n < < < 4 *
1,' <.cr*.o.-'.'<
^^-s^« j»i^ .% j'-.'i^ ^» . '
I Trf^ii^ A^d^M^y^'j
m
1
:^»5!^
4
^^i^:;.._._
GIFT OF
TH
MLMOKiAL library'
... i
,-v?
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
OUR OWN TIMES
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
OUR OWN TIMES
FROM THE ACCESSION OF QUEEN VICTORIA
TO THE
QENERAL ELECTION OF 1880
By JUSTIN McCarthy, m.p.
AUTHOR OF
"A HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES" ETC.
NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS
FRANKLIN SQUARE
s
-0
,v->
CONTENTS.
CHAPTEB PAGB
I. A NEW EEIGN OPENS . . . '. , . 1
II. SOME TROUBLES TO THE NEW REIGN . . . . 16
III. DECLINE AND FALL OF THE MELBOURNE MINISTRY . 3G
IV. THE AFGHAN WAR . . . , . . . . 44
V. peel's ADMINISTRATION 57
VI. THE ANTI-CORN LAW LEAGUE 67
VII. MR. DISRAELI .78
VIII. FAMINE AND POLITICAL TROUBLE .. . . . , 84
IX. ATHENS, ROME, AND LONDON 95
X. PALMERSTON 110
^ XI. THE CRIMEAN WAR 132
XII. THE LORCHA ' ARROW.'— TRANSPORTATION . . . 1G2
XIII. THE INDIAN MUTINY 170
XrV. THE END OP <JOHN COMPANY' 195
XV. THE CONSPIRACY BILL « 200
-• XVI. DISRAELI'S FIRST REFORM ENTERPRISE . . » . 214
XVII. LORD PALMERSTON AGAIN 225
\ XVIII. THE CIVIL WAR IN AMERICA 239
XIX. THE LAST OP LORD PALMERSTON 251
XX. THE NEW GOVERNMENT 275
XXI. REFORM 294
"^ XXII. STRIFE AT HOME AND ABROAD 811
XXIII. IRISH QUESTIONS 339
XXIV. 'REFORMATION IN A FLOOD' . . . . . . 359
XXV. THE FALL OP THE GREAT ADMINISTRATION . . 379
XXVI. LORD BEACONSFIELD 397
XXVn. THE CONGRESS OP BERLIN . . . . '. .414
INDEX 433
284775
A SHORT HISTORY
OF
OUR OWN TIMES.
CHAPTER I.
A NEW EEIGN OPENS.
Before half-past two o'clock on the mornuig of June 20,
1837, WilUam IV. was lying dead in Windsor Castle, while
the messengers were already hurrying off to Kensington
Palace to bear to his successor her summons to the throne.
/With William ended the reign of personal government in
England./ King William had always held to and exercised the
right to dismiss his ministers when he pleased, and because
he pleased. In our day we should believe that the constitu-
tional freedom oi England was outraged, if a sovereign w^ere
to dismiss a ministry at mere pleasure, or to retain it in despite
of the expressed wish of the House of Commons.
The manners of William IV. had been, like those of most
of his brothers, somewhat rough and overbearing. He had
been an unmanageable naval officer. He had made himself
unpopular while Duke of Clarence by his strenuous opposi-
tion to some of the measures which were especially 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. But William seems to have been one of the
men whom increased responsibility improves. He was far
better as a king than as a piince. He proved that he was able
at least to understand that first duty of a constitutional
sovereign which, to the last day of his active life, his father,
1
2 A SHORT in STORY OF OUR OWN TIMES. cii. i.
(reorge III., never could be brought to comprehend — that the
personal predilections and prejudices of the King must some-
times give way to the public interest. We must judge William
by the reigns that went before, and not the reign that came
after him, and admit that on the whole he was better than his
education, his early opportunities, and his early promise.
William IV. (tliird son of George III.) had left no children
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, 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 child was brought up under the
care of his widow. She was well brought up : both as regards
her intellect and her character — her training was excellent.
She was taught to be self-reliant, brave, and systematical.
Prudence and economy were inculcated on her as though she
had been born to be poor. One is not generally inclmed 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. /
There is a pretty description 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 Chamberlain, the Marquis of
Conyngham, left Windsor for 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 until 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 everybody. They rang the bell, and desired that
the attendant of the Princess Victoria might be sent to
inform her Pioyal Highness that they requested an audience
on business of importance. After anotlier delay, and another
ringing to inquire the cause, the attendant was summoned,
who stated that the Princess was in such a sweet sleep that
Bhe could not venture to disturb her. Then they said, " We
are come on business of State to the Queen, and even her
CH. I. A NEW REIGN OPENS, 3
Bleep 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 falling 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 Council summoned for
eleven o'clock, when the Lord Chancellor administered the
usual oaths to the Queen, and her Majesty received in return
the oaths of allegiance of the Cabinet mmisters and other
privy councillors present.
