London, May 13th.—Nothing ever was like the state of confusion and excitement which has prevailed here during the last fortnight, while I have been out of town, particularly on the resignation of Ellenborough, which took everybody by surprise. Before I went away the impression had become general that this Government neither could nor ought to be endured much longer, and that their repeated and enormous blunders made them a nuisance which must be abated. All the Liberals (except some of the extreme Radicals who wished them to stay on some time longer), however they differed on other questions, were agreed on this. Numerous meetings took place, and there was a prodigious activity of negotiation, communication, and going backwards and forwards, with a view to some general organisation and combination of attack on the unfortunate Ministry. The Duke of Bedford was brought up to see what he could do to bring Lord John and Palmerston together. Lord John joined heartily in the plan of turning the Government out, and said that anything was preferable to leaving them any longer in office. Clarendon, who had been informed of Lord John's peculiar grudge against him, expressed a wish to have an interview with him, which the Duke brought about. Lord John called on Clarendon, and they had a frank communication, so far as Lord John telling him all that he thought about foreign affairs, and in what he disagreed with the late Government on various questions; but he did not allude to Vienna, which is the real gist of his grievance and the source of his hostile feeling, so that with that reticence it is not strange that they should have parted much as they met. Then Palmerston expressed a wish to have a t�te-�-t�te conversation with Lord John, which the latter assented to, but Palmerston seems to have changed his mind, and to have shrunk from it when the opportunity presented itself. Charles Wood is the man who has been constantly communicating with Lord John in behalf of the Whig Cabinet, and one day Palmerston came into Charles Wood's while Lord John was there. It rained, and Palmerston offered to take Lord John home, which he accepted, but nothing passed on the way, nor did Palmerston propose to get out and enter the house when he might have had the conversation he had expressed a wish for, and so it ended. The plans imagined by mutual friends for effecting a political reconciliation have vanished into air. Palmerston is resolved not to go to the House of Lords, and Lord John is equally determined not to take office under him. Palmerston says he cannot trust Lord John to lead the House of Commons. Personally, meanwhile, they are ostensibly friends, and Lord John dines at Cambridge House to-morrow. Charles Wood asked the Duke of Bedford, supposing the Government resigned, and Palmerston was again sent for, what he thought Palmerston ought to do, to which he replied that he ought to accept the task, send to Lord John, and on his refusal to join (as he probably would), to do the best he could with the materials he could command. This advice would, I conceive, be very palateable to Palmerston, and it is what he would naturally do without any advice.
I called on Lyndhurst the night I came to town, and found him very dissatisfied with the Government, both on account of their management and errors, and because they have treated him with personal neglect; he had begged Derby and Disraeli to do something for his son-in-law, but both put him off with excuses, and would do nothing. He is particularly disgusted with the state of the Jew question, and with the foolish and obstinate conduct of the Government in the House of Lords about it, on which he was very eloquent, particularly for their having made a great whip, and getting up every man they could lay hands on to come and vote, instead of leaving it to take its chance, and at least making an open question of it.
May 16th.—The first great battle took place in the House of Lords the night before last, at which I was present.[1]
[1] [On May 14, Mr. Gardwell moved a resolution condemning the despatch which Lord Ellenborough had written and published, censuring the Proclamation of the Governor-General of India. A similar Resolution was moved by Lord Shaftesbury in the House of Lords, where it was defeated by a majority of nine. The debate in the House of Commons lasted four nights, and in the interval Lord Ellenborough resigned. Mr. Cardwell then withdrew his motion, and the attack on the Government suddenly collapsed.]
DEBATES ON THE OUDE PROCLAMATION.
It was a very spirited fight, and I never recollect seeing the House of Lords so crowded both with ladies and lords. Pretty good speaking; Lord Grey's was about the best speech and the one I most agreed with. I cannot see the matter of Canning's Proclamation and Ellenborough's despatch in the light that either side does, and think there is much to be said both ways. In the Commons the fight began on Friday also, and the most remarkable speech in it was that of Cairns, the new Solicitor-General, which was very clever and effective. John Russell also spoke very well and vigorously, quite in his old style. There is much difference of opinion as to the amount of majority, though it is generally expected there will be one against Government, and I now hear that they have determined positively to dissolve if they are beaten, though with little or no chance of their bettering themselves by a dissolution.
MR. CARDWELL WITHDRAWS HIS MOTION.
