KOSSUTH'S ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND.
October 10th.—Lord Granville returned to England a few days ago, when I told him what had passed about Graham. He told me that he had known what had taken place on the subject some time ago, when the resistance in the Cabinet to his being invited was so great that it was given up. The man most against it was Palmerston, and he wanted offers to be made to Gladstone instead. If Graham had known this, it would have served to improve his disposition to decline the offer.
London, November 8th.—I was not aware till I opened this book that a month had elapsed since I had written a line in it. At Newmarket I seldom hear or think of politics, but this time an incident occurred in which I took a part, and which was very near leading to serious consequences. About three weeks ago Kossuth arrived in England, and was received at Southampton and Winchester with prodigious demonstrations and a great uproar on the part of Mayors and Corporations, the rabble and a sprinkling of Radicals, of whom the most conspicuous were Cobden and Dudley Stuart. While Kossuth was still at Southampton, but about to proceed to London, on Monday, October 24th, I received a letter from my brother Henry, informing me that he had just received information that Palmerston was going to receive Kossuth, and he entreated me, if I had any influence with the Government, to try and prevent such an outrage, and that he believed if it was done Buol would be recalled. I could not doubt that the information from such a quarter was correct, and it was confirmed by a notice in one of the pro-Kossuth papers, that Lord Palmerston was going to receive Mr. Kossuth 'privately and unofficially.' Thinking that it would be an outrage, and one in all probability attended with serious consequences, I resolved to write to John Russell at once. I sent him a copy of my brother's letter, only putting the names in blank, said that the authority on which this was notified to me compelled me to attend to it, and added, 'I send you this without comment; you will deal with it as you think fit, "liberavi animam meam."' The result of this communication was that Lord John Russell addressed a remonstrance to Lord Palmerston. Lord Palmerston replied with his usual audacity that 'he would not be dictated to and should receive whomsoever he pleased in his own house, but that his office was at the disposal of the Government.' On receiving this answer Lord John instantly summoned a Cabinet and laid it before them. Ministers were of opinion (all but one) that Lord Palmerston should not receive Kossuth, and he accordingly submitted to the decision of his colleagues.
They are in great perplexity about this new measure of Reform, and how to concoct it. Lord John, who hates details, and the collection and examination of statistics, chose to entrust the first consideration of it to a Committee of the Cabinet, consisting of Minto, Carlisle, and Charles Wood. The first two are strange men to appoint, and the whole business was in fact committed to Wood. He undertook to collect the necessary statistics, and he began by expressing an opinion that they should commence the work by disfranchisement, get rid of such small boroughs as still remained—a new Schedule A. This the Duke of Bedford strongly combated. Since that Charles Wood says the more he goes into the matter the more difficulty he finds. He is, however, to lay his statistics before Lord John, and it will probably end in the latter concocting some scheme. There have been reports rife of dissensions in the Cabinet about Reform, which is quite untrue, as no discussion has yet taken place. I told Lord Lansdowne that many people were alarmed at the prospect of a new Reform Bill, but still relied upon him, and considered his being in the Cabinet a guarantee that no strong measure would be proposed. He replied, 'They may rely with entire confidence on me, for you may be sure that if any strong measure was to be contemplated by the Cabinet, I should immediately walk out of it.'
LORD PALMERSTON AND KOSSUTH.
November 16th.—I was at Windsor for a Council on Friday. There I saw Palmerston and Lord John mighty merry and cordial, talking and laughing together. Those breezes leave nothing behind, particularly with Palmerston, who never loses his temper, and treats everything with gaiety and levity. The Queen is vastly displeased with the Kossuth demonstrations, especially at seeing him received at Manchester with as much enthusiasm as attended her own visit to that place. The numbers and the noise that have hailed Kossuth have certainly been curious, but not one individual of station or consideration has gone near him, which cannot fail to mortify him deeply. Delane is just come from Vienna, where he had a long interview with Schwarzenberg, who treated, or at least affected to do so, the Kossuth reception with contempt and indifference.