The interest or curiosity with which the demeanour of the
young Queen was watched was all the keener because the
world in general Imew 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. The yomig Queen had been
previously kept in such seclusion by her mother, that ' not
one of her acquaintance, none of the attendants at Kensing-
ton, 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 seclu-
sion which the Duchess of Kent might desire for her
daughter. No one can read even the most favourable de-
scriptions given by contemporaries of the manners of those
two courts without feeling grateful to the Duchess ol Kent
for resolving that her daughter should see as little as possible
of their ways and their company.
It is not necessary to go into any formal description of 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 follo^\ung
year, 1838. It is a fact, however, well worthy of note, amid
whatever records of court ceremonial and of political change,
that a few days after the accession of the Queen, Mr. Monte-
fiore 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
following 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
4 A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OIVN TIMES, CH. i.
instead the extraction of his teeth. The expansion of the
principle of rehgious hberty and equahty 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 Allegiance
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 severance of the connection which had
existed for some generations between this country and
Hanover. The connection was only personal, the Hanoverian
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 William IV. to hi«
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 Han-
over had at no time been a matter of gratification to the public
of this country, and Englishmen were not by any m-eans sorry
to be rid of the Duke of Cumberland. Not many of George
in.'s sons were popular; the Duke of Cumberland was
probably the least popular of all. His manners were rude,
overbearing, and sometimes even brutal. Eumour not un-
naturally 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.
It was felt in England that the mere departure of the
Duke of Cumberland from this country Avould have made the
severance of the connection with Hanover desirable, even if
it had not been in other ways an advantage to us. Later
times have shown how much we have gained by the separa-
tion. It would have been exceedingly inconvenient, to say
the least, if the crown worn by a sovereign of England had
been hazarded in the war between Austria and Prussia in
18GG. Our reigning family must have seemed to sufler in
dignity if that crown had been roughly knocked off the head
of its wearer wlio happened to be an English sovereign ; and
it would have been absurd to expect that the English people
CH. I. A NEW REIGN OPENS. 5
could enf?a{]re in a quarrel with wliicli their interests and
honour had absolutely nothing to do, for the sake of a mero
family possession of their ruling house.
Lord Melbourne was the first Minister of the Crown when
the Queen succeeded to the throne. He was a man who then
and always after made himself particularly dear to the Queen,
and for wdiom she had the strongest regard. He was of kindly,
somewhat indolent nature ; fair and even generous towards
his political opponents ; of the most genial disposition towards
his friends. He was emphatically not a strong man. He wag
not a man to make good grow where it was not already growing.
He was a kmdly counsellor to a young Queen ; and happily
for herself the young Queen m this case had strong clear sense
enough of her o^vn not to be absolutely dependent on any counsel.
Lord Melbourne was not a statesman. His best qualities,
personal kindness and good nature apart, were purely negative.
He was unfortunately not content even with the rej)utation for
a sort of indolent good nature which he might have well de-
served. He strove to make himself appear hopelessly idle,
trivial, and careless. When he really was serious and earnest
he seemed to make it his busmess to look like one in wdiom
no human affairs could call up a gleam of interest. We have
amusing pictures of him as he occupied himself in blowing a
feather or nursing a sofa-cushion Vvdiile receiving an important
and perhaps highly sensitive deputation from this or that
commercial * interest.' Those who knew him insisted that he
really was listening with all his might and main ; that he had
sat up the whole night before studying the question which
he seemed to think so unworthy of any attention ; and that so
far from being v.-hoUy absorbed in his trifles, he was at very
great pains to keep up the appearance of a trifier.
Such a masquerading might perhaps have been excusable,
or even attractive, in the case of a man of really brilliant and
commanding talents. But in Lord Melbourne's case the
affectation had no such excuse or happy effect. He was a
poor speaker, only fitted to rule in the quietest times. Debates
were then conducted with a bitterness of personality unknown,
or at all events very rarely known, in our days. Even in the
House of Lords language was often interchanged of the most
virulent hostility.
