Chapter XXX: The Jubilee (6)

[202] The Claremont Estate was bought by the Crown in 1816. It was granted to the lamented Princess Charlotte and her husband, Prince Leopold--the Queen’s uncle--with benefit of survivorship. It was a place full of gloomy associations, but Prince Leopold kept it up pretty well till 1848, on the £60,000 a year which he had from the nation. In 1848 the exiled Orleans family occupied it, and were prodigal in spending money in improving the grounds and gardens, which were almost as productive as those of Frogmore. On the death of King Leopold of Belgium, Claremont reverted to the Crown, and Lord John Russell and Mr. Gladstone passed an Act granting it to the Queen for life. In 1881 Sir Henry Ponsonby, as trustee for the Queen, bought the reversionary interest of it for her from the State for £70,000, and since then it has been her private property, like Osborne and Balmoral. That Claremont is the property of the nation is a strange delusion fondly cherished by many critics of Royalty.

[203] Prince Leopold lived chiefly at Boyton Manor from the summer of 1875 till the autumn of 1879, when the Queen insisted on his going to Claremont. It was at Boyton that he was so dangerously ill in 1877 that Sir William Jenner telegraphed for the Queen to come to what was supposed to be his deathbed. After that her Majesty always objected to his staying in Wiltshire.

[204] The borough franchises of England and Wales were the old £20 clear annual value qualification of 1832, and the householder and lodger franchises established in 1867. To these the new Reform Act of 1885 added the “service franchise,” giving a vote to any man who inhabits any dwelling-house by virtue of any office, service, or employment. Caretakers, bailiffs, gamekeepers, officers of public establishments, shepherds, &c., were admitted under this qualification. It was further provided that every citizen of full age, and not subject to legal incapacity, who has occupied a house for a year and paid his rates, can have his name registered as a voter for the district, whether it be called county or borough, in which he resides. The property franchises in the counties were in the main left untouched, but provision was made to check multiplication of faggot votes--_i.e._, votes of non-resident occupiers on sham qualifications. But four-fifths of the 5,000,000 electors enfranchised by the Bill were really qualified as simple householders in town and county.

[205] There were 56 two-member constituencies wholly disfranchised, and 31 which lost a member apiece. But by Mr. Gladstone’s Bill in 1885, there were 160 seats set free for redistribution, 6 that were in abeyance were revived, and to meet the claim of Scotland for increased representation, 12 new seats, despite the opposition of the extreme Tories like Sir J. D. Hay, were added to the House.

[206] Of this £11,000,000, it must be said £4,500,000 were to pay for Egyptian expeditions and £6,500,000 for “special preparations.”

[207] M. Lessar, the Central Asian geographer, was now in attendance at the Russian Embassy as an expert.

[208] See Speeches of Lord Randolph Churchill (Authorised Edition), edited by Henry W. Lucy (George Routledge and Sons: London, 1885, p. 220).

[209] As a matter of fact it was weaker than it should have been, but this was due to the neglect of shipbuilding by Mr. W. H. Smith, whose favourite policy was to make old ships do for new ones by patching their boilers. Lord Northbrook had pushed on shipbuilding, and made up leeway so that in first-class ironclads the country was more than a match for France. But much had still to be done in other directions--_e.g._, in providing vessels for scouting, and for torpedo warfare. The armament of the Navy was also obsolete, in fact, when Mr. Smith handed the Navy over to Lord Northbrook, there was not a single big breech-loading gun mounted in the Fleet.

[210] Whilst the anti-Coercionists in the Cabinet (Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Chamberlain, and Mr. Shaw-Lefevre) were struggling with the Coercionists, the subterranean arrangements between the Tories and Parnellites were also publicly ratified in a speech delivered by Lord Randolph Churchill at the St. Stephen’s Club, in which, amidst ringing cheers, he condemned the renewal of Coercion. Signs of disorder in Ireland, he argued, had passed away, and such being the case Government was bound by “the highest considerations of public policy and Constitutional doctrine to return to and rely on the ordinary law. They were all the more strongly bound at that time because they had just enfranchised the Irish people, and declared them capable citizens fit to take part in the government of the Empire.”--The Parnell Movement, by T. P. O’Connor, Chap. XIII.

