CHAPTER CCVIII.

CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF LORD Eldon till THE PASSING of the BILL TO REPEAL THE TEST ACT.

WE are again to view Lord Eldon in the trying situation of an exChancellor, in which my heroes have differed much more than in office, where they were almost all alike en[A. D. 1827.] grossed by the common objects of retaining power, and doing as much good to their country as was consistent with their own ease and aggrandisement. It would have been very delightful to me if I could have recorded that this, the last of, my series, taking Lord Somers for his model, had now devoted himself to literature and science, and had eclipsed his great judicial reputation by reforming the laws and improving the institutions of his country. It really might have been expected, that the pupil of Moises, and the brother of Sir William Scott, would eagerly return to a perusal of the classics, when duty no longer required him to pore over the interminable tomes of Equity Reports; and that although hitherto his eyes being dazzled by the bright beam of royal favour-he had been blind to the faults of the system over which he had presided, he would at last distinctly see them in all their deformity, and would struggle to remove them. But, alas! he had for ever lost all taste for any reading more recondite than the newspapers, -complaining even that "now-a-days they are too bulky, and presume to discuss subjects which should be left to pamphlets and reviews." Instead of framing a reformation of Chancery procedure, to be known by posterity under the title of " Lord Eldon's Equity Jeofails Act," he gave himself no farther trouble in carrying out the Report of the Chancery Commission; and though he had been driven by pressure from without to show it some countenance, he probably thought that its suggestions were dangerous innovations, which in their remote consequences, might lead to the subversion of the monarchy.

When the ". Advertisements" in the "TIMES" had been exhausted, I am afraid that he had no resource except counting over the money in his chest and receiving gossiping visits from a few old professional friends, who flattered him with reminiscences of his former greatness, and censures of the proceedings of his successor. The listless day appeared dreadfully long to him, and he must often have been impatient for the hour of dinner, when he could soothe his inaction with a bottle of Newcastle Port."

But the full misery of idleness, awaiting a mere lawyer in retirement, was not experienced by him till after the formation of the Duke of Wellington's Government, in the beginning of the following yearwhen he considered himself abandoned by all his political associates, and he certainly knew that he never was again to be in office.

For the present he was excited by the hope of seeing the usurpers of

power turned adrift, and of assisting in that occupation in which he took such pleasure and had often displayed such skill-the formation of a downright Tory Government."

66

He forgot all he had suffered in giving up the Great Seal when he heard the Duke of Wellington's explanation-which [MAY 2, 1827.] was very damaging to Mr. Canning,*-and he was thrown into raptures by Lord Grey's tremendous attack upon that Minister which soon followed, although a considerable section of the Whigs were supporting him.t Hating all coalitions, he [MAY 10.] thought that there was little danger of a coalition between these leaders, for Lord Grey on this very occasion had renewed his pledge to support Catholic Emancipation, and had assigned the promise of the new Chief to postpone it-with the appointment of a professing Anti-Catholic Chancellor,-as strong reasons for withholding confidence from the present Government; but he hoped that without concert there would be co-operation between them, and, knowing the King's increased dislike to the "early friends," he anticipated that in the course of a few months the true old genuine Tories would be in possession of undivided empire.

He was made more sanguine when Mr. Canning's foreign policy, particularly with respect to Portugal, was condemned by these opposite leaders; and still more so when, by their simultaneous though independent efforts, the Government bill for a relaxation of the corn laws, which had passed the House of Commons, was defeated in the House of Lords.+

The only alloy to these joys was, that the Dissenters' Marriage Bill again coming up from the Commons,-although the ex-Chancellor abused very handsomely the measure itself and the Bishops who supported it-upon a division there was now a majority in its favour,§

* 17 Hansard, 454.

Ibid. 720. This is said to have made the new Premier so angry that he actually wrote a letter to the King, asking a peerage, that he might come and answer it, and that it was not till after the lapse of several days that his friends could drive him from this purpose.

