A History of our own Times from the accession of Queen Victoria to the Berlin Congress

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FIRST VOLUME LONDON : PRINTED BY SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA TO THE BERLIN CONGRESS BY JUSTIN MCCARTHY IN FOUR VOLUMES— VOL. I. bonbon CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY 1879 [TAe right os translation is reserved] CONTENTS OF THE FIRST VOLUME. CHAPTER PAGI! I. The King is Dead ! Long live the Queen ! . 1 II. Statesmen and Parties . . . ... 26 III. Canada and Lord Durham .... 48 IV. Science and Speed 82 V. Chartism 100 VI. Question de Jupons 127 VII. The Queen's Marriage 143 VIII. The Opium War 164 IX. Decline and Fall of the Whig Ministry . 183 X. Movements in the Churches . . . . 205 XL The Disasters of Cabul 224 XII. The Repeal Year CONTENTS. viii CHAPTER PAHB XIII. Peel's Administration ..... 303 XIV. Free Trade and the League . . . . 324 XV. Famine forces Peel's Hand .... 360 XVI. Mr. Disraeli 384 XVII. Famine, Commercial Trouble, and Foreign Intrigue .

Chapter I. The King Is Dead

! LONG LIVE THE QUEEN ! Before half-past two o'clock on the morning of June 20, 1837, Wdliam IV. was lying dead in Windsor Castle, whde the messengers were already hurrying off to Kensington Palace to bear to his successor her summons to^the throne. The illness of the King had been but short, and at one time, even after it had been pronounced alarming, it seemed to take so hopeful a turn that the physicians began to think it would pass harmlessly away. But the King was an old man — was an old man even when he came to the throne, and when the dangerous symptoms again exhibited themselves, their warning was very soon' followed by fulfilment. The death of King Wdliam may be fairly regarded as having closed an era of our history. With him, we may believe, ended the reign of personal government in England.

Wdliam was indeed a constitutional king in more . VOL. I. E than mere name. He was to the best of his lights a faithful representative of the constitutional principle. He was as far in advance of his two predecessors in understanding and acceptance of the principle as his successor has proved herself beyond him. Constitu tional government has developed itself graduaUy, as everything else has done in English politics. The written principle and code of its system it would be as vain to look for as for the British Constitution itself. King Wdliam still held to and exercised the right to dismiss his ministers when he pleased, and because he pleased. His father had held to the right of main taining favourite ministers in defiance of repeated votes of the House of Commons. It would not be easy to find any written rule or declaration of con stitutional law pronouncing decisively that either was in the wrong.

But in our day we should believe that the constitutional freedom of England was out raged, or at least put in the extremest danger, if a sovereign were to dismiss a ministry at mere pleasure, or to retain it in despite of the expressed wish of the House of Commons. Virtuady, therefore, there was stdl, personal government in the reign of Wdliam IV. With his death the long chapter of its history came to an end. We find it difficult now to believe that it was a living principle, openly at work among us, if not openly acknowledged, so lately as in the reign of King Widiam. The closing scenes of King William's life were undoubtedly characterised by some personal dignity. As a rule sovereigns show that they know how to 1837. WILLIAM'S EARLIER DAYS, 3 die. Perhaps the necessary consequence of their training, by virtue of which they come to regard themselves always as the central figures in great state pageantry, is to make them assume a manner of dignity on aU occasions when the eyes of their sub jects may be supposed to be on them, even if the dignity of bearing is not the free gift of nature.

The manners of Wdham IV. had been, like those of most of his brothers, somewhat rough and overbearing. He had been an unmanageable naval officer. He had again and again disregarded or disobeyed orders, and at last it had been found convenient to withdraw him from active service altogether, and allow him to rise through the successive ranks of his profession by a merely formal and technical process of ascent. In his more private capacity he had, when younger, indulged more than once in unseemly and insufferable freaks of temper. He had made himself unpopular whde Duke of Clarence by his strenuous opposition to some of the measures which were especiady desired by all the enlightenment of the country. He was, for example, a determined opponent of the measures for the abolition of the slave trade.

He had wrangled publicly, in open debate, with some of his brothers in the House of Lords; and words had been inter changed among the royal princes which could not be heard in our day even in the hottest debates of the more turbulent House of Commons. But Widiam seems to have been one of the men whom increased responsibdity improves. He was far better as a king than as a prince. He proved that he was able at B least to understand that first duty of a constitutional sovereign which, to the last day of his active fife, his father, George III., never coidd be brought to com prehend — that the personal predilections and preju dices of the King must sometimes give way to the public interest. Nothing perhaps in life became him like to the leaving of it. His closing days were marked by gentleness and kindly consideration for the feelings of those around him.

