1845

HOME.

253

Journal of the same day, 'told Lord Aberdeen as well as me, he never would hear of Montpensier's marriage with the Infanta of Spain (which they are in a great fright about in England), until it was no longer a political question, which would be, when the Queen is married, and has children. This is very satisfactory. When Albert came back with Joinville, which was about seven o'clock, the King said he must go; and they all took leave, the King embracing me again and again. We saw and heard the King land. The sun had set, and in a very short while there was the most beautiful moonlight, exqusitely reflected on the water. walked up and down, and Lord Aberdeen was full of the extreme success of our whole tour, which had gone off charmingly, including this little visit, which had been most successful.'

We

Next morning at three the yacht was under weigh for England, 'the sea like a lake, and sky and sea of the deepest blue.' The heavens smiled on the close of this delightful excursion as, with the exception of a few wet days on the Rhine, they had smiled upon it throughout. Under the hot haze of an autumn noonday sun the Royal travellers disembarked on the familiar beach at Osborne. The dearest of welcomes gréeted them, as they drove up straight to the house-for there, looking like roses, so well and so fat, stood the four children much pleased to see us.'

CHAPTER XV.

Troubled State of Affairs in England--Lord John Russell's Edinburgh Letter-Sir R. Peel resigns-Lord John Russell fails in forming an Administration--Sir R. Peel's return to Office--His adoption of a Free Trade Policy--Prince attends Debate in House of Commons--Holiday Gardening--Landscape Gardening--Carriage of Corn Bill--Defeat of Ministry on Irish Coercion Bill-Their Resignation.

THUS ended a tour, which had afforded the utmost pleasure to the Queen and Prince. 'We have brought back,' he writes to Baron Stockmar (29th September), 'the most agreeable recollections from our tour. Everything went off pleasantly and to a wish.' 'Swiftly beyond measure,' he had said in writing to the Dowager Duchess of Coburg a few days before, 'sped the delightful days we spent in my little fatherland (Heimath). Still we shall always find in remembrance rich amends for what has passed away so soon. . . . The children were in great glee at our return, and have made much progress in our absence in all good qualities (Tugenden), of which, the proverb falsely says, youth has none.'

The same feeling breaks out in very touching terms in a letter (16th September) from Her Majesty to King Leopold, in which we see how completely every thought of the splendour and enthusiasm of the reception, which had welcomed the English Sovereign all along the route, is merged in the delight of having viewed and grown familiar with the scenes in which the youth was cradled of him who is her "dearest life in life.'

I

'I have a feeling for our dear "little Germany," which I cannot describe. I felt it at the Rosenau so much. It is a something which touches me so, and which goes to my heart, and makes me inclined to cry. I never felt at any other place that sort of pensive pleasure and peace which I felt there. fear I almost like it too much. . . . The recollections of the time spent in Saxony are engraven on my heart. It was one of the happiest times in my life, and to recur to it will ever bring me the greatest happiness. I must be thankful for having been allowed to see what I hardly dared to hope for.'

1845

STATE CF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

255

The state of affairs at home had not improved within the last six weeks. The rain, which had pursued the Royal tourists on the Rhine, had for many weeks, amidst thunder and storm, deluged the harvest fields of the British islands, and serious fears for the crops had spread from the farmers to the statesmen, whose anxieties such an event were so much calculated to increase. A new and terrible feature of apprehension was added in the reports which continued to crowd in upon them of a strange blight which threatened wholly to destroy the potato-crop in Ireland, and to produce serious ravages in England and Scotland also, where, if less relied upon by the population as a staple of food, it was an important source of wealth to the farmers. In the Prince's Journal for October entry upon entry tells of the prevailing anxiety, which culminates in the beginning of October in the words: Very bad news from Ireland-fears of a famine.' A crisis of the gravest moment was at hand, which had to be grappled with firmly and at once. Cabinet Councils were called, and four of these held in one week early in November, 'agitated England, perplexed the sagacious Tuileries, and disturbed even the serene intelligence of the profound Metternich." What engaged their deliberations could be no secret to the outside world. The Free Trade party saw in the disaster which had fallen upon the country an auxiliary more potent than the best eloquence of their best speakers; and Protectionists, who had long seen that to Sir Robert Peel they must not look as a leader, watched with apprehension for his next move in a policy which they must have for some time foreseen could only result in the abolition of the protective duties on corn.