17 Hansard, 984, 1217, 1258.—I regret very much that, in a note which I carelessly appended to my Life of Lord Northington (Vol. V. p. 207,) in comparing Lord Rockingham's first Administration in 1766 to Mr. Canning's Administration in 1827, I used language from which it might be supposed that 1 represented the Duke of Wellington and Lord Grey acting against Mr. Canning in concert, with a view to turn him out. Lord Grey, retaining all his own high principles, did (I think erroneously) express a very unfavourable opinion of Mr. Canning and his measures; but it is well known that he grounded that opinion upon his belief that the manner in which Mr. Canning had acted would tend to retard the accomplishment of Catholic Emancipation and other necessary reforms. Hence he thought that he could not support an Administration of which he had formed this judgment, and still less could he enter into any alliance with those who were as deeply pledged against Catholic Emancipation as Lord Eldon himself. I could hardly be supposed, by any one who knows me, to intend to cast any reflection on the honour or consistency of Lord Grey,-having formerly been proud of him as my political chief, and now venerating his memory.

§ 61 to 54. 17 Hansard, 1424.

and it actually went through a committee; but the prorogation being at hand, the government agreed that, for the purpose of receiving some amendments, it should stand over till another session.

Parliament being prorogued by Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst, Lord ex-Chancellor Eldon immediately retreated to En[JULY 2, 1827.] combe, the hall of which was no longer crowded by King's messengers, carrying Cabinet boxes-by breathless applicants for injunctions and commissions of bankruptcy-by royal visiters to concert measures for Protestant ascendency. nor by parsons with twelve children, coming in quest of livings. The tranquillity of the place, which in former vacations would have seemed so desirable, was now felt by Lord Eldon, like the tameness of the surrounding animals by Robinson Crusoe, as "awful." But while, in the terms of an indictment for murder, he “ languishing did live," the newspaper of the 10th of August unexpectedly brought him the melancholy intelligence of the death of the Prime Minister.

His strong political feelings were instantly rekindled within him, and, in imagination, he was constructing a new Cabinet. He expected to be immediately sent for to London; but no summons was received. He then became alarmed that the Whigs were to enter through the door opened to them by Lord Lansdowne, but was greatly comforted by hearing of an arrangement which he was sure could not last, and which must ere long make way for the true Tories-that Lord Goderich (now Earl of Ripon) should be placed at the head of the Treasury, without any real accession of strength in the Cabinet.

He was a good deal disgusted, however, by an occurrence which immediately followed-the Duke of Wellington consenting to resume the office of Commander-in-Chief, which he had indignantly refused to hold under Mr. Canning. The ex-Chancellor thus betrayed his uneasy thoughts to Lord Encombe:

"You have seen that the Duke of Wellington, now poor Canning is dead, has taken the command of the army. He holds that this connects him no more with Ministers than if he took the command of the Horse Guards, as I hear. This is not inconsistent, though it will seem to the public to be so, when it may be said, 'If it does not connect him with Ministers, why did he not keep it under Minister Canning? I happen to know that there is a very satisfactory difference between those two cases. I wish that I was as sure that it does not connect him with Ministers. I am sure he thinks it does not; for an honester man does not live. But-I say no more."

He felt so uncomfortable in his suspicions of the Duke not being quite steady in his opposition to the existing semi-liberal Administration, that he wrote to him on the subject, and received the following explanation, which did not by any means quiet his apprehensions:"Strathfieldsaye, Sept. 1st, 1827.

"MY DEAR LORD ELDON,

66

I am very much obliged to you for your letter; and as I had not heard from you on the subject of that one which I had desired Lord

Fitzroy Somerset to show you, I intended to write to you. I certainly thought and wished that there should be no mistake, in regard to the principle on which I accepted the office of Commander-in-Chief, and to the relation in which its acceptance would place me to the politics of the Government. In regard to the acceptance of the office itself, I had declared myself in public as well as in private, and in writing to his Majesty and to his late Minister; and I had likewise declared in Parliament the relation in which I should stand to the politics of the Government. With these declarations before them, the King and his Minister called upon me to give my service, on the ground of the public interests requiring it; and, in accepting, I have again declared my principle. I may have placed myself too high, and, like others, fall from the difficult position which I have assumed. But this is quite clear, viz. that I have assumed that position; and there I will remain as long as I can do any good in it.

