Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. Part 20

'My own grief is this, that Disraeli's vanity, or as he would say, his character, was committed by his electioneering speeches and addresses, and that you all, half generosity and half prudence, resolved to stand by him rather than break up the Government, which his resignation would have done. That's my solution of the greatest political riddle I ever encountered.

'I know not what to say about your going to sea, I fear observations on your resigning the s.h.i.+p abroad and taking one at home for the mere purpose of making up a little time. Pray think well of it. I daresay you would receive a civil answer, perhaps get a s.h.i.+p, but _cui bono_.

What is your flag to you? [Footnote: He was promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral in November 1858.] I wish you were on the Admiral's list for the sake of the country if we are to have a war, but I see no advantage in it if there is no prospect of distinguished service.

'Give my best love to all the dear people round you and, above all, to the dearest of all, whose solid good sense and natural sagacity, quite equal to her more charming qualities, will be your best guide in the topic last treated. Indeed, if I knew her opinion on any of those topics, it would have a prime chance of becoming my own.

'Ever most affectionately hers and yours,

'J. W. CROKER'

The Aberdeen Government will always be remembered as that of the period of the Crimean War, and it was in connection with that great struggle and his wish to serve his country afloat that Lord Hardwicke found just reason to complain of more than the mere belittling of his services at Genoa which had been his sole reward upon his return to England in 1849.

Lord Hardwicke's desire to obtain active employment at sea so soon as hostilities with Russia appeared probable was well known at the Admiralty, but political rancour as well as professional jealousy were both employed in a secret but active agitation to prevent his obtaining that employment. The entirely honourable distinction he had received from the King of Sardinia by the bestowal of the order of St. Maurice and St. Lazarus was made the opportunity of a series of slanderous suggestions which caused him the greatest pain. It was perfectly well known that a regulation in force at the English Court forbade the acceptance of foreign distinctions of that kind without the express permission of the Crown. Yet it was stated that 'The English Government had desired that the order should be returned on the ground that Lord Hardwicke had acted at Genoa without orders.' Further than this, as Lady Hardwicke records, 'Much jealousy was created by his successful diplomacy at Genoa, and his enemies disseminated a report that he had disobeyed Admiral Sir William Parker's orders, and "made the Mediterranean sea too hot to hold him."'

These injurious statements, however, did not reach Lord Hardwicke's ears until some time after they were first made--'he was of course ignorant of what was going on to defame his professional character and stop his career in a service to which he was devoted and in which he had spent the best years of his life.' They at length, however, came to his notice under more responsible authority than that of mere rumour at service clubs, and at a moment when their acceptance by a member of the Government was allowed to stand in the way of Lord Hardwicke's selection for an important command.

By a recent regulation of the Admiralty, Lord Hardwicke with many other senior captains who had failed by a short period to complete the active service afloat necessary to ent.i.tle them to the rank of rear-admiral, was placed upon the retired list. In his case, the regulation took effect upon January 28, 1854. Meanwhile, however, the probability in 1853 of a declaration of war between this country and Russia had led to great naval activity, and Lord Hardwicke had applied for active employment. 'Sir Charles Napier,' writes Lady Hardwicke, 'who fully appreciated his courage and ability, applied for him as his flag- captain.' His offer, however, as well as Admiral Napier's wish for his a.s.sistance, were both disregarded by the Admiralty, and his appointment as flag-captain refused.

There was, perhaps, no legitimate grievance in this refusal, but at this moment information reached Lord Hardwicke through Lord Clarendon, that the refusal had been accompanied by a revival at the Admiralty of the injurious suggestions, already mentioned, of his having exceeded his instructions from Sir William Parker at Genoa.

'I believe it to have been at this juncture,' writes Lady Hardwicke, 'that his friend Lord Clarendon, feeling acutely his position, informed him of the slanders which had been spread abroad. ... This statement was made use of by Sir James Graham, First Lord of the Admiralty and successor to Sir F. Baring, and carried by him to the ears of his best friends, the Queen and the Prince Consort.'

It will be readily understood that the adoption of these injurious reports by a cabinet minister, and their repet.i.tion by him in his official capacity to the Queen and Prince Albert, placed the whole matter upon a different footing. Queen Victoria, almost from the beginning of her reign, had honoured my father with her regard and confidence, and so recently as his return from Genoa he had received a letter which shows very plainly the terms upon which he stood with his Sovereign.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE: March 4, 1850.

