The Life of William Ewart Gladstone Volume II Part 8

The princes danced with great activity after deer-stalking, and very well; Prince Alfred I thought beautifully. They were immensely amused at having pa.s.sed me on the way home and offered me a lift, to which I replied (it was dark) thinking they were General Grey and a household party. The Princess did not dance-asked about you-is taking great care, and the Prince very strict about it also. She does not ride or fatigue herself. The event, according to Dr. Jenner, should take place in March or early in April. You see his authority and yours are at variance.

The Queen was (according to Mrs. Bruce, who dined with her) very low last night, on account of the ball, which naturally recalled so much.

_Oct. 3._-It happened oddly yesterday I was sent for while out. I had had a message from the Queen in the morning which made me think there would be no more, so I went out at a quarter past three. I am very sorry this happened. I am to see her, I believe, this evening.

_Oct. 4._-The service at Ballater has made a great difference in favour of this Sunday. It was celebrated in the Free Kirk school-room for girls! and with a congregation under twenty, most attentive though very small, and no one left the room when we came to the Holy Communion. The Knollys family and people were one half or so. I gave Mrs. Knollys and one daughter a lift in _my_ drag back to Birkhall (2- miles which they all loyally walk to and fro) and had luncheon there. I had Thomas with me. The sermon was _extremely_ good; but the priest had a _few_ antics. I believe this is about the first expedition ever made from Balmoral to an episcopal service. Perhaps encouraged by my example, Captain W.

got a drag to Castleton this morning, being a Roman. There was _no_ chaplain here to-day, and so no dining-room service, which for many I fear means no service at all.

I dined with the Queen again last night; also Lady Augusta Bruce-seven, again, in all. The Crown Princess had a headache, as well she might, so they were not there. The same royalties as before, and everything quite as pleasing. The Queen talked Shakespeare, Scott, the use of the German language in England (and there I could not speak out _all_ my mind), Guizot's translation of the Prince's speeches, and his preface (which the Queen has since sent me to look at), the children's play at Windsor (when Princess Alice acted a high priest, with great success-in "Athalie," I think), the Prussian children (the Queen says the baby is not pretty-the little boy on coming yesterday called them all stumpfnase, pugnose), handwritings, Lord Palmerston's to wit, Mr. Disraeli's style in his letters to the Queen, the proper mode of writing, on what paper, etc., and _great_ laudation of Lady Lyttelton's letters. Princess Alice declares her baby is pretty, and says she shall show it me. The Queen was very cheerful, and seemed for the time happy. A statue of the Prince is about to be set up at Aberdeen, and she is then to attend and receive an address, with Sir G. Grey present in due form. The household life is really very agreeable when one comes to know them. One way and another they have a great deal in them.

_Oct. 5._-I have been riding to Invercauld House and up above it.

The beauty there even surpa.s.sed my high expectations, and made everything here look quite pale in comparison. They were very kind, and offered me deer-stalking; we drank tea and ate scones.

I have only time to tell you two things. First, the Queen is on Friday to do her first public act, to attend at the 'inauguration'

of the statue of the Prince, and to receive an address. I am to be there officially. I have telegraphed for my uniform. I go on to Aberdeen and Trinity College at night, and on Sat.u.r.day evening to Edinburgh. There was fear that it might be on Sat.u.r.day, and that I should be kept, but this could not be, as Sat.u.r.day is a 'fast' for the periodical sacrament on Sunday. I told you the Queen talked about German on Sat.u.r.day at dinner, among other things Schiller's and Coleridge's _Wallenstein_. Next morning she sent me, through Lady A. Bruce, the book, with a pa.s.sage of which I have hastily translated the most important part. It is easy to conceive how it answers to her feelings.

"Too well I know the treasure I have lost.

From off my life the bloom is swept away; It lies before me cold and colourless; For he, that stood beside me like my youth, He charmed reality into a dream, And over all the common face of things He shed the golden glow of morning's blush; And in the fire of his affection Dull forms, that throng the life of every day, Yea to mine own amazement, tow'red aloft.

Win what I may henceforth, the Beautiful Is gone, and gone without return."(75)

You will say this was an opening. In reading another part of the book I found lines which I have turned as follows, no better than the others:-

"For nothing other than a n.o.ble aim Up from its depths can stir humanity; The narrow circle narrows, too, the mind, And man grows greater as his ends are great."(76)

Now, I thought, can I in reply call the Queen's attention to these significant words, a n.o.ble sermon? I asked Lady Augusta (of course I mean the German words) and she would not venture it. Had I a _viva voce_ chance, I would try.

