Part 11 (1/2)
I have just met a Conservative Peer, a clever and honourable man who moved me greatly. With tears in his eyes he lamented the degradation of his country, the ruin of this great and venerable fabric. He foresaw the terrible struggle which may immediately arise between the two Houses; the Radical spirit which, whether they like it or not, must control the present Ministry, and those which will rapidly succeed it. The present Cabinet in everybody's opinion is still-born, and people are surprised that so good and intelligent a man as Lord Melbourne should lend himself to such a farce. His sister tried to explain it by saying that one must sacrifice one's self for one's country, but Madame de Lieven answered, ”The country cannot be saved by men who dishonour themselves.”
Lord Melbourne's friends who know him well say that his indolence will very soon get the upper hand, and that with a vigorous ”d.a.m.n!” he will cast off everything. It is, indeed, strange to see the most nonchalant man in England called to the conduct of affairs at such a critical moment for the country.
_London, July 15, 1834._--Lord Grey called and stayed a long time. We spoke of the recent crisis as if it were already ancient history, and with the same detachment and sincerity as of old. He argued feebly, and as it were to ease his conscience, against my melancholy forebodings, defended his successors collectively and abandoned them in detail; or at least he agreed that their position was difficult, and that they cut a sinister figure on their re-entry into power. He was silent when I told him that the public thought Mr. Littleton was the fool, Lord Althorp the weakling, the Chancellor the villain of the piece. He shrugged his shoulders when I quoted to him a curious remark made by his brother-in-law, Mr. Ellice, in Lady Grey's drawing-room the evening before, which was as follows. Replying to the regret expressed by some one at Lord Grey's retirement, ”No doubt,” he said, ”it is a pity from many points of view, but it was bound to come. He was quite sick of the business, and, at any rate, this will have the advantage of giving us more scope, making our progress freer and getting us out of the policy of compromise, which is no longer possible.”
Lord Grey said and repeated several times that he regretted neither power nor office, and that for several months past he had felt enfeebled, without interest in anything, and unable to do any business except with repugnance and la.s.situde. He confessed that what had made him feel most bitter was the conduct of some of his own people, especially Lord Durham, whose violence, hauteur, ambition and intrigues had afflicted him the more as his daughter had been the first to suffer. He could not doubt that Lady Durham's last miscarriage was due to her husband's brutality. He told me that in spite of the terror inspired by his character, it was proposed to give him, in the new Cabinet, the place left vacant by Lord Melbourne's transfer to the Treasury. Lord Durham's ambition and malevolent activity make him so inconvenient to any Ministry of which he is not a member, that it seems almost better to admit him, and to try in this way to neutralise his ill-will. Lord Grey was doubtful, however, whether they could make up their minds to do so, he was so much detested by every one.
Lord Grey was sure that he had persuaded Lord Althorp to resume his place in the Cabinet[25] in spite of the many embarra.s.sments of his position. He says that without Lord Althorp they could never control the House of Commons. He flattered himself also that he has persuaded Lord Lansdowne to stay, but he was not sure of this. In fact, being persuaded that the accession to power of either the Tories or the Radicals would mean revolution, he did all he could with all the energy in his power to patch up the miserable Cabinet which has just betrayed him. He cannot or will not understand that it is Radicalism very thinly veiled just as much as if O'Connell or Cobbett were already in office.
[25] The new Cabinet was const.i.tuted as follows: First Lord of the Treasury, Lord Melbourne; Chancellor, Lord Brougham; Lord President of the Council, the Marquess of Lansdowne; Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Viscount Palmerston; Secretary of State for the Colonies, Mr. Spring Rice; Chancellor of the Exchequer, Lord Althorp; First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Auckland; Postmaster-General, Marquess of Conyngham; Paymaster-General of the Forces, Lord John Russell; Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Mr. Littelton.
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Lord Holland; Home Secretary, Viscount Duncannon; President of the Board of Control, Mr. Charles Grant; President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Poulett Thomson; Secretary of State for War, Mr. Ellice; Lord Privy Seal, Lord Mulgrave. Most of these Ministers had been members of the previous Cabinet.
