &c.
" We will proceed no further with this excursion in the domains of the past.
" The insurrection in Herzegovina, the war of Montenegro, the bombard
ment of Belgrade in time of peace — such have been the results of the efforts of
diplomacy i to avoid a crisis which everything foretold. Already at that time
there was great difficulty in- preventing its degenerating into a general con
flagration. " It was a truce which has not been profited by. Those exclusive appeals to
force and to repression, the profound resentments whieh they have excited, the
encouragement given to the populations by contemporary events, the national
claims pursued or accomplished elsewhere, and even the precedents laid down by
the Porte itself with regard to the United PrincipaUties — all these considerations
710

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the greeks in turkey.
have brought about in (he East one of those extreme situations which render
palliatives powerless, half measures barren, and treaties inefficacious.
" The documents we have just published attest that, according to the expres
sion of the Eussian ambassador in London, the imperial cabinet has not failed,
either in foresight to estimate the peril, or frankness to point it out."
Eussia and the powers of Europe have only to wait the beginning of the end.
The Ottoman rule is now threatened with destruction, not only by alien
races clamouring for independence, but by its own inherent defects. Of the two
dangers, the first is the more formidable.
" It is a common remark," says a writer in the Fortnightly Review, " with
recent travellers in European Turkey, that the Osmanli race in that country is
gradually dying out ; and that all the wealth and influence it formerly possessed
is passing into the hands of the Slavonians and Greek inhabitants. The ethno
logical map of the country, published in Petermann's Mittheilingen, shows, in
a very striking manner, how small and scattered the population is, compared with
those of other races. There is only one district where there is anything like a
compact agglomeration of Turks — the coast of the Black Sea, between the Danube
and the Balkan. Everywhere else they are only to be met with in small patches ;
and, strange to say, these patches grow smaller and further apart as they approach
Constantinople. In Albania they are almost entirely absent ; and even in
Bulgaria they are few and far between. These facts are well known to the Turks
themselves, who, with their usual predestinarianism, resignedly accept them as
their destiny." — " Is it not strange," lately said an old effendi to a Greek
merchant of Salonica, " that you Ghiaours are lodged in palaces, while we Mussul
mans Uve in hovels ; you walk in the streets richly dressed, and we wear patched-
up kaftans ; you are pashas, we are dervishes ?" And he added, in a lower tone, as
if speaking to himself, " And why not, if God wills it ?" M. Poncade, the late
French consul at Bucharest, tells a similar story of an old Mussulman, who taught
him Turkish. He had observed that the Turkish houses in the town were
dilapidated and falUng in ruin, whilst those in which the Albanians Uved were
sound and strongly built ; and, on asking the. Turk the reason, obtained the
following reply : — " Why do you ask me, when you know better than I do ? Are
not the great nations of Europe to divide us among them ? Our destinies are
written down : the strong shall resist, and be killed ; the cowardly shall submit,
and become infidels. Why should I repair my house for a Ghiaour ?"
There are in Turkey at least three distinct European races, each with its own
customs and national aspirations. These are the Servians, the Albanians, and the
Greeks. Of these, the most important is the Servian, representing 4,700,000 of
the total population of 10,000,000 of European Turkey. Eussia is aware of this ;
and her aim, though working in the dark, and apparently inconsistently, has been
to crush in the bud the rising spirit of Servian nationality. If the Eussian
propaganda have failed. to do this, it has been more successful among the descend
ants of the degenerate Greeks of the lower empire, who still inhabit nearly the
whole of the coast-line of the iEgean and the Sea of Marmora ; and are specially
numerous in the vicinity of Constantinople. It is from this people that Eussia
has recruited some of her most skilful agents; and, doubtless, she would find
little difficulty in securing their assistance, with bribes and promises of lucrative
employment, if she should ever attempt to make herself mistress of Constantinople ;
just as the Turkish government, after overthrowing the Greek empire, found in
their ancestors its most obsequious subjects. There are, altogether, about 90,000
Greeks on the Turkish continent.
The Albanians, who inhabit the coast of the Adriatic, between Servia and
the kingdom of Greece, and who are 1,300,000 in number, are a very different
race. They are a proud and martial people ; and have little sympathy with either
the Slavonians or Greeks, against both of whom they have frequently fought under
Turkish generals. 711

Russian aims.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
There is no lack of candidates for the succession to the throne of the sultans.
Prince Pitzipos, the leader of the Byzantine union, proposes the establishment of a
Byzantine empire, with a Greek ministry, under the present Ottoman dynasty.
M. Ubicini looks forward to the replacement of the Turkish rule by that of three
separate states, which would divide Turkey between them, Constantinople being
made a free port ; and the Austrian and Eussian papers think that the best way
of settling the matter, would be to place Turkey under the rule of a strong power :
by which the journalists of Vienna mean Austria, and those of Moscow, Eussia.
The writer of the article in the Fortnightly Review is in favour of
Austria rather than Eussia. Her rule, he fancies, "would secure to Europe a
solid guarantee of peace in the East ; and to the races on the Danube and the
Bosphorus, the unfettered development of their national existence." France
inclines to side with Austria in her Eastern poUcy — a course to which, we are told,
the interests of England also point.
The Eastern question, whatever may be its solution, has now entered on a
new phase. Lord Palmerston was the last, as he was the firmest, believer in the
regeneration of Turkey, and the stability of her power and rule.
Eussia, also, has enough to do to mind her own affairs. Her position in the
south is the work of her diplomacy, which strives to obtain for her the predo
minance in Europe ; but it is not in conformity with her natural development ;
and any conquests she may make in that direction will have to be maintained by
artificial and violent means. The whole of her military force was originally
concentrated within the triangle formed by St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and Moscow;
and although, since she has moved southwards, she has established military
positions at Kieff and Sebastopol, these two strategetical points have been quite
insufficient to attain her object. The condition of the interior of the country is,
however, far from settled ; and if the government courts external war, it must
be in order to unite the various classes, whose relative position has been somewhat
altered of late, in some great national enterprise. There seems, however, no
occasion for this, because the whole feeling of the country is thoroughly national ;
and, probably, nothing is wanted but time to enable the people to settle down in
their new state. What is chiefly required is capital, to develop the vast resources
ofthe country. Turkey must probably grow weaker each year ; while it is difficult
to calculate the wealth and strength of Eussia some years hence, when her
industrious and homogeneous population shall have realised the value of freedom,
and settled down to the labour of cultivating the land on their own account.

CHAPTEE XXXV.
ANECDOTES OP LORD PALMEESTON.
Of so distinguished a statesman as Lord Palmerston the slightest personal traits
are interesting. We. have collected a few, which may be placed here. A writer in
Fraser's Magazine— we refer to the number for November, 1865 — favoured the
world with many interesting anecdotes of his lordship. The writer says —
"His first acceptance of high office was related by himself, the year before
last, apropos of a bet said to have been made and won by the late Mr. Milnes,
the father of Lord Houghton, a man of remarkable -abilities and acquirements,
though somewhat of an idler in his youth. He was lounging in a club, when he
overheard a college friend saying that something was as unlikely as Bob Milnes
becoming Chancellor of the Exchequer.
712

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [anecdotes.
" ' And why should not I become Chancellor of the Exchequer ?'
" ' Simply because the odds are a thousand to one against you.'
'"Will you lay a thousand to one ?'
" ' Yes, in tens.'
"'Done.'
" The bet was regularly booked ; ten thousand pounds to ten. When Perceval
wrote to Mr. Milnes to offer him the chancellorship of the exchequer, he enclosed
the offer, with a ten pound note, to his friend.
" Such was the anecdote, which was disputed, on the ground that Mr. Milnes
never had such an offer, although mentioned in the correspondence and memoirs
of the period.
" Lord Palmerston was referred to, and he immediately related how he had
been mixed up in the matter. Perceval sent for him, and said he had a curious
proposal to make. He had offered the chancellorship of the exchequer to Milnes,
who would probably refuse it : if he did, would Lord Palmerston take it ? Lord
Palmerston said he must consult his friends, especially Lord Malmesbury, the
diplomatist, who advised him to refuse on the ground that finance was not in his
Une, and that his future prospects might be compromised by failure. He refused
accordingly. Thereupon Perceval said — ' I have since offered the Secretary at
War to Milnes. If he refuses, will you take that ?' He did take it, and his long
and prosperous career began." This version differs from that of Mr. Ward's, which
we have already printed.
The same writer continues — " Everyone has heard the story of Sheridan's
dinner party, at which the sheriffs' officers acted as waiters. On its being men
tioned as apocryphal, at Brockett, 'Not at all,' exclaimed Lord Palmerston,
'I was at it. Sheridan, Canning, Frere, and some others, including myself, had
agreed to form a society, projected, you may remember, by Swift, for the improve
ment of the English language. We were to give dinners in turn. Sheridan gave
the first ; and my attention was attracted to the peculiarity of the attendance by
the frequent appeals, on the part of the improvised servants, to Mr. Sheridan.'
" ' And did you improve the language ?'
" ' Not certainly at that dinner ; for Sheridan got drunk, and many words of
doubtful propriety were employed.'
" He was a purist in language, grammar, and orthography ; and some
curious Ulustrations of his zeal for their reformation are preserved in the Foreign
Office. He had a confirmed dislike to ' that that,' and ' had had,' as in a sentence
thus constructed : — ' It was said that that general had had a check.'
"In the last speech from the throne, her majesty is made to say, that she
'had great satisfaction in recurring again to her parliament.' Some of the
literary men objected, and their objection was stated to Lord Palmerston one
evening when he had been unexpectedly detained in the House of Commons, and
had only just risen from an eleven o'clock dinner. He defended the expression,
and maintained the argument, with unabated spirit, till the subject was dropped.
The next morning, before ten, the objector received the Premier's clear, bold,
well-known hand — " ' Johnson's Dictionary.
" ' In this life the thoughts of good and a future state often offer themselves
to us. They often spring up in our minds, and, when expelled, recur again.
"'One meaning of recur is to have recourse to; and it is perfectly good
English to say I have recourse to you again.
'"Etymologically, to return is to run back; and one may say, with propriety,
I run back, or come back to you again.
"'The queen recurs, or comes back to her parliament at the end of every
recess ; and she does aqain that which she has done often before.
y "'P., 10/2 — 65.'
vol. n. 3 a 713

anecdotes.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

"His acute sense of the value of words made him fidgety under misquotation.
When Pope's line on Peterborough was repeated thus —
" ' Here he whose lightning broke the Iberian lines.'
" Pierced was his quiet correction.
" It having been remarked how many popular quotations are incorrect, his
lordship adduced several additional instances : amongst others —
" ' He who's convinced against his will.'
" He was as much at home in Italian as in English ; and some amusement
was caused in the House of Commons, by his correction of his accomplished friend,
Mr. Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton), who unluckily said Cagliari instead of
Cagliari. " Of late years Lord Palmerston had so much writing to get through, that he
had neither time nor eyesight to spare for books. Even his newspaper reading
was limited. The stores of information he accumulated, and opportunely applied,
were mostly derived from oral sources — from an admiral, general, or governor, just
returned from a foreign station; from a diplomatist, on his transit from one
capital to another ; from an intelligent tourist, or well-informed traveller. The
facts he got from them were carefully packed away in a corner of his mind till
wanted ; and always came out wOnderfully well sorted and fresh. In the autumn
of 1863, he was riding into Southampton with Mr. Cowper, when he heard that an
Austrian of distinction was there, on a sort, of free-trade mission, and was about
to explain his views at a public dinner. Lord Palmerston attended the dinner,
and made a speech, in which he astonished everybody by his familiarity with the
subject, and with the position of the Austrian government in relation to it; that
familiarity being exclusively based on the report of a conversation with Count de
Eechberg, repeated to him a few days before.
" Literature was the fashion of his early days, when, as Sidney Smith remarked,
a false quantity in a man was pretty nearly the same thing as a faux pas in a
woman. He was tolerably well up in the chief Latin and English classics; but he
entertained one of the most extraordinary paradoxes, touching the greatest of them,
that was ever broached by a man of his intellectual calibre. He maintained that the
plays of Shakespeare were really written by Bacon, who passed them off under the
name of an actor, for fear of compromising his professional prospects and philo
sophical gravity. Only last year, when this subject was discussed at Broadlands,
Lord Palmerston suddenly left the room, and speedily returned with a small
volume of dramatic criticisms, in which the same theory, originally started by an
American lady, was supported by supposed analogies of thought and expression.
there! said he, 'read that, and you will come over to my opinion.' When the
positive testimony of Ben Jonson, in the verses prefixed to the edition of 1623,
was adduced, he remarked— ' Oh, these fellows always stand up for one another;
or he may have been deceived like the rest.' The argument had struck Lord
Palmerston by its ingenuity; and he wanted leisure for a searching exposure of its
groundlessness. ° r
"The most wonderful thing about him, it has been truly observed, was the
manner m which his faculties went on ripening to the last. On his first becoming
Premier, his conduct of affairs in the House of Commons was conspicuous for levity
of tone and misplaced jocularity. 'Let him remain Premier for a year or two,'
observed a member of the highest literary distinction, ' and our standard will be
lowered till we prefer this laughing devil-may-care method of getting through busi
ness to the wit of Canning and the gravity of Peel.' But Lord Palmerston (whose
levity was on the surface, and useful as well aS justifiable against established bores)
rose with each succeeding session ; and, on great occasions, was rarely found wanting
in moral influence or in the dignity befitting his position. He did more than
conciliate good-wUl by his suavity of demeanour and tact ; he commanded respect

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [anecdotes.
by his grasp of mind — his readiness of resource— his comprehensiveness of view —
his knowledge of his country and his countrymen — his vast experience — his known
patriotism — his expansive liberality — and by all that combination of qualities which
make up what the French emphaticaUy term caractere. His alleged carelessness
was the ease of a consummate master of the craft. He wielded his weapon —
" ' With hand whose almost careless coolness spoke
Its grasp well-used to dare the sabre stroke.'
"He was the most earnest of statesmen, despite his levity; just as, despite of
that touch of Hibernicism in gait and bearing which the Beau Brummel school
disapproved, he was one of the most perfect gentlemen that ever lived. * * * *
His name was associated with the liberal policy of England all the world over ;
to such an extent, indeed, that it was positively personified in him. Instead of ' Ce
perfide Albion,' it was ' Ce diable de Palmerston' that was denounced by every
absolute Court in Europe."
The writer adds — " It is a mistake, however, to suppose that Lord Palmerston
did everything off his own hook after 1834. Eeferring, no later than June last, to
the Eastern complications of 1840-'41, he related, that on M. Thiers (October,
1840) announcing an intention to call out an extraordinary conscription of
150,000 men, Lord Melbourne wrote to the King of the Belgians to this effect : —
' Thiers's announcement is a threat. By God I won't stand it ! If this goes on I
will immediately call parliament together, and see what they think of it.' This
letter was forwarded to the King of the French, and the Thiers ministry came to
a speedy termination.
" Lord Palmerston was by no means a rash foreign minister, and certainly
avoided involving the country in serious warfare. In his diplomatic contests with
M.'aThiers, he had Austria, Prussia, and Eussia by his side. His Spanish operations
were in support of the lawfully constituted sovereign and authorities. When
Austria and Prussia quarrelled over Hesse-Cassel, and were about to come to blows,
he had only to hold up his hand, and Prussia would have crossed the Eubicon.
General Eadowitz was overruled, and compelled to give way, because even the
moral support of England was denied. * * * * His predilection for the
French emperor did not outlast the appropriation of Nice and Savoy; and he
thoroughly enjoyed the joke (Lord Houghton's, we believe), at Cambridge House,
on a French secretary's saying, on his way to the refreshment-room, 'Je vais
preudre quel que chose. Vous avez raison c'est l'habitude de votre pays.' " The
same writer, who evidently was remarkably well-informed, remarks, that Lord
Palmerston supported Turkey because he feared that the disruption of the Ottoman
empire might lead to the establishment of an unfriendly power across our over
land route to India. Another ingrained opinion of his was, that the treaties for
the abolition of the slave-trade should be stringently enforced. Lord Palmerston
was no believer in the doctrine of non-intervention. His creed was, that England
should never lose an opportunity of transplanting or promoting free institutions ;
nor even stand by and see a weak nation oppressed by a stronger one. It was a
deep mortification to him that we did not join France in preventing Austria and
Prussia from plundering Denmark. It is stated that he had an inveterate
disUke to parliamentary reform; and that he thought dissenters unreasonable
in claiming to be exempt from church-rates. Indeed, so Conservative had he
become, that he had thought of applying to Mr. Spencer Walpole to take office
under him. We continue our extracts.
" There is, there can be, no difference of opinion about Lord Palmerston in
private life, as a host, a guest, a companion, or a friend, although it is the fashion
to say that he never had a friend, because he was not exclusive in his intimacies;
he was so uniformly considerate and unselfish, so kind, tolerant, and indulgent in
word and deed : his geniality, frankness, and simplicity, at once put every one at
his ease. That charm of manner could not be feigned, acquired, or studied ; it
3A2 715

PALMERSTON AT ROMSEY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
was the obvious emanation of a warm, cordial, generous nature, which it would be
difficult to distinguish or separate from heart. The capacity for warm affection
must be implied from the happy act of inspiring it ; and who won the hearts of a
large and singularly gifted family circle like him ? Who inspired such implicit
reliance on his support, in all who had ever acted under him, or even linked their
political fortunes with his ? With all his self-command he was liable to be over
come by strong emotion. His severest illness, for many years, was brought on by
the death of the Prince Consort, and his fear of its effects on the queen.
" His company hours were materially curtailed by business ; but, from the
moment he joined the circle till he left it, he was ready to be amused. He was
never out of temper, nor out of spirits ; never inattentive, absent, or pre-occupied —
the distinctive good-breeding of working statesmen, as punctuality is the good-
breeding of kings. He listened as well as he talked; he thoroughly enjoyed good
conversation, and he liked it the better for being enlivened with fancy and fun.
He told a story capitally, frequently with an apropos which brought its application
within Barrow's somewhat large and elastic description of wit. * * * * His
best anecdotes, when he could be coaxed into repeating them, had always a fresh
zest. His play of mind was equally effective in catching and improving any
passing drollery or humorous thought.
" When Lord Derby's translation of the Riccd was first announced, a guest
at Broadlands told him he must keep pace with his great rival by translating the
(Eneid. ' Stop till I am out of office, and the parallel will be complete.'
" He, laughingly, quoted the authority of an eminent, physician, that con
tinuance in office, with the resulting employment, was good for his health.
'"Would not actual opposition do as well?'
" ' No, no, that stirs up the bile, and creates acidity. Ask Disraeli if it does
not.' "Nothing, by the way, created acidity in him ; he never said or sanctioned an
ill-natured remark on anybody. On being told that a clever assailant regretted a
personal attack, he said — ' Tell him I am not the least offended, the more particu
larly because I think I had the best of it.'
" It was mentioned to him that his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir George
Lewis, had been writing letters to Notes and Queries, on the wakefulness of
geese. ' The wakefulness of geese ! Why the opposition will think he means them :
and, what is more, they may say that they are the geese that saved the Capitol.'
" A couple were censured for going to country houses without an invitation.
'Don't be hard on them,' was his suggestion, 'for if they waited to be invited
they might go nowhere.'
" On its being stated, as a good sign, that Lady  was only attended by
a popular physician, who shall be nameless, he said — ' Ah ! very true ; when you
trust yourself to Dr.  you should have a superfluous stock of health for him to
work upon.'
"When at Broadlands, he was a regular attendant at Eomsey church, but was
occasionally late. Once when he did not appear till towards the end of the second
lesson, the sermon was more than ordinarily long, which a guest attributed to the
complacent consideration of the clergyman, who was determined that his lordship
should gain in one way what he lost in another. 'I never saw it in that light
before ; I will take good care not to tax his kindness again.' He passed some
hours of every day on horseback, except on Sundays, when he walked. On a cold
Sunday, in the November of 1864, after luncheon, he proposed a walk, and led
the way to the paddocks, which he opened one after another with an enormous key
produced from his coat pocket, pointing out and speculating on the qualities of
the colts ' That fijly,' he said, 'will run for the Derby the year after next.' He
then took the party over the river by the ferry-boat, which he tugged backwards
and forwards by a hard rope over a stiff pulley, taking an obvious pleasure in
the exertion, and declining help. Eeturning home, after nearly two hours' brisk

a.d. 1826.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [joseph hume.
exercise, in the dusk, across the park, his foot struck against a hidden stump, and
he fell flat, but was up again in a moment, saying — ' There is no damage, except
to the knees of my trowsers.' The party looked anxiously at one another, re
membering the regretted death of Lord Lansdowne, and were not quite at ease till
the next morning, when he joined the breakfast-table with unshaken spirit, and his
wonted buoyancy of step.
" He was a generous landlord, and so indulgent to the tenants on his estate
in Sligo, that he got Uttle income out of it. He said, one day, he had a thousand
tenants who paid under £5 a year each. ' But do they pay ?' 'Not always ; they
pay when they can — when they sell the pig.'
"He was fond of billiards; and, when at Brockett or Broadlands, played
three games (neither more nor less) before retiring for the night. He was about
on the level of those who play a good deal without taking rank as players.
His best strokes were the winning hazards ; and fortune favoured him as much in
this as in the political game. After three or four .flukes, he would say — 'I
think I had better not name my stroke.' He was never the least put out by
losing; although he enjoyed winning, especially when Lady Palmerston was
looking on." *
Lord Pal icrston, on one occasion, seems to have come into collision with
the formidable .lenry Brougham. In the course of the debate on the second reading
ofthe Seditious Meeting Prevention Bill, in December, 1819, Mr. Brougham made
a savage onslaught upon those persons officially connected with the government,
who had taken any share in getting up counter-requisitions against convening the
public meetings which then frequently assembled. Having participated in such
efforts, the noble lord said — " He had yet to learn that, because a man held an
official situation, he was thereby disqualified from giving any opinion upon, or
taking any part in, questions of public interest. He had pursued, and would
pursue, without consulting the honourable and learned gentleman, or caring
whether it met his applause or disapprobation, that line of conduct which appeared
to him the most proper. He and those who had acted with him on the occasion
referred to (in signing a counter-requisition in Hampshire), had acted upon a well-
understood sense of duty, and, in doing so, had consulted the best interests of the
country ; and he was sorry that others had not followed a similar course. If one
person had the right to call on the sheriff for a county meeting, he could see no
reason why another had not a right to sign a requisition against it. By the
conduct of those who had signed the counter-requisition in Hampshire, that
county had been saved from the disgrace of those unwarrantable and unconsti
tutional attacks that had been made upon the Manchester magistrates."
With Joseph Hume Lord Palmerston had more than one passage at arms. In
1826, his lordship had, over and over again, stated the cause of the dismissal of a
Colonel Bradley from the army — a statement which Mr. Hume could not understand.
The noble lord, at last, so far forgot his habitual courtesy as to say, that " it was
impossible for him to be answerable for the obtuseness of the honourable gentleman's
understanding." As Mr. Hume was not then in high favour — indeed, as he was
then very unpopular as a political and economical reformer — the laugh was against
him: but, two months after, he returned tothe charge. Colonel Bradley^ case
again came on ; and Mr. Hume, though generally the best-natured man in the
world, being nettled at having been so taunted by Lord Palmerston, said
something inaudible in the gallery, but which induced Lord Palmerston to ask,
whether the remark applied to him? Mr. Hume replied, that what he meant to
say was, that assertions having been made in that House not founded on fact, he
would rather rely on authenticated documents than on such assertions. Lord
Palmerston again pushed his question, and Mr. Hume further embroiled himself by
saying that Lord Palmerston could not expect any courtesy from him after having,
on that occasion, so notably declined acting as a gentleman. " The Speaker here
interfered, and put," wrote the late Mr. Francis, " a Pickwickian construction on
717

lord palmerston.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1832.
the affair, which ended after a flourish of good motives on the part of Mr. Hume."
The truth was, that the idea of a quarrel a la outrance at that day with Mr.
Hume, would have been avoided as a matter of tactics, even if Lord Palmerston's
customary good-nature had not rendered such a contingency impossible, except
under very extraordinary circumstances of provocation. It was remarkable how
rarely Lord Palmerston became involved in personal disputes. Considering what
charges have been brought against him from time to time, and how irritating it
must be to a public man to see his motives and policy misrepresented at times
when he is precluded from explanation, this is very noteworthy, and to be ex
plained chiefly by the possession of his lordship of a rare amount of good-nature.
The references to Lord Palmerston in the correspondence of the late Earl Grey
with his majesty King William IV., and with Sir Herbert Taylor, recently pub
lished, indicate that, at that time, a very high opinion was entertained of Lord
Palmerston by his majesty and his contemporaries. His majesty, on one occasion
suggests that his lordship might be raised to the upper House. Earl Grey
replies that he was more needed in the Commons. In June, 1832, his majesty
conferred the Grand Cross of the Bath on Lord Palmerston. Earl Grey, in a
• letter to Sir H. Taylor, expresses his satisfaction at finding the noble Foreign
Secretary " has received so honourable a mark of his majesty's favour, which has
been earned by a degree of diligence and ability in the management of very
different affairs, which are entitled to the highest praise." Sir H. Taylor, in
reply, states that the king was glad to find that Earl Grey had approved of the
honour being conferred on Lord Palmerston, "of whose able and indefatigable exer
tions his majesty thinks as you do." From many other passages it is clear, that of
his lordship at this time, by those who knew him, the highest opinion was enter
tained. The liberal tendency of Lord Palmerston's foreign policy does not appear to
have been very satisfactory to his majesty. In a letter to Earl Grey, dated April
16th, 1832, the king writes— "The king wishes to draw Earl Grey's attention also
to his recent correspondence with Viscount Palmerston on the subject of the
instructions sent to Mr. Seymour, with respect to the proposed administrative
changes m the papal dominions ; and his majesty is desirous that this corres
pondence should be laid before the cabinet, as it will show that his sentiments
with regard to the foreign policy which should be pursued by this country, have
undergone no change, and that he dreads and deprecates at present, as he did in
JNovember as he has ever done, the adoption of a too liberal system by this country
—too ready and unreserved a leaning to the spirit of the times, and the eager
encouragement of principles and projects which must have the effect of exciting
the jealousy and suspicion of its ancient allies, without offering, in the closer
connection with France, any security or advantage which shall afford adequate
compensation for the change, as it is impossible to place any reliance upon the
stability of its government, the permanency of its co-operation, or the sincerity of
its professions. His majesty is not disposed to under-value the importance of being
upon good terms with France, or even the advantages which England may derive"
from this circumstance in its negotiation with other powers. He is not inclined
to deny that the peace of Europe may have been mainly preserved by the concert
of measures between England and France with respect to the Belgic question in
its more recent stage; and his majesty is willing to believe that the good effects of
this union may be felt in other quarters, so long as it shall suit the views and
the immediate interest of France to pursue a pacific policy. But his majesty does
not trust France. He does not believe that she has abandoned her schemes of
conquest, and of extension of territory, or her designs of disturbing the tranquillity
and the prosperity of other countries, by the propagation of revolutionary doctrines
ana principles ; and his majesty is anxious that this country should carefully
!Z?M fr°m rm^ng itS6lf Unwaril? in tte suPP°rt of measures which may
possibly accord with the spirit of the times, but which aim at the destruction of

a.d. 1832.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [and William iv.
all established authority, and which it is therefore his majesty's determination, as
it is his duty, to resist to the utmost of his power." In the letter accompanying
this despatch, Sir H. Taylor adds, that " the question to which it applies agitated
him (the king) a good deal." William IV. was not very partial to the • spirit of
the times. A communication of this kind was very painful to Earl Grey, who considered
it such a censure as must infallibly call for his resignation. A few days after, he
had an interview with his majesty. In describing this to Sir H. Taylor, Earl
Grey writes —
"I received the king's letter and yours this morning. Having had a con
versation with his majesty after the levie, it is not necessary for me to say anything
more in answer to the former. I rest upon the assurance that his majesty's
confidence is not withdrawn : at the same time, I perceive with considerable pain,
both in his majesty's letter, and in what passed in the interview with which he
honoured me, symptoms of feeling which it must be to me a cause of deep
regret that his majesty should continue, in any degree, to entertain.
" In stating to me that he had not withdrawn his confidence, his majesty, at
the same time, expressed with some warmth, the necessity under which he felt that
no instructions relating to foreign policy should be sent without his previous
concurrence. The repetition of this, after what I had said in my letter to his
majesty on this point, gave me, I confess, considerable pain. I ventured to remind
his majesty that in no case had any instructions of importance been sent without
their having been previously submitted to his majesty ; that I, myself, had never
aided in any matter of consequence without taking his majesty's opinion; and
that I felt confident his majesty could not suspect Lord Palmerston, or any other
member of his government, of such a breach of duty as committing his majesty
on any subject of foreign policy without authority to do so. His majesty did not
dissent from this, and expressed himself as well satisfied, not only with the conduct
of Lord Palmerston, but of the other two Secretaries of State ; but neither in
saying this, nor in the long conversation which followed, was there that expression of
cordial feeling which I have heretofore experienced in my communications with
his majesty." This letter was, of course, shown by Sir H. Taylor to the king,
who, in reply, after saying he had as much confidence in the ministers as ever, adds
— "The king is persuaded that there never has been any intention to send
instructions of importance, or upon which it might be conceived that a doubt
could arise, without previously submitting them to his majesty ; but there may
have been instances in which such doubt has not been anticipated ; and adverting
to the date of those addressed to Mr. Seymour, and the day on which they were
received, the king might have presumed that they had been despatched before they
were submitted to him; and yet a perusal of his majesty's letter respecting those
to Lord Palmerston, will show that he strongly objected to many parts, as the
answers from Lord Palmerston will show that the soundness of many of the
objections was admitted."
As a rule, nevertheless, William IV. seems to have been perfectly satisfied with
Lord Palmerston. In 1831, we find the king writing to Earl Grey as follows : —
"His majesty received, with great interest, the communications from Lord
Melbourne and Lord Palmerston, and other heads of departments, whose zealous
and able co-operation with Earl Grey, in the indefatigable and honourable discharge
of the most arduous public duties, has proved uniformly satisfactory to him. He
has communicated, at some length, to Lord Palmerston his sentiments upon the
proposition which has been adopted by the conference for the establishment of the
future neutrality of Belgium; and it is almost unnecessary that he should assure
Earl Grey that the proposition and the principle upon which it is founded have
received his entire approbation, however his majesty may be inclined to doubt the
good faith with which it may be entered into by France." Again he writes, by
Sir H. Taylor, to Earl Grey— "Your lordship will learn, from the king's letter to
i x y

SECOND PREMIERSHIP.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1832.
Lord Palmerston, how highly he approves of the whole course of his government
in the negotiation about Belgium, and how much he ascribed the altered tone of
the French government to the firmness and consistency of his own government,
and to the ability and dexterity with which the negotiation has been conducted by
Lord Palmerston." Again Sir H. Taylor writes—" The king rejoices, also, that
you are so much pleased with his letter to Lord Palmerston, who certainly has not
shown less zeal and assiduity than talent in his late laborious task, to which his
majesty knows also, from the report of Baron Bulow and others, that temper and
patience may be added."
In the correspondence to which we have alluded, we find, accidentally, more
than one reference to Lord Palmerston, in connection with the great question of
reform, then agitating the public mind. It appears that, in November, 1831,
his lordship was against calling parliament together before the first week in
January. Earl Grey and the Duke of Eichmond were of the same opinion ; but
they gave way to their colleagues, who argued the state of the country as a reason
for parliament meeting at once. Lord Palmerston also appears to have objected
to an alteration in Schedule B, contemplated by Earl Grey — namely, leaving
eleven of the largest boroughs in that list, and, as a counterpoise, giving ten votes
to the largest towns which, by the late bill, had only one member. In this
objection Lord Melbourne coincided.
A writer, in the Times, of a very interesting account of Lord Palmerston, after
referring to the way in which, in his second Premiership, he led the House, says —
" Nor was it merely his fame, his dexterity, and his good-humour that thus suc
ceeded : he worked hard for success even in extreme old age. As a young man, he
did less than his friends expected of him ; as an old one, he did far more. It was
amazing to see him ; he could sit out the whole of the House of Commons, even in
its longest sittings. At three or four o'clock in the morning, he was the freshest
and liveliest man there, ready with his joke, or a clever explanation to appease the
irritability of a worn assembly. Besides the taste for debate, and incessant watch
ing in the House of Commons? his office-work was enormous. His despatches, all
written in that fine bold hand, which he desired to engraft upon his foreign
office, are innumerable. His minutes upon every conceivable subject of interest,
in the last fifty years, would fill many volumes ; and it is to be hoped that some of
them will be published. Moreover, in private he was always ready to write for the
information of his friends ; and he always wrote well. We may add, in a
parenthesis, that he generally wrote standing. To get through this immense
amount of work, he lived, during the session, what most men would regard
as an unwholesome life. Four days a week, when the House sat at night, he
dined at three o'clock ; on other days, at half-past eight. When his dinner was
late, he took no lunch ; when it was early, he seldom took any supper. While
young men went off from a debate to enjoy a comfortable meal, he sat on the
Treasury bench all night, and never budged from it, except to get a cup of tea in
the tea-room, where he liked a gossip with whoever was there. * * * All this
was the result of a prodigious vitality. Any doubt upon that score might be
settled by seeing Lord Palmerston at a public dinner — he sat down to it with the
zest of an Eton schoolboy — or by seeing him on horseback. When nearly an octo
genarian he would ride some fifteen miles to cover, and think nothing of it. His
mind never lost its interest in anything that was new. He was as keen as any
young man about the coming Derby, and would rather have won it than gained
any political triumph." The share that Lord Palmerston took in the last parlia
ment in which he was destined to sit, was highly creditable to the veteran
statesman, who occasionally played the part of a pacificator.
On his death-bed, it appears, from one account, that his lordship dwelt still
on public matters. One writer says, that his state of mind, up to the last,
remained unclouded; but there came a lassitude over him, which prevented any
effort or wish to converse: questions put to him were either disregarded or

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [dumas and palmerston.
answered by a look or a sign. A silence, half imposed by weariness, half of his own
inclination, possessed him. On the day before his death, however, when, in a doze
preceding the last change, his mind was evidently still amidst its old associations ;
for he was heard to murmur, as in a dream — " The treaty with Belgium !— yes,
read me that sixth clause again."
As soon as it was known that the Duke of Newcastle had lost the seals of office,
aU the bishops forsook him, and fled. In our day, the clergy are more grateful ;
and many were the clerical eulogies heaped upon Lord Palmerston after his

On the Sunday after, the Eev. Dr. Cumming addressed his congregation,
among whom were seated Lord Alfred Paget and Lord Keane, at his church, Crown
Court, Covent Garden, upon the death of Lord Palmerston. He said that it had
been his (Dr. Cumming's) privilege to be in the company of that great man more
than once, and no one could come in contact with him without being struck with
his kindness, conciliation, and gentleness, as well as with the solemn sense he
entertained of everything relating to true religion. He had the honour of meeting
him once in private, and of then witnessing many of his estimable qualities. He
remembered seeing him in the pews of that church, listening attentively and
earnestly to the words of eternal life ; and on retiring, on one occasion, his lordship
said, to the family in whose pew he sat, " A very useful and a very instructive
sermon"— a compliment which he (Dr. Cumming) prized very highly, because it
came from one who was a consummate judge of the goodness of a discourse.
Though he might not have spoken much upon religious subjects during life:, it was
not therefore to be supposed that he was indifferent to them. On the contrary,
like very many persons, his thoughts of religion were far deeper than he ventured
to express. This was shown in his last hours, when he implicitly placed his trust
in the Prince of Peace, and when, with full confidence in the merits of his Saviour,
his last sleep introduced him into everlasting bliss: His sufferings over, his eternal
happiness commenced. " Absent from the body," and that at eighty-one years of
age, he was " present with the Lord." His sun gone down here, at once he beheld
toe sunrise of a glorious and blessed eternity, over which the sun ceaselessly shines,
where no cloud, or storm, or tempest rises, but where glory encircles all things for
ever and ever. In some circles it was thought that the reverend gentleman had
rather over-done his panegyric : but there is no accounting for tastes.
Alexandre Dumas, in a gossiping article, published in Le Journal Illustre,
says : — " Some months before my departure for Spain, I was along with Victor
Hugo, at a grand evening reception given by the Due Decazes, at the Luxembourg.
Lord Palmerston came to this reception. The duke presented to him the political
personages who swarmed in bis saloon. But, as we were only poets and romance-
writers, the presentation of Victor Hugo and myself was forgotten. We consoled
ourselves by chatting away a portion ofthe evening in a corner of the saloon, which
was rather retired. I do not know at what hour our chat commenced ; I know
that, at a quarter-past eleven it still continued. It appeared that Lord Palmerston
had inquired who were the two misanthropic beings that thus chatted together ;
they had told him our names, and those two names had excited his curiosity. But
you know, my dear readers, his politico-aristocratic dignity did not permit him to
ask that we should be presented to him; on the other hand, not being presented,
the English etiquette positively forbade him to pddress a word to us. This is what
occurred; and here commences the recital of the eccentricity which I led you to
expect. Our two arm-chairs, that of Victor Hugo .and mine, were touching each
other. The Due de G  came to me, and said, ' I do not know what is Lord
Palmerston's object, but he wishes that for a moment you should sit upon the
arm-chair which is to your right, and thus leave vacant the one upon which you are
at present sitting.' I was satisfied to salute Lord Palmerston from my place, and
to do as he desired. Lord Palmerston then arose, and took Lady Palmerston by
the hand, and led her with marked solemnity to the vacant chair, and pointed with
721

gallantry of palmerston.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

his finger to the clock. ' My lady,' said he, ' have the kindness to tell me the
hour ?' ' It is a quarter-past eleven, my lord.' ' Well, my lady,' replied his grace,
' always remember that, at a quarter-past eleven, on the evening of this day, you
have had the honour of being seated between Messrs. Victor Hugo and Alexandre
Dumas, who are two of the first literary characters of France. — an honour which,
during your life, you shall never have again. Come, my lady.' My lady rose, and,
with the same solemnity as they came, he re-conducted her to her place, without
addressing to either of us a single word."
We add a few more anecdotes, which, in addition to those already printed
here, or in other parts of our narrative, will help clearly to set forth to the reader
the character of the deceased Premier.
Dr. Russell and Lord Palmerston. — At the end of the Crimean war, a news
paper correspondent who had taken some part in causing a general, and not
altogether unfounded, distrust in the public mind at home respecting the " system"
of our army, was invited by Lord Palmerston to talk over the events of the late
campaign. He frankly told his lordship— who of all men living knew most, and
felt most deeply the facts of importance which concerned the British army — all
that he had witnessed, or could decide upon, of its shortcomings. " Well, now,"
said my lord, " as you have said all this, what do you propose ?" It was a difficult
question to answer ; but the correspondent pointed out several conditions suscep
tible of change, if not improvement; and, in the course of his reply, had occasion
to say, or did say two or three times — "As the French do." At last Lord Palmer
ston exclaimed — " Yes, as the French do ! But don't you know we can't do as the
French do ? The English army is the army of England, and it is just as much a
peculiar growth as the English constitution. We can't take anything because it is
good unless it is English too — Ccedit questio."
Lord Palmerston's Promptitude. — Many years ago, Mr. Gruneison, the
correspondent of an English daily paper, at the camp of Don Carlos, was taken
prisoner by Espartero, and was sentenced to be shot as a spy. On the arrival of
the news, Mr. Mitchell, the managing proprietor of the paper, went to Lord
Palmerston, ringing his lordship up in the middle of the night. Lord Palmerston
wrote a despatch, sealed it, gave it to Mr. Mitchell, with instructions to proceed
at once to the residence of a cabinet messenger, who had just returned from Vienna.
On arriving, the messenger was in bed ; but, to Mr. Mitchell's surprise, came down
in ten minutes, booted and spurred, and all ready for a journey. His orders were
to start for the Christines head-quarters at once ; to travel night and day, and to
spare no expense. He started, and by incredible exertion — the railway system was
in its infancy in those days — presented himself at the entrance to Espartero's tent
at the very moment when poor Gruneison was waiting, amongst a crowd of
Chapelchrowries, the arrival of the firing party. "What's your business?" "I
come from Lord Palmerston to request that the Englishman's life may be spared."
"Impossible! he's a spy." "Bead that!" pulling out his despatch. The grim
general read and swore, and stamped, and cried " Carrajo !" But he also called his
aide, and instructed him to have Gruneison unbound and delivered up. What
was in that little despatch (there were only three lines) never transpired; they were
neither " deep as a well nor as wide as a church-door ;" but they were enough, and
our "special" of the old days was liberated.
Lord Palmerston's Gallantry. — An incident occurred in the neighbourhood of
Walmer, which proved (said a local paper) that the gallantry which distinguished
the Premier in the days of his youth has not departed, spite of the weight of
years, and the activities of public life. A party of ladies and gentlemen were
walking, on their return from Walmer Castle, when a dog-cart, driven by some
careless ill-mannered clown, rushed by and caught a lady's dress in the wheel,
bringing its beauty in rags to the dust, and reducing its wearer to a state of
desperate millinery distress in the highest degree mortifying. The dog-cart went
on, and was quickly out of sight. A carriage came up immediately after the

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [haydon and palmerston.
accident, was promptly pulled up, and an elderly gentleman stepped out, and
insisted on the lady, although a perfect stranger to him, taking a seat by his wife.
The courteous offer was accepted, and the lady was conveyed to her home in the
carriage, although this caused a considerable detour in the intended course of the
owner. The doer of this very grateful act — this polite as well as good Samaritan —
was Lord Palmerston.
Lord Palmerston's Handwriting. — Our octogenarian Premier (wrote the
Guardian) is not above enlarging on the advantages of cultivating a plain, large,
legible hand, " with good thick up-strokes as well as thick down-strokes." It can
not be said that Lord Palmerston does not practise what he preaches, on this
occasion at least. In a complete collection of franks of a parliament some five-and-
twenty years ago, which lies before us, the handwriting of his lordship is, if not the
very boldest, at all events one of the boldest, in the entire volume ; and the envelope
of a letter not many weeks old, which fell into our hands a few weeks since, with
"Palmerston" in the corner, serves to show that his " up-strokes" and "down-
strokes" are as bold and thick as they were then, though perhaps a trifle more shaky.
Haydon, in his Autobiography, gives an account of his interviews with Lord
Palmerston, while engaged in painting his celebrated picture of the reform
banquet. Under the date of September 18th, 1832, we find the following entry : —
"I afterwards called on Lord Palmerston, and was amazingly impressed with his
good-humoured elegance. Colonel Walpole had made a mistake. He did not
mean to sit, he only thought I wanted to see him. He said he could no more sit
than he could fly ; but the first leisure hour he would not forget me." Again he
writes, October, 1833 — "Lord Palmerston sat; we had a delightful conversation.
I stuck it well into him about the Elgin marbles. I showed him from his own
wrist their truth in hands. I proved to him their science, in the action of two feet
and legs, and he acknowledged that he now saw the cause of my enthusiasm.
Lord Palmerston was very sincere in this." 12th — "Lord Palmerston sat finally.
I bored him on Greek art, which he listened to with the most amiable patience. I
showed to him drawings from dissections ; explained to him principles of form,
which he entered into. It varied the monotony of sitting ; but I fear he thought
me a nuisance." 17th — "Dined at Lord Palmerston's. Met Baron Bulow, Baron
Weissenberg, the American minister, and a distinguished party." These glimpses
are brief, but they show the amiable character of his lordship.
Carrying a Prime Minister's Umbrella. — Lord Palmerston always came
down to the House in his carriage at half-past four o'clock, partly to avoid
recognition from the idlers about Westminster Hall, and also because he was
busily engaged all the morning until the House met. A great-coat and a stout
umbrella were brought down in the carriage for the walk home. A cabinet
minister tells an amusing story about this umbrella. The House was counted out
early one summer's evening, and, as their way home lay together, he offered Lord
Palmerston his arm. The offer was accepted. As he was the younger man, he
offered to carry the summer over-coat. The Premier thanked him, but declined to
take it off his arm. The minister then insisted on carrying the umbrella. It was
a very stout, useful umbrella, well known in and about the House of Commons —
quite Sairey Gampish, indeed, in its outline and proportions — a sort of gig
umbrella razied. In Lord Palmerston's hands it passed without notice. But the
smarter and younger cabinet minister was painfully conscious — first, of the attention
it excited; and, secondly, of its unusual and inconvenient weight. He could
compare it to nothing but a good thick blue-book tied to the end of a stick. Up
Parliament Street, through the Horse-Guards, and up the steps at the foot of the
Duke of York's column, they walked together, the umbrella seeming to get uglier
and heavier at every step. The stout old Premier would have used it as a walking-
stick, and flourished it as a drum-major wields his baton. In his colleague's
hand it was so much dead weight. He declares that he never was so glad to get
rid of anything he had been entrapped into carrying ; and that, whenever he gave
723

the prince consort.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
Lord Palmerston his arm again in the street, he was particularly careful not to
offer to carry his umbrella.
Lord Palmerston and the Prince Consort. — From the same writer as the
last we get another anecdote. Lord Palmerston declared to a friend that the death
of the Prince Consort would double his responsibilities. He knew better than any
man the public loss the queen and the nation had sustained in the transaction of
public business. Now that the grave has closed over both, it need not be concealed
that coolness and differences existed between them, which, at one time, threatened
a scandal. The Foreign Secretary, while in the full glow of his parliamentary
triumph in 1850, fell under the displeasure of the highest personage in the realm;
and received a severe rebuke, in the shape of a well-known memorandum on the
transaction of business between the crown and the state. Lord Palmerston was
placed in circumstances of peculiar difficulty, and at length took a step which led
to a demand for an explanation. One or two seemingly independent acts on his
part — such as the sending off a certain important despatch to Lord Normanby,
at Paris, without previously obtaining the sanction of her majesty — were not, it is
said, intended as slights to the queen, but were marks of distrust of the interests
and intrigues of German cousins and connections, and the -backstairs influence of
German secretaries. Lord Palmerston, with great magnanimity, went out of
office, without justifying himself in the eyes of the country ; but Mr. Monckton
Milnes (now Lord Houghton), a personal friend of Lord Palmerston, gave the
House a hint of the real state of affairs, when he said that there was much
behind the Premier's statement which was not expressed, and , of which Lord
John Eussell himself was perhaps hardly conscious. Lord Palmerston, when
he held the seals, always knew what was going on in foreign courts, and he had
probably learned more than he chose to tell either to the court or cabinet. The
queen and prince could not be insensible to Lord Palmerston's magnanimous
conduct. He lived to gain the entire love and confidence of both, and he learned,
in turn, to appreciate more correctly the thorough English spirit which the Prince
Consort manifested in everything relating to our foreign relations.
We can add another anecdote from our personal knowledge of Lord Palmer
ston's patience and forbearance. A clerk in a city warehouse had got a crotchet
in his head on the working ofthe Bank Charter Act — a subject which the late Mr.
Cobden always avoided. The clerk wrote to the Premier, asking for an interview.
It was granted, and they had a discussion, which lasted upwards of an hour. Lord
Palmerston was not convinced ; and, we believe, the impression left on the clerk's
mind was, that, at any rate, his lordship knew as much about the subject as he did.
Most Premiers would have treated the clerk's request as impertinent.
In his great speech on the vote of confidence in himself, proposed by Mr.
Eoebuck, Lord Palmerston was very happy in his reply to Lord Derby, who made
an eloquent speech, replete with stinging satire in condemnation of his foreign
policy. Lord Derby described Pacifico as a contemptible Jew. Lord Palmerston
said — " As if a man, because he was poor, might be bastinadoed and tortured with
impunity; or, because a man is of the Jewish persuasion, he is fair game for
any outrage. It is a true saying, that has very often' been repeated — a very
moderate share of human wisdom is sufficient for the guidance of human affairs.
But there is another truth, equally indisputable; which is, that a man who aspires to
govern mankind, ought to bring to the task generous sentiments, compassionate
sympathies, and noble and elevated thoughts." This was evidently a dart aimed
at "Scorpion Stanley." Again," speaking of two Ionians who were arrested,
manacled, and thumb-screwed, he observed — v' Then it was said that the application
of the thumb-screw had not maimed them for life. Had that indeed been the case,
the men would have been entitled to compensation; but for a very little thumb-
screwing, applied only during an evening walk, no compensation ought to have
been required. I am of a different opinion. Thumb-screws are not so easy to
wear as gloves, which can be put on and pulled off at pleasure."

a.d. 1844.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [original correspondence.
Lord Palmerston's schooling began later than is usual with boys. It used to
be a reproach urged by her neighbours in Hampshire against his mother, that she
kept Henry too long in the nursery. He was a big fellow, it is said, at eleven years
of age, before he was released from that gentle petticoat government to pass under
the- ferule of tutors and professors. He graduated Master of Arts, St. John's
College, Cambridge, 1806.
If Haydon be correct, it appears that, about 1815, the word bull became
fashionable; and that to Lord Palmerston it was due that such was the case.
" We have heard Joseph Hume," says the writer of an article in the Edinburgh
Review, "say, that he used to torment Palmerston on his army estimates, merely
to enjoy the excitement of hearing a man of fashion reply to him ; and that if the
army estimates had come oftener than once a year, he would have made a great
debater of him even then" (1816). A general officer, one of the few remaining heroes
ofthe Peninsula, remarked to us one day — "I never saw Lord Palmerston but
once, and that was in 1814, when I returned after the peace, and went to the
War Office, a mere subaltern, to inquire about some prize-money. I had no
introduction, but Lord Palmerston saw me himself; and I remember to this day
the charm of his manner, and his careful inquiry into the subject of my visit."

