The supreme political event of Lord Dudley's term was undoubtedly Mr. George Wyndham's Land Act of 1903. Had Gladstone lived to witness a Tory Chief Secretary piloting such a measure through Parliament he must assuredly have gasped. It caused great searchings of heart amongst the colleagues of Mr. Wyndham, but it came into the statute-book—another proof of the political axiom that the Tory party have done more for Ireland than the Liberal, that Tory Cabinets have worked more for Home Rule than their political rivals.
The revolutionary Tory Chief Secretary aroused the suspicions of his friends. Loud-voiced Unionists in Ireland declared that he was at heart a Home Ruler, and when the Lord-Lieutenant declined to take this accusation seriously he was in his turn labelled Home Ruler, too. Reports were sent to London of the dreadful backsliding of Lord Dudley. As time crawled by he was described as an out-and-out Nationalist, a traitor to the party he was sent to represent in Ireland. The devolution scheme ascribed to Lord Dunraven, the late Captain Shaw, and others, was said to have received the viceroy's benediction. Superficially, that plan seemed the easiest method by which the eternal Irish question could be settled; it appeared so nice and equitable. But there was the dangerous rock of finance, on which all devolution schemes must be wrecked. During the uproar the Lord-Lieutenant was compelled to adopt measures of precaution. The party leaders in England demanded a sign from him, for it would not do to permit Liberal and Nationalist orators to assure receptive and eager audiences night after night that the Tory Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland had learned by experience in Ireland that the only cure for the evils of the country was Home Rule. The Wyndham Land Act was merely a palliative, they added. It was deemed necessary that Lord Dudley should write an elaborate explanation of his views on Ireland, and entrust the document to Lord Lansdowne, the leader of the Government in the House of Lords. This precious epistle was to recline in the noble marquis's pocket until, goaded by the taunts of the Opposition, he should be able to produce it dramatically and confound the scoffers and unbelievers. The letter was written, but never read in the Lords, the minds of men turning to other matters when Mr. Wyndham was recalled from Ireland and Mr. Walter Long appointed Chief Secretary. It was Mr. Balfour's way of announcing his dislike of the already dead and buried devolution plan.
The period of doubt left the viceroy unshorn of his friends. Those who knew him personally were well aware that he was a genuine friend of Ireland, and the whole country knew that this English nobleman stood rather to lose than gain by any active display of good-will towards the people he ruled in the name of the king. The personal popularity of Lord and Lady Dudley was such that no political crisis could affect materially. Lady Dudley, a clever woman of rare charm, an artist and a linguist, was not without experience of the vicissitudes of life, and her knowledge of things human had been increased thereby. The daughter of a once wealthy banker, she knew what poverty was, and at one time she was associated along with her sister in the millinery shop their mother started in London soon after the Gurney bank failure. The shop was not a success, and had to be abandoned. The girls were adopted by friends of the family, the Duke and Duchess of Bedford taking charge of Miss Rachel Gurney. Under their wing she made the acquaintance of the young Earl of Dudley, and they were married in 1891, society, headed by the Prince of Wales, attending the function. Never very strong, and often suffering great pain, Lady Dudley, nevertheless, preserved a sweetness of temper and a kindliness to all and sundry that both in Ireland and Australia helped immensely in establishing the influence of her husband. In Ireland, especially, a viceroy's wife has many opportunities, and they are not always easy to grasp. Lady Dudley succeeded every time, and it is not to be wondered at that by thousands of those whose experience entitle them to be considered experts on the subject she is named as the most successful and popular 'vicereine' the country has known for over a hundred years.
Royal visitors
The busiest social year of the Dudley régime was that of 1903, when King Edward and Queen Alexandra visited Ireland. It was the first occasion a King of England was seen in Ireland for eighty-two years, and the people marked the honour by a display of enthusiasm unequalled in the history of the country. The king and queen were greatly touched by the loyalty of the Irish, and under the capable direction of Lord and Lady Dudley the series of festivities went with a vim that gratified the distinguished visitors and added fresh laurels to those already earned by the chatelaine of the Viceregal Lodge and Dublin Castle. A royal visit produces more anxiety than pleasure, as a rule, for those whose duty it is to see that the arrangements for entertaining the guests are perfect and carried out to the letter; but a genius for organization displayed itself in the arrangements devised for the filling up of their Majesties' programme, and that was the genius of the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife. The most significant event of the visit was the Levee held at Dublin Castle by the king. All the leading men of Ireland were invited, irrespective of politics and religion. It was a daring thing to do, but Lord Dudley could count upon his own popularity, and he confidently invited Roman Catholic Archbishops, Catholic gentlemen, Nationalists, and many others whose political opinions were against the Government. The occasion was historic—a King of England holding a Levee in 'the worst castle in the worst situation in Christendom,' as a former viceroy described it—and it was almost unprecedented. With characteristic good feeling and understanding all classes and creeds attended to do homage to His Majesty, who had the gratification of receiving many notable Irishmen and seeing them mingling together, their differences forgotten in the presence of their Sovereign. The success of that Levee was a splendid tribute to Lord Dudley's tenure of the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. Another visit by King Edward and Queen Alexandra the following April was equally successful.
The dying days of the Balfour ministry found Irish affairs inert. The respectable Mr. Long was ready to do anything to prove his stanch Unionist principles, but both countries and parties were in that frame of mind produced by a sense of impending death. There had been ten unbroken years of Unionist sway in Ireland; two viceroys of great wealth and popularity had carried on the Government, assisted by Chief Secretaries of varying qualities of statesmanship; the country had grown accustomed to Tory control, and rather liked it, judging by the experience of Liberal predecessors. Every charitable cause had met with a ready response from the Lord-Lieutenant and his wife, and for ten years the viceroy had appeared almost non-political. The numberless acts of kindness placed to the credit of Lady Cadogan and Lady Dudley created for them a genuine feeling of admiration and affection. The heads of the Government in Ireland were no longer mere party 'jobbers.' The anxiety to be impartial was at times almost painful, but it was not without effect.
Social splendour
Socially, the two viceroyalties had been brilliant successes. The Tory Government had everything in its favour. Two such hostesses as the wives of Lords Cadogan and Dudley are rarely met with, and for ten years in succession the Dublin season was ever one of splendour. There had been periods of mourning, but, apart from these, the years were notable.
And yet the cry for Home Rule was not less shrill nor less determined. Nationalists could say with some reason that all that Lord Cadogan and Lord Dudley had done could be done again with a Parliament in College Green. The growing feeling in English constituencies against the Conservative Government was hailed with delight by the Irish party. They saw Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, an avowed Home Ruler, gladly and eagerly putting their demand for Home Rule in the forefront of the great fight, and when the polls had placed him in power making Home Rule the first plank in the programme of the resuscitated Liberal party.
England could not be expected to be impressed by the successes of the Tory Government in Dublin. As a matter of fact, English electors were feeling rather bored with Irish affairs, and at the polls they scarcely stopped to think about Home Rule, but voted for the Liberal candidate for the negative reason that they did not like his opponent. The General Election was a triumph for the pure, undiluted political faith of Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, and, besides smashing all hopes that the Irish party would be the masters of the situation, compelled those minute particles of Liberalism labelled Imperialists, Radicals, and so on, to unite under the lead of the new Prime Minister.