CHAPTER X.
THE DEATH OF PALMERSTON.
Opening of Parliament—Lord Russell and the American Government—Catholicism and Conservatism—Mr. Disraeli angles for the Irish Vote—Palmerston on Tenant Right—Another Panic in Piccadilly—Death of Cobden—Failure of the “Manchester School”—A Prosperity Budget and a Round Surplus—End of the American War—Moderation of the Victors—Assassination of President Lincoln—Reorganising the South—Conflict between President Johnson and the Republican Party—The Mexican Empire and the United States—The Danish Question—The Convention of Gastein—Bismarck’s Interview with the Duke of Augustenburg—The Mystery of Biarritz—Lord Chancellor Westbury’s Fall—Death and Character of Palmerston—The New Ministry—Mr. Gladstone Leader of the Commons—The Rinderpest—The Fenian Conspiracy—The Queen’s Letter on Railway Accidents—Laxity of Administration in the Queen’s Household—Birth of Prince George of Wales—Majority of Prince Alfred—The Queen at Gotha—The Betrothal of the Princess Helena—The Last Illness and Death of King Leopold of Belgium—His Character and Career—Suppressing a Rebellion with a Carpet-Bag.
Brighter prospects dawned on the year 1865 than could have been anticipated. England was at peace with all the world, and in spite of Lord Palmerston’s irritation against the German Powers, it was certain that the country would not permit him to engage actively in Continental broils. The Civil War in America, so disastrous to Lancashire, was drawing to a close; and though a dubious and desultory conflict with the Maoris in New Zealand was going on, the scene of strife was far away, and the struggle but slightly affected the course of business. Trade was sound and healthy, and the cotton famine had almost disappeared. Lord Palmerston’s Cabinet still held its ground, and though its aged chief had begun to show signs of physical decay, his high spirits and indefatigable energy gave no indication that the end of his career was at hand. Two of the four or five great ladies of fashion who had for forty years exercised a far-reaching, though unseen, influence on political life—Lady Tankerville and Lady Willoughby d’Eresby—had died in January, within a few days of each other. Lady Palmerston was thus left as almost the sole representative of those grandes dames of politics who were the flower and crown of the old order of society, soon destined to perish under the touch of democratic reform. Parliament was opened by Commission on the 7th of February. The Speech from the Throne, which was read by the Lord Chancellor, referred to the Treaty of Peace between the Emperor of Austria, the King of Prussia, and the King of Denmark, and declared that no renewed disturbance of the peace of Europe was to be apprehended. It regretted the conflict with some of the native tribes in New Zealand, and rejoiced at the tranquillity of our Indian dominions. It spoke with confidence of the condition of Ireland. The Message from the Throne further promised the introduction of Bills for the amendment of the laws relating to patents for inventions, and for conferring on the county courts an equitable jurisdiction in actions involving small amounts. A Bill for inquiring into English public schools was promised, and her Majesty directed that a commission should be issued to inquire into endowed and other schools in England. Lord Derby, though he bore traces of suffering from repeated attacks of gout, was able to speak with fluency and power, but the debates on the Address, it must be admitted, were not interesting, nor did they evoke any material opposition. Discussions took place upon the condition of the Irish peasantry, emigration, the tenure of land, tenant right, and the Established Church. The approaching triumph of the Northern States in the American Civil War was plainly foreshadowed by the increasing civility of Lord Russell’s references to the Federal Government. In a discussion on our foreign relations, he vindicated the neutral policy which his Administration had pursued towards both belligerents, but towards the conqueror his neutrality was now obviously benevolent. He pointed out how Confederate agents were continually employed either in building vessels in this country, or in buying merchant ships which might afterwards be sent to France and other places that they might be fitted out as armed cruisers against the commerce of the United States, and this he now discovered gave rise to the “natural irritation” of the United States against England. The Americans, he said, saw a number of ships, which had come in some way or another from English ports or English rivers, afterwards equipped as men-of-war for the purpose of destroying their sea-borne commerce. It was to be expected that they should wax angry with us in consequence. Still, Lord Russell urged that the Government had done everything in their power to prevent this country from being made the basis of warlike operations against the Federal Government.
In those days Mr. Pope Hennessy was one of the most active and aggressive members of the Irish Party. He had been advanced in public life by the social influence of Cardinal Wiseman, and had attached himself to the Tories as one of Mr. Disraeli’s partisans. His object was to revive, if possible, those Nationalist ideas which Mr. Disraeli had promulgated when bidding for the Irish vote in 1844. Mr. Disraeli’s object in cultivating his enthusiasm was to use him as an agent in cementing “the natural alliance between Catholicism and Conservatism,” which at the time he was most anxious to promote. Early in the Session, then, a lively discussion was initiated by Mr. Hennessy on Irish affairs, obviously with the intention of eliciting from the Ministry declarations that would tend to render Lord Palmerston’s Cabinet unpopular in Ireland. Mr. Hennessy’s motion was “that this House observes with regret the decline of the population of Ireland, and will readily support her Majesty’s Government in any well-devised measure to stimulate the profitable employment of the people; and that an address to the Crown be prepared, founded on the foregoing resolution.” The resolution was supported by a number of speakers, both Irish
MIDHURST, SUSSEX: BIRTHPLACE OF COBDEN.