CHAPTEE XXXVI.
ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

In the course of our work, we have given, occasionally, extracts from such of
Lord Palmerston's letters as have already appeared in print. We now add one
or two letters perfectly original. For the first we are indebted to the kindness
of the Eev. Professor Eeynolds, of Cheshunt College, who has forwarded us one
written by Lord Palmerston to his father, the Eev. John Eeynolds, of Eomsey,
afterwards of Halstead. The letter, which is dated C. T., 14th February, 1844,
and is on the subject of the suppression of the slave-trade, after a line or two
of introduction, proceeds as follows : —
" The general argument of the case seems .to me to be in a narrow compass,
and to be plain, and not to be mistaken.
"The great majority of this nation earnestly desire the abolition of the slave-
trade ; some time ago, I should have said the whole nation ; but I fear that recent
experience tends to show, that some are, at least, grown indifferent on the matter.
The slave-trade can, however, never be abolished and extinguished until slavery
itseff shall have ceased to exist among all the nations of the world ; but, in the
meantime, and waiting that consummation, for which we ought also to labour by
all means adapted to accomplish that end — in the meanwhile, however, the slave-
trade may be greatly checked, and may be confined within narrower and narrower
limits. " This might be done by either or both of two means — first, by the sincere
and resolute determination of the Christian states to prevent any of their subjects
and citizens from carrying on tbat trade. But this we cannot at present hope to
see brought about : other nations have not the same moral and religious feeling
about the slave-trade that we have ; and their governments do not, and will not,
exert the means in their power to prevent their subjects from slave-trading. Many
foreign powers have bound themselves by treaty with us to do so; but they
disregard and break their engagements. Eemonstrances are met by false denials
and evasive promises ; and unless we went to war with most of the maritime states,
we should have little chance of getting them to fulfil their engagements on this
725

slave-trade.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1844.
subject. Even the French government, the most enlightened on this subject of
any foreign power, was detected by us, some two years ago, as appears in the
slave-trade papers laid before parliament, in making a contract for the purchase of
negroes on the coast of Africa, to be carried away to serve as soldiers in their
black regiments in the West Indies, and in Guiana. This was, to all intents and
purposes, slave-trade; and they promised to leave it off; and, in fact, were rather
ashamed of being found put.
" The second means is an efficient force on the seas, to stop and examine
vessels suspected of slave-trade ; and to seize and send in for trial such as may be
found engaged in the commission of that offence. But this police cannot be
effective unless all the states which, by being seafaring people, have a merchant
flag on the sea, agree to give to all naval powers, or, at all events, to England,
a neutral right to stop, and search, and detain, within certain latitudes and
longitudes, merchant vessels suspected of slave-trade. If each state were simply to
act for itself, the police would be good for nothing, unless each state were to have
a cruiser sailing always in company with a cruiser from every other state;
because if a single cruiser of one state falls in with a vessel suspected of slave-
trade, that vessel would, by hoisting the flag of some other state than that to
which the cruiser belonged, set all search and stoppage at defiance, and escape with
impunity. But to have little knots of cruisers of different nations always going
about together is physically impossible ; and even if it were possible, it would
be a great waste of force, because, by means of a mutual right of search, each
cruiser of such a state might go alone, and accomplish the same purpose; and the
cruisers sailing singly would cover a far greater extent of sea' than when altogether.
But we being the only nation sincere on the subject, are also the only one that is
willing to employ sufficient sea police for the purpose.
" It has, for these reasons, been the endeavour of every administration since
the peace of 1815, to get all foreign powers to agree to treaties with us for the
mutual right of search. Some progress had been made in this before 1830.
Treaties imperfect, indeed, in many respects, had been made with Spain, Portugal,
and Holland ; but slave-trade was still carried on greatly under their flags. With
France nothing had been done, on account of the maritime jealousy between the
two countries — the result of their long rivalship at sea, and of the reverses sus
tained by France during the war. Consequently, slave-trade went on to a great
extent under the French flag.
" In 1830, the French revolution happened, and a Whig administration came
into power in England. France wanted our support against the military
despotisms of Eastern Europe ; and a perfect cordiality was established between
the two governments. We took advantage of that state of things to ask them
for a slave-trade suppression treaty; and our friendship was so important to
them at that time, that they yielded to our request. We took care to render
the thing as little wounding as possible to the pride ot either party; for
our naval feeling revolted at a French search, as much as theirs did at an
English one.
" By the arrangement which we proposed, the English cruiser was to stop and
search a suspected French vessel, not as a cruiser of the English government, but
as a special constable appointed for the purpose by France, and in virtue of a
warrant given and signed by the French Admiralty ; and so, vice versa, the French
cruiser acted by a warrant from the British Admiralty.
" The vessels, when detained, were, moreover, not to be tried and adjudicated
by any foreign authority, but were to be handed over to the tribunals of their own
country for that purpose ; and if those tribunals found that any abuse had been
committed by the detaining cruiser, they might award damages to be paid to their
own subjects by the government of the other country.
"This arrangement was established by two treaties — the one in 1831 ; the
other in 1833. These compacts acted like magic, and instantly drove the slave-

A.D. 1844.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [slave-trade.
 1—  ' ~ ~ '
trade away from the French flag. They have now lasted more than eleven years,
and not above three or four cases have occurred in which the shadow of a
complaint has been made; and those cases have been adjusted, or are in train to
be so, to the great satisfaction of the parties concerned.
" But lately, the French opposition, goaded on by the French slave-dealers of
Nantes, and by the slave-holders of the West Indies, of Guiana, and the Isle of
Bourbon ; encouraged by the wretched agreement made by us last year in the
Washington treaty, by which we abandoned all demands for mutual right • of
search, and accepted a most inadequate and nonsensical arrangement instead of it;
encouraged by this, these parties have now begun, as a piece of party tactic, to
press the French government to demand from our government that the treaties of
1831 — '33 shall be rescinded, the mutual right of search given up, and the flag of
each country placed under the exclusive control of its own cruisers ; and I 'am
sadly afraid, from what Lord Aberdeen said the other day, in that comedy or juggle
which was got up for the purpose between him and Brougham — I. am sadly afraid
that our government, out of civility to Guizot, and in order to keep him in office,
are going to sacrifice those treaties.
" If they do, there will be an immediate revival of the slave-trade under the
French flag ; and if we give up the neutral right of search with France, all
other powers with which we have right of search treaties will require to be
released also. Austria, Eussia, Portugal, Prussia, Spain, Holland, &c, will all,
with equal justice, demand to be released; and all that former governments have
been laboriously accomplishing during the last quarter of a century, for the sup
pression of the slave-trade, will vanish like a dream, and we shall have this
abomination renewed in all its former magnitude.
" Some people fancy that the means taken to put down the slave-trade have
only aggravated its horrors. This is an entire mistake. No doubt, the greater
vigilance and activity of our cruisers have driven slave-traders to look more than
formerly to means of escape ; and the sufferings of the negroes during the middle
passage are greater than when the trade was permitted openly to be carried on,
because a greater number of negroes are huddled together in a given space ; but
the sufferings of those negroes in the process of capture in a fray, and in slavery
afterwards in America, are not greater on account of our endeavours to put down
the slave-trade ; and the number of negroes thus annually transported across the
sea, is infinitely less than it would have been if we had not made the exertions we
have, both by treaties and by cruisers.
" As to Brougham, he is abandoning all his old friends, his old opinions, and
his old principles ; and it is therefore not surprising tp hear him say, as he now
does, that all he cared about was the extinction of our own slave-trade, and that he
never pretended to meddle with that of other countries.
" I have written this in a great hurry, but wished not to lose a post.
" My motion cannot come on the day it is now fixed, for that is Thursday
week ; and I must postpone it till that day sennight. " My dear Sir,
" Yours faithfully,
" Palmerston."
"Eev. J. Eeynolds."
The above letter occupies twelve pages of ordinary letter-paper. It must
have been written at one spurt, with not a single erasure ; the only correction
attempted being the insertion, on two occasions, of omitted words. It may also be
stated, that the whole is very legibly written in the round open hand for which his
lordship was celebrated. It is also clear that it was written with a quill that
wanted mending before its appointed task was done.
Of the slave-trade, which it was the constant aim of Lord Palmerston to put
down, the following are the latest particulars. Despite the wholesome checks
which civilisation has exercised upon it since the emancipation of 1834, it is
727

slave-trade.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
notorious that the illicit traffic still flourishes, if not under the auspices, at least
with the connivance of foreign governments. This fact is demonstrated in
documents presented to parliament, containing the reports of our ministers and
commissioners abroad.
Her majesty's judge at Sierra Leone reports, that while only two seizures of
slave-traders were adjudicated in tbe colony during the year 1865, he has not
heard of a single cargo of slaves having been shipped in the north, formerly the
great centre of the trade. Even in Cuba, where, so recently as 1860, some 40,000
slaves were landed, Lord Stanley is informed that there is fair reason for sup
posing that the trade is virtually almost at an end. The report of her majesty's
commissioner at Cape Town, divulges a determined effort still made to maintain
the slave-trade on the east coast of Africa. The British ships on that station
have been principally occupied against the trade to the Persian Gulf, they having
made numerous captures, and liberated more than 200 slaves. There appears
to have been no diminution of the illicit traffic to the Mozambique Channel,
as Arabs and Persians keep up an unrestricted supply of slaves to Zanzibar
from the Portuguese possessions at Madagascar. The governor of the Cape of
Good Hope has been impelled to remonstrate with the President of the Transvaal
Free State, against a new system of involuntary servitude, imposed upon the
native tribes under the guise of apprenticeship. The Portuguese government,
according to our commissioner at Loando, are fostering a trade in negroes under
the disguised name of libertos, from the river Cama and Cape St. Catherine to
the islands of St. Thome and Principe ; and the British governor-general, by
direction of Lord Stanley, in a despatch of recent date, called the serious
attention of the. government of Portugal to the subject. The reports from our
naval officers on the African stations, furnish gratifying evidence that, by means of
their activity, the slave-trade can only with much difficulty be carried on ; and, if
no more serious work. elsewhere engage the British naval forces, there is but little
doubt that to our power this nefarious trade must eventually succumb — an augury
of which we discover in the report, to the Admiralty, of the commodore of the
Cape of Good Hope squadron, in the year 1866, that "he has no reason to believe
that any slave expeditions are being fitted out within the limits of the station
under his command."
But as there are other sources of information than those we have mentioned,
so is there another view — the diplomatic— from which our action against the slave-
trade may be regarded. And " the correspondence with foreign powers," under
this head, discloses the most complete insight into the progress of this nefarious
trade. The Brazilian government, early in 1865, took a wise step, which
liberated 20,000 persons from slavery. It was the pleasure of Earl Clarendon
to express the satisfaction of her majesty's government at the determination that
no slaves should in future be employed on the government establishments of
Brazil. The monks of the Benedictine Order, established in that empire, who owned
2,000 slaves, following the worthy example of the government, declared free all
children born of their slaves ; in appreciation of which measure, the Emperor
of Brazil presented the President of the Order with a diamond snuff-box. .What
ever may be the sincerity of the emperor, he openly pretends to favour the abo
lition of slavery within his dominions. Lord Stanley received a communication
that his majesty had granted freedom to more than 4,000 slaves under his control,
on their agreeing to serve as soldiers during the war with Paraguay then
carried on. Altogether, the prospects of Brazil, in respect of the extinction
of slavery, are exceedingly favourable. The anti-slavery feeling in the empire,
and the non-renewal of the trade with Western Africa, tend to inspire a belief
that it only awaits the conclusion of the Paraguayan war for an act of the Bra
zilian legislature to consummate the great work of totally abolishing slavery in
the empire. Dr. Livingstone,, in a letter to Lord Clarendon, gave particulars
of his expedition to a land-locked harbour in Central Africa, called Pemba, from
728

a.d. 1853.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Crimean war.
which Arabs emerged with their slave dhows. Earl Eussell received an intimation,
at the beginning ofthe year 1866, from our consul in the Comoro Islands, that remon
strances had been made with the sultan for permitting the introduction of slaves
into Johanna ; and Mr. Sunley was dismissed by her majesty's government from his
consular office, for employing slaves on his estate. The slave-trade on the west
coast of Madagascar was by him reported to have been actively carried on until
October of the preceding year, when the Hova government threatened to punish
with fine and mutilation any one caught having slaves in the Hova possessions.
From Egypt comes a picture of a more saddening character. Consul Stanton
informed Lord Clarendon, in 1866, that even in Cairo and other towns of Egypt,
bartering in slaves continued. But the principal sources of supply for the slave-
trade, are the White Nile and the Blue Nile, upwards of 10,000 slaves having been
imported, in one year, through Metemma into Egypt, from the Gallas and other
tribes south of Abyssinia. Albeit this illicit traffic is avowedly prohibited, it is
difficult to acquit the government of connivance, when slave-dealers can elude the
capture of their ships and slaves by landing the latter almost within sight of
Egyptian naval stations, and sending them over desert roads till re-embarkation
can be safely effected. Though some reluctance was evinced by France to
interfere respecting our representations as to the purchase of slaves by French
agents in the islands of the Indian Ocean, there seems, from the despatches, to be
no disposition on the part of the emperor to countenance the slave-trade. Both
Spain and Portugal have issued new decrees forbidding traffic in slaves ; but while
it still thrives to such an extent that in Porto Eica alone the Spanish government
tolerates the existence of nearly 50,000 slaves, it becomes a matter of sus
picion whether those governments which are not actively engaged in the
suppression of the trade are not upholding it, if not openly, at any rate with
connivance. But there is little doubt that the negroes in those quarters will
soon emancipate themselves ; for, as Consul Cowper writes, " there can be no
question that the emancipation of the slaves in the United States, the insur
rection in Jamaica, the retreat of the Spaniards from St. Domingo, and the
propagandism of the Haytians, have given hopes to the coloured race which it
never entertained."
We have another letter now lying before us, very short, and evidently penned
. in a great hurry, as the paper on which it is written is blotted from the too
sudden appUcation of the blotting-paper. It refers to an effort made by the
friends and admirers of Kossuth in this country, to put him in possession of funds,
and is as follows : — " C. G., 24th November, 1853.
"My dear Sir,
" I return you, with thanks, the enclosed lithographic circular from Kossuth.
I should think that he would get more returned bonds than cheques on bankers.
" Yours faithfully,
" Palmerston.
"Dr. Beddome."
The writer has also several telegraphic messages of his lordship in his possession.
While residing at his seat near Eomsey, it was his habit, during the Crimean war
to copy out these despatches, and send them to the local bookseller and stationer,
and news agent, for the benefit of the inhabitants of that locality. His lord
ship knew the interest they felt in the question; and his care in transmitting
immediately to them the news, is surely an evidence of kindness of heart,
rare in a man of his lordship's exalted position, and numerous responsible official
labours. These despatches were written on a side of note-paper thus —
" By telegraph from London, 7th October.
" Despatches from the Crimea of the 28th September, state that the allied armies
had reached Balaclava without meeting with any opposition from the enemy."
vol. n. 3 b 729

speeches and policy.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
In another despatch, soon after, his lordship transmitted the news ofthe down
fall of Sebastopol by sudden assault on the part of the allies ; but intimated very
wisely, as it turned out, that he was somewhat sceptical as to the truth of the
report of which he had sent a copy.
Enough has been given to show what kind of a correspondent Lord Palmerston
was. It is clear he was as active with his pen as with his tongue ; and that he was
a perfect master of either means of communication. There must be many ofhis
lordship's letters locked up in official quarters, or scattered in all parts of the world.
It is a pity that some of them are not published. Especially do we regret this the
more, when we remember that Guizot has published so much that relates to Lord
Palmerston's career as Foreign Minister in very delicate and troublous times ; that
many of Sir Eobert Peel's papers have appeared in print ; and that, in the memoirs
of the courts and cabinets of George III., George IV., William IV., and Queen
Victoria, by the Duke of Buckingham, we have a mass of correspondence all
bearing on transactions in which Lord Palmerston was deeply concerned. It
appears we shall have to wait for papers and correspondence illustrating his
lordship's career, till they have ceased to be of any interest, save to the anti
quarian or historical student;

CHAPTEE XXXVII.
LORD PALMERSTON'S SPEECHES AND POLICY.
We propose to insert in this chapter such of Lord Palmerston's speeches as are of
permanent interest — in whieh he unveiled or defended his policy; and which we
have been unable to glance at till now.
In his Modem Orators, Mr. Francis thus describes the subject of our sketch
as a speaker : — " All things taken into account, Lord Palmerston is, perhaps, the
best debater among the Whig leaders of the House of Commons. In the different
qualities, which, when combined, go to render a man an orator, he is excelled by
many individuals among his contemporaries. Lord John Eussell shows more tact,
more intimate acquaintance with party history (not with parties, for in that know
ledge Lord Palmerston beats all men living, having been member of almost, every
government within the memory of man), greater skill in pointing allusions to the
political errors of opponents ; and, altogether, more refinement in the management
of his parliamentary case. In eloquence, both of conception or in delivery, Lord
Palmerston, is, of course, excelled by Mr. Shiel or Mr. Macaulay, and even by men
holding a far inferior rank as speakers. In soundness and vigour of argument, he
cannot stand even a moment's comparison with Mr. Cobden or with Earl Grey,
when that nobleman does justice to his powers, or even to Mr. Charles BuUer.
Each speaker on his own side is, in fact, in advance of him in some particular
quality of the orator. Yet no one would for a moment hesitate to place Lord
Palmerston among the first speakers in the House of Commons, or would deny
that he had derived, from hearing one of that nobleman's speeches, as much
pleasure of its kind as- if he had listened to the most brilliant efforts of Macaulay,
the most stirring of Shiel, or the most skilful and satisfying of Lord John Eussell."
This sketch is pretty accurate, though the writer subsequently admitted, that in it
he had scarcely done justice to Lord Palmerston's powers as an orator. We now
commence our extracts.
The Expedition to Copenhagen. — February 3, 1808.
"I object, sir, to the motion ofthe honourable gentleman, Mr. Ponsonby,
730 s '

A.D. 1813.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the catholic question.
because, in this particular case, his majesty's ministers are pledged to secrecy'; but
I also object, generally, to making public the working of diplomacy, because it is
the tendency of disclosures ih that department to shut up further sources of
information. With respect to the present expedition, it is defensible on the
ground that the enormous power of France enables her to coerce the weaker
state to become an enemy of England. The right honourable gentleman (Mr.
Windham) has urged that we have been guilty of a violation of the law of
nations ; but the question in this case is, how to apply the admitted principle that
the law of nations is sacred ? It is one thing to admit the right of nations,
another thing to succumb to the policy which may, for the time being, govern
them. A nation coerced by a superior power, loses that independence which is the
plea for its rights, and the guarantee of their maintenance by mankind.
" In the case now before the House, the law of nature is even stronger than the
law of nations. It is to the law of self-preservation that England appeals for the
justification of her proceedings. - It is admitted, by the honourable gentleman and
his supporters, tbat if Denmark had evidenced any hostility towards this country,
then we should have been justified in measures of retaliation. How, then, is the
case altered when we find Denmark acting under the coercion of a power
notoriously hostile to us? Knowing, as we do, that Denmark is under the
influence of France, can there be the shadow of a doubt that the object of our
enemy would have been accomplished ? Denmark coerced into hostiUty stands in
the same position as Denmark voluntarily hostUe when the law of self-preservation
comes into play. We must remember what has been the conduct of France
towards other countries ; and if we would preserve the blessings of a free constitu
tion, we must not judge this question by a barren and abstract rule of justice, but
by those larger and more free principles which regulate the conduct of nations in
great emergencies.'
" Does any one beUeve that Bonaparte will be restrained, by considerations of
justice, from acting towards Denmark as he has done towards other countries?
Is it at the very moment when his legions are returning triumphant to France,
that Denmark can hope for an exemption from the calamities of war, if she refuses
to comply with the hostile intentions of France ? Or can it be doubted that this
would be the season when he would more especially seek to carry out his gigantic
designs against us ? England, according to that law of self-preservation which is
a fundamental principle of the law of nations, is justified in securing, and, there
fore, enforcing from Denmark a neutrality which France, by compulsion, would
have converted into active hostility."
Eoman Catholic Disabilities. — 1813.
"Putting this question, however, entirely on the ground of expediency, I
cannot concur with those who think that they have proved the expediency of con
tinuing the CathoUc disabilities now, by showing that they were necessary in the
times when they were originally imposed. These disabilities are not the rule of
the constitution, but an exception from that rule : their necessity in one century
is no evidence of their expediency in another ; and it is as much incumbent on
those who now contend for their continuance to show that they are required for
the present security of the state, as it was upon those who first framed them, to
prove the necessity of their original enactment.
" The great stand has been made upon the admission of CathoUcs into the
two Houses of Parliament ; and the danger apprehended is, that they will influence
the decision of the two Houses in some vote which might, directly or indirectly,
affect the Protestant estabUshments of the empire. Now how does this stand ? In
the House of Lords their numbers must of necessity be too small to have any effect
upon the decisions of that body. In the House of Commons the numbers would
undoubtedly be greater, but would still bear so very small a proportion to the
whole, as to render it absolutely impossible for them to carry any such point by
3B2 731

THE CATHOLIC QUESTION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1813.

themselves. Now I beg to say that I am inclined to think that Catholics coming
into the House would, much in the same way that Protestants do, range themselves
under the banners of the different religious parties ' which might exist within its
walls according as they might be influenced by considerations of personal connec
tion or political feeling ; but supposing, for the sake of argument, that they move
in one compact mass, directing all their efforts to the attainment of this particular
object, by themselves they would be powerless. They must then bargain with
some 'great Protestant party, and barter their aid in the contest for the concession
of their object, when the victory would be gained. Now I know well, that in a
popular constitution like ours, when conflicting parties are nearly balanced, when
all the passions of the mind are roused, and the prize to be fought for is nothing
less than the direction of the affairs of a great and mighty empire, men may be
led to make large sacrifices at the shrine of political ambition. The history of the
country is, unfortunately, not without such examples ; but whatever may be the
error of individuals, I never can bring myself to believe that there would at any
time be found in this House a sufficiently powerful and numerous Protestant
party, so profligate in principle, and so dead to everything which would be due to
themselves and to their country, as to barter away the religious establishment of
an empire for the gratification of political ambition. But supposing, again, this
combination of improbabilities to occur, and such a vote to be extorted from this
House, I trust that there would still be found in the other House of Parliament,
and, above all, in the indignant feeling of a betrayed people, barriers amply suffi
cient to protect the Protestant establishment of the empire from profanation by
such sacrilegious hands."
In the course of the same speech his lordship dwelt on the practical evils of
exclusion. " Is it wise to say to any set of men that they may enter, it is true, the
army and navy; but whatever may be the talents and bravery they display,
however brilliant the achievements they may perform, they must remain in the
inferior ranks of the service ? Can we hope from such men the full stretch of
exertions to which, by proper incentives, they might be led ? Is it wise, again, to
admit men to the profession of the law, and forbid them to aspire to its honours ?
Might not the knowledge and habits of business so acquired sometimes be
perverted to mischievous purposes ? Might not the activity or ambition which is
cherished in one direction break out in another ? If men feel that they cannot
hope to rise to professional honours, may they not be tempted to gratify their love
of distinction by becoming the leaders of a faction ? I do not say that such things
would, but, undoubtedly, they might be. Is it wise to say to men of rank and
property, who, from old lineage or present possessions, have a deep interest in the
common weal, that they live, indeed, in a country where, by the blessings of a free
constitution, it is possible for any man, themselves only excepted, by the honest
exertions of talent and industry in the avocations of political life, to make himself
honoured and respected by his countrymen, and to render good service to the
state ; but they alone can never be permitted to enter this career ? That they
may, indeed, usefully employ themselves in the humbler avocations of private life ;
but that public service they can never perform, public honours they never shall
attain ? What we have lost by a continuance of this system it is impossible for
man to know ; what we may have lost can be more easily imagined. If it had unfor
tunately happened, that by the circumstance of birth and education, a Nelson, a
Wellington, a Burke, a Fox, or a Pitt, had belonged to this class of the com
munity, of what honour and of what glory might not the page of British history
have been deprived. To what perils and calamities might not this country have
been exposed. The question is not whether we would have so large a portion of
tbe population Catholic or not. There they are, and we must deal with them as
we can. It is in vain to think that by any human pressure we can stop the spring
which gushes from the earth. But it is for us to consider whether we will force it
732

A.D. 1823.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [france and Spain.
to spend its strength in secret and hidden courses, undermining our fences and
corrupting our soil, or whether we shall at once turn the current into the open
and spacious channel of honourable and constitutional ambition, converting it
into the means of national prosperity and pubUc wealth."
Spain and France. — 1823
" Having, then, determined on neutrality, the question was, how best to dissuade
France from attack, and to persuade Spain to concession, in order to give France
a fair pretext for retractation ? It has been said that a higher moral tone ought to
have been taken by this country ; and that true and just principles ought to
have been more prominently put forward. If, indeed, the government, instead of
labouring to preserve the peace of Europe, had only thought of- getting up a case
for the House of Commons, it would have been easy to have written papers to
satisfy the keenest cravings of the most constitutional appetite. But the object of
the government was not to lay a good foundation for a parliamentary debate,~but
to persuade those whom they were addressing. Gentlemen opposite are constantly
declaring against the governments of Europe, representing their sovereigns as
arbitrary despots, and their ministers as insensible to all the principles of public
rights, by which the intercourse of nations should be governed, and by which their
independence is maintained; yet these very men would have the government
address nothing but long and elaborate disquisitions upon those abstract principles
which they are aUeged not to admit. * * * * I am no lover of despotic
government ; I hate it upon principle as much, perhaps, as some of those gentle
men opposite, who are the loudest and most frequent declaimers against it ; but I
cannot shut my eyes to the glaring defects of the Spanish constitution ; and sorry,
indeed, should I be to live under such a government. Instead of providing for its
gradual consoUdation, it carries within itself the seeds of its own destruction ; and
instead of securing the welfare and tranquillity of the people, it contains nothing
but the elements of eternal discord. This is the opinion not merely of strangers,
but of some of the most enlightened Spaniards. Was it false friendship, then, to
advise our alUes to remedy the most glaring of those defects ? And was that advice
the less honest because by its adoption might have been purchased external peace
as well as internal concord ? * * * * But an objection has also been taken to
the channel by which this advice was tendered. I differ entirely from those who
urge such an objection; and I cannot but think that the choice of the Duke of
Wellington, as the person by whom this advice was to be given, was most delicate
towards Spanish feelings, and most consistent with a regard to Spanish
honour. If there is any man in Europe from whom advice to Spain would flow
free from the slightest taint of suspicion, and might be taken by all Spaniards as
dictated by the sincerest regard for Spain, it is the Duke of Wellington. It is
often said that nothing creates so strong an affection as the consciousness of
benefits conferred. If ever there was a man who conferred upon a nation benefits
which ought to call down blessings upon his head from every voice, from the
lisping accents of infancy to the tremulous benedictions of age, that man is the
Duke of Wellington — that nation the Spanish people. It is also true, in the
principles of human nature, that man loves the theatre of his glory, and the
companions of his triumphs. The proudest laurels that encircle the head of the
Duke of Wellington were gathered in the sterile and unfertile fields of Spain ; it
was in the provinces of the Peninsula, and surrounded by its co-operating popu
lation, that he displayed those various qualities which form the character of the
unconquered general and the consummate statesman — characters which, rare in
their separate existence, are uncommon indeed in their union in the same indi
vidual; it was there that he established that imperishable fame that will last
while history endures. Is it in human nature that the Duke of Wellington should
not take the warmest interest in all that concerns Spain and the Spanish people ?
Is it possible that they should not feel that advice from him came as free from
/ OO

SPAIN AND FRANCE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1823.
suspicion as from the best patriot in Spain? And can they suppose that the
man who has rescued Spain from subjection, and washed out from her soU the
pollution of invading footsteps in the blood of the defeated invader, could counsel
Spain to dishonour ? * * * * He must, indeed, have been an unwise poU-
tician who would have plunged us at once, and blindfolded, into the war.
* * * * £u£ wn0 js prepared to say that we ought, at this moment,
to engage in such a contest; and that the government has not aeted wisely
in keeping out of it as long as possible? If Spain is divided, our inter
ference is on principle questionable ; if she is united, our interference is un
necessary : if, being united, 6he is successful without our aid, much will have been
gained, and nothing lost : by our abstinence we shall have preserved unbroken our
resources for future occasions, if any should oecur, in which our honour, interests,
and safety shall be more directly concerned; and Spain will have had fuller and
freer scope to develop that national energy which, while rit will make her more
worthy her independence, wiU qualify her better to enjoy and to maintain it; and
if, in spite of our forbearance, we should be at last compelled to take a part
in the war, the prolongation of repose will better enable us to bear the burdens
whieh will become inevitable; and the people of this country will then
more cheerfully submit to the sacrifice which must be demanded at their hands,
because they will have the satisfaction of knowing that the government have
deferred those sacrifices till the latest possible moment. * * * * It has
been urged that we might, by means of our fleet, have crippled the resources
of France, attacking her commerce, and taking possession of her colonies. If
such had been our policy, what would have been the language of reproach which
the governments of Europe would have been justified in addressing to us? '0
ye consummate hypocrites!' they would have said, 'you have made Europe
ring with the loftiest sentiments of good faith, of justice, of generosity; you have
declaimed, eloquently and loudly, against interested attacks of one nation upon
another, against acquisitions of territory, and projects of individual aggrandisement;
but oh, ye nation of philosophers ! have ye practised the principles ye preach ? You
have, indeed, made the rupture between France and Spain a pretence for declaring
war against the former; you have, indeed, taken advantage of the difficulties
and embarrassments whieh rupture brings upon France, to enrich yourself by
plundering her unprotected commerce, by seizing upon her undefended colonies.
To gratify British cupidity, no effort has been omitted, no opportunity foregone;
but as to the unfortunate Spaniards, those much-loved allies for whom such sym
pathy has been professed, for whose sake you pretended to be driven to arms— to
whose rescue you pretended to be preparing to rush— as to the unfortunate Spaniards,
those you have abandoned to their fate; and, though the legions of France are
pouring down from the summits of the Pyrenees, and spreading, like a torrent,
over the plains of Castile, not one bayonet have vou sent to succour and support
your sinking allies. Tell us not,' they would have added, ' that you are a mari
time power, and engage not in continental wars ; tell us not that England fights
her battles upon the ocean, and mingles not in combats by land; for in this very
Spam, in support of these very Spaniards opposed to those very French, we have
seen you take the field in all the plenitude of military power ; and we have seen
you drive back this invader over the mountains from which he came, and restore
Uberty and independence to Spain. But then you had objects of your own
to accomplish— then you had a Bonaparte to dethrone : it was your own battle
you fought, and not the battle of Spain : now you have no such inducement to
exertion ; you know the immeasurable distance between the Napoleon of those
days and the Bourbons of this ; and, true to your selfish policy and interested
principles, you refuse to make an effort which would alone benefit your allies, and
meanly content yourself with plundering merchantmen, and conquering sugar
islands. If such reproaches had been addressed to us under such circumstances, I
think it would have been difficult indeed to have found a satisfactory reply."

a.d. 1828.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Wellington administration.

Dissenters. — 1824.
" It may be necessary for me, after what I have heard to-night, to disclaim all
hostiUty to dissenters. I am not of those who wish to see political distinctions
estabUshed between religious sects, as I have often proved by my votes in this
House ; but, at the same time, I regret to see the increasing number of dissenters.
It is my wish that the established church should be the predominant one in this
country; for nothing, I am persuaded, can tend more to the general tranquillity and
happiness of a people, than a community of sentiment, as far as it can be obtained
without intolerance to any party, in matters of religious doctrine. * * * *
If we deny to the people the means of attending divine worship, according to
the practice of the established church, how can we expect that the members of
the establishment will continue to increase ? It has been said that this defect
ought to be remedied by voluntary subscriptions ; and the case of the dissenters
has been alluded to in support of the opinions. But there is a difference between
the two cases. The dissenters, both rich and poor, are under a necessity of
providing themselves with places of worship, for which the state makes no pro
vision ; and it is easy for the rich dissenters to make up the sum required. But
with the church of England it is the poor alone who feel the want of church
accommodation ; the rich can purchase pews, and they are always certain of
finding sufficient room ; but it would be preposterous to say that the poor ought
to subscribe for churches out of their small" earnings."
Eeasons for Joining the Wellington Administration.— 1828.
"Much discussion, sir, has arisen to-night on the subject of the understanding
and the guarantees on which my right honourable friend, the Secretary for the
Colonies, my noble friend in the other House, and myself, consented to join the
present administration. It has been attempted to be shown that we were not
justified, when we agreed to join the government, by sufficient assurances
on the part of those from whom the invitation proceeded, that the measures
in whieh we might be called upon to concur, would be such as we could
conscientiously support. My right honourable friend, in particular, has just
been accused by a noble lord (Morpeth), of abandoning what he calls the
party of the late Mr. Canning, in order to take office With an administration,
some of the members of which are stated to have been hostile and strongly
opposed to the measures which have been introduced by my right honourable
friend. It is objected to us, that we neglected to make those stipulations
upon which the country had a right to expect that we should insist; button
the occasion to which allusion has so repeatedly been made, no such stipulations
could, for a moment, have been proposed ; nor, if proposed on the one side, would
they have been for a moment entertained on the other. But what my right
honourable friend says, amounts in effect to this — he tells you that we felt it our
duty to parliament and to the public, to ascertain, by the most direct course of
proceeding, and with the most explicit request for full explanations, what were
the opinions, and what the intentions of those individuals whom we were thus
called on to join before we agreed to become members of the new government, then
about to be formed.
" When application in the first instance was made to myself, the only answer
which I felt I couldgive to an application thus general in its nature was, that I
should wish to know, at the outset, of what persons the government was to eonsist
of whieh I was invited to become a member; But when I found, sir, that my right
honourable friend, the Secretary for the Colonies, was proposed to be continued
in his office — an office in which he had already given much satisfaction — that it was
wished my noble friend, Earl Dudley, should continue to superintend our foreign
relations ; and that my right honourable friend, the President of the Board of
/ oO

test and corporation acts.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1828.
Trade, was still to retain the direction of our commercial system, I felt it
assuredly unnecessary to ask for regulations with respect to the policy or the prin
ciples on which those individuals would act. The confidence, therefore, I felt
in joining the government, was founded upon the conviction that all the public
principles on which I would propose to act would be embodied in these mea
sures ; and I wanted no other pledge, and would require no other test of the
sincerity of the Duke of Wellington's declared intentions to persevere in these
measures, than what I found in the fact of the continuance in office of these
distinguished individuals ; and when it is stated by my noble friend on the other
side, that my right honourable friend, the Secretary for the Colonies, has embraced
power in conjunction with those who were opposed to Mr. Canning, why, sir, from
the mouth of the right honourable the Master of the Mint, do I draw a refutation,
and a triumphant refutation, of the charge. What is the amount of that full
explanation the Master of the Mint has given ? Why, sir, that for one year and
a-half he had supported the policy of Mr. Canning. Now, under what adminis
tration, I ask, was the support of the right honourable gentleman rendered ? Why,
sir, unfortunately for us all, my lamented friend, Mr. Canning, did not sway the
powers of the government over which he presided more than a year and a-half
altogether. No longer period elapsed between his appointment as Prime Min
ister, upon the retirement of the Earl of Liverpool, and his own death. I contend,
then, that there has been no abandonment of principle or political consistency,
either on the part of my right honourable friend or myself, in joining the present
administration ; nor has there been any such abandonment, either on the part of
the noble head of that government, the Duke of Wellington, or of my noble friend
Earl Dudley, because we were not called upon to depart from any principles on
which we had already acted, and to which we were already pledged. All we could
require from the noble duke and his colleagues was, that we should continue to act
on those principles which we had formerly advocated under another ministry ; and
to support those measures, in the preparation of which we had been partakers.
So much then, sir, for what regards our consistency in respect of our general
public principles — in respect I mean, first, of our foreign relations, and, secondly,
of our commercial policy." It will be seen that this defence is complete, and
that Lord Palmerston resigned office rather than sacrifice his opinions.
The Test and Corporation Acts. — 1828.
" I can very sincerely assure the House that, at this period of the night, and
at this stage of the present debate, it is not my intention to detain them more
than a very few minutes. I do declare to the House, that I am really most anxious
to be permitted to state, however shortly, the ground of the vote which I shall
this night feel bound to give ; and I am the more desirous of doing this as that
vote will be adverse to the motion of tbe noble lord (Eussell). I am still further
anxious to do so ; for I should be extremely sorry, indeed, were the considerations
which influence my intended vote, for a moment misconstrued into acknowledging
myself favourable to a continuance of the laws now under consideration. I beg
most^ distinctly to declare that I am a warm and zealous friend to the principles of
religious liberty ; that I am as strenuous a partisan of religious freedom as the
noble lord himself, or any other honourable member of this House. I concur
with him, as far as he or any other man can wish, that restraints upon the con
sciences of men can never be advantageous. No good, no public benefit can arise
from them; much evil may possibly ensue from their operation. They convert into
hypocrites men who would otherwise have been honest. They sow the spirit of
disaffection ampngst men who would otherwise have been loyal. They proceed
upon a principle the most fallacious that can be conceived— namely, that of
assuming that particular religious opinions necessarily indicate the existence,
in the same individual, of peculiar political opinions; for it is not for a moment
contended that these restraints were imposed for the purpose of putting down
736

a.d. 1828.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [test and corporation acts.
religious sentiments of a peculiar character. No such thing : it is fully under
stood that they were imposed for the purpose of guarding against political acts, which
were expected to proceed from political opinions, attributed to those who held
reUgious tenets like theirs against whom these statutes had been directed.
" Now, sir, I fuUy agree with those who think that, in their operation — if they
were in operation at all — they must prove nugatory for the object of their framers,
and most unjust as respects those against whose consciences they were directed.
If we refer to times of internal dissension, when breaches of law were frequent,
and even treason did not fear to show itself, I am perfectly ready to admit — and I
take much pleasure in referring to the fact— that the dissenters were not open to
any accusation; and, as a sincere though humble advocate of religious freedom, I
take leave to say that no particular set of theological opinions has been found to
distinguish those who have ranged themselves against the existing government,
and the preservation of social order. It is asked, do these precautionary tests
afford a sufficient guarantee for the interest of the established church ? I think
they do not ; in that point of view I attach no interest or importance to them. In
my humble opinion, no rational man can set the slightest value on them for such
a purpose. The safety of the church depends upon the number and character of
those who are included within its pale — depends upon its doctrines, its opinions,
and its practical moraUty. But when it seeks to sustain its existence (and I deny
that its friends in the present case propose to do so) by means of imposing upon
others tests contrary to their consciences, it only moves into activity that principle
of human nature which makes men instinctively revolt from any shackles upon
the freedom of thought — which makes them hold, with increased tenacity, those very
opinions which persecution would in vain seek to eradicate. Now, sir, I think that
in the present day the estabUshed church of this country derives no advantages
from such safeguards, if safeguards they at all can be considered. In these times,
the safety of the established church is founded upon the piety and learning of its
prelates and clergy ; and still more upon their practical morality. Its safety is in
these times insured, not by the pains and disabilities imposed upon other denomi
nations of Christians, but by the reverence which it has inspired, and continues
to inspire, among the bulk of the people. So long as that freely is acknowledged,
that learning pre-eminent, that morality spotless, and that general reverence
unabated, it may disdain any attempt at external hostility. If, then, I consider
these laws unjust in the abstract — if I think them inefficient even now — if I dis
regard them as securities to the established church — it will naturally be1 asked on
what grounds I propose to justify voting against the motion of the noble lord?
Now, sir, I must, in the first place, be permitted to say, that in spite of the refined
legal arguments this night so ingeniously placed before the House — in spite of all
the hypothetical cases suggested with such ingenuity, I must contend those acts
have been, to all intents and purposes, practically repealed. It is utterly vain to
deny that they have been virtually suspended, and that there is not now, and that
there has not been for years, the slightest possible grievance affecting the dissenters.
It must be fully in the recollection of this House, that there are two great classes
in this country who complain of labouring under religious disabilities. I mean
the Catholics and the dissenters. Now, I am unwilling that the jealousy of the
latter should be excited towards the former. I am unwilling that the lesser evil
should be removed before the greater becomes the object of legislative interference.
I wish to bring the one up to the level of the other ; or, rather, I do not wish to be
guilty of the ^partiality of relieving the dissenter from that which is merely
nominal, while the Catholic labours under real and substantial disabilities, and has,
in fact, great grievances to complain of. It is upon these grounds, sir, that I am
unwilling to accede to the motion of the noble lord. Just as the measure may be
in the abstract, expedient as it may be under any circumstances, and indifferent
as it may be to the interest of the established church, I am unwilling I say, sir, to
be so unjust towards the Catholics, as to remove from others, or mitigate, I might
737

WELLINGTON ADMINISTRATION.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1828.
say, an imaginary grievance, while real inflictions press upon them. While their
fetters yet remain to be struck off, I can never consent to the demands of the
dissenters." Secession from the Wellington Administration. — 1828.
" It may be thought presumption in so humble an individual as myself to
imagine it of importance to any one in this House, or elsewhere, to know what
were the grounds upon which I either accepted office, or retired from it ; but it
will be a satisfaction to set myself right with the public on this, to me, inter
esting subject; and it is a satisfaction which I cannot deny myself. My main
reason, then, for joining the government formed by the noble duke in January
last, was confidence in my right honourable friend, Mr. Huskisson. I have strong
and decided opinions on some general principles of government. To the greater
part of these principles my right honourable friend is pledged ; upon them his
high reputation has been founded, and by them he must abide. I felt, therefore,
that so long as my right honourable friend was a member of the government, I
had a security that I should never be placed in the embarrassing situation of
having singly to withdraw myself from the councils of his majesty, or of being
obliged to give my assent to measures of which I could not approve. I had not
the presumption to think that I could have sufficient weight of myself to give
effect to opinions I might entertain ; but I knew that I should be secure so long as
my right honourable friend continued to be a member of the government to which
I belonged. Such being the ground on which I joined the government, the retire
ment of my right honourable friend from office, under any circumstances, would
naturally make me deliberate on the possibility of my remaining a part of the
administration ; and I could scarcely feel that I could do so with comfort and
satisfaction to myself. But, sir, in considering the circumstances which attended
my right honourable friend's removal from office, they did appear to me to form
such strong indications of feelings, and impressions, and opinions in the cabinet,
different from those which I supposed to exist, or which I was disposed to be a
party to, that, even if I had no share in the vote out of which those circumstances
arose, I could not have reconciled my mind to remain a part of the government
after my right honourable friend had been removed from it in the manner he had
been. Sir, I must say that there is a striking contrast between the manner in
which my right honourable friend has been recently treated, and the manner in
which he was treated in January last. In January the greatest importance was
attached to the accession of my right honourable friend to the government then
forming. At that period there seemed no indisposition to receive or to give
explanations; there was no difficulty in coming to mutual understandings; but
now the explanations offered on one side, so far from being met by similar expla
nations on the other, were not even noticed, and all the attempts made to come to
a satisfactory understanding seemed only to confirm this original misunderstanding.
I could not look upon this great change without supposing that it proceeded from
some cause or other. It was impossible for me not to feel that there was a
diminished confidence in my right honourable friend on the part of the noble
duke at the head of the government. It was also impossible for me not to feel
that that diminished confidence was not the result of the public conduct of my
right honourable friend. He was not less able than when his accession was sought
for ; nor did he possess, in a less degree, the confidence of the House or the public.
When I saw this — I am speaking of my own impressions — when I saw this change
of sentiment towards my right honourable friend, and saw him removed from his
majesty's service, I felt- that it was high time for me also to withdraw. It was
impossible I could longer remain a member of the government which seemed
opposed to the principles I was inclined to act upon. This impression that I
have spoken of was not, however, mine alone. I appeal to those who have oppor
tunities of knowing what is passing, in this great town, whether the streets of the
738

a.d. 1829.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the catholic association.
metropoUs have not been alive with persons running about in the ecstasy of
exultation, congratulating each other upon the changes which have taken place in
men, and those whieh they expect in measures. I appeal to any gentleman in this
House, to say whether the language of those to whom I have alluded does not
prove my assertion that my impression is that of others. The persons who have
held this language are the avowed friends, supporters, and well-wishers, if not the
actual organs and advisers of the present government. What are we to conclude,
then, when we hear of these persons talking of ' cleaning the Augean stable ;' of
'expeUing traitors from the eamp;' and * turning out Liberals whom it might be
useful to take in just at first, and whom it might be convenient to retain if they
became docile and tractable ?' When we hear such language as this from those
who can have no wish or desire to misrepresent the sentiments of those they
support, can I be wrong in saying that that impression was not confined to me ?
It is clear that these persons, whose language I have repeated, have the same
impression as myself; and they speak with open heart; for they can have no dis
position to impute to the government anything which they would think likely to
throw any discredit on it. All they have said has been matter of boast, and it is
an inclination not to.be doubted."
East Eetford Disfranchisement. — 1828.
*' I am anxious to express my desire that the franchise should foe extended to a
great town, not because I am a friend to reform in principle, but because I am
its decided enemy. I think that extending the franchise to large towns, oh
snch occasions as the one in question, is the only mode by which the House
can avoid the adoption, at some time or other, of a general plan of reform.
The practical evU which results from large manufacturing interests not being
represented, is that which we have so frequently to observe in the disturbed state
of the manufacturing towns. It is my opinion that the disturbances which, on
many occasions, have agitated these great commercial districts, would have
been prevented had such places possessed a legitimate organ for the expression
of their opinion. In my view of the matter, there are a great number of well-
disposed and well-intentioned persons who are advocates of reform because
they see the glaring inconsistency and absurdity of the fact, that such a place
as Birmingham, Leeds, or Manchester, with a large population, is unrepresented,
whUe a green mound of earth sends two members to this House. I admit that
it is better to submit to this inconsistency than to allow of the introduction of
general reform ; but then I also say, let us take advantage of the other occasions
that may present themselves ; and when we are called to legislate on the delinquency
of a borough, let us gradually remedy the existing corruption. The question is,
what are we to do with the bill in its present state ? Now I object to it as
it .stands ; but I can conceive of a case in which I would vote for the bilL It
is too late, however, for the bill to pass this session. If it went up to the
Lords, there would not remain sufficient time to enable them to dispose of it. Our
agreeing to the passing of this bill, would not therefore be attended with any
¦practical benefit. Thus, to open the franchise to the neighbourhood, is not the
kind of transfer that I wish for. Instead of punishing those who have pursued a
course of oorraption, it will tend to sanction them in that course. Under these
circumstances I shall vote for the amendment, rather than sanction a principle to
which I cannot agree." The Catholic Association. — 1829.
"My first objection to the present measure is, that it is unnecessary, con
sidering the course which we are now going to pursue; and my next objection is,
that if we do not follow that course, it is perfectly ineffectual, for there is not an act
of parliament consistent with the spirit of the English constitution, which can put
down the Catholie Association, except emancipation. Put down the Catholic
739

DEFENCE OF MR. PEEL.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1829.
Association ! You may as well talk of putting downtho winds of heaven, or chaining
the ceaseless tides of the ocean. The Catholic Association has been spoken of to
night as if it were a corporeal being, capable of being grasped by the arm of the
law. This is folly, for the Catholic Association is vthe people of Ireland. Its
spirit is caused by the grievances of the nation ; and its seat is the bosom of
7,000,000 of the population. It is therefore idle to talk of putting down the
Catholic Association, except by removing the causes to which the Catholic
Association owes its existence. But as I am well aware that the opinions of
many persons are to be consulted on this question, I am wilUng, if the granting of
this bill is likely to make them converts to the cause of liberality, to make a
sacrifice of principle for so material an advantage. I must, however, repeat again
that I do not like the grant of such a boon as Catholic emancipation to be accom
panied by such an ungracious measure as the present. We have often heard of
the policy of providing a bridge of gold for our enemies ; but in this case we are
providing a bridge of iron for our friends. I could wish it to have been otherwise ;
but as that cannot be, I will assist in establishing the bridge of iron, rather than
go without a bridge at all." Defence of Mr. Peel. — 1829.
" My right honourable friend, the Secretary of State for the Home Depart
ment, has been taunted with the inconsistency which appears between his past and
present conduct. As to the taunts which have been cast upon him by a party
which is not only stung by disappointment that this measure is granted, but
which is also stung by disappointment that he will not lend himself to the fur
therance of their purposes, I trust that my right honourable friend will treat it
with the disdain it merits. Gentlemen may say no, but I say yes. What I have
said I have said on deliberation. I say that there is a party in this country, if not
in this House, which is stung with disappointment that my right honourable friend,
instead of lending himself to the furtherance of their purposes, has lent himself
to the great purpose of pacifying contending factions. I think that my right
honourable friend has acted in a direct, manly, and honourable manner. When
once he came to a conviction that the dangers of further resistance were greater
than those contingent on a settlement of this question, he pursued a manly course
in recommending to parliament to settle it ; and I am of opinion, that when my
right honourable friend, at the close of his valuable life, shall review the great
benefits which it has been his good fortune to confer on his country, he will fix
upon his conduct upon this question as the greatest and most glorious portion of his
career. It would be, sir, perhaps, unbecoming were I, on the present occasion, to
mix up party feelings in exultation at the progress of this question ; but I must
be permitted to say, that those who have laboured for a long course of years in
forwarding this great cause — who have fearlessly encountered public obloquy, and
incurred private inconvenience — who have often risked the favour of their con
stituents, whose confidence they valued as their highest possession — to them, surely,
it must be a matter of just exultation to find that, at this hour, their opinions are
admitted as just, and their constancy in maintaining them honest and praiseworthy.
Whatever obloquy or privation such men have endured, they will at least feel that
the anxious hours they have devoted to the support of the claims of their Eoman
Catholic fellow-subjects, have been the best spent in their lives, and their exertions
in that great cause the best accounts they will have to render of the manner in
which they have employed the brilliant faculties conferred upon them by Pro
vidence for the good of their country.
" To make it a reproach, then, to public men that they have changed opinions
on such a subject, and that too in a popular assembly, is, indeed, very strange to
me. In the name of common sense, I ask, for what purpose does this House sit ?
Of what use is it that great men appear among us to pour forth those rich stores
from the fountains of their illumination — to unlock their mighty minds, and to
740 & J >

a.d. 1829.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [forty-shilling freeholders.
develop the treasures of their genius ? Of what use, I say, are those rich and
splendid exhibitions of human talents, save to open our minds to true conclusions,
and, amid contending and conflicting opinions, to enable us to convince each other
of what is right ?
" At least, among the charges brought against the government, it cannot be
fairly said that they have yielded precipitately — that they have taken up this
subject, as a parliamentary measure, before a grave and serious necessity has
compelled them. And in their justification, if they need any, I will say, without
the least fear of contradiction from any man acquainted with the result of the last
six months in Ireland, that that country was, from day to day, on the verge of civil
war, which nothing, in fact, would have prevented but the immediate presence of
a large regular army ; and that even that would not have been done, were it not
for the co-operation and aid of the wisdom and temperance of the noble marquis,
who was lately at the head of the Irish government. When the whole country
was precipitating itself into the gulf of civil commotion — when the population
of Ireland was divided into two exasperated parties, there being, from one end to
the other, not one spot of neutral . ground — when the bonds of society were broken
asunder,' and when a chance spark might have burst into a general and all-con
suming conflagration — when these unerring symptoms became too palpable to
be mistaken, was it, I ask, extraordinary to see the government abandon long-
indulged opinions, from a conviction that the danger could no longer be averted,
and that the day had at length arrived when they were bound to call on parliament
to grant peace to the empire by the settlement of the great national question ?"
Disfranchisement of the Irish Forty-Shilling Freeholders. — 1829^
" I thought we were told that these measures were to be proposed in a spirit
of peace. I must, however, say the bill seems to me to be proposed more in the
spirit of punishment than of peace. If the freeholders of Ireland had steeped
themselves in corruption Uke the voters of "Penryn — if their delinquency had been
equally notorious, it is not for me to say how parliament might have dealt with
their rights. But these men have shown themselves to be independent and honest ;
they have ventured to defy the dictates of those in power over them ; they have
dared the threat of ruin; they have ventured boldly to treat with contempt the
mandates of those landlords on whose breath it was supposed their very existence
depended. And, sir, for that which was a noble devotion to a cause which we
ourselves have now pronounced to be just, are we about to visit them with the
same measure of justice which we were about to award to those who were guilty
of the most profligate abuse of their rights.
" The only inteUigible reason for the bill is, that the persons on whom it is
intended to operate are Catholics, and are likely to be influenced by their priests.
If so, the House will be doing the very thing my right honourable friend stated
he wished to avoid ; and it will not be giving an equality of political rights, and
an abolition of civil disabilities. It may be said, however, that the disfranchise
ment is not confined to the Catholics, but extended to the Protestants. In the
first place, I do not consider it any consolation to the Catholics that the skirt ofthe
storm which swept them away, passed over the Protestants. I contend that they are
not placed on an equal footing with the freeholders of Great Britain, mainly because
there is a difference in their religious opinions. Therefore these measures will
leave the Catholic question behind them, and parliament, in passing them, will be
defeating its own ends. Some persons assert that the effect of raising the
franchise will be to improve the morals of the freeholders of Ireland ; but I cannot
avoid distrusting the moralist who begins his system by committing a flagrant
act of injustice. It is said that frauds and perjury are now daily practised ; and if
they do prevail I should be happy to concur in any measure to lessen their pre
valence. Fraud and perjury are unquestionably an injury to the honest bond fide
freeholder; but it is most unjust to make the existence of one injury the reason
741

Portugal.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1829.
for inflicting another. Is it anything like justice' to. take this short and
sweeping method of extinguishing rights, because parliament does not choose to
apply a specific remedy to a partial abuse ? It is to be observed, also, that there is
no charge against the honest bond fide freeholder ; but that he has acted inde
pendently, and according to the dictates of his best and surest guide, his con
science. " It has been argued tbat parliament must step in to prevent landowners from
cutting up their property into small freeholds. This course may be very kind
paternal, and considerate ; but I think it a very unnecessary, if not an officious
interference. There is a government in Europe, which I will not name, not
supposed to be much interested in the welfare of its subjects ; and where they are
dealt with rather upon the principle of predestination than of free-will. I am
unwilling to take a leaf out of the book of that government ; and, for that reason,
I am desirous that the landlords of Ireland should be aUowed to take care of their
own interest. If they choose to be so foolish as to ruin their own estates for tbe
sake of obtaining- political influence, that is no reason why parliament should
be called upon to interpose. But the statement on which the bill is founded, is
not borne out by facts. I do not believe that landlords generally have divided
their estates for that purpose ; and it is to be recollected, that the registry of a
freehold is no proof of a creation at the time of registration. The objectionable
practice may have prevailed among a few landlords ; but they are the exceptions,
and not the rule : on the contrary, as has been well stated by my noble friend, who
has shown himself so well acquainted with the situation of Ireland, where he has
spent so much of his time, and has proved himself so good a landlord— the
tendency of landlords is rather another way. A system has been carried on for
thinning the population ; whole families have been removed from estates without
considering the miseries and distresses to which they were thereby exposed. It has
been said, as an excuse for this biU, that it will create for Ireland a substantial
yeomanry. The gentlemen who use this argument are not able to wait for the
regular progress of society towards improvement, but they must hasten the con
summation by a special enactment. What is to be done ? And, when it is done,
what will be gained ? An Irish ten-pound householder. And is he to be compared
with the substantial freeholder of England ? As if all this machinery would manu
facture yeomanry at once. Ere long, the ten-pound franchise wiU be found too
light ; then it must be raised to twenty pounds ; and when that proves insufficient,
where is it to stop ? I apprehend that a great mistake is prevalent in this country
as to the subdivision of property in Ireland— its causes and consequences. I
maintain, with my right honourable friend, that, it does not arise from the election
laws, but that it proceeds from the state of society ; and the truth of this position is
demonstrated by the fact, that, in the land belonging to church corporations, where
no vote can by possibility be created, the holdings are as much subdivided as the
estates of the most aspiring political landlords. The distribution of property must,
more or less, affect the size of the holdings. In an agricultural district, where
large capitals are afloat, large farms will exist ; but in a country like Ireland, the
farmers are possessed of little capital ; they exist by manual labour : and it is
idle to expect, by an arbitrary enactment, to accelerate the consolidation of farmers."
Importance of Portugal to England.— 1829.
" It has been the opinion of the ablest statesmen, that it is important to the
security of England that the Tagus should be in the hands of a friendly power. It
has been thought, by the most competent judges, that, with Gibraltar our own,
and with an ally at Lisbon, we might face the combined hostility of France and
bpain, should we ever be expected to meet it, if not without effort, at least without
alarm. This opinion, too, has not been confined to our ablest statesmen; it was
shared by our ablest enemy— I mean Napoleon Bonaparte. It has, also, been the
opinion of the wisest statesmen of Portugal, that the best security for Portuguese

a.d. 1830.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [turkey and Greece.
independence was to be found in the selfish, interests of England ; and that, as it
was worth while for England, for her own sake, to make great efforts to prevent
Portugal from being annexed to Spain, England, therefore, was to be the most
sincere and trusty ally to whom, in the hour of need, Portugal could turn for
assistance. These reciprocal interests engendered connexion and alliance ; mutual
usefulness led to good offices on the one side, and to confidence on the. other ;
treaties imposed obligations, and conferred corresponding rights ; and hence it is
that Portugal has always solicited and received the advice of England as that of
a friend whose interests were identified with her own ; and hence it is, also, that
England has been permitted to exercise an interference, and to possess an influence
in the councils of Portugal, which did not naturally belong to her as regards an
independent state. For proof of these assertions I would refer the House to the
treaties of Charles I., of Cromwell, and of Charles II. ; to the war of succession ; to
transactions of the eighteenth century ; to the wars and treaties of the century
in which we Uve : from all of which it will be seen, that it has been the practice
and conceded privilege of England to concern herself in a peculiar manner in the
affairs and destiny of Portugal. But those who contend that it is the duty, and
has been the practice, of England to withdraw herself entirely from all interference
in the internal affairs of Portugal, and to stand "aloof a passive spectator of what '
then might happen, have they forgotten the transactions of even the last few
years? Have they forgotten our active and successful interference in 1807, to
prevaU upon the royaJ famUy of Portugal to traverse the Atlantic, and transplant
their royal stock to the South American dominions ? Have they forgotten the
spirited interference, in 1824, of our then ambassador, Sir Edward Thornton,
against the proceedings of the Portuguese government towards its own subjects — an
interference which was attended with complete success ? Have they forgotten
that, by the urgent advice of the same ambassador, tbe seat of the Portuguese
government was transferred to a British line-of-battle ship ; and that on the quarter
deck of an English man-of-war, with our hardy soldiers as his pages in waiting,
and our menacing guns as his guard of honour, the King of Portugal received the
homage of his subjects on the celebration of his birthday ; and from that self
same palace of council, issued a proclamation to his people, and gave out his
decrees; banishing the queen from the Court, depriving Don Miguel of his
command, and ordering him to absent himself from Portugal ? But all this,
I suppose, was no interference in tbe internal affairs of Portugal. Invert the
case — put London for Lisbon, the Thames for the Tagus; and then let me ask
you if this is interference or not ? I pass by the bringing over the constitution of
1826 from Brazil to Lisbon ; because, although that circumstance was considered,
by many of the Portuguese (unfortunately, as ithas since turned out, by them so
considered), as an indication that the British government had interfered to procure
for them the advantages of that constitution,, yet, it is well known, as has just
been stated by my right honourable friend, the member for Liverpool, that the
selection of Sir Charles Stuart to bring over that charter, was the accidental choice
of the emperor, Don Pedro, himself; and that the Portuguese nation were
indebted for that gift so valuable, if they had known how to prize it and preserve it,
solely and entirely to the spontaneous liberality and uncounselled wisdom of that
enlightened sovereign. But have we forgot the active and successful interference
of England to bring about a separation of the crowns of Portugal and Brazil, and
to obtain the abdication of the crown of Portugal in favour of Donna Maria — an
interference founded upon a just regard for the interests of England ? We should,
indeed, do well if we could forget this interference, since we have been so backward
to make any the slightest exertion to recover for Donna Maria that crown which,
in accordance with our advice, her father had placed upon her head."
Turkey and Greece. — 1830.
" Sir, I object to the policy of making the integrity of the Turkish dominions
743

Belgium.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1*831.
in Europe an object essentially necessary to the interests of Christian and civilised
Europe. I do not wish to see Turkey garrisoned by Eussians, nor the Eussian
frontier extended in that line. Indeed, such an extension would not be for the
interest of Eussia herself; and I am sure that it would not be for the interest of
the rest of Europe. But I ask, Was there no alternative between putting Eussia
into possession of Turkey, and the cessation of the existence of Turkey as a
European power ? I must conclude, sir, from what has occurred, that the Eussian
war has not ended satisfactorily to our government. We had two courses to
pursue ; one was evidently out of the question : but if we had not assisted Turkey
openly, we might, by inducing her to make timely concessions to just demands,
have prevented the' occurrence of war. Sir, I am decidedly of opinion that the
government should have used all means to induce Turkey to avoid a contest which
must finally end in her humiliation. * * * * It is, sir, most important to
Great Britain, in the settlement of Greece, that the new state should be decidedly
able to maintain itself, and that it should not, by a crooked course of policy, be
driven into the arms of that power which, since the termination of the war with
Turkey, might turn her ambitious views towards that quarter. It is, sir, the
interest of Great Britain to give Greece the means of keeping up her establish
ments, and to prevent her from becoming the victim of military coercion. In
settling the limits of that state, it is a matter of little importance to Turkey, in
her present condition, whether this or that island or valley be taken from her, and
assigned to Greece. But it is of importance to Europe that the new state should be
capable of maintaining itself in an independent situation, as it would exist
otherwise under the dread, daily and hourly, of attacks from Candia and other
islands left to the Turks. Considering the spirit which the termination of the war
must have infused into them, the character of the Greek power should be not
merely sufficient to raise a revenue, but to protect its territories from the reaction
of Turkish hostility." Interference in Belgium. — 1831.
" The honourable member, Mr. Hume, accuses us of reviving the doctrines of
the holy alliance, and departing from our pledges of non-interference. I totally
deny that charge ; and contend that there is nothing in my view of the proceedings
which can, in the slightest degree, warrant it. The honourable member must
have been strangely confused in his mind when he said the external limits of a
country were a matter connected with its internal affairs. Sir, if any two things
are more distinct from another it is those two. But let us see what is the right
which this country, or the other powers of Europe, have to intermeddle, as he calls
it, in the affairs of Belgium. I will tell him ; and it is the only title by which
we are called on to interfere. Belgium, in the history of modern times, never
was. an independent state; it was first Spanish, then Austrian, then French; and,
finally, was conquered from France by the united efforts of Europe, when all
Europe differed with Bonaparte as to what should be the limits of his empire.
He happened to think that the fit limits were the confines of Europe and Asia r
the other powers thought it would be more convenient that they should be nearer
to France : the result of that difference of opinion was that Belgium was separated
from France. The natural course would have been for Austria, the last preceding
master, again to enter into possession ; but Austria surrendering the right she
might have set up, the powers of Europe, including France herself, by treaty,
united Belgium to Holland— not for the purpose of advantage to Holland, or as a
favour to the King of the Netherlands, but as that disposition of Belgium which it
was thought would be most conducive to the security and peace of Europe.
Events have occurred which rendered that union no longer possible. The powers,
parties to the treaty by which the union was established, had a right ¦ to
concern themselves with the separation of the two countries. They were
not to ^concern themselves with the question, whether Belgium, having now

