CHAPTER XX
From out of the solid phalanx of Tory peers eligible for the post Lord Salisbury chose the Earl of Zetland, and sent him to Dublin. The viceroy was then in his forty-fifth year, was chiefly distinguished by his fondness for horse-racing, while a painstaking press recorded the fact that his mother was an Irishwoman. In 1871 he married Lady Lilian Lumley, a daughter of the ninth Earl of Scarborough, and the following year he was elected for the family borough of Richmond, Yorkshire. The death of his uncle in 1873 terminated his career in the House of Commons, and until his appointment to Ireland in 1889 he led the life of a country gentleman and a sportsman.
His viceroyalty was somewhat similar to that of Lord Londonderry's, though he soon lost the aid of Mr. Balfour, who was replaced by Mr. W. L. Jackson, raised to the peerage as Lord Allerton in King Edward's Coronation year. He had not been long in office when the report of the Parnell Commission became the sensation of the season; indeed, it was all Parnell and no Zetland from the beginning to the end of his term. The Commission was followed by the divorce case that extinguished the Irish leader; then came the sharp and bitter party schisms, the intervention of the Roman Catholic hierarchy, and last of all the death of the central figure of the sordid and miserable tragedy. It was quite impossible for either viceroy or Chief Secretary to do more than be there if he was wanted, and, perhaps fortunately no great crisis called for their intervention. A Tory Lord-Lieutenant can always have a comfortable and easy life in Dublin provided he is not ambitious to be up and doing. Lord Zetland was disinclined to create precedents or seek to alter established things. Every good cause received his approval and the benediction of Lady Zetland. They were not more political than they had to be, while the viceroy's fondness for the Turf was not without its effect, although the Irish sportsman is quite a different type to the Irish, and 'never the twain shall meet.' The viceroyalty jogged on gently to its predestined end, and the General Election giving Mr. Gladstone a majority the six-year-old Salisbury Administration came to an end.
Mr. Gladstone in power
The return of Mr. Gladstone to the premiership caused great perturbation in Unionist circles in Ireland. At last the polls had given him a mandate for Home Rule, and there was no prospect of rebellious Liberals rising again to destroy their chief. There remained the House of Lords, ever the bulwark of the liberties of the people—whether the people appreciated it or not; but there was a doubt whether the Upper Chamber would peril its existence by defying Gladstone again. Nevertheless, Unionist Ireland, with a fanaticism and a determination not unworthy of the Irish Nationalist representatives, determined to fight the odds against them inspired by a 'No surrender' spirit. They resolved not to touch Gladstone or his noble representative with a forty-foot pole, and, numbering in their ranks the majority of the gentry and nobility, their decision to boycott the incoming viceroy meant much more than it appeared on the surface. It is true that any Tory viceroy can create the sort of court he pleases, and so can a Liberal in ordinary circumstances, but Lord Houghton was viceroy at a time when every snob, whether he took any interest in politics or not, became a Unionist in order to be known as a member of the gentlemanly party. It was simply 'bad form' to favour Home Rule, and that was sufficient to unite Unionists as they have never been united before or since.
Mr. Gladstone was in the position of having very few candidates for the viceroyalty. Mr. John Morley was, of course, the Chief Secretary, and he could be depended upon to do all the political work. The premier offered the viceroyalty to the then Lord Houghton, and it was accepted in the hope that it would lead to better things.
Lord Houghton
Lord Houghton was born in 1858, on January 12, so that he was in his thirty-fifth year when he was sworn in as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. His official training had been meagre, comprising the not fatiguing post of Assistant Private Secretary to Lord Granville during part of that statesman's occupancy of the Foreign Office in Mr. Gladstone's second Administration, and a few months as Lord-in-Waiting to Queen Victoria in 1886. The son of Monckton Milnes was always an object of interest to students of history, literary and political, and Lord Houghton had shown that he was not inexpert by writing a number of stray verses that exhibited a talent for rhyming. His ability for statesmanship was, however, more doubtful, and, as events proved, he was not the man to conciliate the important body of opinion adverse to the Government he represented. The position, certainly, was most difficult, and abler men than Lord Houghton would have failed. He could not forget his own dignity, and therefore never attempted to conciliate the Opposition. The distrust of the Nationalists must have struck him as savouring of ingratitude, and as every Liberal viceroy has found it, Lord Houghton was an object of suspicion and distrust to all Irishmen.