When he awoke on June 18 he remembered that it was the anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. He expressed a strong, pathetic wish to live over that day, even if he were never to see another sunset. He called for the flag which the Duke of Wedington always sent him on that anni versary, and he laid his hand upon the eagle which adorned it, and said he felt revived by the touch. He had himself attended since his accession the Waterloo banquet ; but this time the Duke of Wel lington thought it would perhaps be more seemly to have the dinner put off, and sent accordingly to take the wishes of his Majesty. The King declared that the dinner must go on as usual, and sent to the Duke a friendly, simple message, expressing his hope that the guests might have a pleasant day. He talked in his homely way to those about him, his direct language seeming to acquire a sort of tragic dignity from the approach of the death that was so near.

He had prayers read to him again and again, and caUed those near him to witness that he had always been a faithful believer in the truths of religion. He had 1837. THE CLOSING SCENE. 5 his despatch-boxes brought to him, and tried to get through some business with his private secretary. It was remarked with some interest that the last official act he ever performed was to sign with his trembling hand the pardon of a condemned criminal. Even a far nobler reign than his would have received new dignity if it closed with a deed of mercy. When some of those around him endeavoured to encourage him with the idea that he might recover and live many years yet, he declared with a simplicity which had something oddly pathetic in it that he would be wfllhig to live ten years yet for the sake of the country.

The poor King was evidently under the sincere conviction that England could hardly get on without him. His consideration for his country, whatever whimsical thoughts it may suggest, is entitled to some at least of the respect which we give to the dying groan of a Pitt or a Mirabeau, who fears with too much reason that he leaves a blank not easdy to be fided. 'Young royal tarry-breeks,' William had been jocularly called by Robert Burns fifty years before, when there was yet a popular belief that he would come all right and do brilliant and gadant things, and become a stout sador in whom a seafaring nation might feel pride. He disappointed all such expectations ; but it must be owned that when responsibility came upon him he disappointed expec tation anew in a different way, and was a better sovereign, more deserving of the complimentary title of patriot-king, than even his friends would have ventured to anticipate.

There were eulogies pronounced upon him after his death in both Houses of Parliament as a matter of course. It is not necessary, however, to set down to mere court homage or parliamentary form some of the praises that were bestowed on the dead King by Lord Melbourne and Lord Brougham and Lord Grey. A certain tone of sincerity, not quite free perhaps from surprise, appears to run through some of these expressions of admiration. They seem to say that the speakers were at one time or another considerably surprised to find that after all Wdliam really was able and wdling on grave occasions to subordinate his personal likings and dislikings to considerations of State policy, and to what was shown to him to be for the good of the nation. In this sense at least he may be caded a patriot-king. We have advanced a good deal since that time, and we require somewhat higher and more positive qualities in a sovereign now to excite our political wonder.

But we must judge Wdliam by the reigns that went before, and not the reign that came after him ; and, with that consideration borne in mind, we may accept the panegyric of Lord Melbourne and of Lord Grey, and admit that on the whole he was better than his education, his early opportunities, and his early promise. William IV. (third son of George III.) had left no chddren who could have succeeded to the throne, and the crown passed therefore to the daughter of his brother (fourth son of George), the Duke of Kent. This was the Princess Alexandrina Victoria, who was born at Kensington Palace on May 24, 1837. THE PRINCESS VICTORIA. 1819. The princess was therefore at this time little more than eighteen years of age. The Duke of Kent died a few months after the birth of his daughter, and the chdd was brought up under the care of his widow.

She was well brought up : both as regards her intedect and her character her training was ex cedent. She was taught to be self-reliant, brave, and systematical. Prudence and economy were in culcated on her as though she had been born to be poor. One is not generady inclined to attach much importance to what historians tell us of the education of contemporary princes or princesses ; but it cannot be doubted that the Princess Victoria was trained for intelligence and goodness. ' The death of the King of England has every where caused the greatest sensation. . . . Cousin Victoria is said to have shown astonishing self-possession. She undertakes a heavy responsibdity, especiady at the present moment, when parties are so excited, and all rest their hopes on her.' These words are an extract from a letter written on July 4, 1837, by the late Prince Albert, the Prince Consort of so many happy years.

