UNPOPULARITY OF LORD PALMERSTON.
Norman Court, June 16th.—Every day it appears more and more evident that Palmerston's political career is drawing to a close, and he alone seems blind to the signs which denote it. Few things are stranger than the violent reaction which has deprived him of his popularity, and made him an object of bitter aversion to a considerable part of the Liberals, not only to such men as Graham and Bright, but even to many of his former followers and adherents. I cannot say I am sorry for it, but I do in fairness think that this reaction is overdone and exaggerated, and the hostility to Palmerston greater than there is any reason for. I do not wish to see him again at the head of affairs, but I should be sorry to see a man so distinguished, who has been exalted so high, and who has many good qualities, end his life, or at least his political career, under circumstances of mortification and humiliation. If this happens it will be owing principally to his obstinacy in persisting in leading a party who have no longer any mind to be led by him, and the insatiable ambition which cannot brook the notion of retirement at any time of life. If he was wise, and was not blinded by vanity and the flattery of his hangers-on, he would take a juster and clearer view of his position, and supposing him still intent on playing the political game, he would endeavour to act a part as nearly like that which Peel acted in his last years as the difference of circumstances would admit.
But the determination to have no more to do with Palmerston has not made the Whigs and Liberals more disposed to throw themselves into the arms of Lord John, and as yet, so far from any appearance of a reorganisation of the Liberal party, they seem more disunited and scattered than ever. Even Lord John and Graham, who seemed to be most closely allied, are now continually voting different ways; and as to the other leading men, it is impossible to predict how they will vote on any subject that comes before Parliament. In this state of confusion many Liberal-Conservatives are beginning to wish for the consolidation of the Government, and are inclining to support it, if the Government itself will give them an opportunity of doing so, by asserting their own independence as a Conservative Government, and will leave off truckling to the Radicals, by accepting measures which everyone knows to be repugnant to their feelings and opinions, and inconsistent with the principles they have always professed. Men who supported Palmerston's Government because they considered it to be a Conservative one, foresee that before long parties must assume the character of Radical and Conservative, the Whigs being merged in the former, and that the party of the present Government forms the only force capable of resisting the Whig and Radical union when it takes place, and that their best course will be to join the Conservative camp, if the present Government do not, by unprincipled and inconsistent concessions for the sake of an easy official existence, render it impossible for them to do so. I do not know to what extent this feeling prevails, but I believe it is extending, and Lord St. Germans, who is a very staunch friend to the late Government, and latterly belonged to them, told me the other day that Granville had great difficulty in keeping his people together. Ashburton is very warm and eager in this sense, and though neither of these men have much weight, I have no doubt they are exponents of the sentiments of a much larger number. I called on Lyndhurst on Monday evening, and talked this question over with him, and entreated him to speak to Derby upon it. We were very well agreed, and he said he would endeavour to talk to Derby, but he is rather embarrassed, because he does not know what Derby is going to do about the Jew Bill, there being some strange signs of an intention on the part of Derby to throw it over after all, though this would be so extremely foolish, as well as so false and dishonourable, that I cannot believe it is in his contemplation.
MINISTERS GAIN GROUND.
June 22nd.—During the week I passed at Norman Court the Government here were gaining ground. They had two good divisions in the House of Commons, sufficient to prove that if they cannot command a majority here, they have at least as much influence and power and are as well supported as any other leader or party. Then the publication of the Cagliari papers, and the way in which that question was settled, was a real triumph to the Foreign Office, and acknowledged to be so by the whole Press of every shade, and by everybody in Parliament, not excepting the ex-Ministers themselves. They are undoubtedly gaining strength, while the chances of another Palmerston Government become more and more faint and remote. All information coincides in representing Palmerston's unpopularity as great and general, certainly the most extraordinary change that ever took place in so short a time. The Duke of Bedford writes to me from Endsleigh: 'I hear of only one general feeling against Palmerston in the West. What a change since this time last year!'
I had a long talk with Tom Baring at Norman Court about the Government, their proceedings and their prospects, and we agreed entirely on the subject. I wanted him to speak to some of his friends the ministers, and to endeavour to get them to act a bolder and more consistent part as a Conservative Government, and he urged me to speak to Disraeli, which I told him I would do, and only refrained from doubting if I could do any real good with him. The Government are certainly placed in a difficult position. The Government and party whom they replaced were determined to thrust them out again as soon as possible, and their weakness and danger drove them into a quasi-alliance with the Radicals, or at least into so much deference and so many concessions to Radicals and Ultra-Liberals, that the Whigs, who were baffled and kept out by this policy, held them up to bitter scorn and reproach for acting in this manner, and now, when they agree to any measure with regard to which concession is reasonable and prudent, they are always assailed with the same reproaches instead of getting credit for so doing. To be sure they often contrive to make their concessions in such a way as to deprive them of all grace and merit. This has been pre-eminently the case with the Jew Bill.
ADMISSION OF THE JEWS TO PARLIAMENT.
Among the events of last week one of the most interesting was the Queen's visit to Birmingham, where she was received by the whole of that enormous population with an enthusiasm which is said to have exceeded all that was ever displayed in her former receptions at Manchester or elsewhere. It is impossible not to regard such manifestations as both significant and important. They evince a disposition in those masses of the population in which, if anywhere, the seeds of Radicalism are supposed to lurk, most favourable to the Conservative cause, by which I mean not to this or that party, but to the Monarchy and the Constitution under which we are living and flourishing, and which we may believe to be still dear to the hearts of the people of this country. This great fact lends some force to the notion entertained by many political thinkers, that there is more danger in conferring political power on the middle classes than in extending it far beneath them, and in point of fact that there is so little to be apprehended from the extension of the suffrage, that universal suffrage itself would be innocuous. Amongst the concessions of last week was the passing of Locke King's Bill for abolishing a property qualification, which was done with hardly any opposition. There can be no doubt that the practice was a mere sham, and that a property qualification was very often a fiction or a fraud, and such being the case, that it was useless to keep up the distinction; but it struck me, though I do not find that it occurred to anybody else, that the abolition might sooner or later have an indirect influence upon the question of the suffrage, for it may be urged, not without plausibility, that if it be held no longer necessary that a representative should have any property whatever, there is great inconsistency in requiring that the elector should have a certain amount of property to entitle him to vote.
June 26th.—The India Bill appears now likely to pass rather rapidly and in the shape presented by the Government. Everybody is tired to death of the subject and anxious to have it over, and the general impatience is increased by alarm at the foul state of the Thames, which (long discussed in a negligent way, and without much public attention or care) has suddenly assumed vast proportions, and is become an object of general interest and apprehension. This makes the House of Commons eager to finish its business as expeditiously as it can, and members impatient to betake themselves to a purer and safer atmosphere. The Government continues to maintain its ascendency there, and last night Palmerston was beaten by considerable majorities on two amendments he moved to the India Bill.
The Chancellor has drawn down great obloquy on himself by a speech which he made at the Mansion House a night or two ago. Derby's illness having prevented his going to the dinner (given to the Ministers), Thesiger had to speak for him, and he made the very worst, most injudicious, and unbecoming speech which was ever delivered on such an occasion. No rule is more established than that politics are not to be introduced at these dinners, and yet his speech was nothing but a political song of triumph and glorification of his own Government and colleagues, as somebody said, a counterpart (though less offensive one) of Disraeli's Slough speech. All their heads are turned, and the Chancellor's as much or more than any.