The Viceroys of Ireland

by Charles Kingston O'Mahony

Lord Houghton's position in Ireland was certainly unique. In a country overwhelmingly Nationalist—using the word in its party sense—he was supposed to belong to the popular side. Hitherto, the Lord-Lieutenant had been more or less a Tory, for the average Liberal was too superior to descend into the cockpit of Irish politics; but Lord Houghton was the Heaven-sent embodiment of Ireland's hopes of legislative independence. He was a member of the Government that had for its first and only object the settlement of the Irish question, and yet the viceroy, with all these aids, might have been the most bigoted Tory of Tories, judging by the attitude of the Nationalists. The native politician well maintained his reputation for suspecting his best friends. The prophets of gloom foretold of the fatal intervention of the House of Lords, and were so certain of defeat as to contribute towards it themselves. Lord Houghton was regarded as a sham, Gladstone's noble self-sacrifice as a mere trick; the whole body politic seemed destitute of honour and honesty. Wherever the viceroy went he was received in silence; there were no popular demonstrations in town or country. Ireland was in the position of the beggar who awaits charity with curses ready on her tongue in the case of refusal or dissatisfaction. She could not—would not—believe and understand that Mr. Gladstone was risking his own life, and that of his party, in his endeavour to grant the Nationalist demands. Eventually he wrecked Liberalism, but it has since recovered—Ireland has not.

The House of Lords is the stock enemy of Liberalism, but the peers did Lord Houghton a good turn when they rejected Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule Bill and numbered the days of the ministry. Heroically enough, the viceroy agreed to continue in office when Lord Rosebery was unexpectedly given the premiership; but all men knew that the Government was merely a makeshift, and that a General Election and a Conservative-Unionist triumph was to be expected as a matter of course. It came in 1895, and with it the end of Liberalism for ten years. Lord Houghton resigned with the ministry, and left Dublin as glad to be out of the country as the country was as pleased to see the last of him. When the whirligig of time brought its revenges, and the Lord Houghton of the 1892-95 viceroyalty was an earl of ten years' standing, earls being remarkably scarce on the Liberal red benches, he was admitted to the Cabinet in the respectable capacity of Lord President of the Council. This post was vacated for a time when in Mr. Asquith's Ministry he was Lord Privy Seal and Secretary of State for the Colonies. In 1910 he became Secretary of State for India, exchanging offices with Viscount Morley.

Lord Crewe's marriage in 1898 to Lady Margaret Primrose, the youngest daughter of the Earl of Rosebery, was a brilliant social function, and the birth of a son and heir in 1911 was more welcome than the marquisate which came to the Indian Secretary in the Coronation Honours' List.

Tory ascendancy

The triumph of the Conservative and Liberal-Unionist coalition cleared the political atmosphere. Once more the rival parties in Ireland were on their old footing; the Castle and the Lodge would be exclusively Unionist, and the other side was saved the embarrassment of having a friend in power. Lord Salisbury, in looking round for a suitable viceroy, found in his intimate friend and colleague, Lord Cadogan, the ideal viceroy. Twenty years previously they had been members of the same Government—Lord Salisbury in the Cabinet, and Lord Cadogan Under-Secretary at the War Office and the Colonial Office in turn. In Lord Salisbury's Government of 1886-92 he was Lord Privy Seal. Their political friendship served to cement a private friendship that lasted until Lord Salisbury's death, and it was the premier's resignation in 1902 that caused the then viceroy to retire.

Earl Cadogan, K.G.

Lord Cadogan was born in 1840, and in 1865 he married Lady Beatrix Craven, who died in 1907. Succeeding to the earldom in 1873, he was obliged to leave the House of Commons, to which he had been elected by the citizens of Bath the same year. From the day of his elevation to one of the wealthiest places in the peerage Lord Cadogan became a valued asset of the Conservative party. An intimate friend of the then Prince and Princess of Wales, given to hospitality, married to a lady with more than the usual gift for entertaining, the owner of Chelsea House and his wife became social leaders of the party. Lord Salisbury was fortunate in securing Lord Cadogan for the viceroyalty, and a seat in the Cabinet was only right and proper for one whose influence and support were of paramount importance. As Chief Secretary, Mr. Gerald Balfour accompanied Lord Cadogan, and after an imposing state entry on August 12, 1895, they settled down to work.

In Dublin Castle there is an object-lesson of the relative political importance of the two chief executive officers of the Government in Ireland. The Lord-Lieutenant's room is small and unpretentious, that of the Chief Secretary roomy, well furnished, and comfortable; but during Lord Cadogan's term he overshadowed his first Chief Secretary, although the latter was a brother of the leader of the House of Commons.