How to avert the threatened calamity ?-was the one question, which at such a moment was obviously paramount to every other consideration. True statesman as he was, Sir Robert Peel saw that the time for half measures was past. He would have met the immediate emergency by an Order in Council, at once throwing open the ports, trusting to Parliament for an indemnity; but at the same time he made no secret of his personal conviction, that this step could only be the prelude to a measure for the permanent abolition of protective duties. Weaker counsels prevailed, and the Cabinet Councils, to which all eyes had been directed, terminated without visible result. Parliament, instead of being called

1 Lord George Bentinck, a Political Biography, by the Right Hon. B. Disracli, chap. ii.

256

SIR R. PEEL RESIGNS.

1815

together, in accordance with the general expectation, was again prorogued.

If Sir Robert Peel's views on the subject of protection had undergone a remarkable change, not less so had those of the leaders of the opposite party. But there was this great difference in their position, that the Whigs were not hampered by pledges to uphold protection-pledges on the faith of which their rivals had been placed in power. Had the Ministry summoned Parliament, and proposed a suspension of the duties on corn, the Whig members must have voted with them. 'No party in Parliament would have made itself responsible for the obstruction of a measure so urgent and beneficial.' These words came with peculiar emphasis from Lord John Russell, who seized the opportunity afforded by the obviously wavering policy of the Ministry to deal them a vigorous blow, in a letter to his constituents (22nd November, 1845) from Edinburgh, where he was then staying. Abandoning his former creed, it is no longer worth while,' he added, to contend for a fixed duty. The imposition of any duty at present, without a provision for its extinction in a short period, would but prolong a contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity and discontent.'

After such a declaration, which fell like fuel upon flame, it was impossible for the Cabinet to temporise. By this time the majority of its members had come round to the views of their leader, who, could he earlier have secured their coöperation, would probably not have hesitated to introduce such a measure as was pointed at by the great Whig leader. But it was now too late, when to do so would be universally ascribed to the desire to outbid the party who were the natural champions of Free Trade. "The Government,' Lord John Russell had said in his letter, 'appear to be waiting for some excuse to give up the present Corn Law. Let the people afford them the excuse they seek.'

A Minister in the position of Sir Robert Peel, whose judgment went along with the policy announced by his adversary, had no alternative but to provide for him the opportunity of carrying it out. With this view, on the 5th of December, he placed his resignation in Her Majesty's hands.' Her Majesty

2'In the course of the interview with Her Majesty, which took place after my arrival at Osborne on the 5th of December, I trust that I satisfied the Queen that I was influenced by considerations of the public interest, and not by the fear of responsibility or of reproach, in humbly tendering my resignation of

1845

FAILURE TO FORM A GOVERNMENT.

257

at once turned to Lord John Russell as his natural successor, but he was still in Edinburgh, and it was the 11th before he reached the Royal Presence. The Royal summons had taken him by surprise. The call, he felt, had come upon his party too soon. Before undertaking to form an administration, therefore, he must first consult his old colleagues, some of whom he knew did not approve of the course he had taken as to the Corn Laws. Without the support of Lord Lansdowne, as leader of the House of Lords, he could not hope to succeed, but he had doubts how far that nobleman would go with him on the great question of the day. By the 13th, however, the adhesion of Lord Lansdowne was secured. Still great difficulties existed, and five days more had elapsed before Lord John Russell was even able to inform the Queen that he accepted the task of forming an administration. So formidable were the obstacles to success which he apprehended from the state of the parties, that his acceptance had for a time hung on the fact of his receiving a pledge from Sir Robert Peel to support a measure for the total and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. Such a pledge, without having the measure actually before him, no statesman could give; and Lord John Russell was therefore compelled to rest satisfied with the assurance that Sir Robert and his friends would give their friendly support to his government in any reasonable measure they might introduce for the settlement of the question. But no sooner was this difficulty obviated, than another and more serious obstacle arose within the ranks of the proposed administration. Lord John Russell considered the presence in it of both Lord Grey and Lord Palmerston to be indispensable. But on vital questions of foreign policy these noblemen entertained the most opposite views. Lord Palmerston was ready to waive his claims to a seat in the Cabinet, but, if he joined it, he would do so only as the head of the Foreign Office. In this he was upheld by his friends; while Lord Grey adhered with equal firmness to his determination not to enter the administration with Lord Palmerston as Foreign

office. Her Majesty was pleased to accept it with marks of confidence and approbation which, however gratifying, made it a very painful act to replace in Her Majesty's hands the trust she had confided in me.

'I will not say more than that the generous support which I had uniformly received from Her Majesty and from the Prince, and all that passed on the occasion of the retirement, made an impression on my heart that can never be effaced. I could not say less than this without doing violence to feelings of grateful and dutiful attachment.'-Sir R. Peel's Memoirs, vol. ii. p. 222.