The account of Mitchell's conviction[51] has given great satisfaction here, and compensated for the defeats in the other cases. The good of it is that the Government have proved to the Irish and to the world that they have the means of punishing these enormous offenders, and that they will not be able to pursue their turbulent and factious course with impunity. The three hundred imitators whom Mitchell announced as ready to encounter similar martyrdom will probably not be forthcoming. So far as the system of terror is concerned, which is the only one we can now employ, it is a great and happy event, but it will not contribute to the regeneration of the country, and will probably augment the fund of accumulating hatred against English connexion. Still, anything is better than political impotence, and, before any attempt can be made to introduce those practical improvements which may disarm the Irish of their prejudices and animosities, the power of the law and the Government must be firmly asserted and enforced. An incident has, however, accompanied these trials which is not pleasant to the Government. The Whigs, and Lord John Russell at the head of them, when in opposition, bitterly attacked the conduct of the Law Officers in their jury challenges in the political trials. On this occasion, the Whig Law officers found they must either do exactly as their predecessors had done, or connive at their own defeat. They wisely and properly chose the former alternative, but of course at the cost of exposing the present Government to charges of gross inconsistency. Last night in the House of Commons the subject was touched upon, and John Russell had the imprudence to read part of a private letter from Clarendon, referring to the conduct of the late Government in striking the jury in O'Connell's case as open to reproach. This brought up Graham, who affirmed that the instructions given by his Government and those given by the present Government were precisely the same, which John Russell was obliged to admit. The allusion, however, gave offence both to Graham and to Peel. The former has written me a note about it this morning, by which I see that he is a good deal nettled.
MIRASOL'S MISSION.
May 31st.—Yesterday Lord Grey called on the Duke of Bedford to talk over the Spanish affair, at which he is beginning to kick, though very gently. The present state of the case is this: from all that appears in public, the Spanish Government has been wholly unjustifiable, and we are not likely to know more as yet, for Mirasol[52] having brought no credentials, Palmerston refuses to receive him, and has desired him to convey what he has to say through Isturitz; but he came away in such a hurry (running a race with Bulwer) that he left all his papers behind him, and accordingly he has nothing to show. What between the awkwardness of the Spaniards, the artfulness of Palmerston, and the reluctance there is on all sides to push the Government to extremities, it appears most likely that the discussions in Parliament will produce no other result than a good deal of talk, and some expression of an opinion that the Spanish Government has been very impertinent. But nobody cares about the affront they have offered us, for the simple reason that it is universally considered as aimed at Palmerston and Bulwer, and that both have provoked it by their own insolent and unbecoming interference, the matter and the manner of which are equally condemned. It is now reported that Palmerston means to insist on sending Bulwer back to Madrid, for no other reason, of course, than to make the Spaniards eat humble pie; and, for the sake of achieving a personal triumph, he will not mind making the English Government and country odious in Spain. Every day the difficulties of the Government increase, and its weakness becomes more apparent, but without any tolerable alternative presenting itself. The friends and subordinates of the Government acknowledge this. There is a general sense of rottenness, and a consciousness that they inspire no confidence. Hawes told me yesterday that 'he was nobody, and could only shrug up his shoulders at all he saw.' They were beaten last night (on small matters, it is true) in both Houses,[53] and now there appears a very good chance of their being beaten on the resolutions of the West Indian Committee, which has reported to the House in favour of a duty on sugar of ten shillings for six years. Lord John at once declared he should oppose it. The division in the Committee was a very curious one; this resolution was carried by seven to five, and by a strange crossing over of opposite parties. Goulburn and Cardwell did not vote; two or three Whigs voted for it.
The Princess Sophia[54] died a few days ago, while the Queen was holding the Drawing-room for her Birthday. She was blind, helpless, and suffered martyrdom; a very clever, well-informed woman, but who never lived in the world. She was the intimate friend of the Duke of York while he lived, and of the Duchess of Gloucester up to the last. The Princess left a letter for the Queen, which was delivered to her in the garden of Buckingham Palace by Andrew Drummond on Monday morning.
LORD GREY'S REMONSTRANCE.
June 1st.—Isturitz has sent in Mirasol's case, which, he admits himself, is no case at all, flimsy and weak, and unsupported by proofs. This, however, though it puts the Spanish Government in the wrong, does not thereby relieve our embarrassment; for, while it imposes on us the necessity of requiring some reparation for so gross an affront, it is very difficult to know what to demand; and if the Spaniards don't comply, what are we to do next? There seems to be very little doubt that the coals have been blown by Louis Philippe and Guizot, the latter of whom is in constant correspondence with Madrid, as our Government have ascertained, and both are animated with the strongest desire to do Palmerston an ill turn.