Lord Crewe
Irish society boycotted the Liberal viceroy. He started badly by declining to receive a loyal address because it contained a reference to the Home Rule question. Lord Houghton, being temperamentally incapable of inspiring affection in inferiors, adopted an attitude of extreme hauteur, offending every class in turn. Mr. Gladstone was in the midst of the battle of his life, ably seconded by Mr. John Morley; but the Lord-Lieutenant of the Government sat in gloomy solitude in Dublin, cognisant no doubt of the fact that for the first time since 1172 Dublin Castle and Viceregal Lodge invitations were being declined or ignored by a society which in the ordinary course of events would sacrifice anything rather than the entrée to the miniature court of the viceroy. No help could come from Ireland, where the masses watched the efforts to plant a Parliament in College Green with a sullenness of demeanour that indicated their lack of enthusiasm. The educated classes were almost to a man and a woman Unionists, and the movement against the viceroy was inspired by party feelings, but Lord Houghton's personality did not tend towards the softening of the austerities. The members of his entourage suffered from the general disfavour, and the aides-de-camp, who are usually almost danced to death every season, ended their labours as fresh as they began them. The entertaining that had to be done was in the capable hands of the Hon. Mrs. Arthur Henniker, Lord Houghton's sister, a lady of many accomplishments. The viceroy was a widower then, and some years from a second wife, an earldom, an heir, and a marquisate.
Lord Houghton's position in Ireland was certainly unique. In a country overwhelmingly Nationalist—using the word in its party sense—he was supposed to belong to the popular side. Hitherto, the Lord-Lieutenant had been more or less a Tory, for the average Liberal was too superior to descend into the cockpit of Irish politics; but Lord Houghton was the Heaven-sent embodiment of Ireland's hopes of legislative independence. He was a member of the Government that had for its first and only object the settlement of the Irish question, and yet the viceroy, with all these aids, might have been the most bigoted Tory of Tories, judging by the attitude of the Nationalists. The native politician well maintained his reputation for suspecting his best friends. The prophets of gloom foretold of the fatal intervention of the House of Lords, and were so certain of defeat as to contribute towards it themselves. Lord Houghton was regarded as a sham, Gladstone's noble self-sacrifice as a mere trick; the whole body politic seemed destitute of honour and honesty. Wherever the viceroy went he was received in silence; there were no popular demonstrations in town or country. Ireland was in the position of the beggar who awaits charity with curses ready on her tongue in the case of refusal or dissatisfaction. She could not—would not—believe and understand that Mr. Gladstone was risking his own life, and that of his party, in his endeavour to grant the Nationalist demands. Eventually he wrecked Liberalism, but it has since recovered—Ireland has not.
The House of Lords is the stock enemy of Liberalism, but the peers did Lord Houghton a good turn when they rejected Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill and numbered the days of the ministry. Heroically enough, the viceroy agreed to continue in office when Lord Rosebery was unexpectedly given the premiership; but all men knew that the Government was merely a makeshift, and that a General Election and a Conservative-Unionist triumph was to be expected as a matter of course. It came in 1895, and with it the end of Liberalism for ten years. Lord Houghton resigned with the ministry, and left Dublin as glad to be out of the country as the country was as pleased to see the last of him. When the whirligig of time brought its revenges, and the Lord Houghton of the 1892-95 viceroyalty was an earl of ten years' standing, earls being remarkably scarce on the Liberal red benches, he was admitted to the Cabinet in the respectable capacity of Lord President of the Council. This post was vacated for a time when in Mr. Asquith's Ministry he was Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1910 he became Secretary of State for India, exchanging offices with Viscount Morley.