A.p. 1831.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [need of reform.
her freedom, with her arms, should, or should not, be again subject to Holland;
and no such interference took place. Neither were they to concern them
selves with the internal government of Belgium; and, accordingly, there has
been no interference with its internal government. I say, sir, that the other
powers of Europe have a right to look narrowly at proceedings in which their own
interests are so nearly connected ; they have a right to say to Belgium — ' You never
have been an independent state — never have had a national king ; you have been the
servants of one master after another ; you have no right to deprive Holland of her
ancient boundaries ; you have no right to convert yourselves into aggressors, and
claim that which belongs of right to another.' Holland is a state whose existence is
known to the world. HoUand is a state which the powers of England and Europe
have united to maintain. Holland is a state whose independence and integrity
concern the welfare of other countries. We have a right to say to Belgium—' You
are a legislature of yesterday ; your independence has hardly been established ; and
you have no right to claim as yours that which of right belongs to another.'
I say, therefore, that the powers of Europe, and England especially, have not only
a right, but, in my opinion, are bound to see that by no separation between
Belgium and HoUand shall the ancient territories of Holland be prejudiced."
Necessity of a Large Measure of Eeform. — 1831.
"The course which, in 1828, lay before parliament was simple and easy.
They had only to transfer the franchise from boroughs convicted of corruption,
and thus to connect with this House, gradually and as occasion required, the great
manufacturing towns. The course in 1831 is, however, far different; and it has'
now become necessary for the government to take into consideration the whole
system of parliamentary representation, and to propose to this House an extensive
and effectual plan of improvements. Our constitution has grown up piecemeal,
and by changes wrought gradually, and from time to time, in the frame and texture
of our institutions ; and it may, perhaps, be thought by some that it would have
been better piecemeal, and from time to time, to have made the necessary repara
tions. This was possible in 1828 ; in 1831 it has ceased to be so.
" His majesty's government, in framing the plan which they have proposed to
parUament, have cast aside every consideration but an honest performance of
their duty and the permanent good of their country. They have not set their nets
to catch particular parties — they have not laid traps for particular interests — they
have fixed their eyes on their object, and have advanced td it steadily and straight
forward. "By those who are wedded to abuses, and who on principle are hostile to
improvement, our plan may be denounced as revolution ; by those who wish to
overthrow all existing institutions, and to erect on their ruins a system by which
they might be rulers, it may perhaps be stigmatised as insufficient and delusive ;
but by those in whose minds party prejudice has not dethroned reason, who look
only to their country's good, and who admit the great truth that timely correction
and improvement are the conservative principles of free institutions, our plan will
appear, as it does to us, well calculated to bring back the practice of the constitu
tion to the original principles upon which it is founded, to consolidate the fabric,
and give it new consistency and strength.
"Any one who looks at the constitution of the representation of this House,
cannot fail to be struck by five prominent defects — the nomination boroughs, or
the system by which an individual exercises an undue influence in the elections ;
the gross, general, and barefaced corruption which prevails, not only in small, but
also in large places; the want of members for some of the greatest and most
important manufacturing towns ; the expenses of elections ; and the unequal dis
tribution among different classes of society of that power which results from the
exercise of the elective franchise.
"To all these defects the plan before the House applies sound and wholesome
VOL. n. 3 C 745

the reform bill.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1832.
remedies ; and I am convinced that, if calmly and dispassionately examined, there
is not an evil they generate which it will not prevent the continuance of. It is
impossible for any man to say that the existence of nomination boroughs is
consistent with the theory of the constitution, according to which honourable
members sit in this House as the representatives of the people of England. I do
not deny that some of these boroughs have afforded an entrance within these walls
to persons of splendid capacity and great talents, who have done good service to
their country, and who might not otherwise have been able, constituted as parlia
ment now is, to have obtained access to this House. I am well aware, too, that
popular rights have not always been sacrificed by those in whose election the
popular voice has had no share ; and that among the most illustrious champions
of constitutional principles have been many of those who have owed their seats in
this House to the discriminating kindness of some of these borough proprietors.
But though I admit the force of the argument drawn from these facts, yet, when I
find how impossible it is to maintain in argument the practice of such nominations
as consistent with the theory of a representative government, I am compelled to
declare that no plan of reform can be perfect or effective which is not founded
upon the disfranchisement of those boroughs. Without this disfranchisement,
indeed, it would be impossible to carry the plan of reform into effect ; for else how
are we to provide for the great commercial and manufacturing towns those repre
sentatives which all now admit it is necessary to concede to them ? This House is
already sufficiently numerous, perhaps too numerous, for the convenient despatch
of public business ; and unless we take from the closed boroughs the members
which we are about to bestow on the counties and the large representative towns,
we must add to the evil which is felt and acknowledged."
Disfranchisement and the Eeform Bill. — 1832.
"It has been contended that the amendment on which the division was
against ministers, was an amendment of no importance, and that they might have
continued in office, notwithstanding their defeat. Now, those who use such an
argument must either be children themselves, or fancy they are addressing them
selves to children. What was the amendment in question ? Was it a matter of
mere legislative pedantry ? If it were so, I would ask them why did the movers of
it so pertinaciously insist on carrying it? They state that it was a matter of
indifference, and of not the least consequence. Now, if it were of importance to
ministers, though of no importance to the movers, was it possible for ministers,
after a defeat upon it, to imagine that they possessed the confidence of the House
of Lords ; or, not possessing that confidence, to discharge their functions honourably
to themselves, and beneficially to their country ? But the proposition embraced in
that amendment contained a principle essential to the bill. The proposition
amounted, in plain words, to this— 'We will not affirm disfranchisement as a
principle ; we will not even affirm the amount of disfranchisement to which we
will subject the boroughs which now return representatives to the House of
Commons. No ; we will first affirm enfranchisement.' And, in the name of good
ness, why ? ' Because we may find much less disfranchisement necessary than that
proposed in the bill.' There is, therefore, a principle of great importance involved
in the success ofthe amendment; indeed, no less a principle than" that of disfran
chisement, which is the chief and leading principle of the bill. Now, to whatever
other alterations ministers might have submitted, it is quite clear that to no
alteration of that principle could we in any degree consent. They were, therefore,
compelled to apply to his majesty for the means necessary to carry the principle
of the bill, and, on failing to obtain them, to retire immediately from his service.
* _ * _ We have been told that ministers were guilty of a violation of the
constitution, because we endeavoured to increase the number of the House of
Lords. Now, to that charge I plead not guilty. I deny the position of the
honourable and learned gentleman (Sir Edward Sugden) in totof and, in denying

A.D. 1833.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the law of embargo.

it, I am not afraid to acknowledge that I am joined with my colleagues in giving
that advice which the honourable and learned gentleman denounces as uncon
stitutional. The creation of a peer is, I admit, a measure which only extreme
circumstances can justify. But that those extreme circumstances have arisen, who
can deny ? Ministers have found themselves, in the House of Lords, in circum
stances which rendered it impossible for them to hope that they could remain
masters of their own measures."
The Germanic Diet and People. — 1832.
"I can also assure the honourable gentleman (Mr. H. Bulwer), that even
without such an address as that which he has proposed, the advisers of his majesty
wiU deem it their duty to keep their attention fixed on those circumstances which
are now taking place on the continent of Europe, never, I trust, under-valuing the
deep importance of those circumstances with reference to this country ; because,
let persons recommend as much as they will the propriety of England withdrawing
herself from all political connexion with the rest of the world, my opinion is,
that as long as our commerce is of importance to us; as long as continental
armies are in existence; as long as it is possible that an overgrown power
in one quarter may become dangerous to a power in another, so long must
England look with interest on the transactions of the continent; and so long
is it proper for this country, in the maintenance of its own independence,
not to shut its eyes to anything that threatens the independence of Germany.
But, sir, I cannot bring myself to believe that any one administering the affairs of
a great country, can take so erroneous a view of its own interests, or of the interests
of society, as to wish to deprive these independent states of those constitutional
rights which are such a blessing. I cannot believe that such a wish exists where
there is a power to carry it into effect ; or even, if such a wish did exist, I cannot
beUeve that those who have the desire, deem it possible for them, in the present
state of the world, to carry it into execution. I cannot believe that they can think
it practicable, by mere mUitary force, to deprive millions of men of those consti
tutional privileges which have been formally conceded to them. To believe those
things would be to impute to them a want of knowledge and judgment under
which it is impossible to suppose these persons to labour, whose extensive expe
rience must have led them to come to a far different conclusion. I am, therefore,
convinced that the intention of these resolutions (however calculated they may be
to excite alarm) was merely to guard against those local dangers, the existence of
which it is impossible to deny, though I think their magnitude and importance
have been greatly exaggerated. Under these circumstances, when the contem
plated purpose of guarding against these local dangers is accomplished, I cannot
but beUeve that those governments, on whose decision may depend, not only the
fate of Germany, but the peace of Europe, will have sufficient wisdom to abstain
from pursuing the matter to further extremities, and will foresee those perils which
their moderation and forbearance may prevent. I cannot but believe that, while
on the one hand the violent party, which is but small, will abstain from exciting
further alarm, so, on the other hand, the government will see there can be no
advantage in trenching on the right of the constitutional states ; but that their
own interests, as well as the interests of all Europe, will be best promoted by the
preservation of peace." The Law of Embargo.— 1833.
" The right honourable baronet, Sir Eobert Peel, contends that we have no
right to lay an embargo with regard to our foreign relations, except for injuries
done to our own subjects, or in contemplation of acts of hostility. He then says it
is not justifiable to lay an embargo in favour of third parties. I deny that we
have laid such an embargo at all. I say that this embargo was laid strictly in
furtherance of our own views, and strictly in maintenance of our own engagei-
3 c 2 747

military flogging.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1833.
ments. I should like to know what honourable member will undertake to tell me
that the faithful performance of an engagement entered into by the King of
England, by a treaty signed and ratified by him, is not a duty connected with the
British interest, which he is legally and morally bound to fulfil by every means in
his power. I assert, that in the fulfilment of an engagement which without them
he is prevented from completing, he has a right to resort to the mediatory course
of an embargo. * * * It has been further said, that although a power may
have a right to detain ships in their own ports, it does not possess the right of
seizing them on the high seas, and carrying them away ; and yet, sir, I find that
the latter course was adopted in the case of the embargo which was laid on Turkish
ships in 1807 ; in the embargo on Danish vessels in the same year ; in the
embargo on Eussian vessels also at the same period ; and in the embargo upon
American ships in 1812.
" In all these cases, not only were the ships of the country against whom the
embargo was directed, seized, and detained in our ports, but special orders were
given to our cruisers to bring in from the high seas all ships under those flags,
whieh they might fall in with. Hostilities followed, but none had commenced at
the time. In some cases in which the embargo was laid, war followed ; in others it
did not. The thing speaks for itself. If you declare war against a country, where
is the sense of issuing an embargo ?
" After declaring war, you issue letters of marque and reprisal immediately.
It seems to me absurd to say that you should declare war one day, and on the
next lay an embargo on the ships of the power with whom you are, by your own
declaration, at war. * * ° * To make war complete there must be two parties.
America, certainly, had declared war at the time the embargo was laid on, but we
did not do so for many weeks afterwards. Again, it is said, ' Issue borders for
an embargo, pending negotiations.' Who ever heard of such a thing ? Why, sir,
what was the ground assigned in our subsequent declaration of war against
America ? Simply, that whereas the United States of America had declared war,
in ignorance of certain concessions made by the English government, we had
hoped to prevail on the government of the United States to withdraw that decla
ration. Was that negotiation ? It certainly was something very Uke it. If it
was not, I know not what negotiation is.
" But what did England do on the failure of that negotiation ? Why, it was
announced, ' that whereas the government of America had not withdrawn its decla
ration of war, notwithstanding that we had contented ourselves with merely laying
on an embargo ; therefore war with America must follow :' and the embargo vessels
were, therefore, confiscated. The object of this course of proceeding, I submit, is
clear. The government of this country did not wish, prematurely, to plunge into
war beyond the power of retractation ; and therefore they issued an embargo as a
precautionary measure. Had the United States met our conciliation by conciUa-
tion on her part, the embargo would have been taken off, and there the matter
would have ended. I say, therefore, there is nothing incompatible in the issuing
an embargo with the carrying on negotiations, but the contrary. I contend that
it is the duty of every country, if it be at variance with another power, to mediate
in the first instance, especially in a case depending between equal and unequal
parties ; where the danger is necessarily great on one side, and the triumph com
paratively easy on the other. I fully admit that war, in any shape, is to be
avoided as long as may be possible ; and I hold, that wherever, in place of deciding
a dispute by the sword, measures of mediation may attain the object in view, it is
the duty of the parties to resort to mediatory measures."
Military Flogging. — 1833.
"We are told that if this punishment were abolished, men would more freely
enter into the ranks, and that we should get a better description of men to enter
the service. I never knew that when we required men we failed in getting the

A.d. 1833.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [protective duties.

requisite number. I believe it is more the particular circumstances in which a man
stands at the moment, that influence his choice of a military life than those com
plicated considerations of discipline. But, sir, it is said that there are examples
to prove that this punishment has very considerably diminished. Cases have been
quoted in which officers, in the exercise of their judgment, and by their attentive
and discreet mode of commanding their men, have been enabled, for a certain time,
to dispense with the infliction of this punishment. Now, in the first place, I ask,
Does it follow, that if the power of inflicting this punishment had not existed, they
would have been able, for so long a time, to withhold the exercise of it ? I must
confess I doubt it ; but then I say, these cases are exceptions, which, instead of
subverting the rule, tend rather to prove it. What is said by those honourable
gentlemen who advocate the abolition of this punishment ? Why, they tell us that
if officers in the army were only to take the trouble to make themselves better
acquainted with their men ; if they were only disposed to share the same shelter,
to rest beneath the same tree, and to bivouac in the same field ; if they would
partake, with these men, all the inconveniences, all the dangers, and all the diffi
culties incidental to a military Ufe, they would gain such an ascendancy over their
minds, that they would be enabled to govern them by the mere force of moral
influence, without any punishment whatever. Why, if we were considering what
was to be done with respect to regiments fortunate enough to have such officers as
my noble friend near me, or those who have been alluded to, we might, perhaps,
be enabled to dispense even with the power of inflicting this punishment. But,
sir, we are not now legislating for any particular officer, but for the whole army.
We must take the chance of all the different officers, and of the dispositions of the
men; and, therefore, I do say it would be a most fatal mistake if we were to
be run away with by one or two examples, and to draw from hence the conclusion
that the power of inflicting this punishment might be altogether taken away.
What was the instance quoted by an honourable gentleman opposite ? Why, it
appears, that in one particular instance, when it was endeavoured to abolish this
punishment, the privates began to knock down the non-commissioned officers like
so many nine-pins ; and that they were eventually obliged again to resort to cor
poral punishment. I say, therefore, that neither the example of foreign armies,
nor of our own, leads me to suppose that the motion of the honourable member for
Middlesex is one which it would be safe to adopt."
Protective Duties.— 1833.
" Now, I do not think that we are entitled to find fault with foreign govern
ments because they are not so enlightened on this subject as we are, nor have
adopted a Uberal commercial policy, seeing that it is only very recently that we
have done so ourselves. At the same time, I have no hesitation in stating, that
although I do not think there is any advantage derived to a country from
protective or restrictive duties, and though I think that any restriction on com
merce is as injurious to the country imposing it as it is to the country against
which it is imposed, yet, if any country chooses to enter into a fiscal war with us,
and to lay high restrictive duties, either against the produce of our soil, or against
the produce of our skill and industry, it may neither be a wise nor a politic
thing to try the effects of a retaliatory system, which, though it may be injurious
to the other country, may be still more injurious to ourselves. I consider that
the effect of these restrictive measures on tne part of other countries, cannot be
so productive to the commerce of England as, perhaps, many persons imagine.
These restrictive measures may prevent other countries from taking our manufac
tures ; but then, if they prevent the introduction of articles of British manufac
ture, our merchants will not be able to take their produce. These attempts, then, to
cripple our commerce must prove injurious to their own if they are effectual ; but
if they are ineffectual, there is an end to the argument, and we escape the injury
attempted to be inflicted on us. If, among foreign governments, there are those
749

the corn-laws.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1834.
who imagine that they can injure our commerce by exposing it to high duties
still, so long as there are men in this House of high reputation, who sincerely
believe that protective duties are of advantage to our own artisans and our own
productions, it ought not to be matter of surprise that those governments should
adopt their arguments; that they should follow our precepts rather than our
practice ; and that they should linger on in the old region of error which we our
selves have but recently abandoned. * * * *
" Nothing is more common than to say, c Your theories about free trade, and
liberal principles of commerce, are all very good applied to a new state, but are
impracticable in an artificial state of society like that which prevails in England.
It may be all very good in a country not overloaded with debt and taxation to let
commerce be carried on at the least possible expense ; but if you have a great amount
of debt to provide for, and a large sum to raise annually for the payment of the
interest of that debt, then the logical inference is, that you must shackle your
' commerce; you must paralyse your industry; you must cripple your relations
with foreign states ; and thus, by imposing protective duties on the commodities
produced in foreign countries (which duties go as bounties to those who produce
the same commodities in your own country), you make everything dearer than its
natural prices.' So, therefore, the argument of the honourable member resolves
itself into this — that because you have a great debt to provide for, you must levy
upon your people a tax, and a heavy tax too, for everything which they get from
foreign countries ; or, in other words, you must prevent them from buying as cheap
as they can ; and, of course, prevent them, in the next place, from selling as cheap
as they can. This is a simple explanation of the common doctrine that the prin
ciples of free trade may do very well in an infant country, but that they will not
do for an old and artificial state like England."
The Corn-Laws. — 1834.
" Certainly, if I am to understand this question as leading to the affirmation
which the honourable member for Middlesex has omitted in the motion as it now
stands, but which was included in the first notice — namely, the establishment of a
perfectly free trade in corn, without any duty whatever — to such a proposition I
should be decidedly opposed, because I think • that such a proposition would be
fraught with injustice to the interests of a large and important class of the com
munity, and would not be founded upon the principles of true policy. Taking the
motion of the honourable gentleman, as it now stands, merely as being a proposi
tion to go into committee to consider the propriety of diminishing, to a certain
extent, the protection now afforded to the agricultural interest, either by reducing
the present graduated scale, or by substituting for that scale a fixed duty, I should
be disposed to agree with my noble friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in
stating, that upon that question, taken in the abstract, my opinion is not adverse
to a diminution of that protection. I think that such a diminution, if it were
gradual, and not too great, would not be attended with injury to the agriculturist,
on the one hand; but, on the other hand, it would not produce the expected
benefit to the manufacturing labourers, because I do not think it would be fol
lowed by any considerable diminution of the price of corn. Looking, however, at
the circumstances at the present time ; seeing that, under the law as it now stands,
prices have been low, have been steady ; seeing that the commercial and manu
facturing interests are thriving, that there is no want of employment for manu
facturing labourers, and no want of a market for manufactured produce; seeing,
on the other hand (as it is admitted on all sides), that the agricultural interests
are suffering under considerable distress, I am decidedly averse to entertaining,
at present, such a proposition as that of the honourable member for Middlesex.
And I -will go further, and say this— that even if I expected that good might
ultimately be looked for from the adoption of such a proposition, it would be
much better that it should be introduced in the shape of a bill, which would be
750 '

A.D. 1835.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [SPAIN AND ENGLAND.

tangible, and could be discussed with an immediate result, than to disturb the
agricultural and commercial transactions of the country, and to keep the minds
of all parties in a state of suspense and anxiety, by entering into an inquiry
which would necessarily occupy a considerable portion of time, and might lead to
no decision during the present session."
Dissenters and University Degrees. — 1834.
"Only see the inconsistency to which these honourable gentlemen are
reduced ! They admit dissenters to sit with us in this House, and^ to discharge
the highest functions of legislation. They admit them, together with members
of the church of England, to perform every duty, civil and political, which can be
performed in every class and relation of life ; and yet they say that dissenters
shaU not be admitted, in common with the members of the church of England, to
those institutions of the country where the best education can be afforded. They,
in effect, therefore, say that dissenters may be placed in situations which shall
require every degree of political knowledge, and the highest cultivation of the
mind, and yet they shall be denied the means to qualify themselves for the
discharge of duties which such situations may impose upon them. This does
appear to me the grossest absurdity and inconsistency of which public men were
ever guUty. In the name of common sense, all those persons who have most
properly and most advantageously to their own character, as well as to the country,
enabled dissenters to take a share in all the civil duties, and to partake of all the
civU rights which the constitution recognises, are bound to give them their support
upon the present occasion, if they are prepared to act up to their own principles.
I do not value the argument which has been advanced, that this bill will be
ineffectual ; because I can never bring myself to believe, that if the legislature
shaU admit the principle that religious dissent shall not form a ground of exclusion
from the benefits of a good education to be attained at the universities, however
the ministers may, by the strict exercise of their particular privileges, defeat the
object of the legislature, that enlightened, intelligent, and honourable men, such
as those persons are who are charged with the government of those universities,
whatever may be their private opinions, will endeavour, by any new regulations of
their own, to defeat that which shall appear to be the deUberative opinion of the
legislature of the country."
Defence of his Foreign Policy towards Spain. — 1835.,
"The fallacy of the noble lord's (Lord Mahon) speech is this, that he con
founds the measure now under consideration — namely, the permission accorded to
EngUsh subjects to enter into the service of the Queen of Spain — with a measure
perfectly distinct in its nature — the sending into Spain of armies under generals
obeying foreign sovereigns, and receiving foreign pay, and therefore not under the
orders, and not at the disposal, of the government of Spain. When the noble lord
quotes opinions of mine, expressed at the time when France was sending an army
of nearly 200,000 men to dispose of and remodel the internal government of
Spain, and when he founds on them a charge of inconsistency, he should bear
in mind that those opinions are not applicable to the present case, from which
the case of that former period is totally and entirely distinct. * * * * The
noble lord has said that there is no precedent for the course pursued. I will
not dispute with the noble lord as to that point. I wish to found the conduct
which the British government shall pursue upon the circumstances of the case, and
upon the expediency of the time. If the government be wrong in what they
have done, twenty precedents in their favour cannot convert that wrong into right.
If we are right, as I contend we are, it is indifferent whether we are following a
stream of former precedents or boldly establishing a precedent ourselves for times
to come. Satisfied I am, that* when similar contingencies arise, our example will be
followed if we have been right, and abandoned if we have been wrong. I therefore
751

Russian aggression.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1836.
maintain that the case is not one of precedent, but a question of right or wrong.
I hold that we are right ; that we are acting in strict pursuance of the true
interests of England, and in fulfilment of the treaty by which we are bound ;
and I maintain, that if we had gone a step further than we have done — if,
for instance, France had sent French troops under French generals, and England
had sent troops under English generals, on the demand of Spain for assistance —
such operations might have rendered fresh articles necessary, in order to regulate
their execution ; but they would not have been beyond the spirit of the quadruple
treaty. A question might have arisen as to whether such a mode of proceeding
was expedient or wise ; but no question could have arisen as to whether the adoption
of it implied the entering into a new course of policy, and a departure from the
spirit of the engagements which were contracted twelve months ago, which have
been before parliament since that period, and of which parliament has not
hitherto expressed any disapprobation. It is an English interest that the cause
of the Queen of Spain shall be successful ; it is of great importance to this
country, that the alliance which has been fortunately cemented between the four
powers of the west — England, France, constitutional Spain, and constitutional
Portugal — it is, I repeat, of great interest and importance, in the most enlarged
views of national poUcy, that that alliance should continue; and it can only
continue by the success of the Queen of Spain. * * * * We knowjj that
Europe, since the French revolution of July, has been divided, I will not say into
hostile, but into different parties, acting each according to their respective prin
ciples ; and if those parties have not actually met in the conflict of arms, it is
only because of the anxiety which all the governments of Europe have professed
and felt to maintain peace, and to avoid everything that tends to involve Europe
in war. The maintenance of peace, not only in the Peninsula, but also in Europe,
is one great object which the quadruple alliance was intended to effect ; and, in
my opinion, there is no better guarantee for the continuance of peace in Europe
than that alliance — an alliance founded, not on any selfish views of separate interests,
nor for any purposes of national aggrandisement— not from the remotest design of
aggression against others, but solely for the purpose of preserving the peace of
Europe, and of maintaining the independence of the states who are parties to it.
With regard to the convention, it is clear that it does include the troops who
are going from this country : on that point there cannot be a question. With
regard to their pay, the noble lord is pleased to taunt those men who shall enroll
themselves in the service of the Queen of Spain, with being mercenaries ; ready to
call themselves Englishmen to-day, and Spaniards to-morrow ; with being men who
disgrace their country, and are about to sell for lucre their own blood and the
blood of others. I cannot but express a deep regret that the noble , lord, whom
I know to possess the feelings of an EngUshman, and who has devoted his leisure,
and the faculties of his mind, to subjects connected with the history of his
country and of Spain, should have felt so coldly on this matter ; that he should
take so false and narrow a view of it, as to throw out, on brave and honourable
men, imputations so entirely undeserved. Can the noble lord not conceive that any
motive could lead Englishmen to fight under the banners of a constitutional
sovereign except the mere love of pay?"
The Aggressive Character of Eussia. — 1836.
" My noble friend, in his speech, has, with great ability and research, traced the
progressive augmentation of territory whieh the Eussian emperor has acquired.
If there is one subject more peculiar than another connected with these acqui
sitions, it is that they have been almost invariably made at periods when the other
nations of Europe were engaged in quarrels among themselves, and their attentionwas
occupied in their own respective wars. That being the case, my noble friend must
approve of the policy we have pursued in preserving the peace of Europe, because
he must be convinced that it is a better way of preventing the further aggran-
70 a

A.D. 1836.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [occupation of cracow.
disement of that power than that of pursuing the advice of the honourable member
for Birmingham, to have a war either of gold or paper. My noble friend must,
upon reflection, be satisfied that the preservation of peace can alone prevent the
recurrence of the events of former times, the evils of" which he has stated to the
House. I say this affords us an additional motive for endeavouring to avoid the
causes of war, and to cement those alliances in peace, by means of which we may
prevent occurrences which might be followed by consequences which my noble
friend so strongly deprecates. I agree with my noble friend that it is of import
ance to this country, both commercially and politically, that Turkey should be
maintained in integrity and independence ; and individually, upon former occasions,
I have endeavoured to satisfy the House, that it is not only the opinion now
entertained by her majesty's government, but one which has been constantly
expressed upon those occasions when, according to custom, they have made com
munications to parUament ; and I can assure my noble friend that he does not feel
more strongly than we do upon this subject. I believe that feeling is also shared
with us by aU other countries, whose interests, as well as ours, require that Turkey
should continue independent and powerful."
The Occupation of Cracow. — 1836.
"It is quite true, as my right honourable friend has stated, that the treaty of
Vienna stipulates that foreign troops shall on no account whatever enter the state
ofiCracow. That treaty also contains an individual reciprocal condition, on the
part of the state of Cracow, that on no account shall it harbour such persons as
are described in that treaty; but shall, on demand, deliver up such persons to
either of the three contracting powers, whose subjects they happen to be ; and it
is upon this article of the treaty that the residents of the three powers, in their
note to the senate of Cracow, found their claim to the expulsion, within eight days,
of the Polish refugees from that territory. It is obvious that the demand was not
precisely that which was contemplated in the treaty ; the treaty not requiring that
these persons should be deUvered up to the resident of either of these powers, but
simply that they should be removed from the territory of Cracow. It is our duty
to take a fair and impartial view of the subject, whatever jmay be the interest we
must naturally feel in anything which relates to Poland. However prone the
House may be to sympathise with her as the weaker power, still it is necessary
that we should continue to discuss the subject with that calmness of which my
right honourable friend has set so commendable an example, and to take into
consideration all the facts bearing upon the stipulation of the treaty.
" Looking upon the matter with this feeling, and supposing the reports we
have received (which are not yet, however, officially confirmed) to contain the
statement of the case, I shall say it must be considered that the measures adopted
by the residents of the three powers have fallen within the spirit of the treaty
with the state of Cracow ; for it is alleged that a number of the natives of Poland
assembled at Cracow, and (inspired by feelings perfectly natural under the circum
stances) were in constant communication with the Austrian and Eussian provinces
of Poland, and carrying on plans calculated to disturb the government of those
places. If this were so, I should say that the spirit of the treaty was such as to
forbid Cracow from allowing the residence of such persons in their state. * * *
But although the three powers might be justified in calling upon the state of
Cracow to efder such persons to depart, it does not follow that they were justified
in their military occupation of the state, in consequence of any temporary delay in
complying with their demands upon the part of Cracow. I am bound to say that
no sufficient reason has been given, either for the entrance of the troops, or the
shortness of the interval which existed between the time of the demandand that of
the occupation of Cracow, although it would be difficult to deny the right of the
three powers, under the circumstances I have assumed, to require that those
persons who were really carrying on this improper correspondence, should be
t Do

ladies in the commons.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1836.

removed from Cracow ; and this being necessarily acceded to, that they should
afterwards, within eight days, require the expulsion of individuals, many of whom
are known to have settled in the place, to have contracted marriages there, and
even to have entered into the service of the state, was carrying their demand
altogether beyond what appears to have been necessary for the safety of the
adjoining countries. * * * I have said that, under the treaty of Vienna, I
think the three powers, if they had named certain persons, and had stated their
grounds for doing so, might have been justified in requiring their expulsion from
Cracow. I should even say, that if no treaty had existed at all — if Cracow had
only stood on the same footing as other nations of Europe, and a neighbouring
power pointed out to her the existence of certain persons within her territory who
were employed in exciting disturbances among the population of that power, the
mere duty of good neighbourhood would require that Cracow should take efficient
measures to prevent her soil from becoming an asylum of the disturbers. But, on
the other hand, as I have before stated, even if Cracow has refused immediately to
comply with the demands made upon her, I do not think that that would have
been a sufficient justification for the violent measures which have been adopted
towards her. The allied powers should, in the first instance, have exhausted every
source of friendly representation and communication within their power. It does
not appear that this was done. It may have been done; but if done, it has
been done without our knowledge : and even if they had failed to* obtain, by such
friendly representations, that which they thought neeessary for their own safety,
there will still be other measures obviously applicable for the purpose, without
resort being had to the step they have taken. I do not stand up here to defend a
measure which, on the contrary, I must censure and condemn. I have merely
stated these circumstances, which, though they do not excuse the forcible occupa
tion of Cracow, might yet afford a justification for the demand of the three powers,
if it had been made in a more limited form than it has. I think it right here to
observe, that as Great Britain was a party to the treaty of Vienna, before the con
tracting powers made such a demand as they have done, it was their duty to have
communicated to the government of this country the ground upon which they were
about to proceed ; but, at the same time, in determining to take a step which, to
say the least of it, was one of unnecessary violence, without consulting his majesty's
government, they may be justly said, perhaps, to have paid an involuntary homage
to the justice and plain dealing of the country, and thus to have recognised the
fact that they were aware we should never have given our assent to such pro
ceedings. * * * It is of as much importance to us that the independence of
a state like Cracow be not causelessly and wantonly disturbed, as if the case were
that of Prussia, or any other powerful nation."
Admission of Ladies to the Gallery. — 1836.
"As an appeal is made to me, as a member of his majesty's government, and
as I wish that there should be no misunderstanding on this question with regard
to my view of it, I feel it right to say, as this is not a cabinet question — I am very
glad it is not a cabinet question — I differ from my right honourable friend, and I
will vote for the resolution now in the hands of the House. I cannot think that
any inconvenience can possibly arise to our proceedings, or to the ladies them
selves, by allowing them to be present to hear the debates. I am quite satisfied,
that whatever interest the novelty may produce on the first or second evening, it
will soon wear off, and we shall pursue our avocations without thinking of the
ladies' gallery at all ; and we shall say, as an honourable member once said of
another gallery, when he was told by a friend to speak louder, because he was not
heard in the gallery — ' Eeally, when one speaks, one forgets that? there is such a
thing as a gallery.' My honourable friend, the member for Trui*>, seems to think
that the ladies could scarcely wish to take any part in the discussions which take
place ; but I consider that naturally they have a great deal of interest in them."
754 s

a.d. 1838.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the French in Algiers.
Defence of the Policy of Government. — 1837.
" We have been accused of favouring innovations, and encouraging revolu
tion. But that accusation is unfounded and unjust. We have, indeed, given our
moral support, as we have given our good wishes, to this great Spanish nation,
who have been endeavouring, of their own accord, to improve their institutions,
and to imitate, though at a distance, the proud example of this country, by
acquiring the inestimable privilege of representative government. It has been the
part of his majesty's ministers to give their acquiescence in, and support these
objects, as we were bound to do. We may say that, during the period in which we
have had the honour to administer the affairs of this country, the principles of
national Uberty have made greater progress in Europe than they have ever before
made within the same time at any period of our history. To the diffusion of those
principles we have given every support ; and it is our boast that we have done so.
Of what I am now about to mention I must not boast, because their administrators
unquestionably are entitled to share in any praise which may attach to such a
course, as having had a large share in the arrangements by which it has been
foUowed out. Yet on this, at least, it may be said we have reason to congratulate
ourselves, that during the period for which we have been responsible for the
conduct of affairs in this country, the people in Belgium have been free, happy,
powerful, and tranquil ; that Portugal, which had been worse governed than Spain,
and of which the natural resources had been, so to speak, crushed and exhausted,
and rendered unavaiUng by a long course of misgovernment — Portugal has estab
lished free institutions, is prepared to profit by them, and is on the high road to
that prosperity which, in my own opinion, free institutions can alone open to a
country. Spain, notwithstanding the discouraging predictions of the honourable
member for Sandwich, I may be allowed to hope — and that hope is founded on very
recent and authentic information — may yet follow the example which is set her by
Belgium and by Portugal. She may yet become, with the same friendly assistance
which England has been lately affording her, what she was in former times — a
great and powerful member of the European community. If she shall do so, she
wiU accomplish that destiny, not by experiments founded on a crude system of
innovation and revolution, but by regenerating her ancient and national institu
tions, by becoming again a free country such as, in a modified sense, and according
to the spirit of ancient times, she so long continued to be, and by .renewing those
institutions, adapted, in their forms, to the altered conditions and exigencies of
society. By these means, and by these means alone, it will be that Spain will
recover and retrieve herself from the state of degradation into which the noble
lord tells us she has now been plunged for a century : and if she shall do this, I
humbly beg to say for myself, that notwithstanding all the taunts and reproaches
to which I have been exposed from the noble lord and honourable House — if I may
claim, however humble, a share in the triumph of bringing about such a state of
things, I shaU feel a high degree of pride, and. the most lasting satisfaction."
The French in* Algiers.— 1838.
"The honourable member for Lymington has said very truly, that there are
many subjects connected with this matter to which it is unnecessary to i-Jer, and
I shall not therefore enter into an inquiry as to the effect which the possession of
Algiers may have had upon the interests of this country in certain cases which
may be supposed ; nor, on the other hand, shall I inquire into the manner in which
the possession may affect the interests of France herself in certain cases. I, how
ever, differ from the honourable member on one point with regard to the rights
which the Porte -has over the territory of Algiers, because the hon. member is
mistaken in supposing that the Porte had no rights of sovereignty previous to the
French occupancy. No doubt she has rights, and they are secured by France ; but
they are more attended to by Austria, and the other powers of Europe. I shall

CANADA AND LORD GLENELG.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1838.
not question the right which France has of demanding and enforcing, from the
government of Algiers, amends for injuries which have been inflicted on her com
merce ; and it is not for England to send out an expedition to compel satisfaction
with regard to the pledges of assurance which, before the undertaking of this
expedition, were given by France to England and the other powers of Europe.
They will be found in those papers upon their being printed; and the House will
then be able to see how France has complied with those engagements. With respect
to the other point referred to by the honourable member who has moved for these
papers — the designs of France on other parts of the coast of Africa — some satis
factory declarations have been made by the government of France as to what is
their ultimate result, and the matter is still under discussion in the French
Chambers. There is no intention or wish, however, to make any encroachment on
Tunis or Morocco. On a matter of this description, both with reference to the
communications which are now passing between the French government and the
Chambers, I shall best consult my duty by abstaining from expressing my opinion
upon the subject, which I am sure the House would not wish to hear, and which
would not be convenient or satisfactory. In one sentiment of the honourable
member I must express my cordial concurrence: he said he believed that the
people of this country do not imitate the example of the French in rushing into
unnecessary and unprovoked warfare for mere glory. I agree with him there ; and
I hope that the time may come, and is not far distant, when civilised and Christian
Europe will coincide in the propriety of adopting this sentiment, and when
nations may feel that there is no real glory to be derived from a warfare of
aggression, and in believing that in Christian countries no honour can be gained
from the slaughter of thousands for the purpose of invasion and oppression; and
that when trophies are erected by the hands of a conqueror, which have been
obtained by the invasion of the rights and liberties of other nations without the
privileges of his own country being secured, they serve to reflect discredit and
disgrace upon that conqueror." Canada and Lord Glenelg. — 1838.
"What has happened ? What is the state of the Canadas ? Why does any man
suppose, is any man so ignorant, are even the honourable gentlemen opposite, who
have attended to what has passed on this subject in the debates of this House, are
they so ignorant as not to know that the prevailing dissatisfaction in Canada did
not date its origin from the period when Lord Glenelg took office. * * * *
I may unhesitatingly declare that the dissatisfaction has been, in one province,
entirely removed, and in the other it has greatly diminished. The events of the
last few months in Canada, prove, in the most incontestable manner, the wisdom of
the administration of her majesty's government there. (Laughter.) Why, there
has been a revolt ; and how was that revolt put down ? Some of the French in
Lower Canada took up arms; and were they supported by the great mass of the
French in that country? On the contrary, did they not remain firm and loyal to
their sovereign ; and was that not a proof that they felt their connection with this
country was more desirable than separation ? But what has happened in Upper
Canada is a stronger proof that there has been a proper administration of the
affairs of that colony. Only a short time, ago, the province in question was in a
state of extreme discontent — was bordering on revolution; the supplies were
refused ; the machine of government was almost suspended ; and if only a spark
had fallen on the inflammable materials which abounded in the colony, the result
must have been most deplorable. What has happened ? A few desperate men have
attempted, in the first place, to take the capital of the province : they were repelled
by the inhabitants without the aid of a single soldier of the- line; a band of
foreign invaders was repelled, on the eastern confines of the province, by the
Canadians themselves ; a similar attempt was made in the west, and with similar
results. I will say, then, that a province that has acted so nobly as the province
756

A.D. 1838.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [case of MR. bell.

of Upper Canada (there having existed there extreme discontent), does give proof
that the administration of the colony must have been deserving the approbation of
parliament. . In my judgment, the honourable baronet (Sir W. Molesworth) has
utterly failed in adducing any ground on which he can propose to the House a
resolution of censure against the government. Speaking of the state of the colonies
generaUy, I will say, that so far from their condition affording any proof that the
system of their administration has been faulty, it affords ample evidence that it has
been wise and proper. The colonies, taken as a whole, are prosperous and tranquil,
with the single exception of what has taken place in the provinces of Canada;. and
there no ground exists for the attack of the honourable baronet. How have
affairs stood in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia ? They were in a state of dis
content Uttle short of what lately occurred in Canada : what is their state now ?
They are perfectly satisfied, and perfectly loyal. I therefore contend, that the very
statements of the honourable baronet, the very instances he has quoted, so far
from justifying the motion he has made, ought to be taken as evidence against it."
Increased Horrors of the Slave-Trade. — 1838.
" I will not compare the present mode of conducting the slave-trade with a
description which I have lately read in Mr. Clarkson's history of the abolition of
this trade. In that work more than one writer on the slave-trade is described
as deposing, that what is called ' the middle passage' is the happiest period in a
negro's life. If that be so, then must the other periods of his existence be
wretched indeed ! I wiU therefore abstain from taking that passsge as a proof of
the manner in which the cruelty of the slave-trade has increased since that account
was written. I wiU content myself with remarking, that the space then allowed
to the negro on board the slave-ship was very different from the space allowed him
at present. When I recollect that cargoes of negroes are now packed and
carried into places not more than two feet and a-half in height, and that
hundreds of them are confined, during the passage — not in a space, for space it is
not to be caUed — but in the closest crib which human ingenuity could devise, I
cannot doubt that the beings so crammed and huddled together do endure the
greatest possible amount of human suffering. I have been told by officers who
have captured these slave vessels, that when these unfortunate wretches have been
dragged from the hold into which they were jammed together, the majority of
them were quite unable to stand, and that some of them had become completely
paralysed, and never again recovered the use of their limbs. This is, however,
only one portion of the cruelties to which they are exposed ; for when the slavers
' are chased, it is not unusual for them to throw the slaves overboard with weights
attached to their persons to sink them immediately : they fling them overboard,
wedged up in casks, in which they float about the sea, enduring the most incredible
sufferings ; the slaver calculating on the possible chance of afterwards picking
some of them up in the event of the cruisers wearing off, or being unable to
maintain the chase. I therefore concur in the correctness of the honourable
baronet's assertion, that the cruelties of this infamous traffic have become, of late
years, greatly aggravated. That is, in my opinion, an additional reason why this
House and the country should insist upon its speedy termination. It is no reason
for repenting us of our past exertions, but it ought to serve as a stimulus to excite
us to greater efforts in the times that are to come."
Case of Mr. Bell and the "Vixen." — 1838.
" The subject which, it appears, the right honourable gentleman wishes the com
mittee to inquire into, is, whether Mr. Bell has lost money and character by the
expedition of the Vixen ; and whether he received from me — for I wish to cast off
the intermediary term, the Foreign Office — whether he received from me, as Secre
tary for Foreign Affairs, any encouragement to undertake that expedition? I
think the right honourable gentleman has not shown the slightest ground for the
' • 757

right of search.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1839.
assertion which is the basis of his motion ; nor has his noble friend, who has come
to his aid with that pugnacious speech of his, been able, with all his ingenuity and
greater practice, to offer the shadow of a ground for the position he has assumed.
There are two points which may be altogether laid aside in the discussion — the
losses of Mr. Bell (for I do not suppose the right honourable gentleman considers
a committee of this House necessary to make the valuations of the ship and its'
cargo), and the loss of character sustained by Mr. Bell; which, also, I put on one
side, as I do not conceive that Mr. Bell has lost any character at all. He entered
into»a speculation for views and purposes of his own, which he was quite at liberty
to do ; and it would be utterly unjust to him to say that he, on that account, stands
less well in public estimation than he did before. If I were to find fault with
Mr. Bell, it would be because his speculations were entered upon, not with com
mercial but political motives, and with the intention of placing two great countries
in a position in which war might be the consequence ; and herein he showed himself
not actuated by proper views.
" But did he receive encouragement from me to enter upon that expedition ?
I repeat my denial of that assertion ; and I have not heard anything, in the course
of the debate, to invalidate that denial. I disclaim the interposition of the phrase
'Foreign Office.' That office comprises a number of officers, who act on the
authority of the Secretary of State ; therefore, any man who talks of communica
tions which he has received from the Foreign Office, asserts that which has no
meaning unless he can state that such communications have passed under the
responsibility of the Secretary of State for the Foreign Department. Now, it is
said that Mr. Bell — this innocent Mr. Bell — was led by me into a trap by the
answers I gave him. I deny that there is the slightest foundation for any such
assertion. The inquiry he made of me was, whether it would be wise and prudent
for him to enter into a certain speculation for the sale of salt on the coast of
Circassia, whither he had been invited by the native authorities ; and he wanted
to know whether there were any restrictions, recognised by this country, applied to
that commerce by the government of Eussia ? My answer to these inquiries was
precisely what the right honourable gentleman says it ought to have been. ' He
ought to have been told,' said the right honourable gentleman, 'that he must
judge for himself — that the government of England could not give advice to a
merchant as to any enterprise in which be proposed to engage.' That is precisely
what I said in my communication of the 30th of May, in which I replied to the
inquiries he had addressed to me. There was one point I did not answer ; and it
must be admitted that, if I had done so, I should have been guilty of a great breach
of propriety. He wished to know what was the opinion of her majesty's govern
ment with regard to these great questions to which the right honourable gentle
man has alluded — namely, the right of Eussia to the sovereignty of Circassia ; and
whether I thought she was or was not entitled to establish those custom-house and
sanatory regulations she was enforcing by the power of arms ? Now, I must say,
that no individual merchant is entitled to ask her majesty's government to give an
opinion on questions of that sort ; and if such questions be put, it would be most
dangerous and imprudent in the minister to satisfy them."
Eight of Search. — 1839.
" This is the extent of the powers called for under the present bill. I am
convinced they will be sufficient to enable the government to put down the traffic
in slaves carried on under the Portuguese flag, and a great point will thus 'be
accomplished. I know it may be said that the trade may still be carried on, for
that the slave-traders, when driven from one flag, will seek refuge under another.
I am aware of that. But if we succeed in gaining all the flags, of Christendom in
the common cause, then I would ask to what course can the slavers resort ? They
may have no flag: they may divest themselves of every document that might
enable the captors, upon whom the responsibility will rest, to prove that they

a.d. 1841.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [abolition of slavery.

belong to this or that particular nation ; so that the captor would not be able to
bring them before the tribunal of the country, or the mixed commission. That
would be the last effort of despairing crime. But I shall, therefore, propose a
clause to remedy this evil. I propose that a slaver taken under such circum
stances should be considered as, and dealt with in the same manner as, though she
were an English slave-trader, provided always that, in the course of trial, her
nationaUty shall be made to appear ; then the case .shall not be adjudicated upon
by the Court of Admiralty, but dealt with as if, at the outset, she had been of the
nation to which she is ultimately proved to belong. It may be objected that this
wiU be making war against aU the world ; but I do not see how any nation can
complain of such a course. If a ship abjure her country, and cast the protection
of its flag to the winds, the state to which she happens to belong cannot, at least,
complain that we have not respected her nationality, the existence of which had
been studiously kept from our knowledge. Then what prospect is there of arriving
at that general union in putting down the slave-trade, the hope of which I have
held out to the House ? When all the powers of Europe shall have united in
giving a mutual right of search, or the power of condemnation by a mixed com
mission, there can no longer remain any defence for carrying on the slave-trade
under any European flag." t
England only sincere to put down Slavery. — 1841.
" It is only from England, and from the exertions of England, that any hope
can be entertained of the extinction of the slave-trade, and of the ultimate aboli
tion of slavery throughout the world ; because it is England alone that feels any
deep and sincere interest in the matter. -England now holds a proud position
among the nations of the earth, and exercises a great influence upon the destinies
of mankind. That influence is owing, in the first place, to our great wealth ; to
our unbounded resources ; to our military and naval strength. But it is owing
still more, if possible, to the moral dignity which marks the character and conduct
ofthe British people. I fear that the resolution ofthe noble lord, the member for
Liverpool, wiU tend, if adopted, to impair all these elements of our strength. I
cannot but think that the respect which foreign nations have hitherto felt for the
sincerity, the plain dealing, the straightforwardness of the British character, will
be lowered when they see the House of Commons adopting a resolution by which
the principles of humanity and justice are (I am sorry to say so) prostituted to
serve the party purposes of a day ; and I am sure that we shall sap the foundations
of our strength, if, by the continuance of our restrictive and prohibitory regula
tions, we undermine those great commercial and manufacturing interests which
are the main supports of our power. Those who desire to see the principle of
Uberty thrive and extend throughout the world, should cherish, with an almost
reUgious veneration, the prosperity and greatness of England. So long as England
shall ride pre-eminent on the ocean of human affairs, there can be none whose
fortunes shaU be so shipwrecked ; there can be none whose condition shall be so
desperate and forlorn, that they may not cast a look of hope towards the light
that beams from hence ; and though they may be beyond the reach of our power,
our moral support and our sympathy shall cheer them in their adversity, and shall
assist them to bear up and to hold out, waiting for a better day. But if ever, by
the assault of overpowering armies, or by the errors of her misguided sons, England
should fall, and her star should lose its lustre, with her fall, for a long period of
time, would the hopes of the African, whether in his own continent, or in the vast
regions of America, be buried in the darkness of despair. I know well that, in such
a case, Providence would, in due course of time,* raise up some other nation to
inherit our principles, and to imitate our practice. But, taking the world as it is,
and states as they are constituted, I do not know — and Isay it with regret and
pain — I do not know any nation that is now ready, in this respect, to supply our
place. I say, then, that they who are th§ sincere friends of that cause of which we

DEFENCE OF THE WHIGS.] LIFE AND TIMES • OF [A.D. 1842.
have been the strenuous advocates, and the not wholly unsuccessful supporters,
instead of giving their assistance to a resolution which is founded upon a hollow
pretence, ought to lend their aid to us, and to help us to accompUsh those pur
poses which they themselves have so deeply at heart."
A Fixed Duty preferable to a Sliding-Scale. — 1841.
"I contend that a sliding-scale, modify it as you will, contains in itself
fundamental principles which render it a much less expedient mode of keeping up
the object of the corn-laws than a fixed duty, supposing a fixed duty to be always
moderate in its amount. What we proposed last year was a fixed duty of 8s. per
quarter; but the right honourable baronet has this night almost convinced me
that this was too high, and that such an amount would be almost as prohibitory
as the scale which he proposed. I do not admit this ; but! what I contend for is,
that the duty should be fixed and known, and that it should not be allowed to vary
with the rise or fall of prices in the market. If a moderate fixed duty was estab
lished, you would have a complete change in the trade altogether ; you would have
an entirely different system of transaction in the corn -market; for, instead of
gambling transactions, you would establish a sound and advantageous trade ; and
instead of the merchant hurrying, at every rise in price, to the foreign markets on
the continent (for the distant markets are now hardly touched), and thus at once
enhancing the price of corn, you would establish a steady and well-regulated
barter, which would, at the same time, supply your wants, and open new fields for
the consumption of the produce of your manufacturing industry."
Defence of the Ministry against the Tories. — 1842.
" I contend, then, not only that we helped the government to make the speech
from the throne, but that the government have been employed, during the whole
of the session, in reaping the harvest of treaties, of which we sowed the feed; and
they have had an abundant crop. But let me ask, what are, generally speaking, the
means by which a government can best promote the commercial interests of the
country ? And have we been deficient in employing those means ? Why, first and
foremost, I put the maintenance of peace — of peace not only between this country
and foreign nations, but peace between the other great powers of the world ; for it
is manifest that if serious war rages anywhere, and especially a naval war, the
interests of all commercial nations must be more or less affected thereby. Now,
in spite of every prediction to the contrary, we maintained peace for ten years :
we maintained it in spite of many difficulties thrown in our way by gentlemen
belonging to the other side of the House, who, one after another, endeavoured to
magnify into importance every petty question that arose with other countries, and
to embitter every trifling dispute, whether with Eussia, with France, or with the
United States ; whether it related to a doubtful right, or to a chapel in Cuba, or to
a pilot in the Gulf of Mexico, or to some blockade established by some foreign
power. In spite of all these attempts (not always to be disregarded) to create ill-
feeling between this country and foreign powers, we did succeed in maintaining
peace during the whole time we had the honour to conduct the affairs of this
country. We maintained it, moreover, without any sacrifice of British interests,
and without any injury to our national honour ; and I would appeal to any candid
, and impartial man to say whether he could find anything to complain of in the
position which this country held among the other powers of the globe at the time
when we quitted the government. jBut not only did we maintain peace for
ourselves ; we were also frequently instrumental in preserving peace between other
nations who had got into serious disputes. * * * *
" But then it may3e said, all this is very true. True it is that you preserved
peace : but of what use is mere peace to the commerce of this country, if you do
not obtain, by the stipulation of treaties^ those securities which are necessary for
the advantageous prosecutiqn of trade ? <pVere we idle in this respect ? We have
760 , r

a.d. 1843.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [lord ellenborough.

been accused of restless activity, and of incessant meddling with regard to foreign
affairs. I take the charge as a high compliment, and I admit it to be particularly
just with respect to our proceedings about treaties of commerce. There are now
in existence about eighteen treaties of commerce, which were concluded before we
came into office in November, 1830, including in that number the ancient treaties
with Tripoli, Tunis, and Morocco. We concluded fifteen more treaties ; and two
of them — the treaties with Austria and Turkey, in 1838 — are of considerable
importance. There is one other, also, to which I must for a moment direct the
attention of the House : it is not entitled a treaty of commerce, but it deserves to
"be so described ; and it is not only a treaty of commerce, but* a treaty tending to
secure the maintenance of peace. I allude to the convention of 1839 with France,
for regulating the boundaries of the fisheries of the two countries. * * * *
" I now come to the treaties for the suppression of the slave-trade. Of these
there were ten in existence when we came into office. We concluded sixteen
additional ones ; and there is this distinction between those which we concluded,
and those which had been concluded by our predecessors — that our treaties con
tained bolder and more effective stipulations than are to be found in the former
treaties. * * * * # t
" The largest augmentation of our commerce, for which we have laid the
foundation, is that to which I have already referred as certain to take place in
China, when that early and satisfactory arrangement shall have been made with
the Chinese government, which her majesty's ministers announced to us in the
speech from the throne. Another new and vast opening for our commerce will be
afforded by the great operations which we undertook in the countries to the west
of the Indus. These great measures may bexnade the subjectiof derision by men
who never heard of such places as Cabul and Candahar till they read, of them in
our despatches ; and who, before the glorious exploit of Lord Keane, could not
have told us whether Ghuznee was an inland fortress or a seaport town. Such
gentlemen may laugh at things which they do not understand ; but their laughter
cannot deprive the people of England of their good sense, nor make that trivial
and unimportant which is really of the utmost conseqhence. I may 'again be
accused of assurance in boasting of these matters ; but I presume no man will
deny, that if we retain our military and political position in those countries and
passes which command the navigation of the Indus — a river navigable for more
than 1,200 miles from its mouth, and traversing regions inhabited by numerous
natives who, if internal tranquillity was secured to them by good, government,
would afford a vast market for our manufactures ; — no man can doubt that if we do
this we shall obtain a great additional opening for our commerce. I say that no
rational man — no man, at least, who possesses any other of the attributes which
distinguish the human race from the inferior animals except laughter — would treat
these matters otherwise than as being of the highest importance. We are told,
however, that it is great assurance on my part to assert that we obtained for our
Indian empire the barrier of Afghanistan. I conclude that this charge had
reference to the disasters which had lately happened in that quarter, and that what
was meant was, that although we had at first got possession of that barrier, yet,
by subsequent events, a part of what we had so gained had been lost. But I say
that these recent losses and disasters had nothing whatever to do with the original
policy of the war, and are no proof whatever that we did not judiciously adapt
our means to the end that was to be accompUshed."
Lord Ellenborough. — 1843.
" Now, sir, we object to the proclamation of Lord Ellenborough, on the ground
that its languag# is altogether unworthy and unbecoming a public functionary. My
right honourable friend beside me compared it to some of the bulletins of the
earlier part of the French revolution ; in which he slightly erred, as the noble lord
opposite has shown. It does not appear to have been taken from the bulletins of
vol. n. 3 D 761

TORY FOREIGN POLICY.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1844.
so early a period. It is rather from the bulletins of Bonaparte, who certainly
was, as the noble lord says, pre-eminently fitted for the government of empires.
' Napoleon' says the noble lord, ' was able to command large bodies of men, and
rule the destinies of millions, and therefore we ought not to blame Lord Ellen
borough for imitating his example.' We have heard of those who thought, by
holding . their heads on one side, they would be thought as wise as Aristotle ; or
that by stuttering they would rival Demosthenes. If Lord Ellenborough wished
to rival the genius of Napoleon, I think he might have found a better subject for
imitation than his bulletins, which excited the ridicule of all sensible men. * * *
"I say,. then, that no ground has been laid why this House should not express-
that opinion Which appears to have been unanimously felt — that this proclamation
was unwise and indecorous; and if it were so, it must in a Governor-general be
reprehensible. It, is in vain to tell us that Lord Ellenborough has, in other
respects, during the short period of his administration, deserved, sp weU of the
country that we ought to pass over his faults, and think only of his merits, I say
that his services have been next to nothing ; that they consist chiefly in his having;
employed those military means which his predecessor had provided, which he himself
had not the courage to employ, and which he employed against his own inclination.
His merit', therefore, in*the transactions which have' taken place in Afghanistan is
next to nothing; whilst* by this proclamation, which the. noble lord,has charac
terised as boastful, he has proved his unfitness for so responsible a situation. I
think it is essential that the House should notice this. I think, that when a
proclamation of this sort, proving the individual who issued it to be devoid of those
feelings which ought to guide a person intrusted with so important a charge, is
brought under the .notice of the HoUse, it would not only show a want of courage
on the part of the House, but an abandonment of our duty as the represen
tatives of the people, if we were to shrink from expressing that opinion which all
of us entertain, however much some of us may wish that it should not be
expressed." Lord Aberdeen's Foreign Policy. — 1844.
"I am anxious to call the. attention of the House, and of the government, to
the inconvenient consequences which have arisen from the system of policy pursued
by her majesty's present advisers — a system which appears to be one of resistance at
home and concession abroad. When the right honourable gentlemen: opposite came
into office, they adopted a policy which they probably thought would lead to a state
of tranquillity abroad, and secure to them the good-will of foreign governments. I
doubted at the. time the success of that line of policy; and affairs which, have
arisen since, must have convinced ministers, as they have convinced the- country,
that it is not a system calculated to uphold the honour, or advance' the interests of
the country. They commenced by making a great concession to the United States,
in the hope, no doubt, that by such means they would restore perfect harmony
between the governments of the two countries ; but the result was, that after the
cession of the greater part of the disputed territory, another question arose—
namely, that concerning the Oregon territory, which promised to lead to as many
difficulties as that respecting the north-east boundary. Then there was the
question of the right of visit, and the annexation of Texas to the United States,
which were of great importance to the interests of England, and which yet
remained to be resolved. In like manner, with regard to France, the policy thus
adopted towards that country was of the same character and tendencies. In Spain,
shortly after their accession to office, there occurred questions of considerable
difficulty, the embarrassments connected with which were fomented by French
intrigue ; and ministers, out of deference to the French government, counselled
the regent of Spain to submit to great indignity in the question which had arisen
with M. Salvandy, the French ambassador ; and also in the affair regarding the
conduct of M. Lesseps, the French consul at Barcelona. The consequence of this
762

OB. 1800.

