Mr. Disraeli took an early opportunity of showing his colleagues that he meant to be master in his own house. His first act set the Tapers and Tadpoles of the Carlton Club by the ears. He sent Lord Chelmsford—whom he had not forgiven for his venomous opposition to the emancipation of the Jews—an intimation that he must resign. His next act was to offer the Lord Chancellorship to Lord Cairns, in order to strengthen the debating power of the front Ministerial Bench in the House of Lords. According to Bishop Wilberforce’s Diary, when Lord Chelmsford handed his seals to the Queen he held them back for a minute, and said, “I have been used worse than a menial. I have not even had a month’s warning.”[279] Certainly he might have been treated with more courtesy, but technically speaking Mr. Disraeli was well within his right in dismissing Lord Chelmsford. In 1866, when Lord Derby formed his Government, Lord Chelmsford took office on the distinct understanding that one day he must make way for Sir Hugh Cairns. “This being the case,” says Lord Malmesbury, “he had no right to be angry at Disraeli’s arrangement, but he was so, and appealed to Lord Derby, who confirmed the decision as being consistent with his original agreement.” Mr. Disraeli did not withdraw Sir S. Northcote from the India Office, but conferred the Chancellorship of the Exchequer on Mr. Ward Hunt. “He is a giant in body,” writes Lord Malmesbury, “being six feet four, and weighing twenty stone. When he knelt to kiss hands he was even in that position taller than the Queen.” A still better qualification for office, however, was possessed by Mr. Hunt. As the hero of the debates on the compensation clauses of the Cattle Plague Bill, he had become the idol of the squirearchy, and his presence in the Cabinet did much to reconcile them to Mr. Disraeli’s elevation to the Premiership. The constitution of the Government and disposal of the offices curiously reflected the influence which the new electors were already exercising on the ruling classes. The most striking thing about the reconstructed Ministry was the concentration of its power in the House of Commons. For the first time for many years there sat in the popular Chamber the Prime Minister (Mr. Disraeli), the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Lord Stanley), the Chancellor of the Exchequer (Mr. Ward Hunt), the Home Secretary (Mr. Hardy, appointed on the retirement of Mr. Walpole), the War Secretary (Sir J. Pakington), the First Lord of the Admiralty (Mr. Corry), and the Secretary for India (Sir Stafford Northcote). In the House of Lords the representatives of the Government held offices of secondary importance.
The new Prime Minister met his followers in Downing Street on the 5th of March, and promised them that his policy would be truly Conservative. At half-past five he rose in the House of Commons, amidst general cheering, to explain his position, which he did with some superfluous humility. In Foreign Affairs his policy, he said, would be Lord Stanley’s—one of peace without isolation—and in Home Affairs it would be “a Liberal one—a truly Liberal one.” The Reform Bills for Ireland would proceed, an Education Bill was promised, and on the following Tuesday Lord Mayo would explain the views of the Cabinet as to Ireland—views which doubtless would
ST. JAMES’S PALACE, LONDON.
satisfy “enlightened and temperate men” of all Parties. Some of the Adullamites thought that a mistake had been made in not attempting to form a Coalition, and Mr. E. P. Bouverie gave voice to their querulous discontent. Before the sitting was over, Mr. Hardy succeeded in carrying a measure in which the Queen was interested—the Bill for abolishing the demoralising spectacle of public executions. But it was quite clear that Mr. Gladstone and Lord Russell would now give the new Cabinet no mercy. Every one therefore felt that the crisis in its fate would be determined when Lord Mayo expounded its Irish policy. The Irish Church Question divided Reformers least, and it was known that to this question Lord Mayo would address himself. There were now three plans before the country for getting rid of the anomaly of supporting in Ireland out of national funds, the Church of a small, a rich, and an anti-national sect. Lords Hardwicke and Ellenborough had proposed to “level up” the Roman Catholics to an equal footing with the Protestants by raising £3,000,000 a year for their endowment. Lord Russell proposed to “level down” the Protestants to the same plane of equality as the Catholics, by diverting six-eighths of the Protestant endowments to Catholic purposes. Mr. Bright proposed to secularise all the Protestant endowments and devote them to purely national purposes, reserving £3,000,000 to break the fall of the Protestant churches, and provide each Roman Catholic parish with a small piece of glebe land. On Tuesday, the 10th of March, Mr. Maguire opened the debate on the affairs of Ireland, and Lord Mayo, with verbose embarrassment, gave an exposition of Irish policy, which sealed the fate of the Government. He promised (1) a small Bill for registering tenants’ improvements and encouraging leasehold tenures, which nobody treated seriously; (2) Commissions of inquiry into the Land Question and into the Irish railway system, with a hint at granting Imperial subsidies to Irish railways; (3) the endowment of a separate Catholic University; (4) an inquiry into the Irish Church, with a suggestion that the right policy was to “level up” the Catholics to the same condition of endowment as the Protestants, and to increase the Regium Donum, or annual subvention of the Presbyterians. As Mr. Horsman said, Lord Mayo seemed to be looking everywhere for a policy without being able to find it. Inaction as regards the Church, procrastination as regards the Land, reaction as regards Education—such was the Irish policy of the Government. The idea of “levelling up” the endowments of the Catholics was felt to be impracticable, for it would have involved an expenditure of about £3,000,000 a year. If this sum were raised by Irish taxation, the Irish Catholics would naturally object to pay to their priests through the State the stipends which they already paid them as free-will offerings. If it were raised by Imperial taxation, it was hopeless to expect the Protestants of England and Scotland to endow an