The Greville Memoirs Volume III Part 19

[8] [The Ministry was defeated on the Irish t.i.the Bill on the 3rd of April by a majority of 33 in a House of 611; on the 6th of April by a majority of 25 in a House of 499; and on the 7th of April by a majority of 27 in a House of 543.]

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Lord Grey and Sir James Graham express Conservative Views-- Opinions of Lord Stanley--Lord Grey sees the King, but is not asked to resume Office--Lord Melbourne's Second Administration--His Moderation--A Difficulty--Spring Rice--A Joyless Victory--Exclusion of Brougham--The New Cabinet--Lord John Russell defeated in Devons.h.i.+re--Lord Alvanley and O'Connell--Duel with Morgan O'Connell--Lord Wellesley resigns the Lord Stewards.h.i.+p--The Eliot Convention--Swift _v._ Kelly-- The Kembles--London University Charter discussed at the Privy Council--Corporation Reform--Formation of the Conservative Party--The King's Habits--Secretarys.h.i.+p of Jamaica--Lord Melbourne's t.i.the Bill--The Pope rejects the Recommendation of the British Government--Relations with Rome--Carlists and Christinos in Spain--Walcheren--The King's Address to Sir Charles Grey--Stanley and Graham cross the House--Failure of Stanley's Tactics--Alava and the Duke of c.u.mberland--A Sinecure Placeman--Lord Glenelg and the King--Concert at Stafford House--The King's Aversion to his Ministers and to the Speaker--Decision on the Secretarys.h.i.+p of Jamaica--Archbishop Whateley--Irish Church Bill--Payment of Catholic Clergy--Peel and Lord John Russell--Factious Conduct of Tory Peers--The King's Violence--Debate on the Corporation Bill.

April 9th, 1835 {p.248}

Yesterday the Ministers resigned. Peel announced it to the House of Commons in a short but admirable speech by all accounts, exactly suitable to the occasion, and to his princ.i.p.al object--that of setting himself right with his own supporters, who begin to acquiesce, though rather sulkily, in the course he has pursued. Lord Grey is to be with the King this morning. He was riding quietly in the Park yesterday afternoon, and neither knew nor cared (apparently) whether he had been sent for or not. His daughter told me (for I rode with them up Const.i.tution Hill) that his family could not wish him to return to office, but would not interfere. She then talked, much to my surprise, of the possibility of a junction between him and Peel; she owned that Peel had done wonders, but said that she could not wish for such a junction _now_, however it might be possible and desirable that it should take place some little time hence. This shows a very Conservative spirit and a marvellous thaw in the rigidity of the Grey politics.

[Page Head: SIR JAMES GRAHAM ON PEEL AND STANLEY.]

In the morning I went to Graham to ask him to advocate my cause in the Sinecure Committee and defend my interests there. After talking over my case (about which he was very obliging and promised his zealous a.s.sistance) we discussed general politics at great length. It is very evident that he and Stanley have no leaning towards the Whigs, and look _now_ solely to a junction with Peel and the construction of a Liberal and Conservative party and Government. He talked of this, and of the mode of accomplis.h.i.+ng it, with as much zeal and fervour as if he had been a member of the Cabinet which has just fallen, and I think his opinions coincide very much with my own. He wants the King to be well _endoctrine_, and that his firmness (if he has any) should be directed to one or two points, and his mind not puzzled with complicated instructions. He should be advised never to admit O'Connell to any office, and to resist a creation of Peers. He thinks, if his Majesty is stout on these points, that things will come round, and he by no means despairs of the feeling and animus of the country. I told him the Tories and late Government people still contended that if he and Stanley had joined the thing would have gone on, which he vehemently denied, and declared that they could not have saved Peel and should have entirely compromised themselves; he talked with great admiration of Peel, and of the reception he had met with from him in the interview they had on his return, which he said was cordial and obliging to the greatest degree, and without any appearance of that coldness and reserve of which he has been so often accused. He then talked of Stanley with great openness--of his talents, character, and political views. I told him that Stanley had not raised himself this session, that he had given much offence by the general levity of his conduct, and especially to the Tories by the occasional flippancy or severity of his attacks upon them, that as it was clear that any Conservative Government must depend upon the great body of the Tory party for support, it was improvident in him to make himself obnoxious to them, and that he would do well to exert his influence over Stanley for the purpose of restraining those sallies in which he was too apt to indulge, and showing him the expediency of conciliating that not very wise but still powerful body. He asked in what way Stanley had offended. I told him generally in the sarcastic or reprobating tone he had used, and particularly in his personal attack on the Duke for holding the offices. He owned there was truth in this, 'but what could you do?

