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ECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE

RD BROUGHTON

1834-1840

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE

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RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE

BY LORD BROUGHTON

(JOHN CAM HOBHOUSE)

WITH ADDITIONAL EXTRACTS FROM HIS PRIVATE DIARIES

I I) I TED BY HIS DAUGHTER

LADY DORCHESTER

WITH PORTRAITS. IN SIX VOLUMES VOL. V. 1834 — 1840

LONDON JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.

191 1

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

Dinner with Charles Grant — Edward J. Littleton — The O'Connell Exploit — Spring Rice — Story of Pitt and the Mutiny at the Nore — Departure for Scotland — First Railway Journey — Arrival in Glasgow — Monteith's Manufactory — Lord Harrowby and Brougham — Cum- bernauld— Taymouth Castle — The Due de Richelieu — Brougham's Inscription for Watts Statue — Moness Falls — Deer-stalking on the Black Mount — Lord Ossulstone — Lord Breadalbane and his Heir — Craigie Hall — Dalmeny — Lord Grey's Entry into Edinburgh — Dinner to Lord Grey — The Speeches — Visit to Holyrood — Oxenford — Telford's Road and Viaduct — " The Bride of Lammermuir" — Yester House — Lord Elcho and his Foxhounds, Whittingehame — Biel — Sir G. Warrender — Lord Gillies — Chief Justice Doherty — Stories of Canning, and of O'Connell — Manderston — Thirlstane — Lord Lauderdale — Stories of Lord Lansdowne, and of Brougham, and of C. J. Fox . . pp. 1-20

CHAPTER II

Return to London — Burning of Parliament Houses — Dinner at Holland House — Lord Melbourne's Opinion of Whigs and Tories — King William — His Desire to get rid of Buckingham Palace — Death of Lord Spencer — Lord Holland's Anecdotes of G. Selwyn — The Govern- ment Dissolved — Our Last Cabinet Meeting — Lord Melbourne's High Qualities — Lord Althorp's Opinion — Articles in the Tory Press — Answer to the Quarterly Review — Sir F. Burdett's Intentions — Lord Melbourne speaks out — Peel Prime Minister — William Linley — Anecdote of Sheridan — I am elected for Nottingham — Visit to New- stead — Colonel Wildman — Visits to Brocket and Woburn — Landseer — End of the Elections — Marquess Wellesley — His Opinion of the Duke <>f Wellington — Lady Holland and Lord Granville — Opening of Parlia- ment— Abercromby Speaker — Dinner at Duchess of Kent's — Peel's Failure — Death of Lady Julia Hobhouse — Peel's Resignation — Mel- bourne Prime Minister — I am appointed to the Board of Control — Court at St. James's — Marquess Wellesley's Indignation — Lord Durham — Position of the Government — Mr. Coke of Norfolk — His Reminiscences — C. J. Fox — Dinner at Lambeth Palace — Lord Palmerston's Audience of the King — Lord J. Russell's Corporation Bill — Spanish Affaire —

Vi CONTENTS

Dorsetshire Labourers — Russell's Conversation with the King about the Militia — About Foreign Politics — Russia, etc. — Attack on my Department — Lord Heytesbury's Appointment — The King's Strange Speech before Sir C. Grey — The King's Indiscreet Sayings — Lord Radnor and the Thirty-nine Articles — Canadian Affairs — The King at Caen Wood — Col. Conyer's Speech — Lord Auckland goes to India — Lords' Debate on Corporation Bill — Melbourne's Anger — Mrs. Somer- ville — "A Clap-trap Administration" — Remarkable Scene at a Council — The King's Strange Speech on the Militia — Prorogation of Parliament — Corsham — Visit to Bowood — Dinner at the Pavilion at Brighton — Pricking the Sheriffs — Opening of Parliament — The King's Tirade against Scotsmen and Lord Glenelg — Debate on the Spanish War — Irish Affairs and a Lev6e — The King and Lord Minto — Con- versation with Joseph Hume — Royal Academy Dinner — Lord Stanley and his " Hotspur Speech " — Factory Children — A Narrow Majority — Lord Melbourne and Mrs. Norton — The Queen's Ball — An Eclipse — Visit to Whitton — Dinner at Whitbread's — Lord Grey's Temper — Lord Holland on Roman Catholic Confession — Review in Hyde Park — Debate on Newspaper Stamps — Lord Melbourne's Acquittal — Mr. Grote's Speech on the Ballot — Irish Corporation Bill — Conference between Lords and Commons — Proposed Marriage between Princess Victoria and Prince of Orange — Dinner at Holland House — Discussion about Edmund Burke — Lord Melbourne's Misgivings — Steam Com- munication with India — Prorogation of Parliament — The King refuses me Permission to go Abroad — Visit to Brighton and Chichester — Sir Charles Hulse — Sir Joseph Copley's Fortune — Trafalgar House — Bath — Chepstow — Tintern Abbey — Ross — Tour in Wales — The Menai Bridge — At Kinmel Park — Dr. Buckland — Return to Putney — Audience with the King — H.M.'s Opinion of George III. — Death of Augustus Lamb — Brighton — A Hurricane — Dinner at the Pavilion — Parliament opened by Commission — My Speech gives rise to Ru- mours of Dissolution — Lady Holland's Annoyance — Anecdotes of Nollekins — I meet Sir R. Peel — Friendship of Political Opponents — Dinner at the Duchess of Kent's — The Rajah Ram Roy — Rumours of Impending Crisis — Irish Tithe Bill — Lord Melbourne's Answer to Sir R. Peel — Difficulties of the Government — Royal Academy Dinner — Sir F. Burdett elected for Westminster — An Opponent of the Government — Sunday Travelling in Scotland — Church-rate Resolution — Sir F. Burdett's Philippic — Feuds in the Brunswick Family . pp. 21-72

CHAPTER III

Precarious State of the King's Health — Council at Windsor — The Canada Bill — Rumour of the King's Death — Irish Tithe Bill — Roe- buck's Speech — Death of William IV. — Summons to Kensington Palace — Announcement of the News to Queen Victoria — H.M.'s First Audience —Reading the Declaration — Swearing in the Privy Council — Meeting in Downing Street — No Change in the Cabinet — The Proclamation

CONTENTS Vii

— Council at St. James's Palace — In the House of Commons — Addresses of the Two Houses — The Recorder's Report — Dinner at Mr. Stanley's — The King's Funeral — Description of the Ceremony — Duke of Sussex's Comments — Queen Victoria on the Throne — Buckingham Palace — The Queen transacts Indian Business — Sir Alexander Burne's Books — The Queen's Charm of Manner — University Addressee — Chapter of the Garter — Lady Becher and Lady Morgan — Council at Buckingham Palace — The Queen prorogues Parliament — Dissolution — The Queen's First Levee — Dinner at Buckingham Palace — Result of General Election — Conversation with Lord Palmerston — Praise of Lord Melbourne — Dinner at Buckingham Palace. Behaviour of the Duke of Sussex — Concert — Erie Stoke — Macaulay's Essay on Bacon — Uu.Uur Castle — Lord Melbourne and his Sovereign — The King and (^iirrn of the Belgians — Mme Lehzen — I am invited to Breakfast — A Morning Ride— Virginia Water— Dinner at the Castle— The Queen's First Lesson in Chess — I go to Erie Stoke — William IV. and the Duke of Bedford's Bust — The Duchess of Kent and Sir J. Conroy — Visit to Bowood — Return to London — Baroness Lehzen and the Queen — The Dm-lii'ss of Cornwall and Lancaster — Dinner at the Guildhall — Political T. intrudes — Affairs of Lower Canada — Lord Gosford and Papineau — Lord Gosford's Successor — Provision for the Duchess of Kent — Dinner with the Queen — Cabinet Council — The Duchess of Kent's Affairs — The Queen opens Parliament — Enthusiastic Reception — Liberty of th. Press in Malta — The Irish Poor-law — Dinner at Buckingham Palace— Royal Arithmetic 73-110

CHAPTER IV

Dinner with Mr. Stanley — And at Raleigh Club — Prince Lucien urtt — Mr. O'Brien and Sir F. Burdett — The Spottiswoode Fund

Hmjamin Disraeli's Maiden Speech — Dinner with Duke of Sussex — Hi.s Income — Dinner at Lord Melbourne's — Duchess of Kent's In- come— Palmerston and Attwood — Council at the Palace — The Bishop of Bombay — Canadian Affairs — Visit to Erie Stoke — Recalled to London — Dispute between Brougham and Melbourne — Brougham's Intemperate Speech — Dinner at Palace — Sir F. Head's Action in Canada— His Despatch — Swearing-in of Lord-Lieutenants — Sir W. W. \\ \. in— Lord Mount-Edgcumbe — Lord Lonsdale — Dinner with Ellice — Lord Durham's Grievances — Brougham's Violent Attack on Canada Bill— The Frozen Serpentine — Parliamentary Electors Bill — Travers Li'i-ture at College of Surgeons — Peel on the Ballot — Baron de Bode — Diiin. r at Buckingham Palace — Position of the Ministry, and County Courts Bill — Pozzo di Borgo — The Wearing of Orders — Debate on Canada— Dinner-parties — Anti-Slavery Meetings — Dinner with the Duke of Sussex — The Duchess of Inverness — Dinner with Lord Durham

Mr. Pease on Abolition of Negro Apprenticeship — Royal Asiatic Society — Preparation for Coronation — Coronation postponed — Pozzo di Borgo and the Battle of Waterloo— Brougham in Paris— Ball at

Vili CONTENTS

Buckingham Palace — Sir E. Wilmot and Emancipation of Negroes — Torn Moore and Sydney Smith — A Question of Precedence — Peel's Jokes — Debate on Negro Emancipation — Brougham compared to

gatan The Portuguese and the Slave Trade — Wellington's Opinion

of the British Soldier — Dinner with Wilmot Horton — Anecdotes of the French Revolution, etc. — Increase of Public Expenditure — Macaulay's

Talk Waterloo Ball at the Palace — The Wellington Memorial —

Resignation of Sir H. Fane, Commander-in-Chief in India — Suggested Successors — Recollections of Lord Sidmouth and Pitt — Brougham and his Anecdotes — Preparations for Coronation — The Coronation — Marshal Soult — Coronation Coin — O'Connell hissed — The Fireworks — General Ventura — Party of Lord Lansdowne — Success of Coronation — Dinner with Marshal Soult — Lord Durham in Canada — Indian Labourers Bill — Conversation with Palmella — State of Spain and Portugal — Review in Hyde Park — Brougham attacks the Duke — Banquet at Mansion House — Brougham's Behaviour — Confusion in Toasts.

pp. 111-156

CHAPTER V

Dinner with Palmella — Lord Stuart de Rothesay — Dinner at the Palace — The Marquis of Dalmatia — Politics in France — The Duke of Wellington and his Statue — Affairs in Persian Gulf — Maynooth — O'Connell's Parody — Municipal Corporations Bill — Fish-dinner at Blackwall — Sir John Campbell's Injudicious Speech — Opinions of Lord Durham — Close of the Session — Dinner at Windsor — Service in St. George's Chapel — The Queen's Riding-horses — Resignation of Lord Durham — A Hurricane — Death of Lady John Russell — Dinner at Lord Holland's — Lord Melbourne's Opinion of Public Schools — Mme Sebastiani — Alava — Count Mol6 — Letter from Lord Durham — His Misgivings — Cabinet Meeting — Criticism of Lord Durham — Dinner at Beefsteak Club — Stephenson and Brougham — Lord G. Russell's Education Scheme — Question of Increasing the Navy — Threatening Aspect of Belgian Affairs — Crisis in Jamaica — Rebellion in Canada — Marquess Wellesley's Opinion — Dinner at Buckingham Palace — Van Amburgh and his Lions — Son of President Van Buren — Lady Bread- albane— Lord Durham and Mr. Turton — Sir John Conroy and the Czar Nicholas — Anecdote of the Queen and Van Araburgh's Show — Opening of Parliament — Lord J. Russell on Reform — Lord Glenelg resigns — R. Monckton Milnes — Lord J. Russell on National Education — Speaker's Dinner — Count Ludolf — Russian Designs on India — Lord Holland's Stories of Canning and Fox, and of Lord Egremont — Chantrey and Waghorn — Lady Keith — Brougham at Home — Marshal Clausel — His Reminiscences — Political Disquiet — Cabinet on Canada Bill — Lord Normanby to succeed Lord Durham — Mr. Peacock — Wedding of Lord Douro — Arab Horses for the Queen — Lord Dur- ham's Return — Ellice criticises the Cabinet — The Queen at the Royal Academy — Government resolves to resign — Colonel Sibthorp —

CONTENTS IX

Dinner at the Foreign Office — The Czarevitch — Peel and the Royal Household — Melbourne recalled — "The Bedchamber Question "- The Queen's Reply to Peel— Peel's Resignation— State Ball— Lord Stanley's Ill-humour — The Queen's Domestic Companions — Cabinet Council— The Queen and Peel — Anecdote of Sir R. Peel and his Father — The Russian Grand-duke in the House of Commons — Peel's State- ment about his Resignation — Sidney Smith — The Duke of Wellington's Statement — Dinner at the Trinity House — Enthusiastic Reception of the Duke pp. 157-200

CHAPTER VI

Macaulay — The Cries of Watchmen — Ellice and Canada — Stanley's Furious Speech against Education Scheme — Lord Ashley — Conversa- tion with the Duke — His Definition of Booty — Lord Douro — Historical Contents of the House — Palmerston's Opinion of Huskisson — His Indecision — Percival and " Orator Milnes " — Jack Fuller's Joke — Conservative Addresses at a Levee— Thomas Drummond — Brougham and Sir W. Somerville — Dinner at the Palace — Character of Queen Victoria — The Quarterly Review Article on " The Household and the Ministry " — Lord Tweeddale and the Indian Command — Interview with the Duke of Wellington about the Command-in-Chief in India — Sir John Keane — Sir John Colborne — Sir H. Hardingo — Lord Fitzroy Somerset— Referred to Lord Hill— Interview with Lord Hill— The Budget and the Factory Bill — Riots at Birmingham — The Indian Command again — Lord Tweeddale not Appointed — Education Scheme — An Address to the Queen — The Duke of Wellington on the Bir- mingham Riots — Melbourne and Macaulay on the Nonconformists — Henry Drummond, the Irvingite — Dr. Johnson and Ghosts — Visit to Bunhill Fields — The Chartists — Portuguese Slave-trading Bill thrown out by the Lords — Brougham's Eccentricities — The Duke's Opinion of Lord J. Russell — State of the Bank of England — Melbourne on the Church of England — Chartist Meetings — Mr. Hampton's Parachute—- Ministerial Fish-dinner — Sir J. Campbell's Speech — Prorogation of Parliament — Public Reception of the Queen — Capture of Kabul — Dinner at St. James's Palace — Brougham's Adulation of the Duke — Cabinet Changes — Lord Macaulay sworn in as Privy Councillor — The China Question — The State Apartments at Windsor — Erie Stoke — Report of Brougham's Death — Turns out to be False — Capture of Guznee — Shah Soojah enters Kabul — Annoyance with Lord Melbourne — Dinner at Holland House — Brougham's Hoax — Ministers hissed in the City — School for Scandal at Covent Garden — Proposed Marriage of the Queen — Settlement for Prince Albert — Private Audience of the Queen — Illness of the Duke — Reform of Equity Courts — Baroness Lehzen on Prince Albert — The Queen's Declaration — The Duke of Cambridge and Brougham — Negotiations with America in 1782 — Visit to Bowood — Lord Lansdowne as a Host — His Anecdotes of Bowles — Conviction of Frost — Public Announcement of the Queen's Engagement

VOL. V b

X CONTENTS

— Macaulay's Account of Clive— The Queen opens Parliament— The Trial of Frost, Williams, and Jones— The Southwark Election— The Queen's Opinion of Peel— Arrival of Prince Albert— The Queen's Mar- riage—The Duke has a Stroke— Proposed Commercial Treaty with France — Sir H. Mildmay — At Court — Addresses of Congratulation — Parliament — Peel attacks Palmerston — Conversations with Prince Albert and with the Queen — Debate on Capital Punishment — Dinner to Mr. Byng at Drury Lane — Dinner to General Whittingham — Mrs. Austen — Guizot and O'Connell — Dinner at Palmerston's — Sir James Graham's Speech on Affairs in China — Gladstone's Frantic Speech on Opium Smuggling — Palmerston's Successful Speech — Sir G. Staunton offended by my Remarks — The Opera La Tarantella — Conversations with Prince Albert and with Lord Melbourne — Lord Auckland's intended Resignation pp. 201-260

CHAPTER VII

Ragotski — Ripperda — Machiavelli's Mandragola — Cabinet Meeting — The Opium Question — Children as Chimney-sweeps — The State of the Finances — Death of Lord William Russell — Proposal for Removal of Napoleon's Remains from St. Helena — The China Question — The Duke's Speech — Capital Punishment — Palmerston's Letter about Removal of Napoleon's Remains — Anti-Slavery Meeting at Exeter Hall — "Little Wonder" wins the Derby — Ardaseer, the Parsee Shipbuilder — Baroness Lehzen on the Queen's Education and Literary Tastes — And her Character — The Queen attacked by Oxford — Question of Proceedings — Examination of Oxford — His Committal — Addresses in Parliament — Sir Hussey Vivian and the Bullet-marks — The Scottish Church Question — Registration Bill — Canada Union Bill — Courvoisier hanged — Lord Palmerston and the Egyptian Question — Trial of Oxford — Poor-law Continuance Bill — Political Offences — Acquittal of Oxford — Dinner to Lord Keane — Lord Abinger's Anecdotes — George III. and Dundas — Lord Keane's Speech — Sir H. Pottinger — Regency Bill — Political Spies — Lady Clanricarde on Russian Society — Ecclesiastical Titles Bill — Dinner at M. Guizot's — Duke and Duchess of Nemours — Conversation with Guizot about the Convention — Gladstone's Speech on the China Vote — Lord G. Bentinck — William IV. and Queen Victoria — Conversation with Brunnow — Louis Napoleon's Expedition to France — Ministerial Fish-dinner — Macau ay in the Chair — English and Foreign Fleets — Lord Lovelace — Prorogation of Parliament — Lord Durham's Death — His Character — Dr. Bowring — Stories of Lady Hester Stanhope— And of Colonel Perronet-Thompson— Mahomet Ali — J. P. Wilde (Solicitor-General) and Courvoisier — The Defence of Criminals — O'Brien and Basil Montagu — Captain Abbott, our Envoy from Khiva — Stories of Afghans — A Forged Passport — Stories of Mr. Peacock — Birth of Princess Royal — Capture of Acre — Disclosure of Cabinet Secrets — Lady Holland's Sorrows — Letters from Captain Mitchell and Captain Stapleton pp. 261-300

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

LADY DORCHESTER Frontispiece

From a portrait by R. Buckner, R.A.

FACING PAGE

ERLE STOKE PARK 96

From a water-colour by Lord Henry Percy, V.C., 1860.

MARCHIONESS OF TWEEDDALE (nee LADY SUSAN MONTAGU) 184

From a miniature by Madame Renaud in 1827.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A LONG LIFE

CHAPTER I

FROM BOOK, "RECOLLECTIONS."

August 15. — I dined with Charles Grant,1 1834. President of the Board of Control, at a sort of farewell dinner given to his brother Robert, on going to Bombay. I sat between Spring Rice and Littleton, by both of whom I was much entertained. Littleton told me that Graham's famous motion for returns of Privy Councillors holding office was suggested by Lord Wellesley, who, in the first instance, proposed that the motion should be confined to places held by Cabinet

1 Charles (1778-1866) and .Robert (1779-1838) Grant were the sons of Charles Grant, who after a distinguished career in the Service of the E.I.C. became chairman of the Court of Directors and took a prominent place in politics. His son Charles, after taking high honours at Cambridge, entered Parliament in 1811, and became successively Irisn Secretary, President of the Board of Trade, President of the Board of Control, and Colonial Secretary. In 1836 he was created Lord Glenelg. Robert also distinguished himself at Cambridge, and entered Parliament in 1818 ; he was Judge- Advocate- General and subsequently Governor of Bombay (1834-8). He was knighted in 1834.

VOL. V 1

2 LONDON CHAP. I.

1834. Ministers. The question was, who should move it. Hume was mentioned, and Littleton spoke to him about it. It was thought better to in- elude all Privy Councillors holding office in the motion, and Hume went upstairs to write out the words of the motion. In the meantime comes in Sir James Graham, and Littleton and Huskisson thought he would be a better man than Hume to make the motion. They gave him the hint, and he gave notice immediately.

Nothing contributed to give a tone to the country at the ensuing elections more than that motion, and Graham's speech.

Littleton is a cleverer man than I thought him to be.1 He talked to me with indifference of his O'Connell exploit, and said too much was made of it. He does not apprehend mischief in Ireland.

My other neighbour, Spring Rice, told me of William Pitt's alarm at the mutiny at the Nore. When he heard of it he exclaimed, " Venit summa dies," etc. The man to whom he said it told Eice the anecdote.

1 Edward John Littleton (1791-1863) was appointed Irish Secretary in 1833. In this capacity he sent for O'Connell and informed him in strict confidence that, in the Irish Bill about to be introduced, the powers to prevent public meetings would not be renewed. After he had given this assurance the Cabinet determined to renew their clauses. When this became known in the House of Commons, O'Connell attacked Littleton furiously for breach of faith, and Littleton retorted on O'Connell his breach of confidence. In the end Littleton resigned his office. He was created Lord Hatherton in 1835.