a.d. 1844.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [foreign policy.
was that the Spanish nation felt that the regent had lost the moral support of
this country, and his enemies were allowed to prevail. He fell, and British
interests were, in my opinion, sacrificed in his downfall. In Otaheite a question
arose as to whether France should accept the protectorate of the island, which had
been refused by England; which, indeed, had been twice refused by England.
But, be it always remembered, that the former government, who had declined the
offer, had assured the government of Tahite, that England would always give it
the support of her good offices in any difference which might arise between Tahite
and any foreign power. When that question presented itself her majesty's
government again acquiesced ; and that acquiescence in French aggression led that
power to take another step, which may be productive of very serious consequences.
No doubt that line of policy was undertaken for the purpose of attaining tempo
rary quiet, and without foresight or regard as to what the eventual consequences
might be, putting aside all care for tbe ultimate sacrifices which must be made in
following such a course. Ministers, in fact, appear to shape their policy, not with
reference to the great interests of their own country, but from a consideration of the
effect which their course may produce upon the position of foreign governments. It
may very well be a desirable object, and one worthy of consideration, that a particu
lar individual should continue in the administration of affairs in another country ;
but it is too much that, from regard to that object, the interests of this country
should be sacrificed, and that every demand of foreign powers should be acceded to.
The same course, indeed, was pursued by the party opposite on former occasions.
In 1830, the French were allowed to obtain possession of Algeria. The right
honourable gentlemen opposite were then in office; they remained quiescent in
order that the ministers of Prince Polignac might be maintained in power ; and
we are aU aware of the consequences which have arisen from their acquiescence on
that occasion. No doubt it is for the interest of this country — it is for the interest
of France herself, as well as for the interests of the world, that M. Guizot should
remain minister of France ; but the government of this country has no right to
sacrifice either the honour or the interest of England in order to continue
M. Guizot in power. * * * It seems to me that the system of purchasing
temporary security by lasting sacrifices, and of placing the interests of foreign
ministers above those of this country, can never be other than a fatal one to the
country, or to the administration which pursues such a course. Since the acces
sion to office of the right honourable gentlemen opposite, no one can have failed to
observe that there has been a great dimunition of British influence and con
sideration in every foreign country. Influence abroad is to be maintained only
by the operation of one or other of two principles — hope or fear. We ought to
teach the weaker powers to hope that they will receive the support of this country
in their time of danger. Powerful countries should be taught to fear that they
will be resisted by England in any unjust acts, either towards ourselves, or towards
those who are bound in ties of amity with us. But after the abandonment of
Spain by her majesty's government, what weak power can retain any hope of
moral support, or of effective aid from this country ? And after we have ceded
and given up the disputed territory in North America, what powerful country can
entertain any apprehension of our resistance to encroachment ? Although her
majesty's late advisers had sometimes the misfortune to be in a minority in the
House of Commons, still, in their foreign policy, they had the good fortune always
to be in a majority. In the Belgian negotiation, when the Dutch were intract
able, and had the assistance of France and Belgium, we controlled the Dutch ;
when, afterwards, the Belgians grew unreasonable, we had the support of Austria,
Eussia, and Prussia, and we restrained the Belgians. In Portugal, when we wished
to establish the constitution and Donna Maria, we had France on our side, and
carried our point. In Spain, when we were desirous of upholding Isabella and
liberty, we bad France and Portugal with us, and we carried our point. When
we desired to effect an arrangement in the Levant, which" we thought essential to
3D 2 763

NATIONAL DEFENCES.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 18.45.
the peace of Europe, as well as to the interests of England, we had Austria, Eussia,
Prussia, and Turkey with us, and that arrangement was carried into execution. In
all these great questions her majesty's late government had the concurrence and
co-operation of all those powers which were nearest to the scene of operation, and
were, from their local position, the best informed upon the subject, the/most able
to co-operate, and the most interested in the policy pursued. What may be tho
interest of the present government I know not ; but while it is exercised upon the
system I have pointed out, and where important and prominent interests are sacri
ficed for the temporary convenience of foreign governments, it can never be exer
cised in a manner which is satisfactory to this country. I am most anxious that
the House, the country, and the government itself should direct their attention to
the results which have already arisen from the mistaken system on which the
ministers set out, and which they appear still to pursue. It is a system, of all
others, the most likely to lead the country into serious difficulties, and which has
already provoked occurrences which may involve us in war."
National Defences. — 1845.
" I think that any man who values peace, and who is sensible of the advan
tages which the country derives from it, must feel that this is a matter of first-
rate importance ; for peace between two countries can never be secure except when
they stand upon a footing of equality with regard to their respective means of
self-defence. Now, sir, France, as I had reason to state on a former occasion, has
now a standing army of 350,000 men, fully equipped, including a large force of
cavalry and artillery ; and in addition to that, 1,000,000 of the national guard.
I know that the national guard of Paris amounts to 80,000 men, trained, dis
ciplined, reviewed, clothed, equipped, and accustomed to duty, and perfectly
competent therefore to take the internal duty of the country, and to set free the
whole of the regular force. Now, sir, if France were a country separated from
us by an impassable barrier ; if she had no navy, or if the Channel could not be
crossed, I should say this was a matter with which we had no concern. But that
is not the case. In the first place, France has a fleet equal to ours. I do not
speak of the number of vessels actually in existence, but of the fleet in commission
and half commission, in both which respects the fleet of France is equal to that of
this country. But again, the Channel is no longer a barrier. , Steam navigation
has rendered that which was before impassable by a military force, nothing more
than a river passable by a steam bridge. France has steamers capable of trans
porting 30,000 men, and she has harbours inaccessible to any attack, in which these
steamers may collect, and around which, on the land side, large bodies of men are
constantly quartered. These harbours are directly opposite to our coast, and
within a few hours' voyage of the different landing-places on the coast of England.
Well, then, I say that is not a state of things under whieh you can remain
secure of peace, unless you are in a state of preparation to meet any sudden atttack.
Sir, I shall be told, perhaps, that our relations with France are of the most
amicable nature. I admit it, and I trust they may so continue. But questions of
the greatest importance may start up in any quarter of the globe; and we can
never be sure, from month to month, with respect to two countries which have such
extensive and diversified interests to be considered, that questions of the utmost
delicacy and difficulty will not unexpectedly arise. Therefore, I say, when those
questions do arise, you cannot deal with them on a footing of equality, and in a
manner consistent with the interest and dignity of the country, if 'you are not in
such a state as to be at least inaccessible to any sudden or early attack. * * *
" I will suppose that our dockyards are perfectly inaccessible. I will suppose
that we have harbours fortified against attack, as well as against the sea, in which
our steam-vessels— assuming that we have a sufficient number of them— might be
kept ready to act against any sudden invasion. But you must recollect that Calais,
St. Malo, Cherbourg, and Dunkirk, are within a few hours' passage of our coast ;

A.B. 1845.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [national defences.
«nd that, supposing a rupture to occur between the two countries (which I hope
will not be the case), you would have very short notice of any meditated attack ;
you would have very little means of sending your steamers in sufficient numbers
<fco prevent a landing ; and therefore, though not for the purpose of attacking your
dockyards; still for that of invading your coast, you might have 20,000 or 30,000
men landed without any possibility of your preventing such an event. Well, then,
what is the state of the internal garrison which you can rely upon, supposing such
an unfortunate event to happen ? Why, you have nothing but the regular force
of this country, which amounts, probably, including that in the Channel Islands,
to less than 50,000 men ; 20.000 in Ireland, and the rest distributed over Great
Britain. And this force must be brigaded, a staff must be appointed, and the
cavalry and artillery must all be brought together before you could put into the
field a force capable of opposing an enemy. I would ask the government what
time must necessarily elapse before that could be done ? You would have to
recruit your army, and to ballot for the militia ; and I ask any man who under
stands these matters, in what condition you would be placed in case of a rupture
with any foreign power ? The time and expense required for recruiting and col
lecting an army, would be more than any man, who has not turned his attention
to these things, could possibly imagine. Well, then, I say you have an acknow
ledged, estabUshed, and constitutional mode of guarding against this state of
things, which, of late, has been abandoned on account of the expense ; but for the
continued abandonment of which, I hold that that reason does not any longer
apply, whUe other reasons for resorting to it have greatly augmented within the
last few years. I refer to the summoning of the regular militia. * * * *
"The estimate for training the militia of Great Britain, in 1821, was £90,000;
that was the whole expense connected with 50,000 men. I do not mean to say
that this is not a considerable sum ; and, no doubt, if there was a deficiency in
the revenue, it would be a balance of consideration whether you would incur this
expense or take your chance of two or three years' continuance of peace : but then
we have a war-tax in time of peace ; and that being the case, for heaven's sake
let us have those ordinary precautions which will save us from the necessity of
incurring the greater expense of actual war. For a comparatively small amount,
you might have the means of assembling in arms, within a fortnight, 50,000 men
as the organised British militia; and 70,000, if, in addition to that number, you
organised the militia in Ireland. A training of twenty-eight days annually would
place that force in a state of efficiency, sufficient, probably, for all the duties which
they might suddenly be called on to perform ; and if you choose, at the end of
the third year, to give them fourteen days more, you would have a force which
would be amply sufficient for the national defence. * * * *
" I know governments are very apt to think — and the present one is not less
so than any former one — that the duty of ministers of the crown is, first of all,
to obtain and retain a majority in this House. That is quite true ; for without
a majority in this House, they could not continue to be ministers. But that is
not enough. It is not enough to be able to struggle through the debate, and
to scramble through the attack ; it is not enough to bring in good measures (and
some of the measures of this year I admit to have been good) ; it is not enough to
act upon the best and soundest principles of domestic legislation, if you do not,
in addition to that, place the country in as perfect a state of security as you
possibly can ; for, if your shores are not sufficiently protected, all legislation may be
in vain. Well, then, I say that this country is in a most defenceless state, con
sidered with reference to the means of attack possessed by other powers : on the
other hand, there never was a period at which resources, population, and wealth
were so greatoand at which you had equal means, with less pressure on the resources
and industry of the country, of placing yourselves in a situation of comparative
security. I contend, therefore, that it is the duty of government to look seriously
at these matters. Sir, the old maxim, si vis pacem para bellum, is both true
765

hostile tariffs.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1846.

and false. It is a false maxim if it mean, that in time of peace you ought to
prepare a sufficient force for aggressive hostility. Such a course of proceeding
is doubly mischievous. In the first place, it excites unnecessary jealousy on the
part of foreign countries, and leads them to engage in preparations Which may
tend to render the preservation of peace uncertain. But, moreover, the power
which, in time of peace, arms itself with a view to aggressive movements,
naturally acquires a disposition to make use of the means so attained; and thus
what is done begets a feeling which is inimical to peace. But if the maxim refers
only to the preparation, in peace, of the means of defence in case of war, it is a
most legitimate and sound maxim. It is by that means alone that any country
can secure to itself the continuance of the blessings of peace. I hold that we
have not, at present, that state of military preparation which would enable- us to
look with indifference upon any sudden contingencies. I hold that it is in the power
of the government to secure the necessary means of defence, at least to a very
considerable degree, at a comparatively small expense, and without any infringe
ment of those constitutional principles which I, for one, have not the least wish
to disregard. Sir, it is upon these grounds that I have thought it my duty to call
the attention of the government to this subject. I would entreat them to
consider whether it would be consistent with that responsibility which weighs upon
them, not merely to govern this country well, but to defend also that country
which they so govern, to refrain from resorting to those constitutional methods of
defence which may be so easily adopted, -and which, in time of war, would add
so greatly to our means of national defence."
Hostile Tariffs an Absurdity. — 1846.
" Is the state of our commercial relations with foreign countries a reason why
we should maintain this system of protection? Some people say it is. Some
gentlemen argue that free trade might do very well if it was practised by all
nations,' but that one-sided- free trade will not do; that our example will not.be
followed ; and that this system, not being-mutual and reciprocal, will be an injury
to ourselves, and an advantage to other nations. Now, I hbld this -to be just as
great a fallacy as the other. For what is the effect of mutually hostile tariffs
between ourselves and other countries ? Take any foreign country ; take France,
for instance. The high tariffs of France and England are alike injurious- to both
countries. Our high tariff against French commodities is an injury to ourselves
as consumers, and to the French as ¦ producers ; while the high tariff of France
against British commodities is an injury to the French consumer as well as to
the English producer. Here, then, is <an inconvenience on both sides of the
water. * * * *
"By free trade I do not mean necessarily, and in all cases, trade' free from
custom duties. We are obliged, as I have already said, to raise a large yearly
revenue; and we must, for that purpose, have heavy taxes. The least inconvenient
and the least objectionable method of raising a large portion of that revenue is by
indirect taxation, and that involves the necessity of constant duties. Therefore,
when I speak of free trade, I mean trade free from duties laid on for the purposes
of revenue, and which, in order to accomplish that purpose, must be so moderate
as not to impede or cripple commercial transactions. Now, my opinion has been,
and, I own, still continues to be,' that there is no reason why the trade in corn
should be, in this respect, an exception to the general rule. I am for a moderate
fixed duty." Defence of his Foreign Policy. — 1849.
"I am conscious, that during the time for which I have had the honour to
direct the foreign relations of this country, I have devoted to them all the energies
which I possess. Other men might have acted, no doubt, with more ability ; none
could have acted with a more entire devotion, both of their time and faculties.
766

A.D. 1849.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mock mediations.

The principle on which I have thought the foreign affairs of this country ought to
be conducted, is the principle of maintaining peace and friendly understanding
with all nations, as long as it was possible to do so consistently with a due "regard
to the interests, the honour, and the dignity of this country. My endeavours have
been to preserve pea"ce. All the governments of which I have had the honour to
be a member have succeeded in accomplishing that object. * * * * I hold,
with respect to alliances, that England is a power sufficiently strong to steer her
own course, and not to tie herself, as an unnecessary appendage, to the policy of
any other government. I hold that the real policy of England is, to be the cham
pion of justice and right ; pursuing that course with moderation and prudence;
not becoming the Quixote of the world, but giving the weight of her moral sanction
and support wherever she thinks that justice is, and wherever she thinks that
wrong has been done. * * * * As long as she sympathises with right and
justice, she wUl never find herself altogether alone. She is sure to find some other
state of sufficient power, influence, and weight, to support her and aid her in the
course she may think fit to pursue. Therefore, I say that it is a narrow policy to
suppose that this country or that is to be marked out as the eternal ally or per
petual enemy of England. We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual
enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our
duty to follow. When we find other countries marching in the same course, and
pursuing the same object as ourselves, we consider them as our friends ; and we
think for the moment that we are on the most cordial footing: when we find
other countries that take a different view, and thwart us in the object we pursue,
it is our duty to make allowance for the different manner in which they may
foUow out the same object. It is our duty not to pass a harsh judgment upon
others ; and it is our duty not lightly to engage this country in the frightful
responsibiUty of war, because, from time to time, we may find this or that power
disincUned to concur with us in matters where their opinion and ours may fairly
differ. That has been, as far as my faculties have allowed me to act upon it, the
guiding principle of my conduct. And if I might be allowed to express, in one
sentence, the principle, which I think right to guide an English minister, I would
adopt the expression of Canning, and say, that with every British minister the
interests of England ought to be the Shibboleth of his policy."
Mock Mediations. — 1849.
" Now, with regard to what have been called our mock mediations. Why, any
one who has heard what has passed here and elsewhere within the last twenty-four
hours, might be induced to think, that never before this year was there such a
thing as mediation, and that it was a thing newly invented for some mischievous
purpose by the present government. I confess that I must plead guilty to having
committed this crime of mediation long before the present year ; and, fortunately,
I may state with considerable success. The government of which I had the
honour of being a member was able, in 1834, by means of a mediation, to prevent
a rupture between France and the United States; and was also, by the same
means, in 1838, enabled to make peace between France and the government of
Mexico. Other smaller and less important mediations I do not mention ; but I
might do, and they were also successful; but the two which I have mentioned
prevented hostilities which must have been followed by very serious consequences.
But in this sweeping condemnation of mediations, my predecessor in office, the
Earl of Aberdeen, is liable to a similar charge as myself; for he, in conjunction
with Eussia, mediated between Turkey and Prussia, and also between Denmark,
Sardinia, and Morocco^to say nothing of that unfortunate mediation upon which
the honourable member for Buckinghamshire (Mr. Disraeli) so much dwelt. I
mean that respecting the affairs of the river Plate ; which is still going on, and the
responsibility in regard to which I share with my predecessor in office. I trust
that some paragraph will be inserted in the amendment in condemnation of my
* 767

the Hungarian war.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1849.

predecessor, as well as myself, for resorting to those courses. ' Mock mediations'
indeed ! One would really suppose, from what has been said, that these^mediations
were merely diplomatic dramas, got up for the amusement of diplomatists, and
leading to no practical or useful result."
The War in Hungary. — 1849.
" With regard to the present question, I am sure that everybody who has
heard what has passed, everybody in this country who has given attention to the
most important events that have now taken place in Hungary, must feel that my
honourable and gallant friend need have made no apology for calling the attention
of the parliament of England to transactions deeply affecting the political
principles of Europe, and having a most important bearing upon the general
balance of European power. The House will not expect me to follow those who
have spoken to-day, by endeavouring to pass judgment either way between the
Austrian government and the Hungarian nation. I say the Hungarian nation ;
because, in spite of what has fallen from the noble lord, the member for Tyrone,
I do believe, from the information I have received — and I do not pretend I may
not be mistaken — but I firmly belieye that, in this war between Austria and
Hungary, there is enlisted on the side of Hungary the hearts and souls of the
whole people of that country. I believe that the other races, distinct from the
Magyars, have forgotten the former feuds that existed between them and the
Magyar population, and that the greater portion of the people have engaged in
what they consider a great national contest. It is true, as my honourable and
gallant friend has stated, that Hungary has for centuries been a state which, though
united to Austria by the link of the crown, has, nevertheless, been separate and
distinct from Austria by its own complete constitution. * * * * So far as I
understand the matter, I take the present state of the case to be this — without
going into the details of mutual complaints as to circumstances which have taken
place within the last year or year and a-half — I take the question tbat is now to
be fought for on the plains of Hungary to be this ;— Whether Hungary shall
continue to maintain its separate nationality as a distinct kingdom, and with a
constitution of its own ; or whether it is to be incorporated, more or less, in the
aggregate constitution that is to be given to the Austrian empire ? It is a most
painful sight to see such forces as are now arrayed against Hungary, proceeding to a
war fraught with such tremendous consequences on a question that it might have
been hoped would have been settled peacefully. It is of the utmost. importance to
Europe that Austria should remain great and powerful ; but it is impossible to
disguise from ourselves that, if the war is to be fought out, Austria must thereby
be weakened ; because, on the one hand, if the Hungarians should be successful,
and their success should end in the entire separation of Hungary from Austria, it
will be impossible not to see that this will be such a dismemberment of the
Austrian empire as will prevent Austria from continuing to occupy the great
position she has hitherto held among European nations. If, on the other hand, the
war being fought out to the uttermost, Hungary should, by superior forces, be
utterly crushed, Austria in that battle will have crushed her own right arm.
* * * * It is, therefore, much to be desired — not simply on the principle of
general humanity, but on the principle of sound European policy, and from
the most friendly regard to the Austrian empire itself — it is, I say, devoutly to be
wished that this great contest may be brought to a termination by some amicable
treaty between the contending parties, which shall, on the one hand, satisfy the
national feeling of the Hungarians, and, on tbe other hand, not leave to Austria
another and a larger Poland within her empire. Her majesty's government have
not, in the present state of the matter, thought that any opportunity has as yet
presented itself that could enable them, with any prospect of advantage, to make
any official communication of the opinions which they entertain on this subject.
I say official, as contradistinguished from opinions expressed in a more private and

A.D. 1849.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [HUNGARIAN war.
confidential manner. But, undoubtedly, if any occasion were to occur that should
lead them to think the expression of such opinions would tend to a favourable
result, it would be the duty of government not to let such* an opportunity pass
^ # * * * gjfj j ,j0 no(; think that the preservation of peace is in any way
endangered by the expression of opinion with regard to the transactions in
Hungary or other countries. I agree with those who think — I know there are
many in this country who entertain the opinion — that there are two objects which
England ought particularly to aim at : one is, to maintain peace ; the other is, to
count for something in the transactions ofthe world; that it is not fitting that a
country occupying such a proud position as England — that a country having such
various and extensive interests, should lock herself up in g, simple regard to her,
own external affairs, and should be a passive and modest spectator of everything
that goes on around. It is quite true that it may be said — ' Your opinions are but
opinions, and you express them against our opinions, who have at our command
large armies to back them : what are opinions against armies ?' Sir, my answer is,
opinions are stronger than armies. Opinions, if they are founded in truth and
justice, will, in the end, prevail against the bayonets of infantry, the fire of
artillery, and the charge of cavalry. Therefore, I say, that, armed by opinion, if
that opinion is pronounced with truth and justice, we are indeed strong, and, in
the end, likely to make our opinions prevail ; and I think that what is happening
on the whole surface of the continent of Europe is a proof that this exposition of
mine is a truth. Why, for a great many years, the governments of Europe
imagined they could keep down opinion by force of arms ; and that, by obstructing
progressive improvement, they could prevent that extremity of revolution which
was the object of their constant dread. We gave an opinion to the contrary
effect, and we have been blamed for it. We have been accused of meddling with
matters that did not concern us, and of aggravating nations and governments by
giving our opinion as to what was likely to happen ; but the result has proved
that, if our opinions had been acted on, great calamities would have been avoided.
These very governments, that used to say, 'The man we hate, the man we have
to fear, is the moderate reformer; we care not for your violent radical, who
proposes such violent extremes that nobody is likely to join him; the enemy we
are most afraid of is the moderate reformer, because he is such a plausible man
that it is difficult to persuade people that his counsels would lead to extreme
consequences ; therefore, let us keep off, of all men, the moderate reformer, and let
us prevent the first step of improvement, because that improvement might lead to
extremities and innovations ;' — those governments, those powers of Europe, have,
at last, learned the truth of the opinions expressed by Mr. Canning — ' That those
who have checked improvement because it is innovation, will one day or other be
compelled to accept innovation when it has ceased to be improvement.' _ I say,
then, that it is our duty not to remain passive spectators of events that, in their
immediate consequences, affect other countries ; but which, in their remote and
certain consequences, are sure to come back with disastrous effect upon us : that, so
far as the courtesies of international intercourse may permit us to do, it is our
duty, especially when our opinion was asked (as it has been on many occasions on
which we have been blamed for giving it), to state our opinions founded on the
experience of this country — an experience that might have been, and ought to have
been, an. example to less fortunate countries. At the same time, I am quite ready
to admit that interference ought not to be carried to 'the extent of endangering
our relations with other countries. There are cases, like that which is now the
subject of our discussion, of one power having, in the exercise of its own sovereign
rights, invited the assistance of another power ; and, however we may lament that
circumstance— however we may be apprehensive that therefrom consequences of
great danger and evil may flow— still we are not entitled, under the circumstances,
to interfere in any manner that will commit this country to embark in these
hostilities. All we can justly do is, to take advantage of any opportunities that
769

policy in italy.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1850.
may present themselves in which the counsels of friendship and peace may be
offered to the contending parties. We have, on several occasions that have
happened of late in" Europe, been invited to ' intermeddle,' as it is called, in the
affairs of other countries; although it has been said of this country, that it stands
so low in public opinion in Europe that* we are treated with contempt both by
governments and by nations. Certainly the way in which that want of respect
has been shown is singular, when, from the north to the south, in cases pf difficulty,
not only between nations, but, internally, between governments and their own
subjects, we have been asked and invited to interpose our friendly intermediation
in their affairs. We have, on these occasions, done our best to accomplish the object
which we were called . upon to fulfil ; and in one case, at least, we have nearly
succeeded. We have heard a great deal, in the course of the session, of ' sham
mediators' in the contest between Denmark and Germany; but that sham mediation
has ended in a real preliminary treaty ; and I hope that preliminary treaty wUl
soon be followed by a permanent pacification. Sir, to suppose that any government
of England can wish to excite, revolutionary movements in any part of the world —
to suppose that any government of England can have any other wish or desire than
to confirm and maintain peace between nations, and tranquillity and harmony
between subjects and governments, shows really a degree of ignorance and folly
which I never supposed any public man could have been guilty of; which may do
very well for a newspaper article ; but which, it astonishes me to find, is made the
subject of a speech in parliament." Italian Policy. — 1850.
" With regard to our policy with respect to Italy, I utterly deny the charges
which have been brought against us, of having been the advocates, supporters, and
encouragers of revolution. It has always been the fate of the advocates of tem
perate reform, and of constitutional improvement, to be run at as the fomenters
of revolution. It is the easiest mode of putting them down — it is the received
formula. It is the established practice of those who are the advocates of arbitrary
governments, to say — ' Never mind real revolutionists, we know how to deal with
them ; your dangerous man is the moderate reformer ; he is such a plausible man :
the only way of getting rid of him, is by setting the world at him, and calling
him a revolutionist.' Now, there are revolutionists of two kinds in this world.
In the first place, there are those violent, hot-headed, and unthinking men, who fly
to arms, who overthrow established governments, and who recklessly, and without
regard to consequences, and without measuring difficulties, and comparing strength,
deluge their country with blood, and draw down the greatest calamities on their
fellow-countrymen. These are revolutionists of one class. But there are
revolutionists of another kind — blind-minded men, who, animated by antiquated
prejudice, and daunted by ignorant apprehensions, dam up the current of human
improvement, until the irresistible pressure of accumulated discontent breaks down
the opposing banners, and overthrows and levels to the earth those very institutions
which a timely application of renovating means would have rendered strong and
lasting. * * * I am justified in denying that the policy which we pursued
in Italy was that of exciting revolutions, and then abandoning the victims we had
deluded. On the contrary, I maintain that we gave advice calculated to prevent
revolutions, by reconciling opposite parties, and conflicting views. Ours was a
policy of improvement and' of peace, and therefore the government deserves not
condemnation, but praise."
The French Occupation of Eome. — 1851.
" The occupation of Eome by the French troops was a measure undertaken by
France upon her own discretion, and upon her own judgment. The British
government was no party to the measure, France having exercised her own inde
pendent rights with regard to it, and it not being at all necessary that the previous
770

a.d. 1851.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the great exhibition.
concurrence of the British government should be obtained. The British govern
ment, therefore, was no party to that measure, and, consequently, it is not correct
to say that we concurred in it. We might have had ohr opinions upon the subject ;
but it was a matter in which we had no right to interfere one way or another.
My honourable friend asks me if it is my opinion that the result of that occupa
tion has been to establish good government in Eome ? I am concerned to say that
I cannot answer that question in the affirmative, because it is well known tbat the
state of Eome, and the internal condition of that city, and of the Eoman States,
is such as must be painful to every well-wisher to the people of that country.
With regard to the prolongation of that occupation, there undoubtedly have
been friendly communications between her majesty's government and that of
France. Her majesty's government cannot be blind to the consideration, that the
French having once occupied Eome, the withdrawal of the French garrison would
probably lead to the occupation of the city by other parties ; and it does not follow
that that would be a change advantageous to the people of Eorrie, or to those
general interests which the British government must necessarily have at heart,
as connected with Italian and European interests. The French government plead
now as they pleaded then, that they bad no intention of a permanent occupation ;
and they must be left to judge for themselves as to the period at which this
occupation may cease, consistently with the objects in view — objects which are dis
interested ones as far as France is concerned, for she never professed to have in
view any territorial acquisition. By that occupation the French government have
assured us, that as far as any influence goes which they may be at liberty to exercise
in Eome, and with the Eoman government by reason of that occupation, that
influence has been exerted for those objects which the French government, as
weU as the English government, necessarily think most desirable to be attained."
Alderney and Cherbourg.— 1851.
"I think the zeal of my honourable friend (Mr. Cobden), who is in the habit
of wishing to under -value the necessity of defensive precautions, has carried him
somewhat too far when he talks of Cherbourg simply as a port of refuge, and of
the works of Alderney as an insult and a menace towards France. Why, as to
Alderney, the whole island would hold about 1,000 people; and the harbour, if
completed, would afford accommodation for a few steamers. When you talk of the
works at Alderney as aggressive against France, you might as well talk of the
aggression of a sentry-box against a fortified town."
The Great Exhibition. — 1851.
" I again say, I accept with pleasure the speech, and the proposal of the right
honourable member, provided it is not imposed upon government in a way which
I think would very much defeat the intentions he has in view. I accept it with
pleasure, as the right hand of fellowship tendered by this country to our
neighbours. I agree with him in thinking that, perhaps, there could not have
been a more appropriate time than the present for a demonstration of this nature,
because we have now converted this country, I may say, into the temple of peace of
the whole world ; we have invited the natives of every civilised country on the
face of tbe earth to come here, not to the rivalship of physical strength or
brute force, or the arts of human destruction ; but to come here to compare the
progress which each nation has made in those arts which constitute the happiness
and ornament of the human race*.. It is certainly a proud year for this country;
and it is no less a source of satisfaction to us, to see the confidence which is
reposed in this nation by those who come themselves, and bring their goods to this
great and mighty exhibition. It is also a source of honest pride to us to know
that nothing has more struck the foreigners who have done us the honour of
visiting us on this occasion, than that spirit of order which they have observed
pervading every rank of society in this country. They have expressed their wonder

EDUCATION OF OFFICERS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1851.
at the respect for the laws which is the spontaneous feeling of all, from the
highest to the lowest in the land, and which arises partly from the excellence of
those laws. I do not mean to say that they are perfect, any more than any other
human institution can be but the comparative excellence of those laws, which
secure to every man, from the highest to the lowest, the full enjoyment of the
honest fruit of his industry, and which protect him against oppression from above,
and against insult from below." Education of Officers. — 1851.
" Upon the'general necessity — I will not lower it so far as to call it the expe
diency — of securing a good education to the officers in the army, I think everybody
who has thought for a moment on the subject must be only of one opinion. There
is this, however, to be considered — that any examination into merely intellectual
attainments, can afford you but an imperfect standard as to the qualifications of
an individual for military employment. There is, first of all, general intelligence,
and that ordinary education which a gentleman is supposed to have attained ; next,
there is proficiency in the military and professional knowledge — in those matters
which are thoroughly military, and do not belong to a general literary education;
and, above all, in the third place, there are those constitutional qualities which are
eminently, and beyond all others, important in the composition of an officer.
Undoubtedly, my right honourable friend, the member for South Wilts, has
observed how few] great generals the history of his country has recorded. He
might have generalised that observation, and extended it to the whole civilised
world ; for that combination of constitutional qualities, of military attainments, and
of general knowledge, which, united, make a great military leader, is, perhaps, one
of the rarest things you can find in the whole range of human nature ; and, accord
ingly, there are fewer men recorded in history who have been great generals, than
those who have excelled in any other department of human pursuits. The first
examination of a young man who is to enter the army, ought to be a standard test
to show that he has received the liberal education of a gentleman, and that he is
possessed of mental and natural qualities which indicate that he is a young man of
capacity and industry, and likely to excel in advancing himself in the knowledge
of his profession. I think it most essential and wise to propose that the first
examination shall not apply to purely military attainments. A young man, at the
age at which candidates are examined for entrance into the army, will have
employed his time to sufficient purpose if he have attained a requisite knowledge
of those general branches of education with which young men ought to be
acquainted. When he has received his commission, and after he has been a certain
time in his regiment, his commanding officer has an opportunity of seeing whether
he possesses those other constitutional qualities which fit him to rise, and to dis
tinguish himself in his profession. The competitive examination for the staff
seems to meet the general approval of this House. With regard to the strictness
of the examination I quite agree with the right honourable gentleman, the member
for Wiltshire ; there is always, in a standard examination, some danger that it will
fall too low. I think, however, the arrangements intended to be made, by which
it is proposed that the examinations shall be conducted by examiners periodically
changed, not belonging to any official establishment, and partly civilians and
partly military men, will sufficiently secure that the examination shall not fall
below the point to which it ought to be reduced. There is, in a system of com
petitive examination, on the other hand, the danger of going too high; and I must
submit that, in many examinations, not excluding the universities and other
systems, th© examiners, from the natural feeling that what every man does should
be done as well as possible, place a little too high the standard to which they
adapt the competition of candidates. More especially, I should say, with regard to
mathematics, there are limits beyond which no practical advantage is gained in
straining the mind in acquiring abstract knowledge, for which, in after-life, there
772

a.d. 1857.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the suez canal.
is no immediate or practical use. Therefore a great deal of discretion is required
in persons who examine, to see that the examination turns upon matters which
will be useful in the line which the young man who is examined is intended to
follow; and that he is not taxed beyond the useful amount which he may be
expected to attain. The result of examinations are not carried too far. Tho danger
is, if you do, that you are apt to get a young man who is endowed with a very reten
tive memory, and sometimes to lose a young man whose large intellectual resources,
and whose promptitude and readiness in action, would have been the more useful
in the military service. You get a man whose mind is an accomplished dictionary,
instead of a man whose mind is created for energy and action ; but it is practical
men who are required in the army."
Euphrates Eailway. — 1857.
" There can be no doubt that if the railway communication were established
along the route which he has indicated — that is to say, from the Mediterranean to
the Euphrates — then a further communication, either by railway or by water, along
that river to the Persian Gulf, and even to India, a considerably increased facility
in the conduct of our commercial and political intercourse .with that empire must
be the result. We should also have the advantage of an alternative route in com
petition with the line of railway from Alexandria to Cairo, thence to Suez, and
down by the Eed Sea. I am not, however, by any means sure that the line in
which the honourable gentleman seems to take so great an interest, is that which, if
we were about to enter upon any project of the kind, the government would most
desire to be adopted ; because if railway communication should be established, as I
have no doubt it will be at no distant period, with Constantinople, and if a line
should be constructed from the other side of the Bosphorus to the Persian Gulf, it
is perfectly plain a much shorter and better means of communication with India
wUl be secured than that which the honourable gentleman proposes, and which
would embrace a sea passage, either from Marseilles, Toulon, or Trieste, to the
further end of the Mediterranean. All these projects, however, are, in my opinion,
schemes in reference to which her majesty's government ought to be deliberate
spectators. I entirely concur with my right honourable friend, the member for
the University of Oxford, in the sentiments to which he gave expression in that
portion of his speech in which he so well and so ably pointed out the inexpediency
of the government of this country meddling directly in enterprises such as that to
which our attention has been this evening drawn, and which are to be carried into
execution in a foreign state. My right honourable friend dwelt so forcibly on the
political consequences which would be likely to result from a direct connection
with such schemes, that it is unnecessary for me to say more upon that head,
except that, upon the grounds to which he has adverted, her majesty's ministers
would be indisposed to mix themselves up with projects of the nature of that
which is now under discussion. To pursue a different policy would be, indeed, to
take a course at variance with that which has, in similar cases, been adopted.
Applications were made, for instance, to the English government, upon the part of
our West Indian colonies, of Demerara, and of our North American provinces, for
procuring assistance; and with those applications the government deemed it to
be their duty to refuse to comply." The Suez Canal.— 1857.
"My right honourable frieiyi has introduced the much-debated question
ofthe projected canal at Suez. I have no doubt that a great deal of that per
suasive eloquence, by which M. de Lesseps is now endeavouring, in all our large
cities, to enlist people in favour of the scheme he now recommends, has been
brought to bear upon my honourable friend. I was asked, some time ago, what
was the opinion of the government with regard to that scheme. I stated, as 1
deemed it my duty to do, speaking as an unprofessional layman, that I considered

the divorce court.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1857.

the scheme physically chimerical ; that I thought it would not be remunerative
commercially ; and that I also regarded it as open to strong chimerical objections.
These objections have, indeed, been constantly urged at Constantinople within the
last fifteen years. The main objection upon which our opposition to that scheme
was founded was, that it was, as we considered, the first step towards the separation
of Egypt from Turkey, and that it would thus tend to the disintegration of that
Turkish monarchy for the maintenance of which Europe took up arms three years
ago. My right honourable friend thinks it was very unbecoming of the' EngUsh
government to oppose a scheme which was approved by other countries, simply
because it was considered injurious to British interests. Now I must really beg
to dissent from that principle. It seems to me that if the British government is
of opinion that any scheme is injurious to British interests, it is their duty to
oppose it, however much their opposition to such scheme may thwart the political
and commercial interests of any other country. The first duty of a government is
to look to the interests of the country ; and if those interests are in conflict with
any scheme which is proposed, they would be neglecting their duty if they sacrificed
the interests of England for the purpose of accommodating themselves to the
wishes or fancies of any other power. The strong ground, and the only ground
upon which we have represented to the government of Turkey the expediency of
concurring in the plan, is not the urging upon England, but of Turkey, the danger
with which it would be attended to the integrity of the Turkish empire."
Divorce Court. — 1857.
" There are two or three points in the bill now before the House that have
been particularly adverted to. The principal one regards the exemption given to
clergymen who may object to celebrate the re-marriage of persons whose marriage
has been dissolved by reason of their own offence. The noble lord opposite (Lord
John Manners) argues that that exemption is not sufficient; and I understand the
hon. baronet, the member for the University of Oxford (Sir William Heathcoate),
to say that we did not go far enough, because we have not admitted the objection
founded on the indissolubility of marriage. It was impossible for the government
to admit that plea. I deny that there is anything in the teaching of the church of
England to justify the opinion that marriage was indissoluble. If we look to the
25th Article of the church, which every clergyman is bound to subscribe, we find
that the contrary is distinctly affirmed. It is there affirmed that matrimony- is a
state of life allowed in the Scriptures, but having nothing in common with the nature
of a sacrament, ' for that they have not any visible sign of a ceremony ordained
of God.' It is therefore impossible that any man who subscribes to this article
can maintain that marriage is, on religious grounds, a tie that cannot be dissolved.
It was simply, then, on the ground of their conscientious objection to many persons
who had been guilty of a great moral offence, that I consented to the concession on
behalf of the clergy. I concur in every argument which my hon. and learned friend
the Attorney-general used against the principle on which their objection is founded.
I trust the clergy will understand the views and feelings that have induced her
majesty's government to agree to that concession, and that they will not look upon
it as an admission of a principle which, if carried into practice, would, I fear,
be highly detrimental to the interests of the church of England. The church of
England has stood hitherto on ground very different, in some respects, from that of
other churches in other countries. It has never assumed to itself the right of
being an ecclesiastical inquisition. The clergyman of that church have contented
themselves with being the guides, the instructors, and the friends of the laity.-
They have set an example of purity of life, which has recommended to the laity
the precepts that have come from their lips ; but if they should think that thii
concession entitles them to assume to themselves that authoritative interference in
the affairs of private life, which is too frequently assumed by the clergymen of
other countries, I am afraid they will do the greatest possible injury to the
774

a.d. 1862.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [international law.
church, by creating, in the minds of the laity, feelings towards the church very
different from those which have hitherto prevailed. A few years ago, I was talking
to a very distinguished person belonging to one of the central states of Italy ; and I
was urging upon him the absurdity and wrongfulness of government to prevent
cbnverts from tbe CathoUc to the Protestant faith; when his reply was, that if
they did not make it a punishable offence the whole people would be Protestants.
' What,' I said, ' do you mean to say that their religious opinions hang so loosely
about them, and that their minds are so predisposed to Protestantism, that they
would immediately, if let alone, alter their religion?' 'Oh,' said he, 'you mis
understand me; it is not from religious conviction that they would become
Protestants, but that they would become Protestants to withdraw themselves from
the tyranny and oppression of the priest.' I say, then, that if the clergy of England
were to depart from that course they have hitherto pursued, they would inspire in
the minds of the laity very different feelings from those which happily now
prevail." International Law. — 1862.
" It is generally admitted that nothing can be more inconvenient than the
proposal to the adoption by the House of an abstract resolution ; and I think the
resolution of the honourable member* (Mr. HorsfaU), and the debate which has
followed, amply illustrate the truth of that position. The honourable member
has proposed a resolution, excessively vague in words, which points to no specific
object ; the meaning of which can only be collected from the speeches of those
who have supported it in the course of the debate. If such a resolution were
adopted, and the government of the day were called to act upon it, they could
only guess as to what course they would have to pursue ; and that upon looking
at the arguments of the gentlemen who have taken part in the debate. That
would, in general, be a difficult matter ; but I confess that, in the present case,
it would puzzle the most sagacious government to know what course to pursue, *
because one-half of those who have supported the resolution, and the hon.
gentleman who moved it, have for their object to exempt private property at sea
from capture ; but the other half concurring have a different object — to reverse the
declarations of Paris. Those are two objects totally different — indeed, diametrically
opposite — and between which, the government, if called upon to act, as they would
be by the concluding passages of. the resolution, would be utterly at a loss as to
which of the two courses the House of Commons wished them to adopt. I think
that is of itself a sufficient reason why this resolution should not be affirmed by
the House. If the House has decided upon the line of policy which it wishes to
impose upon the government, it ought to embody that line of policy in a
resolution, with clear, precise, pointed, definite results, and leaving the government
rulers no embarrassment as to tbe course which the House wishes them to pursue.
Then the government could choose whether it thought fit to adopt the resolution
or not; and then, if the government thought it against the interests of the
country, the course any government would have to follow is so plain, that it needs
not any explanation. I will deal first with the declarations of Paris. It has been
fully explained, that the only new point, as far as we are concerned, in that
declaration, was that which declared that an enemy's property should be free from
capture in a neutral bottom : the other points in the declaration were old-estab-
Ushed practice. The declaration as to blockades was only recapitulating acts
well known, and taken as facts. My hon. friend, the member for Birmingham,
has very ably and very fully shown that it was a wise and politic measure, on
the part of government, to adopt the principle that a neutral flag should cover the
enemy's goods. He has shown that it was the doctrine of every other maritime
power ; and that if we had persisted in maintaining the opposite doctrine, and we
had gone to war with any great maritime state, we should indubitably have run the
risk of adding to that war a dispute with the other maritime powers, which would

international law.] LIFE AND TIMES OF' [a.d. 1862.
have led to another armed neutrality. There is a principle upon which it appears
to me this doctrine must stand. We have lately maintained, at the risk of war
that a merchant ship at sea is part of our territory ; that that territory cannot
be violated with impunity ; that therefore individuals cannot be taken out of a
merchantman belonging to a. neutral country. The same principle may be said
to apply to goods as well as to men ; and if it be granted, as we do grant, that a
belligerent has no right to take out of a merchant ship persons who are enemies,
so, also, it follows that the neutral must always be respected, and, in the case even
of an enemy's property on board, ought not to be violated. But the ground upon
which the government assented to that declaration was, as has been well stated by
the hon. member for Birmingham, that in the altered state of things, and in the
present relative position of the great maritime powers of the world, they felt that,
persisting to maintain a doctrine which no other nation maintained, would incur
the risk of involving this country in hostilities with more than one power, if we
came in contact with any power. The right honourable gentleman (Mr. Walpole)
who has just sat down, said, that if we were involved in a war with the United
States, the declarations of Paris would place us in an embarrassing difficulty,
because the United States did not happen to agree to them. One of the conditions
of the declarations of Paris was, that they should apply only to the States which
became parties to them ; and therefore, in so far as the United States would not be
parties to the treaty of Paris,, they would not apply to any parties engaged in
war with the United, States. But with regard to the second article, which said
the flag should cover the goods, that has always been tbe principle which the
United States maintained, and therefore no difficulty arises between England and
the United States upon that article. * * * Then we come to the other
subject — namely, the proposition which is made by the hon. member for Liverpool,
that we should agree that private property by sea shall be exempt from capture.
^ It is said that it is a logical deduction from the treaty of Paris. I deny that pro-
" position. The declarations of Paris related entirely to the relations between
belligerents and neutrals. The proposition of the hon. member relates to the
relations of belligerents to each other. It is a matter totally distinct, resting on
totally different grounds, and I cannot see any logical connection between them.
* * The passage quoted as having been part of what I said at Liverpool,
related to two matters. First of all, to the exemption of private property at sea
from capture; and secondly, to the assimilation at sea of the principles of war to
the practice of war on land. I am perfectly ready to admit that I have altered
my opinion on the first point. Further reflection and deeper thinking have
convinced me, that what at first sight is plausible— and I admit that it is
plausible on the surface— is a most dangerous doctrine ; and I hope that the hon.
member (Mr. Bright) will be kind enough to give weight to my thoughts, and
also to come round to those second thoughts which are proverbially the best. With
regard to the assimilation of war by sea to the practice of war by land, I think
that, as far as it was in the power of the government by arrangements with other
powers, we have accomplished it. For what is the main difference between the
practice of war by sea and by land? It is said that the practice of war by land
is to respect private property. Every one who holds that doctrine must forget
everything that has passed within his memory, and everything which he has read.
It is well known that when armies are in an enemy's country, they take everything
which they want, and very often destroy what they do not want, for the mere
purpose of destruction. Not only do they destroy what they do not want, and take
what they demand ; but they go further, and levy heavy contributions upon the place
which they occupy. I will relate two instances, at different periods of time, which
show the continuity of the practice. In 1807, when the French army besieged
Lantzic^then a Prussian town (France being at war with Prussia), after a long
siege Dantzic surrendered. The French, in the first place, destroyed all the
suburbs. Ihey took a great many things which they wanted for their own

A.D. 1863.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [privateering.

purposes — requisites of clothing, and so forth ; and then they levied on the town
a contribution of 30,000,000 francs. - Was that respecting private property ? Who
was to pay these 30,000,000 francs except the inhabitants ? — and how were they to
pay it, except out of their own private property ? That is one example of many,
showing that it is not the practice in war by land to respect private property.
Take another instance, at a much more recent period. In the year 1850 or
1851, there was a contest, in the Electorate of Hesse-Cassel, between different
German powers. I will, if the House permit me, read extracts from letters
addressed to me by a diplomatic officer, who went to look at the country at the
period, and after the contest — a contest which did not last long, and between
German armies not actuated by hereditary animosity or difference of race, but
acting simply in the ordinary operations of war, upon the theatre of hostilities.
This is what he stated on the 17th of November, 1850.
'"It is deplorable to consider the inevitable consequences of this immense
concentration of foreign troops in Hesse-Cassel, of which your lordship, no doubt,
is abeady informed ; but the sufferings of the poor inhabitants are likely to exceed
anything which can be imagined ; their provisions for the winter, setting in, have
been consumed by the troops quartered on them. Sickness and disease are
beginning to disappear ; and, I believe, though the report is endeavoured to be
put down, that the cholera has appeared in several cases.'
" That was the condition in November. The following March, he says —
" ' The country continues in a deplorable condition. There is no commerce of
any kind; and, consequently, no money. I am assured that, in that part of it
• occupied by the Federal and Prussian troops, everything is destroyed ; and that
there are some thousands of persons in a state of complete destitution. Not only
were their cattle and stores all consumed, but their horses even taken ; so that the
ground cannot be tilled; and, in the interior of the houses and cottages, the
furniture of all sorts was used for firewood.'
" That is a just specimen of the result of war by land ; and these gentlemen
run away with the notion that, in war by land, private property is respected.
* * » * By Sea, it is said, private property is taken ; but it is taken in a
different manner, and with more order and regularity. Private property at sea is
not made prize until it is adjudicated, by a competent tribunal, as a legal and
proper capture. I was about to say that we have assimilated, or endeavoured,
at least, to assimilate, the practice of war by sea to the practice of war by land.
What was the main difference of the two ? Not that private property was not
taken by land as well as by sea, but that, by sea, it was taken by a different set of
people from those who were authorised to take it by land. By land, no individual
was aUowed to make war unless he belonged to a regular organised army, and was
in the service of a state. If people made war on their own account on land, they
were taken and shot as banditti. Nothing was more common, in Spain, than for
the French to take the peasants and shoot them without the slightest hesitation, if
they were not embodied as military. It is a well-known fact, that, to carry on
war by land, the people must be in the service of a constituted authority, and not
so by sea. Private war on the ocean was a permitted and acknowledged practice.
We agreed, at last, to the proposal that privateering by sea should no longer be a
legitimate mode of carrying on war ; and that future wars should be carried on only
by regularly organised forces, acting under the authority and command of a
responsible government. That part of the arrangement has been so far carried
out; the privateering, as regards those parties who acceded to the declaration,
has been, and will be, discontinued. But these declarations do not apply to the
states who did not accede to them. The United States of America have not
acceded to the abolition of privateering ; and, undoubtedly, if we had the mis
fortune, as was not unlikely a short time ago, to be engaged in a war with the
United States, we should not be bound to abstain from privateering, unless the
United States also should enter into a similar and corresponding arrangement.
vol. ii. ' 3 E 777

Ionian islands.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1863.

* * * * An island like this, with an army which is not large enough to be
sent to a distance across the sea for any great operation of war, must mainly rest
for redress upon its naval power being exerted in destroying the commerce and
commercial ships of its antagonists, and in taking their crews prisoners. Gentle
men have argued this question as if it were simply a matter of ships and goods ;
but they forget that, when you take an enemy's merchant ship, you take not only
the vessel and the cargo, but also the sailors on board; who, if they are
allowed to return safely to their own ports, are an additional source of strength to
your enemy. Suppose — what I hope may be far distant — that we were at war
with France. That country sends annually some 15,000 or 20,000 sailors to the
different fisheries as nurseries for her war navy. Suppose we were blockading
Brest, Toulon, Cherbourg, or L'Orient : if the principle of the hon. member for
Liverpool were adopted, we should have to allow the fleet of 20,000 sailors to pass
with impunity through our blockading squadron, to man the enemy's ships lying
in the port before us. My opinion, therefore, distinctly is, that, if you give up
the power which you possess, and which all maritime states possess and have
exercised — of taking the ships, the property, and the crews of the nation with
whom you may happen to be at war — you would be crippling the right arm of our
strength ; you would be inflicting a blow upon our naval power ; and you would be
guilty of an act* of political suicide."
The Ionian Islands. — 1863.
" The hon. member for Devizes asks me, whether it is competent, according
to the constitution, for the crown, by its prerogative, to alienate, without the *
consent of parliament, possessions that belong to the crown ; and he contended
that the Ionian Islands are, to all intents and purposes, a possession of the
British crown. He says we make a vague and imaginary distinction between those
islands and a colony ; because a colony has a governor, and the Ionian Islands
have also a British governor; while there are British garrisons in both. This
rather reminds one of the observation that there was an identity between Monmouth
and Macedon : there was a river in Macedon, and a river in Monmouth ; and there
were salmon in both. I do not think that the hon. member has established the
identity on which his argument is founded. There is a broad and substantial
distinction "between the two, and one not merely of form. The Ionian Islands
have not been ceded by any treaty to England as a possession of the British crown.
They were, by the treaty of 1815, erected, or rather reconstituted, a separate and
independent state— the Eepublic of the Seven Islands ; and that separate and
independent state was placed under the protectorate of the British crown, and not
given as a possession to the British crown. The distinction is manifest and
radical ; therefore I contend, that, if the hon. member were able to establish that
it is not competent for the crown, by an act of its prerogative, to alienate any
British possession— any possession acquired by conquest, or ceded to the crown by
treaty— that argument would not apply to the Ionian Islands, which are in a
separate and entirely different category. But with regard to cases of territory
acquired by conquest during war, and not ceded by treaty (and which . are not,
therefore, British freehold), and all possessions that have been ceded by treaty, and
held as possessions of the British crown, there is no question that the crown, by its
prerogative, may make a treaty alienating such possessions without the consent of
the House of Commons. The history of this country furnishes numerous instances
in which cessions of the kind have been made. To mention some of the most
recent and strongest cases — I do not now speak of possessions occupied during war,
and never fully and finally given to the British crown, but possessions that have
been legally vested in the crown, and afterwards ceded to some foreign power —
there were Senegal, Minorca, Florida, and the islands of Banca— all of them, for a
greater or less period of time, possessions of the British crown ; and they were aU
ceded by treaty to some foreign power. Therefore there cannot be a question as

A.D. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Denmark and Prussia.

to the competency of the crown to make such cessions. I can, however, relieve
the hon. member's mind with regard to Malta and Gibraltar, by assuring him that
there is not the slightest intention, on the part of the crown, of making a present
of either of these possessions to any foreign power. There has been a great deal
of misapprehension in the public mind with regard to this question of the Ionian
Islands; and people in general imagine that we have, by a stroke of the pen,
made a present of them to Greece. But no such thing has been done. What we
said was, that if they chose a sovereign in whom the British government could
place confidence — that he would govern the country internally upon liberal
principles, and that, externally, he would abstain from aggression on his neighbours
— then we would take those steps which were necessary for the purpose of ceding
the islands to Greece. But it does not depend on the will of the British crown
singly to do so. These islands were placed under British protection by a treaty
signed by the great powers of Europe — by the powers who were parties to the
treaty of Vienna, and whose consent to the cession must be obtained. But there,
again, we are not going, even with the consent of those powers, to transfer the
population of the islands even to another power, if that population be not willing.
There are, therefore, required for the cession — the consent of the powers who were
parties to the treaties of 1815, and the acknowledged and official consent of those
who are the organs of the national will of the Ionians. But none of these steps
have been taken, because the case has not arisen. No sovereign has been chosen
for Greece as yet, still lessany sovereign answering the condition upon which further
steps were to be taken. Undoubtedly, it would be right, if those islands were
' to be annexed to Greece, that Greece should undertake, by treaty, not to alienate
them ; because it is quite clear that there might be arrangements by which the
islands might come into the possession of some other foreign power than Greece^
to the detriment of neighbouring states. But we have not come to the point at
which these details should be gone into. I wish the hon. member (Mr. D.
Griffith) and the House to understand, that it is my opinion, founded on historical
evidence, that the power to alienate even the possessions of the crown, does exist
in the crown ; but those islands are not possessions of the British crown, and the
transaction requires the consent of all the parties to the treaties of 1815."
Denmark and Prussia. — 1864.
" My honourable friend (Mr. Bernal Osborne) has his opinions, but I do not
think they are partaken by the country at large. Although my honourable friend
is very abundant in his criticisms, I am really quite at a loss to understand what
he would have done if he had had the management of affairs. [Mr. Bernal
Osborne — 'Let it alone.'] My honourable friend, therefore, would have been a
party to a treaty [Mr. Bernal Osborne — ' I would not have made it'] by which
this country was bound to acknowledge a certain sovereign as king of the duchies
under the sway of the Danish Court, and to respect the integrity of the Danish
monarchy ; and, in spite of the general opinion that this country was bound by
honour and by interest to endeavour to maintain that treaty, he would have done
nothing, but have sat still with his hands in his pockets, as he is doing now. I
think that such a course would have been no credit to the government, nor to the
satisfaction of the country at large. We may be wrong, and we may be right ; but
such, at least, is our opinion on the matter. We endeavoured to persuade other
countries to fall into our views ; and we trust we have accomplished, or are about to
accomplish, a considerable step in establishing a conference, with the object of
restoring peace. My honourable friend, who opened the question, referred to a
transaction at Sonderburg, which, I am afraid, really did take place.1 We
have no official or authentic information ; but we have every reason to believe,
without knowing the extent to which lives were sacrificed, that a bombardment of
Sonderburg did take place, and that some of the citizens were killed. The invasion
of Danish territory was, in our opinion, unjust and unjustifiable; and I am sorry
3e2 779

diplomacy and rome.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1864.
to say that circumstances have occurred, in connection with the conduct of the
German troops during the invasion which are not in keeping with the practice of
civilised nations in modern times. We have made an inquiry at Berlin, but we have
not yet got an answer — an inquiry, 'first, as to whether the thing did really take place ;
and next, by what authority and under what orders the bombardment was carried out.
I do not think that the British government can presume to dictate to the Prussian
army the manner in which they should conduct their operations ; but there are
opinions which men may express, as to conduct pursued in violation of the ordinary
rules of humanity, though I hope we shall be allowed to determine what we shall
say when we get an answer from Berlin."
The Yeomanry. — 1864.
Lord Palmerston explained that no slight was meant to the yeomanry, but
the contrary, in supposing that they could dispense for this year with their annual
training. The unfortunate war in New Zealand had entailed very large expenses
incidental to the year, " and which we hope will not occur in any future year.
Looking over the various heads of charges connected with our military arrange
ments, we have thought the reduction proposed might fairly be made without any
diminution of the efficiency of this valuable part of our domestic force. I hope,
therefore, that the House will not agree to the motion of the hon. member, and
diminish, by the amount of s£46,000, that saving which we think the House may be
fairly called on to effect with regard to this force."
The French Emperor. — 1864.
"I am convinced that my honourable friend (Mr. Stansfeld) attaches the
same value to the welfare and personal safety of the sovereign who reigns over the
empire of France as any man in this House can attach ; that he is as sensible as we
are that that great sovereign has, on many grave and important occasions, proved
himself to be a true friend and faithful ally of this country ; and we all feel that his
personal security and dynastic welfare are not only of the utmost value to the loyal
and attached people he governs, but are equally essential to the general interests
of Europe." The Duties of an Opposition. — 1864.
"Admitting that we have done wrong, the blame rests as much with the
opposition as the government. But, at the same time, although I admit that,
unintentionally the right honourable gentleman, and those who sit near him, must
share with us in the blame. Because, what is the natural occupation of an
opposition ? What are they there for, if not to find out when a mistake has been
made ? Their business is to watch with keen eye the conduct of the government
they oppose ; to trip them up even before they fall— at all events, if they stumble,
to call upon them to set things right again. That is the peculiar function of the
opposition, if anything be wrong or blamable, or liable to criticism in the conduct
of the government. I must say, therefore, we have a right to complain of the right
honourable gentleman, and those who sit by him, that they have not previously
announced that, since April last year, we have gone on in a wrong course,
which they might have known was wrong in point of law. They have laid
a trap for us : that, I maintain, is not fair in the course of a parliamentary
opposition." Diplomacy at Eome. — 1864.
"With regard to Mr. Odo Eussell— by law, as it formerly stood, we were
precluded from having any diplomatic relations with the Court of Eome. Some
years ago, the House thought it desirable that the crown should have some
diplomatic relations with the Court of Eome ; and an act of parliament was passed,
authorising the crown to have those diplomatic relations. In the course of that
780

a.d. 1864.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [education reports.
bill through parliament a clause was introduced, providing that no ecclesiastics
should be received in this country as diplomatic representatives of the pope. The
court of Eome took offence at that clause, and said, if they were not allowed to be
represented here by an ecclesiastic they would not be represented at all. We were
obUged to submit to that decision ; and, therefore, as they would not be represented
here, so they said, also, they would not receive at Eome any accredited minister
from the crown of England. Well, it appeared to the government that it was
almost childish that diplomatic intercourse with the sovereign of Eome should be
prevented by that etiquette, and, accordingly, the secretary of legation at Florence
was stationed at Eome, with the consent of Eome, to be the official organ . of the
government at the Court of Eome. I forget the name of the person who was
originally in that position; but, of late years, Mr. Odo Eussell has been
acting in that capacity. He is, unofficially I may say, diplomatic agent of the
crown of England at Eome. He is, as has been stated by the honourable
baronet opposite, most cordially received by the pope, to whom he has free
access, and with whom he is on the best possible personal terms. Mr. Odo Eussell
is at Eome for these general purposes, and it is quite a mistake to say that he is
there for any poUtical intrigues. He is there to give us that general information
which diplomatic agents do give at the Courts where they are stationed ; and to
carry on those communications which, from time to time, it is expedient to carry
on with the Eoman government. But these functions are totally distinct
from those performed by a consul : the consul could not perform the functions
of Mr. Odo Eussell, and Mr. Odo Eussell could not perform the functions of a
consul." The American War. — 1864.
"He could assure his honourable friend (Mr. Lindsay) that her majesty's
government deeply lamented both the sacrifice of life and property in America,
and the distress which the war had occasioned in the country. But they had not
thought that, in the present state of things, there was any advantage to be gained
by entering into concert with any other power for the purpose of offering our
mediation, or in any other way endeavouring, by communication with the govern
ment ofthe United States, to bring that unfortunate contest to a termination."
Education Inspectors' Eeports. — 1864.
Lord Palmerston, in rising pursuant to notice to move a resolution on the
subject, said — " I rise to ask this House to do an act of generosity and justice. This
House is one of the highest authorities in the realm. There is, technically speak
ing, no appeal from its decision ; but if, by circumstances, it should have been led
to do that which is not founded on justice, there is an appeal which I am sure is
always successful when made. We know that the approval of the House of Com
mons is one of the highest objects of ambition to any man engaged in the service
of his country ; and we also know that its censure is most deeply felt by any man
on whom it may happen to fall. I have said that, technically speaking, there is
no appeal from the decision of this House; but there is, nevertheless, an authority
to which in reality such an appeal can be made, and that authority is one which is
always ready to hear everything that can be alleged in favour of the person
wronged, and is always open to listen to the truth when stated, though the truth
may be in opposition to its original belief and conviction. The authority to which
I allude is the House itself; and if it can be shown to the House that the decision
at which it may have arrived, whether affecting an individual or a department, has
been arrived at hastily, or without full consideration, or upon inadequate grounds,
an appeal to its sense of justice can never be made in vain, and that- it will always
be ready to set right that which it may have done wrongly. On the 12th of April
last there was a debate in this House, and a resolution was proposed inculpating a
right honourable member, as well as a department of the government. The right
781

THE MEXICAN EMPIRE.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1864.

honourable member is my right honourable friend the member for Calne, and the
department of the government is the committee of council of education. The
noble lord, the member for Stamford, moved a resolution affirming that the reports
of the inspectors of schools had been mutilated as produced to this House ; that the
mutilation had deprived the reports of their proper value, and that the practice
was at variance with the understanding on which those inspectors were originally
appointed. My right honourable friend, feeling that, in the course of the debate,
a question had arisen which, in his opinion, involved an imputation on his veracity,
with a nice sense of personal honour, and at variance, I am bound to say, with the
advice of his friends, tendered the resignation of his office, and took upon himself
the censure which the resolution implied. That being so, we thought the matter
could not be allowed to rest there ; and the decision of the House having been
founded on a misconception, and a want of sufficient explanation, we deemed it
right that a committee should be appointed to investigate the subject, and to
ascertain on what grounds the resolution had been proposed. I am not at all
seeking to impugn the conduct of the noble lord who moved the resolution, or of
those members who voted for and carried it. They acted on their honest and
sincere conviction, though I think I can show that that conviction was founded on
error. It was determined, at all events, that a committee should be appointed,
and our first motion was that the members of that committee should be named in
the usual way. We thought it essential that my right honourable friend should
serve on it ; but he declined to do so, and we were unable to get him to retract
his decision. The committee was eventually nominated by the general committee
of elections. That committee met, and made the report which is in the hands of
the House. Now, the resolution of the 12th of April was, in my opinion, entirely
negatived by the report ; and that being so, I propose to the House to rescind a
resolution at variance with the deliberate report of a committee so appointed.
The resolution passed by the House was to the effect tbat the reports ot the inspec
tors of schools were mutilated, and, therefore, were deprived of their value ; but
the committee reported, as honourable members are well aware, that, in point of
fact, it was not correct to state, as stated in that resolution, that from these reports
was excluded everything that was unfavourable to the views of the committee on
education, and that those things only were inserted which were in their favour.
The committee found that passages were admitted, some of them favourable to
them, and some of them unfavourable ; that there was no partiality in that respect,
and that a fair representation was given of the opinions of inspectors of schools.
Then the committee say that disquisitions on matters not belonging to the cogni
zance of the inspectors had been omitted, and that tbey think such omission was
right and proper. They also say that such a supervision was essential to the
working of the committee of council as now constituted ; and, therefore, the report
of that committee appears to me entirely to exculpate my honourable friend, and
the department to which he belonged, from the charges which were implied by the
resolution of the 12th of April. I therefore propose to the House that the resolu
tion of the 12th of April ought to be rescinded, and is hereby rescinded." Which
resolution, after a short debate, was carried.
The Mexican Empire. — 1864.
" The course which her majesty's government intends to pursue in this case
does not differ in principle from the course which her government has invariably
pursued in other cases. Without going into minute questions as to the origin of
the government, whether it be a republic or a monarchy— when we find a govern
ment established, we enter into friendly relations with that government.- My
honourable friend says, with regard to Mexico, that we proceeded prematurely to
acknowledge the empire before it was practically and regularly established. I
don't think our engagements were to that extent. We were applied to by the
archduke to acknowledge his future empire when he was in Europe. We were
782

A.D. 1846.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the urquhart party.
not inclined to do that, and we said it would be entirely at variance with our
principles and practice ; but that if, on his arrival in Mexico, he was received by
the people, and his government regularly established by the people, our wish was
that Mexico should have a stable government. The great cause of the dissatisfac
tion which we had for a long time, in respect to that country, was, that Mexico
had been governed successively by a number of military chiefs, who, one after
another, obtained power, and, one after another, availed themselves of that power
to plunder and murder English subjects; for they treated them no better than the
people of any other country, but rather worse. It was, therefore, a great object
with us to see established in Mexico a government with which relations could be
maintained, and from which we might expect justice for British subjects resident
in or engaged in commerce with Mexico. My honourable friend (Mr. Kinglake)
says, that the portion of Mexico occupied by French troops is limited. It may
be so ; but it does not follow that, in other parts of the country, not occupied by
the French troops, the people may not be inclined to support the government of
the emperor. And we have information — we may be misled — but our information
is to the effect, that the Indian population, who form a large portion of the total
number of the people, are well disposed towards the emperor. All I can say is,
that our course will depend on what we hear as to the manner in which the
authority of the emperor is established. If we find there is a prospect of a per
manent government being established, we shall be very glad to acknowledge it.
Such a government will be for the advantage of Mexico and of Europe. If, on the
other hand, we find matters still uncertain, and a war still going on, which may
result one way or the other, we shall say the government is not of a kind that
would justify us in acknowledging the archduke as emperor of Mexico."
But we must conclude these extracts, which we give as illustrating the
opinions of Lord Palmerston on many important questions, especially when, as in
the course of our narrative, we have only briefly glanced at his lordship's speeches.
To those to which we have already referred, it is unnecessary to remark that we
make no reference here.

