The state of Ireland is awful. I have written to Clarendon repeatedly, urging him to ask for great powers. He was reluctant, and wanted to try the force of the law as it is, and the Cabinet were not disposed to adopt strong coercive measures; but the public voice loudly demands coercion and repression, and Lord Lansdowne told me yesterday he was resolved to act in accordance with the general feeling. Parliament never met in more difficult and disturbed times: complete disorganisation, famine and ruin in Ireland, financial difficulty, general alarm and insecurity here, want of capital, want of employment. It requires all one's faith in the general soundness and inherent strength of 'the thing' (as Cobbett called it) to silence one's apprehensions. Then Colonial distress is impending, by which I am likely to be personally affected to the extent perhaps of half what I possess. I thank God that I regard this contingency with the utmost tranquillity or insensibility. I should not like it, but if the necessity arises I hope and believe I can make the necessary sacrifices and changes in my habits without repining outwardly or inwardly. I have not heard or known much lately that is worth recording, and I am in one of my fits of disinclination to write.
A LETTER FROM LORD CLARENDON.
December 1st.—I went to the House of Lords the night Parliament opened, and heard Stanley's speech. It lasted above two hours, was a declaration of war, very slashing and flashing, and drew forth vehement cheers from the Lords behind him. It was a regular Stanleyan speech, just like himself, and exhibits all his unfitness for the great functions of government and legislation: not but what there was much truth in a great deal he said, especially about Ireland. The next day George Bentinck bellowed and gesticulated for two hours in the House of Commons with the same violence but without the same eloquence as Stanley. Everybody looked with impatience for the Irish measures, and everybody expected (most people earnestly desiring) that they should be as strong as they could be made. In the House of Lords I had seen the Duke of Bedford for a moment, who told me they were the result of a compromise between Clarendon and the Government, the latter refusing to give all he had required, and the former having resolved not to stay with less than he eventually obtained. The night before last Sir George Grey introduced the Government measures, which appeared to almost everybody insufficient for the object. Peel however supported them in a very dexterous speech. He said he felt bound to support the Government in whatever they thought fit to propose, and that it was not for Parliament to force upon them greater powers than they in their discretion required; but he hinted his apprehensions lest some of the provisions of the Bill, or rather its deficiencies, would be found obstructions of the objects in view. The Irish were evidently surprised and had expected more stringent measures, and in truth it would have been just as easy to carry a really efficient measure as this, which will probably prove abortive. This morning I have a letter from Clarendon, who tells me what took place between himself and the Cabinet on the subject. He says, 'I expect the Bill will prove unsatisfactory to all parties...nevertheless I hope it will answer not so much by its own provisions as by the evidence it will afford that Parliament and the Government are in earnest.... In the present temper of England fancy what a figure the Government would have cut if they had opened Parliament without any repressive measure and announced that the ordinary law would prove sufficient, and that to it things were left! they would have been looked on as little better than accessories or instigators, and at all events I have the satisfaction of having saved them from this very serious scrape, which really would have caused an immediate increase of murder here. No one could be more desirous than myself to avoid Coercion Bills, or indeed to ask for any increased powers; but when I found that the ordinary law was insufficient to protect life and property, I sent over the heads of two Bills, both of which I meant should be permanent—one for punishing districts in which crimes were committed; the other for registering arms, &c.—a sort of police regulation proper for any country and especially required for Ireland. These Bills were ignored by the Cabinet, for which various utterly inexplicable reasons were given, and Lord John Russell said he hoped at least to get through the winter without any extraordinary measures. I then wrote both to Lord Lansdowne and John Russell to say that though I did not wish to cause them any embarrassment, and would get on here as well as I could for as long as I could, yet that nothing should induce me to remain an hour after I thought my power of usefulness was gone, as I was sure it would be unless my hands were strengthened. This produced an immediate change, and the only question then was what would be the best form of repression. A good deal of time was lost on this, and Sir George Grey at length proposed as a model one of the Six Acts (1819). I did not like it very much, but I had no wish obstinately to adhere to my own Bills, which perhaps might not have been stringent enough, as they were proposed before things had got so bad and the spirit of combination was so manifest, and they were moreover intended to be permanent. So, after amending the Bill a little with the law officers here, I consented to it, and hope it will not be a failure when put into operation.' So that if Lord John and his Cabinet had been left to themselves they would have done nothing, and have let the Irish murderers do their worst with no other hindrance than the ordinary course of law! Clarendon saved the Government by insisting; for if they had met Parliament and proposed nothing, they would have been swept away in a whirlwind of indignation. Addresses would have been proposed in both Houses and carried by immense majorities, and the Government would have been at an end.