Meanwhile, the affair has become more serious here. Lord Grey has at last been to John Russell, and in very temperate terms told him matters cannot any longer go on as they have done, and he afterwards went to the Duke of Bedford, and told him what he had done. Grey learnt for the first time, when he spoke to Lord John, what had happened about the despatch to which Lord John had objected. The Duke wrote his brother a very long letter, setting forth all the danger and discredit which accrued to the Government from their proceedings, and the discontent which was produced amongst their friends. Lord John took this letter in good part, and he told the Duke that if they got over this affair something must be settled for the future. He at the same time gave him another anecdote as an example of Palmerston's way of doing business, which fortunately ended without mischief, but might have had a very different result. One day when the Duc de Broglie was with Palmerston, he asked him if there was any news. Palmerston said he had just got a box, which he had not yet opened, but he would open it then. He did so, found a despatch from Howden on the subject of the Monte Video business, and gave it to the Duc de Broglie to read. The Duc read it, said that its contents were not pleasant, and remonstrated against them, whatever they were, which I do not know, and, for the point of the story, does not signify. Immediately after, Palmerston joined the Queen in Scotland, leaving the conduct of this affair in the hands of John Russell. Lord John and the Duc de Broglie came to an understanding, but in the meanwhile Palmerston wrote a despatch to Normanby on the subject, which passed through London without being communicated to Lord John Russell. This, which Normanby was instructed to read to Guizot, surprised him very much, and he told Normanby that it was different from what the Duc de Broglie had given him reason to expect. This annoyed Normanby very much, and as it placed him in a very awkward situation, he complained of it. The matter was then explained, and eventually Guizot acted with so much moderation that it was adjusted amicably. Palmerston when urged on the subject threw the blame on the Foreign Office, which they say he is constantly in the habit of doing.
I learn to my great astonishment that all the Queen's former attachment to Louis Philippe and the French Royal Family has revived in greater force than ever; she says the marriages are not to be thought of any more. Nothing but the extraordinary good sense of Prince Albert and the boundless influence he has over her keeps her affectionate feelings under due restraint; but for him she would have made all her household go to Claremont, and when the French Royal Family have come to visit her she has received them as King and Queen, and one day one of the children went up to Louis Philippe and called him 'Your Majesty,' which had no doubt been done by the Queen's commands. I take for granted that they have persuaded the Queen that their ruin has been the work of Palmerston, for this is what they always say, and possibly they believe it.
THE WEST INDIA COMMITTEE.
June 3rd.—Yesterday morning I saw Graham. He said matters were going on worse and worse; the Government seemed to be paralysed, and to have lost their understandings. They had such a night on Tuesday in the House of Commons as he never witnessed. He then enumerated their defeats and their blunders and mismanagement, without bitterness but with great contempt. They sustained a defeat on Bowring's motion about the collection of taxes, a very important matter, not having got their people down. I found out afterwards that they did not expect a division, and thought to prevent one by counting out the House, and to aid this Sir George Grey told people who were waiting there they had better go away. This was blundering. Then they made a great mistake in fighting the Derby writ, in which they, in conjunction with the Protectionists, got beaten by the Liberals and the Peelites. On Anstey's Roman Catholic Relief Bill none of the Government were present. On Thursday night Lord John came down with two very foolish notices, one for our alteration of the Oath (which is only a new Jew bill in a fresh form), and another to relieve voters from disqualification on account of non-payment of the assessed taxes, which was intended as a sop to Hume before his Reform motion. Both these Graham denounced as weak and unwise. I asked him what they thought of the resolution of the West India Committee.[55] He said it was very awkward. He was as strong as ever against the proposition, and the best reason he gave was that it would be of no service to the West Indians if it was carried; that if all foreign sugar was prohibited they would be as much swamped by Mauritius and the East as by Cuba and Brazil. He will, therefore, oppose it; but he is not sure the Government may not be in a minority, and I told him if Lord John was defeated on it I really believed he would resign. He said he thought the Protectionists were prepared to form a Government if they carried the resolution. I do not, however, believe any such thing, and I reminded him that such a division, composed as the majority would be of the most heterogeneous materials, would be no test of their strength as a party; and that if they were mad enough to attempt it, and the Queen would consent (which she never would) to let them, they would not stay in three days. He said they must dissolve; they had no other course, and that revolution would be the inevitable consequence of a dissolution and a fresh election at such a time as this; that such a Parliament would be returned as we had never seen; Hume's reform and the four points would be carried, and the Monarchy swept away. However, though he believes these results would follow from the formation of a Stanley Government, he does not, I am sure, for a moment, contemplate such a contingency as within the limits of possibility. I told the Duke of Bedford all Graham had said, and that he might make any use of the knowledge this gave him of the Government proceedings to put matters if he could in a better train. He said he would talk to Lord John, though he hates doing so, for he is always suffering under that deplorable infirmity of Lord John's—his disinclination to hear unpalatable truths, and above all to be found fault with. The consequence of this is that he receives everybody ill who goes to him to tell him what he does not like to hear, and nobody now but the Duke (and he very reluctantly) will go to him to tell him what he ought to hear. The Duke said he agreed with Graham as to the consequences of a Protectionist Government, but that it was out of the question, and if Lord John was forced to resign, Peel must take the Government, and the Whig party must join and support him; and between some of the present Cabinet and some of the late a very strong Government might be formed.