CHAPTEE XXXVIII.
WAS LOKD PALMEESTON A TEAITOE, 1

It is time now that we notice some of the charges made against Viscount
Palmerston by the anti-Eussian party, of which Mr. David Urquhart is the
head. "Eussia," we are told in a work printed, but not published, in 1842, entitled
The Foreign Affairs of Great Britain, Administered by the Right Honourable
John, Viscount Palmerston — "Eussia has used the blindness of England and France
to work out her objects. Gradually, every event which she predicted has come to
pass ; and they have come to pass in the face of, and often at the moment of, the
bitterest demonstration and exposure of the means of action employed to bring
them about. The words peace, civilisation, liberty, increasing commerce, interests
of nations, and hosts of general propositions embodied in other similar abstract
terms, have constantly intervened to carry away men's minds from the examination
of any tangible thing connected with their country's safety or interest."
The writer first refers to the Syrian question as certain to lead to a war
between France and England. He tells us — " The treaty attempted to take away
from the Pasha of Egypt his authority in Syria, and guaranteed him the sovereignty
of Egypt. In the note of the 8th of October, the French minister agreed to leave
783

France.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1844.
the pasha's possession of Syria to the good- will of the four powers ; and insisted
only on the sovereignty of Egypt remaining to the pasha." The language of M.
Thiers was as follows -. — " The question with respect to the limits which ought to
be established in Syria, in order to divide the possessions of the sultan from those
of the Viceroy of Egypt, might with safety be left to the chances of war now actually
in progress ; but France cannot prevail upon herself to abandon to such a chance
the existence of Mehemet Ali as prince-vassal of the empire. Whatever territorial
limits may ultimately separate the two vassals by the future of war, their
continued double existence is necessary to Europe ; and France cannot admit the
suppression of either the one or the other. Disposed as she is to enter upon, and
take part in, any acceptable arrangement which shall have for its basis the double
guarantee of the existence of the sultan, and that of the Viceroy of Egypt, she
confines herself, at present, to the declaration on her part that she cannot consent
to the act of deposition pronounced at. Constantinople." France accepted the
treaty ; the funds rose, and peace was preserved. Lord Palmerston, we are told,
had " all that he had reiterated — his anxious wish for peace with France." Our
author implies that his lordship had a different design. All we can say is, that
he does not make good his charge ; and that peace between France and England
was maintained. The second count in the indictment is, that Lord Palmerston was all along
an ally of Eussia ; and was working with that power for the destruction of his
country. The writer tells us that, " for any minister at any sovereign court to
entertain a suspicion of the collusion of Lord Palmerston with Eussia against his
country, would be to believe in the insanity of the whole British legislature and of
the British people." Yet, it is evident he entertains such an idea, and wishes his
readers to believe it. For this faith he gives the following quotation, professing
to be a letter from a statesman in Paris, October 6th, 1844 : —
" ' The object of Eussia and Lord Palmerston is hostility between England and
France. " ' Lord Palmerston is gradually enlisting, in favour of the treaty, the sym
pathy and passions of the British nation, by arousing them against France whilst
lulling them into security. In proportion as Lord Palmerston secures the sym
pathies of the British nation, will he proceed to outrages against France.
" ' Until the French government comes to the decision, and forms the plan of
restoring the alliance of France and England, every thought which it entertains,
every word which it utters, every act which it performs, every moment that it
loses, is so much contributed to bringing about the war, which is the end proposed
by the treaty.
" ' Lord Palmerston's course is very simple : he assures England that there is
no danger of war, and he opens to the French government the hope of escape ;
and thus leads the English nation, step by step, into a position of hostility, and
prevents the French government from taking any decision, or doing anything that
can prevent that war which they, seek to avert, and which can only be prevented
by their obtaining the support of the British nation against Lord Palmerston.
" ' It is my firm conviction, that nothing can avert war except the declaration
of the French government against the treaty — except the announcement of the
<• English nation of its resolution to compel the annulment of that treaty. It is my
firm conviction, from the very moment that the French government has taken
the decision, and formed the plan for annulling the treaty, that it can effect it
with ease and certainty ; but every hour that is lost diminishes the chance of
success. " ' Lord Palmerston and Eussia seek to give time ; and France, by allowing
them to give time, loses all. France becomes every day more weak, because more
despised ; and the frightful augmentation of dangers that menace her from without,
brings increase of the element of disorder tbat will soon convulse her from within.
France, wavering between propagandism and rights, wavering between armaments
784

A.D. 1844.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [policy of RUSSIA.
and submission, can be believed by no one, trusted by no friend, feared by no foe,
and exhibits to the world an hourly-increasing spectacle of humiliation for her
friends, and triumph for her foes.'"
The next charge is as to the design of Eussia. In a despatch of Prince
Lieven, dated January 4th, 1829, we find the following: — "As to our war in the
East, whatever may be the prejudices of the public in general, it does not lack
defenders amongst the distinguished members of both houses of parliament."
Again, writing to Count Nesselrode, the same statesman says — "The speech of
Lord Palmerston, whose name is henceforth associated with those of the first
orators in parUament, has insisted on the preservation of the general peace, and
proved that an Austro-Turkish policy would only serve to disturb it." A still
more important iUustration of the friendliness- of Lord Palmerston to Eussia, and
of the reluctance of the leaders of the Conservative party to support it, may be
found in the following extract from the diplomatic correspondence of the same
date. "It will not escape your excellency," writes Prince Lieven, " that the Duke
of Wellington and Lord Aberdeen have put everything in motion to wrest from us
confidences as to the conditions of our future peace with the Turks. It appeared
to us useless to repeat the assurances which, on this point, all the declarations of
the emperor contained, or even to add any development of them. We shall confine
ourselves to these generalities ; for any circumstantial communication on a
subject so deUcate, would have drawn down on us real dangers ; and if once we
were to discuss with our allies the articles of a treaty with the Porte, we should only
content them when they would have believed that they had imposed upon us
irreparable sacrifices. It is in the midst of our camp that peace must be signed ;
and it is when it shaU have been concluded that Europe shall know its conditions.
Eemonstrances will then be too late ; and then it will suffer what it can no longer
prevent." Of the cunning of this policy, there can be no doubt. Its success, also,
is as clear. The objects of Eussia, as laid down by Peter the Great, are — 1. The
acquisition of Turkey, and seizure of Constantinople. 2. The dominion of Persia
and of Central Asia. 3. The possession of the Black Sea, Caspian, and extension of
influence to the Levant and Mediterranean. 4. The possession of India.
The Court historian of the Eussian empire, in bis History, gives a faithful
picture of Eussian policy. " Nothing changes in the character and views of our
foreign policy. We seek to be at peace everywhere, and to make acquisitions
without war. Always keeping ourselves on the defensive, we place no faith in the
friendship of those whose interests do not accord with our own ; and we lose no
opportunity of injuring them without ostensibly violating treaties."
The charge thus made of playing into the hands of Eussia, is substantiated by
a reference to some of the prominent points in Lord Palmerston's policy.
And, first, the writer points to Poland. Eussia was bound to extinguish the
existence of Poland as a separate kingdom. As much in a commercial as in a
political point of view was this object required; without it, Eussia could not move
one step in her march to Eastern conquest, or make a single advance towards the
control or the possession of Eastern commerce. Situated between the Baltic Sea
and Turkey, Poland stretched across Europe, flanking the territory of Muscovy,
and forming a barrier as well to the march of Eussian aggression as to the progress
of Eussian commercial monopoly. Commerce was the main object to which Peter
the Great turned his attention — it was the groundwork of the education of that
powerful diplomatic body which he may be almost said to have created and
rendered permanent. The Czar of Muscovy wished to make his kingdom rich and
great, by drawing to it the chief part of the commerce of Europe and Asia ; but
Poland was alone sufficient to prevent this. The march of Eussian progression is
as follows: — 1. Commercial interference. 2. Political protection. 3. Conquest
and absorption. At the congress of Vienna the plenipotentiaries of Eussia moved
heaven and earth to effect the annihilation of Polish nationality ; and they would
have succeeded had it not been for the firmness of Lord Castlereagh. It was
785

POLAND.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1831.

agreed, therefore, that the grand duchy of Warsaw should be erected into an
independent kingdom, bound to Eussia by its constitution. What ensued ?
" The heir to the crown of Eussia was Constantine. This ¦ prince was of a
disposition at once so tyrannical, so imbecile, so ignorant, and so ferocious, that it
had been found necessary to exclude him from the succession or any governing
authority. This madman was sent to carry out the constitution of Poland. Not
only was there no outrage that he did not perpetrate, but there was not a single
article of the Polish constitution that he did not systematically violate. By that
constitution a representative system was given to Poland, and the Diet was to be
convoked every two years. Five years were allowed to elapse, and no Diet was
assembled. "The constitution provided, that the right of granting supplies was vested in
the people ; that no taxes should be imposed except with the consent of the repre
sentatives ; and that a budget should be submitted to the Diet every fourth year.
Taxes were imposed without the consent of the representatives, and no budget was
submitted to, or voted by them for fifteen years.
" The constitution provided, in the most perfect manner, for the liberty of the
person ; for if any man was arrested, he was, within three days, to know the
accusation against him, to be brought before the proper authority, and, if the
charges were not substantiated, he was to be discharged within that time. For the
most trivial offences, or supposed offences, numbers of Poles were constantly
imprisoned by Constantine without any form whatever, and kept in prison months
without being examined. An insurrection at St. Petersburg was made the pretext
for filling the prisons at Warsaw with individuals, who were treated with a degree
of barbarity that caused many to commit suicide — many to sink under their
torments. The survivors were brought to trial eighteen months after their
committal, and were acquitted in a mass, no suspicion of offence appearing
against them ; yet many of the acquitted men were transported to Eussian mines.
" The constitution provided for the liberty of the press, and that the pro
ceedings of the Diet were to be made public. Instead of this, when any spoke or
wrote what might not please Constantine, he was seized and imprisoned during the
governor's pleasure ; and the publication of the debates was suppressed by an
ordinance of the emperor.
"The constitution provided that no Eussian should fill office in Poland,
and that no Eussian troops should be quartered in Poland : 10,000 of them were
quartered permanently at Warsaw, chiefly at the expense of the inhabitants."
The result of this was — what it is to be presumed Eussia anticipated — the
Polish revolution. With that natural outbreak the lovers of freedom all over
Europe sympathised. Louis Philippe, in a speech to the Chamber of Deputies,
said — " The nationality of Poland shall not perish :" and the speech was loudly
and unanimously echoed by the Chamber. In England, the sympathy with Poland
was equally as ardent and strong. Austria was ready to march to the reUef of the
Poles. There was Sweden on the eve of marching to attack Eussia. In the East,
there was actually the Shah of Persia ready to march to the assault; and all the
mountain tribes of the Caucasus panting to revenge themselves on Eussia. Had
Palmerston said a word Poland might have been saved. Eussia was in no position
- to withstand the combination that could have been, and would have been, led
against her. No one can palliate Lord Palmerston's conduct in this matter. It
is a stain on his fame which can never be washed away. The friends of Polish
nationality exulted on the accession of Lord Palmerston to power ; and the Grey
cabinet received no small share of support, in consequence of the moral certainty
which prevailed that it would not waver like the Wellington cabinet, but that it
would be right on the Polish question. War with Eussia was out of the question.
All Europe was against her. We repeat- that Lord Palmerston's conduct on this
occasion detracts from his reputation. Mr. Urquhart and his friends tell us he
was bribed by Eussia : we cannot bring ourselves to believe that.
786

A.D. 1832.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [poland.
Eussia having thus succeeded in her attempt on Poland, she next proceeded
to the statute of incorporation, of 26th February, 1832, which annihilated the
right of commerce possessed by England. The question was brought before an
EngUsh parliament by a Conservative member, Mr. Arthur Ferguson. Many of
the leading Liberals supported him — such as Mr. Labouchere, Colonel Fox, Mr.
Shiel, Dr. Lushington, Mr. Hume, and others. How did Lord Palmerston evade
the difficulty ? Why, by absenting himself from the debate. His colleague, Lord
Althorp, alleged to the House, as a reason for not saying or doing anything on the
subject brought before them, " the absence of his noble friend the Secretary of
State for Foreign Affairs, who was unavoidably kept away by very important
business :" and thus the debate dropped without any results. Again, in the course
of the same year, the subject was brought forward. This time Lord Palmerston
was present, and spoke as follows : —
"Viscount Palmerston said, that if it were his intention to object to the
present motion, he should feel it his duty to enter into the subject somewhat in
detail, and to discuss the question at full length ; but tbat would be unnecessary,
as he was prepared to accede to the production of the papers. And as his honour
able and learned friend had had the good taste and judgment to say, that neither
by his arguments, nor by the motion with which he intended to conclude, did he
mean to drive his majesty's government into any defence or explanation of the
conduct which they had pursued with reference to the affairs of Poland, he should
avail himself of what had fallen from his honourable and learned friend, and beg the
House to excuse him from entering into any discussion or explanation of the
conduct pursued by government in those transactions. He was sure that there was
do person who must not see that, with reference to all the interests concerned, and
on every account, he should best discharge his duty by not entering into any
statement of that nature. At the same time, he was bound in justice to add, that
the government of this country was not blind to the rights conferred upon them by
the treaty of Vienna. No man could entertain a doubt that Great Britain
possessed a full right to express a decided opinion upon the performance or non
performance of the stipulations contained in that treaty. Nevertheless, it could
not be deemed that, individually, England lay under particular obligation, inde
pendently of the other contracting parties, to adopt measures of interference by
force. For tbe reasons, then, which he had already stated, he took for granted
that the House would not expect him to explain at length the communications
which had taken place between his majesty's government and their agents- at
foreign Courts upon the subject of Poland The honourable and learned gentleman,
in the course of his speech, had adverted to the severities practised by the Eussian
government towards the Poles, and expressed his apprehension that other and still
more objectionable severities were Ukely to take place. He should not, at that
moment, enter into details ; but he thought every man who heard him must feel
that it was the interest of Eussia to take a very different course, and to attach the
people of Poland to her government, not more by the justice of her policy than by
the concession of those institutions which were known to be the most agreeable to
their feelings." And thus, with a few more vague generalities, the question was
disposed of; the papers were granted; and the sanction of England was given to
the seizure of Poland by Eussia.
Nor was this all : the powers who signed the treaty of Vienna, were not content
with constituting the duchy of Warsaw into a kingdom; they also judged it
necessary to fix upon another spot of ancient Poland, in which to preserve the
remains of Polish nationality; and they raised the territory of Cracow into an
independent state. They, by a solemn treaty, gave a constitution to Cracow, which
could not be violated without a declaration of hostility against them. By that
constitution, the right of choosing a president was vested in a representative
assembly. It provided that there should be twelve senators. It provided also for
the establishment of a university, in which, among a number of professorships, one
J 787

Cracow.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1837.
was directed to the teaching of Polish literature and law. In direct violation of this
treaty, a Eussian force, in 1831, entered the state of Cracow, and refused to pay the
expense of the occupation, alleging that it was a just punishment for disaffection;
while there was no disaffection that could be proved. The agents of Eussia
laboured ^unceasingly in Cracow to excite tumult, to foment conspiracies, and to
exasperate the inhabitants against their government. Eussian agents distributed
seditious books among the students, and endeavoured to inflame their passions.
The cabinet of St. Petersburg then denounced, to Austria and Prussia, Cracow as a
hotbed of disaffection ; as a depot for revolutionary principles ; as a place of
refuge for intriguing characters. In 1832, the troops of Eussia, Austria, and
Prussia poured into Cracow, abolished the constitution, and established a new one.
They vested the appointment of president in themselves. They reduced the
number of senators from twelve to eight. They abolished nine professorships in
the university, among which was that of Polish literature, for the purpose of
annihilating every vestige of Polish nationality. In 1836, Sir Stratford Canning
called the attention of the House to the violation of the constitution guaranteed
to Cracow by the treaty of Vienna. Lord Palmerston stated, in reply, that, his
majesty's government had not received any official account of the entrance of the
troops of the three powers into Cracow ; that it was probable the Austrian troops
might have entered the place ; that it might be a violation of the treaty of Vienna ;
but that he was not prepared to give an opinion upon it. His lordship promised
that it was a matter to which the government would direct its attention ; but that
the House would not expect him to state what steps the government might deem
it expedient to take. The subject then dropped. It was, however, again brought
forward ; and the reader will find Lord Palmerston's reply in a preceding chapter.
His lordship was followed by members of each party in the House, with Lord
Sandon, Mr. O'Connell, Mr. Hume, and Lord Dudley Stuart, who all agreed
in everything that fell from Sir Stratford Canning.
Mr. Patrick Stewart, in March, inquired of the Foreign Secretary, whether
he had communicated with the authorities at Cracow, and if an answer had been
received ? He furthermore asked whether the noble lord was aware that the
PoUsh refugees, having been induced to pass out of the district in which they were,
instead of being forwarded to their place of destination, had been delivered up by the
three powers into the hands of Eussia, and had been marched to Siberia or Tobolsk ?
Lord Palmerston replied that he had received answers from most of the ministers
to whom he had written for information respecting the affairs of Cracow ; but that
he had not had any communications with the authorities themselves. It was the
intention of the government, when first they heard of the state of Cracow, and
of the disposition to expel certain refugees from the country, to send the British
consul at Warsaw to Cracow, to obtain full information ; but, before the government
could give effect to their information, they heard of the actual occupation of the
town by the three contracting powers ; and it did not appear to them that that
was a fitting occasion for the consul at Warsaw to present himself in the town of
Cracow. Not satisfied with this answer, in, April following, Mr. Patrick Stewart again
brought the subject before the House; and concluded by moving, "that an address
be presented to his majesty, praying that he will be graciously pleased to order a
diplomatic agent to be forthwith sent to Cracow; and that his majesty will be
graciously pleased to take such steps as to his majesty may seem best adapted to
protect and extend the commercial interests of Great Britain in Turkey and the
Euxine." If the motion had been pressed to a division, it might have been
unpleasant for the government. In reply, accordingly, Lord Palmerston stated
that the government did intend to send a consular agent to Cracow. The motion
was accordingly withdrawn; and the pledge was unfulfilled. This breach of
faith was not forgotten by Lord Dudley Stuart, who, in 1837, called the attention
of the House to it. Lord Palmerston was absent, and the House was counted out.
788

a.d.1834.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [Greece.
In 1840, a last effort was made — this time by Sir Stratford Canning. In reply his
lordship said — " As for the occupation of Cracow, he [Lord Palmerston] was not
going to unsay anything he had formerly said, nor did he seek to retract any of
those opinions he had advanced in those passages of speeches read by the hon.
baronet, as between the three powers and the state of Cracow, or the three powers
and the other powers who had signed the treaty of Vienna. But it was one thing
to state an opinion, and another thing to compel three powers to undo acts which
they had done ; while, from geographical circumstances, there were no means to
enforce the opinion of England unless by an appeal to arms, which would involve
us in a war with those powers ; for Cracow was a place in which no English action
could take place directly." The reply was a humiliating one.
Greece is the next question in which, it is urged, Lord Palmerston acted so as
to favour the designs of Eussia. When, in the year 1822, the national assembly
met, which promulgated the declaration of Greek independence, the alarm of the
cabinet of St. Petersburg knew no bounds ; and the utmost exertions of Eussia
were turned to exciting the fears of the legitimate conservative sovereigns and
factions of Europe against the spread of anarchy and revolution in Greece. At
length, in May, 1824, Count Nesselrode drew up his famous memoir, calling on the
Courts of Europe to aid Eussia in crushing this "anarchy and revolution," which,
he said, would make subversive doctrine triumph there : and it ended with the
foUowing sentence : — " They [the revolutionists] might even succeed in misleading
the world by accusing the alliance of only seeking to replace Greece under an
anarchical and barbarous power, and of ranging on the same line Mahometanism
and the Christian religion." In time came the treaties for the pacification of the
Levant ; the sudden and unconscious hostility of England and France to the sultan ;
the destruction, by them, of his fleet at Navarino ; and the Eussian master
stroke in establishing Capo d'Istrias as President of Greece. The writer to whom
we have referred, maintains, that after Otho had been appointed King of Greece,
"Lord Palmerston spUt the regency into factions, by supporting the minority
against the majority, and ordering the expulsion of the other members, on the
plea that they were Eussian. On the 31st of July, 1834, M. Von Mauren and M.
d'Abel were expelled from the regency by foreign interference ; and thus the
independence of Greece was annihilated, and transferred once more to the grasp of
Eussia. Thus, then, is committed by Lord Palmerston a violation of the constitu
tion of Greece ; a violation of the quadruple convention ; a violation of the law of
nations ; a destruction of the interests of England ; a transference of the control of
Greece to Eussia on the pretext of opposition to Eussia." This is strong language ;
but, unfortunately for it, we have nothing more than the word of an anonymous
writer. He adds — " Not only was the true state of the matter urged on him by
individuals of the highest claim to consideration, but the upright and able
secretary of the British legation in Greece, horror-stricken at the march of Eussian
demoralisation in that country, and conceiving that the inexplicable acts of the
resident proceeded from collusion on his part with Eussia, communicated the
whole truth to his lordship. The secretary was recalled ; his charges never met ; his
conduct never condemned ; his official functions suspended, and the whole circum
stance hushed up. M. Von Mauren has appealed to public documents and private
despatches for the truth of his allegations ; has offered to produce them ; and his
statements have never been disproved, but have been buried in oblivion." The
writer then argues that, in 1832, Lord Palmerston raised money for Greece— ap
parently in opposition to the views of Eussia — for the purpose of enabling the
latter power to separate herself from the other powers in the affairs of Greece, and
enabling her to act as she liked for the future. " The end of this second loan was,
that Eussia bound over the national dominions and revenue of Greece to herself,
in security for her proportion of the debt; and has now not only an influence
over that country which makes it a mere Eussian province, but holds a lien over
her body, which she can never, under the ruinous state of affairs consequent on
J 789

the "vixen."] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1837.
Eussian demoralisation, overcome ; and, therefore, presents to Eussia an enduring
opportunity for interfering in the prosecution of her claims when the time has
arrived." All that can be said to this charge is,' that Eussia had become mixed up
in the affairs of Greece long before Lord Palmerston was foreign minister ; and
that the writer prefers strong language to convincing arguments. Guizot tells us of
his interference in Greek affairs. It was with Palmerston, not with Eussia, that
he had to contend for the mastery.
We are next taken to Circassia. The chain of mountains inhabited by the
Circassians is most stupendous, and has formed a barrier between the regions of the
south and the plundering hordes of Eussia for thousands of years. To it belongs
300 miles of the finest coast of the Black Sea, studded with the best harbours for
shipping : it appears, moreover, that the country behind is fertile — cultivated to
an extent unknown in any part either of Eussia or Turkey, and produces every
article of commerce required by Eussia for the purpose of developing her resources.
To gain this tract of territory Eussia had been aiming for a hundred years ; yet, on
the accession of Lord Palmerston to office, in 1830, he found Circassia free. He
found the right of trading between Great Britain and that coast not only free, but
not even pointed at by a single edict. At that period, too, the access of England to
the commerce of Circassia was of more importance than at any previous epoch ; for
Eussia had just concluded the treaty of Adrianople, by which she destroyed the
freedom of commerce in every other part of the Black Sea ; so that it was the
freedom of Circassia alone that prevented a monopoly to Eussia of the whole trade
of the Euxine, and a consequent dependence of England on Eussia for the raw
articles necessary for her manufactures. How did Lord Palmerston act? Our
author continues —
" He not only did not interfere in defence of Circassia ; he not only did not
uphold British commercial rights in Circassia ; but he did actually himself over
throw British rights in that country, and transfer them to Eussia. The seizure of
the Vixen is too familiar to require anything but an allusion.. The examination of
the papers presented to parliament shows that the owner of that vessel sent her to
Circassia by thesanction of Lord Palmerston; and on the faith of the official
Gazette, to which they were referred, as showing that there was no Eussian
blockade, they (the papers) prove that she was seized by a Eussian cruiser, on the
pretext of a blockade, and that she was confiscated on* the pretext, not that she
had broken the blockade, but on the plea of a violation of the custom-house
regulations imposed by Eussia, on a coast of which she was not in possession, and
of which an intention to be in possession was to violate a treaty with England.
The seizure of the Vixen, even supposing every form of international law to have
been complied with, was virtually a declaration of war by Eussia against England;
but, independently of the violation of the treaty of the 6th of July, 1827, every
principle of international law was outraged by the seizure. In the first place there
was no blockade; in the next there were no custom-house regulations; for not
only were there no official documents of Eussia to show that such regulations ever
had been imposed by Eussia, but she was not in possession, nor had she ever been
in possession of the port in question to carry them into practice. To the truth of
these two points of fact there were no less than thirteen British subjects to testify
on oath if required— the sailors of the Vixen, who had no interest in making a
statement at variance with the truth; and the owner of the cargo, who was in the
vessel, and had landed along with the sailors in the port where she was captured
by the Eussian cruiser which entered seaward." In 1837 the question was dis
cussed in the House of Commons. Mr. Eoebuck took the lead in denominating
the seizure as an act of piracy ; other members were of a similar opinion. But the
matter was evaded by Lord Palmerston, who objected to the production of papers,
on the plea that it would be inconsistent with his public duty to enter on a discus
sion of the particular case of the Vixen. He assured the House that his majesty's
government felt quite as strongly as the honourable and learned member for Bath,

A.D. 1840.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [downfall of m. Thiers.
or any other gentleman could, the great importance of the question itself, as well
as the consequences that might arise from it. He assured the House that the
question occupied the serious attention of the government ; and he trusted that
those who felt any degree of confidence in the government would act consistently
with the usual practice of parliament, and permit the government to deal with
the question in the manner which it deemed most in accordance with the right,
interest, and honour of the country. Ultimately Lord Palmerston defended the
capture of the Vixen, on the plea that Eussia had established custom-house
regulations in Sondjok Kale, the port where the capture took place ; and, secondly,
that Sondjok Kale was in possession of Eussia. His lordship forgot, that the
denial of the claims of Eussia to the possession of Circassia at all, put an end to the
whole question.
The next charge made against Lord Palmerston is founded on his transactions
with regard to Persia, Cabul, and Lahore. The designs of Eussia on India have
led the British government to connect itself by diplomatic relations with Persia,
which, from its intermediate position, has the power of rendering an assault on
India impossible, so long as it has strength sufficient to resist Eussia. Lord
Palmerston sent Mr. M'NeU instructions to co-operate with Eussia. On the
death of the shah, Mahommed Meezza, tbe Eussian candidate is proclaimed
instantaneously by the British ambassador. British money is distributed to his
partisans ; British officers commanded the force which placed him on the throne ;
Lord Palmerston places the troops and the money of England at the disposal of
Eussia, for the overthrow of British influence, and the establishment of Eussian
influence in Persia. Then came the war against Dost Mahommed, and further
Eussian intrigues. Lord Palmerston demands an explanation of the Eussian
cabinet of the open hostility of her ambassadors in Persia, and his agent in Cabul.
He writes a letter to St. Petersburg, to say they have acted contrary to their
instructions. The Eussian cabinet agrees in this view. "I will finish this
chapter," says our author, " by reminding statesmen and politicians of one other
circumstance connected with this matter. The papers presented to parliament by
Lord Palmerston are one mass of falsification : transpositions, mutilations, mis
placing of dates, and divisions of connected documents, render comprehension
of the subject a matter of impossibility without months of time passed in
unravelment." Again, the writer tells us Lord Palmerston came into power pledged to a
policy of non-interference: and this was carried out when it suited the
designs of Eussia, as in Poland; but there was active interference, as in
Greece, Persia, &c, when it suited Eussia that his lordship should interfere. He
interfered with the Belgians and Dutch. "At the same period the sultan
claimed the protection of England against his vassal, who was supported at
St. Petersburg ; and Lord Palmerston refused his assistance on the plea that the
naval forces of England were engaged in interference on the coasts of Holland and
Portugal; Eussia forced her traitor protection on the sultan; encamped on the
Bosphorus, and gained the triumphs of Unkiar Skelessi."
Another charge is made. Lord Palmerston, it is said, was on two occasions
the means of the downfall of Thiers, a minister who was friendly fo England ; first,
by insisting on the fulfilment of his quadruple treaty by the armed co-operation of
France with Spain, when Eussia had arranged before with the French Court,
which was devoted to her, that there should be no armed intervention. Again, in
1840, Thiers is in power: Lord Palmerston was perfectly well aware of the senti
ments of M. Thiers, and of the feelings of the people of France respecting Egypt
and Syria. The object of Eussia was the disagreement of England and France ;
the question of the pasha the pretext. Proposals by France wero made, which it
was known she would not accept ; and the treaty of July was signed as an act of
hostility to France.
One more extract wiU suffice. " I have mentioned, at the beginning of this
791

mr. urquhart.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1840.
work, the extreme difficulty there must be for foreign Courts to detect the crime of
treason in a minister of Great Britain; and, consequently, the danger that must
accrue, as well to themselves as to England, from an undetected concord of two
powerful nations, under the disguise of systematic opposition. Any one acquainted
with the routine of diplomatic life will at once see this difficulty. Sir Frederick
Lamb was one of the ablest and most upright men in the diplomatic service of
Great Britain. He represented this country at the Court of Vienna. At that
Court the concert of Lord Palmerston with Eussia was a matter of notoriety — the
hostility of Sir F. Lamb to Eussia active and decided. The Austrian minister
offered peculiar advantages to England in exchange for her alliance against the
aggressive projects of Eussia, and the ambassador pressed them on the British
minister. The commercial treaty with Austria, of 1838, was lauded as one of the
most important pieces of statesmanship at the time : it was annihilated by Lord
Palmerston ; clauses introduced, which rendered it an instrument for transferring
the commerce of the Austro-Turkish provinces to Eussia ; the efforts of Sir F.
Lamb were frustrated and reversed, and he was rewarded with a-peerage.
"Mr. Macgregor exhibited great ability and honesty in the negotiations
connected with the Austrian treaty; was then sent out to Naples on a most
important mission — succeeded in a manner beyond expectation : his efforts, in both
instances, were reversed by Lord Palmerston, and turned into disaster and loss to
England ; himself disgraced by the disavowal of his acts, on a plea which was false
in law, facts, and policy; and the overthrown negotiator was rewarded by the
secretaryship of the Board of Trade.
" The envoy to Lahore and Cabul, Lieutenant Burnes, who played so admirable
a part for Eussia in Central Asia, and one so disastrous for England, was speedily
found designated by the title of Sir Alexander Burnes.
" Mr. M'Neil, who had devoted so many years of his life to the exposure of
danger to England from the intrigues of Eussia in the East, was sent to Persia to
counteract them. The failure of his efforts was signal, entire, avowed ; he was
recalled, and has since been silent under the weight of honours heaped upon him
by his complacent chief.
" What is the other side of the picture ?
" Sir Stratford Canning exhibited an intelligence and an honesty which could
not be overcome ; he was one of the few Englishmen who comprehended the game
of Eussia in Turkey and Greece ; he was not to be silenced. Lord Palmerston
sent him as ambassador to St. Petersburg, where he was rejected by the emperor —
an event new in the annals of the world, that an emperor of Eussia shall choose
the minister to be sent by England. Lord Palmerston ratifies the outrage, and
Sir Stratford Canning is sacrificed, without a voice being raised up in England,
without one Englishman exhibiting a consciousness of the outrage." It appears to
have escaped our acute author, that to have persisted in sending to a foreign Court
an ambassador personally obnoxious, would be an act of stupidity, to say the least ;
of which, certainly, Lord Palmerston would never have been guilty. Nor was Sir
Stratford Canning sacrificed long. His nomination to Constantinople, and his
lengthened residence there while Lord Palmerston was minister, certainly was in
^favour of the latter being guiltless of the charge brought against him by the writer
*of complicity with Eussia, since he confesses that Sir Stratford was one of the few
Englishmen who comprehended the game of Eussia in Turkey and Greece. But
we continue our extract : —
"Mr. Urquhart is sent to Constantinople. Mr. Urquhart was a man who
had thrown more obstacles in the way of the designs of Eussia against England
than all the statesmen put together for half a century. He had proved himself
incorrupt, incorruptible ; and had devoted himself, without reference to personal
consequences, whatever they might be, to the service of his country: he had
resolved to sacrifice riches, position, and life in her cause. His exertions were
overthrown ; his character maligned ; spies set upon his conduct ; and hired libellers
792

a.d. 1838.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [defence of palmerston.
engaged to do him injury. He is recalled from his post, on a plea which is false;
he brings his accusers to answer for their conduct before a public tribunal, and
they (the ministers of the British crown) fly from a court of justice which they
evade by a subterfuge.
"We have seen that the secretary of legation of the British embassy in
Greece, and two members of the Greek regency, horror-struck at the game played
by the British residents against England and in favour of Eussia, proclaimed the
truth to Lord Palmerston ; that they have been forcibly expelled, degraded,
condemned without being heard — their proofs not noticed.
"With examples such as these (and they are only a few of the many
similar) before their eyes, how can we expect that any of the Courts of Europe
are to resist the joint action of the Eussian cabinet and the-British minister?"
Such is the language of the author of Foreign Affairs of Great Britain
Administered Under Lord Palmerston. He was, we have reason to believe, an
official in the diplomatic line ; and, as we are told, was subsequently bought over
by Lord Palmerston — by which the reader must understand, that, after writing
bitterly against his lordship, he was prevailed upon to accept an appointment from
him. The preface of the book was written by Mr. Urquhart, and the responsi-
biUty of it was undertaken by the same individual. We have been informed that
there was a talk of law proceedings being instituted, in consequence of the printing
of this volume. Mr. Follet was appealed to undertake the defence. His reply
was — " Mr. Urquhart, this is a serious matter ; give me a week for reflection, and .
then I will give you my answer." He took the time, and then determined to
defend the book ; and there the matter dropped. Such is the story told the writer
of this history by Mr. Urquhart's oldest friends. The quarrel between Lord
Palmerston and Mr. Urquhart appears to have dated from the affair of the Vixen.
In his speech on the subject in the House of Commons (1838), Lord Palmerston
thus criticised Mr. Urquhart's conduct : —
"But we now come to another part of these transactions, being that in respect
to which the right honourable gentleman means to impute to me personally some
considerable blame. -I mean as to the matters which form the subject of a letter
written by Mr. Urquhart, and published in the Times this morning. I beg, in the
first place, to say that, during the little leisure which indisposition sometimes gives
me, I wrote a letter to Mr. Urquhart, in answer to one I had received from him
the day before. * * * * It would ill become me to criticise the course that
gentleman has thought proper to pursue; but my objection is not what it is
supposed to be by the noble lord the member for North Lancashire, that his letter
was a betrayal of official confidence. My objection is exactly the reverse — namely,
that it contained a great number of private and official communications between
Mr. Urquhart and other people, which I did not think fit or proper to be pub
lished. I shall not, having read Mr. Urquhart's letter attentively, go into any
portions of it on the present occasion, except those which relate to official matters ;
but I contend that there is nothing in it which goes to prove, in the slightest
degree, any sanction on my part to the expedition of Mr. Bell. Mr. Urquhart
does not even pretend to say that Mr. Bell received from me any sanction , or
approval of that expedition. He says that he heard I intended to do this from
one quarter, and that he understood I meant to do that from another. He
says he heard it stated that I had suggested an improvement in the map of Eussia
from communications supplied by him ; but that I had so corrected these as to
make the map identical with that of Eussia — rectifying the interior countries of
the Caucasus. He also states that I corresponded with a map-publisher under the
hydrographical department, , and procured a copy of the report on the Caucasus
made in 1826. He says that there have been many important reports made on
the Caucasus ; that that subject had been discussed in a publication which he
states was connected with the Foreign Office, but with which I beg to affirm that I
have-no connection and no control over whatever ; and, coupling all this with the
VOL. ii. 3 F 793

palmerston's defence.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1838.
circumstance of the independence of Circassia being disregarded — from these and
other notes and circumstances, Mr. Urquhart is pleased to draw his own conclusions,
and to presume that I must have entertained certain opinions with respect to the
Vixen expedition. I am quite sure that the right honourable baronet (Sir James
Graham), whom I see reading the papers and studying the letter, will not find Mr.
Urquhart's assertion proves that anything which has taken place justifies him in
saying that I had expressly sanctioned or encouraged the expedition of the Vixen.
That expedition took place ; the Vixen was seized in November, 1836 ; and, shortly
afterwards, Mr. Urquhart sent a private letter, from Constantinople, to Mr.
Strangways, which Mr. Strangways transmits to me in a box with certain papers
connected with the affair of the Vixen ; and that shows me what Mr. Urquhart
had to do in that matter. My first impression, without reading the letter, was to
caution Mr. Strangways to take care what he might say, or on what terms he wrote
back ; because I thought it possible for Mr. Urquhart to be mixed up in the
expedition. But then the right honourable baronet- (Sir S. Canning) has said
that I kept back my opinion on this case, waiting to see the result of the affair of
the Vixen. I beg to say that such was not the case. I shortly afterwards read
Mr. Urquhart's letter ; and I at once saw the share that gentleman had had in
persuading Mr. Bell to proceed on the expedition after the design had been
abandoned. At that time I was about to send him out on a leave of absence, for
which he had applied ; and so I took the opportunity, in forwarding that leave of
• absence, to tell him that I thought his conduct so unaccountable, so incompatible
with his public duty — that it had so strongly excited my disapprobation, that I
thought it but fair to tell Mr. Urquhart I could not allow him to return to
Constantinople. Such, then, was the approbation, according to the pecuUar views of
the right honourable gentleman, that I gave to this expedition. I have — I suppose
it is notorious — a very great deal of business to get through in my department ;
and sometimes, when letters do not appear to me immediately pressing, I put them
by for the time. But the noble lord (Lord Stanley) has said, that the letter of
Mr. Urquhart announced, or had relation to, great events which were about to
take place. No ; but which had already taken place ; for it was the fact, that the
event to which he alludes had taken place at that time. The letter, therefore,
could be supposed to bear only on the personal conduct of Mr. Urquhart himself.
The same observation applies to Mr. Urquhart as to Mr. Bell. They were both, it
should seem, impressed with a notion that they were promoting an enterprise
which her majesty's government liked, but did not desire openly or explicitly to
avow. I believe that. But I think one case suggests itself, which shows
in how awkward a position these parties were placing themselves. Supposing
I had said to Mr. Urquhart, just what Mr. Bell was asking me to say, ' Let
the Vixen go,' what course then would the proceeding have taken — what would
have been the consequence? Why, Mr. Urquhart would have been placed
in this position— he would have been disgraced and reprimanded. He would,
at least, have been considered highly reprehensible for what he had done in a
position of so much responsibility ; but it would have been rather an extraordinary
thing if he had been asked privately to do that which, afterwards, he was censured
for doing. * * * I added a postscript to my letter, in which I informed that
gentleman that I had not stated my reasons publicly for his recall ; that I had not
even communicated this to Lord Ponsonby ; that I wished it to be understood he was
coming home on leave of absence ; but that, if what had been done had been done
with his concurrence, it would not be possible that he should be allowed to return,
although I desired to take no public notice of the circumstance. Now, what would
have been the answer of Mr. Urquhart if he had received such a letter as that to
which allusion has been made, if I had really sanctioned Mr. Bell's expedition ?
Would he not naturally have said to me—' Your communication astonishes me,
because I only did that which you yourself urged me to do, but which you now
assign as the ground for my dismissal ?'
794

A.D. 1852.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [other charges.

"I must say, a person, under such circumstances, who -could not make that
reply, would be less able to defend himself than Mr. Urquhart, or the right
honourable gentleman (Sir S. Canning) who has taken up the cudgels for him.
There is another extenuating circumstance. Mr. Urquhart, in his letter, relates to
a very extraordinary circumstance. He there refers to a conversation which he
had with me on his return, early in the month of August, or late in July ; and sq
says, quoting an expression that I used in that conversation, of my utter disap
probation of the part he had taken in the expedition of the Vixen. He states
that, up to that moment, he really was not aware that I did not take a great
interest in that expedition,- or was displeased with what he had done about it.
Why, this very individual had actually received, at Constantinople, a letter from
me, some months before, in which I clearly expressed my displeasure, and stated
that it was on account of his interference in the Vixen, and on that account alone,
that he was recaUed. He remained there up to July or August, and yet says that
he thought, up to the moment of this conversation, I took a great interest in,
and expected great national advantages from the expedition. I cannot reconcile
discrepancies of this sort; but I confess I cannot understand how any such mis
apprehension can have been seriously entertained. This I will broadly say, that
the letter I wrote to Mr. Urquhart in March, and the statement I made to him
when I saw him, ought to have precluded that gentleman from saying that I ever
in any way approved, or sanctioned, or gave any encouragement, even of the
smaUest nature, to an expedition which it was impossible not to foresee, must, in
the end, and so far as this country was concerned, be attended with very serious
embarrassment and difficulties."
Clearly, in the case of the Vixen, and Mr. Bell, and Mr. Urquhart, Lord
Palmerston was guUtless. They had pursued him with invective; they had
insisted that he had been bought over by Eussia; they talked of having him
impeached, confined to the Tower, and ultimately hung. Newspapers and quar
terly reviews were established, and pamphlets published, by Mr. Urquhart and his
disciples, aU reiterating these very serious charges — charges which Lord Palmerston
denied and refuted, over and over again, in the House of Commons ; and to believe
which, as the writer of the work already referred to confesses, implies the insanity
of the people, and parliament of England as well. These are charges so monstrous
that you feel it to be absurd and impossible to argue against them. It is precisely
thus with the charges made against Lord Palmerston by Mr. Urquhart. We can
beUeve that he committed many blunders ; we can believe that he was outwitted
by. diplomatists more able and more cunning than himself; we can believe that his
non-interference poUcy was singularly erratic and inconsistent ; that sometimes he
was sUent and supine when his activity might have been attended with the most
beneficial results ; that oftentimes he was injudiciously and mischievously active ;
but that is not the charge of the poUticians of the Urquhart class. They tell you
that Lord Palmerston was a needy man — as undoubtedly he was in early life, or,
at any rate, till the death of Lord Melbourne ; that the Princess Lieven, a Eussian
agent, made his lordship a present of £10,000; and that for this sum, Lord Palmer
ston, the English Foreign Minister, lent himself to be the tool and ally of Eussia,
to work her ends, to promote her aims ; that is the view of the trade and wealth,
and honour and greatness of his native land. This is the charge; and this
charge we indignantly put on one side, and treat as unworthy of a moment's
consideration. We are not bound to defend his lordship when he was in the
wrong ; but the absurdity of his being sold to Eussia is so great as scarcely to
deserve serious consideration : and if he was so, the parliament and the people of
this country are equally to blame, as they always supported, in season and out, the
Palmerston policy.
Another writer, the late Mr/Washington Wilkes, author of a pamphlet entitled
Palmerston in Three Epochs, thus sums up against Lord Palmerston :— "Disdam-
fuUy negUgent of the rights, and sceptical of the morality of nations, his lordship
Sf2 .795

WILKES AND PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1852.

appears equally destitute of that magnanimous spirit which deems the help of the
wronged more obligatory when it involves resistance to the strong. Poland,
Cracow, Eome, and Hungary, though each confessedly a good cause, are left to
succumb, because remonstrance would be vain, and war would be inconvenient to
English interests. Liberty and civilisation may have the benefit of EngUsh aid
in Belgium, Portugal, and Spain; because the Belgians have the sympathy of
insurgent Europe, and the despots, Miguel and Carlos, are feeble. In short, the
only principles that can be gleaned from a careful review of Palmerstonian
utterances and doings are, an irregular indefinite sympathy with constitutional
governments ; anxiety to maintain the balance of power-in Europe ; and a determi
nation to make both subservient to the glory and interests of England." This is
meant for censure. Is it not, in reality, the highest praise ? What other interests
has a minister to consult but those of his native land? Mr. Wilkes remarks
further — " It is with almost painful reluctance that the writer has brought himself
to this conclusion. Having finished his task, he may confess that he commenced
it with a prepossession of Lord Palmerston's political career, as well as the
admiration so commonly felt for his talents and energy. A careful collation of the
materials for this review has considerably modified his former feeling. On many a
similar effect has been produced by the avowal of his lordship's approval of Louis
Napoleon's usurpation. He now stands (1852), as he told Sir Eobert Peel two-and-
twenty years ago, ' one of the representatives of the people of England and of my
own opinions.' He may, peradventure, once more occupy the proud position of
helmsman of the British barque through the troublous waters of foreign politics.
Would he in that, or in his more private capacity, expiate his late offence against
his own fame and the cause of political morality in condoning with Napoleon's
treason, he may do so by resuscitating within his heart the spirit of his
illustrious friend and master, George Canning ; by calling in once more the New
World to redress the balance of the Old ; and by uniting England and America in
an array of their power of opinion against the power of despotic swords, at once
preserve the peace and establish the liberties of Europe, -crowning his own grey
hairs with a wreath of imperishable renown."
Such is the language of Mr. Wilkes, one of the disciples of a poUtical school at
one time very popular, but now altogether obsolete. It is a fine idea, that of
fighting for the liberties of Europe ; it was the idea which made Lord Palmer
ston not a little popular : but the older he grew, the more clearly he per
ceived the hopelessness of the task, and the more strongly was forced upon him
the necessity of attending to the interests and promoting the welfare of the
English people. But there was something stronger than his lordship ; and that was,
the situation in which he was placed. When the reform ministry came into
power, it was as much as they could do to hold their ground ; the king was not too
fond of them ; the House of Lords was dead against them ; and the opposition in
the House of Commons was of the fiercest character. It was all ministers could
do to carry reform. Any reader of the correspondence that passed between Earl
Grey and William IV, must be convinced that Palmerston had no chance of giving
effectual aid to Poland. It is not very clear that he had the wish. It is more
clear that he had not the power.
But we should have gone to war with Eussia about the Vixen. If we had we
should dearly have rued it. Some years afterwards we did go to war with Eussia.
In that war we were aided by France and Italy : and what was the result ? We
suffered more than Eussia by that war. The charge made by the Urquhartites
against Lord Palmerston was, that his aim was war with France, and peace with
Eussia. What did actually happen was war with Eussia, and peace with France.
Lord Palmerston saved Kossuth, but he could not save Hungary. What could
England have done against Austria and Eussia ? We believe, such was his lordship's
love of activity and interference, that he would have gladly made an effort on
behalf of Hungary, did not all see that the attempt was hopeless in the extreme.
796

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [fatal attack.

