Part 16 (2/2)
The House of Commons was densely packed when Mr. Gladstone introduced the measure on March 12, but, in spite of his powers of exposition and infectious enthusiasm, the Government proposals fell undeniably flat.
Broadly stated, they were as follows. The county franchise was to be dropped to 14_l._, and that of the borough, as already stated, to half that amount, whilst compound householders and lodgers paying 10_l._ a year were to possess votes. It was computed at the time that the measure would add four hundred thousand new voters to the existing lists, and that two hundred thousand of these would belong to what Lord John termed the 'best of the working cla.s.ses.' Mr. Bright, and those whom he represented, not only in Birmingham, but also in every great city and town in the land, gave their support to the Government, on the principle that this was at least an 'honest' measure, and that half a loaf, moreover, was better than no bread. At the same time the country was not greatly stirred one way or another by the scheme, though it stirred to panic-stricken indignation men of the stamp of Mr. Lowe, Mr. Horsman, Lord Elcho, Earl Grosvenor, Lord Dunkellin, and other so-called, but very indifferent, Liberals, who had attached themselves to the party under Lord Palmerston's happy-go-lucky and easy auspices. These were the men who presently distinguished themselves, and extinguished the Russell Administration by their ridiculous fear of the democracy. They retired into what Mr. Bright termed the 'political cave of Adullam,' and, as Lord John said, the 'timid, the selfish, and those who were both selfish and timid' joined the sorry company.
The Conservatives saw their opportunity, and, being human, took it. Lord Grosvenor brought forward an amendment calling attention to the omission of a redistribution scheme. A debate, which occupied eight nights, followed, and when it was in progress, Mr. Gladstone, in defending his own conduct as Leader of the House, incidentally paid an impressive tribute to the memorable and protracted services in the Commons of Lord John:--
'If, sir, I had been the man who, at the very outset of his career, wellnigh half a century ago, had with an almost prophetic foresight fastened upon two great groups of questions, those great historic questions relating to the removal of civil disabilities for religious opinions and to Parliamentary Reform; if I had been the man who, having thus in his early youth, in the very first stage of his political career, fixed upon those questions and made them his own, then went on to prosecute them with sure and unflagging instinct until the triumph in each case had been achieved; if I had been the man whose name had been a.s.sociated for forty years, and often in the very first place of eminence, with every element of beneficent legislation--in other words, had I been Earl Russell, then there might have been some temptation to pa.s.s into excess on the exercise of authority, and some excuse for the endeavour to apply to this House a pressure in itself unjustifiable.
But, sir, I am not Earl Russell.'
In the end, Lord Grosvenor's amendment was lost by a majority equal only to the fingers of one hand. Such an unmistakeable expression of opinion could not be disregarded, and the Government brought in a Redistribution of Seats Bill at the beginning of May. They proposed that thirty boroughs having a population of less than eight thousand should be deprived of one member, whilst nineteen other seats were obtained by joint representation in smaller boroughs. After running the gauntlet of much hostile criticism, the bill was read a second time, but the Government were forced to refer it and the franchise scheme to a committee, which was empowered to deal with both schemes. Lord Stanley, Mr. Ward Hunt, and Mr. Walpole a.s.sailed with successive motions, which were more or less narrowly rejected, various points in the Government proposals, and the opposition grew more and more stubborn. At length Lord Dunkellin (son of the Earl of Clanricarde) moved to subst.i.tute rating for rental in the boroughs; and the Government, in a House of six hundred and nineteen members, were defeated on June 18 by a majority of eleven. The excitement which met this announcement was extraordinary, and when it was followed next day by tidings that the Russell Administration was at an end, those who thought that the country cared little about the question found themselves suddenly disillusioned.
[Sidenote: FALL OF THE RUSSELL GOVERNMENT]
Burke declared that there were moments when it became necessary for the people themselves to interpose on behalf of their rights. The overthrow of the Russell Administration took the nation by surprise. Three days after Lord John's resignation there was a historic gathering in Trafalgar Square. In his speech announcing the resignation of his Ministry, Lord John warned Parliament about the danger of alienating the sympathy of the people from the Crown and the aristocracy. He reminded the Peers that universal suffrage prevailed not only in the United States but in our own Colonies; and he took his stand in the light of the larger needs of the new era, on the a.s.sertion of Lord Grey at the time of the Reform Bill that only a large measure was a safe measure.