it was impossible to change a man's character, and Stanley's was very peculiar. With great talents, extraordinary readiness in debate, high principles, unblemished honour, he never had looked, he thought he never would look, upon politics and political life with the seriousness which belonged to the subject; he followed politics as an amus.e.m.e.nt, as a means of excitement, as another would gaming or any other very excitable occupation; he plunged into the _melee_ for the sake of the sport which he found it made there, but always actuated by honourable and consistent principles and feelings, and though making it a matter of diversion and amus.e.m.e.nt, never sacrificing anything that honour or conscience prescribed.' I said that this description of him (which I had no doubt was true) only proved what I already thought--that, with all his talents, he never would be a great man. He said he always must be very considerable; his powers, integrity, birth, and fortune could not fail to raise him to eminence. All this I admitted--that nothing could prevent his being very considerable, very important, as a public man--but I argued that one who was animated by motives so personal, and so wanting in gravity, to whom public care was a subsidiary and not a primary object, never could achieve permanent and genuine greatness. He said that Stanley had a great admiration for Peel, without any tincture of jealousy, and that he was quite ready to serve under him, though he could not help doubting whether it would be possible for two such men, so different in character, to go on well together in the same Cabinet. I told him what Wharncliffe had told me, that no man was ever more easy to act with, more candid and conciliatory, and less a.s.suming than Peel in the Cabinet, and Graham said that Stanley was likewise perfect as a colleague, so that it may be hoped there would not be any such incompatibility if they were to come together. I was with him two hours and a half, and we discussed very fully all political contingencies with the freedom of twenty years ago, when we were great friends.

April 10th, 1835 {p.251}

[Page Head: DISTRESS OF THE KING.]

Nothing decisive yesterday. Lord Grey was with the King in the morning; he there met Lord Melbourne, Lord Holland, Lord John Russell, and Lord Lansdowne, and went back to St. James's. It was said in the evening that Lord Grey was to a.s.sist in the formation of the Government, but not to take office himself.

April 11th, 1835 {p.251}

The intention of Lord Grey evidently was to avoid office if he could, but if strongly urged by the King, and his feelings appealed to, to yield. The King, however, did not urge him at all, probably much to his astonishment, but a.s.suming apparently that he would under no circ.u.mstances return to office, consulted him as to the course he should adopt. All my information as to what has. .h.i.therto taken place amounts to this:--His Majesty has been in a very composed state of mind, has received the Whig leaders in a way that has given them complete satisfaction, and as far as personal intercourse goes the embarra.s.sment appears to be removed. He has given Melbourne _carte blanche_ to form a Government, and he is proceeding in the task. Notwithstanding the good face which the King contrives to put upon the matter in his communications with his hated new-old Ministers and masters, he is really very miserable, and the d.u.c.h.ess of Gloucester, to whom he unbosoms himself more than to anybody, told Lady Georgiana Bathurst that with her he was in the most pitiable state of distress, constantly in tears, and saying that 'he felt his crown tottering on his head.'

It is intended to leave O'Connell out of the arrangement, and at the same time to conciliate him and preserve his support. In this they have apparently succeeded. O'Connell 'has behaved admirably well,' and the difficulty with regard to him is at an end. Of the Radicals some are to be included and no notice taken of the rest.