CHAP. I. FIRST RAILWAY JOURNEY 3

FROM DIARY. 1834.

August 18. — My little girls, Julia and Chattie, dined with us. Pretty things, so young! almost babies 1

August 20.— Left Easildon for Scotland, with my wife and her eldest little girl, Julia. We slept at Leicester, and then went by Matlock to Burton and Edgemoor. We stayed a day with my brother-in-law, Trevor Spencer, and then went by Derby to Manchester. Thence, in an hour and a half, we went by rail to Liver- pool. It was my first experience of a railroad, and it would be in vain to attempt to describe my sensations. The effect was overpowering. My little child, as we sat quietly in our carriage, was not the least alarmed, nor seemed sensible of the prodigious speed of our movement. Indeed, it \\as only when a train met us, and we passed each other at the rate of 40 miles an hour, that I was aware of our wonderful velocity. On the whole, I think I was more affected by this display of human power than by any other work of art, the Simplon Road or Menai Bridge not excepted. There was something awful, bordering on the terrific, in our moving through the last tunnel, but all portions of the work seemed performed with such perfect accuracy as to dimmish much the sense of danger.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

We had an opportunity of comparing the slow

4 GLASGOW CHAP. I.

1834. progress of the old mode of travelling with rail- road speed; for we could not get farther from Kendal than Lockerby, 75 miles, and no more. Nor did we travel faster, the next day, over the wild Dumfriesshire hills and glens, by Douglas Mill and Hamilton to Glasgow. I found that great town much more increased in size, since 1823, than Liverpool. It seemed the superb capital of West Scotland. Mr. Ewing, M.P. for it, sent his card and a note to say he would wait on us next morning, with Dr. Cleland, the historian and cicerone of Glasgow. They were good enough to accompany us the next day to some of the wonders of the place, and Dr. Cleland presented me with a handsomely bound folio, containing his account of Glasgow.

FROM DIARY.

August 27. — I saw Mr. Monteith's Manufactory for printing cottons, etc. Since the great strike of the operatives, females have been employed, and they appeared to me to be fully capable of the work. They were guarded for some time by soldiers. The young women had a healthy, happy look, decently dressed, but without shoes and stockings. They will work in a temperature of 15° in winter and walk into the snow with impunity. They had flannels given to them, but preferred their own light dress. The discharging process is most beautiful. We saw a contrast of French and Scottish patterns. The former more

CHAP. I. TOUR IN SCOTLAND 5

minuto and pretty, the latter more bold and 1834. striking. One for retail, the other wholesale.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

We went to the fine Exchange Rooms, where we met Lord Harrowby. He asked me whether the Lord Chancellor was going to Dunrobin ; for, if he was, he (Lord II.) should alter his plans, as he preferred accommodation for himself and family, to the company even of a Lord Chancellor. A great crowd accompanied us to our carriage, and there was no hissing, or other symptom of dissatisfaction, to which I had been so long accus- tomed in England that I was not a little surprised to find a member of the Government so well received ; and the magistrates of the city paid me a complimentary visit, as they called it; at any rate they were very civil. After dining with Mr. Ewing, we went to Cumbernauld, the seat of Admiral Fleming.

From Cumbernauld we went by Stirling and Crieff to Taymouth Castle — a happy meeting it was for us in those days — and I liked the noble residence far more than I had done eleven years before. Lord Chancellor Brougham arrived the next day, and was received with salutes of cannon from the fort on the hill, and pipers on the lawn. He was in high force and very amusing. We had a large party : Lord Tankerville and his son, Lord and Lady Fitzharris, Lord Camperdown and Lord Duncan, Sir George Warrender, and the young

6 TAYMOTJTH CASTLE CHAP. I.

1834. Due de Richelieu,1 a French Conservative, a rare character at that time. He was no admirer of any revolutionary personage, and he had a long argu- ment with Lord Brougham on the conversational powers of Talleyrand, which he rated lower than they are usually allowed to be. Brougham ranked him in the very first class of talkers. The con- troversy was kept up with great spirit on both sides.

The Due de Richelieu's sagacity may not have been much at fault when, in a long talk with me, he insisted that the Due d'Orleans, the son of Louis Philippe, would never be on the throne of France. Who would be, he could not guess. Brougham and I had very little private talk, except about the Times. He seemed resolved on war to the knife with Barnes, the editor, and said that Goldsmid had offered £30,000 to set up a rival newspaper. Lord Brougham had a habit of sighing deeply, apparently without knowing it, which every one remarked. He was accompanied by his wife's daughter, Miss Spalding, who seemed half worn out by hard travelling.

Brougham left the Castle on the 1st of Septem- ber ; before going away, he gave me an inscription which he had made for the statue of Watt. He

1 The Due de Richelieu (1766-1821), a collateral descendant of the Cardinal, was a devoted adherent of the Bourbons, and during the Napoleonic regime he entered the service of Russia. He returned with Louis XVIII., who on his death in 1821, in recognition of his distinguished services to France, revived his title in favour of his nephew Armand Francois Odet-Chapelle de Jumilhac, Due de Richelieu (born 1804), who is mentioned above.

CHAP. I. DEER-STALKIXG 7

told me that he had been two years employed upon 1834. it, and did not like it at last.1

After the Lord Chancellor had left us, I joined a party to go to Aberfeldy and see the Moness Falls, a beautiful mountain cataract; and I as- sisted in carrying Lady Fitzharris (Tankerville) to the waterfall — a pleasing burthen.

On September 3 Lord Breadalbane, Lord Ossul- ston, and -my self set out early for the Deer-forest, a distance of forty-five miles, through the wildest Highland scenery. The lodge was on the bank of Loch Tulla, a mere hut in those days, and it \\as not easy to imagine anything more desolate in id lonely than the shooting quarters of this great chieftain. Except in the cottage itself, there was no sign of life; but we were comfortably boarded and lodged, and the morning after our arrival we took to the hills. I had seen a good deal of mountain life in Switzerland, but that did not prepare me . for deer-stalking, and I confess I did not much like sitting in a swamp, under a cold rock, when bathed in perspiration from toil- ing up the mountain-side. We saw some harts at a distance, and slid down a water-course to get nearer to them. At last we stopped ; and as they would not approach nearer to us, we both rose and fired at a hart who was the nearest to us. The herd threw up their heads, stared for a moment at us, and then bounded away ; a

1 The statue, by Chantrey, is in Wandsworth Church, and the long inscription will bo found in Siuiles's " Life of Watt"

8 AT TAYMOUTH CASTLE CHAP. I.

1834. hart appeared to be hit, and shortly afterwards a hunter cried out, " There he lies dead ! " And down all the foresters ran, skipping from rock to rock at a pace which frightened me. I came down, and found the hart quite dead. Lord Breadalbane good-humoured ly gave the shot to me, and I did not dispute his award, and walked down the mountain to Loch Tulla, not a little pleased with the doubtful exploit.

On this occasion I made two other attempts at deer-stalking, but without success ; but I landed a salmon on a fishing excursion with Lord Ossul- ston, and then, returning to the cottage, break- fasted and went to the hills, where I fired at a hart, and was told that I had shot him; but as Lord Ossulston had fired at the same time, I had little doubt to whom the glory, such as it was, belonged. The party left the Black Mount and returned to Taymouth Castle, where I found my official bags and many letters, which kept me employed for a day or two.

FROM DIARY.

September 7. — I had many long conversations with Lord Ossulston on politics. He is a very agreeable, intelligent young man, twenty-four years of age, a sort of Liberal-Conservative. An accomplished sportsman, sings very prettily, M.P. for Northumberland.1 When at Paris his De

1 His father, the 5th Earl of Tankerville, was married to Armande Sophie Leonie Coriaaudra, Duchesse de Gramont.

CHAP. I. LORD BREADALBAM- 9

Gramont's relations would not permit him to go 1834. to Louis Philippe's Court, which lie lamented.

September 12. — I went out shooting on the moors with young Mr. Baillie, Lady Brcadal- hane's brother,1 and after dinner saw the charming lady herself, perhaps for the last time. She is a most interesting creature, and bears her mis- fortunes— want of health and the want of an heir to her husband's vast possessions — like an angel.

Hiding to Moness Falls, Lord J3readalhane pointed out to me a small laird's house, and said, " There lives my heir and successor." He is, however, much annoyed at the will left by his father, depriving him of every shilling of which the late lord could dispose. He told me he had not the least reason to suppose his father intended such a deed. He believed the old gentleman was in- duced to it by the love of accumulation of what •0,000 untouched for twenty years would amount to, as he found a calculation of what £300,000 would be, with notes of admiration ailixed to it, all in his father's handwriting. His rent-roll is £30,000 a year, and after twenty years he will have the income of the accumu- lated sum, but in the meantime he has no ready money for improvements. He is a shy but a determined man.

1 John, 2nd Marquess and 5th Earl of Breadalbane, had succeeded his father this year. He married Eliza, daughter of George Baillie, of Jerviswood, and died in 1862, when the marquessate became extinct and the earldom passed to his cousin, John Alexander Gavin Campbell, of Gleufalloch, Perthshire.

VOL. V 2

10 DALMENT CHAP. I.

1834. Before leaving Taymouth I took a good deal of pains to persuade Lord Breadalbane to attend the dinner to be given at Edinburgh to Lord Grey. He said that he thought he had done his duty in promoting reform of Parliament, and might fairly retire. "What!" said I, "at thirty-eight years of age ? " Lady Breadalbane agreed with me, and he made up his mind to go to Edinburgh the next day.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

On September 13 I left Taymouth Castle. The piper, who had taken a fancy to my pretty little girl, played a farewell as she was lifted into our carriage. We changed horses at Amulree, Crieff, Stirling, Falkirk, and Linlithgow, and arrived at Craigie Hall, the seat of Mr. Hope Vere, in good time the same afternoon.

The next day I walked over to Dalmeny Park, the seat of Lord Rosebery, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, and the day after that I beheld the triumphal entry — for it was a triumph— of Lord Grey into Edinburgh. On the whole, it was the finest sight I ever witnessed. Lord Durham and the Due de Richelieu, both of them somewhat fastidious judges, confessed it was mag- nificent. Lord Grey, with his star and ribbon and his bald head, stood manfully erect in the midst of countless multitudes, moving slowly over the North Bridge, preceded and followed by the city trades with their Reform banners. The whole

CHAP. I. DINNER TO LORD GREY 11

ceremony was well described in the journals of 1834. the day. What struck me most was the good order and the peaceable demeanour of the people. Lady Grey and Lady Durham, and Ladies Georgina Grey and Mary Wood, and two brothers, saw their father's triumph. I watched them and witnessed their delight. To him it was worth a life of toil.

I went in the afternoon to the dinner given to Lord Grey, in a pavilion which had been erected, in ten days, for the occasion. It was a superb structure. Fifteen hundred and sixty sat down to a cold dinner, and after dinner others came; so that, with the ladies in the gallery, the number present amounted to two thousand six hundred. The utmost order prevailed, and when Lady Grey came into the gallery the company all rose and received her with cheers. I saw the tears come into Lord Grey's eyes. I was sitting within four of him, and watched him. The Duke of Hamilton was to have presided; but he was labouring under a complaint in his eyes, and Lord Kosebery took the chair for him, and filled it well. Lord Grey was on his right hand, Lord Chancellor Brougham on his left ; Ellice, Aber- cromhy, and Cutlar Ferguson. When Lord Grey's health was given, the cheers were overpowering. He made an admirable speech. "Lord Brougham and H.M.'s Ministers " was the next toast. It was very well received, and there was much cheering, and cries of " No Times." Brougham made a bad speech; talked of his hands being clean, and was

12 EDINBURGH CHAP. I.

1834. waggish about the " nothings " accomplished by the Reformed Parliament. He uttered two or three civilities about Lord Grey, which were neither very cordial nor cordially received by the object of them. He sat down amidst thunders of applause and waving of handkerchiefs.

Lord Durham's health was given, and very well received indeed. He made a patriotic speech, and lectured the Government about unref ormed abuses, which told well ; but I, knowing something more of the facts than he chose to tell, could scarcely refrain from smiling. Abercromby, Sir John Campbell, and Lord-Advocate Murray, made tiresome speeches. The health of friend Ellice was proposed, and well received. I saw that my name was down for a toast, and spoke to Lord E/osebery, requesting that no notice might be taken of me ; but Brougham wrote a note, telling me the guests were resolved to hear me, and Sir James Gibson Craig said the people of Edinburgh had a claim upon me. I thought I had escaped, but Bannerman, M.P., proposed my health, which was as well received as any ; and the speech I made in reply was thought so much to the purpose that there was great shouting and cheering, and partial Lord Breadalbane told me it was the best speech of the evening. Sir John Dairy mple, M.P. for Edinburgh, wrote me a note, saying that my speech would have secured my election for the city. Alluding to Lord Durham's advice to Ministers, I assured him that " I took

CHAP. I. HOLYROOD HOUSE 13

it in good part." Those present understood me 1834. well enough, but the London journals took occasion to say that I agreed with Lord Durham as to the necessity for further reforms, which I, most certainly, did not; although Lord Durham himself was not at all displeased, and told me I had made a capital speech. I mention these things because Edinburgh had some claims upon me, and I was pi i vised at thinking that I had not disappointed the expectations of my Scottish friends.

FROM DIARY.

September 17. — Went with Mr. R. Mackenzie, and Mr. Burn, Crown Architect to Holyrood J louse, to look at best mode of improving that r«»yal palace, and to restore it and the park to the Crown in spite of the Duke of Hamilton, and Lord Iladdington, who have shamefully encroached on both. The desecration of the Royal Chapel is truly disgraceful. I resolved to do what I could, but possibly I shall find the noble lords too hard for me.

September 18.— We left Edinburgh and went to Oxenford Castle, the seat of Sir John Dairy mple : a beautiful place with a most attractive host and hostess.

September 19. — I walked with Sir F. Dick Lander, to see the new road and archway over the valley, a truly Roman work, by Telford, com- pleted in 1831. During this visit Sir John Dalrymple showed us a letter, written by a rela-

14 TESTER HOUSE CHAP. I.

1834. tion of his, on Scott's " Bride of Lammermuir." The story is true of a young lady of the Stair family. She was called the Bride of Baldoon. The bridegroom was wounded, not by his wife, but by a rival suitor — a Lord Rutherford. The scene of the story was in the West country, and not in the East. The writer of the letter was indignant at the liberty taken with facts by the great novelist, and thought the honour of the Dalrymple family compromised by the romance. I thought that the said family had very little right to complain, for, if Lucy was crazy, it signified little whether she, or some one else, stabbed Baldoon.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS. "

From Oxenford we went to Tester, and stayed there until September 25. Whilst on this visit I enjoyed myself much. I wandered about, with my wife as a guide, to the scenes of her childhood, where she pointed out to me the trees she had planted, and took me to the ruined chapel close to the mansion, the burial-place of her family. She showed me the grave of the last Hay buried there; a shudder came over me, and I hurried her away. Lord Tweeddale mounted me on a pony, and rode with me to the top of Lammer Law. At one of the woods in this wild country I met a Melton acquaintance, Lord Elcho, and had a gallop with his foxhounds. I have not the heart to record more of this visit — times are so changed, and we are so changed with them.

CHAP. I. WHITTINGEHAME — BIEL 15

From Tester we went to Whittingehame, the seat 1834. of Mr. Balfour, M.P. for the county ; and here I saw what wealth can do. All was his own crea- tion— house, gardens, and park-like grounds — which, I was told, were a turnip-field twenty \ears ago. I walked ahout his beautiful gardens, and down the valley of the Whittingehame Water, a lovely dell, the pride of the place. Mr. Balfour lent me a horse, and I had another gallop with Lord Elcho. The sport was very poor, hut the country very heautif ul ; deep woody ravines and wild moors, with noble prospects of land and sea. These exercises did not prevent me from attend- ing to the business of my office, and on most days I despatched oil ice- boxes and wrote many letters. At that time the members of the Cabinet had circulars sent to them containing extracts from Foreign Office and Irish despatches— a very con- venient holiday practice, which has since been discontinued. My circulars then contained no ne\\s ol importance, except the expected death of Don Pedro and the succession of Donna Maria.

From Whittingehame we went a short distance to Biel, the residence of Mrs. Hamilton Nesbit Ferguson. I was much struck with this place — its handsome mansion, and Italian terraces, over- spread with the plants of an Italian sun. I had seen nothing like it in Great Britain. It was one of the estates of the great Nesbit property, and belonged formerly to the Belhaven family. There is a good portrait of the famous Lord Belhaven

16 BIEL HOUSE CHAP. I.

1834 here. Old Mr. Nesbit, father of Mrs. Ferguson, found a stone here with this inscription upon it :

" 1707, THE YEAR IN WHICH SCOTLAND WAS BE- TRAYED AND RUINED." Sir George Warrender proposed, as a comment on this text, " The Nesbit rent-roll now £33,000 per annum, five times greater than it was in 1707." Warrender men- tioned this to me himself, at Lochend, to which he removed on September 30, and enjoyed a most agreeable visit of three days, in company with Lord Gillies 1 and Lord Chief Justice Doherty,2 two of the most agreeable men of their time, I should say. Doherty looked as young as ever, and, after the ladies were gone, he and the Lord of Session kept us in a roar of laughter, with very little pause.

Warrender was very kind and hospitable, and had a great deal to say, particularly about the men with whom he had lived, Canning being the chief ; but he verged on the absurd and talked too much of himself, and how he was employed and treated by Canning. He said he was sent by Canning to Copley to complain of his Phillpott's

1 Adam Lord Gillies was a Scottish Judge of Session (6. 1760 — d. 1842).

1 John Doherty (1783-1850) was made Lord Chief Justice of Ireland 1830. In 1825 O'Connell describes him in a letter to his wife as " that long blockhead Dogherty," but Curran, in his sketches, writes of him as " six feet two inches, and every inch a very estim- able person." In 1829, while he was still a Member of Parliament, his action in the case of the Doneraile Conspirators caused an open breach between him and O'Connell. O'Connell attacked him in the House of Commons, and Doherty replied in a masterpiece of polite venom

CHAP. I. MANDERSTON 17

speech, and added that it was at that very time 1834. arranged that Copley should be Lord Chancellor if Canning became Premier. Can this be so ?

I had afterwards a good deal of talk with Lord Gillies on Scottish politics, and found that he did not at all agree with Moncrieff and the Church party. Dohcrty spoke to me of O'Connell with more of awful respect than I ever heard from any other man ; and he mentioned that he once over- heard two old women, who had been in court during one of his great speeches, which had pro- cured the acquittal of a manifestly guilty man — one of them said to the other, "It is no use talking ; he is just a God Almighty upon earth." "And this," said Doherty, "I believe to be the public feeling." We had a jovial time of it with the Judges — pheasant-shooting in the morning, and sitting rather too late, particularly Lord Gillies and myself, after dinner.

From Lochend we went to Manderston, the residence of our friend General Maitland, from whom, and his excellent old wife, we had a most Friendly reception. At Manderston there was a portrait of Pope, by Richardson. The painter, having some quarrel with the poet, gave the picture to Mr. I. Calverly, of whom he had made a portrait at near a hundred years of age. This gentleman was great-grandfather of Mrs. Mait- land.

Prom Manderston we travelled over the hills, twenty miles, to Thirlstane Castle, in Lauderdale

VOL. v 3

18 LORD LAUDERDALE CHAP. I.

1834. — a strange old building, like a French chateau, built by Duke Lauderdale. The old Earl, and his good lady and her two boys, as she called them (fifty years old I believed them to be), gave us a most hearty reception. I enjoyed Lord Lauder- dale's conversation much. He was then past seventy-six years of age, a little broken in body, but his mind as active as ever. He talked very freely of some of the past generation. He gave me a strange account of Lord Lansdowne, the first Marquess, and mentioned that, when the Bank stopped payment, Eox, and Grey, and himself,

went to speak with Lord L on the subject,

and all they could get from him was, " There is nothing for it but publicity and perspicuity." Now I confess I did not see the folly of this speech. On the contrary, I thought it a very sensible exposition of the real state of the case ; and, if my host had lived a little longer, he would have seen that those who directed the monetary affairs of the great nations agreed with the doctrine so decried.

I cannot omit what Lord Lauderdale told me of Brougham. This extraordinary man, in very early life, came to Thirlstane with a letter from Lord Buchan requesting a day's shooting for his young friend. Lord Lauderdale said in reply, that he was going to Edinburgh ; but that Brougham was welcome to shoot. Brougham answered that Lord Buchan had mistaken his request. What he wanted was permission to drive

CHAP. I. ANECDOTES OF BROUGHAM 19

Lord Maitland in a pony phaeton round the 1834. Scottish Western Circuit. Lord Lauderdale thought Brougham mad, and declined to trust his son, a boy thirteen years old, with him. Accordingly Brougham started from Thirlstane in his phaeton alone. At Ayr he behaved so strangely that no one knew what to make of him. At Dumfries he got extremely intoxicated, sat up all night, and was carried to the race-course next morning in a sedan-chair, dressed in his wig and gown. No wonder that, when he returned to Edinburgh, his friends shut him up for six weeks. This extravagance was so notorious a fact that Cockburn, Solicitor-General, pleading the other day in a question of sanity, said that it did not follow a man was mad because he did odd things. A great man, in high office, had gone to a race course in a sedan-chair ; but he was not mad. Now I thought Cockburn almost as mad as Brougham, for alluding to such an instance.

