THE EARL OF DERBY’S ADMINISTRATION.
The majority in favour of Lord Palmerston’s measure caused the adjournment of the house. The queen sent for Lord Derby, and committed to him the reins of power.
One of the first acts of his lordship, after conferring with Mr. Disraeli and a few of his most attached adherents, was to offer a seat in his cabinet to Lord Palmerston. Mr. Disraeli had, however, in the debate upon the address, renewed his agitation of the previous year for re-adjusting taxation in favour of the landed interest, as compensation for the loss of high prices for corn, which had been secured by protection. As this was only another mode of reenacting protectionist laws, and one which was especially offensive to all the community not inheriting land, it was impossible for Lord Palmerston to accept office with Lord Derby, even if their political differences were less. Failing to strengthen his government by the accession of Lord Palmerston, Lord Derby, had recourse to Mr. Gladstone, but his repugnance to act with Disraeli personally, and his opposition to the protectionist schemes of both that minister and Lord Derby, rendered all negotiations unsuccessful. The ministry, therefore, became a pure tory and protectionist cabinet, except so far as Lord Stanley was concerned, whose opinions were supposed to be liberal, although connected with the ministry by the influence of his father.
The following ministry was ultimately formed:—
In the Cabinet. First Lord of the Treasury ... Earl of Derby. Lord Chancellor ............... Lord St. Leonards. Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Disraeli. President of the Council ...... Earl Lonsdale. Privy Seal....................... Marquis of Salisbury. Home Secretary ............... Mr. Horace Walpole. Foreign Secretary............... Earl of Malmesbury. First Lord of the Admiralty..... Duke of Northumberland. President of the Board of Control Mr. Hume. Post-Master General ............ Earl of Hardwicke. President of the Board of Trade Mr. Henley. First Commissioner of Woods/Forests Lord J. Manners
Not in the Cabinet. Commander-in-Chief of Her of Majesty’s Land Forces ...... Duke of Wellington. Master-General of the Ordnance Viscount Hardinge. Paymaster of the Forces, and Vice-President of the Board of Trade Lord Colchester. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.... Mr. Christopher. Secretary at War .................... Major Beresford Secretary of the Admiralty........... Mr. O’Brien Stafford. Attorney-General...................... Sir Frederick Thesiger. Solicitor-General .................. Sir Fitzroy Kelly. Judge Advocate-General................ Mr. Banks. Chief Poor-Law Commissioner........... Sir George Trollope.
SCOTLAND. Lord-Advocate.................. Mr. Anderson. Solicitor-General .............. Mr. Inglis.
IRELAND. Lord-Lieutenant ............... Earl of Eglinton. Lord-Chancellor ............... Rt. Hon. Mr. Blackburn. Chief Secretary................. Lord Naas. Attorney-General................ Mr. Napier. Solicitor-General ............. Mr. Whiteside.
QUEEN’S HOUSEHOLD. Lord-Steward..................... Duke of Montrose. Lord-Chamberlain................. Marquis of Exeter. Master of the Horse.............. Earl of Jersey. Mistress of the Robes .......... Duchess of Athole.
This ministry was but slightly modified during the year, and altogether apart from political changes. The death of the Duke of Wellington led to the appointment of Lord Hardinge to the Horse Guards, Lord Raglan becoming master-general of the Ordnance.
This ministry was not popular. In the cabinet the lord-chancellor was not an accession of strength. Although a very high Tory, he was not liked by the aristocracy; and although a very good lawyer, he was believed by the country to be narrow-minded and prejudiced. Lord John Manners was extremely unpopular, in consequence of his well-known couplet, expressive of the desire that learning and commerce should perish rather than that the power of the aristocracy should be diminished. The Duke of Northumberland was considered utterly unfit for the important duties imposed on him, and it was supposed that he would patronise “jobbing,” and promotion by unfair means.
Out of the cabinet, the English appointments were generally severely criticised, except those of the household and the law officers. These latter were considered able men, but bigoted partizans—clever enough for attorney-general and solicitor-general, but very unsuitable for judges, to which honours the offices notoriously led.