CHAPTEE XXXIX.
DEATH AND FUNERAL OP LORD PALMERSTON.
TOWARDS the end of the parliamentary session of 1865, it was evident to many
observers that the health and strength of Lord Palmerston were not what they
were. Age, and repeated attacks of gout, had seriously exhausted the noble
viscount's wonderful vitality. He dozed more in the midst of parliamentary
discussion ; he was oftener absent from his post; in his carriage he was less erect;
it was evident that the end was near. In spite of the fact that the parliament
just about to die had been held together mainly by Lord Palmerston — that the
chief dependence of the Whigs had been placed in him — that in him the Tories
trusted as the barrier between them and the rising of the democratic deluge, long
predicted and deeply feared — it was believed, in many quarters, that Lord Palmer
ston would never meet his new parliament as Premier ; that, before the time for
assembUng had arrived, he would have relinquished the reins of office, and retired
from place and power.
Such expectations were realised, but in an unexpected manner.
His lordship had gone to pass the autumn at Brockett Hall, Herts, formerly
the residence of Viscount Melbourne, and which had passed, by his death, into Lady
Palmerston's hands. In Brockett Park may be seen some of the finest specimens
of EngUsh oaks in the kingdom : one in particular is shown, as the bound of
liberty aUowed to the Princess Elizabeth by her sister, Queen Mary, during the
imprisonment of the former at Hatfield House; and it is said that Queen
EUzabeth received the tidings of her sister's death while under this tree. Brockett
HaU is in the pleasantest part of Hertfordshire, and surrounded by memories of
the statesmen of the past. Near by is Burleigh House, the ancient residence of the
CecUs : not far is Panshanger, where the Cowpers live : Gorhambury House, the
seat of the great Lord Bacon, is not many miles distant ; nor Luton-floo, where, in
elegant retirement, died the once feared and always suspected favourite of a
Court, Lord Bute. Brockett Hall was a pleasant change from Eomsey or
PiccadiUy ; and it was hoped that its salubrious air would restore strength to the
aged Premier, and that there he would find the rest denied to him in the pressure
of official life in the metropolis. He had also with him his physician, Dr.
Protheroe Smith; and it was expected that, with his aid, the noble viscount
might make, considering his years, a complete ^recovery. Alas! it was other
wise decreed.
In the middle of October, it became known to the public that his lordship was
dangerously ill, and the public anxiety was at once aroused.
From the time of his going to Brockett, as we have said, till the day of his
death, Dr. Protheroe Smith, who was passing his vacation, was enabled to give
his unremitting attention and time to his distinguished patient, in conjunction
With the family physician, Dr. Drage, of Hatfield; and the case appeared so
hopeful, and so much strength was gained, that till within the last week of his
life, no danger, much less immediate alarm, was felt. The week previously, how
ever, Dr. Smith being called away to a distance, professionally, on an urgent
errand, was absent from Brockett until the morning of Thursday, two days longer
than the former periods; and, on -his return, he found that meanwhile Lord
Palmerston had caught a severe chill whilst out of doors during the sudden change
in the temperature of the weather. The result was an alarming relapse from the
ground gained, and very dangerous symptoms . occurred during the night of
Thursday preceding his decease, yielding only to the persevering efforts of the
physician, and to the wonderful elasticity and vital energy of the noble lord. So
tut

public grief.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

much did he rally that it was not till Saturday evening that it was thought
advisable to state, by telegraph to the queen at Balmoral, the anxiety that was
felt by his relatives. In the meantime he was visited by Mr. Paget and Dr.
Burrows, in consultation with Dr. Protheroe Smith and Dr. Watson, who had been
telegraphed for to Penzance, and who arrived early on Monday morning. Up to
Tuesday afternoon the marked improvement continued, and Lord Palmerston evinced
that cheerful pluck and equanimity which won for him, in his political career, the
affection as well as the confidence of his fellow-countrymen. But, alas ! it was to
be of short duration. Drs. Watson and Protheroe Smith, who were constantly
watching by his lordship's couch, about half-past three on Tuesday afternoon, saw
a return of the collapse which had given so much alarm on the Saturday ; and
from that time till his death he never ralUed, but gradually sank, expiring at a
quarter before eleven on Wednesday, October 18 th, in the presence of Lady
Palmerston, Lord and Lady Shaftesbury, Mr. and Mrs. William Cowper, Lady
Jocelyn, and Mr. Evelyn Ashley. He retained his consciousness till the end.
His manner was calm and resigned, and his death was apparently unattended by
suffering. The cause of death was, we believe, gout, combined with disease of the
bladder. A writer in the Pail-Mall Gazette stated it was caused by riding in an
open carriage without a great coat. He adds — " Lord Palmerston was to have been
present, a few weeks ago, at the opening of the Bristol Industrial Exhibition ; but
a sudden attack of the gout, and disease of the bladder, prevented him. From
that attack, however, he so far recovered that he could ride out, till once more
disease attacked him."
On Wednesday evening, intelligence of the decease of Viscount Palmerston
reached the royal borough, telegraphic messages having been despatched to the
Windsor terminus, Kingston-upon-Thames, Twickenham, and all the stations and
termini ofthe London and- South- Western Eailway system. In the course of the
evening a government messenger was despatched to Earl Eussell, who was residing
at Pembroke Lodge, Eichmond Park.
Nothing was talked of in Liverpool, on Wednesday, but the telegrams with
reference to Lord Palmerston. Nothing definite was known until mid-day, when
it was announced that he was " sinking fast." Earlier than this, it was rumoured
that some members of the Stock Exchange had received telegrams announcing the
death of his lordship as a fact. These, unhappily, proved to be but too true ; for,
at four o'clock, the secretary of the news-room received the brief announcement —
"Lord Palmerston is dead." He read it from the bar of the Exchange rooms,
amidst profound silence ; and the universal expression of feeling afterwards was
mingled with regret for the noble lord, and perplexity as to the political results of
his unexpected decease. Flags were promptly raised half-mast at the town-hall,
on the 'Change buildings, and other public places.
The excitement in Oxford University on Monday and Tuesday was intense,
consequent upon the various telegraphic messages received respecting the serious
indisposition of Lord Palmerston. A newspaper correspondent wrote — " From the
time at which the first intelligence of the recurrence of the malady, under the
influence of which the noble Premier has so frequently suffered, was received, the
interest here increased in intensity, and each successive telegram was received with an
anxiety equalled only upon the occasion of the late Prince Consort's death. Upon
the receipt of telegrams confirming the fatal termination of his lordship's attack,
instructions were given, by both corporate bodies, to give due solemnity to the event
by the tolling of ' minute bells' from St. Mary's and St. Martin's churches. Politically
speaking, his lordship was in no way personally identified with this university, if
we except the honorary degree of D.C.L., conferred upon him at the commemora
tion of 1862 ; but the mention of his lordship's name at the Encaenia has
invariably been the signal for plaudits, loud and prolonged, in an assembly
certainly not distinguished for partisanship in the strictest sense of the term. As
798

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [public mourning.
evidence of the importance attaching to the event, it may be stated that uni
versity, county, and city, as well as district meetings, were forthwith held, for the
purpose of conveying votes of condolence to the widow."
The news of the death of Lord Palmerston caused much regret at Dublin.
All the papers had complimentary notices of the deceased.
A meeting of the Common Council of the City of .London was held on the
following Thursday, and, as it was anticipated that something would be said in
reference to the loss the nation had sustained by the death of Lord Palmerston,
there was a full attendance of members of the court.
After the usual formal business had been gone through,
Mr. F. Maynard, the chief commissioner, rose, and, amid profound silence,
said that the court was no doubt aware of the melancholy fact of the death of her
majesty's Prime Minister, Lord Viscount Palmerston; and, after the long
statements that appeared in the morning papers, it was unnecessary for him to
enter at any length into the particulars of the public service that had been
rendered by the noble viscount. This much he might say, that this corporation
most sincerely regretted the loss they, and the nation generally, had sustained;
and he was sure that everyone would agree with him that, whether in a subordinate
capacity or as the head of the government, Lord Palmerston had ever conducted
himself in a manner that reflected the highest honour upon himself, and was most
satisfactory to the nation at large. It would be idle for him to endeavour to exalt
the character of so great a man by any observations he might make, and he should
therefore content himself with merely proposing a resolution of regret at the loss
the nation had sustained, and express their condolence with Lady Palmerston at
her bereavement. The hon. member then moved the following resolution: —
"That this court has heard, with the deepest feelings of sorrow and regret, the
mournful intelligence of the death of the Eight Hon. Viscount Palmerston, her
majesty's Prime Minister. They regard the event as a loss to the nation and to
tbe community at large ; and desire, at the same time, to express their high
admiration of the manly bearing and the great administrative capacity of the
noble viscount, and to express to Lady Palmerston their deep feeling of condolence
at the loss she has sustained."
After a few remarks from Alderman Salomons, M.P., the resolution was
unanimously carried, and the necessary arrangements were made for its presenta
tion to Lady Palmerston.
In Eomsey had been "buried Lord Palmerston's ancestors, and his lordship's
own wish was to be buried there as well. Indeed, he had gone so far as to have
prepared his last resting-place in the new cemetery of the town with which he had
been connected so long. Immediately after his death, however, a general
feeling was entertained, on the part of the public, that he should be buried in
Westminster Abbey. There we had been wont to inter our greatest men ; and it was
but right and proper that the ashes of Lord Palmerston should repose side by side
with them. Her majesty the queen, whose sympathy was most cordially and
kindly shown to Lady Palmerston, both before and after her bereavement, pet
the matter at rest by expressing her wish that Lord Palmerston should be buried
in Westminster Abbey, near the scene of his many years' endurance, and triumph,
and toil. The body was removed from Brockett Hall to Cambridge House, Piccadilly,
on Monday, October 23rd ; and remained there until the day of burial, on the
following Friday.
The remains of Lord Palmerston were buried in Westminster Abbey, with a
public ceremonial befitting the occasion, attended through the whole course of the
funeral procession by a vast concourse of citizens. The Eoyal Exchange, the Stock
Exchange, and the Guildhall were entirely closed. At the London and Westminster,
and other large banking establishments, it was found impracticable to_ close
entirely ; but business was very much restricted. A great many of the principal
t y y

the funeral.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
tradesmen in Cornhill and Cheapside, and the other great thoroughfares, either
partially or entirely closed their shops, and there was a marked absence of that
noise and confusion exhibited during the ordinary traffic on other occasions.
The arrival of the mourners at Cambridge House commenced about half-past
eleven. Amongst the first who arrived were Sir Charles Wood, the Earl of Claren
don, Lord Shaftesbury, Mr. Cowper, the Duke of Argyll, Mr. Cardwell, and Lord
Eussell. Not the least interesting incident was the arrival of the servants and
farm-labourers of the late Premier, from Broadlands, accompanied by the Eomsey
volunteers. There were thirty-two farm-labourers and servants. The number of
tenants was twenty-one, and that of the volunteers from Eomsey sixty, each of
whom bore a mark of mourning.
The procession started from Cambridge House almost exactly at noon, and was
of immense length. It was headed by 200 of the London Irish volunteers. The
representatives of some twenty corporations, other naval reserves, the Trinity
Board, and the London Corporation followed, succeeded by the hearse, drawn by six
horses. The pall-bearers were Earl Eussell, Sir C. Wood, Sir G. Grey, the Duke
of Somerset, Earl de Grey and Eipon, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville, the
Duke of Argyll, the Earl of Clarendon, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The
following were the other principal mourners : — Eight Hon. William Cowper,
Eev. Henry Sulivan (chief mourner), Eight Hon. Laurence Sulivan, Admiral Sir
William Bowles, the Earl of Shaftesbury, Henry Hippisley, Esq., Eev. J. Baker,
Mr. L. Hippisley, Mr. William Hippisley, Hon. Spencer Cowper, Earl Cowper,
Hon. Henry Cowper, Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Lord Ashley, Hons. Lionel and Cecil
Ashley, Lord Jocelyn, Hon. Frederick Jocelyn, Lord Sudeley, Sir George Shee,
Mr. Charles Barrington, Duke of Cambridge, Viscount Bury, Lord Chamberlain,
Archbishop of Canterbury, the Speaker, Lord Stanley of Alderley, Eight Hon.. E.
Cardwell, Eight Hon.. C. P. Villiers, Eight Hon. Milner Gibson, Hon. Henry
Brand. It is expressly mentioned that Viscount Bury, Treasurer of her Majesty's-
Household, was specially commanded by the queen to attend the funeral in her
majesty's name. In the procession to the abbey, he was placed alone in the fifth
mourning coach, immediately after the relatives of the deceased. Then followed more
than a hundred private carriages, including the state carriage of the queen, the
carriages of the foreign ambassadors, cabinet ministers, judges, peers, and M.P.'s. The
streets were crowded along the entire route. Every window was filled, and in
Piccadilly and Pall Mall the balconies fronting the houses were occupied by a
number of persons, principally ladies, in most cases habited in deep mourning.
With the exception of one or two houses, and some of the smaller clubs, including
White's and Brooke's, where the balconies were hung with sombre cloth, there was
little of the outward show of public grief. The only instance of any special
decoration was at the Eeform Club, where the balcony was draped with black
cloth, bordered at the top with black and white cord, and at the lower, end with a
broad white stripe. The doors were curtained with cloth varied in the same
manner, and bearing the letter P, under a viscount's coronet, and with three rings
of yellow immortelles linked together below. The iron pillars on either side of the
door were also covered with cloth, decorated spirally with black and white cord, and
carrying a coronet. Trafalgar Square was crowded with people, and almost every
man raised his hat or cap during the passing of the hearse. On approaching
Westminster Bridge, the tolling of the bells of the abbey and St. Margaret's
church was heard, and here again an unusual scene was witnessed. The entire
churchyard presented a mass of human beings ; raised platforms, tables, chairs, and
barrels having been fixed in all directions. The abbey was perfectly surrounded,
and it was a difficulty almost'to move in the Broad Sanctuary.
There was a large number of peers, commoners, and officials assembled in the
abbey when the cortige arrived. The 150 mourners, headed by the Eev. Henry
Sulivan, who was closely followed by the Earl of Shaftesbury, and the other near
connections of the late Premier, filed off into the choristers' seats : and when all
800

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [the funeral.
were seated, in the midst of profound silence the 90th Psalm was sung, and the
EeV. Lord John Thynne read the lesson from the 15th chapter of St. Paul's First
Epistle to the Corinthians, his voice being heard in all parts of the building. This
ended, such of the choristers as had remained in the nave proceeded through the
sacrarium to their platform, opposite the open grave. They wore a black band
across their white surplices ; and, standing in their place, they waited the coming
of the coffin, which again, preceded by the bearer of the noble viscount's coronet,
was carried as before, with the pall-bearers on either side, and placed by the side
of the grave. Here the scene was imposing. The more distant figures were the
Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge, wearing the ribbon of the Garter
partly covered by their mourning coats. Their royal highnesses stood prominently
on a raised platform. To the left was the dean in his stall ; and then came the
bearer of the coronet, standing at the head of the open grave. Between the princes
and the grave stood the pall-bearers, and at the grave's foot were the chief
mourners ; while all around were grouped the many mourners who had hitherto
remained in the choir. While thus standing, the sentences, "Man that is born of
a woman," " In the midst of life," " Yet, 0 Lord God" (Croft), and " Thou knowest,
Lord" (Pureell), were siing. Then came the sublime composition, " His body is
buried in peace." The scene and the occasion were touching in the extreme. Of
the iUustrious party assembled, none could ever expect to see such a political career
again. Under the leadership of him they had met to bury, what battles had they
not fought — what victories had they not won ? Other and younger men had fallen
by his side. Time spared him to ripen and reign, as no English statesman had
ever ripened and reigned before.
At this moment (near two o'clock) a most extraordinary incident took place.
The gathering clouds without cast a deep shadow within the walls of the abbey, so
that the whole of the mourners round the grave were enveloped in complete gloom,
and were scarcely to be distinguished one from another by those removed from
them. There was something terrible in the effect produced. It was in this strange
darkness that the choir sang the last anthem,, and the organ awoke the solemn
echoes of the abbey by the first strains of the " Dead March in Saul." At the close
of this piece, their royal highnesses the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cam
bridge, accompanied by the very rev. the dean, advanced to the edge of the grave,
and taking a last look at the coffin containing the remains of the departed states
man, the mourners followed their example, and the 2,500 persons who had wit
nessed more or less of the ceremony, slowly and sorrowfully retired.
All traffic on the Une the procession took was suspended from 11.45 A.M., and
nothing but the carriages in the procession was permitted to pass until the whole
of the ceremony was over. A veiy large body of police lined the entire route.
By dint of great and continuous exertions, the interior of the abbey was com
pleted for the solemn and impressive proceedings. The south transept, or " cross,"
as it is called, and which commanded a view of the whole of the sacrarium and of
the grave, was fitted with tiers of seats ; and here, and in the choir, were seated the
members of both houses of parliament, and those gentlemen who had been invited
to assemble in the Jerusalem Chamber. No ladies were admitted to the choir
under any circumstances. The accommodation made for the public who had
tickets was as ample as the nave would permit ; the only space reserved being a
passage down the centre from the west door for the procession. All bearers of
tickets were in mourning.
: The grave was built from" designs by Mr. G. Gilbert Scott, and has been faced
with Minton's plain and encaustic tiles, arranged in bands, so as to keep out all
moisture. The seats of the northern transept were removed, and a platform
erected, on which the choir assembled, to chant a portion of the service over the
grave, on the body being " committed to the dust."
The only person admitted at Cambridge House to take a last look atthe remains
of the deceased Premier, was the Very Eev. the Dean of Westminster, who was accom-
' J 801

the funeral.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
panied by his lordship's nephew, the Eev. H. Sulivan. The very rev. the dean read
the service, and Lord John Thynne, the sub-dean, read the lessons. An augmented
choir chanted the portion of the service which was sung.
The complete list of the corporations and deputations who obtained leave to fall
in, is given in the following order : —
The corporations of Bolton, Salford, and Dunstable ; the Dover Harbour Board ;
the corporations of Stirling, Oxford, Sunderland, Birmingham, Wolverhampton,
Bradford, Macclesfield, .Liverpool, Portsmouth, Southampton, Glasgow, Edinburgh,
Tiverton ; the London Irish volunteers, the Eomsey volunteers ; the corporations of
Eomsey, Sandwich, and Hastings ; the Metropolitan Board of Works ; forty seamen
of the Trinity House ; officers of the naval reserve ; the Trinity House corporation ;
commoners of the corporation of London; the Sheriffs and the Lord Mayor of
London, with sword and mace-bearers.
Among the private carriages, were those of Viscount Palmerston, her majesty
the Queen, his royal highness the Prince of Wales, his royal highness the Duke of
Cambridge, her royal highness the Duchess of Cambridge, the Duchess of Inverness,
the French ambassador, the Eussian ambassador, the American ambassador, the
Prussian ambassador, the Belgian ambassador, the Austrian ambassador, the Italian
ambassador, the Bavarian ambassador, the Turkish ambassador, the Danish ambas
sador, the Spanish ambassador, the Portuguese ambassador, the Greek charge
d'affaires, the Hanoverian minister, the minister of the Netherlands, the Persian
ambassador, the Swedish minister, the Saxony minister, the Hanseatic minister,
the Eight Hon. the Speaker, Earl Eussell, the Lord Chancellor, Earl Granville,
the Duke of Argyll, the Eight Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Sir G. Grey, Sir C. Wood,
Earl Clarendon, Earl de Grey and Eipon, the Duke of Somerset, Lord Stanley of
Alderley, Eight Hon. E. Cardwell, Eight Hon. C. P. Villiers, Eight Hon. Milner
Gibson, Viscount Sydney, the Lord Chief Justice, the Master of the Eolls, Sir E.
Kindersley, Sir J. Stuart, Sir W. P. Wood, Sir J. Lewis Knight-Bruce, Sir G. J.
Turner, Sir W. Weightman, Sir C. Blackburn, Sir J. Mellor, Sr W. Erie, Sir C. E.
Williams, Sir J. B. Byles, Sir H. Keating, Sir F. Pollock, Sir J. Martin, Sir J. W.
Bramwell, Sir W. F. Channell, Sir G. Pigott, Sir W. Shee, Eight Hon. Laurence
Sulivan, Duchess of Wellington, Countess of Jersey, Earl Eoseberry, Earl of Arran,
Countess-Dowager of Lichfield, Miss Burdett Coutts, Admiral Sir G. Bowles, Sir G.
Shee, Sir Moses Montefiofe, Baron Eothschild, Lady Dinorben, Earl Spencer, Hon.
H. Elliott, Lady Middleton, Bishop of London, Countess of Fife, Countess of
Lichfield, Marquis of Clanricarde, Lord Lyveden, Lord Willoughby D'Eresby, Sir
H. Holland, Lord Wenlock, Sir E. Murchison, and Major-General Malcolm.
It may be stated that, under the impression that the funeral of the late
viscount was to be at Eomsey, the usual funeral anthem was sung at the abbey on
the Sunday previous, and a funeral sermon was preached by the Eev. Canon Nepean.
Lord Palmerston's grave lies on the right hand as the visitor enters the
abbey by the north entrance, and is nine feet deep. It is made at right angles,
and' immediately in front of the monument erected in memory of Captain Bayne,
Captain Blair, and Lord Eobert Manners, who served under Sir G. Brydges Eodney.
It is surrounded by the graves of Earl Chatham on its right, with those of Fox,
Canning (the late Lord Canning), and Pitt; and Castlereagh nearer the choir.
Eespecting the demeanour of Lord Palmerston's colleague, and subsequent
successor in office, a newspaper writer says — " With bent head, never once raised
from the coffin, Lord Eussell was literally bowed down over the grave of his
colleague. Great, indeed, must have been the emotion of those trying moments,
which could so heavily press and weigh upon the man bearing them the great lesson
to which even prime ministers must bow. A sadder face never looked into a grave
than was Earl Eussell's."
ai.-u °n the following Sunday there was an immense congregation at Westminster
Abbey, all the arrangements made for the funeral having been allowed to remain.
There was a full choral service. The sermon was preached by the Very Eev. Dr.

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [European regrets.

Stanley, the Dean of Westminster, from the 5th chapter of St. Paul's Epistle to
the Ephesians, the 16th and 17th verses — "Eedeeming the time, because the days
are evU. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding »what the will of the
Lord is." In the course of his sermon the dean bore eloquent testimony to the
character of the departed statesman.
Lord Palmerston's death is the fifth occasion in a century in which a
Prime Minister died in office. Lord Eockingham died while Premier in
1782; Pitt in 1806; Perceval's career was cut short by the hand of an assassin;
and Canning died while in possession of the same office in 1827.
Scarcely an EngUsh statesman existed that did not, more or less, dwell upon
the loss of England's Premier. At Glasgow, on the occasion of his visit to that
city, Mr. Gladstone, after referring to the number of statesmen who had died
within the last five years, continued — "As to the last of these men, the dis
tinguished man whose loss at this moment the whole community, in every class
and every corner of the land, deeply and sincerely deplores, we have this
consolation, that it had pleased the Almighty to afford him strength and courage
which- carried him to a ripe old age in the active service of his country." In
Warwickshire, Mr. Newdegate, Mr. Gladstone's, perhaps, most consistent opponent,
said — " I honour the memory of a man who was the embodiment of a policy
sustained with prestige; and who, by sustaining it, maintained the peace of
England,' and of all the world, through a longer series of years than any minister
who ever held the seals of the Foreign Office. Well, he is gone; but he lived
long enough to prove himself actuated by a principle superior to all personal and
all party considerations. He has left a great legacy to the nation. He has taught
us this — that party, when it becomes faction, is dangerous to the state ; and that
we must ever seek to combine party in such measure that it shall not obliterate the
sense of primary duty; which is this — that, for party objects, we shall do nothing
inconsistent with the interests of the state."
Lady Palmerston was made by the queen, on the death of her husband, a
peeress in her own right. His lordship's chief executor was the Hon. Mr. W.
Cowper, M.P.
The Paris Moniteur said — "Her majesty the empress has addressed, in a
private letter, expressions of condolence to Viscountess Palmerston."
On receiving the official notification of Lord Palmerston's death, the King of
Prussia requested the English ambassador to convey his sympathies to Queen
Victoria, at the loss her majesty had sustained by the death of her Prime Minister.
Her majesty, in reply, instructed the English ambassador at BerUn to express her
thanks to the King of Prussia for this mark of his sympathy.
The Emperor Napoleon, a few days after Lord Palmerston's death, addressed
the following despatch to Baron Baule, chargi d'affaires of France in London.
It was drawn up by M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and was as follows : —
"Monsieur, the emperor and his government could not, without a profound
sentiment of regret, witness the disappearance from the political scene of the
eminent statesman whose loss England at this moment deplores. His death has
deeply moved public opinion in the country which he has served for so many years
with such distinction. For ourselves, monsieur, we have had, in many important
circumstances, occasion to appreciate the high qualities with which Lord Palmer
ston was endowed; and we shall always love to remember how much he
contributed to the establishment of the relations of confidence and friendship
which, from the beginning of the second empire, have existed between France and
England. "Lord Palmerston was the first, in the month of December, 1851, to recognise
the character of the courageous resolutions which the situation of France inspired
in his majesty. He loyally accepted the consequences, placing himself above the
resentments of the past with a freedom of judgment so much the more honourable
that, at the opening of his. career, he had been mixed up m the ancient strifes.

NATIONAL REGRETS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
He used "his influence to bring to the comprehension of his fellow-citizens the
services rendered to the cause of order in Europe by the events which had been
accomplished in France. A few years afterwards we found in Lord Palmerston
the "most decided and certain concurrence, when the complications occurred in the
East, and called both nations to unite their efforts, leading them to contract that
alliance not less remarkable by the intimate and loyal agreement of the cabinets,
than by the noble emulation of the armies. Nor are we able to forget the part
which belongs to Lord Palmerston in the negotiation of the treaty of commerce,
concluded five years ago. As first minister of the queen, he had emphatically
approved the idea of consolidating the relations of England with us, by giving
them for base a stricter solidarity of material interests. He seconded with all his
power the inauguration of that liberal system henceforth consecrated by experience,
and now adopted by the majority of the states on the continent.
" These acts belong to the history of the two countries. The name of Lord
Palmerston will remain attached to it ; and we shall not cease to recollect the
role which he played in conjunctures of so great an interest for the relations of
France and England. We make it a duty to unite the testimony of our
sympathies to the honours which the British nation so justly renders to his
memory. I beg of you to be the interpreter to Lord Eussell of the sentiments of
the emperor and the government of his majesty. You will be good enough, at
. the same time, to transmit to the principal Secretary of State of the queen a copy
of this despatch."
In the columns of that organ of national thought and feeling, Punch, the
following verses appeared, on the death of Lord Palmerston : —
" He is down, and for ever ! The good fight is ended.
In deep-tinted harness our Champion has died ;
But tears should be few in a sunset so splendid,
And Grief hush her wail at the bidding of Pride.
" He falls, but un vanquished. He falls in his glory,
A noble old King on the last of his fields :
And with death-song we come, like the Northmen of story,
And haughtily bear him away on our shields.
" Nor yet are we mourners. Let proud words be spoken
By those who stand, pale, on the marge of his grave,
As we lay in the rest never more to be broken,
The noble, the gentle, the wise, and the brave.
" His courage undaunted, his purpose unaltered,
His long patient labour, his exquisite skill,
The tones of command from the tongue that ne'er faltered
When bidding the Nations to list to our will :
" Let these be remembered ; but higher and better
The tribute that tells how he dealt with his trust.
In curbing the tyrant, in breaking the fetter,
Lay the pleasure of him we commit to the dust.
" But his heart was his England's, his idol her honour.
Her friend was his friend, and his foe was her foe.
Were her mandate despised, or a scowl cast upon her,
How stern his rebuke, or how vengeful his blow !
" Her armies were sad, and her banners were tattered,
And lethargy, wrought on her strength like a spell ;
He came to the front, the enchantment was scattered —
The rest let a reconciled enemy tell.
" As true to our welfare, he did his own mission
When Progress approached him with Wisdom for guide ;
He cleared her a space, and, with equal derision,
Bade quack and fanatic alike stand aside.
804

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [national regrets.

" The choice of his country, low faction despising,
I|e marched as a leader all true men could claim :
They came to their fellows, and held it, sufficing
To give, as a creed, the great Minister's name.
" So heir to traditions of him, long departed,
' Who called the New World up, to balance the Old,'
We lay thee in earth — gallant natured, true-hearted !
Break, herald, thy wand ; for his honours are told.
" No, let Pride say her story and cease, for Affection
Stands near with a wealth of wild tears in her eyes,
And claims to be heard with more soft recollection
Of one who was ever as kindly as wise.
" We trusted his wisdom, but love drew us nearer
Than homage we owed to his statesmanly art,
For never was statesman to Englishmen dearer
Than he who had faith in the great English heart.
" The frank, merry laugh, and the honest eye filling
With mirth, and the jests that so rapidly fell,
Told out the State secret that made us right willing
To follow his leading — he loved its all well,
" Our brave English Chief ! — lay him down for the sleeping
That nought may disturb till the trumpet of doom :
Honour claims the proud vigil — but Love will come weeping,
And hang many garlands on Palmerston's tomb !"
In his cartoon on the occasion, for once, Fun beat his aged rival. On a rough
sea, and beneath a cloudy sky, a barque slowly drifts along. It bears the figure,
sad and sorrowful, of Britannia, mourning for her loss. Beneath, the simple
phrase, " Gone from the helm," explains all. The same number also contained the
following : — " A chieftain dead ! Let discord cease ;
Awhile suspend your quarrels,
And lay the olive-branch of praise
Among our hero's laurels.
" Our leader, who so gaily marched before us,
Is gone from us — is gone !
He who still kept the great flag flying o'er us,
Who such example of high courage bore us,
From whom our strength was drawn ;
For him the death-bell booms in tones sonorous
This dull October dawn.
" Yet we will chant no melancholy dirges —
We will not wail for him.
On welcome shores of rest he now emerges,
Who had so long, amid life's cruel surges,
To battle and to swim.
Peace now ! To-morrow's care no longer urges
Tired brain a,nd weary limb.
" He is dead ; who stood so boldly by the helm
Of the realm.
In the fulness of his time, the close of day,
Past away,
When the dim October lights, in mist and ram,
Slowly wane.
How friends lov'd him— and none hated ; not even those
Who were his foes ;
For the arrows of His wit, if they were keen,
Yet were clean
Of the venom of a sneer begot in spleen.

NATIONAL REGRETS.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

" Kind and courteous in the hall, and in the fray,
Bold and gay,
Dealing blows and taking blows with open smile,
All the while.
And the downcast of the nations knew, the fame
Of his name,
Sighing, look'd to him for liberty. And he
Set them free,
When he knew that he could strike the one great blow ;
Free them so ;
Not rivet more the fetters of their woe."
Here the poet rhymes without regard to reason. The downcast nations of
Europe were the Poles, the Italians, the Christians in Turkey, and latterly the
Danes. It is difficult to see how Lord .Palmerston's interference, at one great
blow, freed from the fetters of their woes. But to proceed—
" Fade failing year, in fog and gloom,
And leave this record on the page —
' The foremost statesman of the age
This year was given to the tomb.'
" And we had thought he could not die —
This veteran, with his eighty years,
Who was as one among his peers j
No Nestor of an age gone by.
" He never struck an unfair blow,
Or failed a helping hand to lend ;
So true, through good or ill^ to friend ;
So prompt in mercy to a foe.
" He listened to the nation's voice ;
But when an angry rabble cried,
He did not turn or swerve aside,
But held the justice of his choice.
" Close up the ranks. Aye, look your fill
Upon our Ancient Captain, dead.
Then onward — by the way he led —
And keep the old flag spotless still !
" Let those who future histories pen,
His noble qualities review ;
Kind, cheerful, honest, fearless, true —
The Englishman of Englishmen.
" Go, search the world from end to end,
A braver heart had no man ;
So faithful, aye, to fallen friend ;
So generous to foeman.
We must not weep ! A death like this,
So peaceful and so painless !
No tears ! This shield we bear of his,
He has bequeathed us stainless."
Such was the feeling of the public when Lord Palmerston died. Everywhere
the shop windows were filled with his photograph, or with the various portraits of
his lordship which had been engraved at some time or other; and memoirs,
of more or less merit, were suddenly improvised, and seemed to secure an
extensive sale. When Peel died, he was still viewed as a traitor in certain
circles. The suspicion with which Canning was regarded by the pure Whigs
on the one hand, and the extreme Tories on the other, followed him even to
his grave. When Pitt died, in spite of the eulogies of the little men he had
sustained in office, and elevated to rank, there were those, of no mean reputation,
806

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [proposed statue.
who censured deeply his war and financial policy; and could say, as did Sir Samuel
Eomilly, in the House of Commons, " That he was not among the worshippers of
Mr. Pitt's memory ; that he was, undoubtedly, a man of most extraordinary and
splendid talents ; but that, with all the talents he possessed, and the great influence
he had enjoyed, he (Sir Samuel) looked in vain for any acts of his administration
by which he had increased the happiness or improved the condition of any portion
of his fellow-subjects." Perceval, as we know, fell suddenly, and in a manner
calculated to create unusual feeling and sympathy. The murderer was not
actuated by political feelings. His only motive for his mortal deed was personal.
Yet, writes Sir Samuel Eomilly, in his diary for 1812 — " Among the multitudes,
however, whom the news of so strange and sudden a catastrophe had soon collected
in the street and about the avenues bf the house, the most savage expressions of
joy and exultation were heard, accompanied with regret that others, and
particularly the attorney-general, had not shared the same fate." The public had
forgotten Lord Sidmouth, and his spy system, when he dropped off the stage ;
and when he died, made no sign. Mr. Charles Wynn, who attended Castlereagh's
funeral, writes to the Duke of Buckingham — " From being in the first coach I
could see little of the behaviour of the mob at the funeral ; but all that I saw
or heard was perfectly proper till the removal of the coffin from the hearse to
enter the abbey, when a radical yell was set up from St. Margaret's churchyard."
It must be remembered that Lord Castlereagh had been long Secretary at War,
and then Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and Lord Palmerston had served with him
from his entrance on official life. In some respects they had much in common in
their firmness, in their personal honour, in their opposition to democracy, in their
resolute endeavours to uphold the honour and dignity of their common country.
Lord Liverpool had been First Lord of the Treasury from 1812 to 1827. He had.
not retired from official life much more than a year when he died. He possessed,
say his admirers, great administrative intelligence, and exhibited unremitting
attention to public business, yet no one sorrowed at bis decease. Huskisson was
followed by a multitude to the grave, partly on account of the premature
shortening ofhis days just before, and partly for his expulsion from office, for his
support of a very mild attempt at parliamentary reform, by the Iron Duke, just
then not very popular. When Earl Eipon died no one remembered that he had
ever been Premier at aU. Since the beginning of this century, we find no statesman
who died so honoured and lamented all over the land as Viscount Palmerston, K.G.,
K.C.B., D.C.L., First Lord of the Treasury, and Lord Warden of the Cinquo
Ports.

CHAPTEE XL.
IN MEMOKIAM.
It is said that no man is missed in the battle of modem politics; that no sooner
is the place vacant than it is filled up; that immediately one leader is lost
there is another ready to head the advance. This is true ; but it is not all the
truth. Society is not quite so ungrateful as those who make such an assertion
imply. A lost leader still lives in the memory of his followers. The country is
not unmindful of those who deserve well of it. We cherish their ashes; we
decorate their graves. To them we consecrate the marble column, or the monu
mental brass. In this respect Lord Palmerston's ease is no exception.
On the 28th of the May following his decease, several members of both
Houses, and belonging to both parties, having met together at the Duke of Cleve
land's house, proposed the erection of a statue in the open space near the House ot

NATIONAL MONUMENT.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.

Commons, "to express the general respect for the character of Lord Palmerston;
the sense of his public services, and sorrow for his recent loss." In order to include
the largest possible number of the subscribers, no subscriptions were received above
£5 ; and it was intended, when the list was completed, to hold a meeting, and to
appoint a committee to carry out the object. Among the original promoters of
this scheme were Lord Stanhope, General Peel, and Mr. Walpole ; as well as the
Duke of Cleveland, Mr. Denman, and Mr. C. Buxton. The initiation here was
taken, not as in Canning's case, by noblemen and gentlemen not connected with
Lord Palmerston by any political or personal ties; but who were, nevertheless,
willing to charge themselves with the labour of collecting funds, and making aU
the preliminary arrangements on public grounds alone. It was felt that even if
the monument in Westminster Abbey, already voted by parliament, be finished in
a lifetime, it would not adequately represent a popular testimonial of respect.
Those who visit Westminster Abbey are few compared with those who pass through
Palace Yard ; and open-air statues, even when soiled by a London atmosphere, are
more effective demonstrations of national gratitude than a memorial such as partial
relations may award to any deceased persons, however obscure or unworthy.
Of course, when parliament met in February, the House testified its sense
of their loss by a vote for a national monument. It was on the 23rd that,
having gone for that purpose into committee, the ChanceUor of the Exchequer
said — "Mr. Do'dson, I rise for the purpose of placing in your hands a resolution
conformable to the terms of which I have given notice — namely, ' That an humble
address be presented to her majesty, praying that her majesty will give directions
that a monument be erected in the collegiate church of St. Peter, Westminster, to
the memory of Viscount Palmerston, with an inscription expressive of the public
admiration, attachment, and of the heavy loss which the country has sustained by
his death, and to assure her majesty that this House will make good the expense
attendant on the same.' Sir, I need hardly say that I anticipate an unanimous
assent and approval of the House. It is, indeed, true, and, more than that, it is
rather a marked feature in our habits, that the occasions on which parliament has
been asked to present addresses, or to take other measures contemplating the
erection of monuments at the public charge for the civil servants of the state, have
been very rare. The general rule of England is to leave it to friends, or to the
impartial estimate of public opinion to determine upon, and to select those
memorials which may be due to the fame, the virtues, and the performances of the
dead. But, in certain cases, parliament has thought fit, upon strong grounds —
narrow and well defined — to depart from its usual reserve, and to make the nation,
through the medium of its vote, the organ of expressing its opinion as to those
who have passed from among ms. So far as I know, there have been, in the last
hundred years, but three of these monuments voted to the civil servants of the
state. In the case of the Earl of Chatham and that of Mr. Pitt, votes of this kind
were made in regard of men whose historic figures tower above all their contem
poraries. It was done in the case of Mr. Perceval, who, Uke Lord Chatham and
Mr. Pitt, was Prime Minister of the country, and who lost his life in the actual
discharge of his duties, and in a manner to signalise the occasion, and naturally to
draw from parliament some marked and striking expression of its sentiments. In
the case of Mr. Canning, there was no public monument ; but another method was
adopted to testify the sentiment which the nation entertained. And now we come
to the case of Lord Palmerston. I think there can be little doubt — I think there
can be no doubt — in the minds of those who hear me, that the government have
judged wisely, and have but answered the general anticipation in the proposal
which they now make. Lord Palmerston was, like the three men I have named,
Prime Minister of this country; and although he did not attain to that high
dignity until what is for most men the decline of life — the age of threescore and
ten — yet, long before he had attained to it, he had been one of the most eminent
and one of the most famous of all the servants of the state ; and, after he had
808

a.d. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mr. Gladstone's speech.
attained it, it was his lot to hold it for a period of nearly ten years — a period
longer than that which it had been held by any minister, except two, during a
century and more. But it was not only the time during which it was held — though
that, of itself, constituted a remarkable distinction in the case of Lord Palmerston —
it was the general position which he held in the view of parliament and the
country — the place which he had established for himself in the feelings and recol
lections of the country, that led to our making this proposal. Now, sir, it would
be an entire departure from usage — and a usage founded upon precedents — if I
were to attempt, by any single word I can say, to make this tribute the tribute of
a ministry, or the tribute of a party, instead of being, as it really is, and as it
should be, the tribute of a parliament and of a nation. And I will refer but to
two points which I think were truly national in the career of Lord Palmerston.
It was his happy lot, as Foreign Minister and as Prime Minister of this country, to
be closely associated in that remarkable extension of constitutional freedom in
Europe, which has been among the happy characteristics of the present age. I
need not speak of Belgium; I need not speak of the Peninsula; but, as regards
Italy, I will venture to say that Lord Palmerston was one of the first and the most
prophetic of those who, in England, discerned the growing and the gathering
destinies of that country. And I believe it will not be extravagant to say, that in
Italy itself, his name will claim a place by the side of, and on a . level with, the
most distinguished native statesmen. It was the lot of Lord Palmerston to be the
minister who brought to an honourable conclusion a war which taxed severely the
energies of the country, undertaken for no narrow or selfish purpose, but aiming
solely at preventing a breach of principles that are necessary for the safety and
well-being of all Europe. And although it happened, and fortunately it hap
pened, that the war was arrested at an early stage — at a stage when the resolution
of the country was, as it were, but stirred from its depths, and the resources of the
country were perfectly unbroken — yet the English people were contented to stop
in their career, and to receive, with entire satisfaction, the conclusion of a peace,
wise, moderate, and considerate in its character. And I believe it is a correct
opinion, that the people were led, in no small degree, to that favourable view of
the negotiations and to the conclusion of the war by the confidence which they
reposed in the nobleman who was at the head of the state. But there was another
topic of life-long interest to Lord Palmerston, most thoroughly national in its
character, and most vitally associated with English history, which it would be
unpardonable not to mention upon this occasion. I mean the deep and unfailing
interest which, at all times, and in every position, Lord Palmerston took and
exhibited — not by words merely, but by acts — in the fate of that unhappy race, the
African, whose history is, for the most part, written in blood and tears. It is
needless to go into details. There is nothing more truly brilliant — there is nothing
more conspicuous or better known in his career, than that, in every step of these
negotiations, the mind, the heart, and the voice of Lord Palmerston, were ever
enlisted on behalf of that down-trodden, but, at length, rising race. Well, sir, I
think the House will agree with me in desiring to avoid all doubtful points. I
presume to say that Lord Palmerston had the reward of his untiring zeal, of his-
immense energy, and of his long-continued labour (to use the terms of the address),
in an amount of public admiration and attachment— I might even substitute for
attachment a warmer term — I might certainly add, the admiration, and attach
ment, and public trust— such as, when we consider its extension throughout the
country, and its duration for so many years, surpasses that which has fallen to the
lot of any other statesman who has borne office in our time. It would be an entire
mistake to suppose that that attachment was limited to any class, to any party, or
to any portion of her majesty's subjects. It prevailed in the upper classes, among
the aristocracy, to which Lord Palmerston belonged by blood and character; it
pervaded the powerful and intelligent middle classes; it descended into the ranks
of the humble and earnest labourer. In all these ranks alike his character and
VOL. II. 3 G 809

MR. GLADSTONE'S SPEECH.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1866.
services were favourably and warmly appreciated — I believe in a higher degree,
and for a longer period, than those of any other civil servant of the crown. Sir,
in this place it is impossible not to cast back a thought upon the. influence which
he here exercised. All we who knew him knew his genial temper, and the courage
with which he entered into debate; the incomparable tact and ingenuity; his
command of fence ; his deUght — his old English delight — in a fair stand-up fight.
And yet, notwithstanding these powers of debate, there was no man whose inclina
tion and habits more led him to avoid whatever could tend to exasperate, and to
prosecute whatever could calm down animosity. He had the power to stir up, but
he chose rather to appease. Like the old sea-god in the iEneid,
" Quos ego — sed motos prsestat componere fluctus."
The position of Lord Palmerston in this House was not due to any laboured or
artificial rhetorical distinction. There are many of us who recollect the year
1850, and who know to what height and excellence the parUamentary oratory of
Lord Palmerston rose. That was a great occasion, when we were all ranged on one
side or the other. I myself occupied an honourable position in the ranks
opposite to him on that particular question ; but never can I forget the sentiment
of admiration with which I, not distinguished from others, but showing what was
felt by every other man, listened to him throughout that long summer's night — I
was humbly opposed to him at the time — when, with unparalleled courage, and
¦extraordinary cleverness and felicity of argument, he went, point by point, through
the foreign policy of England (which is the policy of the world), and satisfied the
House upon the points which had been raised against him. Sir, the character of
Lord Palmerston as an orator, and his character as a man, are not to be determined
by me. I can still, however, but give myself the pleasure of noticing what always
appeared to me to be one of the most remarkable qualities of his oratory, though
perhaps the words in which I shall express my idea may raise a smile, through their,
appearing so simple and so matter-of-course. The most remarkable characteristic,
in my opinion, of Lord Palmerston's oratory, distinguishing it beyond that of all
other men, was the degree in which he said precisely the thing he meant to
say. I may be wrong, but I don't think I have ever seen that precision of
measure and strict identity preserved between the process of the mind, which is
always in advance during the address of a public speaker, and the terms and
accents which the tongue supplies for the purpose of conveying that meaning to
their intelligence. I have never known that so exactly exhibited as in Lord
Palmerston. Sir, as I have said, it is not our manner to draw a portrait in this
House. It is all too soon. That is the business of the public opinion of the
oountry, and of those who shall hereafter record the history of the times in which
Lord Palmerston had so distinguished and so conspicuous a part. But we have
all seen, and I think we must all desire to record, now that we associate him, not
only with our admiration, but with something of a tender feeling, the sense which
we have of the extraordinary courage, and the almost unexampled force of wUl, by
means of which Lord Palmerston was enabled to commence the office of Prime
Minister and leader of this House at the age of seventy, and to hold it until he
passed fourscore years. For my part, I think they are mistaken who consider that
it was only the providential blessing of a good constitution which enabled Lord
Palmerston, while out of doors, to discharge the labours and duties of his office ;
and, in doing that, set an example of indefatigable attention to the business of
the country. I am convinced that it was the force of will, with the sense of duty
and the determination not to give in, that enabled him to make himself a model for
all of us who yet remain, and follow him with feeble and unequal steps in the
discharge of our duty. It was that force of will that did not so much struggle
against the infirmities of old age, but actually repelled and kept them at a
distance. And one other quality there is that may be noticed, without the
smallest risk of stirring in any breast a painful emotion— it is the most delightful

A.D. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [mr. disraeli's speech.
and the last which I have to mention : it is this — that Lord Palmerston had a
nature incapable of enduring anger, or sentiment of wrath. There may be those
who would lead us back to the old philosophical puzzle — which many of my right
honourable friends will recollect — the question whether there can be virtue without
self-restraint. There are those who hold there cannot be virtue without self-denial ;
and as in the perfectly good man there is no self-denial needed — if such be virtue,
virtue dies at the moment it attains perfection. But, sir, the true answer to that
puzzle is the case of Lord Palmerston, where this freedom from wrathful sentiment
was not the result of a painful effort, but the spontaneous fruit of the mind ; it
was the noble gift of- his original nature — a gift which, beyond all others, it is
deUghtful to record, delightful to observe, and delightful to remember, of those
who are now- passed away, and with whom we have no longer to do, except in
endeavouring to profit by their example, whenever it can lead us in the path of
duty and right, and in bestowing upon them those tributes of admiration and
affection which they deserve at our hands. With these words I venture to commend
the resolution I have proposed to the friendly — I may almost say to the warm and
enthusiastic — notice and approval of this House. The rest I leave to the historian,,
who has hereafter more fully to record the deeds of Lord Palmerston. I leave it,
above all, to the admiring and affectionate recollection of the nation."
Mr. Disraeli, after a pause, rose, and was received with cheers from the
ministerial benches. He said — "I was in hopes that this motion might have
been seconded by some one who had the honour of sharing the private friendship
of Lord Palmerston, and who at least participated in his political career. But as
no one has risen, I must say I cannot, without reluctance, permit a motion of this
character to pass in absolute silence on this side of the House, as if we did not
share in the address to the crown, and vote it with the utmost cordiality.
Whatever differences of opinion there may be upon political questions, sixty years
of pubUc service — always distinguished, sometimes illustrious — cannot be permitted
only to be cherished by the admiring, and even, perhaps, the grateful feeling of
the country. It is most befitting and most proper, under these circumstances,
that in the chief sanctuary of the realm there should be some outward and visible
sign to preserve the memory of a statesman, of whom it may be said, that he
combined in the highest degree two qualities that are seldom found united — energy
and experience. I will not touch upon the personal qualities of Lord Palmerston ;
but this I will say, that they were most engaging. I trust that . the time may
never come when the love of fame may become the sovereign passion of
our public men. But, sir, I still think that that statesman is to be peculiarly
envied, who, when he leaves us, leaves .not merely the memory of his great
achievements, but also the tender tradition of personal affection and social charm."
Mr. Beresford Hope did not rise to object to the proposal now before the
House, but simply to put in a plea that the monument of the great man whose
talents they desired to commemorate, should be worthy of the noble pile in which
it was to stand. He expressed a strong hope that government, in fixing upon a.
design for the monument, would see that the sculptor was not aUowed to follow his
own will, and introduce allegories, cupids, tritons, and other monstrosities such as
they found disfiguring so many of their public monuments.
Sir J. Pakington expressed a hope that no unseemly delay would occur in the
erection of the monument. Many years ago a monument was voted to the Duke
of WelUngton, but it was not yet completed. He trusted so unreasonable a
delay would not occur in this instance.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer explained that he had omitted to mention, in
his remarks, that a .precedent had also occurred in the case of Sir Eobert Peel,
when the House followed the course which he was now asking it to pursue.
The motion was then agreed to.
In the ancient town of Eomsey — a town to which the name of Palmerston
bad given such celebrity— it was also felt that something should be done to per-
3g2 811

press opinions.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1866.
petuate his memory. The abbey church of that town is one of the most famous
in the pleasant county of Hants. It was built in Norman times ; it guards the
ashes of the famed Sir W. Petty, the illustrious head of the Marquis of Lans-
downe's family ; it has been fortunate in the character of its clergy ; and it was
near Lord Palmerston's ancestral residence. When in the country it was rarely
that he was absent from its service ; and all loved to see the Premier of England,
with his distinguished countess, taking part in the service of the sanctuary, and
joining in the worship of Him, who, as Lord of all, views with equal eye the
peasant and the peer. It is in such circumstances that we see country life
in its best aspect. In our Protestant form of worship there is but little
room for — " The pomp that charms the eye,
Or rites adorned with gold."
We need no elaborate and costly interior, no showy ritual, with its candles and
incense, and gorgeous altar, and elaborate genuflexions. Him whom we worship is
a spirit ; and He has told us He must be worshipped in spirit and truth ; and hence
it is that no devotional mind complains of the bareness of our churches ; of the
simplicity of their service ; of the rude responses of the clerk, and of the untrained
accents of the provincial choir. Lord Palmerston might have avoided the service.
He might have urged business as an excuse, or objected on grounds of taste, as
fine gentlemen and ladies are often apt to do. He did nothing of the kind ; and
all the Eomsey people were wont to see him constant in his attendance at their
parish church, frequently accompanied by his noble and illustrious guests. No
sooner, then, had his lordship died, than a meeting was held af; Eomsey, at which all
the leading townspeople assembled ; and where it was unanimously resolved that
Eomsey should have its memorial to his lordship ; and that memorial should be
connected with the abbey church, where he had worshipped so many years.
The Honourable Mr. Cowper, Lord Palmerston's step-son, had, as was natural, taken
a great interest in the undertaking; and under his superintendence, and in
conformity with her ladyship's wishes, Eomsey will ever be associated with the
name of her most distinguished townsman.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
In England it is by the press that we express our sentiments. We quote some of
the leading journals and reviews, for the purpose, then, of collecting the testimony
of the nation. We commence with the British Quarterly .- —
" Lord Palmerston, even in his later years, evinced a remarkable insight into
the opinions and requirements of the day. The Eadicals, indeed, tell us that he
was merely a survivor of a former generation of politicians ; yet we never heard
from them any other evidence of their assertion than that he was an opponent
of parliamentary reform. To judge from the experience of the past few years, it
would certainly seem as though the majority of the public were not less anti
quated in their opinions than himself. Not, indeed, that the public were averse to
a certain amendment of the representation if it could be had ; and Lord Palmer-
s|on appears to have been fully alive to the defects of the system in 1832.
What, however, is undeniably unpopular is a Eadieal measure ; and the Conser
vative power in this country is, apparently, too strong to admit of its being
carried. Lord Palmerston had learnt by experience that, when a ministry took up
the reform question, it was impossible for it to stop precisely where it would. He
was, no doubt, indisposed to lessen the aristocratical influence in the House of
Commons. What, however, divided him from the Eadicals was, perhaps, a want of
personal sympathy quite as much as a difference on definite measures, for he
showed himself anxious to support all beneficial reforms except parliamentary
reform. This absence of personal sympathy on both sides served latterly to widen
812

A.D. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [notices of the press.
the contest between him and Mr. Gladstone. The Eadicals have made the present
Chancellor of the Exchequer their idol ; Lord Palmerston was the idol of all parties
but the Eadicals. This comparative independence of the trammels of party — this
elastic power of adaptation — this flexible turn of mind, which rendered him
intellectually as well as physically young in old age, formed, no doubti a large part
in his continuous success. But there were other attributes which stood him in
equal stead. He had a sternly defined sense of right; a generous and even
chivalrous spirit, which imparted in turn a winning self-denial to his character ;
and a resolution in emergencies to do what he held to be his public duty, let
the results be to himself what they might. No better instance on this head can
be taken than in his conduct to Lord Aberdeen in 1855. * * * * Enjoying,
in his later years, the immense personal authority of the Duke of Wellington, he
had the love of the public as well as their admiration. He possessed a singular
faciUty of attaching his friends. He never forgot or lost sight of them. With
private friends and political friends it was the same. He was one of the kindliest
gentlemen among us. His manner was equally genial and sincere. His buoyant
spirits, even at eighty years of age, seemed to refresh every one who came into
contact with him. But those who had any public business to discuss with him
noticed how surely the joke and the smile they had caught a moment before, were
replaced by earnestness and gravity, as well as the apposite knowledge and close
reflection he would bring to bear on the subject before him."
The Westminster Review says — "In conclusion, our summary of Lord
Palmerston's career is, that he was not merely a great man, but a clever man ;
that, according to Coleridge's classification, he was not a man of genius, but a man
of talent; that the sympathy he felt, through his happy temperament for all
varieties of human mind, gave him a command of the House of Commons, and of
the general public, that no man of splenetic mood could ever have compassed. He
was genial, generous, manly, and, in many other respects, the representative of the
best side of English character. But while he was neither so logical as the typical
Frenchman, nor so profound as the typical German, he was eminently practical ;
and, for his day, the best exponent of English thought and feeling that could be
found." The Edinburgh Review, in an article from the pen of the Lord Advocate,
Mr. Inglis, had by far the ablest sketch of the deceased statesman. It occurs in
an article on the extension of the franchise. The writer says —
" If Lord Palmerston was a type of an Englishman, he was in many, both of
its every-day and rarer aspects, a model of official life. Nature was lavish to him
of many gifts ; and it is the lot of few to bring to the public service that strong
will, that iron constitution, and that charm of manner which stood him in such
stead during more than fifty years of official life. But he had other qualities,
homelier it is true, but not the less essential to the position which he attained —
which, in degree at least, are within the reach of all. There could be no better
school for statesmen than the attentive study of Lord Palmerston's rise to
greatness. " It has been said that Lord Palmerston's success was due not so much to any
surpassing ability, as to a rare combination of ordinary qualities. But the remark,
although in some respects true, is superficial. Probably his greatest peculiarity was
the equipoise of his powers, which gave them an air of complete symmetry, and
somewhat baffled the estimate of them in detail. He possessed, also, a union of
quaUties which seldom exist together in equal excellence. That a man should be
really both grave and gay, both witty and earnest, devoted alike to the routine of
office and the love of sport and of society— in short, that a statesman should be
both merry and wise, shocks the pedantry of the public. And the public are so far.
in the right, that it requires unusual powers to effect the combination, and these
Lord Palmerston possessed. .
"This element has led, we think, to an imperfect and perhaps unjust apprecia-
813

notices of the press.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1866.
tion Of his real eminence. He had, it is true, two qualities, ordinary enough in
their nature, but which lay at the foundation of much of his success — namely,
industry and simpUcity of character. . The first sprang mainly from the last.
There probably never was a man in his exalted position so free from conceit or
self-assertion. He was essentially a modest man in his estimate of himself; and
woke up, comparatively late in life, to a consciousness of what his powers could
effect. The result of this temperament was to preserve him entirely from that
snare of clever men, the notion that he knew anything by intuition. Whether the
matter was great or small, he never supposed that he understood it till he had applied
himself to master its details ; nor did he ever imagine that he knew more of it
than another, until he had ascertained that he did so. This habit of accurate
investigation, pursued during half a century of official life, had not only stored a
retentive memory with an immense amount of information, but had given his
mind a power of close and rapid generalisation which he knew he could trust,
because it always worked on secure materials. Therein lay one secret of his
success; but when he had the materials within his grasp, his rapid power of
sifting was of the rarest and most remarkable quality. His mind was supposed to
be merely practical, because he only gave out his practical conclusions ; but, in
reality, he had great powers of subtle analysis ; the main distinction between him
and reasoners more apparently philosophical, being, that with him the process
was entirely internal, and he thought the product only worthy of pubUe
elucidation. " A remarkable instance of his characteristic assiduity, which was prominently
open to public observation, was the resolution with which, in 1855, he set himself
to master the forms of the House of Commons, and the details of its ordinary
business. He had been untU then chiefly a departmental minister ; and when he
had found himself at the head of the cabinet, and leader of the House, he discovered
that even his long experience of that body had not rendered him familiar with
many of its usages. Most men at the age of seventy would have been content with
the general knowledge which they possessed, and to trust the rest to subordinates
or chance. But his sense of duty, and his habits of thorough work, allowed of no
such course. He set himself to learn the routine of his new position with the
same patient investigation with which, more than forty years before, he had
mastered the details of the War Office. Early and late was the Premier in his
place ; one of the first to come, and one of the last to leave. Day after day saw
him before half-past four ; night after night did the summer morning find him at
his post. His first appearance, as leader of the House of Commons, was not
entirely successful; but, by the end of the session of 1855, he had effectually
grappled with and overcome the difficulty. He continued what he had thus com
menced throughout the whole of his premiership; nor was it until a very few months
before the close of his last session that failing health compelled him to relax it.
" Those who doubt or question his power of acute analysis would do well to
study — for some of them are stored with comprehensive views as well as valuable
information— his speeches on the international questions which, from time to time,
have been discussed in the House of Commons since the close of the Crimean war.
He evinced in these discussions a grasp of general principle, a perspicacity of
reasoning which the greatest lawyers in the House might have envied, and which,
in point of power and cogency, gave his views a value far beyond those of any other
lay member of that body. If these speeches are ever collected they will be found
to constitute a repertory of pubUc law, cleared of all technicality of language or
thought, but replete with maturity of reflection, and appUed with simplicity and
force to the actual cases which arise.
^ " Another popular impression in regard to Lord Palmerston is, that he was
inclined to treat matters of grave import with levity. This was especially the key
note of those who desired to disparage him during the last year of the Crimean
War. The public, however, very soon discovered that no accusation could be more
814