Ultramontane Catholic Church in Ireland. The scheme for a new Catholic University was equally objectionable. It was to have no connection with the State. Hence it would be a standing challenge to the accepted national policy of education, which links State control with State aid. As a remedy for Irish grievances, Mr. Bright likened it to the pill which Addison’s quack sold “to cure the earthquake.” Mr. Gladstone attacked the Government with all the eloquence of action. His policy he declared to be the disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Protestant Church, and he announced that he would take the opinion of the House on a definite proposal for carrying it out. For that purpose he produced three Resolutions on the 23rd of March, which affirmed the necessity for creating no new interests in the Irish Church, “pending the final decision of Parliament.” In a letter to Lord Dartmouth, Mr. Disraeli met the attack by raising a false issue. It was not, he said, the Irish Church that was at stake. What Mr. Gladstone challenged was really “the sacred union of Church and State, which has hitherto been the chief means of our civilisation, and is the only security of our liberty.” It was obviously indiscreet for a Tory Minister to assert that the principle of a State Church was involved in the maintenance of an ecclesiastical establishment which served no State purpose whatever, save that of making the Irish people hate England. Mr. Gladstone’s scheme was to terminate the existence in Ireland of any salaried or stipendiary clergy paid by the State, whether Catholic or Protestant; though, by way of compensation for life-interests, he promised to leave three-fifths of their endowments in the hands of the Anglican clergy. Lord Stanley moved an amendment which pleaded for delay. After a new Parliament had been elected, the Government, he said, would bring in a scheme to reform the Church of Ireland. Coupled with his admission that “considerable modifications in the temporalities” of the Irish Church would be necessary, his speech disgusted Mr. Disraeli’s Orange supporters, and dispirited his English followers. What, asked Lord Cranborne, would anybody think of a man on the other side of the hedge, if he expressed an opinion that there must be “considerable modifications” in the money in the traveller’s purse? Mr. Hardy completed the confusion of his Party by practically answering Lord Stanley, and declaring that he, at least, would never lay a sacrilegious hand on Church temporalities. The “Cave,” too, broke up under pressure from the constituencies. Even Mr. Lowe assailed the Irish Church, averring that “the curse of barrenness” was upon it. “Cut it down!” he exclaimed; “why cumbereth it the ground?”
It is easy to see why Mr. Disraeli’s strategy was at fault. He should either have nailed up the standard of “No surrender,” or have boldly said the Irish Church must be disestablished, and appealed to the country to trust the work to Conservative hands that would deal tenderly and reverently with such an ancient institution. As it was, he made Lord Stanley hint that Ministers were ready next Session to produce a plan which Liberals could accept, and he made Mr. Gathorne-Hardy soothe his followers with assurances that no harsh hands would ever be laid on the Irish Church. Mr. Gladstone carried his motion to go into Committee on his Resolutions, and on the 5th of April Lord Malmesbury writes in his Diary, “Government has been beaten on Lord Stanley’s amendment. We shall not resign, but dissolve and meet a new Parliament.” There is some reason to think that it was the intention of the Government not to dissolve Parliament till January, 1869, when the new electors came to power. And it is certain that the Radicals were by no means anxious to turn Mr. Disraeli out till they had convinced the now yielding Whigs that the era of inaction had passed away, and that the next Liberal Executive must be as Liberal as the new Parliament which it was going to lead. Mr. Disraeli’s course of action at this time was therefore unintelligible. Though he knew that Mr. Gladstone’s proposal had pleased the new Democracy, he made no attempt to “educate” his party up to a compromise[280] with the Opposition, who, after the first flush of victory, became a little nervous as they saw the great practical difficulties of Disestablishment looming larger every day. He missed his golden opportunity and raised a “No Popery” cry, declaring that the attack on the Irish Church was a conspiracy between the High Churchmen and the Roman Catholics to destroy the institutions of a Protestant Monarchy. This naturally alienated the votes of the High Churchmen, who were mostly Tories.[281] Nor did the Low Churchmen respond to the “No Popery” cry. They noted that it came from a Government which was prepared to endow a second Maynooth on a more sumptuous scale than the first, and from a Statesman who jeered at “the shallow fanaticism” of the Liberation Society. Perhaps this was fortunate. To have effected a compromise might have removed some of the practical evils of the Irish Church. But it would not have removed the sentimental grievance of the Irish people, who must have regarded even a reformed Protestant Church Establishment, as a badge of English conquest and a mark of Protestant ascendency. A war of words and wits between the Prime Minister and Lord Cranborne, whose invective he dismissed compassionately by saying it “wanted finish,” did not tend to bring harmony into the Tory party, which seemed fast breaking into fragments. “The old Government,” said Lord Chelmsford—a bad though sportive punster—to some friends, “was the Derby—this one is the Hoax.” After the Easter recess Mr. Disraeli took no notice of his defeat. Mr. Gladstone therefore kept pressing on his Resolutions, and as they embodied an Address to the Queen, everybody was speculating as to her answer. After three weeks’ debate the first Resolution was carried on the morning of the 1st of May by a majority of 65—an increase of 5 on the majority for going into Committee. It was now impossible to conceal from the Queen that on a vital question the Cabinet had completely lost the confidence of the House of Commons. That very day Mr. Disraeli accordingly went to Osborne to see her Majesty, thereby giving dire
MR. GATHORNE-HARDY (AFTERWARDS LORD CRANBROOK).