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government to which his talents, industry, and rank gave him claim. When Lord Mulgrave offered him a seat in the cabinet, the Hon. Edward Phipps writes"In a letter of this period, written with all the modesty that generally accompanies true talent, the young Lord Palmerston expresses the satisfaction he feels in accepting the office tendered to him unsolicited, and his anxiety to justify the good opinion which such a step must indicate." All the references to his lordship, at this period, agree in this respect. On the formation of the Perceval administration, Mr. Plumer Ward writes, in his Diary

"Lord Palmerston came to town; sent for by Perceval. He was so good as to confide to me that three things were offered to him-the Chancellorship of the Exchequer, Secretaryship at War, or a seat at the Treasury, by way of introduction to the seals, if he was afraid of entering on them at once. These offers were, however, in the alternative of there being any of them declined by Milnes (member for Pontefract), to whom they were made in the first instance. Lord Palmerston consulted me very frankly on them, and asked if I thought that he would be equal to the seals, either in cabinet or parliament; particularly the latter, where he had barely made his débût. I told him, and was most sincere, that in common with all his friends whom I had ever heard speak on the subject, I thought him quite equal to them in point of capacity; but as to nerves in parliament (of which he himself seemed most to doubt), nobody could judge but himself. He said, Petty (whom I had mentioned) had come forward, after having felt his way, and got possession of himself in the House; and that if he had done the same, he, perhaps, would not hesitate. As it was, he inclined to the second place; but had written to Lord Malmesbury. Among other topics which I urged, one seemed to impress him much-which was, the great difference there would be in his situation and pretensions upon a return to office, in the event of our going out, if he retired as a cabinet minister, instead of a subordinate capacity. He allowed it much flattered his ambition; but feared the prejudice it would occasion to his own reputation, and the interests of his friends, if he failed. I left him inclining to the Secretary at War; and admired his prudence, as I have long done the talents and excellent understanding, as well as the many other good qualities and accomplishments, of this very fine young man."

A little later in the year we have another reference to Palmerston. In a letter to Lord Lonsdale, Mr. Ward writes-" Though Milnes has refused office, the effect of his interviews with Perceval has been to promise all possible support to his government; and this, after begging to see Canning in consequence of their intimacy together, and a full hearing of his case on his own representation. If Rose takes the seals, Lord Palmerston tells me he will probably succeed him as Treasurer of the Navy. I wish him every good; and his talents, when he gets over his nervousness about speaking, must give the most effectual support." The writer's wish was gratified: Lord Palmerston did get over his nervousness. Indeed, in our day, that would have been about the last fault laid to his charge.

We find another entry in Mr. Ward's Diary, which we must transcribe. "Lord Palmerston told me to-day, that when he took the War Office, Perceval offered him the cabinet, which, though Lord Malmesbury advised the contrary, he declined. He did this, it seems, from the same modesty which guided his former conduct-a fear that, from his inexperience, he might not answer expectation, which would hurt both himself and his friends, among whose coadjutors no failure could be afforded." Thus carefully and slowly did Lord Palmerston feel his way; thus did. he display a wisdom beyond his years, and which, in time, was to place him on the pinnacle of fame and power.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE DAWN OF LIBERALISM.

MEN are the slaves of names.

Under George IV. the nation made a great advance in Liberalism; yet we had a Tory government all the while.

Well might George III. tell Mr. Rose that he was "an old Whig." In creed and practice, the old Whigs were for a national debt; the funded system; a state bank; exclusive trading corporations; a standing army; foreign wars and foreign intervention; Protestant ascendancy, and Catholic exclusion; restrictive laws on foreign products, and protective laws for articles of home growth; the longer duration of parliaments; and the excise.

The French revolution forced Pitt to become a Tory.

After his death, for sixteen years, the Tory party lived on his traditions. The Liverpool administration lasted all that while; but, when it was first formed, people expected its dissolution in six months. As Premier, Lord Liverpool won the esteem of a great portion of the middle and commercial classes of this country; although George III. spoke slightingly of him, and complained of his ignorance of foreign affairs, and unbusiness-like habits. By the addition of Peel, Canning, and others, and, subsequently, the Duke of Wellington, the Liverpool administration gained much strength. Lord Eldon was very much annoyed. "Can this man (Liverpool) be in earnest ?" he asks of one of his correspondents.