[211] After he wound up the debate, and during this exciting scene, Mr. Gladstone had been quietly writing his nightly report to the Queen of the proceedings of the House, on a sheet of note-paper which he held on his knee as a desk. Lord Randolph Churchill vainly endeavoured to rouse his attention by putting up his hand to his mouth as if it were a speaking-trumpet, and shouting through it mocking taunts of triumph at the Premier.

[212] H. W. Lucy’s Diary of Two Parliaments, Vol. II., p. 478. (London: Cassell & Co.)

[213] The controversy between Lord Salisbury and Mr. Gladstone was conducted through memoranda addressed to the Queen dated the 17th, 18th, 20th, and 21st of June. For the text, see Parliamentary Report of the _Times_, 25th of June, 1885.

[214] The offer, it is odd to notice, was almost an unprecedented mark of Royal favour. The elevation of Mr. Disraeli to an earldom was effected in the middle, not at the end of his service as Premier, and in the moment of his triumph, not of his defeat. It is, however, worth noting that at the end of his first Administration Mr. Disraeli accepted a viscountess’s coronet for his wife. Lord John Russell was not Premier in 1859 when he became Earl Russell; in fact, his acceptance of the Foreign Office under Palmerston was supposed finally to put him in the background. Grenville, Liverpool, Wellington, Goderich, Grey, Melbourne, Derby, and Aberdeen were all Peers before they became Premiers. When Addington’s Ministry resigned early in the century, the Premier, it is true, became Lord Sidmouth. Yet it was not an earldom but only a viscountcy--a rank often conferred on ex-Ministers who have not been Premiers--that was given to him. Pitt was not actually First Lord of the Treasury--though no doubt he was the moving spirit in the Cabinet--when he became Earl of Chatham. In fact, for the Queen’s offer there was no precedent later than 1742, when Walpole--the Minister to whom her House owe their crown--was created Earl of Orford when he resigned.

[215] Mr. Gibson had been elevated to the Lord Chancellorship of Ireland under this title.

[216] “Lord Northbrook,” wrote the Times, “chose to regard the criticisms on this blundering way of keeping accounts as a personal attack on himself, and rested his defence, with more temper than lucidity, on the propriety of the expenditure incurred, which no one had thought of challenging.”

[217] The Journals of Major-General C. G. Gordon, C.B., at Khartoum, printed from the original MS. Introduction and Notes by A. Egmont Hake. (London: Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1885, p. 56.)

[218] On this point see an entry in Gordon’s Journal under date the 6th of October, 1884. It was not till the 17th of May, 1884, that Lord Granville wrote enjoining Gordon to adopt “measures for his own removal _and for that of the Egyptians at Khartoum_ by whatever route he may consider best.” But it was now too late to attempt the evacuation of Khartoum save in co-operation with a relief force.

[219] Metamneh is 176 miles from Korti, but only 90 miles from Berber, and 98 from Khartoum, from which latter places the Mahdi brought up all the troops he could spare.

[220] “A cavalryman is taught never to be still, and that a square _can_ be broken. How can you expect him in a moment to forget all his training, stand like a rock, and believe no one can get inside a square?... The sailors were pressed back with the cavalry, and lost heavily; they get very excited, and would storm a work or do anything of that kind well; but they are trained to fight in ships, and you cannot expect them to stand shoulder to shoulder like grenadiers.”--From Korti to Khartoum, by Sir Charles Wilson, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., D.C.L., F.R.S., R.E., late Deputy Adjutant-General, Nile Expedition. Edinburgh (Blackwood), 1885, p. 36.

[221] Sir Charles Wilson strives hard to defend Lord Wolseley and Sir Herbert Stewart. He says that Stewart could not march straight across the Desert for lack of transport, though he admits that an additional thousand camels, which could have been easily got in November, would have saved the situation. Why were they not got? Moreover, the blunder of Lord Wolseley and Sir Herbert Stewart is inexcusable, because they acted in defiance of Gordon’s last message. “Come,” said he, “by way of Metamneh or Berber; only by these two roads. Do this _without letting rumours of your approach spread abroad_.” Stewart’s first occupation of Gakdul, thirteen days before the Desert column was ready to move, was simply a gratuitous warning to the Mahdi of the English advance.

[222] This is sometimes called Gubat, and sometimes Abu Kru.

[223] Gordon’s diaries show that even on the 28th of November, 1884, when his men held Omdurman and the North Fort, Wilson could not have passed the junction of the Blue and White Nile without a strong land force to co-operate with his steamers. On the 28th of January, 1885, however, these positions were in the Mahdi’s hands, and Wilson had no land force.