May 23rd.—The excitement of Epsom during the whole of last week was not greater than that which prevailed in London during the great debates in the House of Commons, the result of which, on Thursday night, produced such unusual surprise, with so much triumph on one side and such mortification and disappointment on the other. In my long experience I do not recollect to have seen so much political bitterness and violence (except perhaps during the great contests of the Catholic question and Reform), and certainly there never was a great Parliamentary battle distinguished by so much uncertainty and so many vicissitudes, and in which the end corresponded so little with the beginning and with the general expectation. For a considerable time not only all the late Cabinet and their supporters, but the whole body of Whigs, both Palmerstonians and Russellites, had been growing more and more impatient of the Derby Government, and they were considering how they could make a final and irresistible attack upon them, and for the last three weeks there had been nothing but negotiations and pourparlers to effect a coalition between the rival leaders and their friends for the purpose of their at least uniting in one great hostile vote, which should drive the Derbyites to resignation or dissolution, hoping and expecting that their majority would be so large as to put the latter out of the question. The occasion seemed to present itself upon Ellenborough's letter to Canning censuring his Proclamation. A meeting took place at Cambridge House, when the whole plan was matured, and though John Russell did not attend it, he agreed to be a party to the Motion of Censure. Shaftesbury was put forward in the Lords, and Cardwell was induced to take the initiative in the House of Commons. Nobody doubted of success, and the only question was (much debated and betted upon) by how many the Government would be beaten. Meanwhile Ellenborough resigned, which gave a new aspect to the affair, and the Government got a small majority in the Lords. It was evident that no popularity attached to the motion, and many of the Liberals were of opinion that upon Ellenborough's resignation the affair ought to drop and the motion be withdrawn. But the die was cast, the Palmerstonians were quite confident and eager for the fray, and would not hear of stopping in their career. The debate began, the speaking being all along better on the Government side, and every day their prospects as to the division appeared to be mending and public opinion more and more inclining against the Opposition and the Proclamation, though still blaming Ellenborough's letter. If the debate had ended on Tuesday as was expected, Government would probably have been beaten, but Sir Charles Napier had got Tuesday, and would not give it up, so that the decision was of necessity adjourned; the delay was all in favour of the Government, and on Thursday night arrived the Indian despatches with Canning's explanations and the Outram correspondence, which was immediately published, and although Palmerston and his friends and newspapers pretended that they considered these documents favourable to their cause, the general impression was rather the other way. All this time the Government people found their cause improving, and their chances in the division mending, and though their enemies still pretended to be certain of success, and I was told on Thursday night that I might safely lay any odds on their having a majority, the best informed of them in the House of Commons began to see danger, and at last they confessed only to expect a bare majority, and the Speaker told somebody it was very likely he should have to give a casting vote. The Radicals, or those of them who professed to be adherents of the Whig Cabinet, strongly urged the withdrawal of Cardwell's motion, and at last on the Thursday seem to have made up their minds that defeat in some shape was inevitable, and that the best thing left for them to do was to get rid of the debate in any way they could. Henry Lennox called on me yesterday morning to tell me what had passed, to this effect: that on Friday Disraeli had received a letter from Cardwell, in which he asked if Disraeli would allow him to withdraw his motion, and subsequently Palmerston desired to confer with him, when he put the same question to him, to which (according to Henry Lennox's statement) Disraeli replied, in a very lofty tone, that he would hear of nothing which could possibly be construed into any admission on their part of their meriting any part of the censure which the Opposition had been labouring to cast upon them. The Government had by this time ascertained that the Opposition had made their minds up to back out of the motion as best they might, and their retreat was not very cleverly done, beginning with Cardwell's refusal to withdraw, and ending with Palmerston's recommendation to him to yield, which was a got up thing. The scene in the House was most extraordinary, and particularly mortifying to Palmerston, who saw himself involved in inevitable defeat, and without the power of rallying again for some time. If anybody could be excused for the impatience which brought him and his party into this dilemma, it was Palmerston, who in his seventy fourth year, and resolved to die in harness if he could, had no time to lose. This affair has been the battle of Marengo of political warfare. The Whigs appeared to be victorious, and carrying everything before them up to the eleventh hour, and then came a sudden turn of affairs, and the promise of victory was turned into rout and disaster. The campaign is lost, and for the rest of this session the Government have it all their own way. The Whigs are in the condition of a defeated army, who require to be completely reorganized and re-formed before they can take the field again. The general resentment and mortification are extreme. They have naturally lost all confidence in their leaders, and they are now all ready to complain of the tactics of which they entirely approved till they found that defeat had been the consequence of their adoption. It is not probable that Palmerston and his late Cabinet will attempt anything more during this session, and everything is in such a state of confusion and uncertainty that the best thing they can do is to remain quiet, merely in a state of watchfulness, and to see what the volvenda dies may bring about in the course of the next six months, leaving the Derbyites unmolested during that time. Derby will get Gladstone if possible to take the India Board, and this will be the best thing that can happen. His natural course is to be at the head of a Conservative Government, and he may, if he acts with prudence, be the means of raising that party to something like dignity and authority, and emancipating it from its dependence on the discreditable and insincere support of the Radicals.
June 7th.—At Cleveden, at Ascot, and at Hatchford all the past week, during which I heard little or nothing about politics. The matter which made the most stir was Disraeli's impudent and mendacious speech at Slough, in which he bitterly attacked the last Ministry and glorified his own. The Whigs were stung to madness, and two or three nights were occupied in both Houses, principally by Palmerston and Clarendon, in answering this speech, and demonstrating its falsehood. The proceeding was not very dignified, and they might just as well have left it alone, particularly as nobody cared much about what Disraeli said; but there was so little sympathy for the ex-Ministers, that no indignation was excited by it, except among themselves and their immediate friends. There seems little chance now of anything but a desultory warfare going on in the House of Commons, without any serious attack on the Government, who seem safe for this session at least. The most interesting event last week was the virtual settlement of the eternal Jew Question, which the House of Lords sulkily acquiesced in. It was very desirable for many reasons to put an end to it.