THE COUP D'ÉTAT: EVICTION OF THE JUDGES. (See p. [7].)
This was sent to Lord Palmerston by Lord John Russell, and it was acknowledged by Lord Palmerston as follows:—"I have taken a copy of this memorandum of the Queen's, and will not fail to attend to the directions which it contains." This occurred in August, 1850, more than twelve months before the occurrence of the coup d'état in Paris, and in the interval Palmerston, with difficulty dissuaded from receiving Kossuth who was on a visit to England, accepted an address from the Radicals of Islington in which the Emperors of Russia and Austria were stigmatised as despots, tyrants, and assassins. A few days later he committed a fresh indiscretion in conversation with Count Walewski, the French Ambassador, to whom he expressed a strong approval of the coup d'état. When Palmerston was asked to explain his conduct, he evaded the point by a long defence of the action of Louis Napoleon, and Lord John Russell at last summoned up courage to dismiss him from his office.
Soon after the opening of Parliament in 1852, Lord John Russell related to the House what had happened in connection with this matter. Our Ambassador in France had been instructed to abstain from all interference with the internal affairs of that country. Lord Palmerston was alleged to have held a conversation with the French Ambassador inconsistent with those instructions. The Premier wrote to him on the subject, but his inquiries had for some days been met with a disdainful silence; Lord Palmerston having meanwhile, without the knowledge of his colleagues, written a despatch, containing instructions to Lord Normanby, who had previously been advised to observe a strict neutrality, which Lord John Russell considered was putting himself in the place of the Crown and passing by the Crown; while he gave the moral approbation of England to the acts of the President of the Republic, in direct opposition to the policy which the Government had hitherto pursued. In these circumstances Lord John said he had no other alternative but to declare, that while he was Prime Minister Lord Palmerston could not hold the seals of office. The noble Foreign Secretary had been accordingly dismissed.
Lord Palmerston then rose to explain his conduct. He stated that the French Ambassador had given a highly coloured version of a long conversation, to the effect that he had entirely approved of what had been done, and thought the President of the French fully justified. Lord Normanby wrote for authority to contradict that statement, and, though Palmerston did not say so, complained of the false position in which he was placed. Lord Palmerston repeated, however, his opinion that it was better the President should prevail than the Assembly, because the Assembly had nothing to offer in substitution for the President, unless an alternative obviously ending in civil war or anarchy; whereas the President, on the other hand, had to offer unity of purpose and unity of authority, and if he were inclined to do so he might give to France internal tranquillity, with good and permanent Government. Lord Palmerston retaliated on Lord John Russell by stating that both he and other members of the Cabinet had also expressed opinions, in conversation with the French Ambassador, not very different from his own. The defence was generally regarded as wholly unsatisfactory.
Lord Palmerston had been succeeded as Foreign Secretary by Earl Granville; but the noble lord soon had his revenge on the Prime Minister. Feelings of anxiety prevailed at this time with regard to the national defences, and it was thought necessary to organise a large militia force, which would constitute a powerful reserve in case of war with any foreign country. Lord John Russell therefore brought in a Bill on the subject on the 16th of February. Lord Palmerston suggested that the word "local" should be left out of the Bill, and the regular militia, which had practically been suspended since Waterloo, reconstituted. He accordingly moved amendments in committee. Upon this Lord John Russell stated that if the House decided to leave out the word "local," the chairman of the committee and Lord Palmerston must bring in the Bill. Upon a division, however, the word was left out by a majority of eleven. Lord John Russell then said that he must now decline the responsibility of the measure. Lord Palmerston expressed his extreme surprise at this abandonment by the Government of their functions in that House. Lord John replied that he was stopped at the threshold, and told by the division that the House had no confidence in the Government. The cheers with which this statement was received confirmed its truth. The Ministry therefore resigned. "I have had my tit-for-tat with John Russell," wrote Palmerston in exultation to his brother, "and turned him out."
The Queen sent for Lord Derby, formerly known as Lord Stanley, who succeeded in forming the following Cabinet:—Prime Minister, Lord Derby; Chancellor, Lord St. Leonards; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Disraeli; President of the Council, Lord Lonsdale; Privy Seal, Marquis of Salisbury; Home Secretary, Mr. Walpole; Foreign Secretary, Lord Malmesbury; Colonial Secretary, Sir John Pakington; Admiralty, Duke of Northumberland; Board of Control, Mr. Herries; Postmaster-General, Lord Hardwicke; Board of Trade, Mr. Henley; Public Works, Lord John Manners. Only two members, Lord Derby and Mr. Herries, had ever held Cabinet rank before. The new Ministry carried through a Militia Bill, which passed the House of Commons by large majorities, in spite of the factious opposition of Lord John Russell. In the Lords, the second reading was moved on the 15th of June. It passed through all its stages without difficulty, and received the Royal Assent in due course. By this excellent measure a militia was constituted, available for service in any part of the United Kingdom, and recruited by voluntary enlistment, though a compulsory ballot was reserved for seasons of emergency. Many other useful measures were also passed during the Session of 1852, among which may be mentioned the New Zealand Constitution Act, several measures of Law Reform, including the procedure in the Court of Chancery, and an extension of the jurisdiction of the County Courts. Lord Lyndhurst, reviewing the Session, said that, "during the four months that had elapsed since Lord Derby came into office, Bills of greater importance had passed than in any Session since the commencement of the present Parliament." On the 1st of July the Queen prorogued Parliament in person, and delivered a Speech, in which she expressed her satisfaction at the "final" settlement of the affairs of Holstein and Schleswig. The order for the dissolution of Parliament appeared next day in the Gazette. The General Election, which took place in due course, left the state of parties very much as it had found it, though many of the Peelites lost their seats.
