The Greville Memoirs Volume III Part 24

Emperor Nicholas's Speech at Warsaw--His respect for opinion in England--Burdett proposes the expulsion of O'Connell from Brookes's--Club law--George Villiers at Madrid--Lord Segrave Lord-Lieutenant of Gloucesters.h.i.+re--Dispute between France and America--Allen's account of Mackintosh and Melbourne-- Prolongation of a Patent--Should Dr. Arnold be made a Bishop?-- Frederic Elliot--O'Connell's mischievous influence--Bretby-- Chesterfield MSS.--The Portfolio--Lord Cottenham and Lord Langdale--Opening of Parliament--The Judicial Committee-- Poulett Thomson at the Board of Trade--Mr. Perceval's interviews with the Ministers--Prospects of the Tories--Lord Stanley's relations to them--Holland House Anecdotes-- Mischievous Effects of the division on his Address--The youth of Macaulay--Brougham and Macaulay--Lord William Bentinck-- Review of Sir R. Peel's conduct--Dr. Hampden's appointment--The Orange Lodges.

November 17th, 1835 {p.319}

Since I have been in London, on my return from the Newmarket meetings, I have had nothing to note. The O'Connell and Raphael wrangle goes on, and will probably come before Parliament. It appears to make a greater sensation at Paris than here; there, however, all other sensations are absorbed in that which the Emperor of Russia's speech at Warsaw has produced, and which indicates an excitement, or ferocity, very like insanity.[1]

Melbourne mentioned at dinner on Sunday that it was not only quite correctly reported--rather _under_stated--but that after he had so delivered himself, he met the English Consul in the street, took him by the arm, walked about with him for an hour, and begged him not to be _too hard_ upon him in his report to his Government. I was not present, but Henry de Ros was, who told it me. I am thus particular from, as it seems to me, the exceeding curiosity of the anecdote, evincing on the part of the autocrat, in the midst of the insolence of unbridled power, a sort of consciousness of responsibility to European opinion, and a deferential dread of that of England in particular.

[1] [This was the first time the Emperor Nicholas had visited Poland since the Revolution of 1830, and he took the opportunity to express himself in language of excessive severity to the munic.i.p.ality of Warsaw, threatening to lay the city in ruins if the Poles rebelled again.]

November 22nd, 1835 {p.320}

My brother Algy showed me a few days ago a letter from the Duke of Wellington to the Duke of c.u.mberland--a gossiping letter about nothing, but in which there was this which struck me as odd. He said that he was informed that the English who had been to the reviews at Kalisch had been very ill received, and that even those to whom _he_ had given letters of introduction had experienced nothing but incivility, and that he regretted having had the presumption to imagine that any recommendation of his would be attended to by the Sovereigns or their Ministers--a curious exhibition of pique, for what I believe to be an imaginary incivility. It is a strange thing that he is very sensitive, and yet has no strong feelings; but this is after all only one of the forms of selfishness.

[Page Head: SOCIAL LAW.]

Burdett has written a letter to the managers of Brooks's, to propose the expulsion of O'Connell. It will do no good; these abortive attempts do nothing towards plucking him down from his bad eminence, and their failure gives him a triumph. So it was in Alvanley's case; there a great deal of very proper indignation was thrown away, and O'Connell had the satisfaction of baffling his antagonists, and obtaining a sort of recognition of his a.s.sumed right to act as he does. It is a case which admits of a good argument either way. On the one side is the perilous example of any club taking cognizance of acts of its members, private or political, which do not concern the club, or have no local reference to it--a principle, if once admitted, of which it would be next to impossible to regulate and control the application, and probably be productive of greater evils than those it would be intended to remedy. On the other hand, the case of O'Connell is altogether peculiar; it is such a one as can hardly ever occur again, and therefore may be treated as deserving an exception from ordinary rules, because it not only cannot be drawn into a precedent, but the very circ.u.mstance of its being so treated must prevent the possibility of its recurrence. There exists a code of social law, which is universally subscribed to, as necessary and indispensable for the preservation of social harmony and decorum.

