The coast seemed now clear for the great measure, but the King made a final stand. The very day before the Bill was to be introduced (March 4), he sent unexpectedly for Wellington, Lyndhurst, and Peel, declared he had been misunderstood, withdrew his sanction, and asked what they now intended to do about Ireland. In fact he had been incessantly worked on by the Tory Lords who had access to him; and, weak and miserable, apparently thought that the fear of offending him might even yet postpone the measure. Peel at once declared that nothing remained for him but to resign. The Duke and the Chancellor expressed the same intention, and they left the presence of the King, who bade them a most friendly farewell, in the belief that the ministry was at an end. Late at night Wellington received a letter, in which the King said that he was convinced of the impossibility of forming another ministry, and begged them to remain. Knowing his weak character, it was only on receiving express leave to declare that the measure was brought in with his consent that they agreed to remain, and it was with the assertion that he was acting in full accordance with the King's wishes that Peel began his speech. The proposed Bill Introduction of the Bill. March 5, 1829. was of a sweeping but simple character. It substituted a new form of oath for the old oaths of supremacy, allegiance, and abjuration; thus, if a Catholic bound himself to support the State and not injure the Church, he could sit in either House of Parliament, had a perfect equality with his Protestant neighbours, and was eligible for all offices, civil, military, or municipal, with the exception of the office of Regent, of Lord Chancellor, of Viceroy of Ireland, or royal commissioner of the General Assembly of Scotland. From offices connected with the Church, or participation in Church patronage, he was naturally excluded. The second point of the Bill was the position to be occupied by the Roman Church. It was to be left as a dissenting community, unendowed and unrestricted, but the use of episcopal titles, the increase of monks, and the introduction of more Jesuits, were forbidden. This Bill for the remission of all restrictions was to be coupled with another for the establishment of certain securities, the chief of which consisted in the raising of the franchise to £10. In a long and careful speech Peel explained his views, and vindicated his change of policy. The same course was pursued by Wellington in the Upper House, where he alleged that the chief grounds for his present conduct was his horror of civil war, which he regarded as inevitable. "I am one of those who have probably passed a longer period of my life engaged in war than most men, and principally, I may say, in civil war, and I must say this, that if I could avoid by any sacrifice whatever even one month of civil war in the country to which I am attached, I would sacrifice my life in order to do it. There is nothing which disturbs property and wellbeing so much, which so deteriorates character as civil war, and that, my Lords, would have been the event to which we must have looked, that the means to which we must have had recourse." As was natural, there was a strong opposition, but in both Houses Canningites, Whigs, and Ministerialists combined to swell the majority; on the first reading it numbered 188, on the second 180. Not one amendment was carried in Committee, and the Bill finally passed by a majority of 178 in a House of 452. In the The Bill passed. April 1829. House of Lords it was as favourably received, and on the 10th of April it was passed on the third reading by 213 to 209. There was yet one more struggle, in which the King played a pitiful part. Lord Eldon relates two interviews he had with him, in which George seemed inclined to deny that he had ever authorized his ministers to bring in the Bill, and to represent himself as forced to consent by repeated threats of resignation. Lord Eldon was honest enough to say, after he had seen written evidence of the fact, that the King's consent had been given, and that it could not now be withdrawn, and the interview closed in the midst of petulant and childish exclamations of anger on the part of the King. Lord Eldon probably hoped that in spite of what he had said there might be still some delay, but the royal assent was at once given, and the Bill became law on the 14th of April.
O'Connell agitates for the repeal of the Union.
The Bill for the disfranchisement of the forty shilling freeholders passed at the same time as the Catholic Emancipation Bill, and received the royal assent with it. The conduct of O'Connell, who quietly allowed the passing of this Bill, caused much surprise. "The forties" had been his best supporters, he had pledged himself in the strongest language to support their claims, but he quietly allowed them to be disfranchised. It was strange how little commotion so sweeping a measure produced. A few of the more advanced reformers of England regarded it as an enormous price paid for a still greater advantage. But in fact the quarrel had been rapidly assuming the form of a division of races, and the English Catholics, without whom the measure could not have been carried, were far more anxious for the equality of their Church than for the enlargement of Irish liberty. To O'Connell the question assumed a different shape. Although he repeatedly declared that the passing of the Bill would quiet Ireland, he by no means intended that such should be the case. With him the question was far more Irish than Catholic, as was soon made evident by his conduct. He presented himself to take his seat in Parliament (May 15), and offered to take the new oath, but as he had been elected while the old law was in force, it was held that he was still under its requirements. With excellent temper and ability he argued his case, which was however given against him, and a new writ for Clare was issued. His return was unopposed (July 30), yet he allowed himself the utmost freedom of language, abused with all the powers of his invective the English Government, and gave it clearly to be understood that he meant to continue the struggle till it should end in the repeal of the Union. These preliminary operations took so much time that it was not till the next session that he could take his seat. From this time onwards it is impossible to regard him as the champion of a good cause; he sank into the position of a demagogue, exciting the people for an impracticable object, which he must have known no English statesman or English Parliament could possibly grant.
Wellington's foreign policy.
The interest of this Catholic Bill had been so absorbing that little else had been thought of, but when that obstacle was once cleared away, there was room to consider what was equally important, the foreign policy of the Government, in which there was much to excite the anger of the Liberal party, and to raise a belief that where Wellington could act without pressure his sympathies were in accordance with the system of Castlereagh rather than with that of Canning. While holding strictly to the principle of non-intervention, he appeared to use it so as to throw its advantages almost entirely upon the side of arbitrary power. It was the affairs of Portugal, of Greece, and of France which chiefly required his attention.