Lord Lauderdale said Brougham began public life under the auspices of William Pitt, who sent him on a mission into Germany and the north of Italy. In one article of the Edinburgh Review he attacked Lord Lauderdale's financial opinions, and, in another article, he praised Lord Chatham's letters to Lord Camelford. He bound up the two articles together, and sent twelve copies of them to Lord Mul grave. Lord Lauderdale found them all at the Foreign Office, when Lord Grey sue-

20 CHARLES JAMES FOX CHAP. I.

1834. ceeded to Eox there. He burnt eleven of them, and kept one copy, which he has got now.

Prom this sample of imperfection, Lord Lauder- dale turned to Charles Fox, of whom he said that he was not only the most extraordinary man he had ever seen, but also the best man. He had, at the same time, a way of talking which ought not to be taken too literally ; for example, Lauderdale heard him once say to Lord Holland, " Now, my young fellow, I will give you a piece of advice : never do anything yourself, which you can get another man to do for you." " A maxim," said Lauderdale, "on which Eox acted himself." Lauderdale worked very hard for him, and never, except on one occasion, was obliged to explain a subject twice to him.

CHAPTER II.

FROM BOOK, "RECOLLECTIONS." 1834.

October 12. — We took leave of Lord Lauderdale and his agreeable family, and returned to London.

On October 15, I had an audience of His Majesty, and we had some general talk. The good King was very kind; he promised me a prescription for the gout, which had been service- able to George III.

October 16. — This was to me a memorable day ; for, as I was sitting quietly at home with Lady Julia, I was roused by the intelligence that the House of Lords was on fire. As the care of the public buildings belonged to my department, I lost no time in going to St. James's Palace. The whole building in front of Old Palace-yard was in flames, and the fire was gaining ground towards Bennett's Tower every instant ; only a few soldiers and policemen were present, and three or four engines. A short time after more fire-engines came, but I thought the firemen were lamentably deficient in the knowledge of the best way to extinguish the flames.

I was with Melbourne, who was as usual very

cool, and now and then inclined to be jocose. He

21

22 LONDON CHAP. II.

1834. could not help laughing when a man ran up to me and said, " Sir John, we have saved King Charles's warrant "—meaning the original death- warrant, as if that document was particularly interesting to me.

The crowd behaved very well; only one man was taken up for huzzaing when the flames in- creased. I heard nothing of the exclamations recorded by the Standard newspaper, but I believe that one weaver did say, " This comes of making the poor girls pay for their children " —alluding to the new Poor Law. A few persons attributed the fire to design, but, on the whole, it was impossible for any large assemblage of people to behave better.

FROM DIARY.

October 17. — I dined at Holland House. Lord Melbourne and Whishaw the only strangers. We had a long talk on patronage, and Lord Melbourne said he thought the Whigs greater jobbers than Tories, and more grasping. He contradicted Lord Holland and my lady in the most amusing manner.

Lady Holland told me she would give a proof of her love of me by asking a favour of me, viz. a place for Henry Webster.

October 18. — Went to St. James's and saw H.M. I cannot say he was much affected by the calamity, rather the reverse. He seemed delighted at having an opportunity of getting rid of Bucking-

CHAP. II. BURNING OF PARLIAMENT HOUSES 23

ham Palace ; said he meant it as a permanent gift 1834. for Parliament Houses, and that it would be the finest thing in Europe.

At 3 o'clock the King and Queen came in two plain carriages and went over the ruins of the two Houses. A crowd of people pressed in and went round with them. I think their Majesties went rather too near to the shaking walls, but they were quite fearless.

The King looked gratified as if at a show, and perhaps by the prospect of getting rid of Buck- ingham Palace. Just before getting into his carriage he called the Speaker and me to him and said, " Mind, I mean Buckingham Palace as a permanent gift ! mind that ! "

PROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

On Saturday, October 25, I visited our Colonial Secretary, Mr. Spring Rice (since Lord Mont- eagle), at his villa. I saw some books in the library which had belonged to Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. In some of the books were notes in the handwriting of " the charming Mary Montagu." In Fielding's " Amelia " was this note : " Inferior to himself, superior to most others."

November 11. — Note from Ellice that Lord Spencer died yesterday.

yoc<>iiib<>t' 14. — Dined at Holland House. The Chancellor, Mulgrave, Abercromby, and his wife, Master of the Rolls. The talk of Pope and John- son ; Brougham was unjust to both.

24 LONDON CHAP. II.

1834. Lord Holland told me some profligate sayings of George Selwyn's, whom he knew when a hoy, a formal man in a hag-wig and sword ; he hated the Whigs, hut liked Charles Pox. He had a house at Marston, where Charles I. had escaped. George III. came to visit it; and Selwyn, al- though a most ahject flatterer of that King, said, " It is curious my house has heen visited hy two kings, and both lost their heads." George III. had recently been mad. Some one, who over- heard him, laughed, and Selwyn exclaimed, " A-hem ! I'm glad you like it — I'm glad you like it " — his usual phrase.

November 15. — The news came this morning that the King had taken advantage of Lord Spencer's death to dissolve the Government.

At a Cabinet meeting Lord Melbourne told us all that had occurred. The King was firm in his belief that Lord Althorp's elevation to the House of Lords could not be repaired, and, therefore, the Administration could not carry on the affairs of the country. Under these circumstances, the King wrote, it would not be fair to ask Lorcl Mel- bourne and his colleagues to continue in office.

Thus ended the last Cabinet meeting of the second Reform Administration — dismissed without a complaint, and, almost, without a pretext — at the risk of great public calamity; but, perhaps, fortunately for themselves, before those who expected too much from them saw cause for disappointment. Eor my own part, I was happy

CHAP. II. LORD MELBOTJKNK 25

to have belonged to them. They appeared to me, 1834. at least the majority of them, honourable and good men, really anxious for the welfare of their country, and determined to obtain it by wise and bold measures. My knowledge of Lord Mel- bourne has made me think better of politicians. I think him one of the most straightforward, sagacious, disinterested men I ever knew. His whole conduct in this closing scene has been beyond all praise. Abercromby, who has also gained much upon me, confessed to me that he had never hoped to see such a Minister.

Justice will be done to us. We agreed to wait quietly until we were superseded ; and to tell the truth, viz. that we were dismissed, and did not resign, assigning as a cause what the King had declared to be so — viz. the removal of Lord Althorp from the House of Commons.

November 17. — J. Russell showed me a letter from Lord Althorp, who called the dismissal " in- conceivable folly," but a great relief to him ; meaning, I suppose, that he should not be pes- tered with applications to join the Government. The Duke of "Wellington is all three Secretaries of State. Government in abeyance, waiting for Peel.

November 21. — Brougham took leave of the Court of Chancery to-day in a short and well- timed speech, but no man said, " God bless him."

November 21. — The Times and Tory papers are trying to make it appear that there has been so much shuffling amongst the late Cabinet Ministers

VOL. v 4t

26 LONDON CHAP. II.

1834. that the dissolution was only hastened by the King. A postscript to the Quarterly Review * states circumstantially several lies to that effect, and the Times quotes it and calls it a statement from authority. I have no doubt it is from the Duke of Wellington, who is in possession of the minutes of the conversations between the King and Melbourne, and also of Melbourne's letter to the King. He has shown them to several friends not so scrupulous as himself, and to these persons must be attributed the deviations from fact. The pretext for the dismissal was certainly the Irish Tithe Bill, for, after hearing Lord Melbourne's explanation of that measure, the King said, " As a Protestant King, I can never consent to that " ; and to this may be added, that His Majesty at that time had taken a very great dislike to his Lord Chancellor.

November 26. — I drew up an answer to the Quarterly Review contradicting their assertions respecting the differences in the Cabinet, and it was published in the Morning Chronicle next day.

1 The " postscript " in question was attached to an article on the Personal History of Louis Philippe, written by Mr. Croker, and in the course of it it is stated " that the Cabinet has been dissolved by its own internal and irreconcilable dissensions ; and Lord Spencer's death has only effected in November, that which the most sanguine of the Cabinet hoped to have postponed to January. In all this there was not — and could not be — any concert, much less any intrigue, between the King and the Conservative party ; and we believe we may assert that the retiring Ministers confess that his Majesty was not acting under any other influence, or with any other views, than those which were naturally and obviously suggested by his communications with Lord Melbourne himself."

CHAP. II. RUMOURS AND REPLIES 27

November 29.— Lord Melbourne has been making 1834 a speech at Melbourne saying that he has not been " personally aggrieved." This renders it the more necessary to contradict the article in the Times.

Lord Durham arrived. He is sulky and import- ant, and says the turn-out is come at a lucky time, when the public have a man to look up to — viz. himself !

December 1. — A letter from Burdett states shortly that he is about to address the electors " disapproving of all the proceedings now going on." He is a strange man, certainly failing in his intellects, yet he is one of the best, if not the very best, politician I ever knew. The electors would certainly choose me upon his retirement, but I do not like to afford even the appearance of displacing him, so I forgo that which would otherwise be a great triumph for me, and I think useful to the good cause.

December 5. — Lord Durham told me to-day that he thought worse of human nature every day. The natural consequences of disappointed vanity !

Lord Melbourne has been speaking out decidedly at Derby, and has contradicted the monstrous fables invented to damage the late Government as to the cause of their dismissal. The conse- quence is that the Conservative Journals begin to find that Lord Melbourne is not the very superior, superfine gentleman which they have hitherto represented him to be.

28 LONDON CHAP. II.

1834. December 9. — Peel arrived at last, and he has accepted the Premiership.

I saw the Hollands. They talk as if this were a mere party struggle : a question of Whig or Tory ascendancy.

December 23. — Dined at Lord Holland's. Lady Holland in the evening made a great complaint of her poverty, and said to me that the Duchy just kept them afloat. Now that was gone, she re- marked she had only two entrees ! !

December 26. — I dined with William Linley, who told me an anecdote of Sheridan.

Sheridan was going in a stage-coach to Stafford. A fellow passenger said he was proceeding to that place in order to assist in opposing Sheridan, the greatest scoundrel in the world, etc. Sheridan took no notice at the time, but happening to see a parcel which informed him of the name and profession of the other, he began to talk of lawyers, and said that solicitors were excellent people in general but some were bad, and he knew one Williams, the greatest rascal unhanged. On which the passenger burst into a fury, and said, " Zounds, sir, do you mean to insult me ? I am that Williams." "Well, sir," said Sheridan, " and do you mean to insult me ? I am that Sheridan. " The attorney was sensible enough to see the rebuke, and to take it as he ought, and the two were friends the rest of the way.

December 30. — This day Parliament was dis- solved ; now comes the struggle !

CHAP. II. VISIT TO NEWSTEAD 29

January 5, 1835. — I was re-elected for Netting- 1835. ham without opposition.

Whilst at Nottingham I went over to Newstead, and saw the alterations made by Colonel Wildman in the Abbey and gardens. I slept in a room which had no roof to it in my day ; but that AVIIS twenty-six years ago. Wandering about the garden, I looked for the clump of trees on Annesley Hill, "the peculiar diadem" of Byron's " Dream. " It was not to be seen, and I heard that Mr. Chaworth had cut it down — Colonel Wildman said, for spite.

The Colonel told me a story of a poor deaf and dumb crazy woman, who used to frequent the Abbey garden, and sit there for hours, with a volume of Byron in her hand. She lived in one of the farmhouses on the property and paid her little rent punctually. She had no inter- course with the Colonel, nor any of his family, until one day, when she put a letter into his hand containing an account of the failure of some relation, on whom she depended for subsistence. Wildman was preparing to make some inquiries about her when he learnt that she had abruptly left the farmhouse, with her little bundle in her hand and dressed in her usual white gown. The next news he heard of her was, that she had been run over by a cart in the streets of Nottingham, and killed on the spot. She had frequented the Abbey garden for some years. A sad story, and true.

30 BROCKET — WOBURN CHAP. II.

1835. FROM DIARY.

January 17. — The papers have been publishing my Nottingham speech and commenting on it. The Standard reviles me as an atheist and an assassin and what not. I am proud of making the rascals so angry!

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

January 23. — Lord Melbourne invited P. Thomp- son and myself to come to him at Brocket Hall. We went there, and had some excellent pheasant- shooting in the morning, and some useful dis- cussion on our position after dinner. I found Lord Melbourne, in his own house, just such a person as I expected — most satisfactory in every respect.

January 26. — Left Brocket and went to Woburn Abbey. It was one-and-twenty years since I visited this princely mansion. Coming into the drawing-room, I saw it crowded with young men in red coats. I was introduced to the Duchess, a formal lady, I thought, considering all things. Lord Melbourne came, also Lord Auckland ; Chantrey ; the Tavistocks, young Lord Charles, M.P. for the county, with his lovely wife. The good Duke himself was most kind and hospitable, friendly and attentive to all.

January 28. — We looked over the farm establish- ment— most splendid. We were joined by the Duchess, and Landseer, the great artist, whom I have known intimately for almost half a century,

CHAP. II. MARQUESS WELLESLEY 31

and whose works, as well as himself, I admire 1835. more every time I see them and him.

FROM DIARY.

February 1. — The elections all over. The Tories have returned about 275, hut they have not kept out those Cabinet Ministers. Palmerston is the only member of the late Government whom they have excluded.

February 3. — I called to see Lord Wellesley at his request. He talked to me of the Duke of Wellington, without any reserve, as a great officer but no statesman at all, and he instanced the mode in which he defended Catholic Emancipation. His confession that it was the fear of civil war which induced him to grant that boon was a premium upon future agitation. Whatever he thought, he ought not to have put forward such a cause.

The Marquess told me a saying of his own : that lie trusted his brother Arthur would plant his foot on the necks of those who were fools enough to help him to power, and then they would find his heel as hard as his heart 1

I was much pleased with the vigour and liveli- ness of the old man !

February 11. — Dining at Burlington Street this evening I saw a funny thing : as Lady Holland went out after dinner, Lord Granville pulled some papers out of his pocket and gave them to her. She kissed him.

February 19. — I went down to Westminster, and

32 LONDON CHAP. II.

i83f. was much pleased with what I had some right to call my new temporary House of Commons.

February 20. — Abercromby, who has been chosen Speaker in place of Sutton, appeared to-day in a court-dress and a tie-wig, and read the usual speech in a firm voice. When taking the oaths he lifted up his hands and eyes to me as if imploring pity for his condition.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

February 24. — The King went down to open Parliament in person. The crowd was so great that I did not get into the House until after the King had gone.

I had at this time an opportunity of forming some judgment of the grandees of our party, for on Saturday, March 8, I dined at the Duchess of Kent's, and met the Duke of Norfolk, the Duke of Cleveland, Lord and Lady Lansdowne, the Speaker and Mrs. Abercromby, Lord and Lady Rosebery, Lord Melbourne, Lord and Lady Ilchester, Lord John Russell, and Mr. Fox Maule. The young Princess was in high spirits, and looked very well. The Duchess herself was, as usual, most pleasing.

I have a record of the discreditable defeats, and successes as damaging as defeats, which Peel and his Cabinet sustained during this ill-omened portion of his career. Night after night it became apparent that his Ministerial days were numbered. The language used on both sides of the House

CHAP. II. DEATH OF LADY JULIA HOBHOUSE 33

became so intolerable that the Speaker was 1835. obliged to interpose his authority.

I have been visited during my long life with only two great calamities. The first afflicted me at this time. I had hoped against hope that my wife might be saved; but all the bad symptoms of her insidious malady recurred with so much violence, as to leave no room for even a faint hope of her recovery. I resolved, however, to go about the usual business of life, so far as it was compatible with that anxiety which left me but little power of reflection on any but my domestic dangers !

FROM DIARY.

April 3. — My most admirable and devoted wife, the pride and treasure of my heart, died at four o'clock. The scene will never be effaced from my memory. I am so stupefied by the blow that I seem to have no feeling. I pray God to preserve my senses. I have given orders to have her laid next to my father ; and there will I be laid also. It relieves me to talk of my loss, but I cannot shed tears. God forgive me, and permit me to see her hereafter.

April 9. — I passed all these days of misery at home, my brother Edward and Lord Thomas Hay being with me, endeavouring to divert me by talking of the events of the day.

This day I sent my little children to Tunbridge Wells, and prepared to follow them the next day.

VOL. v 5

34 LONDON CHAP. II.

isas. April 15. — Repeated letters from P. Thompson and Ellice recalled me this day to Berkeley Square. There I found a desolation in my once happy home, such as made me, if possible, more wretched than in the first hour of my calamity.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

April 17. — Peel resigned on Wednesday, April 8, and on Saturday the King asked Lord Melbourne to form a Government.

I accepted the office of the Board of Control, at the same time telling Lord Melbourne that his Cabinet was not so Liberal as I thought. He replied that some people had told him it was too Jacobinical.

The next day we were summoned to attend a Court at St. James's. "We found the ex-Ministers waiting in the Throne-room, and spoke to several of them. Hardinge remarked that the two pleasantest days in the life of a politician were that on which he accepted, and that on which he left, office.

The King saluted us coldly as we entered the Council-chamber ; and, after the usual ceremonies, we retired. Thus was formed the second Mel- bourne Cabinet, and H.M. was obliged to swallow the bitter pill of his own compounding.

Surely some one ought to have been responsible for all that had happened, and all that might have happened, since the 15th of the last November — an Administration broken up, a Parliament dis- solved, a new Parliament elected, with all the usual

CHAP. II. AT THE BOARD OF CONTROL 35

chances of disturbance ; the new Government in a 1835. minority the first day of the session, and unable to appoint their own Speaker, or address the Sovereign in the terms chosen by themselves ; in fact, the Monarch and the Ministry exposed and degraded ; yet no one reproved, no one punished, not a single step taken to prevent the recurrence of a similar danger and disgrace.

FROM DIARY.

April 27. — I dined alone and read a great mass of Indian papers in the evening : the only mode of preventing a depression which is almost intolerable. At times I think I cannot bear my misfortunes, and yet in the world I go on like the rest.

April 30. — I called this day on Lord Wellesley, who told me he considered himself to have been cruelly and treacherously used, because he was not appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and was sent to an office for which he was as much fit as for a housemaid's place, viz. Lord Chamberlain.

May 1. — Labouring hard on Indian business. I am much more interested with the work of my present office than with that of either of my other offices.

May 8. — Called on Lord Durham and found him very much softened. He expressed an earnest wish to be employed under our Government, as a means of regaining his old friends. He said that he saw in the present Government the best chance for good measures. His tone was quite different

36 LONDON CHAP. II.

1835. from what it had been formerly, and I could not help believing him sincere.

We are in a position anything but encouraging. Our leader and our other Secretary of State are out of Parliament, the King is against us, the Court also, a majority of nearly a hundred Peers also. The Army, the Navy, the Church, the law, the squires, the magistracy, against us. A majority of the upper classes in every part of the Empire against us. To balance this we have a precarious majority of about 30 in the House of Commons ; and, having these prospects, we meet Parliament on Tuesday next without having either of our two great Reforms, in the Irish Church and the Corpora- tions, decided upon in any one essential particular.

We are bold men, but Peel was bolder, for he met Parliament in a minority. I should have, however, no apprehension if my colleagues were all like Thomson, Howick, and Duncannon, and, I may add, Russell, although he is too much led by Lord Holland and Lord Grey.

May 11. — I dined with a great friend of the party, and one who has been a successful farmer of a great estate. I mean Mr. Coke, of Norfolk.

Mr. Coke is eighty-two years of age, and as hale and active, both in mind and body, as he has been for many a long year. His young wife, Lady Anne (a Keppel), has brought him five children — four boys and one girl. It would be difficult to find a more signal instance of the highest moral worth rewarded with the greatest worldly prosperity.

CHAP. II. LAMBETH PALACE 37

A worthy prelate, the Bishop of Norwich, who 1835. is more than ninety years of age, made Mr. Coke a present of a mourning-ring the other day, and said to him, " We shall soon meet in heaven ; and, whether this is given to you now or a feu months hence, matters not."

Mr. Fox was a great deal at Holham in the shooting-season, and Mr. Coke told me of him what I was somewhat surprised to hear — that he seldom opened a hook during these visits, except on a Sunday, and then his reading was very desultory. Mr. Coke told me that he hardly ever heard Mr. Fox speak harshly of any man. Some one happening to say to him, " You must allow Sir John Lade was a stupid man," Fox replied : " I allow no such thing ; he was a d — d clever fellow, the best driver of a four- in-hand in England ; and a man who does what he attempts very well cannot he called stupid."

May 16. — I dined at St. James's Hotel with Lady E. Hope Vere and her two daughters. One of them sang some Scottish songs beautifully. She — at least, the upper part of her face — is like my ever-beloved wife, her aunt.

May 30. — I dined at Lambeth Palace for the first time in my life. It seemed to me by far the most princely establishment and entertainment I ever saw in my life. The worthy, mild Arch- bishop l played the host admirably. We had the Duke of Newcastle and many other red-hot 1 Dr. Howley.

38 LONDON CHAP. II.

1835. churchmen, besides Bishops and clergymen in abundance.