'MY DEAR LORD HARDWICKE,

'The Prince is anxious that you should resume your seat at the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster which you resigned when you went abroad. I hope that you will be willing to do so as it is important for the Queen's interest that the persons upon that Council should be well acquainted with the peculiar details of the Duchy business, as well as generally accustomed to the management of property, and it would be a considerable time before any person could acquire the knowledge of the subject which you have gained. The change in the Chancellor of the Duchy will not, I hope, make the working of the Council less easy.

'Sincerely yours,

'C. B. PHIPPS'

In such circ.u.mstances, and apart altogether from any question of the refusal of employment by the Admiralty, it is obvious that the matter could not be allowed to rest where it was, and a letter received by Lord Hardwicke in September 1853 from Lord Clarendon makes it clear that he lost no time in seeking an explanation from Sir James Graham.

September 30, 1853.

'MY DEAR HARDWICKE,

'I hope you will excuse me for not having answered your letter by return of post as I ought to have done, but I a.s.sure you that the last two days, I have been unable to do anything but fight against an extraordinary pressure of public work. My firm belief is that the _personal errors_ into which Graham had fallen are now quite removed. "Hardwicke is a good sailor, and an officer of real ability and merit"--is an extract from a letter of Graham's in answer to mine about you; but I see that the bar to your being employed, is your own position in the Service and your having one year and eleven months to serve afloat before you can render yourself eligible for the Flag. There are only three captains above you and if when your turn arrived you were in command of a s.h.i.+p, and your full period of requisite service was not accomplished, I suppose that a question, which has not yet arisen, would then arise, respecting your right to promotion to the Active Flag. This I take to be the real difficulty, and your professional knowledge will enable you to judge of its value. I sent a copy of your note to Graham, and as far as I am concerned I hope you will now take any course you may think most expedient, only bearing in mind that Graham has no unfriendly feeling towards you. I have said to you upon that point, nothing more than what he told me, but I should be sorry that he thought I had said less. I fear that all endeavours to keep the peace are exhausted or nearly so, and I don't antic.i.p.ate much active hostility at this time of year, if hostilities we are to have. The Emperor of Russia is quite without excuse, he persists in asking what the Turks cannot concede, and he wants a power in Turkey which would be useless to him, except for overturning the Ottoman Empire, the independence of which he declares must be maintained.

'Ever yours truly,

'CLARENDON.'

From this letter it is clear that Lord Clarendon as a friend of both parties did all he could to explain the conduct of Sir James, but his mention of 'personal errors' into which the First Lord had fallen seems an ample confirmation of that gentleman's indiscretion in giving an official countenance to the rumours of which Lord Hardwicke complained.

In any case, Lord Clarendon's letter was obviously an explanation thoroughly unsatisfactory to Lord Hardwicke, who, as Lady Hardwicke writes, 'immediately wrote to Sir William Parker and obtained from him the following memorable credential.'

SHENSTONE LODGE, LICHFIELD: 14 Nov., 1853.

'My DEAR LORD HARDWICKE,

'I fully enter into your feeling of mortification and disappointment in not obtaining professional appointment in the present threatening aspect of affairs; I am much grieved that a fallacious impression should for a moment have obtained that the slightest approach to a misunderstanding between your Lords.h.i.+p and myself had ever occurred. I am indeed at a loss to conceive on what pretence such an idle and mischievous rumour could have originated. Sir Francis Baring intimated to me the astonishment and annoyance you had expressed to him at such a fabrication; I a.s.sure you my reply quite corresponded with your sentiments. I can truly say that the _Vengeance_ was very satisfactorily conducted under your command, while attached to my flag, and all your proceedings manifested genuine zeal for the Service. I cannot forget with what anxiety your Lords.h.i.+p withdrew your application to be relieved in the command of that s.h.i.+p, when on the Squadron being ordered to the vicinity of the Dardanelles, there appeared a temporary prospect of more active service. I truly regret it that on our departure from the East you again felt yourself compelled to resign your s.h.i.+p, in consequence of the illness of Lady Hardwicke at a time when I believe you were within a short period of completing the requisite servitude for your active Flag.

'I remain faithfully and cordially yours,

'W. PARKER, _Admiral_.'