Lord Crewe's marriage in 1898 to Lady Margaret Primrose, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, was a brilliant social function, and the birth of a son and heir in 1911 was more welcome than the marquisate which came to the Indian Secretary in the Coronation Honours' List.
Tory ascendancy
The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarrassment of having a friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the ideal viceroy. Twenty years previously they had been members of the same Government—Lord Salisbury in the Cabinet, and Lord Cadogan Under-Secretary at the War Office and the Colonial Office in turn. In Lord Salisbury's Government of 1886-92 he was Lord Privy Seal. Their political friendship served to cement a private friendship that lasted until Lord Salisbury's death, and it was the premier's resignation in 1902 that caused the then viceroy to retire.
Earl Cadogan, K.G.
Lord Cadogan was born in 1840, and in 1865 he married Lady Beatrix Craven, who died in 1907. Succeeding to the earldom in 1873, he was obliged to leave the House of Commons, to which he had been elected by the citizens of Bath the same year. From the day of his elevation to one of the wealthiest places in the peerage Lord Cadogan became a valued asset of the Conservative party. An intimate friend of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, given to hospitality, married to a lady with more than the usual gift for entertaining, the owner of Chelsea House and his wife became social leaders of the party. Lord Salisbury was fortunate in securing Lord Cadogan for the viceroyalty, and a seat in the Cabinet was only right and proper for one whose influence and support were of paramount importance. As Chief Secretary, Mr. Gerald Balfour accompanied Lord Cadogan, and after an imposing state entry on August 12, 1895, they settled down to work.
In Dublin Castle there is an object-lesson of the relative political importance of the two chief executive officers of the Government in Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant's room is small and unpretentious, that of the Chief Secretary roomy, well furnished, and comfortable; but during Lord Cadogan's term he overshadowed his first Chief Secretary, although the latter was a brother of the leader of the House of Commons.
Lord and Lady Cadogan
Lord and Lady Cadogan quickly earned that popularity which never left them. Charming to everybody, the soul of courtesy to all ranks and classes, ideal host and hostess, and spending their great wealth freely, it would have been surprising, indeed, if the viceroy and his wife had not achieved success. Nationalists, professional and amateur, learnt the advantage of having a wealthy Lord-Lieutenant, even if he had been nominated by the hated and detested Tories, and the unostentatious munificence of the viceregal pair was not the least factor that contributed towards their success. As a member of the Cabinet, Lord Cadogan's political sympathies were obvious, yet in an extraordinary way he managed to conceal the politician in the administrator. He was even accused of favouring the Nationalists and Roman Catholics, and aggrieved place-hunters ruefully declared that the only qualification for office and promotion was Nationalist leanings or adherence to the Church of Rome. Nevertheless, Lord and Lady Cadogan lost nothing of their influence over all classes. Every Dublin season was brilliant and successful, simply because Lord and Lady Cadogan had the power to do things, and knew how to do them. The visit of the then Duke and Duchess of York in 1897—a brilliant success—was a triumph for Lord Cadogan's political perspicacity. The Local Government Bill of 1898—a measure frankly Liberal in tone—would have wrecked any other Lord-Lieutenant; it left Lord Cadogan as strong as ever. It is the irony of fate that the Conservative-Unionist party should have done, and still be doing, more for Ireland than Gladstone or his colleagues ever did. The Local Government Bill meant that the control of local affairs should pass from the hands of the minority to the majority. Protestant and Unionist councillors, Chairmen of County Councils, aldermen, magistrates, and other minor dignitaries were swept out of existence, and that nebulous host, the people, reigned in their stead. Had Gladstone proposed such a measure, and carried it, there would have been a revolt of the Unionists in Ireland, but as a Salisbury Government fathered the Act it was accepted without demur, and the revolution on the Nationalist side was a peaceful one. In a single phrase, the Act meant that in future the Catholic majority should be the masters of the Protestant minority. There is no quarter given or asked in Irish politics, and from that day to this the Protestants have had no share in the administration of local government in the country.