"I am not astonished that the friends of the Administration should consider this arrangement as a great gain. In one sense it is so. If, on the one hand, the Administration have no claim upon my services out of my profession, I, on the other, can be of no counsel or party against them; and they are certain that one great branch of the service will be conducted according to their wishes."

Labouring under a groundless belief that Lord Goderich's Administration might be durable, so as to endanger the Church, and destroy his own prospects of returning to office, he despatched the following letter to his grandson :

66

Though I am perfectly satisfied that, in the present circumstances of the country, the Duke of Wellington could not refuse to accept the command of the army-and though he is not in the Cabinet, and disapproves, I believe, thoroughly the formation of an Administration composed of persons of such opposite public principles, that, if they are all honest in their professed opinions, they never could agree in any interesting public matter,-yet that acceptance cannot but be, I think, a strong prop to the Administration, as the present Opposition cannot possibly, I think, have the benefit of his counsel and advice against the Administration, if they choose to adopt measures which he may think ought not to be adopted, but which the Commander-in-Chief may be obliged to execute. Besides this, all experience proves, that when individuals come frequently into company and contact with each other, they soon like each other better than they did before; they soften as to their differences; and the oil and vinegar begin to lose their repugnant properties, and to amalgamate with each other as if they were substances of the same nature. Among those who, towards the end of the session, were the determined friends of Wellington, Peel, and Eldon, the opinions as to W.'s acceptance, are various. Some think he ought not to have accepted, some, that he ought,-some, that he should have made conditions, and some, that he should have told his Majesty plainly, that he must change his Administration, and take the late Ministers, and that upon that condition only he would command the army. This last

opinion, I am sure, is wrong; for I have seen enough of the feelings of the people of this country to be sure that they will have their King (let them ever so heartily dislike measures,) talked to as a King,-that they will not bear any person's dictating to him,-that they will not endure a Sovereign over their Sovereign,—and, particularly, that they would never endure a person's holding such language to the King, whom they would consider as a military man, confiding in the attachment of the army to him; which army he, as a good subject, should by every proper means in his power, endeavour to attach to the Sovereign. After all, though I think he could not refuse to accept, because the country has not another man in it fit to command the army, I think the acceptance, though unavoidable in my opinion, will nevertheless be the cause of much that, with my principles, I shall have to lament. The members of the motley Administration and their adherents think they have gained a vast advantage. So much as to the salus publica."

When November came round, and, according to the usage of near sixty years, he ought to have celebrated the "Morrow of all Souls" in Westminster Hall, it seemed most strange to him to find himself still in the country; and he was evidently much depressed, although he tried to put a good face upon it by writing to his friends: "The loneliness of the place is far from being an [Nov. 4, 1827.] object of distaste to me. We are now here already some days beyond the day to which in any former year we could remain here. It is at least as pleasant as sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall, among the lawyers."*

He came to London a few days after Christmas, hastening his journey on account of rumours of a dissolution of the Ministry. He went, with some, by the name of the "Stormy Petrel," being supposed to delight in such convulsions. The newspapers seem to have prognosti. cated a coming change from his appearance, and to have somewhat misrepresented his proceedings, as we learn from the following paragraph in a letter to Lady Frances:

"I believe the world here are now pretty well satisfied that I have not come here for the sole purpose of intrigue, cabal, and holding conclaves for political purposes, the Ministerial [papers] having, when they stated me to have political meetings in Hamilton Place, unluckily brought company together of many who have not been in town."

Various attempts having been made in vain to strengthen the Administration, Lord Goderich lost courage altogether; and,-not venturing to meet Parliament,-on the 8th of January, 1828, he resigned. The same day, the Duke of Wellington, whose confidence in himself as a debater had been greatly increased by several excellent speeches he had made while in Opposition, agreed to be First Minister, and was formally

In this letter he is very severe upon his old friend, poor Sir Anthony Hart, who had accepted the Irish Great Seal without consulting him, and for whom he makes this excuse: "Indeed, commencing a Chancellorship at seventy-three is so foolish a business, that perhaps he thought it most advisable to be silent." But he himself would not have been at all sorry to commence a new Chancellorship when considerably above that age.