June 3. — Lord Palmers ton had an audience with H.M. on the affairs of Spain. The King said he would never consent to an alliance, offensive and defensive, with France. The old gentleman is full of prejudices. I saw a letter from him to Lord Glenelg, full of abuse of the Canadian Radicals, and talking of Messrs. Hume and Roe- buck and that tribe. I mentioned it to Russell, and said that Sir H. Taylor 1 ought not to pen such language. Russell said one was like the other, and that when two fools get together the result was generally of the same kind.

June 4. — I had a long conversation with Lord Melbourne, in the course of which I said I thought Lord Grey knew nothing of the inevitable result of the Reform Bill. " You are quite right there/' said Lord Melbourne ; "he did not ; he thought it just a measure to satisfy the people at the moment, and nothing more."

June 5. — Lord John Russell brought forward his Corporation Reform Bill. Every one to whom I spoke seemed delighted with our measure, and well they may be ; it is a good measure — simple and sound, bold, judicious, and safe. At least, so I think, and, in a selfish view, very advan- tageous for our friends and our prospects.

1 General Sir Herbert Taylor was successively secretary to the Duke of York, George III., Queen Charlotte, and William IV. Died in 1839.

CHAP. II. CHATHAM AND THE MILITIA 39

June 17.— At this time great efforts were made by the French Cabinet to induce our Government to send a squadron, in conjunction with France, to the coast of Spain.1 Our King objected much to the flags of the two nations being seen together. He also did not like to detach any part of our naval force far. He has but one alarm, which is Russia, and even Melbourne himself seemed to think Russia might possibly send a fleet into the Channel and sweep our seas. To me this is chimerical, but Melbourne seems to have some information.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

Jane 25. — We were employed this day in the House, most unprofitably and disagreeably, in debating the case of the Dorsetshire labourers. I tried to prevail on Russell to remit the sen- tences of these misguided men, and he would have done this ; but the Cabinet were against him, and he could only get their consent to a remission of punishment for four out of the six.

June 27, D.N. 49. — In Downing Street Russell told me of a singular conversation that he had had with the King about the Militia. H.M. said that Lord Chatham introduced the Militia Bill against the wishes of George II., but that George III. liked the Militia; and, added H.M., so did he, and he should disapprove of any plan

1 On the death of Ferdinand VII. in 1833, the Carlists made an attempt on the throne, and the Regent Christina was supported by the Quadruple Alliance, which assured to the Christines the support of France.

40 LONDON CHAP. II.

1835. that rendered the staff of it less prepared for effective service. Russell said the people and the Parliament did not care about foreign politics, and thought any measures for defending England unnecessary. " Very true, my lord," said the King ; " and that is what I call penny wise and pound foolish/' II. M. then went on to speak of Russia, and said that he had heard there was an army of 100,000 Russians ready for embarkation in the Baltic ; and he added, " I do not know how you feel, my lord ; but I own they make me shake in my shoes."

Russell told the King that he had no fear of French intervention, but that he thought the French Government unstable. "Yes, my lord," said the King, "and that is because they have not an honest man at the head of it, and the Ministers intrigue. There is this difference be- tween England and France : here we may differ on certain points ; you and I may differ ; but we all of us mean well, and have but one object. I have my view of things, and I tell them to my Ministers. If they do not adopt them, I cannot help it. I have done my duty."

On Monday, June 29, came on the threatened attack on my department, for revoking the ap- pointment of Lord Heytesbury from one of the most important offices in the joint gift of the Crown and East India Company, which Sir Robert Peel, even though the Government was in its last agonies, had contrived to bestow upon him. He

CHAP. II. WILLIAM IV. 41

had the largest majority that the Melbourne 1835. Government ever obtained, and, meeting Lord Stanley the next day, he said to me, " I could not vote against you ; you made a d — d good speech in a d — d bad cause."

"We heard of a strange speech made by H.M. in Council, when Sir Charles Grey l was sworn in as Commissioner to Canada. H.M. would have Sir Charles recollect that Canada was " won by the sword, and that he would never give up the Royal prerogative in that province ; that he would never permit the Legislative Council to be elective ; that he, the King, said this, although others might say otherwise, and although some had dared, in his presence, to hold contrary language" — alluding to Grant. When interviewed by Lord Melbourne on the subject, H.M. owned he had been wrong in talking of his confidential advisers before those who were not members of the Cabinet ; but he was in a state of great excitement, and angry, particularly at Lord Durham's being appointed to the Russian Mission.

Lord Palmerston told me that, at table the other day, two Bishops being present, some one talked of Lord John Russell's health, on which H.M. said, " If you will answer for his death, I will answer for his damnation."

This was not all we heard of the Royal dis-

1 Sir Charles Grey (1765-1835) had been a Judge of the Madras Supreme Court and Chief Justice of Bengal He had just been appointed as a Special Commissioner to Canada.

VOL. V 6

42 LONDON CHAP. II.

1835. inclination to us ; for, on Saturday, July 11, in Downing Street, Lord Melbourne addressed us as follows : " Gentlemen, you may as well know how you stand "; and, pulling a paper from his pocket, he read a memorandum of a conversation between the King and Lord Gosford, after the review, the day before. The King said to Lord Gosford : " Mind what you are about in Canada. By G — d ! I will never consent to alienate the Crown lands, nor to make the Council elective. Mind me, my lord, the Cabinet is not my Cabinet; they had better take care, or, by G — d! I will have them im- peached. You are a gentleman, I believe. I have no fear of you ; but take care what you do." We all stared at each other. Melbourne said, "It is better not to quarrel with him. He is evidently in a state of great excitement. " And yet H.M. had given his assent in writing to the second reading of our Irish Church Reform Bill, which showed that these outbursts were more physical than signs of any settled design ; although there were some of us who thought it was intended to drive us, by incivilities, to resign our places, and thus make us the apparent authors of our own retirement.

It was clear to me that, if we continued in the Government, it would be entirely owing to the good sense and good manners of our chief, who knew how to deal with his master, as well as with his colleagues, and never, that I saw, made a mistake in regard to either ; and I must add that,

CHJLP. II. WILLIAM IV. 43

when a stand was to be made on anything con- 1835. sidered to be a vital principle of his Government, he was as firm as a rock.

Such was the case at this time, when Lord Radnor made his motion for dispensing, in certain cases, with subscription to the Thirty -nine Articles. On the division our friends in the Lords had only 57 votes to 169 ; but Lord Melbourne made a speech, which was of more service to his Govern- ment, in the country, than twenty majorities in the Lords. The spirit, the eloquence, the sincerity, the deep feeling of every word, made a great impression on all who heard, and all who read, what he said.

The instructions which he had agreed upon as the basis of Lord Gosford's Administration in Canada met with much disfavour by H.M. He broke out violently against the use of certain words, saying, " No, my lord, I will not have that word ; strike out * conciliatory ' — strike out ' liberal ; ' ' and then he added, " You cannot wonder at my making these difficulties with a Ministry that has been forced upon me."

On the following Wednesday, however, H.M. said he approved every word of the instructions ; remarking that he was not like William III., who often signed what he did not approve.

Such was this kind, good man, generally most just and generous, but, when irritated, scarcely himself. He was more sincere than suited his Royal Office, and could not conceal his likings or

44 LONDON CHAP. II.

1835. dislikings from those who were most affected by them.

Our Corporation Bill was read a third time on July 20, and passed amidst loud cheering. Thus one of our principal pledges was nobly redeemed.

FROM DIARY.

July 25. — Lord Lansdowne told me that II. M., in a speech at Caen Wood, gave an account of his progress to Hampstead, and said that he lived in the hearts of his subjects ! He asked where the Duke of Wellington was, and the Duke of Cum- berland was about to call him up. " No, no," said the King, " let him stay at the bottom of the table. When he is there, I know he will make you change your glasses ! "

If His Majesty was occasionally a little in- cautious in his talk, he had to listen to language much more imprudent than his own. One day the " Nulli Secundus " l dined at St. James's, and, on the King giving the health of Colonel Conyers and the Essex Militia, Conyers said that H.M. had now no foreign enemies against whom his Army and Navy might distinguish themselves; but that, if his Militia had to charge the Eadicals, they would be the first to draw the sword, and the last to sheathe it. The King held down his head, and did not say a word. All the company had the grace to appear ashamed.

1 The "Nulli Secundus" is the dining-club of the Coldstream Guards.

CHAP. II. THE CORPORATION BILL 45

PROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

July 31. — Lord Auckland has accepted the offer of going to India. He had an audience of H.M. to-day, who was very civil to him, and said that, " although they differed in politics, yet he was an honest man."

FROM DIARY.

August 3. — The great debate on our Corporation Bill in the Lords.1 Melbourne distinguished him- self much, particularly when he denounced the resistance of the Lords as an act of suicide ; but we were beaten by 124 to 54.

The more violent were for rejecting the Bill at once, the next for hearing evidence, so that the Duke of Wellington was glad to compound for the evidence, although he had given assurance to Melbourne publicly that he did not wish to delay the Bill by such a course. To this Melbourne alluded in his reply, when he said, " He would never again enter into engagements with those

1 " The Lords made some important alterations in the provisions relating to the collection of tithes, and rejected the appropriation clauses. In vain did Lord Melbourne warn them that, if they per- sisted in dealing with the Bill in this way, it would be abandoned by the Government, and that the consequence of that abandonment would be, not only that the clergy, unable to collect their tithes, would be reduced to beggary, but also that the Government would be compelled by law to take proceedings against them in the Exchequer Court of Ireland to recover from them £650,000, which had been advanced to them from the public funds. Undeterred by these warnings, the Conservative majority persisted in the course they had decided to adopt, and the bill was withdrawn. The Government did not execute the threat they had held out in order to induce the Lords to accept the appropriation clause." — SIR W. MOLESWORTH.

46 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. who either wanted the power or the will to keep them." The Duke looked very black, and pulled his hat over his eyes. Some one told Melbourne this. He said, " I did not mean to go near the wind."

In fact, Melbourne was very angry, and what the papers call excited, which the Tories interpret " drunk." Melbourne announced his intention to sit out the inquiry and never leave his post, much to the dismay of the Tories, who were fools enough to expect he would resign.

August 5. — I dined at Sir R. Ferguson's, and met the famous Mrs. Somerville,1 a most pleasing, unaffected person, not handsome, but agreeable in her looks. She did not talk much but upon her own subjects.

September 7. — After many conferences and dis- cussions between the Lords and Commons, on our Corporation Bill, it was at last resolved to adopt some of the Lords' amendments and reject others. The Lords were much disappointed that we were not more violent.

It appears Peel has been excited by Melbourne calling his "a clap-trap Administration." Ce n'est que la vdrite qui blesse." Perhaps Mel- bourne might as well have not used the word, but it applies.

Thus was completed this second great measure

1 Mary, daughter of Sir William Fairfax, and wife of William Somerville. The most distinguished lady-mathematician and astronomer. Her principal work is that on the Connection of the Physical Sciences. She died in her ninety-third year, in 1872.

CHAP. II. STRANGE SPEECH OF THE KING 47

of the Whig or Liberal Ministry ; and I am happy 1835. to have had a share in it.

September 9. — At a Council held to-day occurred a most remarkable scene. When H.M. was to say, "Approved," to the reduction of the Militia staff, he burst out : — " My Lords, nothing should induce me to assent to this, but for two reasons ; one is, that I do not wish to expose those Colonels who have deserted their duty, and done so much to injure this constitutional force ; the other is, that I am resolved the system shall be put upon a better footing the next session of Parliament. My Lords, I am an old man — older than any of your Lordships — and, therefore, know more than any of you. In 1756 George II. had, as I have now, what was called a Whig Ministry; that Ministry originated a Militia Bill, to frame a constitutional defence of the kingdom. George II. had not the advantages which his successors possessed. He opposed the Bill ; and he was seconded by certain persons, in different counties, some from one motive, some from another, perhaps subserviency ; but his Ministers wisely persevered, and carried their measure ; since which time this great force has been kept up as it ought to be, and shall be, in spite of agitators in Ireland, and agitators in England; for, my Lords, I dread to think what might be the consequences if Russia were to attack us unprepared. I say never will I consent to the destruction of this force, and, early in the next session of Parliament, whoever may be,

48 AT BOWOOD CHAP. IT.

1835. or whoever are, Ministers, I will have the Militia restored to a proper state. I say this, not only before my confidential advisers, but before others [C. Greville and two or three others of the house- hold], because I wish to have my sentiments known."

Such was the substance, and, in great part, the very words, of His Majesty's harangue. We looked at one another. Lord Melbourne was very black, and very haughty. I thought he would have broken out.

Lord Melbourne then read the Speech very dis- tinctly, and gave it to the King, who said, " I approve it much ; be so good as to keep it for me until to-morrow."

September 10. — I went to the House of Commons to see the King prorogue Parliament. H.M. looked overwhelmed with his robes and crown ; and read his Speech rather feebly, until he came to " Gentlemen of the House of Commons," which he roared out so loudly as to make us all laugh.

November 6. — I passed the greater part of my holidays at Corsham, but I spent a couple of days at Bo wood. When I was a boy I used to think what wonders there were at Bowood; what a palace the house ; what a miracle the master, the old lord. Now everything seemed pleasing enough — no more.

Lord L. told me that he and Lord Holland had seen the Duke of Somerset dance in the House of Lords. Some evidence had been given in the

CHAP. II. DINNER AT THE PAVILION 49

Queen's trial as to the lascivious dancing. The 1835. Duke was in the gallery, and, supporting himself on the rail, actually began to cut capers, and to practise his conception of what the witnesses had said. All in absence of mind !

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

December 4. — This day I dined at the Pavilion. There were forty-six guests at the royal dinner- table. Sir W. Freemantle, the Controller, told me that three hundred mouths were fed daily at the Palace ; also that last year 36,000 bottles of wine were drunk. But H.M. keeps within his parlia- mentary income.

The dinner was not a lively affair ; but I had the good fortune to sit opposite to Lady Augusta Kennedy, a lovely woman. In the drawing-room the King and Queen sat at table with seven or eight ladies. The maids of honour sat at another table. The Princesses played at cards. Lord Melbourne flirted with Mcllle d'Este and Lady Falkland.

We had a Council at St. James's on February 3, 1836. where the King pricked the Sheriffs. H.M. re- i IK irked that he supposed the usage was derived from times when the Kings of England could not write. The King opened Parliament in person the next day.

At H.M.'s desire I went to see him, and found him in very good humour. He talked of all sorts of things, and told me that his intercourse with many men in that closet had given him an insight

VOL. v 7

50 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. into human nature. H.M. broke out into a tirade against the Scots generally, as being " too national." Amongst other topics he touched upon the advantage of practical knowledge, and mentioned that thus it was that he had the best of the argument when talking with Lord Glenelg, and had set him right fifty times on colonial questions. I could not help laughing outright at this, and the King was not angry.

February 26. — We had a debate on the Spanish War. Peel made an insolent speech against Palmerston, to whom he seemed, at that time, to have taken a general dislike. Russell said he relied on me to answer him, and, although I had not heard much of the debate, Peel was so unfair and so violent that I thought I would try my hand. I told Peel that his genius ivas too ponder- ous for a joke, and so it was. He invariably failed in that attempt.

On March 8, at the House of Commons, I sat from a little after seven until three in the morning. After some skirmishing, Sir James Graham made a most furious onslaught against Roman Catholic domination in Ireland ; I should have liked to answer him, but was prevented by a recent difference.

At this time we had to consider a proposal to guarantee a loan to Spain. George Villiers, our Minister at Madrid, urged this measure, and was supported by Palmerston and Lord Holland. The rest of us were averse from interference in Spain.

CHAP. II. THE KING AND LORD MINTO 51

Lord Melbourne was very uneasy at these pro- ceedings, and told one of us that he could not sleep at night for thinking on them ; but our Foreign Secretary was not easily deterred from a favourite scheme, and showed symptoms of that indomitable perseverance, which, since those days, has carried him triumphantly through so many difficulties.

I went to the Levee on "Wednesday, April 13. His Majesty, passing the circle, stopped opposite to Lord Minto, and said, " Your lordship need not propose it to me; I never will consent — I never will. I like speaking plainly." Lord Minto bowed, and said, "Very well, Sir." I hrard afterwards that this related to a rumour that the sailors' pensions were to be lowered to the scale of the soldiers' pensions. The King saw Lord Minto in the closet afterwards, and repeated this. Minto told him that he knew nothing of any such intention ; but that, as to the soldiers' pensions, the scale was settled in 1833, with the full concurrence of the Commander- in-Cliief. H.M. replied " that he doubted this." At a Council afterwards, however, H.M. was in a state of strange excitement. On hearing some order read relative to the Colonies, of which he had not before heard, he exclaimed, two or three times, " Postponed — postponed," and wrote the word clown opposite the order, with "W.R." I was near laughing, and so was Lord Holland, who sat opposite the King.

52 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. April 25. — I had a tete-a-tete with Joseph Hume,1 who good-humouredly gave me an account of his early Indian career. He told me he owed his success to his facility in acquiring the oriental languages. I should not have guessed that he had possessed that facility ; hut I had no doubt that he believed he did.

FROM DIARY.

April 30. — I dined at the Royal Academy, Somerset House, for the first time in my life. A very brilliant and striking spectacle. There was not the slightest allusion to politics.

I had a few words with Lord Anglesey in allusion to our short political connection, and he said, " I believe you, as well as myself, are an idle man now." "Why, not quite," and I told him the fact, on which he begged my pardon, and said he had lived out of the world. This comes of never speaking in Parliament. Eut were it otherwise, what is the use of the " life in other's breath " ?

May 1. — Cold as Christmas ! Dined at Devon- shire House — 32 at table, and, as E. Byng remarked, 4 Garters and 5 or 6 Dukes. I sat next to John Russell, and had some pleasant talk with that excellent man.

1 Joseph Hume, when twenty years old, went out to India in the E.I.C.S. service as surgeon and interpreter ; he returned in 1807, and was elected as a Tory for Weymouth before he became Eadical M.P. for Aberdeen, and subsequently for Middlesex, which he represented at this time.

CHAP. II. FACTORY CHILDREN 53

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS." 1836.

Lord Stanley told me to-day he had no desire for office, and wished us to keep our places. I replied that he had the oddest way of showing such inclination, and reminded him of his com- paring us to " the cords, the ladder, or the hangman rather?" "Oh," said he, "that was my Hotspur speech."

On Monday, May 9, the Government received a check in the House of Commons, on a subject to which I had previously paid a good deal of attention. P. Thompson, very indiscreetly, and without consulting the Cabinet, proposed an alteration in the Factory Bill, allowing children from twelve to thirteen years of age to work twelve instead of eight hours in a day. His chief argument was, that no less than 30,000 children would be discharged from the mills, unless this permission were given. Lord Ashley opposed him, and stated very truly that it was unfair to repeal one of the most efficient clauses of the Government Bill of 1833. The debate was, to me at least, very disagreeable. We carried Thompson's motion only by two : a cruel measure.

The opposite party, having failed to defeat Lord Melbourne in Parliament, had recourse to scandalous gossip, and propagated a rumour which ended in a court of law.1 I was convinced there was no real foundation for the charge, for Lord

1 This case is fully recorded in " The Life of the Hon. Mrs. Norton," by Miss Perkins.

54 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. Melbourne wished to engage the services of Sergeant Wilde ; but Wilde had a general Re- tainer, which prevented him from taking a brief on the other side. Melbourne said to Wilde, " I am sorry you cannot hold a brief for me ; for I give you my honour, as a gentleman, that this charge is false." Wilde told me he had not the slightest doubt that Lord Melbourne spoke the truth.

FROM DIARY.

May 13.— I went to the Queen's Ball. The Prince of Orange and his two raw sons there. The Princess Victoria danced.

May 15. — There was an eclipse to-day. I saw it very distinctly, even with the naked eye, and showed it to my little girls through some smoked glass in the Square gardens. The shade and a coolness were very perceptible ; but I saw no planet, nor did the birds retire to roost.

General Gascoyne told me to-day that the King had spoken to him in very proper terms on the Melbourne business ; and called it an " under- plot." H. M. said he wished the Duke of Cumberland and others would not come to him and abuse his Ministers personally; as for their politics, that was another matter.

May 24. — Went to Whitton. Desolate and melancholy in the extreme. A thousand painful recollections crowded over me. I go there no more !

CHAP. II. LORD GREY*S TEMPER 55

june 4. — Dined at Whitbread's, Chiswick. I 1836. took Lord Lansdownc with me. Lords Grey, Tavistock, and many others were at the table, besides the partners.

Lord Grey was in high dudgeon, and though surrounded by old friends and late colleagues and connections, hardly spoke a word, and never asked . a man to take a glass of wine with him. Lans- downe told me, amongst other proofs of his intractable temper and foolish pettiness, that he had complained of not being asked to speak on the Irish Bill. Lord Lansdowne added that he was angry at not being what he might have been, Prime Minister, and could not forgive Lord Melbourne his success. If Melbourne had failed he would have been his strenuous supporter. Now he does nothing but grumble and growl. For my own part, I must say that the more I see, the less I think of him; and am surprised how, by mere fluency of speech and arrogance of in .inner, this really inferior man has contrived to lead a great party, and to connect his name im- pcrishably with the most splendid triumphs of British legislation.