All the Irish appointments were popular in Ireland, although the gentlemen who filled them belonged to a party of so small a minority. Lord Eglinton was a gentleman personally liberal and generally esteemed, generous, and off-hand, fond of Ireland, and adapted to intercourse with the Irish. Mr. Blackburn, the lord-chancellor, was considered the greatest equity lawyer in Ireland, and an impartial judge. Lord Naas, the chief secretary, was an Irishman who knew the country well, and was connected with many popular families. Joseph Napier was held to be a first-rate lawyer and scholar, a polished gentleman, and a sincere Christian. Whiteside was regarded as having too much of the clever, eloquent, fiery Irish agitator in his own constitution, not to have some complaisant sympathy with such qualities in his countrymen. Accordingly, the government worked well in Ireland for its own ascendancy, but every step it took in England rendered the hope of ministerial longevity impossible. Lord Derby and Mr. Disraeli were personally liked; both were believed to be more liberal than their relation to their party allowed, and their brilliant eloquence made the country proud of them in or out of office.
The time soon arrived for testing the House of Commons as to the amount of toleration it was likely to show to the new ministry. On the 27th of February, Lord Derby offered the lords an exposition of his views, which, even while he was yet speaking, found its way substantially to the commons, and was buzzed about among the members. In his speech, his lordship disavowed any intention to interfere violently with free-trade principles, but avowed himself still a Protectionist, declaring, that in his opinion, the importation of all articles which competed with the industry of the country ought to be taxed, and that corn ought not to be exempt. A report of his lordship’s speech had scarcely reached the commons, when it was evident that so far as the parliament then sitting was concerned, the doom of his ministry was sealed. When, the next day, the wings of the press bore to the country his lordship’s oration, indignation was everywhere excited, and the free-traders were united and strengthened, in a manner they had not been from the time of the repeal of the corn-laws.
Lord Derby made a statement connected with reform, which proved to be nearly as distasteful to a majority of the people out of doors as that on free-trade. He expressed his intention not to proceed with Lord John Russell’s reform bill, which he described as unsettling everything and settling nothing, which began by exciting the country, and finished by dissatisfying it.
His lordship, as if not satisfied with the opposition such statements were likely to raise against him, provided himself with a third element of hostility, by invoking the assistance of his hearers for the extension of the established church, and of an education entirely under the control of the parochial clergy. The dissenters and Roman Catholics were much alarmed ly this portion of his lordship’s speech, and quietly, but extensively and effectually, prepared to give a strenuous opposition to his government. Thus, in his début as premier, Lord Derby contrived to set against him the free-traders, reformers, dissenters, and Roman Catholics, at a moment when there was a majority against him in the commons. The premier’s oratorical onslaught was so indiscreet, that only the most headstrong and ignorant of his own party had any hope that he would display the tact, sagacity, self-control, and party-moderation which alone could enable him to hold his ground against the opposition in the commons, and the general want of confidence in his ministry.
Such was the imprudence of the first minister, that although Earl Grey gave him an easy opportunity of withdrawing his anti-free-trade doctrines, the most in the form of concession which he (Lord Grey) could extort was, that the government had no present intention of proposing a tax on the importation of corn, but regarded it as a question still open, and remaining with the intelligence of the country for solution. Some of the high whig peers expressed their approbation of his lordship’s views in terms of warm support. On the other hand, the Earl of Aberdeen strenuously opposed the purpose which the government evidently contemplated, of imposing a new corn-tax.
In the commons, an adjournment to the 12th of March was proposed and carried.
When the houses resumed their sittings, it became evident to the government that the imprudent speech of Lord Derby had roused the opposition to a high pitch of excitement. Demands were made as to whether the government intended to re-impose the corn-laws. No honest answer could be extracted in either house—experience had made the leaders wary: the answers given were, in effect, that the government would abide by the decision of the country. This reply made it evident that parliament was to be dissolved on the question of free-trade and a corn-law. After the country had reasonably concluded that the question was settled, fierce disputes from end to end of the kingdom were about to be raised. The old members of the Corn-law League accordingly convoked meetings in London and Manchester, and it was determined to resuscitate that powerful body, and with new and more effectual instrumentalities of agitation, upon the first proposition for imposing a tax upon the importation of corn. The uneasiness throughout the country became very great, and a personal ill-will to the two tory leaders began to show itself in the north of England, and throughout Scotland.
On the 15th of March, Lord Beaumont presented a petition from certain inhabitants of the West Biding of Yorkshire, praying the house to set at rest the question of free-trade, as commercial enterprise was seriously injured. Lord Derby answered that he did not consider the question settled, and that the next general election must decide it. On the same evening, Mr. Villiers, the leader of the anti-cornlaw party in the commons, demanded final and explicit explanations from the government, alleging that distrust and alarm filled the country. Mr. Disraeli denied the statements, and resorted to the usual tricks of words to evade the interrogatory; the inference from his reply was that a desperate effort would be made to gain a corn-law majority in a new House of Commons, and, in case of success, re-impose the corn-laws. Lord John Bussell, Sir James Graham, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Palmerston, Sir A. Cockburn, and other prominent men on the liberal side of the house, expressed their determination to offer every resistance they could employ to the re-imposition of any duty, in any form, upon the importation of corn.