_Oct. 6._-I am sorry you quitted Penmaenmawr in the sulks-I mean him in the sulks, not you. Your exploit was great; was it not rather over-great? I have been out to-day for a real good seven hours in the open air, going up Lochnagar. The day was glorious.

We went five gentlemen, at least men. E. H. was keen to go, but the Queen would not let her. Thomas also went up with a party from here, and his _raptures_ are such as would do you good. He says there is nothing it was not worth, and he has no words to describe his pleasure. Our party drove to Loch Muich, and then went up, some of us on ponies, some riding. I walked it all, and am not in the least tired, but quite ready, if there were need, to set out for it again. We saw towards the north as far as Caithness. I could not do all that the others did in looking down the precipices, but I managed a little. We had a very steep side to come down, covered with snow and very slippery; I was put to it, and had to come very slow, but Lord C. Fitzroy, like a good Samaritan, kept me company. The day was as lovely (after frost and snow in the night) as anything could be, and the whole is voted a great success. Well, there is a cabinet fixed for Tuesday; on the whole, this may be better than having it hang over one's head.

_Oct. 7._-The Queen's talk last night (only think, she wants to read the French Jesuit-don't know this) was about Guizot's comparison of the Prince and King William, about Macaulay, America and the ironclads, where she was very national and high-spirited; and Schleswig-Holstein, in which she is intensely interested, because the Prince thought it a great case of justice on the side rather opposite to that of Lord Palmerston and the government policy. She spoke about this with intense earnestness, and said she considered it a legacy from him.

Princess Alice's baby lives above me, and I believe never cries. I never hear it. We have been out riding to Birkhall to-day, and I had much talk with Lady Churchill about the Queen. She (Lady C.) feels and speaks most properly about her. I told Lady Augusta last night, _a propos_ to the lines I wanted to mention, that I had been a great coward, _and she too_. She was very submissive at dinner in her manner to the Queen, and I told her it made me feel I had been so impudent. Only think of this: both through her and through General Grey it has come round to me that the Queen thinks she was too cheerful on the night I last dined. This she feels a kind of sin. She said, however, to Lady Augusta she was sure I should understand it.... I am very glad and a little surprised that Mrs. Bruce should say I have a good name here. The people are, one and all, very easy to get on with, and Windsor, I suppose, stiffens them a little.

_Oct. 8._-The Queen has had a most providential escape. The carriage, a sociable, very low and safe, was overturned last night after dark, on her way back from an expedition of seven or eight hours. Princesses Louis of Hesse and Helena were with her. They were undermost, and not at all hurt. The Queen was shot out of the carriage, and received a contusion on the temple and sprained a thumb. When she got in, I think near ten o'clock, Dr. Jenner wished her to go to bed, but she said it was of no use, and she would not. She was very confident, however, about performing the duties of the ceremonial in Aberdeen to-morrow. But now this evening it is given up, and I do not doubt this is wise, but much inconvenience will be caused by so late a postponement. I have been up to the place to-day.... The Queen should give up these drives after dark; it is impossible to guarantee them. But she says she feels the hours from her drive to dinner such weary hours.

Little Princess Victoria paid me a visit in my bedroom, which is also sitting-room, to-day. She is of sweet temper, decidedly pretty, very like both the Queen and her mother. Then I went to see the three Prussian children, and the two elder ones played with my rusty old stick of twenty or twenty-five years' standing.

_Holyrood, Oct. 11._-On Friday morning, as I expected, I talked to the Queen until the last moment. She did give me opportunities which might have led on to anything, but want of time hustled me, and though I spoke abruptly enough, and did not find myself timid, yet I could [not] manage it at all to my satisfaction. She said the one purpose of her life was gone, and she could not help wis.h.i.+ng the accident had ended it. This is hardly qualified by another thing which she said to Lady Churchill, that she should not like to have died in that way. She went on to speak of her life as likely to be short. I told her that she would not give way, that duty would sustain her (this she quite recognised), that her burden was altogether peculiar, but the honour was in proportion, that no one could wonder at her feeling the present, which is near, but that the reward is _there_, though distant....

Then about politics, which will keep. She rowed me for writing to Lord Palmerston about her accident, and said, "But, dear Mr.

Gladstone, that was quite wrong." The secret is kept wonderfully, and you must keep it. I hinted that it would be a very bad thing to have G. Grey away from such a cabinet on Tuesday, but all I could get was that I might arrange for any other minister (some one there certainly ought to be). I lectured her a little for driving after dark in such a country, but she said all her habits were formed on the Prince's wishes and directions, and she could not alter them.

_Hawarden, Dec. 29._-I am well _past half_ a century. My life has not been inactive. But of what kind has been its activity?