June 11. — We were all in great good humour to-day at the Cabinet, and after the business was over, we talked of indifferent matters. Amongst others, Lord Holland enlightened us on the subject of Catholic confessions. He told us that Napoleon asked Charles Fox what he thought of the Concordat, saying he might speak out, as Cardinal

56 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. Caprara,1 who was near, would not mind about what he said. Fox objected to the celibacy of the priests, but Napoleon said he could not have done away with that unless he established Protestantism. Melbourne observed truly that, if you have con- fession, you cannot have a married priesthood.

FROM BOOK, "RECOLLECTIONS."

Saturday, June 18. — I took my children to Lord Breadalbane's house in Park Lane, to see a review of about 4,000 troops, a very pretty sight. Their Majesties, accompanied by the Prince of Orange, were present. The Duke of Wellington rode in front of his own regiment, the Grenadier Guards, and saluted the King. He was much cheered ; it was Waterloo day. My children, in the balcony of Lord Breadalbane's house, were much admired. They did look very pretty, to say the truth.

June 20. — At the House to-day we had a debate on reducing the stamp duty on newspapers to a penny. Roebuck made a very good speech, which a member, called Kearsley, designated as dis- gusting; and, on being called to order by my friend Methuen, who was a little elevated, ex- claimed, " Paul, Paul, why persecutest thou me ? " Whereat, to my astonishment, the House was con- vulsed with laughter, in which Graham, Stanley,

1 Cardinal Caprara, born 1733. In 1801, as legate a latere in France, he signed the Concordat on behalf of Pius VII. He was afterwards Archbishop of Milan, and in that capacity crowned Napoleon as King of Italy in 1805.

CHAP. ii. GROTE'S SPEECH ON THE BALLOT 57

and Peel joined most heartily. I thought I was 1836. almost the only man who did not laugh.

June 22. — This night, at twelve o'clock, the jury in the Melbourne case returned a verdict in favour of the defendant. They were scarcely a minute absent. Campbell treated the charge as it deserved, and the jury went along with him during the whole trial. In one or two instances he tried them rather high, I thought; but he knew his men, and gained a complete victory.

On June 23 Mr. Grote made his famous speech in favour of Ballot. I did not consider myself at liberty to vote for any essential change in the representative system, after being a party— and an active party, too — in carrying our Reform Bill ; but I confessed then, and I confess now, that I have never heard Mr. Grote's arguments an- swered satisfactorily. Little interest was excited, either in Parliament or the country, by this question.

On June 2G, we were woefully beaten in the Lords on our Irish Corporation Bill, and at our next Cabinet meeting Lord Melbourne opened the proceedings by saying that, under ordinary cir- cumstances, we should resign our offices ; but that, as we came in with the declared opposition of the Peers — and as, at the beginning of this very session, the Peers had declared against our Irish Corporation Reform — we knew nothing now that wr did not know before, and our resignations would not be justifiable. His opinion, therefore, was,

VOL. v 8

58 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. that we ought to go on quietly now, and try a new measure next session.

On Thursday, June 30, there was another con- ference between the Lords and Commons. The Peers sat covered, all but the Duke of Wellington, who read the reasons for dissenting from our Bill. He stood, and was uncovered ; he faltered, and looked very old. We then went back to our own House, and Russell made a good speech, rejecting the Lords' re-amendments at once. Peel owned that the two Houses were not in a temper to agree this year, adding that he would not divide the House on the question, " for fear of wrong infer- ences being drawn from the numbers." The fact was, we had a majority of a hundred present, and our Stanley told me we had three hundred members in London.

July 2. — At the Cabinet this day we had some discussion with reference to the marriage of the Princess Victoria. It appears the King wrote a letter to Lord Melbourne, in which he stated his own wish to be that the Princess should marry the second son of the Prince of Orange. Lord Mel- bourne wrote a long letter to the King, decidedly objecting to this scheme, and stating that, in these matters, the inclinations of the young lady herself might disconcert the best-arranged scheme. He concluded by requesting that the arrangement might be deferred.

July 9. — I dined at Holland House at a sort of family party, with Lord and Lady Lilford, Lord

CHAP. II. LORD MELBOURNE'S MISGIVINGS 59

Plunket, and Sir Robert Adair, and, of course, Mr. 1836. Allen. Our talk turned chiefly on the merits and character of Burke.

Lord Plunket, who knew him, said he was not quite sane. Allen decried all his works, except liis earlier, which he said were stolen, as being gross exaggerations. Lord Holland would not admit this, neither would Sir Robert Adair, but Lord Plunket rather agreed with Allen. Whether the talkers in this dialogue were of capacity to discuss the merits of such a man as Burke, I could not pretend to decide ; but I was much interested in listening to their conversation. Holland House is, after all, the only place which I frequent, of which the conversation is worth recording.

I was at the Levee on August 3, and heard from one of the King's sons that the good old trriitleman had been assailed on all sides, since the reduction of our majority to 26. Our resigna- tion was publicly spoken of, and the day for that happy event fixed.

Even quiet and courageous Lord Melbourne Ix'Lran to give way, and told us that he had long had doubts whether it was right and becoming to go on with the government in our present con- dition. There was an immense majority against us in the Lords, and the English constituencies, so far as we knew, were against us — the Court decidedly hostile — and nothing but an insignificant majority in the Commons in our favour, and even there it was only on doubtful and unpopular

60 LONDON CHAP. II.

1836. questions that we outnumbered our opponents. Lord Melbourne said a man must have the patience of an ass to stand against such odds.

August 10. — A very numerous deputation, headed by Lord William Bentinck, waited on me at the India Board, to discuss a proposal for establishing a steam communication with India. The scheme met with many and serious obstructions, but was started at last. I heard no complaints, except from a very clever friend of mine, who said to me, " The deuce take these projectors ! Letters come from India now quite quick and quite often enough ; I am sure many of them are not answered yet. What will it be when letters and despatches come from India once a week ? "

August 20. — I went to the House of Lords to see the King prorogue Parliament. There was a great crowd, especially of ladies. The King got through his part very well, though he could scarcely see to read ; and, on the whole, all went off well.

I made up my mind to make a short journey on the Continent, and accordingly engaged a courier, and made other preparation for my little excursion. I wrote requesting His Majesty's permission for my absence abroad for a few weeks, and two days after came a civil but a flat refusal from the King. His Majesty put his denial chiefly upon the state of affairs in Spain, which, he said, had caused a conjuncture more critical than any which had occurred since his accession to the

CHAP. II. BRIGHTON — CHICHESTER 61

throne, and required the deliberate attention of 1836. all his confidential servants, and the attendance of all of them in Cabinet .

I called on Lord Melbourne and he told me that Lord Glenelg had also been stopped from going abroad. He added that he should not be much surprised if we were soon turned out, im- prudent as such a step might be ; for the people might sympathise with us, and the House of Commons refuse the supplies. The feeling that we were ill-treated had given us the majority in the elections before, and might do the same again. Lord Melbourne said that, in 1834, the dismissal was the result of a scheme. Now there was no scheme, but H.M. was all but crazy. This, added to his dislike of us, might bring about the catastrophe.

FROM DIARY.

September 16. — I resolved to take a little tour in England, and went to Brighton, with my brother Henry, thence to Chichester and Hale, where I re- mained on a visit to my dear friend, David Baillie.

September 23. — Rode out with Baillie to the residence of Sir Charles Hulse. His wife was made by will the heiress to the fortune now held by Sir Joseph Copley, in consequence of a love attachment on the part of the owner. She had the generosity to give up the whole estate, re- serving only a monied bequest of £20,000 to £25,000. The Copleys abuse their benefactress for not resigning the whole, although what they

62 TRAFALGAR HOUSE CHAP. II.

1836. have received from her bounty amounts to £12,000 a year. Baillie added, " I cannot look at her without veneration." What is to be said of the wag, Sir Joseph ?

September 25. — I rode over to Trafalgar, and saw the great brick house in a half-naked park, entirely stripped by the personal heirs of the late Lord Nelson ; and the windows nearly all demolished by the furious hail-storm of last June. So ruined a record of national gratitude I could not have expected to find ; but the nation looks one way and the family another.

I recollected the arrival of the news of the glorious victory as distinctly as if I had heard it only the day before, and the dilapidated mansion and poverty-stricken premises produced feelings which I will not attempt to record.

I went from Hale to Hindon, Bath, and Chep- stow, stopping at Tintern Abbey, that lovely ruin ! I thought it looked more fresh than when I last saw it. I wonder what it thought of me ? It rained so hard that I could not go out in the evening, but I read Henry V. and some of the speeches made me start again, to say nothing of the inimitable fooling.

September 28. — Went to Boss. The chief in- terest here made by Pope. The guide-books tell only of Kyrle l ; yet it is not quite certain that

1 John Kyrle (1637-1724), immortalised by Pope as the "Man of Ross" for his beneficent charitable works. The Kyrle Society is named after him.

CHAP. II. TOUR IN WALES 63

more than half of Pope's character of this immortal 1836. man is not fiction : the fiction of a great poet is better than the fact of a common man.

I made a little tour in Wales at this time, and was more than ever convinced that there is no necessity for going out of the British Isles in order to behold sublime scenery.

I was much struck with the Menai Bridge, and gazed at that stupendous work from several positions with increased admiration ; and felt proud, not only of my nation, but of my kind.

On October 2nd I went to Kinmel Park, the seat of Lord Dinorben. There was a large party assembled to meet the Duke of Sussex and his w i t'e, Lady Cecilia Underwood. The guest in whom I took the most delight was Doctor Buckland, who was an agreeable mixture of sense and simplicity.

I took particular notice of what he said as to the probable exhaustion of our great coal-fields, aud the shameful waste of that material, the true source of our wealth and grandeur, which is going on unceasingly at the pit mouths.

October 5. — I left Kinmel, and resumed my quarters at my Putney Villa, until October 10, when I returned to London.

I had an audience with the King, who urged the necessity of watching the western frontier of India. He then said that George III. was a good King for Home affairs, but neglected con- tinental relations. If he had followed Lord

64 BRIGHTON CHAP. II.

1836. Chatham's advice, and disputed America with Germany, he would not have lost that country. H.M. added that George IV. attended to Home affairs and Foreign affairs, hut neglected the Colonies. " Now," continued the King, " this is a fine country; but it is nothing without its Colonial possessions, especially India."

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

On Monday, November 28, I went to a Cabinet at Lansdowne House, instead of the Foreign Office. This was in consequence of the death of Augustus Lamb, only child of Lord Melbourne — the poor sickly lad whom I used to see with his mother in 1812 and 1814. He was thirty years of age. Melbourne did not affect any grief, but went on with our business.

November 29. — I went down to Brighton. The wind blew a perfect hurricane, and I thought the carriage would be upset going down to Reigate. On the road I heard that one arch of the Chain Pier at Brighton had been blown away, and several houses unroofed by the wind.

In the evening I dined at the Pavilion, but the ceremony was more dull than usual, although Sir William Freemantle did all he could to enliven our end of the table. The evening was intolerably tiresome, in spite of the Queen's band in the great room, and an amusing game of chess between the beautiful Miss Mitchell and the Duke of Saxe- Meiningen.

CHAP. II. OPENING OP PARLIAMENT 65

Parliament was opened by commission on Tues- 1837. day, January 31. The King was not well, the Queen was ill, and the Duchess of Gloucester was dying.

I went early to the House on Tuesday, February 7. Russell had already begun his speech on Irish affairs, and had said that the Administration would stand or fall by the Corporation Bill now introduced.

The debate was resumed the next day. Sir James Graham spoke as if we clung to office from mean or mercenary motives, and ended by a violent tirade against Popery. I then spoke, and used the phrase, " When the happy day shall come to release us from this thankless servitude " ; and Peel, in his reply, fastened on these words as if they announced our speedy resignation, al- t hough, in fact, they were only a repetition of what Russell had said in opening the debate.

I heard that what I had said of the happy day that was to release us from our thankless servitude had given rise to rumours of our im- mediate relinquishment of office. The comment on this from our opponents was somewhat flatter- ing; for they were pleased to say that I was honest and truth-speaking, and really did wish to leave office. This was true so far as the desire to leave office was concerned ; not so much, however, from any dislike of office, as because I did not see how we could retain it now without loss of character, and consequently of influence.

VOL. v 9

66 LONDON CHAP. II.

1837. February 11. — Passing the evening with Lady Holland, I found her ladyship not at all pleased with our threatened resignation. She asked me whether I thought we were really going out. I said, " Most assuredly ; c'est le commencement de la fin" so certain did the event appear to me at that time.

On February 14 I dined at Lord Holland's. The company was composed chiefly of artists, all of them very distinguished — Westmacott, Land- seer, and Leslie. Lord Holland told us some amusing anecdotes of Nollekens' miserly habits, which were accepted by his guests as facts. Amongst others, he mentioned that this eminent sculptor asked leave of his barber to take home with him the paper on which he wiped his razor — the soap might be useful to him.

February 22. — Walking across the Green Park to Berkeley Square this day, I met Sir Robert Peel with a young person under his arm — his daughter, I presumed. We saluted each other civilly, and shook hands. Who made the first advance I did not know, but he apologised very civilly for giving me only his two fingers, as he had his gloves and stick in his hand. I said I hoped the debate would end that night. He re- plied that he hoped so too ; he was almost killed ; it was too tiresome. I told him that I did not wonder at that, considering his constant attend- ance at the House. After a word or two more we parted, when he very cordially, and with an

CHAP. II. FRIENDSHIP OF POLITICAL OPPONENTS 67

expression and manner such as I never wit- 1837. nessed in him either before or since, wished me "Good-bye."

This little incident might not have been worth mentioning had it not broken in upon a plan which I had long acted upon — namely, not to have a personal acquaintance with an opponent of whom I was occasionally compelled to speak with asperity, more particularly with Sir Robert Ted, whose private manners I understood not to he agreeable, and who seemed to me to have none of the generosity which is indispensable in order to render intercourse with political antagonists at all endurable. But, at all events, my meditated speech wus disposed of, for I did not like to say what I had in store for Sir Robert after our interview.

On March 11 I dined at the Duchess of Kent's, and met rather a dull party, except that it was enlivened a little by the Arch- bishop of Dublin, who sprawled about at his case, and joked with Stanley, of the Treasury, about a pretty little "ooman" — a pronunciation, he said, which showed that our cockneys knew how to drop the digamma. Lord Palmerston arrived, as usual, late, after we had sat down to dinner. The Princess Victoria looked in good health. I sat next to her governess, who told me that H.R.H. knew German, and French, and Latin, well; and studied much, delighting particularly in history.

68 LONDON CHAP. II.

1837. PROM DIARY.

March 18. — I had a party to dinner — the Albe- marles, Mintos, and Mrs. Methuen, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, Captain Maitland, and the young Eajah Bam Boy. The Rajah is really a very superior young fellow. He gave us a very entertaining account of a walking tour in Scotland. On one occasion he went up to an old woman who was working in a field, and asked his way ; the woman raised her head suddenly, and exclaiming, "The deil ! the deil ! " ran away.

FROM BOOK, " BECOLLECTIONS."

There was much apprehension at this time of some impending crisis. I heard from more than one person that, if a change of Government took place, there would he a run on the Bank.

On April 20 I dined with a gallant old officer, who ohtained much repute in the great war. Lord Lynedoch l was then nearly ninety years of age ; he heard well, and his eyes served him also pretty well since they had been couched. He was

1 Thomas Graham, Lord Lynedoch (1748-1843), had a very varied and adventurous career. He raised the Perthshire Volunteers in 1794, the year he entered Parliament for Perthshire. After acting as British Commissioner with the Austrian army in Mantua, he took part in the capture of Minorca, and commanded the troops blockad- ing Malta. He was aide-de-camp to Sir John Moore in the campaign of Corunna in 1809. He won the victory of Barossa ; but, owing to some dispute with the Spanish generals, he resigned his command. He served throughout the Peninsular War under Wellington, and commanded the British contingent in Holland in 1814. He was created Baron Lynedoch in 1814. He had also the reputation of being a cricketer, and is supposed to have taken part in the first Scottish cricket-match.

CHAP. II. IRISH TITHE BILL 69

gay and gallant to the ladies of the party, and, 1837. except a long story or two, betrayed no signs of old age. I had kept up my acquaintance with him since his hospitable reception of me when he commanded our army before Cadiz, and fought the battle of Barossa.

Our Irish Tithe Bill still gave rise to much controversy amongst ourselves ; and, as Lyndhurst and the Duke of Cumberland had made their appearance, we supposed the struggle was about to Infill in real earnest. Lord Melbourne, at this juncture, was of the greatest service, and led the party in the Lords in a way that showed he was worthy to lead it. He said nothing that could induce his audience to believe we were on the eve of retirement. He declared there was nothing in the state of the country that called for a change of Government, or that could prevent any other Cabinet from being formed, and conducting public business, honourably and usefully; and he char- acterised Sir Ilobert Peel's description of the state of affairs at home and abroad as the humble labour of a low and creeping policy I Lord Mel- bourne's vigorous assault on the leader of the Opposition came with the greater force as he very seldom indulged in any invective ; indeed never, except when compelled to repel unjust attacks.

We encountered difficulties now and then, from the necessity of having two leaders ; one, the Prime Minister in the Lords — the other, the Leader in the House of Commons. I reminded

70 LONDON CHAP. II.

1837. Lord Melbourne of his declaration that, so long as he had a majority in the Commons, he would not retire. This was after Russell had said something which indicated either a wish or an intention to resign. Lord Melbourne's reply to my reminder was, " True ; but posterior es prior es abrogant " a very practical and convenient way of getting rid of any declaration.

After a Cabinet on Saturday, April 22, it was a great relief to dine with Mr. Powell, and meet ( Mr. Creevey, the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Albe- marle, Motteux, and Mr. Blunt. Their talk was of pies and port wine ; and it was wonderful with what real learning and intelligence these healthy old gentlemen spoke on these subjects.

April 29. — On this day I dined with the Royal Academy, at their first Trafalgar Square festival ; and I felt that their new abode was infinitely preferable to their old residence in Somerset House. All the great folks of all parties, except Lord Stanley, were amongst the guests.

The Exhibition was said to be the best which had been seen for some time ; but I could not say that I should have come to that conclusion, from seeing one of the most conspicuous pictures: " Ulysses and the Sirens," I thought mon- strous ; three big, naked women sitting amongst dead bodies and bones. It was, as Lord Ripon remarked to me, " Indecorous without being attractive."

At this time an event occurred which gave me

CHAP. II. SIR F. BURDETT IN OPPOSITION 71

much concern. Sir Francis Burdett came forward 1837. for Westminster, and gained the election. He made no secret of his intention to oppose the Government, and to make common cause with our declared enemies. Westminster was no longer the Westminster of Burdett and Cochrane — nor, I may add, of Burdett and Hobhouse ; and my pre- diction that it would lose much of its pre-eminence by the passing of the Reform Bill was fulfilled to the letter.

On Saturday, May 13, I went to Erie Stoke Park, of which I had taken a lease. I was charmed with the grounds and gardens, and everything attached to that beautiful residence; hut I little thought then that I should reside then* one-and-twenty years.

May 19. — We had a majority this evening against Sir Andrew Agnew's proposal for stopping the Glasgow railway on Sundays. The best speech on that evening was made by Mr. Roebuck, who read part of a chapter from St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and read it so impressively that he was praised even by Sir Robert Inglis.

May 22. — Sir Francis Burdett delivered a violent philippic against an amendment on our Church Kite Resolution. He uttered such High Church and ultra-Tory sentiments, so directly at variance with many well-remembered opinions of his, that our benches re-echoed with ironical cheers, replied to by vehement applause from the Opposition. Burdett was as fluent, and as self-possessed, and,

72 LONDON CHAP. II.

1837. rhetorically, spoke as well, as usual ; but he leaned on a stick, and appeared much exhausted.

I leaned forward and covered my face with a handkerchief, for I could not hear to look steadily towards him. He spoke about half an hour ; amongst other things, he " thanked God there was another House ! " He ended by alluding to his own painful position, opposing men for whom he had a great personal esteem ; and he said that his life had been a life of sacrifices, and this was one of them, to which he was prepared to submit.

May 23. — At the Cabinet to-day Lord Melbourne appeared with a bundle of letters, all of them referring to that which, unfortunately, was not a very unusual occurrence in the Brunswick family — namely, a feud amongst themselves ; and nothing but the manliness, the good taste, and good feeling of the Prime Minister could have carried us through the difficulty.

I have recorded faithfully and fully the details, as they appeared in the correspondence, of this family feud ; but I should not think myself justi- fied in giving them a chance of being made public. Suffice it to say that the dispute arose from a want of that which is often felt by persons in all ranks of life — from sovereigns downwards — namely, money ; and, in this instance, the differences were kept alive and inflamed by the rivalry of con- fidential advisers, who hated each other with a perfect hatred.

CHAPTER III

FROM DIARY. 1837.

May 26. — Lord Melbourne told us at the Cabinet to-day that the King's health was in a very precarious state ; and we agreed that it was our duty to insist on Sir Henry Halford telling the King that he ought to take care of himself in order to prevent fatal consequences.

Melbourne mentioned that, when George IV. was dying, Halford communicated his danger to him, and the King received the news with courage and resignation, and took the Sacrament; but, getting a little better, he talked of going to Ascot. After this the King got worse again, but Halford did not think himself called upon to repeat hi* warning.