December 7th.—The Irish measures were introduced, and everybody was surprised they were not stronger. Peel supported the Government, and there was hardly any opposition. The Government people tell everybody that Clarendon is satisfied with the measures, thinks they will prove effective, and his name and authority silence objections. The day after Grey's speech I met Peel in the Park. He was in high force and good humour, and looking very fresh and well. After talking of some other things, I said, 'You supported the Government very handsomely in their Irish measure.' He replied, 'Yes, and I mean to support them; but they have made a great mistake and missed a great opportunity; Parliament and the country would have confided to the Lord Lieutenant any powers the Government chose to ask for; they have totally misunderstood the state of Ireland and the feeling and opinion of this country.' In short, he entirely agreed with me that they ought to have asked for much stronger coercive power. There are people nevertheless who think it of greater importance to pass a measure quickly, and with nearly general concurrence, and therefore that this is better than one more vigorous, but which would be more strenuously opposed.
THE DEFENCE OF THE COUNTRY.
On Friday last Peel made a great speech on Wood's statement in re the Bank Charter. It was very able, and the Government were delighted because he supported them so cordially; the Opposition cut a very miserable figure and showed how wavering and uncertain they are, without plan, object, or tactics. They divided on a question of adjournment, and sent their weakness forth to the country, but did not move an amendment on which they might have united all their force and caught many stray votes. I saw Graham two days ago; he was chuckling over their mismanagement, said that if they had moved that it should be an instruction to the Committee to report at once on the Bill of 1844, they would have put the Government into difficulties and might have divided a large number; but he sees how disorganised and inefficient they are. He talked about a great many things in an amicable strain towards the Government, and a great deal on the defences of the country, about which the Duke of Wellington is in such a perturbed state of mind.
The Duke wrote a very long and able letter to Sir John Burgoyne some time ago on this subject; this letter Lady Burgoyne and her daughters copied and distributed among their friends. Pigou, a meddling zealot, who does nothing but read Blue Books and write letters to the 'Times' and 'Chronicle,' contrived to get hold of a copy, and fired off a letter to the 'Morning Chronicle,' with a part of its contents. The Duke was not pleased at this, and Lord John Russell was very angry; it has made a noise in the world. The Duke always accuses his old colleagues of doing nothing about the defences, and turning a deaf ear to his remonstrances. Graham says this is not true, and he showed me a very elaborate paper he had drawn up for the Cabinet, with various recommendations, which he left with Sir George Grey when he left the Home Office, and the copy of a Bill for calling out the militia, which was also left with Fox Maule. He talked about Ireland, and said that the Master of the Rolls (Smith) had drawn up a Bill for the sale of entailed estates, which he recommended Clarendon to look at. He told me that Peel thought this an excellent Parliament, promising to be practical and business-like, serious listeners and men intent on not letting the time of the House be wasted as it has lately been by eternal talkers, and continual early adjournments. Everybody was alarmed at the aspect of this Parliament at first, even the Speaker, who thought it would be unmanageable. I laughed at their fears from the first, and now everybody says it is an excellent Parliament.
A few days ago I met Dr. Wiseman, and had much talk with him about Rome and the Pope's recent rescript about the colleges in Ireland. He said it was all owing to there being no English Ambassador at Rome, and no representative of the moderate Irish clergy; Irish ecclesiastical affairs were managed by Machale through Franzoni, head of the Propaganda, and Father Ventura, who has the Pope's ear, and he strongly advised that Murray and his party should send an agent to Rome, and that Lord Minto[26] should communicate with Father Ventura, who is an able and a good man, deeply interested in Irish affairs, and anxious for British connexion. He talked a great deal about the Pope, who, he said, had not time to enquire into these matters himself, and took his inspirations from the above-named personages; that he is of unbending firmness in all that relates to religion, but liberal and anxious to conciliate England. He thinks the rescript may be early got rid of by a little management, and he mentioned an instance of the Pope's good sense and fairness in a matter relating to a Scotch educational establishment in which a Dr. Gillies was concerned. I am going to speak to Lord John Russell about these things, and to try and persuade him to send Normanby as Ambassador to Rome; he is ready to go, and it would be a very good appointment, besides the great advantage of getting him away from Paris, where he is very uncomfortable, and feels the gêne and mortification of his position.
DR. HAMPDEN, BISHOP OF HEREFORD.
December 15th.—I called on Lord John Russell three days ago and told him what Wiseman had said, and also about Normanby and Rome. He said he had ordered a Bill to be drawn up to legalise our intercourse with the Pope. I told him also what Graham desired me to do. He said he had read his paper at the time, but made no further remarks on Graham's communication. Last night in the House of Lords Stanley made a speech about Minto and his mission, when Lord Lansdowne made a very good reply and spoke out about our diplomatic relations with the Pope.