Rumours began to circulate, that the government would endeavour to go on with the public business in the face of an adverse majority, and on the 19th of March, the Duke of Newcastle demanded explanations in the lords from the premier. The duke presented a petition from the Commercial Association of Manchester, praying for relief from the confusion and uncertainty thrown into commercial operations by the speeches of the leading members of government, in fact, demanding that the question of a corn-law should once more be submitted to the country. Lord Derby denied the assertions of the Manchester Association, refused to dissolve parliament, or to give any explicit information as to his intentions in reference to free-trade.
In the House of Commons, the same night, Lord John Bussell demanded that the public should be at once relieved from all uncertainty by an appeal to the country. So decided and angry was the aspect of the house, and so loud the demonstrations of its determination not to be trifled with on the great subject of a corn-law, that Mr. Disraeli was compelled to give that assurance which Lord Derby refused, and pledged the government to dissolve parliament, and meet the new house within the year, and as soon after the public business necessary to the country was disposed of.
It was, however, found difficult to transact business—the house was so excited; so that the question of dissolution was again and again renewed in angry and almost boisterous terms. Mr. Cobden called the attention of the house to the fact that the country had once more a protectionist government; that the fact was indisputable, and ought to be met with that intelligence and decision which became the greatest question of the day. He urged the house to limit the rates of supply, until the country decided whether it wished a tax upon bread, to enrich the landlords. Mr. Cardwell, in language as decided as that of Mr. Cobden, urged the house to fulfil its constitutional obligations, and compel the government of the minority to give suitable assurances of an early dissolution. Lord John Bussell declared that the government had taken a course for which there was no precedent in the constitutional history of England. He followed Mr. Cobden and Mr. Cardwell in insisting upon the government adopting such a course as to a dissolution, as would remove from the house the necessity of taking measures to assert its own high prerogatives. Mr. Disraeli declined pledging the government more definitely than he had done, which drew from Mr. Bright an invective full of fire, yet marked by a dignity unusual with that honourable member; he demanded that the supplies should be stopped, or the house be assured that no effort would be made by the government to retain power by unconstitutional methods. The result of these vigorous proceedings were statements made in both houses on the part of the ministry, that it was the intention to dissolve parliament and have an autumn session to settle the question of protection. It does not appear that these promises were made in good faith;—at all events no autumn session was called, although a new parliament met in November, and the question in debate set at rest.
The government introduced a militia-bill, which Lord John Bussell and the Whigs generally opposed. Lord Palmerston supported the government, as did the Peel party, his lordship criticising the tactics of Lord John with severity. The opposition between these two statesmen kept the liberal party divided, and alone enabled the government to maintain its course.
Lord Brougham introduced a bill to enable parliament to meet thirty-five days after a dissolution. The bill was carried through both houses without opposition.
The government took up a bill of Lord John Russell’s for the disfranchisement of the borough of St. Albans, on account of gross bribery and corruption. The bill was carried, no opposition being offered except by a small number of Lord Derby’s own party in the House of Lords.
Sudbury and St. Albans being disfranchised, a question arose as to the appropriation of the four seats. On the 10th of May, Mr. Disraeli brought in a bill for the purpose, proposing that the four vacant seats be given to great county constituencies in the north of England. Mr. Gladstone opposed the measure, on the ground that the government was trifling with the prerogatives of the house. It was a government in a minority, and its duty was to pass no measures but such routine business as the country absolutely required. Mr. Disraeli had given this promise, and, notwithstanding, sought to appropriate to county constituencies the four borough votes of which other constituencies had been penally deprived. The speech of Mr. Gladstone was received with enthusiasm by the house, and his amendment, “That the house do pass to the order of the day,” was carried by a very large majority. That this was purely a party movement of Mr. Gladstone was soon made evident enough, for he assisted the government soon after in carrying a bill for giving New Zealand a constitution; and he himself brought in a measure termed “the Colonial Bishops’ Bill.”
Various motions were brought under the consideration of the house, but were received with impatience, and all further attempts of government to prolong the session by inducing the house to entertain bills, were fruitless; all were bent upon one object,—that of bringing to an issue before the country the question of the re-imposition of a tax upon corn.