May 27. — I attended a Council at Windsor Castle— my iirst visit there. The gallery leading to the andienee-rooms very striking, and the view from the great saloon over the front inexpressibly grand. The King in a robe de chambre, looking very red in the face, and with a feeble voice; but he went through the ordinary forms as usual, and spoke to all of us.

May 31. — We discussed our Canada Bill in the Cabinet to-day, and agreed that the Legislative

VOL. v 73 10

74 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. Council should be dissolved, and reckon with the Assembly.

June 7. — Cabinet. Lord Melbourne announced that the King was very ill. His Majesty could not walk across the room without support ; his legs were swollen, and he could not take nourishment. His Majesty attended at the same time to business, and Glenelg showed us a copy of his Canada Bill, with notes in the King's own handwriting. One of them objected to the dissolution of the Legis- lative Council, as forming a precedent for a radical change in the House of Lords.

June 9. — Rumours of the King's death. He is, however, much the same, and Lord Melbourne decided to have a bulletin published.

On moving the second reading of the Irish Tithe Bill, Roebuck made a speech on what he called the state of the nation, and attacked the Government in good set phrases, as impeding the march of reform, carrying no measures, and sub- mitting to a crawling existence merely for the sake of office. Russell made a most effective speech in defence, and we carried the second read- ing by 215 to 14. So ended the day so anxiously looked for. The truth is, the state of the King's health has very much absorbed public attention, and present politics are forgotten in the prospects and conjectures relative to a new reign.

June 10. — The following bulletin appeared to-day :

" The King has suffered for soiree time from an

CHAP. III. DEATH OF KING WILLIAM IV. 75

affection of the chest, which confines H.M. to his 1837. apartment and has produced considerable weak- ness, but has not interrupted his usual attention to business."

Who would imagine from this that H.M. was thing? and yet I believe he is!

Junr !(>.— Summoned to a Council at Whitehall, and I thought the King was dead ; but, going there I found the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and the Bishop of London had a meeting, to determine the form of prayer for the King's recovery. There was no display of feeling on the part of the m<»t reverend prelates ; but they went through their work in a business-like manner.

June 18. — The poor King worse ! The inmates of Windsor Castle were in the galleries the greater part of last ni^ht, inquiring the latest news of their master, buoyed up by vain hopes, or de- pressed by unreasonable fears.

At Church to-day our clergyman gave us the be- ijinning of the Song of Simeon for a text, "Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace." I doubt whether the reverend gentleman meant this mali- ciously, but I do not recollect anything more pointed since the famous text on the death of Queen Anne.1

1 'I'h- incident alluded to is, no doubt, that mentioned by Lord .nhiy in his " lli.-tt.ry of England," but the reference is to Queen Mary, and not to her sister, Queen Anne.

" The iiiu.>t r.-ti i uable Jacobites re^u-ctcd the sorrow of William and the memory <.f Mary. But to the fiercer zealots of the party neither the house of mourning nor the grave was sacred. ... It has often been and is not at all improbable, that a nonjuring divine, in the midst of the general lamentation, preached to the text, 'Go, see now this cursed woman and bury her ; for she is a king's daughter.' "

76 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. PROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS. "

June 20. — The King died at twelve minutes past two this morning. About half -past eleven a Cabinet box came, containing the physicians' bulletin of the King's death, and a summons to Kensington Palace. Arriving at the Palace, I was shown into the ante-chamber of the music- room. It was full of Privy Councillors, standing round the long table, set in order, as it seemed, for a Council. There were nearly ninety Privy Councillors present — so I was told.

After a little time, Lord Lansdowne, advancing to the table, addressed the Lords and others of the Council, and informed them of the death of William IV. ; and reminded them that it was their duty to inform Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, of that event, and of her accession to the throne. He added that he, accompanied by those who might choose to assist him, would wait on Her Majesty. Accordingly, Lord Lansdowne and Lord Melbourne, then the Duke of Cumberland (now King of Hanover), then the Duke of Sussex, together with the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, and the Lord Chancellor, withdrew through the folding-doors behind the chair, and saw the Queen. She was alone ; but Lord Lansdowne told me that, as they entered the apartment, they saw a lady retiring into the back apartment. Lord Lansdowne returned, and informed the Council he had seen the Queen, and informed Her Majesty of the death of King William, and of her accession.

CHAP. III. ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA 77

Not long afterwards the door was thrown open ; 1837. the Dukes of Cumberland and Sussex advanced to receive Her Majesty, and the young creature walked in and took her seat in the arm-chair. She was very plainly dressed in mourning, a black M-arf round her neck, without any cap or ornament on her head ; but her hair was braided tastily on top of her head. She inclined herself gracefully on taking her seat.

Soon after she was seated Lord Melbourne stepped forward, and presented her with a paper, from which she read her Declaration. She went tli rough this difficult task with the utmost grace and propriety ; neither too timid nor too assured. Her voice was rather subdued, but not faltering, pronouncing all the words clearly, and seeming to fed the sense of what she spoke. Every one appeared touched with her manner, particularly the Duke of Wellington and Lord Melbourne. I saw some tears in the eyes of the latter. The only person who was rather more curious than a fleeted was Lord Lyndhurst, who looked over Her Majesty's right shoulder as she was read- ing, as if to see that she read all that was set down for her.

Alter reading the Declaration, Her Majesty took the usual oath, which was administered to her by Mr. Charles Greville, Clerk of the Council, who, by the way, let the Prayer-book drop. The Queen then subscribed the oath, and a duplicate of it for Scotland. She was designated, in the

78 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. beginning of the oath, " Alexandrina Victoria," but she signed herself "Victoria R."

Her handwriting was good. Several of the Council, Lord Lyndhurst, the Duke of Cumber- land, and the Duke of Wellington, came to the table to look at the signature, as if to discover what her accomplishments in that department were. Some formal orders in Council were made, and proclamations signed by the Queen, who addressed Lords Lansdowne and Melbourne, with smiles, several times, and with much cordiality.

The next part of the ceremony was swearing in the new Privy Council. The Dukes of Cumber- land and Sussex first took the oath, and kissed the hand of the Queen. She saluted them affection- ately on the cheek. The swearing in the Privy Councillors lasted half an hour, at least. Some of us then sat down at the Council-table ; and the Queen then said, " I name and appoint Henry, Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord President of my most honourable Privy Council." During this time the doors of the room were opened frequently, and many persons admitted to see the young Queen, who continued sitting quietly at the head of the table, giving her approval in the usual form to several Orders in Council.

I went at two o'clock to the Cabinet Ministers of William IV., assembled in Downing Street ; all were present, except Lord Holland. I then learnt that Lord Melbourne had been summoned to attend the Queen at nine o'clock in the morning,

CHAP. III. THE PROCLAMATION 79

and that he had written the Declaration which 1837. Her Majesty had read, on taking her seat at the head of the Council -table. Only one word had been altered in that Declaration; it was the epithet immediately preceding " reliance," which \\.is altered into "FIRM reliance," by Lord Pal- merston. Russell told me he thought the altera- tion had not been an improvement; and Lord John added, " but Melbourne always gives up his opinion in these matters, and, when he asks advice, takes it."

Lord Melbourne now communicated to us the Queen's pleasure that she desired no change should take place in the Cabinet. Russell appeared to me much affected by the death of King William, and I thought there was more gloom on the faces of all than might have been expected, not only amongst ourselves, but generally.

The proclamation of the Queen's accession took place at St. James's Palace on June 21. Her Majesty \\aspresented to the people at the window facing Marlborough House. Lord Melbourne, and Lansdowne, and Dnncannon, with Spring Rice, in court dresses, were at her side, with certain great officers of state behind her. The Duchess of Kent was near her, on her right. The crowd was very irreat, but composed of decently dressed people, and gave Her Majesty a warm reception.

I went to St. James's Palace at twelve o'clock, and found the Queen holding a Council in the Throne-room. She wa^ dressed much as she had

80 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. been the day before, except that she wore a black straw hat and feathers. Several Orders in Council were read, and the Queen gave the usual approval, with her soft voice and her pleasing smile.

Lord Melbourne and one or two others were then called into the Royal closet and received by Her Majesty alone. Lord Lansdovvne told me that the Queen had remarked to him, she knew she ought to receive her Ministers unaccompanied by any lady.

FROM DIARY.

It is impossible to speak too highly of the Queen's demeanour and conduct. They deserve all that has been said of them by all parties, and must have been the offspring, not of art, nor of education, but of a noble nature, to use the words of the well-turned eulogy pronounced upon them by Sir Robert Peel.

June 22. — I went to the House of Commons. Most of the members were in deep mourning. Lord John Russell appeared at the Bar witht he Queen's message. Every one uncovered as he brought it up, except Sir James Graham, who did not take off his hat until the Speaker twice re- quested members to be uncovered. He was right in point of form, because the correct usage is for all members to uncover together, when the Speaker reads the King's title, and not till then ; but he was foolish in not doing as others did, as he drew

CHAP. III. THE RECORDER'S REPORT 81

down some censures which his explanation of next 1837 day did not remove.

Lord John Russell moved the address of condo- lence and congratulation in a long speech : a laboured eulogy on the late King. Some of what he said was true and interesting, as containing an account of H.M.'s last days, but I do not think the whole performance happy. Peel, who was ill from sciatica and leaning on a crutch, made a much better and shorter speech.

June 23. — Lord Tavistock showed me this day a very kind letter from the Queen to Lady Tavi- stock asking her to be one of the Ladies of the J bedchamber. She has consented. Lord Lans- downe told me he was convinced the Queen was resolved to stand by the Whigs.

FHOM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

At the Cabinet on Saturday, June 24, we considered in what way we might obviate the necessity of the Queen's receiving the Recorder's Import. The Recorder was decidedly opposed to doing awny with this ancient usage. Lord Mel- bourne remarked that, from what he had seen of the young Queen, he did not think she would hesitate to sign a death-warrant when the culprit deserved death.

Tuesday, June 27, I went to Kensington Palace. All the Privy Councillors, who were Members of Parliament, were there, except Sir Robert Peel, who was absent from illness. When we went

VOL. v 11

82 LONDON — WINDSOR CHAP. III.

1*37. into the inner room we found the Queen standing, with the Marchioness of Lansdowne behind her.

The Queen wore the ribbon of the Garter. Lord John Russell read the Address of condolence and congratulation; and, bending his knee, put it into the Queen's hand. She bent her head, received it, and put it into the hand of Lord Melbourne, who put into H.M.'s hand the answer, which she read, and gave to Lord John Russell. The Queen read the answers very well, and received our bows and homage with dignified courtesy.

FROM DIARY.

June 29. — Dined with our Stanley. Lady Seymour there, exquisitely beautiful certainly, but I preferred a quiet Mrs. Edward Villiers, whom I once recollect as a Miss Liddell.

Charles Buller was there. A little girl, Stanley's daughter,1 not seven years old, said to him, " You are always joking. I do not ever know whether what you say is true." This is quite the character of the man. The child is right.

FROM BOOK, "RECOLLECTIONS."

Saturday, July 8, was the day fixed for the funeral of the late King ; accordingly I went to the house of my good friend, Recorder Richards, at Datchet. I drove to Windsor at half -past seven, and was shown into St. George's Hall,

1 Afterwards Lady Airlie.

CHAP. III. THE KING'S F1MKU. 83

\\hei-e 1 found a crowd of Peers, Privy Councillors, 1837. Judges, Bishops, Officers of the Army and Navy, Equerries, Heralds, and other court servants. All were dressed in deep mourning, with scarfs and weepers, and I soon procured similar apparel.

There was a great bustle, and hurrying, and pushing ; but, after a little time, we were ordered to form the procession, the heralds calling out to the different classes where to go and where to place themselves.

I went among the Privy Councillors ; Poulett Thompson and Lord John Eussell were immediately before me ; Sir Robert Adair with me ; Sir Strat- ford Canning and Sir George Murray immediately behind. Sir S. Canning and myself remarked how urreat the odds were, when Adair, he, and I were at Constantinople in 1810, against us three meeting again under such circumstances. We marched on two by two; but the procession was stopped in consequence of some Peers having got into a \vruiiLr place. "We marched slowly, along galleries constructed for the occasion, which seemed end- less ; and the procession passed between rows of the Household Troops, both Horse-Guards and Foot-Guards, every third or fourth man of whom held a lar^e wax flambeau. The spectacle was very gorgeous, but not the least affecting, not even when we came in St. George's Chapel, and the lloyal coffin was brought in, with eight Dukes supporting the pall. The Duke of Wellington was at the right-hand corner of the coffin. I

84 WINDSOR CHAP. III.

1837. certainly did not see a tear in any eye, not even in Sir Herbert Taylor's. The Duke of Sussex was chief mourner, and sat, with his black skull- cap on, immediately behind the coffin ; Prince George of Cambridge was immediately behind the chief mourner. Russell, and P. Thompson, and Spring Rice, and myself, were in the stalls, on the floor of the chapel, a little behind the coffin. Queen Adelaide was in a proj ecting window, over- looking the aisle — so we were told; but she was not visible. The singing was, of course, good, but much too long. The coffin was lowered into the vault by a windlass ; and, after the anthem, the style and title of King William were read, and the clergyman said, " God save Queen Victoria!" I then heard, but did not see, the breaking of the official staves, which ended the ceremony about twelve o'clock at night. I retired through the ranks of soldiers, whose arms had been reversed, but were now shouldered. The Adjutant-General told me there were about 2,800 under arms.

I returned to Datchet, and found the chief mourner, the Duke of Sussex, at the house of Mr. Richards. During the supper the Duke criticised the conductors of the ceremony, and the officiating clergyman, very severely, and very justly. He showed no signs of grief; but he praised the late King much, and said he was a good and a kind man, meaning to do what was right. He added that the King was an ignorant

CHAP. III. DUKE OF SUSSEX'S COMMENTS 85

man, but had a good memory. The Duke said 1837. that his brother's political principles were much inclined to Toryism, during the whole of his life, except on the Catholic question. The Duke told us that he had written to Queen Adelaide an apology for not calling on her; and I may as well mention that what affected me more than any part of the pageant was the sight of her travelling-carriage, packed for her departure, in the courtyard of the Castle, where she had been so short a time ago the reigning sovereign. She departed, after the funeral, for Bushey. The Duke of Sussex told us that he had asked the young Queen how she liked her new office. Her Majesty replied, "Very much."

I got home about four o'clock in the morning. So ended the funeral of King William IV.— a tiresome pageant.

On Wednesday, July 12, I went to St. James's Palace, where Her Majesty, for the first time, sat on the throne, and received congratulatory Addresses from the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, and from the Court of Common Council. Close to her, on her right, was the Duchess of Sutherland, Mistress of the Robes, and next to her stood the Marchioness of Tavistock; on her left, a step below the throne, stood the Duchess of Kent, with a lady-in-waiting on II.R.H.

I happened to be next to the Duchess of Kent, and saw she was much affected when the Addresses were read, in which her maternal care was extolled.

86 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. The kissing hands of crippled aldermen and other civic functionaries lasted so long that Lord Lansdowne and some others tried to interfere, but the Queen hore their tedious homage with great good-humour.

Her Majesty afterwards held a Council, at which certain Privy Councillors and a great many Lord-Lieutenants of Counties took the oaths ; also the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and the Duke of Wellington, as Constable of the Tower. There was a good deal of confusion during this part of the ceremony, and the Queen could scarcely help smiling more than once ; but, on the whole, she received the homage of warriors and statesmen and churchmen with a dignified composure worthy of her great station. It was peculiarly gratifying to see her manner with the Duke of Wellington, and the contrast between majestic female youth and heroic manly age was exceedingly striking.

July 14. — In answer to a note from Her Majesty I went to Buckingham Palace. The apartments were in great disorder ; housemaids were on their knees scrubbing the floors, and servants laying down carpets.

After waiting a little time, with a page, the door opened, and the Queen walked in, smiling and curtseying. She placed herself on a sofa, on one side of a small table, and desired me to take a chair opposite to her. She told me that she had read Lord Elphinstone's letter, but had not

(MAI III. THE QUEEN AND INDIAN AFFAIRS 87

had time to read Lord Auckland's. She added 1837. that Lord Elphinstone's was an interesting letter, and that he was very young for so important a command. I smiled, and observed that "youth was no disqualification for empire," at which H.^l. lauirhed and looked pleased. She remarked upon the conduct of Sir Peregrine Maitland, in refusing to allow the regimental hands to attend the Hindoo ceremonies. She said she agreed with me in thinking it imprudent, and that the zeal of some persons to propagate Christianity often its own object. I observed that Sir Maitland was what was called a rions "man. " Yes," replied H.M., "and his wife too, who is a sister of the Duke of Richmond, is ^erious also." She told me she approved of Lord Klphinstone's caution in that respect, and desired me to tell him so; and she graciously acceded 10 my request to convey her thanks, on her ac- -ion to the Throne, to Lord Auckland for his ^rneral conduct.

I asked H.M. if she had read Burnes's travels.1 She replied she had not, but she had seen and spoken to him, and would read his book. After a little more conversation, I requested H.M.'s permission to communicate with her on Indian alVairs, and send her any news with which I

1 Alexander Barnes's " Journey to and Residence in Cabool " and

It in I'.okhara 1831-3." Burnes was sent as special envoy

to D,,st Mahomed in 1836, and was knighted in 1839. In 1841 he

inunlrn-d in the massacre at Kabul, which gave rise to the

Afghan War of

88 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. thought she would be interested, or ought to be acquainted. To this she assented very graciously, and I rose and withdrew.

I cannot refrain from saying that I received a most pleasing impression from her manner and her remarks, as being superior to her age, and even to her station; at least, such Royalties as I have seen. I heard afterwards from Colonel Cavendish that Her Majesty had told Madame Lehzen, her late governess, that she had had a very interesting and instructive conversation with me. I cannot say I gave her much in- struction. My principal information related to the three functionaries at the head of the Indian presidencies, with each of whom I was well ac- quainted, and entitled to speak of him.

From the Palace I went to a Cabinet. We discussed the Queen's Speech, and adopted Lord Melbourne's draft, with scarcely a word of altera- tion. Some of us had wished to have a more pointed allusion to the measures which the Lords had mutilated, or altogether put aside. I ven- tured to remark that whatever we put in the young Queen's mouth would be so manifestly our own sentiments, irrespective of her opinion, that we should gain nothing by saying strong things in this Her Majesty's first Speech to Parliament. Lord Melbourne nodded, and said, "Very true."

July 14. — At St. James's, on this day, the Queen received the Addresses of the two Universities.

CHAP. III. UNIVERSITY ADDRESSES 89

The Oxford deputation was headed by the Duke 1837. of Wellington ; the Cambridge by Marquess Camden. The former, scarcely to be recognised in his academical robes, with spectacles on his nose, read his Address very well. The other Chancellor hobbled wretchedly. The Oxford Address was much the best of the two. The Cambridge Address alluded to Queen Elizabeth as founder of our Protestant Establishment, and held her up as a model for our present Sovereign.

Some fifty Doctors of Divinity, Heads of Houses,

;'e>sors, etc., were presented to the Queen, and

Kis>ed hands; and it was remarked that not one

name was familiar to Europe, nor to scientific

England — no, not one!

The Cambridge deputation behaved most in- decorously; they crowded the Throne-room in » very part, and many of them leaped up repeatedly to get a glimpse of the Queen. They would not leave the Presence-chamber until actually pushed out by the Guards. Even the good- natured young Queen and the Duchess of Kent seemed displeased. The heat and the noise were very oppressive.

Afterwards the Queen held a Chapter of the Garter, and invested the Prince of Leiningen. I had never seen the ceremony before, and stayed, with some other Ministers, to look at it. The Kni-hts sat at a table, with the Queen at the top, Mr. Bathurst read the oath. The Prince knelt,

VOL. v 12

90 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. the Duke of Sussex put on the ribbon and the garter, the Queen helping to buckle it. After this, the Prince shook hands with the Knights and the Duchess of Kent. The Herald called on the Knights one by one ; each of them rose, bowed to the Queen, and withdrew. The Queen then retired, and the ceremony ended.

In the evening of the day I dined with Mrs. Otway Cave, and met two celebrities : Lady Becher1 and Lady Morgan.2 I sat next to the first of these ladies, and could hardly believe that she was the actress who had affected me so much in former years. Lady Morgan was not near enough to enable me to remark anything peculiar in her manner. I thought her not at all hand- some ; but I saw that she was not a little proud of a well-turned arm.

FROM DIARY.

July 15. — A Council at Buckingham Palace. The Queen again forgot to desire her great officers of the Household to sit down, and when Lord Melbourne hinted it to her, told them to be seated, but blushed very much. She, however, soon recovered herself.

1 The celebrated Miss O'Neill, who first made her mark on the Dublin stage in Shakespeare's plays, and came to London in 1815. She married Mr. (afterwards Sir William) Becher, M.P., in 1819.

3 Sydney Owenson, who married Sir Thomas Morgan in 1812, was the author of several patriotic Irish novels, and in 1817 published a work on France which met with considerable success. She was conspicuous in London society almost to the time of her death in 1859.