Lord Melbourne's constant attendance on the young Queen
was regarded with keen jealousy and dissatisfaction. Accord-
ing to some critics the Prime Minister was endeavouring to
6 A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OWN T'lMES. CH. l
inspire her with all his owii gay heedlessness of character and
temperament. According to others, Lord Melbourne's purpose
was to make himself agreeable and indispensable to the Queen ;
to surround her with his friends, relations, and creatures, and
thus to get a lifelong hold of power in England, in defiance of
political changes and parties. But he does not appear to have
been greedy of power, or to have used any unfair means of
getting or keeping it. The character of the young Sovereign
seems to have impressed him deeply. His real or affected levity
gave way to a genuine and lasting desire to make lier life as
happy and her reign as successful as he could. The Queen
always felt the warmest affection and gratitude for him.
Still, it is certain that the Queen's Prime Minister was by no
means a popular man at the time of her accession. When
the new reign began, the Ministry had two enemies or critics
in the House of Lords of the most formidable character.
Either alone would have been a trouble to a minister of far
stronger mould than Lord Melbourne ; but circumstances
threw them both for the moment into a chance alliance against
him.
One of these w^as Lord Brougham. No character stronger
and stranger than his is described in the modern history
of England. He was gifted with the most varied and strik-
ing talents, and with a capacity for labour which sometimes
seemed almost superhuman. Not merely had he the capacity
for labour, but he appeared to have a positive passion for work.
His restless energy seemed as if it must stretch itself out on
every side seeking new fields of conquest. The study that
Avas enough to occupy the whole time and wear out the
frame of other men was only recreation to him. His physical
strength never gave way. His high spirits never deserted him.
His self-confidence was boundless. He thought he knew
everything and could do everything better than any other man.
His vanity was overweening, and made him ridiculous almost
as often and as much as his genius made him admired. ' If
Brougham knew a little of law,' said O'Connell, when the
former became Lord Chancellor, ' he would know a little of
everything.' The anecdote is told in another way too, which
perhaps makes it even more piquant. ' The new Lord Chan-
cellor knows a little of everything in the world — even of
law.' He was beyond doubt a great Parliamentary orator,
although not an orator of the highest class. Brougham's
action was wild, and sometimes even furious ; his gestures were
cir. I. A NEW REIGN OPENS, 7
singularly ungraceful ; his manners were grotesque ; but of
his power over his hearers there could be no doubt. That power
remained with him until a far later date ; and long after the
years when men usually continue to take part in political debate,
Lord Brougham could be impassioned, impressive, and even
overwhelming. If his talents were great, if his personal vanity
was immense, let it be said that his services to the cause of
human freedom and education were simply inestimable. As an
opponent of slavery in the colonies, as an advocate of political
reform at home, of law reform, of popular education, of religious
equality, he had worked with indomitable zeal, with resistless
passion, and with splendid success. He was left out of office
on the reconstruction of the Whig Ministry in April 1835, and
he passed for the remainder of his life into the position ot an
mdependent or unattached critic of the measures and policy
of other men. It has never been clearly known why the
Whigs so suddenly threw over Brougham. The common
belief is that his eccentricities and his almost savage temper
made him intolerable in a cabinet. It has been darkly hinted
that for a while his intellect was actually under a cloud, as
people said that of Chatham was during a momentous season.
Lord Brougham was not a man likely to forget or forgive
the wrong which he must have believed that he had sustained
at the hands of the Whigs. He became the fiercest and most
formidable of Lord Melbourne's hostile critics.
The other great opponent was Lord Lyndhurst. He
was one of the most effective Parliamentary debater^ of
his time. His style was smgularly and even severely
clear, direct and pure ; his manner was easy and grace-
ful ; his voice remarkably sweet and strong. Nothing
could have been in greater contrast than his clear, correct,
nervous argument, and the impassioned invectives and over-
whelming strength of Brougham. Lyndhurst had an immense
capacity for work, when the work had to be done ; but his
natural tendency was as distinctly towards indolence as
Brougham's was towards unresting activity. Nor were Lynd-
hurst's political convictions ever very clear. By the habitude
of associating with the Tories, and receiving office from them,
and speakmg for them, and attackmg their enemies with
argument and sarcasm, Lyndliurst finally settled down into
all the ways of Toryism. But nothing in his varied history
showed that he had any particular preference that w^ay ; and
there were many passages in his career when it would seem
8 A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES. CH. I.
as if a turn of cliance decided what part of political life he
was to follow. As a keen debater lie was perhaps hardly ever
excelled in Parhament ; but he had neither the passion nor the
genius of the orator ; and his capacity was narrow indeed in
its range when compared with the astonishing versatility and
omnivorous mental activity of Brougham. As a speaker he
was always equal. He seemed to know no varying moods or
fits of mental lassitude. Whenever he spoke he reached at
once the same high level as a debater. The very fact may
in itself perhaps be taken as conclusive evidence that he was
not an orator. The higher qualities of the orator are no more
to be summoned at will than those of the poet.
