Part 3 (2/2)

”She seems,” writes Lord Dudley, ”to have been advised by persons that are resolved to play the deepest possible game, and care little to what risk they expose her, provided they have a chance of turning out the Government, or perhaps of over-throwing the monarchy. I do not think that it is Brougham's doing.”[30] ”The people,” confesses Cobbett, ”as far as related to the question of guilt or innocence, did not care a straw.”[31] Their leaders cared still less:

”Careless of fate, they took their way, Scarce caring who might win the day; Their booty was secure.”

[30] ”Letters,” p. 255.

[31] ”Life of George IV.,” p. 425.

”If her innocence were proved,” observes a popular historian, ”they would gain a triumph over the King, force upon him a wife whom he could not endure, overturn his Ministers, and perhaps shake the monarchy; if her guilt, they would gain the best possible ground for declaiming on the corruption which prevailed in high places, and the monstrous nature of those inst.i.tutions which gave persons of such character the lead in society.”[32]

[32] Alison's ”Europe,” vol. ii. p. 549.

The excitement increased as the arrangements for the Queen's trial became known. Lord John Russell published a letter addressed to Mr.

Wilberforce, on the subject, urging him again to attempt an arrangement; but he had had enough of interfering in such a business, and declined to take the post a.s.signed him, though the writer expressed his opinion that in his hands was perhaps the fate of the country. He was as anxious as ever to do good, but did not see how it could be done. His opinion of the Queen did not improve, in consequence of the ”spirit” she continued to display, which he now felt inclined to describe in more appropriate language:--”I feel deeply the evil,” he writes in his Diary, ”that so bad a woman as I fear she is, should carry the victory by sheer impudence (if she is guilty), and a.s.sume the part of a person deeply injured.”[33]

[33] ”Life,” vol. v. p. 77.

Other well-meaning persons were equally anxious for an interposition; indeed, the King was obliged to send a message to one who desired an audience, with this object in view, ”that he never talked on political subjects with any but his Ministers.”[34]

[34] Ibid. p. 78.

Another cotemporary Diarist goes to the root of the evil:--”Had some conversation with Tierney, who looked serious and down. He said everything was worse and worse out of doors, and he saw no remedy. I observed, the only remedy, the only possibility of things returning to their former state was a rebellion, and the troops standing by us, and quelling it with a high hand. He replied, that was the disease. I said, neither he nor I should live to see society where it had been and ought to be; to which he a.s.sented. I have no doubt he is sincere, yet he and his party are the real authors of the spirit we deplore.”[35]

[35] Phipps's ”Memoirs of R. P. Ward,” vol. ii. p. 61.

”Alas!” writes Wilberforce in his Diary, ”surely we never were in such a sc.r.a.pe. The bulk of the people, I grant, are run mad; but then it was a species of insanity on which we might have reckoned, because we know their prejudices against foreigners; their being easily led away by appeals to their generous feelings; and then the doses with which they are plied, are enough to intoxicate much stronger heads than most of theirs.”[36]

[36] ”Life,” vol. v. p. 78.

”The middling as well as the higher orders,” says another observer, ”are pretty well acquainted with her present Majesty's conduct in foreign countries; but I am told that the common people are still in the dark, and disposed to espouse her cause; more, however, out of hatred to the King than out of regard for her.”[37]

[37] Lord Dudley's ”Letters,” p 242.

Attempts were made to gain over the military, which were not entirely unsuccessful; one of the regiments of Foot Guards, quartered in the Mews Barracks, Charing Cross, exhibited such decided symptoms of having been tampered with, that the Duke of Wellington was sent for, and he at once ordered them off to Portsmouth. ”The night before the last division marched,” says a respectable authority, ”a formidable mob a.s.sembled round the barracks at Charing Cross, calling the soldiers within to come out and join them.”[38] They were only subsequently dispersed by a troop of the 2nd Life Guards.

[38] ”Sidmouth's Life,” by Pellew, vol. iii. p. 330. Alison's ”Europe,” vol. ii. p. 461.

Some of the more respectable leaders of Opposition, though, they supported the Queen, had no heart in the cause.

”Lord ----” (we learn from another authority), ”whom I always look upon as a most honest man, said it was rather hard upon him to have to present her pet.i.tions, but he could not refuse, being so intimate with Brougham. But they were brought to him at a minute's notice, and he knew nothing about, consequently could not support them. In the present instance, he thought she was taken in, in pressing for trial within four-and-twenty hours. She thought we would not take her at her word, and might bully, as she had done before; that she was a bold, dangerous, impudent woman, as full of revenge as careless of crime, and that if we did not take care, might play the part of Catherine the Second, who, by means of the Guards, murdered her husband and usurped the throne.”[39]

[39] Phipps's ”Memoirs of Robert Plumer Ward,” vol. ii. p. 56.

The n.o.bleman whose opinions have here been preserved was most probably Lord Dacre, who, in his place in the House of Lords, presented more than one pet.i.tion from the Queen. One also was presented by Lord Auckland. Another of the Queen's partisans in the other House appears to have entertained similar sentiments:--”Walked with Sir ---- ----. He said he had no doubt that the Queen was guilty, but would never vote for the Bill, as unconst.i.tutional; at the same time, ready to admit that Ministers had proved such a case as perfectly justified them in bringing it forward.”[40]

[40] Phipps's ”Memoirs of Robert Plumer Ward,” vol. ii. p. 58.

A description of the sort of satellites that followed the Queen's movements when she went abroad, or surrounded her dwelling while she remained at home, is preserved in the postscript of a letter from Mr.

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