Brougham is to be set at defiance; his fall in public estimation, his manifold sins against his own colleagues, and his loss of character all justify them, and enable them (as they think) to do so with impunity. Melbourne, who when Lamb[1] is here is greatly influenced by him, is strongly against any Radical measures or Radical colleagues, and has no thought of a creation of Peers or of any desperate expedients, and he is not at all satisfied with the resolution which John carried, and which was the immediate cause of Peel's resignation, being fully alive to all the inconvenience of it.

[1] [Meaning Sir Frederick Lamb, his brother, usually residing abroad in the diplomatic service.]

Just now Tavistock was here, having come from St. George's Church, where he went to a.s.sist at Lord John Russell's marriage, and as the ceremony could not begin for half an hour, he came over to pa.s.s the interval with me.[2] He told me that 'there still existed _one_ difficulty, one only, which I should not think of, apparently unimportant, but which circ.u.mstances rendered important, and if this was got over, the Government would be formed and go on, that he thought it was an _even bet_ whether it was got over or not. What this difficulty is, so little obvious, but so important, I do not guess; but in such affairs _one_ difficulty will not stand in the way of completing an arrangement the consummation of which has cost such incredible exertions, and such sacrifices of consistency and of public interests to the interests or ambition of a party.

[2] [Lord John Russell married, in April 1835, Theresa, widow of Lord Ribblesdale. Mr. Greville lived at this time on the north side of Hanover Square.]

April 12th, 1835 {p.252}

[Page Head: SIR R. PEEL'S MINISTRY.]

Nothing settled yesterday, and great doubts if anything would be.

Lord John was married in the morning; he returned to Kent House with his bride, and Melbourne was to have sent him word at _one_ what was definitively settled; he waited till two, when no news arriving from Melbourne, he went off to Woburn. He was at that time by no means sanguine as to the arrangements being completed, and talked in doubt of the Foreign Office, to which he is to go.

However, Melbourne was to be with the King this morning to announce that the Ministry would or would not do. Sefton told me last night that the _difficulty_ proceeds from Spring Rice; if it should fail (which it will not, I expect) Peel must stay in and take in the Dilly, who would not then scruple to join him. The Government would be formed upon the _principle_ of not settling this eternal Irish Church question, which I think so great an evil that it is on the whole better that Melbourne should form a Government and go on as long as he can--that is, till something decisive is done about the Irish Church. I met the whole Dilly at dinner yesterday at Stafford House, and when I told Stanley and Graham that I understood Spring Rice made the difficulty, they both said that it must be what they called 'his conundrum,' which I had never heard of before; but it means his determination to apply the surplus to the purposes of _general education_, but not to go a jot further, and they suppose that this is not far enough for the others, and hence the difficulty.

April 13th, 1835 {p.253}

Nothing positively known yesterday, but that the thing is settled in some way, Cl.u.s.terings and congregations of Whigs about Brookes', audiences with the King, and great doubt whether Grey took office, and the Foreign Office.

April 14th, 1835 {p.253}

Yesterday it was understood that everything was settled, but after all it was only the night before last that Melbourne was definitively charged with the formation of a Government. The difficulties were O'Connell and Spring Rice; the former was got over by his waiving all claim to employment and promising his gratuitous support. By what underhand management or persuasion, and what secret understanding, this was effected will be a mystery for the present, but n.o.body doubts that it has been accomplished by some juggle. Spring Rice wanted to wash his hands of the concern; he did not think it promised sufficient stability, and without some a.s.surance of its lasting he wished to decline taking office. They would not hear this, and represented to him that he was indispensable, and it ended in his giving way.

It certainly would have been very unjustifiable of him, after going all lengths with them, to hold back at last, but it shows the opinion of the best men among them of the rottenness of the concern. Lord Grey declined taking office, but wrote to say that the Government should have all his support, and that he wished Howick to be included in it, which is the same thing as if he were there himself. Nothing was settled about the cast of offices, and they were waiting for Lord John's arrival from Woburn to discuss that matter. Between the pretensions of one man, the reluctance of another, and the hymeneal occupation of the leader the matter hobbled on very slowly. I certainly never remember a great victory for which Te Deum was chanted with so faint and joyless a voice. Peel looks gayer and easier than all Brookes' put together, and Lady Holland said, 'Now that we have gained our object I am not so glad as I thought I should be,' and that I take to be the sentiment of them all.

