In another effort to obtain full justice for himself, however, he was unsuccessful. The great expenses that sprang out of his long-continued scientific and mechanical pursuits had absorbed all his scanty sources of income, and he forcibly urged that in accordance with the precedent furnished by a similar grant to Sir Robert Wilson, in 1832, he was entitled to the arrears of pay due to him for the seventeen years during which he had been kept out of his position in the British navy. But his request was refused; and the heavy pecuniary loss, as well as other and much heavier deprivations, consequent on a persecution that has been since admitted to have been wholly undeserved, has never been compensated.[20]

Shortly after that event Lord Dundonald sought to be elected one of the Scotch representative peers in the House of Lords. Now that his load of unmerited disgrace was shaken off, he desired to resume his old functions as a legislator—and this with no abatement of his zeal for the welfare of the people; but with none of the violence which his own heavy sufferings at the time of their first and heaviest pressure had partly caused him to show during his former parliamentary career. Being now a peer, he could not return to his seat in the House of Commons, and being a Scotch peer, he could only sit in the House of Lords as one of the delegates from the aristocracy of his native land. Among these he therefore asked for a place at the election in September, 1847. He did not, however, begin to seek it early enough. Other candidates had, according to custom, obtained promises of a majority of votes from the electors before he thought of canvassing, and he was thus left in a minority. Many peers, however, who on this occasion were unable to support him, offered to pledge their votes to him for the next election.

A minor favour was at this time shown to Lord Dundonald, which afforded him real gratification. In 1835, he had been allowed by King William IV. to use the insignia of a Grand Commander of the Order of the Saviour of Greece, conferred upon him by King Otho. In August, 1847, he applied to the Cabinet for permission to use the title of Marquis of Maranham and the Grand Cross of Brazil, both of which had been conferred upon him by the Emperor Pedro I., in 1823. "I have to acquaint your lordship," wrote Lord Palmerston, then Foreign Secretary, on the 11th of October, "that under the peculiar circumstances of the case, which have prevented the application being made earlier, the Queen has signified her pleasure that you should be permitted to accept the Grand Cross of the Order of the Cruziero. With regard, however, to the title of Marquis of Maranham, it is my duty to state to your lordship that, after full consideration, her Majesty's Government regret that they cannot advise the Queen to grant you the desired permission. While her Majesty's Government duly appreciate the services rendered by your lordship to the Crown of Brazil, they consider it to be on general principles so undesirable that distinguished officers of the British navy should have foreign titles, that they feel themselves compelled to decline complying with the request." "I beg to assure your lordship," wrote Lord Dundonald in reply, on the 18th of October, "that I feel more gratitude in being informed of the sentiments of her Majesty's Government in regard to my faithful and zealous services in Brazil than I ever experienced from the title conferred on me as the honorary portion of my reward for such services. As far as relates to assuming the title in my native country, I entreat your lordship to believe that I never entertained the intention."

A memorable occurrence soon followed. Now that his honours as well as his naval rank were restored to him, he had no reason for holding back from active service in his profession; and the Earl of Auckland, anxious to make use—as far as use could be made in peace-time—of his great and varied experience, and also to give further proof of the desire at last to render him all possible honour, was prompt in offering him fresh employment on the sea. "I shall shortly have to name a Commander-in-Chief for the North American and West Indian Station," wrote Lord Auckland on the 27th of December, 1847. "Will you accept the appointment? I shall feel it to be an honour and a pleasure to have named you to it, and I am satisfied that your nomination will be agreeable to her Majesty, as it will be to the country, and, particularly, to the navy."

Lord Dundonald did accept the appointment, rejoicing in it as a further step in reparation for the injuries by which he had been hindered, a whole generation before, from rising to the highest rank in the naval service of his country. He might then have achieved victories over the French which would have surpassed his brilliant exploit at Basque Roads. He could now only direct the quiet operations of a small fleet in time of peace. This, however, being the best that it was now possible for him to do, he gladly undertook. "Permit me," he wrote to Lord Auckland, "to assure your lordship that this gracious act has further tended to obliterate the deep and painful impressions made by thirty years of mental suffering, such as no language can describe; for, my lord, the agony produced by false accusations on an honourable mind is infinitely greater than merited infliction of death itself. I leave your lordship then to estimate the amount of obligation I fail to convey, and beg you will allow me to express a hope that your generous recommendation to her Majesty will be justified by my zealous endeavours to fulfil the duties I owe to my sovereign and country."

"I have waited for her Majesty's assent to your appointment," said the Earl of Auckland in a letter written on the 3rd of January, 1848, "before answering your letter of the 28th ultimo. This assent has been most cordially given, and you may now consider yourself Commander-in-Chief of the North American and West Indian Station, and I may repeat that my share in this proceeding has given me very great pleasure, and that I am confirmed in my feelings of gratification by the terms in which you speak of occupying your proper place in the navy. I am glad for you, and I am glad for myself that I have done this just and honourable act."

Very hearty was the satisfaction expressed by all classes as soon as Lord Dundonald's appointment was made public. "I beg," wrote Mr. Delane, the editor of the "Times," earliest of all in tendering his compliments, "to offer my very hearty congratulations upon your appointment—all that remained to efface the stain of such unmerited persecution." "The communication you have just made to me," wrote the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, "is most gratifying, and the First Lord of the Admiralty has done himself immortal honour in appointing that naval officer commander in one hemisphere who had previously illustrated his name by his most brilliant exploits in the other. Everything I think has now been done to undo the foul aspersions with which you have been assailed; and I am sure now everything will be done that can most serve to establish the ability of the officer and the delicacy of the gentleman. I congratulate you most sincerely upon your appointment, and I hope you will meet with difficulties when you arrive at your destination. Don't be surprised at this my wish. It proceeds from knowing the ample resources of my friend to overcome them, and his constant desire to sacrifice everything to duty and honour." "I derive the greatest pleasure and satisfaction from your appointment to the command of a British fleet," wrote Sir George Sinclair, "an appointment not less creditable to the ministry than honourable to yourself. I cannot help contemplating with affectionate sorrow the portrait of our dearest friend, Sir Francis Burdett, now suspended over the chimney-piece, and thinking how happy he would have been had he witnessed this most welcome and delightful consummation." "Permit me the honour," wrote Admiral John White, "to bear testimony to the high gratification I felt at seeing by the papers the announcement of your lordship's having taken the command of the West India and Halifax Stations. The whole British empire has expressed great joy at this justice having been done to the bravery of your lordship as an officer and your goodness and honour as a man." That last sentence told no more than the truth.

CHAPTER XXVII.

LORD DUNDONALD'S DEPARTURE FOR NORTH AMERICA.—EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF LORD AUCKLAND AND OTHERS RESPECTING WEST INDIAN AFFAIRS AND EUROPEAN POLITICS.—BERMUDA.—THE FRENCH REVOLUTION OF 1848 AND ITS ISSUES.—IRELAND AND THE CHARTISTS.—THE DEATH OF LORD AUCKLAND.

[1848.]