The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 3 of 4

Chapter XV: Fall of the Second Empire (3)

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[126] According to it, slavery was prohibited north of parallel 36° 30´, but south of this it was to be recognised and never interfered with by Congress, and the Federal Government would pay for all slaves rescued from officers after arrest.

[127] There had always been a more or less tacit understanding that whilst the Northern States were to be allowed to have their manufactures protected, the Southern States, as a set-off, were to have slavery tolerated and safeguarded.

[128] Life of Lord Shaftesbury, by Edwin Hodder. Vol. III., p. 136.

[129] At the time, credit was given to M. Thouvenel, the Foreign Minister of France, for bringing the American Government to reason. Count Vitzthum, however, states that “the French Ambassador at Washington knew that at the eleventh hour the American Cabinet would yield, and had advised his Government to this affect. When Thouvenel, therefore, in his despatch of December 3rd, represented strongly the justice of the English demands, he risked little, and only gave a fresh proof that the Tuileries prefer siding with the gods to Cato.”--Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 177.

[130] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 146.

[131] It was decided by the House of Commons that the liability to a rate-in-aid of the other parishes of a Union should arise when the rate came to 3s. in the £, and that Guardians, subject to the sanction of the Local Government Board, might raise loans on the security of the rates, when the aggregate expenditure of the whole Union reached 3s. in the £ of its rateable property.

[132] Prior to 1860 there were four duties--1s., 1s. 9d., 2s. 5d., and 2s. 11d.--on wines, with varying degrees of alcohol, from 18 up to 42 degrees. In 1862 Mr. Gladstone substituted for these two duties--1s. a gallon on wines below 26 degrees and 2s. 6d. on wines above 26 and below 42 degrees.

[133] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 172.

[134] Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 278 (Cassell and Co.).

[135] It is well known that Count Ferrol, in “Endymion,” was drawn from Prince Bismarck. The novel was written in Lord Beaconsfield’s old age, and there is a passage in it which curiously confirms Count Vitzthum’s report of Count von Bismarck’s conversation with Mr. Disraeli. It is as follows:--“The Count of Ferrol about this time made a visit to England. He was always a welcome guest there, and had received the greatest distinction which England could bestow upon a foreigner--he had been elected an honorary member of White’s. ‘You may have troubles here,’ he said to Lady Mountfort, ‘but they will pass.... We shall not get off so cheaply. Everything is quite rotten throughout the Continent. This year is tranquillity to what the next will be. There is not a throne in Europe worth a year’s purchase. My worthy master wants me to return home and be Minister; I am to fashion for him a new Constitution. I will never have anything to do with new Constitutions; their inventors are always their first victims. Instead of making a Constitution, he should make a country, and convert his heterogeneous domains into a patriotic dominion.’ ‘But how is that to be done?’ ‘There is but one way--by blood and iron.’ ‘My dear Count, you shock me:’ ‘I shall have to shock you a great deal more before the inevitable is brought about.’”

[136] Pope at first pretended that he had discovered the line of Beauregard’s retreat, and had captured his rearguard. This turned out to be an impudent fabrication, put about to divert attention from the almost inconceivable incapacity of Halleck, who let his enemy slip through his fingers after wasting the season in looking at him.

[137] This was difficult to arrange. Even the Sultan did not dare to do more than recommend Suraya Pasha to admit the Prince to the Sanctuary of the Patriarchs. For a long time the Pasha refused, but the Prince’s anger at being balked was so great that Suraya at last consented, accompanying the party himself with a strong armed escort to protect his Royal guest from assassination.

[138] General Bruce was the second son of Thomas, Seventh Earl of Elgin, and brother of the celebrated Governor-General of Canada and India.

[139] The medical evidence showed that the miners in the pit had died painlessly from poisoning by carbonic oxide gas. The Coroner’s jury recommended that all mines should have two shafts instead of one only, and that engine-beams should be made of wrought, and not of cast iron.

[140] Dr. Macleod’s ministrations at this time extended to other members of the Royal Family, and appear to have been conducted with the supple tact characteristic of the true-born Celt. “Your Royal Highness knows,” he said to one of them, “that I am here as a pastor, and that it is only as a pastor I am permitted to address you. But as I wish you to thank me when we meet before God, so would I address you now.” Again, in his letter to Mrs. Macleod, dated 12th of May, 1862, he writes:--“Prince Alfred sent for me last night to see him before going away. Thank God I spoke fully and frankly to him--we were alone--of his difficulties, temptations, and of his father’s example; what the nation expected of him; how, if he did God’s will, good and able men would rally round him; how, if he became selfish, a selfish set of flatterers would truckle to him and ruin him, while caring only for themselves. He thanked me for all I said, and wished me to travel with him to-day to Aberdeen, but the Queen wishes to see me again.”--Life of Norman Macleod, D.D., by his brother, Rev. Donald Macleod, B.A., 2 vols. London: Daldy, Isbister, and Co., 1876. Vol. II., p. 123.

[141] The Queen’s parish kirk.

[142] Life of Norman Macleod, Vol. II., pp. 123, 124.

[143] Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse: Biographical Sketch and Letters, pp. 27 and 29.

[144] Alice: Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 37.

[145] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 207.

[146] _Ibid._

[147] The history of the Protectorate is as follows:--After the downfall of Napoleon I. in 1815, England held six of the Ionian Islands. Austria offered to undertake their government, because she said that their position enabled their population to disturb her Adriatic coast. Count Capo d’Istrias, on behalf of Russia, objected, and at the time the voice of the Czar Alexander was all-powerful. He was a strong partisan of Greece, and avowedly so because he believed that the spirit of Greek nationality would be repressed under Austria, whereas it would be fostered under England. He insisted on the Ionians being placed under a British protectorate, so that they might have the benefit of free institutions.