The letter was written to the Prince's father, from Bonn. The young Queen had indeed behaved with remarkable self-possession. There is a pretty description, which has been often quoted, but will bear citing once more, given by Miss Wynn of the manner in which the young sovereign received the news of her accession to a throne. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Howley, and the Lord Chamber lain, the Marquis of Conyngham, left Windsor for 1. Kensington Palace, where the Princess Victoria had been residing, to inform her of the King's death. It was two hours after midnight when they started, and they did not reach Kensington untd five o'clock in the morning. ' They knocked, they rang, they thumped for a considerable time before they could rouse the porter at the gate ; they were again kept waiting in the courtyard, then turned into one of the lower rooms, where they seemed forgotten by every body.

They rang the bed, and desired that the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to inform her Eoyal Highness that they requested an audience on business of importance. After another delay, and another ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned, who stated that the Prin cess was in such a sweet sleep that she could not venture to disturb her. Then they said, " We are come on business of state to the Queen, and even her sleep must give way to that." It did ; and to prove that she did not keep them waiting, in a few minutes she came into the room in a loose white nightgown and shawl, her nightcap thrown off, and her hair fading upon her shoulders, her feet in slippers, tears in her eyes, but perfectly collected and dignified.' The Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, was presently sent for, and a meeting of the Privy Councd summoned for eleven o'clock, when the Lord Chancellor adminis tered the usual oaths to the Queen, and her Majesty received in return the oaths of allegiance of the Cabi net ministers and other privy councillors present.

Mr. Grevdle, who was usuady as httle disposed to 1837. THE YOUNG QUEEN. 9 record any enthusiastic admiration of royalty and royal personages as Humboldt or Varnhagen von Ense could have been, has described the scene in words well worthy of quotation. ' The King died at twenty minutes after two yesterday morning, and the young Queen met the Councd at Kensington Palace at eleven. Never was anything like the first impression she produced, or the chorus of praise and admiration which is raised about her manner and behaviour, and certainly not without justice. It was very extraordhiary, and something far beyond what was looked for. Her extreme youth and inexperience, and the ignorance of the world concerning her, naturally excited intense curiosity to see how she would act on this trying occasion, and there was a considerable assemblage at the palace, notwithstanding the short notice which was given.

The first thing to be done was to teach her her lesson, which, for this purpose, Melbourne had himself to learn. . . . She bowed to the lords, took her seat, and then read her speech in a 'clear, distinct, and audible voice, and without any appearance of fear or embarrassment. She was quite plainly dressed, and in mourning. After she had read her speech, and taken and signed the oath for the security of the Church of Scotland, the privy councdlors were sworn, the two royal dukes first by themselves ; and as these two old men, her uncles, knelt before her, swearing allegiance and kissing her hand, I saw her blush up to the eyes, as if she felt the contrast be tween their civd and then." natural relations, and this was the only sign of emotion which she evinced. Her manner to them was very graceful and engaging ; she kissed them both, and rose from her chair and moved towards the Duke of Sussex, who was farthest from her, and too infirm to reach her.

She seemed rather bewddered at the multitude of men who were sworn, and who came, one after another, to kiss her hand, but she did not speak to anybody, nor did she make the sdghtest difference in her manner, or show any in her countenance, to any individual of any rank, station, or party. I particularly watched her when Melbourne and the ministers, and the Duke of Wellington and Peel approached her. She went through the whole ceremony, occasionally looking at Melbourne for instruction when she had any doubt what to do, which hardly ever occurred, and with perfect calmness and self-possession, but at the same time with a graceful modesty and propriety particularly interesting and higratiating.' Sir Robert Peel told Mr. Grevdle that he was amazed at ' her manner and behaviour, at her appa rent deep sense of her situation, and at the same time her firmness.' The Duke of Wellington said in his blunt way that if she had been his own daughter he could not have desired to see her perform her part better. ' At twelve,' says Mr. Grevdle, ' she held a Councd, at which she presided with as much ease as if she had been "doing nothing else aU her life ; and though Lord Lansdowne and my colleague had con trived between them to make some confusion with the Council papers, she was not put Qut by it.

She 1837. THE YOUNG QUEEN. looked very wed ; and though so smad in stature, and without much pretension to beauty, the graceful ness of her manner and the good expression of her countenance give her on the whole a very agreeable appearance, and with her youth inspire an excessive •interest in aU who approach her, and which I can't help feeling myself. ... In short, she appears to act with every sort of good taste and good feeling, as wed as good sense ; and as far as it has gone, nothing can be more favourable than the impression she has made, and nothing can promise better than her man ner and conduct do ; though,' Mr. Grevdle some what superfluously adds, ' it would be rash to count too confidently upon her judgment and discretion in more weighty matters.' The interest or curiosity with which the demean our of the young Queen was watched was ad the keener because the world in general knew so little about her.