Riddlesworth, April 16th, 1835 {p.254}

[Page Head: THE NEW WHIG CABINET.]

At Newmarket the day before yesterday, and came here to-day, where I find the Duke and d.u.c.h.ess of Cleveland and two or three others. I know nothing but by my letters from London, by which I learn that nothing is yet settled, but they go on negotiating and endeavouring to arrange their rickety concern. Having concluded their bargain with O'Connell, they have taken fright about Brougham, and degraded as he is, and contemptuous and confident as they were about him, they are endeavouring to make terms with him, and it will probably end in his recovering the Great Seal.

When this is done they will have consummated their disgrace.

Sheil said, 'The difficulty is how to deal with a bully and a buffoon,' and as they have succ.u.mbed to and bargained with the one, now they are going to truckle to the other; there is not one of them who has scrupled to express his opinion of Brougham, but let us see if he really does come in or much indignation may be thrown away. The general opinion (I am told) is that this Ministry will last a very short time and that ultimately a coalition must take place under the direction and supremacy of Sir Robert Peel. This is jumping to a conclusion over many difficulties. However, nothing can be more meagre than the triumph of the Whigs nor more humiliating than their position; even my Whig-Radical friends write me word that 'O'Connell holds the destiny of the Government in his hands, and is acknowledged to be the greatest man going.' It was hardly worth while (in a national point of view, whatever it may have been in a party one) to turn out Sir Robert Peel in order to produce this result.

Buckenham, April 29th, 1835 {p.255}

At Newmarket all last week, here since Monday. I know nothing of politics but from newspapers and my letters; racing and hawking are my present occupations. There seems to be an impression that the present Government will not last very long, but as the grounds of that opinion are the badness of its composition, I do not see that its speedy dissolution is so certain; the public seems to have got very indifferent as to who governs the country.

I was curious to hear how the Council went off at which the Ministers took their seats, and how the King comported himself.

He seems to have got through it tolerably, though it must have been a bitter ceremony to him. He made no speeches and took no particular notice of anybody except Lord Howick, to whom he was very civil, on account probably of his father, and because he is a new man. The threatened contests of most of them ended in smoke. Devons.h.i.+re and Yorks.h.i.+re will, however, be important and severe. Of all the appointments those that are most severely criticised are Mulgrave's and Morpeth's. It is said that Charles Kemble and Liston might as well have been sent, as the former has always imitated the one, and the latter involuntarily resembles the other. Mulgrave, however he may be sneered at, has been tried and found capable, and I think he will do very well; he has courage and firmness and no want of ability. He is besides hospitable, generous, courteous, and agreeable in private life.[3]

[3] [Lord Melbourne's second Administration was composed as follows:--

First Lord of the Treasury Viscount Melbourne.

Lord President of the Council Marquis of Lansdowne.

First Lord of the Admiralty Lord Auckland.

Lord Privy Seal Viscount Duncannon.

Home Secretary Lord John Russell.

Foreign Secretary Viscount Palmerston.

Colonial Secretary Lord Glenelg.

Board of Control Sir John Cam Hobhouse.

Secretary at War Viscount Howick.

Board of Trade Mr. Poulett Thomson.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Mr. Spring Rice.

Irish Secretary Viscount Morpeth.

The Earl of Mulgrave was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, The Great Seal was put in Commission.]

May 1st, 1835 {p.256}

Morpeth made an excellent speech on introducing his Irish t.i.the Bill, and has raised himself considerably. Morpeth is (as it appears to me) ill selected for the difficult post he occupies; he has very fair ability of a showy kind, but I doubt the solidity and strength of his material for the rough work which is allotted to him.

[Page Head: LORD ALVANLEY'S DUEL.]