[148] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 228.

[149] In 1795 the Prince of Wales was voted £138,000 a year. In the reigns of the Queen’s predecessors the revenues of the Duchy of Cornwall were absorbed by the Crown. But when the Prince of Wales was born, the Prince Consort, finding these revenues sadly encumbered, set them apart for the use of the Heir-Apparent. During his minority they had been so ably administered by Prince Albert that in 1862 they yielded a free income of £60,000 a year. This enabled the Government to cut down the Parliamentary vote to £40,000.

[150] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 294.

[151] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 294

[152] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 86.

[153] This letter did not satisfy all the clergy. Several of them challenged sharply Wilberforce’s doctrine of the Archepiscopal dispensing power, and indeed entangled him in controversial correspondence on the subject. Those interested in the matter will find Wilberforce’s argument more fully elaborated in a letter quoted in his “Life,” Vol. III., p. 87. He says he had discovered in his muniment box at Lavington such a dispensation to one of his own predecessors granted by Archbishop Laud.

[154] Life of Norman Macleod, D.D., Vol. II., p. 132.

[155] Miss Tucker, of Branscombe, near Sidmouth, was the designer.

[156] Prince Arthur and Prince Leopold, who, as usual on such occasions, wore the picturesque Highland dress.

[157] Life of Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 88. In this letter Wilberforce says he was quite charmed with the manner in which the Crown Prince of Prussia spoke of his wife. “Bishop,” said he, “with me it has been one long honeymoon.”

[158] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 215.

[159] For a curious account of Mr. Oliphant’s Secret Mission, see Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., pp. 240, 241.

[160] English writers often draw an analogy between Ireland and Poland. There is the greatest difference between the position of the two nationalities. In Poland the Imperial Government has crushed the nobility, by taking sides with the peasantry. In Ireland the Imperial Government has striven to hold the country by allying itself with the territorial aristocracy. Had the peasants joined the nobles in Poland, Russia could not have resisted the demand for autonomy.

[161] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 308.

[162] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 261.

[163] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 221.

[164] Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 322.

[165] The position of the chief claimants in the Succession may be illustrated in this way.

[166] This is calculated on the basis of the oats, wheat, and potato crop, with one-third the actual value of the total: the live stock added to represent the value of stock for the given current year.

[167] Customs and Income Tax showed an increase, but there was a decrease on Excise.

[168] This cost the revenue a loss of £216,000.

[169] Quoted by Sir T. Martin in his Life of the Prince Consort, Ch. CVIII.

[170] When the British ship _Prince of Wales_ was wrecked in June, 1861, on the coast of Rio Grande, it was reported that the crew had been murdered. A demand was made by the English Foreign Office on Brazil for compensation. Mr. Christy, the British Minister, happened to be an imitator of Palmerston’s hectoring manner of negotiating with weak Powers. His demands were rejected by Brazil because the compensation claimed was monstrous, and because he sought to impose conditions which were not compatible with the dignity and honour of an independent State. Reprisals were then ordered to be made. In the first instance it seems the Brazilian Government had been guilty of negligence. But Mr. Christy’s high-handed action soon put England in the wrong.

[171] Martin’s Life of the Prince Consort, Chap. LXI.

[172] Sir Stafford was denounced as one of the Exhibition clique. He moved the reduction of the vote by £25,000--the amount estimates for altering the building--as a compromise.

[173] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., pp. 299-300.

[174] The strength of the City Police was 1,000 men.

[175] Sir Francis Hastings Doyle tells a curious story which he obtained from an American officer, whose authority he vouches for as good, which throws some light on Lee’s failure, which was one of the turning-points of the war. One of his subordinate generals--“a hot-tempered, impetuous man”--received a document from Lee containing the plan of invasion, and giving him orders to carry it out. Something in these irritated him. He tore up the letter in a rage, and flung the pieces on the ground. The moment his troops moved on, the pieces were all picked up by a Northern partisan, pasted together, and conveyed to the enemy.--Reminiscences and Opinions of Sir F. H. Doyle, p. 340.

[176] Alice: Grand Duchess of Hesse, Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 58.

[177] The Registrar-General, in his Quarterly Report of 30th April, 1863, says: “On comparing the returns of the deaths in the eleven divisions with one exception the deaths were more numerous last quarter than in the March quarter of 1862; and the single exception is found in that division where the staple industry, on which half-a-million of persons are dependent, is overthrown, and for a twelvemonth four-fifths of that number have subsisted, unless the pittance has been aided by previous earnings, or sale of household stock, on less than 4d. a day.”

[178] Morley’s Life of Cobden, Chap. XXXI.

[179] Lord Malmesbury, who, like most of the Tories, did his best to urge the Government to go to war, at this time makes an observation in his “Diary,” which is refreshing in its frigidity. “It is,” he remarks, “perhaps as well that we did not enter into this contest, as our army was not armed at that time like the Prussians, with the breechloader, and we should probably have suffered in consequence the same disaster as the Austrians did two years later.”--Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., pp. 3-5.

[180] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 285.

[181] Ashley’s Life of Palmerston, Vol. II., p. 248.

[182] In criticising Palmerston’s policy of intervention, it is but just to remember that he was fatally encumbered by his imprudent declaration in the House of Commons on the 23rd of July, 1862, that if the Germans attacked the Danes “it would not be with Denmark alone they would have to contend.”

[183] Cobden’s Speeches, Vol. II., p. 341.

[184] Sir A. Malet’s Overthrow of the Germanic Confederation, p. 96.

[185] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 315.

[186] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 296.

[187] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 297.