John VI. had at length come back from South America to attempt to establish his power in Portugal in 1821. During his absence Brazil declared itself independent, and put Don Pedro, John's son, upon the throne with the title of Emperor. On the death of John in 1826, Don Pedro was called to the throne of Portugal also. He had to choose between his South American and his European dominions. He preferred to remain in Brazil. He therefore gave a constitution to his Portuguese subjects, and then abdicated in favour of his young daughter Maria. For a while his sister acted as Regent, but in February 1828 Don Pedro thought it better to quiet his ambitious brother Miguel by appointing him Regent, and guardian of his niece, to whom he was to be ultimately married. Miguel always declared his intention, as was of course his duty, to uphold the constitution, which had been supported by English troops sent, it will be remembered, by orders of Canning, but had been opposed by a strong party of absolutists, and had not produced any marked improvement in the condition of the country. The priests, the nobility, and the soldiery were deeply infected with dislike to the constitution. In January 1828, just after Wellington had assumed the reins of power, Miguel had visited England for the purpose, it was understood, of studying the working of the constitution, and had voluntarily declared that if he violated the constitution in his own country he should be a perjured usurper. After some delay he accepted the constitutional oath, but with circumstances which made it doubtful even then whether he intended to keep it. So obvious were the signs of his intention to usurp the throne, that when Wellington determined to recall the English troops as though their duty was now completed, the English ambassador on his own authority retained them. Their retention was but temporary. On the 2nd of April they were recalled, although the Chamber of Deputies had been suddenly dissolved in the middle of March; for Wellington, clinging to the narrowest interpretation of the principle of non-intervention, held that the troops were sent to guard Portugal against foreign invasion, and not to be used in party quarrels. Their departure was almost immediately followed by open riots in favour of the absolutists. Restrained for a short time by the threat that all the ambassadors would leave his Court, on the 3rd of May Miguel Miguel usurps the throne. May 1828. began to throw away disguise. He summoned the three ancient estates of the realm instead of the new constitutional Parliament, and signed the decree as King Miguel I. This act of usurpation was followed by the withdrawal of all the ministers except those of Spain and Rome. A violent reaction set in, the uneducated masses, the aristocracy, and the clergy had it all their own way, and raised a general cry against the Freemasons, as they were pleased to call the Liberal party. While Miguel was planning his usurpation of the throne the act of abdication on the part of Don Pedro was finally completed, and the young Queen set sail for Europe. She was at first intended to visit her uncle the Emperor of Austria; but the Queen Maria acknowledged in England. Sept. 1828. news of what had happened in Portugal induced her guardians to bring her to England, where she was received with all the honour due to a queen both by the ministers Wellington and Aberdeen, and by King George himself. Meanwhile the government of the reactionists in Portugal had been marked by much violence and contempt of law. In the beginning of October, in the prisons of Lisbon alone, there were 2400 prisoners, of whom 1600 were confined for political crimes. The total number of prisoners throughout the kingdom amounted to upwards of 15,000, among whom were forty-two members of the Chamber of Peers and seven members of the Chamber of Deputies; and so unrestrained was the wickedness of Miguel that he even attempted the life of his sister, the late Regent, because she refused to give up to him some of her jewels.
Wellington's adherence to the principle of neutrality.
The withdrawal of the troops from Lisbon on the one hand, and the recall of the English minister and the acknowledgment of the young Queen on the other, appeared to be in accordance with the strictest rules of neutrality. At the same time it was obvious that that neutrality as yet had been entirely in favour of Don Miguel. The principle had yet to be put to harder trials; a number of Portuguese refugees of the constitutional party were assembled in England, headed by the Marquis Palmella, the Portuguese ambassador, and General Saldanha, late constitutional War Minister. Besides their continental dominions, the Portuguese possessed the islands of the Azores; and although the islands had declared for Donna Maria, and therefore might be supposed to be under the protection of the English, Miguel had been allowed to capture Madeira, and had attempted, though unsuccessfully, a similar attack upon Terceira. In expectation of a repetition of this effort, application was made to the Portuguese in England for assistance. A body of between 3000 and 4000 men, the relics of an insurgent army which had attempted in vain to prevent Miguel's usurpation, had been kept together at Plymouth, but the representations of the usurper had been listened to, and the Duke had ordered that they should be distributed throughout England. Rather than submit to this, Palmella proposed to send them to Brazil; but Wellington, mistrusting their intentions when once they had left England, declared his intention of placing them under the escort of the English fleet. On receiving the application from Terceira, Palmella, seeing an opportunity for employing his countrymen usefully, determined to send them thither, but unarmed, to avoid any breach of the neutrality of England; and, in spite of the avowed intention of Wellington to prevent this step by force, in the beginning of January 1829 the expedition actually sailed under Saldanha. Some English frigates were sent to prevent a landing, and fired upon the leading vessel. Saldanha then retired to Brest. Thus in the eyes of the Liberals not only had the Duke been impartial, but he had fired upon an expedition fitted out in favour of a sovereign acknowledged by and at peace with England, and who intended to make good her possession of an island of which she was at the moment actually Queen. Such an interpretation of the duties of neutrality, especially considering the bitter tyranny under which Portugal was groaning, afforded good grounds for the anger of the English Liberal party.
Non-intervention in the affairs of Greece.