Inwardly I feel it to be open to this general observation: it seems to have been and to be a series of efforts to be and to do what is beyond my natural force. This of itself is not condemnation, though it is a spectacle effectually humbling when I see that I have not according to Schiller's figure enlarged with the circle in which I live and move. [_Diary._]

IV

_Jan. 2, 1864._-The cabinet was on matters of great importance connected with Denmark, and has decided rightly to seek the co-operation of France and other powers before talking about the use, in any event, of force.(77) Lord Palmerston has gout sharply in the hand. The Queen wrote a letter, which I think did her great credit. Her love of truth and wish to do right prevent all prejudices from effectually warping her.

The Queen talked much about the Danish question, and is very desirous of a more staid and quiet foreign policy. For the first time I think she takes a just credit to herself for having influenced beneficially the course of policy and of affairs in the late controversy.

_Balmoral, Sept. 28._-I thought the Queen's state of health and spirits last night very satisfactory. She looks better, more like what she used to look, and the spirits were very even; with the little references to the Prince just as usual. Whenever she quotes an opinion of the Prince, she looks upon the question as completely shut up by it, for herself and all the world. Prince Alfred is going to Germany for nine weeks-to study at Bonn, and to be more or less at Coburg. The Queen asked for you, of course. She has not said a syllable about public affairs to me since I came, but talked pleasantly of all manner of things.

_Sept. 29._-The Queen sent to offer a day's deer-stalking, but I am loth to trust my long eyesight.

_Oct. 2._-At dinner last night there was a great deal of conversation, and to-day I have been near an hour with the Queen after coming back from Ballater. She was as good and as gracious as possible. I can hardly tell you all the things talked about-Prince Humbert, Garibaldi, Lady Lyttelton, the Hagley boys, Lucy, smoking, dress, fas.h.i.+on, Prince Alfred, his establishment and future plans, Prince of Wales's visit to Denmark, revenue, Lancas.h.i.+re, foreign policy, the newspaper press, the habits of the present generation, young men, young married ladies, clubs, Clarendon's journey, the Prince Consort on dress and fas.h.i.+on, Prince of Wales on ditto, Sir R. Peel, F. Peel, Mrs. Stonor, the rest of that family, misreading foreign names and words, repute of English people abroad, happy absence of foreign office disputes and quarrels.

_Oct. 3._-I am just in from a sixteen mile walk, quite fresh, and pleased with myself! for having in my old age walked a measured mile in twelve minutes by the side of this beautiful Dee.

_Oct. 7._-I have just come in from a delightful twenty-five miles ride with General Grey and another companion. I had another long interview with the Queen to-day. She talked most, and very freely and confidentially, about the Prince of Wales; also about Lord Russell and Lord Palmerston, and about Granville and Clarendon, the latter perhaps to an effect that will a little surprise you.

Also the Dean of Windsor. It was a kind of farewell audience.

Chapter VII. Garibaldi-Denmark. (1864)

There are in Europe two great questions: the question called social and the question of nationalities.... The map of Europe has to be re-made.... I affirm with profound conviction that this movement of nationalities has attained in Italy, in Hungary, in Vienna, in a great part of Germany, and in some of the Slavonian populations, a degree of importance that must at no distant period produce decisive results.... The first war-cry that arises will carry with it a whole zone of Europe.-MAZZINI (1852).

I

"My confidence in the Italian parliament and people," Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lacaita at the end of 1862, "increases from day to day. Their self-command, moderation, patience, firmness, and forethought reaching far into the future, are really beyond all praise." And a few days later, again to Lacaita-"Your letter proves that the king has not merely got the const.i.tutional lesson by rote-though even this for an Italian king would be much; but that the doctrine has sunk into the marrow and the bone." The cause was won, and the work of construction went forward, but not on such lines as Cavour's master-hand was likely to have traced. Very early Mr.

Gladstone began to be uneasy about Italian finance. "I am sure," he wrote to Lacaita in April 1863, "that Italian freedom has no greater enemy in the Triple Crown or elsewhere, than large continuing deficits."