In January, 1822, the Liverpool administration gained a great accession of strength. The Marquis of Buckingham was made a duke; Mr. Charles Wynn received the appointment of President of the Board of Control; the duke's nominees, Phillimore and Freemantle, were also provided for; and Mr. Henry Wynn received a diplomatic appointment.

Lord Sidmouth-that foolish fellow," as the Duke of Wellington termed him ―retired from office, and Mr. Peel took his place. "This coalition," writes Sir A. Alison, "gained ministers a few votes in the House of Commons; but it was of more importance as indicating (as changes do) the commencement of a change in the system of government. The admission of even a single Whig into the cabinet indicated the increasing weight of that party in the country; and as they were favourable to Catholic claims, it was an important change." Lord Eldon was very much annoyed about it-a pretty good sign that the step was a desirable one in the interests of the public; and it was so understood by the community at large. One of the first things done by the new administration was to abolish a couple of useless offices. Lord Eldon calls this "stripping the crown naked."

The cabinet was still further liberalised by the death of Lord Castlereagh-at that time Marquis of Londonderry.

The end of the latter was truly shocking. At the close of the session he had retired to his seat at Foot's Cray, Kent, August 12th, 1822. Before his lordship left London, his physician had observed his head to be very confused, and his pulse to be irregular, and had ordered him to be cupped. His colleagues, also, had begun to fancy that there was something amiss. Dr. Bankhead had promised to follow him to his country seat. When he arrived, he went directly to Lord Londonderry's room, who had remained in bed all the day. His lordship observed that it was very odd that he should come to his room first; and on Bankhead answering, that, as he had dined in town, he did not wish to disturb the family at dinner, Lord Londonderry said that the doctor looked very grave, as if something unpleasant had occurred; and begged to know what it was. The doctor replied

that nothing of the kind had occurred. His lordship then apologised, adding, that "the truth was, he had reason to be suspicious; but that he hoped the doctor would be the last person to engage in anything that would be injurious to him." In a morning or two after, the doctor was summoned to attend Lord Londonderry in his dressing-room; and entered just in time to save him from falling, as he had cut his throat with a penknife. He said, as the doctor entered-“Bankhead, let me fall upon your arm; it is all over:" and instantly expired.

The elevated position the marquis had held for many years, had made him a prominent mark for the shafts of honest patriots and malignant partisans. We owe to him the legislative union of Great Britain and Ireland; and to the calculations of his lordship, as Secretary at War, and as Foreign Secretary, the successes in our terrible encounter with Bonaparte are partly due. "As a statesman, as a gentleman, as a man, he was," writes the Duke of Buckingham, "the Bayard of political chivalry -sans peur et sans reproche." His best advocate, we believe, will be found in the Castlereagh Despatches, edited by his brother, the late marquis. "Elegant and courteous in manner, with a noble figure, and finely-chiselled countenance, he was beloved in his family circle, and by all his friends, not less than respected by the wide circle of sovereigns and statesmen with whom he had so worthily upheld the honour and dignity of England." Such is the testimony of the Conservative historian, Alison. Most of Londonderry's colleagues entertained a similar opinion. "Our own country, and Europe," writes Lord Eldon, "have sustained a loss, in my opinion, irreparable." An equally strong testimony in his favour is that of Mr. Freemantle, who, writing upon the supposition that Canning must now join the ministry, adds-"But, after all, I fear we shall not, even with Canning and Peel, and even Grant in addition, be altogether so well off as with Londonderry." His lordship, at the express wish of his lady, was buried in Westminster Abbey, when the mob took occasion to show their sense of the merits of the deceased. "From being in the first coach," writes Mr. C. W. Wynn, "I could see little of the behaviour of the mob at the funeral; but all that I saw or heard was perfectly proper till the removal of the coffin from the hearse, to enter the abbey, when a Radical yell was set up from St. Margaret's churchyard.'

