Endsleigh,[61] July 14th.—I escaped from the 'fumum strepitumque Romæ,' from racing and politics, on Monday last, and came down with De Mauley to this place. We have passed four days here pleasantly enough; it is exquisitely beautiful, so is the country round about it; a mass of comfort and luxury; house perfection, and everything kept as English houses alone are. This place was a creation of the Duke's. The house, which is a cottage, cost between 70,000l. and 80,000l., and the grounds, laid out with inimitable taste, must have cost thousands more. There are sixty miles of grass rides and gravel walks. Yesterday we went to see a farmhouse, once one of the hunting seats of the Abbot of Tavistock, a great man whose ample domains were granted to the Earl of Bedford, who was gorged with ecclesiastical spoils here and at Woburn. We then went to see the great copper mine discovered three or four years ago, the best and most profitable in the West of England. The ground was leased three and a half years ago to certain adventurers, who covenanted to give the Duke one-fifteenth of the gross produce; and as soon (if ever) as they made 30,000l. a year from it, one-twelfth. After some fruitless attempts they came upon this lode very near the surface, and found it of the best copper. A fortune was made instanter. The shares were at one time worth 700,000l., i.e. 700l. apiece; since that there has been a great fall, but they are now worth 200l. apiece. The expense of working is, however, so much increased, that the Duke's agent told me he got nearly one-half the net profits. All this country is full of copper, but the Duke told me he was resolved not to grant any more leases for mining, although he had applications every day and could make a great deal of money by giving them; but he does not want the money, and he is averse to promote the spirit of gambling, which money speculations very generally excite among the people, often greatly to their loss and always to the detriment of the agriculture of the country; the latter is neglected for the chances of the former; the farmers let their carts and horses to the miners instead of employing them on their own farms; and though mining is both a profitable and a popular employment, the Duke deems it so mischievous that he will not suffer any more of his ground to be broken up for the chance of the copper that may be found underneath it. I have not heard a word here in the way of politics.
A TOUR IN DEVONSHIRE.
London, July 21st.—Left Endsleigh on Saturday and went to Plymouth; received by two Admirals to whom Auckland recommended us, and we saw everything—the breakwater, the new docks, a magnificent work, and Mount Edgecumbe. On Sunday, after church, went on board the 'Caledonia' (120), and visited every part of the ship; then to the citadel, the whole thing well worth seeing. On Sunday afternoon went on to Exeter; in the morning saw the Cathedral and went to church; a beautiful choir, church handsome inside, poor in monuments. Then De Mauley and I separated. I went to Wells; was delighted with the Cathedral and with the Bishop's palace. On Tuesday to John Thynne's parsonage, Walton, near Glastonbury; on Wednesday returned to town, having seen a great deal and passed the time very agreeably.
When I got here, found that Clarendon, whose arrival had been announced to me, and who was to have come on Monday, had been obliged to give up coming in consequence of the threatening aspect of affairs in Ireland, and he himself writes word that he does not think an outbreak can be prevented.[62] The disgust felt here at the state of Ireland and the incurable madness of the people, constantly worked upon by the agitators, is now so great that most people appear to think the sooner the collision takes place the better, and that nothing is now left to be done but to fight it out and reconquer the country. I have certainly arrived at a conviction that no political measures can now avail to restore peace and to cement the Union, which in point of fact only now exists in name. There is no union for any of the real purposes of a union. What makes the Irish question, the more dreadful is that the potatoes are again failing, and starvation will be the inevitable lot of the people. In that emergency, when it arrives, the Irish will look in vain to England, for no subscriptions or parliamentary grants or aid of any sort, public or private, will they get; the sources of charity and benevolence are dried up; the current which flowed last year has been effectually checked by the brutality and ingratitude of the people, and the rancorous fury and hatred with which they have met our exertions to serve them. The prospect, neither more nor less than that of civil war and famine, is dreadful, but it is unavoidable.
John Russell gave notice the other night of the measures he meant to go on with, and those he meant to abandon; nobody expected anything more, so no great complaints were made. The Government is safe enough, but they fall more and more into discredit. There has been a blunder about the sugar duties, which makes Ministers look ridiculous, and it is in fact the constant repetition of small things which damages their credit, and makes them so miserably weak. The funds have been rapidly rising and trade improving little by little, but this Irish affair has checked the rise and produced alarm. Then the potatoes are failing in England, and we have every chance of low prices of agricultural produce without abundance, and if this should happen we shall have an unquiet winter. So far as I can form an opinion from what I heard in my tour, the state of the country is not satisfactory. Chartism seems to increase, and the masses, the operatives in villages, are restless, ill-disposed, and want they know not what. It is a great evil that while education is sufficiently diffused to enable most people to read, they get either from inclination or convenience nothing but the most mischievous publications, which only serve to poison their minds, to render them discontented, and teach them to look to all sorts of wild schemes as calculated to better their position. The best part of the press (the 'Times,' for instance) seldom finds its way to the cottages and reading-rooms of the lower classes, who are fed by the cheap Radicalism of the 'Weekly Dispatch,' and other journals, unknown almost to the higher classes of society, which are darkly working to undermine the productions of our social and political system. The lessons of experience which might be so well taught by the events now passing in France and elsewhere, are not presented to the minds of the people in a manner suggestive of wholesome inferences, but on the contrary they are only used as stimulants and for purposes of misrepresentation and perversion.