[188] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 286.

[189] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 286.

[190] Speech of the 21st of January, 1864.

[191] Lowe’s Life of Prince Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 335.

[192] At Southampton on the 3rd of April.

[193] As a matter of fact, there was no comparison possible between the crowds in either case. The receptions of the French Emperor and the Danish Princess were poor and cold compared with that extended to Garibaldi. It will enable readers of the rising generation to understand what his welcome was when it is stated that as regards street crowds and popular enthusiasm, it far surpassed that given to the Queen on the 21st of June, 1887, when she celebrated her Jubilee in London.

[194] Lord Malmesbury, in his Diary, has the following entry:--“We dined at Stafford House to meet Garibaldi. The party consisted of the Palmerstons, Russells, Gladstones, Argylls, Shaftesburys, Dufferins, &c., and other Whigs, the Derbys and ourselves being the only Conservatives, so I greatly fear we have made a mistake, and that our party will be disgusted at our going. Lady Shaftesbury told me after dinner, in a _méchante_ manner, that we had fallen into a trap, to which I answered I was very much obliged to those who laid it, as I should be very sorry not to have seen Garibaldi.” And on the 15th of April Lord Malmesbury adds:--“Our party are furious with us and Lord Derby for dining with the Sutherlands last Wednesday, and Lord Bath has written to Lord Colville to resign his office of Whip, and says he will not spend a farthing upon elections. Lord Derby has written him a very temperate letter.”--Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., pp. 320, 321.

[195] With Palmerston in favour of Denmark.

[196] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 289.

[197] Lord Shaftesbury, says his biographer, became Garibaldi’s most constant companion in London, “never leaving him, in fact, except when Garibaldi _would_ go to the Opera.”--Hodder’s Life of the Earl of Shaftesbury, Vol. II., p. 172.

[198] It is curious to note that five days after Lord Shaftesbury assured the Duc de Persigny that there was no “notion of politics” in Garibaldi’s visit, and that “had Garibaldi’s appearance here anything to do with touching that alliance [the alliance between France and England], I am sure that the people of England would refuse to give him a welcome,” Garibaldi was entertained at a magnificent popular demonstration at the Crystal Palace. A sword of honour was presented to him, of which he said, “I will never unsheathe it in the cause of tyrants, and will draw it only in support of oppressed nationalities. _I hope yet to carry it with me to Rome and Venice._” Lord Shaftesbury was one of the brilliant company of Palmerstonian partisans under whose auspices this unique non-political ceremony was conducted.

[199] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 322.

[200] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., pp. 289-290.

[201] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., pp. 289-290.

[202] Perhaps this consideration had something to do with the curious reluctance of France to co-operate with England in the Conference--a reluctance hitherto attributed to Lord Russell’s curt refusal to take part in the Napoleonic Conference of 1863.

[203] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 291.

[204] Of the Conference.

[205] Cobden’s Speeches, Vol. II., p. 341.

[206] Father of the present Lord Salisbury.

[207] It is interesting to note how the Tory leaders in the House of Lords at that time dictated to the whole Party its strategy and policy at critical moments.

[208] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., pp. 327, 328.

[209] Count Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 292.

[210] Evelyn Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, Vol. II., pp. 254, 255.

[211] Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p 370.

[212] As a matter of fact, while the Conference was going on and the war party was rampant in London drawing-rooms, the Germans were greatly alarmed lest England should interfere. Count Vitzthum, writing on the 5th of May, says: “A peer who is very favourably disposed to Germany, said to me yesterday, ‘Take care, for God’s sake, to secure an armistice as soon as possible. If the question of war or peace were put to-day in the House of Commons to vote, three-fourths of the members would vote for war.’ Similar hints have been given to the Prussian Ambassador from a less unprejudiced quarter. We must not forget that England, by a blockade of the German and Austrian coasts, at a comparatively small expense, could exert a serious pressure on Vienna and Berlin, particularly if the revolution were let loose at the same time in Italy and Hungary.” Vitzthum’s Reminiscences, Vol. II., p. 357. See on this point Palmerston’s own account in his letter of 1st of May to Lord Russell of the interview, in which he menaced Count Apponyi with naval intervention. Ashley’s Life of Lord Palmerston, Vol. II., p. 249. It is only just to say, that if Palmerston was eager to strike at the German Powers, he knew perfectly well where to plant a telling blow on a vulnerable point. Cobden’s argument was that a blockade of the German coast would be futile because railways had rendered blockades innocuous, unless, as in America, the blockading Power could command the internal communications of the enemy.

[213] Ashley’s Life of Palmerston, Vol. II., p. 258.

[214] The Confederate cruisers that had escaped from British ports--the _Florida_, _Alabama_, _Virginia_, and _Rappahannock_--had taken 187 ships and destroyed property exceeding in value £3,000,000. There was only one thing distinguishing them from English privateers--namely, that their chief officers carried Confederate commissions. Some of them got away because the Courts, from the ambiguous state of our law, could not condemn them. Others escaped through the delay and negligence of the authorities.

[215] In England the Queen’s taxes are collected by sending petty local officials round from door to door. In Scotland the Collector of Taxes is a high Imperial official, and the people on a specified date go to his office and pay their taxes. The result is, that though defalcations are too common in England, they are unknown in Scotland. Whilst in England a vast fabric of arrears accumulates from year to year and the revenue comes in driblets, the whole Imperial taxation of Scotland, including that of the poor Islanders, is paid promptly to the Treasury within the first fortnight of every January. There are no arrears except from poverty, and these are trivial.