'We have made the attempt,' added Lord John, 'sincerely and anxiously to perform the duties of reconciling that which is due to the Const.i.tution of the country with that which is due to the growing intelligence, the increasing wealth, and the manifest forbearance, virtue, and order of the people.' He protested against a n.i.g.g.ardly and ungenerous treatment of so momentous a question.
Lord Russell's words were not lost on Mr. Bradlaugh. He made them the text of his speech to the twenty thousand people who a.s.sembled in Trafalgar Square, and afterwards walked in procession to give Mr.
Gladstone an ovation in Carlton House Terrace. About three weeks later another great demonstration was announced to take place in Hyde Park, under the auspices of the Reform League. The authorities refused to allow the gathering, and, after a formal protest, the meeting was held at the former rendezvous. The mixed mult.i.tude who had followed the procession to the Park gates took the repulse less calmly, with the result that, as much by accident as by design, the Park railings for the s.p.a.ce of half a mile were thrown down. Force is no remedy, but a little of it is sometimes a good object-lesson, and the panic which this unpremeditated display occasioned amongst the valiant defenders of law and order was unmistakeable.
[Sidenote: 'DIs.h.i.+NG THE WHIGS']
Mr. Lowe had flouted the people, and had publicly a.s.serted that those who were without the franchise did not really care to possess it.
Forty-three other so-called Liberals in the House of Commons were apparently of the same way of thinking, for the Russell Administration was defeated by forty-four 'Liberal' votes. This in itself shows that Lord John, up to the hour in which he was driven from power, was far in advance of one section of his followers. The great towns, and more particularly Birmingham, Manchester, and Leeds, promptly took up the challenge; and in those three centres alone half a million of people a.s.sembled to make energetic protest against the contemptuous dismissal of their claims. The fall of the Park railings appealed to the fear of the cla.s.ses, and aroused the enthusiasm of the ma.s.ses. It is scarcely too much to say that if they had been demolished a month earlier the Russell Government would have carried its Reform proposals, and Disraeli would have lost his chance of 'dis.h.i.+ng the Whigs.' The defeat of Lord John Russell was a virtual triumph. He was driven from power by a rally of reactionary forces at the very moment when he was fighting the battle of the people.[42] The Tories were only able to hold their own by borrowing a leaf from his book, and bringing in a more drastic measure of reform.
FOOTNOTES:
[41] _Life and Correspondence of Viscount Palmerston_, by the Hon.
Evelyn Ashley, vol. ii. p. 438.
[42] In a letter written in the spring of 1867, Lord Houghton refers to Mr. Gladstone as being 'quite awed' for the moment by the 'diabolical cleverness of Dizzy.' He adds: 'Delane says the extreme party for Reform are now the grandees, and that the Dukes are quite ready to follow Beale into Hyde Park.'--_The Life, Letters, and Friends.h.i.+ps of Lord Houghton_, by Sir Wemyss Reid, vol. ii. pp. 174-5.
CHAPTER XVII
OUT OF HARNESS
1867-1874
Speeches in the House of Lords--Leisured years--Mr. Lecky's reminiscences--The question of the Irish Church--The Independence of Belgium--Lord John on the claims of the Vatican--Letters to Mr.
Chichester Fortescue--His scheme for the better government of Ireland--Lord Selborne's estimate of Lord John's public career--Frank admissions--As his private secretaries saw him.
LORD JOHN never relinquished that high sense of responsibility which was conspicuous in his att.i.tude as a Minister of the Crown. Although out of harness from the summer of 1866 to his death, twelve years later, he retained to the last, undiminished, the sense of public duty. He took, not merely a keen interest, but an appreciable share in public affairs; and some of the speeches which he delivered in the House of Lords after his retirement from office show how vigorous and acute his intellect remained, and how wide and generous were his sympathies. The leisured years which came to Lord John after the fall of the second Russell Administration enabled him to renew old friends.h.i.+ps, and gave him the opportunity for making the acquaintance of distinguished men of a younger generation. His own historical studies--the literary pa.s.sion of a lifetime--made him keenly appreciative of the work of others in that direction, and kindred tastes drew him into intimate relations with Mr.
W. E. H. Lecky. Few of the reminiscences, great or small, which have been written for these pages, can compare in interest with the following statement by so philosophic a critic of public affairs and so acute a judge of men:--
[Sidenote: MR. LECKY'S REMINISCENCES]
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