One man has given public notice that he is self-emanc.i.p.ated from its obligations; that he acknowledges none of the restraints, and will submit to none of the penalties, by which the intercourse of society is regulated and kept in order; and having thus surrounded himself with all the immunities of irresponsibility, 'out of the reach of danger he is bold, out of the reach of shame he is confident.' Instead of feeling that he is specially bound to guard his language with the most scrupulous care, and to abstain religiously from every offensive expression, he mounts into regions of scurrility and abuse inaccessible to all other men, and he riots in invective and insult with a scornful and ostentatious exhibition of his invulnerability, which renders him an object of execration to all those who cherish the principles and the feelings of honour.

November 29th, 1835 {p.321}

There are gloomy letters from George Villiers at Madrid; he attributes the Spanish difficulties more to the conduct of Louis Philippe than anything else, who, he says, is playing false diabolically. Mendizabal is very able, but ill surrounded; no other public man of any merit. Parties are violent and individuals foolish, mischievous, and corrupt; the country poor, depopulated, ignorant--out of such elements what good can come? His letters (to his mother and brothers) are very interesting, very well written, clever, lively; he seems a little carried away by the vanity and the excitement of the part he plays, and I observe a want of steadiness in his opinions and a disposition to waver in his views from day to day; whereas it does not appear to me as if the state of Spain depended upon diurnal circ.u.mstances and events, but more upon the workings of great causes interwoven with, and deeply seated in, the _positive_ state of society and the moral and political condition of the nation.

December 4th, 1835 {p.322}

A letter I wrote the other day about O'Connell appeared on Tuesday in the 'Times.' It rather took, for the evening (Tory) papers all copied it, and I heard it was talked of. Yesterday there appeared an answer of O'Connell's to Burdett's letter--very short, but very clever; and those who know Burdett say, well calculated to mortify and annoy him. I called on Stanley yesterday, who said that he thought the Raphael case ought to and would be made something of in the House of Commons, and that Spring Rice, whom he had lately seen, had told him he thought it a clear case of bribery. Lord Segrave has got the Gloucesters.h.i.+re Lieutenancy, and this appointment, disgraceful in itself, exhibits all the most objectionable features of the old boroughmongering system, which was supposed to be swept away. (He turned out a good Lord-Lieutenant.) He was in London as soon as the breath was out of the Duke of Beaufort's body, went to Melbourne, and claimed this appointment on the score of having three members, which was more than any other man in England now returned. 'My brothers,' he said, 'the electors do not know by sight; it is my influence which returns them.' The appeal was irresistible, and 'We are three' was as imperative with Melbourne as 'We are seven' was with the Duke of Newcastle. The scarcity of the commodity enhances its value, and now that nominations are swept away, the few who are still fortunate enough to possess some remnants are great men; and Segrave's three brothers, thrown (as they would without scruple have been) into the opposite scale, would have nearly turned it. There is a very respectable Whig (Lord Ducie) in the county, whom everybody pointed out as the fittest successor to the late Duke; but he has not three members, and if he had, he would not shake them _in terrorem_ over Melbourne's head.

December 10th and 11th, 1835 {p.322}

[Page Head: AMERICA AND FRANCE.]

Our Government are in a great alarm lest this dispute between the French and Americans should produce a war, and the way in which we should be affected by it is this:[2]--Our immense manufacturing population is dependent upon America for a supply of cotton, and in case of any obstruction to that supply, mult.i.tudes would be thrown out of employment, and incalculable distress would follow.

They think that the French would blockade the American ports, and then such obstruction would be inevitable. A system like ours, which resembles a vast piece of machinery, no part of which can be disordered without danger to the whole, must be always liable to interruption or injury from causes over which we have no control; and this danger must always attend the extension of our manufacturing system to the prejudice of other interests; so that in case of a stoppage or serious interruption to the current in which it flows the consequences would be appalling; nor is there in all probability a nation on the Continent (our good ally Louis Philippe included) that would not gladly contribute to the humiliation of the power and diminution of the wealth of this country.

[2] [This dispute arose from the detention of American s.h.i.+ps by the Emperor Napoleon under the Continental system. The Americans claimed large damages, and the negotiation lasted twenty years. At length General Jackson, the American President, insisted on payment, and the French Government settled the matter for twenty-five millions of francs; but the question led to a change in the French Ministry.]