These two men were without any comparison the two lead-
ing debaters m the House of Lords. Lord Melbourne had
not at that time in the Upper House a single man of first
class or even of second class debating power on the bench of
the ministry. An able writer has well remarked that the
position of the Ministry in the House of Lords might be com-
pared to that of a water-logged wreck into which enemies
from all quarters are pouring their broadsides.
The law at that time made it necessary that a new Parlia-
ment should be summoned on the accession of the new
Sovereign. The result was not a very marked alteration
in the condition of parties ; but on the whole the ad-
vantage was with the Tories. Somewhere about this time,
it may be remarked, the use of the word * Conservative *
to describe the latter political party first came into fashion.
During the elections for the new Parliament, Lord John
Eussell, speaking at a public dinner at Stroud, made allusion
to the new name which his opponents were beginning to
affect for their party. ' If that,' he said, * is the name that
pleases them, if they say that the old distinction of Whig and
Tory should no longer be kept up, I am ready, in opposition
to their name of Conservative, to take the name of Eeformer,
and to stand by that opposition.'
The new Parliament on its assembling seems to have
gathered in the Commons an unusually large number of gifted
and promising men. Mr. Grote, the historian of Greece, sat
for the City of London. The late Lord Lytton. then Mr.
Edward Lytton Bulwer, had a seat, an advanced Radical at
that day. Mr. Disraeli came then into Parliament for the first
time. Charles Duller, full of high spirits, brilliant humour,
and the very mspiration of keen good sense, seemed on the sure
cii. I. A NEW REIGN OPENS. 9
way to tliat career of renown which a premature death cut
short. Sir Wilham Molesworth was an excellent type of the
school which in later days was called the Philosophical Kadical.
Another distinguished member of the same school, Mr. Eoe-
buck, had lost his seat, and was for the moment an outsider.
Mr. Gladstone had been already five years in Parliament. The
late Lord Carlisle, then Lord Morpeth, was looked upon as a
graceful specimen of the literary and artistic young nobleman,
who also cultivates a little politics for his intellectual amuse-
ment. Lord John Eussell had but lately begun his career as
leader of the House of Commons. Lord Palmerston was
Foreign Secretary, but had not even then got the credit of the
great ability which he possessed. Only those who knew him
very well had any idea of the capacity for governing Parliament
and the country which he was soon afterwards to display. Sir
Kobert Peel v/as leader of the Conservative party. Lord Stan-
ley, the late Lord Derby, was still in the House of Commons.
He had not long before broken definitely with the Whigs on
the question of the Irish ecclesiastical establishment, and had
passed over to that Conservative party of which he afterwards
became the most influential leader, and the most powerful
Parliamentary orator.
The ministry was not very strong in the House of Commons.
Its adherents v/ere but loosely held together. Sir Eobert
Peel, the leader of the Opposition, was by far the most
powerful man in the House. Added to his great qualities as an
administrator and a Parliamentary debater, he had the virtue,
then very rare among Conservative statesmen, of being a sound
and clear financier, with a good grasp of the fundamental prin-
ciples of political economy. His high austere character made
him respected by opponents as well as by friends. He had not
perhaps many intimate friends. His temperament was cold,
or at least its heat was self-contained ; he threw out no genial
glow to those around him. He was by nature a reserved and
shy man, in whose manners shyness took the form of pompous-
ness and coldness. It is certain that he had warm and gene-
rous feelings, but his very sensitiveness only led him to disguise
them. The contrast between his emotions and his lack of
demonstrativeness created in him a constant artificiality which
often seemed mere awkwardness. It was in the House of Com-
mons that his real genius and character displayed themselves.
Peel was apertect master 01 the House 01 Commons. He was
as great an orator as any man could be who addresses himseh
1*
lo A SHORT HISTORY OF OUR OWN TIMES, ch. i.
to the House of Commons, its ways and its purposes alonfe..
Sir Eobert Peel had Kttle imagination, and ahnost none of that
passion which in eloquence sometimes supplies its place. His
style was clear, strong, and stately ; full of various argument
and apt illustration drawn from books and from the world of
politics and commerce. He followed a difficult argument home
to its utter conclusions ; and if it had in it any lurking fallacy,
he brought out the weakness into the clearest light, often with
a happy touch of humour and quiet sarcasm. His speeches
might be described as the very perfection of good sense and
high principle clothed in the most impressive language. But
they were something more peculiar than this^ for they were so
constructed, in their argument and their style alike, as to touch
the very core of the intelligence of the House of Commons.
They told of the feelings and the inspiration of Parliament
as the ballad-music of a country tells of its scenery and its
national sentiments.
Lord Stanley was a far more energetic and impassioned