In the session of 1793, Mr. Canning took his seat as M.P. for Newport, Isle of Wight. In 1795, he became Under-Secretary of State for the Foreign Department, which he held till Pitt went out of office on the Catholic question. On the htter returning to office in 1804, Canning became Treasurer of the Navy. On Mr. Pitt's death, we find him a fierce opponent of the administration. Under the Duke of Portland, he was Foreign Secretary, which office he held till his quarrel with Lord Castlereagh, arising out of the unfortunate Walcheren expedition; when he resigned, and his friend Huskisson did the same. Canning remained out of office some time; accepting, however, the post of ambassador to Lisbon from Lord Castlereagh, while he refused to serve with him. Shortly after his return, he was made President of the Board of Control, in consequence of the death of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. In 1820, he resigned office rather than take part in the proceedings against the queen.

The way was now clear; and Canning came back to office as Foreign Secretary, and leader of the House of Commons. Mr. Wynn had all along regretted the loss of Canning. "Though I have no respect for his character, yet he is of great use to check Burdett, Hobhouse, Lambton, &c." Again, he writes, under the date of 1822-"I think as ill of the latter-Canning-as the K- or you can; but it seems to me so much his interest to do his best, and that the gulf between him and the reformers is so impassable, that it would be far better to admit him, and take the benefit of his services in the House of Commons, which no other man can render." On the occasion of Lord Londonderry's death, Lord Dudley, one of Canning's most intimate friends, writes-"Great as his talents for parliament are, and great as is the want of them on the ministerial side, it is not without reluctance that the rest of the cabinet will consent to receive him as an associate.

If they make him any proposal, it will only be because they are forced to it." And forced to it, as we have seen, they were.

Lord Eldon had viewed, as we can easily imagine, the introduction of Mr. Canning into the cabinet with considerable discontent; but the appointment of Canning's personal friend, Mr. Huskisson, in 1823, to a seat in the cabinet, nearly upset the Lord Chancellor. He writes-"Looking at the whole history of this gentleman, I don't consider this introduction, without a word said about the intention, as I should have, perhaps, done with respect to some persons that have been, or might be, brought into the cabinet; but, turning out one man and introducing another, in the way all this is done, is telling the Chancellor that he should not give them the trouble of disposing of him, but should cease to be a Chancellor. What makes it worse is, that the great man of all has a hundred times most distinctly declared that no connections of a certain person should come in." A fair portrait of Mr. Huskisson is drawn by Lord Dudley. "Besides possessing considerable abilities, and, on some subjects, extensive knowledge, he is cheerful, goodnatured, and obliging: a man of the world of the best sort."

Mr. Canning was a Tory. It is the fashion to consider him a Liberal, prostituting himself, for the sake of pay, to the Tory party; a horse of the sun harnessed to a brewer's dray. We think better of him. He was a Tory in heart as well as in parliament. He steadily declared he should oppose reform, in whatever shape it might appear, to the last hour of his life. As to concessions to the Catholics, it was notorious that George IV. only consented to receive him as minister upon the express condition that no such concessions should be even thought of. Rejected by the Tory aristocracy on account of birth, he formed an administration of the Liberal party, who, like the Marquis of Lansdowne and Mr. Tierney, abandoned their professions for the sake of office. But Canning was not a brainless, thickheaded Tory; and he was aware of the hollow settlement of Europe made by the Tories and the holy alliance. Up to his time we had, if not cordially approved of, at any rate silently acquiesced in, the policy of our continental allies; but when, in 1823, the restored Bourbons, wishing to achieve something which might commend them to the French, conceived the project of first restoring the arbitrary form of the Spanish government (then a modified despotism, tempered by British protection), and then of reconquering the revolted American colonies of Spain, which had thrown off the yoke of the mother country, Mr. Canning resolved to prevent it. He declared that, by means of "the new world," he would redress the balance of the old. He acknowledged the independence of the revolted Spanish colonies; and in his famous speech, in which he compared himself to Eolus holding the chained tempests in his hand, he replied to the threats of Austria and other continental powers, by threatening, in no mysterious terms, an alliance betwixt England and their own defrauded subjects, to whom, in the hour of need, they had promised constitutions on a popular basis.