and English, among whom were prominent Conservatives, like Sir Stafford Northcote and Lord Robert Cecil, and prominent Whigs like Sir Patrick O’Brien and Mr. Monsell. It was opposed on the part of the Government by Mr. Gladstone, Sir Robert Peel, and Sir George Grey. Sir Stafford Northcote, in speaking on the motion, indicated very plainly that his leaders had already begun to angle for the Irish vote. Ireland, said he, had been crippled by English legislation, and Parliament “ought to approach this question with a feeling of tenderness,” and a desire to see how far it was possible to remedy that grievance. Lord Palmerston concluded the debate with a speech which has been rendered historic by one of its phrases. He said, “Until by some means there can be provided in Ireland the same remuneration for labour and the same inducements to remain which are afforded by other countries, you cannot, by any laws which you can devise, prevent the people from seeking elsewhere a better condition of things than exists in their own country. We are told that tenant right and a great many other things will do it. None of these things will have the slightest effect. As to tenant right, I may be allowed to say that I think it is equivalent to landlord’s wrong.” In 1865 the idea that there was, and ever had been since the conquest of Ireland, a dual ownership in Irish soil—an ownership which naturally and equitably follows from the relations of an unimproving landlord to an improving tenant, had not yet dawned on the English mind.
One of the results of what Lord Russell called the “natural irritation” of the American people against England was a feeling of much uneasiness as to the safety of Canada. Confederate agents had attempted to make raids on Northern territory from Canadian soil. Threats of reprisals had proceeded from the organs of public opinion in the United States, and something approaching a panic was created in England, when the Federal Government gave formal notice that it was their intention to terminate the Convention under which England and the United States had mutually agreed not to fit out ships of war on the great lakes. It was also suggested that the American Government would soon “denounce” in similar fashion the Treaty of Commerce between the United States and Canada. In the House of Commons the Government was closely questioned on all these complications by Sir J. Walsh, who declared that the steps taken by the Federal Government were tantamount to a declaration of war. Palmerston tried to soothe these fears, and Earl Russell in the Upper House lavished conciliatory flattery on the United States, complimenting them on the patience with which they had endured the unsympathetic demeanour of England—the most unendurable element in which had been the tone of superfine insolence that marked his own despatches.[229] Yet all this time there was perfect tranquillity on the Canadian frontier. The Canadians did not seem to dread an American attack. The American Government, under Mr. Lincoln, in spite of the Irish War Party, was almost fanatically pacific. The truth was, as Mr. Bright said, that English anxiety as to the safety of Canada was due to a feeling “in our heart of hearts that we had not behaved generously to our neighbours; a twitching of the conscience that tended to make cowards of us at this particular juncture.” As usual the people had to pay for this panic in Piccadilly. The Government demanded a vote of £200,000 for the defences of the Canadian frontier, of which Lord Hartington, on behalf of the War Office, proposed to spend £20,000 in fortifying Quebec. As against the United States the frontier of Canada was of course practically indefensible. There was, therefore, reason in the contention of independent critics that such an expenditure might be regarded by the Americans as a provoking menace, rather than as a rational precaution.
By a sad coincidence, whilst these discussions were going on, the hand of death was being laid on the statesman who was of all men most competent to represent those who doubted the possibility of defending Canada. Richard Cobden, who declared that it would be just as possible for the United States to sustain Yorkshire in a war with England, as for England to enable Canada to contend against the United States, was sickening with his last illness. On the 2nd of April he died, and with him passed away the purest, most generous, and most chivalrous paladin of English Liberalism in the House of Commons. Men of all parties joined in doing homage to his memory. Mr. Disraeli vied with Mr. Bright in passing an eulogium on his public services. The Emperor of the French sent a letter of condolence to his widow. In the United States he was mourned by the American people as if he had been one of their own citizens. Mr. Bright said in the House, “I little knew how I loved him till I lost him,” and it indeed seemed as if this feeling were universal throughout England. Cobden’s disinterested honesty, the charm of his sweet and sympathetic nature, the fascination of his earnest, persuasive and transparently lucid eloquence, his buoyant courage, and his genuine devotion to the English people, all contributed to build up the fabric of his reputation and his popularity. His mission in life had been to beat down the power of the territorial aristocracy, which, in his youth, ruled England in the interest of a few rival groups of great families. In their place he imagined he could put a new order of merchant princes and Captains of Industry—an order of liberal-minded and highly-cultured men whose fortunes were bound up with the interest of Labour, and whose public spirit and civil capacity might recall the era of the Medici in Italy, and of the De Witts in the Low Countries. The leading ideas of the “Manchester School,” which he was credited with founding, have long since ceased to influence the English mind, though some of them have had enough vitality to survive the caprice of circumstances and the course of time. Cobden’s errors sprang from the fact that he believed that political power was to be finally centred in and wielded by the middle-classes. For example, it was for their interests to narrow as much as possible the Imperial responsibilities of England. Therefore, whilst he advocated Colonial autonomy it was not with a view to facilitate Imperial Federation, but to prepare the colonies for an independent existence, which should at once free us from the expense of defending them, and enrich us by the profits of their trade. On the other hand, the working classes regard the colonies as a heritage to be jealously preserved for their order, and the success of Federalism in the United States has induced them to dream of making a similar experiment within the British Empire. Obviously nothing could be more completely at variance with Cobden’s doctrines than these ideas. His scheme of policy was in fact faulty, because it was based on enriching a plutocracy, which, however, has not used its wealth for the purposes he had in view. It has, on the contrary, spent its resources in imitating and reproducing the worst qualities of the old feudal nobility, whose power Cobden desired to destroy. As the result of his policy, and the triumph of that part of it which accumulated wealth in the hands of the manufacturing classes, the country had a House of Commons in 1865, which was as much opposed to Reform as the House of Lords in 1832. For Cobden the irony of fate could hardly have been more cruel.