[216] As the law stood, Government could only grant life insurances to the amount of £100 to persons who purchased deferred annuities. Mr. Gladstone abolished that restriction. It is curious that, though the Bill met with much opposition in the House of Commons, in the Lords it was welcomed as a boon to the working-classes, who urgently desired the measure to pass.

[217] One was Dr. Rowland Williams, whose essay on Bunsen’s Biblical Researches--affirming that the Bible was “an expression of devout reason, and therefore to be read with reason in freedom”--was supposed to deny that it was the actual word of God. It also affirmed that “the doctrine of merit by transfer is a fiction.” The other defendant was the Rev. H. B. Wilson, whose essay on “Séances Historiques de Genève” was said to deny that the Holy Scriptures were written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and to challenge the doctrine of final judgment and eternal punishment.

[218] Wilberforce’s popular nickname was notoriously “Soapy Sam”--hence the malignity of Westbury’s attack.

[219] Life of Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 143.

[220] It was said that at the outset he might have embarked his army from Washington and transported them without the loss of a single man to the point he had now reached, after prowling like a wolf for many weeks round the Confederate lines to the south of Richmond.

[221] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 309.

[222] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 318.

[223] He was executed on the 14th of November, 1864.

[224] Alice: Grand Duchess of Hesse. Biographical Sketch and Letters, pp. 74, 75.

[225] Life of Dr. Norman McLeod, Vol. II., pp. 176, 177.

[226] Crown Princess of Germany.

[227] Prince Alfred.

[228] The anniversary of the Prince Consort’s death.

[229] Writing to Mr. T. B. Potter on the 23rd of February, Mr. Cobden says, “Shall I confess the thought that troubles me in connection with this subject? I have seen with disgust the altered tone with which America has been treated since she was believed to have committed suicide, or something like it. In our diplomacy, our Press, and with our public speakers, all hasten to kick the dead lion. Now in a few months everybody will know that the North will triumph, and what troubles me is lest I should live to see our ruling class--which can understand and respect _power_ better than any other class--grovel once more, and more basely than before, to the giant of democracy. This would not only inspire me with disgust and indignation, but with shame and humiliation. I think I see signs that it is coming. The _Times_ is less insolent, and Lord Palmerston is more civil.”--Morley’s Life of Cobden, Chap. XXXIV.

[230] Sterne’s Constitutional History of the United States, p. 199.

[231] A note may be here added with some details of one of the most startling and tragic events that marked the history of the English-speaking race during the Queen’s reign. President Lincoln was assassinated while the play called “Our American Cousin,” memorable for the late Mr. Sothern’s impersonation of Lord Dundreary, was going on. The assassin was John Wilkes Booth, a native of Maryland. He was an actor, and a relative of the celebrated American tragedian, Junius Brutus Booth. He was a half-crazy partisan of the Southern States, and had often threatened to kill the President. He fled to St. Mary’s County, and was ultimately discovered hiding in a barn about three miles from Port Royal. He and his companions refused to surrender, and the barn was set on fire. Sergeant Corbet, of the 16th New York Cavalry, fired his carbine through one of the windows and shot Booth in the head. He died two hours and a half after he was wounded. His three companions were tried by court-martial and executed.

[232] “The Civil Rights Bill,” says Mr. Sterne, “declared freedmen citizens of the United States. The reasons against this declaration were sound in themselves, because it admitted to the rights of citizenship a large number of persons whose prior conditions of servitude and enforced labour made them dangerous citizens. As the right to vote implies not only the right of the voter to protect himself against the aggression of others, but also involves the power, through the instrumentality of taxation, which is placed in the official hands created by the voters, to confiscate the property of others, it was apprehended by many that demagogues and adventurers would win the freemen by illusory promises of personal benefits to give them their votes, and that by the creation of public debts and the exercise of the power of taxation, they would mercilessly confiscate the property of citizens subjected to their sway.”--Constitutional History and Political Development of the United States, by Simon Sterne, of the New York Bar. Cassell and Co., pp. 202, 203.

[233] “Bismarck in the Franco-German War,” quoted in Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 347.

[234] For the conflicting accounts of this interview, see Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 352.

[235] This scandal, which was one of the sensational events of the Session of 1865, was made the most of by the Churchmen, to whom Westbury had been studiously insolent. Some little time after his fall Westbury met his old antagonist, the Bishop of Oxford, in the lobby of the House of Lords. He held out his hand, saying, “My Lord Bishop, as a Christian and a Bishop, you will not refuse to shake hands.” Wilberforce generously shook hands with him, but that did not put an end to the war of wit between them. Westbury said, “Do you remember where we last met?’ “No,” replied Wilberforce. “It was in the hour of my humiliation, when I was leaving the Queen’s Closet, having given up the Great Seal. I met you on the stairs as I was coming out, and I felt inclined to say, ‘Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?’” Wilberforce retorted, “Does your lordship remember the end of the quotation?” to which Westbury answered, “We lawyers, my Lord Bishop, are not in the habit of quoting part of a passage without knowing the whole.” But, as Wilberforce used to say in telling the story, Westbury no doubt looked it out in his family Bible when he went home, and found that the end of the quotation was, “Yea, I have found thee, because thou hast sold thyself to iniquity.”--See Life of Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 144.

[236] Life of Lord Palmerston, by the Hon. Evelyn Ashley, Vol. II., p. 273.

[237] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 335.

[238] Alice, Grand Duchess of Hesse, Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 111.

[239] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 345.

[240] Forty Years’ Recollections, Literary and Political, by Thomas Frost, p. 291.

[241] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 347.

[242] When Lord Grosvenor divided the House on an amendment to the Second Reading of the Bill, he gathered round him a body of nondescript Liberals--many of whom had been disappointed in their quest of office--whom Mr. Bright likened to those who took refuge in the cave of Adullam.

