LORD ST. LEONARD'S.
We talked about the Great Seal, and Senior had been with Lord Lansdowne, who appears to incline very much to getting Lord St. Leonard's[1] to stay if he will, but Senior thinks he will not; certainly not, unless with the concurrence of his present colleagues, which it is doubtful if Derby in his present frame of mind would give. The Chancellor was at Derby's meeting in the morning, which looks like a resolution to go out with them. It will be a good thing if he will remain, but it will do good to the new Government to invite him, whether he accepts or refuses. We talked of Brougham, but Clarendon, though anxious to have Brougham in as President of the Council, thinks he would not do for the woolsack, and that it will be better to have Cranworth if Lord St. Leonard's will not stay. There is a great difficulty in respect to the retiring pension. There can only be four, and Sugden's will make up the number, so that a fresh Chancellor could have none except at the death of one of the others. The worst part of the foregoing story is, that Lord John will not join cordially and heartily, and it is impossible to say, during the difficult adjustment of details, what objections he may not raise and what embarrassments he may not cause.
There was a meeting at Lord Derby's yesterday morning, at which he told his friends he would continue to lead them, and he recommended a moderation, in which he probably was not sincere, and which they will not care to observe. Lord Delawarr got up and thanked him. Nothing can be more rabid than the party and the ex-ministers, and they are evidently bent on vengeance and a furious opposition. I fell in with Lord Drumlanrig and Ousely Higgins yesterday morning, one a moderate Derbyite (always Free Trader), the other an Irish Brigadier. Drumlanrig told me he knew of several adherents of Derby who were resolved to give the new Government fair play, and would not rush into opposition, and Ousely Higgins said he thought the Irish would be all right, especially if, as the report ran, Granville was sent to Ireland; but there is no counting on the Irish Brigade, whose object it is to embarrass every Government. If they could be friendly to any, it would, however, be one composed of Aberdeen, Graham, and Gladstone, the opponents of the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill.
[1] [Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden was one of the most eminent equity lawyers of the day, distinguished as an advocate in the Court of Chancery and by his important legal writings. He was twice Lord Chancellor of Ireland under the two Administrations of Sir Robert Peel, and he received the Great Seal of England on the formation of Lord Derby's Administration in 1852, with a peerage under the title of Baron St. Leonards. But he owed his celebrity and his promotion to his eminence as a lawyer, far more than to his activity as a politician.]
THE DUKE OF BEDFORD CONSULTED.
December 22nd.—On going to The Grove yesterday afternoon, I found a letter Clarendon had received from Lansdowne in bad spirits enough. He had seen Aberdeen, who had received no answer from John Russell, and Aberdeen was prepared, if he did not get his acceptance the next morning, to give the thing up. Lansdowne was greatly alarmed and far from confident Lord John would agree, at all events, that he would not take the Foreign Office, in which case Lansdowne said he (Clarendon) must take it. Nothing could look worse. This morning Clarendon received a letter from Aberdeen announcing that Lord John had agreed to lead the House of Commons, either without an office or with a nominal one, and asking Clarendon to take the Foreign Office. We came up to town together, he meaning to accept unless he can prevail on Lord John to take it, if it be only for a time, and he is gone to see what he can do with him. He told me last night that when he was at Woburn last week, the Duke informed him that he had had a confidential communication from Stockmar, asking for his advice, whom the Queen should send for if the Government was beaten and if Derby resigned. He had just received this letter, and had not answered it, and consulted Clarendon what he should say. Clarendon advised him to recommend Lansdowne and Aberdeen, and he wrote to that effect. The very morning after the division, just as they were going hunting, the hounds meeting at the Torr, a Queen's messenger arrived with another letter, requesting he would communicate more fully his sentiments at the present crisis. The messenger was ordered to keep himself secret, and not to let his mission transpire. The Duke, under Clarendon's advice, wrote a long letter back, setting forth in detail all that had, not long ago, passed about Palmerston and Lansdowne, and his notions of the difficulties and exigencies of the present time. He said that it was evident Lord John could not make a Government, and that he was himself conscious of it.
December 23rd.—It appears that on Tuesday (21st) Aberdeen went to Palmerston, who received him very civilly, even cordially, talked of old times, and reminded him that they had been acquainted for sixty years (since they were at Harrow together), and had lived together in the course of their political lives more than most men. Aberdeen offered him the Admiralty, saying he considered it in existing circumstances the most important office, and the one in which he could render the greatest service to the country, but if he for any reason objected to that office, he begged him to say what other office he would have. Palmerston replied that he had no hostile feeling towards him, but they had for so many years been in strong opposition to each other, that the public would never understand his taking office in Aberdeen's Government, and he was too old to expose himself to such misconceptions. And so they parted, on ostensibly very friendly terms, which will probably not prevent Palmerston's joining Derby and going into furious opposition. In the course of the day yesterday both Clarendon and Lansdowne called on Palmerston, and he expressed great satisfaction at Clarendon's appointment to the Foreign Office.
In the afternoon I called on Lady Clanricarde, who gave me to understand that Clanricarde was likely to become a personage of considerable influence and power (and therefore worth having), inasmuch as the Irish Band had made overtures to him, and signified their desire to act under his guidance. She said this was not the first overture he had received of the kind from the same quarter; that for various reasons he had declined the others, but she thought at the present time he might very well listen to it; that they were very anxious to be led by a gentleman, and a man of consideration and station in the world. All this, to which I attach very little credit, was no doubt said to me in order to be repeated, and that it might impress on Aberdeen and his friends and colleagues the importance of securing Clanricarde's services and co-operation; and I am the more confirmed in this by receiving a note from the Marchioness in the evening, begging I would not repeat what she had told me.
There was nothing new yesterday in the purlieus of Whiggism, but I think somewhat more of acquiescence, and a disposition to regard this combination as inevitable. The Derbyites quite frenzied, and prepared to go any lengths. Lonsdale told me the party were delighted with Derby's intemperate speech in the House of Lords, which seems to have been rehearsed at his own meeting the same morning; and the other day twenty ruffians of the Carlton Club gave a dinner there to Beresford, to celebrate what they consider his acquittal! After dinner, when they got drunk, they went upstairs, and finding Gladstone alone in the drawing-room, some of them proposed to throw him out of the window. This they did not quite dare to do, but contented themselves with giving some insulting message or order to the waiter, and then went away.