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [opinions of the press.
unjust. * * * * In Palmerston's views of the service he owed to the queen
and the country there was not a tinge of levity.
"Two other traits of his inner political character we may mention — elements
very necessary to a great leader of men. He was entirely fearless, and he never
deserted a subordinate. He came to his convictions deliberately. His well-
balanced mind and temperament had little in it of the impulsive. He thought
without excitement and without passion; but the conviction once attained,
the resolution once taken, he never looked back. He might be swayed by the
public once — before his determination was made, but never afterwards. And
having himself a strong sense of the. responsibility of office, he had sympathy
for all under him; and his counsel in difficulty, and his support under im
putation, were never failing — the only sure way to obtain hearty and zealous
service." Nor must we omit here the opinions of the leading journal. The Times, of
October 19th, 1865, wrote as follows : —
" One of the most popular statesmen, one of the kindliest gentlemen, and one
of the truest Englishmen that ever filled the office of Premier, is to-day lost to the
country. The news of Lord Palmerston's death will be received in every home
throughout these islands, from the palace to the cottage, with a feeling like that
of personal bereavement. There is not a province in our vast colonial empire, and
there are few civilised nations in the world, whieh will hear, without an emotion of
regret, that Lord Palmerston no longer guides the policy of England. Never
again will that famiUar voice be heard in the councils of Europe, or in the British
senate, of which he almost seemed a part ; never again will that native gaiety of
spirits enliven the social circle in which he loved to move. The death of no other
subject could have left such a void in the hearts of his countrymen, for no other
has been identified so long or so closely with our national life. Born in the first
year of Pitt's first administration, and some years before the downfall of the old
French monarchy, he had witnessed the whole drama of European politics in the
nineteenth century, and in the most important scenes of it had taken a leading
part. So extended and so various an experience in state affairs is almost without
a parallel in history ; and the vigour of mind and body which enabled him to lead
the House of Commons when he had passed the age of eighty, has certainly been
given to very few in ancient or modern times.
"He who could win and keep a commanding position in this free country for
more than half a century of foreign wars and domestic changes, against formidable
opponents, but without making a personal enemy, who could increase in prestige
and parUamentary address with advancing years, and who died Prime Minister,
enjoying to the last the full confidence of the sovereign and the people, must have
possessed one of those rare combinations of quaUties which men call greatness.
His almost unique success raises Lord Palmerston above the ordinary level of his
contemporaries, and places him in competition with the most eminent of his
predecessors. Judged by this standard, he must be allowed to have fallen short
of that heroic type of character which we associate with a few— very few— historical
names. He had not the splendid oratorical genius and daring spirit of Chatham,
the lofty magnanimity of Pitt, or the constructive ability of Peel. His name will
not be remembered in connection with the triumph of a grand cause, nor was his
Ufe devoted to the development of any single idea; and yet he was a great man,
unless that title be confined by an arbitrary limitation to a prescribed class ot
moral and intellectual virtues. In everything but rhetorical accomplishments--
classical graces of diction— he was more than the equal of Canning, his early friend
and leader. In poUtical knowledge and practical acquaintance with all the depart
ments of state, he was greatly superior, not only to Canning, but to all tannings
successors, if we except Sir E. Peel. In familiarity with the labyrinthine compli
cations of modern European diplomacy, he excelled all living politicians at home
or abroad. In the art of distinguishing the prevailing current of pubiic opinion, m

opinions of the press.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
readiness of tact, in versatility of mind and humour, in the masterly ease with
which he handled the reins of government, and in the general felicity of his
political temperament, he had no rival in his own generation. To these gifts,
however, he added an unwearied application to duty, which would itself have
earned him a high position in the state. The secret and source of his great
popularity was his boundless sympathy with all classes of his countrymen. He
was a truly large-hearted man, and moved among men and women of every rank
as one of themselves. His unfailing good-humour and inexhaustible animal
spirits, if they obscured to some extent his more solid endowments, not only carried
him through anxieties under which many a younger man has sunk, but endeared
him to all who came within their influence. Nor was this kindness and affability
merely superficial. It may not be generally known, that when an attempt was
made on his life by a crazy officer at the War Office, his first act was to draw a
check for the expenses of his assailant's defence. That act was characteristic of
the man ; and Englishmen were proud of him, not so much because he bearded
foreign despots in his prime, or exhibited marvellous physical activity in his old
age, as because they believed him to be a stout-hearted and benevolent statesman
of the good old English stock. They did him no more than justice. Lord
Palmerston was, perhaps, too little of an optimist, and too little of an ideologist ;
but he had our interests and the interests of humanity at heart ; he had an utter
hatred of oppression and wrong in every shape, and a genuine desire to redress
every practical grievance.
" He has left none like him — none who can rally round him so many followers
of various opinions — none who can give us so happy a respite from the violence of
party warfare — none who can bring to the work of statesmanship so precious a
store of recollections. It is impossible not to feel that Lord Palmerston's death
marks an epoch in English politics. ' The old order changeth, yielding place to
new.' Other ministers may carry into successful effect organic reforms from
which he shrunk ; others may introduce- a new spirit into our foreign relations,
and abandon the system of secret diplomacy, which he never failed to support ;
others may advise her majesty with equal sagacity, and sway the House of Commons
with equal or greater eloquence ; but his place in the hearts of the people will not
be filled so easily. The name of Lord Palmerston, once the terror of the
continent, will long be connected in the minds of Englishmen with an epoch of
unbroken peace and unparalleled prosperity, and cherished, together with the
memories of the reign of Queen Victoria."
We extract a criticism, of a less genial character, from the Fortniqhtly Review,
October, 1866. y a
" Just this time last year Lord Palmerston died. After sixty years of official
life, passed first in one then in the other camp of political warfare, he was supposed
to know all the secrets on both sides, and to have such an accumulated stock of
practical wisdom, that his decision in political matters was sure to be correct. His
fiat was accepted by nearly the whole English nation; that is to say, all that part
of the English nation which is educated and thinking, and possessed of political
power. He'endorsed Lord Eussell's axiom, to rest and be thankful ; and the nation
did rest during the whole period of his premiership. It may be a question
Whether we are not now paying severely for this long holiday. During Lord
Palmerston's life, we had an opportunity of settling, in a peculiarly advantageous
manner, the difficult questions which now surround us. He possessed a weight and
authority with both political parties, such as no longer exists. Had he really
earnestly pressed any measures on the House of Commons, they would almost
instantly have been carried; but his nature was light and insouciant; he hated to
look forward to the future, and the nation was only too happy to shirk its duties,
and lay on him the responsibility * * * * Lord Palmerston was too indul
gent a leader. His followers were allowed a perpetual ' delices de capoue.' In his
time the House of Commons was— as it had been before the Eeform Bill— a most
816

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [opinions of the press.
agreeable club. No hard work could possibly be done ; the minister was omni
potent ; serious questions were laughed aside ; experienced old Whig ministers
knew exactly how Uttle they could do without losing their places ; the public
money was voted lavishly ; and members started off, after unfruitful sessions, to
their various amusements. * * * * When Lord Eussell and Mr. Gladstone,
last year, succeeded Lord Palmerston in the direction of affairs, they found the
whole poUtical system relaxed, and too many professing Liberals considered that
matters could not continue as they were. . They had a nominal majority of seventy,
andthey thought it was to be wielded at will. • They imagined they strengthened
themselves by taking into their confidence some gentlemen of the ultra-Liberal
party, whereas they really frightened and disgusted the mass of their supporters.
They had earnestness and energy without tact ; whereas Lord Palmerston had tact
without earnestness or energy."
From abroad came criticisms on his lordship in abundance. We first quote
the Journal des Dibats : — " Entering public life at a very early age, at the
beginning of the century, he has never since ceased to take an active part in the
affairs of his country. We shall subsequently consider, in a special article, this
long political career, sometimes so brilliant, often contradictory as to the princi
ples and means employed, but immutable in its inspiration, which was to serve the
interests of England at any price. It is this, without speaking of the remark
able talents of Lord Palmerston, which explains the popularity he enjoyed up to
the last moment among his countrymen ; and certainly, if anything in the world
ever was sincere, it is the unanimous regret expressed this morning by the English
press — upon this point a very faithful echo of public opinion. We at least are not
singular in considering the policy of Lord Palmerston as having nearly served its
time, and as no longer responding to the ideas and. wants of the present day ; but,
in addition to his other merits, the celebrated minister possessed that of being
pre-eminently English. He was English from his heart, by instinct and by intel
ligence. He loved England passionately; and we ought to add, to the praise of
our neighbours, that similar temperaments are not rare among them."
Another French paper, the Constitutionnel, observed — " For a statesman, old
age, when physical only, is a source of strength, and a prestige. Then, the more
the years accumulate, the more. youthful remains the popularity. Such was the
case with Lord Palmerston. He has grown older and greater, and he has not been
driven from his post of Prime Minister by fatigue or want of confidence, but by
death. No one thought of reminding him of the song of old Simeon ; his_ eighty-
first year was surrounded with respect and reliance, and thus were recognised the
services he had rendered, and those he might yet perform. In presence of his
tomb we will only remember the readiness with which the noble lord, in 1851,
recognised the new order founded in France under the great name of Napoleon.
We will only call to mind the policy which gave birth to the treaty of commerce,
and to which is due the brotherhood of the soldiers of France and England on the
fields of battle of the . Crimea, and in the extreme East. The popularity which
Lord Palmerston enjoyed for sixty years, and the regret with which his death
inspires his countrymen, are naturally explained by the consideration that his
principal virtue was always love for his country. Whether his ideas happened to
be just or not, whether he was timid or adventurous, whether he was right or
wrong in his judgment of the allies, adversaries, or rivals of England, he was
always guided by his British patriotism. Let us not reproach him for that; but
let us rather admire, and at the same time try to imitate him— let us be French,
as Lord Palmerston was English."
According to La France— "The esteem felt in France for the character ot
the illustrious minister has caused his contradictions to be frequently passed oyer;
and the imperial government more than once preferred to modify its .original
views rather than compromise the elevated object which the cordial understanding
of the two great western nations is pursuing. But apart from the hesitation which

opinions of the press.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
was attributable more to early prejudices than to strong convictions, how many
fine qualities, how many potent ideas, how much energy and address were there.
not in Lord Palmerston ! He was a political genius of the completest and widest
scope. He was a statesman, a legislator, and a great debater ; he held in his hand
all the strings of European diplomacy, and never allowed one of them to escape
into the domain of chance. But, above all, what a subtle and delicate intellect !
What humour ! What a genial and ever youthful delivery, notwithstanding his
eighty-one years ! The loss England has sustained in him is immense. With him
disappears the last representative of the politicians who were contemporaries of
the republic and of the first empire. Is it • a system which descends with him
into the tomb ? The future will teach us."
The Opinion Nationale wrote — " During the sixty years that he has entered
into political life, he has never ceased to occupy, either in power or in opposition^
an important place. A rare mixture of prudence and decision, of suppleness and
vigour, has kept him for more than half a century in the foremost rank of British
statesmen : he combined, in the highest degree, the qualities and the defects of
his country, which loved to recognise in him one of the most finished examples of
the English character. Latterly, every rumour, every discussion ceased around him;
it seemed that Great Britain had grown old with her First Minister. His death
will probably be the signal for a new classification of parties ; and if the foreign
policy of England is not likely to be changed, internal questions, and especially
electoral reform, are likely to demand a large share of attention. France does not
lose a friend in Lord Palmerston. Still we cannot announce his death without
paying a last tribute of respect to the eminent statesman, who, sometimes our ally,
sometimes our adversary, will be known in history as one of the accomplished
types of an English gentleman and statesman."
One more extract will suffice. Lord Palmerston had done much for Belgium ;
nor was his death unnoticed there. The Independcmce Beige, in an article after
his decease, said — " His loss will be considered as a public calamity. The promp
titude, the pliability, and the infinite resources of his mind — his courage in
meeting face to face, sometimes with jaunty raillery, more apparent than, real,
difficulties and dangers before which other statesmen recoiled— a valuable aptitude
in presaging the fluctuations of public opinion, and in following them when the
interests of England or those of his own ambition advised ; — these were the quali-^
ties which, during a most active political career (he was in parliament at the age
of twenty-three), had made Lord Palmerston the most popular man in his country,
and, finally, the keystone of the arch which maintained the balance of parties in
that period of transformation through which England, and Europe with her, are
at present passing."
Thus did the newspapers write when it was announced that Lord Palmerston
was dead— an event which, in the language of the Journal de St. Petersbourg,
did " leave an immense void in the counsels of the queen, and did produce, in the
three kingdoms, one of those profound sensations which leave a mark of emotion in
the history of nations."

CHAPTEE XLI.
CONCLUSION.

Our laborious task is at length completed. We have followed Lord Palmerston
from the cradle to the grave. "Few and evil have been the days of my Ufe,"
said the patriarch. The triumphant statesman would have made no such reply. ,
818,

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [broadlands.

In 1835, Frederick Von Eaumer, professor of history at the university of
Berlin, visited this country. It was at a time of great political excitement, when
the angry passions created by the struggle for reform had not passed away. Sir
Eobert Peel had endeavoured to carry on the government, but in vain ; and the
Whigs returned to power. The professor, who visited all parties of the nobility,
in recording Lord Melbourne's premiership, observes — "Why all the several
posts are filled as they are, and no otherwise, can only be satisfactorily answered by
the initiated ; but Lord Palmerston's appointment by preference to the post of
Secretary for Foreign Affairs, proves that his popularity (which was not great
before, even in England) has increased, precisely because he is disliked by the great
northern powers. On this ground he has, perhaps, a better chance at this election
than at the former ; most assuredly, all insinuations from abroad will be thrown
away upon English electors." At that time, then, we may infer that not only
was Lord Palmerston not the slave of Eussia, but that he was regarded by her
with no friendly eye ; and it was on this unfriendliness that he founded any little
claim to popularity whieh he then possessed. The instincts of the nation, and of
the northern powers, were right. Lord Palmerston was no friend to the latter,
nor to ^the system on which they ruled. He believed in parliamentary govern
ment — in the nation ruling itself by means of its ablest or most influential men ;
in short, in public opinion. They, on the contrary, defied public opinion ; regarded
it as the monster evU of the age, and sought to rule alone by force.
Another merit of Lord Palmerston was his nationality. Though the wearer
of an Irish peerage, he was EngUsh to the back -bone. On the banks of the Liffey,
in the immediate vicinity of Dublin, is the small irregularly built village of
Palmerston. At the present time, pleasant villas and mansions are around'': one
of them, Palmerston House, overlooking a rfoh and extensive landscape, is now
the residence of the Earl of Donoughmore ; but it was with England, and more
especially with Broadlands, Eomsey, that his lordship was more intimately connected.
The district is now essentially an agricultural one : before then, there had been, in
the good old times, a great abbey there, which, after being nearly destroyed by the
Danes, was graduaUy rebuilt for the reception of nuns, and gained distinction.
One of the chief personages connected with it, was the wife of our Henry I. — " the
good Queen Maud." Another was the unfortunate Princess Mary, daughter of
King Stephen, who was, for a time, lady superior ; who then renounced her vows
to marry the Count of Boulogne, but was compelled by that proud priest, Thomas
a Becket, to leave husband and child, and die sad and sorrowful at Montreuil. . The
sisterhood has long been gone ; not a vestige of cloisters or conventional buildings
now remains; but the old abbey church yet stands, and there the townspeople
worship as of yore. Lord Palmerston was a liberal benefactor at the time of its
renovation. The structure is essentially Norman in outline and appearance, of the
style preceding the middle of the twelfth century. It embraces a nave and choir,
with aisles, an eastern ambulatory, a transept, with chapels, and a central tower,
from which there rang out a merry peal in the autumn of the year 1784, on the
occasion of the birth of the future Premier of England. To that church he was
wont to repair when at Broadlands. There his father and mother were buried;
and there, about eleven years ago, the ashes of his only brother, Sir W. Temple,
were interred; and then the family vault, in the interior, was closed, and the last
and greatest of the Temples chose for himself a resting-place still amongst his
neighbours, in their new cemetery; and there he would have lain had not the
nation willed, for her leading statesman, a more fitting and more honourable
resting-place. Eespecting Broadlands itself, a few particulars are not out pf place here.
Soon after the dissolution of the religious houses, the estate passed into the hands
ofthe St. Barlie family, in whose possession it remained upwards of two centuries.
From them it was purchased by the second Viscount Palmerston, who erected the
present plain but elegant mansion, on an eminence rising up gently from the
8 1 17

romsey.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
banks of the Test. The second viscount, though holding office in the political
world, made no figure in the state ; but he mixed, as we have said already, with
men of letters and artists, and collected a fair gallery of old masters at his country
seat. A few months after his death, we find Sir Harry Englefield writing to Miss
Berry — « I hear that Lady Palmerston is in very good health ; and when she sees
her friends, which is but seldom, very tolerably cheerful. Lord Minto saw her the
other day at Broadlands, which, by-the-bye, has had a narrow escape from fire.
The furniture of one bed-chamber was quite burnt." As, at this time, the
youthful lord was nearly ten years old, we may presume that he was thankful for
the preservation of the mansion, to which he was to lend such a lustre. Of the
joys of home, in consequence of the early removal, by death, of father and mother,
he could have known but little. Nevertheless, he remained faithful to Broadlands
to the last.
As a neighbour, a Eomsey townsman, Mr. Lordan, has thus spoken of him —
"While regretted by parliament, the nation, and all liberal governments, by
none is his loss more sensibly felt, and by none will his memory be so affectionately
cherished, as by the humble men "and women around his birth-place, whose only
personal knowledge of him was as he appeared in private life — the model of a
landlord, master, and neighbour. Familiar as he was with the policy of every
cabinet, and with the secrets of every Court in Europe, he well understood the
wants and feelings of the sons and daughters of toil in his own service, and con
nected with the homesteads around him. While managing, also, the affairs of the
realm, he could find opportunity to meet them; occasionally distributing, in
person, the prizes awarded by the Eomsey Labourers Encouragment Association,
to male and female servants for skilled industry, long servitude, or general good
conduct. He was the president; and discharged the duty with singular urbanity,
kindly and wisely counselling the successful candidates respecting the instruction
of their children, and the comfort of their homes. Many a Joe and Harry, Sue
and Sally, has he sent away the happier for a prize, because of the friendly words
and manner of the distributor. In estimating the character and merits of Lord
Palmerston, it must never be forgotten that, with despatches from ambassadors,
and, sometimes, letters from sovereigns in his pocket, with an influence at his
command co-extensive with the empire, and reaching far beyond its limits, he
acted out the sentiment expressed in the opening line of the old song —
" ' Be gentle to the lowly born.' "
It was this neighbourly, friendly feeling, this readiness to oblige and assist
every one — high or low, rich or poor — that made Lord Palmerston immensely
popular. No one ever went to him in vain. Men who believed- his lordship to be
all that was bad — who denounced his foreign policy, or who had no faith in him
as regards home questions— were always pleased when they came into contact with
him. They found him so ready to meet their views, and to do, if possible, all
that was required. — We have referred to his exertions on behalf of Kossuth. . It was
the same in the case of Garibaldi. When the latter was wounded at Aspromonte,
application was made to Lord Palmerston, who exerted himself in every possible
way, and placed the resources of government, so far as it was requisite, at the
"service of the friends of the hero. No one could live long in the metropolis
without hearing of some little act of courtesy and kindness on the part of Lord
Palmerston. Hence it was that he had such friends ; that to support him was a
passport to popularity and political power ; that speculative tradesmen and enter
prising builders were glad to make use of his name — a name familiar to every
quarter of the globe. We have seen it stated that there is a Cape Palmerston on
the eastern seaboard of Australia, and that the waters of the South Pacific wash
the shores of a Palmerston Island. Oerveg, the German, called the vessel he
launched on the African lake Tchad, the Lord Palmerston — the only barque ever
afloat upon its surface.
820

A.D. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [popularity of palmerston.

The Bible denounces a woe to those of whom all men speak well. It is to be
hoped and believed that from this calamity Lord Palmerston was free. His
career was altogether an exceptional one. A steady friend of progress and consti
tutional liberty, he was never a man of extreme opinions ; and, in later years, so
great had been his geniality, so fortunate his rule, so universal his popularity,
that, while the Liberals rallied round him as their chief, the Conservatives, many
of them — such as Mr. Newdegate, for instance — preferred him to their own party
leaders. Worldly people liked him for his gaiety, and evangelicals adored him on
account of what they deemed the excellence of his episcopal appointments.
Writing the day after his decease, the Standard, the organ of the English Tories,
said— ," We did not all agree with him; we could not all approve his policy or
support his administration : but we ali loved him ; we were all proud of him ; and
we shall aU mourn him. In that House which was wont to greet his appearance
with a universal cheer, which ever listened with respect to his clear manly tones,
and admired the vigorous frame and resolute spirit which work could not fatigue
and age could not bend, every heart will be heavy at the thought that the gallant
old man will appear among them no more. Those who knew him only by sight
or reputation as a statesman in whose hands all felt that the honour of England
was secure, and in whom men of all parties reposed a personal confidence rarely
accorded to an individual minister — who honoured. him only as Englishmen honour
a man who has done England good service during a long and well-spent life — will
feel as if they had lost a friend. Men who cared little or nothing for politics, and
men who most differed from his politics, will yet be moved as by a personal
sorrow when they know Lord Palmerston is gone. Seldom, if ever, has there been
a party leader whose death was so universally and so deeply regretted. * * * *
Lord Palmerston, though the chief of a great political party just emerged from the
heat and passion of a general election, is not less regretted by his opponents than
his foUowers : around his grave there will be no distinction of Liberal or Con
servative." Certainly the .phenomenon here recorded does appear strange. We
are told no man can serve two masters ; nevertheless, friend and foe, Conservatives
and Whigs, trusted in Lord Palmerston as their common head. Yet his lordship
was neither a traitor nor a humbug. The real truth was, he was never very
much in earnest ; and that lack of earnestness, that desire of his to keep things
comfortable and pleasant to the last, just suited the age in which he lived. His
easy temperament, as a writer in the Examiner remarked, so charming in private
life, made him tolerant of many things which fretted less accommodating spirits ;
and the same gaiety of heart, that if adversity had been his lot, would have made
light of his own misfortunes, manifested in public affairs, was often construed to
betoken unbecoming levity or unfeeling concern.
" Life is a jest, and all things show it ;
L thought so once, and now I know it,"
seemed, in the opinion of many, a fitting epitaph for the noble viscount when he
was gathered to his fathers; but the inscription would have been more fitting for
the first than the second premiership. Nevertheless, to the last he displayed that
tone of levity, that lack of earnestness, that readiness to accept the conditions
of the case, or the circumstances of the time— qualities which, while they produce
no lofty heroism, are often very useful in enabling a man to overcome all diffi
culties, and to make things pleasant to all parties. Such was the man. He never
could have been a Chatham — gloomy, imperious, dazzling, and erratic —
" Resolved to ruin or to rule the state."
But he never would have sunk so low as a Bute or a North. Lord Palmerston
made the best of everything. He took nothing seriously to heart. _ He obeyed
the poetical injunction, to look always on the sunny side. It was not m his nature
to see, in a gloomy Ught, what was susceptible of a less displeasing view. He had

popularity of palmerston.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
the sunshine -of the breast that coloured all around. By temperament he was a
Tory, and was contented to let things be, and to make no effort for improvement
or reform. Policy and principle made him a disciple of progress. His mind was
curiously balanced for the great success of his career. If he had been more or
less conservative on the one hand, or more or less liberal on the other, he would
have lacked the hold he had on opposite parties, and the support he derived from
it. It was thus the Liberals marched under him to victory, and that the Tories
preferred him to their more legitimate chiefs. They never forgot that, fhough
termed by Sir Eobert Peel a pure old Whig, Lord Palmerston had begun Ufe as a
Tory, and as a Tory of the worst school. His father was the friend and supporter
of Lord North in all the folly and frenzy of that unfortunate statesman's career.
Mrs. Delany writes, as far back as 1772 — "Lord Temple (that is, the second
Viscount Palmerston), they say, told Lord North he believed him so honest and
able a minister, that he should give him no more trouble." The son outgrew this ;
but for thoroughgoing opinions, one way or the other, he had no fitness : he
would probably have failed either as an extreme Liberal, or as a thoroughgoing
Tory. " Every one, by nature," writes genial Walter Mapes, " has a mould .that
he was cast in ;" and the mould in which Lord Palmerston had been cast was not
certainly that of an advocate of extreme Opinions, one way or the other. In one
thing he resembled Lord North : he had his good temper, and forbearance, and
perseverance ; and thus he rose. It was not till Palmerston had been thirty years
in office that he took any rank at all. No one gave him credit for what he was.
It was the same with Lord North. " See," said Charles Townshend, when Chan
cellor of the Exchequer ; " see that great, heavy-looking, seeming changeling ; you
may believe me when I assure you as a fact, that if anything should happen to me,
he will succeed to my place, and, very shortly after, come to be First Commis
sioner of the Treasury." The person here alluded to was Frederick, Lord North,
and the prediction was exactly fulfilled immediately on poor Charles's death. Nor
was Townshend the only person who. foretold his rise. George Grenville, walking
with another gentleman in the park, met the future minister, apparently
rehearsing a speech. " There comes blubbery North," said the latter to Grenville ;
" I wonder what he is getting by heart, for I am sure it can be nothing of his
own." " You are mistaken," replied Grenville ; "North is a man of great promise,
and high qualifications ; and if he does not relax in his political pursuits, he is
very likely to be Prime Minister." Like the great Whig Duke of Newcastle,.
Lord Palmerston had a longer official career than any of his contemporaries ; but
then the duke's parliamentary patronage was great; and, in Lord Palmerston's
time, the House of Commons had been reformed, and there were difficulties in
consequence in carrying on the government, with which the duke had not to deal.
Ministers who had unlimited supplies of secret service money at their disposal, or
who had all the pocket boroughs in the kingdom under their thumb, had a way of
carrying their measures, of which we, in this age, can scarce form an idea. The
peace negotiated by Bute, in his first year of office, cost an enormous sum of
money, and Lord Holland opened a regular office for the purchase of votes.
Many an M.P., thought by his constituents to be an independent member, we
now find was in the receipt of a regular income from government. It was thus
' ministers managed to remain in office in the Duke of Newcastle's day. In some
other things, besides length of official life, we find Lord Palmerston did resemble
the duke. He was courteous, affable, accessible, humane, a warm friend, a
placable enemy. He both wrote and spoke with ability and readiness. He was
one of the, personally, most disinterested men of the day. The Earl of Albe
marle thus describes him:— "He understood clearly our relation with foreign
states. His views of civil and religious freedom were in advance of his age, and
he acted on them whenever his fears, his jealousies, or his ambition— a most com
prehensive exception, indeed— permitted his opinions to affect his conduct." But,
as regards popular estimation, Lord Palmerston has been the more fortunate of
822

a.d. 1865.] ' VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [its causes.

the two. "Forty-six years of public service," writes the Earl of Albemarle,
'Shave procured for the Duke of Newcastle notoriety rather than reputation. Few
portraits, indeed, have been sketched by so many unfriendly hands. Smollett,
King, Glover, Chesterfield, Walpole, Waldegrave, Doddington, have each assailed
him in turn. He was, in fact, the butt against which contemporary ridicule
levelled all its shafts. That he was fretful, busy, interfering, unmethodical, and
self-sufficient; that his demeanour lacked dignity, and that he mistook expedients
for principles, cannot be denied. Indeed, his numerous unpublished letters, to
which I have had access, rather corroborate than weaken the fidelity with which
these traits have been delineated. But his contemporaries would see only the
superficial and ridiculous points of Newcastle's career; they would not do justice
to his many sterling good quaUties." In this respect certainly Lord Palmerston
had the advantage. No man was more flattered by his contemporaries. Of none
were there fewer unkindly things said. It was in vain that Mr. Cobden said there
were irreconcilable differences of opinion between himself and his lordship which
would ever prevent his taking office under him. It was in vain that Mr. Bright
denounced him as a sham, and considered the worship of his lordship by the middle
class pubUc as the most remarkable delusion of the age. It was in vain that
Mr. Urquhart pointed to treaty after treaty, as an illustration of the complicity of
Lord Palmerston with Eussia, for the degradation of his native land. In parlia
ment the confidence in his lordship was as great as ever ; and, out of doors, his
popularity was unchanged. Partly this may be explained by the open manner in
which our public men Uve now. A hundred years ago it was very different. Men
always suspect what they do not understand. They knew that there was plotting,
and secret influence, and widespread- corruption ; that principles were bartered for
place and power ; that commoner and peer alike used their personal influence for
private and personal ends. Hence there were always those ready to regard the
minister of the day as the most loathsome creature of the age; as deficient in
every virtue, as tainted with every crime. In our time there is more light let in
on pubUc affairs. Our newspapers extract knowledge from every quarter, and
circulate it everywhere. The Eeform Bill, in a great measure, put a stop to par
liamentary corruption. The invective of a Junius now would but create a smile ;
nor would the satire of Churchill meet with a better fate. Old things have passed
away ; all things have become new ; the situation is completely changed. It may
be that a plausible speaker, or a clever tactician, gets more than his fair share of
applause; but, at the same time, justice is done to persevering industry, and
integrity, and' talent; and unlimited devotion to the public service is sure to
meet with its reward.
The reader must not entertain the idea that the possessor, of the, premier
ship is the greatest and wisest of mankind. We are sometimes told this is a great
self-governed country. Our constitution is the growth of ages, and has attained a
perfection of which Locke despaired, and of which Hobbes never dreamt. The
franchise, we were told, is a trust, and is placed in the most trustworthy hands.
Our elections are the envy of surrounding nations. The ablest men of the com
munity, irrespective of their wealth, or want of it, are selected as candidates. On
the day of nomination, in the plain garb of citizens, without music, or flags, or
demonstrations of party feeling, they appear upon the hustings. Their speeches,
in plain but lofty language, comment upon the men and movements of the day.
They declare the principles upon which they act, and upon which they deem the
government of Great Britain and its imperial dependencies should be carried on.
To these. speeches the utmost attention is paid by an attentive and discriminating
audience. A show of hands then takes place. The best man has invariably the
majority; the others immediately retire ; and the constituents^ satisfied that they
have done their duty, return home. The representative, in his turn, becomes a
unit in another assembly, where he meets some 600 gentlemen similarly elected,
as the very flower of the intellect and patriotism of the nation. They select
o2o

POPULARITY OF PALMERSTON.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.

from among themselves, to form a cabinet, the ablest and wisest ; and their head
is the wisest and ablest of the lot. If this be the true theory of the constitution,
of course there never was such a man as Viscount Palmerston : but,- alas ! the case
is different. Our parliaments are too often elected by intimidation or bribery, or
by some little dirty clique, sitting in a bar-parlour, and choosing, not the best man,
but the one who will spend the most money. And as to our statesmen, they are
chiefly chosen from the aristocratic class, as Englishmen dearly love a lord. This
system compels us to a kind of Hobson's choice. This was singularly illustrated
during Lord Palmerston's career. When Lord John Eussell was in one of
his usual messes, and found that he could not carry on the government, and Lord
Derby had been appealed to, and had given a similar reply — if Lord Palmerston
had not condescended to be our saviour, the whole machinery of the state would
have been thrown out of gear, and we should have been plunged into all the
horrors of a parliamentary dead-lock. Hence Palmerston became Premier; and
when, as a sexagenarian, he descended into the political arena, and exhibited all
the ardour, and courage, and vivacity of youth, men were first astonished, then
enraptured, and saw, in the old age of the wonderfully preserved nobleman, a
guarantee for every grace and virtue under heaven. We read in Luther's Table
Talk — "Maximilian one day burst into a great laugh. On being asked the cause —
' Truly,' said he, ' I laughed to think that God should have trusted the spiritual
government of the World to a drunken priest like Pope Julius, and the government
of the empire to a chamois hunter like me.'" We have it in evidence, that, an
idea of this kind used to flash through Lord Althorp's honest brain. . Lord Mel
bourne had some such idea ; and surely, in his retirement at Broadlands, Lord
Palmerston, when he found himself, at the head of the state, must have laughed as
heartily as Maximilian himself. However, as amongst the governing classes, pro
motion goes by seniority, Lord Palmerston's turn came at length, and he was not
a man to lose it when he had a chance ; and there were one or two reasons why, as
Premier, he should attain a popularity such as few men had before, or may hope to
have again.
We have already indicated, as one cause of his popularity, his wonderful age.
This is a greater advantage in statesmanship than at first sight it appears to be.
Anacreon sang — " The women tell nie every day
That all my bloom has passed away.
' Behold,' the pretty wantons cry,
' Behold this mirror with a sigh ;
The locks upon thy brow are few,
And, like the rest, they're withering too.'"
But, in politics, age is not the disadvantage that it is in love. A man's wisdom
ripens with his years, as his wine. We thought the late Marquis of Lansdowne a
Nestor because he had reached the appointed threescore years and ten. A man a
long time engaged in political affairs learns much ; gets an insight into the state
of men and parties ; understands the personal likes and dislikes of all around him ;
quotes precedents; is listened to respectfully by younger and, it may be,
better men ; and, in fact, becomes an authority. On one occasion, in the
old unreformed days, a Scotch member complained that they had a short man as a
leader in the House of Commons ; and this was a great disadvantage, as a tall man
could be seen, and there could be no mistake as to following him into the lobby
when a division took place. In a sense, an old statesman is a tall one, and is a
guide to the many who need one.
Again, it was a great advantage to his lordship that, for the principal part of
his career, he had been mixed up with foreign rather than with home politics ; and
had thus avoided shocking the prejudices, or coming into collision with the
instincts of any powerful class of his own countrymen. Undeniably, John Bull is
very vain — not of himself, like a Frenchman, but of his nation. The Chinese term
824

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [its causes.

us barbarians ; the Eomans spoke of all not under the sway of the imperial eagle
in a similar manner; and we use the same kind of language with regard to
foreigners. "It is a grand country, this!" exclaims the enthusiastic but
grumbUng Briton ; while he abuses its laws, its customs, its institutions, and its
climate. Lord Palmerston spent half a century in repeating this cry for the edifi
cation of foreign Courts. England has been the model which he has asked
France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, Austria, Eussia — to say nothing of count
less smaller principalities and powers, no matter the difference of religion, of
custom, and of race — to imitate and admire. Well, people liked this. We were
glad to hear how our ships and men-of-war had carried matters with a high hand.
We admired the spirit and audacity of the Palmerston despatches. It made us
feel that we were a great people ; and when we went up into the temple to pray, we
did it ostentatiously, like the Pharisees, thanking God we were not publicans and
sinners. It was flattering to our national vanity to have a finger in every pie. In
sober truth, it does not seem that the cause of good government abroad was much
aided by our independence ; and the oppressed nationalities too often bitterly rued
the day when they appealed to the sword, in the faith that, after all that the noble
viscount had written, England's arms would uphold them in their attempt prac-
ticaUy to apply England's principles. More than once, the good luck rather
than the discretion of the Foreign Secretary, saved us from hostilities that might
have been attended with unpleasant results, in consequence of his tendency to
lecture and remonstrate. But people did not see this. All that they did see was —
what they admired— a show of strength and vigour, as if the arbiter of Europe was
England's pugnacious and vivacious Foreign Secretary. To most men, now, the
great feature of the Palmerston foreign poUcy is its unintelligibility : but such
was not the opinion entertained at the time by the intelligent but beery patriots of
Finsbury, the Tower Hamlets, or Marylebone. Foreign Secretaries must follow,
not lead the course of events. We must leave people to fight their own battles.
It is true now as ever, that those
" Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow."
The world wUl move on ; its dark places will be made light ; its crooked places
straight; the wilderness shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose; the lion and the
lamb shaU Ue down side by side ; but we nowhere read that the millennium will
be ushered in by diplomatic struggles, or by the protocols and despatches of the
EngUsh Secretary for Foreign Affairs. Deeds are better than words ; example is
stronger than precept. England will better teach the nations how to live by
raising herself, by looking at home, than by delivering lectures to statesmen
abroad. Nevertheless, people did not think so when Lord Palmerston was Foreign
Secretary : they admired his pluck, and his daring, and his success ; and thus it
came to pass, that as the advocate of British constitutionalism and British honour,
the noble viscount reached the very pinnacle of popularity.
And yet people were much disappointed when they got a ticket for the
strangers' gallery, and had a peep at Palmerston, the statesman. Was it possible,
they exclaimed, that that old gentleman seated on the Treasury bench, with hat
pulled down tightly over his eyes, arms across his breast, and one leg thrown over
the other, was the man who had lectured, and browbeaten, and outmanoeuvred all
the crowned heads of Europe ! Nor when he rose to speak was the stranger's
regard increased. Mr. Windbag, the popular lecturer, felt that, as an orator, he
could take the shine out of his lordship any day; and the last importation from
the Little Pedlington Literary Institute, grew ambitious as he contrasted his lord-
Bhip's oratory with his own. There were no fine sentiments ; no beautiful figures;
no impassioned appeal; none of the thunder and lightning of genius. Yet a
skUful observer would have been amused with the briskness and pertness ot his
lordship's reply. Disraeli said Sir Eobert Peel played on the House as an old
fiddle. Palmerston did the same. His birth, his office, his experience, all made
VOL. ii. 3 h b^5

POPULARITY OF PALMERSTON.] ¦ LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
him feel at home in it ; and when he sat down there was generally a laugh, and
the questioner, somehow or other, was made to feel that he had done something
very foolish, though he scarcely knew what. It was seldom that his lordship was
more than this ; it was seldom that he soared into a higher strain. The House of
Commons loves plain, clear, business-speaking ; and Lord Palmerston was a master
of the House of Commons' oratory. In all his speeches there was the same pertness
and levity; the same eagerness to settle the question with a joke; the same
skilful adaptation to the prejudice, or the knowledge, or the interests of the House.
It was seldom that he rose above this level; very seldom that he became pas
sionate and overpowering. As an orator, he was surpassed by many; as a worker,
by none ; and, after all, it is the man who works, rather than he who talks, who
wins the day. The old schoolboy phrase is true — Labor omnia vincit.
Lord Palmerston's power of work was immense ; and it was this which won
for him his position, fie devoted himself to the House of Commons, and the
House repaid him with its confidence. He never trifled with the business of the
House — never assumed the airs of a Lord Dundreary ; or, like the late Lord Mel
bourne, assumed an epicurean indifference which he did not feel. Whatever he
did, he did thoroughly. As War Secretary, as Foreign Secretary, as Home
Minister, as Premier, he did his best on all occasions, whether the business in
hand was the appointment of a tide-waiter, the fall of a dynasty, or the fate of a
nation. " When Lord Grenville was in the height of his power," writes Horace
Walpole, " I one day said to him, ' My lord, as you are going to the king, do ask
him to make poor Clive one of the council.' He replied, ' What is it to me who is
a judge or who a bishop? It is my business to make kings and emperors1, and to
maintain the balance of power in Europe.' " Now, Lord Palmerston would never
have made such a silly answer. Whatever was worth doing, he considered was
worth doing well. In his home, as well as his foreign policy, he equally aimed at
the national heart. An Englishman must be comfortable, or he cannot live. His
favourite word is " comfort," and it represents an idea for which in vain you consult
foreign dictionaries for a synonym. The two great evils of life are — if popular
proverbs may be quoted as authorities — a smoky chimney and a scolding wife. By
his active interference in the matter, Lord Palmerston got parliament to forbid
the one, and to pass a measure to enable the wretched victim to free himself of the
other. The Divorce Act will always remain a proof of the noble viscount's activity
and perseverance. Night after night he and his Attorney-general, Sir Eichard
Bethell, had to fight the battle alone, in circumstances under the pressure of which
a man of feeble will would have given way. When Lord Palmerston became
Home Secretary there was another sore evil under the sun. In all our towns,
population had planted itself most densely in the neighbourhood of the church
yard, and the result was, the living were poisoned by the dead. Some of the
clergy, fearful of losing their vested interests, and deeming cash more precious
than human life, opposed the removal of this fearful nuisance ; but, in spite of
them, Lord Palmerston persisted in shutting up the churchyards as burial-places,
and humanity gained the day.
A Jolly? good-tempered man can never be unpopular; there wiU always be
people who believe in him to the last, as did the Irish in O'Connell, till disease
and age had taken from him his beaming face, and his ready tongue. The Man
chester weavers were to be forgiven their faith in Orator Hunt for a similar reason.
In the same way, in the House of Commons, such men as Lord North, or Sir
Eobert Walpole, were so long able to hold their own ; and we may remark here^ in
a parenthesis, for the same reason, Mr. Gladstone and Earl Eussell have so signally
failed as chiefs of parties. Lord Palmerston had not the hereditary claims of the
one, nor the talents of the other ; but they could neither of them maintain their
ground without his aid. In the world a little civility goes a long way ; the reserved
genius always standing on his dignity, can never hope to have many friends.
Here, let it be observed, that in these days of public meetings, when, to
826

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [its causes.
please their constituents, members of parliament often appear upon platforms, at
which their private friends never expected to see them perform, and are tempted
io express coincidence with opinions which they cannot be supposed very ardently
to hold, it was greatly to the credit of Lord Palmerston that such a fault cannot
be laid to his charge. His must be the merit of cheerful honesty. He never
sought to appear other than he was ; and, till the last few years of his life, was
less than any man of his position before the public. He never went out of his
way to seek their applause. He never held himself up to the world as a great and
gifted exemplar, or as a paragon of wisdom and virtue. The Record, indeed, in
its enthusiasm, and, it may be presumed, at the suggestion of Lord Shaftesbury,
intimated that he was the man of God, because he made low churchmen bishops;
but Lord Palmerston himself never laid claim to so sacred a character. On the
whole he paid remarkably Uttle deference to the particular whims and fancies of
an enlightened British public, and especially was rather given to snub it, when,
as regarded diplomatic mysteries, it wanted to know too much. Lord Palmerston
never was what his democratic admirers thought him. Like Wilkes, he never was
a Wilkesite. The lover must blame, not his mistress, but his own heated imagina
tion, when he finds the idol of his fancy plain and commonplace^ Beery and
muddled readers of newspapers had no reason to complain when they saw their
model statesman — their Magnus Apollo — their guide, philosopher, and friend —
resign office rather than give them votes. The British public dearly love a lord
who will take the chair at Exeter Hall : his lordship never did such a thing in his
Ufe. They love to believe children tainted with original sin : Lord Palmerston
boldly denied the dogma. The Scotch clergy have great faith in prayer : Lord
Palmerston candidly declared that cleanliness was a more effective means of
keeping off the dreaded attacks of cholera. And yet he was popular. The last
American traveller, who has published a book on us (Mr. Field), writes — " An
American can hardly believe his senses when he sees the abasement of soul which
seizes the middle classes in the presence of a lord. They look up to him asa
superior being, with a reverence approaching to awe." There is some truth in
this; and it was to the credit of Lord Palmerston that, on all occasions, as much
as possible, he avoided trading on this feeUng.
The good temper of his lordship had, perhaps, as much to do as anything
with his long hold on parties inside the House and out. In this respect his lord
ship resembled the late Joseph Hume. It was rarely you could put him out.
Thin-skinned men are never popular. Some men are very ready to give punish
ment, but very reluctant to receive it. For instance, there is Lord Derby,
who, when in the Commons, was always in a mess— always quarrelling with some
one or other— always jeopardising the existence of the cabinet. When, as Lord
Stanley, he was a member of the first Whig cabinet, and in the House of
Commons in 1839, a writer says—" Stanley hits very hard, but he does not inflict
so much as he feels. See him when he has sat down, and some opponent is
lashing him in turn. At the commencement he. probably sits m a lounging
position, with his feet cocked up on the table— an attitudinous elegance which he
has probably learnt in America— and with an expression of mockery and supreme
contempt upon his features. As his castigator proceeds, however, the feet axe
taken down, and forced under the seat— he tosses up his head— whispers to his
neighbour— laughs— then seizes some parliamentary paper, and, bending his elbows
on his knees, pretends to be deeply absorbed in it; but the smarting soon becomes
intolerable, and he either springs forward, and, without toe slightest reason, calls
the speaker to order; or, after starting to his feet, suddenly restrains *T!!™£
throws himself back again, opens and shuts his knees, and affords proof that _ carmofc
be mistaken of the severity of his sufferings, and the agony of his ™P^nc^
Earl Eussell -also winces and betrays very measy sensations when attacked m
spite of his attempts, always aided by the broad brim of his hat, to exhibit a
-stoicism which he certainly does not feeL Lord Palmerston seemed to take the
3H2

popularity of palmerston.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [a.d. 1865.
hardest hitting as a matter of course ; and latterly, we should fancy, slept through
a great part of it. In the ease with which he bore attack, he is resembled by-
Mr. Disraeli ; but the peer had the advantage of the commoner, in the fact that
his was an expressive countenance, and that it could show what was passing within.
The impenetrable countenance — calm as monumental marble, inscrutable as the
Sphinx — of the author of Coningsby, would lead you to suppose that the
possessor of it is insensible to the common feelings of humanity; that he
heeds not censure; that he cares not for praise; that he is unmoved by that
which excites the pain or joy of other and less-gifted men. Between two men
there could not be a greater contrast ; yet in this one thing they resembled each
other. They could receive as well as give. On one occasion an indignant patriot
was charging the minister of the day with the ruin of his country ; and, said the
excited orator, coming to the climax, " he sleeps now." " Ah," said Lord North —
for it is of him we write — to a friend on the Treasury. bench, " I wish I were." It
was the same spirit of bonhommie which gave the late Premier so much of his
power. He was too wise a man, and of too kindly a disposition, to be quick to
take offence, or to brood over imaginary wrong. A man of such a temperament is
everywhere happy, and is everywhere a leader, more or less, of his fellows.
Voltaire says men succeed less by their talents than their character ; and, as
a case in point, he instances Mazarin and De Eetz. In quoting the passage to
the Bishop of Llandaff, the late Lord Dudley said — " Walpole and BoUngbroke
make a similar pair in the next century ; Castlereagh and Canning are remarkable
examples of the truth of the maxim which our days have furnished." When good,
honest, heavy Lord Althorp led the House, a similar remark might have been
made ; and in Lord Palmerston's career, again, the remark of Voltaire was illus
trated. As an orator, how inferior he was to Mr. Gladstone ; but the latter was
only too happy when he was under his lordship's protection. It is absurd to deny
to Lord Palmerston the possession of talent of a high order ; and, as an orator,
some of his speeches were very famous in their day. He has made brilliant
speeches ; his pro-catholic orations were republished : the way in which he met
and put down the chartist orator, Julian Harley, at Tiverton, set all England in
a roar ; and his celebrated vindication of himself was one of the most successful
parliamentary efforts of modern times. Yet he never scaled the heights of
oratory — he never became one to stand side by side with the
" Grand masters
Whose mighty footsteps echo down
The corridors of time."
He never attained to the utterance of new and pregnant truths : genius never
threw around him her dazzling robe of light. He was a dexterous debater at the
best — skilful at fence — nothing more. He never could have done what his con
temporaries — Brougham, Sheil, O'Connell— have done. He never, like Demos
thenes, shook the arsenal, and fulmined over Greece. We shall never think of
him as we do of Bolingbroke, or Chatham, or Burke, and Pitt, and Fox. He never
shone as Canning or Macaulay did ; and was certainly inferior, in parliamentary
, oratory, to Peel. We question whether Lord John Eussell, in spite of his diminu
tive presence, and his stammering tongue, was not his superior ; but, as a whole,
Lord Palmerston was a match for all of them in readiness, in adroitness, in his
power to put his case well before parliament and the public at large. To the
living generation his lordship was scarcely known as an orator at all. What they
perceived and admired in him was the fitness of his utterance. There is a time to
speak, and a time to be silent ; and of that wisdom Lord Palmerston was an
admirable illustration. Another great thing about his lordship was, that he always
said just what he ought to bave said— neither more nor less; and it was for these
things, for his tact and mastery of expression, rather than for his possession of the
thoughts that breathe, and words that burn, that his lordship had become renowned.
828

a.d. 1865.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [its causes.

Another thing is noticeable : we never hear of his lordship blundering or dis
playing ignorance. Of no other statesman who held office so long, and was so long
in the pubUc eye, can a similar remark be made. Ignorance is not very rare in
our public men. There was the old Duke of Newcastle for instance. It is said,
on one occasion, Lord Ligonier earnestly pressed upon him the importance of
defending Annapolis. " Yes, to be sure, Annapolis ought to be protected," was
the reply. " Oh, yes, Annapolis shall be defended. By-the-bye, where is Anna
polis?" Then there was Sir Francis Dashwood, Chancellor of the Exchequer
when Lord Bute became First Lord of the Treasury. Besides his notorious immo
rality and eccentricity, his capacity was of the meanest character. His knowledge
of accounts, if we may believe his contemporaries, was confined to the reckoning of
tavern bills ; while, to him, a sum of five figures was an impenetrable secret. His
budget was received with shouts of contemptuous laughter. We remember
how, twice on one evening, Burke blundered in his quantities when quoting
Latin. We have heard of the great Eigby, how, on one occasion, he exclaimed,
in the midst of debate, "Sine Scelere et Baccho Venus friget;" and of his
indignant reply to Mr. Alderman Beckford, when he suggested the correct
quotation was Sine Cerere. Sir W. Wraxall tells us how the Earl of Hillsborough,
when Secretary of State for the Southern Department, was much discon
certed and embarrassed in the session of 1781, when called on officially, in the
House of Lords, to; explain or to justify the measures adopted in Bengal — an
embarrassment which arose from his ignorance of names, places, and circumstances
in that quarter of the globe. The same authority describes how the House of
Commons laughed when they first heard of Trincomalee. We all know the
mistakes the present Earl Derby (then Lord Stanley) made, when, to the amaze
ment of all sober people, he was asked to give up Shakespeare's historic plays, and
the Racing Calendar, and to govern the most complicated colonial system in the
world ; but then, as his lordship frankly confessed not very long ago, he was born in
the pre-scientific period, before education was thought of, or the schoolmaster was
abroad. Lord Palmerston might have made a similar excuse, and with better grace,
as he had the advantage of years ; but he never had occasion for such an apology.
It was seldom that he was caught talking about that which he did not understand.
It was rarely, if ever, he was charged with a slip of the pen or the tongue. As he
never soared into the heights of oratory, so he never descended to the depths of
bathos. He spoke of that which he knew ; and where he was ignorant he was
silent. Bom an Irish peer — certainly with Irish blood in his veins — he was re
markable in the possession, in an eminent degree of English propriety and
tact, and common sense, and good nature. In this respect he resembled Lord
North. Another advantage possessed by the late Premier was luck. He was undoubt
edly a lucky man. Cardinal Eichelieu always put the question, of any individual
in his service, "II est ne heureux?" We have families who are always unlucky.
Such were the Stuarts. We have men who are always unlucky, such as the
late Duke of Newcastle. Most pre-eminently unlucky, in our day, is the House of
Austria ; and equally so, in its personal relationships, is the royal family of Italy.
Even in the fact that his lordship has left no family behind him he is fortunate.
To the end of the history of our land, he will remain the Viscount Palmerston.
Nothing is more confusing to the student of English history than the simi
larity of names in the leading persons of the political dramas. There are two
William Pitts; there are two Lord Stanleys; there are two Earl Eussells. We
have Dukes of Bedford and of Eichmond without number, and the long list of
GrenvUles is still more confusing. We are equally perplexed with the Lord
Harveys, and Chesterfields, and the Walpoles, and the Keppels. We have had
more than one Earl Albemarle, and Lord Howe; and people are always making
mistakes about one or other of these celebrated personages, charging on the ratner
the deeds, or language, or sentiments of the son, and vice versa. Even tne sum-

concluding remarks.] LIFE AND TIMES OF [A.D. 1865.
larity'of names in our queens of the House bf Hanover, is too much for the
critics of the Saturday Review ; and they confuse the Carolines and the Charlottes
in a manner quite unjustifiable, considering the character and pretensions of the
iournal in which such ludicrous blunders occur. It was the late Lord Palmerston
who made his title- famous ; and there is no danger of its being confounded with
that of a more brilliant or more fortunate successor in a coming age. In all time
to come he will stand alone.
Already there seems opening up a gulf between us and the Palmerston epoch.
The great question of reform ofthe constitution, which he postponed, is now being
carried to a settlement on a wider basis than Lord Palmerston certainly would ever
have advocated, and by the very men whom his lordship had learnt to reckon — and
to reckon rightly — as the most persevering opponents of the measure. A marvellous
change has eome over the spirit of political society since Lord Palmerston's decease
 a change which does not appear to have been the result of principle — under the
influence of which a power has been given to the democracy of our country such as
not even Mr. Bright could have expected to have seen become law. Possibly, as
was the case with regard to the Eeform Bill of 1832, the hopes and fears of the
opponents or supporters of the measure will alike be disappointed : certainly the
effect will be to give a more popular character than ever to parliamentary
proceedings. The masses, now for the first time admitted to the possession of
political power, will require of legislation that, for the future, it should be more in
conformity with their interests. We may expect the aristocratic element in the
House of Commons to be proportionably weaker, and the tribunes of the people —
the Gracchi of the day — will wield more personal influence. Cabinets will be
formed on a very different principle to what they are now. A revolution, wide and
sweeping, has been effected.
In diplomacy especially, and in our foreign relationships, will this new spirit
make itself manifest.
There is, says a contemporary, a common and growing impression that the
importance of foreign ministers has decreased with the changing circumstances of
our day. There is mueh truth in this. Now that the whole of the civilised world
is connected together by the telegraphic wire, ambassadors have, to a great
extent, lost the initiative of action whieh formerly belonged to them of necessity.
We do not settle the affairs of Europe at the Hague, as we did when the first of
the Temples won fame and fortune. The occasions must be very rare, indeed, when
a diplomatist can be called upon to decide an important issue of foreign policy
without reference to the home government ; and what is a still more important
consideration, is the fact, whieh cannot be questioned, that daily the latitude of
action left to an administration is becoming less, as the power of the sovereign
people is becoming more. Not only in England, but in France, Germany, Italy,
and, to some degree, throughout the. whole of Europe, the policy of our country
towards foreign nations is mainly directed by the popular interest of the nation.
Ambassadors are the deputies of ministers who themselves are, more or less, under
the influence of public opinion; and the old days during which peace or war
depended mainly on the caprice or. will of an individual, have, with but very few
exceptions, passed away. But this increased power of the people is a guarantee of
peace rather than of war — of confidence, of friendship, rather than of suspicion and
hate. We fear our foreign secretaries and ambassadors have often created the
evils they affected to deplore, and have nourished the wars and rivalries it was
their duty to put down. Henceforth they will have to play a humbler and less
ambitious part.
We have said, with but few exceptions, such is the case. The one illustrious
exception, of course, is France, where the elect of the nation seems to hold all
power in the hollow of his hand. .Under the circumstances of the «ase, we see,
even in that fact, the prospect of a more powerful and lasting peace than would
result merely from diplomatic considerations. No one seems to us to have more
830

A.D. 1866.] VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [concluding remarks.
faith in the coming age than Louis Napoleon ; in which respect, as in man j others,
he was a complete contrast to Lord Palmerston.
All Europe shuddered at an attempt, which, had it succeeded, might have
involved it in a sanguinary struggle, of the extent or duration of which no one can
adequately form an idea. Had the bullet intended for the czar terminated the
career of Louis Napoleon, a blow would have been probably struck at peace and
order, the influence of which would have penetrated to every quarter of the globe.
Happily — we would say providentially, for there is a God in history — the attempt
failed ; the would-be assassin being loaded with the execrations of the civilised
community. " What," cries the press, " commit a crime in the name of Freedom !
murder an emperor for the fault of his rigime — how shocking and inhuman!"
The press is finding its way to a dim perception of the truth. If I am a criminal
because I take away the life of a man who deprives my country of her rights, and
condemns my brother to exile, to slavery, or death, what must he be who rudely
snaps asunder the ties which bind nations together — who robs Europe of its repose,
and sends forth his armed legions to pillage and destroy — to revenge, it may be, a
fancied slight, or to gratify a satanic pride ?
On the continent, no one appears to us to have a clearer perception of this
truth than the man in whose hands, humanly speaking, are placed the destinies of
France. In spite of the troublous times in which he has lived, and of the warlike
instincts of his people, he has not been slow to perceive how holier and nobler a
thing peace is than war, and to shape his policy accordingly. No one has accepted
the new era of peace and progress more willingly and loyally than himself. It was
in Paris that the first European sanction was given to the doctrine of arbitration
instead of war ; it was in Paris, and whilst the Times was hurling its fiercest in
vectives against its emperor, that Mr. Cobden was able to negotiate that treaty
which promises, in the course of years, to annihilate hereditary animosities, and to
convert our " natural enemies" into our natural allies ; and it was from Paris that
Europe was appealed to on behalf of a general congress, which would have healed
the bitter wounds which went on festering till Denmark was despoiled, and the
honour of Austria was humiliated in the dust. Bitterly has many a potentate had
to rue the day when, in an evil hour, he declined the offer of Louis Napoleon.
Surely he foresaw" the troubles about to arise, and raised a warning voice, in the
hope that it would not be too late. And now, once more, it seems to us he has
made an effort at a European understanding. Princes, and kings, and emperors
are his guests. Nations have been bidden to the gay capital, which, under his
imperial sway, has come to be the fairest and loveliest in the world. " Peace," he
says in reality, if not in words, " has beautified and adorned this city. The wealth
and splendour we exhibit to the nations are the fruits of peace. It was because
peace has prevailed that humanity has ripened under the teaching of religion, and
science, and law." There are those yet living who remember how the King pf
Prussia and the Eussian Caesar entered Paris at the head of a victorious army, and
as the companions of a king who was forced upon his throne by foreign bayonets.
But force is impotent against opinion. To how many settlements did Lord Pal
merston put his seal, which, before his death, were not worth the parchment on
which they were written ? Where is that treaty of Vienna which our Wellington
and Castlereagh laboured so hard to achieve ? Where is that Bourbon dynasty on
whose behalf were squandered such millions of money, and such hundreds ot
thousands of precious lives ? That settlement was weak as water, for it was the
work of the sword. Of course, we know not what is in the imperial brain. Louis
Napoleon is no chatterbox, and is certainly one of the most silent, as he is one ot
the most remarkable, men of the day. But we can fancy, if he permitted himself
to speak, it would be somewhat in this fashion :-" War is a thing of the past.
The soldier belongs to an. age of ignorance and jealousy conspiracy and
mistrust. It is not for the happiness or interest of peoples that great standing
armies should be maintained. Peace has her victories greater than those of war.

concluding remarks.] LIFE OF VISCOUNT PALMEESTON. [a.d. 1866.
What tiie soldier plants the soldier can uproot. It is only as nations cultivate
peace that they have leisure to grow rich and wise ; and it is only as a nation
becomes such that a ruler may expect to hand down his sceptre to princes yet
unborn." Dull, indeed, must be the~Bismarcks and Gortschakoffs of Europe, and
their royal masters, if they do not learn some such lesson as this from the French
Exhibition, and from the few but pregnant utterances of the French emperor. If
they have, their visit cannot have been altogether in vain. In spite of the splendid
festivities of which Paris has been the scene, some hours must have been devoted
to business — some time must have been made for mutual explanations and under
standings — some sort of kindly feeling must have been awakened, and some plans
of future action, some outline of a common policy, must have been hinted at
and agreed to : pad, in proportion as this has been the case, has war been averted
or postponed. The more profound is the peace, the more averse is the public
instinct to war. It is a great gain to Europe, when, from the gilded salons of the
Tuileries, comes the cry that the empire is peace.
Now let us look at home. Is it not time that our statesmen and diplomatists
cordially second the efforts of the French emperor ? On the continent, the public
lifts up its voice on behalf of peace. From Geneva, from Lyons, from Paris and
Berlin, the working classes send to each other addresses on behalf of peace. Can
it be that the workmen of the continent are wiser, and better able to read the signs
of the times, than our M.P.'s and leading statesmen ? If we are to judge from the
reports in parliament, and from the action of our governing classes, we are on the
eve of war. Our army and navy cost us more than ever; there is every chance
now of our volunteers receiving annually a larger sum from the national purse ;
and our manufacture of the implements of destruction is on the most gigantic
scale. The burden and the annoyance, and, we may add, the reproach and danger
of this state of things, is beyond expression. The impolicy is equally clear ; for if
we are thus burdening ourselves in time of peace, how can we meet the exigencies
of actual war ? He who has the courage to say this state of things must be termi
nated, will be the first to gain for himself the gratitude of Europe. The French
emperor has done much in this direction. We, of late, also have done somewhat.
The peaceful diplomacy of Lord Stanley saved France and Prussia from a
fearful war. The lesson is nearly learnt : national arbitration, and mutual dis
arming, is the logical sequence to the London conference, and the imperial policy
of France. Our old statesmen have much to unlearn ; our new men can better
understand the spirit of the age. When a Palmerston dies, the nation, while it
mourns, despairs not ; for a democracy is ever young, ever renewing its strength,
ever girding itself up for the work it has got to do. Therefore do we not fear or
despair, though the last of the Palmerstons sleeps in his splendid grave in West
minster Abbey, and history already, with its impartial pen, has began to trace his
Life and Times.

