The viceroy, Charles Stewart Vane-Tempest-Stewart, sixth Marquis of Londonderry, was thirty-four years of age, and had before his succession to the peerage in 1884 represented County Down in Parliament for six years. As a descendant of the second marquis, who earned undying notoriety by his destruction of the so-called Irish Parliament, he was naturally of interest to all whose affairs brought them into close touch with Ireland. He was an Irish landlord, the husband of a clever, ambitious woman, a daughter of the premier earl of England. They had married in 1875, and she was a leading Tory hostess when they transferred their headquarters from Londonderry House, Park Lane, to Dublin Castle and the Viceregal Lodge for a period of three years.
Mr. Balfour as Chief Secretary
They were stirring times, but the viceroy, by a curious chance, was able to stand aloof. The resignation of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach in the March following the arrival of Lord Londonderry brought the Prime Minister's nephew, Mr. A. J. Balfour, over as Chief Secretary. We know how he made his years in Ireland peculiarly his own, obscuring our view of the viceroy until at times it seems that there was only a shadow behind the frail-looking personality that dominated Ireland in his capacity of Chief Secretary. 'Bloody' Balfour, they called him, and plotted against his life, much to the annoyance of the viceroy, who detested fuss, and never could understand the prevailing passion for political principles. Mr. Balfour answered force with force, and, remembering the history of attempts at conciliation, he went boldly and fearlessly for the criminals, their patrons and instigators. Another Coercion Bill was framed, and, empowered by it, he sent about thirty members of Parliament to gaol, while evictions and murder continued to be reported, and Parnellism became synonymous with crime.
A visit from Prince Albert Victor and Prince George towards the end of June, 1887, was appreciated by both viceroy and people. The event had all the charm of spontaneity and unexpectedness, and Lord and Lady Londonderry had the one opportunity of their viceroyalty to show what they could do as representatives of the Queen of England. There was a brilliant State banquet in the famous old dining-room of Dublin Castle, where the leading men of the country paid their respects to the then second heir to the throne and the youthful Prince who was destined by Fate to ascend the throne. A review in the famous and superb Phoenix Park was another feature of the visit that must have appealed to the viceroy as an oasis does to the traveller in the desert. Not that Lord Londonderry took a too prominent part in the inevitable political and agrarian troubles of his reign. He left those to the efficient and indomitable Mr. Balfour, while he pursued the even way of life, gently patronizing the elect, and good-humouredly tolerating the non-elect who are the clamouring and unsought satellites of every Viceroy of Ireland. Lady Londonderry, who is clever enough to deserve a better title than that of mere giver of dinners, softened the crudities of office and gained a popularity in Ireland not confined to her political friends—a rare achievement in a confessedly party woman. She is the author of a study of Viscount Castlereagh, second Marquis of Londonderry.
The Mitchelstown affray
The affray at Mitchelstown in the September of 1887 was dealt with by Mr. Balfour with his usual splendid disregard for public opinion, and it was succeeded by the Parnell Commission. During these historic incidents the viceroy remained in the background, jogging amiably along, and no doubt thanking Heaven that had cast his lot in pleasanter times than those that fell to Lord Cowper and Lord Spencer. He resigned the office in 1889. Eleven years later he sat in his first Cabinet as Postmaster-General, and when Mr. Balfour succeeded his uncle in the premiership he appointed his colleague President of the Board of Education—a nice, respectable post that nobody took seriously, and wondered why it was represented in the Cabinet at all. The 'tariff' resignations in 1903 placed several important portfolios at Mr. Balfour's disposal, and he thereupon added to Lord Londonderry's official duties by making him Lord President of the Council. And as President of the Board of Education and President of the Council the marquis continued to attend the Cabinet until the ministry perished in the maelstrom that swallowed up the Tory party and astonished the world within a few weeks of Mr. Balfour's resignation of the premiership. The Tory ex-Prime Minister appeared to have left most of his courage behind him in Ireland, where he went as 'Clara,' and stayed to earn the more flattering, if inelegant, sobriquet of 'Tiger Lily.'
CHAPTER XX
From out of the solid phalanx of Tory peers eligible for the post Lord Salisbury chose the Earl of Zetland, and sent him to Dublin. The viceroy was then in his forty-fifth year, was chiefly distinguished by his fondness for horse-racing, while a painstaking press recorded the fact that his mother was an Irishwoman. In 1871 he married Lady Lilian Lumley, a daughter of the ninth Earl of Scarborough, and the following year he was elected for the family borough of Richmond, Yorkshire. The death of his uncle in 1873 terminated his career in the House of Commons, and until his appointment to Ireland in 1889 he led the life of a country gentleman and a sportsman.