December 16th, 1835 {p.323}

Dined with Sefton the day before yesterday to meet the Hollands; sat between Allen and Luttrell. Melbourne was there in roaring spirits; met me very cordially, and after dinner said, 'Well, how are you? I had a great deal to say to you, but I forget what it was now.' To which I replied, 'Oh, never mind now; we are here to amuse ourselves, and we won't talk of other things.' I could not have _settled_ anything with him there, so there was no use in beginning; and this put him at his ease, instead of making him hate the sight of me, and fancying wherever he met me that I should begin badgering him about my affairs.[3] In the world men must be dealt with according to what they are, and not to what they ought to be; and the great art of life is to find out what they are, and act with them accordingly.

[3] [This referred to some private affairs of Mr.

Greville's which were then under discussion, and on which Lord Melbourne's influence was important.]

Allen talked of Mackintosh, and of his declaration of religious belief on his deathbed, when he had never believed at all during his life. He said that Mackintosh was not very deeply read in theology. Melbourne, on the contrary, is, and being a very good Greek scholar (which Mackintosh was not), has compared the Evidences and all modern theological works with the writings of the Fathers. He did not believe that Melbourne entertained _any doubts_, or that his mind was at all distracted and perplexed with much thinking and much reading on the subject, but that his studies and reflections have led him to a perfect _conviction_ of unbelief.[4] He thought if Mackintosh had lived much with Christians he would have been one too. We talked of Middleton, and Allen said that he believed he really died a Christian, but that he was rapidly ceasing to be one, and if he had lived would probably have continued the argument of his free enquiry up to the Apostles themselves. He urged me to read Lardner; said he had never read Paley nor the more recent Evidences, the materials of all of which are, however, taken from Lardner's work. Luttrell was talking of Moore and Rogers--the poetry of the former so licentious, that of the latter so pure; much of its popularity owing to its being so carefully weeded of everything approaching to indelicacy; and the contrast between the _lives_ and the _works_ of the two men--the former a pattern of conjugal and domestic regularity, the latter of all the men he had ever known the greatest sensualist.

[4] [John Allen was himself so fierce an unbeliever, and so bitter an enemy to the Christian religion, that he was very fond of a.s.serting that other men believed as little as himself. It was almost always Allen who gave an irreligious turn to the conversation at Holland House when these subjects were discussed there.]

Yesterday Lyndhurst and Brougham both came to the Council Office to hear the first application for the renewal of a patent, and though there was no opposition, they scrutinised the pet.i.tion and evidence with the utmost jealousy, which they did in order to intimate that the granting a prolongation of the patent, even when unopposed, was not to be a matter of course. It was a pianoforte invention, and the instrument was introduced into the Council Chamber, and played upon by Madame Dulcken for the edification of their Lords.h.i.+ps.

December 18th, 1835 {p.325}

Melbourne told me (the other night at Sefton's) that he had been down to Oatlands to consult F. and H. about Dr. Arnold (of Rugby), and to ascertain if he could properly make him a bishop; but they did not encourage him, which I was surprised at, recollecting the religious correspondence which formerly pa.s.sed between them and him. Arnold, however, shocks the High Churchmen, and is not considered orthodox; and Melbourne said it would make a great uproar to put him on the Bench, and was out of the question. He had been reading his sermons, which he thought very able.

December 20th, 1835 {p.325}

[Page Head: FREDERIC ELLIOT.]

The Treasury have sent a proposed draft of a minute in my case. When it is over I shall not much care, for I have long since abandoned all expectation of being rich, and there are none of my expensive pursuits which I could not resign very cheerfully. Up to a certain point riches contribute largely to the happiness of life, but no farther. To be free from the necessity of daily self-denial and continual calculation is indispensable to happiness, but the major luxuries--ostentatious superfluities--contribute little or nothing to rational enjoyment. I have just seen an excellent letter from Frederic Elliot to Taylor, with a description of the state of parties and politics in Lower Canada, which has been shown to the Ministers, who think it the ablest _expose_ on those heads that has been transmitted from thence. I have very little doubt that he will _go far_; he has an admirable talent for business, a clear head, liberal and unprejudiced opinions, and he writes remarkably well.[5]

[5] [This prediction was fulfilled. Mr. Frederic Elliot was the youngest son of the Rt. Hon. Hugh Elliot, and nephew of the first Earl of Minto. He went to Canada in 1835 with Lord Gosford, entered the Colonial Office on his return to England, rose to be a.s.sistant-Under-Secretary in that department, and is now (1873) Sir T. Frederic Elliot, K.S.M.G.]