As events marched forward, the French occupation of Rome became an ever greater scandal in Mr. Gladstone's eyes. He writes to Panizzi (October 28, 1862):-

My course about the Emperor has been a very simple one. It is not for me to pa.s.s gratuitous opinions upon his character or that of French inst.i.tutions, or on his dealings with them. I believe him to be firmly attached to the English alliance, and I think his course towards us has been, on almost every occasion, marked by a friendliness perhaps greater and more conspicuous than we have always deserved at his hands. It is most painful to me to witness his conduct with regard to Italy.... He conferred upon her in 1859 an immense, an inestimable boon. He marred this boon in a way which to me seemed little worthy of France by the paltry but unkind appropriation of Nice in particular. But in the matter of Rome he inflicts upon Italy a fearful injury. And I do not know by what law of ethics any one is ent.i.tled to plead the having conferred an unexpected boon, as giving a right to inflict a gross and enduring wrong.(78)

It was in 1862 that Mr. Gladstone made his greatest speech on Italian affairs.(79) "I am ashamed to say," he told the House, "that for a long time, I, like many, withheld my a.s.sent and approval from Italian yearnings." He amply atoned for his tardiness, and his exposure of Naples, where perjury was the tradition of its kings; of the government of the pope in the Romagna, where the common administration of law and justice was handed over to Austrian soldiery; of the stupid and execrable lawlessness of the Duke of Modena; of the att.i.tude of Austria as a dominant and conquering nation over a subject and conquered race;-all this stamped a decisive impression on the minds of his hearers. Along with his speech on Reform in 1864, and that on the Irish church in the spring of 1865, it secured Mr. Gladstone's hold upon all of the rising generation of liberals who cared for the influence and the good name of Great Britain in Europe, and who were capable of sympathising with, popular feeling and the claims of national justice.

II

(M31) The Italian sentiment of England reached its climax in the reception accorded to Garibaldi by the metropolis in April 1864. "I do not know what persons in office are to do with him," Mr. Gladstone wrote to Lord Palmerston (March 26), "but you will lead, and we shall follow suit." The populace took the thing into their own hands. London has seldom beheld a spectacle more extraordinary or more moving. The hero in the red s.h.i.+rt and blue-grey cloak long a.s.sociated in the popular mind with so many thrilling stories of which they had been told, drove from the railway at Vauxhall to Stafford House, the n.o.blest of the private palaces of the capital, amid vast continuous mult.i.tudes, blocking roadways, filling windows, lining every parapet and roof with eager gazers. For five hours Garibaldi pa.s.sed on amid tumultuous waves of pa.s.sionate curiosity, delight, enthusiasm. And this more than regal entry was the arrival not of some loved prince or triumphant captain of our own, but of a foreigner and the deliverer of a foreign people. Some were drawn by his daring as a fighter, and by the picturesque figure as of a hero of antique mould; many by sight of the sworn foe of Giant Pope; but what fired the hearts of most was the thought of him as the soldier who bore the sword for human freedom. The western world was in one of its generous moments. In those days there were idealists; democracy was conscious of common interests and common brotherhood; a liberal Europe was then a force and not a dream.

"We who then saw Garibaldi for the first time," Mr. Gladstone said nearly twenty years after, "can many of us never forget the marvellous effect produced upon all minds by the simple n.o.bility of his demeanour, by his manners and his acts.... Besides his splendid integrity, and his wide and universal sympathies, besides that seductive simplicity of manner which never departed from him, and that inborn and native grace which seemed to attend all his actions, I would almost select from every other quality this, which was in apparent contrast but real harmony in Garibaldi-the union of the most profound and tender humanity with his fiery valour."(80) He once described the Italian chief to me as "one of the finest combinations of profound and unalterable simplicity with self-consciousness and self-possession. I shall never forget an occasion at Chiswick; Palmerston, John Russell, and all the leaders were awaiting him on the _perron_; he advanced with perfect simplicity and naturalness, yet with perfect consciousness of his position; very striking and very fine." Garibaldi dined with Mr. Gladstone, and they met elsewhere. At a dinner at Panizzi's, they sat by one another. "I remember," said Mr.

Gladstone, "he told a story in these words: 'When I was a boy,' he said, 'I was at school in Genoa. It was towards the close of the great French Revolution. Genoa was a great military post-a large garrison always in the town, constant parades and military display, with bands and flags that were beyond everything attractive to schoolboys. All my schoolfellows used to run here and there all over the town to see if they could get sight of one of these military parades and exhibitions. I never went to one. It struck me then as a matter of pain and horror, that it should be necessary that one portion of mankind should be set aside to have for their profession the business of destroying others.' "

Another side of Garibaldi was less congenial. A great lady wrote to Mr.

Gladstone of a conversation with him. "I talked to Garibaldi with regret that Renan was so much read in Italy. He said '_Perche?_' and showed that he did not dislike it, and that he has also in leaving Rome left very much else. I know that woman's words are useless: the more men disbelieve, the more they think it well that women should be 'superst.i.tious.' You are not likely to have _arguments_ with him, but I would give much that he should take away with him some few words that would bring home to him the fact that the statesman he cares for most would think life a miserable thing without faith in G.o.d our Saviour." To another correspondent on this point Mr. Gladstone wrote:-