I sat next the Chancellor at the d.u.c.h.ess-Countess of Sutherland's dinner. He was very genial, and invited me to drink the toast of the day, the 14th of July. ”At dessert,” I replied, well knowing that his restless mind would forget all about it. As a matter of fact, the matter quite slipped his memory. I could not, in any case, have drunk the toast, for this date, which has already such unhappy a.s.sociations, was certainly not purified yesterday.
The Chancellor asked me if I had seen Lord Grey and if I was not struck with his simplicity, which he said was such that he could conceal, dissemble and contain nothing. ”He is a child in candour and thoughtlessness, and he yields to the impressions of every moment.”
”His is a very n.o.ble nature,” I replied. ”Yes, yes, no doubt,” said he, ”it is the nature of a very nice child, which reminds me that Mr.
Hare, a friend of Mr. Fox as well as of Fitzpatrick and Grey, used always to call him 'Baby Grey.'”
There is no doubt that Don Carlos is gone. Some say he embarked on the Thames when he was supposed to be at the Opera, and that he will land in Spain at one of the points where he is supposed to have a following. Others, and among them M. de Miraflores, say that he has gone via France; that M. Calomarde managed the whole thing from Paris, instigated by him (Miraflores) in order to entrap Don Carlos. Anyhow, he is gone, and whatever be the result of his enterprise it cannot be without effect.
_London, July 16, 1834._--Lord Melbourne's successor at the Home Office is known; it is Lord Duncannon, who has been transferred from the Woods and Forests, which he leaves to Sir John Cam-Hobhouse. The latter is celebrated for his friends.h.i.+p with Lord Byron, his Eastern travels, and his very liberal opinions, in which, however, he is less extreme than Lord Duncannon, who is said to be quite violent. This shows that the Cabinet has taken on a more decidedly revolutionary character.
Yesterday it was certain that Don Carlos had left London; to-day his arrival in Spain is equally beyond doubt. The Tories say he has got to Navarre after having crossed all France; and this, too, is the version of M. de Miraflores, who now perhaps regrets having boasted of having deceived the Prince and surrounded him with spies who were to deliver him up to the first Spanish outpost, while as a matter of fact he has arrived safe and sound among his own people, by whom, it is said, he has been enthusiastically received.
The English Ministry yesterday admitted knowing of Don Carlos's arrival in Spain, which is believed to have taken place on the 9th, but they say that he landed at a port in Biscaya attended only by a single Frenchman, and that his partisans eagerly welcomed him. It is a.s.serted that he only went to Spain because the Northern provinces invited him, and threatened that they would declare their independence and const.i.tute themselves a Republic if their natural leader did not come to them. It is clear that there must have been great hopes on the one hand and much to lose on the other before a man so timid and so incapable as Don Carlos could have been persuaded to run such a risk.
Moreover, his conversation with the Duke of Wellington, which I set down above, shows that his mind has for several weeks been occupied with this plan of going to Spain.
_London, July 17, 1834._--The friends of the new Ministry are wearing themselves out with a.s.sertions that the policy of the French alliance will not be altered in any way. I believe this is true; but, in the interests of both countries, I should have preferred that the alliance had been founded on social order and had not depended for its continuance on revolutionary sympathies, which give just cause for anxiety to the rest of Europe, and may bring about conflicts in which it would be difficult to predict who will be the victor.
We are more and more decided to return to France immediately after Parliament rises, and perhaps even sooner.
Our more distant future is not yet to be foreseen, but Lord Grey's example is another proof that the great figures of history should themselves choose the circ.u.mstances of their retirement, and should not wait till it is imposed upon them by the mistakes or the perfidy of others.