December 24th, 1835 {p.326}

The Northamptons.h.i.+re election has greatly elevated the spirits of the Conservatives, and though the Whigs affect to hold it cheap, they are not a little disconcerted by the magnitude of the majority, so unexpected by both parties. Impartial moderate men (such, for example, as the judges who sit in my Court) attribute it to a strong prevailing feeling against O'Connell; and it would appear to be so, because Hanbury, and even Vernon Smith, were compelled to hold language very adverse to him on the hustings.

This O'Connell connection will, after all, probably end in destroying the Government; his last letter against the Peers is a very despicable performance, and he will be more injured by his own than by Burdett's productions.

December 26th, 1835 {p.326}

The adherents of Government are certainly alarmed at the present aspect of things. Lord William Bentinck, who is as Radical as need be, wrote to his wife at Paris, 'Tory matters are certainly looking up here; that senseless cry against O'Connell has produced a great effect.' Nevertheless they affect at Brooks's to hold it all very cheap.

December 30th, 1835 {p.326}

Wednesday at Roehampton--since Monday; for the first time since Lord Dover's death. Luttrell, Poodle Byng, Baring Wall; Lady Dover still in weeds. Lord Clifden not a jot altered from his usual gaiety; such is the difference between the feelings of youth and age.

The exultation of the Tories at the Northamptons.h.i.+re election has been woefully damped by the result of the Corporation elections, nine out of ten of which have gone for the Radicals, and in many places all the persons elected are of that persuasion. The const.i.tuency is certainly different, and a desire to make _maison nette_ of these dens of corruption is not unnatural; but it affords a plausible subject for triumph on the Radical side, and has a formidable appearance.

1836.

Melton Mowbray, January 20th, 1836 {p.327}

[Page Head: THE CHESTERFIELD PAPERS.]

I went with Henry de Ros from London to Middleton last Sat.u.r.day fortnight, stayed till the Thursday following, and then to Badminton--eighteen years since I had been there. Last Thursday to Bretby; slept at Worcester on Thursday night, stopped to see the Cathedrals at Gloucester, Worcester, and Lichfield, and the Church at Tewkesbury--all well worth seeing, and containing curious monuments, especially that of Bishop Hough at Worcester by Roubiliac, exceedingly grand; and in Lichfield Cathedral a chapter-house of surpa.s.sing beauty. At Bretby the Duke of Wellington had been, and Peel still was, but he departed early the next morning. I had been anxious to go there to look over the Chesterfield MSS., but I was disappointed; there were only three large volumes of letters come-at-able out of thirty, the other twenty-seven being locked up, and the key was gone to be mended.

These three I ran over hastily, but though they may contain matter that would be useful to the historian of that period (from 1728 to about 1732), there was little in any way attractive, as they consisted wholly of diplomatic letters to Lord Chesterfield during his Emba.s.sy at the Hague. As this correspondence occupied twenty volumes (for the three I found were the second, third, and twentieth), I fear the others may not contain anything of greater general interest.

I was desirous of seeing the Duke to hear what he says to the Portfolio,[6] which makes so much noise here. Peel told me that the Duke was not at all annoyed by it, and that he did not see why Matuscewitz need be either; that Matuscewitz wrote what he thought and believed at the time, as he was bound to do, and long before his intimacy with the Duke began. He said that the letters are certainly authentic, though possibly there may be some omissions. But the Duke's women endeavour to stir up his resentment, and to make him think himself ill-used, though he is disposed to treat the matter with great good-humour and indifference. Of politics I have heard little, and learnt nothing; the Tory houses I have successively been at are all on the alert, and fancy they are to do great things this next session, but I expect it will all end in smoke.