Mr. Canning steered the vessel of state bravely on. For the first time since the death of Pitt, we had a strong and popular administration. Mr. Canning's genius, his great and brilliant talent, and his oratory, naturally won their way in a popular assembly. He gave the ministry an ascendency in debate, of which, previously, they had stood in need. He retained the middle and manufacturing classes on the Tory side, though he frightened impossible ones, such as George IV., old Eldon, and the Duke of York. He was independent in spirit and action: he would be second to none. His literary taste and his polished manners were all in his favour, and marked him, in early life, as a winner in the political race. By his marriage with General Scott's daughter, whose sister afterwards became Duchess of Portland, Canning acquired wealth and connection. In parliament he had no rival on his own side of the House. He had genius, eloquence, poetry, and a mind capable of solving difficult questions; while his treatment of trifles was of an exquisitely skilful and ludicrous character. And yet this man was never entirely trusted by the party whom he served, and who could not have held office without

him. More than any other man of the time, Canning might exclaim, in his own language

"Give me the avow'd, the erect, the manly foe,
Bold I can meet-perhaps may turn his blow;
But of all plagues, good Heaven! thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend."

In that self-seeking age it is strange the suspicion with which Canning was viewed. Selfishness, on the largest scale, seems to have been the only motive for public life. The great noblemen supported the government, if it was made worth their while. "Lord Lansdowne writes word to a correspondent here," writes Lord Dudley, "that everything in England has fallen in price except the Grenvilles. They have certainly made an excellent bargain in proportion to their talents, reputation, and numerical strength. Were Lord G. still in the full vigour of life and exertion, one should not be surprised at any sacrifice made to obtain so powerful a support; but, by his retirement from public affairs, one would have thought that the value of the family was reduced near to that of the half-dozen votes they can bring into a division." A borough was then considered as private property, and to be used for private ends.

"Lord Grosvenor," writes Mr. Freemantle to the Marquis of Buckingham, "has two vacancies for Shaftesbury." "All your members," on another occasion he writes to the marquis, "voted."

Mr. Henry Wynn wrote to the Marquis of Buckingham, relative to his interview with Lord Castlereagh-"He began by a great deal of palaver about the obligation the government were under to my family." Mr. Freemantle writes to the Duke of Buckingham-"Lord Harrowby is the candidate for the garter, which, if he don't get, will, I think, drive him from the government."

The Hon. C. Wynn wrote of the Duke of Wellington-"I do not understand his views and objects; they begin centre, and end, no doubt, in himself." Selfishness reigned everywhere. No wonder Wilberforce wrote-"I verily believe, and have long believed, the constituent body to be more corrupt than the representative." The county members almost exclusively confined their attention to the agricultural interest, and gave the ministry a very inefficient support. Mr. Canning had to avail himself of this selfishness, and to make sure of the king's favour, which he did to the intense mortification of his rivals and friends. Lord Eldon was especially annoyed. He writes "The appointment of Lord Albert Conyngham in the Foreign Office has, by female influence, put Canning beyond the reach of anything to affect him; and will, naturally, enable him to turn those out whom he does not wish to remain in. The king is in such thraldom that one has nobody to fall back on."

Canning's great blunder was on the question of reform. He committed his party to hostility to it.

The Whigs, originally, were not reformers. The Edinburgh Review, their own special organ, repudiates the idea altogether.

So late as 1820, Lord Grenville writes to the Marquis of Buckingham, complaining of "the manner in which the opposition have, of late years, most unfortunately for themselves and for the country, been drawn to mix themselves up with projects of reform."

In 1821, the feeling of the country gentlemen and of the great families, with a few exceptions, was in favour of the ministry; as, in the language of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville to the Marquis of Buckingham, the question was, "whether the opposition is to be suffered, from its base alliance with the Radicals and with the queen, to take violent possession of government, in order to overturn the whole system of our constitution; to bring in annual or triennial parliaments; to do little short of introducing universal suffrage; to disband the army, which now holds the Radicals in check; and, very probably, to let loose Bonaparte, under pretence of mitigating his confinement."

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