The new Parliament assembled on the 4th of November. Mr. Charles Shaw-Lefevre was re-elected to the Speaker's chair without opposition. The Royal Speech was delivered by the Queen in person on the 11th, when her Majesty announced the existence of the most amicable relations with all Foreign Powers. The Session was occupied principally with commercial matters and financial questions, with regard to which the majority of the House were at issue with the Government. They were suspected of a leaning towards Protection, though Mr. Disraeli, in producing his preliminary Budget, jauntily threw over the principle, and dilated in favour of Free Trade. In vain Mr. Villiers attempted to force his hand by a resolution expressing unbounded confidence in the Act of 1846; he was saved by Lord Palmerston's alternative proposal expressing a platonic attachment to the system, which was carried by a large majority. The Budget, however, when finally produced, was discovered to be framed on the lines of ingenious rather than of sound finance, and was held by experts, notably by Mr. Gladstone, to be unfairly burdensome to the £10 householders. This fact was brought to the test by a division, after a long debate, on the 10th of December, when the Government was defeated by 305 to 286. This led to the resignation of the Derby Cabinet. A coalition between the Whigs and the Peelites was next tried, with Lord Aberdeen as Prime Minister; after which the House adjourned to the 10th of February.
The Duke of Wellington, whose name has been so often mentioned in this history, terminated his long and glorious career at Walmer Castle, on the 14th of September, 1852, in the eighty-fourth year of his age. Foreign princes united with the Sovereign, and Parliament, and citizens of his own country, to honour the hero, whom Talleyrand once called "the most capable man in England," and whom Mr. Disraeli, as leader of the House of Commons, designated "the greatest man of a great nation—a general who had fought fifteen pitched battles, captured 3,000 cannon from the enemy, and never lost a single gun." And he truly added, he was not only the greatest and most successful warrior of his time, but his protracted civil career was scarcely less splendid and successful; and when he died, "he died at the head of that army to which he had left the tradition of his fame." The Queen was at Balmoral at the time of his death, and she immediately conveyed her wishes to the Government that his remains should be honoured by a public funeral. Lord Derby proposed a resolution in reply to her Majesty's message, which was unanimously adopted; and a Select Committee was appointed to consider the mode in which the House might best assist at the ceremony. A similar course was adopted in the Commons. The public obsequies commenced when the remains were committed to the officers of the Lord Chamberlain, to be conveyed to the hall of Chelsea Hospital, there to lie in state. The arrangements for the admission of the public were not satisfactory, and the consequence was dreadful confusion and crushing, attended in some cases with fatal consequences. Order was ultimately restored, and it was calculated that from 50,000 to 65,000 people passed daily through the hall. Three persons, two women and one man, lost their lives by the crushing on the 13th.
Late on the night of the 17th of November the corpse was conveyed to the Horse Guards, escorted by a squadron of cavalry. The procession took place next day. First appeared the infantry, six battalions, then the artillery, next the cavalry, five squadrons, and then martial men on foot, pensioners, trumpets and kettle-drums, deputations from public bodies in carriages, persons connected with the late Duke's household, military dignitaries, judges, Ministers and officers of State, archbishops, the Prince Consort and her Majesty's household, in three carriages drawn by six horses each, officers connected with foreign armies, pall-bearers, the funeral car, which weighed twelve tons, drawn by twelve horses, and decorated by trophies and heraldic achievements, the hat and sword of the deceased being placed on the coffin. The coffin was borne into St. Paul's, where nearly 20,000 persons were assembled. At the conclusion of the dirge the mortal remains were lowered into the crypt, and the great Duke was buried "with an Empire's lamentation."
The new Ministry was constituted as follows—Lord Aberdeen took the Treasury, and of the other Peelites Mr. Gladstone, the Duke of Newcastle, Sir James Graham, and Mr. Sidney Herbert, became respectively Chancellor of the Exchequer, Colonial Minister, First Lord of the Admiralty, and Secretary at War. The new Chancellor was Lord Cranworth, who had been a member of Lord Melbourne's Administration. Of the leading Whigs, Lord John Russell was induced, after much persuasion, to accept the Colonial Office, and after a brief tenure of the Foreign Office, Lord Palmerston, to the universal surprise, became Home Secretary. Lord Granville was President of the Council, the Duke of Argyll Privy Seal, Lord Lansdowne entered the Cabinet without office. Sir Charles Wood went to the Board of Control, and Sir William Molesworth, who had usually voted with the Radicals, became First Commissioner of Works. The Cabinet has been stigmatised as a coalition; as a matter of fact it was composed of moderate free-traders to the exclusion of Radicals like Cobden and Bright, and on the whole was fairly homogeneous.