CHAP. III. THE QUEEN PROROGUES PARLIAMENT 91

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

July 17. — I went to the House of Commons, and sa\v the Queen come down to prorogue the Parliament. The day was fine, the crowd was great, and the whole spectacle very beautiful. I thought the equipages more gay, the attendants and all the accompaniments of the procession, horses, pages, and people, more brilliant, than I had ever seen them before. The Queen appeared much pleased with the reception she met with. AVherever her eyes turned she saw signs, un- mistakable, of love and loyalty. She looked exceedingly well in her glass-coach, and she bowed n peatedly to the vast crowd that accompanied her, and to those who, from every roof and window, \\civ elu Trills ;uid waving handkerchiefs as she sed slowly along. When the arrival of Her Majesty was announced to us, I went with the Speaker to the House of Lords ; but was so much squee/t-d and pressed on every side that I could not get near the Speaker. I just caught a glimpse of Her Majesty on the throne, and thought she In 'came her crown and sceptre very much.

Her Majesty read her Speech in a very pleasing and very sensible tone of voice. Every one seemed charmed with her address and mode of delivery ; and the Speech was approved, so far as I could l«'urn, by every one. The House was filled with ladies, and Lord Willoughby told me that, except in one instance, he had issued orders for admission only to Peeresses.

92 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. At four o'clock the Council met at Buckingham Palace, and the Queen signed the Proclamation for dissolving the present Parliament and calling a new one. Her Majesty looked at one time a little pale, and flushed at another, and rather fatigued, as the young creature well might be !

On Wednesday, July 19, Her Majesty held a Levee — the first of her reign. It was much crowded. Three thousand persons were present, and of these the greater number kissed the Queen's hand. She went through the formalities of the tedious day with her accustomed grace and dignity.

I dined the same day with the Queen at Buckingham Palace ; it was her first large dinner. The Queen was handed to the table by General Sebastiani, the French Ambassador. On her right hand sat Count Orloff, the Russian Ambassador, on a mission of congratulation. The Duchess of Kent was next to him ; Lady Lansdowne was next to Sebastiani; the Prince of Leiningen sat opposite to the Queen. Lord Palmerston did not come in until we were seated. Lord Minto and Lord Glenelg were the other Cabinet Ministers present. The Duke of Argyll sat at one end of the table, and Colonel Cavendish, Clerk-Marshal, at the other. There were about twenty-eight guests in all. The Duchess of Kent was near the Queen. I could not help remarking the ease with which the young Sovereign accommodated herself to her altered position. The last time I dined in her

CHAP. III. THE GENERAL ELECTION 93

company was at Kensington Palace, where she 1837. was her mother's guest, and behaved accordingly ; here, her mother was her guest, and her manner suited the occasion.

Her Majesty did not speak to any one, except to the Ambassadors next to her, and occasionally the Prince of Leiningen, and her mother ; also to tlui Duke of "Wellington, to whom she, as well as her mother, was very attentive. He sat next to the Queen at the tea-table in the drawing-room, and continued a long time in easy conversation with her. Lord Grey and his daughter, Lady r-ina, were present; the former looking very awful and seven'. When the Queen rose to leave the room she came to me and spoke about the letters which I had left with Her Majesty. She v. as very courteous, and most pleasing; and such, let me add, I have always found her.

^•1 it (//tat 10. — I find, from the results of the General Election, that we shall lose six seats at least; but against this loss we have got rid of many tiresome men on both sides of the House.

Lord Melbourne, in talking of our losses, evinced no despondency, but remarked that the Church had been too much for us. That was true, and I might have remarked that the Dissenters had been too little for us; for we received but very luke- warm support from that capricious body.

I again stood for Nottingham, and gained the election easily.

Any ust 11. — I called on Lord Palmerston, and

94 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. heard from him some singular details of people much in the confidence of some of the Royal Family, which convinced me that Her Majesty had been most fortunate in the choice of her Prime Minister. I did not believe there was another man in the country who could have ex- tricated Her Majesty from the difficulties in which the indiscretions of others had involved her. Thus it was that, in after-days, I was never sur- prised at the strong regard and personal confi- dence with which Her Majesty honoured this most fascinating man.

Of course these unmistakable marks of prefer- ence did not escape the notice of those courtiers, or rather politicians, who were eclipsed by them ; and I recollect hearing, at the time, that when some one objected to an apartment being always kept engaged for Lord Melbourne at Windsor Castle, the Duke of Wellington, who always had, from her birth, a fatherly affection for the Queen, exclaimed, " By G — ! it is all right, and, if I was Lord Melbourne, I would seldom be out of the way."

On Thursday, August 17, I dined at Bucking- ham Palace, to celebrate the Duchess of Kent's birthday. Of the Ministers there were Lords Melbourne, Glenelg, and Palmerston, besides Spring Bice and myself.

When the Queen retired the Duke of Sussex, good man, began to be obstreperous. We had had two healths before — the Queen and the Duchess

CHAP. III. CONCERT AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE 95

of Kent ; but the Duke would give other healths, 1837. and, amongst them, gave "the People of Ireland," and he asked Palmerston whether he did not think them good fellows. Lord Palmerston replied, " They have done their duty now." The Duke then gave "the People of India," and addressed me in a few words, which made Lord Melbourne burst out into one of his most joyous laughs.

When we went into the drawing-room we found preparations for a concert ; all the great per- formers there : Grisi, Albertazzi, and Lablache. On my complimenting the Duchess on her birth- day, she said, " Ah, I am too old for many happy returns." The Queen was kept standing for more than half an hour, as the Duke and Duchess of Oldenburgh did not come in time. Her Majesty bore the tiresome delay with the utmost good- humour. At last the Duke and Duchess came, and the Queen saluted the Duchess very graciously, as did the Duchess of Kent.

All the Cabinet Ministers in London, and some of the Officers of State, dined the following day with the Duke of Sussex at Kensington Palace, in order to meet the Duke and Duchess of Olden- burgh. The Duchess, a daughter of the dethroned King of Sweden, seemed a very pleasing personage, mucli younger than her husband, a dull, good- humoured man. We had a merry day, with much health-drinking and speechifying.

The day after this dinner I went to Erie Stoke, accompanied by my brother, the M.P. for Roches-

96 ERLE STOKE — WINDSOR CASTLE CHAP. III.

1837. ter. I found my children well ; the country was looking beautiful, and the repose, after the toil and turmoil of London, was enchanting.

FROM DIARY.

September 5. — I have just read Macaulay's Essay on Basil Montagu's "Bacon," a very power- ful performance, but abounding in the usual faults of the author. He gives his reader no repose for a moment, but knocks at him right and left like the boxer in Virgil, nee mora nee requies. However, there is not a man in the world except Macaulay who could write it, to say nothing of his Indian occupations : a criminal code for all India.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

I stayed at Erie Stoke until September 11, when I went on a visit to Her Majesty at Windsor Castle. I found Lord Melbourne, Palmerston, and Glenelg there, besides Lord Tavistock, the Marquis Conyngham (Lord Chamberlain), Lord Lilford (Lord of the Bedchamber), and the Honourable Charles Murray (Equerry-in-waiting). These, with two maids of honour, were at the dinner-table. The guests at the Castle were the King and the Queen of the Belgians, with their attendants, and, amongst them, my friend Van de Weyer. The Duchess of Kent, with her attendants, was also there.

Lord Melbourne always sat next to Her Majesty, and it was most gratifying to observe

CHAP. III. KING AND QUEEN OF THE BELGIANS 07

her demeanour with him ; it was that of a child 1837. to a parent. He was easy, but respectful, and behaved as became himself and his Sovereign. After dinner we drank the health of the King of the Belgians, the Queen of the Belgians, and of our Queen.

The Queen of the Belgians was a very fair- haired, blur-eved, a<|iii line-nosed Princess; young enough, in appearance, to be Leopold's daughter. Leopold had the same serious, sombre look as in his younger days. He was particularly attentive to me during my visit to the Castle, probably from having heard from Van de Weyer of the interest I had taken in the success of the Belgian revolution, and in his election to the throne. After dinner His Majesty took me aside, and talked to me of the state of affairs in his own kingdom. . . . He was interrupted by the Queen, who ran up to him, and carried him away to play at cards. I looked on, standing ; but the Queen insisted on my sitting down, and, as I still hesitated, said to Lady Tavistock, who reported it to me, "Sir John llohhouse will not do as I bid him; he will not take a chair." Of course I sat down imme- diately.

I had a pleasant talk with Madame Lehzen, called the Baroness, late governess of Her Majesty. She kept up a lively fire upon Lord Glenelg, accusing him, half in fun, of being too la/y. That character did attach to Glenelg, but unjustly ; he was not lazy; he was too scrupulous

VOL. v 13

98 WINDSOR CHAP. III.

1837. and critical as to what he wrote ; and his cousin, my friend Dr. Chambers, told me that he would get up early on a winter morning, light his own fire, and sit down to write a despatch. The even- ing passed very pleasantly, and, before retiring, Lady Tavistock told me she had received the Queen's commands to invite me to breakfast with her ladies at ten o'clock — a favour which, in those days, was confined to Privy Councillors. Accord- ingly, the next day I breakfasted with the Queen's ladies.

At half -past three the Queen, and Queen of the Belgians, accompanied by ladies, took a drive in pony phaetons. Lords Melbourne, Palmerston, Glenelg, Tavistock, and myself, together with Colonel Cavendish and Lord Alfred Paget, C. Murray and Lord Lilford, followed on horseback. I was on a hard-mouthed, high-trotting beast. We started at a canter, and the whole party went at a furious rate up the Long Walk, Lord Mel- bourne and the other horsemen scampering along, sometimes by the side of the Queen's carriage, sometimes behind it. H.M. and the Duchess of Kent seemed pleased with the horsemanship of Lord Alfred Paget, mounted on a fiery black steed, and smiled and laughed at his modest assurance. He was a handsome, Calmuck-looking young fellow. We poured through the glades of the forest at the same rapid pace, until we came to Virginia Water. Here the Queen alighted, and entered the Chinese Pavilion overlooking the

CHAP. III. AT VIRGINIA WATER 99

hike. I had never looked at the scene before, 1837. and could fancy myself on the banks of some Swiss or Tyrolese lake. The Queen and her attendants got into the state barge, with the standard of England flying on it, and were rowed to the opposite bank. Lord Melbourne was with Her Majesty; Lord Glenelg steered another barge, rowed by Charles Murray and Colonel Cavendish and Lord Lilford and Lord A. Paget. Lord Palmerston rowed himself alone in a small boat. He offered me a place in it, but I was so hot, from my high-trotting horse, that I was at raid of catching cold, and declined.

The Royal party landed at the Pavilion, and the Queen ordered the frigate to be got under way. This pretty miniature man-of-war was manned by a lieutenant and six sailors. It was MM ne time before she was ready, although Lord A. Paget assisted the operations. H.M. got a little impatient, and sent to know when the frigate would move. Lord Alfred sent back word " in two minutes " ; and, sure enough, in two minutes her sails were shaken out, her anchor weighed, and she glided very slowly away. A bree/.e just thru sprang up, as if to please the mistress of a thousand war-ships, who was now amusing herself with a water-toy.

AVhen opposite to the Pavilion the frigate began to salute, and fired her one-and-twenty guns with great precision. A very pretty effect was produced by the smoke, burnished by the setting

100 WINDSOR CHAP. III.

1837. sun, rolling, and running, as it were, on the surface of the lake, at each discharge of the cannon. The Queen, and her suite, and all of us, were much gratified with the spectacle. It was the first visit of Queen Victoria to Virginia Water.

The dinner at the Castle this day passed off agreeably, and, when in the drawing-room, the Queen sat down to chess with the Queen of the Belgians. H.M. had never played before ; Lord Melbourne told her how to move, and Lord Palmerston also assisted her. I looked on for some time, without taking part in the game, and I might as well have abstained altogether ; for, when Melbourne and Palmerston gave up advising Her Majesty, in order that I might succeed to them, I did not succeed better than my colleagues. I was very near winning the game, when I lost it by an oversight, and by being very often asked by Her Majesty, " What must I do ? " There was also some little confusion created by the two queens on the board and the two Queens at the table. Her Majesty was not so discouraged by her defeat as to prevent her playing again the evening after this. Who played for the Queen I do not know; but H.M. ran up to me laughing, and saying she had won. She asked me how she came to lose yesterday. I replied, " Because your Majesty had such bad advisers," on which she laughed heartily, and so did the Queen of the Belgians, who, by the way, spoke English well.

CHAP. in. MELBOURNE'S OPINION OF THE QUEEN 101

Thus ended my visit to the Queen, for the next 1837. morning I left the Castle early, and returned to Erie Stoke.

FROM DIARY.

September 13. — Lord Tavistock told me that King William had taken away the Duke of Bedford's bust from the Windsor gallery because the Duke had subscribed to O'Connell ; but the young Queen replaced it immediately on arriving at Windsor. Indeed, from all I can learn there is no doubt of her attachments at present being for our friends ; but she is a young creature and a Queen, and who shall answer for her future conduct ?

Lord Melbourne praised her very much to me, and said that it was exceedingly satisfactory to transact business with her. I hear the Duchess of Kent is better inclined to us than she was, and bears Sir John Conroy's exclusion from Court with due resignation. The part taken by Lord Melbourne in the squabble between Madame the Harmless Lelizen and Sir J. Conroy has been exceedingly agreeable to the Queen.

October li.— Lord Lansdowne came over the other day to ask me to meet Lords Melbourne and John Russell at Bowood ; so I drove over there, and took Methuen.

1 went over the gardens and grounds, to the c^cade which I formerly thought so magnificent. The lake is certainly a fine piece of water, about

102 ERLE STOKE — BOWOOD CHAP. III.

1837. forty- two acres, I hear ; but the shrubberies and pleasure-grounds are dark and dull, and the general air of the place is sombre.

Methuen told me that Bo wood was offered to his grandfather before he bought Corsham ; it was about 1,400 acres of marshy ground. Lord Shel- burne purchased it, employed Brown to form the water and plant the woods and build the mansion ; and Mr. Methuen bought Corsham, then a small place; he also employed Brown, and thus, in a small space of time, two of the principal places in Wiltshire have been made and hunted over by the Lord-Lieutenant ; and the other, until lately, by a county member.

There was a small party at dinner. Lady Lansdowne looked far from recovered from her recent calamities ; and Lady Louisa so ill as to threaten another loss. Even worthy Lord Shel- burne seemed of very delicate health, and still the worse for his blow at Methuen's nomination. Lord Lansdowne, as usual, unperturbed by past, present, or future evils, placid and pleasing to all.

Lord Melbourne, who had been to hear his own Bishop Denison confirm at Bremhill said, " He is a Bishop, every inch of him."

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

November 7. — Returned to London, and in the evening dined at the Palace. I thought the Duchess of Kent looked out of spirits. Not so Her Majesty ; she was very lively, and most

CHAP. III. BARONESS LEHZEN AND THE QUEEN 103

pleasing to everybody. In the drawing-room she 1837. spoke for some time to me about Indian news, and laughed a good deal at my having sent her a Cabinet-box unlocked— a very stupid neglect, certainly,

Lord Howick and I had a good deal of con- versation with Baroness Lehzen, who told us that the Queen always wished her to be near her at state ceremonies, but that she preferred being at home to receive Her Majesty when they were over, in order that she might assist in taking care of the Queen's health. The Baroness mentioned that the Queen never read her speeches to any one aloud, except to her; and she then said that, if she cmild read it aloud to one person, she could read it to any number. Madame Lehzen added that she did not go to hear the Queen read the Addresses, being afraid that H.M. might hesitate, i i she looked at her. So said this good lady ; but I confess I did not think the Queen a person likely to tremble, even at her governess.

November 8. — I heard this day that there had been some difficulty as to the Duchies of Cornwall and Lancaster, and Rice told me he had heard from Lord Spencer, advising him to be cautious how they were interfered with, as an imprudence in that respect might alienate the Court, and change the course of events during the whole reign. " How strange," said Rice, " that Althorp should preach prudence to me ! " And strange it would seem to Rice ; but the prudence of the one

104 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. differed very much from the prudence of the other. Rice was cautious from timidity ; Althorp, from a knowledge of the danger, and a courageous dis- regard of the imputation of being afraid.

November 9. — Her Majesty attended a dinner at the Guildhall. The multitude was very great, both in the streets and in the windows and roofs of houses ; and the streets looked very imposing. The charity children, and the schools, and the different Companies of the Corporation, placed in wooden galleries, decorated with coloured cloth, round the railings of St. Paul's, produced a very pleasing effect.

When the Queen entered the Council- chamber she was addressed very pompously by Recorder Law. H.M. read a short answer, put into her hands by Lord John Russell ; and then she told the Lord Mayor, when he had kissed hands, that she had ordered a patent of baronetcy to be made out for him, and she knighted the two Sheriffs.

H.M. then retired with the Duchess of Kent, and the Princesses, and her ladies; and shortly afterwards we went into the Hall and seated ourselves at the table assigned to us. The city etiquette studiously avoids distinguishing official rank ; at least, it did so on this occasion.

I found myself next to Sir Henry Hardingc, who talked very agreeably, and before we parted he said two or three things that showed he did not despair of the party to which he belonged. He informed me also that Peel, who was in Paris, was

CHAP. II r POLITICAL TENDENCIES 105

in strong health ; and that the Duke of Wellington 1837. \\ is able to hunt all day, and ride from fifteen to twenty miles to cover and hack.

I was too far from the Queen to see how she received the applause with which her health was drunk ; but the newspapers said that she was much pleased, and mse and curtsied repeatedly. ll.M. rose from the table, and left the hall about half-past eii;ht, amidst thunders of applause.

I did not get home till half-past eleven, having been thus ten hours assisting, as the French call it, at this ceremony. The streets looked as full as they had been during the day, with carriages of every description, and the illuminations were very brilliant through all the streets from Guildhall to St. James's.

From what I heard, I should not say there was much political feeling displayed on either side. The Duke of Wellington was cheered passing the Carlton Club-house, and Lord Melbourne was occasionally applauded; but even the Morning Post confessed that the Duke was not welcomed so much as might have been anticipated. The Queen, however, was so well received as almost to raise the indignation of the then Tory Times, which Complained that a you HIT woman who had done no one good thing for the nation, should receive the re\\ard due to a long life of loyal patriotism.

The affairs of Lower Canada now engaged the attention of the Home Government, and caused great anxiety. Lord Gosford, the Governor, had

VOL. v 14

106 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. sent for more troops, and dismissed thirty-six magistrates and militia officers, for outrageous conduct at public meetings ; Papineau was one of them. Being asked, by order of Lord Gosford, whether he had used certain expressions imputed to him, he refused to reply, and said the question was impertinent. We had now to decide who was to succeed Lord Gosford. Lord Melbourne said that now was the time to disprove the accusation of the advocates of despotism, that our Constitu- tional Governments did very well for fair weather and peaceable times, but would not work well in days of difficulty and war. If a man could be found fit to be trusted with complete discretion, he (Lord Melbourne) would give it him ; and, perhaps, Lord Durham might be persuaded to accept the charge, and, under such conditions, might act with boldness as well as prudence.

November 14. — At a Cabinet to-day we discussed what provision ought to be made for the Duchess of Kent. We agreed that Lord Melbourne should make her a distinct offer of £30,000, and should recommend Government to pay her debts. Lord Holland thought the sum rather small, and I was disposed to agree with him. The Princess-Dowager of Wales, mother of George III., had £60,000 a year. But Russell said, " God knows how many Dowagers we may have ! "

I dined this day with the Queen. In the drawing-room I took the opportunity to speak to Her Majesty about the fatigues of the City

CHAP. III. Dl CHESS OF KENT'S AFFAIRS 107

profession and dinner, which she said she had 1837. borne very well. I said I was afraid she might have been annoyed by going to a play the night after the dinner and on Friday nii^ht also. " Oh," said H.M., "not at all ; I like a play very much." The young creature spoke like an emancipated schoolgirl, without, however, forgetting her great station.

At a Cabinet held at Lord Melbourne's private house, on Sunday, November 19, Lord Melbourne read to us a letter from the Duchess of Kent, in which she formally declined the offer of paying her debts by a parliamentary vote, and said little or nothing of the proposal to give her £30,000 a year for personal income. Indeed, she talked of the income and the rank to be assigned to her as matters quite unsettled, by which we understood that she \\ished to he given the precedence and rank of a Queen-mother. She remarked that, since the days of Henry VII., no one had been in her situation. On this point Lord Melbourne told us that it was not the Queen's wish to give her mother a rank that would put her mother above her aunts. " It would," said the Queen, "do my mother no good, and would offend my aun

It was agreed that Lord Melbourne should write a letter to the Duchess, setting her right in regard to some of her statements, and repeating that the Queen had no money out of which she could pay her mother's debts, adding that the Ministers did

108 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837. not stand in the way of the Queen paying the debts of the Duchess, which in H.R.H.'s last letter had been reasserted. Lord Melbourne told us that he had informed the Queen there were differences in the Cabinet as to the mode of paying these debts ; on which Her Majesty said, " I hope there is no difference of opinion as to whether I am to pay them or not."

On Monday, November 20, the Queen opened the new Parliament in person. Her Majesty was rapturously received by an immense concourse of people. I thought the cheering and the waving of handkerchiefs and hats would never end. I did not choose to accompany the Speaker to the House of Lords, as the crowd and crush of members were greater than I liked to encounter. Our friend Ward was pushed against a pillar, and his shoulder was dislocated. I heard the Queen spoke the Speech exceedingly well.