[224] Lord Charles Beresford was too ill to proceed up the Nile with Wilson, and, as he was the only naval officer available, it was prudent to leave him at Gubat. Had our position there been attacked, he would perhaps have been able to assist in its defence with Gordon’s steamers.

[225] _See_ an analysis of General Gordon’s Journals by the present writer in the _Observer_ for the 28th of June, 1885. For criticism of Wilson’s Expedition, _see_ article, said to be by Sir E. Hamley, in _Blackwood_ for June, 1885.

[226] _See_ The Letters of General C. G. Gordon. (London: Macmillan, 1888.)

[227] Gordon’s death evoked from the Colonies in America and Australia profuse and generous offers of military aid. The only one accepted was that which was made by New South Wales.

[228] When Mr. Gladstone fell from power, and Lord Salisbury’s Government took office in 1887, this promise was renewed. But in 1888 it was repudiated by Mr. W. H. Smith, the First Lord of the Treasury.

[229] The children of the Prince of Wales will probably be provided for by the State. The children of the Duke of Edinburgh, owing to the wealth of their parents, need no provision. The Duchess of Connaught inherited a large fortune from her father, the “Red Prince.” The Princess Louise, Marchioness of Lorne, if she were to have a family, could provide for them as members of the House of Argyll.

[230] The German Crown Prince and the Grand Duke of Hesse received the Order on marrying daughters of the Queen. But the Marquis of Lorne got the Order of the Thistle in similar circumstances.

[231] Continental diplomatists and publicists held that the notification in the _Gazette_ was absolutely illegal, because it was a violation of an international agreement as to the assumption of this title arrived at by the Great Powers at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818. This agreement, which was signed by the Duke of Wellington as the representative of England, is embodied in the “Protocol Séparé Séance du 11 Oct., 1818, entre les cinq Puissances,” and it arose out of their refusal to permit the Elector of Hesse to assume the title of king. The Powers declared that the title Royal Highness used by the sons of kings, might be also used by grand dukes and their heirs-presumptive, but by no one of lower rank in sovereign circles. Prince Henry was neither a grand duke nor an heir-presumptive to a grand duke.

[232] When Prince Victor married the sister of the Marquis of Hertford, she was created Countess Gleichen, a title which the Prince also assumed, the marriage being on the Continent regarded as “morganatic.” It was held that the Queen’s order raising the lady to her husband’s royal rank was void and illegal outside the English Court, like the similar order with reference to the Countess Dornburg.

[233] This intrigue was initiated by Mr. Justin McCarthy, who had long enjoyed Lord Carnarvon’s personal friendship. Before finally selling the Irish vote, Mr. Parnell had a personal interview with Lord Carnarvon, at which the bargain was struck. Lord Carnarvon has denied various accounts of this interview, but he has never denied that as Viceroy of Ireland, he told Mr. Parnell that Irish industries must be stimulated, and that he would give the new Irish Government power to levy Protective Duties. As taxation and representation go together, this concession implies that the Irish Government was to be vested with fiscal powers, which could only be exercised in co-operation with and under responsibility to an Irish Parliament.

[234] The doctrine of ransom in the counties took the form of a vague and ambiguous pledge to give every labourer who wanted an allotment “three acres and a cow,” by purchase-money advanced from the rates.

[235] For a definite statement of Lord Carnarvon’s policy as Mr. Parnell understood it, _see_ Mr. Parnell’s speech on the Home Rule Bill. _Times_, June 8, 1886.

[236] The case for the Government, however, was strengthened and made more conclusive as the debate went on.

[237] As successor of the old abbots, the Dean of Westminster, in the Abbey, takes precedence of all ecclesiastics except the Archbishop of Canterbury.

[238] When the children got to the Park Mr. Lawson, like a practical man, put them in good humour by feeding them. They were taken in squads to tents, and each child got a bag with a meat pie, a piece of cake, a bun, and an orange; also a plated medallion portrait of the Queen. A Jubilee mug of Doulton ware was also given to each boy and girl, and during the day lemonade, ginger beer, and milk were to be had for the asking.

[239] Lord Tennyson’s health did not admit of his officiating as Laureate on this occasion, and Mr. Browning has always declared himself unable to produce ceremonial odes to order.

[240] History of England, Vol. V., p. 537.