Not merely was the world in general thus ignorant, but even the statesmen and officials in closest communication with court circles were in almost absolute ignorance. According to Mr. Gre vdle, whose authority, however, is not to be taken too implicitly except as to matters which he actually saw, the young Queen had been previously kept in such seclusion by her mother — ' never,' he says, 'having slept out of her bedroom, nor been alone with anybody but herself and the Baroness Lehzen' — that 'not one of her acquaintance, none of the attendants at Kensington, not even the Duchess of Northumberland, her governess, have any idea what she is or what she promises to be.' There was enough in the court of the two. sovereigns who went before Queen Victoria to justify any strictness of seclusion which the Duchess of Kent might de sire for her daughter.

George IV. was a Charles II. without the education or the talents ; William IV. was a Frederick William of Prussia without the genius. The ordinary manners of the society at the court of either had a full flavour, to put it in the softest way, such as a decent taproom would hardly exhibit in a time like the present. No one can read even the most favourable descriptions given by con temporaries of the manners of those two courts with out feeling grateful to the Duchess of Kent for resolv ing that her daughter should see as Httle as possible of their ways and their company. It was remarked with some interest that the Queen subscribed herself simply ' Victoria,' and not, as had been expected, ' Alexandrina Victoria.' Mr. Grevdle mentions hi his diary of December 24, 1819, that ' the Duke of Kent gave the name of Alexandrina to his daughter in compliment to the Emperor of Russia.

She was to have had the name of Georgiana, but the duke insisted upon Alexandrina being her first name. The Regent sent for Lieven' (the Russian ambassador, husband of the famous Princess de Lieven), ' and made him a great many compliments, en le persiflant, on the Emperor's being godfather, but informed him that the name of Georgiana could be second to no other hi this country, and therefore she could not bear it at all.' It was a very wise choice to employ 1838. SOULT AT THE CORONATION. 13 simply the name of Victoria, around which no un genial associations of any kind hung at that time, and which can have only grateful associations in the his tory of this country for the future. It is not necessary to go into any formal description of the various ceremonials and pageantries which celebrated the accession of the new sovereign.

The proclamation of the Queen, her appearance for the first time on the throne in the House of Lords when she prorogued Parliament in person, and even the gorgeous festival of her coronation, which took place on June 28, in the following year, 1838, may be passed over with a mere word of record. It is worth mentioning, however, that at the coronation procession one of the most conspicuous figures was that of Marshal Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, the opponent of Moore and Wellington in the Peninsula, the com mander of the Old Guard at Liitzen, and one of the strong arms of Napoleon at Waterloo. Soult had been sent as ambassador-extraordinary to represent the French Government and people at the coronation of Queen Victoria, and nothing could exceed the en thusiasm with which he was received by the crowds in the streets of London on that day.

The whitej^ haired soldier was cheered wherever a glimpse of his face or figure could be caught. He appeared in the procession in a carriage, the frame of which had been used on occasions of state by some of the princes of the House of Conde, and which Soult had had splendidly decorated for the ceremony of the coro nation. Even the Austrian ambassador, says an eyewitness, attracted less attention than Soidt, although the dress of the Austrian, Prince Esterhazy, ' down to his very boot heels sparkled with diamonds.' The comparison savours now of the ridiculous, but is remarkably expressive and effective. Prince Esterhazy's name in those days suggested nothing but diamonds. His diamonds may be v said to glitter through ad the light literature of the time. When Lady Mary Wortley Montagu wanted a comparison with which to dlustrate excessive splendour and brightness, she found it in ' Mr. Pitt's diamonds.' Prince Esterhazy's served the same purpose for the writers of the early years of the present reign.

It was therefore, perhaps, no very poor tribute to the stout old moustache of the Republic and the Empire to say that at a London pageant his war-worn face drew attention away from Prince Esterhazy's diamonds. Soult himself felt very warmly the genuine kindness of the reception given to him. Years after, in a debate in the French Chamber, when M. Guizot was accused of too much partiality for the English alliance, Marshal Soult declared himself a warm champion of that aidance. ' I fought the English down to Toulouse,' he said, ' when I fired the last cannon in defence of the national independence ; in the meantime I have been in London, and France knows the reception which I had there. The English themselves cried " Vive Soult ! " — they cried, " Soult for ever ! " I had learned to estimate the English on the field of battle ; I have learned to estimate them in peace ; and I repeat that I am a warm partisan of the 1837-8.