November 22nd.—At Brocket on Tuesday and Wednesday last. I found Beauvale knew all about the Palmerston and Kossuth affair, and was of course mightily pleased at his brother-in-law's defeat, and at the interview not having taken place. But on Wednesday afternoon we were both of us astounded at reading in the paper the account of the deputation to Palmerston, the addresses and his answers.[140] We both agreed that he had only reculé pour mieux sauter, and that what he had now done was a great deal worse and more offensive than if he had received Kossuth. The breach of faith and the defiance towards John Russell and his colleagues are flagrant, and the whole affair astonishing even in him who has done such things that nothing ought to astonish me. I am waiting with the greatest curiosity to see what John Russell will do, and how he will take it, and how it will be taken by the Queen and the foreign Courts and Ministers. To receive an address in which the Emperors of Russia and Austria are called despots, tyrants, and odious assassins, and to express great gratification at it, is an unparalleled outrage, and when to this is added a speech breathing Radical sentiments and interference, it is difficult to believe that the whole thing can pass off without notice. But I have seen such repeated instances of lukewarmness and pusillanimous submission to Palmerston that I have little or no expectation of his colleagues taking it up seriously; and if they do stir in the matter Palmerston, with his usual mixture of effrontery and adroitness, will contrive to pacify them and get rid of the whole thing, and then go on as before. I think, however, this is on the whole the worst thing he has ever done. The public do not know how bad it is, because they do not know what had previously passed in the Cabinet, and its consequences. In the great squabbles on the Syrian question, and again on the Greek, he had a great advantage because they were all committed with him and could not consistently go against him, but this is a very different affair in all its bearings. The ostentatious bidding for Radical favour and the flattery of the democracy, of which his speeches were full, are disgusting in themselves and full of danger. It is evident that he has seized the opportunity of the Kossuth demonstrations to associate himself with them, and convert the popular excitement into political capital for himself. He thinks to make himself too formidable, by having the masses at his back, for his colleagues to dare to quarrel with him, and by this audacious defiance of them he intends to make himself once for all master of the situation. If they endure this tamely he will be their master, and henceforward they must do his bidding, be it what it may.[141]
DISRAELI'S 'LIFE OF LORD GEORGE BENTINCK.'
Kossuth is at last gone, but promising to return in a few weeks, and openly announcing that he does so for the purpose of stirring up war against Austria, and a great democratic movement for the liberation of Hungary and all other countries under absolute Governments, in which he expects England to take a conspicuous part; and his last injunction and entreaty to his friends is to agitate for this purpose. His last speech is by far the most open and significant that he has delivered, and exhibits his confidence, well or ill founded, in the progress he has made. That he is very able, and especially a great speaker, cannot be denied; but I take it that a more hypocritical, unscrupulous, mischievous adventurer never existed. His speeches here have been very clever, but I derive a higher idea of his oratorical power from a speech, reported in the 'Times' on Wednesday last, which he made in the Hungarian Diet upon the question of employing Hungarian troops in Italy, which was admirable, and reminded me of Plunket in lucidity and closeness of reasoning.
November 24th.—Yesterday morning Disraeli called on me to speak to me about his work, 'The Life of George Bentinck,' which he has written and is just going to bring out. I read him a part of my sketch of his character. I found that he meant to confine it to his political career of the last three years of his existence, and to keep clear of racing and all his antecedent life. He seems to have formed a very just conception of him, having, however, seen the best of him, and therefore taking a more favourable view of his character than I, who knew him longer and better, could do. I asked him, supposing George Bentinck had lived, what he thought he would have done, and how he would have succeeded as a Minister and Leader of a Government in the House of Commons if his party had come in. He said he would have failed. There were, besides, the defects of his education and want of flexibility in his character. In his speaking there were physical defects he never could have got over, and as it had been proved that he could not lead an Opposition, still less would he have been able to lead a Government. He said, what is very true, that he had not a particle of conceit; he was very obstinate, but had no vanity. Disraeli thinks Henry Bentinck very clever too. He told me his book was to contain a character of Peel which had never been described. I asked him if he would like to see what I had written about him. Very much, he said, so I gave it to him.