[243] Forty Adullamites had promised to support him.

[244] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 358.

[245] The speech of Mr. Mill struck terror into the hearts of the reactionary landlords, who had all thought that their rents would go on rising for centuries to come. For further references, see Letters and Journals of W. Stanley Jevons, edited by his Wife, pp. 203, 216, 218, 223, and 224, London: Macmillan (1886).

[246] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 124.

[247] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 127.

[248] _Ibid._, pp. 127, 131.

[249] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, pp. 142, 144, 147, 148. 149.

[250] Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 148.

[251] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 365.

[252] The History of Reform, by Alexander Paul, p. 199. Routledge, 1884.

[253] Correspondence of Mr. Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 158.

[254] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 242.

[255] Memoirs of an ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 365.

[256] This was a year fruitful in Cabinet meetings. On the 22nd of January Lord Malmesbury writes, “Cabinets every day to the end of the month; some at Lord Derby’s, who was ill with the gout.”--Memoirs of an ex-Minister, _ibid._

[257] Mr. Dudley Baxter, who prepared Mr. Disraeli’s figures for him.

[258] See on this subject a curious letter from Mr. Hayward to Mr. Gladstone written on the 15th of August, 1866. Mr. Hayward says:--“I entirely agree in what you say of the House of Commons and the Liberal party, which is neutralised by the individual crotchets of its members.”--Correspondence of Mr. Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 147.

[259] Mr. Alexander Paul’s History of Reform, pp. 201-203.

[260] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 371.

[261] The National Budget, by A. J. Wilson, p. 95. Macmillan and Co.

[262] The Parnellite Movement, by T. P. O’Connor, M.P., chap. vii.

[263] _Ibid._, p. 137. Popular Edition, Ward and Downey, 1887.

[264] Some of the witnesses under cross-examination broke down and fainted when confessions of guilt were extorted from them.

[265] It is instructive to look back on the speeches delivered at this meeting. They give one a vivid idea of the humiliating _status_ of the British workman at that time. The complaints of the speakers may be summed up thus: (1), whereas the masters’ associations were free to send circulars to each other urging the dismissal of “marked” unionists, workmen were, by a recent legal decision, guilty of an indictable offence if they “picketed” or endeavoured to dissuade each other from serving a master whose men had struck work; (2), the law of conspiracy had been so strained as to make an act which when done by an individual was legal, illegal when done by two or more individuals in combination; (3), masters who broke contracts were only fined, whereas breach of contract by workmen was punished by imprisonment.

[266] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 166.

[267] Afterwards Sir Howard Elphinstone, K.C.B. He was the Prince’s governor from 1859.

[268] The pet family name of the Princess of Wales--obviously a contraction of Alexandra.

[269] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. I., p. 373.

[270] Life of Norman Macleod, D.D., by the Rev. Donald Macleod, B.A., Vol. II., p. 252.

[271] The Barony parish of Glasgow was the one of which Macleod was minister. In one of his sermons, he had told his people that Scripture commanded them to _sing_ the praises of God, not to _grunt_ them. “But,” he added, “if you are so constituted physically that it is impossible for you to sing, but only _grunt_, then it is best to be silent.”

[272] Scots for _dandle_.

[273] Life of Norman Macleod, D.D., Vol. II., pp. 208, 209.

[274] Now Duke of Connaught.

[275] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 185.

[276] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 186, 187.

[277] Willem, who had died a few months before, was a well-known figure at Balmoral. He was given to the Princess Louis by the Baron Schenk-Schmittburg, who brought him from Java. Willem was the offspring of a negro father and a Javanese mother, and was a favourite with the Queen and her daughter.

[278] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 227.

[279] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 242.

[280] Mr. Bernal Osborne had suggested one. It was to cut down the Irish Church establishment to five hundred ministers and four bishops.

[281] Writing to Wilberforce on the 9th of September on the subject, Mr. Disraeli says, “In the great struggle in which I am embarked, it is a matter of great mortification to me that I am daily crossed, and generally opposed by the High Church Party. Only think of Dean Hook opposing Henry Lennox at Chichester.” The Bishop’s answer was that Mr. Disraeli must expect to lose the High Church vote, seeing that he did not, in dispensing ecclesiastical prestige, sufficiently consider the claims of High Churchmen.--Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. II., p. 260.

[282] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p 381.

[283] The last had been altered to make it clear that the House merely asked the Crown for leave to discuss a Bill suspending the exercise of its patronage till the 1st of August, 1869. A new one was added by Mr. Whitbread affirming the necessity of discontinuing the Maynooth Grant and the Presbyterian _Regium Donum_.

[284] This was in his 1844 speech, when he advocated Home Rule for Ireland and the Disestablishment of “an absentee aristocracy and an alien church.” Mr. Disraeli had been taunted with this phrase early in the Session, during the first debate on the Irish Question. His reply was infinitely humorous and audacious. He said of the phrase, with an exquisite touch of mournful reminiscence, “it appeared to me at the time I made it that nobody listened to it. It seemed to me I was pouring water on sand--but it seems now that the water came from a golden goblet.”

[285] In 1864-65 the Government had kept expenditure within the estimates by £370,000. They did so the following year by £92,000. But in 1866-67 the Derby-Disraeli Government let expenditure _exceed_ estimates by £669,000, and in 1867-68 by £537,000. This rather told against Mr. Disraeli in the General Election.

