The son of a stonemason; born at Ecclefechan, Dumfries, and educated at Edinburgh University. His essays and historical writings, set forth in virile and rugged English, have had a very great influence on literature and on popular thought, both in England and America. “Sartor Resartus” appeared in 1833–4; the “French Revolution” in 1837; “Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches” in 1847; “Frederick the Great” in 1858–65.
It was a hazardous measure to steer through the Imperial Parliament. Outside popular passion was aflame; effigies of the Pope and Wiseman, sixteen feet high, had been dragged through the streets of London on the Fifth of November instead of the usual Guy Faux. On the other hand, both the Radicals and the Irish Catholics in the House might be counted on to offer fiercest opposition to the Bill. Ministers themselves dreaded enacting anything that savoured of religious intolerance, and the Queen herself has left on record her feelings about the subject.
“I would never have consented,” she wrote to the Duchess of Gloucester, “to anything which breathed a spirit of intolerance. Sincerely Protestant as I have always been, and always shall be, and indignant as I am at those who call themselves Protestants while they are, in fact, quite the contrary, I much regret the unchristian and intolerant spirit exhibited by many people at the public meetings. I cannot bear to hear the violent abuse of the Catholic religion, which is so painful and so cruel towards the many good and innocent Roman Catholics. However, we must hope and trust this excitement will soon cease, and that the wholesome effect of it upon our own Church will be lasting.”
No wiser words have ever been written or spoken by a monarch. It was both necessary and desirable to give effect to the national repugnance to spiritual interference; but it was imperative that spiritual freedom should be left absolutely unfettered. The progress of the measure through the House of Commons was like that of Samson’s foxes through the Philistines’ corn; it kindled every slumbering sentiment of acrimony and hatred. The Radicals, through Mr. Roebuck, exclaimed against it as “one of the meanest, pettiest, and most futile measures that ever disgraced even bigotry itself.” The Irish employed all their inexhaustible resources in resistance; nor was their opposition modified in the least degree by the Government agreeing to exclude Ireland from the Bill. Nevertheless, after four nights’ debate on the motion for leave to introduce the Bill, the division list showed a majority of 332 in favour of it.
F. Winterhalter.] [In the Royal Collection.
THE FIRST OF MAY, 1851.
The Duke of Wellington presenting a casket to his godson, Prince Arthur (Duke of Connaught). The Prince Consort holds a plan of the Great Exhibition, which is seen in the distance.
But just as Peel fell on the morrow of his great victory on the Corn Laws, so within a week of the division on the Ecclesiastical Titles Bill Russell encountered defeat in resisting a motion to extend the Franchise. He resigned office: the Queen sent for Lord Stanley, who recommended that an attempt should be made by Russell to form a coalition Cabinet with the help of the party of the late Robert Peel. |Defeat of Ministers on the Question of the Franchise.| But the recent debate had raised implacable bitterness between the Peelites and the Whigs. Next, Lord Aberdeen refused to attempt the formation of a Ministry, on the ground that no Ministry could stand which would not undertake to deal with Papal aggression, which he was determined not to do. Lord Stanley then reluctantly tried his hand and failed. The situation was more embarrassing than any that had arisen since 1812, when the Lords Wellesley, Moira, Grey, and Grenville had successively failed to form a Cabinet. The deadlock brought about a touching incident. Her Majesty resolved to ask the advice of her well-tried servant, the Duke of Wellington, then in his eighty-third year. He gave it in terms as concise as one of his own general orders: “That the party still filling the offices, till Her Majesty’s pleasure shall be declared, is the one best calculated to carry on the Government at the present moment.” |Lord Russell Resumes.| On March 3, therefore, Lord John Russell, on Her Majesty’s invitation, returned to office. The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill was resumed, but the more stringent clauses were withdrawn, and in the form in which it finally received the Royal Assent it did no more than declare the illegality of the English titles assumed by the Roman Catholic hierarchy.[E]