THE FIRST JEWISH SHERIFF OF LONDON. 15 English alliance.' History is not exclusively made by cabinets and professional diplomatists. It is highly probable that the cheers of a London crowd on the day of the Queen's coronation did something genuine and substantial to restore the good feeling between this country and France, and efface the bitter memories of Waterloo. It is a fact wed worthy of note amid whatever re cords of court ceremonial and of political change^ that a few days after the accession of the Queen, Mr. Mon tefiore was elected Sheriff of London, the first Jew who had ever been chosen for that office ; and that he received knighthood at the hands of her Majesty when she visited the City on the fodowing Lord Mayor's day. He was the first Jew whom royalty had honoured in this country since the good old times when royalty was pleased to borrow the Jew's money, or order instead the extraction of his teeth.

The expansion of the principle of religious liberty and equadty which has been one of the most remarkable characteristics of the reign of Queen Victoria, could hardly have been more becomingly inaugurated than by the compliment which sovereign and city paid to Sir Moses Montefiore. The first signature attached to the Act of Allegi ance presented to the Queen at Kensington Palace, was that of her eldest surviving uncle, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland. The fact may be taken as an excuse for introducing a few words here to record the sever ance that then took place between the interests of this country, or at least the reigning famdy of these realms, and another State, which had for a long time been bound up together in a manner seldom satisfactory to the English people. In the whole history of Engfland it wdl be observed that few things have provoked greater popular dissatisfaction than the connection of a reigning family with the crown or rulership of some foreign State.

There is an instinctive jealousy on such a point, which even when it is unreasonable is not unnatural. A sovereign of England had better be sovereign of England, and of no foreign State. Many favourable auspices attended the accession of Queen Victoria to the throne ; some at least of these were associated with her sex. The country was in general disposed to think that the accession of a woman to the throne would somewhat clarify and purify the atmosphere of the Court. It had another good effect as well, and one of a strictly political nature. ' It severed the connection which had existed for some generations between this country and Han over. The connection was only personal, the succes sive kings of England being also by succession sovereigns of Hanover. The crown of Hanover was limited in its descent to the male line, and it passed on the death of Wil liam IV. to his eldest surviving brother, Ernest, Duke of Cumberland.

The change was in almost every way satisfactory to the English people. The indirect connection between England and Hanover had at no time been a matter of gratification to the public of this country. Many cooler and more enlightened persons than honest Squire Western had viewed with 1837. THE DUKE OF CUMBERLAND. disfavour, and at one time with distrust, the division of interests which the ownership of the two crowns seemed almost of necessity to create in our English sovereigns. Besides it must be owned that the people of this country were not by any means sorry to be rid of the Duke of Cumberland. Not many of George III.'s sons were popular ; the Duke of Cum berland was probably the least popular of ad. He was believed by many persons to have had something more than an indirect, or passive, or innocent share in the Orange plot, discovered and exposed by Joseph Hume in 1835, for setting aside the claims of the young Princess "Victoria and putting himself, the Duke of Cumberland, on the throne ; a scheme which its authors pretended to justify by the pre posterous assertion that they feared the Duke of Wedington would otherwise seize the crown for him self.

His manners were rude, overbearing, and some times even brutal. He had personal habits which seemed rather fitted for the days of Tiberius, or for the court of Peter the Great, than for the time and sphere to which he belonged. Rumour not unnatu rally exaggerated his defects, and in the mouths of many his name was the symbol of the darkest and fiercest passions, and even crimes. Some of the popular reports with regard to him had their foundation only in the common detestation of his character and dread of his influence. But it is certain that he was profligate, selfish, overbearing and quarrelsome. A man with these qualities would usually be de scribed in fiction as at all events bluntly honest and VOL. I. c outspoken ; but the Duke of Cumberland was deceit ful and treacherous. He was outspoken in his abuse of those with 'whom he quarrelled, and in his style of anecdote and jocular conversation ; but in no other sense.

The Duke of Wellington, whom he hated, told Mr. Grevdle that he once asked George IV. why the Duke of Cumberland was so unpopular, and the King replied, ' Because there never was a father wed with his son, or husband with his wife, or lover with his mistress, or friend with his friend, that he did not try to make mischief between them.' The first thing he did on his accession to the throne of Hanover was to abrogate the constitution which had been agreed to by the Estates of the kingdom, and sanctioned by the late King, William IV. ' Radicalism,' said the King, writing to an English nobleman, ' has been here all the order of the day, and ad the lower class appointed to office were more or less imbued with these laudable principles. . . . But I have cut the wings of this democracy.' He went indeed pretty vigorously to work, for he dis missed from their offices seven of the most distin guished professors of the University of Gottingen, because they signed a protest against his arbitrary abrogation of the constitution.