Yesterday we received the two first volumes of a book, ent.i.tled _M. de Talleyrand_. I have hardly looked at it, but M. de Talleyrand has read it. He says that nothing could be more stupid, false, tedious, and ill-imagined, and that he would not pay five s.h.i.+llings to have it suppressed. I admit that I am less philosophic, and that on occasions of this sort--which in a libellous age like ours are so numerous--I always remember a saying of La Bruyere's, which seems to me remarkably true. ”Excessive calumny,” he says, ”like excessive praise, always leaves a trace behind.” As a matter of fact, the world is divided into the foolish and the malevolent, and so there are always people who will believe what is improbable, especially about an opponent.
_London, July 18, 1834._--Fatuity in men is a thing which spreads from one point to all the rest. M. de Miraflores, who is very pus.h.i.+ng with women and rather ridiculous, is not less presumptuous in politics. He launches out madly and credits himself with successes which are only due to the personal pa.s.sions of the people, and which will perhaps hardly be justified by the final result. Thus he proclaims himself the inventor of the Quadruple Alliance, the first idea of which was suggested to him by Lord Palmerston. Now that Don Carlos's reappearance on Spanish territory renews the old difficulties, the little Marquis, _proprio motu_, without waiting for orders from his Government, sends a perfect _olla podrida_ of a note--a masterpiece of absurdity--appealing to France and England to extend the scope of the treaty whose object was believed to be accomplished.
The present circ.u.mstances are, however, very different. Three months ago the two Pretenders, Miguel and Carlos, were both penned up in a little corner of Portugal, and were thus more particularly the business of England. Now Don Carlos is in the north of Spain, near the French frontier. Will England carry her revolutionary tendencies so far as to allow a French army to enter the Peninsula? Would not that be the signal for Lord Palmerston's resignation? On the other hand, can France, after declaring against Don Carlos, allow him again to seize a power which he would use against her? It is not that the Government of the Queen-Regent, which becomes more and more decrepit, is likely to be a very good neighbour. King Louis-Philippe finds himself in the dilemma of being faced on the other side of the Pyrenees either with the Republican or the Legitimist principle. The _mezzo termine_ can only be maintained by armed force--in fact, by conquest!
This reminds me of a very true remark made by M. de Talleyrand which has often come back to my mind during the last four years. It was said in the midst of the intoxication of the great days of 1830. M. de Talleyrand found one of his friends full of hopes and illusions, patriotic phrases and emotion, over the scene at the Hotel de Ville, the Lafayette accolades, and the popularity of Louis-Philippe.
”Monsieur,” said he, ”what is wanting in all this is a trifle of conquest.”
They say that in Spain Martinez de la Rosa is _pa.s.se_, and can no longer maintain himself in power; he will be replaced by Toreno, and will become President of the House of Peers. It is also said that the Queen-Regent will create him Marquis de l'Alliance.
_London, July 19, 1834._--Everything that is happening here reminds one of the first scenes of the French Revolution. The a.n.a.logy is striking, the copy a trifle too servile. The aristocracy, the minority of the n.o.bility, the _tiers etat_, have each their counterparts in the Tories, the Whigs, and the Radicals. The Whigs are blinded by jealousy and personal ambition, and will not see that they have any other enemies than the Tories; they see no danger except on that side, and in order to keep their rivals out of office they are precipitating themselves and all their cla.s.s into the abyss which has been dug for them by the Radicals.
In talking over all this yesterday M. de Talleyrand quoted a remark made to him by the Abbe Sieyes during the sittings of the Const.i.tuent a.s.sembly. ”Yes, we get on very well now that we are discussing only _Liberty_; it is when we get on to _Equality_ that we shall quarrel.”
At the very lively sitting of the Lords of the day before yesterday Ministers very clearly marked out the line they mean to follow, and the very men who in Lord Grey's time, less than a fortnight ago, held the repressive clauses of the Coercion Bill to be indispensable, announced their abandonment amid the jeers and scoffs of the House.
This was as much as to say that the Cabinet in order to survive was putting itself at the disposal of the Radical majority in the House of Commons, was flouting the opposition of the Lords and doing its best to make it of no account. As one might expect, the irritation which results from this is sharply expressed in the Upper House. All the consolation Ministers have is the approbation which O'Connell is good enough to bestow upon them.