November 22. — I went to Buckingham Palace to attend the Speaker with our Address. After waiting a short time in the antechamber, the doors were thrown open, and we walked in. The Queen was on the Throne, and looked really very beautiful ; although two fine women, the Duchess of Sutherland and Lady Barham, were standing next to her. She had a fine bust, lighted up by the freshness of early youth. Russell handed to H.M. her short answer to us, which, as usual, she read very distinctly.

November 28. — At our Cabinet to-day we had a

CHAP. III. DINNER AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE 109 183?.

discussion about giving the liberty of the press to the island of Malta ; and, in spite of the before- recorded opinion of the Duke of Wellington, a -reed to do it.

December 1. — Lord John Russell introduced his Irish Poor Law, the same as that of last year. The principal merit of his speech was, that it did not make the measure of too much importance.

December 2.— After a long afternoon at the India Board, 1 dined this day at the Palace, but had i^reat difficulty in getting there, on account of the dense fog which beset this part of the metropolis. The Queen sat down to dinner before my arrival. I explained the cause of my delay, and II..M. received my excuses with great con- descension, smiling and bowing to me several times — hardly worth mentioning, except as show- ing her natural disposition. Lord Melbourne, as usual, was at her left hand, next to her, and kept up a conversation which seemed to amuse her, for she often laughed.

The women were more numerous than the men. 1 was seated between a very beautiful young woman, Mrs. Charles Grey, and a very pleasing person, Miss Davis of the Bedchamber, and passed a pleasant time of it, until Her Majesty went into the drawing-room.

AVlien the men joined the ladies, H.M. came up to me, and spoke to me about the company. She afterwards sent Lord Byron to me, and desired me to play at whist with the Duchess of Kent.

110 LONDON CHAP. III.

1837 I did so ; and Lord John Russell and Lord Byron played against the Duchess and myself. Sir Frederick Stovin played the hand of the Duchess, but she seemed confused. We won the rubber, and then we changed partners; Russell and I played together. The Duchess was taken ill; but, after one of her ladies had given her some salts to smell, she continued her game, and won this rubber. Russell had to pay her eight shillings, and he put down a sovereign. She gave him nine shillings, saying, " I believe that is right." He smiled, and took his change; but did not seem pleased with this specimen of Royal arithmetic. I got home by eleven o'clock; the fog was very thick, and I was accompanied by link-boys all the way.

CHAPTER IV

FROM DIARY. 1837.

December 3. — I dined with Mr. Stanley, and sat next to Mrs. Dawson Darner, an amusing woman. Charles Buller was of the party. His Radicalism

docs not kiM'p him away from good men's feasts, and our friends have evidently a wish to be well

witli him.

>.u BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

On December 4, I dined at our Raleigh Club. There was a very large party. The lions of the evening were a son of Lucien Buonaparte, and Captain Black. The Prince, as they called him, n sembled Napoleon more than any one of the family that I had seen. Indeed, he was very like what the Emperor was in 1815, particularly about the mouth and cheek. He seemed a good- natured, unaffected man. and, when we drank his health, returned thanks in a few appropriate sentences.

December 7. — There has been much discussion about a petition, presented by Mr. O'Brien, com- plaining of Sir Francis Burdett for subscribing

in

112 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1837. to the Spottiswoode Fund.1 Burdett himself made a vigorous speech, reminding me much of his old manner, bold and unflinching, and carrying the war into the enemy's camp. He owned he had been wrong in the matter of the Middlesex subscription, and had been laughed at by Sheridan for it. He confessed that he was, at that time, smarting under the effects of two sharp contests ; being obliged to live on very little, and keep only a single pair of carriage-horses. This was the weakest part of his speech, and our benches began to titter ; but he dashed out again, and declared against O'Connell and his rent, and sat down amidst thunders of applause from the Tories.

O'Connell answered the charge of being a paid patriot, and said he gloried in the fact. He had made great sacrifices, and had exposed himself to every stigma, even to the insult of every old renegade !

Young Disraeli, who had announced that he would single out O'Connell for combat, then made his maiden speech, which was such an exhibition of insolence and folly as I never heard in my life before. In conclusion, he told the House,

1 The system of deciding disputed elections was at this time most unsatisfactory. These cases were tried by Committees of the House of Commons appointed for the purpose, which were always supposed to give the verdict in accordance with the political views of the majority. After the last election 67 petitions were lodged, and a fund called the Spottiswoode Fund was instituted to promote petitions against Irish returns alleged to have been obtained by violence and intimidation.

CHAP. IV. DUKE OF SUSSEX'S INCOM! 113

11 You shall hear me another time." A prediction 1837. which this celebrated gentleman afterwards fully verified.

We at last divided against O'Brien, and were •T'.l to 121. The decided Ministerialists, the Tories, and a portion of the Liberals, voted with the majority. Thus, and thus unsatisfactorily, ended the threatened opposition to the Spottiswoode Subscription.

De< 1). — In the evening of this day I

dined with the Duke of Sussex at Kensington Palace. We had refused an increase of income t" the Duke, who had written a very handsome letter to Lord Melbourne on the subject. He this day entertained all the Cabinet Ministers and others of the party — in all twenty-six guests — blue ribbons, and red ribbons, very fine, and not a little dull.

Sunday, December 10, I dined at Lord Mel- bourne's with a large party, chiefly Members of Parliament. I sat between Sheil and Sergeant 1^1 1* -'ind had a pleasant day. I was much pleased with Lord Melbourne's easy, but polite manner towards his guests. The rest of the even in- I passed with a party at Lord Holland's, where 1 met Lytton Bulwer and other M.P.'s.

December 12.— In the House of Commons to- day our Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed an increase of £8,000 a year to the income of the ])uchess of Kent. No serious opposition was offered; Hume and Grote did object, and so, to

VOL. v 15

LONDON CHAP. IV.

1837. my surprise, did Charles Wynne, and, I thought, very much to the disgust of Sir Robert Peel, who made wry faces during his speech. As we were walking away, I said to Mr. Wynne, " You are a hold man ! " He replied, " I took the same course in 1818. I could not do otherwise now."

December 14. — On returning to the House, after my mutton-chop to-day, I found Palmerston re- plying to a " galimatias " of T. Attwood, of Birmingham, who had anticipated the arrival of eighty sail of Russian men-of-war off the coast of Norfolk, or, perhaps, at Sheerness. Palmerston spoke well, as he always does.

We have had some tiresome discussions about the Civil List. W. Harvey, as usual, was very bitter against, accusing us of doing neither one thing nor the other, and " dandling the rickety babe, Expediency." It would not be easy to carry metaphorical talk much farther than this.

December 20. — We had a Council at the Palace this day. I took the Bishop of Bombay there, and introduced him to Her Majesty. I also introduced the Bishop to Lord Melbourne and John Russell. His Right Reverence was a mild, inoffensive gentleman; but he was so little ac- quainted with recent events that, when he asked me which was Lord Brougham, and I told him that Lord Brougham was not there, he said, " I mean the Lord Chancellor." I replied, " That is the Lord Chancellor — Lord Cottenham." The good man looked a little surprised, but said

r/f \i-.IV. CANADIAN AFFA II :s 115

nothing. If JJroimham knew this, his vanity 1837 would be not a little wounded.

L« ader, Molcsworth, and Hume have been making most furious speeches on Canadian affairs, wishing success to the Canadians; and I heard Warlmrton attack the Government bitterly, and recommend the Canadians to separate from the mother-country.

On December 24 I went to Erie Stoke, and found a small family party there, with my dear children very well; but on December 31 I received letters requesting me to come to London to attend a Cabinet on Canadian affairs. A sad demolition of my poor three weeks' holiday.

On January KJ, Parliament reassembled. Lord J. Russell, in explaining our Canadian measures, said as little as possible to provoke opposition from any quarter. He concluded by mentioning that Lord Durham would be Governor- General of all the British North American provinces, and, l»y help of a Committee of Advice, would frame a new and Liberal Constitution for the Lower Province.

DIARY.

Brougham and Melbourne, at this time, fell foul of one another in the Lords. Brougham, with a sneer, complimented Melbourne on his superior proficiency in court phraseology, because he had corrected Brougham in calling the Duchess of Kent " Queen-mother," instead of " Mother of the

116 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. Queen." Melbourne retorted that, in that respect, no one knew better how to bow to power than Brougham. This brought a furious reply from Brougham, who defied Melbourne to prove his charge. As if such a charge was capable of proof, and as if Brougham's servility at Court was not notorious. I recollect very well that it was a joke amongst us that no one performed the kotow so well as our Chancellor. He bowed his very head to the Throne with more than Persian ador- ation. He is now trying to lead the new Re- formers — the ultra-Radical Party.

PROM BOOK, "RECOLLECTIONS."

January 18. — This evening Lord Brougham made an intemperate speech against our Canadian policy in the House of Lords, and immediately afterwards left the House. This gave Lord Glenelg an opportunity of making a spirited com- ment on this unfair hostility, and comparing the conduct of the retired Chancellor with the noble candour of the Duke of Wellington, who had, indeed, behaved in a manner worthy of his great name and station.

Brougham, no doubt, considered he should give the death-blow to the Melbourne Administration by this effort. I heard Roebuck boasted of having Brougham in his pocket, and had said, " As we are deserted by Durham, we must trot out the old horse."

January 19. — I dined at the Palace. I handed

CHAP. IV. SIR FRANCIS HEAD 117

in, and sat next at dinner to Lady Portman— 1838. a most beautiful creature— and much admired my neighbour. In the draw ing-room the Queen spoke to me about Lord Auckland. She desired me to

express her satisfaction to him, saving "India \\as sure to go on well under such a Governor-

.enil."

Janitor'/ '11.— At our Cabinet meeting to-day, \\e had read to us a most ludicrous despatch from Head, n'mii^1 an account of his defeat of Mac- ken/.ie's attempt upon Toronto. Glenelg read to us aUo a private letter from Head, equally absurd,

1 Sir Francia Bond Head (1793-1855), well' known as author of "Ridtl Across the Pampas" and "Bubbles from the Brunnen of

'

" In the Upper Province the administration had at this critical iiion. M iij'T Head, who had been almost

dragged from his U-d while acting as assistant poor-law commis- sioner, that In- illicit be sent to govern this great colony, at one of tin- most important rri.-es of its history. This modern Cincinnatus . iii< !•• like a hero of romance or a knight-errant than a sober MII, in. Knotting that a revolt was impending, his first care was oldiiT out of tin- province. He allowed the rebels to make ail their pn partitions without the slightest hindrance. When at length they adv.tiK -ed, li«- summoned the Militia and the loyal inh.il'it. ints to his ;ii<l. The call was obeyed with enthusiastic unanimity ; and, with the a.>si>tance thus obtained, he completely suppressed the insurrection. This spirited way of dealing with the .lion was highly applauded by many, both at home and in the ;,y ; lmt in the opinion of the Colonial Secretary the success which attended it did not atone for the imprudence of which he con- :vd tin- ^'iivernor h.id been xuilty, in sending away the troops on tin- cvr of a iwolt, which mi^'lit very prol>al)ly have been supported I lar>re forco of I'nitrd States sympathisers, in which case the it would perhaps have been very calamitous. Further difl'er- ol>inion lu twr» n Major Head and the home authorities d him to send in his resignation, which was accepted, much to the regret of the colonist*. The services he had rendered were a«'k; i.y his being raised to a baronetcy."— MOLESWOETH'S

r I/ i i

118 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. telling how he was fired at from a pine-tree, and how a boy fired his rifle at the tree, when " down dropped a great rebel stone-dead " ; yet this Head certainly saved Upper Canada, if not Lower Canada, by the dissolution of the Legislative Assembly and other decisive measures.

February 1. — At a Council at Buckingham Palace, Her Majesty swore in three Lord-Lieu- tenants. Sir W. W. Wynn was led in by his brother, in a dreadful state of disease and de- crepitude ; then came an old acquaintance of mine, Lord Mount-Edgcumbe, lame and paralytic ; the third was Lord Lonsdale, nearly blind, and tottering on the brink of the grave. There was something affecting in seeing the young creature, in the bloom of youth, receiving the homage of these decrepit nobles. She very benignantly rose to present her hand to Sir Watkin Wynn, as the poor man could not kneel ; and, amongst H.M.'s other amiable qualities, I thought I had always perceived a respect for age.

I dined with Ellice. We had a merry, at least a noisy party ; the Tankervilles were there, and the Dawson Darners, our Stanley, and Lord Durham. I had some private talk with the last, who told me he knew he was sent abroad in order to be got rid of; and that, excepting myself, there was not a man in the Cabinet who cared a farthing for him. I did my best, so far as I could consistently with truth, to give him a more kindly feeling

CHAP. IV. THE FROZEN SERPENTINE 119

towards Melbourne and Russell; but he shook 1838. his IK -ad.

February 2. — In the House of Lords Brougham made a furious attack on our Canada Bill, and on us. Lord Melbourne answered him with much vigour, and made him still more angry. The Duke of Wellington, in the same generous spirit with which he had hitherto supported us, repeated his former assertion that we were justified in not expecting any attack in Canada, and that the troops then- \\nv sufficient for the purpose.

DIARY.

L — I walked with my daughter Charlotte across the Serpentine, much to the child's delight, although I own I did not like to hear the ice cr.-icking under the weight of thousands.

Mi-miry 5. — We brought on our Parliamentary Mlectorx ami Freemen Bill. In the course of the debate Sudden recommended the House not to alter the Reform Bill, but "leave well alone." Russell, in his reply, took care to remind Sugden <>f his prophecy of ruin to the monarchy whilst the Reform Bill was passing.

February 1 k— I went to the College of Surgeons and heard Mr. Travers deliver the Hunterian oration. 1 thought it a little too flowery, but written in a liberal spirit, he being, with Brodie, one of the few of his great profession who be- longed to the Liberal party. This accounted for the presence of Lord Radnor and Lord Denman

120 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. and other friends at the lecture. Brodie pointed out to me some of the most distinguished guests- Owen, who was bidding fair to be the greatest of comparative anatomists ; and Clift, John Hunter's associate, a shepherd's boy from Cornwall. Lord Radnor concluded the evening with a short speech, in which he congratulated the surgeons at being no longer twins with the barbers. This sounded very odd, and was odd, although it is true that Travers had alluded to the union of the two trades, which I believe was not severed until somewhere about 1745.

FROM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS."

February 15. — At the House of Commons to-day Sir Robert Peel, speaking on the question of Ballot, made what I considered the true objection to that measure — namely, that it would take away that influence over the vote which pre- serves the representative system, in our country, from being of too democratic a character.

To this opinion I incline. I think the Ballot before the Reform Bill, and without it, would have been a good measure ; but I am not pre- pared to say the same of it after, and with the Reform Bill. Accordingly, I have never voted for it since the carrying of that measure, although our Liberal friends have always done me the honour to fancy that I have made a sacrifice of my opinions and conscience for the sake either of friendship or of office, and consequently they

CHAP. IV. BARON DE BODE 121

treated mo this time, as they did the last, to an 1838. ironical cheer as I walked up the House with tin* majority, and they confined this distinction to me alone. Never mind.

Although I had resolved not "to mind," I had some difficulty in being silent under the unfair and ignorant attacks made on me. The Cwrifr \\as then a Government ne\\ -spaper, and in the paper of the next evening I saw that I was at- tacked as having acted a less honourable part than those ollicia Is who voted for the Ballot, or than those who stayed away. These people did not know either what honour is or \\hat the facts were.

FROM DIAKV.

February 17. — I believe in these days I was worth something as a debater, 1'or Lord Durham told me to-day lie should not go to Canada in comfort unless I promised him solemnly to make the " Jiiu Man " my peculiar care. Alas! I fear my time is gone by ; at any rate, I cannot speak from the Treasury bench.

1 IIOM BOOK, " RECOLLECTIONS.'*

February 22.— In the course of this evening I voted with Rice against the claim of a personage who has had more parliamentary vitality than any man I ever recollect — I mean the Baron de Bode.1 I thought, at the time, that our Chan-

1 Baron de Bode hid chim.as a British subject, to losses sustained l>y him during the French Revolution, and his case was frequently disrusstMl in Parliament He died in 1846.

VOL. V 16

122 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. cellor of the Exchequer had completely crumpled up and crushed this complicated claim. Par from it. Year after year has it reappeared, and only a short time ago was revived by one of the most accomplished debaters and vigorous reasoners that ever advocated a questionable cause.

February 28. — I was detained in the House of Commons so long that I did not reach the Palace, where I dined, until Her Majesty had sat down to table. The Duchess of Gloucester and several Tory peers were present ; but our minorities had not affected the manner of Her Majesty to Lord Melbourne, who sat next to her, and, much to the disgust of my neighbour, Lord Wharncliffe, was engaged in conversation with Her Majesty half the dinner-time. The Queen was pointedly civil to me, and accepted my apologies for being late with her usual benignity. In the drawing- room Lord Melbourne was still next to the Queen. The Duchess of Kent had her own table, and some of the household sat down to another.

March 3. — Talking over our position at a Cabinet meeting, Melbourne, for once, was for standing our ground, if we had a majority only of one. He preferred being charged with tenacity of office, than with a readiness to abandon the Government. I attributed this to the partiality manifested by the Queen for Lord Melbourne's Administration and general management. We sat until half-past five, talking of business, but very much after the manner of men who thought this

CHAP. I V. Till WEARING OF ORDERS 123

min-ht never come on. Nevertheless, tliis vi TV week Lord John Russell introduced an admirable Bill for the administration of justice in the County Courts, thus adding to his, and I may viy our, claims to the gratitude of the country.

March 4. — I had a large party at my own house, to meet the French and Russian Am- hasx.-idnr.s. Pozzo di Borgo sat on my right hand, and General Sebastiani on my left. Besides these, there were the American Minister and the Austrian Charge* d'Aifaires. Melbourne, J. Russell, Palmerston, Lord Hill, Lord Durham, Lord Rad- nor, young Lord Russell, Sir James Lushington, and my brother, irere also of the party; and we had an agreeable evening.

I had some talk, privately, with both the Ambassadors. The French General said to me of Russia, "II faut absolument la contenir, oui, absolument " ; and Pozzo di Borgo talked to me of the French with the utmost contempt, saying that they made more parade with their paltry Algerine colony than we did with our huge Indian Empire. I'.'/zo di Borgo then pointed to Lord William Bentinck, and contrasted him with Sebastiani, who was covered with orders. "There," said Pozzo, " is a good specimen of the two nations ; one governed India in a straw hat and a linen jacket — the other comes to meet us here, as you see, covered with decorations ! Lord William," continued Pozzo, " when travelling in India, wore a straw hat and a linen jacket, it is true ; but

124 LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. then he had 300 elephants and 500 dromedaries with him, besides 10,000 cavalry."

March 6. — This day came on our debate about Canada. Lord Sandon, after a long and feeble speech, moved a vote of want of confidence in the Administration, for their ambiguous, irresolute, and dilatory Canadian policy. Lord Stanley moved a violent attack on Palmerston, for having belonged to so many parties in power. Palmerston threw up his hands in surprise at such a charge from such a quarter. This made Stanley more angry, and more bitter, to the great delight of the Tories.

The evening's debate was concluded by a speech from Sir Charles Grey, the Canadian Com- missioner, who looked exactly like Mr. Pickwick ; so much so, that the muscles even of Sir Robert Peel's face were moved, and none of us could help laughing. Grey was called " Mr. Pickwick " to the end of his days. He was an able man, and, I always heard, a good man, who, like most of us, talked a little nonsense about his own exploits, particularly in regard to the ladies, whom, so he said, he subdued by threatening suicide.

March 7. — We had a very decisive victory on our Canadian debate, but our stupid Chronicle did not make half enough of it, for with a little management this ought to have settled matters for the session.

The Queen smiled very significantly as we took our seats at a Council the next day. H.M. had

CHAP. IV. ANTI-SLAVERY MEETINGS 125

been observed to be very anxious at dinner the day before. Russell told me that she spoke to him in warm praise of the recent conduct of the Duke of Wellington ; but added that she could not say the same of Sir Robert Peel. Lord Mel- bourne told me he thought that Peel, in his heart, MM -lad of the result of the struggle in the House of Commons.

March 10. — I dined at Lord Albemarle's. He had invited a large party to meet the Duke of Sns.s,..\, who did not come. Lord Melbourne, Lord and Lady Albemarle, and myself, had a long talk, alter every one else was gone, about the tl Family and the Pitzclarences. Lord Melbourne said their " principal characteristic \\as, that they would ask for anything."

March 11. — I had a dinner party, and amongst my guests were Lord and Lady Holland. We had an agreeable day, which, indeed, Lord Holland always ensured.

I, ui;v anti-slavery meetings were held on two days this week, at Exeter Hall. Lord Brougham vrafl in the (hair. His invective against our Cabinet was boundless, and he outlied himself.

On March 17 I went to an Assembly at Lady Albemarle's. This was a rare amusement for me -it' amusement it could be called. My chief employment was listening to Pozzo di Borgo's assurances that Russia was giving every possible assistance to the Government of Louis Philippe, and did not countenance Henry V.

12G LONDON CHAP. IV.

1838. The next day I dined with the Duke of Sussex at Kensington, and met a very large party. To this dinner I was invited by a note signed " Cecilia " ; and I did not, for some time, know