[286] The Cabinet was composed as follows:--Mr. Gladstone, Prime Minister; Sir C. Page Wood, Lord Chancellor, with the title of Lord Hatherley; Mr. Lowe, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Mr. Austen Bruce, Home Secretary; Lord Clarendon, Secretary for Foreign Affairs (with Mr. Otway as his Under-Secretary); Lord Granville, Colonial Secretary; the Duke of Argyll, Secretary for India (with Mr. Grant Duff as Under-Secretary); Mr. Cardwell, Secretary for War; Mr. Chichester Fortescue, Irish Secretary; Mr. Childers, First Lord of the Admiralty; Mr. Goschen, President of the Poor-Law Board; Mr. Bright, President of the Board of Trade; Lord Hartington, Postmaster-General; Lord Kimberley, Privy Seal; Earl de Grey, President of the Council.

[287] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., p. 267.

[288] For Canterbury.

[289] It was said that Dr. Ellicott, Bishop of Gloucester, was referred to here.

[290] It is a curious fact that his appointment of Dr. Magee, Dean of Cork, to this see brought the Government almost as much credit as the appointment of Dr. Tait to Canterbury. Dr. Magee was erroneously supposed to be Mr. Disraeli’s favourite candidate. But in this case also he seems to have got credit for the Queen’s skill in selection.

[291] Life of Bishop Wilberforce, Vol. III., pp. 265-269.

[292] Letters and Journals of W. J. Stanley Jevons. Edited by his Wife, p. 246.

[293] Yet at the time the Queen was personally opposed to Mr. Gladstone’s Irish Church policy, so that his statement was somewhat misleading. Perhaps he made it to minimise the evil effects that might be produced by rumours of her Majesty’s hostility to the verdict of the elections. These rumours were then current.

[294] It described the reductions for the first time in the records of Queen’s Speeches as having been already made, not as reductions that were only in contemplation.

[295] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 214.

[296] Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 200.

[297] _Ibid._, p. 191.

[298] It may be well to summarise Mr. Gladstone’s financial statement:--

ASSETS OF THE CHURCH.

(1) Commuted Tithe Rent Charge £9,000,000
(2) Land and Perpetuity Rents 6,200,000
(3) Money 750,000
-----------
£15,950,000
-----------

================================================

CHARGE ON THE CHURCH FUND. Commuted Life Interests of Bishops, Beneficed Clergy, &c. £4,900,000 Curates 800,000 Lay Compensations 900,000 Private Endowments to be Repaid 500,000 Presbyterians and Maynooth 1,100,000 Building Charges 250,000 College Expenses of Presbyterians and Catholics 35,000 Expenses of Commission 200,000 ---------- £8,685,000 ----------

Thus there was a surplus fund for distribution of, say, £7,500,000, the interest on which, £311,000, Mr. Gladstone distributed as follows:--(1), Lunatic Asylums, £185,000; (2), Deaf and Dumb Institutions, £30,000; (3), Idiot Asylums, £20,000; (4), Nurses for the Poor, £15,000; (5), Reformatories and Industrial Schools, £10,000; (6), County Infirmaries, £51,000.

[299] It would seem that Dean Swift anticipated Mr. Gladstone’s notion. When Vicar of Laracor Swift presented the vicarage with nineteen acres of land. He had endowed it with certain tithes, which he left in trust for the established episcopal religion. But he stipulated that in case of Disestablishment the tithes should be administered “for the benefit of the poor.” Stella (Esther Johnson), in her will, dated 30th October, 1727, also anticipated Disestablishment. In leaving £1,000 to endow a chaplaincy in Steevens’ Hospital, Dublin, she provided that if the Church were disestablished the bequest should be null and void.

[300] Sir Roundell Palmer’s argument was the only one that disturbed the conscience of the majority. Indeed, the only conceivable answer to it was that local church endowments, which were really useful in doing good parochial work, were instituted not for local but for national reasons. For national reasons such as Mr. Gladstone adduced, they might be justly resumed by the State to be applied to national purposes.

[301] Mr. Disraeli’s argument was, that a church, to be established, must have a temporal Sovereign as its head. The Church of Rome was “established” in Ireland, because the Pope was a temporal Sovereign. On grounds of religious equality, said Mr. Disraeli, it was necessary to retain the Queen’s supremacy over the Irish Church, so that it might enjoy the same status as its Roman rival. His theory of Royal supremacy over Church discipline and doctrine horrified his High Church supporters.

[302] There was a majority of all orders for the Bill, except among Bishops and Viscounts. The vote of the new families was much more Conservative than that of the old ones.

[303] It is worth noting that the Roman Catholic Peers voted against all plans for concurrent endowment of Catholicism in any shape or form.

[304] Wilberforce was subsequently promoted to the See of Winchester. But Chelmsford’s sneer was unjust. Wilberforce thought honestly that the nation having decided the question of immediate Disestablishment and Disendowment, delay would simply damage the interests of the Irish Church, and provoke a futile conflict with the people. Hence he voted against this amendment.--See Life of Wilberforce, Vol. III., pp. 287-289, and Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 408.

[305] It is not generally known that the repeal of the shilling duty on corn, as indeed many of the ideas on which Mr. Lowe based his Budget were suggested to him by the late Mr. Stanley Jevons. “Having been consulted by the Chancellor of the Exchequer,” writes Mrs. Jevons, “as to the pressure of taxation upon different classes of the people, Mr. Jevons sent to him on the 13th of March a report which he had prepared with much care. The result of his inquiries was, that the artisan, with only a moderate use of beer and tobacco, was less heavily taxed than the classes above or below him, but that the labourer, if he only moderately indulged in stimulants, was rather the most heavily taxed of any class in proportion to his income. Mr. Jevons, therefore, recommended the repeal of the remaining duty of a shilling a quarter on corn, which he believed formed an appreciable burden of about one per cent. of income upon the very poorest class on the borders of pauperism.” Another proposal of Mr. Lowe’s for re-coining the gold currency, owing to the defective weight of the coins in circulation, was also suggested by Mr. Jevons.--See Letters and Journals of W. Stanley Jevons, edited by his Wife (Macmillan, 1886), pp. 245-248.