THE END.

INDEX..

iNTRonucTioN.— Progress of Great Britain, iii— vii ; our forefathers, viii, ix ; our Protestantism, x- alarm
at the French Revolution, xu ; Corresponding Society, xiii ; Mr. Wilberforce and society, xiv ; Burke's
reflections, xv ; Priestley, xv ; Birmingham riots, xvi ; peace, xvii ; results, xviii, xix ; terrorism at home,
xx, xxi ; hatred of Napoleon, xxii, xxiii ; the future, xxiv— xxvi j the Palmerston epoch, xxvii— xxxii.

Abbot, the Hon. Charles (vol. i.) 119.
Aberdeen, Lord (vol. i.) 293,365, 632; his foreign
administration, 787, 789 ; Premier (vol. ii.) 66,
77—79 ; fall of, 123.
Abyssinia (vol. ii.) 471.
Addington in office (vol. i.) 74.
Administrative reform (vol. ii.) 130.
Afghan affair, the (vol. i.) 560, 566, 563, 574—577,
580.
Africa, Ashantee war (vol. i.) 243 ; (vol. ii.) 470 ;
Cape of Good Hope (vol. i.) 242 ; the Cape
(vol. ii.) 14—16 ; Kaffir war, 18—26.
African Association, the, 632 ; Sir F. Buxton, 632 ;
the Niger expedition, 633 — 635 ; African Civilisa
tion Society, 636 ; the Nile, 637.
African discovery, Speke and Grant (vol. ii.) 631,
638, 639 ; Bruce, 631.
Agapemone, the (vol. ii.) 536.
Agricultural classes (vol. i.) 53, 112 ; (vol. ii.) 327.
Albert, Charles (vol. i.) 801, 804, 808.
Albert, Prince (vol. i.) 595 ; his character, 596 ;
letter to the Duke of Wellington, 597 ; his person,
599 ; his farming, 601 ; as a father, 602 ; his
speeches, 603—609 ; death of (vol. ii.) 404, 405 ;
funeral, 406 ; on German unity, 464.
Albuera (vol. i.) 130.
Algiers and Lord Exmouth (vol. i.) 157, 158.
Allen, Lord (vol. ii.) 481.
Alliance, the holy (vol. i.) 143.
Allies in London, the (vol. i.) 139.
Alpine climbing (vol. ii.) 640 — 643.
Althorp, Lord (vol. i.)461, 462.
Amazon, burning of the (vol. ii.) 528.
America (vol. i.> 11, 15, 19; peace with, 21, 23 ; war,
161 — 163 ; the Chesapeake, 164 ; Washington
captured, 164 ; New Orleans, 165 ; peace, 166 ;
Clayton Bulwer treaty (vol. ii.) 147 ; the Bay
Islands, 148.
America, civil war in (vol. ii.) 365; Kansas, 366;
Southern confederacy, 370 ; Bull Run, 371 ; the
Merrimac, 371 ; Southern success, 372 ; siege of
Charlestown, 375; Gettysburg, 375; success of
the North, 376 ; General Grant, 377 ; fall of
Richmond, 378 ; Mr. Seward, 381 ; Andrew John
son, 381 ; Alabama, 382 ; gallantry of the South,
383.
Amiens, peace of (vol. i.) 75.
Anderson, case of (vol. ii.) 347-
Army, expenditure of (vol. ii.) 647.
Army, Sir C E. Trevelyan on (vol. ii.) 685.
Art education (vol. ii.) 625.
Atlantic cable (vol. ii.) 241— 245
Auchterader case (vol. i.) 747.
Auckland, Lord (vol. i.) 562.
Austerlitz (vol. i.j 83.
Australian discovery (vol. ii.) 627, 628.
Austria (vol. i.) 823.

Baltic fleet, the (vol. ii.) 87, 117.
Bank charter (vol. i.) 449, 725.
Bank, Commercial (vol. ii.) 537.
Bank of deposit (vol. ii.) 537.
Bank, the Royal British (vol. ii.) 154.
Banks, speculation in (vol. i.) 465.
Banting, Mr. (vol. ii.) 613.
Barbadoes and Mr. Shrewsbury (vol. i.) 242.
Barclay and Co. (vol. ii. ) 594.
Baring, Mr. (vol. ii.) 668.
Bathurst, Earl (vol. i.) 470.
Belgian revolution, the (vol. i.) 352, 434 ; King
Leopold, 432, 434.
Bem, General (vol. i.) 829.
Bentham (vol. i.) 115, 468.
Bentinck, Lord George (vol. i.) 711, 712, 725, 736,
773; death of, 774.
Berlin decrees (vol. i.) 85.
Bernard, Dr. (vol. ii.) 224, 227-
Berry, the Misses (vol. i.) 619; (vol. ii.) 484, 485.
Birkenhead, loss of the (vol. ii.) 529.
Bishop of London (vol. i.) 506.
Bishops' palaces (vol. i.) 509.
Bishops, retirement of (vol. ii.) 150, 151.
Bismarck, Count (vol. i.) 820—822.
Blakeley's guns (vol. ii.) 621.
Bohemia (vol. i.) 823.
Bonapartist feeling in France (vol. i.) 517; the
Bonaparte family, 63 ; Bonaparte consul for life,
77 ; emperor, 81, 96 ; his surrender, 133 ; his
fall, 136; exile, 137; death of, 138; his remains,
518.
Boyd, Mr., murder of (vol. ii.) 28.
Braddon, Miss (vol. ii.) 601.
Bradfield reservoir, the (vol. ii.) 543 — 546.
Brand, Mr. (vol. ii.) 297-
Bribery at elections (vol. ii.) 654 — 658.
Bridge-building (vol. i.) 325.
Briggs, Mr., murder of (vol. ii.) 346.
Bright, John (vol. i.) 690, 691 ; (vol. ii.) 650.
Brisbane, Sir T. (vol. ii.) 616.
British exports (vol. ii.) 595—597.
Brooke, Rajah (vol. i.) 776—778.
Brooke, Miss (vol. ii.) 483.
Brougham, Lord, his speech on orders in council
(vol. i.) 161; on Princess Caroline, 201; on
Missionary Smith, 241, 410; his career and cha
racter, 367 — 369; his Reform Bill, 370; anti-
slavery speech, 423.
Broughton, Lord (vol. i.) 580.
Browning, Mrs. (vol. ii.) 486, 487.
Brummell (vol. i.) 103—105.
Brunei (vol. i.) 329.
Burdett, Sir Francis (vol. i.) 126, 268.
Burke (vol. i.) 25.
Burmese war, the first (vol. i.) 239 ; the second,
675.
833

INDEX.

Burnes, Sir A. (vol. i.) 575.
Cabul (vol. i.) 570.
Cagliari, the (vol. ii.) 228.
Calculating machine (vol. ii.) 622, 623.
Cambridge, the Duke of (vol. ii.) 156.
Cameron, Mr. (vol. ii.) 471.
Campbell, Lord (vol. ii.) 292.
Campbell, Sir Colin (vol. ii.) 181.
Canada (vol.i.) 162, .242, 245; revolt, 487—497,
776.
Canals (vol.i.) 328.
Canning, George (vol. i.) 119, 120, 183, 211—214 ;
Premier, 220 ; death of, 225 ; foreign policy, 229.
Canning, Viscount (vol. i.) 677 ; (vol. ii.) 196.
Carbonari, the (vol. i.) 146.
Cardwell, Mr. (vol. ii.) 296.
Carlisle, the Earl of (vol. ii.) 296.
Carlyle, Thomas (vol. ii. ) 605.
Caroline, Queen (vol. i.) 195—201, 204, 205.
Castlereagh, Lord (vol. i.) 118, 188, 210, 211
Catholic question, the (vol. i. ) 262 ; the Irish Catholic
Association, 266 ; Sir Francis Burdett's motion,
268 ; the Clare election, 269, 273 ; alarm of govern
ment, 270; Lord Anglesea recalled, 271 ; trouble
of the king, 271 ; final settlement, 272, 273,
277.
Cato. street plot, the (vol. i.) 191.
Cattle plague, the (vol. ii.) 553.
Cavour, Count (vol. ii.) 255—259, 267 ; death of,
277.
Census, the (vol. ii.) 325.
Chaillu, M. du (vol. ii.) 629.
Chalmers, Dr. (vol. i.) 749, 750.
Charles X. (vol. i.) 237, 342, 345—347.
Charlotte, the Princess (vol. i.) 159, 160.
Charlotte, Queen, death of (vol. i.) 193.
Charter, Royal, loss of (vol. ii.) 302.
Chartism (vol. i.) 581—586, 838, 839.
Chatham, Lord (vol. i.) 8, 15.
Cherbourg (vol. ii.) 238.
Chillianwallah (vol. i.) 667.
China (vol. i.) 240 ; war with, 553—557, 559, 765;
(vol. ii.) 165—167, 172—174,321, 322; debate,
440.
Cholera (vol. i.) 785 ; (vol. ii.) 626.
Churchill (vol. i.) 12.
Church in Scotland (vol. i.) 747, 748.
Church questions (vol. i.)-498; church-rates, 499;
church property, 500—505, 507, 508, 511.
Church, state of (vol. ii.) 416, 426.
Civil service (vol. ii.) 428.
Clarendon, Lord (vol. ii.) 72.
Clive, Lord (vol. i.) 14.
Clubs of London (vol. i.) 106.
Coalition ministry (vol. i.) 25.
Cobbett (vol. i.) 115, 466.
Cobden, Richard (vol. i.) 687, 688, 695, 696, 722 ;
(vol. ii.) 311, 354, 355, 363; death of, 494—498.
Colenso, Bishop (vol. ii.) 423, 424, 607, 608.
Coleridge (vol. i. ) 470.
Combination laws (vol. i.) 217 ; (vol. ii.) 156, 556.
Commercial failures (vol. i.) 247.
Commercial panic (vol. i.) 767.
Commercial reforms (vol. i.) 216.
Commercial statistics (vol. ii.) 341.
Commission of inquiry (vol. i.) 448.
Confederacy of the Rhine (vol. i.) 84.
Congress of Vienna (vol. i.) 140 ; of Verona, 148.
Congress proposed by Louis Napoleon (vol. ii.) 452 
460. '
Conolly, Arthur (vol. i.) 567.
Conservatism (vol. i.) 417, 464; (vol. ii.) 153, 659.
Conway, General (vol. i.) 21.
834

Cooper, the chartist poet (vol. i. ) 582, 586.
Co-operative societies (vol. ii.) 572, 573, 577.
Copenhagen bombarded (vol. i.) 87.
Corn-laws, the, passed (vol. i.) 679 ; protests against,
680 ; motions for repeal, 681 — 685 ; Anti-Corn-Law
Association formed, 688 ; Anti-Corn-Law League,
689; the League in parliament, 693; the case of
Bolton, 693 ; women's petition, 694 ; distress in
Stockport, 696; free-trade bazaar, 701 ; exertion
of the League, 706 ; the crisis approaching, 706;
Lord John Russell's letter, 707, 708; repeal of,
717i protectionists' revenge, 719 ; free trade
carried, 721 ; effects of free trade, 723; the League
dissolved, 724.
Corn statistics (vol. ii.) 341.
Cotton trade (vol. i.) 249; (vol. ii.) 385, 386,
389—395.
County police (vol. ii.) 145.
Coutts & Co. (vol. ii.) 593.
Cowper, the Hon. (vol. ii.) 298.
Cranworth, Lord (vol. ii.) 75.
Cresswell, Sir Cresswell (vol. ii.) 300.
Crime (vol. i.) 250, 251 ; (vol. ii.) 345, 662.
Crimean war, causes of the (vol. ii.) 82 ; the czar,
83 ; passage of the Pruth, 85 ; Sinope, 86 ; Odessa
bombarded, 88 ; siege of Silistria, 89 ; the Crimea
invaded, 90; the Alma, 91 — 93; the flank march,
94 ; indecision of the allies, 95 ; Sebastopol, bom-
bardmentof, 96; Balaklava, 97 ; the Light Brigade,
98 ; Inkermann, 100—103 ; storm at Balaklava,
104 ; sufferings ofthe army, 105 ; General Pelissier,
107 ; death of Lord Raglan, 108; capture of the
Malakoff, 109 ; retreat of the Russians, 110; losses
of men, 111 ; peace rumours, 112 ; Paris conference,
113 ; peace rejoicings, 115 ; the Crimea vacated,
116; Mr. Kinglake's story of the origin ofthe
war, 120 ; public feeling, 122 ; Mr. Roebuck's
committee, 131,132; Sardinia and Sweden, 138;
the treaty of peace, 139 — 141.
Criminal convictions (vol. ii.) 693, 694.
Croats, the (vol. i.) 827.
Crockford's (vol. ii.) 481.
Cruickshank (vol. i.) 202, 626.
Crystal Palace (vol. ii.) 564.
Cubitt, Mr. (vol. i.) 620.
Currency, the (vol. i.) 155.
Czar, the, visits England (vol. i.) 614, 635 ; his cha
racter (vol. ii.) 83 ; death of, 106. .
Czartoryski, Prince A. (vol. i.) 353.
Dalhousie, the Earl of (vol. i.) 665.
Dandies (vol. i.) 101.
Danish war (vol. ii.) 461, 462 ; the Gastein conven
tion, 463.
Darwin, Dr. (vol. ii.) 619.
Demerara and Missionary Smith (vol. i.) 241.
D'Enghien, death of (vol. i.) 79.
Denmark,- rupture with (vol. i.) 87, 88 ; debate on
(vol. ii.) 435—438.
Derby, Lord (vol. ii.) 4 ; Premier, 60, 229, 230, 233,
606.
Dickens, Charles (vol. ii.) 602.
Discontent in Paris (vol. i.) 516.
Disraeli, Hon. B. (vol. i.) 713; (vol. u.) 231, 249—
253.
Dissent, growth of (vol. i.) 255; (vol. ii.) 661.
Dissenters (vol. i.) 127.
Distress in 1816 (vol. i.) 152 ; in 1817, 178, 179.
Divorce Act, the (vol. ii.) 300.
Donaldson, Dr. (vol. ii.) 617.
Drouyn de Lhuys (vol. ii.) 455.
Dudley, the fighting parson (vol. i.) 307.
Dumas, Alexander (vol. ii.) 274.
Dundas, Admiral (vol. ii.) 116.

INDEX.

Dundonald, Lord (vol. i. ) 149.
Danning, Mr. (vol. i.) 19.
Durham, Lord (vol. i.) 373, 491, 492, 495, 497.
Duthee, Mademoiselle (vol. ii.) 484.
Eastern Question (vol. i.) 533, 534; (vol. ii.)
695 ; diplomatic correspondence from Prince
Gortchakow, 696—700, 707, 708; his circular,
701—703; despatches of Baron Brunow, 705,
706, 709—711.
East India Company (vol. ii.) 193, 195, 569.
East London Working Classes Exhibition (vol. ii.)
569, 593, 595.
Ecclesiastical patronage (vol. ii.) 425.
Ecclesiastical Titles Bill (vol. ii.) 33, 35.
Edinburgh Review established (vol. i.) 115.
Education (vol. i.) 678, 679 ; 742 ; (vol. ii.) 144;
328—334, 678.
Edwards, W. (voL i.) 325.
Eglinton tournament {vol. i.) 549.
Eldon, Lord (vol. i.) 210, 217, 218, 262, 271.
Elections (vol. L) 477.
Election expenses (voL ii.) 660.
Elective franchise (vol. ii.) 663.
Electric telegraph (vol. ii.) 240.
Elgin", Lord (vol. ii.) 171—175; his death, 176; in
India, 211.
Ellenborough, Lord (vol. i.) 573, 653 ; his despatch
(vol. ii.) 234, 333.
Emigration (vol. i.) 245, 246.
Emmet, Robert (vol. i.) 77.
European complications (vol. i.) 512.
Europe, settlement of (vol. i.) 139.
Exchange, Royal, burnt (vol. i.) 590.
Excursion trains (vol. ii.) 585, 586.
Exeter Hall (vol. i.) 625.
Exhibition, the Great, 1851 (vol. ii.) 40—45 ; 1862,
397—399.
Factories' Act (voL i.) 679, 742 ; (vol. ii) 578, 679.
Farmers' sons (vol. ii.) 691.
Female evangelists (vol. ii.) 584.
Female Medical Society (vol. ri.) 614.
Finance (vol. i.) 114, 151, 152, 155, 178, 253.
Fine arts (vol. ii.) 610, 611.
Fitzroy, Admiral (vol. ii.) 611.
Flight of the pope (vol.! £806.
Flogging in the army (vol. ii) 577.
Foreign enlistment (vol. ii.) 146.
. Fortifications (vol. ii.) 684.
Four-in-hand Club (vol. ii.) 482.
Fox, Charles James (vol. i.) 21, 24, 25, 27, 69, 70.
Fox, W. J. (vol. i.) 698, 705, 706.
France (vol. i.) war with, 17—19 ; peace concluded,
23; society, 28, 29 ; Louis XVI., 30; the estates-
general, 31, 32; national assembly, 33; removal
of the king, 33; fete of the nation, 34; flight of
the king, 34 ; the new assembly, 35 ; the mob in
the Tuileries, 35 ; Lafayette, 36 ; deposition of the
king, 37; death of, 38; death of Marie Antoinette,
39 ; war, 40 ; massacres at Nantes, 41 ; faE of
Robespierre, 42 ; death of, 43 ; progress of the
war, 44 ; rise of Bonaparte, 44 ; the directory,
54; French successes, 55; the Clichyans, 57;
expedition to Egypt, 58 ; fall ofthe directory, 59 ;
Bonaparte first consul, 60 ; effects of the revolu
tion, 62 ; peace of Amiens, 75 ; disasters, 92 ; state
of France, 93; return of Louis XVIII., 135;
death of Ney, 141—143 ; Prince Polignac, 340 ;
reralutioa, 341—441; Charles X., 345 ; infernal
machine, 513; France arms, 530; France in the
'Pacific, 644 ; signs of revolution, 791 ; lives lost,
792 i the people armed, 793; abdication of the
ting, 794 ; provisional government, 795; red repub

licans, 798; the archbishop shot, 799 ; the coap-
d'etat(yo\. ii.) 50'; the conspiracy, 51 ; the arrests,
52 ; its success, 53—56 ; Captain Gronow's state
ment, 57 ; French empire restored, 63 ; Orsini's
plot, 217, 218 ; emperor's speech, 219 ; demand on
England, 220 ; espionage in France, 226 ; French
designs, 304 ; treaty of commerce, 309 ; alarm in
France, 310 ; result of treaty, 313, 314.
Franchise (vol. i.) 117.
Francis II. (vol. ii.) 273.
Franco-Belgian affairs (vol.i.) 638.
Franklin, Sir John (vol. ii.) 530—534.
Freehold land societies (vol. ii.) 159.
Free-trade bazaar (vol. i.) 701.
French ideas (vol. i.) 639.
French treaty of commerce (vol. ii.) 313.
Frost, trial of (vol. i.) 585.
Gambling (vol. i.) 107.
Gardner, Captain (vol. ii.) 529.
Garibaldi (vol. ii.) 260 ; his plans, '263 ; in Sicily,
270—272; in Naples, 275 ; at Volturno, 276 ; his
farewell, 278 ; Aspromonte, 279 ; wounded, 280,
281; a prisoner, 282; comes to London, 283 ;
departs, 284.
Garotte robberies (vol. ii.) 540.
George III. (vol. i.) 9 ; his speech, 10 ; popularity
of, 71 ; death of, 194.
George IV. (vol. i.) his marriage, 194; coronation
of, 202, 203 ; as king, 205 ; royal visits, 206, 207 ;
anti-catholic scruples, 271 — 275,290; death of,
305 ; his companions, 307 ; his regency, 309 ; con
duct to his father, 311 ; his debts, 311 ; his taste,
315 ; his character, 317,
Germany (vol. i.) 811; riots in Berlin, 812; flight
of princes, 813 ; Schleswig-Holstein, 814 ; Berlin
quieted, 815; the Frankfort parliament, '816;
Hesse-Cassel, 817; Saxony, 818; the end of
revolution in, 819 ; revolution in Vienna, 823.
Gibraltar, the siege of (vol. i.) 22.
Gibson, the Hon. Milner (vol. ii.) 222, 295.
Gilpin, Mr. Charles (vol. ii.) 298.
Gladstone, Mr. (vol. i.) 558 ; (vol. ii.) 12, 13 ; his
career, 67, 128, 248, 290, 291, 312, 356, 357;
defeated at Oxford, 653.
Gloucester, the Duke of (vol. i.) 471.
Goderich cabinet, the (vol. i.) 226. ,
Goojerat (vol. i.) 668.
Gordon riots, the (vol.i.) 19.
Graham, Sir J. (vol. i.) 741.
Granville, Lord (vol. ii.), 73.
Grattan, Mr. H. (vol. i.) 123.
Gray, Thomas (vol. i.) 321.
Great Eastern steamship (vol. ii.) 301.
Greathead, Mr. H. (vol. i.) 75.
Greece (vol. i.) 233—236, 451, 633 ; the Don Pacifico
affair (vol. ii.) 8.
Greenwich Hospital (vol. ii.) 687—689.
Grenville, Lord (vol. i.) 74, 469.
Grenville, Mr. (vol. i.) 11- _
Grey, Earl (vol. i.) 361 ; his ministry, 372, 392;
resigns office, 404 ; the Grey banquet, 463 ; the
Grey list, 467.
Guizot (vol. i.) 527, 536, 614. ,...,*,,»
Gunpowder explosion at Piumstead (vol. u.) 547—
549.
Halifax, Lord (vol. ii.) 74, 667.
Hall, Rev. Robert (vol. i.) 99.
Hampden clubs (vol. i.) 180.
Hampden, Dr. (vol. i.) 787—789.
Hanger, George (vol. i.) 307
Hardinge, Sir Henry (vol. i.) 661 ; (vol. u.) 155.
Harshness of law (vol. i.) 1 13.
1 OOO

INDEX.

Hastings, Lady Flora (vol. i.) 550.
Hastings, Warren (vol. i.) 23, 25.
Havelock, General (vol. ii.) 184.
Hawkins, Mr. (vol. ii.) 671.
Haynau in London (vol. i.) 832—834.
Herat (vol. i.) 562, 586.
Herbert Lord (vol. ii.) 71.
Hertford, Marquis of (vol. i.), 308.
Hill, Sir Rowland (vol. i.) 545, 546.
Historical literature (vol. ii.) 604, 605.
Holland House (vol. i.) 615, 616.
Holmforth reservoir, the (vol. ii.) 529.
Holy Alliance (vol. i.) 143—145.
Hone, trial of (vol. i.) 182, 183.
Hood, Tom (vol. ii.) 448.
Horner, Mr. F. (vol. i.) 153.
House accommodation (vol. ii.) 339.
Houses of parliament burnt (vol. i.) 464 ; rebuilt
(vol. ii.) 611.
Howe, Admiral (vol. i.) 16, 40.
Hughes, Ball (vol. ii.) 481.
Hume, Joseph (vol. i.) 367, 683.
Hungarian revolution (vol. i.) 824, 825, 830.
Hunt, Orator (vol. i.) 53, 157-
Huskisson, Mr. (vol. i.) 216, 227, 318.
Hyde Park riots (vol. ii.) 137.
Incendiarism (vol. i.) 251.
Income-tax (vol. i.) 745.
India (vol. i.) 24, 25; the Pindarees, 1 67 ; Dacoitees,
168; the Mauritius, 168; Lord Moira, 169; the
East India Company, 170; free trade, 171 ; Mah
ratta war ,<1 72 ; Elphinstone, 1 73 ; Henry Martyn,
174, 175; India at peace, 176; Bhurtpore, 239;
Lord W. Bentinck, 240 ; Ameers of Scinde, 656 ;
Hyderabad, 657 ; battle of Meanee, 659 ; Mahratta
war, 659 ; the Beloochees, 660 ; Moodkee, 663 ;
the Sikhs subdued, 664 ; Mooltan, 665 ; Nana
Sahib, 674 ; Indian finance (vol. ii.) 136, 152,
665 ; Indian mutiny, 177 ; discontent of the
people, 178, 179; Cawnpore, 180; Delhi taken,
182 ; Lucknow relieved, 183 ; the mutiny checked,
185 ; capture of the Kaiserbagh, 186 ; settle
ment of Oude, 187 ; successes of the English,
190 ; warnings, 191, 192 ; royal proclamation, 197,
198 ; English sympathy, 199—201 ; the army dis
contented, 202 ; the Talookdars, 203 ; waste land,
204 ; famine, 206 ; navy, 207 ; religion, 208 ;
civilisation, 209; dangers ahead, 210; the Sikh
rulers, 212 ; war with Bhootan, 215 ; the new
rule, 216 ; India Bill, 235 ; march to Kirkee, 471 ;
famine in the north-west, 537 ; finance, 665 ; re-
organisation, 669 ; civil service, 670 ; contract sys
tem, 671; ryots, 672; land revenue, 673; educa
tion, 674 ; the Mysore princes, 675 ; police, 676 ;
Russian aggression, 677.
Industrial classes (vol. i.) 112.
Industrial Exhibitions (vol. ii.) 570, 571.
Industrial home (vol. ii.) 583.
Infant schools (vol. ii.) 329.
Infernal machines (vol. i.) 513.
International courtesies (vol. i.) 519.
International Exhibition (vol.ii.) 397 — 399.
International Reformatory Exhibition (vol. iL) 569.
Invasion of England (vol. i.) 82.
Invasion panic (vol. i.) 768 ; (vol. ii.) 305.
Investments (vol. ii.) 158.
Ionian Islands (vol. ii.) 248.
Ireland, the United Irish (vol. i.) 45, 46 ; Peep-o'-
day boys, 47; Lord Edward Fitzgerald, 48;
French invasion of, 48 ; rebellion, 49 ; rebel
lion suppressed, 49 ; the franchise, 283 ; the Clare
election, 285 ; Orange processions, 287 ; the Re
form Bill, 395; tithes, 396; the appropria-
836

tion question, 397 ; church temporalities, 398,
401 ; repeal of the union, 399 ; Mr. Ward's
motion, 400 ; the Wexford election, 402 ;
the Coercion Bill, 403 ; Lord John Russell's
motions on temporalities, 404 ; Irish municipal
reform, 459 ; repeal, 588 ; young Ireland, 727 ;
Peel's three courses, 728 ; the Maynooth grant,
729 ; Queen's Colleges, 732 ; the Coercion Bill,
733 ; Irish disorder, 738 ; famine in, 766 ; troubles
in, 835 ; Smith O'Brien, 835 ; riot in Limerick,
836; rebellion, 837 ; the Phceuix Society (vol. ii.)
246 ; O'Connell demonstration, 501, 502 ; Belfast
riots, 503 ; the Irish church,. 504 ; Irish griev
ances, 505, 506 ; Fenianism, 507, 508 ; wants of
Ireland, 509.
Iron-clad ships (vol. ii.) 620.
Irving, death of (vol. i.)471.
Isabella, Queen (vol. i.) 443.
Italy (vol. i.) 760, 802 ; (vol. ii.) 149, 255 ; war of
freedom, 261 ; Magenta, 262 ; Austrians retreat,
264; Solferino, 265 ; Villafranca, 266; peace,
267, 268 ; Victor Emmanuel, 269 ; state of, 285.
Jackson, General Stonewall (vol. ii.) 372 — 374.
Jamaica (vol. ii.) 473 ; insurrection, 473 ; Governor
Eyre, 474; Mr. Hobbs, 475; state of, 476;
General Lamothe, 477 ; wanton outrages, 478.
James, Edwin (vol. ii.) 355.
Jeffery, Lord (vol. i.) 619.
Jellalabad (vol. i.) 571.
Jena, battle of (vol. i.) 85.
Jenkinson (vol. i.) 18.
Jenner, Dr. (vol. i.) 75. .
Jervis, Sir John (vol. i.) 52.
Jewish question (vol. ii.) 236.
Jones, Loyd, and Co. (vol. ii.) 592.
Jones, Paul (vol. i.) 17.
Jowett, Professor (vol. ii.) 422.
Kars, siege of (vol. ii.) 118, 119.
Keble (vol. i.) 474.
Kent, Constance (vol. ii.) 536.
Keppel, Admiral (vol. i.) 15, 18.
King, Lord (vol. i. ) 154.
Knowles, Sheridan (vol. i. ) 625.
Korner, death of (vol. i.) 92.
Kossuth (vol. i.) 826; (vol. ii.) 14.
Labour Market (vol. i.) 157.
Laing, Mr. (vol. ii.) 666.
Lamartine (vol. i.) 796. ,
Lancashire distress (vol. ii.) 385; relief, 386; the
Mansion House committee, 387 ; scene at board
rooms, 388, 389 ; sewing schools, 390 ; the rate in
aid, 391 ; distress at Blackburn, 392 ; clerical con
tributions, 393 ; rioting, 394 ; Mr. Rawlinson's
reports, 395 ; parliamentary action, 396.
Lansdowne, Marquis of (vol. ii. ) 74, 499.
Law consolidation (vol. ii.) 151.
Lawrence, Sir John (vol. ii.) 213, 214.
Layard, Mr. (vol. ii.) 130.
Laybach, treaty of (vol. i.) 147.
Learned societies (vol. ii.) 624.
Legal patronage (vol. ii.) 501.
Lewis, Sir Cornewall (vol. ii.) 128, 516.
Libel, law of (vol. ii.) 692.
Lieven, Princess (vol. i.) 432.
Lime-light (vol. ii.) 615.
Limited liability (vol. ii.) 587 — 591.
Lincoln, Abraham (vol. ii.) 367—369, 378—380.
Literary Society (vol. i.) 621.
London, drainage (vol. ii.) 342, 682; traffic, 343;
its population, 680 ; Metropolitan Management
Act, 681 ; Board of Works, 681 ; mortality,

INDEX.

681 j church activity, 683 ; the Peabody fund,
683 ; streets, 683 ; police, 683 ; offences, 684.
Londonderry, Marquis of (vol. i.) 411 ; (vol.ii.) 499.
Louis Napoleon (vol. i.) 514 — 517 ; president, 800 ;
marriage of (vol. ii.) 162, 163 ; letter of, on a
congress, 452.
Louis Philippe (vol. i.) 343, 346, 384, 513 ; visits
the queen, 636 ; flies to England, 796.
Louis XVIII., death of (vol. i.) 237.
Lowe, Mr. R. (vol. ii.) 297, 434.
Lyndhurst, Lord (vol. i.) 458, 740.
Lyon, Mr. Home (vol. ii.) 563.
Lytton, Lord (vol. ii.) 232.
Macaulay, Lord (vol. i.) 617, 730.
Mackintosh, Sir James (vol. i.) 215, 468
Maginn, Dr. (vol. i.) 621.
Mahratta war (vol. i.) 659.
Maine, Mr. (vol. ii.) 671.
Malakoff, Duke of (vol. ii.) 225.
Manchester massacre, the (vol. i.) 188, 189.
Marengo (vol. i.) 72.
Martin, Richard (vol. i.) 622.
Massey, Mr. (vol. ii.) 667.
Masters and men (vol. ii.) 537.
Mather's, Mr., case (vol. ii.) 29.
Maynooth (vol. i.) 730, 731.
Mazzini (vol. i.) 801 ; (vol. ii.) 433.
Mehemet Ali (vol. i.) 524, 525.
Melbourne, Lord (vol. i-) 404, 406, 416, 540, 513.
Melville, Lord (vol. i.) 69.
Methodism (vol. i.) 99.
Metropolitan drinking fountains (vol. ii.) 576.
Mexico (vol. ii.) 451.
Middle classes (vol. i.) 110.
Midnight meeting movement (vol. ii.) 577.
Milan decree, the (vol. i. ) 89.
Militia scheme, the (voL ii.) 58
Minto, Lord (vol. i.) 168.
M'Neil, Sir John (vol. ii.) 142.
Moira, Lord (vol. i.) 169, 308.
Molesworth, Sir W. (vol. ii.) 70.
Montreal, riots at (voL i.) 775.
Mooltan (vol. i.) 656.
Moore, Sir J. , at Corunna (vol. i.) 124.
Morals (vol. i.) 109 ; (vol. ii.) 344.
Morgan, Lady (vol. i.) 623.
Municipal reform (vol. i.) 457, 458.
Mutiny at the Nore (vol. i.) 50, 51.
Napier, Admiral (vol. i.) 529, 532 ; (vol. ii.) 116.
Napier, Sir Charles (vol. i.) 654, 655, 671—673 ;
(vol. ii) 116.
Naples (vol. i.) 521—523 ; (vol. ii.) 13.
National defences (vol. ii.) 320.
Naval expenditure (vol. ii.) 645, 646.
Naval reforms (vol. i.) 460.
Naval successes (vol. i.) 52.
Navarino (vol. i.) 236.
Navigation laws (vol. i.) 772.
Nelson (vol. i.) 52, 58, 74, 83.
Neutrality, armed (vol. i.) 73.
Newcastle, the Duke of (vol. ii.) 68, 69, 120, 124.
Newman, Dr. (vol. ii.) 418.
Newman, Francis (vol. ii.) 419.
Newspapers (vol. ii.) 609.
Nicholas, the Emperor (vol. ii.) 83, 106.
Normanby, Lord (vol. i.) 797.
North, Lord (vol. i.) 13.
North, Kate (vol. ii. ) 482.
North London Exhibition (voL ii.) 566, 567.
Novara (vol. i.) 807.
O'Brien, Smith (vol. i.) 716.

Occupations of the people (vol. ii.) 338.
O'Connell, Daniel (vol. i.) 267, 283—286, 617, 726,
734 ; his death, 779, 780.
O'Connor, Feargus (vol. i.) 582.
Operative coach-makers (vol. ii.) 570.
Opposition attack on the Danish question (vol. ii. ) '
435—438.
Orange lodges (vol. i.) 465.
Orange processions (vol. i.) 287.
Oregon (vol. i.) 644.
Orsini (vol.ii.) 217, 224.
Oude annexed (vol. i.) 676 ; discontent in, 678.
Oudinot at Rome (vol. i.) 808.
Overcrowding (vol. ii.) 340.
Owen, Robert Dale (vol. i.) 626 ; (vol. ii.) 491.
Pacific, the (vol. i.) 641.
Palace, the Crystal (vol. ii.) 564.
Palisser, Sir Hugh (vol. i.) 18.
Palmerston, anecdotes of— .entry on public life
(vol. ii.) 713; Palmerston and the artist, 610;
literary taste, 714; his friendship, 715; at
Romsey, 716; Palmerston and Brougham, 717;
Palmerston and Hume, 718; Palmerston and
William IV., 719 ; his habits, 720 ; Dumas and
Palmerston, 721 ; Palmerston and Dr. Russell,
722 ; his promptitude, 722; his gallantry, 722;
his hand-writing, 723 ; Haydon and Palmerston,
723 ; his umbrella, 723 ; Palmerston and the
Prince Consort, 724 ; Palmerston and Lord Derby,
724.
Palmerston, Lord, birth of (vol. i.) 1 ;" his youth, 6 ;
his defence of the Copenhagen affair, 87 ; Pal
merston in parliament, 116, 124, 127 ; moves the
army estimates, 150; Lord Palmerston shot at,
184; speech on the army, 185, 192; Lord Pal
merston and Sir R. Wilson, 207, 208 ; as a young
man, 209 ; on foreign policy, 215; on courts-
martial, 223 ; his defence of Canning, 225 ; on
financial reform, 253 ; on the Test and Corpora
tion Acts, 257 ; the Catholic question, 263 —
265, 268, 278—280 ; on Portugal, 296, 297 ; on
Greece, 298 ; on reform, 375 ; unseated for Cam
bridge, 378 ; refuses the office of Secretary of State
for Ireland, 417 ; at work, 432 ; the Russian-Dutch
loan, 435 ; speech on Poland, 436 ; Portugal, 437 ;
Greece, 438 ; Spain, 439 ; loses his seat for Hants,
441 ; speech on religious tests, 445 ; his quarrel with
Croker, 446 ; speech at Tiverton, 535 ; Chinese
war, 559 ; despatch on Persia, 561 ; on Afghan
istan, 578, 579; his marriage, 612 ; anecdotes of,
613 ; a dandy, 623 ; his criticisms, 645 — 647 ;
speech on Peel, 686; on corn-laws, 716; in op
position, 755 ; a third time Foreign Secretary, 756 ;
speech at Tiverton, 761 — 764 ; on peace principles,
771 ; on Hungary, 831 ; Palmerston jubilant (vol.
ii.) 1 ; attacked, 3—6 ; his defence, 7 — 9 ; portrait
of, 1 1 ; Mr. Mather's case, 30 ; Ecclesiastical Titles
Bill, 34 ; dismissed from office, 47 ; his explanation,
49 ; his revenge, 59 ; Home Secretary, 76 ; Tory
opinion of, 77—81 ; on Kars, 119; militia, 122 ;
Premier, 126, 129 ; defence of peace, 141 ; Chinese
war, 168; dissolves parliament, 169; obtains a
majority, 170; East India Bill, 194; Conspiracy
Bill, 221 ; return to power, 254 ; again Premier,
286 ; his failings, 287—289 ; reform, 299 ; French
invasion, 306 ; paper duty, 318 ; at Dover, 347 ;
coast defences, 358—362 ; speech at Working
Men's Exhibition, 400, 401 ; at Romsey, 402 ; at
Sailors' Home, 403 ; interview with Father Igna
tius, 415; Palmerston in 1861, 427; on Queen's
Plates, 430 ; a sportsman's sketch of, 431 ; oppo
sition attack, 435—438 ; on Denmark, 439 ; on
Poland, 442 — 444 ; on Cobden's death, 445 ; at
837

INDEX.

Romsey, 511; at Leeds, 512; at Glasgow, 513;
at Edinburgh, 514 ; at the London Guildhall, 515 ;
at Hereford, 516; at Tiverton, 517—519; at
Bradford, 520—525 ; at Salisbury, 526, 527 ;
Lord Palmerston's Act, 577 ; Palmerston and reform,
' 648 ; Palmerston at Oxford, 649 ; election speech,
651, 652; cottage improvements, 660 ; his tolera
tion, 661 ; letters of, to the Rev. J. Reynolds, on
the slave-trade, .725—727; on Kossuth, 729;
was Palmerston a traitor ? 783 ; the Syrian ques
tion, 783 ; France, 784 ; Russia, 785 ; Poland,
786 ;.- Cracow, 787 ; Greece, 789 ; the Vixen, 790 ;
downfall of Thiers, 791 ; defence of, 794, 795 ; Pal
merston's illness, 797 ; his death, 798 ; public
grief, 798 ; public mourning, 799 ; the funeral,
800 — 802 ; the Emperor Napoleon on, 803 ; Punch
and Fun testimonies to, 804, 805 ; national
monument, 807 ; speech of Mr. Gladstone on,
808; opinions of the press, 812; causes of his
popularity, 820—832-
Palmerston's speeches — expedition to Copenhagen
(vol. ii.) 730 ; Roman Catholic disabilities, 731 ;
Spain and France, 733 ; dissenters, 735 ; Welling
ton administration, 735 ; Test and Corporation
Acts, 736 ; secession from Wellington, 738 ; East
Retford disfranchisement, 739 ; the Catholic Asso
ciation, 739 ; defence of Mr. Peel, 740 ; the Irish
forty-shilling freeholders, 741; Portugal, 742;
Turkey and Greece, 743 ; Belgium, 744 ; reform,
745, 746; the Germanic Diet, 747; the law of
embargo, 747; military flogging, 748; protective
duties, 749; the corn-laws, 750; dissenters, and
university degrees, 751; Spain, 751; Russia,
752 ; Cracow, 753 ; ladies in the House of Com
mons, 754 ; defence of government, 755 ; the
French in Algiers, 755 ; Canada and Lord Glenelg,
756; slave-trade, 757'; Mr. Bell and the Vixen,
757 ; right of search, 758 ; slavery, 759 ; a fixed
duty, 760 ; defence of the ministry, 760 ; Lord
Ellenborough, 761 ; Lord Aberdeen, 762 ; national
defences, 764; hostile tariffs, 766; mock media
tions, 767 ; the war in Hungary, 768 ; Italian
policy, 770 ; French occupation of Rome, 770 ;
the Great Exhibition, 771 ; education of officers,
772; Euphrates railway, 773; the Suez canal,
773 ; Divorce Court, 774; international law, 775 ;
Ionian Islands, 778 ; Denmark and Prussia, 779 ;
the yeomanry, 780 ; the French emperor, 780 ;
the duties of an opposition, 780 ; diplomacy at
Rome, 780; the American war, -781 ; education
inspectors' reports, 781 ; the Mexican empire, 782.
Palmerston, the second Viscount (vol. i.) 5..
Palm shot (vol. i.) 84.
Panic (vol. i.) 248 ; (vol- ii.) 591.
Panmure, Lord (vol.ii.) 125.
Papal bull, the (vol. ii.) 31.
Paper duties (vol. ii. ) 315 — 318.
Parliamentary privilege (vol. i.) 590.
Parliamentary proceedings (vol. ii.) 237, 354, 429.
Paul, Sir John Dean (vol. ii.) 535.
Pauper schools (vol. ii.) 330.
Pea«e (vol. i.) 23.
Peace Society (vol. ii.) 352, 353.
Peel family, the (vol. i.) 357.
Peel, Sir Robert, Test and Corporation Acts (vol. i.)
258 — 261 ; plan of catholic emancipation, 273 ;
unseated for Oxford, 274 ; threatens to resign,
277 ; his scruples, 289 ; his reputation, 358,
359; his career, 360; Sir R. Peel Premier,
409 ; his ministry defeated, 410 ; his difficulties,
412, 413; resigns, 415, 542; sent for, 541; in
power, 629 ; partial success, 630 ; his foreign
policy, 631 ; his budget, 697 ; intimidated, 699 ;
scene with Mr. Cobden, 700 ; gives up protec-
838

tion,, 709, 710; defends himself, 714; defeated,
720 ; supports the Whigs, 737 — 739 ; his death,
751 ; his character, 752 — 754 ; his last speech
(vol. ii. > 10.
Peel, Sir W. (vol. ii.) 189.
Peerages for life (vol. ii.) 143.
Peltier's trial (.vol. i.) 76.
Peninsular war (vol. i.) 128 — 132.
Penny post (vol, i.) 547, 548.
Perceval, Spencer (vol. i.) 117.
Periodical literature (vol. ii. ) 608.
Persia (vol. i.) 563 ; (vol. ii.) 164.
Philanthropic progress (vol. ii.) 575 — 57.7.
Pichegru (vol. i.) 80.
Piracies (vol, ii.) 27.
Pitt, Mr., his debut (vol. i.) 20; Premier, 24; his
plan of reform, 25, 26.; his policy, 64 — 66; his
wit, 67 ; death of, 83.
Plombieres (vol. ii.) 259.
Plymouth breakwater (vol. i.) 326.
Pneumatic tube (vol. ii.) 615.
Poets and philosophers (vol. i.) 115.
Poland, insurrection in (vol. i.) 353 ; (vol. iL)
465 ; Lord Russell's despatch, 466, 467 ; revolt,
468.
Police, county (vol. ii.) 145.
Ponsonby, Mr. (vol. i.) 122.
Poor-laws (vol. i.) 449 ; amended,' 450 ; old laws,
451 ; inquiry into, 453 ; Mr. Walter's motion,
454 ; the new bill, 455, 589.
Pope, flight of (vol. i.) 807 ;, restored, 809 ; the bull
(vol. ii.) 31.
Population returns (vol. ii.) 324 — 326.
Portugal (vol. i.) 231 ; Don Miguel, 291, 299 ; Dor.
Pedro, 292, 301; Donna Maria, 293, 300; Sal
danha, 294; the British government, 295,. 437.
Post-office reform (vol..i.) 544..
Post-office savings banks (vol. ii.) 337.
Pottinger, Sir H. (vol. i) 557, 577.
Pottinger, Lieut, (vol. i.) 569.
Pounds, J. (vol. ii.) 335.
Pozzo di Borgo (vol. i.) 233.
Praed, Winthrop (vol. ii.) 489, 490.
Press prosecutions (vol. i.) 181, 355.
Prince, Mr. J. H. (vol. ii.) 536.
Princess Royal, marriage of (vol. ii.) 223-
Pritchard's, Mr., case (voL i.) 643.
Profligate expenditure (vol. i.) 252
Progress in England and France (vol. ii.) 689, 690,
Public libraries (vol. ii.) 604.
Public schools (vol. ii.) 599, 600.
Pullinger's, Mr., travels (vol. ii.) 536.
Punch and corn-laws (vol. i.) 703, 711 ; and national
defences (vol. ii.) 364.
Punjaub, the (vol. i.) 662, 669.
Puseyism (vol. ii.) 417.
Radetzky, (vol. i.) 803.
Ragged schools (vol. ii.) 331, 547.
Railway accidents (vol. ii.) 551.
Railways, progress of (vol. i.) 319, 321—323.
Rebecca in Wales (vol. i.) 587.
Redpath (vol. iL) 535.
Reform— Mr. Pitt's Reform Bill (vol. i.) 26;. Mr-
Grey's Reform Bill, 361 ; East Retford, 362 -T
Lord Howick, 363; radical reform, 364 ; the bill,
374, 375 ; the debates, 376, 377 ; introduced a
second time, 378 ; carried through the Commons,
379 ; thrown out by the Lords, 380 ; excitement
of the public, 381; alarm of the king, 382; the-
peers, 383 ; ministers resign, 384 ; failure to form
a Tory administration, 385 ; the country aroused,
386 ; alarmist predictions, 387 ; the bill passed,
388 ; Irish reform; 388 ; Scotch reform, 389 ;

INDEX.

benefits of, 390, 391 ; Earl Grey's denial of the
account of the dissolution of parliament, 392, 393 ;
reaction, 394, 407 ; agitation for (vol. ii.) 247 ;
Tory Reform Bill, 249—253; Russell's Reform
Bill, 319.
Reformatory schools (vol. ii.) 581, 582.
Reichstadt, Duke of (vol. i.) 468.
Religion in England (vol. L ) 98 ; rise of Methodism,
99; Lady Huntingdon,. 100; Wesley, 101; Whit
field, 107 ; church attendance, 108.
Rennie, John (vol. i.) 326.
Revolution, signs of (vol. i.) 791.
Rifle Association (vol. ii.) 68C.
Road-making (vol. i.) 324.
Robson (vol. ii.) 535.
Rochdale equitable pioneers (vol. ii.) 513.
Rockingham, Marquis of (vol. i.) 21.
Rodney, Admiral (vol. i.) 17, 21.
Roebuck, Mr. (vol. i.) 489', 579 ; (vol. ii.) 56, 123,
131—134.
Romilly, Sir Samuel (vol. i.) 187.
Rose, Sir Hugh (vol. ii.) 188.
Rossi assassinated (vol. i.) 805.
Rothschild, Baron (vol. i.) 473 ; (vol. ii.) 5, 6.
Ronpell forgeries, the (vol. ii.) 541.
Russell, Lord John (vol. i.) 373, 414, 703 ; letter on
the pope's bull (vol. ii.) 32, 33 ; resigns office,
123 ; goes to Vienna, 128, 133, 134, 144, 453,
456.
Russell, Lord W., murder of (vol. L) 591.
Russia and Persia (vol. i.) 561 — 565.
Russian campaign (vol. i.) 91 ; progress, 447.
¦ Sadleir, Mr. John (vol. ii. ) 154.
Salamanca (vol. i.) 131.
Sale, Sir Robert (vol. i.) 572.
Salomons, Alderman (vol. ii.) 62.
Sandilli (vol. ii.) 17.
Sattara, Rajah of (vol. i.) 670.
Schamyl (vol. ii.) 303.
Science and religion (vol. ii.) 618, 619.
Scinde (vol. i.) 653, 656.
Scotch church, the (vol. L) 746—748.
Scott, Sir Walter (vol. i.) 469.
Search, right of (vol. i.) 537, 538.
Secret societies (vol. i.)' 146.
Selwyn, G. (vol. i.) 310.
Seymour, Lady (vol. i.) 619.
Sheil, Mr. (vol. i.) 783, 784.
Shelburne, Lord (vol. L) 22.
Sheridan (vol. i.) 123, 310.
Shipwrecks (vol. ii.) 552.
Shrewsbury, Mr. (vol. i.) 242.
Sicily, state of (vol. i.) 810.
Sidmouth, Lord (vol. i.) 127, 179, 190, 46S.
Sikhs, the (vol. i.) 664.
Six Acts, the (vol. i.) 190.
Slavery and the slave-trade (vol.i.) 27; Granville
Sharpe, 418 ; Lewis's case, 419 ; Somerset's case,
420; Mr. Canning's resolutions, 421 ; Mr. Buxton,
422 ; Mr. Brougham, 423 ; the public aroused,
424 ; colonial excitement, 425, 426 ; petitions,
427 ; the government scheme of emancipation,
428, 429 ; apprenticeship abolished, 430 ; results,
431 ; slave-trade, 519.
Smith, Mr. Assheton (vol. ii.) 479.
Smith O'Brien (vol. i.) 716, 835.
Smith, Rev. Sidney (vol. i.) 618.
Smith, Sir Harry (vol. i.) 663 ; (vol. ii.) 25.
Snider rifle, the (vol. ii.) 685.
Social improvements (vol. i. ) 75.
Social science (vol. ii.) 565.
Somerset, Lord Charles (vol. i.) 242.
South American republics (vol. i.) 230.

South London Exhibition (vol. ii.) 565.
Soyer (vol. i.) 627.
Spain (vol. i.) 90, 145, 232, 302—304, 439, 638,
—640, 760, 765.
Spanish marriages, the (vol. i.) 648 — 651, 757,
758.
Speke and Grant (vol. ii.) 631.
Spencer, Earl (vol. i.) 408.
Spiritualism (vol.ii.) 562.
Stage, stars of the (vol. i.) 624.
Stanhope, Lord (vol. i. ) 156.
Stanley, Lord (vol. ii.) 231.
Stansfeld, Mr. (vol. ii.) 354, 433.
Stephenson, Mr. George (vol. i.) 320.
Stephenson, Mr. Robert (vol. ii. ) 616.
Stratford de Redcliffe, Lord (vol. ii.) t> I.
Sugar duties -(vol. i.) 743, 744.
Sulphur trade, the (vol. L) 520.
Sunday bands (vol. ii. ) 564.
Sunday traffic (vol. ii.) 136.
Surrey Theatre burnt (vol. ii. ) 550.
Sussex, the Duke of (vol. i.) 611.
Swindling company (vol. i.) 592.
Switzerland (vol. i. ) 759.
Syria (vol. ii.) 321.
Tahiti (vol. i.) 642.
Talleyrand, M. (vol. i.) 349, 350.
Taxation (vol. i.) 151.
Taxes on knowledge (vol. ii.) 316.
Taylor, Mr. J. (vol. ii.) 160.
Telegraph, electric (vol. ii.) 240.
Telford (vol. i.) 327.
Temperance movement, the (vol. ii.) 577.
Temple family, the (vol. L) 1.
Temple, Sir W. (vol. i.) 5.
Tennyson, Alfred (vol. ii.) 603.
Test and Corporation Acts (vol. i.) 255 — 259,
405.
Thackerav (vol. ii.) 493.
Thiers, M. (vol. i.) 528.
Thom of Canterbury (vol. i.) 510.
Tilsit, treaty of (vol. i.) 86.
Times newspaper, the (vol. i.) 592, 782.
Tipperary Bank (vol. ii.) 154.
Torres Vedras (vol. i.) 129.
Toussaint L'Ouverture (vol. i.) 78.
Tower of London (vol. i.) 593-
Town sewage (vol. ii.) 612.
Tractarians, the (vol.i.) 786.
Trade and commerce (vol. ii.) 596 — 598.
Trade strikes (vol.ii.) 555.
Trades' unions (vol. ii.) 558 — 560.
Trafalgar, battle of (vol. i.) 83.
Trent, the (vol. ii.) 348—351.
Trevelyan, Sir C. (vol ii.) 205.
Tulloch, Colonel (vol. ii.) 142.
Turkish loan (vol. ii.) 135;
Union of North American colonies (vol. ii.)
472.
Unity Bank, the (vol. ii.) 542.
Unreformed parUament (vol. i.) 116, 117.
Vansittart, Mr. (vol. i.) 187.
Verona, congress of (vol. i.) 148.
Victoria, Queen, her ascension to the throne (vol. i. )
474 ; her childhood, 475 ; entry on public life,
475; proclaimed queen, 476 ; dinner at the Guild
hall, 479 ; the civil list, 480 ; the coronation, 481
 185 ; her marriage, 594 ; attempt on her
life, 610 ; interview with Guizot, 615 ; visits Eu,
634, 635 ; goes to Cherbourg (vol. ii.) 238; grief
of, 407 ; her sympathies, 414.
839

INDEX.

Vienna, congress of (vol. i.) 140 ; revolution in, 823.
Ville de Paris (vol. i.) 21.
Villiers, Mr. (vol. i.) 683, 684.
Vittoria (vol. i.) 132, •
Vixen (vol. i.) 448,
Volunteers (vol. ii.) 307, 303.
Wages (vol. i.) 111. .
Walcheren expedition (vol. i.) 125.
Wales, Prince of (vol. ii.) 404 ; travels, 410 ; mar
riage, 412.
Wales, Princess of (vol. ii.) 412, 413.
Walewski, Count (vol. ii.) 114.
Walker, Andrew (vol. ii.) 336.
Walpole, Sir R. (vol. i.) 7.
Walter, M.P., Mr. J. (vol. i.) 781, 782.
Wardle, Colonel, and Mrs. Clarke (vol.'i.) 125.
Waterloo (vol. i.) 134.
Wellington, Duke of, his birth (vol. i.) 129; in
France, 132 ; Premier, 227 ; defeat of, 256 ; duel
with Lord Winchelsea, 281 ; his character, 356 ;
letters, 534, 769, 770 ; death of (vol. ii.) 64 ; his
funeral, 65.
Wensleydale, Lord (vol. ii.) 143.
Wesleys, the (vol. i.) 99.
Westbury, Lord (vol. ii.) 293, 294, 446—449.
West India interests (vol. L) 773.
Westminster Club (vol. ii.) 579.
Wetherell, Sir C. (vol. L) 282.

Whately, Archbishop (vol. i.) 619 ; (vol. ii.) 420, 421.
Wheatstone, Mr. (vol. ii.) 239.
Whitfield (vol. i.) 100.
Whitworth, Lord (vol. i.) 76.
Wilberforce; W. (vol. i.) 99, 121, 469.
Wilkes (vol. i.) 12.
William IV., midshipman on board the Prince
George (vol. i.) 17 ; ascends the throne, 330 ; his
popularity, 331; his manners, 332; insincerity,
333 ; death, 334 ; character, 335 ; his family, 336 ;
Mrs. Jordan, 337 ; funeral of, 338.
Williams, of Kars (vol. ii.) 119.
Wilson, Hon. J. (vol. ii.) 664.
Windham (vol. i.) 121.
Windham case, the (vol. ii.) 345.
Windischgratz (vol. i.) 828.
Wiseman, Cardinal (vol. ii.) 36, 37, 39, 491.
Wood, Sir C. (vol. ii.) 667—672.
Working classes, condition of (vol. i.) 113.
Working classes, wealth of (vol. ii.) 561.
Working-men's clubs (vol. ii.) 577, 578, 580.
Working-men's college (vol. ii.) 616.
Working-men's exhibitions (vol. ii.) 401, 568, 569.
Wright, Captain, death of (vol. i.) 80.
York, Duke of (vol. i.) 219, 313, 314.
Zealand, New (vol. i.) 551, 552; war in (vol. ii.)
469.

EEEATA.

VOL. I.
Page 5, line 23, Introduction : for ill-defined, read well-defined.
„ 8, ,, 36, for Roguar, read Rognar.
„ 16, „ 10, for mammet, read Marmot.
„ 29, „ 26, for be, read lie.
„ 115, ,, i7, for Symintron, read Symington.
,, 469, ,, 42, for Granville, read Grenville.
„ 715, ,, 1 6, for view, read vein.
u 811, „ 44, for money, read merry.

VOL. II.

Page 235, line 47, fbr Derby, read Palmerston.
n 287, ,, 45,/or reguet, rea<? regnet.
,, 601, „ 28, for Parthian, read Paphian.

^f.

V ;

p y/