'Armed with this letter,' continues Lady Hardwicke, 'he sought an audience of the Prince Consort, and stated his case, placing the refutation of these calumnies in the Prince's hands. Upon reading this generous and truthful statement, Prince Albert expressed his satisfaction at having seen it, and his astonishment at the falsehoods that had been circulated, and requested Lord Hardwicke that he might place it in the hands of the Queen, which he accordingly did and returned to express Her Majesty's gratification on its perusal.'

All this took place at the end of 1853: meanwhile Sir Charles Napier was unwearying in his applications to the Admiralty to obtain Lord Hardwicke's a.s.sistance in the expedition which was shortly to sail for the Baltic. In January Lord Hardwicke was placed upon the retired list, but Sir Charles was still anxious to secure him as one of his admirals, as is very clear from a memorandum of a conversation by Lord Hardwicke which he left among his papers.

March 6, 1854.

'I met Sir Charles Napier in the United Service Club. He took me aside and told me that Sir James Graham had consulted him as to whom he would select as 3rd Divisional Admiral for the Baltic Fleet. He answered Sir James Graham by saying that he would have asked for Lord Hardwicke as Captain of the Fleet as he preferred him, but he thought he would have no chance of having him. But now he was again to select an Admiral, he should ask for Lord Hardwicke as he should prefer him to anyone. Sir James Graham said, "Very well, I will appoint him, but in this peculiar case, I must apply to the Cabinet." The result was the refusal of the Cabinet to appoint me, in consequence of their fearing to excite emotion in the officers of the Active List; but that although at the beginning there was this ground of refusal, yet by and by it might be done. Sir Charles Napier added, "I shall want one more Admiral and I shall again apply for you."

'H.'

The controversy with Sir James Graham perhaps affords a sufficient explanation of the failure of Sir Charles's repeated efforts in behalf of Lord Hardwicke, though there is no doubt the Government had an answer in the Admiralty regulation which had placed him upon the retired list.

'Lord Hardwicke's application for employment was brought before the Cabinet,' writes Lady Hardwicke, 'but the Admiralty declaring that an order in Council to make this exception would bring the whole retired list upon their shoulders, his request was politely declined, with the feeling that the late enactment had fallen cruelly upon his professional career.'

'Few but myself,' concludes Lady Hardwicke, 'who have seen the anguish of disappointment caused by such a termination of the cherished ambition of a whole life, can at all appreciate the severity of this blow. This statement of facts engraven on the tablet of my heart I have drawn up with a view of placing in the hands of my dear children the means of vindicating their beloved father's memory in case upon any future occasion they should be called upon to do so. Let them remember that "the Lord nourisheth with discipline" and accept the trials and disappointments of life with the same spirit of resignation which their beloved father always exhibited, to my great and endless consolation.'

To me, his daughter, it has seemed that the occasion of which my mother speaks, for the vindication of my father's memory, has arrived with the publication of this memoir of his life, and I have therefore set out the facts as she wrote them down.

The long period of Whig rule, which had lasted with the single break of a few months in 1852 since the year 1846, was at length terminated by the return of Lord Derby's second administration to power in 1858, and Lord Hardwicke took office as Lord Privy Seal with a seat in the Cabinet. His energy and professional zeal, however, had been fully employed since 1856 as the Chairman of a Royal Commission which had been appointed to inquire into the question of the manning of the Navy. The negative results of the expedition to the Baltic during the late war with Russia had brought the question into public notice, and the great changes which were taking place in the design and construction of s.h.i.+ps of war by the invention of the screw propeller and the evolution of the ironclad battles.h.i.+p had given a more than ordinary urgency to the question of national defence.

Lord Hardwicke entered upon his duties with the greatest energy. One of the instructions to the Commission was to 'determine in case of need the means necessary to man at short notice thirty or forty sail of the line.' In a speech at Cambridge in 1858 he pointed out some facts regarding the Navy of which the public were quite ignorant, and which pointed to a serious decrease in the naval power of the country which caused much uneasiness. Lord Hardwicke reminded his hearers that though during the period of the American, Revolutionary, and Napoleonic wars we had maintained an establishment of from 105,000 to 140,000 seamen and marines, and had experienced little difficulty in manning a fleet of s.h.i.+ps of the line which averaged 120 sail, yet during the recent war with Russia the Admiralty had with difficulty found crews for the thirty-three vessels which took part in the operations in the Baltic.

'These s.h.i.+ps,' he said, 'went to sea in such a condition as to inflict a positive injustice on the brave officers in command of them, and if it had not been for the efficiency of the latter and the way their crews were disciplined, they might as well have stopped at home.'