[306] According to Lord Hartington’s measure the purchase-money came to £6,750,000.

[307] They even retreated from the position of Lord Russell, who very properly refused to admit to arbitration any question as to the right of England to recognise the South as a belligerent Power--a concession which was not only an abject surrender of Sovereign rights, but _ultra vires_ on the part of any Minister.

[308] It was to some extent ignored at the time that for much of the damage done to American commerce the Federal Navy was to blame. It afforded the most meagre protection to the American mercantile marine. Though it was known a few days after its escape that the _Sumter_ was roaming in West Indian waters, yet off _none_ of the ports it visited during the next two months was there a Federal war-ship waiting to sink it. The _Alabama_ did most damage at the points which one would have thought would be swarming with prowling Federal cruisers, namely, the Azores, the crossing of the Gulf Stream, the Brazilian Coast, the “calm belts,” where ships from the South cross the tropics at the Cape, and in the China seas. Yet in none of these quarters was Captain Semmes attacked or waited for. Captain Semmes admits in “My Adventures Afloat,” that but for the gross negligence and incompetence of the United States Naval Department he could not have done the damage he did. The admission discounts much of the argument in favour of supplying swift, unarmoured cruisers in war time.

[309] The Senate was to be assembled to pass Bills which the Opposition had demanded. The Legislative Body was to control the Budget. Independent Members were to be allowed to initiate Bills. Ministers, though not responsible actually to the Legislature, would be allowed to sit in it.

[310] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 211.

[311] Carlyle’s Life in London, by J. A. Froude, Vol. III., p. 380.

[312] The speeches on this occasion were all good or eccentric. Mr. Motley, the United States Minister, for example, said of Mr. Peabody, “That fortunate as well as most generous of men has discovered a secret for which misers might sigh in vain--the art of keeping a great fortune for himself through all time. For I have often thought in this connection of that famous epitaph inscribed on the monument of an old Earl of Devonshire commonly called the Good Earl of Devonshire--‘What I spent I had, what I saved I lost, what I gave away remains with me.’” When Mr. Story’s turn came to address the company he pointed to his statue, and merely said “That is my speech.”

[313] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 221. For a detailed description of the excursions, see More Leaves from a Journal of a Life in the Highlands, pp. 116-147.

[314] It was objectionable, he said, because it was a Bill of pains and penalties for mere words. Government had released the Fenians. Why, then, object to Irishmen honouring them? He also complained that the House was asked to act on the _ipse dixit_ of “an Irish Attorney-General.” Mr. Beresford Hope promptly rebelled against his leader, and approved of the Bill as a “manly step.” Mr. Gathorne-Hardy also deserted his chief, and said he would stand by the Government.

[315] Memoirs of an Ex-Minister, Vol. II., p. 411. The best sketch of Lady Palmerston that has appeared was the obituary notice in the _Times_ of the 15th of September, from the pen of Mr. Abraham Hayward, Q.C.--See Mr. Hayward’s Correspondence, Vol. II., p. 201, also Hayward’s Selected Essays, Vol. II. (Longmans, 1878.)

[316] Hayward’s Correspondence, Vol. II., p. 202.

[317] Hodder’s Life and Work of the Seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G., Vol. III., pp. 251-252. (Cassell and Co., 1886.)

[318] It may be interesting to record that the most brilliant Queen of Society in the Victorian period was a hard-working, thrifty house-manager. During her reign she managed personally not only the sumptuous hospitalities, but the accounts of Cambridge House, Brocket Hall, and Broadlands, and kept Palmerston’s private affairs in admirable order. Even her visiting cards were filled up by her own hand till within a very few years of her death. There was one other trace of old-fashionedness about her. She was the last lady of quality who pronounced the word oblige as if it were spelt “obleege.”

[319] Two-thirds of the electors abstained from voting. Jeremiah Donovan prefixed the aristocratic “O’” to his surname to give himself social importance. To distinguish him from other O’Donovans the place of his birth, Rossa, was now added to his name, thus: “Jeremiah O’Donovan (Rossa).” In England it soon came to be written as if “Rossa” were actually his surname.

[320] On the 7th of December Mr. W. Johnston, M.P., one of the Orange leaders, told an Orange Lodge at Derry that between Fenians and Papists he chose Fenians, and added, amidst enthusiastic cheers, that “it is no part of the duty of an Orangeman to fire a shot or draw a sword as between the English Government and the Fenians.”

[321] Mr. Disraeli did not object to compensation for disturbance when it meant compensation for unexhausted improvements, or for the “interruption of a course of good husbandry.”

[322] The Commons restored the original scale of compensation for eviction, the original duration of the lease exempting holdings from the Bill, and they restricted the permission to settle disputes between landlord and tenant to cases where they acted in concert, and not to those in which the offer came from one party alone.

[323] These were (1), in towns, the municipal boroughs; (2), in the Metropolis, workhouse school districts, or failing these, vestry areas; and (3), in counties, the civil parishes.

[324] Mr. Winterbotham said that the Dissenters must insist on every rate-aided school giving no religious instruction except Bible-reading without note or comment, and that, too, only in terms of “The Time-table Conscience Clause,” _i.e._, at specified hours before or after those for secular instruction, so that parents might use the Conscience Clause without sacrificing the educational interests of their children.

[325] This left £500,000 still to pay.