STRONG MEASURES IN IRELAND.
July 22nd.—Last night Lord John Russell gave notice of a Bill to enable the Lord Lieutenant to apprehend any suspected persons, and Lord Lansdowne did the same in the House of Lords. Lord Lansdowne made a very animated speech, but it was impossible not to think that all he said and was going to do might as well have been said and done long ago. Brougham said as much; Stanley spoke very well; and the announcement was hailed with universal satisfaction. It would have been still better in my opinion if they had suspended the Habeas Corpus at once.
July 24th.—The House of Commons was wonderful on the 22nd; nobody had the least idea of it, not the Cabinet. It was an inspiration of John Russell's; he began by making an excellent speech, an hour and a half. When they divided he made a speech in the lobby, begged the people not to go away, and said he meant to propose to go on with the Bill. To his own amazement as much as anybody's, he found no opposition, and carried the Bill through at the sitting. By seven o'clock it was completed and he was on his way to Richmond, where I dined with him. He was in high spirits; Sheil and Ward were there, and we talked over the payment of the priests, which we all agreed (Lord John included) must be soon done, or at least attempted. Yesterday was spent in searching for precedents, to see if it was possible to pass the Bill to-day through the Lords. The Chancellor, Duke of Wellington, and others, said it was impossible, as notice must be given of the suspension of the Standing Orders. Lord Lansdowne said if only one precedent could be found he would take it, and carry the Bill through; but if not, they must wait till to-morrow. I should have made the precedent: a more fitting occasion could not be. However, what was done in the House of Commons will infallibly produce all the effect that is required, and will strike terror into the Irish rebels. It was a great event, for which neither the Lord Lieutenant nor anybody in Ireland will have been the least prepared.
THE OUTBREAK AT BALLINGARRY.
July 31st.—At Goodwood all last week, but I found no time to write or do anything there. The day after we arrived we were startled by the intelligence of the rebellion in Ireland having actually broken out; it was not, however, believed, and turned out to be a mere hoax.[63] Instead of breaking out, it has not shown a symptom of vitality, and all the swaggering and boasting and the dreadful threats and exhibition of physical force have absolutely shrunk into nothing and evaporated before the formidable preparations and determined attitude of the Government. The leaders are skulking about nobody knows where; the clubs are either suppressed or self-dissolved; the people exhibit no disposition to rise; the sound and fury which were echoed and re-echoed from the clubs and meetings, and through the traitorous press, have been all at once silenced. The whole thing is suddenly become so contemptible as to be almost ridiculous. My own conviction was that there would be no outbreak; but I did not contemplate that all these mighty preparations, this club organisation and universal arming would all at once dwindle into nothingness and general submission just as easily as the Chartist demonstrations did here some weeks ago; but so it is, and it is now pretty clear that in a short time Ireland will be just as quiet and submissive as if Conciliation Hall had never existed. The most satisfactory part of the business is the good conduct of the Catholic clergy, who appear to have very generally used their influence over the people to deter them from their rebellious courses. It is to be hoped that the recollection of their behaviour on this trying occasion will have a considerable effect in paving the way for the payment of the Irish clergy, when that vital question comes on, as very soon it must. George Grey declared himself in favour of it in a speech which he made on Saturday last, and it is clear that as soon as Ireland is thoroughly pacified, this question must be regularly taken up by the Government, and in spite of all the opposition which pride, prejudice, and bigotry will throw in its way, it must be forced through. It seems at first sight as if the best thing which could happen was the bloodless suppression of this talking rebellion, but I am not sure that it would not have been better in the end if the leaders had succeeded in bringing together a body of insurgents, and if a signal chastisement and ignominious dispersion of them had taken place. There would be a great advantage in letting them see the fearful consequences of a collision, and as far as England is concerned, the people of this country would be better disposed to clemency and conciliation after they had severely punished the Irish for their turbulence and folly. As matters are, though there will be no outbreak, no bloodshed, and an easy triumph, it will leave the great chronic disease of the country just where it was; the disaffection, the hatred of the Union, the enmity to law, will remain the same; the people will be subdued but not reconciled; and these feelings will be the stronger because the distress will be greater than ever. No country can be so shaken to pieces without enormous distress to the masses; and if the potato crop again fails (as it has threatened to do) the misery will be appalling and irremediable. By what has passed and is still passing, England will not be softened towards Ireland, but contempt will be added to resentment.