[326] Lord Granville had refused New Zealand military aid on the general principle that the sooner colonies took care of themselves and became independent the better. To save his dignity, he now said that the loan was to be advanced for public works, &c. But no device could conceal his change of front, for obviously advances to help a colony to build public works, set free its local resources to meet its military expenditure.

[327] The publication of the Treaty might have damped German enthusiasm had Germany suspected she was asked to fight France in order to save Belgium. But Napoleon dissipated that suspicion by proclaiming that the object of the war was to “maintain Austria in her elevated position” in Germany, and make the South German States independent.

[328] Von Bismarck, in his despatch of the 28th July, 1870, to Count Bernstoff, said the Draft Treaty (which also stipulated for the sale of Luxembourg to France) was communicated to him after the Luxembourg Question was settled in 1867. But M. Benedetti, in whose handwriting it was, said it was discussed by Bismarck in 1866, just after Sadowa. The facts favour Benedetti’s statement of the date. See Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 423 _et seq._

[329] He was called “Duke of Pillage” after he looted the Summer Palace of the Chinese Emperor.

[330] The French lost one-eighth.

[331] According to Mr. T. H. S. Escott’s brilliant sketch of the late Mr. Hayward in the _Fortnightly Review_ for March, 1884, the first person M. Thiers sounded in England on the subject was Mr. Hayward. “My friend,” said Hayward, when M. Thiers began to argue about the balance of power, “put all that stuff out of your head. We care for none of these things.” Writing to his sister on the 17th of September, 1870, Mr. Hayward says:--“I passed yesterday evening with the Thiers party, and breakfasted with them this morning. They are himself, his wife, sister-in-law, and secretary. His mission seems to be to persuade England to interfere on behalf of France, which England won’t do. I saw Gladstone yesterday, who told me he _could_ not mediate, as he knew neither what Prussia meant to demand nor France to concede.”--Correspondence of Abraham Hayward, Q.C., Vol. II., p. 217.

[332] This proposal he carried against Von Moltke, who sternly demanded the complete and unconditional surrender of the army of Metz.

[333] It was difficult to say which side won this battle, but on the whole the balance of advantage rested with Faidherbe. The Germans appreciated his ability very highly, and their two best generals next to Von Moltke, were detached to crush him.

[334] Alice Grand Duchess of Hesse, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland. Biographical Sketch and Letters, p. 243.

[335] Lord Granville has himself admitted that the weak point in the policy of neutrality adopted by the Government was its starting-point. The war was plainly and deliberately aggressive on the part of France. If England had offered to head a league of neutral Powers in joining Prussia to repel unprovoked French aggression, France would not have drawn her sword. A great precedent would have been created for the establishment of an international police of neutrals for keeping the peace of Europe. At the Lord Mayor’s Banquet on the 9th of November, Lord Granville discussed this view very honestly and very candidly. His reply was that the peevish jealousy with which France regarded the growing power of Germany rendered the outbreak of war inevitable, and that the menace of the neutral Powers would at best have postponed the fray for a brief period. But these menaces might have failed, and then the area of war would have been widened, the combatants multiplied, and the struggle could not have been conducted, as it was, under the restraining neutral criticism which did much to temper the passions and mitigate the horrors of the strife. No doubt this was the national conviction, and after it had been decided not to join Germany in preventing France from perpetrating a crime, it was absurd to depart from neutrality, in order to help France to escape the logical and just punishment of her own turpitude. The organs of the Tory Opposition, however, rather unpatriotically tried to make political capital out of the policy of the Government by teaching the people that the neutrality of the Cabinet was due to Ministerial cowardice and incapacity.

[336] Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., p. 606.

[337] King William had doubts as to whether he should be called Emperor of Germany or German Emperor. At last he decided in favour of the latter, which is his legal and correct title, though the wrong one--“Emperor of Germany”--is actually used on passports issued through the British Embassy at Berlin. To have called him “Emperor of Germany” would have meant that the territories of the German Sovereign Princes were in a country which belonged to him, whereas no part of Germany belonged to him save Prussia. The title “German Emperor” was a concession to the sentiments of autonomy and independence cherished by the small States. Indeed, the Hohenzollerns, when they became kings, were in a somewhat similar difficulty. They ought to have been Kings of Brandenberg. But Brandenberg was part of the old Empire, in which there could be only one King of the Germans and Holy Roman Emperor. Hence they took their title from Prussia, a new German colony, but not an integral part of the German Empire.--For a careful discussion of this quaint point of punctilio, see Lowe’s Life of Bismarck, Vol. I., pp. 613-618.

[338] But it was so clumsy in wording that it did not bind the Sovereign. This fact explains the anxiety of Melbourne to see the young Queen Victoria well married. So far as the law went, after her accession she might, if she had chosen, have married a lacquey. William IV., for example, could not have married Mrs. Jordan, who bore a large family to him, when he was Duke of Clarence. But he could have done so when he became King.

[339] The restrictions are not of course absolute, for a Prince may refuse to be bound by them. He may defy the Act and marry a subject without the consent of the Sovereign. The marriage is then quite valid for him as a private individual. He could not after it marry anybody else whilst his wife lived, save at the risk of a prosecution for bigamy. But the marriage confers no Royal _status_ on his wife, and no Royal rights of inheritance on his children. The wife of the Duke of Sussex was simply Lady Augusta Murray, and took merely her own rank as an earl’s daughter. The wife of the Duke of Cambridge is not Duchess of Cambridge, but merely Mrs. FitzGeorge, and the Duke’s family take the name of FitzGeorge, and the rank of Commoners. Yet it would be impossible for the Duke to marry any one else, even with the consent of the Queen.

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The Life and Times of Queen Victoria; vol. 3 of 4Chapter XV: Fall of the Second Empire (3)

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